Monthly Archives: November 2024

Japan Part Five – Closing the Loop in Tokyo

We boarded the Shinkansen Monday morning, October 7th. Due to the mountainous terrain, the train route to Tokyo was somewhat circuitous. We went northeast along the coastline of the Sea of Japan and had occasional ocean views. Then we followed a valley that rose to Nagano in the south. Nagano was home to the Winter Olympics in 1998. We saw varied countryside from mountain forests to farmland as we left the mountains behind and continued southeast back to Tokyo Station.

We changed to a local train on the Ginza Line. We were familiar with the route – it was the reverse of the way we left Tokyo for Kyoto a week earlier. We originally planned to stay at the Banrai Hotel, but before we left Kanazawa, Donna changed the reservation to a traditional Japanese room at the Hotel Wing International. This room wasn’t available earlier, but appeared online when Donna rechecked availability.

We felt like old hands at navigating our way through Asakusa Station to the hotel. This time our room was on the 11th floor and we found out what traditional Japanese room meant. The entry was a small hallway and we had to leave our shoes there. The main room had tatami mat flooring. The short hallway had a door to the bathroom on the right and what turned out to be small closet at the end on the right. A doorway on left led into the main room.

Looking back from the main room to the hallway and closet

The bedding dominated the room and I wondered how we could manage to unpack and get comfortable in the room. Donna got the bright idea to fold up the futon bedding into chairs.

The room included a coffee maker and coffee packets that were actually quite good. That reminds me, I forgot to mention the breakfast buffet at the Torifito Hotel in Kanazwa. We usually went out of the Torifito for breakfast at Family Mart before the buffet opened. One morning we decided to give the buffet a try.

The buffet was more than twice the price of breakfast at Family Mart, but still relatively inexpensive. We weren’t sure of what to make of some of the food it offered though. There was steamed rice, of course, and some fruit. The scrambled eggs were the wettest scramble I’ve ever seen. There were some kind of fish dishes, but fish isn’t my idea of breakfast. They had fruit juices and tea. We had to search to find the coffee. It was made with a machine like you would find a convenience store, but didn’t have as many choices as we usually found. It had a button for coffee, which gave about a half cup of awful coffee. Then there was a choice of “weak coffee.” After filling my cup twice to get a nearly full cup of coffee and I told Donna the buttons should be honest and say “Bad Coffee” and “Really Bad Coffee.” I had the scrambled eggs and a couple of sausage links and rice for breakfast. I was wishing we had stuck to the Family Mart. Donna figured out the runny scrambled eggs were meant to be mixed with steaming hot rice. I wish I had figured that out before I ate. Back at Asakusa, we stuck with convenience store breakfast – the Wing didn’t offer a breakfast buffet, just a few pastries and drinks.

After unpacking, we went out for the remainder of the afternoon and figured we would find something for dinner along the way. We walked south along the boulevard from the hotel – the opposite direction from the way we usually went. We wanted see if we were missing anything in this direction. After wandering around for half an hour or so, we found ourselves heading back to the more familiar area north of the hotel.

Before we knew it, we were back at the Kaminarimon Gate where the large lantern marks the entrance to the Asakusa outdoor shopping area. Behind the gate and lantern is a wide alley with market stalls in the center. These stalls are like connected one-car garages with roll-up doors. When the stall is open for business, the doors are rolled up. When they close, they roll the doors down and lock them.

The large lantern is a tourist attraction and we always saw a small crowd in front of the gate to take photos and selfies.

We found a liquor store I wanted to visit. I was thinking about bringing a bottle of Japanese whisky back to the US. The store turned out to be mostly high end liquor with a lot of decorative or collectable bottles. I figured Duty Free at the airport would be the way to go anyway. Donna took a few pictures of the some of the bottles while I browsed.

We continued to wander and look for interesting finds. The Axe Throwing Bar seemed interesting, but we passed on it.

We found a statue of Ten Ryu next to the giant lantern. I’m not sure if it’s commemorating Emperor Daigo II or the “Divine Dragon,” a mythical being.

I can’t remember what we found for dinner, it wasn’t anything special. Later we found ourselves at another familiar place – the Not Suspicious Bar.

The trendy drink was a Tokyo negroni and Donna had to try one. I think the Not Suspicious version of the drink contained absinthe. I stuck with my favorite – Hakashu Japanese whisky.

Back at our room at the Wing, we had another nightime view of the Tokyo Sky Tree.

After striking out on finding old Japanese barber’s straight razors, I decided to make another trip to Morihei in Asakusabashi. I sent a message to a friend in Louisiana, Eric, to see if he wanted/needed anything from Morihei. He responded with a request for one of the Oozuku hard awasedo stones and a chu nagura. I need to explain two things.

First, I said a friend in Louisiana. Actually, I’ve never met Eric face to face. I first found his YouTube channel, The Cajun Blade, where I learned many things about straight razors and honing them on natural stones a few months ago. Then I figured out a guy on the Badger and Blade forum was him. I bought a couple of Japanese whetstones from him and he gave me a good deal.

The second thing I want mention is the nagura. What’s a nagura? A nagura is a rubbing stone. You rub it gently against your base stone with water to create a fine slurry of stone particles. The slurry can come from the nagura, the base stone or both. The slurry helps the stone to cut the steel faster and also can work on both sides of the edge as it comes over the top of the edge.

I hadn’t thought about a chu nagura. I have a few different nagura stones, but never tried chu. Tuesday morning, Donna and I took the train to Asakusabashi and walked to Morihei’s shop. The guy that helped me the week before was tied up with another customer. I think he was a wholesale customer negotiating a large transaction.

