Story of the Japan Adventure

I am sitting in my family room getting ready for the trip. We leave for San Francisco this afternoon, then Japan tomorrow.

Update: November 27th, 2005:
I have reposted all the posts in the correct order deliberately to make the travelogue more readable, I wish blogger allowed one to manually cast dates (much more useful for travelogues where the posts might be out of order), and to select chronological as well as reverse-chronological. I like one for blogging, and the other for travelogues.

I am writing this while on the flight from San Francisco to Seattle, using my Palm Tungsten C. This flight is only half full, which makes it delightful. The soft sounds collection on United is pretty good. Andre Feriante's guitar piece "For Elyse" is exceptional.

San Francisco was pleasantly cool and gently rainy. Seeing Chris and Rene again was awesome, even if far too briefly. Meeting Rachel at 15 months of age was great too, what a cutie. Had excellent Thai food from Marnee Thai in Sunset.

Yesterday, getting out of Dulles was, as usual, horrible. Spring Break crowds made United's typical disorganization even worse than usual and the line to go through security seemed to have no clear beginning. Then the flight to San Francisco was packed full and way too warm. Even my new ventilated travel shirt from TravelSmith was of no help. We were very glad to get out of the worst designed airport (Dulles) in America and then off the plane.

We had picked up souvenirs from the new National Museum of the American Indian to take to Japan as gifts, then carefully wrapped them in fancy paper: but TSA unwrapped two of them (pocket books) when they inspected our bags. We'll have to re-wrap in Tokyo, so much for being prepared.

The flight from Seattle to Tokyo was overbooked, and United tried to resell out third seat. Erci was firm, but polite and it was restored. United was offering $600 and hotel to anyone willing to give up their seat.

Flying with a vacant seat between us was the best money we've spent so far: we both noticed that we were fresher and more alert after the 9 hour flight following a 90 minute flight than we were last night on the flight packed from Dulles to San Francisco. Favorite quote from a little girl sitting behind us and repeating a dozen times: "Are we on the ground yet?" to which her father would reply "No, that is a BIG bump."

Pick up of our pre-arranged PuPuRu mobile phone went flawlessly (number delete - rental period is over), we grabbed yen from both ATM and US Cash (rates much better at ATM) and just missed the 17:13 Narita Express to Shinjuku, so we grabbed some coffees at Starbucks and caught the 18:13 Narita Express to Shinjuku (with luggage, having no transfers is worth waiting and more money).

We were both very interested in the very useful whole-wall display of traffic and transit situation between Narita Airport and Tokyo, why doesn't Dulles have this sort of thing? It is a huge display with maps of the various ground transit options, with LED lights indicating status of traffic, exactly where the trains and busses are, etc. Very informative.

The Narita Express is awesome. Clean, spacious, room for luggage, and easy to understand graphucal diagrams of the train's progress.

The Nishi Shinjuku Hotel is pleasant, but has astonishingly tiny rooms.

After a simple breakfast at our hotel, Erci and I went to Mitaka for the tour of Museum Ghibli. Erci noticed that the JR Soba Chuo line trains have room for back packs if you could lift them to head height and put them on overhead racks above the seats.

Getting from the train station in Mitaka to Museum Ghibli was a delight, because even the city busses that make the trip are all decked out in Studio Ghibli art and designs:



Museum Ghibli was even more amazing that we expected. Miyazaki-san's attention to every little detail really shows. We kept thinking of how much our friends Alex and Peter would love this place with it's breakdown of the process of drawing animation and developing characters out of iconography.

We lucked out and the traveling exhibit in the museum happens to currently be a display of Pixar's animation process with stills and idea cells of early versions of characters from "A Bug's Life," "Toy Story," and "Monsters." Our favorite was a drawing of disco Zurg! There is another, excellent, guide to someone else's tour of the Museum Ghibli on the web.

We followed my nose to a little noodle shop in Mitaka for a lunch of very good soba and outstanding soup. I really wish we had the recipe for this soup, it remains the best in my memory for the trip so far. We wrapped up our visit to Mitaka with some shopping along Chuo-dori. The PuPuRub phone (rented) is really beginning to pay off. Despite being very difficult to enter text on it, it has been the only way to email friends and surf the web for directions, news, and information. There has been a shocking absence of free WiFi spots so far.



Mitaka brought back a lot of memories for me, because, as a suburban city center, it has not been as thoroughly modernized as Shinjuku or Shibuya. The character of the streets and store fronts is roughly the same as my memories of Misawa and Hachinohe in the 1980s.

We also used the phone to arrange the details of meeting some fellow SGI (Soka Gakkai) members Satoko and Eric in Shinanomachi. They have been wonderful hosts and guides, showing us the extraordinary density of SGI community centers and offices in the Shinanomachi area. We learned to look for splashes of red, yellow, and blue colors to find SGI-friendly businesses in the area. We chanted gongyo and were very warmly welcomed at one keikan, though the shared experience was in Japanese and we missed most of it, because of our limited knowledge of Japanese. I really wish I had studied more before coming here.

