Revisiting an old home: 日本

(Disclaimer: the wonderful miss Sarah Lee was the designated photographer of this journey, and has all the lovely pictures. The only ones I have are of myself because they’re the only ones she has sent to me so far. I promise I’m not that vain, and maybe more pictures are coming) [April 18-April 22] Going back to Japan was one of the coolest yet strangest experiences I’ve had since coming to Thailand. First of all, it was so cool to be able to use Japanese again. I thought that after two years of not touching the language, and three years of not really speaking it, going back to Japan would be very difficult. I was surprised, and proud really, to have it come back so quickly. But my four day trip was way too short. Riding the escalator up to departures in the airport in Haneda, I was just coming up with some of the phrases I could have used that day or the day before. My friend Sarah, another Fulbrighter who teaches in Lampang, joined me for this venture. I am very lucky to have Sarah as a travel partner- she will sacrifice her sleep schedule, comfortability, and eating habits to have a good trip. My kind of traveler. So we attempted Japan on an incredibly tight budget- it’s really hard to be in Japan after being in Thailand for six months. My fanciest dinner in Sukhothai can barely reach Japan’s cheapest street food. It’s really hard to pay five dollars again for a snack, when I haven’t paid more than a dollar for dinner in a while. I found out a week before the trip that my host parents from Japan had gotten divorced. I had been in better touch with my host mother, Yuko, and had planned to meet her at the airport in Tokyo. We got off the plane to a surprise greeting by Masakazu!!! the father I lived with when I studied abroad 3 years ago. It was a completely fulfilling feeling seeing my casually dressed host dad in the crowd of Japanese business suits, his hair grown out longer than I have ever seen and a huge grin on his face. Masakazu is just as funny and sweet as ever. After briefly introducing Sarah (my first Japanese speaking test!), Masakazu’s first question was, How is Timmy? I failed my second speaking test. No way I could handle answering that in Japanese without practicing first. Masakazu and Yuko took us back to our old neighborhood for a late night dinner. Our first meal in Japan: tuna sashimi over rice with seaweed, and udon noodle soup. Man, I missed Japan! Masakazu was so enthusiastic, bombarding us with questions about what will we be doing in Japan? How hot is it in Thailand? Korin, will you eat okonomiyaki while you are here? Reaching midnight, our dinner together was way too short. Masakazu handed me a huge bag of snacks “for your students…but you can eat it too”. I was so sad to part ways with him, as Yuko took us to her house for the night. Yuko is much quieter than Masakazu, but an absolute sweetheart as well. She lives in a beautiful old wooden house outside the city with her parents and her only daughter. I woke early in the morning to my little host sister’s squealing laughter. When I was living with Yuko and Masakazu, they had just had their first baby, Maria. Now about 3 and a half years old, Maria is certainly her father’s daughter, the same enthusiasm and cheerfulness, but a little chubbier. I came downstairs, and was greeted with a powerful hug from my little sister. How could she possibly remember me? She was only a few months old when I was living there, but she spoke my name as if she knew me.

I played with her all morning, playing with words she knew in English and in Japanese (a great Japanese review for me!). Then, one by one, she showed me all the gifts I have sent her over the past three years, cleverly ending with the gift I gave her when I left Japan three years ago: a small wooden box with a heart, for her to keep her most favorite possessions. And inside the box is still the charm I got her from Suitengu shrine, the temple down the street from our old apartment. Yuko has certainly trained her well to be a mature sweet girl.

