Japan Day 6: The Elusive Fuji-san

I've been on a blog hiatus thanks to the holidays. Back to our adventures in Japan (which I promise will end eventually).

We were up early again today to take advantage of the mineral baths at the ryokan. The staff then served us breakfast in our room. Robin had ordered a "Western" breakfast, which they strongly encouraged her to order after they discovered her dislike of fish. She later described it as "the worst caricature of an American breakfast I had ever seen, complete with Folgers Coffee and a strangely yellow omelet served with ketchup." It didn't have fish, so it could have been worse. The Japanese breakfast was quite good, with miso soup, rice, various pickled things and fish.

We left just after breakfast and took the bus up the mountain to Lake Ashi where we hoped to catch a glimpse of Mount Fuji (locally, Fuji-san as a sign of respect). We took a bizarre replica of a man 'o war ship, complete with fake cannons, across the lake, but Mt. Fuji remained hidden behind clouds the whole way. Apparently, it's surrounded by clouds about 90% of the time.

At the far end of the lake, we got on the Togendai Ropeway, a cable car trip up the mountain with amazing views of the lake and the Hakone area, with the exception of Mt. Fuji. At the top is the Owakundani "Nature" trail. There isn't really much in the way of nature unless you count volcanic vents spewing sulfur. But it turns out this is a huge tourist attraction. There were easily a few thousand people up there who had come to see the sulfur springs:

You can also buy the sulfur-boiled eggs, the shells black from the sulfur. We were going to try some, except you can only buy them in quantities of 5. What in the world were we going to do with 5 sulfur-boiled eggs?

It was midday, so we headed back towards the Hakone station at the foot of the mountain for our trip to Hiroshima. One cable car, one bus, one commuter train, 2 bullet trains and one streetcar later, we were at our hotel. In Japan, the connections are almost always well-timed, and everything is on time. The whole trip only took 6 hours, though we had to run the last 1/4 mile to the Hakone station since the bus was stuck in traffic. They sell mystery bento boxes on the bullet train, so we ordered two, including one that appeared to contain no fish. Certainly, there were no bivalves in it since Robin survived. The bento boxes were actually pretty good - better than most airline or airport food, and definitely better than anything you could buy on Amtrak.

Our suitcases had not only survived the trip to Hiroshima - they had been handled with the greatest care. They were wrapped, then placed in large plastic bags and handled with gloved hands the whole way. The hotel brought them out as soon as we arrived at check-in, unwrapped them and brought them to our room.

We ventured out for dinner and had okonomiyaki, a savory pancake with meat, cabbage, pork, noodles and sprouts pressed between two pancakes. The small building had 3 floors of restaurants - or more like vendors in permanent stalls with seating around the counter grill - almost all serving different versions of okonomiyaki. We guessed that the ones which were fairly busy with patrons, smiling cooks and looked clean were our best bet. Oh, and had an English menu. The setup was pretty simple:

The okonomiyaki were huge - piled thick to the point that one was enough for 2 people - and cheap at maybe 700 or 800 yen each:

Still, even the most petite Japanese women sitting at the counter finished the entire pancake they had ordered. Robin wasn't a huge fan of the okonomiyaki, because even the one she ordered (which we're pretty sure was pork) tasted like it had fish. It may either have had a "secret ingredient" (fish sauce), or picked up a fish taste from the grill.

Full of savory pancakes, we rolled back to the hotel. One thing we noticed on the trip so far - it's been difficult to find internet access. The hotels don't always have computers (or at least free or inexpensive ones), or even free wireless. The Crowne Plaza in Hiroshima had free wireless in the lobby, but it was brutally slow, so 6 days in, we were starting to feel the e-mail withdrawal.

Japan Day 5: Our stay in a ryokan

We took a bus back down the hill to the ryokan, where we'd stopped to leave our overnight bags earlier. We were ushered in by the ryokan staff. The designated shoe-keeper took our shoes from us and gave us slippers. We were also admonished to use the specific bathroom slippers (blue instead of the regular tan or brown slippers) whenever we stepped in to the bathroom.

