Photologue.

Hi guys...I'm back. I FINALLY finished sifting through and uploading the best pictures to my Flikr account. You can check them out here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/havenleah/sets/72157604119398244/

I hope you enjoy them.

We still have a bunch of videos from Nara and Tokyo to upload- so check back periodically for new posts.

I've gone back and read the blogs I've posted. I want you to know that they are in no way representational of my writing chops. I have always prided myself on my talent for spinning a well-crafted phrase and this blog certainly doesn't reflect that. I used it as a "mental dump" if anything. I wrote as fast as I could to get get all the experiences documented while they were still fresh in my mind. By the time I was done writing, it was time to sleep or begin new adventures so any blog quality control or proofreading fell by the wayside.

Hai hai hai hai.

We're back home in Milwaukee. It's about 4 am and I can't sleep due to the jet lag. I thought I'd take this opportunity to blog about the last few days in Japan while it's still fresh in my mind. Michael still has videos to post and we also have oodles of pictures to sort through and upload. We may be back but we're not finished with this blog just yet!

In the last blog we were in Nara and I had a little vent about my food frustrations. That evening we were determined to find some good food so we looked online for vegetarian or Middle Eastern food. We found a listing for a place called Ragamala. It was a situated down a dark tiny alley that you would have missed if you blinked at the wrong time. I found it by seeing a large colorful poster of Ganesh down the dark alley...and Hindu deities are not something you see everyday in Japan so I figured it had to be down there somewhere. Upon entering the place we immediately felt at ease. It was decorated in a beautiful sort of Japanese/Indian style, with low Japanese tables and Indian textiles draped everywhere. The menu was a set course of vegetarian kaiseki Indian/Japanese fusion dishes. "Kaiseki" means it is food prepared from what is available during the season. This is healthier and more environmentally responsible way to consume food, but this blog is about my travels to Japan and not my views on the politics of food (wink.)

The food was fantastic. The set included a curry, roti, ghee with fruit, a soup (onion?), and rice. We also ordered a banana sesame lassi. The chef successfully managed to fuse Japanese ingredients with Indian spices to create incredible, unique dishes. Combined with the beautiful atmosphere, we were highly pleased and all the previous fretting we had done over the food problem was forgotten.

The next trip we do, I am going to do more research on places to eat ahead of time. Many times we were out on the streets or didn't have time to get online to search for hidden vegetarian restaurant treasures, so were stuck eating crappy food just to fill the void. When we were able to get online to find information, we were totally rewarded.

We lingered so long at this great place that we missed the Omizutori (water drawing festival!) We biked up to Nigatsudo Temple to see if anything was still going on. There was still a good chunk of people milling about outside and a small crowd packed inside the temple to witness the Buddhist priests praying inside. I do regret missing it, but it was still intriguing anyways.

The next morning we had Western style breakfast at Ryokan Matsumae. This time the breakfast was served in a common room area overlooking a small garden. We sat near a couple from Massachusetts and had a quick conversation about our trip. When we've encountered other Western tourists on this trip, they mostly look away and totally ignore us (why?) or engage us in a short conversation about Japan. White people totally stick out in Japan. It is not a mixed society like here.

Speaking of conversation, I noticed that the few times Japanese people did speak to us it was a very narrow conversation. It usually went as follows:

"Where are you from?" We would reply "U.S. ... near Chicago." Usually then they would say "ah!" or "Chicago Cubs!" (baseball in popular in Japan) and one guy said "E.R." (The TV show we think?) Then they would ask "vacation?" We'd say yes. Then "how long" We'd say "2 weeks." Then "where are you visiting?" We'd rattle off the city names. They would usually end with "have a nice day!" That was usually about the extent of the conversations. When I tried to ask them questions like "have you been to the U.S.?" they wouldn't know how to answer. At one of the temples we visited I showed a group of elderly Japanese women my engagement ring and they shouted "honeymoon!" and erupted into giggles.

I have to give these people credit. All I know how to say is please, thank you, hello, goodbye, good morning, I'm sorry, excuse me, platform (for trains), one, two, yes, no. Japanese people seem to say "hai" (yes) a lot and we've both picked up the habit of saying it nonstop. I have to stop saying it so much or people will think I am crazy.

It took a long time to get back to Tokyo but we got going early. We still wanted to get some shopping done at Kiddyland in Harajuku. This place had 6 floors of Japanese toys. Totally fascinating. Why are we so absorbed by these toys? I don't know. I found a Gloomy Bear (a bear who has a bloody mouth and likes to eat people) and a charm of a dour looking radish man in a kimono. Michael found a drip thingy from a video game he likes to play.

We spent the evening in Shibuya. I found the record store district but didn't do any shopping. I had already blown way too many yen on the trip and knew if I went in any of the stores, I would probably drive my fiance (ha ha ha) crazy with boredom while I dug through the crates for any hidden gems.

We searched online for a Middle Eastern place in Shibuya to eat at that night. I just don't think they exist in Japan. The closest we could find was a place called Luxor which claimed to be a futuristic Egyptian bar. Like all the other places, it was hidden and hard to find. We had to buzz to get in and were seated at a little table totally surrounded by curtains. The only lighting seemed to be black light which made everything seem very surreal. The menu didn't really seem very Egpytian to me, but the atmosphere was definitely interesting.

We left Luxor around midnight. This was the latest we had ever stayed up in Japan, since we usually dozed off around 10 from being so busy all day. I was suprised to see that normally crowded streets of Shibuya had emptied out and all the crazy Pachinko places had shut down. Or maybe the people were in the bars?

The last day we stored our ridiculously huge and shameful bags in Tokyo Station coin lockers and did some last minute shopping and exploring in the Ueno and Akihabara areas. I felt a pang of sadness knowing this was it for us.

The plane ride home was not that bad. We arrived around 4 yesterday afternoon and drove home. It felt very strange to be back. The thing that always strikes me about the U.S. when I return from a trip is the ridiculous HUGENESS of it. The highways, cars, buildings, and people seem so excessively large and space gobbling. I am also very frustrated by the abysmal public transit system. It bothers me. I get so used to hopping around the train and subway system that cars seem like such a pain in the neck to me.

However, I am glad to be back in my apartment with all it's creature comforts. It's nice to be able to shower in my bathroom and doze in my own bed. It's nice to get my clothes out of a closet and not extract something stinking and wrinkled from a suitcase. It's great not to beholden to Japanese ryokan proprietors. Most of all, I am happy I don't have to struggle with the English barrier or do the exhausting food ritual anymore. Last night we had one of our favorite dishes at one of our favorite restaurants- vegetable moussaka at Apollo on Brady. It was a relief to stroll in and order in English and know exactly what I was eating. I'll probably regret feeling this way next week when I am bored with Milwaukee's food choices again, ha!

Stay tuned for more. I know Michael still has videos to post and we have tons of pictures.

