Sketchy neighbourhoods, funky boots, and old vs. new in Osaka

We left Kanazawa for Osaka on the 21st. One thing that we have really been enjoying in Japan is the train system here. The trains are always on time, the schedule is always available and we rarely have to wait more than a few minutes for the next train. We have gotten a lot of use out of our JR pass, which we have taken almost all over the country! It was definitely worth around $630 we spent on it, as the ticket from Tokyo to Shin-Hanamaki alone on the first full day in Japan would have cost over $100! 

After we checked into our hostel, we spent the afternoon walking around the shopping streets. One street has everything you would ever need if you owned a restaurant: more knives, bowls, glasses and plastic food than you could imagine! We also checked out some flashier parts of the shopping area and had the local speciality, takoyaki, deep fried octopus balls!

Perhaps our view of Osaka is slightly skewed by the fact we just left two really touristy cities, and our hostel is probably one of the grossest hostels I have ever stayed in, and that says a lot since I have been fortunate enough to travel in a number of European and Asian cities. The shower smells like urine, my tiny room had holes in the walls, the linoleum floor in the hallways was peeling off, and the characters in the neighborhood are slightly sketchy. I am reminded again of the expression "the cheap always pay twice" since the hostel is about half the price of other hostels. So instead of doing three nights in Osaka with a day trip to Kobe we decided to get a refund from the hostel for our third night and spend the last night in Kobe before heading out to Tokyo on the 24th. If nothing else it makes for a funny story!

Wednesday was a better day. After a surprising great night's sleep between the sketchy hostel, the bean bag pillow and the super thin futon mattress, which left me groggy from oversleeping for the better part of the day, we checked out the Osaka castle, which was pretty neat. The highlight of the castle was being able to wear a samurai helmet, probably the heaviest thing I will ever put on my head, and an overcoat for $3. I figured it was money well spent! From there we went up the Umeda sky building up to the 40th floor for an amazing view of the city. The elevator ride up was interesting; at one point it's all glass so you can see everything outside as you go up. From there we could go outside and see for miles up until it gets too hazy/smoggy to see much more. Very cool!

It was a bit of a slower, lazy day (the thermometer at the top of the tower indicated it was 32.5 C) between the heat and me oversleeping/Yosha under sleeping from the people talking too loudly in the common area. I didn't mind a lazier day though: it was nice to enjoy the weather and take our time to relax, between eating ice cream before going to the castle or dipping our feet in a pool on the way to the tower. We are on holidays after all!

One benefit of staying in a more colourful neighborhood is the variety of stores. We have a couple stores that sell clothes for labour-type jobs so I was able to buy a pair of boots that I have seen on rickshaw runners. They are denim-ish mid-shin length boots that have shaped toes like the teenage mutant ninja turtles. Very cool! The sizes are in centimeters here so I am on a mission now to try to find a pair for Sean. 

We left yesterday for Kobe, where the hostel was considerably nicer. Our sole purpose in Kobe was to have some Kobe beef. We went with a Lonely Planet recommendation to try it as Misono, the original teppanyaki restaurant. (note: Teppanyaki restaurants in Japan are not like the ones back home where they do a big show with fire and such. It's just a chef who grills meat and veggies in front of you and constantly wipe the grill with a cloth). Ohhhhh mmmyyyyyy ggggoooodddnnneessss that was the best meal I have ever had, and likely will ever have. The food was cooked to perfection, and everything in the meal was amazing. I even enjoyed the onions, which I rarely like! The steak was so marbly and fatty, with a rich buttery taste that melted in my mouth. Dessert was the ripest honeydew melon I have ever had along with vanilla ice cream, mango sorbet and a piece of cheesecake. There was a hefty price tag of $140 to go with it, but we figured it was an amazing place to have steak and I feel like we got what we paid for! 

So today we leave for Tokyo, and leave to go home on the 30th. On the agenda so far are a sumo match, going to a tuna auction at stinkin' early in the morning, shopping!!, DisneySea, hanging out with Makiko, Nonaco and another one of the their friends, and causing some more trouble. It will be super fun, but I can't believe the trip is winding down! 

A few photos from the last few days: 

In Osaka, with two Japanese comedians (the one on the right reminded us of one of the old men from the Muppet Show!)

Takoyaki, a specialty from Osaka - deep fried octopus balls (I am going to do a special blog on food  at some point before we leave)

Osaka at night

Osaka Castle

From the Umeda Sky Building in Osaka

The view of Osaka from the top of the Umeda Sky Building (we were on the 40th floor)

The escalator ride up to the floating garden 

Temples, clubs and ninjas!

