Kanazawa

We slept so much better last night! You wouldn't think that an extra 2 inches would make any difference, but it did. Today was a travel day. After breakfast, we boarded a bus to take us down to Odawara where we picked up the bullet train. What an operation! The train comes into the station and you all have about a minute and a half to get on the train before it pulls out! Fortunately, there are assigned seats and Junko had us line up in reverse order so that we could all get on in a timely manner. We all got out of the aisle and into our seats before the train pulled away from the station and then we could get up and stow our luggage in the overhead shelf. We did get to see a couple of trains go through our station before our train arrived. I'm glad we got to see how fast they sped by while we were standing still because once you are on the train, you don't really get the feeling that you are traveling at 180 miles per hour! When they go through the stations, they have to slow down a bit so the average speed is about 160 mph. It was a very smooth and comfortable ride. There is tons of leg room and almost no motion so it is easy to get up and walk around. The absolute best thing that happened is that we went by Mount Fuji in the distance and I was finally successful in snapping a picture! We got to our next stop, Nagoya, in 70 minutes - a total distance from Odawara of 176.3 miles. We really need something like this in the States! At the station in Nagoya, we were given twenty minutes or so to pick up a lunch to go. Dave and I opted to stop at the bakery and we each got a blueberry nut muffin (we have been eating so much lately, we figured that it wouldn't hurt us to go light for a meal or two when we can). We then walked over to another set of tracks to board the express train (80 mph as opposed to the bullet train). We ate our lunches after the train started. Kelly opted to buy a bento lunch box from the cart that was wheeled down the aisle. She said it was very good. We enjoyed the scenery as we passed many rice fields (although most of them had been harvested already) and many fields of green tea bushes. The funny part of the ride came at about the 1 hour mark. When the train pulled into the station, we all got into the aisle and swung the seats around so we would be facing front when the train started up again as we were going to be heading in a different direction than the main track - quite an interesting way of doing things. We then traveled 2 more hours before reaching Kanazawa. Junko passed around some Japanese fairy tale books (English translations of course) on the train as well as some photos of her family. She has a brother and a sister (both married) and two nephews. She is 41 and not married. She has said that at her age, the possibilities of marriage are slim as most people meet and marry shortly after going to university. She is quite a lovely young woman and would be a quite a catch from our view. At any rate, when we arrived in Kanazawa (population 450,000), we took a taxi to our hotel which is centrally located in the city and is attached to a large department store (Lana is in seventh heaven!). The hotel is a western style one so we have a real bed! Here we have a separate toilet room and a combined sink and bath with shower, but they are across a little hall from each other! The funny thing here is that when you walk into the room, the toilet cover raises automatically! It also has a heated seat. Junko says that some of them play music when you sit down ( I wonder what the song is - I could think of a few "not so appropriate" ones). Our large bags had been delivered to our rooms so now we can have a few more options for dressing tomorrow. After freshening up, Junko took us for a tour of the hotel and through the first floor of the department store. We then crossed the street to the Market. Every type of fish or produce was available for sale. Junko treated us to some dried seaweed and tangerines. We came back to the hotel and had a brief rest before dinner. Dinner tonight was American/Japanese style: no chopsticks (just in case we had forgotten how to use silverware), salad, a plate with 4 small sections with fish and scallops, bacon and spinach quiche, beef and mushrooms, and potato garnished with carrots shaped like maple leaves and pea pods. Desert was a sampling of cake, chocolate mousse, and fresh fruit. We will go for a walk in the morning to check out the surrounding area. Tomorrow after breakfast, we will be going for a city tour.

