Kyoto Day 2 - Nara

Day 2 I went to Nara, home of giant Buddhas, tame deer, and namesakes. I saw the first 2, but didn't track down any of the third.

I go on the same train as I did on Day 1, but this time it was the right train, so 30 minutes later I was in the first capital of Japan. I had an aggressive sightseeing plan, but I promised myself I would take more breaks and not be as tired at the end of the day. Didn't work.

First I walked through the nearest temple, Kofukuji. The big attractions there were a 5 story pagoda, some hexagon shrines, and a "Treasure House". The treasure house was 500 yen, but I went in anyway. It was a bunch of statues that were originally all around the temple, but since they were all designated "Important Cultural Assets" they moved them inside.

Next on the itinerary was Todaiji and it's giant Buddha, or diabutsu. But on the way there, I found the first of the tame deer and decided to feed them.
Apparently, if you day "dozo" (it's like "here you go") before you give them the deer snack, being that they're Japanese deer, they bow. Unfortunately, I didn't hear this until I got back, but maybe next time.

These deer pretty much have the run of the town. Todaiji, like most famous temples, has a street full of tourist shops leading up to it. This is right across the street from the park, and the deer seem to feel welcome in the shops, too.
There was also this shop, which I'm sure will entice many of you to come visit, once you see how cool it is. Don't worry, the ninja's fake.
Once I worked my way down the street, I finally got to Todaiji. It's huge, and it has to be to hold the giant Buddha inside. It's supposed to be the biggest wooden building in the world. Holds up pretty well for 300 years old
Inside is the giant Buddha, or diabutsu, which just means big Buddha. The picture doesn't really do it justice. It's 15 meters tall, and all bronze. It's originally from the 700's, but has been re-cast a bunch of times to fix damages.
When you work your way around the back of the diabutsu, one of the pillars holding the building up has a hole in it. There's some tradition that says you squeeze through the hole for good luck. It's mostly just kids who can fit through. I took one look and knew not to even try. Just as I found my opening to take a picture of the hole, this little old lady started through.
I think she had the size to make it through, but she didn't have the flexibility. She got the top half in and then just sat there for almost long enough for me to get worried before she backed out.

I walked all around town looking at all the "World Heritage" sights before heading back. I was much better prepared this time. I brought not only my map but my compass, and didn't get lost at all. It helped that there were waves of people all moving in the same basic rotation around town. Just follow the flow. I finished the day off at the Nara National Museum. They have all sorts of ancient art and archaeological stuff like pots and cups from ancient Japan. The most interesting thing I saw was a series of displays showing how the wooden Buddhas were made. There was also a nice explanation of the different hand gestures that Buddhas have.

Stopped in the train station Starbucks on the way home and took this picture. Notice the kimono girls in the window. Just made me laugh.

Sorry this didn't get up sooner. I had a party Monday, and last night I went to another guys apartment to watch the debacle.

On the bright side, when I got there to watch the game, another OAP who took his family to Thailand for vacation had brought me back a bottle of Mekong.

Kyoto Day 1 - Mostly Lost

First off, let me apologize for not getting to this while I was in Kyoto. I decided that the laptop was just to heavy to carry and left it behind.

I woke up early Wednesday morning, packed up my big backpack and walked to the station to catch my 8:20 Shinkansen to Kyoto. I got there about 3 hours later and started getting lost. My plan was to drop my big backpack off in a coin locker and grab my small backpack to carry around my map and stuff, and to pack up any souvenirs I might buy. I wandered Kyoto station for about 15 minutes before I could find a locker, and then grabbed a quick lunch at McDonalds's while I figured out the next step.

Here's where I made my first mistake. I planned on going to Fushimi Inari shrine in the south of town first, so I got out my train map and looked for a station named Fushimi. That was on a different, private company train line that was on the other side of the station. I followed the signs until they just sort of petered out. I looked turned around, saw the name with an arrow pointing the other way and followed it until I was back where I started. Did that 2 or 3 times and asked for directions. The guy at the information booth gestured to go outside and turn right, with a big, sweeping gesture that I took to mean go around. I went outside, saw construction that I took to mean this entrance was closed, and went around the building (which is a long way). When I got to the other side, I followed the signs that led me back to the same side of the building I started on. Turns out there were some stairs I was supposed to take that I missed.

