After leaving there, we headed back to Shibuya and stopped for lunch at some British style pub. At that point it was about time for me to start heading to the airport, so I headed out (we’d be seeing Molly later again).
While waiting at the airport for Maria, one of the security guys came up to me with a sign in English saying for heightened security reasons blah blah blah they are checking people’s papers to make sure their visa isn’t expired and that they are in the country legally. He asked if I could speak Japanese and then went through the 20 questions and I had to write down my information. He was super nice about it, and we chatted a little bit, but still, when you get down to it, he asked to see if I was legal based on the color of my skin, which is pretty similar to what everyone was up in arms about in Arizona, but nobody even bats an eye over here. Granted, with a population as homogenous as Japan’s, racial profiling might be a little less avoidable, but nobody ever talks about it, and to be honest, most people don’t ever think about it because it doesn't pertain to them. There certainly wasn’t probable cause to question me other than by looks. Speaking of which, maybe he should've questioned this dude...J-fashion at its best/worst.
After a little morning waiting, Maria finally came through customs! We headed back into Tokyo on the train, dropped our stuff of at the hotel in Ikebukuro, and then hopped a train back to Shibuya to grab dinner with some friends, but only Molly and Eliot ended up being able to show. We went to a nicer izakaya for a couple drinks and some snacks, but it hardly was a proper dinner. We called it a night after dinner since everyone was pretty tired, especially Maria after the long flight over. Seeing as that wasn’t proper dinner, though, we stopped at a noodle shop on the way back to the hotel. With a pound of noodles in my belly, I was now ready to zonk out. A decent night’s sleep was necessary to properly enjoy…the Studio Ghibli Museum the next day!
A bit of the funky architecture of the building.
We had tickets to enter the museum at noon, so we were able to somewhat take our time before grabbing the train to Mitaka. For those who don't know, Studio Ghibli has produced some of the most famous and beloved animated movies in Japan. Director Hayao Miyazaki is pretty much an animation god, and has his hand in a lot of what Studio Ghibli does. Famous titles you might recognize include My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and Howl’s Moving Castle. Or maybe you don't recognize them, in which case you should fix that, ASAP. You don't need to be familiar with Japan to enjoy the incredible storytelling and imaginative characters. I’m a fan of their work, and I daresay Maria is an even bigger one, so the museum, at least for us, was pretty freakin’ awesome. Everything on the premises had a fantastical feel to it and decorations almost all had something to do with one of the movies. There was one particularly cool piece that involved a bunch of figures lined up in a circle, when the platform rotated and a strobe light kicked in, the figures appeared to be animating in place. The calculation involved in putting that together boggles my mind. They also have a giant, fuzzy, plush Catbus that you can enter and play around in…if you are a middle school student or younger. Booooo! I really wanted to go in the catbus…oh well. Photos were also prohibited, but I wasn’t walking away without a picture of the catbus…that’s where the stealth of the iPhone comes in handy. Oh yeah, I’m just checking my missed calls, honest. A bit blurry, but yeah, awesomeness.
There are also animated shorts only available to view in the museum. The one showing that day was about a puppy who got lost and had a night adventure before finally finding home in the morning. It was a little too over the top with its cute factor for my taste, but the animation was still excellent. On that front, Ghibli can do no wrong. It rained on and off during the day, but it was an awesome time nonetheless.
I want characters from Princess Mononoke stained glassed on my door. Badass.
Don't worry, he's a FRIENDLY spiky giant robot.
The next day we went to this mall area in Odaiba, mainly to go a place called Muscle Park. This is an amusement zone with various games and activities. We went there specifically because one section of the place has a mini-obstacle course that is straight out of the show Sasuke (Ninja Warrior in the US). After armchair quarterbacking the show for so long back at the Mound House in Madison, we had always wanted to give it a shot. Just as I suspected, it’s a heck of a lot harder than it looks. I managed to get through the arm bike decently, but could only barely hold myself up on the Cliffhanger. The Salmon Ladder also kicked my butt, and I got half way across the pipes on the rings before falling. All in all a humbling performance. Maria followed me, also with very little success. But I will still continue to judge those who get out on the sextuple step. Despite failing horribly, it was a ton of fun.
Maria challenges the rings
We then headed over to Harajuku, essentially to people watch. Harajuku is the district of Tokyo where a lot of the crazy J-fashion you see is born and where it flourishes the most. Thus you are guaranteed to see some characters as you stroll down the main drag. After grabbing lunch and then happening upon a chocolate smoothie/shake thing at the Godiva chocolate store (soooo goooood), we met up with Maggie, our friend from capoeira back in Madison, who was studying abroad in Tokyo at the time. She had a friend with her, and we decided to all head to nearby Yoyogi park to just chill for a bit.
