Author: sajbat

In which we train to be Ninja, though you’d never know it by how loud the kids are

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The time had come for the boy’s birthday, and Eric had found a Ninja training store. After another relaxed morning, we headed out for the Dojo. Upon arriving, we changed into our Ninja outfits and began training. We learned of Ninja meditation, trick walls in Ninja houses, how to walk silently like a Ninja (watch out! I’m behind you!) even in the dark. The real fun, though, was trying out all the Ninja weapons. The grass cutter, sword work, dagger. Grand finale was the shuriken and blowgun. The lesson ended with the kids begging and begging for me to buy them a real metal shuriken. I may have given in, because, hey, there may be some adults too who want to practice their skills.I break the Ninja code of secrecy to bring you these photos. 

Apparently I like stabbing people in the back

swordwork is serious business

quite handy with the grasscutter

learning the stealthy walk of a ninja

 

We then went to Gion, or the geisha area, with my only goal to see a geisha and walk about the scenic neighborhood. At this point, though, Eric had gotten into a snit about something and he was hungry (probably someone yelled at him or stepped on his toes and he’s perpetually annoyed in Japan because he has to duck his head everywhere) and then the kids were sniping and our time in Gion became a scuttle through the streets to get back home. No geisha were spotted during this walk and we all ended up annoyed by the end of it. On the plus side, the Kyrgystani man sitting next to us at the okonomiyaki place we ate at heard us talking about Harry Potter and told us there was a Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Osaka. He also told us he was a Slytherin, so we weren’t sure whether to believe him or not. This was before Eric took the sorting quiz and was sorted into Slytherin himself. Figures. 

Doesn’t Eric look sooooo happy to be walking around the scenic Gion neighborhood?


I wish I could tell you that we didn’t get into a big fight that night, but that would be a lie. In the end, though, all was worked out and I think maybe it was just the inevitable explosion after so much close togetherness for so many weeks on end. I felt like afterwards the air was clearer and I think we all felt a bit lighter to tell you the truth.
Except I still didn’t get to see a geisha. 

-s

In which we get shrined-out in Kyoto and never tire of the gardens

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Onward to Kyoto! I wish I could tell you that I loved Kyoto and the beauty it had to offer. I did like a lot of what we saw, but the crowds made it so difficult to really enjoy things entirely, and there is a limit for how many temples and shrines one can see.
We managed to get to our Air BnB, which was a bit outside the city and quiet. Dinner was at a udon place up the street. We ordered the Tofu Udon and soon realized our error. In the US, if a restaurant dish is tofu anything, you can be assured of it being otherwise meat free. In Japan, where tofu is considered palatable by everyone, this is not the case. Our udon arrived with big chunks of ham. We did our best to eat around them.
Kyoto is a land of temples and gardens and more temples and gardens. The former are lovely but get to be repetetive, the latter are stunning. Our first stop, near where we were staying was the Fushimi-Inari shrine, known for the thousands of red gates. It should also be known for the thousands of tourists, local and foreign, that come to walk through. The path through the gates is narrow and steep and it was hard not to feel a sense of claustrophobia.

Trying out the wishing rock. if it’s lighter than you thought it would be, you get your wish

From there we went to Tofukuji, another shrine (fine) but with truly beautiful Japanese gardens around it. One was a green garden and another was a Zen rock garden, both equally serene and so pleasant to walk around especially after the overload of the first stop.

One restaurant I really wanted to go to was Kyotofu, a restaurant where they create and serve all things tofu! They specialize in many different types of tofu, and it’s a meal you just wouldn’t have in the states. Again, you’d think it would be vegetarian but no, we made sure to specify and good thing as two of the dishes in the set plate are otherwise made of hamburger. Mixed with tofu, of course. This was super tasty and we had a nice view of Kyoto as well.

Quite differently than back home, this restaurant was in a shopping mall! This is pretty typical here – the entire top and bottom floors of shopping malls may be devoted to food, restaurants or grocery and are usually high quality. At a different mall, the downstairs two levels were like a Whole Foods on steroids. Just a little different from the Hot Dog on a Stick fare we’re used to at malls in the states. Another thing different about shopping malls here – there aren’t any walls separating the stores. The floors are sort of divided by theme – men’s fashion, women’s, kids – and then on the floors themselves are just, well, areas, the way we would think about different sections in a Macy’s, but each one is it’s own store with it’s own register.

