Today we woke up to the sound of a REALLY LOUD gong. It was 5:30 in the morning and we were going to a monk-chanting thing. (Buddhist ceremony) We got dressed and went down the stairs in our cold slippers that kept on falling off. We went to this cold temple area and the monks started chanting. (For those of you who think monks go “ummmmmmm” they actually do go”ummmmmmm!!”). It’s cool. That went on for about a hour. After that we went to a VERY traditional breakfast. We had unidentified tofu stuff, pickled something or rather, rice and…uh…what is that! But it was good.
Went to a bus then got in a cable car before getting on a train. Then the next train and on the next train there was some weird guy staring at us then he sat next to us and then he (thankfully) left.
We checked into our hotel in Nara and went to lunch at a curry restaurant. It was pretty good. In Nara they let deer just roam free all over town because they think they are sacred or something. So the first deer you see it is like: “OMG A DEER JUST SITTING THERE IN THE ROAD” After you have seen fifty deer you act more normal when you see them.
We went to see some temples and shrines. After that we went back to the hotel and watched this show where these two guys with helmets and padding tried to whack each other with wooden swords. That was REALLY entertaining.
We went to dinner at this place that was sort of a bar with food. My mom met this guy who made T-shirts for this SUPER small place my mom’s family was from called Monroe, Oregon. Small world. It was cool. After that we went home and went to bed.
NARA, Japan, Nov. 24, 2012–Today we started by taking a train to another train. Then hustling to a subway. Then of couse racing to the next train and then a cable car up a steep mountain before getting on a bus. This bus was sort of small so I was crammed inbetween Mike’s overstuffed suitcase, my mom, and on top of me was my extremely heavy backpack. Getting off the bus was also a hassle pulling my bag across the extremely narrow aisle. Then we (surrounded by a huge group of tourists) raced UP the stairs. We barely fit in the cable car. Jeez, some really pushing German guy was elbowing his way past me. I told my mom that pushy German guy was a jerk. But mom told me they spoke English. WHOOPS!
We got off the cable car only to get in another bus. This one we took straight to the Monk temple we where staying at. One of the ladies in a robe checked us in and we went to our rooms. The thing is there is no heat in this temple and you have to wear slippers indoors. Well these weren’t those fuzzy, comfortable bunny slippers you put your little feet in and it’s all cozy and stuff. NOOO these were SUPER cold and it was ridiculous walking up the stairs.
We got to our room there were no beds, just mats with pillows and blankets. We sat at this table on the ground that had foot warmers. I saw packaged treats that looked like mochy. I opened it and… OH MY GOSH, ITS PANCAKE FLABBERGAST. I screamed then ran through the halls yelling “AAAAAAAHHHHH ITS PANCAKE FLABBERGAST”!!!! When Mike ate it it I started yelling. “MIKE ATE IT OMG!”
When that episode was over we looked at some temples and had dinner. Me, Mike and dad went to a hot springs. It was great fun, and I kept getting out and dumping icy cold water over my head, then jumping back in the tub. After that we went back.
Today we woke up to have a good breakfast at a random coffee bar in the fancy district of Karashiki. The person there served us really good fresh-squeezed orange juice. Then we had eggs followed by toast, bacon and tea.
We walked along the canal when we saw a bunch of guys with rice hats next to boats. They were offering rides. We did it and got to wear rice hats like them. It turns out those hats were REALLY uncomfortable. But I wore it anyway because they looked cool. Our boat driver talked to us about baseball. It was really cool.
We wandered around for a while before getting on a train to go biking. We rented some old rickety bikes from the little old lady who worked at the shop. She told us to follow the little bike signs and we will be fine (yeah right!). The last time I rode a bike was like…uh… two years ago. So I bet you can guess how THAT started. Of course we had no helmets so It was a little different. We followed the signs for a while before getting lost my mom and dad argued for a while before Helen said “Uh guys?” She pointed out where to go and we finished the next three miles smoothly (Trust me three miles are not hard on a bike.) We stopped at a little temple and Helen got a good luck charm. We were almost to the end when Helen fell into a rice paddy while taking a picture. She got up fast and said, “Is there straw on my back?” We returned our bikes and went to dinner at a pizza restaurant (I know in Japan? Ha!). It had really good pizza. After that we went back to the hotel.
This was a much easier day than yesterday. We woke up at like… uh five a.m., and went to the evil train station of central Tokyo. We made our way through the crowd and went to a coffee shop. Helen and I got a doughy thing with (what we thought was) raspberry filling. We took them to the train stop and ate them. It was actually bean paste inside. I liked it but Helen hated it. You should have seen her face when I asked her if she wanted another.
