Sayonara Japan. Hello America.

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Thomas Wolfe was wrong. Turns out you can go home. Much to our chagrin.

The last few days of our stay in Tokyo were filled with many ‘Last Times’ and ‘One Mores’. We took a final walk along our neighborhood river and through our local zen garden, a final visit to our local tofu shop to buy freshly made tofu from the nice obaasan, and a last grocery-buying trip at our neighborhood store where the clerks greet you happily, then thank you profusely when you leave. It really is nice to be appreciated.

We also spent the days packing and wondering how we were going to get everything home. We had brought too many clothes originally. Having never had to pack for living somewhere for 9 months before, we didn’t know what to bring. I brought clothes for working a job I never looked for. I brought skirts—that I never wear at home—in case I needed to look nice. I brought puffy winter clothes knowing we were going to Sapporo for the snow, but warm weather clothes too. My two weeks of girl-scout training in the fifth grade kicked in when we left home and caused me to think too much. And to pack way too much.

And leaving meant adding to this over-packed disaster. Thankfully, we had not shopped and bought much during our stay. But there was enough. The Professor had added sake and beer bottles, and tea-filled canisters for work gifts along with my collection of strange and wonderful treasures. I had vending machine toys; weird magnets to add to my collection; amazing kitchen gadgets; multiple brochures, maps, and guidebooks I’d picked up along the way; sushi- and Godzilla-themed items; and weird facial masks (snake, snail, bee venom anyone?) to also stuff into the already overstuffed bags.

When we were done, we had four large suitcases weighing over 65 pounds each and four ‘carry-ons’. I use the term carry-on only because they could, in theory, be shoved into the top bin on an airplane. A large airplane. But these carry-ons probably weighed as much as a case of wine or a small farm animal (neither of which is allowed to be shoved into an overhead airplane bin, I’m pretty sure). But thankfully, American Airlines doesn’t weigh carry-ons and we were good, as long as we could somehow get them to the gate without pulling a muscle.

We had what in the olden days would be considered a caravan worth of stuff and would have required pack mules.  Since pack mules weren’t an option, we had to resort to other means. And this is another example of where Japan rules. For the equivalent of sixty dollars, an unsuspecting man came to our apartment and carted three of our four 65-pound suitcases to the airport to store for us until we arrived two days later! What a concept! What a country!!

May the good people at Yamato Transport always live blissful lives in thanks for their awesomeness!

The night before departure our family friend, Aki, arrived. He had bravely volunteered for the thankless task of getting us, and our four overweight carry-ons and one checked bag to the airport. Since our flight was leaving at 1AM on Wednesday, he picked us up Tuesday evening. Being cynical Americans we wanted to get to the airport by 8PM in case there were issues with the massive bags we had sent ahead to wait for us. We should have known everything would be fine. We ended up having lots of time to kill after we easily and quickly reclaimed them, but that’s the way it goes.

We arrived before American’s desks were even manned so we checked in at the kiosk and waited for them to arrive. It was quite interesting to watch. Promptly at 10, the designated opening time, all the agents stepped in front of their stations and stood facing us, an announcement was made thanking us for choosing American, they all bowed deeply, then stepped back behind the station and were open for business. Very civilized!

We were traveling in Business (!!) on our trip home, so after checking our baggage monstrosities in with AA, we went through security and headed for the airline’s private lounge where free food and free booze awaited us. It was so nice to get away from the unwashed masses while we waited for our flight. I could truly get used to traveling this way and could easily forget I’m an unwashed mass member. For a couple of hours I was one of the special people and it was fun.

Reluctantly we finally left this oasis of calm and free champagne (that’s right!), and wandered (a tad drunkenly) to the gate. It was time to leave and head back to the hard, dirty, in-your-face-, what-are-you-looking-at life of New York City. Eventually. But first we had San Francisco to help gently transition us back to American life.

On the plane, we nestled into our little pod homes in business, sucked down more glasses of free champagne, pushed the various buttons to choose movies, move the footrest up, then down, then back out, while digging through the free amenity kit. But maybe that was just me. By the time we landed 9-1/2 hours later, my little pod resembled the lower part of the Tenderloin in SF with garbage everywhere. I made the most of my little slice of pod heaven.

