Bob's Last Post

I saw exactly ONE graffito during our entire stay in Japan. Very refreshing—optimistic even. We did find two small pieces of trash on Fuji-san, but that was about all I saw.

There were virtually no vacant lots in Japan. Every possible piece of flat land was given over to rice or vegetable farming. There were lots of 50 foot square rice paddies. I don't have a clue how they harvest all of the small plots.

Just about every house sports several topiaries and highly manicured gardens; even houses in the city have flower pots at their street entrances. It seems like a pleasant national pastime.

Pachinko parlors have changed radically. We walked into a parlor in Fujiyoshida (near Sengen Shrine, the start of the Yoshida trail up Fuji-san), and were met with a wall of sound. Instead of hearing the sounds of balls hitting pins and the occasional bonus sound, it was overamp'd rock. We left after about 90 seconds....

I had half-expected to find Japanese-style toilets everywhere, but instead found Toto everything, most with music, perfume, and bum washers. It DID teach me the kanji for big and little -- they were dual flush toilets. The toilet paper wasn't anything to brag about, though. I figured out that the idiomatic translation of the Japanese "toilet paper" in English was "doesn't work, bring your own." That's close enough to what I actually thought at the time.

We sampled most of the local food, but my favorite had to be our yakitori dinner in Kyoto. The proprietor wasn't sure what to make of us, but by the second carafe of sake and the 15th skewer, he warmed up a little. He actually shook my hand after we paid the bill. Ah, food on a stick. What could be more American?

The search for yakitori led us into two interesting bars. The first was a Korean barbeque. It was tasty, and the sake worked, but a little too meat-oriented. We moved on to the next red lantern. Steve & Adam weren't even sure it was a bar, it was so tiny. Fortunately, four patrons were leaving, so we had a place to sit. They only served pickles as bar food. The proprietress insisted on sending Cathy sweets after Steve told her I had left my wife at home. That was the last random red lantern we tried; Steve worked on finding the hiragana for "yakitori" on red lanterns after that, especially since none of us wanted to eat octopus balls (seemingly popular, but octopi are too intelligent for our tastes).

The hoto dinner (HUGE noodles in pumpkin broth) was interesting, too. We passed on the wild boar and bear toppings.

As always, unexpected interactions with the people were some of the best parts of the trip. In one of the first shops we went into at the start of the Philosopher's Path, one of the clerks dropped something, and the other caught it in midair. "Nice catch," said the other. Obvious fans. So we talked baseball for a minute, even though they only spoke enough English to tell us their favorite teams.

We had a nice conversation with a shopkeeper who sold a yukata to Steve. She even modeled it for him and showed him how to tie the two sashes involved. When we stepped into the store, she rushed a glass of ice water to me. I didn't think I was looking THAT bad. It was just a nice thing to do that ingratiated me to her at once. I bought a beautiful green silk fan from her (Kyoto is Fan Central). Several times, when people asked us where we were from (once an old man on the street!), they were excited to hear "Portland." Kyoto does remind me of Portland, except there are more bike riders and fewer bike lanes in Kyoto.

I can't close without mentioning the largest wooden building in the world. The temple's name was Higashi Hongan-ji, and it was a nice ten-minute walk from our hostel. The monks started chanting at 7 AM. Steve & I discovered the chanting by accident, but we dragged Adam there the next morning. I went alone the third day. Very... moving is not the right word; it lit me up like a Christmas tree. The Holy Presence was most assuredly there.

Recommendations

Travel in the spring or fall. In mid-July it was oppressively hot and humid, unless it was raining. Then it was hot, humid, and wet. We only went in the summer to catch Fuji-san during the climbing season.

Kyoto. If and when I go back to Japan, I will forgo Tokyo for Kyoto. It has no international airport, but the Shinkansen runs from Tokyo Station in a little over two hours. It's surrounded by hills on three sides. Many of the temples and shrines we visited were nestled in the east foothills, which made for interesting gardens and walking paths. The city was as green as Washington; small wonder, given the rainfall we experienced. To compare it with San Francisco or Portland is not far off, but Kyoto is much better cared-for by its residents.

