Tokyo...and Seoul?

The bus ride back to Tokyo from Narita airport

May 18-23

We passed a few very chill days in Tokyo while waiting for our flight to Almaty on May 21, hanging with the family and relaxing before our final journey through the rest of Central Asia. We left at 9:30 am for our 1:30 pm flight to give us a couple hours to chill in the lounge before leaving. We were annoyed when the first airport express train failed to show up, but the Japanese with luggage waiting for the same train didn't seem too stressed. It was odd, though. You can set your watch by the trains in Japan. We watched local after local train arrive and depart, but when the second express failed to show up a half hour later we started getting concerned. We asked the info booth attendant and he said not to worry and told us to get on the next local at 11:10 am. So much for our time buffer! We were supposed to transfer at a station outside the city for another airport express to get us to the airport at 12:30 pm, tight but feasible, but then that train was also canceled and we ended up sprinting to a closed check-in counter 15 minutes before the flight took off. Nuts! I called United and they helpfully rebooked us for free on the next flight to Almaty (in two days). Laurel later told me that was only possible because it was an award ticket and I have 1K status and I called before the flight actually took off...by 11 minutes. Serendipity!

We ended up spending about $50 and 8 hours on trains and buses to end up right back where we started. Pretty disappointing. But, the the kids were excited to see us and we had margaritas and a fun dinner at a tempura bar followed by grocery store sushi to finish off the day. If you have to be stuck in a city it is definitely nice to have family to spend it with! Thanks Laurel! 

Tempura chef in action

The next day we gave ourselves an obscene five hours to make it to the airport (not missing this one, goddamnit) and used a bus we had found the day before. We arrived with plenty of time to relax and eat dinner in the lounge. Our new itinerary put us in Seoul at midnight where we slept for a few uncomfortable hours on a bench before the lounge opened at 5:00 am and we slept a couple more slightly less uncomfortable hours. The flight to Almaty wasn't until 6:30pm, so we headed into the city to explore a bit. We went to Gangnam, a thriving business district filled with highrises. We spent thirty minutes wandering through a Samsung exhibit and then had a delicious shabu shabu buffet at a large, crowded restaurant. Thoroughly stufffed and still tired from the previous night we made our way back to the airport before our last flight, again with plenty of time. Kazakhstan, here we come!

Park in Tokyo

Gangnam skyline in Seoul

Kanazawa

May 16-18 

We had a fun weekend getaway planned with the Stelzers in Kanazawa before we headed back to Central Asia. We arrived a few hours before them and checked into our hostel. We found a relatively cheap room that had two doubles and two bunks, a shower and toilet (in separate rooms), and even a fancy washer/dryer combo! It was a bit of a tight fit for the 7 of us, but the location was good, price was right, and it ended up working out great. We grabbed a quick sushi train dinner in the station when the Stelzers arrived and then settled in for the night. 

We started the day at Curio Espresso at Tim S's request, a cafe run by an American-sounding westerner that we liked so much we went back the following morning. From there we headed to Omicho fish market for a choose-your-own breakfast of salmon, scallop, crackers, mochi, radish and snap peas. Kind of random, but good. I also got to ogle the $15 cantaloupe and $20 watermelons on offer. Japan produce prices are out of this world, but it's all so good (and visually perfect). I bet that is the best watermelon you would ever taste. 

From the fish market we walked on to Kanazawa castle. After burning down several times, it is now more of a restored storehouse, gates, walls, and garden. Destruction by fire is as common in Japan as getting sacked by Genghis Khan was in Central Asia. Hazel had fun being our designated photographer, and the kids especially enjoyed the tour. The tour focused on the crazy wood architecture, which eschewed normal 90 degree corners for a set of 80s and a set of 100s, so everything was diamond shaped. Why?? Unclear if it served some structural purpose or the Japanese artisans were just showing off. My guess is the latter. There was some pretty amazing earthquake resistant joint constructions too. Lunch was ramen at Ippudo, a chain that has gone international and apparently has a restaurant in San Francisco. 

Kenroku-en garden is a Japanese garden right next to Kanazawa castle and is supposed to be one of the best gardens in the country. It was quite crowded on this Friday afternoon, but it was easy to see why it was so popular. There were pockets of serenity even amidst the crowds. Koi ponds, waterfalls, large trees and carefully manicured plants with both wide and narrow paths over and around the hills in the park. While the entire park is constructed, it feels more like peaceful nature than artificial garden. 

