This is my travelogue for our visit to Japan November 11 through November 27, 2016. Our original reservations that we made through Delta in May were for November 12 through 27, but a Delta "customer service" person called me sometime in late October to tell me that our flight from SLC to LAX had been changed, and we wouldn't make our LAX to Haneda, Tokyo, flight. She recommended that instead of leaving LAX at 10 a.m. we leave at midnight and go through Minneapolis/St Paul. What? Go east to go west? And lose a whole day of vacation? I asked why they were making this change at the last minute. The lady said they had to adjust for a fall and winter schedule. I guess Delta didn't know in May that the northern hemisphere would have a fall and winter this year. Anyway, I wasn't willing to go through Minnesota at midnight, and Delta wasn't willing to pay for a Friday night hotel in LA, so we ended up taking a 6:30 a.m. (changed to 6:45) flight out of SLC Friday and catching the 10:45 a.m. flight to Haneda. So in the end we have an extra day of vacation. I'm okay with that. How's that for the start of this travelogue?
November 11: SLC and LAX Airports
Chieko waiting for our 6:30/45 flight in the Salt Lake airport. Or maybe this is LAX, I don't remember.
Our last view of the U.S. mainland.
The flight to Haneda shows online that the seats are full, but we end up with an empty seat on our row. Nice.
The last time we came to Japan I caught a terrible cold right at the beginning, and although I took drugs and continued as if I were healthy, it did put a damper on the fun. These masks are a nuisance, but I plan to stay healthy throughout this trip, and airplanes are the best place to catch bugs. These masks are supposed to block viruses and other bad air, so we wear them throughout the flight.
November 12: Haneda Airport
This is our first view of Japan. We leave LAX about 11 a.m. Friday morning and chase the sun to Japan, crossing the international date line, so the sun never sets, and we land about 3 p.m. Saturday afternoon.
That's Mount Fuji poking though the clouds.
November 13: Tokyo
We spend the night at Chieko's mother's house, and the next day we head to Tokyo with Chieko's brother, Noboru-san, on the Takasaki-line train. We bought Japan Rail passes to ride pretty much any train (including the shinkansen Green Car (first class, reserved)), but the passes are for 14 days and don't start until Monday. So we're on the futsu (regular commuter) train. It's slower than the bullet train by far, and stops at every station, but I enjoy the local trains.
As is typical, people sitting down are either asleep or trying to be asleep. Note that wearing masks when you have a cold or are trying to prevent a cold is pretty common in Japan and many other parts of Asia.
This is Chieko and Noboru. They are sitting. I am standing, because there aren't enough seats.
We first stop at Ueno and visit Ameyoko. This used to be mostly a fish market, where I would stop on the way home from work and buy a whole salmon. Now there are still fish sellers, although I don't see any whole salmons, but there are also a lot of shoe, leather clothing and other shops. This is a fun place. We'll probably come back here with Sara and Jared next week.
Me and Chieko at Ameyoko.
Ameyoko also now has a lot of small restaurants, including these Middle Eastern ones.
A jewelry cart in the middle of the road.
This guy is selling candy. A tradition in Ameyoko is for the sellers, whether hocking candy, fish or clothes, to stand out front and maybe on a small stand and yell out the specials, beckoning shoppers.
In front of Ueno station is a Buddhist monk looking for donations. Yes, I put some coins in his cup.
Next stop is Akihabara, the old electronics district. Many of the giant stores have moved to Shinjuku, but all the tiny shops are still crammed under the railroad tracks, and there are a lot of other specialty electronics, toy and other stores on the surrounding streets. These people are manga artists selling their paintings.
We stop at Akihabara Lion for lunch. Noboru-san and I have fried oysters.
This cheese pastry shop appears very popular. People are lined up around the corner to pay ¥350 ($3.40) for a tiny pastry.
I want to go to Harajuku to see the unique dressers that come out on the weekends. This is the first one we see. At first we think it's an older woman, but we realize he/she is a cross dresser who dances and sings--loudly--with the karaoke box.
This street is packed with cosplay clothing and other shops and a million people. Harajuku is most popular with young people, say high school and college age.
Chieko can't resist getting a big cotton candy cone, along with every other child on the street. The second-story store is packed, and customers have to line up behind taped stripes on the street and wait for their turn to get in the line going up the stairs so they can wait some more at the top.
A couple more cosplay dressers in Harajuku.
This store sells these white fur-looking coats and related clothes.
Pink wigs and cutesy dresses are common for workers in the candy and other stores.
I'm not sure whether these girls are dressed in Harajuku Fashion or if this is their normal wear.
The unique thing about this costume store is that everything in here is for outfitting your dog, including a large rack of Santa costumes.
We're now back at Chieko's mother's house. Eating mikan (Mandarin oranges). Luckily, mikan season is just starting, so we can get plenty of what is possibly our favorite fruit in the world.
Shizue-san (Noboru-san's wife) is an excellent gourmet cook. She also finds these pretty desserts somewhere in Kumagaya for each evening's chat.
November 14: Tokyo
Shizue-san cooks us a gourmet breakfast every time we stay at their home.
These preschoolers are at the eki (train station) headed to some outing for the day.
This is our train, the Joetsu shinkansen, which takes us from Kumagaya to the Tokyo eki, stopping in Omiya, which used to be a large city near Urawa, where we lived, but it's now been combined with some other cities and is called Saitama City, in Saitama Prefecture. The eki is still called Omiya. The train also stops at Ueno.
Out the window of the shinkansen on the way. You'll see a bunch of shinkansen window pictures in this blog, because I'm taking pictures of what I find interesting, and what I find interesting when we're on a train is whatever's out the window.
This is Cupid peaking around the corner of a department store in Ginza, which is Tokyo's 5th Avenue.
