Two Long Weekends

This is another double update with pictures from two different vacations and it’s taken me this long to put up the photos.

Silver Week
Silver week was a 5 day weekend formed from a 3 holidays put together in a row. Mana visited and we actually did a few things. First, we went to a baseball game. Sendai is home to the Rakuten Eagles. They’re pretty new but this season they did pretty well and made it to the second round of the playoffs.

It's a pretty nice stadium.

They're cardboard. The Eagle's two star pitchers.

Before the game they had some families come on and play catch.

Mana and I both bought jerseys.

The next day we went to a coastal down called Matsushima. It’s famous for the islands along the coast and the views from various mountains in the area. Unfortunately we couldn’t go to any of the famous Four Views of Matsushima, but we did take the coastal cruise and went to the local temple grounds.

An old-fashioned Dutch auto-organ. There was a museum nearby.

There’s an incredibly long bridge (although I can’t remember how long) that connects the mainland to one of the largest islands in the bay.

Some sort of fishing grounds.

Kanejima Island

Neojima Island

There was a flock of seagulls that followed the boat pretty much the entire 45 minutes cruise. They actually sold “seagull bait” which was pretty much just snacks. It was neat for about 5 minutes that seagulls would snatch them out of peoples’ hands or out of the air, but it got kind of annoying. Who pays $15 for an island sightseeing cruise and spends the whole time feeding seagulls?

In the town there was a store that had a variety of handmade wooden goods. The guy made all sorts of things, including Kokeshi Dolls (like the one I gave you, mom), and really cool tops that would spin normally, then, when they slow down, flip over and spin on the handle. He had a tool set up so people could paint their own tops. A girl was doing it while we were there and I snuck in a picture, trying to be discrete so her dad wouldn’t think I was being weird.

The bridge from earlier.

Afterward, we went to a famous temple in town called Zuigan-ji. It was beautiful, as just about all Japanese temples are. It’s become pretty much a given. The buildings were under renovation which was a little strange. I have this image of an ancient temple grounds, but really these buildings are used by monks everyday so of course they have to keep things intact. The result was a few buildings which were bright and new connected to the older ones. It made a strange contrast.

Beautiful temple entrance lined by tall pine trees.

This temple was unique, though, because it had tombs carved into the rock side. In front of each were statues representing various Buddhist figures. Combined with the rows of trees across the path and the whole area was really surreal.

The tomb of a nobleman's wife.

Rooms built into rock.

The next day, we went to see a Fall festival in one of the areas of my city that happened to be that weekend. Of course, I forgot my camera, but managed to take pictures of several of the parade wagons with my phone. Each wagon was very intricately decorated and had people in them performing with drums and flutes. Unfortunately, all the pictures are pretty blurry due to them being taken on my phone.

Zao
A couple weeks later, there was another, regular long weekend. Mana visited again and we went to a town called Zao. This area is famous because it’s in the mountains and has a particularly famous view of a volcano-formed lake. When I say in the mountains, I mean mountains. From the bottom it takes about 45 minutes to get to the top of the mountain where the lake is without traffic. With the traffic we ran into on the second day we went up, it takes about 3 hours.

The first time we went up it was cloudy, which meant that the top of the mountain was basically in the clouds and we couldn’t see anything. I did take a few pictures on the way up, though.

Shop halfway up with food and gifts. You can see the peaks covered by clouds.

When we got to the top, this is what we saw:

Kind of disappointing. So disappointing that we came back the next day. After all, that’s why we came in the first place. Before that, though, we went to a farm area right next to our hotel. The entire area is kind of strange – it was almost like being back in the US although the buildings had a very Dutch feel. It was very idyllic with rolling green fields, mountains the distance, and various cute farm animals to pet.

The goats actually seemed to like being petted. Acted almost like cats.

And, randomly, rabbits. I’m not sure I want to know what they did with them, but hopefully it wasn’t for their meat.

We went to a nearby area that has a scenic bridge. Unfortunately the season was still a little early for truly great foliage, but it was still nice.

View from the bridge.

Beyond the bridge there was a path that led to a lake. Unfortunately we didn’t really have time to explore the area so I was just able to snap a few photos before we headed back.

The reason we had to get back is that we had to make it in time to milk a cow. The farm makes their own milk and cheese, and everday they let people milk a cow (for a price of course). It actually wasn’t my first time milking a cow, although I had to think about it to remember if I had done it before, but it was Mana’s first.

I felt kind of bad for the cow, being milked by so many people.

The aforementioned European-style buildings.

Finally we went to try our luck again on the mountain. As I mentioned before, this took over three times as much time, but when we got to the top it was entirely worth it. The only problem was that it was absolutely freezing at the top. Neither of us were prepared for how cold the wind was. It was too bad, because if we had been we could have stayed longer and explored more, but as it was, we really couldn’t stand to stay too long. I still got some good pictures though. As nice as they are, though, they couldn’t really capture just how grand and beautiful the view was. Especially before we left, when it was just about sunset.

To be a tree on a mountain top. There was no wind when I took the picture.

Finally at the top.

This is the sight that was completely obscured the day before.

Did I mention it was freezing cold?

If we had been more prepared, we could have gone down to the shore.