Eric and Satoko then took us to Roppongi Hills to see the modern architecture and view Tokyo at night from the observation platform on the 52nd floor. Amazing view, very "Blade Runner" like. Rob, you were right about the elevators, simply amazing engineering. The only clue we had to how fast we were climbing or dropping was the pressure changes in our ears. Then Eric and Satoko took us to one of their favorite Izakaya restaurants in Roppongi Hills where smallish entrees kept coming out as we ordered them, a lot like a Tapas restaurant, but with Japanese dishes. Yum! After dinner we enjoyed a drink at "Heartland" a trendy club not far from the restaurant. I am noticing that cigarette smoke in Tokyo is far less prevolant now than there was in the late 1980s, and that has been wonderful.

Today we sent our first package of stuff back home. We also discovered how easy it is to get cash from the post office Visa cash machine. On our way to the train station we looked at a camera and electronics store. Amazingly small devices are all the rage here, and MP3 players are finally unseating MiniDisc players as the dominant portable music devide type in Japan. Cameras are about the same price here as they are in the U.S., though the new Canon Digital Kiss N (Rebel XT in the U.S.) is already on store shelves here and is not expected in the States until late April. EOS-20D costs more than we'd pay for it online, so we are waiting.

We started today's tourism with a visit to the statue of Hachiko, the loyal dog who is a legend at Shibuya station. While next to Hachiko, we gawked in a trance-like state at the Blade-Runner-like giant video displays and advertizing, all stacked one on top of the other and layered deeply as well. Pictures do not convey the full impact, because part of the effect comes from several competing loudspeakers hawking goods and services in several languages, and they compete with the usual Japanese loudspeakers warning of the busy street just ahead and sudden bursts of vehicle traffic.

It all becomes even more surreal at night as the crowds gather (Hachiko's statue is a favorite meeting spot) and a gentle rain starts to fall. The biggest advertizers manage to buy concurrent time on several displays and speakers all at once, and from that we are able to surmise that the new Playstation game (Tekken 5) is huge right now.

We then discovered, the hard way, that the Tokyo National Museum is only open Tuesday through Sunday when the Tuesday in question does not follow a national Holiday. The long walk from Ueno station was not a complete bust though because Miyake (a stranger before this) simply walked up to us and started a friendly chat in excellent English. We talked for over an hour about human compassion, homeless people, humanity, history, and the Japanese equivalent of generation-X (graduating from Universities now). He seemed delighted to find American tourists who were genuinely interested in Japanese history and culture, and we were fascinated to meet someone willing to talk so candidly about his own culture and country.

Cold from standing still too long, we caught a cab over to Asakusa Kannon Temple (Senno-ji) and had an extraordinary lunch just off Nakamise-dori between the Hozomon and Kaminarimon (the gates). The temple complex is very picturesque, and crowded with tourists (both Japanese and foreigners of all nationalities). Wish it was warmer.

A brief stop in Akihabara confirmed all the rumors that it is no longer the place to get electronic components and computer parts. It has become just another collection of department stores selling consumer gadgets, with not a chip nor cable in sight anywhere. This is very different than it was in the late 1980s, back then there were baskets of chips and transistors on the street in front of the stores, and you could buy all the parts to make your own computer, midi instrument, or robot. Now it is just consumer electronics.

We went back to the hotel for a brief rest and then met Eric and Satoko at (where else?) the statue of Hachiko. This time it was just getting dark, and with a gentle rain the "Blade Runner" impact really hit home. Once gathered we went to a large, high-end musical gadget store (think Chuck Levin's American Music Center on steroids) and then dinner at a hip new all pork place with beautiful setting and good food. Food has been less than we budgeted so far... The most expensive meals running about $28 per person, and $12-$20 being more typical, and we are eating fancy because we are on vacation. You could eat for much less. Breakfast and lunch have been hovering around $7 each in Tokyo.

Riding Nozomi (fastest bullet train) is terrific. The whole experience is much more like riding a plane than a train, though there is more legroom and the landscape goes by much closer and faster. We missed the famous view of mount Fuji because it was a grey, drizzly day. So far, I am regretting the choice of back-pack over whelled luggage. We decided on packs because we were concerned about stairs everywhere, and there are stairs on and off every train platform, but there are also (usually) elevators. The stairs have been few enough that I could simply carry a roll-around up them for the short runs. A wheeled bag would be fine for the trip so far. The Japanese who are using luggage are all using luggage that is very tall and on wheels, like an American bag stood on it's end. It seems to be very convenient, and I am wondering why their bags and ours have evolved so differently; one would think that the same physical demands would yield the same result. It turns out that despite all my planning, we ended up on a 700 series train to Hakata rather than the faster 500 series, but we still went at astonishing speeds. We were in Nagoya less than 90 minutes after leaving Shinegawa (Tokyo), and in Hakata only 5 hours total travel time. It is only 2 hours by plane, but you need to arrive 2 hours early to get through security, and you spend 40 minutes or so collecting your checked baggage making air travel only about 20 minutes faster, and a whole lot less fun (on the train you are expected to get up and walk around, on the plane you stay in your seat).

