A Japanese New Years Eve

Here we were, New Years Eve, in Tokyo, Japan. Most guidebooks and Japanese tourism experts recommend to travel to Japan pretty much anytime EXCEPT New Years. The reason for this is that New Years in Japan is like Christmas in the States. Everybody is traveling and visiting family, and nothing is open. So yeah, this was the worst time to go to Japan, but it was our only option.

Our New Years Eve started with a trip to Harajuku. This is a place known for trendy clothes shopping and teens that dress in a completely outlandish mismatched style. This is what we were looking for, some of these Harajuku girls, but they didn't seem to come out at all on New Years Eve. There were, however a lot of food stands and a lot of people due to the holiday:

We all treated ourselves to some chocolate bananas, here's Amber and Kelsey obtaining bananas in the background of my delicious white chocolate banana:

There were some really nice side streets with shops and art studios in Harajuku. It was nice to escape the mob of people for a while. Here's Amber, Dave, and Kelsey undernearth a Harajuku archway:

There were some pretty strange, random sightings in Harajuku, including this store display:

For whatever reason there is a store called Condomania in Harajuku:

My dad had to go home due to an oncoming cold, which gave the fish lovers in our family a chance to get some sushi. There was a great conveyor belt sushi shop in Harajuku which was one of the highlights. This restaurant is set up like a bar, except the bar is next to a conveyor belt which brings delicious sushi. I'll talk more about this in an upcoming post devoted to food in Japan.

Harajuku also has a primary shopping street. As you can see, it was really, really ridiculous, so we didn't end up going into any shops. They were all open, though, so it was nice to know that we could have gone. This place which houses an oriental bazaar was closed the entire New Year Holiday, so I think I missed out on some prime souvenier opportunities.

The day was finished in Harajuku and we went back to rest before a New Years Eve celebration. My parents stayed at home and celebrated by resting their feet for a night, but Amber, Dave, Kelsey, and I went out to Rippongi with our Australian friends. Rippongi is home to Tokyo Tower, this giant orange and white tower which held one of the larger celebrations that night.
We made it to the subway stop in Rippongi about ten minutes before midnight, so we didn't have a long time to stake out a good setting. We stopped in front of this large temple area that filled, so we couldn't have gotten in very easily. It left us a good view of the tower, which was nice.

There was a large countdown which we couldn't understand because it was in Japanese, and then at the stroke of midnight everybody in the temple released a white balloon with a New Years wish tied to it. It was a great sight, but didn't show up well on camera.
I did get at least one nice shot in my first photos of 2010:

So that was the end of an entire decade, the zeros or oughts or whatever. Let's hope that the tens are just as great or better. Happy New Year.

The Mount Fuji

Here we are at Japan, day 2. Since we are of course an adventurous family, we wanted to explore one of the most famous mountains in the world and a huge tourist destination, Mount Fuji. This trip didn't involve any actual climbing since they only allow that a few months out of the year. It did involve a train ride, a cable car ride, a gondola ride, a boat ride, and a bus ride.

Of course I started my Mount Fuji day off, as everyone should, by drinking fire. This fire tasted a lot like iced coffee.

We started by riding the JR to the train that would take us out to Mount Fuji. In a bit of a rush to catch the next train, we ended up boarding a train called the romance car. I don't know exactly why it's called the romance car, but the seats were really nice. When the guy came to check our tickets and found out we had cheaper ones we had to shell out a bunch more money. I did something unromantic to their bathroom toilet at least.

The train did offer some nice views of Mount Fuji along the way. I'm going to level with you, this is the best photo I was able to get due to the amount of fog that day. There's an electrical pole in the way but it's still my best.

Along the way, we stopped in a town called Odawara to view a castle. It was a charming little town with some nice New Year's decorations up.

The castle was quite impressive, it had been converted into a museum about the history of the castle and with a lot of information on Samurais. I couldn't take any photos inside, unfortunately. Here's a view of the front of the castle, though:

This is a gate they were proud of for being the biggest one in the castle. It's pretty big, I guess.

From there it was another short train ride to Owakudani, where we could ride a cable car and then a gondola up a nearby mountain for a better view of Fuji. The gondola ride was one of my favorite parts because these ropes were so long dangling us over the valley.

