Had a great time in Japan with Teresa. I think we could get used to taking vacations occasionally just the two of us.
Teresa prepared for the trip by brushing up on her Japanese with Rosetta Stone software, and it was great to hear her speaking Japanese. One of the neatest things for me on the trip was getting to hear her speak Japanese to people, asking for directions and talking to taxi drivers. That was pretty cool.
Mom and Dad came up to Chicago an Saturday 27 March and drove us to O'Hare airport, then took all five kids back to Fort Wayne for the week, which we greatly appreciated. The kids were counting down the days before they got to go stay with grandma and grandpa. We got to the gate at the airport, and it was very crowded, almost no place to sit. The flight was 100% full, and was in fact 10 people oversold. We thought about taking the bump until the next day, but were too excited to get to Japan to give up our seats.
Because I had planned ahead, I got us exit aisle seats, which generally means more legroom. On this flight, however, my seat in 33A had "limited legroom because the emergency exit door protrudes into the legspace." Meaning that I couldn't extend my left leg during the 12 1/2 hours on the flight. It was fine, though, and we were excited to go. We had the same seats on the way back, and Teresa was really nice to take that seat -- thanks, Teresa! :)
Our flight left at 12:48pm on Saturday, and arrived at 4:00pm on Sunday into Tokyo. We ended up waiting in a long line to get through immigration for about an hour and a half, then went to get Japan railways passes which gave us unlimited train use around Japan for a cheaper rate since we were tourists.
We got on a train that night to Shinjuku station in Tokyo, and walked to our hotel, passing the American Eagle Outfitters store and Krispy Kreme donut shop, which seemed pretty much like home. We stopped in the American Eagle Outfitters with all our luggage as Teresa asked for directions to our hotel in Japanese.
We walked across a main street, and quickly made it to our hotel, the Hotel Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku. The room was small but clean, so I would recommend it. We watched some Japanese TV, then went out to a noodle shop to eat. The noodle shop was interesting because they had to show us how to order-- you put your money in a vending machine, then push a button on the machine corresponding to a small photo of the noodle dish you want. You then take the ticket to the counter for the cook to make for you. It seems like a good system because there is no line and no cashier needed.
We got some snacks that night afterwards at a convenience store, which is where I found Banana KitKat. It was pretty great. During our trip, we tried several different types of KitKat bars, including banana, cheesecake, sweet potato, and wasabi. Some were better than others. Over the years, I have learned, there have been over 60 flavors of KitKat bars in Japan. Anyway... we also went to a karaoke place, where they had karaoke rooms and did that for a while. You don't do it in a bar, just in a small room, so only Teresa and I could hear each other. We did that four times on our trip because it was a lot of fun.
Day 1-
Monday morning we woke up, and I went jogging as part of my theory on getting over jet lag quickly. My no jet lag technique is this:
1) Go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day you are in a new place
2) Eat a lot right before bed (so you are not hungry for "lunch" at midnight)
3) Exercise first thing in the morning
4) Be outside and see the sunlight as much as possible during the day
5) Don't nap
We went to Kamakura, near Tokyo, on Monday. It was great to see some sakura (cherry trees) in bloom as we walked around. We saw a number of shrines and temples in this area, which was an ancient capital city of Japan. We spent a while at Kencho-ji temple, which was quite pretty. We ended up hiking uphill on a wooded trail to Hansobo shrine, then farther up the hiking path there was an overlook of the whole Kamakura area. There were statues of karasu-tengu along the way, big statues of goblin-like creatures with wings and a beak, for added entertainment. We kept thinking that we were at the top of the trail, but it kept going. We probably hiked for an hour up the stairs, which was cool but we were feeling pretty worn out by the time we made it to the top, and we were both sore for about two days after that.
Our motivation for walking was waning, but we did hike north a ways to see the impressive Engaku-ji Temple. It was clearly a very popular spot, with lots of crowds seeing the buildings there. We then took a taxi to Rai Tei, a traditional Japanese restaurant, with beautiful gardens. We sat on low stools and had a great view of Kamakura and surroundings, since it was set on a hill. I had a bento box, and Teresa tried the soba noodles. While we were eating, the sunshine turned to light rain, and the weather was mostly cloudy or a misty rain off and on for the remainder of the trip. It was quite cold, so we were happy that we brought our warm winter coats.
