Thailand

The last week of March through the first week of April was the break between the end of the old school year and the beginning of the new. It also coincides with the Japanese cherry (Sakura) blossoms blooming. I decided to skip the festival and head to the beach.

My friends Matt and Gail live in Bangkok (called Krung Thep by the locals). They work at an international school, he as an administrator and she as an English teacher. I met Gail when we both were teaching at St. John`s University. (At the time Matt was an administrator a school on Long Island--the same one they filmed School of Rock with Jack Black at.)

I arrived when Matt and Gail were out of town. The first day I ate the way-too-spicy shrimp curry Gail`s housekeeper left for me. Way-too-spicy.

The second morning started out ambitious. I got a haircut. I got a massage (Thai massages are strong, different from Japanese, but good). I went to the store. I bought 6 bags of chips and 4 bags of cookies.

Ok, I admit, it sounds kind of nuts. They had Lays chips in all sorts of flavors (Spicy Thai Seafood, Mayonaise and Seafood, Nori) and real oreos--regular, dark chocolate and peanut butter. Of course I went nuts. I can get Oreos in Japan, but only the regular kind. I also bought Herbal Essence Shampoo and my hair still smells good.

After lunch, I went to a mall dedicated to electronics, Pantip Plaza. I was in geek heaven. Seven floors of boutiques and stalls with a couple of larger stores all dedicated to electronic stuff. Crazy. Bootleg DVDs, CDs, and videogames were easy to be had--touts kept asking me in low whispers if I wanted porn--on the first two levels. The second and third level had many restaurants. (The system for the restaurants is one I have seen in Japan and America before. You buy meal tickets at a booth and then you give them to the people who give you the food.) There were a few restaurants (fast food really) on the first level, too; I just had to stop at A&W for a root beer. Not something I drank at home, but I had to have it there. Higher floors had a wide range of stores from boutiques dedicated to Apple or Dell products to camera stores to book stores on electronics to computer casing stores to keyboard stores... New and used, this place had everything. And I walked it too. Took about three hours. Geek heaven, as I said.

The taxi driver got lost getting me back to Matt and Gails. Usually, the main streets have names and the side streets are numbered (and called `soi`) going out from the city center. Matt and Gail`s house is in a subdivision that has side streets from the main street, but that main street is also a soi from a major road (highway?) heading north-east of of town; it is called Ramkhamhaeng . Matt and Gail`s particluar soi is Soi 17. The subdivision road is Soi 191 off of Ramkhamhaeng. The taxi driver didn`t realize I wanted him to take me 5km out of town, not just two. He took me to 17 where I called the guards at the subdivision (Gail lent me her phone--Thanks again Gail!!!) who set the driver straight. Unfortunately, he missed the onramp for the overhead express highway and it took 90 minutes to get home in the rush hour traffic.

The curry made not going out--even for one beer--seem like not a good idea that night.

The next day, I set out for the used book store. As you can guess, English books in Japan are expensive. I don`t think there is even a used English book store in Fukuoka. I was in the store for five seconds before I grabbed my first book. Which was immediately followed by three more. At that point in time, I was very worried. I had been in the store for only a couple of minutes and I already had a pile of books. Fortunately, that was just the new arrivals section and things went much slower as I moved away from them. Eventually, I settled upstairs in the genre sections and leisurely scanned the available books. It was not Powell`s by any means--it was about the size of a 7-Eleven, but it was still great. (I picked up `The Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao` by Junot Diaz. I read it while I was there, making it the first Pullitzer Prize winning book I read before it won the prize.)

I ended up with 15 books, spending only about US$70. Not a bad deal as far as I am concerned. Those same books would run me over Y300 in Japan (about US$300). I actually bought a cheap backpack to carry them in--I was totally unprepared.

