Jeanneabeck’s Weblog

I took my first two days of nenkyu (paid vacation) on Thursday and Friday, choosing to head down to visit my friend and her family in Himeji and Kobe, two of the many cities I hadn’t had the chance to visit yet.  Traveling two and from Nagano-ken isn’t difficult; there’s a bus that runs hourly from Iida City to Nagoya, and from Nagoya you can take the Shinkansen (bullet train) to all the major cities in Japan.  As long as you reserve a bus ticket, you’re good to go.  I didn’t reserve shinkansen tickets though, which normally isn’t a problem at all, expect this weekend was Obon, and everyone was traveling.  I lucked out though and got a reserved seat and was able to sit and snooze on my way home while others had to stand. (I didn’t know they allowed standing on a shinkansen. O_O)

Before getting into the trip, I think it’d make sense to explain abit about my friend.  She studied abroad at my university for a year, and when her mom and brother came to visit I drove them around and helped them out. I also helped my friend out on a few occassions and took her around Missouri on other random trips. So when I said I was going to Japan, they insisted I come visit. I had no idea what all we’d be doing, but it turned out to be an excellent trip.

Himeji was great. I was able to stay at my friends house, where I taught her the phrase “pack-rat,” to better define her family, especially her mom. They’d just gotten back from Finland and Italy, and were soon going to head off to South Korea; only having a single entry visa for the time being, I felt as though I was stuck in Japan for the first time. There are many great places to visit in Japan though, including in my own backyard so I’m not too worried.

After visiting a lovely little community Obon festival dance, and meeting my friend’s aunt, whose a professional artist on Thursday, the next day my friend and I conquered Himeji, visiting the world-famous Himeji castle. I’m glad to have visited Himeji castle; it’s one of those places you check off on your must-visit-before-i-die-for-the-sake-of-visiting list, however it was fraught with tourist – usually something I try to avoid. We walked around a Japanese garden near the castle and had lunch there, where I was able to try anago, a local specialty that resembles unagi (eel) only it’s acutally a fish.  Roasted and served over rice, lunch was a wonderful retreat from the hot sun. Afterwards we wandered around the garden a bit more where I realized that this was the first Japanese garden I’ve visited in Japan. Check another place off my bucket list.

The rest of the day was spent wandering around the various covered shopping streets, buying some things on my list, including a number of Japanese cds and Japanese text books. The next day my friends parents took me to Kobe; my friend had to stay behind which was a bit of a bummer, but I nonetheless had a good time in Kobe. My friend goes to school in Kobe and her father works there during the week so they have an apartment in this city as well. 

Kobe, known for it’s foreigners and beef, was also a great place to visit. I got to try Teppanyaki (known as Hibachi-style Japanese steakhouse cooking in the US), where the cook was very serious – no throwing knives, no onion volcanoes, etc., which was another thing I wanted to experience in Japan.  My friend’s parents were disappointed when we found out the beef was from Australia, and thus not Kobe style, so the next day we went to a real Kobe-beef joint.  Formal, most likely expensive, and absolutely delicous, the restaurant’s style matched it’s high class beef perfectly.  We ate nice sushi for another meal too (not sure which).

Other than eating, we toured Kobe’s ‘Merican park, which is it’s sea side port next to the traditional foreigner part of Kobe, China Town, which was surprisingly fun depsite looking like any other China Town in the world, and got to see Kobe’s night view from a nearby mountain, accalimed to be one of the top three best night views in Japan.  We also spent a lot of time in DaiMaru’s department store, where I did a lot of looking but no buying.

I got back to Iida by about 7pm where I unpacked, made a list of things I need to do around my neglected apartment, and watched the first Harry Potter movie in Japanese dubbed with Japanese subtites. Surprisingly awesome. I’m now searching through my department’s number of movies on DVD, looking for ones I’ve seen several times in English to watch in Japanese.