Day Seventeen: Last day of frolicking in Japan!

Today, we go home. We are sitting in the hotel lounge until it is time to go to the airport later this afternoon. It has been a fantastic trip.

Yesterday, for our last day, we met back up with Dan, our American ex-pat friend. It's been lovely having Dan and Sarah to show us around all the places we might not get to see in the same way without the advice of a local! Thank you!

Dan, in addition to being an English teacher, also works as a photographer/publicity guy for a local band called Gacharic Spin. They happened to be playing a free show this Sunday in Akiba, so we met up with Dan to go see the show, which he was shooting. It was a pretty nifty event. It was sponsored by Roland synthesizers, so there was a display floor full of instruments you could play with. I think the point of the event was mainly to advertise for them, but hey, people got a free show out of it. Gacharic Spin puts on a fantastic show. The four women have a huge amount of energy (tiny women are fierce!) and their show is very physical. They jump and dance all over the stage, and really get their audience into the music. One of my favourite parts was watching fans (mainly geeky guys) dancing and singing along with the band enthusiastically. I loved the colourful costumes the band wore, too. On top of that they were all fine musicians, even if the music wasn't a genre I'd normally seek out (they have a kind of punkish, anime sound).

After Gacharic Spin finished their set, we were supposed to meet up with Dan, but we couldn't find him. I wove my way though the crowd twice, but no luck. Jon did email him from his phone, though, and we managed to meet up with him again shortly afterwards. For lunch, we had rice balls (onigiri) and star shaped tater tots from a street vendor. Mine was filled with Japanese plum, which was sour and delicious. Jon and I agreed it was one of the best "street meals" we've had. After grabbing food, we headed to see one of two statues of Godzilla in Japan. Jon has loved Godzilla since he was a little kid, so this was a pilgrimage he was determined to make during the trip. He was so happy to see the statue that Dan jokingly asked him whether we should give him a moment alone with Godzilla. We took many silly (and some less silly) pictures, and then made our way to Shinjuku to visit Yoyogi Park.

The best way I can describe Yoyogi park on a Sunday is an alternate universe version of the summer of love. The park has every possible activity you can imagine: every kind of cosplayer in their costumes; greasers with John Travolta hair dressed up in leather jackets, dancing with bobby socksers to the music of the 1950s; mimes miming; children practicing violin; people dressed like hippies playing folk music on guitars; people having picnics or taking naps on the grass; people having drumming circles; jazz bands jamming; ukulele bands practicing. It is a strange and marvelous sight to behold. After wandering around and taking pictures of some of the people performing, we parted ways with Dan and had lunch on the main drag of Harajuku, where I watched cosplayers walk by though the window as we ate.

It was a marvelous last day.We even made it up to 162 points at Mr. Donut, and got our mug! Our arteries suffered for that vessel.

Last night, we got a phone call to our hotel room from Tomiko, the hotel owners' daughter, like the rest of the staff here at Hotel Yanagibasi, has gone above and beyond the call of duty to help us out with everything from directions to learning Japanese to just chatting with us when she wasn't busy. Tomiko was calling to say goodbye because she would not be working today, when we checked out. Besides wishing us a safe trip home, she also called to tell us she'd left a left us a note at the desk. The note said how happy they were we stayed with them and was accompanied by a gift of two pretty sets of coasters with pictures of geisha on them. We will miss the friends we have made!

Japan is a marvelous, strange, complex place. I hope we can come back again...

Day Sixteen: Ghibli Museum

Us with a totoro.

We've fallen a bit behind on blogging due to traveller's fatigue and long days. I also have a cold. Today I started wearing a paper surgical mask on the subway because I felt like a jerk coughing into my elbow when everyone else who's sick wears masks. Hopefully it clears up soon because I don't have time to get sick. We're off to NYC four days after we get back to Hamilton, and I have to present at a conference!

Anyway. Our day. Today, we went to the Ghibli museum. This was the one trip event we planned ahead because we had to buy tickets in advance. It is a very popular attraction. For those who are unfamiliar, Studio Ghibli is an animation studio. One of its founders, and its most famour film creator, Hayao Miyazaki, is considered the "Walt Disney of Japan." He makes lovely, whimsical films, (though sometimes with more serious subject matter or themes) which are good for all ages. My favourite is My Neighbour Totoro, which is about two young sisters living in rural Post WWII Japan, who discover some forest spirits (Toteros) living in the woods near their home and develop a friendship with them which helps them cope with their mother being in the hospital. I don't think anyone - young or old - can watch that film without getting a big happy grin on their face. (You can get a dubbed version for kids who can't read subtitles. Miyazaki films are distributed by Disney in North America)

Totoro is probably Miyazaki's most beloved film, so it featured centrally in the museum. The museum itself was utterly charming. The whole thing looked like the set for a Miyazaki film (if his films were live action). The windows were stained glass, and had pictures of Totoros, Kami and other Ghibli creatures in them. The rooms were oddly shaped nooks and crannies that took you by surprise. You had to be careful not to hit your head - even short me - because overall, the place was designed more for children than adults. Jon bonked his head coming out of the eccentric, spiral spiral staircase leading up to the second floor. (Don't worry, he's fine.) There were interesting skylights in the ceiling, and clocks on the walls. The outside of the museum was mostly covered in lush green vines. The exhibits themselves were, like the building, designed with children in mind. There were rooms based on the sets of Miyazaki's films, like one with a furry cat bus (a character from Totero) jungle gym in it for kids to crawl all over, and another that was the hat making studio from Howl's Moving Castle, where kids could touch the hats and flower decorations. There was also an intricately detailed replica of Miyazaki's studio, with added touches like little spirits sitting among the clutter, reading. There were also a few rooms dedicated to showing the way in which the Ghibli creators made their films, and teach a little something about the history of animation. There were story boards, colour wheels, cell and background transparencies and concept books you could look though. There were also some really neat zoetropes, stroboscopes, stereoscopes, and other early examples of animation machinery that you could play with, turning a crank to make it go, or looking into a box to see a 3D picture. There was also a movie theatre, which screens different short films on rotation. The one cute little film we saw, thankfully, was mostly told though music and movement, so we didn't really need to know Japanese to understand it (it was not subtitled.)

