No biting the personnel

IMG_0856Originally uploaded by Fizzz.

We head back in a few hours. Our last day in the throngs of Tokyo’s humanity has gone by. I’m not sure where I first read this description of Tokyo but I can’t think of a city I’ve visited more deserving of it. Once you’ve seen the scramble crossing - a pedestrian crossing for all directions simultaneously, including diagonals (japanese “sukuranburu kousaten”) - of Shibuya, neither Beijing, London, or New York appears as densely populated.

We’ll go back to Tokyo. For me, it’s the first labyrinth I’ve visited where, after more than 6 days there, I still can’t always tell North from South coming out of the subway. There are so many nooks and crannies to surprise us. Yesterday was our shopping day. Between the web and our guide books we jumped back and forth through the city: Asakusa, Ginza, Roppongi, Shibuya, Shinjuku, etc. One of the store we visited has a small entrance you could walk by 500 times without noticing it. Its stairs go down 4 floors before you reach a cavernous room.

To be fair, our shopping wasn’t all that successful. For clothing, the Japanese physique is simply too different from ours. They don’t sell getas in 12 1/2. Moreover, nowadays most books, music, or electronics found here are available in North-America. Whatever isn’t, I’m probably not informed enough to buy here. Finally, neither of us likes tourist souvenirs. In Kyoto it was easy to find traditional hand made goods. Here it wasn’t. Instead I would have left with a modern painting. There are plenty of art galleries.

Some questions still need to be answered about our trip:

Q. What have you done besides eating?

A. A lot. As the pictures show, we did all the touristy things recommended by our books and more in each town.

Q. Should one write postcards on a train ride?

A. No. As you will all agree when you receive the cards, the jerky motions of the trains transformed my already awful handwriting into the scribbles of an uncoordinated monkey. Solace was only to be found on the Shinkansen Hikari Railstar.

Q. S and I each bought a new carry-on before leaving. It is the easiest way to travel by train around Japan. She bought a Tumi on eBay. I bought a Samsonite at a clearance store. So… which faired best, Tumi or Samsonite?

A. Tumi. While the Samsonite has more cubic space for its surface area as well as a nifty “laundry” section, it suffers from a number of very annoying problem. The biggest being that it doesn’t balance weight easily. When fully loaded, it becomes unstable. If left alone standing, the carry-on would tip forward. It would also roll over sideways if one of it’s wheels hit a bump at angle (e.g. a paved sidewalk). Finally, after a month of travel the retractable handle is not sliding in and out as easily as it once did.

Q. Which guide books were you using?

A. To explore Japan we used Fodor’s Japan and Fodor’s Exploring Japan. After a day in Tokyo, I bought The Rough Guide to Tokyo at Kinokuniya, we already had The Rough Guide to Beijing.

Q. Fodor’s or Rough Guide?

A. In general I like the Rough Guides a lot more. I really enjoy their wit and pragmatism. Fodor has a very neutral tone which often tells you little more than the basics. Some of the information in the Rough Guide could have been better although the internet was a great backup.

A sad note as we depart. On the way back to our hotel last night we walked the west exit of Shinjuku station. This is where many of Tokyo’s homeless take shelter until morning. We’ve seen little poverty here. Unlike Beijing, there are almost no hecklers or beggars throughout Japan. During the day, this corridor links the financial side of Shinjuku as well as the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building with the gigantic transport hub and the commercial part of the district. At night, as the foot traffic dies down, about 200 people move into the alcoves. They build their own private areas with cardboard boxes and shield their eyes from the electric lights with clothing or towels. Neither side, passers-by or unofficial tenants, looks at the other. If you did though, you’d notice that they, mostly men, are all well shaved and well dressed, often dress pants and shirts. Were it not for the situation, you might mistake them for blue collar workers. Since we were both curious, I went looking for some information last night. Here’s a good article on the topic.

IMG_1429Originally uploaded by Fizzz.

Q. How have you occupied yourself during these long train rides?

A. S read The Lovely Bones and some fresh manga she bought here to further her Japanese. I read The Defining Moment and The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid.

Q. Is it true that Japanese people like luxury goods?

A. I’m not sure I’d generalize to all Japanese or all goods but I will say that in Kyoto we stopped counting Louis Vuitton items as we walked around towns. If the car of choice in Beijing was the Audi, LV is the preferred brand here for wallets, hand bags, shoulder bags, carry-ons, etc. For what it’s worth, I’ve never seen anyone in North-America travel with a LV carry-on or suitcase. Here, where your luggage is always at hand in the train and the risk of thievery is very low (as far as we can tell), we’ve seen plenty. Compared to the US, we are sure these are no fakes.

