Japan

O.k. This trip to Japan started off very differently than how it ended up……

To start with, my Mandarin teacher, Carrie, suggested that the two of us go to Taiwan to see a museum there. We talked about a three day trip. I said, “We’ll have to go in August so it doesn’t interfere with the adoption trip, and the Australia trip.” So that’s what we talked about. Unfortunately, it is not easy for Carrie as a Chinese citizen to get a visa to Taiwan. She would have to pay a large sum of money and also provide bank statements showing that she had enough money to support herself. She thought that was a little much. So we started talking about other places to go. We finally settled on Japan. She had been there before, and had some recommendations as to what we should do. By then, it was too late to go in August, so we planned it for the first week in October (after the Australia trip, but about one week before we thought we were leaving for China). Then all of this trouble between Japan and China started over these islands. The Chinese are really angry about this and have attacked Japanese people in China as well as smashing Japanese brand cars there. (In my opinion, the Japanese aren’t as worked up about it as the Chinese people, but they’re still not happy about it.) Carrie looked into getting a visa for Japan, and found that it was about the same process as getting one for Taiwan. About this time, I asked her if it would be o.k. to include Hannah on our trip. She said that was fine. So I came home and asked Hannah if she’d like to go to Japan with us. I warned her that we would not be eating at McDonald’s, and that we might have a hard time finding non-seafood alternatives. (This was, in fact, my biggest concern about going to Japan – my aversion to seafood of almost any type.) Nevertheless, she decided that she’d like to go. (I think she has the travel bug that I inherited from my Mom.) Then a few days later, Carrie decided that because of the political situation, it would be better for her not to go to Japan. Hmmmmm. Then I had to decide whether to go ahead with the trip plans or not.
I really wanted to go and see our special family friend, Rica. We have known her for 20+ years. She was in college with my older sister, and became like a sister to me and a daughter to my parents. She is such a sweet person!!
I also figured that this could be my last opportunity to go to Japan. It’s much easier and cheaper to go from Singapore than it is to go from the U.S. Plus, there’s no jet lag from here (only 1 hour time difference)! Also, with the two new kids coming, I might not have the opportunity to travel again for a while.
So, as crazy as it felt to say ‘yes’ to a trip sandwiched in between Australia and China, we decided to go for it.
After I decided to go for it, I started thinking about being the only adult on the trip in a country where I don’t speak the language or read the signs. The first person who came to mind to invite to go with us was our dear friend, Emiko, from church. Emiko is such a jewel. She is a fine Christian lady, and an example to all who know her. She is a great encouragement to me personally! I tell people that she is the most international person I know because: “Her father is Japanese, her mother is Mexican, she grew up in Mexico, met her Norwegian husband in Texas, and now lives in Singapore!!” Her first language is Spanish, although she looks very Japanese. (Not just my opinion, everyone in Japan assumed she was Japanese and started speaking Japanese to her.) I asked Emiko if she’d like to go to Japan with us and she immediately said, “Yes!”. She was so excited! I asked if she might have some cousins or someone that she’d like to visit, and we could maybe plan to get together with them while we were there. She said she’d look into it.
We decided to use a tour company that would arrange our in-country transportation, hotels, and provide guides for 1 day in Tokyo, and 1 day in Kyoto.
I let Rica know which days we were going to be in Tokyo. She was so happy to hear that we would get to come. I asked her if we could go see her Mom, who had recently had knee surgery.
Somewhere very early in the trip we were talking about what we wanted to see and do. I asked Emiko, “You don’t want to see any sumo, do you?” Her answer was the same as mine, “ugh. Ewww. NO!” Then we decided that we would like to do the Gion walking tour (area famous for Geisha). So we decided to name our trip “The Geisha no Sumo Tour”. ☺ Every time we stopped to shop or do something the boys would be annoyed with, we’d say, “I sure am glad this is a Geisha no Sumo tour!”

We arrived in Tokyo about 8 p.m. The tour had a driver waiting for us. He drove us across Tokyo to our hotel. It took about an hour and a half to get there. Emiko and I chatted happily all the way. I don’t think our driver spoke any English.

Our hotel in Tokyo was the Sunmembers Tokyo Shinjuku. (Shinjuku is a neighborhood on the western side of Tokyo.) All three of us were in one room. In spite of warnings from friends and family, we did have a private bath! Yea. However, I must say, that the bathroom was very small. The whole thing was about the size of the shower at Marina Bay Sands! I figured out what was odd about it – it was made from one giant piece of plastic. Apparently, they make one mold with sink, shower, toilet, floor, ceiling, and walls and just drop it in the room as they’re building. The sink was touching the edge of the shower, so you could swing the faucet over to run into the bathtub if you wanted. The toilet had the Japanese-type seat with the rinse on it.


http://www.tune-in-tokyo.com/2009/02/japanese-toilet-seats/


I was skeptical, and a bit nervous about trying the ‘features’ of this type toilet. But I was somewhat reassured by the ‘pressure control knob’ on the control panel. I turned it all the way down and proceeded from there. First of all, the seat was heated. That is surely a wonderful thing – not only in winter, but it’s not bad in an air-conditioned hotel room either. I’m not sure I ever got the rinsing features to work properly, and I don’t want to go into too much detail on that.
As a summary:
1. I think these type toilets should catch on in the US. I’m willing to start the trend.
2. I see why they’re popular in Japan.
3. Asian hineys are smaller than American ones.
4. I did not make a mess or embarrass myself in any way.

Moving on.

