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Japan’s Tropical Storms

The next morning, once again, we woke up to pouring rain but we didn’t think much of it as we were on our way to Nagoya so it wasn’t going to spoil any sightseeing or us…. or so we thought!  Once we arrived at the station we realized that the trains weren’t running due to the heavy rain and we realized the severity of it once we realized the train sitting at the platform was the 6:20am train and we had come to catch the 9:37am train!  So basically no trains had left that morning and wouldn’t be leaving for a long time….

Japan is an island so naturally it is pone to tropical storms and typhoons, especially the southern islands (Okinawa, Kyushu and Shikoku).  As I type this now, Shikoku has recently been hit by typhoon 12 (meaning 12th of the year – they are given numbers not names) and typhoon 13 is out brewing in the Pacific. With improvements in safety and building, causalities are fewer than in the past but due to flooding and landslides, typhoons are still very dangerous.  Japan is very good at predicting and warning everyone about the typhoons but this doesn’t stop the cancellations of flights, trains and any other transportation possible. It’s something you have to take with a grain of salt which is what we did…

So in Takayama we sat at the train station for 6 hours (on the 6:20am train), others bailed and were going to try other modes of transportation but we thought it best (and safest) to just try and wait it out.  Once we finally started moving, although it was still raining, we ended up getting to Nagoya 4 hours later.  So a trip that should take a little over 2 hours took us 10 hours.  Needless to say, it was a long day. Riding on the train over the swollen river (repeatedly) was super scary and you really can see the power of water.  So while we didn’t get to see anything in Nagoya, we were safe.  Moral of the story: During a typhoon or tropical storm, stay safe!

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Takayama 3

After arriving at Takayama station, we bought our visitor set pass for the Hida Takayama Folk Village (the pass includes the bus fare and the entrance into the Folk Village).  At the Folk Village, we headed inside to a blast to the past type of setting.  I love places like this, they let you take a deep breath and step back from the hustle and bustle of life.  The weather was threatening that day and thankfully it seemed to be holding off.  The Takayama Folk Village is an area composed of over 30 old folk houses from various parts of the Hida region.  Many of the artifacts of the original houses are still intact and you can get an idea of the different livelihoods that each household was a part of back in those days.  A number of the houses in the reserve also have different workshops happening which you can take part in as well.  If you can’t make it out to Takayama you can visit the Japan Open-Air Folk Museum in Kawasaki, Japan.

After the Folk Village, we walked down to Friendship Hill to visit “The City of Denver” Park.  This was one of my favorite things we got to see just because it has so much sentimental feelings attached to it.  Takayama is Denver’s sister city and I’m from Denver, Colorado so naturally my mom and I wanted to visit the park. Seeing the familiar Denver parks logo and sign style put a smile on my face and later the outdoor hot springs wasn’t too bad either.

However, it’s a good thing that day was so good because we’d need it for the next day.

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Takayama 2

The next day we woke up, had breakfast and headed out for a day of sightseeing.  First stop was the Morning Market.  Every morning from 7am to noon Takayama has these morning markets where the shops open their doors and the local farmers bring their produce and set up their tents.  Being a huge fan of fairs, markets and anything where you can find local goods, it was probably one of my favorite things in Takayama. But we couldn’t dilly-dally, we had a full day ahead of us and we had to keep moving.

From the Morning Market we went wandering around old town Takayama, we saw some of the old merchant houses, sake shops and all the old town streets. The merchant house we went inside was the Yoshijima Heritage House. It was a grand house, especially when you are accustomed to the size of Tokyo apartments, but for ¥500 to enter, I was a little disappointed to have little to no explanation of each room (in Japanese or English) instead there was just a broad explanation of the entire house.  But it was a beautiful house.

After old town Takayama and a stop at a local cafe for coffee and toast we headed across the river and over to the Hida Kokubunji Temple. We sort of stumbled across the temple but I’m glad we did.  The temple was similar to any temple around Japan but next to the temple and pagoda is a huge gingko tree said to be over 1,200 years old! It was quite impressive.

Next destination, Takayama station…

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“Shiri ga aoi” : The Mongolian spot and the Nanny misadventure!

