Japan Part 5

After leaving Izumo we went on a modern overnight train. Our rooms looked like pod hotel, it had a large window, a one person bed, and virtually no floorspace. I didn’t do much more than look out the window and take photos.

After getting off of the train in Tokyo we were picked up by Camille’s friend Shigeru, Shigeru was an exchange student at Putney while Camille was there. He showed us to the JVC Victor recording studio (one of the biggest in Tokyo)  where he has worked for the last 20 years. Camille and I marveled at the studio, Camille at the rooms and sound quality, and I marveled at all the buttons and switches. Shigeru has a daughter named Natsuki, a son named Yosuke, his wife is called Emi, and their affectionate and annoying toy poodle is called Ado. Their house is modern and minimalist. At one point Natsuki brought and made a packet of candy sushi mix which we filmed and posted.

Speaking of food, I was surprised to see a Mexican restaurant right next to a sushi bar. One interesting place we ate was a health food restaurant where you choose a type of rice and 3 small side dished as well as a bowl of soup, and amazingly, it was just enough. On our last night they cooked dinner for us. They made a delicious dish of little dough dumplings stuffed with octopus bits. They made it with an object somewhat like a waffle iron.

On our second day they took us to the Rikugien ‘garden’ (really a small park) which seemed to be mainly visited by young children and old women and men. We unintentionally arrived in Japan right in the beginning of cherry blossom season, or sakura in Japanese, so there were tons of domestic tourists taking selfies with the pink blooming cherry trees. The garden looked like the one in Okayama, but smaller and with more trees. Something we saw that was new to us were foot bridges with grass growing along the sides.

Another park we went to surrounded the Imperial Palace. The palace itself was off limits because it was still in use, but we did have fun walking around the moat, taking photos of birds and fish. After about an hour or two we made our way to the MOMAT, or Museum Of Modern Art in Tokyo. The MOMAT was a relatively small museum consisting of about 4 floors and a collection ranging from traditional Japanese paintings to more modern and western influenced art. My favorite was a mannequin sculpture positioned in front of a window looking out to a balcony, with another mannequin outside, right where his reflection would be, looking in.

On our fourth day we visited a very famous temple called Sensoji, in a neighborhood called Asakusa. In front of the temple was a large market dedicated to everything from traditional Japanese pastries to cheap plastic toys. People weren’t allowed to eat in the main passage because that would slow the extremely slow traffic of tourists, pilgrims, and shoppers. The temple itself was not as grand as some of the others we had seen, but it was grand. The temple was divided in two parts: the part for visitors, and the part for worshippers. Both parts were open to the public, but the area for worshippers was restricted only for worship, so no photos or non religious tourists. When we visited, the monks were playing some really intense music that I could only relate to battle music. It was layered with loud drums and gongs.

After that we went to a neighborhood that was filled with manga and anime shops. Anime is short for animation, but now refers specifically to Japanese animation. Manga is a kind of anime in which characters have large exaggerated features, especially eyes. The shops had a much wider variety of shoppers than I would have imagined, both in terms of gender and age, even in the adult manga bookstore (18 and over only) where I had to wait outside while Camille bought magazines for Oscar. The second floor had a figurine and plushie store with some collectible anime figurines obviously made for adults (big breast, butts, and others that were clearly fetishes), and toys which we would normally associate with kids (i.e. Dragon Ball Z, Pokemon etc.), all mixed together. The building next door had a huge arcade with digital Pokemon booths. I played a few times and got pretty good (I think).

The next day we went to one of  the most anticipated things about out trip to Japan, the Ghibli Museum, dedicated to the work of Miyazaki and the Ghibli studio (some of their movies include Nausica in the Valley of the Wind, and My Neighbor Totoro). It was really hard to get tickets, and we are lucky to even have gone at all. When we arrived we were greeted by a life sized Totoro in the ticket booth. After sitting in line for what seemed like forever, we got to the front desk. The building itself was stuffed with little secrets and easter eggs (hidden references) only a true Ghibli fan would notice. The museum was small and cozy. The first exhibit we saw was a simple introduction to animation, but more particularly circular animation. Circular animation is the process in which one spins some object  containing a circular arrangement of movement stages and imposes a strobe light to eliminate the sense that it is spinning, for example: a disk with a circle of people walking around the edge, or even several glass tubes revolving around each other. The examples they provided were an animation of a Totoro jumping up and down, a large figurine of a tree overlooking many characters doing many things, and a Castle in the Sky guardian robot holding his arms open to the birds flying around him. We also saw an interesting frame (not circular) animation about a character going through all the stages of evolution due to being constantly chased by varying creatures. Also on the first floor there was a small movie theater where we saw a short film about a water spider who falls in love with a water-bug. The second floor had an exhibit meant to look like Miyazaki's office. The walls were covered in swift character sketches. There were books on botany, biology, gardening, and architecture. There was a JUG full of the stumps of colored pencils. And there was an installation on how they animated the characters over the backdrop with clear film. There was also a cat bus where kids could play, a temporary exhibit on the aeronautic travel of Miyazake, and on the roof was a large guardian statue and a stone from Laputa in the castle in the sky.