Sunday morning we woke up in time to go downstairs and try out the breakfast buffet. We had paid for it the night before. It cost around $30 per person! They had some Western choices as well as Japanese foods. When we first walked in, we had to go past the fishy-smelling section. My first thoughts were, “Oh, this is what I dreaded about Japan! Please let there be something that didn’t come out of the ocean!” There was. ☺ I had eggs and toast and yogurt.
After breakfast, we went back up to our room and had a small church service with just us three ladies. Then we went down to meet our guide and Rica. The guide, Tomoko, got there first and we talked over with her what we wanted to do that day.
Then Rica and her 9 year old daughter, Ayano, arrived. Rica and I were both crying we were so happy. Rica kept saying, “I can’t believe it! I can’t believe my Knoxville family is here in Japan! I just can’t believe it!” It had been over 20 years since we’d seen each other. I had never met her daughter, and she had not met my kids. Ayano was shy at first, but gradually warmed up to us. I think she just wasn’t used to Westerners. Rica said she’s normally a chatterbox. I said she must be like O., and since they’re about the same age, we soon started teasing Ayano about marrying O.
Our guide was also a woman, so we were a group of 6 females hitting the city of Tokyo. Our first stop was going to be the Imperial Palace. We started walking toward the subway. On the way, Ayano discovered that she’d left her subway pass at home! I said, “She really IS just like O.!! Maybe it’s not a good idea for them to get married – who would remember to pay the taxes?!?” LOL. [O. has lost his MRT card a couple of times – he’s famous for not being able to find it.] Rica bought her a new ticket and we started off.
Tokyo’s subway system is huge compared to Singapore’s. There are many more lines, and the map is intimidating. BUT, it works great, and it’s mostly not too hard to figure out. At one point, we got off the subway and went outside just long enough for the guide to point out a few things. I think she was trying to show us things we could do the next day (when she wouldn’t be with us), but we already knew that we were going to be with Emiko’s cousin in the morning, and then Rica would pick Hannah and me up and we’d go to her Mom’s house. So I was a little annoyed that we’d interrupted our trip to the Imperial Palace to see the street where we might could go to get to something that we weren’t going to go see.
We finally did arrive at the Imperial Palace. The Palace grounds take up a huge chunk of real estate in downtown Tokyo! The Emperor still lives there. The public is allowed to come into the East Gardens. You can see a few of the buildings inside the Palace grounds, but you’re not allowed to go inside any of them. So basically you can walk around a nice park, see the moat and the walls (which were impressive). There is a castle tower ruin that you can climb up. It was built in 1638 and used to be one of the inner buildings of Edo castle. The park had many, many life-sized ‘bonzai’ trees. These were not the little ones you can set on a shelf. These were 50++ feet tall. I can’t imagine what it takes to keep them trimmed like that.
We stopped at a gift shop that was owned by the Imperial family. I didn’t want to buy anything there. This is where “The Japanese Conflict in Sheri’s Brain” started to rear its ugly head. First of all, I want to say that the Japanese people were wonderful!! They are BY FAR the most polite, considerate, orderly people we’ve seen in Asia. Not to mention Rica, who is like a sister to me! On the other hand….. I’ve heard enough stories from my grandparents’ generation (in America and Singapore) to feel like World War II is very real to me. (My Grandmother’s uncle was killed by the Japanese in WWII.) I guess you could say that while I love the Japanese people, I’m not a fan of the Emperor. The current Emperor is the son of the one who bombed Pearl Harbor. He must’ve been a baby at that time, so WWII is hardly his fault. But I still didn’t want to give him any money.

Anyway, the East Garden was very nice, very pretty. But by the time we’d walked around there for a while, we were ready for lunch. We headed over to the Asakusa neighborhood to find a restaurant.

On the way, we passed a group of kids and their parents chanting slogans and taking up money. I asked Rica what they were collecting for, and she said it was like the Red Cross. They were all chanting in Japanese, of course, but it was very monotone, and I imagine it was something like this, “Your change can help make a difference for tsunami victims. Please give money to help…..” The kids were sooo cute. By then, I’d already accumulated a pocket full of Japanese coins. I went down the line and dropped a coin in each kid’s can. It was fun. Their smiles were so cute and they all bowed and said, “Arigato, gozaimasu”. Then I turned around and saw that there was another line of kids on the other side. But I was out of change! Oops.

I forgot to mention that the next day was a National Holiday – Sports Day. So we hit one of the most popular places in Tokyo at lunch time on a three day weekend. Oops! Our guide clearly had a restaurant in mind, but when we got there the line was really long. So we kept walking until we came to a small restaurant. We had to wait outside until our table was ready even though we were first in line. It seems like a common practice in Japan to wait outside at restaurants. Finally some people came out and we could go in. Once we were inside, it was easy to see why we had to wait outside. There was no room! I guess real estate is so precious, that they made use of every square inch! There was very little room to move around in there! We had a good lunch. The food was mainly Tonkatsu – which is like breaded pork chop. No fish involved! Hooray!! While we were waiting for the food, I tried to make friends with Ayano, who was sitting next to me. I let her take some pictures with my camera. I gave her some Singapore money. Then I was digging in my bag to see what else she might be interested in. I found my passport and thought she might want to look at it. When the food came, I asked for my passport back, but she didn’t understand. She thought I’d given it to her! Oops. Rica explained to her what it was. She wasn’t too upset. ;-)

After lunch, we walked around Asakusa. Ayano took my hand, and she ended up walking along holding hands with either me or Hannah for most of the afternoon. There is a pretty Buddhist temple in Asakusa with some huge red gates. There are also a LOT of little shops lining the pedestrian walkway. We probably spent too much time going in and out of the shops. There were sooo many people there, it was difficult to keep our group of 6 together! We finally got all the way down the street to the temple. Our guide was showing us how they purify themselves before going into the temple by pouring water on their hands and washing their mouth and eyes. Then she offered me the ladle and wanted me to do all that. I wasn’t interested. Emiko had the best answer – “I don’t need to be purified. I was purified by the blood of Christ.” But we didn’t say that at the time. I’m not sure how offended the guide was that I refused her offer.

So let’s see…. So far I’m thinking that I just don’t like the Imperial family, and I’m offending the Buddhists. Well, that’s probably par for the course with Americans. LOL!

Near the temple there was a specialty bread shop. Rica had promised Ayano that she could have some bread from there. We had to stand in line for 20 minutes or so, but it was worth it. I was still full from lunch, but I sampled a piece of Rica’s bread – I should’ve gotten some! Hannah chose to have a shaved ice instead, and it was also very good. That was the biggest shaved ice I’ve ever seen!

