I posted of square composite of these chopsticks on January 1st, in celebration of Oshogatsu. This photograph was included in the composite, but it has a different feel when you see the full-size of this one.
I’m not much of a product photographer, but I feel like it can be something valuable to know. So here’s to that.
These chop sticks are the most memorable souvenir I have from my trip to Japan back in 2009. I bought them on our overnight trip to the Hakone region in the mountains. I liked the chop them for what they were visually, but upon further research on them, I have discovered a bigger value in them. The packaging of the chop sticks included a small note in English indicating the name of the design technique, as well as their handcrafted nature and uniqueness to the region.
I don’t understand what my fascination is with this ground markers. They mark the area that you’re in, or heading to, in a stylized, logo-like way. They’re easily recognizable, comforting you if you’re in the right place, and worrying you if you’re not. I’ll keep collecting them and maybe I’ll understand.
Continuing this series of posts from Alt Photo, I bring you to my favorite photo from the Albumen Process. We were introduced to this process during an Artist Workshop at the Museum of Contemporary Art in downtown Jacksonville (of which UNF has recently taken ownership). The artist that hosted this workshop was a well-known alternative process Fine Arts photographer Dan Estabrook, where he taught and guided us for three days through the 19th century process.
On the second day of the workshop, Dan also gave an inspiring lecture on his work to fellow students and faculty. We were given some great insight into his work, how to be an artist, and how to make work from within.
One excellent piece of advice he gave me during a personal meeting was how your work may not convey every specific point you wanted to your viewer, including back history, where it came from, etc. The viewer doesn’t have to know those things to have it be a successful piece, but it still has to come from there. That back story blends itself into the photo, making it’s story and history evident in it’s visual qualities.
Which brings me to this photo. Dan said those things in reference to this photograph. This was taken up in the mountains during my trip to Japan. We stayed in Hakone, in a lakeside hotel. When we woke, we were at such an elevation that we were in a literal cloud. Before our bus ride back down the mountain I looked out the window and had this. Raindrops were on the window while you can see a tree and the lake in the background. It references the physical and spiritual beauty of the place.
Disclaimer: I know that the above print is a Salt Print. But the two were nearly identical and I don’t have a scanned version of my Albumen print which is now framed.
Woops. Well, it seems like it’s been almost a week since these events have unfolded and I’m just now making a blog post about it all. Since I’ve arrived back in the states, missing Tokyo immensely, I have been on such an extraordinary sleep schedule, sleeping for at most four hours at a time. It’s been odd, but I’m sure I’ll be back to normal in a few days.
Because of this lag, I have been uninspired to write about anything (and busy with going back to work), until now, at 3am, unable to sleep. So, I decided to grab some Koala snacks (today’s flavor is chocolate) and some Anpanman gummies and sit back and wish I was still in Tokyo.
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So, we awoke in the morning after our rest in the traditional Japanese hotel room, sleeping the longest amount of time since we’ve been there – about 10 hours! We slept til 8:30 or so, then got ready, ate some breakfast at the hotel, and headed off to catch our bus to begin our departure back to wards Tokyo. Now, this wasn’t a straight journey. We took many different forms of transportation so that we took our time, saw some scenery, and experienced it all.
We awoke in the middle of a cloud. It was extremely foggy and wet outside as we got into the bus and left the hotel.
This is what it looked like outside. And to top that off, it was VERY breezy – I’m talking about 4omph gusts that blew us away.
Onwards, we changed buses a few times and while we had some time at one of the stations be went into a small shop for some snacks, and to much of my surprise, they had some beloved toy capsule machines. Yes, I love those things. This particular one that I visited had some Hello Kitty merchandise, such as small pouches and watches. So, I got a kickass Hello Kitty pouch that I kept on my belt loop and kept all my coins in:
I was styling in that, I know. Mana and Brittany got a kick out of it (Mana called me Ben-chan haha).
One of the main attractions that we visited on our journey down the mountains was to visit the hot springs that were prevalent along certain spots. It said at one point that these hot springs could reach up to 80° Celcius!
So, why not. Let’s go check them out.
After what seemed like a half mile worth of steps up towards where the springs were in this particular location (and through a cloud, none the less), we arrived at a small peak where there were pools of hot springs all around.