The view was just absolutely incredible. I wish we had been able to stay longer but it was too cold. It was, so far, one of the most beautiful areas of Japan I’ve seen. The natural beauty of this country is stunning – from the coasts to the mountains. I feel really lucky to have been able to see Zao, especially since we failed on the first try.

A Sports Day and a Jazz Festival

Well, obviously it’s been a while since I’ve updated. Part of the reason is laziness, but also I hadn’t really done anything for several months. I’m finally getting some new stuff up, though.

Unfortunately I appear to have lost my camera’s memory card. Most of the pictures were already on my computer, but I did lose all the pictures I took during summer vacation, including a bunch in Yokohama while I was staying there with Mana. It’s not the end of the world, but it’s certainly a pain in the neck and I had to buy a new card.

Tome High Sports Day

This happened way back in July. All Japanese schools have sports days once or twice a year. Basically they choose a few sports, and all the students form teams out of their classes and spend a few days competing against each other. Remember that these kids are grouped into classes that they stay with for all of their lessons. So a third year student, for example, has been in the same room with the same 39 other students for three years. Obviously this tends to develop a sense of loyalty and team pride and it all comes out on Sports Day. The competition is incredible. Eventually, when a class gets knocked out, they will go on to cheer for other teams in the same year, so towards the end it was a mass of 1st year students cheering against 3rd year students as their respective teams were playing each other.

The sports were ping pong (taken way more seriously in Asia than the US), softball, basketball, and volleyball. Each class chose their own team shirt. The 1st and 2nd year classes had custom t-shirts done, and the 3rd years all had replica soccer jerseys with whatever they wanted for their name on the back. It was nice seeing them all out of uniform and acting like they do outside of school. They actually seem more like real kids this way.

I didn’t take a whole lot of pictures because really they wouldn’t have been that different.

I took a few videos, too. The level of team support was crazy. In semi-final games, they would act like every point was the game-winner. Anytime a team lost a point their classmates would cheer them on even harder. They had all sorts of chants and songs. Team support is serious business in Japan.

One of the third year classes had a drum and used it well.

Getting psyched up for the game.

Celebrating a point. Sadly this one was pretty tame – I didn’t record any of the really good celebrations.

Cheering on their teams.

Sendai Jazz Festival

More recently (last weekend) I went to Sendai for their annual Johzenji Street Jazz Festival. This was the 19th year running it. I didn’t go last year so I wasn’t sure what to expect and the scale of it really surprised me. I was expecting a stage and a bunch of bands playing throughout the day. Instead, there were something like 45 different stages spread throughout the center of the city. Most of them were just little areas on the sidewalk or in front of a building set up for bands. The music ranged from big band jazz to soul to rock.

The setup meant that there were literally hundreds of bands playing over the course of the weekend. That sounds great, but since I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go I ended up always having the feeling that I was missing something. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to see a whole lot, but I still had fun and the whole thing is free.

I did manage to catch one big band orchestra that were pretty good.

The highlight of my day there was a band called The Fave Raves. They were a polyester-suited R&B and Soul cover band. The lead singer did his entire set in badly-accented English and was really fun to watch. I think I watched their whole set and the area in front of them totally filled up after I got there and the crowd was really into it.

This video’s kind of boring but the kid is cute so I kept it.

They even brought out the cliched backup singers/dancers. There’s the afro’ed, black tank-top girl and the old school Parisian hipster.

That night, on the main stage they had a big, headliner sort of show. I had been hoping for some sort of big band orchestra or jazz but was kind of disappointed. The first group was headed by three marimba players. It was kind of neat at first but their songs more or less all sounded the same.

After that a Spanish band came on, and I didn’t care for their opening song so I left.

The whole event was really impressive and seemed liked a really unique event for the city. My only regret was that I feel like I missed a lot of it while running around trying to find music I liked.

Kyoto

I’ve been putting it off because I have a lot of pictures to upload, but I’m biting the bullet and finally posting my Kyoto pictures.

For Golden Week I visited Mana and went with her and her parents to Kyoto. Golden Week is a series of three holidays, starting on April 29th and continuing to May 5. In order they are: Showa Day, Constitution Memorial Day, Greenery Day, and Children’s Day. Mana and her parents were going to Kyoto for an event on the 1st and invited me to tag along with them. We ended up driving. Normally it takes about 6 hours to drive from Tokyo. We left at around 3:30 in the morning with the idea that we would miss traffic. Apparently everyone else had the same idea, and the 6 hour drive took about 14 hours. I managed to pass out for a lot of it, but poor Mana’s mom was at the wheel the whole time. I really have no idea how she did it.

Kyoto is one of the most beautiful places you can see. It is a city built around history, with temples and castles that are hundreds of years old nestled among the modern architecture. We managed to hit most of the biggest spots, and, like always, I’ll just post the best pictures I took.

Hikone Castle

The first full day we were there was the event that Mana and her parents had gone for. They were there for the morning and early afternoon and left me to my own exploration. We had agreed that I would go to Hikone Castle. Kyoto has several famous castles but this one is apparently one of the only original-construction castles in Japan. A lot of landmarks have been destroyed several times over the years, but rebuilt. This one, I think, is still the original.

