Ewens-Downing Adventures in Asia

One we arrived in “downtown” Kamakura Kenji led us down the street toward where the Daibutsu or Big Buddha was. It would have been pretty easy to find the way. Everyone else who got off the train seemed to be going the same direction. We poured into the narrow main street of the town. In the distance I could see our destination.

As you can see, the Big Buddha statue is quite impressive. It is the focal point of a large park area near the center of town in Kamakura. Though you can enter the park for free, to get to the Buddha you have to pay a modest admission fee. Once you pass through the gates a long stone path leads you to the Daibutsu courtyard.

As you approach the statue you get a feeling that the Japanese people hold it in high cultural significance. It has far more cultural meaning and reverence to them than just being a large, interesting statue. Even with the excruciating heat people were buzzing around, jockeying for position, trying to get photos of their friends in front of the statue. So of course we had to do that too.

On the right side of the Buddha was a passage that allowed you to go inside the statue. At the time it sounded like a fun thing to do. However, we forgot to factor-in the extreme heat and the fact that this 93-ton statue is made of metal! We wandered into the extremely tight entrance passage. It was obviously not designed for super-sized gaijin like us. There was a constant stream of people trying to get out as well as people trying to get in. We fumbled through, bumping and sumimasening (”Sorry!”) as best we could. Ron was ahead of me. Once I got inside the main part of the statue he said, “I gotta get out of here… I feel faint.” And for good reason. The inside of the big metal buddha was steamy hot! It was like walking into a big metal sauna! I took a few photos and then began my exit before the heat consumed me too. Getting out wasn’t easy. A swarm of Japanese school girls were screaming and giggling as they made there way up into the statue. Should I be polite and let them pass? I took up 80% of the narrow passage out of the statue. But I really needed to get out of there… So I’m afraid I took the initiative to get through and bumped a few of the girls moving through the dark passage. Their happy bantering turned into shrieks of horror and disgust as I side-swiped whole groups of them, causing them to nearly fall over. Well, better I get out than faint on top of them all, eh?

After our sauna experience in the Buddha we took a timeout to rehydrate and rest in the park. Once we felt up to it we went back down the main street to see what we could find for lunch. After some looking around we decided to eat at a nice family owned soba noodle restaurant. Soba noodles are often served cold. With the hot weather, this dish was just the thing for us. We relaxed in air-conditioned bliss.

We continued our way toward the train station again. Along the way I spied a woman preparing a traditional Japanese sweet in the front window of a little shop. I was just going to use it as a photo opportunity. But Kenji asked if we wanted to try it. Well, why not… We were on vacation after all. We went inside the shop and looked for someone behind the counter to help us.

Eventually the owner (I presume) emerged and asked us in Japanese if he could help us. Kenji ordered-up one of the sweets. We would share it since he said it was very rich. The sweet was pumpkin flavored and quite good. It was a traditional desert that had been made at this little shop for many years. What surprised Ron and I was that after we finished sharing the sweet the shop keeper served us all some hot tea to wash it down.

I’m very glad we stopped at this little shop. It was quite a fun experience to share with Kenji.

We got off the train at a more modern city area in Kamakura. Just near the station we found the main shopping district. Within minutes I zeroed-in on what appeared to be a Totoro and Studio Ghibli store. Totoro is my favorite Japanese animated film by Studio Ghibli, the Japanese Disney-like studio. So of course I had to do some shopping. As it turns-out, this was a flower shop that started selling Ghibli-ware to attract more customers. The shop was quite cramped and small. But it had some fun things. I made due, leaving with a full set of Totoro towels for home.

We continued our walk down the shopping district street. All of a sudden I spied something of interest in a clothing shop window. It was photos of black Shar-pei dogs just like our Jarra. We hadn’t seen any Shar-pei in Japan, so this was a surprise. I ran over and took some photos. One of the photos (on the right) really tugged at our heart strings. We were missing our little Pei quite a bit at that point. I went inside to see if there were any real life Pei to be seen. Kenji spoke with the shop keeper who smiled at our interest. She told Kenji she had three Shar-pei dogs waiting for her at home.

After strolling to the end of the shopping street, we made our way back again. Along the way I found this funny cat statue. I’m not sure what it was doing or what the sign said. But the pose made me smile. We got back to the station and took the next train back toward Yokohama.

Just south-west of Yokohama (which is south-west of Tokyo) is the area known as Kamakura. This is a well-known tourist destination for historic temples and shrines set in the lush mountain forests. Our friend Kenji had volunteered to take us on a day trip there. In Japan most people don’t drive. They take the outstanding public transportation system in their country. So we set off from Yokohama station by train to Kamakura.

Kenji showed Ron how to use the ticket machines. We discovered that almost all of the ticket machines we used had an English button, making purchasing train tickets very simple and straight forward. We got on the train and quickly maneuvered into seats for the ride.

Once we got to the station near the temples and shrines we got off. Even though it was out in the countryside it was still a nice station. It always amazed me to see bicycles just parked near a station with no locks or security. It’s just like that in Japan. Looking down the tracks it looked like a long way back to Yokohama. We began our walk.

