Trip to Japan

Last Day in Tokyo and back home...

2006-09-28T02:50:00.000-04:00

During my last day in Tokyo, I had little planned, since I needed to leave my hotel at 11:50 am for the airport, and the city is pretty much asleep before 10 am (as most museums and shops don't open until 10 or 11). But one thing I wanted to try to do was catch a glimpse of the jingu-bashi girls. An explanation is in order. Jingu-bashi (which I think is meant to literally translate as "shrine bridge" except then it would be hashi, not bashi, but maybe that's just an artifact of pronunciation) is a small bridge leading to the park where the Meiji shrine is located. This is arguably the most important shrine in Tokyo, and many people go there on Sundays. However, another sight are the girls who show up on Sundays to hang out on the bridge in their goth make-up and odd combination of victorian maid, S&M, and bright-striped clothing. A proper explanation of this phenomenon is probably impossible for an outsider; in any case, most people come to just observe the scene. It would have been best to see it in the afternoon, but as I could only stay in the city till about 11:30, I had to make due to a pass by the bridge at 11 am. A few of the girls were around, and I got one good picture (and one okay one).

Oddly enough, I then ran into Nancy and her co-worker Ron (who was also leaving later in the day). Tokyo is a big city, and unlike New York, tourists aren't compressed into a single area (i.e. Manhatten) most of the time, so running into them was totally crazy. Anyway, we chatted for a few minutes before I headed back to my hotel. After that, it was a pretty much standard (if very long) travel day. I got to the airport, and check-in took forever (>1 hour of shuffling through a line to get my bags checked). Fortunately, I had gotten there very early in expectation of potential delays. I got lunch in the airport at a katsu place, and then grabbed a few last minutes gifts. The flight to Detriot was really long, and when I got there I was really tired. I had to go through customs, which was tedious since I got flagged for an interview with the customs clerk. Then my flight to Boston was delayed, and when I got on the plane, it was delayed again for an hour while we sat on the tarmac. When I finally rolled into Boston, I'd been awake for about 24 hours exactly. Whatever. I was home, and that felt good.

Day Four in Tokyo

2006-09-28T01:46:00.000-04:00

For my second to last day in Tokyo, I woke up bright and early to go see the Tsujiki fish market in action. I was groggy as I left my hotel at 6:30 am, but psyched to see one of Tokyo's most raved about sights: the total insanity of the largest fish market in one of the most fish-crazy nations in the world. I was told to get there right at 7 am, which is just after the wholesale market finishes up and the general market starts, which is when the restaurant buyers go around picking up the fish they'll need for that day. The maps I had were a little vague, but it wasn't a problem and I got to the entrance to the market at just about 7 am exactly. I pulled out my camera to have it ready and headed through the gate leading to the entrance... and... uh, well, I saw I big empty parking lot and a lot of unoccupied open air warehouse space. It basically looked like a deserted commercial market, sort of like how haymarket looks after everyone is gone, except that it was 100 times larger and there was this huge open air warehouse with a corrugated roof and steel framing, but no walls on the sides, and inside the many structures were lanes between little shops containing stainless fish preparation tables, sinks, and cabinets presumably containing various cutting tools for preparing the fish. I could tell that this would be pretty neat in action, but for some reason no one was there... except that there were a number of other tourists (both foreign and Japanese) wandering around with confused expressions. So I went back to the entrance gate and though everything was in Japanese, there was a calendar, and both today and the next day were in red, whereas almost every other day that month was in black (including the days on most other weekends). From this I deduced that I arrived on a holiday of some sort. The possibility of this occuring was not mentioned in either of my guide books (just one more reason why I was disappointed with both of them, and will be looking for alternatives if I go back to Japan). I later discovered (in a post on an online travel website) that one can find out the schedule at one of the Tourist Information Offices in Tokyo. Anyway, since I was leaving the next day, I was, as the saying goes, SOL. I wandered around a while and tried to imagine what it was like, though.

I was pretty pissed about this, and decided to cheer myself up by finding the nearest McDonalds (which did not, sadly, take me very long) and eat two Egg McMuffins. Now I generally think it's lame when tourists from the states go abroad and then eat at McDonalds. At the same time, people say the experience is different in other countries, so I was at least curious. However, I don't eat McDonalds at home (I think the hamburgers are disgusting), so going there in Japan struck me a stupid. However, I do eat Egg McMuffins, which are in my humble opinion the single greatest fast food product in existence. Since I'm almost never passing by a McDonalds at breakfast time at home, I rarely have them, so getting them in Japan actually seemed like a good idea after all. They were great; however, they were literally identical to the ones I have at home, so the experience wasn't any different, which was a little disappointing. The ordering process was also the same, and the store itself was essentially the same type of dingy hole in the wall you find in cities all across in the U.S. So much for a different experience.

At this point I has gotten myself into Ginza (at one time the premier chic shopping district, but now just one of many fashionable shopping areas). I had eaten my breakfast in a park on one edge of Ginza (Hibiya-koen), and navigated to the other side of the neighborhood to the Kabuki-za, the city's main Kabuki theater. I arrived 10 minutes before the afternoon performance started (which put it at roughly 10:50 am), and bought a standing room ticket for the first two acts. This cost me $9, and gave me a chance to see about 2 hours of the performance. I was kind of far from the stage, but there was no difficulty seeing everything. I also bought the English earphone guide, which you put in one ear. It took a little getting used to, but was really helpful, and I enjoyed the performance.

