Japan’s
Cultural Treasures (OAT)
(Tokyo,
Hakone, Kanazawa, Kyoto & Hiroshima)
September
30, 14
Today starts a Japan
vacation. On three previous trips in 1993
and 94 on business I only got to explore Tokyo and Yokohama as a tourist, as
well as being royally hosted by NEC, Mitsubishi, etc. on the latter as we were
shopping for spacecraft components.
I did get to the Emperor’s
Palace, and ascend the Tokyo Tower. On
one occasion, since we were buying, being entertained by big Japanese tech
companies like NEC and Mitsubishi, I felt like I might be the Emperor going to
the best Shabu-Shabu and Karaoke, houses.
To share one experience from an earlier visit when I was at Shabu-Shabu
in Japan, Yokahama perhaps, I think we knelled on a
pad of some sort. Seemed like each person (diner) had a female server
behind and maybe slightly right who helped when you displayed your ignorance of
how to eat the food, and refilled your beer glass every time you took
swig! There were maybe 10 in our party kneeling around a rectangular
"swimming pool" with the hot pots at the
edge. Later the night broke into drunken Karaoke,
at which the CEO of NEC was very proficient.
This trip began with an 11.5
hour ride on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
This was a pleasant smooth ride with lots of leg room in economy coach
for a little guy like me. This plane has
the new seats that have combined slide forward and recline motion so when the
person in front reclines his seat also slides forward to preserve the space of
the person behind. Every seat has personal video screen with lots of movies (I
watched 4) and other entertainment at no charge and each seat has a USB
charging port. Also two meals and a
little sandwich snack in between. (remember this is an
international flight – domestic won’t be close!) The 787 has larger than
standard windows and 5 level dimming glass with no shades. Near takeoff and landing passengers have
control of the dimmers, but for the bulk of our long flight the crew took
control and had them fully dimmed in consideration of passengers who want to sleep. In this fully
dim state, looking out, the top surface of the wing was bathed in light looking
eerily like we were flying under a full moon but eventually I realized the
whole flight was in bright sunlight, while this was the effect of the darkened
windows.
Tonight I learned how to get a
simple low cost dinner. Small food
shops display pictures of dinner with numbers associated in the front
window. One makes a numerical selection,
then inside the shop is a vending machine in which you insert money, $3 - $8,
and punch the selected number. The
machine gives you a ticket for dinner and change. Finally exchange the ticket at the kitchen
(counter) for dinner, no Japanese required, except if you want to know what you
are eating! I remember 20 years ago Doug
Hein and I spent an hour or so searching for dinner, he ended up with spaghetti
for $60 and I three mushrooms for $120.
October
02, 14: Tokyo
After arrival last night,
spent the night in a comfortable, clean, tiny hotel room in the b’ Ikebukuro
hotel. There are 8 in our group
exploring Tokyo for the 1st few days.
Ikebukuro is a section of the city, like Bronx, or Westside, and b’ is a
boutique hotel chain. After visiting a
lot of museums (Tokyo National Museum) and walking till my feet hurt, I went
out for a beer in the evening. Happened
into a place called Kirin City and while having a beer I was overwhelmed by how
different this ultramodern bar/restaurant is from anything I have seen in the
US. Two bartenders were doing
everything required to serve exotic drinks for about 150 diners. All the waiters are wired with radios and
“iPhones”, a pocket electronic tablet upon which orders are entered at the
table, then immediately printed from a small device on the bar, and I assume
back in the kitchen for food orders.
Thus, the drink and food preparation begins immediately. I couldn’t quite figure out what the radios are
for nor find an English-speaking person to tell me. The customer is left with a small numbered
pad that is associated with everything to be billed to that person or table,
which he takes to the cashier at checkout.
The wait staff are all hustling, really hustling. I think the bartender was parsing out at
$100/min or so of gross drinks. Wait
staff don’t mess around delivering checks and customers don’t mess around
waiting for that to happen. Next year
they will just be paying from their phone and the bill number on the pad. All this automation might be thwarted some in
our tipping society, and the equipment apron the waitresses wear wouldn’t go
well at Hooter’s. Tokyo Album(30)[1]
October
03, 14
Today we went to Kamakura, the
seat of the first shogunate. The shoguns were originally the guards who
protected the aristocratic rulers of Japan, but eventually became so powerful
that they took over the rule. The
Kamakura Era lasted from about 1192 to 1333, but other Shoguns ruled until the
current shogun resigned in 1868 turning power over to the Emperor.
