Summer Trip Part 2: Osaka

(continued from Part 1)

We had a relatively sleepless night in Narita Airport. Our flight, scheduled to take off at 6:25 am, departs before the earliest train in from Tokyo. There are several hotels near the airport that cater specifically to travelers, but even they don't begin their airport shuttle services until at least 6:30. I believe there is a hotel within in the airport itself, but it's exorbitantly expensive. The only safe and economical choice was to spend the night in the departure terminal.

Sleeping in the airport is not quite as taboo as you might think. Many people with late departures or early arrivals choose to spend the night at the airport to avoid a several hundred dollar taxi ride into town (taxi is the only way in and out in the dead of night). A poor fellow from an English speaking country got off a plane with his girlfriend and asked a nearby info counter where to take the train into Tokyo. The attendant informed him that there were no more trains, and he looked to his stunned girlfriend and said, "Shit..."

At around 11 pm, after the trains have shut down, the security guards in the airport round everybody up, take down their passport and flight information, and let everyone find space to sleep. These guards wander about the halls for the rest of the night, making sure everyone is safe and that there's no sleeping person becoming the victim of thievery. The presence of the security guards made me feel comfortable even when wearing my eye covers and drifting off to sleep.

Five hours later, I groggily arose to go check in for our flight. I slept well, if not for only a short time, but Kristin said she couldn't get much sleep with the lights still on. I highly recommend eye covers and earplugs if you plan to sleep in an airport.

Anyways, less than 3 hours later, we landed in Kansai International Airport. The first thing we felt when we walked outside: it's HOT!! With the highs in Osaka dangling around 34 C, we were sweating immediately. We bought our train tickets into Osaka proper, along with a subway 1-day pass, and rode the half-hour into Namba station.

This area is the Southern Downtown district, called "Minami", and is extremely lively, filled with covered walking streets lined with food and goods shops. Since it was early in the morning, we walked into a cheap fast-food noodle shop and had some udon. It was nothing to scream about, but it was cheap and it filled us up. We spent the next hours wandering through the endless busy streets towards Doutonbori, the famous busy shopping district of Osaka.

Doutonbori

Beyond the fact that there are tons of bars, food stands, shops, and stores, Doutonbori is chock filled with iconic landmarks and advertisements, like the giant robotic crab, the golden ramen dragon, and the Glico running man to name a few. However, we're much less interested in touristy photo opportunities as we are in experiencing interesting food and fantastic scenery. We spent a little time walking around before getting back on the train.

We couldn't find anything else interesting to do, so we went to look for something to eat. We went really far out of our way to find a small mom and pop shop that serves up one of Osaka's famous cuisines: お好み焼き okonomiyaki. I've heard it described as a "Japanese pizza", but it's something more like a vegetable pancake slurry. The main ingredient is shredded cabbage, around which is other shredded vegetables and meats like beef, pork, or seafood. This is all mixed along with an egg and batter and slapped onto a hot grilling plate. Flip it over, add the standard toppings of brown sweet sauce, dried seaweed flakes, dried bonito flakes, chili powder, and mayonnaise and it's done! This shop also had a different type of okonomiyaki, called モダンお好み焼き modan(modern?) okonimyaki, that had yakisoba noodles fried into it to.

Regular okonomiyaki on the left, modan version on the right.

After lunch, we took the subway south to 四天王寺 Shi-ten'ouji Temple, apparently one of the oldest temple complexes in Japan at ~1400 years old! Here, we caught a busy flea market that goes on for 2 days every month (21st and 22nd). Clothes and trinket things that would normally cost in the thousands of yen were priced in the hundreds, so we bought some nice lacquered wooden bowls and some bamboo folding fans. Done with shopping, we paid a visit to the temple itself and climbed the 5-story pagoda to the top.

One of the temples in the complex.

Main temple and 5-story pagoda you can climb.

