Golden Week
Part 1: Hamamatsu
Lake Hamana: A great place for biking.
The main point of our golden week trip was to take a Japanese class in Tōkyō. However, the class didn't start until Wednesday so we had from Saturday of the previous week through Tuesday of golden week to do anything we wanted. We decided it would be best to visit places that were on the way to Tōkyō for money saving purposes. After lots of deliberation and consulting Wikitravel/Wikipedia, we decided that we'd spend the first two nights in a city called Hamamatsu which is in Shizuoka prefecture.
Hamamatsu has a really famous lake called Lake Hamana that is famous not only for it's beauty but also as one of the main sources of eel (the kind I love to eat) in Japan. In addition, the downtown area is far more urban than anything Mie has ever seen so we got both nature and city. The city is famous for musical instrument production and is the world headquarters of Yamaha, Roland, and Kawai. It has a lot of factories and many of these factories employ guest workers so this makes the city more international than most Japanese cities. One benefit of said internationalization was the surprisingly authentic German beer hall just down the street from our hotel. There was also a Filipino restaurant Leizel was eager to try but it unfortunately was closed.
Saturday, April 28th
The first day was mainly spent traveling from Ise to Hamamatsu via the road less traveled (ferry and bus, as opposed to train), but that took up a big chunk of the day so we were pretty tired by the time we arrived in the evening. That night we went to the beer hall, a nice bookstore that had an excellent stationary section (Leizel's favorite), and then we just wondered around the downtown area. Hamamatsu, unlike basically anywhere in Mie, actually has universities so the entire city doesn't go to sleep by 9:00pm. It was a fun night just taking in the vibrance of the area and enjoying some big city perks like, in Leizel's case, take-out coffee.
Sunday, April 29th
The second day, our only full day in Hamamatsu, was the day we headed out to the lake. We had no idea what we were actually going to do but after learning of bike paths, Leizel had the brilliant idea to rent bikes, something we've always talked about doing but have never done. The bike trip around the lake was just fantastic, in fact it made this day the best day of the entire golden week holiday. We didn't circle the entire lake as it's extremely big but we biked a good 45km or so in a few hours with a stop in the middle. The color of the water in that lake is just gorgeous and unfortunately the camera doesn't capture it. The mountains in the background only add to it's beauty. It was a very pleasant trip. That night we ate eel at a restaurant that is supposedly the most famous eel restaurant in town. It was kind of expensive, but very good.
By this time we were extremely sad about having to leave Hamamatsu the next day. We both agree strongly that it would've been an ideal JET placement. Of course, Tōkyō or Osaka would've been ideal placements as they are the biggest cities, but in addition to the fact that they are super-busy and super-expensive, one main reason they're so fun is because we don't live there. Hamamatsu, on the other hand, is a larger mid-sized city that has an abundance of both urban and natural areas within the city limits. It also has an abundance of good food and culture. Combine this with the fact that it's in an extremely convenient location for getting basically anywhere in Japan due to it's placement on the single-most major train line in the country, and it quickly becomes clear that Hamamatsu would've been an essentially perfect place to live...there are many more reasons I could list to back this claim up.
Of course I love Ise, but when I go to other cities it's hard not to evaluate them in terms of how good they would've been as a JET placement. So far, Hamamatsu has the higest rating.
Part 2: Hakone
Lake Ashi with Mt. Fuji in the background. The peak of Mt. Fuji is over 40km (25 miles) away.
Since golden week is the number one time for traveling in Japan, touristy and vacation-ish kinds of places are often extremely crowded. Hamamatsu seems to be like Ohio in the way that nobody would go there for a holiday unless they had family there, except Leizel and I. This is one reason it worked out so nicely for us, it wasn't crowded at all.
However, the next place we went, Hakone, was a different story. Hakone is a haven of nature up in the mountains just outside of Tokyo. It has a ton of resort-style hotels that all have really nice onsen (public baths). The mixture of nature and a relaxing bath, which Japanese people are obsessed with, makes Hakone a very common place for Tokyoites when they want a temporary retreat from their ultra-industrial city. Needless to say, it was busy during golden week. We only had one day in Hakone, but I think we made the most of it.
