Yourou Park

On Sunday I got a rare treat... road trip in Japan with a friend from work. Ema is the person who met me at the bullet train station, helped me find my apartment, and introduced me to Nagoya. In addition, she has the glamorous job of helping me open my bank account, filing for alien registration, and entering all of my expense reports for the next 12 months (since the system is in total Japanese).

Ema has a friend with a car, Kishi, and he willingly took us to nearby Yourou Park. It is 46 km from Nagoya, about an hour, and in the neighboring prefecture (state) of Gifu. (FYI - Nayoga is in Aichi prefecture.)

Everything is a cartoon in Japan!

Let's go! Kerri's ready for the 1.5km hike up the mountain with the beautiful fall colors!

Kerri & Ema

Quick stop at a rock with a Japanese poem carved in it. (Yuki - feel free to translate for all of us!!)

Since everyone knows I'm not really a climber, I was thankful they opted for the "chair lift" option about halfway up. My exact thoughts were "Now these are my kind of people"! No bars or safety measures (Japan is overpopulated anyway, right?!) so we just hop on and go!

Kerri riding the lift. Notice the drop is about 5 feet max. No exactly death-defying as I was expecting it to be!! But the view was awesome. You could see for miles. Reminded me a lot of the autumn views at Red River Gorge!

We're getting close to the big falls! And I'm still looking for modeling work... seriously someone give me a contract!

We have arrived. I'm standing next to "Yoro Falls". Legend has it that this waterfall can cure baldness, blindness, restores health, and ensures a long life.

My new Japanese friends: Kishi, Kerri, Ema, & Shinnoshi.

The Japanese will stop at nothing for a great photo. I was ordered to climb around the safety barrier in order to get this photo. I'm surprised they didn't ask me to wade in the stream.

Can you spot Kerri?! After my chair lift to the top, I felt like kind of a sellout because I saw old people with canes, women in high heels, people carrying infants, and oddly, a few strollers! Here I was young and able-bodied taking the easy way, with so many other people huffing it up the trail!

Ema and Kerri on the way down.

We stopped at the Yoro Shrine near the bottom where you toss a yen and make a wish for good relationships!! In the picture, I just rang the giant bell, and now I'm clapping and praying!

More stairs!

Resting at the bottom with a "Yourou Cider". The water from the falls can cure everything except liver damage, I hear!

Next we move on to a local street market. They are selling lots of cool things at very cheap prices, I'm told.

We stopped to see Kishi's friend who works at the market. Kishi suggested this pictures and made me wear this goofy hat!! But I was loving every minute of it!

Lunch! On the right is a giant vat of oil where they are deep frying breaded pork on a stick. The sticks are cooling in front of it. The far left is miso soup, and you can dip your pork stick in there or the dish at the bottom of the picture, soy sauce. Choose wisely, and dip the entire thing because no double-dipping!!

This meal was super yummy and quite common in this area. You don't place an order, you fight your way to the front, start grabbing & dipping, and then chow down right there. Keep your sticks and when you're done, take them up to the cashier. Everyone laughed at me when I was dipping because it was quite gingerly. I like to go easy on the sauces and savor my fried breading. The Japanese like to dip and soak for a good 3-5 seconds!

We are at another shrine. This time I am lighting a candle before I pray to the Japanese gods. They said it's kind of like Christianity, but I've never lit a candle at my church like this!

Kerri poses with some popular Japanese cartoon characters. They couldn't believe I've never heard of them (and it's not Pokemon!) Also, notice you get to walk around while chugging beer ;)

Here's some Japanese figures. They like cats, and the hand being raised means something. Left arm raised cat means wealth. Right arm raised cat means happiness. At first I thought that meant you can't have both wealth & happiness, but check out the black cat... he's got both arms raised!!

Some market foods. These ones all had samples, and Ema & her friends had me try a bunch of them. They were really hoping I liked something enough to buy it because the prices were so low. But no purchases from me!

