Japan

Wednesday, January 24

Arrive in Kobe, Visit to Osaka

As I went to bed late the night before, I caught a glimmer of lights on the horizon that let me know we were approaching land and Japan.  After seeing nothing but sea in all directions it was pretty exciting… I woke early to see that we were coming in to the port of Kobe about an hour before expected.  I knew it was cold outside so I grabbed my winter coat, gloves and hat.  I was still not prepared for the wind that cut right through the layers.  It was so exciting to watch the land come closer as we entered the port.  There was a Ferris wheel on one of the piers and many amazing sculptures and structures in the distance.  We arrived at the terminal which is also a hotel and saw people waving to as we entered.  It was a grand entry.  I hear later there was a band that played for us too.

Getting through immigration was our first task.  Once again, the RDs helped staff distributing the passports.  Japanese immigration was very serious – fingerprints, dogs, strict lines, no talking, no phones.  The students managed it all well, given that it was a 3-hour process.  We had been warned ahead of time that everyone would come off the ship to clear customs and that everyone had to clear customs before anyone could go back on the ship.   Many students came off with backpacks ready, cleared customs, and began their journey.  It seems like plenty of students had independent travel planned and even those who had field programs later in the week were headed out to explore. 

The staff returned to the ship for lunch and then began to figure out who was traveling where.  I decided to join up with Dallawrence (an RD) and his wife (Cynthia who is in charge of pulling together an electronic daily Dean’s memo) who were headed to Osaka about 40 minutes away.
Dallawrence had been to Japan on another occasion which turned out to be extremely valuable in knowing a little bit about how to negotiate the rail system.  At least he knew that the number beside the station on the map was the fare and had a sense of which lines we were trying to travel on. Having negotiated the DC Metro system helped too as the fare cards work similarly.

Differences I noticed were the sounds.  Instead of squawking buzzers all the sounds are musical and soothing.  Instead of pushing and shoving into the metro cars, there were lines set up with painted footsteps on the ground.  Doors open right in front of where the people are standing in a line.  And perhaps the best of all – heated seats.  (Heated toilet seat too).  Now that is civilized! 

We quickly discovered the kindness of the Japanese people too.  The man at the Information desk in the terminal had patiently told us about places to visit in Osaka and how to get to the train to get there.  As we huddled over a map in one train station, a woman who only spoke Japanese approached to see if she could help us.  We were able to communicate where we were trying to go by pointing to the station name on the map and she walked us to the right staircase!  Later that day we were equally impressed by the details the woman at the information booth in Osaka provided – thorough, with landmarks, and details about times that we didn’t know to ask. And again, at the end of the day, a young man came up to us without bidding and helped us find the correct track.

We agreed to send thoughts of appreciation to our helpers throughout the day as they made it possible for us to enjoy a fantastic day.  I reflect at times that I have not helped someone in the Metro because I didn’t speak their language. 

It was early afternoon before we arrived in Osaka.  Tenshukaku, the Osaka Castle Museum, is a castle that contains an 8-story museum and is within about 15 minutes of the train station through a lovely shopping area and park.  Although the wind was bitter cold, the sun was shining brightly and we were so excited to take in the reality that we were now in Japan.  This is where I wish I had a travel book or access to Google to give you the 2-sentence description that someone else wrote, but will try my best without it. 

The exhibit describes the life of Hideyoshi Toyotomi who is known as the warlord who helped unite Japan.  From the description, it seems like he began from very humble roots but was quite creative in his ability to support his soldiers as well as identifying strategies to overthrow other feudal lords (e.g., damming a river and flooding their castle).  There was a magnificent folding screen showing “The Summer Wars in Osaka” which helped me appreciate the relationship between art and historical record.   The real treat was that there were English audio guides available to us, so we could understand what the exhibit was all about.  It was a wonderful immersion in Japanese history prior to European interactions.  

With that success behind us, we decided to try our hand at going to Namba area of Osaka, that the man at the Information desk had mentioned as another highlight of Osaka for its unique shopping.  A train ride and some subway stops later, we found ourselves in what appeared to be an endless underground maze of stores (including Hello Kitty hallway).   We emerged from that area into Namba which had the feeling of Times Square with lights and billboards.   There was a maze of streets which we allowed ourselves to wander and take in.  We felt like we were in a populated area and there were probably a fair number of tourists there, but certainly not lots from the US.  Dallawrence spotted a restaurant that looked interesting and had English translation on the menu. I ordered skewers of quail eggs, onions, and some sweet potato.  The waitress did not understand our pantomiming so we skipped trying to get separate checks.  It was a lovely chance to get to know Dallawrence and Cynthia better and we sat while many rounds of people came and went, watching what they ordered and getting a feel for Japanese life. 

