Monkey Tales
Well, I’ve been back from my vacation for over a week now, and it’s probably time to tell you where I’ve been, what I’ve done, and how many monkeys fell in love with me in the interim. I think I’ll answer the third question first: 1
Although, it may have been the umbrella he fell in love with, it’s difficult to tell from the picture. Sadly, that particular umbrella is no longer in my possession, as I foolishly left it at the hotel we stayed in Kyoto. But, I’m getting ahead of myself…
My parents and Sam came to visit about three weeks ago, so I took two weeks off from work so we could all tool around Japan together. Our first stop was the Jigokudani Monkey Park, in the northern part of Nagano-ken. I’d never been, so I was rather unprepared for just how rustic it is up there. Tatsuno is pretty backwater, but the little town where we stayed was like a backocean. Points of interest included the shabbiest onsen I’ve ever seen, the buses that stopped running at two in the afternoon, and the funny little one-car train we took from Nagano city to get there. Luckily, the ryokan where we stayed had a beautiful onsen on-site, which would have been nice to know before we bussed out to the middle of nowhere to enjoy the penurious one, not after. Not that I’m complaining! The ryokan was very sweet, and the owner cooked us a beautiful dinner, and early the next morning he drove us out to Jigokudani himself.
It’s a bit of a walk up to where the monkeys are, but being the fit, able-bodied people we are, it was a pleasant hike. The park is mostly forest and it was lovely and cool, being so early in the day. After about thirty minutes (including a wrong turn and some backtracking) we reached the caretaker’s cabin, which as of yet had no caretaker inside. Past the cabin, there are monkeys everywhere! Sleeping on the sign that indicates the entrance to the refuge, lounging all over the path, climbing on the roofs of the houses across the river, swinging over on the water lines, it was a monkey’s paradise!
The people who work for the park feed the monkey’s daily, so they (that is, the monkeys) are not afraid of humans at all. We stood around for a while, just watching them getting on with the business of being monkeys: working a monkey’s day, making a monkey’s dollar. I think I can safely say, now, that being a Japanese monkey would be a pretty sweet gig.
After Jigokudani, we spent a day traveling to Kyoto, where we visited Kinkakuji, Nijo Castle, and Ryoanji. Of these three places, Ryoanji was the only one I’d never seen before, and it was a very nice temple with a lovely garden, as well as a Zen rock garden. I still think that Nijo Castle is one of the coolest places to visit in Kyoto, though. That nightingale floor is supremely awesome, and in my mind castles will always be more interesting than temples.
After Kyoto it was on to Nara, and the deer and the big Buddha. The temple that houses the Buddha used to be one of the largest wooden structures in the world. Like every other structure built out of wood, it has burned down and been rebuilt (probably several times. I can’t remember now, but chances are if it’s a building and it’s made of wood, it’s not that old.) There’s a pillar in the temple with a hole through it, and apparently if you can fit through the hole, there’s a place for you in paradise. I decided I’d take my chances with paradise, since I was wearing a skirt, but Sam and my mom both managed to wiggle through. At least they’ll have each other, eh?
Mom gets lucky
Nara accomplished, it was on to Osaka! Everything we did in Osaka I’d done before, but since I love Osaka, it was all pleasure revisited. Our first evening there we hit up Spa World, which I believe I elaborated on the first time I went. Suffice it to say that it did not lose any of its grandeur the second time around, and I was pleased to be able to check out the Asian themed floor this time. It contains similar baths to the European themed floor, although there was no red wine bath, and no fish swimming around underneath our bums. Thankfully, there was mud.
The next day we rode the Ferris wheel and went to the aquarium. I said hello to the sunfish and the jellies, and reveled in the fact that I wasn’t wearing the boots I had worn the last time I was there. Much as I love fancy footwear, some things are just inappropriate for a visit to a large aquarium.
Kind of look like white blood cells, don’t they?
Our last morning in Osaka, we went to Osaka Castle. While it’s not the greatest castle in Japan, and is in fact a reconstruction, Osaka-jo’s got a few things going for it: 1. It’s in Osaka, possible number two best city in the country, 2. It’s got an entire floor of blades. Not swords, just sword blades, which are all wickedly sharp and occasionally engraved with fancy designs. 3. There’s a cool stamp machine on the second floor, where you can stamp a scrap of paper to prove to your friends and family that you did indeed go to Osaka Castle, and didn’t bring them back anything but a piece of paper you had stamped there. 4. One of the floors includes the entire genealogy of Hideyoshi Toyotomi’s family, going all the way back to the deities he descended from. If you have a soft spot in your heart for this would-be uniter of Japan, who toted around a golden tearoom and melted down weapons into…other things, you appreciate this kind of attention to detail. Osaka-jo, I salute you!
