Its My Last Night

Saddened these last few days that I have to return to the U.S. I didn't want to leave behind such nice friends who have been so kind and accommodating to me. I really felt at home here in Japan. "If I could take them back with me to Los Angeles..." I could only wish. Its been a wonderful 54 days. So we all got together in an Izakaya. Back to where it all started when I met my first friend Yohko. We ordered those interesting foods and shared each one picking them with our chopsticks. And shared our experiences, memories, laughed and took pictures. And talked about my return to Japan or their visit to L.A. if they could get the chance. I promised them I would give them as great experience as mine was.

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To all of them and all you readers, I wish to say, "Domo arigato gozaimatsu." It seems that two different worlds met, mine and theirs, and now It feels like it has been dramatically altered forever. When I see my friends back in L.A. again, I will probably be telling them my stories of Japan again and again for many years to come. Good bye, Japan and beautiful friends. On this last night you made my wish come true and came to see me. (The others who couldn't make it, it's OK, I'll miss you all too.) To my cousin Jorence, thank you, I hope we will have many more fun times in the years to come. To my cousin Hans: Please take care of yourself and don't work to hard. I am very grateful to you and your hospitality. I hope you stay healthy and strong. I will never forget the fun times we've had. God bless all you you.

Toshiba Hospital

I managed to get a tour of Toshiba Hospital by a friend who works for Toshiba Corporation. Apparently, Toshiba has its own hospital that also caters to its employees as well as the general public. In fact most companies in Japan have such an arrangement. Even Kikomann Soy Sauce Corporation has its own Hospital and it says "Kikomann" on it. Toshiba Hospital runs on Toshiba products. Everything! Even the elevators is Toshiba.

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I looked around and its similar to U.S. hospitals. I took careful attention to the nurse's station, in case I want to work in Japan someday. Well at 8pm the hospital is empty of nurses. I wondered where they are. Usually nurses would still be busy at this time doing medications, charting, and double checking orders.
In Japan, they work 8 hour shifts (8-16, 16-24, 24-8). I wouldn't be happy with that schedule, 12 hour shifts is where the money and the free time is.
My friend says because of the laptops that she noticed, Its more likely they don't do a lot of charting either. And the patient charts maybe on the server instead of the books that American Hospitals still use.

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Its a nice hospital, but the shifts are the deal breaker for me.

News Flash: Japan's Nav Sys Kicks Butt!!!

I rode in my friends car last night. Her GPS system is nothing like I've ever seen before. And she drives a Toyota Yaris! She has features on it like it was a Lexus. And it was all Original Toyota! Not after market.

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Here are the features I saw and the ones she showed me.
*Slow traffic notifier and also calculates it into the travel time.
*In this city of tall buildings, its still pretty accurate. Right up to the moment of the turn.
*It tells her exactly which lane to take, ie. take the 3rd lane from the middle to turn left because she needs to be on the right side of the road for the next turn.
*It shows here a pop up window of the turn coming up if she needs to take to ramp going up or the ramp going down with arrows pointing to the direction.
*It comes with a back up camera and sensors that detect her parking alignment to the painted parking dividers.

Something has to be wrong if she is driving a state of the art Yaris and in the U.S., I've never heard of anything like these features in a car let alone a Yaris!

An Evening Drive (Golf)

I've tried a lot of things in Japan, so how about golf? Well I couldn't afford the green fees so the next best thing is to hit the driving range... at the biggest driving range in Tokyo! The Lotte Kasai Golf Range. Three decks high and just over 250 yards far. Its automated. It tees up a ball automatically and adjustable height too. For the amount of 3600 yen, I get a card worth 136 ball at the upper deck and two golf clubs of choice.

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It was well lit and beautiful astro turf greens. One cool thing is when the balls are recovered the flags fall horizontally and sweep the balls off the greens and into the gutters. Then balls roll back to the collection point and the flags prop back up. Toshie tried it too. Not too bad for her first time at golf.

