Mom's visit-Friday-Kanazawa

Friday morning came all too quickly after a late Thursday night. After a quick shower and 1000% of my daily vitamin-C intake care of a glass full of "Energen-C" and I was almost ready to face the day. In one way it was a beautiful sunny day, perfect for a day of sightseeing, in another way, it was a SUNNY day too sunny for a man who had consumed a massive amount of alcohol the previous night.

Tomoya and Kaori were kind enough to offer to accompany us to Kanazawa so Mom could see Kenrokuen (a famous garden).

But first! We had to stop and have lunch. At Budoo noki, the grape themed place I had brunch at the previous time I was in Kanazawa with the group.

This time I took pictures!

The buffet area.


Closer view. So much delicious food. Great french fries in the front right corner, and some sugared little toast pieces right behind them. Oishi!

For Mom, flowers outside the door of the resturaunt.


There weren't any grapes on the vine this time (wrong time of year apparently) but there were still vines everywhere.


Shadows on the parking lot pavement. I thought those were either painted on for effect of just cracks in the parking lot at first. Yup, I am a jackass.

And, OF COURSE, I had to have another delicious grape soft serve ice cream cone. but no picture so you will just have to trust me.

Here's a McDonalds that looks like a house. There are tons of this style of McDonalds in Japan.



I just like that it has a second story with windows. Looks like a pretty good place to eat to me. Of course, I think any McDonalds pretty much looks like a good place to eat.

Then we went to the garden.

Here are a bunch of pictures I took of the various parts of the garden area. Very beautiful, very peaceful, very crowded.







A very nice place all around.

Here is an old house. I think it was from the 1700s. I think. Newer Japanese houses, not that different quite frankly.

And just because it makes me laugh, here is Kaori wearing her gypsy scarf again.



After the park, we headed to an old street filled with teahouses.




It was also filled with French people.



But as old as the buildings look, they still have modern amenities like glass behind all of those slats.



Notice my long sleeve shirt. It was about 80 degrees Friday. Awesome!

I also saw a cat hiding in the sewer.



I love sewer cats.


All in all, a very fun day, but I have too much more to type, so I am going to short sell it. After a long day we headed toward the train station


That is a clock fountain. The numbers are formed by water. Pretty cool. Unfortunately, our train was at 6:30 so no time to stop and take a video.

Thursday of Mom's visit

After a very busy Wednesday we had a slightly more relaxing Thursday. We were supposed to have dinner that night with my friends/students and before dinner Ayumi agreed to take us out around Mihama (a small town near Tsuruga and her hometown).

She took us to a scenic overlook of her town, Mihama five lakes. Bet you can't guess what it overlooked.



That's right! A bunch of lakes! Five of them apparently.


A map of the "five" lakes. Yeah, those center two, where they are connected by a giant gap and it looks like one lake to you and me, well, apparently that is two lakes. In my opinion, it is because four is an unlucky number in Japanese, shi (the word for four) is the same sound as shi (the word for death) so four lakes would sound like death lakes and that would not be good for tourism. Hence the questionable "fifth" lake.


Yup, those are "two" lakes.


To get up to the viewing spot we had to take a chair lift.



ooooh, scary! I wish Jessica and I had gone here, she would have lost her mind. I am a mean mean man.



Mom, myself, and Ayumi posed. Notice the exact same outfit in all of my pictures. I only have two long sleeve shirts that aren't dress shirts and, as much as my friends tell me it is okay, I still feel like I should cover up the tattoos when traveling around. I get stared at enough. But, as warm as I was getting last week, the hell with it. I am gonna be the walking freakshow for these people this summer, I can't do an entire summer of long sleeves.

Notice the locks on the chains behind us?



They were everywhere. Apparently, another homonym in Japanese is the word for bond and five, so people buy locks and chain them up here with a five yen piece locked on them to bring good luck in love. A couple is supposed to have an unbreakable love if they put the lock here.

Like I said, the locks were everywhere! Any place they could be locked. And people would add little trinkets to them. It was pretty cool. And if you think for one second it wasn't completely planned by the operators of the overlook, well, you are a crazy person. Ayumi said that no young people used to come up to the overlook, so maybe 5 or 6 years ago they came up with the idea of the locks to attract young couples up to the overlook. I asked Ayumi where her lock was, but she wouldn't tell me. I am CERTAIN she has at least one lock up there.

And so does a Skin's fan apparently.


That might be from the former Geos teacher now that I think about it. He was from Virginia.

It was a very beautiful sight and a place I couldn't get to on my own, so that was a special treat.



