Time flies, but I'm having fun!

I can not believe that it's October already. And not just any October, but my last October in Japan. There's so much that I need to do. And even more that I want to do. The "I've got plenty of time" list has become the "exactly when am I going to do all these things?" list. And it seems that every week I discover new things that I add to the list. It's a good thing that I get home leave next summer, because I'm going to need it to rest up from the busy year I've got planned.

I know it's been a long time since I wrote anything, so I'm going to give a really fast update. I also have a goal of doing a post on my trip to Kyoto and Nara at some point - a post that has largely been delayed by forgetfulness, laziness, and the sheer number of pictures that I was trying to narrow down to a manageable few. Maybe I'll get it done in time for the one-year anniversary of that trip.

The one thing I don't think I've talked about from last spring was the flowers. So yes, there were a lot of beautiful flowers! I didn't do a serious hanami (cherry blossom viewing) in 2015, but I did get out to see some cherry trees. This was actually just a few blocks from the Embassy:

You may remember that in 2014 I went to the Kameido Tenjin Shrine, which is said to have the best wisteria in Tokyo, but sadly, I missed the wisteria by probably about a week. This year, I checked to see when they would be blooming, and I finely got to see it.

It was very pretty. But I will say that the Ashikaga Flower Park, an hour or so north of Tokyo, is still the most beautiful - and bountiful - wisteria I've ever seen.

In May, I went to Beijing, which everybody's already heard about. In June, I made a quick work trip to Hokkaido. We drove across the island, saw a lot of interesting and beautiful places - including lavender fields, although it was probably about two weeks before the flowers came out - and even got a glimpse of the Prime Minister's plane being escorted by fighter jets. I don't know if the Prime Minister was returning from a trip or it was just a drill, but it was still cool.

The view from one of my hotel rooms in Hokkaido

July began with the Embassy Independence Day reception, where I was once again in charge of photography. And then I went back to the U.S. for a quick family visit.  

August was spent running around getting things done before a dear friend came to visit me. We had a great time walking our feet off around Tokyo and eating tons of yummy food. We also did a day trip to Nikko and an overnight trip to Yamanashi to stay at a ryokan, eat washoku (traditional Japanese food) and use the onsen, with swings through the Five Lakes region going to and from. What needs to be said is that the day we headed out to Yamanashi, a typhoon was going by. So while I specifically took a detour by the Five Lakes region for the very specific purpose of enabling my friend to see Mt. Fuji (proof of its visibility seen in the blog post that I've linked to above), it was absolutely impossible to see Mt. Fuji, because the clouds were so low. The clouds were SO low, that you wouldn't even know a mountain was there. And we were right at the base of it! So that was frustrating. I spent a lot of time saying, "It's RIGHT. THERE." But we still had a great time!

At Chureito Pagoda

In front of Fujiyoshida Sengen Shrine

Our ryokan (with onsen) in Yamanashi

So then we come to September. I spent the first week running a series of three outreach seminars. The next week, I was supposed to visit Yabu, a small town in Hyogo prefecture, but that trip got canceled by another typhoon. But later in the week, we had our office workshop near Kobe. That was a very productive trip. I stayed over Friday night in Kobe, and then on Saturday, I went down to see Himeji Castle, which has been on my "must see before I leave Japan or I'll regret it" list.

Himeji Castle is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, one of Japan's twelve original castles, and is considered to be the most beautiful feudal castle in Japan. And to add to the joy, they just completed a major renovation and re-opened the inside of the castle to tourists. As you may imagine, I took hundreds of pictures, but here are just a few that I managed to narrow it down to.

In the picture below (and some others further down), you can see the sachiboko - the fish that are supposed to protect the castle from fire and ward off disaster.

At the base of the castle, you can see the rocks surrounding Okiku's Well. There's a ghost story associated with it that has been turned into a famous kabuki play.

After visiting the castle and then getting a quick lunch, I went to Kokoen Garden, which is right next to the castle. It's a very nice Japanese garden, with nine different Edo-style walled gardens inside.

Later in September was Silver Week - September 21-23 were Japanese holidays, giving us a five-day weekend. I didn't go anywhere, but I did get a number of things done at home that had been hanging over my head for some time. Silver Week was followed by another seminar that we helped to put on, several lunches and dinners, and other work stuff. And now it's October!

I hope everybody has a wonderful fall!

Memorial Day Weekend in Beijing

During New Years Eve last year, when other people were thinking of their new year resolutions, I was going, "omg, I've only got a year and a half left in Tokyo! I need to get serious about getting my must-do-or-I'll-regret-it travel done!" At which point, I booked a trip to Beijing to see the Great Wall of China over Memorial Day weekend.

I hired an english-speaking driver for the airport pick-up/drop-off and to take me to designated sites on Saturday and Sunday. That was well worth the money and really a necessity for somebody like me - a woman traveling alone who spoke zero Chinese and had very limited time.  


On Saturday, the driver took me out to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. It's the "most accessible" part of the Great Wall, with a chair lift up to the Wall and a toboggan that you take down. At my driver's suggestion, I headed right once I got up to the Wall. A lot of tourists head left, because it's flatter. Heading to the right is steeper, but has excellent views. And it was nice to not be mobbed by tourists. I was very glad that I had good new tennis shoes. And I was really wishing that I had been exercising more. Because steep.

Did I mention it was steep?

The positive about having your camera with you and liking to take pictures - when you stop after two steps, you hold up your camera and take more pictures from this totally different viewpoint of the Wall and surrounding countryside. It makes you look/feel slightly less like the wimp you are, because you get more pictures while also getting a chance to breathe. Win-win! 