Hotel Miyako is only 200 meters from the Hakata station, and clearly visible from the platform so getting there was trivial. It is a much fancier place than we had in Shinjuku, bigger room, broadband internet in the room, etc. We went to Canal City for dinner and shopping, it is stunningly beautiful, but very western and a lot like Pentagon City Mall in Arlington (though the design is more interesting). Shops are mostly Western chains, or Western-like. We walked along the old shopping street to Hakata River Rain (another stunningly modern shopping/office/hotel/theatre plaza). Along the way, we walked behind a pair of ladies in Kimonos so fine, and the ladies had such incredible poise and grace that we felt we were in a dream.

Erci got me up early to visit the Hakata Machiya Folk Museum before we checked out of our hotel, and though it rained, and was bitter cold, the experience was wonderful. We took several pictures of Kushida Shinto shrine before the museum opened, then enjoyed the museum for an hour. The silk weaving portion is free, and in a very beautiful example of early Showa architecture. Amazing place, and well worth the walk from Gion subway station in Fukuoka.

We gathered out bags and checked out of Miyako Hotel and managed to buy Nozomi tickets for the train to Hiroshima with only 2 minutes to spare! This time we lucked into a 500 series train, and the LED display in the front of the car announced that we passed 300kph several times (mostly in tunnels) on the trip through beautiful country side. Steep mountain slopes bottoming out on rice fields and small towns with traditional Japanese styled homes built with modern materials. Beautiful.

Hotel Granvia is attached directly to the Hiroshima station, which turned out to be a good thing as it was pouring when our train pulled into the station. Granvia is even more posh than Miyako, and it also has broadband. We consulted the tourist information center in the station and discovered that the afternoons were low tide here, so we skipped the trip to Miyajima for now and simply went into the city for the Peace Park and the dome that survived the atomic bomb blast. This was a sobering visit and that was accented by the weather (cold, and more rain; good thing we did not try Miyajima). The Hiroshima trams are a lot like the ones in Prague. We closed the evening with a very expensive teppenyaki style steak dinner on the 21st floor of the Granvia Hotel while looking past our chef at the night sky filled with snow!

Snow!? This late in March this far South and West in Japan!? Unheard of... but that is our luck... sigh. The stores and stations are all decorated with cherry blossoms because that season is upon us, and we are seeing snow. At least it is beautiful, so incredibly beautiful.

We took the JR Sanyo line train and then ferry to Miyajima this morning. It was sunny, cold, and there was snow on the ground in most places making for beautiful photographs. We caught the Itsukushima shrine at near high tide (which is highly recommended) and toured both the shrine and the Miyajima Municipal History and Folklore Museum. The museum is housed in a late Meiji or early Taisho era soy sauce maker's house, and the building itself is a great example of traditional architecture with an excellent garden. It houses lots of artifacts from the local area and has a video and diarama of the September 30th, 1555 battle between Mori and Sue.



We came back to Hiroshima, and picked up our Mazda rent-a-car and parked it at the hotel for the night. Erci is feeling a little ill, so she stayed at the hotel while I went back to the car rental and asked for help programming the GPS navigation system. One lady who was there had grown up a little in Michigan when her dad was working in the state in the automobile industry for a few years, so between her English and my Japanese she followed what I was trying to do the following day and she programmed the whole trip plan into the GPS, include way-points at all the tourism spots we wanted to hit. She was amazing! The GPS talks to us in Japanese, but after a few turns we found we can follow the basics just fine (turn left, turn right, at the next light, in 500 meters, etc).

Erci is not feeling well so we are off to a slow start, but that is fine, we'll miss the worst of Hiroshima's rush hour. Checking out of the Granvia was our first surprise: despite Yahoo claiming we had been charged for the room when I made reservations, the hotel wanted full fare. We called Yahoo and they said we had not already been charged, so I'll double check when we get home.

The stretch of the Sanyo expressway from Hiroshima to Onomichi set us back ¥2000 in tolls (ouch). We stopped briefly in Onomichi for a leg-stretch and walkabout, but with Erci feeling under the weather it turned out to be a bust. We did see a new safety alert sign in the parking lot elevator, this one using a crab pinching a finger to illustrate the danger of the elevator doors. Onamichi was also having a local history festival where late 19th century attired people did little skits from local legend and history.

Then we took the Nishi-Seto expressway towards Shikoku stopping at Omishima to visit the Oyamazumi Shrine. The shrine is beautiful, and it's attached museum is awesome. They claim to have the swords and armor of both Minamoto Yoshitsune and Minamoto Yoritomo (I am a bit skeptical of the armor they attribute as theirs, to my untrained eye the armor looks more mid 13th century than late 12th). Either way, it was awesome stuff. Mostly Muramachi era, but some earlier and some later. The sword and Naginata blades show clear evolution in tiny details over time.

