Hey everyone, I’m back from my whirlwind trip to Kyoto and Nara! I took in the famous temples, saw some beautiful art, had great food, and experienced a different part of Japan. There’s so much to tell!

…But I won’t be telling you about it here. Why? Well I’m moving my blog over to the Blogger platform. This was my first blog with the WordPress platform and while I’m sure their software is a great backend for independent sites their free blog setup leaves a lot to be desired. Right now Blogger has all the tools I need, streamlined, and integrates really well with other Google services. Bottom line: Blogger better offers poor bloggers of the world what we need.

So please hop on over to http://redfredjapan.blogspot.com/ and enjoy the first part of my Kyoto and Nara trip! Don’t forget to update your RSS feeds too!

(For those who are wondering, I plan to syndicate the posted content here over on my Blogger page as soon as I can.)

This past weekend there was a big summer festival here in Funabashi, complete with dancers, parades, and the portable shrine. (Mikoshi)

The portable shrine, which I helped carry at one point but I don’t have pictures for just yet.

Matsuri dancers

These dancers had cubes and carvings of Shinto symbols on poles that they would spin up in the air as they were followed by a group of musicians playing traditional instruments.

This giant vertical shrine was bounced by one guy while a follower for every white strand would pull on them. It gave it a very jellyfish-like effect.

I was there for about three hours or so taking in all the sights, noise, and crowds. It was a blast and I filled myself with all sorts of delicious festival/street-food. I’ll some have pictures of my carrying the mikoshi up as soon as I get them.

I visited Asakusa on my day off. Asakusa is known for its many temples and traditional shops/restaurants, including Sensouji, the oldest temple in Tokyo. It also used to be the major entertainment district of Tokyo for most of the 20th century.

Kaminarimon, the famous “Thunder Gate” of Sensouji Temple, from across the street.

Kaminarimon’s giant lantern

Nakamise, the crowded shopping street that leads to Sensouji

Another view of Nakamise

Hōzōmon, the main gate to Sensouji Temple at the end of the Nakamise shopping arcade

Sensouji

Gojūnoto, a five-story pagoda on the grounds that reputedly holds some of the Buddha’s ashes.

Another view of Gojūnoto

Koi Pond

A shrine near to Sensouji for entertainment figures from its heyday

Little donut-hole pastries are a popular Japanese street food, and these ones were Pokemon themed

The Pokemon donuts were actually shaped like Pikachu

Just a small portion of the many food stalls around Sensouji

I’m sure quite a few of you have been waiting for a post like this: Odd things from Japan.

I did a double-take when I was walking by this construction site. It’s a backhoe/crane…that’s pink…and has little pandas painted all over it. Urban development was never so cute!

Just imagine having your very own, personal Neck Shake Box! It’s not even a box… It seems to be some kind of desk stand.

Policemen in Japan operate from inside giant owls.

I think Cafe Nard speaks for itself.

(Be sure to check out my Flickr page to see photos of my outing. Click “More Photos” at the bottom of the “My Photos” section on the right.)
Sunday I met up with Sebastian for some fun around town. It was his first time in Japan.

We met at Harajuku station planning to explore the craziness that is Yoyogi Park on a Sunday. Typically you’ll have cosplayers posing for photos, rockabillies doing synchronized dancing, drum circles, street food, and random bands playing on the sidewalk. There was some serious rain that day though and most of these people didn’t show up. We wandered around Yoyogi Park all the same, and ended up at a music festival that was just starting up. Resolving to come back for one of the later acts, I suggested we hop on a train to Tokyo Station and visit the Imperial Gardens.

About a half an hour train ride later we wandered out of the classic brick front of Tokyo Station. The rain was coming down pretty hard, but in my experience the Imperial Gardens are just as great on a rainy day as otherwise. A couple minutes later we found ourselves in the vast expanse that was the entrance to the gardens. Unfortunately the gardens were closed for unknown reasons, but we still got to see quite a bit from the outside. There were a series of antiquated bridges and traditional Japanese buildings I hadn’t seen before, and at least one of the large gates was open for a photo op.

That escapade finished and it was about time to see the band in Yoyogi so we grabbed a quick ramen lunch and jumped on the train back to Harajuku. When we got there we caught a handful of songs from that band, which were okay. Much more interesting was the amateur punk/rock band we caught on the sidewalk across from the music festival. They were four teenage-looking guys, with a crowd of maybe twelve high-school kids around them, cheering and jumping. Young kids, but they sure knew how to rock.

