Day in Tokyo with Jess

Jess and I started our Tokyo adventure out at the shopping mecca of Roppongi Hills. 

Here is the "Top Hat Building"

Sure Roppongi Hills is a tall building, but this was a hazy, rainy day!

A pretty cool spider sculpture called "Maman".

The Roppongi Garden is beautiful even in the rain.

The view from the top of Mori Tower was completely blocked from the fog, rain, and haze!!  Such a bummer...

You can barely make out the massive Roppongi Hills condominiums. 

So we moved on the Mori Art Museum instead, where the weather didn't matter!

Here's a cool exhibit of delicate, intricate trees made totally out of fast food and/or retail shopping bags!

It's supposed to remind us that bags really do come from trees.

This looks like a pretty cool skateboard ramp :)

The Toy Story room at the Tokyo Disney Store.

Jess says this is a Cyndi Lauper and Lady Gaga billboard, but I was clueless...

A funny little store in Shibuya: Condomania, with a motto of "Give Safe Sex A Chance".

Shibuya Crossing in the rain... all of the umbrellas are kind of cool!

The busiest crosswalk in the world!

View from our hotel room.  I did a good job finding this awesome hotel on the web, but finding the entrance in person was another story...  Always tricky since the streets don't have names and hotels don't have addresses...

And my quote of the day: 

You can't say Shibuya without the "Boo Ya"!

View in the morning... Tokyo likes to sleep in!

Thank goodness it's a sunny day.  We are ready for our bus tour of the city!

Check out this neat double-decker train!  I have no idea where it takes you from Tokyo, but I certainly want to go for a ride!

Jess is a true Japanese in this pic.  She's riding the shinkansen (bullet train) and eating a mochi treat (pressed rice with a surprise inside--hopefully not the dreadful red bean paste!)

Video of Shibuya Crossing

To view a quick video of Shibuya Crossing, the busiest intersection in the world, you must go directly to my blog.

My apologies because it wasn't so busy that day since it was kind of rainy and still early evening, but you get the idea!

Around Nagoya with Jess

My old roommate from college, Jessica, visited Japan this week, and I took some vacation time to show her around.  Between my vacation and the Golden Week holidays, I have 9 glorious days off of work!!

We started our sightseeing at Nagoya Castle, which is beautiful even without the cherry blossoms in bloom.

Close up of the "golden dolphins" on the roof of the castle and are symbols of Nagoya. 

We learned that the way the rocks are formed at the based are designed to withstand earthquakes.  The small gaps in between the foundation will shift and move during an earthquake, but they are flexible and will not crumble like a normal brick wall.

Jess and Kerri in the garden on the castle grounds.

We also made a stop at the zoo, and I was surprised to see that Nagoya's flamingos are more orangish than pink.  Apparently flamingos coloring is related to what they eat, so I truly wonder what the heck the Nagoya zookeepers are feeding them?!

We saw another cute koala taking a snooze and relaxing in a tree.

Here's my favorite animal of the day: the Somali Wild Ass!!  I love his name, and he's quite rare.  He is an ancestor of the African donkey found in a remote area between Somalia and Kenya, and there are fewer than 2,000 of these guys left!  They are sure to be extinct soon...

A view of Nagoya TV tower and Oasis 21 at night.

(I'm thinking my next job may be postcard photographer.)

Kerri and Jess enjoy Central Park.

Kerri and Jess show off their rock-hopping skills!

I think I've gotten Jess addicted to the "peace sign", too! 

Here she is with her apron (bib) on and ready to eat her tantan-men (spicy ramen). 

She actually asked "Do I have to wear this?" regarding the apron, and then promptly dripped her spicy ramen soup all down the front of her... Yes, sometimes Kerri does know best!

KG sports her apron and shows off her chopstick skills once again!! 

This food is one of my favorites, and I will surely miss it when I move back to the States.

We also went on an English speaking tour of a Toyota manufacturing plant in Toyota City.  As it turns out, many of the other tour participants prefered to stand next to me and hear my extra commentary regarding Toyota and TPS.  I give the full-fledged version based on my work experience, not just the rosy basic facts provided by Toyota HR personnel.

Jessica's favorite activity (similar to Mom and Dad's) turned out to be people watching!!  She loved the crazy outfits they wore, was fascinated by the silly things they did, and was truly astounded by the sheer number of people every where.  (It takes way more than a week to get used to the total lack of personal space, but now I think nothing of sitting at the same lunch table as a stranger, being smashed into a train car, or being bumped regularly on the street.)

Stay tuned for our trip to Tokyo...

Japan's Golden Week

I'm starting the month of May off in style... with a big holiday! 