Video: Revolving Sushi

Link to video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3e5ROJMn39M

March 10, 2008, Namba Station Area, Osaka, Japan. Eminem played in the background as a sushi conveyor belt revolved around a handful of chefs in the center. The patrons sitting around the counter took plates down just about as fast as the chefs could put them on the belt. There was a flat per-plate fee: just over $1 per plate, regardless of what was on it. Between us, we had about 10 plates stacked up at the end of our meal, but compared to the customers around us, it looked like we had merely eaten a light snack.

Video: Sumo Tournament

Link to video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKXdlDLg7oE

March 10, 2008, Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium, Osaka, Japan. The annual March sumo tournament nicely coincided with our trip to Japan, so we decided to go check it out on its second day. Each bout is very ceremonial; it begins with about 4 minutes of entering the dohyo (circular ring), staring down one's opponent, leg lifting-and-stomping, exiting, and then re-entering and repeating by both of the rikishi (wrestlers). Every time the rikishi re-enter the dohyo, they toss a handful of salt out onto it, both for good luck and to purify the ring area. The whole process is mesmerizing. In this video of the final match of the day, yokozuna (the esteemed top rank) Asashoryu handily defeats his opponent, Kakuryu, in a dazzling finish. Quite an ending.

Video: Shuriken in the Mall

Link to video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Rdjk7Erx48

March 10, 2008, Tempozan Harbor Village, Osaka, Japan. We found a ninja-themed store in the mall near Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan and it had a booth game where you toss shuriken ("throwing stars") at targets and try to win prizes. Naturally, I decided to give it a try. Lots of fun, and much harder than it looks. Although I only ended up hitting one bullseye, that was good enough to win a small rubber shuriken prize.

Nara

Sorry if my formatting is odd. I can`t figure out these Japanese keyboards.

I blog to you from Ryokan Matsumae in Nara. When did I last blog to you? Was it about Osaka? I think so. Our trip is beginning to wind down. Our days have been less eventful and more mellow. We're totally temple and shrined out. After you've seen so many of them your eyes begin to glaze over and they don't seem as impressive anymore. I never thought I'd hear myself saying these things. But don't get me wrong- they are beautiful and we like them very much but there are so many of them. One could spend years seeing all the temples and shrines of Japan.

I never thought I'd hear myself saying I am sick of Japanese food either, but I am. I miss things like salads piled high with fresh, raw colorful vegetables. The salads here are usually doused in some sort of mayonnaise soy dressing and consist of pale shredded cabbage and maybe one pale tomato sliver. I miss cheap fruit- it's so pricey and often low quality here. I miss Middle Eastern food- I'd die for some tahini, hummus, pita, and falafel balls right now. I would like a good coarse loaf of dry wheat bread- the bread here is too fluffy, greasy, and white. I would like a vegan breakfast muffin or blueberry pancakes from the Riverwest Co-op. I want applesauce and a steaming bowl of plain oatmeal. I have no idea what I'm eating half the time since I can't read ingredients or the menu and Japanese people often mistake fish and chicken as vegetarian. We've identified the udon and tofu bowls as safe, but oh god... I just can't eat another bowl of those noodles. We've eaten so many but it's one of the few things we can identify that isn't something weird like pureed salmon roe or raw beef. We're only bird/fish vegetarians now but we eat mostly vegetarian simple foods when we're at home. I just want basic boring vegetarian food right now so badly. No more processed mysterious food please. What I also miss is being able to go to the grocery store or a restaurant and be able to know what it is that I am getting. Everytime we get hungry it feels like such an ordeal to me. We have to walk or bike around until we find a place that seems like it might be English speaker friendly, doesn't cost a gazillion yen, and serves food we might like. I am usually so hungry and desperate that after awhile we just settle for anything. Then we have to figure out what we want, which is often very confusing since we can't read the menu and what looks like tofu in the photograph might turn out to be deep fried pork liver in reality. Then you have to try and order in broken Japanese or point at pictures to tell them what you want. You can't really ask the server questions because they often don't speak English either.

I've discovered an interesting fact about my body while in Japan. I've noticed that I've been having a lot less digestive problems since I've been here. It's because there's little to no dairy in the Japanese diet. I knew I was slightly lactose intolerant, but I didn't know the extent of it until now.

What I am going to miss about Japan is the ingenius design and the transit options like the Shinkansen. The Japanese have so many clever little things that are extremely simple in concept and design, but make so much sense: sliding windows and doors, water efficient toilets, and bike lights powered by the spinning wheels are some I can think of off the top of my head. Speaking of bikes, I am a huge fan of the bikes everyone rides here. We've been renting them cheaply from our hotel/ryokan everyday now and they're just fantastic. The baskets are perfect for holding our bag and the lock is built into the rear wheel. Since they're so ubiquitous you can ride them on the street or sidewalk in any direction you choose with nary a raised eyebrow and unlike at home, you aren't going to get run over by some inattentive driver since bikes outnumber cars. I also love all the shoe rules and rituals since I don't care for people tromping their dirty shoes all over my apartment either.

Anyways...yesterday was spent shopping around Kyoto by day and exploring the city center by night. I wanted to purchase some traditionally Japanese things like a yukata, paper stationery, and a woodblock print. I think I bored my poor fiance to death (ha ha, I have a fiance now) while I dithered endlessly over boring things I find fascinating like handmade pottery and numbered woodblock prints. I feel like I am turning into my Mom. At night we had dinner at a place that the guidebook said had good organic vegetarian American/Japanese fusion food. We ordered two small tapas-like dishes and some sake but it didn't satiate our hunger. The waitress seemed to be too busy to pay attention to us after that so we paid and left. It's hard to get the attention of a person who doesn't speak your language.

After that we found a game arcade and played some games and took some pictures in the photo booth machines. Japanese arcades put American arcades to absolute shame. They have so many crazy games and the players are incredibly good.

Today we took a train to Nara. We expected this place to be a bit smaller and in the countryside, however it's very urban. We checked into our ryokan and rented bikes and rode to the park where all the tame deer are. There are so many of them and they are very cute but naughty. We bought some deer snacks from a vendor and they went crazy. A few began to headbutt me (including one with painful pokey little horns) and one began to eat my shirt. After I gave them all my wafers I ran to get away from them. They all just kind of hang out and amble around the park and remind us a lot of overgrown dogs.

Todaiji Temple is quite impressive- the world's largest wooden structure! It houses Japan's largest Buddha. I was awestruck by the large size of it all. In the back of the temple is a pillar with a small hole. If you can crawl through the hole you achieve instant enlightenment. We both managed to squeeze our massive tall American bodies through it successfully while tiny Japanese women couldn't even get past their chests. Ha!

We're in our ryokan now having a rest. It is a darling little place that has a rather artistic sort of feel to it. The proprietor is quite skilled at woodcarving and his wife is very talented at calligraphy, so it's decorated very beautifully. It is kind of nice to be back in a ryokan after staying in that Western style hotel. I am considering taking an onsen before we head out to the Water Drawing Festival. I have yet to experience a Japanese festival and my curiosity has definitely been piqued by all the posters I've seen around Nara.

