Japan by the Numbers

Believe it or not, we leave Japan tomorrow! Here’s a recap of the last few weeks.

We traveled 1,158 miles around Japan between different destinations where we laid our weary heads. 

 

We used 11 types of transportation (in chronological order):

1.     Plane

2.     Car

3.     Subway

4.     Train

5.     Bus

6.     River boat

7.     Light rail

8.     Shinkansen bullet train

9.     Ferry

10.  Cable car

11.  Gondola

 

Plus, of course, our feet. We walked 131 miles over the last 25 days. On our first full day in Tokyo, we walked 9.4 miles – our record thanks to pumping adrenaline. Our average was 5.2 miles each day – powered by coffee, green tea, and lots of sweets.

 

Here are some of our favorite Japanese phrases we used along the way:

1.     Cho oishi (very delicious)

2.     Arigato gozoimas (thank you very much) – plus okini, the variation used in the Kansai region dialect

3.     Sumimasen (excuse me)

4.     Ohayo gozoimas (good morning) / konichiwa (hello) / konbanwa (good evening)

5.     Hai (yes)

6.     Watashiwa Lauren/Hannah-des (my name is…)

7.     Sakura (cherry blossoms)

8.     Hanami (picnicking under the cherry blossoms)

9.     Cake set (this isn’t Japanese but a staple nonetheless)

10.  Makanai (this is the name for the person who cooks food for the maiko and geiko — aka geishas – in their boardinghouse. Not a seemingly useful term for us, but this show on Netflix was a constant companion of the trip.)

 

There were four types of noodles we ate often:

1.     Ramen (4x)

2.     Soba (twice)

3.     Udon (once)

4.     Konjac (these are gluten-free and made from yams. Only counts as 0.5 – only Lauren ate these, not Hannah, because why)

 

New foods we tried (much to Lauren’s chagrin, this list does not include any new dishes we tried because there were far too many to count – only ingredients/plants/animals that were entirely new to us):

1.     Burdock (a veggie that is somewhere between a parsnip, white asparagus, and an artichoke)

2.     Whale (not a fan)

3.     Sea urchin (delicious — like pâté but seafood)

4.     Conch (blegh)

5.     Eel (half-way – new for Hannah, not for Lauren. Yum)

6.     Cherry blossoms and cherry blossom leaves (fun for the vibe)

7.     Shiso, aka perilla (an herb that’s kind of a cross between mint and basil – Hannah was a fan, Lauren was not)

8.     Lots of other fish and seafood that could not possibly be identified at this time

There’s probably a lot more, but who has time for this blog when there’s Tokyo left to explore?

All our hosts

One of the best parts of the trip was meeting our Japanese hosts. All of them were contracted by the travel agency to share their traditions and customs.

Our sushi host.

The woman who assisted with the ferry between Uno and Naoshima, and who taught us origami on the ferry ride.

An intern at Obubu Tea Farm, who made us tea.

Our food tour guide in Osaka.

Our tea ceremony instructor.

Another intern who hosted us at Obubu Tea Farm.

Hakone

Konnichiwa from Hakone! We’re at our last stop before returning to Tokyo and the US, but nowhere near thinking about home yet. Well, maybe thinking about it, but not yet ready to stop exploring. 

This morning we spent several hours at the Hakone Open Air Museum, which has a wonderful collection of sculptures from around the world, including several Henry Moore, Ferdinand Leger, and Niki de Saint Phalle, whom we know well from works in Balboa Park in San Diego. There is also a building dedicated to Picasso - mostly ceramics and sculpture that I’ve never seen displayed at any other museum.

The sakura here are still in full bloom.

Look closely to see one of many moving sculptures that were “dancing” in today’s windy weather.

Hakone is a mountainous area very close to Tokyo that has many, many natural spring and mineral water onsen, so it attracts tourists from all over to its many hotels and resorts. We have a a private onsen in our room with calcium sulfate waters. (Side note to Pa: This ryokan is called Susukinohara Ichinoyu, which reminds me that Grandma Rose used to always say the Yiddish phrase “kinehora” to ward off the evil spirits.)

The reason that there are mineral springs here is that Mount Hakone is a volcano! Although it last erupted in 2015, steam and sulfur still can be seen from above the crater. To see it for ourselves, we took a bus, a cable car and a gondola to the top.

Here you can see the steam from the crater.

Mountain view from the cable car.

This is kuro tomago or black eggs. They’re actually just regular chicken eggs but are boiled in mineral waters (sulfur and iron) that turn the shell black. Eating them (which we did, naturally) is supposed to prolong one’s life.

When the gondola closed because of high winds, we ended up walking down the road from the top of the volcano to Lake Ashi, formed on one of the volcano’s craters. It was a long walk, but all downhill, and at the lakeside, we stopped for a late lunch of soba noodles and tempura.

 Then it was back to the onsen for a soak before dinner. Another great day!

Naoshima: Art Island

As much as any place we’ve been in Japan, the island of Naoshima is easy to describe, but very hard to describe well, and perhaps even harder to show you because so much of its elegance is in the details, the scale, the sound and the ways in which art interacts with the natural environment around it. Suffice it to say, this is merely a poor summary of this unique and special place.

First, to get here, we took a bullet train from Osaka to Okayama, then a 45-minute taxi ride to the port in Uno, then a 20-minute ferry ride to the island, where we then were met by the van driver from our ryokan, the Roka.

Naoshima is one of many small islands in the Seto inland sea that runs from Osaka in the north to Kitakyushu in the south. The sea is abundant with fish and other marine life that make up the Japanese diet. It’s also a major thoroughfare for giant container ships. It feels a little like Hawaii, although less tropical. The trees and flowers are fantastic, as are the unusual bird sounds.

