Sauntering Sunflower

Studio Ghibli

2010-02-20T15:49:00.000-08:00

The Studio Ghibli museum is incredible and a must-see if you are ever in Tokyo and happened to buy tickets three months in advance. It was completely packed with Japanese tourists. And i mean packed. Which is why you have to buy the tickets so early. And the tickets specify which time you are allowed to enter the museum at.

The building itself is probably my favorite part. It is done in a very Victorian, wood and metal style. Very evocative of the steampunk aesthetic Jenn and I like. An interesting fact is that all of the exhibits are build to child scale. Expect to be bending down to see stuff.

The exhibits themselves are also nice. A good bit of the permanent exhibition is devoted to how movies work, the creative design process, and so on. There was a fantastic strobe-effect setting, which sculptures of all the stages of animated movements. There was a bat flying, a girl skipping rope, someone riding a bicycle. The entire scene was built on a wheel.

The wheel would spin up to speed, the strobe light turn on, and it was timed so you suddenly were watching a brief stop-animation movie. It was quite impressive and definitely the highlight of the movie creation gallery.

The seasonal exhibit was devoted to the new movie, which we have not seen, so we had no particular attachment to the project. Aside from declaring we should see the movie upon our return.

The biggest disappointment was the gift shop. There were studio ghibli gift stores all over Japan, and we refrained from purchasing anything because we were going to the museum. Sensible, yes? But sadly it was so very, very wrong.

The gift shop was tiny and mostly featured movie-creation related paraphenlia. Cells from the films, audio and video collections (at Japanese prices, whoo!), and a whole crapload of cell phone charms. It had none of the cool statues from the various films, robotic-head seed planters from Castle in the Sky, the kodama statues from Princess Mononoke.

But we did get a couple cool pictures of the rooftop garden area and the building itself (the only two places where photography is allowed) and we nabbed the movie-cell admission tickets as our souvenirs instead of watching the 15 minute short film like we were supposed to. The tickets are way cool.

Dex was my dump stat

2010-02-20T07:04:00.001-08:00

Warning: If the stories of other people sustaining non-serious, but slightly cringe-worthy injuries bothers you, please stop reading here!

It started out just a day or so in to the trip. Not sure exactly what I did, but best I can figure, I strained an outer tendon of my left ankle. Never happened to me before in my entire life. But boy it hurt. Especially with all the walking we were doing. And, of course it happened before our skiing day in Hokkaido! For those to have never experienced this before, it's like a burning and pinching sensation every time you have to move that tendon. Which, when you're walking everywhere, is a lot. I had big boots and after some experimentation, found that the most comfortable solution was to undo them and loosen the top portion as much as was possible. But, there was still a fair bit of limping. I also bought 'leg cooling sheets' from a convenience store that helped to relax the area a bit, but caused the skin in the area to burn because my boots had chaffed the skin a bit. But, we moderated our walking level a bit and my ankle is now feeling just fine. We did briefly consider buying different shoes that wouldn't press against the area with every step, but weren't able to find any appropriate ones in an acceptable price range. And, it turns out that a ski boot tightens perfectly on the foot below the tendon and on the muscle above it, so walking/skiing in ski equipment turned out to be MORE comfortable than just plain walking was.

Then, I dropped a ceramic anime character mug on my right foot. Luckily, after some therapeutic exclamations, hopping, and rubbing, it turned out that neither the foot nor the mug was worse for wear.

Not sure if it was starting out with such a persistent annoying injury that just brought the rest of them to the forefront, but the next three weeks involved a disproportionate amount of exclamations as the result of minor injuries.

It got me kind of paranoid. So I started noticing a lot of little things. Which resulted in me almost always seeing those little steps that cities invariably have. You know the ones. They aren't very big so they kind of just blend in with the rest of the street. If you half-step on one it can easily lead to a twisted ankle or falling over and getting some bruises and scrapes. If you're lucky, your stomach just drops a bit or you bite your tongue with the sudden change of elevation. Well, as I said I have been seeing them, but Lance hasn't. And I haven't been seeing them soon enough to give any kind of useful early warning to him. Miraculously enough, the worst thing he's suffered from is a less than graceful stumble and hop as he kept walking on unscathed.

Now that we're on our last night in Japan, I thought we would be free and clear from further injury. We're both feeling a little sad to be leaving and returning home again, so I guess I subconsciously decided to leave part of myself here. A section of skin, about the size of a pea volunteered this evening. The skin started out on the third toe of my left foot, but when I stepped too far forward and then pulled the door open right over top of it, the skin mostly separated from the toe. After some inspection and consideration (and some colourful exclamations) I decided to completely separate said piece of skin and leave it behind. I've mostly stopped the bleeding. (Incidentally, do you know how hard it is to try to balance on one foot without using the aid of your toes? Just sayin'!)

The cushion story

2010-02-20T03:15:00.000-08:00

On a previous episode of Sauntering Sunflower, Jenn and Lance were shopping in Kyoto. Walking up and down Kiyomizudera and exchanging yen for fancy trinkets. But our famed protagonists were unable to find a zen cushion in Kyoto.

More importantly, however, we had not found a foo dog. Foo dog is a name I invented for the statues I liked in Nara. I doubt it's accurate, but a good author doesn't let integrity and accuracy get in the way of a blog post. We had seen the foo dogs in abundance in Nara. But searching the shops of Kyoto, we discovered a dearth of foo dogs. Kyoto was foo dogless. But because the train system in Japan is so phenomenal, we thought nothing of zipping between cities.

We went to Nara and bought a foo dog. We knew exactly where they were sold, and which one we wanted. So aside from waiting around while the owners manufactured a box large enough to wrap our purchase, that part of our trip was pretty uneventful. This post isn't about foo dogs, though. That's just a lead in to the cushion story. This is why this post is entitled 'The Cushion Story' and not the 'Really easy foo dog purchase story'.