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Kama-meshi

Last thing about the trip to Nagano was the bus trip back. We stopped at a bus station in Yokosawa where we bought special kamameshi cooked in ceramic pot with beautiful calligraphy design that many cherish the pot as a souvenir. "Kama" means pot and "meshi" means rice.

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Yohko tells me this wonderful story about how the Kama-meshi became famous. Before there were bullet trains and grand stations, The trains would stop at stations along its route and at this station in this particular area the Emperor Hirohito's favourite was the kama-meshi. He would order it everytime he stopped at this station. Yohko's memory of it was that the vendors on the train platform would sell their kama-meshi to people at the train windows. People would reach out for the kama-meshi and pay. Then, when the train was about to leave the station, the vendors would line up and uniformly deep bow for 4 minutes to the patrons on the train in a way of saying thanks. She said it made the kama-meshi taste alot better because of the warm heart that she felt from the gratefulness of the vendors. That made my heart warm too when I heard that story. It was her mother's fondest memories and encouraged her to always buy this type of kama-meshi when she was passing by this area.

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Few Pictures of Zenkoji

Last visit in Nagano is the Zenkoji Temple. Yes, its another temple. Here are the photos.

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One special thing about this temple that I liked was a statue of Obinzuru-sama.

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(stock photo) He was a student of Buddha. If you rub him especially in the same area that ails you, it would be healed. Though I'm perfectly healthy, I rubbed him all over anyways in hopes that ailments that are forthcoming will be averted.
Now blessed with luck and health. We rode the bus back to Tokyo (3 hour trip for 4000 yen)

Togakushi Shrine Okusha

After an hour bus ride up the windey road to Togakushi Mountain Range (cost 1280 yen) we exited at the botanical forest the lead to the Togakushi Okusha shrine. Its a thirty minute walk so we stored our backpacks (at the restaurant next to the exit stop) to lighten the load.

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It's a gradual incline up the road until you enter the Cedar forest. The road becomes lined with tall cedar trees that are so beautiful. I can see why its a Nagano treasure. Yohko says that the area is also magnetic because of the magnetic stones that are found in this area.
**Old Japanese myth said that in Shimane Area of Japan (southwest area of main island), a goddess hid in a cave and covered the entrance with a huge rock. Only one god could remove the rock after the other gods failed. With his strength, he threw the rock all the way to Nagano in Togakushi and broke it into millions of small pieces. Thus the myth because these sort of magnetic rocks are only found in Shimane area.**
It was a tough 2 kilometer walk up and it got worse because the road suddenly turned into steps.

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We were pale with exhaustion by the timel we reached the Okusha Shrine.

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There we payed our respects to the shrine. W asked a monk for a fortune slip. He went to the back, meditated and prayed, then returned with white fortune slips in long envelops. My fortune was... explained to me by Yohko as of normal fortune ranking which means my fortune will be be average for the rest of the year. But it sounded like good fortune to me 'coz it wasn't bad fortune. But Yohko's, she says, was not a happy one. I hope her luck changes. After a few pictures and rest, we headed back down to catch our bus back to Nagano station. But of course, we had to eat Togakushi Soba at the restaurant were we deposited our bags.

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They claim this Togakushi soba is the soba is best in all of Japan. I've eaten lots of soba here in Japan. This soba noodles had a different dipping soup made of white raddish and other herbs. I liked it and I'm proud to say I've eaten Japan's best. Across the street was a Ninja town. Given that we were almost out of time and it was beginning to get cold, we skipped it. But in ancient times, real ninja's used to live there. I wonder what a typical day in Ninja town would be.... "Have you seen Fred? No? Hey where did you go?" Bah, I'll just read about it on wikipedia.