Monday, April 30th
We ate breakfast in Hamamatsu then headed out on the bullet train from Hamamatsu to Odawara, a city that is very close to Hakone, then took the short train ride into Hakone. Luckily, our hotel was right across from the main station. We deposited our bags then headed off on the "Hakone Round Trip" as it's dubbed. It is a circular trip around the Hakone National Park area that utilizes six different modes of transportation:
Part 3: Tōkyō
Shibuya Station-front intersection: The world's single busiest pedestrian crossing.
Tuesday, May 1st
We had an amazing all-you-can-eat breakfast at the hotel in Hakone before checking out. Tōkyō was less than two hours away so we were there before noon and, since class started the next day, had quite a few hours to waste. After arriving, we got lunch in Ikebukuro at an Italian place that had excellent pizza. Then headed to our youth hostel which was in the Asakusa part of town. It was by far the smallest room I've ever seen. Smaller than my single dorm at Kent. It was a bunk bed with about a foot of extra space on the side, nothing more...but it sufficed for our five-night stay and was really close to a station that provided a direct connection to the train line that our language school was on. After the hostel, we headed to Odaiba for Cinnabon. The Cinnabon website claims otherwise, but I've been to these supposed locations in Osaka; I'm quite positive that the Tōkyō Odaiba location is the only Cinnabon in the entire country. To mark the occasion, I had 2 rolls. Odaiba is a small man-made island in Tōkyō bay that has a crazy mall with lots of foreign food, Sony's official showroom, Toyota's official showroom, a ferris wheel, a concert venue, and some other fun stuff. After Cinnabon, we hit the ferris wheel. Of city night views, you absolutely cannot beat Tōkyō...you've got to see it to believe it. Then it was back to the hostel.
Wednesday, May 2nd
First day of school. We got up fine and everything to get there in time, but......things went wrong. For the first time since I've been in Japan, my ability to find a building/hotel/station by memorizing the map in advance failed me, completely failed me. The school headmaster had to come and meet us at a nearby landmark then take us there himself. It was one of the most embarrassing moments in my life because I place such high confidence in my ability to get anywhere. I admit, memorizing the map in advance and not bringing one along is silly, arrogant actually...but I'm going to go ahead and say I've earned the right to be arrogant in regards to my sense of direction. Once we finally got to school, we were unfortunately placed in different rooms...but a room away is better than an hour (like in Mie). The class was good...very useful, I thought. Class was only 4 hours (from 9 to 1), so we had the whole afternoon to do whatever we want, it was a really good deal. We went to Shibuya, ate at Friday's (I don't really care for Friday's at home, but it's so much better when it's the only American food you've had in the last nine months). We enjoyed ourselves in Shibuya, which is a very interesting and lively place, before heading to Leizel's absolute favorite place in the entire world: Cold Stone Creamery...they just opened one in Tōkyō last year. The first time we went back on a Sunday in September the line was over an hour long (ridiculous). Since this was a weekday, it was much shorter. After that we headed back to the hostel. We got dinner at a place called Yoshinoya, the Japanese fast food. It's beef marinated in soy sauce over white rice. Quick, cheap, and much better than McDonald's could ever be.
