What's Up with Michael: Japan 2014

Chieko and I traveled to Tokyo via LAX on November 4 and 5 (left on the 4th, crossed the International Date Line and landed on the 5th without the sun ever setting. About 15 hours from SLC to NRT, including an hour at LAX). We picked up our Japan Rail passes at Narita and took a train to Tokyo. Then we hopped on the Shinkansen--so nice. If you have a chance to come to Japan for a week or two, get the pass, and pay the extra couple hundred dollars for the Green Car--first class, reserved seating. Chieko's brother, Noboru, picked us up at the Kumagaya train station.

Kissing shinkansens (bullet trains). Each train is normally eight cars, but during peak periods two are connected to make a 16-car shinkansen. The white, yellow and blue train is the Tohoku Toki Max double-decker that we take a lot, because it's the one that goes to Kumagaya, where Chieko's mother and brother live. The Green Car is upstairs. The teal train in the background is also a shinkansen.

A crew of very fast cleaners whips through each train at each end of the line. They vacuum, change all the headrest covers and wipe all the tables. Tokyo-eki (station) happens to be a terminus.

The cleaning crew bows to the train when it arrives and bows to the passengers after they've finished cleaning. Then they run off to the next train.

This is the smokers' cage. No one is allowed to smoke on the platform or inside the eki. This is a big change from when we lived here.

How would anyone in Japan survive without vending machines? They wouldn't.

I only put stuff into my body that is uplifting.

Chieko relaxing in the shinkansen. Did I mention how nice the Green Car is? Especially after spending 15 hours in a Delta coach seat. (Although we did pick a window and an aisle seat, hoping the middle would stay open and thinking we could trade if it didn't. It stayed open.)

Looking out the window on a semi-rainy night.

Tokyo-eki.

If you ever ride a train any distance in Japan, you have to pick up an eki ben, short for eki bento, which means train station lunch box. Ekis become famous for their unique bentos.

Our room at Mrs. Sato's house.

The beginning of the sightseeing.

Shinkansen yard on the way from Kumagaya to Tokyo.

This shinkansen doesn't stop at Kumagaya.

A city at the bend in a river.

On Thursday, I woke up about 4:45 a.m. (after traveling for 24 hours and then sleeping only about four). Chieko was wiped out and also needed to visit with her mother, so I took off to Tokyo alone. Unfortunately, I got to Akihabara, the electronics district, about 8:30 and realized the stores don't open until 10 a.m. So I went back to Ueno Park and watched the 10 million school kids pouring into the zoo (which has pandas, by the way). Kids wear uniforms in Japan.

They also give the good old peace sign whenever their picture is being taken.

Peasu.

Peasu, peasu, peasu.

I'm not sure if these kids are preschool or elementary school.

Red hats.

These look like elementary kids.

I suppose the different-color hats help keep the classes separated. However, there were more groups than there are basic colors.

What a great way to haul around a bunch of preschoolers. Kind of a shopping cart for kids.

Friends who run together run together forever.

Families who ride together live longer together.

A large and fast crew raked all the leaves around the park.

Guy headed to a concert.

Ameyoko shopping district before it opens.

Akihabara electronic shops under the railroad tracks.

Electronics shop under the railroad tracks.

More shops under the tracks.

The Yamonote sen (line) circles Tokyo. It's very handy and is a Japan Railways train, which the subways are not, so it's free to ride with the JR pass.

Shibuya station is famous for the dog named Hachiko, who waited here for his master after the master had died. There was a popular movie about him a couple years ago. Hachiko is remembered with a statue, which became a popular place to meet friends and others. Now this whole area of the Shibuya station is a meeting place. Everyone is waiting for someone here.

Some of them wear funny socks. And a lot of them are doing surveys, I guess because people standing around waiting are good subjects.

The crosswalk in front of Shibuya Station is famous for its congestion.

Gaijin (foreigners) tend to stand out a bit.

Lots of legs going somewhere.

Lots of legs standing around and ski platform.

The shinkansen is about the stop at Kumagaya.

I took the bus from the Kumagaya eki to Obaachan's (Grandma's) house, using instructions I found written on a sticky note four years ago in my passport. When I tried to find the right bus, the driver of one said, "This is mukashi (ancient). That stop doesn't exist anymore." Great.

Friday, November 7

How to park cars when there isn't enough space to park cars.

Every apartment building should have a climbing wall.

This is what nearly everyone is doing on the commuter trains around Tokyo. It used to be people either slept or pretended to sleep (so they wouldn't have to offer their seat to that old lady in front of them).

Rose competition in a department store on the way to Tsukiji.

