Okinawa and back to Bmore

I've been back in Baltimore for two weeks now, but I figured I'd conclude this Japan trip blog.

I was able to fly out to Okinawa the day after the typhoon hit. Although my time in Okinawa was short (2.5 days), it was definitely one of the highlights of my summer. I met many family members for the first time and learned a lot about my family history and the history of the Ryukyu Islands. I was surprised to find out that Gibo has only been our family name for the past 150 years. It was originally Ibaru (which is the name engraved on the family tomb in Okinawa), but the name Gibo was later assigned to the family by the Japanese government.


In addition to the family and historical aspect of the trip, I also got a taste of the amazingly beautiful beaches Okinawa has to offer!


I was supposed to fly back to the States on September 4, but due to some misunderstandings and bad luck, I ended up missing my flight. So I spent the next 24 hours in the airport (my first time spending the night in an airport!) and flew back the next day. It was an amazing summer and I would love to have another opportunity to go back to Japan, but for now, it's good to be home :)

Typhoon...

I was supposed to fly to Okinawa today...but all flights were canceled due to a typhoon...
So I spent most of the day in the airport and my hostel. I've stayed in the same ninja hostel three different times now, and I think I've tried out all of the different types of rooms that they have. I did pass this awesome sign though.

Kanazawa, Echigo-Tsumari, Kamakura

One day in Kanazawa. My favorite place was Ninja-dera, an old temple that was also used to protect the castle. The place has nothing to do with ninjas, but it has lots of trap doors, secret stairways, and hidden passageways. In those days, buildings were not supposed to exceed 3 stories - so on the outside, it looks like it has 3 floors when there's actually 7 layers inside. I also went to Kenrokuen Garden, one of the three famous gardens of Japan.
One day in the Echigo-Tsumari region. There was a festival there this month celebrating the countryside. One of the main attractions is the artwork that's displayed throughout the region.
At night, I went back to Tokyo and met up with one of my coworker's friends. She used to work at the ninja hostel that I'm staying at, so we also went out with some of the hostel staff.
One day in Kanazawa. I met up with my host family and we made quick stops at Hase-dera temple and the Daibutsu, since it was ridiculously hot. I love the two girls! The older daughter had just come back from a 5 day trip to Korea and she brought me back some seaweed :)

My new favorite place in Japan

Hopped on an early morning bus to Shirakawa-go. I went through two camera batteries taking pictures here – this place is absolutely gorgeous, and luckily not swamped with tourists. The town still has many traditional farmhouses (gassho zukuri), which people still live in and some of which you can visit. The gassho have incredible sloped, thatched roofs. It’s a huge communal effort to replace the roof, requiring 200-300 people to build a new roof in 2 days.
I visited three gassho zukuri – they’re gigantic 5-story buildings. Originally, 40-50 people would live in the farmhouse (family + workers), but now only a few people live in each gassho. The houses had a collection of old tools for harvesting crops and raising silkworms, in addition to ceremonial and household items. I also went to the Gassho Heritage Museum, which more really a large open space with farmhouses that have be relocated from surrounding areas.
I spent the night in the Koemon gassho zukuri. As usual, the dinner had tons of little dishes – local vegetables, Hida beef (what the region is famous for), and leaf tempura.

Takayama

I took an early train to Takayama, which went through beautiful countryside and mountainous landscapes. Takayama is a very old and small town that has many traditional buildings preserved. First I went to the Jinya mae morning market and got a discount on some mochi :) I enjoyed walking through the streets and exploring the various shops selling souvenirs and local crafts and food. There were many shops selling cool wood carvings and tons of sarubobo dolls.



I went to the Takayama City Memorial Hall, where they had a variety of local crafts on display – wood carvings, pottery, etc. I really liked Takayama Jinya, a government building used during the Edo period. It was a huge building with various artifacts and documents on display in the different rooms (kitchen, rice storage house, interrogation/torture chamber, etc.) I also visited the Kusakabe and Yoshijima heritage houses. These large houses were once owned by rich families involved in money lending. I love the kitchen area with the traditional fireplace.

I spent the night at the Zenkoji Temple Inn. I only saw one monk and they weren’t having any events going on while I was there. My “room” is pretty much just an area sectioned off with a screen, right next to the main altar. Right outside my room is a stairway leading down into complete darkness, called Kaidan Meguri (“Traversing the Path of Buddha”). You walk through a circular hallway, keeping one hand on the wall, until you reach an ancient lock – the “Key to Paradise” – while in complete darkness the entire time. I was alone, so it was actually kind of scary rather than enlightening.

Tokyo!

After my last day of work, I took the shinkansen up to Tokyo. I spent one night in a ninja-themed hostel in Asakusa. It was kind of like a capsule hotel, where my bed was completely enclosed in a box.

