To: Sheldon
I would just like to open
by stating that the idea of a tour around Japan by local train, getting off the
beaten tourist path, and seeing “the real Japan” is really quite romantic. Much
more romantic, it turns out, than the reality. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
The idea started way back in the winter when we attended church in a smaller
town near Kumamoto. The pastors of Kumamoto take turns ministering to the
Lutheran church there and so we got a ride with the pastor to church that
morning. As he had to stay for council meetings and things, we took the train
back.
The train ride back was
lovely. We were passing through rural Japan, one of the first times we had seen
it, and some of the train stops were platforms seemingly in the middle of
nowhere. Afterwards, Laura and I discussed how grand it would be to travel
around Japan by local train and stop at some of those small towns. We thought
it would be the perfect way to get off the tourist path and see some beautiful,
hidden sites. And so the planning began.
We quickly decided summer
would be the best time, mostly because it was when we had the most time. Just
as quickly we decided that our travels must have a stop back in Tokyo. We
missed our friends and that crazy, hectic city, and plus, I really wanted to go
to Disney Land (I had never been to Disney Land or World). So the plan began to
come together. We would spend five days in Tokyo and five days touring the
interior of Honshu (the biggest island in Japan).
We left for Tokyo on the
afternoon of August 7th and arrived around four o’clock. Our first
stop? Starbucks of course! Not that we don’t have Starbucks in Kumamoto, we
totally do. It was just really hot, and I was early for my second appointment
in Tokyo and so we headed into the air conditioning. Did I mention that summer
in Japan is really, really hot?
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| First of many Starbucks stops! |
The price of the haircut
was totally deserved too. I got two massages in the deal, head and shoulders,
and a treatment and… you probably don’t really care. But I was SUPER impressed
and am now spoiled forever.
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| After! |
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| Before! |
Afterwards we had dinner
at an Indian restaurant with some of our friends from Hongo Lutheran that we
missed dearly. We had a great time catching up and I was so happy to see them
again! And the food was delicious, which was a bonus.
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| Our Hongo people! Together again! |
The next day was supposed
to be a tourist day. It started badly, when we tried to go to Skytree. The wait
just to get tickets was sixty minutes! We would have spent the whole day just
trying to get into the tower! So we took pictures from the bottom, I bought a
keychain, and we left. But then things picked up when I finally got my rickshaw
ride! I had been dying to ride in one since we arrived but everyone else was
like, “That’s too touristy!” and turned up their collective noses. But I
maintain that I am a tourist! So I dragged Laura with me and it was so fun! Our
rickshaw driver spoke English very well and had a lot to tell us about
everything we were passing. Later that afternoon (after a delicious lunch at
Red Pepper, my apologies to anyone who has never had a chance to taste the
awesomeness that is their lasagna) we went to the Imperial Gardens. This wasn’t
a mistake, rather an adventure that was not. It was hot. Really, really hot.
And we were kinda tired. And cranky. And it was just… yeah. But the view was
really great.
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| SkyTree! |
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| Insanity! |
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| At Asakusa! |
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| Our rickshaw driver |
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| Better picture of SkyTree |
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| I love this picture! Too cute! |
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| Asakusa Temple grounds |
So two strike-outs and two
runs and we were headed into the last inning of the day. We had been invited to
attend a tea party that was hosted and attended by many of our Hongo friends at
one of their apartments. It was positively lovely. I had such a good time!
Talking to old friends and new, eating great treats (too many great treats),
and drinking all kinds of tea and coffee… such a perfect way to end a long day.
This was the main reason we came back to Tokyo. Not to see the sites, not to
shop, though we did both, but rather to see all the amazing people we had known
for too short of time last winter.
We got up early the next
morning because… It was DISNEY SEA TIME!!! Some of you might be asking, “What
is Disney Sea?” Well I’ve asked that question myself several times, and have
been told that it is the adult Disney Land. Still very kid friendly, but the
rides are a little scarier and more intense and based on more adult Disney,
like Indiana Jones, or Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea. Granted you also
have Aladdin and the Little Mermaid so it balances out. It is also not owned by
Disney (neither is Tokyo Disneyland; they are the only Disney resorts in the
world not owned by The Walt Disney Company).