Thursday, May 3rd
Second day of school, we made sure we were the first people there to make up for being the only ones late on the first day (and we were early every subsequent day as well). Class was good, lots of speaking practice with grammar patterns I already knew well in reading/writing but didn't use so often in speaking. This is exactly what I was hoping for from the class. After class we met the teacher from my Ise Japanese class who had just moved to Tōkyō a month prior. Her husband, who now works a crazy government job, came along too since it was national holiday (golden week), so we had a mini double-date at a ramen shop in Ikebukuro. We'd never hung out before, just talked sometimes in class, so we kind of ran out of things to talk about by the end but it was good Japanese practice. From there we moved straight onto Japanese practice part 2. We went directly to Shinjuku to meet one of our five good friends from college and her Mother who happened to be in town. This girl, Sayaka, has phenomenal English despite the fact that it's been four years since she came to America, but her Mom didn't speak any so it was mostly in Japanese. Her Mom was very talkative and so we had no problem keep conversations going. After this we went to the Shinjuku Kinokuniya, Japan's largest bookstore, but surprisingly didn't buy much. I was so overwhelmed with the amount of study materials available. I literally couldn't choose between them without hours of examining them all. After that it was back to Odaiba for Round 2 of Cinnabon, plus dinner at Tex-Mex-themed restaurant. Leizel went for Mexican food, my least favorite type of cooking...but they had plenty of other stuff as well.
Friday, May 4th
My first May 4th (shooting anniversary) not at Kent State in five years, kind of odd. We weren't sure what we were doing after class today, but ended up running into the other people in the class on the way to the station so we went to lunch with them. Even though this was an open class, every single person enrolled was a JET. So we got to talk to people who're similar situations and experiences as us but have been placed in different corners of Japan, it was good. It was especially nice to hang out with a group of foreigners that actually had a grasp of the Japanese language, something which seems to be rare in Mie. We headed back to the hostel early for a nap, we hadn't had an adequate amount of sleep since leaving on this grand golden week trip and Tōkyō especially demanded a lot of energy. That night we ate dinner at Denny's. For those that don't already know, Denny's is 1) everywhere in Japan and 2) not anything like Denny's at home...but it's got some good stuff.
Saturday, May 5th
Today after class was our long-planned day to meet with our friends from college. We met one of them, Sayaka, earlier in the week so we could meet her mother, but today was the day we met the other three, Kanae, Tomona, and Megumi. The last one, Kayo, unfortunately moved away from Tōkyō two years ago back to her hometown (she's the "friend from college" we were visiting in January). Our friends have a serious habit of being late, like really late...this has been true as long as we've known them. We were schedule to meet at 2:00, but only one of them could make it at that time. Another showed up at 3:15, the last one didn't come until after 4:00. It was OK though. We met up in Harajuku (at 2:00), ate lunch at a diner-style place. After they all showed up, we walked to Shibuya (it's really close) and hung out for awhile. We went to the Tower Records in Shibuya which has an awesome bookstore, and both Leizel and I spent some money on books and study materials. Then we ate dinner at Friday's (again). Overall we hung out with our friends for 6 or 7 hours which was really nice. Even though our friends are quite different from us (in terms of interests and life-style), we never run out of things to talk about. After parting with our friends we tried to do Round 2 of Cold Stone Creamery for Leizel but we were turned away because it was closed...it was kind of silly actually because if we'd literally been 15 seconds earlier we would've been fine, we arrived just as it closed. We vowed to get revenge the next day before we caught the train back to Mie.
Sunday, May 6th
Last day, we finally broke and had McDonald's (for breakfast). Had our last day of class, said goodbye to the class people, then headed quickly to Cold Stone Creamery for revenge. Round 2 of Cold Stone Creamery was over, so from there we went straight to catch the bullet train home. I didn't get home until around 9:30pm, just in time to go to sleep to teach first period the next day.
The End
Moral of the story: Golden week is a great thing.
Lake Hamana: A great place for biking.
The main point of our golden week trip was to take a Japanese class in Tōkyō. However, the class didn't start until Wednesday so we had from Saturday of the previous week through Tuesday of golden week to do anything we wanted. We decided it would be best to visit places that were on the way to Tōkyō for money saving purposes. After lots of deliberation and consulting Wikitravel/Wikipedia, we decided that we'd spend the first two nights in a city called Hamamatsu which is in Shizuoka prefecture.