When I finally got on the train, I sat down and looked into my guide book to see what to do when I got to Fushimi station. There, it clearly said that Fushimi Inari is close to both Fushimi Inari station and Inari station, but no where near Fushimi station. I had to re-check my train map and come up with plan be, which meant going past Fushimi station and transferring to another line to come back up to Fushimi Inari station.

Once I got there, I just followed the crowd. It was pretty easy to find the temple.
New Years is a big time for this shrine, apparently. Wiki says last year they had 2.7 million visitors over the 3 day New Year festivities. They set up basically a carnival just outside (and slightly less inside) the temple. I went with the flow past all the food and souvenir stands into the temple.
Fushimi Inari is famous for having thousands of the bright orange torii gates lining the paths up into the mountain behind the shrine. I wanted to hike through at least some of these paths, thinking it would be a nice, peaceful hike in the woods. I found where the path started pretty easily, since it turns out I wasn't the only person with this idea.

I took a picture of the crowd on the trail, and just now noticed that this guy thought I was taking a picture of him. Or maybe somebody was taking a picture of him, I don't know, either way I got the peace sign.

I followed the crowd up the mountain, step by step. It was like there was a roller coaster at the top or something, the line was so slow. I finally got to the end of the toriis and took a look around the shrine there, only to find more toriis leading up. I said to myself "Where do these stairs go? They go up" and kept following. I walked a while, came to the end, and saw more gates leading up. I'd come to a clearing, and there would be either another shrine or a small rest stop, snack bar thing, and another trail lined with toriis going up. The crowd started thinning out, and I started thinking "I've come this far, might as well finish". Seemed like a good idea the first 5 or 6 rest areas, but eventually it became less sightseeing and more just wanting to finish something. Sometimes the only path leading away would be downhill, and I would think I was finished, but it would turn a corner and keep going up.

Finally, after an hour of climbing, I found the top and started going down, still on a torii lined path.

I don't know if I was getting delirious or just got my second wind or what, but when I saw a non-torii path branching off down the mountain with nobody on it, I decided to take it. Road less travelled and all that. I thought it may be faster, since the steps looked steeper. The further I got from the torii path, the steeper this path got, until I started doubting the safety of my choice, but I was too tired to go back up, so I kept going. I got to the bottom, and instead of the temple, I was in some body's back yard. I had come down the wrong side of the mountain.

This isn't a huge mountain, so I figured if I kept the mountain to one side of me I could follow the road around and find my way back to where back. All part of the adventure, I figured. I was wandering around a basically rural area outside of the city, and it was getting late. The sun goes down around 5 or so here, and it was 4 and overcast. I started getting a little worried. I didn't have a backup plan, so I just kept walking. About 30 minutes later, I saw some people walk out of a little shrine, looked inside and saw a torii lined path. I took the path, and the torii's stopped about 100 yards further on. It was still going the direction I though I wanted it to, so I kept going, One of the stones slipped, and I fell down, but I felt good to be on the right path again. I finally popped out a trail at the first shrine on the way up the mountain. So that's why I look so worn out and happy in this picture. Did I mention it was cold?

After picking up some lucky charms as souvenirs, I went back to the station (the right way) to pick up my stuff and check into the hotel. I was staying right across the street from Nijo-jo castle, but I'll get to that. I checked in and rested for an hour before starting stage 2.

I took the subway over to someplace close to Gion, the geisha section of town. My plan was to do some geisha spotting, eat dinner, and then find one of the western style bars I read about. I either got there too late or was looking in the wrong place for the geishas, so no luck there. I was wandering around looking for either a geisha, food, or finding the bars when I saw another temple with a crowd. I figured there were probably food stands there, so I decided to make that dinner.

While I was eating my cup of chicken nuggets and wandering around the temple/carnival, I ran into Todd (one of the other OAPs) and his family. I knew they were going to be in Kyoto, but I figured with 2000 shrines and temples, the odds of running into them were pretty slim.

I went back to the bar for a couple beers and the end of a soccer game (they're all Irish pubs here), then, since the place was dead, went back to the hotel to rest and plot out my next day. Since this is already way too long, I'll get to that tomorrow.

Nihongo no OBL

I finally found an American style bar near my apartment. All the other bars I've seen are the sit around a table and eat some Japanese food style, and I can't just wander into those and start talking to people. Seems like I'm barging in on some party.