Q. What restaurants would you recommend?

A. In the order of cities we visited.

1. Kakusho for sure.
2. Qulio in Kyoto. After walking the charming alleys across from Gion a few times, we couldn’t miss our chance to eat there. Although the dishes were small, the set menu of modern fusion cuisine was reasonably priced. With a view of the canal, the art-deco setting with lounge music ambiance was a welcome change from the traditional restaurants and diners we’d been eating at. Note though that the other customers ordered few dishes but plenty of drinks.
3. Gion Oishinbo in Kyoto. Given how expensive restaurants in the Gion neighborhood are, this corner place away from the trendy touristy streets gave us a good taste of a Kyoto Kaiseki meal at a very reasonable price. We also appreciated the modern funky setting.
4. Cui-daoré in Osaka. Being so near Kobe, we had to try its most famous export: beef. Books will tell you this is a marbled feast. I think it has more fat than meat. This contrasts sharply with our Seattle eating habits where we’re careful to buy super-duper-lean beef at 9% fat or, better yet, to get our meat at the Ballard farmer’s market from Skagit Valley Ranch. This restaurant was recommended for its sukiyaki cuisine. For a reasonable price, we each had 4 thin slices of golden cow with appetizers, plenty of vegetables and tofu. S loved it. I had to trim off some of the fat.
5. Kyubey in Tokyo. With our trip ending, we decided that we couldn’t leave without good sushi. This is the place to go in Tokyo. No doubt the best sushi we’ve ever had. My favorite piece was the unagi served with salt and grated lime. S loved the uni. On the way out we even bumped into the chef-owner in the elevator who enthusiastically asked where we were from and how we’d heard of his restaurant.

Q. What affordable Ryokan would you recommend?

A. Frankly, we had no bad experiences. Thus, we have to recommend the International Tourism Center of Japan for setting good standards. Still, there are a few places we’ll go back to.

1. Ryokan Asakusa Shigetsu in Tokyo, Ryokan Uenoya in Takoyama and Ryokan Nunoya for their location and the friendliness of their staff.
2. Ryokan Terazuya (email: terazuya@mable.ne.jp) in Matsue. This is the house of the Terazuya family. What we liked the most was their friendliness and the service. For an extra ¥1000 we each had a wonderful dinner the evening of our stay. The next morning, at no extra charge, we had bread, jam and coffee. Before heading out, one of our hosts sat us down for a demonstration of the Japanese tea ceremony.

Q. Shops you enjoyed the most?

A. The specialty shops:

1. The miso shop in Takayama’s San-machi-suji. After trying out the local red miso, we’ve been lugging a few pounds of miso around Japan to bring it back to Seattle.
2. Confectionary shops. Since macha tea is bitter, sweets can be found all over Japan. The city you’re in though will have its own specialties. We bought a box in Matsue.
3. The paper shops in Kurashiki. Firstly, you’ll find those that sell paper sheets (which you might use in origami for example). Secondly, there are those that sell decorative goods made of paper. Some of the items are simply gorgeous.
4. The fan shops in Kyoto. Kyoto is full of shops selling classic Japanese goods; hand painted fans are the ones we enjoyed visiting the most.
5. Nijusan-ya in Kyoto. Specializes in combs and hair clips made of wood.

Q. Did you really visit the Osaka aquarium?

A. If we hadn’t, we probably wouldn’t have pictures of big fish.

Q. Why did you visit the Osaka aquarium?

A. Because upon arriving in Osaka for our day trip we read in our Fodor bible that the castle was rebuilt in 1931 in ferroconcrete. That killed any interest we had in visiting the castle.

IMG_1267

Originally uploaded by Fizzz.

Last night, after a side trip to Kurashiki on the way back from Matsue, we had our first stay in a Western hotel since leaving Tokyo. Frankly, our Fodor bible on Japan doesn’t even have an entry for this small city. Still, since it was a useful hub for jumping around I thought we should at least stop here once. No regrets.

This morning we visited the Korakuen Gardens, our second of the three top gardens in Japan, and the grounds of the Okayama castle (a 1966 reconstruction since the castle was wiped out in WWII. Afterwards, we set about finding brunch before our train ride to Himeji. Within 3 blocks of the hotel there were 7 restaurants proudly flying the Italian flag. It’s weird seeing plastic dishes of pizza, pasta, salad and other western dishes. Other foreign cuisines included French, Hawaiian, Korean, and the ubiquitous Chinese. From the Japanese spectrum we also saw plenty of advertisements for okonomiyaki. Some compare this dish to pizza while others compare it an omelet. Since instead of eggs it relies on cabbage, flour and water for its base, I think it’s closer to a scrambled crepe or mixed hash browns.

