Japan Day 3, 4, and 5

Early on day 3 we caught a train for Kinosaki-Onsen. It's a famous enough hot-spring destination that the name of the city has the word for the traditional baths in it: "Onsen." On our way to the Sea of Japan, we went through a snow storm. It's the only snow we've seen this year.

The train station is a great place to notice the enormous differences between China and Japan. In Japan the station is organized in a logical and efficient manner. If you still manage to get confused, there are conveniently located informational booths, each stocked with a fluent English speaker. There are multilingual maps and multilingual train schedules. The passengers wait calmly in lines and file into the train one by one. The car is tidy, and instead of throwing their trash on the ground people will actually walk all the way to the trash can to throw it away. When the train leaves the station, there are four, equally spaced, well dressed employees standing on the platform, smiling an waving goodbye. When the conductor leaves your car, he bows and begs your leave. China is similar in that they also have trains. Everything else is accompanied by thousands of people, screaming, spitting, puking, and chicken feet.



Kinosaki was a small, quiet town with only two main roads. When we got there, there were only a few bathers walking around in their yukatas. Christine chased a few of them down to get a picture. We got into town an hour or two before we could check in, so we strolled around to check out the sights.




Winter is crab season, and the city was obviously proud of their signature ingredient. There were giant crab shaped signs and shops spilling over with live and frozen specimen. Christine liked watching little kids get creeped out by the ones that were still kicking.



We stopped for lunch, and realized that this town didn't cater too much to foreigners. We've gotten used to badly translated menus, or at least a few pictures. Unfortunately, we were able to find neither. Most restaurants had plastic replicas of most of their dishes sitting out front, so we had to bring our waitress outside to point at them. Stephanie and I did all right with our lunches, but Christine ended up with a bowl of raw squid.


After checking in, this lady brought us to our room and poured a cup of tea. She then presented us with our yukatas and gave an moderately comprehensible, Japanese language lesson about how to put them on.

Here, Christine is wearing her "underwear" layer. I am decked out in a 3 layer, "night out on the town" number.

We then hit the streets for our first Onsen experience. I'm not afraid to say I was a little nervous going into it. It wasn't so much the nudity that had me worried. We had been repeatedly notified (through leaflets and guidebooks) that the etiquette in an Onsen was very particular. One must rinse before soaking, and one's towel must not touch the bath, etc. I was worried I might set off an international incident if I just strolled in there with my shower cap and loofa and started scrubbin' my toes. As it turned out, I had little to worry about. The Onsen was a more social place than I had imagined. To be clear, people weren't wandering up to strangers and offering handshakes or anything, but fathers were there with their sons and teenagers were there hanging out together. Only the oldest fogies bothered themselves with the bathing too much, but the pre-soak rinse was mandatory. Also, I had to keep my towel on my head to keep it out of the water.

The ritual of the experience was soothing, as was sitting in hot baths all day. If there was a fantasy land where the hot water never ran out and people could stay in the shower all day, it would probably look a lot like Kinosaki-Onsen. The city had 7 Onsen, but only 6 were open the day we were there. Each one was unique- a couple had small outdoor baths, some had waterfalls, some had steam rooms, they were all tiled and decorated to look fancy. We were able to make it to 3 before we had to get back to our room for dinner. Or as I like to call it: the Best Meal I Have Ever Eaten and Likely Ever Will Eat In My Entire Life.


Three women helped transform our small tea room into a feast fit for a king. If you remember the scene in "Forrest Gump" where Bubba is explaining all of the ways you can eat shrimp, you might be able to imagine what our dinner was like: just replace shrimp with crab. We had boiled crab, baked (on the table) crab, sashimi crab (that's right, raw crab legs. And they were DELICIOUS), a bottomless dish of crab legs to be eaten shabu shabu style (where you boil the crabs in a broth at the table), and a box of crab innards presented as neatly and appetizingly as only a Japanese hotel could manage. We feasted for hours.

