Sunday, September 21, 2008

Kyoto - Kinkakuji (The Golden Pavillion)

OK folks, time for a sightseeing update. We've not done many temples/shrines/ancient buildings of significance lately because, as I think I mentioned in an earlier blog; we have decided (like many of our friends) we're a bit 'Shrined and templed out'. Our friends Sam and Brent recently recounted their trip to Obama (the place not the person) for a fishing and relaxing expedition. They mentioned seeing temples and shrines while walking and thinking 'Should we go in'.....'No, they'll be the same as all the others'. Sounds terrible doesn't it? But, 'to tell you the truth'...we're all feeling that way at the moment. Certainly there are some really significant sightseeing spots in Japan, and particularly in Kyoto near where we live, but sometimes they start to blend into one another. The best temples and shrines we've visited since coming to Japan are: Hasedera (Kamakura near Tokyo) because of it's uniqueness (not a word?). It had an underground cave where little models of Buddha lined the walls, a beautiful garden, great ocean view...(sounds like I'm selling it hey?), Kiyomizudera The people's temple in Kyoto. Amazing to walk up to with streets lined with touristy shops and yummy sweets, and a beautiful view from its verandahs, Nanzenji which we kind of stumbled upon at the end of walking the Philosopher's Path in Kyoto during Cherry Blossom season; it's very rustic and you can hike around the mountains in the back of the temple and finally, more recently Kinkakuji. Kinkakuji is the really iconic, very well known image of a temple in Japan but in case you're not familiar, I'm going to do a Sam and wiki you guys...here you go...

Kinkaku-ji (金閣寺 Golden Pavilion Temple) is the informal name of Rokuon-ji (鹿苑寺) in Kyoto, Japan. It was originally built in 1397 to serve as a retirement villa for Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, as part of his estate then known as Kitayama.[1] It was his son who converted the building into a Zen temple of the Rinzai school.

The Golden Pavilion, or Kinkaku, is a three-story building on the grounds of the temple. The top two stories of the pavilion are covered with pure gold leaf. The pavilion functions as a shariden, housing relics of the Buddha (Buddha's Ashes). The building is often linked or contrasted with Ginkaku-ji, the Silver Pavilion Temple, which is also located in Kyoto.

The Golden Pavilion is set in a magnificent Japanese strolling garden (kaiyū-shiki). The pond in front of it is called Kyōko-chi (Mirror Pond). There are many islands and stones on the pond that represent the Buddhist creation story.

Hmm....interesting and educational. Anyway, Ross and I decided to head to Kinkakuji on a Friday afternoon because when we were trying to figure out what to do and where to go for the day Ross was like: 'Well, I still haven't seen that Golden thing'...so you could say we felt called to go to the temple. We headed into Kyoto and took a local bus (hell, 45 mins of hell) to Kinkakuji. The Golden Pavillion and its garden is very beautiful and serene but the loads of tourists that hustle in can be frustrating. The pure gold leaf on the building is dazzling and we also had the chance to stop and watch little turtles at the waters' edge clambering all over each other. Very cute. I love turtles! We walked around the gardens twice then headed back into Kyoto for dinner. We don't often get the chance to eat out in Kyoto so we decided to wander around the famous Pontocho Alley (wiki time!)

Pontochō (先斗町) is a district in Kyoto, Japan, known for geisha and home to many geisha houses and traditional tea houses. Like Gion, Pontochō is famous for the preservation of forms of traditional architecture and entertainment. Pontochō centres around one long, narrow, cobbled alley running from Shijo-dōri to Sanjo-dōri, one block west of the Kamo River (Kamogawa). Today the area, lit by traditional lanterns at night, contains a mix of very expensive restaurants—often featuring outdoor riverside dining on wooden patios—geisha houses and tea houses, brothels, bars, and cheap eateries.

So we wandered along Pontocho Alley and looked at the quaint little shop fronts until we came to a place that took our fancy - a Brazilian restaurant complete with buffet style salads and desserts and meat from the spit cut for you at your table. It was earlyish for dinner so we were the only people in there, except for the owner who was busy feasting on the buffet. We took a seat on the floor on these big mattresses and cushions, looking out a big window to the Kamo river. It was still ight out and it had a really nice view but the start of the meal had that 'we're the only people in this buffet restaurant' awkwardness. Yeah, that kind of awwardness. :) Seriously though, often in Japan because of the language barrier dining out can be confusing. You often have to peer in the windows and scope out a place before you commit to going in cos there's all sorts of different rules and expectations for places. Where you order, where you eat, whether or not your shoes need to come off, how to call waiters over (sometimes there's a buzzer on your table!), how to order something (2 serves, 2 pieces, 2....) and dining out can be overwhelming. On this occasion it was confusing because the meat for our Brazilian meat buffet was nowhere to be seen. Ross even asked 'Excuse me, where is the meat?' Very amusing. So it turned out that we needed to collect whatever we wanted from the buffet (amazing salads and incredible desserts...oh that banana cake!) then the meat comes to you, with a brazilian man (yes, a real authentic brazilian man) holding it and he carves for you. He brought pork sausages, two parts of a cow, pork, chicken etc etc etc all out to us one at a time. It was cooked fresh and he was the only was doing it so sometimes it took a little while but it was AMAZINGLY fresh and delicious. I ate so much I hurt. Watching the Brazilian man was very much the entertainment of the evening. He couldn't speak English or Japanese very well and was easily the most nervous person I have seen in a very long time. Difficult to explain but very enjoyable to impersonate, so please ask me to sometime. Anyway, we finished our night with a wander along the Kamo river past all the famous outdoor dining verandahs. Lovely.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Girls Movie Night, Pizza and Bryn's Birthday thingamijig

