MayseStomp

Sunday, 15 June 2018

Adam: Our final full day of this Asia trip is back in Hong Kong. We’re staying in Discovery Bay on Lantau Island – a small, isolated expat community a ferry ride out from the center of town.

Tomorrow (Monday) we leave HKG in the morning and arrive into Sea-Tac a couple of hours before we left. Then, another flight will get us back to ATL before midnight tomorrow.

That’s it for me and my posts. Thanks for reading this summer.

Brenda’s working hard to get her blogs written and updated while everything is still fresh. The memories fade quickly.. we were reviewing photos from the beginning of the trip and it already seemed like a lifetime ago.

Everyone had a wonderful time, but we’re all ready to get home and burrow in for awhile. This summer, like many of our previous trips, was “too much of a good thing” and now we need to get home and recover!  The kids start back to school just 15 days after we get home.

Final trip map:

Josie, Brenda, and I walking to breakfast in the rain. Hong Kong has continued with its rainy season the entire time we were away. The kids appreciated the cooler temperatures, though.

Sunday breakfast at a cafe. Everything is in walking distance in Discovery Bay. In fact, private vehicles are banned from the village.

The community has capped the number of licensed golf carts available to 500. As a result, the cost of these golf carts now exceeds US$255,000.  For those on a smaller budget, you can rent one for about $9,000/month. See, this is what I hate about HK (a place I really like..).. it’s impossible to actually live here.

As I said, everything is in walking distance and we walked.

Public bus routes are plentiful and cheap. We left Discovery Bay and went to a fishing village, Tai O, on the far western part of Lantau.

Tai O is known as the “Venice of Hong Kong” – and has become a tourist spot.  Many of the buildings are on stilts to allow for the tides.  Most traffic through the town is managed via boat.  The day we arrived, after so much rain, many of the streets were flooded.

We walked around as much as possible, but often our routes were blocked by standing water, forcing us to double back and find other routes.

The village is full of shabby looking seafood restaurants and small shops selling all sorts of un-identifiable (to us) items and creatures drawn up from the depths.

Mahjong game in session.

Flooded street emptying into one of the canals.

Discovery Bay has a beach, ritzy waterfront shopping district with many al fresco dining restaurants, and a direct ferry link back to HK Island.
Rich (is there any other?) foreigners live here and commute by ferry to downtown.

View of our condo building. Most are ugly on the outside and not all that great on the inside, either.  Even so, 600sq.ft. apartments typically rent here for about US$3k/month. Buying that same condo starts at US$3.3MM and goes up from there.

Monday, 16 June 2018

We flew from Hong Kong to Seattle, where we had a 7 hour layover before our connecting flight to Atlanta.  Fortunately for us, our good friends Rita and Randy live in Tacoma.  They agreed to pick us up, take us to see their new house, and have a lunch together before we had to return to the airport for our last flight.

We five were exhausted after a 12-hour flight and a severe time-zone change but were thrilled we got an opportunity to see Rita and Randy.  When we walked into their house, Rita had a huge bowl full of grapes and another bowl full of blueberries and strawberries set out for us. She knew we’d been fruit-deprived and that Josie, in particular, had been craving grapes.  Josie fell on the grapes like a thirsty man finding water in the desert.  Rita also had put out towels so we could take showers and refresh ourselves.  It was heavenly and so thoughtful.

We loved their new house and got to see all of the home improvement projects they’ve been working on. Their daughter Angela and her two children were able to come over, as well, for a really nice lunch and we got to meet her son for the first time.  (Her kids are so cute!!!)

When Rita and Randy dropped us back off at the airport, we realized that not ONE of us had thought to take even a single picture.  We were all so excited about seeing each other and visiting that we just didn’t think to get out the cameras.  So — Rita, Randy, Angela THANK YOU for giving up your day to spend a few hours with us.  We love you guys.

We arrived home without too much trouble.  Those 24-hour travel days are really hard, but when we get to feeling sorry for ourselves, we make sure to remember just how special it is that travel like this is even possible.  In Japan, we visited the ship Hikawa Maru — it took 13 days of notoriously rough seas to get from Japan to Seattle as recently as 1960 and cost a fortune.  Today we made an even longer journey than that, with a combined air time of a mere 16 hours. (12 hour flight from HK to Seattle, 4 from Seattle to Atlanta.) What a luxury jet lag is in comparison to two solid weeks of sea sickness!

Until next time!!

Brenda

Tuesday, 10 July 2018

Adam: Today we visited the Tsujiki Fish market (pronounced skee-jee). It is the largest wholesale fish and seafoodmarket in the world. Some 60,000+ workers are employed plying 700,000 metric tons of seafood annually – 400+ different types of seafood from cheap seaweed to the most expensive caviar, and from tiny sardines to 300 kg tuna and various whale species.

But Brenda was only looking for a knife. On our last visit, we purchased a chef’s knife at the market that Brenda says is the best knife she’s ever owned/used. She loves it so much that she’s afraid to use it for fear that it will break.

The knife doesn’t have a brand (that we can read, anyway). We decided to search the many acres of booths and stalls to see if we can find the vendor again.

Note the gift-wrapped square watermelon.

Today was unbearably hot.  The market was so crowded it was hard to maneuver or even see anything.

Fruit in Japan tends to be very expensive so we haven’t been eating much of it.  Josie has been craving grapes lately and finally found some … but they came with a nearly $30 price tag for one pack.

I thoroughly searched this knife store, but it wasn’t “the one.”

The market has many food stalls. People were lined up to buy various delicacies on sticks, which they had to eat standing out in the blazing sun, battling the crowds.  It didn’t look like fun to us so we didn’t end up trying any of the foods.

This area is famous for it’s small sushi restaurants. People line up and wait a long time for the opportunity to sit down and enjoy the freshest, most “authentic” sushi in the world. Most of these places at least have counters.  You have to wait for a seat, but you get to eat your food sitting in the shade once it’s your turn.

Some of the stalls sell weird things that seem unrelated to fish.

But mostly it’s stall after stall of seafood and kitchen equipment.

A glimpse of the loading docks.

This warehouse is where fish shipments come in and get packed for distribution.  The general public is allowed to wander through some of the aisles but it’s pretty clear they don’t really want looky-loos hanging around getting in the way.

I insisted on taking one last pass though the selling area before leaving, dragging my hot sweaty family behind me.  The kids were desperate to get out of there.  BUT …. success!  I couldn’t believe I finally found the same knife.  It was in the very last store I checked just as we were about to leave the market.

It’s the second one from the left on the top row.  I briefly thought about getting one that was a little different than the one I have at home, but ultimately decided to just get an identical one.  I already know I love it, and this way I will have a replacement lined up for when my old one inevitably gets ruined.  This type of knife is made from a harder steel than Western-style knives, which means it has a sharper, thinner blade but is more brittle. Last time I was here, the guy warned me never to cut meat on the bone or something that might have frozen spots — hitting something hard can chip the blade.  I use mine every day, but am very careful not to cut anything but vegetables with it.  Nevertheless, I just know that someday it will get dropped on the floor and the tip will break off or something. For three years now I’ve been babying that knife because I couldn’t replace it …. now I have a back-up!  This was a treasure hunt well worth the effort.  I am giddy!

For lunch we found a little hole-in-the-wall place across from the fish market.  It was the type of restaurant where you order from a vending machine, which spits out a ticket that you hand to the chef.  It was yet another spectacular meal.  In this case, each bowl came with 3 or 4 sheets of that dried seaweed.  Holden loves that stuff and after he ate all his, begged more off the rest of us.

Josie was happy because they had a (mostly) vegetarian option.  This meal came with a single medallion of pork placed on top, which was easy to pick off and give to someone else.  This was called “dipping noodles.”  The soup ingredients are served in a separate bowl and alongside you get a smaller bowl of soup/sauce.  It was thicker than regular broth and coated the noodles sort of like a marinara sauce — although it wasn’t made of tomatoes.

We all got slightly sunburned yesterday at Disney in spite of copious sunscreen applications, shade-seeking, and (for me) carrying an umbrella around.  Today is even hotter and sunnier.

Conditions have gone from unpleasant to literally sickening.  During lunch, we were trying to decide what to do next and Isabella said, “Actually, I don’t feel very good.  I kinda want to just go back to the apartment for the day.”  Holden said, “Me, too” and then Josie said, “Me three.”

We decided to go back for siestas, and made plans to return to the Shibuya district after sundown to take in the night life and get some night photos for Adam.  Once he and I were sitting on our beds at 1:30 p.m., he said “Who are we kidding?  Nobody is going back out today.”  And we didn’t.

Later that evening, while making himself a peanut butter sandwich in our little kitchenette, Holden said, “I’m just loving being at home for awhile.  It’s so relaxing after more than a month of doing so much stuff every day.”

Wednesday, 11 July 2018

Before we left Georgia this summer, I went to Target and loaded up on sunscreen because I’ve found that it can be very expensive in other countries.  I bought so much of it that Isabella and Josie were embarrassed to be seen with me, and the girl at the checkout counter said, “Wow … are you taking a vacation on the surface of the sun?”

We went through ALL of that sunscreen three weeks into the trip … I had to buy a bunch more in Korea.  Today we used up most of what was left of the Korean batch and I had to buy even more this afternoon.  Nevertheless, we are all battling sunburn now.  It just keeps getting a bit worse, a bit pinker, a bit more itchy and stingy, each day.  I was unhappy that a single bottle of a sunscreen brand I recognised (La Roche Posey) was $40 but paid up anyway because we NEED it.

When we got back to the apartment, I decided to research Japanese sunscreen brands and discovered that most of them are far superior to American and European sunscreens, and also (in Japan, anyway) much cheaper.  Japan is a world leader in sunscreen technology, largely because they so highly prize pale, unfreckled skin and there is an enormous demand for ever better options.  The Japanese developed a rating system for measuring UVA protection, called the PA rate.  PA stands for protection grade of UVA and is based on the Persistent Pigment Darkening (PPD) reaction reading at 2-4 hours of sun exposure. PA is a protective level of strength, ranging from PA+ to PA++++.

Other countries are slowly adopting this measurement and rating system, so maybe we’ll be seeing it in US stores one of these days.  Anyway, I am now armed with a couple of brand names and will try those tomorrow.  If we like them, I can load up before we go home.

Adam: Today we made plans to visit the Imperial Palace and then finish up with the Tokyo Science Center. They are near to each other and both (we felt) were within walking distance of our apartment.  We started out fairly early and hit a Starbucks for breakfast and drinks.. and then got to walking.

Adam: In Hibiya Park – a unit of currency from Yap Island. I remember as a kid reading about different currencies of the world – and they always mentioned the Yap Islanders and their large, round limestone disks.

This stone was donated to Japan in 1924 and, at the time, was supposedly worth the equivalent of about US$500 (in 1924 dollars). I have no idea what you could buy with $500 on Yap Island in the 20s, but it’s apparently not worth enough now to be worth appropriating.

On the way to the Imperial Palace. We visited here the last time we were in Tokyo and we remembered fondly touring the castle and walking up 6-7 floors to get good views. We thought we would check this out again.

Classic view of part of the Imperial Palace buildings. Looking across Nijūbashi bridge.

Same spot, three years apart:  June 9, 2015 and July 11, 2018.

In the picture taken today, Josie is standing on a curb because she’s tired of always being the shortest one in the pictures.

Adam: We tried to enter the grounds, but the gates were blocked off with guards. I thought I remembered we needed to sweep around clockwise around the moat to find the proper entrance.

We walked for miles, circumnavigating the entire 300 acres.. but each time we found an access point, they were blocked off.

We decided that the Palace was closed for the day and pretty much gave up. It was hot and humid and we were all dripping wet with sweat. Going to plan B, we decided to walk to the Science Center. It would be inside (a/c) and would surely have some drinks.

Holden finding a fountain on the way.

Adam: When we got to the Science Center a guard told us that, being a Wednesday, this place was closed. We’ve just learned that all that walking was for naught. I’ve emptied my change pocked buying drinks for everyone.

We sat down in defeat to reapply sunscreen and suck down cold drinks.

We continued our walk through the gardens of the Imperial Palace – they were at least open.

A hill of tea plants.

Even the crows are sick of this heat.  They just sat at the water’s edge panting like dogs.

There were about a dozen people standing around looking at the crows, which were all of 2 feet away because they were too heat exhausted to move.  I was standing right in front of the one in the above photo, making little cooing noises at him (as I am prone to doing when I see birds.)  A man standing next to me enthusiastically poked me on the shoulder, gestured at the crow, and said, “Do you see that huge bird?!”  Um, yeah Buddy.  I see it.

Adam: Brenda spoke to a police officer at the front gate and he confirmed that the Palace wasn’t open. It wouldn’t be open tomorrow, either. 

We did a little research after lunch and learned that the Palace is NEVER open. It is, of course, the current home of the Emperor (Akihito, son of Hirohito) and his family.  It is as if we walked all around Buckingham Palace and never found a way to get in, all the while wondering why these guards keep preventing us from wandering around the palace.

After we got back to our apartment, we re-read the blog from 2015 and learned that we KNEW it was closed back then – the false memory I had turned out to be a different castle that we toured in Osaka.

In the end, we put in about 7 miles of walking and had yet to find any indoor activities. Got some good photos, though.

We took the subway to Ginza, a popular, high end shopping district. We got lunch and figured out our strategy for the afternoon.

This restaurant was called “Casual Tempura Restaurant.”  Here we are at the counter casually waiting for our tempura.

Isabella couldn’t resist teasing Adam a bit.

In Ginza, there was a store called Tokyu Hands that Josie discovered online. They have an entire floor dedicated to stationery, pens and other art supplies. Both Isabella and Josie left with their wallets lightened a bit.

More cheap Copic markers!

Tokyo is already getting ready for hosting the Olympics in 2020.  These posters are all over the city.

