Japan 2013 (Day 13 - 24th of July)

I am really sorry for the absence of posts lately but such is life. I have felt sick, been busy, went away to places with no internet connection etc.

On the 24th of July (i am way behind on these)...

...we got up and got our bags ready and pretty much got in the car. 

The destination was about 2 and a half hours away. We pretty much rode on highways for the longest part so it was only natural that, when picking where to have lunch, we ended up in a highway stop.

I told my husband he should just pick anything he thought I’d enjoy and so he did.

Mari always gets a baby chair to sit with us and she’s been through quite some food adventures as well. 

She’s had Japanese baby food which contains really strange things for us back in Portugal like seaweed, daikon, gobo... but she eats anything really, she loved everything.

When we finished out meal Mari's grandfather has stolen her away for a stroll and returned with some odd shaped object in his hand... what could it be?

He had bought Mari a new toy, an Anpanman "stick" with a switch that, when pressed, makes him blow his horn in a swift movement and say the famous sentence "genki hyakubai: Anpanman!". (100 times "stronger": anpanman! - or something) 

She still loved that thing... she gets tired of old toys very fast but still adores this anpanman as well as the other toy my father in law got her. Mother in law says he's got a sense for what kids like. 

In the parking lot we saw this "Ninja" mini van. It's apparently used to promote some business obviously. Ninjas usually are wearing black but they probably made it pink so it looks cute and not scary.

It was time to get back on the road!

Somewhere along the way we had to stop at a Aeon supermarket to try to see if we could finally find a bathing suit for Mari. We had been trying for a while and must have checked 5 stores but the smaller sizes were all gone. There's so many cute things to check at any store and supermarket in Japan that if you are a shoppaholic you'll surely manage to over spend every single time you go to one. I have been very good and spent moderately i suppose but i still wish for some stuff... like every time i see majollica makeup or dolly wink lashes... 

But the thing i actually considered getting was this:

old version (look at all the pretty colors!)

new version (mint!!)

I have never been a gamer, i like playing some things but mainly i prefer to stay online chatting, browsing websites or just watching movies and tv. My friend Vania keeps posting about these games she likes and i always leave her house wanting to play something, she seems so passionate about them. So it's not the first time I have considered to get one of these. But, since 14000yen is a lot of money i decided to leave all these expensive "maybe" buys for the last days when i'll see how much i have left and where i can spend it.

I also bought another karepan, i've been eating a tone of karepan lately, i gained 1kg in this trip already even though i sweat like a pig every single day because its so hot and humid here. :X

We had a plan to visit the famous Ise Jingu. Well I have to say that to mee most of these seem a bit alike and i cannot fully recognize their importance because i've been to a few. I am always overwhelmed with how much space these take, its fantastic to have green areas like these but at the same time It feels odd that japanese modern apartements in general are so tiny because of "space" and at the same time there seems to be so much of it in other areas. It's just a bit odd for me, nothing much. 

We parket in a parking that had 4 or 5 floors and was, as if "everything" very organized. In the exit, right accross the main entrance to the jingu area was a map. I always take shots of signs and maps... not really sure why but i like those... and store fronts and buildings...

This has to be the only photo of me i do not hate from that day so here it is. Beautiful place, isn't it? 

Before entering the shrine one has to purify their body. For that purpose there's a few chozuya, a sort of fountain with small cups or baskets to pour water on your hands and then in your mouth. You are not supposed to drink it though!

I found this store sign interesting, its super scary and typically japanese at the same time.

In order to help you fight the heat a lot of icecream and that ice flavored thing you can find at festivals is available. Look at all those different flavors. I love the colors.

We had to walk a loong way, always surronded by trees to get to the main section of the shrine. It was a lot cooler so it was a blessing actually. Mari was already sweating.

These places are always stunning. Anyone who has not visited one would have their jaws drop. Don't you agree?

You know there's a god in everything here so when you find a specially old tree you pay respects to it. Mari didn't want to touch it with her hand as you're supposed to so i had her rub her tiny little foot in it. I hope it still counts.

Mari and my inlaws. <3

I found this really interesting, its a smoking box. Yes you can actually smoke in the middle of all those trees, apparently god does not mind and so they built something in the style of the shrine for you to do so. I like these little details more than the grand picture at the moment. 

Another thing I like it that every area seems to have their own sewer lid. Isn't it stunning? I much prefer these to the mascots even though i agree that they make cuter souveniers... i can't imagine how one would make a souvenier out of a lid. My mother in laugh thought it was funny that i would want to take a photo of it.

After this we just ran off to the car, turned on ther air conditioner, felt a lot better and headed off to where we would spend the night, a Ryokan. I have never been to a ryokan before actually so this was exciting!

Here it was, Hamachi Ryokan. It was actually not where I was expecting it to be but that's because I had not thought straight and have never done this before. It was just a building in the middle of so many others in some small traditional looking town with narrow streets but right next to the sea.

This is what the entrance looked like, just a regular japanese traditional looking building I suppose.

