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The three private baths were each very unique and deserve a little better description than I provided earlier.

As I mentioned previously, I was quite anxious to try the onsens. Soon after arriving at the ryokan in the afternoon, we donned our yukatas and ventured forth.

The first bath we tried was two cauldrons set into a raised concrete platform. We could not decide whether the cauldrons were originally iron or concrete, for they were covered with the mineral sediment of many years. It gave the edges of the bath a rough texture.

Each cauldron was about three feet deep at its centre, and about two and a half feet in diameter. Hot water seeped in through a small fissure in the bottom of the cauldron, and the water spilled out the top and cascaded down the platform. Upon entering the room, the water was so still that the cauldrons appeared empty!

Perhaps because I was to sit inside a bath that closely resembled something of a witch`s repetoire, I expected the bath to be hotter than it was. It was pleasantly warm, and certainly no hotter than one might expect from a hot tub back home. A half hour soak was enough to leave me feeling pleasantly warm and relaxed after arriving.

It was time to try the next bath! The baths were seperated by outside corridors, so the short walk between the baths left me feeling cool and refreshed.

The second bath was a lying down bath. It was a shallow pool, maybe six inches deep, and about five feet wide and six and a half feet long. The bottom of the pool was lined with smooth river rocks and there was a raised bench on one side, should you prefer only to soak your feet. Like the previous bath, the water seeped in through a small fissure in the base of the pool and the water cascaded gently over one side.

This bath was warmer than the first and lying on the river rocks felt so good. The room was lit by a black light and the ryokan staff had painted a starscape scene across the walls, giving the small room a feeling of considerable openess. ]

The third bath – the outside rotenburo – we tried the following morning before check out. The bath was set inside a small glade. The pool itself was fashioned from flagstone and concrete. Japanese maple trees draped their branches over the water and an impressive flower garden lent a rich, clean scent. Stones beside the pool were arranged to splash the hot spring water like a waterfall as it drained from the corner.

The bench inclined, so that you could choose a depth that was comfortable, but the pool was not very deep. It was also the hottest of the baths. And the contrast of hot water and cool morning air was delightful. Add the serenades of early morning birds and you have a spectacular way to begin the day.

I did have a chance to sneak a peak at the two larger public baths. Both were vacant when I had a look. The larger of the tubs (traditionally the bath for the men, but the onsen rotated the baths on a timed schedule) could seat thirty to forty quite easily; the smaller could seat twenty. The public baths were a little more austere – with the smooth tiled floors and very clean lines, they greatly resembled a swimming pool from back home.

Next vacation, forget sight-seeing. I am going to spend all my time at an onsen ryokan.

An onsen was one of the events I was most anticipating on our trip. Onsen are natural hotsprings that well up from the ground. Seasoned travelers would visit onsens on long journeys, to soak away weariness. At some point, someone clever built a hotel beside a hotspring and an industry was born.

Nowadays, the onsen are mostly regulated by a city-wide guild to ensure that all onsen ryokan have egalitarian access to the hot spring supply and that the onsen service is fairly uniform. All onsen ryokan have public bathing hours, where anybody can visit and pay a fee to soak. Only overnight guests have access to the ryokan after a certain time. And the ryokan themselves still vary in quality from inexpensive hostels to expensive resorts.

It was early this week we realized if we did not book somewhere, and soon, we might miss the opportunity to stay at an onsen ryokan. We had set aside a considerable amount of money so that we could stay at nice onsen ryokans at least three times during our vacation. Because we had not managed one stay once during our travels, we had a lot of money for our accomodation. Doing what any sensible person would do in our position, we decided to spend it all on one, extravagant stay.

We ventured online to find the most expensive room we could find. Sadly, all the rooms were booked. Frustrated, we asked at the travel info centre whether they represented any onsen ryokan. And as fate would have it, they did.

The ryokan we visted was located in Itou, a small seaside town about on a southern penninsula between Tokyo and Nagasaki. The ryokan had five baths: two public baths, segregated by gender; two private family baths, that could be booked for private use; and a rotenburo, an outdoor bath, which could also be reserved for private use.

The room was enormous. It was larger than our first apartment, we a pleasant view of the city. It had its own sitting room and was large enough to sleep about ten. Or more, if everyone was real friendly-like.

We entered the ryokan weary and sore, and left feeling invigorated and refreshed. Sadly, it did not cost nearly as much as we had intended to spend.

We couldn`t travel all the way to Japan without visiting a sake brewery. Lance quite favours the beverage and we are travelling quite close to Kobe, which has several sake breweries that offer tours and tastings. I had heard about one, Hakutsuru, that had a free museum with information in English so we headed out there yesterday after touring a park in Okoyama.

