Author: sajbat

In which we go back in time a bit and chat about Slovakia

1 Comment

Eric did a moving write up about our family in Slovakia and how wonderful it was to meet them. They greeted us like we were close friends who they hadn’t seen in a while, not like people whom they hadn’t before met. I’m still blown away by how welcoming and generous they all were to us and hope that we are able to reciprocate in the future. 
I would like to write a bit about Bratislava itself though, to keep up with the travelogueing. 
Before I get into the time there, though, I feel I must go back and tell you about our Romanian taxi driver who got us to our car rental agency. All four of us had walked out of the flat early morning of our departure, hoping to find an easy taxi. None seemed to drive by so we walked over to the nearby grocery store, where you can usually find a waiting taxi, but not today. Just as we were contemplating walking over to the mall taxi stand instead, one drives up. Eric walks over and asks if he is free, and he burbles back to us in Romanian that he is here on a call and that if you wish for a taxi you must call one. Dismayed, we started to walk off but he signaled us back and told us to wait for a moment as he would call a cab for us. “How nice!” we thought. 

When his customer came over, holding a bag of groceries, she got in the back of the cab and I expected they would take off. Instead, he began to chatter with her in rapid Romanian which I could hear through his open window, and she then proceeded to get out of the back, get into the front seat, and then he opened the trunk and gestured for all four of us to squeeze in the back. Apparently, the plan was now that he’d drop the woman off at her place and then take us since it was kind of on the way. The girl squeezed onto my lap and off we went. Eric soon switched into the front seat and for the rest of the ride, in broken Romanian and English helped along with Google translate, we had a fun ride and a conversation, focused on the kids, life in Romania. At one point he looked at us and asked, “George Bush?” To which we gave a horrified “No nononono!”response . Along the way his phone rang and he had a short conversation in Romanian, though we could make out the words “America!” and “Obama!”amongst the palaver. When we told him that the kids liked Romania, he answered “super!!” in such a sweet way (pronounced “su-PEAR!”), genuinely delighted that our family was enjoying his country. All this to show one example of the great interactions we have had here. 
Alright, back to Slovakia! We drove across Hungary to get to Slovakia, and I mused that it no longer seems strange to just drive across an entire country in one day. It was about 5 hours of driving, which barely gets you out of most states back home.


Eric’s relative Eva lives in Nitra, which is a bit outside Bratislava, the main city and capital of Slovakia. A pretty small European town, the only real sightseeing we did there was to see the castle, interesting chiefly for its opulent cathedral, touted as one of the oldest in Europe. It really is stunning inside, though I have to admit that sometimes cathedral interiors feel a bit overdone to me. Everything shines about in gilded facades and every surface is painted with saintly scenes, sometimes it can be visually overwhelming, like a bad “after” from an episode of Trading Spaces. 


We made it to Bratislava in the evening and met up with Denisa and Edmund, Eva’s daughter and son-in-law, or Eric’s third cousin. I looked up a chart of those weird relationship things and discovered that Eva is technically a second cousin twice removed! I’ve always wanted to say that and now I can! Eva had gone through some trouble to find us the perfect flat in the middle of Old Town Bratislava, so we were well situated. Side note: I really much prefer the old name of Posovny. Bratislava just sounds so…brutal…and like the name of a country, not a city. Posovny is so much more romantic! Perhaps the civic leaders will take heed of my blog and take the appropriate steps.


Old town Bratislava is lovely, with narrow pathways through old stone buildings. Once you leave the picturesque old town area, though, Bratislava reverts into a fairly typical landscape of paved streets and commercial buildings, so we scurried back to old town as quickly as we could. We rounded a corner and stopped to see a man coming out of a sewer grate! The tourists posing with him were a bit curious, until we got close enough to see that it was a statue! There are several such statues around the old town area and we made good fools of ourselves for pictures like everyone else. 



That evening Eric’s cousins treated us to the UFO, a saucer like structure on top of a bridge pylon, which overlooks the entire city & Danube river. We wandered about on the top deck, open to the elements and looked over the view. The kids played about on a set of stairs, which made me a bit nervous given that we were, oh, 300 feet above the water. Afterwards we went into the thankfully enclosed space below and had a cocktail and cheerful conversation with our new cousins, watching the sun set over Bratislava. 


-s

In which we learn to say, “Ah, Vienna!” Like everyone else.

1 Comment

[Side note: This is part 2 of a special Fretz 2 part blog crossover EVENT. Check out the first part of the Vienna trip over at ericfretz.wordpress.com]

Vienna! I remember when my parents visited Europe many years ago, and when they returned they waxed poetic about the beauty of Vienna. Yesterday we saw the summer palace in the outskirts as Eric mentioned but didn’t get much of a chance to see the city during the daytime, so today was devoted more to that.

Vienna has a LOT of museums. You can choose from Jewish history museums, music museums, several art museums of different foci, architecture museums, children’s museums, museums dedicated to Habspurg rulers, a globe museum, and even more. We again found ourselves in a country capital on its National day, which we seem to have a knack for. Luckily, in Austria this means free or reduced museum entry and everything is still open. We opted for the Haus der Musik (Sound Museum) and the Albertina (art museum) and then would see how we felt afterwards.
The Haus der Musik is more than just music – it’s really more like four floors of sound games. A few of our favorite games were a musical dice rolling game where you replicated Mozart’s version of this to create new waltzes, another similar game based on your name. Another was this cool exhibit on how your brain makes sounds that aren’t actually there to fill in the gaps of sound waves that may be discordant. I can’t entirely explain it, because I don’t know that I entirely understood it, but it was cool nonetheless! One room was dedicated to simulating life in the womb, with a pulsating light in the center of the room, whooshing sounds around you and heart beats, and a floor which vibrated under your feet. It was oddly soothing. There’s one floor dedicated to the great composers, where you can see some of their original compositions written in their hand, but other than that the floor is a bit dull otherwise unless pictures of bewigged men makes you swoon.


