Europe Expedition 2017: March 31 - April 6 (Mon-Sun)

Monday: I went shopping. It was a long day.

But I went to the Takefu Knife Village, and saw this:

It was super cool! …But I’d not thought to bring my camera, and my phone died (at 20% battery). So that’s the only picture I got.

Tuesday: Alice and I cleaned. All. Day. We were rewarded that evening when other teachers came over and we played Settlers of Cataan — Japanese version.

Wednesday: Very early in the morning I set off for Nagoya to do some sightseeing. Arriving in Nagoya with no problems, I decided it was nice enough to walk to the castle. Google said beware of Pokemon in the tall grass.... ?????

The walk was interesting in that it was really ugly and dirty! Then round the last corner, voila, explosion of sakura and the castle. I have a hard time understanding how people can live in such a beautiful area and let it get so dirty. Here is my first view of the castle:

And this guy has powers from the past:

And sakura,

shidare-sakura,

sakura and palms.

And roses.

I recommend Nagoya Castle as the best place to go to see sakura. I liked the area a lot.

I ate lunch at a restaurant right outside the castle, where they showed the man making the kishi-men (Nagoya udon I guess).

The castle was rather interesting yet rather boring, in that it’s like Osaka castle — lots of cool history stuff, very little in English, and the inside is a museum rather than a real castle. But I quite enjoyed myself with the displays

There was a market setting that has background noise and changing lights for the ambiance of a day in the time of the Edo Period.

As with Osaka castle, Nagoya-jo was rebuilt by Tokugawa Ieyasu, and as with Osaka castle, most of it was destroyed over the ages and during the war.

Two important relics are the golden ‘dolphins’ (shachi) that adorned the castle. They were moved several times and it seems at least one survived the times. More interesting was a display in the castle showing how much gold it would have taken — and did take — to plate the shachi.

I liked this sword guard.

And this elephant.

These people were obviously very wealthy, and this can be further surmised by the Honmaru Palace; destroyed during the war, they have begun reconstruction it (completion ~2018). Behold, the doors,

ceiling number 3,

ceiling number 2,

and ceiling number 1.

The place smells of new wood, from the construction/woodwork school located right there; you can go inside and see them working on pieces of the palace (if you have good timing).

After spending a long time at the main keep and the palace, I explored the grounds some more, caught a photo of this pretty little bird,

then went off. I intended to go check out a garden, since I’d bought the ticket together with the castle, though I intended to be quick and leave early for Osaka. Ah plans! Made so they can be burned. About to enter the subway, an old guy asked me where I was going. I told him, and he recommended I take a bus instead. He pulled out the timetable, showed me the bus, then decided since it was dangerous being out alone he would accompany until he had to go home at 6. I tried to tell him I’d be fine on my own, but he insisted. He was very nice, and we went to the garden,

as well as to a Noh theater,

some museum thing,

the TV tower,

and up a tall building with a lovely view of the city.

And a car.

My suspicion is the guy was a retired tour guide or something. He also befriended a Korean family and we tagged along together for a little while. I communicated with the son in Japanese. He complemented my Japanese and my pronunciation, and for the first time, I felt I had actually been complemented. (Because people tell me all the time, but it’s also a very standard thing for Japanese people to say, even if all you know is konnichiwa). This is some monumental moment in my life, I’m sure.

But I was exhausted by the end! And I still had 3 hours to go, to Osaka. I ate these bota-mochi the old guy gave me as a souvenir,

and held out until Osaka. Where, because I was so tired I had incredibly impaired judgement, I spent the next ~2 hours trying to get to my hotel which was really only 15 min. away. In some fairness to my poor tired self, I asked somebody for directions! Many times! My problem was the first time I did this, I said ‘how can I get to Sakai?’ and the station guy said ‘Sakai-shi?’ Now, ‘shi’ means City. Naturally, that makes a lot of sense, so I said ‘yes’. Stupid me. I made 2 mistakes getting to Sakai-shi, and finally pulled in at 10pm, exhausted but hanging on!!

