After settling into our slightly gritty Chinese hotel, we find ourselves with a bit of time to share some stories with family and friends.
We got to Tokyo and spent four days there, starting at 4:00am our first morning so we could make it to the Tsukiji fish market. The market was really amazing; We saw TONS of fish we`d never seen before, in addition to many other sea creatures such as squid and octopus. Many of the fish were massive- one of the salmon we saw must have been at least 5 feet long and 1.25 feet in diameter. For breakfast we had fresh sushi at a nearby restaurant, which came out to about $15 for five pieces.
In general, Tokyo was pretty cool. The technology was amazing: cell phones that come free with one month plans have 5 mega pixel cameras, tv, dictionaries, subway maps and much more, and the toilets and showers all have really confusing control consoles (during her homestay, Ilse accidentally pressed the emergency button while trying to figure out how to turn on the shower, which set off a loud beeping alarm throughout the house. It was pretty embarrassing). We went to a lot of temples and got to spend a day at a Japanese home where we made a traditional lunch and tea and tried on kimono. We also tried lots of Japanese food and walked through the electronics district and a few shopping districts.
Two things stood out to us in Tokyo . The first was the abundance of bicycles. The five year olds ride them, the business men in suits ride them, and even the fashionable Japanese women ride them in short skirts and high heels. The second item concerns the "salary-man," who grinds through rigorous exams in high school and college only to find him(or her)self stuck in the thralls of a 14hour day at the office, sacrificing all too much for the good of the company. Jinbei, one of our guides, will join their ranks as soon as he sends us off to China . He doesn't seem too enthusiastic about this prospect, but he tells us that there's not much else a person can do.
Friday evening we took the night train to Shimane prefecture. There we heard lectures about the agriculture and school lunch programs that the community has established to keep food local, safe and healthy, and were served an amazing feast. We also learned how to make mochi, a traditional Japanese rice cake with bean paste inside and did one night homestays. Both nights, we were given the most comfortable plastic bean pillows to sleep on (can you sense the sarcasm?), though in general we were treated like royalty, to the point that many of us actually tired of lavish meals and desserts.
Next, we moved on to Hiroshima, where we went to a museum about the bombing and walked the memorial park, at the end of which we saw the only remaining building that survived the bombing on August 6, 1945. It was really difficult to get through the museum, especially when we came to the rooms with wax figures, human remains, and pictures of the devastation and effects of radiation sickness or burns. Also, for the first time, someone outside the museum asked if they could take a picture with Ilse (because of her blond hair).
We spent the final two days in Kyoto , where Memoirs of a Geisha is set. After walking through Gion (the Geisha district-- we saw two geisha), a shopping street, going to a temple, seeing the largest graveyard I`ve ever seen in my life (it covered an entire hill, and just kept going... it was like a city on a hill), we had our farewell dinner with our Japan guides, two students from Waseda University in Tokyo and then got free time for the first time so far. Many of us tried Japanese karaoke last night, which was really fun, and today we just walked around the city.
That's Japan , and now we're in China , which is a completely different bowl of rice. More on this as soon as we can discern exactly what sort of meat is looking at us from the dish.
Happy trails,
Ilse and Kelsey