I waited for about an hour and half to get inside the castle and, unfortunately, the inside was really not worth it. There was some interesting architecture but it’s actually pretty small and basically it was just a line of people slowly moving through it and then back out. Not a whole lot of interest is inside beyond seeing how it’s built.

The castle's guest house.

Like any castle worth its salt, this one has a moat.

Nanzen-ji

Nanzen-ji is one of countless Buddhist temple complexes in Kyoto. The grounds to these places are absolutely gorgeous. I can’t imagine how it looked when the cherry blossoms were in bloom because they’re everywhere. As it was, everything was green.

Apparently there’s a story that a famous thief climbed to the top of the building and, when he got to the top, couldn’t help but exclaim, ‘What a wonderful view!’.

The temple has its own aqueduct for water from the nearby lake. It was pretty bizarre seeing it, and even stranger when we realized it was still working.

For dinner we went to a nearby tofu restaurant. This area is known for its tofu because to make tofu you need very pure water and the nearby lake is famous for its incredibly pure water. The restaurant was wonderful – it had about 3 different buildings with a Japanese-style garden between them.

What's a Japanese garden without Koi? I liked the huge golden one.

Dinner was Yudofu, which is a pot dish based around tofu. The meal consisted of around 10-12 different courses with the pot dish as the main one. I only took a picture of the first dish.

Miho Museum

The next day we went to the Miho Museum of Art. This museum is owned by the group Mana and her parents are a part of. It was designed by the same architect who designed a section of the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. It is really beautiful. It’s stuck right into the forested mountains, and the architecture is as much a part of the art as the regular exhibits.

The admissions building is separated from the galleries by a road and tunnel leading up the mountain. It’s about a 5 minute walk and they also have golf carts that run back and forth.

The exit of the tunnel with the museum in the distance.

The main hall looks out onto the mountains.

On our way back we stopped at a nearby operating old-fashioned farm house. The same group runs the farm and it grows rice and other things. The farmhouse is built in the old style and people are free to go in and look around. The museum’s structure is actually made to resembly one of these old-fashioned farm houses.

I actually thought this next picture was really interesting. Apparently this stone was a left-over from the construction of a castle either in Kyoto or Osaka. The holes are basically perforation; they chiseled them in so that the rock would break more or less in a straight line and they could then use it in the castle.

Fire pit with fancy hook for hanging a pot.

The roof is tightly-woven rice stalks.

You can see how tightly-packed they really are.

Kinkaku-ji

The next day we went to Kinkaku-ji. Literally translated it means The Temple of the Golden Pavillion and it’s one of the most famous sights in Kyoto. It’s actually been rebuilt at least once as it was burned down by a crazy monk.

This tree is apparently around 600 years old and cultivated to look like the prow of a ship.

Kiyomizu-dera

Our last major stop was Kiyumizu-dera, or Pure Water Temple. This is another Kyoto hotspot.

At many temples in Japan you can get a piece of paper with your fortune on it. If it’s a bad fortune you’re supposed to tie it to one of these things. I tried to but ripped it which probably means I’m in for really bad luck. Mana was able to get it on there, though.

The main pavillion.

The main draw of this temple is the fountain. There are three streams that fall and you can take drinks from them. Supposedly each stream is different, and give you wisdom, health, and longevity respectively. I didn’t know this at the time and just got some water from the nearest one. I didn’t feel any wiser, healthier, or more long-lifed, though.

Aside from being beautiful, Kyoto has a nice atmosphere. One interesting thing is that most, if not all, of these temples are still operational and monks still live and practice there. I think that aspect keeps them from feeling like pure tourist traps. If they were simply landmarks and places filled with stands selling tchotchkies I don’t think it would feel as pure. As it is, though, the temples are places where people took pilgrimages to for centuries, so even though most people today are doing it as tourists, it somehow doesn’t detract as much from the sanctity of the temples. Or perhaps it’s just that Japanese tourists are so much more well-behaved than westerners.

Hanami

Not only am I posting an update within a week of taking pictures, but I’m doing it the same day. Shows how I have nothing to do after kendo on a Friday night.

The kanji for the word hanami (花見) literally means more or less flower and seeing. So, a less literal translation would be flower viewing, or, more specifically, cherry blossom viewing. Every year the cherry blossoms bloom in Japan, and it is such an anticipated event that they developed a word just for it. Thousands of Japanese families go out and have picnics under the cherry blossoms, eating food and getting drunk. Not only is it beautiful, but usually it means that the weather is finally changing and heading towards the brutal Japanese summer.

I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to get any good pictures of the cherry blossoms. They don’t last long as it is, and apparently because it’s so windy in this area they tend to fall off even more quickly. The weather wasn’t cooperating either, with a day and a half of rain followed by a very windy night. They held on, however, and let me take a bunch of nice pictures, even if the weather was a little dreary and cold.

I went to two parks, one of which is really close to where I live and one which is about 20 minutes away. The first was a bit of a surprise since, while I can see the trees from a distance, the are is on a hill so I didn’t know what was on top.

Steps to the park.

This area was wonderful because it had several dozen large, old trees that made a canopy of blossoms. There were lots of birds chirping, and the petals fell like light snow.