Type to you soon,

Haven

Osaka

I'm in the hotel lobby waiting for our load of laundry to finish. It's going to be super nice to finally have some clean clothes. We've been here about a week and a half now and our clothes are really beginning to reek. I feel like a filthy stupid lumbering oaf a lot of the time here. Japan is designed for short small people and has a lot of weird little steps so I am always banging my head on doorways or tripping on the various doorway entries. I have caused a lot of Japanese people to giggle at my clumsiness or my cultural misunderstandings. If I'm not twisting my ankles over some artfully arranged rocks in a garden I am wandering around with my mouth open in total confusion. Eh well. I have to give the Japanese credit for being incredibly patient with us.

Yesterday we took the Shinkansen to Osaka. It was about a 15 minute ride- unbelievably fast. Compared to Tokyo and Kyoto, Osaka is rather drab appearance wise. It is not as fiercely extreme or culturally rich as the aforementioned cities, but the people there seem a bit more down to earth, youthful, and gaijin friendly. I noticed they all jaywalk there too. In Kyoto and Tokyo people always silently queue up and wait at intersections, no matter if there is traffic or not.

We got around the city by subway. For once I knew what was going on! It was a refreshing feeling after always feeling perplexed by the various transit systems Tokyo and Kyoto. The charts on the wall were very easy to figure out since they used a lot of Roman numerals and color coding. We found the Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium very easily and bought presale reserve tickets. The major matches didn't go on until about 3 so we had the day to explore the city.

We took a subway to the Kaiyukan Aquarium. It was huge and very impressive. I particularly liked the jellyfish section. What fascinating creatures! The aquarium was situated in an area that seemed to be targeted towards families with small children. We wandered around the shopping arcade and found a store that was full of ninja paraphernalia. Michael played a game there where you had to toss throwing stars at targets for prizes. He should be posting a video of it soon.

Then it was time for the sumo competition. This particular tourney stretches for two weeks and has just begun, so it wasn't hard to get tickets nor was the arena full. Our seats were pretty far up but we could still see pretty well. It was really interesting to watch. There's a lot of ritual to the spectacle- salt throwing, ring sweeping, flags, singing, spiritually cleansing, appeasing the gods, stomping. Each match lasts a max of 4 minutes. The first 3 minutes and 30 seconds seem to be devoted to psyching each other out and the last 30 to actual wrestling (if you can call it that.) Two mountains of flesh pushing and pulling at each other for about 10 seconds before someone gets pushed off or out of the small ring.

After that we wandered around the downtown Osaka district of Namba. It was a lot like Tokyo in that it was full of neon and stores. Osaka seems to really come alive at night. We found a karaoke room building but couldn't figure out how to work the karaoke rooms since everything was in Japanese. At least we got pictures. We ate dinner at a conveyor belt sushi bar. I loved it. You sit down and watch a conveyor belt go by with plate after plate of mysterious sushi. Pick whatever looks good to you, grab it and eat it. I couldn't figure out what most of it was so I stuck to the tuna, grilled eel, sweet egg, and some sort of leafy greens. I wish we had conveyor belt food places at home!

After that we saw a band called "The Amateur" playing near the subway station entrance. Apparently Osaka is famous for having bands set up in a random places and play live. I wish we had more time in Osaka since it seems like a fun place.

Today I think we're going to rent bikes again and check out central Kyoto. I haven't done any souvenir shopping yet and our trip is almost over. I don't want this vacation to end! I love Japan...we're having so much fun. It's going to be such a culture shock to be back after this.

Video: Ryōan-ji Rock Garden

Link to video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jtX-21Iddo

March 9, 2008, Kyoto, Japan. While we did manage to find a bunch of very peaceful and very beautiful gardens in Kyoto, it's worth mentioning that some of the most famous gardens are, for better or worse, heavily trafficked tourist destinations and they're almost impossible to experience as originally intended. (Whether or not I'd be capable of the correct experience, regardless of crowd size, is a whole other question.) Anyway, one of the world's most famous rock gardens is at Ryōan-ji temple in northwest Kyoto. My simplified understanding: the garden has a total of 15 rocks (fifteen is a number associated with "completeness" in Buddhism), but from the intended viewing area, a person can only see up to 14 rocks at any one time, no matter where he is standing. Certainly a potent symbolic concept to ponder, but given the crowds at Ryōan-ji, you may be better off taking a quick mental snapshot and heading over to one of the Kyoto's less-traveled gardens and pondering/meditating/what-having-you there instead.

Video: Bicycling in Kyoto

Link to video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM0x1NI0w9I

March 9, 2008, Kyoto, Japan. Haven passing by on her bicycle in the Myoshin-ji temple grounds. We rented two squeaky-braked bikes from our hotel (less than $5 each for the whole day) and pedaled through the western part of the city to visit some temples and gardens. Great way to get around Kyoto. Very bicycle-friendly city.

Video: Breakfast at Motonago Ryokan

Link to video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqLUAxtWrY4

March 8, 2008, Kyoto, Japan. This was our breakfast spread at Motonago Ryokan, a traditional Japanese-style inn. We splurged on this place - it's in Gion (ghee-own), a district famous for geisha - but it was well worth it. We chose the "Western-style" breakfast (we weren't feeling like sushi first thing in the morning), and our inn attendant brought us up a whole bunch of food, including a ceramic plate with an open flame beneath it for cooking some bacon and an egg. Delicious and lots of fun.

Biking through Kyoto

We're in our hotel room taking an afternoon break and planning out our day trip to Osaka tomorrow. We are going to attempt to see a little of the national sumo tournament taking place there. I'm not sure if we'll be able to get in or not, but if we can't we'll just spend the day wandering around Osaka. It's apparently not as beautiful or fascinating as Tokyo but whatevs.

Today we rented bicyles from our hotel and spent our day biking around the temples and shrines of Northwestern Kyoto. I felt so free and fast biking down the dori (street), the sun on my face and the wind in my hair. We got around a lot faster and I don't feel as worn out right now. Kyoto is a very bike friendly city too. EVERYONE bikes here and the streets are relatively flat if you stay in the valley.

Today's experience was much different than yesterday... maybe because it is Sunday? I don't know, but all the sites we visited were absolutely thronged with visitors. It was rather jarring and made the experience of visiting normally calm places like Zen rock gardens feel wrong. We've figured out the key to seeing these places is to go very early in the morning. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) we've adjusted to the jet lag and sleep until about 7 instead of 4 am, so we don't get going as early as we did in Tokyo.

The day began quietly at Taizo-in and Kaishun-in. Holly (who is my Buddhist friend for you other readers,) I know you are reading my blogs and I have been thinking about you a lot while I have been visiting these major Buddhist areas. When I get back I will have a lot of questions for you about what I have been seeing and I am going to make you promise me that you'll visit Kyoto sometime in your life. I have seen so many monks and sat in on some Buddhist ceremonies and heard beautiful singing and chanting and waved the incense towards my face...and I wish I knew what it all meant. It fascinates me though.

