I lived in Osaka after I graduated from MIT for about five years and I liked it here. At the time I thought it was time to move back home, and it probably was, but I miss it too. I do remember always being broke when I lived here but somehow I managed to save about $12,000US which I immediately blew on trying to get into medical school. That was a bit of a mistake. I should have had more fun while I was here and I shouldn’t have wasted my timeAnyway, we’re staying at the “Hearton Hotel” which is a reputable hotel with a questionable name. This is not to be confused with the “Heart-In” which is a chain of convenience stores that are usually located in JR train stations.

One thing I’m going to miss when I get back is all the salad for breakfast. We pre-bought a bunch of breakfast tickets where I get all-I-can-eat breakfast buffet for ¥1000. Too bad I haven’t been that hungry in the morning for the past few days.

My aunt (my mom’s older sister) is out from Yamaguchi Prefecture and we were also joined by Mrs. Takanaka, my sort-of-aunt, (my aunt’s late husband’s younger sister) and we had a traditional Japanese lunch at the 16th floor of the Daimaru department store. Here’s the plastic display outside of the restaurant.

And here’s my lunch.

And here’s my mom’s lunch.

We went to Yodobashi Camera again to do some shopping for my mom and everyone else (not for my sister this time) and I thought I’d get a picture of the sign in one of the elevators:

Oh, and before I forget, my mom and I decided to kill some time by having a cup of coffee. A tiny cup of coffee. A tiny $7 cup of coffee.

I spent the rest of the afternoon getting to Maeda Cycle, where I spent a few hours talking with Kozou Maeda who runs the shop. It doesn’t sound like the financial situation in Japan is all that much better than it is in the states. I got back and had dinner with my mom and my aunt and there’s my 12th day here.

One of the reasons we were at the Kawasaki’s so long was to see their daughter Sho, but Sho’s daughter Kei caught the H1N1 influenza and Dr. Kawasaki forbade the rest of their family from coming just in case they were still in the contagious incubation period. Dr. Kawasaki is a bit paranoid and makes everyone coming to his house use an alcohol hand cleaner and gargle with some awful tasting stuff. It didn’t seem to help him much, because he has a cold now that he can’t seem to shake.

Sho and her daughter Yuu were going to stay overnight, but since that was nixed by Dr. Kawasaki Sho, her husband, and her daughter Yuu got in their car for a quick visit at the mall. Dr. Kawasaki was even against this idea but no one was showing any signs of the ‘flu and we all figured that just being out in public exposed us to all sorts of people who have come in contact with the ‘flu. They made a 3+ hour drive down to see us and we ate at the incredible sushi-on-a-track restaurant in the mall. On the plus side of all this nonsense, I hadn’t seen Sho’s husband since he came to visit us in Oregon sixteen years ago and I got to see him again because of this crazy car trip.

Here’s a picture of all of us with the facemasks that Dr. Kawasaki insisted we wear.

We got back to the Kawasaki’s house and I crammed all my crap into my suitcase, which required kneeling on the bag. My sister requested one of two Uniqlo puffy jackets, and they got her both of them and boy do those take up a lot of space. We rushed off to catch an earlier train than we were initially planning to take and had no troubles getting to Osaka a little early.

We wandered around looking for dinner and went to the restaurant floor of Yodobashi Camera where there were long lines for a lot of the restaurants, including the omuraisu restaurant we were looking for. Omuraisu is fried rice wrapped in egg like an omelette, and both my mom and I hadn’t had one in years. Plus this was the first chance we had in ten days to eat a meal that didn’t include a pile of sashimi. My mom had an “SS” (super small 2-egg) omuraisu with mentaiko. I had an “S” (small 3-egg) omuraisu with a pork cutlet on top and hayashi rice sauce. Hayashi rice, or hashed beef, is an interesting flavor I haven’t tasted since I was working in Japan that is kind of like burned or carmelized ketchup. Anyway, it was pretty good.

After dinner we bought the usual silly t-shirts from my favorite Japanese t-shirt shop and I got a few for myself and a couple for my sister.

I just realized I haven’t gotten anything for my brother-in-law. I wonder what he wants.