Happy Birthday Christine!

After dinner we were able to go to one more Onsen before bed.


While we were gone, our room had been transformed into a bedroom.


In the morning we were served a traditional breakfast. The woman who served us was explaining our meal in Japanese, when she came to a small spinach side. She pointed at it and said "papee."

"Papee," I duitifully responded, trying to commit my new Japanese word to memory.

"Papee," she repeated.

I smiled at her, thinking "yeah, papee, I get it. Spinach."

She made a muscle and pinched it. "Very strong. Papee." I finally understood that she was trying to make a cultural connection.

"Ohhhhhh! Popeye!"

The rest of our meal consisted of a full salted fish, some baked tofu, a soft boiled egg, a salad, some fish cake things, and dried seaweed.

We devoured it all.

The next morning we jumped on another train and went to Osaka where we were staying in "a bad part of town." We felt comfortable when we got there though, since it was still a little cleaner than Shanghai. We were able to meet up with Adam Klimkowski there. He's a friend of both Christine and mine from High Scool (he played lax). He's been living and working in Osaka for two years, and is now fluent in Japanese. He was a great tour guide, and led us directly to all of the best sights and bars in the city. Osaka is known more for its night life that its tourists spots. We walked through "American Town" which was a small area with hip hop and hippie shops. We stopped in a bar there and ate octopus balls.



We had dinner and some beers at a place where you never had to interact with a waiter or waitress. Instead, you punch your order into a touch screen. When service was lagging, we ordered 10 extra plates to get things moving. They also had more western friendly seating. It was set up with the low tables, like most restaurants, but the genius innovation was to hollow out the area underneath so you could let your legs dangle down. Goodbye sore lumbar.


We got up the next morning and had to catch a flight. We made one last stop, since Stephanie had been trying to get to an English language bookstore since we had landed. Christine and I bought like 8000 yen on manga and literature by Japanese authors. After we had spent the last of our yen, we caught our limo for the airport. Here's a shot from the airport "limo" (bus).


Even though I enjoyed Japan's organization, politeness, and cleanliness, I also noticed things that I've come to like about China. Japan's streets seemed desolate in comparison. There was no street food and there were no blankets covered in knock off merchandise. There were no contraptions making their ways down the street while shouldering improbable loads. China's streets are alive.

Japan Day 1 and 2

We were fortunate to have 5 days off from school for Christmas Holiday (the Chinese teachers had to work). In that time Stephanie, Jeremy and I traveled to Japan. This trip was instigated by Stephanie, and I am so glad! It was incredible! We flew to Osaka the morning of December 24, the flight is only about an hour and a half with a one hour time difference. In that time we were served a complete Chinese lunch at 10:45. Ymmm Chinese Airplane food.

Upon landing in Osaka we were instantly amazed by the cleanliness, the friendliness and the incredible bathroom technology! All the toilets had heated seats that washed and dried your butt (there is a different wash for men and women...I tried both, but couldn't tell a significant difference). Once we landed we got on the train conveniently located across from the airport. After 5 months in China, it was unbelievable to find all public transportation in the same area, and clear signs marking the whereabouts of all forms of transportation. We took a 2 hour train to Kyoto, the former capital of Japan (population 1.47 million). It contains most of Japans cultural sites including 1600 Buddhist temples and over 400 Shinto Shrines.

We stayed at a hostel that replicated the traditional idea of tatami mats. Everywhere you went you had to take off your shoes, even restaurants!

The cool toilets :o)

Our room in Kyoto

On the first day we wandered around Kyoto, getting a feel for the city. We were a little tired and disoriented from our travels. Kyoto was a noticibly older town, which we later found out was a popular place to retire to from Osaka. We had an early dinner of curry and udon noodles at a little gramma and grandpop restaurant. It was quite delicious. We retired early to our hostel, only to find complimentary sakki for guests at 8pm. We sat on the floor, drank hot sakki and met other travelers from Chicago, New York, and Australia.