Shoes served on a pillow are out of my price range.
This monk is collecting donations.
One of two Sony Buildings in Ginza.
This Sony Building has a Nissan display on the first couple of floors. Nissan has some very interesting concept cars, which are all all-electric, including a driverless car that has what looks like an iPad in place of the steering wheel.
This is the Tenshodo store, which is a jewelry store on the first floor and a model train store on the second. The second floor is where I pick my souvenir of Japan, a Takasaki-sen train, which is the commuter train we rode from Kumagaya to Tokyo on Sunday, before our Japan Rail passes became effective.
We have unagi (barbecued eel) at a great little restaurant on a side street. This brings back good memories from when I worked at an ad agency in Ginza and the employees used to walk to an unagi place for lunch not too far from here from time to time. I'll explain a little more about unagi when our train passes through Hamamatsu in a couple days.
This is the display at the Wako Department Store, a store that I used to joke I wasn't allowed to enter because my American Express Card didn't have enough platinum and gold on it. Maybe I wasn't joking. A button on the window has a sign that says, "Do not disturb." When we do disturb the bear by pushing the button, this is what happens.
Chieko on the Hibiya-sen subway. This a real man; he is not made of wax.
Another look in the Hibiya-sen during nonrush hour.
Our next stop is Akihabara--yes, we were here yesterday, too. We decide to try the ¥350 pastry. This cream cheese tart is topped with pumpkin. It is definitely worth $3.40, at least one time.
In the evening we head to Shinjuku, where we buy more goodies in the basement grocery store part of Isetan Department Store.
I have a mixed-fruit pudding in a small cup that costs
¥680. The girl behind the counter wraps the cup in hard paper and tapes it. Then she puts it into a box with a little handle and tapes the dessert to the bottom so it won't slide around. Then she curls up another piece of cardboard into a tube and tapes that next to the dessert to be sure the dessert can't move. Then she tapes in a small packet of blue ice that isn't blue; it's clear, but the same thing. Then she closes up the box, tapes another packet of ice to the top and puts the whole thing in a little shopping bag with another handle. She tells me to eat the dessert within an hour and a half.
Another Gucci-shoes-on-pillow display in Shinjuku.
We get a vegetarian ramen at the only sit-down restaurant we could find in the Tokyo station.
This is part of the crew that cleans the Shinkansen whenever it stops in Tokyo, which is the end of the line. They clean everything from chairs to little tables and the floors within something like seven minutes. When the train stops, they are lined up waiting, and when they are done they bow and disappear.
Inside the Shinkansen Green Car. Yes, I like this.
Leaving the Tokyo station.
November 15: Atsumi Peninsula, Aichi-ken
Oh, look. We're on the train again.
Looking out the window. This time we take the Joetsu Max Toki (double-decker) to Tokyo, where we switch to the Kodama shinkansen. Launching in the 1960s, this is one of the oldest trains and stops at every station on the way to Toyohashi, the home of Toyota. The Hikari shinkansen is faster and makes fewer stops, but it doesn't leave for two hours.
These workers are contemplating taping down yellow raised tiles that guide the blind along the train platform. They review a lot of papers and have a lot of discussion before the guy on the left tapes down the first tile with black-and-yellow-striped duct tape.
Shizuoka is famous for its tea farms.
Chieko's high school friend Junko-san meets us in front of our hotel at the Toyohashi train station. The hotel's side entrance is in the station. Convenient. She then drives us past the place where Chieko grew up on the Atsumihanto peninsula to a beach at the end of the peninsula. We stop to visit Junko-san's 94-year-old mother at her brother's dentist office (used to be her dad's dentist office). This area is also very famous for its cabbage and broccoli, and farms are everywhere.
She treats us to lunch at a diner near Toyohashi that serves a lot of very traditional dishes.
This is the Pacific Ocean. We dip our feet into the cool water. The climate here is probably about like Southern California--warm, cool but not cold water, and palm trees. And bamboo driftwood.
The beach.
This beach gets used a lot by surfers, but otherwise we are the only people on this long, beautiful, if very windy, beach called "Long Beach."
Junko-san and Chieko.
This lighthouse is at the very tip of the peninsula, at the end of a 500-meter trail.
This is the first lighthouse Chieko ever saw, when she was a child growing up here.
If you look closely you can see a hole in the sea stack.
Here's Mighty Michael lifting a very heavy limestone rock that washed ashore.
In the evening we meet Chieko's other high school friends at a tea house for a few hours of girl talk. Yeah, I try to follow along as this is good practice for my Japanese language comprehension skills. When they learn that we don't drink tea they all order something else. Chieko and I have iced hot chocolate with a dollop of heavy whipping cream.
The friends pose.
We are supposed to head back to our hotel in Toyohashi, about an hour away, after the visit, but the ladies decide to go to dinner, too. We go to some very Japanese place that has about 100 options. We have tempura on rice (tendon), fried chicken wing, agedashidofu (tofu with dried bonito fish shavings and soy-based sauce), and a salad made with local cabbage, which is very delicate and good.
November 16: Travel, Haneda Airport, Tokyo
Today we travel from Toyohashi to Tokyo to meet Sara and Jared at the airport. We take the Kodama shinkansen north to Tokyo. Then we take the Yamanote-sen (a green commuter train that circles Tokyo) and a couple of subways to Akaska to our hotel, where we drop off our luggage (can't check in before 3 or 4 p.m.), two subways (one we take in the wrong direction and have to exit at the end of the line, which turns out to be okay because it's close to the JR Yamanote-sen; JR stands for Japan Rail, which means we can ride using our JR passes) and the Yamanote-sen to the monorail, which takes us to Haneda Airport. We meet Sara and Jared and mostly reverse our path back to the hotel, realizing that the wrong subway we had taken actually is the quickest way to go. In the end we end up walking a little over five miles and riding about 15 trains and subways today.