October
04, 14
First today we wandered around
one of the largest wholesale fish market on earth. On the way by subway I finally got our guide,
Toshi, to slow down enough to sort out the subway
system which is a deep mystery until you get 5 minutes of basic instruction,
then simple. The layout of the market is
open air with a just a roof and many stalls quite like such markets on Mexico,
Thailand or India. Different however
was that although not fancy, there is a prevalent sense of cleanliness with
everybody cleaning things in their idle time and lots of ice to keep all the
fish and sea food of various forms fresh.
I saw more sea animals in one place than ever before. After strolling among some other shops we
stopped for a great sushi lunch. After
lunch I, our guide, and some of the group went to the Edo-Tokyo Museum. This history museum covers the later shogunate period up to the 1854 landing of Commodore Perry
who opened Japan to the world. The last
shogun visited San Francisco and like what he saw of the modern western world
and brought many of the ideas and custom back to Japan. This is a very interesting museum that I
recommend.
For the remainder of the day I
broke off and went to the Tokyo Skytree, which at 634
meters (2080 ft) was the tallest structure in the
world on completion in 2011. It has
observation decks at 350 and 450 meters (1,148 and 1476 ft),
far above anything else in the city.
This dwarfs the Tokyo Tower, having decks at 150 and 250 meters and
total height of 333 meters, 13 meters taller than Eiffel Tower,
that Kurt Kreiner forced me to ascend in 1994. Views are spectacular, but the day was too
overcast to see Mt. Fuji[2].
October
05, 14: Tokyo
In pouring rain, prelude to
the typhoon coming tomorrow, this morning we explored the Asakusa
Kannon Temple, then expensive noodle lunch in the Ginza area. After
lunch as the bus circumnavigated the several miles long moat and exterior wall
of the Imperial Palace, although the Palace is not open to the public, I was
feeling smug that in 93 – 94, I got tour the gardens extensively. The day rounded out with the bus touring
parts of the city and dropping us off for an hour to view the gardens and
architecture at Roppongi-Akasaka and to see the photo
art gallery of of Ken Domon,
a noted Japanese photo journalist.
October
06, 14: Tokyo-Hakone
The typhoon came in earnest
today but we were traveling south by bus to Hakone and missed the brunt of
it. On the drive we passed great views
of Mt. Fuji (Fujisan) and the sky had cleared as the typhoon moved north to
afford great views and photographing. At
Hakone we are staying in a traditional Japanese hotel, Gora Asahi Hotel, where
the ‘rooms’ are separated by sliding paper screens, you sleep on a futon and
there is no furniture! Along the way Toshi is teaching the protocols of wearing the kimono and
preparing and entering the mixed sex hot spring baths that are also to be at
our hotel. The kimono is a general term
including some special purpose versions.
The yukata is the kimono worn next to the body and the only garment if
the temperature permits. If it’s cooler
the tanzen is worn over the yukata, etc. (Good
chance I don’t know what I am talking about here). Disappointing, when we
arrived we found the ‘hot spring’ is inside and just like a huge Jacuzzi
without the sprays and sexes are separated – well that’s just as well for this
senior citizen group. At this hotel we
came to meals in the yukata and had very elegant dinners. Dinners were seven courses served in many,
sometime tiny and stemmed, dishes, even including dessert, which Japanese
usually don’t have. The food of Japan is
very varied, complicated. As an island
nation, they eat from the sea, with many kinds of sea animals and plants often
that we westerners have not acquired a taste for. In addition to ginger and wasabi, there are
frequent flavorings, garnishes, and sauces that are not pleasant when used in
the wrong places, but are when you know what to do with them. Common preparation styles and foods perhaps
known to the westerner are tempura, sushi, sashimi, shabu-shabu are often very
tasty. But, many times the cold fish of
seaweed and strongly pickles are pleasant only to the acquired taste. The soba, udon,
and miso, are more challenge to master than the chop sticks!
October
07, 14: Hakone
We rode up the Hakone Ropeway,
tram, to explore the Hakone volcanic crater.