By this time, it was late afternoon. We told the guide that we really wanted to go up in the new Tokyo Sky Tree. According to Wikipedia:

It became the tallest structure in Japan in 2010[2] and reached its full height of 634.0 metres (2,080 ft) in March 2011, making it the tallest tower in the world, displacing the Canton Tower,[3][4] and the second tallest structure in the world after Burj Khalifa (829.8 m/2,722 ft).[5]

http://www.tokyo-skytree.jp/en/archive/spec/


She told us that we might have to wait for over an hour to get in. We said, “We don’t mind!” So for some strange reason, she took us to an office building nearby where we could SEE the Tokyo Sky Tree. Hmmmm. Not getting our message across. So we said, “We still want to go up inside the Sky Tree.” This didn’t seem like her idea of fun, but she was gracious enough to take us over there. As it turns out, the tickets were sold out for that day. One of the girls there told us we could probably get tickets for the next day by going to one of the tourist agencies. So that’s what we did. We tracked down their office in the adjacent shopping mall. They had some kind of promotion that included various free subway and ferry tickets. But the big deal was we could pay $20 more each to not wait for 2 hours the next day to get in. Ah HA! So we took that deal. (For those of you thinking you would’ve just waited in line – the line starts at 6 a.m., and obviously you’ve never waited in line for 2 hours when you could’ve been doing something much more fun – like sleeping.) It took a while to get the details sorted out and the tickets purchased. By then, it was well past time for our guide to leave us, and we thanked her for all her help. Then Rica, Ayano, Emiko, Hannah, and I all started looking around for supper. On the way we walked past a store that had what Hannah and I called “Ducky Mo Mo” (Phineas and Ferb reference). Rica insisted that it wasn’t Ducky Mo Mo, and we knew it wasn’t really, but it was amusing enough to us that we bought some fake Ducky Mo Mo merchandise for the boys. I’m sure Rica told me what it really was, but I’ve forgotten. I think we were all exhausted by that point. The girls had become pretty good friends after our long day together, and they talked us into going to McDonald’s. sigh. I wasn’t hungry for anything, so I just got some water to drink.

After supper, we had to find the subway to get back to the hotel. The confusion started when we realized that there were 2 different stations beneath the mall we were in. O.k., the subway could be a little better organized. They should name them Sky Tree East and Sky Tree West or something. We eventually came to the one we wanted. I’m glad Rica was with us, or it would’ve taken a while to sort that out! We all rode the subway together, but we got off before Rica and Ayano did. There was a mall attached to the station, so we picked up some food for breakfast so we wouldn’t have to pay the $30 again.
From the subway station to our hotel was supposed to be a 10 minute walk, but we decided our feet hurt enough that we’d split a taxi.
This might be a good place to mention that taxis in Japan are outrageously expensive! We said something about taking a cab from the Tokyo Sky Tree to the hotel, and Rica and the guide both looked shocked! They said it would cost us well over a hundred dollars!! Then we were shocked! You can ride across Singapore for like $25. The ride from the station to the hotel would’ve cost about $4 in Singapore. In Japan it was more like $18. But Emiko and I figured it was only $9 each, and a bargain for our throbbing feet.
The next morning, we ate our breakfast from the pastry shop. Emiko and Hannah wanted to take a taxi back to the subway station. So we did. I should mention that taxi service in Japan is awesome. Maybe that’s why it’s so expensive. The drivers dress like chauffeurs, including white gloves and cap. The seats are covered with white, lacy material (think enormous doily). We asked the front desk to call a cab for us and the driver walked in to get us! Also, they have automatic doors. You don’t have to touch a door handle getting in or out. Pretty neat. (I kept forgetting about that – habit.)
Anyway, we took the subway back to the Tokyo Sky Tree. We did pretty well without getting lost. ☺ We met Emiko’s cousin, Carola, who went up in the Sky Tree with us. We didn’t have to stand in line at all – which was awesome considering there were probably a thousand people there. We enjoyed the view from way up high. Tokyo is one of those cities that just seems to stretch out forever. It was such a clear day that Hannah and I had a conversation about the shadow of the Sky Tree being a giant sundial. We wondered if the people in the buildings in the shadow said, “Oh, must be lunch time, the shadow is here.”
When we came down from the Sky Tree, we stopped in a Totoro store. Totoro is huge in Japan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Neighbor_Totoro

I haven’t seen the film, but Emiko is a fan. She said the toys in the store were 1/3 the price she would pay for them in Mexico, so she stocked up on some things for her nieces and nephews.
Then we decided to go to the Tokyo National Museum. We had vouchers for free subway tickets, so we thought we’d use those. Well, that was a mistake. As it turns out, in order to use those we had to change trains twice (instead of once) and go pretty far out of our way to do so. Lesson learned. It took a lot more time to get there than it should have. We also forgot to use our vouchers for our “free gift” (we were told it was a postcard) at the Sky Tree. We had yet another voucher for a “river cruise” which we investigated long enough to see that it was more of a ferry. After the subway voucher, we were pretty suspicious.
We did finally arrive at the park where the museum was. It was a very nice park and the weather was perfect. (In fact, the weather was wonderful for the entire trip!! – except for some light rain the first morning.) Sunny, 70’s with a light breeze, no humidity. Ahhhhh! Because it was a national holiday, there were lots of families in the park. We walked down a wide path that had strings of wishes or prayers written on colored pieces of paper. It was very pretty. We came to a fountain and everyone wanted to just sit down and have a snack for a minute. So that’s what we did.
Then we went in to the museum. The contents of the museum were very good. The exhibits could’ve used some work maybe. There were not a lot of explanations in English (though more than in other places). The overall feeling of the museum was that they didn’t have enough stuff to fill up the rooms, so they spread it out a lot. Maybe that was so crowds of school children could come through more easily. Or maybe it was some noveau-art museum technique. I don’t know. I did like the museum, though.
By the time we finished in there, it was time to meet Rica and her family. So we said, “See you later and Goodbye” to Emiko and Carola respectively, and hopped in the car with Rica, her husband, and Ayano.
Our first stop was at Yoshinoya for lunch. This is a restaurant that serves “beef bowl”. Yumm!! Here is a link with a recipe. I’ll have to try that sometime….