Hamamatsu has a really famous lake called Lake Hamana that is famous not only for it's beauty but also as one of the main sources of eel (the kind I love to eat) in Japan. In addition, the downtown area is far more urban than anything Mie has ever seen so we got both nature and city. The city is famous for musical instrument production and is the world headquarters of Yamaha, Roland, and Kawai. It has a lot of factories and many of these factories employ guest workers so this makes the city more international than most Japanese cities. One benefit of said internationalization was the surprisingly authentic German beer hall just down the street from our hotel. There was also a Filipino restaurant Leizel was eager to try but it unfortunately was closed.
Saturday, April 28th
The first day was mainly spent traveling from Ise to Hamamatsu via the road less traveled (ferry and bus, as opposed to train), but that took up a big chunk of the day so we were pretty tired by the time we arrived in the evening. That night we went to the beer hall, a nice bookstore that had an excellent stationary section (Leizel's favorite), and then we just wondered around the downtown area. Hamamatsu, unlike basically anywhere in Mie, actually has universities so the entire city doesn't go to sleep by 9:00pm. It was a fun night just taking in the vibrance of the area and enjoying some big city perks like, in Leizel's case, take-out coffee.
Sunday, April 29th
The second day, our only full day in Hamamatsu, was the day we headed out to the lake. We had no idea what we were actually going to do but after learning of bike paths, Leizel had the brilliant idea to rent bikes, something we've always talked about doing but have never done. The bike trip around the lake was just fantastic, in fact it made this day the best day of the entire golden week holiday. We didn't circle the entire lake as it's extremely big but we biked a good 45km or so in a few hours with a stop in the middle. The color of the water in that lake is just gorgeous and unfortunately the camera doesn't capture it. The mountains in the background only add to it's beauty. It was a very pleasant trip. That night we ate eel at a restaurant that is supposedly the most famous eel restaurant in town. It was kind of expensive, but very good.
By this time we were extremely sad about having to leave Hamamatsu the next day. We both agree strongly that it would've been an ideal JET placement. Of course, Tōkyō or Osaka would've been ideal placements as they are the biggest cities, but in addition to the fact that they are super-busy and super-expensive, one main reason they're so fun is because we don't live there. Hamamatsu, on the other hand, is a larger mid-sized city that has an abundance of both urban and natural areas within the city limits. It also has an abundance of good food and culture. Combine this with the fact that it's in an extremely convenient location for getting basically anywhere in Japan due to it's placement on the single-most major train line in the country, and it quickly becomes clear that Hamamatsu would've been an essentially perfect place to live...there are many more reasons I could list to back this claim up.
Of course I love Ise, but when I go to other cities it's hard not to evaluate them in terms of how good they would've been as a JET placement. So far, Hamamatsu has the higest rating.
Part 2: Hakone
Lake Ashi with Mt. Fuji in the background. The peak of Mt. Fuji is over 40km (25 miles) away.
Since golden week is the number one time for traveling in Japan, touristy and vacation-ish kinds of places are often extremely crowded. Hamamatsu seems to be like Ohio in the way that nobody would go there for a holiday unless they had family there, except Leizel and I. This is one reason it worked out so nicely for us, it wasn't crowded at all.
However, the next place we went, Hakone, was a different story. Hakone is a haven of nature up in the mountains just outside of Tokyo. It has a ton of resort-style hotels that all have really nice onsen (public baths). The mixture of nature and a relaxing bath, which Japanese people are obsessed with, makes Hakone a very common place for Tokyoites when they want a temporary retreat from their ultra-industrial city. Needless to say, it was busy during golden week. We only had one day in Hakone, but I think we made the most of it.
Monday, April 30th
We ate breakfast in Hamamatsu then headed out on the bullet train from Hamamatsu to Odawara, a city that is very close to Hakone, then took the short train ride into Hakone. Luckily, our hotel was right across from the main station. We deposited our bags then headed off on the "Hakone Round Trip" as it's dubbed. It is a circular trip around the Hakone National Park area that utilizes six different modes of transportation:
- Train - We took a special train line up from the village into the mountains. To get up the mountain the train occasionally did what is called a "switch-back" where the train is led into a small parking area, the driver walks to the other end of the train, and then the train is basically backed out of the parking area and then goes up a different track.