After this it was off to the Albertina, a more traditional fine arts museum. There, they had an exhibition showing the evolution of pointillism and how it morphed from the style of Seurat all the way to Mondrian style color blocking, passing through Van Gogh along the way, who had little patience for pointillism because it just took so damn long. They blamed this on his mental illness, but I think it shows a particular moment of sanity on his part. I particularly liked an exhibition on woodblock prints as well – they were so precise, and such a difference after seeing the rooms of impressionism and soft colors.
After this we were done with museums and ready for a break, and we found one with some tasty pastries! We ate all of them.

We strolled through the crowded main square we looked around briefly at the museums in the MuseumQuarter, though I was too tired to enjoy them at that point. The kids amused themselves on the walk through by trying to catch giant bubbles being blown by a woman on the square, though “didn’t hear us” when we called them to move on and needed to be corralled. I swear, the number of times I wish I had a sheepdog to round them up.


That evening was spent in, tired as we all were from walking around and still having a cold. I went to a panini place across from our hotel for takeaway, and while waiting at the bar for our food struck up a conversation with a college student from England in Vienna to study art. Within the EU this is relatively easy, as college prices are low across the board and you can move about. With Brexit, though, this won’t be possible and I began to understand why young people in Britain were truly dismayed at the possibility of having a closed border.

I miss playing trivia while travelling, so we played Austrian trivia. Lu did the best with this and beat the rest of us hands down.

The answer was A, in case you’re wondering.

Vienna was delightful overall, and we hope to make it back someday. The people were incredibly friendly and welcoming, the food was tasty and there was so much to see and do we left feeling as if we barely scratched the surface.

-s

In which things start to look up in Timisoara, if we can figure out the elevators

2 Comments

We’ve been here a few weeks now, and have started to enjoy it here a lot more than those first sad days.  
People still stare at me everywhere we go, and doubly so when we’re out as a family. At one point, a woman dressed in head to toe skintight cow print stared at me for a full twenty seconds. I thought to myself, “You look like you need to be milked, but I’m the weirdo here?” I don’t notice the public staring as much because I simply don’t make eye contact with anyone as I walk by, instead choosing to look straight ahead as if I’m on my own personal catwalk. There’s also some freedom knowing that no matter what I do, people will look at me as a freak so I may as well do whatever I want. This includes rapping Nelly lyrics out loud as I jog outside. 
Why do they stare? I think this is due to a combination of several factors. First, is that I look vaguely Roma, or gypsy, so there are some who regard me poorly this way as the racism towards the Roma runs high here. Secondly, the impact that Communism and the repressive dictator state had on the national psyche can’t be underestimated. When you’ve lived most of your life not knowing who to trust and learning to be wary of others, it’s not a lesson easily unlearned. The regime only fell in 1989 so most people here have deep memories of that time. Third, is that Romania is not on the typical tourist beaten path so there aren’t as many outsiders here as there are in other cities. While I may joke above, I have to be honest that it still makes me uncomfortable. I never feel like I am in any personal danger, but it feels unwelcoming at the very least.   I’ve been into some stores where I was clearly not welcome, and I felt like coming back waving wads of lei saying “Remember me? I was in here yesterday,, you wouldn’t wait on me? Big mistake! Big! Huge! I have to go shopping now.” 
Onto nicer things – there are plenty restaurants and lovely open squares here, and why we were sent to the mall on our first day is beyond me, as there were delicious places just a block or two south of where we had happened upon. We’ve met up with friends ((who Eric met online before we arrived)who’ve given us some great pointers on living here, most importantly the word “sec” to be used when ordering wine of any type, else you will be served with something bordering on the syrupy taste of Manischevitz.  
Timisoara started as a fortress town surrounded by a swampy moat, which has since been filled in. The area was still well watered, so they’ve replaced the moat with a ring of verdant parks that surround the city center. 


There’s a rose garden (sad looking now given that it’s October, of course) a botanic garden, and many others. One is called Kids’ Park, seen above in the southeast corner,  which has several play areas, unencumbered by the safety restrictions that exist in the US so are higher and more fun than anything you’ll find back home. Note the trampolines at the park below!


The language barrier makes it hard for any of us to make friends at the park though, so we’re happy that our friends Rob and Dana have a bright and active seven year old that the kids enjoy playing with. I’m hoping that as we spend more time here they’ll get to meet some other kids at the playgrounds, but I’m not sure this will happen.

The city center is the typical European center-cobblestone plazas, outdoor cafes and flanked by churches, with narrow sidestreets leading away. 


We moved flats to one across town – across town being a mile away – this one a refurbished Communist era apartment now made modern. You can see the rows of Communist buildings from our window here, charmless cuboid structures planted in the name of efficiency. Inside though, they are undergoing a revival and quite nice. 

The elevator to get in is a trip. When we first got there, we pushed the button to call the elevator. The elevatorcame down and we waited for the door to open. Nothing happened. 

After a minute of feeling foolish, we realized we had to open the door manually. 

Once inside, you have to close a second set of blue metal doors and then choose your floor. 