We completed our drive on the Nishi Seto expressway (paying tolls at 4 more places of ¥1300, ¥800, ¥850, and ¥1850; or about $45). Then followed the navigation system's directions to Matsuyama, one stretch of which was on another toll expressway (¥1400). Sadly we hit Matsuyama right at rush hour, and it took us most of the rest of the day to find the Castle and Mazda rent-a-car return, so we did not see Matsuyama-jo (reputedly one of the three best castles in Japan). We did enjoy a nice dinner of fried rice and gyoza at the train station and caught the "limited express" (slow train) to Okayama.

Kurashiki's Biken district is lovely, and was full of Japanese tourists.
JNTO is doing tourists a poor job by not including details of the Ohashi house on their PDF of Kurashiki/Okayama. We went to Ohashi house anyway, and it is really one of the highlights of the trip so far. Beautiful place. Then we went to the Toy Museum and decided to skip the Folkcraft Museum.

Pouring rain, Scott being sick, and Monday being museum closed day combined to make this a stay in the room and watch old Samurai movies and Westerns day. We did try to get to the Art Gallery, Castle and Park - but the rain kept getting worse (despite predictions it would go away) and both the gallery and castle were closed (gallery for weeks, castle for the day due to a private function).

Hotel Granvia, Okayama has no broadband connectivity and we can never get through to any of AOL's many Japanese points of presence for dialup. We talked to the hotel, and they are getting broadband, but on the 1st of April.

Korakuen is beautiful, but Okayama-jo was closed (again) for a private event and the Okayama Prefecture Museum of Arts had loaned out it's Sessho paintings so we were not able to see them. Nanak (the Indian restaurant mentioned in the Rough Guide) is gone, but we stumbled into Il Gondola, which had excellent sandwiches and savory shakes.

None of the many, many CD/DVD stores has BOA's "Duvet" song that we heard on the soundtrack to "Serial Experiments: Lain" (Anime). Special order is what they say. There is some young j-pop artist calling herself Boa, but we think that is not the same artist.

Took the train to Takematsu, then caught the bus to the Heike Story Museum, a tacky wax museum with scenes from the Tale of the Heike (Gempei Wars). From there we took a cab to Ritsurin Park, and enjoyed a beautiful walk on a beautiful day and had tea (macha) in the scooping the moon tea house in the South garden.

From Ritsurin, we caught a Kotoden train to Yashima, where the cable car lift has been out of service a while, but we found the Shikoku Mura and had a wonderful time exploring old buildings from all over Shikoku (think Weald and Downland of Shikoku). We were quite surprised to find a lovely Victorian tea house at the end of the Shikoku Mura tour, and we have a perfectly English tea with toasted bacon and cheese sandwiches while listening to baroque music! We met a chap from Essex named Peter and rode Kotoden back to Takematsu with him. On his recommendation we tried Tenkatsu sushi/seafood for dinner, where we watched some fish swimming in a large tank in the middle of the restaurant. Caught the late train back to Okayama for our last night there.

There are posters up all over Yashima and Takamatsu advertising the Yashima Gempei Matsuri (a festival I wish we did not miss) and a movie called "Ashurajo" that comes out on April 16th (www.ashurajo.com) and something else that I do not have the Japanese language skills to decipher yet: www.yoshitsune.info.

Packed up to check out of Okayama, then went to mail our second batch of goodies back to the states. Okayama's Symphonay Hall has a lovely atrium/arcade worth visiting for some indoor shopping and a products of Okayama prefecture souvenir shop with helpful, bi-lingual staff. We looked at Gohara lacquerware (beautiful clear lacquer outside that reveals wood grain, and vermillion lacquer inside), but at ¥6300 pr bowl we decided to pass. Bizen-yaki pottery (like all the pottery we have seen so far) has been priced like art rather than like beautiful, but useful dishes. Sigh.

Checking out of Okayama Granvia was a breeze, Octopus travel had already charged me - and the hotel knew it so we had no surprise this time. Backpacks are getting easier to pack - so we must be getting better at this.

Nozomi was only ¥200 more than Hikari Rail Star to Shin-Osaka (from Okayama), so we ended up on Nozomi again (wheeeeeeeee!), and this time we were smart and bought sushi bento boxes from the excellent and cheap sushi place in the West end of the station before getting on the train. Much better than Shinkansen food, and better priced. From Shin-Osaka we caught Osaka city subway line Midosuji (Red) to Namba, then followed signs for station exit #4 right into the Swissotel Nankai (much easier than I imagined), and were too early to check right in so the hotel took our bags and we walked around a bit and had shakes in the hotel lobby bar.

At first we were shocked to find that Swissotel Nankai also lacks broadband to the room, but when we went down to the business center to get online - they rented us a DSL to Ethernet "modem" for ¥1500/day (ouch, but we need to get online to plan the rest of the trip). BTW - this time we were able to dial out, but AOL's Osaka numbers were all busy for hours. No wonder no one uses AOL here in Japan.

