Long Time Gone

Japanese Word of the Day:
English: Family
Japanese: 家族 or かぞく [kazoku]

Hello friends! Have you ever wondered what happens when my family gets together? Fun stuff, that’s what. As plenty of you probably know, mom and Seth recently came to visit me and we went on a tour of Japan (not all of it, obviously). So I’m gonna share some of the best parts and pictures here for ya’ll to vicariously visit Japan along with us.

On Wednesday July 22^nd mom and Seth arrived via Kansai international airport in Osaka. Let me say now that jetlag is absolutely hilarious (when it’s not happening to you). My family had become the walking dead over the course of a 13 hour flight bookended by hour and a half flights. I fed them and drug their mostly conscious selves back to a hotel where everyone immediately fell asleep.

The next day was spent around Osaka. While at the airport Seth had seen a small Pokemon store and remembered that Japan has Pokemon centers so that was our first stop. At least, our first stop after we found a place to stow our luggage. You see my dear kind hearted mother had brought gifts for everyone in my town (no, not literally, but just about) and as a result both her and Seth had massive suitcases. In America this wouldn’t be a problem as you could lock the suitcases in your car and go about your way but when you live in Japan and are reliant on public transportation it becomes a bit of an issue. Luckily almost all Japanese stations have coin lockers and the bigger ones have quite large ones so after dragging the suitcases around for a while we were able to ignore them most of the day and go to the Pokemon Center. If you were a kid in the 90s and play games or watched cartoons it doesn’t matter how old you get Pokemon Centers will always be magical to you. Seth and I had way too much fun picking out toys while our patient mother kept up with us.

After our brief visit to childhood we hopped the subway to the Osaka bay for lunch and our afternoon entertainment; the Osaka aquarium. At this point you might be snorting at your computer that I would bring my family all the way to Japan to see fish. If so you are probably not aware that the Osaka Aquarium has 2 whale sharks and is one of the 7 aquariums in the world to have whale sharks. 3 of those 7 are in Japan, by the way.

Yeah they're big. Like really big.

People who know me also know that I turn into a kid in a candy store when placed within view of cool animals with my camera and that I also recently got a new camera. So needless to say, I enjoyed myself quite a bit.

This guy did some cool yoga for us

D'aaaw look at the little squidies

My spirit animal (on Mondays anyways)

What do you think jellyfish do all day?

Before going to the aquarium we had some sushi for lunch and no the darkness of that joke is not lost on me. Conveyor belt sushi restaurants are far from the best quality sushi you can get but they still rival most American sushi and are a fun way to try lots of new types.

Seth will be our lovely food model

We walked around a bit and killed some time in Amemura which is an area of Osaka that thrives around the Japanese idea of American culture and is frequented by expats. In case you were wondering, the name comes from Amerika-mura or America village. It’s interesting.

I like that we get a statue of liberty and of junk food

After a dinner of Turkish-Iranian cuisine (because Osaka is awesome) we collected our bags and hauled them on the 2 hour trip back to my apartment. Once again we all basically collapsed into bed.

Thursday was our dedicated Kyoto day. When I originally made the plan I had us arriving quite early to see a parade as part of the Gion Matsuri, a very large and incredibly famous festival. Alas, we were all much too tired from our day in Osaka and decided to go a bit later. On the way we got turned around once and when we finally arrived in Gion, hours after I had originally intended we found that the parade happened to be passing by right where we were. What are the odds? The parade was called the Hanagasa junko and I honestly can’t tell you more about it than that it was pretty and I’m pretty sure half the participants were about to pass out from heat stroke.

Ah yes, the traditional shoes of Japan: crocs

I wonder if they picked their jobs by drawing straws

Practicing geisha of Kyoto, more on that later

The saddest little swan boy™

The rest of the day was spent enjoying the sights, sounds, and tastes of Kyoto including the Kawaramachi shopping street, massive parfaits, the general Gion area, and Kiyomizu dera taisha (pure water temple). Picture time!

A covered shopping street in Kyoto (Kawaramachi)

Hey it's that place I keep taking the same picture of!