We then biked to Ryoanji Temple. We were really shocked to see mass amounts of people there. All the places we had visited prior to this were almost empty so we were able to quietly meander through and sit and contemplate in silence.Let me tell you- something is lost when you're in a Zen dry garden listening to hundreds of people count out the 14 (or 15) stones out loud in 20 different languages. I can only imagine how much worse it is during the major tourist season. It made us feel rather sad.

It's not very easy to find vegetarian food in Japan, but we discovered that you can get some pretty good and relatively inexpensive Buddhist food outside the temples. There's usually a few small food stands selling things like udon and tofu soup for around 600 yen. If you ever find yourself in Kyoto and are tired of existing on unhealthy overpriced tourist food, go to the nearest major temple area and follow your nose.

Then we biked to Kinkaju Temple- or the Golden Pavilion. It was a rather breathtaking sight- a temple covered in gold! I can't wait to show you the pictures. After that we biked up to Daisen-in where there was a famous dry garden. Unfortunately the temple is being remodeled so there was scaffolding everywhere, including the garden. There was a sign outside the ticket office making this fact perfectly clear but we decided to pay and check it out anyways. It was still breathtaking regardless. An older male British tourist didn't agree though. He started yelling loudly how awful the construction was, how it ruined the gardens, how they shouldn't have charged him, and how they should close the temple. I felt sick watching him yell this at an elderly Japanese man running the ticket window and then yelling at a monk. The monk just laughed at him. Why did this British man have to act that way? Way to perpetuate the stupid rude gaijin tourist stereotype, jerkface.

After that unpleasant experience we biked to Nijo Castle. We got there about 20 minutes before it closed so we really rushed this one. The sites here usually close around 4:30. It was a pretty impressive castle with a sweet moat. Thar be dragons!

Time to wrap this blog up. We're taking a free Japanese lesson in the hotel lobby in 5 minutes. (Edit: No lesson tonight, ah well.)

p.s. I'm engaged I'm engaged I'm engaged I'm engaged I'm engaged I'm engaged I'm engaged I'm engaged I'm engaged I'm engaged I'm engaged I'm engaged I'm engaged I'm engaged I'm engaged I'm engaged I'm engaged I'm engaged I'm engaged I'm engaged I'm engaged!!! HAHAHAHAAAAAA. Yes.

Falk San

Guess what guess what guess what guess what?! I AM ENGAGED!!! Michael asked me to marry him and I said YES! I am over the moon about it! I had no idea this was coming! I mean, I knew we would get engaged eventually but I didn't anticipate him proposing to me in a beautiful Japanese garden in Kyoto! It was so romantic and beautiful I almost passed out from happiness. I am going to marry and spend the rest of my life with my best friend. I am getting all misty eyed just typing this. I am so full of joy. This feels like the most natural thing... we spend so much time together and get along like peas and carrots. When I am with him, I feel so completely at ease. I love that man so much and feel so blessed to have him in my life. AH! I am still freaking out with happiness about it! I keep looking at my ring (which is gorgeous by the way) and saying to myself "yup, still engaged."

I will get to the engagement part in a bit...

Yesterday morning we woke up at Ryokan Motonago and put on our yukata. The breakfast ritual began by the lady coming into our room and rapidly folding up our futon and blankets and stowing them behind the sliding doors. She then pulled out our low table and zabuton floor cushions. We were then served an excellent and artfully presented breakfast at the table in our room. It included a particularly interesting dish of bacon and egg in an earthenware tureen that contained a candle so the dish cooked as we sat and ate the other food she served. When we were finished she came into the room and cleared away the dishes. It is interesting how the traditionally dressed ryokan employees enter and exit a room in the traditional way of kneeling on the tatami.

I would have loved to stay in that room all day. I am definitely a fan of traditional Japanese ryokan. If you ever go to Japan, try and spend at least one night in a traditional ryokan. It is definitely worth it. At first the rituals may be a bit hard to get used to, but you get used to it quickly. Take your shoes off at the door and put on slippers. Don't put anything in the tokonoma area. Don't wear your slippers into the onsen and never on the fragile tatami mats, and remember to put the bathroom slippers on when you enter the water closet. Wrap your yukata to the left since it's only wrapped to the right at funerals. Leave your key at the door when you leave. Sit on the stool and wash your dirty gaijin body off before getting into the onsen. When you're taking a hot bath or out for the day, you can expect to come back to a pitcher of cool water or some hot green tea and traditional wagashi snacks. They put your futon out and put it away for you (and put little origami birds on the pillows.) And did I mention how beautiful it is? If you pulled back the paper screens, you could see a small garden below. The room and gilded screen was softly lit with paper lanterns. So beautiful.

I know I keep saying that things in Kyoto are beautiful, but they really are. As Tokyo is shocking and over the top, Kyoto is just beautiful. It is a precious jewel of a city. The whole time I have been here I have been gasping at all the beautiful things I am seeing.

After breakfast we began the day by walking through Gion, the neighborhood in which our ryokan was situated. This is the geisha district of the Kyoto. It is very old and historical and picturesque "world of shadows." The narrow streets are of stone and the buildings are wooden with paper screens. We did see a few geisha and one of them was talking on a cellphone!

We then toured the Kiyomizu-dera temple area. This impressive temple is situated on the side of a mountain, so you can see a rather impressive view of Kyoto. Kiyomizu means "pure water" and pilgrims drink from the waterfall, believing it to cure illness. We had a delicious udon noodle Buddhist food bowl here. Near the main temple is a small shrine area dedicated to Jishu-jinga, a god considered to be a powerful matchmaker. This area was full of giggling Japanese schoolgirls and young lovers. There are two "love stones" 59 feet apart and if you can walk between them with your eyes closed your love will materialize. I shut my eyes and walked between the stones. When I touched the end stone with my foot, I was met with applause. We then visited Sanjusangen-do. This is a temple filled with 1001 Kannon statues, 28 Buddhist guardian diety statues, and a 6 foot tall 1000 handed Kannon statue. It is absolutely awe inspiring. We wandered along Sannen-zaka and Ninen-zaka, two winding hilly streets that cause bad luck if tripped upon.

Somewhere along the way of our wandering through the temples and shrines of Eastern Kyoto we happened across the Shosei-en Garden. It's not as visited by tourists so we had the garden pretty much to ourselves. I was gazing at a small waterfall and thinking about how happy I was that spring was going to be coming soon when Michael asked me to sit on a rock near him. He got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. Of course I said yes! The rest of the evening was a blur. I think at some point we had another onsen and ate at an 8-bit videogame themed restaurant?

Today was more temples, shrines, and gardens- particularly Nanzen-ji (Silver) Temple, Ginkaju-ji Temple (beautiful mossy garden,) Chion-in Temple (with the largest bell in Japan that requires 17 monks to ring,) Shoren-in Temple (which contained beautifully painted shoji screens,) Kohchi-in (Crane and Turtle Garden,) and Maruyama Park. Our favorite spots have been the gardens. If there is a heaven, I imagine it to look like a Japanese Buddhist temple garden in Kyoto.