For all the time we've spent in Tokyo over the years, this is the first time we've visited Tsukiji, the world-famous fish market. We didn't come at 4:30 a.m., when they let a handful of tourists watch the auctions for freshly caught fish. But we did wander the market and side streets.

They also sell other things, like these mushrooms for about $190 for a six-inch-by-eight-inch box.

Scallops

Chieko is eating two cooked oysters topped with sea urchin.

Not a fan of sea urchin, I went for one large raw oyster. Very large. Not as delicate as some smaller oysters I've had, more of a salty ocean flavor. And an after taste.

This is a live, swimming fugu (very poisonous puffer fish). One worker put it out on the street in this bucket while the other told him that was too dangerous.

Anyone for whale bacon at $35 per pound?

Take care, mister; that's my lunch you're preparing. Quite yummy. Even the sea urchin and salmon eggs.

Dig in.

Is this the cardboard me or real me in front of the Sky Tree Tower, the tallest tower in the world? This tower replaces Tokyo Tower as the place for tourists to go to the top to look for Mt. Fuji, which is usually hidden behind clouds or fog. Today it was a few low clouds.

Chieko in font of Sky Tree Tower. The first deck is 350 meters. The elevator gets there in 50 seconds. The upper deck (which costs an additional $15, besides the $25 fee for getting to the first deck) is 450 meters.

Now I'm confused. Is this me or the cardboard me? Shirt's the same, but the no-hat and no-beard don't match.

One of Tokyo's downtown areas with the original Tokyo Tower in the upper left. That's the one Godzilla knocked over.

Tokyo Tower at night.

The tower at night.

Did you know Dr. Pepper is a Coca Cola company? It is in Japan, apparently.

I've lived in Japan about six years and visited here four or so additional times, and I think this is the first time I've ever seen real geisha. The two in white face makeup (right and second from left) are maiko-san, apprentice geisha. They're in a waiting room on the platform at Kumagaya eki.

This ramen at Kumagaya eki is just okay, but it is very cheap (about $5 for ramen and gyoza) and quick at the end of a tiring day.

We were too pooped to take the bus and then walk the last mile to Obaachan's house, so we took a taxi like this one. Rather than the $2.50 each for the bus we paid about $16 for the cab. I guess that was worth it.

Chieko is buying our eki-ben (train station boxed lunches) at Tokyo station so we can enjoy lunch on our trip to Kyoto.

This lady in pink, along with about 20 others, is waiting for our train to arrive so she can clean it.

Chieko's eki-ben outside.

Chieko's eki-ben inside.

My eki-ben and Calpis and chocolate-filled pretzels.

A river in Kyoto with a kaki (persimmon) tree overhanging it.

The top of a wall surrounding a garden.

A tour bus driver is shining his bus's wheels and talking on the phone while waiting for his passengers at Nanzenji Temple.

I've seen a lot of people of all ages from Tokyo to Kyoto and male and female taking selfies on a stick.

Chieko next to the aqueduct through the Nanzenji Buddhist Temple grounds. Emperor Kameyama built his retirement home here in the 1200s and then converted it to a Zen temple. The aqueduct was added in the late 1800s as part of a larger canal system.

Looking down the center of the aqueduct infrastructure.

Water running in the aqueduct.

Nanzenji Temple sits at the foot of Higashiyama (East Mountain).

Nanzenji Temple grounds. We arrived about sundown, so the lighting is not great on this cloudy day.

Looking up the long side-roof of a pagoda-like building to the overhanging soffit.

A lot of restaurants specialize in tofu here. This is the one we picked for dinner. The place is huge, with four or five one- and two-story buildings each having multiple dining rooms.

We made our own tofu. First we poured tofu "milk" (which we also drank from the cup on the near left--it was okay, but not my choice for putting on Rice Krispies). Then we heated and stirred the milk for five minutes. Next we poured in the curdling catalyst, a clear liquid of unknown contents, from the little clay pot in the center of the picture, and stirred 15 times in a figure 8. Turn heat off and cover for five more minutes. It's ready to eat.

Chieko made a good tofu (I like tofu; you may not), especially when topped with a sweat soy-based sauce and green onions. We were instructed to taste the plain tofu before topping it. Plain was also good if a bit bland.

The entrance to Shoren-in Temple, which is famous for its nighttime illuminations. (I imagine some monks were sitting around one night trying to figure how to compete for tourists with all the other temples in Kyoto, and one bright guy suggested doing a light show. I doubt very much this was the thing when the temple was built in the late 1200s.) Many of the early monks at this temple were members of the imperial family, and this temple served as the imperial residence a couple of times in its history.

