Tokyo Day 3

Because we had a reservation at a special tempura restaurant in Tokyo at 5pm, we decided to stay in Tokyo for the day. We were also totally exhausted from walking around the entire previous day.

We wandered around Shinjuku first, went in the very fancy department store there and bought a lovely bento box lunch. We had the bento box outside of a shrine near the Harajuka area. I found out that the sake bottles wrapped in straw are offerings to the temples.

Finally, we made our way to the Harajuka area, a big fashion street with lots of people dressed up.

However, the weather wasn't great and we were tired, so we went back to the hotel early to rest and get ready for dinner.

For dinner we went to this Michelin starred tempura restaurant, it was a tiny hole in the wall kind of place close to the Tokyo train station. Inside we all sat around the open kitchen area at the bench. Dinner started at 5pm and the chefs (main and helper) prepared all our tempura individually. The most interesting vegetable one was an entire chestnut. 

The fish tempura I had the most difficulty eating was this entire fish of I don't know what species. It was lightly battered and when it was served to us (two of them) I could see it's eye still and count it's teeth. I wasn't sure what parts to eat so I paused and watched how my neighbour ate hers. She ate the entire thing head first. Ugh! But what the heck, I'm here to try things. The part I didn't like was eating the head, the lightly crunchy texture, I imagined the bones, the brain, the teeth, the backbone, the fins. I thought the middle part had a funny texture and when we finished Mic pointed out that the fish was cooked full of eggs.

The next morning we caught our flight back, and just by chance we went to the correct airport, we caught the wrong train in the morning which took us to Tokyo station instead of Akihabra, but this wasn't a problem, we were just one station away and could still get to the special airport train. While we were standing on the platform waiting, I said we had better double check the airport again. Turns out we were going to the wrong airport, but the correct airport train happened to leave from Tokyo station. So just by accident we were able to immediately get on the correct train and get to our flight in time. Lucky.

The flight back was uneventful, we were just ahead of the Typhoon which caused travel problems the next day. The weather was actually nice in Switzerland, not raining at all!

Tokyo Disney

Yes. We went. Tokyo city has lots of stuff but nothing that really captured our attention, we've seen shrines and gardens in many other places in Japan and while we were keen to see the large and busy streets of Tokyo, I really like amusement parks! There are two Disney parks in Tokyo and we'd been told by my friend Christine that DisneySea was the place to see. The problem was that on that night it was closing early, at 6:30 instead of 10pm. In the end we went to DisneySea anyway, which turned out to be a good decision because as a compromise to closing early, for an extra ~20CHF we could visit the second park in the afternoon (which we did). DisneySea was by far the better park, the views were amazing, there was so much work done on the details.

The rides weren't very exciting but very beautiful and creative. We liked the Indiana Jones and the Crystal skull 'ride' and the rollercoster beside it was also good, not very exciting but it had parts where they blew fog over the tracks so you couldn't see where it was headed. Again, it was the attention to details that made everything special. 

Our favourite ride was Journey to the Center of the Earth, on the tunnel into the ride they had pictures taken from the story, and a steampunk lab set up with 'specimens' and journals open on the desk as if the owners had just stepped out for a minute. The ride itself was mostly going through the tunnel in a car looking at various scenes from the book, but it ended with a fast but short drop and a bit of speed around the circle before the end.
 

We had a so-so lunch of amusement park fare, and tried a few flavours of popcorn throughout the park (never tried curry but we did have white chocolate flavoured popcorn). After we had ridden on all the rides we wanted to, and circled the park at least 20 times (it wasn't small, but we walked fast and constantly) we headed over to the second Disney park. It was similar to the one in Paris, although not as a detailed, and nothing compared to DisneySea. It was also busier and with more families.

We rode a few rides, SpaceMountain for old times sake (Paris SpaceMountain was much much much better), watched the light parade in the evening and the fireworks light show on the castle (also similar to Disney Paris but still nice). It seemed like the thing to do in Disney was to go with your friends and dress the same, perhaps Mini Mouse dresses, or the same hat etc.

At the end of the day, totally exhausted, we caught the train back to our hotel and fell into bed.