After breakfast and lots of play time at Yuko’s, we went into the city to walk around Asakuza, and older neighborhood in Tokyo. The temperature was perfect. Cold, but sunny with only a slight breeze. Sarah fell in love with Tokyo instantly. It’s hard not to really. And I re-fell in love with the city instantly as well. I had forgotten what it was like to wander around any street, for it to be calm and walkable…unlike my beloved Bangkok. Empty streets are a new concept to me these days. We walked around Asakuza, saw some late cherry blossom bloomers, which every passerby was crowded around for one last snapshot. Our destination for the day was Senso-ji in Asakuza, a beautiful old style temple with the famous 5 story pagoda. At Senso-ji, we met with a friend of mine from Philadelphia, Yuan, who is studying abroad through the same program I did. It was so strange entering the temple at Senso-ji and not Sawatdii-ing a Buddha, and sitting down to pray. Instead you stand and clap twice, then bow your head down in prayer. And you don’t have to take off your shoes! Bit of a culture shock. After walking the shop lined streets in front of the temple, Yuan, Sarah and I parted ways with Yuko and darling little Maria (was NOT ready for that heart-wrenching separation. I really love Maria),

and we meandered on to find lunch. Asakuza is well known for its Monja and Okonomiyaki, so that is precisely what we found. There was a tiny little shop down an alley that we snuck into before they closed for lunch. We had to squeeze through the miniscule dining room into the back room of the restaurant, where we took off our shoes, and sat cross legged on the floor around a table with a built in grill to cook our own Monja and Okonomiyaki.

おいしいですね！ After wandering the old streets of Asakuza, we made our way to the neighborhood north of us, Jinbocho, an area I’ve never been to before. The streets were covered with books! Every store in sight was overflowing with used books, spilling out from one story wooden buildings. It was not the neighborhood we were looking for, but it was a great find, and occupied the remainder of the afternoon wandering through the bookstores, not a single store supplied with anything in English. It was so exciting to hang out with Yuan, to see someone from home. I forgot what it was like to be able to talk to someone about all the stuff going on in Philly, at Temple. She was just finishing her semester in Tokyo, and about to leave for Philly in a few days. I can’t say I wasn’t jealous! For dinner, Sarah and I were on our own, and we spent a very long time exploring Asakusa’s nightlife. I guess when I was in Tokyo I did most of my exploring during the day, so it was nice to wander at night- a scene I’ve never seen. We found a wonderful strip of restaurants, tucked away from the main strip of tourist shops, but attracted a bustling local crowd. There was not a word of English anywhere, so finding out it was all bars took a while. We saw some people eating, but couldn’t find the things we were looking for: sushi, ramen, udon or sukiyaki. We wandered on, and finally found what we were looking for: Kaitenzushi (conveyor belt sushi). The guy behind the sushi bar LOVED us, and checked out each dish we plucked off the conveyor belt. We noticed a glass jar with squirming little guppies going around the belt, and he insisted they were delicious. He told us you have to just drink the water with the little fishes still swimming around, and swallow them alive. It’s fun, and apparently delicious. I considered trying it for maybe a second, but stuck with my tuna and eel sushi instead. That evening, we stayed in a Ryokan- an old-fashioned Japanese style inn. The petite two story wooden house had hardwood floors; everything was an antique, with sliding paper doors, tatami mats as beds, and one bathroom for everyone to share. These Ryokans are all over Japan, but we stayed in a backpackers/budget version. That means no traditional style breakfast and no onsen (public baths), but for our short trip it was perfect and cheap! The next day we had a full agenda. We started with the Shibuya crosswalk, the craziest pedestrian crosswalk in Japan, quite possibly the world. I guess it sounds not that exciting, but anyone who has been to Tokyo talks about it like it is the coolest tourist attraction in Tokyo, and I agree. It is quite a sight. It’s a six way traffic intersection, and every 90 seconds all the cars stop to allow pedestrians to flood the street. And of course, what would this international cosmopolitan hotspot be without a huge Starbucks composed of bay glass windows. Fun fact: this Starbucks has the highest gross sales in the world (and they only sell size “tall” to discourage people from lingering), understandably because its second floor overlooks the coolest crosswalk in the world. Our visit to Shibuya was complete after finding a side alley packed with ramen noodle shops. It took us forever to pick the right one- for Sarah’s first ramen experience we had to find a small shop with a bar that overlooks the chefs and has seaweed, bamboo shoots and pork with the right varieties of ramen broth. Maybe I was being too picky….but we finally found one. And it was packed! We had to wait a few minutes to snag two seats at the bar after using the ticket vending machine to order our soup, which was ready before we even had enough time to take a million pictures. I can’t believe I used to be able to eat a whole bowl of ramen. They are humongous! And full of deliciousness to the last drop, which I unfortunately didn’t get to this time.