Which was a good thing because when we arrived back in the US of A, reality was waiting to give us a good kick in the shins. A quick Reader’s Digest version follows.

We landed in terminal 2, had to deplane dragging our overweight carry-ons, walk down a couple of verrrry long corridors, up a flight with an escalator, up some stairs with NO (!) working escalator, and down another long corridor until we came to customs. (What? No dragons to slay?) I was exhausted by the time I arrived.

But once in the customs area, the Strength and Patience Test didn’t end. They kept moving the lines forcing me to haul my 100 pounds of carry-ons further and further. It was ridiculous. And The Professor had signed up for Global Entry and was long gone.  

Finally, I went through the customs desk meet-and-greet, met up with The Professor, gathered up all our bags, dragged them past the next bunch of customs guys, dumped the bags back off, then ran down to terminal 4 to catch the bus that takes passengers to the gate for the flight to SF. We were stressed because boarding time was quickly approaching as we ran through the airport.

We needn’t have worried. American was running late. When we finally boarded, the flight was already late, but we then sat on the plane for 2.5 hours more. We were waiting for the co-pilot who never showed, and it was decided that we all had to deplane. I was sad because we had been in First Class! At least we got to drink champagne and eat snacks the whole time we sat there. It was so much more civilized than economy. I don’t want to have to go back to being an unwashed mass member!

The bad news was it was the last scheduled flight of the evening.

Even worse news was that American did not have a hotel for us or a seat booked for us on the next flight out, or on any flight apparently. We were told to call and book a flight. Oh, but by the way, since they didn’t have it in their system that the flight was cancelled yet, that wasn’t possible either.

We called and booked a rental car instead.

We then gathered up our baggage—all 400 pounds of it—and piled it onto two luggage carts and began running for the Hertz bus. In my zealousness, my luggage cart got off-balance and spilled all over the sidewalk, taking me with it.

We gathered everything back up, and The Professor and I, now wounded with a bruised ribcage and two bruised knees, ran for the already crowded Hertz bus.  Guess how popular we were, as we hauled our 500 pounds of luggage onto the bus?

We got to the Hertz rental place, got our car, crammed all 600 pounds of luggage into the Toyota Corolla we were able to snag, and started out of the parking lot. Turned out The Professor’s driver’s license had expired while we were in Japan and though he had renewed it through their website, did not have anything to prove it.

We were instructed to go back to the counter to add my name to the agreement. We went back, parked, and ran into the rental office to find there were lots of other people renting their cars at 2:00AM and we had to wait in line. There were only two windows open. Both of which apparently were dealing with very complicated issues because the customers stood at these windows for many, many, minutes discussing many, many things.

2:30AM saw us leaving the parking lot. And after a pit stop at a Denny’s in some godforsaken place along the 5, we began the long, arduous journey of driving from Southern California to Northern California.

We arrived in SF around 9:00AM.

Though we fell in love with Japan and made lots of wonderful friends, it was nice to be back in America, and especially in SF, and to see family. It was a fast trip of only a few days, but I was able to speak to people in English, listen to English being spoken all around me, and to read many menus and labels—all in English. And I understood most everything.

Despite the rough start, it felt good to be home.

Baskin Robbins, How About Curry for Flavor Number 35?

Thursday, August 4, 2016

Where can one go to see people dressed in giant cat costumes, eat overpriced gyoza and curry or coal-flavored ice cream, and fight crowds of overexcited children—paying about $5 each for the privilege of doing so? Namco NAMJATOWN in Sunshine City, that’s where!

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Intrigued by the articles I’d read of their unusually flavored ice cream—like whale, squid, or snake—I decided we needed to check out this place in our last few days in Tokyo. Plus who doesn’t like a goofy, old-timey amusement center? I know we do! Remember our trip to Yomiuriland in February?

We took the train to Ikebukuro and followed the signs to Sunshine City. I wish we had had lots of times to explore this area because there were lots of shopping and restaurants here and it looked like it could be a fun way to spend an afternoon. But we had ice cream to eat, so we followed the dubious Google Maps looking for NAMJATOWN.