Our total mileage today was 9.4 walked.  Exhausted by 2:00 p.m., we bought some groceries and turned in for the rest of the day.  We found a specialty store in the subway station that sold imported foods … mostly French, but that didn’t stop them from blaring Mexican mariachi music over their sound system.  The only “Mexican” food I found were little packets of Old El Paso taco seasoning. They were on a shelf next to Spam and some kosher pickles.  I also got excited over what I thought was hummus but turned out to be “4 type pork paste.”  Thank goodness for the translator app! We loaded up with olives, camembert cheese, crackers, garlic pickles, wine with a real cork instead of a screw cap, a baguette and several French pastries. Holden remarked, “This looks exactly like what we ate for dinner every night in Paris last summer.”

Thursday, 12 July 2018

Adam: We started the day with a return to Shibuya – without much of a plan. Brenda wanted to revisit some of the high end, second-hand stores that dot the city.  I had convinced the kids that we ought to try out Karaoke in Tokyo.

Adam: Karaoke turned out to be the highlight of the day. I had to twist Holden’s and Josie’s arms to participate, but once we got into the room, they took over and had a blast.
I picked (purposefully) the same location as the Karaoke scene in the movie “Lost in Translation” with Bill Murray and Scarlet Johansson. We did better (less sexy, more goofy and screechy) than them.

The Scarlett Johansson / Bill Murray scene was filmed in rooms 601 and 602.  We were in room 604 at the end of the hall.

Holden and Josie figuring out how to search for songs on the playlist.  Holden chose Tom Jones “It’s Not Unusual.”  Then the kids made me sing “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Adam sang Billy Joel’s “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant” and then the kids took over completely.  They quickly discovered that Disney songs were the most fun and ended up spending most of the hour singing different tunes from Alladin, The Little Mermaid, etc.

The Disney songs are easy to do silly — they already knew the lyrics by heart so they could stand up and dance around without having to look at the words on the TV screen for help, and best of all they could sing as characters (e.g., do voices and accents.) They had such a great time they want to come back and do it again tomorrow, but for longer than just one hour.

After karaoke, we ran into another location of the Mexican restaurant Guzman y Gomez and decided to give it a try this time.  (We saw one at Disney Ikspiari a few days ago.)  The food was far more authentic than we would have guessed … they even used corn tortillas instead of flour.  As with almost all Mexican meals, I had to dodge bits of cilantro that ruined the experience for me, so that added to the authenticity as well.  We were impressed.

Then we hit another huge stationary store.  The girls loaded up on some more of the unbelievably cheap Copic markers.

We finished the day’s outing with a return to Harajuku and the crepe vendor.

Below is a picture of the giant cotton candy you can buy.  Holden wanted to try this, but it was more than $9 and Adam and I refused to pay it.  Holden decided he didn’t want it bad enough to spend his own $9 and was satisfied watching other people walking around with theirs.  We figured we all knew what cotton candy tasted like already and the only thing special about this one was the size.

Adam: For the first time on the trip, Brenda and I actually went out on a date in the evening. Within walking distance of our apartment, there was a restaurant that focuses entirely on Gyoza. We bought a plate to share, some pickled vegetable appetizers and we each had a small glass of Sake.

The gyoza on this trip has been amazing, and this place that specializes in it was the best of all.  We didn’t get any photos, sadly.  I’m going to try making gyoza at home along with the ramen soups.

Friday, 13 July 2018

Another blazing hot day.  We decided to visit the Ueno Zoo, thinking that if we went right when they opened, we could beat the worst of the heat.  The zoo is in a neighborhood we’ve never been, so we went a little early to get in some wandering around time.

This area is full of markets and seems to be the unofficial Second-Hand Clothes district.

Holden already needing a break.

The park in front of the zoo entrance has an enormous swampy area filled with lotus.  They are finally starting to bloom here and are probably only a few days away from being spectacular. They are already impressive.

We’re already sweaty.

We arrived at the zoo entrance about 10 minutes before they opened, so we wandered over to this nearby shrine.

Some old guys had packed the nooks and crannies in this tree with birdseed.  We sat in the shade and watched the chickadees for awhile.

This guy had a baby turtle that he offered to let the kids play with.  It was such a cute and curious little creature!

In front of the shrine.

After entering the zoo grounds, this is the first animal we encountered.  He is a Steller’s Sea Eagle.  They typically spend their winters in Japan, then migrate elsewhere during the summer.  This guy had been severely injured on some power lines a few years back and can’t fly.  He is a permanent resident of the zoo now.  He has his own little island that is sort of not really a part of the zoo … it’s the area near the entrance adjacent to the public park.  He is not in a cage.  The zoo feeds him and has provided a shelter for him on the ground.

We read a sign saying that the panda exhibit is first-come first-served and that when the lines get too long, they will turn people away.  Since we were practically the only visitors in the zoo, we decided to head over there before it got crowded, but took our time looking at animals along the way.

North American prairie dogs.  These were pretty much the only animals in the zoo who weren’t acting too hot.  In fact, the prairie dogs were basking in the sun even when they could have chosen shade.

We should have hustled. By the time we got to the panda area 15 minutes into our visit, the line was already 80 minutes long! We couldn’t believe it.  Where did all these people come from?  We never saw anyone else enter the gates.

We’ve seen pandas before, so we opted to skip the pandas and take advantage of the fact that practically every other person in the entire zoo was standing in that line.  It gave us the rest of the zoo to ourselves.

Indian elephants.  Even the elephants were acting over-heated.

Misters!  It was already so humid that the misters didn’t provide much relief.

Mama gorilla ….

…. and her new baby, Riki.  He is only about 9 months old.  Here he is chewing on a stalk of celery.

Meanwhile, the panda line is now even longer.  People are hoping to get a glimpse of the female giant panda cub Xiang Xiang, born on June 2, 2017.  She’s just a tad over 1 year old now. Note all the people standing under umbrellas, trying to provide just a little relief from the heat.

After the zoo (which is quite a nice one, although would be better if it was about 10F cooler) we checked out another video game parlor.

On to lunch.  We love these noodle restaurants all over Tokyo.

Table setting commonly seen at the Udon noodle shops.  Jugs of ice water, chopsticks, and the little pots and dishes containing all the condiments — soy sauce, vinegar, grated garlic paste, chilli powder (Shichimi tougarashi), some green stuff that we never identified, pickled ginger, sesame oil, etc. (Edit: I later learned that the green stuff was probably Yuzukosho — a paste made from fermented red or green chili peppers, salt, and peelings of the Japanese citrus fruit yuzu.)

Kids gulping down glass after glass of ice water.

Udon noodles, and they even had a vegetarian option for Josie.

Walking through Ameyoko market on our way back to the train station.  It’s “a bustling shopping street where the distinctive calls of market sellers can be heard selling everything and anything from clothes, spices, cosmetics and fresh fish.”

For all your seaweed needs.

Back at karaoke!  Different location, same chain. This time we booked the room for 90 minutes.  This is the only place we’ve found where you can be LOUD in Tokyo without consequence. The kids took full advantage.

They had a fantastic time, but when we left Holden said, “That was fun, but I don’t think I need to do it ever again.”  They got it out of their systems.

That’s it for Tokyo!  Tomorrow we catch a flight back to Hong Kong in preparation for our long flight home to Georgia on Monday.

Friday, 06 July 2018

Today sucked.  We left our little house in Kamakura and drove 30 miles to Tokyo.  The plan was to return the rental car at Tokyo Station (one of the main train depots), take the subway to our hotel, and spend the majority of the day having fun.  Instead, we had an all-day affair of frustration and expense.

I don’t recommend driving in Japan.  For one thing, Japan requires foreigners to have an International driver’s license, which you have to get before you leave your home country.  Adam went thought the process months ago during the planning stages of our trip.

Secondly, driving in Japan is stressful.  They have some strange road rules and the roads themselves are narrow — they seem too narrow for two-way traffic, but that’s how they are used anyway.  The country doesn’t seem to be set up for cars well; parking is hard to find, expensive, and they have a lot of indecipherable rules about it.  We were constantly afraid we’d return to our parking spot and find our car booted or towed.  It also made finding Airbnb’s more difficult because we had to get places with parking spots.  (In the case of Kamakura, our designated parking spot was nearly 1/2 mile from the house.)  And the rental car agent in Kyoto stressed to us that every time a car is involved in any kind of problem, the police MUST BE CALLED.  She repeated this probably 8 times.  We were worried about what on earth we’d do if we had to deal with police when we can’t speak Japanese.

And lastly, many of the roads are toll roads, and the tolls are really steep.  One was US$70, another was $US50.  Most were in the $13 – $20 range, to go just a few kilometres.  Gas was nearly $6 gallon.

In short: driving in Japan is frustrating, inconvenient, and expensive.

We had the address of the Toyota rental agency in Tokyo, the place we were required to return the car.  We keyed it into our GPS; and then found ourselves driving around in Hell.  It kept saying “You have arrived at your destination” when we clearly hadn’t.  It was like a video game when you’re standing right on the map dot, but the thing you’re looking for is. not. there.  At least with a video game there is a great online community that gives detailed instructions on how to fix your problem.  In this case, each time the GPS told us we were at our destination, we were inside a tunnel. There was no online walk-through to help us out (and believe me, we looked for one!)

This particular tunnel had a toll booth near the entrance with a $13 fee each time you drove through.  The first time, the guard let us through without paying since we’d gone such a short distance (like 100 feet or so).  We didn’t find the Toyota Rental Agency inside the tunnel (You have arrived at your destination — “What the hell?!?”) , and the GPS re-routed us 5km through the city — back to the exact same tunnel.  This time we didn’t even have a toll ticket because the on-ramp didn’t take us back onto the highway where the tickets were issued.  The guard looked annoyed, but wrote something down on a clip-board and let us through again.

This time we saw a dingy little off-ramp midway through the tunnel that looked like a maintenance access area for authorised personnel only, but it was for an underground parking garage.  We drove by, looking for another off-ramp, and ended up outside the tunnel again, and again were re-routed 5km through the city (which in traffic took around 30 minutes each time).  Adam quit using the car’s GPS and switched to the one in his phone.

Now we were sent to a different location, but the result was more or less the same:  we weren’t in a tunnel this time, but the thing said you have arrived at your destination with no sign of a Toyota Rental Agency.  Adam pulled over and tried to call the number on our rental agreement, but it took several calls to get an actual human, and when we did, he barely spoke English and had no idea where the Tokyo Station rental agency was located.  He just gave us the same address we already had.

By this time, we’d been driving the same 5km loop in Tokyo for nearly 3 hours.  We finally had the idea that maybe the rental return was inside that parking garage back in the tunnel.  Back we went; this time the guard was none too pleased and made us pay the $13.  We pulled into the parking structure and found several rental car agencies (success!!) which turned sour when none of them were for Toyota.  I finally got out and asked at a different agency, and the girl (who spoke no English at all) understood “Toyota” at least, and gave me a little map — all in Japanese.  We spent some time deciphering that, and realised we had to take an exit from inside the parking garage into a different part of the city and drive to a different parking garage to find Toyota.  That cost us another US$3 to drive though the first garage. In total, $16 to drive through a parking garage we never parked in.

At last we found the correct rental return agency.  We were frustrated, stressed out, hungry, and now hauling all of our luggage through the city.  (As we walked away, shed of the car we now hated, Adam muttered “That was a total clusterfuck.” All three kids wide-eyed and open-mouthed: “What did you just say?!”)

It was after 1:00 p.m. by then and all the nearby restaurants had lines out the door, so we couldn’t even get food.  We headed to the train station to go to our hotel.

Our hotel is another frustrating issue:  unbeknownst to us, Tokyo instituted some new licensing rules for Airbnb that took effect about 3 weeks ago, and more than 50,000 places were shut down while they waded through the bureaucratic red tape to get their license renewed.  A couple days ago we discovered this highly unpleasant surprise when we could only find ONE place to stay in all of Tokyo and surrounding areas, and that place was over US$2,000 per night.  We finally found a regular hotel out by Disney that could take us, but could only get 3 days there.

As far as hotels go, this one is actually pretty nice.  It’s connected to the train station and the ride into the city is only about 20 minutes, so hopefully it won’t be too inconvenient.

Anyway, the whole ordeal killed an entire day and left us in terrible moods.  We turned in fairly early and hope that tomorrow is much better.

(Below) On the train to our hotel.  Holden now travels the trains like a local.

Our hotel: Urayasu Brighton Hotel Tokyo Bay.

View from our window.  That’s the train station, so it’s really convenient for getting around.

Adam’s take on the day:

We’re finally in Tokyo – and will be here for about a week.

The origins of this trip are based on Isabella’s graduation from high school. Although this trip isn’t her graduation present, we did allow her to have a strong say in where we spent this final summer before she heads off to college.  She wanted to return to Japan and, specifically, Tokyo.

We have kept our travel itinerary pretty loose on this trip. We wanted the freedom to wander as it pleased us and determine the amount of time we stay in any location based on our feelings at the time. The week in Korea was a last minute side trip just because we found ridiculously cheap airline tickets to Seoul, for example.

It never occurred to me that we might have problems finding lodging in Tokyo. It is the world’s largest city and has a robust AirBnB community. However, what I didn’t know was that a new law went into effect on June 15 in Tokyo that essentially shut down AirBnB for awhile. All landlords must now go through a new process to register their locations. The new law’s backers are a combination of the Hotel Industry (which hates the competition) and the residents of local neighborhoods (who hate having an endless string of foreign lodgers come and go).

