Japan Days

In February 2005, Ritsuko and I traveled to Japan. We covered a lot of ground in the two weeks that we were there.

Leaving home at 6am, we flew to Chicago O'Hare, where we caught a non-stop, 13 hour flight to Tokyo Narita airport. Immediately upon landing in Tokyo, we took a train from Narita airport to Tokyo station, where we caught the last Shinkansen that would get us all the way down to Okayama in time to catch a sleeper train that slowly traveled through western Honshu and along the Pacific coast of Kyushu. Early in the morning, we had just about enough of the sleeper train, and got off in Oita, where we had breakfast, and caught a limited express to Miyazaki.

Here is Ritsuko, on the train from Oita to Miyazaki; both of us were quite exhausted from traveling all night.

She was looking out at the beautiful, mountainous Pacific coast near Oita

After a couple more train changes from Miyazaki, that took us through the mountains and over the Ebino plateau from Miyazaki prefecture into Kagoshima Prefecture, we finally got to Ritsuko's mother's house late that afternoon. The next morning, I got up early and walked about, taking some pictures, reminiscing over the times that I had been there over the past 30 years.

Down the hill from Ritsuko's mom's house, I took this pic of Kirishima in the distance.

From the levee of the Sendai River, I took this pic of Ritsuko's junior high school.

We spent several days at Ritsuko's mother's house, and had a big family reunion. It was a wonderful time, and we were all so happy to be able to visit with Ritsuko's family, most of whom we had not seen for 14 years.

When we left, we traveled by train to Kagoshima city, then north to Hakata, where we caught a Shinkansen (bullet train) to Osaka.

Hakata station -- a train approaching on the opposite track

The train that will take us to Osaka approaches

In Osaka, we stopped overnight to spend some more time with Ritsuko's younger brother and his family. The next morning Ritsuko and I went with Hiroaki and his daughter, Ai, to nearby Kyoto, where we spent the day.

Although we had passed through Kyoto on the bullet train numerous times in the past 30 years, we hadn't spent any time there since 1975. Richly historic Kyoto, the ancient capital, is the home of many ancient temples and shrines that are juxtaposed with modern buildings.

A street in Kyoto.

That afternoon, Aki and Ai took us to Kyoto station, where we said our goodbyes, and boarded a train for Tokyo, where we would stay for the last 5 days of our trip.

Tokyo is without a doubt one of my favorite cities in the world. It is such a fascinating, vibrant city. From 1973 to 1978, I was stationed at Yokota Air Base which is located in the western part of Tokyo prefecture. Ritsuko and I met in late 1974, and were married in April 1975, so the first 3 years of our lives together were spent there. Wherever we go in or around the city, the things that we see evoke many fond memories.

Shortly after we arrived in Tokyo, Ritsuko came down with the flu, so she spent most of the next few days in the hotel room, in bed, trying to recover. Most of my outings during that time, were on my own. One day, I decided to take a side trip to Fussa, the city where Yokota Air Base is located. You can read about it in another article that I posted on this site.

Fortunately, Ritsuko was able to venture out a couple of times, albeit briefly. One outing was to Harajuku and Meiji Shrine.

Harajuku -- the fashion district, Takeshita street on a Sunday afternoon

Takeshita Street, back in the 1970's, was a back alley full of stores with cutting edge fashion from up and coming designers. Ritsuko and I used to go there so that she could shop for clothes. I just went there to watch people. It was really fun. There were a lot of bargains, and Ritsuko could find all sorts of unique clothing. It was very affordable, even for an Air Force Staff Sergeant and a Seiyu department store information counter attendant.

Now, the street is a mecca for tourists and locals. Maybe it is because we are no longer in our 20's, but the stores seem a little less inviting, and there are more chain outlets. Such is progress, I suppose. Harajuku is still a fascinating place, and I still love to go there, but I am really happy with our memories of what it was like years ago.

Posing with a couple of Harajuku cosplay girls.

Ritsuko always loved Harajuku -- she is enjoying the cosplay show!!!

An iconic phenomenon of the Harajuku street culture is cosplay, or costume play. On Sunday afternoons, young girls gather at the entrance to Meiji Shrine, just outside of Harajuku Station, to display their costumes. It is pretty much a party atmosphere, with street musicians, cosplay girls, and many curious onlookers.

We spent the rest of that afternoon nearby, touring the grounds of Meiji Shrine. The visitors to the shrine that day were sparse, but I could recall walking the same path on several occasions of New Year's Eve, when the crowds were crushing, and one could only go with the flow of the crowd to and through the Shrine.