I browsed around and waited. A woman came out to see if she could help me. Her English was limited but I managed to let her know what I was looking for. She showed me a couple of stones and a synthetic nagura. I tried to explain that I wanted a natural stone nagura.

Then an older gentleman came out. He offered Donna a chair so she wouldn’t have to stand around while I shopped. He found a few stones for me to examine. When I told him I was looking for a natural nagura, he didn’t seem to understand at first, so I tried some rudimentary Japanese. I told him I would like to see tennen toishi ao nagura. It basically meant a natural stone white nagura. He motioned for me to wait while he disappeared out back. Later I learned that there was a second floor to the store and also a small museum of their private stone collection.

He came back out with three small chu nagura stones. Then he took me over to a sharpening station and demonstrated the awasedo stones I was looking at by honing a razor with them. I bought two more Oozuku awasedo and two chu naguras. Before we left, Donna asked if she could take a photo of the two of us. He motioned me over to the sharpening bench to pose with him.

The gentleman was very nice, but didn’t speak any English to me. He seemed to be the head honcho of the place and we noticed a couple of poster size blow-ups of magazine articles with his picture on the back wall.

I later learned he was Oguro-san, the president of Morihei and a well-respected expert on Japanese stones, mines and also Japanese knives. He is an advisor for natural whetstone researchers at universities and government agencies. I can vouch for him as being a nice man.

We walked back toward the hotel and stopped for a great ramen lunch. After resting in our room for a bit, we went back out and it was raining lightly. Rainy days are not uncommon in Tokyo at that time of year.

Closed shopping stalls behind the Kaminarimon Gate

Rain doesn’t stop activity here, much like light rain is a normal condition in Seattle most of the year. We window shopped and Donna found something interesting.

It was beautiful portable shrine in a window display.

We found the covered street to shop without an umbrella. We had umbrellas that we picked up at the lobby of the Hotel Wing – they keep loaners in a basket for guests. When we returned with wet umbrellas, they have a special dispenser that you poke the collapsed umbrella into and it gets covered with a thin plastic bag so it doesn’t drip on the floor!

The following day we did more of the same. We wandered around the area looking for anything interesting. We found the Mishima Shrine. This was confusing, the Mishima Shrine Taisha is a famous shrine in Mishima, not Tokyo. I later found out that the Mishima Taisha is the most famous and other Mishima Shrines can be found such as the Mishima Jinja which is in the Shitaya District of Tokyo.

Later, we made a stop at the upscale Hotel Tobu. I don’t remember how many floors this hotel has, but it was one of the taller buildings in Asakusa. We went to the top floor bar for liquid refreshment and a look at the expansive views.

Donna and me at the Tobu – Tokyo Sky Tree in the background

Another strange thing we found in Tokyo was go-kart rentals. If you posess an international driver’s license, you can rent a go-kart and convoy behind a tour leader for a two-hour tour, zipping around the streets of Tokyo.

I guess danger equals excitement to some people. This looked like a dangerous activity to me. We weren’t interested in the least bit about touring Tokyo via go-kart.

The next morning was the 10th of October, the day of our departure from Japan. We had a lazy morning and packed our bags. We checked out a little before the 11am checkout time and left our suitcases in a storage service across from Asakusa Station.

We had a lot of time to kill. Our flight was scheduled to depart from Narita Airport at 8pm. We walked across a bridge over the Sumida River and headed toward the Tokyo Sky Tree. We didn’t need signs or directions, it can be seen from miles around. It turned out to be a longer walk than I expected. Once you get closer to it, the scale of the tower starts to sink in.

Along the way we saw some people playing a game called padel. Padel (Spanish for Paddle) is a game that originated in Mexico. It’s like a combination of tennis and raquetball. It’s played on an enclosed court and the ball can be played off of the walls enclosing the court, which is slightly smaller than a doubles tennis court. I’d heard of the game, but never saw it played before.

The enclosure was a clear plexiglass, so we could observe from the sidewalk. It was a very quick game and good reflexes are needed along with paddle skills. I think I’ll stick to tennis for now.

As we got closer to the tower, the size was awe inspiring.

We finally reached the entrance and I was shocked at all of the space and attractions inside. There was an aquarium, a theater, rooftop viewing area and a food court along with stores and a large grocery.

There are several floors of retail space inside and you can also take an elevator up to the viewing section near the top. It requires a reservation though.

We had lunch in one of the food courts. They had many different styles of food available. We had our last authentic Japanese ramen meal – it was delicious.

We walked back to Asakusa following a different route. We went through the Sumida Park and crossed the river on a pedestrian bridge. Walking ahead of us on the bridge was a guy wearing what looked like a security guard outfit. I noticed he was using a microfiber cloth to clean the hand rail as he strolled across the bridge. The handrail was spotless.

Donna took pictures of Love Locks on the bridge. Couples put padlocks on the bridge fencing to symbolize their love.

Love Locks on the Asakusa side of the river – Sky Tree in the background

By this time I was much better at recognizing the various trains from the platform. We caught an Express train to Narita. This had fewer stops than the train we first took from Narita two weeks earlier. It also cost less than I anticipated.

At the airport, the first thing we had to do was return the portable wifi. They had provided an envelope and instructions to return it via mail and warned us to post it before we went through security as there are no mail drop boxes on the secure side. We did that with a little assistance from an information kiosk then went to departures to check our luggage.

