Japan Trip Day 11 - 2013-08-06

Today Kellian and I explored Aomori. It is a pretty manageable city, so we were able to get where we were going by walking, which was a nice change from Tokyo! We started out by going to A-Factory over by Aomori Station. It was a building that had a number of restaurants and a local produce market.

Next door, was Wa Rasse Nebuta Museum, a museum with information about the Nebuta festival we attended last night. It talked about the history of The Nebuta festival, which has been going on for quite a while (except for a period during World War 2). It also had some exhibits that showed how the floats were constructed, including a time lapse video of one being built. That was really neat to see! They are constructed from wire that is tied together and partly supported by wooden frames (that also hold the lights inside). Next, they are covered by a thick paper material, cutting each piece of paper to the correct size to fill a spot in the wire. Quite a process!

They had a great interactive exhibit where you could design your own Nebuta face! Not only could you see it on a computer screen, but it was also projected onto a big 3D Nebuta face live as you made changes. Here's Kellian with her face.

There was a very helpful woman working  there who spoke English, so we were able to ask her a few questions. One thing we were really curious about is what everybody was chanting while they danced! It was something like "Ra-sei-ra! Ra-sei-ra!" Evidently this translates to "Gimmie! Gimmie!" (though it is regional slang), and it dates back to when the floats were lit by candles and the kids had to go around asking for candles to light the floats.

After we finished at the museum, we headed over to AUGA, a shopping area that has a fish market in the basement. I was looking for some sushi, so I thought this would be a good place to go! We didn't end up finding any sushi of the type that you'd expect, but I did get some raw fish in a bowl with rice!

It had tuna, squid, scallops, and tamago (egg). I don't much care for raw squid, but the rest was quite good!

After lunch we planned to check out the Aomori Museum of Art, so we made our way to ASPAM (another shopping area), to pick up a local bus to the museum. We got a bit side-tracked at an arcade though, where we finally found a Taiko drum game that wasn't in use! Our friend Teddy told us we should give it a try, so we've been keeping our eyes out for it! It is kind of like Guitar Hero, except you're playing a drum. It was a lot of fun! We got to play along with the Legend of Zelda theme, which was pretty neat.

We made our way to ASPAM and wandered around there a bit: it turns out that behind this building is where they house all the floats! This was pretty cool to see up close where you could really appreciate the details.

We ended up running out of steam and deciding not to go to the museum after all (also, we couldn't find the bus), so we headed back to our hotel to rest for a bit before dinner. For dinner we found a place along the parade route that was pretty tasty.

By the time we were finished, the parade was in full swing so we hung out to watch it again! Here's a bunch of pictures of the floats. Aren't they amazing?

At this point we were pretty tired, so we headed back to the hotel. Tomorrow, we go to Sendai!

Japan Trip Day 10 - 2013-08-05

Over the last few days, I have been at the 33rd International Puzzle Party, so I've been blogging about that over at Brian's Damn Puzzle Blog. Now that the puzzling is over, I'm back here to write about our non-puzzling related travels!

Over the weekend while I was puzzling, Kellian was in Akita to check out a festival involving balancing huge trees of candle-lit paper lanterns. Pretty neat, eh? I was sorry to have missed this one!

After IPP, Kellian and I planned to meet up in Aomori, a town at the northern tip of Japan for another festival. I ended up arriving at Tokyo Station at around 11:00, but unfortunately all the trains to Aomori were sold out until 1:30 (because of the festival), so I had some time to kill! I wandered around the station a bit, and ended up having lunch at a sushi place, which was very good!

I finally made it to Aomori around 5:30, with time to make my way to the hotel and get settled in before heading out to the festival at 7:00. This festival is pretty much a big parade: There were huge lit-up floats that they would push around, big groups of people playing flutes, drums, and cymbals, and groups of people skipping around and chanting. It is a bit hard to describe, so check out this video:

It was a lot of fun to watch, the detail and colors on the floats were quite impressive! It rained for a bit, so the floats were covered in plastic to prevent damage. Fortunately it didn't really pour, just a sprinkle. We are staying at Richmond Hotel which is right on the parade route, so even if it started raining hard we could have ducked back into our room pretty easily.

The parade lasted for about two hours, which was quite a while to be standing and watching a parade! A lot of people brought chairs, or rented space in areas where they had set up risers that you could sit on. We decided to tough it out!

After the parade was over, we walked around the neighborhood a bit while things were being cleaned up, and had a few snacks from various street vendors. Tomorrow, we'll explore Aomori!

Japan Trip Day 6 - 2013-08-01

We woke up this morning and it was pouring! Most of the sights in Nikko are outdoors, so a lot of rain would definitely make things unpleasant. Fortunately, as we had breakfast the rain started to let up, and by the time we were done it was sunny and beautiful!

We visited Taiyuin Mausoleum and Tosyugu Shrine, both of which were quite beautiful, particularly set against the hilly greenery of Nikko. Below is the front gate of Taiyuin Mausoleum. Kellian pointed out that it looks like the red fellow on the right is about to eat me.

Below is the sacred fountain at the Taiyuin Mausoleum. The water is for purifying yourself before entering the temple, by washing your hands with the water.

These three monkeys are part of a set of carvings above the sacred stable in Tosyogu Shrine. They demonstrating seeing no evil, speaking no evil, and hearing no evil, three major principles of the Tendai sect of Buddhism.