Hello all! I'm back! I know you've been basking in the experience of reading a blog entry from Ross but the time has come to come back to earth. Allie (the studious, blog conscious, consistent one) has come back from her brief hiatus. I though I'd do a quick little blog to mention a couple of little things we've been doing lately, just to keep busy and amused. Movie Night A few weeks ago my best friend here in Japan, Natalie organised a girls night of 'Viking Dessert' and 'Sex and the City Movie'. Viking dessert (viking anything for that matter) refers to buffet or all you can eat meals. Some of the best viking dessert bars can be found in Osaka at the HEP 5 building. It's a big shopping centre with a giant red ferris wheel on top and has loads of great shopping, people watching opportunities and food. The Viking dessert we chose had lots of little sponge cakes and jellies and breads and make your own icecream sundaes and so on. Yum. The last time Ross and I went to a viking place we were amazed at the sight of someone we have come to believe was a professional eater. It's hard to explain now and was actually very hard to explain right after the fact but last time, Ross and I were just finishing our meal when a very petite girl entered the restaurant and began to eat. I am not saying this lightly, I have NEVER seen someone eat like she did. She heaped platefuls and platefuls of food and took them to the table and she would eat with a kind of frightening seizing and throwing back of her head as she sort of threw food down her throat. She was a tiny girl but we watched as she ate six heaped plates of pasta, bread, noodles, salad (conscientious eater) and fried meats then four heaped bowls of desserts. It was dazzling to watch her and also very unnerving. She would be mid mouthful (shovelful) and her eyes would dart around and despite the platefuls of food on her table she would return to the buffet, as if on a mission and collect another type of food. Then she'd return to the table and eat the previous foods and the new foods again. This happened repeatedly. We were completely taken in by her and by trying to figure out who (or what) she was....drugged? High? Just hungry? We left the restaurant shortly before her, and I'm not ashamed to say we decided to follow her for awhile. Just to figure out "what would she do next"???!!! Anyway, none of that madness this time, just a nice 'meal' at a viking dessert place with lots of friends and Erin's mum who was visiting - such a lovely mum! After dessert we headed over to TOHO cinemas, right near HEP5 where the lovely Natalie delivered the tickets she'd lined up for. There had been a mass lineup of women to see this movie and Nat and Sally had lined up for over an hour. I have actually never watched Sex and the Cuty on television but Ross had (yes, you read correctly) so he filled me in on some of the important details about characters and along I went. It was actually interesting cos so many of my friends were committed watchers of the show and were getting very emotional. I liked hearing all their thoughts on what should happen in the movie, and then their reflections on what actually did happen. A really lovely night out. PIZZA! I have been intending to do a blog all about food in Japan for a long time now and was especially encouraged to when I saw my friend Sam's food blog entry recently. I'll definitely have to get around to it as I have tons of interesting photos and its definitely something that keeps me busy, interested and focused in Japan - what will I eat next??? Ross and I like to eat out here a lot, especially with the heat of summer where we were not at all interested in cooking. It's not a matter of 'Should we eat out', it's a matter of 'where will we eat tonight?' It ends up costing about the same to eat out here as it does to stay in. Anyway, a few weeks ago Ross and I were sitting at home on a friday night. Friday is our day off but usually ends up being a stay at home day where we head to the gym or relax or clean or go for groceries. On Sundays we often go sightseeing or something. I like to make sure that whatever we do, on these two days we do something 'special'. This could be sightseeing or going for a walk or anything really but on this particular night, I decided it would be pizza. Pizza in Japan is a funny thing. Definitely nothing like home where we look down on Pizza Hut (or other people look down on Dominos but I love it) and head to our local Pizza place (Oh, I miss Pizza Heart in Box Hill). Here, pizza can be bought in Japanese bars (called Izakaya) or