We have exhausted our supply of transportation karma in Kyoto! We started out so well...with no planning we saw what we wanted to see, caught the buses on time...and then our luck started to run out. We found ourselves on our last full day in Kyoto missing buses by less than a minute on a number of occasions. This morning we somehow got on the rapid train (on the advice of one of the ticket vendors), found ourselves realizing we missed the stop a number of stops later, getting on a local train back and getting so involved in sudoku that we missed the stop! We caught it on the third try and had a lovely morning walking around the fushimi-inari taisha, a shrine complex dedicated to the gods of rice and sake in the 8th century. The entire complex sprawls across the wooded slopes of Inari-Yama. We took the pathway (yay MORE stairs!) up almost to the top and were amazed at the richness in colour of the thousands of red torii (gates).

After an uneventful return we made our way to Nagoya to meet our friend Rheanne. It was so great to see her again after almost a year and a half. She is always great to provide funny stories and more information about the country. On our way to the Nagoya castle, while drinking a lovely alcoholic drink she introduced us to called chuhai, she talked about some of her experiences teaching English, some of the challenges of the education system and some insight into the Japanese culture. For example, there is a fairly high population of Brazilian-Japanese people because a number of years back, brazil needed help with their computers so they hired a large number of Japanese workers to come to brazil where they settled down eventually and got married to Brazilian women. A number of them came back to Japan married so there are mixed Japanese-Brazilian kids. In Nagoya we noticed signs are written in Japanese, English and Portuguese. We also learned that Japanese mothers are very competitive; Tuesday is the one day a week that kids bring their own lunches into school (they are all on a meal plan) so Monday night all of the mothers spend hours making bento boxes for their kids and will arrange food into different shapes like hello kitty veggies, pieces of hot dogs shaped into octopus, that kind of thing. We learned as well that it's less important what kids learn in university than it is where they go. It is all about working hard to get into a good university. Once they are there it sounds like they don't work as hard as we do in Canadian universities, and that most skills are acquired on the job.

We noticed as well that kids are always in their school uniform so asked about this. It seems that kids up to high school must wear their high school uniform from Monday-Saturday because if they misbehave, people need to know which school to go to so that they can complain about their behavior and the children can get reprimanded. In the train kids are taught to be quiet.

Being in Japan has definitely given me a new appreciation for quietness. On trains everyone most people are quiet. When we take the bullet train there is an announcement not to talk on the phone. I think I will go home with a newfound appreciation for silence. There doesn't seem to be the mindless chatter and space taking that we have at home.

Japan seems to have a love affair with France. There are a number of French bakeries in each city; I see French a lot in stationery stores, shopping malls and various store names....which is funny because I doubt most Japanese people can speak French! We also found out about Paris shock syndrome, which is what some polite Japanese tourists suffer when they discover that Parisians can be rude or the city does not meet their expectations. There is even insurance for it. Funny eh? Maybe the insurance money could be put to better use, like cultural awareness...? http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6197921.stm

We walked around Nagoya, checked out a festival, had my picture taken with a Japanese guy in a cheerleader outfit wearing a red clown wig, hung out with the mascot from Nagoya's football team and went to Oasis 21, a sort of spaceship-looking glass installation that has water in the middle like a pond, making it feel like you're in a completely quiet part of the city.

We had dinner at an Aussie bar (side note crocodile nuggets kinda taste like chicken nuggets and kangaroo pie tastes similarly to minced meat) then got ready to go out...after a nap of course! We went to a club called IDcafe where there were 5 floors of music. I haven't had that much fun at a club in years! It was PACKED! There was an amazing energy, with a lot of people dancing, jumping around and singing along (especially during Nicky Minaj's "starships" song, which played three times on three different floors!) Almost everyone there was Japanese and mostly guys. What was great was that we could dance and have a great time without being hounded by guys on the dance floor grinding up against us. I randomly struck up conversations with a number of people, which was hilarious and a ton of fun!

After a slow morning we made our way to Kanazawa. We have been spoiled with the Shinkansen (bullet train) so the three hour regular train felt slow, noisy and not as smooth...kind of like via rail!

Our guest house in Kanazawa is wonderful! It's really close to the train station and its with a couple who completely renovated their house about 6 months ago and turned it into a guest house. It's clean, modern and brand new. Best of all we are the only ones there so we have it all to ourselves. To top it off, we have REAL PILLOWS!! :)

It was a pretty lazy day, between waking up hungover, making our way to Kanazawa and feeling sleepy. We had more tasty conveyor belt sushi and watched Iron Man 3 in English with subtitles. Movie theaters are cool here. You can pick your seat AND drink beer in the theatre!! :)

The downside is that instead of quirky trivia before the previews they showed reminders of what we can't do, like "no smoking", "no handy phone" and "silent please", along with elevator music. As if once wasn't enough, they played the series of don'ts five times. Other than that the movie was super amazing!