I was dismayed when I saw the long lines there. We walked past the first long line and I saw it was a departure line for China. Our flight was on Hawaiian Airlines which was partnered with Japan Airlines (JAL). We saw the line from the checkin counters going way to the back of the large building! They didn’t start check-in yet, we had about a 10-minute wait before the line would begin to move. Donna asked an attendant if it was the right line for us. She looked at Donna’s ticket and told her we should wait behind a couple of other people near the head of the line.

When they started boarding, first class/business class went first. We then saw some people from the long line move up as they were in the wrong line. We were through quickly and felt a little weird as we had jumped ahead of a lot of the people from the wrong line. Oh well, we were just doing what we were told to do.

We found directions to the JAL airport lounge. Now this is what first class is all about. It was a spacious lounge with three levels and lots of open space. We had already eaten and soon regretted that fact. Donna found a full dinner buffet on the upper level. We found a comfortable spot and I found a well-stocked bar with open bottles to pour for yourself. They had top shelf liquor – I had a Japanese whisky on the rocks.

We had money left on our Suica cards – nearly a thousand yen each. The Suica cards expire after 30 days and we had no way to use them. They are non-refundable. I also had some coins which I couldn’t use. I could exchange the paper money at the bank at home, but not the coins.

There was a young girl busing tables and cleaning up. Donna went to her and gifted her the Suica cards and coins. The girl didn’t speak English. She quickly left with the cards and left the dishes she was picking up in a tub on the table near us. Seemed strange. A little while later she came back with a supervisor that spoke English. The supervisor asked it why we gave the girl the cards and money. I told her it was a gift- we were getting on a plane a wouldn’t be able to use them. The supervisor looked like she wanted to keep the cards, but she relinquished them to the girl and gave her an explanation in Japanese. It wasn’t much money, but I thought the cards would get the girl back and forth to work for the next week or so. The girl went back to work. I was impressed that she would go to her supervisor instead of just quietly accepting the cards and small change. Integrity.

Once again we were comfortably seated in the front of the plane and headed to Hawaii. I didn’t buy any duty-free liquor at Narita because I was worried about going through customs in Hawaii. That wouldn’t be a problem, but getting back through TSA security would. I didn’t want TSA to take it away.

When we arrived in Honolulu, we were quickly through immigration with our USA passports. Then at customs they didn’t even stop anyone or ask any questions – we were waved straight through! That’s when I realized I could have bought duty-free and then packed it in my suitcase in Honolulu before I checked in for the next leg of the journey home.

We checked our bags then took an Uber into Waikiki. We had a few hours of layover time. Many of us think of Hawaii and Waikiki as paradise. This time I didn’t. It seemed crass and dirty compared to places we had just visited. Even the beach was less inviting.

Walking down Kalakaua Avenue we saw a couple of presumably homeless drug addicts picking through trash cans right in front of us. We needed to find a restroom and couldn’t find a public toilet. We eventually went into a Macy’s store where you had to have a key code from a store clerk to enter the restrooms.

I hate to say it, but we went from a polite and very civilized society to something that was far less.

We had backtracked across the International Date Line, so although we left Japan at around 8pm Thursday evening, we arrived in Phoenix at 11pm Thursday night! Jet lagged, but home again.

Donna’s loot – gifts she brought back from Japan

When Donna is asked what she liked best about Japan her answer is “The people!”

She also told me she could live in Kanazawa. We thought it was a once in a lifetime trip for us, but we’re scheming out ways to go back again.

Japan – Part Four Kanazawa Continued

Kanazawa was probably my favorite place to visit in Japan. Although they list a population of more than 400,000, it’s relatively compact. The cities in Japan are generally densely populated and Kanazawa doesn’t sprawl. The best way for us to get around in Kanazawa was either by bus or walking.

Saturday morning, October 5th, we took a bus to Kanazawa Castle. Google said we could walk there in about 30 minutes, but we knew that once we were there we’d have plenty of walking ahead of us. There are a few different bus lines operating in Kanazawa. The JR (Japan Rail) West line is the only one that accepted our Suica cards. This worked out fine for us as it had a stop near the Hotel Torifito on the busy Kanazawa Ekidori Avenue. This bus made a stop within a few blocks of the entrance to the castle grounds.

The castle dates back to the 16th century although it burned down and had to be rebuilt a few times. Currently there is renovation work in some areas and some paths were closed due to damage from the Noto Peninsula Earthquake earlier this year. Admission to the grounds is free although some buildings have fees to enter.

We found one of the gates to enter from Ohori Dori Avenue and crossed a pedestrian bridge over the outer moat.

The grounds from this entrance resembled a large park – lots of grass with people lounging around.

It was a bit of a hike to reach another moat before following the walkway into the castle courtyards.

We wandered through the grounds, unguided. Once again I was awestruck by the woodwork – the scale and the carpentry skill was unbelievable.

One of many large entrances with huge doors

The woodworkers skill is something to behold – huge armored door behind me

Much of the walkway had bamboo fencing. The bamboo was tied together, no nails or screws!

After a while we found ourselves at an entrance to the Kenroku-en Garden – a garden park first established during the Edo Period (1603-1868). There is a small fee to enter the garden grounds – it’s worth it. Rather than trying to describe it, I’ll post a few photos.

Natural landscape at the garden entrance

View of the city from a high point in the garden

We retraced our steps and skipped the bus. We followed signs directing us toward Omicho Market. This is a large indoor market with stalls selling seafood and fresh produce along with food stands. I found it much more interesting than the Tsukiji market in Tokyo or the malls in Kyoto. I think I like it because we were able to check out each stall without fighting our way through crowds of people.

We also saw the merchants prepping fresh fish brought in the from the port a few miles away. Most of the shoppers appeared to be local Japanese buying fresh food to prepare at home. There were far fewer foreigners than in Kyoto or Tokyo.