- Cablecar - This is a perfectly straight train line on a fairly steep incline that isn't powered by electricity but by a serious cable that pulls the heavy train straight up the mountain.
- Ropeway - Kind of like a ski-lift but covered. Incredible view of the mountains. At the crest of the ropeway you can see Mt. Fuji.
- Boat - The ropeway drops you off right next to Hakone's famous mountain lake, Lake Ashi. It was very beautiful, but I think Lake Hamana was even prettier. Then you can ride a big boat the length of the lake. At the other side is a small mountain village.
- Walking - There is a nice walkway between where the boat lets you off and another small village that was maybe a mile away. You can walk through an old cedar forest, a historic gateway that used to mark the border between central Japan and eastern Japan, and a small hill which offers a nice view of the lake. The picture above was taken from this hill. Leizel and I stayed there for at least an hour waiting for the sun to go down, during which we took lots of sunset pictures of the lake with Mt. Fuji in the background. The whole day had been pretty crowded up until this point, but we were finally able to separate ourselves from the rest of the travelers during the walk.
- Bus - Near the end of a walking trail is a stop on a bus line that conveniently takes you all the way back to the start of the whole trip.
Part 3: Tōkyō
Shibuya Station-front intersection: The world's single busiest pedestrian crossing.
Tuesday, May 1st
We had an amazing all-you-can-eat breakfast at the hotel in Hakone before checking out. Tōkyō was less than two hours away so we were there before noon and, since class started the next day, had quite a few hours to waste. After arriving, we got lunch in Ikebukuro at an Italian place that had excellent pizza. Then headed to our youth hostel which was in the Asakusa part of town. It was by far the smallest room I've ever seen. Smaller than my single dorm at Kent. It was a bunk bed with about a foot of extra space on the side, nothing more...but it sufficed for our five-night stay and was really close to a station that provided a direct connection to the train line that our language school was on. After the hostel, we headed to Odaiba for Cinnabon. The Cinnabon website claims otherwise, but I've been to these supposed locations in Osaka; I'm quite positive that the Tōkyō Odaiba location is the only Cinnabon in the entire country. To mark the occasion, I had 2 rolls. Odaiba is a small man-made island in Tōkyō bay that has a crazy mall with lots of foreign food, Sony's official showroom, Toyota's official showroom, a ferris wheel, a concert venue, and some other fun stuff. After Cinnabon, we hit the ferris wheel. Of city night views, you absolutely cannot beat Tōkyō...you've got to see it to believe it. Then it was back to the hostel.
Wednesday, May 2nd
First day of school. We got up fine and everything to get there in time, but......things went wrong. For the first time since I've been in Japan, my ability to find a building/hotel/station by memorizing the map in advance failed me, completely failed me. The school headmaster had to come and meet us at a nearby landmark then take us there himself. It was one of the most embarrassing moments in my life because I place such high confidence in my ability to get anywhere. I admit, memorizing the map in advance and not bringing one along is silly, arrogant actually...but I'm going to go ahead and say I've earned the right to be arrogant in regards to my sense of direction. Once we finally got to school, we were unfortunately placed in different rooms...but a room away is better than an hour (like in Mie). The class was good...very useful, I thought. Class was only 4 hours (from 9 to 1), so we had the whole afternoon to do whatever we want, it was a really good deal. We went to Shibuya, ate at Friday's (I don't really care for Friday's at home, but it's so much better when it's the only American food you've had in the last nine months). We enjoyed ourselves in Shibuya, which is a very interesting and lively place, before heading to Leizel's absolute favorite place in the entire world: Cold Stone Creamery...they just opened one in Tōkyō last year. The first time we went back on a Sunday in September the line was over an hour long (ridiculous). Since this was a weekday, it was much shorter. After that we headed back to the hostel. We got dinner at a place called Yoshinoya, the Japanese fast food. It's beef marinated in soy sauce over white rice. Quick, cheap, and much better than McDonald's could ever be.
