[I'm finishing up my posts after I got back as I just did not get enough time to write as I expected which I think is a good sign, this particular post was mostly written during the trip but I never got a chance to finish it, the rest will be based on notes I took]
After all the madness of leaving Beijing, I finally landed in Tokyo. My first thought was, "did the smog follow me here?". But no, it was actually cloudy and rainy. During the flight itself the japanese lady next to me fell asleep pretty much around/before take-off meaning conversation was tricky which is why I wrote down a lot of what happened in Beijing. At the airport I wandered around a bit, tried to see if any of the stores sold a data-only SIM card like I'd read one could find in Japan. I didn't. At least not there, I finally found one today [when this today is can be reconstructed later] though I'll have my phone on airplane mode to save battery except to check things or at a cafe or something [didn't end up happening so much, my battery was not happy so I started to use airplane mode more].
But let's stick with the proper order. I also ate a pork bun at a 7-11 which from what I heard is owned by a Japanese company now anyway. Either way Japan is the world capital of convenience stores, probably. I bought a ticket to the shinkansen (high-speed rail) station and a shinkansen ticket that would take me to Nagoya where I was meeting my friend Robert, who I met during university as he'd taken some classes with another friend of mine and we still sometimes played some games online even after he moved here but lately timing/scheduling has made it hard. It had been a while regardless since I actually saw him. It was relatively pricy but I couldn't use the JR Pass I'd gotten as once I activate I have 7 days to use it as much as I want and since my plan was to go with him to places and he had a car... well, I had to suck it up and pay the full fare which was around 100$ for a 350Km ride (~220 mi) which I guess is not terrible compared to taking a Greyhound or Amtrak (and it's a lot faster than either). No one said Japan was a cheap country. From what I've experienced so far, though, it really depends on what one is doing, though.
The shinkansen ride itself was pretty uneventful, it was cloudy and grey so after a bit I decided to keep writing what had happened. The businessman next to me alternated between reading and sleeping, oddly enough when I asked him for when the train was expected to arrive he thought I came from Germany which I guess is not too far off [maybe not a strange guess given how many Germans I saw later]. After arriving in Nagoya I waited a bit for Robert to get there and then after we drove to a shopping area called Osu Kannon where he looked for some things he needed and where we got some 5$ belts as it seems like I left mine at the airport screening leaving JFK. It was at this time where one of the fabled Japanese characteristics came out to play as while Robert was paying I sort of gestured with my belt towards Robert while asking him something and the store person understood that we'd wanted to pay together and that by starting the transaction without including my belt he had somehow failed us. He was extraordinarily apologetic, lowering his head almost to the counter many times. It's not like he had accidentally poisoned our children or even delayed the order, they were just 5$ belts, man. This man has so far been a bit of an outlier in those terms, though people do thank/bow/apologize a lot.
Afterwards we headed out to eat. Drove to a Sushiro in Ichinomiya which I think was an appropriate way to start eating in Japan. It's a sushi place with conveyor belts bringing sushi that you take and then pay by the number of plates, which is basically the equivalent of budget sushi over there. You can also request sushi that no one else can pick up, though, so it seems a bit pointless to me after you know which you like and/or want. The sushi they serve are of the simpler variety that often gets overlooked in North America, the ones with rice with fish on top instead of the ones where everything gets wrapped in the middle (maki). The fish was very good, tuna and salmon were delicious. It's also apparently a thing in some restaurants here to let people use matcha to make their own tea with hot water dispensers, pretty nifty. The other highlight (if one wants to call it that) was trying a couple of nattou sushi. People that know me know that I am generally a fan of most foods. Nattou is...a challenge. It's made with fermented soybean and I had to chew them very slowly to not throw up. I don't think I'll be repeating that. During a couple of moments in between reminding myself that if I finished chewing I had salmon waiting and trying to distract my mind with thoughts of not-food I did see how people could eventually like it. It's an acquired taste, to put it mildly. One day I want to be able to eat it more normally if only to offer people a taste after seeing me eat it without an issue to see their reactions.
At this point I was really really tired. The lack of sleep was getting to me and after the sushi en-route to the hotel (which had been calling every now and then to see where we were as we were apparently a little late for check-in) I was in and out of awakeness. The hotel itself was very bare-bones. Small rooms, very basic furnishings, shared baths, but at that point it was heavenly. I collapsed around 9:something PM and ended up waking sometime before 7AM which if I do the math right (9h > 2h on the plane + 5h first night in Beijing + 1h45m second night) so I guess it was needed. In addition to that even at certain points in Beijing I'd felt a bit weird in the throat/nose but I blamed the 'weather', but now it had progressed a bit to the point where physically I felt somewhat sick/feverish. Body aches, weakness, etc, even though mentally I didn't feel it very much. I think it's the main reason I ended up sleeping a bunch the next few days.