After the show, it was time to go get some lunch, and I went to New Torigin and had their speciality, kamameshi, which is a rice dish in which rice and various toppings (mushrooms, meat, veggies, etc...) are mixed together and baked. It was pretty good, and cheap, so I left happy. (They had an english menu with the romanized food names, so I could actually say what I wanted, which I really liked.) For the afternoon, I first went to the Sony store, which sucked big time. I guess I don't relaly like Sony products in the first place, but the store, which is designed like a big showroom, was really boring and lame. Maybe if I wanted a camera, it would have been more fun, but there weren't any really innovative or exciting things on display. I couldn't even find one of their crazy robot dogs to play with! Anyway, I decided to properly sate my geeky electronics fix by heading over to Akihabara, the big electronics (and now anime/manga) district in the city. I was not disappointed. The main street on which most of the shops are located was closed off to vehicles, and people were milling about in a huge mass while they drifted from one blinking, neon-lit storefront to another, while amusingly over the top salespeople (who were often using loud speakers) tried to get each passersby to buy whatever they were selling. I thought it was all pretty cool to see, though actually buying something in that madhouse didn't seem wise. I walked through some of the manga/anime shops, and it being a weekend day, found they were packed to bursting with customers ranging from school kids to middle aged men. I also went to one of the over 18 floors, and was a little weirded out, but I've never been a hentai fan, so I'm not surprised by my reaction. I found a cosplay section on the top floor of one of the stores, and that was funny: lots of lacy maid outfits for the girls along side the obligatory naruto uniform for the guys. I suppose there is some social commentary about gender issues in Japan in the types of products they were selling, but seeing how cosplay is a fringe activity even in Japan, I'm not going to bother.

After a while I decided to head back to my hotel and check to see if Nancy had sent me an email. She had not, so I figured on a relatively tame evening, since I didn't think it was a good idea to go drinking and clubbing on my own in an unfamiliar city where I didn't speak the langauge. I guess I'll have to save that for next time. I headed to a restaurant close by called Kushinobo, which speacializes in Kushi-Katsu, which is various foods (e.g. vegetables, fish, and meat) in small morsels on a stick, coated in Japanese breadcrumbs and fried. It was a bit expensive (and surprisingly hard to find), but very good. After dinner, I walked around a bit, and it was amazing how much quieter Akasaka was on a Saturday night compared with a Friday night. When I went back to my hotel, I was ready to fall right asleep and get rested up for my long travel day home.

Day Three in Tokyo

2006-09-22T08:32:00.001-04:00

So, today I went to Ueno to see the National Museum, since I hadn't put in any serious museum time on the trip, and the collection is supposed to be fantastic. Plus, I saw that it was going to be cloudy today and maybe rain. Anyway, it worked out nicely. The museum was very good, and even though I was pretty tired of reading descriptions of artwork by the end, it was still a worthwhile trip. I also hit the Shinjuku History Museum, which was cute, but clearly more interesting to people who had relatives who lived in prewar Shinjuku, as the recreated homes and shops, and the evocative collection of photographs, would have meant a lot more. They have some great Japanese toys, though, mainly falling along the lines of the impossible to solve geometric puzzles (e.g. putting down a set of pieces to fill a particular space, or trying to untangle a rope/metal hoop combination). I walked around the Ameya-Yokocho Arcade, which was fun but would have been even better if I was looking for something, because it was the first place in Tokyo where I saw some really good deals. Before hopping onto the subway again, I stopped in a great toy store (Yamashiroyo) which let me pick up a bunch of anime stuff. Finally, I rode two more stops towards Asakusa (getting off at Tawaramachi) to walk through Kappabashi-Dori (the Restaurant Supply City). It was awesome. If you ever need something for your kitchen and find yourself in Toyko, you have to check this place out. They have literally everything a restaurant owner needs to run his/her store, from chairs to uniforms to order slips to signs to knives to plates to fake food. I picked up a nice piece of fake food as a gift, though I think I paid top dollar by going in (entirely by accident) the fanciest of the fake food stores first.

At that point it was already after 5 pm, so I headed back to my hotel, and chilled out for an hour before heading out for dinner in Akasaka (so stay within walking distance of my hotel). (I'd had lunch at Samarat, an Indian restaurant where I got a 1000 yen lunch plates including the largest piece of naan I've ever seen.) My objective was first Jangara Ramen, but there were not English words anywhere on the storefront or on the displayed menu, so I decided not to risk it (even though I was looking forward to a filling meal for less than 1000 yen). So I went for my backup, Sushi-sei, which was a five minute walk away, and when I got there, there was a little bit of English on the exterior signage, so I went in. The waitress who seated at the sushi bar spoke fluent, unaccented English and handed me the English ala carte menu. The prices were very reasonable, the sushi excellent, and I always like watching the chefs in action. The place was packed, so there was a lot of activity, and it was generally all around fun. Plus, it only cost 2500 yen with a beer, which is pretty good for a filling (12 pieces of nigiri) sushi meal. I then got an excellent chocolate croissant from a nearby coffee shop, went back to my hotel, and walked around the garden while I ate my dessert. Overall, it was pretty satisfying day.

Days One and Two in Tokyo: the city and Nikko

2006-09-22T08:32:00.000-04:00

For my first Day in Tokyo, I toured around in a mostly unplanned fashion with Emily. The weather was perfect (warm, but not hot, sunny, and dry) so we decided to walk from her hotel to the Imperial Palace to see the grounds. We saw about half of the sights there (though I didn't discover this until much later) because was missed the entrance into a large part of the gardens. In any case, we then made our way to the subway and headed to Shibuya, where we walked around the neighborhood of very high end shops before and after stopping in the Oriental Bazaar, where I picked up a few more things for myself and finally got some inexpensive little gifts for some of my friends. We then went to an organic restaurant in the basement of a children's toy store, and were surrounded by mothers and their crying (but still cute) babies all through the meal. After lunch headed to Meiji-jingi, the best of the shrines in the central Tokyo area, and then walked around the park that surrounds it, Yoyogi-koen. After that we walked to a nearby sword museum, which was small but interesting. It had a great description of how swords are made. By then it was time to head back to our hotels and get ready for dinner. Later, I met up with Emily, Seth, and John again for dinner, and this time we went to a French restaurant nearby their hotel. My food was excellent, though the waiter had perhaps mastered the whole French thing too well, as the service to us gaijin was slow and diffidant, whereas the service to the surrounding Japanese customers was brisk and efficient. I didn't really mind, though, since I wasn't in a rush.

