Fuji: You Know the Film and the Apples, Now Meet the Mountain.

We traded in the city lights of Tokyo for the great heights of Mt. Fugi.  The area at the foot of Mt. Fugi and Lake Ashi is absolutely beautiful.  It's lush and green with flowering plants and babbling brooks.  Its one of the most idyllic places in Japan and it's renown for its beauty.

The area surrounding the Mountain is known as Hakone, and for the day you can take a tour around the whole area via five modes of transportation: cog railway, cable car, boat, bus, and rope way.  We were hoping for a peaceful day hoping around the sites...but, you might emember that Obon holiday I mentioned in the last post - well this day happened to be the official public holiday,which meant that everyone and their brother had traveled from Tokyo to Hakone for the day.  Not, really the romantic day we had planned - unless you want to share a cozy train ride with a hundred strangers.

This is how the day started, a little close for comfort...but one hour later we were on this...

...a little bit more breathing room in the cable car.  We are soaring over the back side of the valley which is steaming with sulfur vapor from the ground below.  Mt. Fuji is known for her natural hot springs which the locals build bathhouses called onsens over, so they can soak up the steam.

The Black (red) Pearl?  The boats that traverse Lake Ashi are all built like old pirate ships.  They are quite the spectacle.

Not what you would wear on a boat?  Looks like the skirt could be used as a flotation device!  These are cosplay girls (short for costume play).  They dress up like their favorite anime or comic book characters and try to stay in character throughout the day.  It's a huge sub-culture in Japan.  It was explained to me that often these young people feel like they have dull lives - long commutes, boring office jobs - so they like to take reality breaks and its exhilarating for them to play someone else for awhile.

 This was my prop for the day.  On the boat this woman handed me her baby and started snapping photos of the rare "white lady".  No joke.  Actually joke was on me as I was hoping to keep him - cutie pie!

After a full day of sightseeing, we were delighted to check into our first ryokan, which is a traditional Japanese guest house.  Shoes off, clothes provided, dinner at 7 in your room - it was a lot to take on, especially with a hefty language barrier!  The Hakone Ginyu ryokan was stunning.  This the second floor of our room which was done is all lacquered woods and paper screens.  Now I really felt like I was in old Japan!

 

 The view from the balcony was stunning...

 

 ...but the bathtub was the real star.  Mineral water strait from the hot springs pours right out of fish's mouth.  I'm sold!  As an aside, this was the only shower, so we really got 'back to nature' when it was bath time.  Can't get much closer!

We were promptly encouraged to change into our yukata which is a type of causal dress for the Japanese (don't call it a bathrobe - they don't find it funny).  After changing into our garb we couldn't help but bust out a few Japanese peace signs - yeah, now I can say from experience they do this in about 80% of every picture they take.

We were served dinner seated on the floor, naturally, and were treated to the chef's specials.  A tasting menu with 12 courses.  Just like Dasher, Dancer and Prancer, I can't remember all of them, it was just too overwhelming!  Thank goodness we are people who take pictures of their food...yep, those people.

I have a little bit of a Princess and the Pea problem, so I was a little worried about the traditional sleeping arrangements.  We slept on futons on the tatami mat floor.  They were incredibly comfortable and we both slept great!

Who needs to sleep in when you get to wake up to this?

A birds-eye view of our breakfast table the next morning.  There are almost forty plates on this table.  Each one with an individually prepared 'taste' of something for breakfast.  I ate granola with chopsticks and Matt braved some morning squid!

Now that we have our energy - time for Takayama!

Lost In Translation: Tokyo

When we first told people we were going to Japan, we got a lot of different reactions but the most frequent one was, "why now?". Yeah we see your point. They are suffering huge infrastructure damage in the North, still dealing with a radioactive melt down, and Tokyo is still experiencing tremors from the tsunami this March. The Imperial East has been on our wish list for a very long time and when saw how steadfast the Japanese were in the face of this disaster we wanted to make sure that our tourist dollars were put to good work. Sadly, all of the areas not affected directly by the quake and tsunami are also suffering from the perception that they are in the disaster zone - it's not so and I hope our accounts of being there paint a picture of the quiet, proud and resolute Japanese people who showed us experiences of a lifetime. Our guide in Kyoto said when the first tourists came back in June she burst into tears.  We were delighted to do our part to turn that frown upside down.

Let's start in Tokyo. It's everything you thought it would be and more: weird and modern, traditional and technological. When you step off the plane in Tokyo, you realize the joke is on you. All the weird and wonderful is just everyday to them, and at over 12 million strong, they get to write the book on what is 'normal' - not you. We spend most of our day in laughing fits over how out of place and ridiculous we appeared and acted. There's no 'blending in' in Tokyo, or Japan for that matter. It's the most homogenous place I've ever seen. Looks aside, there is also a uniformity of thought and action on behalf of the Japanese. No one ever crosses the street without a walk sign. Everyone stands to the right on the escalators (awesomeness). No one looks you in the eye on the train. And yes, everyone bows.  It was clean, orderly, polite, and efficient - a little slice of heaven for my Type A brain!