We got on this really big train and set off on the four-hour ride to Karashikii. My mom was so FUSSY about were we sat. She was like:”Oh Will, we’re going too flip the seat over”, “Now Will sit in the middle”, Will we are going flip the seat over AGIAN”. AAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGG. right?
Mike works in insurance, and I started talking to him about insurance ads and all the great jingles that Geico and State Farm have. He works for Penn Mutual. They’ve don’t have a catchy jingle.
Four hours later we were in Karashiki. We were wandering around when we found a soba place. We had lunch there, It was really good. By then It was four o’clock. We wandered around this pretty canal with lots of shops, then went to the hotel for a break. Then we went out to dinner at chicken restraunt. BAD IDEA. We got there and ordered little pieces of Octopus. They came out and mom said, “Yum! Octopus balls!” Nobody touched them after that. We had pretty good yakatori. But then our main course came out It was egg and chicken with rice underneath. I suddenly exclaimed, “LOOKS LIKE BARF!” After that we went home.
But now I have my own set meal: Pancake flabbergast, Octopus balls and barf.
Today was one of the hardest, most challenging things my mom could throw at our little group. We woke up at 4:00 a.m.,quickly went to a Starbucks (man those things are EVERYWHERE) and set off. We started our pleasent day by going to a EXTREMELY dangerous fish market. We barely made it through the train station without getting killed by the traffic of BUSY Japanese ladies. We asked a police officer where the fish market was and he pointed it out to us. Were strolling along the nice rows of huge tuna and other fish when WHOA! cars transporting huge piles of fish zoomed past the alley we were walking in. In fact they were EVERYWHERE. We seriously almost got hit like thirty times. We walked through alley after alley of tuna, squid and uh… whatever that was. We came to a stop we were stopped by a guy with a Red Sox cap. He and Mike had a LONG conversation about where they were from and stuff like that.
We left and went to a cool little museum about old Japan when we came upon the store with pancake flabbergast (see yesterday’s post). We took a train back to the city and had lunch at the top of a department store. Helen had a upset stomach so she did not eat anything. We went outside to see the view. I watched kids play soccer from the top. We caught a train and went to harawhateywhat (Eds: Harajuku). We went on this crazy street where everyone dressed weird. We wandered around for like five hours straight. Then dad really wanted to go get a glass of wine. He took us a wine bar. But it was closed. Then Helen had a nervous breakdown because her shoes hurt her so bad. We went too a emergency snack place before dinner. We found a great yakatori place before heading home.
The first story is about a extremely jet lagged boy (me) and a silly shop-like thing. So it started as we just finished tromping around this really cool little museum in the outskirts of Tokyo. We decided to get a snack at this little snack shop thing. So I was REALLY tired at the moment, so even the door clearly in big green letters said PULL I began to push the stupid door. After 30 seconds of solid pushing, Dad pulled open the door. We got in there and the only things they really sold were orange juice and weird little pastry things. I got this thing that was a pancake on the outside, and bean paste on the inside. It was so bad I had to step outside for a moment. Then (being me) I called it pancake flabbergast. I walked in the room and whispered to Mike, That was the worst pancake flabbergast I have ever had. He cracked up. After that we were talking about how we should invent a product called pancake flabbergast.
EVIL TOILET
So in Japan there are all these VERY expensive toilets everywhere. And so this morning our friend Helen told us a story about her encounter with a EVIL TOILET–dun dun dunnn. She tried to flush the toilet by pressing all these buttons. So first a jet of water sprayed from the toilet and got her all wet. Then pressed all these buttons and like heated the toilet, sprayed more water and opened and closed the seats but not flushing the darn toilet. Then she began to wave her hands around in despair she opened the door only to find old Japanese ladies waiting. She stared at them for a second and then quickly closed the door. Then she open the door and one of those ladies helped her flush it.
TO GO OR HERE
My dad was at a Starbucks just near our hotel when he ordered a coffee. He does not speak any Japanese so he just grunted and pointed at what he wanted. When it came time when the lady asked him if he wanted it for here or to go, he was completely flabbergasted (ha ha ha ha.) All he could do was grunt and point. so the lady had to bring out a mug or a paper cup he pointed to the mug.
TOKYO, Monday, Nov. 19, 2012, 4:30 p.m. — It’s Mom’s turn to blog since Will is preoccupied watching 16 excavators working to demolish a building across the street from our hotel. That, and there is a sumo tournament on TV. We had a huge day of sightseeing — I’m being accused of arranging another Thompson Torture Tour, but it’s not true. OK, so Helen has only slept 6 hours in the past three days, and Will’s pedometer logged 16,000 steps, but still. It’s our first day in Japan!
