Zen vs. Kabuki

My last day in Japan was definitely a balanced one. I did a good job of alternating the hectic with the relaxing and the painfully grating. :) My first stop was the Tsikiji Fish Market. When they say the exit on the subway, it sounds like they are saying skeejee, and if that was an adjective it would be a good one to describe the fish market. Can't you picture something being skeejee? A little wet and slimey, very busy and noisey, men in funny outfits...skeejee.
Anyway, it was really neat to see all the various sea creatures laid out for sale in their whole forms, and all the dried creatures available too! And they start serving sushi there first thing in the morning. mmm.

After the fish market I headed for Asakusa where there is a large buddhist temple. Sensoji is Tokyo's oldest temple and a gorgeous tourist trap. To enter the temple grounds, you have to run a long gauntlet of souvenir vendors and senbei stands. The senbei are traditional Japanese crackers that they make fresh and serve hot, dunked in soy sauce. These were pretty tastey but did not hold a candle to the fried bean jam biscuits. I don't know what these are actually called in Japanese, but I had a pumkin flavored one that was to die for. Yes, I said bean jam.


When you get to the end of the vendors, there is a huge cauldron of burning incense, and if you rub the smoke into your body, it is supposed to bring you health. Why not? At the very least, we smelled better. :) Then up to the temple where you clap and bow and pray I assume. It was interesting to watch the ritual. The most interesting is that you have to pay serious bucks to actually go in the temple, and going in is only for sitting and meditating. I'm not sure I'd be able to meditate with a thousand tourists looking at me...you can see inside, and it was gorgeously decorated. The grounds around the temple also had some really gorgeous sculptures and shrines.














So after my outing to the buddhist temple, I went to Kabuki-za to see a portion of a kabuki show. The whole story plays out over an entire day. Most people buy tickets for the first four hours or the second, but luckily they realized that the foreigners there to enjoy Japanese culture would commit hara-kiri if they actually had to sit in a performance that long, so they also sell tickets for individual scenes. Don't get me wrong, the costuming and the music and the story were all interesting, but if you aren't used to the voices that go along with the singing and acting, it can be quite grating. To my ears, everyone sounded exceedingly whiney. This might be partially due to the fact that all roles are played by men, and the young heroine in this story happened to be played by a man in his fifties. Imagine what that sounds like. A middle-aged man having to act and project in a female voice, and this particular female was pleading with her lover not to kill himself. I enjoyed the choreography and the costuming, but I have to recommend a short show. :)

I topped my evening off with a trip to a Japanese grocery store to find some dinner. This was definitely a fun adventure resulting in a strange variety of purchases, but I had a good meal! The grocery was really cool too. It seemed to be upscale, but I don't really have anything to compare it to there. The most astounding thing was the price of a single canteloupe: $30, and the most wonderful thing was the variety of fish and cheese available. mmm.
Sayonara Japan!

PS

I'm pretty sure I experienced a small earthquake! I'm not sure what else would cause everything in the entire room to lurch like that and then rattle around for awhile afterward. If you have any better theories let me know. Actually don't. It's more fun to think that I got to have an earthquake as part of my Tokyo cultural experience. :)

The road less travelled

I spent the day at Fuji-goko today, and more specifically walking around Kawaguchiko Lake. Don't you love those words? Mt. Fuji is closed except for the summer months due to the snow, so the best thing to do is go to the lake district at the base of the mountain where you can get some good views of Fuji-san and partake of the myriad tourist attractions there. Kawaguchiko is the largest of five lakes, so I chose to spend my day there.

After my experience with going on massive guided tours in China, I decided against taking any of the guided tours of Mt. Fuji. They all made you do at least one lame thing anyway, and they cost a fortune. I figured there would be an information center at the station when I got there, and I could just guide myself around. There was an information center, but I didn't find it until I decided to go home. Lucky for me there were lots of signs.

I started by taking a little cable car up to a viewing platform to take some pics of Fuji. They say that usually Fuji is hiding in the clouds, but I've been lucky. Yesterday I got a glimpse of it from Tokyo tower, and today it was just absolutely gorgeous. The views of the lake from up there were pretty great too. After I came down, I just set off to walk around the lake. I figured most of the tourist attractions would be on or near it, so how could I go wrong? Well, for starters, I got on some crazy little footpath that was covered in ice indicating that no one was really supposed to be walking on it. This path managed to take me away from many of the usual tourist attractions, so I found my own.

