Japan in July

Nagoya = Sumo

We were all really excited about making our way to Nagoya for the sumo.

We had arranged tickets through an online service (BuySumoTickets) which delivered them to our hotel. Brilliant. It's normally quite tricky to arrange tickets but these were happily waiting for us when we arrived at the Royal Park Inn Nagoya.

We hotfooted it straight to the sumo.

There is A LOT going on in a sumo match. If you're interested in the rules, click here. Basically, two enormous guys face off against each other, stare each other down, then try to slam each other out of a small ring.

Of course it's not that simple at all. The stare down is very complicated and can go on for minutes, there's throwing of salt (if the wrestlers are senior enough to earn this privilege), the referees sing the wrestlers names, there's grappling with the wrestlers loin cloth (mawashi), there's washing of faces, there's the bout and the eventual declaration of the winner by the referee pointing a fan at him. And that's if the five judges don't get called in to adjudicate.

Here's some footage from the start of the juryo section (the second to top) when the various wrestlers walk in and do a routine with their aprons:

It is utterly compelling and we sat from noon until 5pm almost without a break just watching the craziness.

We were particularly keen to see Harumafuji who is thought to be just about to qualify as the top grade of sumo (yokozuno). He won the bout that we saw him in although he lost the next couple so he may not win the tournament and won't go up the level.

The foreign sumos (such as Harumafuji who is Mongolian) are quite controversial from time to time and for a while, the Sumo association froze the entry of foreigners. The various wrestlers (foreign and Japanese) have different reputations for example for showing emotion/having elaborate preparation routines (Takamisakari), and doing crazy stuff off the field in mode of AFL footballer (Asashoryu).

This is a sport I would definitely like to see on Foxtel. As usual, Coke is a sponsor:

Day 2 in Kobe

We spent the second day tootling around Kobe and went up a cable car to a herb farm which was not terrifically interesting. It had a lovely view at a cafe in which one was not able to drink beer or indeed, anything, which marred it a bit for me.

Kobe has a lovely feel to it, very European really and the people seem very worldly. We went down to Harbourtown which is right on the bay. Kobe port is the 41st largest container port in the world which comes in just ahead of Melbourne at 47.

There are a remarkable number of patisseries in the town. I was looking for a particular one called Le Dimanche which has a great reputation. But alas, we were defeated and headed back to the hotel.

This is down at the port:

And we finished the day with another Kobe beef meal:

Kobe to Nagoya: two t-shirts of the day

Kobe

For Kiley's final night in Japan, we went to Kobe, mostly because it was much closer for her to get to Osaka airport from here than it would be from Hiroshima but also for the beef.

Most people say that the feeding of beer and massaging the cows daily to produce Kobe beef is a bit of a myth (evidenced by the fact that I have never heard anyone say that that is their job, but come to think of it, what a great profession to use as a spoof next time you are fooling someone at the pub).

We stayed at the Crowne Plaza which is super swish and Alex and I were upgraded to a bigger room which was close to being larger than our actual home.

In the evening we went to A1 restaurant for beef. There are several locations of this chain but we finally ended up at the right one where they cooked seriously the best beef I have had in my life. It was amazing.

They gave us bibs to wear and we were a bit sceptical that this was a joke at the gaijins' expense but they really were quite necessary as they brought the meat sizzling to the table and it got all over everything, even through the bibs. We're quite keen now to try to find the best beef in Australia.

Afterward we found a karaoke place. We had to wait a while til they could accommodate us and watched as a whole lot of dishevelled people in suits and very nice frocks entered the karaoke place (which was over three floors. We realised it was a wedding that had found its way to  karaoke. It was only 10pm so I hope it was a daytime wedding rather than one that finished up at 10pm to go to karaoke...

Anyway, finally they popped us in a room and despite struggling with the computer which was, not surprisingly, all in Japanese we managed to belt out the old standards (The Gambler, Why Can't This be Love, Living on a Prayer) as well as some new favourites (Young Folks, Mr Brightside, Whatever I Did).

We had enormous trouble communicating our desires for drinks. Kiley phoned downstairs to order shōchū several times and they kept hanging up on her.  Eventually we ended up with a forest of little shōchū cups and had to choke it all down.