I wholeheartedly recommend K's House Hostels in Japan. They were inexpensive, clean, well located (at Mt. Fuji & Kyoto, anyway), well equipped, and the staff was first-rate. The Kyoto location had an attached cafe, and served a reasonable buffet as ballast for a day's touring. Next time (I should live so long) I will climb Fuji in August (after the monsoons), carrying some good foul-weather gear and an oxygen canister. We used diamoxx for the altitude, but Adam was having loss of feeling in his hands by Station 7.

Credits

I planned it, Steve acted as our liaison, and Adam ran the blog and generally kept us in touch, at the expense of his dragging a laptop along, and thus being susceptible to work demands. Steve's command of the language and his unassuming manner earned him lots of smiles and compliments on his Japanese.

Great trip.

We're Back!

Just wanted to add a quick post that we're all back in our respective homes, safe and sound. Only problem is that the walking staffs we bought on Fuji got damaged in transit. Kinda infuriating...but hey, it could have been the evil airplane kami.

Thanks all for reading. :)

Last Batch of Pictures

This is Adam, with another bunch of pictures for you!

This is from the shrine we saw after yesterday's shopping trip. I'm protecting our loot (including some nice prints) from the rain and the lagoon. Believe me, I was watching my step very carefully.

Bob took a photo of a Japanese couple, and they reciprocated here. I think this is the only picture we have of all three of us. This is the same gardens as in the above photo. This lake had tons of animals, including herons, koi, and turtles.

Kitty! Same shrine. Steve and I in front of a statue of some kind of big cat.

There was a total eclipse of the sun today...on some islands south of here. For us, it was only a partial eclipse. Through the clouds, you really could see the sun as a crescent. We tried to photograph it...but be warned that looking directly at the following JPEG may cause irreversible eye damage.

This is Bob and Steve near the living quarters of Nijo Castle. This was one of my favorite sites--the currators did a good job relating it with the rest of historical Japan, and the architecture had a real purpose, rather than just looking pretty. This fortress was the Kyoto residence of the Shogun, who held the real power in Japan during the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries.

Here's Bob and Steve at the inner moat of Nijo Castle. Yes, the moat really was that unhealthy shade of green. I have no idea how deep the moat is--it could have been six inches, and you'd never know it.

And here's me near one of the inner walls of Nijo Castle. 

Anyway, this is probably our last post from Japan. Tomorrow early we head back east toward Tokyo and Narita, and then we're out of here!

Kyoto: Where Gods are Real Gods. Maybe.

What-ho, gentle readers. Steve here, reporting on-location in a small tatami-mat room in Kyoto. And what a location it is! It's got windows! A light on the ceiling! And a door that functions in both "open" and "closed" positions! A cunning and clever people, these Japanese. There was even a black box in the corner that showed moving pictures, but it frightened us and we threw it out the window. Take that, evil black box spirits!

So today was our last full day in Kyoto. Tomorrow we hop the shinkansen back to Tokyo and then probably a bus to Narita, where we will pass the time before our flight asking other USA-bound passengers if they would mind terribly if we put unknown objects in their luggage.

We seem to have acquired so many unknown objects, I don't think our own luggage is capacious enough to get them home. The reason for this is that the Japanese -- at least the ones who work in souvenier shops -- are very into gift-wrapping. Remember that scene in "Love Actually" where Alan Rickman is trying to quickly, stealthily buy a necklace for his possible mistress but the sales clerk (Rowan Atkinson) keeps garnishing the necklace with layer upon layer of gift-wrap until all hope of quickness and stealth is lost? It's like that, but over and over again. (I'm talking about the elaborate gift-wrapping, NOT the possible mistress.) Every item comes in its own special box, which is then gift-wrapped, then placed in a specially sized and shaped gift bag, which is then taped shut. So we've accumulated a massive pile of taped-shut gift bags and most of the time we cannot remember what they contain. I hope we didn't buy anything embarrassing because we really can't recall.