in Italian restaurants but the pizza here is extremely thin (not in a 'traditonal Italian super thin delicious way just in a super thin crappy piece of bread way) and not very tasty. We have had good pizza here - Ross likes putting tabasco sauce all over a cheese and bacon pizza thing at our local izakaya, our friend Rumi took us for woodfired pizza that was delicious and we've heard about a traditional southern style pizza place in Shinsaibashi that we keep planning to check out, but i will say one thing, we haven't had pizza like we remember it for a LONG time. And the main thing is, if you feel like pizza...you can't be satisfied unless you eat pizza like you love it! Pizza Hut is in Japan but it is extremely expensive and extremely strange. The pizza crusts here can be stuffed with cheese and sausages...the toppings include squid, broccoli, Caesar salad, spaghetti carbonara, tinned tuna, crab meat, pork rinds and tinned corn. Actually, my friend Cath believes in Japan you have to always 'find the hidden corn' as corn does tend to be 'hidden' in an extraordinary number of dishes at all different restaurants here in Japan. Anyway, Pizza Hut here is also very expensive so its very popular with people but definitely not eaten with any kind of regularity. This one Friday night, I decided our 'special thing' for the day would be ordering a pizza (woohoo go crazy Allie! - I can tell that's what you're thinking). Anyway, our closest Pizza Hut is a suburb and ten mins bike ride away in Tsukamoto. So i rode my bike down, ordered our $35 pizza (I know. It's extraordinary), cruised around Tsukamoto then picked up the pizza and using some mini basket style ocky straps I have bought to secure groceries, I strapped the pizza to the back of my bicycle and rode home. At one point i was riding alongside Pizza Hut delivery guy on his delivery scooter with pizzas in back. I was slightly embarrassed and a little bit proud of the piuzza strapped to my bike - I thought about winking with solidarity at him but decided my own satisfied feeling of 'You and me buddy, we're in this together' was enough. Great pizza. Great fun. Here;s the Pizza Hut Japan website if you're interested http://www.pizzahut.jp/menu/ (but no wiki Sam, I'll leave that to you!) :) Bryn's Birthday Last week Ross and I joined others to celebrate Bryn's birthday. It was good to catch up with some people we don't always get a chance to see and the beautiful meal at a Vietnamese restaurant in Umeda was really good too. It ended like most nights out here in Osaka; everyone standing around trying to figure out where to head next, trying to get into a few bars but being turned away cos there's too many of us (bars and restaurants in Japan don't like big groups) then deciding, of course, to head to the river! Yay! I love the river in Juso and hanging out by it is one of the most relaxing things to do. Sometimes we let off fireworks, sometimes we just chat. It's always good. Time with Yoshimi I've finally had the chance to hang out with Yoshimi again recently. As her due date looms (yes, she's one of the pregnant ones) she is feeling better and better. Early in her pregnancy she was pretty much bedridden for two months where I couldn't see her at all but since early August we;ve been catching up again from time to time. Last weekend she took me to the Dick Bruna exhibition at Suntory museum near Osaka Aquarium. Probably not as exciting or meaningful for others but going to this exhibition meant a lot to me. Dick Bruna is the man behind 'Miffy', the famous Rabbit character from cartoons, books and a massive stationary demand here in Japan. Ten years ago I had the chance to stay with the loveliest family in Japan, the Nishimura family. Yoshimi was my host sister. The Nishimura family have the only licencing rights in Asia to Dick Bruna characters, so all the Miffy toys and stationary and goods that you see around Japan are made by Kutsuwa; Yoshimi's family's company. When I was 16 in Japan I visited the company, the factories, etc and had the best time with this family - so heading to this exhibition with Yoshimi was really important to me. We had such a lovely afternoon, talking and exploring the museum... Yoshimi was so sweet, helping me understand the more complicated Japanese, pointing out the famous characters and how the drawing has changed over the years, and even helping little children get books off the shelves to look at. I just know Yoshimi is going to be a great mum.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Ross' Blog Comeback and a trip to beautiful Minoh

