Remembering Japan

I've put together a brief timeline of events from when we were in Japan. If you're having difficulty seeing the timeline above, here is a direct link to the site. I've also (finally) organized, tagged, and sorted all the pictures from Japan on my flickr account. You can see the whole collection here. I have never done much by way of digital video, but maybe by Christmas I'll have gotten around to looking at the video clips we took.

Flying home

It is perhaps fitting that my final blog entry from Japan is also the title of a great jazz standard. During our stay, I was amazed at how pervasive jazz music was in this culture. Almost every other shop we visited was streaming jazz. And great jazz music, too! I heard Nina Simone, Chet Baker, and Oscar Peterson to name a few. It was not something I ever expected, and it was something I was delighted to discover.

In about an hour, we are heading to Kansai International Airport to fly home. We both had a terrific time in Japan. After three weeks, we were both becoming quite comfortable staying here. We were navigating the shinkansens and local trains with seasoned ease, and able to unravel the secrets of the time tables charts.

I became much more comfortable using the language during the stay. Being naturally verbose, I frequently lamented my lack of vocabulary: but I was able to ask and understand directions, chat some with store clerks and inquisitive natives, and was even becoming adept at placing orders in restaurants without having to point at the pictures like a baka gaijin.

We saw the sights we intended to see and snagged some great swag along the way. Jenn and I both agreed that - had circumstances been different - we could have lived here quite happily teaching ESL. We would like to visit the country again, because there is still so much more we could see and do.

But for now, I think my feet need a rest.

Drinking in Japan

Alcohol is readily available here. Virtually every corner has a vending machine that dispenses a random selection of beer, whiskey, sake or various cocktails. There are no laws against drinking in public, so it was quite common to see people drinking sake or beer whenever we went out. And everything is quite inexpensive.

Despite this prevelance of alcohol, it would be very difficult to get drunk. Most of the beverages were about 4% alcohol. Some of the canned whiskeys-and-waters were about 9% (about the same as a good stout back home) but served in half cans. At the sake brewery, the strongest alcohol made by the company was the unpasturized sake, and it comes in at around 16-20%.

But most sakes were in the 4% to 9% range. Most Japanese will drink three or four small bottles of sake in an evening. Personally, I became rather fond of the whiskey-and-waters while I was here. One can of whiskey ran about 300 Yen, or 3 dollars Canadian (4 dollars American). I am going to miss those little canned-whiskeys when I get home.

More about the baths

The three private baths were each very unique and deserve a little better description than I provided earlier.

As I mentioned previously, I was quite anxious to try the onsens. Soon after arriving at the ryokan in the afternoon, we donned our yukatas and ventured forth.

The first bath we tried was two cauldrons set into a raised concrete platform. We could not decide whether the cauldrons were originally iron or concrete, for they were covered with the mineral sediment of many years. It gave the edges of the bath a rough texture.

Each cauldron was about three feet deep at its centre, and about two and a half feet in diameter. Hot water seeped in through a small fissure in the bottom of the cauldron, and the water spilled out the top and cascaded down the platform. Upon entering the room, the water was so still that the cauldrons appeared empty!

Perhaps because I was to sit inside a bath that closely resembled something of a witch`s repetoire, I expected the bath to be hotter than it was. It was pleasantly warm, and certainly no hotter than one might expect from a hot tub back home. A half hour soak was enough to leave me feeling pleasantly warm and relaxed after arriving.

It was time to try the next bath! The baths were seperated by outside corridors, so the short walk between the baths left me feeling cool and refreshed.

The second bath was a lying down bath. It was a shallow pool, maybe six inches deep, and about five feet wide and six and a half feet long. The bottom of the pool was lined with smooth river rocks and there was a raised bench on one side, should you prefer only to soak your feet. Like the previous bath, the water seeped in through a small fissure in the base of the pool and the water cascaded gently over one side.

This bath was warmer than the first and lying on the river rocks felt so good. The room was lit by a black light and the ryokan staff had painted a starscape scene across the walls, giving the small room a feeling of considerable openess. ]

The third bath - the outside rotenburo - we tried the following morning before check out. The bath was set inside a small glade. The pool itself was fashioned from flagstone and concrete. Japanese maple trees draped their branches over the water and an impressive flower garden lent a rich, clean scent. Stones beside the pool were arranged to splash the hot spring water like a waterfall as it drained from the corner.

The bench inclined, so that you could choose a depth that was comfortable, but the pool was not very deep. It was also the hottest of the baths. And the contrast of hot water and cool morning air was delightful. Add the serenades of early morning birds and you have a spectacular way to begin the day.

I did have a chance to sneak a peak at the two larger public baths. Both were vacant when I had a look. The larger of the tubs (traditionally the bath for the men, but the onsen rotated the baths on a timed schedule) could seat thirty to forty quite easily; the smaller could seat twenty. The public baths were a little more austere - with the smooth tiled floors and very clean lines, they greatly resembled a swimming pool from back home.

Ryokan in Itou

Next vacation, forget sight-seeing. I am going to spend all my time at an onsen ryokan.

An onsen was one of the events I was most anticipating on our trip. Onsen are natural hotsprings that well up from the ground. Seasoned travelers would visit onsens on long journeys, to soak away weariness. At some point, someone clever built a hotel beside a hotspring and an industry was born.