The second park reminded me a lot of the tidal basin in Washington DC. It was a lake ringed by a walking path and cherry trees.

There's a bridge that goes across the lake in the middle.

I kind of wish I could have been there when it was dark. You can see they have lights along the trees and the bridge has lights too. I’m sure it would look really nice at night.

Being in Washington DC definitely got me used to the sight of cherry blossoms, so perhaps it wasn’t as awe-inducing as it could have been to see them here. What is nice, though, is that they’re everywhere. Most schools have a bunch of cherry trees that bloom. Blossoming cherry trees can make just about any area look beautiful. Looking at hills in the distance you can often see clusters of cherry trees looking like clouds stuck among the regular greenery. It’ll be disappointing when they’re finally gone, but there’s a good reason they’ve become the ultimate metaphor for the impermanence of life in Japanese art.

Tome Graduation Ceremony

I’m way behind on this update, but better late than never.  On March 1st high schools had their graduation ceremonies. I went to Tome High’s because it’s my main school. I wanted to post some pictures because it’s the first time I’ve been able to take any of a school event that shows the students.

First and second year students watching.

The principal wore a full out morning suit with tails.

Students standing as their name is called.

The biggest difference between Japanese and American graduation ceremonies is that instead of each student called up to receive a diploma, instead they are called by name and stand as a class based on homeroom, then a representative goes up and receives a bundle of diplomas to pass out later.

One group's representative about to receive the diplomas.

Bowing upon receiving them.

A view of the gym and all the students. Parents are to the right.

The newly-graduated students filing out at the end.

In other news, spring is finally here and I think I’ve used my heater for the last time until next winter. The weather has been gorgeous for the past few days and looks to stay that way. Of course, with the Japanese spring comes the cherry blossoms, and this will be my first chance to see them in their native country. I’m planning on going to a couple parks in Tome this weekend. that I know have trees so I’ll be able to post pictures soon.

Taiwan

I’m even more late in making a new post than usual. In my defense it takes a long time to re-size pictures and upload them. Also, Mana was visiting for a while so I didn’t have time. And I’m lazy. In the middle of February, Mana, our friend Erika, and I went to our friend Sean’s wedding in Taiwan. His family was wonderful enough to let us tag along as they took Sean’s wife’s family around to show them various spots in Taiwan. Taiwan was a balmy 20 degrees Celsius which is about 70 degrees Fahrenheit, so it was a nice break from frigid Japan. It was sort of awkward traveling around with two families, neither of which was ours, but we had some fun and saw a lot of nice places. Typical Taiwanese meals are at a large round table with a central platform that spins. Big dishes are brought out and everyone takes what they want. The food was interesting to say the least. I liked some of it, but there were definitely dishes that didn’t agree with me.

From left to right, Sean’s mother, father, Sean, and his wife, Ju.

Chiang Kei-shek Memorial

The day after we arrived we all went on a chartered bus to the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial.

The main gate leading to the memorial grounds.

Picture of Mana with the families in the background.

The whole compound is surrounded by a wall with gates on each side. Aside from the memorial itself, there are two almost identical buildings that face each other. One is an art museum and the other is the Taipei opera house.

There’s also a really nice garden are with a pond. It’s really peaceful and gives the whole area a much more natural feel.

What’s an asian garden without a Koi pond?

View of the memorial from the garden.

View of the rear gate from the top of the memorial stairs.

View of the main gate. The big black structure is a stage being set up.

The memorial itself. The whole thing is very similar to the Lincoln Memorial.

On either side are guards that I mistook for a statues at first.

A view of the memorial wall from the outside.

Wedding Reception

In Taiwan Sean was only having a wedding reception. His wife is Thai, and they had already had a full wedding ceremony in Thailand for her family, and then they had another one the the U.S. at the end. It made more sense to just have a big dinner party in Taiwan. It was at an absolutely enormous hotel that I forget the name of, but that looms over everything around it.

We had to move way far away to get the whole thing in the picture.

View from Sean’s suite. That is all smog, unfortunately.

National Palace Museum

The next day we went to the National Palace Museum which is the most famous museum in Taiwan and one of the largest art museums in the world. Photography wasn’t allowed in the exhibits so I could only take pictures of the outside.

I really messed this panorama up but it’s a view from the front of the museum.

Another picture of the same area.

Taipei 101

Afterward, we went to Taipei 101 which is the world’s tallest completed skyscraper. On the bottom floors is a huge, high-end shopping mall. Most of the people went up to the top of the building to see the view. Mana, Erika and I decided not to, though, because the smog was bad enough that we realized it would have been impossible to see much of anything.

As the day went on and it got darker, the smog also got worse. I periodically took pictures of the building and could see the smog level coming farther and farther down.

The area around Taipei 101 is all shopping and high-end malls and offices.

Night Market

The last place we went was the night market. There are a lot of night markets in Taipei, but this one is supposed to be the largest. These are areas, open from about 4pm to about 2am, that have lots of food shops and then, separately, areas with stores and street vendors selling just about everything. This is where you get knock-off bags and whatnot. This place is absolutely insane. You can see from the pictures just how crowded it was and someone told us that this wasn’t actually that crowded. I was a little scared to try much of the food, especially after trying something called Stinky Tofu which gets its name because it smells absolutely vile, and tastes just as bad personally. The place is simply a sensory overload, especially if you have no idea what any of the food is.

