And cue jet lag

Home sweet home! Sleeping in my own bed has never felt so good. Flight was LONG with some turbulence but we made it home in one piece, and with all of our luggage. They didn't even confiscate my throwing stars that I bought from the Ninja castle... Score! And I am happy to report that I made it to Nihongo Gakko (Japanese school) tonight, where I was thoroughly confused and cross-eyed, either from being lost or just plain tired. Or maybe both.

Excited to curl up with my kitties, so I am over and out. Thank you for following, as usual, and pls keep checking back for updates with photos! Coming soon!

Love Kris xo

Last day

Sad to be leaving but looking forward to coming home. We're back in familiar territory - staying at the Grand Price Shinagawa, just down the street from where we stayed last year, across from Shinagawa Station. Today we are going to take the train up to Shibuya for the morning, get some last minute shopping in (I'm determined to find these little keychains I've been searching for the entire trip) and then head to the airport!

Hit one small snag in my search for Stevia-sweetened treats... What is Stevia in katakana? O_o
I did find ginger ale but it isn't quite Canada Dry, it is the gingeriest ginger ale in the world. With extra ginger, the bottle boasts. Wowee. Makes my eyes water. Dad shook his head at me because in my excitement, I bought not one but two bottles. If I water it down enough it is drinkable, as in I can drink it without crying.

Had a wonderful visit with Tomo and the girls, I hope they come visit me in Canada, I told them they have an open invitation to come stay with us anytime. They were very excited and were busy planning their next trip when we left.

I'll see some of you this weekend at the Keisho conference at the JCCC. If you haven't registered yet, please do! It is going to be a great event, and I think attendance ought to be mandatory for all sansei and yonsei. This could be a once in a lifetime opportunity to hear some of these stories first-hand, and to learn about a part of Japanese Canadian history that is so often left untold. Visit the JCCC website for more information.

Love Kris xo

Ohayo gozaimasu from Suwa

Checking in from Suwa

For the last leg of our journey we are spending the weekend in Suwa with our old friend Tomo-san. For those of you who don't know, when Marty and Dawna came to Suwa in 1984 to visit Oguchi-sensei following their 21 day tour of the orient, they met a young man by the name of Tomomatsu Misawa. He was only 17 or 18 at the time, and his father desperately wanted him to go to Canada to learn English. My mom and dad agreed to board him at their place, as they had a few empty bedrooms (I wasn't born yet) and in exchange, he would help train/teach Toronto Suwa Daiko. He stayed for 1 year and did grade 12 at Thompson CI, then came back in '85 for grade 13 (he lived with Al Sora at that time since my mom was pregnant with me by then). We met up with him on March 11th in Tokyo last year, and he was so reassuring in trying to make sure we felt safe and secure despite the constant aftershocks that we could feel all night long. We spent Saturday with him, but on Sunday he had to return to Suwa to load up a van full of supplies and drive it 7 hours to Sendai to help some of his coworkers. He said he made that trip multiple times, each time with more supplies like water and gasoline, both of which were in short supply. 

Fast forward to this year, we met him in Suwa this time since he lives in Ina City, just outside of Suwa. We are in Nagano prefecture, a few hours south of where the Nagano Olympics were held in '98. His company is having their big 50th anniversary celebration party tonight here at the hotel, which I believe was supposed to be held on March 12th last year but was cancelled for obvious reasons. We had dinner at the Chinese restaurant downstairs, he picked out some dishes ahead of time for us to try - oishii! From there we could hear him playing taiko for the party. He said it has been a long time since he stopped playing but has started drumming again in the last few years teaching his coworkers. 

Everyone here is very friendly, not that everyone else hasn't been friendly, but we are now traveling on our own without any of our wonderful companions (translators!). The server at dinner was this tiny little thing, she apologized profusely that she didn't speak English but she was actually pretty good. She told us she has a friend in Victoria, so she visited them last year (kimashita?) for 5 days, starting in Victoria then going to Vancouver and Banff as well. We asked if her friend was Nihonjin, married to hakujin? Her eyes got very big and I'm not sure if she was impressed that I guessed correctly or that I used a bit of Japanese well enough for her to understand. Maybe both. If she was embarrassed that she didn't speak English, we were even more embarrassed that we are full Japanese but can barely put a sentence together. 