Went down to the Nankai train station (also in the hotel lobby, very convenient) to meet Dan, Jeff, and Jonathan as they get in - probably tired and confused. They turned up right about 7pm and were very glad to see us. We disappointed Jeff by deciding on American food for dinner (Hard Rock Cafe) because Erci and I had not had a simple burger in over 10 days, and Dan and Jonathan were too tired and hungry to go Japanese just yet. Introduced them to Osaka's subway line to get to and from the Hard Rock Cafe (forgot how damned noisy American restaurants are). Note: Osaka's Hard Rock Cafe has moved. It is NOT near the Nankai Namba station and old stadium anymore (like the guide books say). It is just outside surface exit #9 from Honmachi station on Midosuji line.

We decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and head for Himeji today. Himeji-jo was spectacular, much larger than I expected. Kokoen (gardens right next to the castle) were beautiful too. We lucked into a street faire of sorts with food, saki, and local crafts people sampling their wares and selling small things too. Erci and Dan had fun surfing the market for lunch and brought it back to Jeff and I (we were resting and watching Jonathan). We bought two bottles of exellent Himeji saki, Yaegaki "MU" (Yaegaki Mu Website), and enjoyed one of them later in the hotel room. Yummi-desu.

Our luck ran out in that there was a traveling exhibition of Ukiyo-e coming to the Himeji city art museum starting April 2nd, and included is one of the original prints of the famous Ukiyo-e wave painting (sorry Howard!) - but the Museum would not let us in the day before the exhibit was scheduled to open... Cherry blossoms in Himeji also appear ready to pop out on Sunday, and we will not be able to come back for that.

Jeff and Dan got their first taste of both Nozomi and Hikari Rail Star travel (we got on the wrong train going towards Hakata at first, rode it to Shin-Kobe then switched to a second bullet train to complete the run to Himeji). Coming back we rode the local express (should have made sure to get the limited express) and spent 90 minutes making the return of the 38 minute journey out. We did get to see lots of different towns along the old Sanyo line.

Kintetsu railways to Nara, then a walk to Todaiji to see the daibutsuden. Lunch at an overpriced place where food was beautiful but small. Walk to Botanical Garden, then to Kasugi Taisha Jinja where some wedding pictures were being taken. Jonathan continues to make friends with and flirt with all the pretty girls, and he loves the tame deer. Beautiful cedar, cyprus, and cryptomeria trees all throughout the park. One of the paths on the maps is gone now, so walked back through the woods and fields to the Sagi-Ike pond, then past the 5 story pagoda to the train. By this point Jeff and Erci were calling it a forced march!



A brief rest at the hotel, then we grabbed Dan some take out tempura so he could stay with sleeping Jonathan and the rest of us went to Seitaro for some of the best sushi we have ever had. Stunningly beautiful and delicious. We met Kimitaka Inoue, who has a nickname of Uyesagi (rabbit) and the whole place has subtle rabbit motifs designed into the decorations and dishes. Uni here in Japan continues to be delicious and delicate the way that sushi places in the states cannot achieve.

Jeff and I went to Osaka Castle to see the Toyotomi Hideyoshi museum. It was crowded, and not set up to for non-native speakers and readers. We met Dan, Erci, and Jonathan at Yodoyabashi and discovered that the Oriental Ceramics Museum was closed for a week to switch to a temporary exhibit of Dutch porcelain. This is becoming very frustrating. So far every national museum has either been closed or had a temporary exhibit we did not want to see in the place of their own exhibit that we do want to see. We consoled ourselves with a pretty ride (¥1880 each) on the Aqua Liner. It will be amazing in a few days when the cherry blossoms peak, but it is still impressive now, especially the middle part where they open the glass top of the boat and let in fresh air, sunshine, and an unobstructed view.

We split up on the way back to the hotel, Erci and I went to the Shinsaibashi Apple Store. It has the same stuff for sale that Apple stores sell in the States, but the store itself is a fabulously designed one. Two stories, glass steps between the two floors, elegant and spacious layout. Then we walked back along the Shinsaibashi and Namba arcades (Ebisubashi) shopping and sampling crab from Kani Dotombori (Yummi desu). We stopped at what we think was Big Camera Osaka (Namba just NE of the Nankai station and Swissotel) and confirmed that prices here are roughly the same as in Tokyo and the States. In Takashimaya the prices on their much smaller selection of cameras was slightly better. We bought two new, more serious looking Kyocera ceramic kitchen knives and some wooden saki cups at Takashimaya, where they automatically did the VAT refund when we showed our passport (saves about 5%).

We love our old ceramic knives, which are just as sharp today as they were five years ago, but we don't like that their medium blue plastic handles and white blades make them look like toy knives. Children who has visited the house handle them with less care and caution than they handle steel knives, which is a bit scary. Also, the old ceramic knives come to a sharp point which is prone to chipping off. The new ceramic knives fix both concerns as they colored the blade to look like carbon steel, and the handle (still plastic) is harder, and nearly black. We hope no one will mistake these very sharp tools for toys. Also, the point is no longer a fine and delicate tip, they now curve the end into a gentle end which should be harder to chip.