So we were in Nara after an entirely uneventful foo dog purchase. We decided we had enough time to hunt for a zen cushion. I didn't actually know what a zen cushion was, but Jenn wanted one, and that was a good enough for me. Being pragmatic, I suggested we ask the local tourist information bureau where we could buy a zen cushion.

Unfortunately, the girl at the tourist desk wasn't prepared to field this sort of question. She sought the guidance of a higher authority, who sought the guidance of an even higher authority, and soon we had two co-workers and a manager digging through the Japanese yellow pages hunting for a zen cushion store. I took pictures of the robo-ninja deer. Eventually, it was determined a shop existed that could produce the cushion we were probably looking for. It was also only half a block away.

We set out for our cushion store. We don't read Japanese. We missed the store the first go by, but found it on the second. We sauntered (as sunflowers do) to the counter and the nice lady inside brought out one of the cushions. I thought it looked very nice, but a glance at Jenn informed me this pillow wasn't zen.

I don't know how many of you have tried to describe something you haven't actually seen into a second language with which you are marginally proficient, but let me assure you the experience is highly entertaining!

We had a quarter-dozen shop keepers scouring the store, trying to appease us mighty foreigners and sate our bizarre pillow related demands.

In the course of twenty minutes we established the following facts:

1) One of the shop keepers had at least a passing familiarity with zazen, and the cushions there of.

2) Japanese zazen doesn't use cushions anymore. They use little cushioned mini-benches.

3) The shop did not actually have the cushions we sought.

4) Lance actually remembered the japanese word for 'round/circle' at a key moment. Man, that saved a lot of potential headache.

5) The shop would make us cushions in 30 minutes.

Yes, that is correct. The shop did not have the cushions we wanted, but they had a square cushion filled with pipe bead. The square cushion was far too thick to serve a useful purpose in meditation, but the shop owner assured us they could remove the pipe beads from the cushion. He got the approximate height that Jenn wanted, and told us it would be ready in thirty minutes. We asked for two cushions, and he increased the wait time to....thirty minutes.

That's awesome math. We went for burgers.

No, wait. We looked at kimonos first. Jenn got a kimono last trip and I was going to buy a men's kimono this trip. Sadly, this shop didn't sell used kimonos; they sold custom-made new kimonos, in whatever fabric you desired. And if I had $9000, I would have totally bought one. We chatted with the shop owner about Banff, then went for Mos burgers.

After finishing our lunch, it had started to rain. We returned to the shop damp but unharmed. The owner had two employees furiously hand stitching pillows for us but they were not yet done. The staff seated us at the back of the shop by the heater and made us tea while they finished.

Roughly an hour after we arrived in Kyoto, we had two hand-stiched quasi-zen cushions in our possession, and they charged us a grand total of 60 cents for labour.

Hotel Superlatives

2010-02-20T01:09:00.000-08:00

For some odd, inexplicable reason, I started a list of the hotels we stayed at and began assigning a superlative description to each of them. I think it adds a little flavour to an otherwise incredibly similar set of hotel stays. Since we're now in our final hotel of the trip, I thought I'd share the list with you.

Hotel Sky Court - Kawasaki
Most first hotel!
Lance assures me it was chosen for its proximity to Anato-no-Warehouse arcade and not because it was in the 'red light' district of town.
Hotel Dormy Inn - Otaru
Best hotel robe!
Most, if not all, hotels in Japan will have a robe available for their guests. In most cases, it's a fairly cheap Japanese style 'summer robe' called a Yukata. In some of the other hotels we've stayed at, they have chosen a slightly different style. The Dormy Inn in Otaru was the only we stayed at to have a top and bottom to put on. Not sure if it was just because of how new the hotel was, but they were super soft and cottony and more like traditional pyjamas.
Hotel Piano - Kiroro
Biggest room!
It was like having a small suite to ourselves. I guess they figure people who ski don't really travel light. We picked this hotel at the ski resort because it had more restaurants than the other one and because it's name was cooler than 'Mountain Hotel.'
Ascent Inn - Sapporo
Most cacophonous toilet flush!
It was very noisy. And it had only one flush option, instead of having the normal 'big flush' and 'little flush' options that most other hotel toilets have.
Hearton Inn - Osaka
Most familiar!
Most offending soap!
This is one of the hotels we stayed at the last time we went to Japan. It was kind of nice knowing exactly where it would be and how to get there! It also gets the superlative of most offending soap because I got sprayed with soap one day, just before we were going to head out. The nozzle had gotten clogged with dry soap and I was going to wash my hands but instead of getting creamy white soap pumped into my hand it shot across the sink and all over my dark grey pants making an unsightly mark that wasn't going to be rinsed off quickly. So, I had to change into my other pants, which were luckily clean. All things considered, we did fairly well since the only 'stain' our clothes got was caused by soap.
Super Hotel Lohas - Nara
Darkest room!
Weakest shower!
Hardest mattress! (tie)
The room had blackout blinds which made it completely dark, even during daylight. The water pressure was also pretty low. But it was still a really convenient hotel since it was right by the train station. It was also pretty new and so it ties for another superlative 'Hardest Mattress!' The tie for this is shared with the other Super Hotel we stayed at. Both were new and I guess they decided to purchase the hardest mattresses they could find. We actually pulled out the extra blankets and slept on top of the duvet just to get some extra padding under us. At one point, I was so incredulous that it was an actual mattress and not a wooden plank or stack of bricks that we were sleeping on, that I pulled up the sheets to confirm the existence of a mattress.
Hotel Dormy Inn - Nagoya
Most Meh!
Biggest desk chair!
Add this to the list of disappointments about Nagoya. We stayed here hoping for another great Dormy Inn experience but everything was rather mediocre. The only thing that did stand out was the desk chair, which was huge relative to the room. Couldn't really turn without bumping in to the things and the arms were so large that the chair had to be lowered so that you could reasonably pull it in to the desk.
Hearton Inn - Osaka
see above
Super Hotel Lohas - Kyoto
Most difficult to find!
Hardest mattress! (tie)
Partly because the two streets listed, aren't the actual streets that it's on. But, once we had an actual map, it was much easier. We walked within a block, couldn't find it, trekked all the way back to the train station where the Welcome Inn centre is and got them to book it for us and give us a map with instructions. It was very cute to hear the woman at the Welcome Inn centre list the attributes of the hotel. As she put it, "it is a new hotel here in Kyoto: it has a natural hot spring; we don't really know how." They were trying to be 'green' so they gave free bottles of water to guests who declined room cleaning services while they were there. But, then all the women got 5 free gifts of little sample beauty products for each day that they stayed there, the packaging of which kind of defeating the attempt to be more 'green.'
Kikunoyu - Matsumoto
Best onsen ryokan!
Ok, so it was the only traditional onsen ryokan we stayed at, but still! The baths were very nice and since we were the only guests there the first night, they opened the bigger one for us as a 'family bath.' Then we even got little gifts when we checked out (which made me feel incredibly guilty for not giving them a gift in return). We also ordered a traditional Japanese dinner there which was served in our room. As Lance mentioned, the sashimi was very fresh and I still can't believe I actually ate that much seafood!
Touganeya Hotel - Tokyo
Most last hotel!
It was a little tricky to find, but once we able to properly orient ourselves with the various landmarks listed on the map, it became a lot easier. I was just relieved and surprised that they let us check in early, since most places are pretty sticky about the 3:00 pm check-in time. We were going to try to stay in the same hotel that we stayed in last time, but it was completely booked. In fact, it took quite some effort for us to find a hotel that was not booked for the nights we were going to be here. So, when the vacancy here came up, we weren't about to start getting picky about it.