The illumination includes changing colors from blue to red to white in the main garden, with lights that look like smoke flowing across the tree tops.

Lighted pond.

Reflecting pond.

Up a hill from the temple buildings is a grove of huge bamboo.

These trees are not as flexible as they might look.

Still in Kyoto.

Tea house at Kodaiji Temple.

This is a very large temple with sprawling grounds.

The grounds crew keeps the fallen leaves off the ground.

This umbrella garden was inspired by an actor, but I don't know whether it was an old Noh actor or a modern movie actor. Looks more modern to me.

This tea house has a thick thatched roof.

This statue is Kammon and is in memory of the more than 2 million Japanese who died in WWII. A memorial is held four times a day.

Umbrellas are popular at this temple.

I asked Chieko to spin these bell-like cylinders, so she did. I was a little bit afraid we'd get in trouble for spinning them. And we did, sort of. The attendant very politely told us we had spun them the wrong direction. We had to respin them right to left to call the gods. I think most people spin just one or two, depending on which god they want to address.

Rock garden behind the large building.

Red berries by shrine.

Someone had a wedding in the temple while we were there, and I think these are the kimono-clad girls and guys heading out afterward.

Ramen lunch.

On the trolley-like train to Arashiyama, a mountain across Kyoto from Higashiyama, where we've been.

This area is famous for its bamboo forest.

Yes, bamboo grows thick here.

Very tall bamboo.

Chieko on the bamboo trail.

At Tenruji Temple near the bamboo forest.

On the grounds of the temple.

Some leaves have changed while most are still green.

The grounds are very mossy.

There was supposed to be a festival here today with some boat display in river, but the rain nixed that. It did not, however, keep the crowds away.

We're on Arashiyama, so I don't know what the mountain is in the background.

Koi in the pond.

This is a daruma inside the temple building that we're allowed to enter. And me in my blue camping shirt.

Everybody does selfies on a stick it seems.

A lot of umbrellas on a rainy day. We actually had rain in the morning and early afternoon. It stopped for most of the afternoon and picked up again a bit in the evening.

Looking across the pond from inside the temple.

I think these two are practicing shuji, Japanese writing.

Quite a few young girls and a few guys, including this girl's boyfriend, were dressed in kimonos at the temple.

Weird tree.

Weird guy by a tori gate.

This oni (scary guy) sits in a small out-building where people tie their paper prayers to ropes strung across the building front.

Red berries after a rain.

These are six-foot-tall illuminated cylinders lining the walkways next to the train station.

Monday has been mostly a travel day, taking a Shinkansen from Kyoto to Shin-Osaka and another to Shin-Tosu (one stop past Hakata/Fukuoka, which is where our mission home was). Then we took a local train to Nagasaki, which is the second city that took an atomic bomb during WWII. It was also the main port of trade for the Portuguese and Dutch, the first traders with Japan and the only place that allowed limited trade when the shogun Tokugawa closed off trade with foreign countries from the early 1600s to the mid-1800s, when U.S. Commodore Perry forced the country open to western trade.

This is the train from Shin-Tosu to Nagasaki.

View from the driver's seat.

This attendant ensures everyone gets a towel to wipe their face and hands when boarding and before leaving the train.

This is the view I got of Saga, the first city I served in as a missionary in 1972.

Another view of Japan from a train.

When we changed trains from the shinkansen to a Nagasaki-bound train in a small rural town that didn't even have a restaurant outside the eki, three other foreigners were milling around the eki. It turns out one was from a small town in Washington, one from Spain and the woman from Italy. The guy from Washington said his family was from Cache Valley, Utah. He also said they were in Japan selling hay to the dairy farmers.

A mid-1800s church in Nagasaki, a Christian stronghold.

The Glover compound has several western homes occupied by the elite in the mid- to late 1800s. Glover ran several businesses, including coal mining and importing-exporting. This house was owned by a guy named Ringer, who I assume (but don't know) is related to the guy who started the Ringer Hut chain of Nagasaki champon (noodle soup) restaurants in the United Sates and Japan.

This house was owned by a guy named Alt.

Chieko pretending to live on this hill with a great view of Nagasaki Harbor.

This is a statue of Puccini on the Glover grounds. He turned a short story into the tragic opera Madame Butterfly, which is about a Japanese girl who marries a U.S. Naval officer who lives on a hill in Nagasaki in 1904.

This is Glover's house.

And this is what a rich European or American may have eaten in the late 1800s.

