Kyoto Rain Strikes Again!

After the 4 days of training last week, the foreign visitors and I had a Mitsui global logistics meeting in Tokyo.  If you've been watching the blog properly you know that after every big work event in Japan, we have a nice evening out!  Here is the crew after a hard week's work.

After this dinner, 2 visitors went home, but the other 3 travelled to the well-perserved-from-ancient-times city of Kyoto with Tag and I for a little Japan history and sightseeing!

First stop: A real bamboo forest!  It was so beautiful and unbelievable!!

Kerri, Jerry, & Li at tea ceremony with bamboo backdrop.

Natural beauty abounds all around!

Next stop was the Okochi-sanso Villa, which was the second home to a silent-film superstar samurai, Okochi Denjiro.   

It took him over 30 years to create his beautiful garden, and it is designed to be in bloom during all 4 seasons!

Rock path... perfect for a rainy day with puddles!

Kerri in the garden which truly is vibrant green from the rain. 

I was a little less cranky about the rain this time because I wised up this time and wore sandals instead of socks and soggy shoes!

Another garden called Tenryu-ji Sogenchi.

We had a great taxi driver who led us to all of these cool places and took group photos in the most beautiful spots!  I thought it was excellent!  Too bad the Japanese don't accept tips because this driver truly deserved a big one!

Lots of greenery.  Pictures can't capture the beauty.

A different type of beauty in the garden ;)

Moving on to Myoshin-ji temple grounds, which is home to 46 smaller temples.  The big attraction is a temple with a dragon painting on the ceiling.  This dragon is called Unryu-zu and is the defender of Buddhism. 

 

No pictures were allowed inside of the temple, and no English tours were available.  But we went on a Japanese tour, and Tag translated as best as possible.  Here's another photo of monks praying in the temple I snagged off the internet!  The huge size of the ceiling reminded me of the Sistine Chapel! 

Group photo in front of the Golden Pavilion (a.k.a. Kinkaku or Rokuon-ji Temple). 

The taxi driver told us that you actually can enter the Golden Pavilion and see inside the 3-story building.  All it takes is a 1,000,000 yen "donation" (about $10,000).  What a scam--they require it to be a donation in order to avoid taxation!!

Narrow streets of Kyoto on our way to lunch (at a French restaurant). 

Quick stop by Tag's alma mater, Kyoto University.  He said this is the 2nd most respected college in Japan.  The first is University of Tokyo.

My favorite stop of the day: 1,000 torii gates of Fushimi-Inari Shrine.  So awesome!

Group inside the torii gates.

One side bears the name of the donor of each torii.  I looked for "Mitsui" since that's about the only Japanese kanji word I know but never found it!  It would take hours (maybe days) to read each one.  Crazy!! 

Here is the map of how to walk through all 1,000 gates.  It takes several hours to walk it and includes some tricky terrain.  We only did one quick section.  We were told that each torii gate costs $3,000 to construct!

Ready to start the climb to Kiyomizu-dera Temple.

More statues wearing bibs.  The Japanese claim this is just for decoration, but it's such an odd thing to decorate...

On the stage of Kiyomizu-dera.  Kerri is checking to see if the rain stopped!

Pagoda & Kiyomizu-dera stage.

Kerri drinks the holy water again. 

After my return, I found out that each of the 3 streams of water means something different: wisdom, health, or longevity.  Legend has it that people should only drink from 2 different streams of water.  If you take all 3, you are just being greedy.  I drank from a different stream this time, so I wonder which two I unknowingly chose?

We didn't see any real geishas, but that didn't stop me from wanting my picture taken with one...

What are you lovely ladies looking at?!

Birthday Bash @ Hard Rock Cafe!

I managed to round up 11 of my closest friends in Nagoya (from America, England, and Japan) for a tasty dinner at Hard Rock Cafe.  My friends are from work, volleyball club, and the kimono dressing event!

I received a really fancy sensu (Japanese fan) from 4 girls from work.  They've noticed that I'm always hot at work, and thought I could put it to good use!!  In addition, they picked out a light green (because of my last name) one with fish (same pattern as my umbrella) on it!

Hari, Moe, & Kerri.

One more fan as a gift, but this one has ninjas on it!!  LOL  Also a bouquet of flowers.

Nobue, Kerri, & Gemma.

All of the Hard Rock Cafe patrons celebrating birthdays had to go on stage and dance to the YMCA!  Oh yeah, and wear a goofy hat!  Clearly, I was the most entertaining person on stage!!

KG and her friends who made her 30th birthday so special!

They even taught me a new way to say "thirty" in Japanese.  The number 30 is san-juu, but if you talking about age it can also be misoji.

My birthday was also celebrated at work today!  This afternoon I was totally surprised when they pulled out a cake box from the refrigerator in honor of the BIG 3-0!!

Cake in Japan isn't the same as America.  Instead of a big sheet cake with frosting, they buy individual pieces from a department store basement bakery.  The pieces are all fancy, all fruit-filled, all different sized, and all unique!  I got to pick first, so I choose a sugary pastry roll filled with strawberry, peach, pear, and kiwi pieces with whipped cream.  There was a fierce debate after that about who would get each of the leftover pieces.  Everyone is so polite; they don't want to pick before someone else!!  It's kind of ridiculous!