Parks

2010-02-19T14:34:00.000-08:00

One of the nicest things about travelling without a fixed itinerary is that you can take time for a nice relaxing walk in the local park if the weather and geography seem to suggest it. If you get a park that the people of the city actually use, it can be a nice way to catch a glimpse of what life is like in a foreign country. And, you get to see some pretty weird stuff too.

So far, we've taken two walks in large parks in Japan and here are some of the things we've witnessed:

The end of a race (it was unclear as to how long it was, but I'd guess it was pretty long.)
A group of four young gentlemen wearing masks and matching outfits filming themselves doing a dance routine. My guess was a game show demo tape.
A Japanese mariachi duo. Guitar, pan flute, ponchos, singing a mariachi type song in Japanese. It was weird.
A large group of people standing around clapping poorly in time to the music that the balloon animal creator had playing. It turns out, his balloon creations were pretty impressive. We walked by later when he was packing up and saw an ecstatic little girl carrying a balloon Minnie Mouse that was almost as big as she was.
Japanese guys trying to skateboard. Again, not many places in Japan that have the space available to practice. What benches are available have arm rests and they have a habit of putting things that stick up off their handrails as well. So even though the guys looked to be in their 20's, their skill level was about that of the 10 year old who lives in our neighbourhood back home.

The first park we went to was the Osaka-Jo park and it was immaculate. It was pleasant to walk around and the people of the city obviously enjoyed using it as well. We saw lots of people walking or running, people practicing martial arts, kids practicing musical instruments, dog walkers, etc.

In the park in Tokyo, Ueno park, it's got a little more Tokyo-big-city influence to it. Still lots of people enjoying it, but it's definitely dirtier (my time spent in New York felt cleaner to some parts of this park). We've also seen some of Japan's homeless living here. But, they seem to be mostly left alone to do their thing and have some pretty permanent looking shelters set up. Even the gardeners seem to avoid conflict with them and just work around them. One of the people living there had even managed to set up a cook stove and kettle. I didn't see any of them begging for change and most of the Japanese people walking by just ignored them. My overall memory of the day was still pretty good, as we stumbled across an Irish pub at the train station on the way back from the park. But, perhaps we'll save the critique of their "Irish" pub for another post.

Matsumoto

2010-02-18T20:55:00.000-08:00

Our two nights in Matsumoto were incredible.

The first night we had the run of the ryokan, because we were the only guests there. We were given exclusive use of the hot spring, our room was made up for us and our hosts were very generous and helpful.

The ryokan itself was described as a 'new' structure. Whether that meant built within 50 years or 200 years, I'm not certain. The style of building it emulated was from the 1600's, built with modern materials and traditional methods. There you have it.

There were various decorations around the inn from all periods of history. Marvellous tapestries, delicate ceramic bowls and cups, antique kami masks. The entire in had a wonderful character.

We didn't arrive to the inn until around sunset. The ryokan lady was going to carry our bags to our room but I took one look at the tiny lady, one look at the bags I'd been hauling, and felt an immediate twinge of guilt at being responsible for her death. It took some doing, but we convinced her to let us schlepp our own gear.

Our second day in Matsumoto was for sightseeing. We had warm, sunny weather to wander the town and we made the most of it. We hitched the bus back into town and spent around seven hours wandering the streets. We saw the castle and park, the art museum, a cool german liquor store, the time-piece museum (totally steampunk!) and a french tour guide that insisted on helping. We also took in lots of interesting buildings and shrines and temples along the way.

That night we had a traditional ryokan dinner served in our room. It was interesting. Some parts were fantastic, others required some suspension of disbelief. I'm particularly pleased I figured out how to eat prawn sashimi. It helped that the prawn was still so fresh and in one complete piece, he was able to offer guidance on how best to consume him.

This morning we hopped a train to Nagano city, only to be told by the tour guides there that the Olympics were being held in a different city this year. Who knew?

An annecdote

2010-02-18T20:52:00.000-08:00

The Japanese are way too helpful. We arrived in Matsumoto for a stay in an onsen ryokan. The ryokan itself was part of the Welcome Inn chain in Japan, which helps foreigners book lodgings around the country. We had received a print out from the Welcome Inn crew in Osaka that included directions on how to get to the ryokan. Since the onsen itself was quite some distance from Matsumoto station, we needed to take a bus. Unfortunately, the bus number listed on the directions did not exist at the bus station.

