19 Mar, Day 11: Good - Bye and Janglish

As we hit up 2 cafés for breakfast this morning, I was thinking I could use just one more day. Just sitting around, having good eats and drinks, watching all the crazy shoes walk by. I will so miss that!



Japanese toast - looks like it's not bigger in Texas!

My students asked me to write some more about the Japanese toilets. Since I thoroughly researched that subject on our last trip, I will refer you to my blog post from 2014: https://twogaijin.wordpress.com/2014/11/25/down-the-toilet/

However, there's one sign I absolutely have to add. It's instructions on how to use a Western toilet as opposed to the hole - in - the - ground type.


And now some janglish:








Well, time to board my final flight from Denver to Wichita. See you all in a bit!

May 18, Day 10: The Incredible Hulking Buddha

Today, our last full day in Japan, was going to be somewhat of a chill day. Do a little shopping, then hang out in the castle garden for a bit, sit around in cafés, write the blog. Sounds good, right? Well, I made the mistake of getting on the internet while Lynda made the mistake of looking into her Nagoya brochure which led to the realization that we couldn't possibly leave without visiting some more places.

But first, breakfast. We wanted to try something different this time and chose a cafe named "Bonjour". It lived up to its name, being a dark, old - fashioned, French type of place with men sitting inside smoking and reading the paper. The waitress didn't speak any English and there was no English menu, but one of the smoking men came to the rescue and explained the menu. I was delighted to find out that this cafe serves a Nagoya specialty - red bean paste sandwiched in between white toast. Yes, white toast bread is the devil, but they had freshly run out of organic, sprouted whole grains.

The ceiling of the café was pretty neat

Luckily, we were going to walk off the empty calories by going to Osu Kannon Temple which is not only a famous temple, but is also the site of a twice - monthly flea and antique market. It's also located right at the entrance of a shopping arcade, making it very convenient to go spend all your money on manga outfits, then go pray for forgiveness at the temple. Or the other way around.
Science Museum on the way to the temple

Osu Kannon Temple

Osu Kannon Temple and view onto the antique market


Shopping arcade and some manga outfits

This restaurant is in a different arcade, but just thought I'd throw it in, because these are handsome burgers. As opposed to ugly burgers.

Next stop: Toganji Temple, featuring a 15 meter high green Buddha, along with elephants and monks. Quite the sight to see! There were also several other temples on site and a pet cemetery, complete with paw prints in the concrete. The wooden sticks around the animal statues have prayers or wishes written on them. On a certain day, the Buddhist priests or monks will gather them up, burn them, and release the prayers/wishes into the wind.














Some other sights while running around Nagoya:


Gorilla, Nagoya Castle, and an underground parking garage for bicycles by a subway station.

Next up: a special treat, namely a visit to a cat café! It's not really a café, but mainly a place you go to interact with cats. There was a separate room where you could get a drink from a machine, but the felines are what it's about. You can rent time with them in 1/2 hour increments. We only intended on staying 1/2 an hour, but it was so much fun, one hour was quickly over. The area wasn't that large, but there were many places for the cats to climb on, hiding spots, toys, and more. There was a profile of each cat posted with name, age, gender, likes and dislikes. The cats were greatly spoiled by the staff and each one was individually brought to bed at closing time. We had a very hard time finding the place with the street signage being very confusing, but we made it after running around in the rain for a while. We had been extremely lucky with the weather and it only rained on the evening of our last full day.











We then spent another while running around in the rain again, looking for the sushi izakaya we wanted to go to. That too was worth it!

This whole dish cost only around $15! A worthy last dinner in Japan.

17 Mar, Day 9: Holy Tree!

Inuyama: an old castle town and home of Japan's oldest castle. The building is over 400 years old and a national treasure. The best thing? It's only about 30 minutes away from Nagoya by train! At first glance the town didn't look like much, but that soon changed when we turned into the street leading to the castle. Old buildings with shops, eateries, and temples lined the street and people waved at us and said hello. Even a toddler in a bicycle seat took the opportunity to wave. I got out my pen, ready to give autographs, but I guess they don't do that here.


