Monday, May 28--Pickled Veg

Last morning in the Land of the Rising Sun! We had packed our bags, went for one last miso soup and fish breakfast and lugged everything into the ryokan lobby. Turns out, Lynda's stack of bags was almost as tall as she is! I don't know how she manages, but I guess all of those souvenir purses and baggies need to go somewhere. 

I had taken a spare bag; the plan was to check in the bag I had taken as carry-on to Japan and keep the extra bag, filled with souvenirs and gifts, as carry-on for the flight back. I didn't mind checking in luggage on the way back, because I had a 6-hour layover in Minneapolis; even with a possible delay that was plenty of time to take care of business. 

Lynda's flight to Frankfurt was scheduled to leave around 2 and mine was 4:20, so we took one last walk around the vicinity. After spotting several stores featuring more purses and a decision by both of us to NOT spend any more money, we stepped into a drugstore in the pedestrian shopping zone so I could buy some gum. We took the wrong exit and found ourselves face-to-face with a pickle store, gaping at the variety. 

The owner and his mother were just opening and setting everything out, but he asked us to come and try some things. His English was sufficient enough to explain all of his goods and I couldn't resist. The notion of not spending any more money flew out the door, especially since I still had about 5,500 yen left from the night before--I told you I'd get back to those--that were burning a hole in my pocket. So pickled veggies it was--pickled burdock roots, pickled mushrooms, bamboo and garlic, pickled eggplant in sake, and umeboshi (pickled plums). Lynda got some too. The plan worked and I left Japan with about $5 in yen in my wallet. 

The shop owner noticed Lynda's cat coin purse and asked her if she liked cats. She said she did. He then asked her if she had any and she said she didn't, but that I did. We then started talking about the dogs we have and looked at pictures of each other's dogs. The owner wrapped up my pickles like they were gift, which they kind of are--a gift to myself! That, and I know everybody else will refuse to eat them. 

Lynda in the pickle shop

The owner of the pickle shop and me with the loot

It was time to leave for the airport so we went back to the ryokan, grabbed our luggage and headed to the subway, which took us to the airport. We did encounter our favorite rickshaw-runner Suga/Shuga on our way to the subway station and he recognized us, but didn't have time to chat, because he had his sights set on some German tourists he wanted to talk into taking a ride with him. Being tri-lingual=triple the opportunity=triple the amount of work. 

After check-in at the airport, there wasn't much time left, but we went to the 3rd floor to look around and eat the snack we had acquired at the shopping street before leaving. 

Can't remember the name of this, but it was sweet azuki beans, green tea and some jellies. 

Old Japanese town? No--3rd floor of Haneda Airport! 

We made it through security and still had a few minutes for lunch before Lynda had to go to her gate, but then it was good-bye. What a great trip and what great fun we had! I will see Lynda next year again, when I visit Germany, but we already decided to visit Okinawa on our next Japan trip. 

Good-bye, Lynda!

A mini-urinal in the women's toilet; I've seen this a few times--it's so moms can take their little sons with them to the toilet. 

My flight also left on time and I was off to Minneapolis. Once there, I of course had to go through immigration, get my bag, and go through customs. I always answer "yes" to the question if I brought any food on the customs form, even though I know the type of food I bring is allowed, because my idea of a fun time is not being questioned by customs officers why I lied on the customs form. I got through without a problem and re-checked my bag. 

Then another TSA check. I had my pickles in my carry-on and now you have to take food items out of your bag and put them in a separate container to be x-rayed. They looked at the pickles twice, then unwrapped them to see how much liquid they contained. i held my breath, hoping I wouldn't have to give them up after carrying them across a continent, but the older TSA gentleman said it was "Ok, dear" and let me have my future breakfast items. Whew!

What seemed to be an eternity later, I finally saw the lights of Wichita. Tom came to pick me up and we came home to a bunch of happy puppies. 