Gashoin Temple

In Obuse, we stopped by the Gashoin Temple (travel link)

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to see "The Great Ho-O" that was painted on the ceiling by Katsushika Hokusai (wiki link). In the pamphlet it says: "The Ho-O is an auspicious bird that lives so long that finally various plants grew on its body." The bird seems to stare at the viewer from the ceiling no matter where it is viewed from. This is the why its called "Ho-O Staring in Eight Directions."
Also in display is the belongings of a great samurai general Fukushima Masanori. His armor, spear, and furnitures are well-preserved behind a glass case.
Also during spring, frogs inundate the small pond behind the temple garden. Ayako says she saw frogs stack high on top of each other to compete for a mating partner.

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After that, we headed off to an Obuse onsen and bathed in hot sulfuric water. This was a lot more traditional than the onsen in Morioka that I experienced. And the heat was tolerable as I soaked in it for along time. Then I moved to the hot spring with regular water and relaxed there too. This place was very traditional, the place was small and they didn't welcome yakusa or people with tattoos.

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I had to take a photo of the sign. Sorry no photos allowed in these two places.

Grape-Picking

After the meal, we took a short look around Hokusai Museum where Ayako showed us the shops that line the alley. We saw a beautiful origami shop that used thick Japanese paper. I especially liked the white paper dolls on display.

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Looking around, there were so many fruits for sale at a very cheap price compared to Tokyo.

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Then we had chestnut ice cream under the gigantic mangrove shade.

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Afterwards, we headed off to pick ourselves some grapes from Sorimachi Fruit Farm orchard along the fruit farm road (a tourist favorite stop).

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Given a basket and pruning scissors, we walked up and down the orchard looking for grapes we wanted. We weren't grape experts but its best to assume that the darker the grape the sweeter it tastes.

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Then we would eat some of them at the tables under the shade of the grape orchard. It was fun and made the grapes taste sweeter under that beautiful ambiance. Next time I eat grapes, I'll take myself back to this memory under the orchard.

Back From Nagano With Memories

Sorry, its been a few days since my last blog entry. I had just returned from Nagano, Japan with my friend Yohko. While over there, we received a very warm welcome from Ayako, (Yohko's friend from her old college). She was so full of energy when she met us at the Nagano Station. Our first stop, because it was lunch time when we arrived, was to go to Obuse (wiki link), a town on the outskirts of Nagano City. We arrived at Chiku Fu Doh Restaurant. This restaurant serves a glutinous rice mixed with the finest chestnuts of Nagano and it is famous all over Japan. Normally, we wouldn't wait 20 minutes to be seated but this was an exception as did everyone who entered didn't mind the long wait.

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Indeed, I enjoyed it. Especially the side dishes that were picked from the wild. Thank you, Ayako. God bless your heart!

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Dining In Maid Cafe

One of the attractions in Akihabara is to stop by and have a drink or meal at a maid cafe (wiki link).

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These cafes have pretty young women wearing French maid outfits as they serve food and drinks. They look cute and lovable and go around talking in their cute small voice. If you buy their specials, they would draw anything at your request on your omelet or cappuccino. I told her to draw me her most artistic drawing and she drew me a heart with Chinese characters for love.

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She probably did that because I was with my friend. My friend was the only girl in there. It was mostly men often young geeks. So the waitress probably thought we were a couple since I managed to drag a girl in the cafe. Unfortunately, they are strict about taking pictures. I can't take photographs of the girls or any part of the restaurant except the table and myself. So I had to make do with the restrictions.

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They even went as far as covering my background with a tray. The only time they would allow a photograph is if you filled up your loyalty customer card. For men it would take 10 stamps, for women two stamps. Too bad. It was an amusing place but maybe another maid cafe around the area would be better.

The Fishing Park

On our way to Shinjuku from Akihabara by JR Train, I saw this park with ponds that people were fishing on (off Ichigaya Station).

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I immediately jumped out of the train with Toshie and decided to give it a try. It was 750 yen ($7 USD) for an hour's worth of fishing including rod and bait. Unlike my previous fishing excursions (in Los Angeles), I actually (well "WE" actually) caught a carp.

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It was huge but we didn't want to keep it so we set it back into the pond. I was beginning to like this place. But it would be the only catch of the day for us.