Today we spent the day walking around Kanazawa. Kyoto was an amazing city but Kanazawa is a very close second. There seems to have been a lot of work put into designing the city for tourism. There is a lot of green space and flowers; they have an amazing loop bus that loops around all of the major sites; and of all of the cities we have visited, I find that the quality of English here seems to be superior to the other cities we have visited. We checked out the Kanazawa castle park and took part in a great tour of the castle grounds.

From there we had a lovely picnic lunch in Kenrokuen garden, one of the top gardens in Japan. The park is impeccably maintained, with the trees regularly being trimmed in funky shapes, and streams and ponds flowing all along the park.

From there we went to the ninja temple, which was a temple that was completed in 1643. It was designed a hideout in case of attack, and contains hidden stairway, escape routes, secret chambers, concealed tunnels and trick doors.

We toured around a part of the city that that was once inhabited by samurai. This district featured winding cobblestone streets lined with tile-roofed mud walls. Very cool! This wasn't far from a shopping street that I was in love with. I almost squealed with excitement in some of the stores that sold super cute stuff like little doll dresses complete with bows and lace, very cool Victoria-style jackets, funky accessories...I keep telling myself that's what shopping in Tokyo is for but it's hard to stop myself!

Tomorrow we leave for four days in Osaka. The reviews on the place we are staying at are mixed but we are only there for a few nights and its cheap so we will see what happens! 

I am forever grateful to have such an amazing travel buddy as Yosha. We have a great relationship when it comes to travelling. We plan everything sort of, talk about what we want to do, giggle and talk all day...we are having a blast! Tonight I tried on one of the honey masks that I bought at the convenience store. It's basically a mask cut out that you stick on your face. I think we almost peed ourselves laughing at how ridiculous I look. Picture the scene from Mrs. Doubtfire where Robin Williams sticks his face in the pie, then sort of mix in the Mexican wrestler from the Koodoo commercials and that`s how silly I looked! 

Here are a few photos from our last days in Kyoto and our day in Nagoya. Photos from today will be on their way shortly! 

New friends...kids from school asking us questions to practice their English

At the top of the water temple

One of the temples at the water temple. The view was definitely worth the walk!

At the Fushimi-Inari shrine

Along the path...this was basically the entire trek! 

With Rheanne in front of Nagoya castle

Making friends with some random dude in a cheerleading outfit. Soooo Japanese...

Fondling Grampus, the mascot for the Nagoya football team. Do you blame me? He's so darn cute!! 

Horses, more monkeys, more stairs and yes, even more temples!

For all that we are on holidays, our days are far from just slothing around, eating sushi and drinking plum wine. Ok, that's part of our day, but not the whole day! On Wednesday we joined the hoards of people who checked out the Aoi Matsuri parade. This festival dates back to the 7th century and commemorates the successful prayers of the people for the gods to stop calamitous weather. It was amazing to see the variety and colours of costumes on the approximately 600 people who participated in the parade. It was great to see the different horses participating in the parade too, and the equipment they had on. I didn't realize how much I missed being around horses till I saw them in the parade!

From there we headed out to the silver temple. It was quite the adventure getting there as we originally planned to go to Kuramadera, a temple on a mountain that you reach by cable car, but as this may surprise you, Yosha and I hadn't quite planned out our route so we weren't really sure how to get there. We managed to take some random buses and make our way to the silver temple, a beautiful temple built in 1482. The temple itself didn't totally wow me but the garden in the temple and the view were breathtaking.

After some exploring we managed to make our way to Kuramadera. It was definitely worth the wait! It wasn't nearly as busy as the silver temple. the hike to the top was gorgeous; the path was lined with vermilion lanterns and the path veered its way through the woods so we were constantly in the company of trees. I am thankful that Yosha and I spend a decent amount of time at the gym. Some of these walks have been quite challenging, up and down hills and up more steps than I would ever do on the stair master at the gym! Thankfully the walks help to reduce some of my guilt from the endless sweets, baked goods and mochi!

We stopped at the department store food court on the way home. I grabbed a bento box and Yosha had various yummy sticks of fried meat. Well, almost all yummy. At one point she asks me what kind of meat she had and once my taste buds decided it was liver on a stick they quickly were not happy with the assault!

Yesterday we went to check out a bamboo forest in Arashiyama, at the base of Kyoto's western mountains. The bamboo forest was more of a wide paved path so it didn't quite feel like we were in a bamboo grove after all. On the plus side the area is also home to about 160 snow monkeys. At this park they make it clear not to look at the monkeys in the eyes. On our last monkey park visit we didn't realize that until afterwards when we read a sign. It hadn't really mattered since the monkeys were so quiet and approachable. At this park we definitely felt like we were in the wild. At one point walking up to the rest area where most of the monkeys are, we must have looked a monkey in the eyes because it charged at us. They are small but I'm not messing with them. Have you seen their teeth?! Anyways, we were able to feed them apples through the fence inside an enclosed area, which was a beautiful experience because they would gently grab the apples from our palms. Ok, enough about the monkeys :)

For dinner last night we decided to take a break from the typically Japanese fare and have pizza. I don't know if it was the pizza or if it was sleeping in the dorm and being constantly interrupted but neither of us slept well.