Oh, Nihon, I will miss the food, the cleanliness, the no tipping, the great public transportation, the not having to be afraid of crime, the not having to listen to everyone's conversations on their cell phones and your landscapes. I will not miss feeling like I'm illiterate, because I can't read anything, but that just means I need to learn Japanese. 

See you again in two or three years!

Sunday, May 27--Life Under the Train Tracks

Our last full day in Tokyo started with a treat for breakfast--koto music!
It had been advertised on posters throughout the ryokan that there would be a Japanese harp concert during breakfast and we were looking forward to it. Lynda had gone to a koto concert in Frankfurt before, but I've never heard it. And a treat it was!

Another breakfast, another fish

A few seconds of koto music

After breakfast, we asked one of the ryokan staff members about a nice, local izakaya to go to for our last dinner tonight. She recommended one, saying it's very much for the locals, and even wrote down the name in kanji for us. I did a Google search with a picture of the place and a map--it was just two streets down, so no problem.

Since we hadn't done all of our shopping yet--after all, last night was another night during which Lynda could come up with more ideas about who to give a purse to--we explored the side streets and alleys for more opportunities. In all fairness, I still needed some goodies for some of my peeps and myself, so off we went. On the way, we found some more restaurants for a Plan B if needed, an ice cream vendor with some adventurous flavors and a purse/knick-knack store! We spent about an hour in that place, after which we headed back to the ryokan to deposit our purchases. 

Lynda in heaven

We found where the local mikoshi is stored

Black sesame ice cream

Wandering the streets can increase one's need for coffee, so when we passed a cafe right around the corner from our ryokan, and read that it had all kinds of organic and vegan options (not that I've been living vegan at all during this trip, but it was a nice change of pace), we stopped in. The name of the cafe is Sekai Cafe, which Lynda translated as World Cafe; they had a huge world map on their wall and we were asked to put a dot onto the place of our origin, then to pose for a photo which ended up on their Instagram and Facebook page. Isle of Man was not on the map, but Lynda put her dot where it should be, thus putting it on the map. Kansas featured only one other dot and I found on Facebook that just the day before another tourist from Kansas had beat me to the first dot! 

Man-to-shima is Isle of Man, BTW

The food was almost too pretty to eat!

Next stop: Yakitori Alley in the Ginza area. These are little bars/restaurants located right beneath the train tracks of the Yamanote Line. And that was no lie--they really are right beneath the tracks--it's loud, it's grimy and it's interesting!

We had some food in a little place in a pedestrian tunnel, under the tracks. 

We ordered white and black potato salad--the waitress said the color of the black potato salad comes from bamboo. Now, I don't know if she meant bamboo charcoal maybe, because she said it was good for the intestines, but whatever it was, we ate it! Interesting combo, the potatoes with the strawberries. Being in Yakitori Alley, we also tried some yakitori, of course. 

The tables with the checkered table clothes are where we sat; you'll notice the baskets underneath the stools--those store your purse or jacket while you're eating. 

The wall of the pedestrian tunnel. Notice the pouch hanging on the wall--I'll get to that in a bit. 

There was a nice mural on the wall inside of the restaurant

Black and white potato salad

So, the pouches--that is where the bills for the guests sitting outside are stored. They are attached to the wall across from the restaurant. 

A short walk took us to the Godzilla statue in Ginza.

We had really wanted to take a night boat cruise either in Tokyo Bay or on the Sumida River, but we figured if we get back too late, the restaurants will be full again and we didn't want to do a dinner cruise. We settled for a 40-minute boat ride on the Sumida, which departed from Asakusa, so onto the subway we got again. We did find the home of another mikoshi in the subway station. 

Upon arrival in Asakusa, we took a potty break at the tourist info, which happens to be located in a several-story high building, which has an observation deck on the top. We've been to this building before, but never noticed the deck. Here's a view from above:

River cruise departure was right around the corner and we made the next boat with about 10 seconds to spare. Luckily, we're pretty professional by now when it comes to buying tickets from a machine. Still, it's a little bit embarrassing when you're the last ones to board and the captain gives you the wave-through, just so he can get going. 