The next day, Emily and headed to Nikko. The ride there took about 2.5 hours from my hotel. The weather was overcast, but it never more than sprinkled so rain wasn't an issue. The flat light made taking good photos really hard though. The shrines and templers were nice, but most of the grounds were packed with tourists, largely ruining the experience. Kyoto and Kamakura were, in my opinion, better trips, though in the case of Kamakura, the shrines and temples were less ornate and objectively impressive. One really nice part of Nikko, though, was Taiyun-Byo, which was almost deserted, and nearly as ornate as the main sight of Toshu-go. The huge five story pagoda on the grounds of Toshu-go was really cool though. After about two and half hours, we have covered the sights, and we both needed to eat something. We headed into town and ate at a little yakitori place called Hippari Dako. It was quick, cheap and very tasty. By this point, it was time for us to head back, and so we walked back to the train station and caught the next train back into Tokyo.

For dinner I met another friend, Nancy, who is working in Tokyo (on a temporary assignment). I was meeting her at 8 pm at the Ebisu Garden Place, and just as when I was trying to meet Emily for dinner the first night, my attempt to navigate my way to an unfamiliar place was a disaster. I got caught by every trick the subway system could pull, ending up spending about 800 yen on the trip and showing up a half hour late. However, Nancy and Ron, one of her coworkers from the states who was here on a business visit, were still waiting for me, and we then headed up to the 38th floor of the Ebisu Garden Place Tower for some delicious shabu-shabu and a breathtaking view of the Tokyo skyline at night. Since we started quite late, we finished dinner rather late, and I headed back to my hotel immediately afterwards.

Picture backlog from Kyoto...

2006-09-21T06:15:00.000-04:00

Here are the pictures I took into Kyoto on my first sightseeing day.

A few random pictures that didn't fit into larger groups. On the left are two temples, on the right is a tall shrine I just happened upon while walking between sights:

Kawai Kanjiro's house:

The main gate at Kiyomizu-dera:

Inside Kiyomizu-dera, there are great views of Kyoto (center) on a large wooden balcony (left). You can also take a drink from the Otowa waterfall (right) which reputedly cures any illness:

The gardens of Kodai-ji:

Konchi-in had maybe my favoriate garden:

The serious zen rock and sand garden at Ginkaku-ji:

The grounds at Ginkakju-ji:

They take their moss seriously at Ginkaku-ji:

Morning in Koya-san and on to Tokyo

2006-09-21T05:47:00.000-04:00

I'm in Tokyo now. My morning in Koya-san was fun. I woke up early (5:30 am) to go to the Buddhist service at 6 am in my temple, and it was an awesome experience. The chanting/humming is really hypnotic, and I could really feel how one could find a lot of peace in the Buddhist monk life. After the ceremony and another Japanese breakfast (this time with everything relatively easy to stomach), I walked around the Okunoin cemetary (this time in daylight) and saw the famous Hall of Lanterns, where ten thousand oil lamps are kept constantly alight. The lamps are actually numbered with little tags on the bottom, and are packed together across the ceiling of two large temples, in the eaves, and in stacked shelves in the centers of the temples. It was pretty neat. (There aren't any pictures of them though, as this was one of many places I have been where pictures were not allowed. In fact, in general, inside the temples, pictures are forbidden.) After the cemetary, I walked across town to the Garan, which the spiritual center of the city. I saw Kongobu-ji, a nice temple just outside the Garan with beautiful screen paintings describing elements of Koya-san's founding, and then saw the Konpon Daito (a giant, orange building housing some giant Buddhas) as well as a number of smaller shrines and temples. I was done around noon, and got back on the funicular to leave Koya-san and head to Tokyo. (This involved a few trains, including another trip on the Shinkansen for the main leg from Osaka to Kyoto, and a trip in the middle on the subway in Osaka.)

I rolled into Tokyo at around 5:30 pm, and wandered around the confusing Tokyo train station looking for the right subway line, while the rush-hour crush of people swarmed around me. (It turns out what made this hard was the entrance to my subway line was closed for construction, and so all the permanent signs pointed to this closed entrance, and the sign to redirect me elsewhere was only in Japanese. ) This would turn out to be only the first of my adventures trying to find my way that evening. When I got off the subway at the stop recommended by my hotel, I discovered that the subway station was a gigantic underground plaza with four or five different exits. Another ten minutes of confusion ensued while I located the proper exit and got my bearings enough to start walking to my hotel. Finally, at about 6:10, I got the entrance to my hotel, made my way to the lobby (which was on the sixth floor!?), and checked in. Fortunately, my bags had indeed arrived on-time before me, so I was all set and ready to go. However, I was in my room no more than five minutes when my friend Emily called. She and he husband Seth were in town, and I had arranged to meet them for dinner at around 8 pm. Emily had called, however, to say that they were really hungry, and wanted to eat earlier. They planned on leaving at 6:30 from their hotel (along with a business colleague of Seth's that I also knew, John), but could wait for me if I wanted to join them. I told them I would change and leave immediately, and it shouldn't take me more than fifteen minutes to make the trip.