The directions that I had to get to the museum were not great as they basically said to walk for 15 minutes south of the train station. However, they didn`t specify which of the 5 southbound streets to follow. So, after wandering for a while without finding anywhere tour-worthy, we asked an older fellow who was working in his garden. His English was not very well and our map was even worse. So, he walked us about halfway there, until the building was in sight and from there we could make it the rest of the way.

The museum was very cool. Not only did they have English brochures available, but they also had televisions set up that would describe the sake brewing process in both English and Japanese. It was very interesting to see the different historic methods for brewing.

At the end of the tour they have some freshly brewed sake that you can try – unpasteurized, chilled, strong and delicious. I`m not a huge fan of sake myself, but this stuff was really good! Then they also had a shop set up to buy products. The most expensive thing there was their line of rice skin care products, which we steered clear from and ended up with a few different and reasonably priced bottles to sample.

One of the things that most impressed me was the service and explanations of the different kinds of sake and the temperatures to serve them. They also gave an indication of the alcohol content in each one. (One of things we`ve discovered is that the alcohol here is generally cheaper, but also a lot weaker than back home, so you still drink an equivalent cost to back home.) I was so impressed that I decided to check and see if this brand of sake was available back home. Lo and behold, after a brief google search one of the first hits I find is for the liquor store across the street that`s attached to the Dublin Crossing Pub. The company also has a very good informative site in English (linked above).

After browsing through a bookstore here in Tokyo yesterday, I`m really wishing that I could read more Japanese. I knew that they had large bookstores here and lots of inexpensive books, but I still wasn`t prepared for the experience.

Back home, people think that places like Chapters are large and have good selection. Well imagine a Chapters that has 7 floors full of books. Yup, SEVEN floors of books! I know some of you will already be drooling at the thought of so many books, but wait, I haven`t finished yet. After perusing several floors (because the lack of reading ability isn`t enough to deter Lance and I from browsing and buying – we`ll need practice material for when we do start reading the language afterall) and not finding quite what we were looking for, Lance bravely approached a sales associate to ask where the Manga (comics) were. He handed us a little map and gave us some instructions. Apparently, there`s too much Manga to be kept in this one location so we had to go across the street to their other building! Yup, 7 floor plus another building that`s 3 floors of just CDs, DVDs, and Manga! And, according to the little map, they also have yet another store that`s located further south in the city. Not sure if the selection varies between the south and the main stores since we didn`t head quite that far.

And for those who are wondering, yes we are crazy – we bought books in Japanese.

Okay, there was one other thing that did not suck about Tokyo. But it not-sucked because we made it great by ourselves. Last night we were hungry. It was about dinner time. And we are often hungry at dinner time. That is why we go for dinner.

There are buildings here that are restaurant buildings. You hop on an elevator, select the floor, and the elevator takes you right into the lobby of the restaurant. A lot of the buildings are narrow, so a single restaurant occupies an entire floor. We saw a great-looking Italian restaurant that served pizza. Japan has freakish pizzas choices and I really wanted to try a weird pizza before we went home.

We hopped on the elevator, hit the button, and were delivered unto the lobby. A lobby that was packed with Japanese people. And the smell! It is the smell that I will forever associate with the concrete playground whale at White Rock beach; a smell that I would later learn in life meant drunk people had been here, accidents had happened.

It was particularly unappetizing.

We hopped back in the elevator to choose another restaurant. We selected a floor at random. And random was to be the theme of the night, as it turned out. Though little did we know it at that time. And lo, we were delivered unto the Tapas bar.

The bar did not smell like stale piss and beer. Which was a good start. And even better, the waiter told us we would only wait twenty minutes at most. That was fine by us.

As we gazed around the restaurant, it appeared we had entered an ultra-chic tapas bar and cocktail lounge. The walls were dark granite, the floors a finely polished hardwood. Shoes were stacked neatly in the foyer and slippers place conveniently for patrons to use. It was noｔ the sort of place I usually found myself. I got a little nervous. But I was not about to hop back in the elevator and lose my spot in line for dinner. Aside from which, they had pizzas.

When we were seated, my suspicions were confirmed. The menu was full of fancy appetizers and dishes I could only wonder at. The waitress asked us for our drink orders.

In other restaurants, ordering drinks has been easy. For breakfast or lunch, I am content with orange juice (orenji juusu) or iced tea (tsumetai ocha). At dinner, most restaurants stock only one particular kind of beer or sake. If there are several available, a sly osusume sake wa nan desu ka (what sake do you recommend) usually gets me off the hook without appearing an illiterate fool.

Suffice to say, I was not prepared to select from ten pages of drinks.