Went to a supermarket and got breakfast, a croquet and an onigiri (rice with something inside in a ball or a triangle), then headed off to Kyoto. Something I'd noticed the day before as well that took me a while to get used to was a consequence of driving on the right. That part I was not too wide-eyed about, but passing on the right did blow my mind a little. It makes sense but it was just not something I'd thought about. Another thing is that in Japan the big highways are all toll-roads that charge based on the day/time of day/car size/distance travelled. I feel like in theory it's not a terrible system given that other options exist and not everyone uses them, but from what Robert told me it might be more due to collusion and building syndicates.
On the way to Kyoto we stopped by a service station, Yoro, which had it's own mini-sakura (cherry blossom) garden. I definitely chose wisely by coming during sakura season. By this point I'd already seen a lot of them, on the shinkansen, at Nagoya, even on the way to the hotel after (though not as many as it was dark) but this little garden was very pretty and a far cry from most highway stops I've seen in the US (granted it's probably nicer than most stops even here, I think, as it was the reason Robert stopped there). Here is where I found one of many things that other countries should copy. Vending machines that sell hot drinks. Given how pervasive and how many things they sell, it seems almost silly, but having a lot of vending machines that sell hot drinks is very nice for when it's chilly out. It doesn't seem like too huge an imposition but it'd be very nice if normal vending machines sold them. They can be extremely useful in certain circumstances as well, as I'll get to. I think I got a tea/milk drink that really reminds me of flying in airplanes because I'd only ever drink black tea with milk + sugar (as this drink had) during flights way back when.
After getting to Kyoto we went to Kyomizu-dera. This a famous place to go see sakura during full bloom (mankai) or thereabouts. Extremely pretty place, too bad the sky was not cooperating as I would have loved to see it with the proper contrast of a blue sky as white clouds blanketing the sky made both pictures trickier and unfortunately is not as picturesque. Regardless, it really was breath-takingly nice. Lots of places to see them from, different arrangements, views of the city, very nice. We didn't stay for the night-viewing, though, which would probably have been really pretty, but it was way too early for that. After that we walked around the surrounding areas a bit, lots of touristy shops, but also really traditional looking houses/building styles everywhere. Kyomizu-dera is at the top of a hill as well, so very cool views of alleys and streets from above or below given the traditional style of everything. There were still sakura outside but less concentrated, at some point it becomes almost routine to see sakura trees in full bloom everywhere. Almost. We had a taiyaki there before proceeding (a fish shaped dough thing with a filling, mine was gren tea cream).
Drove to Kawaramachi which also has very nice spots to look at sakura but due to the white sky they were not ideal. Also while briefly stopped to go take some pictures it turns out that Robert's car almost got towed as apparently it was not a parking zone which would have been extremely unfortunate. We got back just as they were about to put on the towing sticker so... whew. It took less than 10 minutes, probably around 5, for them to show up. There are times when you don't need to be so efficient, Japan. We decided to go back the next day to probably look at things (though in the end we didn't). Then we headed over to Arashiyama which also has nice sights and things to see, stopping at a pit-stop konbini (convenience store) and gettings some dango -- mochi balls. Robert in particular had heard about some sort of sakura tunnel that you could see while getting on a local train (Hankyuu line) so we did. It was a tunnel that took about as long as it did to read this sentence. Either way it was nice to just see houses. I really like the color schemes used here, there's something about the hues chosen which really jump out at me without being loud. We got off at a random stop, Utano, and took some pictures and wandered around a bit. Definitely had a very picturesque charm. We then headed back to the car as it was getting close to 5:30 PM when the parking closed. We had parked in the parking lot for a nearby Zen Temple which closed too soon after we got back to make it worth going inside to see which is a shame as it would have kept my "Asian religions temples" streak going. Maybe I'll go back as it did look interesting [I didn't]. We'd planned to go in briefly to look around as we saw two people just saunter in without, seemingly, showing anything, but we got asked for a ticket so maybe the people ahead just flashed a secret signal? Someone should investigate that.