http://iowagirleats.com/2011/11/21/japanese-fast-food-at-home/

They have ‘beef bowl’ restaurants here in Singapore, but I’ve never searched one out. Now I will.
After lunch, we settled in for a long drive to Rica’s mother’s house. She lives out on the edge of Tokyo in a little community that reminded me of Halls in the 1980’s. We needed to stop to get something, so we went in the local grocery store. Rica was pointing out things to us and we ended up buying some bread that was similar (though not as good quality) to the bread Ayano had asked for the previous day. We also looked around for a birthday cake for Rica’s mom. I overheard Rica and her husband (Koichi?) talking in Japanese. It was a universal conversation though. I told Rica, “You just said, ‘what should we get?’ and he just said, ‘I don’t know – it’s YOUR mom!’” She laughed and said, “You’re exactly right!”. See? People are the same everywhere! ☺
They decided that the grocery store didn’t have what they were looking for, so we headed over to a bakery. The bakery was a French-type establishment, so the prices were high. But we found a good cake and split the cost.
When we arrived at Rica’s mom’s house, she was soooo happy to see us! She had just had knee surgery the month before, but she is recovering very well! We couldn’t get her to sit down. She stayed in the kitchen preparing sandwiches and soup and rice balls, and so many things for us to eat. I kept saying, “come sit down!” but she wouldn’t. Her kitchen was what is known formally as “a one butt kitchen”, so there was no way I could help. (She wouldn’t let me anyway, and I had no idea what she was making, and she doesn’t speak any English….) We spent a very enjoyable evening at her home. The girls made origami, and the adults talked. We all swapped presents. They gave us so many things! Rica had bought us a set of really nice plates. Very Japanese, and very nice!! She also gave us origami supplies including a book with English directions signed by the author. Her mom gave us cute little towels and beautiful chopstick holders. Rica had to interpret for me and her mom. We talked about how we met, (which is probably a blog entry in itself). We cried a lot talking about my Mom. Our moms share the same birthday, so it was also my Mom’s birthday. Rica told me she just couldn’t believe that a total stranger (my mom) would drive an hour and a half one way to be interviewed by her school teacher so that we could host Rica for Thanksgiving and Christmas. That was in 1985. Our families have really learned a lot from each other since then!
I was telling Rica that because she had taught me how to do some simple origami back in 1985, I’d bought more paper from time to time and done a few more creations. When Hannah was little, I pulled out the supplies and taught her a few things. She went on from there, and is now much better at it than I am. But the interesting thing is that Hannah has taught origami to many different groups of Girl Scouts. So, think of all the people who’ve learned origami from that one hilarious day in 1985 when Rica so patiently taught us how to make a crane. (We were TERRIBLE!! We’d never seen or heard of origami, so it was like trying to teach Ma and Pa Kettle to do something delicate!!!) I also still remember how to sing “Sakura” (Cherry Blossom song) in Japanese. Rica taught me that in 1985 and started my first language learning craze. Unfortunately, they didn’t teach Japanese at my high school, so I took French. But, as I told Rica that night, I think she was an influence on my Mom to let me go study in France. I think mom saw that Rica was even younger (16 instead of 19), and did just fine in a foreign country. If I hadn’t gone to France on my own for a year, I can say confidently that I would be a very different person today.
We talked about Hannah hosting Ayano to come to the U.S. to study someday. Wouldn’t that be something?!! Rica kept saying over and over and over how we MUST come back. I don’t know how that’s going to happen, but it would be nice. She kept planning things like, “You could stay with my mom – she has 4 bedrooms!” But then I’d point out that it’s more than 2 hours from the airport, about 2 hours from her house, and her mom doesn’t speak English. We finally decided that we should all meet at Tokyo Disney or Disney Sea for a group family vacation. I don’t know if that will happen either because of the new kids’ visas, but we’ll see. I’d love to do it!
Too soon it was time to drive back into the city. The traffic wasn’t as bad as everyone feared. We figured it would be horrible because of the public holiday/three day weekend coming to a close. I want to say something here about how Japanese people really take pride in their jobs. I noticed that everyone was really polite to us (and to everyone really – we didn’t get extra politeness because we were tourists or anything). But the tollbooth operators were so different than in the U.S. Again, I don’t speak Japanese, but the gist of it sounded like this, “Hello. Here is your ticket. Thank you very much. Please have a nice day. Drive Safely.” This was NOT said in a monotone. It sounded genuine. It was 5 or 6 sentences. Can you imagine saying that several thousand times in an 8 or 10 hour shift? Ugh. In the U.S. they wouldn’t say anything. Or maybe a muttered ‘thanks’ or ‘here ya go’. Think of the energy it takes to make it sound polite. I tell you they had pride in their job and wanted to be the best tollbooth operator in the company. Lessons to be learned! Seriously, I will remember those tollbooth operators for a long, long time. (Eccles. 9:10 “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.” And Col. 3:23 - And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men…”) I’m singling out the tollbooth operators, but this was true across the board in Japan. Taxi drivers, desk clerks, subway tickets sellers, the girls at the Tokyo Sky Tree, etc. etc. Everyone was so polite and helpful – even if they didn’t speak English they would do their level-headed best to help us.
Well, we arrived back at the hotel to find Emiko getting ready for bed. It was so hard to say bye to Rica. She didn’t want to leave, and we didn’t want her to go. We all agreed that two days together wasn’t enough! Hopefully we will get to meet up again sometime soon.

The next morning we had to get up early to make it to the bus stop on time. We called for a cab again (this time I didn’t argue because we had all our luggage). We showed the driver our bus ticket and he took us to the correct bus stop at the subway station. There were a couple dozen different bus stops! In fact, there were 2 within 10 feet of each other. There was no shelter or anything in between, so they just relied on the driver’s to pull up to precisely the correct post. In the US, if the driver gets within 30 feet, you’d say, “Oh, that must be our bus”. The Japanese are much more precise (see above comments about pride in your job). Anyway, we were early enough that we decided to walk around the corner for ‘second breakfast’ at McDonald’s. I can’t tell you how many days we ended up having some sort of mid-morning snack. Hannah and I called it ‘second breakfast’ (Lord of the Rings reference).
The bus ride to Hakone was good. The first part was typical city scene, and we got stuck in a traffic jam for over an hour. But eventually, the scenery gave way to countryside. We went over this very large and impressive bridge. I tried to find a picture of it on the internet, but I wasn’t successful. It stretched from one mountain to the next across a very narrow valley. I’m sure it has a name, I just don’t know what it is.
Anyway…. We arrived at the correct bus stop. Then we had to get on another bus to our hotel. This one had announcements in Japanese and English for each stop. Hooray! Our hotel was a short walk from the bus stop. We were staying at the Hakone Guest House.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g298171-d319904-Reviews-Fuji_Hakone_Guest_House-Hakone_machi_Ashigarashimo_gun_Kanagawa_Prefecture_Kanto.html - REVIEWS