This is what we ate today: Nagasaki champon, at the restaurant where it was invented. Unless you've lived on Kyushu island or visited Ringer Hut in San Jose, California, you've probably never encountered this vegetable, seafood and pork noodle soup. That would be your loss.

Sundown over Nagasaki Harbor.

Nagasaki at night. According to the announcer girl on the tram to the top of Mount Inasa, Nagasaki offers one of the three best night views in the world, along with Hong Kong and Monaco. We missed our tour bus after coming down the tram, so we took a city bus back to the hotel. After we got off the bus we paused for a minute to get our bearings, realizing we'd gotten off the bus on the same side of the road where we'd boarded the tour bus. I suppose we looked a bit confused. The driver started to drive away but then stopped and called out to us. My first thought was that we'd shorted him on the fare and he was going to yell at us. While all the passengers waited, he said, "Are you going to the Monterey Hotel?" "Yes." "Just walk to the next light and turn left. It'll be right down that street." Chieko's mother said Japanese people are trying to be extra polite because of the coming 2020 Olympics. I don't think there's a lot of room for improvement.

Today we're off to Sasebo, just a hop, skip and a jump from Nagasaki.

Or so we thought. We didn't really do our homework here. We expected to be on a train for 30 minutes or so. This very old train that I probably road when I was a missionary 40 years ago poked along, stopped at every possible stop along the way, and sat for five to 10 minutes at a couple of stops.

Here's a view of Japan from the train window.

And another view.

This is the view looking forward. After almost two hours, we finally arrived in Sasebo. But you don't really care how long our train ride took.

What you really want to ask is, Did we eat oysters? Yes, we did. The Sasebo area produces more oysters than anywhere else in the world, we were told. We had fried oysters at a little shop next to the train station. Sasebo also hosts an oyster festival a couple times a year, where people buy oysters and roast them in a park over little rented charcoal cookers. I think when the shell pops open the oyster is done.

Then we headed to Saikai National Park, which comprises Kujuku Shima, 99 Islands. It turns out 99 is a number the means "a lot." Two hundred and eight islands actually speckle this ocean in two groups. We took a tour boat, and at the boat terminal are the famous Sasebo Burgers. Which are also available at the train station and a million other shops. I didn't figure out what constitutes a Sasebo Burger. The burgers near the boat had a fried egg and bacon. But others did not. What they all have in common is a burger (possibly beef) and a bun. We did not try them.

This is the boat we took on a tour of the islands. It's the pirate ship Kaioh, which is being retired this year.

The waters around the islands are thick with oyster beds and boats.

The Kaioh is maneuvering through the islands.

Black round buoys indicate pearl oysters rather than eating oysters. These are Tasaki pearl oysters.

A ship sits between a couple of islands.

They called this Submarine Island.

We couldn't tell if these were U.S. or Japanese, but we're pretty sure they were military. Sasebo hosts a large U.S. Navy based.

Hiking to Ishidake overlook atop a mountain overlooking the Kujuku Shima.

99 Islands

This is the view of the Kujuku Shima from Ishidake Overlook.

In the opposite direction but still from the overlook we can see the city of Sasabo. In the bottom right area you can see a couple tugs escorting a U.S. Navy ship into the harbor. Click on any picture to make it bigger. Look closely and you can also see several other Navy ships. I assume this is where Michael Peery, my friend from elementary school, was stationed as part of the Vietnam War in 1972, when I was a missionary serving in Sasebo. I was only here a month, so I got so see Michael Peery only a few times, but it was certainly serendipity. We held Sunday School with the servicemen and were invited to Thanksgiving dinner with a family. Of the city I do remember that Sasebo is just a lot of very steep hills and mountains.

This guy was next to the stop where we caught a bus going back down from the Ishidake Overlook to Nagasaki Eki.

Wednesday. Our train wasn't leaving Nagasaki until early afternoon, so we walked around our hotel a bit and then locked our luggage in a locker at the eki and headed to the Nagasaki Peace Park. Nagasaki is second city the United States dropped a nuclear bomb on to end WWII. The plan was to drop the bomb on Kokura, but heavy smoke over the city blocked the plane's crew from finding their target, so the headed to Nagasaki, where heavy cloud cover was a problem. With barely enough fuel to return, the crew spotted a break in the clouds, found their target and dropped the bomb.

But before the Peace Park, we walked up Holland Slope (Nagasaki is another city of nothing but hills and mountains), the area of Nagasaki where most foreigners lived. The locals called any non-Asians Dutch, because they were pretty much the first and most prominently represented foreigners in the later 1800s, after foreigners were allowed back into the country. Notice the European-style brick wall on the left and Japanese-style rock wall on the lower right.