We got back to Kobe close to midnight and walked from the train station to the ship with relative ease, stopping in Larson’s, a 24-hour convenience store.  7-Eleven’s are popular here too with what seems like a larger array of offerings.  I was told that their sushi is fine to buy and eat and that they will warm up food that you purchase. 

One day in Japan.  Many, many steps.  It feels like we have been here several days already.

Thursday, January 25

SAS Field Program – Monkeys & Zen Temple

This is my first field trip so I decided not to be a field liaison.  As it turns out, a number of the RDs and a couple of other staff are on this trip, along with a number with some of the nicest residents on my sea.  Osaka-san is the program director, a local who is knowledgeable about the area and prepared to help us learn as we go. 

We are going to the Tenryú-ji Temple, Temple of the Heavenly Dragon, which is a World Cultural Heritage Site and is in the Sagano district of Kyoto.  The history is a bit complicated to follow but the site itself is significant as the first Zen temple in Japan in the 13^th century.  There have been a number of fires that have destroyed the original buildings but the landscape garden is one of the oldest in Japan and has the same form as the one designed in the 14^th century.  Old.

We loaded the bus at about 8:15 am and began heading toward Kyoto.  It is a snowy and blustery day. Osaka-san explained that Kobe suffered a major earthquake in 1995 that resulted in significant devastation and loss of life.  The modern look of the port town with much earthquake proof architecture is a positive outcome, although she says that there are many still traumatized by the experience.  They have an earthquake practice drill annually to prepare and also remember those who passed away. 

Osaka-san also taught us some key phrases in Japanese, although I am a slow learner when it comes to this. Since we were going to be seeing monkeys, she had us describe the words for common animal sounds in English and compare them to Japanese.  Spelling aside, dogs are won won, pigs - boo boo, cows - mow mow, and monkeys - kee kee.  We had a lot of fun with that.  Imagine animals speaking differently in different languages!   She also prepared us for how to hold tea in a tea ceremony (cup propped on left hand; right hand holding the side).

Osaka-san explained that Kyoto is surrounded on 3 sides by mountains, so snow like we are having today is actually unusual in the city. There are over 100 temples and 300 shrines in Kyoto. 

Our first stop was to climb up one of the mountains to see the snow monkeys.  We were warned we might see animals/monkeys along the path, but not to stop to take pictures as they could be spooked by cameras and direct stares.  At the top, there was a research station that has been set up for visitors.  As I reached the top, my first sight was of some monkeys frolicking in the snow.  At the top, we saw probably 25-30 monkeys running around – some behind a chained off area, others dashing through the area we were standing.  It was fascinating to watch them interact.  There seemed to be a little scuffle going on between a couple of them and they dashed between our legs kee-keeing in loud shrieks.  I definitely found myself moving out of the way not to be between 2 adversaries.  The highlight was to go inside the building where we could buy peanuts or apples and feed the monkeys through a screen from the inside.  The monkeys would reach their hands in and grab a piece of whatever you were holding.  I saw the little hand of one that I was feeding shaking as if he were a little scared – they were definitely not fully used to humans.  We could have stayed for hours, but they kept us moving right along.

Down the hill to a building at the temple where we have a vegetarian style meal.  We removed our shoes (leave your dirty shoe on the ground and step directly into the clean house (don’t put your foot on the dirty ground next to your shoe) which takes some balance with tie shoes.  Thank heavens for my yoga practice in advance. 

I think only pictures can describe the experience.  We sat in low chairs with a tray in front of us.  Our servers, on their knees, slid their tray across the floor in front of us as they served us.  Each of us had a small pot of vegetables boiling over a flame and were told they would be ready when the flame went out.  There were so many flavorful samplings of food – not what comes to mind when I think vegetarian.  Mindful eating was easy –and necessary for me as we were using chopsticks.

From there we visited the temple and appreciated the temple gardens before walking through a bamboo forest.  It made US bamboo look puny and emaciated.  Each tree was about 6 inches in diameter.  Osaka-san told us that each live for about 10 years and they literally grow inches overnight.  

Our path through the bamboo forest led us to some private land that had apparently been owned by a popular Japanese actor in the 1920s. I don’t remember all the details, but my recollection is that he witnessed a disaster of some sort, became committed to Buddhism and then decided to open his land to others for contemplation.  This was where there was a little teahouse where we sampled tea and had a sweet snack, then wander the beautiful circular path around his land with glimpses of the mountains around this section of Kyoto.

Our final stop was in the little town at the bottom of the hill that seems to have grown up to respond to the tourists.  There were lots of shops with candies and teas; chop sticks; even places you can rent kimonos.  We saw lots of people in kimonos here and other places in Kyoto so we are guessing that this might be a popular tradition for travelers—Japanese and otherwise. I didn’t buy anything but was tempted by the little cricket cage I saw. 

