Japan on a Friday: Sayonara to sushi and all that

After 3 amazing weeks of work and play in this country, it's time to leave. There's just too much more to see. A society with a fascination with the minutiae of life is one you will never cease discovering. Like the charred log that plays ambient sounds that I only read about in my guidebook, but didn't quite make it to that area - Akhihabira, electronic geek central.

I got together with some BF Club of Japan folks for a Hokkaido-style meal just before I left. It was also the occasion to hand over my Princess Pink tikit to the new owner, Ray-san - a great deal for her considering the strong state of the yen against the tanking dollar.



Adam Clark rode his Pocket Rocket all the way from Yokohama (1 hour) and Taniguchi-san and his wife KimLee trained it 1 hour from Seitama, north of Tokyo.



The meal, at a local Gotojuki station restaurant called Raku, was a delicious and curious combination of potatoes, fish and salad - like Tokyo meets Idaho - Hokkaidaho?

Taniguchi-san (below, right) whipped out his clever device for toting the tikit with even more ease, as modeled by Tomo - basically a longer strap you can use instead of the small red handle.



Earlier, Cycle Tokyo's Ats Nakamura took me on a whirlwind shopping spree of the 100 yen stores. We came across some curious items, including this device to give you Hollywood lips:



I picked up 100 yen soba, dashi, sencha+matcha tea (my favorite) and stuff you can probably buy in America from a Japanese grocery store, but when in Tokyo, bow deeply and buy, right? Somehow I managed to spend $150 or so in no time flat on mundane things like the funky sesame grinder I've been seeking (100 yen) and the neat and tidy Japanese powerstrips, Eneloop batteries, but no lip stretchers - they were a bit spendy at 1200+ yen.



Even earlier, we ate another new taste sensation, Tan tan ramen, resembling ramen in a sesame, laksa like broth, minus laksa's curry and coconut.

Packing now, more soon....

More Gal in Japan on a Friday

Japan on a Friday: Himeji-Jo and back to Tokyo!

Today - the last day of my 7 day rail pass. I'm 500+ miles from Tokyo but the Shinkansen will get me back Tokyo in just over 3 hours. Figure the math!

I keft Fukuoka stopping by Hiroshima to retrieve my wallet, as explained in the previous post. Because I had just a few yen I could not buy the many Kyushu treats I fell in love with overnight. Like the handmade ramen to go, and a wonderful sweet called Caramel Manchu by these folks. Akaifusen. When I go anywere in Japan asking for it, including in Tokyo, they say 'only in Kyushu'. Drat! But there's something nice about exclusive regional foods. You can zip around on the Shinkansen knowing that gifts you bring will be doubly appreciated.

Then onto to Himeji, home of Japan's most visited castle, Himeji-jo. I did not have time to tour this monolithic wedding-cake, but there is something about simply riding your bike past such a famous spot and rubbernecking like everyone else.




For my architect friend I made a special detour to visit the Tadao Ando-designed Museum of Literature. It required asking the help of several people, due to my non-existent Japanese.






I actually had the best bento box for 600 yen from a train station fast food bar. The woman simply knew hot to cook. It came with what I thought was a raw egg (tamago) that I was supposed to crack over the tempura when I got to my seat. I discovered it was a perfectly cooked soft boiled egg that just fell out of the shell. Miki-san tells me there is a technique to do that that I must google ...

Shinkansen ho!



And back to the premier stamping ground of the Salary Man ...

Japan on a Friday: Monument hopping and wallet dropping

Myajima - one of the most Kodak'd moments in Japan.

I know when it's time to wind down a trip. I start making mistakes.

Today I left my wallet beside one of the computers at the hostel in Hiroshima. I was so pleased with myself at a) wringing the last possible bit of mileage out of my 7-day railpass by jumping on a train to Kyushu, Japan's most western province and home of the Ramen Stadium, and b) an assured arrival at the Khaosan Hostel by the rather early check in deadline of 8.30pm, and c) availing myself to a bowl of the famous Fukuoka ramen.

Then I discovered my goof, just as I was trying to buy some local looking goodies at Hakarta Station, aka Fukuoka - the farthest point you can reach by Shinkansen on the JR Rail Pass.