As it turns out, my estimate was dead on if I already knew exactly how to get from my hotel to their hotel. As it was, I did not, and what ensued was a very frustrated hour of wandered around my hotel (which is gigantic and very confusing) and the area surrounding my hotel mainly because in Tokyo, maps are oriented relative to the direction one is viewing the posted map, instead of with north up, which got me seriously turned around a couple of times since I was trying to compared the crappy map I had that showed my hotel and their hotel on it, and the various public maps posted around the city. All this started, though, because the concierge at my hotel insisted that it would be no problem to take the subway one stop and walk, instead of taking a taxi. (I should have just taken a taxi since I was in such a rush.) I finally got into the correct subway station, but four lines intersected there, two of which went to the station I needed to go to. I evidently chose the wrong line, because when I got to the next station, I had to walk underground for about 25 minutes to get to the proper exit for the hotel I was trying to reach. Fortunately, my friends were still waiting when I got there (about 45 minutes late!), and they had been planning on getting drink before hand, so my being late didn't cause us to miss our reservation. (And we made up for the missed drink after dinner instead.)

All in all, it was probably an appropriate first Tokyo experience. I was certainly overwhelmed and bewildered. But dinner was very nice (an Italian restaurant which served the best parmesan rissotto I have every had, mixed with the cheese at you table by pouring the rissotto into a gigant hollowed out wheel of parmesant and stirring), and the walk around Roppongi afterwards was a fun taste of a city that is energetic and alive even late on a Tuesday night. It reminded me a lot of the fun parts of New York.

Anyway, I'll post something soon about my last two days in Tokyo, but in the next post, I'll clear out some of my backlog of pictures.

Last day in Kyoto, and on to Koya-san

2006-09-18T07:12:00.000-04:00

Greetings from Koya-san. Incredibly, I can pirate free wireless internet even in within a Buddhist temple in a remote Japanese town. Sweet! Anyway, I guess that means I can give a quick update for the day. I started out early with another Japanese breakfast, then checked out of nmy ryokan. Once again, I sent my luggage ahead of me, this time on to Tokyo where I go tomorrow. I still can't get over how cheap it is to send luggage overnight across the country (just $14 a bag). With just a day pack containing a bare essentials for my overnight trip to Koya-san, I set out to see my last main Kyoto sight: Ginkaku-ji, the Golden Pavilion. It's actually covered in gold, and no kidding, when I got there it was finally sunny and the building actually gleamed. It's set on a pond surrounded by beautiful gardens, and the whole effect was pretty impressive. Since time was short, I navigated the bus system back from this relatively remote site to thew Kyoto Handicraft Center, where I hoped to find something good either for myself or for my friends. After an hour perusing the five floors (it was really big), I decided that overall, the Kyoto Craft Center had better stuff at better prices, but this place had more variety, and in the end, I found some nice woodblock prints of Kyoto inspired settings, and bought four of them for myself (at roughly $19 a piece). I really wanted a samurai long sword, but I wasn't willing to drop the $300 to $1000 needed for a quality item. And I would have had to buy shipping. I didn't find anything great for little gifts, so I guess I will have to find something in Tokyo.

After that, I headed back to Kyoto train station, and began navigating my way to Koya-san. This involved a trip on the JR rail line to Osaka, the Osaka subway to the Namba stop, then walking though a gigantic underground mall to the Nankai Namba terminal, buying my rail pass, then getting on the Nankai train to Gokurakubashi station, switching to a short funicular to Koya-san station, and finally taking a Koya-san bus to the temple I was staying at, Shojoshin-in. Seeing how I started the day using the Kyoto city bus and subway lines, I think I managed to max out my day's allotment of different systems of public transport for the day! The ride to Koya-san was awesome. The views were spectacular as the train wound its way deeper and deeping into the mountains, and the funicular was fun. (I hadn't been on one since I was in Switzerland.) The bus ride to my temple was nothing special, and illustrated that even though Koya-san is famous for its temples, a regular modern town has formed around the temples. The Shojoshin-in temple, though, is just perfect. It is exactly how I imagined it to be. The interior is wonderful, with quiet, shadowed hallways and smooth wood floors. My room is great, with little balcony looking right out onto the Japanese garden. I kind of wish I were staying here for more than just one day, except that I suppose there isn't a lot to do in Koya-san (aside from mediate and such).

Dinner was again a little challenging (this time served in a common room), but there was certainly more than enough that I liked for me to have my fill. After dinner, I put on my Yukata and used the public bath. Since the bath is only open in the evening, this was my only chance to clean myself up, as the bedrooms do not have showers or baths in them. I think I avoided any major screwups, but halfway through my cleaning routine (which is mainly done sitting on a little stool with a handheld shower spray in one hand and soap in the other) a Japanese guy came into the position next to mine (there were only two, and the space was small), and when I was finished, I rinsed myself off an settled into the hot bath, which was great, except for two things. First, I realized I had forgotten my towel in my room (shit!) and the Japanese guy was cleaning himself much more rigorously than I did, leading me to conclude that I had perhaps not scrubbed sufficiently before getting into the bath. Anyway, I didn't let those detials get me down; I got out of the soak after five very relaxing minutes, and then dried myself off with the t-shirt I wore under my Yukata.

Finally, I dried myself off properly in my room, rerobed in my Yukata, and took a nighttime walk though the Okunoin cemetary (the main attraction of Koya-san). It was really atmospheric, with the dim light of little lanterns lining the major path, only marred by the intrusion of a number of more modern overhanging fluorescent lights. I strolled around for about fourty minutes, just soaking in the place before heading back to my temple. Anyway, its time to get some sleep, as I have an early start ahead of me with temple services starting at 6 am.