Hiroshima was next on our agenda, a city I had never visited before and was keen to see. The morning of our first day there, we headed out to Miyajima, a small island near the city, most famous for its “floating” torii gate. You can see the red temple gate from the ferry, and luckily the tide was high when we crossed, so the gate did appear to be floating out in the water. It was a fiercely hot day, but we walked up to the cable car station that carried us up, over the trees, to the mountainous island’s summit. There were a whole passel of monkeys up there as well, although they were much more languorous and sleepy than the Nagano monkeys, probably because it was so dang hot. If I had to sit around outside all day wearing a fuzzy fur coat in the blazing heat, I doubt I’d want to move around much, either. Miyajima completed, we headed back to the mainland.
Hiroshima doesn’t have a subway system, or an intercity JR line, no, what they have is this goofy trolley system that slowly putters from place to place through all the city traffic. It took forever to get from our hotel to Miyajima on one of these things, maybe fifty minutes or so? But, coming back it was nice, because the trolleys are air conditioned, and we were all tired from trekking around, so the ride back was really a welcome rest. The hotel where we were staying was literally right next to the Hiroshima Peace Park, and the trolley ride did us all such good that instead of going back to the hotel, we got off the trolley at the A-Bomb Dome stop and immediately began sightseeing again.
The A-Bomb Dome is the bombed out remains of what used to be a government building; at the time the bomb was dropped, it was called the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall. The Dome was nearly right underneath the bomb, only about 150 meters away from the hypocenter, and is the closest building to that point that remained standing. All the land around the Dome has been converted into the Hiroshima Peace Park, and the Dome stands as a physical memory of the day an atomic bomb was dropped on the city. While Hiroshima has recovered, and is now a vibrant and lively metropolis, the Dome remains burnt and decrepit in the lush park, a tiny window into what was the devastation of an entire city.
There are several other monuments in the Peace Park. The most affecting of these, to me, is the memorial for Sadako Sasaki, a girl who contracted Leukemia as a result of exposure to radiation. A friend told Sadako about an old Japanese legend; that anyone who folded a thousand paper cranes would be granted a wish come true. Sadako, joined by friends and classmates, folded cranes all through the illness that eventually claimed her life. Her memorial in the Peace Park is surrounded by thousands of paper cranes, which arrive daily from around the world with messages of peace.
The Hiroshima Peace Memorial and the Museum were equally moving, the former being a place dedicated to the individual stories of the people who experienced the bomb, and the latter a thorough record of everything that happened before, during, and after the bomb was dropped. More than anything, every site in the Peace Park begs you to think about the individuals who suffered, and does not seek to place blame on anyone for the bombing. In fact, there is more recognition for Japan’s atrocities in the war than I expected to find. The main goal of the Peace Park is to raise awareness of the utter devastation caused by the bomb, and to impress upon visitors that it must never be allowed to happen again. It is a powerful, important place, and I’m so glad I got to see it before leaving Japan.
After Hiroshima, it was back to wonderful, decadent Tokyo for the last four days of our trip. We stayed in a delightful ryokan in Asakusa, equipped with its own sento on the top floor. The night we got in was pretty much shot as far as activities were concerned, but we did go to an okonomiyaki restaurant for dinner, which was well liked by all. I had the pizza-style okonomiyaki, which was very good, and Sam tried the curry-style. Mom even broke into a bottle of sake!
Everyone was so wiped that after dinner we didn’t even play cards before going to bed. For some reason, I always forget that my family (my mom and Sam in particular) are wild about cards. Every family vacation I can remember has always included copious amounts of card playing, and favorites for this trip included gin rummy and progressive rummy. Scrabble used to be quite popular as well, but after a certain ski vacation many of us lost our fondness for it, although my mother remains a voracious advocate for the game.
The next evening we had tickets to see the Chiba Marines battle the Softbank Hawks, so we hauled it on out to Chiba Marine Stadium (which is all the way out in Chiba). I think this was possibly the first major league baseball game I’d ever attended, and it was a good time! The chuhai girls, walking the aisles and hawking my favorite drink of Korean sake mixed with fruit and soda possibly made it a great time. Also, during the seventh inning stretch, we all let go of these balloons.
The rest of our time in Tokyo included trips to Akihabara, Harajuku, and Ueno. We did some shopping, we saw a nice temple in Harajuku, as well as posers and poseurs, and we gawked at electronics in Akihabara. All in all, it was a good taste of Tokyo, a city so large and multi-faceted it would probably take at least a year of living there to really know it all. I didn’t take my camera on this trip, so all the photos are care of my dad and his magical camera. Thanks Dad! It was a great trip, and a nice end to my year in Japan. Speaking of, I’ll be home in less than three weeks, people! I can’t wait to see all of you and hear what you’ve been up to since X-mas/you came to visit/college. Peace and love, my friends, peace and love.