Today has been a pretty slow day. We visited the golden pavilion, originally built in 1397 as a retirement villa. In 1950 it was burned to the ground and in 1955 rebuilt. From there we went to check out another temple, which ended up being the same one we saw the other day on our way to Kuramadera. In our defense there are close to a thousand temples in Kyoto and all of them have names in Japanese followed by English nicknames! At least we knew how to make it back to the bus stop back to Kyoto train station!

We finally got it together and checked out the water temple, which was absolutely worth it! The buildings were gorgeous and the view of the whole city was incredible! We were even interviewed by some junior high students who wanted to practice their English.

On the way back we had an early dinner and caught the sun setting from the Kyoto tower. Such a beautiful view and a great way to end our last full day in Kyoto! Tomorrow morning we are going to check out one last shrine and then head out to Nagoya to meet up with my friend Rheanne, who I haven't seen since last year in Vietnam and before then in Dubai! I feel like a celebrity jet setter going out to party with an old friend in random parts of the world!

From Nagoya we are going to spend a few days in Kanazawa to explore some gardens and samurai and geisha districts. It should be fun! :)

Some photos from the last couple of days. 

During the parade. I liked the horses the best, even though there were some that were a little too ribby and hippy for my taste

An ox pulling a wagon (he had help) during the parade

One of the gardens in the silver temple

Another part of the garden in the silver temple

The first of many shots of stairs....

More stairs...

Weeeeeee even more stairs!! take TAKE, stairmaster!!

Yosha in the bamboo grove

Hiding in the Japanese maple

I had these critters eating out of the palm of my hand!! :)

I could have stayed with these guys all day they were hilarious!

Ok last monkey picture...the beautiful city of Kyoto is in the background

Hot and cold, temples and more temples, and deer cuddles in Nara

We have gone through some pretty crazy weather changes recently! We arrived in Magome from Matsumoto to find the weather in Magome to be miserably rainy and cold. Nonetheless since we really wanted to do the 8km hike from Magome to Tsumago, two post towns in the Kiso Valley region, we sucked it up, dressed warmly and borrowed umbrellas from our guest house.

The trek took us mostly through the forest where we saw some great waterfalls and bamboo trees. We occasionally walked through smaller post towns as well. Unfortunately the photos don't properly illustrate the wetness of the day but trust me when I saw we arrived in Tsumago wet damp and slightly miserable. Since it was so junky out we managed to grab the first bus back to Magome for dinner, which ended up being steamed buns (one had curry and was delicious) and convenience store treats (convenience store food has become a staple for us since there is always a great variety of surprises for cheap!).

The guest house (Magome Chaya) is absolutely lovely. It's a more traditional japanese style accommodation with hardwood floors throughout, tatami mats in the room and an amazing wooden soaker tub/mini hot tub (never mind it kinda looks like a coffin). The cover of it is always on and you take it off in sections.

After a low key night (everything closes at 5!), we set out the next morning for Kyoto. Such a welcome change in weather! It's about 28-30C here. It feels amazing to finally bust out my tank tops and shorts! On our first day in Kyoto we checked into the Kyoto Piece hostel. We are here till we leave for Nagoya on the 18th to meet our friend Rheanne. It's a brand spanking new hostel that opened last month. Our twin room is super tiny but we are making it work. Thankfully we have really comfy bunk beds and a REAL pillow! My head isn't loving the bean bag pillows I have been sleeping on, which apparently are that way because back in the day women would have their hair done and the hard pillow would help keep everything in place for days.

So, on our first day we toured around some temples nearby. Kyoto was the capital before Tokyo so it's the hotspot for temples. You could probably spend a month here looking at all the temples and not see them all! After a couple temples we went for dinner on the lower level of a nearby department store. After walking around we settled on okonomiyaki, a Japanese omelet that basically translates to leftovers. There is a special sauce though that is quite tasty. You can get all kinds of toppings: mine had sausage, potato and cheese, while Yosha had seafood an cabbage.

(Note: in one of the nearby sushi restaurants I saw horse sashimi was on the menu,  a local delicacy. Thankfully "horse" is one of the characters I recognize from my mandarin class days. As curious as I may be to try it my love for horses will always be stronger than my curiosity!)

Yesterday we ventured out for a full day of sightseeing. We got a day pass for the subway and saw the imperial palace. Thankfully the timing was right and we managed to squeeze in on a free English tour that has a limit on the number of participants every day. The palace was where the emperor used to live before the capital was moved to Tokyo. The palace burned down a number of times but they kept rebuilding it. It has stood there since 1855.