We got in and of course there was a lot of bowing and coutesy going on and I'm one to feel very unconfortable with all that especially not being able to speak japanese well. At least I know how to behave more or less? Could be worse.

We had to of course take our shoes off and then someone carried my smelly old sneakers to the shoe locker room hehe. After that we waited a bit in the lobby area (it was pretty but there'll be photos of it soon) and got our room keys. We were introduced to the owner who was looking stunning in a light colored kimono and an employee took us to our rooms.

We got into my inlaws's room first and fed Mari, after that we decided we should go over to our room, take a shower and get back to have dinner (they eat early around here).

So yeah this is what I look like with no makeup on... But anyway carrying on... what I am wearing is the typical pajama around these parts. I think its adorable and I really like putting it on. What I do not like so much is sleeping in it, i always wake up... well with almost nothing on haha but it is cute. Normal modern hotels also have these most of the time, i think the only time i found something different was later on in this trip. The pattern also does not seem to change much either, i've only ever seen exactly this green one and another white/blue one.

We seem to have a major problem... Mari simply adooores Tatami flooring and is now crawling everywhere and touching everything so when we get back we seriously must think about how to make the house safer for her. It's actually a pretty safe environment for kids other than the stairs which will be protected but we need to re-arrange the wires etc. I love her pajama, it looks like Pupe's piyo piyo bird, doesn't it?

After only a bit an employee started coming in and setting things up. I thought it was strange to have such a meal in the room over a tatami floor but also that it was strange that, having such a big table in the room, we'd be eating in trays. After a bit it all looked like this:

This is a traditional Ryokan meal apparently and due to the proximity of the sea, most of it is fish of course.

I find that some of the people I know would not touch 99% of what was in the tables. I admit there are some things i do not feel like eating and contrary to what i did before this time I did just eat what i felt like eating which is still the majority of the stuff here. I like being respectful but also I am not very picky.

The only thing here I did not eat was the green stuff in the left bottom corner. I'll tell you why. It's got nothing to do with the green stuff at all but they put it in this sort of slimmy white sauce and i have a big issue with slimmy things. I can eat it if i make an effort but i decided that amongst familly one should not have to do so and my inlaws are fantastic about that. I myself decide to do x and y to be respectful, they demand nothing. They are some of the most incredible human beings I have met in this lifetime.

This is the sashimi trey. It is for everyone, not just one person of course. Since I love sashimi i must have eaten more from it than everyone else. I really love sashimi. I know its "just raw fish" but i have decided that its my current favorite japanese food.

The food was always coming in so i could not take photos of everything, of course there was rice, dessert, soup... and something that i could not eat... living sea food one had to cook... yes cook alive.. see it die. I am an hypocrite, i love meat and fish but i don't want to kill them myself. 

It was not easy taking care of a baby in this condition because they are attracted by everything new... but she wanted to see everything and we let her. She was especially fascinated with the fish trey.

So my father in law carefully let her touch the fish with her own tiny hands.

 After dinner Mari and my father in law took a nap so my mother in law told us we should go have a walk or enjoy the jazz performance scheduled for that night so we did just that, changed clothes first even though we could have gone down in a yukata.. i just still do not feel confortable in it. I feel naked haha.

I like this photo, its the ceiling lamp in our room.

And this is where they keep the futon beds that someone later would place for us. 

We got ready and went downstairs. When we got there only two other tables had guests. I felt a bid sorry for the owner but glad we had decided to attend. She asked me a couple of things because in this trip for some reason people have been assuming my japanese is amazing, a lot! which made me unconfortable but mostly it was just a quiet enjoyable performance. 

The Ryokan owner wearing her white yukata singling american classic jazz tunes. She actually was good even though she does this as a hobby apparently.  

So this is the thing, there performances happen only once a month and we were lucky enough to be there when that month's performance took place but it was not an ordinary performance, seems like it was recorded for some Shizuoka tv station... yet another travel show or something and the host was in a yukata so he probably stayed in the ryokan as a guest with his crew. It was sort of strange but the owner seemed quite pleased of course. So that means i'll be on a shizuoka channel somewhere around september and i'll probably never get to see that show. :P

I look amused, i had fun and drank champagne too. I wore the only dress i took with me, something to look proper in this sort of occasion and paired it with my jane marple freeby mook scarf. 

This is the view from where we were sitting, its a small ryokan garden. It is replicating the Meoto Iwa which is a local tourist spot in the area. During the day, right behind that garden one can see the sea.

After the jazz perfomance we got back to the room and so did all the other guest apparently. This is what the lobby looks like at night. 

My mother in law told us we could go get Mari who was now awake so we took her to our room and said goodnight.

And like this the day was over and it was time to renew our energies.

I hope you liked reading! I'm going to start writting the next post soon <3

Jo

Japan 2013 (Day 9 - 20th July)

Hi, how is everyone today?

Today I’m going to write about a day that was very special to me. It’s not something that you’ll find to be incredible or anything but to me it just was a different day (trying new things in Japan) and also an incredibly special opportunity that not many foreigners had I’m sure.