The next morning was Christmas, we got up early and figured out the city buses site see in Kyoto. The bus was unbelievable! Unlike China where everyone forces their way on pushing for the one available seat. Everyone in Japan calmly waited in line and filed in an orderly fashion from the back to the front of the bus. At times the bus became awefully crowded and in that event people were forced to get off through the entrance in the back, but always came up the from to pay the bus driver who thanked every person for riding his bus!

Our first stop was a Zen Buddhist temple called Royan-Ji founded in 1450. This temple is surrounded by gorgeous gardens (even in the middle of winter), and is famous for it's chi-lake and rock garden. It was slightly raining, but still absolutely gorgeous and so peaceful.

Chi-Lake



This was the indoor area where the Japanese Rock Garden was located. There was steam coming off the moss roofs.

Morning meditations

This is a place for washing hands, they were all over the city, especially throughout the temples. In Japanese it the characters written on the stone translate directly as "I find just enough" or "I must learn to be content." Jeremy bought a replica which he turned into a necklace. Stephanie also bought me a slightly larger one one for my birthday.
Inside of the temple.
Even in the winter the gardens were beautiful with streams and bright red berries everywhere.

After this we wanted to go to a larger temple across town, so we got in our first Japanese taxi. I was shocked by the fact that they drove on the left side of the road. It was such a different experience than China, the taxi doors open automatically, the driver changed the radio to English music, and we didn't almost die at any point along the way.

The next temple we visited was called Kiyomizu-Dera. This temple was first built in 798, but due to fire, the present buildings were reconstructed in 1633. This temple is affiliated with the Hosso school of Buddhism, and is the most famouos in Kyoto.

On our way up to the temple there was a long uphill pedestrian street called Chawa-zaka, or Teapot Lane, with a lot of street venders and shops. We tried all kinds of different Japanese street food, many of which tasted like fish.
At the front of this temple there is a downstairs area called Buddah's Belly or Inside Buddah. You take off your shoes, and walk down worn wooden steps into a pitch black corridor. With your left hand you hold onto large prayer beads which guide you through this pitch black maze where you couldn't tell if your eyes were opened or closed. It was a really neat feeling. All you could concentrate on was the warn beads in your hand and/or the cold stone floor under your feet. At the end of this maze there was a large stone engraved with a Japanese character and illuminated by a single overhanging light at the end of the tunnel (I suppose). At this point you were supposed to make your final wish, or offer up your prayer. It was a really incredible experience.

From here we entered the temple. It was much larger and more elaborate. There were families praying together and offering money and painted wooden prayers.

On the bottom level of the the temple is a waterfall called Otowan-no-taki, where you are supposed to drink the sacred waters which are believed to have therapeutic properties.

The three streams of water stand for wealth, health, and longevity (or love, we heard both). You are only supposed to choose 2 out of 3 to avoid greed.

Basking in the sun.

The Kyoto skyline.

sideview of the temple.


Old part of the temple that was only kind of burned down.

Buddha Shrine

Painted prayers.

Old and New Skyline

Walking back down the mountain.

Below the temple there are two streets called Ninen-zaka and Stanen-zaka which have been restored to their orignial look, with old wooden houses and shops.


Random shrines and prayers all over Kyoto
After leaving the traditional neighborhood we went to Gion, which is known for it's Geisha district as well as the lights, restaurants and shops. We actually saw a real live Geisha scurrying through the streets. She was carrying a stack of books and in a hurry.

Sushi dinner on tatami mats.

(notice Jeremy's new necklace)

After dinner we headed to the city center, which was comprised of malls and more malls.

We stumbled into an old whiskey bar where the bartender knew some English and noticed Jeremy's necklace and translated it for him. It was really cool we were the youngest ones in there by about 30 years.


From there we headed back to the hostel to rest before more fun adventures!