Month: May 2008

Since I think it’s about Sunday back home…Happy Mother’s Day, momma! I promise not to get hurt by the deer in Nara.

P.S. – I did fantastic on my Stats final!

Since the weather was mostly drizzle in the morning, Jennifer and I decided we would spend more time in Osaka today. We hopped on the subway and headed to the Osaka Aquarium. It was awesome.

The Osaka aquarium is a multi-story complex built around several large tanks. Each floor spirals around the tanks on several levels, allowing you to view the interaction of marine life from various vantage points. The theme of the aquarium is the Ring of Fire, the volcanic ring of the Pacific Ocean. Each tank presents a cut away of a particular eco-system and the life indigenous to that region.

The show has the usual culprits: fish galore, seals, otters, octopusses (octopai?), sharks and rays. Some more unusual specimens included flamingos and spider monkeys, ducks, and penguins. The star of the show is an enormous whale shark that lazily swims circles in the enormous central tank. Smaller schools of fish billow like clouds around this leviathan. I managed to get some excellent video footage of the scene.

Altogether, Jennifer and I probably shot over 600 photos at the aquarium and took at least four or five videos. I look forward to posting the pictures once we return to Canada.

For lunch we went to an Australian restaurant. I am entirely unsure what was Australian about it, but it made certain we were aware of its affiliation with the outback. I ate beef schnitzel;
a fine Australian delicacy.

After the aquarium, we toured the nearby shopping complex. Bizarrity abounds! There was a secret ninja tour, an authentic samurai armour store (9,000,000 yen! That`s a steal at only $90,000 CDN) a petting zoo (with beagles and cats!), an adventure playground, the magic show, the mystery tunnel (it was a mystery!), and an underground labyrinth food court.

There was also a Studio Ghibli store. It was full of awesome Studio Ghibli merchandise, such as lighters and playing cards and wall hangings. By far my favorite item was little statuary of the wood spirits from Princess Mononoke. I suspect they may even glow in the dark. Unfortunately, they are small and breakable and poor traveling companions. But we shall stop here again before we return home.

In the evening, we set out for the HEP 5 entertainment plaza. It is an 8 story mall with a ferris wheel on the roof. It is almost entirely filled with clothing stores, except the upper two levels are an arcade and the second basement is a gambling parlour.

Oh yeah, takoyaki.

I admit I could be slightly biased because the damn thing nearly immolated my esophagus. The soft outer-dough shell was rather cool, so I figured it safe to pop one in my mouth. As I began to chew, the EXTREMELY HOT filling began to scorch my tongue.

As I desperately tried to salivate, I considered my options. I could spit it out. Good, except the only place to spit it was back onto the tray with the remaining takoyaki. Not helpful, since that was lunch. I still held onto the hope that I could enjoy eating the remaining takoyaki. I decided to wait and let it cool enough to chew. Instead, it seemed to grow more unbearable. It was probably about this point that I decided that swallowing something that was too hot for my tongue was a good idea. It wasn’t.

Bitterly wounded, but still hungry, I tried to eat the second takoyaki more carefully. I would let this one cool before I ate it. I bit the pastry-casing to expose the inner contents to the air; a tentacle waved thanks at me, grateful to be freed from its doughy prison.

And that was the last I will eat of takoyaki.

On the train ride from Kurashiki to Takarazuka, via Osaka, I finally found the time to drink my whiskey in a can. Jennifer scoffed that it was too early for alcohol until I reminded her that it was probably about 10 o’clock at night, back home. It was a perfect time to drink Whiskey. Besides which, I burned my throat eating takoyaki and needed something soothing.

The whiskey was actually whiskey and water. I’m not a big fan of watered down whiskey, but it was surprisingly decent stuff. It reminded me a little of Chivas Regal with the slightly dilluted flavour. I would drink it again.

Consider this particular adventure a success!

