Usagi Yojimbo DojoBoard

Ohayo fellows,

after a week in south korea and the folklorik apec festival (korea and japan) am now in Tokyo
gone last night ti Shinjuku, today to asakusa, will go this night to shibuya. Tomorrow nikko and so om...

i will share with you my travel in 2 weeks, just wanted to say you HI from Japan.
i will search for usagi im shibuya

Nikko must be beautiful at this time of year.

I hope the typhoon did not put a crimp in your travels. It was quite devastating in Japan.

Fanfan wrote:Ohayo fellows,

after a week in south korea and the folklorik apec festival (korea and japan) am now in Tokyo
gone last night ti Shinjuku, today to asakusa, will go this night to shibuya. Tomorrow nikko and so om...

i will share with you my travel in 2 weeks, just wanted to say you HI from Japan.
i will search for usagi im shibuya

Ohayo !

First of all, i made a safe trip, thank you if you worried about typhoons (received few mails about it). In fact I got my feet in water and was quite wet a few days in Korea, but then after got a really good weather in Japan.

it took me 24 hours from Kyoto to my home in France to come back (with a transit in Seoul), I will make a quick summary of the trip, and will add photos later. I will made the same for Korea later.

I took off from Busan (Korea) to Tokyo, and my first Japanese impressions were in fact in Korea, cause, got the chance to be in the Folkloric APEC festival in Busan, and I sympathized with people from Shimonoseki, spectacle was more than great, if you can see and hear it one time, go there!

1 day : Narita Airport, took my Japan Rail (JR) Pass (you must have one to move in Japan !) and I went to my hotel (a lutherian family hotel) near Ichigaya.
In Tokyo with the JR pass you can use the yamanote (circular tube) and the chuo line (who cut off the yamanote). It would be better to talk a little Japanese (at least read hiragana, and know a few word : greetings, direction, and so on). About the transport : they are all bilingual (English and Japanese) and adapted to handicapped person.
In the hotel the toilets were surprising for an occidental, the bathroom was for all people. About the famous Japanese bath (did not go to an onsen unfortunately) : I put my hand : “oh, I thought, it is not so warm!), put half my body : “wow! I burn!”, put all my body : “very relaxing”… a few minutes later, warm in my whole body, and my front was sweating…
My first meal : in a student’s restaurant : quite unusual, got to pay to a machine what you want to eat, you got a ticket, and the you give it to the cook.
After a week to eat Korean Kimchi, I assure you you’re happy to eat Japanese food ! and after 2 weeks in Japan : I really like Japanese food, but there too few vegetables and fruits for me (and of course of bread, bread in france is like kimchi in korea). And I won’t kill for their desserts, I was remembering the fanart of usagi pursuing gen that had stolen his omochi (rice balls), I ate ones, and ok, it is perhaps because I am French, but…
About the season : it was September : a good moment there is no rush of tourists, like in august or October, but the weather is apparently not the same every year (if you are there during a typhoon for example) but you don’t have yet the famous colors of fall (it was just starting for the beautiful colors), and festival are before or after…
So for my first night : went to Shinjuku, wow! there is animation, a lot of shoppings are opened (in france all would have been closed), ah, I did not mentioned that the nights is coming about 18h. There is animation : but no oppression, no aggressiveness, no noise. Seen a lot of fashion girls (kogaru girls) : unbridled, suntanned and westernized. By day it is completely different, and a lot of Tokyo places are like this, different aspects depending on the hours. Seen the Trailer of Final Fantasy 7 that has just released in Japan (seen the one of tsui hark’s seven blades in seoul), and ads for a Tokyo chambara and samurai film festival.
(about hotel, minshuku and other ryokan) : made reservation months ago, and it seems to have been a good idea…
Just before I resume my activities : got the impressions to discover civilization, people are very kind, honest (I have seen many times cars with key inside, and people moving a catr that was disturbing), and if you don’t understand how works something, just wonder what would be logical, and you should get the solution, I found Japanese very logical.

Day 2 : Asakusa : where I found Omote mask (noh mask) that I was searching for about 10 years…. Gone on a ship on the sumida river, have seen Tokyo tower, gone to Ginza. Finished the day in Korakuen zen garden, a space of verdure lost in Tokyo, very pleasant… I met there a girl with a ghiblki museum shop bag, ask her where it was, not understand all, so she wrote me the way to go there.