We were thinking of taking a trail up through the forest to get to the main part of town. But it was just so stiflingly humid and hot that day, we decided not too. That was a good call. We would have been exhausted if we tried that route in such weather. “Hatsui desu!” (It’s hot!) Instead we went back across the rail tracks to our first sight.

After crossing the railroad tracks again we came upon stairs to a small valley set into the side of the mountain. The forest foliage was lush, green and very beautiful. And with the humidity and heat, all the cicada and crickets were chirping loudly. It reminded me of scenes I had watched in Japanese movies. The sounds of the forest insects were exactly the same. We continued exploring the area. There was so much to see and take in. And with the heat we had to walk at reduced speed.

Once we saw everything to see, we returned to the station and took the train to the town of Kamakura. There we would visit the Big Buddha.

After sleeping a couple hours to recover from “the incident“, I activated the rental cellphone I had delivered to the hotel via the web. I got in touch with Kenji, our friend who lives in the Yokohama area. We would meet Kenji at the Yokohama station and get some dinner together. So we took off for the local train station Sakuragicho that was just outside the Landmark Tower building we were staying in. We found a direct route from within the hotel around to a pedestrian bridge that went right to the station.

When we got to Yokohama station it finally set in: we were in Japan. Upon going downstairs to the main station platform we had to just stand for a bit taking it all in, there were hundreds of people… everywhere… going all different directions… silently not running into each other and getting to/from their trains. It was mind boggling for us initially. So many people in such a relatively small space. We stood with our mouths agape for a good couple minutes, wondering how we’d ever meet up with Kenji in this chaos. I called Kenji on cell phone and told him where we were in the station. In a few minutes he appeared ad we were off to find dinner.

On the way to dinner we went through some stores in the mall around the station. Inside the Yamaha music store Ron found an amusing package of “Piano Scatt” that I just had to have a picture of. Ron posed and made quite the funny face, don’t you agree? What ever could this package contain?? I did a Google search and couldn’t find anything. OK musicians, please comment and let us know what we found here. I assume it is some kind of piano cleaning supply?

We followed Kenji through the huge shopping mall, out into the streets of Yokohama that surrounded the station. There were blocks of restaurants and stores, all catering to the commuters returning from their jobs in Tokyo.

Kenji knew of a good sushi restaurant and we were game for our first taste of authentic sushi in Japan. It turns-out that this sushi restaurant was a “sushi belt” restaurant. In San Francisco we have sushi boat restaurants where plates of sushi revolve in front of patrons on wooden boats propelled along in a waterway by swift currents in a water trough. In Japan they don’t do this. Instead they use a revolving mechanical belt. This way the plates can make 90-degree turns with no problem.

We got a table and stared with amazement at the double-decker revolving belt. On the top level was the sushi plates along with little signs telling people (in Japanese) what things were. On the bottom level of the moving belt were tea cups, bowls and other dishes. “What a great idea,” I thought to myself.

To make the self-serve atmosphere even better we also had a hot water spigot right at our table. We could make all the tea we wanted, when we wanted, how we wanted. That was pretty cool. And what was inside the little bucket? It was FULL of picked ginger. Kenji ordered us up some special dishes as we grazed on a few things from the belt.

It was all very fresh and good. But because we had sushi in the US every couple weeks, it wasn’t too surprising of an experience for us. The one exception was the Miso Soup. Kenji ordered a bowl for him and one for us to share. It was a BIG bowl of miso soup had some salmon tails in it for meat. That was definitely pretty different from what they do in San Francisco. At first we didn’t quite know what to do with the tails. We had to learn to use our chopsticks better to get at the meat. Kenji showed us how and we finished our first meal in Japan.

After spending the day with our friend Ernie, we left the splendor of the Peninsula Hotel in another Rolls Royce limo and headed out to the Hong Kong airport. Our flight was on All Nippon Airways (ANA), a Boeing 747, again in Business Class. The nose end of the plane was configured for first class seating, but the seats were sold as business. We had huge full reclining bed seats. We had our creature comforts. Little did we know that we would soon lose all concept of what comfort was.

Before we boarded in Hong Kong, the gate staff unfurled a large sheet of paper that had written text in Japanese and English warning us that there was a typhoon expected in Tokyo that evening and we might not be able to land there. Why they didn’t just cancel at that point still astounds us. But we took off on-time and settled in for about a 4 hour flight.

As we flew over Japan, there were numerous announcements over the P.A. from the pilot, sometimes with a broken English translation, sometimes not. The chief purser was one of our business class stewardesses and several times she came before the two of us and the other two non-Japanese speakers (in this case two German businessmen) and knelt down with a worried brow explaining that we might not get to Tokyo. At one point, they were talking about landing in Osaka, which is about 3 to 4 hours by train from Tokyo. But the plane forged onward toward Tokyo, only having to circle for about an hour before the pilot said he was going in for a landing. We started down and the landing gear came down, but then the pilot pulled up sharply and then announced we couldn’t land and were going to Osaka, about an hour away and that we should land there at 10:25 pm. Ron asked the purser what that meant–would we get a hotel? Again, she had a furrowed brow and said something like she didn’t know but not to worry. Of course, we thought, the airline would take care of us. We were, after all, in business class, right?

