Drumline Live

A couple months ago Yoko told me that Drumline Live was coming to Japan.  She claimed that she had wanted to see the show for years, so I told her that I would go with her if she could get tickets (which meant that Bryn was coming, too!).  The next thing I knew, she told me that she had organized tickets for me, Bryn, Ippei and her to go see the show in Osaka. 

The show was last Saturday.  Yoko picked us up Saturday morning and we set off for the Rinku Town Premium Outlets to do some shopping before the concert.  I tell you what, I do like outlets!  I could have spent a lot of money, but I decided to save my yen this trip and only came away with a new pair of purple school shoes and some fun cushion covers to brighten up the living room.

The concert was about 30 minutes away from the shopping center in Sakai, a part of Osaka.  The concert hall it was in was pretty big, but not so big that our balcony seats were bad at all (infact, I quite enjoyed sitting above...). 

In true Japanese fashion a lot of people were late arriving.  One couple arrived as it was starting, and sat in the row in front of us (the row in front of us was row ke - they announced as they sat down that they were in row ki - 2 rows down!)  Sure enough five minutes later the people holding the seats in row ke showed up.  Instead of just taking the other free seats and not causing a scene, everyone had to get up and move around!!!  Typical!!

Once everyone was in their assigned seats, we could actually enjoy the show - and it was a good show!  Drumline is made up of the "best of the best" from HBCU (Historically Black College and Universities - thank you master's in higher ed!) marching bands around the US.  They really were a talented bunch and put on a good show!

One of the most entertaining things for Bryn and I was that coming from the states, all of the speaking parts were in English with no translation or subtitles.  We were very likely the only two in the theatre who could understand!  Like I said, it was mostly entertaining, but a little sad when they would call out "Let's give so-and-so a big hand!!" and no one applauded.  There were a couple points when they were doing old school acts and yelled "Let me hear you say hey!", meaning for the audience to say "hey"...nothing!  Or as they would say in Japan shiiiiin....! 

It was crazy, but also refreshing to be one of the few who could understand, instead of the clueless girl I usually am!

Following the concert we made our way back to Tango, stopping at a really cool izakaya in Fukuchiyama for dinner.  We sat in this little cave where we had to crouch down a little hall to get in!!  We got there at about 10:20pm...unfortunately my stomach shuts down well before that so I was not hungry at all.  The food looked yummy though, so we will have to make another trip out there at a more decent hour!

Drumline Live was a lot of fun.  It's not something I would ever choose to go see on my own, but I enjoyed it, so I am really glad that Yoko wanted to go and invited us along.  It was also nice to get out of the apartment and do something random...although I have to admit - for the first time in months we have no plans for this weekend and we are both really, really excited for the nothingness ahead!!!!

Visitors Part 4

After six days of non-stop sight-seeing in Tokyo, Hiroshima and Kyoto, getting on the train bound for Nodagawa was very welcome.  We got back to the apartment and had just enough time to relax a bit before hopping in the car (which was brand new!!) and heading to the Yoshida's for dinner. 

As usual, Kumi and a feast laid out for us!  When I had called to invite us over (I do a lot of inviting myself over to their house, haha), Kumi asked what we wanted to eat.  I told her that Prad loved sushi, but that we would love anything at all!  Well, it turns out on the day we went they had been given a young yellow tail tuna that their friend had caught that morning!  Talk about fresh sushi!  It was really good, and a lot of fun to visit with them and tell them about our adventures so far.  Since Bryn and I both had to work the following day, Kumi and Masami offered to take mom and Prad out to show them some of Tango.

So, the next day while Bryn and I were wasting away bored at school, Mom and Prad got to go out to Ine where I hear they went to an ooooold sake brewery, visited a funaya (traditional boat house that Ine is famous for) watched festival practice, and even got to take in a couple of the cool views of Amanohashidate.  It sounded like they had a really good day (much more interesting than my 7 hours of nothing at school!!)  That night we did one of my favorite things - made takoyaki! 