They are mostly a traditional Japanese Guest House. They cater to foreigners, though, so in our room we had an airconditioner/heater as well as a sink. We did sleep on futon mattresses on the floor. I slept like a log! If I do ever get to go back, I would definitely stay there again!
After showing us around, the daughter of the owners gave us some excellent information about how to see the area. She had clearly done this before!! She had timetables, maps, and everything. It was very easy to follow the ‘tourist circuit’ using her directions.
First we took a bus to Gora. Our tour provided a “Hakone Free Pass” for each of us which covered all our transportation in the area. We got some lunch in Gora at a little fast food stand. I think we all had hotdogs. Then we boarded the “cable car” to ride up the mountain. It was a little confusing, because the “cable car” was really one of those incline railway things. When we got to the top, we got on the “ropeway” which is like a cable car/sky tram to me. No ropes were involved, thankfully! But each car was suspended from two cables instead of the normal one.
We went up and over the top of one mountain and across a valley of steaming sulphur (reminiscent of Rotorua). It looked to me like they were mining sulphur down there, but what do I know?? We saw steam coming out of the ground in several places, but no bubbling mud or geysers. We were lucky enough to be able to see Mt. Fuji. Not everyone who goes to the area gets to see it. Apparently, it likes to hide in the clouds. It was very obvious which one was Mt. Fuji. It was twice as tall as any other mountain in the neighborhood!
We got off the “ropeway” in Owakudani. We didn’t have a lot of information on the place, but we just explored a little on our own. O.k., mostly we went in the gift shop! :-P The specialty there is black eggs. They are black from being cooked in the sulphur. The eggs were expensive, and you had to buy 4 of them at a time, for like $10 or $12! Emiko was really against buying them, Hannah acted like she might possibly try one, but I didn’t want to spend so much money on something that no one really, really wanted to eat. So we looked at the eggs and bought better stuff.

http://atlasobscura.com/place/owakudani-black-eggs

I bought some wooden puzzle boxes for everyone in our family. Some of them take as many as 20 steps to open! We were intimidated, and only bought seven steppers. They’re pretty cool.
Here’s a video of one of the designers opening a couple of different styles. The video is pretty long. You might want to fast forward at times….

http://www.forbes.com/sites/marcwebertobias/2012/11/01/japanese-secret-boxes-the-coolest-security-puzzles-for-kids-and-adults/


After shopping, we looked out over a few of the overlooks, including one behind the shop that had our best view of Mt. Fuji for the day. You can only climb up Mt. Fuji at certain times of the year. October is not one of those times. Apparently, the tourists go in the early morning and try to get to the summit to see the sun rise.
After taking some photos there, we went back to the ropeway station and got on another ropeway that took us down to Lake Ashinoko. By then it was getting late in the afternoon, and we caught the next to last “pirate ship” across the lake. This ship was pure tourist-o-rama. But still, it was cute. I’m sure the little kids would love it. The cruise itself was nice. We enjoyed the views of the lake and mountains. It would definitely be nice to come back and spend some time along the lake shore.
Originally, we’d planned to get off at the first stop and do a short walk through the woods to the 2nd stop. But for some as yet still unknown reason, the boat went to the 2nd stop first. Oh well. It was getting darker and colder, so we were glad that we weren’t out walking in the weather. So we took the bus back toward the hotel. We knew we had to change buses. But we got off one stop too early. Fortunately, we figured out what we needed to do (cross the street and catch a bus going the other way) in order to get back to the hotel. Unfortunately, we missed a bus while we were deciding that. So we had a long COLD wait. But eventually we made it back to the Guest House. After we got cleaned up, we decided to walk around the little town and find a nice restaurant. We’d been warned that they closed at 7:30 or 8. (It is a sleepy little town!) Sure enough, our first two picks were closing. We gave up and decided to try a little Italian place. We could see people inside. But they said they were full for the rest of the night. Sigh. We ended up going to “Family Mart” (similar to 7-11) and buying sandwiches or microwave meals. Before you cringe too much, let me just say that convenience store food in Asia is NOT like convenience store food in the U.S. I’m not saying it’s Michelin 5 star or anything, but it’s not horrible. It’s better than public school cafeteria food, for example. The selection is usually pretty good too. I had a fresh Cesar salad and some pasta. Emiko had sushi (which she said was better than any sushi in Singapore). Hannah had spaghetti. They also had fresh fruit and dessert (of course!). We were quite happy with our meal.
We took everything back to the Guest House and warmed up the pasta and spaghetti in the microwave in the common area. We met some other travelers there and enjoyed chatting with them.
When we checked in to the Guest House, the lady had already reserved us a time at the private Onsen (traditional Japanese hot bath). We also signed up for the inside Onsen. We decided after touring all day that one Onsen would be enough for us. So we told the other travelers that they could have our slot for the outside bath.
So….. a word about Onsens……. The traditional Onsen is a hot spring fed pool or bath. It’s meant to be enjoyed in the nude. They still have public ones all over Japan. Some are divided by gender, some are not. The nice thing about this one, is that a) it’s private and you can lock the door from the inside and b) we were a group of girls traveling together and c) no one would know [until now] that we all broke the rules by wearing our bathing suits.
You’re supposed to soap up and rinse off before you get in the onsen. There was a little stool for you to sit on while you do that. I washed my hair and myself and put my bathing suit on and got in. I have to say that it was very very nice. I don’t know if it was the minerals in the natural water (similar to Bath, England, but not as pungent), or just the heat and the fact that we were tired. But it felt really, really good!! Funny thing, though, after about 10 minutes I was ready to get out. I can normally sit in a hot tub for 30 minutes or an hour. This one started feeling too hot after I’d been in and gotten used to it. I’ve never had that happen. Normally, the water starts to feel cooler after a while.
I did manage not to melt into a little puddle until I’d dried my hair and put my p.j.’s on. I slept like a baby. No, I take that back, I slept really well, even though I was on a thin mattress on the floor. Ahhhh!
We had to leave the next morning for Kyoto. ☹ First we took a bus to the train station. Then we got on the Shinkansen (bullet train). That was really cool. I kept trying to film the other Shinkansen blowing through the station. I was standing on the platform and I left my camera on and ready to go. But by the time I saw or heard the train coming and pushed the button, the front of the train would be past me. Yeah. It’s that fast.
Our tour included reserved seats on the train. I really enjoyed watching the countryside go by. I think train travel is my favorite mode of transportation. I don’t have to drive, I can get up and walk around, and airplanes are still kinda scary. Anyway, the train followed the coast for most of the trip, so there were lots of good views of the sea peeking out between hills.
When we arrived, we found our way to a taxi stand and showed the driver the address of the hotel. We learned pretty quickly that Toyoko Inn is a chain and they have like 30 hotels in Kyoto. Our taxi driver brought us to the wrong one! Argh. Did I mention that taxis in Japan are expensive?? Well, we took another cab and this driver got us to the right place.
Toyoko Inn has a strict policy of NOT letting you in your room between the hours of 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. so they can clean. We got there about 2 or 3, so we had to leave our bags in the lobby. It seems like a goofy policy to me, but there ya go.
We decided to head out and try to see something of Kyoto on our own. First stop was for some more of that Beef Bowl stuff! Yum! Then I studied the maps and saw that Ninjo Castle was not too far from the hotel. It looked like we would need to change subway trains once in order to get there. So we headed out. We soon discovered that the Kyoto subway system is the most confusing and inconvenient one in the known universe! They took what could’ve been a decent system and sold it to three different companies. Technically there’s a subway and a train (both of which run underground) and a cable car (no, this one is like a San Francisco cable car). But they’re all on the same map. If you have a particularly BAD map, there’s not enough detail to see that the east west line ends before it gets to the station we needed to change in. (That other station was a train station, not a subway station.) So we were somewhat surprised when the train stopped and then went back the way we’d just come! So we had to find another route. Finally we did figure it out. I found a map that showed which stations were subway and which were “train”. Of course you have to buy a new ticket when you switch from one to the other. There’s no ‘weekly pass’ or anything of the sort. Each ticket was about $2.50, so if you switched lines, it was $5 one way. Hmph. Kyoto could really learn some lessons from Tokyo, or better yet – Singapore, when it comes to subway systems!!
Well, we finally did make it to Ninjo (or Jo-Jo) Castle. It was pretty cool. We got there about an hour before it closed, so the crowds were thinning out. Perfect! We had to take our shoes off to go in. This was pretty much the ONLY historic building that we were allowed to go in on the whole trip. It was very very cool inside. The ceilings and walls were the highlight.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nij%E2%89%88%C3%A7_Castle

