Japan V2, July
- 15 hours ago
- 9 min read
It’s probably a good idea we waited a year and a half in to this trip to visit Japan. Had we come here at the beginning it would have been unfair to all of the other countries and would have jaundiced our every view towards other places in the world. Japan is special.
I already miss the heated bidets.
For more random musings and drivel, make your way past the pictures.
The beauty of travel - friends!
Osaka
Hiroshima / Miyajima Island
Back in Kyoto and Osaka with Bill
Nagasaki
Kumamoto - Beppu
Kochi
Yokohama
Japan in July
Dick and Kristine left us in Osaka and we quickly hopped on the train to Hiroshima. Hiroshima is much more than the site of one of the worst bombings in world history…it is a beautiful port city that has been almost completely rebuilt over the past half century+. Much of the tourist draw revolves around the history and aftermath of the bombing, but there are a lot of additional draws that can fill up a few days. The museum and memorials are poignant and sad and hopeful, similar to the Holocaust Museum - hideous reminders of the horrors and resilience of people. We spent about a week in Hiroshima, lazy traveling to everything from the Mazda Zoom-Zoom Stadium to catch a Toyo Carps baseball game to Itsukushima Island to see the Itsukushima Jinja Floating Shinto Shrine (the pics with the bright red shrine standing in the water) and to Okonomimura, a building housing multiple floors of Hiroshima style Okonomiyaki stalls (the pic with the slinger with the eggs on top). I was slightly bummed that we didn’t go to this place until near the end of the week or else we would have been there every night…the next time you get into an argument about Okonomiyaki, Hiroshima style is better than Tokyo (noodles vs. rice), unless Saki and Yuta are cooking for you! I’m sure we did other things while in Hiroshima but the thoughts of Okonomiyaki have clouded my mind a little. It actually took me five weeks into Japan to be able to successfully pronounce this word without looking like a bad foreign film.
After Hiroshima we went back to Kyoto for another big treat - our StL friend Bill planned a trip over with his son Nick (another super genius that is working on a PhD in math or AI or something nerdy like that) so we got to spend a quick week with them and Bill’s school friend Mark, who lives and teaches at a university outside Kyoto/Osaka. We did a few different things in Kyoto from the previous week we spent there in June, including Saitoji, a wonderfully beautiful Zen Garden/Meditation Retreat that I strongly recommend. BTW, it’s really tough to be all Zenful when you’re trying not to smack the hell outta someone talking loudly on their phone…I obviously need more practice Zenning. One paid visit wasn’t enough to gain enlightenment, apparently. We also went to one each of the most expensive sushi and tempura restaurants I’ve ever been to. The tempura restaurant was like a Michelin curated restaurant, where each piece was artfully presented and delicately placed. I wasn’t sure about Michelin quality fried food, as they still don’t serve onion rings, but it was remarkable and well worth the money. We also got to stay in Mark’s AirBnB in Kyoto for the week - if you go to Kyoto message us and we’ll put you in touch. We tried to find a way to ‘overstay’ our welcome there because it was so nice (and had a washer/dryer that wasn’t a hotel shower stall) but we got kicked out as soon as Bill left - friendship only gets you SO far - haha. It was also cool to be out of a hotel and in a REAL house for a few days!
Next we did one of our favorite activities and rented a car for a couple of weeks. Renting a car in Japan is a little tougher than most countries simply because you have to have an International DL to get the car, but it’s easier than most countries to drive in, as the roads and infrastructure are excellent and the drivers are possibly the most courteous in the world. For comparison sake, I’d say the roads are similar to German quality, vastly superior to the US, and you don’t ever worry about someone cutting you off for sport.
We drove south and ended up in Nagasaki for a few days, which is the site of the 2nd Atomic bomb in WWII. Like Hiroshima, the memorials are painful to see and experience but beautifully and thoughtfully focused, now, on reaching a peaceful nuclear-weapon-free world. Nagasaki also had, possibly, the best pizza in the world, oddly enough. One of the things you don’t hear a lot of is that there aren’t the preservatives and chemicals in agriculture so food generally just tastes cleaner and fresher. That, and the Japanese precision and attention to detail shines through with almost every dish you eat. Anyway, the pizza was amazing and I went back twice…every once in a while you have to chuck the sushi and have some good ole 'American' comfort food :).
After Nagasaki we drove to Kumamoto, home of one of the top three, if not the top, castle in all of Japan. Also, Miyamoto Musashi spent the last few years of his life in this castle a few hundred years ago, so it holds special significance to martial arts nerds…read “Salinas” as that nerd. Kumamoto was rocked in 2016 by a monster earthquake that severely damaged the castle and city and large sections were still being rebuilt when I toured it. Sadly, four days after we left Kumamoto the city was devastated again by an almost identical earthquake. It was a little unnerving reading the reports since the hotel we stayed in (on the 22nd floor) was one of the tallest buildings in the city. Notably, in Kumamoto, we went to the same restaurant FOUR freaking nights in a row! We haven’t had good Mexican food since, of all places, Dubai, so we set up a residency in this poor ladies restaurant. I think they thought we were crazy stalkers but then they heard me pronounce “mole” correctly and knew we were the real deal. I am starting to think this trip is turning into a 600 day food tour more than a sightseeing trip…my waistline is definitely agreeing with that assessment.
