June 13, Thursday, Leave Salt Lake City
We left on the Salt Lake City Express Shuttle about 6:25 a.m. We also picked up a girl from the recovery center on 48th South in Murray, who was heading to the airport to go home, I assume. Our Delta Flight had been changed from an 8:30 departure to 8:50, which would give us a short layover in Seattle to switch to our Narita flight. Once on the plane in SLC, we sat on the tarmac for about a half hour without lights or AC, because the engines wouldn't start. The pilot said they needed to use a "huffer," which they were doing, but the huffer they hooked up also wasn't working, and the other huffers were being used to start other planes. Finally, we got a good huffer and a kick start. We landed in Seattle, we ended up "one foot" from the jetway, which was a problem that required maintenance workers to bring a "leveler," which needed to use the plane's power, so we again had no lights or AC. We arrived at the Seattle-Narita flight's gate just as the passengers started boarding. We usually book our seats on the window and aisle and hope no one sits between us. To Seattle, the plane was packed. The seat selector for the Narita flight also showed full, but we ended up with an empty seat between us.
June 14, Friday, Kumagaya
Okay, this is the same day as June 13, but we crossed the international dateline, so it was the next day when we landed at Narita about 1 p.m. Immigration and Customs took an hour. We picked up a rental cell phone for Chieko at Softbank, shipped our big suitcase to Kumagaya via Yamato (the black cats), exchanged dollars to yen, and exchanged our Japan Rail pass vouchers for three-week passes. We took the Narita Express train to Tokyo eki (station), and changed to the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kumagaya. Shizue-san picked us up in her bright-yellow Honda N-One. The Satos ordered sushi, so we visited and ate dinner with them. I was drifting off to sleep by 8 p.m., and we finally went to bed about 8:30, after being up for the past 24 hours.
June 15, Saturday, Tokyo in the Rain
We scheduled this trip during Japan's rainy season, which is not just wet, but also hot. On Saturday, we decided to go into Tokyo, when the the forecast was for 100-percent chance of 1.4 inches of rain.
Chieko and I walked about 15 minutes from the Sato's house to the bus stop and took the bus to the Kumagaya eki, then the Shinkansen to Ueno. We then took the Yamanote-sen (line) to Akihabara, where we walked around the little shops under the train tracks and ate lunch in a restaurant across a little plaza. We took the subway to Asakusa and a taxi to Kappabashi, the restaurant-supply district. It seemed that when I walked to Kappabashi in the past, it was a long way from Asakusa, but the taxi driver took us a short distance and announced, "This is Kappabashi," and charged us ¥450. We should have walked. Chieko bought a meat cleaver for about $100, a rice serving bowl for about $28, a couple of oyako-domburi bowls for about $7 each, and precision fingernail clippers. I bought an apple, orange, banana, and tonkatsu (pork cutlet) with cut cabbage, a tomato slice, and a lemon wedge, all realistic wax or plastic for about $120 total.
We saw a girl with a plastic fitted cover on her suitcase (in the rain) and thought that was a good idea. We asked her where she got it. Online. Another guy had one, so we asked him. Hong Kong. We walked around all the luggage shops in Ameyoko hoping to find one, but no luck. We saw one more guy with a plastic suitcase cover, but he looked Southeast Asian, so we didn't even ask where he got his. Probably Manila.
We ate curry for dinner at Kumagaya eki. I had curry rice, and Chieko had curry cauliflower. At Sato's, Shizue-san had bought delicious and beautiful chocolate layer cakes from a bakery. She served us cake and ice cream. And it did rain all day.
Kumagaya to Tokyo (Ueno station) on the Shinkansen (bullet train).
People walking across the Akihabara plaza next to the train station in the rain as seen from a fifth-floor restaurant.
These are the shops under the Akihabara tracks. Akihabara used to be the electronics capital of Tokyo, and while most of the stores like Bic Camera and LAOX have moved to Shinjuku, these little specialty shops, toys stores, and some other big electronics stores that cater to foreign tourists, mostly from Asian countries, still keep this place lively.
Kappabashi is the restaurant-supply district and one of my favorite off-the-beaten-path places. Most restaurants place sample or wax food in their displays to attract customers and help them decide which restaurant has the food they want to eat.
Ameyoko is a fun market between the Ueno and Okachimachi stations. Shops here sell everything from fish and fruit to luggage, leather jackets, and replica guns (real guns are illegal in Japan). We'll visit here a couple more times on this trip.
There's a much longer real-time video of this day on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuSJD9_JDqM&t=96s.
We woke up about 2:30 a.m. We stayed in bed until about 5:30, sleeping a little but mostly awake. After showering and eating Shizue-san's gourmet breakfast of fat toast, scrambled eggs, ham, bacon, salad, orange juice, and yogurt, I walked around the neighborhood and found people transplanting rice. Very interesting. Also some guys building a house.
Shizue-san drove us to the eki in her bright yellow Honda N-One. We took the Shinkansen to Nagano, which hosted the 1998 Winter Games, then a regular train with big windows and a reserved Green-sha (1st-class "Green" car) to Matsumoto. Chieko gave me a Father's Day card on the train. The Moriis, who were Nancy's neighbors in Heber City more than 40 years ago, picked us up and drove us to their house in rural Matsumoto. They built a new home on his family's property about five years ago. It's a very nice large lot with flower and vegetable gardens and a guest house. On a gazebolike patio in the garden we ate lunch that Morii-san (the wife) prepared: Soba noodle salad; cucumbers, carrots, and eggs in a soba-dough shell; yakitori (bite-size grilled chicken); tomatoes with mozzarella; inarizushi; and melon. They then took us to the Matsumoto Pavilion rose garden and a display of gardens that people and companies built in a competition.
Mr. Matsumoto drove us to our hotel, where we had a night view of Matsumoto Castle. We walked to the Matsumoto shopping district, where I bought a pouch to hold my passport, train pass, and money at a sporting goods store for about $55. We ate dinner at a restaurant next to the Parco department store (I think the restaurant is owned by the store) that served 100-percent buckwheat soba noodles with tempura shrimp and veggies. We tried to buy buckwheat flour, but it doesn't seem to be available to anyone but restaurants.
We had a hard time staying awake past 8:30.
Noboru-san grows these plums, which are about ready to be picked and pickled into umeboshi (way sour pickled plums eaten with rice or similar foods).
Rice being grown from seeds to plants about five or six inches tall, when it will be transplanted to a paddy.
Rice that has been transplanted from the greenhouse to the paddy.
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Same thing close up.
We used to see little old ladies transplanting the rice when I was a missionary 45 years ago. The ladies were bent permanently to 90 degrees. Today the rice is transplanted using small tractors.
Loading the rice plants onto the tractor.
I thought it was funny that the one man in the group grabbed a shower stool from his truck and sat on it watching while the three women did the work.
This is the tractor placing the plants.
A farmer working in her garden.
This is a family cemetery on the corner of their farm.
A tractor is coming down the road past the school where Jamie attended the first few months of first grade in 1983.
A school girl going to some activity on a Sunday.
I also watched these guys building a house.
This is the narrow street Chieko's mother lives on. Each corner has a mirror so drivers can see cars coming down the intersecting roads.
A kumquat tree in the Sato's neighborhood.
The castle is built with heavy timbers.
Walking around inside the castle.
On the fifth floor.
Samurai giving us directions to the moat-pond.
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Meeting up with Jamie and Brian at the eki.
Obasan telling some story. She will be 93 in August.
What it looks like when two trains pass each other at a combined 320 mph or so.
Traveling to Yokohama.
I don't know what the deal is with this tree, but it is very old.
Shizue-san took us to the train station in her Honda N-One. One suitcase in the back. One suitcase on a back seat. One passenger in the front seat. One passenger in the second back seat. And one driver.
Kumagaya to Matsumoto.
Farmers tending their rice paddies.
A terraced rice farm.
Where there's a patch of non-mountain land, there are houses or farms.
The Moriis brought us to their home for a home-cooked lunch. Their house and flower garden are amazing. They also own the land surrounding their home and rent it to corn farmers. This piece of property has been home to the Morii family for many generations.
A rose garden park in Matsumoto.
We ate soba noodles made with 100-percent buckwheat, for which Matsumoto is famous, at a restaurant next to Parco Department Store. Buckwheat is a seed, not a grain, and it is not related to wheat. It's more closely related to rhubarb.
Matsumoto Castle as seen from our hotel room.
June 17, Monday. Matsumoto.
We woke up about 4 a.m. and stayed in bed until 5. I went downstairs to the hotel's public bath and soaked there until the hotel started breakfast at 7 a.m. They served a really nice buffet that started with the best local Concord grape juice I have ever tasted. Seriously. They also had pickled stuff, konyaku, scrambled eggs, salad with wasabi dressing, potato salad, fried rice with wasabi furikake (dried seaweed and other stuff you sprinkle on rice) (Matsumoto is famous for wasabi thanks to its cold, clean water that comes from the nearby mountains), dark curry with white fish, cereal, yogurt, fresh oranges and pineapple, and other stuff I've forgotten.
We walked to Matsumoto Castle. This is the second-most famous castle in Japan. It's a wonderful castle. Five stories high, and unlike Osaka Castle, which was restored to be beautiful on the outside but all concrete and elevators on the inside, Matsumoto Castle is original or restored to original with massive wooden timbers and all. It's called the Crow Castle, because it's mostly black (except when lit up at night). The stairs are incredibly steep and each step is very tall.
Hitoyo Morii met us at an old Christian (French, I think) elementary school nearby and took us on a short walking tour of old Matsumoto. She then drove us to a wasabi farm, but first we stopped at a rice field that was planted as a mural using eight varieties and shades of rice, including a black variety. The mural depicts an actor who plays a very famous Japanese Olympic marathon runner.
I don't know the reality, but from my observation in the rural areas around and north of Tokyo, 80 to 90 percent of the farmland in Japan is planted in rice. I've always known the importance of rice--the wealth of warlords was always measured in how much rice they controlled--but I never realized just how dominant it was in the field today.
The wasabi farm was pretty amazing. Wasabi requires very clean, clear, and cold running water. The root is very perishable, and the plant takes three years to grow to maturity. Matsumoto is famous for its cold, clear water, and the people in Matsumoto are very proud of that. Unfortunately, wasabi is expensive, and it has to be refrigerated, so we couldn't bring any home. It is ground into a paste on shark skin, and after about 10 minutes it loses its potency. We did buy a wasabi soft ice cream cone, but it was disappointing. Not much wasabi flavor.
