Thanks for reading my blog. I just wanted to say that there may be some grammatical, spelling and work usage errors. I was typing on an Ipad and didn't have a good way to edit. Plus I really didn't have too much time to spend on editing.
Hopefully the information is helpful and you can overlook my mistakes.
Thanks so much,
Erica
Saturday, July 2, 2016
Friday, July 1, 2016
June 30, 2016 Tokyo and Home
June 30, 2016- Tokyo/Seattle
We checked out of the hotel and headed to our last shrine. It is a Meji era (late 1800 and early 1900's) shrine, Yasakuni Shrine and museum. It was built to honor the war dead. The shrine itself was plain compared to other older shrines we visited. This is a bit of a controversial shrine. After WWII, there were some people enshrined there who had been convicted warm criminals. Enshrinement doesn't mean that the bodies are laid to rest there, rather the spirits are laid to rest there. Because of this, there was not way to remove these war criminals from the shrine.
Elissa, our Japan expert and Eva our Tokyo guide
Smoking trailer
Statue in memorial of all the mothers and wives who sent men off to war
An Indian judge who was sympathetic to the Japanese war criminals after the war
Sumo wrestler statue
The museum was also quite interesting. The tone was quite aggressive. The text in the museum talked about how the Japanese were really just trying to right a wrong in many of the conflict they were involved in. Many people are still upset about this museum because of the tone of the text. They did have a quite moving section. They had many pictures of war dead as well as letters they wrote home. These types of artifacts are so much more poignant than seeing maps of Japanese aggression toward their neighbors.
Off to lunch. And then to the airport. Before we left the restaurant I convinced a couple of my travel companions, Anne and Calvin, to take a quick walk with me. We happened upon a beautiful little Shinto shrine set between two office buildings. It was a fitting way to end our trip through Japan. We said goodbye to the spirits of those Japanese who have gone before us.
Some observations about my trip:
1. China was such a foreign experience. Of the two countries, I would like to go back to China. There was so much we didn't see. It's a rich country with a diverse population. People live life out in the open there, from their bathroom habits to their nightlife in the street. There is always something going on.
2. Japan is a much more structured society with strict social guidelines. It felt a little more controlled and not as foreign. I would love to travel to other parts of Japan that are more remote. The Japanese people are so generous, and I'd love to spend time in an area that isnt' so touristy. They also have a beautiful country. Lots of trees and greenery. I felt like I was in Seattle.
3. I became known as the bathroom conissour. China doesn't have western toilets except in the hotels. This causes the westerner to become familiar with a different set of bathroom expectation. For girls, they have to have strong legs because there is a lot of squatting involved. This can lead to a few other problems I won't explain here. Also, always bring your own toilet paper. Usually none was provided. The positive thing about the Chinese "Happy Houses" as we like to call them, is that they are plentiful. Because a lot of Chinese don't have their own bathroom, they are many public toilets all over the city. After we reached Japan, I had a little bathroom culture shock. While there are still a few squat toilets, mostly there are western toilets. These toilets will rock your world. You might have running water sounds to cover the sound you make in the bathroom, a fresh water bath with the bidet, a heater seat (not a fan of these), self-flushing toilets, music and bird sounds, self-closing toilet seats. These toilets have a lot of electronics involved. I sure hope they don't have power outages very often.
Japanese toilet, notice the control panel
Japanese bathroom with slippers to wear
Chinese squat toilet. This was a very clean one.
4. Japan's energy future is uncertain. They only have one nuclear power plant operating today. They are relying on hydro-electric power and solar power. They are going to have to figure out their next steps soon. Apparently the lights in the cities are much dimmer today than then have been in the past.