The result of this was that more than 80% of eligible AirBnB locations were shut down and there was NOWHERE in all of Tokyo for us to stay. We had to start having discussions on avoiding Tokyo altogether or fly off to some other country & etc. In the end, we found a hotel outside of town (20 minute train ride) near Tokyo Disneyworld that could accommodate the 5 of us. We decided to stay here for 3 nights and then see what else might come available…

****

Friday was a travel day, and a lousy one.. probably the low point of our vacation. It took far too long to get into Tokyo (bumper to bumper) and finding the Toyota-Rent-A-Car location in downtown Tokyo, in some underground garage that wasn’t marked, was a real stress builder. By the time we got to our hotel and got some food in us, it was already 2:00pm. It was raining and a bit cold. Everyone (mostly me) was testy. By the time we got to our room, all we wanted to do was shower and hunker down in our beds and watch TV.

I did manage to drive successfully through Japan without any incidents (that I’ll admit to). 1400km driven, including several hours in downtown Tokyo. I earned my merit badge.

Some good news, we have found an AirBnB for us to stay MON-FRI nights of this week.. it just came back online after having been registered and I grabbed it the minute it came available. These apartments are not only cheaper than hotels, but we get several rooms (the 5 of us in one hotel room really tests the love we have for each other..), a kitchen, fridge and can do laundry. This is a huge upgrade and has saved the final week of our trip.

Saturday, 07 July 2018

Adam: I told the kids that we don’t have any agendas or “must see” places this time.. so they’re going to get to decide the majority of the itinerary. Isabella and Josie wanted to return to Harajuku and the famed Takeshita Street (pronounced “talk-esh-ta”, not like it reads…)

Harajuku is known internationally as a center of Japanese youth culture and fashion. This is where all the freaks let their flags fly. Shopping and dining options include many small, youth-oriented, independent boutiques and cafés.

We got their early in the day (a common complaint from my family) and it was too soon to get real crazy.

On the way: Holden putting on sunscreen, me copying what the Asians do to avoid the sun.

There is practically no graffiti in Japan.  The only place we’ve seen it had a sign posted reading No! Graffiti  Any violation is punishable by law. It seems that passive-aggressive notes are not appreciated in any culture.

Harajuku is known for their creperies and there is no shortage of options.

The streets when it’s “too early” to be crowded.  A lot of the shops weren’t even open yet.

This little shop, CalbeePlus, specialised in potato chips, cut and fried right in front of you. We chose “pizza taste with melted cheese.”  They were pretty good.  They tasted a lot like nachos.

People in costumes are starting to come out.

We just happened to stumble upon a restaurant specialising in tonkotsu ramen: Kyushu Jangara Ramen Harajuku.  They had room for 5 at a counter, so we took it.  Best of all, they offered a bowl of vegan ramen for Josie.  Finally something for everyone!

Adam ordered a spicy version called Budo-Karabon.  — Menu description:  I put a spicy in rich soup “Bonchan”.  I just pursued “the depth of taste” not just painful.  As a result, we decided to blend ten kinds of spices. People who are “regulars who love to spice” are regularly “bunny” straight lines. A moderate spicy leaves a faint and lingering finish in the mouth. Please try by all means once.

I ordered Kobonshan, a garlic variety.  Menu description — Please enjoy the sense of unity of “Homemade Mercer Oil (Garlic Burning Oil)” and “Mild Tonkotsu Soup Boiled Crisply”. The material is Tonkotsu, License. “Kumamoto ramen” is the roots. Especially it is rammed with a characteristic flavor/sweetness. If you sip a soup, you will find “fragrant garlic fragrance” in your mouth. Its mellow richness is captivating the people of “Gobon Mania” throughout the country.

This meal was a treat for all of us.  It was one of the best meals we’ve had on the whole trip.  We also got really lucky to find seats; after we’d ordered but before we’d been served, the place filled up and people were being turned away.  I am going to try my best to recreate this type of ramen dish at home.  (All the food close-ups from now on are because I want to remember how they are supposed to look.)

After lunch we walked back through Takeshita Street going the other way so we could see some of the shops that had still been closed on our first pass. Now it’s starting to get crowded.

Holden (on balcony, greenish shirt) signaling to Adam that Mom and sisters need him inside the store.  Adam is the keeper of all the yen.

Adam: After lunch, we traveled to another part of town for one of Josie’s choices – a return to the largest Pokemon themed store in the world. This place was also crowded – People can’t get enough of this stuff and it rivals the cult-like-fervor for Disney gear that we sometimes see in the U.S. The kids didn’t buy anything – they said that everything was low quality and too high priced. Since all of their purchases on this trip come out of THEIR pockets, they’re much more discriminating. With regards to Pokemon gear, I think they’ve all just outgrown the interest – what was cooler 3 years ago when we were last here is now not as interesting.

Inside the Pokemon store.

The kids’ chief complaint was that most of the merchandise was Generation 7 (whatever that means) and they don’t know any of the characters.  Our kids were into Pokemon during Generations 1 thru 4, and apparently the Pokemon people aren’t making merch for Gen 1-4 anymore.  “We can’t be expected to pay money for something that isn’t nostalgic” Isabella declared.  Josie said, “That was kind of a letdown.  I was really looking forward to this and I’m disappointed.”

It was too early to go back to the hotel for the day, but we were all getting tired of being out.  We decided to visit Tokyo’s version of Disney Springs, in Orlando — Disney Ikspiari.  It’s the free part of the Disney complex where you can shop or go to restaurants without buying a park ticket.  Ikspiari is only one train stop from our hotel, so when we were done it was a quick trip back home.

People like to dress up here at Disney, too.

They have a Mexican restaurant!  Guzman y Gomez.  This display of plastic food is sitting outside the door so people can see what they might be served.  We thought about eating here just to see what the Japanese take on Mexican food is like, because we’ve found that other countries typically butcher Mexican food.  America does a pretty good job, especially if you’re fairly close to the Mexico border, but even in the US you usually get TexMex instead of authentic Mexican dishes.  It was too early for dinner, though, and we ended up deciding not to. We were also a little afraid that we’d end up paying a lot of money for not-very-good food.

More people all dressed up.

Adam: We have not suffered from the huge rainstorms in Southern Japan. All of the deaths and destruction are taking place well to the south of us. Saturday was a very pleasant day in Tokyo and the weather looks to hold fairly well.. slight chances of rain each day, but we won’t get socked in.

We did, however, “enjoy” an earthquake last night. It hit about 8:20pm and rocked our high-rise hotel building for about 30 seconds. The kids have never experienced an earthquake and THAT got them jabbering well into the night.

Richter 5.9 earthquake. No recorded damage. I know well that the buildings in Tokyo are designed for this, but it’s still always a bit unsettling.  My last earthquake experience was in a high-rise in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, and I do NOT know how well their buildings are constructed.

Sunday, 08 July 2018

Today we walked around some of the kids’ favorite locations, Shibuya and Akihabara.

Adam (below): Inside one of the video game parlors in Shibuya – an active neighborhood in Tokyo.  The kids are always eager to see these… “They don’t have THIS in the U.S!”  

These places are loud, dark, overwhelming, and filled with smoke.  They may be one of the last places left in the world where people can smoke indoors.  Whenever I walk into one of these parlors, I am brutally yanked back to my childhood.  This is what the late 70s smelled like.

Shibuya is famous for its scramble crossing. Three large TV screens mounted on nearby buildings overlook the crossing, as well as many advertising signs.  This is the busiest pedestrian crossing in the world. Its heavy traffic and inundation of advertising has led to it being compared to the Times Square intersection in New York City.

This is what the street looks like when the crosswalk signal goes green.

All of us were getting a little tired of noodle dishes, so for today’s lunch we chose a place inside Shibuya Mark City mall called BiKiNi TAPA, a Catalan Spanish restaurant.  Adam and I shared some paella, Josie found a grilled vegetable platter, and Holden & Isabella both ordered a pork chop with rice.  The food here was quite good.

Isabella picked up Adam’s camera while he was in the men’s room and started snapping pictures even though she doesn’t know how to work his Leica.  This was the best shot she got, and the only picture we have of the restaurant.

Below: Interior shot of Shibuya Mark City. It’s like a mall, only bigger and has more stuff.  One entire floor is dedicated to restaurants (good ones!), it has a huge train station, a hotel, and Toyota Noren-Gai (Foods) — “opened in 1951.  It is a very famous food shopping street with its long history. We’re offering genuine articles and high quality food for the gifts, providing with nice taste and Omotenashi, perfect service.”  The place is so big they have little kiosks with map booklets in multiple languages peppered throughout the complex.

The kids found a pet store with the most adorable Shiba Inu puppy we’ve ever seen, with a US$2,000 price tag. The door to the left is for some seedy sex-parlor thing. You can see the signs showing “18” as minimum age.  (Oddly, “Baby Doll” is the pet store, not the sex store.)

Adam: An eight-storey guitar store… Great place to wander, but the rest of the family was bored.

We didn’t have any agenda this afternoon.  We just wandered from street to street, up and down alleys. There is more than enough to see and every once in awhile we find something crazy or new that keeps us interested.

Adam: Like gay boy singers with two horse-headed accompanying dancers. The sign says “Spread with Asobi virus and Horses!” Does that help?  

I looked up Asobi virus when we got home because I thought maybe it was a public warning about something like Mad Cow disease.  Nope.  Asobi Virus is the name of this band and apparently they are kind of a big deal here.  They have a large online presence and you can download their albums on iTunes.  Their webpage, as translated by Google, says “A boy running around the country with my short blond freckles blonde lives in my head.” Is that more helpful than “Spread with Asobi Virus and Horses!”?

These three guys were doing something, but we couldn’t figure out what.  They were dressed like Native Americans — sort of, in what looked like repurposed bed sheets and flip-flops, along with the feather headdresses — but had heavy black-face makeup on.  It was really weird and probably wildly racist, but we couldn’t tell which race of people were supposed to be offended. (Or honored?)

On to Akihabara. This neighborhood has dozens of stores specializing in anime, manga, retro video games, figurines, card games and other collectibles. It plays to the “Otaku” culture – the nerds/geeks that come here for electronics, games, books & etc.

Inside the Mandarake store – 8 more storeys of toys, collectible items, books, DVD’s & etc. Each floor is packed with cases and full of people.

Our kids are looking at collectible Pokemon cards. Some of these go for more than $1000 each.  Isabella could hardly believe it when she saw a Charizard card from the initial Japanese release in 1996.  These cards weren’t released in the US until 1999.  They wanted ¥120,000 for it.

For all your toy car needs.

Narrow staircases between each floor.

Adam: Endless Manga books. In this store, each floor had a specialty. For example, a floor of books for girls, another floor for boys, another floor just for girl-on-girl love books, another one with sex themes and other strange, naughty habits. These books are definitely for adults and we skipped a number of floors altogether, but not without loud and chattery observations from our 3 kids.

Below: This floor made the least sense to me.  It was all about these dolls.  They were incredibly creepy, partly because they didn’t have eyes.  There was a bin filled with eyeballs by the cash register. The deal is you pick out your body, eyes, hair, outfit, face shape, etc. to create your own character.  The bodies were all female, but they ranged from the ones in this photo with small boobs to the ones around the corner (not in the photo) with boobs so big the dolls couldn’t sit up without a special back brace.  They all had nipples.  It was gross and creepy and definitely had a fetish vibe, but was also weirdly innocent.  What are you supposed to do with these things?  They are too small to be sex dolls, but too sexual to be anything else.   The straight-up porn floors are easier to handle just because they at least make sense.  I don’t like porn, but I understand porn.  These dolls, though.  They’re fucked up.

Back outside, a restaurant specialising in caviar.   The Beluga course will run you ¥63,000 — about $570 per person.

Monday, 09 July 2018

Today we visited the Tokyo DisneySea.  This park is unique in design and rides and has received strong reviews from folks who travel all over the world to enjoy theme parks.  The tickets are reasonable (about half what you pay in Orlando) and the weather held up.

We ended up having a great day. We didn’t stay too late because we still needed to return to our hotel, pick up our luggage (which they were storing for us), and take several trains back into Tokyo downtown to find our next apartment.

Adam didn’t want to lug his good camera around all day, so these are all iPhone photos.

The biggest impression we had of the park was how beautiful and well designed it was. Here are some shots of the views..

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride.

Of course there were lines.

Many of the rides were set up to let people do their waiting inside air conditioned buildings with lots to look at.  It was so hot outside you didn’t mind getting into a long line because it meant you could stand inside where it was cool.  This is the line for Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull.

It got so hot in the afternoon — nearly 90°F, 79% humidity– that they started making safety announcements over the loud speaker system urging people to drink enough water, stand under umbrellas, and take frequent rest breaks to avoid heat stroke.

Standing in front of the roller coaster Raging Spirits.  It is the only coaster in the park with a 360° loop.

The only real disappointment of the day was that the park’s most popular ride, Journey to the Center of the Earth, was closed for repairs.  It’s underneath that volcano in the background.

Venetian canal rides.

One of the highlights of the afternoon was going popcorn hunting. Throughout the park they had small stands selling various flavors of popcorn. The kids walked all over looking for new styles.  In total, we sampled: Curry, Strawberry, Milk Chocolate, and Garlic Shrimp. We’d buy a small box at each stand and all share.

The small container (in Holden’s hand, above) was ¥350.  For between ¥2500 – ¥3100 (US$22-$27, depending on how fancy they were) you could buy a souvenir popcorn bucket.  They were elaborate affairs with different themes depending on where in the park you bought them.  We initially thought you could get free refills all day with the purchase of a bucket, but then found out that each refill was another ¥500.  (The refills were more than 2x the volume of the small container above, but still!)  Holden spent quite a bit of time doing the math to figure out how much popcorn you’d have to eat to come out ahead on the purchase of a souvenir bucket.  When we thought the refills were free, he figured you’d need to eat the equivalent of 7 or more small boxes.  When we found out the refills actually cost money, he gave up.  He couldn’t do the calculations in his head.

