Atami Plum Trees

Before heading to Sapporo I went on an organized midweek tour of Atami to see the plum trees which are the first trees to bloom in the spring. The day was perfect for the trip as we had a bright sunny day. My coat was too warm to wear zipped up and I truly felt that spring was starting. We left from Tokyo station and an hour later we were in Atami. We walked to a park that is filled with plum trees. The park was very pretty with a waterfall and stream running through the center. It also had a hot spring area to soak you feet. (This is very appropriate for Atami which is known for its hot springs. There is even a place to soak your feet as you exit the main train station.) The fragrance was wonderful and I enjoyed being in the warm sunshine. We then walked to a small temple with a tree that was more than a thousand years old. The temple was small and was getting ready for the bean throwing festival that evening.

In Japan on Setsubun children throw beans at a person wearing a devil’s mask and chase him and bad luck out of the House so that good fortune can enter. The bean throwing ceremony of Setsubun is celebrated at temples and shrines all over Japan. This is also festival that marks the last day of winter although some folks might say that February 3rd is a bit early for spring.

At the temple I did learn the proper way to purify before entering the temple, wash the left hand, then the right hand, then drink – but not from the ladle. We then walked down a plum tree lined path next to a stream to the beach to have lunch. The town itself has seen better days and mostly shuttered. It felt like a boom-town that had gone bust with a few older charming buildings here and there. We toured a large older house in the afternoon and had some free time to walk around and then returned to Tokyo.

Catching up in February for December

December was a time of parties and illness for our family in Tokyo. Each family member has chosen a particular comfort food in Japan. While Caroline climbs Mt. dumpling or requests corn soup, Alex wants ramen, and the adults like spicy Chinese.

Adventures in Thailand

Preparing for a trip is a bit different in Tokyo. Since we do not have a car and the taxis cannot get us close enough to the entrance of the airport train to be worth the 710 yen starting cost we need to walk to the station. We knew that we did not want to drag our suitcases through the streets and onto the airport express train so we tried to contact the luggage forwarding company. The only problem was we could not get them on the phone - and they want you to make a reservation on line in Japanese. So, Jonathan got some assistance from one of his colleagues. Unfortunately, we had a bit of a panic when they did not come to pick up the bags by the time indicated. (This is very unusual in Japan where everything runs on schedule) Of course by that time the office was closed and we could not understand the message on the machine. One more desperate plea to the colleague and everything was fixed and the bags were picked up with an apology from the service More than an hour and a half late.

We left for Thailand at an hour that we are normally never awake. It was strange to see Shibuya still shuttered and deserted. (Goggle Shibuya crossing and you will see what we normally face.) The train station had most of the entrances locked so that we had to go in an unusual way – good thing we had an extra five minutes to find our way. We watched the sun rise from the train and we were startled to see frost on the ground as we neared the airport. One special touch were the fresh flowers in the rest room at the airport – what a wonderful thing.

Check in ran very smooth and we got on a rather old plane with no screens on the backs of the seats. It was packed and we were glad that we only had 7 as opposed to 14 hours for the trip.

Our arrival in Thailand was also met by flowers in the airport –wonderful orchids could be seen through out the terminal. We were soon in the shopping area of the airport and we could tell that we were in a different country due to the much lower prices. Unfortunately the food options at the airport were quite slim and we basically only found dried fruit to eat. This is quite different from Japan where we can find all sorts of food including ice cream in a vending machine.

Customs in Phuket was rather basic – folks were waved through with no questions asked - and we were quickly outside and glad to see a representative from our hotel. This meant that we could ignore all the cabbies try to hustle up some business. The traffic was light and we got to see the various stands and small business that lined many of the roads on Phuket. We were happy to get to the hotel and the warmth was truly delightful. We went down to have dinner where we could hear the ocean and then we collapsed in our rooms. Yes, the best part of this vacation was arranging 2 rooms so that everyone had a real bed and space to move around.

Several relaxing days were spent playing in the sand and getting a daily Thai massage. Anyone who has experienced this knows that for this type of massage you get your limbs moved in unexpected ways. We enjoyed the experience but it is quite different from a Swedish massage.

Everyone finally recovered from their colds and caught up on needed sleep. We took one boat trip to go snorkeling which was fun for 3 of the 4 of us, but Caroline did not feel comfortable in the waves breathing through a tube and to make things worse sitting in the raft while the rest of us explored made her nauseous. The fish were fantastic but the size and number of sea urchins made me focus on my location rather than the beauty.

The resort was not full which made the experience great for us. Something about the economy matched with an airport closing makes people a bit reluctant to travel. However, unlike Japan everyone was happy and smiling. Definitely a different culture.