But I've learned that when the s**** hits the fan, you take things one step at a time. I got to the hostel. Explained my plight. First called the Hiroshima Hostel. Yes, they found my wallet, and by the way, since we have your wallet, you have our room key! Doh!

Next, I had to choose between staying in Fukuoka, and offering my memorized credit card details as payment, or leaving and returning immediately to Hiroshima - thankfully a 1.5 hour trip at 207 km/h or however fast these things go.

As I had no money, there was little point in staying a moment longer in Fukuoka if I had zero cash. I asked if I could have my card charged extra in exchange for cash, but the rules prohibited that.



Finally, and extremely graciously, Asako the receptionist loaned me 2000 yen out of her own purse.

"I guess if that happened to me it's what I would want," she said simply.

So as a result I was able to avail myself to a late nite ramen just now, and just down the road, at Ippudo.



And I guess right - this is the original branch of the recently-opened Ippudo in NYC. Except the ramen in NYC is about $11-15 a bowl, at this place is was under $10. All I can say is, if you eat food with visible put pork fat floating in anything, it's going to be outrageously tasty no matter how lousy a cook you are. I like the way they let you have a second helping of the noodles themselves for an extra 150 yen.

But wait! Rewind! I did visit Miyajima today, one of the most touristed spots in all of Japan. (See picture at top)

It's famous for its vermillion hued O-Tori gate, standing in the water like some exotic crane. At low tide you can walk out to it.

The entire site is packed with shrines and temples - and tourists. The path leads you through several alleys of commercialism before you get to the actual historic sites. This is a common theme in Japan - no wonder it's called Japan Inc.

I had a mirthful exchange over some rice paddles in the deserted Arts and Crafts Center. It houses a very high standard of crafts, at corresponding prices. However, I locked onto the cheapest thing in the store - a basic but attractively decorated, handmade rice paddle for just 315 yen - about $3.50 or so, making a perfectly economical gift. The ones beside it were more than double the price, with less decoration. I argued in non-existent Japanese that the more expensive ones could well have been made in China. So the cheap one was only cheap in price, not appearance. The gales of laughter that ensued was followed by a careful wrapping of each paddle like it was a $100 paddle. I pointed out that the wrapping made it look TAKAI {expensive} but the inside was in fact YASUI (cheap) and this drew more hysteria. Of the five women cracking up around me, only one actually worked in the store.

The Japanese, despite an outward mild mannered and controlled appearance, are full of fun and camaraderie if you just be yourself. Or perhaps, they're just laughing at this goofy 'gaijin' who looks like she should be able to speak the lingo ...

Tomorrow, wallet retrieving, then Himeji, then back to Tokyo.

More pictures soon, at http://www.galfromdownunder.com/japan



The dainty Ippudo gyoza (small, so women don't have to open them mouths too wide to eat them).

Japan on a Friday: An Obamajority in Hiroshima

Obamajority - that's what the mayor of Hiroshima wrote of his denizens in a peace letter addressed to all nations that still insist on stockpiling nuclear weapons.　I souvenired several copies of this letter, stamped with an official Hiroshima Peace Museum logo, to gift to my most vocal peace and Obama-lovin' friends.

Obama is yet to visit the Hiroshima Peace Park, according to
A-bomb survivors and witnesses like Mito Kosei. Affected by radiation when still in his mother's womb, he outgrew a sickly childhood and now roams the park as a volunteer guide, offering free and informative backstory to the official materals displayed in the museum.

"[Aussie Prime Minister] Rudd was the only PM to visit the Peace Park BEFORE he was elected to office, Obama has not," he said.



"I think it not easy for him. 60% of Americans still believe dropping the bomb was a good thing. That makes it harder for Obama to visit."

He showed me a picture of the museum's models of people with their skin hanging off in sheets like moss on the limbs of a tree.

"Look at their faces," he said. "How can their faces be relatively unscathed while the rest of their skin was burned off?"

He then turned his flip book pages to a chilling drawing of a black shadow of a human with eyeballs, tongue and intestines bursting out of its incinerated remains.

"That was caused by the vacuum of the blast," he said matter-of-factly.