A view of the shopping area.

That man in the green shirt was terrifying because he kept yelling and sounded furious.

The next day we left to return to Japan. We managed to see a lot in two days, though, and it was fun even though we were exhausted the whole time. I might like to return sometime with more money and more time.

Tokyo

This is going to be a really long post. I was going to split it in half but didn’t really have time to post after the first week so here’s both weeks at once.

I spent two weeks in Tokyo visiting Mana for winter break. Her parents were wonderful enough to let me stay in their rather cramped apartment for the whole time. It’s a nice place, but a tad small even the three of them, let alone a fourth who can barely communicate with them.

Most of this is going to be pictures and videos of my trip in somewhat chronological order.

Shinkansen

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I absolutely love the Shinkansen, or bullet train. It’s expensive, but it is just about the most comfortable form of public transportation I’ve ever used. Like all Japanese transportation, it leaves right on time, it’s clean, quiet, smooth, and you can lean the seats back way more than I’m used to. Plus, it’s fast. Apparently it has a top speed of around 185mph. As a side note, it’s really sad that the United States hasn’t adopted some form of high-speed train system like this, although I understand it would be a huge undertaking.

While I was waiting for my train I managed to video an express train going through my station. They don’t slow down much, if at all, if they’re not stopping so they blow right through. By the time I heard and felt the rumbling I had barely enough time to turn my camera on and press record.

That train is 10 cars long, so at 7 seconds required for the whole thing to pass you can imagine how fast it is, yet while you’re riding you don’t even notice.

The total ride from my station to Tokyo was about 2 and a half hours as opposed to around 6-8 hours by car. I spent most of it looking out the window enjoying the countryside. I did video, kind of on a whim, my approach and stop at Sendai since it’s the closest city to where I live. I was going to video and compare it to the approach to Tokyo station but I forgot. You can see, though, how fast and smooth the ride is. They start slowing down really early in order to keep it smooth.

The only other noteworthy thing about the trip was I was able to catch a few pictures of some very nice mountains that seemed to appear out of nowhere.

Disney Sea

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The day after my arrival, or Christmas Eve, Mana and I went to Disney Sea. Christmas Eve in Japan is basically couples’ day, so the place was absolutely full of Japanese couples. Tokyo Disney has two parks, Disney Land which is more or less modeled off Magic Kingdom in the US, and Disney Sea which is an entirely different park with mostly it’s own attractions. I actually liked it a lot if only because the whole park is only about 7 years old so everything still seems new. Plus I had never seen it before so it was more interesting than Disney Land would have been.

There was a huge Wall-E before the main entrance

Entering the park

You can’t really see it because of the crowd of people, but ahead is a body of water that the park surrounds. It’s set up a lot like Epcot in Disney World with water in the middle and the various themed sections of the park around it. Most of it is supposed to be Mediterranean themed.

We had a really nice dinner in the ship, modeled after an American steamboat

Tower of Terror, one of the few non-original attractions

Broadway in Old New York with a surprisingly nice theater inside

The volcano is the park's symbol - it erupts every so often

Arabian theme

Aztec area has a surprisingly good roller coaster

We saw a big band show here - people actually camped out to get in

Those buildings are actually a hotel that's built right into the park

Italy section complete with gondola rides, although we didn't have time

Cape Cod

Roppongi

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Mana has had to work several nights so far that I’ve been here, but it’s given me an opportunity to see a part of Tokyo that I kind of wanted to anyway. She works in a section of the city called Roppongi which is well-known, although not entirely in a good way, for it’s night life. It is covered with bars, restaurants, and shopping, and especially attracts a lot of foreigners. I actually spent two nights there and will probably have another night next week. I met up with Garrett, who was in town for a while, and John and Erika, friends of ours from GW. John knows the area pretty well and was nice enough to walk me around to the two main upscale sections of Roppongi called Roppongi Hills and Midtown. These are very new areas with very expensive shopping areas.

Unfortunately my camera is awful at night so I didn’t get too many non-blurred pictures.

Tokyo Tower which looks over the whole city and is nicely visible in Roppongi

Mana took this picture which I think turned out pretty nicely - it was after New Years so the tower says 2009

Part of the main stretch - my camera decided to focus on the car

Entering Roppongi Hills

The main building in the area - those blue lights travel down

Entering the main Midtown shopping area

Midtown has an area with a really interesting illumination show. There are thousands of lights on the ground that change to show pictures and patterns. We didn’t get to see much of it, unfortunately.

Yokohama

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Mana used to go to school in the Yokohama area and so wanted to show me around. It also has what used to be the tallest building in Asia called the Landmark Tower.

You can, for 1,000 yen (about $10), go to the top of the tower using what is still the fastest elevator in the world. The observation floor is the 69th, and it takes about 40 seconds to get to the top. The elevator apparently travels at a top speed of about 45 km/hr. My ears popped three times going up, but you barely feel the motion of it. Once there you get a spectacular view of the city. I tried to do some panorama shots, but the angle made it a bit hard so they didn’t come out quite as well as I’d hoped. Make sure to click the panorama shots, though, to see the full-size image.