Click on some of the photos for a closer look. We weren’t allowed to take photos inside. I bought a book with some photos of the interiors.
You could really imagine the samurais and kimono-clad women walking in the halls! I’m sure it was jaw-dropping in its day. It’s definitely one of my favorite things that we saw in Japan. We had to walk a little more quickly than we wanted through the gardens at the end, but it was still a very nice place. By then, we decided to have a little snack and head over to Gion.
At 6 p.m., there was a walking tour of the area that we signed up for. Gion is famous for the “Geisha”.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gion

You can decide for yourself what you think about Geiko and Maiko. It was emphasized on our walking tour that they are NOT prostitutes. They are skilled entertainers and performers. Many of them are older. The ones in highest demand are usually older because they’ve become masters at what they do. The customers are not always dirty old business men either. Most parties are for men and women. The prostitute misconception allegedly started after WWII when some fake Geiko advertised to American sailor-boys and lied and told them that they were “geisha girls”. These were actually prostitutes. However, I read online that as recently as the 2000’s, some of the girls’ virginity was being auctioned off. I would like to believe that it is a legitimate entertainment field and that the girls are as pure as they are graceful. But I really, really, really wanted Lance Armstrong to be innocent too. So that shows you how naïve I am sometimes!
At any rate, we did see some of the houses where they live and we learned about some of their training and daily life. It actually sounds a lot like “Memoir of a Geisha”. They are continually taking classes to keep their skills up. Their kimono and hair clips etc. cost upwards of $15,000 each! They need 3 or 4 outfits per month or season! But they do make heaps of money if they can stay ‘booked’. Each party costs about $5000 for one person to attend. AND you have to be invited by a regular teahouse customer who knows the teahouse owner. It’s almost like a secret society thing. I can’t imagine being a “regular customer” at $5k per party! Those must be some incredible parties!
We learned a little about how to tell the difference between an apprentice (Maiko) and a professional (Geiko). We saw two Maiko’s as we were walking around the area. (One that night, and one the following day.)

So by the time we finished the walking tour, we were beat! Emiko and Hannah had no trouble talking me into a taxi from the end of the walking tour back to the hotel. We got lucky and got a cabbie who really wanted to practice his English. He was so nice! He told us about his daughter and we talked a little about taxis in Singapore vs. taxis in Japan. His English was so good, I asked him if he was going to be working on Saturday morning when we would need to go to the train station to catch our train to the airport. He said, “No, I’m sorry. I am not working then. But please, can you remember for me 2 words in Japanese? ‘Kyoto-eki shome’ Then the driver will take you to the right place.” ☺
He was great.
Emiko is such a good travel partner! I was so happy that she didn’t insist on going to a fancy sit-down restaurant for our dinners! ☺ So, guess what? Yep. We ate at Family Mart again! LOL! We used the microwave in the breakfast area of the hotel to warm up our sandwiches and things. This time, we had 2 separate rooms, but we all ate in Emiko’s room. These rooms were smaller than the previous ones. They had the same ‘drop in’ all-one-big-piece-of-plastic bathroom. Our room had the bathroom in the middle of the room and one twin bed to the right, and one twin bed to the left. Maybe that’s not clear, but I’d never seen a room laid out like that. It was clearly for business people whose company was too cheap to get two separate rooms. Hannah and I each had our own t.v., a.c, phone, alarm clock, desk, etc. There was no room to walk between the bed and desk – just barely room to swing your legs down so you could sit at the desk.
The next morning, we met our Kyoto guide in the lobby. (I think her name was Suhiko.) We made a plan for the day and headed out. Our first stop was the cable car station. We bought one day passes for the bus (which didn’t cover the cable car, of course!) as well. We took the cable car all the way to its western terminus at Arashiyama. As soon as we got off the cable car we saw a bunch of cute little shops. (!) We were attracted by a display outside one shop and wandered inside. The shop was selling silkworm cocoons that had been made into little animals or other things. (You’ll have to see the picture!) They were sooo cute!! I bought a little animal for everyone. Emiko also bought several. We could almost hear our guide thinking, “Oh. It’s one of THOSE groups!” We’d bought a dozen things in the first shop we went in! ☺ We went on and walked through Tenryuji temple on our way to the “Bamboo Forest”.