Two days ago a friend of mine  was changing her baby in front of me…as she was doing so,  I saw again the so famous Mongolian spot: The litttle blue mark that most Asian babies have on the lower back. When I say “again”, I mean that this image reminded me of a little episode that I had years ago when I was student working part time as a baby-sitter with a Japanese family back in France. The very  first time I had to change the baby, I saw the little mark. However, my lack of experience and information back then made me think that that little spot was in fact a big, huge bruise!!! I was in horror thinking I had done that type of  harm to the baby by accident!! when I thought throughly, very carefully of  my time with her( feeding her and putting her to sleep) , I then came up with the conclusion that the bruise was not from me but from her family. “Somebody did this to her!” I thought. I was uneasy with this idea so I called my mother. She asked me to describe the mark and then she laughed ” you silly girl! that is not a bruise, that is a birthmark”. I searched about this birthmark thing right after I hung up with my mother and it looked to me  like an amazing silly little fact. Not all Asian babies have it, but most do. These spots generally fade within a few years and almost always disappear by adolescence ( sometimes they stay during adulthood, but that is rare. I did see a lady in an Onsen with one). The Mongolian mark  are also is referred in a Japanese idiom that says :”shiri ga aoi”, which  means “his butt is blue”, a phrase to describe a person that is  inexperienced, just like I was back then 🙂

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We woke up to pouring rain in Hakone.  We got fairly wet walking to the bus stop but after that it was an easy commute to Odawara and time for the Shinkansen (bullet train)! We hopped on the bullet train bound for Nagoya and switched trains to make our way to Takayama. It was a very beautiful train ride but next to impossible to capture on camera.  We arrived in Takayama around mid-afternoon.  I was surprised at how big the city was but now I can see hot it got the nickname, “Little Kyoto”.  It doesn’t look like anything too special from first glance but with some exploration, charming streets and shops and areas emerge.  We ate Hida ramen at a tiny little shop close to the station.  Nothing to write home about but loved that we had to walk through the kitchen to get to the toilets.  After lunch we called our ryokan (a traditional Japanese inn), Hagi Takayama.  We had full intention to make our way back to walk around after settling into our room but realized that wouldn’t be happening once we got picked up in the van and made our way up into the hills.  It was a walkable distance but it would have been a risk with the threatening clouds in the distance.  So we settled into the ryokan.  It had an amazing view of Takayama city and a number of different onsens (hot springs) at the hotel to choose from, including one that was outside.  After we settled for a bit someone from the hotel did come and let us know that there was a night tour of the town after dinner we were so inclined to join in, which we did.  I’m so glad we did!  It was really nice to see the town with no people and the shops all closed up.  It gave it a much more old town Japan feel.  The streets were lined with cute little street lanterns and the streams running on the side of the streets provided a pleasant nature soundtrack.  Just beware, there are no covers to these streams… we found that out the hard way.  I highly recommend the night walk though, Takayama wouldn’t have been the same without that little excursion.

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Hakone 2

After arriving at Hakone Yumoto we checked our luggage at the station (all big lockers were taken) and took the train to Gora.  Nice little ride through the mountains.  It’s best if you can get in the front of the line while you wait as otherwise you might not get a seat and will have to stand for 40 minutes.  We got off at Chokokukoen and headed to the Hakone Open-Air Sculpture Museum.  The museum had lots of fun people sculptures but probably my favorite thing was the foot bath!  It felt good after walking around the whole place.  Next, we headed to Gora and caught the cable car up to the ropeway.  Ropeway was fun.  Lots of pretty views (although we couldn’t see Mt. Fuji as it was cloudy).  You go right over the sulfur fields as well which is not pretty but an interesting look into where the hot springs are coming from. Next we boarded a pirate-looking ship boat across the lake.  It was very peaceful and relaxing.  We had planned to go into the reconstructed guardhouse on the other side of the lake but it was closing by the time we got there.  It seems like everything closes pretty early so be aware of that!  We took the bus back to Hakone Yumoto station and had a delicious tempura dinner.  We stayed at the Tonosawa Quatre-Saisons hotel.  We had an awesome view of the river and despite the rain was very beautiful.  We had a nice breakfast before setting off for Takayama.  Be careful though, it’s a dangerous walk from the hotel to the bus stop!  Trip to be continued…