The next morning Bryn went to Kyoto to meet Clodagh, one of the new AETs in Yosano this year.  Mom and Prad came to school with me for a quick tour, then I showed them the way to the beach.  They spent the morning hiking and swimming while I stayed at school, until about lunchtime.  We met one of my good friends, Shinobu, for lunch at at very Japanese restaurant in Amino called Torimatsu.  Torimatsu is famous for it's barazushi.  I'm sure I've talked about it before, but it is basically sushi rice that is topped with smoked mackerel, shredded egg, green onion, crab, pickled ginger, and a variety of other things depending on where you get it.  Prad and I each got a set that also included sashimi (some really good, some really missable if you ask me!!) and mom got one that came with fried fish - whole ones!  They were troopers and ate everything!!

After lunch we took a drive around Amino to the 5 colored beach, and then out to Sora to say hi to the cows and eat some ice cream.  By the time we got home Bryn was back, so we went out to yakiniku (Korean bbq) for dinner. 

I took Thursday off of work, and we spend the morning doing some random shopping before meeting Bryn to go get okonomiyaki for lunch in Maizuru.  The drive to Maizuru is quite nice, but it's not a short one.  We were quite disappointed when it turned out that our favorite okonomiyaki restaurant was closed for lunch!!!!  We stopped at the fish market to have a look around, then made our way back to Amanohashidate for soba and udon.  Of course we went up to View Land so that mom and Prad could view Amanohashidate the correct way!  And then we walked while we waited for our dinner guests to come meet us.

Mom on the chairlift up to View Land

That night we met Yoko, Junko and Ippei for a beer garden reunion!  There was lots of ...decent...food, beer and chuhai flowed like water...it was a really fun evening!  Junko had brought us some fireworks, so we went to the beach after the beer garden to play with them (in Japan, fireworks mostly equals sparklers).  It was SO fun though and a perfect ending to a fun evening. 

On Friday we had a quiet morning before meeting Bryn to go to Kappazushi for lunch.  After lunch we went out to Tate Iwa (standing rock) in Taiza, then further around the peninsula to Kyogamisaki - the lighthouse on the furthest western point of Tango.  (We even saw some monkeys on the way!) 

Thunder threatened us all afternoon, but luckily we never ran into too much rain (just a bit).  That evening we went back out to Amino for the Kawasuso festival - my old neighborhood's festival.  We got to talk to loads of students, then Yoko met us to watch the fireworks.    The fireworks were especially good this year!  Since they had to finish early last year (because of rain), they had all of the leftover ones as well and this year's allotment! 

That ended our whirlwind tour of Tango.  We slept late on Saturday before driving to Sonobe to catch a train into Osaka for the night.  We went out to dinner in downtown Osaka and an izakaya (where more beer and chuhai was had), and then mom and Prad gave Pachinko (the gambling game) a go...except I'm pretty sure they never actually figured it out!!  (The flashing lights and screaming bells in the place had given me a headache after about 5 minutes so I waited outside!!!)

The next morning we had to say goodbye and send them back to Tokyo to catch their flight (which we heard went off without a hitch).  It was a really good visit.  I'm so glad that Prad was able to come over to see Japan, and I really think he enjoyed it (everyone seems to like Japan though!!)  Hopefully everyone will be able to come back again sometime before Bryn and I move on to somewhere new (but who knows when that will be!!)

Visitors Part 3

The silent car was pretty weird. There were no announcements to tell us what station we were approaching and we weren't allowed to talk. haha!
Well, it was only as far as Osaka, and then we changed trains to a normal one for the remaining 10~15 minutes or so to Kyoto.
Finally we were back in Kyoto.  First stop, the hotel.