And, in case you are wondering, this gondola does hold the Guiness world record for busiest gondola lift. It may also hold the record for smells most like eggs also, but they didn't have a sign about that.

The egg smell was because there is a lot of sulfur in this valley and a lot of sulfur mines, as seen below:

So we got to the next stop near these sulfur mines where they offer a small nature hike. We didn't feel up to it because it was ridiculously windy. So, we rode the gondala down the next leg to form of transportation number 4, this pirate looking ship. We were on one of the lower floors, and we couldn't see much from the boat. Luckily, Kelsey and I were sitting next to this little girl who challenged us to a face making competition, so we were entertained. I'm pretty sure Kelsey and I won.
The boat took us across Lake Ashi where we rode a bus, form of transportation number 5. The bus took us to another train station, another one of my highlights of the day. I liked this train because it operated in both directions, but only had one track. The way this worked was that the trains from both directions had to stop at a station at the same time because the track separated for only a little bit at the station.
Well, that was about the end of the day. We went out to eat and made it back to the hotel and were pretty pooped. We had to rest up for the next day, which you will be able to read about tomorrow.

P.S. go Packers!

Japan: The First Full Day

All right now, Japan, first full day. What do we do? How about......a huge department store?How about......a palace? How about....electronics? All right, let's do all of these things. Here are some nice photos of our first full day.

We hiked over to Japan Rail (JR from now on) and headed to Ginza which has these pretty crazy huge and crazy expensive department stores. My family checked out this 8 story department store called Matsuya Ginza. Actually it's 8 stories with a roof garden. I didn't take any photos of the store because I'm always nervous about being suspected as a burglar when I take photos in a department store. Matsuya Ginza had a nice food court in the basement, and plenty of stores through all of the floors, but the best part was near the top where they had selections of Japanese prints and old books. I ended up picking up one print without any real information on it but I'm assuming it's not too rare or valuable because it cost me only 500 yen (roughly $6).

Here's a photo of the area:

From the store it was a quick walk over to the grounds of the Imperial Palace, aka where the Emporer of Japan lives. This next pic is a giant moat that surrounds the grounds:

It was a nice day and a few swans were out. This guy was a beast because he was about five times the size of the ducks in the moat:
Here are Amber and Dave in a candid shot in front of the Statue of Kusunoke. According to Dave, he was the ideal of samurai loyalty.
This is a picturesque view of the imperial residence. I would say I'm proud of the photo but I don't think you could take a bad picture from there:
We walked over to a park with these nice fountains in it. It was a great little park because it was somewhat removed from the big city, yet there were still the giant buildings to enjoy as a backdrop.
I sniped a photo of Amber and Kelsey over Dave's shoulder:
Next we were off to a gargantuan electronics disctrict, Akihabara "Electric Town". This district was basically one huge electronics store after another, which is OK but about a million other people wanted to see it at the same time:
Here's a photo of my mom, probably trying to figure out what some crazy sign says:
The street was also littered with these girls who dressed up costumes like little amine characters and shouted things and tried to hand you paper as you passed by. There were literally dozens of girls doing it that day. I caught this before she noticed me so she wasn't smiling or anything. These girls are getting paid, so obviously they should be smiling constantly!
I did pick up one souvenier from this day. Kelsey and I stopped into this store that sold ridiculously expensive collectible action figures, and they had a bin outside of these plastic bags full of junk. It turned out the junk was discarded happy meal style toys, and you could buy it for only 200 yen. I'll have a picture of it in my post where I show all of my souveniers.

We capped that day off with some delicious Indian food, and I got the amazing mutton curry. Kelsey and I went out later with some Australians we met from across the hall in our hotel. We went out for a few beers and sake and made some new friends. Another great day. Come back tomorrow for a post about Mount Fuji.

Konichiwa, Japan

Ahh, the vacation was in full swing with the parents and little sis in Korea, and after a few days that meant it was time to hit up Japan, noted rival and sometimes hated enemy of Korea. Japan: the land of the rising sun, bullet trains, tasty sushi, giant sumo wrestlers, and pokemon (unfortunately). Here's a song to get you in the right mood while reading this post:

We had an early afternoon flight, and with Japan being Korea's neighbor, we were in Japan by mid afternoon. My sister and her husband were on a plane just a few hours behind us so we decided to kick it around the airport until they got there. Unfortunately, Tokyo Narita airport is vulnerable to some ridiculous bottlenecks (my trip back!) and we spent a great deal of time at the aiport. This did leave me a generous time period to stare at my newly acquired yen:

It's pretty cool money actually. The center oval is a solid creme color, until you hold it up to the light and then another image of face to the right of the oval appears. The money is, however really wide so it doesn't fit right into western wallets.