After that, I got a pedicure and a manicure. And a facial. Why not? My toenails needed to be cut and a different girl did my fingernails. Actually, I should be clear here: The woman doing my toes was almost as tall as me (remember what a rarity that is in Asia) and was clearly not born a female. Nevertheless, she was a she. Also, the person who seemed to be a manager, and spoke better English, came up and flirted with me for a minute too. She also was not born a woman. While my nails were being done, another girl came in. She started to sell me on a facial, something I felt I didn:t really need. She had me when she dropped the price by half and batted her eyelashes--she was born a she and I fell for her tricks.

After that, I stopped by a mall that was full of upscale boutiques--Louis Vitton anyone? I felt so out of place with my bag of used books I immediately left. I had gone in to find postcards and it seemed obvious that I was in the wrong place.

After that, I decided to walk by Soi Cowboy. You remember that soi is a side street? But that is no number with it, Cowboy, it is a very English word. It got its name during the Vietnam War when the soldiers visited Bangkok. It is side street infamous for its bars and `entertainers.` I thought I would be safe if I went during the day to look. I was sort of right, it was three pm and just starting to come alive. Women were inviting me in for happy hour beers--I love happy hours that last for 3 hours--but not all the places had happy hours. Some still looked closed. All the neon lights were off, but from the look of how many there were, the place looks like the Las Vegas Strip or Times Square at night.

You know, I don`t if it is me, or because I come from prudish America, or both, but I always feel like I still a teenager who has walked into a place (like a bar) that maybe I shouldn`t have. It seems to me that everyone will see me as someone too young to be there. Because oif this I am shocked when they approach me like another customer. Of course, this shock often leads to laughter which, as the laughter is not on my side, leads to me fleeing faster than I came in.

I made another visit to Pantip Plaza and bought some DVDs. Then I hit the mall for a movie. A really bad movie, but a movie, nonetheless. It was less than US$5 (Y500), a real delight after Japan where I usually pay Y1800 (US$15) Before the movie, we all had to stand up for a lengthy period of respect for the king. Thailand still has a king althought the military overthrew the constitutional government. The people really seem to like king, wearing his colors at least once a week. (This reminded me of going to movies in Kenya where we had to stand before movies for the national anthem. The president at that time, Danial Arap Moi, was also prominently featured, but I know he was not loved by the majority of the people.)

My taxi driver home this night did not get me lost. He was not the first driver I stopped though. The first taxi I hailed did not want to take me out of town that far. Too far to go while gas is so expensive and too late to guarantee a fare back into town--or to wherever he lives. My taxi driver not only got me home, he offered to find me company for the evening as it was obvious I was alone...

However the next day, Mutsumi arrived from Japan and Matt and Gail came back from where they were visiting in the north. Mutsumi and I went for another massage before Matt and Gail got back. That night we had a nice dinner at an outdoor restaurant.

The next day, Mutsumi and I caught a bus to go south. We took a three hour ride to a small port to where we caught a ferry to go to Koh Samet, an island that is a national park. We checked into our room and immediately hit the beach.

Sounds nice, eh? Not really:

Wading deep into the water, I stepped on a sea urchin. Two spikes went into my little toe. That caused me to swear and flounder which caused Mutsumi to step on it (or another one) with one foot and then hop in pain onto it with her other foot. We limped slowly onto land and went to the hotel office.

They said there was no problem, other than the really intense pain we were feeling--of course, mine was nothing compared to Mutsumi`s--but I know how bad mine was. One of the hotel staff members came over with a Coke bottle and started hitting the black dots that marked where the spines went into our feet. The idea was to break the spikes into little pieces that dont as much and can be more easily disposed of by our bodies. Mutsumi`s treatment lasted for more than 15 minutes. I know it hurt. Mine went by pretty quick.

Unfortunately, one of the spikes in Mutusmi`s left foot was in the bottom of her arch, right where there was nothing hard for the bottle to break the spike against. One of the spikes in my toe was also unbreakable and is sometimes still sore, a month later. Mutsumi spent the next few days limping around the island.

We spent the next day walking around the north and east parts of the island. We found the really touristy area, which had a better beach than ours, if only because of the waves.