Then all four of us squeezed into a tiny tiny space! Clearly, the communists wanted to encourage people to take the stairs. Realistically, electricity was so spotty that the elevators probably were useless most of the time anyway and no one in their right mind would risk them. 

Inside though it is lovely.  It’s a big upgrade from our first place, namely we can sit on the toilet without risking bodily injury from the seat unexpectedly sliding off and the shower allows us to choose the degree of warmth. You know, priorities. It’s also close to an outpost of the best bakery chain in town, Prospero, and every few days we stock up on fresh bread, croissants, apple strudel and cinnamon rolls. Just outside is a vending machine for eggs and milk and next to those is a little shack that sells wine in bulk, so we’ve got the basics covered without having to go into the madness that is the grocery store, which I’ll write about later.

That’s a 2L bottle of wine for $4


So things are looking up overall! 

-s

In which we find that in Romania, the streets walk on you

2 Comments

Friends, it was a rough transition from Japan to Eastern Europe. After an exhaustingly long, though comfortable flight, to get to Budapest, we had two days there before coming to Timisoara. The first night Eric and I went out to get some pizza for dinner. Whether it was fatigue, or extreme jet lag, or just real culture shock, my whole body felt stunned as we walked around. It was a complete reversal from Osaka to get to Budapest, from the slick cityscape of metal and glass to the brick and cobblestone buildings and streets. Suddenly everything became intelligible again, at least to a degree, as we returned to Roman script. Gone was the extreme politeness and solicitude of Japan, and instead the harsh straightforwardness of Eastern Europe. 
There were parks, open spaces and benches, which were a refreshing change to be sure. 


The next day we took a five hour car ride to Timisoara, driven by a dour man who was clearly agitated at our decision to eat while in his car, and had no interest in even polite conversation. We arrived at our flat in Timisoara, greeted by our friendly host, and settled in. I found the bathroom directly connected to the kitchen, which in and of itself was revolting. I went to use the toilet and the seat slid out from under me and I almost fell on the floor. I noticed that there were five air fresheners in the bathroom, but that did little to cover up the dank odor of stagnant water. The living space and bedrooms were fine, with high ceilings and large windows that spoke to a grander past. The kitchen was filled with pots and pans that were still covered in a layer of grease from whoever was there last. The shower water had two choices, scalding hot or frigid. What a metaphor. It was full of mosquitos, and the girl and I woke up with no less than 14 bites on our faces. 


We all set out to find dinner, looking up some places on our phone before heading out. The streets were dark, desolate appearing and had menacing graffiti tags all along cement block buildings. Whenever we walked outside, we felt cold stares of people on us. I’d look back in defiance, only to find that Romanians feel no need to break a stare when caught in one, and we’d end up staring each other for sometimes as much as 15 seconds while walking past one another, looking over our shoulders to stare. There was no accompanying smile or any gesture of friendliness in the stare. A Ukrainian colleague of mine once told me that in Ukraine, there is a saying, “Why are you smiling? Are you stupid or something?” And I felt that this had clearly bled over into Romania.
We made it to a wide plaza surrounded by outdoor cafes and people having beverages. We walked up to one and asked if they served food, and they simply shook their heads. Where can we find food at three pm on Sunday, we asked? The mall, they told us. Try the mall. So we went to the mall, a byzantine complex of shops and no clear pathway from one end to the next. There are modern stores there like Sephora and H&M, but then next to that will be a store selling mops and brooms. We found a passable Italian restaurant where we kept waving away the dense clouds of cigarette smoke that wafted over us from the other patrons. 
Before we stopped back home, we went to a corner market to pick up some bread and milk and such for the morning, and found this on the shelves. 


At this point, I felt like Romania was literally telling me to eat shit. We settled in for the night with heavy hearts, feeling that the next three months were bound for misery. 
It’s looked up considerably since then, but man, that was an unhappy start.

-s

In which I share final thoughts on Japan, and we are warned of possible projectile vomiting, I think. 

Leave a comment

Overall, we all loved Japan though it was harder than I had anticipated to travel there. Here’s some thoughts, in no particular order.
1. The language. Very, very few people speak English here. I don’t mean to sound like the typical Ugly American Tourist, only to comment that it can be hard to get around. Not only is it hard to communicate with people, but little of the signage outside of a train station is in English, so navigation is tough too. In Vietnam and Cambodia, most things were dual signed, even in Phnom Penh which isn’t set up for tourists as much as Siem Reap. And in Vietnam the script is roman script, so even if I don’t know what something says, I can match it up to the street on my google map or a restaurant name a lot easier. Trying to do that by matching Japanese characters is a lot harder. And weirdly, sometimes things would have one or two words in English on it but then would be otherwise in Japanese. Like a menu would say “Lunch Menu” at the top, but then all below was indecipherable to us. Using the google translate app gets you only so far. For us, this meant that one of our favorite things about traveling so far, which has been connecting with the people and learning about their lives, was much harder. If we were to come back for any longer period of time, I would try to pick up some conversational Japanese.


2. The food. Just incredible, and maybe the best three weeks of food I’ve ever had. Being semi-vegetarian also made things harder especially with the language – we were largely hemmed in by places that had English menus so we knew what we were ordering. Many restaurants are these tiny five to six seater places, and we loved that, sitting at a counter while chatting with the chef as we were able. We eat fish and so sushi was always the easy and relatively cheap option. We had ramen as well several places, and I’m 90% certain that it was pork bone broth every single time, but who knows. With broth, while traveling, I generally follow a don’t ask/don’t tell policy. There is so much more to Japanese food other than ramen and sushi, and we want to make some when we get home. The Onigiri, or seaweed wrapped rice balls, were delicious and would be perfect for kids’ lunches. We are going to miss the Japanese food so, so much. And the sake. 


