Sunday in Japan

 Church was so much fun!  I had resigned myself to the fact that I would not understand a word of the three hours, but in RS (which is first) I met a Spanish speaking family!!  What a neat thing!  They were from Cali, and were happy to hear that I had served Spanish-speaking in Oakland.  They invited me to a "Spanish" Sunday School class that they hold.  It turned out the the teacher spoke Portuguese.  I was surprised at how much I understood of his lesson.  It was way fun.

In Sacrament, they announced from the pulpit that I was visiting from the U.S.  I felt a little conspicuous, but survived the attention... :)  It turned out that the Brazilian man who taught my SS class also spoke in Sacrament, so I was able to get a little out of that meeting as well; mostly just that he loved his family...  

The same couple and woman who had taken us out yesterday had set aside the rest of the day to take us out again.  When we were talking, I realized that they had circled on their calendar all of the days that I would be in town.  They were so kind!!! They took us on a long drive, and we toured the countryside.

I love these homes; they're just so authentic and beautiful!

On our drive we past the ocean, and out the window we saw these stakes coming up out of the water.  I think we decided they were some sort of traps.  They looked cool, whatever they were.

We passed over a neat bridge; keep in mind that the people I was with spoke no English, and I spoke ZERO Japanese, so I really didn't know what was going on most of the time.  But it was so fun!

What can I say? I like bridges: 

 Me and the Tiff on our little roadtrip to who knows where

 They packed us a picnic lunch!!!  But it was raining too hard to get out of the car.

 We stopped at another checkpoint; apparently a tourist hotspot this trip ;)

Tiffani the docent

Real samurai armor

The people who worked there really liked us, so they let us past the "do not cross" line to take a picture from inside the display.

 So; you wanna be a samurai?

 I can't actually remember what this is or why I'm making that face...

 Admiring the really really big guns.

 I could be wrong, but it looks to me like Tiffani is pretending like she knows what's going on...?

Next we went to an old fashioned hotel

This was a... warming station? 

 Here's where you leave your... shoes

 The lovely porch view

 Listening to the rain through a bamboo shoot.  

 Sliding Japanese doors.  In Japan. Imagine that :)

Saturday in Japan

These darling families adopted Tiffani and I, inviting us for lunch.  This meal was amazing.  SO MUCH FOOD!  And it was all so yummy!  

Except for this weird prune-looking thing that ended up tasting like straight up salt in mass quantities....  They all laughed as they watched me try it; usually a sure sign you won't enjoy what you're about to eat.

We weren't sure what was happening after the meal, but then they took us on an adventure!

 We went to these famous caverns that I was hoping we could go see while I was there.

 Aren't they so darling??

Tiff and I took advantage of the picture moment...

 Some interesting places where I made the darling Tiffani pose...

 Stay with your buddy...

 Fountain of Heaven's Blessings; I want to go back!

In the gift shop, I found a display of my new man.  Oh, what a girl wants.

Outside there was a well, where you could dip your feet.  I enjoyed the sign before enjoying foot water within about 5minutes.

It was really cold; I'm not gonna lie.

Additionally, there was a little swap meet sort of area.  I was looking at the display above the well while everyone else shopped for grapefruit peelers.

 Next we went to a check point along one of the main roads of ancient Japan:

Don't we make such beautiful Japanese women??

And... men...?

 Tiffani was chosen for the mandatory gender check...

 Princess Carriages!

 I like the purple interior...

 The view from the second floor of the checkpoint:

 Then we went to the sea!

Friday

Oh my goodness, so this is the map that I had while Tiff was at work.

I traveled and got myself all of this for less than 500 yen (about 5 bucks)

Isn't she cute??? I was checking out these cool trees across the street...

...and here's a bit of a close up in case you missed them.

I'm with Tiffani!  Well, technically she's working and I'm here at her apartment...  But last night she was there waiting for me at the train station, (so kind) and was there to watch as I broke the exit ticket machine (I put the wrong ticket in and the guy had to come unlock it and unjam it).  Then she showed me right where to stash my suitcase and off we went to a yummy dinner and a noodle court sort of place.  It was so fun!  We took a train to her apartment (which is super organized and cute) and she had bought me a sleeping bag!  I don't deserve her :)   We unloaded all of her presents from her mom, and she reveled in that glory while I tried to get my brain to function at normal speed.  I was unsuccessful...  We visited a bunch, then it was off to bed. We kept trying to make plans for Friday afternoon, but each time we tried we were distracted.  She got up early this morning and rode her bike to another school where she'd forgotten some flash cards while I mosied about.  When she got back I walked with her to school, which was delightful, then I used my handy-dandy hand drawn map to find my way home.  I actually almost made there and back without looking, but i missed my last turn home...

That evening we explored and went to dinner.  I'm so happy to be here!

Thursday in Japan

Went out to lunch with Scotty one last time, then Holly took me to their department store/mall place to look around this morning, and ended that delightful journey by getting a crepe.  Mmmm. I love crepes. and we also went to the travel office on base to get some help in getting from Iwakuni to Hamamatsu.  Here's the journey I was to take:

It's about 400 miles.  Approximately the distance from Gilbert to Los Angeles...

