Category: From Japan

Real time Tuesday July 20, 0600 – Location Nagoya

Yes, there are pictures from Nagoya – but they are still in the camera.

Real time – Sunday July 18th 0611

The sun is out again today. Still things to see in Kyoto – so that is good. Did I mention that the teenage person is always all the time forever on the computer chatting and texting with her friends? At first, I was annoyed, as in “I am spending all this money for you to be online with your friends and watching TV?” Decided that it was a good thing – that way she tells her friends that she is “so bored” and not me.

Main event yesterday – Gion Matsuri – a festival which has happened almost every year since 865. Men drag very large “floats” with large stone wheels around town. Men carry smaller ones around. But, the large ones are the main event.

We were about 4 or 5 people from the front of the mob when I took this picture. Hold camera over head and click. Then crop. All of the big floats look sort of alike and they are all about the same size. As long as you do huge crowds OK – it was grand fun.

The teenage person dressed in the chic-est girlie manner in the cotton kimono getup she had purchased. The old person wore regular  limp and wrinkled old person travel togs.

Tonight – all the stuff gets repacked into the backpack and we go on to Nagoya for 2 nights. That will make 9 nights in fine hotels. After that it is back to what in Japan are called “business hotels”. I call them “Motel Six” hotels. In Tokyo, we are staying in a hotel that is owned by the company that owns Motel Six in the US. So, living large, with closets, drawers, chairs, extra pillows and a view (killer or otherwise) is coming to an end.

Real time: Saturday, July 17 0550 hours

The sun is out this morning. A very good sign.

Another good sign – yesterday the ATM machine, which had rejected me the day before, granted me cash. (After seeking assistance from the goddesses of the rice harvest.)

Yesterday, we went to Fushimi Inari Shrine a little ways out of town. According to my trusty French guidebook the Shrine is a 4KM path. Uphill. The path is paved and completely covered with vermillion Tory gates. The shrine (Shinto) is to one of the patron goddesses of the rice harvest. So, originally, rice farmers put up gates to insure a good growing season.

But now, people come to ask for more wealth. I asked for mosquito repellant and protection from Japanese encephalitis, as well as good luck with the ATM.

Big festival day today in Kyoto. I went to look at the “floats” yesterday while the teenage one went shopping. I plan on going to the parade this morning if I can get teenage person sprung into action soon enough.

Real time – Friday July 16 0619

Getting cash is a problem for every visitor to Japan. And in Japan cash is important – because almost no one takes credit cards. I have been able to pay for our hotels by credit card. But that is all. And yesterday my go-to card for cash was rejected twice by the heretofore faithful Post Office Bank ATM. So today, in we’ll have to keep an eye out for a 7/11 ATM – because the Post Office and 7/11’s are the only ATMs that will even consider giving foreigners money. It isn’t just Americans. It is Canadians and Europeans too.

Yesterday, while the teenage person visited The International Manga Museum, I sat out side and drank beer with a couple of nice boys from Netherlands. First topic: the rains. Second topic: where to get money.

And, from yesterday’s cultural visit.

Goodness the sun is shining…

Real Time – Thursday July 15 at 6:35ish

We got seriously rained out Wednesday. Before breakfast it seemed like a good idea to go to Osaka. I figured out how to buy train tickets. We hopped on the correct train and 30 minutes later were in Osaka. After much looking around we found the Information Center. And purchased $20 subway pass and a book of admission tickets to about 20 attractions.

Teenage person HAD to visit the Pokémon store. So, that was our first stop. Old person simply sat down on the floor of the store and worked very hard at not saying “I am spending enough money to pay for 4 years of college for 3 students at my alma mater – and we are spending our time in a juvenile video game character store?”

Old person understands that teenage person is only interested in Japan as it relates to video games or comic books.

Eventually, we made it out of the Pokémon store and headed out to Osaka Castle. That was when the monsoon started. I should have brought my Tevas! I was drenched down to my under drawers.

We still went to the Osaka Castle. As far as castles go – it is sort of so-so. Actually, it is a 1930’s reconstruction.  In Japan as in the US during the 1930’s historic reconstruction was more reconstruction than historic. Teenage person  insisted that she didn’t need to read the narratives – we are inside now – because she knew ALL about the castle from a video game and was only interest in anything she already knew about from said video game.

After the Castle, the monsoon had slackened but we were still very wet. So, we bagged up our visit to Osaka. I figured out how to buy tickets back to Kyoto and we had a very expensive visit to the Pokémon store and Osaka Castle.

When we got back to our room – we discovered that out room key – like the rest of us – was soaked. Another trip down to the lobby for replacements.

Food wise, we had another super breakfast at our hotel this morning. Today, I noticed that they have ice cream on the breakfast buffet line. And, we got take out salads for dinner.

Must get off line now – the teenage person has been patiently waiting for 15 minutes to get back online.

Real time: July 14 at 6:25 AM.

It has rained every day but one since we got here. Not hard rains. Sort of Seattle rainy. We were walking to our first attraction yesterday morning and it started to rain again. As soon as we came to a 7/11 we went in and I got us umbrellas. The “deluxe” 4-dollar plastic umbrella. Deluxe was the only kind they had. Every time you go in anywhere you stash your umbrella in a rack and put your shoes in another. As luck would have it – my “deluxe” plastic umbrella vanished. So, I just took another non-deluxe plastic umbrella. All plastic umbrellas sort of look alike.

We tromped around all day looking at various temples. (and thousands of shops crammed with trinkets.) The first temple we saw was really stunning. No photos allowed. You couldn’t even sneak a picture – they snatch your camera. It has 1,000 more or less identical 7 foot gilded wood Buddha statues and one really big one. About 100 of them date from 1160 and the rest from 1200-1300. They are in a large wooden temple. All it would take is one misplaced cigarette butt, firecracker, lightening strike, or tiny earthquake to end it. Amazing that it is still standing. No pictures, but in the best Buddhist/Catholic tradition you could light a candle. Did that.