The inside of the ryokan is an expansive, old wooden building, small gardens within. Our room face out on to a rushing river - very calming and zen-like. You quickly forget that there's a busy road 100 feet away. One of the views from our room:

We were given yakuta (robes for wearing while in the ryokan) and shown how to put them on properly by a Japanese grandmother who spoke to us only in rapid-fire Japanese. We were to communicate mostly with her for the rest of our stay. She seemed a little rushed most of the time, and while she was polite, I'd hardly say she was gracious or welcoming. The staff at the Sheraton in Tokyo had been more gracious and patient (also, they spoke English).

Here's Robin dressed in her yakuta:

Apparently, men are supposed to wear the robe in a slightly different way. I'm not sure if I ever got that part right. In fact, I'm sure we committed a dozen or more faux pas here.


We had some time before dinner, so we went to try out the family onsen, a mineral hot springs bath. The water in these is always piped in from an underground hot spring (volcanic islands do have some unique benefits), then mixed with cold spring water to adjust the temperature. The ryokan has a family onsen that you can use as a family or couple if no one else has grabbed it first, as well as separate onsens for men and women. There are a number of customs associated with the onsen. The most important one by far - wash thoroughly and rinse before you get in. Also, no bathing suits and no tattoos.

You dip your toe in and it melts. I think the water is kept at about 130 degrees F, which is about 20 to 25 degrees warmer than a typical jacuzzi or hot tub. Once you get in to the onsen, your body adjusts and the hot water quickly relaxes you. Although it's not a good idea to sit in the water for more than 10 minutes at a time, we would hop out, rinse with cool water and then hop back in for a few more minutes. I liked this ritual - it reminded me a little of the Finnish sauna, but the onsen bath leaves you feeling squeaky clean.

We retired to our room, and a few minutes later, the Japanese grandmother brought in dinner. It's a multi-course affair of colorful, largely unidentifiable foods - mostly involving fish. Robin had specified in advance that she doesn't eat fish, but this seems like an alien concept here. This was one of our courses:

Robin tried to push some of her plates over to me so I would eat them (she was trying to be polite), but I could only do so much to cover her tracks. Our hostess finally caught on, noticing that Robin wasn't eating. A staff member stopped in who spoke a few words of English, and we were able to communicate what Robin could eat. They brought us a plate of shabu shabu, raw pork strips and vegetables that you place in a bowl of hot broth to cook (like fondue). I'm not sure if this was part of the regular meal or something extra they brought for her. Still, some of the next course had fish, so I don't think there's really a "no fish" option at a typical ryokan. This place is not for vegetarians.

After dinner, I went back to the men's onsen for another bath. Warmed up from that, I slept pretty well, despite the firm futons you sleep on.

Japan Day 5: Your luggage will meet you there

We woke up early so we could catch the train to Hakone, about 100km to the southwest of Tokyo, to spend the night at a ryokan, a traditional Japanese inn. It takes approximately 24 seconds to get there on the Shinkansen bullet train. It might have been 24 minutes, but it was fast.

As it turns out, once we got off the bullet train, we needed to transfer 3 more times to get to the inn. It definitely wasn't going to be fun lugging our bags through all those transfers. Thankfully, we'd read about this service that will forward your bags onwards to your next stop for about $15-$20 per bag. That's less than what most US airlines charge to check one bag and promptly divert it to Wichita (if you're lucky) when you were headed to Honolulu. You may see your luggage 4 days in to your trip, looking like it's been thoroughly tortured by the airline for information on the whereabouts of your other bag that they still can't find. Things work a bit more efficiently in Japan.

We packed small overnight bags and handed over our larger suitcases to the concierge along with the address of our hotel in Hiroshima where we'd arrive the following evening. She filled out forms and we paid her about 3,000 yen in cash. This made us a little nervous because in a lot of places (most definitely my hometown of Brooklyn), you'd never see your bags again. But we waved to our bags, reasonably confident we'd see them again.