It was another beautiful fall day here and maybe even a bit too warm. Most everyone is wearing long sleeves and fall clothing even though it was in the 20’s today. I’d say it was probably in the low 70’s if we’re talking about degrees Fahrenheit and the weather report said it was 75°F. It was another rest day though we did go shopping a couple of times. The mall near the Kawasaki’s house has most everything I would want to buy, though that’s not going to stop me from going shopping for other weird crap in Osaka and Tokyo. I have to make my pilgrimage to Akihabara after all, to the gadget stores under the train tracks.

I’m not sure of how much I really weigh because I’m usually using rickety old bathroom scales, but I do know that the expensive-looking scale at the hot spring that I went to on my third day here said I weighed 75kg in the morning (just over 165lbs). The bathroom scale at the Kawasaki’s says I weigh 76kg or so but the bathroom scale at home said I weighed 163lbs the last time I checked. That was when I was going out for cheeseburgers with Sean quite regularly, so I’m not sure what it all means other than that it’s increasing my mistrust of bathroom scales.

Of course, I have been sitting around a whole lot and spending most of my non-sitting time eating. Plus I’ve been drinking more than I usually do.

The only disaster of the day is only one in my mind. I’m expecting that my trustworthy contractor left the windows open since before the recent rain/windstorm and my even more trustworthy sister hasn’t gone to check on the house yet. When I left on a Wednesday, she said she’d check on the house on Sunday. I knew that didn’t mean four days in the future, but whatever Sunday was just before my return home. Apparently the contractors left the outside light on for some reason as well and I’m not sure what else they’ve done. I’m hoping they refinished the stairs, because that’s what they were supposed to do while I’m gone. I’m not going to worry about it now, because there isn’t anything I can do about it until I get back anyway. If it’s really bad I can just sell the Uniqlo jackets I’m bringing back for her on ebay or something. That’ll pay for some light bulbs, anyway.

Not much happened today. We went shopping a couple, but mostly for food. I ended up buying a new Kurutoga pencil (one my sister already has) and looked for something she asked for: a multi-pencil with several different leads, 0.3mm, 0.5mm, and 0.7mm. I got her one last year, I think, but she wanted me to see if there are any better ones. I bought the pencil and the notebook to start thinking about how to redo the downstairs bathroom.

The main problem here is that Dr. Kawasaki has a cold and so does Mrs. Kawasaki. There’s a good chance we’re all going to come down with the same cold in the next few days. All the mask wearing, hand disinfecting, and gargling didn’t stop them from catching a cold and I doubt it will help us either. The other weird thing is that no one coughs into their arm here. They all cough straight into their hands and don’t think much about it.

The H1N1 influenza, or the “shingata virus” (new-type virus) is spreading here as well. We were expecting the Kawasaki’s daughter Sho to come to visit with their granddaughter Yuu, but their other granddaughter Kei caught the ‘flu and Dr. Kawasaki has told them all not to come even though she’s been better for several days. You’d think his specialty was communicable diseases and not otolaryngology. From what I understand, Mieko’s husband Dr. Kobayashi (an endocrinologist) is much less worried about the H1N1 virus.

In any case, I doubt we’re going to do all that much tomorrow, either, but Sunday we’re off to Osaka for three nights and then I’m off to Tokyo for a night before I head home.

No matter what my sister says, no matter how much she threatens me in email, I know that she’s all about the shopping. Sure she’ll go sightseeing, but only if it’s on the way to the store.

We went to Kanazawa today, which is only about 45 minutes from Toyama where we’re staying with the Kawasakis. Kanazawa (or a suburb) is where Hideki Matsui of the New York Yankees is from, and also has the famous Kenrokuen Garden that is one of the three most beautiful gardens of Japan (they like making lists here). It was part of the castle there and has been open to the public since 1875. I didn’t take all that many pictures of the trees or plants. That’s my dad’s life, not mine. I’m more likely to take pictures of the little old ladies picking the leaves out of the garden to make the garden more picturesque.

I did take a couple of pictures of them preparing the trees for winter. It snows pretty heavily on this side of Japan and the tree limbs are tied to a central post to keep them from breaking under the weight.

They’re just tying up the trees now both at the garden and in Toyama.

