Back to Scotland - Driving to the Highlands

I know I'm jumping around here. I'm sorry! I don't want the Scotland pictures to get buried, but maybe once they've been up for awhile, I'll change the dates and file them according to when the trip actually happened.

These pictures are the beginning of the second half of our trip. After exploring Edinburgh on foot, we rented a car and drove up to Inverness then onto Isle of Skye. These pictures are from the drive to Inverness. It was scary and Yui was a bit nervous about driving on the wrong side of the road, but it didn't take him too long to get used to the differences between Scottish roads and Canadian roads. K snoozed away in the backseat. It was a beautiful drive!

To see more pictures from this drive, along with descriptions, go to:

Driving to Inverness on Flickr

Calton Hill

One of our adventures in Edinburgh was wondering around downtown and Calton Hill. Calton Hill looks out over the city from the opposite end of central area to where the castle. Edinburgh is such a beautiful city, we could have just looked out over the city for hours. K, on the other hand, would have had other things to say about that though, I'm sure! :)

(Sure, he can take pictures of other people, but doesn't like it when he's on the other side of the camera! ;) )

京都！ Next up...Kyoto!

Leaving Aunt Yuko and Uncle Shoji was difficult. Even though we'd only spent a couple of days with the them, I really felt like I was part of the family. Aunt Yuko's kindness more than made up for the fact that I couldn't understand her words. Family truly is a language unto itself. It was difficult for Yui because of all the memories that our time with family had brought back.

It was time to move onto the honeymoon portion of the trip, though and more good memories lie ahead for us! We took the train to Kyoto where we had booked a week at a hostel with a private room and shower. (Very important!) We had decided to spend the majority of our day with Aunt Yuko and Uncle Shoji, so we didn't get to Kyoto until about six or seven that evening. Not having used the delivery system this time, we arrived at Kyoto station with all our bags in tow. We had to pull out the maps to find the place...and we did. It was tucked away on a quiet side street, not too far from the station. It was close enough, but with all our bags the walk was a bit longer than it would be on subsequent trips.

It was with trepidation we approached the hostel, but all fears were quickly allayed. The Tour Club was clean, the staff friendly and the mattresses inviting. We ate the eggs that we had got at the mountain earlier in the day and then got some sleep to get ready for our first day as real tourists!

ジェン

Hakone

We spent most of our last day in the Tsujido area with Aunt Yuko and Uncle Shoji. They decided to treat us to a visit to Hakone, which is home to the famous Mr. Fuji. Or Mt. Fuji. Hakone is a mountain range, and has many hot springs, which are very popular in Japan. In fact, our first stop was an onsen or hot spring. Aunt Yuko made reservations for us in a private bath. With a private resesrvation, we were able to go into the bath together. And yes, we bathed traditionally. ;)

(A note about Japanese hot springs - bathing is very different in Japan. It is done communally and onsens are a very popular activity. Usually women and men are separated - there are separate change rooms. You remove all your clothing and store it. Then you move on to the shower area where you soap up, and thoroughly. An unfortunate reality of being gaijin (foreigner) in Japan is that you get attention. And in a place where you are naked (and a bit overweight!) you can count on being watched - you must clean yourself thoroughly as you will watched! Once you are clean and no longer soapy, you can move into the bath where you soak. Ahhh...heaven!)

After the hot springs, Uncle Shoji took us up a mountain to try to see Mt. Fuji. The mountain road was about 2.5km long with about 25 "s" turns and very tiny little guardrails. It may have been the scariest drive of my life - and thankfully there was no oncoming traffic! At the top, there was a tiny restaurant. We were able to see a mountain that may have been Mt. Fuji, but it is very misty during the spring time, so it was hard to tell if it was really Fuji-san himself. :D

We also travelled to a another kind of hot spring - jigoku or hell. These are NOT for bathing! :) In fact, they are so hot, that they boil eggs! At the hot spring that we went to, you could see the boxes of eggs being sent up on a pulley system. Once at the top of the mountain, the eggs are sent to an untimely end via boilage. Poor egg. Yummy, poor egg.