The volcano is long inactive, but lots of steam and streams of hot water
continually coming up. Then a boat along
the length of Lake Ashinoko, disembarking to a short
hike past shogun Edo era check point and an excellent buffet lunch
restaurant. The check point is where
the Shogun kept weapons out of Edo (Tokyo), like TSA, and the remote nobles wives and families in
as ‘hostages’. Then visited the Hakone
Open-Air Museum, mostly an outdoor sculpture museum and very pleasant to
visit. They also have an entire building
with Picasso works. The Hakone area is
comprised of steep volcanic mountains covered with dense forest. Well paved roads but with extreme switchbacks
for the bus getting around. A very clean
and beautifully pristine and neat area that seems to support only tourism. Japanese food is relatively good and
interesting, but not nearly so much as Indian and Thai. At times the elegant
presentation in 15 different dishes, make for confusion of what sauces and
foods combine, and the savor is less than the display. Also, after a day one finds it difficult to
find a way to relax or perhaps read a book with minimal furniture and lighting
in the traditional room. Tomorrow it
will be pleasant to return to a modern hotel.
Hakone Album(15)
October
08, 14; Wednesday: Hakone-Kanazawa
Another travel day, first in
the bullet train to Nagoya along the coast, then a standard train that goes
fast too, 80 mph?, north to Kanazawa.
After arrival late afternoon we took a walking tour of the samurai –
Japan’s famed class of noble warriors – houses which are preserved on the
exterior with well-to-do Japanese living in the interior. The pristine sidewalks have a water line
embedded down the center with nozzles every few feet to melt and flood off the
snow in winter – streets too have this in
Kanazawa. Why it doesn’t just make ice
we could not comprehend.
October
09, 14: Kanazawa
Started this day visiting the Kahoku·mon gate to the Kanazawa Palace of the Maeda Family,
rulers of Laga, the Kanazawa area and the associated Kenrokuen
Garden. Then the 21st Century
Museum of Contemporary Art which includes the Noh Museum. I don’t think I relate to this Noh stuff, but
there are some really interesting novelties here in the 21st - like fake
swimming pool where you see people walking below, hole
in the roof to see the sky – big deal, why not walk outside. Our guide says lots of people come all the
way from Kyoto to Kanazawa on a one day tour just for this. Lunch, and then spent some time wandering the
centuries old tea shops and Geisha houses of the Higashi Chaya Gai District. We did
visit a particular house and got to listen to and question the CEO. There’s a nice treatment at: http://experience-kanazawa.com/sightseeing/geisha_districts.html . Some
of the group, including myself, went back to the 21st for some kind of modern
art ‘opening’ in the evening with snack and drink. It was a disaster …. total
junk called art. A dissected cow,
pictures of piles of trash, pictures of nothing, etc. Reminds me of the recent quote I read in Businessweek from an art dealer, “When
something isn’t selling, we just double the price.”
Behind our hotel are a
collection of Pachinko Parlors. Jim and
I stepped in one and found that Pachinko Parlor is noisy as a thrashing machine
in a western Pennsylvania barn driven by a Farmall M
in August. (We later learned they are
everywhere in Japan)
October
10, 14
Kanazawa is on the edge of the
Sea of Japan that we can see from our 16th floor breakfast room in the ANA
Holiday Inn. About an hour and half bus
ride this morning took us the mountain village of Shirakawa-go. Mountains are not high but there are many
tunnels, some long. Japan’s longest is
about 8 miles. Perhaps 10% of our trip
was in tunnel. The village is the location 200 – 300 year old houses and other
buildings from the samurai era pompous grass thatched roofs made in perhaps 2 ft thick mat of grass – very unusual. This village has a somewhat museum status and
the buildings are a display, but later in the day in another village we
visited, Ainokura, the locals still live in and use
buildings of the same ancient and unique construction. Japan is reputed to be a very expensive place,
which is true. However, we are learning
the how to navigate the restaurants and some shops of the locals where it is
not extremely different from a typical city back in the US. It isn’t real easy though as away from the 5
star hotels it’s not so easy to find someone who speaks English, and around
those hotels it’s quite expensive. Kanazawa
Album(35)
October
11, 14: Kanazawa-Kyoto
After a very pleasant 2 hour
visit at the home of Fujio & Yoko Nakagawa, we caught a 2.5 hour train to
Kyoto. Spent the evening after dinner
exploring the very new Kyoto train terminal and the spectacular city view from it’s 8th floor level observation
area. A very high tech LED light show
was playing with a Halloween theme. We
are seeing a lot of Halloween stuff at many places – bigger deal than US.