Below:
Adam:  Here the kids are coming off one of the rides where you get real wet, Aquatopia. I wanted to go and the kids actually balked for awhile, but finally relented. I told them that they wouldn’t get THAT wet … but we all did.  They were mad for about 30 seconds until they realized how nice they felt after a good soaking.

We had a fantastic time and got to ride on almost every attraction we wanted.  By 3:30, we were hot and getting tired, and still had a couple hours of train travel ahead of us — with all our luggage — in order to move from our current hotel to our new Airbnb in a neighborhood more centrally located in Tokyo.  We stopped for this one last photo before heading out to the train station.

More later!

Wednesday, 04 July 2018

Today was short travel day, driving from Hakone to Kamakura. It’s a slow, 50km drive along the ocean. They call the highway “1” and it travels much like US1 in California.

Loaded up for another trip down the road.

Adam: From all of our driving, we can see that Japan has plenty of room, they just don’t have very much level space. If you must build, you’re going to have to build on steep inclines.

Kamakura is another resort town, on the beach. It gets a lot of Tokyo weekend crowds. All beach towns sort of look the same wherever you area. The same surf shops and salt-water worn buildings, a lot of wind, and even the normally uptight Japanese here have a relaxed look to them.

Our place while we’re here.

Another hot, humid day.

Lunchtime!

Adam: We couldn’t check into our house until the afternoon, so we parked downtown and visited one of the recommended sights – Hase-dera Temple. This place boasts a massive collection of hydrangea plans of all varieties.

It was a large letdown for Brenda – almost all of the hydrangea plants had recently had their flowers clipped. There were a lot of green plants, but no flowers.

There are three sets of these impossibly cute Jizo statues at Hasedera Temple.  If you can find them all and take pictures, good luck will come to you. We didn’t know about the “take pictures” part until afterwards … and we only found two sets anyway.  I guess it was not our lucky day. (Edit: I could only find one reference to these guys being lucky, so I don’t know how accurate it is. Everything else I read about them was actually pretty tragic and depressing.)

Along the flights of steps leading to the Main Hall are countless Jizo statuettes made of stone. They are called Sentai Jizo, meaning literally ‘one thousand Jizo’. Historically, parents came to Hasedera to set up these statues in hopes the deity would protect and watch over their children.  More recently, they have come to represent miscarried, aborted and deceased children.  Jizo Bosatsu is the god who will comfort the souls of these children and guide them to Paradise.  According to Japanese Buddhist stories, children who face judgement in the afterlife are doomed to stack rocks on the riverbed of souls in purgatory because they didn’t have a chance to build up good karma on earth. Jizo helps these children to cross the river in the sleeves of his robe.

Kannon-do Hall.

Nice views of the town from up here.

This area has posted signs warning people about the kites.  (This photo came from the internet; we didn’t think to get our own photo while we were there.)

Isabella said, “I kinda would like to be injured by a kite.  Can you imagine how cool of a story that would be?  People would say How did you get that huge scar on your arm? and you’d say, ‘I was attacked by a falcon at a Buddhist Temple in Japan.’ Then when they said, Wait … WHAT?! you could get all mysterious about it and say, ‘It’s not something I like to talk about.’  You’d be a legend.”

These slopes were covered in hundreds of hydrangeas, almost all of which had recently been pruned.  There weren’t very many flowers to see.

This is the area where the second set of three cute Jizo statues were, but we didn’t get a photo of them.

I asked Adam to get this photo because I loved this guy.  I don’t know who he is, but with his fire and sword and mad fist and grouchy eyebrows, he’s awesome. This is a dude to be reckoned with. He doesn’t even need to get out of his cross-legged sitting position to let you know he means business.

Going into a Benten-kutsu Cave filled with carvings of the sea goddess Benzaiten and her 16 children. These carvings are an unusual style that’s not typical of Japanese sculpture. Benzaiten is the Goddess of water and wealth, and the only female among the Seven Japanese Gods of Fortune.  When she was adapted from Buddhism, she was given the attributes of talent, beauty and music among others.  She is the patron of artists, writers, dancers, and geisha, among others.

It’s very dark in here, but Adam got a couple of shots.

Just a short walk away, there is another Buddha at the Kōtoku-in buddhist temple. What is significant is the age (constructed in 1252) and the “high tech” bronze casting and construction techniques they used. They allow visitors to go inside the hollow Buddha and see from the inside how he was built. (More on that below.)

Some stats on the Buddha.

The copper-colored part is added reinforcement to help support the head from inside.

That his robes look like from the inside.

Josie in front of some huge obelisk that is old and has a lot to say, but there wasn’t any sign to help us understand the significance.

Another purification station.

Thursday, 05 July 2018

Adam:  Today we drove to nearby Yokohama – one of Japan’s major ports. Almost 2/3 of Yokohama was destroyed by US bombing during WWII, starting with the Doolittle raid and running right up to Japan’s surrender.  Japan invested heavily in the rebuilding and growth of this port. Yokohama and Tokyo are rivals. That is to say, if you ask anyone from Yokohama they’ll tell you that Yokohama is better than Tokyo.

Yokohama’s population of about 4 million people is big enough to make it a major world city on its own. Yokohama and its massive port are the industrial heartland of Japan. In the 1960s, Yokohama came up with a bold plan to transform its industrial cityscape into a futuristic city to rival Tokyo. Train lines were built, warehouses torn down and man-made islands were created. Attractive architecture and parks filled the Yokohama port area.

We got a late start (by Mayse standards) and were already hungry by the time we arrived. Our visit started with the Shinyokohama Raumen Museum. The top floor has signs and displays that lay out the history and significance of Ramen to the Japanese. But it’s 2 downstairs floors that draw the crowds.

We were able to explore a 1:1 replica of some streets and houses of Shitamachi, part of old town of 1958 Tokyo, when the popularity of ramen was rapidly increasing. Nine ramen restaurants can be found there, each featuring a ramen dish from a different region of Japan.

Ramen is the fusion of Chinese noodle dishes and Japanese food culture. Undoubtedly, the root of ramen is Chinese.  Cuisine from many different countries entered Japan after 1859, when its ports were opened. The father of ramen is Chinese noodle dishes, and the mother is Japanese food ingredients, such as dashi (Japanese-style soup stock) and shoyu (soy sauce), which have been used in Japanese traditional noodle dishes like soba and udon.

You can walk from restaurant to restaurant and try out their specialties. A guide helps you decide what type of Ramen they serve (different bases, different noodles, different spices, etc). The restaurants also sell 1/2 servings of their dishes so that you can eat at one and then move on.

We chose one of the restaurants equipped to seat 5 people, Komurasaki.  It turned out to be fantastic.  It was the only restaurant featuring tonkotsu-based broth — the others were either soy or salt based, and one was pescatarian-based (the only one with fish broth.)

“Founded in 1954, this historic ramen restaurant serves a mild-flavoured soup that combines chicken bone and vegetable broth over a tonkotsu (pork bone) base. The soup includes its own specially-flavoured garlic oil, and home-roasted, crumbled garlic chips scattered on top; whose fragrance really piques your appetite.”

The kids slurping away.

It was VERY good.  I spent quite some time trying to identify flavors and ingredients so I can try to make it myself at home.  The recipes I’ve found online in the past mostly use miso-based broth, but we liked this one a lot better.

Unfortunately, after all of us had our 1/2 service (with a side of Gyoza), we were already full.  We wanted to try another of the restaurants, but it had gotten crowded while we were eating our first serving and we couldn’t find another place that could seat all of us.  We gave up and left.

The shop offers all the dishes and utensils you could ever need to properly serve ramen.

People lining up to wait for their turn, which could be 30 minutes or more.  This is what chased us out after our first (and only) serving.

Adam: On to the Yokohama waterfront – it never rained today, but was extremely windy. Holden and Brenda spent more time battling their umbrellas than enjoying them.

The ferris wheel and roller coaster weren’t running today.  We assume it was too windy to safely operate them.

Adam: We walked to the Hikawa Maru – a Japanese ocean liner built in 1930 and used until 1960. At its start, this was the only method of trans-Pacific travel. It’s now a museum and it turned out to be the highlight of our day.

There were NO visitors – we almost literally had the boat to ourselves. It allowed us to explore with complete freedom and made for a very enjoyable afternoon.

The Hikawa Maru also has some extra significance – it’s main route was from Yokohama to Seattle and back. A one-way journey took 13 days and the first class cabin rate cost the equivalent of a recent college graduate’s 7-months’ salary.

3 Ships of this class were built. During WWII, two were sunk. The Hikara Maru served as a hospital ship during the war and survived three separate incidents of mine collisions.  It was built to handle the notoriously rough seas on the Tokyo-Seattle route with extra steel plates and a stronger hull … therefore it survived three+ mine hits.

The first-class hall.

The first-class dining room.

This is the “social room” where evening dances were held for the elites to socialize with each other in a refined atmosphere.  There was no internet, so they had to make do with paying attention to each other IRL.

The kids enjoying their internet in the 1st Class Lounge area — something the fancy-pants people of yore couldn’t do.

The more seasoned a traveler was perceived to be, the better treatment s/he received. People kept luggage long past it’s best-by date just to keep the stickers.

The men’s smoking room.  Women weren’t allowed in here.

Adam’s version of a selfie.

Deluxe Cabin.  There was only one:  it had a bedroom (two twin beds) and a sitting room connected by a full bathroom. One of the Hikawa Maru’s most famous passengers was Charlie Chaplin, who sailed to Japan in 1932. We got to go into the rooms that he used and took photos of his personal bathroom. Charlie Chaplin, as well as a Princess and other assorted royalty stayed in this cabin.  It cost roughly the equivalent of US$28,000 for a one-way (13-day) trip.

The sitting room.  I loved the stained-glass window birds.

The bathroom.  Just drink in the elegance!  All kidding aside, it was much better than what everyone else got.  When you were seasick during the notoriously rough passage — and you would be — you could barf privately into your own potty or sink. Even the ship captain’s bathroom was not quite as nice. I said, “Just imagine … Charlie Chaplin peed in here!” The kids said, “Ew, Mom, why do you have to be so gross?”

But this bathroom was actually special; the furniture in the first two rooms were replicas, but the tub/sink/toilet were original to the boat.  Charlie Chaplin didn’t sleep in that exact bed, but he totally peed in that toilet and showered in that bathtub and brushed his teeth in that sink.  Charlie Chaplin!!

As lousy as that bathroom looks, the Deluxe Cabin was the only one that had a private facility (aside from the captain.)  The regular 1st class rooms just had a sink between the two twin beds.  For shower and toilet they had to use communal ones.

The Wheelhouse.

Engine Room

Third class cabin.  8 bunks per room.   You stayed with strangers, had no privacy, shared a communal bathroom down the hall, and weren’t even allowed to set foot on the upper deck where the first class cabins were.  When you got seasick, I guess you barfed into a sack right in front of everyone.  It makes me feel la wee bit queasy just to think about it.

Birds still use the ship.

Yokohama skyline from Tokyo Bay.

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking up and down the waterfront, checking out parks, the rose garden, and other shopping areas.

Adam: Getting on near dinner time, we found a large mall that had one floor dedicated to all things Hawaii, including a restaurant that served hamburgers. Holden and I have been aching for one for weeks and Brenda finally gave in.

Josie does do things besides look at that phone.. but she’s suddenly become quite camera shy and, while she won’t race out of the camera view, she will quickly look down and not pose in any other method than this one. Like Isabella before her, I now have to be much more clever to get any photos of all three girls. Holden continues not to care.

The burgers were only OK.  At the risk of sounding smug and patriotic, I’ve never had a truly good hamburger outside of the USA.  If I had to think of just one thing the United States does better than everyone else, it would be the hamburger.  There basically is no point in eating a burger in any other country.  (Well, I take it back — I’ve had a very good burger in Canada.  Not quite as good as an American burger, mind you, but still worth eating.)

Desserts, though!  Other places certainly can put together a treat.

Tomorrow it’s on to Tokyo.

Monday, 02 July 2018

Monday was a travel day – we packed up our stuff and left Takayama and headed south (and then east) to Hakone. About 320km (200 mile) drive.

Highlights were figuring out how to get gas (it’s all automated, different system than in US and no English) – US$5.41/gallon gas equivalent.  Adam spent some time watching youtube videos (“How to get gas in Japan”) so he’d know at least a little bit how things were supposed to work.

Hakone is a resort town up in the mountains. It is close enough to Tokyo that it gets the weekend and vacation crowds from the big city.

We arrived a bit too early to check into our house, so we parked and did some browsing, grabbed lunch and killed some time.  Almost everything in this town centres around the train station.

Adam: This is a typical coffee dispenser in Japan.. Nowhere can you get a simple “cup of Joe.” You have to have an engineering degree (lucky me) to get it to dispense.

Our car and where we’re staying (in the sunlight to the left of the car), plus a member of the local wildlife.  This neighborhood had a lot of cats and dogs, all of whom decided to make a bunch of noise around 3:00 a.m.  Cat fights, which set off several indoor dogs who clearly wanted to be outdoors and in on the action.  It wasn’t so much “woof woof woof” as it was mournful “roooooooooooooooo”ing going on until sunup.  How do people in this neighborhood sleep?

This house had enough rooms that everyone got their own … the kids had to sleep on the typical floor mats but were thrilled to have some privacy (that’s Josie, enjoying her space).

And Adam and I were more than thrilled because our room had real beds!  We’ve spent the past two+ weeks sleeping on the floor, which is all fine and dandy when you’re pre-college but not all that great when you’re within rock-throwing distance of 50 years old.

Tuesday, 03 July 2018

Adam: One of Brenda’s goals on this trip was to see Mt. Fuji. On our last trip to Japan, it was never in view. The thing is, Mt. Fuji, in all it’s majesty, can be a hard thing to view on any given day.

