First Week in Japan

20 Sept, '08

Quick update: now in Tokyo, and leaving for Kyoto tomorrow. Staying at the Dormy Inn, and there are amazing baths, etc. in the hotel: they have lotions and potions and hot and cold, indoor and outdoor public baths for guest. And it's not an upscale place ($180 for the night in Tokyo, which is good).
We were all very excited to be in a typhoon today, but it looks as though it has passed up by!
Yesterday we went to a Summo match!!!!! It was amazing. Met Eriko for dinner (an old friend) at a very cool Tokyo restaurant. Ran around the Tokyo train system yesterday - no crushing crowds as the day before (read below), thankfully.
Weather is warm, humid, and comfortable.
Today we will bang around Tokyo and do some shopping and eating.
Internet access is not going to be steady, so please be patient with these posts.
We are all doing great!


18 Sept, '08

Thursday morning, around 9.
Went to Tokyo yesterday. We are at Satomi's house in Kisarazu, which is about an hour outside of Tokyo, in the countryside. Getting to Tokyo was easy by train, and took us about 80 minutes, as we did not feel like paying the extra money to take the express train.
The train ride was enjoyable and comfortable, although quite long by the time you get into Tokyo, as there are many stops, and it gets increasingly crowded the closer you get to the city.

We got out at Tokyo station, which is in the centre of the city and the centre of the business district. We walked from there. It was hot humid and sunny, but quite pleasant. We got in around 11 a.m., so there were not that many people in the streets.

Hungry, we stopped at one of the thousands of tiny noodle shops. There are photos of the various dishes they make. When you have decided what you want, you go to a small vending machine, select your dish and pay for it. Most were around 3 - 5 dollars. Once you pay you take the ticket which is dispensed from the machine and give it to the cook. He then prepares your dish. There are a few places to stand and eat, or a small downstairs, which was like a fridge, with small tables. It was all very delicious and fun.

After that we headed out. There are drink vending machines almost every step of the way through the city, with cold drinks for about 1.20 Canadian. The drinks are water, coke, other types of soft drinks, and many many kinds of ice coffee in cans, and ice tea in bottles. All yummy. We had lots of them throughout the day.

Whether the Canadian dollar is strong now, or the Yen weak, or both, I'm not sure (there are 100 Yen to the dollar), but I have a news flash: Japan is no longer very very very expensive. Actually, the prices are pretty much the same as in Vancouver: 5 Gyoza for 3.50; a big bowl of Ramen for 6 - 8 bucks, etc.

We walked around the Japan central bank area, where there were many businessmen in dark suits and white shirts, and many little alleyways with cute noodle shops, sock shops (must be a big thing to get new socks), 7-11s etc. Went into a very high-end department store, with formally dressed greaters. Inside, little shops like Tiffanys, Cartier, Louis Vuitton, etc. Very nice, but couldn't find anything I liked.

Our main goal at that point was to walk to the Akihabara, which is ground zero for the electronics and gaming world. Lots of big big big stores with many floors all selling electronics. Everything from small parts to duty-free computers. But not many deals. Caleb was in heaven, as there were many multi-story video game malls, where you pay a buck and play very cool video games.

After that we took the train to Harajuku, which is the funky fashion area. This was amazing! Very cool clothing and styles, with many people walking around in absolutley outrageous outfits! There were girls dressed up as Anime characters, although I'm not sure which came first: the girls dressing like that and the animators copying them, or vice versa. Hats are very popular, and very funky, with big fur hats and Uggs and Ugg-like boots being very in right now, despite the heat. Also black socks pulled up over the knee with high boots or high heels. All just very bizzare and very cool. We had a blast there, and avoided the temptation of the many crepe sellers. We gave Lotteria a try, which is a Japanese burger chain. It was great! From there we walked to the designer street, around the corner, which is all about Chanel, Lauren, Dior, etc. We went to Kiddyland, which is 6 stories of cutesy stuff like Hello Kitty, anime characters, a whole floor of Charlie Brown stuff, and much much more.

We walked around until we ended up at the famous --- square, where hordes of people cross the 5 cornered street at the same time, with people walking every which way for about a minute, only to clear out just in time for the cars to zoom by. There is a Starbucks right there, and we went to the second floor for a bird's eye view of it all. By this time it was dark, and the fabulous lights of Tokyo lit up, with the sounds and crowds continuing.

Hungry, tired, and wilted, we went to the train station, not realizing we were going to get caught in a classic Japanese tradition of being squeezed onto a commuter train. No time to get food, we all ran to a kiosk, with the locals, and quickly plucked some stuff from the shelves. I had a onigiri, which is basically a triangular blob of rice, with some stuff in the centre, and seaweed around it, which was enought to last till we got back.