Me and Maggie!
Maria and Maggie!
We found gazebo to sit under, and were chatting about our observations regarding life in Japan, etc. Out of nowhere, some dude asks if he could take our picture. Umm…I guess? But this wasn’t just stay where you are and I’ll take a candid. He wanted us to get in different formations and spacings; it ended up being a much more elaborate deal than I signed up for. And why us? Because we’re foreigners! The guy had a whole stack of postcards? with pictures of foreigners having fun, hanging out, etc. It was kind of weird. I definitely felt a bit like an animal at the zoo, and didn’t appreciate it.
It also just so happened that Norio, a higher cord from our capoeira group, started teaching classes in Tokyo this year, and, according to Maggie, was having class that night. So we spontaneously decided to drop in on his class. It was a lot of fun training with Maggie again, and great to meet Norio, who was more than pleased to have some new faces around. Finally having a class with my own group again, though, made me realize how much the style of the group I’m training with in Gifu is affecting my capoeira. This is necessarily a bad thing, but this gradual change was just suddenly brought to light, especially Maggie even commented to me, “wow, your ginga (basic stance/movement) has changed a lot”. It was weird, but I had this immediate negative reaction to that statement. I wasn’t sure why exactly at first, because it’s not as if I had gotten worse. I later realized that I felt there was a negative insinuation that I was now “different”, since my basic movements being somewhat affected by this other group’s style. Anywho, probably overthinking that one. Capoeira was a lot of fun, but sadly we had to cut out early to catch the overnight bus back to Nagoya so I could head to work the next day.
That Saturday there was an international exchange in Gifu that I had helped plan and did some translating for beforehand. I also was the English interpreter that day, so Maria came along as one of the participants. It was at what used to be an old merchant’s home and was built over 100 years ago. It is now a makeshift café and antique/knick knack shop. The event consisted of a calligraphy workshop, a short tour of the building and then a very quick “tea ceremony”. I was kind of flying by the seat of my pants the whole time, and I think half of the volunteers were, too, but we made it through. The tea ceremony left a bit to be desired, with 7-8 people crammed into the room at once and extraneous noise it was hardly Zen, but the tea still tasted yummy, so I shouldn’t be complaining. I just think I’m getting a little more picky now that I’m taking proper lessons.
I think I'm just going to try to embarrass Maria as much as possible by loading this post with pictures of her. Calligraphy!
After hanging around for the café’s supposedly famous donuts (kind meh, actually), Maria and I, along with Sarah and her friends in town from Nagoya, headed to Natural Café, which is this chill little café that happens to be nearby the old merchant house. I had a tasty caesar salad with fresh salmon and then some chocolate caramel volcano-esque thing that was super yummy. Sarah was still on her one-month dessert challenge (no dessert for a month), but I, being the enabler that I am, managed to convince her it was one of those situations where it was socially unacceptable to not have dessert (which was a loophole she had written into the rules). Chalk up a win for me. After parting with Sarah’s friends, Mari a and I decided to check out a little history at the local museum in Gifu park (that and Maria heard you could try on kimono there). Sadly, it was an epic fail in that we got there too late in the day and they were done letting people try them on. Boo.
The next day we had fully intended going to the Nagoya sumo tournament with Jon and Sarah, but we all ended up bailing because the sumo website said they were sold out, which should have absolutely not been the case considering the Sumo Association was in the middle of a huge scandal involving wrestlers illegally betting on baseball and a few retired guys having ties (albeit with a few degrees of separation) to organized crime. I guess maybe the scandal had the reverse effect, and it was still the first day of the tourney, and thus a Sunday, so that didn’t help. Anywho, we bailed on that and had a generally lazy day instead, nothing wrong with that. Also, due to the scandals, NHK decided to not broadcast the tournament, so we couldn’t even watch it at the apartment. Boo.
Although this could almost be its own post, I will try to sum it up in one, gigantic paragraph. Halfway through that week, I went down to Kyoto since I had been invited by that old business buddy of my dad’s to come see some festival and stay the night at his place. I got there, sat his office/house a bit, and then we went to a Korean barbecue place for dinner…where he and I split a bottle of wine. I think I mentioned last time that this guy likes to drink, but I’ll mention it again, just to frame things. His work buddy left and so he’s showing me around these old alleyways that have historical artifacts on display for this festival.