Himeji, buying gifts, and my favorite meal so far

2006-09-17T07:34:00.000-04:00

Today I went to Himeji castle, which is about a 50 minute ride on the Shinkansen west from Kyoto. Whereas yesterday the weather was supposed to be fine, but it rained much of the day, today the weather was supposed to be lousy, but it was bright and sunny until about three, so for the entire time I was at Himeji, the weather was the best I've had. The castle is quite striking, imposing and stylistically unique. The setting is dramatic as well, high on a hill overlooking the modern Himeji city. The signs throughout the site were informative (in both Japanese and English), and the tour route well laid out, so I had a pretty good time. Just seeing the castle brought me lunch time, and I wandered around the city looking for a place to eat. Unfortunately, there was this list of restaurant suggestions in the tourism office, which descriptions in English, where the restaurants don't have english menus or english speaking staff, which was a relaly crappy trick to plan on the unsuspecting traveler. In any case, this led to a rather embarrassing moment in which I sat down at a restaurant, asked (in Japanese) if there was a menu in English, and when the answer was no, I had to leave since the menu didn't have pictures. I felt bad, as I should have asked before sitting down, but I assumed that a recommendation from the tourism information office would have only included restaurants that would be able to deal with English speaking tourists. Anyway, I threw that packet of recommendations out and wandered around until I found a reasonable place with an English menu in the window. It was an ethnic (I think Turkish) kebab restaurant, and I had a really good chicken kabab meal. The menu was even arranged in numbered plates, so I could order by number, which was within my Japanese skills.

After lunch I saw the Himeji castle gardens, which were really quite good, even to my japanese-garden-jaded eyes. Just as I was finishing the tour, it started to rain, and then it started to really pour when I was about half way back to the train station. Fortuantely, I had my umbrella, and made it quickly to a covered arcade of shops that ran the remaining way to the station. The rain was almost gone in Kyoto when I arrived, and so I decided to brave the crowds and head to the Kyoto Handicrafts Center, a highly recommended shop for buying good quality Japanese crafts from around the county. I was able to obtain my presents for my brother and sister-in-law, my parents, and for two of my lab friends who gave me suggestions for my trip. I am particularly happy with the gift for my parents; it is a little extravagent, but was very nice. So as to not ruin the surprise for the various recipients, however, I won't describe them. I am still looking for the perfect souvenier to remember the trip by for myself, and for something inexpensive but cool that I can get for some of my tkd friends.

Afterwards, it was dinner time, and I decided to head towards Ichi-ban, a yakitori restaurant. But halfway there, I noticed in the guide book that it wasn't open on Sundays (damn!), and had to change my plans. I scaned the book for about ten minutes, and settled on Katsu-kura, a katsu restaurant (in which the entrees are breaded in japanese breadcrumbs and fried). The description was luke warm, but it was cheap and katsu sounded really good after so many days of strange food. I got to the place and the line was out the door (and no tourists in sight!), so I knew I was on the right track. It took about a half hour waiting in line before I sat down. I ordered the pork and giant prawn katsu plate (there was an English menu), and it was delicious. The breading was light and crunchy, the pork super tender, and the giant prawn both tasty and as large as advertized (longer than my thumb to pinky hand-span). The miso soup was good too, and the bed of shredded cabbage was just the right balance to the heaviness of a fried main dish. I was stuffed when I left, and at 1600 Yen (about $14), it was real bargain. Although I've had some excellent sushi, and the sukiyaki was quite decadent, I think that this was the meal I enjoyed the most so far.

Pictures from Himeji castle will follow when I get a chance.

Tomorow I plan to go to Kinkaku-ji (the Golden Pavilion) and then stop at the Kyoto Craft Center (another store full of Kyoto crafts) before getting on the train to Koya-san. I probably won't even bring my computer with me (instead sending it ahead to my Tokyo hotel inside my luggage, so my next update won't be for two days.

Sightseeing in Kyoto, and a minor culinary meltdown...

2006-09-17T07:11:00.000-04:00

I started the day with breakfast served to me in my room (!), which is evidently standard service for ryokans. The woman who brought me my food spoke enough English to point out a few of the things on the tray, which comprised a very diverse Japanese breakfast with losts of food I didn't recognize, either by appearance or taste. (Picture to follow when I get a chance.) Suffice it to say, the meal was a challenge, and I can't say I liked everything. But I found enough things to eat, and in a bind, one can always pig out on rice, which is always provided in abundance.

After lunch I set out for a grueling day of sight-seeing in Kyoto's eastern hills, which contain the best collection of high density, quality sites (according to both my guide books). I hit the pavement at around 8:30, and to get a better feel for the city, walked the entire way to the first site, even though I probably could have used the bus system to get there faster. At one point I walked through what was clearly the red light district, and man stepped out of a rather shady looking establishment as if to hail me, but after taking a look at my appearance (decidedly un-japanese, and clothed in shorts and a tee-shirt), he stopped and doubled back through the door. Anyway, I toured the sites, starting the south and worked my way north: Sanjusangen-do, Kyoto National Museum, Kiyomisu-dera, Kodai-ji, detour to Teramachi for lunch, Konchi-ji, Nanzen-ji, the Philosopher's Path, and finally, Ginkaku-ji. (Picures too follow when I get a chance.)