That night, as we headed back north toward our (distant) hotel, we had some golden ramen and some たこ焼き takoyaki grilled squid balls, another one of Osaka's specialties. The ramen was mediocre (the stuff in Hakodate far outclassed this stuff), but the takoyaki was glorious. I'm usually not a fan of octopus, but these takoyaki were so supple on the outside and creamy on the inside that we polished off our 15-piece box in a matter of minutes.

The next morning, we were eager to head off to our next destination: Kyoto! To be continued...

But before I close this post, I want to talk about what makes Kansai so special. There's this short-episode anime series called Ore no Imouto ha Ousaka Okan, or "My little sister is an Osaka Ma'am". In this anime, there is an Osakan girl named Namika who gives little tidbits about the funny and unusual tendencies that Osaka residents have. A big part of that is their local dialect, called Kansai-ben or Oosaka-ben (for specifically Osaka City).

Namika with her Hanshin Tigers doll.

For example, meat buns, usually called nikuman, are called butaman, or "pig buns" here. Also, Imagawayaki, a kind of desert bread filled with sweet red bean or custard filling, is called kaitenyaki here (and I just found out that they're simply called oyaki in Aomori, despite the fact that oyaki is something completely different in Nagano). Coffee creamer, usually called "milk", is somehow called "fresh", and "iced coffee" is called rei-kou blending Japanese and English.

Parking lots, usually called chuushajou, are now "motor pools".

Besides the language portion, there are some funny things that can only be found in this region. Firstly, many of the housewives like to pimp their bikes out with umbrella holders, called sasube, so they can bike in the rain. I hadn't seen one until I got to Kansai, so it was kinda exciting to see it in real life. The anime show also described that Kansai people have a tendency to wear floral print clothing, but I didn't take it seriously until I got here. I haven't seen so many floral print pants in my life!

I was really reluctant to believe everything I saw in Osaka Okan, but after being there and seeing with my own eyes, it was spot on! Anyways, that's all for now! See you next time for Kyoto adventures!

Summer Trip Part 1: Hakone (again)

After the final day of school and the semester closing ceremonies, I left Aomori to meet up with Kristin in Tokyo. We hadn't seen each other in about 2 months, so the reunion was emotional. I had just taken an overnight bus, and Kristin had left Komagane for the last time in the early hours of the morning, so we set up camp at 力めし Chikara-meshi (Japanese fast food chain, similar to Sukiya) for some breakfast.

Almost immediately after, we grabbed our 2-day Odakyuu passes for unlimited travel on trains, buses, cablecar, and ropeway in the Hakone Area, just like I had done last time. I've been to Hakone once before with my mom and sister, but Kristin had never gone before, so I wanted to give her the same experiences.

After a 2 hour train ride into Kanagawa prefecture towards Mt. Fuji, we finally arrived in the the small town of Gora, which is the gateway to the Hakone Ropeway. Last time I came here, the tofu shop I wanted to go to was closed. This time, I finally got to try what the hype was all about.

The restaurant is called 田むら銀かつ亭 (Tamura Ginkatsu-tei), and they sell various fried foods. Their most famous item is made from a special 銀豆腐 (gin-dofu, or "silver tofu") made at a store just down the street. We first went to the tofu-maker's shop to taste-test the raw tofu served with soy sauce. Then, we hopped down to the restaurant just down the street to eat lunch. We ordered the famous ginkatsu, as well as some fried shrimp and pork cutlet.

Fried shrimp and pork cutlet

After lunch, we took the cablecar up to the ropeway station, and took the ropeway up to 大涌谷Oowakudani. We walked up to the sulfur pools again and bought black eggs at the teahouse at the top. The day was coming to an end and the ropeway was about to shut down, so we left almost immediately and got back on the ropeway to continue into Tougendai.