In Search of Starbucks

We are allowed to sign out of our field programs if we want – an option which I find very traveler-friendly. Kelly (an RD) and her partner Adam (working with the children on the ship), Sarah (another RD), Doug (a lifelong learner) and Lynn (a student who had planned to meet friends in Kyoto but never connected) decided we would stay afterwards to do some more exploration.  Doug, a big fan of Starbucks' chai tea, had discovered that there was a Starbucks in Kyoto that was on the list of the top 15 Most Unique Starbucks in the world.  We figured that finding it was as good a rallying point as anything else so we set about figuring out how to get there.  With gratitude once again to the woman at the information desk at the train station, we were able to navigate trains and buses to the heart of Kyoto.  Not surprisingly we encountered 2 remarkable shrines along the way as well as absorbing the sights and sounds of Kyoto.  

The Starbucks was near one of the temples on a quaint shopping street.  It had a unique, Japanese-style building with small rooms that had platforms to sit on (leaving your shoes on the floor behind you.)  Otherwise, it was a Starbucks (and sells Teavana – is that true now in the States?)  On our walk, there we once again encountered many women dressed in kimonos and saw shops that appeared to sell or rent them.  I am curious to know if this is a regular thing or if perhaps there was a celebration going on. 

By this time, it was late and we all wanted to find some food.  One of our group needs to eat gluten-free which makes it a challenge for her to find places to eat.  She had done some research in advance and knew of a place that had gluten-free sushi (who knew it isn’t all gluten-free).  

Friday, January 26

Kobe Nunobiki Herb Gardens and Ropeway

The day started out sunny even though it was still cold.  With all things electronic and my power cords, I headed to the Starbucks just off the ship where I was able to upload pictures and Facetime Susan & Will as well as Matt.  It was fun to see the family kitchen in the background as I got caught up on US politics while also gazing out along the harbor of Kobe with our ship in the background.  Snow/small hail (think coarse grains of salt) flurries came and went as I sat outside (as I understand it is considered impolite to be on one’s cellphone in public.) 

It seems that plans with other people can be somewhat fluid and it can be difficult to connect via technology so shortly before noon I realized that I didn’t have arrangements to travel with others for the day.  With 2 days of travel behind me though, I felt prepared to try things on my own.  A visit to the Info Desk in the terminal beside our ship set me up nicely to take the City Bus with an all-day pass to visit the Kobe Nunobiki Herb Gardens that sit atop one of the hills that surround Kobe. 

By 1 pm I was riding up the cable cars to the top of the mountain with a beautiful view of Kobe harbor, the herb gardens below me, and some waterfalls off to one side.  The cable cars had small lap blankets in them, which seemed like the kind of Japanese courtesy that is prevalent. 

At the top station, I discovered there was a little restaurant and gift shop with lots of Kobe-made herb treats, teas, soaps, balms.  As I was shopping, I heard my name called and there was Galina and Sarah, two of the other RDs!  I had known that they were coming but they had elected to hike up which seemed a little beyond my level of commitment. It had taken them 2 hours to make the climb with a mistaken wrong path along the way. It was a perfect and wonderful coincidence to discover them at the top though, so we walked down together and they showed me the various places they had already discovered.  It was a complicated path so I suspect I may have missed something had I not been with them or perhaps would still be wandering on the mountain. 

The waterfalls, lake, and winding path were magnificent.  There were terraces of herbs along a long path that continued most of the way down the mountain. The herbs were a bit worse for wear – I am thinking because of the recent cold spell.  This would be a fantastic place to visit in spring and summer. At one point, there were 3 huge greenhouses with Valentine’s Day displays of flowers.  It looked like there was a room for learning about spices from around the world and a place for a foot soak – although we never quite found that.  

The waterfall, Nunobiki no Taki, is cited in the brochure as a source of renowned Kobe water (didn’t realize the water was special) and one of the Best 100 Waterfalls in Japan. It says the dam, the Nunobiki Gohonmatsu Entei, is the first concrete gravity dam in Japan. I did see a sign near the dam that said this was used as drinking water so there should be no swimming.

It was a lovely day in nature and literally accessible from the city of Kobe.  Anyone planning a trip to Japan?  I’d put this on the list!

 

Dinner Adventure

After wandering through the shopping district (outside street mall with no traffic), Galina, Sarah and I began to head back to the ship around 5.  They wanted to rest before heading out to dinner.  I was taking duty at 8 pm so wanted to take in a little more in the remaining few hours.  There is a large shopping center on the pier across from where our ship is docked – complete with a Ferris wheel, children’s museum, ice skating rink and massive shopping. 