The helpful man at the ITT on base printed out this train schedule with all my transfers.  He even wrote a note to the ticket man on what I wanted to buy.  Holly and Maddie took me to the train station.  I'm gonna miss that darling family :(

As I went in the train station I was a little nervous, but I took my nicely prepared itinerary and note to the man in the booth and bought all my tickets. When I pointed to where I thought I should go, he kindly took back my tickets and separated them into two piles. He basically motioned that I should put one stack through the ticket machine together and keep the rest. When a train came to my track a bit earlier than I expected, I was able to say "sumimasen" to a worker and show her my ticket and point to the train. She said "hai hai" several times and so I got on the first leg of my journey! I went to my assigned aisle seat much to the dismay of the established looking Japanese man in the window seat. I don't think he was happy about sharing the short row with the poorly dressed American tourist. Maybe today wasn't the best day to wear an ill fitting tee shirt with my jean shorts, albeit my new very cute jean shorts. Everyone on the trains are in classy business suits. Okay, that's a lie, I've seen two different young people in trendy jeans and label high fashion jackets. Anyway back to my seatmate. Lucky for him I was only on that train for 15 minutes. I got off and made my way slightly less confidently to my next track.

Here's my first train station.  Japan is so gorgeous and green!  I think every time I travel I'm struck by the green-ness of the location; but perhaps that's just a commentary on the brown-ness of my hometown...

On one of my transfers I was supposed to be in car 15 of the Shinkansen. I, of course, entered the door with the longest line. Then when I finally got on (last, due to these people's innate need to get on and off trains first at all costs; and my innate desire not to get in anybody's way) I, of course, realized that my seat was on the complete opposite end of the car, front row, right next to the other door... Everyone only had briefcases, as they were probably commuting home from work, and were already seated as I entered the car on the wrong end and had to make my way to the front row with ALL my luggage. As I blushed and tried to lift my suitcase over my seat-partner's head into the luggage compartment without squashing his little Japanese self, I was reminded of why we grew up getting to church on time or early; and have always had an aversion to sitting in the front row.

Okay so I'm on this two hour train ride. When we're in tunnels and under mountains I keep reading Anna Karenina.  When we're not underground we're barreling towards Tokyo and it's pretty amazing to see some of the countryside as we travel. It's a foggy day so I can't see too far, but that adds to the mystique of this beautiful country. Every once in awhile I get to see an old style building; that's what really gets me. Outside the cities there's quite a bit of flooded fields. 

From my extensive agricultural experience I was once taught that rice paddies are rice fields and that they have to flood them to grow and cultivate the rice. I learned this week that lotus root is also grown in flooded fields. (I also learned that people actually eat lotus root, it's not just famous for the flower, and that its kind of like potato but looks more like a giant white carrot with swiss cheese type holes. So I have no idea what's actually growing.

I feel a bit conspicuous, my head can be seen above the top of my chair, which seems uncommon, and if I cross the wrong leg, the automatic door in front of me slides open. I find it rather amusing but alas, must contain myself...

Okay, as I changed trains I experienced what Scotty and Holly had warned me of. I had a quick change, it was supposed to be a 7 minute change, but by my watch we got in 4 minutes late so I had 3 minutes. I got to my track no problem, but then the train wasn't there, and it wasn't there, and it wasn't there. I was getting nervous but I suppose it pulled up right on time. I jumped on and quickly found my seat (I learned my lesson about the location of seats on these trains). Then it quickly took off again. There's no way it was at the station more than 90 seconds. Seriously. 

Have I mentioned that I only know 4 words in Japanese? "Hai" means "yes." "Sumimasen" means "excuse me," "Arigato" means "thank you" and if you add "gozaimasu" it tacks on "very much." Oh, and "good afternoon" is that one we all know but I can't ever remember. "Konnichiwa." That's it. Anyway I walked around japan saying "excuse me" and "thank you;" not a bad way to live. I think I've used "yes" a grand total of twice so I literally am just saying those two words over and over. It's pretty awesome.

I walked in and can't express how grateful I was to see Tiffani standing right outside the platform.  Thank goodness.  Then I promptly stuck the wrong ticket into the exit stile, which resulted in a worker guy having to come fix it.  Awful...  Tiff said she did the same thing on her way in, so I felt a little less silly...

We were starving so she took me to this amazing noodle place.  We picked what we wanted and put our money into this vending machine type thing and then sat down with our ticket and they brought our food.  Fun new way to order :)

Then Tiffani guided me to her darling apartment.  I just kept thinking-- "I'm hanging out with Tiffani again!  But; we're in Japan!!!!!"

Wednesday in Japan

Okay, so this is me.  And the darling Maddie.  And this pic is pretty much the epitome of our relationship.  She was incredibly hesitant to be friends the whole time, and today, Wednesday, was the first time she let me get this close to her.  Yeah, this was a break-through.  Even though she was apprehensive about me, she's a total doll.

For dinner we drove to what's known on the base as the chicken shack. It is this amazing little center where all the buildings are built after the manner of ancient japan. 

It seemed like a very authentic dinner experience. We removed our shoes and sat at one of those tables low to the ground.  Once again, I'm sure this style of eating has a name- I should look it up...  Okay, it appears the table's called a chabudai, although it's highly likely I'm wrong...

The chicken came seared on a stick.
Yummiest teryaki EVER.

The place was decorated with real ancient samurai armor. It is so interesting; I think my favorite part of the armor is that they have these funny face masks that act as facial armor as well (I'm sure) as aides to frighten enemies.  The masks are depicted slightly differently in this picture :)

 The structure itself was remarkable. There were the sliding doors with and without the rice paper veils, which are obviously common here but surreal and surprising to me just the same. The room we ate in was upstairs. We, of course, removed our shoes before entering, then when we got up there was a large timber. What's it called? A support beam, but it wasn't just a beam it was literally an enormous trunk of a huge tree. We had to crawl under it to get to our side of the room. 

The buildings are so beautiful and remarkable. I just keep wondering how I didn't fall in love with Asian culture so much sooner. This place is truly remarkable.