Although, it may have been the umbrella he fell in love with, it’s difficult to tell from the picture. Sadly, that particular umbrella is no longer in my possession, as I foolishly left it at the hotel we stayed in Kyoto. But, I’m getting ahead of myself…
My parents and Sam came to visit about three weeks ago, so I took two weeks off from work so we could all tool around Japan together. Our first stop was the Jigokudani Monkey Park, in the northern part of Nagano-ken. I’d never been, so I was rather unprepared for just how rustic it is up there. Tatsuno is pretty backwater, but the little town where we stayed was like a backocean. Points of interest included the shabbiest onsen I’ve ever seen, the buses that stopped running at two in the afternoon, and the funny little one-car train we took from Nagano city to get there. Luckily, the ryokan where we stayed had a beautiful onsen on-site, which would have been nice to know before we bussed out to the middle of nowhere to enjoy the penurious one, not after. Not that I’m complaining! The ryokan was very sweet, and the owner cooked us a beautiful dinner, and early the next morning he drove us out to Jigokudani himself.
It’s a bit of a walk up to where the monkeys are, but being the fit, able-bodied people we are, it was a pleasant hike. The park is mostly forest and it was lovely and cool, being so early in the day. After about thirty minutes (including a wrong turn and some backtracking) we reached the caretaker’s cabin, which as of yet had no caretaker inside. Past the cabin, there are monkeys everywhere! Sleeping on the sign that indicates the entrance to the refuge, lounging all over the path, climbing on the roofs of the houses across the river, swinging over on the water lines, it was a monkey’s paradise!
The people who work for the park feed the monkey’s daily, so they (that is, the monkeys) are not afraid of humans at all. We stood around for a while, just watching them getting on with the business of being monkeys: working a monkey’s day, making a monkey’s dollar. I think I can safely say, now, that being a Japanese monkey would be a pretty sweet gig.
After Jigokudani, we spent a day traveling to Kyoto, where we visited Kinkakuji, Nijo Castle, and Ryoanji. Of these three places, Ryoanji was the only one I’d never seen before, and it was a very nice temple with a lovely garden, as well as a Zen rock garden. I still think that Nijo Castle is one of the coolest places to visit in Kyoto, though. That nightingale floor is supremely awesome, and in my mind castles will always be more interesting than temples.
After Kyoto it was on to Nara, and the deer and the big Buddha. The temple that houses the Buddha used to be one of the largest wooden structures in the world. Like every other structure built out of wood, it has burned down and been rebuilt (probably several times. I can’t remember now, but chances are if it’s a building and it’s made of wood, it’s not that old.) There’s a pillar in the temple with a hole through it, and apparently if you can fit through the hole, there’s a place for you in paradise. I decided I’d take my chances with paradise, since I was wearing a skirt, but Sam and my mom both managed to wiggle through. At least they’ll have each other, eh?
Mom gets lucky
Nara accomplished, it was on to Osaka! Everything we did in Osaka I’d done before, but since I love Osaka, it was all pleasure revisited. Our first evening there we hit up Spa World, which I believe I elaborated on the first time I went. Suffice it to say that it did not lose any of its grandeur the second time around, and I was pleased to be able to check out the Asian themed floor this time. It contains similar baths to the European themed floor, although there was no red wine bath, and no fish swimming around underneath our bums. Thankfully, there was mud.
The next day we rode the Ferris wheel and went to the aquarium. I said hello to the sunfish and the jellies, and reveled in the fact that I wasn’t wearing the boots I had worn the last time I was there. Much as I love fancy footwear, some things are just inappropriate for a visit to a large aquarium.
Kind of look like white blood cells, don’t they?
Our last morning in Osaka, we went to Osaka Castle. While it’s not the greatest castle in Japan, and is in fact a reconstruction, Osaka-jo’s got a few things going for it: 1. It’s in Osaka, possible number two best city in the country, 2. It’s got an entire floor of blades. Not swords, just sword blades, which are all wickedly sharp and occasionally engraved with fancy designs. 3. There’s a cool stamp machine on the second floor, where you can stamp a scrap of paper to prove to your friends and family that you did indeed go to Osaka Castle, and didn’t bring them back anything but a piece of paper you had stamped there. 4. One of the floors includes the entire genealogy of Hideyoshi Toyotomi’s family, going all the way back to the deities he descended from. If you have a soft spot in your heart for this would-be uniter of Japan, who toted around a golden tearoom and melted down weapons into…other things, you appreciate this kind of attention to detail. Osaka-jo, I salute you!
