Japan

Some notes about our trip:

This trip was actually a business trip for Karen. She offered to go to Japan to head up a project for her company (URS Corp) at Yokota Air Force Base outside of Tokyo, so we figured it would be a great chance for us to do some touring and sightseeing as well. Karen was actually there for a week and a half before I joined her for another 10 days. We took quite a few pictures and I've posted a small portion on this page. Many of the outdoor shots were a bit dark, since it was raining quite a bit.

A few highlights:

-The weekend I arrived we headed over to Kyoto, which is west of Tokyo. We rode the Shinkansen (bullet train) from Tokyo which was a pretty cool 2.5 hour trip. The train runs at about 180 MPH and is incredibly smooth. You don't realize how quickly you are moving until you pass another bullet train headed the other direction. The trains are probably a quarter of a mile long and you pass the other train in about 3 seconds. We stayed in a really nice, new hotel (Hotel Granvia) located above the train station, which is an architectural marvel in itself. The pictures I have don't remotely do it justice due to the magnitude of the structure.

We spent two days visiting many temples and pretty much touring Kyoto on foot and by subway. I think we got to see a lot of the real culture that people stuck on tourbuses miss out on, but of course our tired feet payed the price.

-The Japanese are way ahead of us in personal electronics, something which probably should not have come as a surprise. Everyone has internet/email enabled cell phones, which are generally much smaller than the cell phones here in the US. It was almost unusual to see a student riding the train lines without a set of headphones connected to an MD (mini disc) player. Many cars have small displays in them mounted on the dash or console which I believe are intended as navigational aids (they have GPS/mapping abilities), but are sometimes used for entertainment (I saw a few people watching baseball games while speeding down the highway).

-For an incredibly over-populated city, Tokyo is very clean. Recycling bins are probably more common than trash cans (which was at times frustrating when we had non-recyclable trash). They have vending machines along the streets everywhere selling soft drinks, tea, coffee and beer (yes beer.) Anyone for a refreshing Pocari Sweat? It gives you pleasure during your special break time. (English advertising written by the Japanese sometimes comes out a bit odd in translation... :-)

-Mass-transit in Japan is so far ahead of the US it's embarrassing. You could get to within a few blocks of just about anywhere in the Tokyo area on a train or subway and you never have to wait more than 3-4 minutes for a train. I traveled from our hotel North-west of Tokyo into Tokyo, Yokohama and other areas with absolutely no problems. If you ever go to Japan and are planning to travel by rail, be sure to get a Japan Rail Pass prior to departing the US. It allows unlimited use of all rail lines (but not subway) for less than $300 (for a 7 day pass). The trip to Kyoto alone was $130 one-way. (BTW, you can purchase a Japan Rail Pass through many travel agents, especially those that specialize in Rail Passes.)

-Restaurants in Japan all have plastic replicas of their food in their front windows along with prices. This allows you to "window-shop" the restaurants before going inside, and also allows you to point at what you want if the waiter/waitress speaks as poor of English as you do Japanese. Most Japanese speak some English and even more can read English. When someone could not quite understand us, we could often write it down on paper and they could then understand what we were saying/asking.

A few lowlights:

-Don't go to Japan in June/July if you can go at another time of the year. It was very humid and rained about 3-4 of the days I was there. It rained more frequently right before I arrived (while Karen was working there.) And it's pretty hot (low 80's), so the humidity feels even worse. Spring or Fall are definitely better times to go.

-Don't plan to climb Mt Fuji unless you have a lot of time and a rental car (which is generally not recommended). You need to arrive at about 10 at night in order to get to the top in time to have a good view at sunrise. It is apparently quite crowded with locals and there is a pathway leading all the way up. Karen and I had planned to climb Fuji but changed our minds after discovering all of the logistical problems.

-The club scene in Tokyo is pretty poor. We went to the supposed "hot spot" (a section of Tokyo called Roppongi) and hit several clubs only to find expensive drinks, idiotic foreigners (not the Japanese, usually Americans) and no real dancing. Of course we may just not have known the right places to go.

Overall though, the trip was excellent. It is not by any means a "relaxing" trip, but it is a wonderful cultural experience. After a while, the sheer pace and number of people can get a bit overwhelming. It can be difficult to get away from people, unless you don't mind visiting temples in the rain. :-)

Pictures

Interior of the Bullet Train on our way to Kyoto	Temple in Kyoto	Temple in Kyoto		Temple Garden in Kyoto
Sand sculpture at a Temple in Kyoto	A long canal-side pathway in Kyoto		Karen in our hotel room in Kyto	Blayne with some volunteer tour guides in a Kyoto Palace
	Karen with our tour-guides in front of Sake kegs	Bullet train leaving the station	View outside of our Kyoto hotel room	Students in the Kyoto train station
A well-groomed of Tokyo resident we noticed in a park	Kyoto botanical gardens

	vending machine (click to read text)	read text about coffee read text about soft drinks	plastic entree's outside of a restaurant	What country are we in??
Vending machines on a street in Kytoto, including Asahi Beer
Top level of theKyoto train/subway station where our hotel (Granvia) was also located. Truly amazing engineering and architecture	Electronics district in Tokyo	Electronics district in Tokyo	Temple near Asakura with thousands of little statues representing children that had died
japanese fashion statement - extremely tall shoes	A Toyota 4Runner called a Toyota Surf in Japan	Honda minivan which I thought was much cooler looking than American minivans	Great Budha