We finished the second bottle of Himeji saki and it is still awesome. We must find a U.S. supplier of this stuff. We finished the day with another walk along Ebisubashi arcade at night (thrilling for the crowds and fashion parade) and enjoyed an awesome Indian dinner at Nanak (highly recommended).

The "Ring of Fire Aquarium" (Kaiyukan) in Osaka is a very nice aquarium, and they have a big tank and an excellent Jellyfish display. Then we went to the Osaka City Museum of History for some excellent miniature models of medieval town scenes. Kani Doraku for dinner was excellent! Another shopping walk along arcades in Shinsaibashi and Namba revealed some love motels and red light districts, all very matter of fact and subdued.

Posted a big box in the mail today, with a mix of stuff for Erci and I, and for Dan and Jeff. Checked out of Swissotel Nankai and caught the Limited Express Thunderbird for Kanazawa. The trip into Fukai and then Ishikawa prefectures was very interesting, a dramatic change of scenery from the heavily urban Kinki region. Kanazawa station is amazingly modern with a huge semi-enclosed space for waiting on busses and taxis (they must get some serious weather here). It is unseasonably warm here now (about 70 degrees F) and sunny.

Caught a van taxi to the Kanazawa Excel Hotel Tokyu in Kohrinbo district, then walked around the Nagamachi (old samurai house district) and visited the Saihitsuan Kaga Yuzen work-shop and museum (¥300) to see silk kimono hand painted and dyed. We saw stunningly beautiful fabrics, then had dinner at an Italian cafe in the Prego shopping court (it's moniker is "a bit of Europe in Kanazawa"). The chef at the cafe was clearly influenced by Ferran Adrià, the chef at el Bulli, with lots of fun dishes. We capped that off with Gelato from a different place on the way back to the hotel.

Went to the Nomura Family Buke Yashiki samurai house with gardens (¥500), and it was exquisite. Walked around Nagamachi some more and hit the Kanazawa Shinise Memorial Hall (¥100) and then the Maeda Tosanokami-ke art museum across the street (¥300, and not worth it).

Walked to Kenrokuen gardens and spent hours touring the lovely landscaping in unseasonable heat. Shopped and bought Lacquerware, a Fan, and Sake just outside the North-East gate of the park at the Ishikawa Local Products Shop, and then walked back to the hotel area for more shopping (Kohrinbo 109) for stoneware.

After a rest, we took a taxi over to Higashi Chaya and Higashiyama (the teat/geisha district) and walked around looking for a place to eat dinner. Regretted not coming to this neighborhood during daytime. Got turned away from a traditional Kaga Kaiseki cuisine place, but found excellent sushi along the Asanogawa river in Hashibacho district.

Even warmer today. Breakfast at the Kanazawa Excel Hotel Tokyu again (which is really good), then to the post office to mail another package of stuff... this postal clerk was the most detailed-oriented by far and it took a full hour to get the paperwork to her liking. Stayed calm and friendly though, and I am sure glad I did - because 10 minutes later, after we had walked down the street, she called me my on my rented mobile to inform me I had left my PDA on the counter! I ran back to get it and thanked her profusely. BTW: Kanazawa's local dialect has it's own version of thank you: "Anyatoo!"

Two taxi's from the hotel to the station were cheaper than one taxi van the other direction. Grabbed lunch to go at the station and rode the limited express "Thunderbird" back to Kyoto, which is also unseasonably hot and humid. Cherry blossoms in full bloom now, and quite striking on the dark green hills around Kyoto. Ran into our first encounter with a rude person in Japan today, in the elevator in Kyoto station's subway arm - little old lady who shoved and muttered and was generally pushy even to Jonathan, who at two (almost three) is charming most of the people here.

Kyoto Royal Hotel is a shocking disappointment after all the nice places we have lucked into so far. No broadband, no air conditioning (and it is really already needed, even this early in April), tiny bathroom with no clothesline at all, useless fridge (it is ONLY a minibar with no room for our own Sake and auto debit sensors so you can't even unload it of their junk). Lucky for them it is the only place in Kyoto with rooms available, or we'd simply go elsewhere.

Walked around the arcade near the hotel a bit and stumbled into a fabulous Korean grill food at the table place with extraordinary beef. The setting was very traditional Japanese, and though they had no English menu, they assigned us a translator who carefully explained everything. It was tremendous.

Another very warm day. We went to the Imperial Palace Household Agency to see about getting reservations for a visit to Katsura Villa and got both good and bad news. Katsura was booked right through next week, no chance for us to get in; but the palace itself was open to the public this weekend! We got right in and toured the Imperial Palace in Kyoto.