From Shibuya, we walked to another popular neighborhood, Harajuku. It was a longer walk than I remember, mostly because I can never remember the right way even though I used to walk it almost every weekend. Harajuku holds Tokyo’s most famous shrine, Meiji-jingu, I love this shrine because it is in the middle of the busiest section of Tokyo, yet as soon as you enter, the city fades away behind the massive trees. It’s about a mile walk to the center where the temple is, and everything is so quiet except for the massive crows flying over head. The temple itself is also very quiet, not flooded with people like the temples in Bangkok.

The quiet temple visit was followed by a walk through the quiet Yoyogi park. This park is not so quiet during cherry blossom, but all of it’s blossom’s have fallen so the park has been forgotten, the water fountains hardly spitting any water only a week or two after the cherry blossom festival. On our way through the park we got stopped by some Japanese boys that were sampling teas. We chatted with them for a little while, the tea warming our cold, unadjusted bodies, and I realized how different the Japanese approach white people. In Thailand, I can’t go anywhere without someone yelling “Hello! Where you come from!” Even in Sawankhalok, its unavoidable. But in Japan, that doesn’t happen! No one even tries English. I was always greeted in Japanese, and conversed in Japanese until I got confused. So strange, because the Japanese speak English better than the Thai’s! They just don’t really want to. Meanwhile the Thai’s want to talk to every farang they meet, but they can’t! So silly, on both their parts! After wandering the second hand shops and craft stores and madness of Harajuku, we made our way to Shinjuku- Tokyo’s busiest business center, that is iridescent at night with all the fluorescent lights. This huge district is the home to the craziest transportation junction in Tokyo, as well as a Yakuza neighborhood (Japan’s infamous gang). I don’t actually know where that neighborhood is in the mess of Shinjuku, but I do know they have really sketchy bars with really cheap beer. Instead we settled for the closest restaurant we could find- being fatigued and hungry. We found a cute little “domo domo” restaurant on the third floor of some 5 floor restaurant building. They didn’t speak English, but had some menu items in English, so it was the best we could do. I forgot to realize this before we got there that Shinjuku is too international and classy to find REAL Japanese food. So our dinner consisted of expensive fusion food, but it was the first time I ate avocado in a long time, so I guess it was worth it. Before ending our daylong adventure, we took a quick trip to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building to go skyline gazing. You can go to the 45th floor of the currently tallest building in Tokyo to see 360 degree views of the city for free! I definitely underestimate how much Tokyo has to offer for free, but this is hands down one of the coolest. Trying to experience everything Japan has to offer, we decided to switch up our comfortable stay in the Ryokan for an adventurous night in a capsule hotel. I’ve seen them on TV before: your room is kind of just a bed that pulls out like a drawer. I was really excited to try it for some reason, but we got there and it was totally anti-climactic. The beds don’t pull out like drawers! It’s more like crawling into a shelf with a shade that pulls down to block the lights from the hall. And actually, for two “shelf” capsules, it was more expensive than a room at the totally awesome Ryokan. Well, learn from my experience- capsule hotels are not worth it. Our stay at the capsule hotel was short lived anyway. Early (early early) in the morning, we headed to Tsukiji fish market, I think my most favorite place in Tokyo, to meet Yuan. Tsukiji is the largest fish market in the world, supplying the archipelago’s demand of fish with daily boatloads of tuna, shrimp, sea urchins, everything.

