#11 Kamikochi

"Kamikochi is impossibly beautiful" I wrote in a letter to my family after returning from the mountains. This was where I had my most incredible and somewhat mystic experience in Japan, and rather than retype the whole story, I'm going to post the e-mail in the comments section of this page. It's long, but worth the read. Here are some of the two-hundred pictures I took. I met some wonderful people, too: pictured are Shingo-ando and I outside a mounatin hut, Mika and I, and the three other climbers (from right to left: the drunk who could speak english, the drunk who could not, and Kandou).

#10 Aikido in Japan

This is Shawn's neighborhood. It's very quiet, and I spent part of Sunday morning sitting in a park reading and eating BALANCEUP, my favorite pre-packaged Japanese breakfast snack.







Shawn and I traveled by train out to a very rural part of northeastern Tokyo. When we got off the train, Shawn started talking to this woman on the street and then next thing I knew, we got in her car and started to drive. I was kind of curious, so I asked who she was. They both laughed - she was Shawn's top student, and every week she meets him at the train station to drive him to class.



This is the building where we trained. It's a middle school by day, and we were using the gynasium. The two classes were really great - Shawn is a very good teacher and has very strong students - and I received what I felt was a very high compliment when one of the Japanese students tld me she thought my Aikido was "beautiful." Training in Aikido in Japan had been a dream of mine for some time - there's just something very powerful about that experience.



This is Shawn and his tremendously kind top student. The class took us to dinner at a restaurant where they served Sushi on a conveyor belt. I am not making this up.












This is the Aikido crew. The gentleman in the hat on the far left is a fashion designer (?!), and the girl on the far right and I hit it off smashingly despite an almost complete language barrier - whenever soemthing strange came down the conveyor belt at dinner, she would place it in front of me and say "Challenge!" I did the same to her, and it was a lot of fun. The class made me feel very welcome and I had a wonderful time - which, incidentally, is in my opnion as much a part of aikido as the classes we had had earlier in the day.

#9 - Tokyo

I have a friend in Tokyo named Dr. Sho Kanzaki, with whom I worked at Michigan. He was excited for me to visit, and on Friday afternoon I received an e-mail saying "can you get to Tokyo by 11 a.m. tomorrow? You have a ticket waiting for you for a Kabuki play." So, of course, I made it to Tokyo by 11!
This is the Kabuki theatre. People were all dressed up, and the place was packed - this, for a four hour long play in a very old form of spoken Japanese that is very hard for native speakers to understand. So why is it so popular? I would wager to say Kabuki's incredible beauty has a lot to do with it. The performance I saw was a revenge play (no surprise there) about two rival ladies-in-waiting. One frames the other, who then takes her own life and is avenged by her loyal servant. The costumes and the disciplined acting were so gorgeous! Seeing video of Kabuki is no comparison. And it turned out that Sho had bought me one of the best seats in the house, right next to the Hannamichi runway!

With Sho's ticket he and his wife had left me some directions. They instructed me to enjoy Tokyo and included a map of how to get to Akihabara, an area I had mentioned wanting to go. They said they would meet me later for dinner. I went to Akihabara, otherwise known as "Electric City."

The building pictured is a new store that has just opened in Electric City, and was very, very crowded when I went. I can really only explain it like this: take Times Square and all its people, turn it on its side, and cram it into a nine-story building. Then, to make matters even more ridiculous, they not only blare announcements and loud music at you over the store speakers, but most of the employees carry megaphones and shout at you about deals they are offering. Nothing will ever, ever be as overstimulating as this was.

Humorously enough, after escaping that store, I met with Sho and his wife for dinner, and they decided to try out the restaurants at the top of this "new shopping store that's just opened." So back I went, into the belly of the beast. We had Sukiyaki at a very nice and surprisingly quiet restaurant on the top floor of crazytown. They are wonderful people, and we talked about Japan, and theatre, and science. It was great.

Then the Kanzakis helped me be on my way to my next destination. I traveled to Funabashi, another area of Tokyo where I met up with my friend Shawn. Just for the record, Tokyo is insanely huge. Thirty-six million people live in Tokyo - that's three New Yorks, and more than thirty-six Detroits.

This is Funabashi in the rain. I met up with Shawn and his girlfriend for drinks and such at a little private room at a bar, and was witness to a rather enthusiastic (read: drunk) business party in the next room. Then it was back to Shawn's for the night in yet another part of tokyo about a 30-minute train ride away.

#8 - End of Day One

I finished up the day by relaxing in the park that sits between the Science Museum and the Nagoya City Art Museum (more on both of those later). I would return to this park many times over the course of the next two weeks, and it became a haven of sorts while out on my adventures.