I’ve also yet to see a department store that isn’t completely packed with people. Who are all these people? Why do they shop so aggressively? Where do they put all this stuff? These malls are all very high end – think Chanel boutiques, Agnes B, Kenzo – and yet everywhere was full of shoppers, seemingly spending hard earned yen. The Gap of Japan is Uniqlo and Muji, and these were plenty full also. Eric continued his quest to find a pair of jeans, only to find that they either were long enough and cost $300 or came to his mid calf.
Our next day in Kyoto was cool and drizzly. We had a late start and meandered to the Ryoan-ji, a zen rock garden. On the way we stopped in at an okonomiyaki, or japanese pancake place. They mix up veggies and meats in a base of egg and flour and cabbage, then cook it up. Your table has a narrow wooden rim and in the center is a rectangular grill, onto which the okonomiyaki goes. You eat it with a sharp spatula thing. I must say, this was my least favorite japanese dish. The pancake itself was tasty but I didn’t like the sweet teriyaki sauce on top.


The rock garden was just beautiful, and afterwards we walked to Kinkaju, or the famous golden temple. Pretty though it was, it was so crowded that I felt like we were being herded along through the site. We are picky tourists, and want to enjoy these very popular sites with no one else around, I don’t think that’s too much to ask. I mean, if Obama gets to do it, why not us?

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-s

In which we get on the wrong train

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We got to the train station in Oiso, made our way to Odakaya to get on the Shinkansen, or bullet train, to Kyoto. Our train was to leave at 12:08. At 12:00 a train pulled into the station. Eric had just gone to the bathroom and was jogging back so as not to miss the train. We got onto our reserved car and found our seats, only to find people sitting in two out of our four reserved seats. I didn’t quite understand, so I pulled out my ticket to show to the man sitting in one and he pulled his out, and they both showed 16c! He then noticed that while I was to be in seat 16c on the Hikari Shinkansen, he was correctly sitting in seat 16c on the Tokkaido express train. I looked back at Eric, waiting in the aisle and said hurriedly, “Wrong train! Wrong train! Get off!” With our backpacks on in the narrow train aisle, the kids started shuffling backwards and Eric hustled back to the door only to have it close in his face and the train start moving. Oh crap oh crap oh crap. (note: In real life, I did not say “crap” but I am editing because this is a family blog) We were on the wrong bullet train. 
For those of you who don’t know, the shinkansen in Japan are the super fast, 200 miles an hour trains that get you from one city to another. It’s not like you can just get off at the next stop and switch like the NYC subway. We all just stared at each other, not sure what to do, and hoping that the next stop wasn’t Hokkaido, the untamed wilderness island of the North. Eric said the incredibly helpful comment, “I was wondering why we got on that train anyway since it seemed like it was a little early for it.” See? Wasn’t that some masterful insight? I was soooo appreciative of his hindsight and wisdom.
We waited for the conductor for a few stops, then the boy noticed that there was a sign indicating the crew was in car 8 so Eric went down to chat with them. While he was gone, I saw our train, the Hikari, zoom past on the adjacent track. Well, at least we were sort of going the right direction, but there was no chance of catching our original train. 
Eric got transfer instructions from the conductor, and we were able to board a different train a few stops later and get seats in the unreserved compartment. The conductor came by to check our tickets which were for the original train, and I said “wrong train at Odakaya,” and he smiled at me like “ah, silly foreigner.” We pulled into Kyoto just a half hour later than we originally would have so it wasn’t that bad after all. 
As we boarded the local train to get to our place, I remembered something and said to Eric “Hey, you nearly left the whiskey bottle behind! You’re lucky I packed it!” We’d bought a small bottle of Japanese whiskey in Tokyo and had used it for some nightcaps. It’s tasty stuff. He looked at me and just stared. “Where did you put that bottle?” He asked. “In my backpack!” I chirped, “I had thought we could have a bit on the train but with all the craziness I forgot.” “Sujata,” he said slowly, “I used that bottle to pee in at the last place because of the crazy stairs.” “You mean,” I replied, “I just carried a bottle of pee in my bag from Oiso to Kyoto.” “Yup,” Eric said, beginning to crack up. At least I didn’t pour us a glass on the train, I suppose. Sigh.

-s

In which we stay at a house out of a cartoon and finally get to relax in an onsen

