Catching up...

I didn't realize how remiss I've been with updating the blog until I logged in just now. It's been quite the week since then with a lot of stuff to catch everybody up on. (NB, the sketchy internet here means I will just wait to upload pictures, rather than tear my hair out with this weird connection.)
Kyoto was pretty cool, although we didn't do too much sightseeing when we were there. Partly because it was really hot a humid (big surprise, I know) and also because we had to spend a lot of our one full day there back in Osaka to look at a couple more apartments. The travel time wasn't so bad though and in the end it was totally worth it because we ended up putting a deposit down on one of them the next day. Oddly I think this apartment is going to be the nicest and most "adult" apartment either Rachel or I have ever had. It's what referred to here as a 2LDK, which references (here in reverse order) a kitchen with a dining space inside of it and then a living room, which counts as one of the "2", and the bedroom. Anyway, it should be awesome, it's not in the most happening neighborhood but I think we both prefer that, and it's right next to both the local subway lines and the JR lines, which will be good for getting around the city for both of us and to neighboring towns in the Kansai region (Kobe, Osaka, Kyoto) for Rachel's research.
Since Kyoto we've been back in Tokyo at our "Funky Flat" that we've rented with G&L for 10 days. It's honestly slightly more strange of an apartment than we thought it would be based on the online profile, mostly because the shower never gets hot (even though the gas water heater is in the shower room, which is a whole headache by itself) and there isn't a good communal hang out area. Also the internet is a little spotty, which is one of the reasons I've been bad about updating.
The other reason, however, is that we've actually been pretty active during our time here, getting around to lots of different areas within Tokyo and out to some outlying areas. At this point I am tempted to rattle off all of our various adventures for all of our loyal readers, but I fear that would tax one's patience unduly.
One of the more important parts of coming back to Tokyo was that I finally got to meet Rachel's host sister Keiko. We meet for yakitori and beers on Thursday and then the following day went to a cookout with the teachers from her school at a very strange park near the water. The food was awesome, and the pace was actually quite nice, having made a shift from shopping/sightseeing to hanging out.
Our biggest day so far, though, was Saturday. We spent a lot of time on trains going back and forth throughout Tokyo and also a lot of time with music, which had been surprisingly spare up to this point in the trip. In the afternoon we descended to Asakusa for the 2012 Asakusa Samba Festival (which was my first bonafide samba experience). Apparently this has been going on for decades and had about 20 groups performing in the parade. Mostly they were local samba schools, with baterias of varying quality. The costumes and dancing were all pretty awesome - even if just for the sheer absurdity of it all. We didn't stay for the whole thing though, mostly because it was damn hot and the throngs of people lining the sidewalk were unrelenting in their need to get as close to the action as possible. (This included more than a few middle-aged photography enthusiasts snapping pictures of the revealing outfits with telephoto lenses...)
After escaping the hordes in Asakusa, we began our epic train ride down to the coastal town of Kamakura, where Garreth was performing in an awesome little bar with a musician he knew from his tour here 9 years ago and another local performer, bracketed by two other local Jazz bands. I'll spare the details here, but the music was fantastic (from all three bands), with good snacks and a very simple pricing scheme for the drinks (¥500 for everything). It was also my first view of the pacific rim from this side of the world...
The last couple of days have been more chilled out, punctuated by more good food (Okonomiyaki in Ginza and Sushi in the Tsukiji fish market area) and an ill-fated trip to the Park Hyatt hotel bar of Lost in Translation fame.
At the moment we are all lounging around the apartment resting up for the next big outing ----
Japanese Pro Baseball!!!
It's the Yakult Swallows vs. the Hiroshima Carp. We expect to purchase any or all of the following: wristbands, towels, tiny umbrellas and stadium food. Apparently this will also be Rachel's first professional baseball game in any league, which we all decided was appropriate.