For dinner we went too a restaurant that was sitting over the water on pylons. There is a bell on the mainland that you ring. When the people at the restaurant hear it, they send a boat to pick you up. At the restaurant you can sit on cushions on the floor at a table with a glass top and dangle your feet over the water. We went again the next night when found that if we dropped food down, we could see small fish that were hanging out by the pylons hustle for the food. The crab was excellent. We wanted to order lobster, but as it was an $800 meal from a lobster the size of a small dog, we passed.

The next day we sat on the beach and tried not to get to burnt. We payed a hotel on the east part of the island almost $3 to use their umbrella and chairs. It is a hard life.

We had to leave the next day... Three nights is way to short of time to spend on the beach.

That evening, back in Bangkok, we had a nice dinner at another outside restaurant. I mention that again, because, yes, I know, it was snowing in Utah that week.

After dinner we went to the Mambo Cabaret, a transvestite show. It is located in an old theater (the Manhattan) that has red felt chairs and small round tables for drinks. It was certainly amusing. They played up their show for the older Japanese men in the audience--guaranteed big tippers after the show.

We stopped at the Dubliners Pub (an international chain) for some beer after. It was nice to have a dark beer. Thailand is like Japan in the fact that lagers abound. The most popular is, of course, Singha (6.5%), while Chang and Elephant are local beers and Heineken is produced in-country.

The next day involved sleeping in followed by a massage. At US$15, these massages were well worth it.

Gail had the day off so she took us downtown on a water taxi. This was a fast moving boat that made periodic stops to let people on or off. It had canvas sheets that were pulled up the sides to help keep the horribly dirty water off of us from as the boat roared down the river. It didn`t always work. The water was of such a gross and dirty color that I don`t blame people for cowering as other boats came by.Our first stop after getting into the city was at the Mount Wat (Mount Temple). It was an artificially made hill that we climbed by circling around the outside to get to the temple on the top. The view very informative--it confirmed my view that Bangkok was just one giant sprawl of a city.

After, we took a taxi to Wat Pho, the oldest wat in the city. It houses the famous Reclining Buddha. (Remember Murray Head`s song, One Night in Bangkok?) The Reclining Buddha is 46 m (132ft) long and 15m (40ft) high. It is covered in gold. That is me, standing behind his feet.

We spent an hour walking around and enjoying the temple. The main wat was surrounded by 2 sets of buildings that circled it. Each outside building was really just a wall with a large roof that had glasses cases on the inside that house hundreds of gold foil-covered Buddhas. The Buddhas are all sitting in lotsu position are are about 5 feet tall. All in all, there are over 1,000 images of Buddha in the temple and most of them are those in the glass cases.

After we met Matt at an Indian Restaurant. Yum! I was not sick of Thai food, by any means, but our hosts do live there... We then went to a giant night market, Lumpini, that had a huge beer garden with a stage and live music. I was so tired that I could not enjoy it though.

The next day took us to Chatachuk Weekend Market. It is a huge market with just about everything for sell. In the two or three hours that we were there, I think I saw less than 1/10th of it.

After another dinner with Matt and Gail (we had real italian pizza and real german beer!), Mutsumi and I took seperate night flights back to Japan.

Happy!

I am so HAPPY!

Why?

Because I went to the `Happiest Place on Earth:` Disneyland Tokyo.

Disneyland Tokyo is actually two parks, Disneyland and Disneysea. (Yes, I will wait as you reread those names.)

Tokyo Disneyland is larger than the original in California, but it is laid out in the same manner and has many of the same rides, usually reproduced exactly. It was funny to be on a couple of the rides and know that only me and a handful of others could understand what was being said. The gravestones at the Haunted Mansion, in English, is a prime example.

Fortunately, on Star Tours, C-3PO was translated into Japanese--he is, after all, fluent `in over six million forms of communication.` R2D2 still spoke in bleeps. Many of the filmed characters such as the ghosts in the Haunted Mansion or the humans in Star Tours were still the original American actors, sometimes dubbed, sometimes not.

I was disappointed by Disneyland, not only was it so similar to every other Disneyland on the planet--and way too crowded--but it was hard to compare after visiting Disneysea the day before.