This one was larger than some of the other ones around. A note about this spot: they had carriages that rode on ropes/wires that were guided some 100ft above the walkways that carried eggs from the peak to the bottom to be transported. These eggs were hard boiled in the sulfur water of the hot springs, then taken out to be sold and eaten. There was a small shop at the the peak that we visited and Mr. Watanabe purchases some eggs for us.
This is what they look like before you eat them, and they’re hot too! They feel like they came right out of the boiling water.
Well, you peel the shells off, pour a bit of salt on the eggs and you devour. Well, they taste like a hard boiled egg! Imagine that. Now, as legend goes, eggs that are boiled in these hot springs give whoever eats them increased longevity and lifespan. So, I just gained 5 years from that egg. Go me.
The next highlight of the descent that we visited was getting on a ropeway car to take us down the mountain to catch a train. Now, as I mentioned earlier, it was very windy this high up and the thought of being suspended by a couple cables a few hundred feet above a sloping landscape was not a pleasant thought and I was a bit unwiling to that idea.
By the time we rounded the corner and looked at the equipment, and how it was not nearly as primitive as my mind made it out to be (I’m sure the name “ropeway” didn’t help), I was rather comforted. The ride down the mountain was very smooth and quiet, and it had such a wonderful view.
You could see everything from the height and perspective. It was also rather nifty that at the 11o’clock angle from the zipline, there was a kanji carved in the mountain. “Big” is what it represented, I was told. Pretty clever. You can’t really do that with English words, in my opinion. It’s not as simple and symbolic as the Japanese writing is, though that could be my biased perspective.
We landed safely after the ropeway ride into a transportation station, where we had a few minutes to hang around. So, we went out to a deck area that had a great view of the scenery to take some photos!
He we are, the four of us again! Notice that Mana is standing on the ledge and is barely taller than all of us. Haha. So tiny…
Finally, a few train rides later, we arrive in a small town that has many small shops and restaurants. Our final train back to Tokyo left about two hours after we got there, so we got some lunch, shopped a bit, and hung out there for a while.
Here is Mr. Watanabe showing us our current transportation on a map. He is pointing to where our hotel was, and we are currently at the big red spot on the far right-middle on the map. Our journey took us north along the lake, then headed east through all the words that are on the map, until we arrived in this small town.
Here’s an image of the sidewalk of the small town. Its just a bunch of small shops and souvenir stores all along the main road. Brittany, Tyler and I spent a good hour going up and down these stores, buying things for ourselves and for gifts for other, while the rest of the group went to a public garden to see the flowers on display there.
And hour later, we all met up at the train station to catch our final ride back to Tokyo. We took a “Romancecar” which took us straight to Shinjuku station.
Here is the Romancecar arriving to pick us all up. Now, this was a semi-direct passenger train for personal transportation. The seats were comparable to an airplane, but with much more legroom. It was a very comfortable ride back to Tokyo.
The train ride was a solid hour-and-a-half journey, which was enough time to see some rice fields along the way, take a short nap, and snap a interesting photo in the reflection of the window.
The girl that was sitting a few seats in front of me was just being cute the whole ride. She is facing towards me because the seats can be turned around to face the rear of the train if people you know are sitting behind you and you can pull out a larger table. So, her seat was turned around and it was humorous to watch her be cute the whole way, and to get an interesting reflection photo.
Now, we have arrived back in Tokyo and I had to pick up my tripod from the reception place for the wedding, as I left it there by mistake (I had an epiphany a day prior and remembered that I didn’t have it, so we called and they held it for us). So, I journeyed out there with Mrs. Watanabe as my guide so I didn’t get lost, then met back up with everyone else, plus Bill, in Shibuya as I wanted to get photos of the incredibly busy intersection and busy lifestyle there. So, what’s the best place to meet people in Shibuya? By the Hachiko statue of course!