Japan is currently celebrating "Golden Week", which is the longest time off for most businesses outside of Year End festivities.  They don't celebrate one thing in particular, but rather it's a bunch of rather random holidays in rapid succession. 

April 29 ~ Showa Day

In honor of the former Emperor's Birthday.  Showa reigned as emperor of Japan from 1926 to 1989.   

This is a day to reflect on his 63 years of tumultuous reign.

May 3 ~ Constitution Day

The current Japanese constitution was implemented in 1947, so this day is to reflect on democracy and government.

May 4 ~ Greenery Day

A relatively new holiday to the line-up.  It was formerly celebrated on April 29 in order to recognize nature and to honor the love that Emperor Showa had for plants.  In 2007, April 29 was renamed Showa Day, and this holiday was moved to May 4. 

(Some Japanese critics say it was moved just to extend the Golden Week holiday!  Whatever the reason, I'm not going to complain!)

May 5 ~ Children's Day

This is also refered to as "Double Fifth" in other Asian countries because it is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month.  It began in 1948 with the name of Boy's Day but has been modified to include both genders.  (You may recall that Girl's Day "Hina Matsuri" is celebrated on Double Third, the third day of the third month.) 

The purpose is to celebrate the happiness of children and the express gratitude to mothers. 

I've been seeing these beautiful fish windsocks all over Japan this month and just found out they are related to former Boy's Day.  The koi carp banners symbolize strength and courage for boys.  Chinese legend says that carp which were strong enough to swim upstream and to a waterfall would turn into a dragon.  The banners blowing in the wind look like swimming carp.

Families generally fly a koi carp banner at their homes for each of their sons.  At the Tokyo Tower last week, they had 333 carp banners flying since the tower is 333 meters tall. 

Since families often do something special for their children on this day, I hear that Tokyo DisneyLand will be a crazy mob scene. Somehow that's hard for me to imagine because Tokyo always appears to be a crazy mob scene for me regardless of the day!!

One last factoid:  The name "Golden Week" actually came from the film industry since they saw an uptick in sales during this holiday period.  Back in the 1950's they started calling it the "golden time" for movies to be released, and the name eventually stuck.

Pictures of a public bath

I realize it might be a bit tough for people to get a visual of the onsen I went to this weekend in Gero.  Since taking pictures in public baths with naked people roaming around is kind of discouraged, I found some similar photos on the internet instead.

Here is an onsen similar to the one we went to.  It's bascially like a giant infinity tub.  There is hot springs water flowing constantly and it's totally okay if water splashes over the edge.  If they are indoors (which ours was), they are always right next to a giant window with a view of a garden.  See the tiny stool in front of the tub?  That's where you sit and give yourself a good scrub down before entering the soak tub. 

This picture has better lighting.  The tubs are generally just deep enough to sit on the floor and have the water come to your neck.  They are not so wide that you feel like you could take a swim!!

Finally, a nice visual of some ladies enjoying the onsen.  As you can see, the water is clear and there are no bubbles.  It doesn't matter if you are fully submerged or half out of the water, there isn't a lot of room for modesty!

Day trip to Gero

This weekend I took a trip to the quaint town of Gero, which is known for onsen (hot springs) and about 2 hours away from Nagoya by car.  Here is cute river with several small waterfalls that runs through the center of the city. 

My friends from the International Volleyball Club (and 2 daughters).  We had a really fun day!

We're ready to eat lunch!

My lunch is special tempura with vegetables only available in the spring!  There are 5 types of deep-fried green veggies on my plate, but I'm not really sure I can tell them apart! 

The girls show off their chopsticks skills before they dive into their soba noodles.

Yuko and her fish lunch!

The restaurant was small and very Japanese, but we were clueless about all of these mushrooms covering this one wall.  Kinda bizarre...

Kerri and her 2 new pint-sized friends!

Before the onsen, we walked around Gero and went to Gassho Village, which was filled with artifacts from ancient Japan.

Here is a good example of a 7-tier doll set that might be displayed in a Japanese home during Hina Matsuri (Girls Day celebrated on March 3rd).

Learning all sorts of amazing things about old Japan.

A zen garden...  I kind of wanted to jump in the rocks and just mess up the pattern!!

More gardens of the village.

Finally, we made it to the onsen.  The hot springs are caused by a volcano and come directly from the earth.  The water is not circulated or diluted in any way.  Onsen is said to have healing power and be very relaxing.

Here is the process:

1.  Choose an onsen and pay a small fee (~$5).

2.  Go in the changing room and disrobe completely.

3. Go into the onsen room where you first sit on a stood and wash your self from head to toe at the regular water taps.  (Basically shower in public!)