Today's pictures

ジェン

From Kanazawa to Tsujido

On our last day in Kanazawa, Yui’s uncle, Akio, took us through the temple that is attached to their home. The temple has a lot of history and is linked to the Maeda family - a famous samurai family from that area. I can’t really tell you more as I didn’t understand any of the story and it was difficult for Yui to translate. Akio-san took us from the altar into the “realm of the priest” or the area behind the altar where normally only priests are allowed to go. This area had statues of the deities associated with that “sect” of Buddhism. There are so many layers of teacher and student in Buddhism; it is difficult to keep track of who taught whom. I think I would have to take a course to keep it all straight!
After the tour, we had to make our way to the station. We had the longest train ride of the trip ahead of. Having learned a few lessons the last time, though, we sent the luggage ahead of us via a delivery company and we made darn sure we knew exactly where all the cars were stopping! Saying good-bye to Aunt Yoshiko was a bit more emotional for both of us than we thought. I’ve said good-bye to family before, but never to family that lives so far away.
The trip took us to Tsujido, a surburb of the suburb Yokohama. Yui’s Aunt Yuko lives in Tsujido wth her husband Shoji and her daughter Yumiko. Sachiko came to meet us at the station with her husband Tomoteru. The train ride took up a big part of the day, so there wasn’t much time to do anything when we arrived in Tsujido - or so we thought! In Japan, you can always squeeze in more things to do! Before going to Aunt Yuko’s, we went to visit another cousin that Yui hadn’t seen for nearly 20 years! We spent some good time chatting, catching up and of course, eating!
The eating contiued when we finally arrived at Aunt Yuko’s and ate some more okonomiyaki! Aunt Yuko’s third daughter, Tomoko, was cooking okonomiyaki for us on the hotplate in their living room. Tomoko, by the way, is a brain surgeon. For what may have been the first time in my life, I refused food. :O We had eaten cookies at Mitsuteru’s, and then he brought out dessert, so after a couple pieces of okonomiyaki, I was SO FULL!
After dinner, jet-lag was setting in quite heavily so it was time to make our way upstairs (where our luggage was patiently awaiting us!) to settle in for the night. Once more, we were treated to Japanese style accomodations, including cuddly, warm feather duvets. Mmm...zzzzzzzzz

Today's photos

ジェン

Our Own Personal Tour Guide

Kayo-chan (Yui’s cousin) acted as our guide and showing us around Kanazawa. We went to many of the most famous places such as 兼六園 (Ken-roku-en). This is one of the “big three” most famous gardens in Japan. It was gorgeous, and of all the places we visited, I think we spent the most time there. It wasn’t the stereotypical calm Japanese garden that we always see, especially with all the tourists, but it was full of trees, which are a lot less common in Japan than in Canada. It was there that Kayo and Yui realized that they have the same camera - right down to the lens!
We also visited the castle and an old samurai town that has been redone to look like it did in the past. Now it looks like one of the pricier places to live in Kanazawa. It’s very nice! We also walked through the old geisha sector and Starbucks. The geisha sector is very similar to those in Kyoto, but with fewer tourists. In Kanazawa, you can imagine that you have been transported back in time, unlike in Kyoto. With a personal tour guide we also learned about cool things; such as the path that the workers from the shrine used to take to get to the geisha sector so that no one would see them!
I’m sure the highlight of the day for Yui was seeing me in the market where fruits, vegetables, meat and seafood in various states of “aliveness” are sold. :S It’s amazing how disgusting yummy shrimp look in their natural state. And did you know that crabs blow bubbles when they are drowning? :P
That night we went to an izakaya (いざかや) or a Japanese pub. We ate yakitori (chicken on a stick), korokke (Japanese croquettes...mmmmm...), kimchi, sashimi (raw fish), beef sashimi (raw beef - Yui did, I couldn’t help but think of crazy cows!) and others. It was so yummy! おいしかった！And we’re pretty sure that one of the staff was trying to hit on me, but since his only English phrase was “maple syrup,” I think our marriage is safe.
One of the highlights of the day was spending time with Kayo herself. She is so easy-going and a bit sarcastic, even. We had a lot of fun with her and even though I didn’t speak her language, we were able to communicate and make jokes.

ジェン

到着 Arrival

MARCH 11 & 12, 2008

It’s a long ride. There is no way around it. 18 hours travel time, and at least 14 of those in the air. It’s a long ride. It started at 8 AM on March 11th and ended at 5:45 PM on the 12th - local time. With all the time zones, who knows what the actual time was. And you’re not supposed to think about that anyway. We may have slept for 2 hours at the most, but it was very difficult with no leg room and a plane FULL of children and many of them crying.

One of my old students, Tomomi, met us at the airport in Osaka and took us to our hotel. We had a map. We thought we’d be okay. If Tomomi hadn’t met us, we might still be looking for our hotel. We dropped off our stuff and off to お好み焼 (okonomiyaki) for dinner. I had been dreaming about okonomiyaki for 6 years - and Tomomi remembered me talking about it. Sweet girl! The hotel was pretty nice - quiet considering its location and a decent amount of space for Japan. And a WICKED bathtub. The best one of the trip. :)

At this point we were feeling a mixture of exhaustion and extreme excitement. Everything was new and different and I think we were both looking for familiar sights and sounds. (I know I was!)

ジェン