The last week of travel

[[This is more or less a copy-paste of notes I was keeping during the trip, edited and enhanced with pictures for your viewing pleasure.]]

7/30-8/4:Kyoto：Rented a bike first day because I couldn't walk from the blisters. Failed epically at maps. Highlight was Kiyomizudera, one of the most famous temples. Two cool attractions there are walking through the pitch-black womb of the buddha, and navigating your way blindfolded between the love-fortunetelling-stones. Lost the bike key at but another visitor overheard me looking for it and had found it--I was told the buddha was watching over me. Awwww.



Next day hit up Ginkakuji, the Temple of the Silver Pavilion--little disappointing, and not even because it wasn't silver. I walked through the whole thing and didn't actually realize which was the main pavilion. The Temple of the Golden Pavilion was much shinier.


(Not even silver.)


8/3: day trip to Takarazuka to see Sabrina Fair and EXCITER! put on by the Takarazuka Revue. Sabrina was a little trite but fun, Exciter was what was really worth it. Ignored the pretext of having a story and instead just focused on all the fabulous dances and lights and extravagant costumes and shinies. There were moments of the Rockettes, Follies style girls with enormous feather fans, and vaudeville all rolled together; sometimes it became so farcical that it was inverted to the point of women pretending to be male drag queens.



Came back to Kyoto, stayed at my buddy Ru-san's apartment (we did HIF together last summer) and lucked on a last minute reservation to go inside the Kyoto Imperial Palace. Usually you need to reserve weeks in advance but I was lucky enough to get a spot the morning of.



8/4 afternoon Nagoya: Visiting Hiro as a stop-over between Kyoto and Tokyo. Had an amazing miso-tonkatsu lunch at Yabaton。Visited the Pokemon Center (narrowly convinced myself NOT to buy the giant pikachu) and then three hours in the world's largest Tora no Ana store, where I bought a manga about what happens when Jesus and Buddha come back to Earth and get an apartment together。 Had delicious chicken wings for dinner (who knew these could be a specialty of a Japanese city?!) and boarded a night bus.




8/5: Elizabeth Igarashi (previously Carbone, but just got married and now lives in Japan) and I had made plans to visit the host families from an exchange trip we did in high school. Had a wonderful time hanging out with Yasuko and Michiko san- went to tea (coffee and lemon tart), the Hakasu Jiro museum (he was a cool dud who stood up to General MacArthur, generally revered for more or less being a hottie) and a nice wafuku tempura lunch before visiting Aoki's house. They continued to force treats and tea on me as we sat in her lovely breezey, 200+ year house and gossiped about Spokane and the people on the NICEA trip this year and who had grown up and who had cancer and who was working where. Then went to Keika's house for dinner- met Kaori, Megumi, and the cats Candy and Pipi (AKA Choitto). Was sad to hear her husband had passed of a sudden heart attack two years ago, but otherwise the home was so homey and happy and vibrant. When we all posed for a group photo on the couch they inserted the photo frame of Keika's husband too. She said such wonderful things about Spokane and my house and family- the “dream” of a garden and dinner on the patio and the enormous kitchen. Mom is both “very japanese” and like keika's own grandmother, in the ways she is very fastidious to detail, always takes care of everyone around her, and can read other's feelings very well. Dad is a very good, handsome person with a good character.



We stayed up talking around the dinner table until I realized it was late enough I wouldn't make it to the hostel somewhere in the depths of Tokyo's Akihabara before the curfew, so Keika reissued her order that I stay there.

8/6 Had a leisurely breakfast with Kaori and Keika. In Tokyo, went to Tsukiji Fish Market, wandered the stalls and had the freshest tuna rice bowl imaginable. Sad the auctions are now strictly off-limits. After that visited the lovely Hamarikyuu Royal Gardens, finally making it to the two places I tried to visit on my last trip but were closed. Also saw the contentious Yasukuni Shrine, then went back earlier so I could have a nice dinner with Keika. Made best friends with her kitty.






8/7: Woke up to find that the cat Candy had expressed her displeasure at my presence (she doesn't like people outside the family. She doesn't like men. She doesn't like tall people... I'm screwed) by pooping in my room. Another wonderful breakfast, this time with Megumi and Keika, and a very leisurely departure- wanted to get some photos with Keika, which then took extra time because the girls were otherwise in leisurely saturday mode--clearly unphotographable. Started the day's travel off at Harajuku (after a nightmare of trying to find open coin lockers in Shinjuku)- succumbed to buying a fashionable jacket, ironic shirt, shiny ring. Narrowly convinced myself not to buy the sparkle tux and the shiny but translucent button-up shirt. Eventually made my way over to Ebisu beer Garden (the buildings were gorgeous!) where I learned some history and drank some beer.