Unfortunately, I did not choose wisely in my drink choices for the day (leaving me dehydrated), and I was also tired and a little stressed from navigating on foot all day (it was now roughly 5 pm), so I had a pretty brutal headache and over an hour walk back to my hotel ahead of me. By the time I got to the hotel, my head was really pounding, and all I wanted to do was take a nap. Unfortunately, I had arranged for my special kaiseki meal at 6:30 in my hotel that evening, which was only about 30 minutes after I finally got to my room. To put then even more properly in context, I had eaten lunch late in the day, so that I was starving when I finally sat down. Then I ordered a set meal, which included all kinds of weird Kyoto-style dishes of little bits of unrecognizable foodstuffs flavored with unrecognizable spices. I am a pretty adventurous eater, and like a pretty wide variety of food, but I was pretty tired of the strangeness after lunch. (It was a soba restaurant, and I swear, only two out of the ten dishes had any soba noodles in them. I figured soba was a sure thing, but I guess in Kyoto, famed for this culinary "refinement," even soba is a challenge.) When my kaiseki meal came, in combination with my strange-food fatigue and my headache, I wanted them to just take it away and let me go to sleep. Of course, that would have been unbearably rude, so I choked down as much of it as I could. The highlights were the little bits of teriyaki steak, the tempura, and the fit of shabu-shabu (some fish, vegetables, and noodles). The weird marinated or pickled vegetables composed at least half the meal, however, and, I'll be honest, most of them were gross. I forced myself to try everything though, so I didn't miss out on anything. Alas, I can't day I enjoyed the experience, but when one constantly tries new things (as I've been trying to do while on this trip), occasionally one strikes out.

On the plus side, my headache finally went away as I fell asleep.

Last Day of SSDM and on to Kyoto

2006-09-16T06:44:00.000-04:00

I gave my talk at SSDM on Friday, and it was fine. For whatever reason, I speak most smoothly when I have to give a talk for real, in front of a real audience, whereas when practicing alone it is always really awkward. Of course, I'm not complaining that it's not the other way around, but it means that I am usually stressed out ahead of time. After the morning session ended, I ventured out of the conference center to get lunch in a nearby mall. I got some ramen, which was actually more to my taste than the ramen I had at the Ramen Museum. It was in a restaurant that did not have an English menu, and the woman at the counter where I ordered did not speak English, so this was a more adventurous effort. In the end, though, the picture menu, and gesturing for the additional details worked okay. After lunch, I took a ride on the "Cosmo Clock 21", which is the world's largest ferris wheel. Indeed, it was really freaking high (something that makes me rather uncomfortable, but not enough to skip out), and I took a few pictures:

Then I grabbed my remaining bag from the hotel and headed to the train station to go to Kyoto. I got to Shin-Yokohama station, and got onto the Shinkansen train for Kyoto. This was my first time on a shinkansen (the so-called "bullet trains"), and aside from it running faster than trains in the U.S. (and running precisely on-time), the experience is much the same as riding Amtrak passenger trains. There is more leg-room though. While on the train I worked on my pictures from Kamakura, and have revises the original post to be more meaningful to look at, so go check that out below.

When I got to Kyoto I took a taxi to Hotel Matsui, the ryokan (tradtional japanese inn) hotel when I am staying. I could have tried navigating the subway system and walking, but with my backpack and garment bag, it didn't seem worth it. The hotel is nice, and pretty much exactly as I pictured it. Ryokan hotels have a modern lobby and modern hallways, but the rooms themselves are tatami mat rooms with traditional japanese interior design. Here are a couple pictures of my room, and of me weaking a yukata:

The staff is very nice, and everyone speaks enough English that we can communicate. The gentleman running the front desk speaks excellent English, and in a pinch, I imagine he can mediate any major difficulties that might arise. I was really tired, but I needed to head out for dinner, and so after consulting my guide books and picking out a place near by, I set out. Right from the start, I got a feel for how lively Kyoto is in the evening (particularly a Friday night). The streets are a great mix of traditional and modern facades (with most of the restaurants and ryokans having the traditional style, and the shops have the modern.) My hotel, it turned out, is right near one of the two major shopping districts in the city, and the restaurant I picked out was right in the middle of it. Even at 6:30 pm, most of the shops were open and the streets were packed with people. The energy made just walking to the restaurant fun.

The restaurant I picked out (Mishima-Tei) specializes in sukiyaki and shabu-shabu, both involving meat and vegetables cooked in a light broth. The latter is done at one's table, usually by oneself. At this restaurant, even the sukiyaki is also cooked at one's table. In fact, the preparation is done by the waitress, but I'll get to that in a moment. First, the restaurant facade was very traditional. I walked past hanging cloth strips with kanji on them, and had to remove my shoes as I entered. Then I walked to the second floor where I sat in a dining room at the floor at a low table outfitted with an electric heater in the center. The waitress brought me an english menu (the existence of which was noted in my guide book and played a large role in my choice), and my eyes widened a little at the price. The options for the sukiyaki meal ranged from 6500 to 9500 yen (about 55 to 85 dollars). Then I shrugged and got the 9500 yen version which had the highest quality beef (the oft touted Kobe beef). If I'm going to have something, it might as well be the best, right? (All told the meal cost me roughly $100. I certainly won't be doing that again if I can help it.) The waitress then cake to my table with a place of raw materials (beef and various vegetables), a bowl of broth, and a small bowl into which she dumped a raw egg. That's one of the keys to sukiyaki: you dip the cooked food into the raw egg before eating it. The meat was delicious (as well it should be for what I was paying) and the vegies were good too. I was a little stressed half way through the meal, though, when it occured to me that the restaurant might not take credit cards (as not all of them do), and I had exactly 12,000 yen on me. In any case, the point was moot since the total bill came in (just) under my cash limit.

I hit the sack early, as breakfast was coming at 7 am in preparation for a full day of sightseeing in Kyoto. The futon was thin and hard (not nearly as comfortable as futons I've slept on in the U.S.), and the pillows quite hard. I didn't get the greatest night sleep on it, but I've also slept on worse. And anyway, I'm specifically trying to have the Japanese experience.

Day Two of SSDM

2006-09-14T06:58:00.000-04:00

Another day spent at the conference. I met one of the few other native english speakers at the conference today, a student at Sheffield University. It was also his first trip to Japan, though he had the advantage of having two friends (another graduate student and his advisor) here as well, both of whom speak Japanese. In any case, it was fun to talk to someone for a while without wory about the language barrier. (It's strange, but I get stressed out a bit speaking in English to someone who doesn't speak well, because I'm trying so hard to say what I want in just the right way that I will be understood. ) Anyway, again it was a mixed bag of talks. Some were good, some were bad. Also, I got really tired out at around 4 pm, and so the last two hours were pretty rough.