In the end we settled on a fusion Asian-Italian restaurant. With a decent view of the main drag, lounge music and great interior décor it was one of the least Japanese looking places we’ve eaten at. By the end though we were both sold. I’d love to have places like this throughout Seattle. We each we had:

• Half a cup of potato cream soup
• A small lettuce salad
• Three amuses-gueules: tofu, bruschetta and some cake
• An entrée of either fish or chicken breast
• A plate of pasta mixed with olive oil, strips of crispy Japanese yam and grilled eggplant
• Shaved peach ice with crumbs of frozen raspberries
• A drink: orange juice

At ¥980 (~9 USD) that’s still more than the Korean dishes we ate yesterday evening (¥750 and ¥850). It’s also more than the ramen we could have had next door (starting at ¥450).

Food in Japan is priced very differently than in North-America. Although we haven’t verified, we think Japan doesn’t import much fruits or vegetables. Grape sells for twice the price it does at QFC. An apple or pear might fetch 2.50 USD. As a result, fruit juices (a big part of my nutrition) are expensive. Moreover, although the land is covered with paddies, rice is still at a premium. Finally, as we’ve learned, sushi is as much a luxury here as it is in Seattle. Our average sushi dinner in a neighborhood shop in Hiroshima was an expensive ¥6000 for two.

If your index is vending machine prices, you’ll be interested to know that a bottle of water (or coke) sells for ¥130. The price is the same for the ice cream cones from the machines outside of Himeji castle. More expensive sodas are ¥150. These prices are generally identical throughout the sites we’ve visited. Given the current exchange rate, they’re only slightly more than most vending machines in the U.S.

IMG_1235Originally uploaded by Fizzz.

Ryokans are more than B&Bs. While the B&B classification can include someone’s spare bedroom, the ryokan is closer to a inn. Waiting in your room they will have green tea and, sometimes, to counter the tea’s bitterness, sweets. They’re also expected to offer, for additional fees, both dinner and breakfast. Generally we’ve avoided eating in them in the hope of sampling the local cuisine for dinner and saving money with mooncakes or onigiri for breakfast. The evening on Shōdo-Shima, for ¥2000 we ate a full meal including a bit of sashimi, soba, rice, seared pork and vegetables, miso soup with mushroom and melon. In comparison, last night’s dinner in Matsue for ¥1000 included a salad, pickled vegetables, sashimi tuna and squid, rice, fruits, a small baked fish and a bowl of clam miso soup. Yesterday’s Japanese breakfast for ¥600 was a full meal in itself that kept us satiated well into the afternoon. Today’s, for free, was a cup of coffee (tea for S) and toasts with jams.

Bedrooms are either Western or Japanese. Western means a bed. Japanese means a tatami floor (not to be stepped on with slippers), a table usually in the center of the room with the tea and futons which you (or your host) unfolds later in the evening. The pillow is a heavy dense sac filled with, we think, rice shells. Since rooms are the same size, the Japanese one offers more space. Also awaiting you will be a yukata (a robe) and a towel. The yukata is meant to be changed into as you walk around the building. Our books say you can walk around town wearing only a yukata but we’ve yet to see anyone else do it. Often, the bathroom is shared. If so, it is separate from the toilets. Most ryokans have Western toilets although a few also have the Asian crouching style. The bathrooms are usually the Japanese style: a completely waterproof room with one or more shower heads, buckets and stools. The Tokyo ryokan’s was a self contained sealed capsule of plastic. If there’s a hot spring (or hot tub), it is strictly meant for soaking; you must shower before entering it.

The cheapest ryokan we stayed in was ¥7500 for two for the night. The price is typically not linear. Since you get your own room, one night for one might be ¥4500, two for ¥7500 and three for ¥10000. The most expensive ryokan yet was the one in Tokyo at ¥14000 for two without food. S reserved all of our nights ahead of time through the association of ryokan’s website. Where none were available, she deferred to the book or a bit of web searching. Still, the reality is that we’ve yet to stay in a shady place. We could therefore have spent less. We could also have spent a lot more; Western accommodations fetch a high premium. All of our hosts, women, have been genial though. We’ve been offered umbrellas for the rain, maps of cities for tourism (eventhough we already have plenty) and suggestions of shops and places to see at future stops.

