Long time no see (오래간만에요)

Since we came back from Japan, I have been dividing my time between working, working my way through the refrigerator, scandalizing old ladies by walking around with my dog and large belly, and mincing to the bathroom every thirty minutes.

I have learned some new things about Korean birth traditions. Apparently, we are supposed to stay in the house for three weeks. To discourage people from coming in, we mark our door with charcoal. Charcoal also means it's a boy. This is all meant to discourage germ-bringers from endangering our newborn, something I support. Since we don't plan to keep the baby inside, we're going to have to learn how to be rude quickly. You see, old Korean ladies are fascinated with babies. I have spoken to American moms who have come to the terrifying realization that their children are no longer with them in a public place, only to discover that some older Korean lady has picked them up out of the stroller. I swallowed my horror when my sweet, well meaning intern told me that he can't wait to hug my baby, demonstrating a very wrong way to hold a newborn. Our mantra during those first few weeks will be, “it's our right to tell people not to touch the baby!” And by the way, it's rude to touch someone else's baby without asking. I don't care what culture or background you come from.

We went to a spectacularly bad baby care class. It was run by a scolding social worker, whose demeanor was probably not improved by jet lag. She taught us not to shake the baby, not to put the baby in the shower, and not to use diaper wipes in the house because they are not economical. I guess she didn't bother to look at her audience, since we were all late 20's-early 30's and of decent enough rank to afford diaper wipes, as well as old enough have a basic understanding of the difference between a newborn and, say, a doll. She had us all look at our different colored practice dolls and ruminate about where they came from, since American babies can be all different colors. She told us that swaddling was out of style and we should cover the baby with a loose blanket (!) instead. If you don't understand why that's horrid, google SIDs. One of my favorite quotes was, “Don't sleep with your baby because you could roll over and suffocate her. Then you will be accused of child abuse.” The threat of criminal charges are, of course, far more of a deterrent than the prospect of killing our children. I couldn't help thinking that this was a baby class designed for juvenile delinquents.

Never to worry, though, since we live in the year 2011. There is a wealth of authoritative how-to videos on the web for those of us who have never changed a diaper or bathed a newborn. We will be practicing on our new baby doll, purchased so that we can introduce the dog to the idea of a baby. Yes, we're total flakes.

Us on the roof with chicken dog.  She spends a lot of time cowering because of the wind.

Tokyo and Kyoto

We had a fantastic time on vacation, as we generally do. Traveling while pregnant was easier than expected. I always got a seat on the subway, and we got to sit in the front of the plane. Looking at our pictures, I understand why I got special treatment. I look huge! I'm lucky they let me get on the plane.

Japan is China and Korea's refined cousin. There were no smells, no open markets with strange animal parts on display, and the people were all very polite and distant. No one tried to engage us in random conversation. We are in the habit of ordering food to share, but Japanese food all comes on individual trays. We were shocked to see many people eating alone, which I guess more than anything else indicates that we have been living in Korea for too long. Japanese people displayed creativity and individualism in their clothing. We saw people in costume and people with dyed hair and piercings, both of which are noticeable absent from Korea. Some people wore kimonos. I often felt like I wasn't cool enough to be seen in public.

Japanese food is wonderful, and we ate it for every meal. I had a lot of noodles; Bobby had a lot of sushi. There is no tipping in Japan, as is the case in China and Korea. There were service charges added to all of our bills, which strikes me as a more polite way to do things. We ate one meal at a vending machine restaurant, which involved us selecting a food item, paying for it in a vending machine, and bringing the ticket inside to be redeemed. There were vending machines for just about everything, including movies in the hotel.

I was disappointed to see that we were scheduled to arrive during a typhoon that was supposed to hit the Kansai region south of Tokyo, but it provided minimal trouble. It rained every day, but never for longer than ten minutes. It was very humid for the rest of the time, so we welcomed the showers. When we were traveling to Kyoto, our train was delayed due to heavy rain. When we got to Kyoto, however, the typhoon had passed and we dealt with the same sporadic showers that we saw in Tokyo.

This blog is enhanced by the new camera that Bobby bought me.  It takes night pictures!  We took plenty.

Shinjuku

It took us awhile to get to Tokyo from Daegu. We took a bus to Busan, a train to Narita airport, and another train into the city. We wandered around looking for our hotel until a nice man pointed us in the right direction. We were pleasantly surprised to discover that Japanese addresses actually make sense, and we found our hotel by counting to the right number. We settled in and headed out for Shinjuku, Tokyo's business district. We were headed for the Tokyo Metropolitan Tower, which provides views of the city. Bobby loves to visit towers, and as an added bonus, this one was free. We had gelato (for me) and beer (for Bobby) in the observation lounge. Afterwards, we wandered out to find dinner. We were disappointed to find a lot of stool or standing restaurants, but eventually we found a sit down place with just about everything on the menu. It was like Japanese tapas. We indulged.