Tokyo Bay

A little bit of a hike and another subway ride later, we ended up in Asakusa again, ready to go to our recommended izakaya for a last time of dining on things we didn't quite know what they were. The pub front was open towards the street and when we stepped inside, there were some open tables and an older patron sitting at the front counter smiled at us. But not so fast--owner granny took one look at us and said: "Japanese......closed!" I'm sure it meant she didn't want to have any gaijin in her establishment; the smiley gentleman said something to her, but we left. We decided to go past that place on the way home, just to see if she had lied or not. 

So we went to Plan B--a yakiniku (grill at the table) place in a basement we had seen earlier that morning and actually featured some veggies, along with the meat choices. There were people waiting at the door, but they said we should go inside. The waiter told us he'd take care of us and put us on the list for in 45 minutes. That was better than nothing and gave us time to go to the ryokan, dump all unnecessary items we were carrying and go back. 

It was worth the wait! There was an extensive menu, each item had a number and to order you typed the number of your item into a tablet and sent it directly to the waiter. 

We watched how other people handled themselves and then just did whatever they did and it was fun! Apart from the loads of veggies, we also had wagyu beef (Japanese beef), which is melt-in-your-mouth good.

Unfortunately, the waiter wouldn't let us each pay half of the bill with the credit card, so I paid the bill and Lynda gave me money, meaning I had about $50 in cash left. What was I going to do with all that leftover cash? I needed some for the train ride to the airport tomorrow morning, but didn't want to take cash home with me, because I'd lose money changing it back into dollars. I should've known not to worry about that--we still have a few hours tomorrow morning before going to the airport! 

Last sight of the illuminated Tokyo Skytower

Passing by the izakaya on our way back 2 hours later, lo and behold--it was still open. Oh well, granny lost out on a stack of cash, I would say! 

Saturday, May 26--Luck on a Stick

Today is Asakusa exploration day! 

We also wanted to check out the Tokyo National Museum which is located in the Ueno area, right next to Ueno Park. A fabulous breakfast later, we headed out to Nakamise Shopping Street, a straight pedestrian street leading to Sensoji Temple, lined with shops and booths. Our ryokan is located in a side street of Nakamise, so everything is very close by. We were pretty early and not all of the shops had opened yet, but we wanted to dodge the crowds. 

Ryokan breakfast

Nakamise Shopping Street, leading to Sensoji Temple

Of course we had to stop and shop, but we figured we're on vacation and who cares when we get to the museum! Lynda had developed a condition where she was convinced nobody she knows has enough purses--coin purses, tote bags, bottle purses, etc. As a result we stopped in every shop which had items even closely resembling a purse and I ended up with 2 purses I didn't know I needed until I had them. 

At the end of the street and after passing the temple gate, we saw people standing in front of a bunch of wooden drawers, shaking cylinders and pulling out metal sticks. Upon further inspection, we saw that there were instructions in English and these were fortune sticks. I tried it first (you throw 100 yen, about $0.92 into the coin box, shake the cylinder until you can fish a stick out, compare the sign on the stick to a corresponding drawer and pull out a sheet with your fortune) and it looks like I have a great future ahead of me. Lynda on the other hand was not so lucky .Her fortune pretty much stunk, but not to worry, there are provisions for that--you just tie the paper on a rack and let the universe take care of the rest! Lynda is demonstrating the whole procedure below. I did shorten the first part of the video depicting the shaking process, because it's not an easy task to get one of those sticks to come out and it takes forever!

Lynda and the fortune sticks

Sensoji Temple, honoring Kannon

Pagoda next to the temple

Booths at the temple

Inside the Sansoji Temple; it was not allowed to take a picture/film the Kannon statue.