Looking out our hotel room in Toyohashi. I should have taken a picture of the hotel room, which is very nice, like a Marriott Fairfield, because when you see the next hotel room you might think everywhere in Japan is like that.
The Kodama shinkansen arrives.
This is an eel farm lake in Hamamatsu, which is renowned for this wiggly snakelike fish. Eel has become very popular lately, and there's currently a shortage worldwide, or rather a surge in demand, so a lot of eel now comes from China, and the price has gone way up. We ate eel at a small restaurant in Ginza a couple days ago. Yes, it was expensive, about $18 for two smallish pieces. The server told us the price has gone up about 10 times over the last couple of years. The unagi we ate in Ginza didn't come from China; it came from here in Hamamatsu.
There is a lot of farm land along the Shinkansen route. This looks like rice, but there are also vegetable, tea and mikan (Mandarin orange) farms.
We pass by the Mount Fuji view, but with the clouds we don't see the mountain. However, we do see this little castle on a hill in Kasegawa.
More tea farms.
And lots of houses. These are just more views from the Shinkansen.
Every little canyon has houses and villages.
These elderly people are playing "gate ball" (croquet) on the open grassy area that is a flood zone next to a large river. Gate ball has been very popular with retirees for many years, at least since my mission days.
Bridges span the many gullies and canyons.
People waiting to board the train.
A father and son waiting for their train.
Japan seems to have numerous utility poles and lines throughout every town and city.
We often think of Japan as being very crowded, which it is in the cities, but away from the metropolitan areas there is plenty of farm land. There are also steep mountains, where there are neither houses nor farms.
More farm land.
This is some kind of radar or radio plane with a large circular antenna similarly to that on a U2 spy plane.
Ha ha. This is our hotel room in Akasaka, Tokyo, next to the large TBS TV station building. Although it's tiny, it's actually a very nice place, and who needs a lot of room just to sleep and shower anyway? The wall between the bathroom and bedroom is frosted glass, so when the light goes on in the bathroom at night the whole bathroom becomes a giant lightbulb.
Jared and Sara at the Hachiko statue at Shibuya station. You can Google the story behind Hachiko, or see the movie with Richard Geere. This spot is probably the most famous place in Tokyo for friends to meet up.
This is the famous Shibuya crossing, which has people walking across the street in any direction in kind of a mad rush from the Hachiko exit of the train station.
Jared and Sara make the crossing.
Sitting on the steps of the subway station near the TBS TV building. Yes, the steps have moving designs and pictures projected onto them.
November 17: Tokyo
Today is a Tokyo day. We're waiting for one of the many subways we'll take.
Here comes one.
And we board.
First stop is the Sky Tree radio tower. Because it's too hazy to see Mount Fuji from the tower this morning we decide to skip the day visit and come back and ride up the tower this evening, when we can see the city by night.
Tokyo, especially this area, is dressed for Christmas.
The next stop is Tsukiji, the famous fish market, where fish is sold and bought wholesale beginning about 3 a.m. each day.
In addition to the wholesale fish sellers, there are a lot of other little stores and restaurants.
This lady is selling cooked eggs of all Japanese types but mostly omelets made with soy sauce, sugar and other ingredients that are probably trade secrets.
Sara and Jared are deciding what they want to try.
Crab legs.
Fried stuff.
Our primary destination is this sushi restaurant.
Jared orders nigiri-sushi (strips of raw or cooked fish and other stuff on a rectangular ball of vinegar rice), and the rest of us order chirashi-zushi (strips of raw or cooked fish and other stuff on a bowl of vinegar rice).
However, Sara asks if she can have her sushi on a bed of shredded daikon radish instead of rice. The server gets a little flustered, but she takes the order. Some time later, the chef comes out and says that is against their rules. So Sara gets the fish on a bed of rice, but it takes forever for her order to come, and the chef also sends out a large bowl of shredded daikon.
This is my meal.
At Tsukiji, Chieko and I also buy a meat knife for about $150 to go with the vegetable knife we bought here a couple years ago. Then Sara gets a sweet potato cooked over hot rocks, called ishiyaki-imo. This is one of her nostalgic favorites. I'll explain more on the last day of our trip.
After Tsukiji we head to Kappa-Bashi, which is the restaurant supply district. I like to shop for the wax or plastic food that restaurants display in their windows, but we really don't find of any of those stores on this visit. I don't know if they've moved, or the restaurants order their mihon (imitation) food online, or what. There used to be several mihon food stores here. We do find some cool lunch boxes and other souvenirs. This animal with Chieko is the mythical kappa for which this part of Tokyo is named.
Near Kappa-Bashi is the Asakusa shrine, the most famous and crowded shrine in Tokyo. This time of night is a good time to visit, with not so many people.
Jared and Sara pretending to be scary oni (demons), like the one behind them.
This is the shrine.
The oni at the gates of Shinto shrines are meant to scare away evil. We think this one is more devious than scary, but I guess his look is disconcerting all the same.
Heading over to the Sky Tree tower from Asakusa we cross a river. In case you're wondering, that is a giant lit-up daikon (radish) on the Asahi Beer building. I don't make the logical connection.
But then logic doesn't abound here. Otherwise this businessman wouldn't be fishing in a river in the middle of the city wearing a suit and tie.
This is Tokyo looking out toward Tokyo Tower (of Godzilla fame) from Sky Tree. Tokyo Tower is the little orange light in the center on the horizon. The radio tower used to be the famous place people would ride up to view the city, but then the much larger Sky Tree, also a radio tower, was built.
And this is the Super Moon (not so full but still huge) hanging over Tokyo. (This is actual size; I adjusted the lighting but did not otherwise touch up this photo.)