This western house has a very Japanese roof.

This is the hotel where we stayed in Nagasaki. We've found the Monterey chain to be very nice and reasonably priced. The beds are large enough to sleep in, and the room has plenty of space. The hotel we picked in Kyoto was sufficient, but I couldn't turn over in bed without fear of falling off the edge. And when I stepped between the bed and wall to open the windows, I got sort of stuck, because my feet didn't have room to turn around between the wall and bed.

The Nagasaki Eki workers are getting the Christmas tree ready.

Anybody for the Harry Potter ride at Universal Studies Japan? A poster in the eki.

When in Tokyo I bought an N-scale Yamanote-Sen train and a Tokyo diorama as a souvenir. Then, at the Nagasaki Eki, I found this set of trains, including the blue Sea Side Lines train we took to Sasebo yesterday. Maybe I need to find this train in a set, too.

This is the Nagasaki Peace Park. Mr. Hayasaki, shown here, was working in a Mitsubishi munitions plant 1.1 kilometers from the bomb's epicenter when it went off. As a 14-year-old boy, he happened to be behind a pillar and thus didn't take the full force of the blast, although he was thrown about 45 feet. Only he and one other boy out of 34 workers in the factory survived.

A prison was the closest government building at about 1 km from the epicenter. Everyone here was killed. A B-29 bomber called Bockscar dropped the bomb, called Fat Man, which

was a plutonium bomb and imploded about 500 meters above the ground on August 9, 1945. The one dropped on Hiroshima, called Little Boy, was a uranium bomb and was dropped from the Enola Gay, the crew ofor which trained in Wendover, Utah, on August 6. Russia, which was a U.S. ally in the war in Europe, declared war on Japan on August 9.

This statue is the most prominent edifice at the peace park. His raised arm represents the bomb, and the outstretched arm represents peace.

On either side of the statue above is a monument where people leave origami cranes. A Japanese legend says that folding a thousand cranes brings a wish, or good luck, or recovery from an illness. Leaving the folded cranes is popular here and in the Peace Park in Hiroshima, where they were originally folded for a young girl who was suffering from radiation poisoning. Unfortunately, that girl died, and a memorial was built for her.

A lot of countries have donated statues to the Nagasaki Peace Park, almost all former Soviet countries. This one, though, is from Nagasaki's sister city, St Paul, Minnesota.

This is the epicenter of where the bomb detonated, actually 500 meters below that spot.

This is what Nagasaki looked like before and after.

The heat fused these bottles into one mass.

This clock stopped at 11:02 a.m. on August 9.

After Nagasaki, we took a resort shuttle bus to the Unzen Miyazaki Ryoukan, a hot springs resort, about two hours from Nagasaki. On checking in I found that the hotel will pay a $1,000 condolence fee to survivors if a family member dies at the resort. Exemptions include overdoses from opium, hemp and thinners, as well as from attempted (?) suicide, pregnancy or exposure to radioactive fuels.

I found these raspberry M&Ms at the Nagasaki Eki. I can't remember whether I've ever see these before, but they are good.

Oh, two more instructions from the hotel: In case of fire, behave calmly. In case of earthquake, behave calmly.

This is the garden behind the hotel.

These are the hot pots on the side of the mountain. Most natural springs in Japan are called Jikoku Something (Hell Something). This one is Hell Jealousy and is supposed to heal problems from jealousies.

The hot springs have a nice walkway around them, and a strong smell of sulphur. A bunch of high school kids walked by with their scarves over their faces and pained looks in their eyes. The smell wasn't that strong. In fact, after a few minutes, I didn't even notice it.

Hot springs resorts all pride themselves in lavish dinners. This is the first course of ours. I won't name each item, because I didn't recognize some of them. However, there is a nice Nagasaki beef steak with some vegetables and a cooker to the right of my plate.

This is the third course. I forgot to get a picture of the second.

This is desert, cantaloupe, nashi and Japanese melon plus creme brulee. I forgot to take a photo of the fourth course, but I think it was just rice and miso soup.

This is the men's outside hot spring bath, which is fully visible from the elevator and several rooms. You don't wear bathing suits in a hot spring.

This is the inside hot spring bath. The milky color is from the minerals in the water. The little stalls at the far side are for washing. The hot pool is for soaking. There's also a tap-water-cold pool off camera to the right and a sauna. By rotating among the hot, cold, sauna and outside (which wasn't quite as hot as the inside bath), I spent about five hours soaking up the hot mineral water (before dinner, before bed and before breakfast). Chieko actually called the attendant to check on me about 11:30 Wednesday night to be sure I didn't have a heart attack or fall asleep and get cooked. I now have the softest and smoothest skin in Japan. And my fingerprint will no longer open my iPhone. Maybe it doesn't read raisin prints so well.