Disneysea is only six years old. Instead of having areas based on land themes (Adventureland or Tomorrowland) they are all water-based. There was American Waterfront and Mysterious Island. It was the most expensive park ever built and it shows. It is absolutely gorgeous.

Arriving an hour after opening made me sad, but we quickly got into the swing of things. It is more adult-styled--even having alcohol for sale.

The park emptied at dusk and we had a great time enjoying it in the dark. Unfortunately they closed at 10. Or maybe that is good, my feet were really tired from walking.

I would like to show you pictures from Disneysea, but I accidentally deleted them all. Oops.
Disneyland Tokyo is celebrating its 25 Anniversary, but I suppose it would have been crowded anyway! Not only were the lines longer at Disneyland than Disneysea.

One good thing, I never had to compete with adults for silly things...
The adults were constantly amused that I, a gaijin, would try any old silly thing. I even got my friend Mutsumi do a few too. Most Japanese adults seemed to be way to wary of the eyes of others on them to do anything though. Toontown, the place with the best silly places to be, is a place I had never been before. Yes, I have not been to Disneyland since Who Framed Roger Rabbit came out! The rides might be for kids but I am always happy to clamber over any obstacle and play with any toys. And no, no children were harmed in the shooting of these pictures.

It was an exhausting 2 days, but well worth it.

Wish you were here!

Testing

Today, the second Friday of the new school year, is testing and so I have lots of time to write a new blog. Not many pictures though. I did make some diagrams though.

Remember, I am an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) at Mizuma Junior High most days of the week. On Mondays I go to Araki Elementary school, unless there is one of our monthly meetings in Fukuoka. Mizuma JH is about five minutes by bike for me. Araki is further, almost 30 minutes, although I haven`t rode there in months. I drive, even though I am not supposed to. It appears that I am not supposed to because they are afraid my mom would sue them if something happened while I was driving to work. (They must have had a bad experience before because they are not sue-happy like we are in the States. In fact, I would say they have the fewest lawyers of any more developed country.)

Here, elementary school starts at first grade and goes until sixth. Then kids go to junior high. And start over with the numbering system. Here, we have grades 1-3, even though the kids are 12-15.

Many elementary schools have dress codes. The local elementary school that I ride by on my way to the junior high has a dress code where the boys wear shorts and white socks and the girls where blue skirts. In the morning on their way to school, groups walk together (part of the system where the senpai, an older kid(or kids) are responsible for helping the kohai (younger kids) get to school safely). They make me think of little ducks, all walking in a line. The little yellow clothe hats they all wear helps with that image.

Araki Elementary is in Kurume proper. (Remember me talking about how Mizuma is part of Kurume? No? The blog is just from January. You can check it out if you want.) Like most schools in Kurume city, Araki kids do not wear uniforms. I keep getting kids wearing shirts that say Salt Lake City on them, which cracks me up. Anything with English on it is usually cool, no matter what it says. I had one second grade kid at Araki with F*** printed on his shirt. I am the only one who noticed though. I have taken pictures of all of these kids. I am not supposed to publish those pictures on the web without parental permission, so you are out of luck to see them.

Here at Mizuma (where I am writing this as the teachers are all in a whirlwind around me trying to get things ready for the next round of tests), the students wear a pretty standard Japanese school uniform. There is the winter and the summer uniform. We are still on winter, which means the girls wear navy blue sailor`s blouses with blue handkerchiefs over their blue skirts. The summer uniform is a white sailors blouse, still with that dark blue handkerchief. These two pictures are from last October`s English speech competition (remember that?). The girl on the left is wearing the winter and the girl on the right is wearing the summer. They had a few days to change their uniform. I was told they were allowed to wear the summer longer than usual because it was so warm here last year.

I do not have a picture for the boys (and I cannot go take one, they are all taking tests and I do not have parental permission either). The boys wear black pants summer and winter. In the summer they wear a simple button-down, short sleeve, white shirt. In the winter they wear a black jacket with huge buttons and a short, stiff collar called a Nehru jacket (a Nehru jacket`s collar is the one that just sticks up stiffly from the jacket about an inch, no fold over).