Hi guys! Now... although the end of each of our blog entries reads: "from Allie and Ross Baker", you wouldn't have to be a genius to figure out that Allie has been the author of 99% of the blog entries so far. She has been really into it, and she is an excellent writer, so I'm sure you have all been well entertained by her! However, I figure I had better live up to having my name on each entry, so I'm getting off my bum (possibly a bad choice of words as I'm sitting on it right now) and writing something. This is my official blog comeback!! Yesterday we decided to go to a place called Minoh. As it is so close to where we live - 20 mins travel time - we have never really thought of going there. Surely something that is only 20 mins from Juso couldn't possibly be beautiful... right? Wrong. Minoh is a beautiful mountain area, with a very tranquil river and a Buddhist Temple that is worth the trip by itself. The main road up the mountain is much like the roads that lead to all the elevated temples/shrines... wide enough for one vehicle, littered with a selection of souvenir and food shops and relatively busy with pedestrians walking up and down the mountain. However, as the road steepened, the shops were replaced with a thick forest, the amount of people thinned out, and we were soon walking along a beautiful river. At several points there were places that we could leave the main road to explore other paths or go and sit next to/get in the river. We decided to keep going to the top and then explore these small pockets on the way back down. As we got higher, it only got more peaceful and beautiful. The intense green of the foliage and the very steep drop down to the river reminded me of driving over the Black Spur on the way to Eildon. After walking 2.7 km from the main town we reached the end of the road and the very beautiful Minoh Waterfall. The waterfall cascaded into a large water hole, before it flowed downstream. The water hole was 'out of bounds' - which was a shame because it looked so inviting - yet easily accessible. In typical Japanese style, no one was swimming in the water hole, but there were about 50 or so children and parents splashing about in a rocky part of the river downstream. It looked like so much fun! I had to laugh to myself that such a beautiful and natural place was also decorated with food stalls and drink vending machines :) On the way back we decided to take the more adventurous paths. These took us up very high and then sloped back down towards the river. We stopped for a while and had a small explore/splash in the river. It was such a beautiful place and we decided that we will go back soon and enjoy a picnic with some friends. When we were in the river, away from the road and people I decided that this was my favorite place so far in Japan!
On that way back down we came to the Temple and explored it for a while. We were the only people there, which has never happened before. It's one of the things that tends to frustrate me... I often sefishly think that Japan's beautiful sights would be a whole lot more beautiful if all the people would go away. Well this time I got my wish and it made it an amazing experience. Just as we left the temple, we chanced upon a family of cats, maybe about 15 or so. I guess they were stray, but they were also used to people and were very friendly and playful. We spent a little while with them, found ourselves missing Oscar terribly and then kept going. On the way back down we had a look at a map and saw that there are lots of hiking trails in the surrounding mountains. I can't wait to go back and check them out. As beautiful as Minoh was yesterday, it is aparantley much more breathtaking in full Autum as the Maple leaves turn a bright red.
By the time we reached the train station again it was dark and we were quite tired, yet very satisfied with ourselves. All in all, a great day!