I also wowed my co-workers by saying "misoji desu".  It's not a common term, so they all laughed and wanted to know were I learned it.  It basically means "I'm in my thirties", and some of my co-workers said they wished they were still "misoji desu".

Finally, my friends from work emailed me today to tell me how great my party was and how thankful they were to have been invited.  Here's some priceless excerpts from their emails:

"Thank you for inviting me to your special party last night."

"I'm glad to talk with your lovely friends."

"You looked so happy!", and the best of all...

"I love to see you dancing."

Thanks to everyone who called, mailed cards, and sent me goodies from America :)

Truly a 30th birthday to remember!

Birthday Girl!

I turned the big 3-0 today!

Here's just a glimpse of my birthday party at Hard Rock Cafe!  More pics to come shortly :)

Global training program

For the past 4 days I have been participating in a Mitsui global training program, which was held in Fuchu, Japan exclusively in English!!  Here is my team from around the world.  Some had English skills that were better than others, but it was still a nice change from all of the Japanese I usually hear :)

From left: Tag (Mitsui Nagoya), Matt (TF NA), Jerry (Fraser Wharves Canada), Sagar (TF India), Li (TF China), Fred (TF Europe), and KG.

We were paroled from our training facility "prison" a couple hours early for good behavior, and they took us to Happo-en Garden in Tokyo to experience beautiful Japan nature and a tea ceremony.  You may recall that this is the same place that Jess and I visited on our tour of Tokyo in April, but here's a few new photos!

Bamboo forest

Team TRANSFREIGHT was Awesome!

These koi carps were unbelievable in size!!  Some were at least 36 inches long and look very well fed!  I was also impressed that they came in many colors: orange, gold, yellow, white, black, and spotted!

KG takes a rest by a stone lantern. 

(Does anyone remember the other 4 elements of a Japanese garden?)

Gorgeous waterfall (element #2).  Still hard to believe we are in the middle of bustling Tokyo.

Tag and Matt on the bridge (#3) over the koi pond (#4).

KG surrounded by rocks (#5) of beauty!

These pics are cracking me up because we are all in our work clothes, yet we are sightseeing like tourists :) 

I'm glad that Mitsui let's us mix work and fun occasionally!  Back to reality on Friday!

Getting sick of Tokyo yet?

I'm not!  I love this place :)

Sunday morning kicks off with a visit to Zojo-ji Temple.  There was a ceremony going on inside commemorating the death of a loved one.  (Maybe 1 year anniversary, etc.)  I'm told this is a common practice for Buddhism.

A bunch of cats wearing colorful bonnets and aprons in front of the temple. 

I see this all over the place, so I asked Tag what the deal was, but he had no clue!

Tokyo Tower. 

Did you know this one is actually taller than the Eiffel Tower in Paris, which it is replicated from?!  Nutty...  

And Fred (from France) pointed out plenty of other differences, like no option of taking the stairs to the top!

Interesting store: Condomania.

What's even more interesting is that the name of the store next door is "Happy Factory".

The famous shopping street of Omote-sando.  We are looking for a 7-story toy store called "Kiddy Land".

I loved all of their Toy Story 3 paraphernalia, like this "Barbie loves Woody!".

How about the Japanese version of "The Game of Life"?  I can tell just by the iconic spinner!

We also took a trip to the man-made entertainment island just off the Tokyo mainland called Odaiba.

They had a pretty cool free Toyota museum there. 

Here's a ride where you could get in a tiny Electric car and drive down the track!!

How would I look rolling in this Toyota car named "Angelic Pretty"?

Futuristic side-door car!

KG driving a mini car, and an Asian kid attempting to go for a ride with her!!

(Have you noticed how someone seriously sucks at taking pics?  They are cutting off all of the cars...)

Everyone needs a giant bow on the rear end of their car ;)

Future mobility device that could replace wheelchairs (for a cost, I'm sure).  It can go over bumpy surfaces, take stairs, and even lower to the ground for easy entry and exit.

Fred tests out the new "folding safety helmet" technology worn by Kerri! 

(I survived even if it does look a little goofy!)

The Goddess of Liberty, which is about 1/40th the size of the Statue of Liberty in NYC.

Rainbow Bridge that connects Tokyo to Odaiba.

Kerri finally found a nice beach!  This one has imported white sand :)

Indian curry for dinner.  Check out the size of that giant nan!!  Yummy!

The waiter mixes the Indian after dinner tea.  It gets poured back and forth between several cups and mixes to a nice, frothy consistency.  Also yummy!

Final pour.  Drink up!!

Now we're locked in a prison... er, training center, for one week. 

The food is very Asian, and I am popular, partly because I packed Oreo cookies!  There is nothing around the center besides a prison (no joke this time) and other training facilities. 

The beds are much too short, the pillows are filled with beans again, and supposedly the rooms are the size of my walk-in closet in Kentucky.  Oddly enough, I got assigned a room at the end of the hallway, which happens to be very large and is, therefore, seriously lacking furniture to fill it.  All of the guys are jealous of my extra space and call it the "Barbie Palace". 

They also work us very late each night, which is why these posts have been at such crazy times!