We started the day at 4 a.m. (Helen at 3 a.m.) and waited until 6 a.m., shortly before sunrise, to set out. We walked around the jogging path that encircles the moat of the Imperial Palace, pausing at the famous Nijuubashi for a photo. Will raced across the empty gravel parking lots and worked off pent-up energy from yesterday’s plane ride. Mike was thrilled to pass by the Nippon budokan, a concert hall which apparently is famous for hosting a Cheap Trick concert album. We ended up at the infamous Yasukuni Jinja, a Shinto shrine known best for the controversial visits of former Prime Ministers to the shrine. The shrine, dedicated to those killed in war, includes among its enshrined convicted war criminals from World War II. I’d been before to watch my homestay mother dance in a performance, but I thought Helen and Rick, being news people, would be interested in seeing a place so often in the news. We ended up watching an 8 a.m. festival that included drums, and small children in traditional costumes being held aloft with small swords, Japanese flags tucked in their toes and hands, lion head masks on their small heads. One man supported another man, who stood on his shoulders, who in turn held up a child doing a Cirque de Soleil routine with the aforementioned swords. Mothers stood by proudly snapping pictures while I held my urge to shout “This isn’t safe — the ground is made of granite, people!” But seriously, it was a wonderful treat to see the performance.
We were also charmed by streams of very small children in their neatly pressed school uniforms, carrying very heavy looking, adorable backpacks and purses. Their little hats completed the totally adorable look, as their parents trundled them off to school.
By 8:30a.m. we were freezing so took refuge in a Starbucks to warm up before tackling Ginza, the famous, glitzy shopping district. Highlights included witnessing the opening of the venerable Mitsukoshi department store. It was a very Japanese scene. Employees opened the doors at opening, but the waiting crowd, rather than rushing in the open doors as they would back home, continued to quietly wait until they were formally invited inside. We were greeted with deep bows by literally dozens of employees as we walked through the store, as they welcomed the day’s first customers.
But perhaps the biggest highlight of the day was lunch at Tentei, our favorite tempura restaurant in Ginza. It’s a small place, and very welcoming, and we sat at the bar, watching the tempura being prepared by the same men who had first served us four years ago. The food was amazing — especially the matsutake mushrooms and an amazing dish of small shrimp cooked in a sort of tempura disc served over rice. However, dark clouds formed. Rick and Mike were mortified first by the large paper bibs the kimono-clad hostess tied behind our necks. None of the other customers were wearing bibs, and they suspected we were being subtly mocked. Of course, we weren’t, and they were very relieved when two Japanese customers also donned the bibs. But the crowning moment hilarity and humiliation was when the extremely nice man waiting on us took pity on MIke, Rick and Will, and gave them special chopsticks tied together with rubber bands so they could more easily eat. Like a child would use. Apparently their chopstick skills made the waiter fear that they wouldn’t be able to enjoy, much less eat the meal. Helen and I were much relieved that we were spared this particularly “emasculating” courtesy, to use Rick’s words. We will never let them live that one down.
We then took a monorail ride around Odaiba to see the Tokyo skyline from Tokyo Bay, wound back through Ginza where Helen and I shopped at Uniqlo, then very tired, trudged back to the hotel. It’s now dark, and we will be venturing out later for dinner and perhaps the lights of Akihabara, the electronics district.
TOKYO, Monday, Nov. 19, 2012, 4:36 a.m. — Hello everybody, it’s Will here and I am supposed to tell you about my day. We woke up REALLY early and my brother drove us to the airport. When we got there and navigated our way through security,customs and whatever you call it. We checked our baggage and mom got all darn WORRIED that her BAG did not go through. She thought the people there would be all like: “Oh there is a bag sitting on the ramp that was checked”. “Great John, let’s just leave it there cause we’re idiots.”Ha ha. We were sitting in our gate for like FOUR HOURS. Cause we had to come so EARLY!!! I read the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid book. It’s good. We got on our plane and they did not have those movie screens in the back of your seat thing and so I played video games for a LONGGGGGGGGGGG time.
When we got there dad looked up who won in the Ducks game and… NNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! QUINCY, YOU DID NOT CHEER LOUD ENOUGH! The Ducks lost and so my mom was all smirky. So then I felt weird and started babbling. I said: “when I am in Africa I want to see Earl the talking elevator.” I felt SO weird and tired. When we got our bags we went to see if we could find our friends Mike and Helen. I was still babbling so I said, “Lets go find Michael Jackson and Helen of the Bob Dynasty We were waiting in this VERY long line and I found these two random people and thought it was Helen and Mike. Then they snuck up behind us.