So today was a day for two temples and a castle. Temple #1, Sanjusangen-do Temple, was full of man-sized bronze statues, over 1,000 of them. Impressive, but the most interesting thing, I thought, was how some of the statues were labeled. They had plaques saying things like, "This god comes from ancient Hindu scripture. When adopted into Japanese Buddhism, he took on cultural characteristics X and Y and became the god of such-and-such." The TEMPLE ITSELF was openly stating that these gods, gods whom people love and pray to, were adapted into Japanese culture and religion from other cultures and religions. Can anyone imagine any big important historic cathedral or synagogue flatly stating that its deity/saints/angels were culturally adapted from another religion? Doubtful. Maybe this is just me, but it makes one wonder how exactly these Japanese gods are revered, if their attributes are admittedly the result of cultural mixing and matching, not of divine truths. Or can they be both? Dunno. Perhaps the Japanese are simply more laid-back about religion than we in the West.

Temple #2 was Kiyomizu Temple, which had nifty, extensive grounds and LOTS of visiting tourists. We didn't take any pictures, as there was a sign out front asking us not to. Though lots of other people WERE taking pictures. I thought about kicking them all in the crotch as a service to the Buddha, but decided against it. My feet were already sore from walking around.

Though a curious thing about Kiyomizu, and perhaps another indication of a laid-back Japanese religiosity, is that one high-up section of the temple grounds housed a number of Shinto shrines where you could pray to various deities and buy charms and so forth. Buddhism and Shinto, two separate religions, peacefully sharing the same property. "No! Surely not!" shouted we dozens of Westerners, and I think the Japanese were pretty impressed by our coordination.

Next stop: Nijo-jo Castle, which is big and has lots of walls, presumably to keep undesirable people out. Though now that I think about it, the castle had lots and lots of cordons to show we tourists where to go and where not to go, and they worked just fine. Them shoguns could have saved themselves a lot of time and resources and peasants if they had built the castle of cordons rather than stone and timber.

Though the castle did have a genuine nightingale floor. For those who have never heard of these things: A nightingale floor is a wooden floor specially designed to squeak when walked upon, thus preventing bad people from creeping around the castle unheard. "So what?" we all snort. "I've got a floor like that in my house." Ah, but no we don't. These weren't your standard wood-floor creaks. These were tiny, high-pitched chirps. When enough people were walking the floor at once, it really did sound kinda like a tree full of tweeting birds.

But with that, we have had enough of sightseeing. We are all ready to come home and leave behind Japan and its atrociously muggy summer weather. Plus, they seem to speak an entirely different language in this country. Shouldn't we have taken care of that when we occupied it? As soon as I'm done with this post, I'm writing Mr. Obama to ask him to put it on the to-do list. Honestly. Just what is that man using my tax dollars for?

That's all from me. And now, back to the studio!

Tuesday Night

This is Adam.

Only one full day to go. I'm presently sitting in the lounge of our hostel. There are sixteen other folks here...mostly Europeans. A large number of them are French speakers of some sort. That's the way of this hostel--there are a few Japanese people here and there, but it's mostly Americans and Europeans.

Today was another day of shopping and shrines/temples. (Steve finally explained the difference to me: shrines are Shinto, and temples are Buddhist.) We got up early and tried to visit one of them near us, but it was too early (they opened at 8:00). So we ended up going to a craft market that's at one of the larger temples, which was a bit of a walk. From there we took a taxi back to the hostel, and took a short break.

It was very wet the whole time...we're all very grateful for the free umbrella loans that the hostel has. Unfortunately, their first-come-first-served nature means that sometimes we're stuck with some pretty awful choices. When we went out again in the afternoon, I could only find a single old, cheap plastic umbrella with holes in it. It had to do.

We went shopping then, at a kind of combination Japanese craft/department store. Seven floors, each devoted to a different kind of art or craft. We bought a ton of things there. Then we went to one of the local shrines, that had extensive gardens. From there back to the hostel, and finally out for yakitori.

Now, Bob has been pushing us toward yakitori since we've been here. Unfortunately, we haven't always been successful in identifying yakitori restaurants. He thought that any place with a red lantern hanging out front meant yakitori. Nope...it turns out that most of the red lantern places are just bars. But Steve managed to find one today, and we went back for dinner. It was decent, though a tad expensive. But Bob was especially enchanted by the evening. He says he ranks it as one of his best dinners, ever. So hey--overall a success, right? Bob and Steve are currently upstairs in our room, sleeping off the dinner and sake.

