Leaving Japan for Singapore!

This morning, we woke up and attended our last museum, the National Showa Memorial Museum. It was specifically looking at Japanese life before and after WWII. People were starving. People were sad and angry, disgraced....it was shocking to see the other side of the story. We always think of the sailor kissing the nurse in Times Square and all the joyous faces. In Japan, they had to deal with radiation poisoning, the loss of the war, famine, and how many children became orphans.

They had all kinds of vintage movie posters, household appliances, outfits, and even textbooks. They spoke of how the schools in the 40's were designed to train the children how to fight in combat. So sad. They had a vintage fridge, television, and a washing machine on display too.

After the museum, we walked to see the Imperial Palace which is only open 2 days a year, and we weren't here on one of those days. Oh well. There's an enormous moat surrounding it as well as a monstrous wall. We couldn't see anything.

At the airport, we got some mochi, totoro keychains for our Christmas tree, and Aaron got some Pocari Sweat which just tastes like blue gatorade. Yummy. I hate the fact that it says sweat though. I always feel like I'm drinking bottled sweat.....ick!

Also, we tried this thing. I have no clue what it is. Not a single English word on the bottle except the company name. It wasn't bad. Guess we'll never know.

Tokyo City Dome

Aaron and I woke up around 7 AM (crazy, right?!) to do one more dip in the onsen. We got a private 2 seater and it was nice, but also extremely hot so it made me sweat. We then got very brave and tried out the PUBLIC onsen, meaning that Aaron was bathing with random men and I would be bathing with random women. Yes, I finally got the courage. Unfortunately, when I got into the room, there wasn't a single woman in there. I sat in the huge tub for a few minutes, but again, it was too hot. We ended our relaxation with a trip to the massage chairs. Aaaahhhh! Breakfast was meh. I ate all my rice. The problem for me in these "prix fixe" places always serve some weird shit.

After returning back to Tokyo, we decided to wander around our neighborhood. Since we had the rest of our trip planned out, today was just for checking out random places and keeping busy. We found a cute bakery that had cream puffs in cute shapes. Of course, they had a totoro, and yes, I got one.

Yummy. We decided that with our time, we should see the Tokyo City Dome. It's an entire shopping complex that also has a baseball field, ferris wheel, and a TON of "quarter" games.

Aaron got a Mitsuya lemon lime drink. It was super sweet. I loved it. Him, not so much.

Once we arrived at Tokyo Dome City, we tried to waste time (much of this day was just to waste time until we could do dinner and sleep) I found a store that had little Jiji's from Kiki's Delivery Service. I mean, everything had Jiji on it! So cute! I was squealing the entire day! Also, Totoro on everything....not the sisters, just Totoro.  I bought myself and my sisters little wash cloths.

Look, they even had a baby set that was Totoro themed. A Catbus rattle?! Are you kidding me?! Ovaries=exploded!

Dinner was at yet another sushi train place. This one was not as good as the one in Kyoto and more expensive. The selection was not nearly as big for me, and the chefs spoke a lot more English making me feel less authentic. It was tasty, but I didn't get awesome rolls like roast beef or corn. Le sigh.

On to the Onsen!

This morning, we got up and went for the last time to the massage chairs for a morning back rub. Also, Aaron tried out a massager for just his feet. He was in heaven. We then searched for food at the train station, but surprisingly, nothing was really opened before 11 AM, so we stepped into a waffle restaurant that only served waffles meant for dessert. Mine was covered in ice cream, macarons, and whipped cream. I wish all waffles came with this kind of dressing.

We took the train to a stop about an hour away from Tokyo and met up with Liam, Kelly, Chris, and Jess....it was Onsen time! We took a short 10 minute little train to a smaller city, then took a cab that led us to our spa. It was like a movie. All the workers were in yukatas and little sandals. We got the grand tour and then sent to our rooms to change and get ready. Our room had twin beds and was super Japanese looking. I was pretty stoked.

The weirdest part of yukatas for me was "free balling" the whole time. As in, no underwear, no bra. Just nakedness. We all got dressed, met in the hall, and then proceeded to a foot bath area where the water was steaming hot and had river rocks in the bottom. Felt good, but was making me sweaty. Was it really that smart to go to a hot bath in the middle of summer. Onsens are supposed to make you stress free and feel good, but for the first hour, it was pretty stressful for me, having to bathe with Kelly and Jess and barely knowing them. Americans are very weirded out by nudity, like it's a bad thing. It's private. Going into our private bath, we all stripped down, then showered (because the Japanese believe that you should be clean before entering the bath), and waded in the water. It was SO hot!

