To Tokyo

So, we got up early, had breakfast, packed our things and headed over to the Hakata Station one last time to catch our Shinkansen train to Tokyo.  

We went a bit early because we figured it might be a bit confusing figuring out the station in a foreign language.  We were right.  It was a bit confusing, but people were so kind.  Any time we looked like we didn't know where to go next, someone came over to help us.  We ended up being early enough to take some photos of an earlier train (below).

And stop at a cafe for a couple coffees, and iced tea and a shared treat.

Ethan is in charge of the coins.  I picked up this change wallet a few days ago.  He pays for anything under 1000 yen.  He loves this.

We took a walk about the station before heading up to the platform to wait for our train.  Food, spirit and gift shops were plentiful.  I stopped at a bookstore to pick out a couple gifts for friends.

These rice balls looked interesting and yummy.  We didn't get one though.  We were kind of laden already with our luggage.

We made our way onto the platform just in time to see our train pull in.  We all were full of anticipation at how fast the train would go and feel.  It was fast, but very smooth.  At one point Ethan made up a riddle.  "How is it possible to be traveling 200 miles per hour while sitting still at the same time?"  Riding the Shinkansen!  Ah, Einstein's theory of relativity in practice.  :-)

We left Fukuoka under cloudy skies.  Off and on it rained throughout the day.  I didn't get a chance to see Mt Fuji.  It has been too overcast and foggy.  I did see smaller mountains all along our ride.  

This is a view of the track below.  I was expecting something different.  I'm not sure what though.  

The conductor came by and tore our tickets midway through the trip.  These stubs will make nice mementos.  

There was a fair amount of factory and industry along the way.  This seemed to come out of the mist and looked kind of science fiction-like to me.

As did this petroleum production facility.  (That is what Doug guessed it was.)

I took these next two photos for you, mom.  This is Hiroshima today (at least from the train).  Both my mom and dad lived during the second world war.  My mom and I talked briefly about this time and Hiroshima specifically before I left on this trip.

Here's a view from along one of the rivers.  Sorry it's not clearer.  

Partway through the journey we decided to play a game of cards.  We also played a Klutz travel game (thanks Hallie), read Teen Titans Go! and played on the iPad.    

This was a view of a Temple in the city of Kyoto. 

There was very little flat area that wasn't farm land of some sort.  The fields went right up to and in and around the houses, factories, cemeteries, rivers, bridges and roads.  Most of the farm land looked like it was rice, but there were many other crops growing as well.  

We made it to Tokyo Station!

And then headed out to get in line for a taxi to our hotel.  I liked the traditional dress of this woman in front of us.  

She was watching a protest taking place.  Of course, we could not understand what the people were protesting, but it was very interesting to observe.  It is hard to tell, but there is a van in the front of the people.  This van had loud speakers with a person shouting protests.  The people behind would call after the loud speaker.  There were numerous processions of people and vans.  We wondered if it was in protest to the reopening of the nuclear power plants.  People have been protesting this for months. 

Our taxi dropped us off at our hotel not too far from the station.  This was a view from the entranceway.  Wait!!  This wasn't our hotel.  We were in the wrong place.  Again as we stood around looking confused, a group of five men came over to graciously help us.  They told us we needed to go to that tall brown building on the right.  So, we said "Arigato!" and began walking.

As we walked we stumbled across this most magnificent clock that had me thanking the Gods of Mistakes for putting us in the wrong spot to begin with.  It was a huge wondrous mechanical piece of time telling whimsy.  I loved it!

This is a detail of the right side.

Here is a detail of the left side.  This particular side reminded me of the video game Machinarium.  If you like video games but haven't played this game yet, you must check it out.    

We made our way to our hotel.  There was a bit of confusion about our room, but it all got sorted out.  We are on the 34th floor!  I've never slept so high in the sky.  Here is a view from our room.

Right across from another window rows and rows of people worked away in small cubicles.  I found this sight a little depressing.  Hopefully these people like their jobs, whatever they are.

We went in search of food again.  This store sign below made us all smile.  It reminded me of a t-shirt I saw yesterday that had a famous Western saying translated in an interesting way.  The shirt was written in english and read "Nothing tried.  Nothing have."  

Today we tried to order ice cream in Japanese, but I think what we were saying translated to a greeting because every time we said what we thought was ice cream the woman bowed and said "Konichiwa".  Finally I said "ice cream" in english and she thankfully understood what we wanted.

I have to say, I have much more compassion for people traveling to the US not knowing much english.  It's certainly not easy trying to make oneself understood when one doesn't understand the language.  It has, however, also given me a greater appreciation of our similarities.  Considering our cultural and language differences, it is amazing how well we actually can understand and sympathize with one another when we want to make that effort.  

This was a view from the restaurant in the evening.  This city is huge.  It's a bit mind blowing actually.  This is but a teeny glimpse of the vastness of it.  We are only here a couple days, so we won't try to be too ambitious.  As Doug said over dinner, we could live here a lifetime and not see the whole place.

People might laugh.  People might cringe.  People might be a little disappointed, but Ethan and I both had a cheese burger tonight, and it was fantastic.  

I have no idea what Ethan and I will be doing in this huge metropolis tomorrow.  Doug is speaking at the University of Tokyo, so he won't be with us.  After tomorrow though we all get to explore together.  I'll save the best sights for when he can join us.  

Last Day in Fukuoka

I was very happy this morning to finally be able to understand our map a bit more, and learn that the folk museum I had been trying to get Ethan and I to that second day is actually within walking distance.  So, after breakfast and some computer play, Doug went to work, and we headed in the direction of what we hoped would lead us to the museum.  

Kushida Shrine was right across the street from our destination, so we stopped here first to explore a little bit.  