We stood in line for the train, and squeezed on at our stop. Not too bad we thought, although we couldn't really move our arms, and Caleb was stuck behind Artemis's hair and kept trying to blow it out of his face. She was laughing hysterically, which was not good in the crush of it all, and the heat, as it was very hot, but thankfully the air con kept the temperature bearable - but just. Next stop, there were lines of people wating to get on. "Not this train" I thought, remembering all the buses which passed me by in Vancouver as I waited in the rain to get home. Wrong I was. People just face their back to the crowd on the train, and PUSH! They all got on, and we all squeezed even more. Everyone was very quiet, almost as if holding their breath. It was not possible to move your arms or legs, but just hold on and wait for the next stop. Cell phone conversations are not allowed on the trains at any time, but people check their email and play games constantly on the highspeed Japanese phone network, which allows for easy Internet access. However there was no room to do even that. The next stop came and the doors opened, and suddenly there was a great wave of people leaving the train. We had to hold on to avoid being swept off. Relieved, we thought the crush was over, but not quite. Another horde got on, and we were squeezed again for another few stops, until the crowd thinned out enough to breathe. It was a pretty intense experience, and we were all happy to have had it.

When we got back to Kisarazu Satomi came to pick us up. It was 9, and we were all sweaty and hot. We went to MaxValu, the local grocery store (many things here are written in English, but pronounced in a Japanese way. All store names are written in English, with the most bizarre names. We ran around MaxValu buying sushi, gyoza, drinks, Japanese bread, which is a small loaf of squishy white bread cut into super thick pieces, so there are only 4 pieces to the loaf! Everything is highly packaged, and the entire store is filled with brightly coloured miniature food items. So an entire bag of crackers, with a box inside, with an individually packaged cracker inside that.

All in all, it was a great day, and we all finally slept pretty much through the night.



16 September, 2008
Japan, Cheeba Prefecture

We finally left North America yesterday (sort of, having crossed the international day line, it was really two days ago!), Sunday, 14 September, after celebrating the Bar Mitzvah of two very special guys, Jesse and Noah on Saturday. It was a wonderful affair, and we are all very happy to have attended.

Our JAL flight was on a 747, and we were on the top deck! A great flight: great food, excellent seats, and fun interactive gaming center which included a dozen or so movies, video games, music, etc. The 9 hour flight went by pretty quickly and comfortably.

We arrived in Tokyo at 4 p.m. the next day and were greeted at the airport by Lianna's high school friend Satomi and her family. Japanese immigration was very fast and easy.

The weather here is warm and humid, and it's all very different! Went to a Japanese food store yesterday afternoon, and it was filled with these fun and colourful Japanese products.

Satomi's house is about an hour from the airport. It's quite a good size, and we have a bedroom for the four of us. Satomi made a great dinner, and we all fell asleep around 8 p.m. local time. Unfortunately we were all up at 3 a.m! We all fell back asleep at some point, except Caleb, who stayed up to finish off a video game on his PSP.

Today we are taking it easy and have not yet ventured from the house. We'll go out for lunch at some point and walk around a bit.

Observations to date:
- they have lots of cool cars with many many more models shapes and styles than we have
-

For those who had lost track of our travels, here is the timeline for the past few days:

After Lianna and I returned to Sutton from travelling to Ottawa (to get our Chinese visas), New Brunswick (to visit Catherine), and then Quebec (to travel and take it easy) we went to visit Myrna and Brahm in St. Donat.
We then spent a few final days in Sutton, and left Montreal to return to Vancouver on Thursday, 11 Sept
in Montreal we ran around, meeting Myrna Brahm Mel Farla Ellie for lunch at Snowden Deli
Got some French books for the kids
Went to the Westmount lookout - on the way spotted Mel and Farla taking uncle Sam for a walk in the park! Stopped there and said hello. Have not seen Sam, who is 98, in about 4 years. He looked good!
Almost missed our flight, as there was a huge traffic jam getting on to Decarie (what else is new)
In Vancouver we went to Monty and Betty's house (Lianna's brother and sister-in-law), as they are out of town (thanks guys!)
Couldn't find a place open to eat at 9 a.m!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but thought of many we would like to have gone to in Montreal - and they were open!
Spent Friday getting the kids' school books for the year, and making the necessary arrangements with their on-line teachers, getting traveller's cheques, etc.
Met Ir and Ray for dinner. Went to Hon's, and were fortunate to have had a great meal, as it was our last in Vancouver!
Saturday was the Bar Mitzvah at Or Shalom. A beautiful affair. Then went home, packed, and finished with the party in the evening.

Stay tuned, more to come!