As you can imagine, the place was crawling with kids. Cute though they were, I feared for my eardrums. Following our inevitable stop in the gift shop and our pictures with the Totero (the only place you're allowed to take photos in the museum) we walked though Inokashira park (where the museum is located) to get to the train station where we were supposed to meet Matt Alt, an American ex-pat living in Japan, who works as a writer and translator. We had a great chat with him about Japanese culture and western perceptions of it, and he also was gracious enough to sign our copy of his book.

Hipster fashion.

After our meeting, we wandered around the suburban area where we met him. It was clearly a middle-class hipster/hippie hub. I was excited to find a used clothing store, although it turned out to be more of the expensive retro clothing variety than the salvation army type. I did end up buying a dress though. Damn the cuteness of Japanese fashion! Jon and I are particularly fascinated by the hipster fashion here, which is an odd yet adorable combination of Victorian/Edwardian pioneer fashions (think Anne of Green Gables: puffed sleeves, plaited straw hats and all) and frontier America (overalls, cowboy hats). I took a picture of an outfit on display outside the store to show what I mean. Whereas the 1960s seems to be 'in' as the current trendy/mainstream mall fashion (you can find it at most of your typical American stores geared to teen and 20 something girls) I think the farmer look is more of a hipster thing, (occasionally, and oddly, paired with huge lens-less glasses, which seem to be the new favourite among hipsters at home). And here I am talking as though I know anything about fashion...

I can definitely say I've spent more money here on clothes than I typically do in a year. (Keep in mind that all my clothes except socks, undergarments and shoes tend to be second hand). After we wandered about in the hipster district, Jon and I went to a shopping arcade called Nakano Broadway, because there was supposed to be a Thai Restaurant with veg options there. There were, and the food was some of the spiciest Thai I've had. Good thing Jon has been acclimatizing me to hot food. We had a cold tofu salad with a bunch of spices, a medium-hot greens dish, rice, and a really hot (to my taste, though Jon would probably just say hot) noodles and greens dish.

Alien @ goth shop.

After that, we wandered around the arcade a bit, which seemed to be a bit of an older shopping center, since there were less brand name stores and more subcultural clothing shops and otaku (geek) shops. Jon and I ended up in one gothy/skater type shop, and I got a really neat steampunkish watch. Again, damn Japan for being so cool. I usually am not much of a shopper!

Tomorrow is our last day in Japan. Jon and I are both feeling somewhat melancholy about this, but glad at the same time. We miss our cat and our friends and we're both feeling inspired to get back to our work. But at the same time, we have throughly enjoyed our time in Japan, and hate to say goodbye!

Day Twelve: Human Rights Museum

We began the day, as per usual, at the hostel, trying to navigate the small kitchen area along with some fellow guests.

We knew that today we wanted to return to the urban island where the aquarium was located because we'd found a vegetarian restaurant, "Eat More Greens!", that had been closed our first time in the area. Today it was open, and inside we were greeted by a small cafe-style restaurant that played the muzak version of various Christian hymns. Whether the owners were actually part of Japan's Christian minority is something that wasn't obvious, and eventually the music changed to something more general.The food consisted of a small buffet that included salad ingredients, a pan of various veggies, a milky mushroom-tofu dish, soup, and (hopefully agar-based) jello. What it lacked in flavor and spice it more than made up for heartiness and the assurance that no matter what we picked we were weren't going to end up eating animal parts. As I left the restroom area, the kitchen staff all poked their heads around the corner and greeted me with a hearty "How Are You!? Thank you and good bye!" in English.

Next up was the Human Rights Museum, something which we hoped was going to be a trip highlight. It ended up being so, and was actually more interesting than we thought it would be. Most of the museum was in Japanese, Chinese, or Korean, though we had limited audio English guides. Thankfully any video exhibits were subtitled in English, and they ended up forming the base for our experience. What we encountered was the reinforcement of the fact that Japan is indeed a very complicated society, more so than is generally represented back home. There was also an informative amount of attention paid to historical context, highlighting which issues have risen prior to Japan's Westernization in the latter 1800s, which issues came up before and during WWII, and which issues involved American influence and/or intervention in the post-war occupation years.

For example, we learned about Korean minorities and their history with fighting for their language and cultural rights in Japan. Interestingly, much progress was lost after WWII as a result of joint Japanese government/GHQ (i.e. American occupation forces) attempting to create post-war stability (and, I suspect based on what I've read) and to foster an appropriately anti-communist atmosphere (a major American-backed goal during Japan's reconstruction).

We also learned about the plight of the Ainu, Japan's aboriginal people, who are now mostly limited to the northern parts of the country. The aesthetic similarities between Ainu peoples and Canada's own west coast aboriginal cultures were striking (and has left me to conclude that it lends weight to theories about early migration from Asia to North America). Similarly to Canada, the Ainu are struggling to reclaim their language and culture, and the exhibit was one of the most interesting I've seen yet.

There were also exhibits devoted to sexual diversity and fight AIDS phobia, the connection between human life (birth especially) and nature, class and growing homelessness, disability, and a section of Japanese society that is frequently shunned due to their connection with industries involving death and/or animal product manufacturing. What was really interesting was the fact that much of the disabilities section related to specific medical issues and diseases that are the result of environmental conditions and/or industrial pollution. For example, leprosy is still prevalent in certain parts of Japanese society despite its world-class health care.We're still trying to figure out exactly why this is, as the museum seemed to assume that we should know from local context.

We were also intrigued by the fact that almost all exhibits emphasized the fact that change in Japan, often like change at home, is occurring at grassroots rather than institutional levels. An example that is unlike home is the fact that it's apparently the case that Osaka homeless are actually organizing and forming support collectives (with small membership fees to ensure that the organization can function). We've seen locals participating in the kind of work that homeless people can actually get, and the museum has given us the context for this.