We wandered below ground to the sub-station, in search of better information. There was a help desk. We asked for help. Once we established where we were going, the lady informed us which bus to take. It was arriving within a few minutes. Then she proceeded to get up from behind her desk, walk around and point us in the right direction.

Or so we thought. Instead, she actually guided us to the specific bus stop outside, in sub-zero weather, wearing a skirt and high heel shoes. She insisted on holding all of the doors for us along the way, because we were rather laden from shopping, and then she waited until the correct bus came and made sure we got on. Above and beyond the call of duty.

Random extremely helpful lady at the tourist info desk who didn't speak English and helped us crazy gaijin anyway, we salute you!

Oh, but it doesn't stop there. Because the bus driver was crazy nice awesome, too. It turns out that Asama onsen has approximately seven stops, all a variation of Asama Onsen. We were uncertain if a particular stop was ours, so I asked the bus driver in my broken Japanese.
He instead asked me where we were going. I supplied the name of the ryokan, and he said this was not the correct stop. Instead, the correct stop turned out to be directly in front of our ryokan, where he let us off. We did not learn of his kindness until the following day, however, when we had to go to the actual bus stop to head into town, and it certainly wasn't where we'd left it.

The Story of Photos

2010-02-17T06:48:00.000-08:00

So, I just sat down to review my photos of the last few days. The good news is that there were a lot. The bad news is that there weren't a lot. What kind of story do they tell?

From Osaka:

And then from Kyoto:

You'd think that we'd been spending most of our time eating our way through Japan, but we've been doing more, really we have! Most of it just isn't the type of thing you capture on camera. There's also been shopping, and lots, and lots of walking through two of our favourite cities in Japan. Generally just taking things easy and enjoying the feel and culture as we wander and explore. Most of the really picture worthy things we managed to snap photos of last time, but we do have a few random ones that will probably merit their own blog post, when we get time to write them.

On maps and the truncation thereof

2010-02-15T03:42:00.000-08:00

Okay. Fun story. It turns out upon further inspection that the map to the Gekkeikan brewery museum was truncated by about 10 km. Our 1:45 hours of walking only got us halfway before we gave up and found a trainstation back to Kyoto. But it was a good half, wandering minami Kyoto in the sunshine and searching for a vending machine that would sell pineapple soda.

Near misses would be the theme of our day, as we later were within a block of the hotel we wanted to stay at, but were unable to discover the secret alley hidden in the back of the old wardrobe that led to the magical Super Hotel Kyoto.

After tramping all the way back to Kyoto station, we visited the tourist information center and got slightly better directions, which may or may not have involved a secret handshake, a snow monkey with a scottish brogue, and discovering that the true meaning of Christmas was in our hearts all along.

If only we knew.

Japan has really short promos

2010-02-14T07:50:00.001-08:00

Remember that One Piece promotion? C'mon, it was like three posts back. Anyway, the promotion is already over. It lasted less than a week. We got 5/9 posters. Because back home, promotions last longer than 5 days. We figured we had time.

We haven't given up hope yet about finding the rest of the wanted posters, but the prospects are rather dim. Fortunately, we nabbed all the posters we really liked. The rest were simply for completeness.

In that similar vein, McDonalds is running a promotion featuring American Burgers. They have a burger named for every state and each burger gets one week. That's it. Then it's gone. They've already gone through Texas and New York while we were here, and they are halfway through Hawaii now. It's insane!

Nagoya

2010-02-14T07:19:00.000-08:00

We zipped out to Nagoya in the Mie prefecture, with the intent of spending considerable time in that region. The city featured a few interesting buildings and lots of traffic, but we didn't feel any particular charm.

Our plan was to crash for a night in Nagoya, then head up to Gero Onsen for a relaxing night or two. We booked into the Dormy Inn Nagoya, which was decidedly less impressive than Dormy Inn Otaru. But it is conveniently located near the Nagoya red light district, if that's your thing.

That's three new hotels we've visited on Honshu, and two red light districts. We're on a roll.

Deciding to make the best of our time in Nagoya, we checked out the Nagoya science center. It was two buildings and a planetarium. Admission was $6 each, including our tickets to the planetarium show. Eat your heart out Science World. The annual pass ran $20.

So you would be fair in assuming that the Nagoya science world was pretty lame. Except you would be wrong. It was pretty darn awesome. I mean, everything was in Japanese, so it was pretty tough to understand some of the exhibits. But most of the things were interactive, and Jenn and I had lots of fun figuring out the rules of the games. Maybe a little more than we enjoyed the games themselves. And let's be honest here: zapping things with electricity is fun in any language.

We also checked out the planetarium show. I'm not sure what I was expecting. Maybe a similar script to the quickie 20 minute shows we get back home at our planetarium. Instead, we were treated to a 60 minute presenation on the cosmos, and a 10 minute intro on the NEW planetarium they are currently constructing, which will be a self-enclosed globe suspended between two buildings. It looks very cool.

The cosmos presentation was also pretty incredible, since I learned more about the constellations in a foreign language I could barely follow than I ever did back home. Which leads me to my current hypothesis: the Japanese are really sophisticated robots diguised as humans.

But I digress.

The second stage of our plan was Gero onsen. Unfortunately, after carefully navigating the Japanese language page of the onsen we wanted to stay at, it appeared they were not accepting reseverations anymore. At all. Ever. I'm uncertain if it was a glitch on the website, or if they were remodeling, or if they had gone out of business, but it was clear fate was not on our side.

It was about this time that we realized Nagoya wasn't really a city for us. We looked at the itinerary of things to do and see and decided we wanted to go elsewhere.

The next day we headed south for Ise, to visit the Umbrella Shrine. The shrine itself is one of the most sacred Shinto shrines in Japan: so sacred, in fact, the priests knock the shrine down every twenty years and build it again a few paces over. When you visit, you don't actually get to see the shrine, either, because it is that sacred. Instead, you get to view the sort of outer gate bits. And a sea of umbrellas as people wait their turn in the queue.

