japan trip 2009 (pt. I)
Aug. 22nd, 2009 06:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wingblossomFrom July 28th to August 10th, I was in Japan. For the first week of this trip, I was in the Kansai region; for the second, in Kantou. I spent all my time with my friend Eiko, and it was great to be there with her -- her relatives live in Yokohama, but it was her first time going to Osaka, Kobe, et al, too. Having her around also took a huge load off my shoulders, since I didn't have to worry about directions or transportation, like I normally would have. As a result, I was able to just relax and enjoy myself. :D I had a wonderful time during my trip, and I'd gladly do it again.
This post covers the 27th to the 29th of July. The first couple of entries -- up until Osaka -- were written while I was there, so the tone is noticeably different from what I wrote later.
The flight
7/27
So, we're on our flight! We're more a third of the way there, and it's 6:41 in Tokyo right now. My cell phone says that it's 5:41 in the U.S., but that doesn't matter very much, because it's about as useful as a paperweight right now.
Our flight took off at 11:45, after we checked in our luggage and got our boarding passes at JFK. I waved bye to my mom at about 11, and then spent most of my time before lift-off calling my dad and relatives to tell them goodbye.
Our view outside almost immediately after taking off.
Half the people on this plane are fast asleep right now. An hour or so ago, Eiko was too. She's watching a movie at the moment, though, even though she says it's not particularly good or anything. They're showing a couple of movies I recognize every so often, like the new Star Trek movie and X-men, but neither of those options sound that appealing at the moment. I'm not sure what I've done these past few hours, besides eat lunch and doze off and listen to music. I brought a book on kanji exercises to study and The Subtle Knife and Kitchen, but I haven't actually bothered to look through any of them at all.
My lunch on the flight.
I'm not bored at all. I am, however, kind of restless -- as soon as the plane took off, this guy in front of me reclined aaaaall the way back (and he was already in the first row, so he had tons of space to begin with) and blocked off more space in my seat. When I asked him if he could bring it forward a little, he gave me this Look and said, "I...want to sit all the way back." And then he moved his seat even further back, if humanly possible. Yeah. But I've been getting up every couple of hours so that I don't get affected by pressurization during the flight.
That's about it for now, except that I still have to figure out how to use my camera. Oh, well; there should still be plenty of time for that.
Maybe I can write fic in the meantime?
...I think I'll just keep listening to music, instead.
7/28
We're less than an hour away from Narita Airport. The flight has been incredibly smooth and painless. In fact, it barely feels like thirteen hours have gone by at all. I just had dinner -- fruit, pizza, and apple juice (I saved the Milano cookies for later) -- and I feel fine now, despite my cramps earlier. Besides that, I can barely believe we're only 384 miles away from Tokyo right now. Amazing.
Narita Airport
7/28
The weather was slightly grey when we reached Japan, but...
We get off the flight at exactly two. My first impression? THE VENDING MACHINES. They're like a dime a dozen! And there's so much variety: besides the fruit drinks and the Qoo and Calpis soda and iced coffees, there are about a bazillion vitamin drinks and more tea flavors than I can imagine. Also, all the stores here are incredibly vibrant and colorful.
The first convenience store I saw, stepping into the airport. Excuse the blurry photography; for a while, I was basically just taking pictures of everything, regardless of how well the shots came out.
And we're still inside Narita Airport, of course. Lugging around my suitcases is a pain in the neck, I've re-discovered. It's not so bad when there's someone else to help you out with them (aka: my mom), but it can be trying when you're in a new environment and can't keep up with anyone else around. It's also very hot. Eiko says that it's because they're trying to conserve power, but it's a surprise when compared to American terminals, which are air-conditioned to the point of sterility.
I see a lot of people (especially the workers who look at our passports and boarding passes) wearing masks because of the swine flu scare. It's supposed to be particularly bad in Osaka at the moment. This is interesting because of New York, where the swine flu threat is just as heavy -- arguably heavier -- but nobody bothers with wearing these masks at all. Besides that, it's difficult for me to take a good look at everyone around me; we've been rushing to get our luggage and get necessities out of the way, so we don't have time to hang around in one area for a very long amount of time.
After exchanging currency at the Narita post office, I get a bottle of Yuzu Lemon to counteract the humidity. This is also good because I'm really, really thirsty.
A team of international soccer players stopped here to get ice cream, and then just kept moving along. XD I was amused.
Once we're done with that, Eiko and I get our tickets for the Narita Express. I've also got my rail pass for the two weeks that I'm going to be in Japan. I can't believe how flimsy these things are -- they're thin printed sheets of paper with sparkly lettering and a tsunami woodblock picture on the front. There are no reimbursements if that rail pass is stolen or lost. In other words, the thin sheet of paper in my hand is only worth about five-hundred dollars.
After we get our tickets, Eiko ships off one of her suitcases to her uncle's place, and I buy a 1000 yen* phone card. Following that, we get on the Narita Express, carefully put away our suitcases in a compartment near the front, and take a few pictures. Which is fine, because I actually do know how to use my digital camera now. And I am still excited, but also a touch exhausted, but still not willing to go to sleep because we have a ton of things to do. And once we transfer and board the Shinkansen, we have another three hours to go before we reach Osaka.