There is so much to tell and I think the pictures we took may better tell the story about the temples and shrines. It is now very late and I am so tired I am beginning to doze off while writing this so I worry I am not making much sense with the extreme physical activity and hearing and reading Japanese nonstop. I think we've walked 10 million miles in the past week. I don't even know what day it is anymore. We just checked into our Western style hotel next to the Imperial Palace. It is weird to be sleeping on a bed off and have chairs you can sit on and not have to constantly do the shoe thing and be able to come and go as we please without bothering a nice Japanese innkeeper. And I am tired and my brain is oatmeal and my body an overcooked spaghetti noodle.

p.s. TOTALLY engaged now, guys.

Hello again!

We're in Kyoto now. I'm writing this blog offline because I'm unable to access any wireless in our room. I plan on saving it to a thumb drive and uploading it when I'm able.

So! What have we been up to since I last blogged? I'll try my best to recall as much as possible. Two mornings ago we woke up early in Tokyo and checked out of Ryokan Katsutaro. I never did tell you much about that place did I? It was a nice budget no-frills ryokan situated in a residential area near Ueno Park about a 15 minute walk from the train station. Our room was modest and included a futon to sleep on and a low table with pillows for sitting. We had a Western style bathroom which was pretty convenient. We didn't spend much time in the room though. We were so busy checking out Tokyo.

Anyways, we had a quick breakfast and headed to the train station to catch a train to Nikko. Figuring out what to do and how to do it gave us some difficulty. We asked a lady at the JR information office for advice. She informed us that we needed to get reservations on the Max Yamabiko Shinkansen at an office down the stairs and to the right. We found the office and took a ticket number and waited for a while for our number to be called. It turned out we were at the wrong office! We found another office that looked to be the right place and stood in line to talk to an agent. This time we had found the right office and procured two seat reservations. Then we had another problem- since the ticket was in Japanese we couldn't figure out which platform to go to. We wandered about the station in a panicked confusion until a friendly Japanese man approached us in and asked us in broken English if we needed help. He said he remembered being lost in Russian train stations and appreciated it when people there helped him. He advised us to go to platform 20. We thanked him profusely and were off towards platform 20. Once there, we were confused again. The signs everywhere didn't say anything about Utsonomiya or Yamabiko. Mike got out the phrasebook and asked a Japanese woman if this Shinkansen was for Utsonomiya by pointing at printed Japanese phrases in the book. It was.

If you ever decide to tour Japan, you will probably get one of two reactions from the Japanese: friendly patience or indifference. I have seen eye rolling or derisive laughter only a few times. In Tokyo everyone will ignore you (just like in New York) and in smaller areas like Nikko people will smile and bow when you pass them or openly stare at you (just like a lot of small towns in our country.)

But I digress. We boarded the Shinkansen and were on our way to Utsonomiya. The train is very fast and totally smooth. It was fascinating to watch the countryside zip by. Most of the other people on the train were commuting salarymen. They silently ate snacks or dozed off. When we got to Utsonomiya we transfered to a small 3 car train to Nikko. In contrast to the Shinkansen, it was slow and shabby. The velvet seats were heated for some reason and made me feel uncomfortably hot. The train wound through the brown countryside, which was quite different after all the neon Legoland excess of Tokyo.

We finally reached the small town of Nikko. We found a taxi driver (who called us gaijin to his friend) outside the station to take us to Annex Turtle Hotori-an. Nikko is a quaint little mountain town with many Shinto and Buddhist shrines. We noticed there are a lot of little streams and culverts running next to the town's streets. It's kind of like the Door County of Tokyo since a lot of people from the city visit Nikko to relax and unwind.

Our ryokan was pleasant and the woman who checked us in spoke excellent English. We dropped off our bags and decided to visit Jakko Falls. Since we had arrived so late in the day we didn't have time to visit Tosho-gu Shrine or Kegon Falls in nearby Chuzenji. Jakko was quite a hike! It was a 2 mile climb up a mountain in fact. On our way up we passed some rather palatial looking vacation homes. Some of them looked rather neglected and had trees sprouting up through the cracked tennis court concrete. When we reached the shrine we had to climb ancient ice covered stairs. Icicles had formed around the sides of the rushing falls. It was a peaceful setting. I looked around for the infamous monkeys of the region but did not see any.

When we reached the bottom of the mountain we were very cold, hungry, and hurting from the hike. We wandered into town in search of a place we had read about that apparently had excellent noodles. We were so relieved when we found it since our fingers had gone numb with cold. The noodles were excellent and exactly what we needed.

When we reached the ryokan we put on our yukata (robes) and decided to take an onsen (hot bath) together. Before one gets into the onsen, you are supposed to wash yourself off in the nearby shower area. We sat on the little stools and poured cleansing buckets of hot water over our bodies in preparation for the onsen. The onsen was wonderfully hot and very soothing to our aching bodies. The windows surrounding the onsen looked out on to a view of a small rock garden containing manicured trees. We felt very relaxed that evening. My favorite part of that ryokan was that it was situated on the bank of a river. The gentle rushing of the river outside lulled me to sleep that night. The next morning we woke up and had a Western breakfast prepared by the ladies of the ryokan. We then visited Toshu-gu Shrine which was quite impressive. I can't wait to post pictures of it.

Catching the bus to the station was a rather embarassing situation. We knew we had packed way too much in ridiculously large bags...and this scenario made it painfully apparent. We lugged our bags on to the bus and didn't know where to put them. They got in the way of everyone. The bus driver and other riders were very patient with us nevertheless. We felt like such stupid tourists! Next trip we're taking 1/4 of what we brought this time. Our bags make us feel so ashamed.

We trained it back to Utsonomiya and transferred to Ueno station. This time we hopped on the Shinkansen with unreserved seats and did just fine. Unfortunately we got off at the wrong station! An information agent informed us that we had to get reserved seats for the Tokaido Sanyo Shinkansen to Kyoto as soon as possible since it's a major commuter line and it was departing very soon. We couldn't miss it or we'd be late for check-in at Ryokan Motonago in Kyoto. We took another train to Tokyo station and found the seat reservation office immediately. Unfortunately we weren't able to get seats next to each other this time. We successfully boarded the right Shinkansen and were on our way. The trip lasted 3 hours and I was able to briefly peer at Mount Fuji. Figuring out trains in Japan is no easy task! The guidebooks don't tell you much at all.

We arrived at Ryokan Motonago by taxi. We're staying here for two days since it's very pricey and the one major splurge of our trip. We wanted to experience an authentic ryokan while we're here and this is definitely authentic. Immediately upon arrival we were warmly greeted by a traditionally dressed lady and man. They fawned over us. It was rather shocking to us after our previous experiences. We were instructed to take off our shoes and put on slippers. There was some confusion as there is a small area of stone between the street and the lobby. I am not sure how to explain this exactly but I will try...hmmmm. They seem to be constantly wetting down the stone area and they laughed at us when we took off our shoes on the wet stones. But we couldn't take our shoes in the lobby! What do we do? At least their laughter was full of mirth and amusement and not mocking. They took our shoes and we put on slippers and were shown to our room and served green tea and a snack by the beautiful kimono lady.