This is Hachiko, the dog (well, his statue). For those unfamiliar with the story of Hachiko, here’s a brief summary: he was a loyal dog during the 1930′s to a man who took the trains across Tokyo for work. Hachiko met his owner at the local train station in Shibuya every evening to greet him and head back home, but one day, the owner died while at work and never returned. Hachiko, being the loyal dog that he is waited there for the rest of his life for the owner, escaping from those who tried to adopt him. For the next 10+ years, he lived around the Shibuya station, fed and cared for by those that frequented the station. This is the second statue erected for him 1948, as the first statue was used for it’s metal during WWII.
Okay, so I was moved by his story. Gotta love such an adorable, loyal dog.
At this point, we all were together and headed for some familiar food – American Pizza at Shakey’s. It was VERY cheesy, but a solid meal for all of since it was such a familiar recipe.
Filled tummies, a bit of shopping in the hip area of Shibuya, then I couldn’t leave without getting a good view of the intersection.
This is of decent quality considering the circumstances: I had to shoot through reinforced (by small wires embedded in it) glass, on top of not being able to use my tripod to it’s full abilities as I couldn’t place my camera directly against the glass while on the tripod. I needed to place it against the glass to get rid of all the lines in the glass and to minimize any glare from the lights, though you can still see a lot of glare, especially on the left side of the image.
But, you get the picture (haha…). A busy, awesome place. I could see myself hanging out in a place like this.
So, we headed back to bed at this point. It was getting late, and our final day in Japan was coming up, which we had planned to be a full shopping day throughout the whole city.
There are many, many more photos on my Flickr page too if you want to see more! (Follow the link on the right sidebar. It says “Flickr.” Can’t go wrong.
-Ben
Well, after the late night of karaoke, we pulled into the hotel room at about 2pm and fell asleep. That got me over the jet lag for sure. But we slept in late, and my preparations took a bit too long and we had to run to catch our bus out to Hakone, which took about two-and-a-half hours to get there.
We went up mountain roads, through small mountain towns and I got to see mountains for the first time in my life. Yeah, if you can believe it. All my life, I’ve only lived in coastal states and cities, where it’s relatively flat. I’ve lived in proximity to salt water all my life, thus I haven’t been able to see mountains. So, for my virgin eyes, they were spectacularly beautiful.
I mean, seriously. Absolutely gorgeous. This is screensaver-worthy here.
Moving on, more hairpin style turns (that would go great for drifting – Initial D style!), and 2.5hrs into the bus ride and we arrive at Hotel de Yama, which is on the lakeside of Ashinoko (Lake Ashi), more on that later. The hotel was quite upscale, fancy, and very hospitable. Us young’ins stayed in a Japanese style room, while the adults stayed in a western room with regular beds – what you would normally expect in a hotel room.
Here I am standing in the first room you walk into after the foyer area, looking into the sitting room. Each room is divided with the sliding dividers, and the room smelled like Japan, if it would have a distinctive smell. To camera-left, the whole wall was made of windows and sliding glass doors that overlook the garden and the Ashinoko. The bathrooms were interesting japanese style, too where the showers are built into the wall and you sit on a small wooden stool to bathe, while the tub was built into the ground (photos on Flickr). I enjoyed this change of pace. During dinner, they would come into our rooms and prepare our beds, which would lie on the floor.
We went up to the fifth floor to look out of the observatory, where we can see the entire lake, the mountains and the gardens. And Mt. Fuji (in the distance, and for five minutes until the clouds cover it)!!!!
Mt. Fuji was a bit clearer in real life, but still hard to see through the haze and the clouds. But I saw it. 
It was a really great view of the whole landscape and such a beautiful place to be in.
Before dinner, we headed on a walk down a small trail that was along the lake, which led to small town and a Shinto temple.
This is us “kids” in front of the Gate of the Gods (?) that marks all the Shinto temples. This was the sea port entrance, and there were others up the hill, closer to the temple.
After a long hike up many flights of stairs, we arrive at Kosho Temple, which, as explained to me, was named after the emperor of the time it was built, some 2400 years ago (with renovations, of course).
This is the initial gate in to the main temple. The decorations and design of their buildings is interesting and definitely different than western-style, though not nowing much about architecture, I couldn’t tell you the first thing.
Now, walking down towards the town more, we stopped on a small bridge, and wow, what a view it had.
You could rent a small boat and ride it on the river, take a ferry (pirate) ship accross the lake, or fish from the docks.