In the evening we went to Hep Five, an 8-story mall that has a multi-story ferris wheel on top. The view was amazing, mostly because Osaka is not trying to save power at night and all its lights are on in their blazing glory. That said, even I had the willies given the height. The mall itself was fascinating, as it seemed devoted to Japanese teenagers and their dates. We were given the option of buying a "romantic" ferris wheel photo (we did not), and as I was intensely curious, we ended up at a cafe that looked a lot like a postmodern version of a 1950s American soda bar. There we ordered massive desserts (waffles with ice cream, whipped cream, and cake) that were overly expensive and pretty bad, being mostly air and sugar. We were not allowed to share, which was interesting given that it was clearly intended to be a young couples location. However, at least we've had the experience, and never, ever have to have it again. Concerns about gaining weight in Japan aside, the land of sweets, aside, there are simply too much better sweets in the country to waste time and money with such sugary monstrosities.

As we excited the mall, we were horrified by the fact that the main lobby of the mall was adorned with a massive sperm whale that was the color of organ meat. As you enter the building, its massive open mouth and the threatening eyes are the first thing you see. We don't know anything about it, but it's surely creepier than any Japanese creature we've so far encountered.

Day Thirteen: Nara

First Time I've been THIS close to a deer.

Today, Jon and I went to Nara, a town about an hour outside of Osaka. Dan, our new American friend living in Japan, had said it was a must-see place. We were kind of excited about the idea of getting out of the city, so it seemed like a good option. Truth be told, we're getting pretty sick of travel. We miss Chester, our cat, and our apartment and our yard and the farmer's market and all our Hamilton friends. It would be different if we actually had a home here, but we don't and travelling is pretty tiring after a while.

Jon feeding the deer.

This deer really liked Jon - stayed to snuggle!

Nara, however, was lovely. The town is best known for Nara Koen (park) which is filled with Buddhist and Shinto temples and shrines and tame deer. The deer are associated with the Kasuga Shrine, and are supposed to be sacred. They were cute, at any rate, and we bought biscuits to feed to them and gave them scratches on the neck. At first I was a little afraid of them because they were really coming after the food, but I soon realized that although they were eager eaters, they weren't going to bite. Apparently they do bite and attack people occasionally, since there was a sign warning as much, but I can't help but wonder if people provoke it by pulling food away or something, because the deer we met were all really gentle. Even when they headbutted you, it was done as a way of saying thanks, or to get you to scratch them.

Me talking to the deer and giving him scratches.

The mountains surrounding the park.

After we fed the deer, we went in search of lunch. Our guidebook said there was a restaurant with a vegetarian menu located at the north end of the park; however, when we finally found it, after many confusing directions from local shop keepers, we discovered that their "vegetarian menu" was one dish: soba or udon noodles with soy sauce. That's hardly a meal, let alone a menu. They did have a noodle soup on the menu that appeared to be vegetarian. When we asked the waitress if it was vegetarian, she said yes. It was, more-or-less, although what I thought was a piece of radish was definitely some sort of seafood, possibly octopus? It was somewhat rubbery and white, with pink around the edges. It didn't taste bad, but the texture grossed me out, and it was definitely not a vegetable. The soup was almost definitely made with fish dashi as well, but at least it had tofu, egg, noodles and seaweed: some decent substance.

After lunch, we backtracked to see some of the temples. They were beautiful. My favourite temple was Todai-Ji, which is the largest wooden building in the world. It holds a 50 foot tall golden Buddha. It was quite breathtaking to behold something so huge! I wonder how they made such a thing...

I forget this temple's  name, but it had a wonderful view.

View from temple balcony.

Us with the second group of little kids.

While we were at Nara, there were hordes of school children all over the place, running about and teasing/taunting the deer. Apparently field trips are big with Japanese schools. We also ended up talking to some of the kids, because they had been given an assignment to talk to people from other countries to practice their English and learn about other cultures. We talked to three different groups. All of them introduced themselves and asked where we were from. Two of the groups asked what food was most popular in our country. I said many different foods are popular, but they didn't seem to understand that (their English was fairly limited, even that of the older students, who seemed quite impressed with Jon's Japanese!) so I told them pizza. Another group asked what sport was popular in Canada. I said hockey. Jon said lacrosse, which didn't compute.

Us with a group of junior high girls.

We didn't see everything in the park, but we were pretty tired, so after we left Todai-Ji, we decided to head back to the JR station. Jon and I both have very sore feet. There are many, many stairs in Japan and many hills to climb. We are going to have very strong leg muscles by the time we get home. I, for one, am glad we're taking it easy tonight.

Jon will be posting about Day 12: Human Rights Museum soon!

Todai-Ji

Awe inspiring 50' Buddha in Todai-Ji.

Day Eleven: Osaka Aquarium and Ferris Wheel

Penguins, Jon's favourite!

Yesterday we got a late start to the day. That's happening lots lately because gosh darn is sightseeing and travelling tiring! I crashed out for 10 hours last night. It's a bit easier to sleep here, because our room has dark curtains to keep the light out, but we are also next door to an elementary school, which greets us in the morning with the sound of small children playing the recorder and singing in what is presumably music class.

Yesterday, we didn't leave till after lunch (as in Kyoto, we are cooking many of our own meals at the hostel) with the exception of going to Mr. Donut for breakfast. We are eating a lot of donuts on this trip. And here we thought we'd lose weight in Japan. See, Mr. Donut has a points system. You spend a certain amount of money, you get points accordingly. We are determined to get enough points for a mug before we leave. We're about 50 points away. We think we can do it! I'm getting pretty sick of donuts, but Jon is going strong.

Harbour Seals. One is sporting an... appendage.

Sea lions!

