Japan Pt 2 - Muy Meiji

Tuesday

I spent that night cozily on Alyssa’s bed while she took a futon on the floor (very Japanese of her). From the Nagoya airport it had been easy to find the train into the main part of the city, but not as easy to find Alyssa in the huge station! Even though we turned out to be in the same section, we had to play a few rounds of “what do you see around you” before we saw each other’s faces. I’m so grateful that Alyssa had suggested that I rent a cell phone at the airport or else it would have been tough to find her without wifi. From Nagoya we took the train into Yokkaichi, the city where Alyssa lives and teaches English, and then to her apartment. Oh, first we stopped at Family Mart, a convenience store that seems to be on every corner, and bought some Japanese snack foods!

When Alyssa was moving to Yokkaichi, her employers told her that the apartment she was getting was one of the bigger ones. I’d hate to see one of the “small” ones! Most people know that on the small island nation of Japan, space is at a premium! Alyssa’s apartment is two rooms, a long skinny front room with a tiny sink/hot plate/pantry area and a place for her to stick a table suitable for one person. Off of this room there is a bathroom (toilet only) and a room with a bathroom sink, washing machine, and a door to the shower room which holds a deep bath and a floor with a drain in the corner. She told me that they don’t like to have a toilet and a shower in the same room. Why would you want your toilet in the room where you go to get clean?

The whole back wall of the front room is a two paneled sliding door to the back room. This is her bedroom with her single bed, low to the floor, a couple of book shelves, tv, desk and built in closet. It also has a sliding glass door out to a small patio mostly used for hanging her clothes to dry. I’ve found in most Asian countries they don’t have electrical clothes dryers. I can understand that in countries like Singapore and Thailand where the weather rarely drops below 60, but it was literally freezing in Japan and could take more than two days for a pair of Jeans to dry.

Though I’d had a full day of sightseeing in Seoul and traveling, and hadn’t slept more than 3 hours the night before, I was excited to see Alyssa and we stayed up pretty late talking. I was excited to see the Meiji-Mura museum the next day, but I was more excited to sleep in!

Back in Thailand I’d done some googling of phrases like “best things to do in Japan” and “best museums in Japan” and this museum had been highly recommended in the results. The website showed a young Japanese woman in a Victorian style dress. How could I pass that up? Meiji is the period of Japanese history between 1860 and 1912 that showed great advances in industry and modernization. The word mura means village. The museum is a “village” of houses and buildings from the Meiji period, transported from around the country and reconstructed in an out of the way area surrounded by tree covered hills and a lake.

Sunday morning Alyssa and I caught the train to Nagoya and then a bus to see the museum. Using busses in foreign countries makes me nervous because it’s hard to tell how much to pay and they often only accept exact change. When we boarded this bus, we saw that people were taking tickets from a ticket dispenser in the back. When it was time to get off, we saw that there was a slot to leave the ticket and then pay. Alyssa asked the driver how much we needed to pay and then started putting money in the slot. Soon however, it was spitting money back out, so she took the money and tried to get an explanation from the driver. I followed suit, putting in coins until the machine spat back change. Alyssa said she thought we got a discount because we had the ticket. This made no sense to me since we’d just gotten the ticket on bus as we boarded. Why would they give such a significant discount for having a ticket that only served to prove that yes, we’d boarded the bus? But never mind that.

The museum was huge. The websites had said to leave 4 hours to explore, but I think a full day would have been better. It was a fascinating look into how these people lived, in the generation that was just beginning to open itself up to western culture. I always love something that provokes the imagination as it teaches. There were old churches, houses of government officials and famous authors, and even one building that told all about the study of infectious diseases. And all around were breathtaking views of forest and lake. 

Throughout my trip I had to wonder if Japan is just a country exceptionally blessed by elegant natural scenery, or if their appreciation for nature has caused them to preserve and encourage it in a way you don’t see in America. You see old trees that are held up by ropes or even filled in with cement to keep them from falling. In shrines, where aesthetics are arranged to promote serenity, gardens and buildings are set up to take advantage of the surrounding landscape instead of subduing nature to fit their purposes.