Erci dragged Dan and I to the Nishijin Textile Center while Jeff played with Jonathan in the park abutting the Palace. Dan and I returned and met Jeff and headed for the hotel to drop off souvenirs and books, while Erci had a blast at the textile center. We all met at the hotel then caught a bus to Ginkakuji. The garden of the Silver Pavillion in the afternoon sunlight is stunning; lots of moss and cherry blossoms and camelia. We caught another bus to go to Gion and Maruyama park, and the bus quickly filled up. At each stop the already full bus loaded between two and five more people, each time Dan bet me no one else could get on (grin). Everyone on the cramped bus cooperated though and getting off the bus at Gion was relatively easy, though we discovered that when you pay for the bus with a ¥1000 note, the machine simply gives you change, it does not extract your bus fare - you have to manually re-apply the coins to the fare box.

Maruyama was gorgeous with cherry blossoms and filling with groups already staking their claims to prime Hanama party spaces in the park. Lots of food vendors already making a mint selling yummy treats to the stakeholders. Walked a bit back to the subway and returned to the hotel for warmer clothing. Discovered another excellent Tapas-style Japanese place where we got drunk and Jonathan fell asleep.

Took the bus to Ryoanji to see the famous dry, zen garden. Where Erci and I first sat we could only see 13 rocks, but we both clearly felt a 14th, and were correct, but we could not find the 15th until we stood up and walked around.

Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavillion, is spectacular. Yes, that is two UNESCO World Heritage sights before lunch! Took a long, packed bus ride into Gion again to see more Sakura at Maruyama park, which was even more packed with celebrating locals and tourists than yesterday. It seems like all of Japan is here today. The cherry blossoms are amazingly beautiful and plentiful, and we managed to visit several of the stores mentioned in the "Old Kyoto" book. Jonathan started having spiking fevers, so we headed back to the hotel on foot through Gion and then along the Takase Canal, which turned out to have our favorite views of cherry blossoms yet. Quieter streets and walks with fewer people and blossoms dropping into the canal and flowing by. Jeff stayed in with Jonathan while Erci and I took Dan back to the fabulous Korean place off the Sanjo arcade.

Jeff and Dan are taking turns staying with Jonathan in the room, he is still sick. Erci is going to get her hair done at Kanatt. I search for the Virgin Megastore but don't find it, though I do discover Pontocho, which is what we expected Gion to look like: tiny winding streets just wide enough for pedestrians with lots of restaurants, clubs, and lanterns. We shop for books on Origami and Kanji and pick up another Dan Brown thriller. Erci and I have lunch at Uoshin (Ocean) on Kawaramachi-dori. They search HUGE portions of sushi. We hook up with Jeff for dinner at another piecemeal Japanese cuisine place like a Tapas place. Very, very good food and saki. We catch a little more of the Yoshitsune story currently airing on BS2 (TV Station) Sunday nights at 8:00pm. I have got to find out how to get this on DVD, it is an awesome series.

We sent off yet another package, this one around $120 to mail, then Erci and I went to the Kodai Yuzen-en and Gallery. We learned more about traditional Kimono arts both hand painted (ta gake) and stenciled. We even got to try our hand at stenciling a table cloth (Erci) and a T-Shirt (me, for my mom). We shopped our way back along the arcades just West of Kawaramachi-dori towards the hotel. We found (with Jeff and Dan's help) Aritsugu (www.aritsugu.com), specializing in hand crafted knives and tools. I bought a bill-hook and a pruning hook from Noboru-san and Erci bough a grater and a garnish cutter in the shape of a ginko leaf.

Another night of disturbed sleep in Kyoto, rudely disturbed by annoying young males on their motorcycles with no mufflers gunning their engines all night while they sit and think they attract attention. They do of course, but not from the young girls they are trying to impress.

We are leaving Kyoto for Nagoya then Matsumoto. Jonathan, Dan, and Jeff head for Kansai Airport and America. Jeff made an interesting remark to me at the entrance to the Kyoto subway just outside our hotel, that he'd his itinerary included nearly 20 hours of travel on both trains and planes in several cities, including Kyoto, Osaka, San Francisco, and Washington and he would not be outdoors again until he got to the parking lot at the airport near Washington, DC. Interesting how connected and convenient travel has become.

The Ukiyo-E Musuem in Matsumoto is interesting, though it is quite far out of the main parts of town (¥1620 Taxi ride each way). Lovely works on display though and plenty educational.

Ate a lovely dinner in Matsumoto at Typhoon, really good pan-asian food in a friendly and trendy environment.

After a quick breakfast at the Tokyu Hotel (¥997 buffet, was ok) we bought bus tickets for the 13:50 bus to Takayama and then went to the post office to mail another package of stuff, this time with some of our own clothing. We are starting to downsize because the end of the trip is less than a week away. From there we got on a bus to Matsumoto Castle (did not need to, it was very close). Matsumoto-jo, like Okayama-jo, has the local nickname of "crow castle" because they are both black. They also both have moon viewing room additions, which show how peaceful Japan had become under the Tokugawa Shoganate. The Matsumoto City museum was included in the castle fee, so we hit that quickly too, though there was not much of interest there other than the Teramu (sp?) balls we bought and the display of festivals local to the city.