High Quality Pork Fat

Tonight we are in Kyoto, one of the many former capital cities of Japan. We haven't seen much of the famously intact pre-Meiji architecture with the exception of a small walk through the Gion area.
We arrived in mid-afternoon and managed to make a fairly smooth transition from the JR lines to the local subway tracks. Armed with internet research on the best way to get to our hotel, we thought we were on the right track. In what has become a theme of our trip so far, however, we ended up schlepping our bags probably three times as far as we assumed we would. It wasn't as bad as it could have been though and we were rewarded with an upgrade when we checked in to our hotel - which is awesome. It's bigger than what we reserved and it has a massage chair, which I may or may not be using as I write this.
Anyway, we thought we would head out for a nicer dinner at a one of the many Kawayuka restaurants near our hotel - these are places with ample seating over top of the waterway that have great views of the river and the mountains. Unfortunately, lots of these places were kinda pricey and almost all, including the reasonably priced places had a table charge of 1000 yen per person before you even ordered anything. Needless to say, we decided that a $30 charge just to get a seat was not worth the fancy view, and we ended up going to a ramen joint.
It was probably the best choice we could have made though, and it inspired the title of this post. Each of our ramen bowls came with large helpings of fatty pork slices. I somehow got fattier pieces than Rachel, but it was so worth it. I'm not sure I can ever eat the 99¢ ramen from my college days again.
We fought against the possible sleep inducing effects of these bowls of fatty deliciousness by a walk through some shops and down into the historic Gion area. Gion is where all of the traditional Geisha houses are but we did not see any Geisha themselves. Which is not really surprising on a Monday night. I'm not too heartbroken about it though.

Miyajima and Osaka Castle

A few more photos here from our trip to Miyajima the other day and then our outing to Osaka Castle today.

View from the ferry to the island - to the right is the mainland, left is Miyajima. 

The little things in the water are oyster farms. 

For some reason deer roam through the town almost unimpeded. They like human food.

And they like it when the kids pet them (i.e., this usually leads them to more food)

This is the "floating" torii outside of the shrine. 

It doesn't actually float, but isn't very firmly anchored in the ground. 

A closer look reveals the twisty logs that serve as the main pillars. 

Us in front (me=kakui, Rachel=genki)

As we were leaving on the ferry we noticed that the tide had gone out and people can walk on the beach around the formerly floating torii - this picture doesn't quite do justice to the swarm. 

---------

Osaka castle was amazing - I've been fairly obsessed with the epic types of samurai movies, so it was kinda awesome to actually go to one of these places. Osaka castle was one of the power center of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who tried to unite Japan in the late 16th century and whose efforts led to the later Tokugawa shogunate. 

Two pictures of the outer moats surrounding the castle complex - this is part of the newest building. It's probably hard to see but these walls are pretty steep and relatively smooth. 

One of the first gates on the outside - the black-lacquered wood is awesome. 

One part of the inner moat, now flooded with vegetation instead of water. 

After 10 minutes of walking we made it to the center of the castle complex. Here is genki Rachel posing in front of it. 

Entrance to castle.

View from the top

Afterwards we met up with Yumi and had pudding - my cup had flan on top of a bed of cream, cake, cream and pears. 

Then we had a dinner of omu-rice: rice wrapped up in a thin, fluffy omelette.

Finally, view of river in the namba area before heading back to the hotel. 

Osaka

Writing now from Osaka, which has been described in various places as a sort of Chicago to Tokyo's NY vibe. So far I'm inclined to agree, although I've only experienced the subway and then a little walk through a sleepy pedestrian mall. In any event, the pace of things was noticeably slower than in Tokyo, though still a more metropolis feel than Hiroshima. It was also cool and rainy when we got here last night, which sat quite well with us after an intense Hiroshima morning.
Our first day in Hiroshima (with Peace museum and a little shopping) was hot but manageable, but the day after that and then yesterday the heat and humidity seemed to steadily climb, zapping any energy we had and generally making us feel kinda ill. This was augmented by the unexpected troubles that one ought to expect when it's least convenient. In this case our troubles began with a long search for the closest MosBurger - home of tomato sauce garnish and delectable buns. Garreth has been obsessed with these burgers ever since he was here 9 years ago and while the food was worth the trouble of finding it, the time spent wandering in the sun and heat was unexpectedly exhausting.
So, with full bellies we attempted our best pack-mule impressions, loading ourselves down with luggage and heading to the train station for the Shinkansen to Osaka and Kyoto (G&L). Here, however, we were met with further consternation as we tried to buy our tickets and were told that the only tickets available were not for several hours. While this was not quite accurate, the details are somewhat tiring - suffice it to say that G&L ended up with reserved seats for an evening Shinkansen and Rachel and I tried our luck with unreserved seats. The ticket agent had led us to believe that riding in the unreserved car was a crap shoot and we might be standing with our packs for hours on the train. But it turns out there is AMPLE seating in the unreserved car and that our companions need not have waited for their later train. We called them and delivered these good tidings, which seemed to cheer them up, and led them on the path to redemption from their earthly strife (i.e., waiting in a basement coffee shop for three hours.)
Anyway, in the face of such adversity our arrival in Osaka has felt quite sweet.
Today we are off to Osaka castle, a few other points of interest and then are off to meet with Yumi for some time wasting in Amerika-mura ("America Town"- another shopping district).