Yoyogi finished, next up was Shimokitazawa. Sebastian was recommended a number of small music venues in Tokyo so we picked a random one from the list and went. The show was fantastic; saw a couple of really great groups, and on top of that everyone was really friendly and happy to see us there. We made some friends, rocked out, and Sebastian ended up playing on stage with the last band. It was a really great experience, and definitely something I plan on doing again soon.

That Saturday was a busy one. I planned to meet my host sister in Shibuya for dinner, but started out the morning by heading into Harajuku and doing some shopping in Takeshita Street. Takeshita Street is, as far as I know, the heart of Harajuku and where you’ll find all the funky Japanese clothing. There’s tons of tiny shops crammed next to each other, one behind the other, in little alleyways, all along the street. It gets a bit mazelike at times, and feels like it’ll never end. For my shopping outing I hit up a general guys’ clothing shop, Jeans Mate. I knew I wanted to get a couple of pieces for a real ‘Japanese’ wardrobe, and it was here I bought my very first Japanese manbag.

It’s an interesting phenomenon: guys carrying a shoulder bag or a tote bag in the US is a really odd, out of place sight, and it’s more common for guys to use a backpack, if anything, for carrying their personal belongings around. It’s the opposite in Japan, in that every single guy has his own shoulder bag with everything in it (and backpacks are actually a strange site, associated with Otaku). After that I wandered through the rest of Takeshita and back around the corner to Yoyogi Park.

Yoyogi Park was as excellent as always. I’ve got a bit of a nostalgic spot for this place as I used to visit for a walk nearly every Sunday when I was studying at Waseda. My train pass allowed me to travel for free anytime from Shibuya to Takadanobaba, so I would use it to head to Yoyogi for an hour or two and relax. In the park you’ll usually see families and friends having picnics, skaters/BMXers practicing, drum circles, student films being shot, and a lot of people just lounging around in the greenery. I saw all that, plus a guy playing a digeridoo, two painters, and a group of photographers with a couple of teenage girls that looked like they were doing an idol shoot. I spent about an hour or so finding a nice, quiet spot under some trees and catching up on my Japanese cellphone manual. (Translating/deciphering)

The next stop was Ueno again for clothes shopping. In Ameyakocho I found some awesome blue Vans and a beige coat/jacket to complete my outfit. I rushed home to change before heading back out to Shibuya and meeting up with my host sister, Yuri. By then it was still a little early for dinner, so we went shopping in a couple of the big Shibuya department stores. I wanted a smart looking cap to add to my Japanese wardrobe, and found a nice grey one on the seventh floor of the 109 Building. After that shopping quest was completed, we got some gyoza at a Chinese restaurant at the top of one of the department stores. I became obsessed with gyoza my last time in Japan when I was living in Tochigi prefecture, just north of Utsunomiya, gyoza capital of Japan. So now I’m on a mission to find delicious gyoza within Tokyo. These ones were alright; not quite as crispy as I would have liked and the meat filling wasn’t the right flavor. (I’ve found that the ingredients/spices used for the filling varies greatly from restaurant to restaurant to restaurant.) That’s alright though, as it was still good catching up with Yuri and talking about what our respective families have been up to on opposite sides of the world.

I saw this on Gizmodo of all places:

Japan loves Astro Boy even more than we love Mickey Mouse, so it’s not too surprising that the little robot boy’s visage is still everywhere, even though his show and manga series ended decades ago. The most recent Astro Boy art installation is a 10 by 7 foot mural that consists of 138,000 recycled Tokyo Metro tickets. The pixel art, made to mark the opening of Tokyo’s new Fukutoshin subway line, depicts Astro Boy, Uran, Professor Ochanomizu and Higeoyaji traipsing around Shinjuku along with the new Fukutoshin train. Created by volunteers from around the area, the mural can be found at the Shinjuku Takashimaya Department Store.

I’m arrived and now blogging directly from Japan. My flight touched down last Thursday evening, around 5 pm local time, and after a short trip through customs and shipping my bags off to my guest house I found myself enjoying the titular bowl of ramen. (I thought the miso was even a bit creamier than Daikokuya and the piece of nori was quality.) I spent that night in a small business hotel in the Narita area. I hadn’t realised before that Narita is very countryside: no trains, roads through dense woods, occasional houses here and there. It was already dark when I took the shuttle to the hotel, and it was a surprise opening up my hotel room window the next morning to see sprawling rice fields and forest surrounding the building.