We gave our helpful concierge - who had also organized the tea ceremony, kabuki and a few other things - some of the dried apricots, then took a taxi to the nearby Shinagawa JR station. It was actually surprisingly difficult to get there by subway. After a quick buffet breakfast at the station, we picked up our JR rail passes and booked tickets for both Hakone and then onwards to Hiroshima. Then we were off to Hakone (more on trains in a later post).

We got off at Odawara station to transfer for Hakone and bought 2-day "free passes" (they're definitely not free) that provided unlimited rides on all transportation in the district. The local passes seem to be common and are ultimately convenient, but still quite expensive at about $30 per person. The JR rail pass doesn't actually cover these local (non-JR) train and bus lines. You also typically have to pay cash for these. The local train took us to Hakone station, where with a little inquiry we were able to find the bus to our Ryokan.

This was the first day of the trip that it was actually raining quite a lot - we'd been blessed with mild, clear weather during our stay in Tokyo. It's too bad, because Hakone is very beautiful, but we made the best of it anyway. We dropped off our bags at the Ryokan - an unassuming wooden building on the main road - and walked up a long staircase to reach a nearby railway station. It was raining, but it was also a major holiday weekend, so the train was packed to the point that the windows had completely fogged up. This local train just runs from Hakone, climbing up about 1,500 feet into the mountains, and literally switchbacks up the steep hills - pulling off at a switchback to pass a train going the other way  a few times.

We took the train to the Hakone Open Air Museum, an interesting and good rainy day activity, even though parts of it are (as the name implies) outside. Other than the large Picasso exhibit, there's a maze, activities for kids, and unusual modern art sculptures, like this one of a fried egg:

Strange. Despite - or maybe because of - the rain, the fall foliage also really stood out. We climbed a tower that was lined with stained glass and were able to look down on the brilliant trees around us:

Those are probably my favorite fall foliage photos from the whole trip - mostly because it's a completely different perspective, and the colors just pop.

We wrapped up our visit to the museum by visiting the "foot" onsen (the term for a hot springs bath), where you can dip your feet in the warm water from a nearby hot spring - which feels great after walking around for 2 or 3 hours on a damp fall day. Back to the ryokan for a traditional Japanese experience.

Japan Day 4: People going in all directions

Our next stop was Shibuya Crossing, a short subway ride from the Meiju shrine. If you saw "Lost in Translation" you may remember Shibuya as the crazy intersection where people cross in every direction at once. It's a massive intersection where there is an all-pedestrian traffic signal and many hundreds or maybe even thousands of people cross the street:

Keep in mind this is Sunday afternoon, not rush hour, though maybe it's to be expected in a city with 8.5 million people. We watched this happen twice, then waded in to the crowd to cross. It looks like mayhem when you're watching it, but feels very organized when you're in the crowd.

From there, we headed to Akihabara, the "Electronics Town" of Tokyo, a geek's delight. If you think Fry's Electronics is a slice of heaven, you need to go here. There aren't too many superstores, but there plenty of smaller shops that seem to specialize in one type of electronics. We saw at least one store that sold only electronic cables, and another that mostly sold boom boxes. There were also comic book stores - possibly, a lot of Japanese anime originated here.

The stores also variously employed salesgirls dressed in what Robin described as a "cross between a Disney character and a Playboy bunny" (or maybe think anime) to stand on the sidewalk and hand out fliers or encourage people to stop in. I found another photo of one on Flickr that gives you a better idea of how they dress. Many are dressed as maids.

Finally, it was back to Roppongi in search of dinner. We were trying to find a place listed in the guidebook. We wandered in to a place we thought was it, but discovered the place in the book was closed on Sundays, so we sat down there at what turned out to be a truly local establishment run by an energetic and funny older Japanese woman who spoke absolutely no English.

