It's true what they say. Amidst all the chaos and wonder that is Tokyo...the game centers, the train stations, the restaurants, the crowds...it really is just another city. You could get the Tokyo experience - minus all the Japanese of course - by going to any major city in the US (for the closest experience, I'd say NYC). The only REAL difference (aside from the language barrier) is the homeless people in Tokyo won't harass you for money - the only people getting up in your face will be handing you free samples and coupons (quite a change for the better if you ask me). Well, except for Roppongi, where Nigerians outside of each bar along the strip will attempt to bully you (in broken English or Japanese) in order to get you to enter the bar or hostess club they work for. How all those Nigerians got here to Tokyo - or why they came here -I have no idea. They should work for the Prince of Nigeria instead - I hear he's got a lot of money tied up in foreign accounts that he needs help extracting. Or, at least that's what the e-mail told me. ;) Have you ever heard an African national attempt to speak Japanese? I have, and I couldn't understand a word of it.
Anyway, we were both getting rather tired of the Tokyo crowds, so our opportunity for a trip to the outskirts came just in time. First up was Kamakura, an ancient capital of Japan and samurai city - and one of the birthplaces of the zen buddhism sect in Japan. Kamakura was actually selected by my uncle's coworkers (Iwama-san and Kawai-san) who took care of my uncle and I when we came to Japan last year. They wanted to meet up with me again and take a road trip, and I was more than happy to tag along. I wasn't planning on them driving us in the company car though. I figured it would cost them less money to take the train, so I felt a little guilty that they were using the company car to take us to Kamakura.
Anyways, Kamakura is about an hour south of Tokyo, and the ride there was very interesting - if only because the divide between Japanese city and Japanese countryside is immediate. You literally go from urban sprawl to forested mountains in a matter of seconds - and the nature here is absolutely breathtaking. Kamakura is a little "suburb" - if you could even call it that - and has a completely different "flavor" than Tokyo. It's not abnormal in Kamakura to see people walking around in kimonos/yukatas going about their daily business. Buildings are close together, like Tokyo, but no building is taller than two stories. If I had to compare it to anything in America, I'd say it has the flavor of Key West, Florida - without all the tropical stuff. The way the buildings were arranged is a lot like residential areas of Key West - but they're obviously a lot more Japanese. The roads are so old that, even though they are two way streets, there is only enough room for one car to traverse them at a time. That lead to some interesting situations since the company "car" we were riding in was a gigantic minivan. We had a couple of close calls during the trip, but Kawai-san was at the wheel and I get the impression he's used to driving in difficult conditions.
We saw a lot of buildings and temples, so I'll just share some highlights. Our first stop was the Daibutsu - the "Great Buddha". This statue of Buddha, several stories tall and made of bronze, was one of the most breathtaking sights I've seen in Japan. Not so much because of how it looks now, but because of the tremendous amount of effort it must have taken to carve the thing. It didn't take long to see most of the artifacts at the Daibutsu location, so we moved on after a few minutes of taking pictures.
Next up was Zeni-Arai. This shrine (note: temples = Buddhism, shrines = Shinto) is one of the most interesting stops on our tour of Kamakura, if only because the custom here is just plain weird. "Zeni" is one reading for "money", and "Arai" comes from "arau" which means "to wash". The shrine is dedicated to one of the Shinto gods of wealth, and it is said that if you wash your money in the pond here, its value will double. I'm not so sure it works, but that didn't stop Iwama-san and Kawai-san from washing their cash (including $100 bill equivalents). They asked us if we wanted to try too, but we politely declined. I saw no reason to have a soggy wallet for the rest of the day. :)
Aside from being very beautiful, the other interesting thing about Zeni-Arai is that it was one of the first of many places on our Kamakura tour with tons and tons of Triforces. Yep, that's right. The Legend of Zelda Triforce is everywhere, in both Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. I have no idea why this is, or what the "true" meaning of the Triforce is. Since Miyamoto is originally from the Kyoto area, which is another major area for temples and shrines, I'm pretty sure he "borrowed" the symbol for use in the games. Anyway, soon after Zeni-Arai we ended up stopping for lunch.
Now, first of all, something needs to be said about going out to eat with Japanese people. They try way too hard to please their guests, and the phrase "wherever you would like" in response to them asking "where would you like to eat?" doesn't seem to parse in their brains - even though they have a preference, and they want you to pick the right one. Usually you'll have no idea whether you guessed right or guessed wrong, since they will pretend to like it either way. Since I knew next to nothing about Kamakura I really wanted them to make the decision for us, and then I'd take a look at the menu outside the restaurant and make sure there was something on the menu that both Lisa and I could enjoy (which is true for most places in Japan anyways). So you basically have two choices when you're caught in this logic loop with your Japanese hosts. The first choice is to just pick somewhere and hope for the best, which tends to have mixed results... OR, you hang back and "turtle" - don't make any decision at all until they finally pick the restaurant. I took the second choice, and although it didn't pay off in the end for us, I believe Iwama-san and Kawai-san legitimately wanted to eat at this place, so that's perfectly OK.