Speaking of which, Hiroko was telling us that people often asked what our relation was in our travels, and she just told them we were her son and granddaughter. So then they asked why she didn't teach us Japanese and without thinking she just told them "because they didn't want to learn!" she said the horrified and confused looks on their faces were priceless, as she realized after the fact that they didn't know we were Canadian, and not actually related to her. 

It is an interesting concept though, that most Nikkei families don't pass down the language through generations because of the oppression during the war years. I know in my own family, my grandparents we worried that by teaching their kids Japanese, it would hinder their ability to learn English, so they gave them all Canadian names and spoke only Japanese to each other, and not to their kids. I'm sure this was the same for a lot of the other Nisei and Sansei, which doesn't give us Yonsei much hope for preserving the language either. I am fortunate to be able to take conversational Japanese classes at the JCCC, but the vast majority of my peers may never learn to speak it, so they will miss out on such a huge part of their cultural heritage. I will make a point to make sure my own kids learn at least basic language skills, even if they never need it, I now regret not taking Japanese language school as a child (mom and dad gave me a choice - go to school on a Saturday at 9am to learn Japanese, or keep our Saturday horseback riding lessons. What would you have picked at age 12?). 

Tomo has a full day planned for us tomorrow, he was sooo excited to see us today, even though we only saw him for 10 minutes. We won't get to meet his wife on this trip because her mother is sick but his mom and niece will be spending the day with us. My head is still spinning from our long train ride here, my search for gingerale is still ongoing but I did discover that the CC Lemon Refresh drink is a little bit like a sparkling lemonade, so that helps a bit. I will really miss their amazing assortment of drinks from the vending machines, I got a hot chocolate at the train station - in a can! Imagine that! Not too hot, drinking temperature, and so tasty. North America is really missing out on this vending machine business. Back home I could get coke, diet coke, gingerale, sprite, maybe nestea, and fruitopia. Oh and bottled water. That's about it. What a rip off lol. 

Dad's been giving me grief on all the stuff I keep buying. And it really is just STUFF, little trinkets, food (lots of foodstuffs like matcha latte powder, matcha cookies and cream chocolate bars, candies, keychains, cookies, stickers... Omg everything is just so darn cute! Or tasty looking. Or just too cool to not bring home to show my friends). We will probably need to buy another suitcase. But I'm ok with that too, even their suitcases here are amazing. I bought a Delsey in Hawaii, designed and manufactured in the USA and the quality is just embarrassingly poor, the handle is flimsy, the elastics are already getting stretched out with 1 month of use, the wheels are plastic... The one I bought in Kyoto last year is phenomenal. Just such a sturdy, well made, beautifully designed piece of luggage. 

Oh! Luggage! That reminds me. Japanese people are so smart - they usually ship their luggage from place to place, to avoid having to struggle with it on the train, usually arranged through the hotel. We shipped one of our suitcases from Kyoto to Tokyo and it cost us maybe $17 Canadian? For an *entire suitcase*. I don't even want to know how much it would cost to do that back home. Not only that but I doubt the hotel would agree to store it for you for a week until you arrive to retrieve it. Ours will be waiting for is at our hotel in Tokyo on Monday. Amazing. 

Dad is sound asleep on the bed beside me, "just resting his eyes" he says (he's still in his jeans and dress shirt). I've got a sumo match on to try to drown out his snoring but I think I'll just go to sleep instead. Then he can deal with MY snoring instead. 

By the time you read this it will probably be Saturday evening (Sunday morning our time) so wishing you a nice remainder of your weekend and I probably won't check in again until we're back in Toronto on Tuesday. Thank you for following, I have a few unfinished posts that I still have to publish, most notably the Hiroshima/ Nagasaki one, so when I am able to integrate photos I'll put those up as well. 

Lots of love,
   Kris xo 

Update from Toba

Night one of sleeping on the floor - Ow, my shoulder....

Haha no I'm only partly kidding, it isn't so bad, it's kinda cool actually. I don't know that I could do it for another week (which is how long I think it would take me to get used to it) but for a few days, the hot springs help melt some of the tension away and I am so beyond tired that I had an amazing sleep on the bus en route to Ise Jingu (Ise Grand Shrine), Japan's holiest Shinto shrine. And seemingly also one of the most expensive. Custom dictate that they rebuild the Naiku and Geku shrine buildings and the bridge every 29 years. The next one will take place next year, and they have already began preparations for it. The estimated cost for this rebuild is about ¥5 billion or about $60,000,000CDN.