The fun started within the first five minutes in our hotel:

This is the basic owners manual for our toilet.  You thought going to bathroom was simple?  Just wait until you add UV light bowl color changing options, along with a fake 'privacy flush sound' (think about it), and the drying function.  I must say the overall experience is far superior! :)

Then it was straight to the Tuskiji fish market.  It is the largest wholesale fish market in the world, employing over 60,000 people and processing over 400 types of sea-products.  It is home to the famed tuna auction that happens every morning.  The highest price ever paid was $173,600 for one sushi-grade blue fin tuna.

Once the tuna is purchase it is cut frozen with huge ban-saws, watch those digits!

The only crazier than the size of the tuna is the size of their eyes - and that's a bucket of 'em!  Apparently the meat around the tuna eye is the most prized, and it's cut away leaving these peepers.

 

I couldn't leave without a few tools of the trade!  These babies cut through paper (I've been through a few reams already, it's just too fun...)

 

 After seeing the fresh fish we had to try some, so we went to a traditional sushi counter lunch in Tokyo.  No English - just fish.  Point and eat, was the name of the game and it was absolutely delicious!  They charge by the plate so that should give you some indication of how much we liked it!

 This is the road leading up to the Senso-ji temple.  We visited Tokyo during the Obon festival which honors the dead.  Its a chance for families to come together, and it also means that they swarm to see the same sites.  Our guide said that the Japanese have to value harmony and patience, because other wise no one would tolerate so many people in their personal space!

 Nope it's not Halloween.  She advertising a 'maid cafe', which is a place were grown men pay a big cover charge to go in and have a coffee in a cafe, while these girls talk in baby voices and serve them children's meals while singing nursery rhymes.  It is weird!  The fetish is that many Japanese feel that childhood was the happiest time in their lives, before the pressures of working and supporting their elders, so they like to pretend they are children again.  Yes, we went to one, and yes, it's weird!
 

 Naturally, I also needed to dress up.  We knew we being influenced by the culture when Matt and I actually liked this look.

When I say nerd paradise, I mean it.  We then got to head to the Sony headquarters to test all of their beta stuff. 

A picture of an LCD that is featuring a picture of us with facial recognition captured from a new video camera - I think we just entered a worm hole!

A serene moment at an odd time - at the Tokyo museum there was station where people were creating their own kimonos on paper with stamps of different designs.  I got in on the the fashion design!  It was great to see adults who were enjoying this art exercise - peaceful and contemplative and very choosy about the art they were creating.

Getting ready for a night out on the town at the Michlein starred Chez Tomo.  It was divine.  The important thing to know about the Japanese is that the they love their food, and they also love a good challenge.  In their quest for mastery of any subject - especially cooking - they become passionate experts of french cooking and great chefs!

A few highlights:

This is what salmon tartare looks like at Chez Tomo.

The deconstructed 'salad' course and yes, I ate all my vegetables!

We went to a hot spot in Ropongi Hills and this bar was playing some great old school hip hop.  I promptly entered and found my way to the DJ booth to commend him on his style.  He's from Brooklyn - of course!

We went shopping in Ginza and they have everything, even square watermelons, for the bargain price of $1000!

The imperial Gardens, a lot more structured than your average pumpkin patch.

A beautiful view of the Imperial Palace.

 

We took a dinner cruise on Tokyo bay for our final night, and we were treated to a beautiful sunset!

 Yeah, there are some thing on that sushi boat that I simply cannot verify...some went down easy, others were a bit more difficult to get down!

The summer evenings were really incredible in Japan, and especially beautiful on the water.

 What is the Eiffel Tower doing in the middle of Tokyo?  The tower was built in 1958 using the same designs as the famous landmark in Paris.  It doesn't have nearly the majesty of it's sister tower, but it provides a great view of the city - and it's 13 meters taller than Eiffel.  I told you they are competitive!

Lights, lights, lights - Tokyo by night.

Nest stop: Mt. Fuji!

Disgusting: The Storm Trooper sea cockroach

Japan loves all things seafood - and aquariums are no exception.  We found very modern and well-stocked exhibits across the country - in Osaka (one of the most famous), on a tiny island off of Hiroshima, even in the Sony discovery museum.  They have everything - whale sharks, robotic fish, oyster farms, and stone crab tank that was more like watching a UFC championship.  But hands down, the weirdest thing we found was this nasty crustacean.  About a foot long and looking like just the tail from a lobster, these things seemed boring at first.

But then we got a close up look:

Its eyes were straight out of an Oakley catalog, and the face was a cross between a horrible insect and Darth Vader.  With tons of legs capped with claws, it was freaky to watch, even through 3 inches of plexiglass.  And you thought bedbugs were bad!

The Art of the Japenese Garden

We've just returned from an extremely fast-paced and relaxing two weeks in Japan.  Those words don't make sense, but like most things in Japan, the contradiction makes sense when you're there.  It's a magical country both firmly planted in the future, but at the same time, still celebrating traditions from the 1600's as if it was just yesterday.  We have a slew of posts coming - what's it like to cook at home with the Japanese (with no English!), what's baseball like in Japan, and is the bullet train really that awesome (hint: yes, yes it is).  But in the meantime, get in the right mindset with a few peaceful photos from Kenroku-en Garden, Shirakawa-go, the Imperial Palace, and Nanzenji Temple.  As you can tell, now that we're back in the barren desert, we miss our trees!