Tokyu Hands is on the right side of the Sunshine City Street. There is an escalator right past the store’s entrance and by taking it down and then following the signs to the Sunshine 60 building, it will take you into the mall of Sunshine City where NAMJATOWN is. Unfortunately, we did not realize that until we were leaving NAMJATOWN and, instead, followed Google Maps in a very roundabout and exhausting route down streets and around the entire Sunshine City Mall before we finally managed to find an information desk to inquire about the whereabouts of NAMJATOWN. For some reason it was very hard for us to find it. The entrance to NAMJATOWN is on the 2nd floor of the Sunshine City Mall and it turns out everything NAMJATOWN has to offer—including gyoza and weird-flavored ice cream—is on that one floor (I’d read articles that made this fact confusing to me).

We bought a simple adult entrance fee and by showing our passport, got tickets for two for 900yen (or about $9). The regular adult price is 500yen each. Then we entered the craziness, armed with only our English NAMJATOWN Guide into the cacophony of over-sugared, over-stimulated children, and many assorted video game noises of all kinds going off all at once.

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Most of NAMJATOWN is for little kids and most of it is in Japanese so we wandered around, taking pictures of the weird bits of Japanese knick-knacks and statues they have scattered around for décor, and looking for the food.

The Gyoza Stadium area is to the right of the main entrance. There are a series of restaurants located here selling all kinds of dumplings, fried chicken bits, noodle soups, and other Japanese delicacies, along with drinks and beer. We ordered some things and then took our baskets of food to find a table down one of the side corridors.Turns out, $25 does not buy much.

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We finished eating pretty quickly and were ready for dessert; so after locating the Ice Shop on the map (area #5), we headed over to peruse the list of weird-flavored ice creams of the day. They offer a special of six flavors for under $4, so The Professor and I both decided to do that so we could taste more of the flavors. Thankfully, we only had one overlap in choices so we were able to try 11 different flavors.

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While there was no snake or whale available—and therefore no personal demons to be battled—it was still a tough choice for me to narrow it down to 6 flavors. I was really intrigued by the Haddock sherbet, corn, crab, and kelp choices, but abiding by my Norwegian ancestral desires, I finally chose the Salt of Okhotsk, Hokkaido Potato, and Double Cheese. Then to broaden my horizons I added the Indian Curry, Coal, and ‘The Wasabi’. The Professor chose: Miso, Beef Tongue, Eel (or Eal according to the list), Whiskey, ‘The Wasabi’, and a Japanese Plum sherbet.

I loved all of mine except for the coal, because it only tasted like vanilla. I didn’t try the plum sherbet, but of The Professor’s other choices, I liked the Miso, the eel, and, of course, ‘The Wasabi’.

With confused taste buds and a full tummy, we sauntered back into the noise of children and video games. After looking at the choices, we decided against spending any more money on the games—though some descriptions in the brochure made me laugh. For instance, the Hell’s Restroom description sounded like a normal day in any New York City Restroom.

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After a quick stop for a pic with the giant cat people who are the mascots of the place, we left NAMJATOWN and headed back out into the hot, humid city and home. 

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Here Neko, Neko!

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Looking for something fun to do in the afternoon, we decided to head to the Gotokuji Shrine to see all the cats. The Japanese love cats. Not only do you see a fair amount of real cats around the neighborhoods and lurking in the lush parks and cemeteries, but they are also featured as statues of good luck. I am more of a dog person myself, but I do love the good luck cats.

Everyone has seen the good luck cat dolls. They sit with either a right or a left paw raised.

According to the Japan Monthly Web Magazine provided by the Japan National Tourism Organization, “In Japan they are called Maneki Neko (beckoning or welcoming cat) and it is popular in Japan as a lucky charm that invites happiness. It is said that the one with its right paw raised invites money and the one with its left paw raised invites people.”

We took the train to Gotokuji station, and then proceeded to get very lost in the little neighborhood with wandering streets. Finally, Google Maps kicked in and realized we didn’t just want to walk around Gotokuji proper, we might actually want to see the shrine. Once Google Maps figured it out and showed us the way, it was a 15-minute walk to the shrine grounds.

To get into the shrine area, we had to follow along the fenced-in area until we finally found a side gate. By the time we arrived, it was after 5pm and I was sure the shrine would be closed—but it wasn’t and we walked in to the very large park-like setting.

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There were quite a few structures—shrines, and pagodas, and what looked like a gift shop which was closed.

At first, all I saw was a wooden cut-out of a Good Luck cat in front of the closed gift shop, and I was sad because I thought maybe the cats were located in one of the closed buildings.