3. Etiquette. Japan is a notoriously polite society, where people do things in a certain way and look down upon you if you do things the wrong way. We tried to be as respectful of this as possible, following etiquette as we could. However. I stopped caring quite so much when I noticed that people sneeze INTO THE OPEN AIR. Into a crowded subway car even. I’m convinced that this is how I caught a cold while I was there. After that, I stopped trying to be so precise about everything. I mean, I felt like this was one area which we did better than the Japanese, and I just figured that as a foreigner, we’re never going to get it all correct so it was better just to relax about it a bit.

4. Shopping. There are malls everywhere. They are huge and confusing, as most don’t have any walls between the separate stores. Everything in the malls is insanely expensive, like you’re shopping at Neiman Marcus but in every store. They are full of people. Who are these people? What are they buying all the time? Where do they put it? We never found out. If you do shop in Japan, bring your passport with you though as foreign travellers get their tax refunded to them. 

5. People. For the most part, people were warm and welcoming to us, even with the language barrier. The only time this didn’t happen was when we went into small restaurants that clearly only catered to locals, had no English around, and all conversation stopped when we walked in. One of these we walked into and asked for a menu. The chef looked at us like we had three heads and pointed to the wooden boards hanging all around the restaurant, written in Japanese, as if to say, “you morons, the menu is literally written on the walls.” We backed out slowly and didn’t go back in. 

6. Money. Japan has a reputation for being extremely expensive, and I have to say I didn’t find this to be the case. Overall, it was about as pricey as your average American city travel, and cheaper in some cases, partly thanks to the weak yen and strong dollar. I’ve easily spent more for the same housing and meals in NYC. Average Air Bnb was $60-120/night and an average meal for us was between $10-18 a person, including drinks. You can, of course, find much more expensive options and much cheaper options if you look. Even Disney tickets in Japan are considerably cheaper than the US, honestly. It’s not cheap cheap travel like in Southeast Asia, but it wasn’t like every meal cost us $100. 

7. Public Open  Spaces. There are none. Other than the manicured gardens requiring pay entry, there were no open parks with benches for people to sit and rest in, and we happened across zero playgrounds during our entire time there. We were walking so much every day that the kids got their exercise in, but it was odd. In general, Japan is a culture where things aren’t done in public. For example, other than ice cream, people do not eat in public. So when we’d get those onigiri from the 7-11 and try to find a place to sit and eat them, it was tough. Do the kids not play much there? I have to wonder. There are also almost no public trash cans. Take it with you, people. 

8. Restaurants with kids. This was tricky. First of all, you can smoke indoors at restaurants in Japan, so this made some places a bit tough to even go into. And kids aren’t really welcomed into bars at all, so even when we were just walking around and wanted to stop in for a drink while we found a place to eat on our phones, it just couldn’t happen. 

9. Prettiness. Everything is pretty. Even the manhole covers. So lovely. 

10. Vending machines. There are vending machines for everything purportedly, including underwear, but the only ones we saw were for drinks, liquor, and a vending machine for dashi stock. There’s also a lot of capsule toys and these are arranged in a long line where you can put in between $2-3 and get a little toy

And now, the street signs and others, Japan edition.

This crossing is for Don Draper and smooth criminals


Dancing elderly! Watch out!

Is this sign warning us to beware of drunk people throwing up?

Do not smoke cigarettes as large as your entire body here. I assume small ones are okay. Or cheroots. Who doesn’t like a little cheroot once in a while anyhow?

Aw, they even care about the robots here.

No selfie sticks, no littering, no smoking, don’t lean on stairs, and most importantly DON’T TOUCH THE GEISHA


In which we find people who can speak English but we can’t speak back

Leave a comment

Time for our last day in Osaka! We had an 11:30 PM flight so packed up our bags, stuffed them into a train locker at Osaka Station, and went out for the day. First stop was to our last onsen of our trip! Wandering through a pedestrian alley filled with shops, then into a nondescript building with a smoky pachinko (gambling) parlor on the bottom floor, we saw a sign that said “spa” and took the elevator up. This one was on the rooftop of a building in the city! Here you h ad to order what you wanted from a vending machine, including towels, then take those tickets exactly ten steps to the right and hand them to the people working there. Why we couldn’t just order directlyfrom the workers is beyond me, since they were otherwise rather bored looking. One thing I’ve noticed here is that there are always more people at a job than needed, like every cash register always has at least two people working at it, one to handle the money and another to wrap your purchases. Anyway, back to the Onsen.   Not as plush as the last one we were at, but still so fun. The ladies tried to talk to me in Japanese, and not for the first time I wished I spoke the language. 
We bickered about lunch before finding a 7-11 and getting some onigiri. I swear, those 7-11s saved us so many times. There was a fish shaped filled waffle stand too, and we got some really yummy sweet potato ones! 


We had bought movie tickets the day previously, finally able to see “the BFG”! Movie tickets in Japan are notoriously expensive, with regular prices at $18/ticket. Luckily, there are a lot of random discounts. We used the one for “ladies day” and “couple with one person over 50” and paid $11/ticket, which is less than most American theatres. Trying to find a movie in English in Japan is tricky, what with the sites in all Japanese and not always obvious if a movie is subtitled or dubbed. I actually had to match Japanese characters to try and figure it out. Still, we weren’t entirely sure if we’d chosen wisely. The movie starts with nearly five minutes of silence and then random scuffling sounds before anyone utters a peep, but when they did, it was in English. Ahhhhh. I nearly wept in happiness at being able to understand people other than my family talk for a full two hours. Outside of the theatre was a pile of neatly stacked blankets to use for the show. The thing is, it’s not that cold in the movie theatres or anywhere indoors really as an electricity saving measure. Still, how could you not snuggle under a blanket? 


