Leaving Japan was weird. We had a flight at half past midnight on Sunday morning, so we had the whole of Saturday for packing and saying goodbye. We had a lot of bags, many more than we'd arrived with, having acquired a guitar and a telescope (with tripod) from Seiko's mum, and done a lot of shopping ourselves. Trains with four changes were out, but fortunately there is a coach direct to the airport from quite near the house, and we took a couple of taxis down to the bus stop. The timing of the bus meant that we left the house at 6pm, which was early for a midnight flight but by that time we were eking out goodbyes and it was a good time to go.
Hanada airport is quite nice (for an airport). The international terminal is quite new, and has a large Edo period themed eating / shopping area (think samurai and shoguns). The kids did some last minute souvenir shopping, and we braved security. Air side was much like any other airport, and we sat and waited, ate our packed tea, discussed our oversized hand luggage (the guitar) with the staff, and got more and more tired. Eventually we boarded, found our seats, stowed the baggage and in due course the plane took off. As we were thundering down the runway, my exhausted brain reminded me that this was it, goodbye Tokyo, see you again in a few years hopefully... but I wasn't even anywhere near a window to take a last longing look and wave goodbye. On the plane I watched a new Japanese anime called 'Your Name', in which the two leads swap bodies and lives. I've still got the same body, but it feels like I've swapped life. I spend such a lot of time in Japan in Seiko's family's home my 20s and early 30s, and I'd forgotten quite how much I feel at home there myself.
[update] A week after arriving home, I'm getting round to posting this writing. I'm suffering from the worst Japanese export I've yet encountered, a rather debilitating chest infection that I have unsuccessfully tried to ignore into non-existence all week (and got prescribed antibiotics for earlier today). The whole Japanese excursion seems like a dream I once had. Maybe I can have it again.
There's a bunch of other stuff we did in Japan, and I'm going to list it here. Because I'm writing this for me as well as you, dear reader, I'm going to list dates even though they ruin the narrative flow. I hope you don't mind :-)
18th Dec, between the trips to Hiroshima and Disneyland, we went to Asakusa and met Asahi and her new husband Daiju. We visited Senso-ji (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senso-ji), and the kids bought various souvenirs in the shops there. We had lunch with Asahi and Daiju, then went to a nearby street famed for the supply of kitchen and catering equipment, in search of a specific pan for preparing eggs in a style we particularly enjoyed during our stay in Hiroshima. The street is also famous for selling the plastic models of food which you can find in the window displays of almost all Japanese restaurants. So if you ever want a life size and somewhat life-like model of a bowl of ramen, then that's the place to go!
21st Dec, the day after returning from Disney and before heading to Hakone, we stayed local to Tamako-cho, eating in a Chinese restaurant near Seibu-yuenchi. I think the place had seen better days, although it is still priced as if it hadn't. After that Hotaka, the kids and I went for a short walk but I was totally wiped out by something or other and crashed out for 13 hours at 5pm...!
25th Dec, the day after returning from Hakone, and before departing for Oshima, we went to Tanoshi-jinja, the Shinto shrine where Seiko and I were married 20 years ago, for a blessing of Asahi's and Daiju's wedding. 20 years ago, I viewed the process as fun and interesting (although a little more coaching would have been a good thing!), but I think Daiju looked upon the trip more as a duty than anything else. I enjoyed the priest's droning chant, which is presumably in Japanese but from which I can extract exactly zero meaning except occasionally a recognisable name is mentioned. Lunch afterwards was fun. In the afternoon we tricked the kids into walking to the nearby town of Tokorozawa, initially through a park (incidentally, the only greenery left of the forest in the movie 'Totoro'), then along urban streets. We approached the town centre to the strains of 'are we nearly there yet', but they cheered up when we got to the shops.
I also note on rereading this that the 25th of Dec was Christmas day. We successfully didn't do Christmas at all. Christmas in Japan is no big thing - the shops try to market it, but Christmas eve has developed into something like valentine's day, a time for a romantic meal with your significant other, and the big family and friends get together (with exchange of gifts) is New Year. The kids bought into this quite happily, and more or less the only mention of Christmas was Akira commenting several times that she'd forgotten it was Christmas.