I would like to thank my wonderful travel companions: Anne, Pilar, Sonja, Ginger, Calvin, Thea, Melissa, Kim, Lou, Meb, Marilyn, Josephine, Pei-Jin, Jennifer, Deborah, Dawn, Kristen, Karen Kane who organized the trip, Jeff our China expert, and Elissa our Japan expert. We also had some amazing guides, Kathy,Ping, and Richard in China, Junko and Eva in Japan. Their knowledge and organization was invaluable. This trip wouldn't have been so much fun without all of you. We we constantly on the go, and you all handled it with grace. Hopefully I'll see all of you again somewhere in the world.
June 29, 2016 Kamakura
June 29, 2016- Kamakura
I loved Kamakura. It's a smaller town outside Tokyo. It took us about an hour to get there on the train. We were shocked getting on the train in Tokyo. It was rush hour and there were people literally squished against the doors and the train pulled into our stop. Luckily some of those people got off and we were able to get on with very little personal space. All the Japanese on the train were engaged in their phones, so they didn't pay much attention to us. The train quickly emptied out and we had a nice ride to Kamakua.
First we visited the Kotohuin Temple. This is the Giant Buddha temple. There isn't anything of the structure left since it was taken down by a tsunami in the late 15th century, but the Giant bronze Buddha is left. It's quite a site to see. It was built in about 1252 CE, in the Kamakura era . It is 13 meters high and weighs 93 tons. It's a hollow statue and for a small fee, you can go down inside the statute. This is a popular place for tourists and they had a really cool store outside with some Ninja throwing stars. I couldn't get any because I thought security night not let me bring them back to the US.
Next we walked to the Hachimangu Shrine. This is a Shinto Shrine in Kamakura. This was the headquarters of the Kamakura Shogunate in the 1161 BCE. There is only the original bridge left of the original structure. Quite an impressive structure with some lovely grounds, including 4 ponds to represent the 4 shogun of the Minamoto family.
We walked to the restaurant for lunch along the original road built for the shogun. He built it so that his pregnant wife could move quickly in case she was to give birth.
After lunch, we were able to visit the beach. Kamakura is a good place to surf, but we really just wanted to put our feet in the Pacific Ocean. It was fun to do a little beach combing. Lots of beautiful shards of Japanese pottery on the beach to find.
Anne, Erica & Calvin
It was time to head back on the train to Tokyo. Our day trip to Kamakura was wonderful. it was nice to see a smaller Japanese town. Apparently Kamakura is known as a wealthy town. It's outside Tokyo enough to that families, if they can afford it, can have a little bigger houses and grounds.
So excited to see the Pacific Ocean
some cute school girls on the train back to our hotel
We arrived back, packed for our trip home and headed out for our last dinner in Japan. After dinner we decided to try a traditional Japanese past-time, Karaoke. It was so fun. There were 11 of us in this little room and we sang our hearts out. The music videos they have with the songs and so corny. I highly recommend you try this if you are in Japan. You didn't have to sing in front of anyone like you do in the US.
Karaoke fun
Ginger is a rock star
Time for bed. It was a long day.
June 28, 2016 Sendai/Tokyo
June 28, 2016 Sendai/Tokyo
We woke in the morning to a drizzly day. It was our day to visit an all boys Jr. And Sr. High School. The school is called Tohpokugakuin. It's a school of 1600 boys. They have an amazing facility, built about 10 years ago. This looked like a top notch private school. They start the day with chapel and all 1600 boys attend daily. Then they rotate through their classes. They also have after school clubs, which might be soccer, baseball, judo, music, etc. These boys are in school until 6-7pm in the evening after all their after school activities. Then they go to cram school to prepare for the high school and college entrance exams. Finally after that they do their homework or may have a music lesson. I'm not sure when they have time to eat and have any fun.
There were a few presentations by some of the boys in the school about the history of the school, the facility, and the mission of the school. Also, a few of the boys will be going on a trip to Pennsylvania this summer, so they spoke about that.