Hitoyo-san dropped us at a tiny train stop for our ride back to Nagano. We checked into the Hotel Metropolitan Nagano and headed over to Don Quijote to shop. That store is crazy. It has everything from a whole floor of candy, to five-toe socks, toiletries, and just about anything else you could want to shop for. We ate odds and ends from shops in the Midori Mall by the eki.
Matsumoto Concord grape juice. The people who live here must be right about their water being delicious if that's the secret to their grape juice. It is seriously the best I've ever tasted.
Chieko in front of Matsumoto ("Crow") Castle.
Looking out from the top floor of the castle.
This is inside of the roof.
The moat.
The courtyard.
The refreshment courtyard.
I discovered Calpis Coolish in this vending machine at this castle.
This is one of the best summer treats I've had in a long time. After this, I looked for Calpis Coolish in every store we visited and every vending machine we passed for the rest of the trip. I found it a couple more times. Melon Coolish is a little more available and also very good. Watch out for brain freeze.
Me.
The castle. Notice that it is mostly black.
A TV station hosted this mural made by planting eight different varieties of rice, including a black variety. The mural advertises a TV program of a famous Japanese marathon runner from an Olympics game quite a few years ago.
This is some of Matsumoto's cold, clear water.
This is what wasabi looks like growing.
The wasabi farm occupies a river and flows through the valley along the river's path. It has a gravel bed, the wasabi, which grows for three years to maturity, and a cover to protect it from the heat of the sun. And birds, maybe, I don't know.
A walk along the wasabi river.
The roots are the part of the wasabi that are eaten. They're ground fresh on shark skin into a paste and eaten usually on sushi within 10 minutes, before the wasabi loses its punch.
After the wasabi farm, we took a local train to Nagano.
The train's first car with its engineer just before the train enters a tunnel.
Inside the train.
Inside our Nagano hotel room.
June 18, Tuesday. Nagano on Honshu to Hakodate on Hokkaido.
We woke up early again; up at 5 a.m. Ate breakfast in the hotel, which provided a nice buffet, far better than any hotels I've stayed in in the United States. There was lots of Japanese and Western food.
We took the Shinkansen to Omiya and changed to the Hayabusa Shinkansen. (Each Shinkansen line has a name such as Hikari, Joetsu, Nozomi, Hayabusa, and so on). The Hayabusa was actually two trains connected into 17 cars that would separate at a station along the way. After Omiya, we passed through Sendai, Fukushima (the town with the famous tsunami), and Aomori. Then we passed under the ocean for 34 miles to the northeastern island of Hokkaido. Fukushima is much larger than what we saw on the TV news. In fact, most of the city is somewhat inland, protected from the sea by a mountain range. I assume the cities that were destroyed were along the coast. I assume the reason the name Fukushima is well known is because the nuclear reactors that melted down were named for the city.
In Hakodate, we dropped our luggage at the Four Points Sheraton hotel and took Bus 4 to Stop 8, which is an area where Europeans settled and traded in, I think, the 1600s. We shopped some boutique and souvenir stores in the Old Red Brick Warehouses. And I dropped my camera and broke the eyepiece and 24-70mm lens. We also ate dinner.
We hiked up a steep road past a Russian Orthodox church, a Roman Catholic cathedral, and a Japanese Buddhist temple to the Hakodate Mountain Ropeway (cable gondola). At the top of the mountain we squeezed our way among the many Chinese and Korean and some other tourists to the front rail to watch the sun set on Hakodate. The view was beautiful as the lights in the city, which sits on a narrow stretch of land between the mountain peninsula we were on and the rest of Hokkaido island, came on. Despite the constant yelling of the guy on his megaphone behind us instructing people to "Exit down this way," we enjoyed the view. Actually, for a few minutes, a woman joined in the megaphone competition. I have no idea what she was yelling about. We rode the bus back to the Hakodate eki and our hotel across the street.
About 10:30 p.m., I was standing at the sink in front of the mirror in the bathroom when I started getting dizzy. It was like the room was swaying. Then I noticed the towels were swaying. I went out and asked Chieko if we just had an earthquake. Her clothes were also swaying on their hangers. She had thought she was gettin dizzy, too. It turns out a 6.8 Japanese-scale quake hit Niigata. A 1-meter tsunami was predicted on the Japan Sea side of Honshu, but we didn't hear anything about that the next day.
The weather today was sunny and cool enough for jackets on the mountain after sunset.
We took the Shinkansen to Omiya and changed to the Hayabusa Shinkansen. (Each Shinkansen line has a name such as Hikari, Joetsu, Nozomi, Hayabusa, and so on). The Hayabusa was actually two trains connected into 17 cars that would separate at a station along the way. After Omiya, we passed through Sendai, Fukushima (the town with the famous tsunami), and Aomori. Then we passed under the ocean for 34 miles to the northeastern island of Hokkaido. Fukushima is much larger than what we saw on the TV news. In fact, most of the city is somewhat inland, protected from the sea by a mountain range. I assume the cities that were destroyed were along the coast. I assume the reason the name Fukushima is well known is because the nuclear reactors that melted down were named for the city.
In Hakodate, we dropped our luggage at the Four Points Sheraton hotel and took Bus 4 to Stop 8, which is an area where Europeans settled and traded in, I think, the 1600s. We shopped some boutique and souvenir stores in the Old Red Brick Warehouses. And I dropped my camera and broke the eyepiece and 24-70mm lens. We also ate dinner.
We hiked up a steep road past a Russian Orthodox church, a Roman Catholic cathedral, and a Japanese Buddhist temple to the Hakodate Mountain Ropeway (cable gondola). At the top of the mountain we squeezed our way among the many Chinese and Korean and some other tourists to the front rail to watch the sun set on Hakodate. The view was beautiful as the lights in the city, which sits on a narrow stretch of land between the mountain peninsula we were on and the rest of Hokkaido island, came on. Despite the constant yelling of the guy on his megaphone behind us instructing people to "Exit down this way," we enjoyed the view. Actually, for a few minutes, a woman joined in the megaphone competition. I have no idea what she was yelling about. We rode the bus back to the Hakodate eki and our hotel across the street.
About 10:30 p.m., I was standing at the sink in front of the mirror in the bathroom when I started getting dizzy. It was like the room was swaying. Then I noticed the towels were swaying. I went out and asked Chieko if we just had an earthquake. Her clothes were also swaying on their hangers. She had thought she was gettin dizzy, too. It turns out a 6.8 Japanese-scale quake hit Niigata. A 1-meter tsunami was predicted on the Japan Sea side of Honshu, but we didn't hear anything about that the next day.
The weather today was sunny and cool enough for jackets on the mountain after sunset.
The Shinkansen from Nagano to Omiya and then from Omiya to Hakodate. That's as far on Hokkaido as the Shinkansen goes until 2030, when it will reach Sapporo.
To the train.
Looking out the window of the Shinkansen.
Boarding the Hayabusa Shinkansen in Omiya.
Chieko's ekiben (train station lunch box).
My ekiben.
What I do on most train rides.
The two Shinkansen trains separate.
Apartment building.
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Rice fields.
The Hayabusa is hayai (fast).
Red brick warehouse district of Hakodate.
Shopping at the Red Brick Warehouse gift shops.
Hiking up the hill from the Warehouses to the gondola.
Russian Orthodox Church.
Buddhist temple.
Riding the gondola to the top of Hakodate Mountain.
Watching the sun set in the west.
Hakodate to the north.
The gondola is apparently not the only way to the top. Tour buses also wind their way up the hill.
Hakodate.
A few snacks before we turn in.
I went for a wander in the evening and just kept going a little farther and a little farther. First I had to see what was past an old ship, then to the Family Mart in the distance, next to the lights just a little farther, and then to see what was over that little cobblestone arched bridge. The Red Brick Warehouses are what were just over the bridge.
June 19, Wednesday. Hakodate.
On trips to Japan in the past, it seemed we walked a LOT, so this time I've been wearing my Garmin Forerunner 310XT to see just how far we really walked. It hasn't been completely accurate, because I sometimes forget to turn it off when we get on a bus or subway, or forget to turn it on when we get off. But I have tracked some days pretty well. In Tokyo in the rain we walked 6.5 miles. On Tuesday in Hakodate, we walked 3.5 miles. Today we did 6.49 miles.
I also checked the speed of the Shinkansen. The train between Kumagaya and Tokyo cruised at about 145 mph. Some of the other Shinkansen trains cruised at 155 to 160 mph. The Hayabusa to Hakodate cruised at 197 mph. I am impressed. It's so smooth.
Today we ate breakfast at a popular donburi (rice bowl) place in the Asaichi market. We had fresh raw fish and fish roe on rice.
We then took a bus to the Goryokaku fort, which is a star-shaped, five-point fort based on European designs of the 1800s. This one was built starting in 1857 and finishing in 1864. It wast the last holdout for the samurai warrior classes, or feudal Japan, when the unifying Meiji government came to power. The government had already defeated the Tokugawa shogunate in Edo (now Tokyo), but a bunch of "deserters" broke away and came to Hakodate to continue the fight. They were outnumbered and finally defeated in 1869. The whole Meiji era movement started when American Commodore Matthew Perry forced the Tokugawa shogunate to open Japan to trade in 1854. Hakodate was selected as one of the "open" ports (along with Nagasaki and others), thus the European influence on architecture here and the Christian churches.
We took the bus back to the hotel and rested a bit. Then we went to Asaichi for a late lunch. The shops closed at 3 p.m., so we had to hurry. Chieko had ikura (fish roe), uni (sea urchin) and crab on rice donburi. I had crab (cooked) and ikura on rice with tempura shrimp, squid, white fish, and vegetables. It was really good.
We then took a bus to an arboretum that also has a bunch of monkeys they call "onsen monkeys." They weren't the monkeys you see in the snow-surrounded onsen on YouTube. They were really monkeys in a zoo pit enclosure. There was a small pool that probably has warm onsen water in the winter. We bought monkey food (looked like big Purina dog chow). It seemed each monkey had a different scheme for getting food. Some clapped. Some stood up on a perch. Others would fold their arms.