We finished the night with just another wee drink at a bar in a slightly seedy part of Kobe which had a note about the Victorian bushfire appeal up in the toilets along with a range of very wacky signs.

Miyajima

Today we went to Miyajima which is an island on the inland sea of Japan where these famous torii (or Shinto gates) are the located along with a host of aggressive deers. Yes, you read that right.

There are signs up saying that the residential deers (by which they mean "domesticated" and for the record I don't know either of those words in Japanese so who am I to judge?) should not be fed or petted because they need to learn how to survive in the wild. Clearly the deers had not read the signs as they tried to eat Alex's t-shirt then his er, tackle before hunting me down like Arnold Shwarzenegger in the original Terminator movie.

This was a boon for Jess whose deer dislike I have already documented as it was (1) amusing and (2) distracted the attention of the deers away from her.

Anyway.

We all felt that apart from the torii, which are a lot smaller than we expected them to be, the island was a bit of a dud, until we hit the main shopping drag which is filled with all sorts of knick knack shops and street foods.

I had a black sesame soft serve and these terrific little cakes called manju which are shaped like a maple leaf for which Miyajima is famous. Here is a random stranger who has helpfully filmed them being made on miyajima and her eating them.

We saw a guy wearing this t-shirt:

...and we saw the world's largest rice paddle. Alex tried to do one of those shots where it looks like he is holding the paddle but I didn't understand so gave him the thumbs up and it now looks pretty odd.

Alex had a baked oyster which was wrong town.

And one of the souvenir shops had a whole lot of very wrong cat toys. This another example of the strange tension in this country between classy, understated, contemplative gardens/people and incredibly noisy and wacky kitsch which I don't think I will every fully understand but I adore:

A reflection on the trip so far from Jess

With access to a computer for the 1st time in eleven days and a choice between sitting around patting my newly acquired ‘Asahi belly/hips/thighs’ or sharing stories, now may be an appropriate juncture to share little paradoxes and anecdotes from our Japan in July adventure thus far.

Bin watch…
Japan is renowned for its dedication to cleanliness and if godliness is next on the procession line we should really get cracking on expanding the Catholic population here. Pristine streets, trains, minds and hearts. However our traveling troupe has had troubled times when it comes to rubbish disposal, prompting thoughts about writing to the Japanese tourism board and suggesting a ‘bin watch’ program. Maybe a National Bin Day, bin awareness reference groups, even a Walk for Bins? It can’t be left to the hapless tourist any longer to navigate these bin-less cities. As rare as international ATMS and tshirt slogans that have not molested the English language, bins or anything resembling are nowhere. The Japanese commitment to packaging has complicated the problem by increasing the need for public bins further. Thankfully due to no evident national interest in curbing the surplus of plastic bags we have managed with creating bins in our handbags. No, you can’t have mine when I get back. And just in case we wanted to take the law into our own hands and start tagging  (the street word for graffiti for those Gen Xer’s and baby boomers) there are the small and unobtrusive but omnipresent signs reminding us – ‘No Scribbling’.

From my cold dead hands…
Another paradox is the fastidious attention to hand cleansing. After living in the US of A where hygiene freakery peaks and having recently departed the swine flu capital of the world, the Place To Be, my dedication to personal hygiene could well be on its way to an OCD. So imagine by delight with Japan, a country dedicated to sating your hygiene desires with deliciously warm hand towels upon arrival in restaurants. Having suffered a bitter blow on our flight over, where NO hand towel was provided At ALL, I couldn’t ask for more of this nation than daily recompense. (Cress was equally disappointed when she realized that in economy class they don’t hand out socks. We are suing]. So the Warm Hand Towel Movement is alive and well here in ol’ Nippon and using this as a guide, doubled with the  plethora of buttons on the toilets to maximize your experience AND heated toilet seats you would assume that there would be not just one but maybe several types of soaps when you come to that stage in the waste elimination process. Not so much. As the car insurance advertsiement sagely suggests – you can never assume. All you can do is know. And I know this. There is no hand soap provision in Japanese public toilets. Cress has a packet of soap leaves, an utterly useless item in everyday Western life that has quickly achieved stature of cakey gold in these desperate times.