Actually, Our hotel wasn't in Kyoto at all! It wasn't even in Kyoto Prefecture!! All the cheaper hotels in Kyoto were booked out, so I had booked us into a hotel in Otsu City, Shiga Prefecture (by lake Biwa). It's only a 20 minute train ride from Kyoto, so it wasn't a big deal. Prad was happy about it too, since Lake Biwa is where the largest Bass in the world was caught. Unfortunately we didn't manage to get out on a boat while we were there.

Mississippi? No... Lake Biwa, Japan!

After having checked into the hotel we headed straight back into Kyoto for dinner at a roof-top beer garden!! HOORAY!!! We had a small map telling us how to get to the train station from the hotel, but it wasn't very detailed or helpful. After walking past the turn-off once, we managed to turn back and find our way. The station was TINY!  There was no ticket machine, and nobody working there. It was just a matter of walking up onto the platform and getting on the train. Getting lost on the way to the station caused us to miss our train. The next train was 20 minutes away!! There was no way we were going to make it to the beer garden by 5:30!! (5:30 was the start time, and being a Saturday night in summer vacation, I figured if we didn't get there at the start time, we wouldn't get a seat).
Eventually the train came, and we headed into Kyoto. When we got off at our stop (underground) we quickly made our way up to ground level. However, as we were heading up, we heard a strange rumbling sound. It almost sounded like thunder, but surely not! It was sunny out there... right?

Apparently not. When we neared ground level, it soon became clear that it was bucketing down outside. Not only was it raining, it was POURING! The wind had picked up to a gentle gale, and thunder was booming. Hmmm... what should we do?
We headed back underground and bought umbrellas at a small convenience store in the underground station. Clearly the typhoon-like weather wasn't congenial to roof-top beer gardening, so we decided to made a mad dash to a nearby izakaya for dinner. We waited under shelter for a while to see if the rain would let up, but it was just getting worse and worse, so we decided to cut our losses and go for it. Well... the umbrellas were pointless. The wind was swirling so much that the rain just came up and under the umbrellas! That, and the force with which it was pounding on the footpath caused it to splash back up and saturate our legs. haha! We finally made it to the restaurant, and dripped our way in. We had a good time there.

When we walked out of the restaurant after dinner, we saw that the weather had completely cleared up. It was actually quite nice outside now. So we decided to take a walk around Kyoto at night. However, my socks were saturated, and Prad's T-shirt was soaked, so we hot-footed it to Uniqlo (clothing store) to get some socks and a T-shirt. Prad and I switched our wet clothes for dry ones, and then we all headed off to the convenience store for some beers, and walked along the Kamo River, beers in hand, down to Shijo Street, where we searched for a famous matcha desert shop, but it seems it was temporarily relocated due to renovations. We took the opportunity to walk around Yasaka Shrine, and then headed back down Ponotocho to the English Style Pub. We had a drink or two there before calling it a night and heading back to the hotel in Shiga! haha

The next day we headed into Kyoto and went to Sanjusangendo Temple, Kiyomizudera Temple (well, the streets leading up to it) and then walked down through Gion to Maruyama Park, and then wasted time until 5:30 for the beer garden to open. YES, that's right: we weren't able to go to the beer garden the night before, so we decided to try again tonight.  It was great too! We arrived a little early and so waited on the rooftop for opening. Then we were seated and got drinks and food. We had some really drunk guy sitting at the table next to us, who was trying to impress his girlfriend with his English... haha!! It was hilarious to watch Prad "chatting" with him!  We had a great time at the beer garden.

Lee throws a coin onto the wishing stone at Sanjusangendo

We stumbled upon some traditional Kyogen Theatre going on at Yasaka Shrine

As you can see, as it started to get dark, they turned on fairy lights at the beer garden. It was like Christmas! haha

Heading back to the hotel, exhausted.

The next day we headed to Kyoto Station and did some shopping there before taking the train home to Yosano.