Entrance to the grounds of Meiji Shrine.

The Shrine.

As darkness began to fall upon the city, we left Harajuku, and took a short train ride to Shinjuku to see the neon lights, large video displays, and the crowds outside the station at night.

Outside Shinjuku station at night

Outside the station near the Kabukicho district, a band played in the shadows, illuminated only by the neon and large video displays of the buildings across the street.

As I mentioned earlier, for the next few days I was on my own, as Ritsuko stayed in our hotel room, suffering with the flu, trying to recover sufficiently so that she could make the trip home. One day, I went to the Ginza early in the morning, home of some of the most expensive real estate in the world.

Ginza on a Monday morning

Later I took the Ginza Line Metro subway to Meijijingumae station, and walked through Yoyogi Park and the site of the 1964 Olympics. Then I walked to Shinjuku, had lunch, and then hopped on a train and went back to Asakusa to see how Ritsuko was doing.

Even though Ritsuko was unable to enjoy our last couple of days in Tokyo, overall it was a great trip. I only hope that the next time we go, that both of us are able to remain healthy for the entire vacation so that we can fully enjoy all of our days in Japan.

 | Published by: Japan Days 

"Whether you take the doughnut hole as a blank space or as an entity unto itself is a purely metaphysical question and does not affect the taste of the doughnut one bit." -- Haruki Murakami, A Wild Sheep Chase

"The taste of the doughnut" indeed ... Mr. Murakami makes a very astute observation. As Ritsuko and I were viewing and discussing pictures from our 2019 Japan trip, I was also working on the code for adding a tooltip feature on Japan-Days.info. Somehow, the conversation morphed into one involving the PHP function that I had been coding, and I must have been overly philosophical about the difference between a variable that is empty as opposed to one that is null, i.e. nothing vs something that is nothing. Ritsuko, sensing that I was in eminent danger of entering a zen coder meditative state, reminded me that perhaps instead of pondering some logical conundrum, I should just tell the story of our trip. So, I will attempt to do just that.

Every one of our visits to Japan subsequent to our moving to the U.S. has been in either the winter or spring. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy those seasons, with spring being perhaps my favorite of all, but we had not originally planned to visit in the spring of 2019. We had planned to go in the autumn of 2018, with a stay in Shibuya during Halloween. But, on the morning of the day that we were to leave for Chicago, a family emergency caused us to cancel our plans, and instead drive to Texas. On several levels, this was a sad and tragic event, a shock, etc, but when all is said and done, we just do what we must and move on. I am glad that we were able to get to Texas immediately, and that we didn't need to make an emergency return after arriving in Japan, so it all worked out. As a result of that cancellation, and after enduring a particularly brutal winter, we seriously needed a Japan fix, therefore this was to be the make-up trip.

The basic plan for this trip was to be two phases, or rather two locations ... an eight night stay in Kagoshima and then seven nights in Tokyo. Since in country travel was to be the basic here to there and back to here scenario, travel by air would be the most efficient, and it was also the least expensive. Hence the aforementioned basic plan: drive to Chicago -> fly to Tokyo -> upon arrival, bus to Haneda -> fly to Kagoshima -> stay 8 nights -> fly to Tokyo -> stay 7 nights -> fly to Chicago -> drive home. Beyond that basic plan, we had a wish list of things to do that was pretty simple. A couple of days during our Kagoshima stay, we planned to meet with some of Ritsuko's family members. Aside from family activities, I wanted to re-visit the Reimeikan Museum in Kagoshima City, to take a picture of Sakurajima from the lookout on Shiroyama, and buy some high quality katsuobushi. Everything else would be spur of the moment. While in Tokyo, items on our wishlist included visit Yūshūkan - the museum at Yasukuni Shrine, visit the Togo Shrine in Harajuku, and we planned to travel to Yokosuka to tour the Battleship Mikasa. The rest of the agenda was no agenda; hmmm... is that a blank space or an entity?

First meal after arrival - soba at Haneda Airport

Sakurajima and Kagoshima City viewed from the Shiroyama scenic lookout.

Doing something touristy in Tokyo: Ritsuko at the Hachiko statue, Shibuya Station.

