S. Korea / Japan Trip 2008

**************ATTENTION*********************


This trip journal runs in chronological order from bottom to top.

To begin, scroll down to find the first entry,

"View from the Hotel Ibis, Seoul"

and then scroll upwards to view the posts in order.

Click on a photo to view a larger version.

Life in Japan - Bento + Drink Vending Machines

Drink Vending Machines
Ok this I had to add because I just love it and wish it existed in the US. There are drink vending machines like this everywhere - with so many choices - even coffee drinks.

Bento
Bento are portable meals packaged into containers with compartments. They are mainly of the homemade variety for business people or kid's school lunches but you can also purchase them at convenience stores (especially in train stations). There is an art to Bento preparation (like knowing which vegetables have anti-microbial qualities to keep the lunch fresh) and an entire industry of Bento cooking tools and Bento lunch box varieties. This particular bento is one that I enjoyed on the train ride from Tokyo to Koyasan. It was all delicious except the squid tentacle which I left alone.

Life in Japan - Tokyo Subway + Student Groups

Some more notes on life in Japan...

The Subway
The subway and trains in Tokyo are awesome. Every train runs exactly on time and and the stations are clean and safe. It's just an extremely fluid and efficient public transportation system.


But it can get kind of crazy. There are a lot of people... and it can make you feel like an ant marching with the colony... or a sardine packed in a can (check out the second link below). Some videos to illustrate this:

Shinkjuku Station Rush Hour

Sardine Train
(we didn't experience anything like this - this is an old video and they apparently use flex time now to avoid this kind of rush hour packing in)


Student Groups

Large groups of middle school kids (always in matching uniforms) fill lines at sightseeing spots, large square footage of subway station floors, and trains all over Japan. We were often wondering, how can there be so many field trips going on all the time?

Life in Japan- Automated Toilets + Funny English Signs

I want to share a few observations of life in Japan which to foreigners may seem either weird or really awesome.

Automated Toilets
Every hotel we stayed in had a super high tech automated toilet with all kinds of functions. These toilets have an array of bidee features, a deodorizer and a heated seat which you can adjust to different temperatures. Some public toilets have courtesy buttons which make fake flushing noises should you feel the need to cover up any embarrassing noises. The funny thing is that you will find these toilets at every kind of establishment, even McDonald's.



Huh?
Funny English phrases can be found all over the place. Sometimes its odd grammar and sometimes there are entire paragraphs of absurdly used adjectives.
This particular phrase appeared on a billboard in Kyoto "Your good times are just beginning". Are they really?
Here's a site devoted to peculiar English in Japan:
http://www.engrish.com/

Incidentally, this doesn't just happen in Japan. I noticed the same thing in other countries I've visited. English just seems to be used on a lot of packaging and signage around the world and people like to get creative with it.

Ryokan Taiseikan and Trip's End

We had a very relaxing stay at Ryokan Taiseikan. (a Ryokan is a traditional Japanese hotel with tatami mat floors and Kaseki meals)
When we arrived, we were greeted in unison by several Japanese hostesses dressed in Yukata. They were all older women, the type you picture to be Grandmothers or Aunts. We were given a brand new pair of slippers and assigned a hostess (who was our waitress for the in-room meals). She showed us around our room and then served tea.
We put on our Yukata and then took a stroll around the grounds. The hotel was surrounded by naturally occurring hot springs. There were many open air baths built into the rocks. We returned to our room at 6pm for dinner. The meal you see in the picture is just the first course. Our waitress returned four more times with additional courses. The food was all very fresh and artfully prepared. This style of cuisine is called Kaseki in which the presentation of the food is very important. I got to eat many foods I'd never seen or tried before and learned a lot about Japanese cuisine.
After dinner we took a relaxing dip in one of the open air spas in the woods which we reserved earlier. It was sort of a rock waterfall with a lower and upper level and two spa areas. The upper level which was closer to the source of the spring was insanely hot. I couldn't even keep my foot in for more than a few seconds. The lower spa was more tolerable, but we could only withstand about 30 minutes of alternating 5 minutes in/ 5 minutes out. It was so wonderful though, especially just the experience of being out in nature like that.
We reserved a different hot spring bath the next morning, this time in a cedar spa tub (this photo). The custom is to bathe yourself, before you enter the spa, at the faucet (on the ground just out of the photo) by filling the small bucket and dumping it over yourself. There are bottles of shampoo and body wash to use. The tub is overflowing so that it is constantly being filled with fresh water.
When we returned to our room we had another multi-course meal which was very similar to the dinner the night before.



We checked out and returned to Tokyo that morning for the last day and night of our trip in Japan. By that point we were tired of carrying the camera around so I do not have any more photos to share. We spent the afternoon in Shibuya (yay Tokyu Hands!) and the night in Roponggi at a Beatles cover band club. We ended our trip listening to "Blackbird" with a heavy Japanese accent "Brackbird fry..." At 1am, the entire table of older Japanese business men next to us was fast asleep. Most of the bar, however, was cheering and still calling out requests. It was a good time.

Hakone (Mt. Fuji) Ropeway

The next day, we left Kyoto on a Shinkansen bound for Odawara Station which connects by local train to Hakone, the popular resort and hot springs town with views of Mnt. Fuji.
When we arrived at the resort I'd booked it was too early to check in so we left our bags and headed back to the train to see some of the sights around Mt. Fuji.
We took a steep cable car up to the starting point of the Ropeway where we boarded one of the gondolas you see in these photos. The picture on the left is of a valley of sulfer mines which we crossed. It was the highest and the longest ropeway ride I've ever been on. It stops at 3 stations, ending at Lake Ashi. Unfortunately, we were never able to see Mt. Fuji because it was very cloudy and misty at the higher altitude. However, the clouds themselves were an interesting site, the cable seemed to disappear before us and at one point it was a complete white out.

Gion

As dusk approached, we walked toward Gion, the Geisha Quarter, and Pontocho Alley. Pontocho alley is a vary narrow street (the first photo) that runs behind the riverside restaurants (in the second photo). See the geisha walking by me in the alley? We only saw a few geisha while we were in Kyoto - and every time one appeared tourists would jump for their cameras. It was sort of a funny scene. I noticed that when a geisha walked down the street, all eyes were on her, you could tell that she knew but she'd look straight ahead, walk quickly, and then disappear suddenly under a curtain through a doorway.

We wanted to eat on an outdoor deck of one of the restaurants along the river. Their entrances are accessed from Pontocho alley. However, we faced several obstacles in finding one. Every restaurant had a menu entirely in Kanji (japanese characters) without pictures and of the few restaurants with english menus many did not have outdoor seating (they were in the basement). The food was also very expensive.
So we gave up on eating outside, and turned our attention to the other side of the alley. I found a place with one English phrase, "We want you!" and a price list "Fried items on skewers", "6 for $12, 8 for $16, 12 for $24". I peaked through the curtain to see about a dozen jovial locals seated around a bar where a handful of chefs were cooking. It smelled good, so we went in. We were greeted with the customary welcome and given seats at the bar. It turned out to be a fabulous choice for dinner - a series of tasty things battered and fried on a stick such as mushroom, shrimp, pork, etc. We watched the chefs prepare everything and then advise us as to which sauce we should pair the item with "soy sauce, peanut sauce, just lemon, or no sauce". It was really fun! We were instructed that when we were full and had a large enough collection of left over skewer sticks we should tell the chefs "stop!" otherwise the food would keep coming. Apparently "stop" wasn't just for us, all of the customers said "stop" in English and made an x-shaped hand gesture when they were done and wanted the check.