After Amber and Dave finally arrived, we were on our way to the series of train rides that would take us to our hotel. Here's a picture of the family together at last at the train stop. Kelsey's checking out the strange Japanese candy she bought. I bought some orange flavored M&Ms at the same shop.

After a switch to Japan rail from the airport line, we arrived in the district which contained our hotel, called Shinjuku. It's home to a nice electronics and shopping district, plenty of bright lights, and the busiest subway stop in the world. This is one of the first pictures I took of the scenery in Japan:

Luckily for us, Amber married a man with a great interest in all things Japanese. Dave did some careful studying of various maps, including Google maps to find our hotel. He served as somewhat of a navigator for our entire trip. Thanks Dave!

He lead us almost directly to our Hotel, the fabulous hotel NUTS. This picture was not taken the first night but rather on a different day.

Why is it called hotel NUTS, you ask? The place IS NUTS. Or maybe the rooms are so tiny that you feel like a squirrel storing nuts in a small tree. There are many schools of thought on this top....oh wait:

Of course! The hotel is a new urban time and space. It was definitely something. It turns out it was converted from a love motel, meaning the type that was once rented by the hour. I liked it actually, it had a soda fountain where you can bath in the luxury of three complimentary beverages each day. The rooms are tiny, but the bathrooms are huge. And bonus, the toilets are sanitarized:

So nothing to worry about there. The TV was huge, and so was the remote:

Yep, thats got all of the buttons I'm used to. A 1, a 7.....wait....um, a 10, 11, and a 12? I've never seen that one before.

Once settled in, we ventured out into Shinjuku to find a restaurant for our first Japanese dinner. We settle on a place that had nice pictures on the menu. We each ordered a good looking meal. The meals were for the most part OK, but my little sister ended up ordering a dish with chicken gizzards, and my mom was served a dish which included the parts of the chicken that are a little chewy/crunchy. This was somehow the main part of her dish. It was literally that part of the chicken that is crunchy and chewy which was breaded, deep fried, and served with peanuts. She hated it. I somehow got myself to like it. This part of the chicken usually makes me gag/lose my appetite, but when I was expecting it I thought it was actually kind of good. The other dishes were at least edible, so there was one Japanese meal down.

Next was another small Christmas in which a few holiday cookies were eaten which Amber had managed to smuggle overseas, and gifts were exchanged between Amber, Kelsey, Dave, and I. It was a cozy Christmas to say the least. Amber and Dave did get me one of the best possible gifts for a Brewers Fan, this Bratwurst racing sausage bobblehead doll. Thanks Amber and Dave.

See you tomorrow for more Japan fun!

The Folks Came to Korea

As I mentioned last time, this is the first of my series of posts where I describe when my parents and little sister came to Korea, and then we all went and met my older sister and her husband in Japan. I figure I'll wipe out all of the Korea stuff in one post so I can get to the Japan posts quickly. It was actually a really good time spent in Korea, though.

My parents and sister, Kelsey, ended up leaving the states on Christmas eve, and then flew for about 12 hours while experiencing a time change of 13 hours. This meant that they basically flew for the entire time it was Christmas. How nice of them.

It was just a simple matter of hailing a semi-shady taxi to my town from the airport in Incheon, well known for shady taxis. This guy seemed like he didn't like silence and kept talking about the long bridges he was going over. Except by talking about, I mean that the only words he know about long bridges were 'long bridge,' so he just said that over and over. After paying a fair price, we arrived safe and sound at my somewhat tiny apartment where we all were staying and celebrated Christmas with the help of my 12" Christmas tree I bought for about $8. It was nice.