After the Ise Shrine, the drizzle became genuine rain as we searched for Samurai town. Several misadventures later, we realized that Mie was not for us and we left.

A Photo From Ise and Tale of Samurai Defeat

2010-02-11T05:45:00.000-08:00

We went to ~~umbrella land~~ Ise Shrine today. Unfortunately it was very misty and busy so I didn't get many good pictures. Not to mention that at the very inner part of the shrine, where all the really cool stuff is, I spent a few minutes lining up a really good shot only to be told "shashin o kakimasen" = no pictures :( (Lance tells me he snapped a few good ones while I was "cleverly distracting them," but I'm too lazy to upload any of his photos right now).

Somewhere in the general area was also supposed to be a Samurai Theme Park, but when we tried to ask one of the workers at the bus station for directions, there was a communication error somewhere and he instead gave us directions to the place in the picture above, which is a shopping area done up like historical Japan. This photo was taken from one of the bridges leading out of the neighbourhood. It was really crowded on all the inner streets, which were narrow to begin with, so I didn't feel like snapping any pictures in there. It was kind of neat to look around in there, but we decided to try one more time to get to the Samurai Theme Park. This time, we got directions to the bus stop that would take us there. After walking for nearly 15 minutes in an increasingly misty afternoon and not yet arriving at the bus stop we decided to turn around, not get lost, and grab the next bus back to the train station.

A couple more photos

2010-02-08T23:06:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd post a few random photos for my blog contribution today.

First is a shot of Lance and I on a train heading somewhere. One of the few shots of us together so enjoy it!

This next one will give you a sense of the spring-like weather we're currently enjoying. The plum blossoms were just starting to peek out at Osaka-Jo-Koen (Osaka Castle Park) when we went walking through the other day.

I'm not posting any of the wonderful snow pictures for a couple of good reasons. One, I'd rather forget just how cold it was. And two, it looks like I only thought I copied all the pictures off my memory card before clearing it. In fact, I did not, so I don't have any of my snow festival pictures :( Lance still has all the ones from his camera though, so maybe I'll post some of his once the sting of losing all of mine wears off. As we're currently in Nara, I think I'll blame it on the deer. The deer ate my photos! Makes perfect sense since they do eat everything else!

Japan loves jazz

2010-02-08T16:52:00.000-08:00

Almost every restaurant we've visited has had awesome jazz music playing in the background. All the classic standards.

The exception was the Dormy Inn in Otaru which had quiet string fugues playing in the hallways and - I kid you not - a room dedictated to the Bachs. The Bach Room was a small corner room with an ample supply of reading material, comfortable chairs, and 24/7 music by all the most famous Bachs.

If our vacation were a movie, it's had a pretty fantastic soundtrack so far.

Osaka Joe

2010-02-08T03:42:00.000-08:00

After three flights in five days, we paused in Osaka for some R&R. We hit up the same Hearton hotel we stayed at during our first trip, in the same semi-double rooms, and it felt a little like coming home.

Our ambitions for sightseeing in Osaka were minimal during our two night stay, and we succeeded admirably. We did take one morning to hit up Osaka castle and the surrounding park. The park was simply amazing.

There were plenty of foot paths through out the park. And, being it was a Sunday, there were lots of people out enjoying the fine weather. Did I mention the fine weather? After Hokkaido, it was positively summer-like. Clear blue skies, and a warm 10 to 15 degrees most of the day. And cute, fluffy little white clouds dancing in the sky.

We sauntered around the park for some time, enjoying the warm sun, before we decided to tour the castle museum. The castle itself is not original. Most of the feudal castles in Japan were torn down during the Meiji restoration, when a "One Castle, One Province" rule was put into effect. But the replica castle had a lot nicer amenities inside, and the space was put to good use as a museum. Not much to see if you aren't into history, but all of the exhibits were in Japanese and English, making it a museum the two of us could appreciate more.

After the castle museum, we toured the plum blossom orchard. A few trees were starting to come into colour, but most were still bare. It is a little early yet. We are visiting another plum grove in Kyoto late next week, and hopefully the extra time will give the trees a chance to fully bloom.

Sapporo Snow Festival

2010-02-07T02:00:00.001-08:00

It was pretty good. Very impressive skills, coupled with impressive quantities of snow. Very cold. And crowded. The chocolate covered bananas on a stick the food vendors were selling looked interesting.

Yeah. That basically covers it.

Four city tour

2010-02-07T01:37:00.000-08:00

We left Kiroro in the morning and headed back to Otaru, whereupon we caught a train to Sapporo, switched trains in Sapporo and headed north to Asahikawa, where we had to stop for further directions because I forgot the name of our destination.

What was our purpose in traveling three hours to an out of the way city in Northern Hokkadio in blizzard like conditions? A sake brewery, of course.

But not just any brewery. The sake they make is not available for sale outside of Japan. And they brew the sake in traditional ice houses, in small batches, with an emphasis on quality over quantity. In American terms, we were hunting for a micro-brewery.

Fortunately, the local tourist information office had maps of the area in English. And at the very edge of the map corner was our target: the Taka...something brewery. Okay, I've already forgotten the name again. Japanese is hard, okay?

The snow was falling heavily as we braved the icy streets of Asahikawa. The sidewalks were actually an accumulation of compacted snow, many inches thick; we figured we were walking almost a full foot above the proper ground.

After about twenty minutes on foot, we reached a building that could only be the sake brewery. It was a traditional wooden structure, with thick, traditional wooden doors barring entry.

It was closed.

So with heavy hearts and a sadness in our souls we turned around and..no, I'm just kidding. It was open. The real entrance was around the side.

The floor creaked as we walked inside and admired the rows and rows of bottles. All of this sake had been painstaking crafted. Some had been more painstakingly crafted than others, but we couldn't tell. I couldn't read a damn thing.

The nice shop lady came to our rescue. She didn't speak much English, but she knew the only words we needed to hear: 'tasting okay?'