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But they were not! We eventually found them after wandering around the grounds. They are located opposite the big wooden cat and around the side of one of the big buildings.

 

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There are more cats here than at a Cat Woman’s Jamboree (if there was such a thing). Local business owners hoping to improve their business drop off these cats. If it works, there must be a lot of successful business owners.

And all these cats—even for this dog person—made me smile.

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Three Days in Nagoya

Monday, July 25, 2016

We left Kyoto after checking out of our hotel and took the three trains to Nagoya. It was only $25 one way, compared to the $100 we would have paid for the shinkansen. And since we didn’t have any plans for the day, I decided to save the money. It took a lot longer though and required going through a couple of the local stations but I had looked up the route before and knew what to ask for. Otherwise, we would have run into some problems, I think.

(Travel Hint: When going to destinations that require train changes, go to the train route finder at www.jorudan.co.jp before leaving, decide the cities and routes you want, and write or print out and bring with, so it’s handy to show a train conductor if in doubt.)

After getting off the train at Nagoya though, it was apparent we weren’t in Kyoto anymore where they have signs directing tourists to ‘Tourist Friendly Taxis This Way, No Extra Charge’. There was no English-speaking, tourist-friendly anything here. It took a couple tries before The Professor was finally able to get a cab driver to understand which hotel we needed.

After checking into our hotel, the Hotel Trusty Nagoya, and picking our weird breakfast choice for the next day (we chose the least weird set of potato soup, green salad, sausage, scrambled egg, cheese/ham sandwich, and yogurt combo), we walked around our neighborhood to see what there was to see. We ended up finding some great deals on random stuff. I bought a $200 Jean Paul Gaultier leopard print-in-a-black-basket-base purse in the classic basket style that goes with a Kimono marked down to $5(!) from a kimono company, and a made-in-Japan kitchen spatula for $7 (all of them in the US are made in China!) at a small local department store. I said it was random stuff.

Clutching my prizes we were ready for dinner and after walking around some more, we decided to try a very cute, New York-style, modern bistro called Meat (or something similar). Though really wanting pasta, I figured I better try their meat since I assumed it was their specialty. And it was delicious.

Our day in Nagoya, after a rather rocky start at our station arrival, turned out to be a smashing success.

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

The next morning we met up with our friends Mayumi and Alani—our reason for being in Nagoya.

They took us to lunch at a very old restaurant that is famous for its eel, called Ibashou. The specialty here is the Nagoya style of eating unagi called Hitsumabushi which refers to the four ways to eat eel.

The four ways to eat eel: first, with the rice; second, use the spices, wasabi, and green onions; third, pour tea over it; and finally the fourth way is to repeat your favorite way. My favorite was with the condiments as I have always been the Condiment Queen when it comes to eating anything.

We had to take our shoes off and I had to slide myself under those low, traditional Japanese tables, but except for a slight twinge or two and my leg starting to fall asleep, I made it. And the eel was worth it.

After finishing our delicious lunch and getting the blood moving again in my legs, we took the cab in the pouring rain to a nearby covered shopping area filled with all types of stores. It looked to be something from the 60s. We walked through the mall to get out of the rain and exited on the other side to see their shrine with its impressive lantern at the entrance.

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After checking out the shrine, we took the cab to the Hawaiian restaurant, Makapúu, to hang out until Alani’s gig later in the afternoon. Alani is a slack-key master and we were going to enjoy an evening of Hawaiian music.

The restaurant was quite a ways out in the outer reaches of Nagoya City and was a nice, long drive in the rain.

We had more good company once we arrived with another friend, Leila, who was managing the other musical act, Herb Ohta Junior, a well-known Hawaiian ukulele player. We had a relaxing afternoon, listening to the rain pour outside while Herb discussed his disappointments of Godfather III with The Professor, and they set up for the concerts later in the evening.

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The first set started at 5:30 and went for an hour. The second set started at 7:30 and also went for an hour. The music was beautiful and at the end of the evening the restaurant served us all a Hawaiian specialty of freshly made, delicious Loco Moco, (handmade hamburger patty on rice with a fresh egg on top)! It was like a quick trip to Hawaii.

And the whole time it rained.