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Hakone 1

Hakone 1

After a fairly hot and busy summer, I set off with my mother for a week long trip around Japan (or a portion of it).  First stop: Hakone.  Hakone is a hop, skip and a jump away from Tokyo which makes it a nice weekend getaway or even a long day trip.  The Odakyu line has a free pass (not free but all you can ride) which includes the roundtrip ticket from Tokyo as well as all the different modes of transportation within Hakone (train, cable car, ropeway, pirate ship and bus).  Hakone is a well planned, easy-to-follow sight-seeing destination as it forms a loop around the town, full of various stop-offs for varying interests.  Hakone to be continued…

TOKYO HEAT…Part 2

Last post I started to talk about ideas of how people here in Tokyo do or what they buy to beat this crazy heat and make summers more enjoyable. Here are more ideas:

6. Shaved ice : This is not really unique to Japan. I have seen shaved ice in the US , in other Asian countries and in some places in South America. What makes this special in Japan are the flavors. If you see this little banner floating, you can be sure to find in that place a refreshing shaved ice with matcha ( Japanese green tea) flavor with some read bean paste added.  If you are not really a matcha fan, there are other traditional flavors like strawberry or lemon.

7. Uchimizu :  Uchimizu tradition involves spilling water around the streets of  the neighborhood in an effort to chill the ground, to settle the dust, and to bond with your neighbors. This can be a cheap way to cool off the atmosphere and make new friends. Find out if there are any collective Uchimizu around your area.

8. Neck coolers: You can find these almost in all supermarkets, convenience stores and beauty shops. There are two types of scarfs: those that you can wet with cold water and it will stay wet without dripping water and those that have a pocket of little pearls that you put in the fridge and stays cool for a long time. Many Japanese women use these, and you can find them in many different colors and patterns

9. Katori- Buta : Well , this has nothing to do with the summer heat, but it does help to have a nice summer. This coil when burnt helps to prevents  mosquitos and therefore those ugly mosquito bites. Plenty of Japanese houses have this ceramic pig shaped  coil container… why a pig, I don’t know, if you know, let me know 🙂

10. Uchiwa : These non-folding fans are really ‘a must’ during summertime! You can find them in convenience stores but you can also find them for free almost everywhere in Tokyo. They serve as advertisement for a company or product, sometimes even as an ad for an event. Traditional uchiwas are made with bamboo and rice paper or textile. Some people use nice ones as a useful accessory to their yukata ( summer kimono) in Matsuris (summer festivals). I personally  prefer these to the folding fans!

Anyways, here is just an example of the things you can find during this summer. Tokyo has plenty more of gadgets and stuff to make summers more enjoyable and entertaining, making us forget a little that humidity is all over the place…

every day different meals

everyday on my way back home, i just HAVE to pass this expensive supermarket. cause they have AIR-CON, i really cannot resist …

everyday, 超だるい。最悪。夏は 。。。i completely can feel why there are so many poor old people have to go to heaven because of the heat … so sad.

anyway, this supermarket, at night time after 9pm, they start to have SALE, 半額とか、少なくとも、20% off, 30% off, sweet …

i come back so tired already cannot afford to cook, going to the FAR AWAY kitchen is also a torture for me, no energy … at all … liek a 60 year old or more.

so i have just have to try the following, out of curiosity.

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ORKA, lovely food, just LOVE the slimy taste. did u see the fine “hair”? hehe.

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this is another dish, i forget the food in english, sorry. but it taste wonderful.

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THIS is GOOD, cause it has the fake fish meat, i love it.

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look at the shrimp, awesome! i love seafood.

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this also wonderful, i also forget the english name sorry.

anyway, i ate all of them in one night, i think, at least 80%.

what a blessing.

and they are all HALF PRICE!

non-stop tasting stream …

last year, i have met a very cute person, and after half year of living on the same floor we finally got the chance to get to know each other better. he is so cute.

he sometimes will go abroad. and i will miss him very much. but because he is the one that will have “adventure” so i don’t think he misses me at all, especially during those days.

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this is one of the things that he brought back from taiwan. i think he told me he got it from a client. um, do you think the client find him cute, too?

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this is the infamous taiwan pineapple cake. oh well, the chinese name is a lot better. the english name “pineapple cake” なんて、ちょっと 。。。

とにかく、it taste good. not the type of food i want every day, but once a year is ok. somehow has this “greasy” taste, the outside part, which, once again, i was born not like this taste, even when i was in hk.

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i think this is my first 松屋 meal in 日ノ出町。it is so delicious and cheap.

they were running a promotion, i think it only costs 380¥ or less. 280¥?

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wow, good taste, but of course, very thin … ^^