Visitors - Part Two

Sorry for the bit of confusion there.  I usually type these blog entries on Word while I am at school, and post them when I get home.  For whatever reason, something has been messed up with the html format when I copy it in for the past few times...I know negative amounts about html, but Bryn found some article online with some solutions, so we will give it a try...

Anyways!  When we last left you we were heading to Osaka to spend the night before heading off to Hiroshima.  Bryn managed to reserve us seats on the side of the shinkansen where you can see Mount Fuji on a clear day.  It was a bit cloudy when we passed by, but we did get to see the peak peeking (haha) out of the clouds!

Once we were in Osaka we checked into our hotel before moving downtown to find dinner.  We decided to try an izakaya that was Kyushu themed.  Kyushu is the southermost region of Japan (including Okinawa).  They have a somewhat unique style of food which is really good (aside from their obsession with SPAM...).  We were all pretty exhausted and decided to call it an early night since we had an early train to catch the next day.

We woke up BRIGHT and early on Friday morning to catch a fast train (shinkansen) to Hiroshima. I don’t mind waking up BRIGHT and early so much is there is a Starbucks between me and my destination. The only problem with this particular morning was that the only Starbucks around happened to be in the other part of the train station…not the shinkansen station!!

Apart from having no Starbucks to start off the day, the trip to Hiroshima was fairly uneventful. Upon arrival, we hustled to stuff our bags in a locker and find the train that would get us to the Mazda factory – our first stop of the day! We had a tour scheduled for 10:30 that morning, and found the meeting spot with no problems at all.

There were about 20 people (foreigners from all over the world) on the English tour. A cute Japanese girl with perfect English gave the tour of the factory. It was HUGE! We had to take a 15 minute bus ride from the visitors center, to the museum where the actual tour takes place.

In the entrance to the museum there were several brand new Mazdas of different makes for people to sit in. It was funny watching all the Americans jump into the passenger seat before realizing it was the other way around!

We were then led upstairs where our tour guide gave us a brief history of the company (Did you know that the name Mazda comes from the Japanese name Matsuda??) There was a showroom full of all sorts of Mazda’s starting from their very first 3-wheeled motorcycle. Next we learned about the rotary engine they use and got to get a close-up look at the actual car that won the Le Mans 24 Hour Race. (The guide made sure to point out the wide racing tires…it made me laugh since Prad has at least 2 in our basement in Maryland that he has collected from races!).

In the next room we saw how a car was made – from the inspiration drawing boards, to small models, to full scale models made of clay (pretty cool – they used the RX8 as the example, and had a full size car sitting there…no one could believe it when she told us that it was a model made from solid clay!!) then to the real car.

From there we got to go out on a cat walk above the factory where they were building the real cars (sorry, no pictures allowed). I tell you, those workers work HARD. They only had a matter of minutes (I estimated about two) to install their parts of the car, get everything screwed in correctly and have it ready for the next person on the line. It was really interesting to watch. We mainly saw them installing pieces of the interior – flooring, the dashboard…stuff like that. The cars came in as empty shells and filled up as they slowly moved down the line…pretty cool!

Finally we ended in the "Cars of the Future" exhibition.  The cars of Mazda's future can be summed up in one word: UGLY.  (In Mazda's defense, I don't think they have intentions of manufacturing or selling them...)

The tour lasted about an hour and a half, and then we decided that it made the most sense to catch the ferry out to Miyajima for the afternoon, since we needed to leave early the next day. Miyajima is a small island off the coast of Hiroshima. Bryn and I went there with our friend Jannie in the autumn of my first year to see the leaves (click here to read about that trip on my old blog!)

Miyajima is also one of the top three views in Japan (along with Amanohashidate and another one much further north). It is most well known for it’s “floating” torii…when the tide is in, it looks like the enormous red torii is floating in the water. The tide happened to be way out when we arrived that afternoon, so after some lunch we decided to walk out to the gate and check it out! It is seriously big!

There were coins stuck into the barnacles all over the base of the torii.  I think mom and Prad each stuck one on there, too.