More market foods. They did end up buying me some rice crackers as a gift. Nothing pictured here though.

The guys wanted to stop for some sushi, and Ema & I decided to go across the street to a cheesecake shop called "Sweet of Oregon". (Think Cheesecake Factory on a super small scale!) They had 5 choices + one monthly flavor. So I ordered the monthly flavor "Pear" cheesecake with hot chocolate.

Ema ordered Apple Pie with a cheesecake base and blackberry tea. Everything was super yummy!

Last stop was the hometown of Ema & Kishi. There was a celebration going on to commemorate the "town" becoming a "city". (This is determined by the number of residents.) It was a rather small, intimate celebration, but great for people watching. There was a stage where kindergartners sang Christmas carols or played musical instruments. There were food stands selling ramen noodles, warm drinks, stuff on sticks, and other unidentifiable Japanese carnival food. They also had a clown going around making balloon animals, and a cannon that would periodically blast a bunch of glow bracelets in the air!! Finally, it was followed up by a fireworks display. The fireworks were short, less than 10 minutes, but they shot off from 7 different locations and were choreographed to music. Pretty sweet sight!

To return the favor of Ema's awesome hospitality, I agreed to accompany her to her parent's house for dinner in January! I'm not sure how that's me doing her a favor (unless they serve terrible food), but I guess her parents really want to meet me :)

Port Envy

Ever since I went to the Nagoya airport on the man made island, I decided I wanted to see more of the ocean! It's just so expansive and beautiful. I love the Great Lakes, but seriously, this is the Pacific! But first, a geography lesson because people aren't really that familiar with this side of the world as I am quickly finding out.

Below is a map of Japan. Basically a series of islands (which are not all featured), but Nagoya is marked by the "A". You can see Tokyo to the right, which is also a port city.

Here's a close up of Nagoya. I live at the spot marked by the "A". The ocean is south, but there are so many little inlets. I didn't know where the cool, touristy stuff was. So I hopped on a train Saturday morning, rode it until the end, and got off to see where I landed. It was, of course, the ocean, but not really the part I wanted. This was more of the industrial import/export area. Still cool, but not that exciting for an afternoon.

After about an hour of exploring, I got back on the train, rode for 2 stops, and got off where I could see a faint ferris wheel in the background. I figured there must be something cool by the ferris wheel!

I walked and walked, and finally the ferris wheel was in full view along with some other cool looking buildings. I would have bet money the one of the right with the funky roof was the aquarium, and I'd be a rich girl right now because I was correct!

I knew I was headed in the right direction, so I stopped for a quick snack (of cashews and water) and the obligatory cheesy photo here.

I finally made it to the cool part of the port. It seemed like paradise with palm trees all around!

Oddly enough, I bought something at this store. I hope it doesn't make me smell since it's a pair of earrings!

A cool bridge I'm about to walk over.

View from the bridge. Way in the distance is the industrial area that I went to first. The train station was right next to that huge bridge.

I think I'll vacation here in the summer!

The Japanese love cartoons... Here's Mr. Nagoya and Miss Nagoya as proof.

I took this pic for Rene. Maybe I'll get certified while I'm here!

Giant inflatable Santa peeking over a building!! Almost as cool as Santa rappelling from a skyscraper in downtown Cinci!

I found a subway station close by (rather than that train and long walk to get here!) since I was pretty worn out. I went home for dinner and a rest, and then took my bike out at night for some shopping!! BTW my flashing bike light flew off when I hit a bump and smashed into a million pieces :( So I had to be really careful the rest of the way. Time to buy a new light!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today I had a traditional turkey dinner among a room full of white people :)

It was a nice change of pace! My Japanese work colleagues were impressed that I found out about this event all on my own! (They had no idea such a thing existed in Nagoya!) I can't take full credit... the Americans I met in my apartment building put a bug in my ear, but I did have to do some internet searching of my own!