Last night we took another onsen together- wonderful! This morning we were served an amazing breakfast in our room. I really want to blog more but it's getting late and I have to go visit the sites of Kyoto! More to come.

Pachinko

Link to video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6d4113pVii4

March 4, 2008, Pachinko in Ueno, Tokyo, Japan. Walking into a pachinko parlor is an assault on the senses: overwhelmingly bright lights, air thick with cigarette smoke, and the din of caterwauling pachinko machines. Seemingly the Japanese equivalent to slot machines, this mindless game is widespread in Tokyo. A player controls little more than a knob which determines the speed at which little metal balls plink down through array of pins and lights (and some don't even touch the knob at all, they simply feed the machine balls and watch it play itself). Buy little balls to begin playing, try to collect more little balls. Lucky players have stacks of small plastic trays full of metal spheres sitting behind them, the odd spoils of their zombie-like victories.

Golden Gai

Link to video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkpfZOgbw8o

March 4, 2008, Golden Gai, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. "Goruden gai" (originally a mispronunciation of "golden guy"), is a series of tiny counter-bar nooks, each seating perhaps 5-10 people at most. The mysterious and unique atmosphere of these alley bars is beyond compare, but unfortunately most - if not all - are closed to strangers. A rainy walk through the quiet back streets provides a fascinating glimpse into a few cozy watering holes and the occasional sound of laughter from behind a sealed door, but the rest remains an enclosed and impenetrable private world.

Shomben Yokocho ("Piss Alley")

Link to video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WscOk_nhQj4

March 4, 2008, Shomben Yokocho, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. The unaptly named "Piss Alley" is actually one of the coolest places I've ever been. A series of small corridor-like alleys/streets with some of the most amazingly atmospheric restaurants in the world. Most are barely big enough for a shallow cooking area and a couple of seats along a compact counter, and each often has a single item specialty menu (noodles at this one, sea eel at this one, whale at this one). Very cool, must-see.

Private Video

Sorry everyone, newbie to youtube uploading here. Turns out that I had accidentally uploaded that last video ("TMG Building Observatory") as private. It should be public now, feel free to try it again. My apologies!

Video: TMG Building Observatory

Link to video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIo0sl7EwRU

March 4, 2008, Tokyo, Japan. Footage from the north tower observatory of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) Building, 45th floor, looking southward. The image is a little grainy and it was a cloudy/hazy day (on a clear day, apparently you can see Mt. Fuji), but you can still get a sense of the vastness of Tokyo. As the camera pans, it captures about a 120° panoramic of the south part of the city.

Believe it or not, the north view from the observatory is even more impressive, but we weren't able to get as wide a panoramic view on that side because a restaurant occupies much of the window frontage.

Comments

Whoops. We just realized that, by default, apparently Blogger was requiring commenters to be logged in. That's no good, sorry about that. Found an option that disables that, so now you can post with just a "Name/URL" (I think only Name is required, just leave the URL blank), or simply as "Anonymous". Happy commenting.

Shinjuku

It's 7 am and I just woke up from a nice heavy sleep. Today we leave Tokyo for Nikko. We aren't sure what the internet situation will be like once we leave Tokyo so you might not get any more blogs from us for awhile.

I'd like to tell you a little more about Asakusa. There were a lot of stalls selling everything from mochi and hot bean paste buns to woodblock prints and bamboo samurai swords. This area seemed really touristy but in a good way. We also visited a Matsuya department store while we were there. Matsuya seems to be like their version of our Macy's. Basements of Japanese department stores are interesting vast repositories of aisle after aisle of packaged and prepared foods. Each sales person called out a greeting to us. I wish I knew what it was. While were there I visited the bathroom and noticed that while I was doing my business a recording of a waterfall played to mask the sounds of my urine tinkling off the porcelain hole in the floor.

After Asakusa we went to Ueno Park to visit the zoo and unwind a bit. We saw some very interesting street performers including a young Japanese male in a kilt playing a bagpipe to recorded midi files and two young Japanese men in drag performing a cabaret of sorts. The photos we took do them more justice than my descriptions.

The zoo was full of tiny adorable Japanese schoolchildren. One of them yelled and waved at me "gaijin! gaijin!" I waved back. I suppose it would be like a Western child bowing and yelling "Japanese! Japanese!" at them. (Gaijin is the Japanese word for foreigner and waving is a Western thing.) We saw a giant panda that looked very sad.

After this we visited the Ameyoko Market near Ueno train station. It's another crammed shopping district. I wanted to buy some oranges but they were 500 yen apiece. I am so used to eating fruit every day and was craving it terribly. Instead I settled for a slice of 100 yen pineapple from a street vendor. We saw the exterior of a capsule motel. The sign outside had a red circle crossing out cartoons of a drunk businessmen and a tattooed man. The few Japanese who do have tattoos are yakuza (members of a crime syndicate.)

Last night we finally made it to Shinjuku. We began in West Shinjuku. This is the heart of the world's second most powerful economy. 250,000 business people come to work here every weekday. On the streets it appears to look a lot like midtown Manhattan but with shorter buildings. We took an elevator to the 45th floor observation deck of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Offices to watch night fall on Tokyo. We were awestruck by the view. The city is massively huge. It just goes on and on and on. Looking out those windows upon the endless stretches of buildings upon buildings made me feel very small and insignificant.

Please note that I am not a person who is normally prone to hyperbole. I know it seems like I'm using a lot of grand terms to describe Tokyo, but it is an extreme city.

We then headed to East Shinjuku. This is where the West Shinjuku salary men go at night to drink, gamble, eat, and errrr...enjoy adult entertainment. I guess you could call it a red light district of sorts. Wandering around, we happened upon the colorfully named Piss Alley. This a cramped and dilapidated area Ridley Scott based some scenes from "Blade Runner" off of. You know that scene where Deckard is slurping down a noodle bowl and the guy comes up to him and says "they say you Brade Runnah?" It looks just like that.

We found this tiny little hole in the wall Indian restaurant that served incredible nan. It was a counter and maybe 5 seats and was run by a very friendly Indian man. Mike asked him where the Golden Gai district was and he told him something along the lines of it being an unsavory place and not a place where a young man with a nice girlfriend should go. I guess this stuck with me as we explored the streets of Golden Gai. The tiny little walkways and 3 seat counter bars were incredibly fascinating to peek at but I couldn't shake the creeping feeling that I didn't belong there as a foreigner and as a woman. All of East Shinjuku kind of made me feel this way with it's pounding loud neon gambling parlors and sex shows with sleazy looking men lurking outside. However, it was interesting and I don't regret going and seeing it.