Nowadays, the onsen are mostly regulated by a city-wide guild to ensure that all onsen ryokan have egalitarian access to the hot spring supply and that the onsen service is fairly uniform. All onsen ryokan have public bathing hours, where anybody can visit and pay a fee to soak. Only overnight guests have access to the ryokan after a certain time. And the ryokan themselves still vary in quality from inexpensive hostels to expensive resorts.

It was early this week we realized if we did not book somewhere, and soon, we might miss the opportunity to stay at an onsen ryokan. We had set aside a considerable amount of money so that we could stay at nice onsen ryokans at least three times during our vacation. Because we had not managed one stay once during our travels, we had a lot of money for our accomodation. Doing what any sensible person would do in our position, we decided to spend it all on one, extravagant stay.

We ventured online to find the most expensive room we could find. Sadly, all the rooms were booked. Frustrated, we asked at the travel info centre whether they represented any onsen ryokan. And as fate would have it, they did.

The ryokan we visted was located in Itou, a small seaside town about on a southern penninsula between Tokyo and Nagasaki. The ryokan had five baths: two public baths, segregated by gender; two private family baths, that could be booked for private use; and a rotenburo, an outdoor bath, which could also be reserved for private use.

The room was enormous. It was larger than our first apartment, we a pleasant view of the city. It had its own sitting room and was large enough to sleep about ten. Or more, if everyone was real friendly-like.

We entered the ryokan weary and sore, and left feeling invigorated and refreshed. Sadly, it did not cost nearly as much as we had intended to spend.

Hakutsuru Sake Brewery

We couldn`t travel all the way to Japan without visiting a sake brewery. Lance quite favours the beverage and we are travelling quite close to Kobe, which has several sake breweries that offer tours and tastings. I had heard about one, Hakutsuru, that had a free museum with information in English so we headed out there yesterday after touring a park in Okoyama.

The directions that I had to get to the museum were not great as they basically said to walk for 15 minutes south of the train station. However, they didn`t specify which of the 5 southbound streets to follow. So, after wandering for a while without finding anywhere tour-worthy, we asked an older fellow who was working in his garden. His English was not very well and our map was even worse. So, he walked us about halfway there, until the building was in sight and from there we could make it the rest of the way.

The museum was very cool. Not only did they have English brochures available, but they also had televisions set up that would describe the sake brewing process in both English and Japanese. It was very interesting to see the different historic methods for brewing.

At the end of the tour they have some freshly brewed sake that you can try - unpasteurized, chilled, strong and delicious. I`m not a huge fan of sake myself, but this stuff was really good! Then they also had a shop set up to buy products. The most expensive thing there was their line of rice skin care products, which we steered clear from and ended up with a few different and reasonably priced bottles to sample.

One of the things that most impressed me was the service and explanations of the different kinds of sake and the temperatures to serve them. They also gave an indication of the alcohol content in each one. (One of things we`ve discovered is that the alcohol here is generally cheaper, but also a lot weaker than back home, so you still drink an equivalent cost to back home.) I was so impressed that I decided to check and see if this brand of sake was available back home. Lo and behold, after a brief google search one of the first hits I find is for the liquor store across the street that`s attached to the Dublin Crossing Pub. The company also has a very good informative site in English (linked above).

Book Heaven

After browsing through a bookstore here in Tokyo yesterday, I`m really wishing that I could read more Japanese. I knew that they had large bookstores here and lots of inexpensive books, but I still wasn`t prepared for the experience.

Back home, people think that places like Chapters are large and have good selection. Well imagine a Chapters that has 7 floors full of books. Yup, SEVEN floors of books! I know some of you will already be drooling at the thought of so many books, but wait, I haven`t finished yet. After perusing several floors (because the lack of reading ability isn`t enough to deter Lance and I from browsing and buying - we`ll need practice material for when we do start reading the language afterall) and not finding quite what we were looking for, Lance bravely approached a sales associate to ask where the Manga (comics) were. He handed us a little map and gave us some instructions. Apparently, there`s too much Manga to be kept in this one location so we had to go across the street to their other building! Yup, 7 floor plus another building that`s 3 floors of just CDs, DVDs, and Manga! And, according to the little map, they also have yet another store that`s located further south in the city. Not sure if the selection varies between the south and the main stores since we didn`t head quite that far.

And for those who are wondering, yes we are crazy - we bought books in Japanese.

Tapas Bar

Okay, there was one other thing that did not suck about Tokyo. But it not-sucked because we made it great by ourselves. Last night we were hungry. It was about dinner time. And we are often hungry at dinner time. That is why we go for dinner.

There are buildings here that are restaurant buildings. You hop on an elevator, select the floor, and the elevator takes you right into the lobby of the restaurant. A lot of the buildings are narrow, so a single restaurant occupies an entire floor. We saw a great-looking Italian restaurant that served pizza. Japan has freakish pizzas choices and I really wanted to try a weird pizza before we went home.

We hopped on the elevator, hit the button, and were delivered unto the lobby. A lobby that was packed with Japanese people. And the smell! It is the smell that I will forever associate with the concrete playground whale at White Rock beach; a smell that I would later learn in life meant drunk people had been here, accidents had happened.

It was particularly unappetizing.

We hopped back in the elevator to choose another restaurant. We selected a floor at random. And random was to be the theme of the night, as it turned out. Though little did we know it at that time. And lo, we were delivered unto the Tapas bar.