I videoed Mito-san and will share his empassioned and informative discourse when I get back from this trip.

The museum consisted of renactments of that fateful 8.15am event in all manner of media - video, so-mo, drawings, words, models.

I recorded some of the witness accounts. It seemed strange that while the majority of people in the 1-3km from the A-dome epicenter (seen through the cenotaph arch monument in the first picture) perished, some amazingly lucky individuals managed to escape major illness. Yet, others farther from the blast also fell ill and perished.

Mito-san showed me a picture of a man very close to the epicenter who survived because he was in a basement protected by 4 layers of materials - most noteably thick concrete and water, through which radiation cannot penetrate.



I also popped by Shimuzu Geiko, a theater venue near the hostel, to sample their new show. I say 'sample' because without leaning Japanese it was as intelligible to me as a medieval Ukranian soap opera．It was 1800 yen (about $US20) for a full 3 hours. I offered them 1000 yen for a 1/2 hour peek - really all I needed for the blog. They refused politely several times. I just stood there repeating the offer. They then went away to discuss it and came back with their decision: 900 yen for the 1/2 hour peek. That's the Japanese for you - impeccably and politely fair - and civilized, remembering that wars as told by the Hiroshima memorial museum are waged not by a nation but by a handful of nutcases. Also, there's something effective about using a vocab of two words, crestfallen puppy dog facial gestures, and simply standing there - a cross cultural variant of the maiden-in-distress act. Though I can't see myself pulling it off in NYC.

But back to the show. It opened with characters that might have stepped right out of a Japanese full color samurai comic or Geisha calendar with a bit of Liza Minelli/Celine Dion thrown in. The halting, tai chi like moves were entrancing. Like watching ikebana in action ...



Tomorrow, Myajima.

More at www.galfromdownunder.com/japan

Japan on a Friday: Hiroshima via Nagoya

More Nagoya shots

I've just gotten back after some bad bachelorette behavior, that is, hunting down and scarfing a 10pm okonomiyaki. This is a specialty 'pancake' of Hiroshima fried in front of you on a big flat griddle.　In fact, there's an entire 6th floor of a garish neon-lit building called GAIA PACHINKO right opposite the station, dedicated to this glorified Japanese bubble'n'squeak (google that term if you aren't from the British Commonwealth).

The okonomiyaki stall I chose at random was called 'HOPE'. Because the place is frequented by tourists, the young owner said he thought an English sounding word would float them to the top of the passing selection panel. He asked if Australians ate koala sashimi. I suggested that since all the stands were offering practically the same thing for the same price, he could try advertising kangaroo to distinguish himself in a less obtuse fashion. But what would I know? They do a roaring trade at lunchtime.

I arrived here after a 2 1\2 hour Shinkansen trip from　Nagoya, changing at Shin-Osaka, or the 'new' Osaka.

Nagoya was a side trip to visit Richard Gregg and family of worldcycle.org, once a road warrior, now a happy family and salary man. We pedaled 20 minutes to see Inuyama, the oldest original palace in Japan, made of wood - really thick, smooth and silky wood, and affording fabulous views of the surrounding city.





One of the things I set out to do was track down Tebasaki chicken wings, a Nagoya specialty - after discovering them at a hole in the wall in NYC - stick this in your browser since I can't seem to get the Japanese keyboard to cooperate: http://cheapnchoosy.blogspot.com/2009/10/695-teba-fried-chicken-wing-from-nagoya.html

Haruyo bought me a small box and taught me the correct way to eat them - break off the correct end, then slide the meat off both bones on one clean mouthful. Mission accomplished!

Yesterday I was in Kyoto, having　final zip around on the tikit, including muscling my bike through Nishiki Food Market and stopping for a bento box, where I shared a table with three 'vending machine' workers. All was peace and light in our cnversation until I mentioned I'd seen vending machines dispensing underwear in Shizuoka prefecture. Suddenly three noses pairs of eyes dived into their respective bowls of noodles. Did I embarrass them? I think so, said a fourth Japanese stranger in a construction uniform.

I'm preparing myself for an intense experience tomorrow, visiting the Peace Park of Hiroshima.