Time to pack up and get ready to leave. I will try and blog in Nikko if we are able to hop on the internet somehow.

Chicken

Last night we didn't make it to Shinjuku but we did go out for yakitori. I had read that this was a popular Japanese food and wanted to try it out. There was a place in our neighborhood that was apparently good so we went there. Our appetizer was a cold raw quail egg poured over what seemed to be cold radish mush. We tried to be sports and gave the dish a try. Neither of us liked it but we didn't say anything. Even more fun, we didn't realize that the particular yakitori style we ordered was partially grilled chicken. Neither of us was super excited to eat semi-raw chicken but hey- you know what they say about when in Rome. I got to the end of the skewer before I started thinking too hard about what it was that I was eating. Then the gag reflex kicked in.

When we decided to go on this trip I was fully committed to the idea that I'd try eating pretty much any food I ended up with. I knew that there would be situations like last night. I've already accidentally ordered what I thought was vegetable noodle soup and ended up with pork strip stew. I just ate around the pork. I can't read the menu most of the time and do a lot of pointing at pictures or plastic representations of food on display to get what I want.

I made the mistake of drinking coffee last night because I thought we were going to go to Shinjuku. We never made it because we didn't want to miss our 11 pm ryokan curfew and get locked out. I ended up tossing and turning all night. Jet lag is really rough. My body is really taking a beating this week with all the endless walking, strange foods, and sleeping schedule being flipped upside down. By the time my body gets adjusted to this new schedule I'll be back on the plane home to Milwaukee. SIGH. Lesson learned- don't drink coffee any time other than the morning if you're fighting jet lag.

Speaking of morning- we spent ours in the the Asakusa neighborhood. This area is home to Tokyo's largest Buddhist temple and several Shinto shrines. The architecture was beautiful and impressive. I have to be honest with you though. I never know how to react when I visit these religious sites. I want to check them out and take photographs, but I don't want to be a tacky disrespectful tourist. I try and be quiet and stand back and photograph inconspicuously. What would Miss Manners say?

We also visited the Ueno Zoo, saw some street performers in Ueno Park, and visited Ameyoko Market. I'll blog more about later. Right now it's time to get back on the train and visit Shinjuku.

Video: Tokyo Train Song

Link to video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAGgbAH6jok

March 2, 2008, JR Yamanote Line, Tokyo, Japan. Yet another example among many of Tokyo's melodiousness. There are little songs and melodies for all sorts of everyday things, all over the city. In this video, you can see/hear a stop on the Yamanote train line, which basically serves as a sort of above-ground subway system for Tokyo (although there is also a proper separate underground subway system too). The Yamanote line does a loop around Tokyo and is useful for hitting almost all of the key places in the city. We're still trying to work out the exact details, but it seems as if every station/stop on the line has its own little theme song when the trains arrive. This is one of our favorites.

Video: Tsukiji Fish Market

Link to video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUe2SzAVRQY

March 3, 2008, around 8am in Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo, Japan. This was a "quieter" corner of the market (so we could record a quick movie without getting too in the way), but, nonetheless, it was still pretty hectic (more than the video does it justice).

You can see/hear the basic gist of the market: cramped aisle after aisle of boxes and buckets full of every possible sea creature imaginable (56 acres - it goes on and on and on). Band saws cutting through giant frozen fish (heard in the background). Knives chopping. People shouting. Floors slippery from blood and water.

Amazing place. Well worth the visit.

Video: Shibuya Crossing

Link to video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UemB7vVozMk

March 2, 2008, Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo, Japan. One of the largest intersections in Tokyo. Great fun to watch the huge crowds form while the "Don't Walk" signs are illuminated, and then, when the lights change to "Walk", people flood into the intersection from all directions. (And the cycle repeats every time the lights change. Where do all of these people come from?)

Another interesting thing to note: this is one of many examples of Tokyo's melodiousness. There are little songs and melodies for all sorts of everyday things, all over the city. Here, you can hear a little song play when "Walk" lights up (along with about 10+ other sonic things coming from every direction; it's a pretty crazy aural experience).

Fish & Electronics

We are in the ryokan room taking a little afternoon break. I thought I'd blog a little while Michael is showering.

This morning we checked out the Tsukiji fish market. We hopped on the Yamanote line as usual and got off near the Ginza area. Ginza reminds me very much of midtown Manhattan. Wide boulevards and many luxury stores.

The Tsukiji fish market was huge! 56 acres! To get to the actual buildings, you have to manage to get through the chaotic traffic of men driving these weird little motorized carts, little trucks, pedestrians, and bicyclists. I joked to Mike that a video game could be designed on the premise of the tourists trying to get to the fish market without getting killed by a guy on a motorized cart. We missed the auction, but that was fine since we read in the guidebooks that tourists are not exactly welcome. However, we did get to walk through the labyrinth of stalls and check out all the marine life for sale. There was so many varieties of sea guys up for sale- squid, octopus, clams, huge tuna, you name it. If it swims, it's for sale. The floor was covered with blood and water. I saw several live fish get beheaded and heard a lot of band saws cutting up fish flesh. It was pretty intense. We also visited the vegetable market next door. It seemed so sedate and hushed after the loud bloody chaos of the fish market.

We decided to have a sushi breakfast in the neighborhood. After all, this was the freshest and best place in the world to have sushi. We found a nice place and took a seat at the counter. Michael had a couple varieties of tuna and salmon and a cucumber maki roll (which was more like a cone.) I had tuna, sea snapper, amberjack, and a sea eel and cucumber maki roll. The snapper tasted like sweet cream and the sea eel had a warm almost sesame like taste. It was a breakfast we will never forget.

We had a little stroll in Ueno Park and visited the Tosho-gu Shrine. It was austere and beautiful.

Next, we visited the Akihabara electronics district. More than 600 multi-level shops, stores, and stalls in a single area selling anything electronic you can imagine- from vintage to the latest. I noticed this district seemed to be cater very much to men. We saw a lot of adult DVD and hentai anime and manga. There were also quite a few maid cafes. These are places where otaku can be served by attractive young females dressed up like maids.

I am going to log off now and shower. We're going to Shinjuku soon! More later...

Jetlagged

It's almost 4 am here. I was laying on the futon for the past hour unable to sleep. I give up.

Yesterday was amazing. We did so much and yet we barely scratched the surface of Tokyo. It's huge city. My mind reels at the size. I am going to try and remember as much as possible. It's going to be hard since we took so much in.

We woke up around 6 am yesterday and strolled to a place called Coffee Colorado. We found it on the map the ryokan lady gave us. Colorado sounds like home and you all know what a coffee addict I am. Michael did a good job of finding it. I am not sure how he did it since the streets here don't make any sense at all. They vary from wide boulevards to winding tiny walkways. The small ones seem to be unnamed and I can't figure out the numbering system. A friend of ours once described Tokyo as being similar to the innards of a watch- a very apt description.