Chieko, Jared and Sara sitting on the lap of a polar bear with Sky Tree in the background.
November 18: Kyoto
Today we board the shinkansen at the Tokyo eki.
The cleaning crew greets departing guests when the train arrives at its terminus. They have just a few minutes to clean the train before we board.
Kiosks are on almost all train platforms, selling drinks, snacks and a few bento (boxed lunches).
With our luggage, we always search out the escalators and elevators, but we also end up lugging the bags up and down a lot of stairs. Also, so you'll know in case you go, people just riding the escalator stand on the left so people can walk past on the right, but in Osaka, you stand on the right so people can walk left. Also watch the stairs. The subway and train stairs often have up arrows and down arrows to avoid congestion when the trains unload. But the order is random, sometimes up is left and down is right while sometimes up is right and down is left. And often the lane that is disgorging people (up from subways and down from trains, usually) is very narrow while the up lane is very wide. And most often no one pays any attention to the arrows anyway.
A conductor makes sure people stay out of the way of passing trains.
We pass the same gate ball field we passed the other day, and the retirees are still puttering away.
Farm land.
And houses and mikan farms.
And roads with tiny cars passing through the farms.
Rice fields.
The train ticket-taking machines fascinate me, and now I get to see inside one. These machines replaced the men and women who used to punch tickets with their paper punches going clickety clack, clickety clack even when no one was passing through the wicket. I kind of miss them and their music. These machines take your ticket as you enter and spit it out the other side. When you reach your destination, they take your ticket and keep it. If you try to enter without the proper ticket, the doors shut, a buzzer sounds, and the light goes red. These are also two-way wickets, so if someone starts to enter just before you try to exit, your light will go red until the lane is clear. And if the machine is pink, it doesn't accept tickets, only passes and Suica (prepaid) cards. Got that?
With our Japan Rail Pass, we have to enter and exit through the gate with the live attendant so he or she can check our pass. Sometimes these gates are congested because people also come here to adjust their fare (in case they went farther than the ticket they bought), ask questions and generally get in the way.
A mochi seller in a Kyoto neighborhood.
A lot of homes and other buildings around Kyoto have these fire buckets full of water. I remember these from my mission days. It seems people were required by law to keep them ready to extinguish any sparks. These made a lot of sense in a land where fires used to devastate whole towns because homes were built mostly of untreated wood.
A lot of young girls in Kyoto are wearing kimonos. We think they may be going to a wedding or some event, so I ask a group in the Arashiyama bamboo forest (sorry, no pictures as we don't come to the forest until late in the day, when it's too dark for photos). They say they just like to wear kimonos. We do notice that the kimono-clad girls often travel in groups, while we only see boys wearing kimonos when they are accompanying girls in kimonos.
Our first stop in Kyoto is Monkey Mountain in the Arashiyama area. We hike quite a way up the mountain before we get to the top, where the monkeys hang out.
Hiking to the top of the mountain.
The monkeys rule here. We're warned not to look them in the eye, aim a camera at them or squat to take a picture. And we have to stay 10 meters away, which is a bit tough when they run past our legs.
The only time we can interact with the monkeys is when we're inside the cage. Then we can feed them peanuts or apple pieces that we buy inside the cage building. A girl sits at the front door to ensure it stays closed and no monkeys tailgate any tourists into the cage.
Feeding the monkeys.
This guy is gazing out at the city of Kyoto.
This one is just sitting on top of this tree. Then he jumps to this position and starts shaking it.
All monkeys in Japan are a Japanese macaques. They aren't just here in Arashiyama, either. We've seen them along the road in Nikko and on the southern island of Kyushu in past years.
Chieko, Sara and Jared on top of Monkey Mountain.
We take our turn feeding the monkeys from inside the cage. Notice the leaves changing on the opposite hill.
Down in the city of Arashiyama are a lot of touristy things like rickshas and restaurants.
And young people in kimonos.
These three girls giggle and seem flattered when I ask if we can take their picture. Of course I tell them they are kirei (pretty), which they are, and they giggle more.
Two of the kimono girls with Jared and Sara.
We eat at a restaurant with a view over the main street.
The food is mostly tofu-based. This is my dinner.
Chieko's.
Sara's.
Jared's.
November 19: Kyoto
The entrance to the Ikumatsu Hotel, where we stay, is down this side alley that leads to a pretty little garden.
Breakfast at the hotel. Chieko and Sara choose Japanese-style food, and Jared and I choose western style the first morning. Jared picks Japanese the next day.
The building was built in 1810. It was a restaurant and ryokan (inn), where a maiko (geisha apprentice) named Ikumatsu hosted and hid Katsura, a top-level opponent of the shogunate when the feudal warlords were doing battle over the move to a new government in a civil war in the mid-1800s. (The government won out and the feudal society and its sword-weilding samurai disappeared.) Samurai came here looking for Katsura often. One time he hid in a large box that looks like it may have stored futons or kimonos. The warriors planned to open the box, but the maiko sat in front of it and told them they'd have to kill her first, and if Katsura turned out not to be inside they would pay for her death. Later, in an unusual move for a top official, Katsura and the maiko married. This was their room. After the new Japanese government took hold, Katsura became a statesman. The hotel is now called the Ikumatsu Inn.
The garden behind the hotel.
Our hotel from the street view. This portion is a new addition to the samurai-era structure. Our room is the one on the top floor, and Sara and Jared are on the floor below us. There are only two rooms on each floor.
The back, samurai-era portion, of the hotel faces the Kamo river. A wall used to separate the building from the river, so the residents of the building constructed a secret escape tunnel through the floor (which we get to see) and out the side of the building.
Large stepping stones crossing the river.
Chieko crossing the river.
A bridge crossing a side canal.
An old cargo boat in another canal.