We went by taxi to the Daibutsu "big buddha," which is one of the iconic images of Japan. The bronze Buddha is 37-feet tall, and used to be inside a large wooden temple, until the temple was washed away in a tidal wave in 1495. It was cool to see, and it was clearly another very popular attraction, from all the visitors present. After the Daibatsu, we went to the Hase-dera temple, which had lots (thousands?) of tiny statues representing miscarried and aborted babies. Teresa had seen both Daibatsu and Hase-dera when she was a missionary, so she was a tour guide for me.
We walked from Hase-dera to the train station, stopping at a book store along the way to see the books. It was a quick stop because neither of us could read the words, so only the picture books held any interest for us.
The train took us to Yokohama station, and we got out and walked around. That was a disappointment-- Teresa wanted to see some of the area where she worked as a missionary, but the neighborhood around the train station had been so modernized that there was only one building that was the same as when she was a missionary about 20 years ago.
We hopped back on the train and went to Hakuraku, which was Teresa's first mission area. After a little wandering around the train station at dusk, trying to figure out the right way to go, we started walking up a hill that Teresa recognized. We stopped at a bakery where Teresa used to get good deals on bread heels as a missionary. As night came, we sat there and ate a hot dog biscuit and a soft roll. We were pretty tired and cold by that point, but decided to press on.
We walked farther up the hill, passing a bar that included the English words "Junk food" as an advertisement for their hot dogs and hamburgers. Not very flattering to Western food :). We found the church in Hakuraku, and were surprised to find it open on a Monday night. We walked around inside, and saw that someone was in the chapel practicing piano. We went to the room where Teresa would teach English classes, and explored the rest of the church, which had been updated a bit since Teresa was there.
The next trek was to find Teresa's mission apartment, which we managed to do without a lot of difficulty. We walked up to the door and got a photo there. It was more run-down that Teresa remembered, with a washing machine sitting outside the front door. We had accomplished one of the things I really wanted from the trip, which was for Teresa to be able to revisit some of her mission experiences.
Day 2-
We woke up pretty early, did some scripture study, then headed to Tsukiji fish market at about 5:30am. It was a bit of a ride on the train, and we talked with a couple from London who were also vacationing and heading for the fish market.
We walked around the fish market, and saw all the refrigerated trucks getting fish from the docks, and all the warehouses where the fish were being prepared to ship the night's catch to locations all around Japan. It was quite a busy place, with forklifts, boxes, trucks, and fish all over the place. Or particular quest was to try the freshest (and best) sushi in Japan for breakfast. We went to a sushi restaurant that was filled almost completely with tourists, and had a long line outside. I assumed it was the right place to go, and it really was great. We both had the set menu of squid, shrimp, sea urchin, six tuna rolls, the famously soft Anago eel, two toro sushi, and tamago (egg). Easily the best sushi I've ever had; it was really fresh-tasting. Some was pretty different, but we both ate it all.
The next stop in our journey was Ueno Park, where the sakura cherry blossoms were in beautiful bloom. It was like a carnival, with food booths all around, and musical performers. There were people and families with blankets and tarps out to have picnics under the blossoming trees. We tried sweet potato fries and okonomiyaki (Teresa's favorite Japanese dish-- a pancake made with egg, meat, cabbage and other ingredients. It's better than it sounds). We set at a bench overlooking a lake with swan-shaped paddleboats for a while. We were pretty tired from our Monday hiking, and it was nice to sit for a while until we got so cold we needed to move again. It was quite a lovely setting, though. We got some ice cream and spent the remainder of our afternoon hanging out in the park. We then headed back to Shinjuku and did some karaoke and walked around a big department store there.
Day 3-
We walked to Shinjuku park, but found that it was closed, so we took a long hike around the perimeter of the park, checking out the neighborhoods and enjoying some morning sunshine before we took the bullet train to Kyoto.
Teresa and I got to sit together during the 2 hour ride on the bullet train, and had the chance to see Mt. Fuji along the way, which was pretty neat. The train was quite comfortable, and had reserved seats. Seemed like a pretty efficient and nice way to travel.
We arrived at about 1:15, and made our way from Kyoto station to the Hotel Monterey Kyoto, which we enjoyed very much. It was a bit bigger than the hotel in Tokyo, and they spoke English really well there, so it was even easy for me to manage on my own there. When we arrived, we walked around the shopping district for a while. We then headed for Maruyama Park, and walked along the paths, admiring the cherry blossoms and nice scenery. The park was not so crowded, and had some places to sit and reflect.
