Japan 2007

Flipping the switch

I awoke this morning surprised to be in a room with an identical layout to my bedroom in Chicago.  It was very dark, so I couldn't see well, but I could just pick out the shapes of the bed, the hallway to the master bath and the doorway to the rest of the house.  Looking out the door I realized that I was looking out into the common area at the hostel and I should probably put some pajamas or something on rather than walk out in my underwear.

I turned around and was struck again at how the layout of this room was identical to my home.  I noticed additional details, a TV in one corner and a dresser next to my side of the bed.  Heck a bed large enough to have a 'my side' is pretty notable by itself.

I walked down the hall to the bathroom and noticed that there were no slippers to wear while inside.  "That's odd", I thought to myself.  Finally, I flipped the switch on the bathroom light and it woke me up enough to realize that I was home.

Jet lag is a crazy thing...

Trolling for photos

Jason, Beth and I attempted again to go to the Tsukiji fishmarket this morning, with much better success.  We got there around 15 till 7, with camera in hand, ready to take in the sights. 

For starters, this place is huge.  I guess it shouldn't have been so big a surprise considering that the Tokyo area has about 30 million people who live on a mostly seafood diet, but still the fishmarket is shockingly large.  On top of just the sheer size of the place, every square inch is used.  As with most things in Japan, there are dozens of small shops in this market rather than a single large company selling fish.  Literally every four or five steps you find yourself in front of a new vendor busy preparing something for the day.  We saw fifty or more different kinds of fish -- including the tuna that is a staple here -- clams, eels, lobster, crab, snails, roe and many other things.  Many of these were delivered to the market alive and almost every vendor was busy butchering the days catch.

There were two ways of getting your fish moved in this market, one was via small gas trucks and the other by hand cart.  There were so many people trying to move around the market that there were occasionally traffic jams, not helped by tourists so busy taking photos that people couldn't get by cleanly.

Now I'm off to wander the area around the hotel for a little while before we have to catch our flight back to mother america.

Fish bowls aren't only for Sumo wrestlers.

Yesterday we went to Ginza and the Oriental Bazaar. We bought the last of our Christmas gifts for family and friends. We also went to Dad's favorite incence store and bought some incence. We actually went back a second time too because we liked it so much. We ate at an italian restaraunt and after went to Fujiya Ginza, the ice cream place that we love.  I had a chocolate parfait, mom and jason got strawberry, and dad got a mixed berry parfait. It was yummy.

Later we went to dinner with Nishi and Emi. It was just as fun as the last time. We went to Hananomai restaraunt. Which consists of tables all around and a sumo wrestling arena in the center. Although sumo only takes place on Wed. and Fri. it was still cool to see. We ate a meal just as interesting as the last. Although there was no blowfish this time, there was 3 kinds of fish, scallops, urchines, gyoza, octopus, and bonito. We also had some kind of soup with a bunch of fish and veggies and things similar to that. Nishi told us Sumo wrestlers eat one of them everyday. [ Its a giant bowl, it fed us all. ] I tried most of the fish, the octopus, the tuna sushi, and the "horsemeat". I didn't like any of it that much because it all had a weird texture but it was a really fun dinner.

My favorite was seeing Emi again. She's so fun to be with. She gave us all something to take home as a souvenier. She gave me a bag and mirror from Kyoto, I love it. She gave mom a cute glasses case, and gave Dad and Jason a hankerchief. It was very nice of her, we love them they are gorgeous. Later Emi took out two hankerchiefs and said "which one do you like " and I picked the blue one with the pink bunnies on it. She said I could have it and that she would keep the other one. I love it and I thought it was so sweet of her. Later on we were talking about the cellphone charms we see everywhere. Emi had a little Hello Kitty one on her translator and told me that it means good luck in your studies. She said, " I want you to have it because I know you have to study a lot to become a doctor someday ". I was so happy and I loved the Hello Kitty it was so cute. I was also a little surprised she remembered that I want to be a pediatrician because sometimes people just ask what I want to be to make conversation and easily forget later. A steriotypical assumption I know but it still meant a lot that she remembered, even if it only was a few weeks before hand. Later in the meal we were talking about how fun it would be if I lived with Nishi and Emi. We started talking about going out and meeting boys. Mom and Dad joked around saying no boys allowed and that I can't go out and things like that. Emi  laughed and said she would be my gaurdian. We laughed and moved on. Later we got on the subject of being gaurdians and I realized I had my angel wings necklace on. I thought that all the generous things Emi gave me, I owed her at the very least something of mine. I handed her my favorite necklace and said, "gaurdian angel". She started crying and said thank you over and over. We talked about wanting to go to California someday together and I told her it was a funny coincidence beacause I bought that necklace in San Diego. Mom told her they were wings so she could fly to Chicago sometime. All in all I suppose it's a little cheesy, but I like Emi a lot and it all meant a lot to me. The night was amazing.