At all times, they have name tags sewn onto their tops. It says Mizuma Jr. High with their name underneath. They are even color coded for grade: light blue, dark blue and red. I know I will never mistakenly say `hi` to a student who is wearing a similar uniform because of those name tags.

All the kids wear white athletic shoes. I am not sure if this is required or fashion. The boys wear white socks, while the girls wear black. This is fashion, I know. I have noticed that some of the new first grade girls are wearing white socks. I would bet money that changes soon!
Mizuma Jr. High is in a building that is over 50 years old. There are more classrooms than we need. The population of the area is in decline. In general, Japan has a negative population growth, albeit a very slight one. Many more developed countries have a negative or neutral population growth--the United States just happens to be an anomaly in this area. The main reason, I think, for the population decline in the area is that it is inaka--the countryside. People are moving to the cities. Here you can see lots of rice fields (actually, wheat is growing now, it is almost as high as my waist) and our tallest building is the hospital. I have been told our town is `rice-rich` because of the amount of subsidies the town gets from the government for growing rice. (Fun fact, while Japan imports 2/3 of the food it consumes, the Philippines imports more rice than any other country in the world.)
The south side of the school is where the regular classrooms are. We are only using four of seven for each floor. The first grade only has three home rooms instead of four, like the second and third grades. Fewer students is the reason.
The students stay in their rooms, all together, all day--well, except for gym, science, computers and home economics and even then they go together to that class. Math and Japanese are exceptions at my school, the classes are split into two--Math for two levels of skill and Japanese for the ease of teaching, but it may be for levels too. The teachers share a giant office (I am right in the middle of it, right now) and go to the classroom when scheduled. It was like this in Zimbabwe.

Also, like in Zimbabwe, the schools are very test oriented. We have had 4 sets of school wide tests since September. And today is the first time they only took one day instead of 2 or 3. At the end of junior high, there are lots more exams for the third graders, in and out of school. These exams help the students get into high school, which they are not necessarily obligated to do. Most want to. If the students do not do well on the tests, they may not get into a government school and then their parents have to pay to send them to a private school.

After school study programs at private institutions are very popular here. Sometimes I feel the students who go there view school as a time to relax, sleep and socialize--they get a lot more work done at the study sessions.

All the students are all in the same English class. The students who can talk to me about what they did last weekend are right next to the student who has trouble reading the alphabet.

And nobody fails.

My friends and I have speculated that the main lesson to learn in JH is how to be Japanese. Work together, play together, eat together (the students eat in their classrooms together too, turning their desks together to make tables for six students)--it is all very socially centered.

The students all (well, 99% of them) belong to a club too. Most of the clubs are sports, but there is art and the band too (which only has two boys!). The kids come early, stay late and even come on weekends to practice. Games with other schools are often held on Saturday mornings or holidays. And the teacher who is in charge of the club is usually there for most of it, too.

The teachers spend a lot more time working here than they do in the states. I often thought teachers in the states worked hard--they really deserve and need that summer break--but Americans have nothing on the Japanese. Summer break here is 6 weeks, from mid-July until the beginning of August, but for the teachers that is only just time they are not actually in the classroom; they are still at the school.

I missed something you think I should talk about, or if I was unclear about anything, let me know!

Kyoto

Yes, it is two months later and I a getting around to writing about Kyoto. With a little luck, you will hear about my trip to Thailand shortly...

First, an update on hitting my head on the door frames in my apartment. Since the last report, I have had a few close calls and one square hit. That hit was not as painful as the one where I fell to my knees, but I would call it the second worst. I was even in my stocking feet when it happened. Ouch.


The new school year started last week, with lots of changes. We had some time off between the school years, hence why I went to Thailand.


Ok...

Back in February, there was a 3 day weekend. Monday, February 11, was National Foundation Day. It celebrates the (unproven) foundation of Japan as an empire in 660BC. Sounds good to me.