Anyway. Yesterday, most museums were closed (things tend to close here on Sundays and one week day) so we decided to go to the aquarium. Jon was particularly interested in visiting this aquarium because it is built with the gaia hypothesis in mind. They've tried to emulate the natural environment as closely as possible, creating whole eco-systems of plants and different species of animals. In some cases, they don't even feed animals. Instead, they forage and/or hunt for themselves. The aquarium is also locally based in the sense that it only has animals that come from the pacific rim, of which Japan is a part. It is also structured as a huge circle. You start at the top of the aquarium, going up a huge escalator, and then you work your way down, starting with birds and monkeys and otters and freshwater fish, and moving all the way down to the animals at the bottom of the ocean, like crabs and jellyfish. Many of the tanks extended all the way from the top of the aquarium to the bottom. They were huge! We saw dolphins, a whale shark, sea lions, penguins and my all-time favorite, sting-rays. (And of course, many kinds of fish.) We also had an English audio guide, and some of the information on the descriptive panels was in English as well, though the English in the audio guide was better than that of the panels. Neither were bad English, but Jon and I noticed some funny translations. The other thing that was interesting about the aquarium was that it was very didactic. It was really focused on teaching people why we need to live in harmony with other species, and not over use any resource. This message very much seemed to be tied to a broader peace discourse that is a big part of Japanese culture, which has its origins in WWII and the atomic bombings.

Sting ray! Love them!

After the aquarium, we ended up having supper at Subway. It was the only vegetarian thing we could find. There is a veg restaurant near the aquarium, but it's only open for lunch. So, we wandered through the mall near the aquarium, and that was what we found to eat. At Subway in Japan, you can get a broccoli and guacamole vegetarian sub, which was surprisingly good. They also make their subs smaller here. (Servings of everything are smaller, which I love.) You can also get flavoured potato wedges (which were pretty good) the ubiquitous wasabi or soy sauce on your sub (which I did not get) and soy lattes (Jon got coffee flavour, I got banana.) After we ate, we decided to take a ride on the Osaka ferris wheel, which is huge and looks out on Osaka harbour, and takes 15 minutes to go around. It was a beautiful view, seeing all the Osaka lights.

Giant crab. Fodder for next monster movie?

It also happened to be Jon's birthday yesterday. He said he's always wanted to spend his birthday in Japan, and his wish came true. Donuts, penguins, and a (dare I say romantic?) ferris wheel ride... not a bad day.

Ferris wheel in the daytime.

Birthday love.

Day Ten: To Osaka; Tattoos in Japan

Yesterday, we left Kyoto, stopping to have donuts first. (The Japanese, it seems, love them as much as Canadians do. There are donut shops everywhere.)

The train ride to Osaka was very short. When we got to Osaka, we had to transfer trains to get to our hostel, which proved somewhat confusing, but we got here before too long. Unfortunately, we discovered upon our arrival that we couldn't check in until 3:00 pm, so we had a few hours to kill. Since we were both pretty hot and tired from carrying our big packs, we decided to go to an onsen a few train stops away. On our way to the onsen, we stopped back at Osaka station to buy visitor's passes which allow us to ride the subway here (Osaka is not well connected on the JR line) and also allows us entrance to most of Osaka's major attractions, including the onsen. We didn't start our passes till today though, because they last two days, and we knew we wouldn't be doing very much with them yesterday.

We then proceeded to the onsen via JR, and then a walk along Japan's longest shopping street. The street itself was fascinating, and we stopped a few times along the way to look at things. I bought some tea (I found a big bag of hoji buncha, smoked green tea, for cheap) at a tea shop which also had beautiful (and tempting!) tea pots for sale. We didn't browse too much though because we wanted to get to the onsen. When we got there (with help from a local man, who went out of his way to show us the route) we saw that there was a sign saying no tattoos, with a picture of a big black dragon tattoo crossed out. I was a little nervous because I am tattooed, but from what we'd read on-line, and what Yoshiko had told us before we went to the onsen in Kurama, they only really care about Japanese men with tattoos, because they are trying to keep the Yakusa (Japanese mob) out. All Yakusa members have big black dragon tattoos. We had read that tattoos were banned at all onsen for that reason, but I had no problems at the onsen in Kurama. Yoshiko had also told me it wouldn't be a problem, because I'm a gaijin, and a woman. So, I decided that it would be okay to go in. We deposited our shoes in the shoe lockers, paid our entry fee at the machine, and each went to our separate areas. (You use the onsen nude, and most are gender segregated).

In the women's changeroom, I  noticed there was another sign that said no tattoos and had a picture of a leg with a different tattoo (not a dragon tattoo) on it. This again made me a bit nervous, and I wondered if the rule extended to women, but I decided to go in anyway and see if they would enforce it. I thought about asking a staff person about it, but I didn't see anyone to ask. When I was changing, I definitely felt like the other women were watching me, and whispering behind my back. I told myself not to be paranoid, and that they were probably just curious about the gaijin. I went into the shower room. (You have to take a shower before entering the onsen. The onsen is for soaking, not washing). I was about half way though my shower when a staff women came into the shower area, made a b-line for me and told me, “you have tattoos. We do not allow tattoos.”

Since she just stood there looking at me, I asked, “do you want me to leave?” and she said, “yes, you finish your wash then you leave.” So, I finished rinsing off, and then changed back into my clothes and left. I felt pretty embarrassed. I clearly was not welcome there. I don't know there reasoning for not allowing tattoos, but from what I've heard, there are a few concerns about them in addition to the main reason of associating them with Yakusa. Apparently, the Japanese associate tattoos with with crime more generally as well, so even if you're not part of Yakusa, you might still be thought to be on the wrong side of the law. It seems tattoos are not as commonly accepted here as they have become in the west. Like people in the west, however, people here often believe tattoos to be unclean. Apparently HIV has been on the rise here, and I wonder if people associate tattoos with the transmission of HIV. In Japan, there is an obsession with preventing the spread of disease (people wear face masks on the subway so as not to spread their colds, and many people carry handsanitizers or wear gloves to protect themselves as well) so perhaps banning tattoos is a way of trying to prevent the spread of disease. I would never go to a tattoo or piercing parlor that didn't have their health board certification prominently posted, or which refused to walk me through their sterilization methods. But if tattoos are not as common here, maybe health inspections of tattoo parlors aren't either.