Nishi joked about Jason working with him someday, and Emi wants me to come back to go to Roppongi when I'm old enough. She wants to go to California sometime with me too. They are so fun to be with and I hope I can see them both again someday. Definatly the highlight of my trip.

Last night here, flying home tomorrow.

Kamakura

We took the JR out to Kamakura today and walked a 'hiking course' to see the large Buddha from a thousand years before the US was founded.  This Buddha has survived typhoon, war and a tsunami that swept away the temple that once covered it.  Now it sits quietly surrounded by hills and forest as thousands of visitors stream by.  Jason even received a blessing from one of the monks at the temple.

The hiking course itself was over the hills and through the forest around the seaside town.  Great breezes and a significantly lower tempurature relative to Tokyo made it a very pleasant walk and it was just challenging enough to keep it interesting from a hiking perspective. 

Sarah and I decided to have a photography contest and let Beth pick the topic.  She decided on 'close-ups'.  Sarah and I spent all day looking for things that might make interesting targets and submitted our two best shots to Beth and Jason to judge.  Sarah's included a shot of some leaves laying on the forest floor and a Japanese scroll.  Mine were the head of the Daitsui and a rope fence.

We then spent some time wandering around the shopping district and ran into a small parade of very happy people.  I'll have to show the pictures to Nishi and Andy and see if they can shed some light on what was happening.

Tomorrow we leave Japan at 16:40 and arrive in Chicago two hours earlier at 14:30.

Weight gain

Yesterday we spent our time back in Ginza shopping and eating.  Then we went to designer row to do some more shopping and eating.  Finally we came back to Ryogoko to eat some more with Nishi and Emi.

It was fun to go back to Ginza because they shut down the road to traffic on weekends.  This would be similar to shutting down Michigan Avenue to traffic on weekends.  Thousands of people milling around in the largest outdoor mall in the world was a really spectacular sight.

Our plan this morning is to head out to Kamakura.  Today is our last full day in Japan.  :-(

Respect in Ryogoku

Since Rich has been writing so much on this trip, I decided to give it a try.  A nice change from getting writer`s cramp in my journal...

If you want to see Sumo while your in Japan, Ryogoku is the place to go.  With a 10,000 seat Sumo stadium, you can see the national championship matches 3 times a year.  Since we missed the last tournament, we decided to try and catch a practice at one of the local stables on a recommendation from our guidebook.

We found the local beya only a few blocks from our hotel and walked into what seemed like an entryway to an apartment building.  In fact, it is.  Sumo eat, sleep and practice in the same building for months at a time.  If the name of the beya on the outside wasn't clue enough, the very large men in mawashi (diapers) standing around was!

We stepped into the practice area that was about 20 X 20 with a very low ceiling.  We were shown to a small alcove that was elevated and covered with 10 tatami mats for the best view.  Very quickly and obediently, the stable boy gave us small pillows to sit on.  It was 6:55 am and it was obvious that the wrestlers had been hard at it for quite some time.  They were very sweaty and most of them had their topknots (ponytails on top of their heads)askew.

While 10 sumo took turns taking on the winner of the last round milled about the ring, the other 5 or so stayed off to the side doing various excersises complete with slapping of the belly and grunting.  The typical sumo pose was often seen with legs spread, feet planted and knees bent.  The ages of the sumo varied greatly as well as their weight.  Some were around 17 years old and 150 lbs. and others in their 30's weighing 300 plus.  American footballers have nothing in these guys.

Although my previous though of sumo wrestling was fat guys in diapers, these men are true athletes.  Make no mistake, they could take someones head off, but they really do posses an artistic rather than brute force mentality.    When an opponent is forced out of the ring, both participants let up siginificantly to almost ease the person out of the ring.  We never saw anyone flung out of the ring.  It was all very respectful and rather graceful

It was clear that there was a hierarchy going on which deemed the older sumo as the more advanced and more respected.  One sumo had a white mawashi rather than a black one and it was  obvious that he was in charge of the days lessons.  He routinely counciled young sumo by what I called the 3 Q's: quickly, quietly and with quality.  There was no yelling, no long drawn out explainations and he always seemed to be taken quite seriously.  A master teacher.