Oh, hell YES! A dozen very generous pours later, we returned to the Asahikawa train station, warm in spite of the weather and weighed down with several bottles of extremely delicious sake. The two most expensive bottles will make the return trip with us to Canada, to share with our friends. The other bottles...will not be so fortunate.

Delicious sake soon to be consumed, we salute you!

For the Wiffers, a Wine Review

2010-02-06T01:15:00.000-08:00

First, a bit about the differences in finding and consuming alcohol in Canada as compared to Japan . . .

What Lance and I consider one of the best things about visiting Japan, is the proliferation of access to alcohol and the laissez-faire attitude towards its consumption. In Canada, you can only really get alcohol at certain licensed restaurants and specialty liquor stores. The liquor stores are really of two varieties: private owned and government owned. They usually suffer from at least one, if not several, of the following flaws: bad hours, poor selection, and high prices. Also, liquor cannot be consumed in public. At certain events it is permitted, but you can't just crack a can of beer open on a train and go on your merry way.

In Japan, the situation is quite different. You can readily find alcohol for sale at convenience stores, in vending machines on public streets, and even at train station kiosks. While it's considered rude to be walking around in the open eating and drinking, it's perfectly acceptable to eat and drink while sitting down on a train or bus. In fact, many seats will have flip down trays and/or cup holders to make it more convenient for you. Also, many of the bottles that have twist off caps, now come equipped with little pull tabs, so you can very easily open your beverage.

Now, to set the stage for the wine review . . .

We were heading back from Asahikawa (where we had just visited a sake brewery, sampled, and purchased some bottles to bring back home) and it had been a very long day. We were faced with almost 2 hours on a train to get to the city where our hotel was (and we didn't really know exactly where in the city our hotel was located, so there was that adventure still to come), we had done a lot of walking, and my ankle still hurt like hell. And did I mention we'd just been walking around in the snow in -10 degrees Celsius? Anyway, we got to the train station and had a bit of time before our train was set to arrive so we stopped for snacks and drinks. They had mostly beer and a few bottles of wine, so I decided to pick one up for the train ride ahead. Here are the basic details (keep in mind, this is what I could discern from reading the label, which was mostly in Japanese).

Now, the wine . . .

Furano wine. Lavendar fragrance. A white. 360 ml Bottle with a
real cork - no screw cap. Best served between 6 & 12 degrees
Celsius. A decent 12% alcohol. The little blurb on the front of the
bottle seems to indicate that this might be an expermental brew --> "Furano
viticulture and enology experiment station Shimizuyama Furano Hokkaido
Japan."

The very nice girl at the check out was kind enough to ask if we wanted cups, to which I responded in the affirmative. As I said, it had been a long day, and when I grabbed the bottle, I hadn't really given any thoughts on HOW I would drink the wine, just that I wanted to try it. Once we were settled on the train, I pulled the cool bottle out of the bag, and my heart sank a little when I realized that it had a real cork. My husband came to my rescue though and pointed out that the girl at the store had also put a little corkscrew in the bag. Yup, they provide tiny cups and a corkscrew too. Oh, and did I mention the price? It was 480 Y, which works out to around $5.

As for how it tasted, I thought I could actually detect a hint of Lavendar in the wine. But, it might have simply been the suggestive power of the bottle. since it was one of the few English words on it, and it had a picture of a Lavendar field on the front of the bottle too. It was a fairly sweet wine, and I found it pretty good after the long day we'd had. Probably not something I'd serve with dinner, but to kick back and relax a bit while travelling back to the city on the zoo train filled with hyper children and life sized stuffed animals at the front of every car (I kid you not), it was very much worth the price. I'd give it a solid 3 out of 5. Oh, and it paired pretty nicely with the Pocky too.

On a purely side note, I'm quite glad I opted for the white over the red variety, as you can't see at all where I spilled the wine all over the front of my pants when the train zigged just as I was pouring another cup for myself (did I mention they were tiny, jello-shooter size cups?)

Should I feel so inspired, I may pick up another variety at some other locale on our trip and post another review.

Dear Vancouver,

2010-02-06T00:38:00.000-08:00

We found your snow. It was in Hokkaido. Evidentally, it had been drinking heavily; it certainly kept falling down the entire time we were there.

Ha ha. Ha.

But seriously, folks. We left the comfort of the Dormy Inn and caught a bus to Hotel Piano at Kiroro resort. We arrived mid-morning, too early for check-in. Instead we stuffed our bags in lockers, rented snow equipment, and went skiing. My wife is a wicked awesome ski demon. Zoom zoom! Away she went. I ran into a sign.

It was a good thing, really. The sign was the only thing I could find to prevent me from entering the speed mogul ramp. That would have ended very, very badly. Jenn did the moguls later, just to prove she is more awesome than me.

After a few runs, they closed down the course we had been skiing and opened up the night runs. We decided we'd had our fun and went back to the hotel.

Remember when I said food was cheap in Japan? If you don't, you should go back and read the old blog posts. You obviously weren't paying attention the first time. It turns out, you can find an expensive restaurant if you look really, really hard at the top of a remote mountain. And it's french cuisine.

Our table was on a balcony that overlooked the hotel lobby. Below us a grand piano had been retro-fitted into a player piano and we dined to the sound of jazz piano classics. The meals themselves were a set course: you could chose big, bigger, or biggest, and you could choose your drink. (We opted for gin and tonics).

The amuse bouche was a light carrot mousse. This was followed by seven courses, each artfully arranged upon our plates. Each course was small, and very delicious. The entire meal was choreographed over 90 minutes, and involved a supporting cast of 11 different utensils, and equal number of plates, one very attentive waiter and two very satisfied Canadians.

And, yeah. We forgot our cameras in the room so no pictures.

Otaru

2010-02-05T15:04:00.000-08:00

Otaru was a lovely city. The highlight of the town is the Otaru canal district, which features several old buildings. The city has worked hard to maintain the historic ambience of the port. A very nice stroll, though not a long one.

To make up for that fact, we did the stroll about six times. Because we were not looking for the canal district. We had come to Otaru with a purpose. We were looking for a long lost cousin.