The mountain is only about 12,400’ high, but because it sits alone (not as part of a range) and due to it’s nearly perfect symmetry, it leaves a strong impression.  However, it also has its own climate and clouds tend to gather and clump about this protrusion. We timed our trip a bit to take advantage of some clearer weather and hoped for the best.

So, for today, we went hunting for a decent Mt. Fuji picture.

The first thing we found, though, was a little wild animal … they do exist in Japan!

He was clinging to the bathroom door leading into the men’s room in the parking lot of Chureito Pagoda (near Fujiyoshida).  I was going to move him to the nearby woods, but Isabella and Josie both freaked out and begged me not to touch him in case he was one of those frogs that exude deadly poison or hallucinogenic compounds from their skin, like Hypnotoad.  (“Seriously, I’m gonna freak out if Mom starts trippin’!”)

I’m pretty sure all those frogs are in the Amazon rain forest over in South America, but then I got to thinking that perhaps this little ribbiter was exactly where he wanted to be.  What if he’d spent the entire night getting to that spot, hoping to move into the men’s toilet where he’d be safe from birds and big fish?  In the end I left him right where he was.

[Later edit:  I think he’s a Japanese Tree Frog.]

Although nothing as poisonous as the South and Central American Poison Dart Frogs from the Dendrobatidae family, Japanese Tree frogs do have mild toxins within their skin for protection against predators and disease.

Despite this, they can be handled relatively safety without too much of a problem. Be sure to wash hands after handling any specimens and do not allow the slime from within the frogs’ skin to get in the mouth or into open cuts and wounds.

And as a final safety precaution, don’t stick frogs in your eyes… the slime causes pain and permanent blindness.

Don’t stick frogs in your eyes?!  Ummm … ok.  (But seriously; if you are the type of person who thinks “I’m gonna stick this frog in my eye” — would someone telling you NOT to stick the frog in your eye stop you?)  Whatever.  It didn’t occur to me to stick the frog in my eye, or rub it’s slime in my mouth or on my open wounds so I probably would have been ok.

Anyway …. on to Chureito Pagoda. You have to climb 398 steps to the top.  At the base of the staircase they have a little shop, snack/drinks stand, and a place to leave prayer ribbons at the Arakura Fuji Sengen Jinja shrine before you embark on your hike.

Somebody has to rake the zen garden each morning so the rest of us can find inner peace.

Up the stairs we go!  It was already nearly 90°F this morning so we took our time.  We got incredibly lucky, though, and the clouds cleared enough to give us a spectacular view of Mt. Fuji.

There it is, along with Chureito Pagoda.  This view was well worth the climb.

From a plaque at the site:  The Fujiyoshida Cenotaph Monument, also known as the Chureito Pagoda, was built by the mayor of Fujiyoshida …. in 1958 to enshrine about 960 citizens from Fujiyoshida who died in the wars which occured after 1868 (the First Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War, World War I, and the Pacific War of World War II).

Back down at the base: the purification fountain for cleaning your hands before you enter Arakura Fuji Sengen Jinja shrine.

By the time we walked back down all those stairs, clouds had already formed to obscure the top of the mountain.  We got unbelievably lucky to see it at the exact time we were at the top.

Adam: Here’s another typical view of Mt. Fuji – we drove more than an hour north to lake Kawaguchi for this shot. This lake is the most famous of the five lakes that surround Mt. Fuji, and images of this lake are usually used in posters and commercials. A large number of hotels line its banks, as do locals providing boat rides to the tourists. We did arrive to enjoy the Herb Festival that happened to be going on at that location. 

I was thrilled at our good fortune to arrive during their Herb Festival.  The garden was packed with various types of lavender (some of which I’d never seen before) and smelled heavenly.

As luck would have it, I was even wearing the right color outfit today.

The shops were selling lavender products, including lavender ice cream and this lavender float that Adam bought.  It was a shot of lavender syrup, sprite, and a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  It was quite good; much better than we thought it would be.

Other lavender products: lavender-filled pillows, huge bags of dried flowers to make your own potpourri, perfumes, soaps, essential oils, cleaning products, etc.

Another shot of Mt. Fuji from the south, facing north, on our way to Lake Ashinoko for lunch and to look around.

Adam: Mt. Fuji is still considered an active volcano, although the last eruption was in 1707. However, the surrounding area is still quite alive. Ōwakudani is a volcanic valley with active sulphur vents and hot springs. It was created around 3000 years ago, as a result of the explosion of the Hakone volcano (about 20km away from Mt. Fuji).

Owakudani is actually inside the crater of the volcano Mount Kamiyama. Owakudani translates to “the Great Boiling Valley,” though some locals refer to it as Jigokudani, meaning “Hell Valley.” Here you can see the cable cars operating to give people a good view over the sulphur springs.

Adam: It is a popular tourist site for its scenic views, volcanic activity, and “Kuro-Tamago” — a local specialty of eggs hard-boiled in the hot springs. The eggs turn black and smell slightly sulphuric; eating one is said to add seven years to your life. The moutaintop views were great, but the place really smelled of sulfur.  Due to volcanic activity in 2015, they had to shut the place down for about a year. Even now, there is limited access to the areas and (from what I read) you used to be able to wander a good deal more up the hills and get close to the volcanic vents. Now, no longer.

Owakudani’s hot springs contain rich amounts of sulfur and iron. When the eggs are cooked in it, these elements react with calcium in the egg shells. It results in the chemical compound iron sulfide which adheres to the egg shell and turns it black. The eggs are soaked for an hour in the springs with a temperature of 80°C (176°F). Since this process doesn’t fully cook the eggs, another 15 minutes of steaming is done in a caldron.

We bought a package of five eggs, but Adam refused to eat his.  He does not like eggs and can only manage to choke them down if they’re scrambled.  I ate his for him, so maybe I’ll get an extra 14 years instead of 7?  We couldn’t decide if the eggs would add up or cancel each other out (the Japanese do not like for people to be greedy).

The only difference was in the shell.  The hard boiled eggs inside looked and tasted completely normal.

[Later edit]
The internet to the rescue again:

Each egg is believed to add seven years in a person’s life. However, eating more than 2 1/2 eggs can give you bad luck.

Phew!  I only ate 2, not 2 1/2. I’ll probably be ok.

The sulphur springs.  They weren’t too stinky … if you’ve been to Yellowstone National Park, you know exactly what it smells like.

There was quite a lot of steam coming out of the vents, but it was windy enough today that the air stayed pretty clean.

We had a very late lunch (early dinner?) at a nearby lake.  We saw the pirate ship sailing around and pulled over on a whim.  Sadly, the lunch was really expensive and not very good.  The area was far too touristy.  You can’t win them all.

Time to head back to the apartment for the evening.  Tomorrow we leave for Kamakura, a little seaside town near Tokyo.

Friday, 29 June 2018

Adam:  We rented a car in Kyoto (Toyota Isis) and checked out of our house. All loaded up, we headed for the Gifu Prefecture and what is known as, in the tourist guides, “the Japanese Alps.”

Here is our car.  It’s just about the biggest car you can rent in Japan, and it barely fits all of us and our luggage.  We had to squeeze to make it fit, but we did get everything in.  The parking lots here are a bit strange … you park in the space and then that green barrier pops up and traps your car.  You can’t leave until you pay at the meter; paying the fee triggers the green thing to go back down, but only for a short time so you need to hustle once you’ve paid up.

Adam: We wanted to get out of the urban areas and see a bit more of Japan – what you can’t see from taking the bullet trains or airplanes.

Driving in Japan is just like in the US – except that it’s on the British side of the road, the road rules are different and I can’t read any of the signs.

Our homebase is a house in Takayama – situated in a valley amongst several ranges of mountains. Here, the elevations are not terribly high (we’re up about 2000 feet) with the highest mountains topping at around 10,000 ft. There’s no snow on them now – but we have had our fair share of rain. It poured during most of our drive to Takayama, and once we arrived, we were entertained that evening by lightning and thunderstorms.

Map of our trip from Kyoto to Takayama.. Side trip to Shirakawa-go and Ogimachi.

The terrain in these mountains is very rugged. The trails to get from one place to another must have been nearly impossible to cover. It gives these towns a somewhat isolated feel. These areas get a LOT of snow – the houses are designed to withstand more than 2m of snow cover. In modern times, the Japanese have solved the road problems by digging tunnel after tunnel right into the mountains. As an example, our side trip from Takayama to Shirakawa-go is only about 46km, but we went through 12 different tunnels, the longest of which is 11km in length. More than half of the trip to our destination was underground.

Here’s a shot of our house, with a garage space for our car.

Saturday, 30 June 2018

Adam: Our first outing was to Ogimachi, part of UNESCO’s World Heritage Site: “Historic Villages of Shirakawa-gō and Gokayama.”

These villages are well known for their clusters of farmhouses, constructed in the architectural style known as gasshō-zukuri, which are designed to easily shed snow from their roofs.  It takes the village 4 days (working together) to build a roof and, if well made, they can last up to 60 years.

The Wada House (below).  For a small fee you can go inside this one.

From the brochure:  “The Wada family had passed down the name Yaemon from generation to generation since 1573.  During the Edo period, the head of the Wada family assumed the role of village headman and was the official at the guard station.  The family also prospered in the potassium nitrate business.  During this period, potassium nitrate was an important source of cash income for the Shirakawago area. Promulgation of the organisation of municipalities in 1888 produced Shirakawa Village, and Yaemon Wada was appointed the first mayor of the village.  The Wada House is the largest of the Gassho-zukuri settlement in Shirakawa Village.  It has prestigious structure, including an entrance featuring Shikidai (steps in a Japanese entranceway), conveying the stylish, architectural culture of the early Edo Period to our day.”

They have it set up in the old manner so you can see how people would have lived in houses like these.  Here is a fireplace … they put sand pits directly in the floor in the middle of rooms.  A huge iron plate hangs from the ceiling to catch sparks, and also act as a warming shelf.

The attic area was used mostly for raising silkworms.

An example of the clothing villagers would have worn.  Most of these clothes are made of woven grasses and straw.

Silk worm cocoons.

Repairs being made to one of the thatched roofs.

Our family contemplating a rice paddy. We were looking for frogs and such, but didn’t see any animal life — not even little fish.  Most of the houses had their own vegetable gardens and paddies.  I’m very surprised about the lack of animals, though.  Our entire time in Japan so far we’ve seen only wild birds and fish (stocked in ponds, like carp and koi), plus the Snow monkeys we hiked up to see.  No squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, deer, horses, sheep, goats, pigs, chickens … not even roadkill that would indicate animals live in the woods. We passed a “Livestock Research Station” on our drive yesterday and saw two cows — just a huge field with only two cows in it.  Where are all the animals?

I made Josie stand next to the hollyhocks to show scale; I planted a bunch of hollyhock seeds at our house before we left Georgia earlier this summer and not a single one of them sprouted.  This is how impressive they were supposed to be.

You can hike up a long hill to a viewing point.  The village looks like something from a storybook.

Holden enjoys the view, but is now getting concerned as the rain has picked up and we’re starting to get wet.

Adam:  Brenda was the only person with foresight to bring an umbrella. 

Not only did I bring my umbrella, but several of the little shops near the parking lot were selling $5 umbrellas and I urged everyone to consider buying one.  It was starting to sprinkle at the time and I said, “Don’t you guys want to buy some umbrellas?  We’re going to be walking around a lot today and it looks like it’s going to start raining a lot harder.”
“No,” said everyone … “I’m not going to spend $5 of my own money on an umbrella when I already have one at home.”
“I hope you don’t mind getting wet, then” I said. “The umbrellas at home aren’t going to do you any good right now.”

Adam: (Below) The rest of us are seeking shelter in a Buddhist shrine, while Brenda enjoys the views.  It rained off and on during the visit, but really started to come down when we were returning back to the valley floor.

At this point everyone started demanding I give up my umbrella to someone else because I had a hat.  “This is a straw hat,” I’d say.  “It’s meant for sun protection and isn’t supposed to get wet.  Water will ruin it.”
“So what?” they’d say back. “It’s better than what we have, which is nothing. We should get the umbrella.”
This started to become a testy issue, which got testier and testier as the rain intensified.

Adam: The Sho River lies in the centre of this region. It rises in the southern mountains, then flows northwards towards the Japan Sea along a deep, winding and narrow valley, surrounded by mountains rising to a height of 5000’. As a result of this steep terrain, the majority of villages in this area are situated in the narrow strips of land along the valley bottom.

Photo below: kids are still irritated that I won’t give up my umbrella.  Later in the day we were discussing economics and the ways different societies distribute goods and wealth. One of the kids (I don’t remember who, Josie or Isabella) said, “The way socialism is supposed to work is that the gulf between the haves and have nots isn’t too wide. You don’t get some people with nothing and someone else getting everything.”  Holden said snarkily, “Yeah, but then there is always that one person who has a hat and an umbrella.”

This is now apparently a new shorthand phrase to be used in our family when someone tries to take more than their fair share:  “You’re getting a hat and an umbrella!”  (I still maintain that I didn’t take anything from anyone … I planned ahead and it paid off.  Big difference!)

After lunch, we returned to Takayama. The sun came out and the heat returned.

View of the Hida mountain range.

Adam: In Takayama, we went to the “Hida no Sato” (Hida Minzoku Mura Folk Village). This is a sort of open air museum – buildings from all over the region were salvaged and brought to this park. You can walk a lazy trail from building to building – all are accessible (must take off shoes in every building, which gets pretty old after the 5th or 6th time) but have neat displays of what life was like in this region over the past 600 years.

There were also some fun things to do as well – Japanese stilt practice.

Picture postcard beauty shot.  They had free parasols for visitors to use.  (They also had free umbrellas for general use, which by this point nobody needed.  It did spark some new grumbling about how the other village was going to charge $5 when they could have offered free “rentals” like this place.)