This lake, Ashinoko, is one of five lakes around Mt. Fuji that were formed from it’s volcanic activity. The eruptions flowed so far that they blocked off and covered parts of a nearby river, enclosing and forming five lakes, including this one.
We then ventured into town and stopped at a few small shops, turned around and saw this wonderful view of this mesa with a small building atop it:
Everywhere I turned, everything was just so strikingly beautiful and there was something new to look at around every corner.
Just on the other side of the road was a cool piece of history.
This is the original dirt and gravel road, from about 400 years ago, that connected Tokyo and Osaka. Obviously, people traveled by foot and carriage (?) between the two cities down this long road.
After this, we headed back to the hotel and prepared for a relaxing time in the bathhouse. When I went, it was Tyler, Mr. Watanabe, and myself. So, for clarification, yes, this is where you bathe in public, surrounded by other people. Honestly, it took about 2 minutes to get used to and everything was fine. Mr. Watanabe walked me through the customs of the bath house, and the importance of it. It can link each other’s friendships and improve their communication, all while getting relaxed in the very warm bath water. I consider it male bonding time, and it really is.
This particular bath house had an indoor and smaller out door bath, showers all along the walls, a sauna (which was about 90degrees Celcius; and I have never been in a sauna, so I lasted about 2 mins), massage chairs, a large sink and grooming area, and different specific massages devices for your feet, etc. Overall it was extremely relaxing and you can feel the spiritual energy in there. Of course, as it was a bunch of naked dudes in there, I didn’t get any photos. But I’m sure you can understand that. Just trust me when I saying that it was well worth the personal exposure, which isn’t that bad, really.
I took a quick stroll through the gardens just before dinner as well, and took some photos with the fleeting daylight. Being so high in altitude, it was also very foggy from, well, being inside of a cloud, which gave it another eerie feel.
This is Ashinoko inside of a cloud, but you can feel a bit more surrealism to it.
Monochromatic-the-sun-is-gone type of light.
This is one of my favorites because of the different colored lights. The blue was from the fleeting dusk light, while the yellow lights were coming from the building nearby, so get complimentary colors in a dreamy atmosphere. There’s a small figure in the distance on the road also (Mr. Watanabe), which adds a nice final touch.
Following this, we had a very upscale Japanese dinner. Simply put, Brittany and I didn’t eat much. Haha. It was just a little out of my palette range, but Mana had a quite a bit more than us. She even said that it was a bit too much for her.
So, we were all ready to pass out by then, and our beds were there waiting for us. We slept for about 10 hours up in the mountains.
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Now, at 10:30am on Tuesday morning, my final full day in Tokyo, it’s a bunch of shopping and eating at ramen stands and curry shops for me. I’ll get to Monday possibly tonight.
Adios.
-Ben
To start, this was a bit less of a touristy day, and more of making sure that the wedding goes well and according to plan, as well as getting the instructions I so dearly needed.
I’m not going to pretend like I posting this at the end of the day either. Haha. It was taking too long for the photos to export to be uploaded ans posted so I just went to bed. So it’s about 8:45am Saturday and I’ll get through it quickly.
We needed to prepare ourselves for the big wedding that’s tomorrow, which is the main reason we’re here. So, we took a train and bus ride to the site that they’re having it, which is quite huge. Well, on our way out, we grabbed so First Kitchen (“FuKin” lol) for some grub, then hopped on the train.
First Kitchen, a city fast food joint. Has some unique food (to me). And one thing about these fast food joints, is that the people that work there still have pride in themselves and their jobs. No slacking, even for a McD’s job.
On to the train and off to Chinzan-so, which is the resort/hotel area that the wedding will be in. Inside the main building, they have salons, photo studios (using medium format Mamiyas with film backs, no less), and ballrooms. And it’s very upscale. Outside, there is a walking trail that will take you around to various landmarks within it: older buildings, gardens, bridges, and waterfalls.
Here’s a map of the grounds. You can see how big it is and how a photographer would have a great time shooting here, as I will be today. We took the tour of the walking path around the gardens. First stop was the waterfall:
Everyone except me. Cuz I took it, but that’s okay. From left to right: Hiroko (Mana’s mom), Brittany, Janis, Tyler, Mana, Steve, Cliff (blinking).