We arrived and were able to attend a few classes. The first class I visited was an English class. In order to enter college, they boys must pass an English proficiency portion of their entrance exam. The class was very interesting. The boys were told to get into groups and come up with what they thought their ideal school would look like. They could use either pictures or words. The directions for the assignment were given in Japanese and then briefly explained in English. This was very unlike the Chinese English class we observed where the teacher spoke almost entirely in English to the students. As a result of having little exposure to spoken English, they boys for the most part spoke very little English and had a very difficult time speaking to us when we asked them questions. Culturally, they tend to be shy and get embarrassed easily, so this made it more difficult to communicate with them. We found that overall, the Japanese have fairly poor spoken English skills because they aren't being forced to think in English in school. The school system in Japan is requiring English education to start earlier in elementary school now. It will be interesting to see if the younger people are able to communicate more effectively in English.
The responses of the boys were typical when asked about their ideal school: girls in school, no uniforms, subway station at the school, fewer bugs in the school, use iPhones in school. Sounds like regular teenagers! They also wanted more sleep. Due to their busy schedules, they don't get enough sleep.
I also observed a home economics class. The boys were finishing cooking a delicious looking udon dish. They got to eat it when they were done. Apparently they have these cooking lessons about 5 times a year. When asked if they or their father's ever cook at home, they all said no.
The Japanese homes are still very traditional. Once a woman has a child, she says home to care for the child. The men are the breadwinners. They are called the "salary" men. It's a little strange watching them all come to work and go home. They all wear white shirts for the most part and dark pants with nice shoes. It's like it's a uniform for the office. In the summer they don't have to wear a tie, but in the winter they do. Often the men work long hours, so they don't spend much time with their families. They may have to commute long distances or may stay after work to have dinner. One night we were out at about 9:30pm and the subway station was still full of men going home from work. The culture is changing a bit because the workforce is shrinking due to the low birth rate. It is more common for women to work after children than it was, but there is a big problem of finding childcare. Japan is still a very traditional culture, but is now have some growing pains. It will have to adapt to meet it's changing demographics.
After we visited both classes we had a nice lunch and were able to eat with some of the boys. They had brought their lunches, and those looked much more delicious than ours. Their mothers had packed them lunch. We tried to talk with the boys, but had some difficulty communicating. These boys were 11th graders so they will be taking the college entrance exams soon. Then went on a tour of the school. They have a gym that has 4 full size basketball courts and a running track around the top, a judo room, a nice cafeteria, a beautiful library, and more. It was time to say goodbye. There is a custom in Japan to wave until you cannot see the people anymore. As we drove away in the bus, there was a group of boys who spent some time with us waving for quite a while. Of course we had to wave back.
Time to head back to Tokyo on the bullet train for another delicious dinner. We were all exhausted, so it was an earlier night. We had another full day of sightseeing in Kamakura the next day.
We woke in the morning to a drizzly day. It was our day to visit an all boys Jr. And Sr. High School. The school is called Tohpokugakuin. It's a school of 1600 boys. They have an amazing facility, built about 10 years ago. This looked like a top notch private school. They start the day with chapel and all 1600 boys attend daily. Then they rotate through their classes. They also have after school clubs, which might be soccer, baseball, judo, music, etc. These boys are in school until 6-7pm in the evening after all their after school activities. Then they go to cram school to prepare for the high school and college entrance exams. Finally after that they do their homework or may have a music lesson. I'm not sure when they have time to eat and have any fun.
There were a few presentations by some of the boys in the school about the history of the school, the facility, and the mission of the school. Also, a few of the boys will be going on a trip to Pennsylvania this summer, so they spoke about that.
We arrived and were able to attend a few classes. The first class I visited was an English class. In order to enter college, they boys must pass an English proficiency portion of their entrance exam. The class was very interesting. The boys were told to get into groups and come up with what they thought their ideal school would look like. They could use either pictures or words. The directions for the assignment were given in Japanese and then briefly explained in English. This was very unlike the Chinese English class we observed where the teacher spoke almost entirely in English to the students. As a result of having little exposure to spoken English, they boys for the most part spoke very little English and had a very difficult time speaking to us when we asked them questions. Culturally, they tend to be shy and get embarrassed easily, so this made it more difficult to communicate with them. We found that overall, the Japanese have fairly poor spoken English skills because they aren't being forced to think in English in school. The school system in Japan is requiring English education to start earlier in elementary school now. It will be interesting to see if the younger people are able to communicate more effectively in English.