We changed venue and explored Chang Mai – which is much smaller than Bangkok but still has traffic issues at certain times and places. We rode in tuk-tuks, and in the back of odd trucks, and discovered the necessity of bargaining for transportation. On the one hand we do have more money than the Thai customers, on the other hand it should not cost us 10 times as much to take transportation. We also had to look before entering a taxi to make sure that there were seatbelts.

Every time we bought an item we had to negotiate the price, with the exception of eating in a restaurant. On the one hand this is liberating, on the other hand it makes every transaction lengthy and after a while you just want to get away quickly.

The bathrooms were a surprise after Japan. In numerous places we were warned not to flush the toilet tissue but instead place it in a bucket. This is due to low water pressure, but still not a pleasant fact of life. The streets in town were also an indication that we in a country that had to be careful with its funds. However, most streets had sidewalks which is more than you can say for our home in Texas.

We saw numerous Wats and discovered that the ones we enjoyed the most were not on the map and were delightful finds as we explored different neighborhoods. We went to an open air museum that had different types of traditional Thai houses and stumbled upon an art museum showing children’s perceptions of global warming- next to a traditional ballet school. On Christmas day we hired a driver to take us out into the countryside and to the Elephant Conservation Center. The road there was in excellent condition and the traffic just outside of Chang Mai was very light. The highlight for the kids was the Elephant Conservation Center - both feeding the elephants sugarcane and bananas and ridding. Our best meal came later that day as we went to the Mandarin Oriental. This hotel is an amazing place to explore. The hotel has done a magnificent job of creating an oasis using traditional buildings from elsewhere and recreating a traditional Thai architecture.

We should add that one of the things that we have discovered is how Christmas has become a wonderful excuse for Japan and Thailand to import some of the tackiest parts of the US. The celebrations on the 25th usually have nothing to do with religion and instead they are an excuse to decorate with no restrictions. We saw pink trees and Santa hats in the oddest places.

Our favorite game in Thailand was trying to see how many people could fit on a motorcycle. To our surprise the top number was 4 and the driver did not seem uncomfortable. I wish we had a picture but it happened so quickly that it was impossible. The other amazing thing was to see some women ride sidesaddle and to also see numerous objects that you would not normally think of as transportable by motorbike. This was definitely an eye-opening experience. The lack of helmets was another thing.

We went to Bangkok for a few days where we were surprised by Jonathan’s mother and nephew. The days became a whirlwind of dinners and more sightseeing. The grand palace was fabulous, the traffic less so. We did not directly see any political protests but we saw many buses used to transport protesters to the parliament.

In Bangkok I took a short ride on the sky train. There are things on the Tokyo subway that I missed in Bangkok. In Tokyo in every car you can see all the stops for each line and on the JR there is an electronic sign showing how many minutes for each stop. At each station you can see what the next stop will be from each side of the train and the announcements are often in English as well as Japanese. (Of course this is another reason that we are not learning much Japanese.) All the stops in Japan have numbers and when you are in the station it is easy to see which direction you are going. I had to ask more questions in Bangkok to insure that I was going in the proper direction.

A last minute trip to Hua Hin allowed the kids to play on one more beach before heading back to Japan and it allowed the adults to enjoy the company of some wonderful Thai friends.

We returned to Bangkok the day before our trip and the adults went to the evening market for one last shop and then returned just before the fireworks on New Years Eve at midnight, which were fabulous. Alex adds that he newspaper also said that they shot off 10,000. I am not sure if this is true but they lasted 25 minutes.

Our trip out of Bangkok was rather bizarre. We took a taxi from the hotel instead of the hotel shuttle van to avoid paying NYC prices. We arrived early for our flight and then had to find change to pay the taxi drive since he could not make change for our large bill. Inside the airport check in was easy as was security. However, once you passed through security there was no food and no drinks. We had a 7 hour flight and because you can not take water through security we had no water to take on the flight as there was no place to purchase it. This was very disappointing in an airport that is very new. Once again our airplane was old and did not have screens on the backs of the seats.

Pre-Thanksgiving and Beyond to Kyoto

Part of being a parent is experiencing life through your children’s eyes and ears, and thus we found ourselves transported back in time to the place where we first played musical instruments. Alex is in the Rookie band and has enjoyed the experience quite a bit – he even has remembered his music and percussion sticks without much prompting on the part of his parents. We went to his band performance and were struck by what can be done with a bunch of motivated kids and two months of practice time as well as how much they can improve with a year or more of playing.

Alex celebrated by going on a Boy Scout campout the next day with Japanese Boy Scouts while his sister attended a friend’s birthday party with an Indian motif – saris and Indian food – what a creative event.