We had our farewell reception in Shinagawa, where I met up with all the other students in my program again. It was cool to hear about all of their experiences in Japan. We spent our last night together going to bars and singing karaoke, of course. At 4am, my friend and I had the brilliant idea of going to the Tsukiji Fish Market at 5am. So after less than 1 hour of sleep, we headed over there…to find out that it was CLOSED! We justified our early morning trip with some sashimi.

After saying bye to the rest of the folks in my program (and a nap), I headed off to explore Tokyo. In Shibuya, I did some shopping at 109 and went to a neko (cat) café. Pretty much, I could just pet a bunch of cats while I drank my mango yogurt drink. The room and the cats were both so cute! But my allergies started kicking in, so 30 minutes was enough :(

In Harajuku, I just walked around, snapping pictures of some of the crazy fashion.

At night, I boarded the train and was off to spend in the night in Nagoya.

Ja mata ATR...

I'm going to miss my labmates...


Just arrived in Tokyo tonight. I've been living in the middle of nowhere for the past couple months, I'm not used to seeing so many people!

Sayonnara to Kansai

Leaving for Tokyo tomorrow already! I've definitely enjoyed my last week here though:

- Karaoke with the labmates
- Ate raw chicken at a yakitori restaurant...and survived!
- Bought a cool a hanko (signature stamp) for "Gibo"
- Went to the Miho Museum (sadly I forgot my camera this day...)
- Wandering around Kyoto and chilling by the Kamagawo River at night

And now, packing and cleaning my apartment...

Busy busy busy

Since it's nearing the end of my program, it's been pretty busy so I haven't been exploring as much as before. A couple highlights from the past few weeks...

Dinner with some people from lab at a small yakitori restaurant in Nara. I ate so many parts of the chicken I didn't think were edible, including raw liver and different types of cartilage...yum (not really).


Went to Osaka for one evening. Visited Amerikamura (America town) and did some shopping. At night I watched a fireworks show - there were lots of cool fireworks in the shape of hearts, planets, smiley faces, and even cats! Lots of girls were dressed up in kimonos.


Yesterday I spent the day in Nara - did some more shopping, wandered around the park, and watched the hungry deer. In the evening, I joined the other thousands of people in a walk around the park for the Nara Toka-e light festival. Thousands of candles are scattered throughout the park. I was also able to enter Todai-ji for free! I had been here last year, but it was really pretty to see the building at night. And the gigantic bronze Buddha is always incredible to see.

"Nara" in Hiragana characters

Girls' weekend in the Japan Alps

This weekend I went to the Japan Alps with two other girls from my program and one girl from USC. It's pretty far away, so on Friday night we first met up in Matsumoto. We didn't have any time to explore the city since we got in so late and left very early in the morning. The hostel we stayed in was very small, but cute. The owner was super nice and even drove us to and from the train station.

On Saturday morning, we hopped on a bus to Kamikochi. This area was surrounded by mountains and very beautiful. Luckily, the weather was much cooler too. The majority of the hikers were Japanese, and we saw very few foreigners here. We hiked up Mount Yakedake, which is an active volcano. The hike got pretty steep and rocky at some parts, and there were lots of ladders we had to climb. I still don't understand how all the older Japanese people do these hikes.


We didn't have time to hike all the way to the summit since we needed to catch a bus to our ryokan. The other two girls turned back early, but Ang and I decided to hike farther. Towards the end, I just left my backpack in the bushes and we ran up the path. We were able to make it to the lookout point where we got an amazing 360 view of the surrounding mountains and valley below.


We spent the night at Hirayukan Ryokan - this ryokan was huge and very fancy. Before dinner, we went to relax in the onsen, which had both indoor and outdoor baths. We went to dinner in our yukatas and enjoyed all the little dishes - shabu shabu, raw fish, etc. Then it was time for karaoke! They only had one main room with a stage, not private rooms like I've gone to before. We sang our favorite Disney songs of course, while an older, drunk Japanese man danced on the stage. It was pretty amusing...


The next morning, after a quick dip in the onsen and a hearty breakfast, we were off to hike Mount Nishihotakadake. The other two girls left early to get back to Tokyo, so again Ang continued hiking. We weren't able to make it to the summit, but we did reach a lodge where there were tons of hikers resting and camping. It was really cold and foggy up here. The food prices brought back memories of Fuji too - 700 yen for a small bowl of soup.

Unfortunately, no onsen to enjoy after this hike. Just a 7 hour journey back home...