Anyway, I've ridden by this place a few times and I though it looked like a real bar, so I went there last night. First, I lubricated my Japanese skills with a couple of beers at home, which put me a little closer to my Japanese speaking OBL. Not enough, of course, but close.

I walked in through the honky-tonk style swinging half doors, and saw a big wooden eagle, a route 66 sign, and 3 guys who looked like a Japanese Stray Cats tribute band. All slicked pompadours and cowboy-ish shirts, ready to rockabilly the night away. These were the guys working there. Other than them, there was a couple at one table and 2 older ladies at the bar, and a couple of dozen Elvis pictures.

I asked for a beer, rockabilly bartender asked what kind and started listing my choices. When he came to "Buda-why-za", I gave him my "really?!!" face, which I find to be quite useful when talking broken Japanese. He yelled to the rockabilly waiter to bring me a Bud, and when he did, it came with a mug in the shape of a boot, and I knew this was a place I could get used to.

I drank my boot-beer and listened to the ladies ordering a drink. They were just listing off liquors and juices, making it up as they went along. She finally had a tequila, watermelon schnapps, and OJ. I reached deep into my 3rd beer Japanese skills and asked what the name of that drink was, and she said "it's original" in English. They were very nice to me the rest of the time they were there, even reminding me the word for salt when I ordered a tequila (they actually had Cuervo).

They left and another guy came in, who seemed very interested in talking to an American. I talked to this guy about cars, motorcycles, and baseball for about an hour (10 minutes of actual conversation, 50 minutes of trying to get the other person to understand).

It was definitely a fun place, with oldies on the stereo and Tom and Jerry on the TV, and 4 seriously rockabilly guys wandering around. Other than the fact they were Japanese, something about the place really reminded me of "Swingers". I will be going back for sure. Next time I'll bring my camera.

Today, I'm going to watch football this morning and make an itinerary for my upcoming Kyoto trip tonight. I'm going to go to the Lion's Head tomorrow for whatever New Years festivities they have, then on Tuesday I'm going to check out what sort of activity there is at the local temples and pack for Kyoto. My hotel says they have internet access, so maybe there will be updates from Kyoto, but my itinerary may be too packed.

Weekend in Tokyo

Over drinks at the Lion's head Saturday night, Chris and I decided we were bored with Utsunomiya and I offered to take him down to Tokyo Sunday. We didn't really have a plan, but on the train we decided to try Shinjuku and Akihabara.

First in Shinjuku, we went to this temple where they were supposed to have a flea market on Sunday. It was funny seeing these ratty tables with peoples random junk in the middle of this ancient temple. Didn't they cover this in Sunday school?
After the temple we walked around for a while. From what the tourist book says, Shinjuku doesn't really come alive until dark. Then there's a section filled with these little bars with maybe 4 seats in them. And nearby is an area that's very much a red-light district. Nothing was really going on in either of these places when we were there, but I want to see what its like at night.

We walked to the other side of the station to go to the bookstore to get me a Kyoto guidebook, and then went on to a mall. The place wasn't very big in area, but we rode the escalators all the way up to the 12th floor looking around. Here's the part of Christmas they decided to embrace.
The city offices in Shinjuku have a 45th floor observation deck, so we went over there. The view was incredible. If you have really good eyes, or I had a better camera, you can see Mt. Fuji.
Look a little to the left of that, and I saw a dome. The "and if you look over here..." picture said it's the Tokyo dome. Gives a little sense of the scale of Tokyo when the baseball stadium looks like this. We stopped in Akihabara, Electric Town, on the way back. The place is just crazy, you start going down a 20 foot wide street, and every time you turn, the streets get smaller and more crowded with electronics until you're just walking down an aisle with gizmos all around you.

The place is not as big with electronics as it used to be, and it's picking up the economic slack with Anime and porn. When we walked out of the station, there was a big crowd around something, so I had to go look. Here's what it was:
I think this girl was selling DVD's, and I think, maybe she was in them. I don't know, and I don't think I'd recognize her even if I saw the DVD. I'm not sure if that's her on the billboard or not, I didn't get a close enough look at either the picture or the back of her (although that guy behind her sure did). Really can't tell how old anyone is here, can you? I kind of felt bad for all the girls in maid costumes standing around being ignored while there were dozens of people snapping pictures of her.

