The pathway we take
When I look at blogs it's odd to see friends with multiple children.
In some ways I feel so young in my experience, as if they are 10 years
ahead of me.
today's so long
MJ's funeral was today... on all the stations. I kinda felt like it
was exploited.
Made some awesome coconut rice pudding. Ryan wants it every day now.
Took photos of Ryan for his Visa so he can leave me for 3 weeks to see Brazil.
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A new leaf
I'm proud of myself. I'm not going to procrastinate, even though I have been since the 5th grade. I'm finally getting on my genealogy-- not sure if I want to start with old fashion print it out and put it together stuff, or put together my and my grandparents book of remembrance. I've exercised 2 nights in a row! woohoo.. and no I wasn't walking at a zero incline with 3.9 speed. I had an incline of 6.5 and a speed of 4.2-6. I'm also finally putting together my business plan. woo hoo for not being lazy!
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walking
Yesterday a large (14) group of us went to see Transformers. For an action movie it had some great lines. I walked to the theater to buy the tickets, as it wasn't too far away and I was feeling guilty after all the train taking and walking in Japan. The walk gave me time to meditate on society and how we judge things. It also made me want to start taking the bus again, so Monday I'm going to see how bus taking will go.
In terms of my thoughts..
Poor people are usually uneducated, so can't escape the cycle.
Teachers aren't paid and have the resources to reach all students, so we end up with lots of poor individuals.
It's too bad that our society couldn't work in a way to provide all students with a quality education, but until teachers are viewed with the prestige (and money) of a doctor, lawyer, or I-banker, little change will happen.
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Day 11: Yokohama 150 anniversary
So I've been selling Ryan on Yokohama's 150 anniversary festival as a great way to see fireworks in Japan. Well, we got on the train and headed to Yokohama on Tuesday. I really liked Yokohama. The temperature isn't too bad, and it feels less poluted with the ocean air blowing through the city. The stores were all pretty nice, and everyone seemed a lot more normal than the people in Tokyo. I was also influenced by the fact that there seems to be some stores that I seriously thought were ONLY in Hawaii that were in Yokohama like Anna Millers--- the best club sandwhich and piece of pie you've ever had. I had to snap a photo!
We shared a lunch plate at Bunmei-Kaikan in the mall. It was cheap and filled both of us up. Ryan had fun making sure he was clean with the wet naps they always give you. Now the mall is actually an old shipyard, and so it makes for some interesting architecture. It was actually really neat. I wish I took a photo that did it justice. We then headed to Rinko park where the concerts (i.e. Japanese rappers, rockers, and several local dance classes performed). It was SUPER crowded. On the way there we passed the watershow put on by the coastguard.
Most of the bazzar at the park was food, and there was a skateboard ramp booth. Kiddies would strap on the safety gear and jump on in. The skateboard shop guys would then run them back and forth on the ramp. It was something that I think would be a big hit in a fair in Utah, but I doubt we'd ever see it. There were also these garbage/recyle booths everywhere. I took a photo of one. There are like 5 guys standing in front of 5 garbage cans (plastics, cans, paper, non paper, bottle caps only, and then a seperate seive for scraping food into). I had to have them help me figure out where to throw my trash away, I wasn't sure.
While we were there, we noticed that the tide had gone out and all the kids were playing in one of the made made areas that had been drained. It was full of jelly fish, crabs, and hermit crabs. The older kids were harassing the jellyfish, and the younger ones were scooping crabs, water and seaweed into little water bottles to take home. As the sun went down, all of the ships in the harbor started to come out. They were all decked out, as was Yokohama's bridge. By the time the fireworks had started Ryan estimates there were over 500,000 people present... he was a bit worried about the train ride back to Tokyo (in fact he made a run back to the station upon the ending of the fireworks).
As promised, the fireworks delivered an amazing show. I took a ton of video and photos-- here's a snapshot of the middle of it.
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Day 10: Roppongi Monday and some repeats
So day 10. It's Monday, and it doesn't suck like normal :) All of the kids from Springville have come to visit the Nelsons, so the house is full of teenagers. It's seriously crazy; I don't know how my mom ever did it. As we have now been here for over a week, we've now begun to repeat stops. Also it's their first day in Tokyo so we decided to head to Harajuku, Omotesando, and the Meiji Jingu shrine we hit last Sunday.
This time we took some time to grasp the significance of everything. The Meji Jingu shrine was built back in the 1920's but was bombed in World War II so had to be rebuilt in1958. We took some photos in the forest surrounding the shrine. As you walk towards the shrine there are sake and wine casks that are for offerings. The sake casks are really colorful and everyone was taking some artistic photos.. I made my pathetic attempt as well. As you enter further, you pass through a giant Torii, in fact it is the largest in Japan. As I mentioned earlier due to the air raids during WWII all of this was rebuilt, so this Torii was rebuilt in 1975 (I have to wonder if it was originally the largest in Japan). Ryan was really taken by the Torii as you can see.