After the bath, I came back to our room and changed yukatas to a prettier one that I got to pick out upon arrival. I tried to tie my obi correctly, but it was slightly too short and not as stiff as a normal obi, so my bow looked a little like poo. This is me tying it. 

Dinner was overwhelming. So many things that I don't eat, and it's all that was served. We had shabu shabu which I recognized and enjoyed. My plate had no sashimi on it because we let the chefs know that I don't eat raw fish. The worst part of the meal was for sure the abalone. We had grill flames in front of all of us, and then a waitress put a live abalone on each. You could see them squirming as they slowly cooked. I felt terrible. I actually had to look away and try not to cry. It also smelled like burning flesh which was very unappetizing. My abalone did not die for naught, as I served him to the other 5 at the table.

Everyone rushed off to do another bath, drink sake, and eventually go to bed. The boys went into town to buy sake for everyone and on the way, saw a shooting gallery where Liam won a "sun medallion" that he proceeded to wear for the rest of the night, much to Kelly's chagrin as it was embarrassing. The night ended with Liam drunkingly dancing while sticking an entire pack of Pringles in his mouth, spitting them out as he laughed at himself.

A day of remembrance!

Up early to do a day trip to Hiroshima. It's always been a dream/wish for me to go to Hiroshima. The first chapter book I ever read was "Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes" which I picked myself from the Glen Speck library. What crazy reading material for a 3rd grader. We picked up some breakfast from the train station (we are realizing now that Tokyo station has amazing food, but that it's rare). Train was only about 2 hours.

They were doing renovations to part of the museum so we couldn't see everything but I don't think I could've seen much more. It was very intense and sad. I had never thought much about what happened to those on the ground in Hiroshima, except radiation poisoning. When I learned about WWII, we see photos of Americans celebrating or the sailor kissing the nurse in Times Square. The pictures in this museum were shocking. Sad. Terrible.

This model showed where the bomb exploded (above ground for most damage above ground) and the damage it left. Very few buildings survived.

They had artifacts, clothing, sandals, a lunchbox with charred food still inside. Most of the audio guide tales were of school children ages 7-17 mostly.

This tricycle was a 3 year old's prized possession and when he died, they buried him with the trike. 40 years later, the family decided to give the child a proper burial and donated the helmet and trike to the museum. So sad.

The yukatas worn by women were charred and burned, and the photo on the wall is a woman's back. It's hard to imagine what these people went through, both in physical and emotional pain. I felt mostly terrible for those who didn't die immediately. The ones who died immediately truly were the lucky ones.

The peace dome is very elegant and a beautiful tribute.

They had a children's memorial. Sadako's parents helped raise the money to keep her memory as well as all the children who died. There was a bell with a metal crane on the inside.

The shrine had millions of paper cranes that people had left. I didn't know how to fold one (I've never been able to figure it out) so I just marveled at all the colors and patterns on the origami paper.

The biggest reminder of the bomb falling was the Dome. For some reason, the building didn't topple, but anyone inside died and the entire structure was unusable. Japan decided to keep it erected and try to maintain how it looked right after the bomb to remind others of what can happen with Atomic bombs.

After contemplating the whole afternoon, we changed pace by getting lunch. Our tour book said that Hiroshima's signature dish is "okonomiyaki" which is fried cabbage, noodles, a pancake type batter, with egg and some steak sauce. (ok, those are not the exact ingredients but you get the gist) It was delicious but very heavy. They handed us small spatulas and we ate it right off the grill.

Back to the train, we bought some cute pancake type treats filled with red bean. They were a delicious fiber filled snack for the ride back to Kyoto.

For dinner, we tried a skewers place. We sat at the bar so we could watch the chef make it all. He was probably the largest Japanese person we've seen the entire trip with the teeniest skewers ever. Pretty funny to watch him turn each one over hot coals. The parts on the skewers were not as tasty as they look, however. I think we got chicken neck, chicken "buttock", and a quail egg one that was wrapped in bacon.

After dinner, we checked out Gion, the area famous for the super expensive restaurants and Geishas. The area was quiet and well lit for a night stroll. We sped through as we weren't going to step into a bar, and quickly went back to Game Panic where we spent another $20 and 2 hours putting medals into a game.