The next day was a full day to spend in my town of Seosan, Korea, so I tried to make it worth while. The morning included a small tour of the town around where my school was and to a nearby temple. It's a really beautiful temple, called Sogwang-sa, and I'm planning to write a post about it sometime soon. See picture:

We had a nice lunch of sushi, and then toured the market nearby my home which has a pretty impressive amount of sea food. That night was definitely the most exciting one in Korea, and one of my favorites of the time that I spent with my family. For dinner we had what is called Korean barbecue, where meat is cooked on a grill at the center of the table and wrapped in a lettuce leaf along with toppings, as I had mentioned before. The dinner was complete with some soju and a few beers bought by the guy at the table next to us. We then went to norebang (singing room) and cranked out two hours of well sung favorites. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) I don't have any photos of this part. That was nearly the end of a great day, which was eventually capped off with Dok Bokki (what my sister calls Korean fire noodles) and some ice cream.

The next day was off to Seoul by bus. We left late morning and had a small hangup at the Bus terminal in Seoul where the taxi drivers didn't know where the hotel was and also didn't want to take us because it was in a really close neighborhood. We eventually got a taxi to take us to a nearby hotel where a desk worker called our hotel to bring the manager to walk over and get us. No problem. This hotel ended up being top-notch for what the price was, so If you are ever in Seoul looking for a cheap stay look no further than the Cello Hotel. The manager speaks great English and will go to great lengths to make the stay enjoyable.

This is a photo walking back to the hotel that night.

That day, Sunday, was spend eating Thai food at my favorite Thai place outside of Thailand, called Thai Orchid, located in Itaewon. They pretty much lived up to my promises of great food so I was happy. We spent the rest of the day exploring a part of Seoul called Insadong which is in some ways like a giant souvenier store. There are just dozens of shops, museums, and souvenier stores for virtually any Korea related gift. I also saw this robot:

A few stands had this traditional Korean candy made from stretching sugar strings into hundreds of strands and wrapping them around assorted nuts all while doing this chant about how great the candy is. It was definitely worth a photo and the candy ended up tasting OK.

An outdoor mall building had this directory of stores, and my dad noticed something interesting top-center:

Yeah, so no comment on that one. That capped off what I thought was a really enjoyable experience in Korea. I think Kelsey and my parents had a favorable impression of the country, even if the amount of snow we got on Sunday in Seoul made things a little difficult. Actually there was only one restaurant open when we were trying to get food delivered to the hotel, but the manager there was excellent enough to find it and order us some delicious chicken. See you tomorrow for a Japan post!

Happy Hollidays, Ho Ho Ho, Etc.

So things have been barren around here, I know. The last few weeks have been extremely busy with preparing for my family to come to Korea, and then the trip to Japan. I expect to write upwards of 7 posts about the trip, so make sure to check back often.

Before I get to my Japan trip, I have another exciting story to share. This is the tale of when I dressed up as Santa Claus. Oh what a day!

First, all of the kids wore these corny hats with tinsel on them. These types of celebrations are a lot about good photo opps with the kids to please the parents.

I peeked into the room a few times, but then I had to dress up in my costume and hide so that the kids couldn't see me until it was time for Santa to arrive. This meant that I had to miss the kids' performances of the Christmas songs which I had helped them learn. Luckily the other foreign teacher was able to take some photos for me. This is a class I don't teach but they are really cute kids:

The next photo is of my group of 6 year olds (American 5) who had to learn 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town.' My tactic to help them learn it was to first sing the song as a class, then have each one sing it individually and give them a sticker if they did, repeating everyday for two weeks. It worked pretty well.

Then, all of the lights were turned out and the kids were given candles. They had to cheer out for Santa Claus to arrive (I was just hiding out in an office).

I came out in full getup, my boss is right behind me but his eyes are cut off. If you look closely you can see that my jacket and pants are just a little too short.

I had to give a present to each of the Kindergarteners, 50 in all. Each came up to get their present and had to listen to one of the Korean teachers and promise that they were going to be a good little boy or girl for the next year. At least that's what I think it was because I don't understand Korean. The deal was sealed with a pinky swear and a nice photo.

Last, just a matter of a photo with each class and I was out of the costume for at least another year.

Well, happy late holidays and make sure to check back daily for the next week or so because I plan to do a post a day or so until I finish with the trip. If there isn't a post for a day just assume that the game Grand Theft Auto: China Town Wars for Nintendo DS is a really good game (it was one of my Christmas presents).