Thanks for reading thus far. I realize there's a lot to get through, but believe me, you're only getting as much as I can tolerate typing, and hopefully no more than you can tolerate reading. The other days are, for the most part, less lengthy than this one was, so stay tuned. And now, having saved the best for last, may I present Uncle Meat.

#7 Local color

At this point, I would like to get my please.



Just like motherbot used to make.


These were in several places around the Sakae area of Nagoya. I think they're swell.




And, of course...
We need to talk about Coffee Boss. Any account of my travel would be remiss without him. Every thirty feet or so - and I do mean EVERY, even in the lower parts of the Alps - there are vending machines. Coffee Boss is on about 1/3 of them, and was easily the face I saw most frequently. He does look disturbingly like Lenin, though, doesn't he? And the whole "boss of them all" thing fits with that. Hmmm....

#6 Osu-Kannon

I wandered around Nagoya for a long time, just enjoying the local scenery...


And eventually found my way to Osu-Kannon, a very unique district of Nagoya. At one end, there's this huge temple.



The other side is an enormous covered shopping district, where you can find all kinds of really bizarre stuff and buy anything from clothes by the gram or used kimonos or video games or luggage or just about anything else. "Ecclectic" might the word to use here.



I will probably talk a great deal about the dualistic nature of Japan, but here's one example. In the middle of a very heavily commercialized area is this small shrine, and there were some older folks going in and out and saying prayers. It struck me as odd to find such a quiet and open place of prayer amidst the craziness of Osu-Kannon, but, well, here we are.

#5 - Tokugawaen Gardens

I got lost in Japan. A lot. The first time was on the way from Nagoya-jo to the Tokugawa Art Museum, and, like alomst every other time I got lost in Japan, it turned out for the best. Here, I wandered into the Tokugawaen Gardens.



Which really wasn't so bad.



And, it turns out that the Tokugawaen Gardens are adjacent to the Tokugawa Art Musuem on the far side. I have no pictures of that - sadly, no photos were allowed - but they were showing the oldest extant Tale of Genji scroll, which was gorgeously illustrated. I bought prints.

#4 - Nagoya

I did.


The other place they let you take pictures is from the top of the Castle, so here's a nice view of the city.



And another...


And finally after climbing back down and losing my spare camera battery, I walked around the city for a long time.

#3 - Nagoya-jo

Nagoya-jo is a very famous castle, which now serves as a museum of sorts. There are exhibits describing the history of the city, and the way in which the castle has changed over the years.

Many of the features of the castle grounds remain, like this moat, which adds to a sense of the history of the place. I had never seen a castle before, and this was pretty impressive.

Stones had to be dragged from around the area to build the castle, and each feudal lord who did so wanted credit for his - or rather his servants' - work. You can still see their clan markings on many of the stones that make up the structures of Nagoya-jo.

Here, amazingly, was preserved an ancient structure where the Japanese dressed as shrubs and donned plastic space helmets to worship their lobster-shrub god. Or something. I honestly have no idea what this is about.

Nagoya-jo is most famous for the two giant golden dolphins that adorn the very top of the castle. Picture taking is prohibited throughout the interior of the catsle, except here, where you - yes, YOU! - can enjoy the majestic splendor of the Nagoya-jo golden dolphins in plastic form. Want your picture taken while sitting on one?

#2 - Meijo Park

After an entirely too-long plane ride - and by recalling it with as few details as possible I hope to hasten it to the sieve that is my memory - I arrived in Nagoya. With a little help from the railway staff, I purchased what would be the first of many, many train tickets and headed to the Jingue Mae station. There, I met with Fujimoto-san, who had agreed to host your truly while in Nagoya.
I will speak at greater length about the whole Fujimoto family, who are honestly some of my favorite people in the world now - but for the time being it must to suffice to say, briefly, that I was ferried home from the train station, ate the first of many of Mrs. Fujimoto's incredible meals, and fell deep, deep alseep.
The next morning I wanted to get started right away. Astoundingly, I woke up at around 6:30, ate breakfast (thanks, Mrs. Fujimoto!) and was on my way. It was too early to go to my first stop, Nagoya castle, because they weren't open yet, so instead I strolled around Meijo Park.


I really liked Meijo Park because it was serene and calm, two much-needed characteristics for an entre to a strange country after the whirlwind of travel.



The park was really pretty, and there, off in the distance, is Nagoya-jo (Nagoya Castle).


And, of course, everyone has heard of the famous windmills of Japan, right? Um...right.


This, the first of many such "Dear Graham, we're glad you're enjoying the sights, but thought we'd throw in something thoroughly bizarre because we heard you like that kind of thing. Love, Japan" moments.