mariko.lucy

Obaachan

2010-08-28T10:47:00.000-07:00

There's a protected beach in this region that is a loggerhead turtle breeding ground. Unfortunately the multiple trains and buses needed to get there would of taken most of the morning and my Obaachan (grandmother) was arriving in the afternoon. Maybe another time I'll get to explore more of natural side of Japan; so much of the ancient forests and conservation areas are hard to access by public transit and I'd need to rent a car.

Numerous intricate buildings on the temple grounds

Instead we went to a shrine and temple in Toyokawa famous dedicated to foxes. The last time my mother was here, she was pregnant with me and my dad put my brother on one of the fox statues for a photo -- total faux pas but it is a pretty cute picture.

one of the fox statues

Thousands of cranes in the shrine

We returned to Toyohashi, met my grandmother at the station, then went for tea and dessert before going to dinner with my aunt and uncle. I thought I could eat a lot.. but people here are always eating massive meals and desserts. Dinner was at an amazing restaurant with a great view of the sunset -- we had a private room and were served omakase (chef's choice, several course meal). Some pretty ridiculous stuff but I had to at least try everything..

The hardest thing for me to eat was this giant sea snail, sliced up. The shell is on the back of the plate, the left light coloured part is the foot, and the green/blue pieces on the right are the insides. Interesting, but not actually too bad. The textures threw me off though.

Toyohashi

2010-08-27T10:24:00.000-07:00

Sunrise

Leaving Nagoya today meet my aunt and uncle in Toyohashi (a city relatively near Nagoya). There was a massive sale at a famous department store at the Nagoya station so before we left we went there to get me a pair of non-heel shoes (sorry for sounding like such a girl). The store was closing for 7 years for renovations -- wow? I guess the building is growing from 6 floors to a 44 story so maybe that timeline makes sense but seems like such a long time.

New boots on sale for $20

Kind of fun to be in the shopping madness and see Japanese girls my age. Everyone is ridiculously skinny and many wearing "Mori" style (means forest girl) which consists of a lot of furry clothing and big boots. I think I'd melt in the 35C weather wearing that..
Anyway we got to Toyohashi and met an acquaintance of my mother's who designed and reworked kimonos. Had a typical Japanese lunch of more than 15 little dishes -- dining here is such an art.

And this is only part of the meal

Visited my aunt and uncle whom I haven't seen in at least 5 years, and their new puppy Yuyu.

Meandering Nagoya

2010-08-26T10:18:00.000-07:00

Must still be jet lagged because I'm waking up at around 5am. Still nice though to get out and watch the morning commute. Nagoya is a pretty large city and the hotel we're at is right at the train and subway station so it was pretty easy to people watch.

The view from the bridge of the city was also amazing

Went to the Nagoya Aquarium with my mother to look at a few things, but we didn't go into the actual aquarium. Would of been awesome but my new shoes were sort of hurting my feet and there were other things we wanted to see.

This entire thing is the aquarium. It's world renown and hosts international conferences so I hope to explore it sometime!

Walking across the bridge before getting some edamame ice cream -- soo good.

Ate a delicious and cheap dinner from a convenient store... The food in the "Konbini"s are way better than any food you'd get in a North American one and usually a large variety of hot and cold, Japanese and Western food stuffs.

An amazing photo by Masako St. James of a statue outside of the Nagoya Eki

And yet another photo by my talented mom. This is a huge building you'd see from the window if you train past Nagoya.

A long commute

2010-08-25T09:56:00.000-07:00

Last day of having a JR pass and last morning at Kojima. Up early to enjoy the view; there were barely any people (except for the few people already swimming and jogging along the beach) so it was quite serene.

Some of the many islands in this area can be seen from the beach

The massive bridge that travels to Shikoku Island

Didn't leave until about noon so it got fairly busy with school groups and families. And I can't get used to seeing the Japanese women wearing so many layers (and usually black coloured!) at the beach on a hot day...!

Watching one of the many groups of kids coming to the beach

Took a taxi to the train station since we didn't figure out the buses ahead of time. Took a few trains and a shinkansen, to utilize that JR pass, and arrived in Nagoya.

Nagoya Eki (train station) as seen at night

Kojima

2010-08-23T18:34:00.000-07:00

The summer is white peach season. Japanese white peaches put pretty much any other fruit to shame so it was amazing to get a cup of pureed peach juice in Okayama, where we switched trains to get to Kojima. Kojima is so close to the next island, Shikoku, but it's an hour + drive via bridge to get there so we didn't go. It's beautiful watching the sun set behind the fog and seeing the island in the distance.

As per usual, my mother was off taking pictures for pretty much the whole evening. I came to find her late at night still trying to capture the beauty of this place. She got some great photos of the sunset that I should try to get from her..

The city of Okayama light up the sky behind the mountains and the ships light up the ocean. I love this picture because it showed the couple dancing on the beach.

