2005-07-03 (Sunday)
I finally made it! I'm IN JAPAN!!! The flight was long and tiring, ten hours in the air from Seattle to Narita! I did manage to sleep for most of it, but I was awake in time for both meals. The flight itself was fairly uneventful, a couple instances of some turbulance, but mostly smooth.
Customs also went much smoother than I orignally anticipated! The thing that took the most time there was the long line to get through the passport check...over an hour! That was when I realized that maybe checking a bag might have been a better idea...but in the end, I'm still glad I didn't. The return trip, though, may be different! I'm seriously considering buying a large roll-away suitcase to haul the souvenirs in.
Anyway...the first night, I was met at the Omiya bus station by Tami Miyamoto (Borchard), the daughter of a friend of my father's. She had arranged a place for me to stay, and I was very glad for it! I stayed with Kazuyuki Kobayashi and his family, which was a very interesting experience for me! Very "modern traditional", which was fun to experience! We stayed up and spoke in english about different things, I practiced a little bit of my very limited Japanese, and I think we communicated fairly well overall. I spent my first night on a traditional japanese bed (futon) in a tatami room! This was something I was wanting to experience for a long time! The next morning, Mrs. Kobayashi had to work, so I didn't see her again, but her husband made breakfast for me: traditional-style japanese breakfast consisting of rice, miso soup, fried egg and ham, and cut cucumbers and tomatoes. Oishii! After breakfast he drove me to church.
Church was a interesting experience as well! Omiya Zion Lutheran Church is a Japanese Lutheran Church, associated with the LCMS. The tunes for all the hymns are the same, but they sing them in japanese! Also, the liturgy is the same, except for being in japanese (of course). This all led to being a very familiar setting, and made me feel quite at ease. After the service was over, Tami introduced me to the congregation, explaining who I was and why I was in Japan. They all made me feel very welcome! The congregation then had tea and cookies downstairs, and I spoke to a few of the members (in english, with a bit of japanese here and there) for a bit. Again, everyone was very friendly! Then Tami, her friend Mika and I went down the street to a restaurant, Coco's, for lunch. Coco's seems to be a family-style restaurant, serving "American" food as well as Mexican, Italian and Japanese. It was all very good! We then went to see a Bonsai 'garden', where people can go to learn how to make bonsai, and also buy bonsai. I would have loved to take some pictures there, but they didn't permit photography. There were some very beautiful bonsai, though! Then we went to old Saitama City, which is an older community with traditional old japanese architecture containing MANY different shops! I tried some [rice cake on a stick] sprinkled with black sesame seeds at one shop (again, oishii!), then bought a set of japanese [pajamas] at another. We also stopped at a couple candy shops, where I picked up some fruit-flavored hard candies in a tin (a-la Grave of the Fireflies), some traditional Momo-chan candies, and a pair of manekineko, one black and one white. We also stopped at a small restaurant where I tried some sweet-potato beer (hai, oishii!), then went to a different restaurant to eat. The second restaurant was a more traditional style place, serving mainly only poultry dishes. I had a duck filet on a stick, plus chicken yakitori, and fried riceballs (oishii again!). We then went back to the church, but on the way we stopped at a grocery store to pick up some fruit as a thank-you gift to the pastor and his wife, who let me stay at the parsonage tonight.
In everything, I can see God's hand working, helping me out every step along the way.
Well, it's late, and I have an early start in the morning, as we will be going to the Ghibli Museum early, and it takes a while to get there on the train. So, I'll wrap this up for tonight. (Tatami and futon again...I love it!)
Knightsabre
2005-07-03 (Monday)
Today was the day I had lined up to go to the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka. I was ready! One little wrinkle, though: it had started raining the night before, and it didn't stop. Also, the forecast called for rain for the rest of the day, at least! Welcome to Japan in the rainy season! Oh well, at least there were umbrellas! Tami again played tour guide (or translator, at the very least!) and picked me up at around 7:45 am. The pastor's wife fixed me breakfast, again a traditional japanese-style breakfast with rice, miso soup, eggs, Spam (I believe, but it was good!) and cut raw(?) ocra. It was VERY good, and not at all asked for or expected! The kindness of strangers I have been experiencing thus far has been nothing short of phenomenal! In any case, we walked to the train station, and took the train one stop to Omiya Station, where we changed trains to get to Mitaka. We rode that train to Shinjuku Station, where we changed trains to the Chuoo line that would take us to Mitaka. At Mitaka Station, we met up with Amber and Lauren, two other Americans who are in Japan teaching English. We then got on board the Ghibli Museum bus which took us directly to the museum. As we entered, the attendents told us there was no photography allowed inside the museum (I already knew about this going in), and we went inside. YAY! I showed by advance pass at the entrance desk, and was given my movie ticket, which is a small cardboard ticket containing a 3-cell sequence from one of Miyazaki-san's films (mine was from Porco Rosso!)