We were in this very busy under ground train station and waiting in this long line. I was feeling awful. Mike turned my hat inside out and said it was my rally cap. Two hours later we were rushing to the train–we missed the first one because of this stupid security officer. I named him Vaz the Spaz. 45 minutes later we were on the train. I played video games for the whole hour long ride. When we got out we rushed out of this train station and into this department store. It was crazy. I got dumplings and a moon cake. It took a long time for everyone else to find their food. They found these snack boxes of WHAT? We never knew. Then dad randomly bought these fried things. I was just happy I had my dumplings. We stopped at this gum shop and watched them make hard candy and gum. They had samples. It was so good. It was still warm and fruit flavored.
We raced back to the hotel. and checked in. Some Japanese guy was in the elevator we waited for him to go and we pressed the button agian. AAAAAHHHH! THAT JAPANESE GUY WAS STILL IN THERE! We waited again and this time it came up empty. We went to our room and Helen and Mike went into the wrong room with some guy in it. We got in our room and the toilet open the seat when you opened the door. “AAAAHHHHH”!!! I screamed. I named it Tommy the Talking Toilet. We were going too have dinner. MY DUMPLINGS TURNED OUT TO BE FROZEN! So I had a moon cake for dinner because I did not want too touchthe purple rice and the fried whatever. Then I fell asleep. GOODBYE.
Editor’s note: As the grownups were finishing dinner and their beers in the hotel, Will reclined onto one of the beds and announced, “OK, that about wraps it up, folks,” rudely urging Mike and Helen to return to their own room, calling an end to our first hours in Japan ….
Tokyo, Saturday, June 26, 2010. — Will is the consummate traveler. We left Nara this morning for 4 hours of train rides and arrived at our hotel at Tokyo station tired and hot. We were thrilled that they remembered us and gave us a fab room with views of the wonderfully bustling streets below. Will declared “after a long day, this is heaven!” We relaxed, cooled off and then in great Will fashion, he told me he was sad he’d wasted an hour on the iPad and he wanted to go out. So we headed for akiba — electric city — two train stops away and wandered the shops looking for just the right electronic gift for Mitchell. But we couldn’t find anything electric, but had fun looking around. We then wandered the shin marunouchi biru, which has many restaurants, and where we had eaten with Rick last year, and found a pasta place that had one table open. We went by like 40 restaurants — all packed on a Saturday night. So we had a nice dinner and are back at the hotel, contemplating the trip home tomorrow. We have really missed Rick, but we can’t wait to being him back here with us!
Nara, Friday, June 25, 2010 — just got back to the hotel to discover japan beat Denmark in the World Cup. So sorry we missed game, but we had a busy day and maybe they won last night and we didn’t know it. Yes that appears to be the case. The tv shows shibuya going crazy in the wee hours, people saying they were going to work without sleeping all night. Go Honda! Go japan! Go Nakazawa! (it also helps take the edge off the heartbreaking sumo scandal rocking japan.)
Its hard being the mother of an archaeologist. It means you have to search out ruins and archaeological sites and really old stuff no matter where you go. Today it was Asuka, which, as I explained to Will, if Kyoto is the ancient capital of japan and Nara is the ancient ancient capital of japan, then Asuka is the ancient ancient ancient capital. It is about an hour train ride south of Nara and was home to the first 6th to 7th century capital. Accordingly it is filled with ancient emperor tombs and mausoleums. Accordingly it was a place Will was sure to like.
We also have learned something about ourselves — we like going to quiet, off-beat places. Will especially dislikes the hordes of uniformed school children who squeal “kawaii!” (Meaning Cute!) at Will and want to take his photo. Asuka was nice — a bit rainy and very very humid today, but quiet. We were able to explore some tombs and gravesites of an emperor who died in707. But the archaeological museum was closed, which was sad. It would be fun to come back someday and rent bikes and explore more.
We also went to the showpiece of nara’s 1,300-year commemoration — a reconstruction of the ancient capital reception hall, but we were underwhelmed. The colors were cool, not garish red but a lovely rust color, but we prefer the actually super old sites. And again, Will hates the crowds.
One final note on how small the world is. We were walking down a narrow shopping street in naramachi, and Will was singing a song with his favorite word (rhymes with tut) and I saw a child ahead with brown hair and I said, shhh Americans may be ahead and they will hear you. And those Americans turned out to be an old classmate of Will’s from the international school, Madoka. Random encounter — the kids didn’t remember each other despite the fact they played after school together nearly every day and we have adorable pics of them at the rose festival together. The final small world moment was picking up the Asahi shim bun newspaper and seeing on the front page a story by my friend Miguel. Writing for the nyt but picked up here. Hi Miguel, Japan is reading your stories!
We are headed out to Tokyo tomorrow, and then on to Portland Sunday. Looking forward to seeing Daddy again — we have been gone a long time.
The Thompson Attigs 