Fortunately, we sat down at a table next to a a man who spoke excellent English who was also apparently the reigning champion bridge player in Japan. He was sitting with his daughter who was visiting from San Francisco. She was very nice to us and would speak to us very animatedly in half-English and half-Japanese, so it was a little hard to follow her. The man introduced himself as what I heard as "Akiho" ("It's easy to remember," he said, "Just think 'Ace-King-Ten") - but I think it may have been Akihiko Yamada, who actually is a champion bridge player in Japan. He said he taught bridge regularly on around-the-world cruises and went to tournaments, which had taken him to 85 countries. Japan was number 23 for me and 22 for Robin, so we have some catching up to do...

Our friends began ordering food for us, and shared some of their food. Thankfully, we could explain in advance that Robin didn't eat fish. They also poured me a glass of warm sochu (that Japanese malt liquor). Robin tried a sip from my glass, which elicited much laughter from our friends. It may be that sochu is not a lady-like drink - Akihiko's daughter was drinking beer. Here we are with our new friends:

All in all, I think we provided ample entertainment for the locals who we're pretty sure were laughing (politely) at the clumsy Westerners trying to eat Japanese food. Eventually, after we were full from the meal and warm from all the beer and sochu, we (meaning everyone in the small restaurant) took a few pictures. It was time to leave our new friends and go to bed - especially since they were continuing to order drinks, and it didn't look like that was going to end any time soon. We were probably one of the rare encounters with tourists at that place.

When we told the owner we were ready for the bill, she pulled out an actual abacus and began calculating the total. The led to discussion about the abacus and ultimately, a short lesson in how to use it. I remember learning in elementary school, but that was a long time ago. Here, the owner and Akihiko's daughter explain how to use the abacus:

This was a particularly memorable day in Tokyo because of the locals we met - the 3 friendly college students and the locals at the restaurant.

Japan Day 4: Parlez vous francais? Oui, c'est tres cher!

We broke with Eastern tradition this morning and headed to a creperie in Harajuku for breakfast. We wanted to see the area, so breakfast there was a logical choice. Upon arriving at Cafe Creperie Le Bretagne, we were greeted by a Japanese waiter who spoke flawless French. So we dusted off our high school and college French and just went with it. Our slightly rusty French came in handy since the menus were in Kanji and French. We were hungry and filled out bellies with sweet crepes, savory crepes and excellent but expensive espresso (first coffee in Japan, actually - we'd been drinking tea).

After breakfast, we set out for a walking tour of Harajuku, a popular shopping and fashion district in Tokyo. This is the place to see trendy people. We saw more trendy, upscale stores in one place than we think we've ever seen anywhere, including a Prada store that was several floors and the size of a small US department store. It was in a very modern-looking building:

What's more, many of these high-end stores had actual shoppers in them. Walk by a Prada, Gucci or similar store here in California and there will be expensive purses or shoes in elegant lighting with lots of white space around them and a well-dressed salesperson trying his or her best not to look bored. In Harajuku, there were people actually buying things in these stores.

We didn't need to go in to a "common" luxury brand store, but thought we should stop in a randomly selected boutique store that looked like it had clothes the fashionable Japanese people on the subway might wear:

Again with the crazy glass architecture. We had to browse just out of curiosity. I found pants that I am positive I would never wear:

Well, those are pretty crazy. How much could they possibly be? $100? $200? I look at the price tag. 75,000 yen. Nine hundred dollars. Are you kidding me? I can buy a good suit - probably even an Armani if there's a sale - for that much. If I owned those pants, I'd put them in a glass case and say they were designed by a famous artist. Anyway, there must be someone willing to pay for them.

After looking at clothes we couldn't afford, our feet were sore and our wallets hurt just thinking about all the expensive clothes. So we stopped at a multi-story mall and found some sake we could afford. We're on vacation, it's a weekend, and at the time, it was about 5pm in Hawaii. The sake also helped brace us for Takeshita Dori.

