DJ and I took a trip to Hong Kong for our anniversary.  It was his third time there and my first so it was his job to show me the sights.  Whenever DJ and I take a trip together, I usually end up exhausted since we walk everywhere and all day long.  And this trip was no exception.  We arrived in Hong Kong Friday night around 9pm and immediately went out in the stifling heat to walk around.  After a long day of travel, I was more than willing to get a drink at the bar in the hotel and go to sleep, but no. After a couple of hours of circling blocks and drinking juice (freshly squeezed!) we returned to the hotel and had a pizza delivered.  I could barely remember what that felt like (to have food delivered to your door), but there it was.

The lobby of our hotel.  And you can see us on the escalator.

The next morning we awoke to this sight.  I was a little saddened to see that we were facing the mainland side (no harbor view for us), but that was ok.  We stayed in Kowloon (Tsim Sha Tsui – or TST for short) and it was very convenient.  Easy access to everything.

And after a quick shower, we headed out into it again.  We strolled down the Avenue of Stars (a boardwalk filled with the stars of Kung Fu fame) and took the train to The Peak.  It’s a mall/outlook on top of the city.  You have to take a trolley to the top (or hike – yea right).

We then took the train to Wanchai.  We searched for a Thai place that DJ had been to before for a couple of hours and once we finally made it there, we had the best Thai I’ve ever had.

After our lunch we got a glass of wine at the wine bar across the street and headed back to the hotel.  After showering and changing we went to dinner.  To get to dinner we had to take the escaltor.  It went up and up and up and then up some more.

Dinner was at an Argentinian place he had also been to previously.  He’d only been in the winter and it should have stayed that way.  The place was tiny, crowded and the AC didn’t do a thing to cool it down.  I was sitting there in my chair and feeling very sick as the sweat ran down my legs (I was wearing a skirt).  I’m sure the food and wine was good, but I was totally unable to enjoy it.  Sorry honey.

The next day was better after taking the bus to Stanley.  Stanley is an area at the south end of the island with many shops and stalls to go shopping in.  We merely window shopped, I didn’t buy anything there.  I did buy a new phone in Hong Kong though.  I can’t really enjoy it fully in Japan, but once we go back stateside, It’ll be awesome.  It’s an HP Ipaq 612 Business Messanger.  I had an HP Ipaq previously and loved it, so this was a no brainer.  You can only find this version in Asia though.

This is the time that DJ got ahold of the camera and took many many pictures of me.  The more unflattering the better.  Pictures of beads of sweat rolling down my face, pictures of me grimacing or talking.  Pictures of me sticking out my tongue or rolling my eyes.  Lots of fun.

I tried getting him back, but all I got was this.

I tried.

A week or so after the Baystars game, Barbara, Tish and I decided to visit the Yunesson.  It’s a swim park, sauna, bath house and so on.  We soaked in many different kinds of baths and even slid down a slide.  Awesome!

This was a rose bath in a jacuzzi style tub.  Warm and relaxing.

Then the slide.  I had fun sliding down this.  Barbara promised to get a picture of me coming down.  She got a picture all right.  Can you tell it’s me?

The waterfall was off to the left of the slide.  And it felt good walking underneath it.  Like a massage for the shoulders.

I love this picture of Barbara.

You can kinda tell that this was the coffee bath.  He’s adding fresh coffee.

We enjoyed the wine bath, along with Sake, pepper, salt water and green tea.  There were more but I can’t remember them.  I was disappointed they didn’t have the chocolate or beer baths going on (they usually do).

So pretty and relaxing!

Barbara and I went out to Jogoshima on Friday morning.  It took about an hour to drive out there and we only had a couple of hours to spend there before we both had to be back, but we wanted to get out and see something new!  It’s on the southern most tip of the Miura peninsula.

First we went into town and saw a couple of tourist stores.  Barbara bought a spiny dried blowfish.  Don’t ask me why.  And we saw the lighthouses.

We walked around the island park too.

Look at all the pretty flowers in bloom.  The first three are hydrangea.

I didn’t ask her how they smelled.

We took a couple of hilarious shots of each other, but I think we’ll delete those.  Luckily a Japanese man and his wife walked by and took a picture of the two of us together.

Then we went climbing around on the rocks.  Fun!

Here I am!