Inside the museum, we went through the first room, which contained displays about animation, including an old-style zoetrope, as well as a large 3-D model strobe-zoetrope, which was VERY kewl, indeed! It would sit motionless for a little bit, then the lights in the case would dim, the model platform would start to spin, and the strobe lights came on, animating the entire scene!
We finished in that room, then went on to the movie theater. The only films they show are special animated shorts done just for the museum. The film we saw was "May and Catbus" which featured the characters from My Neighbor Totoro. May goes out to play on a windy day, her little bag over her shoulder, and climbs to the top of a small hill. There she takes out a box of caramels, carefully takes out and unwraps one, and just as she is about to eat it, a huge gust comes along, spinning her around, and snatching the wrapping paper from the caramel from her grip. She manages to get the caramel in her mouth, but she is chased around the yard and into the house by a tiny whirlwind, which is carrying the wrapper from her caramel. When she gets the whirlwind into the house, she closes the door behind it so it can't get out, and after a few seconds, she grabs the whirlwind, which turns into a tiny catbus! I won't go into any more of that here, but suffice it to say it was VERY cute! It was also really fun to hear all the little kids around us shouting "NEKOBASU! NEKOBASU!", which is japanese for "cat-bus"!
That is one thing I will say about the Ghibli Museum: it is a place for kids to come and be kids, no matter what their age! Many of the exhibits are "hands-on", or out in the open, and anywhere there is something that needs to be watched they had an attendant on hand. It was really neat to see all the kids having such a good time, but I also had a REALLY fun time there myself! Tami and I went up to the roof of the museum, where the Laputan Robot Soldier and one of the Labutan building blocks was located. This wasn't "inside" the museum, so I got out my camera and had Tami take a picture of me with the robot soldier, then I took one of her with it as well. It was raining, otherwise I would have tried taking a few more pictures of it! The room directly below the robot soldier is the catbus playroom, which is for kids only! After watching the kids jump around on the almost-life-sized catbus, we went into the book shop, and then to the gift shop. Shortly after this we left to find some lunch, as the food at the Straw Hat Cafe in the museum was fairly high. I know I will be coming back here again whenever I come back to Japan!
After lunch we went to Tokyo Dome City, which is where the Tokyo Dome is located, as well as a large shopping mall. We looked around the shops, then went to eat at a Hawaiian restaurant owned by a former sumo wrestler from Hawaii. The food there was GREAT! After that, we went to the Baskin Robbins for dessert, and had a small encounter with some of the local high school boys, who recognized us as "gaijin", and tried to ask us questions in English. One of them asked me (in fairly broken english) whether I had been to Japan before. When I answered him "First time", all the rest of the boys exclaimed their amazement at their friend's prowess in english, and he looked pretty pleased with himself as well! I was told by one of my companions what else they were saying, and that they thought they might have had a bet about whether or not I could understand him. It was kinda fun, in any case. After all the fun and games at the gaijin's expense, I got my single-regular-dip grape sorbet on a sugar cone and left with the rest of the group. We then basically just hung out in the mall's common area, talking about japanese life, strange things they have seen, and other such matters. The fountain came on at 8:00 PM with a music/light show, which we watched. We then got all our things together and proceeded back to Omiya Station. After much discussion about the lack of places for me to stay, I finally decided to bite the bullet and rent a hotel room for the night, which is where I am now. I am only a couple blocks from Omiya Station, and that is only a couple stops away from Tami's area. So, I will be meeting up with her again for a "down-day", where she doesn't have to be running around all over, and I can do some laundry, cash in some traveller's checques, and just take it easy for the day. This will be alright, since I was invited to dinner at one of the other church member's homes that evening, as well. These people are all so nice!
Well, I should have more to write later about all this, so good night for now!
Knightsabre
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