Thursday, May 3rd
Second day of school, we made sure we were the first people there to make up for being the only ones late on the first day (and we were early every subsequent day as well). Class was good, lots of speaking practice with grammar patterns I already knew well in reading/writing but didn't use so often in speaking. This is exactly what I was hoping for from the class. After class we met the teacher from my Ise Japanese class who had just moved to Tōkyō a month prior. Her husband, who now works a crazy government job, came along too since it was national holiday (golden week), so we had a mini double-date at a ramen shop in Ikebukuro. We'd never hung out before, just talked sometimes in class, so we kind of ran out of things to talk about by the end but it was good Japanese practice. From there we moved straight onto Japanese practice part 2. We went directly to Shinjuku to meet one of our five good friends from college and her Mother who happened to be in town. This girl, Sayaka, has phenomenal English despite the fact that it's been four years since she came to America, but her Mom didn't speak any so it was mostly in Japanese. Her Mom was very talkative and so we had no problem keep conversations going. After this we went to the Shinjuku Kinokuniya, Japan's largest bookstore, but surprisingly didn't buy much. I was so overwhelmed with the amount of study materials available. I literally couldn't choose between them without hours of examining them all. After that it was back to Odaiba for Round 2 of Cinnabon, plus dinner at Tex-Mex-themed restaurant. Leizel went for Mexican food, my least favorite type of cooking...but they had plenty of other stuff as well.
Friday, May 4th
My first May 4th (shooting anniversary) not at Kent State in five years, kind of odd. We weren't sure what we were doing after class today, but ended up running into the other people in the class on the way to the station so we went to lunch with them. Even though this was an open class, every single person enrolled was a JET. So we got to talk to people who're similar situations and experiences as us but have been placed in different corners of Japan, it was good. It was especially nice to hang out with a group of foreigners that actually had a grasp of the Japanese language, something which seems to be rare in Mie. We headed back to the hostel early for a nap, we hadn't had an adequate amount of sleep since leaving on this grand golden week trip and Tōkyō especially demanded a lot of energy. That night we ate dinner at Denny's. For those that don't already know, Denny's is 1) everywhere in Japan and 2) not anything like Denny's at home...but it's got some good stuff.
Saturday, May 5th
Today after class was our long-planned day to meet with our friends from college. We met one of them, Sayaka, earlier in the week so we could meet her mother, but today was the day we met the other three, Kanae, Tomona, and Megumi. The last one, Kayo, unfortunately moved away from Tōkyō two years ago back to her hometown (she's the "friend from college" we were visiting in January). Our friends have a serious habit of being late, like really late...this has been true as long as we've known them. We were schedule to meet at 2:00, but only one of them could make it at that time. Another showed up at 3:15, the last one didn't come until after 4:00. It was OK though. We met up in Harajuku (at 2:00), ate lunch at a diner-style place. After they all showed up, we walked to Shibuya (it's really close) and hung out for awhile. We went to the Tower Records in Shibuya which has an awesome bookstore, and both Leizel and I spent some money on books and study materials. Then we ate dinner at Friday's (again). Overall we hung out with our friends for 6 or 7 hours which was really nice. Even though our friends are quite different from us (in terms of interests and life-style), we never run out of things to talk about. After parting with our friends we tried to do Round 2 of Cold Stone Creamery for Leizel but we were turned away because it was closed...it was kind of silly actually because if we'd literally been 15 seconds earlier we would've been fine, we arrived just as it closed. We vowed to get revenge the next day before we caught the train back to Mie.
Sunday, May 6th
Last day, we finally broke and had McDonald's (for breakfast). Had our last day of class, said goodbye to the class people, then headed quickly to Cold Stone Creamery for revenge. Round 2 of Cold Stone Creamery was over, so from there we went straight to catch the bullet train home. I didn't get home until around 9:30pm, just in time to go to sleep to teach first period the next day.
The End
Moral of the story: Golden week is a great thing.