The responses of the boys were typical when asked about their ideal school: girls in school, no uniforms, subway station at the school, fewer bugs in the school, use iPhones in school. Sounds like regular teenagers! They also wanted more sleep. Due to their busy schedules, they don't get enough sleep.
I also observed a home economics class. The boys were finishing cooking a delicious looking udon dish. They got to eat it when they were done. Apparently they have these cooking lessons about 5 times a year. When asked if they or their father's ever cook at home, they all said no.
Outside of the school
The amazing teachers who went on this trip.
Some cute schools girls we met along the way
The Japanese homes are still very traditional. Once a woman has a child, she says home to care for the child. The men are the breadwinners. They are called the "salary" men. It's a little strange watching them all come to work and go home. They all wear white shirts for the most part and dark pants with nice shoes. It's like it's a uniform for the office. In the summer they don't have to wear a tie, but in the winter they do. Often the men work long hours, so they don't spend much time with their families. They may have to commute long distances or may stay after work to have dinner. One night we were out at about 9:30pm and the subway station was still full of men going home from work. The culture is changing a bit because the workforce is shrinking due to the low birth rate. It is more common for women to work after children than it was, but there is a big problem of finding childcare. Japan is still a very traditional culture, but is now have some growing pains. It will have to adapt to meet it's changing demographics.
After we visited both classes we had a nice lunch and were able to eat with some of the boys. They had brought their lunches, and those looked much more delicious than ours. Their mothers had packed them lunch. We tried to talk with the boys, but had some difficulty communicating. These boys were 11th graders so they will be taking the college entrance exams soon. Then went on a tour of the school. They have a gym that has 4 full size basketball courts and a running track around the top, a judo room, a nice cafeteria, a beautiful library, and more. It was time to say goodbye. There is a custom in Japan to wave until you cannot see the people anymore. As we drove away in the bus, there was a group of boys who spent some time with us waving for quite a while. Of course we had to wave back.
Time to head back to Tokyo on the bullet train for another delicious dinner. We were all exhausted, so it was an earlier night. We had another full day of sightseeing in Kamakura the next day.
Thursday, June 30, 2016
June 27, 2016 Sendai
We started the day taking the super-express bullet train to Sendai. We visited Zuiho-den which was a temple built during the beginning of the Tokugawa era (1603-1867). It had a mausoleum build for Date Masamune who was a feudal lord of the Sendai domain. This was a beautiful, peaceful temple and garden area. It has multiple mausoleums built for Masamune's subsequent feudal lords. Masamune was a fierce warrior and conquered much of the land he controlled. At his death he had an official income of 620,000 Koku . The original mausoleum was burned during the war, but has since been rebuilt. There are still many stone lanterns standing from the original building. We also visited a beautiful chilren's cemetary on the grounds. We visited Zuiho-den which was a temple built during the beginning of the Tokugawa era (1603-1867). It had a mausoleum build for Date Masamune who was a feudal lord of the Sendai domain. This was a beautiful, peaceful temple and garden area. It has multiple mausoleums built for Masamune's subsequent feudal lords. Masamune was a fierce warrior and conquered much of the land he controlled. At his death he had an official income of 620,000 Koku . The original mausoleum was burned during the war, but has since been rebuilt. There are still many stone lanterns standing from the original building. We also visited a beautiful chilren's cemetary on the grounds.
We next went to Adoba Castle. It was the castle of Date Matsamuse. It has since burned down, but there is a great view of Sendai from there and a wonderful statue of Date Matsamuse. We had lunch there and departed for our next destination.