I digress. The point is, I didn't get to have a soak, and I waited for an hour for Jon to be finished instead (we had agreed to meet in an hour, and I didn't have a way to tell him I had been kicked out). After the onsen (or lack thereof), we browsed some more on the shopping street, and then went back to Osaka station and out for a delicious (if somewhat pricey) Indian dinner near Osaka square. After dinner, we stopped to watch some street musicians performing in the square. It was a beautiful night, and listening to music in the open air somewhat made up for my missed onsen.

Day Nine: Manga Museum and Yoshiko's House

On Saturday, Jon and I started the day slowly, catching up on the blog and writing postcards, and making our breakfast and lunch at the hostel. We used up most of the food we'd bought from the grocery store, and the rest we left in the free-to-use boxes in the fridge.

We initially were feeling pretty ambitious, and planned to go to the manga museum, and then to the imperial palace or to a tea ceremony, before going to Yoshiko's dinner party at 6pm. Then we decided tha the palace and the tea ceremony were too far away from the manga museum, and our feet were pretty sore from all the stair climbing the day before, plus we had a timeline to stick to. Also, one of the hostel staff told us the palace was boring and we knew that the tea ceremony was a bit expensive. So, we decided to go to an Edo castle close to the manga museum instead. In the end, however, the meandering walk we took to the manga museum, as well as our time there and ice cream on the way back took up the remainder of our afternoon (we didn't set out until about 1 pm).

On our way to the manga museum, we stopped in at an imports store. It was neat to see foods and alcohol from home (small bottle of maple syrup for 1700 yen!) and from afar for sale. I initially went in because I was trying to find a tea we sampled at the vegetarian restaurant in Kurama. The tea is called Hoji Buncha, and it is smoked green tea. I really liked it and wanted to bring some home. I asked a guy stocking shelves if they carried it, and after looking at the tea packages uncertainly, he handed me one. I haven't opened the tea yet, so I'm not sure if it is the right thing or not.

The manga (comic) museum itself was excellent. I was a bit dubious as to how much I'd get out of it because manga isn't really my thing (I like what I've seen well enough, but I don't really share Jon's passion) and also because most of the museum, the guidebook told us, is not in English. I was, however, enchanted by the museum. It was really well organized chronologically, with a time-line in English showing the development of manga and anime alongside major events in Japan. All of the manga books were also organized into sections by date and genre. The museum, which is build inside an old public school, and owned by one of Kyoto's universities, which specializes in manga research, is also a vibrant community space and library. It was quite busy when we were there, filled with people of all ages lounging about and reading manga. There were also workshops, places to watch manga artists at work, and a storyteller performing for children in the style of the Japanese moving picture tradition (using a series of drawings in succession to tell a story) that is the root of manga & anime (I forget what it's called!) Neither of us could really read any of the manga (they have a very small international section, but in English, there were mostly American comics: Superman, Batman etc.) There were also special exhibits by particular manga artists, one of whom was local to Kyoto. So, we got to see some manga art (and manga) unavailable in North America. The gift shop was also lovely, and Jon managed to pick up a copy of the first Ghost in the Shell book which is written in both Japanese and English, one under the other. He hopes it'll help him with his Japanese reading skills. I also picked up Yokai Attack!: The Japanese Monster Survival Guide by Matt Alt and Hiroko Yoda. Matt Alt is an American expat writer living in Japan, and Hiroko Yoda is his Japanese wife, who is an art photographer primarily. Jon's been in contact with Matt Alt, and we're going to meet him when we go back to Tokyo. The monster survival guide is kind of neat, and I think it will be fun plane reading. It's sort of like a field guide to the mosters of Japanese folk lore, and I'll get to learn about many of the creatures I've seen around in statue form!

After the manga museum, Jon and I stopped for ice cream. Jon had green tea/vanilla softserve, and I went to Starbucks for a matcha soy frappucino. Surprisingly, it's really hard to find soy products here, other than tofu. Soy milk, soy ice cream and mock meats are all rare. We think soy milk is probably fairly easily found, we're just not sure where to look. We know there is one soy ice cream place, called Mr. Bean, because we saw it in a JR station, but we didn't have time to stop and try it. It seemed like a health food specialty place, though. Mock meat, other than the soy puffs we had in Kyoto, is apparently next-to non-existant here. We don't eat a lot of mock meat at home (and when we do we often make our own) but it is handy when you want a quick meal.

After our ice cream, Jon and I went back to the hostel for a quick shower before going over to Yoshiko's. It has actually been quite warm and sunny the last few days (I guess the rainy season isn't all rain) and so we have been pretty sweaty at the end of the day. When we got to Yoshiko's, she showed us which of the foods she'd prepared were vegetarian. Then, she shooed us out onto the balcony while she finished preparing food. When she was ready, she called us back in, and soon after, the other guests arrived. There were about 13 of us total, including three little kids. Most of the guests didn't speak much English, so they only spoke to us a little, but one of the guests, Ana, who was just meeting Yoshiko for the first time, spoke a fair amount, so we spent most of the evening talking to her, and to the friend she had come with, whose name we unfortunately forget. Her friend, a rather boisterous man, didn't speak too mulych English, but once the “alcohol heated his brain” as he put it, he was quite willing to give it a go. I think he is actually better at the language than he thinks he is, because we didn't have too much trouble understanding him, with a little help from Ana thrown in. We talked about all sorts of things, including differences between Canada and Japan. It was interesting to find out that their impression of Canada was that people carry guns. I said that in Canada, there are quite a few guns, but that most of them are used for hunting, or by farmers to defend their crops and herds. I told them that people can't carry around handguns in Canada, and they also have to fill out all sorts of paperwork to own a gun (I know there are various arguments around this, and that there are plenty of unregistered firearms about, but it seemed best to simplify, particularly since I've never owned a gun, or used anything other than a bb-gun, and truthfully, don't know that much about them or the laws).