This is a pedestrian street in Harajuku which on a Sunday was jammed with every teenager and young adult in Tokyo looking for fashionable bargains. The narrow street was Times-Square-on-New-Year's-packed at times. All you could do was shuffle along with the crowd. If you wanted any kind of look for your wardrobe, you could probably find it here. I took a series of candids as we walked and I'll try and post of a few of them in a separate entry.

At the other end of Takeshita Dori, we came to the Meiju Jingu shrine - another one of the major shrines our guidebook recommended. As we walked past the gate, we were approached by 3 Japanese college students who asked us if they could take us on a free tour in exchange for practicing their English with us. Being American, we both had the same shamefully sad thought at first - "this is probably a scam." But it quickly occurred to us that they were genuine. This was not the sort of country where locals would scam you. It would be hugely shameful and dishonorable to do so.

They showed us around the shrine and told us a little about both the shrine and Japanese culture. Among other things, we learned the proper way to pray at a shrine, and also learned that it's ok to put 1 yen or 5 yen in the donation box when you pray (I think I'd dropped a 100 yen coin in previously).  There were several weddings at the shrine that day, so we also talked a bit about different wedding customs. The women traditionally wear tall hats on their wedding day rather than a veil. Apparently, the hat is supposed to hide their horns. I'm not going to try and analyze this one.

Our student friends were also very curious about our life and American culture as well, so we spent an hour as international ambassadors. As a thank you for their time, we have them a small gift of chocolate-covered apricots we had brought with us from California. Everyone (probably including passer-bys) took pictures of the gift being opened:

I hope we were good ambassadors! And I hope those apricots were good!

Next: People everywhere, Electronics Town and dinner in a family restaurant.

Japan Day 3: Imperial dreams and a night at the theater

After our tea ceremony and luxurious lunch, we headed over to the Imperial Palace to tour the grounds. You can go inside, but only if you sign up for the guided tours that only run Monday through Friday. The palace was destroyed in 1945 when Tokyo was bombed, but was rebuilt in exacting detail 23 years later. We toured the palace grounds and visited the Higashi Garden. The garden isn't much, but it has the remains of Edo Castle, a 17th century massive castle. The walk from there down to the Nijubashi bridge was more interesting. The area next to the palace is buzzing with activity - locals enjoying a fall weekend - and had the best views of the palace.

We also thought this pristine urban "forest" of fully-grown bonzai pines was unique and interesting. People weren't walking through the trees or sitting on the grass - it seemed only to exist as natural art.

After seeing the palace, we headed to the kabuki theater for a 4:30pm show. Our pamphlet said there were 3 plays on the schedule that didn't wrap up until after 9:30. That's a whole lot of kabuki, so we're thinking we'll have to leave at one of the intermissions to go eat. Also, Americans can't sit still for 5 hours of anything, even if George Lucas and Peter Jackson teamed up on the special effects.

We got an audio translation since it might be hard to follow the story otherwise. The actors - one of the kabuki legend, we were told - are very expressive, so you can at least get the general sentiment without translation. What was funny about the translation is how it would remain silent for several minutes at a time. For example:

"He is asking if she saw the boy that night..." 5 minutes pass in silence on the translation while the actors go on.

"She says she had carried him away from the samurai, then lost him in the confusion." 5 more minutes.

"She tells him she found the boy's body, but it was too late." 5 more minutes pass.

"They are very sad and distraught." Which by this time you've figured out. It has the extended drama that you might expect with opera where it takes 5 or 10 minutes to say anything, but they're talking rather than singing. The costumes and the expressiveness seem to be what make it special. Kabuki was one of Robin's favorite experiences. With the elaborate costumes, make-up and highly choreographed dramatic action, it's a cross between ballet, opera and a classic drama.

Another odd occurrence - during the performance, audience members would occasionally shout out words of encouragement to the performers. I don't know what they were saying, but imagine during an opera if audience members shouted things like, "Great voice!" or "You're so expressive! Keep it up!" or "You died exquisitely well!" 