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3913.html


The temple was o.k. The outside of the buildings were clean and pretty, but of the same white with black trim that we’d seen a lot in Japan already. The main attraction here was the zen gardens and pond. These were very well done. It was almost peaceful there. I’m sure it would’ve been much more peaceful for the monks who used to live there in the days before school groups and tourists were tromping through there. I saw a blue heron that I was sure was a statue. It was perfectly placed in the garden. But then it moved. We walked around the ponds and gardens for a while and then walked through the neighboring Bamboo Forest.

http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/nature/news-kyotos-beautiful-bamboo-forest

We exited the Bamboo Forest along a riverside. There were no other tourists back there, so we enjoyed a quite walk along the river back to the cable car station. We even saw a cormorant (bird) on the way. The cormorants are the trained ‘fishing birds’ that the Japanese used to use to catch fish. Now they only use them to entertain tourists during certain months of the year. Happily, the one we saw was wild.
We took the cable car back into town and found a nice place to eat lunch. The restaurant was called “Mr. Hungry Boy”. They served Okonomiyake, which is a traditional “Japanese pancake”. Now whoever decided to call that a pancake has never seen what I make for breakfast! It was much closer to what I’d call ‘loaded hashbrowns’. Mine had onion, pepper, pork, and of course potatoes in it. It was very good! I would definitely like to eat there again.
After lunch, we took the bus to the Fushimi Inari Shrine area.

http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Asia/Japan/Kyoto_fu/Kyoto-973793/Things_To_Do-Kyoto-Fushimi_Inari_Shrine-BR-1.html


This place is a Shinto temple. It is very pretty. There are thousands of red tori gates there. All of which were put up after someone or some company made a donation. The larger the donation, the larger the gate. Some were 20 feet tall. The smallest were small enough to fit in your hand and were placed directly on one of the altars. We saw the priests feeding the gods their evening meals. (!) At which point I’d really had enough of temples for this trip. It’s really sad to see people worshiping things like mountains or foxes or trees instead of the One who made those things. I wanted to say, “My God doesn’t need to be fed!” but I restrained myself.
After the shrine, we walked back down to the bus stop and took the bus back into town. Our guide went with us over to the Gion district and then it was time for her to leave. We had asked her to take us there because we wanted to see the cultural show at the little theatre there. The theater was the endpoint for the previous night’s tour. We had a coupon for a discount to the cultural (i.e. tourist!) show. At the show, they did several different demonstrations: a (partial!!) tea ceremony, some traditional flower arranging, music played on traditional instruments, a dance performed by a Maiko, a comedy play, and a puppet show.
My pictures didn’t come out nearly as good as these:

http://www.kyoto-gioncorner.com/global/en.html

I highly recommend it for tourists like me who just want to get a ‘taste’ of the art forms, and not spend a fortune or several hours on any one particular art form.

By the end of the show, we’d had a pretty long, but good day. Once again we opted for the taxi option back from Gion to the hotel. We decided that since we were splitting the cab fares it wasn’t that much more expensive than a taxi in Singapore, and we didn’t want to venture into those subway/train tunnels anymore than we had to.
I don’t remember if we ate at Family Mart that night, or just had some snacks. We were pretty tired!
The next morning, Emiko’s other cousin was going to meet us. However, she couldn’t come until 11 a.m., so we had a few hours on our own to explore a little bit. We decided to go back down to the area where we’d eaten lunch the day before. It looked like there were a lot of shops around there that needed to be investigated. So we took the subway down one stop and walked around. The problem was, none of the stores were open yet! We ended up having second breakfast at the Starbucks (or some similar place) there. When we got back on the subway to go back to the hotel, the funniest event of the trip took place. Background:
It is very rude to talk on a cell phone on the bus or train in Japan. However, Rica called right as we were getting on the train to tell us goodbye before we left Japan (She thought we were leaving that morning.) I was torn between being rude to Rica, by saying, “I can’t talk now”, and being thought rude by the strangers on the train. I went with being rude to the strangers. I thought I might even get by with the ‘stupid foreigner’ trick. Hannah was sitting on my left, and on her left there was a Japanese businessman. He leaned out around Hannah so he could give me a dirty look. It looked like the second set on this page:

http://www.happehtheory.org/2010/09/19/the-bug-eye-view-of-the-human-body/

It was kinda funny, actually. You have to imagine that look with the lower lip stuck out. Finally, I told Rica that I was on the train. She instantly understood and said she’d call me back later. Nevertheless, it was really hard not to laugh at that guy’s face!! We all agreed that he looked like something out of a cartoon! Emiko thought he was somewhat scary looking, but I was just trying not to laugh. I figured if I laughed, he would get seriously mad. We did all laugh about it after we got off the subway and far away from him.
We made it back to the hotel barely in time to meet Emiko’s cousins, Yasuko and Naka. We were a little nervous, because unlike her cousin in Tokyo, these cousins supposedly didn’t speak any English! Hmmmm. We thought this could be a problem. :-P Turns out, we had nothing to worry about. It’s true that the Mom (Yasuko) didn’t speak English, and that her daughter who accompanied her spoke very little. But we were able to communicate pretty well. We really had no idea what we wanted to do that day, we had a few suggestions that we’d pulled from the guidebooks, but nothing we had our hearts set on. I think we were all tired of temples and shrines though! So shortly after we met, Emiko’s cousin pulled out an itinerary that someone had written down in English. Cool. It said something like:

Walk to pick up lunches. Cable car to bus to Movie Park. Bus to supper. Train to hotel.