Home and business owners are fussy about keeping any garbage and leaves cleaned up from the sidewalk and streets in front of their places.
Two kids doing rock, paper, scissors in front of a Kyoto fan store.
Jared and Sara checking out the kokeshi (cylindrical painted wooden dolls) at another store.
This shop is keeping bottles of soda cold in a stone bowl with fresh water running into it through a bamboo fixture.
Our first visit in Kyoto is the Nijojo Castle, where the last shogun, Tokugawa, lived. After the feudal rule was defeated, he donated the castle as a residence for the emperor.
A castle garden.
Another.
And another.
Of course, the castle is encircled by a moat. Two moats, actually: An inner moat and an outer moat.
Two ninja fighters at the castle gate.
Some music event is going on at the castle that brings many of the cosplay dressers we had hoped to see in Harajuku.
I don't get it, but they are interesting.
The outer moat.
After sunset we visit the Chion-in temple for it's "Light Up."
The lit-up colors are really pretty impressive.
The priests are conducting a service in this building. The drums are followed by a talk, but we don't stop to find out the topic.
Just a convenience store outside the temple gates.
November 20: Kyoto
This is our room in the Kyoto Ikumatsu Hotel. At night this table goes up and out of the way, and we sleep in futons on the tatami floor. The hotel workers set up the room for us each morning (even though we don't use the room during the day) and night.
Today we're going to start at the Fushimi Inari Shrine (a Shinto shrine, as opposed to a Buddhist temple). We see several cute kids in kimonos.
The Fushimi-Inari Shrine is often called the Shrine of 1,000 Torii. A torii is a gateway for the dead to pass to heaven, and families and companies donate these gates to this shrine for their deceased.
Jared starts counting the gates as we pass along the path up the mountain. He quits when he hits 1,000, and he isn't even close to the end. We learn later that there are actually more than 5,000 tori.
The path goes up and up and just keeps going. We end up climbing about 1,000 feet in elevation and maybe three or four miles.
This is the shrine at the top.
This man is painting the name of the family for this newly donated gate.
Looking out over Kyoto from the top of the mountain.
Back at the bottom.
At the base of the shrine are many vendors selling everything from mangos to barbecued wagyu beef. It's all very expensive, about 500 yen ($4.85) per skewer, and the quality of everything is pretty disappointing. Don't ever buy food at a tourist location.
Next we head to the Kofukuji Temple to view the colorful fall foliage.
These girls are fixing their makeup. It's funny to see them doing something so girllike. Being dressed in kimonos, it seems they are in costume and should be acting a certain way, like Disney characters or something. But they are really just girls dressed for a day at a temple.
This is the largest temple in Kyoto and possibly the most famous in Japan, at least for viewing the fall colors.
We planned our entire trip to Japan, especially coming to Kyoto in late November, based on the expected weather and the fall colors.
And we hit the fall colors spot on. Of course, this means we come to the most popular temple at the height of the fall foliage on the busiest of weekend days. And so does the rest of Japan, Korea, China and most of Southeast Asia.
I've not been able to find a report telling the number of people here today, but it has to be in the tens of thousands. This is a Japan Airlines tour group. Get it?
The temple bans people from taking pictures from the two most popular picture-taking bridges during November and early December due to congestion.
Despite the people, or maybe partly because of the people, I really enjoy our visit here. We stay out of this particular line that goes around this raked rock garden but no fall foliage.
In the evening we meet Chieko's Instagram friend and her family, who treat us to a very nice meal at one of those small Kyoto sushi restaurants that requires a reservation a month in advance. This family is very friendly and entertaining.
I don't take photos of the whole dinner because I often forget to take a picture when there's food waiting to be eaten. So these photos are just a sample of the seven courses.
Very tender barbecued pork.
Crab with roe. Notice that the meat from the crab legs has been removed and placed across the underside of the body.
Sushi. We also have a pear called a Yamagata La France. (Yamagata in northern Honshu, where Chieko's parents lived when we visited them in 1979.) It is apparently related to pears we get in the United States, but it has a denser, smoother texture and a very lively flavor. We all love it and try to find the same pear in stores over the next couple of days. We buy "La France" pears at one store in Hiroshima, but while the texture is close, the flavor isn't there. Another store has some for $9 each. We don't try those. However, we do mention the pears to Shizue-san (Noboru-san's wife), and she finds not only the right pears but also a Fanta (yes, Coke brand) La France drink that tastes really good.
On the way back to the hotel we spot this maiko-san (geisha apprentice) in the subway. I have to run crazy up the stairs and then stand casually against a pillar to get this picture.
November 21: Koyasan
Today we're going to Koyasan, the first Shingon Buddhist temple in Japan. It's at the top of a mountain, and we will be staying in a monastery.
We travel from Shin-Osaka on the Nankai line.
We're heading up a canyon. The trees are persimmons.
The stations on this route are all very old.
We're almost to the end of the Nankai line.
Now we board a cable car to go up the steep part of the mountain to about 3,000 feet.
Inside the cable car. Note that it's steeply stepped.
At the top we take a bus along the windiest road I've ever ridden on. I'm not sure how the bus negotiates the corners, especially considering this is a one-lane, two-way road. This is where we get off, near the monastery where we'll stay.
We arrive at the Shojoshinin Monastery, which is next to a cemetery that is 1,200 years old. It's the largest cemetery in Japan.
After checking in, we first visit the Tokugawa family grave site.
This cat seems to be guarding the home where the fee collector works.
Walking to the bus from the Tokugawa grave.
The top of this temple has buckets of water for fire suppression.
The cemetery is the final resting place of many famous Japanese from ancient warlords to current government and company people.
The first Japanese Shingon Buddhist monk, named Kukai, brought Shingon Buddhism to Japan after studying it in China. He came back and established a temple on this mountain about 816. The cemetery is his final resting place, but it is believed that he is not dead. He is in eternal meditation until the future Buddha comes.