Street to the castle. The blue containers are recycling bins

We noticed that a lot of older women (I'm talking 70+) in this town dressed really funky and cool; like artsy cool. One of them happened to be walking in front of us, then turned around and said something in Japanese that sounded like she wanted us to come with her to eat. Never missing out on food, we followed her to a mochi and dumpling shop her husband owns. We sat on a bench, had a Q & A session of which both parties only understood fragments but it worked somehow, and then took a bunch of pictures of each other. The mochi were good and after we were presented with a beautiful gift (Japanese people like to give away small origami gifts they make), sent on our way. Sometimes it pays off to be the only white people in town! Inuyama gets a lot of tourists, but they are mostly from other Asian countries.


At the mochi shop
Origami tooth pick holders we received as a gift

It was a nice surprise to see that the hill leading to the castle was lined with shrines, temples, and lots of trees. Just a beautiful, peaceful place! Unfortunately, with this blogging app the pictures are out of order.












These are little wooden plaques you can write your wishes on and hang up at the temple. Then you sit back and wait for that lottery win!

At the castle ticket booth, we were asked if we wanted a free English tour. Heck yeah! We were then told to wait inside the gate; after a few minutes, a tiny lady came running and introduced herself as our tour guide, Kayoko. She lead us around the premises and told us a lot of interesting stuff, some of which I will share, so buckle up, because you're about to get schooled!

The tree is older than the castle (if you paid attention then you already know that that's more than 400 years). One day, when the weather gods were feeling especially mean, lightning struck, but didn't hit the castle. Nope, the tree took one for the team and got struck instead. So now it is said that the tree protected the castle and is holy. What a promotion!




Inside the castle. You go in there in your socks. I'm just saying that, because those wooden stairs have been polished by many socks and are a tad bit slippery. They are also so steep and narrow so the enemy has a hard time getting up there. The stairs were almost knee high for me; imagine climbing up there when you're short, wearing 20 pounds of samurai armor and carrying some kind of weapon. At least the samurai didn't stop to take their shoes off, so the slip factor was not an issue.
Floor boards above the steps purposely were laid with cracks, so the guards could see who's coming.
Model of the castle's "skeleton". All of it was built with groove and tongue; no nails used! Gives a better flexibility during earthquakes. Must be working!

There is a wrap around balcony on the top floor of the castle, not any less slippery. Great view of the Kiso River, known for cormorant fishing, the town, and smoke coming from Ontake mountain, an active volcano.. It's the same one which erupted in 2014, killing over 50 people.

Origami Kayoko made: ninja shuriken & samurai helmet

After a final picture with Kayoko, an exchange of email addresses and an origami gift from her (there's a gentleman in front of the castle who's sole job is to take pictures of people. He wears a vest with a camera on it. You've got to love that stuff!), we headed to the tea garden.

A very special attraction was next: Meiji Mura, an open air museum consisting of 60 buildings from different areas which had been brought there to preserve them. Lynda, being all British, decided to use that time to follow the main goal in life of all Brits: bask in the sun, which seems to be a rare commodity on the Queen's islands. I ran around, peeking into the buildings, trying to see as much as I could before tiredness could no longer be ignored.


















in one of the buildings I encountered a museum employee who happened to speak English. She asked me where I was from, then told me she knew where Kansas City was and would love to visit Portland, because she's heard it's nice there. Then she said she listened to country music as a girl, especially John Denver and proceeded to start singing "Country Roads". I guess it's country if it contains the word "country". 

Then she told me that song makes her cry every time, because it makes her feel nostalgic (looked that up on her dictionary app). She wiped away a tear and then got down to the business of explaining the building. We've had some interesting encounters!

A bus ride, a train ride, and screaming upper thigh muscles from castle stair climbing later, we headed through nightly Nagoya to the city's oldest izakaya to try one of Nagoya's specialties: cochin (free range) chicken. Not KFC's chicken wings!





By this time we had become smart and searched for the intended route on Google maps when we had Internet, then screen shot that to navigate when we walked and didn't have WiFi. Google however didn't tell us it would lead us through the red light district. We were wondering why there were highly styled ladies (which in itself isn't so unusual - lots of women here wear really high heels, really short skirts, and/or dress meticulously) standing on the street corner (never more than 2), with a guy who was holding something that resembled a menu. Japan is such a safe country, even the red light district doesn't feel sleazy or threatening. Google revealed later that prostitution isn't legal, but there's a great gray area. As long as a plug isn't put into an outlet, it's legal, if you know what I mean!