Japan Trip

Grace, mercy, and peace our yours in abundance from G0d our Father and our L0rd Jes-s Chr*s+.

After a week's vacation, I'm back on the job again, but I suppose that's the boring part. What I really want to write about in this post is how I spent my week in Japan. That is in my humble opinion, at least, far and away the most exciting thing that's happened to me since my last post. I'll try to show you what I can; I took over 700 pictures during my week-long vacation, and I plan to post only the best on this blog. Prepare to be amazed and astounded.

Brian Gephart, David and I all left from Wuhan, but before we got to Japan, we stopped in Hong Kong because a flight to Japan from Hong Kong is significantly cheaper than a flight from Wuhan. So we stopped and visited Andrea Steinbrenner, a former FoC Wuhan teacher, and her roommate Lyrica (one of our friends from Wuhan studying in Hong Kong). They were very accommodating to us; they let us stay at their place overnight, and they helped us see a fun time in Hong Kong. (As evidence, I submit to you the picture featured above on the right.) Unfortunately, our time in Hong Kong was very short; we were there one night on the way there and a night on our way back. We'll have to visit again sometime.

The following morning we had to get up early--very early, actually (before 5 am) to catch our bus to the train station. Our flight left at about 8:30, and we wanted to give ourselves time to go through security, not to mention that the bus took over an hour and a half to get there. Nevertheless, it seems that getting up at an unreasonable hour was a trend for us on this trip. Starry-eyed, we made our way to the airport, and shortly thereafter, we were on a plane to our own little adventure.

When we arrived at the airport in Tokyo, we were tired, and we had to get our railway passes. We purchased a week-long, unlimited railway pass to aid us in our travels. They did come in handy, because it allowed us to travel all around Tokyo and even take a fast train to and from Kyoto, our third city on the trip. Once we got on the train into Tokyo, however, we were shocked by how green the city was. There were trees everywhere, and even though it's the largest city in the world, we could see blue skies. It was literally a breath of fresh air compared to China. We saw roads out in the country and houses rather than just high-rise apartments (things that are absent in mainland China). We couldn't believe that Tokyo is the largest city in the world (by population). At first, we experienced nothing but awe and wonder at such an impressive city. In some ways, that never left, but fairly soon we figured out how expensive everything was...


Our first meal in Tokyo was ironically a Chinese-style Japanese restaurant. Everything was high-priced (my meal ended up costing me 900 Japanese Yen, which is equal to about $9 US), but we were hungry and wanted to try the food. I ordered a bowl of Kanto noodles, which is an authentic Japanese dish. I was amazed at the size of it; it was easily the size of my head. It had vegetables, noodles, and all sorts up little surprises hidden in the broth. Needless to say, we ate like kings for that meal.

Only later that night did we realize how huge Tokyo really is. We decided to go to Tokyo Skytree, the world's tallest tower, to get a better view of the city. We consented to paying 2000 yen (again, about $20 US) to go up, but in the end we didn't regret it. We get a much better view of the city, and everything we could see in every direction (and all directions were open to our sight) was city. Miles and miles just covered in city. We knew that had to be huge, because we were already some 350 meters above the ground, so our line of sight was extended. The only thing that wasn't city was the Tokyo Bay, but even that was covered in buildings. Our eyes were then opened, and we suddenly had an idea of just how vast the Tokyo area is.

The next day we had once again agreed to wake up early to go canyoning, which apparently includes such things as cave-diving, climbing waterfalls, hiking, etc. We caught the trains to our destination, and we allowed a little leeway in our schedule so we could arrive early, but Google maps told us it would take us only two hours to get there; even though we left half an hour early, we still arrived half an hour late, and by then our guides had left, and we had no way to contact them. We tried to use a payphone, but not even the local Japanese people could make it work for us, so we decided to visit a nearby shrine in the mountains instead. That left more of our day open for exploring the world's greatest city.

When we returned to downtown Tokyo, we got to see some more of the famous sites. We saw what has been judged to be the world's busies intersection, filled with people pretty much all the time. It has been made even more famous by the film Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift. We visited Tokyo Tower and Ginza as well. We even made a stop to look for gifts that our Chinese friends had asked us to buy (to no avail). In the afternoon, we tried to visit the Imperial Palace, but it was entirely closed off during the duration of our stay.

In the evening we visited Tokyo Dome, and we happened upon the great fortune of a baseball game. We paid for standing tickets between the Giants and the Swallows, two Japanese professional baseball clubs. We were surprised to see Japanese girls running all around selling beverages with beer kegs strapped to their backs throughout the game. I suppose that would be a way to make a living, too, though.

We were hungry and didn't have a lot of time to linger; not to mention that we were a little nervous after sitting down in seats (that we didn't pay for) and watching security. So after three innings of waiting to be kicked out of our seats, we left. On our way out, however, I decided to pick up the free flyer that Brian and David had gotten, thinking that I should have no problem taking one, too. Security stopped me when I reached for one, and after they started talking to me in Japanese, I explained to them that it was okay (in English) and that I just wouldn't take one. I put it back, and then they seemed to try to gesture to me that it would be okay if I took it, but I had already decided I wouldn't take it. Unfortunately, the only souvenir I have from that night is pictures (and memories).