The restrooms at the front of this museum were my first experience with the miracle of the Japanese toilet. I’m sure you’ve heard stories of toilets that play music and talk to you, but the true joy of the Japanese toilet is the heated seat. Since it hovered slightly above freezing throughout my trip, I was enormously grateful for this invention. However my worship of the Japanese ingenuity was soon dampened when I had to wash my hands in water that felt like it came from the frozen lake outside. They can have toilets with heated seats but can’t do anything about water temperature?

As beautiful and interesting as the museum is, the thing that I remember the most is the food. We arrived a little after lunch, so pretty soon we were checking out food options. We found a food stand that sold fried curry puffs. Crispy, golden dough encasing warm smooth curry? Yes please! Soon after, we found a place that made an interesting egg sandwich type snack. The man was working at a skillet where he scrambled eggs with loads of cheese, sprinkled with red ginger and then places between two large crackers with some sauce. Alyssa had to ask her Japanese friend later if you could get that snack anywhere with an unfortunate negative reply. Oh, it was perfect. The ginger was just strong enough to cut the buttery cheesy egg, but not overpowering at all. The crackers lent a satisfying crunch. I don’t remember what it was called and I don’t know if I’ll ever encounter the snack again, but I’ll remember it to my dying day. Okay, that’s probably an exaggeration.

We spent a few hours exploring the museum, only covering a small part before our feet felt like lead. Around that time museum staff began scurrying towards the front (one older woman looked like she was in a hurry to get to something much more exciting), and we took it as a sign that the place was closing soon. Having made our way into the center, we had to drag ourselves all the way back out to the front bus stop. At one point we saw one of the shuttles that take people from one area of the park to another, so we stood in front of the area where it was supposed to stop.  The shuttle immediately slowed down several yards away from us, and started inching forward, reluctant to pick us up. Alyssa insisted that it was intentionally stalling so it wouldn’t have to pick us up, which I wouldn’t have believed until we started back towards the front on foot and the shuttle picked up speed again. I couldn’t believe it! They couldn’t be bothered to pick us up! And they didn’t even have the nerve to just pass us by, they had to slow down until we gave up waiting, like a person who pretends to retrieve something they’ve dropped to pretend they hadn’t noticed an old acquaintance. So we made our way out, on foot, up a hill, and looked pointedly in the opposite direction when the shuttle passed by.

The bus ride home was restful. We enjoyed the scenery and talked about Japanese authors and what to have for dinner. When it was time to get off the bus, we dropped the ticket in the slot, inserted a few coins and collected the change that it spit back. I started to exit the bus when the driver started yelling at me. You must pay! I thought I had, and it gave me most of my money back! Alyssa instructed me that I still had to pay the 810 yen, even though it was giving me change back already. I couldn’t make sense of it, but oh well. Later I understood what Alyssa had tried to explain to me at the time. The place we’d put our coins for payment was actually the place to insert coins if you don’t have the proper change. You put in a coin or bill and the machine splits it into smaller coins so you can then pay with the exact change in the slot where we’d been putting our tickets. That means that on our trip out to Meiji-Mura, we’d inserted our payment and gotten change for it, collected all the money we’d paid, and gotten a free bus ride without the driver saying anything!

That night we had a not very authentic meal of fabulous gorgonzola pizza and risotto, with dessert from Family Mart, before snuggling up near the heater back at Alyssa’s apartment.

See the pictures from my Meiji-Mura adventure here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.557974693849.2039985.176800932&type=3&l=0a59fa058d

Japan Pt 1 - Gotta Have Seoul

Friday night, January 13th

I got to the airport around 10:15pm for the 11:35 flight. I’d tried to check in for the flight at home but it wasn’t letting me. I was about to find out why. When I handed the flight information to the man behind the Korean Airlines desk, he typed on his keyboard for a minute and then told me in a no nonsense voice ‘This flight is for the 16th. Today is the 13th.’ I stared at the page and didn’t know what to say. My mouth was literally hanging open. I couldn’t believe I’d booked my ticket for the wrong day. I’d spent so long considering what day to leave and what day to return, that when I finally made it official, I must have been thoroughly confused. The 16th was the day my visa for Thailand expired, the whole reason behind this trip, so the date stuck in my head.