At one point, he starts talking about some foreign students he has hosted and how they were very picky with food and wouldn’t try certain things. At which point he asked if I eat sushi, to which I said, “of course, it’s delicious.” Seeing as we finished a solid, and rather heavy, meal at the Korean bbq place, I was not expecting him to then suggest we hit up a sushi place, but that’s just what he did. So after walking a bit more, I was eating sushi and having a couple glasses of whatever type of shochu (potato liquor) he was drinking, Kurokame, I think. I didn’t really care to drink it, but I didn’t want to be rude. Sushi and alcohol have proven themselves to be a bad combo for me in the past, and that trend wasn’t about to change. Ten or so pieces of sushi later, I was beyond stuffed, which he must have taken to mean I had plenty in my stomach with which to absorb more alcohol. We then went to 3, yes 3, different little snack clubs, the whole time I’m attempting to not fall too far behind him drink wise. The ladies at the first club we went to did not have your standard Japanese woman’s frame. They had broader shoulders, wider hips, but weren’t what you would call fat, at least not in the states. But not too long after getting in he asked where the young pretty ladies were because he didn’t want me to get the impression that J-women were all fat like them. After doing a spit take with my drink, I immediately began trying to smooth over that horrible comment, telling them I thought they looked great, blah blah blah. I honestly can’t believe he had the balls to say something like that. And at the same time, I can. These snack clubs are often frequented my members of the “old boys club” if you know what I mean. I was horribly embarrassed, but of course they took it in stride and continued to pour the drinks. The second club we stopped at actually had a lady or two originally from China, so I got to practice my now practically defunct Mandarin. The third and final club had some karaoke at it, so I pulled out one of the older classics, and it scored big points. All of this was over a large span of time, so I never felt too terribly drunk, but I was definitely in bed the entire next morning, and barely felt like eating come afternoon. On the other hand, this guy in his 60s was up at 7:30am and fine after taking a bath. He even went to a meeting at 11am, which is just absurd given how much he drank. The guy is a freakin’ professional and could probably give your average Wisconsin alcoholic a run for their money.
I was incredibly glad to be back in Ogaki after that ordeal. I took a decent chunk of work off after that, and Maria and I managed to make it to the sumo tournament finally. We headed down to the venue in Nagoya. It was kind of fun watching Maria’s reaction to first seeing sumo wrestlers in their causal robes just strolling around the Nagoya Castle grounds. Heck, I’m still impressed when I see them in person, it’s hard not to be. After watching the scrubs a bit, we took a break at lunch and hit up the infamous ramen shop I love, and then headed back to the venue for an afternoon of sumo. Tickets might be a bit pricey, but it is so worth it my mind. Thankfully, Maria agreed. It’s hard to tell how people are going to react to sumo, seeing as there is a lot of downtime between the action, especially in the higher ranking divisions. After that we had dinner at Flour, an awesome Italian place I went to back when I studied abroad. They have this amazing 3-layer chocolate mousse dessert covered in chocolate ganache. It is super rich, and quite possibly one of my favorite things. Ever.
Not having actually planned what the heck we were going to do during the chunk of time I took off of work, we decided to take a day to actually plan a bit. We decided to use Kyoto as a base, and also hit up Nara and Osaka.
We hit up a few of the sites in Kyoto, and my mom and sisters might be particularly interested to know that we went to that little café/dessert place in the area with all the old shops that was in the guidebook but was closed on the day we tried to go there. It was primarily shaved ice, and green tea flavoring was 1 of 2 choices. You could then add on red bean paste or rice paste chunks if you were feeling fancy. It was certainly tasty enough, but I wouldn’t say you missed a ton. The building apparently is super old, so the inside had some charm, and the walls were covered with various stickers from Geisha that have come over the years, so that part was neat. We went to the place with the 1001 Buddha statues, which was just as impressive the second time around. And we also found a neat little café to grab food at on the way there. We also found this shop along one of the main drags...
Get over yourself, Kyoto.