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After staying the night in a tiny and truly charmless Air BnB, we headed out for Oiso to visit the town of Hakone. Hakone is a mountain town known for it’s onsen, or japanese hot spring baths, and art museums. It’s also a resort town so when I went to look for places to stay, I was blown away by the prices – $300/night for the most basic! We’re really trying to stay at no more than $100/night as much as possible, allowing for the fact that Japan costs more than other places, and that was out of our price range. Instead, I found an Air BnB not too far away that had great reviews, so off we went. 
We arrived and our host picked us up and took us to the property. I haven’t written much about the places we’ve stayed, I realize. Mostly we are in Air BnBs which have 2 bedrooms and a living area, and the prices have been anywhere from $60-100 night for most of the trip. They’ve mostly been nice, clean and have worked well for us, usually set up like a standard small apartment you could imagine. 
This one was something else. The owner and his wife are artists/decorators/musicians/photographers/videographers/art teachers who live in the little seaside town of Oiso, where I later learned Haruki Murakami also lives. Masami, the husband, wakes up at 6 am to surf every day. We were hungry so stopped for ramen on the way at a place that made tomato ramen in a salt broth, quite tasty. 
Masami told us that he and his wife had redone the house with a shipping container, adding in the floors, the electricity and the rooms. We walked in through a sliding glass door and saw a worn wooden floor hallway going into a small patio and a twisted, narrow winding staircase off to one side. On either side of the hallway were rooms, one of which led to the shower room and also had a vintage foosball table in it which the kids promptly began playing. The other side had a room with a magazine racks in it and another staircase leading upstairs. The hallway ended in a large space with long tables, a small bar area, and a piano, drum kit, guitar, and various musical instruments scattered about. We walked up the narrow metal staircase to find the second floor with rooms to either side, and were motioned up to the third attic level through a tiny, steep staircase that emerged onto an open landing into a low ceilinged attic room. Eric stood up and immediately hit his head on a rafter, in what was to be an oft-repeated event for the two night stay here. I’m not sure what Japanese building codes are like, but I’m pretty sure this place doesn’t comply. For a kid, it’s a wonderland. Dusty rooms in seemingly secret places with treasures to be found around the bend. As an adult I looked down the attic staircase without railings and pictured one of the children tripping and falling to the bottom, laying there with their neck broken. At night we blocked off the entrance with a chair. Eric used whatever bottle was handy if he had to pee at night as the only bathroom was two sets of stairs down. 

We all headed off to the beach, we all played in the waves while Masami surfed. On the way home we picked up fish for sushi and some sake and headed back. After we showered and changed he had us come back to their part of the house, which was by following the second level back, outside on a wooden walkway and then into their house. That night we had hand rolled sushi for dinner! 


The following day we went to Hakone. This was truly beautiful. A switchbacking mountain railway leads to mountain base. If you wish, you can further take cable cars to the top and boats around. I do wish we’d had another day to explore and to take an entire loop of the town. As it was we went to the Hakone Open Air Museum, filled with outdoor sculpture of all kinds and a special Picasso exhibit with some of his fused glass paintings, which I had never seen. They had a big outdoor clear plastic bobbly play structure for the kids, who scampered about like little hamsters inside. We had hoped to see Mt. Fuji, but it was cloudy and she remained shrouded. She is indeed a modest lady. 


We then went to an onsen, or Japanese bath! It was so, so lovely. The men’s and women’s areas are separated as you go into the spas in your birthday suit. First you go into the locker room areas and disrobe, then sit in the communal shower area and wash thoroughly. Then you head into the spas! There were several small to medium size pools of different warmth and a cold pool for refreshment. I had been really looking forward to this as a time of peace and relaxation. The girl and I got into the onsen area and from the moment we stepped in it was “oh this is so nice the water is so warm oh this one is too hot should we try that pool that one looks like a cave here’s a cup! What do you think this cup is for? Oh they use it to splash water on themselves i’m going to try the cold pool what’s this little fountain for my towel is wet can you put my towel up can you fix my hair lets go into the sauna soon lets just put our feet in here okay maybe we can sit on the bench and take a break…” On and on and on. At one point I asked for five minutes of silence, and after 30 seconds I heard, “has it been five minutes yet? Now? Now? Now?” And I gave up on the peace and quiet part of the experience. Even with the logorrhea, the pools were so nice and my muscles felt better. 
That night for dinner was fresh gyoza and takomaki, or octopus dumplings, also amazing. (We had a octopus free version). Ikuko was a wonderful host – at breakfast that morning the boy had mentioned that he loves gyoza but we haven’t been able to find any vegetarian or fish gyoza here, and she said we’d have them for dinner! A South Korean guest had joined the house and we enjoyed meeting her for dinner. Next morning was miso soup and onigiri, or rice balls wrapped in seaweed. The onigiri became a staple food for us during the rest of our time in Japan.  


The next morning, after breakfast, we all hung out and played music together and chatted before we left for the train station. The boy played “Space Oddity” for all assembled, I pattered on the drum kit,  and Eric enjoyed having a piano again and playing.


-s

In which we stay at a house out of a cartoon and finally get to relax in an onsen