Kyoto shopping & hiking

So far, the majority of my time in Kyoto has been spent doing cultural things, like visiting temples. This weekend I finally got to explore the other things Kyoto has to offer. I met up with the family on Friday night, but it was too late to do anything. Luckily I had also met up with them in Nara the previous night, so I got to hear all about their Tokyo adventures over dinner. On Saturday morning, we managed to fit in a little bit of shopping at the station before they left. I spent the rest of the day shopping in Kyoto station - there are so many stores within the station, it's crazy! I think I had just as much fun looking at all the sales girls as I did shopping. They all have hair dyed light brown/blond, lots of make up, crazy clothes, and very tall shoes (and even then, I think I'm still taller than many of them hehe).

On Sunday, I went hiking at Hirasan, which is north of Kyoto. I've never done any kind of hiking like this before. We walked upstream through the river the entire way - wading through the water, swimming past the deep parts, and even doing some mini-rock climbing :) Two of my friends got leeches, but they come off as soon as you sprinkle salt on them. At the end of the hike, there was a waterfall that we could swim to.

Picture from my labmate, Yu

After the hike, we went to a sento to wash up and relax (a type of Japanese communal bath, but not an onsens because it doesn't use water from natural hot springs).

Gibo kazoku ga Nihon ni imasu!

The family came to visit in Japan! On Friday evening, I met up with them in Kyoto and went to check out the festivities the night before Gion Matsuri, one of the biggest festivals in Japan. The night before the matsuri is called yoiyama, and three nights before is yoiyoiyoiyama. Try saying that a few times fast. The main streets of Gion were closed off to cars and filled with tons of people, many wearing yukatas, and street vendors selling food. I've never seen a Japanese street so dirty before - there was actually litter on the ground!

Saturday morning, we woke up early to get a good viewing spot for the Gion Matsuri parade. We were at the start of the parade, so we got to see all of the preparation for the parade and the floats (hoko). We watched as tons of people piled into the first hoko. At the end, a little boy dressed in a fancy robe with his face painted white was carried up to the float - his feet were never allowed to touch the ground. It was super crowded by the time the parade started, and the old ladies were especially pushy!

Hoko - big float

Yama - small float

Next stop was Miyajima. We were immediately greeted by a bunch of hungry deer, who ate my aunt's fan. We stayed in a gorgeous little ryokan on the island. We went to dinner dressed in our yukatas and enjoyed the wide variety of dishes - raw fish, soups, chicken, pickled veggies, etc. Michelle and I also relaxed in the Japanese-style bath. Afterwards, walked outside to see the torii, beautiful as always...

The girls in our yukatas

The fam at the torii

Sunday was spent exploring Miyajima. It was low tide in the morning, so we walked out to the torii. We spent most of the day walking around Daisho-in Temple. I came here last year, but I still love it, and you always seem to stumble upon different statues. In the evening, we took the ferry back to Hiroshima and had okonomiyaki for dinner. I loved our cook - an adorable old man who sang and had posters and a video playing of his favorite Japanese singer.


It was a national holiday on Monday, so I stayed in Hiroshima with the family. We went to the Peace Memorial Museum and walked around the park. It was my second time coming here, but it really is a very moving museum and I'd highly recommend it.

Sighting in the lunchroom

Today in the cafeteria, I saw Hiroshi Ishiguro – at least I’m pretty sure it was him, and not his robot doppelganger… He's famous for having built a humanoid robot that looks exactly like him. Ishiguro-san was wearing all black, and I’ve heard from many people that he always dresses in all black - just like his robot.

"He who climbs Mount Fuji once is a wise man, he who climbs it twice is a fool."

I could not agree more with that Japanese saying.

It probably would have been a good idea to get a good night’s rest the night before the climb, but there was a party at work on Friday night and I had to catch a train at 5:30am the next morning. So a night of wine and sake and less than four hours of sleep was probably not the best way to start the day off…

It’s still a bit early in the climbing season (which is only July-August), so we couldn’t take the southern route because the summit was still covered in snow. The northern route (Yoshida Trail) is the most popular, but it was harder for us to get to (1 hour on two trains + 5 hour bus ride + another 1 hour bus ride).

We had a lot of time to kill before starting the climb, so we went to an onsen. This was my first time experiencing a public bath in Japan. After getting used to the fact that everyone was naked, it turned out to be quite relaxing.

After taking a bus up to the 5^th station (at 2300 m), we were shocked at how cold it was! We had heard that the Japanese are usually overly prepared for climbing Fuji, but now we all wished that we had more warm layers too. Our group of 7 students from my program joined forces with 2 other Americans and 4 Norwegians, and we nicknamed ourselves Apollo 13… We started hiking at 10pm.

The hike got surprisingly steep and strenuous. It was especially shocking to see all the old people on the mountain! Towards the end, the trail was very congested and the huge procession of people made forward progress very slow. It was really an incredible sight to see all these people slowly marching up Fuji, appearing as a zigzag of lights crawling up the mountain. There was such a strong sense of camaraderie among everyone.