On another topic, I watched that Browns game last night. That was the first time I felt really like I was missing something. It's going to suck to watch them in the playoffs alone with a computer and a Kirin.

This week's drinkin' stories

We've got a couple of business trip visitors here this week, so of course we had to have a party. Party stage 1 was at a restaurant in the sort of red-light area, but it was starting later than normal at 8:30. I had taken one of the guys (Chris) to a restaurant when he got here Sunday. I think I may have mentioned this place before, where the owner was so excited to see American's in his shop that he forced the waitress who could speak English to sit down and talk with us. Well, he did the same thing this time, and invited us back, said he would give us free beer and gyoza when we came. He started naming days we should come back, "Monday?, Tuesday?". I told him as politely as I could in Japanese that maybe we would come. We finally settled on maybe Friday. He looked at Chris and asked if he would come, too, and Chris said "Absolutely".

Now, I don't want this guy thinking that Americans are liars, especially because of something a Canadian said, so we started off the night at stage zero, this restaurant, for 1 beer before we go to the party. No sooner does the waitress (who is surprised to see us) put the beers down then the owner tells her to bring more. So we got our free beer, but were already 2 ahead of the pace when we went to the party.

Pretty standard Japanese party, lots of food and beer. I learned both that the word for cuttlefish is "ika" and that it's delicious. Probably drank a little too much, but I pushed through to stage 2, the hostess bar. I heard one guy on the phone negotiating letting Americans in, and we were off.

It was your normal hostess bar, girls being especially friendly to me. Whether this is because I'm American, or because I'm single, or because the Japanese guys said something to them, I don't know. I must be learning something, because I was able to make a little small talk with girls in Japanese, and to tell them Chris is a movie star.

I don't know if it's a good sign or not, but I've learned enough Japanese to get myself into trouble now. I tried to tell the girl next to me that she's tall, which I though was funny since the word for tall is the same as the word for expensive. Clever Japanese play on words with the girl I'm paying to be my friend. However, my pronunciation was a little off, and I guess I said it it a way that made her sound like an evil giant. She seemed a little hurt, did the playful hitting thing, and told me "Not takai, ookii". This just confused me more, since ookii means big, and even I know you don't tell a girl she's big. Got into a big discussion, mostly of me apologizing and trying to figure out what the right thing to say was.

We stayed there for the usual amount of time, but since the party started late, it was almost 4 before I got home and passed out. I felt surprisingly OK this morning, but when I saw Chris this evening, he apparently didn't fare quite as well. Anyway, sorry no pictures this time. We're going to Tokyo tomorrow, so maybe I'll have some then.

Baby's first haircut

I was in dire need. I haven't gotten a haircut since a few weeks before I left, and I needed one bad. I was little nervous, since I don't know how any barbershop talk like "A little off the top" or maybe "did you see that game last night?". Here's the before picture:
I had a few errands to run, so I figured I'd walk around doing those and stop in if I found someplace that looked inviting. I picked a place near the station, with both the largest number and biggest size barber poles I saw. Turned out to be a good choice, they were pretty easy to communicate with and seemed like they could handle not black, not straight hair.

They pointed me to chair 7 (out of 20 or so) and as soon as I sat down, a girl came over and asked "Shave suru?", which I just learned Friday is the plain form of "shimas", so I totally understood. I looked around, saw that everyone else was getting shaved, and figured what the hell. She started to lather me up, and then gestured to the edges of my eyebrows and the area a unibrow would be if I had one and said "koko?". I thought I said "no", but I must have said "No, don't skip those areas" because she proceeded to lather them up and shave them too. She did a nice job, lots of hot towels later, a guy came up to cut my hair. I had studied before I went and now know "Mijikai" means short. So I pointed and said "mijikai", and he replied "Sho-to?" (short) and I got my haircut. Here's the after, but I wore a hat all day today, so it may not do it justice.
I also finalized my winter vacation plans. I get a week off for new years, and I decided to go to Kyoto. I finally got a hotel booked, so the next step was train tickets. I was a little nervous about getting the right kind of tickets for the right day, but I think it worked out. I'm going to bring my tickets to class tomorrow and have my teacher reassure me.