At first I was a bit nervous that we wouldn't have enough to eat, because there were only a few dishes for a large number of people; however, it turned out that that was only the first course. In the first course, we had salad with fresh organic greens, radish and tomato, a hajiki (a type of seaweed), atsageh (fried tofu) and carrot salad, a mushroom, veggie and noodle salad, a tomato salad and various cheeses, and edamame (fresh soy bean) and sticky rice balls wrapped in nori (seaweed). We tried a little bit of everything. For the second course, we had a spicy noodle and veggie stir fry, which Yoshiko cooked in her hot pot. She also made us a Japanese pancake (typically has cabbage and other veggies in it, along with meat, but she made a meatless one for Jon and I) as the third course.

We had a really good time with everyone. I was shy at the beginning of the night, being nervous of the language barrier, and also not wanting to say the wrong thing and offend anyone, but I soon discovered it was an easy going group, and if we screwed up our Japanese (or they their English) it was just a great joke for everyone to enjoy. (I think the liberal flow of beer, wine and sake helped as well). I told them “sake o nomimasen” (I don't drink alcohol) and they seemed tickled that I said it in Japanese, since mostly I didn't try to speak Japanese, though Jon made a valiant effort (and they were quite happy to correct his pronounciation etc). One thing they told us was not to say you love (shiteru) an object. Apparently that is very strange. You only say that you like an object very much (daisuki). Love is reserved for people. We took group pictures after dinner, and Yoshiko promised to send a copy to me. It was a great night and we felt very welcome. Everyone, even those who spoke little English, said they enjoyed having us and we should come back to visit Kyoto again. I really hope we do some day.

After dinner, we all went out to look for fireflies by the river. Yoshiko said we might not be able to see any, because the river is too high, so it's been a bad year for them. We were lucky, however, and we did see a few. It felt quite magical, all of us standing in the dim light on the little bridge over the river, chatting and laughing and waiting for fireflies. The first few we saw hunkered down near the water, and only omitted a tiny glow. Then, however, we saw one in the bushes which was shining with an intense green light. It flew suddenly out of the bushes, and right past my face, and landed on Jon's shirt, sitting there like the ember from a fire that would not burn out. Then, after not very long, it was gone again, flying away where we couldn't see it any longer. After the firefly left, we parted ways too. Yoshiko gave us big bugs (the last of many she gave us throughout the night) and promised to stay in touch.

Day Eight: Kurama

Not being so sure about the weather over the next few days, Phebe and I decided that today was the day to try and go up to Kurama, a small town nestled in a valley next to a mountain of the same name. This involved navigating a section of the Kyoto subway, which, once we figured out how its signs were different from those in Tokyo, was actually fairly easy to do. At the end of the line we switched to a small train that made its way through several small communities, each one less urban than the next. These towns were probably inhabited by frequent Kyoto visitors, akin to living in a suburban community outside a large Canadian city. They just happened to be "suburbs" located at the base of a mountain.

On the second train we bumped into a father and son originally from Manchester, England. Dad works for a pharmaceutical company, and he and his son and daughter had spent six years living outside Osaka. They were back in Japan for a visit so that his son could see some of his friends from the international school he had attended while in Japan (he had a football (soccer) game to atten that night). Having never been to Kurama, they were also heading up to take it in.

Kurama is the site of a major Buddhist temple, but as we were warned in the various literature on Japan, it was initially difficult to tell whether it was completely Buddhist or whether or not there was some of the indigenous Shintoism featured as well. The "center" of town featured many shops that all sold variations on the same trinkets, usually of the same "kami" (Japanese spirit). It quickly became obvious that despite the English maps available, Kurama was a popular destination for Japanese tourists.

We paid our small fee at the temple's main gates and then proceeded to climb the mountain. "Climb" is perhaps too strong a word, but it was a fairly steep hike up some stone stairs in some parts. We took in the various small shrines and structures along our way towards the temple's main chamber. All of these items were nestled within the woods, amidst small waterfalls and streams, making the journey extremely peaceful and refreshing. The temperature was hot and humid, and yet the constant mist made sure that things weren't too bad.

When we arrived at the first of two secondary gates, there was a small spout running into a tiny stone pool. Beside the pool were several small ladles. The pool itself was set into smooth stones. This was a purification site. We decided to take part, even though I noticed that, as the travel literature predicted, many Japanese didn't bother. Purification involves taking a ladle in hand and pouring water from the spout over both your hands. Than you take another ladle and pour some water into your clean cupped hand. You raise that hand to your mouth, take a small sip of water, then spit it out on the small rocks around the raised pool (not into the pool!). The entire process is very quick, refreshing in the heat, and actually very clean. There's no cross-contamination of water at any point (presumably that would render the ritual pointless).

After purification, we made our way up to the shrine itself. Tossing some yen into the collection case, we took turns ringing the bell, clapping, bowing, and thenj stepping back. There is traditionally some praying in there too. Phebe paid a little extra in order to obtain a Japanese fortune, which unfortunately she couldn't read. However, the fortune comes inside a small trinket, a keychain depicting a tengu, a Shinto "monster-spirit" that is now associated with protection (though apparently far from loving in its actions). We continued up the mountain, by this point starting to feel the incline increase.

As we made our way up the mountain we were greeted with many "konnichiwas" by people who were making their way back down (or, in the case of older men, usually at least a nod of acknowledgment). The other visitors mostly appeared to be other Japanese, and I recalled that I had read that Kurama was a big destination for Japanese tourists who wanted to explore their country's history. While there were those who actively engaged in the rituals (mostly older people), many seemed as enchanted and curious as we were, and there were many cameras being carried around. That said, there were still some younger 20-somethings who, decked out in jeans and stylish tops, would approach the shrine seemingly with a clear sense of what to do. As we understand, many Japanese are apparently "culturally" Buddhist or Shintoist, just as in Canada many people are culturally Christian. It means that while they may not be strictly observant, they apparently do have a sense of what is expected at some level.     