We visit the cemetery about dusk in a light rain.
This cemetery is very interesting during the day, with all the famous, intricate, old and impressive mausoleums, but at night it becomes much more intriguing.
The monastery includes a vegan dinner and breakfast, as well as a mandatory prayer service at 6:30 a.m.
The food is really good.
The rooms are laid out with futons on tatami floors. The toilets are down the hall, and the private o-furo (bath) is two floors down.
November 22: Hiroshima
After the 45-minute morning prayer, which is offered by two monks chanting mantras, accompanied by a gong and cymbals, we head to breakfast. A mist has settled on the area during the night.
This is the back of the monastery, with the rooms in the building to the right.
The front entryway is peaceful.
The halls are long, and this time of the year they are cold.
Breakfast. The meals are served in a large assembly room, with screens set up between families. And there's a large kerosene stove behind the screen next to us, so the temperature is comfortably warm.
After breakfast we head back to the cable car for the reverse trip to Osaka.
The down car and up car meet halfway on a section where the single track splits into two tracks. The cars don't change their pace. I'm sure they're connected by the cable so they travel in synchronization.
Then we're back on the Nankai train.
This isn't my picture. I stole it from an advertisement on a monitor in the train.
These old stations are fun. They remind me of my mission.
A view from the train as it heads down the mountain.
And another.
Back in Shin-Osaka we grab a nice boxed lunch at the Takashimaya Department Store and board a shinkansen bound for Hiroshima.
Views from the Shinkansen.
In Hiroshima. Did I mention that the company that bought 7-Eleven several years ago is the same company whose magazine Sara did modeling for when she was little (3-5) and we lived in a Japan? Called 7-iHoldings, it also owns the Itoyokado (Sara's magazine) and Seibu department store chains. It is the largest retail company in Japan and the fifth largest in the world.
Here we are at the ANA Royal Crown Hotel in Hiroshima.
Just to let you know that not every hotel in Japan has a tiny bedroom and tiny bathroom. Small maybe, but not tiny. And the bathtubs are neck deep. Yes.
Our reason for coming to Hiroshima is to visit the Peace Park, commemorating where the atom bomb was dropped in 1945.
This is a memorial to a girl named Sadako, who was exposed to the bomb's radiation at two years old and contracted leukemia several years later, when she was about 10. She heard that folding 1,000 origami cranes would bring good luck, so she folded 1,000. Then she continued to fold more. Running out of expensive paper, she used tiny pieces of tissue and folded the cranes using needles. She died. People constantly bring origami cranes to this memorial, and I remember them hanging underneath the sculpture. Because they became so numerous they were moved to protective little buildings around the memorial.
Barrack Obama is the only sitting U.S. president to visit the Hiroshima Peace park, and someone made this origami commemoration of his visit.
We head to the museum and happen to hear these school children (maybe junior high) from Kyoto singing their hearts out the Sadako memorial. Afterwards, one of the teachers asks us what we think of their song, and we choke up trying to answer him.
This is called the A-Bomb Building because it was near the epicenter of the explosion, which happened 600 meters in the sky above here. But we also learned of another building that survived and is still in use today. More on that tomorrow.
We also visited the Peace Park museum, which tells the story of Hiroshima after the bomb. The museum displays roof tiles that have rough bubbles where the blast melted them. Also displayed are clothes, some hand made by the 12- and 13-year-old children who wore them. They were put to work demolishing their school building as part of a fire break effort for the expected fire bombings similar to what the United States had unleashed on Tokyo. Hiroshima was a large military center with munitions factories, making it a likely target. The children working at the school took the brunt of the A-bomb, and the stories in the museum tell how some whose clothes are displayed found their way home to their parents but died later that day or the next day.
Think about this for a minute before reading on, because the mood here changes.
Later that evening we go back to the hotel, where Chieko is waiting (she lived in Hiroshima and has seen the Peace Park and museum so didn't go with us this time). We then head out for dinner.
Hiroshima is famous for okonomiyaki (a pancakelike batter cooked with any number of vegetables and meat). I have never been a fan, because the first okomiyaki I ate as a missionary was highly recommended as his favorite food by another missionary. I found it to be undercooked (gooey pancake batter) and not great at all. But this place turns me into a convert. It's called Hassei Okonomiyaki at 4-17 Fujimicho, Naka Ward, Hiroshima 730-0043. It is really good. Really good. And fun. Jared finds the place on Trip Advisor or a blog and we follow the GPS to the location, but we can't find the shop among some other stores. So Chieko calls the phone number. The guy who answers the phone tells her, "Just a minute." Next thing we know a guy is sticking his head out from behind the corner of a building and telling us to come that way. The restaurant is just around the corner and I guess coming out to get us is easier than giving directions over the phone.
People sign stuff on the walls, so I start writing with a pen. The server brings me a marker.
Here's my mark. Even though it's November 22, I put 23, because that's my birthday, so when we come back in a few years we'll think we were here on that day.
On the way back to the hotel Chieko hears a racket in a city building, so we climb the granite steps and go in. This troupe is performing a kabuki-like play for free to promote future performances.
Here's a little clip. Kind of a community theater thing. Two village guys are fighting off two oni.
Hiroshima's Heiwa-Dori (Peace Street) is decked out for Christmas.
November 23: Hiroshima, Osaka, National Labor-Thanks Day, Michael's Birthday
We have a little time before our next train back to Osaka, so we go for a walk around the hotel area in Hiroshima (and buy $10 gloves at 7-Eleven, because the weather has turned cold). This priest at a temple on the corner is cleaning up the fallen leaves.