Toyko Day 1

The next day we got up early and left for Tokyo, and arrived at a very popular hotel for English speakers. We were able to use our JR rail pass on the train network in Tokyo, which also had a subway network and a bus network, lots of transportation choices! After dropping off our bags we went to a park in more central Tokyo and had a rather crappy lunch at the park entrance (I had pizza). The Tokyo National Museum was there and we went through the entire thing in maybe an hour. It wasn't very large at all, it was divided into sections (i.e. pottery, theatre, painting) and in the end we were rather disappointed
 

After the garden we headed into Akihabra, the big noisy district for electronics and manga.

There were lots of lights and lots of people and this was the area with all the maid cafes. We didn't go in one, but we saw a girl in the window performing a very cute dance in her very cute little maid outfit. We wandered through some of the electronics stores and a manga shop. The girls floor had stuffed Totoro's and dreamy school boy pillows shaped so you could sleep on his shoulder, and the boys floor was big on boobs boobs boobs, figurines of girl characters with big boobs falling out, a pillow with boobs etc. We were worried as we went up to the top floor but it was all mecha figures instead of hentai. Whew.

After Akihabra went back to the hotel and then out to dinner at a student type restaurant and then early to bed. I must say, on this trip we have often gone to bed around 8 or 9, gotten up around 5 or 6, it all depended on what we were doing.

Matsumoto

We were then on the bus to Matsumoto, through the Japanese alps, which unlike the European alps are very empty of people (a bit like Canadian wilderness). The fall colours were just starting to show at the higher elevations and the ride was very pretty (the seats were also very tiny!). 

We descended down to the valley with the town of Matsumoto and made our way to our hotel. I haven't figured out how to make google maps work well in Japan, I copy the English address from the hotel webpage, do a search and we have ended up at least several blocks away on a few occasions. However, sometimes it works. We are lucky that people in Japan are so willing to help when we are wandering around lost! 

In Matsumoto after we found our hotel we immediately went to visit the old castle. However, once we reached the castle grounds we saw a stage and yodelling performers from Switzerland! Apparently Grindelwald is a sister city to Matsumoto and they were celebrating 150 years of a relationship between Switzerland and Japan. 

I had noticed while walking by that there was a tent for free walking tours of the castle so we went back and asked and there was a guide ready there immediately to show us around (I think it was a slow day for them). Talk about lucky! We asked why he did this and he said it was for exercise of going up and down the stairs, and to exercise his mind by practicing his English (he seemed to be retired).
 

He explained to us all about the castle. Apparently there are only 12 original castles left, the rest were destroyed when Japan started to modernize and the castles were ordered destroyed so that they couldn't be used against the government. Matsumoto castle is the oldest of these castles, it is about 540 years old and was created just at the beginning of the use of rifles in war and so many features are devoted to the rifle. For example, the moat is 60m wide, the limit of rifle fire reach.

No one lived in the castle, it doesn't even have toilets. It is just used as the last place to fight in the battle which would have ranged all over the farm land around. There was also no need to protect the farmers and fighters, Japanese fighting is just about removing the enemy leader. When he is gone, you can take over the fighting men and you need the farmers to work the fields for you. This works because all the people have the same religion, language and customs and so there are no major changes needed when a new leader takes over.

The castle is made using the local building techniques. The walls are made of mud and wood and the only stone is in the base. The Japanese use no seige engines or catapults, just rifles and arrows with fire heads. Matsumoto castle never came under attack, it was part of a line of defense between the two most powerful factions in Japan at that time.

At the top of the castle during the battle was the lookup, and right below that was the commanders room (where he would commit sepuku if the castle was defeated).

We also saw the fish creatures which would decorate the top of the castle, they were fantastical beings which were believed to expel water when fighting, and that water was needed to put out the fires of the enemies. One fish has an open mouth and one has a closed mouth, and the sound with an open mouth is the equivalent of A, and the sound with the closed mouth is the equivalent of Z, so the open and close mouth pair encompase the begining and the end. In temples you an also see paired figures where one has an open and one has a closed mouth.We also learned about the ropes at the shinto shrine, the hanging rope is the cloud, the paper zigzag cutout we see everywhere is the lightning and the straw hanging down is the rain. These are charms everywhere to encourage rain which was necessary for a good rice harvest.