Work has been good lately. I have been Miss Popularity in the office. All of the ladies are scrambling to be my lunch companion. (Guys not so much... what the heck?!) Anyway, I'm giving out my mobile phone number like crazy, and hopefully someone will take the bait and entertain me this weekend!!

Wait a minute, let me give some credit to the guys here... My lunch date on Wednesday told me that the guy who sits next to her wanted to throw me a Christmas party in December!! LOL, of course I said yes! So I confirmed my availability on the date he was hoping for, and he (I've never met him!) is going to start planning and inviting his friends, plus a few other people in the office I work with! The whole thing is so bizarre. In addition to this party, my social calendar is getting quite full in December with work events. We have a Farewell/Welcome Party next week because our General Manager is transferring, so we're getting a new one, and we have a Year-End Party for Mitsui, as well as a Year-End Party for my department.

Local Sights

I did more exploring this weekend, and here's a few picture-worthy sights:

A bar I'll have to try out...

A small river one block from work. Not sure of the official name.

Oddly, the Richmond Hotel is directly across the street from...

...the Green Bldg. I asked why it wasn't called "Midori Bldg." (midori = green in Japanese), and the locals said that Japanese like using English words!

I found the Hard Rock Cafe!! I didn't eat there yet. I'm going to wait until I've reached a point of despair and nothing but a good ol' American hamburger can make me feel better again. BTW they were advertising "Hello Kitty" paraphernalia in the window!

A cool crosswalk that went diagonal thru the street! This is a rare find!

7-Eleven's are on every street corner in Japan. Hold up, don't get too excited... Sadly, they don't sell Slurpees or Big Gulps. I've asked. Seriously, what's the point then?!

This may be my new hang out. It's a couple blocks from work, the signs are in English, and seriously, Gin & Tonics for around $2!! It's calling KG.

In case you can't find street parking, just curb it.

If I get lonely, I know where to go.

I was wandering around trying to get back to my apartment. I could see the "Ascent" building, but none of these streets had sidewalks, and I couldn't figure out how to get back to the main drag. I felt like I was in Evansville again. I could see the store I wanted to go to, but I just couldn't find a road to take me there :( On the upside, I did find all sorts of interesting little shops and markets back here. Now will I ever be able to find them again is the question...

More fun at the market. What kid doesn't want their meat shaped like Mickey?!

Or have prints on their mini-weenies?! It's hard to see but some kind of robots are stamped on the food on the left, and Hello Kitty on the right. Nothing says yummy like biting into a cartoon character!!

Disaster on Wheels!

Nagoya residents love their bicycles. The terrain is relatively flat (given that 70% of the country is mountains), and the sidewalks are not as jammed as other cities, like Tokyo. The Japanese will ride a bicycle no matter what...

--wearing heels

--wearing a skirt

--holding an umbrella

--talking on the phone

--carrying an object 5 feet wide

--carrying an object 5 feet long

I've seen it all in just a few shorts weeks, and now I will join their ranks!! Today for $55, I became a proud owner of a used bicycle!! This thing this is awesome. Like some kind of act of fate, they brought me a red one. This weekend at the 100 yen store (like a $1 store), I bought a red basket bungee cover (not pictured, sorry!). The bungee basket cover would be used in most cities to protect you from getting your purse stolen while you zoom by, but Japan has really low theft so I intend to use my bungee basket cover from keeping my groceries from bouncing out of the basket and onto the ground every time I hit a bump!

KG and her sweet new ride!

For everyone out there who remembers my previous bicycle "incidents", no need to worry. I received my official Japanese health care card today, which means if I happen to break any bones or require stitches (again) from some freak bicycle accident, I will be covered :)

By the way, possession of my Japanese health care card means that I passed my health check-up a few weeks ago, and they're going to let me stay. All results were positive, except that I'm a fatty. My BMI is too high--I vaguely recall the Wii Fit giving me similar results about a year and a half ago...