We rolled back into Osaka last night. It is raining outside, a vesper drizzle that would not really qualify as rain except everybody is carrying an umbrella. Though, now that I think about it, everyone was carrying an umbrella when it was sunny. Maybe they do not use umbrellas the way that we use umbrellas. This bears investigation.

On Friday morning we left Hiroshima to visit Iwakuni. Since arriving in Japan, I was excited to see the Kintai-kyo bridge and it did not disappoint. It is fashioned entirely from wood and undulates across the wide river like a serpent.

The city on the other side of the river was quaint. The entire city was still rather rural and managed to display the characteristic old town charm we’ve been hoping to see. We explored the cemetary and gardens, visited historical samurai residences under reconstruction, and hunted for the infamous white snakes of Iwakuni. Sadly, the only snakes we discovered were the ones behind glass, kept on display for the benefit of curious tourists.

We arrived early in the morning, so we had much of the grounds to ourselves. The only other visitors were about a hundred school kids in orange prison jumpers visiting on assignment, and a cohort of American soldiers. The former were much more adorable than the latter.

We took the ropeway up to the castle and explored the park atop the hill. It afforded beautiful views of the surrounding city. Inside was an impressive collection of historical artifacts from various periods of Japan history. This was probably our favorite place to visit so far.

Following Iwakuni, we navigated our way to Kurashiki. It has an old business district, immaculately prserved for sightseerers. We stayed in a traditional ryokan (the Tsurugata ryokan) and explored the canals that evening.

Yesterday morning we woke to rain. We explored the canals some more (damply, this time) and then headed off to Takarakuza, to visit Osamu Tezuka Manga Museum. In other words, we went to see Astro Boy.

The museum was awesome. Couldn’t understand a darn thing that was written, but I could see all the pictures. The frosted glass elevator doors with Astro Boy and Kimba and others were a glorious touch. We got our pictures taken with Astro Boy and the professor and stuck on a sticker. It was like being a little kid again.

Jennifer and I seem to have ended up on different sleep schedules. After a long day of trekking under a hot sun, I am ready to retire by 9 o`clock. Particularly because in this heat it is difficult to muster any hunger. It is all I can do to stay awake until my head hits the pillow. Jennifer, on the other hand, seems indefatigable.

…unless I try to wake her at 4am when I wake up. So I decided I would use a bit of this early morning time to catch up on some thoughts.

Despite everyone’s assurance that there would be culture shock, there hasn’t been. Perhaps because Vancouver has such a sizeable ethnic demographic itself. Or perhaps because we took the time to familiarize ourselves with much of what we might see.

There are differences, if you look for them, but most are more a difference of convention or aesthetic. The eavestroughs, for example: instead of aluminum tubing to channel rain water from the roof, many buildings have small inverted bells, daisy-chained to allow the water to cascade gently. I cannot imagine such a device would work in Vancouver, due to our incessant rains, but it is certainly an attractive solution to an omni-present event.

The trains are distinctly familar. We rode the local train yesteday to Miyajima. Most residents use the local trains, due to the comparatively high cost of the shinkansen. At every stop, the canny, experienced riders would innundate themselves through the crowd of human obstacles and find an open seat with casual alacrity; in their wake, dark glances from those whose supposed seats had been usurped. We could have been riding the skytrain or bus back home.

We have tried a variety of local cuisine. Much of it was seafood, naturally. Some I would not eat again, but most has been rather pleasant. In particular, I am fond of Japanese pastry – the pastry here is not so sugary or sweet as back home. It is probably no more healthy for me, however.

Today was a whirlwind of tourist spots. We checked out Hiroshima castle, the Peace Memorial, the survivor cenotaph, and Miyajima island. And, due to navigational challenges, many of the surrounding areas.

Hiroshima castle was faux-feudal, Miyajima island was kitsch, and Peace park was poignant. We walked until our feet hurt, took pictures galore, and walked some more. I am happy I purchased such fine walking shoes.

Tomorrow we depart for Iwakuni to view the Kintai bridge and White Snake Park, then onwards to Kurashiki for a brief rest at the onsen.