Afterwards as it got dark, we headed to the Gion neighborhood, which is one of the most famous geisha districts in Japan. The streets were lined with traditional wood houses, and we saw a geisha heading to an appointment at one of the buildings, wearing a kimono, of course. We saw a lot of women wearing kimonos in Kyoto, and learned that the city wanted to encourage wearing kimonos, so many attractions in the city are free if you wear a kimono. You can also get free gifts in some shops if you wear a kimono.
To finish the night, we walked down some narrow cobblestone streets with shops and traditional restaurants, and stopped at an inexpensive curry shop for a bite to eat before bed.
Day 4-
We had an all-day bus tour of Kyoto, starting first thing in the morning that day. It was fairly rainy, but we had a great time and covered a lot of ground in one day. We saw:
1) Nijo castle - one of my favorite things to see in Japan. The home and headquarters of the shogun. It featured "nightingale" floors throughout that make a squeaking / chirping sound to warn the shogun of anyone sneaking up on him.
2) Kinkakuji pavilion - a building surrounded by a lake, built by the shogun to show his wealth & covered completely with gold.
3) Imperial palace- where the emperor was made the emperor. Interesting symbolism throughout. Many places in Japan have an orange tree and a cherry tree, which has a symbolic pairing for some reason, but I forget what.
4) Kyoto handicraft center - bought some souvenirs here and had a buffet lunch
5) Hein Jingu shrine- a big orange and green shrine, which also had a cherry tree and orange tree. Had a lot of open space.
6) Sanjusangendo Hall- this was really impressive, with 1001 human-size statues of the Buddhist deity Kannon. Every one was ridiculously highly detailed and were all carved by hand from wood in the 1200's.
7) Kiyomizudera Temple - This is where our guide left us when we paused to get a photo leading into the temple. He had our tickets, so we were stuck outside for a while. The guy at the gate realized what had happened, and let us in, fortunately. It is set up high on a hill, and has a porch that overlooks a wooded area. The fountains of water are rumored to have healing properties, so people come there to gather water or get a drink from the waterfall.
We had eaten so much junk food along the way that day that we didn't eat dinner. I tried black sesame ice cream, which is not as bad as it sounds. Finished the night with some karaoke singing and some shopping.
Day 5-
We hopped an early train to Nara, the "original" ancient capital of Japan, and perhaps my favorite site of the trip. We went to Nara Koen, which is the wooded park area where most of the major sites are.
The claim to fame of Nara is the presence of tame deer throughout the park. Not just a few, but over a thousand. You can buy deer cookies and feed the deer there, if you want. They seemed pretty docile, but there were signs around warning you about the dangers of charging and biting deer. We ran the "deer gauntlet" :) to get to Todaiji temple, which was, I think, the most impressive structure that I saw while in Japan. The temple is the world's largest wooden building, and has a giant Buddha inside. It was quite an active temple, with chanting going on inside, and a number of visitors. It is so massive that it does not seem crowded. I was just amazed that something that massive could have been built 1300 years ago.
We walked toward the Kasuga Taisha shrine, and walked a path with hundreds of ancient stone lanterns. That was really neat to see. They light the lanterns twice a year to invite back the spirits of dead ancestors. The moss-covered lanterns made it seem like a very old place.
We saw a 150-foot tall pagoda and some more temples and a historical museum. After that, we searched for a restaurant, and found a hole-in-in-the-wall cafe that was the kind of place that catered to real Japanese people, not tourists. There was no English menu, and even Teresa had to point at the plastic food in the case outside to show what we wanted to eat. We had a favorite dish of rice, chicken, and egg, named oyakodon. It's a really nice comfort food for a cold day.
We hopped a train back to Kyoto, and caught a taxi to the Philosopher's walk, which was a long walkway along a canal that was lined on both sides with sakura cherry trees in full bloom. It was an amazing sight to see, and we got a lot of photos along the way. It was a pleasant walk, and we stopped a few times to just sit and chat. We made it back to the hotel, and went out to eat at a nice restaurant where they had okonomiyaki and shabu-shabu, which is meat and vegetables that you either boil in water or fry in soy sauce at your table. It was all-you-can-eat, and it was really delicious and fun. Pretty messy though, because it really tested my skills with chopsticks, putting the veggies and cooked meat in dipping sauces.
Day 6-
We headed to the train station, and took the bullet train back to Tokyo to catch our flight back to the USA. It was fun to be there, but nice to get back and see everyone. We left Tokyo on Saturday at 4:55pm, and arrived in Chicago on Saturday at 2:20pm. We drove to Fort Wayne to see mom & dad and to pick up the kids. We stayed the night to celebrate Easter the next day!