Last time I came, there was just enough cloud cover to keep Mt. Fuji from being visible. This time, the clouds were even worse, and we could barely even see Lake Ashi below us. Sadly, we wouldn't see Fuji for this entire trip. It would be best to time the trip for a sunny and clear day, but planning that in advance is pretty impossible unless you're spending a long time in Tokyo without a tight schedule.

Upon arriving at the Tougendai station, we immediately boarded a bus towards our lodging in Sengokuhara, the closest town. We checked in to Fuji-Hakone Guest House, which is a small minshuku inn-style building. One of their perks is that they speak English and accept credit cards (Visa and Mastercard ok, but no JCB for some reason).

For dinner, we walked further into town to go to my favorite restaurant in the area, Daichi いなか家大地. They serve home-style Japanese food like しょうが焼き ginger pork or fried tofu, and the open kitchen and dining area is always comfortable and inviting. Very few other places are open in the evening anyways, so Daichi is always my first choice.

After filling up on delicious food, we called it a night and walked back to the inn to take an early bath in their private bathhouse. The milky-white ofuro water was hot and refreshing, and being able to bathe together privately is a nice perk for couples at these smaller minshuku. Clean and sleepy, we went to bed.

The next morning, we went out to try to get some breakfast. As we walked along the street, we discovered that most places in the area don't open until at least 10 am. We made it to the end of the road, so we paid a visit to the local Buddhist temple, 長安寺 Chouan-dera. We wandered here and there taking pictures, weaving through the grassy hillside filled with stone statues, and chasing down small colorful snakes.

Small stone island with accompanying place of worship

On the way back to the inn to gather our luggage, we resorted to getting some bread and fruit juice from the convenience store for breakfast. That's the problem with these popular day-visit sites: since most of the tourists head there around noon and leave before sundown, the atmosphere is mostly dead in the early mornings and late evenings.

After retrieving our luggage, we took the bus back down to Tougendai to catch the pirate-ship ferry to Hakone-machi. The scenery was much greener this time around compared to the winter, but the rolling clouds made visibility low. After landing, we started our walk towards Moto-Hakone, stopping to have some amazake warm sweet rice wine, a few manju red bean buns, and a nozawana oyaki grilled bun stuffed with pickled vegetables.

Halfway to Moto Hakone, there is a large park sitting on a peninsula that overlooks Lake Ashi and has an abundance of various flora. There is a historical building there too, but we weren't interested enough to go inside. We were having too much fun climbing the park's many stairs and taking panoramic photos of the lake.

Continuing on, we walked down the path lined with giant old cedar trees, and found a giant rhinoceros beetle along the way. We didn't stay in Moto-Hakone long, only paying a visit to Hakone Shrine to have a look and eat their famed 五色糯 goshokumochi that I talked about in the previous post. On our way back from the shrine, we snacked on surprisingly good sausages and buttered potatoes at a small wiener house.

For a new twist, we wanted to try the amazake at a teahouse down a somewhat unused road. Since the buses were very infrequent, we tried hiking there up a winding old trail. This trail was "paved" with stones, but the kinds of stones that aren't flat but have jagged edges sticking in every which direction. It was very steep, so walking on it was tiring, and the risk of tripping or twisting an ankle was uncomfortably high. The dirt gutter beside the path was much easier to walk in, so opted to step off the "paved" trail.

Many minutes later (I'm pretty sure waiting for the bus would have been faster), we finally made it to the teahouse, called the 甘酒茶屋 amazake chaya. It's a very old-fashioned building, although I'm not entirely sure if its age. The inside is dim and barely lit, and the wooden stump tables and chairs sit atop a mere dirt floor. There is a large outdoor seating area as well, also furnished with wooden stump amenities. The place was filled with people, and the waitresses were busy delivering the many cups of amazake the patrons ordered. Most people were buying iced amazake served only in summer, so we decided to try that. It was a poor decision... cold amazake tastes much worse than having it hot (kind of like coffee), so we had trouble finishing the glass. We ordered a hot one afterwards to wash the gross taste out of our mouths, and that one tasted much better.