Last week, I asked the guy who would know what the thing to do in Utsunomiya on a Saturday night is. He said he was entertaining visitors, but I should go up to the Lion's Head Pub and meet anyone who speaks English. So that's what I did. I figure it would be dead until 10 or so, so I started off at home with dinner, beer, and tequila. Here's a picture I though was funny after an hour or so of that. It's tequila and takos, get it?

I went up to the bar, and it was all guys, but I met some people that I have a feeling I'll be seeing around, so it was an OK night. It started raining while I was walking there, but I managed to give the taxi driver directions.

Today, I rode my bike around for a few hours, looking around town. It's just a lot easier than driving and finding parking here. I stopped at the "Hard Off" second hand shop, just to look around. The DVD section had a couple of shelves of American movies in Japanese. I bought Star Wars. Hopefully, I'll learn some Japanese from it. I'm sure it will come in handy being able to say "That's no moon". The thing that kills me isn't so much the language, it's the voices. C-3PO and Darth Vadar just don't sound right. And they keep saying "Lu-ku" when they mean Luke.

Bonen-kai (SONNA-NO KANKEI-NE!!!!)

Friday was the department bonen-kai, end-of-year party. I didn't really know what to expect. It was at a really fancy hotel, but I also know how every party I've been to here has been, so I wasn't sure how to play it. Nothing prepared me for this.

I got there right on time and was told to take the elevator to the "Grand Ballroom" on the top floor. I saw a few people I know on the way in, so I could tell that I was dressed right. Or so I thought until I got off the elevator and saw 4 guys at the check in table wearing superhero costumes, most of them the younger guys, but one was sort of a big dog, so I was more confused than I normally am in Japan.

I went in and sat down with a guy I know and, of course, they started pouring me beers. My boss came over to pour me a drink, and he was already pretty hammered. Then, according to Japanese tradition, I tried to pour him one. First, thought, to be culturally correct, I was told that I had to finish mine. OK, no problem there. Then, according to the ritual, my boss gave me his beer to finish before I could refill his. It was shaping up to be a rough night.

The guy I was sitting with (Sato-san) explained that all the new guys hired this year had to put on a show. He kindly gave me a warning that this always involves the new guys in speedos. This was also the only party I've been to that included the secretaries, so they got to size up the new guys, too.

Earlier in the week was some things I could say that would make people laugh. Basically punchlines from Japanese comedians, to help me make small talk. First, they taught me "Obei-ka?" with a sweeping hand gesture. It means "are you western?", and I guess you say it if they do something western, and then people laugh. I didn't get a chance to use it, though.

The second thing I learned was "Sonna-no kankei-ne!!" with downward fist pump. It's the catchphrase of a guy named Yoshio Kojima. Means something like "What does it matter?". The didn't, however, mention the standard presentation of this. Which brings me back to the new guys show. They did a whole routine based around "Sonna-no kankei-ne!!!". Here's a video of Kojima, so picture 5 guys doing this. Sorry I couldn't figure out how to embed it.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2nyza_kojima_fun

After the show, there was a little mingling time, then it was time for BINGO!!! Turns out, I'm not good at bingo. They had good prizes, like a TV and a Wii, and some crappy ones. I didn't win any of them. I got to practice a lot of Japanese, and some guy promised to set up a "meeting girls party". I don't remember the word in Japanese, but it's basically a party where they arrange an even split and hope everyone pairs off nicely. It sounds like that's the normal way here in Japan, since all the bars are hostess bars.

When the party wrapped up, my well-lubricated boss grabbed me and said we should go to a bar, and he recommended going to one that doesn't have hostesses. I accepted gladly, and we went to a place that was sort of English-pub-style bar, with live jazz. They go by the bottle keep system (you buy a bottle and leave it there, and whenever you come in, you drink from it). We mostly went with individual drinks, though. I asked (in perfect Japanese) if they had tequila, and then what kind it was. With one other guy, I had my first shot of tequila in Japan (Sauza blanco, but I can't be picky). The other guys liked the ritual involved and wanted to join in, so they immediately ordered more shots. They didn't get the idea of waiting between drinks. Before I knew it, we were 5 shots in and not slowing down. No, you can't get the tequila on the bottle keep system. I had to pay 4000 yen for the big party, but for some reason I didn't pay anything at the bar, even though I was ordering all the drinks. I hope it keeps up like this.

I stopped at the 7-11 on the way home and bought a sandwich, since I hadn't really eaten anything, and went home and went to sleep.