We ended up back at the hotel about 5 p.m. We bought a korokke (breaded and deep-fried potato ball with meat, curry, or something) at 7-Eleven, and a drink and blueberry muffin at another shop in the eki. That was dinner.
Although it's technically the rainy season, we have had just one day of real rain and one earthquake so far. Weather otherwise has been nice. Today started partly cloudy and went to mostly cloudy by afternoon, but no rain.
Asaichi, the morning fish market and restaurants.
Fish market.
Live crab.
Fish at the fish market. The yellow part near the head is roe.
A walk around the fish market.
Our breakfast choices.
This mailbox in front of the eki promotes Hakodate's famous squid.
These workers are repairing the tiles that guide the blind, while their supervisor scrutinizes their work.
The Goryokaku fort was the last holdout of the samurai class when the nationwide Meiji government took control in the 1860s. The five-star design is based on forts in France and elsewhere in Europe.
This surprised me. I'm used to round canon balls.
This hillside of dandelions at the fort were quite pretty, unlike the dandelions in my lawn.
Lunch at Asaichi.
"Onsen" monkeys at the arboretum.
We visited the beach in Hakodate. The weather was a bit threatening, so this was kind of a nonevent.
When our bus arrived back at the Hakodate eki, these schools kids were giving out gifts of amaimo, a slimy potato that I don't care for, to promote a region near here that's famous for the potatoes and black garlic.
Crab nikuman. Oh, so good.
June 20, Thursday. Hakodate to Sapporo.
We walked to the eki and got on the Super Express train to Sapporo. The ride was about four hours and followed the Pacific coast until Tomakomai (about 2/3 of the way), when we turned left (west) across the island and past the Chitose airport (were we would fly from when we left Hokkaido for Honshu/Tokyo) to Sapporo on the Japan Sea side of the island. When we got to the Ibis Style (Accor) hotel, I realized I'd left my 70-200mm camera lens in the Sheraton Hotel room safe in Hakodate. I figured I'd have to make the eight-hour round-trip ride to Hakodate on Friday, instead of meeting Kali at the mission home. That ride was not all that interesting--we didn't even see any cows, which Hokkaido is supposed to be famous for, so I wasn't looking forward to it. By the way, we didn't see any cows the whole time we were on Hokkaido, except some stuffed ones in the hotel lobby. We did drink yummy Hokkaido milk and eat good yogurt and butter. But I'm getting side-tracked. Chieko called the Sheraton, and they said they'd overnight the lens to me at the hotel in Sapporo.
We took a local train to Otaru, which is a former international trading town with some European architecture and a famous shipping canal that is now a boutique shopping area. Otaru is also famous for blown glass, and we walked through several glass shops, including one that let us watch a young guy who was blowing a vase in the back room. We bought a couple of wind chimes, a glass figurine music box--there are also two or three music box stores here in Otaru--a Santa, a dragon (I was born in the year of the dragon), and some glass fish and an octopus that are attached to little glass floats for our fish bowl, which we don't have but will.
Back in Sapporo, we met Jamie and Brian at the eki. Then we went to a "Michelin-rated" (that's what the sign and the guy out front said) ramen restaurant for famous Sapporo miso butter corn ramen in the Etsu Building next to the eki, where Kali had said there is good food. It was good.
The train from Hakodate to Sapporo follows the Pacific coast most of the way. There are no cows on this route.
Coastal homes near the railway tracks.
The east coast.
The train really does hug the coast all the way.
This area has some factories.
A lot of fishing.
And more fishing.
The train conductor ensures everyone gets off and on before the train can move from a short stop.
The Sapporo eki has this wooden statue of an
ainu person. Ainu are indigenous to Hokkaido, northern Honshu, and Russia. They are not ethnically Japanese but have been assimilated into Japanese culture since about the late 1800s.
Despite Hokkaido's fame for dairy products, the only cows we saw were these cows in the hotel lobby beating up a couple of chickens.
The first place we ran into in Otaru was this little festival street.
Chieko and I wandered down a side street and found a guy in this shop making fish nets. This one is for catching salmon.
This is a worker blowing glass in the building next to one of the many glass shops we visited.
The shops in Otaru are in some really nice old homes.
And this one.
We saw quite a few girls and women in kimonos on this trip, but not too many men.
In this store, customers buy the music box mechanism ($18) separate from the box ($35+). They wouldn't sell me the mechanism without a box, so I don't have a music box.
Buying a $10 backpack. Other than food, this was the most useful thing I bought on this trip.
Meeting up with Jamie and Brian at the eki.
Looking for a ramen restaurant in the Etsu Building next to the eki, where Kali told us to eat dinner.
Ramen, yeeessss!
Famous and delicious Sapporo miso butter corn ramen.
June 21, Friday. Sapporo.
The four of us took two subways and walked about 900 meters to the Sapporo LDS Temple and mission home. Kali was hiding on the stairs in the mission home and jumped out and scared Jamie and Brian. Then there was a lot of hugging and some crying. We walked around the temple grounds and met the main groundskeeper, who had been in the Yakuza (Japanese Mafia) before joining the church several years ago, before the temple was announced. He prayed that he would be able to place the Angel Moroni statue on a temple some day. Then the Sapporo Temple was announced, and he was in the crane that placed the statue. Now he's the groundskeeper.
We visited with President McClure until we had to leave to attend the 11 a.m. session in the temple. He served a mission in the Japan Tokyo Mission from August 1972 to August 1974, during the same period I served my mission in the West Mission (Fukuoka). We attended the very packed temple session--they brought folding chairs in to fill the aisle. We had headsets for English. I listened and followed about half in Japanese, but I had to listen to half in English.
The Sapporo Temple is beautiful. It uses a lot of Japanese woodwork and a rock/gravel garden inside. I loved the shoji doors that opened for the veil. If you're interested in architecture, watch the YouTube video "Architectural details of the Sapporo Japan temple." Watch the 10:30 version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kidCehtbIpE.
Next we went to a ¥100 Shinkansenzushi shop (rather than boats, as in kaitenzushi, the sushi comes on a Shinkansen) that Kali loves. Then we gathered Kali's three suitcases--I got the 65-pound one--and dragged them the 900 meters back to the subway stop. Then we dropped them at the hotel.
We went back to Otaru and walked through some of the shops. We stopped at a music box store that sold the music mechanism for ¥1,800 separate from the boxes, which started at ¥3,500. I picked out a mechanism and figured someday I'd build a box. The lady told me they are very difficult, and I wouldn't be able to build one. I had to buy the box. I assume their profit must be in the boxes, because she wouldn't sell me the mechanism alone. So we left.
Back in Sapporo we went back to the 10th floor of the Etsu Building and ate at the Soup Curry restaurant. We had Japanese chicken and thigh, which was more expensive than the American chicken and thigh and, they said, more tender, in a curry soup that was amazingly good. It included potatoes, carrots, peppers, and onions.
Meeting Kali after she completed her 19-month LDS mission.
Visiting with the mission president in his home, which is the mission home.
A pond in front of the LDS temple.
Here's the welcome party in front of the Sapporo LDS Temple.
The temple has a lot of Japanese architecture and design.
Eating sushi lunch at the ¥100 Shinkansenzushi restaurant.
The train ride from Sapporo to Otaru follows the Japan Sea.
Brian's brother Doug's wife passed away recently, and her friends had painted and provided these #StephRocks rocks at the funeral for friends and family to place wherever they chose. I chose to leave my #StephRocks rock in a flower bed in front of the train station in Otaru, Hokkaido, Japan.
Jamie wanted to go to a Japanese festival while in Japan. This isn't really festival season, but this street in Otaru is as close to a festival as we're going to get. Too bad it was kind of a rainy day.
I am forever grateful to the staff at the Four Points Sheraton in Hakodate for overnighting my camera lens that I had left locked in the room safe. They wrapped it carefully in bubble wrap and sent it to our hotel in Sapporo. I had only to pay shipping, which was ¥950 (about $9).
The famous canal in Otaru.
Also the canal.
Here we are back in Sapporo eating at Soup Curry.
June 22, Saturday. Sapporo to Tokyo and Kumagaya.
The hotel breakfast buffet was really good. All the hotels where we've had breakfast have had great food. Yesterday, I had scrambled eggs, sausage, croissant, plain famous Hokkaido yogurt with blueberries and honey, hot chocolate, granola with dried fruit, and I forgot what else. I guess I had about the same today, but not as much of the eggs and sausage.
We then packed up, took the subway and a JR train to the New Chitose Airport about an hour outside Sapporo, and got on Japan Airlines (JAL) flight 508. Today was rainy with thunderstorms in Sapporo. Our flight ended up leaving 30 minutes late, because they canceled another flight and had to cram all those passengers onto our flight. I think they also pulled a larger plane out of the garage, a Boeing 777-200 wide body with 3-5-3 seating, which is larger than the plane we took from Seattle to Narita.
At Tokyo Haneda Airport we ate lunch. I had hire (hee-re) katsudon (I think that's the tenderloin). Chieko had tonkatsu (pork cutlet). Jamie, Brian, and Kali had yakisoba (stir fired noodles). It was all good. Then we took the monorail to Hamamatsu eki, where we changed to the Yamanote-sen to the Tokyo eki. From Haneda, the Austins shipped Kali's biggest suitcase via Yamato to Narita Airport for storage until they go home. We locked our remaining baggage in lockers at Tokyo eki. And Jamie and Brian exchanged their vouchers for JR passes. Then we took the Yamanote-sen to Shibuya, where the Austins were meeting Brian's old friend Toshi at the Hachiko statue to go to dinner. Chieko and I took our pictures at the Shibuya crossing--it wasn't nearly as crazy-crowded as it has been in the past. Then we took the Ginza-sen subway to Ginza.
We searched forever for the Tenshodo model train shop that used to be above the Tenshodo watch store on Ginza's main street. We asked a police lady at the koban for directions, and she sent us to the watch store. The guy there gave us a color photocopy of a map to the train shop--both shops had moved but to different locations. We finally found the train shop about 7:30 p.m., but when the elevator door opened on the 7th floor, a guy was vacuuming. They had closed at 7 p.m. We bought some sandwiches at the Matsuya Department Store basement across the street. I got a BLT with egg, and Chieko got a variety of little square sandwiches. We went back to Tokyo eki, retrieved our bags, and took the Shinkansen to Kumagaya.