We went with my friend
Kate. She and I had attended college together and then, as luck would have it,
met back up again a few years later in Tokyo where she teaches at an international
school. I was really happy to see her again and feeling like a little kid to be
going to Disney Sea! I won’t say too much about the day itself, if you have
seen one Disney Park you understand what the day was like. Just make most of
the visitors Japanese and all of the characters Japanese speaking and you’ve
got Tokyo Disney Sea. I’ve gotta say it was a trip to see the very foreign
(probably American judging from the few English phrases he was throwing out)
Indiana Jones speaking as Indiana Jones in Japanese. Even weirder was Mickey
speaking in the same squeaky voice but in Japanese. Side note: I was impressed with Indiana’s
(who was young and very handsome) ability to perform his treasure hunting
duties while being mobbed by teenage girls. But he was totally focused on
asking all the little kids wandering around if they had seen various landmarks
on his map and if they would show him where they were. It was cute.
We had a great day and
stayed pretty late. The afternoon and evening shows were gorgeously done. The
evening show in particular made me very nostalgic because, while a lot of the
park didn’t have much in the way of classic Disney princess, the evening show
did. I really felt like a little girl again, impressed with Disney magic. We
headed home after the evening show and were super giggly the whole way home. It
had been that kind of a day. Note the picture below.
The next day was spent
shopping and then on Sunday we attended the churches we were assigned to while
we had lived in Tokyo. I was so happy to see Koishikawa Lutheran again! I love
that church! They were my first home here and I was blissfully happy to be
returning. I was pleasantly surprised that they were just as happy to see me;
that was a feel good that lasted all day. After church I headed down to our old
stomping grounds, and did some writing at the Starbucks (good lord I am there
way too much!) that I did all my blog writing in while I was in Tokyo. The girl
behind the register and I even recognized each other. It was sweet.
You know, as much as I
love Kumamoto, and I truly do, Tokyo was my first home here. I still feel quite
the pull to it and as much as there is to see in the rest of Japan, I feel the
need to return to Tokyo again and again. I can’t imagine living there, I far
prefer living here in Kumamoto, but it’s like wanting to live in a small town
that is close to the big city so that you can have the best of both worlds. If
I could pick up Kyushu Gakuin, Kengun, my apartment complex, the Family Mart
across the street with the owner who keeps an eye out for the J-3s, and all of
the lovely people I have met here, and move the whole lot closer to Tokyo I
would.
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| Shinjuku Station: We're back! |
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| The first picture I took in Japan was here, right outside Shinjuku station. I had to recreate the experience. |
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| It turns out Snow Cup's iced mochas are just as amazing as the hot ones. I want a Snow Cup in Kumamoto please! |
Monday we got an early
start. We had a full day of train travel ahead of us until we arrived at our
destination in Yamagata City, up in the mountains of central Honshu. We made a
bit of an error in judgment with that. You see, we assumed that during rush
hour everyone would be heading into Tokyo instead of away from it like we were.
Buu! (That’s the sound in Japanese that means wrong answer). We stood for
several hours that morning with our bags. We had tried to pack light and I
think we succeed, but it was ten days, and the train was really crowded. Which
leads to…
Things We Learned About
Train Travel:
1. Always be half an hour early for your train. This
increases your chances of getting a seat.
2. One person sits and saves the seat while the other
puts the luggage on the racks.
3. Don’t assume that the sweet grandmother cutting ahead
of you in line is okay because it’s one seat gone. BUU! She is actually getting
seats for all ten of her grandchildren and she will fight dirty! You will feel
bad and not sit for another two hours.
4. Always get a reserved seat on the Shinkansen during
peak season.