Here’s Eric cozied up in his blanket, drinking a beer just before the movie. The other thing is that the Japanese are SILENT during the movie. I mean, there were a lot of funny parts and we and the kids were laughing, but the Japanese watchers (all ten of them) did not make a peep. They may have thought we were rude for laughing, but it seemed ridiculous to tell my kids be silent while watching characters shoot across the screen farting powerful neon green bubbles. 
The BFG is a movie that uses a lot of made up words and language jokes (For example, the character says “right and left” when he means “right and wrong”) and I couldn’t help but wonder how this could possibly be translated and keep the same feeling. Of course, it’s probably the same when we watch the Miyazaki movies in dubbed English – something isn’t quite carried through. 
After this was dinner, which of course had to be one last stop at conveyor belt sushi, on the top floor of the mall attached to the Osaka train station. Then to the airport, where we bid a sad sayonara to Japan on our way to Budapest and then Romania, the first leg of our journey coming to a close.
-s

In which a Hufflepuff and two Ravenclaws walk into a bar, the Hogshead of course because we’re dark like that. Three Broomsticks, pah.

Leave a comment

It was time for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter! I had read blogs on how to navigate the crowded park and long lines, had gotten tickets ahead of time and a pass that let us into the park earlier than others. I didn’t want to spend the extra $60 per person to get the express passes to get on rides faster, but did opt for the extra wristband for early admittance. Again, Eric opted not to come with us to Universal Studios Japan (USJ) because he didn’t want to learn about how theme park culture varies within a country. Such a xenophobe that one. 
This time, I said, I would try to fit in more. I put on a nicer outfit, blew out my hair, and wore makeup, though I drew the line at wearing high heels like many Japanese and opted for sneakers. We ambled easily to the train station as I’d made sure we left early, where I realized I had forgotten the wristbands back at the house! I ran back to the house in five minutes, leaving the kids on the train platform (totally fine, as Japan is incredibly safe and you see kids younger than mine out alone all the time), and thankfully Eric was still home and I was able to find the bands and ran back to the train station. I then realized I didn’t have my phone with me, having left it at the house when I went to get the headbands! Crap! Well, I figured, we wouldn’t take pictures but that would be okay. We got on the train and transferred at the next stop. At that second, I realized that our tickets were electronic ones and I could ONLY ACCESS THEM ON MY PHONE. I may have used some colorful language out loud here, in front of the kids. It was entirely warranted. Clearly, I had not imbibed my felix felices this morning. We all tried to use accio to bring the phone to us, alas, we were wandless and thus powerless as well.
We quickly got off the train we were on, ran to the other platform, got on the train back to our station, where I again left the kids and ran back to the Air BnB, yelling over my shoulder for them to switch platforms. Of note, I had now seen the same station master three times previously on my other station entrance and exits. He saw me enter with the kids, then run out on my own, then run back in, and now running out alone yet again, and becoming more disheveled with every passing. I’m sure I only verified whatever stereotypes he has of foreigners and created some new ones.
Sweaty, overheated, and with my hair frizzed out like an electrocuted lion, I made it back with my phone, we got on the next train, and we were off, at USJ 20 minutes later. As it turned out, we were still there in plenty of time, and I’d gotten in a workout to boot. We got into our early admission line. Thirty minutes before OUR early admission line, a DIFFERENT early admission line got in! Dammit. I hoped there weren’t enough people in it to clog up Harry Potter world. When our time was up, we ran like hell to the Harry Potter area. If you don’t get there first thing, you have to wait to get a timed ticket and it’s a lot more crowded as the day goes on. As one blog says, “run like a shark is chasing you. Do not stop. Do not wave at the friendly park workers. Run.” 
The boy took off like the proverbial bat out of hell and didn’t stop until he got to the Forbidden Journey ride, one of the most popular in the park. Given that I’d already basically sprinted a couple miles that morning, I wheezed after him and tried to keep up, not wanting to leave the girl behind either. I feebly yelled out after him to wait a few times, to no avail. He was a boy on a mission. Because of his determination, and because of the poor footwear choices of many Japanese parkgoers, we were able to walk on to the ride. When we walked out five minutes later, the wait time was two hours.


After that we headed out and could really enjoy Hogsmeade village. The boy was chosen for the wand show at Ollivander’s! The wand that chose him (which you can then buy) was unfortunately one with a hideous skull on the handle, so he didn’t want to keep it. The girl picked out a different wand for herself, and then we went about to do all the magical things in the park you can do with your wand! The girl was chosen for the “Wand Studies” show and got to show off her skills. These two shows were in dual English and Japanese, so we could really enjoy them. The rides were all in Japanese alone, which of course it’s Japan, but I was still surprised because there are so many foreign visitors to the park — Korean, Singaporean, Chinese – that I’d think there’d be more dual language. Still it was pretty fun to see Dumbledore’s picture chattering away at us in Japanese. After getting our fill of Hogsmeade, where we stayed for a full three hours, we walked out and got a timed ticket to return in the evening to see the Death Eater attacks, special for Halloween, and the castle at night. 

It sorted me into Ravenclaw!

