Leaving Tokyo, on to Hakone
Saturday, August 19th is the first day of the OAT Tour. We add the group meet and greet meeting at 9AM and we're out in the bus before 10AM. The first place we went was the Imperial Palace. It turns out that all we were able to do was to see the sacred ground and view the old Imperial archives from a distance. Apparently, there are tours to the Palace but you need to register for them early and that was not included in this tour. Overall, this was a disappointing stop. Oh well, here is what we could see of the Imperial Archives:
Next up, we drove to the Giza district. Giza in Japanese means silver place as this is once the sight of silver markets. Now, it is the Rodeo Drive of Tokyo. A square meter of land here sells for $500,000! Right at the most famous corner is a Nissan showrooms that has their prototype driverless cars. Pretty nice?
We had lunch in a Giza department store shabu shabu restaurant. In these restaurants, the patrons cook their own food, meat and veggies, in a small hot water pot. After cooking, you then have the broth as a soup. I liked this lunch as both being unusual and tasty.
After lunch, we bused to the Yasukuni Shrine. This is a memorial to the 2.5 million Japanese who died in wars. It has become a controversial site even since the enshrinement of 14 class A war criminals in 1979. Here, we had our own talk by the shrine’s Shinto priest. It seems all the shrines in Japan are Sinto and all the temples are Buddhist. Although these are different religions, somehow in Japan they coexist. According to this priest, Shinto is meant for memorials and happy times while Buddhism is meant for funerals and sad times. I guess this is why most Japanese identify with both these religions!<. The first pic is where you cleanse yourself by washing your hands etc before you enter the shrine. />
We had a special welcome dinner this night. We traveled by train to the nightlife district around Kabukicho Street. Although it was raining, the crowds of people and the activity here is truly amazing. The dinner itself was very nice with sashimi, tempura, a hot pot rice dish, salads, ice cream and free drinks. After dinner, we took taxis back to the hotel. May, our guide, said the taxi was in case anyone got drunk!
The next morning, Sunday, we had to pack a small bag for two nights. This is because we cannot take our large bags on the bullet train on Tuesday on our way to Kanazawa. After breakfast, we left the hotel for our bus and a 3 hour trip to a small town of 300 up in the mountains. This is one of OAT tours ‘A Day in the Life’ experiences. In this small town, we arrived at the house of a roughly 90 yo woman (she won't tell her exact age!). Here she along with her 79 yo lady friend and the 60 yo male town organizer met us. Today, we talked with them (through our guide interpreter) and ‘helped’ them to make noodles! Lunch consisted of our noodles in a miso broth along with fresh salad vegetables from the local gardens along with very large grapes. BTW, Japan has the largest grapes and peaches I have ever seen. Some of the grapes are as big as 1 inch in diameter and are seedless! Whereas the peaches can get bigger than a softball! Although these fruits are amazing and great tasting, they are also expensive. A small bunch of the grapes (maybe more than a pound?) cost about $5. The peaches sell from about $2 to $7 each depending on their size.
After lunch and talking with the locals, the town organizer tour us on a tour of the town . The garden plots here are well planned and look almost commercial. The town has a town hall which is one of the older houses. The previous owner moved to the city and gave the town their house for community use.
In town they had this monument to the Mount Fujis. Yes, there are more than one Mount Fuji! It seemed the Japanese loved the original Mount Fuji (Number 1) so much that they have also given that name to 249 other Mount Fujis around the country. This monument has a small piece of rock from each one!
After are time with the locals, we returned to our bus for another hour trip to the town of Hakone and our hotel, Palace Hotel. Here we had the opportunity to take a Japanese bath before dinner. This is an interesting process of three rooms. First room, you undress, stow your things under a big towel and take a small towel into room two. You have to be nude here to take a seated shower and then plunge into the heated pool. You can stay as long as you want here just as long as you keep the towel out of the water! In my case, this pool was rather hot and it took me a while to gradually submerge. After this pool, you can go outside (called room 3) for the outside pool. In my case, this pool was not near as hot as the indoor one. However over dinner discussions, I learned the ladies' bath pools were just the opposite, that is the outdoor pool was hotter!
After my bath, I went to dinner where we had a tradition Japanese dinner. All but one of the group wore our Japanese robes! Yes, all rooms in the hotel have robes for the guests - mainly to wear in the room or go to the baths. The day ne'er itself had many plates of numerous things I never had before. It was very nice and interesting but I am not ready to eat mainly Japanese food!
Monday morning after breakfast, we took the tour bus to Hakone Open Air Museum. In the outdoor part of this over 17 acre site are over 120 sculptures mainly are thought provocative or amusing. There is also a Picasso Pavilion with over 300 Picasso pieces including 2 magnificent gemmail pieces. Unfortunately, you can't take pictures of these stained glass masterpieces. This museum is well worth visiting.
This is a picture of the sculpture that May, our guide, relates to as well as the one her husband relates to:
After this museum we headed to Narukawa Art Museum. This museum has the largest collection of nihonga (Japanese style painting) in Japan. Nihonga used “paint” made up of natural powdered rock and gelatin. This makes nihonga much more difficult and expensive than traditional oil paintings as you cannot mix colors in rocks. You have to buy a different color powdered rock. &nbI sp;There is a good side to nihonga. Powdered rocks do not lose or change colors for at least 2,000 years. The Narukawa Art Museum also boosts a great view of Mount Fuji when, unlike today, Mount Fuji is visible. A picture of the powered rocks and pics of the view today and the same view when Mount Fuji is visible.