The moist humidity was almost gone by the time we made it to the main temple, leaving a slightly drier heat. The entrance was adorned with a pillar of sand in which to stick burning incense. Inside was very quiet and peaceful, but given the fact that there were several people actually trying to pray, we felt intrusive as gawking tourists so we left pretty quickly. We went further up the mountain, stopping again at another shrine. Our last stop was a site where there are the tangled and exposed roots of cedar trees, giving the impression of giant wooden veins coursing through the ground. Standing among the woods, listening to the birds and droning insects, was incredibly peaceful and especially reminded Phebe of her love of the bush. By that time I was getting pretty hungry, so we decided to head back down. In theory we could have kept going onto the next town, Kibune, but the whole trip would've taken an additional 45 minutes on top of the two hours or so we'd already done, and then heading back (even without stopping) would've taken 90 minutes. That journey will be something for next time.

On the way back down, I wanted to take the optional tram (as I'd never taken a tram, let alone one down the side of a mountain). This time it was our chance to offer a cheerful "konnichiwa!" to breathless people we met on their way up. Though the tram was basically us and older women, it's worth mentioning that we met several elderly women powering their way up and down the mountain. Some of these women only came up to Phebe's shoulder, and yet they had an energy that I don't belief I will ever have. It furthered the sense that, even as Japanese women are largely not represented in official government, female power is quite big in Japan. There are reasons why the vast majority of people who've helped us and communicated with us have been women, and they range from more freedom to travel and learn English, senses of feminine solidarity, and, in a few cases, probably not a little sense of maternal care. 

Lunch was at a (presumably Buddhist) vegetarian restaurant. My meal was soba noodles, some soy and vegetables, and dashi broth. Phebe's included actually tasty eggplant and the first truly alien food item we've tried to eat --- a bowl of something white that had the consistency of mucus. It was not a treat. For dessert I had a coke float, but afterwards I realized just how expensive American soda is in Japan ($8 for the float!). It's much cheaper to go with beer and coffee.

After lunch it was time for what for me was the main event, a soak in the local onsen (hot spring). To get there meant walking through a lot of the town of Kurama, an amazing-looking little village that even had an aquaduct and a place to wash one's clothes in the small river. At the spring we managed to order two tickets and large towels, and then went our separate ways. The springs are gender segregated, a feature that is, notably, imported from Western sensibilities. Apparently in rural Japan there are still public baths that are not segregated, but in tourist areas especially they are a thing of the past. I managed to stuff my enormous gaijin shoes into a small locker, notable for the fact that it locked with a large wooden key. Before you soak, you need to bath by sitting down on a small stool, lathering yourself up with soap, and then rinsing yourself off with a detachable shower head. The heated water itself was apparently atop a sulfur spring, but there was no detectable odor (keeping in mind that the pool itself was a modern construction, and not simply a big natural pool in the ground). After soaking myself in the late afternoon sunshine amongst the woods and mountains, I felt good enough to know that I would never be satisfied with simply a Western shower again. In my head, onsen join Finnish-style saunas as something which North America is missing out on.

After our soaks we headed back to the train to Kyoto, looking forward to making lentil tacos back at the hostel.  

Day Seven: Mikoan Vegetarian Restaurant

View along the river.

Yesterday, I wasn't feeling very well so we rested most of the day. In the evening, we went out to try to find the vegetarian restaurant Yoshiko had recommended to us. We made our way to the restaurant (with several stops for map checking and asking for directions) via a path alongside the river, that took us most of the way. It was very pretty. We saw a crane, and a man sitting by the river practicing his fiddle. I didn't get a picture, because as a musician, I know how annoying it is when you're trying to practice and people treat you like you are a tourist attraction. But I enjoyed hearing him play. He was quite good.


When we got closer to the restaurant, we weren't sure exactly where it was because we'd misplaced the map Yoshiko had printed out for us with the address on it. We only had a Kyoto map with a dot on it that the hostel staff had marked for us. We asked a local woman for directions, and she didn't know where the restaurant was, but a friend of hers came up the street and she gestured for her to come over and help. The friend didn't know where the restaurant was either. Defeated, we sat down in a nearby cafe in hopes that we might be able to ask for directions there. Jon ordered a waffle with ice cream (I had no idea before this trip how popular parfaits, crepes and waffles are in Japan. They're everywhere! You can even get a waffle filled with noodles. I don't know how I feel about that combination...) so that we wouldn't just be asking for directions to a different food establishment without buying anything (probably kind of rude). Just as we were about to dig into our waffle, the two women from the street came into the cafe. They had found the vegetarian restaurant for us, and had come looking for us to tell us where it is! We are continually amazed by people going out of their way to help us.

Miyoko's Cat.

So that we didn't have to abandon our waffle, I went to find where the restaurant was with the women, and then came back. When we finished our waffle (dessert first? why not) we proceeded to the restaurant (which I think we'd walked by twice) for dinner. The restaurant itself was bar-style, and set back from the street down a little alley lined with plants. Inside, it was cluttered with musical instruments of various kinds, books, and posters all over the walls of cats and peace & animal rights activist events. The meal that we had was, I think, the best meal we've had all trip. We had a dinner set that came with several dishes: Japanese eggplant that had a slightly licorice spice to it; a dense spongey tofu and carrots in a broth, some tofu, seitan (?) and vegetable soup that tasted like chicken noodle; beansprout, cucumber seaweed and sesame salad; some puffed soy seasoned with ginger and soy sauce, drenched in cornstarch and deep fried and of course, rice. The restuarant owner and cook, Miyoko, said that the rice was semi-polished brown rice. It was a perfect compromise because Jon prefers white rice and I prefer brown and this was somewhere in-between :-) We also found out what the soy puffs were by asking her questions in a mixture of English and Japanese. I don't know if we can get puffed soy at home, but we're going to try because it was so yummy! For dessert, I had a piece of vegan sugarless cake, which was sort of like Christmas cake, dense, but moist, and full of dried fruit. The restaurant called itself "vegetarian" but as far as we can tell it's vegan because there was no egg or dairy in anything either. (I don't think they really use the term vegan here).

