Japan

We visited Japan in July 2000. It had long been Cindy's wish and mine to take the children to Japan, which we had enjoyed so much when we lived there in 1979 and 80. This trip was also Nathaniel's graduation trip, he chose the destination. 

We landed in Tokyo, where we visited the Akihabara (Electronics Area) at Nathaniel's behest. Then we took the train to Kyoto for a few days of shrine and temple viewing. Further train travel to Iwakuni where we used to live, a day trip to Hiroshima, a day trip to Miyajima, then back on the train to Osaka where we departed after a day.

Thanks to Bob Brown for the economical tickets. We flew over First Class and back World Business Class.

	This is a map that shows where we traveled in Japan. We landed at Tokyo's Narita Airport, took the train to NAS Atsugi (near Yokohama), and spent two days touring the Tokyo area. Then we took the bullet train to Kyoto and spent three days touring the shrines and temples of that city. We then took the bullet train to Iwakuni where we day tripped to Hiroshima, Miyajima, and the rural parts of Yamaguchi Prefect. We then took the bullet train to Osaka for two days and a departure from Osaka Airport. To this add tons of local train, bus, taxi, and pedestrian travel.
	Here is Nathaniel in the Akihabara. We ended up leaving him there to make it back to the hotel by himself. He did fine. We found that someone always came up to help us if we were having trouble deciphering the train schedule or figuring which train to board. I wish I had a picture of a Japanese train schedule board in a station. You would immediately see the problem. But, time and time again, we were assisted by friendly Japanese.
	This was a delightful surprise. Our Lonely Planet tour book led us to a Yakitori bar for our first dinner in Kyoto. It proved to be a very small, very down home, place filled with friendly Japanese staff and customers. Yakitori bars are not really restaurants. They are bars that happen to serve a wide variety of chicken snacks (chicken wings, chicken legs, chicken ovaries, etc.). We had all we could eat, a few drinks (beer for Cindy and I, Coke for the kids). I amused the Japanese by ordering an Asahi beer, but mispronouncing it as Ashai. (Which turns out to be Japanese for "shallow.") The waitress had no idea what I wanted. When I finally pointed to the Asahi label on the refrigerator, the whole place erupted in laughter. As you can see, a friendly Japanese customer volunteered to take the family's picture. No, that is not a chicken ovary Nathaniel is about to eat.
	We stayed at a Ryokan in Kyoto. Ryokan are traditional Japanese Inns where you sleep on futons on floors of tatami mats. You can see we are sitting on the tatami and our futons are folded up behind us. They also provide obis (robes) to wear when lounging around or going to the communal bathrooms. Cindy and I had a picture much like this with my Mom, Dad, and Aunt Gen back in 1980, so we posed this one. We stayed here for three nights and really enjoyed it. We walked to this Ryokan from the Kyoto train station. The people here were very friendly and helpful.
	The meals in Japan were generally reasonably priced. This one was an exception. We decided to go whole hog on a Sukiyaki dinner. There were four levels of meat to choose from. We went for the next to top grade. This cost us a little over $50 per person. A far cry from the $32 total for our Yakitori experience. However, it was delicious. Even Casey enjoyed it, including the raw egg in which you dip each chopstick-full. The server is grilling our meat here. She gets you started and then you add the remaining ingredients as you go. This was a fancy restaurant at the very top of the Kyoto train station/shopping center.
	We must have visited a hundred shrines in Kyoto. One of the most beautiful is the Golden Pavilion. It is located in a large garden area with ponds filled with colorful carp. Cindy and I also had pictures like this one from when we visited in 1980.
	Here is another nice sight on the Kyoto temple and shrine tour. Although we took a bazillion pictures while we were in Kyoto, there are just too many to show here. It really is a very Japanese atmosphere. Everything is made of wood, vice the stone of our classical forbearers, so many of the shrines have been rebuilt. They retain the old designs though, so you are still seeing the same look as when they were originally erected.
	Here we are relaxing on a bridge over a pond. This is in the same area as the Golden Pagoda. There are bunches of beautiful carp in the pond below us. We saw very few western tourists while we were in Japan. Mostly, our fellow sightseers were Japanese.
	Another wonderful experience was our breakfast as the only diners in a large hotel restaurant in Iwakuni. We had been drinking coffee in the hotel's coffee shop when Cindy decided to ask if they knew any place we could get breakfast. The manager asked what we wanted. We told him the guys wanted Japanese breakfast and the girls wanted Western breakfast. We were summarily escorted to the elevator and up to the top floor, where we were seated in an obviously closed dinning room with a spectacular view. (That is Kintai bridge in the background.)  In a little while we were served multi-course breakfasts, Japanese for the guys, Western for the girls. See the next picture.
	Here Nathaniel is eating rice with his chopsticks. He is holding a cold omelet type dish as well. The fun dish is off his tray to the left. This turned out to be pureéd white radish topped with fish fry (complete with little eyeballs). I was able to eat mine with relish, but Nathaiel, to his great shame, gagged on the pureéd radish (he never could take mushy stuff). The girls enjoyed their scrambled eggs and bacon. The staff were incredible. They kept rushing around to get us anything we wanted. When we happened to order toast, which they apparently could not do, they went down and got the manager who was the only one who could speak a little English, and brought him up to explain.
	Another wonderful meal was had at the "Chicken Shack." Located near Iwakuni, we drove out here in our rented van. This is another place we were familiar with from our time in Iwakuni in 1980. The "Chicken Shack" is entirely garish, but it is fun and the Japanese seem to like it as much as the tourists. You get up and order at a window. They bring you the food when it is ready and you eat at low wooden tables while sitting on tatami mats. Cindy loved the fried tofu. We grilled beef on the brazier on the table, and ate various chicken dishes.
	We went to Hiroshima to visit Peace Park. This park commemorates the dropping of the first atomic bomb on August 6th, 1945. This dome of a bank building is one of the few ruins of the attack left . The memorials and museum chronicle the bombing and its aftermath. Although the whole theme is very anti-nuclear weapons, the reasons for the bombing were, I felt, very fairly presented. Hiroshima has stayed at the forefront of the anti-nuclear weapon cause. The museum has many letters written to protest nuclear weapon testing.
	We also visited the Ginza areas in Iwakuni, Hiroshima, and Osaka. Ginzas are covered shopping areas with lots of stuff out in front of the stores. Casey got herself a typical teenager's outfit including cute, but cheap, shoes. Ginzas are always busy and they seem to have a MacDonalds every two blocks. Casey was well fed during our visit. We always stopped at a McDs for her and then went on to a real Japanese dinner for the rest of us.
	I finally found a pretty good picture of the famous rock garden. We could not get it all in a normal aspect photo so we took a panorama shot (APS). This gives you some idea of the feeling this serene rock garden gives its visitors. You can see the bare feet of the tourists to the right. Shoes are left outside at all the temples when you go up on the veranda that surrounds them.