The gardens were part of the castle but were outside of the gate. The gate and castle walls are all that remain, but they’re pretty impressive and are undergoing a renovation right now.

After an expensive tourist-trap lunch, we went to a Ninja Temple, which really had nothing to do with the Ninja but had lots of hiding spaces and trickery. We also went to a shopping street which wasn’t that great, but are rapidly disappearing in Japan. The smaller stores in the central parts of town are going out of business unless they relocate to the large shopping malls that are becoming the norm.

So we did do some shopping, so the day wasn’t a complete loss in my sister’s measure of things. I ended up in a couple of goofy shops looking at traditional Japanese candies and foods that I found a bit dull, but I’m sure it was better than dragging my mom and her friends to another electronics store.

My mom complains that traveling with my sister is a big shopping spree. I’ve found this to be pretty true. She’d rather go shopping than go sightseeing. I like both and today we went up into the mountains to see the old villages of Gokayama and Shirakawa-gou which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

It’s a wonder that people can make a living up there and that’s probably why they charge you every time you turn around. Park in the middle of nowhere? 500 yen. Look inside the house? 1000 yen. There was a walking tunnel several thousand yards long that led to a four story elevator that got you from the parking lot down to the tiny village and someone had to pay for that, too. I know, it was taxes and the public works machine of the Liberal Democratic Party. I’m actually a big fan of public works, so I might as well enjoy them while I can, right?

Here’s a view of the village from above.

It was set in a pretty valley and I had to take some touristy pictures that may end up as my desktop.

Or is this one better?

You had to walk a ways to get down to the village.

And the houses were quite unique with thickly thatched roofs.

The houses are built for the snow, and I think the scaffolding is for snow barriers.

In case you were wondering if the houses looked flammable:

The way there was pretty uninteresting, unless you really like tunnels and the longest one we went through was 11km long (around 7 miles). We also were on the highest point in the Japanese expressway system. It was a lot nicer taking the surface roads that wound around the valleys to access all the dams they built as other parts of the public works projects.

We were able to stop on the narrow road because there was a parking lot for a pay phone.

After that we headed to Takayama in Gifu Prefecture. The old part of town was only about as long as two 100m city blocks (the long blocks in downtown Portland) and were full of tourists. The stores sold a combination of traditional crafts and usual touristy trinkets and I only bought what I could eat. I had several types of rice dumplings, which is probably what I’m going to look like before I get back. We also had some really bad coffee but I figure that’s what you get for drinking coffee in a tourist trap.

There were lots of foreign tourists in Takayama as well, though I couldn’t hear any American accents in the mix. I did hear Italian, German, and – I think – British. I’m wondering if the foreign contingent isn’t there because of the headquarters of Mahikari-kyo, one of the “new” Japanese religions.

We hit the tunnels on the way back as well, but I ended up falling asleep until we got out. As you can see, the mountains were still a little cold, though it is in the 20’s (in Celsius) in town.

The picture is a little funky, but that’s what you get when you take two pictures from a moving car and try to stitch them together.

I’m still hanging around with my mom and her friends and we made our way to a farmer’s market this morning. They were giving away half a Chinese cabbage (hakusai) for the first 200 people. I’m wondering if they didn’t have a lot more to give away because we got there late and the five of us got a total of 4 1/2 cabbages.

The farmer’s market was a little smaller than I’m used to in Oregon.

The prepared food is quite different than what we get, too. For example, there was no taco truck.

They were also selling cookies, or something like cookies. Anyone for some raisirn or frullers?

I’ve been eating like a pig since we got here, and a lot of it has been fruits and vegetables. The other item I’ve been ingesting a lot of is happoshu, or the stuff that looked like cheap but not very tasty beer when I was here last year. Turns out it’s what I’d consider beer, but it’s not taxed like beer because they make it with less malt and most of the stuff I tried last year was pretty unexciting. “Koku no Jikan” is actually pretty tasty, and is mixed with barley spirits. Here’s an example picture of how much I’ve been eating, though this wasn’t just me.

It’s a good thing we got lost on the way to the farmer’s market. It was further than we thought and I, for one, needed the exercise on the way back.