The bar did not smell like stale piss and beer. Which was a good start. And even better, the waiter told us we would only wait twenty minutes at most. That was fine by us.

As we gazed around the restaurant, it appeared we had entered an ultra-chic tapas bar and cocktail lounge. The walls were dark granite, the floors a finely polished hardwood. Shoes were stacked neatly in the foyer and slippers place conveniently for patrons to use. It was noｔ the sort of place I usually found myself. I got a little nervous. But I was not about to hop back in the elevator and lose my spot in line for dinner. Aside from which, they had pizzas.

When we were seated, my suspicions were confirmed. The menu was full of fancy appetizers and dishes I could only wonder at. The waitress asked us for our drink orders.

In other restaurants, ordering drinks has been easy. For breakfast or lunch, I am content with orange juice (orenji juusu) or iced tea (tsumetai ocha). At dinner, most restaurants stock only one particular kind of beer or sake. If there are several available, a sly osusume sake wa nan desu ka (what sake do you recommend) usually gets me off the hook without appearing an illiterate fool.

Suffice to say, I was not prepared to select from ten pages of drinks.

Jenn was wide-eyed and giving me her I trust you to get us out of this or else look. Fantastic. As I cursed the Pimsleur lessons for not covering the finer points of ordering cocktails, my mind raced for a drink that might coexist in America and Japan. I suddenly hit upon a stroke of genius.

`Osusume cocktail wa nan desu ka?` I ventured plaintively to the waitress. I hoped she would recognize the word. After all, this was a very trendy restaurant. And in Japan, trendy means borrowing English words when a Japanese word would suffice. Hai! was the delighted response. But success was short-lived.

She excitedly pulled out the Wacom touch tablet that had been sitting inconspicuously at the end of our table. Fingers dancing, she quickly navigated through the menus...and showed Jenn how to order. She then put the tablet on the table and waited expectently.

So much for that. I shrugged at Jenn. She shrugged back. I shrugged again and pointed at two random drinks. I was mindful enough to ask for a pizza, as well.

The drinks arrived, glowing neon blue and red. But tasty! The pizza arrived, too, and it was clear it would not be enough food. We would have to order more.

Only, it did not appear that the waitress was going to come to our table again. We would have to order ourselves. Through the tablet. In a written language I could not comprehend.

While we sipped drinks and nibbled on the appetizer pizza, I played with the device. After clicking through a few menus, I felt I was getting the hang of things. Eventually I figured I knew enough that we could place an order.

But what should we order? How would we know what we would get?

After a brief discussion, Jennifer and I decided that cocktails are usually designed to be tasty. Ergo, any cocktail we ordered should be alright. We selected more drinks at random, punched in the order, and waited. A few minutes later, the waiter showed up bearing a tray with glowing green and orange drinks. Success! We had uncovered the means to acquire sustenance!

We had a great time ordering random items and guessing at what might arrive. And we were rewarded with some very tasty drinks and appetizers. Not a single item that arrived that we did not enjoy, and we tried some dishes that might have been discouraging otherwise. All in all, a worthwhile experience.

And I quite enjoyed watching the tipsy Japanese patrons trip over the slippers in the hall.

Japanese Spectators

So far we`ve attended two very different events here in Japan. In both cases, there were several distinct differences from how we do things back home.

The first event we attended was the Aoi festival. It was going to be a procession from the Imperial Palace to two Shinto shrines in order to do a couple of important rituals. As it was called a `festival` we were expecting a somewhat festive atmosphere. We knew that thousands attended the event and went early to avoid the crowds. I was expecting crowds and people standing as close as possible to observe the beautiful costumes and event characters as they went by. I was also expecting music, children, cheering, laughter, etc. Much of what we ended up seeing was the exact opposite. No bands or music of any kind unless you brought your own MP3 player. Except for a brief and quiet round of applause, there was no clapping or cheering. And the crowd willingly left a nice wide pathway between the seats at the front and the standing room at the back so that people could get by. There was very little necessary by way of crowd control at all. There were more information people than police officers. And there were almost no children present at all. Granted it was a school day, but with thousands of people, at least a few must have taken some time off work to attend. About the only normal thing compared to back home was the presence of booths selling food, drinks, souvenirs, etc.

The sumo festival we attended today was a bit more `normal.` People showed up in good numbers to watch todays bouts. There was some more cheering for the sumo wrestlers as they entered the ring for their match. Children were there with their parents calling out the name of their favourite sumo wrestler. Lots of merchandise and food available (much more reasonably priced than GM Place too!) However, there was almost no security present (and almost none necessary). And, all of the people who were dressed in security uniforms were women. That was almost the only official presence of women in the entire tournament - vendors, cleaners, admission staff, and . . . security? It seemed a little odd. They were dressed with official hats and wore skirts and heels. They would hurry over to an aisle if someone stood there to take a picture or if any part of the crowd looked too `excited.` The sumo wrestlers would walk right past the front seats into and out of the arena and despite their obvious status among the Japanese, no one tried to reach for them or yell at them as they passed by. There didn`t even seem to be much animosity between east and west. I was a bit nervous at first since we decided to root for the western wrestlers and Tokyo is in eastern Japan. But we didn`t get any dirty looks at all as we cheered on the western wrestlers.