Jenn was wide-eyed and giving me her I trust you to get us out of this or else look. Fantastic. As I cursed the Pimsleur lessons for not covering the finer points of ordering cocktails, my mind raced for a drink that might coexist in America and Japan. I suddenly hit upon a stroke of genius.

`Osusume cocktail wa nan desu ka?` I ventured plaintively to the waitress. I hoped she would recognize the word. After all, this was a very trendy restaurant. And in Japan, trendy means borrowing English words when a Japanese word would suffice. Hai! was the delighted response. But success was short-lived.

She excitedly pulled out the Wacom touch tablet that had been sitting inconspicuously at the end of our table. Fingers dancing, she quickly navigated through the menus…and showed Jenn how to order. She then put the tablet on the table and waited expectently.

So much for that. I shrugged at Jenn. She shrugged back. I shrugged again and pointed at two random drinks. I was mindful enough to ask for a pizza, as well.

The drinks arrived, glowing neon blue and red. But tasty! The pizza arrived, too, and it was clear it would not be enough food. We would have to order more.

Only, it did not appear that the waitress was going to come to our table again. We would have to order ourselves. Through the tablet. In a written language I could not comprehend.

While we sipped drinks and nibbled on the appetizer pizza, I played with the device. After clicking through a few menus, I felt I was getting the hang of things. Eventually I figured I knew enough that we could place an order.

But what should we order? How would we know what we would get?

After a brief discussion, Jennifer and I decided that cocktails are usually designed to be tasty. Ergo, any cocktail we ordered should be alright. We selected more drinks at random, punched in the order, and waited. A few minutes later, the waiter showed up bearing a tray with glowing green and orange drinks. Success! We had uncovered the means to acquire sustenance!

We had a great time ordering random items and guessing at what might arrive. And we were rewarded with some very tasty drinks and appetizers. Not a single item that arrived that we did not enjoy, and we tried some dishes that might have been discouraging otherwise. All in all, a worthwhile experience.

And I quite enjoyed watching the tipsy Japanese patrons trip over the slippers in the hall.

So far we`ve attended two very different events here in Japan. In both cases, there were several distinct differences from how we do things back home.

The first event we attended was the Aoi festival. It was going to be a procession from the Imperial Palace to two Shinto shrines in order to do a couple of important rituals. As it was called a `festival` we were expecting a somewhat festive atmosphere. We knew that thousands attended the event and went early to avoid the crowds. I was expecting crowds and people standing as close as possible to observe the beautiful costumes and event characters as they went by. I was also expecting music, children, cheering, laughter, etc. Much of what we ended up seeing was the exact opposite. No bands or music of any kind unless you brought your own MP3 player. Except for a brief and quiet round of applause, there was no clapping or cheering. And the crowd willingly left a nice wide pathway between the seats at the front and the standing room at the back so that people could get by. There was very little necessary by way of crowd control at all. There were more information people than police officers. And there were almost no children present at all. Granted it was a school day, but with thousands of people, at least a few must have taken some time off work to attend. About the only normal thing compared to back home was the presence of booths selling food, drinks, souvenirs, etc.

The sumo festival we attended today was a bit more `normal.` People showed up in good numbers to watch todays bouts. There was some more cheering for the sumo wrestlers as they entered the ring for their match. Children were there with their parents calling out the name of their favourite sumo wrestler. Lots of merchandise and food available (much more reasonably priced than GM Place too!) However, there was almost no security present (and almost none necessary). And, all of the people who were dressed in security uniforms were women. That was almost the only official presence of women in the entire tournament – vendors, cleaners, admission staff, and . . . security? It seemed a little odd. They were dressed with official hats and wore skirts and heels. They would hurry over to an aisle if someone stood there to take a picture or if any part of the crowd looked too `excited.` The sumo wrestlers would walk right past the front seats into and out of the arena and despite their obvious status among the Japanese, no one tried to reach for them or yell at them as they passed by. There didn`t even seem to be much animosity between east and west. I was a bit nervous at first since we decided to root for the western wrestlers and Tokyo is in eastern Japan. But we didn`t get any dirty looks at all as we cheered on the western wrestlers.

If not for the fact that the Grand Sumo tournament was being held in Tokyo while we were in Japan, we probably would have skipped the city entirely. And that would have been fine.

All of the culture, all of the history, all of the unique identity that has made Japan such a great place to explore and visit is absent from the city. It is row upon row of skyscrapers, and streets filled with young hipsters. It is, in point of fact, just like Vancouver but with taller buildings. I suspect more English is spoken here.

The Grand Sumo tournament, though…that made visiting Tokyo worthwhile.