My final night, I met up with Hiro again, and we polished off my sake sitting on a curb in a dark back alleyway, in preparation for AnisonMatrix (a series of DJs presenting remixes of Anime theme songs) at Club Mogra. We knew we had arrived when the first person in line (who we had earlier mistaken for a hobo) had a PSP and enormous headphones. It started off slow, but eventually we got the crowd going- we single-handedly taught them how to fist pump, conga line, and spin in a circle. Omega was only moderately successful, although it probably would have caught on if I kept at it. Our two friends who were too cool and didn't “look” like the Otaku crowd were super chill and danced with us a bunch. Actually it was way more fun than I expected, but turns out 6 hours of clubbing is too much.

8/8: gruuuuuumpy. I guess that's what happens when you club straight through the night. Go to Narita airport. Try to stay awake until its time for me to PTFO on the plane. Forgot about all the liquid omiyages I had, got in trouble with security. But I guess its okay when you arrive seven hours early on a surprisingly not busy day! Finally made it back to the states, on the second 8/8.

Update on JR Pass

[[Again, this was written a while ago, just didn't have a chance to post it while traveling.]]

My JR Pass (unlimited use of the bullet trains for a week) was epic. Perhaps even too epic. I hit up 9 cities in 7 days and it wiped me out. Here are a couple of highlights-

After Osaka, starting on the 24th...

Nagasaki- went to an Episcopalin service in Japanese with Gabe, and the sweet old ladies of the congregation invited us to have lunch with them afterwards. The Peace Park in Commemoration of the Atomic Bomb was deeply moving—even more so because the original Japanese text carried a lot more feeling than the English translations.



Kumamoto- we had been thinking this city would make for a fun night out, but perhaps the guide book exaggerated the night life. Basically not a lot else but shopping arcades here. We tried to visit an exhibit on the house of Lafcadio Kearn, which was closed on just that day.


We did find a hipster wearing wafuku. It's kinda hilarious.

Kagoshima- we went swimming on a white sand beach (swimmable coastline is extraordinarily rare in Japan) with a view of the active volcano Sakurajima. Timing was a little bad because it was the only clouded day we had all week. I had the most amazing dinner of “black pork” made with a sauce from black sugar and garlic—a lot like the sauce on Peking duck. And then we got kidnapped a little bit? Oops.



Beppu- hit as many Onsen in as short a time as we could, although the string of unlucky timing continued as our special target of Beppu's famed “sand bath” was closed only on the 4th Wednesday of the month... exactly the day we went. Also visited “the Hells”, a series of geysers and hot springs full of strange colors and properties from different minerals.



Takamatsu- Not gonna lie, we mainly went to Takamatsu so we could check off the island Shikoku from the to-do-list. With that, I've been to all four major islands of Japan, something a surprising number of Japanese people haven't done. But we did have a nice time at Youritukouen, a garden for the feudal lords of Shikoku back when it was still called Sanuki. Also found amazing chocolate pancakes on the way.



Kotohira- The first destination after my companions and I went our separate ways, in Kotohira I spent an afternoon to climb Konpira-San, a shrine known for its arduous climb to the top—something like 1400 steps. The ascent is lined with places that rent walking sticks, hold on to your bags, and offer to ship home any of the baubles you buy. The city itself felt creepily deserted, but I think Konpira is probably my favorite shrine in Japan.
~Interestingly, this is also the only city in which I've ever encountered an unhelpful employee. My ticket buying excursion went like this:
Elliot:“I want to go as far as Hiroshima.”
Douche:”But due to rain the train may be delayed and you can't book that train.”
Elliot: “Then how do I get to Hiroshima?”
Douche: “If you go to Okayama first, you can possibly transfer there.”
Elliot: “Okay, well then I'll book a ticket for Okayama.”
Douche: “But that train's delayed too so you can't go there.”
Repeat ad nauseum. It somehow worked out, and despite his naysaying I took the ticket and got on a train direct to Hiroshima exactly as scheduled.



Hiroshima- The tragic thing that struck me about the city—aside from the heart-wrenching exhibits in the Atom Bomb Peace Memorial—is that even though the city has rebuilt itself into a prosperous and bustling commercial and living center, it will never be known for any history, culture, or image apart from the site of the world's first use of the Atomic Bomb as a weapon.




Himeji- I knew “the most magnificent castle in Japan” was under 5 year construction, so I had been avoiding the day-trip from Osaka. But the trip was in between two major stops and free with my JR Pass, so I decided to go for it this time around. Underwhelmed. It may be Japan's most majestic castle, but at the time it also suffered from Japan's most spitefully placed scaffolds.



My final evening with a valid JR Pass (7/30), I made it as far as my hostel in Kyoto, stumbled in the door, and passed out. At that point I was very happy to abandon the two-sometimes-three-cities-a-day model of travel and actually stay in the same place for more than a day at a time.