On the vacationing front, I had two successful activities today. First, I was able to send my bag off to my hotel in Kyoto to avoid carrying all my things with me on the train (for the ludicrously low price of ~$15!) This was accomplished with the help of the bell hop captains at my hotel. Fortunately, they both spoke just enough English for this to succeed. And I was at least able to finish the transaction with "arigato gozaimas" (thank you very much) to show that I was at least trying to use a little Japanese. Also, this morning at breakfast, I made sure to say "ohayo gozaimas" (good morning) to the hostess. I also tried to decline the offer of coffee with "chotto," but either that was the wrong thing to say, my pronouncation was too poor, or the waitress simply didn't hear me, because I had to add "no thank you" along with shaking my hand before she understood. My second activity was another excellent Japanese meal. I decided to go to the Sushi bar in the hotel, which looked very nice, and I was not disappointed. Though the sushi chefs did not speak English, one of the waitresses spoke good english and helped me order. Then one of the chefs was in charge of my meal and proceeded to make one piece of nigiri at a time right in front of me. It was fun watching, and the quality of the fish was excellent. The toro (fatty tuna), in particular, was deliciously decadent. All of the food was also presented beautifully. When I was done, I ended up waiting around for a long time, so I finally decided to try some more Japanese, and when I got the waitress's attention, said "okanjoh onegai shimas" (the check, please), which got her to smile. She said my pronounciation was very good, though maybe she was just being nice. Finally, when I got up to leave, I made sure to say "gochisoh sama deshta" (the food was excellent) to the chefs, which they seemed to like. I don't have much Japanese to work with, but I at least tried a few things out today.

Day One of SSDM and Pictures from Kamakura

2006-09-13T07:07:00.000-04:00

The first day of my conference is over. It was much like any other conference (some good talks, some bad), except the language issue was more prevalent today, since the conference is in English, and fewer than 5% of the people at the conference giving presentations are native speakers. It really made the people with good English skills stand out. Anyway, that's not really that interesting, so I'll just move on to a picture dump from my day in Kamakura.

The picture interface for this blog is relaly clumsy, but with some help from powerpoint, I'm organized the pictures into a semi reasonable format.

Here are pictures from Engaku-ji. The bell is famously large:

Here are some pictures from Hachimangu:

Here are some pictures from Sasuke-Inari Ginja. The walkway through the red gates was really cool.

The set of pictures highlights from of the wonderful grounds at the various temples:

Here are some pictures from the Daibatsu. The slippers, by the way, are about five feet long:

Finally, I came across a grave in which there were a number of alcoholic beverage bottles placed on the grave stone. For some reason, I thought this was amusing, I guess because you would never do that in the U.S., but honestly, if the deceased was a big beer fan, why not?

Temples, Temples, Temples...

2006-09-12T07:05:00.000-04:00

Today I visited Kamakura, a city famous for its abundance of temples. I was warned to get an early start because the sites generally close up by 4 pm, and so I was on the train from Sakuragicho Station by 8:45 am. I got into Kita-Kamakura Station at 9:10 am, and was off. I followed roughly the route suggested by my Lonely Planet guidebook, which took me to Engaku-Ji, Tokei-Ji, Jochi-Ji, the Daibatsu hiking course, Zeniarai Benten, Sasuke-inari jinja, and then the famous Daibatsu. By that time it was just past noon, and I'd worked up an appentite, so I walked from the Daibatsu to the Hase train station, and rode the train to Kamakura Station, where I followed the recommendation of my guide book and ate at Komachi-Ichiba. While there, I had my first sushi of the trip, and both the food and presentation were excellent. After lunch, I walked through the main shopping area of Kamakura on my way to Tsurugaoka Hachiman-Gu, and then headed over to Kencho-Ji, before finally returning to the Kita-Kamakura station, at 3:45 pm.

I'll put up some pictures in my next post. I'm a bit too tired to do it now. My main impression of the day is that while it was fun (aside from the fact that my guidebook's directions sucked, and as a result I spent at least an hour of my day backtracking or wandering around lost), I would have enjoyed it all more if I could have asked questions of the attendents at the various shrines. Even so, there were a few moments where I felt like I got a whiff of the peace and serenity of the temple life, particularly at Engaku-ji and Kencho-Ji. Also, the Daibatsu's slippers were great. Tomorrow the conference starts, so for the next two and a half days, I'm on the job again.

Exploring Yokohama...

2006-09-11T05:47:00.000-04:00

I spent today exploring Yokohama, which was mostly successful, except all of the Museums were closed. On the flip side, the museums in Yokohama are only so-so (according to the guide books), so I don't think it was a big loss. In any case, I ended up walking all over the city and hitting the major tourist spots. After waking up,I ate breakfast at the hotel buffet, which was quite nice. Then I walked to Yamate, which is on the eastern edge of the city, where I walked through a nice park overlooking Yokohama harbor, I checked out the Foreigner's cemetary, where people from over 40 countries have been buried since the 1850s, and walked down Motomachi street, the city's fashionable shopping district. On the way to Yamate, I walked through Yamashite park, which is right on water and is home to the Hikawa-maru, a retired passenger liner. In addition to a nice view, the park had a most interesting sculpture constructed out of shipping crates.