Wandering around the temple area:

At that point we had gathered so much loot that we headed back to the ryokan to deposit our items before going to the museum. On the way we passed one more shop we had to investigate; the owner was able to tell us a lot of the meanings of the patterns on the--you guessed it--bags, purses and handkerchiefs. This is the shop:

Now to the museum--for real! We got off the subway at Ueno Station and walked past the Science Museum and Ueno Park.

Baseball is a big deal in Japan

Science Museum--Tim, is this correctly restored?

The Tokyo National Museum is huge, but admission is so cheap (about $5.50)! It consists of several buildings, of which we visited the 2 main ones. I only took a few pictures and they are Samurai-heavy, but here's a short video:

That was tiring! We were going to take one short walk through Ueno Park, then try to be at a tofu restaurant we had read about around 5, so we would get a table. Alas, that didn't quite happen as planned since there was a market at the park--people watching! With beer and sake! There were two rows of vendor booths and I acquired two new ceramic tea cups. Lynda checked out the--do I even have to write it?--purse booths, but she was a good sport, hanging out at the ceramics place with me. 

Ueno Park market

There was also a whole row of food and drink booths--something you can't just pretend like it's not there! We thought a little snack and a drink before dinner couldn't hurt and got ourselves delicious okonomiyaki (a type of pancake to which you can add all kinds of things--this is an after-war invention) and beer and sake at the drinks booth. I couldn't believe the sake actually came in a water glass with a pop-tab lid on it! 

Market sake

Tables for eating at the market

After the market experience it was time to head towards the restaurant. Sasa-no-yuki was mentioned in both our travel guides and it specializes in tofu dishes. They make their tofu fresh daily and it's run by a bunch of older ladies. What have I said before about Japanese grannies? Can't go wrong with their cooking! Only no cats this time. 

We walked there and actually found it right away, thanks to our rented WiFi box, Google Maps and pictures of the restaurant on Google Maps. Most of these restaurants don't have their name written out in romanji (English alphabet letters), but only in kanji. So not only did Google help us find the way, it also helped us identify the correct building by providing pictures. I should mention that many restaurants aren't only located on the ground floor of a particular address, but they can be on any (or sometimes there's one on every) floor of a tall building. So finding just the address is only half of the game. 

Sasa-no-yuki occupied its own large building and it was traditional, meaning you have to take your shoes off before entering and walk with your socks on the carpeted floor to the dining room. We chose eight courses of tofu so we could try everything and it was good, right down to the tofu ice cream! 

8 courses of tofu deliciousness

By this time we were sufficiently tired and headed back to visit Sensoji Temple one last time, hopefully without the crowds, and see it in its illuminated glory. 

Tomorrow is our last full day in Japan!

Friday, May 25--Obama and the Hollow Buddha

Our time in Hakone was up; we packed our bags, had one last go at the breakfast buffet and hit the train again for Kamakura. The trip there was included in our train pass, but a visit at the tourist information revealed that we could get a faster train for an additional ticket. We decided to go for that since we'd spent a lot of time in trains these past few days and the less we had to do so in the future, the better. We also needed to be back in Tokyo in time to purchase another 2-day subway pass. Since this type of ticket is only available to foreign visitors, the places of sales are limited and many close around 5. We've become quite accomplished at seeing a lot of things in little time and we were sure we could make this happen. First World problems again! 

Goal of this side-excursion was to see the Daibutsu, or Great Buddha, the 2nd largest Buddha statue in Japan. Sometimes, you do have to settle for second best, but this Buddha made up for it by being hollow and accessible. 

In order to get to Kamakura (or more specific, the town of Hase, a part of Kamakura), we changed in Fujisawa to the Enoden (Enoshima Electric Railway) which took us along the coastline where we could see the peninsula Enoshima and the ocean. Quite the scenic route, when the other tourists packing the train moved their heads enough so we could see out. Before going to Hakone, Lynda had her large pieces of luggage sent directly from our Tokyo hotel to the ryokan (guesthouse) we were going to stay in during our last days in Tokyo, so she didn't have to lug those around. We put the remaining pieces into a locker in Fujisawa so we could be footloose and fancy free in Hase. 