Sumo's roots are of a religious nature and it is clear when you see rituals like purifying the ring with salt before beginning.  Even though this is a sport of strength and skill, it is also very much a mind game.  Evil stares and intimidating grunts and groans are par for the course in this clash of giants. 

As we left, the head sumo was outside taking a break.  He was sitting near the door and happened to be over where we had left our shoes!  So, how do you ask a sumo wrestler to move?  The answer is, very politely!  He handed each of us our shoes and smiled very warmly when I said," domo arigato gosai mas". 

The sumo tournaments are huge affairs that last 15 days for up to 12 hours a day.  Although this would be a great experience, our lack of knowledge for the sport and time restraints would probably not give us the new found respect we earned from watching this practice.  We got a true idea of the ins and outs of the sumo life and a rare glimps of what it takes to get to that championship level.  The respect, determination, guidance and humility of this activity is something we will not soon forget.

So, fat guys in diapers?  Hardly...

Akihabara

Things have been a blur the past couple days.  We got into our new hotel and went out for dinner with Andy, went shopping in Asakusa and Akihabara and then went shopping in Asakusa again.

After getting into the hotel, we all got cleaned up and headed out to meet my buddy Andy and his family for dinner.  He suggested that we meet in Akihabara as there is an izakaya that he likes.  We met at 19:00 and sat at a traditional Japanese style table in the pub.  His kids, Max and James, are 7 and 3 and proceeded to act goofy the entire night.  Andy looked at me after a few minutes and said, "I figured no one here would notice my loud family".  He was right, while Ma-Kun (something like saying "Young man Max") was active and running around, the white noise of the rest of the bar prevented anyone from noticing, much less becoming annoyed.

Even when he started racing his cars down the floor and measuring everything with a tape measure, the rest of the guests were certainly far more amused and participatory than annoyed.  As the evening went on, the boys got really attached to Sarah.  They both competed for her attention and Ma-kun finally ended up falling asleep on her lap.

Andy is moving to Minnesota in October and I'm looking forward to having his family up to Sweet Rock for a weekend sometime.  I joked to him, "we have 80 acres, so the kids can run and run and run".

We've spent the last couple days walking around various shopping areas and mostly avoiding shrines and temples.  We started with the Asakusa mall that I've mentioned a few times and then want back to the hotel for a nap.  Yesterday afternoon we got up and went to Akihabara for some serious exploring.

Getting to Akihabara Electric Town is easy from our hotel.  We've been using out JR Rail Pass for all trips on the Shinkansen and it also works from some local trains.  In this case there is a JR line that starts a couple blocks from out hotel and stops in the heart of Akihabara.  Immediately upon enter the district there is an visual overload as hundreds of shops and department stores attempt to get your attention. 

Akihabara has everything.  I was excited when Fry's opened near me as I would finally have access to the components I wanted for my electroncs and robotics experiments.  Now I feel like I've been to the promised land and I never want to go back home.  Jason and I have just spent some time wandering and passed no less than 12 shops specializing in things like resistors, capacitors, lights, breakout boards and a bunch of other useful kit. 

We're now sitting in a rare thing for Japan, an internet Cafe.  We've traveled to five countries now and Japan is unique in having very few places that a backpacker can access the internet.  Hostels almost all have computers in the common area, so that has been the location I've written most of these notes from, but our hotel only has a crummy connection and a high price so when we saw this internet cafe we decided to stop and catch up on things.

While they may be rare, they are at least pretty cool.  In addition to computer access, this cafe has a huge anime collection and coffee bar for the patrons.  In fact, half or more of the space is comfortable chairs you can rent and drink coffee while reading comics.

Once we're done here, it's back to the hotel to fetch Beth and figure out what to have for dinner.  My vote is Pepper Steak. We found this place yesterday while looking for the Sumo training center.  You order your food using an electronic board and give the ticket to a waiter.  They deliver your order to your table mostly uncooked and on a sizzling hot iron plate.  After cooking it to your own liking, you chow down.  It's simple, tasty and reasonably priced.