Then I found out it was… the wrong… place…

Back to the trains for me. I was so mentally and physically exhausted I had a little breakdown, which everyone politely ignored (!!) except one guy asked me if I was all right and gave me a pack of lovely soft tissues. That made me feel miles better. (That and the timing that allowed me to talk to Mia. She is sensible with these things.)

I think one thing that makes it easy for people to make blanket statements about Japanese people is that everywhere in Japan is a city. There are so so so many people, even in small country cities, that you encounter all sorts of people. This makes it easy for people to say ‘Japanese people are so kind’ or ‘clean’ or ‘passive’ etc. but when it comes down to it, people are people. You get all kinds, and while generally things can be different based on the area, it’s a much smaller area than a country (or a state). I’ve met extremely nice people here in Japan, and seen many more, but I’ve also seen people who are rude, loud, cut in line, knock into small children, stand in front of an empty seat on a crowded train so no one can sit there, etc. Like I said: People.

Anyway! I was feeling rather contemplative that day. I made it to my hotel, upgraded my room for a good rate, and slept really really well.

Thursday: View from my room:

I had a relaxing morning taking advantage of the complementary breakfast and tea-time of the hotel, and around noon set off to meet with my friend — the reason I came on this adventure. These are friends from IBU University where I came with my sisters in 2010.

We went to Kishiwada Castle, which is just another little castle but it was fun and the sakura were pretty and we got to talk a lot.

And there was this mysterious clock that only counted from like 1-7 or 5-7 or something.

And of course there was a matsuri around the castle, so I finally decided to try squid-on-a-stick. It was not great. But better than raw squid.

Nearby was a high-school, and they were having their entrance ceremony.

But by nearby I mean right across the moat. How awesome would that be, to look out your window from the classroom and see a castle? History must be awesome. I explained to Akiko we just don’t have that here in America — not just are there no castles around every corner, they aren’t substitutes. America is large enough, and old manor-houses etc. few enough it’s not something you could see every day.

For dinner we went to a chicken-place and had chicken-sticks and rice and good things. I forgot to take any pictures of the food! But it was good.

Afterwards we went to a sweet shop. Look!!

Friday: I saw part of this strange history show where they sing songs.

I met up with my other friend (their days off didn’t align so I was lucky I could meet up with both of them!) in Osaka, and we ate katsu-don. I love katsu-don. Deep-fried things on sticks. This one was super fun, with things like asparagus, onion meat, and chocolate. There were several sauces, and the plate where the cook set the sticks was divided into 5 portions so you could immediately tell which sauce to use with which stick.

Afterwards, we went to Kyoto, and explored this awesome market (Nishiki).

Apparently Kyoto has special vegetables, such as huge long bell-peppers and round eggplant and so forth.

Also you can see things like the fish egg-sacks,

and the pickling jars.

But more than that, there were just so many different kinds of food! We tried everything. I found out I like dango, which I have always wanted to like but never have; this varying it smaller and with a sweet soy sauce. I forget what it’s called!

And we ate green-tea covered jelly-rice things I always forget the name of, we ate soy-donuts, a fried expensive kind of fish, and so forth. It was great fun.

Saturday: I think I packed and cleaned and stuff. And walked by the river.

That night Jonathan and his friend and I went to see Miki play (last time for me). I enjoy their music even though it’s super loud. The band after was not my favorite, but the girl had pink (or light red) hair, so I spent half the time trying to decide if it was real or a wig. I think her roots were black so I guess it was real, but it was really pink. Like Ariel pink.

Afterwards we ate sushi.

And on the way home we saw the fabled egg vending machines!!

Sunday: We really wanted to do hanami — flower-viewing — but the weather did not cooperate. While the next few days would be warm and sunny, this day was cold and rainy. So we went out for a bit when it wasn’t raining and took some pictures,