The last thing we did in Japan was take a Shinkansen north from Tokyo to Nagano. On the train we saw snow (which we did not expect), and A LOT of volcanoes. We stayed at a small town called Shibu Onsen which is built around a collection of natural hot springs which are pumped through pipes into the many ryokans situated around the town. (Onsen means hot spring in Japanese). There were also snow monkeys who bathe in the surface hot springs up in the mountains, but we were unable to see them since we miscalculated our time. Supposedly our ryokan is the one on which Miyazaki based the ryokan in Spirited Away. I didn’t see much similarity however. That  night we ate dinner in a private dining room and every time we thought the meal was over they would bring MORE FOOD! We ate so much we got as Anthony Bourdain would call it, food f***ed. We slept really deeply. One of Shibu Onsen’s main attractions is touring all the 9 public hot springs in the town; people walk from onsen to onset bathing in the baths and collecting stamps from each one. Shibu Onsen was our last experience in Japan. Japan was amazing, and since I know I will probably never go back, I enjoyed and cherished every moment.

Japan Part 4

After leaving the hotel we took a slow train, across Japan, from the southeast coast to the northwest coast. Along the way we saw small towns with rivers and signs of farming activity, like greenhouses, but it was still early spring so everything was brown. When we arrived in Tottori, we headed straight for the main attraction: giant sand dunes on the ocean. The sand dunes were huge, the largest one measuring 90 meters. Next to the main dune was a large, very cold, very blue pond. I tried to climb up the dune, which was exhausting. Once at the top I had fun rolling down the dune. We walked by the beach and picked up trash. We could walk around barefoot even though it was cold because the sand was warm from the sun. 

Once we were really tired and sandy we walked to the bus station and took a bus back to our ryokan. At the reception there was an interesting figurine of man with a an eyeball for a head: “eyeball guy” (who we later learned was from an anime series) who I quite liked. We bathed in the indoor hot springs and relaxed. Then we went to have dinner with Ando, Camille’s old aikido teacher from years ago in Honduras. He lives in Totorri and works at the University there. We ate at a traditional Japanese restaurant. We sat in out own private room and dangled our feet in the foot depression mentioned in a prior blog. He taught us many eating customs, one of which was that when serving sake a Japanese rice wine, you must always serve each other instead of yourself as a symbol of selflessness and friendship. After dinner we went back to the ryokan and slept a nice, deep sleep.

The next day we took another train to the Izumo shrine, one of the biggest and most famous shrines in Japan. After a lunch of cold udon noodles, we walked to the shrine. Ando explained that no body was supposed to walk in the middle of the wide path that led upon to the shrine, since that was the place for the gods to walk. We also learned that when entering any entrance you must take your first step with your outward foot as to not insult the gods with your rump. In front of the entrance was a fountain with two long narrow trough-like containers where people would drink a ladleful of cold water and then wash their hands in it. We walked around the grounds of the huge temple. Ando explained to us that historically the temple was even bigger, but since the trees they used to make their massive columns (6 meter thick columns by the way) died out, they were unable to rebuild it in the same way(which is every 40-50 years, to keep the building traditions alive). Here’s what people think it may have looked like, based on archaeological evidence:

Japan Part 3

On our fourth day in Japan, we took the bullet train, or shinkansen, from Yokohama to Okayama. The train looked like an airplane on the inside, but had more legroom. It didn't feel like we were going as fast as we were going. We went about 650 miles, which would take 8 hours in a car, and it only took us 4 hours. It was hard to focus on anything closer that a hundred meters since it was blurred due to the motion. 