Since the sun rises before 6 AM and sets before 6 PM, we’ve shifted our schedule from the one in Beijing and Seattle. Although bars (with yakitori, for example) are easy to find, we’ve mostly avoided the nightlife. We’re usually asleep before 9:30 PM and awake at 6:30 AM. That’s great since ryokans usually have a 10 PM or 11 PM curfew. Although my body’s happy to be back on its early morning cycle, S is having a harder time. Of note, the shrine across the street was beating the drums this morning at 6 AM.

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Originally uploaded by Fizzz.

It was almost 4 PM on the 4th when we landed in Tonoshō on Shōdo-Shima. The island gets a paragraph in one of our books and a one page section in the other. “Shōdo’s craggy mountains are spectacular, and its seacoast equally so for the contrast of ruggedness with sandy beaches.” The two main attractions are a nature park in the center and Monkey Land, another park where more than 700 small monkeys roam free. Either would have been great to see were it not for two problems that have been plaguing us throughout our trip. Firstly, most tourist sites close between 4 PM and 5 PM. The public parks close at 7 PM. Secondly, in early October, the sun sets before 6 PM. Moreover, while the books spoke wonders of the buses that cover the island, neither mentioned that they do so only once every two hours. We had no choice but to head to our ryokan.

“On the bus route west to Kami-no-ura, this inn sits on a plateau with a view of the Seto Naikai and Shikoku’s distant mountains.” The inn turned out to be a small resort. With ~30 rooms, the main building would elsewhere have been called a hotel. Outside were a network of locked-up cabins and a closed karaoke bar. That evening we shared an establishment that could have accommodated multiple tour groups with three other guests and two very friendly staff people. The young waitress kept on blushing and cracking up as we failed to communicate with her. While the carpets were worn out and the electronic door locks disabled, the souvenir and snack counter was fully provisioned. The hot spring which we used later that night was very soothing although the dark clouds and the stained windows blocked the view. If the top of the hill was deserted, at the bottom was a sports complex with a water park, tennis courts, a covered gathering area and a playing field. We walked down in time for the start of the kids’ soccer practice.

There we found the small local modern art museum next to a convenience store. We also discovered that, at the beginning of the century, olives were introduced here in Japan from Spain. The shop sold all kind of olive derivatives: oil, jam, cookies, mochi, chocolate, etc. We bought pepper-stuffed olives (which tasted like regular green olives), olive-flavored chocolates and olive chocolate mochi. Sadly there was no olive tapenade.

Since there was nowhere to eat, we went back up for the set menu of the inn’s cafeteria. After the visit to the hot spring we retired early and got on the 9 AM ferry back to the mainland the next morning. A few hours later we were at Miyajima.

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Originally uploaded by Fizzz.

The last few days have been a whirlwind. When I selected our itinerary, we agreed that we would see a lot of little places at the expense of not staying anywhere too long. We can always come back. The exceptions are Tokyo where we started from and Kyoto which we’ll reach in two days. Our technique therefore is to travel each morning and arrive at our destination between 1 PM and 3 PM. Since most towns are small, half a day is enough to see most of the sites. Yes, we’re skipping the museums and anything out of town. I’m always more interested by how the locals live anyways. Moreover, the ryokans we’re staying in typically have a 3 PM or 4 PM check-in time. There may be no-one if you show up early (as we found out quickly). Check out is always 10 AM at the latest although we’re typically out by 8:30 AM.

So where have we been since we left Tokyo?

Our first stop was Matsumoto on the 1st of October. It’s truly a charming little town on the East side of the Japanese Alps in Northern Honshu; 2h30min from Tokyo. We suspect winter tourism is driving its downtown commerce. We got very lucky. In the afternoon as we walked around town we noticed street vendors next to the downtown river. In the evening, looking for food, we headed back. You can’t find Japanese street food easily in Seattle. A little while later we realized the crowd had grown a lot. Something was brewing: there was a ceremony at the shrine with all the men wearing suits and audio equipment was being setup on the stage next to it. At 7 PM sharp, hiding under an umbrella, we joined the locals and listened to a jazz orchestra playing classics from the 40s and 60s. If you look through the pictures you’ll find one of the band playing. I’ll say one another thing about Matsumoto: the next morning we had pastries for breakfast from a boulangerie a few steps away from the previous night’s stage. On the wall they had two signs: “Since 1913″ and “Membre de l’Association des Amis du Pain Francais.” I’ve never seen curry bread in a French bakery but everything we ate was good.