Shoppers at a seafood stall in Omicho Market

Fresh fish processed right in the stall for presentation and sale

Styrofoam boxes of fish brought in from the port

We grabbed a quick lunch at a counter – some kind of skewers is all I can remember about it now. We realized weren’t very far away from Hotel Torifito and we walked back to take a mid-day break.

After resting for a bit, I started looking online for a happy hour place and dinner. I was having some trouble, there were izakaya in the area but nothing seemed to appeal to me. I was looking out the window of our fourth floor hotel room when I noticed a couple of people on the rooftop area of a building kitty-corner to our hotel. I asked Donna to take a look and see what she thought. She echoed my thoughts – it looked like a rooftop bar.

We walked over there and found a four story building with a different restaurant on each floor including the one with rooftop seating. We went up there and sat outdoors for a drink. Looking at their menu, we went for an appetizer. This soon turned into a tapas-type dinner for us as we added a few other plates to our order. We had an enjoyable evening – the two businessmen that we had spied on the rooftop left shortly after we arrived and we had the place mostly to ourselves.

One the things I was hoping to find in Japan was old Japanese barber straight razors. I have a modest collection of straight razors and I shave with them. I like the history behind some of the razors which were once found in almost every household. There’s a small cadre of straight razor enthusiasts today and I enjoy the ritual of face lathering with a bowl and brush and shaving the old fashioned way.

Unfortunately, our timing didn’t coincide with the flea markets I’d heard were a good place to look for razors. Sunday morning we took a bus to go shopping at a couple of antique shops that were open. When we walked to the bus stop across Kanazawa Ekidori Avenue, the JR Line bus was just leaving. We missed it. As near as I could decipher from the schedule placard, it looked like it would be 20 minutes until another JR Line bus would arrive. By the time I figured that out, another bus heading in the same direction we wanted to go came.

I told Donna we should get on. Once the bus starting moving, I realized the Suica cards wouldn’t be accepted on this bus line. I had a moment of panic when I remembered reading that you need correct change for city buses. When we got to what I thought was the Hashibacho district I had observed other people paying with paper money and receiving change from the machine when they got off of the bus. Whew! End of panic. I paid after a little confusion when I put in a 10,000 yen bill thinking I had used a 1,000 yen bill. That made for a lot of change coins.

We found a couple of antique shops but I didn’t find any razors. In one shop I tried to convey to the proprietor what I was searching for. I made a scraping motion across my face with my finger and said “Razor?” He just gave me a puzzled look. Then I used the Japanese word kamisori. Uncharacteristically, he laughed and said “Convenience store.” So much for finding an old Japanese razor on this trip.

A funny thing happened after the first few days in Japan. Many Japanese words and phrases were familiar to me. Donna noticed that I understood much of what was spoken and I often used a Japanese phrase to answer someone. I can’t explain it, just hearing many words and phrases I learned from my mom when I was kid came back to me. I used words and phrases I hadn’t spoken out loud in 50 years. Odd. Donna even started to greet people in proper Japanese.

When we gave up on the antique shops, Donna said she saw Geisha at the previous bus stop a few blocks away. We decided to walk in that direction. I wasn’t exactly sure of where we were. I used Google maps on my phone and figured out where we were and it wasn’t that long of a walk to cross the Asano River to the Higashi Chaya district. This area had traditional tea houses where Geisha perform and also has some tourist attractions.

There’s the old Geisha House Shima, a heritage building. This is also the home of gold leaf artisans and there are many museums in the area. While we walking toward Higashi, I saw an interesting sight. We walked past a firehouse and I saw a fireman prepping some gear in front of a fire engine. The interesting part was the size of the firetruck. In Japan many of the streets, especially in residential areas, are very narrow or dwellings are only accessible through narrow alleys. So, the firetruck was sized to drive down these streets.

In Higashi Chaya there are authentic geisha but we also saw many of the fake geisha that I described in my last post. I think some of what we saw may have been maiko, a young geisha in training. I think the local businesses pay these young women to attract customers to the area and specific stores or restaurants.

We had lunch at a small restaurant with a few tables and chairs at the counter. Two geisha’s were at the table next to us. The place was full and by the time we left there were people waiting for a table. We wandered through the area with no real destination.

Typical restaurant/bar entrance in Kanazawa

We found an ice cream parlor that featured ice cream coated with gold leaf sprinkles.

The gold leaf is really gold! Edible gold leaf has a high purity level, it’s almost pure gold. Who knew?

We walked back to the hotel to take a break and rest. It was my birthday – October 6th marked my 68th revolution around the sun. We went for a celebratory dinner at Sushi Tora. This was a small sushi restaurant a short walk from the hotel. This sushi bar has only about eight seats. It’s run by the “oldest sushi chef in Ishikawa Prefecture.” He’s 82 years old – I didn’t get his name – and he’s been in business here all his adult life. He makes the sushi while a woman takes the orders and serves the food. I don’t know if she was his wife or daughter, I’d heard it was a family run business – she didn’t appear to be an octogenarian, but then he didn’t seem that old either.

The woman seemed to enjoy telling Donna about the various cuts of fish in the sushi. She would describe them with the Japanese words, then try to translate to English. I knew many of the names, like toro for the fatty tuna from the belly of the fish, but she also had descriptive words that were new to me.

I went for his signature ten course sushi platter while Donna opted for an eight piece plate. I was a little put off by the uni nigiri – sea urchin sushi. I’d only had uni once before in Seattle. It tasted like I was drinking from a tide pool. But I braved it and what a difference! I don’t know if it was the freshness of the urchin or the preparation but it was very tasty. I wonder if I can get uni this good anywhere in the states.