From there we went to a confectionary museum that had exhibits made of sugar art, had some tasty curry for lunch and saw the Nijo-jo castle, which was built in 1603 as the official residence of the shogun Ieyasu. As a safeguard against treachery, Ieyasu had the interior fitted with nightingale floors, which squeak like birds when you walk on them. Very cool! The inside was gorgeous and had a number of beautiful paintings of tigers, trees, birds and other animals and sights. The gardens around the castle were gorgeous too and well worth the price of admission!

We walked around the Nishiki food market as well, a huge market in tue shopping district of Kyoto. It was really hard to not buy some funky shoes but we still have a lot of the trip to do and I would rather not carry around too much stuff if I can avoid it.

Side note: I have been fortunate to travel a lot and have always done it with a suitcase. For the first time I am really regretting it and which I would have brought a backpack. I feel like we are always going up and down stairs for the train so it's not the most convenient thing to be hauling around. Thankfully Yosha has been a great help!

After our touring we met up with our American friends for dinner at an izakaya, a Japanese pub. We had a number of tasty dishes and plum wines then walked around the geisha district. It's an absolutely gorgeous area with narrow streets, red lanterns hanging from the restaurant doors and even narrower side alleys. We managed to spot a geisha on the street and were all so much in awe that we couldn't snap a picture. According to my lonely planet book, geishas (or geiko, the Kyoto word for geisha) are not prostitutes or escorts. They are highly skilled entertainers who are paid to facilitate and liven up social occasions in Japan. They receive years of training in various Japanese arts. Because of this extensive training, a geiko is like a living museum of Japanese traditional culture. It's therefore not surprising that both Japanese and foreigners consider a meeting with a geisha to be a magical occurrence.

We checked out a karaoke bar after, which are much different from the ones at home. Here you rent a room with your friends, grab some drinks and pick the songs you want to play. It was hilarious and confirmed in me that if my career as a public servant doesn't work out, singing would NOT be a career change I should consider! On the walk back Yosha and I spotted another geisha. I guess we are really lucky! :)

Yesterday we took a day trip to the city of Nara, which was the first capital of japan from 710 to 785. We spent the day walking around and checked out a couple temples. One of the highlights for me was definitely the deer. In one of the parks we visited, there are over a thousand wild deer that live there. In Buddhist times, the deer were considered messengers of the gods and today they roam the park and surrounding areas. They mostly hit up pedestrians looking for food but I must have pet over a dozen of them! They were  so gentle and sweet. Walking in the woods lined with stone lanterns and hanging out with the deer was a memory that I will cherish long after we have left this beautiful country.

We are heading out shortly to check out Aoi Matsuri, a parade to celebrate the hollyhock festival. It's supposed to be a really big deal so we are looking forward to that!

More updates soon!

On the way from Magome to Tsumago. The photo is lovely but doesn't quite capture the fact it was pouring rain! 

At the top of Nijo-Jo castle

In Nishiki market...No shortage of seafood here!! 

Outside an izakaya with our American friends

In front of the five-tiered pagoda in Nara

Outside one of the shrines in Nara

Outside one of the shrines in Nara

I loved these lanterns! They were all over the place in the forest. They added an air of mystery to the park

Getting cute with some deer (a young Japanese student gave us a cookie to share with them)

Monkeying around!

Day one in Nagano: our hotel was closed till 5 so we left our stuff with the hotel associated with ours and walked around. We checked out the zenkoji temple, one of the highlights of Nagano, as well as some cute shops. Since the Olympics were here in 1998 there are significantly more English signs and English speakers than what we have seen so far.

We returned to check into our room which was a twin room without Internet so we went to a single room with Internet. I wasn't pleased with this as we had paid for a double room with Internet so after much discussion we were checked into two single rooms (there is no wifi in our hotel, ly a network cable, so again Yosha's laptop had come in handy!) We toured around Nagano, went to an old temple, then went to a tasty Indonesian/Thai/Vietnamese restaurant for dinner. I had a Thai salad and deep fried cheese (don't knock it till you try it!) and Yosha had a tasty stir fried rice dish.

Thursday we went to Yudanaka to check out a snow monkey park. It's a park in a valley (which Sean told me is translated to Death Valley) where snow monkeys come and hang out in the hot springs. It was so wonderfully cool to hang out with the monkeys and observe them so closely in their natural habitat! At one point I put my bag on the ground to observe a monkey and looked back to find two small monkeys playing with the zippers on my bag and trying to open it. It was adorable! Unfortunately one of them left some monkey poop on my bag. Hopefully the bag won't get quarantined at customs but I am sure by the time we get home most of it will be cleaned off!

We met a group of 5 cool Americans on the bus so we spend the afternoon with them walking around the town, then we took a train to Obuse,  nearby town known for their chestnuts. Between chestnut stores, sake tasting and touring around other stores it was an enjoyable afternoon!