DJ got home late Friday night and we spent Saturday relaxing and playing with the kitties. Then very early Sunday we got ready and ran to the train station (well…we walked VERY quickly so as not to be late). We had to catch the Shinkansen (bullet train) out of Shinagawa at 7:06am, which meant we had to be at our station in Zushi by 5:47am. With three minutes to spare we settled in on the local train for the hour ride. Everything went smoothly and at 7:06 we were pulling away from Shinagawa. After four hours we pulled into Hiroshima. We found our hotel and not being able to check in until after 2pm we dropped our bags at the desk and went out exploring.

We weren’t in the city for five minutes when a woman greeted us right outside our hotel and asked if we were traveling. We said that we were and she seemed so happy about that. She asked if we were going to the peace memorial and dome. We said that we were and she agreed that, yes, it was a good idea. So, our first stop was the A-Bomb dome. You walk through the city and it’s all new big buildings until you get here.

It was quite disturbing to stumble upon it and think about what had happened there. The dome definitely brings it home. The metal is twisted, the stone is melted, and the ground is covered in ruins.

Then we wandered over to the peace memorial and walked through the museum. We got the audio tour in English and I snapped a couple of photos. The red ball represents the bomb. But, you can see how everything in the 3km area is just gone.

I wasn’t feeling very good after the lunch we had at an Italian restaurant, so for dinner we just got (I’m so ashamed to admit this in public) McDonald’s and take away sushi. The guy at the sushi place was really cute. He asked DJ a couple of questions in English and he replied with a couple of Japanese phrases like, “Hei! and Ni!” (yes and two). The guy tells DJ that he speaks Japanese very well, at which we both crack up. But, then he says that he read a book in Japanese that he really liked and has a copy in English that he would like to give us. So with sushi and a book and McDonald’s we headed back to the hotel to relax.

Monday it rained. It wasn’t supposed to until late in the evening, but we woke up to rain. We went to Miyajima Island and to the Itsukushima shrine.

The island has many wild deer that roam around. Considering the amount of people in Japan – they’re quite used to us. One decided to take a taste of my jacket.

The shrine would have been much more beautiful to photograph if the tide had been in, but alas, it was low tide.

That’s my – I think you’re taking a picture of me, but I can’t really tell so I’ll smile a little just in case – smile. After the shrine we took the cable car to the top of the mountain. There were many islands to photograph on a clear day. Instead, all we could see were clouds and fog. To get to the ropeway, we had to walk 10 minutes or 7 if we ran a little.

However, there was no running to be had on our trek. Especially since after the long walk to the train station and having walked around a lot the previous day – both our shins and feet were a bit sore.

But the pathway to the ropeway was quite beautiful, if a bit wet.

Then as we’re coming to the end of the trail, we find that the ropeway is just up ahead and its “wonderful scenery is seen by least.” You can tell by DJ’s expression that we’re not quite sure what they mean.

However, once we reach the top, we find more deer and now monkeys! But, the monkeys have rules.

The top sign says, “We do not like to be stared at our eyes. If you do so, we are not responsible for what will happen.” The sign on the left says, “We do not hope to be such a monkey. Please, refrain from feeding us.” And the sign on the right hand side says, “You had better deposit your baggage into the charge free lockers or it will be ours. But we are not interested in your camera.” They weren’t really interested in anything but grooming, feeding and pooing.

After coming back down the mountain we had dinner at a place on the island. We had the local specialty – anago (or eel) on a bed of rice. Very yummy. They are also known for their oysters and so I had some of those too.

The next day, our train didn’t leave until 4pm, so after we checked out, we left our bags again and went to the Hiroshima Prefectual Museum and the Shukkei-en Gardens. The museum was ok, but the gardens were beautiful.

He came over to say hello.

We were photo clicking fools.

Then we went to the castle. There was a giant group of kids on a field trip visiting the castle so we decided not to go inside. Just too many kids.

It was pretty cool standing outside of the castle though, because they had speakers set up in the bushes and were playing very traditional Japanese music. Very surreal.

Then we headed back to the hotel and got our stuff. We went to the station and got some lunch at an Okonomiyaki place. We were sitting at the counter happy eating when I happened to look behind me. And sitting on the table was a mouse. I got DJ’s attention and pointed to it. He shouted urgently to the wait staff and they hurried over wondering what was wrong. Thinking quicker than me he said and pointed, “Mickey mouse!” They knew what that was! And they saw him trying to scurry off, but kitchen tongs proved hard to escape from. We then all had a good laugh about Mr. Mickey.