Adam: Here is an example of a what passed for “middle class” in the 1600s. Inside are rooms for the family, sunken hearths that are constantly lit (for heating and cooking – also the smoke keeps away bugs and preserves the roofs), and your livestock.

I found it amazing that any of these wooden houses could survive for 400 years.

The horse paintings (Ema) displayed in the building below were important:

(Closer view)

View from inside the house, looking out at the kids sitting on the steps.  They didn’t want to take their shoes off.

Holden working a live well. There were signs all about begging you not to drink the water.

Close up view of the Gasshō-style thatched roof (below).

From a sign at the village:
It took all the village people 4 days to make the thatched roof, which is said to last for 40 or 60 years.  The fire at the hearth is always lighted not only because it reproduces the atmosphere of the old days, but also because the smoke is very important for preserving the house in a good state. The smoke protects it from harmful insects, keeps the ropes tight, and gives the house moderate moisture.

The fires going in all the houses added a new dimension to our understanding of what it must have been like to live back then.  I never really understood before what these old houses we tour through across the world would have really smelled like.  I’m so sensitive to smoke that I got a headache just from quickly walking though the first couple of these homes today, and so did Josie.  We both ended up needing to take an Advil about halfway though our tour.  If I’d been born back in the old days, I would have spent most of my life ill, I think.  I would have probably ended up being an outdoor cat, constantly seeking out fresh air.

Small shrine (Buddhist statue – the apron colors and type all have significance) in front of one of the Hida houses.

It’s getting late in the afternoon – hot (but dry) and promises of ice cream to keep this party going.

Adam: Holden is re-energized with any opportunity to get active and make a lot of noise.  Bonshō are large bells found in Buddhist temples throughout Japan, used to summon the monks to prayer and to demarcate periods of time. Rather than containing a clapper, bonshō are struck from the outside, using either a handheld mallet or a beam suspended on ropes.

The procedure is to bow, ring the bell, and then make your wish before the resonation fades away.

The upper floors of the bigger houses were used almost exclusively for silk worm farming. From a flyer at one of the buildings:

 “As Hida region is mountainous, the cultivable land was so limited in the past.  Although people had managed to harvest rice and vegetables, sericulture (the production of raw silk by breeding silkworms) became more important source of income than farming, particularly in North Hida area.  Grandfather & mother, father, mother and children — they all lived in the same house, worked together and helped each other. They used many tools and found efficient ways to gain as much raw silk as they could.”

Inside, a couple of women give demonstrations of how the silk was worked.

Silk worm cocoons on a rack.

In one of the homes they had some photos of people farming silkworms — feeding them mulberry leaves and showing the different stages of the silkworm life cycle.  I didn’t realise (actually, never really thought about) the silk “worm” is a caterpillar, with the adult being a little whitish moth.  I rather suddenly realised that these people lived with and worked every day with millions of caterpillars. The photos of people handling huge trays of them was kind of gross.  Even grosser, it said that people collected the worm poop (another thing I didn’t consider — worms poop), dried it, and ate it as medicine.  They call it an “herb.”   It contains chlorophyll, phytol, β-sitosterol, cholesterol, ergosterol, lupeol, amino acid, carotene, and vitamin B and C — which probably was sort of like a vitamin pill for people who didn’t get a wide variety of fresh produce during the long winters.  But still — EW.

This man (in a different house) is demonstrating how straw is beaten until it’s soft and pliable, then woven into clothing, baskets, kitchen utensils, brooms, floor mats, etc.  This work was done in the winter when they couldn’t do much outside.  Whatever they were able to make out of straw that they didn’t need for their own use was sold to help bring in extra money.

Adam: We finished our day with a visit to central Takayama – the old town Sanmachi Suji district. There are three pedestrian-only streets just to the east of the Miya-gawa River. The streets are lined with traditional merchant houses, shops selling traditional crafts, restaurants serving local specialties, and sake breweries, with many of the buildings over 400 years old.

Brenda doing some shopping.. she walked away with several new sets of chopsticks and some wooden tongs. Wood-crafted products are very big here.

Sunday, 01 July 2018

Today we headed about 50km east to Matsumoto – in the Nagano prefecture and is in the area where the 1988 Olympics were held.
.. But not in July.. the temperature hit 90 again today.
Most of the day was spent on the road – going there and back again. The views were gorgeous but the roads narrow and the Japanese don’t construct places on the sides of roads where you can stop to look around/take photos.

Matsumoto Castle – started in 1504, it is Japan’s oldest existing castle. It has 6 floors and we were able to go through the entire building, all the way to the top.

Below:  The Cherry Tree to Which Lord Kiyomasa Tied His Horses.  While stopping by at Matsumoto Castle, Kiyomasa Kato, the lord of Kumamoto Castle, received two horses from Matsumoto Castle’s Lord Yasunaga Ishikawa.  It is said that he tied the horses to this cherry tree at that time.

Standing in line inside the castle, waiting for our turn to go up the stairs.  The staircases were incredibly steep and very narrow, and had to accommodate people going both up and down.

By the time you get to the very top, the 6th floor, you’re up quite high.

A quick shot of the room. It was hot and crowded in here.  The interior of the castle has not been retrofitted with air conditioners.

View of one of the roofs from the 6th floor windows.

Castle grounds.  The 6th floor had 360° views of the surrounding area.

View of the rafters from underneath.

After we left the castle grounds, we walked around the little town.  This antique bookstore is in a very cool old building on one of the side streets.

Nawate Street is lined with cute little shops, almost all of them selling frog merchandise.  One of the vendors gave us a brochure:

The History of the “frog” on Nawate Street:

Before the Meiji ERA, Nawate St. was just a bank lying between the river and moat. After the Yohashira shrine was built in the year Meiji 12 (1879), the bank became an approach to the shrine. Horse carriages were not allowed to pass through.  The shrine began to promote various entertainments to gather visitors and prosper.  People began to start businesses there, which attracted many visitors. Because of the vehicle-free street, shop owners on the street said that visitors can buy (Kaeru= 買える) and go home (Kaeru = 帰る) safely. Since then, people started to call the street “Frog (Kaeru = frog) Street.”  So they, shop keepers, put a big frog statue at the entrance of the street to watch over us, and keep us safe.

This guy is giving me the flyer with the frog history on it that I typed above. I don’t really get it; it must be a clever play on words in Japanese that doesn’t translate well into English.

Josie fell in love with these owl mugs.  She bought a white one that reminded her of Hedwig in Harry Potter.

Holden wanted a picture of this sign (below) because it sounds like Drury Lane from the muffin man song.  We saw another street in Kyoto named Brewery Lane, too … both times we then had to listen to the kids (led by Holden) perform the scene from Shrek:

Little kids having fun in a public fountain.

Tomorrow we head over toward Mt. Fuji for a couple of days.

Monday, 25 June 2018

Today was a travel day from Seoul to Kyoto:  flight to Osaka, couple of trains to Kyoto, which is actually a lot closer to Osaka than I remembered.  We were here almost exactly three years ago.

We are staying in a traditional, minimalist house (style: minshuku) that offers tatami rooms with futon bedding to sleep on. During daytime, the futons are usually stored in a closet in the room. We’re too lazy. There are photos of the place below. You’ll note that there is no furniture to speak of in the house … no chairs, cabinets, dressers, etc. This certainly is quaint, but one can sit cross-legged on the floor for only so long.

Entrance. All shoes are to be left here.

Hall to lower bedroom (which is also the living room, dining room, and pass-through to the shower which is outside in the courtyard.)

The hallway has a little nook for a tiny kitchen, and the brown doors lead to a toilet.

This kitchen is tiny but at least it has a sink!!

The master bedroom.  The white doors are a closet and the little table in the nook is the dining table.  You’re supposed to store the mattresses in the closet during the day and move the table into the middle of the room.  The little green pillows stores underneath the table are the dining room “chairs.”  The glass door at the end opens into a small courtyard, which is where laundry is put out to dry.  At the end of the courtyard is a shower room.

Master bedroom looking toward the kitchen/hall.  Those rice paper doors close for privacy.

Door at end of courtyard is shower room.

Upper floor.  This part of the house reminds me a of a ship.  The brown doors at the top open into Holden’s bedroom.

Girls room, doors at the end.

Holden’s room.

Isabella and Josie’s room. They have a tiny balcony that looks down into the courtyard.

We didn’t do much today besides get here, check in, and find groceries.  Tomorrow we’re ready to hit the town.

Tuesday, 26 June 2018

We spent some time this morning walking around our neighborhood, getting our bearings.  We found a Starbucks for breakfast.

(Starbucks across the bridge, green logo in the window.)

The guy on the bike was throwing food of some sort to the crows.  Then a hawk (eagle?) showed up and got in on the action.  He must have been throwing fish to attract a bird of prey.

A European-style bread shop.

Our main attraction for the day was a visit to the Golden Temple – Kinkaku-ji. This is a zen Buddhist temple that originally dates to 1397… however, the original structure was torched by an arsonist in 1950 and what we see now is a re-construction.

This place had the coolest tickets. They looked like works of art. I would have brought one home to frame except they were so big I couldn’t get them in my purse without creasing them.

The upper two levels are covered with pure gold leaf on lacquer panels. I learned in Korea that the lacquer (which comes from the resin of a tree) is so durable that they’ve found lacquer boxes and other furniture items in sunken ships that are still in near-perfect shape despite being buried at sea for 150 years.

Gold foil on lacquer covers the upper two levels of Kinkaku and a shining phoenix stands on top of the shingled roof.  he first level is built in the shinned style of the 11th-century imperial aristocracy; the second level is in the buke style of the warrior aristocracy; and the top level is in the Chinese zenshu-butsuden style. Overall, Kinkaku is representative of Muromachi-period architecture.

The phoenix on top.  I thought it was a rooster (like on the world’s fanciest weather vane) until I read differently later.

Little fishing dock off the back.

Some other buildings in the park.

The pond with the Golden Pavilion, and islets large and small, is the center of the garden. Rocks donated by various provincial lords of the period are placed throughout the garden. As a pond garden designed for strolling, it is typical of the Muromachi period.  The garden is listed as a National Special Historic Site and Special Place of Scenic Beauty.

People were trying to toss coins into that little cup in front of the biggest stone carving.

It was really crowded today.  Too crowded, in fact.  It was so hot and miserable to start with, and then add combat-viewing … ugh.  It made for an experience we sort of rushed through.

Taking a break to sit in the shade for a few moments.

People could try their hand at ringing a replica of the temple bells.  You had to get the timing just right in order to make a gong sound.  Most people failed.

Holden tried, too, and also failed.  Right after Holden gave up, a muscle-bound Australian guy hopped on and rang it perfectly on his first try. The entire crowd was impressed.

Our lunch restaurant.  These little hole-in-the-wall places almost always serve up great food.  Another thing that makes travel for the non-Japanese speakers easy is the Japanese tradition of putting plastic replicas of their food out on display.  In this photo you can see what looks like a deli case sitting out front:  this is filled with representations of their dishes.  You can get a real good idea about what will likely show up in front of you once you order.  They also put photos of nearly everything on their menus (on the left side of the picture) out front, too.

We took a train back toward our house, and then walked from the station to the Teramachi Kyogoku shopping arcade – something we did on our last visit. It was a chance to wander around under a covered roof and do some shopping for supplies. Both Isabella and Holden bought backpacks that they can use now as well as when they get home.

The kids were excited to find a manga store. This became the highlight of their day when …

… Isabella and Josie discovered Copic markers on the second floor of the shop that are about 1/3rd the price in the U.S.  Both of them loaded up and I can guess we might be back again before we leave.  You can also see Isabella’s new backpack.  (It was made in Korea, which we had a little laugh about.)

Our little group meandering around the shopping arcade.

There are also some pretty nice looking restaurants in here.

For all your sushi needs.

Holden and Josie skipped the raw fish and bought some candy to share instead.

A Buddist Temple right in amongst the shops.

This was a weird statue.  We never did learn what it represented.

Our house is the squished white and dark brown building directly to the right of the sign with red lettering.  It’s so nondescript it’s easy to walk by and not even see the entrance.

Once it got dark, Adam and I went back out for an evening stroll in the Gion district. Here is a guy just sitting in his jam-packed front room, reading his book.

An Irish pub.  We were still out way too early at 8:00 p.m. and nothing much was happening.

Street lamps.

Geishas on their way home.

We decided not to hang out for several more hours to see if the nightlife started hopping.  Maybe this was as busy as it was going to get — it is a Tuesday night, after all.

Wednesday, 27 June 2018

Today we took a longer train out of town to the village of Arashiyama. We had visited there 3 years ago, but Josie wanted to return to walk through the bamboo forests and to re-visit the snow monkey reserve.

Isabella on the train.

The town of Arashiyama. It’s a cute little place, although very touristy.

A river runs through the center of the town.

Fishing boats.

The monkeys are up a very, very steep hill.  It’s strenuous enough they caution people to take water with them, and then have many seating opportunities on the way up, along with vending machines filled with cold beverages.  This is not a hike for the weak.

We had to stop frequently to catch our breath and cool off.  It wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t so darned hot.

One of the many resting places.  Even the youngsters in the bloom of peak health can’t make it up without cooling off periods.

They even have a special air-conditioned break room at the steepest point.  It was filled with gross sweaty people breathing hard and smelling bad … including us when we got there.

Finally at the top!  This baby was having fun keeping cool.

Being early summer, all the mamas were milling around for free food (apples and peanuts) with their babies.  Their birthing season is early spring, so most of the babies were between 1 and 2 months old.  A couple of females were still heavily pregnant (late bloomers.)

This was the baby seen jumping into the pool in the first photo.  He loved apples best of all.

The feed station.  The monkeys are very aggressive and are taught that humans will only give them food from inside the “cage.”  It’s a reverse zoo situation, but it seems to work.  The monkeys will grab and beg from the people inside the cage, but leave you alone once you leave.