Monkeys, Bamboo, Manga, and Tempura!

We woke up somewhat late today, making it difficult to decide what to eat because we had a whole slew of things we wanted to do, so sitting in a restaurant that had table service was not in favor. We opted for McDonalds (once per country) and I got a tonkatsu burger, while Aaron got an Ebi burger. For those who don't know, Tonkatsu is fried pork chop, and ebi is shrimp. I really liked mine which came with a BBQ type sauce. Aaron thought his was only ok. We both opted for a side of corn rather than the typical fries.

We took a bus half an hour to Arashiyama, which is at the base of the nearby mountains. According to our tour book, it's the second most visited area in Kyoto. We were there for 2 things; Monkey Park and the bamboo forest. 

Monkey park is literally a small mountain covered in monkeys. Not pictures, but real, live monkeys! The admission was super cheap (less than $5USD per person) and took us about 15 minutes to walk up the rocky terrain. There were signs everywhere that stated the 3 rules of Monkey Park.

1. Don't look monkey in the eye. (I kept laughing at this translation as it sounds like someone's name is Monkey.)
2. Don't feed monkey.
3. Don't touch monkey.

Pretty simple right?

When we got to the top, it was very crowded with other tourists. There was a place where you could pay 100 yen to feed the monkeys through a gate, but we get to do that every year at the Puerta Vallarta Zoo so we skipped it. Monkeys were everywhere. Climbing on motorcycles and rooftops, jumping into a pond, even fighting. They were free to roam where they wanted to go. After 10 minutes, we decided we'd had enough. Im not even that much of a monkey fan, but it was something cool to see. You would never see animals like this in America as someone would ruin it for everyone with a lawsuit.

The monkeys for sure had an amazing view of Kyoto. I bet they don't even appreciate it.

For snack, we popped into a 7/11 and I bought a snack in the ice cream section called Coolish. Maybe that means that the person wielding the package is coolish as well.....It was soft serve. I was a little underwhelmed.

On the way to the bamboo forest, we stopped into a temple (HUGE) called Tenryu-ji, which is mostly known for its Zen garden which was designed in the 14th century. It was peaceful but full of hills so rather than focusing on the Zen in my body was listening to my heart beat pick up and my breath increase.

The bamboo forest was by far the coolest thing in this area. The stalks were so tall. It was super crowded with tourists. Even some Japanese people wearing Yukatas and the wooden sandals. Even some of the men. We got one instant where no one appeared behind us so we got a shot.

On the way back to downtown, Aaron bought the drink we've been fretting over....what the hell IS salt and fruit?! Happily, it's only litchi drink. Phew. That could have been so much worse!

With 2 hours left in our day before things closed, we paid a visit to the Manga Museum. We kept mentioning how much my little sister would LOVE to visit.

This is one of the walls of Manga. And that's what they call it; Wall of Manga. Though, there are about 20 of these stretches of books. Aaron picked up a random book called "Cooking Papa" and actually liked it. (He couldn't read it, but the pictures and story line were interesting to him) He's going to download it.

There was an interesting exhibit throughout the museum of a single character designed by different Manga artists. Here are 8 examples of the same character as drawn by 8 different artists. There were literally hundreds of these wall coverings.

There was also an exhibit on Manga dealing with WWII. Japan has been using Manga for over a century, so they are more into cartoons, fantasy, etc. The drawings in that wing were extremely sad.

We headed back to Kyoto Station to buy tickets to leave. We've been noticing these weird triangle shaped dessert things at all the train stations so I decided to buy some. They were a mochi but in a different shape, so I've been calling them mochi tacos. This was peach flavor. I also sampled green tea (easiest green tea thing I've ever tasted), strawberry, and cinnamon.

 

For dinner, we decided it was time to try a tempura place, but not the expensive route. We went to a shopping mall and searched for a place that would work. We picked one where you could watch the cook dipping and frying the food. While not super interesting (it's just frying food after all), it was so cheap and tasted pretty good. This was before I got any of my meat!

And no trip to the shopping mall would be complete without a session in the massage chairs. These were the most intense chairs! After a full day of walking on our feet, these things compressed and pushed our toes and ankles. It felt amazing.

I ended the night with this weird looking cup thing from a freezer. It was bubble gum tasting. It was not my favorite. But I was happy to try something. I'm much more adventurous with desserts.