It was, in a word, awesome. In more words, it was like taking awesome, wrapping it in awesome, and serving it with a side of awesome for garnish.

We arrived at the tournament about 8:30 am and bought our general admission tickets. Since everyone was working on a Monday, we did not sit in our own seats. Instead, we picked the best, inconspicuous seats available overhanging the balcony and trusted in the Japanese preference to avoid confrontations.

The tournament lasts two weeks. There are two teams, basically. Nishi – the west, and Higashi – the east. We decided to cheer for Nishi for several reasons. First and foremost, Tokyo really sucks. Second, we would be cheering for the visiting team in the home team building. Third, cheering for the east of Japan would be like cheering for the east of Canada. Which is like cheering for Toronto. We would never cheer for Toronto. And finally, we were not sitting in our own seats and we wanted to be inconspicuous.

The early morning was for the aspiring sumo wrestlers. It was a continuous series of bouts that lasted until about 3:00 pm. At the end of the two weeks, the wrestler with the best record earns the priveledge of competing as a genuine wrestler at the next competition. Competitions are held about every two months, from what I could gather.

I grabbed a few videos of the events that I will be happy to share when we get home. There was an opening-ceremony ceremony, a ceremony before each match, a ceremony before the official bouts, and a closing ceremony. I wish sumo were more accessible from Canada. It was all fantastic, even if slightly incomprehensible.

Afterwards we joined the crowds and headed back to Shinjuku.

Today we are leaving Kyoto.

The city was nice. Easy to navigate, with lots of great nooks and alleys to visit. We easily had our best experience last night when we visited a small restaurant we had discovered on an earlier foray. It was situated along a small canal, not too far from our ryokan, lost amongst the houses.

It was probably on our first night here that we passed the restaurant. The sign out front had declared okonomiyaki and teppanyaki. We had declared that we should try the place out. And so it was not until our last night visiting that we actually found the time.

After the Gion Corner show, we hiked across town to the small restaurant. The entrance was a frosted-glass door that slid, opening into a small room with a raised tatami floor and five small tables arranged upon the mats. The place was surprisingly full and the owner directed us to the only remaining table.

Dinner was cooked one dish at a time by the owner, and with about twelve people in the restaurant, he had his hands full! Especially since the first group ordered such varied food. But we were content to wait. We ordered our food and some cold sake and enjoyed the ambience.

The owner had an impressive collection of fish, arranged in three or four tanks. And the fish were not small, either! I wondered if perhaps some were kept on hand to serve…

We both ordered Kyoto style okonomyaki. It was similar to Hiroshima style, with noodles cooked into the mix, but the dough was thicker and more like a very thin pizza. The only true similarity was that the servings were huge!

As we enjoyed our meal, the proprietor brought a small journal to the table. It was filled with well-wishes from all the previous visitors to the restaurant from all over the world. It seems we were not the only tourists fortunate enough to find his small establishment over the years.

Neither of us was able to finish our meal, so the owner gave us a small take-out box to bring the remainder home with us. We were happy to oblige! And, for each person who visited the restaurant, he also gave a parting gift of fruit. It was a really nice touch!

We stayed and chatted with him for a little while after we were done eating, telling him a little about Vancouver and complimenting him on his very fine food. The restaurant was Kawa. It was located along the canal near the river to Gion. If you ever visit Kyoto, you are doing yourself a disservice not to visit this remarkable establishment.

Today we toured the Uzumasa Eigamura – a studio film park where they make a lot of the Power Ranger-type shows. I do not actually know what any of the shows were, but I did recognize various incarnations of the Power Ranger team and a giant size statue of Voltron. That was pretty cool.

The park also had a variety of Edo-style buildings and the like for filming a whole range of Japanese cinema. We chatted with a lot of Japanese children who were required to practice english with foreigners for school.

Tonight is our last night in Kyoto. We still want to see Kobe and Okayama out west, Tokyo in the east. And somewhere in the mix it would be nice to fit a full-blown traditional ryoken onsen stay. But we are running out of days to see everything we want.

Maybe we will just stay another week…

Making our way to and from tourist spots has brought about many different realizations and a few minor hazards. A great part of the crowding at these sites comes from the hoardes of Japanese school children who are also touring famous spots. They are often `spirited` bunches, seldom rude, and often curious about the foreigners. The braver ones say hello. The ones with homework march right up to us in a big group and proceed through a script in one of their workbooks. So far, we`ve been the subject of four such assignments. We`ve given signatures, peace messages, messages to Junior High Students, and provided our thoughts on Japanese cities, food, and culture. In exchange, we`ve received a few nice hand-drawn student `name cards` and had a few nice group photos with the school kids.