We had a nice western style buffet lunch before we took the ferry across lake. It was then back to the hotel. There, I took another bath, I had one before breakfast, before dinner. Here is a pic of our dinner.
Next up, we drove to the Giza district. Giza in Japanese means silver place as this is once the sight of silver markets. Now, it is the Rodeo Drive of Tokyo. A square meter of land here sells for $500,000! Right at the most famous corner is a Nissan showrooms that has their prototype driverless cars. Pretty nice?
We had lunch in a Giza department store shabu shabu restaurant. In these restaurants, the patrons cook their own food, meat and veggies, in a small hot water pot. After cooking, you then have the broth as a soup. I liked this lunch as both being unusual and tasty.
After lunch, we bused to the Yasukuni Shrine. This is a memorial to the 2.5 million Japanese who died in wars. It has become a controversial site even since the enshrinement of 14 class A war criminals in 1979. Here, we had our own talk by the shrine’s Shinto priest. It seems all the shrines in Japan are Sinto and all the temples are Buddhist. Although these are different religions, somehow in Japan they coexist. According to this priest, Shinto is meant for memorials and happy times while Buddhism is meant for funerals and sad times. I guess this is why most Japanese identify with both these religions!<. The first pic is where you cleanse yourself by washing your hands etc before you enter the shrine. />
We had a special welcome dinner this night. We traveled by train to the nightlife district around Kabukicho Street. Although it was raining, the crowds of people and the activity here is truly amazing. The dinner itself was very nice with sashimi, tempura, a hot pot rice dish, salads, ice cream and free drinks. After dinner, we took taxis back to the hotel. May, our guide, said the taxi was in case anyone got drunk!
The next morning, Sunday, we had to pack a small bag for two nights. This is because we cannot take our large bags on the bullet train on Tuesday on our way to Kanazawa. After breakfast, we left the hotel for our bus and a 3 hour trip to a small town of 300 up in the mountains. This is one of OAT tours ‘A Day in the Life’ experiences. In this small town, we arrived at the house of a roughly 90 yo woman (she won't tell her exact age!). Here she along with her 79 yo lady friend and the 60 yo male town organizer met us. Today, we talked with them (through our guide interpreter) and ‘helped’ them to make noodles! Lunch consisted of our noodles in a miso broth along with fresh salad vegetables from the local gardens along with very large grapes. BTW, Japan has the largest grapes and peaches I have ever seen. Some of the grapes are as big as 1 inch in diameter and are seedless! Whereas the peaches can get bigger than a softball! Although these fruits are amazing and great tasting, they are also expensive. A small bunch of the grapes (maybe more than a pound?) cost about $5. The peaches sell from about $2 to $7 each depending on their size.
After lunch and talking with the locals, the town organizer tour us on a tour of the town . The garden plots here are well planned and look almost commercial. The town has a town hall which is one of the older houses. The previous owner moved to the city and gave the town their house for community use.
In town they had this monument to the Mount Fujis. Yes, there are more than one Mount Fuji! It seemed the Japanese loved the original Mount Fuji (Number 1) so much that they have also given that name to 249 other Mount Fujis around the country. This monument has a small piece of rock from each one!
After are time with the locals, we returned to our bus for another hour trip to the town of Hakone and our hotel, Palace Hotel. Here we had the opportunity to take a Japanese bath before dinner. This is an interesting process of three rooms. First room, you undress, stow your things under a big towel and take a small towel into room two. You have to be nude here to take a seated shower and then plunge into the heated pool. You can stay as long as you want here just as long as you keep the towel out of the water! In my case, this pool was rather hot and it took me a while to gradually submerge. After this pool, you can go outside (called room 3) for the outside pool. In my case, this pool was not near as hot as the indoor one. However over dinner discussions, I learned the ladies' bath pools were just the opposite, that is the outdoor pool was hotter!
After my bath, I went to dinner where we had a tradition Japanese dinner. All but one of the group wore our Japanese robes! Yes, all rooms in the hotel have robes for the guests - mainly to wear in the room or go to the baths. The day ne'er itself had many plates of numerous things I never had before. It was very nice and interesting but I am not ready to eat mainly Japanese food!
Monday morning after breakfast, we took the tour bus to Hakone Open Air Museum. In the outdoor part of this over 17 acre site are over 120 sculptures mainly are thought provocative or amusing. There is also a Picasso Pavilion with over 300 Picasso pieces including 2 magnificent gemmail pieces. Unfortunately, you can't take pictures of these stained glass masterpieces. This museum is well worth visiting.
This is a picture of the sculpture that May, our guide, relates to as well as the one her husband relates to:
After this museum we headed to Narukawa Art Museum. This museum has the largest collection of nihonga (Japanese style painting) in Japan. Nihonga used “paint” made up of natural powdered rock and gelatin. This makes nihonga much more difficult and expensive than traditional oil paintings as you cannot mix colors in rocks. You have to buy a different color powdered rock. &nbI sp;There is a good side to nihonga. Powdered rocks do not lose or change colors for at least 2,000 years. The Narukawa Art Museum also boosts a great view of Mount Fuji when, unlike today, Mount Fuji is visible. A picture of the powered rocks and pics of the view today and the same view when Mount Fuji is visible.
We had a nice western style buffet lunch before we took the ferry across lake. It was then back to the hotel. There, I took another bath, I had one before breakfast, before dinner. Here is a pic of our dinner.
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