Konnichiwa.
Well it was a great day of exploration yesterday as well as friday night...let me explain...
After dinner on friday night CJ and I decided to take an evening walk. Our first since we have been here. Every other night we have been either too tired or to busy getting things organized in the house. We walked west of Motomachi area, and on the little side streets past shrines, cute little local restaurants and bars where a very happy couple were singing karaoke. Stopped in 2 very loud and colorful Pachinko parlors, in probably the sketchiest part of town I have seen so far. Nothing dangerous, just dirtier, with old run down buildings and a few drunks. CJ was going to try out a few games but he couldn't get anyone to explain the object in english and the worker guy couldn't even hear him, so we decided to move on. It personally was too loud, and smokey for me, so it will NOT be a place I will frequent.
Was fun to see some of the local men sitting outside little establishments talking in the neon lit night streets. Then we headed back towards Chinatown,passing by the illuminated Yokohama baseball stadium where the Bay Stars must have just completed a game. Darn we missed it.:-( We hope to see a baseball game soon, once we take time to find and look at a schedule.
Saw all these clay pot like urns sitting outside many a restaurant and there happened to be a guy out by some of them and so I asked him what they were for, as I have seen them all over town. I thought they were for disposing of old cooking oil, but he said they were for a special liquid used in cooking that they put in there and bury underground to ferment. Kind of like wine I am assuming. I then asked him where I could buy one and he just told me they were garbage and to take one. I said I didn't want to get in trouble with the police and so he went in and asked his boss if I could take one and he said yes, so I did. I now have it sitting in the corner of the tatami room. Would possibly be a good vase for some reallong stem or dried flowers of some kind. I think it looks pretty cool.
Stopped for a night cap Asahi Super Dry beer for CJ and a cranberry juice for me while chatting a bit with Leo at Laser Rush, then back up the slope one last time and home to bed. CJ plugged in the rechargebale battery for his new camera he bought on the way home from work, so it would be ready for tomorrow's sightseeing tour. Hopefully we can force ourselves to sleep in since it is Saturday.
Saturday 7 19 08
Yeah, made it to 8am. Miracles do happen. We then got up, ate breakfast and were off in search of a bike for me. We stopped by the Koban again for directions but noone was there, so we walked down along the harbor in Yamashita Park and stopped at the ferry dock and asked if they could point us in the right direction. One of the boat captains was very helpful and told us about one near the warehouse district. I asked him if I could buy one of the little plastic advertising(fans) "oochiwa" he had and he said "No, it's a gift", to keep me (cool) "sazooshe" as it was very (hot) "atsui". I do not know how these words are really spelled..I am just writing them how they sound to me when they say it. Should be interesting to see the real spelling when I look it up in a dictionary at a later date?
We continued on along the harbor where they were covering all the benches with plastic and roping off areas in preparation for the BIG 6,000 piece HARBOR FIREWORKS display tommorrow night. My guess is, that is the area where they will set them up to shoot them off. Kind of a shame as they took up so many good seats...you think they would shoot them off from a barge out in the water so to leave more room for the 1/2 million people they say come to view the bursts of color. I commented to CJ, "I wonder how many old used firework casings are laying in the bottom of that harbor" from years past ?
Stopped at the bike store I had seen down by the Int'l pier on another day, and that was closed as well and a very high end shop with composites bikes only. We were in the market for a good, used but cheap one for me. So we continued walking over the Kisha-Mishi Promenade past the old red brick warehouse buildings and then spotted a bunch of bikes sitting right out in the open air on a side road. Almost looked like a portable stand set up to rent bikes for the day on first glance.
When we got over there, we showed the man the Resale bike shop info we had copied online and asked if this was the right place and he said (yes)"Hai". So here was his shop out in the hot blazing sun with three long rows of bikes chained all together, that he was in the process of fixing up to resell and all he had were two beach umbrellas to work under for a respite from the glaring hot sun. Thank God for the slight bit of a breeze blowing off the water, or one could cook out there. I don't know how he does it, I was dripping wet and felt fried after our short 1/2 hour there. He had 4 or 5 bikes out front that had prices from y6000- y9000. That is $60 to $90 COOL..we were very happy and surprised too, that they were 26 inch frames. BIG ones, just what we needed. YEAH!