Didn't make it to Mikimoto island on account of the weather, but we did visit the Azuchi Momoyama Bunka Mura ninja & samurai theme park. That's right, a ninja theme park. It was pissing pissing rain all day so the place was deserted..... Or was it?! Maybe the ninjas were just invisible to the untrained eye. Muahahaha. I think it was really just that miserable out. We didn't have much time to spend there so we watched one of the live shows, which was entirely in Japanese but still hilarious (and impressive!). The main character reminded me so much of Chris in his mannerisms and the funny imitations he did. They both did a hilarious old school deep Japanese accent, he had the whole theatre howling by the end. He looked just like Daniel (but with eyeliner on), so I had a pit in the bottom of my stomach for most of the show. We learned tonight at dinner that Chris, Dan and Michelle came here to Ise with Chako-san's kids to visit Chako's dad and they went to that very same park many years ago. He said that the boys just loved it, and I can just picture those Kano brothers and all the mischief they got into. It was just another reminder of how much I miss Chrissy, because he of all people would've been so excited to hear about my adventures.

I have so much more to say but it is getting late here and our wifi connection is hit and miss. Tomorrow we head to Suwa to meet up with Tomo, will be there until Monday then back to Tokyo overnight and home on Tues! Seems like we just got here, and yet it feels like we've been here for weeks. I don't want to come home but I won't lie, I am really looking forward to sleeping in my own bed again. The long commutes are killing me, I have never consumed so much Gravol in such a short period of time. This is also the only country I've ever visited that doesn't really have carbonated beverages, only coca cola. I would kill for a ginger ale right about now lol. But I have discovered that Pocari Sweat tastes a little bit like fresca without the carbonation, but is more like Gatorade I think. Helps with the dehydration.

I hope I remember all of this by the time I get home, I try to jot down stuff so I'll remember but my iPad is such a pain in the arse to type on, most of the time I just want to give up and do a video diary instead. Next time maybe.

Lots of love from Toba!
Kris xox

Ok, I digress, hot springs are awesome

I haven't had Internet for a few days so I'm posting a few consecutive posts tonight while I can.


Ise day 1 

This morning we snuck one last visit in to the Nishiki Market in Kyoto, known as Kyoto's Kitchen because of all the different little food stalls. Most of the stores were still closed but I bought a few trinkets, including a few beautiful hand painted wall scrolls for my condo. I had been admiring some different ones in a small shop in the higashiyama district so Kimiko-san wanted to take me to this one to look at some of their selection. I wish I could've bought ALL of them, they were so pretty!

Caught a quick Shinkansen to Nagoya then transferred to the Toba line, where we were to meet James and Chako at the 3rd stop, close to Ise. Ise is Japan's oldest town, and home to one of the most elaborate and famed Shinto Shrines in the entire country. We will visit that on Friday, along with the Mikimoto Island pearl farms as Ise is also famous for their cultured pearls. 

Tonight was the 88th birthday celebration for Chako's father, attended by 28 of her closest friends and relatives. We felt extremely honoured to be included in this intimate gathering in the ballroom of this beautiful seaside resort hotel. The food was incredible, very traditional Japanese celebration feast with multiple courses and the most intricate dishes. We were totally stuffed by the end of the evening, which was commenced with a rather bizarre but highly entertaining Thai showgirl variety show... Using the word "girl" rather loosely...

Our rooms are traditional tatami style, so we get to sleep on futon tonight which I'm very excited about. Last year we has the option of sleeping on futon or in the amazingly fluffy and comfortable beds at the Hakone ryokan, and by that point it was March 13th and we were EXHAUSTED. We came back from dinner, sat down on the bed at 7:30pm and woke up 11 hours later in the morning, ha! It was a thoroughly rewarding experience though, staying at the ryokan. I would highly recommend it to anyone thinking of traveling to Japan. I would suggest you learn some basic Japanese language skills first though, as they typically do not speak much English. They had a good laugh at us last year trying to navigate our way through the check in process. Thankfully we have our wonderful friends here this year to help us, but the hostess was extremely embarrassed when she was trying to explain our rooms to us and Dad and I just stared at her blankly. From what I managed to decipher, something was going to happen at hachi-ji han desu, so at 8:30... My best guess was that that's when they would set up our beds in our rooms. One point for Krissy!

Sang karaoke for 2 hours after dinner and the show, Dad did his usual - wanna guess? Daydream Believer, Love Me Tender, and Blue Hawaii. The only 3 English songs all night unless you count the lip synching dancers. Oh lordy that was a funny experience!

