Family in Japan

My parents and sister came to visit me for 10 days in Japan recently. After a long flight and bus ride into Tokyo from Narita Airport, I met them at the ANA Hotel and took them to my place. They stayed with me in my apartment and my sister and I slept on inflatable beds in my living room. They brought me some special gifts from home, like Texas beef jerky, Cheerios, chipotle salsa, cookies, and so on. It was so strange to see them in Japan, kind of like two different worlds colliding. I've been here since March of 2005 and still often have times when I'm unsure of where I am or how I got here, then suddenly my family arrives and then it seems a bit more real.

We had a couple days in Tokyo before going on a four day excursion to south Japan. Friday we met for lunch at a Singaporean rice place and then they walked around Roppongi and Azabu to the Tokyo Tower. Saturday we went to Ebisu station to buy our train tickets for our trip then went to visit the Tokyo Imperial Palace and then to the old Asakusa area with all its little shops and temple. Friday night we had a great dinner at Gonpachi with my friends Noriko, Kaori, and Andy. Luckily, Noriko and Kaori took over ordering the food and they seemed to luck out in ordering stuff my family liked.

Sunday morning we work up early and went to Tokyo station in order to catch the Shinkansen bound for Kyoto. About 2hrs 40min later we arrived in Kyoto and made our way to our ryokan, Nakahara Inn. It was a comfortable inexpensive place and also had an indoor onsen. After checking in, we headed towards the Gion area to visit its many temples and shrines. Temples and shrines, temples and shrines. Hey what is this? It's a temple. What about that over there? It's a shrine. What's the difference between a temple and a shrine? Usually temples are Buddhist and shrines are Shinto. The Gion neighborhood has an old Japan feel to it, minus the tourists. The streets are narrow, everything is mostly made of wood, there are geisha walking around having their photos taken, and temples are everywhere. The area is really nice for a leisurely walk. The majority of the popular attractions in Kyoto are in this one neighborhood on the east side of town just at the base of the mountains that surround Kyoto. Some of the ones we visited: Chion-in Temple, Yasaka Shrine, Kenninji Temple, and Ryozen Kannon.

Monday we remained in Kyoto and went to the west side of town. Our first stop was the Kyoto Imperial Palace, but you have to take guided tour to go inside. Since there were so many things to see, we skipped it and continued on. Next were the Kinkakuji Temple, or Golden Pavilion, Ryoanji Temple, Myoshinji Temple neighborhood, and finally the Fushimi-Inari-Taisha Shrine, famous for its 4km red torii path.

Tuesday morning we left Kyoto for Miyajima. We stayed in a really nice ryokan called Bentennoyado Itsukushima, named after the famous Itsukushima Shrine on the island. The island is more peaceful and laid back than other parts of Japan. I had been here already in October last year but wanted to go back again to spend more time and I knew my family would like it. The onsen at the ryokan was really cool, with an indoor part where you clean yourself and then you can choose to stay inside or else walk out to the outdoor onsen in a two story building, one floor for ladies, one for men. I went in the onsen around 10pm that night and there was no one else there and I got to sprawl out in the hot water in the front of a large window overlooking the ocean and the O-Torii. The next morning we took the ropeway gondola to the top of the mountain and were welcomed by a ton of monkeys. They were everywhere you could get really close to them, as long as you didn't stare them in the eye, otherwise they freak out. The view of the Inland Sea from the top of the mountain was really nice as well.

After the ropeway we left Miyajima to head back to Hiroshima for lunch and to visit Peace Park and the museum before returning to Tokyo that night. I took my family to the Okonomimura, or okonomiyaki village, for some...okonomiyaki. If one of those places opened in Manhattan it would make so much money. After visiting the museum and walking through Peace Park we went back to the station and had a whirlwind freak-out. The taxi had dropped us off on the opposite side of the station from the lockers where we left our bags. And for some reason, there is no way you can just simply walk through the station to get to the other side. I ran and asked for directions to a number of people and we eventually found our bags and then went to the train platform, where I had another problem because they wouldn't let me through with the ticket I had. I had my Hiroshima to Tokyo ticket and a second "trip" ticket, but there was some magical third ticket I needed to return to Tokyo. Mom, Dad, and Linz had already gotten through via their Japan Rail passes and literally the train was leaving in less than 5 minutes and they would not let me through. Then Linsey and Dad ran back down with their stack of tickets to see if they had what I needed and apparently they did so they finally let me through and we ran up to the platform. The whole trip went pretty smoothly until then, but it was now over and we were returning to Tokyo.

The next two days I had to work and they just walked around Tokyo though Azabu, Hiroo, Aoyama, and Omotesando just checking out the street scene and doing some shopping. Mom even did some of my laundry, which I didn't ask her to do but didn't surprise me at the same time. I took out my sister one night with some friends to show her around the area, we didn't do too much but it was nice to hang out. Then Saturday around noon they had to head back to the airport to return to Houston. Of course it was sad to see them leave and everyone blubbered a bit. We had fun and it was nice to have them here and show them around Japan. I look forward to coming home again over the holidays.