Soaked in Takayama

We managed to miss the rain while traveling, it decided to rain on our Matsuri (parade) in Takayama instead. We were supposed to enjoy 23 elaborately carved yatai (floats) many dating from the 17th century. Instead just as we were leaving our gasshoen (200 year old "praying hands" ryoken (inn)), it decided to start raining. Takayama craftsmen are known for their intricate carvings. Included on the yatai are elaborate karakuri (marionettes) that perform amazing tricks and acrobatics. Hidden in the float are 8 puppeteers controlling up to 36 strings. We managed to see one of these puppet performances between raindrops.

On a positive note, I was able to get some spectacular pictures of the gasshoen and it's grounds before the rain came. We also had more time for shopping for sarubobo (happy monkey baby) dolls and haori fabric in the shops and buildings dating back to the Edo period. At one tailor shop, I mentioned I was a quilter and the shop owner and son presented me with a gift of some fabric scraps.

The town is also known for sake breweries making their rice wine from the clear mountain streams surrounding the town and feeding the Miya-Gawa River which is lined with Sakura (cherry blossoms) and flows thru the center of town, spliting the Sanmachi (old town) from the newer section.
I didn't get a chance to sample the sake, but did buy several bottles to have a sake tasting at home. We had very tasty ramen noodles with hida beef and broth for lunch. Hida beef is famous as the cows are given massages and feed beer to provide the tastiest meat. Man, I'd love to have the life of that cow...

We also managed to find a secret ninja house ( complete with collapsing ceilings and hidden doors and staircases) masquarading as the Hida Archaeological Museum.

We realized we didn't get enough yen (many places only take cash). So we tried to get some money from a bank with ATMs we discovered while wandering around town. Unfortunately, couldn't figure out how to get it to take our card. A local lady happened into the bank lobby. She didn't speak any English, but she grabbed our ATM card, went up to the bank tellers, asked where a machine was that would accept foreign cards, and insisted on guiding us across town, well it's a small town, but still a good 15 minute walk from where we were, and she didn't even conduct her banking business before starting to lead the way. She would only accept our heartfelt thanks for her help! Our very own good samaritan!

Left town for our next city, Nara, with bulging bags of souvenirs and soaked to the skin. But still have fond memories of Takayama!


-- Post From My iPhone

Hiroshima Easter

Hi all,

I'm typing this from a Japanese keyboard, so please excuse the mistakes as the keys are very different from ours. ABC's are the same, but symbols and spacebar are different.

I'm having trouble uploading pictures from the computer in the Hiroshima hotel we are staying at...so here are some links to things we saw yesterday for Easter at the World Peace Memorial and museum. Celebrated Easter mass at the crypt chapel at World Peace Cathedral with 80 other people in English and Tagalog. There were actually open benches...not something we EVER see at Easter mass in the USA.

We also toured Miyajima Island near Hiroshima. It was eerily similar to Mackinac...only with Buddhist temples instead of the bark chapel. Even have a special food only made there...Mamiji Monju, Maple leaf shaped cakes with flavored fillings.

Last night Easter dinner was deep fried whale (had the consistancy of slightly rubber pork and yes! I ate it all and loved it) and spicy fried noodles, soba noodles (very bland), cod that was too chewy to eat, king crab legs (Frankie's all time favorite food), black sesame icecream with sticky riceflour balls (was very different tasting, but excellent) and chocolate cake and vanilla icecream for Frankie and me. I also had a green tea icecream cone earlier. It also was excellent. Overall the food has been very, very flavorful and very good!! Haven't tried the octopus or squid yet though.

Here is where we are going to stay tonight in Takayama. A 6 hour shinkansen (bullet train) ride from Hiroshima.

It has been beautiful weather, sunny and mid to upper 70's until today....rain forecasted..so good day to travel in the train.

Love,
Kelaine

Tokyo Day 2

I am writing this at 1am Saturday Tokyo time (noon home time). Even in Japan, I'm a night owl... Or maybe I should say "night crane"???

After 11 hours of blessed sleep, we decided to have breakfast at the outdoor cafe of our hotel and explore the neighborhood. Then we wanted to see some sites in Eastern/Central Tokyo before we met Junko for an evening of cherry blossom partying.



We began the day with crepes for Dan and me, and had Frankie singing a selection from a Bill Cosby sketch because we allowed him to eat chocolate cheesecake for breakfast..."Dad is great! Give us chocolate cake.". If you don't know it...YouTube it for a good laugh!!