Of course I had consent to take this picture. Totally. [shifty-eyes]

Day three was our “more relaxing” day as we went to Nara which is close and the highlights can usually be toured in a half day. As it happens, this was the day I nearly keeled over from dehydration and heat. Did I mention it was really hot? Because it was really, really hot. And I know all ya’ll back home are saying “yeah it’s hot here too, big deal” but allow me to explain why it is a big deal here. For one, Japan is an island and that means it’s humid as all hell. For example, my phone told me that while yesterday was only 99 degrees the 80% humidity caused the heat index to be a boiling 108. Yesterday I had to walk 15 minutes from place and place and by the time I arrived I was completely drenched in sweat to the point my hair was dripping. It’s hot here. Beyond that, in America when it’s hot you can stay inside and enjoy your AC 24/7. Japan believes that houses should breath and have air flow, which while being healthy and good for you, means that insulation isn’t really a thing like it is in the states. So in my house I have an AC unit in one room and I only ever cool that one room and at night my bedroom next to it. Anything more would be a waste. So when I decide I want to do something like, say, eat dinner I have to leave the lovely cool room and face the overwhelming heat. But I’m getting off topic. Point being, it was really, really hot and we had to be drinking water quite often to not pass out.

As you may remember from previous entries, Nara is the place with the super chill deer. It’s also the home of the gorgeous Isuien Gardens and Todaiji, the largest wooden building in the world which is inhabited by the largest bronze Buddha statue in the world. More pictures!

This just in: Isuien Garden still gorgeous

Todaiji is still massive, too

And Buddha is still pretty chill

Nara was scheduled as our “recovery” day because the day after we got up early to head to Kyoto station and hop the shinkansen to Hiroshima. The shinkansen is the proper name for the bullet train which is essentially an airplane on land. The maximum operating speed of the shinkansen is right around 200 mph and we covered half the distance of the state of North Carolina in about 2 hours. So it’s pretty fast. The shinkansen is also notorious for always being within seconds of its scheduled arrival time. Oh and it only stays at each station for about a minute or two to let passengers on and off. It’s a really cool experience.

It's basically a long plane without wings. A snake plane!

Once in Hiroshima we dumped our bags at the hotel, had some lunch and headed off for both the most fun day of our trip and the most heartrending. As you can probably infer, our first stop was the atomic bomb dome and Peace Memorial Museum. If you haven’t read my write up about my visit 4 years prior I strongly urge it though with warnings about graphic descriptions. I genuinely feel that Americans (and hell, everyone) needs to be aware of what the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki went through. Seriously. Go read about it.

Remember that time North Carolina almost had
an atomic bomb dropped on it? Hiroshima does.

So carrying the sadness of the museum we left to rejoin the world of the living and find some joy in our lives. Luckily Seth had just the right idea. When we were first planning the trip Seth made a list of things he wanted to see and do and on that list was attending a baseball game. I wasn't wild about the idea and figured it would just be a boring night of humoring Seth but I got the tickets and planned around it. I have never been more wrong in my life. The baseball game in Hiroshima was the most fun I’ve had in recent memory and I’m pretty good at having fun. As we walked around town that day Seth noticed that a lot of people seemed to be wearing jerseys but we didn’t pay too much mind. At the stadium just about every other person was in a jersey. Even Seth caved and got himself one that led to a rather amusing exchange. It seems the Hiroshima Carp have an American player on their team named Johnson. So while getting some food at the game a couple of Japanese fans approached Seth and shook his hand and made jokes about how he should have gotten the Johnson jersey (he got the Dohbayashi one instead).

The lady peddled around playing songs. It was awesome

I wonder who's in the business of sculpting ice hippos

Our friends the super fans

Seth is now modeling clothes in addition to food

After we fetched food we ended up sitting on the ground behind some random seats because our seats were for unreserved tickets and everyone else was doing just that. As a result we had a great view of the field, got to sit instead of stand all game (the floor was super clean – it is Japan after all), and around the 5^th inning a bunch of superfans started hanging out behind us. The game had been 0-0 up until the 6^th inning when a Hiroshima player hit a home run knocking in 2 points and the crowd absolutely went berserk. The fans behind us all came up and high fived us and tried to get us to cheer “banzai!” with them. Then in the 7^th inning they gave us extra balloons so we could participate in the Japanese version of the 7^th inning stretch; inflating balloons, singing along to the team song, and then everyone releasing their balloons at once so they fly everywhere. It was cool.

This was the end of the game actually. I miss a picture during the
first balloon release where there were many, MANY more balloons

By the end of the game the Carp had a solid victory which we were all deeply invested in. The American player got the MVP which probably contributed to some of the warm treatment we received and the mass of the stadium almost all left on foot leading to a mass of red walking home. It was a really cool experience that I can’t properly put into words. If you’re ever in Japan I strongly recommend a trip to a baseball game.