We also saw several temples that didn’t seem to get any western visitors. Later discovered that one of them was the Japanese Tomb of the Unknown from WW2. Did big purple joss sticks there.

And, I think the other was just a very old cemetery were some famous Japanese were buried. (Tossed one yen coins at dragon here.) That is what happens when you slip off the regular tourism route.

The funniest thing was at the last place we went to – yet another famous old (750 something) temple complex. We decide that we are tired and have seen rather enough temples for one day and don’t want to spend about 8 dollars each to go in to the main temple – but for a 100-yen – we could go see another smaller temple. We spring for that. Take off our shoes, park our umbrellas (this is when I lose my “deluxe” umbrella) and go in. “In” is downstairs. The guy tells us to hang onto the rail. Well, after about 6 steps it is total dark. We are in a pitch-black rat maze with no shoes. Surprise, western person who can not read the signs!

No matter what the post time is – it is 6:13 AM, Tuesday July 13. We are in Kyoto, and I am using an old woman’s inability to sleep – has nothing to do with jet lag – everything to do with advancing years – to snag some internet time before the traveling companion wakes up and pounces on the single internet connection.  Actually, the LAN is really fast, and it seems to be the internet connection of choice in Japan vice the US and Europe’s use of wifi.

Pictured above is the Kanazawa Castle. It burned down in the late 1890’s – and is being reconstructed.

Today, after breakfast, we’ll set out to see some of Kyoto. Kyoto get 50 million tourists – Japanese and international – every year. So, I’ll try to get us going early.

You know how zoo’s have notices to “don’t tease/feed/etc the animals” in Kyoto they have notices telling you “don’t hassle the geisha”.

After one week and 4 hotels, 2 planes, 9 trains, many buses and uncountable flights of stairs, we are both still alive and neither of us has been reduced to tears yet.

We have left the land of wifi and are reduced to sharing the single LAN connection in our hotel room. Life is tough. I didn’t even connect for the 3 days that we were in Kanazawa. But, when we got into our room in Kyoto where we will stay for the next 7 days – I got my own machine going.

We are having a fine time. My traveling companion is not too adventurous foodwise. So we have settle on eating a buffet breakfast at our hotels. (Aside: The Japanese eat a lot of breakfast. No bowl of cereal, bagel, etc for them.) Since I wake up hungry as a horse (the Japanese eat those too) I think the Japanese breakfast buffet is a great thing.

We decided to forego lunch and then pickup and early take-out dinner. The basement of most department stores is devoted to take-away food.

Our stay in Kanazawa was a hotel “learning experience”. Saturday’s lesson was that we should have “made reservations” for our free breakfast earlier. By the time I got around to getting our free breakfast tickets – the earliest time slot they had was 9:10 – 9:30. Who knew you had to make a reservation for free breakfast? The first night they just gave us the 7:00 to 7:30 time slot and that was when we happened to show up. So, we were spared arriving at the wrong time and committing a terrible cultural mistake.

Our first experience was the room lights. After we checked in (at 3PM as required), they gave us 2 breakfast tickets, the secret code for the onsen (communal bath) on the roof and our room key. I had prepaid this room and the staff spoke about as much English as I spoke Japanese. They did not tell us how to turn the room lights on. Turns out that when you are in your room, you stick your key in a little slot. That makes the lights work. When you leave, you take the key out and all the lights go out. It was rather like being in one of those old time “adventure” video games where you were always looking for a secret device to get you to the next level. In this case the next level was light.

I had a rather unsatisfactory food day Saturday. I accidentally acquired a raw egg for breakfast – and well, I was for damn sure going to eat it. Being the only western person in a room full of pajama wearing Japanese. Then at dinner – selected from the local 7/11 – I ended up with another raw egg. And, some nasty fermented mung beans. I did not get all that egg eaten. In the middle of the night – I declared an emergency and broke out a Granola Bar.

For our big Saturday night – Sam did her laundry and went to the hotel onsen. To die for. Wonderful indoor/outdoor natural hot spring waters delivered to the roof of the hotel. Plus all manner of lovely skin/hair care products. (I had to point a body parts to be sure the right stuff was going to the right places.) Plus combs, brushes, little scrubber things, and a 200+ degree sauna, which I stepped in and said – not for me. Oh yes, and a cold bath as well, I passed on the cold mineral bath as well.

The onsen is just for women – men have their own – and at 8ish on a Saturday night I’d say there were 15 women from 20ish to 75ish using the facilities.

We are getting all settled into are fine digs here over top of the Kyoto Train Station.

Headed to Ishinomaki  and a “well known” manga museum today. For my part it was a quest for all things “cute”.

Heading to Kanazawa for 3 days tomorrow.

So far so good. But jet lag continues.

We got up early, and started out on our trek to Sendai. Got on a train. The wrong train – but still ended up where we wanted to be. Got here OK. Since the Japanese take “check in time” very seriously – we dropped our backpacks off at our hotel and headed out on sightseeing.

Rode the Loope Bus around Sendai. Saw some sights.

Had cow tongue curry for dinner. I should have done laundry. But didn’t. For sure tomorrow do laundry.

Have arrived in Japan. The flight was late and long. We got 4 movies and 3 lunches in-route. Needless to say, neither dinner nor TV was on our evening agenda.

We had surmountable issues with the ATM machines. But, have a modest supply of yen. We navigated our first Japanese train. And have a fancy Toto Toilet with lots of “features” in our tiny bathroom.

Pictures later. To much jet lag to mess with photos.