We met back up with them for dinner in Nagano. After consulting a number of menus we settled on a place called Vingo. We ordered some yummy plum wine and a number of delicious dishes like steak, spare ribs, a sort of egg, noodle, veggie omelette wrapped in bacon and chicken. It was an amazing dinner made even better with the entertainment from the room next to us. Some Japanese patrons next to us were getting stinking drunk, falling all over themselves and stumbling around. Naturally I had to go say hi! They spoke a bit of English, asked where we were from and high fived us all. It was quite comical! From there we went to a funky Indian bar that had every cheesy wall clock you could imagine! We ended fairly early as we were all heading to Matsumoto in the morning.

On the way to the train station we had a lovely chat with an 80 year old man who loved my Hello Kitty backpack. His English was absolutely amazing! We talked about Japanese culture mostly, our experiences thus far, our itinerary, that kind of thing. We talked about how amazed we were at how friendly everyone is, and even if people couldn't really speak English they would do everything they could to help. On two occasions when we were looking for a particular destination and asked someone they walked us to where we needed to go, which was incredibly helpful and friendly!

We arrived in Matsumoto around noon and came to the Matsumoto Backpackers (which is super neato by the way. We are sleeping on tatami mats on the floor with a futon mattress and a duvet. There are 4 girls in the room; it kinda feels like an old school sleepover! We spent the day walking around the city, checking out shops downtown in the shopping district and went to see Matsumoto Castle, the oldest castle in Japan. The shops were neat though I can't really argue with the fact there was some kind of bakery every few doors! Of course we had to sample as we went. We couldn't say no! In our defence we walked around 5-6 hours today!

For dinner we went to a restaurant that has sushi on a conveyor belt. Plate of various kinds of sushi go around on a conveyor plate and you grab what you want. We tried tons of different kinds of sushi and various desserts. In the end we ate 21 plates worth, though there were only two pieces of sushi per plate. It cost about $10; take THAT, all you can eat sushi!! Afterwards we went to an onsen. Thank goodness we went before with Nonaco and her mom so we knew what to do! There were a number of hot tubs both inside and outside. It felt amazing to be out in the cool breeze! 

Tomorrow we venture off to Magome, about two hours from here by local train plus a half hour bus ride. Magome is an old post town where a lot of trading used to take place. We are hoping to do an 8km hike from Magome to Tsumago and back but according to the weather it looks like it will be pouring so we may have to hike super early Sunday morning before checking out! Hopefully not though... 

It feels like we are covering a lot of ground in a short period of time. Matsumoto is a great city with a super funky vibe, so it has definitely been a worthwhile stop! We are both looking forward to dumping our stuff in Kyoto and settling down for a few days. Moving from place to place every few days can be a little tiring! 

Here is a random mix of funny photos!

at the castle at Matsumoto; on the way to Matsumoto (we are in the Japanese Alps here so it's amazing snow-covered mountains all around us!); the lil monkeys trying to bust into my bag; we could get so close to the monkeys that I just wanted to pick them up and hold them!; on the podium in Nagano; and a monkey didn't want to make friends with Yosha :(

Thanks for taking part in the adventure! 

 
 

 

Beef and a temple on a mountain!

Konbanwa from Yamagata! Hopefully the posts will be a little more regular now that we have settled into a routine...which is mostly using Yosha's laptop since wifi is slightly sketchy!

Since the last post, we got settled into Yamagata and had tasty beef for dinner. Yamagata is known for its yummy marbled beef so we thought why not give it a shot? The hotel staff recommended a place across the street so we tried it out. Unfortunately neither of us thought to bring our Japanese phrasebooks, something that we haven`t gotten too much use out of at this point since we were travelling with English-speaking friends. So we sit down at this restaurant, to find the menu had minimal photos and no English, something we have sort of gotten used to but hadn`t really had to deal with till now. We ended up ordering a tasty plate of beef that we grilled ourselves...and nothing else. The beef itself was absolutely fantastic but it was slightly odd to just have beef. It was a great reminder to always pack the phrasebook!

Today we ventured out to Yamadera to see Risshaku-ji, a temple on top of a mountain. There are over 1,000 stairs to the top, with amazing statues along the way. The view at the top of the mountain was definitely worth the climb! Even though it was on and off rainy and cold the whole day I felt that the mountains, temples and experience were worth it! On the way home we planned out next few days in Nagano (we leave tomorrow morning) and had a spicy black bean tofu dish and ramen noodles on recommendation from the server (we aimed for two dishes just to be safe though we would have been fine with just the tofu dish!).