The two hour and twenty minute bus ride over the Japanese Alps was spectacular, cheap, and it shaved over two hours off the train time we expected to make (the train must go around the mountains). There was still plenty of snow up in the passes, though it was sunny, and in some places the snow was piled up higher than the bus! There was a brief stop at Hiruma (sp?) Onsen for 20 minutes (long enough for a potty break). From Takayama we caught a 17 minute local train to Hida Furukawa (¥230) and then a taxi to the Yatsusan Ryokan because we had all the bags and because we were not exactly sure where it was.

Yatsusan is awesome. A haven, welcoming, civilized, beautiful. We settled into our room and then had a many course dinner in a private dining room. After dinner we took advantage of the on site onsen (hot baths), and then crashed in our 10 mat bedroom (10 mats is just the main room, there is also a sitting room, a smaller 6 mat room with fire brazier and dresser, and the bathroom). The ryokan has two public onsen, each segregated by sex. One has baths inside and out, the other is more like a bath in a steam room. There is also a relaxation hall with big comfy massage chairs (Thrive) and some games (chess, backgammon, go, etc).

Breakfast at Yatsusan is almost as amazing as dinner was. It is huge, and has many small servings of interesting things. The staff knew we wanted to see the Takayama Matsuri, so they left us a printed schedule of trains to Takayama.

Sanno Matsuri in Takayama was fascinating. Not as big and noisy as Aomori's festivals, but the floats are masterpiece works of art and antiquity. We saw marionette shows from some of the floats in the late morning, and then shopped Kami San Machi. We had a fabulous Hida beef dinner at [where?] and then caught the night parade of floats and lights before heading back to Hida-Furukawa for another hot bath and relaxing night at Yatsusan Ryokan.

Takayama's Hida-no-Sato (Hida historic house museum) did not have any of the living history volunteers we read about in guide books, but it did have several beautiful historic houses. The museum appears to mostly have foreign visitors though, which is a bit sad. After Hida-no-Sato, we walked around Takayama and shopped some more and saw more of the Sanno Matsuri events and parades. We had Hida beef again for lunch, this time in Karakuri (near the station) where we exchanged cards with Toru Khishita-san whom we had a remarkable conversation with. Turns out he learned English from singing karaoke to Western tunes!

Once back in Hida-Furukawa we purchased our limited express and Nozomi tickets for Nagoya and Tokyo to beat the lines tomorrow and walked around the town a little before returning to Yatsusan for our last night at the lovely ryokan. Once again they overwhelmed us with a warm welcome, giving us tea and mochi in a neo-Victorian drawing room. The ryokan is bustling with activity as it's weekend guests show up in much larger numbers.

Another excellent breakfast at Yatsusan ryokan, and then a very pleasant surprise: our decision to eat in Takayama Thusday night reduced the bill for our stay at the ryokan considerably. The ride to Nagoya on the Hida Limited Express Wideview was stunning. Their was again no view of Fuji from the Shinkansen (too hazy).

The Palace tried to upgrade our room to a smoking room with a view of the palace, which we firmly refused - choosing to stay in a non-smoking room, which turned out to be palace-like anyway.

We rushed over to Koppabashi-dori to shop for kitchen supplies, then over to Harajuku to meet Eric and Satoko again for dinner. There we met a friend of Eric's, Kevin, and we went to Boheme for dinner and then a private Karaoke suite for drinks and silly singing. Satoko and Erci suprised us with really good singing. Kevin has clearly had voice lessons too.

We both overslept and did not feel up to Kamakura crowds during their matsuri, so we decided to stay in Tokyo and take it easy. Shopped in Ginza, Harajuku, and Shimbashi. While in Harajuku we got to witness the amazing neo-goth, punk, lil' bo-peep, and metal fashion show. Pretty cool. Donnie and James will wish they were with us.



Our last night in Tokyo we did very expensive Teppenyaki at the Palace hotel (Sendai beef), which was fabulous.

We decided to take the airport bus to save on lugging our luggage to the Narita express train (bus is door to door, we'd have to walk/subway/cab to the train station carrying many bags). It was about 80 minutes instead of the 60 expected on the train, but door to door convenience was worthwhile. Did our last bit of shopping at the airport and got on the flight as expected. The new Japanese style luggage is awesome so far, much easier to roll around the airports. The flight to San Francisco was comfortable, we effectively had a chunk of space to ourselves between the kitchen and the windows.

In San Francisco, Courtyard San Bruno sent a shuttle to pick us up and we were able to check in and sleep a few hours despite being so early in the day (around 10:00am). Courtyard San Bruno is awesome, though I am already missing the heated bathroom mirror (so it does not fog) and the venting and heated toilet seats of Japanese hotels.

After a brief afternoon nap, we had a nice visit with Erci's Dad and Beth, then crashed early to minimize jet lag and get up early for the flight home.

After another tiring cross-continental flight from San Francisco to Washington it is very good to be home again and re-bonding with Bailey and Leonardo.