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.