Friday was a very busy day. Suffering from a bit of jet lag, I was awake by 5 am and took the hotel’s first courtesy shuttle back to Narita Airport. The local Keisei line took me directly to Funabashi in just over an hour. Funabashi is where I’m living for the moment in a guest house, and my mission on Friday was to find the city office, get a temporary registration form, and apply for my Alien Registration Card. I had visited the Funabashi City Hall website while still in the US and printed out their English instructions. The instructions looked fairly simple: walk three blocks south of the station and make a right, and I thought I would arrive at City Hall in twenty minutes or so, right before they opened. However, it was more of a two hour wandering that awaited me. This was because I did not think to look up the kanji for “City Hall” until about an hour in; I missed the sign for the one street that was labeled on the map; and I thought the streets depicted on the map were major streets, when it turned out that City Hall was down a small, one-way sidestreet.

Well, regardless I got there and got my proper documents which helped to next get my cell phone in Akihabara. I had about two hours to kill before meeting up with the manager of the guest house I’m staying in, so I took a quick train in and found a keitai (cell phone) shop a good ways from the station. The trick in Akihabara is the farther from the station you get the better deals you can find; however, they also speak less English. My Japanese is conversational, but I don’t have a grasp of technical language, and this led to a bit of a mix-up when buying my cell phone, as I didn’t ask if it had an English mode. So later that night, cell phone in one hand and electronic dictionary in the other, I’ve exhausted the phone settings and realise I have a brand new “Japanese chaarenji” in front of me. (I’ve actually gotten quite handy with the phone since then.)

That evening was spent in Ueno and its sprawling, flea-market-like shopping district, Ameyakocho. Ameyakocho is made up of several tiny, intersecting streets crammed with small shop fronts of every kind. You can find little souvenirs, clothing, food, leather goods, shoes, alcohol, etc. I wandered through the different stalls, took a few pictures, and grabbed some katsu karee for dinner. As one of my two most favorite Japanese dishes, sitting down to a delicious plate of katsu karee was a great way to top off my first full day in Japan.

For the sake of getting some content up on my blog, I’ll stop this entry here. In the next couple of days I’ll continue my account of the weekend back in hectic, fast-paced, crazy Tokyo, and upload some pictures to go along with the story.

My entire experience of Ueno so far has been the best ramen shop in Tokyo located just outside of the station. That’s all of Ueno I’ve seen, but it’s known for great museums, parks and the Ueno zoo.

The Tokyo National Museum is in Ueno, and houses the largest collection of Japanese art and artifacts in the country. They’ve got some great exhibits right now; in particular, Daily Work of the Ainu People which features day to day objects from the ancient native people of Japan. The Ainu people lived on the islands of Japan long before the “Japanese” people arrived from mainland Asia, and were systematically wiped out in the 15th through 18th centuries until only a handful of tribes exist today. Beyond that I haven’t learned much about them since they often aren’t talked about in modern Japanese culture, so I’m looking forward to seeing this.

I’m also planning to hit up the Ueno Zoo. It’s Tokyo’s official zoo, and until recently was known especially for their giant panda Ling Ling. Ling Ling died just a month ago, but the Chinese government has agreed to lend them a pair of pandas shortly. I doubt it can live up to the San Diego Zoo, the best zoo I’ve ever seen, but I’m really excited to check it out.

It’s too late for me to enjoy cherry blossom season this year, but I’ll definitely visit Ueno Park for the hanami picnic parties next year. Hanami parties consist of a tarp, a couple friends, booze and snacks, and camping out under the cherry blossom trees for the afternoon. At first I thought the image of the cherry blossom and its beauty was hyperbole because it gets run around so much in Japanese culture, but there really is something unearthly about that shade of pink and watching the blossoms fall from the trees.

Oh, and as for the excellent ramen shop in Ueno, I don’t remember the name, but it’s very easy to find. When you’re coming out of the ticket stalls, you take a right just past the bakery/cafe that’s on your right, walk straight through the shopping mall area inside of the station, and once you get outside you make an immediate right turn and it’s right there. You’ll know you’re in the right place because at this shop all the seating is individual booths with walls separating one from the other, and there is a roll-up bamboo curtain in front of you when you sit down at a booth. The curtain rolls up just enough for you to pass a piece of paper, marked with how you’d like your ramen made, to a pair of disembodied hands. The curtain then rolls back down and five minutes later rolls back up to pass your ramen through. It’s a strange restaurant, even by Tokyo standards, but it is honestly the best ramen I have ever had.

This is a journal of my adventures in Japan. I’ll be blogging my day-to-day life, the exotic, the weird, and the plain silly.