If It's Monday This Must Be Nikko

I will try to add pictures to this later, but I'm writing from the hotel in Sapporo, so I can't post any of my pictures right now (I'm using Tim's computer).

Monday morning, we walked to the station and caught a train for Nikko. I've posted entries about that before, but briefly, it's considered to be one of the most impressive temple complexes in Japan. (Actually, many people here consider it to be ostentatious--it is VERY ornate.) Even though I've visited about five times now, I'm still impressed every time I see it. They are currently doing some restoration, so part of the floor is being replaced in the main temple, and it was actually very interesting to see the process. They are, of course, doing it with the traditional construction techniques that were used to build it.

After we toured the main temple site, we walked along a pathway into an area that I had never seen before. We didn't stay there long, but it was good to see another section I hadn't toured before, and it was amazing how large the complex is.

After that, we walked almost to the edge of the town to the emperor's former summer villa. The imperial family stopped using it a while back, and it was subsequently turned into a museum. I will post pictures and video links later. I don't think even then it will be possible to communicate the feeling that it gives you; even though the lines and forms created by the architecture are rather simple, the overall feeling is very impressive. It's one of the most graceful, elegant, refined places I have ever seen.

In a building next to the villa, there is small museum exhibition space, and they were having an origami display. Tim had seen posters for this exhibition in Utsunomiya, and I didn't know where it was being held, and planned to find it later, so when it was exactly where we were already visiting, it was a great addition to the trip. The origami art was amazing; I had no idea it was possible to make so many different animals (and other items) with origami.

Tim also sampled the local microbrewed beer in the first stage of what I am now thinking of as the "Japan beer tour" (Tim, I'm just giving details--like I said, it's your vacation, and I'm happy to share the experience with you!)

Unfortunately, we didn't have time to see the Chuzenjiko area, but I knew we already had plans to see a beautiful natural area on the Hokkaido part of our trip later. (And we certainly did! We visited Onuma Quasi National Park (yes, that's really the name), but more about that later.)

We got home, and started to prepare for the Hokkaido trip.

It's late, and tomorrow is our last day in Sapporo, so I need to go to bed--more later.

Tokyo Highlights

This morning we took the shinkansen to Tokyo for a quick trip to some of the famous highlights of Tokyo. We started in Ueno Park. It's a very international place, and has kind of a fun vibe most of the time, so we walked around and enjoyed the atmosphere. A more serious part of the park is the small peace memorial that I have referred to before. There is a monument with a flame that was lit from the fires burning in the Hiroshima and Nagasaki peace memorials. That's the picture with Tim. Next we went for a short trip through the National Art Museum to see a small sampling of the permanent collection there that focuses on the history of Japan. Like I mentioned, we didn't stay long, but it's an amazing place to get a feel for Japanese culture, art and history even if you have just a short time.

Next we visited the Akihabara "Electric Town" district. I hadn't been there since the violence that occurred several weeks back, and even though it seemed to be mostly back to normal, they have installed some security and crowd control devices that were not there before. It's sad that there are mentally troubled people who can't find the help that they need, and also sad that the violence there has caused so many repercussions.

We went to a much more light-hearted place after that: Harajuku. There weren't as many cosplayers there today as there are sometimes, but it was fun to see the scene and also listen to the street performers and watch one magician who was doing a pretty cool trick.

Next we went to Shibuya and checked out Tower Records there. That music store has the reputation of stocking nearly any mainstream artist's CD ever produced. People say that if you can't find a CD there, it doesn't exist. A little bit of an exaggeration probably, but a fun place anyway.

After that, we went to the observation deck on the 44th (?) floor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building in Shinjuku. There are other observation areas in buildings in Tokyo, but this is the only significant one that's free. It's not quite as nice as the others I've been to (the other buildings very carefully arrange the lighting so there are few reflections in the windows for picture takers) but I did manage to get one picture that turned out OK of the amazing sunset. Just after I took this picture, a huge storm was moving past to the north. I took a couple of videos of that, and will try to post them later.

We just got home about 90 minutes ago. Tomorrow we're planning to go to Nikko, and I've got to go to bed.

More later . . .

Welcome, Tim

On the first full day of Tim's trip to Japan, we took Shinya up on his offer to hang out and have lunch with us. Tota also joined us (sort of-well, he rode in the car to and from the shopping arcade). So Tim got to see downtown Utsunomiya and have a gyoza lunch.

After returning to my house, we went online and looked up information about geocaches here in town. (Geocaching is a sport / hobby / activity that Tim has enjoyed for quite some time, playing in America, Norway, Denmark and Japan, so far.) We found a few good possibilities, and then headed to Utsunomiya Station by bicycle. The first picture is Tim looking around for the cache (with GPS indicator in hand). We found the cache a few minutes later. According to the game, you're not supposed to give any more specific location information than this picture, so as Forrest Gump would say, "that's all I have to say about that."

The next picture is in Utsunomiya Castle Ruins Park where another geocache is located. That was our second goal, but we couldn't find that one. The GPS indicator showed that we were VERY close, but we couldn't quite find it. After returning to my house, we went online and checked for some more clues, and we have a pretty good guess of where the cache is hidden now. We might go back and check again later.

We're planning to go to Tokyo tomorrow. I'll try to keep this up-to-date, at least through Monday. On Tuesday we leave for a five-day trip to Hokkaido, and I'm not sure how much blogging I'll do from there, but will update after we return if I don't from there.

Another Big Quake

Just a quick update: a large earthquake struck northern Honshu last night. A little after midnight, I felt the house start to move. Although I didn't think it would ever happen, I've kind of gotten used to earthquakes (at least small ones) so I just stood still for a second to see how strong it would be. It got stronger, and lasted about 30 seconds, and I was JUST about to go downstairs and out the door when it stopped. No damage at all around here, but as I said, the center was fairly far north, and to be felt that strongly, that far away, it must have been fairly big.

Sorry I haven't kept up on posts recently; I've been finishing up classes and preparing for my cousin (-in-law; but I usually just say cousin) Tim to arrive. He will fly into Narita tomorrow, and spend about 11 days here, including a much-anticipated trip to Hokkaido. See you tomorrow, Tim!

Independence Day

Happy 4th of July! My second July 4th in Japan-not a holiday HERE, of course, but a good day anyway. I went to Starbucks and Wendy's to celebrate! (Well, not really to celebrate...) The special promotion hamburger at Wendy's right now is the curry double cheeseburger --WOW, it was great! And I had a green tea frappuccino (uh-oh; I'm starting to like coffee-ish beverages!). It's really fun sometimes to see the Japanese take on American culture.

It's still officially the rainy season here right now, but it doesn't seem to be as rainy this year as it was last year during this time. It did rain during the night, and then was cloudy and VERY humid this morning. In the low 80s with humidity over 90%, so it felt much hotter than it really was. A huge storm passed by just to the east of the city earlier this evening. I could see flashes of lightning on the horizon about every ten seconds for several minutes, but it didn't quite make it here. Very amazing clouds though! One of those times that I wished I had my camera with me.

I'm going to a tea ceremony tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to an interesting culture experience.

More later . . .