After dropping off our luggage a hotel right across from the train station which Camille had booked from her cell phone while on the train, we took a walk down main street, and up to Okayama castle, which overlooks the Asahi river. Okayama castle was built in 1587, and at that time it was known as Bizen. It looks nothing like a European castle, instead, it just looked like a veeeery big traditional Japanese house surrounded by stone walls. In WWII it was bombed during an air raid by the US. It was later rebuilt in 1966. Inside the main palace there was a museum dedicated to cultural heritage: early firearms, samurai armor and swords, a palanquin (a fancy box for carrying royal individuals), and old scrolls and correspondence. 

  

Then we walked across a pedestrian bridge over the Asahi river to the formal gardens, from the 1700s. But first we had a cup of tea to warm up (due to it being quite cold) at a small cafe which was next to the bridge and watched the rain from the big glass windows next to the low tables and tatami mats. The garden was not how I had imagined. Instead of a western style garden with bushes and flowers, we were greeted with a seriously well manicured lawns, with lots of well placed rocks, streams, trees, and cherry trees (which were just beginning to bloom). There were many little buildings for resting, including one that had a stream running right through the middle. In the streams and ponds there were large orange, white, gray and black Koi fish, some of which had strange growths on their heads.

On the walk home we saw some funny ceramic figures in shop windows and later learned that Okayama is known for its ceramic tradition and some white peaches but it was the wrong season for the fruit. 

Back at the hotel we admired our huge window which looked over the entirety of main street. I observed the bank across from our hotel, named Tomato Bank, which I still believe is the best ever name for a bank. We were positioned on the seventh floor, so we got a great view of all the electronic bill boards and neon signs. In the photo you can see the advertisement for one of the pop boy/bands that are popular in Japan.

 

 

Japan Part 2

Our second stop was Koenji, Tokyo, a neighborhood known for its underground music and art scene. 

Bed & Art hotel  had only 2 rooms, both with original art by local artists. Ours was called Into the Foreign and was covered in countless paintings of colorful running wolves.

We went out for my birthday meal at a sushi restaurant where no one spoke English, and so we had to point and hope that what we thought was something, would really be what we thought it was.

It was fun though. Afterwards, we went looking for a 3 to 2 prong converter so we could actually use our computers. We did not find one, and thus I settled for gently removing my third prong (ripping it out using the edge of table)

The next day we took a train to Yokohama to visit Camille's friend Samuel, the uncle of our neighbor in Honduras, who married a Japanese woman around the time I was born, moved to Japan, and had two daughters, both younger than me. They taught me how to write my name in Japanese.

Neither of the daughters spoke Spanish or English, and thus I had to resort to drawing communication. Their house was a traditional Japanese home. It was wooden, quiet, and simple. Their table was a floor table, but under it was a rectangular depression to dangle your feet into. We went out for a dinner of beef barbecue, where we cooked our beef at our table, kind of like Korean BBQ.

We slept on futons on tatami mats (which were really comfy) and slept really well. The next morning we had a breakfast containing miso soup, eggs, among other things. It was a rainy day, not unlike an early spring day in New England.

Japan Part 1

 When we got to the airport, we took a train to Narita, a small town on the outskirts of Tokyo which is built around a famous temple. Narita is extremely close to the airport, so most people only ever go to the airport on their way to and from Tokyo, and never see the town. When we left the train it was cold, but not freezing. We wandered the narrow streets looking for our ryokan (old style Japanese inn), and got lost on the way. Luckily a young man helped us find it The ryokan was very large and was cozy and comfortable. There was an onsen (hot spring pumped into a tub), but they didn't allow people with tattoos, and since Camille had one on her back, she didn't go in. We ate dinner in the ryokan, which was brought to us in our room. We ate on the small low table and sat on cushions. Dinner was an interesting mix of strange Japanese food we had never even heard of before. Fermented as well as pickled food was common in ryokan meals as we would soon discover. After we ate, the room attendants came in and laid out our sleeping futons on the tatami mats. We slept soundly. The next day was my birthday, had a traditional Japanese breakfast containing a variety of tasty and not so tasty items, including: raw egg, rice, and fermented soy beans (natto). We checked out at ten to go see the Narita temple. To our benefit the shrine was right next door. We walked through the grand entrance gate with 4 wooden guardian statues, with intense faces. In front of the main building was a large metal cauldron-like receptacle under a roof, where people burned prayer paper and basked in the smoke. It was later explained to us that people do this in the belief that the smoke would increase their luck and intelligence. We later did it too, because I really needed the intelligence. The main building was massive. It had an extremely tall roof, and which made it feel like a cathedral, perhaps to intimidate worshipers and to make people feel small. We walked outside in the large wooded park, through the pathways lined with trees and cherry blossoms just beginning to bloom. We eventually came to a second, even taller spire-like building. On the way there we found a small closed off building that may also have been a shrine. We weren't sure because everything was in Japanese. As we walked back to get our bags from the ryokan and continue on our journey, we took photos of the beautiful pink camellias, as well as the massive sword that was over the entrance of another small shrine. After we got our bags we walked through the streets and marveled at the eel restaurants where the eel peelers were stationed outside cutting up the still wiggling eel bodies. They would slice them down the middle and remove the guts, they did this while holding the eel down so it wouldn't squirm so much. We also saw interesting squishy soap in a store. It came in a disk shape, or a sphere shape. At first we thought they were some edible snack, but then I saw people trying them out and realized they were actually soap. I had a 'soft cream' cone, which was like ice cream, but soft. Then we walked to the train station, to take a train to Koenji...

