It rained all night last night and we were afraid we'd not have great weather today, but boy were we wrong. After our convenience store (excuse me "Supermarket") breakfast we took a walk down to the shore to check it out.
Oh, that's right. THAT'S why we came here
The clouds had lifted and it was a gorgeous, sunny day and great scenery all around. You can't see it in these pictures, but the water out here is pure blue (white sand bottom) and SO clear you can see clear to the ocean floor even 20-30 feet deep. More on that later. We had set up to do a snorkeling excursion in the afternoon, so we had the morning to kill.
Walking over to the "Supermarket" we stocked up on food for the next few days and walked behind it to "Rental Shop Shou". It was, um, a rental shop. We rented a few bikes to explore the island chain. The bikes were...mamacharis. What is a mamachari?
This beautiful thing
They actually kept their rental gear in great shape. These bikes were well tuned, oiled and, clean. Not an easy task on an island with all the salt in the air. Of course, being in Japan, to say it did not fit me would be an understatement. My knees hit the handlebars when I tried to pedal (I had to squeeze myself fully between the handlebars to ride at all) and I had to sit almost where the rear basket is just to fit. I'm sure I looked athletic and graceful. But they were bikes and we got to cross over the two bridges, leading to the southern islands, Geruma and Fukaji. The entire trip was about 4 miles (these islands are not large at all) with some really nice scenery
This is an elementary/junior high school. Imagine your school grounds looking like this.
We ended at the Kerama Airport. Remember the "Supermarket"? Yeah, this airport is tiny. There is a single runway that takes up pretty much the entire island and is like if you have ever landed in a jungle, there just a bunch of trees then a single runway. Yeah, except make it a island full of small mountains.
After our leisurely ride, we headed back to our cell and napped for about half an hour we walked down to the shore to meet the SeaSir van (the company doing the snorkeling/diving excursion). The first stop was a bunch of divers and jusrt us snorkeling. The second stop was just use snorkeling. Very different from the Maldives in many ways, not least of which is that the coral is very much alive here. It was fantastic snorkeling. With the clear water and lush coral, we saw a ton of new types of fish, as well as turtles, a water snake (Sumi saw that, I did not) and a manta ray! They are rare around here in May, so we were quick lucky to see one. This is our first time seeing one in the wild. They are big. Like, really big. Nearly three times to size of the eagle rays and sand rays we saw in the Maldives.
Not the best picture, but his wingspan is about 5 feet
Our guide took this of us.
Back at the cell, we had a feast consisting of ham and cheese sandwiches and...yeah that's it. Mild sunburns despite constantly re-applying sunscreen. Gotta be careful the next few days.
The beach is littered with old coral "fossils"
Shiisa yaibiin!
Cute little painted Shiiisa
Translation: If a tsunami comes, we're all screwed.
Today was a day of travel and forceable jet lag recovery! We were both so exhausted from the weeks leading up to the trip and yesterday's travel that we were out by 7 last night and didn't get moving until almost 6 this morning. The trip to the airport was ridiculously easy. The hotel was literally 40 feet from the monorail station and in about 15 minutes we were at Haneda airport struggling with technology to check our luggage for the flight. Everything was automated, because Japan, and once it worked it was pretty great, but they have these large scanners set up that you put your bags on after they issue you the tags with barcodes. You basically scan your boarding pass and it tries to handle the rest. The problem is the scanners struggle to read the tags, so we spent a good 10-15 minutes trying to reposition the bags, the tags, going to different machines until it finally just worked and was done. There was no one there to assist, so it was pretty much keep doing the same thing over and over and hope it works the next time.
Once that was done, we had a few hours to kill, because Sumi and I are both paranoid about missing flights overseas and gave ourselves about 3 hours, just in case. So we found a nice cafe at the end of Terminal 1 to sit in and relax for a while.
Cafe LAT25º, if you ever find yourself in Terminal 1 in Haneda
Security in Japan is actual, functioning security as opposed the the security theater we have in the US. It's far less painful to deal with and the things they are looking for are actual safety concerns. Both Sumi and I got held up at the metal detector because of our watches (something that US detectors don't pick up) but they did NOT care about bottles of water or number of electronic devices. They DID care about the power brick (battery) I had and my bag got pulled aside to verify it was not one of the ones that can blow up. The whole ordeal, with me getting pulled aside twice, was faster and less hassle than a typical US domestic flight.
