Category: Japan 2009

We’re home, should you be wondering. Traveling from Japan to Colorado, which involves crossing many time zones, is a little difficult to grasp. We left the hotel at 1:00PM on Thursday, traveled for about 11 hours by plane and three hours by car, sat around in airports for a few hours, and arrived home at about 5:30PM on Thursday. Huh? That’s 1:00PM Japan time and 5:30PM Colorado time, of course. It makes sense, but it still feels weird when you actually experience it.

It’s nice to be home, of course, but I can’t say that I don’t miss Japan. read more

What will probably be the last set of photos from Kyoto is now online here. These were taken today. We covered quite a bit of territory. Tomorrow we head home.

There’s a new batch of photos here, taken yesterday. Most of them are from a narrow street lined with food vendors, just off the tourist-beaten path of Teramachi Street.

Here’s my most bestest souvenir from the trip:

Yes, that’s a leek in the upper left corner.

Don’t ask me “why?” because I won’t be able to answer. Please don’t ask me “how much?” because I don’t want to answer and am trying to forget. Let it suffice to say that my understanding is that these became collector’s items as soon as they went on sale.

(Actually it’s not a leek. One of the silly details of the leekspin legend is that it’s an onion of some sort, not a leek. They’re quite easy to find in grocery stores here: read more

I thought I was going to write something interesting about the day we spent in Kobe yesterday, but it turns out that I was wrong. The short and uninteresting version is that we visited an English-style herb and flower garden (demonstrating the remarkable flair for imitation that the Japanese can summon) which we reached by “ropeway”. Then we went to a series of greenhouses containing what must be the largest collection of fuscias on the planet, along with a completely dazzling array of other flowering plants, a pink flamingo, several hornbills, a bunch of toucans, and half a dozen owls. (Yes, toucans. Yes, owls.) At the end of the day we had dinner with Sid his wife at a restaurant with a spectacular view that specializes in tofu. (Yes, tofu. “Tofu on parade!” as Sid put it. It was actually very good.) Photos are here. read more

As improbable as this may sound, we attended a brief kimono fashion show during our second day in Kyoto. Kyoto is known for, among other things, its textiles, and there’s a center that has displays of looms, antique fabrics, descriptions of fabric-making processes, and so on. Much of this was familiar to Tracie and myself, her from direct experience, me from watching my mom spin and weave when I was a kid. (Weaving-geek info: Jacquard looms were imported to Japan, after which the Japanese put a good deal of effort into refining and improving them. We’re talking about automated but non-electric looms with 3000 to 8000 warp threads!) read more

Quick entry: there are two new sets of photos up: one set here of a small number of photos taken during the day we traveled from Tokyo to Kyoto, most notably including some shots of Mt. Fuji; and one set here of a large number of photos taken in and near Kyoto.

We spent most of our last day in Tokyo shopping. For the second time, Tracie managed to wear out a pair of boots while traipsing around Japan, and I needed some socks. (Tactical packing error: black pants, black shoes, white socks. Oops.) We went to the Matsuya Asakusa department store, the nearby-and-not-as-posh Rox complex, and a couple of smaller shops. Photos are here.

Incidentally, I never fail to be amazed by the grace, patience, and friendliness exhibited by store clerks here when they’re dealing with foreigners with no command of their language such as myself. Imagine someone who speaks only Japanese trying to buy a pair of shoes in an upscale department store in a large city in the U.S. It just wouldn’t be pretty. Here they’ll literally run back and forth to assist you, even though the only things you can say in their language are “please” and “thank you” (and awkwardly at that). read more

We spent yesterday with our guide Sid Makino. Sid has guided us to places in and near Kyoto during our previous visits to Japan; it was good to see him again. We stopped at a small restaurant for lunch, partly so that I could sample a local dish that consists of rice wrapped in a thin layer of fried tofu. The restaurant turned out to not have an English menu, so perhaps to expedite matters Sid asked whether it was okay for him to choose for me. I said “yes, of course,” and then about 1.5 seconds later wish I’d appended the caveat “…as long as you don’t order anything too weird.” There are limits to my sense of adventure when it comes to food, and obviously I couldn’t expect Sid (or anyone else) to know those limits. read more