This is the building that had the play in it last night. When we walk by I notice the sign says it's the Bank of Japan building, which I remember from the museum being the only building that was still structurally sound after the A-bomb dropped. All the people inside were killed, and the interior was burned, but the structure was not damaged. It is still in use today as a community center of sorts.
Here's a picture of the building after the bombing.
A street in the shopping area of Hiroshima near our hotel. Also near here is the Fifth Avenue/Ginza of Hiroshima with a Tiffany's, Gucci's, TAG Heuer and others.
Chieko finds her twin.
Now we're back on the Hikari shinkansen heading to Shin-Osaka from Hiroshima.
A platform conductor at one of the stops.
A model N700 shinkansen. This one is a Nozomi, which our Japan Rail Pass does not cover. The Nozomi is quite a bit faster than the Hikari (which we can and do take), going 220 mph versus 180 mph.
Our hotel in Shin-Osaka. Guess which hotel chain this is.
With a reasonably roomy bathroom and deep tub. Oh, and all the toilets have bidets with various accoutrements. Some have just the bidet and heated seat. Others have a full under carriage wash with air dryer. These are in all the hotels, all the train stations, all the department stores, and even on the shinkansen trains. They also have confusing control panels next to the toilet. Also, the public toilets often have a sensor on the wall that one passes a hand over to flush the toilet. And the same wall has a panic button to sound an alarm and call for help if needed. Don't press the panic button in an attempt to flush the toilet. This has been tried by a family member whose name rhymes almost with gecko but who will remain anonymous.
Correct, this is a Marriott Courtyard.
We're looking for a lunch to take on the train to Himeji from the many options in the Shin-Osaka station.
There are sandwiches.
Sushi.
And this food court with a host of choices. I decide on omu-rice (fried rice with an omelet wrapper and ketchup) from the restaurant in the back right corner.
And we board our train to Himeji.
Himeji castle is the largest castle in Japan. We wanted to visit this the last time we were in Japan, but it's been under renovation for the past five years. Finally we get to see it.
What? Okay, I will not get on my why-do-people-take-their-dogs-places-when-the-dogs-would-rather-be-home-running-in-the-backyard soap box. But, good grief, this guy's gonna crash.
Oh, by the way, we arrive here about 4:10 p.m., and the castle closed at 4 p.m. Winter hours.
Oh well. We get to tour around the castle, and that's pretty cool.
It is lit nicely after sundown.
Ninja Jared.
Today is my birthday, as well as a Japanese national holiday (Labor Day), so I get to pick a place for dinner. I pick tonkatsu (pork cutlet), and I select the Kagoshima Kurobuta. Oh, my. This has to be the most tender and tastiest pork I've ever eaten. Others get other pork dishes, and they are all good. But the Kagoshima Kurobuta stands out.
Then I am surprised with a "cheesecake." This is an interesting fluffy cake that tastes like and has somewhat the consistency of scrambled eggs, only softer. And it tastes even better when we eat the rest of it in the morning for breakfast.
November 24: Takayama, Shirakawa-Go
On Thanksgiving (in the United States; Japan doesn't even know what a turkey is) we hop on a shinkansen for Nagoya. I shouldn't say "hop on." With our Japan Rail Passes we actually go to the ticket office and reserve seats in the first-class Green Car.
Our train arrives.
The shinkansen lineup.
At Nagoya we change to the Wide View Train. It's not a shinkansen, but it's comfortable and has big windows for enjoying the scenery at a more sane speed.
See the driver pointing his finger? He has a ritual
of sorts that I assume he has to go through every few minutes. I've seen drivers to this before. I think he scans the schedule, the stops and the crossroads. Then he points his finger at each to ensure he is visually noting each item. Or something like that.
There are a lot of tunnels on the way to Takayama, where we'll stay in an onsen hotel tonight. But the tunnels are not nearly as numerous or long as those the shinkansen passes through. On some routes I think we spend more time inside mountains than anywhere else.
The scenery coming up this mountain is quite stunning.
Look! Japan has a problem with distracted drivers, too.
After we check into our hotel at Takayama, we take a bus another hour to an area called Shirakawago. This used to be a stopover for samurai and others traveling long distances such as between Kyoto and Nagoya. There were a lot of these towns when travel was primarily by foot. When the rest of Japan moved to more modern architecture, three villages in Shirakawago resisted and instead retained their traditional gassho-zukuri ("as in prayer") thatched-roof styles. They felt these represented Buddhist priests with their hands folder together in prayer.
This time of year the kaki (persimmon) trees have pretty much dropped all their leaves, but the kaki hang on. I assume people just pick them when they're hungry for a kaki, but what do I know?
Here you can see the design of the roofs.
These are the bundles of grass the neighbor volunteers lash together and then lash to the roof.
This house is getting a roof makeover. The workers tie the grass into bundles, lash the bundles to the roof, then hammer the bottom of the bundle to distribute the grass into a smooth rather than shingled look.
Shirakawago from a hill we climb.
Here we are.
Most of the homes have been turned into souvenir shops, restaurants or inns, which is good for the residents, but the village risks losing it UNESCO World Heritage Site status, because the organization requires sites to remain in their original state.
Scarecrows keep the many crows from destroying the crops.
The onsen hotel treats us to a several-course dinner.
Including but not limited to three cuts of meat (one course) that we cook at the table.
November 25: Mount Fuji, Ameyoko
We leave Takayama.
After picking up some snacks at the station kiosk.
More views out of the train window as we head down the mountain toward Nagoya.
Tea bushes.
On the shinkansen from Nagoya to Tokyo we pass Mount Fuji. This is the fourth time on this vacation that we've passed by here and the first we've seen the mountain. Fuji-san is often hidden behind clouds.
This is a better view of Mount Fuji. Well, it would be except for the clouds.
Just a city.