Quick Post

Just a quick update....
Yesterday was:
-Miyajima = awesome views and shrines and torii. Also it was hot... like really hot.... seriously, it was hot. (aka, #hot, aol keyword: hot, etc.)
-Yaki niku = lots of meat grilled on the table over our own pot of hot coals with a crazy vacuum chimney to control the smoke. (aka, Korean BBQ)
-Karaoke!!!! = a strong probability of histrionic displays, diva singing behavior and legendary renditions of mack the knife.

Today is:
-MosBurger
-Travel to Osaka
-Avoid the heat

Hiroshima Day 1 + Photo Dump

Greetings from Hiroshima! Getting ready to start our second full day of exploration with Garreth and Lauren, who arrived on Wednesday from the U.S. After picking them up from the airport in Tokyo, we zipped down on the Shinkansen to Hiroshima. This involved bento box dinners, large beers, two train transfers and eventually passed out new arrivals.

Yesterday we got up bright and early to explore Hiroshima, with our main activity being the Peace Park and Museum, along with the memorials surrounding it (including the "A-Bomb" dome). I won't say anything more about it, except that I'll never understand why anyone would use those weapons. 

This morning Wasabi is also looking over the park and contemplating. 

Last night we also had our first Okonomiyaki experience in Japan. Traditionally this is a savory pancake filled with cabbage, and whatever other random ingredients one wants to add. Specifically, we had Hiroshima-yaki, a version involving noodles as the main starchy ingredient and is a specialty of the area. 

Afterwards, we forced ourselves to stay up, by exploring local watering holes, in the process consuming Suntory whiskey (modeled hear by G and L, with G actually drinking yamazaki)...

followed by... FROZEN KIRIN!!!!

As you can see in Rachel's expert pose, the foam on top is rather perfectly sculpted - the delicious and frosty result of pouring the beer first and then adding frozen foam on top (Attn: Jason...) (dispensed from a soft-serve ice cream style machine). The snacks they serve also looked delicious...

Today we are off to Miyajima, an island near Hiroshima, for more Shrine action and other historic points of interest, plus oysters and rice. There is a distinct possibility of low-grade hiking down from the top of the mountain on the island. But don't fear, dear readers, we will be on strict wasp-guard-patrol today. (Rachel is recovering well from her sting from earlier in the week, by the way...)

And now for a few random photos...

Rachel's Omu-rice, with beef sauce on top - it sounds strange at first but is kinda awesome. 

Evidence of our first karaoke practice session - this was Rachel's k-pop selection. 

Finally, Wasabi again, who was dutifully examining the travel weather on Wednesday as we were packing up. Such a good travel tomodachi. 

Hakone

Yesterday we decided that a change of pace was in order and got on the train for the mountain town of Hakone. It's really a whole tourist area surrounding Lake Ashi, a crater lake with great views of Fuji.

Lake Ashi with Mt. Fuji in the background (yes, it's really there, behind the cloud)

At the point this picture was taken we had already experienced quite a day: two hours on trains from the city, a perilous bus ride up the mountains from the main tourist town of Hakone-Yumoto and a sudden need to cover up as we were greeted by the clouds and steady 25mph winds. But just as we were fumbling around looking for the path to the Hakone shrine we were interrupted by....

ANGRY WASP ATTACK!!!!!

It hit Rachel just as we approached the lake - we think he was blown into her shirt by the wind and was scared. Though she struggled through the pain of the unfamiliar venom, it eventually forced us to head back to Tokyo earlier than we had originally planned. We did, however, make it to the shrine.

Road up to the shrine - I missed capturing this torii, but don't worry, there are several throughout the area.

This is just at the bottom of the stairway up to the shrine. I think the rope symbolizes that there is a spirit in the tree. 

Another one at the top by the shrine itself. 

The top of the tree. 

More awesome trees, with the shrine in the bottom part of the photo. 

Torii at the top of the stairway to the shrine. 