I was happy we stopped because it was a very nice Temple.  Paper lanterns covered the ground in a beautiful pattern near the entranceway shortly ahead of a small farmers market on the grounds.  Wouldn't they be pretty to see lit?  I doubt we will get the chance though.  It's raining tonight, and tomorrow morning we leave for Tokyo.

None of the writing within the Temple was in English, so I'm not sure what this was, but it was spectacular nonetheless.  It appears to be some kind of float that would have been carried on long beams by many men.  

This was one character on the piece.

Here is another.

As we continued to wander the grounds, we found lengths of string attached to posts with these stamped writings tied to the lines.  They were delicate and pretty to see.  I'm imagining they are prayers or wishes, but, again, I do not know.  Perhaps Emma will share her knowledge with us.  :-)

These decorated wooden planks also seemed to contain messages. 

We found another fountain with water ladles below.  I loved the cranes.  Our friend Emma shared some information with us on Facebook regarding the lotus flower fountain I posted a day or so ago.  This is what she wrote:

The lotus flower fountain is what you use to cleanse your body of evil spirits before you go into a temple. You use the ladles/cup things by washing your hands, which will cleanse them. Some people pour water into their hands and take a sip, then spit it out. (Of course not back in the fountain!)

Thanks Emma!  I'm glad you mentioned not to spit the water back into the fountain, because I'm embarrassed to admit that I can see myself making that mistake.

Below was another fountain near the front entrance.  There were at least four fountains at this temple.  There were a lot of people too.  At one point we were standing before the largest shrine and we heard the deep sound of a drum, followed by the sound of high pitched wind instruments and then clappers.  Seemingly, a service had begun.  Several men in traditional dress entered the shrine, followed by many elders both men and women.  That was a treat to hear and see.  The clothes were very elaborate.  People were taking pictures of Ethan and I as we watched.  That kind of struck me as humerous.  

On our way out, Ethan stopped at the vending machines.  I liked the label on this drink from Minute Maid.

We crossed the street to go to the Hakata Machiya Folk Museum.  These streets were away from the main roads and were very narrow.  This interesting fish and kettle hung beside one of the doorways.

We went into the first door of the museum and found this woman weaving silk tapestries on a large loom.  You can see the punch hole paper pattern on the left.  

Here is one of her finished pieces hanging nearby.

Across from where she worked was a replica of a room in a traditional Japanese home.  On the low table in the center of were a variety of Japanese toys. 

A very sweet older gentleman showed Ethan how to use this ball and rope toy.  Ethan was very excited and surprised to get it on the second try.  We watched some other men playing with these toys shortly after.  They did something different from what the older gentleman showed us.  They spun the ball, then attempted to spear it on the end of the toy in the hole in the ball.  That looked very tricky, but they were good at it.

The men showed us how some of the other toys were played with.  We didn't speak each other's language much at all, but that didn't seem to matter.  We had fun.

My favourite toy was these stacked men below.  Once the disks were lined up, you removed the mallet and hit the bottom disk such that it shot out but didn't topple the remaining disks on the top.  Each disk was hit this way until only the head remained.  I thought that was a lot of fun.

After trying the games the traditional way, true to Ethan, he proceeded to make up a series of his own games.  

There was an outdoor garden off the replica room.  I liked this wall and roof.

Down the alley from the garden we found an old post box no longer in use.

Inside the next small building was a series of displays of historical significance.  This kinetoscope was sweet.  I would have liked to see this by the side of the road back when they could be found there.  

This is a view of what you can see when you looked through the holes.  Things were animated mechanically, while music and narration played.  They were like miniature puppet shows.

On the second floor we found this station for decorating spinning wooden tops.  Ethan picked up one of these tops to try at home from the shop on our way out.  The base of the top is wrapped with string and then the string is quickly pulled to set the top spinning.  

A replica of a kitchen was in one of the rooms.

I haven't found any real wheelbarrows, Sandra, but I did find this model one.  

And this one illustrated on a wall.  Unfortunately there was a poster in the way on the bottom right.  I'll still keep my eyes peeled for the real thing.

After our explorations we headed over to a small noodle restaurant.  The slurping was very loud which delighted Ethan.  "THAT'S something I love about Japan!" he exclaimed, and proceeded to join the chorus of slurps.  (Actually, he was pretty quiet.)  

Ethan really wanted to visit the beach one last time, so we headed back and played for a couple of hours.  Ethan made evil castles that needed to be leveled while I searched for interesting shells.  Fukuoka tower is in the background.

Colleen and Robbie, we spotted this guy, and thought you might know what kind of bird it is.

And this little fellow too.  

I found this curious oyster shell coated with calcified tubes of some sort.  Creepy, but interesting.

Here is a collection of shells I found too.

After Doug arrived back at the hotel, we headed over to the Hakata Station to explore a bit and to have dinner.  Here's a view of the station in the evening.  It was raining tonight. 

Jill, here's a view from inside the station.  It wasn't too busy tonight.  Maybe tomorrow morning when we leave there will be more people.  The Shinkansen is marked third from the left on the bottom.  That's how we will be traveling.  It will take us about 5 hours to get to Tokyo.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, everything can be found in the Hakata Station Arcade, including these bikes with the small tires that I have taken a liking to.

www.tokyobike.com

And walls of guitars, which made me think of you, Pat.  :-)

We ate a nice dinner in the Station.  Ordering was a bit tricky, but one gentleman spoke a bit of English.  Silent videos from early Hollywood played in the background.

Tomorrow we're up early and on the train.  We should be in Tokyo by dinner time.  I'm looking forward to passing Hiroshima and, as I said earlier, seeing Mt Fuji appear on the horizon.  I'm looking forward to seeing Japan's countryside too.  Ethan's looking forward to riding on one of the fastest trains in the world and eating some sushi.

Sleep well!  Until tomorrow...