Before setting out for the Yamanote Line train, Frankie and I hit a small grocery store around the corner from the hotel and got some orange juice drink called Qoo and an energy tea. Both made by Coca Cola. We are doing our part to increase the US economy, even from afar ;-)



One thing that I noticed while on the train to sitesee...everyone (adults and kids..men and women) dresses in black suits during the day. And women almost always wear 1-2 inch heels. People were a little more colorful on Friday night while out hitting the clubs (them not us....we may feed him chocolate cake for breakfast but we draw the line at taking Frankie clubbing).


We had heard that the Sony building was a fun place to take kids, so we stopped there first. Frankie was intrigued because they were featuring all kinds of stuff for the latest Final Fantasy video game. I showed my camera where it was made :-) Dan liked trying out the cool headphones. The Sony building is in Ginza which is like 5th Avenue in New York City.

We then realized how close we were to the Imperial Palace and gardens, so we made our way there to enjoy the tranquility. We saw some beautiful cherry blossoms there!

We were too late to enter the inner gardens and didn't have a prearranged pass for Palace entrance, but enjoyed seeing the outer parks and fountains and glimpses of the Palace across the moat and over the stone walls.


We stopped briefly at a video arcade so Frankie could try his luck at a couple crane games (no luck) and play a couple games he is familiar with from home.
We then made our way north to the Mitsukoshi store. It's Tokyo's equivalent to Sak's. It began as Japan's first department store and premiere kimono maker. We saw a beautiful carving they have in their central lobby....and wandered around their basement level where they have tons of food for sale and some to sample.


We then hurried to meet up with Junko. She showed us a hidden level (at least to most tourists) of Tokyo Station called the character stores. Frankie had mentioned that several friends back home loved "Domo" (a japanese cartoon character) so Junko wanted him to see the souvenir store. He ended up buying a Rascal stuffed raccoon character from a show based on the book Rascal by Sterling North. He's such a great son of a librarian!!

Junko guided us to Ueno Park to see the cherry blossoms by the lake at night. There were so many people picnicing/partying under the trees! We ended up eating our takeout dinners on the steps of a shrine in the middle of Ueno Onshi park lake.

We have to get up at 6am to catch the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Hiroshima so we said goodbye to Junko (after making arrangements to see her and meet her family for dinner when we return to Tokyo next Wednesday) and made our way back to the hotel.

I am enjoying a Thailand beer called Phuket while I blog this post. Our hotel has a variety of 60 foreign beers in the cafe, and free wifi access. Can I pick a good hotel or what!

Will be blogging next from Hiroshima in the Southern East coast of Japan.


-- Post From My iPhone

Flight and first day in Tokyo

Our plane trip was LONG. We arrived at the Grand Rapids airport at 6 am! Yes, I actually managed to crawl out of bed at the ungodly hour of 4 am. Our friend Sarah was going to take us to the airport, but her bloodsugar level was only 54. So as she injested tons of sugar, her wonderful husband Derek drove us instead.

We passed through the detectors except for one delay. For those who have always wondered, metal detectors can detect cell phones forgotten in front pants pockets. Hey, it was an honest mistake! I was still half asleep!!

They fed us very well during the flight. Three full meals and all the pop, juice, or water we could consume in 13 hours. We also had opportunity to see 4 movies, including, Marley & Me. Which had me bawling by the end...But in a good way. I would have been very worried about Emily and Candy, but now no worries. A friend told me the story of pets crossing the rainbow bridge to heaven when my sweeties died last month. There is a rainbow bridge here in Tokyo, so I feel like they are here with us...

Our friend, Junko, who is the reason we came to Japan (to attend her wedding on April 18), met us at the airport just outside the customs department... Yep, they did allow us to pass into this beautiful country.

She gave us a crash course on the Tokyo train system..man is it crazy, but pretty easy to understand after studying the maps during the hour ride from the airport to Ikebukuro, the Tokyo suburb our hotel is located in.


We checked into our hotel, then Junko took us to Tokyo station in central part of city to see her office building and for dinner at a restaurant with bowls of udon (buckwheat) noodles. The bowls were, honest to God, bigger than your head!

















Frankie almost ended up face first in his bowl! Poor poppet literally fell asleep at the table after his first bite of curry beef udon. By this time it was 7pm, which is 6 am Michigan time. We got about 3 hours sleep on the plane, so basically we'd been going for 26 hours and were exhausted...obviously in Frankie's case.





Junko wanted to take us to see the cherry blossoms (sakura) in Ueno park, but we decided to go on Friday night instead. So after making arrangements to meet the next evening, we made our weary way back to our hotel...the Sakura Hotel Ikebukuro.











--Post from my iTouch

Preparing for Japan

As of 3am on April 9th, my family will be in Japan. We will arrive in Tokyo and spend a couple days before traveling south and then northwest into the Japanese Alps. Check back here for updates of our trip.

Flag photo from: http://i.afterdawn.com/v3/news/japan-flag2.jpg

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