The boys went to the Suzuki Museum to learn about the eponymous Zen Buddhist philosopher while the girls went to look at some nearby thrift stores. The museum was very peaceful with more lovely gardens behind it, this time with relatively few people. We all met back up in the geisha district for dinner. We ended up eating delicious sushi and tempura at a nondescript place a few blocks out of the geisha district, a nice shift from the more touristy areas in the geisha district proper. Despite the name, we saw no geishas. Clyde crashed hard when we got back to the hotel, ensconced in his pallet of spare blankets in a corner on the floor after a long day out and about. 

We ended our stay in Kanazawa with a trip through the Myoryuji (ninja) temple and a trek out to a beach on the west coast of Japan. The temple is known for having pitfalls, secret doors and stairwells, and hidden rooms for the shogun or high-ranking samurai to enter, leave, and pray unobserved, but it seemed a little contrived and it was never clear how useful any of these features were. The kids enjoyed it though, and the place was packed, running full tour groups through every thirty minutes.

The trek to the beach was an impressive display of fortitude by the kids. It was a thirty minute bus ride into the suburbs and a few miles of walking, in part because we had a hard time finding the right bus stop, but everyone made it out in good spirits. The beach itself suffered from plastic accumulation (the first place in Japan that wasn't almost completely trash-free!), but the sand was great and our picnic was delicious. Grocery store takeaway for dinner on the bullet train back to Tokyo (the kids were suuuper excited about the Skinkansen bullet trains) and we ended up back at the Stelzers' in the evening, exhausted but happy. 

Kanazawa Castle

Photo cred: Hazel

Photo cred: Hazel

Photo cred: Laurel

 Suzuki Museum

 Out and about in Kanazawa

Photo cred: Hazel

Omicho Fish Market

Takayama

May 15-16 

Six hours on the train brought us to Takayama, and we wandered towards our hostel just a few hundred meters from the station. We settled in our mixed dorm double bed (another capsule) and headed out for a dinner of Hida beef, something the region is known for. We ended up at a nearby restaurant grilling raw meat and veg on a portable barbecue at our table. Delicious, but small portions. It left us wanting a full steak, but those were a bit more than we wanted to spend. 

With only one day in Takayama, we headed out the next morning to walk through the famous old town, which left us unimpressed. The streets with historically preserved architecture seemed not that different than many of the buildings we had seen throughout the rest of Japan, but swarming with tourists. We meandered through some high-end shops before ending up at the retro museum, which was a large collection of mid-century Japanese kitsch. It felt like digging through a very well sorted hoarder's estate sale, and you could play with all the toys! We played on old pachinko machines (like Japanese pinball/slots machines), poked around an old barber's setup, and explored an antique Japanese schoolroom. Maybe a little out of place/time, but there was a whole room dedicated to Nintendo and Supernintendo. How did our childhood already end up in a retro museum?? I guess we're old. We beat a few levels of Donkey Kong Country on an old Super Nintendo for posterity's sake. Definitely ended up being the highlight of Takayama for us. 

So excited!

We ended up at an art museum overlooking the old streets. The art wasn't particularly to our taste, but there was a great place to sit in the sun and watch the crowds walk by. We relaxed there until it was time to get to our train. Next up, Kanazawa!

Kinosaki Onsen

May 14-15 

After Osaka we headed out to the west coast to enjoy a traditional onsen town, or Japanese bath. Kinosaki has seven public baths concentrated in a tiny little town. Our ryokan (guest house) provided a yukata (light cotton kimono with jacket) and geta (traditional Japanese wooden flip flops) to wear around town as you visit the baths. Our room had a great view of the main street downtown, and as we prepared to head out to the first bath around 3:00pm we hadn't seen anyone else wandering the streets in yukatas. Tim had to overcome his fear of public shame as we dressed up (down?) and headed out. Later on we saw lots of people out in their yukatas, both Japanese and western tourists, it just happened to be a slow afternoon. 

The town is lovely, and so are the public baths. You have to leave your American sense of modesty at the door along with your footwear (those wooden flip flops are horribly uncomfortable) and strip down before entering the baths with just a small towel. There are rows of detachable shower heads with small stools and soap and shampoo to thoroughly wash before soaking in the hot pools. Each onsen had its own layout, often with an outdoor area with rocky pools surrounded by a relaxing garden or waterfall. The pools are mostly incredibly hot and you sweat profusely, maybe with your towel on your head. One of the men's areas had a cold pool (quite cold!) that Tim could alternate between, but none of the women's baths did. 

After the onsen we grabbed a meal at the nearby grocery store (salmon sashimi!) to eat in our room, then headed out for another bath experience in the evening. We hit one more onsen the next morning before catching the train. We never did find out if there was a shower in our ryokan, who needs one? It was a wonderfully relaxing day!