Tomorrow we have a couple more shrines to see, plus Nijo Castle. I'll post more pictures tomorrow. Then on Thursday we take the Shinkansen back to Tokyo, and from there to Narita and back to the States. We'll post more pictures tomorrow.

More Pictures!

This is Adam. Here's some more pictures for you all, from the shrines of Kyoto.

This one is Bob and Steve, from somewhere on the grounds of the Ginkaku-ji (Silver Temple).

Steve and I on the Philosopher's Walk. This is the path that goes by many of the temples on the east side of Kyoto. For the Portlanders out there, the area reminded me a bit of Washington Park. It's a wooded, hilly area within city limits, that's been given over to parklands.

This is me at the entrance to the Honenin Temple. I really liked this one. It was overgrown and dark, and the entrance behind me looked like it the kind of thing I'd put in a fantasy world.

Here's Bob sitting near one of the little shrines. We were all hot--it was in the high 80s or early 90s, with enough humidity to kill a small child. Bob bought a cheap fan that he was using all day...though we think it might have properly been a lady's fan.

This is a lucky rat statue from the same grounds as the above photo of Bob. There were two of them, and they looked like they belonged in a Disney cartoon. This one was tall and skinny, and his companion was short and rotund. "What are we doing tonight, Brain?"

And here's Bob walking away from Steve, on the grounds of the Eikan-do Temple. This is the headquarters of the "Pure Land" sect of Buddhism. Personally, I found the name more than a little creepy. They had a really cool temple, though.

That's all for now. Hope things are good with all of you.

Wet Nights in Kyoto

Kombanwa, fair readers. Steve here.

So: Our first night in Kyoto. We haven't seen any of the pretty parts of Kyoto yet, as we didn't arrive at the hostel until the afternoon, when most of the temples and such were nearing their closing times. And the walk between the train station and the hostel ain't pretty. Not skanky, just un-scenic.

Though if there WERE any pretty parts, we didn't see them through the thunderstorm downpour that attacked Kyoto this evening. The folks at K's House -- a thousand blessings upon their hospitality and fabulous English -- provide free umbrellas, and now we know why. We scurried along towards a restaurant for dinner, all the while trying to shrink, turtle-like, as far inside our umbrellas as possible. By the time we arrived, our complimentary neighborhood map was a handful of soggy shreds that might make good bedding for someone's pet rodent. Any takers?

We were tentatively planning to do the Philosopher's Walk tomorrow morning, but that ain't happening if this weather keeps up. Perhaps we somehow pissed off the rain gods at Sengen Shrine.

And now, a note on Japanese TV.

Really, it's mostly like ours. They have news shows, bright and loud kids' shows, educational documentary-type stuff, dramas, etc. However, they do have one genre that we Americans have yet to discover: The Show That Might Be a Game Show, But Possibly Not.

At any given time, there seem to be at least one or two of these shows playing. I understand virtually nothing of the dialogue, but they FEEL like game shows; the guests don't seem like professional actors, and there's clearly a minimum of set lines or rehearsal -- lots of ad-libbing and spontaneous laughter. However, the guests don't seem to be competing for anything. What they ARE doing is dressing up in startling outfits and doing things of inscrutable purpose. Whether they're doing it for fun or money, I cannot say.

An example: Our first night here, we watched a show I will entitle "The Cultural-Stereotypes-Eat-Difficult-Seafood Show." Seafood dishes ride along a conveyor belt, much like we've all seen in sushi restaurants, and in turn each...contestant (if that's what they are) tries to pick up a big, slippery chunk of fish with chopsticks and eat it without dropping it. This is attempted by Japanese people dressed up as:

1) The American: Pink business suit, Statue-of-Liberty tie, and (this is awesome) a fake big nose.

2) The Indian: White tunic and turban, also a fake big nose.

3) The Chinese: Red silk dress and hair in elaborate braids and buns. No fake nose.

4) The Mexican: Sombrero, poncho, and a bandito mustache (like those people always have).

5) The Russian: Black hat like a sack on his head, a blond wig reminiscent of an early-90s Hillary Clinton, and (again) a big fake nose.