Bedtime now, another long day of sightseeing tomorrow. The hot springs arent nearly as hot here, so I spent some time soaking in the sauna tub and then the outdoor tub overlooking the bay. It is unbelievably gorgeous here. I feel so grateful everyday that we are getting to experience so much of this incredible country, and it has been very rewarding learning a little bit more about my heritage at the same time. I also figured out that karaoke is a great way to learn hiragana and katakana, but following along with the characters on the screen! I'm getting much much better, maybe I'll actually be able to read a little bit by the time I get home. (Lisa, Megan, we can practice lots together!)

Today was Wednesday?

Where did the time go? I have no concept of what day of the week it is, or even what city we're in (Kyoto, for the record), the days have just blurred together because we've been in a different city every night almost! Such an incredible experience. Sorry I haven't been as diligent with my updates as I had hoped I would be. Lack of a reliable internet connection is one hindrance, you would be surprised how many hotels don't have wifi. There is free wifi in many of the public areas, like along the Shijo Dori shopping street here in Kyoto, but we are so rarely ever in one place for any extended period of time, it is difficult to get anything productive done in terms of checking in at home. Normally I would compose my thoughts on the train since we spend hours upon hours on the Shinkansen (as Hiroko says, it's "free" so we might as well take advantage of it!) but my motion sickness is crippling, so I spend most of my time trying to sleep away the nausea.

It is late here now and we have another long day of traveling tomorrow so I apologize for glazing over some of the details again in this post! Yesterday was our second day in Beppu, so we visited the Takasakiyama park, or Monkey Mountain as they call it. It really is a mountain full of "wild" Japanese macaques. There are over 1000 of them living there this year, they live in the mountains and come down to the reserve for food twice a day. You can wander through there during the day amongst them (no, you can't pet them though) and they sort of do their own thing. It was fascinating. I could have spent the entire day there just watching them interact with each other. They had big ones, little ones, even babies, and there was a clear hierarchy between the alpha males.

After that we spent an hour or two at the Umi Tamago "Sea Egg" aquarium across the street. They had dolphins, walruses, seals, otters, Sea turtles, sharks, frogs, you name it! They even had a sloth! Again, we didn't have enough time to spend there but I'm glad we went. For a town that Hiroko described as boring with "not much to see", I think I could have spent a good 4 days there and not have to do the same thing twice. Other than soak in the hot springs, that is.

From the aquarium Hiroko hired a taxi driver to take us out to the little town of Yufuin, about an hour from Beppu. It is a small European inspired town they built around 1945 when they put in the highway. Seems totally random to me that it is European, of all things, but to the Japanese, that is exotic to them. The area is known for its greenhouses as the hot springs allow them to grow the most brilliant orchids. We spent a few hours wandering through the streets and parks there. It was bustling with other tourists, mostly other young Asians (Chinese and Korean tour busses run through there too). There is also a popular university nearby so a lot of the students take jobs in the town to make some extra money.

Fast forward to tonight - we are back in Kyoto, heading to Ise via Nagoya tomorrow to meet up with some other friends for Chako's father's 88th birthday celebration. I bought a kimono tonight, a black tomesode (formal) kimono that was very reasonably priced, although still a lot of money to spend on one item of clothing. The ladies were gushing over the fact that a Yonsei 4th Generation Canadian is more Japanese than they are because I know how to put on a kimono and tie a basic obi. I guess I never really thought of it that way, most modern Japanese women would never have to wear kimono, and if they do, they don't dress themselves. So I have my odori Sensei to thank for that! And my parents for putting me in odori from age 2.

I'm exhausted now so going to sign out for the evening. Attempting to share a few more photos, hope these links work! Thanks for following, especially enjoying the feedback from all of you! I learned from my Aunt that my great grandparents on the Matsui side spent some time in Beppu as well. Truthfully, I don't know much about my family history so I found that very interesting! Thank you Auntie Mary and Uncle Roy. I look forward to swapping more stories when I get home!

First photo, taken in Yufuin somewhere near Kinrinko Lake. http://instagr.am/p/IZVfQJzMgf/

Some early ume (plum) blossoms in Kyoto http://instagr.am/p/IUDHdJTMsB/

And one of the sharks at the aquarium! http://instagr.am/p/IadQXuzMs-/


xo Kris

Monday March 19th

Im doing this a little out of order because I need another day to compose my thoughts re: Hiroshima/Nagasaki. So I'm skipping right to Beppu, which is where we are now. Beppu is one of Japan's best hot spring towns, producing some of the best quality onsen spas. It is very busy this weekend, as we found out today that it is a national holiday.