The clerk only let me sink in my incredulousness for a moment before he pointed to a man at the end of the counter and asked him to help me. I brought my information to him and prayed furiously in my head that he could fix things. I really didn’t want to have to call Kelly and have her pick me up, so I could spend the weekend in Chiang Mai before taking the flight on Monday. Most of all, I didn’t want to miss spending the weekend in Japan, the only time my sister-in-law Alyssa had off. The young man checked his computer and said that I would be able to get a seat on the flight into Seoul that night, the same flight I’d meant to book to begin with.

Unfortunately, the next leg of the flight, from Seoul to Nagoya, Japan, was booked. I would have to take the next flight, which left at 7 and would lengthen my 6 hour layover in Seoul to a 12 hour layover. I asked if there were any other flights that I could take into Japan, reasoning that I could still get to Nagoya from Tokyo or wherever. Yes, there was a flight from Seoul to Tokyo that left from at 9am the next morning (giving me a 3 hour layover in Seoul), but changing my destination meant cancelling and rebooking, which meant extra fees. How much extra would it be, I enquired. 2000, he answered. 2000! Yes, 2000 baht. Oh, of course, baht not dollars. 2000 baht is around $60. But that still meant I would have to pay to get from Tokyo to Nagoya.

I stood at the counter, furiously considering the choices with my mind still clouded by shock. The clerk told me I could have 15 minutes to think, as he went on with his work. I’m notoriously bad at making decisions, especially under pressure. In the end I chose to take the long layover in Seoul and get into Nagoya at 9pm. While planning my trip I’d been talking to my friend Blake who teaches English in Korea. Part of the reason I was going to Japan in the first place was because we were planning to meet up. Unfortunately these plans fell through. I wasn’t sure how close he lived to Seoul and I knew it was after midnight in Korea, but I was hoping my layover would give us a second chance at hanging out. I wrote him a frantic email before I had to board the plane, prayed he would happen to see it, and then tried (and didn’t succeed) to get some rest on the plane.

When I got into the airport in Korea I was drowsy but excited. I’d read a little about the city on the plane, so I was looking forward to the day even if it didn’t work out to meet up with Blake. I checked my email on the airport’s free wifi as soon as I could and saw that I didn’t have an email from Blake yet. It wasn’t even 7am yet on a Saturday, and I wasn’t sure how soon I could expect a response. Not wanting to spend hours waiting in the airport, I decided to take the train into Seoul. There was a very helpful woman at the tourist information center who gave me a map and even circled three destinations she thought I could explore in 12 hours. I enjoyed my first views of Korea from the train and then had a refreshing half hour of sleep.

Seoul station, the train’s termination point, is huge and hectic. My excitement soon gave way to confusion as I tried to get some sense out of my tourist map. Where is exit 3?? Why isn’t that street name on my map?? Why is there no wifi here?? I was worried that without wifi I wouldn’t be able to hear from Blake if he replied to my email. I reasoned that it was still early and I could find wifi later, but after a half hour that felt like an hour in the underground passages and frigid streets, I admitted my defeat. I made my way back to the center part of the station where I’d started and my spirit rose when I spotted a Smoothie King that boasted free wifi. I checked my email as I drank my grainy banana protein smoothie and felt relieved when I saw Blake had responded to my emails and seemed excited to meet up. He had a mandatory work meeting until noon but told me to email him back and gave me his Korean phone number. He also gave me a few suggestions of places to visit in Seoul.