O.k. then. We had no idea what or where this Movie Park was. Was it in Kyoto? Was it a 4 hour bus ride away? We had no clue! But the day turned out exactly like she had it written down. We walked a mile or so down the street (thus learning that Emiko’s cousin is in good shape!! Even though she’s old enough to be my mother, she walks faster than me!), and picked up some box lunches to take with us. We took the cable car again and then a bus and were feeling pretty clueless about our destination. Finally, we walked around the corner and came to this place:

http://www.pref.kyoto.jp/visitkyoto/en/theme/others/uzumasa_movie/

It was a theme park! Perfect! We ate our lunches after we got inside and then we began to look around. Emiko’s cousin found us a show schedule in English and we started to make the circuit. We had to watch out for her though. She kept grabbing our arms and trying to force us to ‘volunteer’ at the shows. We made it through without volunteering though. Whew! Other than the show schedule and talking with Emiko or Hannah – there was no English to be found in this place. Hannah and I were the only brown-headed people we saw all day. ☺ But we got the gist of what was going on.
We saw a stunt show that was funny enough without understanding what they were saying. I’m sure it was hilarious if you know the language. Then we saw a street performer-type man who used something that looked like bamboo placemats to do some funky tricks. It was impressive. Then we saw a ninja/samurai show. That was really the first time in our trip that I thought, “The boys would really like this!”
Next we went into this shop and Emiko’s cousin started herding us through a narrow door. Wanting to trust her, but remembering how she’d tried to volunteer me at the show, I was very leery! She pushed me into a little booth, which honestly I didn’t know what was going to be in there! As it turns out, she’d paid for us to all have a turn throwing ‘ninja stars’. The little booths were to protect the throwers from one another (they get a lot of school groups). But you couldn’t see anything at all ‘till you were inside the little booth. We had no idea we were about to do this activity. I thought for a minute she was pushing me into a bathroom, or onto a stage or something! LOL! We all did fairly poorly at throwing ninja stars. After all, I’m not sure ninja stars are supposed to be on a “Geisha no Sumo” tour. But since the title doesn’t specifically forbid them, we gave it our best shot. One of mine actually stuck in the board 6 inches from the target.

Then we went through the “Ninja House” which was the scariest thing we did in Japan by FAR! We went over there and there were signs everywhere (in English even) that said, “Do NOT stop moving forward inside or you could be seriously injured.” Uh…. Do we want to do this?!? That’s about all the instructions that we could understand. But we went inside anyway. They did a brief introduction in Japanese. We managed to figure out that this was a puzzle house and we were going to need to figure out how to get out of each room. They let us out of the demo room in groups of 3 or 4. We heard screaming coming from inside the house and we’re thinking, “Are we going to get hurt?”. When it was our turn, we went through with no problems. It wasn’t too hard to spot the hidden exits because they were more worn than the panels around them. It was fun, and I’d recommend it – especially now that YOU know it’s safe. At one point, we turned a corner and had to walk on those mats that they used to put down for gym class. I thought, “Oh, here we go. They’re expecting us to fall in this part. Great!”. But either they had pity on us and didn’t jump out and scare us, or the mats are part of the bluff. We made it through just fine.
After that, we walked around and looked at some of the museums they have there. We also watched a street show about sword fighting.
After the movie park, we took the bus/cable car/train back over to the east side of town near Gion. Emiko’s cousin knew a restaurant to take us to. It was up on the 14th floor or so. We got a corner booth. It was a very interesting restaurant, because it was very traditional and yet very modern at the same time. Each table had sliding doors for privacy (we have no idea how many people were in the restaurant – we couldn’t see inside any of the booths). Once you open the door, you have to step down to the floor. It’s designed so that you feel like you’re sitting at a traditional table on the floor, but there’s enough space under the table that you’re actually sitting in a ‘normal’ western-type position. We ordered our food on a tablet-type device. The menu had pictures and it was easy to use. The specialty of the restaurant was yakitori, which was lots of different types of meat-on-a-stick. Anytime we wanted more of something, we just touched it and a few minutes later a waiter would slide open our door and present it to us. All of the waiters and waitresses had to kneel on the floor at the entrance to our booth, which also made it feel very traditional. Our corner booth had two glass walls/windows. Emiko’s cousin didn’t like sitting on the outside, so I volunteered. It was similar to the feeling I had in Auckland when I stepped out on the glass floor in the Sky Tower. The view of Gion was great! We sat there and enjoyed our meal as the sun went down. It was a perfect ending to a great day, and a great trip!
We made our way back to the hotel and thanked Emiko’s cousins for the great day. Then we had to start packing for our 5:30 a.m. departure! Ugh.
I did remember the ‘two words’ for the taxi driver in the morning, and they worked perfectly! He took us to exactly the right spot. The problem came on the platform. Our tickets said, clearly enough, “car #2”. So we lined up on the platform where it said, “2”. Then, as the train was pulling in, we heard an announcement that the train was coming in ‘reversed’ or something like that. Uh?? So the train pulls in, and I said, “Just hop on, we’ll walk inside the train ‘till we get to our car.” So we jumped on and the train pulled out. We were in car number 8. We walked through car #7 and came to a dead end! Oops! The conductor came out and we gestured our predicament. He gestured back that at the next stop we should get off and get back on at the correct car. So when we were pulling into the next stop, we lined up at the door and went over our game plan: “We’ll run as far as we can, and then when the crowd starts thinning out, we’ll jump back on. Better to be on and in the wrong car, than stuck at whatever station we’re pulling into!” I was really afraid that the conductor on the platform would see us getting off with our suitcases and think we were at our destination and he’d whistle for the train to move out. So when the doors opened, I took off running. We must’ve looked crazy! Three of us running down through there with our suitcases and shopping bags!! About ½ way, we passed a Western-looking businessman running the other way! He’d done the same thing we had, but in reverse! LOL! We jumped on before the train pulled out and only had to walk inside one or two cars to get to our reserved seats. Whew!
The rest of the trip was uneventful, and we made it home to Singapore that night.
Why is this blog entry nearly as long as the last one, yet we only stayed ½ as long?