Kawagoe

We live in Saitama Prefecture.  One of the best ways I can described the “image” of Saitama is by saying that Saitama is the New Jersey of Japan.  As most people from the USA know, New Jersey is often looked down upon-especially by the neighboring folks in New York City.

Well, Saitama is to Tokyo what New Jersey is to New York.  Why?

I haven’t the foggiest idea. 

My Japanese friends say that Saitama has an “uncool” image.  That is about the best explanation I have been able to find.  Which isn’t really an explanation at all.

For myself, I couldn’t care less about Saitama’s alleged poor image.  I love living here.  As someone from the vastly huge country of the USA, living in a small country like Japan has been illuminating.  Living in the west of Saitama-considered to be the “countryside”-is lovely.  It only takes us an hour by train to get from our inaka (countryside) to the megalopolis of Tokyo.  This is by far one of my favorite things about living where we do.

About half way to Tokyo on our train line, there is a city called Kawagoe-sometimes called Koedo.  This name refers to Tokyo's former name-Edo.  Just north of Tokyo, Kawagoe was called Koedo-little Edo. 

Ever since moving to Japan nearly three years ago, day visits to Kawagoe have been a favorite weekend activity.  There are loads of delicious restaurants, beautiful shrines and temples, and lovely places to shop.  

Anyone looking for a break from the congestion and fast pace of Tokyo would do well to spend a day walking around Kawagoe.  I highly recommend it. 

Kamakura Diabutsu

Japan is a small country, it’s true.  Despite this, the land of the rising sun offers a seemingly unlimited amount of interesting things to capture the attention of visitors.  Living so close to Tokyo, we can always find something to spark our interest and prompt us to explore. 

One of the places we had been meaning to get too for a while was Kamakura.  Just south of Tokyo, it only takes about two hours to get there from west Saitama.  It is a popular day trip outside of Tokyo for visitors to Japan.

The most famous attraction of Kamakura is the enormous Buddha statue-the Daibutsa (big Buddha).  It was built around nearly 800 years ago and has withstood multiple natural and human made disasters including a tsunami (which swept away it’s original building enclosure), earth quakes, and a many wars.

The Buddha sits on its reconstructed plinth, raising it several feet off the ground.  The impressive size is emphasized through the solemn meditative expression of the Diabutsu.  It is truly a magnificent image to behold.    

For a very small fee, we were able to go up inside the Buddha.  This offered a fascinating glimpse into how it was constructed. 

 More on Kamakura coming soon!

Sumo

If you ever find yourself in Japan, I have one piece of advice for you (well, several, actually…but I’ll address those later):

Go to see a sumo tournament live.

A few months ago I had to plead total ignorance regarding sumo.  Big fat guys who “wrestle”…right?

Well, I still don’t know too much about it, but I know more now than I did then.  A few times a year, sumo tournaments are held.  We were fortunate enough to be able to attend the September tournament last year in Tokyo. 

It was fascinating.  

Processing in for the beginning ceremony.

 Two wrestles face each other in the ring.  There are two ways to win a round:  Push your opponent outside of the ring, or knock your opponent down. 

A close call...

The judges discussing the decision.

A round begins when the two wrestles throw salt in the ring to protect themselves from injury.  They squat, opposite each other.  A referee stands between the wrestles, just inside the ring.  When both wrestles are ready, they lean forward and put their fists to the ground.  This can take a long while to lead up too-most wrestlers use the entire four minute limit allowed.  From what I could gather, the suspense leading up to the actual wrestling was just as important and the wrestling itself.  

If you are really interested in sumo, check out this website.  

Friday December 23rd, 2011

“…oh no…”

I opened my eyes and blearily looked for the glow of our digital bedside clock.  As my eyes focused, Karl continued.

“It’s 5:26.  Should we run?”

“Let’s go!”

We leapt up and started throwing on our already laid out clothes.  Our train to make our ride to the airport was leaving in 23 minutes. 