What have you been up to lately in Japan?

People keep asking what we've been up to lately........... Please check out our blog! I try to update it as regularly as I can. Here's what we've been up to lately.....some blogs to look forward to: -eating out (lots) -Bryn's Birthday -Minoh waterfall -Kinkakuji, the Golden Temple -Girl's Dessert and Movie Night - Sex and the City -Shopping -Miffy museum Miss you guys! Love Allie and Ross xo

More birthday photos!

1. Brent often wears funny things on his head. My birthday - no exception. 2. Special treatment 'cos we know the chef! 3. My birthday cake!
Posted by Picasa

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Allie the Birthday Girl

I thought I'd blog a bit about my experience of having my birthday last month here in Japan. Birthdays are definitely something special here in Japan and seem to be something worth getting excited about for a lot of reasons. For starters, there's a package to arrive from home (maybe two) and secondly, people here love to celebrate. It's something I've come to love about living in Japan, more to the point living in Juso and something I will definitely miss when we return to Australia; that people here are always keen to catch up, hang out and so something fun. Back home everyone has such a lot of stuff to fill their time; working, family commitments, different schedules to one another but here in Japan we foreigner in Japan people really only have one another. So, we spend a lot of time together. We generally do dinner, do drinks, sit on the river front, sit on our rooftop, etc. and chat and catch up and vent about Japan life and so on. It's great, it's relaxing. And when a birthday rolls around, we all celebrate - and most of the time we all go cos we dont really have any other commitments that wouldn't already involve one another! This weekend is Bryn's birthday so we're heading into Umeda for Vietnamese on Saturday night. For now, I'll blog about the many and varied ways i celebrated my birthday. So, presents arrived by mail from Mum (Burberry Perfume) and Dad (money) and Nola and David, Ross' parents (a new dress/top and my makeup and some chocolates) and there was lots of well wishing from friends and family and students via Facebook and email. Stefanie has a really super special extra wonderful birthday gift that she's still planning on sending me. It's only a month late.....right Stef???!!! :) On the day I was actually in Tokyo with Ross as it was smack bang in the middle of our vacation for summer. I was glad cos Ross' birthday was at a school he doesn't particularly love and he didn't bother telling them it was his birthday so all was normal...awkward situation to be sure. So we were in Tokyo and that in itself was a birthday present! I woke up in the morning as a friend Sally who was staying in the same building wanted to give me a birthday hug. She greeted me at my hotel room and gave me a little present pack with a book by one of my favourite authors, some of my favourite chocloates here (favourite to mock and favourite to eat - if you come to visit Japan I will introduce you to the randomness of the Choc assortment pack by Meiji). She also filled the pack with oreo cookies and a rather large handful of the complimentary tea that the hotel provided for us in our rooms - incidentally a very thoughtful girt as i had spent a good three days previous raving to her about the complimentary teas and how I had taken to hiding them in my suitcase so that when the ladies came to clean and do turn down I would get more tea...conniving one that I am. Ross gave me beautiful gifts for my birthday - it was defintely a 'Burberry Birthday'. i am currently saving money doing private lessons with a woman named Masako every Tuesday morning at Mister Donuts in an effort to same for a very beautiful Burberry bag I have fallen in love with. I really want to work towards it though so this birthday i was given lots of other Burberry gifts that will someday find themselves nestled in that bag. Ross gave me two Burberry fragrances, two Burberry facecloths (compulsory Japanese accessory) and a beautiful teddybear, handmade from a cute little bar near our home in Juso. In the corner of the bar is a table of handicrafts like lace jewellery and handmade brooches and teddies and wall hangings and so on. Really cute and delicate. Yoshimi gave me Burberry cloths too so now I have quite the collection! We spent my birthday sightseeing in Ueno Park and exploring Tokyo then headed back to the hotel to meet with Sally. We headed to the Park Hyatt Tokyo for predinner cocktails. The hotel is famous for being a location in the Bill Murray film 'Lost in Translation' (see it) where Murray's character says something like 'The cheapest thing on the menu is the domestic beer at 1000 yen'. We knew of this pricing so we headed there before 8 (after 8 there's a $22 surcharge per person!) and had cocktails, then we headed to 'Outback' where we had dinner. American style, posing as Aussie style. Yum! So, in Tokyo my birthday was a blast but i also wanted to celebrate back with the people in the Juse! (and in other parts of Osaka but lately I have an overwhelming desire to continually refer to Juso as the Juse...any excuse will do). So, upon returning to the Juse (smooth Allie) we organised a get together with friends from ECC. We decided to go back to Hankyu Beer Garden but when I tried to book it was all booked out so our good friend Rumi helped me book a different beer garden but then on the day it poured rain so they just closed the beer garden (they're rooftop and on big buidings in the middle of the city, out in the open so its impossible to keep them open if it rains). We ended up meeting everyone at Big Man (the name for our favourite meeting spot, and most people's favourite in Osaka, a big television screen in Hankyu station that is actually called (and labled underneath) 'BIG MAN'. We moved the herd of friends to a kushiage restaurant nearby. We actually did Kushiage before, when Stef visited. Its a buffet style meal where everything is threaded onto skewers and ready to be cooked in a vat of deep fry oil right in the centre of your table. Awesome. You get batter and crumbs too if you want. Excellent. So we went for Kushiage then made plans to head to Shinsaibashi for a few drinks. We headed back to Juso to collect our bikes so we could ride over to Shinsaibashi and not rely on the last train. Unfortunately it was one drama after another as Stefan's bike had a flat, Jesse's bike got a flat and as we pumped Jesse's bike the sky opened up and extreme rain; some of the hardest and heaviest and worst I've experienced in Japan bucketed down. The only thing that made it better was that we were outside Don Quixote. Our fave place in Juso - a mega variety store. As it rained we had plenty to look at and plenty to eat. We gave up on Shinsaibashi and headed home for a movie night. We've taken to pulling out our futons and laying them on the tatami loungeroom floor - very cosy and reminds me of winter in Elder street when Ross and i would build cubbies using the sofa and the kitchen table and our doonas. Lots of good memories. That was the Saturday celebration, but there was also a great dinner had the Friday night before with good friends Chris and Leigh, Sam and Brent - both lovely couples from the USA. Both of these couples work late Saturday nights and couldn't do the Kushiage thing so we went out for a meal at a little cafe on the edge of a gorgeous park in Osaka that Chris and Leigh has recently found. We've befriended the cook there and as such he whipped up som yummy special dishes for us to try as a treat. We also amused ourselves with a traditional Japanese children's game involving a net made from rice paper that disolves as you use it to fish out rubber balls from a children's pool. Actually, the same game had been set up in the foyer of one of my schools during the early summer weeks of Yukata parties, but it was fun for us to hang out with our grownup friends and give it another go! The park near the cafe is really beautiful, lots of big tall tress and places to relax and at night parks in Osaka come alive with young people practicing dance moves and hanging out together. This park was no different...though some of the statues were a little 'ahem' special. Thank you to Emma! Your package for our birthdays arrived yesterday- such sweet, hearfelt gifts - big thank you. And an enormous thank you to my lovely DCC students who put together a very sweet birthday message and to Nat who made me the package. You guys are LOVELY!