From Yamate I walked through Chinatown, which is Yokohama's main attraction. It is the largest Chinatown in all of Japan, and is packed end to end with restaurants and shops, in addition to a number of over the top arches (sorry, I guess that's a pun) and a shrine known as Kantei-byo (dedicated to Guan Yu) which sports an abundance of carved dragons. I was not, apparently, allowed to enter the shrine (whereby I offended a Japanese person for being an ignorant gaijin for something like the third or fourth time that day, but who's counting?), but I could look inside and smell the incense, so I don't think I missed too much of the experience. Since it was lunchtime, I stopped by Edosei and got one of those large, fluffy steamed bread balls (made with rice flour, I think) filled with prawns, onions, and a yummy sauce.

I bought at gatorade from one of the ubiquitous vending machines and walked back to Yamashite park to eat my lunch. Then I headed over to the Landmark tower, which is the tallest building in Japan and also sports the world's fastest elevator (750 m/min). My ears popped during the 40 sec ride from the fifth floor to the 69th floor at 237 m, where there is an observation floor providing views of Yokohama in all four directions. The weather was cloudy in the morning, but by this time it was mostly clear, and I got an excellect view of the city and harbor, as well as great look at a rather cool helicopter pad on the top of a nearby building.

I was pretty tired at this point, and headed back to my hotel to rest for an hour. On the way, I passed through a mall which has a great sign warning inattentive parents about the dangers of mall "ponds" (which can be seen behind the rope). After my rest, I decided to make my final adventure for the day be to see the Ramen museum located near the Shin-Yokohama train station. The nearest train station to my hotel is Sakuragicho, and so this gave me a chance to try out the train system. The ticket machines have an English option, and I found a nearby fare map in English, so I was able to navigate the system pretty easily. Also, on the way to Shin-Yokohama, I didn't need to change trains, so it ended up being really easy, and took about 20 minutes. When I got to Shin-Yokohama, however, the station was under construction, and the regular exits were blocked. Plus, I didn't have a map of the area and the directions in my guide book were really vague. Anyway, it took about a half hour of wandering around until I found a local map posted which pointed the Ramen museum out. The museum itself, when I finally got there, was appropriately daffy given it's subject (namely, the popular noodle soup imported from China). The basement where the restaurants are located is a reconstruction of a ramen shop district in pre-war Japan, and is both ridiculous and fun. The ramen I had was ordered using a vending machine outside the shop, which spat out a ticket that I handed to the waiter. The instructions on the machine had no English, and the pictures were a little vague, but it all worked out, except that I ate too much and kind of felt sick afterwards.

Getting back to my hotel proved to be an adventure. I was now in the middle of rush hour, and attempting what I now know is a more complicated trip, as the train from Shin-Yokohama does not go straight to Sakuragicho (or at least the one I boarded doesn't). First, I got confused on the direction the train was supposed to go, so I got off the first stop after I got on, only to realize that the train was going in the right direction in the first place. Then I got on the next train, but after two stops everyone got off, and I (correctly) deduced that the train must then be retracing it's route in the other direction. I now needed to find another train to keep me going in the right direction, and I eventually wandered onto the right island between two tracks, and (unfortunately) got on the train going the wrong direction. I knew this as soon as the train started moving, got off at the next station and got the next train going the other way, which finally got me where I needed to go. So it took me about fifty minutes to get back, instead of the twenty five it should have. I'm good and tired now, so I don't think I'll have any difficulty getting to sleep nice and early in preparation for my trip to Kamakura tomorrow.

Made it to Yokohama...

2006-09-11T01:04:00.000-04:00

The travel day was exhausting, as most travel days are, with this one lasting as long as any I've had. Woke up at 9 am, got to Logan at 10 am, flight to Detroit left about an hour late (weather in the way), had to run to catch connecting light to Narita (though I wasn't the only one, about 20 of us made the same mad dash), and then we were about an hour sitting on the tarmac because the passenger right next to me got sick. She got up from her seat, and just as I was noticing that she hadn't returned, one of the flight attendents made the always ominous announcement, "Is there anyone on the plane with medical training?" This was followed by the arrival of paramedics, who eventually escourted the passenger off the plane, which was actually a good sign, as she walked off herself. The flight to Narita took about 13 hours once we were enroute, putting me in at 5:45 pm Japan time, or 6:45 am Boston time. At that point, I'd been awake for about 22 hours. I was pretty darn tired, but happy to finally have reached my destination. The airport looked much like other airports, except the signs where in Japanese and English. I had to wait about two hours at the Narita airport before the shuttle bus left for my hotel (and unfortunate bit of timing, as if I'd arrived thirty minutes earlier, I could have left immediately). Anyway, I finally rolled into the Pan Pacific Yokohama Hotel at around 9:30 pm. The hotel is very nice, in the Western business hotel style, and the room is pretty typical. The only unusual thing is the beds are low to the ground, and the toilet has a variety of electronic options that I plan to avoid using. I feel asleep almost immediately, and though I was a little restless, I didn't have trouble sleeping until 8 am the next morning. So much for jetlag!

Evening before leaving...

2006-09-08T23:12:00.000-04:00

This blog is intended to describe my trip to Japan, as the trip progresses. I may or may not make posts in a timely fashion.

As a quick overview of what I will be doing: first, I'm going to Yokohama for a scientific conference (SSDM 2006), where I will be giving a presentation (I'm a post-doc in a lab at MIT in the Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science); after that, I'll be officially on vacation, and I intend to see Kyoto, Himeji, Koya-san, Tokyo, and Nikko. I've spent I lot of time obsessing about my trip (as I always do when travelling abroad), because it makes me nervous going to countries where I don't speak the language. But I also kind of like the dislocated feeling of being in a place where I don't quite belong and don't entirely understand what's going on. Besides being instructive (so I know what it feels like to others who come to the US), the anxiety and confusion can be a fun sort of energy.

I leave tomorrow morning from Boston and fly into Narita. My next post should be from Yokohama, the morning after I arrive.

Here's a picture of my luggage, almost completely packed up: