Visitors

This past week, my parents came out to visit me in Japan! (Hi mom and dad! Hee hee) It was definitely... hm, interesting haha.

I was originally going to say snarky things about it, but when I came home to an empty house, it hit me a little hard. I guess I do miss them a lot after all. That they came all the way out to my little house in the country town is really kinda touching for me, even if traveling with them was a bit stressful at times.

Wednesday after work, I caught the shinkansen up to Kyoto, where we were staying for a few days before traveling down to Takahashi. Some stupid idea popped into my head when I was waiting for the shinkansen. I was waiting in line for the nozomi train - the fastest shinkansen - when I noticed that the Hikari train (the fastest train that people with the rail pass can take, and generally the second fastest, while the kodama tends to be the slowest and stops at the most stations) had no people in it, while the nozomi was probably going to be very crowded. So hey, I figured, I'll just catch the hikari because it's not *that* much slower than the nozomi, and while it stops at more stations, that shouldn't add that much time onto it... right?

WRONG SO WRONG. Not only did it stop at all the stations between Okayama and Kyoto, but it also waited at said stations for sometimes up to 15 minutes! I watched THREE trains pass us at one station. THREE. OMG WAT. I was so angry, haha, but it turns out I timed it pretty well, because I arrived at the shuttle stop a few minutes before my parents did (which according to my mother, was a good thing, since they might have missed it otherwise, which sounds plausible to me).

We only stayed in Kyoto for a day and a half more, but I felt like almost every moment was packed! We trekked out to Arashiyama to see the monkeys - and holy cow, there were a TON of monkeys. You have to climb up a small mountain/large hill to get to the monkeys though (and I can proudly say that I am in better shape than my mother, and not too far behind my father but that's okay because he runs every day and I... I sleep). So worth it! We went right around noon, so there were a ton of monkeys hanging around (lols) despite our prior worries about them being cloistered away due to the sporadic showers we were having (I got a super cute umbrella out of it though!).

There must have been like... twenty monkeys. Or well, to be proper, Japanese Macaques. Macaques! The potato and hot spring primates! That's the same kind of monkey as Imo (the macaque who first introduced the phenomena of washing potatoes in the ocean to add a salty flavor to it - also HA I totally understand the name now. Clever scientists.). I saw a macaque hitting two rocks together (tools!) and geeked out a little bit. Or a lot of bit. You don't understand (or maybe you do?). Cognitive Science (one of my majors) was like... 40% stuff about primates (mostly chimpanzees, bonobos, and some macaques and orangutans). I detest primates now because of that, but seeing them in person was pretty crazy.

After the mountain, we decided that we would go check out some of the shops and then some of the shops along the street and then walk over to the oldschool shopping area in the Arashiyama district. The tentative plan was to do that, and then head over to the Gion district to hopefully see it at night (and unbeknowst to me, if I had bothered to read the signs earlier, I would have noticed that that whole area was doing a special light up that we could have gone to. REGRETS, I HAS THEM).

Unfortunately, walking over to that district was a very... not great idea seeing as how we were a) somewhat on a time schedule and b) my mother has a stamina bar that decreases as she walks and decreases at a faster rate when going up or down stairs. Don't get me wrong, the area was pretty, but I wish we had gotten a taxi or something... By the time we got there, most of the shops were closing up since it was nearly 5 -- and all things that are country-esque or oldtimey Japan-esque (and government buildings and banks) close around 4:30 or 5. We did get to go into a really cool bamboo shop (they gave us free tea!) and we walked along and it was pretty and stuff. But it took us nearly an hour and a half to get back to Kyoto station (and the train ride is only 20 minutes). By the time we got back we were pretty tired, and my parents thought it would be a good idea to stop by the hotel and drop things off before heading out.

My mom estimated it would take us about an hour - I was hoping for half an hour or something, but as usual, my mother was spot on. We didn't get into Kyoto station until around 7:30 and we didn't get to the restaurant (we had to wait) until around 8, and then we were finished around 9 and at that point we kinda gave up on the Gion (REGRETS. Though, by the time we got there they would have finished the light up at Kiyomizu Temple). Instead we went to the Lipton restaurant (eee Lipton has a restaurant!) and had tea and cake instead. They had berry tart too, though it was a bit sour.

Probably was better we didn't go to the Gion district, since it was clear from our attempt to get there the next day that we had very little idea how public transit worked. Or well, *I* wanted to take the bus since it would only cost 220 yen to get there and we didn't need to worry much about walking or whatever. My plan was to bus to kiyomizu then walk to the Gion. Or take the bus the website told us. But no. We took the subway instead - the subway, NOT the private train line that stops a block away from the gion. Then we got off at a super far station and I swear we walked for at least an hour before we were in the Gion proper. As expected of going somewhere with dad though. Sigh.

We didn't actually go all the way up to Kiyomizu though. We only went to the part where the temple starts, because we were looking for this tofu restaurant we had eaten at seven years ago. I mean, I had also kind of assumed that it would just be sitting there the same, and the thought that it could have changed didn't enter my head until we were standing there (and was accompanied with a facepalm). I was a little cranky from having to walk so far and it being rather late for lunch and (probably most of all) for my time schedule to be thrown off by somewhere around an hour at least, but man, was lunch amazing. We ended up at a place that did Yudofu and also Yu...ba... I think? It's the tofu that you skim off the top. Lots of work, that one. I didn't have the patience. The yudofu (boiled tofu) was amazing though. Most of the meal was tofu, but we also got - swear to god - some of the best tempura I've had in my life. NOMMMM. I think they put the salt into the batter or something. Everything was vegetarian though, and I actually got really really full. I felt super healthy too! Yay!

It made up for the fact that later that night we had Kobe beef, godmeat of beef. Seriously. I've always heard that it melts in your mouth, but I did not know how beef could literally melt in your mouth until that dinner. It was pricey (100,000 yen for the super fatty one and 140,000 yen for the fatty big one!) but OH GOD SO WORTH IT. Also, how often are you going to eat this stuff? But I got the sirloin steak (a nice balance between having a lot of meat -- which the rib steak had -- and tender, which obviously was the tenderloin). But with the super fatty one, my sirloin was just as tender as the not-as-fatty tenderloin my mom got and when you put it into your mouth, the juices just kind of seeped out and your mouth would fill with ridiculously tasty wonderful meat flavored juice. I was so unbelievably happy. Mouth full of meat juice hahaha.

So worth the expensive price tag. I've never chewed my meat that much in my life haha.

Oh, the place we went to - and I highly recommend it - was called "Moriya" 「モーリヤ」and we went to the "honten" or main branch restaurant near Sannomiya in Kobe. We reserved early, so we got to sit next to the grill where we watched them cook our delicious meat (with less of a flair than benihana, but I think it made up for that with the quality of the meat). The chef who was cooking our food was really nice, and he gave us really fantastic recommendations for flavor combinations for our meat and veggies (my personal favorite was just salt and pepper, but a little bit of wasabi as well was pretty good. My dad was a fan of the wasabi/salt/pepper combo and my mom a fan of salt/garlic chip).


Man though, that was the best meal of my life so far I think. Because you know what's better than super fatty Kobe beef? Super fatty Kobe beef that someone else has paid for.

Love you mom and dad :D

You know, I'm actually considering lifting the self/mom-imposed ban on having my parents as facebook friends. Almost. Maybe. Still kinda wary about that though.

Unhappy snowmen :(

Today has been one day of that miserable stuff they call sleet. It's, as one friend aptly put it, the worst of both worlds. It's cold, wet, not as pretty, and makes everything just a little more miserable. I swear, it's colder here than it was in Tokyo or Sapporo even, though that may have to do with the fact that houses and buildings up there are properly insulated and you're generally walking around a lot if you're outside. Here, I sit in the not-so-well insulated house and freeze, hiding under my kotatsu and layered with sweatshirts and hoods and stuff cause I'm too cheap/lazy/wary about kerosene and it's general stink/unhealthiness. Small wonder I guess that I feel colder here. The heater was always on when we were on vacation.