October
12, 14: Kyoto
Busy day, Sanjūsangen-dō
Hall, Buddhist Temple and biggest wooden building in the world, Jishu Shrine and Kiyomizu Temple,
Kyoto University for lunch, Kinkakuji Temple (Golden
Pavilion), and Nijo Castle – all interesting tourist
sights worth the time if you are in Kyoto.
Also all readily described with images on the web using these
names. After dinner of some big thick
pancake like things, called okonomiyaki, near the JR (Japanese Rail) Station at
restaurant that seemed half Benihana and half
Mongolian BBQ - , I left the group and had a beer while walking home at another
restaurant. Studying the menu here, in
addition to many other appetizing dishes, I noted one-pot guts, horsemeat
sashimi (remember sashimi means raw), and chicken knee cartilage – haven’t you
been warned above!
October
13, 14
First in the day we saw
Fushimi Inari Shrine with it’s hundreds of Shinto
arches forming a long corridor up a mountain on the east side of Kyoto. As the typhoon approaches we drove about 40
miles south and visited Todai-ji
Temple, part of which was the largest wooden building in the world
until surpassed in 1998 by a baseball stadium (Odate
Juki Dome)[3] in northern Japan. Also Kasuga
Shinto Shrine. By evening the heavy
rains are beginning as our 2nd typhoon approaches. By chance our guide, Toshi,
led several of us through the downpoor to a place she
recommended near the hotel – wouldn’t you know, it was my favorite beer stop
from last evening. Toshi
and I shared a couple good dishes, but much of the group weren’t thrilled with
the confusion in understanding the menu and resultant confused orders.
October
14, 14
This morning we went to the
northwest mountain area and hiked up to the Senkoji
Temple to practice a little Zen and hear that Steve Jobs came to Kyoto to do
the same. Then off to a private country
wood, paper, and tatami mat house to learn how and make our own sushi for
lunch. After returning to Kyoto around
dinner time we went to the Gion Geisha district and
exploring some of the tea houses. Kyoto
is considered by many to be where the geisha tradition is the strongest today,
including Gion Kobu. The
geisha in these districts are known as geiko. An informative description of the geisha
tradition at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geisha
. Everything in Japan is so neat and in
excellent repair, and clean, never any trash – we found only a very small
amount of graffiti later in Hiroshima.
Yet, it’s difficult to find a trash can when you have something to
dispose of. The people show great
respect for everything, each other, tourists, their environment, their
possessions, their religions.
Incidentally, there is only a tiny percentage (<1%) of Christians,
but Shinto and Buddhist reside happily together with many people practicing
both.
October
15, 14: Kyoto
Another day, another Zen
Temple, Tenryuji.
We did walk the beautiful gardens of this temple and the impressive
adjoining bamboo forest, as well as extensive hill side gardens, Okochi-Sanso, established on the home of a noted movie
actor of the same name. Japanese are
great gardeners, chopping and propping trees to impose their will and even
cutting each old last-year’s needle from the pines one-by-one leaving a
beautiful uniform green tree – and making lots of jobs. You know about bonsai,
but did you know that they also plant trees on a high mound of dirt, then dig
it away after 50 years exposing an artistic root work. On the subway ride back to town I abandoned
the group, went north a couple stops and had lunch in the student center of Doshisha University which was coincidentally at my subway
exit. Then hiked through the grounds of
the palace, Kyoto Imperial Palace – Kyoto was capital of Japan for about 1,000
years preceding 1868, south and through
a half-mile long shopping arcade, finally visiting the city center Tokiwacho Temple.
Japan is slightly smaller than
California with more than 3 times the population, has more water than it can
use, (we may be importing to Ca soon) hence lots of trees and is built of wood
– excepting modern high rise construction in the cities. Kyoto Album(45)
October
16, 14: Kyoto-Hiroshima
Bullet train from Kyoto to
Hiroshima. Hiroshima Pease Memorial
Museum, and the Pease Dome at city center under the atomic blast location at
8:15 am, August 6, 1945[4]. Amazing that the successful test of a bomb in
the Manhattan Project was 20 days earlier on July 16. More okonomiyaki for dinner.