From Kumamoto, we drove to Beppu, through the active Mt. Aso volcano area. The volcano was smoldering and smoking but we couldn’t get close due to a recent helicopter crash that closed the trails down, ugh, but the surrounding countryside was beautiful. The area around the volcanic range, including Beppu, is famous for its hot springs. Going back hundreds of years, Japanese have visited hot spring baths, ‘Onsens’, to rest, recuperate and film nekkid Yakuza fight scenes in martial arts movies. I’m not a lover of baths to begin with, but wife is really big into the whole ‘cleanliness’ thing, so she likes to go. Personally, I’d rather sit poolside under the sun, but the hot springs in Japan are beautiful…sort of like Arkansas, but beautifuler. I think we could have stayed in Beppu much longer - it’s a part of Japan that doesn’t see a lot of American tourists since it’s so far south, but for me it was one of the most gorgeous parts of Japan…and that’s saying a LOT.
Leaving Beppu, we took the ferry (Highway 197) to Shikoku Island, and found our way to the Iya Valley, which really reminded me of the beauty of Colorado. It was a crystal clear river running through a gorge in the middle of the island - stunning - so we went for a swim.
The north of the island, Naruto, is famous for one of the coolest natural phenomena I’ve seen, the Naruto Strait Whirlpools. Because of the tidal waters and the narrow straits, there are massive whirlpools that form continuously. The bridge that connects the island with the mainland is directly on top of the pools and has a great viewing area, as do the many boat tours that take you directly on top of the pools. At certain times of the day/month/year, the whirlpools can reach 60 meters across - fascinating and powerful to see.
Our final stop in Japan was just south of Tokyo, in Yokohama. Yokohama is a beautiful and modern port city but basically a suburb of Tokyo - a suburb with almost 4 million people. The biggest draw in Yokohama is the Cup Noodles Museum (joking here!) Dedicated to the memory of the founder of the instant ramen noodle industry. As cheesy as it seemed, we loved it…and we love Cup Noodles, also, so we might be biased a bit. Actually, the highlight of Yokohama was getting to see our new friend Roy, Rieko and that adorable Kai for one more night. We didn’t get many good pics of Kai before he went to bed but I don’t think any could ever top the pics we had of him in the June Japan post. It was one of those traveler goals to meet amazing people but to get invited to a home cooked meal is one of the biggest things we miss from our previous lives. Getting to “sup” with friends in their home is really what humanity should aspire to - it’s where we learn the most about what civilization should be like. What our friends like, the little bits of conversation that you miss in a restaurant. The freedom to open up just a little more. To discuss society and politics( gasp) and aspirations and everything that cursory meetings don’t allow us. That’s what we miss, and that’s what makes this world so big yet so small, also. Our new Japanese friends are the same as our old American and French and African friends - we all want the same things. To be safe and happy. To raise and dote on our (their) kids and love our neighbors and get teased by our friends and talk soccer or F1 and argue over what music is good and what is crap. That’s what makes this trip SO important for us.
Obviously, we loved Japan…tough to overstate how this country and its people lead the world.
Dear Evy and Bob
I think of you often out here, wherever HERE happens to be at any given point in time. But I’ve smiled and thought of you even more since we’ve been in Asia, and specifically Japan. I think you’d both love it here. Like nearly every other place we’ve been in the world, the countryside is beautiful and the people are amazing. And the food…oh, the food!!! You might not like the sea urchin (which I love!) or the pufferfish sake, but they have the best fish in the world and the 2nd best fried chicken (next to Gus’s in StL) and the best steak you'll ever have! I think even your friend, my steak loving father, would agree with this one.
I keep expecting people to treat us poorly, given the way America has treated this part of the world the past century or so. But they don’t. They are generally curious about us as foreigners and seem to be able to separate Americans from America. And most, like the rest of the world, seem to know more about our country and its workings than most Americans do. I suspect that’s due to the vast up and down-stream consequences that every decision America makes affects places in the farthest reaches of the world more than we will ever know. Also, American music. No matter where you go, you hear American music. In some places, like Thailand, that is definitely a blessing, because their music is the theme music for Dante’s 3rd through 5th levels. It really sucks.
Anyway, the reason I think of you more often here is the sense of peace and forgiveness we experience. In the past few months we’ve visited these amazingly horrific sites - My Lay, the Killing Fields, American War sites in Vietnam, the DMZ, and recently the atomic bomb sites in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In each one I’ve cried as we’ve witnessed them and thought about the lives lost or damaged. In each one, we differ on the feelings, Lyd and I. I tend to feel guilty and ashamed and then she reminds me that these were before our time and control, so I take that to heart, but I’m still saddened by the level of death and destruction humans can cause. But in each of these sites, American induced or not, the survivors choose to work for peace and forgiveness and find ways to make the world a better place for the future. Here in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the peace memorials are beautiful, with the focus on reaching a worldwide end to all nuclear weapons. There isn’t a tone of blame about the bombings, at least not to our eyes, but a sense that this is their personal, yet horrific, history and they are intent on moving forward to a path of peace to make the world better. At every memorial I’m reminded of the two of you, always the most kind and forgiving people in my orbit, with the biggest hearts. I think you’d love it here…again, maybe not the sake or the sea urchin, but you would definitely fit in with these beautiful Japanese people.
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