The train got us home Tuesday around 9pm. We immediately gave the kitties some bonito flakes (their favorite!) and fell into bed.

The first day we stayed at the Hale Koa before the made us move back on base. So here is the view from the hotel in Hale Koa.

And then the view from on base.

A bit different, yea?

So the second day I dropped DJ off at work and drove all along the southeast coast to diamond head and back. It was really beautiful.

The third day I went to Foster’s botanical garden and saw some gorgeous plants.

I loved the cannonball tree. Weird!

We had dinner in Hale’wa and saw random chickens wandering about.

And here is DJ and I enjoying an umbrella drink!

We had a good time and are glad to be home with our kitties. I’m still a little jet lagged, but I’m sure that won’t last too long!

We left Sunday night at about 8:30pm and settled in for the six hour flight. It was uneventful and quiet. We arrived on Sunday at 8:30am. I love that, not only do we arrive before we even left Tokyo, but that we get to experience Sunday twice. That’s ok though, because we’ll lose a day when we return.

When we arrived, it was early so we rented a car and drove around Ohau. We got lunch at Kau’aina, which originated here, but is hugely popular in Japan (a great burger joint). DJ and I go to one in Kamakura all the time.

Later, we called the BOQ and asked if they had any rooms. They told us that they didn’t and we got really excitited and got a place out in town. If they don’t have room at the Q, then they have to pay for our stay in town. So we got a hotel and got settled in and then headed over to get our certificate that states that they have no room. “Oh,” they say. “You have orders, we have plenty of room.” So, now we’re out $200 and we have to check out the next day from our hotel with an ocean view to a dingy, dirty room on base. It’s about 15-20 minutes from the ocean and our view is now of a parking lot under construction. Luckily later the next day they took care of it, but we were pretty upset for awhile.

But we tried to make the best of the rest of the next. Exhausted, we bought a six pack of beer at the store and a pizza from Pizza Hut. I haven’t had it in over a year and I was pretty excited, but it didn’t taste as good as I remembered. Oh well. Stay tuned, there’s more to come. Unfortunately, you’ll have to wait for pictures. I can’t upload them here, but just you wait. They are stunning.

Friday I took a flight to Sapporo to meet D.J. and the boat. It’s an hour and a half flight north (ten hours or so and more expensive by train). We then took the express train about a half hour north west to Otaru. That’s where the boat had pulled in and we were able to get hotel reservations. Sapporo was PACKED because of the snow and ice festival that was going on. The weather here south of Tokyo is in the 50′s and sunny. There it was in the 20′s and sunny. Beautiful. Also, before I forget – there are a ton more photos on Flickr. Click on the tab to the right to look at even more photos of the festival.

We ate at a Yakuniku restaurant after dropping my stuff at the hotel. That’s where you cook meat on a grill in front of you. It was yummy and after walking around a little and checking out the small light festival we went to bed. The hotel room was HOT. We were on the 11th floor and had no way to open the windows. It was so amazingly hot and stuffy – sleeping was pretty horrid both nights.

Saturday morning we ate at the complementary breakfast. This was my first exposure to a real Japanese breakfast. It was not all that surprising, but interesting nonetheless. They had hard boiled eggs, seaweed, meatballs, miso soup, fruit cocktail, cornflakes, rolls, salad, dried salmon and french fries. Interesting, huh?

We then headed into Sapporo to check out the festival.

The crush of people was a bit much. I’m used to it, but I’m quickly getting tired of it. Getting shoved and pushed makes me wonder how they treat each other. I got the feeling that they push me because as a foreigner, I wouldn’t understand the Japanese phrase for excuse me. Instead they shove me out of the way. Between the shoving and pushing and the looks we were getting, the whole area seemed quite racist. Both of us got the distinct feeling that we weren’t welcome. Especially in the quiet town of Otaru.

There were quite a few of these bars. We came back after dark and got a couple of shots of hot Bailey’s. We stopped by the next hut too and got some champagne. I had a glass of Dom and D.J. enjoyed a glass of Moet. Aren’t you jealous?

Then after dinner we came back to see everything all lit up.

D.J. especially enjoyed this picture of the guy fishing.