Thanksgiving in Tokyo was a bit odd – first of all this is the first year that we have not traveled to DC to see all of Jonathan’s relatives so we did miss our family. We also greatly missed the food. The other oddity was that there was no mention of the holiday outside of ASIJ so it was possible to forget that it was approaching. Our celebration was very tame – we went out to eat at a restaurant with a buffet – plenty of turkey, potatoes, stuffing, salad and veggies and we each had a piece of pie before leaving. One of Jonathan’s colleagues was able to join us which made the evening a bit special.

The next morning we took advantage of the school holiday to travel to Kyoto for a long three-day weekend. We traveled by Shinkansen so the trip only took 2.5 hours and we arrived by lunch to have our choice of eight ramen restaurants on one floor of the train station. A tasty lunch was had by all and then we traveled out to see the most popular of the Kyoto temples before the hordes descended for the weekend. Kyoto was so popular that we had to stay ten minutes away by train at Lake Bifu. Otherwise, trying to get hotel rooms at a reasonable rate was impossible.

Kyoto has 17 world heritage sites and we did not see all of them, but we had a good overview. Kyoto is a very large city and has the traffic to prove it. We visited during one of the prime tourist seasons. The Japanese understandably love to see fall leaves and we agree that the nature show is quite spectacular. I am not sure that I have ever seen such brilliant red and yellow leaves as they have due to the Japanese maple and ginko trees. The children found something to enjoy at most of the sites we saw, whether it was filling cups with water from the overhead spring at the Kiyomizuderu Temple, or making cricket floors creak at Nijoji castle. They observed a priest ring the closing bell for Chion-in Temple and climbed though over 500 vermillion toris, part of a collection of over 10,000 at Fushima Inari. They were even able to see all 15 rocks in a rock garden from one position at Ryoanji Temple - indicating wisdom (or, more likely, sufficient height). They were also questioned in English repeatedly by Japanese school children on class trips. (We decided that the next time we run into a school group with an assignment to question foreigners in English we are going to give very interesting answers and see what reaction we get).

We averaged two shrines a day, which proved enough to be interesting but not overwhelming for the kids. The cold weather was a bit challenging, as were the crowded buses. Kyoto was very well organized for tourism, which was well because the tourists came. Bus routes and streets were well marked and well traveled. The abundance of souvenir shops and sweet stores testified to the importance of the tourist trade. Kyoto train station was an incredible hubbub of action and movement as the huge flow of visitors mingled with the residents going to the architecturally impressive train station to shop and eat. Definitely not an experience for those fearing crowds.

Nikko

NIKKO
The day after Disney our family traveled to Nikko for the weekend. We took an express train from Asakusa and Alex thrilled some older Japanese ladies by showing them how to turn their seats to face each other. When we arrived, we traveled up 20 curves to Lake Chuzen-ji to see the Kegon waterfalls. The falls were quite impressive and we managed to dodge the usual crowds due to the lateness of our arrival. We also saw the sun set over the lake which was stunning.

We were only able to do this trip due to the generosity of a couple with a weekend home in Nikko. They were incredibly kind and not only let us stay but also took us on a tour of the local world heritage site and to an amazing Japanese restaurant that has been in one family for 19 generations. The leaves were at peak and Nikko is one of the few places we have been that has not been ruined by too many people or concrete. Even though the shrines of the heritage site were crowded, the town itself was not built up. The scenery was fantastic with huge trees and a sense of history due to the vegetation that is lacking even in Kyoto. We were also able to observe part of a Shinto wedding and see many fabulous kimonos. Because of the 3-5-7 festival for blessing children, the head priest was very busy but he still took the time to sign Alex and Caroline’s goshuincho – seal books –yet another gift from our host.

We returned to Tokyo just in time to welcome Jonathan’s mom in from Thailand. She arrived very tired but in good spirits. The next couple of days were celebrated with many dinners and food shared with new and old friends. As usual it was difficult to keep up with Esther but we were able to show her some parts of Tokyo that she had not seen before and she left wiser and impressed with the service and cleanliness of this huge city.

Disney Adventure

For Caroline’s birthday the women in the family traveled to Tokyo Disney Sea for an entire day of celebration. I must point out that I have avoided spending vacations with the mouse in the US because an artificial environment that bears no relationship to reality is not my idea of fun and I have no wish to escape to such a place. However, in Japan where much of our life is strange and foreign it was a bit of welcome Americana for our child. Although we were not totally prepared to hear the person portraying Donald Duck to have a high female voice. It was also a bit odd to listen to the familiar songs for the rides in Japanese since all the signs used for decoration are in English.