Butterbeer for the kids and a real beer for me, at 10:30 AM of course, but only for Harry Potter

In front of Dervish and Bangs! See how I made an effort?

Practicing wandwork!


The rest of the park just pales in comparison, and while we enjoyed ourselves it is a true letdown after HP. Unlike Disney where each area is done up to the last detail, it was only this way in HP and the rest looked straight out of an 80’s theme park, literally. Universal Studios Florida, apparently, has relatively new rides and attractions, but here, it’s as if time just stopped. There’s still the town of Amity and the Jaws ride, which is exactly the same as it was forever, except the boat captain screams in Japanese hysterics and the Japanese riders, rather adorably, are scared (or pretend to be so) and scream at the large animatronic shark. There’s still the Backdraft show, a Terminator ride, and….a Waterworld show. I mean, really? The kids area is based on Peanuts, Hello Kitty and Sesame Street characters. I did get the kids to go on their first real roller coaster, with a 50 degree drop and going up to almost 60mph. We used the single rider line instead of wait three hours, meaning that my son was left to his own devices for his first ride of terror, because I’m a caring mom like that. The girl was at least in the same car as me. 

We went to one area which seemed like a museum of all the Hello Kitty bows. Strange enough, but then at the end there was a Japanese woman who said in a high pitched voice “Hello Kitty is so happy to meet you! You are a friend to Hello Kitty! Now let’s practice! When I say ‘hello’ you say ‘Kitty’ Okay?! Helloo…”  We all looked at each other, wondering if this was the password to escape cupcake hell, not really knowing what it has to do with being a friend to Hello Kitty. I mean, I don’t do this with my other friends. “Kitty!” We all cheered back. “Now let’s do it again!” Uh, sure. I guess we did it right because we then were led into a room to meet Hello Kitty, and have our picture taken, which of course we could then purchase if we wanted to. 

Meeting Hello Kitty

Being a good sport

An indoor play area where the girl made…a massage table for herself. Likes the finer things in life, that one does.


Because it’s Halloween time here, the park has zombies that come out at night and horror themed rides around the periphery, which don’t have much signage because they don’t want to scare the little kids, but the one truck with bloody handprints on it was enough for my tender hearted boy, who decided he really didn’t want to see the zombies. We saw one while we were getting back to HP land at night, and while I found it funny to watch them scaring people, the kids were utterly terrified and almost couldn’t eat their dinner! 
At night, HP land is magical, with the windows all lit up and it feels special. You walk through the Forbidden Forest to get there, and hear the trees talking to you and animal sounds as you walk along. We were able to enjoy the entry more as we weren’t racing to the ride. The Forbidden Journey only had a ten minute wait again! We hopped back on, of course! We made it out of the park safely and happy again with the memory of HP as our last one of the park. 


Overall, I’d give the Harry Potter area a 10, though I wish it was bigger. The rest gets a solid 6 except for the coasters which were fun. I’m glad we went, since I don’t know when we’ll be able to get to another HP land in the near future, and we’re all so into HP right now that it was just right, though if that’s not your draw, then I don’t know that I’d recommend it. Unless you’re SUPER into Backdraft and Waterworld. And speak Japanese to understand those shows. Then run, don’t walk there. 
-s

In which Eric bizarrely, suffers from acrophobia, I find some yarn, and oh yeah we visit a castle.

Leave a comment

Time for the last leg of our Japan trip. We (okay I, Bataan death marcher that I am) decided that we would stop by Himeji castle on our way to Osaka instead of staying there and instead have four nights in Osaka and take day trips from there. We had hoped to visit Mt. Koya, a peaceful mountain where you can stay at Buddhist monasteries and is supposed to be beautiful, but here was one place where our on-the-go planning didn’t work out. They need at least one week advance notice prior to arrival, so, well, this was missed. Truth be told, I think we were all getting a bit tired of sightseeing and were ready for a few slower days anyway. 
After leaving Naoshima we made our way by train to Himeji, the site of a large Samurai castle. After putting our bags in lockers we walked towards the castle site, planning on stopping at a noodle shop first, but it was closed. Now, while there are other noodle shops and such around, we’re a bit more limited in what we want to eat and like to have an English menu to choose from, which I’ll write more about later. After walking about and bickering for a while, we settled on a place that had salads and pasta and was generally underwhelming. One of the few mediocre meals we’ve had in Japan. 
Himeji castle is the largest samurai castle in Japan, built for residency but also for defense. There are hidden windows to drop rocks on your enemies from, rooms to wait in to ambush enemies and of course rooms for the ladies. I particularly loved the roof end tiles which were decorated with  family crests. The castle had been destroyed in the war but a years long restoration effort has returned it to splendor. The castle was fun to walk around, though really overcrowded. As Eric has posted, modern Japan has been unkind to his head, and ancient Japan is even worse. After a stroll through the castle and serene gardens, we headed to Osaka and found our Air BnB, a three story apartment with thankfully high doorways and ceilings! Finally!  


We woke late the next day and just had a rest day of sorts, walking around to continue what I now think of as “Eric’s Quest for Jeans,” and again failing. As Eric said, you cannot get anywhere in Osaka without walking through a shopping mall, and I unfortunately felt like we spent more time in malls then I wanted. I was able to visit one of my favorite yarn places though, Habu yarns or Avril as they’re known here, and pick up some lovely skeins. They’re known for all sorts of unusual yarns, and browing the shop did not disapoint!

See how this entirely independent store is just …. in the corner?