*This phone card will prove to be absolutely useless over the course of the trip.
Osaka
7/29
On our first night in Osaka, we went to a conbini for dinner. This was a cheap convenience, since we were both exhausted after traveling on the Shinkansen and American Airlines. The Shinkansen was lovely -- it reminded me of Amtrak, but I can't connect it to anything else I've been on besides that. While we waited to board the Shinkansen, we saw the workers there cleaning out our seats in front of us before the doors opened and we we were allowed to get on.
Eiko with her Rail Pass!
Once we did, it was pretty relaxing. There was a server who walked by with a cart of drinks and snacks, but neither Eiko or I really wanted anything (I had my drink from before, and she had her mango-peach one as well). I kept on thinking about how formal the server was: she bowed to everyone before she came through the aisle, and once she walked back, she bowed again before slowly turning to the next compartment.
On the Shinkansen. Eiko took this picture, even though I was both: 1) drowsy and 2) not exactly looking at the camera.
As the train drove past the skyscrapers in Tokyo and then further and further away the city, the scenery began to look more, well, scenic. Lots and lots of rolling green fields and rice paddies. We saw Mt. Fuji from a vague distance, but couldn't make out much since it was so cloudy outside. By the time other passengers began getting off at the stop right before Osaka, I was trying not to yawn and not succeeding very well at that.
It was hard to get a good shot of these fields from inside the Shinkansen, but they were incredibly green. Even if that doesn't come through in this picture.
Once we got out of the Hankyu-Umeda station, however, it was a different story. Lots of bright lights, everything lit up at night; definitely a metropolis. I heard a high-pitched voice singing j-pop from a distance -- the song was catchy, even though I have no idea what it was. :D I felt re-energized; even walking around didn't seem so bad anymore. There was a huge Yodobashi Camera facing us, but I only took notice of it as one part of a whole.
Our destination! Well, not really. But this is the huge Yodabashi Camera that faced us as we came out of the station.
Neither Eiko or I could find the Kishutetsudo Hotel, so she went up to someone and asked them for directions, which they solved by looking on their GPS. Once we reached our destination, we were pleasantly surprised; Eiko and I reserved lodging for Osaka almost at the last minute, so we decided to stay at one of the cheaper options available. But the rooms were nice -- larger than I expected them to be, considering the reputation that Japanese rooms have -- and the service was more than adequate. There was free wireless internet*, which none of the other hotels we stayed at offered. Still, once we unpacked and left the hotel to buy food and come back, neither of us felt like doing anything except eating and then going to sleep.
*Which was so-so, but nice to have nonetheless. Sometimes it worked, and sometimes it didn't. Eiko thinks that in terms of wireless internet, Japan is still way behind the U.S. She says that because so many Japanese people use their keitai for everything, they rely on that as their main source for internet access. In contrast, neither Eiko and I could use the net without wireless, so we needed it to check anything while we were over there.
Osaka at 9:43 PM.
I know that I was on the verge of passing out on my bed in my day clothes, but through some Herculean effort, I managed to change and send out a couple of quick emails first. When I did go to sleep, it was a little later than 1:30. I also tried a type of strawberry pudding that they don't offer in the U.S., even at the Yagura conbini in New York. Eiko said that certain types of dairy products aren't allowed to be imported, which is why the wider selection of snacks in Japan don't always appear in the U.S. I also made a point of buying things that I wouldn't while in the U.S. -- so when I added up the total, I spent approx 770 yen on conbini food.
The weather in Osaka was so humid. I cannot stress this enough. The only city that rivaled it was Tokyo. I don't know why, but unlike any of the other places that I visited, no-one in Osaka seemed to mind the heat all that much. It was bizarre, because I could barely walk a couple of steps without feeling the humidity (it was so bad that my hair was drenched at the ends and I had to do laundry practically every single day), but it didn't seem to bother anyone who lived there at all. I didn't have an uchiwa with me at this point -- though I picked up a couple later on -- but I did borrow a butterfly-print handkerchief from Eiko, which I made liberal use of.
AFTER EATING THE BREAD HERE, I HAD A SUDDEN CRAVING FOR ANPAN.
Anyway, my first morning in Osaka got off to a good start. In the morning, we woke up at 7:30 (Eiko fully awake, me groggy and not wanting to get out of bed). Since the Kishutetsudo offered complimentary breakfast from seven to nine -- a detail that wasn't included on the website we booked our room through -- we walked down to the second floor and had a wonderful buffet. We got hot mocha from a cappuchino machine that was good enough to drink twice. (This wasn't just me; Eiko thought so too.) I also had raisin bread and kurumi bread, although I skipped out on the croissant. Plus I liked the orange juice better than in the U.S. -- it was light and tart and not at all like Tropicana. In other words, less pulpy.
Most of the other people staying at the hotel seemed to be locals, but there were definitely a couple of tourists. All in all, I wasn't expecting the Kishutetsudo Hotel to be that comfortable, but it really, really was. The beds were nice, the AC was nice (very nice, after coming from outside), the robes and slippers were nice, and the guy at the front desk who pointed out places to eat the night before was nice. Overall, I left the Kishutetsudo feeling pretty content.