After our tour of the castle we stopped by to see the tea ceremony, these two older ladies which looked like they were also working with the community were at a tent celebrating wipe the small spoon for the tea powder etc. The water was drawn in a specific way from the pot with a wooden spoon/cup thing and placed at a certain angle, then a pause, then set down deliberately. Everything was highly formalized and stylized and they were very nice and wanted to know afterwards if we liked it (but we shared almost no words so communication was difficult). We read afterwards that we had totally butchered our half of the ceremony, to hold the cup a certain way, turn it and finish the tee in three gulps, yeah, that didn't happen.

Afterwards we walked around the temple where there was a festival going on, there were lots of vendors set up selling lots of different foods but not many people. We came back in the evening and the place was full, little children catching goldfish, takoyaki (octopus balls), a rather good bluegrass band playing on the center stage. We bought Yaki Soba from these little old ladies who were running a booth and they thought our English was hilarious. After the performance there were fireworks and then we went to bed!150 year relations between Switzerland and Japan. We watched while one lady performed the very elaborate tea ceremony, she had a specific and direct way she had to fold the napkin, which she used in a specific motion to lift the lid of the hot water, to wipe the small spoon for the tea powder etc. The water was drawn in a specific way from the pot with a wooden spoon/cup thing and placed at a certain angle, then a pause, then set down deliberately. Everything was highly formalized and stylized and they were very nice and wanted to know afterwards if we liked it (but we shared almost no words so communication was difficult). We read afterwards that we had totally butchered our half of the ceremony, to hold the cup a certain way, turn it and finish the tee in three gulps, yeah, that didn't happen.

Afterwards we walked around the temple where there was a festival going on, there were lots of vendors set up selling lots of different foods but not many people. We came back in the evening and the place was full, little children catching goldfish, takoyaki (octopus balls), a rather good bluegrass band playing on the centre stage. We bought Yaki Soba from these little old ladies who were running a booth and they thought our English was hilarious. After the performance there were fireworks and then we went to bed!

The next morning we left just as a festival parade was preparing for the day.

Takayama

We are now in the Japanese alps, or near by it right now. This is the region where there was an unexpected volcanic eruption which seems to have killed about 30 hikers, however we can see no ash clouds and no evidence.

After dropping off our stuff at the hotel we went to see the Hida folk village, just outside of town. In this outdoor museum they collected various farm houses from around the region, especially since with the hydroelectric dam building some of these houses would have been under water.

Some of the buildings had really thick straw roofs, sometimes up to a meter or more thick! They would need to be rebuilt every 60 years or so, and all the straw to build them was collectively owned by the villagers. The village would all help to replace the roof (and not charge labour) and it would take about 4 days of work.

In each house they had a small fire smouldering in the firepit, to keep the house a bit smokey for preservation and to keep the humidity down. In each house they also had a fire detection and fighting installation!

The roofs and beams for making the house all had to be strong and thick because up to 2m of snow could sit on the houses during the winter.After taking several hours to wander through the farm houses we caught the bus back into town and went into the old part of town that has been very well preserved.

While going through this area we found a store selling farm equipment which included this poster (tons of cartoon illustrations are used in Japan for everything), and the machine below is what we've seen used to harvest rice. I kept thinking that a combine from Ontario would finish a rice field in two passes!

Back at the hotel we went up and had a private bath, similar to the one in Kii Katsuura without the crashing ocean waves, just a view of the city. We had dinner at the hotel, another buffet dinner. They brought tiny grills to the table for each of us with the nice beef from the region, all very tasty!

The next morning we started our day again in the baths, this time in the public area which was almost empty. You could bathe (separate genders but the same design) on the roof, outside in a rock lined hot pool that overlooked the city and the mountains behind. This place actually had a cool water bath as well, not the European 14C, but a respectable 20C which felt pretty cold after the 40C baths. I never went into the sauna, but it was 95C!

Kanazawa

In the morning we caught the train from Kyoto to Kanazawa. This time we didn't reserve our seat in advance (with the JR rail pass you can get free reservations but you need to make them at the train station), we got on the train but the car was crowded (although no one was standing). In Kanazawa we were in a very nice hotel where somehow our reservation was screwed up and we were given a nicer room. We were a bit worried that we would have to pay the greater bill, but it all worked out in the end. We decided to walk around the town, which turned into a day of at least 20km of walking!