Such a hot day.  Most of the monkeys were well into siesta mode.

The monkeys not sleeping or preening each other were taking refreshing dips in the pool.

Preening time.

Nap time.

“I’m so pregnant I’m about to pop so please give me apples” time.

View of the natural monkey habitat.

Back down by the river.

Heron.

Traditional Japanese couture.

The reason we came back to this town in the first place:  Josie wanted to see the bamboo forest again.  Bamboo is her very favorite plant.  She has several stalks of bamboo in a pot in her room at home and someday wants to have her own bamboo garden.

It is gorgeous.  Unfortunately, it’s also full of bugs.  I started getting bug-bit within minutes of entering. The photos don’t show it, but there were hundreds of people here.  I asked Adam, “Why is nobody but ME getting bug bites?”  Eventually, on our way out, I saw a little girl about 3 years old, slapping at her legs and scratching like mad at a mosquito welt the size of a grape on her arm.  I thought, “You and me, little sister!”  Why is it only such a few of us who suffer from the bugs so?  Why do the bloodsuckers choose only us?

Here is a very small example of the crowds: Adam did an artful job of timing and framing his shots to avoid most of the people.

Out of the bamboo forest and back on the river … cormorant fishing.  I never thought I’d see this in person.  We stood in the heat, battling the bugs for quite a long time watching these guys.

Egret fishing.  He caught a lot of them.

Back to the cormorant fishermen.

“How long do we have to stand here, Dad?  The sun is right in our faces.”
“Holden, stop squinting.”
“I can’t help it.  Don’t you have the picture yet?”

 Guy giving rickshaw rides.

Adam: After lunch, we split up for about an hour. Everyone but me wanted to do some shopping along the main drag. I visited the Tenryū-ji – one of two main Zen Buddhist temples in Japan.

Brenda:  I don’t know anything about these next photos.  The kids and I all combed through the tourist shops … Holden and I each bought a pair of chopsticks and all three kids bought ice cream. We met up with Adam afterwards and headed back to our house.

Thursday, 28 June 2018

Long final day in Kyoto – we covered 11.0 miles of walking. Very cloudy and always threatened to rain, but never did. Still hot has Hades, however.

We made a large, clockwise circle around Kyoto, hitting some locations we’ve never been to before.

Some shots around town …

Adam: Sign in the Gion district (below). I like how you are both instructed not to touch the Geishas as well not to hang out and hit on them, giving your best Jersey-style “how you doing?”.

AND – most significantly – no Selfie Sticks. In fact, if I was in charge, I would ban the use of all iPhones and equivalent. If you want to take photos, do it right or don’t do it at all. Things were better when all we had was film and one had to make a major economic decision with each click of the shutter.

Wonderful houses of the Nineizaka district.

Starbucks. It blends into the area so well it’s hard to find even when you know it’s there and are looking for it (which we were.) Here is Holden saying, “Are you sure this is it?”

This was our breakfast destination this morning.

Even the inside of the Starbucks keeps with the architecture of the street.

Entrance to the Buddhist Kiyomizu-dera temple (“Pure Water Temple”) and grounds (below).

The temple was founded in 778 by Sakanoue no Tamuramaro, and its present buildings were constructed in 1633, ordered by the Tokugawa Iemitsu. There is not a single nail used in the entire structure. It takes its name from the waterfall within the complex, which runs off the nearby hills. Kiyomizu means clear water, or pure water.

Ema votive tablets.  People write their prayer or wishes on the backs of these little wooden plaques.  2018 is the year of the dog, so all the pictures on the front were of various dogs.  Most of the wishes we could read in English were “to do well on my exams.”

That orange building way off in the distance is the “Easy birthing pagoda.”  Visiting the Koyasu pagoda is said to bring pregnant or prospective mothers an easy and safe childbirth.

Holden discovered you could buy a stick of incense to light for only ¥10 (about US$0.09)

Both Holden and Isabell bought some incense to make a wish/prayer at the Buddhist temple. You light the incense on a candle and then stick it in the iron pot.

Women wearing traditional yukatas, the cotton kimonos worn during summer.

Unfortunately the main temple building was under renovation.  The majority of it was covered in scaffolding and mesh cloth.

On our way to find the Easy Birthing Pagoda, we made a wrong turn and got lost in the woods.  We stumbled onto this cemetery.

Realising we were in the wrong place, we turned around and headed back the way we came.  It was a nice, relaxing stroll though … no crowds and it was cooler in the forest.

Another view of the temple all covered up for it’s restoration.

Jizo statues, the protectors of women, children and travelers. Statues were adorned with red bibs by parents who were grateful for saving a sick child or to ask for the Jizo’s protection of a child who has died in the afterlife. Red was believed to banish demons and illnesses.

The flowing Otowa Waterfall below Kiyomizudera’s main hall base. It’s actually three separate streams of sacred Otowa Water. Drinking from each stream yields different advantages which were success at school, luck in love or a long life. One must pick from the three since drinking from all of them is thought to be too greedy.

More walking around town. Our next destination is the Nishiki Fish Market.

People having fun.

Lots of tourist shops along the way.

A refreshing snack: a cucumber on a stick soaked in salt water.  This is a surprisingly refreshing snack on a very hot day.

More tourist shops.

We wandered by a temple we visited last time, the Maruyama park and the 1350+ year old Yasaka shrine.

These girls walked through this archway three times, I assume for good luck of some sort.  I didn’t ask them.  They were reading instructions on how to do it correctly on their phones.

Nishiki Fish Market.

Holden found a vendor for roasted chestnuts, which he loves. In Europe we only ever see these in winter so it was a pleasant surprise to find some here in summertime. We bought a bag.

We did not buy baby octopus on a stick.

We also didn’t buy roasted sparrow on a stick. (Sparrows — 2 on a stick, or whole quails to go. “Eel inside.. heat it.”)

A vintage clothing store — note the Idaho Meridian jacket!

After lunch we visited the Kyoto International Manga Museum. Manga are the Japanese comic books for adults. Both Isabella and Josie are interested in this sort of thing, so we visited.

While it claims to be a museum, most of the 3 floors displayed a collection of more than 40,000 rare Manga books that you could pull off the shelf and read – sort of a reference book library.  99% of it was in Japanese, but they did have a small English section.

Lastly, we visited Nijo-jo Castle. This is one of the gates leading into the Nijo Castle compound. The castle was erected in the early 1600s (started in 1601, completed in 1626) by Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate. It was built as the Kyoto residence of the Tokugawa Shoguns.

Visitors are allowed inside the buildings but photography is strictly prohibited. You have to take off your shoes, too.

The floors have built-in squeaks so that nobody could sneak up on anybody else in the castle. The wikipedia page about Nijo explains: One of the most striking features of the Ninomaru Palace are the “nightingale floors” (uguisubari) in the corridors. To protect the occupants from sneak attacks and assassins, the builders constructed the floors of the corridors in such a way as to squeak like birds when anyone walks on them. (It sounds funny with hundreds of people filing through … everyone shuffles along in their socks, very quiet and respectful and somber, with a background noise that sounds like dozens of cartoon mice.)

The inside of the Castle looked a lot like the rooms where Po lived and did his training at the Jade Palace in Kung Fu Panda. (Yes, I know that’s Chinese and we’re in Japan, but the style is remarkably similar — mats on the floors, no furniture, walls made of paper, etc.)

The entire building is made of wood, which is impressive because it’s so old. Wood structures generally end up being destroyed by fire or rot after a relatively short period of time. In the European castles, the stone structures are still around but most of the wooden parts are long gone. This entire thing is wood, and still in fantastic shape. (We couldn’t read the signs, so perhaps a lot of it has ben replaced or restored since the early 1600s.)

[note: I did some online research when we got back to the apartment. “The central keep, or Tenshu, was struck by lightning and burned to the ground in 1750. In 1788, the Inner was destroyed by a city-wide fire. The site remained empty until it was replaced by a prince’s residence transferred from the Kyoto Imperial Palace in 1893.” So, not all of it is original to the early 1600s.]

Best part of the way-too-hot visit:  the mist tunnel on the way out.

Time to go back to the apartment for a rest.  We walked 11 miles today and 12 the day before.  In this intense heat, we’re worn out and ready to call it day by around 3:00 p.m.  Adam and I ended up walking to McDonald’s later in the evening just to see if a Big Mac in Japan is any different from a Big Mac back in the States.  (Turns out they are almost exactly the same.)

Tomorrow morning we rent a car and head over toward Mt. Fuji.  More later!

Friday, 22 June 2018

Today we took a guided tour to the DMZ – the De-militarized zone that separates North from South Korea. The zone was set up as part of the armistice of the Korean war in 1953. It runs roughly along the 38th parallel, is 160 miles long and about 2.5 miles wide.

In order to enter the DMZ, you must go as part of a tour. You are entering into military territory and so our bus was boarded on a couple of occasions; South Korean soldiers did passport checks and headcounts on all of us coming and going.

You don’t actually get to go right up to the border – that is strictly prohibited.

We got the sense that South Koreans view the North Koreans as suffering, long lost relatives that have been captive against their will in an abusive relationship — in other words, they very much want to reunite the two Koreas and blame politicians and despots for the divide rather than the people themselves. Our guide said that the North Koreans have been so effectively isolated that whenever one escapes and defects to South Korea, they are quite difficult to understand.  They are still speaking Korean, but the accent has evolved into something foreign and they use new words she’s never heard before.

The DMZ is filled with monuments brimming with hope for eventual reunification, such as the one in the photo below.

Ribbons at Imjigak Park.  Our tour guide said, “People tie ribbons on the fence with letters or hopes written on them. Most of them are sad. Many are from old people who were separated from their North Korean family and wish to see their hometown once more before they die.”

Adam:  Bridge of Freedom going north – it does actually cross the Imjin river (into North Korea) and connects with the North-South railway.  Before and during the war it was a railroad bridge which was used by repatriated POWs/soldiers returning from the north.

At present, the bridge is unused, but kept in ready condition to be used upon unification.
In general, the South Koreans are anxious for unification. I’ve seen plenty of signs in Seoul advocating for peace, love, understanding and a unified Korea.

The Bell of Peace

The Stones of Peace Wall

(For those with small screens..) “This sculpture is made from stones collected from battlefields all over the world that have witnessed the suffering and grief of war. It is my sincere wish that the bringing together of these stones collected from 86 battlefields in 64 different countries will be a stepping stone for the reconciliation of the Korean People and mark the beginning of a century of peace and harmony for all mankind.” — January 1, 2000: Lim, Chang-Yuel, Governor of Kyonggi Province

Meanwhile:

Kids goofing off.

Wrecked train.  I’ve typed out what the plaque at the site said below the photo.

This steam locomotive stopped at Jangdan Station on the Gyeongui Line on December 31, 1950.  According to Mr. Han Jun-gi, who was the last person to drive this locomotive, the train was going to Pyongyang from Gyeongui Station with a cargo of military supplies.  In the process, the train reversed direction at Han Station in Pyeongsan-gun, Hwanghae-do, and arrived at Jangdan Station, where it was damaged.  The locomotive has been left damaged and neglected for over fifty years in the DMZ, bore the traces of 1,020 bullet scars, and its wheels were bent and broken. The locomotive was recognised as a symbol of armistice condition of South and North Korea, and was listed as Registered Cultural Heritage No. 78 by the Cultural Heritage Administration on February 6, 2004.

Below: Mangbaeddan enables displaced people whose hometowns are located within North Korea to bow down to their parents or family in North Korea as a sign of respect during cultural events such as New Years and Chuseok (Korean Mid Autumn Festival, usually entails paying respect to your elders and ancestors). This memorial holds many sorrowful memories of separated families during the Korean War.

Across the rice paddies, Camp Bonifas – UN Military command post. The ROK have closer installations, but US soldiers are garrisoned here, 400m south of the demarcation line.

Our tour guide told us there are two towns for civilians in the DMZ — one for South Korea and one for North Korea.  The South Korean town has about 500 people living in it, but up until recently the North Korean town was built just for show … lots of buildings that were never lived in.  Recently N. Korea has allowed people from a nearby factory to start living in the buildings.

In the South Korean town, the civilians living there are almost all rich farmers.  They must go through military check points each time they leave and enter and have other restrictions that our guide called “very inconvenient.”  They put up with it because they have two really great perks:  they don’t have to pay any taxes, and boys don’t have to do the mandatory 21-month military enlistment.  For the rest of South Korea, all boys must serve a minimum of 21 months in the military.  Typically, they go to University for two years, then do their 21 months, then go back and finish their University degree.

Sculpture of hope for reunification near the “3rd Tunnel of Aggression”:  one side has a raised map of North Korea on the inside, the other has a map of South Korea.  If the two sides ever come together, the pieces will fit together like a puzzle.

We don’t know what these were supposed to signify.

Josie with a nice stash of gatorade and pringles from the snack kiosk at The Third Tunnel stop.

Adam: In 1978, South Korea discovered that North Korea had been quietly digging tunnels into South Korea as part of an invasion plan. When confronted with the evidence, North Korea blamed South Korea for doing the digging.  Now, one of the tunnels is open for tourists – no photos were allowed, but you can walk down a steep 1/4 mile ramp to access a mile-long tunnel about 250 feet below the ground.

Our tour guide told us a story about what they tounge-in-cheek call The Flag War.  When the DMZ towns were initially set up, South Korea hoisted a South Korean flag over their town.  North Korea responded by hoisting a North Korean flag over their own town (the fake one with no people in it) but they made sure their pole was taller and had a much bigger flag.  South Korea didn’t want to get into a pissing contest over something as stupid as the height of a flag pole, so they just let it be.  Their attitude was, “Fine. Let the baby have his bottle.”  Unfortunately I don’t think we have any photos where the flags are visible, but you could definitely tell the difference in size.  Even though the North Korean flag was further away, it was easier to see.