5. Use the restroom at every station. The bathrooms on
the train are very clean, but a) you will lose your seat and b) it’s hard to
use a squat toilet on a moving train. Just saying.
6. Bring snacks.
7. Always look like a lost foreigner when you are one.
Don’t be cocky. You will miss your train. Ask for help!
8. Run when necessary!
9. Backpack. Rolling suitcases are lame when train
traveling.
10.
The number ten
thing learned: schedule rest days when traveling by train. It is really
exhausting. Yes there is much to see, but, without rest days, crankiness will
ensue and then it’s not really even worth it.
Honestly, Monday was an
adventure in the truest sense. It wasn’t easy, and it was exhausting, but we
learned a lot and had a really great time too. At least I think so. Though I
have to say, but the time we stopped for lunch I was so claustrophobic! Our
trains had been crowded from the time we set foot on them at like seven that
morning, and the restaurant we were eating in was crowded, and I was about
ready to scream, and start pulling my hair out. Luckily, the very next train we
took was nice. It was full yes, but we had seat and it wasn’t jam packed with
people. I felt like I could actually breathe and I could even see the scenery
outside of the opposite window! We finally arrived in Yamagata at about five
that afternoon and headed straight for… where else? Starbucks! There was one in
the station and we were exhausted and beelined for the familiar caffeine
heaven.
My first stay in a hotel
in Japan was a really nice experience. The Japanese customer service has yet to
disappoint where it counts. The people working at the desk didn’t speak fluent
English, but they clearly knew the phrases that counted in their business and
were very kind. We were, as afore mentioned, exhausted, so we ate at the hotel
and went for a bit of a walk afterwards and it was a really nice quiet evening.
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| The view of Yamagata from our hotel window |
The next day we were
hiking up the nearest tall mountain, Yamadera! Yamadera is interesting because
of the amount of temples it has all the way up the mountain. It is one of the
most holy sites in Tohoku. I was expecting a hike, but really it was just a
ridiculously long set of stairs that stopped every so often at the next temple.
It was really crowded, but beautiful, and I had to marvel at the ingenuity of
it all. This temple complex is really quite old, built around 860 A.D., and
there were all sorts of monuments just built into caves in the mountain that were
surrounded by sheer cliff. I had to wonder how on earth they had done that so
many hundreds of years ago. I can’t even begin to fathom how people would do it
now! We stayed there for the full day, and ended by wading in the river to cool
our aching feet. It was marvelous.
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| Yamadera! |
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| Ready to hike! |
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| Basho, one of the most famous Japanese poets, and his traveling companion Sora. |
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| The White Buddha |
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| Cooling off with some ice cream! |
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| ... and then in the river |
We spent a second night at
Hotel Castle and then moved on. Originally, we had planned to spend three
nights in Yamagata, but then had discovered we were actually close enough to
see Matsushima Bay. Matsushima Bay might ring a bell for you, because it is
right along the part of the coast that was hit by the tsunami in 2011. It is
also considered the third most beautiful view in Japan and from the first time
I had seen the pictures I was enchanted.
We took the train to
Sendai and then down to the sea. There we toured a few temples while waiting
for our ocean tour to take us out to the bay. I was so excited to see it for
two reasons. One it is beautiful like I said, but two, it was to be my first
time on the ocean! I had seen the sea since coming to Japan of course, but had
yet to go in or on it. So exciting! Plus we passed a Japanese Coast Guard ship
on our way out so I felt safe.
The day was bright and
sunny, but a bit hazy as you will notice in the pictures. It didn’t matter. It
was everything I hoped it to be. The wind on my face, the salt spray, other
tourists holding up fries for gulls (oh yes that was what I hoped for too…),
and the incredibly gorgeous view. It definitely deserves its title.