The Austins took the Takasaki-sen to Kumagaya, because their JR passes weren't valid until Monday, and they arrived at the Sun Route Hotel next to the Kumagaya eki about 11 p.m.
We flew on JAL from Sapporo to Tokyo. Even though it takes all day to go by train, I would prefer that over a plane. I am not a fan of airports, security, waiting in crowds, rushing onto the plane to claim a spot in the overhead bin, sitting in a cramped seat, downing a Diet Coke and cookie with your elbows tucked into your ribs, waiting to deplane, and all that rigamarole. I'd rather get a nice ekiben lunch, settle into a wide seat with tons of leg room, and eat my lunch while I watch the world pass outside, even at 197 mph. Especially at 197 mph. Besides this two-hour flight took an hour by train, a couple hours in the airport, the two hours in the air, and an hour or so to get into Tokyo from the airport. So that's still six hours. The train would have been about eight or nine hours.
In front of Tokyo eki. This station is unique with its European-looking red brick structure.
Kali was talking up a lady on the train to the airport.
This is Shibuya crossing on one of its lighter days.
And making the crossing.
June 23, Sunday. Kumagaya.
Shizue-san took Chieko and me to meet the Austins at the Kumagaya eki at 8:30 a.m. We took the Chichibu-sen to Ichihara and walked about five minutes to the LDS wardhouse. The ward had about 30 people in attendance. Several asked us where we were from and how we ended up visiting the Kumagaya Ward. Two people had met Kali at the Sapporo LDS Temple, and one recently returned missionary knew her from serving in the same mission. Two people asked where I'd served my mission. One sister said she was baptized in my mission and knew some of the same missionaries I knew. One brother asked where I'd served. I said the Japan West (now Fukuoka) Mission. He asked when. 1972 and 1973. He asked what cities I'd served in. I started with Saga. He stopped me and said he was baptized in Saga just before I arrived, when he was 12. He remembered me and my companion, Clayton-choro, as well as Matsuda-choro, and Miyazawa-choro. When he said his name was Ishida, Tomomichi, I remembered his family. It was unusual for a whole family to get baptized at the same time. I also remembered his family gave me a going-away present of some money in an envelope when I transferred, which surprised me at the time, because I didn't think they knew me very well. I was a green bean and didn't speak Japanese at all. His mother was also at church today; I assume his dad has passed away. I told her that I had never thanked her for the omiyage (gift), so this was my opportunity to thank her 47 years and one month late. We took pictures with Sister Ishida, Tomomichi-kyodai, his wife, and his 18-year-old daughter, who's planning to serve a mission next year.
We took pictures, and Brother Ishida drove us back to the Kumagaya eki in his van (he has five kids, which is very unusual in Japan).
Next, we walked to Ojisan's (Chieko's father's) grave at Enko-ji (Enko Temple). Kali washed the stone and we paid our respects. We then took the bus to Obasan's house, walking past Jamie's old elementary school, where she attended a few months of first grade, until we moved to Urawa. We also passed some recently planted rice paddies. In one, an older woman and man each had a handful of rice plants that they were sticking in the mud. We asked what they were doing, since the field had already been planted. They said the tractor had missed a few blades of rice and some were not straight, so they were making sure the field was perfectly planted. We all agreed that from now on, when we eat rice, we will eat every grain, considering these old farmers care that much about each plant.
We visited with Obasan and took a four-generation photo. Kali is the first of her generation to meet her great-grandmother. Then we went with Noboru-san and Shizue-san to a yakiniku restaurant near their house. We've been to this restaurant once before, when Sara and Jared came with us, and it is wonderful. We cooked the wagyu beef and other meats and vegetables on grills at our table.
Afterward, we ate yummy melon cakes that Shizue-san had bought, and we visited. Shizue-san then took the Austins in her little yellow Honda N-One to their hotel next to the eki.
Breakfast that Shizue-san prepared for Chieko and me every morning.
Church at the Kumagaya Ward with the Ishidas.
Enko-ji, where Chieko's dad is interred.
Kali washing his monument.
Chieko and Kali at Ojisan's grave.
The Austins eating snacks at McDonald's. Even though they don't really like McDonald's (Brian said, "I never eat at McDonald's in the U.S."), they felt obligated to eat there one time in Japan.
This older couple was ensuring each blade of rice was planted correctly after the tractor went through and did the initial planting.
When I was missionary, this is how the whole field was planted, mostly by women, and they were all bent permanently at 90 degrees.
Jamie in front of her first Japanese elementary school. She attended first grade over the summer of 1983--the school year starts in April in Japan, with a six-week summer break. When I arrived in Japan in the fall, we moved to Urawa.
Rice waiting to be transplanted from the greenhouse to the field.
Wagyu beef and other good food cooked at our table. Thank you Noboru-san and Shizue-san.
The Sato four-generation line.
June 24, Monday. Kyoto.
We took a taxi from the Yumex factory, because that's a nearby place that taxi drivers recognize, in light rain. Noboru-san walked with us and waited until we left. That's the last we would see Chieko's family on this trip. We met Jamie's group at the Kumagaya eki and boarded the Asama Shinkansen for Tokyo. Then the Hikari Shinkansen for Kyoto. Kali doesn't have a rail pass, because they're only for tourists, who have to be living and located outside the country when they purchase their voucher, and she had been in Japan for the past 19 months. Her ticket was about $160 for the one-way trip. Chieko bought everyone an ekiben at the Tokyo eki to enjoy on the ride to Kyoto.
In Kyoto we found our hotel about three blocks from the eki, up a street, past a Daily Mart and a Family Mart, down an alley, and up another street. The Family Marts and 7-Elevens were important on this trip, because they were our constant supply of water, mugi-cha, and sugar-free Coke, as well as breakfast and evening snacks when we didn't eat in the hotel or a nearby bakery. We were at the Hotel Keihan. This was possibly my favorite hotel of the trip. It was nice, new, and only $85 per night. Maybe because it was so new, they were trying to attract guests. It also had a nice big sento (public bath) with an inside and an outside bath (though totally enclosed). A single controller by the beds controlled all the lights, wake-up alarm, and TV, and it notified the staff whether to clean the room and whether to do a full or eco clean.
We took the subway to Nijo-jo (the second "jo" means castle) and toured the castle and grounds. This castle was built for the Tokugawa shogunate when the Tokugawas had established peace in the country for over 200 years, so although it has a moat and rock wall protecting it, it doesn't have all the fortifications of other castles. The castle itself is only one story, and the rooms (sorry, no photos allowed) are huge and made for waiting for or meeting with the shogun. The grounds are very peaceful. We decided European and American gardens are often made to be beautiful. Japanese gardens are designed to be peaceful.
For dinner we found a curry place on Trip Advisor. It was really good, kind of a Japanese-Indian curry fusion. Two guys ran the tiny restaurant that had only a bar that seated about eight people. We asked how long they'd been doing this, and one said, "Four years." I asked, "You've both done this for four years?" The guy on the left said, "No. He's been here four years. I've been here a half year." They were not the owners, but it seemed like the kind of place where they would be. The curry had nice pot roast-like beef and chicken.
Trains from Kumagaya to Kyoto.
Scenes from the train window.
Inside the subway in Kyoto.
This is the entrance to Nijo-jo (castle).
This is the castle. It's not so impressive from the outside--certainly not as stunning as Matsumoto or Himeji castles--but the inside, which we couldn't photograph, is beautiful, with huge tatami meeting rooms, paintings on the fusuma doors, and all.
One of the castle gardens.
The moat has koi, of course.
Another castle garden. We found the grounds to be very peaceful.
Although only one story and serving as the shogun's residence during a peaceful period, the castle is protected by a moat and stone walls.
Another castle garden and tea house.
The two guys running the curry restaurant where we ate dinner.
My curry dinner with beef (like pot roast), chicken, and a raw egg.
June 25, Tuesday. Kyoto and Arashiyama.
Chieko was tired out, so Jamie, Brian, Kali and I went to Arashiyama. We looked at stuff in a bunch of the little shops, like long hair pins. Jamie didn't buy any, because they started at about $30. We then walked up the bamboo forest trail. We skipped the temple there, because it was $7, and we were a little pressed for time.
We headed across the bridge to Iwatayama Monkey Park (we call it Monkey Mountain). Just as with Sara and Jared, I headed along the base of the mountain looking for the trail. I asked a parking lot attendant for directions, and, just as with Sara and Jared, he sent us right back to where we'd come from. It turns out the trailhead is just after we crossed the second bridge. I had thought that trail went only to the boat rentals. Along the trails and at the top of the mountain, there were quite a few people, but we were able to feed the monkeys apples and peanuts, which they sell in the little house. These are nihonzaru (Japanese monkeys), or Japanese macaques. We fed the monkeys through a fence, so we were inside the cage and the monkeys were on a ledge on the outside taking the food from our hands. Babies are born in the spring, and we saw quite a few. One mother taking food from us had a baby latched onto her nipple, and I think the baby was sound asleep. As we left, a bunch of monkeys charged down the hill through and over the underbrush next to the trail. Then a park ranger took off in the same direction. I can only guess that someone below us was feeding the monkeys illegally.
We headed back to the JR stop at Saga-Arashiyama (there's also a more quaint rail line that goes right into the center of Arashiyama, but it's not Japan Railways, so it doesn't accept our JR Rail Passes). We took the train back toward Kyoto, and got off at a stop that I can't remember the name of. Then we took the 204 bus to Kinkaku-ji, the Gold Temple. Even though Chieko didn't go, she has spent the last year planning this trip down to the bus number details, and we had her hand-drawn map. Kinkakuji was really pretty. The two upper floors of the temple are completely gold plated, and it is amazing how shiny gold is in the sun.
We went back to the bus stop, where there was a large crowd of mostly foreign tourists all bunched up waiting for the bus. One small Japanese bus worker was darting back and forth saying in English, "Line here, line here." But Brian was the only person who paid attention to him. Finally, I said, "Where does the line start?" "Right here." I turned to the crowd and called out in English, pointing, "The line starts here and goes that way." Immediately the whole crowd hurried to get in line where they were supposed to be. The Japanese guy asked me, "Why didn't they listen to me? I kept saying 'Line here.'" I thought it was kind of funny, but not for him, I guess.