We landed in Osaka about when they said we would but then waited at the gate for an hour and 20 minutes. They kept saying that there was no ground personnel available (saying “so sorry”). Just before midnight, they let us off the plane to the jet way where ANA staff was handing out envelopes with $30,000 yen to each passenger (about $300), a danish and some orange juice. And that was it. Exhausted and confused, we plodded through to customs.

The customs agent wanted to know why Ron left the box saying where we were staying blank. He said basically that we didn’t plan on being in Osaka that night and had no idea where we were at or where we would stay. Next we claimed our luggage and went to the ANA service desk which was in complete chaos. Apparently quite a few other planes had landed in Osaka for this same reason. We seemed to be the last. So we of course had far fewer choices available to us.

There were no hotels available anywhere in Osaka, not at the airport and not in the center city (again “so sorry”). And besides, the last train for the center city had already left, so why did we want to go there, they asked? We thought maybe to get a train to where we were supposed to be? But the last train was at midnight and we were almost 45 minutes cab ride to the center city anyway.

Ron got the message loud and clear that it made no difference that we were in business class or that he has Gold status in the Star Alliance program (ANA is in with United, Luftansa, Singapore, etc). The $30,000 yen was it. (”So sorry”) They would make us a reservation the next morning for a flight to Tokyo that might or might not go because of the typhoon, and at our own expense. Because this was a weather diversion, they were through with us once the plane landed in Osaka.

We tried to consider our options, I called a Hilton in the center city where we’re staying in about 10 days. All they had was a smoking room for $400 and the executive suite for $1500 — those are in US dollars not yen. By the time we decided to try for a cab to the center city, they had sold the smoking room. At this point we had no other option but to spend what was left of the night at the airport. Oh, joy.

The airline had given out blankets and sleeping bags. While we were trying to find out what our options were other people had grabbed all the chairs in the airport and had settled in for the night. Someone had vacated one chair near an elevator so we grabbed it. While I went to the washroom Ron tried to get some sleep. But he was able to due to a repeating “bing bong” that the elevators make constantly. (So that’s why the other people left!) We finally ended up under an escalator on the floor, creating a little “cave” by barricading the entrance with our luggage. In under 24 hours we had gone from living the high life at the Peninsula to being essentially homeless people living under a staircase. Thanks typhoon X and ANA!

Somehow the morning managed to wind its way to around 5AM. As the sun rose we got in line to buy tickets with 300 other people noting that the display board still said “Questionable” as to whether the flight would go due to weather. When Ron purchased the tickets he asked the agent if we shouldn’t have just gotten rebooked to Tokyo at no charge. She said back in broken English “so sorry” that we’d need to pay and then talk to “International Services”. We finally boarded the flight, again being told that it might have to turn back to Osaka. Well, we finally did land in Tokyo but without a lot of translating of the announcements in Japanese.

We found a YCAT bus from to Yokohama, arriving about 8:30 and was told by hotel staff that a room wouldn’t be ready until 2pm. Though I was a member of their frequent stay club and guaranteed early check in we still got the “so sorry, room not ready”. We finally got taken to a room at 12:45 but it was smoking, “Oh, so sorry!” And another 20 minutes before they got us non-smoking. Ron crashed in bed no doubt dreaming of people telling him “so sorry,” not to be heard from for several hours. I jumped into the tub and took a bubble bath while admiring the view and winding-down. For the moment we were once again princes.

Above is the bathtub with the portal above it. Did I mention that we were staying at the Yokohama Royal Park hotel? It is on the highest floors of the tallest building in Japan, the Landmark Tower. Our room was on the 57th floor. My ears popped every time we went up and down in the elevator.

Looking back on this experience we can laugh about it. But at the time we were exhausted and completely vexed by the circumstances that were totally beyond our control. As they say in Japan, “cho utoshi.” So irritating! This event simply gave us a low point to go up from! After all, it couldn’t get any worse. (grin)

At any time of the day the Hong Kong skyline is impressive and wondrous. Throughout our stay at the Peninsula I took many photos of it during day and night. I quickly realized that to do the night photos at all well I would need a tripod. Then I realized that even pushing the button of the camera would produce some image blur during these long night exposures. So we ventured out and found a remote firing cord for my digital SLR. I was in business.

I was lucky enough to be shooting night shots of the harbor from our room at the Peninsula Hotel when the Hong Kong harbor came alive with this light show. Apparently they do it “for the tourists” nightly. But we had never seen it until this night. A sound track is broadcast to all the hotels and around the harbor. All of the buildings, lasers and spotlights come to life, pulsing and modulating, all while staying in time with the music. It is quite a choreographed show rivaling something you might see at a Disney park.

Aside from the fact that I was shooting through a double-pane window, the photos turned out pretty nice for this first time light show photographer. Unfortunately Ron had decided to go to the hotel pool to relax while I took the nighttime skyline photos. When he returned I told him about the light show he had missed.