Adam: For what amounted to $0.40, you can use these binoculars to get a better view of what’s going on.  Time magazine has reported that North Korean artillery, located in the DMZ and within range of our view, could flatten Seoul in the first half hour of any confrontation. North Korean artillery pieces of calibers 170 millimeter and 240 millimeter could fire 10,000 rounds per minute into Seoul and its environs.

Recent polls in South Korea show a majority (53%) want their own nuclear missiles to act as a deterrent to Kim Jong-eun. The 35MM folks in Seoul are only 35 miles distant from the border.

Adam: Another sign of hope – Dorasan Station. Currently, this is the end of the line in South Korea – but was constructed to be ready for unification. If/when there is access allowed, this would be the border crossing for most and the first terminal to reach the rest of South Korea by train. They optimistically display a sign showing the route to Pyeongyang, North Korea’s capital. George Bush 43 was here as president, in 2002, to inaugurate the opening.

Barbed wire everywhere.

Back in Seoul: Changing of the Royal Guard at Deoksugung Palace. This is a re-enactment from the Joseon Dynasty (from 1392 until 1801) – royal guards were responsible for guarding and patrolling the gates of the capital city and the royal palaces. They were responsible for protecting the king by guarding the entrance gates of the primary royal palace where the king resided.

Adam: This is a photo of where we ate lunch – typical location for us. (Restaurant in center below the yellowish circle-logo) The restaurants are all small – they can usually only accommodate the 5 of us if there are few other customers. We’ve usually been eating our lunch late in the day (2 or 3 o’clock) so it hasn’t been a problem. We sit down, get a menu, and start a-pointing! Picture boards out front help us get some sort of sense as to what they serve.

Saturday, 23 June 2018

(Much of today’s post was written by Adam. His comments appear in italic font:)  Today was a day of bargaining and negotiations. I dragged my family to The War Memorial of Korea in exchange for a return to the shopping areas in the afternoon.

Half of the museum is outdoors, the other half in. Half of the museum is dedicated to their war between 1950-1953, the other half is dedicated to all of their other wars from 5000BC up to 1950.

152,000 South Korean soldiers died in the Korean war.
36,574 American soldiers died as well – and there is plenty of representation and honoring of the US marines (and the various other UN nation participants).

The monument in the photo above had plaques inside recognising every country that came to South Korea’s aid in the Korean War.  Here is the plaque for the United States.  (I absolutely LOVE that they included Alaska!! It’s not fair that Hawaii got left out, but neither Alaska nor Hawaii were states in 1953, so technically Alaska probably shouldn’t be here, either.  They were both granted state status in 1959.)

Another memorial dedicated to countries that came to South Korea’s aid.  This one had monuments to Australia, Canada, and Northern Ireland, among others.

The girls are ignoring all of that fascinating armament behind them and watching the fish in the pond.

Directly across from the fish is this battleship.  The red painted circles are holes made by artillery shells.

From a plaque at the museum:  “In the midst of the World Cup co-hosted by Korea and Japan on June 29, 2002, North Korean patrol boats crossed the Northern Limit Line.  South Korean patrol boats were immediately dispatched and warned them to turn back. Without warning the North Korean patrol boats opened fire sinking PKM 357 and killing six sailors.  South Korean patrol boats countered the attack sinking two North Korean vessels and inflicting 30 casualties on them.  The exhibited PKM 357 is a life-size replica.  The Original PKM 357 is exhibited at the park of the Second Fleet Command, ROK Navy.”

I’d like to note we aren’t the only ones watching the fish and ignoring everything else.

Now the school field trip groups begin to arrive … and just look at what what grabs their attention!  The fish were the biggest draw in the entire museum.

Adam:  I kept screeching at them “This is a B-52! These are Katyusha rockets! This is a T-34!” but I was ignored.

Entering the building, they have two halls with plaques listing out all of the Korean dead.

There was so much more at the museum – thousands of years of history, changing dynasties, kings and nations that have come and gone in this area. The names and locations are completely unfamiliar to me – so it all just sounds like gibberish. I have absolutely no knowledge of Eastern history through the ages – but stuff happened in spades.

The museum was filled with groups of school-age children.  Some were in school uniforms, some were in club uniforms, and some were in regular street clothes.  Here is a Taekwondo (karate?) club … a good number of these boys had black belts, the others were all red.  I looked up belt colors when I got home and discovered that black is the highest (which I already knew) and red is second-highest (which I did not know.)  I wonder if this trip was a reward for the boys who did really well?

Group of musicians.  They set up after this photo — band, orchestra, and choir.  We left before they performed, but if their warm-ups were any indication, these kids were GOOD.

On to the part of the museum that I found most interesting … the ancient history.

Back outside … the Taekwondo boys feeding bits of their lunch to the fish.  Again with the fish!

After the museum we headed to the Noryangjin Fisheries Wholesale Market. Brenda and the kids had got such a kick out of the Tokyo fish market that we thought it would be worth it to make a stop.  On the way, we went through an underpass with women selling all sorts of vegetables and other foodstuffs.

At one location, a woman was displaying a large bowl full of tiny, live crabs. Our kids weren’t doing anything wrong, but once the old woman decided that none of us Gringos were going to buy anything, she started hollering something that made it clear we were to get the hell away.

In the fish market. Nobody wanted us to get away. Quite the opposite – it was like the Jade market in Hong Kong. We weren’t left alone. Everyone was confrontational and thrusting live creatures in our faces and trying us to get to buy their catch. We’d only just wrestle our way from one stand to get accosted by the owner of the next. After about 5 minutes of this, Brenda had had enough and we made our escape.

Josie was appalled at what she considered fish abuse.  An octopus escaped from one of the tanks and fell into another tank … the lady running the booth grabbed it and tossed it across the aisle to another tank.  Josie wanted to buy all the octopuses (octopi? octopodes? octopuseseses?) and release them back into the ocean.

We went back to the center part of town and found another great place for lunch. Brenda has been picking small, modest looking places for lunches. Every one of them has been wonderful – and we can feed a family of 5 for $25-30, leaving food on the table.

Here is an example of the type of restaurant where we can’t eat — they are always packed and therefore probably very good, but they don’t have a menu with pictures you can point to. We are incapable of placing an order.

After lunch we returned to the Myeongdong districts for more shopping and people watching. Being Saturday afternoon, the place was packed and the food vendors had set up their rolling carts to keep the crowds fed.

Kids frolicking around Cheonggyecheon Stream.

Just this past Thursday (21 June 2018) a South Korean court ruled that killing dogs for their meat is illegal.

Excerpt from an article that came out yesterday in The Guardian:

“It is very significant in that it is the first court decision that killing dogs for dog meat is illegal itself,” said Kim Kyung-eun, a lawyer for Care.

The precedent paved the way for outlawing dog meat consumption entirely, she added.

Dog meat consumption is a grey area in South Korean law. Despite no specific ban, authorities have invoked hygiene regulations or animal protection laws that ban cruel slaughter methods to crack down on dog farms and restaurants ahead of international events such as the Pyeongchang Olympics.

A lawmaker from the ruling Democratic party introduced a bill in parliament this week that would effectively ban killing dogs for meat. There are about 17,000 dog farms in South Korea, and operators have called for the government to bring in laws explicitly to legalise dog meat consumption and license dog slaughter houses.

A survey last year found that 70% of South Koreans do not eat dog meat, but only about 40% believe the practice should be banned.

A cause I am less enthusiastic to support:  The fear-based brand of Christianity distilled down to its repugnant essence.  I was happy to note that the crowd seemed to be ignoring this booth and everyone refused to take the brochures they were trying to foist upon passersby.

We returned home to rest and get groceries for the night.  After several hours of Netflix, we headed back out into the night to get the kids some gelatos.

Holden is just trying to find a gelato flavor that he recognizes. He settled on chocolate.

We’re staying in what might be considered “the U-district”. There is a long, narrow park that fills up with the kids every evening. They buy food and beers and set up picnics. Everyone gawks and is gawked at. People are on dates, musicians are playing and everyone is having a good time.

Sunday, 24 June 2018

On our last full day in Seoul we started with a visit to the Trick Eye Museum.

The museum specializes in “Trompe l’oeil” – describing an art technique intended to create the illusion of a three-dimensional object. The Trick Eye Museum is a recreational space where visitors can interact directly with the paintings. It’s also one of the first types of museum to incorporate AR (Augmented Reality) into its exhibits, creating a whole new kind of experience for its visitors. Before we entered, we were instructed to download a special app on our phones that would sense our position and add videos and other elements to the photos we were taking.

This was a museum for kids, but the adults had a good time as well. We were all running from room to room, shrieking at each other to get into position and figure out how to react to make the best photos.

Here is a picture Adam took with his regular camera.  You can see the painting on the wall ….

… and here is a photo of the same painting taken through the app on the smartphone.  The bird comes alive and eats the person in the jar.

Next to the Trick Eye Museum is another art installation made entirely of ice.  The room is kept at -5C.

The toilet even has a frozen poo in it.

Upstairs is the Love Museum — we did not go here.  The kids were grossed out by the sign. (They deemed a museum that needed to specify “Yes, touch” and “No, sex” disgusting enough to condemn most of humanity; Isabella ranted, “Why are they devaluing the word “love?” Why don’t they just call it what it is; the Porn Museum.  Or the You Should Be Ashamed of Yourself for Coming Here Museum.  God, sometimes I just hate people.”)

At the entrance to all three museums.

On the train to our next location.

After lunch it got really hot in town.  The main road had been blocked off for a skateboarding competition.  Everyone looked wilted and miserable.

We ate lunch at a restaurant specialising in Ginseng chicken soup, a specialty of Seoul.  This restaurant ONLY served variations of Ginseng chicken soup, so Josie was stuck with no other option than to put up with being served chicken.  She figured she could just pick the chicken bits out and give them to someone else.  However, when the soup arrived, each bowl contained an entire chicken (as in a whole, intact chicken, not chopped up.)  The chickens were tiny; about half the size of a cornish game hen, and they were stuffed with rice, ginseng, and other vegetables.  There was no way to get at the main contents of the soup without dismantling the chicken with chopsticks.  The little tin garbage cans with plastic liners on the table were bone buckets. The kids were all sports, but didn’t like having to pick out hearts and livers and necks, etc from their soup. They all know where food comes from, but don’t like being reminded they’re eating something that used to be alive. (Years ago Holden had a complete meltdown in Trinidad when he was served a fish with the head still on.)  Josie really was a trooper and didn’t complain much, but her body language shows pretty clearly how she felt about this meal. (And by the way, it was delicious … probably the best chicken soup I’ve ever tasted.)

A better view of the soup itself.  (The red stuff on the plate is kimchi.) The soup was served in earthenware bowls fresh from a huge oven.  The liquid was still on a full rolling boil when it was served to us.

Korea has proven to be a tough place to get vegetarian meals.  Even dishes with names such as “vegetable rice” often show up with bits of meat in them.  They do serve kimchi and other pickled or fermented vegetables alongside almost all meals, but those tend to be very spicy (some of them really spicy) and I haven’t seen anyplace that serves those things without ordering a meat-based meal to go with it.  If you are a strict vegetarian or vegan, I’d recommend bringing some nutrition bars from home just to fill in any meal gaps.  It was even hard to find decent fruit in grocery stores, and unless you can read Korean, you’ll be unable to tell what the ingredients are in the packaged foods.  We had to do a lot of guessing based on pictures, both in grocery stores and in restaurants. Most of the time what we ended up actually getting was a bit of a surprise.  You need to approach eating in Korea with an attitude that it’s all part of an adventure.

After lunch we made our way to Gyeongbokgung Palace – another iconic location in Seoul – completed in 1395 at the beginning of the Joseon Dynasty during the reign of King Taejo.

Kids hanging out in a shady spot, ignoring the palace.

Another ornate ceiling with a dragon motif.

Dressing up isn’t just for the youngsters!

But mostly it is for the youngsters.

Changing of the guard ceremony.

Next to the palace is the National Folk Museum of Korea.  I loved this one, as it was dedicated to cultural history.  I love seeing how people lived back in the day. Most of the following pictures are just plaques from the museum explaining Korean domestic life.  I am putting them here for myself so I can remember the information later.  Most people will probably want to skip to the end.

Examples of traditional Korean home interiors.

(The bridal room was called a sinbang.  Tee hee hee!!)  An example of a typical bridal room, below.

Recreation of a 60th birthday party. Those things that look like candles were made of various foods and candies.

Funeral bier.  The biers used for conveying the corpse to the burial site resembled palanquin and had long poles on both sides to be shouldered by 12 to 24 pallbearers. Most villages had such a bier for common use, which was designed to be disassembled for storage in a house removed a short distance from the neighborhood.

(From the wall plaque below) The late 20th century was a period which demanded a new and dynamic life. Taking account of the fact that Korea’s per capita income surged to $20,000 from merely $45 in 1945, the year of liberation, the vitality of Koreans resulted in the nation’s rebuilding and development dubbed the “Miracle on the Han River.”  Along with economic development, the social atmosphere began emphasising an open and practical mentality and advances in digital culture have transformed the Korean way of life. The development of popular culture in the diversity of new and old, western and Oriental cultures has invited different kinds of the patterns.

Admidst gloomy realities under brutal Japanese occupation, changes in everyday life crystallised into remodelling and had a direct and indirect impact upon people’s lives. Trains and railways allowed modern space and time.  Hygiene and cleanliness alleviated the pains of disease.  New and strange foods and condiments converted traditional appetite. In the streets, the sound of the phonograph could be heard. Western suits, dresses, shoes and cosmetics overflowed and reorganised the life of people.

Tomorrow we are flying to Japan.  More later!