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

After another weird breakfast of potato soup etc at our hotel, we were met by Alani and Mayumi, and an old friend of Alani’s who lives in Nagoya and had a van.

We were going to get a quick visit to Nagoya’s other tourist destination, their castle, before departing on the shinkansen at 12:30pm.

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It had stopped raining thankfully, so we had a pleasant walk through the grounds.

They are updating parts of the castle so we had to don hardhats for part of the tour. The main castle however has been remodeled because it had an elevator (!) which we took to the top for time purposes, of course.

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We walked down and discovered that each level had some fun thing on it—the view from the top, followed by souvenir shops, and photo ops along the way. It was a nice way to spend a couple of hours and it was not as crazy busy as Himeji. Also, not having to walk up the five flights: Priceless!

Out on the grounds again, we ran into some ninjas and feudal lords. All in all, it was definitely worth the visit if one is in Nagoya.

We made a mad dash to the train and made it with only a couple of minutes to spare.

And then we were on our way back to Tokyo.

The Gion-Matsuri Parade: Another Perfect Day in Kyoto

Sunday, July 24, 2016

I’m not generally a parade person. In America, they are usually filled with marching bands and clowns (neither of which are my favorite) and end with guys on horses and the poor smucks relegated to cleaning up their messes.

At the Gion Matsuri this Japanese-style parade is not only none of those things, it is an amazing slice of history.

According to the website Japan-Guide.com:

"The Gion Matsuri [is] the festival of Yasaka Shrine, [and] is the most famous festival in Japan. It takes place over the entire month of July. There are many different events, but the grand procession of floats (Yamaboko Junko) on July 17 is particularly spectacular… From 2014, a second procession of floats was reintroduced on July 24 after a hiatus of 48 years. The second procession features fewer and smaller floats than the one on July 17…the word Yamaboko refers to the two types of floats used in the procession: the 23 yama and 10 hoko. One of the main reasons the Gion Matsuri is so impressive is the enormity of the hoko, which are up to 25 meters tall, weigh up to 12 tons, and are pulled on wheels as big as people. Both yama and hoko are elaborately decorated and represent unique themes. The procession on July 17 features 23 yama and hoko, including most of the particularly impressive hoko, while the procession on July 24 features the remaining ten yama and hoko.

"Another reason for the festival's impressiveness is its long and almost uninterrupted history. It dates back to 869 as a religious ceremony to appease the gods during the outbreak of an epidemic…”

That’s a whole lot of history.

I can’t speak for what the July 17th version was like, but the one on the 24th was awesome enough for me. 

We arrived about an hour before the first float was scheduled to appear at the corner of Shijo and Kawaramachi streets, and stood in the shade of the overhang across from the Takashimaya Department store. It turned out to be the best location and by bringing a selfie stick, The Professor was able to get amazing shots of the parade.

First, there were smaller shrines carried down the street, followed by women in kimonos, people dressed as white peacocks, small groups of musicians playing traditional music (of drums, flutes, and bells or gongs), kids on horses dressed in historic garb, samurai, and geishas. This portion is simple and amazing.

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Then about an hour into the parade the first of the big wooden floats arrives from the side. There are two types of floats—those that are pushed on wheels but at the corners are picked up by a large group of men and turned by brute force to go in the new direction required of the corner, and the really large floats that weigh up to 12 tons that must be moved by a very complicated process that requires whole teams of men to lay down reeds, others to pour water on them, a huge gaggle to pull the carts, and a select few who hang from the front of the floats gracefully directing the men to pull and in which direction, using a series of hand movements and their fans. It is so beautiful to watch and the process must be repeated for each float no less than three times before the float has managed to be redirected in the new direction of the corner, before it can continue down the street.

And some of the groups who lift the smaller floats to turn them, do not want to be outdone by the larger floats,  so they will turn their float two, sometimes more times around in circles before setting it down again on the wheels. The more they do it, the bigger the cheers from the audience. These floats may be smaller, but one can tell they are definitely not lightweight, and the multiple turnings are for true showmanship.

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After the final float passed, the original groups of hand-carried smaller shrines, women in kimonos, people dressed as white peacocks, kids on horses dressed in historic garb, samurai, and geishas walked back past us. It was so pretty.

When the parade finally ended, we went and got some lunch, then took the bus back to the stop for the Kiyomizu-dera temple.