We both were a bit stiff this morning from sleeping on the futon (it is only about 2 inches thick). After dressing, we went for a walk. Our street is quite short with one end being a dead end and the other ending at the cable car tracks, so we had a choice of up or down intersecting roads. We chose up! We walked along the side of a lovely park and garden that is directly across the street from the hotel. There were several condominium buildings and some lovely single homes. The landscaping here is beautiful – every tree is finely pruned to accent its beauty. The best part of the walk is that eventually we got to come down the hill! Breakfast was basically English style: eggs, bacon, fried potatoes and salad, but there was also fresh fruit, soft rolls and oatmeal with raisins. If they keep feeding us like this, we will have to pay an overage fee to get on the plane! After breakfast we took a bus ride down the hill to another town and visited the workshop where they make the beautiful Hakone woodcraft. This same family has been making these items for over 200 years. One of the men explained and demonstrated how he puts the wood together to make the intricate designs (see photo). He gave everyone a sample of the veneer to take home. We did a bit of damage in the shop and would have bought more except that it was quite pricey and also we have to be able to pack everything in our suitcases to get it home. We then drove down to the lake (Lake Ashi) and took a half hour boat ride on a catamaran. Unfortunately, it was still cloudy today, but the good news is it didn’t rain. After the boat ride, we went to lunch at a fancy hotel. The lunch was a buffet, which was wonderful because it meant that I could just eat a tiny bit. One of the desert choices was a raspberry framboise – delicious! John gave me a taste of his green tea ice cream – quite different and a very unusual green color – a cross between lime and pistachio hues. I had left my camera on the bus, as I didn’t want it to be in the way at the table – never again! The clouds lifted for a short time and we could see the top of Mount Fuji. Also, there was a Japanese wedding taking place outside on the lawn. Kelly said she would send me copies of her pictures, but I will take it with me at all times now. Our next stop was to the top of a mountain where there were steam vents and sulpher springs. One of the traditions is to cook eggs in the hot springs (about 190 degrees) until they become hard-boiled and because of the sulpher, the shells turn black. The saying goes, if you eat one egg, you will live for seven more years, if you eat two eggs, you will live for twenty more years, and if you eat three eggs, you will live until you die! We didn’t eat any eggs (see big breakfast and buffet lunch), but I did get a photo of some young ladies eating theirs (see photo). I mimicked taking a picture and they giggled and nodded yes. After we got down from that area, we walked over to the gondola building where we took a gondola ride down to Gora. The Japanese called the gondola a ropeway. The bus driver took some of the group back to the hotel while eight of us opted to continue on to the Hakone Open Air Sculpture Museum. The sculptures were wonderful – some classical and some quite modern (see photo). There was also a small Picasso museum, which was quite lovely. We spent about and hour and a half at the museum before being picked up by the hotel van. At six o’clock Junko held an origami session in the lobby for those who were interested. She taught us how to make Samurai helmets and cranes. Even though some of the cranes looked like ducks or pterodactyls, a good time was had by all. Dinner was again quite a feast for both the eyes and the stomach, some of the different items were sushi rice cooked with vegetables served in a turban shell, a boiled egg stewed in thin soy soup and wrapped in a white cloth paper decorated with a tiny Japanese maple leaf (this was interesting as the soy turned the white of the egg light brown and the yolk was red-orange), smoked duck and sardine, corn soup served in a small teapot, grilled sautéed pork with fruit and potato salad, vegetable rice pilaf, egg soup, fondue of thin beef and vegetables which we cooked ourselves at the table, and flan with a piece of pineapple for dessert. Now keep in mind that this is just a list of the new items at the table - fortunately, the portions are very small! We were tired after dinner so decided to skip the communal bath and came up to the room to read for a while before sleeping. We also decided to cheat a bit on the futon. We noticed that there were several futons in the cupboard where they are put away during the day (probably to accommodate families who come to stay here), so we put an extra two under ours that had been made up while we were at dinner. Hopefully, that will help to soften the floor.