The Karamon Gate at Tosyogu Shrine was quite impressive, I really liked how the white contrasted with the natural wood on the columns. Also, the carvings were very detailed and well preserved.

It had been drizzling for a bit, but halfway through visiting the Tosyogu Shrine it really started to pour! Fortunately we were close to a place where we could hide from the rain for a bit. It rained heavily for about a half hour, but then it let up again. We had an umbrella, but our feet would have still gotten soaked!

After visiting the shrine, we were pretty hungry and decided to grab some food at the first place we came across as we were exiting the shrine area. It wasn't very good, but at least it was quick and it saved us some time hunting for something better!

Next we hopped on a bus and headed to check out Kagon Falls, which was listed as one of the must-see sights in Nikko. It was a fun bus ride, about 40 minutes on winding roads going up the mountain, with some spectacular scenery. The falls themselves were quite impressive, plunging over 300 feet down!

 We were able to view it from a platform near the top, and they also have an elevator that takes you down to another viewing area at the bottom. Surprisingly, it didn't seem as large from the bottom since there wasn't anything for scale.

Next we headed over to Lake Chuzenji, which was very calm as we arrived and reflected the mountains in the distance quite beautifully! They had small pedal boats that you could rent, but unfortunately we arrived right after they had closed.

After admiring the lake for a little while, we headed back to the hotel to rest for a bit before heading out to dinner. On our walk to dinner, we passed Nikko's Sacred Bridge, which looked very nice with the mist coming off the river.

Here's another shot after the sun had gone down. The street light behind the bridge wast streaming through the mist, another impressive scene!

For dinner there wasn't a whole lot to choose from: Nikko seems to pretty much close down at 5:00! Even most of the restaurants were closed. We ended up eating at a Chinese food place that was decent, but not great.

After a long day of hiking around temples, we're glad to be back for a bit of a rest. Tomorrow, we'll be heading back to Tokyo for the start of the International Puzzle Party! Woo hoo!

Japan Trip Day 5 - 2013-07-31

Today was the day we checked out of The Edo Sakura and made our way to Nikko. We started the day with breakfast at the hotel, followed by a complimentary tea ceremony. The woman hosting the tea ceremony was admittedly a bit new at it, but it was still fun and interesting. Their tea room had a hole in the floor so you could sit without your feet falling asleep, which was a nice little feature. We got to try our hand at whisking the tea to create a bubbly froth, which was harder than it looked!

After that, we packed up our bags and got ready to head out. Now that our room was free of our clutter, we took a few photos. You'll notice there's no bed: you scoot the table to the side and set up futons in the middle of the room. I just love how simple and clean the room is, they did a great job with the design.

Next we made our way to Asakusa, to catch the train to Nikko. We had a bit of time, so we wandered around the Asakusa market, a sprawling, covered pedestrian area that sold many different things.

Kellian saw a man demonstrating a fancy vegetable peeler that could do all sorts of things. Well, it could mainly peel, but it peeled quite well! It also had another blade you could attach to slice the veggies into really thin shreds. The demo was quite impressive! (Though we didn't understand a word of it.)

For lunch, we just popped into a place along the market whose plastic display food looked particularly appealing, and indeed it was very good! I got a bento box with a mix of different things, and Kellian got a noodle dish.

Similar to our tea ceremony experience, they had a trough where you could put your feet rather than having to cross your legs to sit on the floor. Also, the tables could slide along this trough to create tables of different sizes. Pretty clever!

The train ride to Nikko was nice, it lasted a little over two hours and it was fun to see the landscape changed as we progressed north. Halfway through the trip, our train split into two halves: our half went to Nikko and the other half on to another destination. Once we got to Nikko, our hotel was a short bus ride and a bit of a hike from the bus stop. It was quite scenic though!

We are staying at Annex Turtle Hitori-An, another traditional Japanese inn. Unlike our last hotel, our room has a separate area for the futons, which is nice so we don't have to make our beds each night! Also, the inn is near a river, so we can hear the sound of the water.

After getting settled, it was about 4:00, so we decided to take a walk around the area before dinner. The woman at the front desk suggested a walk around the river, so we headed that way. It was very scenic, with the river crashing over rocks and creating quite a display. This area is called the Ganmangafuchi Abyss (or Kanmangafuchi Abyss).

As we walked along the path, we came across a huge number of statues decorated with red knit hats and bibs. They are called Bakejizo (Decieving Jizo), based on the myth that no matter how many times you count, the number of jizos always seems to change. Given this, we didn't bother trying!

We walked along for a ways before coming upon a little rest area. I was a bit parched so I went to get a drink from the water fountain and WOOSH: the water shot about 30 feet high! Luckily I wasn't over the spout! With a bit of finesse I could get it down to a reasonable level and take a sip. Here's a picture of this geyser in action!

On the other side of the rest area was a cute suspension bridge that crossed the river. We went across and made our way back to town.

In town, we tried out this restaurant that our hotel recommended called Tearoom Bell. They had something called Monk's Feast, a vegetarian meal that features yuba (the skin that forms when making tofu cut into strips) prepared a number of different ways. Pretty funny that we would have two tofu-centric meals on consecutive nights! Tofu skin strips may sound gross, but it was actually very good!

After dinner, there wasn't much else to do in Nikko, so we headed back to our hotel to relax a bit. Tomorrow, we explore the various sights around Nikko!