One thing I learned last year from travelling with my uncle is a very simple rule when it comes to food places: if it's empty, don't go in. If it's crowded, it's probably good - or at the very least, won't make you sick. This place had a line out the door, so we assumed the best. It didn't look like there was too much on the menu that wasn't fish-based, although they did have a tempura set which both Lisa and I selected. Iwama-san and Kawai-san ordered a VERY hardcore-looking bowl of boiled mini-sardines and rice. I assumed (correctly) that these boiled baby sardines are famous in this area, since I saw several vendors selling them in packages to passerby.
In any case, upon receiving our food, we noticed a familiar pink-and-white spongy substance in our bowls of miso soup...fu. The same stuff that appeared on the shabu-shabu vegetable plate during our outing with Satoshi and Kanae. I was hoping to finally know exactly what it was, so I asked Iwama-san...unfortunately, just like with Satoshi and Kanae, no English translation could be produced. "It's just fu." WHAT IS FU?! Lisa and I have a theory that it's made of something really nasty that our Japanese hosts don't want to tell us about, and that's why no translation can be produced. It has no flavor; and it looks like a fish cake (like the kind you put in ramen). To this day I still have no idea what it is - so if one of you folks know, feel free to drop me a line. I ate a few pieces of it and haven't gotten sick...YET.
The big whopper of exotic eating - some of those raw baby sardines the Kamakura area is known for - also appeared on our set plates, garnished with a little daikon (Japanese radish). Now, those of you who have been following my blog and my facebook page know my two rules about
eating bizarre foods. Usually I try to be pretty open here, since it doesn't hurt to try unusual things...however:
1.) I can't be able to tell what animal it came from (thus it can't be whole).
2.) Andrew Zimmern did not barf it up on television.
Unfortunately, these sardines were still whole. And Lisa wasted no time in pointing out to our hosts that I hadn't tried the local delicacy, knowing full well about my rules about trying bizarre foods. I was feigning that I was full in order to get out of eating those, but it was not to be. Once they gestured to the sardines, I didn't really have a choice in the matter anymore. Down the hatch.
It's the first - and hopefully LAST - time I ever ate anything with its eyes still intact. That said, it didn't really taste much like fish at all. In fact, if I had to compare it to anything, I'd say it was a mild version of tsukemono (pickled veggies). I was expecting the texture to be a lot grosser than it was - not to say that I liked it, or that I'd eat it again by choice - but it wasn't DREADFUL. Bizarre food rule #1 was broken. Thanks, Lisa. :-P
Fortunately, I got my revenge a few minutes later where, through pressure, I managed to convince her to try one as well. She agreed on the lack of a fishy taste. I tried to explain to Iwama-san and Kawai-san that it's hard for most Americans to eat whole fish or insects, because it's hard for us to imagine them as food. I don't think the message got across completely but they seemed happy we at least tried them.
Another thing about going out to eat with Japanese folks. "Senpai" (elders) always pay for "Koohai" (subordinates). So there's usually a battle about the bill when a "Koohai" offers to pay for "Senpai". Iwama-san has been nice enough to not only take us to Kamakura, but also to refuse to accept any payment for the temple or shrine entry fees and snacks along the way - so the least - the VERY least I could do is pay for lunch for him and Kawai-san. It took me five minutes of solid pleading in order to allow him to let me pay for him. But I'm very glad I was able to finally convince him, since it was the very least I could do - especially for all his hospitality both this year and last year.
We saw a few more shrines after lunch, including one near the restaurant which makes up the Kamakura "town square". Now, when I mentioned in my last entry that the Japanese were very commerce-centric, that was not an understatement. Lining the shrine were stands selling various kinds of candy and souvenirs. Those crazy Japanese even managed to commercialize their own religions. Then again, Christianity is arguably commercialized in the States too - but I can't think of too many churches where you go in and have overpriced food stands and souvenir shops (admittedly, I'm sure there are a few that serve/sell donuts and coffee, but that makes a little more sense). In any case, we were just in time to witness a traditional Japanese wedding, only.... THE GROOM WAS A GAIJIN!!!! My nerd radar was blaring (we can recognize our own), and this guy had the biggest grin on his face I've ever seen. I wonder where he managed to find a set of traditional Japanese garb that could actually fit him? Ah well, as Laki best put it: "Score another one for America." There was actually more than one wedding going on there, as that particular shrine symbolizes happy marriage, so I guess lots of people want to get married there.
There were also bags of food pellets for 100yen that people could purchase to feed the birds or the absolutely MONSTROUS koi that were in the ponds around the temple complexes. I swear, these fish would snap a good size walleye in two - that's how big they were. The picture above doesn't really do these guys justice. They were absolutely gigantic.
After a bit more exploration, we were all getting tired. So we finally returned to Tokyo, I gave them my gifts I brought from the States, and said our goodbyes. Lisa and I then checked out a local ramen shop, where I couldn't read the menu very well but was able to ask what things were (which was more than enough to order), and we had some really good ramen, believe it~!
At this point I'd like to end this entry on a good note, but it was not to be. Upon waking up and leaving the hotel room the next morning, we got an earful of a Japanese couple getting it on from down the hall. It was disgusting. You could hear it THE ENTIRE LENGTH OF THE HALLWAY. And it was loud. And at first I thought it was a bird or something, until I heard the pillow-talk... "SUGOI!! SU~GO~I!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" *flinch* *wince* *shiver*.... Thin walls. I was able to "purify" myself a bit later by buying a Japanese Wii and Taiko-No-Tatsujin....
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