Sunday, September 7, 2008

The Coffee Machine

1. Disappointment at Starbucks, Osaka Airport 2. Stef enjoys Iced Coffee (Japan style) 3. At home: cartons of iced coffee, whitener and gum syrup 4. Vending machines full of coffee...mmm. Convenient. 5. Our blessed machine. We're going to open a cafe in our tatami room this winter. :) Weird I know but I felt it necessary to blog about our new coffee machine. This will just take a moment. Please be patient. To tell you the truth... when we first arrived in Japan we had kind of prepared ourselves for what we like to call 'the coffee situation'. In fact, the famous 'Americans visit' to mum's store prepared us well. While battling it out with the guy who continually repeated his order (becoming louder each time) to me; the hick Australian waitress: "I just want black coffee. You know, black coffee', while I attempted to clarify: 'Long black? Short black?' At the time I was somewhat surprised to hear that in many places in our big wide world coffee is black and poured from a jug much the way we see Doris or Lucy or Candy in their pink uniforms do it in diners in the movies...or at McDonalds. Keen coffee drinking friends back home will support me when i say that Melbourne has some of the best coffee going. For starters, we do espresso, instead of drip style like the lovelies I know from the USA (sorry Sam!), secondly we've got Lygon Street, numerous good locations in the CBD, that fabulous House/Home of Delicacies (can never recall the correct name) on the way to work in Donvale, Hahndorfs in Blackburn and so on. I could go on but I wont. Japan has several coffee options, most of which didn't particularly get me excited. Dad and Glen had actually helped us prepare for the inevitable coffee issues that awaited us in Japan by gifting us with a farewell present - a Starbucks coffee card stocked with credit. Now, I am not a HUGE fan of Starbucks, but I did know they were quite big in Japan and I also knew they (of course) used an espresso machine. Upon arriving at Kansai airport, coffee credit card in hand I ambled over to Starbucks and ordered. It was our first night in Japan and very unfortunately the girl behind the counter said to me: 'To tell you the truth...we only accept Starbucks cards purchased in Japan' (actually she didn't say 'to tell you the truth but it's a habit of mine now so just go with it). In our early days in Japan, coffee became quite the concern: Should be buy a drip machine? They're everywhere, they can't be all bad. Should we buy a plunger? Yes, Let's buy a plunger! Where can we buy a plunger? Why doesn't anyone sell plungers? But it also became quite interesting. Japan has numerous ways to drink coffee. There are hundreds of thousands of coffee vending machines, cold black coffee (with or without sugar) comes in cartons ready to pour and add mini sachets of gum syrup and whitener to, and of course it can be purchased in loads of cafes and restaurants. In the early days we eventually found a small plunger and that became the norm each morning. Then when the heat of summer hit I actually took to buying cartons of cold coffee and adding the gum syrup and whitener (sounds worse than it actually is) and all was well...until we went shopping with Yoshimi and Keichan and they turned our coffee drinking world upside down. We were shopping when we saw a Delonghi espresson machine in a store display and I turned to Ross and noted how much cheaper Delonghi is in Japan than Australia. We discussed then Yoshimi and Keu wanted to know what we were nattering about. When we mentioned our love for coffee Kei was like: 'I have that machine! I have that Delonghi machine at work, it's in a box. I don't want it. You can have it.' And so, on fireworks saturday when everyone arrived at our place to enjoy the Juso fireworks display, Yoshimi came laden with the usual gifts of rice crackers and wine and sake and she came with a pretty spectacular gift...our espresso machine. We are well and truly spoilt.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Summer Vacation: Tokyo!