By this point we were starving as it was getting late and besieds breakfast had barely eaten (and even that was not too heavy). As we drove to the next destination we were scouring the streets for anywhere to eat. Eventually we found a ramen place looked ok and was tasty and filling. It didn't blow my mind or anything but it sure hit the spot. Then we made a short stop at a department store. Why? you ask. The reason is that it held the pinnacle of chair massage technologies and let you try them for free. I'd tried "chair massages" before somewhere or other but those were but child's play. These chairs were on a different level, it felt very close to a real massage. The only part they didn't get quite right was the neck which makes sense due to the structure of a chair but it wasn't bad either. After that piece of unwinding we headed to the final destination of the night. An onsen (hot spring) bath. If you've read/heard about how relaxing they are, you are fucking right. They are something else besides the vending machines, maybe the massage chairs, that could/should exist beyond Japan. I don't think it will happen as it involves all together too many naked people for many westerner's sensibilities, unfortunately. In effect the closest thing is doing a spa day or something, I'd imagine. They had a variety of saunas at different temperatures, some perfumed, some steamed, some dry, and a cold room to go into between hot ones. They had a super hot room at 67 degrees C which at the end of the night, at around 11, had some kind of service where they pour water on the rocks to steam it up even more and then fan people one by one which was very fun as while they do it there is cheering and clapping. Inbetween that service and the saunas we also went to the baths proper, they had different temperature pools there as well, some with jets, one with some kind of sakura extract, some outside. Very soothing and calming.
After this it had gotten late and while Robert had thought to sleep in the car, it seemed like if we both did it it'd be substantially less comfortable for both of us. He did have a a pretty sweet set up as all the seats could be folded up in a way that it gave a pretty flat surface. What we ended up doing for me was going to a media cafe aka manga kissaten which is one way to crash late at night when nothing is open. I got a 6 hour thing for like 12$ which is not bad, though you don't even get a room, more like a cubicle you can throw yourself in. Using my clothes as a pillow it was pretty good, actually, though I wish I'd noticed they had a blanket above the desk. It was fine in the end, woke up at 7:20, went to check on Robert who was getting up as well.
We then headed back towards Kyoto and went to Fushimi-Inari-Taisha after a brief detour as I needed to do somethings online as I hadn't had internet in a 2 or 3 days and some getting in touch was necessary to make sure people knew I was still alive. I also ended up finally finding a b-mobile SIM card as the previous electronics stores had been out, apparently it's pretty popular with foreigners. So after this I finally had some internet (but no voice) on my phone, it came in extremely handy especially later on when I was on my own. For some reason since it doesn't have voice it showed up as 'no signal' pretty much, in the bars so it confused me for a while that it wasn't working like it should be until I noticed that the internet was actually working regardless of what it said. It was also a lot slower than it should have been as it was supposed to be 1GB at 3G speeds but it was very inconsistent. In retrospect that wasn't entirely bad as it curbed on internet usage beyond maps and researching things since it was slow enough to be frustrating for casual browsing but not so slow that important things didn't work.
Then we arrived at the shrine which is spread out over a mountain. A lot of tori, the gates, in long tunnels that stretched higher and higher. One thing I found interesting is that while the design for the gates was clearly inspired by China in both design and colors, here they used a much more orange hue, even though both used very flashy colors. I saw a few people paying respects / worshipping? Not sure what they were actually doing, but not too many. Most seemed to be walking around and looking at things. We walked there for a while and still left a lot of side paths and even bigger paths unexplored as by the time we reached the top of the mountain we realized we'd taken quite some time and could even see our starting point in the distance way back at the bottom. Even with some amount of stopping, at a brisk-ish pace it took us around 30 mins to finish heading back down. There was a lot less stopping to gaze in wonder after reaching the top, we just wanted to get back as they day had gotten away from us.
Once back down we stopped somewhere near the base of the temple for some soba/udon that were really good. They were very good at matching the mock-up of the food the had outside as well. Wish I knew what it was called as I do recommend it. After, we sakura sightsaw/pictured a bit more before heading out on the long road to Robert's village, aka Shirakawa-gou, aka the middle of nowhere (not quite as it is a UNESCO World Heritage site). It was getting dark as we drove, especially towards his place, so I could only partially see some of the cool mountainous sights that led up to it. After that I was about ready to collapse, we stopped at one of the few konbinis serving the village (there are no supermarkets as such, only a few smaller markets here and there), had a small dinner, then we went to look at stars for a bit as given the isolation they are really beautiful from there. Unfortunately it was slightly cloudy so they weren't on display in their full splendour. I collapsed promptly afterwards, probably due the sickness that still lingered to some degree. It wasn't much but it did make me feel tired easily (though I powered through it).