Tokyo sucks

If not for the fact that the Grand Sumo tournament was being held in Tokyo while we were in Japan, we probably would have skipped the city entirely. And that would have been fine.

All of the culture, all of the history, all of the unique identity that has made Japan such a great place to explore and visit is absent from the city. It is row upon row of skyscrapers, and streets filled with young hipsters. It is, in point of fact, just like Vancouver but with taller buildings. I suspect more English is spoken here.

The Grand Sumo tournament, though...that made visiting Tokyo worthwhile.

It was, in a word, awesome. In more words, it was like taking awesome, wrapping it in awesome, and serving it with a side of awesome for garnish.

We arrived at the tournament about 8:30 am and bought our general admission tickets. Since everyone was working on a Monday, we did not sit in our own seats. Instead, we picked the best, inconspicuous seats available overhanging the balcony and trusted in the Japanese preference to avoid confrontations.

The tournament lasts two weeks. There are two teams, basically. Nishi - the west, and Higashi - the east. We decided to cheer for Nishi for several reasons. First and foremost, Tokyo really sucks. Second, we would be cheering for the visiting team in the home team building. Third, cheering for the east of Japan would be like cheering for the east of Canada. Which is like cheering for Toronto. We would never cheer for Toronto. And finally, we were not sitting in our own seats and we wanted to be inconspicuous.

The early morning was for the aspiring sumo wrestlers. It was a continuous series of bouts that lasted until about 3:00 pm. At the end of the two weeks, the wrestler with the best record earns the priveledge of competing as a genuine wrestler at the next competition. Competitions are held about every two months, from what I could gather.

I grabbed a few videos of the events that I will be happy to share when we get home. There was an opening-ceremony ceremony, a ceremony before each match, a ceremony before the official bouts, and a closing ceremony. I wish sumo were more accessible from Canada. It was all fantastic, even if slightly incomprehensible.

Afterwards we joined the crowds and headed back to Shinjuku.

A little Kyoto gem

Today we are leaving Kyoto.

The city was nice. Easy to navigate, with lots of great nooks and alleys to visit. We easily had our best experience last night when we visited a small restaurant we had discovered on an earlier foray. It was situated along a small canal, not too far from our ryokan, lost amongst the houses.

It was probably on our first night here that we passed the restaurant. The sign out front had declared okonomiyaki and teppanyaki. We had declared that we should try the place out. And so it was not until our last night visiting that we actually found the time.

After the Gion Corner show, we hiked across town to the small restaurant. The entrance was a frosted-glass door that slid, opening into a small room with a raised tatami floor and five small tables arranged upon the mats. The place was surprisingly full and the owner directed us to the only remaining table.

Dinner was cooked one dish at a time by the owner, and with about twelve people in the restaurant, he had his hands full! Especially since the first group ordered such varied food. But we were content to wait. We ordered our food and some cold sake and enjoyed the ambience.

The owner had an impressive collection of fish, arranged in three or four tanks. And the fish were not small, either! I wondered if perhaps some were kept on hand to serve...

We both ordered Kyoto style okonomyaki. It was similar to Hiroshima style, with noodles cooked into the mix, but the dough was thicker and more like a very thin pizza. The only true similarity was that the servings were huge!

As we enjoyed our meal, the proprietor brought a small journal to the table. It was filled with well-wishes from all the previous visitors to the restaurant from all over the world. It seems we were not the only tourists fortunate enough to find his small establishment over the years.

Neither of us was able to finish our meal, so the owner gave us a small take-out box to bring the remainder home with us. We were happy to oblige! And, for each person who visited the restaurant, he also gave a parting gift of fruit. It was a really nice touch!

We stayed and chatted with him for a little while after we were done eating, telling him a little about Vancouver and complimenting him on his very fine food. The restaurant was Kawa. It was located along the canal near the river to Gion. If you ever visit Kyoto, you are doing yourself a disservice not to visit this remarkable establishment.

Henshin World

Today we toured the Uzumasa Eigamura - a studio film park where they make a lot of the Power Ranger-type shows. I do not actually know what any of the shows were, but I did recognize various incarnations of the Power Ranger team and a giant size statue of Voltron. That was pretty cool.

The park also had a variety of Edo-style buildings and the like for filming a whole range of Japanese cinema. We chatted with a lot of Japanese children who were required to practice english with foreigners for school.

Tonight is our last night in Kyoto. We still want to see Kobe and Okayama out west, Tokyo in the east. And somewhere in the mix it would be nice to fit a full-blown traditional ryoken onsen stay. But we are running out of days to see everything we want.

Maybe we will just stay another week...

Homework

Making our way to and from tourist spots has brought about many different realizations and a few minor hazards. A great part of the crowding at these sites comes from the hoardes of Japanese school children who are also touring famous spots. They are often `spirited` bunches, seldom rude, and often curious about the foreigners. The braver ones say hello. The ones with homework march right up to us in a big group and proceed through a script in one of their workbooks. So far, we`ve been the subject of four such assignments. We`ve given signatures, peace messages, messages to Junior High Students, and provided our thoughts on Japanese cities, food, and culture. In exchange, we`ve received a few nice hand-drawn student `name cards` and had a few nice group photos with the school kids.