By then It was really hot again and we were full from lunch, so what do we end up doing? We trudge up the hill, through the crowds, past all the stores selling stuff to see the temple we had seen in 2010. Ugh. Frankly, we had forgotten how much walking uphill was involved.

I’m glad we saw the shrine before, because we found at reaching the top that much of it is under construction—so we didn’t bother to pay the admission price to go out onto the terrace that overlooks Kyoto. It’s pretty, but we were hot, tired, and through with spending money for shrine admissions. We had reached the saturation point of ‘Oh-no. Not another shrine!’

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After checking out the crowds of people for a while,  we headed back down the hill through the meandering streets and past the cute little shops to our hotel.

After relaxing for a couple of hours we walked down Shijo to recreate the Tofu dinner experience that we had in 2010 and has been one of The Professor’s favorites ever since. They changed the menu up a bit since last time, but it’s basically 9 courses of (mostly) tofu or yuba at Ume no Hana. One of the courses alone makes it worth the trek—tofu, this time matcha-flavored, cooked right at the table. It is oh, so good.

Ume no Hana is a definite yes in our book and was a perfect end to a perfect stay in perfect Kyoto.

Stone Cold Foxes and Parades in Kyoto

Saturday, July 23, 2016

Saturday’s forecast was for yet another hot day but we couldn’t let it dampen our plans (only our armpits). We were heading to one of my favorite places of all: the Fushimi Inari-Taisha Shrine with its winding paths and over 5,000 bright orange tori gates lining the paths behind it.

It has got to be one of the most photographed areas of Japan because it is so impressive. We took the local Keihan Railway and got off at the Fushimi-inari Station and walked only a few minutes to the shrine area.

This shrine was built in the 8th century and dedicated to the god of rice and sake. There are lots of fox statues throughout the shrine’s area and are the area’s mascot. These foxes are known as the messengers of the god of grain, Inari, and are also called Inari, are everywhere, and are featured on everything.

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It was mid morning by the time we got to the shrine and though it was hot, the place was jumping with people. We walked and walked and sweated and sweated, stopping along the way to see the pond and take some more photos.

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However, when we found out we had only gone about halfway up the mountain, we decided to turn and head back down to the train station. We had seen lots of tori gates, (stone cold) foxes, and people by then, and were ready for lunch with a cold beer.

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Though we had gone further than the last time we had visited, there is still half a mountain to explore. I understand there is a monkey park at the top of the mountain, but I also understand it is quite the hot hike to get there. Those monkeys will just have to go unvisited again, I’m afraid.

This is still one of my favorite places in Kyoto to visit though.

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We headed back to town and after a wonderful lunch of sliced duck, edamame, and a cold beer back at the restaurant (couldn’t read the name of the place) on the top floor of the OIOI building at the intersection of Shijo and Kawaramachi streets, we were ready for the rest of our planned festivities.

We planned on seeing the pre-parade festivities of the Gion Matsuri.

The Gion Matsuri is a month-long festival in Kyoto and its highlights are the two parades—one on the 17th and one on the 24th featuring impressive wooden floats. I understand there are more floats in the parade on the 17th, but a friend of ours who is from Kyoto and was going to show us around, told us to come on the 24th, so we did.

Though the festival is associated with the Yasaka Shrine in Gion, the parades actually take place on the other side (West, I think) of the Kamo River. We got a map with the exact times the floats would be at each corner of the route from the hotel front desk. The fun thing is to watch the men turn the huge floats at each corner of the route.

These floats are made of wood, (some of which weigh up to 12 tons and are pulled by 50 men) and are constructed without nails, and then decorated in fine tapestries and decorations from Europe, China, India, and of course Japan.

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We wandered around the streets where the floats were set-up for public viewing. Each of the neighborhoods surrounding the floats had what appeared to be mini street fairs going on. There were food booths, booze booths, and vendors selling clothes, and all matters of miscellaneous stuff for really cheap. I ended up buying a beautiful pashmina for $4. It had nothing to do with Japan or the festival—I just fell in love with the color and the price. It’s a great time to pick up gifts.

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There was music playing and people wandering around until late into the evening. It was quite festive.

It was a great time to visit Kyoto and especially to be in the Gion area. We ended up going home around 11pm so we could get up early the next morning for the parade.