The fried and the feared…
I was raised a vegetarian so I thought I’d seen it all. The highs and lows – the celery and peanut butter Cruskits, the eggplant and bean themed Christmas lunches, the nuances in pumpkin soup recipes and legume love. Vegetarianism in Japan took me on a new roller coaster ride and it hasn’t been without its thrills and spills. As Cress says, this country knows its tofu and the 101 ways you can stylize it for the palate. I could go as far as labeling it ‘extreme vegetarianism’. But I won’t. In line with our other Asian neighbours, the women here do not sport Asahi bellies or bellies at all really. However the dedication to fried food, and of most note – fried vegetables –is something else. Maybe we’ve exposed ourselves to the crass underbelly of this fine nation, the road stop style eating that studious Lonely Planet deliberations would have undoubtedly steered us clear of but if I eat another fried piece of capsicum… As I frequently say, when your plate of food is colour coordinated yellow you’ve probably made some unwise eating choices but this is the dilemma I am now faced with: can you feel consoled when you know underneath there is other colours of the rainbow and maybe a vague nutrient left in your eggplant/pumpkin/potato/asparagus/artichoke? They say never judge a book by its cover and I choose to look beyond the greasy layer of fat on what once were soul foods…My arteries love you too.

A procedural matter…
I don’t think I am pushing it if I say our traveling gang may have graduated with flying colours from the Type A School of Control Freakery and Detail Orientation. Japan is our wonderland. With trains you can set your watch to this country does not do ‘big picture’.  We do of course because we’re amazing, but we also appreciate the finer (read ‘finicky’ if you like – I don’t mind) points to life.

Japan, once again, takes it up a notch. When I arrived at my 2nd ryokan at Koyasan and suggested that just maybe they could bend the rules ever so slightly, pretty-please-just-this-once and delivery my futon and neck-jarring bean bag pillow PRIOR to dinner, I may well have suggested they allow me to stomp all over their wooden floors with this seasons gumboots or roll around on the ground during morning prayer screaming ‘IS IT OVER YET?? (instead of what actually happened where I developed a condition I have termed ‘numb knee’ while weeping on the inside). Getting the bedding out before dinner would have been an extreme breach of procedure, in addition to supporting Western laziness with our weak inclinations for a nana nap. Some would sulk or demand their money back. I appreciated the dedication to procedure and management and hobbled some cushions together and took a nap all the same. I’m not smug about it; it’s just that I am smug about it.

Another predilection that falls roughly into the same category is the attention to you, and only you, when Japanese customer service professionals are working with you. Even though we may be involved in the Special Olympics of communication and not understanding a shared syllable they do not turn away. I noticed this when passing through one of the many railway gates, flashing my expensive JR pass to the attending uniforms. When they are not dealing with other clientele they nod, speak, smile, bow, nod, speak, smile and bow again as I pass through. I am their world for those brief moments and it can lift me up where I belong, no doubt about it. If however they are engaged with another client, I could walk through flashing pictures of Britney Spears nether regions and they would not lift a manicured eyebrow, let alone a gaze to acknowledge me. Customer service 101. As the crime rate is so low and nobody does anything devious like fare evasion (or evil like jaywalking as we’ve also discovered) you have to wonder whether they even care about the ticket or more the engagement – the nodding, the bowing, the smiling… the procedure.

Final thoughts. This tshirt slogan has left me with a lot to ponder…

‘Seagull Screaming. Kiss Her, Kiss Her!’

Okonomiyake

Alex likes a substantial meal. Who doesn't? However, during his work trip he had been eating a lot of very fancy meals of kaiseki which is Japanese haute cuisine and extremely amazing but also rather modest in portions (probably because it is INCREDIBLY expensive). We decided to find something more hearty for him and opted for okonomiyake.

We found a recommendation in Jess' Lonely Planet and set out optimistically to the cab rank. When we explained to the taxi driver where we wanted to go, he was completely non-plussed. I really pushed the limits of my nascent Japanese and managed to explain that it was a restaurant and showed him where it was on the map of Hiroshima. He even tried phoning them but the number in the guide seemed to be wrong.