Hiroshima was next on our agenda, a city I had never visited before and was keen to see. The morning of our first day there, we headed out to Miyajima, a small island near the city, most famous for its “floating” torii gate. You can see the red temple gate from the ferry, and luckily the tide was high when we crossed, so the gate did appear to be floating out in the water. It was a fiercely hot day, but we walked up to the cable car station that carried us up, over the trees, to the mountainous island’s summit. There were a whole passel of monkeys up there as well, although they were much more languorous and sleepy than the Nagano monkeys, probably because it was so dang hot. If I had to sit around outside all day wearing a fuzzy fur coat in the blazing heat, I doubt I’d want to move around much, either. Miyajima completed, we headed back to the mainland.
Hiroshima doesn’t have a subway system, or an intercity JR line, no, what they have is this goofy trolley system that slowly putters from place to place through all the city traffic. It took forever to get from our hotel to Miyajima on one of these things, maybe fifty minutes or so? But, coming back it was nice, because the trolleys are air conditioned, and we were all tired from trekking around, so the ride back was really a welcome rest. The hotel where we were staying was literally right next to the Hiroshima Peace Park, and the trolley ride did us all such good that instead of going back to the hotel, we got off the trolley at the A-Bomb Dome stop and immediately began sightseeing again.
The A-Bomb Dome is the bombed out remains of what used to be a government building; at the time the bomb was dropped, it was called the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall. The Dome was nearly right underneath the bomb, only about 150 meters away from the hypocenter, and is the closest building to that point that remained standing. All the land around the Dome has been converted into the Hiroshima Peace Park, and the Dome stands as a physical memory of the day an atomic bomb was dropped on the city. While Hiroshima has recovered, and is now a vibrant and lively metropolis, the Dome remains burnt and decrepit in the lush park, a tiny window into what was the devastation of an entire city.
There are several other monuments in the Peace Park. The most affecting of these, to me, is the memorial for Sadako Sasaki, a girl who contracted Leukemia as a result of exposure to radiation. A friend told Sadako about an old Japanese legend; that anyone who folded a thousand paper cranes would be granted a wish come true. Sadako, joined by friends and classmates, folded cranes all through the illness that eventually claimed her life. Her memorial in the Peace Park is surrounded by thousands of paper cranes, which arrive daily from around the world with messages of peace.
The Hiroshima Peace Memorial and the Museum were equally moving, the former being a place dedicated to the individual stories of the people who experienced the bomb, and the latter a thorough record of everything that happened before, during, and after the bomb was dropped. More than anything, every site in the Peace Park begs you to think about the individuals who suffered, and does not seek to place blame on anyone for the bombing. In fact, there is more recognition for Japan’s atrocities in the war than I expected to find. The main goal of the Peace Park is to raise awareness of the utter devastation caused by the bomb, and to impress upon visitors that it must never be allowed to happen again. It is a powerful, important place, and I’m so glad I got to see it before leaving Japan.
After Hiroshima, it was back to wonderful, decadent Tokyo for the last four days of our trip. We stayed in a delightful ryokan in Asakusa, equipped with its own sento on the top floor. The night we got in was pretty much shot as far as activities were concerned, but we did go to an okonomiyaki restaurant for dinner, which was well liked by all. I had the pizza-style okonomiyaki, which was very good, and Sam tried the curry-style. Mom even broke into a bottle of sake!
Everyone was so wiped that after dinner we didn’t even play cards before going to bed. For some reason, I always forget that my family (my mom and Sam in particular) are wild about cards. Every family vacation I can remember has always included copious amounts of card playing, and favorites for this trip included gin rummy and progressive rummy. Scrabble used to be quite popular as well, but after a certain ski vacation many of us lost our fondness for it, although my mother remains a voracious advocate for the game.
The next evening we had tickets to see the Chiba Marines battle the Softbank Hawks, so we hauled it on out to Chiba Marine Stadium (which is all the way out in Chiba). I think this was possibly the first major league baseball game I’d ever attended, and it was a good time! The chuhai girls, walking the aisles and hawking my favorite drink of Korean sake mixed with fruit and soda possibly made it a great time. Also, during the seventh inning stretch, we all let go of these balloons.
The rest of our time in Tokyo included trips to Akihabara, Harajuku, and Ueno. We did some shopping, we saw a nice temple in Harajuku, as well as posers and poseurs, and we gawked at electronics in Akihabara. All in all, it was a good taste of Tokyo, a city so large and multi-faceted it would probably take at least a year of living there to really know it all. I didn’t take my camera on this trip, so all the photos are care of my dad and his magical camera. Thanks Dad! It was a great trip, and a nice end to my year in Japan. Speaking of, I’ll be home in less than three weeks, people! I can’t wait to see all of you and hear what you’ve been up to since X-mas/you came to visit/college. Peace and love, my friends, peace and love.