It takes 20 minutes to walk to the station. 

Fortunately, we had packed and showered the night before.  We were out the door at 5:37 with 14 minutes to catch our train. 

We hurtled towards the train station through the dark, cold morning.  As we approached the station, I breathed a sigh of relief: our train was on the nearest platform.  I eased to a walk as Karl-rolling the luggage-caught up to me. 

We made it.  With a full minute to spare!

On our bus ride to the airport, we slowly relaxed.  The sun was just rising, glistening on the snowcap of Mt. Fuji.  A thin crescent moon and a few bright stars adorned the sky.  The perfect scenery to calm the mind and heart rate.

After this turbulent start of our journey to India, things calmed down.  We made it to the airport with enough time for breakfast and last minute purchases. 

The flight to India was broken up into two separate flights.  Flight number one stopped in Guangzhou, China for a twenty-one hour layover.  (EW!)

The flight was very comfortable.  Karl and I watched the newest Harry Potter movie on our tiny personal-sized airplane TVs.  Sooner than we knew it, we touched down in Guangzhou. 

As we waited to go through immigration, we discovered that our airline (China Southern) was paying for a hotel for us that night and we were granted special 24 hour passes to stay in China.  A wonderful and unexpected surprise.

After waiting for what seemed an eternity, the driver from the hotel came to pick us up.  We reached the hotel, learned that breakfast would be brought to our room the following morning, and went to our room.  

Not bad at all for being free.

We rinsed away the fatigue of flying with a shower before falling into bed.  Sleep came fast...a day into our journey.

Toyko National Museum

Did you ever read that one book when you were a kid?  The one about a country mouse in a city house?  I think it was a “I spy book.” 

I loved those types of books as a child.  I also wanted to live in the country.  And ride horses everyday.  But alas, we lived in town. 

We technically live in the “inaka” or countryside here in Japan-though the Japanese perception of “the middle of nowhere” is decidedly different from the US.  This probably has to do with their comparative sizes.  

I am glad that we live in the inaka.  The air and water are fresh and clean.  There are many people, but nothing like the city.

I am also thrilled that we live a mere hours train ride from one of the most fantastic cities in the world: Tokyo.

Living close enough to Tokyo for day trips is great.  Museums, historical sites and other attractions are abundant.  Last weekend we went to Tokyo National Museum in Ueno, Tokyo.

This museum is supposed to be one of the best museums in the world.  It did not disappoint. 

The museum is set up as a campus of five or six buildings.  We paid extra to see the special exhibit on Honen and Shinran-two important figures in the history of Buddhism in Japan.  

It took us three hours to see the special exhibit and one floor of one buildings' permanent exhibits. 

Here are a few of my favorite items we saw of the permanent exhibit.

Seeing everything will take a few more visits.  Good thing we live so close to Tokyo! 

Also, Bailey's lattes are delicious!

It don’t mean a thing…

…if it ain’t got that swing.

The weekend.  I was feeling positively bum-tastic last Saturday.  Being a major crabby-cakes to my poor husband.  I didn’t want to do anything or go anywhere.  I just wanted to sit at home, read and eat chocolate. 

It was that kind of a day.  The kind that only chocolate of lots of painkillers can fix.  Ick.

Unfortunately for my crabby self, we had promised a friend a few weeks ago we would go swing dancing with her that evening.  In Tokyo.

Le sigh.

I had a choice to make: 1) Continue to wallow and drown myself in chocolate.  -OR- 2) Put on my big-girl panties and deal with the situation.

My dear sweet husband had been watching YouTube videos all morning trying to remember and learn how to swing dance.  (How lucky am I!?)  I couldn’t let him down. 

So I took some meds.  Picked out a foxy outfit and got ready to dance. 

By the time we left for Tokyo, I was feeling loads better.  

 We had a great time! Met lots of new people.  Learned new moves.  

 Danced the night away.