Good-bye Tokyo, Hello Hakone Region

I just uploaded this day's blog from Word (with Kelly's help - thank you) and for some reason, it all came in underlined, so sorry if this is hard to read. We said good-bye to Tokyo today. After breakfast, we boarded the bus and visiting the largest Shinto shrine in Tokyo. Unfortunately it was raining all day today – sometimes harder than others. The shrine is located in a plot of woods in the middle of the city. There were many priests (those who have gone to theological school) here today. Usually there is only one priest or one priest is shared among a few small shrines. The priests do marry and do not give sermons. Their job is to be an intermediary to the people who are offering wishes to the deities of nature and to officiate at various rites of passage and festival days. We then drove out to Mt. Fuji. Before ascending the mountain, we stopped for lunch at a French restaurant – very good, but the best part was that we had chocolate for the first time on this trip! The dessert was a small dark, unsweetened chocolate brownie – yum! The bus was able to make it to the fifth station (out of ten), which is just over 7000 feet, and at the tree line. The rest of the way must be climbed on foot and takes about 4 to 8 hours depending on your pace. The climbing is only during the months of July and August except by special permit at other times. Most people climb at night so as to reach the top of the crater at sunrise. They say that the line of people climbing looks like a row of fireflies from above as everyone wears a headlamp. We walked a short distance up until the gate just so we could say we had been on Mt. Fuji. Because of the rain, we couldn’t see the very top, but the fog lifted slightly to show some of the mountain which looks black up close (basalt) and not the blue you get from a distance. We were given a lucky charm bell and then mailed many of our postcards from there, as they will be hand stamped from Mt. Fuji. When we visited the shrine, I bought an embroidered good luck Mt. Fuji charm. Coming down the mountain, we stopped at the Mt. Fuji visitor center where we watched a short film on the creation of the volcano mountain. We boarded the bus again to go to our next stop, which is the Hakone region. This region is famous for their woodcraft of parquetry and parquetry. Can’t wait to do some shopping tomorrow! Our hotel is in the town of Gora, which is way up in the mountains. It is a Japanese style hotel. When you are wandering around the hotel and in your room, you wear a yukata and slippers – well, you don’t wear the slippers in the room, only in the other parts of the hotel. The yukata is a very casual kimono type robe, which is belted at the waist with a sash (see photo). Our room is huge! There is a wood floor entry where you change out of your street shoes. You then step up onto the next level, which is a large room with a tatami (grass) matted floor. There is a large low tea table in the middle of the room with two chair mats under it. The bathroom is also large – a small toilet room (with a heated seat!), a sink room, and a very large shower room. The whole room is the shower with a drain in the floor and a large high bathtub to the side. There is also an outer sitting room, which is down a step from the main room. There is a small table and two regular chairs, a writing desk and a small refrigerator with windows all along the side. This room is separated from the main room with sliding paper doors. The whole thing is very cool. The Japanese use the tatami mat as a measuring tool. Each mat is 3feet by 6 feet and arranged every which way to cover the floor. So to give you an idea of how big the rooms were even though all of the floors were not covered by mats: the entry is 3 tatimi mats, the main room is 10 mats, the sitting room is 4 mats, the toilet room is 1 mat, the wash room is 1 mat, and the shower room is 3 mats. Just after we settled into our room a young lady dressed in a kimono came and poured us each a cup of green tea. She also presented us each with a pair of parquetry chopsticks as a gift from the hotel management – wow! I had a laugh when Dave went into the bathroom. When you enter the toilet room, you are supposed to put on a different pair of slippers (toilet slippers) just for use in that room. Well, he could only fit them over his toes and he looked like he was trying to fit into his mother’s shoes! After relaxing, we donned our yukata and slippers and went down to the dining room for dinner. Junko was very funny when she was explaining how to put the yukata on. You must put the right side over first and then cover with the left before tying with the belt. If you do it the other way, everyone will think you are a ghost as that is how the Japanese lay out the dead. The dinner was again a sort of Japanese tapas, but the table settings were fantastic. It was truly a work of art. Junko had written out the seating cards with our names in English as well as in Japanese characters. She also made us each a small piece of origami – cranes for the ladies and Samurai helmets for the men. We had some familiar things at dinner, but there were some new items as well: a small pot of seafood gratin (shrimp, squid and clam) wrapped in a gift bag, sushi served on a bamboo leaf (see photo), minestrone soup, locally made tofu with mushrooms and crabmeat in a pot which was heated over a small brazier, tempura, soba (buckwheat noodles, and fresh fruit. After stuffing ourselves, Junko showed us how to put on a kimono. This is a very intensive and involved process. We all thought she did a wonderful job, but she said that if a lady is going to attend a formal occasion, she would go to the salon to have someone help her get dressed. When we got back to the room, we discovered that the young girls had moved the tea table to the side and set up our futon beds covered with thick comforters on top of the tatami mats. Kelly and I went down to the communal bath (separated by sex, of course) – no bathing suits allowed! The water is quite hot – over 100 degrees and it was quite lovely to sit and soak. Three other women from the tour joined us. When we were thoroughly heated, we went up to our rooms for the night.