After the madness of fireworks, Baseball and pretty lights we headed on the shinkansen (bullet train) for five days in Tokyo. The shinkansen takes about 2.5 hours to travel the 403km from Osaka to Tokyo, hurtling along at 270km an hour. It's a really great way to travel - spacious seats, no need for boarding passes and all the extra details that are needed for flying. You just go to the station, buy your ticket then board the train. Shinkansen trains go every five to fifteen mins depending on the time of day. On board, it doesn't seem as though you're going very fast but at times you pass other normal trains and the speed seems pretty amazing. The seats are big and spacious and they sell food and drinks and it's all very comfortable and we loved it! We arrived in Tokyo early Monday morning and were met at the station by one of my oldest and dearest Japanese friends, Yumiko. Yumiko stayed with our family in Australia in 1994 when she was 16 years old and an exchange student at our school. At the time, she was a high school student who lived in Chiba, a prefecture right next to Tokyo known for surfing and industry. She and I have kept in touch over the years, writing letters and emails and when I visited Japan in 1998 she was a Travel agent and made a trip to Kyoto to visit me and stay for a weekend. She is a really lovely person and a good friend. Of course, when we made plans to go to Tokyo I let her know and we planned to spend the first day of our week in Tokyo sightseeing with Yumiko. What a surprise when we arrived and she informed us that she had a fiance! How exciting I said and was nearly bowled over by this conversation: "Yumiko, you're engaged! When will you get married?" To which she replied: "To tell you the truth...tomorrow." At first I thought we were having a language barrier situation but no, a conversation in Japanese confirmed it and yes, she was to take me sightseeing on a Monday and marry on the Tuesday! They were married through the registry office and will have a party later on. It wasn't until later that I got my 'second to tell you the truth' and my second shock of the day...'Allie, another to tell you the truth...I'm pregnant'. WOW! To tell you the truth... I am collecting pregnant women friends over here. Rumi, Yoshimi, Yumiko. Very exciting! Sightseeing with Yumiko was really good - she took us to all of the main places on Ross' and my to do list. The weather in Tokyo was hot but much more pleasant (and less humid) than Osaka. My first impression of Tokyo was kind of weird. Hard to explain but once you've lived in Japan you're already a bit used to the dazzling weird Japanesey things surrounding us every day (ridiculous number of vending machines, weird English translations, strange flavoured potato chips and the like...) so going to Tokyo, I was kind of looking the whole time at the differences between it and Osaka. I don't know if I'm just being proud or noble or whatever but i will say that I prefer Osaka over Tokyo. In actual fact, I read recently that Osaka is becoming more and more of a 'place to see' on tourist's lists when they come to Japan. I love Osaka - it's dirty and grimy and concretey and loud and busy and really really really special to me. I can't quite explain it. Anyway, the main difference apparent to me hen we first arrived in Tokyo was the bigness of everything. It is an absolutely massive city and whilst in my mind I imagined that meant big tall building everywhere (and it is) it's also apparent in the nothingness of many of the areas we went through and the length of every train journey. Osaka is a big city too - bustling streets, lots of entertainment and restaurants and buildings as far as the eye can see - but Tokyo was a different kind of big - it's really spread out. So, travelling to different spots and seeing the busy and the bustling even in the 'nothing areas'; the business districts, housing areas, even the areas surrounding our hotel... the VASTNESS of Tokyo as well as it's bigness is apparent. Does that make sense? A few other things I noticed about Tokyo...1)Lots of people in a hurry and they seem to be going to lots of different places in lots of different directions...unlike in Osaka where pretty much everyone is in a big long line heading for the Midosuji subway. 2)People are more rude. Lots more pushing and shoving. 3)Lots of amazing fashion in store windows but people in Tokyo seem much more conservatively dressed and much more boringly dressed than Osaka people. Not nearly as much diversity as I expected. 4)People in Tokyo all think we're tourists. Everyone spoke English to us whereas in Osaka they go with Japanese first. 5)A much more diverse range of food options (countries wise that is...like turkish food, thai food, etc) is available in Tokyo, but the food is NOT as delicious or as cheap as Osaka. 6) They have Dr Pepper in their vending machines whilst Dr Pepper is only for sale in Foreign supermarkets in Osaka 7) They have suicide prevention guard walls up on main station platforms...kinda freaky 8)People push and shove and don't line up as politely as they do in Osaka. Hmm...I think thats all for now. Ill think of some more later, I'm sure. Anyway, on day 1, Yumiko met Ross and I at Tokyo station. From there we checked into our hotel (and claimed our freebies...socks, an eco bag and the ever popular Toyoko Inn headband - all the girls in the Juse are wearing them). Yumiko took us to some of the main tourist spots in Tokyo - Asakusa, where there is a famous shrine; Sensoji with an even more famous (and very cool) shopping strip (Nakamise Dori) leading up to it. Nakamise Dori features storefronts from Japan's Edo period and many of them sell traditional Japanese foods and crafts. The shrine itself is not as amazing as some of the ones we've seen in Kyoto and Nara but it was still great to see it. Yumiko took us to lunch in a famous soba/tempura restaurant in the same area. From Asakusa we headed up the Sumida river on a cruise. The cruise is promoted as not being very picturesque (Japan doesn't invest in waterfront property so most of the riversides here are pretty undeveloped and unattractive) but a good way to get a sense of the size of Tokyo, and a great way to get from one main sightseeing spot to another. We headed up the Sumida to the Hama Deatached Palace Garden. It was so hot waliking through the garden but there were such beautiful trees and little islands in the garden's lake so I loved the chance to visit it. After Hama graden we headed to Meiji Shrine, the most famous of Tokyo's shrines and really a very beautiful place. "To tell you the truth" We're a bit 'over' shrines and temples recently...so many of them are similar to each other (or at least in the eyes westerners like us) that it can be hard to be amazied or excited by them sometimes! I did really appreciate the natural beauty and picturesque setting of Meiji though. Tokyo is a city with many parks and gardens and Meiji Shrine is famous for a forest of trees surrounding the shrine. You essentially walk out of the station, through the entrance and into a huge forest of towering trees. It's pretty magical. You walk through the forest along a path to the shrine itself which is built from lots of natural timbers. From Meiji we headed