View of what used to be the tallest ferris wheel in Japan.

The view was amazing in its own right, but if nothing else the trip was worth it for this (click for bigger):

That is Mount Fuji. Mana and I were lucky enough to have a perfectly clear day to see the whole mountain. I’ve heard that normally it’s not clear enough to see the whole thing, but we had a perfect view.

After the tower we went into nearby Chinatown for lunch.

We passed by a large temple that was holding some sort of special service where only members could enter the main section to pray. It looked quite impressive at night, all lit up.

Shibuya

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One day we decided to take a trip to Shibuya. Shibuya is sort of like Times Square in New York – it’s a famous place mostly because of recognizability. Shibuya is famous for the main crosswalk that’s right outside the train station. There’s a Starbucks that overlooks the intersection and I managed to get a video of the crosswalk.

This is how many people it just about everytime the cross signal goes on. They don’t really follow the walkway so it’s just a mass of people from every direction flowing across the street. It’s pretty neat to watch, really.

Other than the crosswalk, Shibuya also has a lot of nice shopping and restaurants. Like most of Tokyo, it’s something of a sensory overload just walking down the street. Similar to Roppongi, there are a considerable amount of foreigners walking around too.

I just wanted to throw these pictures of the Shibuya train station in also.

Disney Land

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Mana really wanted to go with me to Disney Land, so we went towards the end of my visit. It was fun, although there were a lot more kids. I took a few pictures, but much of it is pretty similar to Disney World or Disney Land in the US.

The entrance is pretty different

That building is an absolutely enormous, new hotel. I think it's even bigger than the Floridian

The entrance, instead of Main Street USA, is based on the World Fair

They did a special New Years parade that had all the characters in kimonos. The had some cow character I don’t know the name of out, too, since 2009 is the year of the cow (or ox depending on which you prefer).

Minnie...

...and Mickey

Castle in the day...

...and at night

Asakusa

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The last place we went to where I took a lot of pictures was Asakusa. Asakusa is home to one of the most famous Shinto shrines in Japan. We went on the 3rd, so there was still a massive rush of people for the New Years.

Approaching the first gate, police there to line everyone up to go in

The first of two gates, with enormous lanterns, that lead to the shrine

I think Mana said this was the god of thunder, I assume guarding the gate

Between the first and second gates there is about a quarter mile lined with shops that sell souvenirs, tchotchkies, and some food. This took us literally an hour to get through because there were so many people. It moved in bursts, too, because it was intersected a few times by other walkways, with police acting as traffic cops.

The second gate

Getting closer...

This building was next to the main one, but you can't enter

There are buildings on the other side that have a fountain and incense burner to cleanse yourself either with water or smoke before entering. There were so many people, though, that most weren’t doing that.

Finally, the stairway to the shrine - that sign on the bottom left, held by a policeman, says "please wait just a little whilte"

Inside was absolutely crazy. There is a basin in front where people throw money as offerings for the shrine and for the new year. A mass of people was pressed up to it and people were chucking coins over other people from a distance since they couldn’t actually get closer. The inside of the shrine, unfortunately, was caged off. There were some people inside, praying, but apparently they had to pay money to do so. I was hoping to get shots of the inside, but no such luck.

There were some nice panels on the ceiling that I got some pictures of.

After the shrine we walked around and had lunch. In front of one of the many restaurants, a group of people came out and started playing the shamisen which is sort of like a Japanese banjo. I took a short video of them playing, but didn’t want to sit taping them for too long.

Overall Impressions

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Many people of said it before, but Tokyo is an overwhelming amalgamation of everything good and bad, old and new in Japan. It’s a beautiful city, with skyscrapers rising over traditional shrines and temples. In the middle there is an area that looks like a walled off Central Park. It’s the imperial palace grounds, and it has massive gates with the palace inside. Sadly, I wasn’t able to get pictures of it, but it exemplifies what I mean; in the center of one of the most modern cities in the world, is a compound straight out of the Edo period.

Aside from the juxtaposition of modernity and tradition, the biggest impression of Tokyo is of how absolutely crammed together everything is. To get from Mana’s apartment to the nearest train station, we had to drive through extremely narrow streets that could barely fit two cars, slowing down each time another car passed. Along the street there were always trucks or cars stopped on the side, and always people walking or riding their bikes, without any real sidewalks to stay on.

In the city, it’s just more people. When we went to Disney Sea we left early morning, during rush hour. We had to fight to get on the train, and then each stop was a constant relief as people got on, but then we would be crushed right back in as more boarded. I could only laugh at it, but that’s just because I didn’t have to do it everday. The strangest part was how no one would acknowledge what was going on around them. When you have to be so close to everyone else, you must learn how to ignore the world around you and keep entirely to yourself. They would stare straight ahead, unseeing of the people they were crushing into, and not paying attention to the people crushing them. Some people would actually sleep standing up, supported by the people crammed up around them. Everywhere you go it’s a mass of people everywhere, surrounded by the sensory overload that is Tokyo with advertising, buildings, and just more stuff no matter which way you look. I’m sure I’ll be back, because there’s obviously lots more that I didn’t see.