There were a few small Shinto shrines along the way also that have small sculpures dedicated to specific gods. By far my favorite was this kick-ass little fox with the meanest look on his face.
Grrrrrr. He looks so mean. And they say he likes fried tofu. It’s his favorite.
We wandered to a few more places with good photo opportunites, then back in side so Tyler and Mana can have a final fitting into their clothes for the next day. This is their western outfits that they will be changing into in the middle of the reception. They’re wearing more Japanese traditional outfits throughout the beginning, though they are not having any sort of ceremony, as they’re not Shinto, and they’re already married. Haha.
Though she looks like she’s a good height next to him, she’s really not. She’s got some good heels on. She’s 4’11″. 
But wow, she’s got some good tastes in dresses.
The only thing left on the agenda after this was to have dinner with Hiroko’s family a few hours later. By the time we got back to Shinjuku (where we’re staying), we only had about an hour left, so went through a few stores, but they were quite a bit too expensive.
But through the rail stations I saw some interesting ads:
Brittany actually pointed out this fact to me: In America, there is a bit of diversity in who is represented in the ads, but here in Tokyo, they are ALL Japanese. Well, I have seen a few white people in ads, but only to represent the fair skin and beauty of it. Or if it’s a foreign product. And this is pretty representational of the population. We have estimated that over 99% of the people we’ve seen are Japanese.
This is the large buildings we went into for shopping. Lumine is built like a mall, but vertically built rather than taking up more ground, which is what you have to do here. There were many many stores in there, but quite expensive. I’m talking 21,100Y for a skirt (about $210!). yikes. But it’s Tokyo fashion.
On to dinner, we met up with Bill and Cliff, which we intern met up with Hiroko and her side of the family at a Korean restaurant just a building over from Lumine. Now, when we had some off time and went browsing through the stores, I slipped back into the hotel for a minute (just two blocks away) and took some Dramamine pills because I felt a little motion sick from the bus ride. Yeah, way to go dumbass. By the time the food came and we were cooking it on the grill, I felt like I wanted to just lay down right there and go to sleep because of the pills (and for some reason, I didn’t realize that at the time). We all kept blaming it on jet lag, but that wasn’t the case.
This is a brief view from my corner of the table about 10 mins before my camera became way too heavy to lift. I’m telling you, this was a sleep-or-die situation.
After dinner, we all went our separate ways and I took a brief nap in the hotel room. Afterwards, with plenty of time to do stuff, Brittany and I went out through the smaller avenues of Shinjuku where it’s way more casual and fun and free.
There were arcades, electronic shops, bars, karaoke lounges, urban clothes stores… it was entertaining seeing all the casual night life of this place. I got a shirt and some toy capsules from the vending-machine like dispensers, which are some of my favorite things. Cheap and fun.
Oh yeah. And I’ve seen waaaaaay more lined up before. They range from 100-300Y each.
I took a peek inside one of the game plazas because I saw some people playing some IIDX machines and figured there would be a lot more. There were music games and fighter games, primarily.
There’s two IIDX Empress machines next to eachother. I’m not sure on how new these machines are in the lineup, but it’s IIDX 16. Anyone care to tell me? How gifted am I to see these as opposed to in the states? Suggestions on which songs to play when I go back to do so (though I will be leet suxor)?
Finally, with not much else to do and it getting late to us, we headed back to the hotel. Just before the hotel, there was a very nice-sounding street band playing for us with cds out for sale.
Toky Street Band in Shinjuku (Josh, any assistance with inserting an audio file?)
I took a recording of them and I’m actually quite impressed with the iPhone’s audio recorder. Trying to get it to post on the blog, but it’s not working…
Well, then I went to bed. The night ended on a good note. Once the wedding is finished this afternoon, we’re back to being a tourist. Haha. Expect a few awesome shots from the wedding today and I hope it all goes well on my end! I have a time line, but not as familiar with what to do and where to be and what to expect as I would an American wedding. It’s just all so busy and compressed in time.
None the less, till later.