1 litre beers

On a random bike ride, Jennifer and I passed a vending machine dispensing 1 litre cans of Kirin draft beer in Kyoto. When I later returned to purchase said 1 litre beer, I discovered the machine was not in operation. It was a very sad moment. There were tears.

Johnnie Hillwalker

Yesterday we did the walking tour with Johnnie Hillwalker. It was an excellent day. The tour wends its way through back street of Kyoto (and past our ryokan, incidentally) to tour the less-well-known historic spots of the city.

We visited a Buddhist temple that is actually used for practical Buddhism, several Shinto shrines, and numerous small merchants in the area. We saw the building where Nintendo began its days as a playing card company, sampled some Inari zushi and had Japanese sweets. The tour took about 5 hours altogether.

Afterwards, we visited Kiyomizudera temple. It was nice. One of those must-see attractions that is much too busy to be properly enjoyed. The serenity of the temple in its moutain setting is lost amid swarms of sight-seers and tour groups.

The streets on the way to the temple were packed with merchants. Pottery was the big attraction.

Oh yeah...

Weird moment of the day.

After visiting one of the temples in the Gion quarter, Jennifer and I were hungry and decided to stop for lunch. The cafe that we chose turned out to be a house. The residents installed a diner on the bottom floor and lived on the upper levels. The house was older than the country of my birth.

I had the omelet rice and Jenn had the curry rice. She cooked the whole meal right in front of us.

As we were finishing up the meal, another couple walked into the restaurant. They were french, had little english and absolutely no Japanese. After a brief struggle, I ended up interpreting the broken english of the french into broken japanese. It was surreal.

Aoi Matsuri

We awoke early this morning and walked the 3 kilometers to the Imperial Villa. We toured the grounds for a while, then staked out an excellent viewing spot for the Aoi Matsuri. We were not really certain what to expect. It turned out to be a parade of people in old costumes. The people of Kyoto have been doing this parade for a very, very long time.

The entire procession took about an hour to pass our vantage spot. The participants had a five hour trek ahead of them under a hot afternoon sun, decked in layer upon layer of heavy fabrics, with stops for special ceremonies at two shrines. We went for ice cream. It was cool and refreshing.

Afterwards we headed over to Kinkakuji - the Golden Pavilion. It was very gold. And busy. While the gold leaf on the temple was impressive to behold, the moss gardens around the palace were much more enjoyable.

And you can always tell when you have reached the end of the tour, because a gift shop and ice cream kiosk awaits. We bought some souvenirs from the Golden Pavilion kiosk - not one of which had anything to do with a golden pavilion - then ventured off to Ryoanji temple.

Ryoanji temple is famous for its rock garden. And I must admit, the rocks were really impressive. They remained still for our pictures with the austere gravity and dignity that only a rock can muster. The gravel around the rocks was superbly raked. The entire experience was tranquil. We headed on.

Our third stop proved impossible to get to by transit. After some struggles with the bus system, we finally gave up on visiting Power Ranger world at the Toei movie park. Kyoto theatre was doing a presentation of Osamu Tezuka world (remember Osamu Tezuka? this is a paragraph about Osamu Tezuka) and we decided to travel there instead. Sadly, the presentation was not really a presentation so much as a gift store. With tears in our eyes and an expensive Astro Boy key chain in my pocket, we headed off into the sunset to find a computer and write our blogs.

Kyoto

We rolled into Kyoto a day ahead of the Aoi Matsuri. We booked rooms at an inexpensive ryokan called the Higaiwa. It is a lot more quaint that the previous ryokan we visited and with none of the frills.

After examining the travel maps of Kyoto, we realized the city was far to spread out to explore properly on foot. The city sprawls through the mountains over several kilometers and hidden amongst skyscrapers and business parks are thousand year old temples and vast green spaces.

We decided to rent bicycles to explore the city. Not as fast as traveling by transit, but a more intimate way to investigate the city. The bikes were very affordable.

We set off west, traveling lazily through the Gion quarter. The streets were narrow and slightly crooked, each building boasting tremendous gravity and history. We stopped to visit a couple temples. Since the Gion district is somewhat elevated from the rest of Kyoto, the temples afforded some beautiful vistas of the city.

When we finally tired of our exploration, we returned to the ryokan to sate ourselves on senbei and Pocky.

Himeji

Our trip to Himeji yesterday was damp. We awoke to brilliant sunshine and heat and weather forecasts of clear skies. We intended to rent bikes in Himeji, tour the castle and park, then hike up Mt Hiromine to visit the Hiromine shrine.

We arrived early, began our tour of the castle grounds under cloudy sky, and by the time we entered the castle it was raining. It is somewhat pleasing to know that the Japanese are as poor at forecasting weather as the English.

The rain was rather light, so we continued the tour of the KoKoen traditional gardens. Very beautiful spot to tour. If I had two acres and a full time staff of twenty gardeners, this is precisely what I'd do in my back yard. Three foot long, eighty year old Koi and all.

As we left the garden, the rain stepped up its tempo from 'light, refreshing and warm' to 'Welcome back to Vancouver'. Within seconds I was soaked head to toe. This seemed an opportune time to visit the covered shopping arcade. After dabbing myself dry with a 4" x 4" handkerchief, we watched the water cascade down from the heavens for a while.

We decided two things: that our three hour hike to Hiromine would not be very pleasant in this weather, and; it did not appear likely the rain was going to stop. We got Chinese take out instead.