Live from Japan

Once again I prove to be awful at updating once a week.

I finally realized that my camera can record videos and, thanks to the huge memory card, can do so for a while. I figured that, instead of trying to take pictures of places I go to, why not tape my camera to my dashboard and take videos.

The first one I took was my morning commute to Tome High School. Unfortunately, a.) part of the windshield was wet from rain the night before so it messed up the first half of the video, and b.) I have to drive into the sun for a lot of it which also makes the video look pretty bad. I ended up just editing it to the last minute or so which shows my driving into the school drive and parking. That might seem pointless but I figured it might be interesting to some to actually see a Japanese school. So here is the last minute of my commute, plus you can listen to some Art Blakey.

Just about all public Japanese schools have the exact same, I guess semi-Brutalist, design. They’re ugly, really, but probably pretty cheap to build.

That night I decided to record my drive to the gym. I thought maybe at night it would look interesting with stuff lit up. I discovered, though, that when recording my drive I end up hitting a significantly higher percentage of red lights, so maybe I’ll go easy on videotaping everywhere I go. This is split into two parts because it’s just a bit over 10 minutes which is the time limit YouTube allows.

Part 1:

Part 2:

About 2/3rds into part 1 there are a number of bright signs and lettering on the left side of the road that look a bit like a discount Vegas. Those are actually pachinko parlors which is a type of slot game. Technically it’s illegal to gamble in Japan so people are supposed to play for prices. Apparently, though, there are certain generic prizes you can get that, if you take them to a nearby, undisclosed location, a shadowy figure will exchange them for money. I don’t know if that’s true in Tome but I feel like it has to be to keep so many parlors in business. If they were just playing for prizes I’m not sure they would be as ubiquitous.

I might try to get a few more videos, but to be honest the process of getting them uploaded to YouTube is kind of tedious. In a week and a half I’ll be visiting Mana in Tokyo so I’ll hopefully get lots of nice pictures from that. I also am going to try planning a couple trips to go sightseeing. Unfortunately, when I’m just living day-to-day and working it’s kind of a drag, but once I actually get out and see things the country becomes a lot more interesting.

Winter Begins

Well, I’ve already broken my promise of updating every week. In my defense, Mana visited last weekend for the long weekend. We didn’t do anything too special; I met her in Sendai and we went ice skating. It was a pretty relaxing weekend.

It’s getting cold in Japan. Actually, as I type this it’s unseasonably warm outside. Today was gorgeous. The past few weeks, though, have been very cold. Japan in general feels colder, I think, than back home. It’s probably a combination of the fact that Japanese buildings aren’t very heavily insulated (possibly to avoid trapping heat during the very hot summers), and the fact that Japanese buildings don’t generally have central heating. I think this means that buildings radiate a lot less heat than they do in the US.

It’s been cold enough that when I wake up I can see my breath. One day, after brushing my teeth in the morning, I took my brush out of my mouth and it was steaming. Since I don’t have any sort of central heating, I bought this:

My winter lifeline

It’s a kerosene heater and it cost about 16,000 yen, or about $160. It’s nice, though, in that the shell doesn’t get more than slightly warm and I only get a whiff of any fumes right when I turn it on or off. Even if it did put off more fumes, though, my apartment has enough leaks that I doubt they’d build up much. For about $12-15 I can get about a month’s worth of kerosene at the gas station down the road. It heats up relatively quickly, and adjusts based on the temperature.

I really only use it, however, to heat my main living room, leaving the kitchen cold. Before I bought this heater I borrowed an electric carbon heater from another ALT. I haven’t given it back yet, and I use it to heat the kitchen and bathroom while I’m using them. Between the two heaters I usually only have to deal with the cold after waking up or when I come back from being gone for a while.

Unfortunately I don’t really have any pictures of Japan as a winter wonderland. It has snowed at least once, but even though it went on for a while it all melted that same day. There have been several days of very heavy fog in the mornings from the changes of temperature. I mean heavy enough that I would actually be afraid of getting lost if I were out in the fields.

Since I was bored, and don’t really have any other pictures right now, I figured I’d post some pictures of my apartment.

In all Japanese homes, right as you enter, there’s a little space to take your shoes off. That’s where my washing machine and kerosene tank are. I don’t have a dryer and have to hang my clothes on a pole out my window in nice weather to dry, or hang them inside and hope it takes less than a week to dry. That trash can is there because I replaced it with a better one and you have to pay a fee to get something like that taken away as garbage.

A view of my kitchen and living room from the entryway. It’s messy, I know, but there’s not much space so it starts to look cluttered and messy pretty quickly. Counter space is limited, and it can be pretty frustrating. Also, I don’t have an oven. Instead I just have a portable stove top unit that slides into a spot and hooked up to the gas.

This is the electric heater I mentioned before.

There you can see the bathroom sink. The bathroom isn’t a full room but is the sink with a shower across from it and a closet toilet. I’m not exaggerating, either, the toilet is basically in a room the size of a small closet.

Moving on to the living room, I actually cleaned up today. Again, it might not look like it, but without much in the way of shelf space, there’s only so much I can do. The Japanese have made an art of clever ways to store things vertically, but I don’t really have enough to justify spending money on shelving, etc.