Ben
Alright, the jet lag wasn’t that bad and I wasn’t effected to the point that it interfered. I woke up at 4am and couldn’t go back to sleep, so by around 5am, I was up and moving around the hotel room looking things up on the computer and getting ready. By about 6:30, Brittany’s Dad (Steve) was up also and we got cleaned up and headed out for breakfast before the girls were even conscious. When we first arrived, we were (or at least I was) too unsure of the customs and language barrier that we didn’t make any purchases alone, as we always had Tyler or Mana by us. BUT this morning since Steve and I were all alone and hungry, we went out to find some food. We ended up by the Shinjuku station and found a pleasant pastry shop and got some food. All by ourselves. Tell me you’re not proud of us amerika jin for having the initiative (and hunger) to do it on our own.
This is Steve showing the fruits of our efforts. And, of coure, the food was quite yummy.
Moving on, we finally met up with the girls, Tyler, Mana, and her mother. We headed straight to Shinjuku station and hopped on a train to head us to Yoyogi… which is one stop away. Thank god for such a well put together transportation system (with the trains and the subway). It makes it so easy for everyone to get around inexpensively. Which I’m sure is the point.
Here is a platform that we were getting onto in Shinjuku station on our way to Yoyogi.
Once there, we walked a short distance to the entrance of a Shinto temple for a quick run-through (I’m not sure of the name exactly, but one of the signs talked about a particular spot as Meiji Jingu Garden, so is it the Meiji Temple?) It’s the Meiji Dori Shrine. Thanks Matt Echols.
This is one of the entry posts that marks the imperial property. The three medalions on the top are the imperial crest/seal (?). Only the Imperial family can use that symbol. We ventured down to the main temple. We did the Shinto ritual of cleansing yourself before entering the temple, this particular instance was rinsing hands with water from a fountain (I’m not going to begin to believe that I know anything about it or the religion). We briefly saw a ceremony going on, but I was forbidden to photograph anything.
After the temple, we rendezvous with our straggling companions that had to stay behind for something and were in Harajuku. We went down Takeshita Street, which as I was told and observed, is a happening place for the youth/young adults of Tokyo, as well as Shibuya, one district south of here. At this point, we did a bit of shopping, and with aid of Mana’s mother, I got a red shirt of Japanese script that said yopparai, meaning drunk.
My recent acquisition of my yopparai shirt. They had several other cool shirts, but that one seemed the most unique and one I would most likely wear back home.
A bit more shopping later and we leave this area for Akihabara, Electric Town. Now, let me tell you this: this place rocks. All the anime, games, manga, books, and electronics a 21-yearold could ask for.
This is just a fraction of the view of this place, covered in ads and displays for merchandise.
After lunch, the guys and girls split up. Steve, Tyler and I went wandering around, went to a bookstore and I bought some manga for about 130Y (amazingly cheap). They’ll make good gifts. Then we headed to the electronics megastore: Yodobashi-Akiba.
This photo is just for the sense of scale that this building has (you can see it in the middle-top with the character on it). It’s 6 floors (and basements?) of wall-to-wall electronics, toys, and goodies.
I got a few small things from some toy dispenser machines, and on our way out hit shashinka (photographer) heaven. Rows and rows of camera equipment of all brands: lenses, bodies, accessories, everything. And they were all out so you can touch them and try them out. You can pick up the lenses and mount them to your camera body if you wanted to try them out yourself. Quite awesome. Then I found a mother loud. A Canon Mark III with a 500mm prime f/4 lens mounted out for display and demo.
This is me playing with the ~900,000Y lens.
Sure, the selection can be expected. But what I was most surprised about is how they had everything out and ready to be played with. That camera outfit that I’m holding is about $15,000 worth of gear. And you can walk up and shoot with it all you want. And that lens is unbelievably sharp. Too bad I’m not a action sports shooter and can utilize that thing to it’s potential.
Ok. Enough drooling for me.
We ran out of time and didn’t get to hit up the arcades (we will another day) and had to meet up with the girls to head to Tyler and Mana’s long-stay hotel (they’re there for 3 weeks total) so they could change for the festival. Their room is in Ryogoku, just a hop and a skip over from Akihabara. They changed and we got to lounge and cool off, then headed to Asakusa for the Tanabata Festival at Sensoji Temple, which is a popular landmark in Tokyo.