And so we bid farewell to Osaka. At the end of our journey, we will try to sneak back to a few places and visit some shrines and sites we didn't get opportunity to see. But for now, we're beginning the Kyoto leg of our journey.

Food and drinks

Probably one of the most enjoyable aspects of Japan has been sampling different foods. Almost every night I am able, I will stroll into a convenience store and purchase several foods and beverages. Selection is made on the basis of the packaging's appeal.

With the exception of the takoyaki, the food here has been fantastic. If the Japanese do anything well, it's making convenient and tasty snack foods. On the beverage side of things...

See, with the food, you have a rough idea of what to expect. Most packages have an appealing image of the actual food item contained inside. Or the packing is clear and you can see the food item. The actual flavour or texture may catch you off guard at times. Generally speaking, you can do alright.

Beverages, on the other hand, could be anything. Most come in cans. The images emblazoned on the side could be anything. Even if you are fortunate enough to see the liquid through a clear container...it is a liquid! The best you can surmise is the colour!

You should note that this is not actually daunting in the slightlest! On the contrary, it adds an element of suspense and surprise into re-hydration that is quite refreshing.

Nara

Today Lance and I headed out to Nara. It`s a place known for its park, deer, and giant Buddha statue. We had a fabulous time there!

It was a bit unclear at first exactly which train to take to go to Nara. We hopped on one headed for Takara/Nara (I think?) thinking we could just take it the whole way out. Luckily, we could understand the announcements a little bit and got the idea that the train was actually splitting at one of the stations and then part of it was going to Takara (?) and the other part going to Nara. With the help of a few fellow passengers and a train conductor, we managed to switch to the correct part of the train and continue on to Nara.

Once we arrived we started walking down with the other crowd of tourists towards the large park with the many shrines and temples inside it. Once we got to the fringe of the park, we weren`t exactly sure where to go from there (the map wasn`t too clear on the relative distances). Luckily, we`ve found that when you are visiting a tourist spot in Japan and aren`t sure of your bearing, following any of the large groups of Japanese school children is a pretty safe bet. It`s very easy to spot them since they are almost always in uniform. If there are any outgoing kids in the group, you might have the added entertainment of exchanging a hello and sending them into a fit of giggles.

The deer here were a bit larger than at Miyajima and generally better behaved. I think that the people who run the deer cracker carts have probably had a hand in disciplining brazen and unruly deer. They didn`t really bother you unless you had purchased deer crackers with which to feed them. Lance and I decided to forgo this option and instead had a bit of a chuckle at the children who bought the deer crackers and proceeded to screech and panic and run away from the deer that they were trying to feed.

Once we arrived at the building that houses the giant Buddha statue it was a truly magnificent site. It is the largest wooden building in the world and is quite a bit smaller than the original structure was (destroyed by fire and rebuilt several times). Inside was quite crowded with tourists and it was a bit hard to catch any kind of Buddhist serenity.

After a bit more walking around in the park we stopped for lunch at the famous Mos Burger chain. The food was very good and it was a bit of an interesting twist on a `fast food` joint. The line-up at the counter is pretty similar, but then you go find a table and they bring your food to you. The food was very tasty though much smaller portions than north america.

After lunch we decided to wander around the town. We found all sorts of interesting and beautiful sites as we passed through. My favourites were the two cemetaries we walked through. I could really feel the spirits there as we walked through the tightly packed memorial stones with breezes rustling through the small bamboo groves.

After wandering to a point in the town where we once again knew roughly where we were, we realized we should probably head back to the train station as we were both pretty tired from all the walking at this point (and we had a fair bit more walking to get us back to the station). I think we both nearly fell asleep on the train back to Osaka.

From there we were hungry again and stopped at a place close to this internet cafe for dinner. It had really great food and lots of stuff we recognized. So, now we`re all caught up again and probably ready for some dessert. If the real selection of parfaits in this town taste half as good as their plastic display models make them look, I`ll be pretty happy.

Mother's Day

Since I think it's about Sunday back home...Happy Mother's Day, momma! I promise not to get hurt by the deer in Nara.

P.S. - I did fantastic on my Stats final!

Osaka Aquarium

Since the weather was mostly drizzle in the morning, Jennifer and I decided we would spend more time in Osaka today. We hopped on the subway and headed to the Osaka Aquarium. It was awesome.

The Osaka aquarium is a multi-story complex built around several large tanks. Each floor spirals around the tanks on several levels, allowing you to view the interaction of marine life from various vantage points. The theme of the aquarium is the Ring of Fire, the volcanic ring of the Pacific Ocean. Each tank presents a cut away of a particular eco-system and the life indigenous to that region.

The show has the usual culprits: fish galore, seals, otters, octopusses (octopai?), sharks and rays. Some more unusual specimens included flamingos and spider monkeys, ducks, and penguins. The star of the show is an enormous whale shark that lazily swims circles in the enormous central tank. Smaller schools of fish billow like clouds around this leviathan. I managed to get some excellent video footage of the scene.

Altogether, Jennifer and I probably shot over 600 photos at the aquarium and took at least four or five videos. I look forward to posting the pictures once we return to Canada.

For lunch we went to an Australian restaurant. I am entirely unsure what was Australian about it, but it made certain we were aware of its affiliation with the outback. I ate beef schnitzel;
a fine Australian delicacy.