Oh, and here is a picture of my mom riding the chair lift down from the overlook. She said she was terrified, but looks like she is having a blast here doesn't it? Waving her hands around in the air. Either that or she is having a panic attack and trying to flap her wings to keep from falling.


Then we went to dinner.

One of my students/friends, Mamoru, works for a nuclear power company. He lives at a company owned apartment building and said his cafeteria had good food for cheap. Okay, I guess. Not really sure what to expect from a cafeteria. Turns out, it was a feast! Mamoru really went all out and set up a fantastic, special dinner.

One of the best things he did was arrange for cabs for everyone, so everyone could drink. Which is quite unusual for this group. Mostly it is just me who drinks since everyone else has to drive and they have super strict drinking and driving laws in Japan. Not this night. I got to enjoy my friends getting hammered. I want it to happen more often quite frankly, it was great fun.

Anyway, I forgot to take any pictures of people, such an idiot. I really should remember people pics, that is what I am going to want to remember years from now, not the food I ate. I, however, DID take pictures of the food.


Here is our huge sushi plate. Notice all the half drunken beers before any food has been touched. Classy! The best part of Japanese food presentation, the plastic grass they include with everything. Why? I have no idea. Super strange.

Each place setting had a plate with a candle underneath it. On the plate was some meat and vegetables. You lit the candle and then let it go until the candle burned itself out, that is when you knew your meat was done. That was super fancy and cool. Plus, fire. So you know that is good.

On the left was some bamboo shoots with a spicy sauce. They were absolutely delicious. Just the right amount of spice and they were crispy too, kind of like eating carrots. I want them again. right now preferrably. On the right...well, that is whale. Whale blubber I think. It was...not as good as the bamboo shoots. It was more like exactly what you think eating blubber would be like. Apparently it is considered a delicacy in Japan and was something special Mamoru got for us, which was great. But, it was still blubber.

Here is myself and my mom sitting behind a boat with fish in it. What you say, you want a closer look at the fish boat? Your wish is my command!


Look at all that fresh fish! And it comes packed in the fish it came from!



Yum! Nothing I like better than to see the food I am eating looking forlorn that I am eating it. Guilt trip food.

After five beers I tried to make the fish smile.



First, I showed it my sexy face. But the fish was unimpressed.

Then I just tried to pry open its mouth. In the end, the fish just wouldn't smile and ended up looking angry that we were eating it.

After dinner some of us decided to head out for a nightcap, cuz we just hadn't had enough to drink yet. (At this point I had something like half a dozen beers plus several glasses of sake, and most of the people drinking had had the same. I was pacing myself, my mom was there, I didn't want to get too drunk). We decided to go to a local bar and proceed to shut the place down. Apparently I had had enough to drink because I ordered this abomination:



What is this purple monstrosity? Even Ayumi looks perplexed.

Here she is saying, get it away from me:


And I couldn't agree more. I have no idea what it was and it tasted like sweet death. From now on I am sticking to whiskey and beer. Healthy drinks.

And suddenly it was 1 am. Dinner had started at 6 pm by the way. And the next day we were supposed to go to Kanazawa starting at 9 or 10 am, so it had to be called a night.

OH and I forgot, I saw a monkey on the way up to Mihama Five Lakes! Maybe the highlight of my day. Well, one of them anyway.

Visit from Mom day three

Well, my mom only got through two days worth of stuff. And you know why? Because we were freaking BUSY the entire time she was here! For an entire week it was non-stop, and I know I was exhausted, so I bet she was too.

My mom left on Monday morning. Monday afternoon I had a barbecue at the beach, which was great, but still made for a long day. And Tuesday, today, I did ABSOLUTELY nothing. I mean, nothing! I got up, I watched tv. I took a nap. I woke up and watched tv. And then I took another nap. That is all I have done all day. Now it is ten pm and I am still doing nothing.

I guess she wrote about the first two days of the trip, so I will continue from Wednesday.

The first thing we did was get up too early and go to Kyoto. We decided to go to Fushimi-inari which is a shrine with hundreds (if not thousands) of torii gates.





The toriis are just one after another going on and on for kilometers. They are so closely packed together that it is like walking through orange tunnels. Which is pretty cool for a while, but, honestly, gets a little old at some point. It is just the same thing over and over and over, and you are climbing up this mountain for an hour thinking that you were at the top, and it just keeps going. Eventually we just gave up and turned around. I think we had had enough, and besides, we had to go do other things. I am glad we went early though, because on the way down it was a parade of people all walking up through the gates.


A nice, if hazy, view of Kyoto from halfway up the mountain. Ahh, the old city. Looks pretty modern to me.


Almost got crushed by a horse (statue).