We went to the 7th floor of Isetan Department Store for Jamie's birthday dinner. This is the restaurant floor. We picked out a tonkatsu (pork cutlet) restaurant called Wako. Jamie and Brian got kurobuta. That is the best pork in the world. I had tonkatsu with hirekatsu, shrimp, and a crab korokke. This was Jamie's birthday dinner from us. After dinner, we went to the Don Quijote store. That place is crazy. It has everything you need and a lot of stuff you don't need.
A car in Arashiyama. Even the Rolls Royce is small.
This is the time of the year for hydrangeas.
The bamboo forest.
A lot of visitors like to dress up in kimonos.
If you look closely, you can see a train at the stop in the distance. What you can't see, and I didn't see, is a sign that says not to take pictures on the tracks.
Jamie, Kali, and Brian.
A moss garden near a shrine in the bamboo forest.
Rikishas are also popular in these traditional Japanese tourist areas.
After a little hike, we got to the top of Monkey Mountain.
These monkeys are native to Japan.
At this place, the humans are inside the cage, and the monkeys are outside. The monkeys should be giving us hamburgers, but we bought apples and peanuts to give them anyway.
This is a mama monkey with her baby.
After Arashiyama and Monkey Mountain, we visited the Gold Temple in Kyoto. The two upper floors are plated entirely in gold.
The Gold Temple.
The Austins.
I bought this candle and lit it for good fortune. The others did, too, but I took a picture of mine.
My dinner of tonkatsu (pork cutlet), shrimp, and crab korokke (croquette, if that helps). Jamie and Brian had kurobuta tonkatsu. I would have gotten that, but I had kurobuta on my birthday three years ago in Osaka, and I want to remember that one as unique. Yes, kurobuta is that good.
Miso soup with a lot of tiny clams.
In the hotel we had cakes for evening treats.
Eating our cakes in the hotel lounge area.
June 26, Wednesday. Nara, Uji, and Kyoto.
I forgot to mention that the 24-70mm lens on my camera jammed. It's zoomed in to 70mm and won't zoom out. I called Colleen Kelley, our agent to see if the insurance policy I put on my camera would cover the damage. Her office didn't know. They said to file a claim and see what would happen. I filed a claim online, and a claims adjuster called me and said it was covered, as well as the broken eyepiece, and he was putting a check in the mail today. I also have a wide-angle lens, as well as a waterproof Olympus point and shoot, a GoPro, and my phone's camera, so I'm okay in the camera department.
Today we took a JR train to Nara to see the Daibutsu (giant Buddha statue). Nara has a lot of domesticated and protected (for holy reasons) deer. People buy sembei (rice crackers) to feed them, and I wondered why I've never done this. So, I bought some sembei for ¥100 ($1) and found out why not everyone is feeding the deer. They swarmed me and started biting at my legs and jumping up for a treat. I won't do that again.
The Daibutsu is amazingly big. Jamie crawled through a hole in a post that is the size of one of the Daibutsu's nostrils. Kali bought a roof tile for ¥1,000 and wrote her name in kanji and "eien kazoku" (eternal families) and our names. The tile will be used sometime when the roof is repaired.
Next we went by train to Uji city and walked down a street with several souvenir shops to a river, where we turned right onto another street to the Byodoin Temple, called the Lotus Temple. The main entrance was closed for renovation, but the temple, grounds, and all the lotus flowers in bloom were beautiful.
We then went back to Kyoto and found a ramen restaurant at the eki for dinner. Chieko went back to our room, while Jamie, Brian, Kali, and I took another train to Fushimi Inari, the shrine of "a thousand Torii gates." Some people say there are actually more than 10,000 gates. The place can be a bit crowded during the day--not that much, though--but it stays open all night with lights, and there are almost no people. We hiked on a determined march--Kali set the pace--to the top of the mountain and back down, about 2-1/2 miles total, mostly stairs, of which I'm sure there are also 10,000. I think we did it in an hour. The guide books say it takes 2-1/2 hours. At the top of the first loop were two British sisters, Alex and Rachel, who were spooked to hike up the second loop alone, so they tagged along with us.
My breakfast run.
"Tame" deer waiting for me to give them a sembei treat. I'll warn you now if you go: Do not buy treats for the deer. They don't deserve it.
Feeding the deer.
Here we are at Todai-ji (temple), home of the Daibutsu.
The walk to the entrance.
This is the Daibutsu. He's cast in brass.
This scary guy is protecting the temple from evil spirits.
This is a model of the temple when it had pagodas on either side.
Jamie crawled through a hole the size of one of the Daibutsu's nostrils.
Kali bought a roof tile and signed it. The tile will someday go on the roof of this building.
There really weren't a lot of tourists today, but there are always busloads of school kids on field trips.
Field trip.
We stopped at this food cart for an udon lunch.
And we ate on the grounds behind the cart.
We turned at this river on our walk from the train station to the Byodoin temple.
Tea is always popular, and this area is especially well-known for green tea.
A lotus flower in front of the Byodoin temple.
A garden in front of the temple.
This is the temple as we saw it.
Byodoin.
The front door was closed for renovation, so I took a picture of the front from a postcard.
Kali, Jamie, and Chieko.
One of the many lotus flowers.
And some pink lotus flowers.
This mailbox reflects the popularity of green tea.
For dinner we had ramen, with fried rice and gyoza.
Hiking the path up the mountain in the torii gates at Fushimi Inari shrine.
This place is really cool at night.
Hiking Fushimi Inari at night.
A spider we met on the way down the mountain. My hand is here for size comparison.
The front entrance.
These British sisters tagged along with us on the trail because they were too spooked to go alone. A guy coming down the mountain had told them there were goblins who would grab the last person in a group.
Alex and Rachel discuss cockroaches after we see one.
June 27, Thursday. Koyasan Monastery.
The TV was full of reports of the typhoon coming through today. They showed rivers rushing down streets in Okinawa. We spent much of the day on trains and a bus going to Koyasan. We went from Kyoto to Osaka on a futsu (commuter) train, then to Jigoku (Hell) on the futsu Nankai-sen. Then we climbed a bunch of stairs--well, not a bunch, but a bunch when I was carrying two 40-pound suitcases--to a cable car train, which took us up a very steep mountain to the top of Koyasan. The cars in the train are stepped, so each row of seats is on its own step. Before we got on the Nankai-sen, Brian had bought a box of six nikuman (steamed buns filled with a pork-vegetable mixture) in Shin-Imamiya at a shop called 551 Horai. Oh, man, that was the best nikuman I've ever eaten. They were supposed to be a snack, but they ended up being our lunch.
After the cable car, we boarded a bus that twisted around so many switch-back curves that were so tight no bus had a right to fit. It's a single-lane, two-way road, and the train station is at the end, so it has quite a few buses going back and forth. They have to stop in the wider spots to let each other pass in opposite directions.
We checked into the Shojoshinin monastery. The worker (I'm not sure if he was a monk; Chieko thinks everyone there is a monk) was very friendly. After sitting at the check-in table in the check-in room and giving him our passports and money, he stuck our suitcases on a dumb waiter to the second floor. (Our hotel in Matsumoto had a similar process, where, instead of checking in at a counter, we sat at a table in the lobby, and the hotel clerk sat and checked us in there, kind of like we were being interviewed for a job.) The worker/monk took us through the monastery, showing us the baths (shared sento, but one-by-one private), the shared toilets, and our rooms with tatami floors and futon beds laid out. We also had a TV, a sink with a sign that said, "Only water," which is kind of funny, because I didn't expect it to dispense Diet Dr. Pepper, but it really meant only cold water. Cold, or unheated water is called mizu (water). Hot water is called oyu. We also had a veranda that overlooked the courtyard, pond, and side of the mountain.
We strolled in a light-to-medium rain through the 1.5 km cemetery with over 200,000 graves next to the monastery. There are a lot of mausoleums and gravestones dating back to the 700s. Many famous shoguns and others whose names we know from history are interred here, or at least some part of them is. Many of the people wanted to be interred in the right Buddhist cemetery--this one is the oldest and most famous of the Shingon sect, so everyone has to be here--so they had themselves interred in multiple locations. When you're cremated, it's not hard to have yourself divvied up, I guess. Koyasan and the Shingon sect were established when a man named Kukai studied Buddhism in China and introduced it in Japan. He got permission from the emperor to build a temple on Koyasan (the mountain), and this sect is now the biggest in Japan. He was also the head monk at Todai-ji.
Dinner was served at 6:30 p.m. We sat on a tatami floor at low tables as a family, separated from other guests by a portable screen. The food was vegan. Then we took baths and went to bed. I considered going back to the cemetery to see the lanterns along the paths in the dark, but it was raining pretty hard on the outskirts of the typhoon.
Traveling to Koyasan from Kyoto, we rode three trains, a steep cable-car train, and a bus.
Kali talking to a young woman on the train.
551 Horai nikuman. If you ever go to Osaka, get one. They're very popular around Osaka, but they're not available anywhere else in Japan.
This is the Nankai-sen (line) that took us up the canyon to Jigoku (Hell; that's the name of the stop).
Riding up the canyon.
Going up the canyon, there were a lot of small villages with tiny train stops. They reminded me of the stations in the cities where I served on my mission.
A platform conductor at one of the stops.
I think these villages are amazing. Houses are just built wherever they fit.
After the train ride up the canyon, we boarded a cable-car train for the ride up the side of the mountain to Koyasan.
And up the mountain.
After we got to the top, we still had to climb more stairs, especially if we were in the back, or the bottom, of the train.
The ride from the station to the monastery on the bus is flat but very twisty.
Finding our way to the entrance of the monastery.
Walking along the front of the monastery.
The roof has an interesting construction. I'm not sure if the filling is wood chips or wood slats.
The top is moss covered.
The side entrance to the monastery is up the three stairs on the left. We used this entrance, and left our shoes here, after we checked in at the front entrance.
This is the hallway on the second floor to our rooms, which are at this end of the hall on the right.
These are the toilets. The doors lock with a little sliding wood bar. The stairs go to the third floor, but we didn't venture up there. I think it has more guest rooms.
A lower-ranking monk showed us around the monastery and took us to our rooms.
This is our room. I could spend several days relaxing in this monastery and its surroundings.
A small treat awaited us on the kotatsu (low table) in the sitting room. It's a cake filled with somewhat sweetened red-bean paste.
The courtyard, looking from the first floor.
The courtyard from our veranda.