A typical day in Osaka. Like I said, I have no idea how everyone walked around without feeling like their skin was melting off...
After I dried my hair, Eiko and I packed up our things and headed off for Hiroshima. We planned our itinerary to spend the night over in Osaka before heading off there -- because it's closer to Narita Airport than Hiroshima -- but I wanted to get more than a glimpse of Osaka before heading off. I reassured myself by thinking that we'd be coming back the day after, so we'd still get to spend time in Osaka in the long run. Which we did!
Oh, and there was one issue with the trains. In the morning, Eiko and I were going to board the Shinkansen (Hikari), like we had yesterday, but we expected it to look exactly like the train we took yesterday. It didn't, and while we were waiting for the train that we thought we needed to take, the train that we actually needed to take came and left. As a result, we ended up taking the next Shinkansen with non-reserved seating, which was at about 11:59 instead of 11:22, IIRC. But even though the next train was jiyuuseki, we were at the first stop, so we were able to get seats nonetheless.
I also bought my first ekiben there. XD I didn't finish it, since there was actually a lot more food than I thought there would be, but it was good! The onigiri were incredibly pretty -- almost too pretty to eat, in fact.
Hiroshima
As soon as we reached Hiroshima, I noticed one thing: the station was a lot cooler than in Osaka. This is something that only a person unused to extreme humidity would be able to tell. I mean, I'm not the only tourist who feels the heat, but I have this aversion to really hot and/or sticky weather. I deal much better with extreme cold, which is why I tend to feel a lot more comfortable in the winter than in the summer.
The station in Hiroshima was a lot less crowded than Osaka. Notice the paper crane motif in the back?
Once we got out of the station, we attempted to find the Hiroshima Grand Intelligent Hotel. We walked down a couple of roads before we realized there was no crossing, which prompted us to walk all the way back down and in the other direction. Eiko was like, "The streets aren't pedestrian-friendly at all!", which I'd have to agree with, considering how many dead-ends we walked into. It didn't take us long to find our hotel, though (after walking around this long spiral walkway and then down the street), and we got there by about two or three.
The Hiroshima Grand Intelligent Hotel was kind of Victorian in its appearance, from the tiny cafe near the lobby, to the high table and maple wood chairs, to the ivory door handles in our room. It looked pristine. The size and floor layout were similar to the Kishutetsudo, though; the room was much prettier, but ultimately not too different on the whole. Also, everything was more expensive there: we were lucky to get the room at a decent rate, but there was no free breakfast or free wifi. Because of Hiroshima's popularity as a tourist locale, we were still really lucky, and it was better than any other hotel we could have hoped to stay at.
I hate the word "chillaxing", but that pretty much sums up what we were doing. My laptop backpack was like a rock, I swear.
Hiroshima is also known for its momiji (maple leaves), which was most apparent in the decor of their stores and the streets. The sad thing is that I couldn't think of them without being reminded me of the Fruits Basket character! It was very pretty, though. Even more strangely, Hiroshima reminded me of a cross between Canada and San Francisco. There were trolley-like streetcars, and lots of people biked down the walkways. I remember liking how sunny and open all of the roads here were.
Our first destination? The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.
After asking the concierge for directions, Eiko and I borrowed a map and took a streetcar down there. The streetcar reminded me of the double-decker buses in San Francisco, except...it wasn't actually double-decker. *g* Right.
So, it was about a five minute walk once we got off. By the time we got to the park, it had started to rain. Well, drizzle. It was misty by the time we got off the streetcar, and pouring within ten minutes of reaching the park itself.
The Genbaku Dome, with more than enough history to call its own.
Still, I'm not sure I've ever been to a place quite like the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. It's a quiet place, and I almost felt like I was trespassing on the grounds. There's a clear sense of beauty -- and sadness -- that comes through, though not all of it translates very well to text. I'm at a loss of words to describe it. There were so many monuments and buildings. We saw the Children's Peace Monument and the A-Bomb Dome, along with all the paper cranes and flower bouquets near the monument for Sadako-san.
The monument dedicated to Sadako. Sadly enough, when most people hear her name, they probably associate it with The Ring instead.
For clarification, Sasaki Sadako was a girl who died of leukemia ten years after the atomic bombing. When she was in seventh grade, she was diagnosed with the disease, and decided to fold a thousand paper cranes because she thought they would help her recover. Although she ultimately died before she could finish them, the monument serves as remembrance for her effort -- to pray for world peace and the other children who were also killed by the atomic bomb.
The Children's Peace Monument, with bouquets of flowers near its base.
Besides the monuments, I also took pictures in front of the Peace Bell and the Flame of Peace.
The Flame of Peace, from a vantage point.
The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum was similarly difficult to talk about. Eiko, whose emotional connection to the atomic bombing is stronger than mine, said that for a long time, she had trouble acknowledging what had happened, up until she was in high school.
Still, the museum was very thought-provoking. There were three floors, and visitors entered the museum through the East Wing, then gradually crossing over into the West Wing. When I checked Wikipedia later, it said that the East Wing was a later addition, and the West Wing was part of the old museum, but I never would have guessed that. While the East Wing included slides and information on the history of Hiroshima and the atomic bomb, the West Wing focused on the damage that had been wrought by the bomb, exhibiting the charred pieces of buildings, along with clothing, watches, and materials that had been used by the victims.