Amazake Chaya

Hot amazake and sake pickles

We rode the next bus onwards back towards the civilization of Hakone Yumoto. Yumoto 湯元 means "source of water", which is appropriate because Hakone Yumoto is a famous hot spring town with many onsen to choose from. We stopped at a hot spring spa called 天山 Tenzan to take a nice bath. This outdoor hot spring onsen is nestled in the mountainside and has many pools of different temperatures to choose from (even a bubbling ice bath!). There are also smaller rock pools at different heights along the mountainside that you can climb stairs into.

Large lower pools

Boy enjoying the uppermost pool

This was one of the nicest onsen I've ever been to, but it was made somewhat less pleasant by the crowd of people I had to share it with. Needless to say, we spent a long time relaxing here, and we missed the bus we had planned to take. After more than an hour of soaking, we took the next bus back to Hakone Yumoto station and finally took the train back into Tokyo.

Luckily, even though we had to catch a later bus, we still had enough time to grab dinner and ride the last train to the airport. That night, we stayed overnight in the domestic departure terminal of Narita Airport awaiting an early morning flight to Osaka. Now you see why we planned a trip to the hot spring bath, right? Anyways, thanks for reading this far, although it may have been repetitive for those who read about my last trip to Hakone. Next time, I talk about my first time in my favorite region in Japan: Kansai!

Thunder in the Hills

This past weekend, I took a short drive to the local favorite skiing site called Moya Hills. Since it's summer now, there's no snow and no skiing, but there are still some "green season" activities. There are several tennis courts open for reservation, and there is a small rock-climbing wall, jungle gyms, and a mini zipline for the kids to play on. The main attraction, however, is something called "Hills Thunder".

Basically, it's a steep and winding pavement path that starts halfway up the hill and ends at the bottom near the lodge. To get up, you just take the lift like you would for a skiing trip. To get down, you ride a "luge cart". It's not a luge cart in the Olympic sense of the term, but instead looks a lot more like a low-profile, plastic-body go-cart. They have 3 wheels, one handlebar, and a drum brake... and that's about it. No seat belt, harnesses, roll cage, or even air-filled tires. Essentially, they're death traps, especially when you consider the course you're riding down.

Buddies getting ready to rumble

The course is about 1 km long, depending on which route you take, and has a 12% grade at it's steepest point. Riding down feels like riding in a roller coaster, except you have to pilot your own cabin. The course is pretty long, but at the speeds you can reach, it goes by quickly, and you can finish the course in about a minute. At one point, there is a massive banking turn angled AT LEAST 30 degrees.

It's an extremely thrilling ride. As you get rolling, there is a slow winding section that lets you get used to the steering and brakes. Not long after, it throws you straight into the deep end, which is the 12% straight drop, and you can get up to 50-60 kph in a matter of seconds. There tend to be some slowpokes just riding the brakes all the way down, so I shot past them, causing them to scream and pull over to the right, nearly running into Kristin pulling up the rear.

Then, there are a series of tight turns to tackle. Not all the turns are banked, so taking some of the sharp turns too fast causes the cart to terrifyingly pop onto 2 wheels and scrape plastic body on rough cement. Also, since the wheels are solid and not inflated, the ride is rough and jarring (the sound of the carts rumbling down the track sounds like rolling thunder in the distance, and thus the name Hills Thunder). Some of the cracks in the road knock you clear out of your plastic non-cushioned seat, and no harnesses means there is serious risk of getting bucked out of the cart. At those speeds, taking a tumble would probably lead to serious injury, yet our only safety gear was an ill-fitting helmet. After halfway, the road vibration through the handlebars is enough to make your hands go numb, but the adrenaline makes you continue gripping on for dear life.

And yet, it's incredibly fun and exhilarating. I've been down the track 3 times, and I wish I could do it once every weekend. For anyone who has a need for speed, Hills Thunder is the place to be.