Coffee Colorado was a nice little place. We picked out what we wanted by pointing at a menu picture of what looked like French toast. It turned out to be cinnamon toast with a side of salad that included corn and a dressing that tasted like soy mayonnaise. Ordering and paying included a lot of head nodding and pointing, a theme that was to continue throughout our day.

Back on the streets- vending machines are everywhere. There are a lot for a drink called Boss. Tommy Lee Jones' face is on these machines and it says "The Boss is the Boss of the All." We've also seen ads with Scarlet Johannsen hawking coffee, Posh Spice advertising perfume, and Cameron Diaz selling cellphones.

We took a train to Harajuku. We figured out we could flash our JR passes at the men staffing the gates and get through to the station. Harajuku is a place that is very popular with the Japanese teenagers. They have all kinds of stores selling the latest fashions. The stores have names like "Rudeness" or "Snoberry." (Did they mean snow berry? Snobbery?) We went into a place that was called Chicago that sold authentic vintage American clothes. This is where all your thrift store clothes end up. It was a trip to see Miller High Life suspenders being sold for 30000 yen. Native American clothes and jewelry is very hip here right now and all the men seem to be wearing their hair like 80's metal bands. There was so much Engrish everywhere.

Let me tell you- Tokyo citizens are an extremely fashionable bunch. They are not fashionable in the way New Yorkers are subtle and chic. Tokyoians (is that a word?!) are stylish in the creative, clever way.

We visited the Meiji shrine. It was very beautiful and we were lucky to see a Japanese wedding. After that, we ate lunch at a Mexican place in Harujuku. It was very good but also strange. It was Mexican but also tasted and looked very Japanese.

Next we took a train to Shinjuku and wandered about Tokyo's largest commuter train station. Then we visited Shibuya crossing- Japan's most traveled intersection. Imagine hundreds (maybe thousands?) of people crossing during the light change all at once. This led to us a district that seemed like New York's Time Square but way bigger and crazier. I think it was this point that I really began to freak out on how huge this city is. Just when I think I've seen something amazing, Tokyo shocks me even more half an hour later.

We wandered into some game and pachinko parlors. The pachinko parlors... oh god. I don't even know what to say. I think we're going to try and take a video to explain them. Hmmm. They kind of reminded me of slot machines at casinos but more extreme. Imagine that sort of scenario but with way more color, songs playing at 10,000 bpm, and Japanese people with buckets of little steel balls. I thought I was going to pass out from the insanity.

I know I keep saying that Tokyo is extreme, but I really mean it. It's such an over the top place.

I should probably finish up this blog so we can get to the fish market, but I just want to say one more thing. Almost everything in Japan seems to be personified. The bus stops have pictures of smiling buses with feet. The cigarettes on the no smoking signs are frowning. EVERYTHING IS A GUY. IT'S CRAZY.

Ohayo!

SO much to tell...

It's about 6:30 am and I just woke up. Michael is on the futon watching a Japanese television program about toilet seat options (?!) and I'm sitting cross legged on the tatami mat in front of a low table blogging to you, dear readers.

Japanese television is insane. You might have seen Japanese competition shows on that cable man's channel or remember that part of "Lost in Translation" and thought there is no way it could possibly really be that insane. Well, it is is. Everything is candy colored, there's lot of weird sound effects, nothing makes sense, and it's extremely fascinating.

Anyways. We're here. We made it! It was a long and crazy journey but we did it. I'll tell you about it from the beginning.

Our trip began rather inauspiciously. We attempted to catch a bus to O'Hare at 6:20 am but the bus wasn't there! We aren't sure why. Perhaps the snow? Perhaps the driver just didn't feel like showing up? It's a mystery. We didn't have much time and had to catch an 11 am flight so we drove the Honda to the airport instead. On our way down we got caught in a few frustrating traffic jams but we eventually made it to the airport around 9:30 am.

We got through security and boarded our plane without a problem. Our plane's passengers were a mix of Japanese people, American tourists, and a lot of American military men I assume are stationed at Okinawa. The flight was 13 hours and as you'd expect, it was unpleasant but bearable. Our seats had little television sets installed in the them and we watched "Bee Movie" (awful- insects and humans in love?!,) "Michael Clayton," "The King of California" and a digital representation of our flight pattern, temperatures, and times from Chicago to Tokyo. It was weird to watch the plane fly over Flin Flon and various Russian places I can't pronounce. We both tried to doze but it's not easy when you're crammed in sardine can conditions. We may do a lot of yoga, but we are not that flexible.

We finally landed at 3:30 pm Japan time. We were both so dazed and out of it. I felt like we were in some bizarre dream. We got off the plane- where do we got next? The bathroom. The weirdness was starting already. The women's bathroom had the hole in the floor deal and the toilet deal. My choice was obvious. Even the hand dryer was different. It was a wall mounted box you stuck your hands in. But that was just the beginning.

I assume not many people speak English here since white gloved men in uniform directed us around using a lot of hand gestures. We were directed to immigrations where they digitally fingerprinted and photographed us. We had to fill out the first of many forms. The Japanese seem form crazy. We had to fill out forms for our luggage, forms for our rail pass, forms for exchanging money.

One of my worst fears...the airport escalator to the Narita Express train platform was staffed by a white gloved lady. You know how I feel about escalators going down. I did it though. The Japanese politely queue up for trains in a neat little line. Their subway stations are immaculately clean. I didn't see the rats and graffiti of NYC. When the train doors open and close a pleasant little chiming song plays.

Our train ride from Narita to Tokyo seems like a dream to me now. I fought off the conflicting feelings of sleep's pull and not wanting to miss a second of the countryside slipping by.

We got off at Tokyo station to transfer to the Yamanote line. This would eventually take us to Ueno station- the neighborhood of where we were staying at Ryokan Katsutaro. We had a little drama when we tried to board a train. The cars were packed. He was able to get on but I wasn't. I will never forget the look on his face as I stood on the platform while his train pulled away.

We met at the next station and eventually got off at Ueno. I think we made a few Japanese laugh when Michael's luggage fell open and we couldn't puzzle our ways out of the exit gates. We were both so tired that everything was quite comical.

Ryokan Katsutaro is near Ueno Park which seems to be like New York's Central Park. I will tell you more about it later. I've gotta shower and we need to find some food. Sushi for breakfast?

Konichiwa

It's about 7pm Japan time and 4am Midwest US time. We've just arrived at Ryokan Katsutaro in Tokyo, safely and soundly. Finally. It was a long and exhausting journey, and I personally haven't slept in about 24 hours (and the previous night's sleep was only 4 hours), but I'm feeling strangely lucid and awake... for the moment. (I imagine I'll nonetheless uncontrollably lose consciousness in about five minutes here.)

Lots of interesting stories to tell about getting here... including one with Haven and I in the bustling madness of Tokyo station, staring into each other's eyes in complete shock, separated by the glass of the train doors, the train speeding away with me inside of it, and her left behind on the platform with no directions and no idea where to go...

But I'll save the details for another day. Time to get some sleep.