The flight was easy, a 3 hour trip from Tokyo to Naha and we found ourselves in Okinawa by noon. We did in hindsight make a mistake by going straight to the port where the ferry departs rather than getting lunch in the city. Tamori port is fine, but it's a port and as such didn't have much around it. The few restaurants in the port building were either closed or cafes without a proper kitchen.
It's...uh...it's a...port
So we ended up at Family Mart again, which was fine but we could have sat down and had a real meal with the time we had. This was largely due to our uncertainty of how long it would take to get to the port and where we needed to be. This DID lead to one of the most unintentionally hilarious machine translated websites I have seen in a long time.
The whole site was pure gold, but this one was the best
The ferry, the Queen Zamami, was a high speed ferry that brought us to the tiny island of Aka in about 50 minutes.
Aka is very small, a permanent population of about 300. It is known for it's snorkeling and diving, which is what we'll be hoping to do for the next few days. We walked the short distance (because the island is so small EVERYTHING is a short distance), passing by Shiro along the way.
Shiro, a very good boy
So, this is actually NOT an "ancient Japanese legend" but something that actually happened. Shiro and his family, the Nakamuras, lived on the neighboring island of Zamami and he would play with Marilyn, a neighbor dog all the time. When his family moved to Aka island, he would often disappear for the day, coming back all wet. Finally, Mr. Nakamura followed Shiro one morning to see what he was getting up to. He watched Shiro jump into the water and got in his boat and followed Shiro as he swam two miles in open water to Zamami island, where he would find Marilyn and they would play. There was a movie made about this. Shiro lived to be 17 and this statue and a matching one of Marilyn on Zamami island were erected.
When we got to our hotel we were a little amused at the room....ambiance, though it really was very comfortable and clean. This place had shared bathroom and shower, all immaculately clean, even by Japanese standards.
A basement? A prison cell?
The owner warned us that there is no breakfast server on the island, so we should probably head to the "Supernarket" to get food for the morning. She also pointed out the only "restaurant" open tonight. It seems that the only restaurants outside of hotel restaurants and afternoon cafes are izakayas, think Japanese tapas. This particular one was their version of a permanent food truck.
It can't be THAT bad....can it?
Chorizo? In Okinawa?
So, a few things about the menu. Japan does not do ethnic food well. At all. Unless it's an Indian run Indian restaurant, ethnic food is often laughably bad. Italian food uses canned tomatoes and few to no herbs. So when I saw Teppanyaki-chorizo, I was hesitant. But everything else was either seafood or very likely the darkest, fattiest meat imaginable. So I took my chances. We ordered that, chili cheese fries (see previous discussion about ethnic food), Sumi tried the pork ribs and garlic yakitori (another red flag. Yakitori literally means "grilled chicken", though that's a not uncommon thing in izakayas) and the uber-safe grilled rice ball.
The little cast iron skillets were a nice touch
Welp. I was right on every count. The chorizo was glorified hot dogs with some odd spice. The mustard sauce made it palatable. The chili cheese fries...the fries were good. The chili was from a can and very sweet with almost no....chili flavor. The pork rib yakitori was probably pretty good if you like fat with a side of meat (which a LOT of people over here do), and the rice ball was actually not bad, though it really was just a ball of rice, grilled with some soy sauce.
Also, that was NOT teppenyaki. Teppenyaki is basically a stir fry with vegetables and some protein (tofu, chicken, etc). That was some meat thing on a skillet. This is teppenyaki:
Notice the vegetables? Yeah, that's what I was after
After the less than satisfying dinner, we went to the "Supernarket". The "Supermarket" is a store on the ground floor of a minshuku that has less food than a typical convenience store. It's also the only game in town, literally. We were really hoping for just some cereal and milk that we could bring back to the hotel. Cereal is not nearly as common a breakfast food in Japan as it is in the states. Convenience stores will usually have a few boxes, but this place did not. We snagged the last two yogurts and some apple juice and resigned ourselves to more convenience store food for many of our meals over the next few days.