Hong Kong

After arriving on the plane from Hanoi we took the airport express train to Causeway Bay, a neighborhood in downtown Hong Kong. After searching for what seemed a long time we found the hostel. It was a minimalist and clean little place called Still House. During the day it was a cafe and work space but it had rooms for people to stay in but we were the only guests. It was tucked away in a building, and the door was in the back of a key stall. A few blocks away was a tall building with lights that lit up in such a way that it looked like an animation on the side of the building, sometimes people walking, other times abstract blotches of light. Inside the hostel they had a simple harp that a woman would come and play every Wednesday. I had fun playing on the harp and making up pieces. We went out for a dinner of fried tofu and tempura, and then went and found a park. We played and exercised on public exercise machines. Then we went back to the Still House to sleep.

The next day we went to a larger park,Victoria Park, where we walked around. We stopped at a model boat pond where people would bring small boats (about two feet long) and drive them around with remote controls. The park was very clean and organized. There was a walking path, and a jogging path, and a bike path and everything was defined clearly by signs. We walked around and started noticing that the people were mainly older people and children. We wondered and eventually came to the conclusion that older kids were at school and adults were at work. The park people were closing a flower show so there were flowers and tents and dirt fenced off from the general public. We walked over to the public library. It was massive. It was 6 or 7 floors tall, and looked a lot like the New York public library on the outside. The inside was very comfortable and modern. I explored the young adult fiction and read several good short books. The view from the floor we were on was great. We could see the park and even across the channel between the two islands that make up Hong Kong

 One day we went hiking on one of the nature park mountains in Hong Kong. Our camera was dead so we couldn't take any photos. We had lunch in a strange sushi place where the sushi came on conveyor belts and you grabbed as much as you wanted, then the waitress would count how much you had and charge you. At the base of the mmountain was a Christian cemetery. However, the graves were decorated with small dragons and other Chinese funerary symbols. The cemetery itself was built diagonally, with many terraces and stairs, the newest graves were at the top and the oldest were at the very bottom. We explored a bit and tried to find the hiking

path. Once we found it we walked for a while and noticed that there were people from the water department doing... something. We assumed that the water for Hong Kong came from the mountains and so the water department people were doing something with waterways. The ocean-ward side of the mountain had short, stooping trees because of all the wind. The top's trees didn't even reach my knees. We had cake when we reached the top. Afterwards we hiked down to the highway where we took a bus to a small beach town where we walked on the beach. We then took a bus back to Hong Kong.

Originally Art Basel was an art show for art collectors to go and buy art in bulk. Then it moved to Miami, and then Hong Kong. We were just in time to see Art Basel kind of a supermarket but for art. We withstood a few hours of art before out legs and brains hurt. During this time we noticed several trends, mainly circular, concave, reflective surfaces. Basel wasn't all new art though we saw photos from the 90s, as well as Kieth Haring paintings. One piece that really caught my eye was a kinetic structure with so much going on I sat for several minutes trying to figure it out. It had an air blower that was on a small track propelled by a motor It blew air to play a harmonica. I couldn't really figure out everything that was going on because there was so much happening. Once we got exhausted enough we went back to the hostel and had dinner.