Hey everyone, these are photos of my recent trip to Tokyo, Saitama prefecture, and a ski resort called Manza in a neighboring prefecture called Gunma. In Tokyo, I stayed with Koki and Kazue, who are my grandmother's cousin's son and wife. They hosted me the entire trip, and I stayed at their place in Tokyo from Christmas day until New Year's day. On New Year's Day we traveled to Saitama prefecture to meet up with Koki's father, Seiichan, and some other family members. After spending a night in Saitama (and a pretty cold one at that in Seiichan's old house - I woke up and my face was freezing) - everyone crammed into two cars and drove to Manza ski resort in Gunma prefecture. It took about 2 hours to get to the resort from Seiichan's house in Honjo city, Saitama. Also, it was about a 6 and a half hour train ride (via bullet train, or Shinkansen) from Fukuoka city to Tokyo.
Tokyo from a tall building in Shinjuku, the area with Japan's federal buildings. When I arrived in Tokyo neither Koki, Kazue or I had planned anything to do from Christmas day to New Year's. So the day after Christmas, while Koki and Kazue had their final day of work, I traveled to this tall building (called Tocho) where they have a lot of tourism information on Tokyo. It was funny arriving in Tokyo and realizing it would be a good idea to look for worthwhile things to do the week I was there.
Fish flags flying outside Tokyo Sea Life Aquarium, an awesome aquarium in an oceanside area called Kasai. The weather the entire week was really clear and a little windy, and much, much warmer than the winter vacation days I remember in Oregon.
Kazue at Ueno Park Zoo. Koki, Kazue and I were really excited to see their pandas, but the big black and white one they had actually died a few months earlier. The only ones we saw were red and black ones, which were small and barely looked like bears. We were a little disappointed.
A picture taken at Yoyogi park during a weekly flea market. This area of Tokyo was really neat to see because of all the hipsters and funny people that hang out there. Some of the people I saw reminded me of characters you would see at Venice Beach in Los Angeles. One guy was wearing a bright green joggers suit with reflectors all over him and some giant headphones as he cruised around the park on his bike...
Koki and I taking a tour of the American and Japanese naval bases at Yokosuka, a famous port city in Yokohama Bay. The ships we saw were long and big (both the American and Japanese). This well know spot is the port where the American Commodore Perry came in the 19th century with big black battleships to essentially force Japan to open up to trade after having about 250 years of isolation. Oddly, I saw Perry's face sort of commemorated on the city's man-hole covers, as well as 'Instant Perry Curry' which you could buy as a souvenir.
As a more personal anecdote, this is also the spot where my Japanese grandmother met my American grandfather, who had enlisted with the marines when they met in the 1950's.
Yokohama city.
Yokohama was really interesting to me in part because of all the Western style buildings and Christian churches we saw. This church is in an old area of town where there are primarily Western, older style houses and churches. I also liked Yokohama because it was very easy to walk around and see a great deal.
Yokohama at night, probably downtown.
Koki and I at the gate to enter Yokohama's Chinatown.
Koki and Kazue in Yokohama's Chintown.
This was taken from Koki's apartment in Tokyo. If you look near the bottom middle-right of the photo you can see Mt. Fuji. The moon was also out at this time, and the weather was great.
From Koki's apartment, taken by Koki.
For New Year's we went to a local temple in the area of Tokyo where Koki and Kazue live called Nishiarai. We walked to this temple at about 12:30 am on New Year's Day, and it was bustling with people. Just walking from Koki's apartment to the temple I noticed a lot of people generally being 'out' to celebrate the holiday. I also noticed a lot of families together. Here I saw a lot of festival food and New Years' items being hawked. The line of people to our right in this photo are going to a shrine to toss a coin and say a prayer for the New Year.
Another tradition in Japan is the ringing of these enormous bells with these enormous wooden sticks. I think at midnight they ring them a certain number of times signifying what year it is according to the Japanese calendar. Then, they open up the ringing to the public. I must say it felt really satisfying to ram this heavy stick against a giant bell and hear such a deep, full ringing sound. I hope someday to find out what it meant.
From left to right: Hideki (Koki's brother), Koki and I in front of a mountain called Asama Mt., or Asama-yama, in Gunma prefecture.
Asama -yama.
Koki, me and Yoshi, who is Koki's sister's husband. It was pretty cold this day but the snow was pretty good for skiing and boarding (not too icy, with some powder towards the higher parts of the mountain). Also, I should mention that this area is really famous for its hot springs (onsen) where people come from all over to check out. At our hotel there was an outdoor onsen where the men would bathe separate from the women (and everyone was naked). It was really a neat experience to sit in the onsen at night with snow flurries and chilly winds coming down off the mountain. When I told my brother Matt about it he said "Yeah, there's nothing that rings in the New Year like sitting naked in the tub with a bunch of Japanese..." Don't push it pal.
On the right is my Grandma's cousin, and Koki's father, Seiichan. He's holding Kentaro, his daughter Ikuyo's 14 month-old boy. On the left is Seiichan's wife, Kyomi.
Me checking out Kentaro, his first time in the snow.
Yoshi and Ikuyo (Seichan's daughter and Koki's sister) with their son Kentaro in front of the hotel we were staying.
My Japanese relatives and I. From left to right, Seiichan, Kazue, Hideki, me, Kentaro and Kyomi, Ikuyo, Yoshi and Koki. I was happy to spend time with them this winter vacation.
Koki helping me write my first Kanji in calligraphy...
I asked Koki to to teach me the Kanji for 'delicious Tuna.' The top part means 'tuna' and the bottom part, read from the right and down, then the left and down, means 'beautiful taste.' It really fascinated me to find out that Japanese people actually describe tastes as having beauty, and also that I had been using the word that represents these Kanji (oishii) super loosely up to then. I realize now that many of my school lunches didn't deserve that title, even if I said they were only sukoshi oishii (having a little bit of a beautiful taste).
This Kanji, called 'aji,' means 'to taste.' My cartoon makes it look like the Kanji means 'burn your tongue on a cheeseburger...' Anyway I think my cheeseburger looks way better than my Kanji.
Koki, the true Japanese artist, with his Kanji. The one on the left is 'Tuna' (maguro) and the one on the right is cow (ushi). And 2009 is the year of the cow.