We spend the next few hours wandering around and riding the ropeway up to the top (well, almost the top) of Mt. Misen. Jannie, Bryn and I had then hiked to the summit when we visited in the cool fall, but 35+ temperatures weren’t great for mountain climbing, so we decided to skip it this trip.

We eventually ferried back to the mainland and made our way to the hotel for a quick shower to cool down our sunburn (I think we all got a little that day!) Then, we were right back out to find some dinner! Seeing as we were in Hiroshima, the home of okonomiyaki (sort of a thick savory pancake filled with all sorts of good stuff) we decided to try and find a restaurant that served it – and we did!

I have to admit that the restaurant we ended up in was totally missable. Bryn ordered us a “Hiroshimayaki” (the real specialty of the area) and a “Kansaiyaki” (we had no idea what that was, but we live in Kansai, so we thought we should try it.) This was a place that just brought you the ingredients, and it was up to you to cook it. The problem was, there was so much of the stuff that it was near impossible to cook!!! Bryn and Prad managed to get everything together, and well…it tasted good! In the end we managed to make most of the okonomiyakis go away. Like I said, the taste was good, but it definitely wasn’t worth the effort. We’ll stick to our “local” place!! Everyone was pretty exhausted after the long day out in the hot sun, so we called it an early night.

Saturday morning we took the tram to the Hiroshima Peace Park (the site of the atomic bomb). We saw the atomic bomb dome (the one building they left standing after the bomb) and then went into the museum which chronicles the history leading up the WWII and the dropping of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It’s quite a serious museum and really well done (very unbiased…they don’t bash America for dropping it, and they also explain the Japan wasn’t completely innocent in the whole thing). I would imagine that it is an even more eye-opening experience for young Japanese people who have not learned about the war since it is not in their curriculum in schools.

It was hot, so we opted for a short taxi ride to Hiroshima Castle. It is a reconstruction (the original – well, I guess it could have been the original) was destroyed by the bomb. Like Osaka castle, it looks really neat and authentic from the outside, but the inside is completely modern in order to display things. The one thing is has over Osaka castle is that it doesn’t have an elevator! For me, a castle is a castle and I will love them no matter what!!! It also has a really cook view of the city from the top!

After wandering around the castle, we went back to the station for some omiyage (souvenir) shopping before getting bentos (my bento came in the form of a McDonalds hamburger and fries!) and catching another shinkansen to Kyoto. To make things interesting, we sat in the “Silent Car” for this leg of the trip. No talking or making any kind of noise! (they were the only seats available…we certainly wouldn’t sit there on purpose!!!)

That's all for now...be sure to check back soon for part three!!

Visitors - Part One

“COME ON!!!” Where was the bloody taxi? It was hot… very hot, and Liz and I were waiting in the car park of our apartment block - waiting for the taxi to take us to Nodagawa Station. He was supposed to come pick us up at FIVE!! But that was several minutes ago. We had a train to catch!! And MOST importantly, it was bloody HOT!! Liz squatted in a sliver of shade with the bags while I paced out on the road keeping an eye out for a lost-looking taxi.
Finally it arrived. It turns out that he had gone to the wrong apartment block. Not to worry, we still made it to the station on time and before we knew it we were on the limited express train to Kyoto: the first leg in our trip to Tokyo to meet Lee and Prad at the airport.

We had spent the afternoon in the immigration office at Maizuru (Kyoto prefecture’s port city) applying for an extension on our almost-expired visas. It was hot and busy in the immigration office, but all went well.

Once in Kyoto, we bought our bullet train tickets to Tokyo for the next morning, and picked up some “dinner” from a convenience store before checking into the hotel and calling it a night.

The next morning, we headed straight for Kyoto Station, where we picked up some fancy lunch packs and drinks for our two hour bullet train ride to Tokyo. We were on the new 700 series Nozomi super express bullet trains. Normally Kyoto to Tokyo takes about three hours, but this speedy new train had us there in two!! AWESOME!!!!!!