6) The Japanese: Looking...well, really pretty normal in her kimono.

WHY are they doing this and WHY is it entertainment? I suppose the second question answers itself. We certainly enjoyed it, especially when the people burst into song before each seafood dish made the rounds. (Didn't understand the lyrics, of course, but the melody was that opera tune they used in the "Tony's" frozen pizza commercial. You know the one.) If only my language skills were better, I could shed more light on the situation and help American television catch up. Hell, we once occupied this whole country! How could we allow their TV to surpass ours? NICE ONE, Mr. Obama!

But patriotic indignation aside, I'd like to end this post on an amorous note. I shall elaborate: The lobby of our hostel in Kawaguchiko always had music playing, and it was almost always American pop tunes. However, before we bade farewell to Kawaguchiko, the hostel folks had decided to funk things up a little with some soul/R&B. To all the lovers out there, I give you this lyrical gem I overheard while perusing the restaurant flyers in the lobby:

     Your love is rated X;
     That means you're X-tra special, girl.

Happy loving, everyone. See you next post.

In Kyoto

This is Adam. Just a quick update while we're waiting for restaurants to open. (Bob's hungry, and he's pressuring us to go get dinner.)

Spent the early morning watching kids' shows, including Power Rangers. Fairly surreal, but ultimately not that different from the American version. Then we finally left the hostel--took a bus from Kawaguchiko to a small city called Mishima, and from there took the Shinkansen (bullet train) here to Kyoto. At that point we walked the mile or so to the hostel. The problem is that Bob entered the data for the hostel's location off of Google, and he was about 500 feet off. This wouldn't be a problem in any sane country, that used real street names and addresses. Japan seems to scoff at this idea...streets and addresses are for weak occidentals. Only some streets here are named, and they're not exactly good at displaying their addresses on the street (when the building even has a number). But we found it, after a bit of wandering around.

We're in another Japanese-style room. Joy of joys, this one doesn't have the fishy smell. (Steve thinks it was more like rotting plants than fish.) It's smaller than the last one, and we have a shared-bathroom situation. Should be fine, though.

Steve and Bob were looking at maps, deciding our itinerary, while I was trying to do some work. (My bosses for my summer job are a little annoyed at me right now, even though we agreed months ago that I would be on vacation right now.) Apparently we're close to the old red light district, which is more touristy and less red-lighty these days.

We're unsure what our schedule is going to be at this point. We might head back to Tokyo or Narita a day early, just to make sure we make it onto our flight. I think we're going to decide what we're doing over dinner.

Photos!

This is Adam, bringing you some photos. If you have any interest in the larger files that will make good hard-copy photographs, let me know and I'll e-mail them to you.

Here's Steve during the first morning. He's enjoying the Japanese buffet at the hotel restaurant.

Here's Bob and me in the Japanese style bedroom at the hostel in Kawaguchiko, at the base of the mountain. At night we bring out the futons and sleep here. Yes, this is the room that smells of dead fish.

This is Station 5, on the mountain. Notice the rain...

Bob and I preparing to go up. Here we're both still enthusiastic about the coming climb.

This is looking down at the switchbacks, somewhere between Stations 6 and 7. At this point, we're about 2 hours into the climb, at an altitude of above 8000 feet.

Hammer Time! Steve decides to try the (vanilla flavored) Hammer Gel we bought at the REI in Portland. He thought it was okay. I thought it was foul. Regardless, we both recommend that you don't look at it before trying it. This is at Station 7, which was as far as we got. About 8800 feet. My hands felt like they were asleep (which is a sign of altitude sickness), and Bob was just plain feeling weak, so we turned back.

Fuji-san

This is Bob.

Well, I failed.  Not a new experience, but never a pleasant one.

I don't think the mountain wanted me up there.  40-50 knot winds and driving rain; we were soaked to the skin 5 seconds after we left the bus.

I managed to get up to Station 7 (2700 meters) after 3 hours and many breathers.  I requested a halt at that point, having found my limitations.  Adam and Steve could have made it to the top without a problem, but it was just too hostile for me.  They played the dutiful sons, and turned back with me...