Ryokan Roka is a brand new hotel with 11 suites, and one of the most serene and beautiful hotels I’ve ever experienced. All the suites have huge windows to make guests feel at one with the natural environment of the island. The hotel also features original artworks in keeping with the theme of the island, which is to showcase art and nature and the relationship between them.

Lobby bar

Welcome tea

In-suite onsen overlooking the garden

Japanese flower arranging is an art unto itself.

Suite entryway with shoes

Front walkway to our suite

The ryokan offers pajamas, yukata robes, slippers, and other amenities. The room smells like essential oils. The 11-course gourmet dinner honestly left me speechless, so I can only tell you it was one of the best meals I’ve ever eaten.

Here again, words don’t do justice to the art installations and museums on this small island. On Saturday night, we viewed James Turell’s Open Space — 45 minutes sitting still watching the light change and the sun set as the artist manipulated the light color all around us.

Kusama’s famous pumpkin started it all in the 1990s. Right on the seaside, it is reminiscent of the octopi that live in the water below. All of her works on the island are really playful and fun.

Chi Chu art museum path inspired by Monet’s water lily paintings. The museum has 5 of them, which we saw inside the gallery. We also viewed two other Turell light installations as well as the works of Walter De Maria.

Sculpture by the sea by Lee Ufan at the Lee Ufan Museum.

 I really liked this Guangyi painting called Great Criticism Disney at the Benessee Museum. The Benessee Foundation is responsible for the development of Naoshima’s art identity.

A garden of Buddhas inspired by Naoshima Pilgrimage of 88 sacred sites, from the Edo Period. In this case, however, the artist Tsuyeshi Ozawa created this sculptures by burning industrial waste that was illegally dumped on one of the local islands.

Kusama’s Narcissis Garden

This last photo is just a quick snapshot of one of many island houses and buildings that use the Shou Sugi Ban method of preserving wood by burning it. It’s primarily Japanese cedar. I find it beautiful.

More at https://benesse-artsite.jp/en/art/benessehouse-museum.html

https://roka.voyage/

We highly recommend you come here!

Rainy day activities

What does one do on a rainy day in Osaka? Hint: It involves fish. And food. 

Fortunately, Osaka boasts of one of the world’s largest aquariums that highlights aquatic animals of the Pacific Rim. Starting with Japanese rivers and forests, the path through the aquarium showcases some 600 fish, mammals, crustaceans and jellyfish that live in the Aleutian Islands, Monterey Bay, Gulf of Panama, Ecuadorean rain forest, Antarctica, Tasman Sea, Great Barrier Reef, Pacific Ocean, and Seto Inland Sea, which also happens to be where we travel tomorrow. The highlight of them all are the huge Whale Sharks.

As for food, we started the day with fluffy pancakes, followed by noodle bowls for lunch. In the afternoon, we went shopping on a covered street, bought some very nice clothes. We also stopped for a “cake set” — your choice of cake or another dessert and coffee or tea.

I chose strawberry sponge cake and coffee. I love that they serve it on fancy china, even in the department store shop. Japan is so absolutely civilized. 

Dinner was Vietnamese salad bowl for me, and udon for Hannah. 

PS I also finally bought another carry-on bag for all my purchases because, you know, rain. 

Check back tomorrow or the next day for news from Naoshima!

 

Osaka

Osaka is the third metropolitan area we’re visiting on our Japan tour and the second largest city in the country, behind Tokyo. It feels more casual than Tokyo and lacks the charm of Kyoto, but it is considered the foodie capital of Japan, so we couldn’t miss it. Ironically, perhaps, our first food experience was beer and fried chicken at the Kyocera Dome, and our second was pizza!

La Pizza Napoletano Regalo’s front door hides just 5 tables inside…

Where you find no one working but award-winning chef owner Tomohisa Niizoe taking orders, making all the pizzas, bussing tables and dealing with customers. But what a one-man show!

Not only is his pizza fabulous, Niizoe took second place in the World Pizza Championships in Naples in 2013, and this trophy on the wall is proof (no pun intended). We needed no proof after eating his pizza — it was delicious, or as they say in Japanese cho oishi.

Our after-lunch walk took us to the famous Osaka Castle, built in the late 1500s. With its moat, gardens and giant stone walls, it’s as grand as any in Europe.

The castle was rebuilt after it was burned by a rival shogun in a military battle not long after it first was completed.

The view from the castle is impressive, and although they are not in full bloom any more, the cherry trees still are beautiful.

This is Fumiko, standing with Hannah on the famous Dotonburi bridge in an area of Osaka known for its nightlife: bars, restaurants, shopping, pachinko and lots and lots of neon. Fumiko served as our guide for an evening tour of Osaka’s specialty foods. She was really nice and very knowledgeable, as we peppered her with questions all evening.

One of the many Buddhist shrines around which the commercial areas have been built. This one is beautifully covered in moss.

Buddhist and Shinto symbolism is built into the contemporary signage.

As for Osaka’s specialty foods, our least favorite was Kushikatsu, which is anything on a stick that is battered and fried. Not my cup of tea, but Hannah liked the onion kushikatsu.

Taking the silver medal in our Osaka food Olympics were takoyaki, which are also fried and on a stick. The tempura-like batter is made from egg, flour, dashi and chopped octopus. It’s a lot better than it sounds.

Takoyaki pans are like cast-iron muffin tins with indentations shaped like half-circles. The chefs turn the batter several times during the cooking process to form the round takoyaki.

And the winner is okonomiyake, which is part omelette, part pancake cooked on a tabletop griddle. The batter is mixed with shredded green cabbage and other ingredients of your choice (we chose shrimp), then topped with mayo and a barbecue-like sauce. Again, it may sound odd, but it was very tasty and filling — real comfort food. 

Finally, can you guess what this is? Leave your guesses in the comments.