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After staying the night in a tiny and truly charmless Air BnB, we headed out for Oiso to visit the town of Hakone. Hakone is a mountain town known for it’s onsen, or japanese hot spring baths, and art museums. It’s also a resort town so when I went to look for places to stay, I was blown away by the prices – $300/night for the most basic! We’re really trying to stay at no more than $100/night as much as possible, allowing for the fact that Japan costs more than other places, and that was out of our price range. Instead, I found an Air BnB not too far away that had great reviews, so off we went. 
We arrived and our host picked us up and took us to the property. I haven’t written much about the places we’ve stayed, I realize. Mostly we are in Air BnBs which have 2 bedrooms and a living area, and the prices have been anywhere from $60-100 night for most of the trip. They’ve mostly been nice, clean and have worked well for us, usually set up like a standard small apartment you could imagine. 
This one was something else. The owner and his wife are artists/decorators/musicians/photographers/videographers/art teachers who live in the little seaside town of Oiso, where I later learned Haruki Murakami also lives. Masami, the husband, wakes up at 6 am to surf every day. We were hungry so stopped for ramen on the way at a place that made tomato ramen in a salt broth, quite tasty. 
Masami told us that he and his wife had redone the house with a shipping container, adding in the floors, the electricity and the rooms. We walked in through a sliding glass door and saw a worn wooden floor hallway going into a small patio and a twisted, narrow winding staircase off to one side. On either side of the hallway were rooms, one of which led to the shower room and also had a vintage foosball table in it which the kids promptly began playing. The other side had a room with a magazine racks in it and another staircase leading upstairs. The hallway ended in a large space with long tables, a small bar area, and a piano, drum kit, guitar, and various musical instruments scattered about. We walked up the narrow metal staircase to find the second floor with rooms to either side, and were motioned up to the third attic level through a tiny, steep staircase that emerged onto an open landing into a low ceilinged attic room. Eric stood up and immediately hit his head on a rafter, in what was to be an oft-repeated event for the two night stay here. I’m not sure what Japanese building codes are like, but I’m pretty sure this place doesn’t comply. For a kid, it’s a wonderland. Dusty rooms in seemingly secret places with treasures to be found around the bend. As an adult I looked down the attic staircase without railings and pictured one of the children tripping and falling to the bottom, laying there with their neck broken. At night we blocked off the entrance with a chair. Eric used whatever bottle was handy if he had to pee at night as the only bathroom was two sets of stairs down. 

We all headed off to the beach, we all played in the waves while Masami surfed. On the way home we picked up fish for sushi and some sake and headed back. After we showered and changed he had us come back to their part of the house, which was by following the second level back, outside on a wooden walkway and then into their house. That night we had hand rolled sushi for dinner! 


The following day we went to Hakone. This was truly beautiful. A switchbacking mountain railway leads to mountain base. If you wish, you can further take cable cars to the top and boats around. I do wish we’d had another day to explore and to take an entire loop of the town. As it was we went to the Hakone Open Air Museum, filled with outdoor sculpture of all kinds and a special Picasso exhibit with some of his fused glass paintings, which I had never seen. They had a big outdoor clear plastic bobbly play structure for the kids, who scampered about like little hamsters inside. We had hoped to see Mt. Fuji, but it was cloudy and she remained shrouded. She is indeed a modest lady. 


We then went to an onsen, or Japanese bath! It was so, so lovely. The men’s and women’s areas are separated as you go into the spas in your birthday suit. First you go into the locker room areas and disrobe, then sit in the communal shower area and wash thoroughly. Then you head into the spas! There were several small to medium size pools of different warmth and a cold pool for refreshment. I had been really looking forward to this as a time of peace and relaxation. The girl and I got into the onsen area and from the moment we stepped in it was “oh this is so nice the water is so warm oh this one is too hot should we try that pool that one looks like a cave here’s a cup! What do you think this cup is for? Oh they use it to splash water on themselves i’m going to try the cold pool what’s this little fountain for my towel is wet can you put my towel up can you fix my hair lets go into the sauna soon lets just put our feet in here okay maybe we can sit on the bench and take a break…” On and on and on. At one point I asked for five minutes of silence, and after 30 seconds I heard, “has it been five minutes yet? Now? Now? Now?” And I gave up on the peace and quiet part of the experience. Even with the logorrhea, the pools were so nice and my muscles felt better. 
That night for dinner was fresh gyoza and takomaki, or octopus dumplings, also amazing. (We had a octopus free version). Ikuko was a wonderful host – at breakfast that morning the boy had mentioned that he loves gyoza but we haven’t been able to find any vegetarian or fish gyoza here, and she said we’d have them for dinner! A South Korean guest had joined the house and we enjoyed meeting her for dinner. Next morning was miso soup and onigiri, or rice balls wrapped in seaweed. The onigiri became a staple food for us during the rest of our time in Japan.  


The next morning, after breakfast, we all hung out and played music together and chatted before we left for the train station. The boy played “Space Oddity” for all assembled, I pattered on the drum kit,  and Eric enjoyed having a piano again and playing.