Ten course sushi platter – uni nigiri wrapped with nori in the second row, second piece from the right

The meal was outstanding served with a bottle of Kirin beer.

After dinner we walked back to the rooftop bar for a nightcap. We were welcomed back by the staff – we were the only customers there. There was the same male bartender from our previous visit and he appeared to be in charge of two young women servers. The women seemed to be shy at first but they wanted to work on their English language skills and we were soon engaged in conversation.

They asked us where we were from. Then they showed us a world map on the wall with pins in it depicting the many places visitors had come from. They placed a pin in the Phoenix area for us.

I asked for one of my favorite Japanese whiskys – Hakushu – and they gave me a full adult dose. Most Japanese bars are somewhat stingy in their pours. Not this one. Two drinks and I was at my limit. We had a fun time talking with them but after a while we realized they were only staying open because we were there. It was Sunday night after all and no one else came in. So we said good bye and they insisted on a selfie before we left.

Pie faced with the staff at the rooftop bar

Thus ended my birthday evening out.

It seems like I’m missing a day with this narrative, but after more than a month, much of the time is a blur and I didn’t take any notes. This is just my recollection of how the trip went.

I had booked seats for us to take the Shinkansen back to Tokyo. At one point on Sunday, we walked over to the Kanazawa Station – again booking seats alone didn’t get you to the platform. You must have a paper ticket to feed into the machine to access the boarding area. We went to the station to get our paper tickets in advance to avoid any possible delays when we departed.

It turned out to be a good idea. The JR West ticket counter was crowded. You had to take a number and wait. I was number 136 and I think they were on 103 or something. One person waiting told us they waited for nearly an hour! I noticed a small line outside of the office with people getting ticktes from a machine. I got in line and observed what was going on. I had an open machine in front of me in no time. I was a little puzzled by the instructions for using the machine, but a JR security woman came over and walked me through the process. Voila! We had our tickets. Donna gave our number 136 to someone else with higher number in line.

We were heading back to Tokyo on Monday. While we were at the station, I reloaded our Suica cards anticipating the charge we would incur taking the train to Narita Airport when we left Tokyo in a few days. Then we bought Bento box lunches for the train ride. It’s about a two and a half hour train ride over the mountains near Nagano back to Tokyo.

Donna’s Bento box lunch with chopsticks under a bow

I’ll close the loop with our final days in Tokyo in my next post.

Japan Part Three – Kanazawa

The last post ended with us needing to plan our next stop. We were scheduled to leave Kyoto the next day and hadn’t finalized our plan. Before I get to the plan, I have to step back to the Not Suspicious Bar in Asakusa, Tokyo.

When we were there, we took seats at the bar. There was an empty seat to the right of me, then a group of four Australians occupying the rest of that end of the bar. A young man took the seat between me and the Australians. It turned out he was an American from Florida and taking an impromptu 3-week holiday in Japan. I assumed he was military as he said he had some time off and jumped on a flight to Tokyo.

We made some small talk and he also engaged in conversation with the Australians. One of the Australian women was very talkative and gave the guy next to me advice about where to go and what to see. Donna overheard much of the conversation as I talked to the bartender and didn’t pay as much attention.

After the Australians left, the bartender told us the talkative women had been coming to Japan for a few months per year for about 16 years! She was an avid skier and had a home near Kanazawa. Donna made note of this.

While we were planning our next move, I had an ulterior motive. I wanted to head northwest to the west coast of Japan. I wanted to make a visit to the Takefu Knife Village outside of Echizen and then go to Sanjo near Niigata – another knife making area.

Donna checked on hotels in Echizen and didn’t find much that we would want to stay in. Echizen is fairly small and mostly agricultural although there are electronics and apparel factories. Donna brought up Kanazawa and recalled the Australian woman being very enthusiastic about telling the guy at the bar all of the things to see there and how it wasn’t as crowded and also slower paced than Tokyo or Kyoto.

The Shinkansen train to Kanazawa stopped at Tsurugu Station where we could transfer to an Express train to Echizen. The thought was we could make Takefu Knife Village a midday stop, then continue on to Kanazawa. I checked train schedules and we found a way to make it happen, by continuing on Shinkansen from Echizen to Kanazawa. We decided to take some time to get to know Kanazawa and bag the excursion to Niigata. It was too much to try and Kanazawa seemed like the right thing to do. We would stay there until we went back to Tokyo.

The story behind Takefu Knife VIllage could fill several posts, but in a nutshell it comes down to this. In the 1980s, the Japanese knife industry was facing a crisis. Sales were down and artisans crafting the knives were aging. Fewer young people were interested in apprenticing in the small villages and shops to learn to become master bladesmiths.

A group of Echizen knife makers got together, informally at first, and discussed solutions for the future of their craft. Eventually, 10 makers formed a cooperative and created the Echizen Knife Village. This is a shared workplace offering clean, fully equipped facilities with master bladesmiths willing to take on young apprentices and teach them the craft. This worked – it attracted a number of young people interested in creating traditional Japanese knives. Many of them came up in the 1990s and 2000s and have established their own businesses and worldwide clientele. I have a knife from a Takefu graduate, Yoshimi Kato. I bought it several years ago and today his knives are commanding premium prices.

Donna booked a hotel in Kanazawa, I bought train tickets and we were all set. This is how I like to vacation – a set beginning and end point with spontaneous destinations in between. I like the flexibility rather than a rigid schedule and I like hearing first hand from people with local knowledge about places I might not have otherwise considered.