Looking down to the lake. 

Torii in the lake (the people in the bottom of the frame would, as we approached the gate, take an excruciatingly long time taking "artistic" photos of themselves with the gate. They made everyone else wait. It was annoying.)

This is a view of another torii in town as the mist was moving past. 

After this we got back on the bus to the train, to the train, etc. We got off in Tokyo at Shinjuku (one of many shopping areas and the end of the train line we needed to take to get to Hakone). Instead of making our way home and trying to cook, we decided to eat there. After trudging around in the unwelcome heat which had remained in Tokyo, we ducked into a long, thin restaurant where one buys food tickets from a vending machine and gives these to the kitchen staff. It was fast and tasty (I had somen noodle soup with age tofu and rachel got beef curry with rice). 

So much for our epic trip to Hakone. Today is record stores, karaoke practice and any other things we can do to amuse ourselves.

Tokyo part 1 - Day 3

So we've been back in Tokyo since Friday afternoon. After a long train ride we spent most of the afternoon in the large shibuya shopping area. Shibuya is intense. It has, however, served us as well for entertainment during our weekend so far. I've been introduced to several interesting "combo-excitement" stores. This is my term, and I think it accurately describes my experience. The two principal ones were Tokyu Hands and Loft. Each of them are several stories tall but very narrow. The main attraction for me and for everyone apparently is that they have everything-- sort of like a genetic experiment resulting in a target-home depot-macy's hybrid... plus stationary store, bicycle store, crafting, etc. Basically I could live there, and might be tempted to try. In any event, I got a new small messengers bag to carry around on our outings and some awesome stationary.
After this we made our way to the meeting point with the guy who was renting us our apt for these few days. It's a studio in a quiet neighborhood and has been quite nice as a home base as we continue to adjust here. Yesterday was more shibuya plus harajuku (a different pace/style of shopping area) and then today we mace our way to the Tokyo National Museum (in pretty wretched heat).
Anyway, now we're back in shibuya at a cafe resting and preparing ourselves for the bus ride back to the apt.
Tomorrow is a day trip to hakone = mountains and shrines. It will also feature a new post about the small adjustments to daily life and an homage to amusing labels.

Photo Dump

We picked up a card reader to move photos from my camera to computers, since I neglected to locate my usb cord before we left the US. After a several floor visit to the electronics powerhouse BIC Camera, I can now upload some photos! So, here are some visuals from our past few days.

On the express train from the airport.

Richard's first conbini meal: onigiri and beer.

Hotel Cocochee Numazu

You know it's in Shizuoka-great tea in the room!

Looking over Numazu port + at the top of the tsunami gate + Numazu hawk sighting = 12 xp.

Mt. Fuji is behind the big cloud.

Matcha ice cream!

Wasabi enjoys the view from our hotel.

Numazu Day 2

I'm writing now from the comfort of a Mister Donut shop. Mister Donut has two mustaches, a bowtie and a jaunty chef's hat that covers one of his eyes. But despite these possible impediments to chef-hood he makes a mean donut. We just sampled a selection of classic styles (old-fashioned, glazed, custard filled...) and some of the sweetest milk I've ever had. Anyway, outside of the delicious donuts (attn: Colin) the main attraction of Mister Donut is his hospitality in letting you hang out indefinitely to read, chat, blog, etc. This is an especially desirable state of affairs because we are kinda exhausted after our morning exploits.
After my first traditional Japanese breakfast (salad, rice with nori, grilled fish, etc.) we ambled down one of the main roads in search of the port, where we hoped to find great views, the possibility of shopping and even a ferry ride to the town of Heida (which has been absorbed by Numazu proper). One might call this adventure somewhat short of successful. But before I get to that, let me tell you about Boss Coffee! It was sweet, and milky, but not overly so, for which I was grateful. But what made me enjoy this coffee drink so much was the authority with which the eponymous Boss presided over my experience with his mustache and pipe.
Anyway, I finished my coffee just as we approached the long-sought-after port. After strolling through the air-conditioned port mini-mall we enquired after the ferry to Heida, only to find that it had just left and that the next ferry would not leave for four hours and would not return until the next morning. Strike one.
We then moseyed over the the tsunami gate, which affords memorable views of Mt. Fuji. Taking a circuitous route through the fish market and other dock warehouses (receiving no shortage of strange looks as we did so) we arrived, acquired our tickets to the top, entered the elevator and were treated to... great views of the sea, but no Fuji. Fuji was hiding behind a considerable blanket of clouds. Strike two.
Having realized there was no shopping outside of restaurants, we cooled off with some delicious matcha ice cream and decided to look for either some points of historical interest and/or a river ferry back to the train station. Soon after embarking on this endeavor, we slowly succumbed to the heat that was higher than forecast (at one point passing a shaded thermometer reading 31C). As you might have guessed by this point, we gave up on monument searching, and once again missed our ferry. Strike three...
So this leads us back here to Mister Donut, where we are recuperating with sugar, A/C and a strange western pop soundtrack. Also, I hope you will forgive the baseball pedantry above, I was inspired by the high school baseball championships, which have been alternating with olympics coverage on NHK sports. I'm sure I'll have much more to say later about this fascinating spectacle.
Tomorrow we head back to Tokyo (via Shimoda?) and will continue our chilling out/acclimating.