As a side-note about his place, one of the main reasons I wasn't able to get out a post earlier is that his place didn't have any wifi meaning even during downtime (which there was not too much of anyway) I couldn't use the internet on my laptop or phone very much. The next morning Robert had to go in to work so I took the opportunity to walk around. At first I walked the "wrong" way in that it was further and further away from the historic center, but it was still a very nice walk. Got to see the "actual" village, rustic and very empty at the time I went. While walking around I somewhat felt like I was intruding, like this was too residential to walk around in but after a while I stopped minding too much. I can't control if people care I'm there and I'm not doing anything weird. Not that anyone did anything (or that I saw more than like 10 people during the entire walk) but it was all going on in my head about 'what if'. For lunch we went somewhere that served kattakedon, some kind of meal particular to the place we went to (or the immediate region) that used okra, of all things, to give it that odd almost slimy texture. It was good, very simple flavors but I do enjoy that simplicity when it's vell made. The lunch was quite large, though, and after that I felt catatonic and went to take a nap after he dropped me off to go back to work. Unfortunately my alarm failed or I didn't set it, not sure, but regardless I woke up 3 hours later instead of 30 minutes.
Decided to walk the other way this time, saw some of the historic center which has very traditional houses, gassho, I'll have to look it up when I'm not on a train. After walking in the other direction and not seeing almost anyone, it was very weird that very close in the other direction there were a lot of tourists from various places gonig to this historic center. After walking for a while, I stopped in a coffee shop that was straight out of a, hm, not sure what. Old-school movie? the barista was an older man, very properly dressed, lots of classic-looking tea cups lined up in a shelf behind him. It had the air of a 50s or 60s bar, almost, but with coffee. I ordered a coffee, Guatemalan for what it's worth, and after he made it we talked a little bit. Mostly about where I was from, what I was doing there, it was a nice chance to try out my Japanese and went pretty well. The coffee came with a nice caramel cracker of course and he offered me a small citrus-y fruit he was preparing for some form of preservation. Very quaint place and atmosphere.
After that walked around a bit more until Robert was done with work and we met up. We went to see a friend of his, Miyuki, who owns or manages one of the old houses / museum of chestnut-tree structures. There is a specific type of chestnut which is used very frequently there both for food and for lumber that her husband's father made gorgeous sculptures out of. She also gave an explanation for how the old houses worked, usually 3 floors with the last dedicated to silk-worms and in more olden-days a space under the house was dedicated to producing gunpowder. She gave most of the explanations in Japanese and I think I got most of it, though Robert helped clarify some of the finer points. Living here definitely would do wonders for comprehension/speaking, though from what he tells me he hasn't dedicated himself as much to reading which is problematic as he'd like to move from English teaching to translation. Then we had some black-sesame pudding they sell in the local konbini that is apparently made by the mother of a student at the school Robert works at (or at least her company? not sure if it's just her as it has a fancy-ish package) which was really good. Very foamy texture at the top with a light flavor and color, and a more silky consistency at the bottom with a darker color and more intense flavor. From there we went to the local onsen, an onsen in a mountain village? check, I suppose. It was smaller than the other ones and it was clear that Robert went frequently as he was quite friendly with the person at the front desk who did seem like a nice guy, in all fairness. After the relaxing baths (no saunas here) we talked to him for a bit before turning in as tomorrow morning we had the entrance ceremony for the new batch of middle schoolers.
I woke up at around 5 and fiddled a bit with my phone before deciding I should probably sleep a bit more then wake up when Robert did to go do more exploring. It didn't quite work out that way as I apparently slept through his leaving and woke up at almost noon. On the bright side I no longer felt sick in any way so I guess it was a fair trade as there's only so much exploring you can do in a village of 1800 people. I also woke up to two messages saying that he was going to pick me up at around 12:30 so it's good I wasn't caught unawares as it gave me time to ready up. It was definitely cool to see this kind of ceremony which is not something you'd normally get to do unless you went to school there or were a parent. The parents were all dressed up in suits and kimono, the kids all dressed up in uniforms, songs were sung, words of encouragemnt and the like were said, pretty interesting experience. Definitely not as moving as it might be if I were personally involved but it was a nice ceremony. I also got to see where Robert works and some of his students more up close though only briefly.