Our second stop was Takayama; on the other side of the mountain range. I chose that town initially because it’s high in the Japanese Alps; I wanted us to spend two days in the mountains. Fortunately the train doesn’t cross the mountain range, a bus does. If there’s one place I’d like to go back and spend more time just driving on the roads and admiring the scenery, this would be it. With the clouds still low, we often couldn’t see more than the shape of the valleys around us. The few glimpses we had did hint of beautiful things; deep luscious chasms with streams and waterfalls, snowy peaks reminiscent of the views from Seattle. 2h20 min later, we reached Takayama. In comparison it’s a much larger town than our previous stop. Its main tourist attraction is a few city blocks in the old town where the buildings’ appearance has been protected. We also walked a part of the recommended nature hike which, in one hour, took us thru 5 shrines and a cemetery. Consider that the forest there has the thickness of Germany’s Black Forest with the humidity of the Olympic peninsula. Now add a clearing with a gorgeous old shrine. There is something mystical about this painting that made the walk very enjoyable. It also opened up our appetite for the meal at Kakusho.

Our third stop was Kanazawa ; a rich city near the coast further to the North-West. Unfortunately, we hit the first glitch in our schedule. There is no train that goes directly between the two cities. There are only a few buses per day. The 9h30 AM one we’d aimed for was sold out a day early. Instead of rolling into town in the early afternoon, we would have staggered in in early evening in darkness and missed the city’s sights. We chose the alternative: a 5h train ride through Gifu down south. We still got to Kanazawa by 2h30 PM though. Enough to see what is left of the castle, the Kenrokuen Garden (one of the three most beautiful gardens in Japan), the two streets that kept their fortification-like walls, etc. After our previous two stops, Kanazawa was a big change. The clouds were gone and the air was fresh and sharp. This city has programs for foreign students coming thru. It has hosted multiple international conventions. There is a Starbucks! Sadly, we couldn’t find a restaurant and ate dinner at a bad sushi bar in the basement of a shopping center.

If we were torn about Kanazawa, our fourth stop would reset expectations. When I looked at the map of Western Honshu a few months ago, one blip jump out at me: the island of Shodo-Shima in Shikoku. After a 3 hour train ride south, including one in the Shinkansen, and 30 minutes of bus we boarded a ferry from Okayama for the 35 minute ride. This stop is as “middle-of-nowhere” as we get to go on this trip. We’re still not sure what to make of it; it seems someone invested a lot in the seventies on infrastructure for tourists but either the island stopped being a fashionable destination or we are really out of season… Either way, jackpot. One note I’ll make is that I pity the only other 2 foreigners we saw on the island. They obviously didn’t speak a word of Japanese nor did they have directions to their onsen. More later.

After a stop by Miyajima and Hiroshima, tonight we’re in Matsue (on the other coast). Tomorrow we go back to Okayama to see Kurashiki.

IMG_0634Originally uploaded by Fizzz.

On Monday evening while in Takayama (map) we had dinner at Kakusho, a restaurant that has been in the same family for more than 200 years. It was recommended to us by an acquaintance in Seattle. Since they’re outside of downtown we would never had discovered this restaurant otherwise. From the look on their face, we think they don’t get many tourists.

The setting was incredible; certainly the most surreal we’ve seen yet in our trip across Japan. We sat in a 6 ½ sheet tatami room with a 1 tatami wide corridor all around it. This room was in a small wing of the main building across the garden. We could see into this private garden on 3 sides. The room was sparsely yet elegantly decorated with a hanging scroll and a vase with a flower. S took some pictures which you can see here.

We asked for their house specialty set menu which came as a series of small vegetarian dishes (albeit with fish stock and bonito flakes). Each brought out the distinctive flavor of their ingredients: locally grown mountain vegetables. S really liked the zarusoba dish and the rice potage. I especially enjoyed a tempura dish of special miso paste stuffed in some dried vegetable; the concoction takes 6 month to prepare. I also loved a dish of beans (maybe kidney beans) in a light sugar sauce. The sake they chose for us went really went with all the dishes.

We seemed to be the only guests that evening. One of the staff people, possibly the owner, regularly alternated with the waitress bringing in the dishes. She spoke English well enough to convey the arrangement and preparation of each dish to us. She was honored to host us.

We’re so happy we got to go.

We left Tokyo ~3 days ago. The places we’re staying at don’t have internet access. Tonight we’re in Kanasawa. There’s an open AP within reach which as allowed me to upload the latest batch of pictures from these last few days on flickr.