Kawaguchiko: At Fuji's Base

Adam reporting:

It's about 3:30 local time, on the afternoon of the 16th. I'm sitting in the lounge of the hostel at which we're staying. Drug experimentation went well...so now our blood is more acidic (just like in Alien!) and we're ready for the climb? Right?

This morning we woke up at 6:00, and had a lovely breakfast at La Florida, the hotel's restaurant. Bob and I had omlettes, while Steve did the buffet. He went twice, each time coming back with a plate full of little Japanese oddities. After that, it was a day of buses. Bus from the hotel back to the airport, then from the airport to Tokyo's massive Shinjuku Train Station, and then (after a bit of confusion) on a bus out here to Kawaguchiko, which is a small touristy town.

We have a traditional Japanese room...and as we all know, shoguns knew nothing about air conditioning. Or how to get the smell of old fish out of their living quarters. Really, it's not so bad though. Steve's taken pictures, so we'll get that uploaded soon (when we offload our pictures). Bob's up there taking a nap right now. Lunch was at Mo's Burger, which I don't think we ever need to try again. Steve accidentally ordered something with beef. (He thought it was rice cake, but that meant it was a burger with a rice cake bun.)

So now we rest, and tomorrow we try to take on the mountain!

Arrived in Narita!

G'day all!

Steve here. Despite fears, we did NOT crash into the Pacific and get eaten by sharks and squid. We'll do that on the way back. This time, the worst that happened was some rather nasty turbulence near the Russian coast. I blame lingering pockets of the Red Menace. In the 50s, weren't they always trying to screw with the weather?

But despite motion sickness and curious in-flight vegetarian meals (e.g., a veggie burger patty with ketchup on rice! Why didn't I think of that?), the flight ended successfully. All of our baggage was waiting for us -- which was only half-expected after some confusion in Vancouver -- and we got waved through customs without incident.

And holy crap, it really is muggy here! We finally stepped out of the airport around 6:00 PM, and standing in the sun was still unbearable. But we got our shuttle to the hotel and are now getting acquainted with wacky Japanese TV. This includes incomprehensible gameshows and news, mostly. And there's Pokemon, but NOT dubbed into English! Hot damn!

It's 7:30 PM local time now, though it feels like about 3:00 AM for us. We'll likely be crashing soon, but first there's some medical guinea-piggery to be done. In preparation for climbing Fuji-san, we got us some nifty pills for altitude sickness. Doses begin tonight to see if we get any colorful reactions. What better place to perform chemical experiments on oneself than a non-English-speaking country? Genius!

My language skills have been fairly useless so far, aside from pleasantries like "hello" and "thank you" and "Do you speak English? Cuz if you don't we're gonna colonize the crap out of your country!" I'm almost totally illiterate, so I'm sure we'll have an awesome time squinting at train station signs tomorrow as we fumble our way to Destination #1: Kawaguchiko, a town cowering in the shadow of Mt. Fuji.

And now, I fear I have little choice but to watch what looks like Japan's answer to Sesame Street. The current item is a stop-motion animation of towels shaping themselves into animals and stealing people's beverages. Needless to say, this blog post cannot possibly keep my attention with THAT as its competition.

Our best to y'all. Give our scritches to any nearby cats.

We're off!

Adam here.

We're in Portland, waiting for the regional jet up to Vancouver--from where our flight to Narita leaves later this afternoon. Just had a crappy airport breakfast with Bob and Steve. (Steve's already feeling adventurours, foodwise. He had some kind of organic "Super Food" drink, that tasted of slightly of banana and felt like thin mud on the tongue.) They're at the gate, but I decided to duck out for a half hour to the "business center" to take advantage of the airport's wi-fi. I'm doing very important business here...checking e-mail and listening to Weird Al on my laptop. Yup. I'm a very important person. I'm a doctor, you know. :)

Hopefully everything will go well on the trip. I'm just getting over a bacterial infection in my lungs, and I have no idea how that will impact the climb. Ironically, Bob might have the best chance of making it to the top of Fuji--after all, he lives at a much higher altitude than Steve and I. Vamos a ver...or however you say that in Nihongo.

First Post

This will be a recording of our Japan trip. Enjoy.