Returning to our cozy little cell block, we settled in for the night, hoping for some decent weather and better food tomorrow! Also pictures!
Shiisa!
Shiisa Yaibiin!
Not a Shiisa. Found at Tomari Port on a bridge
I love Japanese manhole covers. Made in Neenah-Menasha!
The trip this year snuck up on us so fast, we realized on Monday that we were leaving in six days. Between school and the band touring, I haven't really had a day off in months. Luckily for us, we're pretty good at packing for these trips. This year, we will be finally traveling to the southernmost islands of Japan, Okinawa!
But first things first, the trip down to O'Hare and the flight to Japan were surprisingly smooth. Just, you know, 22 hours of travel door-to-door. We're staying tonight at the Hotel Metropolitan Tokyo Haneda, which is a hotel on the same man-made island that the airport is located, just on the southwestern tip of the island. It has an observation room on the 10th floor where you can watch the planes take off and the whole hotel is a weird combination of upscale business and... plane nerd. The hotel restaurant has $150 steaks and everything is hardwood and marble. But then you get to the hallways leading to the rooms.
Sumi and I were so burnt by the time we got to the hotel, all we wanted to do was get some food from a konbini and collapse. Fortunately, as this is Japan, than meant an 8 minute walk to the nearby Family Mart, which was just over a bridge to the "mainland". The bridge was also full-on plane nerd, with artwork depicting a history of air machines in Japan
Starting with 18th century balloons
To early 20th century planes
I love the fact that there is a blimp, too.
Ans up through the Boeing 747
There were also REAL plane nerds on the other side of the bridge taking pictures of the planes taking off
While the other side of the bridge was typical Japan, with river boats and a vermillion bridge. Red bridges are traditional in Japan, vermillion being a color that wards off evil and prevents disasters. Traditional ones, called soribashi, were fairly steep foot bridges that symbolized the transition from the physical to the spiritual worlds in Shinto and Buddhist traditions.
Typical view from a bridge in Japan
Traditional soribashi
As we walked back we saw a plane taking off and realized just how close we were to the airport. One of the runways for domestic flights is literally across the street from the hotel, and the planes are just taking flight when they go over the building.
Anyway, that's it for our first check-in of the trip. By this time tomorrow, we'll be on a tropical isalnd in Okinawa!
P.S. Japan never fails to amuse with their products and their signage.
Think Corn Chex with chili and....cod roe...flavor <shudder>
I so wanted this to be a specialty amphibian waxing salon or something. It's an airport logistics company. Very disappointing.
Today we first braved Akihabara to visit Yodobashi and Book Off, looking for some books (Japanese in-depth strategy guides for games) and possibly a Pikachu rolling suitcase. We found all of the former we were looking for (and by "we", I mean "me") but the suitcase was just too small for what we needed it to do, which is fit our new tachi-okedo stand. We ended up finding a non-pikachu one (though with the same blinding yellow color) in of all places, Don Quixote (henceforth referred to as Donki).
Donki, as we have mentioned before, is a 24 hour three story tourist trap from hell. But the prices are good, you can purchase tax-free if you choose, and they actually have some good and useful stuff buried amongst the fake throwing stars and ninja outfits. The problem is the other customers. Mostly tourists, mostly asian, mostly obnoxious. It seems to attract the worst type of Chinese tourist, even worse than the typical American tourists (says an American tourist). So we kind of avoid it unless there's something we need. Well, we were getting desperate for a suitcase. We tried looking in Ameyo (America Yokocho), but the very pushy Indian salespeople turned us off so much, we weren't going to buy from them, even though it was cheaper. As it was, we found one just big enough to handle the stand and it came in three colors: Midnight Black, Navy Blue, and Ridiculous Yellow. So we now own a very yellow suitcase, which makes it easy to spot at baggage claim.