Kyoto was the capital of Japan for a long time, around 500 years, before Tokyo. It was rarely bombed in World War II, and, for that reason, there are many older buildings there unlike in many other cities. Kyoto was even on the list for the atom bomb. The theory was that because there are so many intellectuals there they would appreciate the bomb. Fortunately, Kyoto was taken of the list.

On Saturday I rode the Shinkansen (the high-speed train) to Kyoto. It was snowing heavily there. This was unusual. Kyoto, which is near Osaka, is like Tokyo in that they do get snow, but rarely does it snow all day like it did that day. It was a heavy wet snow like New York snow, not like Utah`s light powder.
That`s not a snowball in your hand is it...?

After dropping off our bags at the hotel--we were too early to check-in--we took a bus to one of the temples, Kiyomizu-dera. It is Buddhist temple and a World Heritage site. One of the most famous in Kyoto, even. It is on the hills (well, they call them mountains...) in the east part of town.

There is a 3-roof pagoda and balconies built over the edges of ravines. Because of the snow, we could not see the rest of Kyoto from the temple.
That day was fabulous, even with the mobs of tourists (we like to joke that the rude ones are Chinese, but unfortunately there is some truth to this). I really enjoyed my biggest day of snow this year.

That evening we ordered Domino's and watched Lost. Fun, eh?

The next day was sunny and warm. The snow started melting pretty quickly. Our first stop was Nanzen-ji. It is a Zen Buddhist temple that was founded in 1264. It is famous for a few things, including the main gate (sanmon) which was built in 1628. There is also supposed to be beautiful rock gardens, but we skipped them in part due to the snow (couldn`t see them under the snow) and they wanted us to pay a bit for everything at the temple--they were trying to nickle-and-dime us to death!

Most people know about Sakura, the Japanese cherry blossoms. These happen in mid-spring (and just so happen to be the same time the year starts here!). What many people do not know is the plum blossoms that bloom in February. They came early this year because of our mild winter, but the snow storm meant we could not see them. At Nanzen-jin, the trees were covered with small patches of ice where the snow had clung to the blossoms. As we walked around the temple the ice-covered flowers would fall and break on the ground.

In the rear of the temple, we found a beautiful aqueduct.

We took a nice walk to the next temple. Close to the temple, we stopped and had the meal that Kyoto is famous for: Tofu. As there are so many monks, Kyoto is famous for tofu. With the meal we had fresh soy milk and about 7 different tofu dishes (or similar to tofu dishes). I really enjoyed this. I remember reading an article in the New Yorker a few years ago that was a travelogue of the journalist travelling and trying the many different kinds of tofu there are--not just the types you see in the store in the states! It was really interesting to try a few different types and to eat them in a way that I have not eaten it before. Here in Mizuma, I buy tofu at my cheap store (the one without the produce if you remember from the bread blog). It is only 29Yen, about 29 cents now. Super cheap. Generally I freeze it before I use it, letting it defrost in the fridge. This gives it a much firmer texture. I make a lot of curries with it and even burritos now and then. Yum!
After our tofu meal, we hiked up the hill to the `Silver Temple,` Ginkaku-ji. It is actually called Jisho-ji (Temple of Shining Mercy). It was built in 1474 by a guy who was trying to imitate his grandfather`s Golden Temple. Perhaps he was going to cover it in silver, too, although it is only wood. It was a great place, with lots of trees and a few paths up the hills. A small pond was located near the main building. In the picture, to the right, you can see the snow covering the rock garden.
From there we took a bus across town to the Kinkaku-ju, the Golden Temple. Originally built in 1397, it had, sadly, to be restored in the past 50 years. It is covered by real gold.
Here we encountered the most people we had seen yet.

At all the places we visited there were many buildings. The last two were originally retirement homes that were dedicated, on the owners request at their death, to be temples.