Dec 28th was the day we returned from Oshima, but on the way home we went to Ikebukuro for shopping at Tokyu Hands and the Pokemon store. Tokyu Hands is a chain of craft / DIY department stores in Tokyo (maybe throughout Japan, I'm not sure), while the Pokemon store is a lot like a Disney store, but with Pokemon merchandise. Akira was disappointed that there was no European version software available, but we bought a bunch of other Pokemon stuff, including a pack of playing cards from which Sophia spent ages copying pictures of Pokemon.
On the 30th (the day after the first visit to Showa Kinen Koen) we went to Shinagawa aquarium. This is not that special compared with British sea life centres, but it has a sea lion show (similar to the one at Blair Drummond) and also a dolphin show. Ignoring any animal welfare concerns regarding performing mammals these were good shows, but I can't quite ignore them and I have a slight sense of guilt. Other aquaria are available in Tokyo - providing you don't have animal welfare concerns about fish, I guess...
On New Year's Eve, most attractions were shut, but most shops were open. We walked a couple of miles to a 'recycle shop'. This is a huge second hand store - think the size of a small supermarket, and over two levels. There is a large counter at the front with people bringing in their old junk to sell, and it then gets marked up, put and shelves and moved on. It had a bit of everything; clothes, toys, games, cameras, blankets, guitars, the whole history of Japanese computer gaming from Game'n'Watch onwards, and (what we went for) suitcases. We got a pretty nice, large hard suitcase for about £40, which is not too bad.
On New Year's Day Seiko and I watched the sunrise together, then we got up and had a traditional New Year's breakfast with Seiko's parents (including beer!) and then went out to a local temple to ring the bell. We walked back home (the kids and I (including Kenta) diverted and walked down the long side of the lake). In the afternoon I borrowed the Hagiwara bicycle (a machine that has seen better days) and cycled to the Kojima store in Higashiyamamoto, where I bought a new camera for myself - a Nikon B700 if you're interested in such things. I was supposed to cycle back before dark but failed, due to being forced to stop and set up my new camera so I could photograph the sunset behind Fuji. It was a spectacular view and there were dozens of people photographing it from the dam at Seibu-yuenchi; I don't know if that was just because it was the first sunset of the new year, or because it was just such a nice one.
And just to show off my new camera, here are the moon and the top of Mt Fuji, taken handheld from the same place as the picture above. The camera's autofocus is not great in low light, but the zoom and the image stabilising are amazing.
Jan 2nd was bike day in Showa Kinen Koen, and the 3rd was the Hagiwara New Year Party day. This is a Hagiwara tradition that has been going for years (longer than I have known them). We helped get stuff ready, including harvesting vegetation from a nearby embankment to go in the salad. Akira and Sophia were part of the entertainment, performing alongside Hotaka, doing sound effects and musical accompaniment for Hotaka's rendition of 'Snow White'. Apparently at a new year party it is acceptable for the entertainment to pass round a hat, even when the entertainment is related to the host. So Akira and Sophia each earned over 4000 yen, which is roughly £25 and definitely worth having in their opinion!
On the 4th we visited Tamarokuto Science Center, which is similar in nature to Glasgow Science Centre, including having a planetarium and lots of hands on exhibits for kids. It was very well staffed too (everything in Japan is very well staffed) and the kids (and Seiko and Hotaka) were taught several new origami models. I was too busy playing with my new camera to fold.
The 5th was our last day out of the holiday... a trip to the Ghibli museum.
On the 6th we shopped. We had a list and we didn't stick to it. We went to another DIY store and Seiko bought some more woodworking tools, plus we bought another suitcase (so we could hand carry the telescope Haruyomama had given us..!) along with several kitchen accessories, blankets, foodstuffs, tea, etc etc. We went home and tried to pack it. Haruyo loaned us another couple of large bags.
On the 7th we were effectively leaving - the flight was at half past midnight, so we had nearly the full day, but wouldn't be sleeping in the house again. We played Splendor with Kenta (who has taken to the game big time), then went to a sushi restaurant in Higashimurayama for lunch which was fun, then home for another game of Splendor and to finish off the packing. Haruyomama made us a packed tea and we departed.
And just because me and my nephew Kenta were playing with the folding screen and auto smile detect feature of the new camera...
The Ghibli museum in Mintaka is an absolute treat if you're at all a fan of Studio Ghibli. We were lucky to get to go. All tickets have to be prebooked, and there are international tickets released once a month for visits in the next three months, but we failed to book a suitable time. There are also what are meant to be domestic releases for sale at 10am on the 10th of each month, for the following month. So on 10th Dec (the day before we flew to Tokyo) I was up at 1am hitting refresh on a busy Japanese website and hoping to secure tickets for January, which I finally managed.