On Thursday, October 3rd, we made the trek to Kanazawa Station. We had a better idea of the layout, but it was just as large and confusing as the last time we were here. I found the Shinkansen JR ticket office. Although I had bought my tickets and reserved seats online, I still had to check in and get paper tickets to get us through to the correct platform.

We gave ourselves plenty of time and shopped for Bento box lunches to take on the train.

The platform was nearly empty when we arrived. I had a little confusion over where we should wait to board the train. A monk I assumed was a Buddist showed me where we should wait to get on our car.

The monk walking away from me directed us to wait here for the train

The platform filled with people just before the train arrived and the monk had steered us right – our car stopped right in front of us.

When we reached Echizen Station, we found a modern and very clean facility – of course. I don’t know what I really expected, but I figured Echizen was more of an outpost. I guess it was – we were the only people to depart the train there. We deposited our luggage in lockers. Like just about everything else in Japan, it’s automated. You choose a locker, put your stuff inside, then pay through a machine. The machine spits out a ticket with a bar code that will open the locker when you use the code reader on your return.

It was raining lightly as we left the station to find a taxi to Takefu. It wasn’t hard to find, but the thing is, you don’t pay the driver cash. You need to go to the information booth and buy a taxi ticket. I bought a round trip at a cost of about $5 each way and off we went. The knife village is outside of town and we drove through farm land for about ten minutes and were dropped off at the entrance.

We went into the retail shop and reception area where we were greeted by a couple of clerks. We were told where to start the tour and it was free. It was interesting for me, but I already knew the knife making process and what we were seeing. Probably less interesting for Donna, but she had a great time shopping for kitchen accessories in their retail space.

We worked our way through the viewing areas, then found another small shop with another viewing space behind the retail store. A guy walked past me, turned and looked me straight in the eye and entered the shop. As he walked to the back of the shop, I realized he was Yu Kurosaki, a young and already well-known knife maker. There were only a couple of workers in the shop as it was lunchtime, but then I noticed their shirts had Kurosaki Knifeworks logos. Yu and his brother Makoto came up through the Takefu apprentice program and now own their own businesses.

After the short tour and Donna’s shopping adventure, we took a taxi back to the station. It turned out that Donna’s plan to make Takefu a stopover on the way to Kanazawa was a good call. I didn’t need more than a couple of hours to take it all in.

I know I’ve already talked a bit about the toilets in Japan – even public toilets are mostly elaborate. Donna snapped an instructional toilet placard in the train station restroom.

Kanazawa Station is fairly large, but not on the scale of Kyoto or Tokyo Station. We found the main entrance/exit easily enough. We had reservations at the Hotel Torifito Kanazawa a few blocks away from the station.

This hotel lobby was similar to what we would expect in America. A few clerks at a check-in counter with a roped off area for patrons to line up. It had a small restaurant attached to the lobby and two elevators. There was also a small business center with additional seating for any time you wanted to hang out in the hotel lobby.

Our room was on the fourth floor and a little larger than I expected. It was late afternoon by then. To be honest, I don’t recall what we did for dinner, I was tired from the day’s travel.

The following morning we found Family Mart a couple of blocks down the street from the hotel. This Family Mart had a seating area, the usual coffee machines and cold breakfast selections. The freshly made sandwiches and noodle dishes are intended for breakfast or for lunch. They also had packaged fruits – I may have already described the packaged fruit, but I have to say I’ve never found anything like them here in the US. It’s not packed in syrup – high fructose or whatever. Instead it has a light but tasty, natural juice and I really liked it.

We walked and explored the area near our hotel. Right across the street from the hotel was a small playground and Shinto Shrine. On a few occasions we saw parents bring young kids to the playground and use the swingset. We often saw people walking on the street stop and bow and presumably say a quick prayer at the shrine.

There was another Shinto Shrine a few blocks away at the intersection of Kanazawa Echidori Avenue – a major thoroughfare that we would become well-acquainted with. We learned that there was an alternative way to get across the busy avenue. Instead of waiting for the traffic light at a crosswalk, we could go down to an underground passageway. Some of these passages just got you across the street, others were more elaborate and you could enter department stores from below.

We stopped somewhere during our wandering and had lunch at a noodle place.

Donna’s ramen dish with marinated egg and pork

We found a bar later called Harry’s Place. It turned out to be a whiskey bar, one with the largest selection of whiskeys from around the world I’ve ever seen. I had to sample a couple of Japanese whiskys. The bartender was very knowledgeable and asked me about the taste profile I preferred, then made suggestions. After I ordered the first sample, he brought me a book that had descriptions and general information of many of the Japanese distilleries and their offerings. We left after I tried two. Donna isn’t a whisky drinker and that’s all they have there.

I wrote this post later than I expected to. The reason was due to processing of the photos. I take photos from my phone or Donna’s and resize them, compress the jpg image to reduce the file size (it loads faster for you) and sharpen them and/or correct color balance when needed. I usually do this with a quick work process through Photoshop Elements. I don’t have or need the full Photoshop suite – it’s too expensive and I just do a quick clean-up anyway.

Well, my computer started crashing while I was processing photos. At first I thought my laptop was going down. Then it occurred to me that the only time I had issues was when I used Photoshop Elements. So I processed the photos for this post with Gimp. This program is a little more cumbersome and time-consuming, but I learned some shortcuts while doing these images. And had no computer crashes. So I think my theory was correct – Photoshop Elements has a corrupted file and I need to stop using it.

With that in mind, I’ll end this post here, but there’s more to say about Kanazawa soon.