Day 3 : gone to Nikko, where monks have turned to bank clerk… it is a really beautiful site, seen the famous monkeys (no see, no hear, no speak). Gone to shibuya by night (but all was closed, 109 and kitty land)

Bought a yukata in my hotel, made a movie of origami of how to made a star with a belt.
Have discussed a lot with 2 old Japanese ladies, from Murasaki Shikibu ‘s Gengi to Yukio Mishima. Very interesting people that were doing zen ikebana and painting, one is living now in England, the other had borned in Nagasaki and live now in Osaka, she seemed to had a hard life, and I remember her black tooth, she knew well zen and shinto. They gave me a book about Ukiyo-e, I was a scum, cause got nothing to get them back, they told me that what was important for a Japanese was the heart and the link between people. I hope I will see them another day. Then explain me the rivalry between east and west japan, the way to speak, the old Kyoto and the new tokyo… I met a lot of very pleasant and interesting person during this trip.

Day 3 : gone to the 51 floor of the city hall, to get a view of Tokyo. Then went to Mitaka (Ghibli museum) but unfortunately, got to buy tickets in advance and for a 2 hours session… found a Lawson where I bought ticket (there were only a few places before the closing…)Come back to Shibuya, ate a big ice cream (-and to comment another post, there were no sake in mine, in France usually during a big meal, you take ice cream with liqueur, it is called a “trou normand” normand’s hole to help you to digest and continue to eat), then after direction Harajuku : gothic, visual girl, Lolita, punk, metal it was very amusing, bookstore and DVD, actually the must see is Nana (manga and movie), and Ken still a blockbuster. Ah I have forgotten : pachinko everywhere…
At least the Ghibli museum : wow, wow, wow. What to say, must go there. Unfortunately they change the short movie, it isn’t a movie about Totoro, but about a lost little dog : Koro.
Ghibli museum is amazing !

To be continued… (Tokyo hiroshima, hiroshima - kyoto)

End of the trip (got to classify my photos now...)

Day4 : To Hiroshima by shinkansen.
I believed first that Miyajima was a step to Miyajima. I was wrong, Hiroshima is a very pleasant place. It is a zen city, construct around the dome and the impact of the A bomb that are in the center of a big park. There are tree, the city is not too big, and every body circulates with bicycles. What to add ?it is an atmosphere Hiroshima.
Ah, my first futon night (we were in a ryokan), unfortunately it wasn’t tatami on the floor, night was hard (as my back). In Kyoto we slept into futon upon tatami and it was a great moment ! About futon it is obviously a space problem, apartment are very small there…

Day 5 : Miyajima.
I was waiting for this moment, and it was great ! Miyajima is a little island where no one has the right to born or dead, to cut or plant a tree… I took ferry, and saw the famous O-Tori (the tori that has feet in the water), later with low tide I walked under it. Gone to the top of a mountain, gone to temple to see preparation of a noh representation, and discovered : Daishoin.
There are all religions, folklore and so on at Daishoin : zen, Shinto, zodiacs’animals, kami, 1000 buddhas, kannon, bonzes, fantastic bestiary, temples, bells, tengu, tanuki, kappa and so on… and a lot of little rivers…
In Japan I have always seen : huge red dragonflies, and like in Korea : huge spider yellow and red. And sometimes I saw wall of spider's wed… very impressive and I understand now why there are so many stories about spiders….

Day 6 : Himeji
What a day ! at last memories of Akira Kurosawa’s movies. I was like in RAN movie when I was in this huge fortress.Got a question for you Mr Sakai : in Himeji there are a lot of great paintings and ukiyo e of the Sakai family, does it have any link with you ?

Kyoto arriving, I was dreaming Kyoto and the city itself was a deception… at last a minshuku near shomen dori, very typical, and a walk by night along kamo river with a lot of Chinese lantern. Gion by night and the Maiko streets. Maiko were very nice, but they didn’t wear the little bells that we see in the last Usagi…

Day 7 : Kyoto : except the city that isn’t very interesting, there are a lot of temple, pagoda and zen garden (dry ones, herbal ones).Went to Nanzenji and walked along water channels to Ginkaku-ji. Ginkaku-ji’s garden really pleased me.
There were a lot of student this sunday, I wonder why. And this week end was a long one cause of holiday… after that gone to Ryonji and Kinkaku-ji. I suppose kinkaku-ji is not the beautiful place, compared to ginkaku-ji. But It was a dream to go there, I am a big fan of Mishima, and is book explain a lot of things. About he gold of the pavilion, added after it has burned. I think it must be seen just before sun disappear, with the pond it makes reverberation, and it looks like it burns.

Day 8 :Gone to Nijo castle, very interesting, and the after went to Arashi Yama.
Wow it was a holiday, there were sun, and it was like I have fancied Kyoto. What a wonderful day, it was like walking in totoro…

Day 9 : Nara, nothing to say, cool walked along lanterns. At last bonze that were singing the hannya shingyo, oh deception, just a CD in the temple…

Day 10 : it was the 21 of the month, and the 21 there is a huge flea market at Toji temple (where there is the highest pagoda in the world). This market must be done, I see Japanese people I never saw before… and true (and false) objects I have never seen fefore… there were religious ceremonials too. Gone one more time to arashiyama, but this time it was desert, and all closed. Not even seen a monkey… went to daikakuji, tenryu, cross the kyogetsu to have a walk along the river.