Getting a little help from a friend! (Ryokan owner)

Outside of one of the onsen

Osaka, Nara, and Hiroshima

May 11-14 

Kyoto to Osaka is a short 30 minute train ride. Walking to our hotel took us through another one of Japan's many long, covered market streets. This one felt much less touristy than Kyoto's. We checked into the smallest hotel room to date, with barely enough space for the bed tucked into one corner and a tiny built-in desk. A note on the wall helpfully suggested we store our luggage under the bed (there was no where else). Our view from the 12th story was of nondescript urban sprawl, but the window opened for some fresh air, which was nice. 

There's not a ton to do in Osaka except eat, so we used it as a base for day trips. Our first day trip was to Nara, a nearby city known for one of the largest cast bronze Buddha statues in the world. Well, it's probably best known for the horde of “tame” deer that occupy the surrounding park and beg for food from the other horde of “tame” schoolchildren, all decked out in full uniform. There were a lot of school kids in Kyoto, but we thought it may have been local. Now that we've been around a bit we've discovered that the kids and their uniforms are everywhere, and they travel in packs. We found the crowds a little overwhelming, and I was still pretty sick so we passed on a few of the museums, instead visiting the large Buddha and then walking around the perimeter of the park and viewing a few other temples and shrines before catching the late afternoon train back to Osaka. The temples were beautiful, if busy, and there were many Japanese people performing religious rituals at the various shrines. Nara tuckered me out, so I decided to put in some dedicated recovery time while Tim went out alone to Hiroshima the next day. 

Tim's comments on Hiroshima: There is a large memorial park built around ground zero of the first atomic bomb, with the ruins of a domed building preserved at one end and monuments to peace spread out towards the museum at the other end. There were again several large groups of schoolchildren being led around. The museum was filled with pictures of the aftermath and the stories of the many civilian victims, many of them kids who died years later from the effects of radiation poisoning. It is definitely an impactful monument. I felt sad, full of regret, maybe a little guilty. My response to the scene reminded me of a conversation I had with some German teenagers about their feelings of guilt over WWII, although my response was probably not so severe as we have justified this violence. 

Atomic Dome that withstood the blast

Around Osaka

Nara

Pictorials of the cutest deer attacks ever.

Kyoto

May 8-11

From Nikko we trained back through Tokyo and on to Kyoto. In Tokyo Station we split up as Tim went to the bathroom while I looked for some seats on the train. I finally found a pair of seats together and started to text Tim the location when the train took off – without Tim! Shit! Apparently the trains leave every 10 minutes, we hadn't realized just how many bullet trains they send through the station. Fortunately it was just a 45 minute ride and Tim caught the next one, so we met back up in Kyoto. 

Kyoto was the capital of Japan for most of its history and is full of fantastic gardens, temples, castles, and palaces. Kyoto Station is a huge glass and steel affair that has a 12th story sky garden with decent views of the city, making it easy to see Kyoto valley and surrounding hills. Trying to keep costs down, we utilized our tiny kitchenette and the surprisingly viable grocery store dinner. 

We toured Nijo-jo castle and gardens, learning that the Japanese style is certainly more subtle than most other places we've been. Simple murals of pine trees cover the walls which apparrently symbolize power and strength. The shogun (roughly quivalent to Prime Minister) would receive visitors in a room where everyone would sit on their knees, with only a small 6" raised platform to indicate the shogun's superiority. Five horizontal lines on the walls indicate the building is of the highest status. No golden thrones here. On the walk back we toured Nishiki market, which was crowded and clearly catered to tourists, but it was fun with a colorful ceiling overhead. 

I had a pretty bad head cold, so Tim wandered out alone while I slept and recovered, visiting Tenryuji temple and its nearby bamboo grove. He also accidentally got stuck in a ceremony at Higashi Honganji, a large buddhist temple nearby that was celebrating the annual pilgrimage of the icon of its head abbot that is carried a few hundred miles by foot to and from another temple. The ceremony was short and simple, but all in Japanese, with a few sermons by buddhist leaders before they carried the scroll in a procession back to where its stored on the temple grounds. He also went to Fushimi Inara Taisha in the evening to catch a view of the never ending torii gates lit up in the dark. He did stop in periodically to keep me well-supplied with food! 

The next morning I was feeling a little better and wanted to see the torii gates so we went back to Fushimi Inari Taisha to hike the full trail to the top of Mt. Inari before heading on to Osaka. There really are a lot of them – it's a pretty cool sight. I was worried it would be really crowded (it was at the bottom), but towards the summit the crowds thinned and we were able to experience a little of the magic and peace...in between some prodigious nose blowing.

Kyoto Station

Around Kyoto

Garden on Nijo-jo castle grounds

Arashayama bamboo forest near Tenryuji Temple

Fushimi Inari Taisha