We were very lucky to be able to go on a weekday which was not a holiday for Japanese children although it was a holiday for Caroline’s school. (In fact we ran into several of her friends at Disney that day.) We took an early morning long subway ride with two changes that included a rush hour experience that Caroline did not like. By the time we arrived at Disney the sun was out and we could tell that we were quite lucky for early November because we did not need jackets for most of the day.

Disney was very nicely landscaped and there were many flowers even though the entire complex was decorated for Christmas. (In Tokyo the Christmas decorations go up right after Halloween.) Caroline went on every thing she wanted two times and she never had more than a 5-10 minute wait. The rides she chose were even tame enough for her mom to enjoy, although I did sit out on one spinning clam shell.

The best part of the experience were the shows – even with a language barrier an extravaganza is still entertaining. The Disney Sea shows made great use of the water and floating boats. Fireworks went off even during the daytime show and there were also many costumed dancers. The evening show included fire as well as colored fountains. Both shows were more enjoyable than I expected even though I did not understand the plots, or maybe because I could not understand the lyrics of the songs. The shows reminded me of a three ring circus because there was entertainment to be had in every direction you looked.

We also caught a Mariachi band performance during our dinner. The group was quite good and reminded Caroline of Texas. Although the songs were all in Spanish the performers did speak a few words of Japanese in their introduction. I must say seeing someone in a Mariachi band speak Japanese adds something to the international tone of Disney. The audience sat emotionless throughout the set although the band finally got them to clap to the beat for one song.

Early November

31 October, Friday

I attended a memorial service for John Taylor, an archivist specializing in military records, tonight. What made this commemoration memorable was that it occurred at Waseda University and the attendees were Japanese researchers who had benefitted from Taylor’s assistance at the National Archives. Over 63 years, he had graciously and eruditely assisted hundreds of Japanese scholars in addition to tens of thousands of American scholars.

Now, eight men and three women gathered to honor Taylor. I left Titech with professor Yamazaki, whose work on the Japanese atomic bomb gained from Taylor’s knowledge, and Kurihara, a graduate student who had just finished a year working at the National Archives. Upon entering the classroom, a young man took 3000 yen from each of us and gave us a photocopied program and a set of photos of Taylor taken by a Japanese scholar days before the archivist’s death. The program contained a list of participants (I was listed as from Texas “M and A” University, which is better than the usual mistake of confusing A&M with the University of Texas) and brief remembrances from them.

We sat at tables in a U-shape around a desk with a small framed photo of Taylor and a small set of white flowers. We took turns talking about Taylor, his personality, his southern accent (often hard for Japanese and others to understand) and how he had helped and guided our research. I spoke about how wonderful it was to be thousands of miles away from the National Archives surrounded by people who, like me, had benefitted from Taylor’s professional and personal attention.

After we finished, the young man and another assistant distributed bento boxes, sweets, beer, and Waseda University sake (the “spirit of Waseda University” – somehow, it’s hard to imagine my university licensing “the official alcohol of Texas A&M University.” Apparently, Tokyo University has its own brand of shuchu, a powerful spirit.

More comments followed the alcohol. I suggested that there could be no better memorial to John Taylor and the spirit of openness he embodied than to fully fund the National Archives. Perhaps the next president should announce his intention to preserve America’s history and make it more accessible.


1 November
In Yoyogi Park again, it’s impressive to see how many activities considered private in America, such as rehearsing a script for a play or practicing a musical instrument, are conducted publicly in Japan.

NHK, the television authority, hosted an open house and farmer’s market. Part of the entertainment was a four-meter-long boat made of vegetables. Quite impressive.


3 November, Monday

Our first overnight trip to West Izu demonstrated that traveling as a family of four is different than as a couple. Among our pleasant memories of our 1995 visit was staying at a ryokan in Nikko. Seeing a similar experience and benefitting from a friend who booked the ryokan and vouched for us (many ryokan owners who only speak Japanese do not like to rent to foreigners on the reasonable ground that they probably don’t understand the rules, demand extra work, and, in cause of a disaster, would be an additional burden), we set off early Sunday morning.

Not unusually, we took several trains: Shibuya to Shinagawa to Atami to Mishima to Shuzenji, then bus to Toi. Leaving Tokyo is always a visual pleasure as the big buildings disappear to be replaced by mountains, hills, and open spaces. In September, we saw grapes. This time, we saw ripe manderin oranges and persimmons dangling from trees in people’s yards.