We were to visit Minamisanriku, starting at a community center that is supported by the NGO Peace Winds Japan. This area was hit hard by the Tsunami in 2011. There are currently 18,000 residents in the area, but they lost 800 in the tsuami. The city is still rebuilding 5 years later. The community center we visited was established to give the older people in the community a place to gather and do something productive for the community. The group that was working consisted of 4 woman and one man. They are making floor tiles to sell using reclaimed materials. The tiles will be sold to support the communities recovery efforts. This is supported by the organization Peace Winds. They go into areas that have been hit by a disaster and work to help the people rebuild some community ties. They particularly work with the elderly in the community.
The extent of the devastation in the area was unbelievable. The entire town that wasn't on the hillside was washed away. Luckily the schools were on hills. There are still many residents living in temporary housing. They are rebuilding the main shopping areas of the town on man-made hills. They hope that these will be high enough to withstand another tsunami. The townspeople had warning that the waves would be 10 meters, but they ended up being 30 meters high. They anticipate that the rebuilding process will take another 5 years. Because the population of the town is on the older side, they have to bring in workers from Sendai to do the heavy labor.
One very moving experience was to see a structure that has been left in place amidst the rebuilding. It was the emergency disaster building for the town. Apparently the workers all stayed at their posts during the entire tsunami to help warn the townspeople. Sadly they all lost their lives as the huge waves swept through the town. The town has left the skeleton of the building in place as a reminder of those who lost their lives in order to save other lives. There is also a shrine there to those brave men and women.
Japan is facing big challenges as it's population ages.
After that very sobering, but hopeful visit, we checked into our hotel in Sendai and headed out to dinner at a local restaurant. We have been eating well on this trip.
Zuniho-Den Temple
Original stone lanterns
View of Sendai
Date Matsamuse
We next went to Adoba Castle. It was the castle of Date Matsamuse. It has since burned down, but there is a great view of Sendai from there and a wonderful statue of Date Matsamuse. We had lunch there and departed for our next destination.
We were to visit Minamisanriku, starting at a community center that is supported by the NGO Peace Winds Japan. This area was hit hard by the Tsunami in 2011. There are currently 18,000 residents in the area, but they lost 800 in the tsuami. The city is still rebuilding 5 years later. The community center we visited was established to give the older people in the community a place to gather and do something productive for the community. The group that was working consisted of 4 woman and one man. They are making floor tiles to sell using reclaimed materials. The tiles will be sold to support the communities recovery efforts. This is supported by the organization Peace Winds. They go into areas that have been hit by a disaster and work to help the people rebuild some community ties. They particularly work with the elderly in the community.
The tiled floor of the building
The town residents who are working on this project
Peace Wind's building, shipping containers put together to make a building
The extent of the devastation in the area was unbelievable. The entire town that wasn't on the hillside was washed away. Luckily the schools were on hills. There are still many residents living in temporary housing. They are rebuilding the main shopping areas of the town on man-made hills. They hope that these will be high enough to withstand another tsunami. The townspeople had warning that the waves would be 10 meters, but they ended up being 30 meters high. They anticipate that the rebuilding process will take another 5 years. Because the population of the town is on the older side, they have to bring in workers from Sendai to do the heavy labor.
One very moving experience was to see a structure that has been left in place amidst the rebuilding. It was the emergency disaster building for the town. Apparently the workers all stayed at their posts during the entire tsunami to help warn the townspeople. Sadly they all lost their lives as the huge waves swept through the town. The town has left the skeleton of the building in place as a reminder of those who lost their lives in order to save other lives. There is also a shrine there to those brave men and women.
View from the hill above town
Big white building will be housing for residents
Picture of a before and after picture
Chile sent this Moai statue since they are have a sister city. This was to help with healing. There was another statue that was lost during the Tsunami
Temporary shopping area in town
Emergency preparedness building
Japan is facing big challenges as it's population ages.
After that very sobering, but hopeful visit, we checked into our hotel in Sendai and headed out to dinner at a local restaurant. We have been eating well on this trip.
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