Today is a welcomed "free day". It's been a busy week:
Thurs 10/6: Last night's hotel had a pretty view of multiple spans of the bridge. We could open one of the large windows and let the cool breeze in. This room had a different emergency escape, a slow descending device. There was a square stack maybe 2' x 2' with instructions to lift the cover off, pass your body into the ring equippage wear, pull adjusting ring toward your chest. Descend adjusting speed by both hands against wall surface. Remove ring equippage wear quickly after landing. If you haven't already broken a bunch of bones in your fall... We were on the 6th floor. Kurashiki is a canal area and was a huge hub for rice merchants and farmers. A wealthy rice merchant, Ohara, created the O'Hara Museum of (Western and Asian) Art; we enjoyed our visit. The historic area is charming with potters, artists and souvenir shops, of course. A bride and groom were walking by; we bowed and congratulated them. The bride wore a brilliant, shimmering, voluminous white kimono. Beautiful. My photographer didn't get a picture of the bride, but she did get a picture of their dog dressed in her white dress. We had seen a bride and groom near the Torii Gate a day or two ago; she wore a western-style dress. Our next stop was the Himeji (White Heron) Castle, a brilliant white structure on a hill. Back on the bus, I show Kim how to play Sudoku. Dinner is at a secluded inn high on a hill overlooking the bay, where we grill our thinly-sliced, marbled Wagyu beef. You might know this as Kobe beef. Osaka is the #1 port harbor in Japan. A very devastating earthquake hit here in 1995; 6,000+ people died. It's a very big city. We enjoy seeing unusual buildings and creative landscape as we drive along. The four of us aren't looking forward to tomorrow when we are joined by another nine people.
Tonight's hotel has a 6' x 6' bathroom with a tub, toilet and sink all squeezed in there together.
Fri 10/7: We'll be walking in the rain all day today. Seven other Americans have joined our group. Anne and I moved to the back of our little bus and are quite comfy back there. This morning we saw Osaka Castle; we enjoyed using the elevators. Our bento box lunch was filled with raw tuna, taro, tempur, shrimp, veggies, rice. Our next stop was in Nara, the oldest capitol city of Japan, and we walked a lot to see the Todaiji Temple, a huge wooden building housing a huge bronze statue of Buddha. It's 16.3 meters high; the legs and lotus are 1200 years old, the body is 900 years old, and his head is 400 years old. When the roof is repaired, a tile with our names inside it will be used. Surrounding this temple is the Nara Deer Park. The Sika deer are eager for snacks from the tourists. We travel on for an encounter with a maiko, a geisha-in-training, for a tea ceremony. She's 19, in her 3rd year of training. We learned about her dress, her hair and make-up, her life. Interesting; it is quite a commitment. The tea was like eating grass clippings; I did enjoy the red bean cake (actually like a firm jelly). Now we're in Kyoto, the cultural capital of Japan. Anne and I tried two different kinds of sake; not crazy about either. I've mentioned there are many 7-11's here; there are probably just as many Lawson Dairy stores as well. Anne and I both remember Lawson stores when we were kids.
Sat 10/8: It's cloudy but not raining today in Kyoto. Our first stop is at Kiyomizu Temple with a large stage that overhangs 13 meters above the hillside below. Trees are just beginning to turn color. We then see weavers and a cord maker at the Nishijin Textile Center but didn't get to see a kimono fashion show, discontinued since Covid. Next we see the Kinkakuji Temple (Golden Pavilion), originally built in 1397, covered with 18 carat gold leaf. Quite dazzling. This is a holiday weekend, and we are running into big crowds everywhere. Which holiday? Sports Day! It's the anniversary of the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games; it is a national holiday. We head to the Zen garden at the Tenryuji Temple. It is a beautiful setting. We saw an attractive bushy plant with delicate purple drupe, the Purple Beautyberry. Around this garden is a dense bamboo grove with towering bamboo. For dinner we go to Gion, the old Geisha Quarter. Geisha-in-training still live in the area with a house momma-son. We walk past numerous night clubs and have a Japanese hotpot meal with bacon, beef, chicken, veggies. Why do they think we want to cook for ourselves while we're on vacation?
Sun 10/9: Due to our early start, Mitchie takes our bags early this morning. He's got a 2-hour drive to get to our next stop. We're taking a 20-minute bullet train ride, seeing many little villages, gardens, fields. We join Mitchie again and drive two hours to Kanazawa through the Japanese Alps. After an hour, we see the Sea of Japan. At the Kenrokuen Gardens, we admire the greenery. They have a two-legged cement lantern that's so classic. There's an interesting gravity-fed fountain in a pond. It's raining. On we go to Shirakawa, a mountain village of the Edo people with 114 old houses and buildings with 12"-thick thatched roofs, and we discover a color-changing Summer Cypress, going from summer green to fall magenta. Wonderful! We see buckwheat fields; they make udon noodles around here. We drive through several 3-mile long tunnels on our way to Takayama for the Harvest Festival. Even though the parade and most of the festivities are canceled due to rain, we see six ornate centuries-old floats in a warehouse. We see several more tucked in tall garages as we walk the streets in the rain. We don't take a therapeutic soak tonight.