I am also pleased to report that I found my whiskey in a can. I had to look no further than the vending machine in the hotel lobby. No word yet on how it tastes.

Our flight to Japan was rather uneventful. Instead of taking transit as originally intended, my father very nicely drove Jennifer and me to the airport for our 1pm departure. We arrived early and cleared security ahead of the crowd.

The flight itself took ten and a half hours to complete. Airplanes are not normally very exciting places to spend time. Fortunately, the flight was helped along by a dizzying selection of in-flight movies, and each seat had its own screen. I barely had time to catch Cloverfield, The Golden Compass, The Bucket List, a documentary on the Yangtze river in China, and the Return of the King before the flight was over. We landed in Japan much sooner than expected.

Our first task was navigating the Kansai international airport. We soon discovered the JR rail office and exchanged our purchase orders for Rail Passes. Eventually – and not without considerable help from the station staff – we navigated our way to the hotel.

Since we arrived in Japan about two hours earlier than our tickets advertised, we explored the area around the hotel. It felt good to walk. We debated trying our luck at a sit down dinner, but the idea of ordering food in Japanese on our first night proved too intimidating. We grabbed some food from the local market instead.

This morning we woke early and explored the area around Osaka some more. It was just before 6am, but already people were on the streets walking to work. We did a walk-by of the Umeda Sky Tower and looked for a place to eat breakfast.

About 8 am we decided it was time to head to Hiroshima. We decided to walk to JR Shin-Osaka. As it turned out, that was a poorly conceived idea. After about a half hour walk north in the supposed direction of the station, we discovered that someone put a river in our way.

I flagged down a local passerby and asked her for directions to Shin-Osaka. To my delight and amazement, she understood my question. Even better, I understood her answer. Unfortunately, her answer told me we had to go back to where we started. And so we re-traced our steps, found a tourist info booth, and got ourselves educated on the wonders of the Japanese rail system.

The trip to Hiroshima itself was considerably less eventful.

We arrived in the city shortly before noon. We checked our list of accomodations and set our for Hotel FLEX, the nearest of the hotels to JR Hiroshima. We booked our room, had a delicious lunch at a nearby cafe, and decided to visit Shukkeien garden. The admission was a modest 250Y per person. We spent a few hours strolling the garden paths and photographing the local wildlife and scenery.

In the evening we set out for okonomimura, a street of vendors selling Hiroshima`s famous okonomiyaki. Or, as it is translated in Fodor`s guide, `as you like it`. It is sort of an upside down omelet with noodles and seafood. We found a quaint restaurant that wasn`t too busy, siddled up to the bar, and ordered our food.

The okonomiyaki was delicious! But far too much food for one person to eat. Stuffed full to bursting, we sidled back to our hotel room to turn in for the night. Tomorrow morning we visit the Peace Memorial and Hiroshima castle in the morning, then take the ferry over to Miyajima for the afternoon.

Bags are packed, documents in order. Midterm assignment submitted. The house is clean. The last few weeks have been stressful trying to tie up all the loose ends before we depart, but it has been worth the effort. Tomorrow we depart for the Land of the Rising Sun. I couldn’t be more excited.

We fly directly into Kansai international airport, located near Osaka. Osaka lies in the central region of Honshu – the main island – several hours west of Tokyo. From Osaka, we will head west towards Hiroshima and Yamaguchi and slowly make our way east over the course of the next several weeks.

Our itinerary is deliberately vague. There are a few key sites and events that Jennifer and I intend to take in: the Aoi Matsuri festival in Kyoto, the Peace Memorial in Hiroshima, the temples of Koya-san, the Sumo tournament in Tokyo, to name a few. But in between those places and times, we left ourselves the freedom to explore Japan as it happens.

We packed lightly to accommodate our whimsy (thanks in no small part to Doug Dyment of
www.onebag.com) and learned a smattering of the language in case we get lost.

I am so excited to be going on this trip. I promise to bring back photos and stories.