As Eiko and I made our way up to the second floor, I saw a short video there, Black Rain. It reminded me of a film that Professor Stahl screened in the Japanese Pacific War class I took last semester, with the same title. I'm kind of embarrassed to say that I didn't watch it, since it wasn't mandatory and I was busy with something else that I thought was more important at the time. But I can't imagine how awful it must have been to live under those conditions; never sure of the future, always in wait for something terrible to happen.
The small-scale reproductions of the A-Bomb and Hiroshima before and after the effects of the bomb were similarly affecting. By the time I finished looking at all of the exhibits, I felt emotionally exhausted.
A 73/100 reproduction of the Genbaku Dome.
There was a section where visitors could leave a comment and use a stamp to remind them of the visit, so I did both. Besides that, there were speeches from the leaders of various countries (Germany and Italy were placed together, tellingly) that had been copied and translated into both Japanese and English. Several of the audio machines in the museum also had several language options for optimal understanding. One plaque that caught my attention was about the mayor of Hiroshima -- apparently, he sends out a telegram each year to the head of each country with nuclear weapons, hoping that they will choose to stop using them.
A line of paper cranes strung together.
At the souvenir shop, a large section was filled with origami folded into more colorful paper cranes. There was also a section for books and keychains. I bought a manga called Yuunagi no Machi, Sakura no Kuni. I've never seen this manga anywhere else, and am not sure how anyone would go about finding it. While the manga focuses on the after-effects of the Hiroshima bombing, it has Ghibli-esque art and a gentle, understated sort of pace. The storytelling is moving, and I love the Hiroshima dialect -- all the characters speak in it. Best of all, the first page is dedicated to all the people who love Hiroshima. :) I'm so glad to have found this.
The department store! On our way up, we passed a huge bookstore, along with a shop that had rows and rows of jewelry and handbags and clothes.
At six, Eiko and I took the streetcar back to our hotel. Both of us wanted to try Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki (especially me, since I'd never eaten okonomiyaki before). So after about half-an-hour, we went to a nearby department store, after asking the concierge for directions yet again. The restaurant we found was called Goemon, and once we got to the eleventh floor of the building and sat down there, we had only about THE BEST DINNER EVER. Seriously. We split a full okonomiyaki, since we were pretty sure we couldn't eat a full one by ourselves, and still felt completely stuffed by the end of it. The best thing was that they made the food in front of us, so we got to see them fry the soba, flip the cabbage and pork with their spatulas, and then serve us our okonomiyaki as soon as they were done. It was delicious!
OM NOM NOM. Why don't they make Hiroshima-okonomi in New York!?
I've heard okonomiyaki described as a cross between a pancake and an omelet, but that really doesn't suffice as a description. I suppose it's accurate enough, but it's still not quite the same thing. The okonomiyaki I had in Hiroshima also had layered ingredients: noodles, egg, batter, scallions, and shredded cabbage. I think Osaka-okonomi is different because it combines all these ingredients, instead.
The cucumbers Eiko ordered on the side. Also good, but it was almost impossible to finish everything.
While we were there, the server kept refilling my glass of water when it was halfway through, which was a very nice gesture on her part. We were given a damp cloth for our hands before we ate, and a small ceramic plate and chopsticks for the food. Several customers around us ordered their food wrapped in foil, like fish and takoyaki. Besides the wonderful food, there was also a draft of cool air wafting towards us from the ventilation behind the cashier desk.
After we finished eating, I didn't feel like I could move. But! Eiko wanted to check out the ferry to Miyajima, an island off the coast of Hiroshima. The last ferry for Miyajima was at ten, and it was eight-thirty by the time we finished eating, so we took the train over to where it departed. We missed the last one, unfortunately, but got there in time to see the ferry pulling into the harbor. We made plans to go on it the next day, and took some time to look at the boat as it came back to the shore. By this time, the weather was more pleasant; there was no humidity, and the buildings across the bridge were bright and luminous.
Hiroshima at night. So, so pretty.
By 10:50, we were waiting at Miyajima Station for the next and last train at 11:18. We were sitting inside the waiting room, and I kept nodding off to sleep. After a few minutes, an old JR employee passed by and told us to take it easy, which was kind of amusing. About twenty minutes later, Eiko said that she was going to check the timings to make sure that the 11:18 train was the next one. She tried to open the door on the right-hand side. It wouldn't budge. She tried, again, to push open the door on the left-hand side. It still wouldn't move. We panicked. Eiko said, "I think this is stuck!" I was thinking, "No way, how are we going to get back to our hotel? It's already late, and we're planning to take the Miyajima ferry at eight-thirty tomorrow -- now we're going to be stuck here the whole night!"
Then Eiko managed to slide the door open. As you can imagine, I was less than thrilled.