If you can get there by 4 A.M., you can witness the tuna auction, but I have yet to actually do that. So by 6 A.M., the best thing you can do is wander and witness the massive tuna race through the market on the backs of mini trucks. It is orderly chaos. And so Japanese. Unfortunately they changed the rules since I had been there, probably thanks to tourists like us that get in the way of their order. Now they don’t let tourists in until 9 A.M., after all the fun is over. It’s very smart for them, but sucks for us. But like bad tourists that ruin it for everyone else, we snuck in anyway, and after getting kicked out for the third time, we got the same breakfast I have gotten every time I visit: Fresh tuna over rice and miso soup with green tea. That breakfast in itself is worth the plane ticket to Japan.

The trip to Tsukiji completed our trip to Tokyo. So we parted ways with Yuan and started our journey towards Osaka. Of course no form of transportation is as good as a train, so we splurged on Japan’s famous bullet train to Osaka. Even getting a smoking car in the most discounted train, or ticket was over $100 each for the four hour ride to Osaka. You know what’s funny about Japan…they told us only the smoking car was available, and I couldn’t believe that a 15 car train that departs every half hour would be that full every day. But I understand why now. I walked through the entire train mid-trip, and their version of a “full train” is that every person or couple that buys a ticket gets a whole row to themselves. This way, everyone gets a window seat, I suppose. It seems silly and inefficient, and stuck us in a smoking car, but everyone gets plenty of personal space. The only other thing with the bullet train is that the scenery isn’t that interesting. It’s very suburban and industrial- no jungle trains like in Malaysia. But Japan is 70% mountainous, so they must make use of all the flat land that they can, I suppose. Though incredibly comfortable and efficient, Thailand’s trains are definitely more interesting. By the time we got to Osaka, we had to sprint to see Osaka-jo, the castle in Osaka. It was already closed by the time we got there (Happened last time I was in Osaka too!) but just wandering around the grounds outside the castle is amazing. We met some hilarious Japanese people, and I once again became convinced that I will one day have to marry a Japanese guy so I can live here. And of course, the first thing we had to eat in Osaka is my favorite, the famous Takoyaki: fried balls of octopus deliciousness. After Osaka-jo, I for some reason really wanted to go to Tempozen half an hour outside Osaka to ride the giant Ferris wheel…it was a bit of a random impulse that took us out of our way, but it is the biggest Ferris wheel in the world!! And it was made worth it by meeting this Korean guy outside the train station. I thought he was Japanese, because I think everyone looks Japanese, so I started speaking to him in Japanese. And he spoke back to me for a short while, then said in English, excuse me but I am Korean! Heh I felt bad so started speaking to him in English, but he said he can speak Japanese better than English so we continued our conversation in Japanese. By conversation, I mean very broken phrases and we didn’t really get far in our conversation before we ran out of vocabulary we both understood, but I think it was the first time I have had a mutual conversation in a second language, so it was very exciting for me. We parted ways at the Ferris wheel, because he thought the overpriced aquarium was more worthwhile than the biggest Ferris wheel in the world, with awesome views of Osaka. Poor choice. The Ferris wheel was AWESOME, and it was the perfect lighting just after the sun had set to still see the bay as the night lights started to illuminate the city.