After the aquarium, we toured the nearby shopping complex. Bizarrity abounds! There was a secret ninja tour, an authentic samurai armour store (9,000,000 yen! That`s a steal at only $90,000 CDN) a petting zoo (with beagles and cats!), an adventure playground, the magic show, the mystery tunnel (it was a mystery!), and an underground labyrinth food court.

There was also a Studio Ghibli store. It was full of awesome Studio Ghibli merchandise, such as lighters and playing cards and wall hangings. By far my favorite item was little statuary of the wood spirits from Princess Mononoke. I suspect they may even glow in the dark. Unfortunately, they are small and breakable and poor traveling companions. But we shall stop here again before we return home.

In the evening, we set out for the HEP 5 entertainment plaza. It is an 8 story mall with a ferris wheel on the roof. It is almost entirely filled with clothing stores, except the upper two levels are an arcade and the second basement is a gambling parlour.

Takoyaki

Oh yeah, takoyaki.

I admit I could be slightly biased because the damn thing nearly immolated my esophagus. The soft outer-dough shell was rather cool, so I figured it safe to pop one in my mouth. As I began to chew, the EXTREMELY HOT filling began to scorch my tongue.

As I desperately tried to salivate, I considered my options. I could spit it out. Good, except the only place to spit it was back onto the tray with the remaining takoyaki. Not helpful, since that was lunch. I still held onto the hope that I could enjoy eating the remaining takoyaki. I decided to wait and let it cool enough to chew. Instead, it seemed to grow more unbearable. It was probably about this point that I decided that swallowing something that was too hot for my tongue was a good idea. It wasn't.

Bitterly wounded, but still hungry, I tried to eat the second takoyaki more carefully. I would let this one cool before I ate it. I bit the pastry-casing to expose the inner contents to the air; a tentacle waved thanks at me, grateful to be freed from its doughy prison.

And that was the last I will eat of takoyaki.

Whiskey in a can

On the train ride from Kurashiki to Takarazuka, via Osaka, I finally found the time to drink my whiskey in a can. Jennifer scoffed that it was too early for alcohol until I reminded her that it was probably about 10 o'clock at night, back home. It was a perfect time to drink Whiskey. Besides which, I burned my throat eating takoyaki and needed something soothing.

The whiskey was actually whiskey and water. I'm not a big fan of watered down whiskey, but it was surprisingly decent stuff. It reminded me a little of Chivas Regal with the slightly dilluted flavour. I would drink it again.

Consider this particular adventure a success!

Ame ga furimasu

We rolled back into Osaka last night. It is raining outside, a vesper drizzle that would not really qualify as rain except everybody is carrying an umbrella. Though, now that I think about it, everyone was carrying an umbrella when it was sunny. Maybe they do not use umbrellas the way that we use umbrellas. This bears investigation.

On Friday morning we left Hiroshima to visit Iwakuni. Since arriving in Japan, I was excited to see the Kintai-kyo bridge and it did not disappoint. It is fashioned entirely from wood and undulates across the wide river like a serpent.

The city on the other side of the river was quaint. The entire city was still rather rural and managed to display the characteristic old town charm we've been hoping to see. We explored the cemetary and gardens, visited historical samurai residences under reconstruction, and hunted for the infamous white snakes of Iwakuni. Sadly, the only snakes we discovered were the ones behind glass, kept on display for the benefit of curious tourists.

We arrived early in the morning, so we had much of the grounds to ourselves. The only other visitors were about a hundred school kids in orange prison jumpers visiting on assignment, and a cohort of American soldiers. The former were much more adorable than the latter.

We took the ropeway up to the castle and explored the park atop the hill. It afforded beautiful views of the surrounding city. Inside was an impressive collection of historical artifacts from various periods of Japan history. This was probably our favorite place to visit so far.

Following Iwakuni, we navigated our way to Kurashiki. It has an old business district, immaculately prserved for sightseerers. We stayed in a traditional ryokan (the Tsurugata ryokan) and explored the canals that evening.

Yesterday morning we woke to rain. We explored the canals some more (damply, this time) and then headed off to Takarakuza, to visit Osamu Tezuka Manga Museum. In other words, we went to see Astro Boy.

The museum was awesome. Couldn't understand a darn thing that was written, but I could see all the pictures. The frosted glass elevator doors with Astro Boy and Kimba and others were a glorious touch. We got our pictures taken with Astro Boy and the professor and stuck on a sticker. It was like being a little kid again.

Random tidbits

Jennifer and I seem to have ended up on different sleep schedules. After a long day of trekking under a hot sun, I am ready to retire by 9 o`clock. Particularly because in this heat it is difficult to muster any hunger. It is all I can do to stay awake until my head hits the pillow. Jennifer, on the other hand, seems indefatigable.

...unless I try to wake her at 4am when I wake up. So I decided I would use a bit of this early morning time to catch up on some thoughts.

Despite everyone's assurance that there would be culture shock, there hasn't been. Perhaps because Vancouver has such a sizeable ethnic demographic itself. Or perhaps because we took the time to familiarize ourselves with much of what we might see.