'Night Tokyo

2010-08-23T18:24:00.000-07:00

A delicious meal down a side street (if there is really side streets?) in Ginza, Tokyo.

Northern Honshu

2010-08-23T18:07:00.000-07:00

To exploit the fact that I had unlimited train tickets we took the train up the main island of Japan, Honshu. Took the bullet train (Shinkansen) up to Hachinohe then a little local, very old school train to Same, which means "shark".

My lunch was a strange "margarita" mix of salty lime juice and a bun full of fried noodles. Carb loading?

Beautiful beach with a good surf around the point

Spotted this little spider underneath a leaf. I think biology field schools have trained my eyes to find small animals.

On the bus ride from the beach I saw a large entourage of some intense looking tattooed guys. Turns out there was an MMA fighting championship in the area and some of the fighters were touring the northern part of Honshu.

Several train rides later, back in Tokyo.

Asakusa

2010-08-21T20:25:00.000-07:00

Awesome market by Ueno station (in Tokyo). Pretty touristy but also a really popular place for Japanese people. Sells everything from food, authentic kimonos (but be prepared to spend a lot of money for one of these), cheap curios, to hand crafted knives.

Walking back to the station we noticed a summer festival -- Furasato Natsu Matsuri. Stopped off there to enjoy some grilled squid, karaoke, and the lights strung up around the temple. It's surprising that there's many old temples scattered through any city.

more Higuchi history

2010-08-20T19:29:00.000-07:00

Headed off to find the temple and monument for my great grandparents, who helped feed the township when the rice fields didn't produce due to drought. The age of the temple is unknown but there's written records from the 1500's, which is already much older than Canada. Getting here would be hard if you didn't know the area as at Iwamuro there's only a single track -- meaning the train won't be back for 4 hours.

Gourd vine with little baskets to help the fruit grow large and evenly

Hot weather and the cicadas are buzzing, it's so summery.

The rice patties beside the monument

Sitting on the platform, happily puzzled since my juice was half jello

We waited for the train for a while before realizing that we had just missed one. So we took a taxi around the area to see the other attractions, such as several shrines, the mountains, and a suspension bridge.

We went to a local aquarium along the coast and saw some cool critters, like this fish who uses tentacles to walk...

Soft shelled turtle

Local fish market next to the wharf

snacks! The shrimp was delicious.

Niigata

2010-08-20T19:09:00.000-07:00

We picked up our JR passes -- free travel on most of the train routes, including local trains and the Shinkansen (bullet train). Since this trip is mostly to visit relatives there's a lot of travel across the country; we're going to get our money's worth for sure.

We left to Niigata, which is where my grandfather's cemetery is and the area where he grew up. We were invited into the temple by the monk and it was quite an honour.

I love the small details all over the the temple and cemetery, you can tell how much the people cared about their heritage and beliefs.

Higuchi family

It was quite dark inside the temple and hard to capture the details in all of the carvings and sculptures.

Akihabara

2010-08-19T19:09:00.000-07:00

The "Electric City", a subset of Tokyo, used to be where people bought the newest electronics. Most of the buildings probably look the same as they did in the 90's when Akihabara was in it's prime. Now it's more for anime/manga shops and maid cafes -- where people dress up in maid cosplay and have tea.

A train tunnel crossing the bay from Tokyo

Lost a day in translation

2010-08-19T18:49:00.000-07:00

Due to time change it's already the 19th.
So I'm just jet lagged in Tokyo Bay, outside of the proper city. Went straight from the airport to the hotel so it doesn't even really feel like Japan, except for the fact that all the cars and trucks are small and boxy!

The 3 am view from the hotel room

日本

2010-08-18T23:08:00.000-07:00

Off to Japan. I'm excited to be in warm, humid, sweltering weather -- a nice change from Calgary, which never seems to get warm enough even in the summer. I've also never had the chance to see the YVR international wing since the Olympic renovations so I was excited for that...

Pretty surprised to see that it even showcased the flora&fauna of the West Coast!

... And then after an hour delay then 9 and a half hours flying we landed in Japan. The landscape is amazing; such a mix of massive cities and then endless rice patty fields with intermittent old growth forests.

When we went to pick up baggage I realized why I was told to pack light. My baggage was already accounted for, packed with all the gifts for friends, family, and acquaintances.

My mom looks a little smirky because this is when I realized how much she had packed. Trickster!

Over the 9+ hour flight I happened to sleep through all of the meals and snacks. Food with JAL is usually better anyway so I didn't feel like I missed out, but I was definitely hungry upon landing. Luckily the Narita Airport is pretty much a mall full of fast food restaurants and convenient stores.

Typical display outside of a Japanese restaurant. It makes ordering a lot easier if you can't read Japanese menus as you can always just show your server which dish you'd like.

AMAZING.