We also went shopping for random stuff today. I think I’m going to end up with a few more office supplies and computer doodads. Today I just bought a USB memory stick, not because it was interesting, but because it was surprisingly cheap. I guess no one trusts Sandisk here. I also started getting more items on my sister’s “list” including Blood Orange flavored lip balm.

Oh, and here’s some proof that it got real cold here. It’s supposed to be up in the upper 60’s tomorrow, but it snowed in the mountains. Here’s a really bad picture of a mountain with some snow. I don’t know how I took such a bad picture, other than lack of practice.

The only other excitement I had was the long-distance call I made to VISA this morning. I had to explain to them that, yes, I spent $1 at Amazon (plus $25 in a gift certificate for some toothbrushes), and yes I spent $21 at Dove Vivi for pizza. I mean, really? They stopped my account for that?

Yesterday it was 80°F until the middle of the day but it started raining and the temperature dropped. Today it’s 18°F cooler, and it’s about 40°F tonight. Add to this the pouring rain and we have the makings for it to be absolutely miserable outside. I didn’t do much today but catch up with some more of my mom’s friends. We did make it to the shopping center nearby where I searched for some shiso flavored Coke which was only on sale earlier this year. I also saw some premade coffee in the cooler cases here. The first I thought was St*rbucks.

I figured it was an imitation and looked at the Lipton branded premade coffee that looked even stranger:

It says “EXTRASHOT” but all I saw was the “TRASH” in the middle.

So what happened to yesterday’s post? I guess I thought I hit the “publish” button and just fell asleep. All the editing of photos and posting must have been lost. Oh, well.

So let me try to recreate what I did the two earlier days (Friday and Saturday). I spent most of the time in the back of a car, getting from Maebashi to a Japanese hot spring on Friday, and then from the hot spring to Toyama where we’re going to spend most of a week and I’m going to be doing much of nothing while my mom hangs out with her friends.

We started out Friday going to the Gunma prefectural office looking for a display of kokeshi dolls that my mom saw on TV. Unfortunately, they were somewhere else, though we did see them eventually since they were on the way to where we were having lunch. Some of the dolls were some pretty modern interpretations of a traditional art form and nothing that I really would want to display at home though my dad would have bought something, I’m sure. I didn’t get a picture of any of the dolls but here’s a picture from the top of the prefectural building, 17 stories up.

The picture faces the mountains we drove into. I had no idea which direction we were going most of the time. Lunch was soba somewhere seemingly far away and up a ways, but the food was worth the trip.

That’s my mom’s friend Mieko on the left and my mom on the right. We continued the trip and made a stop at Mieko’s apple tree. I guess she owns one tree in this apple orchard. I should have taken a picture of a Japanese apple. They’re really sweet and about the size of a grapefruit.

After that it was off to the hot springs where I spent a lot of time soaking in the large public baths, where we met Dr. Kobayashi, Mieko’s husband. I think it’s been nearly 20 years since I’ve seen him. It really is relaxing sitting in a pool full of hot water. I wish I could have taken a picture of the various baths, but this isn’t the blog you want if you’re looking to see a bunch of naked middle-aged Japanese men. I bet google could help you out if that’s your preference. In any case, in a Japanese hot spring you usually wash yourself off outside of the bath and then soak for a while, wash yourself again and soak for some more. There were a series of baths inside and a couple of outdoor baths where you could stand and look at the rapids below and the sound of the rushing water was an added soothing feature. I also forgot to take pictures of the food we ate because I was busy doing what most people do at a Japanese hot spring: relaxing.

The next day we were off to see Sho Shimomura and her family. Sho is the eldest daughter of the Kawasaki’s, where I’m spending most of my time this trip. I’ve seen Sho and the Kawasaki’s fairly regularly, but I hadn’t seen her husband Atsushi since their eldest daughter was 1 1/2. She’s 17 or 18 now so it’s been a while. It’s also the first time I got to visit their famous house in the rice fields. I didn’t see much of it, but I think it’s pretty large. Before we got to the house we visited Yasuhiko Jinja, a Shinto shrine, which was busy with a Chrysanthemum festival and 7-5-3 celebrations.

That’s my mom and the Shimomura’s younger daughter.

And again with the Chrysanthemums.