I had a bun with butter and a mini potato salad for breakfast. I love that salad so much I could eat it for dessert.

Then the morning was as usual, calm, letting my husband work on his thesis while looking after Mari and hanging out with the rest of the family.

At lunch time more or less my father in law drove us to our destination: an Aeon shopping mall somewhere that has a movie theater, our final destination.

It was a day for many first things in Japan for me.

First it was the only time I had ever been in a shopping mall that looks so similar to the ones back in my country. In fact it kinda looks like Colombo in Lisbon.

Second it was the first time ever to go see a movie in a Japanese movie theater.

Third it was the first time I got to watch a Miyazaki movie in its work debut. I had seen one in the Portuguese debut but never in the first time ever to be shown to the public.

The first place we went to was the movie theater.

We went straight to the machines to confirm our tickets that were bought online. We did that and someone came to help and we very much needed that help.

Seriously I have not seen anything so confusing for a while. My husband was there doing that registration process for a long time, I felt kind of sorry for him especially since the session we wanted was already sold out.

But I could not help, only stay in the way so I went to check what else was showing and would be showing in the future. One of them caught my eye, Captain Harlock the movie! I love Harlock so I cannot wait for that one to come out. Unfortunately it’s not due for a while so I cannot watch it here.

 I also noticed a wall with all the movie flyers and took some. I was sad to see there were no more Kaze flyers though.

After a while longer my husband finally managed to get the tickets and we went to take a walk since there was still a long time for our session.

Since it was lunch time and we did not have lunch we went to yet another fast ramen restaurant where he had (yes you guessed it!) ramen and I had some gyoza and rice with salmon and seaweed.

It was good actually but then again these things are never that terrible in Japan.

We then decided to explore the shopping mall for a bit.

It really does look like a Portuguese typical mall… they even had h&m etc there which made it even more familiar.

Other than the kaze merchandise for sale in the cinema store (we do not have those in Portugal saddly) there was a gibli store in the shopping mall so we went in and drooled over everything. I have no idea why we didn’t buy anything, I think it is because I have a very hard time picking things out and my husband wasn’t very helpful either. I’m sure I can find gibli stuff elsewhere but that was kind of silly.

We went to a couple more shops but the one we spent the most time in was actually Toys r us. I love toys and so I wanted to take a peak and see what’s different in Japan. And I was blown away.

I’ll just leave some adorable shots for you to contemplate on.

After all that doll-related drooling and coming out with nothing again we went to the cinema where surprisingly my husband got me some popcorn that he ended up eating almost by himself during the movie. He likes salty popcorn, I like the sweet. So he was a nice guy and got the sweet. After that we realized that the cinema had a special option where you could divide the bucket with a cardboard piece and get salty in one side and sweet on the other. BUMMER

Also they have barbecue popcorn, I mean what is that?!?!?

So if you are a Japanese Animation fan and even more so an Hayao Miyazaki fan then you already guess that I went to see the new movie, Kaze no Tachinu in its debut day in Japan.

If you have no idea what it is watch the trailer:

風立ちぬ aka Kaze no Tachinu aka The Wind Rises 
"The film is based on the manga of the same name, which is in turn based on a short story by Tatsuo Hori, a writer, poet and translator from mid-20th century (Showa period) Japan. Kaze Tachinu is a fictionalised biography of Jiro Horikoshi, designer of the Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter aircraft which served in World War II." (wikipedia)

This is basically a story about a boy's dreams but also about a very beautifull timeless love story. I am weak to good movies especially when they are moving so, even though i could not understand every single piece of the dialogues (as there were no subtitles), I ended up crying in a room full of strangers. 

There has been some controversy around this release, especially because the movie relates to the second world war and because of some public statements Miyazaki has made about the japanese envolvement in that same war. The director/writer is being heavily criticized by some and even being called anti-japanese and a traitor of the nation by the most radical ones.
Those things though should not matter here though as the movie has no political inuendos to be noticed and is just another, beautifully animated piece of art.

More relevant might be that there is only one flaw to maybe be assigned to this movie, there is clearly an attempt to merge two stories together in order to please both the male and female crowds which I, myself, appreciate dearly and do not mind at all, but there might be some viewers with a different opinion on this.

We were late, don’t forget we didn’t have tickets for the session we wanted, so we rushed to find the local train station. Unfortunately when we got there the train we could get in was leaving so we had to wait 20min for the next.

It was in the middle of nowhere and it only had one track which means trains took turns to go to one side or the other.

We finally got home (super tired!) and dinner was already being made, my mother in law was making takoyaki! Her food is sooo good! 

I ate so many of these I was super full and felt very guilty but who could resist! Also my mother in law made typical takoyaki but also cheese ones which was different.

And of course the post could not end without a photo of my baby girl being cute… in this one it seems as if she wants to fly.

Piu Piu Pajama flying Princess Mari.

And that was it, I hope you liked reading again!

Lolita buy from shopping day:

Innocent World Vied Logo socks (blue/Beije)

Love,

Jo