-s

In which we conquer Tokyo DisneySea

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I love Disneyland. I get the problems with Disney, and have many issues with it myself. I hate the princess culture and the movies that teach that the main goal for a girl is to make sure she gets her man, no matter what the cost. I dislike the sharp dichotomy it’s made in gendering toys and play for boys and girls, so much so that even Lego has a “Friends” line to appeal to girls with sets like “hair salon” and “pet groomer.” Don’t kid yourself, it’s a princess set. (Full disclosure, we own several sets and the girl loves them.) I don’t like how much focus there is on a girl’s beauty being her defining feature, as if nothing else matters. While Disney has done work to move away from this in recent movies, the problem remains. 
That said, going to Disneyland/world/theme park you name it is one of my favorite things to do. I love the feeling of walking through the gates and being immersed somewhere else entirely, and Disney does it very, very well. As a kid our family went to Disneyland quite a bit and I have very fond memories of these trips. Also, I knew that going to Disneyland is a big thing for Japanese people, so I wanted to make sure we took part in this very important cultural experience.

Eric hates learning about other cultures so he chose not to come to Disneyland with us. Tokyo Disney has two lands here – Magic Kingdom which is the same as Disneyland in California, and Tokyo DisneySea, a water-themed land that’s unique to Tokyo. We only had a day and you can’t get park hopper passes for one day, so we chose DisneySea! We went on a rainy Tuesday thinking this would keep the crowd down, as these parks are extremely popular. Turn out that Japanese don’t give two figs about the rain or schooldays and it was as busy as midsummer in a US park. Peak wait times for rides was up to three hours for the popular ones! (We never waited more than 30-40 minutes though, as we skipped the most popular ride having ridden it at California Adventure, wisely used fastpasses and took advantage of the fact that Japanese NEVER use the single rider line. The three hour wait for Indiana Jones meant nothing to us as we just walked onto the ride, because Americans we don’t care about single rider.) I was excited though, that it was one of the costume weeks where people can come to the park dressed up and I’d read that the Japanese get really into that. I had no idea how into it they were. 
We hopped the train to the park. As we got closer, we noticed something. Groups of girls ranging from 2 to 10 in number were clearly going to the park, with everyone in their group dressed IDENTICALLY down to the hair accessories. Some people were heading in with rolling suitcases, which I only understood later. As dumb Americans who wear whatever to theme parks, we didn’t even coordinate! Quelle horreur! We bought headgear as soon as possible so we at least had a modicum of spirit. They do this because not only is going to Disney important, but so is taking perfectly posed pictures everywhere, and I have to admit that it does make for a better photo than the standard American wear of baggy shorts, oversized offensive message tee (No money no honey!) and fanny pack with everyone wearing mismatched colors. 
We got into the park area and immediately began to see people dressed in handmade costumes that they had brought in their rolling suitcases and changed into at the park. Holy cats, readers, these were incredible. People were detailed down to the last accessory and I noticed they usually traveled with a still costumed but slightly less detailed companion, who’s job it was to hold their stuff for pictures. They also have a specific pose they use for pictures. It was so, so fun to be walking around and then suddenly be in the midst of a sea of Ariels as we approached the Triton’s Kingdom land. It reminded me of the old days of going to Disney, where you might just happen upon a character you wanted to see instead of having to wait an hour in line at a prescribed time to visit with one. 


We ended up buying umbrellas as our rain jackets were soaked in minutes with the downpour, though these have been quite helpful for the rest of our trip thus far too. I won’t go into all the details of the rides and areas- it’s been done elsewhere. The girls favorite was the Under the Sea land, an indoor area entirely lit by blacklight, in psychedelic colors that makes you feel like you are really in the land of the mermaids. You could wander through Ariel’s treasure trove, Ursula’s lair, and get caught in Eric’s fishing nets.


The boy’s favorite was a medieval castle that you could run around and explore, with rooms filled with different scientific discoveries! From the movement of the planets with a giant orrery to a pendulum clock to a huge camera obscura and turrets and cannons to fire, we spent well over an hour running around and gleefully happening upon surprises. 


I also loved the Roosevelt lounge, an incredible bar covered in dark, decadent wood paneling with a big game theme, comfortable chairs and couches. We spent a good time there relaxing as once inside you felt as if you had left Japan entirely. Odd, I suppose, to have an entire lounge dedicated to an American President here in Japan when in America all we get is the incredibly dull president’s ride, otherwise known as the “ride where Dads can take a nap.” Here was a lovely area and the first decent Manhattan I’ve had since leaving the US. I may have had two, but who’s counting?


There’s fun food, too! Like frozen mango on a stick. 


Wandering around the lands at night is even prettier, with the lights reflecting on the water below. 


All in all, just incredible and I have to hand it to the Japanese to do Disney better than America. If you like theme parks at all this is a must visit, and I am so happy we made this a stop. Yesterday I just learned that there is a “Wizarding World of Harry Potter” here too in Osaka! I mean, for the sake of cultural exchange, I think we HAVE to visit, no?