This is the cemetery with more than 200,000 graves, some that are over 1,200 years old.
These pilgrims stepped and bowed the entire 1.5 km to Kukai's mausoleum at the end of the cemetery in the rain. They would take one or two steps, then stop, kneel and bow to the ground. Then they'd stand and take another step or two and repeat the bowing.
Being a mountain, Koyasan always gets a lot of moisture. Thus moss is growing everywhere.
Several statues were dressed in red bibs and some had hats. I think these are for children. The coins are gifts from visitors. I'm not sure what the money is used for, but they're mostly 1-yen (about a penny) pieces. This was a good place for me to empty all the 1-yen pieces I've been carrying around.
A monk.
A lot of mossy monuments.
This bridge is near the other end of the cemetery from the monastery. It goes to the founding monk's mausoleum and a candle that's never extinguished. We have never visited the mausoleum.
I love the lanterns that come on when it starts to get dark.
A walk in the cemetery.
And a little darker. Notice the new and old lanterns. Each lantern has been purchased, or sponsored, by a person, family, or business, much like you can buy a bench in a cemetery in the United States.
Dinner being served.
Dinner was in a large room with screens between parties.
The food is vegan with pickled vegetables, miso soup, tofu, rice, beans, and stuff I can't identify.
The monastery courtyard and koi pond.
June 28, Friday. Koyasan to Osaka and Himeji.
At 6:20 a.m., the monks rang a gong-like bell several times to call everyone to morning prayer, which started on the dot of 6:30 a.m. One monk entered the room on the back right, crossed the back, and came down the left side to kneel in the front. He bowed to the floor several times before beginning the prayer, which he chanted from a couple of books. He also rang the large bell, some cymbals, and a small bell under the table at certain points in the prayer. The ceremony lasted 45 minutes. All the guests sat on a bench along the back wall.
Breakfast was served in the same manner as dinner last night, at precisely 7:30 a.m. It was vegan with tofu, rice, beans, miso soup, and some pickles.
We basically reversed our train ride from yesterday to Osaka, except one of our party had to use the bathroom, which commuter trains don't have, so we got off at a stop and then after some confusion trying to find a JR train station that didn't exist, we got back on a train headed for Namba. We even ate more 551 Horai nikuman for lunch.
At Osaka, we dropped our luggage at the hotel and figured we may have just enough time to get to Himeji Castle before it closed at 4 p.m. When we were here with Sara and Jared, we arrived right at 4 p.m., or a minute after, and the castle closed before we could buy tickets. Today we hopped on a Shinkansen to Himeji, and got there at 3:45. We hurried to the taxi stop, and I asked the driver if we could get to the castle before it closed. He confirmed we could, and he took us to the street crossing, where we still had to wait for the long light and hurry 200 or 300 yards across the grounds to the entrance. We made it. And we toured the castle. I love the old wood timbers, and the long halls with racks on the walls for weapons. But the outside is the most stunning, and Himeji is probably the most beautiful castle in Japan.
We stayed in a hotel in Osaka that had the smallest room ever. It barely fit two beds and a bathroom. There was no closet, just a couple hangers on a hook in the wall. No safe, no refrigerator, no desk, no room. The Austins had three beds in their room, space to walk around, and a sofa. They had is posh. But we only needed a hotel to sleep and shower, so I'm okay with that.
The bozu prepares to pray.
The monk preparing to offer the morning prayer.
After the 45-minute ceremony we were free to walk around and photograph the temple.
Walking to breakfast.
The bozu is praying over the food preparation area.
Breakfast of miso soup, rice, beans, tofu, and pickles.
This is the new part of the temple that was being built when we were here three years ago with Sara and Jared.
A priestess explains the statues in the temple.
The bridge from the new temple. The beautiful wood of the temple and bridge are not protected, so I assume they'll be weathered and gray within a few years. The bridge is already fading.
This is the front of the Shojoshinin monastery.
How about that: A public telephone, in a telephone booth, yet.
We visited the gift shop across the street from the monastery. The monk told us the owners open the gift shop whenever they feel like it. The door gate was only partially lifted, so we peaked under and asked when they would open, and they opened the shop.
This is the train path back to Osaka.
Getting back on the cable-car train to go to the bottom of the steep part of the mountain.
This is the train path to Himeji.
Kali talks to an old couple on the train.
We had to hurry to get to the castle before it closed. When we came with Sara and Jared three years ago, the castle closed just as we got to the entrance.
We had to wait, and wait, for these girls to get their picture taken before we could take one. We finally gave up and took our picture on the way out.
This is us in front of the castle. I don't know if this is his job, but a worker was taking the pictures for visitors.
The castle from the open area next to it.
I like this view through the tree.
And, Chieko and me. We've been trying to see this castle for several years, so now that we're here, we needed to take a bunch of pictures.
Inside, the castle is built with massive timbers. I can't imagine the workers hauling these up the hill and up the five floors of the castle.
The stairs are steep, but not as tall as the stairs were in Matsumoto Castle.
The overhangs are also low.
I'm not sure which floor this is, probably third or fourth.
The top, fifth, floor.
Looking out the window from the top floor.
This is a look down a hallway that was used to store weapons. The racks along the walls held guns.
The armory.
Chieko has been craving kakigori (shaved ice) since we saw a huge one in a restaurant in Sapporo. Her question to this docent at the most famous castle in Japan was, "Where can I find kakigori near here?" The lady directed us to a place in the shopping mall below the train station.
Window shopping on our walk back to the eki. We took taxis to the castle because we were in a hurry, but the eki isn't really far from the castle, just over a mile.
We finally got our kakigori.
Back in Osaka, we had to find the Dōtombori area, the most famous restaurant area in the most famous food city in Japan. We had no idea what to expect, and we were surprised to find a river walk. If you look closely, on the right you can see a runner with his arms raised on one of the displays. This is the Glico candy company icon from many years ago. This area used to be lined with geisha houses, and theaters. Now it's all restaurants, bars, and people, especially on a Friday night.
This is the street next to the river walk and where we found the okonomiyaki restaurant we were looking for. Osaka is famous for okonomiyaki. So is Hiroshima, where we went with Sara and Jared in 2016.
The okonomiyaki is cooked in the open kitchen area and then served on the grill at our table to keep it hot. Jamie's group is at a different table.
Serving the okonomiyaki. Many of the workers in restaurants and convenience stores are foreigners. Our server started speaking in Vietnamese with the couple next to us.
Eating okonomiyaki. This was really good. If I had to choose, though, I would vote for the Hiroshima okonomiyaki. It had a lot of cabbage and ramen-type noodles that this one didn't have.
The three girls on the bridge over Dōtomborigawa (river).
Octopus is ver popular. And gaudy signs are a requirement for restaurants on this street.
Crab is popular.
And so are people.
Walking to our hotel from the Osaka eki.
June 29, Saturday. Tōkyō.
This is Tōkyō day. We rode the Shinkansen from Shin-Osaka to Shinagawa (Shinagawa is a burrow in Tōkyō. People in Shinagawa call it a city. Whatever). We dropped our luggage at the Keikyu EX Hotel. Then we took the Yamanote-sen to Ueno. We walked through Ameyoko and stopped at a few shops. You could call it window shopping, but no shops have windows. They're all just open. We ate curry at CoCo Curry House, a chain that just announced it's opening a location in India. We then went to Shinjuku on the Yamanote-sen. The subways are faster, but we stuck with the Yamanote-sen, because it circles Tokyo, so we could get to just about anywhere, and because it's JR, we rode free with our passes. In Shinjuku we were looking for Kinokuniya, a huge bookstore, so Kali could buy Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in Japanese. It turns out there are two Kinokuniya bookstores in Shinjuku, a Japanese one and an English one. Of course, we were looking for the Japanese one. At the store, Kali bought Harry Potter. I bought a coffee table book on kakigori for Chieko.
We then figured we had just enough time to get to the Tenshodo model train shop in Ginza before they closed. We hopped a subway to Ginza. Ginza is so confusing. I worked there for four years, and today I recognize almost nothing, because it has changed so much. We found the shop at 6:40 (they would close at 7), thanks to our having found it after about an hour of wandering the last time. The shop has switched primarily to HO gauge, which is unfortunate, because I have N, O, and G, but no HO, even though that's the most popular in the United States. I like N gauge, because it's smaller, and I can fit a lot more scenery and trains on a layout. Luckily, Tenshodo did still had N gauge, and I bought a train and a tie pin, tax free, and we finished right at 7 p.m., which is when Brian and his gang got there, led by some stranger.
At the hotel, Miki-San, the daughter of the Moriis, met us in the lobby of the hotel, where we visited. Jamie had gone with the Moriis to Tōkyō Disneyland when she was 13 years old. Miki-San recently watched a movie called "What' My Name," or something like that, and she decided she wanted to become a Shinto Kannushi (God's employee). A Kannushi's job is to take care of a Shinto shrine and assist the guests with weddings and so on. She lives in her parent's former house in Shinagawa and doesn't currently have a job. She's studying to be a Kannushi. Apparently her mother is one now--we didn't know that when we visited them last week--for a shrine near their home in Matsumoto. If I understood correctly, her father's family owns the shrine. Miki-San plans to take over for her mother when she retires. It's not a full-time job. One catch is that she has to be married to be a Kannushi. And she's not married.
Our little hotel room in Osaka.
All the hotels offered smart phones for use while staying at the hotel. I never used it, but I think it was free.
Walking from the hotel to the eki.
A crew cleans all the Shinkansen cars at each end of the train's route.
The train route from Shin-Osaka to Shinagawa.
My ekiben.
Chieko's ekiben.
The next few photos are views out the window of the Shinkansen.
This attendant passes out wet towels for wiping hands and faces on each Shinkansen ride.
Some trains have ekiben and other treats available on the train.
This is a tea farm.
There are a lot of tea farms in the foothills of the mountains around Hamatsu, which is also famous for its eel lakes.
Back in Tōkyō, we went to Ameyoko. These machines dispense toys in oblong plastic pods, and we watched this little kid trying for several minutes to get his hand around one he had bought. He finally got it out.
We walked around Ameyoko looking for cool stuff to buy.