This is breakfast at the resort.

Thursday, November 13.

We're inside the hot springs resort lobby waiting for the hotel shuttle to take us to a bus stop, so we can take a local bus to the ferry terminal.

On the ferry headed for Kumamoto.

The big attraction in Kumamoto is the Kumamoto Castle. Unusual in its black-and-white color scheme. This castle was built by Kato Hiyomasa, a strong ally of the shogun Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who gave Kato Kumamoto as his fiefdom. Kato died at age 50 after a trip to Korea. The castle was burned down during the civil war in 1867 that saw Japan switch from a feudal system to a central goverment. It was restored in 1960.

Wherever you go, never fear; a vending machine is nearby.

Entry way to the castle grounds.

One mean samurai dude.

Three mean samurai dudes.

Looking out toward Kumamoto from the castle. Our hotel is just to the left of the big crane in the upper middle part of the picture.

The side of the castle where we entered, which is on the opposite side from where we entered the grounds.

What the inside of a castle roof looks like.

The castle kitchen is located in an outer building.

A castle conference room.

Door paintings.

I'm not sure who this girl represents, but she posed nicely for my photo.

The garden of a lord's house that he moved from the castle grounds, and coincidently avoided its burning with the castle.

Part of the lord's house.

Kumamoto Castle at night.

Today will be mostly a travel day, from Kumamoto to Nagoya.

This is the shinkansen train we will take from Kumamoto to Shin-Osaka, which takes about three and a half hours. Then we'll switch shinkansens and go another 55 minutes to Nagoya.

Here are some views of the countryside at about 150 miles per hour.

This is Kokura, the city the U.S. had slated as a backup to Hiroshima for the first nuclear bomb and as the primary target for the second bomb. The first bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, so Kokura escaped as backup, and then the crew of the Bockscar bypassed the city for the second bomb because it couldn't make visual confirmation, which the orders required, due to smoke from recent bombings on a nearby city and cloud cover, so they plane flew on to Nagasaki.

More countryside at 150 mph.

The Tokuyama eki. I spent two months of my mission in Tokuyama, and Brian Austin spent six months of his, though we served in different missions and a couple decades apart. This city, as well as Yamaguchi and Hiroshima, which are on the island of Honshu, were moved from the Japan West Mission to the Okayama Mission somewhere in between our serving.

Another view of Tokuyama.

Another random countryside view.

I think this is Hiroshima.

Another random view. A lot of small fires are burning weeds and other leftover plant materials in the farming areas.

Rice fields.

Nagoya has a pretty cool shinkansen museum. It also has a display for the new maglev train, which floats magnetically above the track and reaches 500 kmh (312 mph). The first leg of the train will be between Tokyo and Osaka. We rode in a simulator that gave us an idea of the speed and smoothness of the ride. The train starts off riding on rubber wheels and then lifts the wheels as it elevates off the track.

This is the evolution of the shinkansen. The first one, Model 0, which is celebrating 50 years this year, is on the far end. The next is Model 100, then 300 and now 700/N700.

This is the inside of an "historic" train. I remember riding these on my mission, and I think I've ridden similar ones in the outreaches of Japan fairly recently.

This is a small portion of an HO gauge working diorama. The foreground is an outdoor concert with what looks like several thousand people. All kinds of trains, not just shinkansen, are running elsewhere in the setup. I told Chieko this is what I'm turning our basement into when I retire. Our basement isn't nearly this big, but this is HO gauge, and I have N gauge, so maybe it will fit.

If you've ordered a white Toyota pickup truck, and it hasn't arrived yet, it may be on this dock waiting for a boat. A car carrier was here when we arrived, but it was gone after we finished touring the shinkansen museum.

Saturday, November 15. We started out with a visit to the Toyota factory museum, because it was close and we had time. And we currently drive a Toyota Sequoia and Corolla and have owned a Carina (in Japan, a model that I think was between a Corolla and Camry), Tercel and Corolla.

Toyota started out as Toyoda (the founder's name), a loom maker. In the museum we watched attendants spin cotton and weave cloth.

These are the looms Toyoda made and sold.

In about 1933, Toyoda decided to try his hand a building motors for bicycles and then cars. The company started by disassembling a Chevrolet sedan to see how cars worked. For the car company, Toyoda changed its name to Toyota because the writing looks cleaner and the sound of the word is nicer in Japanese, even though the two names are probably pronounced the same in English.