Checking in from Dai-Ichi Hotel

We have moved lodging to a hotel for grown ups and, while expensive, we're enjoying the amenities, including heated bathroom mirror, robes, speaker in the bathroom, beautiful view of Tokyo from 17 stories up, a bell hop that gets the elevator for you and bows as it closes, a concierage, doorbells on each room and other perks too numerous to mention. This wasn't our goal, but since the hostel we booked turned out to be a train wreck and the availability during this busy holiday week in Japan is near zero, we were happy to pay a substantial premium and get to somewhere new.

With apologies, yet another blog entry without a clever title

Today is our first full day back in Tokyo and we get to start doing one of our favorite parts of our trips, Christmas shopping.  As usual, it is really friggin' hot out, so we set out early to try and beat the worst of the heat.  The mall we went to is one that has a retractable sun screen and they had it fully extended and blocking the harsh August rays.

The mall is about 500M long with dozens of small shops lining each side.  All the standard tourist gifts can be bought as well as many more authentic goods.  The entire length is a sea of humanity as the Japanese on the biggest vacation week of the year press through the mall both shopping and trying to reach the large temple at one end.  Along the way are numerous food and snack booths, including two that have primative automated assembly lines making fresh cookies with different fillings.  In keeping with the spirit of trying new things, Jason bought a few and we found them to be super sweet fig newton like treats.

We also stopped, for the second time, at an ice cream shop for a cold treat.  Sarah, Beth and Jason all went for the fairly conventional flavors, but I decided to try sesame.  It was kind of like eating a sweet piece of mushy frozen bread.  That description doesn't really do it justice, but that's about as close as you can come.  It was a little weird at first, but by the end I commented to Beth that I was quickly growing pretty fond of my new discovery.

We also stopped at the smallest resaurant that I've ever been in.  It had a total of four tables and seating for 16.  The kitchen was bigger than the seating area!  This little place was on the side of the mall and clearly was targeting locals more than tourists, but we decided to give it a try.  Jason ordered his standard udon as did Beth and I.  Mine with corn.  The broth was a lighter one than we've had most places and extra tasty.  We also got an order of pot stickers that were extra delicious.  For the second time in the trip, we got out the phrase book to point to "that was delicious".

Nishi came through for us again.  He found a room for us for the night of the Hiroshima memorial ceremony even though we couldn't find anything.  He did so again today as we decided to switch lodging due to the dodgyness of the hostel I'm typing this from.  We coudn't find another hostel, so will be paying through the nose for the next few nights, but at least we'll have operational air conditioning and all the other benefits of a hotel.

He mentioned that it's near a sumo camp, something I had actually forgotten I wanted to check out.  The sumo season is a short one, but we've read that you can attend training sessions for free.  It would be neat if that works out.  Jason also wants to go Akihabara, the world famous electronics district of Tokyo.

Finally, tonight we will be going to an izakaya with my friend Andy.  He's from England, but has lived in Tokyo for 13 years or so.  He's going to bring his family in from Tsukuba for dinner with us, then he's off to London on holiday to see his family starting Wednesday.

Thanks to Mom and Mick who both inquired via email about my health.  My kidney stone as either passed or simply stopped hurting as I've been following the doctors orders to drink 2-3 liters of water a day.  For the record, even in the heat of Japan in August and spending the bulk of each day outside hiking around, that's a lot of water to chug.  If it gets me home without further troubles though...

Watermelon

We headed out this morning for the botanical gardens with Ken, owner of our guest house who offered us a ride to the gardens, only to find they were closed on Mondays.  Kind of a bummer, but he suggested that we instead walk along the river and count the monks. 

The legend is that if you walk upstream and then return downstream that you end up with different numbers of statues in your tally.  Certainly was true for Jason.

The waters in the river, a large mountain stream, were unbelievably clear.  We spent a good amount of time watching them plunge over lava flows and into whirlpools before heading back on the  street.   Upon doing so, we  found a  picnic area right by the river that had a sheltered area for kids to wade.  Jason and I had a contest to see who could last longest in the cold mountain stream, but ultimately had to call it a draw as we went from one foot, to two feet to wading to our knees and then not being able to go any further without soaking our clothes.

On our way out we saw a picnic party create a sling out of rope and suspend a watermelon in the cool waters to chill it for dessert.  I suspect Rockwell must have been cruising Japan looking for material for his illustrations.