At the first intermission, we noticed people were breaking out their bento boxes they'd brought with them and were eating dinner in the theater. We also discovered you could go to a restaurant right in the theater, or simply buy a bento box to go and take it back to your seat. There were vending machines offering water, soda, ice tea and hot tea (in a metal bottle!). Just imagine if at intermission at Lincoln Center people took out sandwiches and started eating. We were a little hungry and tired, and weren't sure we could make it another 2 1/2 hours, so we left after the second play, though we probably could have eaten there.

Robin bravely went with me to a no-frills sushi restaurant. She even tried just a little bit of the fish. There were a handful of vegetarian items on the menu. The sushi was good, but by no means the best sushi I've ever had. I'm going to need to go back to Tokyo to the fish market for breakfast.

After dinner, we ended the night at Bar Lupin in the fashionable Ginza neighborhood for a drink. It's a prohibition era bar that was popular with famous Japanese writers. The reviews said it was reasonably priced, so maybe our mistake was trying the Japanese whiskey. It was excellent and very smooth whiskey, but apparently not easy on the American wallet! 2 small glasses of whiskey each set us back over 7000 yen! So, stick with the Sapporo and Kirin beer or the sake.

Japan Day 3: Drinking tea while seated uncomfortably

This was the day to sleep off the jet lag. We rolled out of the hotel at 10:30 to make an 11:00am tea ceremony at the Hotel Okura that our concierge had organized. We passed by the American embassy on the way there, a decidedly paranoid place. You couldn't even walk on the same side of the street as the embassy - guards bowed politely as you approached and asked you to cross the street. I wasn't going to try and take pictures since that might lead to an interrogation. Besides, it was an ugly cement building.

Thanks to the reliable Tokyo subway (and our somehow miraculous ability to understand the street signs that morning), we got to the tea ceremony on time. Although it's in a hotel, the tea ceremony is held by a small patio garden (which is probably nicer in the spring and summer), and once you walk in you've forgotten that there's a generic hotel hallway behind you. You're immediately looking a small rock garden and fountain:

 We were instructed on how to wash your hands properly for the ceremony. You scoop the water up with the ladle and importantly, when you rinse you hands, don't get any of the water back in to the small pool. That's so the water stays pure for the next guest.

We were served by a woman who was probably in her 60s (it's sometimes just hard to tell - she looked younger, but could have been 70 for all I know), and told us she had been doing tea ceremonies for 10 years. After we washed our hands, we sat on a low bench while she prepared a concentrated green tea drink that was very strong and bitter, but surprisingly refreshing. As she worked, it was clear that every movement was exactly choreographed - the stirring spoon, for example, could only be put down in a specific way and handled just so.

The next part of the tea ceremony was in the small tea house that was part of the room. We sat on tatami mats and thin cushions, and you're supposed to sit on your feet, legs folded back, like our hostess is:

I don't know about you, but I'm not a master yogi. Robin is more practiced than I am, but I can't sit like this comfortably for very long. She made it look natural - and we actually saw a number of people sitting down like this at restaurants. But I think you're supposed to sit like that while you enjoy your tea. Our hostess explained the origins of the tea ceremony - it was originally started and conducted by samurai. It's only in more recent history that women serve tea. She poured us regular green tea and it was over. The ceremony was somehow a little less elaborate than we imagined, but did last about 30 or 40 minutes.

Fueled by several cups of green tea and the power bars we'd had for breakfast (we were running late that morning), we were starving and headed directly to lunch at daidaiya, a modern Japanese restaurant on the 12th floor of a high rise. We sat in a tatami room again, but this one helpfully had a space under the table for our inflexible Western legs. We ordered set lunches of tempura and other interesting (and usually identifiable) more modern interpretations of Japanese food. Mine had various sashimi and fish, too. These upscale restaurants have more "reasonable" lunch menus, so it will only set you back about $40 or $50/person with drinks. And we're on vacation, so we sampled the sake to balance out all the tea before striking out for the rest of the day.

Next up: The Imperial Palace, endless hours of kabuki, and some no frills sushi.