After a very long night of wandering we returned and slept fitfully at the hotel. Sunday we just wandered a little around Otaru, got some sushi lunch and dessert at the Otaru brewery and then headed to the airport.

Getting up at 4:30am, DJ and I blearily made it to the freezing cold shower room and slowly washed and woke up. We finished packing and said goodbye to the boys and hurried down the mountain with a flashlight. I was glad that I had suggested it since it was still pitch black at 5:30 in the morning. There was a full moon, but the woods are so thick, that no light can get through. We got to the station at 5:55 and the 6:01 train was waiting for us. Most of the Japanese business people were sitting on the train trying to warm up, but after our trek, DJ and I were trying to cool down. The gaijin bubble was in full effect at first, but as the train filled up, people were much more willing to sit next to us. A couple of months ago, I showed DJ the blog of a guy who also lives in japan and refers to the ability of gaijin (foreigners) to keep a considerable amount of personal space (even on a crowded morning train) because no one wants to get too close to foreigners. I don’t usually experience this when I’m alone anymore, but when DJ and I travel together…it’s in full effect. It was really bad when we first got here. But, as time went on I guess i got a little better at adopting the train attitude and don’t stick out quite as much anymore. Although, as gaijin, there’s only so much I can blend.

We made it to Shinagawa and onto the Shinkansen (bullet train). With a couple of Starbuck’s coffees and some snacks brought from home, we settled in for the two and a half hour ride. Each with our own iPod’s and (he with his sports and my NPR) podcasts we watched the scenery blow by with breathtaking speed. I have to admit that I could have stayed on the train all day, but soon we arrived in Kyoto and began finding our way to the hotel. We talked to Aunt Janet on the way and took some pictures at a small shrine that we ran across.

Some two hours later, backs and feet hurting from carrying luggage we checked in at the Karasuma Kyoto Hotel. It was Western, but nice. The beds were uncomfortable, but it was clean and it did the job. We got lunch at an Indian place and then, since it was getting a bit late and we wanted to make sure we had enough sunlight left, we took a cab to Kinkakuji (aka The Temple of the Golden Pavilion). This temple was made famous by the author Mishima who wrote a fictionalized account of the disgruntled monk who burnt the place to the ground in 1950. Luckily they had it rebuilt in three years. After seeing and taking many pictures of the Kinkakuji we walked uphill to the Ryoanji Temple. I stress the uphill because at that point my feet were really hurting and I whined and complained the whole way. DJ must have been thrilled, but I tried to keep it light. We then walked to the Ninnaji temple and it had just closed, but we stuck the camera through the fence and took pictures anyway. We jumped on a train that half way through the trip became a street car and we came back to the center of town. We wandered around for a long while and then decided to get dinner. Deciding on sushi, we found a place that looked good and went in. They didn’t have anything in English, but one of the servers spoke a little so he helped us choose something. We picked a set (Japanese love sets…like our value meals) and got the best sushi we’ve had in awhile. It just melted. They also served us some strange foods and I can’t even begin to imagine what they were, but it was all edible.

I didn’t sleep very well and my feet still hurt, but we wanted to get up and out early the next day. By 8:00am we were heading to the east side of Kyoto. We saw many temples and shrines and waited a bit too long to find lunch. We tried finding an English pub that DJ had been to in Hong Kong and once in Australia, but when we got there we found it was closed. We had some onigiri (rice triangles – fish wrapped in rice wrapped in seaweed) instead. I had salty plum and salmon while DJ had the wet seaweed. YUM! We headed back to the hotel for some rest before going back out to the (now open) English pub and then the Irish pub. I kept saying that I was glad that we lived in Japan so that I didn’t feel guilty about not always eating Japanese food when out. I will admit, though, that the sushi we had was by far the best meal.

Kyoto was a very modern city and apart from the nice shrines and temples and sections of city that are reminiscent of past times, it was just like any other city. It was like Tokyo, but with more cars and wider streets. I have to say, though, that we saw more western people there than I ever have here. I know we can go on base and see a lot of them there, but I expect it there. In Kyoto, it’s just tourists galore. I don’t see half as many white people out in town here than we did in Kyoto. We kept saying that seeing that many tourists just made us feel like any other tourist. But we live here (and that makes us extra awesome Americans). It was as if our year of living in Japan was wiped clean and we were seen as ignorant white tourists….just like everyone else. And it was not a good feeling. It’s constantly reinforced to us that we represent the U.S. to everyone we meet. So we’re often assuring people that Americans don’t ALL want war and we’re not all criminals. “You are driving all the way across the country by yourself?! Is that really safe? Isn’t it so dangerous in the states?” Listening to the other Americans around us, though (the tourists in the street talking and laughing loudly or the drunk guy in the bar) was a little embarrassing. Our culture is just so much louder and boisterous and different from the Japanese, it’s embarrassing to see others stand out so loudly. Being in Japan for so long (it’s only been a year, but hey) I start to forget how different we really are. I spend so much time trying to blend in and be the model American, that I forget how loud and fun Americans are. We are fun, but usually keep our parties at home.