This is Andersen Bakery in the Ueno eki. I was amazed at the cash registers. At all the bakeries, and there are a lot around the train stations all over Japan, and they all have really yummy stuff, so we stopped at many of them, have trays and tongs. Customers pick their items from the shelf with the tongs and place the items on the tray. At this Andersen, the trays are semi-transparent, and the countertop is a scanner that reads all the items on the tray. You can see the items the customer in front of me bought on the register's screen. The register identifies the items, charges the right price, adds tax, and rings up the total. Customers put their money directly into the register, coins or bills. The clerk only puts the items in a bag and hands them to the customers.
This is the sample food in a restaurant window. Last week I bought some sample items in Kappabashi, the restaurant-supply district.
Looking for lunch. We ended up eating curry, but not here. Trip Advisor advised us to go to CoCo Curry House, a chain.
After lunch we took the Yamanote train to Shinjuku to find a Kinokuniya bookstore. It turns out Shinjuku has two, one for English books and one for Japanese books. Kali was looking for a Harry Potter book in Japanese.
This bookstore has, I think, 10 floors. We had to find the Harry Potter floor.
After Kinokuniya, we decided to go to Ginza to find the Tenshodo train shop that was closed when we finally found it the other day, but we were in a hurry and needed to take the subway, but we weren't even sure where the subway entrance was.
June 30, Sunday. Jamie's Birthday and the day the Austins went home. Nagoya.
We ate breakfast in a bakery downstairs at the eki. It's called Pompadour, and was really good, especially the double-chocolate rolls. We said good-bye to the Austins, who were headed to Narita Airport to go home.
We hopped a Shinkansen to Nagoya to visit Chieko's high school friend Junko-san. Chieko met Junko-san at the big clock in the Nagoya eki by Takashimaya Department Store. While we were on the Shinkansen going to Nagoya, I found a model train shop very close to the eki. The listing said it sold mostly used trains. I walked to the shop in the rain and bought a steam engine for ¥7,290 and a bus and truck for ¥540 and ¥1,090, respectively. These are used, but I guess they're considered collectibles, so they actually cost more than when they were new. I also found a die-cast Yamato delivery truck with the black cats (it's called Kuroneko Yamato, or Black Cat Yamato, because the logo is a black mother cat carrying her black kitten by the neck) that I would have paid quite a bit for, but it was not for sale. I tested the train on their little track, and it worked fine. I looked at the restaurants on the 13th and 14th floors of the department store, but I didn't feel like a major expensive meal, so I went to a ramen shop in the 1/2 basement of the eki. It wasn't great, but it was ok.
I also walked around Bic Camera, which is one of my favorite stores, although they now sell a lot more than cameras and electronics. The rain had stopped, and I also walked around the little roads around the eki. I was killing time while Chieko visited with Junko-San. My feet hurt, so I stopped in a minimart that had an area with chairs and tables, and I got a melon Coolish and a steamed cake. Chieko called and said she would be ready to go about 4:30 or 5.
Back at the hotel in Shinagawa, we dropped off our backpacks and walked back to the eki and found dinner in a restaurant in Isetan Department Store. We both had fish and chips, which turned out to be just like any fish and chips you'd get in a decent restaurant in San Francisco. Even the French fries and Heinz ketchup. On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a grocery store at the eki plaza for sodas. The store was called Kinokuniya Entree, and I assume it's owned by the bookstore people. We found a peach for ¥498 (about $5) and a cantaloupe for ¥1,950 (about $20). I was amazed at the number of mostly young women and middle-age businessmen shopping mostly for obento (box lunches) at 10 p.m. on a Sunday night. They were also there last night about 10:30 in the grocery store near Pompadour That store is open until 11 p.m, and I assume it's busy, busy right to closing.
Shinagawa to Nagoya.
Our last breakfast with the Austins before they head home.
The big clock meeting area at Nagoya eki.
I shopped and window shopped while Chieko and Junko-san visited. This is Bic Camera, one of my favorite stores and where I bought a Nikon SLR, which I still have as a backup, when we were in Japan a few years ago and my other camera quit working. Kali now has that camera (which I had repaired after we got home that year). Surprisingly, Japanese cameras are actually cheaper from B and H Photo in New York or one of the other online U.S. sellers than in Japan. But I still love shopping in this store.
Chieko and Junko-San.
I really didn't mind hanging around while Chieko visited with Junko-san. I found a used/collectible model train shop very near the Nagoya-eki, and I added this N-scale steam engine to my collection.
My fish and chips dinner.
July 1, Monday. Yokohama.
We headed out about 8:30 a.m. to the Pompadour bakery for breakfast. Yesterday I had a cheese-covered thick slice of bread, a slice of apple pie with raisins, and a soft double-chocolate roll. Plus milk. Change of plans today, though. The bakery doesn't open until 10 a.m., so we got milk and a bread thing at NewDays quick mart. The eki was insane. So many people flowing like the Columbia River, only faster, down the middle of the long hallway from the train exit gates to the business buildings on the other side of the eki. The few people going the opposite direction were kept to the outside edges of the hallway by a nylon divider. Several people who must have been late for work hopped the barrier and quick-stepped to work on the wrong side of the road.
We took the JR train to Shin-Kamakura, where we exited at a tiny station with a long, very narrow platform and an open wicket with a sometimes conductor to check passes and tickets (no one was there when we came back). We went first to Engaku-ji, the "most important Zen Buddhist temple" in Japan. It was built in 1282, during the Kamakura period. We saw a lot of hydrangeas (ajisai in Japanese). We went through the Sanmon gate, where passing through frees one from greed, hatred, and foolishness.
Next, we walked to Meigetsu-in, a temple that was built in 1160. It's also called the Blue Temple, because nearly all the hydrangeas here are blue. This place was really pretty. This temple had more people than Engaku-ji, but not enough to be annoying.
We then ate lunch at a little cafe that served a set bento that had rice with some vegetables mixed in, a ham salad (two slices of ham on lettuce), dark miso soup, and a bunch of other bite-size things.
We took a JR train to another Kamakura stop, then a non-JR train to Kita-Kamakura (I think) to Hase, where we walked a few blocks to Hase-dera. This temple probably had the most flowers and other temple things to see, including a long tunnel carved into the stone mountain, where we had to duck really low. It was maybe 4-1/2 feet high. A lot of little Buddha statues dedicated to children lined the walls. A path up the side of the mountain gave great views of the flowers, the temple, and the ocean.
We headed back to Yokohama to our hotel, the Richmond Hotel, next to the eki. For dinner we went to the 10th floor of the Sogo Department Store connected to the eki to an unagi (eel) restaurant. Unagi was on our must-have meal list when we came on this trip. Unagi has become very popular, and thus there's a shortage. One restaurant we stopped at near Hase-dera didn't even open today because they couldn't get eel. The meal we had at Sogo was really good. Plenty of grilled unagi with not too much sauce on a bed of rice. Because the sauce was light, the flavor of the eel came through more than at other restaurants where I've eaten.
We took the Minatomirai train (not JR) to Yokohama Minatomirai station. We walked through the Queen Towers and the Landmark Tower Shopping Centers to the 3rd floor. That's the floor where the elevator to the 69th floor observation deck starts. Google maps said the tower was open 24 hours, but it was wrong. The elevator to the 69th floor closed at 9 p.m., and, according to the clock on the giant ferris wheel I could see through the widow, it was 9:04. So we went back to the hotel.
We watched Jamie's Facebook and Instagram videos of Kali's homecoming at the SLC airport. Carol and Tim brought Caleb and Emi. We also saw Sara, Jackson, Tanner, my dad, Cindy, Heather and her kids, and a couple people we didn't think we knew. We also saw the video of Apollo going nuts when Kali came in the house.
Although we planned this trip to be during the rainy season, not by choice, but by when Kali was being released from her mission, we've had only one day of real rain. That was in Tōkyō the first Saturday. The weather otherwise has been pretty nice. Hot at times. It was 94⁰ F in Kyoto the day we went to the bamboo forest and Monkey Mountain with 75 percent humidity. And the little rain we've had has not been a problem. We had rain at Kōyasan, but that's always expected. There was rain when we got to Nagoya, but it stopped by the time I wanted to walk around outside. Today was drizzly in Yokohama, but we didn't need umbrellas most of the day.
What we did have today was humidity. The weatherman said the high temperature today was 80⁰ F with 94 to 100 percent humidity (two different reports, one said 94, the other 100).
Breakfast.
The Shinagawa Station is insane during the morning rush hour. Other stations like Tōkyō have people coming from all directions and going in all directions. This station has people disembarking from two platform exits, merging into one flow, and all heading to the same station exit and the downtown area.
Shinagawa to Kamakura.
Traveling to Yokohama.
The train to Engaku-ji.
Narrow, little train station.
The Engaku-ji Sanmon gate frees one of greed, hatred, and foolishness by passing through.
Two girls in kimonos.
Hydrangeas were in bloom everywhere.
Chieko especially loves the flowers.
I'm not sure what this girl represents, some cosplay thing, I think.
Whenever we entered a temple or shrine or castle or monastery, we had to take off our shoes.
This is inside Engaku-ji.
Another view inside.
I wanted to hit this drum. You would want to, too.
Also inside the temple.
If you look closely, you can see two turtles on the rock in the foreground.
I love these little train crossings.
Our lunch at a small cafe near Engaku-ji.
This is not a Volkswagen.
A monk.
Climbing the stairs to Meigetsu-in, also called the Blue Temple for all its blue flowers.
We couldn't figure this out. These are tiles from a roof.
This is near the entrance of Hase-dera.
Hase-dera.
Statues of these three choir boys, or whatever they are, were here and there on the temple grounds.
A path goes up the side of the mountain to provide a great view of the flowers, the temple, and the ocean.
These girls are Chinese, as were many of the tourists in kimonos. They were a little surprised when I asked if I could take their picture--maybe because they didn't speak English. But they asked me to take one with their camera, too, so I guess they were okay with it.
This is inside a long, low tunnel carved in the rock mountain. Most of the statues in here were of children.
You can buy these little wooden statues and place them here.
We couldn't decide whether we should have ramen...
or soba.
So we had unagi (eel). One of my favorites.
This volcano is on the floor with all the restaurants at the Sogo Department Store in Yokohama.
July 2, Tuesday. Yokohama to Tokyo.