From Atami, we took local trains, slower and more jolting than the intercity trains. At Mishima, we stopped to visit a garden and wished we had gone straight to Shunzenji. Unmentioned in the guide, the garden was more a kiddie amusement park with a few small animals in concrete and metal cages than a park or garden. To be fair, we were there off-season, as the empty lake bordering a impressive traditional building testified. The park was busy, however, mainly with small kids and families, though a number of couples and older groups also visited.

One attraction for them was the flower displays. What was impressive on a small scale, decorating with flowers, felt overwhelming on the large scale of an entire house covered from ground to rooftop with flowers.

The hour-long bus ride from Shuzenji in the middle of the Izu peninsula to Toi on the coast was breath-taking in its beauty and sharp curves. The steep mountains were the cause of both. The roads were all in excellent shape, sign of a strong public works mentality (and pork-barreling). After the bus dropped us off at a stop, we called the ryokan and were picked up promptly. The ryokan was a B or C level – fluorescent lights in the room and CRT televisions. More troubling were the smokers.


The proprietors could not have been nicer. They delivered dinner and breakfast to the room and covered the entire table with beautiful food. They wanted to know where we were from, how
long we had been in Japan and more. The only limitation was our Japanese - which we are trying to improve.


The kids enjoyed playing on the deserted beach. They were free to take up as much space as they wanted and could make as much noise as desired. Toi has the distinction of having the world’s largest flower clock, although it was really a concrete clock set into the ground surrounded by flowers. There was also a path surrounding the clock paved with pebbles that stuck out to offer a reflexology path or torture. The kids and Lisa enjoyed the path, I declined to go the entire route.

Toi itself reminded me of Brighton without the excitement. It’s a seaside town, the economy clearly based on tourism from the beach and onsens. At night, it felt almost deserted, though that may just be my Shibuya comparison for any place not jammed with people, aglow with light and noise. The little tourist information center was well located and run by competent folks who also sold bus tickets and, for 200 yen, stored luggage.

What did we learn from our trip?
1. Futons are fine if placed on pads instead of directly on tatami.
2. Buckwheat pillows are not as comfortable as feather pillows.
3. The kids enjoy meat more than fish.
4. Smoke and noise can indeed travel through walls.
5. Vegetables should be more than garnish in a meal.
6. Our taste is not refined enough to fully appreciate Japanese food.
7. A full night of sleep is vital for a full day of activities.
8. Japan has a variety of geography and we need to explore as much as possible and the journey was well worth the effort.

We wanted to take the ferry from Toi to Shuzoaka, but the day was overcast, depriving us of the views. Instead, we took bus and trains back home.

News from Alex

This is coming from Nihon, land of the rising sun, most likely known as Japan aka land of the rising electronics. The Red Sox rock. Ok, the Rays beat them in the ALCS so go Phillies. The time difference is perfect for watching; the postseason game starts at 8:30 am and ends around 12 am to 1:30 pm. Perfect for my school where lunch is 11:56 to 12:32 and the games are in the later innings and we see the action live. For example, Ryan Howard hitting the 455-foot home run. ASIJ is so amazing and an awesome place for Red Sox fans.

I am doing this blog for homework. You cannot get good gum anywhere in Japan. There are many ways to get cold in Japan. One way is to climb Fuji-san without a jacket. Another way is to ski without wearing ski clothes, run around in the mountains only in shorts, catch a hot (if a cold makes your temperature get hotter would a hot make your temperature get cooler)?

The final way to get cold is to go canyoning. Canyoning is going through canyons wearing a life jacket and falling down waterfalls. I went canyoning with my Boy Scout troop and it was really cold. Our group started out on a river going slightly fast; we rode the current for 100 meters, then we came to a 20-meter waterfall. I was wearing a harness and the guides lowered us down about 10 meters and let us fall. It was really scary. Then we floated for 20 meters and came to another waterfall but we had to jump of this one. We then had to do one more waterfall but going face first backwards. Then we had the option of jumping 15 feet into the water.

We then took a bus back to the place where the city bus picked us up. Then the bus dropped us off at the Shinkansen station and I took the 2-hour ride back to Tokyo Station where we took the JR line (Japan Railways) back to Shibuya station. We walked through the Shibuya crossing and to our place in Shoto, which you can find on Google street view.

The trains in Japan are always on time. You must take a train if you don’t have a car. Even though most people don’t have a car, the traffic is bad. Once or twice every week, the traffic slows our bus down. On Thursday we were late by 31 minutes because of traffic and our bus was one of the first to come to ASIJ. Normally we get in at 8:20.

The ASIJ cross-country season is over. I ran a 3335-meter course (2.1 miles) and my best time was 17.59. A very good time. Today I went to the cross-country pool party where I ate only 3 slices of pizza. I enjoyed cross- country but we had too many practices.


Alex