IMG_0738Originally uploaded by Fizzz.

The last two days in Tokyo have been fascinating. While in Beijing I had the help of a native Mandarin speaker and was constantly looked at as an abnormality, here we’re only two more foreign tourists that don’t speak the lingo. We’re of no interests to the locals. Getting their assistance as therefore been a challenge. Luckily grunts and pantomimes are universal tools of communication. Barring a few mishaps in the subway and difficulties buying a calling card, we’ve had no problems. We even got our JP Rail pass and reserved the tickets for our train on Sunday to Matsumoto through Nagano.

Overall we like Tokyo although there are little things we haven’t quite absorbed yet. For example, we’re always on the lookout for trash cans. The city is so clean - people don’t litter here - that there’s nothing to throw away when walking down the street it seems and therefore no need for trash cans. We’re still fascinated by the rules of fashion. School kids all wear uniforms (genre Notre-Dame). There’s very little individuality in the dress code between girls from the same school. Coloring your hair while in school appears to be a no-no (which is quickly made up for upon entering the work place). Yes, school girls travel in pack and do the V finger sign of peace when photographed; I doubt they recognize the gesture for what it is. Boys on the other hand, being boys, un-tuck their shirts and take off their jackets as soon as they’re left alone. Young adults are completely different from their school aged versions. While the Beijing professional dress code matched that of the western world, the Japanese one transcends it. Every label you can think of is sold and bought here. As S said, Tokyo people don’t walk around with fake Louis Vuitton hand bags. Beyond the clothing, the hairdo, make up, accessories and stance are like I’ve yet to see in North-America. For example, I’ve seen a few men with hand bags; not that I object but it’s not common practice in Seattle. The hair styles are also straight out of every Japanese TV show you’ve seen (including anime). There are people with the same hair cut as Chairman Kaga from Iron Chef.

Talking about anime, we’ve figured out one element of metropolitan Japanese society, sadly. We believe the reason cats figure so prominently in Japanese media is because of the huge number of them in at least this city. Obviously people here like cats but, like Greenlake as its problem of stray bunnies , Tokyo has its problem of stray cats. According to some, the Tokyo authority disposes of the bodies of more than 10 000 stray cats a year. Literally, they’re everywhere. At first you think it’s cute to see a few cats in the imperial palace. At second glance you realize these cats are mostly bones. Suddenly you understand why they’re so giddily eating whatever the tourists throw their way. You’re saddened by this. By the end of the day, you’ve seen tens more of these furry companions.

The title of this post is “They’re everywhere!” You may think this refers to cats by now. True it at least does a little bit. In fact it refers to the fact that this city is so huge that whatever you see in one part of town, you’re bound to see again elsewhere in the city. For example, I’d guess for central Tokyo that there’s a subway stop in any direction every kilometer (if not less). That’s ignoring the train lines. Instead of jumping into any subway entrance, it’s preferable to look at a map and walk to the entrance that gets you on the line you want to use. Similarly, as per the rumors, there are vending machines everywhere. In fact, according to our book, Japan has a ratio of 1 vending machine for every 20 resident. The same is probably accurate of pachinko arcades.

We’ve started the second part of our vacation. The trip was mostly uneventful. The Beijing smog was back to bid us farewell yesterday morning as a friend of one of the uncles drove us to the airport. Of course that means we also got more gifts: moon cakes and tea. We flew on All Nippon which lived up to the reputation of Japanese air lines. Each seat has its own TV which besides playing movies or TV shows can also serve as a game console. The console’s remote being embedded in the seat’s arm. Even cooler, each passenger gets to start the movie at their own leisure; that way you don’t miss the beginning of the movie as you settle in. That has its own downside of course as I only got to see the first 1h45 of the Davinci Code. Now I’ll have to rent the movie to learn what happens to Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou.

They say in Japan foreigners often get accosted by students of English looking for a chance to practice. Then I guess I must have a big target sign on me as I had this experience as soon as we boarded the train from Narita to Tokyo. The high-school student works evening at the McDonald at the airport to strengthen her English. She wants to be a flight attendant in a few years. She had a good sense of humor and made for a great welcoming party.

I say the trip was mostly uneventful as we had a few problems finding the ryokan. I encourage you if you have a chance to read up on Tokyo’s addressing system. It’s quite different from ours. As such we had the pleasure of playing the role of lost tourists to the clueless Japanese-only-speaking construction workers. All in all though, it was fun and today should be no different.

True to ourselves we’re breakfasting on moon cakes.