-s

In which we not only dream of, but get to eat delicious sushi

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One experience I really wanted in Tokyo was to go to a high end sushi restaurant. Here’s one thing I should have booked in advance, but it all worked out for the best. I was able to book lunch at Matsue sushi in Ebisu, and the boy and I went off. Eric and the girl, who don’t really eat fish at all, made their own plans to go play video games. We sat down and ordered the Omekase, in which the chef serves you whatever he wants. Watching him work was masterful. He would take a piece of fish which had been prepped and expertly deboned by his assistants, and then using only a large knife would slice through it at such a precise angle that it cut away perfectly from the skin. Starting with a cooked marinated tuna and salad appetizer, we moved onto the main courses. We had tuna, rockfish, octopus, scallop, squid, yellowtail, halibut, sardine, uni sashimi and suhi, then tamago (egg) and miso soup course, then finished with a tuna roll. Everything was incredible, with the exception of the octopus and squid which I just don’t care for. Cephalopods…shudder. Two hours later we emerged, bellies full. Well, mine was full. The boy asked for food about an hour later. I wasn’t hungry until the next day. I’ve had other sushi since then here in Japan, and the flavor and texture just don’t compare. Sigh, I’ve been totally spoiled.


We met up with the non sushi eaters and headed to the Mori Art Museum, but not before doing a little denim shopping. Japan is known for high quality denim, and, well, I could use a new pair of jeans. We found the Kapital stores in Ebisu, which are like little wonderlands of denim and clothing, stocked in a mishmash way so you feel as if you’ve entered a cave of fashion wonders in a land of wabi-sabi. The wall of jeans was in an old wood cabinet, and above us were hanging scarves, to the left a row of funky jackets. I may have bought a pair of high waisted jeans because it made me feel like a 70s fashion model when I tried them on. Eric also looked, but unfortunately everything came to his ankles. I tried to convince him that he’d look hip in capris, but he didn’t bite.
The Mori is a modern art museum that is supposed to have a cool collection. We headed to Roppongi Hills and made our way there. We walked in and I was initially disappointed – it looked tiny and as if it didn’t have many exhibits. I soon was amazed by what I saw. The entire exhibit was looking at how the view of the cosmos was represented in art. From early mandalas depicting the four gods and earth at the middle, to the modern space program and a symphony based on that, the exhibit was stunning. I loved how they used art as a lens for science, so often are the two seen as wholly separate disciplines that have little to do with one another. There were original first editions of The Origin of Species, books written by Copernicus and Da Vinci! You couldn’t take pictures in most of the museum, unfortunately. The last piece was an installation where you went into a dark room and light swirled around and about you, turning in a way that you felt as if you were spinning through the universe in a wormhole.

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-s

In which we visit a shinto shrine and later take 20.000 volts of wasabi straight to the nose 

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As an American, it is strange to be out of the country on September 11. At least in Japan, it’s just another day here. I didn’t see any mention of it on the papers as far as I could tell, and the only way that I knew of the date was through my Facebook feed where people were posting memories. Of course, it’s the same in America for events that happened in other countries – our collective consciousness of an event is generally limited to those which affected us directly. 
Onto the day – the plan had been to go to the Harajuku area, walk around the Meiji shrine and gardens, see if we could see some funky dressed people, and perhaps rockabilly Japanese men dancing in Yoyogi park. A friend of ours had mentioned that Japanese baseball games are quite fun and there was a game that evening, so that was a possibility too. 
The Meiji shrine is in the Harajuku area and has an imperial garden around it, lovely for a walk. The shrine itself is an active Shinto shrine and many Japanese people were buying blessings to be given, charms for various purposes. There was a wedding coming through too! I didn’t feel bad taking pictures because every single Japanese person was doing the same. Man, I wonder what kind of high society you have to be to get married at the Meiji Shrine. You’re not allowed to take pictures of the shrine itself, and people stand in front of it, ringing the bells and praying by bowing twice, clapping their hands together, praying, then repeating. Below is a picture of a wall of wishes that people leave to be blessed at the shrine. 


Lunch ended up being at a small curry shop – I’d heard about japanese curry, but truth be told it didn’t taste all that different to me from regular Indian curry, so perhaps we need to try it again. 


We walked by the baseball stadium and got tickets for that evening’s game! Outfield, home team of course – the Tokyo Yakult Swallows! I mean, I’ve always been a HUGE Swallows fan. A little walk through the tony area of Harajuku and a stop at a big toystore called Kiddyland. The entire top floor is Hello Kitty swag, and the girl was silent for a few moments upon walking up. There’s some new bizarre Hello Kitty character that looks like an unhappy crumpled fried egg. There’s a TON of gear for this creature – I can’t tell if Sanrio is trying to push it or if it’s genuinely popular. She walked away with a rather nice hello kitty charm for her bracelet, after I convinced her that getting a 2 foot tall Hello Kitty dressed in kimono would not be practical for our trip.  