Ah vacation, how I miss you.

It did snow for a little bit though, during classes. It was pretty to watch the fatty snowflakes fall to the ground and stick (though I did get feelings of dread that this meant it was colder). But later it just kinda petered out to sleet. The weather today even had pictures of sad looking snowmen; I guess this is for the snow that doesn't stick cause the snowman has his sad face on.

The past week I've been putting in miles and trekking across Japan by plane, bus, cab, and train. It's been a crazy, crazy week, and it's taken some time realizing that I'm going to have to go back to work tomorrow. This past week did not help the feeling that I was pretty much in Japan on one big holiday.

It was a lot of fun though. I got to meet some new people, try some new foods, walk a lot of places, get lost a lot of places, and check a couple things off my "to do" list. A lot happened, and I hardly know where to start. I suppose I'll have to get my pictures uploaded so I can throw up a picture with each entry or something eventually. But yeah, seriously, where do I start.

Day 0: Kobe

Kobe, really, was mostly just a place where I could kill time before our flight the next morning. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 8 am. Eight. AM. Early. It takes 30 minutes by shinkansen (roughly) to get from Okayama to Kobe. Therefore, it takes me an hour and a half to get to Kobe from Takahashi. Assuming the least amount of time to go through security and get tickets and stuff, that would mean that I would need to leave Takahashi at 6:00, which would get me there with 30 minutes to spare. This isn't even accounting for the fact that there were four of us who were traveling together and we had to check in together (since one person bought the tickets).

So yeah, we all decided that it would be better to stay the night in Kobe and just wake up early in Kobe and go from there. The other three (two British girls and a kiwi dude) had English camp beforehand, so I decided to head out to Kobe a little bit earlier than everyone else.

I don't think I could list the reasons why I love Kobe. It's a beautiful city, not so big as to be overwhelming, but still with plenty to do and a lovely kind of personality. And the shopping. Oh man, the shopping.

The hostel we stayed at was super chill, close to the train station (both Sannomiya and shin-Kobe, kind of) and I got to walk around a part of the city I've never been to before. It was really interesting, and it killed me that it was on the first day we were there. I wandered down around Tor Street, bought some Crispy M&Ms and bread, and then wandered around Chinatown and bought more food there.

Basically, I ate my way through Kobe. It was wonderful. Chimaki (like zong zi but filled with mushrooms and meat, sadly), nikuman (like char siu bao), xiao lum bao (soup dumplings of delicious) and tasty bread that I can't remember. It was also great, because I didn't have to feel bad about eating meat since my vegetarian friend (bless her) wasn't there yet.

I mean, I don't mind when other people are vegetarians, it's their choice or whatever, but it just gets kinda tiring when my food options (without incurring guilt anyways, since she sometimes offers just to get fries at places like mcDonald's, bless her heart) get limited to pasta and pizza. Swear to god, I've had so much pasta since coming to Japan. Hell, I probably eat more pasta here than I did back at home.

Either way, I digress. I did learn something though, from my visit to Kobe. Or well, some things I guess.

1. They sell pepsi in the vending machine near the hostel we stayed at in Kobe. Apparently, it is hard to find regular Pepsi in Okayama/Chugoku region.

2. It is a bad bad bad idea to go to places where you will want to buy things on the first day of your trip before you've even left for the airport.

3. Kobe has loose leaf puh-er tea. It's ~45,000 yen away by train, 35k by bus. WIN. Kind of expensive to pay for tea, but YES PLEASE.

4. Apparently, being in the city for a couple hours longer than your friends makes you an expert on finding the hostel from the train station that you did not come from.

5. "Will get there around 7 in time for dinner so wait for us" means that by the time we walk back to the hostel and check in and dump your stuff, it will be nearly 9 (or after) and people will be tired and won't want to travel far. If the restaurant you want to go to (ahHEM, Old Spaghetti Factory) is further away than a 5-10 minute walk, go on your own.