Japan Part Two – Kyoto

I closed my last post with a short mention of the train to Kyoto. I should elaborate on that. From the Hotel Wing International, we made the short walk to the Asakusa Station entrance 2 elevator, which we had discovered after we checked in at the hotel. This was a great find as we avoided having to navigate a lot of staircases with luggage.

We found the Ginza line and an Express train bound for Tokyo Station. I should mention something we learned about Japanese culture and public transportation – actually it pertains to public spaces in general. The Japanese people are very respectful of shared spaces. This is most obvious on trains and buses. No one talks loudly as that would be disrespectful to others – they may be reading or napping. No one talks on their cell phones on trains or buses although 90% of the people are staring into their phones as they read or text or maybe play a silent video game. This stems from the principle of “not causing inconvenience to others” (迷惑をかけない), an important value in Japanese society.

The Ginza Line took us to a section of Tokyo Station – I think it was the west side. Tokyo Station is a huge transit center, the largest and busiest in Japan. More than 4,000 trains arrive and depart daily and more than 500,000 people on average pass through every day.

With all of the train activity, it’s amazing how well it all functions. Trains generally arrive and depart on time. I saw sign boards in the various stations with a message “Arriving late'” when a train was a minute behind schedule! When we got off the train, we followed the flow of people until we entered a concourse area. As I said, the station is huge and daunting. The underground station is covered by a couple of districts overhead. The connecting tunnels include entrances to shopping malls and hotels as well as other train facilities.

We went up to the street level so I could get oriented with the GPS in my phone. We had to go to the Shinkansen station for the train to Kyoto, which was on the east side, about a half-mile from where we were. We stayed above ground and walked through the Ginza business district and followed sparse signage to the Shinkansen station.

Shinkansen translates as “Bullet train.” The Japan Rail website stated the Shinkansen would reach speeds of 177 mph. Sounds pretty impressive. The Green car was very comfortable, surprisingly quiet and smooth. Through the city, the speed was subdued. Once we left the city, the acceleration was barely perceptible. As we sped through the countryside, the speed was deceptive. Looking out of the window, most objects were far enough away to diminish the sensation of speed.

When we went through tunnels, the speed became obvious. The tunnels had lights at a certain interval. I can’t say how far apart they were because they became a blur making it look like a continuous beam of light, like a long flourescent tube. Occasionally we would pass an oncoming Shinkansen and the closing speed of well over 300 mph made the train go by in a flash and it was one of the few times we sensed speed and also exterior noise.

The train took us through Hamamatsu and Nagoya along with a number of smaller towns. The nearly 300-mile distance took a little over two hours.

Kyoto Station is another huge transit center. The underground passageways include numerous restaurants, a shopping mall and department store and a movie theater. Above it is a 15-story building with more shopping and government offices. We had to figure out where we were in relation to our destination hotel – the Irori Kyoto Station Higashi-Honganji.

We walked and looked for signs. I found signs directing us to a bus station – I figured that would be above ground and I could use my phone again to see where we were. Once I did that, I found we were on the south side of the station and we wanted to exit the north side. We went back through the station and discovered more stores and restaurants before we finally found the north exit. This is the Porta underground mall at Kyoto Station.

From there we walked to the hotel – about half a mile away. This took us through an area of Kyoto with high-end hotels, shopping and restaurants. We found the Irori and checked in. It was mostly an automated process – they had e-mailed me entry codes for the lobby and a key code for our room. This room was a little larger than the Wing International room in Tokyo. In fact, it had a kitchenette, small table and chairs and even a washing machine.

Once again, we were tired from travel but didn’t rest much. We cleaned up and headed out. We went back to the Porta area on foot again.

We went on to find dinner. We found a nice looking restaurant, I wish I could remember the name of it. It was sort of a teppenyaki type place. We were led to a private box-like room with tatami seating with a foot well under the table. The table had a hot plate built into the center. By the way, we had to remove our shoes and leave them in a locker at the entry area. We were seated and given menus, then the door was slid shut and we were alone in paper-walled private box.

The menu seemed a little confusing to me. We ordered a la carte. The food was delivered through a small window-like section that slid open and the server handed our plates through it.

A built-in hot plate for sharing and keeping meals warm

The menu started to make more sense to us as we figured out that we were to share food as we wished and the food would stay hot. I had a Highball with the meal – Highballs are standard fare in Japanese restaurants and izakaya. An izakaya is a bar/restaurant – the Japanese kanji for the name literally means stay-drink-place.

I thought this meal would be on the expensive side, but I was surprised to find it was under 6,000 yen – under $40 total. As we walked around the Porta, Donna found a something she had heard we might find – a beer vending machine.

Back at the hotel I thumbed through a sightseeing magazine. I saw an entry for the Toji Temple Flea Market on Tuesday. The Toji Temple Flea Market was something I wanted to do. I immediately looked up how to get there and found a bus route that would get us close.

After breakfast the following morning, we walked to the bus stop a few blocks away from the Irori. Our Suica cards worked for bus fare in Kyoto and we found the right bus stop after about a twenty minute ride. We walked a few blocks and found the entry gate to the Toji Temple.

Inside we found a large courtyard and several buildings. There was a gift shop with people in it, but otherwise the place seemed fairly empty. We went to the gift shop and I found a guy that worked there and asked about the flea market. He shook his head “no,” and showed me a calendar. The flea market was last Tuesday, September 24th. This was October 1st. Bummer.

We walked around and looked at a few of the buildings. There was an entry to a garden and the Toji Temple pagoda. There was an entry fee, but I was so dejected about missing the flea market that I wasn’t interested enough to pay to enter. I regret that.