The entry ticket you are given at the door features 3 cells of film from a Ghibli movie, so everyone is holding their ticket up to the light to see if they can recognise the scene. Inside the museum is maze of stairways and arches and you never know exactly what you'll find round the next corner. There are some spectacular displays concerning the nature of animation and film. One is a large carousel filled with sculptures of Ghibli characters. You see this stationary, and then they spin it up to quite a high speed and illuminate it with strobes, and you have 3d animation of Satsuki and Mae skipping, while a little totoro wanders past and Kiki flies overhead on her broom with her skirts flapping in the wind.
Elsewhere there are displays of the creative process, with lots of concept art from the films, soft Neko buses for kids to play on, a projector into which you can insert your ticket, a cinema which shows a Ghibli short, a 5 metre tall guardian, and of course a cafe and a gift shop. While the museum entry prices are very reasonable, the cafe and shop range from mischievous to ridiculous, but we bought cake, drinks and a whole bunch of merchandise anyway.
Not too many photos because you're not allowed to take them inside. But if you're going to Tokyo and you're a fan of this film studio, make the effort to get the tickets.
Showa Kinen Koen is a large park not too far (i.e. a couple of train journeys) from Seiko's folks house. According to this website (http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3034_showa.html) the main draws are the displays of flowers, gardens and spring and autumn tree displays. Not for us. None of that stuff was out in December, and the big pond in the Japanese garden had been drained for the winter. We still went back for a second day, because for us, the best bit of the park is the Children's Forest.
This is a massive play area, with some really imaginative stuff in it. I love the dragons. These are built from concrete (with I assume a metal frame inside) and are finished in a mosaic of all sorts of ceramics, including roof tiles and soup bowls, and while I'm sure art lovers and health and safety executives are gasping in horror, kids (and adults!) are encouraged to climb all over them. They are the coolest thing in the park, if not in fact in the entire world.
And then, there are these bouncy hills. I've seen similar things in Britain, but they tend to be quite flat. These things are steep! Because it was the school holidays they were too crowded with kids for adults to get a shot, but I've been before years ago and can attest to the fact that if you bounce too high and fail to land right on the peak of the hill, you acquire a horizontal moment that means next time you land further down the hill, at a steeper angle, and can end up pinging off sideways. Massive fun! The kids played for ages.
After the dragons and the bouncy hills, the rainbow hammocks seem merely very good. And that's not to mention the Pyramid of the Sun, a stepped Inca temple that wouldn't be out of place in Disneyland, or the roller slides.
When we returned a few days later, we rented bicycles and spent most of the day cycling. The park has 14km of dedicated cycles tracks, which are actually cycle dual carriageways joined at large roundabouts. There are parking facilities every couple of hundred metres, which mean you can cycle to any area of the park, stop and look, then carry on. It was a really nice, different way of viewing the park to walking though it, because the cycle tracks and walking paths are completely separate. I'm sure they've been separated to allow both cyclists and walkers to relax in the park, because everywhere else in Japan cyclists and pedestrians share space (often with cars too).
And it's all finished off by views of sunset over Fuji.
Oshima is a volcanic island in the pacific about 50 miles south of Tokyo. Our trip there was a bit of a washout; we were on the island for a single full day, and it poured with rain and blew a gale, so we never got to climb the volcano (that we viewed from the air two weeks previously) as planned. Still, we did a bunch of other fun stuff instead.
The journey out was by jet foil, which was pretty cool. The boat is a passenger ferry that carries about 250 people, powered by jet engines (like a jet ski) and using hydrofoils which lift the hull completely out of the water, allowing the ship to travel faster than pretty much everything else at sea level. The route was another interesting angle from which to view Tokyo bay. The ships we overtook didn't look so big when we flew over them in an aeroplane, and watching the planes taking off and landing at the airport was fun.
I admit that I was at first underwhelmed by the guest house that we stayed in, but it turned out to be friendly and comfortable, even if in the western style and a little run down. Breakfasts at the guest house were nice and tasty with a mix of western and Japanese food.
Dinner the evening we landed was at a restaurant run by Haruyo's friend, up the hill in the town. They made us pizza and curry, very nice (especially the curries). The walk back in the dark was interesting!