So, while I did enjoy Kyoto and I got to see so many cultural sights, it was nice to get home to Hayama. Our kitties were very happy to see us.

After a fitful nights sleep, DJ and I got up at 5:30am and got ready for the day. We left the house at around 7am and made our way to the train station. We had to get some cash at the ATM before we left though, and much to our surprise, the ATM didn’t open until 7:45am. Weird Japanese. So, we stumbled over to Starbucks and each got a surprisingly weak coffee. After we got our money we stood on the most crowded train I have ever been on for an hour and a half. We stood the entire way to Asaksa and it was miserable. We could barely breathe. And although I’d seen it before, after leaving the train to walk down to another station I snapped a picture of the Asahi beer foam. It’s supposedly the head of a beer (since it’s the beer company you’re looking at), but to me and to anyone I’ve ever talked too…it looks like a giant sperm.

We then caught the train to Nikko. That was another hour and a half ride and after arriving we got lunch at this steak house. It was actually really good! I had a pumpkin soup that was nice. I think I’m going to try to make that at home. I started snapping pictures outside of the restaurant and the server came running outside and offered to take a picture of us. How could I refuse? It was hands down the best service we’ve had since getting to Japan. Our water glasses were always being filled and usually you have to beg to get more water!

We then walked to the National Forest and up many many stairs. There was a Japanese group of children on what looked like a school trip and two girls about 10 years old followed us up the hill and said, “Hello!” We said hello back and they busted up into giggles and said hello to us about three more times. We could tell they were telling their friends about their encounter with the Americans that TALKED TO THEM.

After we passed by the Shinkyo bridge, we bought a pass to the shrines and temples of Nikko. It was fun walking around since there are water fountains everywhere that say something like, “Enjoy the amazing taste of fresh Nikko water!” The stuff is so pure and clean you can drink it straight from the river. It looks amazingly clean, but we had no water bottle to fill and didn’t think about buying one just to taste water. We got a great deal on a combination pass and got to see the Toshogu shrine, Futurasan shrine and the Rinnoji temple (among many others). We had to stop and take our shoes off at many of the shrines to look around. Believe me, that was kinda cool at first, but after three shrines we were all, “we have to take our shoes off again?!” The places were very beautiful, it was amazing that the details on the shrines could be so intricate. There were so many shrines in temples in such a small space. I thought that that was pretty surprising.

I did like getting to see the origin of the hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil monkeys. You always hear about it and hear references to it, but to actually see where they began was pretty cool. The sun had been out in Tokyo, but when we got to Nikko, which is near mountains, it had spent the afternoon trying to peek out and while we were at the shrine it was finally successful. The light coming through the trees was really beautiful and gave the area a very magical atmosphere. There were tons of people there. The coming of October means tourists are showing up in droves since the heat of the summer is finally dissipated and the leaves are starting to turn color. The fall and the spring are definitely the most popular times to visit Japan.

On our way out, we stopped and bought some cake and strawberry wine. Apparently the region is known for their strawberries. The wine was ok and the cake probably tasted amazing to a Japanese person, but for us…not so much. We also stopped at a small art gallery and looked around. DJ and I both agreed on two pieces and totally made this guy’s day. He was very excited about getting a sale at the close of the business day and bustled around finding the perfect thing to wrap the artwork in. He threw in two other things in for free as well (a small drawing of three hedgehogs and the candy dish). Once he found out that we actually lived in Japan, he ran over and picked up the little dish and said, “Candy!” He spoke no English, other than the word candy, but was really cute. The pictures don’t do any of the artwork justice, but you get the idea. The scroll is amazing and totally Japanese. The painting, which is actually a framed poster is very different, but both DJ and I loved it.