I took the Shinkansen home on Monday. The second to last stop, and the only other one in Kyushu besides that last one (which is my stop) is in Kitakyushu. The train stops in the old center of town: Kokura. Kokura was the second choice for the first atom bomb. If Hiroshima was covered with clouds or smoke, they were going to drop the bomb on Kokura. The day was sunny and clear and no cities were burning nearby, so the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Kokura was the first choice for the second bomb. Unluckily for Nagasaki, the second choice, a nearby city was burning and Kokura was obscured. The bombing of Japan by regular bombs is often overlooked by the atom bombs. Technically, the total poundage of destruction on Tokyo was more than either of the atom bombs. Japan suffered through their own Dresden firebombing a few times over.


Japanese are often amazed by our, Americans`, curious desire to visit the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and their war memorials. They recognize we are not gloating but it is hard to describe why we go. Guilt? Pride? Respect? I hope to go to Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Nagasaki is only 3 hours by driving from my place while Hiroshima is hour by Shinkansen.

Tokyo

The first day I arrived at Tokyo, Dec 28, I went to Akihabara. I had just travelled on the all night bus from Osaka and was tired. However, Akihabara is Otaku heaven, so I was happy to go. Otaku is a Japanese pejorative term for geeks--usually anime geeks--but we expats love using it. It is pejorative in Japanese because, I think, it is a name for a group that is outside the norm. In a conformity-based culture that is bad.

Akihabara is full of electronics stores and anime, manga and gaming stores. Blocks and blocks and blocks of it. It was amusing and a definite must when you go to Tokyo.If you did not know, Tokyo is huge. The central city area is like New York City, not all that small in itself and densely packed. Tokyo is the only city whose population is more dense than NYC. From there, the similarities continue: Tokyo is surrounded by other cities and prefectures that have all grown together to form a supercity. People can drive around, but it is often just as easy to take the public transport system which is made up of mostly trains and subways. In the picture above you can see a map for a local area of train routes. The true map of Tokyo transport is huge!
Yes, click on the map and it will expand in your window...

Yes, it really is easier to get around on the trains...

A common belief is that the Japanese drink a lot of tea. This is true. But they also love their coffee. Strong too. Starbucks had over 700 stores in Japan and is aiming for 1000. In 2006, they were the most popular restaurant in Tokyo. I find this a little odd, as Starbucks customers have to smoke outside, while at other chains (including Mr. Donut, Doutour and Tully`s) all have some sort of indoor smoking. The Japanese are like the Europeans when it comes to smoking. Ick. I actually noticed a new brand of cigarettes being advertised yesterday. How often do you notice that in the States?

I have been buying the Starbucks collectible city mugs in my travels. They are all regular size mugs--that is smaller than the other collectible mugs you find in other countries! Smaller, go figure.
Besides tea and coffee, beer is popular. WE went to a ramen shop one night specifically because they were advertising a dark beer. I think beer in Japan is blah. Eating at a counter is a common restaurant spot whether it is at a ramen shop or a sushi shop or a udon shop or even McDonald's (but not Starbucks!). Shopping is a common activity here as it is anywhere but the places that one shop can be very different. One mall that we went to on a island in Tokyo bay was called Venus Fort Mall. It is upscale shopping on the top two levels that were designed as if the place was in Italy, cheap shops on the main floor, an attached amusement area with theatres, bowling and a giant Ferris wheel, and a car museum.The last day in Tokyo, I went to the Ghibli Museum. Ghibli studios is a famous Anime studio. They made Spirited Away and Princess Monoake, along with many others. The mastermind of the operation, Hayao Miyazaki, decided to build this museum for everyone to enjoy. The figure behind the glass is one of his best loved creations, Totoro.

New Years is a huge holiday for the Japanese--but not a party one.  Midnight is usually spent at a Buddhist shrine to ring the bell after midnight and then, the next day, people go to a Shinto temple to pray some more.  An important decoration of the New Year is bamboo poles surrounded evergreens with red winter berries stuck inside.   Bamboo is strong and unyielding and is meant to represent family--or so I was told--in strength and prosperity for the New Year.  This picture was taken outside the museum.

My museum visit was January 3rd. That night I headed back south on the night bus to Osaka where I caught a train to Fukuoka. A week in Tokyo was short! Maybe next time I will get to go to Tokyo Disney!