The initial plan for Monday had been to take the train to Nara, land of lovely parks and wild deer which frolic about and you can feed. In the morning, after having had coffee, the idea of taking a train to sightsee anywhere was not appealing. Add to that that the main draw in Nara is a large shrine and everyone just gave me a big stare when I mentioned it. Instead we went to the Harukas observatory, 300 meters up high. We had to go there to pick up our tickets for Universal Studios Japan (are you kidding? Of course I did! They have a Harry Potter World there!!) 


In a fun ironic twist, Eric doesn’t like heights and they make him quite vertiginous. Seriously. While the rest of us enjoyed the views of Osaka from up high, he went down to the cafe on the next level and stared at his Kindle, trying to ignore the fact that out the window was a long way down. Our next stop was the Dotonbori area of Osaka, which I liken to the Times Square of the area. Bright lights and big animatronic animals advertising restaurants, and lots of people. The only difference is that I think plenty of real Osakans head here all the time, unlike New Yorkers and Times Square. The most bizarre thing for me, however, was that there was a girl group performing at the riverwalk area – that in and of itself was fine, but across the river were grown men twirling towels around and cheering and actually weeping in joy at them. It was like the scene at an N*SYNC concert, only the performers were twenty year old girls and the screaming fans were middle aged men.  There was also a huge store called Don Quixote, that sold all sorts of random weird things, including some…questionably named men’s underwear. 

Eric couldn’t decide between the pervert or black man, so he got 10 of each

We tried to find a place to hang out and have a drink and some appetizers, but couldn’t find anything where the kids were welcome to come in with us. After some more fruitless wandering we finally just went to a soba noodle restaurant where we were warmly welcomed by the cook. They grind all their own buckwheat to make the noodles in house, and the kids got to try their hand at traditional grinding. Man, I am going to miss the food here. 

quieter side street of dotonbori at night


-s

In which we see an art-filled island, and are silently admonished by the Japanese for making our small child ride a bike over hills

4 Comments

From Hiroshima we made our way to Naoshima, or more precisely the port from which you get to Naoshima. 
We found our guesthouse, which was small but charming, and headed over to the island. Naoshima is an island off the coast of Eastern Japan which has become a big art site – there are several museums, galleries, and indoor and outdoor installations. The island is also famous for having a lot of cute cats, and we saw several preening about through the day. We had hoped to rent bicycles and pedal about from one site to another. Upon arrival, however, the bike rental dude wasn’t that friendly and seemed shocked that we would want to make a child ride a bike, nor did he give us any other options. For today, we took the overcrowded shuttlebus to the Honmura site and saw the installations there. 
The streets are narrow and the houses stand from the Edo period (1603-1868). Several of them have been gutted and transformed into installations. You can’t take pictures of the sites once inside, unfortunately. The first one we saw, and by far our favorite was a large room we walked into, pitch black. We were led in in small groups of ten or so people, and had to use our hands as guides around a wall before sitting down on a bench and staring into a seemingly black space. Slowly, as our eyes adjusted, the back wall came into view, a large rectangle of dim blue light, growing brighter. Eventually we could see it clearly, the guide asked us to walk towards it and touch the wall. We went to touch the wall…and our hand passed right through, eliciting gasps of surprise from everyone. The light was reflected from an angled wall, which fell away from us so the blue light was actually an empty space. We then walked around the space, our eyes adjusted so that we could see clearly, but the area still playing with our perception. It was a wholly encompassing artwork, and we all talked about it afterwards. On our way to the last site, we walked by a little cafe that seemed to have bikes that might fit the girl, and decided to check back again the next day. 

Communing with the giant sea bream of Uno

Art installation, not an example of Edo architecture


Our guesthouse host had told us of an onsen across the street, and so of course we went! This was my favorite one – they gave you these nice robe/shorts to wear (jinbei) and there was a steam room with a large bowl of salt you could give yourself a scrub with, and these very shallow rectangular pools you could lay down in one or two inches of hot water, a perfect combination of hot water and feeling cooled by the air. 
The following day we headed back to the island and made it to the cafe/bike place. Once again, they seemed very hesitant to rent to a child and warned us of the excessive hilliness of the island. I’m still not sure what to make of this – is it just that they don’t think kids are capable of riding hills, or that they didn’t think the girl was? We were able to find a bike that just barely fit her, and took off. There was one hill I would consider “big” that we had to go over, and even I had to walk the bike at the end of it, but other than that nothing we hadn’t all done before. We made it to the other side of the island in fifteen minutes and saw many of the outdoor art pieces for which the island is famous, especially the big pumpkin! 


Lunch was poorly planned on our part – I thought there would be more options in the museum area, but no. We snacked at the Chichu Art museum and then went inside. Again, no pictures were allowed inside. The museum is designed by Tadao Ando and is entirely built underground into the island, however in such a way that all artworks are seen in natural light only. The museum has a room of Monet’s water lilies, and honestly, I kind of thought, yawn, water lilies again? I mean, haven’t we all seen enough posters of water lilies in the dorm rooms of our college freshman roommates, especially those who later moved into sorority houses? But in this museum, it was a different experience. The floor of the room is made with matte marble mosaic tilework, ranging from white to gray, and you have to take off your shoes before entering the room and change into slippers. Because of this, the room isn’t crowded and there’s no one trying to take pictures and you can’t hear anyone even walking about, just shuffling along quietly, so the focus is on the art and you can appreciate the beauty of them, especially illuminated as they are with natural light only which reflects softly off the tiled mosaic floor. On the way into the museum, there’s a garden set up in the style which inspired Monet, and it was lovely to see the real life inspiration behind the work.