One of the lanterns hanging from a post near the station at Miyajima. I kept trying to get a decent shot without flash, but as usual, Eiko succeeded at this much more than I did. :D
And that was pretty much all of the 29th! By the time we got back to Hiroshima Station, I was pretty out of it -- Eiko could have asked me to jump on the moon, and I would have said yes. But it wasn't jet-lag so much as a long day. Still, we made it back to the Grand Intelligent Hotel by about 12, and I started to read my manga before turning off the lights and going to sleep.
ETA: Pictures added!
This post covers the 27th to the 29th of July. The first couple of entries -- up until Osaka -- were written while I was there, so the tone is noticeably different from what I wrote later.
The flight
7/27
So, we're on our flight! We're more a third of the way there, and it's 6:41 in Tokyo right now. My cell phone says that it's 5:41 in the U.S., but that doesn't matter very much, because it's about as useful as a paperweight right now.
Our flight took off at 11:45, after we checked in our luggage and got our boarding passes at JFK. I waved bye to my mom at about 11, and then spent most of my time before lift-off calling my dad and relatives to tell them goodbye.
Our view outside almost immediately after taking off.
Half the people on this plane are fast asleep right now. An hour or so ago, Eiko was too. She's watching a movie at the moment, though, even though she says it's not particularly good or anything. They're showing a couple of movies I recognize every so often, like the new Star Trek movie and X-men, but neither of those options sound that appealing at the moment. I'm not sure what I've done these past few hours, besides eat lunch and doze off and listen to music. I brought a book on kanji exercises to study and The Subtle Knife and Kitchen, but I haven't actually bothered to look through any of them at all.
My lunch on the flight.
I'm not bored at all. I am, however, kind of restless -- as soon as the plane took off, this guy in front of me reclined aaaaall the way back (and he was already in the first row, so he had tons of space to begin with) and blocked off more space in my seat. When I asked him if he could bring it forward a little, he gave me this Look and said, "I...want to sit all the way back." And then he moved his seat even further back, if humanly possible. Yeah. But I've been getting up every couple of hours so that I don't get affected by pressurization during the flight.
That's about it for now, except that I still have to figure out how to use my camera. Oh, well; there should still be plenty of time for that.
Maybe I can write fic in the meantime?
...I think I'll just keep listening to music, instead.
7/28
We're less than an hour away from Narita Airport. The flight has been incredibly smooth and painless. In fact, it barely feels like thirteen hours have gone by at all. I just had dinner -- fruit, pizza, and apple juice (I saved the Milano cookies for later) -- and I feel fine now, despite my cramps earlier. Besides that, I can barely believe we're only 384 miles away from Tokyo right now. Amazing.
Narita Airport
7/28
The weather was slightly grey when we reached Japan, but...
We get off the flight at exactly two. My first impression? THE VENDING MACHINES. They're like a dime a dozen! And there's so much variety: besides the fruit drinks and the Qoo and Calpis soda and iced coffees, there are about a bazillion vitamin drinks and more tea flavors than I can imagine. Also, all the stores here are incredibly vibrant and colorful.
The first convenience store I saw, stepping into the airport. Excuse the blurry photography; for a while, I was basically just taking pictures of everything, regardless of how well the shots came out.
And we're still inside Narita Airport, of course. Lugging around my suitcases is a pain in the neck, I've re-discovered. It's not so bad when there's someone else to help you out with them (aka: my mom), but it can be trying when you're in a new environment and can't keep up with anyone else around. It's also very hot. Eiko says that it's because they're trying to conserve power, but it's a surprise when compared to American terminals, which are air-conditioned to the point of sterility.
I see a lot of people (especially the workers who look at our passports and boarding passes) wearing masks because of the swine flu scare. It's supposed to be particularly bad in Osaka at the moment. This is interesting because of New York, where the swine flu threat is just as heavy -- arguably heavier -- but nobody bothers with wearing these masks at all. Besides that, it's difficult for me to take a good look at everyone around me; we've been rushing to get our luggage and get necessities out of the way, so we don't have time to hang around in one area for a very long amount of time.
After exchanging currency at the Narita post office, I get a bottle of Yuzu Lemon to counteract the humidity. This is also good because I'm really, really thirsty.
A team of international soccer players stopped here to get ice cream, and then just kept moving along. XD I was amused.
Once we're done with that, Eiko and I get our tickets for the Narita Express. I've also got my rail pass for the two weeks that I'm going to be in Japan. I can't believe how flimsy these things are -- they're thin printed sheets of paper with sparkly lettering and a tsunami woodblock picture on the front. There are no reimbursements if that rail pass is stolen or lost. In other words, the thin sheet of paper in my hand is only worth about five-hundred dollars.
After we get our tickets, Eiko ships off one of her suitcases to her uncle's place, and I buy a 1000 yen* phone card. Following that, we get on the Narita Express, carefully put away our suitcases in a compartment near the front, and take a few pictures. Which is fine, because I actually do know how to use my digital camera now. And I am still excited, but also a touch exhausted, but still not willing to go to sleep because we have a ton of things to do. And once we transfer and board the Shinkansen, we have another three hours to go before we reach Osaka.
*This phone card will prove to be absolutely useless over the course of the trip.