Morning...and other things

One of the side effects of jet lag is that I have become (temporarily) a morning person. Wake up at 7:30 with no coffee or burrowing into the covers? No problem! I had to mentally put myself back to bed at around 2:00 am. This "morning thing" will pass, but for now it's kind of fun to see how most of the people in the world operate.

I'm sitting in bed at our 2nd hotel: the Cocochee hotel (http://cocochee.jp/) in Numazu. We got an amazing rate from the website www.agoda.com and this hotel is a huge step up from my usual level of travel lodgings. It's been recently redone and while our room is small, it has that well thought-out design and nice small touches that usually signify a hotel rate that I can't afford. (Photos to follow.)
After this, I'll go get ready for the day and we'll head down to the breakfast buffet. Then we're off to the port for some site-seeing and ferry-riding.

Last night we went to an izakaya (kind of like a Japanese tapas/pub), one of my favorite kinds of restaurants to eat at. You order a bunch of different dishes and share them. We had some cheese potato croquette, grilled pork with green onion, crunchy cucumber salad, dumplings, and "takowasa." Takowasabi is one of those dishes that kind of looks like snot and I often wonder why I like it. Basically, it's little chopped up bits of raw octopus mixed with wasabi. It's spicy, crisp, and because of the small pieces and freshness, the often rubbery octopus stays easy to chew. Richard wasn't quite up to it last night (like I said, it does have an unfortunate likeness to snot), but there's always hope.

First Full Day

Well, we've been in Japan for almost 30 hours and so far it's been a fantastic blur. Actually a little less blurry than I expected, with the jet lag at pretty manageable levels. Last night we crashed in a "business hotel" in Tokyo and today we made it down to the southwest of Tokyo to Numazu for some quiet adjustment time in a relatively posh hotel. We booked the place in part because we wanted to go to Shizuoka to see the tea fields. Unfortunately, Numazu is simply in Shizuoka prefecture and not near the tea area. But we are on a fantastic looking bay, so we'll just trade in our tea cred for ferry tour cred.
I'll let you all fill in the details of the culture shock I've got going with the TV, trains, etc. I do actually feel relatively at home being in a heavily populated part of the world though.

The main culture-shock-y thing that has been happening today for me has been the interactions with store clerks and restaurant wait staff. I don't really understand anything that's being said outside of the greetings and the thank yous. But I've been getting by with nodding, handing them the correct money and saying thank you. I can only hope that it's a pleasant change of pace from  most tourists: the type one sees who can't stop asking everyone if they speak English, who look at numbers and assume that math works differently in a new country, who need ketchup for everything, etc.

There will be more pictures to come featuring expert poses with large beers, a tea service in our hotel room, and other various and sundry items of interest to mildly jetlagged grad students. For now, however, it's back to the epic #winning that is Japanese TV.

Last Days in US

Sitting now in SFO waiting for the first leg of our journey. Figured this is a good moment to catch up on a post. So I'll start with our last day in Wisconsin. Aside from packing we filled our time with.... the state fair. There were swine! And cows! And sheep! And goats! This was all fun and I think I actually learned something, but the more important part of this fair centered send off was the food. I had heard that everything comes on a stick but I no idea the lengths to which people would go. My experience, however, focused on the brat and the cream puff. The second of these items blew my mind, though not for culinary greatness. Instead, I was impressed by the pleasant absurdity. I won't wax poetic about it, so I've simply added a picture of me with my puff.