Our lunches were GREAT!... except for the fact that I accidentally managed to squish Liz’s sandwiches eeeever so slightly…

At Shinagawa Station (one of Tokyo’s hubs) we changed over to the Narita Airport express train and before we knew it, we were being inspected at the airport security gate….only this time we were PREPARED for it! Haha

We had arrived an hour or so before their flight was supposed to arrive, but when we got to the arrivals gate and looked on the board, it turned out that Lee and Prad had in fact already landed, and were taxiing on the runway!! WOW! Good thing we got there early!! Liz stood like a meerkat on lookout at the arrivals gate while Bryn went to the convenience store to get some “Welcome to Japan” beers for our guests.


It wasn’t long before Lee and Prad wandered out of those arrival gates and spotted us waving at them. It was really great to see them both. They looked surprisingly spritely given their LONG-HAUL flight here. We made a quick trip to the Japan Rail office to get their rail passes issued, and then we boarded the Narita Express Train back into Central Tokyo. When Bryn cranked out the beers on the train, Liz announced that it was Lee’s birthday!! So we had a “kampai” to Lee as well as a “kampai” to them arriving in Japan.

And so began the ten day whirlwind that was LEE and PRAD’s EXCELLENT ADVENTURE in JAPAN!!!

FIRST STOP: TOKYO!
We only had a one night stay in Tokyo, so we didn't waste any time. Once we checked into the hotel and freshened up, we headed out to Shibuya district for some dinner. We went to an izakaya restaurant there. It was really fun. Lee and Prad must have been exhausted from their flights, but they trooped on. After dinner we walked around Shibuya a little and then headed to Shinjuku district to see the skyscrapers and the hotel Liz and I stayed at when we first arrived in Japan all those years ago. It was fun for me and Liz to wander those streets again and recall those very first days...

It was while we were walking around Shinjuku that it hit us all that we were absolutely buggered, and so we headed back to the hotel for a well-deserved sleep.

The next morning we went to Asakusa district where Prad was accosted by two different rickshaw pullers who REALLY wanted to take him for a ride in their carts... Prad chatted away with them, which I think made their day!! haha

We went to Senso-ji (a famous old temple in Asakusa). The original building was burned down in the US firebombing of Tokyo in WW2, but the reconstruction looks old and authentic. The most famous part of the whole temple is the entrance gate, named the "Kaminari-mon" or "Thunder Gate", in which hangs a HUGE paper lantern. We took some photos there and walked down the souvenir shop-lined street to the temple. It was a fun walk. Liz had never been there, and I hadn't been there in about nine years, so it was interesting for us all. At the main temple, we all drew fortune tellings. Lee and I got good fortunes. We were basically told that everything we touched would turn to gold (slight exaggeration, but you get the picture)... Liz unfortunately didn't get such a great one. She had a not-so-good fortune telling. But she wasn't too bothered about her own when she saw how shockingly bad Prad's was!! Prad was basically told to pray for help! haha. So Liz tied his fortune slip up on the string provided so that his luck would improve.

After Asakusa, we went to Harajuku where we visited the famous Meiji-jingu Shrine. There was a lot of walking involved, and it was VERY hot. Along the way we decided to pay to walk around the gardens there. Unfortunately, nothing was flowering!! We found ourselves walking round saying things like "Man, I bet that would be really beautiful IF those plants were in bloom..."  haha.

There was a sign pointing to Kiyomasa's well. We decided to check it out. We walked all that way... only to find a hole in the ground with some water coming out of it. It was pretty disappointing. In hindsight, I don't know what I was expecting exactly, but it was still pretty crap. There was a sign there telling us how pure and high quality the water was, but immediately underneath it was another sign saying it wasn't fit to drink!! haha

After the shrine, we stopped for some icecream and cold drinks before heading to the station to catch the bullet train to Osaka.