Last day in Tokyo

We met the new additions to our tour this morning after breakfast. Those of us who have been here for a few days were on the pre-trip. The others came in last night. We hopped on a bus and stopped at the Imperial Palace for a photo op. We didn't actually see the emperor's house, but the outside gates and buildings. There was a double bridge over the moat to the old castle grounds in the middle of Tokyo. This castle was the property of the last shogun. The setting was lovely, but the weather was rather drizzly so we didn't take too many pictures. From there we went to oldest Buddhist temple in Tokyo which had a lovely Shinto shrine along side. These are not exactly religions here, but rather just a way of life. The Shinto idea is about nature and how one fits into and uses the natural environment to live your daily life and the Buddhism is mostly for the afterlife and to respect those who have gone on before. There was a large pot of incensed smoke in front of the temple and people were wafting the smoke towards certain parts of their bodies. This is supposed to help with certain ailments and to bring good things to whatever you get the smoke on. I saw a mother wafting the smoke onto her 5 year old daughter and then rubbling her chest. I asked Junko if the mom was trying to prevent or heal her daughter's cold. She laughed and said that the mother was wishing that her daughter would grow up to have big boobs! I got quite a chuckle out of that one. Outside of the temple was a long pedestrian shopping street lined with hundreds of tiny shops. They were selling everything from food, clothing, souvenirs, postcards, good luck charms, etc. It was very crowded, but a lot of fun to poke into some of the shops. Back on the bus, we drove to the famous Ginza shopping district. Wow! Hundreds of posh brand-name stores as well as huge department stores. We went into the Mitsukoshi department store which had 17 floors. The food floor was amazing! Every prepared food that you could imagine was there and below that floor was a huge grocery store. Everything was very high end though - I decided that I would have a banana for lunch as it was on the late side and we had a banquet later on. Now granted it was a very nice looking banana and did hit the spot, but it cost $2.25! From Ginza the bus took us over to one of the man-made islands where there are many new apartment and condominium high-rises. We also stopped at a large grocery store (a regular one with normal prices - still expensive, but much less so than in the Ginza district). Junko gave us each 300 yen (about $4.50) and a half hour to buy some snacks that we could share on the upcoming bus rides. The only rule was that is should be something unknown to us. Dave picked out two strange looking cracker type things. Later Junko told us that one was a sweet rice cake and the other was a shrimp flavored rice cracker). I managed to pick up a puffed rice cake and some type of strawberry flavored treat that is on a stick. It will be interesting to see how they taste!
When we got back to the hotel, we had to pack a small bag to take with us on our next part of the trip to Mount Fuji and Hakone. The larger bags will be shipped to our next big city. The reason for the small bag is that our trip from Hakone to Kanazawa will be by bullet train and it would not be practical to try to maneuver the large bags on the train. Our dinner tonight was in a local Japanese restaurant near the hotel. We were served small portions of several things (kind of like tapas in Spain). We had a small bowl of dried shredded radishes, tomato salad, rice (of course), tiny cucumber pickles, small skewers of chicken, a chicken dish that was cooked at the table on a hot lava rock from Mt. Fuji, broiled green peppers, broiled green beans, cabbage, tea, and a caramel custard for dessert. Everything was eaten with chop sticks except for the custard which was eaten on a shiny wooden spoon. We (except for me) also had sake with the dinner. Quite the experience. We got a chance to chat with some of the new folks. We will have to get to sleep soon as our big cases have to be in the lobby by 7 AM. There will not be any internet service in the Hakone region, but I will try to catch up when we get to Kanazama so sayonara for now.