The first bike I sat on was a perfect fit. It was a 3 speed for y7500 ($75.00). We then asked him if he could put a rack above the back fender and he said yes but it would cost us more. He seemed very nervous having to tell us that. :-) The man then got out a note pad and wrote y500=$5, (perfect) "kansen" we said. While he was putting the rack on, CJ continued to look through his other piles of parts and found a basket for the back. When CJ brought that over he laughed and said more yen. "Hai" we said.
He wrote another y1000. So we got out of there with a fully loaded $90 bike Japanese shopping bike.
I rode along while CJ walked back to the house so we could get his bike and then go for a ride. As we reached the top of the loooong set of steps in the park and while trying to catch my breath and wipe some of the sweat which was rolling from my forehead we met up with our very friendly and helpful neighbors who live in the front 1/2 of our duplex building. They were doing a U turn and parking their little blue Mercedes convertible sports car in the driveway. The 2 men stopped the car and then introduced themselves.
John the dad is an American from Maryland originally and they have lived in Palo Alto,CA as well. He was just getting back from the airport with his oldest son Ken who was coming home for a month's summer vacation from the University of Stockholm in Sweden. Yeah, how weird is that? Ken is studying to be a doctor.
Yes of course dad and mom, I did tell them Graham had just been there studying in Orebro for the last 5 months. :-) Then his younger son Eric who is also home from college in Berkeley,CA... came out of the house and introduced himself as well and talked a bit until his bare feet were burning on the hot asphalt and so he went back in. They are both very handsome young men I might add. :-) Did take some quick pics but caught them with their eyes closed so will have to get different ones some other day. John said his wife Riuko (Reeako)is Japanese and they have an adopted daughter Ruili (Raylee)from China. She is 12 now, but she became part of their family when she was 6. The two females were in Guam and coming back soon.
John said he works and lives in Tokyo during the week and comes home on weekends. Too expensive with the gas prices at $8.00 a gallon to travel back and forth each day. They then gave us some location info on 2 local bike shops and let us borrow their air pump to blow up CJ's bike tires, and then we were off in search of a bike lock and our own tire pump. We rode along and it felt so good to be covering so much ground so quickly, and a very nice break for our feet as well. CJ commented on how this just opened up a much bigger area of exploration for us. YES!!
We could not find the 1st bike shop, or at least someone to help us if it actually was one that we stopped at? YIKES...some of these small men business owners could use some major help in tidying up and organizing their office work spaces.I have never seen such messes...stuff is piled high and/or just laying about everywhere. No such things as shelves and an organized inventory I guess?...Perhaps I could find some volunteer work? :-)...no luck at that shop, so we turned around and then rode down the sidewalk in the other direction. I found it to be quite interesting and a bit of a challenge too, to try and figure out the biking edicate and rules. Luckliy there were no collisions as I manuevered from left to right dodging other bikers and walkers. We tried to ride on the left side of the walk, and hoped people stayed to the right, but that was not always the case. The bike lane cross walks at intersections were on the right, but then it seemed the other Japanese bikers then moved to the left. Who knows, it will be something we will learn as we go I presume. Maybe some lines like we have back in MN on the bike paths might help... CJ and I anyways.
The 2nd bike shop was an amazing mess so says CJ. I stayed outside and watched the bikes, while CJ waded through bikes, various bike parts and stepped over the pile of old innertubes laying right in front of the entrance door. The windows had a glare from the sun, so I could not see in, but when CJ came back out he commented on how dusty it was but that he had some nice stuff in there, if he can find it when he needs it. CJ found a tire pump and bike lock. He of course, chose the Japanese one over the chinese brand as the man said, "Japanese much stronger". :-)
Then we were off to see what we could find and headed southeast towards the Sankeien Garden area. We road along Honmoku-dori and passed through a few different city corner parks before stopping at the Tentokuji Temple and graveyard in Honmuko Sancho Park. Was very interesting to see all the wood slats with Japanese words stacked behind each of the tombstones. My guess it might be prayers or thoughts left by friends and family members to the deceased. (CJ said to type it into Google and find out..and that I will do that later). He is now sitting across from me here in the office and we are getting caught up on long forgotten book work.