The next day was Osaka, but we really didn't have a ton planned other than go to Dontombori, a famous street/area in Osaka to have some takoyaki and okonomiyaki, which Osaka is famous for. Before we headed over there, though, we decided to go to the Umeda area and try to find the Sky Tower there. We thought we have oriented ourselves correctly and saw what looked like the top of the sky tower building. After much wandering through the oppressive heat, we finally arrived and took a seat on the first floor for a breather. We didn't see any signs for the the elevator to the top. In fact, what drew our attention was some crazy, ornery old guy throwing a fit about something to the lady at the information desk. He had a younger relative with him and was arguing with her, and the lady at the desk was caught in the middle and had no clue what to do. We decided to give her a break from the crazy dude and ask about the elevator. At which point she tells us this ISN'T the sky tower and that we should've gone in the exact opposite direction from the station. She opened up a drawer and gave us a map with directions from the current building to the sky tower. Well, that means we aren't the only idiots to make that mistake. Having already walked a good 20 minutes in the ridiculous heat, we decided to give up on the sky tower and head to Dontombori via subway. We stopped at a place for the requisite takoyaki and okonomiyaki, and then strolled around, stopping at the billboard before heading down a near endless shopping arcade.
What happens in Osaka, stays in Osaka.
One of the places was even using Spiderman to pimp their shaved ice. Maria wanted a picture, so I grudgingly obliged. Plus, Spiderman rules. Except for emo Peter Parker in the third movie, he was a gigantic bag of suck.
Even just having walked around, Maria was able to get a sense of how Osakans are different from your standard Japanese folk. A little more laid back, a little more talkative, and in my mind, a little more fun and interesting. We had heard from a friend that there was a "spa world" in Osaka that was running a deal where it was only 1,000 yen to get in, and they have a bunch of different baths modeled after different countries.
Maria wanted to hit an onsen again while she was back, and this ended be a pretty decent substitute to one in the mountains. There was an Asia floor and a Europe floor, each assigned to a gender for a week or two at a time. I had the Asia floor, which of course had some Japanese baths, but then also had a Persian inspired one and along with a few others. There were a number of saunas, including a salt sauna, which was a first for me. I saw some dude before me running around like a maniac, and then up getting in myself, realized that was because the salt is (duh!) really freakin hot. I did one quick lap before getting the hell out of there, and even then my feet felt scorched. No more of that for me, thanks. They also had a Dr. Bath section, which had a series of baths featuring different elements from the periodic table. Hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen...I think. Anyway, they were purporting some health benefits for each one. Uh huh, sure guys. It was still nice and relaxing, though. And the kicker is that they had a flat screen HD display with a baseball game going on. That could get dangerous. If they had been showing the sumo tourney on that TV, I might have been in trouble. The place had a lounge room outside the bath area, along with separate floors with restaurants, etc. It was essentially a whole little resort wrapped in one building. Not a bad deal for 1,000 yen, but both Maria and I agreed the regular price of around 3,000 was a complete rip off. After some thorough relaxation, we grabbed the train back to Kyoto.
The last day of the excursion we went to Nara, the old, old capital of Japan., which is now famous for free roaming "wild" deer (they are completely used to all the tourists).
I was pretty much waiting for one of the deer to maim her camera.
Although apparently the deer only like to attack little girls and old ladies.
When we went to get an area map from the tourist info center, the older lady who gave up the map started explaining every site on the map, including its history, along with a suggested path and walking times. Talk about service! After what was probably 15-20 minutes worth of directions, suggestions, and explanations, we were on our way. We stopped at Todaiji, the largest wooden structure in the world (I think?) that houses a giant Buddha. For one reason or another, picture taking is actually allowed. Maria found it odd/disrespectful, not to mention hard to take in the majesty of the thing with various camera noises and flashes interfering. I’d have to agree. Some things should just be enjoyed in the moment. The picture won’t be nearly as impressive as the actual experience or memory, guaranteed. What really gets me, though, is the souvenir shops just around the backside of the giant Buddha. I understand the desire to sell tourists random crap, but they could have at least put it somewhere else on the grounds. You don’t need to have it in the same room. Whatever transcendent awe you may have been riding is immediately snapped when you see the rotating rack of postcards. We walked around a bit, up to Nigatsudo, which has a nice view of the city, and then to Kasuga Shrine, which has a ton of lanterns. After dinner, we grabbed the train back to Ogaki.
Now Maria's trip was pretty much coming to close, sadly, so we wanted to get together for dinner with Jon and Sarah one more time before she left. With Jon on his low/no carb diet, we decided to head to the local yakitori (grilled chicken) place. Maria had never been, either, so it was a solid choice. We had leisurely dinner, and managed to try all 3-4 of the desserts on the menu between all of us. Jon even splurged for one of his last green tea ice cream cones before leaving Japan. It was a lot of fun, but also bittersweet knowing that Maria was leaving the next day, and that Jon and Sarah would be moving out from Ogaki very soon.
The next morning I took Maria to the airport, which, in a word, sucked.
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