Honshu, Japan, Pt. 4

My friend in Japan is very sweet. When I told her that I was taking a Japanese course she said that her boyfriend could be my speaking partner. If he were local, then I might take her up on the offer. It would be good to have a language partner who didn't speak any English. I'd never be tempted to 'cheat' as there would be no point.

I had intended on writing a 'part 4' of my Japan trip back in autumn, but never got around to it. Now seems a good a time as any to finish that up--

Our time in Tokyo was just over two days, short but well spent. The below photo was taken at a place in the pedestrian zone of Asakusa, just a stone's throw from the temple. While walking around one night looking for a place to eat, we spied a rather full joint on a corner & my friend told me that their specialty was a kind of omelette/pancake/crepe. My interested was piqued, so we went for dinner. The server brings a bowl of uncooked cabbage with raw egg, I assume, spices, and whatever topping one wants like meat or cheese. We ordered ours with cheese. The entire contents of the bowl is poured onto a VERY hot griddle and the mixture is then sort of mixed/cut up by the server using two chopper/salad tosser-looking tools. Before our server left we were told that when the cheese is fully melted, our meal would be ready to eat. I don't know if you can see in the shot, but one is meant to eat the griddle cabbage-cake with a wee shovel (that's resting on the dish in front of me). The chop sticks were used for a fish seasoned with miso dish (out of shot) we also ordered. My face is read because it's about ten at night, the walls of the restaurant are opened to the night air, and it's still around 26C out. That huge glass of ice water was downed in no time.

Asakusa regional dish of cabbage with cheese cooked on a very, very hot griddle.

In the final days of my trip, we took a train down to the fourth largest city in Japan, Nagoya. Their main claim to fame is an astounding castle and its attendant grounds. Below is a replica of one of the two 'fish animal' creatures that adorned the top of the castle, one facing east and one facing west. They are meant to be protectors of the castle. Later, when we went on a guided tour of the grounds, we found out that they did not do their job, unfortunately.

Replica of original dolphin creature approx. 6' tall that stood atop the old castle.

Waiting at the entry gates to the castle grounds were 5 women wearing armbands, and, as it was pouring rain, holding umbrellas. They were on hand to give gratis castle tours to speakers of English. We decided to got for it. The woman, retiree with a desire to practice English, giving the tour could not have been nicer. (She had us take a picture in front of the dolphin creature replica, and to get us to smile said, 'pickles! butter!')

What we learned, in addition to the history of the different dynastic families living in Nagoya from the 17th to 20th century, was that in 1945 American forces obliterated the castle in an air raid. What one visits today is a reproduction built in the late 1950s. The origninal roof top 'guards', a sort of dolphin creature, had melted into blobs of gold during the raid. We were told by our guild that the gold was then refashioned into two massive tea pots now on display in Nagano City. The newly constructed marine creatures (you can see a speck of one of them in the below photo) are made of a slighter lesser quality of gold and are greatly reduced in size.

The rock wall withstood the bombing. All original.

Note one of the gold sea creatures atop the castle.

Tatami receiving room in Nagoya Castle

Note the black lacquer ceiling. The more ornate the ceiling, the higher status the room & its guests. 

During my stay in Japan, I was fortunate to book an appt. with my friend's hair stylist. Below is a picture of the two of us. My friend had to translate for us, but all turned out well. The young man who shampooed my hair was keen on learning English. His dream is to do hair in New York. He was so eager to practice his English with me that I think what normally takes a few minutes' time under the faucet took what felt to be about twenty minutes. He would scrub my head while asking me halting questions in English that I couldn't really hear with all the scrubbing going on. We did our best & my hair got squeaky clean. As it turned out, he has relatives here in the Bay Area. I gave him my email & told him to contact me anytime. I told him I'd be happy to show him around the city were he ever to visit. So far, he's yet to send a missive.

Lovely haircut from a lovely stylist.