We did all this today so we could get back and get cleaned up before heading out to the Yasukuni Shrine this evening for the start of the Mitama Festival. The festival is an Obon, a festival to honor deceased ancestors, and features a lot of dancing (more on that later). It also has a number of processions throughout the event, including mikoshi (portable shrines), Awa Odori dancers, and Nebuta floats (illuminated paper floats). This festival also features over 30,000 votive lanterns that line the way from the torii entrance to the shrine itself. It is one of the most popular festival in Tokyo and draws over 300,000 people.
We got there a little early to sample some of the food stalls and get a look at the shrine itself before the mikoshi processions began. The first thing we stumbled upon when we got there was some taiko!
Portable stand for the procession
It was one of the procession groups playing their songs for the audience. All those lanterns you see behind them will be lit up a little later on. We headed to the main plaza where there was a large gazebo with some more taiko that would be where the Obon dancing would happen. Next to the plaza were the food stalls. Traveler's Tip: Eat before you go to a festival. We opted for "long potatoes" and a chicken wrap (very traditional, I know). "Long Potatoes" are long french fries.
Edible.
While we were looking around, they were playing some pretty bad Japanese pop songs from the 70's over a tinny loudspeaker that looks like it came from the set of M*A*S*H. One in particular, which somehow has become a staple of Obon, is ビューティフル・サンデー, Beautiful Sunday, originally by British singer Daniel Boone, this one by Seiji Tanaka
The original has real drums and is shorter, so it is better, in my opinion. The video is bad, even for 1972.
The shrime was filling up with people as the Obon dancing was about to start
The shrine was decorated with oversized Teruteru bouzu
The main procession path, now filled with attendees
Covering the taiko for the night in high-tech cases
We need a blanket like this for our odaiko
As the dancing began, I was struck by three things
There are a lot of different Obon dances. All to the exact same beat.
These were all counter-clockwise Obon.
They did not stop dancing, even when the mikoshi procession started
This last one surprised me. As the first mikoshi approached (the one with the taiko players we saw earlier), the Obon dancers (and their music) didn't stop. I have a clip below, but to set the stage, the police had to clear all the festival-goers out of the main processional path for the mikoshi, so there is this chaos of tens of thousands of people being moved to make room for the mikoshi. While this is going on, there are about four hundred people dancing in a counter-clockwise circle to loud music that is older and much worse than "Beautiful Sunday" over a bad loudspeaker accompanied by a few taiko players. The result is the mikoshi procession ends up running into the Obon danceers and the police now have to clear the dancers AND the path beyond that leads to the shrine. And to top it all off, this wasn't the first mikoshi! In other words, the dancing stopped as the first mikoshi approached and left. Then they started another dance while the second mikoshi was approaching and didn't stop. It was very weird.
Taiko players rotated in and out, keeping the same beat going constantly along with the prerecorded pop songs.
The dancers in the gazebo lead the crowd in what to do
The first mikoshi procession was all young women. This is not common, so I'm sure there was some reason for it.
They present the mikoshi to the gazebo, where there's a big statue, then they continue on past the gazebo to the shrine, which is another path just as long as the first path. When the second group came up, you can hear the Obon music playing. People are dancing just off screen to the right when they approached.
After all the mikoshi, it was getting dark and all the lanterns were lit.
There were still people streaming into the shrine grounds as we left around 7:30. We got stuck in a human traffic jam as some politician set up a makeshift stage on the sidewalk right in front of the only subway entrance. There were easily a thousand people on the sidewalk trying to walk to or from the station due to the festival, and this idiot blocks half the sidewalk, then people listening to him block the rest, so people had to literally squeeze (and push) past the crowd that were standing in the sidewalk. It took almost five minutes to move the 100 feet (30 meters) from his platform to the station. There were barriers to the street, so we couldn't just hop the curb and tall buildings on the other side, so we were stuck. The politician obviously chose this location and time on purpose, and I sincerely hope he lost the support of everyone trying to actually use the sidewalk.
All in all, despite my snarky comments, the festival was really neat. It is the first true traditional festival we've been to, and seeing a real Obon, seeing the mikoshi and all the taiko being played and all the people coming out for a festival was really cool. Tomorrow night is the nebuta float and more Obon dancing and an Awa Odori dance, so as long as it doesn't rain, we'll be back tomorrow, hopefully with no politician!