We found we had to get off and push our bikes up many of these steep slopes. We don't have enough gears to shift down to, or possibly we are just wimps? Something to work towards I guess. :-) I already think that the pushing is often times the hardest part of the bike excursion. I know it makes my head pound and my sweat glands work in overdrive.
The map showed 2 different Shinto shrines, but we somehow did not see them nor the Tori gates which are at the entrances to them :-(. The paths in the park curve every which way as do the roads and of course all the signage is in Japanese and we have no idea YET, what those intricate kangi characters say. Saw a good looking male sunbather and a hardy bunch of runners doing some kind of road race course through the park, and thought to myself one has to have a really good heart and lungs to run in this ungodly heat and humidity. UGH ! Better them than me.
As we were leaving the park, we passed by some Boy and Girl Scouts which looked like they were getting ready to have some kind of a day camp type event. We then swooshed (while breaking as hard as I could)down a very loooong and steep hill and then across another main road "dori" where we wove through maze like neighborhoods till we finally made our way to the Sankeien Garden. I was so overheated and needed a break so I talked CJ into going in for a quick tour, some shade and relaxation. He wasn't too keen on it at first, but then we did go in and enjoyed two very cold and refreshing bowls of strawberry and lemon shaved ice.
After our treat we casually walked amongst the serene and tranquil sights as we passed stone statues and pagodas, crossed 3 or 4 different types of bridges, viewed a post season lilly pad pond and took photos of very large ,pink blooming lotus blossoms. Watched turtles and coi swim about in the ponds,toured an old house of a wealthy family from the Hido region in the Edo period after being scolded for not taking our shoes off correctly. CJ stepped out of his shoes and on to the dirt and then up onto the wood floor. "Iie, Iie" (NO,NO) she said. We think he was supposed to step out of his shoes and directly up onto the wood floor and then reach back and pick up his shoes and then walk bare foot over to the shoe shelf. Anyway, after his 2nd shot at it she let him in. This type of house is a rare example of "shoin-style zashiki" (audience room).
Next we made our way up the long hill through a bamboo forest to the 3 story wood pagoda of Old Tomyoji. This was previously in Kyoto and is the oldest pagoda in nthe Kanto Region built in 1457.
Then it was closing time so we never did get to one 1/2 of the park. Reason to go back again and also to see the cool stone Teisha bridge, which looks to be the prettiest one in the park by the cover of the brochure.
Back on our bikes and we continued to circle around the bluff area of which we live on top and which is encircled by a 12 mile path and greenway system that goes by numerous old western-style mansions and parks.
Once again that long last set of steps through the park and up to our street and then home is the killer stretch. We were VERY HAPPY to enter into our private cooly air conditioned sanctuary high on top of the hill. AWE !!!! CJ didn't have enough exercise I guess, so he walked back down to get a few Asahi beers and a mango jjice for me. we then stripped our soaking wet clothes off and got to preparing leftovers for supper while enjoying our tasty and refreshing beverages. We were both tired, famished as well as wind and a bit sunburned too. Our supper of taco salad, and potstickers with some new pepper/mango sauce I found was very tasty and filling.
CJ then finished putting together the two wood lawn chairs with tools he got from work, and then we checked our emails.
My dad Bernie skyped us and CJ tried to walk him through the steps to download pics I send to him via Email. CJ's sister Mary Ann then skype chatted with me on my computer at the same time. How crazy is that that we can be talking to 2 different people at the same time across the pond. WOW ! :-)
Mary Ann reported that CJ's dad Harley is not doing too well and has sores in the back of his mouth which make it very hard for him to eat. Jean is still faithfully going in each morning to lovingly feed him his 6 tablespoons of breakfast food.
He is not getting any better and Mary Ann alluded to the fact that she personally didn't think he may last another two weeks till his sister Sharryl could get back to see him from CA. With that sad news, we were off to say our prayers, and then to bed. CJ and I contemplated the days ahead for Jean/Harley and all that is going on back home and we feel so grateful for our own lives and all the wonderful opportunities we have had and continue to have together. We are indeed blessed in many different ways.
It was a very busy, funfilled adventure tour and we look forward to more.
Buenas Noches..( Just to let you know,I have not forgot my spanglish in the midst of learning my Japlish" )
Karlita and Carlos
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