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People can actually take home a maximum of 2 fish from the park ponds. If a person catches over 2 Kilos of fish (5 lbs), they get a free ticket back to the park. It seemed very popular and a good way to just relax and have a conversation. I can now say that I've fished in Japan!

Tokyo Anime Center

OK, I've been wanting to see this place since I like a few anime shows and movies. The previous three times I've been to Akihabara I couldn't find it. Well this time, I was gonna hunt the place down. Toshie and I asked a few Otakus where it would be but they were no help (Toshie says thats because they are afraid of real people). Eventually, we found the place close to the Akihabara JR Station.

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When we entered the place, we were disappointed because it was only a small room. Not much to marvel at. There were some anime mannequins and robots that we took pictures with. There were also some informational pamphlets, posters, a small exhibit, and some displays.

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We were more impressed by the souvenir shop which carried alot of anime favorites which we began reminisce about. I guess I expected more. Anyways, you shouldn't expect an anime convention type atmosphere when you visit this place.

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No wonder the otakus didn't know where it was. It wasn't all it was hyped up to be in the tourist guide books.

Ueno Zoo

After the L.A. Dodger won game 3 of the NLCS, we took a trip Ueno Park to visit the Ueno Zoo. Its not a big zoo. Its smaller than the San Diego Zoo.

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Upon entering the zoo, we found out the Giant Panda Lingling who was loaned to Japan from China died on April 2008. So there wasn't a Giant Panda attraction anymore. But they still had Lions, Bears, Elephants, Tigers. Some of my favorites were:
the Red Panda

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Polar Bear

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Pink Flamingos

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Entrance was $6 USD(600 yen). Now come on Dodgers, let's win the series!

A Hike Down Mount Nokogiri

In front of us was “Saw-tooth Mountain”.

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Four hikers arrived at Hama-Kanaya Station. the group consisted of three nurses (Rioko, Toshie, and me) and a med rep (former med tech Mei).

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We began our journey up after eating at Funaosa. It was about a 20 min walk to the ropeway. Up the mountain, it cost 600 yen up by cable car.

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Mt. Nokogiri Summit (313 meters high) has treacherous terrain on the summit.

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They are jagged and steep and uneven. It was tough to negotiate. A stairway lead up to the Jusshu Ichiran Observatory for an even better view.

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Afterwards, we went down the pass guarded by tall stone walls until we reached an opening with the Hyakushaku-Kannon carved in the stone wall. Here is a group photo of the nursing expedition team.

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Then we back tracked abit and took the other way up Jigoku-Nozoki Cliffs which means “a peep from Hell” especially looking down, but feels more like Heaven up here.

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To begin our journey down the mountain, we had to enter Nihon-ji Temple. In fact the whole mountain is a temple. It cost 600 yen to enter. Now begins our 3000 stair-step trek down the mountain. We saw the hundreds of Rankan (saints) mounted on the rock wall. We finally reached the enourmous Daibatsu that dwarfs the Kamakura Daibatsu at 31m tall.

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To the side is an ivory Buddha. Small statues are place around it by pilgrims said to be the names of lost children. With a snack break and short respite, we planned our next trip.

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We took a steep detour up a lot of steps to see a waterfall? Something was wrong here. It was more like water dripping than falling. Having wasted our energy on this curiosity, we headed down the bamboo fence line to Kari Hatto-Temporary Auditorium of Nihon-ji Temple.

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It was about a 45 hour walk to after that JR. Station Hota but we saw the train leave the station just as we were about 200 meter from the station.

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So we had to take a side trip to the town’s dock and fish market. Two hours later we rode the train back to Tokyo out of Hota Station. Ooww! My “dawgs” are barking! So were the girls as they massaged their sore legs. But I had to “steel myself” and show them that this former paratrooper, who once roamed the steep, thick-wooded mountains of South Korea and jagged rocky mountains of the Mojave Desert, that this little hike was child’s play. Though deep inside, I grumbled to myself of the exhaustion I was experiencing.