The Fish Market

Today we rode the subway to the famous Tsukiji fish market. Even though we left the hotel on a non-peak time, the subway was very crowded. Since it was not rush hour, they didn't have to use the pushers (people who are paid to push people onto the subway to maximize the greatest number of people into the smallest amount of space). It is hard to believe that it could have been any more crowded, but Junko said that what we experienced was not too crowded! Tourists are no longer allowed to watch the fish auction, but we did get to visit the wholesale market. It was huge and contained any type of fish or shellfish that you could imagine. I will include a picture that I took of an octopus. After going through the market, Junko treated us to sushi. There were raw tuna, conger eel and fish roe sushi, along with egg cakes on one tray. The other tray had bite sized tuna, cucumber and plum sushi wrapped in seaweed along with a sort of fried tofu stuffed with rice roll. Some of us were more adventurous than others on trying the different items - thank you Kelly! We then went to the Edo-Tokyo Museum which was a history of the city of Tokyo from the 17th to the 20th centuries. It was a lovely museum. The picture of a kabuki actor was part of one of the exhibits. We took the subway again (much less crowded by this time) to the Tokyo Metropolitan government building observatory to get a 360 view of the city. It was a bit cloudy today so we could not see super far into the distance, but the wonderful variety of the architecture of what we could see was fabulous. By the way, Amy, we could see the Pfizer building very clearly. The observatory is on the 45th floor of the building at 660 feet. On the way back to the hotel, John, Lana, Kelly, Pat (a fellow traveler), and I stopped to explore a 100 Yen store (similar to a dollar store in the states). It was huge! There were 5 floors of "stuff". I picked up a few goodies for the grandkids and then we got back on the train. Kelly, who had researched the store and studied the map, did a wonderful job of getting us back to the hotel. There are so many exits from the train station, it would be easy to become confused and lost. We all did a bit of laundry in the hotel laundromat and then went out to dinner at a local restaurant called Jonathan's. There was no English menu, but there were pictures we could point at to order. We are in for the night, but will get up early to walk. Tomorrow the rest of the group (those who chose not to come on the pre-trip) will join us at breakfast.

A Day of Travel

What a busy day we had today! We started the day at 6AM by going for a walk around the hotel. We stumbled upon a Shinto temple which was very interesting. We came back and had breakfast at 7 and then went out again at 9 to start our new adventure. We took the train from our station, but our guide had purchased an additional ticket for us so we could ride on the top deck of a double-decker train car. We could see into people's yard once we got out of the city. This was a very comfortable and less crowded way to travel. When we got to Ofuna, we got on a monorail which was great for views of the surrounding area. We got off in Enoshima and then took a local train to Hase. Here we visited the Hase Temple with its gilt statue of Kannon and then walked around the beautiful gardens (one of which is pictured above. We then walked to the Great Buddha (see other photo). Absolutely stunning in size. At one time it was gilt, but that was many years ago. Along the way we saw groups of school children out for field trips to visit the temples. One group that we passed was from a private girls' school and their uniforms were navy blue sailor outfits and each of them had a bright yellow backpack on her back. Very cute! It reminded me of the childrens' story Madeline. We went for lunch at a local restaurant. We each had a bento box which is a highly lacquered box with compartments for different types of food. I know I won't remember them all, but there was a bowl of chicken broth with tofu, a bowl of rice, a small salad, salmon, pickled vegetables, a sweet potato ball with chicken, sesame covered mushrooms, and a coffee flan for dessert. All of the portions are small, but there was certainly plenty to eat. After lunch, we took a short train ride to Kamakura to visit a Shinto shrine (the earlier shrines were Buddhist). The train rided was interesting as it went along the Sagami Bay. There were many surfers out waiting for the big wave. The long walking road to the shrine was lined on both sides with cherry trees. Since it is fall here also, the leaves had turned yellow and a light orange. It was lovely, but I can imagine that the view is stunning in the spring when the cherry blossoms are out. The shrine itself was up a long flight of stairs and looked quite lovely with the red paint of the shrine against the green of the surrounding hill. We walked back toward the train station, but took a parallel street to the one we had walked down. This was the local shopping street: clothing stores, restaurants, souvenir shops, etc. We poked our heads in a few places before heading back to the station. We took the train back to the hotel and dropped our packs off before heading out to dinner which was on our own tonight. Lana, John, Kelly and the two of us decided on a restaurant not too far from the hotel. The dinners were good, but strangely, the meals did not come to the table all at once. In fact, Lana and I got our dinners after everyone else had finished - very strange (the cook may have forgotten our order). At any rate, the food was good and now we are ready to relax before bed. Tomorrow we are going to the famous Tokyo fish market so I will let you know how it was.