Hase is lined with shrines and temples and accordingly popular with visitors. Having already seen so many shrines and temples on our previous visits, we only stopped at one minor one and then made a beeline to Kotokuin Temple to see the main attraction. The Daibutsu is around 13 m (44 ft) tall, made of bronze and dates back to the 1200's. For a measly $0.18 admission fee, we got in line behind a bunch of elementary school kids to see what all the fuss is about. As is usual in Japan with historical sights, there was a very narrow staircase leading inside with 2-way traffic. Squeezing in sideways while staying with the flow and not tripping on the stairs is an art form one has to quickly master when visiting castles or hollow statues. Being envious of people twice my age accomplishing the task without batting an eye or even being out of breath is a side effect. 

Temple gate

Temple yard

Daibutsu, Great Buddha

There was an explanation on how the statue was constructed, but I gave up understanding the technical part after two sentences and took some pictures instead. 

Inside the statue; you're looking up, into the head

Yeah, I was there!

Outside of the temple we finally found what we really came here for--a souvenir shop! I was going to do all of my souvenir shopping back in Tokyo so I wouldn't have to carry around stuff, but this was too tempting. And we had to get the story of all of the Obama pictures hanging in the shop. Turns out the old lady who ran the shop had shaken Obama's hand after he had visited the temple. I wonder if he bought a Samurai-sword shaped letter opener. 

Lynda grabs any brochure she can possibly find, which I try to avoid because more brochures = more stuff to carry around, but that's why we travel well together. I do the navigating and she reads brochures and tells me where to navigate to. She had seen something about a hydrangea temple and since it was on our way back to the train station, we wanted to stop there. We did get hungry along the way and found a food truck with some interesting street food: jakoyaki or baby anchovy dumplings, only to be found in that area. 
They were so good, we went glutton and ordered a second portion. The food truck operator was only to happy to comply, feeling very honored that we liked his food so much. 

Food truck

Waiting for the prize

Jakoyaki

The chef in action

On to the hydrangea temple, officially known as Hasedera, site of the 11-headed Kannon (if you do not know who that is, 1. shame on you for not reading my previous posts; 2. go back and read my previous posts). I'll give you the short form of the legend, just because it's a good story: in 721 C.E. a monk discovered a sacred large camphor tree near Hase. How he knew it was sacred, I don't know. This is all according to a brochure Lynda picked up. 
The monk had two 11-headed Kannon statues carved; one was enshrined in the Hasedera Temple in Nara (aka somewhere else), the other thrown into the sea with the prayer to reappear to save the people (I don't know from what--that wasn't in the brochure).

15 years later, the statue washed ashore near Kamakura, sending out rays of light. It was brought to its current location and the second Hasedera Temple constructed for it. However this temple came to be, it is beautiful!

Unfortunately, it was not allowed to take pictures of the 11-headed Kannon, but here are some impressions of the rest of the place. 

After our visit, we got back onto the trains and arrived in Tokyo in time to get our subway pass. A final subway ride brought us to our final destination: our ryokan in Asakusa, an older part of Tokyo, right by the Sensoji Temple. Sound familiar? It does! The parade and the carrying around of the mikoshi last Friday and Saturday all took place here. 

Since it was a little bit late already, we used the time for some more shopping. I bought some clothing and we found a 100 yen shop (something like our Dollar Tree) where I got some souvenirs for school. We then wandered around a bit and stumbled onto Hoppy Dori, a street lined with eateries, tables outside and lots of people. It's hard to get a table at 8:30 on a Friday night. Dori, BTW, means street and Hoppy is a popular drink, which we didn't try, but the logo was everywhere in that street. We did finally find an open table and enjoyed some food as well as people-watching. 

Hoppy Dori--not my photo! I got this off of the internet, because for some unexplainable reason, I don't have a picture. 

Time to crash!