Around 4am, Apollo 13 made it to the summit (3776 m)! It was freezing and super windy. Half an hour later, we got our sunrise on Fuji.

Afterwards, we crammed into a lodge with other tired hikers, I bought an overpriced bowl of miso soup (¥800!), and tried to sleep. We started the descent around 7:30am. It was very steep and rocky, so we ended up running/sliding down the entire way. Back at the base of the mountain, we went to relax and nap back at the onsen. This was the most exhausting weekend of my life.

I’ve been waiting to climb Fuji since my last trip to Japan and I thought this was an incredible experience…but never again...

Robot wedding

The other day, I had lunch with Shibata-sensei - a robotics professor at Nara Institute of Science and Technology, and more importantly, the first guy to get married by a robot. They made sure that I understood that it was by a robot, and not to a robot...

Robot wedding

Revisiting Kyoto

I went back to Kyoto again this weekend since two friends from my program were visiting from Tsukuba. Four of us somehow managed to cram into our other friend’s teeny tiny apartment.

Apparently it’s still rainy season because it was pouring all Saturday, so we spent the day exploring Kyoto in our soggy shoes. We spent most of the day in Arashiyama, a beautiful forested area in the western part of the city. We explored the gardens at Tenryuji Temple, but I especially enjoyed the bamboo forest behind the temple grounds (except for all the mosquitoes, who only went after me). With the rain and fog, it really looked like a magical forest.

Next, we hiked up a hill to Monkey Park Iwatayama. There are 150 Japanese monkeys living on this mountain. I especially enjoyed watching the tiny baby monkeys. We arrived just before feeding time, which was a bit touristy but really funny to watch - the monkeys went crazy! I also bought some chestnuts to feed to the monkeys.

In the evening, we rented a karoke room for 1.5 hours and relived our middle school years by singing Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears. Afterwards, we went clubbing with some German couch surfers we met on the streets of Gion. It was a long day, but it was so much fun to go out and explore Kyoto’s nightlife.

Since we hadn’t gone to sleep until about 5am, we “slept in” until 10am (since I’ve been in Japan, I can wake up at 7am without an alarm). I spent Sunday hiking around Fushimi Inari Shrine. There were many paths up the mountain, lined with thousands of red torii, leading to other smaller shrines with little torii and fox statues. We also got a nice view overlooking Kyoto about halfway up the mountain.

This was by far the most fun weekend so far, minus the swarms of mosquitoes. I just counted – I got 40 mosquito bites from this weekend…

Hot and humid and rainy in Kyoto

This weekend I went to Kyoto and met up with other students in my program living in the Kansai area. It was nice to be able to speak English freely with other people. It rained all Saturday, but we still managed to see some sights and explore the city. At Nijo Castle, we walked through the palace corridors on the Nightingale floorboards (designed to squeak to detect intruders) and the gardens.

Next, we headed over to Gion, the downtown area of Kyoto. We walked through the Nishiki Market and enjoyed taking pictures of all the strange foods, including takotamago (octopus with a quail egg stuffed inside the head…yum).

We also went to Yasaka Shrine, which I had visited last year, but this time there was a big ring made out of some plant which you had to walk through in a figure eight pattern (I’m not sure what the significance of it was…).
After a lot more wandering around, we were all pretty hungry and tired (finding a bench in Japan is rare). Gion was super crowded and most of the restaurants were too small to accommodate our party of nine, so we settled on a Mexican restaurant! The couple running the restaurant wore Mexican style clothes and the man played the guitar and sang songs in Spanish, while we got to play along with tambourines :) We wanted to stay out to go karaoke-ing, but the buses stop running around 10 so we decided to call it a night.

On Sunday, I explored the northern part of the city. I went to Kamigamo Shrine, which was near the hills and seemed to be visited by few foreign tourists. There also happened to be a market at the shrine with tons of stands selling food and crafts. My favorite sight was a man walking around with a cat sitting on his shoulder.

Next stop was Kinkakuji Temple, the famous Golden Pavilion. I’ve heard that this temple is a bit hyped up, but I thought it was actually very pretty. A bunch of school kids approached my friend Tim to ask him questions in English, but they ignored me (as usual). They asked their teacher to take a picture of them with Tim, and I think the teacher felt bad and told me I could get in their picture too.

Last stop of the day was Ryoanji Temple, with its famous rock garden. I wasn’t too impressed with the rock garden though – I think I like normal gardens better.

Some observations: Japanese people never seem to put their bags on the ground or eat while walking (which we heard is kind of taboo). We ended up doing both quite often though, since we were hungry and tired of carrying our backpacks around…