An un-renovated portion of the Wall.  You can see all of the plants growing along the top.

You can see pictures and know in your head that it is a Great Wall. But until you see it, you just don't comprehend. It's beautiful and impressive and huge and LONG. And when you think of the era in which it was built... Holy. Cow. 

After the Great Wall, I went to the Summer Palace. I took the dragon boat across the lake and then walked back to where I started, which allowed me to walk along the Long Corridor, which is covered in paintings, and see most of the main sites.

That night, I went to a mall a block from my hotel and ate some of the best peking duck I've ever had. 

The next day, my driver drove me around Tiananmen Square and then dropped me off at the Gate of Heavenly Peace, where the excitement of the moment was seeing some crazy lady try to crawl over the fence and get arrested. Needless to say, I didn't choose to stick around and watch. 

It was HOT, and as you can see from the pictures, the air wasn't all that great - although it wasn't at its worst either - so I spent most of the day wearing the mask I brought with me (reinforcing my thought that Beijing would not be a good assignment for me) and using my umbrella to provide shade. It's a very Japanese thing, but it works!

So I walked through the Gate of Heavenly Peace, and was able to enter the Forbidden City as soon as it opened. Honestly, if I had taken the time to notice that the Forbidden City wasn't yet open, I may have walked across the street to Tiananmen Square. But I was satisfied with looking at it from where I was, and being one of the first people was helpful. Because there were A LOT of tourists. Mostly Chinese tourists. I have never encountered any tourist as pushy (literally) as little old Chinese ladies. And I can only take so many crowds, so it was good that I was there early. 

Like the Great Wall, the Forbidden City is another place where you can learn about and see pictures, but seeing really is believing. It's huge. It just keeps going and going and going. It's incredibly impressive, and one could easily spend the entire day there. But it was also crowded and so HOT outside and there was just so much to see, that after a while, I got sensory overload and was just done. I lasted about two hours. But I was very glad I went to see it. 

A part of the 9 Dragon Screen

The moat

After the Forbidden City, I went to Lama Temple - where there are multiple halls with multiple Buddhas, the last of which is 18 meters tall and carved from a single block of wood. It was interesting to observe some of the differences between how Buddhism is practiced between Japan and Tibetan Buddhism - namely in the ritual of praying. 

One side note - I found it interesting to see the difference in the guardian lions between Japan/Okinawa and China. In Okinawa, you may remember that the shisa are always one male, with mouth open to scare away the evil spirits, and one female, with mouth closed to keep in the good spirits. In China, there is also one male and one female. But the male has its paw on a globe, to represent the Emperor's power (according to one site I read), and the female has its paw on a lion cub, to represent the Emperor's fertility.

Male lion at the Forbidden City 

Female lion at Lama Temple

From Lama Temple, I went to the Temple of Heaven Park. That was nice, with large green spaces and some beautiful halls.

One of the eleven wedding parties I saw taking pictures there!

The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests

A final note...  I saw a number of signs like this one below. Apparently this construction is for the purpose of inconveniencing people. At least they're honest about it!

Fun Activities of Recent Months

When I was in Brazil, I wrote an email newsletter every month for the first year, and then every few months for my second year. By the third year, life was fairly routine, and when things would happen, I would procrastinate, and the next thing you knew, I'd only written two or three emails in the entire year. And now I'm in Japan, and we see the same thing happening. But at least I remember eventually!

So basically I've spent the last four months just living life. But there have been a few items worth blogging about. Sadly, it took me so long, that I'm going to lump things into groups and give a shorter version than you might otherwise get. 

In February, I went to the 39th Grand Sumo Tournament. You may remember that I went to this tournament a couple years ago and greatly enjoyed it. Once again, it was a lot of fun. But this time, I remembered to bring my longer zoom lens and tried out the "sports" setting on my camera! It meant that I could get some "up close" shots:

And some fun action shots:

Those two pictures were from a semi-final match. I have about 10 pictures between when those two pictures were taken, but in the interest of space, I'm just including these. It was an exciting match though. Right after this second shot, they both fell out of the ring. The judges had to meet to discuss if anybody saw who touched down first, but nobody could tell, so they had to re-do the match. The guy on the inside is one of the yokozuna - the top rank in sumo - Harumafuji. He won the tournament.

In March, I went to AnimeJapan 2015. It used to be called the International Anime Festival (or something like that). Basically, it's the Comic-Con of anime - the largest anime trade show in the world. It's HUUUUUGE. I don't really know anything about anime, but I'd been wanting to go as part of my effort to experience the culture of Japan. And, wow. Just to give you a small sampling...

There were huge displays, balloons, and signs:

 Character appearances:

Love her wings! 

 People advertising:

 Interactive stations:

Incomprehensible English:

Still not sure what "vitreous flower and destroy the world" means.

I later discovered that this should be "Assoc." (for "Association").

 And of course, cosplay:

Obviously, I took a ton more pictures, but this gives you an idea of what it was like. It was basically sensory overload. I discovered that there is anime for kids, for teenagers, for adults, for people that like to see half-naked teenage anime girls, for people that like to see violent war-themed anime... Something for everybody. Now I feel like I need to watch some anime so that I can go again next year and recognize some things.

Other events of the last few months included a reception at the Ambassador's residence where former President Clinton made an appearance and gave a very nice, short speech, and a visit by First Lady Michelle Obama. I used my cheap camera for President Clinton's visit (because it's small and will fit in my purse), and all the pictures were blurry. (Argh!) But I can give you this picture of Michelle Obama.

I have a few more things, but I'll leave those for another (shorter) post. Hope you all are enjoying Spring!