October
17, 14: Hiroshima
Took a train about 25 km south
along the coast from Hiroshima and a ferry out to Miyajima
Island. Much of the island is a park
with a shrine, (Itsukushima Shrine) temples, and a mountain that I didn’t
climb, and is well known for the oysters cultured in the Seto
Inland Sea between the island and the Japan Mainland Honshu. Everything seems to be a UNESCO World
Cultural Heritage site which probably increases tourism and gets them money
from those who pay for the UN (US!). We
find it surprising that a large fraction of signage, streets, trains, building
and store advertising, etc., etc., are all in Japanese and English – very
helpful to us tourists, yet seemingly few Japanese speak English, even in
places of business that seem mostly supported by tourists. There are however, many Japanese tourists as
well. For dinner, switched from just OK
Japanese to delicious sagwala curry in and Indian
restaurant I happened upon.
My cell phone is T-Mobile, who
recently announced free data in 120 countries, which seems to include my
phone. As a result I am continuously
using google.maps to know where I am and to build map
routes to get to many places. This is
really, really a big plus to know what’s going on in this foreign language
country and to be able to get around alone much more easily where it’s
orders-of-magnitude more difficult than home.
All the other travelers are envious and rightly – all switching to
T-Mobile when they get home, though I presume others will have this soon. Hiroshima Album(20)
October
18, 14
We took a couple standard
trains about 100 km east, then south to Tadanaumi,
then a ferry to Omishima Island. Along the way the ferry stopped briefly at Okunoshima, an island where the Japanese developed and kept
poison gas during WWII and subsequent tested the absence of gases with 8
rabbits. Today the island is home to
hundreds of rabbits, then on to Omishima Island. Driving around Omishima
brought us to the Tatara Bridge, a very artistic
modern 4,856 ft suspension bridge connecting
this island to Ikuchi Island. These islands and a couple hundred others
are scattered around the Seto Inland Sea. Weather was beautiful so we walked the nearly
mile across the bridge taking in the spectacular scenery of glassy sea and many
lush green islands. On Ikuchi we had another authentic 9 course Japanese lunch and
visited the Ikuo Hirayama art museum and the Kosanji temple museum, and Miraishin
no Oka (Hill of Hope), a gigantic prize winning marble sculpture. Ten neighboring islands are linked by a new
expressway and nine bridges. A small
boat ride to Mihara and a bullet train brought us
back to Hiroshima. Wondering why they
are called “bullet
train” – because they go straight as a bullet, no curves and when it
comes to a hill, just goes straight through! – they go
fast too!
October
19, 14
Another bullet train to Osaka
and a Dreamliner (B787) gets me back to California before I left Japan. Osaka Album(4)
[1] A note about photos. There is a link to shared Google photos related to each geographical, cities, states, territories, area. There are too many but hopefully the reader can choose to indulge as many or few or none, as he and his giga byte limit will accommodate.
[2] To review some high places I have been: Tokyo Skytree, 1,476’; KL Tower 1,381’, Empire State Building – twice, 1,250 ‘; Tokyo Tower, 1,091’; Eiffel Tower, 1,063’; Sydney Tower, 1,014’; St Louis Arch – twice, 630’; Bitexco Financial Tower Skydeck, 860’, Saigon ; Statue of Liberty, Torch 305, Crown 265’, Crown NEC Super Tower, Tokyo 590’; Petronas Towers Skybridge, 558’ (Towers 1,242’) Kuala Lumpur; Auckland Sky Tower, 1,076’; Grand Costanera Tower, Santiago, 984 ft.; Mt. Whitney, 14,505’
[3] This quote regarding the Hangers for the Hughes H-4 Flying Boat: “The wooden buildings in which its components were constructed were the largest in the world at the time. They still stand at the old Hughes Airport property.” http://www.air-and-space.com/sprucea.htm . So what is really largest and how is it measured?
[4] After WWII the US administered reconstruction set Japan up allowing a defense military force only. It has been argued the Japan’s economy benefited greatly from this, particularly importing its energy from the mid-east but leaving the defense, and the ill reputation associated, of this resource to the rest of the world.