We rode back as the sun was beginning to set , dropped off the bikes, and enjoyed a beer before the ferry came to take us back to the mainland. 



-s

In which we visit Hiroshima, dance the chicken dance, and later nearly step on a snake. Again. 

2 Comments

Next stop on the “How America has hurt other countries” tour : Hiroshima. Without missing any trains or transporting bodily fluids, we rolled into Hiroshima,  found our apartment and after a bit of chilling headed out. It’s a small enough town that it can be entirely covered on foot. We first headed towards the castle, an old Samurai castle that has been refurbished and now has a small museum in it. There were a lot of old Samurai armor sets in there, and the most striking thing was how small they were! Some of them would have been too small for the boy, and these were the fearsome warriors of Japan! Unfortunately no pictures of the samurai allowed. 


On the fifth floor, which overlooks the city, they have those telescopes that you put 50 yen (50 cents) in to look around. The boy did this and I took a turn afterwards, able to see the atomic dome and the stadium and then HEY what’s that sign that says “CRAFT BEER” and has a lot of tents next to it? Our destination was determined. 
We walked off in the general direction of the sign, looking for the tents and found ourselves in Japanese Oktoberfest! The polka band at the front was playing the chicken dance, and little Japanese grandmas were dancing at front. There were several different German beer companies with stalls, and we settled down with a glass of beer to enjoy. 

Me, demonstrating the chicken dance and making a right fool of myself



We headed home and got dinner from a 7-11. Before you think I fed my children Funyuns and slurpees for dinner, let me say that 7-11s are a different breed here in Japan. They have actual delicious food for super cheap. We got a few onigiri (rice balls) in a few flavors, some savory snacks, some desserty snacks, and beer and sake for 2000 yen ($20). A stop at a nearby supermarket yielded some fruit and we were set for the evening. I had to wonder, why are 7-11s at home such dens of destitution and decay? Why can’t onigiri come to the US instead of those sad hotdog machines that roll overcooked hot dogs until they are entirely dessicated and could be used for building material? 
The following morning we went to the Hiroshima peace park, Atomic dome and museum. Readers, this was a sad, sad day for us all. It’s impossible not to feel the degree of devastation wrought by the bomb here. I’ve always learned that dropping the bomb was entirely unnecessary at that point in the war – the Japanese had all but capitulated – and to do so was simply brandishing our power to the Soviet Union. But what a cost, the degree of suffering of so many civilians and especially children. The intense heat rays felt for miles around were absorbed by dark colors more than light, so people who wore striped or patterned clothes had these burned into their skin. Many people simply died hours or days later of the severe burns, and even more developed cancers that killed them later. The city itself was largely levelled, except for some buildings which survived, like the Atomic Dome building, the shell of which remains as a testament to the power of the bomb. 


The kids felt this especially – how could the US do something like this to other humans? It’s one thing to know about the atomic bomb dropping as an abstraction, it’s another thing to see the destruction and the humans affected by it. They were deeply saddened by the museum and the history of it. There’s a section of the museum dedicated to Sadako, of the thousand paper cranes, and even has some of the cranes she folded herself. In the Peace Park there is a statue and around it are displays of the cranes that children from all over the world send to them in tribute to peace. They take them and recycle them into postcards, and give them to you at the end of your museum tour, asking you to spread the story of Hiroshima and the quest for a non-nuclear world so that others do not suffer the same fate. 

obama “painting” made of paper cranes


In the afternoon, we split up. Eric decided to stay in town and try to go for a run and I really wanted to see Miyajima island and the kids came with me. It was one of the most beautiful places I had seen in Japan, and was a nice contemplative and peaceful counterpoint to the morning.. It’s full of shrines (hence the name, which means “shrine island”) and has a forest that rises up over it all. It’s known for a massive torii gate that appears to float on water at high tide, alas we were there at low tide. 

making friends with the wild deer


You can take a funicular to the very top for a stunning view. I hadn’t known that the last car down was at 5:30 pm, and it was already 4 pm by the time we made it up to the cable car station. Well, we were there, right? The kids committed to walking down (estimated time, one hour) and so we bought a one way ticket up. It was so pretty, all of it. The views, the forest, even the shrines which were peaceful and contemplative without all the people crowding around them. Not wanting to be up there in the dark as the sun would set soon, we couldn’t lollygag as we liked and headed down. 

Buddha’s got some style

We started our hike down the mountain, and it ws so beautiful and green, the most nature we had seen in weeks. I relaxed in anticipation of a serene hour down the mountain. Just then, we saw these signs warning us of the deadly japanese vipers on the mountain. Umm…would have been nice if someone had warned us of these BEFORE we decided to take the walk down. The girl began whimpering. I did that thing where I know I have to hold it together as the only responsible adult around even though I’m actually terrified too, and said, “It’ll be fine! It’s just like hiking at home and the signs warn of rattlesnakes and we never see any!” Shortly thereafter a SNAKE ACTUALLY SLITHERED ACROSS OUR PATH. It was a slender thing, and stayed out of the way and was probably not the deadly viper. You wouldn’t have known it by the way that I screamed, though, all pretense of calm adult gone. 


The rest of the way down, the girl paused at every step to check for snakes first. There were a LOT of steps and what was initially a very peaceful and pleasant hike became one with potential terror lurking under every step. No further snake sightings were to be had, thankfully, we did manage to enjoy the hike and we made it back onto the ferry and home, meeting up with Eric for some conveyer belt sushi, our Japanese comfort food.  

-s