After enduring the 13 hour non-stop, fully booked flight from Chicago O'Hare, we arrived at Tokyo Narita Airport in the mid afternoon, tired but only part way there. Our final destination that day was to be the Hotel Solaria Nishitetsu in Kagoshima City. So, dazed but fortunately not too confused to be functional, we proceeded immediately to the bus ticket counter, and purchased tickets to Haneda Airport. We could have traveled by train to Haneda, but, regardless of route, that would have required at least one train change, so for a couple who were substantially less than 100% coherent and bearing luggage, the bus seemed to be our best option.

The bus ride from Narita to Haneda is rather interesting; the route takes you through part of rural Chiba Prefecture and then, via the Wangan Doro toll road, to the north end of the bay, going past that garish looking Disney resort, then past Tokyo Sea Life Park, and passing through the Odaiba area before descending into a short tunnel under the bay, and finally emerging in an area north of Haneda Airport. At least, that is what I saw the last time we did this when we made an emergency trip to Japan in Dec 2017. On this trip, I was asleep during the majority of the bus ride. Did all of that I described above really happen? I'll never know.

The only thing that I knew for certain was that by the time that we arrived at Haneda, I was hungry ... really hungry, and so was Ritsuko. We wanted soba, real soba from a fast service soba shop aka たちぐい　そば　(tachigui soba) , the kind that you can only find in Japan. After checking in for our flight to Kagoshima, and ridding ourselves of our luggage, we found the nearest soba shop inside the airport. Ahhhhh ... gastronomic bliss as each slurp of perfectly seasoned noodles and broth sought to fill the void in our aching empty stomachs. Hmmm... was my stomach really empty, or was it something else that felt like empty, some entity, perhaps a memory from an earlier decade beckoning me to reconnect to a place I love by filling an emptiness with something familiar.

Empty was the status of my overall energy level when we landed at the Kagoshima airport. The airport is about 20 miles from Kagoshima city. There is no train service, however the bus service to and from there is excellent. Our flight was the last one into Kagoshima for the evening, and we were able to board one of the last busses to Kagoshima-chuo. One of the many convenient features of staying at Solaria Nishitetsu Hotel in Kagoshima is that the highway bus station is in the same building. So, after arriving, the hotel front desk is only an elevator ride away. We finally got to our room at about 10:30 that night ... roughly 25 hours since we had checked in for our flight at Chicago O'Hare. Needless to say, we were very tired, but we were also very happy to have arrived at our destination safely. We opened the curtains and the blinds of our window, and let the night time lights of Kagoshima city and Sakurajima fill the room with a mellow glow as we drifted into a peaceful night's sleep.

The beach near Shimoda where my friends and I went on holiday during the summer of 1974

The next morning, as we entered the breakfast buffet, a decades old memory drifted into my mind. In the summer of 1974, I was a single 24 year old Air Force Staff Sergeant stationed at Yokota Air Base, living in a barracks with many other young Airmen and NCO's. Based on information handed down from others who had ventured out into the country, one of my friends had been told of a minshuku near a small beach outside Shimoda that was open to taking in young American service men. So, with some very sketchy information, and with no reservations, four of us ventured out for a beach holiday on the southern tip of the Izu Peninsula. Fortunately for us, we didn't have to sleep on the beach, because the information was good, and the minshuku owners welcomed us into their inn.

Breakfast from the morning buffet at Hotel Solaria Nishitetsu, Kagoshima

Included in the price of our lodging were two daily meals, breakfast and dinner. The first morning there was a hajimete moment for all of us, as we sat down to a Japanese breakfast graciously served by our host family. A Japanese breakfast typically consists of rice, miso soup, fish or perhaps a small portion of meat, pickled radishes, and some combination of fresh or steamed vegetables. We stared, momentarily at what was put before us, and without any verbal communication between the four of us, we proceeded to eat everything that was served. It was delicious, better than any of us had even imagined. Also, what we ate in the mornings sustained us throughout the day until dinner. It had to ... we had no money for food outside the minshuku.

The Solaria Nishtetsu Hotel in Kagoshima serves a superb breakfast buffet. The majority of the clientèle of the hotel are Japanese, therefore it stands to reason that most of the food items on the buffet would be those from which one could assemble a proper Japanese breakfast. There are some western items available, but not in abundant variety. When we stay there, I seldom see foreign guests partaking in the local breakfast fare, and instead choose some pastry, fruit, omelette, etc. I usually hear westerners describe a Japanese breakfast as an acquired taste. When I hear that, I have to wonder if they have ever actually taken the steps, or rather the step, necessary to acquire the taste. That step would be to actually eat a proper Japanese breakfast. If they have not, then I would call that a missed opportunity.