A wonderful travel report. Thank you.

I would love to go to the Ghibli Museum one day. I am a big fan of Miyazaki. I did go to the Tezuka Museum when we were in Takarazuka, many years ago.

Another place on my list is Miyajima. My father's family is from Hiroshima province, just across from Miyajima. The town my family is from is no longer there, though. It was absorbed by another city. I doubt the Sakai in Himeji is related to me. The Sakai side of my family is from the peasant class. It is my mother's side that is samurai.

I would love to go to the Ghibli Museum one day.

It is a wonderful place, to go there : go to Shinjuku station ant then take the JR line to Mitaka (20min). The bus are painted with the Ghibli Museum colors...

I did go to the Tezuka Museum when we were in Takarazuka, many years ago.

The Kyoto station's hall is entirely dedicated to Tezuka, i wonder if Tezuka was from there ?

Another place on my list is Miyajima.

Miyajima still one of the favorite place i visit in Japan.

I hope i will publish soon some photos of the trip !

Fanfan wrote:

I did go to the Tezuka Museum when we were in Takarazuka, many years ago.

The Kyoto station's hall is entirely dedicated to Tezuka, i wonder if Tezuka was from there ?

Another place on my list is Miyajima.

Miyajima still one of the favorite place i visit in Japan.

I hope i will publish soon some photos of the trip !

Tezuka-sensei was from Takarazuka, just outside of Kyoto.

Miyajima is regarded as one of the three most beautiful places in Japan. The other two are the Heavenly Bridge and some islands off the north east coast.

Wow...I wish I was on holiday in Tokyo right now! This report is really good

Have you visited Kyoto yet, where the Shinsengumi fought?

Sweet patatos' you've been really busy.....I hope your enjoying your Holiday still

Nice report FanFan,

I always admire you folks who take great notes on trips. Sounds like a wonderful trip.

I'm about 1/5 way through labeling my pictures from our family trip last April. But here's some pictures (slide show - requires high speed connection):

http://homepage.mac.com/cmtakahara/iMovieTheater75.html

Summary of Photos:

LAX - JAL - Breakfast - Temple (made with wood, no nails) -Golden Pagoda - Emperor's home (a few cherry blossoms were starting to bloom, but we missed the season) - Bamboo forest - Actors summer home (tea house) - boat trip / snow monkeys - flea market (food) - Takayama (Ryokan) - aquarium - Tokyo fish auction - department store - Kenzo Tange's circle building - sushi (99 yen) - amusement park.

Peace,

maka

Wonderful photos, Maka. Where were the monkeys? Was that the monkey park outside of Nagoya? I liked that Anpan man car at the end.

I would love to return to Japan. It is still one of my favorite trips.

Wooow!.....Japan still amazes me, and I really wish I was still in contact with my high school friend, Fumiko Yashiro, I was invited twoce to go to Japan with her, but both, either it was too soon and wouldent get my pass port in time, or by folks would not let me go...but that is still, Just sooo pretty and Amazing! I hope you may shair with us more about your travles.

Stan Sakai wrote:Where were the monkeys? Was that the monkey park outside of Nagoya? I liked that Anpan man car at the end.

The snow monkeys are by Arashiyama River (Arashiyama Monkey Preserve). It's on the outskirts of Kyoto, by the bamboo forest. We had to climb up a hill. Monkeys actually walk by you on the pathways (a little scary). At the top is building that one can buy apple slices or peanuts to feed the monkeys from the inside. There is a cute sign that says don't lean too forward or the monkey might grab your nose.

The Japanese sure know how to license out their icons. Anpan man is he is all over the place (we bought a miniature Anpan Man frig-with miniature japanese plastic food for our goddaughter. So cute.) I think the closest thing we have to anpan man is Sponge Bob Square Pants (product wise, not personality).

Peace,

maka

Maka wrote:
Anpan man is he is all over the place

I knew about Anpan Man in passing before going to Japan, but, you're right, he's everywhere. Whenever we saw him, I would point him out to Sharon. Our hosts noticed this, and made it a point to introduce me to his creator at a party. The same with the creator of "Fish crazy" Sanpei. I saw a piece of original Sanpei art and mentioned I have a few of the manga. I met the creator at the same party. He even gave me a Sanpei phone card. These phone cards were very popular in Japan at the time. It would have been pretty cool if Anpan Man's creator had given me an anpan (Japanese pastry).