A few side notes for your entertainment:

- For all that finding people who speak English has been a challenge, one thing that has come back time and time again is how incredibly sweet and helpful we have found Japanese people to be. From our Japanese hosts Makiko, Nonaco and her family, servers, train conductors and the hotel staff, we have felt nothing but welcomed here. Yesterday when we checked into the hotel was a good example. We were greeted by two gentlemen: an older man and a younger man. The older man had a better command of English so he was the one giving the information, though the younger man understood enough that he was the retriever of information. By retriever it was like watching something in fast forward. When we asked for a recommendation for Yamagata beef, he scurried around for pamphlets like he was gathering his most precious possessions from a burning house. I had issues with the wifi and both of them bowed apologetically so many times and so low I thought they were either going to throw their back out or break their teeth on the counter. One thing that surprises me is the lack of non-Japanese tourists. Though we may find more foreigners along our travels as we continue, so far on the walk to the temple there were only two other white guys, one of them being a Japanese girl`s boyfriend.

- Yamagata is an incredibly clean city but for some reason it`s almost impossible to find a garbage. Anywhere. Today on the walk back from Yamadera we ventured to a grocery store to get some food. There were were eating random meats on a stick and huge chunks of battered octopus but unable to find a garbage. Maybe Japanese people bring their garbage home? It`s really quite impressive that the city is so incredibly clean!

I look forward to more adventures in the next couple of days. We are going to Nagano tomorrow, then to see snow monkeys bathing in hot water pools (apparently they walk right up to you!), check out some castles, some samurai mansions, some old post towns...it`ll be enough to keep us out of trouble! We just can`t forget the phrasebook!

Anyways, more action to be continued!

Photos below: a sample from the kimono shoot; photos and a video on top of Risshaku-ji. I was amazed at how incredibly peaceful it was! (and yes it was cold enough for a tuque and I was still cursing that I didn`t bring enough to stay warm!)

 

 

Konnichiwa from Japan!

Hey guys thanks for following along on another adventure! I am so incredibly fortunate to take another wonderful trip with my very dear friend Yosha. Not only was she willing to travel with me in 2011 for a month, but didn’t hesitate to travel again with me for another month. I am really excited for more wacky adventures, and I hope you will enjoy reading them along the way!

We arrived in Tokyo safe and sound after a great 12-hour flight. Somehow they oversold their seats so we were moved to premium economy, which basically means bigger seats and if you are sitting at the window you only have to climb over one person instead of two to go to the bathroom.  We made it to the train to the city to meet up with Makiko. We got to see her place in Urayasu, close to Tokyo. She lives with 7 other girls in a really cool house. Her bed is sort of a bunk bed/loft, which we thought was neato! Once we got settled in to her place we tried to sort out the next couple of days. Because of Golden Week (two back-to-back long weekends where Japanese people tend to travel), we couldn’t get reasonable accommodations in Yamagata so we opted to leave the next day (Saturday) with her friend Nonaco instead to hang out with Nonaco and her family in the Iwate prefecture, not far from Fukushima where the awful tsunami destroyed so much of the country. (I met Nonaco when she came to Canada at the end of February).

We were thankful Makiko was there to sort out a lot of the details with finding accommodation prices in Yamagata, talking to Nonaco, and providing us advice about potential hiccups because of Golden Week. Once everything was sorted out we headed back to where Makiko met us at the train station to have some food. We stopped off at a convenience store. I wish convenience stores back home had this great variety of food! There are rows and rows of different Japanese dishes and snacks. Last night Yosha, Makiko and I had yakitori (yaki = fried, tori = chicken) and some onigiri, which is a rice cake wrapped in a nori sheet that usually has some kind of tasty magic in the inside. I had an egg and fish egg treat. Yum! Then we went out for dinner, where I struggled to stay awake. People can smoke in restaurants here which is a little odd, and there is a doorbell to ring for your server to come serve you. I am a huge fan of the bell, but obviously not of the smoking! Yosha and I crashed on the floor in Makiko’s room in a small futon mattress. Snuggling in a tiny mattress is just like being in Beijing all over again on our first night sharing a single bed to stay warm, only the first night we weren’t wearing all of our clothes trying not to choke on a dusty duvet. Ahhh, trip memories J

After not too much sleep we got up to meet Nonaco at the Tokyo train station. We got there with tons of time to spare so Yosha and I toured around at the food shops. It’s super fun to just see pictures of things with a price and trying to guess what they are. I really should get better at reading Japanese! But that would take out the fun of the adventure. Sometimes we are pleasantly surprised, like we got these cream puffed cupcakes with red bean paste and mochi, and other times slightly disappointed, like this weird dessert ball I got. (there is no shortage of sugary goodness here for those of you who think we are eating 100% healthy!!). We arrived in Shin-Hanamaki (Hanamaki City) to meet Nonaco’s family. It is such an amazing treat to be able to stay with locals! Their place is just as I would picture a traditional Japanese home, with tatami mats on the floor and sliding doors. Her family is very welcoming, even though the bulk of the conversations are taking place with Nonaco’s mom who studied English a number of years ago and Nonaco, who speaks some English.  They took us to a cherry blossom festival to see a ton of cherry blossom trees. The trees were absolutely gorgeous and I am incredibly thankful that Makiko suggested we come here so that I can say that I saw cherry blossoms! J We also had some incredibly fresh mochi (rice flour mixed with hot water), with green tea, some kind of black sesame paste and red bean paste. OMG melt in your mouth amazing!! That night we had an amazing sushi dinner with deliciously fresh melt-in-your-mouth fish, then booked our hotel in Yamagata on Monday and booked a hotel near Disneyland on our last night in Tokyo.