So I then rocked out a bit of "Where would you recommend for okonomiyake?" and he took us to presumably his favourite place and said it was number one (Ichiban!) so we walked up to the door with enthusiasm. There was quite a lot of people outside and I asked them whether they were waiting and they said "kekko" which is a terrifically useful word which means something like "not necessary" so we hunkered down and it wasn't long until a guy came out and gave us an English menu and shepherded us into a waiting area. If there's one thing Japanese restaurants know, it's how to make you feel like your waiting is GOING somewhere.

We chose a veritable feast from the menu including edamame, a spring onion pancake for appetizer and a version of okonomiyake each. Three of us chose the "Most popular" which was basically "with the lot" and Jess chose the corn and bacon version. The menu indicated that all versions except Jess' came with pork and bonito flakes but not Jess' because hers had bacon.

The chefs cooked on a hotplate in the restaurant so we could see what they were doing. The food was fantastic and Alex was a happy man.

Hiroshima

We finally left Kyoto today and made our way to Hiroshima. The train ride was easy from Kyoto and required just one change at Shin Osaka.

We arrived uneventfully and checked into our hotel - the Granvia which is right in the Hiroshima Station. Such a relief. Hiroshima has a tram that services the city and goes all the way down to Miyajima which are the red gates in the water which are often pictured in relation to Japan.

We caught the tram down to the Peace Park and looked first at the Hiroshima dome which is the only building which survived the dropping of the atomic bomb.

The Peace Park and the various museums and memorials in it are very beautiful and poignant but word to the wise: bring tissues. One of our party opted out entirely because it was just so damn emotional.

The paper cranes and the children's memorial were particularly sad:

 

People put thousands of paper cranes at the memorial every week or send them - they even catalogue them there so they can keep track of them.

The memorial below contains the names of all the victims in a box with the words "rest peacefully for we shall not repeat the evil," and you can see the flame through the memorial which will burn until there are no more nuclear weapons in the world.

 

It was all very emotional but I'm glad I went and saw it.

Kyoto - final night at ZuZu

For our final night in Kyoto, we went to a fantastic izakaya in the Pontocho area called ZuZu. Outside it looked alarmingly kitschy and touristy. When they said it would be a 10 to 20 minute wait, we were a little uncertain whether it would be worth it but we popped into one of the hundreds of nearby bars and had a cocktail before making our way back.

When we returned, there was still no table available and the waiter blushed bright red and bowed lower than I've seen anyone else bow so we felt compelled to wait. Happily, inside it was actually a lovely izakaya and had absolutely fantastic food. We had Korean pancakes, fried chicken, tempura, and slow cooked pork ribs. We also had this fantastic Japanese apricot brandy type drink which I wish I had managed to get the name for (I just pointed to the kanji on the menu and crossed my fingers)!

If you are looking for it, it's very hard to describe where it is. Basically the Pontocho is one long street of bars and restaurants. It is on the main part of Pontocho. If you are coming from the end of the Pontocho with big gates, you need to keep walking until you hit a small park - it's a little way past there on your left.

Inari and Nara

Today we went to Inari which is a Shinto shrine that focuses on foxes. It is one of the quintessential images of Japan with its hundreds of vermilion torii.

It is so beautiful and even more so in real life.
Some school girls asked us if they could take a photo with us (which is the second time that has happened). They were totally kawaii.

We then went to Nara which is the home of the Todaiji Temple which is the largest wooden building in the world and has one of the largest Buddhas in the world. The part where it is housed contains about 1200 deer which run free.

The 1300th anniversary of the temple is approaching and they have a rad mascot called Sentokun which seems to be a sort of a deer boy. He appears all over the place in various poses. I have now read online that everyone in Nara hates the mascot because it is so weird and profoundly not cute. They are trying to promote a rival mascot called Manto-kun. Check out here for the debate. The pics of the "real life" version are even more disturbing.

Jess was not a big fan of the deer but liked them from a distance in a Buddhist manner. However, I’m a huge rap for them and think we should get some for Melbourne.

Deer just generally loving being alive...

The temple itself is massive

This is a pic of the massive Buddha which does not do its size justice. It is so immense.

Some kawaii deer toys:

And kawaii deer turd chocolates...