4. Once you are clean, go soak in the 47 C mineral water.  (That's about 117 F... and in my opinon wicked hot!!)

We had the entire onsen room to ourselves, so I didn't have to worry too much about the whole "bathing naked in public" thing.  And I didn't have a bunch of old saggy Japanese women leering at me either.  The naked part wasn't too bad; it was the heat that was killer for me.  I could only stay fully emerged for about 5 minutes.  Then I would sit on the side of the tub or get out completely and rest on one of the bathing stools.  Kind of reminds me of sitting in a sauna...  Excrutiating hot and breathing can be difficult.

I was amazed that the kids loved the onsen so much!  They were the first ones naked, washed, and jumped in the scalding water.  Although they did jump in and out a lot I was still impressed they could handle it so well.  We stayed in the onsen room for about 1.5 hours.

At the end, you are not supposed to rinse the onsen water off you, the fresh mineral water should soak into your skin and help you be relaxed and healed for the rest of the day. 

Tarynn, Yuko, and Kerri resting after our onsen experience!

Random Handouts

A day rarely goes by in Nagoya when I don't get offered free stuff by people standing on street corners.

Usually these people are handing out things like pocket packs of tissues, coupons, plastic bags, or flyers (all with crazy Japanese advertisements on them).  Some of the cooler items have received were: cheap toys, candy, or a file folder (again all with crazy Japanese advertisements on them).  Mom and Dad thought this was pretty cool when they were here, but what they also noticed was some times foreigners get skipped over with the free stuff.  Dad was totally offended that we were obviously being avoided!  But who can blame them really?!  It's highly likely just based on our looks that we can't read the Japanese advertisement...  Thus, Dad was bound and determined to get some free tissues from the street corner people, and sure enough, after a few days his pockets were overflowing!!

Today I was walking down the street with my Japanese trainer, Yosuke, and I noticed a guy handing out some kind of pamphlet, but he wasn't offering it to everyone.  He was being selective and this time not just with the foreigners.  As we got closer, he tried to force one on Yosuke, but he waved him away.  As we walked away Yosuke said "Do you know what he was handing out?" in an irritated tone.  I said "Noooo" really slowly wondering if it was some kind of lewd advertisement for "gentlemen" (like the streets of Vegas!).  But as it turns out it was an advertisement for a diet program!!  Then Yosuke said "Do you notice how he's not giving them to everyone?  He picked me out!  That's really insulting."  This made me laugh for 2 reasons:

A.  The guy didn't try to give me one!
B.  I look like I need a diet program more than any one in Japan!  (Well, outside of sumo wrestlers maybe...)

After I finally stopped laughing and collected myself, I started thinking about what would happen if that guy tried to hand out those pamphlets on a street corner in America.  He wouldn't last more than 20 minutes before someone would verbally assault him or punch him in the face.   Seriously!  Can you imagine insinuating to some lady with anger management issues that she needs to drop a few lbs by picking her out of a crowd and handing her a pamphlet?!  YIKES!!

All Good Visits Must End

One busy week flew by in a flash, and Mom & Dad were ready to return to good ol' America!

Could you really blame them?!  Here were their lush accommodations...  Although I have 2 bedrooms, we had to shack up motel-style with two beds in one room because it was too cold here and my tiny heater simply can't reach the second bedroom!

Dad couldn't make it through the doorways.  He had a sore back from all of the hunching over!

The family in my family room.  All 3 of us on the tiny couch wasn't so comfortable.

 

At the airport sad to be leaving their favorite daughter ;)

A Day at the Port

First things first... before we head down to Nagoya Port, we need to get some ice cream!  These ladies working at Cold Stone Creamery even posed for the picture :)

Mom and Kerri in front of some silly penguins topiaries.

Talk about a sweet mailbox!

Mom and Dad in front of Port Bridge.

A cruise ship is in port!  I wonder where they cruise to?!  Hmm... I could really go for a vacation!!

Kerri sits in a sad little park.  But it did have an English sign that says that Nagoya's sister port is Baltimore, Maryland in the USA!!  Small world... I've been there many times :)

Kerri with the cool penguin lights.

A restaurant called "Cats Garden".  Not surprisingly, we didn't eat there. 

Mom said as a rule "cat" and "restaurant" should never be associated together!

Umm... sure... this billboard makes purrfect cents...

Windy day but beautiful flowers.

Dinner at Red Lobster.  We were running out of Western restaurant choices, and this place unfortunately had a very Asian menu.  They didn't even serve those awesome cheddar biscuits :( 

However, Dad and I thought this was the best meal all week.  Of course, the fish was very fresh!