Japan... My Impressions

 

We got back last Sunday from our 8 day trip through Japan.  It was the Lunar New Year holiday here in Asia, which is a bigger celebration than Christmas, so Brian had the week off of work and we decided to make the most of it.  We had considered going to Cambodia or some other nice, warm local for this vacation, but, instead, decided, let's brave the cold and check out Japan.  We have kind of forgotten what cold really feels like after being in Hong Kong - seriously, it's been the high 60's this week!

We arrived in Tokyo after a hellacious trip on Air China... remind me to never book with that airline again, please!  Despite starting to board nearly 45 minutes before the flight, we still did not leave until almost 30 minutes after our scheduled departure, so we thought for sure we would miss our connection, which was in Beijing and only one hour.  It seems, however, that Air China NEVER leaves on time, so our flight was waiting for us and we STILL sat on the plane for about 30 minutes before taking off!  We arrived into Tokyo late, and then realized that the Narita airport is actually  no where near Tokyo - it's about an hour away!  So, we had our first interaction with public transit and made our way to the city...

  

Cold, tired, and a little surprised that not many people could speak English, we made our way to the subway station that we thought we needed to be at.  We stared at a map for what seemed like an eternity, when a nice man offered to walk us to our hotel... yes, that is right!  At nearly 11pm, as well!  He handed us his business card to assure us that he was not going to murder us.  This was just one of the MANY super helpful, super kind people that we encountered in Japan.  What a kind soul.  We made it to our hotel, and were very happy to see that they had left us... 

... yes, that's right - his and her matching pajamas!  :)  We didn't realize that this was the thing to do in Japan until we had matching pj's at EVERY hotel.  They were normally kimono-style, and, in some of the hotels, the older women even wore them down to breakfast!

The next day, we spent the day making our way through the city.  To be completely honest (and what else did you expect from me?), I wasn't having a great first day.  Tokyo is a big city, and we live in a big city.  It didn't feel like much of a vacation to me, as figuring out public transportation when you aren't used to it can be fun, but when it is already part of your everyday life, it kind of just feels like more of the same on an unfamiliar system.  And... the Tokyo subway system does leave some room for improvement.  I've traveled through MANY of the world's largest cities, and this was BY FAR the most complex and frustrating system I have ever used.  While in Paris, you can use one ticket and transfer as many times as you need to get to your end destination, all for the same price, in Tokyo, you have to know exactly where you are going, which requires different fares (and the turnstyle won't let you out if you didn't calculate correctly).  Also, when you transfer, only sometimes does the ticket work, as the subway is operated by two different companies and they don't have tickets that work in both places.  By the end of the day, I was about done with Tokyo (don't hate me, Tokyo lovers!). 

On to more pleasant topics...  my husband turned out to be a rock star (as if I didn't already know that!).  We were walking down the street, and these two young guys ran up to us asking "Do you know "PosteraPeople"?  I was like "Huh?".  Meanwhile, my multi-cultural husband was like "Oh, Foster the People.  Yeah, I know them.  They sing that whistling song."  As the band was coming to town, Brian got interviewed for the news.  Too funny!

 

English was a bit more of an issue in Japan than it is in Hong Kong.  In Hong Kong, people can speak English for the most part, but they don't actively try help out when you are looking lost.  In Japan, they don't speak English for the most part, but they really want to help out, so they try.  It was quite cute, actually.  :)  Just in case you are worried that we didn't eat because we couldn't order anything, not to worry, there are large plastic food displays everywhere, so all you have to do is point:

When we were researching our trip to Japan, Brian and I discovered that the FINALS of the annual Sumo wrestling tournament would be the day after we arrived, so we got tickets through a scalper and went to see it.  We figured that it was probably like the Super Bowl of Japan.  :)  I can't say that I enjoyed looking at very large, hairy bums for several hours, but the event was really cool.  I wish we knew more of the tradition there, as there were lots of rituals that were performed before the match, but it was cool to be a part of it.  The pre-match preparation took about 5 minutes, and the actual match was usually over within 30 seconds.  Crazy.

 

In order to warm up, we drank warm sake every night. I never really liked sake, but in Japan, I LOVED it!  They told us it is because they keep all the good stuff in Japan and ship the less quality stuff to the US!  Good to know!

Monday morning we got up at the crack of dawn to go and check out the fish market.  It was so fun to walk around and see all of the fresh catches, including the largest fish (tuna) I had ever seen:

 

After that, we took a 2-hour train to Nikko to see the temples there.  On the way, it started snowing, which made the place look absolutely gorgeous!

 

We had our first sushi that night.  Interesting experience... so, normally, in the US, I mix my wasabi in with my soy sauce... I think most people do.  In Japan, I guess they don't do that (?)... the wasabi is within the sushi.  Anyways, thinking that I should put wasabi in my soy sauce, I reached for the jar containing green stuff and put some in... turns out it was powdered green tea.  The waitresses all had a good laugh at me for that one!

The next morning we got the heck out of Tokyo, which involved carrying our (large) suitcases down an icy staircase.  Notice my husband is taking a photo of me rather than helping!  (just kidding, I still love him and appreciate that he caught this on film!)

 

We headed to Mt. Fuji for a bit of a break... and realized there was nothing to do in the town we were staying in except to play Pachinko!  What is Pachinko?  It's a crazy gambling game that basically is like a big pin ball machine.  We inserted 1000 Yen (about $13) each and promptly lost it within about a minute.  Still a fun experience, and there were Pachinko places all over Japan - it's a national epidemic! We also had some great food there... for both lunch and dinner, we were the only people in the restaurants (it was a ghost town due to the snow), and the people were SO sweet to us.  We had sushi for lunch, and the guy made us whatever we wanted, and then kept giving us little things for free on the side.  Again, the people there were SO amazing!