Whenever I get into such a discussion, it always brings back memories from my afore described 1974 trip to Shimoda, when I and three other young American men instantly, even if perhaps driven by necessity, acquired the taste. I will be forever glad that I did.

That morning, sitting in the casually elegant hotel dining room while looking out the window at Kagoshima Chuo station and Amu Plaza, and eating a magnificent breakfast, all of the accumulated tension and anxiety from our travels the day before seemed to have melted away. Well rested and well fed, I now felt as though we had truly arrived. Any feeling of blankness or emptiness, whether real or symbolic had disappeared, and we were now prepared to embark upon the rest of our journey.

 | Published by: Japan Days 

During the early part of my tour at Yokota Air Base, Okutama became one of my favorite places to escape when I had a day off from work. Okutama is a small town in the extreme western extent of Tokyo Prefecture. Geographically, the municipality extends far beyond the town itself, encompassing a large mountainous area bordering Saitama and Yamanshi Prefectures. Several waterways, including the Tama River, traverse the area, and nearby is Lake Okutama, a large man made reservoir that is an important source of water for Tokyo Prefecture.

Back then, as is now, Okutama was a popular destination for hikers and fishing enthusiasts. I used to go there in order to escape into a peaceful natural environment, to hike, and to photograph. For me, the area was very accessible, either by car or by train. By car, the roads were well marked, and although few road signs were in romaji, the kanji for Okutama, 奥多摩, was easy to remember and recognize. However, with the town having train service via the Ome line, rail was the the most convenient conveyance. Japan Railways Ome line provides service from Tachikawa to Okutama, with Fussa being one of the stations on the line. The original line was built during the Meiji Period, providing service between Tachikawa and Ome. In 1944, it was extended to its current western terminus, Okutama.

The video in this article is a short film that I shot on super 8 during one of my visits to Okutama in 1973. You can see in the various scenes, a change in terrain from the flat, low lying plain where Fussa is located, to progressively more mountainous terrain as the train travels westward.

Okutama 1974, composing a shot with my Nikon F2, demonstrating proper technique of simultaneously holding camera and cigarette

I loved going there to take pictures. Mountain trails and waterways were just a short hike from the station, and they offered great subject material for a photo hobbyist like myself. Shortly after arriving at Yokota, I took up photography as a hobby, and Yokota Air Base was definitely a good place for one to pursue such a hobby. Not only did the Base Education Office offer several courses in photography through LACC (Los Angeles Community College), but also Yokota had an excellent Photo Hobby Shop for military personnel stationed there.

For a price of admission that was comparable to buying a beer at the NCO Club, one could use the hobby shop darkroom. All chemicals and equipment were provided, although you were welcome to bring your own enlarger lens, developer, and other assorted accessories. The hobby shop store usually had a good supply of photographic paper in various sizes, finishes, and contrast characteristics. Of course, if one wanted photographic supplies that the hobby shop didn't stock, Shinjuku was only about 45 minutes away by train. Across the street from Shinjuku Station were a couple of large photographic equipment stores, where one could find anything. I was a frequent visitor to the Sakuraya store in Shinjuku, where I usually tried to keep from spending all my money so that I could enjoy a hot bowl of noodles at one of the nearby standing soba shops before boarding the train for home.

One of my favorite pictures from Okutama 1974- shot on Kodak Panatomic X film, I was trying to expose for maximum grey scale

Bridge near Okutama Japan in 1974 - photo shot while wading in the river

Recently, I found some prints of a few of my favorite pictures from Okutama, that I took during 1973-1975. They were photographs that I had printed at the Yokota Air Base photo hobby shop, and were still in excellent condition. I have the negatives somewhere at home, and considered producing digital media by scanning the negatives in a film scanner, but instead decided to scan the prints using a flatbed scanner. My reason for this is that when I took the photographs, I did so knowing that I would crop the negative to fit the aspect ratio of either 8x10 or 10x12 paper in the darkroom. Therefore, the print better represents what was in my mind when taking the picture, and since I sure can't remember what I was thinking while standing in a river or leaning off a cliff 40 years ago, I'll just scan the print.

A fisherman casting from the river bank, near Okutama 1974

Hazy sky reflected in calm water

Light at the end of the tunnel - near Okutama 1974

Newly improved mountain road - near Okutama 1975

This concludes my trip into the past for today. I hope that you enjoyed the video and pictures.

 | Published by: Japan Days