Osaka
7/29
On our first night in Osaka, we went to a conbini for dinner. This was a cheap convenience, since we were both exhausted after traveling on the Shinkansen and American Airlines. The Shinkansen was lovely -- it reminded me of Amtrak, but I can't connect it to anything else I've been on besides that. While we waited to board the Shinkansen, we saw the workers there cleaning out our seats in front of us before the doors opened and we we were allowed to get on.
Eiko with her Rail Pass!
Once we did, it was pretty relaxing. There was a server who walked by with a cart of drinks and snacks, but neither Eiko or I really wanted anything (I had my drink from before, and she had her mango-peach one as well). I kept on thinking about how formal the server was: she bowed to everyone before she came through the aisle, and once she walked back, she bowed again before slowly turning to the next compartment.
On the Shinkansen. Eiko took this picture, even though I was both: 1) drowsy and 2) not exactly looking at the camera.
As the train drove past the skyscrapers in Tokyo and then further and further away the city, the scenery began to look more, well, scenic. Lots and lots of rolling green fields and rice paddies. We saw Mt. Fuji from a vague distance, but couldn't make out much since it was so cloudy outside. By the time other passengers began getting off at the stop right before Osaka, I was trying not to yawn and not succeeding very well at that.
It was hard to get a good shot of these fields from inside the Shinkansen, but they were incredibly green. Even if that doesn't come through in this picture.
Once we got out of the Hankyu-Umeda station, however, it was a different story. Lots of bright lights, everything lit up at night; definitely a metropolis. I heard a high-pitched voice singing j-pop from a distance -- the song was catchy, even though I have no idea what it was. :D I felt re-energized; even walking around didn't seem so bad anymore. There was a huge Yodobashi Camera facing us, but I only took notice of it as one part of a whole.
Our destination! Well, not really. But this is the huge Yodabashi Camera that faced us as we came out of the station.
Neither Eiko or I could find the Kishutetsudo Hotel, so she went up to someone and asked them for directions, which they solved by looking on their GPS. Once we reached our destination, we were pleasantly surprised; Eiko and I reserved lodging for Osaka almost at the last minute, so we decided to stay at one of the cheaper options available. But the rooms were nice -- larger than I expected them to be, considering the reputation that Japanese rooms have -- and the service was more than adequate. There was free wireless internet*, which none of the other hotels we stayed at offered. Still, once we unpacked and left the hotel to buy food and come back, neither of us felt like doing anything except eating and then going to sleep.
*Which was so-so, but nice to have nonetheless. Sometimes it worked, and sometimes it didn't. Eiko thinks that in terms of wireless internet, Japan is still way behind the U.S. She says that because so many Japanese people use their keitai for everything, they rely on that as their main source for internet access. In contrast, neither Eiko and I could use the net without wireless, so we needed it to check anything while we were over there.
Osaka at 9:43 PM.
I know that I was on the verge of passing out on my bed in my day clothes, but through some Herculean effort, I managed to change and send out a couple of quick emails first. When I did go to sleep, it was a little later than 1:30. I also tried a type of strawberry pudding that they don't offer in the U.S., even at the Yagura conbini in New York. Eiko said that certain types of dairy products aren't allowed to be imported, which is why the wider selection of snacks in Japan don't always appear in the U.S. I also made a point of buying things that I wouldn't while in the U.S. -- so when I added up the total, I spent approx 770 yen on conbini food.
The weather in Osaka was so humid. I cannot stress this enough. The only city that rivaled it was Tokyo. I don't know why, but unlike any of the other places that I visited, no-one in Osaka seemed to mind the heat all that much. It was bizarre, because I could barely walk a couple of steps without feeling the humidity (it was so bad that my hair was drenched at the ends and I had to do laundry practically every single day), but it didn't seem to bother anyone who lived there at all. I didn't have an uchiwa with me at this point -- though I picked up a couple later on -- but I did borrow a butterfly-print handkerchief from Eiko, which I made liberal use of.
AFTER EATING THE BREAD HERE, I HAD A SUDDEN CRAVING FOR ANPAN.
Anyway, my first morning in Osaka got off to a good start. In the morning, we woke up at 7:30 (Eiko fully awake, me groggy and not wanting to get out of bed). Since the Kishutetsudo offered complimentary breakfast from seven to nine -- a detail that wasn't included on the website we booked our room through -- we walked down to the second floor and had a wonderful buffet. We got hot mocha from a cappuchino machine that was good enough to drink twice. (This wasn't just me; Eiko thought so too.) I also had raisin bread and kurumi bread, although I skipped out on the croissant. Plus I liked the orange juice better than in the U.S. -- it was light and tart and not at all like Tropicana. In other words, less pulpy.
Most of the other people staying at the hotel seemed to be locals, but there were definitely a couple of tourists. All in all, I wasn't expecting the Kishutetsudo Hotel to be that comfortable, but it really, really was. The beds were nice, the AC was nice (very nice, after coming from outside), the robes and slippers were nice, and the guy at the front desk who pointed out places to eat the night before was nice. Overall, I left the Kishutetsudo feeling pretty content.
A typical day in Osaka. Like I said, I have no idea how everyone walked around without feeling like their skin was melting off...