So, today I got to experience my first onsen (hot spring bath). All this time I've been worried about the whole public nudity thing because it isn't really that common for women in North America, but I got over that fear after a few mins of loitering in the hall by myself... I just couldn't get over how unbelievably HOT those tubs are! Yowza! The hotel we're staying at has both private and public baths, and as far as I can tell the only difference is that the public baths are on the roof in the open air overlooking the mountains, and the private one is enclosed in a room one floor down. Beautiful and peaceful, granted I wouldn't know any different because I couldn't hear a damn thing without my aid on, but you actually don't feel the cold when you're basically simmering (cooking) in a tub full of scalding hot water. Anyhow, as I sit here in my room in my yukata, my skin feels wonderfully soft and even though it is only about 10 degrees and my windows are open, I'm still toasty warm and my skin has never been softer. So maybe there's something to it after all. 

Backtracking a bit, this morning we got up early and had breakfast, checked out and went straight to the train station to catch the Kyushu express back to Hakata (Fukuoka). These trains aren't as smooth as the other Shinkansen, so I was loaded to the hilt with Gravol to try to suppress the motion sickness. Lucky for me, that just means I get to take a nice long nap. It took about 2hrs to get to Hakata, and then the transfer from there to Beppu was another hour and a half or so.

When we arrived it was still too early to check in so we spent the afternoon sightseeing. There isn't a lot to see in Beppu, but the two main sights are the Jigoku Meguri "hell tour" hot spring parks and the monkey hill... Where I'm told there are monkeys living in the hills. We didn't end up going there, thats on tomorrow's agenda so I will keep you posted on that.  But the Jigoku Meguri tour was fascinating. Basically the name "Jigoku" means "burning hell". The tour consisted of 9 different themed hot spring sites that can be found in the Oita area, each one supposedly conjuring up different scenes from the Inferno as depicted by Dante. 

The first one is called Umi-Jigoku, or Sea Hell, aptly named because the deep cobalt water looks like the sea. They boil eggs here for consumption, they're deeeelicious. Unlike the kuro tamago(black eggs) we saw in Hakone last year, these ones look fairly normal but the yolks are a bright orange instead of plain yellow. Here is a photo of this jigoku from google images. In the spring and summer the water lillies that grow in the pond here get so big small children can stand on them and not sink. Seriously.

I won't post pics of all the other jigoku's but I will list them:
- Oniishibozu Jigoku (Oniishi Shaven Head Hell), named as such because the bubbles of hot grey clay look like the bald heads of monks
- Yama Jigoku (mountain hell) because the mud that bubbles up from the steam vents has formed small peaks over the years. This spot also has a mini zoo with an elephant, hippo, etc
- Kamado Jigoku, The Cooking Pot Hell, lol, which features a big red demon standing on a pot... Some feminists might agree that this would indeed be a form of hell for the modern woman...
- Oniyama Jigoku, Monster Mountain hell, where they breed crocodiles because they love the warm waters. Theyre really freaky looking,wait til you see the pics.
- Shiraike Jigoku, White Pond hell, because the water comes out of this spring milky white for some reason. Smells great too (not!)
-Chinoike Jigoku, Blood Pond Hell, the freakiest of them all because the red clay makes the water red, reaching temps of around 78-80 Celsius.
-Tatsumaki Jigoku is a natural geyser of hot spring water, it is really neat. Famous for the short intervals between eruptions.
How many is that? Was that 9? I think we skipped the Kinryu "Golden Dragon" Jigoku

Tomorrow we will go see the monkeys, and then I think we're visiting a small town nearby that brews European spirits or something like that. What a trip it has been so far. Hiroko-San keeps us busy every minute, she has adopted me as her granddaughter, everywhere we go she finds something else to feed me. Reminds me of my own Nana, she was the same way. We would be totally lost without her! Couldn't ask for a better guide and traveling companion.

K xo

Sunday March 18th

10am
We don't have Internet in Hiroshima so the crack berry addict in me is feeling a little deprived. Marty is probably worse off than me though, haha! 