Ages ago, Vancouver sent a steamclock to Otaru as a gift. It is an exact duplicate of the steamclock located on Granville street, except that it is slightly larger in all dimensions, and it actually functions as a steamclock.

The steamclock is located in front of an orgel music box shop, at the very end of a picturesque boulevard. We probably would have appreciated the boulevard more, except it was -10 C. and we'd been walking for a very long time. We went inside the orgel shop to warm up.

The shop itself was an old brick and frame warehouse building, about three stories tall. The entire interior was one large room. And everywhere you looked were music boxes. We stayed for about a half hour, admiring the quality of the workmanship - both of the music boxes and the building itself. Eventually, we'd warmed enough to brave the trek back.

A few pictures to complement the montage . . .

2010-02-04T16:10:00.000-08:00

One of the things we learned from our first visit to Japan, was 'when in doubt, follow the school children.' It worked this time as well. The picture is a bit blurry because I was taking it while walking up the stairs of the Kamakura train station. It's a smaller tourist spot and we didn't really have a map of where anything was. But, when we got off the train and saw hordes of school children, we just started following them, and sure enough, they knew their way to all the different tourist locations already.

Yes, we ran across an Amish cafe. Did not stop in to eat though. They might not have let us after taking a picture of their sign.

The second largest Buddha in Japan. I think it would look bigger if the original surrounding building were still there. But I guess they were only willing to rebuild it so many times after various disasters before they finally gave up. Did Lance mention that you could go inside this one? Yup, for a measely 20 yen per person (which works out to about 20 cents) you can walk inside. You go down super-steep unlit stairs and then you're inside the Buddha. People were slapping his belly from the inside because you can't reach it at all from the outside.

And finally, Anata-no Warehouse. This is the outside of the arcade Lance mentioned.

And this is what the inside of the ladies room looks like.

Quest!

2010-02-03T05:10:00.000-08:00

One Piece is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. It is a cartoon about a boy who sails off to sea to become the Pirate King and beats up a lot of people along the way. It's practically Shakespearean, except nobody dies.

Lawsons - the 24 hour convenient store and my primary vendor of Pocky - is sponsoring a One Piece celebration. The store has printed up awesome quality images of the One Piece crew's wanted posters. Eight in all.

After some back and forth, we established that they do not sell the posters. You get a poster free, if you buy a Bunch of specially marked items in store. After even more back and forth, we established the magic number at Two.

We have so far collected two posters. And by the Power of Greyskull, we shall collect them all!

Travel montage

2010-02-03T04:06:00.000-08:00

Every good story needs a montage. It's the bit where you fast-forward to here, from there. Here is currently Otaru, Hokkaido. And it involves a great deal of luxury. But lets not get ahead of ourselves.

We flew JAL for this trip. The flight was nice and wholly uneventful. Air Canada did several things better, however. For starters, we travel light. One carry-on each. Air Canada lets you check in via the website and print your own boarding pass from home. Brilliant.

Secondly, Air Canada has movies on demand. Trust me, it's better.

Thirdly (and admittedly this is Tokyo's fault) immigration came before baggage. In Osaka, we jumped queue by not waiting at the baggage. Essentially we walked off the plane, right past the baggage turns, and straight up to two very confused immigration and customs officials. Not so in Tokyo. We got to stand in line again.

On a positive note, nobody moves a line more efficiently than the japanese. And an extra bonus: neither Jenn nor I were accosted by stern looking customs agents with white plastic gloves.

Our first two nights were booked at the Hotel Sky Court. The hotel was pretty nice - spacious for a Japanese semi-double and a very reasonable price. It just happened to be in the red light district. We were a little uncertain of the directions, but a very nice pimp gave us two umbrellas and confirmed the directions, and we reached the hotel without incident.

The next day we visited Kamakura, an hour south of Tokyo. The train ride was pleasant, the weather cloudy but dry. We explored the town with a great deal of inefficiency and photography. Viewed several temples, shrines, shops, and the second largest (second best?) Buddha in Japan. In fact, second-best sums Kamakura up rather well.

On the way back to the hotel, zagged and zigged and stopped in at Anato No Warehouse; a five story arcade building built to resemble a run-down Chinatown neighbourhood. The walls were brick, the floors concrete, the vending machines rusted. Everything had a dingy, dirty appeal to it. Except the ladies bathrooms, which were done in high Parisian style apparently. That's understanding your demographics. The first floor was the entry, floors 2-3 were arcade and prize games, interspersed with darts and pool tables. We snapped pictures like crazy gaijin until on the fourth floor one of the staff finally had the nerve to tell us pictures weren't allowed.

At the top was an internet cafe. We tried to use the internet, but apparently we needed a card. We asked for a card, and were told we needed a card. Evidently, something was lost in translation. That something was our internet, we returned to the hotel in defeat.

Which brings us to today, when we woke early and boarded another train, took another plane, to yet another train. And thus we reached the Dormy Inn.

Okay, silly name. But the hotel is literally 100 feet from the JR rail station. The room is excellent (and has complimentary internet), but it is the baths that seal the deal.

The men's bath had three indoor pools (ranging from ice cold to lobster bisque), a sauna, and two outdoor baths. Nothing beats soaking in scalding water when the ambient temperature is -12 degrees Celsius. And after all the walking and traveling we've done the past few days, it was nice to scurry into the hot baths to soak for a few hours.

One good trip deserves another

2010-01-19T13:22:00.000-08:00

In less than two weeks we depart (again) for the land of the rising sun.

Our vacation was cast into doubt when Japan airlines announced over Christmas that it had almost run out of money. It had money, it said; but the money seemed to be gone. They were rather embarassed.

Fortunately for us, the Japanese government has stepped in to guarantee loans and keep JAL flying. So for now it seems that the airline will have enough money to continue until we get over there.

They might even have enough to get us home.

Empire State Building

2009-04-02T21:30:00.000-07:00

I didn't think I'd be terribly impressed by the Empire State Building, but the experience ended up being thought-provoking for a number of reasons.