Afterwards we went to Kumi's house, another friend of Robert's, who was kind enough to perform and explain the Japanese Tea Ceremony. She didn't have all the equipment as it's pretty formal, but gave really good explanations (that I mostly understood, I think, at least in general terms) on what steps were being done, what proper protocol was, etc. Super nice of her to do, very different from the Chinese way of doing things that I got to see, partially because the Japanese one involves Matcha (powered green tea leaves) instead of tea leaves though I'm sure cultural differences explain the rest. It involved how to hold the cup, how to handle the sweets offered before the tea, how to pass the cup around, very cool. I gave her a box of chocolates I'd gotten before as thanks as I'd known ahead of time we were coming and felt I needed to thank her somehow.
After we went to a 'nearby' city (60 Km or as Robert likes to say, klicks) to do some shopping. Checked out a 100yen (dollar) store, another round of the awesome massage chairs, went to a supermarket to get some sashimi (fruits may be really expensive but good fish is not too crazy), went to a bookstore where I got a few more books to practice with later, and then headed back. We had a pretty good sashimi meal as well as some fried octopus and some kind of pickled or preserved garlic. Very good meal for the price point. At this point we heard it might be super windy / rainy the next day which was unfortunate as we had many plans which involved going outside. It turns out the predictions were not totally incorrect, unfortunately. Not the horrible winds that had been predicted but windy and rainy and miserable.
In the morning we went to a shrine Kumi (the tea ceremony lady) works at which is most active during the Dokuburo festival. She gave me some unprocessed sake that is usually only served during the ceremony (can you tell that the people here are super nice?) which was very tasty, sweet and you could taste the rice. It was a bit hard to believe it was 15% or so alcohol as you could barely taste it. It was very white and had some texture but definitely tasty. Afterwards we went to a few antique/second-hand stores. The first one had some really nice things, made me wish it were easier to carry some of them back as it was really cheap. The second was a bit more meh, mostly modern things at barely discounted prices. The last one was very nice, it was in a mall in Tonami that had a fish market on the ground floor. It had a lot of really nice things, overall a bit more expensive than the first but nicer. I considered getting a proper kimono as they sold some nice ones at cheap-ish prices but decided to hold out until it was easier to carry and had a bit of help choosing something. It just seems cool to have. It was definitely the kind of store I'd like to go back to and I feel like I should have gotten more things there. By this point it had been extra windy and cloudy for some time, some pretty powerful gusts at times, but the rain had been intermittent giving a glimmer of hope as we headed to Kanazawa to see Kenrokuen, a famous garden, and night-lit sakura.
Let's say that the glimmer of hope died quickly as we arrived and that my purchase on Amazon for some 'emergency' ponchos came in very handy. I don't know if it's because of they day of the week, the time, or the rain but for once entrance to the park was free as there was no one at the entrances to collect. I'd gotten used to any sight that could be considered vaguely touristy to have at least a token fee (it's not quite that bad). The garden itself was beautiful, Japanese gardens are probably my favorite type of garden, generally speaking. There's something about the aesthetic which really connects. It really was a shame that it was cloudy and rainy and windy, though, as it made it a little less enjoyable. The beauty was not quite diminished but it was harder to linger and take it in as relaxedly as I would have liked as it was gorgeous. As it got darker we took temporary refuge in a couple of the souvenir-type shops they had as I wanted it to get dark-dark to see them properly lit up. Robert peaced out at some point as he only had a small umbrella and he'd seen it before but I perservered in the wilderness that man had wrought. The hot-drinks vending machines came in handy, I bought a hot drink and would just rub it against my hands and fingers as they were very cold towards the end. Eventually it was dark and I did get to see everything lit up at night, it didn't photograph well due to the darkness and the wind but it was pretty spectacular. After that due to us being cold and somewhat wet we went to a nearby onsen where by chance we met the dad of two of Robert's younger students as well as his kids. It was pretty fun too see the kids interact with him, one of them kept asking him what random body parts were called in English. I got to talk to the dad a bit which was fun, he has to drive like 500km a day which sounds pretty bad, but he seemed to enjoy it enough. This was a most excellent use of the onsen, super nice and warming. Even tried a foot bath-y thing with those fish that eat dead skin, they tickled a bit.
After that we headed back to his place for my last night there. Got on the highway and then needed gas so went to put in more but the stop was closed. This was not ideal as if the highway station was closed the odds of finding anything else open after that point in the mountainous countryside were pretty slim. Somehow the car made it around 70km after the gas light went off which got us home, he and I were both pretty sure it was going to die at some point before that but I'm very glad it didn't as I wanted to get some sleep. I got home, uploaded my pictures, went to bed and woke up ready for the next phase of the trip where I would be going around on my own without much of a plan.
I think I'll leave it up to here for this post and do the last week in the next one.