Our vegan meal.

I really loved the ambiance of Miyoko's restaurant. It was lovely to just sit at the bar and listen to jazz (which seems to be the music of choice for bars, cafes and restaurants) and watch her cat, curled up inside her carrier, which was sitting on one of the bar stools.

After dinner, we wandered around in the shopping arcade near the restaurant. We found a second-hand anime goods store (figures, keychains and the like) all repackaged and organized in endless rows. I even found some Mummi stuffed toys. Mummis are troll-like creatures in a Finnish children's book series and television show, which is also apparently has a following here. (I first encountered the mummi phenomenon in Finland, so it was weird to see them here in Japan!)

Jon in the arcade.

Day Six: To Kyoto and Yoshiko's House!

Yesterday, we got up in the morning to leave for Kyoto. Getting up early hasn't been hard, particularly for me, since I seem to be unable to totally switch to this time zone. I keep waking up at 6 or 6:30 am, and then I am totally ready to crash by about 9 pm. I went to bed later last night, close to 11, but here I am, wide awake at 6:30 again. Jon is still sawing logs.

Jon + bigbackpack @ Kyoto Stn.

Yesterday morning's big challenge was to fit all of our new purchases into our backpacks. I am going to build some serious muscle on this trip carrying all this stuff around! On our way to the train station, we grabbed fruit from a fruit stand. I hadn't had any fresh fruit in days (I normally eat fruit almost every day) and so I pretty much ate a small carton of (ripe, juicy) strawberries myself on the trip. I didn't get any photos of the scenery because we were going by too fast (somewhere between 200 and 300 km/hour). The view was nice though, and became more rural, green and mountainous as we got closer to Kyoto. The only unfortunate part of the ride was the two small wailing and seat-kicking children sitting behind us. If I knew how to say "stop kicking my seat" in Japanese, I probably would've said it. Most children we've seen here have been fairly sedate, but not those ones.

Me eating a Yuba roll.

The train station in Kyoto is incredible. It's all glass and so there's lots of light. Inside and below the station proper there are tons of different stores, including a huge deli area with different counters selling bento boxes, ready-to-steam vegetable and fish baskets and all kinds of salads (which you have to be careful about here because what looks like noodles is sometimes tentacles or small fish). It was quite the spectacle. Jon and I ended up buying our lunch there (salads and Yuba rolls - rice wrapped in a thin "tofu skin" which is essentially the skin that forms on top of soy milk, fried) and sitting on a bench to eat it. Yuba are a good vegetarian option, because most seem to not have meat in them.

Curious school kids & chaperon.

On our way out of the station, a bunch of schoolchildren, probably on a day trip, asked to take a picture of Jon and I. They took a picture of us, and we took a picture of them (both with their cameras and ours). They were pretty excited about it. Then, on our way to the hostel, as we stopped to look at our map and try to get oriented, we were approached by a tiny woman who asked if she could help us with directions. When we told her the name of our hostel, she said she would take us there, because it is close to her house. She dropped us right at the door of the hostel, and not only that, she insisted we come for dinner. Jon and I looked at each other to confirm that we were both ok with that plan, and then we told her sheepishly that we'd love to but that we're vegetarian and we didn't know if that would be a problem. The woman, Yoshiko, said that would be no problem, and that she would come and pick us up at 6:30. We didn't know whether this was a regular occurrence or not but we thought it would be a great experience to have supper in someone's home.

Yoshiko and the meal she's about to cook!

Yoshiko showed up promptly to take us to her place, which is about a block away. For dinner, she cooked vegetables (2 kinds of greens, squash, enoki and shiitake mushrooms), fried and fresh tofu and konyakku and soba noodles at the table in a shallow electric pot in separate courses. At the end, she added rice to the pot to soak up all the leftover broth, along with the remaining vegetables (which were a formidable pile to begin with) and mixed in egg to hold it all together. She insisted we eat a lot, so we were both very full by the end! Yoshiko also gave us some dashi (seaweed-based broth) powder packets to take home with us so we can try making our own soup the way she did.

Yoshiko adds tofu.

I am not sure how old Yoshiko is. She works as an assistant to people with visual impairments and children with disabilities. She kept excusing her English, but it was actually quite good. She was impressed with our chopstick abilities, so we told her we use them at home, too. Yoshiko seems to collect friends from different places, because she told us about friends of hers who live in Toronto, who are from Hong Kong, and showed us pictures of her and a couple from Switzerland, whom she befriended when they were visiting. She likes movies and Johnny Depp and she said that she would like to come and visit Toronto (she has been to Vancouver before). Yoshiko is having a dinner party on Saturday, and she invited us. That will be interesting because apparently her friends don't speak English. Chance to practice my three phrases of Japanese! (Jon is faring much better than I language-wise). She also told us about a vegetarian restaurant a friend of hers owns, so we are going to try to go there. (She phoned the friend up while we were there to tell him/her we'd be coming!)

Our hostel is really nice. We have a shared bathroom here, but there is also a big kitchen available for guest use, so that's a nice advantage. We went out and bought groceries yesterday (an experience in itself!) and so we're going to try cooking here to save some money. We're also missing home foods, much as we like Japanese cuisine. We paid through the nose for Prego and Old Elpaso Taco shells (imported items; they wrapped the Prego in bubble wrap so we wouldn't loose our valuable purchase!) so that we can make tacos and spaghetti for ourselves.

Us @ Yoshiko's