back to the hotel to rest and refresh before heading out to dinner with Yumiko. At dinner she gave me a beautiful necklace as a birthday present. I told her I still remember the first birthday present she ever gave me, about 14 years ago; a Minnie Mouse toy from Tokyo Disneyland...and I still have it! :) On Tuesday, Ross and i got up early and headed to Kamakura, a seaside village famous for (of course) shrines and temples but also renowned for its giant stone buddha which stands on top of the mountain. It is huge and really majestic, as are the straw sandals hanging nearby at the temple complex, made to fit the size of this buddha's feet...if he ever needed them. From the Daibutsu we walked down the road to Hasedera Temple...easily the best temple complex I have visited since coming to Japan. The temple featured a stunning Japanese garden, an incredible view of the ocean, beautiful olde building, sculptures and an underground cave area - a place of worship where people place little buddha statues. There were thousands of little buddha statues decorating the walls of the cave. Pretty crazy. Pretty cool. On Wednesday we went to Ginza - all kinds of fabulous and my favourite part of Tokyo for sure. We spent lots of time wandering around the shopping areas, Ross taking pictures of the incredible buildings of the designer stores...Chanel, Mikimoto, Ralph Lauren, etc and me gazing at the goodies in each of the stores. It really is architecturally an amazing area. We also checked out Akihabara on Wednesday, known as the electronics district of Tokyo and chockfull of socially awkward nerdy men (known as Otaku), electronics stores, and sexy shops full of life size dolls that men can purchase and dress up in all manner of uniforms. There are lots of signs in the area pleading with foreigners to not take photos and lots of vending machines with instant meals like sausages and eggs in a can, noodles in a can etc. For some reason the food in a can set me more on edge than the dolls and costumes...I think I found it just really strange that grown men could be so socially awkward and preoccupied with electronics that normal functional things like eating a meal become canned and instant...just weirded me out is all. That night we went on an epic (and truly frustrating) trek all over Shinjuku looking for the government building viewing tower so we could check out the Tokyo night sky. Moronic security guards had us and several others wandering around dark and confused searching for the right entrance to a massive building. Some gave up but we pressed on and after I got a little carried away saying 'Dame, Dame!' (Bad! Wrong! Bad!) at one of the security guards we eventually found our way in. The sheer size of the city is incredible to see my night and the view was awesome but after all our trekking we really didn't appreciate the view from the tower nearly as much as the cans of Dr Pepper from the tower's vending machines which we drank as we sat on the floor of the tower. Thursday was my birthday! Woohoo! Waking up on your birthday in Tokyo - pretty special. Friends were staying in the same hotel as us and came by with gifts and of course darling Ross game me lots of lovely things too. I was spoilt this year with a definite Burberry theme - Burberry fragrances, Burberry little towels and handkerchiefs for my handbag, and a really gorgeous little handmade bear from a special store near us back in Juso. I call him 'Akaichan' (Akai means red and he's a little red bear). So cute. We went to Tokyo National Museum and Ueno Park for the day and I loved seeing the exhibits with Noh and Kabuki masks and costumes from traditional drama performances. The art was gorgeous as well - beautiful old prints. In the international exhibits we saw a mummy - very eerie and some beautiful pottery and handcrafts too. Thursday night we headed out for drinks and dinner with Sally, a friend from Juso who was also exploring Tokyo for summer vacation. We started with drinks at the famous cocktail bar featured in the movie 'Lost in Translation'. In the film, Bill Murray's character famously remarks that the cheapest item on the menu is a domestic beer at 1000 yen (about eleven australian dollars) and sure enough Bill was right. Actually domestic beers were 1100 yen but we chose to live it up and tried the awesome cocktails and soaked up an unparallelled view of Tokyo in incredible luxury...for 30 mins before we left because after 8pm there's a surcharge of 2000 yen per guest just for sitting there. Understandable due to its popularity...but we weren't prepared to pay! :) We headed to Roppongi for dinner. Roppongi is a bit of a grotty area - basically its the foreigners playground of Tokyo. Lots of English being spoken as bar and club hosts plead with you on the street to please come into their establishment. We weren't having any of it. There was only one place for us that night...Outback Steakhouse. What's that Australian friends? You haven't heard of it? How strange. It's only the most American steakhouse in the world posing as the most stereotypically Australian steakhouse in the world. Oh yes. The toilets are marked with 'sheilas and blokes', there's some indigenous art on the staircase and Ken Duncan masterpiece in the hall on the way to the loos. It's quite the experience...and I haven't even started on the food! Yes, we've been in Japan about six months now and we really are missing our "Blooming Onions", blue cheese dressing and buffalo wings. Hmmmmmm....not so Australian after all. What is a blooming onion I hear you gasp? Only the biggest onion I've even seen (described aptly in the menu as colossal), battered, deep fried and served with creamy ranch dipping sauce. Ah, Australia, we've really been missing out! On Friday we headed back to Ginza area for Tsukiji Fish Market (the biggest in the world) to try the sushi - famed as the freshest sushi in the world and available at any one of the number of little sushi restaurant dotted around the market. The auction is no longer open to the public (foreigners sniffing around and getting in everyone's way) and the market itself is only amazing at around five in the morning. Quite frankly i was happy to head there at ten and just do the sushi! I had also read about a place called '100% chocolate cafe', a cafe that features fresh chocolate in big tubs and is run by Meiji the main chocolate company in Japan. Massive tubs of fresh chocolate are along the walls and you can purchase dishes of pastries served with your choice of fresh chocolate - almond, cassis (a kind of blackcurrant), vanilla, etc. We also wandered around Shinjuku and Shibuya to check out the famous shopping, busy crossings, etc then walked around Yoyogi Park and were startled by the number of homeless people and dazzled at their incredibly well set up communities. We headed back to Tokyo station to buy the customary Tokyo souvenirs (banana and strawberry cakes that are YUM and can only be tried if you have kind ECC students who occasionally commute to Tokyo or you get the chance to head there yourself). We took the train back home to Osaka; 'Tokyo Bananas' and 'Ginza Strawberries' in hand at around seven pm and were thrilled that we'd left our place tidy to come home to. Yes, we are an old married couple.