Early car bodies were formed by hand with a hammers, anvils and wooden blocks. This is a mold around which the body was fitted.

And this is the finished body. I'd love to have one of these on a modern chassis.

A line of Toyota engines from diesel truck engines on this end to gas engines on the other.

Do you remember the Toyopet Crown? This is from 1955. Maybe you remember the name Crown. I think there was a dealer in Utah once called Crown Toyota. There are still a lot of Crown models in Japan. It's a larger car that is popular with taxi companies. A lot of other Toyota models you've never heard of are also running around Japan, like the Aqua and some others I don't remember.

This machine assembles the entire body all at once.

At noon we met Chieko's childhood friend from Aichi, Junko Soboku. They had lunch together at a nice restaurant on the JR Takashimaya Department Store restaurant floor. I was invited, and I went to lunch with them four years ago. It was pleasant, but this time I figured old friends typically have a lot to talk about, and a third person not from the original friendship can be a damper. So I decided to people watch while they visited.

This is the clock at the Nagoya Station Takashimaya Department Store where everyone meets.

I wondered who people were meeting and what they were thinking while they waited. Some waited a very long time. Almost all were looking at or using their smart phones.

I noticed this girl waiting by a post and wondered if she was texting her friend, trying to find out when that person would arrive.

I walked down the hallway and found a tonkatsu (pork cutlet) restaurant and ate katsu-curry. When I walked back to the clock tower, I noticed the same girl had moved to a different location and had gotten tired of standing, but she was still waiting. Seemed kind of sad to me.

Waiting and watching.

Watching and waiting.

I'd guess 90 percent of the waiters were girls, but not all were.

Who are they waiting for? The girl on the right seemed to be waiting a very long time.

Some clothing styles in Japan amaze me.

Really?

Many people, when their friend arrived, ran to them and hugged. Others were somewhat nonchalant.

These friends found each other.

With her friend's arrive, now this girl can put away her iPod.

Deciding where to eat lunch?

Heading for lunch?

Happy to have found her friend, anyway.

This guy and girl met and then didn't go anywhere. They stood and chatted by the clock for at least a half hour, until after I left for lunch.

Friends who share styles don't share germs.

Some friends shouldn't share styles.

These people weren't waiting, but I noticed his sweatshirt said, "Utah." I didn't get a chance to ask if he bought the shirt in Utah or at some hole-in-the-wall store in Ameyoko that also sells states' license plates.

Today was supposed to be a visiting-Chieko's-mother day, but she's been sick, so we headed to Tokyo. Too bad we didn't bring Sunday clothes; we could have looked up a church.

This is the vegetable side of the Sato garden. Obaachan plants, Noboru-kun weeds, and Shizue-san cooks. That's what they told us.

This cauliflower is huge.

This is a daikon (radish), also huge.

Today we rode the Asama shinkansen to Tokyo.

Ueno eki is ready for New Year's.

We headed to Asakusa Temple to find some souvenirs for grandkids. This place is a madhouse. I don't know why anyone would come here, but everyone in Tokyo seems to. Lining the main street to the temple as well as side streets are a million souvenir shops.

And here's a couple doing a selfie on a stick. So many of these.

This is as close as we get to the temple.

And here are some girls taking a selfie. They're holding up their fortune that they bought at the temple and will tie to a tree or rope nearby.

This is our lunch in Shinjuku, and that's the end of our day in Tokyo. I was going to take photos of interesting people in Shinjuki, but we apparently didn't go to the part of Shinjuku that has the interesting people. Everyone seemed like shoppers in any other semiexpensive part of a big city.

Last full day in Japan. These are random pictures, because it was a random day.

This is Obaachan's butsudan, a shrine to her husband (Chieko's father), who died in 1980. Mrs. Sato burns incense and leaves food here daily. This, some pictures and a few other keepsakes are all that occupy this room. It's our room while we're here.

That nice head of cauliflower you saw growing in the Sato garden yesterday is ready to be cooked for dinner today.

The Satos heat their kitchen with this old kerosene stove. The sight of it and the smell certainly bring back a lot of memories from when I was a missionary and when we lived in Japan 25 or so years ago. They heat other parts of the house with more modern kerosene stoves that don't smell. The two main bedrooms have electric heating and air conditioning units.

Noboru-kun loves his huge roses.

Here are a couple photos out the shinkansen window as Chieko and I took off to the north to visit a skiing and onsen town called Echigo-Yuzawa, about 80 miles north of Kumagaya, which is just under one hour by shinkansen. This was a spur-of-the-moment trip.