Gudetero, the new sanrio lazy egg

We got to the famous street in Harajuku to see all the girls dressed up for the weekend, and found it full of…..tourists. Mostly poorly dressed tourists at that, or other normally dressed Japanese women in what seems to be the common Tokyo uniform of wide leg cropped pants, slightly oversized T-shirt, and short bright bobby socks worn with sandals. Trying to get through the street was reminiscent of watching nature videos of salmon swimming upstream.

 We gave up and headed back to the stadium. Eric writes about the game in great detail here – I’ll add on that I had a lot of fun. The energy at the games is so different, and you ACTUALLY WATCH THE GAME. Every US game I’ve been to, I’m usually just drinking a beer and chatting with a friend and I only look up after the crowd starts cheering to say, “What? Did something happen?” I am not alone in this, I know. 

That evening we went to a different, higher quality conveyor belt sushi. No screens this time, you order from an actual person. Much tastier and about the quality of sushi I feel like I get from the nice sushi place at home, but for a lot less – $70 total for the entire family. I ordered a tuna wasabi roll, and the waitress said “very spicy!” “Sure!” I said, ” I like spicy!” It arrived and I popped one in my mouth. A little hot, I thought to myself. The next second my nose and entire sinus passages were filled with a hot fire. My eyes began to water and I started coughing and waving my hands frantically in front of my face, as if I could waft away the feeling. I lunged for my sake and took a gulp. The tuna wasabi roll is tuna with actual wasabi plant in it, the size of a small chunk of cucumber. Holy god. The thing with wasabi spicy is that once it works its way through your entire body, it’s gone! Not like chili spice which keeps your tongue onfire for ages after. I kept eating them and repeating the above. The boy, seeing me, decided he had to try one. Here’s the result:    

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–s

In which we take a ride on a catbus and eat a lot of tasty food.

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Japan has been a bit of a whirlwind so far! We’ve been here a week and haven’t had much time to write, so I’ll catch up now. So far we are loving it. It’s orderly, neat and clean everywhere. Eric feels he has found his people, in tidiness at least, if not in height.. People obey the crossing lights, so much so that it took me a full 24 hours to realize that they drive on the left here – I simply haven’t had to avoid a car at all and all those skills we learned in Vietnam are fading. We can finally drink water from a tap again, and I can’t tell you how wonderful this is. 
Our first day we were so exhausted from the red eye we mostly slept, only leaving to find lunch and dinner. After 30 minutes of wandering through Shinjuku,  we happened upon a tasty soba noodle restaurant. 


For dinner,  we found ourselves at a cheap conveyer belt sushi restaurant! The sushi itself was just okay – but the novelty of it was so fun! There’s a screen at your table where you can either order the sushi you want or you can take whatever comes by off the belt. The prices of the food are according to the color of the plate, and at the end of your meal your waiter adds up the plates to see what you pay. The first time a plate came by for us, the screen lit up and played music and said “food ready for pickup!” We looked around because we had no idea what was happening, but then the girl noticed some cucumber rolls going down the line, well out of our reach. Aha! Now we got it and whenever we heard the music again we snatched our plates off the belt. The next day was our time to go to the Studio Ghibli museum, one of the stops on this whole trip that I have been looking forward to the most. Studio Ghibli and it’s recently retired director Hayao Miyazaki are behind many beloved animation films popular all over the world. My Neighbor Totoro is one of my favorite movies, though Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away are more known in the west. I love his children’s movies for their magical feel, strong girl characters, and bittersweet thoughtful endings instead of the cloyingly happy endings most children’s movies have. If you’ve never heard of him, get thee a rental now and watch. Tickets sell out months in advance and I had purchased our tickets in June. From the moment you enter, you feel as if you could be in one of the movies. They do not allow any photography inside the museum, I think to preserve the air of walking through and just feeling the place instead of having people constantly snapping away. Mostly I liked this as it added to the atmosphere, but there were times I really wanted a picture! You will have to be satisfied with my descriptions.


The museum is a three story house with rounded roofs,  an open atrium in the center and rooms arranged around the periphery. There are narrow round stairways to take if you wish, and bridges across the open space. Clocks abound on the surface and the windows are stained glass scenes from the movies. Each room has a different focus – one shows the evolution of filmmaking using characters from various movies – from zoetrope, to early stop motion animation, to film. Every single exhibit is explained only in Japanese, and not for the first time did I wish I understood the language. I’m sure I missed out on so much. Other rooms were set up like Miyazaki’s studio, complete with paint pots. Others showed the creation of hand drawn gel animation and how a scene was created and imagined. There were storyboard books for the movies “Ponyo” and “The Secret World of Arrietty” which described how they would draw out a scene and then have the camera pan over it and around. 