This is our group standing in front of the entrance to Sensoji Temple with the HUGE lantern overhead. A pretty popular place.
Just beyond the lantern is a few avenues of shops, small restaurants and, well, the festival. I don’t know/didn’t find out what the festival is all about (anyone know?) but it was pretty neat to see everyone together there. We did a bit of shopping as we made our way towards the temple.
This was one of my favorite images of the site, but it isn’t the main temple (it was under construction). But you get the idea of the grounds. Once inside the temple we offered some money and threw it in as an offering looked around and headed out.
Now, you think American soccer moms like to have a nice camera, but there were so many people out here that had NICE slr’s to tote around and use. I mean about a good 5-10% of them, and they seemed to know what they were doing with them. And they had Pro lenses that cost (in America) about $950-1200! I was jealous of THEM!
Anyway. The streets were lined with people selling Hozuki plants, haggling and trying to get you to buy theirs rather than the 100 other people out there selling them.
This is one of the people selling the plants that caught me looking at here and she threw up the peace sign. Haha. You can see the plant in her right hand. The custom is to (and correct me if I’m wrong/misunderstood) hollow out the red bulb/fruit and to blow into it to make a sound. I heard it’s not that pleasant of a sound, but I didn’t get to hear it myself. Kind of interesting, though.
It was finally time to head towards our dinner spot. We met up with Mana’s father in his dentistry office, met his side of the family, and headed to a very nice Italian restaurant across the street (I didn’t get the name or the district we were in). This was a very upscale restaurant and the food was wonderful. We had a full five course meal with champagne, and red and white wine. This was the kind of restaurant that serves small portions on a big plate with a wonderful appearance, but that small food packed a big punch! Delicious.
It was interesting meeting Mana’s Dad’s family (his mother’s mother, two sisters, and nephew). They spoke a little English (mother not very much), but they were incredibly interested in us, extremely polite and entertaining, and welcomed us with open arms. Great dinner with wonderful people.
We were given a taxi ride home across town, and stupid me, I rode in the back seat. I get quite car sick sometimes and felt very nauseous when we arrived at the hotel. Thus, I couldn’t go out for some beers with Takao (Mana’s Dad), Steve, and Tyler, nor could I make my blog post last night, unfortunately. I went up to my hotel room and passed out and settled down.
Overall, the day was FANTASTIC. Saw a lot of stuff, and most importantly, I have been really embracing the culture and using an occasional Japanese phrase or word here and there. It’s an awesome feeling to really be participating in the culture and the language, interacting with people all the time, and just being in such a fantastic place. Once you get into a culture, you truly learn so much more in such a shorter amount of time. Traveling is definitely something I can (and hopefully will) be getting used to. And I’ve been having random Japanese pronunciations and phrases running through my head for the past few hours of being awake. Haha. Odd.
It’s now 8:45am and should be getting ready for the day. We leave at 10am. As usual, I’m not sure of our complete agenda for the day, but you can follow me on twitter (or on the sidebar of this page), assuming of course, you’ll be awake, where I can be giving tweets during the day, as that doesn’t take much data to use on my data roaming plan. I’m only allotted 20mb. I’ve got 17mb left.
Sayounara and duomo arigatou gozaimasu,
Ben
P.S. I’ll be leaving you with two cute images of the day: A Pomeranian riding a man’s shopping cart on a bike during the Tanabata Festival, and an adorable panda shuttle bus.
It’s 8:30 after a long day of flying and a brief tour of Shinjuku and we are all dead-beat tired. I’m straining myself not to go to sleep right now and procrastinate with this post. But I know that if I don’t do it now, I’ll fall behind the rest of the trip. But I’ll keep today short and show some highlights only.
This little device on the backs of all the seats was the majority of my in flight entertainment. As you can see, we’re leaving ATL en route to Tokyo. This was only the beginning.
And I’ll save you from all the boring stuff. We landed many hours later.
Ta-da! Narita (NRT) airport. From there we took an hour bus rider to Shinjuku, where our hotel is located. The hotel is a bit smaller than a standard American room, but it is much nicer and has classier features. It has a 35-ish inch flat panel tv! Granted, the hotel is only 4 years old, but they do a good job with the upkeep. None the less… here’s a view from our window:
Not that I’ve been to many globally-commercial HUGE cities like this, but it is soooo busy. During the bus ride there, the streets were so complex that I think we spent more time on above-ground roads and connectors than on surface roads.
