Sayonara to Japan

After almost four months we're leaving for home today (Wednesday) and will arrive in San Francisco Wednesday morning. It has been a wonderful experience to live (and for Bill to work) in another country and learn about and enjoy a new culture. We have traveled around the country, have seen most of Tokyo, and have had confirmed for us that we enjoy city living.

So, goodbye Tokyo from our apartment balcony looking north.

And to the south.

And from the garden

Farewell Dinner

We attended a very enjoyable Farewell Dinner for Bill given by his boss Philip, and with the country manager Jim and other men Bill has worked with at Visa Asia these past few months. The famous Kobe beef that was cooked at our table was more marble than beef - shocking, really, to see all the fat - but absolutely delicious. We washed down all the beef and vegetables with wonderful sake.

Great evening.

What's in a name?

We've seen street signs with more letters than this one, but had a camera to record this 22-letter sign - not as long as supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, but getting close!

Here's another sign lost in translation perhaps a bit - decreptitude jumped out at me as a word not used very often, and on the same sign General Grant's wife is referred to as his frau.

Beautiful Hama-riku Gardens

Just a hop, skip and a jump from our apartment we spent our last Sunday in Japan at the gardens shown here (our apartment house is the second from the left distant high rise). It was threatening rain, so for the first time in our Tokyo sightseeing we had the gardens almost to ourselves, and they were the most beautiful of all. In the 17th century the gardens were one of the Imperial residences, but have been public since 1945.

There is a 300-year pine still standing and carefully preserved. Some of the double cherry trees were still blooming, and there were azalea bushes in bloom everywhere.

We had tea in the Nakajima-no-ochaya Teahouse, sitting in the exact position as General Grant had tea in 1850. Unfortunately, my head blocks General Grant in the photo behind us. I won't explain how we got out of our sitting positions after we finished our tea!

Later we ate in an Italian restaurant - the best meal we've had in all the time we've been in Japan - in our very own private room. The restaurant is owned by a retired Formula I race-car driver, Alessandro Ninnini. I think he must have come to Tokyo to teach the chefs how to prepare supurb Italian dishes - we had a delicious subtlely-dressed salad, perfectly prepared pasta pomodoro and an exquisite orange/raspberry compote dessert, all enjoyed with a lovely Italian red wine.

All in all, a great last Sunday in Tokyo.

EXTRA 3-hour Train Ride!

Well, after all this time in Japan we finally made a major traveling error yesterday - definitely lost in translation because of our lack of the Japanese language! We were taking the Shinkansen bullet train to Yokohama, rode right past our stop, and had to stay on the train another hour and a half before the next stop at Nagoya! That necessitated another hour and a half return to Yokohama. We took advantage of our error with a 3-hour nap on a very relaxing and quiet train ride and a closer view of Mt. Fuji.

So we arrived in Yokohama at 1:00p instead of 10:00a, but still had enough time to stroll on the revitalized waterfront and to Chinatown - the largest outside of China except for San Francisco. We were looking forward to a Chinese meal like we have in California, but even in Yokohama Chinese restaurants are owned by Japanese - so our dinner was really Chinese, Japanese-style.

Traveling Exhibit

Today I went to the Tokyo Museum of Modern Art to see a traveling exhibit of a Japanese artist Leonard Foujita , an expat who lived in Paris during the early 1900s. Not only did I go, but the waiting line serpentined for a while, and the exhibit was crowded - but worth the wait and crowds. This artist was friends with Picasso and Modigliani, his work being influenced by them and other Parisian artists of the time.

It has been so interesting during our time in Japan to observe the Japanese and their nationalism and idolatry of famous Japanese people - for example, the artist whose works I saw today and the crowds waiting to view his work - Shizuka Arakawa, the gold medalist in the Olympic ladies figure skating, her success drawing hundreds of little girls to skating rinks trying to learn the "Ina Bauer" spread eagle position - the TV broadcasts of all but only major league baseball games whose teams have Japanese players on their rosters, such as the Mariners and the Yankees. Without a doubt, nationalism is incredibly important in Japan - much more so than I've observed and experienced anywhere else.

Not quite "Lost in Translation"

Even though this sign isn't Lost in Translation it provides some evidence of how difficult it is to learn the English language.

Shabu-shabu

Before we left Tokyo I wanted to eat Shabu-shabu. This is a meal in which all ingredients (paper thin slices of beef and vegetables) are cooked at the table in a nabe, hot pot of water, and eaten from the communal pot. Cooking the food creates tasty broth from the water.

So Philip invited us over for Shabu-shabu last night. Not only did we have beef, but we had chicken and pork, shrimp and fish, and a ton of beautiful vegetables for an incredible feast. It was great fun to keep adding to the nabe and eating such a variety of food. We had fresh wasabi for the seafood, and two delicious dipping sauces for the meat and vegetables.


Philip lives in the Roppongi area, a lovely 15-minute walk along a promenade, which we also take to get to the symphony hall. This early-evening photo shows the peaceful cherry-blossom-lined walkway.

My overnight in Kahone

While Bill was in Kauai with Andrew and Shawnie, I took an overnight excursion to Kahone, a mountainous hot-spring area that sits on a volcano not active in 4000 years. I took a loop circuit of a bus up the mountain, lots of walking, boating over a lake, several cable cars and cog railway and a return trip on a small railway down the mountain after my overnight at a royokan hot spring spa hotel. I had a thoroughly enjoyable day and night. The area is quite beautiful and very near Mt. Fuji, but the day was cloudy and Mt. Fiji was not visible.

I walked along the shoreline of this lake along an ancient cedar tree path dating to the Edo period of the 1600s, visited a beautiful art museum with magnificent views of the lake, and climbed up a hill to an observatory and park with beautifully manicured trees, then took the boat over this lake and up to the mountain-top here.

Arriving at the top was eerie with the steam pouring out of the mountain.

On to my royokan with a soak in the hot spring, a massage and food unimaginable as to what it was - mostly fish.

On my return trip on the cog rail, I observed an amazing scene. At one stop several people got on the cog car, walked straight across the car and out through the door on the other side. It was such a surprise to see this happen. Obviously there's only one way to get from one side of the cog line to the other - walk through the car when it stops for passengers. I would never have imagined such a set up, but it works!

The question is -- how does one get to Tokyo Opera City?

The answer is - the same way over 1 million people travel every day - through the Shinjuku rail station! I was on my own tonight making my way to the busiest rail station in the world, experiencing commuter culture of literally being shoved tighter and tighter in the train car at each stop so more people could get on in order to get to Shinjuku for transfer to another train. I haven't had much trouble navigating the underground system here, but Shinjuku is another world. After arriving at the station and much walking and wandering, I finally did find the connection I needed but with only a few minutes before a symphony performance.

Bill had to leave Japan in order to re-enter the US before his 90 days were up, so instead of going all the way back to San Francisco he left tonight for Kauai to stay with Andrew and Shawnie before he returns over the weekend. So I met Bill's boss Philip and another gentleman from Bill's office at the symphony - it was worth it - another great Mahler Second. The three of us went out after the symphony for a typical Japanese dinner of Yakitori - skewered grilled meats- had some sashimi and beer too!

Philip and I shared a ride home though - no Metro tonight!