Yesterday we caught a early train from Kyoto to Hiroshima. Had to transfer in Okayama, but made it here in good time. We are staying at this funny european-inspired hotel called thr Hiroshima Grand Intelligence Hotel, the lobby is oozing with grandeur - suits of armor guarding the front doors, marble columns, (fake) fireplaces, (fake) European tapestries, lush carpets, old gilded furniture... Beethoven and Mozart playing over the speaker system. They even use old-fashioned keys instead of keycards! It is kind of funny, but it is clean, the beds are comfy and it is very close to the train station!

First stop when we arrived was Miyajima. It is quite a hike to get there from the city centre so we took a cab (about 30mins). Funny story, when i got in the car I found a wallet on the floor. I tried to tell the driver that I found it but he waved me off and (I thought) pointed me to put it in the seat back pocket, so I did. Then a little while later he asked me to see it, so I showed it to him and he waved me off again, so I put it back in the pocket on his headrest. So then I find out that he is giving us 10% off our fare because of this ID card I showed him. I tried explaining it wasn't mine again, but it was lost in translation. Fast forward to the next morning, I find out he came back to our hotel while we were out for dinner thinking I left MY wallet in the car. When Hiroko-san told him it wasn't ours and that we found it, I think he then thought I tried to scam him into giving me the 10% off for having a disability. I kinda thought it was evident that I wasn't an 80year old Japanese man? Anyhow, it made for a funny story and we saved a couple hundred yen.

Back to Miyajima... the ferry ride was quick, only about 10-15 mins. It was rainy and cool in the morning but by the time we got to the island it was sunny and warm, so we were a little overdressed. Wandered through the main temple and took 100 pics of the wild deer that live on the island. What funny little creatures they are. They are polite, but persistent, and will eat virtually anything they can reach, their favourite apparently being paper. We watched them eat quite a few pamphlets and brochures, most of which they plucked out of the hands or pockets of unsuspecting tourists.

The temples on the island are spread out up the mountainside a little, so wee were told it would take us a good 4hrs to do the whole "course". We opted for a few good photo ops of the famous floating torii and spent the rest of the beautiful afternoon wandering along the busy backstreets. Hiroko-San bought a few goodies off the street vendors so we tried roasted sweet potatoes, roasted chestnuts, and special maple-shaped manju, then I bought one of the deep fried bacon-wrapped satsuma sticks. Oishiiii. And I was still full from the delicious unagi-don bento we had for lunch. Good thing we burned off most of those calories trekking up and down the hills all day.

We had planned to take the streetcar back to the genbaku domu, a-bomb memorial, but by the time we got there it was past 6 and it was closed. Instead we went home, crashed for an hour, then bought dinner from the department store across the street and wandered through the store looking at all the crazy stuff they had there. It's no wonder Japanese people go so nutso shopping in Hawaii, most of the stuff in the big dept stores is very expensive. 

This morning we're up early for breakfast then plan to go back to the peace memorial museum and a-bomb memorial before we catch our train to Nagasaki. 

By this point many of you may have seen my Maiko photo on Facebook (or from my mom, who almost operates her own social media network). Pretty cool, huh? That is definitely my favourite thing I've done so far. (does this link work?)
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10100227133700249&l=853070c1bb



Update from Nagasaki, 9:30pm
We're at our hotel in Nagasaki now, have had a very long day. Visited the A-bomb museum in Hiroshima this morning, then caught the shinkansen to Hakata (Fukuoka) where we transferred to the Kyushu express to Nagasaki. I slept most of the way, as usual, because the latter part of the journey was twisty turny and when the alternative was motion sickness, I'll take the nap instead. Did a whirlwind tour of Nagasaki when we got here, will have to update you on that later because I'm asleep in my chair right now. Posted a few pics on FB, still can't figure out how to attach pics from my iPad.

Lots of love from Nagasaki,
Kris xo

Can I just stay here forever?

Really quick check in tonight because I'm falling asleep in my seat. Today was our first full day here, spent it in Kyoto. Instead of doing our half-day trip to Nara as planned, we decided to stick to the city. I went and had my photos taken in full Maiko costume as suggested to me by the Consul General's wife, Mrs Yamamoto. It was the coolest experience. What an incredible team they have there, I was fully dressed with makeup and hair done in under 45mins. This includes the white face and everything. Photos to follow when I can figure out how to upload something from my iPad.