With that weight off my shoulders I ventured back into the subway system to find the stop he said had an old shrine. The subway tunnels in the station were complex and maze like, but the subway map was similar to every other subway I’ve traveled on, so I found my route pretty easily. After leaving the station and walking a little ways, I found some exciting museum buildings and an interesting “palace,” an ornate housing complex for some royal family. Later I looked at my map and saw that I’d walked in the wrong direction from the one I’d intended, but the sights had encouraged me about the day and my trip as a whole. I was impressed with Seoul, a city I hadn’t considered visiting. The buildings are clean and simple, and at least the part I saw has wide streets and views of the mountains that surround the city. I love big cities, like Denver or Vancouver, where the surrounding mountains still loom larger than the skyscrapers.

When I was satisfied that I’d seen everything there was to see of the “palace,” I headed back to the station. I was supposed to call Blake at noon when his meeting would be done, and I’d seen pay phones there. I laughed a little, looking around the area of the station. If he was looking for me and wanted to know what stores I was near, I could say a Baskin Robbins, a Coffee Bean and a KFC. I hadn’t used a payphone in years and these were Korean payphones, so it took me a couple tries to put the call through. It was weird to hear Blake’s voice on the phone, a familiar voice in such an unfamiliar place. We discussed where we should meet (he was on his way into the city on a bus) until the payphone ran out of money and ended the call. I had to pull out some more change and we finished making our plans, in double time.

We met up at the subway stop where his bus left him. From there we walked into a college area Blake had stayed once, trying to find a place to eat. We decided on a Korean BBQ place, where they give you raw meat and sides and you cook them on a little grill set into your table. One of the reasons we’d wanted to meet up was because we shared the link of being so far from home. It was good to talk to someone from home who could relate to the challenges of discovering a new country while trying to make it a home. We had a good time comparing experiences.

After lunch we made out way back to the subway to find the palace I’d tried to get to earlier. I found it funny that this palace looked identical to the one I’d seen earlier today, just much bigger. I loved the bright colors and intricate paint work on the roofs and walls. It was also fascinating to learn (or guess) about the way these people lived by the way they constructed their residence. In the back of the palace grounds is the “Secret Garden.” Well of course we had to give that a look. The garden had some amazing sights – the frozen pond, old trees preserved with cement cores, a huge green house – but we joked about it there not being anything incredibly secret about it. We had a map after all. But wait…where were we on the map? Blake started studying the map and was frustrated that none of the things we were seeing seemed to be on it. When we found a sign with a map, and discovered that it didn’t even match the map in the pamphlet, he practically started arguing with the garden. Why was it not doing what the map said?? Where were we?? I shrugged it off. I knew I was in Seoul, and that’s as far as I cared.

After walking a little ways farther, we were back at the front of the palace. Or that’s what we thought! When we stepped back into the modern city, it wasn’t where we’d entered. We stepped back into the palace grounds trying to figure out how we’d gotten there. After looking back at the accursed map, we realized we weren’t even at the same palace as we’d started in! This was Changgyeong Palace whereas out pamphlets announced that we’d entered through Changdeok Palace. With those names, no wonder we’d gotten lost. So I leave you with this question: is the secret of the garden that it transports you between the palaces of Seoul? Or are the palace grounds simply connected? "This highway leads to the shadowy tip of reality: you're on a through route to the land of the different, the bizarre, the unexplainable...Go as far as you like on this road. Its limits are only those of mind itself. Ladies and Gentlemen, you're entering the wondrous dimension of imagination. Next stop....The Twilight Zone."

By the time we’d made out way back to the original entrance, out on the city streets as we’d been informed the way out on the other side would be closed, it was time for me to head back to the airport. I took the route that was a little longer so Blake could take the same train to a stop where he could get on a bus home. The other choice was more direct to the airport, but we asked at the station and it would only save 7 minutes and cost more. It was nice to finish our visit on the train with the nice heated seats. Then Blake had to exit the train; I set my iPod to play all the songs that had "Soul" in the title and went back into solo travel mode. When I got back to the airport I saw it was barely 40 minutes before my flight left. I still had to go back through immigration and then hurried on my poor tired feet in their thin soled payless boots, realizing why someone would pay more for the extra 7 minutes. I made it to the gate right in time.

Look at the facebook album for this adventure: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.557788182619.2039963.176800932&type=3&l=6c0980045e