Japan - first real day out

Well, first about our room. It is fairly small with two twin beds (which we are used to from traveling in Europe). Even though it is small in size, it comes complete with everything: TV, fridge, closet, very small table and one chair. There are robes and slippers to wear in the room, but Dave can't begin to put his robe on as it is much too small. The tub in the bathroom is tall, but it does include a shower which is great. The toilet is interesting as it is also a bidet so you have to be very careful which button you push! We had a buffet breakfast which was interesting. One end of the buffet was traditional Japanese food: miso soup, rice, vegetables, pickles, raw fish, herbed cheese squares, seaweed and the other was American: mini-omelets, rolls, cornflakes with either thin yogurt or thick soy milk (it was hard to tell) which had large chunks of fruit in it. It was fun to try some of the different choices. I managed to eat it all except for the cornflakes with my chopsticks! After our meeting, we took a train to the Imperial Palace. On the way to the station, Junko took us to the "Times Square of Tokyo". Crazy intersection of streets with huge changing bill board on the building. After our train ride, we visited several Buddhist temples and looked in on a cemetery. There were over 100 temples at one time in that immediate area, but the number is down to 70. Junko told us when she was explaining the cemetery that all Japanese people must be cremated. We also took a walk through an old section of the city nearby where the houses were made of wood and the screens separating the rooms were of paper. From there we went to lunch at a very nice restaurant: small salad with greens, onions and marinated fish, broiled fish with scalloped potatoes, carrot and a small cooked green pepper. Desert was a small scoop of vanilla ice cream. We then went to the National Museum of Tokyo where we visited the exhibit which explained the progression of Japanese art. It was very informative and visually appealing. I took quite a few photos of 16-17th century kimonos - beautiful! We took another train back to the hotel just to drop off our stuff and grab a jacket. We then took a train down to a man-made island in the bay so we could see the lights of the city at night. Part of the train ride was on a traditional train and the second part was on a remote controlled one - no driver at all! Lovely sight of the Rainbow Bridge, Tokyo Tower and a small rendition of the Statue of Liberty which was a gift from France to Japan. We had dinner in a small restaurant which cooked Japanese style pancakes at an hibachi in the center of the table. One was with vegetables, beef and noodles and the other was just the vegetables. We also had a portion of noodles with cabbage and soy beans. Everything was quite tasty, but some of us could have done without the sauce which was combination of mayo and a thick flavored brown sauce. The appetizers before dinner were quite good: small cukes with sesame seeds and young soybeans. The train we took back was interesting as we traveled under the bay in a tunnel instead of on the bridge. We walked across to a convenience store just to look around. One of the items for sale was a bag of almonds with fish. Kelly seems interested in trying this so we will buy a bag tomorrow - Junko says it is good. We are now back in the hotel and will be going to bed soon as we still haven't caught up with the jet-lag. Tomorrow were are going to the other side of Japan to see the giant Buddha and walk through a park. Will try to publish some pix tomorrow.