We stayed in Yokohama and needed to get to Shin-Yokohama to get on our reserved Shinkansen back to Shinagawa. The girl at the ticket booth told us to get on the local Yokohama-sen at Platform 2. We went up Platform 2 and hopped on the train. After a few stops we realized we weren't going to Shin-Yokohama. We were on the Keihin-Tohoku-sen, which is the train I used to take to work from way up on the other side of Tōkyō to Ginza. The girl had told us the wrong platform, which is really unusual. We got off at the next eki, which was a small one, and took a train back one stop, got off, and changed to the Yokohama-sen. Luckily, I'm a paranoid traveler and always plan plenty of time, so we still made our Shinkansen at 9:53. It arrived at Shinagawa at 10:03. Yup, a 10-minute ride. Then we went to the Pompadour Bakery, which opened at 10 a.m., which is why we reserved seats on the the 9:53-to-10:03 train. We wanted to be there when everything was fresh. And we still had to wait about 40 minutes for the double-chocolate rolls to come out of the oven.
The humidity in Tokyo was forecast at 88 percent today. This was our last full day in Japan. We watched the river of people rushing to work and realized we had to cross the river to get our tickets for the Narita Express train on Wednesday, and to get on a train to Tōkyō today. We just held our breath and crossed.
We started in Ameyoko, looking for the candy store we had bought a lot of stuff at with Sara and Jared. We walked every street multiple times and couldn't find it. We decided it must have been turned into a drug store, which seemed to be what every other store had become. We finally gave up and headed to the Ueno eki. At the crossing light, we saw a guy with a clear Tax Free bag full of candy. He was obviously not Japanese, so I asked if he spoke English. No. Do you speak Japanese? No. So via gestures, we asked where he got the candy. He directed us three streets over. Then he got out his smart phone and entered something into Google translate in whatever language he and his friend spoke, and it showed "500 meters." We thanked him and walked over three streets. I checked off 500 meters on my GPS, and sure enough, there was the candy store we were looking for. We loaded up on Calpis marshmallows; Kit Kat of various flavors, including peach mint, mint chocolate, and raspberry; soba noodles with 90 percent buckwheat (the store sells other food beside candy, too); and some other stuff. We have bought more souvenirs and goodies to take home on this trip than any other trip. We don't usually load up on souvenirs. On this trip we even decided we needed another suitcase and were looking for one on Amazon, but Shizue-san gave us her old one. And then she gave us a bunch of omiyage (gifts) for us, Jamie, Sara, and John, which filled about half the suitcase. We left the big suitcase and Shizue-san's suitcase in Kumagaya when we went to Kyoto, and Noboru-san sent them to Narita Airport via Yamato. We figured we'd have to do some creative repacking at the airport.
We hopped on the Yamanote-sen at Okachimachi. Of the hundreds of times I've been to Ameyoko, including when we lived in Japan, I've always gone there from Ueno. I never realized Ameyoko sits between Ueno and Okachimachi and may actually be closer to Okachimachi.
We went to the Tokyo eki and walked across the street to the Kitte/Post Office building to the second floor and the Nemuro Hanamaru Sushi kaitenzushi (restaurant where sushi comes around on boats). I think Jared found this place on Trip Advisor when they were with us, and we loved it, so we had to come back. It was still as good today. We waited about 30 minutes to get in.
Next we went to Daimaru Department Store on the opposite side of Tōkyō eki. Tōkyō eki is a cool old red-brick building. Chieko bought an obi for her yukata or kimono. I went to Tokyu Hands, which shares two floors with Daimaru, and got some paper with a Japanese print design and Japanese washi paper. I'll use them to make a journal or something someday.
We picked up some dinner stuff at Isetan grocery store at Shinagawa Station, and ate in the hotel. Also a couple of double-chocolate rolls from Pompadour.
The Shinagawa Prince Hotel has three towers, Main, East, and Annex. We stayed in the Main tower. The Annex has a tennis court, bowling alleys on two floors, a swimming pool, and 11 movie theaters. So we went to see Aladdin, which stars Will Smith. We enjoyed the movie. What surprised us was at the end. Before the show had started, the announcement asked people to turn off their cell phones and reminded us that Japanese attendees at a soccer match in Brazil made international news a while ago, because they cleaned up around their seats when they left the stadium. The announcement asked everyone to please clean up their seats in the theater. After the movie ended, we almost got up to leave, but no one else moved. The theater remained dark and everyone sat with their eyes on the screen while all the credits rolled. Right to the Disney logo. The screen went black before the house lights slowly came up and people started to move. Even then, we had to climb over the couple next to us to get out. And although I saw people with treats, and I could smell caramel corn, the place was spotless.
By the way, while we've been enjoying relatively nice weather, Kagoshima prefecture in the far south of Japan and where I served my mission, has been having tons of rain and floods. Thousands of people have been evacuated, and a couple have died. On one day, they received almost as much rain in six hours as Utah gets in a whole year.
By the way, while we've been enjoying relatively nice weather, Kagoshima prefecture in the far south of Japan and where I served my mission, has been having tons of rain and floods. Thousands of people have been evacuated, and a couple have died. On one day, they received almost as much rain in six hours as Utah gets in a whole year.
At Ameyoko (again) looking for a particular candy store.
I had to get the slice of ripe pineapple I missed when we were here last time.
This is pretty much the feel of Ameyoko.
An Ameyoko seller.
Fish and squid.
Oysters.
When we lived in Japan, Chieko sometimes asked me to stop here on the way home from work to get a salmon.
Bags.
Hats.
Jackets.
Masks.
Shoes.
More fish.
Toys.
We ate lunch at Nemuro Hanamaru Sushi across the street from the Tōkyō eki, in the Kitte/Post Office building.
Miso soup with clams and other good stuff.
Customers pay by the plate, and each plate is priced based on its color.
Tuna.
This is a small temple across from the Shinagawa eki with the Prince Hotel in the background.
This is Shinagawa from our hotel room. The green lights are the hotel tennis courts.
July 3, Wednesday. To home.
We ate breakfast at the Pompadour Bakery, again. The double-chocolate rolls weren't out of the oven, again, until almost 11 a.m., so we ate our other stuff slowly and waited. We bought 10 rolls. I ate one and planned one for the plane. The rest we put in my ¥1,000 backpack to take home.
We took the 11:50 a.m. Narita Express to Narita Airport. We had reserved seats--all the seats are reserved on this train--in the Green Car, 12, but the electronic sign on the platform said there were only six cars in this train. This was a double problem. Not only didn't we know which car our seats were in, but worse, we didn't know where to line up on the platform. When trains arrive you have to be at the right door, because the train stops for only a few seconds, just long enough for people to get off, and they have lined up at the door prior to the train stopping, and people to get on. We knew where to line up for each train by stickers on the platforms. They list the number of cars in the train and the door that aligns with that spot on the platform. For example, one spot on the platform might be for car 8 of a 10-car train, but car 12 of a 15-car train. We didn't know how to line up for car 12 of a 6-car train. We finally found a platform conductor just a couple minutes before the train arrived. He told us to line up at car 6. It turns out the train would add six more cars to the front of the train at the Tōkyō station, so past Tōkyō we would be in car 12. That was a long explanation about something not too important. But it was important at the time.
At the airport we got our two bags Noboru-san had sent via Yamato, repacked our luggage, turned in Chieko's cell phone at SoftBank, checked in at Delta, and forgot to sell our Suica IC cards at the JR office. We had bought the cards at a quick stop in the Ueno eki and charged them with money to use on subways and non-JR trains. The cards were very handy, because instead of buying a ticket for each ride and inserting it in the wicket at the start and finish of the ride, we just tapped the cards. But we had to pay a ¥500 deposit for each card, and we ended up with a small balance on each, probably about $20 total. We did a good job of spending nearly all our Japanese currency, but I guess we'll have to plan another trip to Japan soon to use up our Suica IC cards.
We ate at the food court. Chieko's champon-like (stir-fried vegetables and noodles in a soup) Chinese dish looked good. My ramen wasn't so great. We boarded our completely packed Airbus for our 4:25 p.m. flight to Seattle. We had booked aisle and window seats hoping the middle seat would be empty as it had been on the flight from Seattle to Narita, but this time a girl sat between us. There were also three returning missionaries on the plane. I said, "Senkyoshi desu ka? (Are you a missionary?)" The one elder said, "We're coming back from Manila, so we don't speak Japanese." Our plane from Seattle to SLC was delayed an hour. In SLC, we took an XL Uber Dodge Durango home (we needed a big car to haul our luggage, even though we tried to travel light) for $49 plus tip.
Looking at the Prince Hotel from the eki.
Breakfast at Pompadour.
10 double-chocolate rolls.
I think this is leaving Japan.
This is also leaving Japan, I think.
Miscellaneous Photos and Videos
The Japan Rail Pass is the smart way to get around Japan. I love hopping on trains at will, and if you buy the Green-sha pass, you get a first-class reserved seat.
Because of the G20 Summit going on in Osaka while we were in Japan (actually, while we were in Osaka), all the garbage cans at train stations and in the trains from Tōkyō to Osaka were covered and not usable. Some garbage cans in stations farther away were available, but they each had two or three men accepting and inspecting the garbage before discarding it.
Every hotel we stayed in had a Fabreeze or similar spray bottle in the closet. This is a very good service that should be adopted in the United States.
I was surprised to see this 2019 Suzuki Jimny being advertised in a train station. This was called the Suzuki Samurai when it was sold in the United States, and we used to have one. I also drove one from Tōkyō to Hamatsu when I worked in Japan and we went to the Suzuki race track to test drive a motorcycle and ATV. I had no idea Suzuki still built them. And they aren't a lot different from the one we owned 20 years ago.
Every time I travel, I try do everything I can to go with less and lighter luggage. I guess this lady and that guy with her don't have that philosophy.
Vending Machines Are EVERYWHERE.
Bicycles are just a part of life. Larger vehicles give them plenty of room, partly because in a collision, the larger vehicle is always at fault.
There are a lot of funny signs. Below are just a few that I got pictures of.
1,000 yen fine for smoking in a place not designated for smoking, even outdoors.
The shower curtain goes inside the tub for showers and outside the tub for baths.
Don't squat on the toilet seat. Press the buttons to flush the toilet and lower the seat.
Don't sit on the steps. Oops, I didn't get a picture of all the tourists sitting on the steps.
These "tame" deer will bite, kick, butt, and knock you over. Don't I know. I bought treats to feed them, and that was the worst thing to do.
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