The pagoda is the tallest in Japan at 187 feet. It’s an Iconic image. We walked through the grounds and found a different exit. It was near lunch time by then, so we walked through the neighborhood and found a small restaurant with about eight tables. I ordered sushi and Donna opted for ramen. The food was delicious and the place was full of local Japanese people by the time we left and people were waiting for a table. We were the only gaijin (foreigners) there.

We rested for a little while back at the Irori then went shopping back at the area we had walked through from the train station. Did I mention how much my feet were hurting? We went into a shopping mall and we found a modern shoe store. My feet were killing me. For an American, finding shoes in Japan can be troublesome. They typically don’t carry sizes larger than about 10. I got lucky and found some Nike shoes in size 12. My feet used to be 10.5, then they became 11-11.5 and now 12! My theory is that as we age, some of us end up with weaker arches and flattened feet that require larger shoes for comfort. These shoes were among the most expensive in the store, but I didn’t care. I couldn’t keep walking in the shoes I brought.

When we returned home, I found a hole in my theory. The tag in the Nike shoes I bought in Japan says “US 12, UK 9.5, Eur 44.5.” The tags in my US sourced Wilson tennis shoes and Babolat tennis shoes, which both fit me comfortably say “US 11, UK 10.5, Eur 45.5.” So, apparently in Japan Nike uses a strange shoe size chart.

We walked back to the hotel – me in my new comfy Nikes. We saw a small brewery near the hotel and went for a cold one. We were a little early, they were set to open about ten minutes after we got there. The young lady inside let us in though and served us beer. Such hospitality! Donna had a porter float and I had a golden ale. The beer was good.

The bus stops we used were outside of a large walled property. This was the Higashi-Hogan-Ji Temple, a large Buddist temple. We went there to have a look around. This is an old site, but the temple had to be rebuilt several times over the centuries after fires destroyed it. The last rebuild started in 1879 and was finished in 1895.

It’s a very large wooden structure built with traditional Japanese carpentry which doesn’t include nails or adhesives. The wood structure is built with tight jointed pieces precisely cut and fitted together. To get a sense of scale, look at the people standing in front of the steps.

Before you can enter the temple, you must remove your shoes. They had plastic bags to carry your shoes if you wanted to take them with you. They also had recycling bins for the bags. We entered and found most of the flooring was traditional tatami matting.

The posts in the picture above are turned from a single log! I wish I had Donna in the picture to give a sense of scale – these posts were about two and half feet in diameter and about 20 feet tall. They are found throughout the building.

The logs were cut from forests in the mountains near Kanazawa – about 130 miles away. To transport the logs, sleds were made to pull the logs over the snowy mountain passes and down to Kyoto. Whole families made this trek, pulling the sleds with ropes. A disaster occurred when an avalanche killed several people including women and children on a mountain pass.

We had the privilege of observing a ceremony in the temple. That’s one of the things that struck about the shrines and temples in Japan – they aren’t just tourist attractions; they are used in the daily lives of Japanese people.

From the temple we walked to the bus stop a few blocks away and caught a bus to Gion – the Kyoto geisha district. Geisha are misunderstood by many tourists. Although geishas are sometimes hired as escorts, they are not in the sex trade. They are generally well-educated and are entertainers. They are mostly hired as hostesses for parties, banquets and corporate events. Some will sing and dance, others play musical instruments and some are escorts that are well-versed in literature or poetry and have conversational skills. To become a geisha takes years of study and training. There’s a sort of apprenticeship where a maiko learns the skills required of a geisha.

We saw geisha and psuedo-geishas in the Gion District. I think some of the businesses in the area pay to have geishas attract people to their stores and restaurants here. You also see people that rent geisha costumes – something that Donna and I found hard to understand. When you see a blond-haired, blue-eyed girl made up as a geisha, you have to wonder who she thinks she is fooling. On the other hand, some people rent geisha costume packages that include a photographer so they can bring home souvenir pictures of themselves in traditional clothing.

Geisha costume rentals usually include hairstyling and all clothing except underwear and cost from $35 to hundreds of dollars depending on what the renter chooses.

We had dinner at a restaurant that featured wagyu beef. The name wagyu is derived from the Japanese word Wa, which means Japanese and gyu, which means cow. This meat comes from pampered cows and has a high intramuscular fat content. It’s considered a delicacy by many. We were seated at a table that had a hot plate on a bowl in the center heated by a flame. I’m not sure of what the source of flame was, I saw the server light something under the iron plate and it heated up quickly.

The meat was cooked rare and sliced into half-inch thick pieces. We seared our meat on the hot plate and dipped it sauces. It was very rich and honestly not really my cup of tea.

The Gion District is over-run with tourists. There were more gaijin than locals. It was like walking in Disneyland. This has created some problems. Local people are tired of rude visitors that don’t respect Japanese customs. Some geishas felt threatened by foreigners stalking them for photos or touching them as they walk from their housing area to work. Parts of the Gion District are now off-limits to foreigners. We saw police at some intersections to narrow streets or alleys leading into neighborhoods. They stopped and questioned people, presumably to determine if they had good reason to enter a neighborhood.

I quickly grew tired of the crowds in Gion and parts of Kyoto in general. We rode a bus back to the area of the Irori Hotel, did some more walking and called it a day. We needed to plan our next stop on this adventure and figure out what we were going to do. That’s fodder for another post as this is too long already.

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Monthly Archives: November 2024

Japan Part Five – Closing the Loop in Tokyo

Japan – Part Four Kanazawa Continued

Japan Part Three – Kanazawa

Japan Part Two – Kyoto

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