There are differences, if you look for them, but most are more a difference of convention or aesthetic. The eavestroughs, for example: instead of aluminum tubing to channel rain water from the roof, many buildings have small inverted bells, daisy-chained to allow the water to cascade gently. I cannot imagine such a device would work in Vancouver, due to our incessant rains, but it is certainly an attractive solution to an omni-present event.

The trains are distinctly familar. We rode the local train yesteday to Miyajima. Most residents use the local trains, due to the comparatively high cost of the shinkansen. At every stop, the canny, experienced riders would innundate themselves through the crowd of human obstacles and find an open seat with casual alacrity; in their wake, dark glances from those whose supposed seats had been usurped. We could have been riding the skytrain or bus back home.

We have tried a variety of local cuisine. Much of it was seafood, naturally. Some I would not eat again, but most has been rather pleasant. In particular, I am fond of Japanese pastry - the pastry here is not so sugary or sweet as back home. It is probably no more healthy for me, however.

Hiroshima

Today was a whirlwind of tourist spots. We checked out Hiroshima castle, the Peace Memorial, the survivor cenotaph, and Miyajima island. And, due to navigational challenges, many of the surrounding areas.

Hiroshima castle was faux-feudal, Miyajima island was kitsch, and Peace park was poignant. We walked until our feet hurt, took pictures galore, and walked some more. I am happy I purchased such fine walking shoes.

Tomorrow we depart for Iwakuni to view the Kintai bridge and White Snake Park, then onwards to Kurashiki for a brief rest at the onsen.

I am also pleased to report that I found my whiskey in a can. I had to look no further than the vending machine in the hotel lobby. No word yet on how it tastes.

Arrival

Our flight to Japan was rather uneventful. Instead of taking transit as originally intended, my father very nicely drove Jennifer and me to the airport for our 1pm departure. We arrived early and cleared security ahead of the crowd.

The flight itself took ten and a half hours to complete. Airplanes are not normally very exciting places to spend time. Fortunately, the flight was helped along by a dizzying selection of in-flight movies, and each seat had its own screen. I barely had time to catch Cloverfield, The Golden Compass, The Bucket List, a documentary on the Yangtze river in China, and the Return of the King before the flight was over. We landed in Japan much sooner than expected.

Our first task was navigating the Kansai international airport. We soon discovered the JR rail office and exchanged our purchase orders for Rail Passes. Eventually - and not without considerable help from the station staff - we navigated our way to the hotel.

Since we arrived in Japan about two hours earlier than our tickets advertised, we explored the area around the hotel. It felt good to walk. We debated trying our luck at a sit down dinner, but the idea of ordering food in Japanese on our first night proved too intimidating. We grabbed some food from the local market instead.

This morning we woke early and explored the area around Osaka some more. It was just before 6am, but already people were on the streets walking to work. We did a walk-by of the Umeda Sky Tower and looked for a place to eat breakfast.

About 8 am we decided it was time to head to Hiroshima. We decided to walk to JR Shin-Osaka. As it turned out, that was a poorly conceived idea. After about a half hour walk north in the supposed direction of the station, we discovered that someone put a river in our way.

I flagged down a local passerby and asked her for directions to Shin-Osaka. To my delight and amazement, she understood my question. Even better, I understood her answer. Unfortunately, her answer told me we had to go back to where we started. And so we re-traced our steps, found a tourist info booth, and got ourselves educated on the wonders of the Japanese rail system.

The trip to Hiroshima itself was considerably less eventful.

We arrived in the city shortly before noon. We checked our list of accomodations and set our for Hotel FLEX, the nearest of the hotels to JR Hiroshima. We booked our room, had a delicious lunch at a nearby cafe, and decided to visit Shukkeien garden. The admission was a modest 250Y per person. We spent a few hours strolling the garden paths and photographing the local wildlife and scenery.

In the evening we set out for okonomimura, a street of vendors selling Hiroshima`s famous okonomiyaki. Or, as it is translated in Fodor`s guide, `as you like it`. It is sort of an upside down omelet with noodles and seafood. We found a quaint restaurant that wasn`t too busy, siddled up to the bar, and ordered our food.

The okonomiyaki was delicious! But far too much food for one person to eat. Stuffed full to bursting, we sidled back to our hotel room to turn in for the night. Tomorrow morning we visit the Peace Memorial and Hiroshima castle in the morning, then take the ferry over to Miyajima for the afternoon.

On the eve of our departure

Bags are packed, documents in order. Midterm assignment submitted. The house is clean. The last few weeks have been stressful trying to tie up all the loose ends before we depart, but it has been worth the effort. Tomorrow we depart for the Land of the Rising Sun. I couldn't be more excited.

We fly directly into Kansai international airport, located near Osaka. Osaka lies in the central region of Honshu - the main island - several hours west of Tokyo. From Osaka, we will head west towards Hiroshima and Yamaguchi and slowly make our way east over the course of the next several weeks.

Our itinerary is deliberately vague. There are a few key sites and events that Jennifer and I intend to take in: the Aoi Matsuri festival in Kyoto, the Peace Memorial in Hiroshima, the temples of Koya-san, the Sumo tournament in Tokyo, to name a few. But in between those places and times, we left ourselves the freedom to explore Japan as it happens.

We packed lightly to accommodate our whimsy (thanks in no small part to Doug Dyment of
www.onebag.com) and learned a smattering of the language in case we get lost.

I am so excited to be going on this trip. I promise to bring back photos and stories.