The next day we ran some errands with Nonaco and her mom, then spent the afternoon at an onsen. If you take the hot tub portion of Spa Nordic and put a whole lotta naked Japanese women in there, that’s basically an onsen. There was an enclosed area with a couple really hot tubs, a sauna and a rose petal bathtub (I am definitely doing that when I get home!!) and an open air part, on top of a mountain, that was the experience. It was amazing! Afterwards to clean up there we showered. Japanese showers seem to be where you sit on a bench that had a slot in it and use the handheld shower head to clean up. I try not to think of the fact I was sitting where another naked woman had her butt. Yes, I am still Western at heart J

Last night after the onsen and a tasty dinner at the top of the hotel  attached to the onsen, we went back home and Nonaco’s mom taught us traditional Japanese calligraphy. I thought I would be awesome since I studied Mandarin a few years ago and vaguely remembered the brush stroke order. There is a whole art to the angle of the brush, how you use the brush and how you end each stroke. It was a beautiful experience! I wrote “love” and “family” to decorate the new apartment when I get back!

Today we got up early and got dressed up in traditional kimonos. Nonaco’s father Yosuo is a photographer and has a proper studio upstairs in the house so we got to play with props (including wearing shoes that were insanely tight). I can’t wait to get the photos back and post them here!

Random observations (I find variations on what we consider normal are always the most fascinating when travelling):

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-   - Most toilet seats in Japan are heated. It’s flippin’ amazing! Why can’t we have this?! It’s like I want to drink more water so I can get my rear end warmed up. Some of them play music, like the sound of a toilet flushing in case you have a shy bladder.

-        -   I haven’t been overly frustrated by the lack of English but it’s definitely a challenge. Like, buying food and not really knowing what you’re getting. Seeing Japanese writing everywhere you go. Having cashiers speak to me in Japanese and I have no idea what they are saying. Thanks to calculators we make it work, and I am picking up a few words here and there so I am optimistic that with exposure and a bit of work I can pick things up along the way. I am happy to see that a country can continue to move along independently without giving up their own identity in the name of evolution.

-        -   For a country that is really advanced in the technology department, I am surprised at some of the health and safety stuff I have seen, like at the airport you can take your baggage carrier down the escalator (it’s a normal one not a ramp). When we stayed at Makiko’s, I noticed her dryer drips water on to the washing machine below close to the wires. Hopefully she will get this fixed!

-        -   There are lines on the platforms for the trains and in front of cashiers to tell you where to line up.

-          I haven’t quite figured out the no shoe thing. You can’t wear shoes in the house, but there is a specific way to place the shoes at the door. And sometimes there are slippers at the door to another room. There are often slippers in the bathroom too, which you leave at the door so you wear the slippers from the door to the toilet and back to the door.

-          - Bathrooms are disconnected from showers in a house. There is a tap on top of the toilet to fill up the water tank so when you flush the toilet you can rinse your hands with the water from the tap so you aren’t wasting water.

-          - When most people think of Japanese food, they think of sushi rolls like dragon rolls, California rolls, avocado rolls, etc. We haven’t had one sushi roll since we landed and I doubt we will. They are big on rice at every meal, usually some sort of soup, but the dishes are variations of fish, veggies and other random surprises. Tempura, edamame and soba noodles are authentic, but sushi rolls definitely aren’t. Not that they aren’t delicious on their own, but being in Japan has definitely redefined Japanese cuisine for me!

   

This trip is definitely different from my last one though in that I left my super fantastically amazing boyfriend Sean at home. It is really hard to not see him but we are making due with Skype and What’s app, but the problem with both of these is that I need to have a wifi connection, which sort of comes and goes. I am really lucky that he is so incredibly supportive of this trip even though it’s hard for both of us to be apart.

Thanks for following along! I will try to update more with shorter messages so you’re aren’t overwhelmed with text!

Photos: Yosha eating super amazingly fresh mochi at the cherry blossom festival; Nonaco, Yosha and I playing in the cherry blossom trees; a line of carp streamers tied to a cable near the river for children's day (for more info, check out wikipedia); Yosha and Nonaco in the kitchen after Nonaco taught us how to make onigiri for breakfast (rice cake with various things in it. I think we had tuna and eel); one of the many tasty dishes for dinner: tempura!; and showing off our calligraphy after dinner.