A Japanese Thanksgiving

Over Thanksgiving break, my sister and brother-in-law got the opportunity to come visit Japan for about 9 days. I was lucky enough to get most of those days off. It was really nice to get out of the office and remind myself of the things I like about this country. It is quite easy to get caught up in the little difficulties of living in a foreign country. Some stories from the trip...

They arrived after I was done with work on Saturday. They had just traveled for two days, so I was greeted by something similar to ravenous zombies.. except without the dead part. We had a lovely dinner of Japanese BBQ with some friends, and retired to the Palace (reference to the name of the building I live in, Leopalace, which is far from a palace). The next day, we went to Yaegaki Shrine, which is where people frequently go to find the love of their life. I may have described this before because I had already been twice. For 100￥, you can buy a fortune on a sheet of paper. You take the paper to a special pond, place the paper in the water with a coin on top, and count how long it takes for the paper to sink. The longer it takes for the paper to sink, the longer it will take you to find your true love. The closer it is to you, the closer in proximity they are to you. Near the pond, there is a bamboo forest. We hiked up through it some and were awed by the beauty of it. There were so many trees! Afterwards, I introduced them to their first conveyor belt sushi experience. A good time was had by all.

Next stop was Kyoto, but only a day trip. We explored Kiyomizu Temple (world heritage site), the geisha district Gion, another bamboo forest, but coolest was the monkey mountain! We hiked for about 20 minutes up to the top of a mountain on the west side of Kyoto. At the top, was a whole colony (herd? flock? pride?) of macaques. They are all pretty tame and come up and sit right next to you. There was a caged-in house where we bought peanuts and fed the monkeys through some chicken wire. There was also a phenomenal view of Kyoto. It was awesome.

We spent two full days in Osaka. I unintentionally booked us to stay at the official hotel of Universal Studios Japan. It was a child's dream, which made it so much fun. Everything was Woody and Wendy the Woodpecker themed and made for families. They had great amenities, like sponges that expand when you get them wet! The restaurant in the hotel was called the World World Cafe, because that makes sense. Osaka included some fantastic shopping, which took up a full day we were there. We ate crepes almost every night we were there. The second day, we found an owl cafe. Yes, that's right. Last time I went to a cat cafe, this time owls. The more I have thought about it since, the less happy I am with it though. It was really cool to be able to pet owls and see them and hold them, yes. I'm not a big animal rights activist, but can you tell me that keeping nocturnal animals awake during the day, chaining their feet together, forcing them to be held by strangers, and keeping many species together in the same room is not some sort of torture? I know that torture sounds like a strong word, but if I think about that in the context of if someone was doing it to humans, it seems to fit. I wonder how long it will stay around. Anyways, another night, we found our way to a Japanese night club. It was a pretty cool experience. They might have been hired by the club, but there were people dressed as wizards on the two different dance floors they had. As a woman, it was a nicer experience overall because I didn't run into the common US clubbing situation of fending off strangers who attempt to dance moreso on you than with you. Thanksgiving night, we went to a restaurant near the ryokan we stayed at for one night (just to get some of that traditional Japan) and ate a nabe-like feast. The main dish was similar to nabe, but we were just given a pot of broth on a hot plate and vegetables and meat to put in it. It was accompanied by gyoza (Chinese dumplings/potstickers), fried chicken, french fries, edamame, and plenty of sake.

Outside of Universal Studios Japan and our hotel

In the bamboo forest looking at pretty fall leaves

Monkey Mountain and the view

Just monkeying' around

Ferris wheel in Osaka

I guess I only really took pics in Osaka and Kyoto.

We took the Shinkansen to Tokyo and it happened to be a beautiful, sunny day, so we got a wonderful view of Mount Fuji from the train. During the day, we wandered around Harajuku. Interestingly enough, Lady Gaga was in Harajuku promoting a new robotic "real doll" modeled after her the same day we were there. Even more interesting, we passed by four identical new Jaguars while walking around. Umm hello. Famous. We had one final dinner of sushi and crepes for dessert before returning to the hotel. The next morning they had a flight to catch, so we ate breakfast together at the YMCA we stayed at (a mere 200￥for breakfast- what a deal!) and I fell back asleep. That day, I set out by myself to find something to do. I read that I could go into the building where the sumo tournaments are held and just look around, which I thought I was doing. Turns out I walked into the Tokyo-Edo Museum that is conveniently just behind the sumo building. The whole time I was wondering when I would start seeing the sumo exhibits, but they never came. Shows how much I pay attention I guess. After that, I wandered around Shinjuku, which is one of the bigger, busier places in Tokyo. I caught the night bus home and arrived just as the sun was rising in Matsue, much colder than the Tokyo I had left.

It was so wonderful to see them, and it was a Thanksgiving to remember (or not - I did mention the sake, didn't I? ...just kidding).