Hotaka was performing some of her theatre at a couple of nurseries on the island, and for wont of something else to do in the pouring rain, the kids and I tagged along. Hotaka's performances are always good (much better than the theatre in Hiroshima!) but we skipped the second and went for a walk instead (in a lull in the rain). This turned out to be a bit of a mistake - we missed the turn and never got to anywhere interesting, while the rain came back on with a vengeance and soaked us. Luckily, it was warm anyway.
Lunch that day was at a place called Pension Subaru; it's a guest house / restaurant that we stayed in last time we visited. This trip, we just ate there. The main draw is camellia tempura and pickled camellia. Camellias are an Oshima delicacy and both the tempura and the pickles are delicious. The guest house also had a piano, so Akira managed her first piano practice of the holiday, which she was very happy about.
That afternoon it was still windy and a bit wet, but we went to an outdoor onsen anyway. The water was nice and hot regardless of the weather, and as the weather cleared we got a view of Mt Fuji. We also saw a buzzard riding the wind directly overhead a couple of times. There was also a cool dragon nearby...
The evening's food was at a fried food place, cheap and cheerful tempura and katsu. After that the kids and Seiko's folks went back to the guest house, and Seiko and I went to a wee walk by the sea, looking for squid. We never found the squid, although we just about managed to find the sea. When we got back to the guest house, the owners had their budgie out of his cage and flying about, landing on people's heads and suchlike. So that's another pet added to the (long) list that the kids can't manage to live without. They also spent ages playing with the guest house's big fat fluffy cat.
In the morning we ate breakfast, and found that the ferry back to Tokyo was leaving from a different port (due to the prevailing weather conditions). The guest house folks agreed to give us a lift to the other port. We had a quick walk down to the beach (black volcanic sand!), then left for the new port. At the port, we bought souvenirs while waiting for the boat, which was bobbing like a cork, even while docked. The start of the journey was rough and Sophia struggled a bit with sickness, but ultimately managed to hang on to her stomach. It was better once the boat lifted off, but really choppy while it tried to get airborne!
For two days earlier this week, we visited Gora in the Hakone region of Japan, famed for views of mount Fuji. The trip was relaxing. The hotel we went to was literally empty except for us. It turns out that the tourist attractions in the whole area had been shut down for about a year due to increased local volcanic activity, and were only recently reopened. I'd hoped for a short hike, but the authorities still seem to want to keep everyone more or less together, and all the hiking trails were closed. Also, the volcanic activity had damaged part of spa water collecting apparatus, so the hotel's onsen was short of water and the larger of the two baths was dry. This didn't matter, because there was only us there, and also the main draw of the hotel (for me anyway) was the food...
Dinner is amazing. It looks amazing to start with, everthing tastes
amazing, and even though there is loads to start with, they keep
bringing more. Japanese food at its best.
Since no hiking was available, the next day we decided to go over the mountain to lake ashinoko, famous in Japanese woodblock prints as a mirror for Mt Fuji.The cablecar that spans the volcanic valley of Owakudani, which was pretty scary the times I've been on it before when the valley is just venting a few wisps, was worse this time because the cables (at least 50 metres about ground level) literally disappeared into billowing clouds of sulpherous steam. So, just that little section of the trip wasn't so relaxing, I guess.
But the cablecar was equal to the harsh environment, and we headed down the other side of the mountain to lake Ashinoko. We took a boat trip on a Disney-esque pirate ship to the other end of the lake, where Fuji viewing of the highest order is to be had, but Fuji remained shy; hidden behind a massive cloud bank in an otherwise blue sky. Still, it's a nice wee boat ride anyway.
So we grabbed a bite of lunch (not too much, because we needed room for dinner!), and took the cablecar back up the way, and lo! Fuji revealed itself! So we got off the cablecar at Owakudani, to take some pictures and also to eat eggs boiled in the waters the volcano vents, which go black by some chemical process I've yet to discern but which are nevertheless good to eat, and are in fact regarded as especially healthy. Regarded by whom, I hear you ask? Shut up, I'm on holiday :-)
Then back across the valley of doom and down to Gora and the hotel, where dinner extraordinaire awaits again. The next morning, breakfast and then the mountain train back to sea level, and the 'Romance Car' train back to Tokyo.
Full time parent, part time software engineer, part time builder. My life is really defined by the kids and the extension just now. Once they get to school age / built we'll see...
