Kyoto, not Tokyo

Time definitely flies when you’re having fun. I have been here for a little over 6 weeks and only have 2 more to go. It is nice to have that extra couple of weeks to get in a little more sightseeing and cultural exposure. Last weekend I went to Kyoto from Saturday through Monday to hang out with my tomodachi Shelley from Hawaii. I started off with the 15 minute predawn power-walk to the train station and station hopping to Yokohama where I caught the bullet train (shinkansen) to Kyoto. It is amazing how smooth a 200 mph train ride can be. The city is chock full of castles, shrines and temples. You can literally run into them at almost every corner. Winding our way through a massive cemetery we came across a small but ornate wooden shrine with no people around. It was awesome. So was wandering through the Gion area and seeing the occasional maiko (geisha). I almost tripped over one of them too. We had an excellent weekend of hiking, eating, exploring. It helps a lot to be in a place where the bus and train timetable actually means something. If the train is arriving at 0646 and leaving at 0648 you can pretty much set your watch by it. The only real complaint I have about Japan is the stress of driving. It seems to be the one part of Japanese life that is random, haphazard and dangerous. As a driver you are pretty much at fault in every situation. If a shopper darts out into the street and gets hit, it’s the driver’s fault. If a moped gets knocked over while passing you on the left in the two-foot wide space between car and curb as you execute a left turn, it’s the driver’s fault. If some kid in a miniskirt and stiletto heels rides her bike through an intersection in the rain with headphones on, an umbrella in one hand, one hand on the wheel and her cell phone pinched between her shoulder and cheek and runs into you, it’s the driver’s fault. Drivers have to stop at the stop line a good 10-15 feet before an intersection, even though the corner is a blind corner due to the building that stretches up from 2 feet off the street and has a tree planted in the remaining 2 feet. You have to stop at the line and hope that nobody pulls up to the other blind corner at the same time, otherwise you have to wait for the police and then as the foreigner, it’s your fault. If anyone is hurt, the driver is expected to pay a condolence visit with cash money (yen) in enough hand to apologize adequately and act so humble as to convince the victim not to sue you (aka: a bribe). Yeah driving is kind of tense. Thank goodness for sa-ke and massages.

Of Samurai, Soba and T-Shirts

Okay, I don’t normally do two blog posts in one day, but I am compelled to on this day. I saw Mt. Fuji today for the first time since I have been here. The tallest mountain in Japan, it is breath-taking even from a great distance. Fuji-san in Japanese, the san is not honorific, but I think it should be. Today was clear as any day I can remember, especially considering yesterday was practically a whiteout. I went to Odawara Castle today. I thought, “castles in Japan?” Sure, and with the long history of ninjas and shoguns and samurai, why not? It strikes an interesting nerve in my American heart when I see Ninja throwing stars in a museum instead of at Spencer’s in the mall and samurai swords preserved on the grounds of a castle instead of as somebody’s living room décor. I am used to seeing it as dramatic theatrical hype, not as a long and illustrious history. Wow. Japan. Here I am. Nihon. 日本. The highest number of vending machines per capita in the world. The hot coffee is almost as good as Starbucks and ¼ the price. Seriously, I walked out of the onsen last night and smack into a machine offering me beer, water or sports drinks. I selected a sports drink after having spent 2 hours getting steamed, and walked out onto the street to see two machines begging me to having a cigarette for ½ the price of the U.S. Today, it was a tough choice between espresso or tomato basil soup, but in the end I chose the espresso (even though I heard the soup is a-ma-zing). This has nothing to do with vending machines, but I ordered Sukiyaki at a restaurant and got a gas grill with a bowl on top. Then they lit the grill and brought me all the stuff to cook on it, plus rice, plus soup, plus salad. It was crowded on that little table and the sake made everything kinda get in the way AND I had to cook it myself. What a concept! That’s twice I have paid well for a meal and had to cook it myself. Whatever. I am not complaining, but I am once again struck by cultural differences and things we all take for granted. I see little, little kids handling chopsticks like I never will. They use chop sticks at KFC for Pete’s sake! I haven’t even looked into the McDonald’s but I imagine McUdon and McKatsu (I have seen McShwarma and McTurca, so there must be). It took me 2 hours to eat a bowl of soba kare nandan today with chopsticks, and those were soba. Imagine my experience eating rice noodles in sukiyaki with chopsticks. Maybe I am talking about very foreign things, but I find myself asking, “What the…” a lot. I am not dismayed or disgruntled at all. I am awed! And I love it that I am in a place where everytime I do something wrong like dropping my washcloth into the onsen bath, bending over to pick it up, walking through the wrong stile at the train station, or not slurping my udon with enough enthusiasm, there are people standing by, smiling and bowing, trying to help me feel at home. And T-shirts! Damn! All that and a dancing monkey. Sorry, I just had a little rant in me.

赤ちゃんは、それが外に寒い

I guess I have gotten off kind of lucky as far as weather. We have had some cold days, but not as cold as my friends in the States. Days mostly in the 40s and nights dipping into the 20s. This past weekend we got some snow here in Zama, about 2” although it snowed heavily for about 12 straight hours. I went to Hakone, near Mt. Fuji and in the higher elevations like Gora and Owakudani there was 8” and it fell all day long. So much for the weather report. I feel like I am not taking as many pictures these days, but maybe I am starting to realize that a gigabyte of photos don’t really tell the story. Maybe if I was “press” or a professional photographer staging photo shoots, they would be more interesting. I enjoy looking back at pix but I know everybody else doesn’t enjoy looking at 700 pictures of a place they haven’t been. I went shopping last weekend at the 100 Yen store (Everything’s A Dollar) and that was fun. Then there are the Department Stores. Every department is a separate store, like a vertical mall. Restaurants are stacked on top of one another, several stories high, but I ended up eating at a Sushi-Go-Round. The picture explains it all. What it doesn’t show is the baby octopus, the various roe and the stuff that is indiscernible and most unattractive to my Floridian eyes. I will leave it at that, but it was cold outside the tea was hot and the salmon, tuna and other odds and ends were delicious. This weekend I went to Hakone, famous for the volcanic hot springs. I rode the cable car to Gora Park and the ropeway to Owakudani (Hell Valley – a hot and steamy volcanic crater). I ate black eggs cooked in the thermal springs that are supposed to add 7 years to your life. I ate five. Then after taking the bus back to Hakone I went to my first onsen, a Japanese experience which I intend to repeat, and sat in the hot springs with occasional strolls in the cold night air in between soaks. Nice and minerally. I had to locate it using Kanji script (Japanese writing) and that was kind of fun too. Here are a some pics. I did take a few at the onsen, but as you might guess the steam made the pictures very steamy. Interestingly a lot of people wear surgical masks here. I thought it was to keep from catching the flu, but learned that it’s also to keep from spreading germs which would be rude behavior. I kind of enjoy the polite culture here, and will miss it when I go home.