When our tour ended we
quickly realized, as we rushed to catch our train, that we had chosen the wrong
train station. There were two. One right near the dock, and one that was some
ways into (out of?) town. We were headed to the far away one and did not have
enough time. We rushed and nearly made it! But no. For the first time, we had
missed a train. And while the next train out came fairly quickly, it caused the
rest of our train schedule to quickly cascade until we were arriving at our
hotel, not at five, but instead at eight. One missed train and it’s a three
hour delay. Yeesh. Still, we were riding high on our tour of the bay, and me on
my vending machine ice cream, so after an initial normal reaction to this bad
news, we erupted into giggle fits. I tried to document our first missed train
properly, but we just kept laughing until the stationmaster interrupted us to
tell us that we were about to miss our train. Again. Luckily we managed to snag
seats on every train along the way so it made it a bit more bearable.
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| Laughing in the station after missing our train |
One thing about me and
traveling. I have to eat. Like a lot. Or I get cranky. So when I hadn’t had
dinner and it was eight o’clock, I was cranky. And everything was closing down.
We rushed to the hotel, but there was nary a McDonalds or 24 hour convenience store
in sight. Things were not looking good, especially when we asked at the desk
and all they could give us that was close by were izakaiyas (bars that serve
food), which wasn’t exactly appealing at the time. We booked it back to the
train station, hoping that something would still be open, and we were in luck.
A tonkatsu (fried pork cutlets) restaurant was open till ten. I nearly hugged
the lady who seated us I was so happy that she was about to give me food. She
was really nice too and tried to speak to us in English and she even brought me
a fork with my tonkatsu! I was touched.
The next morning we had
breakfast at the hotel and it was off to our last stop of the trip: Aizu-Wakamatsu.
This was the part of the trip that I had been most excited about.
Aizu-Wakamatsu is a town that is very well known for its samurai history, and
lately that history has been front and center through a drama about a woman
named Yae Nishijima. She was… forgive my expression... a total badass and a
lady to boot. At eighteen she defended her castle with a samurai sword and a
Spencer rifle against imperial troops in the Boshin Wars. This was right after
the Meiji Revolution when power was changing from a shogunate to the emperor in
Tokyo. Yae and her people resisted this change, fighting to keep the samurai
way of life alive. Throughout her life she was many things: a sharpshooter who
could also wield a samurai sword, a nurse with the Red Cross, a Christian, a
pastor’s wife, a master of tea ceremony, and a pioneer of woman’s rights. She
was a powerhouse woman, a shaker and a mover in the new Japan. I could not wait
to visit her hometown!
Below are photos from the drama Yae no Sakura:
Unfortunately, on the
train, Laura got heat sickness. She held in there until we got to town and we
took a taxi right away for the ryokan, the traditional Japanese inn that we
were staying at. It wasn’t time to check in yet, but the ladies at the entrance
were super sweet and said they would prepare our room right away. They brought
us ice water, and a wet, cool towel for Laura, gave her a thermometer to make
sure she wasn’t running a fever, and sat us in their main entryway.
Once we got into the room
Laura lay down to sleep and I was on my own. It was in this way that I
discovered my new favorite food here… sauce tonkatsu. I had asked the ladies at
the ryokan to direct me to a good place and the one they gave me was a small
family restaurant right across the street. The experience there was
interesting. On the one hand the food was incredible! I must find a place in
Kumamoto that serves sauce tonkatsu which is an Aizu specialty. It is a big
bowl of rice with shredded cabbage on top, with a big, fried pork cutlet, that
has been doused in some kind of wonderfulness and then fried again… heaven in a
dish.
On the other hand, clearly
foreigners do not go there often. The stares! But it was kinda cute too,
because there were two middle school (?) age girls next to me who kept staring
even after their mom told them they were being rude. They were watching my
every move very intently, so I messed with them just a little bit. When I
finished praying I crossed myself, which I rarely do, and their eyes! The size
of saucers. They started talking to each other excitedly and their mom called
them on it again. They were cute, but some of the others were not so cute.
Adults did double takes when they came in. I think that it was the combination
of my being a foreigner, a young woman, and I was alone.