The next morning we left Tokyo to go visit Mount Fuji. We had to pay for train tickets to get there, but it was well worth it. We were around that area for parts of three days: we arrived in the afternoon on day 1, we stayed for all of day 2, and we left in the early afternoon of day 3. For the first two days, it was very cloudy, and on the second day it was rainy, so that added a dreary aspect to our stay, but we still managed to make the most of our time. We biked around the beautiful Lake Kawaguchiko on our first day. Unfortunately, the clouds obscured our view of Mount Fuji, so although we were only a few miles away from a massive mountain, we couldn't even see a trace of it. I took videos to record our search for Fuji, but unfortunately I don't think they'll fit here. We visited more shrines, caught the end of a B-ddhist service, and did a little nature hiking and caving. The first two days were less eventful, but we found the food was much cheaper there, and we had a good time still.

The third day was the magical day, however. We got up very early on our final day and ascended a small mountain that was a viewing platform for Fuji. We had seen the weather forecast predict anywhere from partly cloudy to mostly sunny, so we were anticipating our first view of the mountain. In the morning, Fuji was disappointingly covered in clouds; in fact, during our ascent, Brian was very nearly attacked by a monkey, and when we reached the top we were surrounded by them. After a few hours, the monkeys went away, but our mountain was still completely lost in the clouds. We had to check out from our hostel, so we were forced to descend. Discouraged, but not defeated, we hiked back down.

At the bottom we realized that we had been in the cloud. Fuji was still hidden in the clouds, but it was not nearly as enveloped as we had been led to believe. We decided to stay near the lake, and after checking out we started biking around the lake to try to find a good view. Just when I had begun to give up all hope of seeing the glory of that mountain, we noticed the clouds around it were moving rapidly, and the blue sky was heading straight for it. We stayed a little longer than we had planned, but we got our fair share of pictures of the mountain. It was perhaps the most beautiful mountain that I have ever laid eyes on.

In the afternoon we took a train to Kyoto, and we arrived too late to have any great adventures that night. We did, however, manage to eat a sushi dinner that night; I had some kind of fish that I don't remember the name of, and uncooked squid. It was pretty good, although once again, the price was a big factor for me. The next day we toured through the city, our only day there. We visited shrines and temples, a castle, and the old imperial palace. We had a guided tour of the palace (free of charge). We visited about as many places as we possibly could with the time we had. We visited a samurai training grounds, and watched some older men play baseball in the park around the old imperial palace. In any case, I think my pictures of Kyoto do the talking better than I can.

That evening we took another train back to Tokyo, and even though we arrived late we still visited Tokyo's Odaiba district to see the Rainbow Bridge. We didn't see as much "rainbow" in the bridge as we would have liked; it was lit up completely white while we were there (and last I checked, "white" doesn't fit anywhere in ROY G. BIV), but it was an impressive site nonetheless. It seemed like, at night, that area was better left for lovers, and the three of us guys were just there to see the bridge and explore. We did get to see part of the bay and the skyline, although Brian and David still find the Hong Kong skyline much more impressive. After we saw that, it was too late to do much else, so we retired to our hostel for the night.

Once again, we got up early the next morning, our final day in Japan, to see the world's largest fish market. A lot of it didn't open until 9, or we had arrived too late to see some of the more impressive things, but we just wanted a quick glance. It wasn't everything we dreamed it would be, but we had heard before that if we wanted to see the best things, we had to get there before 4 (and we definitely did not have enough energy to wake up that early). We saw what we could, and we moved on. We visited another big temple/shrine, and we walked along the Sumida River for a while. Then we visited a stable for sumo wrestlers. It was really more of a museum than anything else; apparently sumo wrestling was already out of season while we were in Japan. Still, we got to take some pictures and learn a little more about sumos before we moved on with our day.

We had our last lunch in peace and quiet. We had an amazing last meal for another 900 yen, but I got to enjoy some more Japanese noodles, dumplings, and soup, all with an added spice and teriyaki sauce. It was a great way to end our time in Japan, and a good note to end on.

 Unfortunately, it didn't quite end there. We had our plane to catch in the afternoon, and we waited for the right time to leave at our hostel (already exhausted from a week of non-stop action). When we left, however, I forgot my charger for my Amazon Kindle. I remembered when we made it to the nearby train station, though, and I ran back to get it. David and Brian tell me I was fast enough that we only missed one train (they come somewhere between every 5 and 10 minutes), so I got back in a flash. Then it was back to the airport, back to Hong Kong for a night, and back to Wuhan in the morning.

My blog posts tend to get rather long, but I have quit bothering to apologize. This is the full account of my adventure in Japan, and I think the details are what make it the most interesting. Since my time there, I've been back in the classroom and back to my daily life. Miss Ivy definitely has appreciated my return.

Pr@yers go out for all of you. Please pr@y for our work in Wuhan as well. The grace of our L0rd Jes-s Chr*s+ be with you all.