Lots of apartment complexes, called danchi, sprout up in the cities, especially near train stations. Notice the clothes hanging on the balconies. Most homes have a washer but few have dryers. And when the sun comes out so do the clothes and bedding.
Another view from the shinkansen.
Sara and Jared want to eat various foods at various restaurants, and one we hadn't tried yet was a sushi boat restaurant. Rather than ordering off a menu, the chefs keep making various sushi and placing it on a conveyor belt or in a little boat that circles the restaurant. Guests then take whatever they want as it comes around. You can also ask the chef for whatever you don't see coming around. We found this place near Tokyo station via Trip Advisor, and it is really good. I think we like the braised salmon topped with miso and scallions the best. The sushi is priced based on what it is. For example, salmon nigiri costs more than a piece of egg omelet. To keep track of the prices, the chefs put the sushi on colored plates. At the end of the meal we are charged by the number of each color of empty plates. I think the red ones at the top are about $3.50 per plate, and the blue ones on the bottom are about $8 per plate.
Notice that the fish part of the sushi is so much bigger than the rice part. THIS is what sushi should always be.
Next we make another stop at Ameyoko, next to the Ueno station, and Sara goes crazy buying candy at a large-for-Ameyoko store. But because she spends over 5,400 yen, it is tax free. The candy is also sealed in two big plastic bags that can't be opened before we take the goods out of the country. And the store staples a receipt in her passport. We've bought several items this way on this trip. We are also told that we will have to account for our tax-free purchases when we go through Immigration at the airport, but no one ever checks us on the way out of the country. At Ameyoko we also eat 100-yen pineapple and cantaloup on a stick.
Across from the Ueno eki is this skinny six-story building with a different restaurant on each floor, each with its own lit-up billboard.
November 26: Kumagaya, Iwatsuki
Saturday is our last full day in Japan, and we spend it around Kumagaya and nearby Iwatsuki. On Thursday, Tokyo received the earliest snowstorm it's had in 57 years, and when we get to Kumagaya we realize it has a lot more snow than Tokyo. This must be where the storm hit hardest, or maybe it's always a cold spot. This is Noboru-san's garden, where he's growing daikon (shown here), onions, spinach, red radishes and some other things I don't remember.
Noboru-san, Chieko and Obaasan ("Grandma").
In the morning Chieko and I take the bus to the Kumagaya eki to meet Sara and Jared, who are staying in the Smile Hotel near the eki.
The Kumgaya bus.
From the eki we walk to the temple/cemetery where Chieko's father is interred, and on the way we pass a 7-Eleven with this cute one-seater, plug-in electric 7-Eleven car.
The front of the O-Tera (Buddhist temple) where O-jiisan's (Grandpa's) tomb is.
The tradition is to first wash the o-haka (headstone). And then place incense and flowers.
Chieko and Sara wash the o-haka.
They place the incense that they got inside the temple, and put their flowers in the two vases on either side of the stone.
Families often place food on graves. Chieko's mother puts out rice, mikan and other food at Chieko's father's butsudan (shrine-like cabinet in their house) daily. Apparently, the person in this grave liked candy, so the family placed some Happy Hariween candy for him. Notice that the package is open so the deceased can easily access it.
After visiting the grave, we take a shinkansen to Omiya then a regular train to Iwatsuki, a doll-making town, and buy some souvenirs. I get one boy doll with samurai armor. Chieko's 90-year-old mother ("Obachan") gave her money to get gifts for Jamie and Sara, so Chieko gets a doll for Jamie, and Sara buys a doll for herself.
In the evening we visit with Obaasan, Noboru-san and Shizue-san in their living room for a while. Shizue-san serves us these chestnut pastries with actual gold leaf on the nut at the top.
Then Noboru-san and Shizue-san treat us to a Korean yakiniku (meat that we cook at the table and wrap in lettuce and other vegetables) dinner at a restaurant within walking distance of their home.
Three generations.
The family: Chieko, Sara, Jared, Noboru-san, Obaasan and Shizue-san (Noboru-san's wife, who is a master chef as well as a painter, computer program teacher and Kumon owner).
November 27: Tsukiji, Closed
We make a quick trip to the Tsukiji fish market before heading to Haneda airport for our flight home. We aren't sure which exit from the subway would lead to the market, but Sara says she can smell ishiyaki-imo and we should follow her nose. Which we do. When we lived in Japan, nearly every Sunday shortly after we got home from church, an ishiyaki-imo truck (little truck with sweet potatoes cooking on hot rocks in the back) would come by our apartment with music playing. We'd run out and buy the delicious treats. The guy really liked Sara--she was three or four years old--and he'd give her a free potato as a bonus. Such a treat to find this truck at Tsukiji.
In the market are a lot of little shops selling everything from fresh fish to dried squid (pictured here) to kitchen knives.
This guy is braising tuna on a stick.
Some kind of fish roe. I don't know what kind of fish tara is.
There are a lot of sushi restaurants. These tiny places all look really good.
Everyone is buying or tempted to buy something yummy.
Sushi. This place looks especially good.
Grilled eel and scallops. The eel is the best. The scallops come with the outer tough strip attached.
Dried squid.
This woman is making a tuna roll with what looks like the leftover pieces from nigirizushi.
Jared found on an app a popular ramen restaurant that we have to try. We see this place on our way to the market around 9:30 a.m. with a long line of people waiting. Two chefs are cooking about two bowls at a time in a tiny shop. Who eats ramen at 9:30 a.m.? People slurping noodles at stand-up tables on the sidewalk. We decide this must be the place we have to try, so we head back here at about 11:30 a.m. This guy walks down the line. I think he's taking orders, but he's actually counting the people in line. He goes up front and comes back with a "Closed" sign and holds it right in front of me. The shop has run out of soup. And with that this vacation is closed.