We headed back to downtown Osaka to revisit the night scene that drew me to Osaka when I visited briefly before. There is a crazy pedestrian street, Dotombori Arcade, that is full of restaurant after restaurant of takoyaki, okonomiyaki and yakisoba, with splatterings of the other Japanese specialities. Though we had already eaten Takoyaki at Osaka-jo, we had to help ourselves to another serving at this street vendor that was making the most delicious looking fresh takoyaki, topped with arugula and seaweed. Sounds strange, but it was amazing, and the staff were wonderfully talented. I guess takoyaki is nothing special as it is THE Japanese street food, but these guys were skilled. I’ve never seen such a quick and efficient takoyaki line, and it was supported by a continually growing line of customers. We meandered through the crazy night life streets back to the capsule hotel where we would be staying the night. This capsule hotel had no shower, so instead we had to walk two blocks down to the public baths. It sounds like a pain (and I guess it was), but it was so totally cool. The people at the public bath were phenomenal, and very interested in Sarah and I. We spent over an hour and a half in the onsen, chatting to the old women. The hottest bath must have been close to boiling point, and you are supposed to go from the hottest bath to the coolest bath. It apparently makes your heart stronger, according to the hardy old women in the baths, and will make you live longer. I couldn’t do it. Sorry heart. So I settled on the luke warm bath until Sarah got her fill of exercising her heart. Our night was completed with a bottle of cheap wine we got from the Shinkansen ride (maybe stuck with the smoking car, but we did get discounted cheap wine), and white chocolate from Masakazu, chillin in our kimonos from the capsule hotel. Classsssy. Our last day in Japan, we had debated between Kyoto and Osaka, but my heart is really in Osaka so we stayed in town and explored a bit more. We started with a budget breakfast that consisted of onigiri (rice and salmon wrapped in seaweed) from 711 and vending machine coffee, on the steps of Triangle Park in the heart of Ameri-kura, the micro-America in Osaka that is basically a bunch of hippy Japanese youngsters that got stuck in the 80’s. Then we spent too much of the day at a museum north of Osaka. This is the craziest museum I’ve ever been to, and I think everyone knows I don’t really like museums that much. But this was a culture museum, for the wanna-be anthropologist that I am, and it had a compilation of all the cultures of THE WORLD. My eyes started to glaze about 1/5 of the way through the world, but the museum really makes you realize how connected the historic world really was. There are so many similarities across oceans I had never noticed, such as indigenous tools discovered in both Africa and Southeast Asia, and the colorful costumes of tribes from South America and Thailand. It was an incredibly impressive and humbling display. The culture museum is part of a huge park (in the middle of nowhere, Northern Osaka), and the perfect weather was just begging us to have a picnic. Unprepared, we picnicked in style, with another round of canned coffee and chocolate pocky. Oddly, that was probably one of the most memorable moments from the whole trip.

We made our way back to the city to see a beautiful temple on the other side of Osaka. It had closed already, and was incredibly solemn. I’ve never been to a temple like it. There were upright stone blocks that climbed up like a pyramid, that I am guessing were grave stones. It definitely gave off the feel of a graveyard, but there was no clear indication of such anywhere. The only distinct colors around the closed temple were the little red hats that are fitted onto statues’ heads. I forget where I have heard this story, but these little red hats are part of an old Japanese tale about a man who knitted these red hats to put on the statues’ heads to keep them warm in Japan’s frigid winter. That’s not how the story actually goes, but it’s something cute like that, and you see those little red hats all over Japan. Running low on time (isn’t that always the case?!) before having to catch our flight home to Thailand, we had to race to find a banging Japanese meal. We sprinted to the strip of restaurants and fun we had been to the night before, and ended up going back to the takoyaki masters. This time, we entered the restaurant they are part of to have our last Japanese meal of yakisoba and okonomiyaki. Cooked to perfection, that must have been the best okonomiyaki I have ever had…and I’ve eaten A LOT of okonomiyaki. As we were walking back to the hotel to pick up our bags, we realized we had EXACTLY enough money left to get on the train to the airport. It was quite lucky, but also means we spent way more than we thought we did! How did we spend so much money?! We got to the train station and found out there was an extra transfer we had to make to catch the airport link. Already late, we emptied our pockets looking for enough coins to make the transfer. Sarah the whole time was saying “we're not gonna make it, there is no way we’re making our flight” and I’m just saying, no no it’s fine, we have plenty of time! But in my head, I was totally freaking out, and thought we were going to end up broke in Japan. Amazingly our small change was enough to scrape by and get on the train to the airport, with 100 yen left for a bottle of water at the airport. Crazy ending to an epic (short) adventure.