Before entering the shrine for prayers you are to wash your hands and rinse your mouth at a fountain. When you get in the courtyard for 500 yen you can purchase little prayer wood blocks. There were tons from all over the world. Most had to do with health and happiness for family and loved ones. Ryan took a photo of a particularly funny one. As we were looking at them we heard a drum, and it turns out they were doing the morning ceremony. We snapped a photo of the drummer quickly from outside of the shrine/temple area as you couldn't take photos inside.
the Meiji Jingu shrine is right next to Harajuku, so we decided to explore the other half of the street. This side was dead, but had the big Harajuku sign -- always great for a photo op. We walked all the way up to Omotesando dori and Aoyama dori. Omotesando is where all the upper end stores were. Ryan just couldn't help window shopping. The Berrycafe had some AMAZING pies, and those are not fakes, those are the real things. They were 800 yen a slice though, so we just shot the photos.
After Omotesando we headed for Harajuku for the evening. I got dressed up like a little Japanese girl, baggy shirt, leggins and big hair thing, but we neglected to snap a photo. We basically walked up and down the street, and then visited Don Quixiote for some more odd buying. They had Yukata sets for $20 bucks, but Ryan said one was enough :( They did however have this way creepy fish that Ryan snapped a photo with. Across the street and to the right is a 13 store building, it has a Thai restaurant on top. We took the elevator up as it has a glass elevator so you can get a nice view of Roppongi. Seriously, I think we saw a Geisha, I know we saw a couple of prostitutes, and we saw 3 girls escort an old creepy salaryman out of a club. All and all, it was a fun day, but the more I think about it the more I realize how lucky I am to live in LA.
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Family Photos
It was so late last night I forgot the photos! Here's Morio san, Itsuki san, and Maki san. Ryan made Maki and me take a photo Japanese style with the peace signs. I just look silly, but Maki looks cute.
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Day 9 The family visit
So today we got on the train to visit my relatives in Nobi- Yokosuka (pronounced Yo-kos-ka). It was an eventful train ride, as we ended up going past the same train station 3 times. I umm got a bit mixed up.. the good news is we got to see Haneda airport and Shinigawa train station :) . .. and Ryan got a great nap ... we arrived like 30 minutes late, which always makes for a good impression after 20 years. Also, I decided to go with straight hair today so I straightened it before we got on the train... so in classic Japanese weather style my hair frizzed out by the time we arrived. I also got to carry our lunch tray with us the entire day as well, unless you throw it away at the establishment you bought it, good luck finding a garbage can just lying about. Seriously, they are FEW and FAR BETWEEN! But don't worry there is no litter in this country. In fact I couldn't help but notice a woman comb her hair, and take her loose hair ball it up and stick it in her purse, to dispose of in a garbage can I suppose.
Either way, it turns out my cousin Maki lived in San Diego so thankfully speaks English... otherwise it would have made for a horribly awkward conversation. In Japan, families stay together and kids live at home, so both of my cousins were still there. It was SOO weird to see them as they were both adults. My cousin Akira (my nemisis as a child) and I just laughed at each other as we both looks so very different. I hope I can keep in contact with them in the future, and maybe next time speak better Japanese.
Tried to call my other Uncle, but he doesn't speak English, and well Ryan just laughed at me stumbling through my words.
After visiting our relatives we stopped off to eat at Sweets Paradise in Harajuku... seriously visiting the family was an all day travel event. Sweets Paradise is a cake, cookie, ice cream, shave ice buffet (yeah there is spaghetti and curry too). The food was pretty good, and there is a nice assortment of american style sweets and some yummy japanese ones too. There was a shave ice machine too, with syrup and sweetened condensed milk, but we were already sweeted out. There was also a chocolate fountain-- Ryan deemed it unsanitary. The flan was sooo yummy. The kinako mochi was good too. Over all it wasn't the worst thing in the world, but it's more kitsch than anything.
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Day 8: Temple day
We slept in till 9am this morning, which meant no morning session. Ryan did some work, which meant no mid afternoon session. As after the 10 am session there is a 12:30 and 2:30 session we decided to head to Roppongi to check it out in the light of day and grab a bite before heading over. There are seriously a TON of clubs there. We found this random restaurant called Foxtail that had a 1,000 yen lunch special. Ryan was happy to get the beef bowl as he is missing his red meat (the burger at Freshness burger the other night was seriously suspiciously not real cow meat). I ordered the tuna bowl, and actually regretted it. Overall though, from what I could read from the menu the restaurant was super expensive for dinner like 80,000-90,000 yen and it serves wagyu beef, so perhaps Ryan got himself a really sweet deal.