Another look at the countryside from the window. This part of Japan, and most parts not in a big city, are very agricultural.

This is the onsen. We arrived at 11:30, and the Grand Hotel closed the onsen at 12:30 for cleaning, so in an hour I did a quick wash, hot spring, sauna, very cold (mountain tap water) spring, hot spring, bubbling (jacuzzi) hot spring, freezing cold spring, hot spring, bubbling hot spring, wash, and out just as the cleaning guys arrived. I had the place mostly to myself. Chieko shared the women's side with a couple other ladies. Very relaxing. Very, very relaxing. I'm glad we had an hour on the train to nap afterward.

(This is not my photo. I left my waterproof camera at Obaachan's house.)

This is the jacuzzi spring. Same hot spring water but with bubbling jets.

(Also not my photo.)

I bought this local-strain apple for $1.80 and ate it on the way back. Juicy and good. Chieko got off at Kumagaya so she could go home and visit with her mother before we leave tomorrow, and I continued on to Tokyo, because I discovered that I needed one more souvenir from Akihabara, and I still had an afternoon free.

Another out-the-window shot.

And another.

This girl has a heavy winter coat over her little-maid uniform, so you can't see it too well. But quite a few of these girls dressed as "cute" maids are near the Akihabara eki inviting people to eat some ice cream in a cafe called Maidreamin. It's kind of a fantasy thing that I don't quite understand.

This is another fantasy thing I don't understand. Places like Akihabara are packed full of thousands of these little fantasy dolls that a lot of young guys collect rather than finding girl friends. That's what I've been told. A significant number of young people have little interest in marriage, which is a big problem in Japan, where the population is shrinking and aging.

I was headed for this LOAX toy store, which has five or six floors, each with its own theme. This is the transformer floor.

The fourth floor surprised me. It's the army floor.

Here you can buy toy replicas of most real military and other guns. Often for about the same price as the real one.

I don't know if this helmet has night vision or what, but it's almost $1,400. I didn't take any photos on the fifth floor, which is where I was headed. I picked up an N-scale Yamanote Line train last week. Today I wanted to find the slow Sea Side Lines train we took from Nagasaki to Sasebo. The guy looked it up online and then said, "Oh, do you mean this?" He help up a little poster with a picture of the train. "Yes, that's it." "Sorry, it won't be released until December." Not handling disappointment well, I bought an Asama shinkansen, which is the train we rode to Tokyo yesterday and to the onsen today.

Outside LAOX and under the railroad tracks are all the tiny stores that specialize in just one type of item. This is the robot store.

What store do you think this one is?

Correct, security camera store.

Did I mention that Japan is obsessed with vending machines? This is looking left in an alley.

This is looking right in the same alley.

This is at one entrance to the tiny under-the-tracks stores.

Now I'm on the platform at Akihabara eki waiting to go back to Tokyo to catch a train home. This is the Yamanote train that circles Tokyo. I rode it quite a bit, because it's a JR train and thus free with my Japan Rail pass. We also rode some subways, especially as we criss-crossed Tokyo from Asakusa to Shinjuku yesterday. The subways are easier and sometimes the only way to get around Tokyo, but they're not free.

This is the shinkansen cleaning crew bowing to riders after they've finished cleaning.

Here's a night shot out of the shinkansen window. This is probably close to Omiya or Urawa, where we used to live.

Back in Kumagaya, this is Ouhata Shougakko, where Jamie attended the first half of first grade. That was in 1983, when we moved to Japan. Chieko and the kids moved in May, as soon as school was out in Santaquin, because school in Japan begins in April. I followed in August or September, after I had made some progress on my master's thesis (but didn't finish for three more years), and painted and sold our house.

Well, we're about ready to leave. Just a couple of family pictures and a little wait. Our flight leaves at 5:40 p.m., so we're catching a shinkansen in Kumagaya to Tokyo at 1 and a train in Tokyo eki to Narita Airport about 2. We'll then pick up the luggage we had shipped to the airport, check in, do something but we don't know for sure what for some tax-free stuff we bought, and we're off. We'll arrive in Salt Lake about 3:40 p.m., two hours before we leave here.

These are some of the shinkansen tickets we've used over the past two weeks. The attendants took some and didn't take some. These are the ones they didn't take. There's also a subway ticket here that still has 10 yen or so of value on it.

Noboru, Chieko and Mrs. Sato. She is 88 this year.

Shizue and Michael added in.

I took a little walk around the Satos' neighborhood before we left of the airport. This is a rice field recently harvested. Or wheat. They grow that here, too.