After we got settled in, headed over to Shinjuku Station to get our train pass so we can get around the city for the next week.
15ooYen worth on that card should be enough for the week. I’m excited to go visit the other parts of Tokyo tomorrow and Friday.
Next, we ventured to the upper levels of Shinjuku station to the department stores and finally to the 12th+ floor where all the restaurants were located. We ate at a small classy restaurant. I ordered katsu don and loved every bite. MMmmMmMmmm…
It’s already partially eaten because it looked so good when it arrived about 5 mins after we ordered it. And the waitress took our orders on a small wireless touchscreen pda-like device that linked to the kitchen. Seriously amazing. And this would be my first complete meal that I have eaten entirely with chopsticks. I’ve been practicing back at the states, but now that I didn’t have much of a choice, I did a good job with them.
Two more shots of the Shinjuku Station area:
One thing I found bizarre was either the complete trust in your fellow city-goers, or nonchalant disregard for your one’s own property; I couldn’t decide which. People rode bikes around the city, sure, all the time. But what was odd was how they were just thrown accross the sidewalks, usually haphazardly against a bench or something:
I’m sure some have been stolen, but it’s not stopping these people. And these were noticed en route to the Observation Deck of one of the larger government building (can’t recall the name). And I came up with this shot from the 45th floor observation deck.
It’s totally a city that never ends. Seriously. As far as you can see, there are city buildings and infrastructure. It was a rather cloudy day today, but if it were clear, you’d be able to see the mountains in the distance. But shown here are the Shinjuku Park Tower (largest on the left) and the Tokyo Opera City Tower (sticking straight up in the middle) amongst many many other buildings.
Finally on our stroll back to the hotel, all the lights of the city were turned on. It’s a rather different city at night, with a different feel. It’s just like you see in the movies, but you can feel the hustle and bustle of the city. It seems like everyone knows where they’re going, what they’re doing, and they know that they have to get there fast. Which left us all in the dust. But ya know, I kinda like it.
Ok, and that’s it for today. Tune in tomorrow, same time, same address for more.
-Ben
I’m writing this from the airplane while in my phone. This won’t be published until we land since this flight didn’t happen to have wifi (which is pretty freaking awesome to think about) but right now, it is 2:38pm EST. As the screen in front of me states, I have about 8.5 hours remaining until we land in Narita airport. The flight so far has gone well, surprisingly. I thought I would be bored out of my mind, but Im hanging in there. These neck pillows don’t work as well as I had hoped though. :/
I’ve got my phone (in airplane mode) to occupy me with music and videos. Since I had so much time, I was also considering rereading Harry Potter: HBP, as the movie comes out next week. I’ll probably get to that next.
I’ve seen all these people write in this dreamy sort of language about looking out their plane window and being above the clouds and how surreal and metaphysical it is. Sure, pretty sweet. Quite gorgeous. But Im going to leave that to others to spell out for me. I would love to walk on the clouds and fly through the sky (skydiving anyone??). I’d post a photo now, but the clouds outside are not very defined. More of a murky mess as we are over Alberta now.
Oh well. At this point, onwards to Tokyo. 2000 miles in, 8 hours to go. I’ll be here, to say the least.
Update: 3:47pm EST-
Flying over British Columbia, Canada now. Snapped a cool shot of the mountains from 35,000 ft.
Update: 6:41pm EST-
So, I haven’t touched a book yet. It happens. I’ve watched two movies so far, though. Both provided by the airlines for our personal monitors on the backs of the seats. “Last Chance Harvey”- totally not a movie for my age. It’s destined for the middle aged single people that still want hope in their love lives. Yeah… Not very interesting either.
Also watched “Taken” which I’ve been meaning to see for a while. I even ripped it to my computer, but iTunes said my iPhone couldn’t read it. So I watched it in flight. Very predictable and linear plot line, but at least it was exciting and interesting. Now, on to House.
Update: 7:52pm EST-
This is what it looks like to cross the international date line.