The essentials: my computer, a TV, the heater, and a humidifier to counteract the heater.

Behind me is a large, two-tier closet. Because it just has two huge levels it’s not really any good for storing stuff in a way other than throwing it all in there. A lot of it, unfortunately, is stuff left behind by the ALT that lived here before me. I guess he didn’t want to pay to get it thrown out so he just stored it and pawned it off to me. I could probably buy shelves and whatnot to use the space better, but, again, it’s not entirely worth it. Above is the loft where my bed is. And by bed I mean a couple of futons piled on top of each other. It actually is pretty comfortable and probably better for my back than a soft mattress.

Next time I’ll try to get some pictures around town. Pictures of my schools and students might be a little tough since it would be weird to just ask to take a picture of the class. I’ll probably wait until some event to try to get some snapshots.

Naruko

Well, it’s taken me a while to post again. Unfortunately I keep feeling lazy when it comes to adding posts. I’ll try to write about once a week from here on. Forgive my writing for this update – I’m pretty tired right now but wanted to make sure I updated instead of putting it off for another day.

On October 11th and 12th, Mana visited for a long weekend. We drove to a place called Naruko. Naruko is an onsen town. Onsens are Japanese hot springs. As you might imagine with Japan’s geography, the country is rife with areas of geothermal hot springs. Towns have been built up around them with various traditional inns and what are basically spas. Naruko is one of the more famous ones in northern Japan.

The drive was around one and a half to two hours. We stopped a couple of times along the way. The first was a spot where the Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō had stopped. He journeyed across Japan before writing a travel poem called Narrow Road to the Interior that was one of his major works. There are statues of him in many places in Japan.

The second place we stopped was an area that Naruko is famous for called Naruko Gorge. It’s a very popular spot in the fall for seeing the foliage. Unfortunately the leaves hadn’t really changed much when we went. It was a couple of weeks later that the colors really started to show. Another disappointment was that the path that goes down into the gorge was closed due to an earthquake that had occurred earlier in the month. They were worried about dislodged rocks. Still, I was able to get some nice pictures, including another panorama shot.

The last place we stopped before going to the hotel was a dam. Given the mountainous terrain, the dam definitely gave me some vertigo as the river it stops cuts right through the mountains. I’d never been to a dam before, so it was pretty neat seeing the gorge on one side and the lake on the other.

Finally we went to the ryokan, which is a traditional Japanese hotel. The town is absolutely full of them. Most are relatively small, with probably around ten rooms. The rooms have tatami mat floors, and you sleep on futons that the hotel workers bring out at night. We were lucky enough to get a river view room.

The view of the river from our room.

A dog from the building next door.

Soon after we got there we were able to use the hotel’s private onsen. Normally there are two baths, one for men and one for women. This hotel also had a private one on a first come, first serve basis. The awkward part about the public baths is that you’re generally naked when you’re there. I was relieved that Mana and I were able to get the private bath because, to be honest, I didn’t really feel like being naked next to random Japanese men.

In all honesty, while the hot springs do feel nice, aside from the aesthetics it’s basically just a jacuzzi without bubbles. I don’t have any pictures of the private bath, but it was outdoors under a bamboo and wood frame with bamboo around it. It was really a very relaxing scene but I really am just not a fan of sitting in hot water for a long time. It doesn’t really relax me much. Still, it was pleasant.

Afterwards, we went into Naruko’s town proper. It’s a small town with very narrow roads, and it’s built right into the side of a mountain where the hot springs are. It would have been very nice if it wasn’t for the smell. As a result of the constant flow of underground water, there’s also a potent sulfur smell. Very often we would get a huge waft of the odor while walking through town. Aside from that, there were many small shops and a lot of other hotels and public baths. They even had little outdoor areas that were foot baths. Anyone could stop by and soak their feet for a while.

One of the most interesting things we saw was an onsen shrine. Japan has tons of shrines and temples that you can see just about anywhere. This one was, apparently, devoted to the hot springs.

Statue leading up to the shrine.

Apparently at many shrines there are statues like this one. They come in pairs (the other one is behind me) and one has its mouth open while the other’s is closed.

A wood carving decorating the shrine.

After we returned to the hotel it was almost time for dinner. Dinner is served in the room. The hotel where we stayed is apparently somewhat famous for the food as the cook makes it all himself. It was impressive looking, to say the least.

That’s all for one person – Mana got an identical tray. I was worried that I wouldn’t like a lot of it, but most of it was quite good.

The next day we went to the private bath again in the morning and then checked out. Before going home we decided to drive around a bit and see some of the sights. One place we saw was a waterfall that was buried in the mountain down a very nondescript road.

The final stop was a lake. While it was pretty, the lake has a very high acidity because it was created by volcanic activity. There are no fish in it, and no much else except for algae. Also, the smell of sulfur was pretty strong there, and there were swarms of insects on the shore that, while they don’t bite humans, were still irritating.

Overall the trip was really nice. I was bummed about the gorge not being very colorful and the trail being closed, but there was still plenty to see. I can’t say that I’m a huge fan of hot springs since, like I said, they don’t seem like much more than natural jacuzzis, but it was still a really nice place to go and see.