After I dried my hair, Eiko and I packed up our things and headed off for Hiroshima. We planned our itinerary to spend the night over in Osaka before heading off there -- because it's closer to Narita Airport than Hiroshima -- but I wanted to get more than a glimpse of Osaka before heading off. I reassured myself by thinking that we'd be coming back the day after, so we'd still get to spend time in Osaka in the long run. Which we did!
Oh, and there was one issue with the trains. In the morning, Eiko and I were going to board the Shinkansen (Hikari), like we had yesterday, but we expected it to look exactly like the train we took yesterday. It didn't, and while we were waiting for the train that we thought we needed to take, the train that we actually needed to take came and left. As a result, we ended up taking the next Shinkansen with non-reserved seating, which was at about 11:59 instead of 11:22, IIRC. But even though the next train was jiyuuseki, we were at the first stop, so we were able to get seats nonetheless.
I also bought my first ekiben there. XD I didn't finish it, since there was actually a lot more food than I thought there would be, but it was good! The onigiri were incredibly pretty -- almost too pretty to eat, in fact.
Hiroshima
As soon as we reached Hiroshima, I noticed one thing: the station was a lot cooler than in Osaka. This is something that only a person unused to extreme humidity would be able to tell. I mean, I'm not the only tourist who feels the heat, but I have this aversion to really hot and/or sticky weather. I deal much better with extreme cold, which is why I tend to feel a lot more comfortable in the winter than in the summer.
The station in Hiroshima was a lot less crowded than Osaka. Notice the paper crane motif in the back?
Once we got out of the station, we attempted to find the Hiroshima Grand Intelligent Hotel. We walked down a couple of roads before we realized there was no crossing, which prompted us to walk all the way back down and in the other direction. Eiko was like, "The streets aren't pedestrian-friendly at all!", which I'd have to agree with, considering how many dead-ends we walked into. It didn't take us long to find our hotel, though (after walking around this long spiral walkway and then down the street), and we got there by about two or three.
The Hiroshima Grand Intelligent Hotel was kind of Victorian in its appearance, from the tiny cafe near the lobby, to the high table and maple wood chairs, to the ivory door handles in our room. It looked pristine. The size and floor layout were similar to the Kishutetsudo, though; the room was much prettier, but ultimately not too different on the whole. Also, everything was more expensive there: we were lucky to get the room at a decent rate, but there was no free breakfast or free wifi. Because of Hiroshima's popularity as a tourist locale, we were still really lucky, and it was better than any other hotel we could have hoped to stay at.
I hate the word "chillaxing", but that pretty much sums up what we were doing. My laptop backpack was like a rock, I swear.
Hiroshima is also known for its momiji (maple leaves), which was most apparent in the decor of their stores and the streets. The sad thing is that I couldn't think of them without being reminded me of the Fruits Basket character! It was very pretty, though. Even more strangely, Hiroshima reminded me of a cross between Canada and San Francisco. There were trolley-like streetcars, and lots of people biked down the walkways. I remember liking how sunny and open all of the roads here were.
Our first destination? The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.
After asking the concierge for directions, Eiko and I borrowed a map and took a streetcar down there. The streetcar reminded me of the double-decker buses in San Francisco, except...it wasn't actually double-decker. *g* Right.
So, it was about a five minute walk once we got off. By the time we got to the park, it had started to rain. Well, drizzle. It was misty by the time we got off the streetcar, and pouring within ten minutes of reaching the park itself.
The Genbaku Dome, with more than enough history to call its own.
Still, I'm not sure I've ever been to a place quite like the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. It's a quiet place, and I almost felt like I was trespassing on the grounds. There's a clear sense of beauty -- and sadness -- that comes through, though not all of it translates very well to text. I'm at a loss of words to describe it. There were so many monuments and buildings. We saw the Children's Peace Monument and the A-Bomb Dome, along with all the paper cranes and flower bouquets near the monument for Sadako-san.
The monument dedicated to Sadako. Sadly enough, when most people hear her name, they probably associate it with The Ring instead.
For clarification, Sasaki Sadako was a girl who died of leukemia ten years after the atomic bombing. When she was in seventh grade, she was diagnosed with the disease, and decided to fold a thousand paper cranes because she thought they would help her recover. Although she ultimately died before she could finish them, the monument serves as remembrance for her effort -- to pray for world peace and the other children who were also killed by the atomic bomb.
The Children's Peace Monument, with bouquets of flowers near its base.
Besides the monuments, I also took pictures in front of the Peace Bell and the Flame of Peace.
The Flame of Peace, from a vantage point.
The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum was similarly difficult to talk about. Eiko, whose emotional connection to the atomic bombing is stronger than mine, said that for a long time, she had trouble acknowledging what had happened, up until she was in high school.
Still, the museum was very thought-provoking. There were three floors, and visitors entered the museum through the East Wing, then gradually crossing over into the West Wing. When I checked Wikipedia later, it said that the East Wing was a later addition, and the West Wing was part of the old museum, but I never would have guessed that. While the East Wing included slides and information on the history of Hiroshima and the atomic bomb, the West Wing focused on the damage that had been wrought by the bomb, exhibiting the charred pieces of buildings, along with clothing, watches, and materials that had been used by the victims.