After the visit to the Shimomura’s house, it was off to the Kawasaki’s in Toyama. The other two weird things I saw that day were an interesting t-shirt and a cow truck. I wanted to get my minimal Halloween fix at Baskin & Robbin’s by buying some pumpkin ice cream and I saw a t-shirt that I thought was oddly appropriate for Halloween.

And here’s the cow truck.

For some reason the cows were all sideways to the direction of travel and lighted up. I dunno. It’s Japan.

Spent most of the day just kind of hanging around, which I don’t mind. We went shopping for clothes at Uniqlo, which is sort of a Japanese Old Navy but even cheaper, but I didn’t do much otherwise. We started filling my sister’s shopping list with a couple of jackets, a bunch of long underwear, and other stuff, and all I bought for myself were pajamas.

It’s boring, but I’m in Japan, and I’m not at work. I think that’s still a positive situation for me.

I’ve spent most of the past two days in the back of a car and now I’m trying to stay awake. Yesterday we went from Maebashi to a Japanese hot spring with a stop at the prefectural government building and their spectacular view.

We also had a stop for soba for lunch somewhere in the mountains in between stops at lakes, viewpoints, and other mountaintop recreational areas.

We also made a stop to see our friend’s single apple tree (the one right behind my mom).

We got to the hot springs in the afternoon and I don’t have any pictures because I was too busy relaxing. We went with my mom’s friend Mieko and were met by her husband, Dr. Kobayashi who I haven’t seen in 18 years. He’s usually too busy to get away from his doctoring. I wish I had pictures of the baths because it’s so relaxing taking a bath and then soaking in a pool of hot water. Unfortunately, there were lots of people around and I’m not about to post a picture of a bunch of naked middle-aged Japanese men. This isn’t that kind of blog. The food was pretty good as well but I was still too busy relaxing to take a picture of the food.

I was in the back of Mieko’s car for a second day while we made our way to the Kawasaki residence in Toyama. We made some stops to see friends and also Yasuhiko Jinja.

In any case, I can’t believe how tired I am for just having sat in the back of a car for two days. I guess I’d better cut this short before I end up passing out.

However, here’s a picture of a girl’s shirt with some fine examples of Engrish which I thought was appropriate for Halloween.

Plus some cows in the back of a transport truck. They probably couldn’t fit on the Japanese version of Greyhound.

Pardon my incoherence, but it’s 11:30PM here in Japan, and I just got back from dinner. That means it’s 7:30AM at home and I’ve been up since 7:30AM yesterday with a few naps during the day. I didn’t sleep that well last night, either. I’m pretty beat. After the flight we got on a bus for 3+ hour bus ride to Maebashi and didn’t have dinner until 9:30PM.

We had monjiyayaki for dinner tonight tonight which is similar but not identical to okonomiyaki. I’m used to okonomiyaki because it’s a Kansai thing, but this monjiyayaki is completely new to me. I also had a couple of large-looking beers, but I always think they’re not that strong here though they are very tasty.

And thought you might not be able to tell the difference, here’s an okonomiyaki.

The new NWA (Northwest Airlines, not the rap group) is not an improvement over the old. The planes are smaller and there aren’t any screens in the seatbacks, only the big screens up in the ceiling above the aisles. The headphone jack in the seat arm is one of those funky airline jacks that has two plugs for stereo and plugging in a normal set of headphones just gets sound in one ear. I also think they don’t feed you as often, even though they did have Cup-a-Noodle on demand.

Fortunately, I’m a big geek and brought lots of toys. I did watch the three movies overhead with the help of an airplane headphone jack converter that I’ve been carrying around for years but never used until today. I had my Kindle for reading books and my iPhone for music. The three movies were one I never wanted to see: The Soloist, one I sort of wanted to see: Monsters vs. Aliens, and one I actually wanted to see but shouldn’t admit that: 17 Again. The flight wasn’t that bad. It took 11 hours but it was fairly empty. Got on at 12:30PM, got to Narita around 11:30PM, and then took a bus to Maebashi. Our dinner was in Maebashi, where we’re spending the night.

OK, I’m about done. The funniest Engrish I saw was for a “love hotel” named “First Wood” that was right next to the freeway. More later.