The shinkansen was so fast it actually distorted my pictures

The next day brought another Shinkansen trip though this time from Hiroshima to Tokyo, totaling almost 5 hours and a distance the width of Tokyo. Luckily our hotel was literally next to the train station so we had plenty of time to enjoy breakfast. I had planned for us to all get bento boxes (basically set lunch boxes) to eat at our leisure on the trip but sadly the selection in the Hiroshima station was rather lacking. When I first took a Shinkansen there was a plethora of types of bentos available so I was really disappointed by the lack there. Regardless, we all grabbed some sandwiches and snacks and got comfortable. We arrived in Tokyo around midafternoon and got checked into the nicest hotel yet. Seriously, it was beautiful and I’m not just saying that because I picked it.

I really liked the sliding window screens

Seth was happy about things
(this wasn't even his room)

We spent our evening in Tokyo exploring Akihabara which mom perfectly described as “nerd heaven”. Basically it’s a huge electronics, video games, and anime center with otaku delights as far as the eye can see. Our incredibly patient mother often waited outside to people watch as Seth and I explored the crowds, packed shops, and tiny passageways. It was a lot of fun but pretty overwhelming for a group or introverts.

Visual stimulation: Check.

We ended up eating dinner at an Indian restaurant next door to the hotel that we had spotted earlier. It was so-so in my opinion as I have become an Indian food connoisseur in my time in Japan. But it was still plenty good and lots of it.

Our happy food model strikes again

The next day our mother proved her unending patience while waiting as Seth and I went to another Pokemon Center and ran around it collecting toys. After our child hearts were filled with satisfaction we headed to Harajuku to walk around a famous shopping street and collect some gifts. Harajuku is a well-known fashion district and definitely catered to a different crowd than the Kyoto station area. This was also the day my mother discovered the Daiso 100yen shop chains and how wonderful they are.

The many faces...

...of Harajuku

Including Obama, apparently

As the afternoon approached we return to the station for our return shinkansen plenty early as we like to not risk anything. This was especially good because when I went to go through the gate with my ticket I got an error message. I went to the attendant and she pointed me to the ticket office and said “Bye bye!” as my heart plummeted. It turned out the tickets had been booked for the wrong day! For anyone wondering how I could make so silly a mistake allow me to explain. We booked the tickets the 2^nd day of the trip in Kyoto. I had done all the research and clearly wrote down the 3 tickets that we all needed. In the process of booking I was told that one of the trains I wanted (from Hiroshima to Tokyo) was sold out and had to move things around. The shock of the ticket being sold out as well as the relief of being able to get a replacement had stunned me somewhat. When it was time to check the tickets I very carefully checked the first 2 but was slack on the third. It’s a lot of numbers to deal with! Regardless, the mistake was made and now had to be sorted.

Luckily the ticket office woman was incredibly kind and took my limited Japanese, arm flailing, and desperation perfectly in stride. She easily changed the tickets to a train at the same time on the correct day and charged nothing for the trouble. She’s the MVP of the trip in my opinion. Well, maybe MVP after my smartphone.

With that panic over and dealt with we had a relaxing ride back to Kyoto where we had a lovely dinner before returning home to Ujitawara.

A rare, non-distorted shinkansen picture

When I made the schedule for our trip I intentionally left our last full day empty. I figured this way we could do anything we had missed a previous day or just rest and prepare for the return trip for mom and Seth. It turned out this was an excellent, much needed idea. The day was spent relaxing and packing and I got to show mom and Seth around a few parts of my town. Mom and Seth were blown away by the grocery store, especially in the premade sushi and meals section and we ended up with way too much food in my fridge.

When it came time to plan dinner we determined eating at a restaurant was the easiest answer to the food problem and set off for Kyoto station which has many restaurants with English menus. Our trip there was hindered by our bus taking twice as long to reach the station for reasons I still don’t know and the trains being on a delay. When we finally did reach the station we ended up running all over the place as we tried to pick a few restaurants and found we either couldn’t find them or it had only 4 sets (2 of which were occupied). Eventually we found and settled on some Italian food which will not what you think of for eating in Japan was quite good. Mom grabbed a few more gifts after dinner and we returned for the last time to Ujitawara.

Our last day was pretty uneventful as it was mostly spent on the 3 hour trip from my apartment to the airport in Osaka. We arrived only to find that Seth and mom’s flight had been delayed which was just the first sign of the disaster they would have to deal with getting home. Unaware of the future trouble we had a nice last meal together in the airport before parting to return to our real lives.

I did a terrible disservice to our wonderful model and decapitated him

In summary: best trip ever.

Ya’ll may not know it but my family is actually really cool. Getting to show them the country I fell in love with was an amazing experience and how willing they were to try new things and not complain was really refreshing. I got to experience the wonder of Japan for the first time through them though with the knowledge and experience of someone who has lived here a year and a half. It was, for lack of a more eloquent phrase, just really cool.

See ya next time.