Mon 10/10: This is still the holiday weekend, so there are many people walking around this morning. Takayama is a quaint tourist town, and we visit the Morning Market along the riverside. Kim has given the group three hours to shop (in the rain), which doesn't interest the two of us. We found a cozy cafe on the other side of the fast-flowing river and enjoyed iced coffees and some tasty treats. Anne has a black vanilla ice cream, the best vanilla she's had on the trip. Really black; her tongue was black for a half hour after finishing it. I asked Kim about the lack of pierced ears in Japanese women. It's not looked upon favorably, and they could keep you from getting a good job. Tattoos, also. Younger people are doing both things more, but we haven’t seen many. The rain stops by the time we're back on the bus to Nagano. We drive through 20+ tunnels and see several dams. Mitchie does a great job on these mountain roads. We skip dinner tonight at our Yatsugatake Onsen Ryokan and we snack on a huge apple grown in this region. The walls are thin here, so we hear kids in the hallway. We have tatami mats on the floor, so we don't wear shoes. There's a very short table in the room and four cushions on the floor. No chairs in the room. Thankfully the beds are 2' off the floor. Another night, no therapeutic bath.
Tues 10/11: It's chilly and clear up in the mountains as we travel toward Mt. Fuji. It's normally visible 75 days of the year; hope this is our lucky day. Within an hour, we see her in the distance (yes, the mountain is feminine). There are mountains all around, but Fuji stands gracefully alone. At 12,390', she is Japan's tallest. On our route to the 5th station (7,874'), the Fuji Subaru Line road we travel plays a short melody. Kim explained there are some grooves cut into the road, and as the vehicle's tires roll over, it makes the sound. The weather is mild at the 5th station and has great views; there are five lakes on the mountain. We drive to Hakone and ride the ropeway gondola to Owakudani, considered an active volcano, where we have splendid views and see and smell the sulfur from numerous steam vents. We head into Tokyo, our home for 3 nights. Kim is excited to show us Shibuja Crossing, the famous intersection where thousands of people cross every day. We were there at a relatively calmer hour. We sadly say thanks and good bye to Kim. She has been great! Helpful and friendly. We'll miss her.
Wed 10/12: We meet Jimmy, our guide for the next 9 days. Our first stop is to view the Imperial Palace, the current residence of Japan's Imperial family. It was rebuilt following its destruction in WWII. We only see it from a distance. Our next stop is the Tsukiji Outer Market; we see beautiful fish, dries fish, veggies, fruits, knives. After a short visit to the 1,000-year-old Meiji Shrine, we're making our own lunch under the direction of a sushi master. We're rolling Nori, dried seaweed sheets, and rice, eel, shrimp, tuna, salmon, cooked egg, wasabi and a couple fish I didn't know. Just couldn't talk myself into eating eel. I pulled too many of them from the inlet screens at River Rouge Power Plant back in the day; they creep me out. Anne didn't eat hers either. Where's a Pizza Hut? At the large Asakusa Sensoji Buddhist Temple complex, we see the largest paper lantern in Japan. We stroll through the souvenir/food stands; while we sit eating an ice cream, a young non-Asian guy and Asian gal sits across from us. He grew up in Elkhart, Indiana, lives in CA now with his Japanese-born gal. He was amazed that we were from the same part of the country. Our last visit is to the 1,092'-tall Tokyo Tower. We go to the observatory deck at 492' for a panoramic view of Tokyo. Tonight we thank Mitchie for carefully driving us here, and we say goodbye to him and the other travelers. Only Anne and I are continuing to head north in our travels.
Thurs 10/13: We're learning how to use the combination washer/dryer at our hotel. Luckily, a man who reads Japanese and was familiar with the machines walked in to do his laundry; we needed a translator. Another small world: he's 62 and was born in Tokyo, has lived in Dallas, TX, and Canton, MI, since 1987. He's a check-in agent for Delta Airlines at Metro Airport. His family lives in Dallas, and he lives part-time in Canton until his off days, when he flies home. He comes to Tokyo about ten times a year to visit his mother. I told him to expect a visit from my sister at the Delta desk some day. We thought about going to the movies on this rainy day. Some theaters provide subtitles for Japanese film by projecting captions on the back wall of the theater backwards and giving you a small mirror for you to hold up and read the reflected captions, flipped to correct the orientation during the movie. Not sure if we'll do that. We will go out for a walk and late lunch, then re-pack our bags. Raining today.
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