After that we visited the Kiyomizu-dera Temple where we witnessed some sort of performance going on, I am still trying to figure out what it was but there was a dragon involved, and they marched all the way up the street and through the temple. It was really really cool. We had no idea they would be there, just lucky timing! Beautiful temple, there are 1000 Sakura trees on the property, only a few of them had some early blooms. I'm told it is absolutely packed there in the height of the cherry blossom season. I believe it. It would be quite the sight if everything was in full bloom.

Tomorrow we are heading to Hiroshima and Miyajima. From there we will make our way down to Nagasaki, and will stay in Kyushu for 2 days, one night at a hot spring resort in Beppu, and then another ryokan somewhere else on the island. After that we will spend one more night in Kyoto before heading to Nagoya and Ise to meet our friends.

Been taking lots of pics, will try to post some soon!

Lots of love,
K xo

Back to the land of the washlet toilets!

4:45pm

I can practically hear all my Canadian friends going "eeewww" right now, but seriously, awesome invention. 
Well we made it here safely. I'm writing this as I sit on the NEX (Narita Express train) en route to Shinagawa Station where we will catch the transfer to Kyoto. The flight was uneventful, I slept most of the way, watched a few terrible movies, and slept some more. We're giggling right now at the couple that just boarded the train with two GIANT ABC Store bags from Hawaii. There was also a guy on our flight wearing the largest, flashiest, most ridiculous sombrero I've ever seen in my life. I wonder where he got it from and what he's going to do with it. Funny thing is, he's wearing his baseball cap underneath it. 

We're staying two nights in Kyoto, hoping to do a bit of sightseeing, and Mrs Yamamoto (Consul General's wife) suggested I go have my photos taken in full Maiko costume. Will try to see if we can get an appt.


10:00pm

Made it to our hotel in Kyoto, we are staying at the Hotel Mitsui Garden Kyoto Shijo, cozy, we'll see if I feel brave enough to try the hot springs tomorrow. My skin doesn't really like scalding hot water. I now understand why lobsters turn bright red when you cook them....... Anyhow, despite all the sleep I got on the plane (and train), it is bedtime here! Not much to report today, but after last time, that's ok!
Oh, but I did notice that there are "in room massages" available between 7:30pm-1:30am...... (insert raised eyebrow here). Just sayin'.

K xo

2 weeks + 1 suitcase = logistical nightmare?

How anyone going anywhere other than Fiji (where I would just live in my bathing suit) can pack 2 weeks worth of clothes into one bag is beyond me. I've decided to put everything into a laundry basket, and if it doesn't fit/fold/roll/flat pack, it gets put back in the closet. If I can't lift the basket, I have to take more stuff out. And I'm only taking 2 pairs of shoes! But nevermind that, my dad thinks it's crazy that I'm taking my DSLR and not my "size of a pack of gum" point and shoot (I'm taking that one too...), umm, I'm a photographer? Is there really anything else to say here?

In case anyone is wondering where we'll be going, we are going to play it by ear but the current itinerary is roughly outlined below, it could still change at any point in time.


Will try to update as often as I can! And thank you to everyone who has sent their well wishes, it means so much to me. Love you all!

Kris xo

100,000 Cranes for Japan

It is my great honour to share this video with you as we approach the 1 year anniversary of the Tohoku Earthquake/Tsunami. A few of my friends and I were involved in putting this together, and we hope that everyone will help us spread the message around the world.



Please pass the link on to your friends and family as well!

3.11.11 1yr Memorial Event @ JCCC

In case you didn't know, the JCCC is hosting a memorial event for the 3.11.11 Earthquake/Tsunami on the 1 year anniversary (March 11, 2012). It will be held in Kabayashi Hall at the JCCC from 1-4pm.

Japan - 1 year later

Dad and I decided (very last minute... as in 2 days ago) that we were going to try to go back to Japan this month to travel with a good friend of ours. Coincidentally, we will be arriving at Narita Airport exactly 1 year to the day from when we left last year after the Earthquake. This trip isn't meant to be a replacement for the one we didn't get to finish last year, but rather a complementary addition with a few new things thrown in there so we can meet up with friends and see some different places that we wouldn't have thought to go on our own.

Here is a general overview of our current (tentative) itinerary. I will of course keep everyone updated throughout our travels as much as possible.

Japan - March 2012 on Tripline

Arigato!

Beautiful, touching tribute from the earthquake survivors - please take the time to watch this and pass it on. 
(It's a tearjerker so grab some Kleenex!)