As Eiko and I made our way up to the second floor, I saw a short video there, Black Rain. It reminded me of a film that Professor Stahl screened in the Japanese Pacific War class I took last semester, with the same title. I'm kind of embarrassed to say that I didn't watch it, since it wasn't mandatory and I was busy with something else that I thought was more important at the time. But I can't imagine how awful it must have been to live under those conditions; never sure of the future, always in wait for something terrible to happen.
The small-scale reproductions of the A-Bomb and Hiroshima before and after the effects of the bomb were similarly affecting. By the time I finished looking at all of the exhibits, I felt emotionally exhausted.
A 73/100 reproduction of the Genbaku Dome.
There was a section where visitors could leave a comment and use a stamp to remind them of the visit, so I did both. Besides that, there were speeches from the leaders of various countries (Germany and Italy were placed together, tellingly) that had been copied and translated into both Japanese and English. Several of the audio machines in the museum also had several language options for optimal understanding. One plaque that caught my attention was about the mayor of Hiroshima -- apparently, he sends out a telegram each year to the head of each country with nuclear weapons, hoping that they will choose to stop using them.
A line of paper cranes strung together.
At the souvenir shop, a large section was filled with origami folded into more colorful paper cranes. There was also a section for books and keychains. I bought a manga called Yuunagi no Machi, Sakura no Kuni. I've never seen this manga anywhere else, and am not sure how anyone would go about finding it. While the manga focuses on the after-effects of the Hiroshima bombing, it has Ghibli-esque art and a gentle, understated sort of pace. The storytelling is moving, and I love the Hiroshima dialect -- all the characters speak in it. Best of all, the first page is dedicated to all the people who love Hiroshima. :) I'm so glad to have found this.
The department store! On our way up, we passed a huge bookstore, along with a shop that had rows and rows of jewelry and handbags and clothes.
At six, Eiko and I took the streetcar back to our hotel. Both of us wanted to try Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki (especially me, since I'd never eaten okonomiyaki before). So after about half-an-hour, we went to a nearby department store, after asking the concierge for directions yet again. The restaurant we found was called Goemon, and once we got to the eleventh floor of the building and sat down there, we had only about THE BEST DINNER EVER. Seriously. We split a full okonomiyaki, since we were pretty sure we couldn't eat a full one by ourselves, and still felt completely stuffed by the end of it. The best thing was that they made the food in front of us, so we got to see them fry the soba, flip the cabbage and pork with their spatulas, and then serve us our okonomiyaki as soon as they were done. It was delicious!
OM NOM NOM. Why don't they make Hiroshima-okonomi in New York!?
I've heard okonomiyaki described as a cross between a pancake and an omelet, but that really doesn't suffice as a description. I suppose it's accurate enough, but it's still not quite the same thing. The okonomiyaki I had in Hiroshima also had layered ingredients: noodles, egg, batter, scallions, and shredded cabbage. I think Osaka-okonomi is different because it combines all these ingredients, instead.
The cucumbers Eiko ordered on the side. Also good, but it was almost impossible to finish everything.
While we were there, the server kept refilling my glass of water when it was halfway through, which was a very nice gesture on her part. We were given a damp cloth for our hands before we ate, and a small ceramic plate and chopsticks for the food. Several customers around us ordered their food wrapped in foil, like fish and takoyaki. Besides the wonderful food, there was also a draft of cool air wafting towards us from the ventilation behind the cashier desk.
After we finished eating, I didn't feel like I could move. But! Eiko wanted to check out the ferry to Miyajima, an island off the coast of Hiroshima. The last ferry for Miyajima was at ten, and it was eight-thirty by the time we finished eating, so we took the train over to where it departed. We missed the last one, unfortunately, but got there in time to see the ferry pulling into the harbor. We made plans to go on it the next day, and took some time to look at the boat as it came back to the shore. By this time, the weather was more pleasant; there was no humidity, and the buildings across the bridge were bright and luminous.
Hiroshima at night. So, so pretty.
By 10:50, we were waiting at Miyajima Station for the next and last train at 11:18. We were sitting inside the waiting room, and I kept nodding off to sleep. After a few minutes, an old JR employee passed by and told us to take it easy, which was kind of amusing. About twenty minutes later, Eiko said that she was going to check the timings to make sure that the 11:18 train was the next one. She tried to open the door on the right-hand side. It wouldn't budge. She tried, again, to push open the door on the left-hand side. It still wouldn't move. We panicked. Eiko said, "I think this is stuck!" I was thinking, "No way, how are we going to get back to our hotel? It's already late, and we're planning to take the Miyajima ferry at eight-thirty tomorrow -- now we're going to be stuck here the whole night!"
Then Eiko managed to slide the door open. As you can imagine, I was less than thrilled.
One of the lanterns hanging from a post near the station at Miyajima. I kept trying to get a decent shot without flash, but as usual, Eiko succeeded at this much more than I did. :D
And that was pretty much all of the 29th! By the time we got back to Hiroshima Station, I was pretty out of it -- Eiko could have asked me to jump on the moon, and I would have said yes. But it wasn't jet-lag so much as a long day. Still, we made it back to the Grand Intelligent Hotel by about 12, and I started to read my manga before turning off the lights and going to sleep.
ETA: Pictures added!