First we went through the old samurai district, to see the earthen defence walls of the town and to go into some of the poorer foot soldier houses.

We continued to walk to the temple Myoryuhi, also known as the ninja temple although there were no ninjas there. The temple is tiny on the outside but confusing and large on the inside with 23 rooms and 29 staircases and 7 different levels but officially only 2 floors (the stairs to the third floor was a side wall in a closet).

The temple was built by Toshitsune of the Kaga clan and he built many temples to house his soldiers and this temple stood in the middle and was the lookout. There were hidden stair cases below floor boards that could be pulled out, stairs where the risers were made out of rice paper so you could watch from underneath who was going up the stairs (and possibly stab them), double sliding doors for quick escapes and a room for committing seppuku when you lost the battle. You had to make a reservation to visit the temple, although the tours we saw were never full of people, perhaps it was a way to limit the crowds.

Following the temple visit (my favorite of Kanazawa) we walked up to the famous Kenrokuen strolling gardens next to the old castle. The gardens had some famous pine trees that needed wooden supports and were hundreds of years old.

There is also the famous two-legged lantern which looked very picturesque next to the water.

There was also the oldest fountain in Japan which flowed based on gravity fuelled water pressure.

Our walking wasn't finished, we next walked to the rebuilt castle of Kanazawa (which they were still rebuilding).

It was interesting to see the wall construction, all bamboo and mud.

Back at the hotel we checked in and then headed out again to visit the Chaya district, similar to Gion in Kyoto with old wooden houses lining streets. It was too bad we only saw it in the dark, I thought it would be more lively at night similar to Gion. We didn't find anything to eat there, but luckily we had our taste of Takoyaki earlier at one of the street vendors.

Kyoto Day 3

On our third day in Kyoto we headed out to the famous Fushima Inari shrine, this shrine includes ~1000 Tori gates and you could have seen a small part of it in the movie Memoirs of Geisha. Unlike Switzerland, Japan has many train companies running their own stations and train lines, the biggest is Japan Rail of which we have a pass for, but to get to the shrine we took a different rail system, a commuter system for Kyoto. We walked through the shrine, which was huge and stretched up the mountain. Gates and gates and gates and tons and tons of tourists.

They thinned out as we got higher up the mountain, and we only went halfway up!

The shrine is to? a fox, and the fox likes deep fried tofu, so there was part of the shrine where deep fried tofu was left.

There were fox statues all throughout the shrine, and for ~5CHF we had a wood fox face that you would write a wish on and hang on the shrine, and I guess at a special temple day they would burn the offerings.

After the gates we went back into Gion and tried to find the Takoyaki place (octopus balls). I missed making Takoyaki in Vancouver, however the place was closed but we were directed to another great restaurant. We sat at low tables which had a large hotplate set in the table (actually, most of the table was hotplate). Again Sachi ordered and we had Yakisoba (noodle dish which was so good we ordered a second) and a second dish of pancake with noodles and egg and different variations of filling on top. Very tasty.

To finish our large lunch we had flavoured ice for dessert, this is apparently the thing to have, especially during summer festivals (and was also shown in the movie Memoirs of a Geisha). We got a giant pile of ice shavings with syrup flavour and cream drizzled over it.

Once again we were so full after lunch that we didn't really eat anything for dinner. After lunch we walked around the shopping areas of Kyoto, first in the older Gion area, and then to the more modern and less touristy section next door. Oh my was there a tremendous amount of shopping, it easily dwarfed anything in Switzerland, and Canada too for that matter. I believe lots of people come from all the neighbouring areas to shop in Kyoto on the weekend. They had huge long covered arcades just for foot traffic and full of shops, there were lots of Kimonos being sold (the cheap ones for ~30CHF that we saw many girls wearing around Kyoto) and young people calling out in front of the shops about the deals inside. In contrast to Canada (and even Switzerland I believe), Japan still has the department store culture and we visited a rather upscale one that even had a Kimono section. The real Kimonos cost start at 10,000CHF/CAD and we saw one at ~37,000 CHF/CAD (and we didn't go inside the section to have a look around). Sachi left to return to her home town, and we went back to the hotel for an early night of packing and sleeping.