The favorite spaces by far were the catbuses. If you don’t know what a catbus is, go google it now. I’ll wait. You back? Okay – there was one room which was set up like a giant catbus. We sank down into the furry seats and relaxed for a bit, looking out the windows which had animation cel panels, imagining we were running through the countrysitde. The other one was a smaller catbus only for children 12 and younger (unfair) where you could crawl in slide down, go through the catbus and pick up and roll around large plush dustmites! There’s also an original animated short only seen at the museum, a young girl goes on a trip to the countryside, greets the nature spirits along the way, but has to escape from an unexpected visitor!

In the gift shop the girl bought a plush catbus, which we have named “meowcedes”.

 
We left and walked along a road where the internet told us that there were a bunch of restaurants. We didn’t see anything at first but then saw a small “open” sign on the other side of the road. We walked over to see if the menu was in English, and the lady behind the counter saw us through the window and beckoned us in. It was a tiny space, with only seats enough for five people. We asked if there was vegetarian food, and there was! It was a little place serving homemade japanese food. You had your choice of roasted vegetable main dish, fried sardine, or tofu burger and two vegetable sides. I had the sardine, the boy had the veggies and Eric and the girl went for the tofu. Everything was unbelievably delicious. There was another man sitting there with his toddler girl, and we all had so much fun chatting and laughing with them. These are my favorite, when you just happen upon a place and it ends up being so delightful. 

Then a walk through a verdant and nicely arranged neighboring park for a while where the mosquitos made a delicious feast of me. Eric said I was just being paranoid and looked ridiculous slapping myself, but when I began to break out in welts he had to eat his words. 


 Everywhere we went in Japan we saw families riding this bike – seats for the kids on the front and back, and these neat bike parking areas. I never saw a bike locked to anything stationary, only to itself, as theft is low in Japan.  

Then came a train ride to Shibuya to see the famous pedestrian scramble! I had imagined getting there, finding a seat in a little cafe overlooking the area and relaxing for a while to watch the scrum. Instead, Eric stated he wasn’t going anywhere that didn’t serve beer. I happened to not be the only tourist with this idea and it was a madhouse trying to find somewhere. Some words may have been exchanged – we were hot, tired, hungry, and squished. Finally, we did what everyone else does and got coffee at the Starbucks overhead and sat to watch. It truly is an incredible sight. Thousands of people going every which way and in such an incredible orderly fashion!
We looked up a place with reportedly good vegetarian food, and walked over. On the way there we passed by a ton of shoe stores selling Converse in every imaginable flavor, and some I’d never seen before! Metallic silver, rainbow, wedge converse! If I hadn’t just bought a pair of Tiger kicks in Cambodia I might have caved and bought another pair. I might still yet. The restaurant looked depressing, so we stopped at the brewpub across the street first where Eric ordered a Lagunitas IPA and nearly wept in relief at the biting hop flavor he’d been missing since we left the US. Sorry world, the US just does IPAs better. 

We had walked by places advertising vegetarian ramen on the way over, so we headed back and saw a popular place with veggie ramen. You ordered from a machine out front! You put money in, pushed buttons for what you wanted and it spat tickets out at you. We ordered veggie ramen, an egg, sprouts, scallions, and beer and headed inside. We sat down and handed over a fistful of tickets to our chef, who smiled and laid them in neat stacks. A few minutes later we were slurping down a delicious bowl of steaming hot ramen. Amazing. There were a lot of Japanese people there too, so my guess is it’s a decent ramen place overall and not just for tourists. 


We walked back to the train station, Shibuya lit up in neon colors and blinking, looking like the Tokyo we’ve all seen in pictures, giving a colorful coda to this splendid day


-s

In which we say gooooodbye, Vietnam!

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We’ve left southeast Asia, hopefully to return again someday. We’re in Tokyo now, staying near Shinjuku and have landed in another world altogether. 
Last night, as we waited for our delayed flight to Tokyo from Saigon, I began to feel a little depressed. Much like any event which you ancipate for a long time, like a wedding or a marathon, once it’s over you feel a bit melancholy, as that wonderful exciting day is now over and in the past. Here we are, six weeks into the journey and on the eve of visiting the country I’ve been the most excited about, and I can’t believe it’s actually here! It just feels like it’s all going too fast. Those first days in New Zealand seem ages ago – in the last six weeks we’ve been in six countries and on ten planes. We’ve been mountain biking in a rainforest, visited the Sydney Opera House, camped under the stars at Uluru, seen the Great Barrier Reef, walked around Angkor Wat, and crawled through the Cu Chi tunnels. From highly urban to hardly developed, we’ve seen an entire range of the world, even in the little slice we’ve been through. Many days I wake up in the morning and have to remind myself where in the world I am, without Rocapella to sing me awake and remind me. (Shout out to the readers who get the reference. 🙂 ) I keep telling myself to just soak in every day and take it all in. 
Onto the Vietnamese street signs: water edition. The river has signs! 


Lightning possible for the next 8 nautical miles.


Don’t drop your anchor here, there are loch ness monsters resting. 


Beware of suddenly rising submarines.

-s