I was able to capture some beautiful pictures of our ship from across the water and multiple shots of the Ferris wheel as it evolved through multiple colors of lights.  Feeling brave, I decide to try to catch something to eat at one of the restaurants I had seen as I walked around.  There were a lot of Japanese people eating at one restaurant that looked out over the water so I decided to try it.  When I walked in there was not anyone at the cashier’s desk (and it looked like that was where you paid on the way out anyway), so I looked over the massive arrays of food and picked some sushi that was passing by on a conveyor belt.  As I continued to try to take in how things worked in this restaurant, it began to dawn on me that this might not be a cafeteria style eating place.  I saw people loading up their plates from all the stations.  Uh oh.  Perhaps all you can eat.  No one seemed to speak English.  I finally approached a guy wearing a sweatshirt that said CANADA on it and asked if he spoke English.  He said a little and that was true.  However, with a few words he caught the gist of my question and responded with a nod “buffet.”  By this time, it was too late to turn back, so I committed to trying a little of everything: more sushi, squid ink noodles, yellow fish, Japanese style hamburgers (reminded me a little of sweet and sour meatballs), and more.  There was a open bar of sorbet and a chocolate fountain with bananas and fruit nearby. 

I was a little worried about what this was going to cost, but figured it was all part of the adventure.  And there seemed to be lots of families there, so how bad could it be?   What I hadn’t counted on was my credit card not working.  The meal was 2998 yen which is a little less than $30 – not what I would have ordinarily spent for dinner, but worth the experience.  Without a credit card to rely on, I started dumping out all my wallets to see if I could come up with the cash.  Nope. 2900 yen and my pockets were dry.  ATM? I asked and was directed “over the bridge to the left” which turned out to be another huge and beautiful shopping mall.  Now mind you it was 7 pm and I needed to be back at the ship for duty at 8 pm.  I would have embraced this new shopping experience otherwise, but I needed to focus.  Fortunately, there was a well-marked information desk and I was able to find the ATM.  Who knows what I paid in bank fees to withdraw the ~$20 of yen.  Found my way back to the restaurant, paid off my bill, and powerwalked back to the ship without further ado. 

Saturday, Januray 27

Duty Day (aka a day of rest)

I had not been looking forward to Duty Day on the ship—to miss out on a day of traveling in Japan seemed unfortunate especially as my RD friends spoke of going to a Fire Mountain ceremony in a nearby town. Quite the opposite.  A leisurely day of rest – much needed after the frantic days of travel.  Washing out laundry.  Blogging.  Yoga.  It was a treat.

Duty runs from 8 pm the prior night, overnight (this is when we get to watch students who are put into observation), until 8 pm on the day of.  So at 8 pm I headed out with RD Gabe, RD Kelly and her partner Adam and Doug, a lifelong learner whom the RDs have adopted, in search of dinner.  We wandered around some of the shopping streets (covered streets without traffic lined with small open front stores) and through some side streets looking for a place with something besides ramen.  As it got later and later, we came upon a small restaurant that looked promising.  As with many restaurants we’ve been at, the menu was only in Japanese. This time, however, there were much fewer pictures – maybe 5 or so.  The waiter/chef (visible across a high countertop) signaled to us to get tickets from the machine inside the door.  There were 20 or so carefully labeled buttons with different amounts listed in yen that seemly corresponded to what you wanted to order, no pictures.  In a comedy of errors the cook eventually helped us match the buttons to the pictures and Doug did a random “luck of the draw” selection.  It yielded a nice meal and lots of laughter and ramen.

Sunday, January 28

Sake Sunday

Last day in Kobe and several of us had not visited the nearby sake museums.  Fortunately, they open at 9:30 am on Sundays.  After a few phone calls home, I headed with RD Dallawrence and his partner, Cynthia, and RD Gabe for a final jaunt before leaving.

We had time to visit 2 locations where we learned about the complicated process of making sake.  I still wonder how people learned to make this drink in the first place.  It involves adding fungi and yeast and a fermentation process that I don’t yet fully understand. The samplings at the end were worthwhile!  Compared to my recollection of sake at home, this was quite smooth (not burning) and several were fruity as well. 

Our final stop was for Kobe beef at Red One restaurant.  Locals have told us that they rarely have this delicacy because it is pricey but we thought it was important to try some in the city for which it is famous.   Each plate was about $37 with soup, salad, rice included.  The beef was tender and delicious.  The experience was fun, but I don’t think I would need to try it again.

Back at the ship by 4 pm to help manage students’ return to the ship through immigration.  By 8 pm our ship was heading out of the port with accompaniment of a Japanese drumming band on land.  I found myself a little sad to say goodbye.  Japan has been a wonderful country to visit.