First, it was our first real taste of the security measures many of the major US attractions now have. I was kind of amazed at the process we had to go through - line ups, x-ray scans of all belongings, metal detectors, etc. I spent the whole trip expecting to be stopped because I had a metal water bottle in my purse/coat all the time, but no one ever even blinked at it. I guess I'm lucky that I don't 'look like a terrorist' (whatever that means).

Secondly, the style of architecture also really resonated with me. I think it's the Art Deco style and for some reason it just gives me a moment of pause. Seeing such a large building in real life done in that style was impressive.

Third of all, we unexpectedly got to have a 'behind the scenes' peek at what goes on with all the security. After seeing the view from the observation platform and heading back down, Kim had a moment of panic when she thought she had dropped her camera somewhere (inside the building). So we went to the nearest uniformed person to tell him what happened and he immediately began escorting us around the building, checking with the various places that it might have ended up. Everyone was very polite about it and it was kind of neat getting to stand in the hallway outside the main security office. In the end, Kim found her camera in her purse afterall.

Lastly, we got a bunch of neat tidbits of information about the building process when we went on the Circle Line Tour. The Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building were a kind of architectural pissing contest. The Chrysler building thought they had won it when the Empire State building pulled out all the extra building parts they had been storing inside the empty building to add on the final crucial stories to make it the tallest building in the city. They were both built by car manufacturing magnates. Oh how times have changed! I think the last thing car manufacturers are thinking of right now is erecting ostentatious buildings.

First Day of New York

2009-03-28T03:19:00.000-07:00

The first day we arrived in New York, we decided to take it easy. We were going to be meeting Barbara's friend Jane at 4 in our hotel for dinner, but had no other fixed plans for the day. Our first order of business was finding some food for breakfast . . .

This place had some great bagels that were very large and tasty. So large that we couldn't finish them for breakfast so they came with us and served as some snacks throughout the day as well.

I wanted to go to a large electronics store that I had heard of to buy myself a small digital camcorder. It took a while for me to pick one and I'm pretty happy with my choice. Unfortunately, it looks like I lost the software CD somewhere along the way. So until/unless I order another one, I'll have to transfer files directly off the memory card with a card reader.

Then we headed to the Empire State Building. It has a New York Skyride attraction that takes you through a virtual tour of the city (the cheesy narration is provided by Kevin Bacon). Then up to the observation platform on the 86th floor.

That evening we walked around Greenwich Village and had dinner at a very nice Italian restaurant. It was really fun hearing about the city from someone who lives there.

Finally! A Post from NYC

2009-03-20T13:17:00.001-07:00

Ok, I gotta be quick because I only get 10 minutes and then my session ends. I don't want to stand in the line up again.

So, things have been fabulous so far. We've done pretty much everything we set out to do.

Broadway
Circle Line
Statue of Liberty
Central Park
American Museum of Natural History
M&M World
Madame Tussaudes
Some shopping too

The Hotel is fabulous! We've either been out or too tired to hit up the free wine and cheese in the evenings, but they did have a free Merlot in the room when we checked in, which I've been greatly enjoying. The room is fairly quiet and very centrally located. The subways are great, but some of the stations are a bit smelly.

Ok, apparently typing registers as idle for the computer, so I may end the post sooner than I thought I would . . .

The weather has also been quite agreeable. One day of a bit of rain and today we got a bit of snow. But, now the sun is shining again and it's just nice and crisp.

We've yet to spot any celebrities in the city, but I'm not sure if I'd recognize them if I did see them in the street - too busy watching everything else. Oh, and this city is definitely a bad influence on jay-walking! Though I feel safer jay-walking with a crowd of New Yorkers than I do crossing legally at some intersections back home. Well, time to wrap it up. Still need to look up some actual info.

On Packing Lists

2009-03-12T22:23:00.000-07:00

When preparing for this trip, I was trying out a bunch of online travel organization sites. Largely, none of them really had me coming back again and again.* I didn't want to super-organize the trip, I wanted flexibility for weather and how we felt each day, so the itinerary planning sites didn't work too well for me. I enjoyed checking out the suggestions and such, but they just didn't click with my travel personality.

However, for those who enjoy packing lists, I do want to recommend "don't forget your toothbrush." Basically, you get to create a personalized packing list. They provide you with a list of things that you choose to add to your trip list. Then they email you with your list of things for 2 weeks before, one week before, one day before, and the night before. Very handy for list type people like me. I do have one small criticism about the site. Under the "day before" category they list the item "Tell your wife/husband you are going away." I sure as heck hope that when people travel without their spouse, they have the sense to tell them further in advance than the night before!

Bound for the Big Apple

2009-03-08T01:26:00.000-08:00

The girls' week away in New York City is almost upon us. I know they have computers in New York, so I'll try to pop in with a few updates on our time there. I'm also going to update the sidebar with the correct flight information for anyone who wants to check on things like that. Still have loads to do before we go (I haven't even started thinking about which clothes I'll pack) and I know this next week will pass by in a flash.

EDIT: The current flight numbers are now correct thanks to the heroic efforts of my husband! We will be departing Sunday the 15th and returning Sunday the 22nd.

Remembering Japan

2008-08-14T10:13:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-23T20:48:00.001-07:00

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

2008-05-23T20:29:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-23T19:58:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-23T00:00:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-22T23:55:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-19T04:40:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-19T04:16:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-19T04:02:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-19T03:58:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-17T19:13:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-17T01:46:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-16T17:21:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-16T16:49:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-16T16:40:00.001-07:00

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...

2008-05-15T01:59:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-15T01:43:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-15T01:34:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-13T17:34:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-13T17:21:00.001-07:00

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

2008-05-12T02:43:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-11T16:20:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-11T03:03:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-10T18:33:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-10T18:25:00.001-07:00

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

2008-05-10T18:03:00.001-07:00

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

2008-05-08T14:19:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-08T03:11:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-07T05:01:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-04T20:03:00.000-07:00

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.