Despite my level of lostness, I managed to visit this really bizarre doll museum. The dolls are all made from papier mache and cloth, and they are really detailed. The odd thing was that they all reminded me of the characters from the Black Crystal (Jim Henson muppets). Pretty cool overall though. Next I stumbled onto an old temple with swings in the front yard that looked like they hadn't been used in years. Why the temple had swings, I don't know. I also grabbed a discreet photo of one of the Japanese grave yards. All the ones I've seen are so full of grave markers that there doesn't seem to be room to walk between them. It makes a very dizzing/eye catching effect.

Next I saw this really cool building with beautiful landscaping, so I wandered in assuming it was a tourist spot...until I saw a man in a suit walking purposefully through with presentation equipment. I confessed to him that I was "lost" and found out I was at a hot spring resort! Lucky me. For about $10 I could stay for a couple hours, soak in the springs, enjoy the atmosphere, and generally relax after walking around all day. It was perfect. Also lucky for me there were not very many people there as this was my first foray into naked public bathing. Don't worry, men and women are separate so it was sort of like being in a gym locker room. :)

For my final act I found a restaurant with really great Udon noodles, had a late lunch, and headed back to the bus station where I finally found the information kiosk that was somehow invisible earlier. I'm actually glad I took my road less travelled. I spent the whole day outside, walked half way around the lake and really enjoyed the one thing I wouldn't be able to find anywhere else: Kawaguchiko Lake. Now I'm relaxing in my room, watching the replay of the Super Bowl as I upload my pictures. A little Western Culture won't hurt me.....

Konnichiwa!

Well folks, my brain is utterly fried. I've tried to learn the pleasantries in too many Asian langauges too quickly. Even though I already knew hello and thank you in Japanese, I stumble through the Korean and Chinese before my brain finds the right one. People must think I'm crazy here! I got in late evening yesterday, so I had a simple dinner in the hotel and turned in early so I could do a full day of sightseeing today...and boy howdy I did. Here we go.

First off, I have to say that the Tokyo subway might be even better than the London one. Not only does it have more lines and have everything with numbers and in English, but it costs about half as much! I started my day at the Yasukuni war memorial shrine. The lady at the travel desk in my hotel said I should only go see one shrine because they pretty much all look the same. I'm guessing that means that they have ENORMOUS gates and some cool buildings. There was a really cool spot before you went in that had a little raised pool with lots of dippers, and people came and washed their hands with them. It appeared ceremonial, but there was not English signage indicating why. I also felt a little out of place because there was a very solemn ceremony going on in the pavilion in the middle of the complex.




















Next stop: Imperial Palace! The shrine was just across the street from the East Gardens, which are the only portion of the Imperial Palace that is open to the public. The gardens are quite picturesque, and several of the trees were even blooming due to unseasonable warmth. It was also cool because some weird race was happening with both bicycles and runners, and the uniforms of the participants ranged from track to baseball...the ages ranged about as widely.

So the guidebook said that if you stroll down through the Eastern garden into the Outer garden that you can get a great view of the palace at Nijubashi bridge. Well, the exact wording was that you get to see the palace peeking over its fortifications behind the bridge. I should have realized this translates to, "You can't actually see the palace." I think this is one of the few royal residences where the royals actually still live, so it makes sense that they won't let the public anywhere near it...but I thought you would at least be able to see it! Check it out:















After spending the morning strolling outside, it was time to visit the Tokyo National Museum and warm up a bit. When I got off at Ueno subway stop, I accidently stumbled onto some crazy market in a search for lunch. Apparently at least half of Tokyo stumbled onto it at the same time because I couldn't walk without running into somebody. From the market, you just cross the street to enter Ueno Park, which is kind of like the Mall in DC. It has a main thouroughfare with all kinds of museums, and the zoo, etc. My favorite things in the museum were the Bhuddist sculptures and the Noh/Kabuki costumes. The most touching thing was to see a display of Bhuddist artifacts that were rescued from destruction in Afghanistan. The wildest thing was seeing really amazing teracotta and metal work from like 2000BC.



















At this point I was exhausted, so I decided to head home, but when I got on the subway, I realized that Tokyo tower was on my way home. Oh what the heck. It's a replica of the Eiffel tower, only it is bright orange and white. It only cost about $8 to go up in it, and I got some really great sunset/night shots of the city. It is crazy how big the city is when you can see it extend beyond sight in 360 degrees.




















Again, I decided it was time to go home, but I'm a glutton for punishment. I next realized that Rappongi Hills (the shi shi shopping district) was also on the way home. Oh come on, I had to eat! and eat I did. I ordered up a fabulous sushi dinner a la carte, and managed to drag my butt back to the hotel approximately 12 hours after I left it this morning. I plopped said butt directly in the bathtub for a good long soak. Now for a good long sleep so I'm ready to visit Mt. Fuji tomorrow.
:)