 

It wasn't a super clear day when we got to Mt. Fuji, so we were a little disappointed.  The next morning though, this was the view when we looked out of our room window... we couldn't stop staring.

 

"O" for Oliver!

Next was our first "Shinkansen" or highspeed train ride to Kyoto.  This train was awesome!  It took about an hour and a half to get to Kyoto, after a 2 hour bus ride (yes, this was planes, trains, and automobiles, plus one ferry ride as well!)

 

We got to Kyoto, found out hotel, and then made our way to the most famous temple in Kyoto, Kiyomizu-dera.  I had been there about 5 years ago with my friend April (she did the reading at our wedding, for those of you who were there), when she was teaching English in Japan.  It was just as beautiful this time as last.  I *think* this is where some of the scenes from "Memoirs of a Geisha" were filmed, but don't quote me on that.  Anyways, beautiful temple on top of a hill with great views of the city.  The only regret I have is that we weren't there earlier in the day, so it was completely packed with tourists.  Oh well!

 

That was about it for the first day in Kyoto.  We were pretty wiped out from all the travel that day and the freezing cold weather.  We called it a pretty early night, and were pleased to find the NFL playoffs on TV.  Being in Asia, we don't really get to see a lot of American sports (the time change is a bit of a problem, and I'm not a big enough fan to be up at around 3am to watch a game!), so we are a little behind on what season it is, and that, yes, indeed this weekend is the SuperBowl.  Without checking on the internet right now, I am embarrassed to admit that I don't even know who is playing.  And... that's okay with me.  :)

But I digress... the next day, we woke up recharged and headed to see the Golden Pavilion, another one of my favorite sites from my visit with April.  The reflections were amazing:

 

We did a few other things in Kyoto, and then made our way to Hiroshima the next day.  We dropped off our bags, then took a train, and then a ferry, to see Miyajima, which is a Torii Gate and Shrine that appears to be floating in the water (until the tide goes out, which it did while we were there - amazing).  We took a funicular up a big hill, and then did an hour hike to get to see the views... which were unfortunately a bit cloudy that day.  It was nice to just be out of the city though... Brian and I both enjoyed the quiet.  We don't get much of that these days.

 

Boarding!

 

The "floating" Torii Gate

 

Funicular Ride to the top of the mountain

 

There were falling rocks on our hike, but, don't worry, I saved the day!

When we got back to Hiroshima, we had the best meal of our entire trip.  We couldn't find the restaurant we were looking for, so we just popped into another one.  This one was pretty traditional - we had to take our shoes off at the door, and they had NO English menus, NO plastic food, and they spoke NO English!  So... we improvised.  We found in our guidebook how to say in Japanese "please decide for me", and so they did.  They brought us all kinds of yummy goodness, and then they kept coming over to make sure we liked it.  The chef was so cute - he kept looking over and really looking for approval - which he got - everything was amazing!  The last thing they brought us might not sound good to you... it was a bowl of soup that we cooked at our places.  We started eating it, but could not figure out what was in it.  We asked the girl (via sign language), what was in it, and she (via sign language) pointed to her tummy - it was intestines!  I'm not sure what kind of intestines, but, I have to say, that was amazing.  Sometimes it's better to just not know.  :)  When we were leaving, it was really cold out, and they gave us hand warmers to take with us.  Just such wonderful, thoughtful people.

 

Yep, it's intestines!

After dinner, I had read that the A-Bomb Dome was lit up at nighttime, so we took a taxi to go and see it.  After having such an amazing dinner with such kind people, I have to say the sight of this overwhelmed me.  I was totally unprepared for how I felt, and Brian and I just kind of quietly walked around and didn't say much to each other.  I think both of us knew that talking without tears was pretty much impossible.  Putting aside where I come from and all the events that led up to the atomic bomb dropping, the thought of what happened in Hiroshima was just unfathomable to me.   I can't imagine that the people of Japan were much different in 1945, and this memorial just made me so, so sad.  Don't get me wrong... I'm not naive enough to forget the reasons why this happened in the first place, but at the same time so many of the people that died that day had no part in the decision that their military made... anyways, it's a lot to get my head around, and I had a tough time processing what I saw.

  

We went to the memorials on Saturday, which were very well-done, and neutral in tone.  They recognized that the Japanese government made some bad choices, and presented what happened in a factual way.  I have to say, I learned a lot about the war that I didn't know before, and found it interesting to learn about WHY Hiroshima was picked (largely because it had been un-harmed before the bomb, and the government wanted to test to see what, in fact, the effects of an atomic bomb would be), and WHY the atomic bomb was dropped when it was (mostly because the US wanted to end the war before Russia got involved in Japan).  It's a great reminder that we never stop learning.  These trips are definitely bringing a whole new dimension to Brian's teaching as well.  It's so cool to me that he can tell his kids about what the places he teaches about are really like.  I know he was a great teacher to begin with, but I think this gives him some more "street cred" with the kids.

 

Cranes for Peace in Hiroshima

We took a 4-hour Shinkansen back to Tokyo that night, and then made our way back to (much warmer) Hong Kong on Sunday.  It was an amazing trip that started off with a bit of frustration with the craziness of Tokyo, and ended with very fond memories of the wonderful people.  We'd love to go back someday (maybe when it's a little warmer).