I think in the end the
fact that I was alone was what really triggered it, because I got it the rest
of the day too. I traveled through the town and went down to see Tsuruga
Castle, the very one that Yae had defended. Well, not the very one. This one is
a replica, but a very good one. It is very pretty with its white washed walls.
It was totally packed. The drama tends to draw lots of tourists to the area. Everything
was in Japanese, of course, so I didn’t really know what I was looking at, but
the movie that was showing had English subtitles of all things. Some nice young
men who were standing in front of me stood aside and helped me get to the front
of the crowd so that I could read the subtitles. They were rather tall fellows
and I wouldn’t have been able to see a thing behind them so that made me happy.
It was an interesting video too, all about Yae’s life and her impact on
Japanese history.
I headed back in time to
bathe in the hot springs before dinner and then we put on the yukata provided
by the ryokan and headed out to the festival that was taking place on the
streets right outside! The week we were traveling is called Obon, a time in
Japan with many festivals. Everyone returns to their hometown because it is
said that at this time of year your deceased ancestors can return to your home
if you guide them. So the festival we attended was part of that. It was brightly
lit with lanterns and so many people were dancing in beautiful yukata! I wanted
to dance too, but I had no idea what the steps were or where to even begin.
Also, I was wearing men’s wooden platform sandals with my yukata, because none
of the women’s sizes fit and I was having trouble walking. Trying to dance
seemed like a recipe for disaster. We had a really good time anyway. In a
memorable moment, two very drunk young men came over to take their picture with
us, the “pretty Americans”. I regret not taking one with my camera as well. For
as drunk as they were, they were still very charming, and had us laughing
pretty hard.
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| We demolished that dinner. Except for the river fish. It was looking at me funny so I left it alone. |
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| A little girl learning the dance from her mother and grandmother |
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| Yukata times! |
And then, all too soon, it
was time for bed. Our adventure was coming to its inevitable conclusion and it
was bittersweet. We were both rather tired and anxious to be back in our own
beds, but the trip had been such a memorable one. The next morning we were
presented with a traditional Japanese breakfast at the ryokan (and despite the
fact that I am a cereal or toast only in the morning kind of girl I ate it all
and it, was delicious).
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| The ryokan |
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| Our garden view room |
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| The garden outside our window |
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| In the gardens of our ryokan |
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| Koi pond! |
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| Time to leave... |
Then it was back on the train, back to Tokyo. We had
some time left there so we made one last stop at the bookstore with the massive
English section in Shinjuku and grabbed a very American lunch (my burger and
fries, diner style, made me crazy happy). And then it was off to Haneda airport
for the flight home. I bought a Tokyo Starbucks mug at the airport to
commemorate our many, many Starbucks stops. We flew home, dragged ourselves
onto the bus to downtown, and meandered slowly back to the apartments, laden
with shopping bags and luggage and feeling that slap happy feeling that a long
day of constant travel gives.
For all that we were
probably on the trains more than not, it was still an amazing adventure through
the heart of Japan. Laura and I learned a great deal about each other, about
ourselves, about traveling in Japan… and about the myriad of things we did
wrong approaching the trip, which had really just made for great story later.
Personally, I stared in horror at my bank statement afterwards. Travel in Japan
is not cheap. I miss that trip and the places that we went. It is one of those
vacations that when you think about it later you can almost feel it. Feel the
sun and the rocking of the train, smell the summer air, taste the salt in the
air by the sea… and the sauce tonkatsu…
Train travel has its ups
and downs. It is not nearly as romantic as we made it out to be long ago on the
fateful train ride that led to this crazy plan, but I do think that America is
missing out on something. It has a certain charm that I intend to enjoy fully
for the remainder of my time here. I will never forget this summer and it will
join the ranks of those memorable worktrip summers or the summer I spent at
Living History Farms. What is it about summers that can make them so
unforgettable? This one certainly was; so thanks Laura, for going on this
awesome adventure with me, being such an awesome friend, and always making sure
I was on the right train. Your friend, Penny.
