Japan

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TOKYO, JAPAN:  Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2001 22:01:07

We just wanted to tell you that we got to Tokyo safely.  It's an enormous city with a lot of things to do!  Today we woke up at 5 a.m. (jetlag) and went to Tsukiji fish market- it's a huge fish market with more strange sea creatures than we've ever imagined.  We had fresh sushi for breakfast- by fresh, we mean that it was just fished this morning and brought to the market- the stall where we ate sold fish and sushi- it was very simple, and had a sort of sushi factory feel to it.

We are quickly becoming aware of how we stick out as tourists.  We are the only ones wearing shorts in all of Tokyo, and probably two of 5 non-Japanese in the area, it seems.  We went to a teahouse in Hama Rikyu garden in the Ginza area.  We had a bowl of foamy green tea and a little red bean cake.  

The woman who served it to us sat on her knees and bowed to us.  We were sitting cross-legged, and we did not know how to respond- it was too late to bow back, we weren't sitting right.  We also didn't know how to eat the cake- it was served with a sharp toothpick and a napkin, so we tried to skewer the bun on the toothpick and bring it to our mouths but it was pretty obvious that we were confused.  When another woman walked in and had tea we spied on her and found out that we were indeed clueless, clumsy tourists.  We had a great time!

Tomorrow we will be going to Mt. Fuji and then off to Kyoto.

TOKYO, JAPAN: Date: 22 Sep 2001 (received 1 Oct 2001 via snail mail in a beautiful envelope sealed with a red and white ribbon)

We went to sleep for a nap last night at 6 p.m. and the next thing we know, it's 4 in the morning and we're wide awake!  I'm sure we'll figure out this jet lag thing soon enough. We are having a great time, and we both agree that Japan is a good place to ease into traveling -- very easy to get around, all the amenities, no food worries, but few people speak English fluently, and we're really brushing up on our skills of pantomime.  One especially strange thing is that the subways play a little classical melody that sounds like an ice cream truck song as long as the doors are open. Quite strange...

It's still hard to believe that we are really going to be gone for 10 months, but I think we're getting used to it.

MT. FUJI, JAPAN: Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2001 03:08:45

We spent last night in Hakone, a resort area near Mt Fuji.  We had a nice time and enjoyed being out of the city for a day.  We took a boat tour on Lake Ashi, and to our chagrin, the boat resembled a medieval pirate ship from Never Never land.   It was nice, but a little silly.

Today we took a tram ride up to a beautiful vista point overlooking Mt Fuji.  We had our first Around-the-World travel experience.  sharing the tram with us was a Japanese couple who did not speak English. The woman began telling us about the area (we think) in Japanese, and we just shook our heads.  The only thing we figured out was that bouka bouka is the noise boiling water makes in Japanese (there were sulfur hot springs in the area). We got off the tram after 15 minutes of discussing the scenery with our hands and went our separate ways.  All of a sudden, the woman reappeared, and showed us a box.  After more charades we found out it was a magic box. Next thing we know, she gives us the box and says goodbye.  We tried to refuse but there was too much bowing and here we were with a gift.  So we ran into the gift store and bought a set of sake cups with pictures of Mt. Fuji to give to the couple, but they disappeared.  we spent much of our time in the area looking for the couple and enjoying the view. 

We are now in Kyoto, and will spend the next three days here, exploring a variety of temples.  

KYOTO, JAPAN: Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2001 05:32:09

We are doing well and having a great time.  We are in Kyoto, the cultural center of Japan. We have been seeing temples and shrines non stop until we couldn’t walk anymore. They are very beautiful,  especially in real life!  if you make it to Japan, we highly recommend coming to Kyoto -- it is worth the trip.

While many of the youth hostelers have Lonely Planet books, we find that walking around aimlessly takes us very far. There are things to see on every corner!  Today we saw a temple called the Golden Pavilion -- its top two stories are covered in gold leaf, inside and out.  It is quite amazing to see.

Other than that, we explored the more mainstream everyday area of Kyoto. The streets are full of people and it is hard to believe that there is a recession in Japan.  The streets are so crowded it is hard to move.  We went into a few Japanese arcades where we discovered games we have never seen before.  Among the favorites are simulation games -- onscreen the player can see a cartoon image of himself and on another is another character.  The player is to follow the movements of the character and his image moves according to the player’s movement.  The point is to basically dance like the professional dancer on the screen.  It is hard to explain but it looks fun (the people who actually played these games really looked like they knew what they were doing -- we were too embarrassed to try!)

Today we found out that we have been doing everything wrong. We read the Frommer's Japan guide and found out that blowing your nose is a huge faux pas, which is difficult when all you eat are noodle soups.

We are going to run out of time soon, so this will be it for a while.  We will be in China on the 27th.  We have more stories, but its hard to write them quickly on the Japanese keyboard.