Ryan's beef bowl ended up being super soft beef in a broth with gobo (a root) and egg. He loved it even though he thought he wouldn't. I didn't like the tuna as it was minced, and just too mooshy. The meal came with octopus in vinegar which was quite yummy, and I even got Ryan to agree to try a piece.
After lunch we headed to the temple. If you take the train to Hiroo you get off (I think we took exit 3) and turn right. Right next to the station is the Japanese MTC, we kept going past it, passed the Lamborghini dealership (Ryan wanted the orange one in case anyone needs a birthday gift for him), and turn right up the next street. At the main road and the police station turn right again. The LDS temple is right across from this cute little Asian park with a pond FULL of these turtles. It was all really pretty, and we went for a walk in the park afterwards.
The photo in front of the temple of Ryan and I was taken by President MacArthur, the current MTC Mission President who just happened to be strolling by when we were trying to take individuals photos of ourselves :)
As all the embassies are in Hiroo, so is the international market. I found some really good European food that I hadn't seen forever, but like the American food it was all super expensive. For example:
Large Tortillas a/b $10
Can of enchilada sauce a/b $4.20
Rotisserie cooked chicken a/b $21
I wanted to make the Nelson's some cafe rio pork, but I have no idea where to get Tomatillo's in Tokyo. I found Casa Verde that sells Brazillian food, and Hanamasa supposedly sells Trader Joe's food, I have also heard the Tusjiki fishmarket's vegetable section might have something as well, I just don't know how much I want to search for Tomatillo's in Tokyo.
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Day 7: Hakone and the hotspring!
So I lured Ryan to Hakone with the promise of a hot tub water park with slides. Ryan didn't want to do any of the viewing of Mt. Fuji, pretty scenery etc, just go to the public Onsen. Yunessun is an Onsen that requires you to wear a bathing suit. It's great for families, or people who want to spend the day with their spouse as Onsens (unless in some remote mountain outdoor random area) are segregated. This Onsen was definitely a touristy trap, and was more kitsch than anything, but overall it was fun and a really relaxing day. We went to the Odakyu travel counter at Shinjuku station and bought a pass for 3,800 yen for the train to Hakone and a pass to the waterpark. The train ride was about 2 hours long, and then in Odawara you transfer to a Hakone Train which at Hakone-Yumamoto station it stops and you transfer to the train to get you to Gora. Now the girl at Shinjuku station just told us about the FIRST transfer. So Ryan and I happily sat on the train at Hakone-Yumamoto station until we realized it was going backwards! Ryan and I jumped off the train at Iruda, one of the teeniest mountain stations. It was very empty, and there were all these train workers working on the tracks. Every 10 minutes a whistle would blow, the safety guy would wave his flag and they would jump off the tracks and stand in a line. It was so efficient, and Japanese.
At Yunnesun we took a picture of almost every bath. The only one we missed was the Sake bath, the cool water baths, the outdoor standard hot tub, and the honey bath. But I think you'll get the gist. Overall the water in most of the bath's was pretty warm like bath water. The coal, wine, green tea, black tea, coffee bath's were in Yutopia, which is aimed towards adults so the water was very warm. The hotest by far was the coal bath.. that one smelled like BBQ sauce, so of course it was Ryan's favorite (Really his love of bbq sauce is kinda sickening). The wine bath smelt very sweet, not wine like at all, and the others had faint smells, but not sure of what. I seriously look like I'm sitting naked in the green tea bath if you don't look closely.
Inside there was a giant hot tub area with tons of massage jets that everyone hung out in. Every so many minutes bubbles would shoot out, it was the place to be for families. We tried out the myriad of hot tubs, and they all were very fragrant. Strawberry (turned my bathing suit pinker), chocolate (we spent most of the time in this one), salt water (it stung like the dickens--but boy did you float), and the outdoor cave and waterfall bath.
The bath that opened ever 2 hours was the turkish footbath. This one you stick your feet in and these little fishes came and ate off your dead skin. I guess Ryan and I have some funky skin, as we pretty much got all of the attention from the fish. I think all of the Japanese hated us. Seriously they had one or two fish, and we had them all the way up our legs! It was insane. I went again later, and well my feet are pretty smooth looking... maybe I should invest in some . . .
The train ride back was a nightmare! For all future travelers, 1st, taking the bus to Hakone Yumamoto is totally fine to do, although the winding roads make you a bit car sick. There are several buses that go there from Yusunnesun, but only the one with HAKONE FREE ZONE on it will take you back. When you get the Hakone Yumamoto, look at the train, even though it says it's going to Shinjuku, if it says LOCAL do not get on it as it will stop at EVERY FREAKING STOP all the way back, this of course means you have a 3 hour train ride back. Ryan and I of course realized this bit of info about 1/3 of the way back. We were literally going nuts as the train not only stops, but waits 3-5 minutes at each station. Oh well, lesson learned.
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