One of the more interesting things about the shrine was that all of the torii gates are donated by local businessmen, and on one side of the gates they have their names and the date that the torii was added written on them. And what the weather was like. The kanji on almost every one of the gates reads somthing similar to "This gate was added on X day. It was a beautiful day." At least that is what they say according to my translators.

We then headed to another shrine, Taozin, which was supposed to have a lovely garden (since on Monday and Tuesday all Mom wanted to do was take pictures of flowers everywhere we went).



It was a beautiful garden full of flowers and trees and traditional Japanese garden "stuff." Yes, I am an English teacher, and a wordsmith.
Flower with a bee in it.



The entrance to the garden was framed by two rock gardens. I am sure the rocks mean something and the way the rocks are raked are symbolic as well, but hell if I know. Just looks cool to me.


The main attraction of the garden was a waterfall and pond area. It was absolutely beautiful and it was easy to imagine being in 18th century Japan just sitting there and being a rich bastard enjoying my day. Very peaceful. And, just behind the garden, Kyoto city. One of the most amazing things, to me, about Japan is the separation they have between the historic and modern parts. Everywhere you go there are traditional spots which are peaceful and look like they were transported directly from the 18th century, and on the other side of the street, modern buildings. Yet, it works, and like my mom said at some point, it is amazing what a few feet of shrubbery and trees can do to muffle the sound of modernity.


After this shrine we decided to head for home. Mom was getting tired, and we had plans to have dinner with my Japanese teacher that evening. We were both hungry, and one of the worst parts about being me here is that I can't really read menus. I can read the words, unless they are in Kanji, but I don't know what the names of dishes are, and it takes me for-freaking-ever! for me to read anything. So, even though we were hungry, we knew we were having a good dinner later and decided to stop into the McDonalds near Kyoto station.




Delicious for me, maybe boring for my mom.


Dinner that night at my Japanese teacher's house. I of course forgot my camera, and I guess Mom forgot to take pictures too, so I will just have to paint the scene with words. Lucky you.

My teacher decided that we should make the dinner that night. Guests that night included Mom and myself, as well as my two Japanese classmates, JETs in the local middle schools near Tsuruga, Lucia and David.

Lucia had recently gone back home to NYC for her spring break and brought back cornbread mix, which she decided to make that evening. It was fantastic.

Dinner that night consisted of Teriyaki chicken on a bed of lettuce, rice mixed with various kinds of fish and vegetables, home made bread, potatoes, and of course tons of alchohol. It was delicious and Lucia and David are good conversationalists, as well as the Ikedas (my Japanese teacher and her husband) so it was a pretty good night.

And that was Wednesday.

Day II - Exploring Tsuruga on Tuesday

On Tuesday, Alex gave me a grand tour of his town. After a chilly and rainy day on Monday, it was a picture perfect sunny, cool-in-the-shade, warm-in-the-sun kind of day. We walked (of course!) to Kehi Shrine which is in the middle of town. The grounds are beautiful, the atmosphere serene, the shrine a lovely example to behold. Next attraction was the Kanagasaki Shrine. This is the one that has what felt like miles of steps climbing up and around the hill closest to the water to an amazing overlook above Tsuruga and the nearby bay. This is the shrine and hillside that Alex has mentioned in relationship to the hanami (cherry blossom) partying that he and his friends took part in a few weeks ago. Magnificent views and a gorgeous spot. The only drawback to scenery around Tsuruga is that it is an industrial town, so along the waterfront is highly developed with fishing, shipping and warehouse stuff.

Kehi Shrine, Tsuruga

The first of what felt like a zillion steps up the hill at Kanagasaki Shrine, Tsuruga.
Industrial waterside at Tsuruga.

Halfway up the hill with the misty mountains and bay in the background.
The amazing view from the top. We made it!

Whew! The trek down seemed shorter, of course....

After that Alex wanted to show me Kehi Pine Forest Beach which was clear around to the left end on the industrial area, so off we took. About half an hour later we got to a pretty pebbly beach in a nice pine lined park. It is right behind an elementary school, so we saw scads of uniform clad little folks on the way.



Kehi Pine Forest Beach - windswept and pretty.

We figure we walked about 4 - 5 miles total that day. On the way home he showed me the local shopping mall and grocery store where he shops. The mall is a 2 story affair. Each section on a floor is a separate shop with its own register. Imagine the shoe department and the grocery area and the clothes section of WalMart each having a register and you will get the picture. Grabbed some goodies for supper at the grocery, and Alex made sticky rice balls as part of our supper - good stuff. Terrific day with weather that was a vast improvement over Monday. Pretty town, and a great guide to show me around. Off to my nest on Alex's floor - it's late!