Tokyo from the Metropolitan towers

Another view

Toy vending machines!  One has a nintendo DS pet.

Seriously, don't squat on the toilet seat

at night

Shinjuku

Asakusa, Ginza, and Shibuya

We headed for Asakusa in the morning, which was close to our hotel. I was determined to get a decent map from the tourist information center. Asakusa has Tokyo's most famous shrine, but since we were going to Kyoto, we skipped this one, instead opting to wander around the market. As it turns out, I'm a total sucker for Japanese souvenirs. They are all so cute, and many have cats on them! The maneki neko, or lucky cat, was ubiquitous. There were also a lot of rabbits, since this is the year of the rabbit.

From Asakusa, we went to Ginza to see—well, eat from—the Tsukiji fish market. My doctor told me I could eat sushi from reputable places, so we went to a famous restaurant that provides sushi from the fish market. Japanese sushi is, of course, amazing, and has ruined all other sushi for me. The proprietor, probably pleased that we ordered the expensive stuff instead of the lunch special, which was only written in Japanese, gave me a stuffed bear for the baby. We walked past the massive market, stopping to see a turtle in the dirty river. I guess he eats the leftovers from the market. We enjoyed a peaceful walk through the park, which used to be a pleasure garden for Japanese nobles. It was right on Tokyo bay. Afterwards, we walked to the Sony Museum, where we played with the latest electronics. It was a little underwhelming, but I did find a camera that turned photos into anime. We visited a Japanese toy store and marveled at the robot toys. I bought a bizarre looking stuffed toy for the baby.

We spent the evening in Shibuya, which looked like the center of Japanese nightlife. The subway station was packed with people. We shoved our way towards the Hachiko statue, which honors a loyal dog who waited for his owner at the train station every day, even after the man died. Hachiko is now apparently a popular meeting place. We pushed our way out of the crowd and crossed the famous crossing. We managed to find a place in a nearby mall where we could watch the tide of humanity that flooded the crossing every couple of minutes. We had dinner in the mall—always a good place to find a meal—and headed home.

A food joint outside of our hotel

Vending machine restaurants.  Select a food item, pay, and bring the ticket inside for food.

Asakusa

Subway station

Me in the park

Bobby barely clears the torii gates

Ginza

An arcade full of claw cranes

Hachiko, surrounded by bored looking young people

Shibuya crossing

Ueno, the Imperial Palace, and Akibahara

We breakfasted at a Denny's. I had a salad and pancakes, which, as it turns out, makes a wonderful breakfast. Afterwards, on the advice of the tourism office, we went to Ueno to see the museums. We visited the Tokyo National Museum, where we saw silk paintings, samurai costumes, and some photographs from 100 years ago. We walked through the park in search of the statue of the samurai with his dog, which we eventually found. The samurai publicly disemboweled himself in protest of the Meiji government, but we were more interested in his dog. We had lunch at a vending machine restaurant. Afterwards, Bobby discovered a grape mountain dew in another vending machine. We headed for the imperial palace, where we found out that the subway machines ate our tickets if we transferred to another company's line. A woman in the ticket booth helped us get them back.

The imperial palace gardens were nondescript, though the huge walls that surrounded them were interesting. Bobby liked the koi ponds. I was upset to discover that my new maneki neko camera case had fallen out of my bag somewhere. We stopped by the 7-11 for a red bean ice cream to ease the loss.  There were several people standing around reading the manga on the shelves.  I wondered why the shopkeeper didn't tell them to buy something or leave.

That night, we went to Akibahara, which was not far from our hotel. I had been pestering Bobby to read the guidebook and pick a place in Tokyo where he wanted to go, and he selected Akibahara, which is Tokyo's nerd central. Besides being a center for buying discount electronics, it had a lot of anime and game shops. It turned out to be one of my favorite spots in Tokyo, with lots of people in costume. We explored a six story Sega building, where Bobby won me a new camera case from one of the claw cranes. The building had two stories full of claw cranes, and the other four were various types of video games. I wanted to get a picture, but there were no photo signs plastered everywhere. We went to a mazelike restaurant for dinner which was full of private room/booths. We were dismayed to discover that we were supposed to order food from a computer screen in Japanese, but an English speaking waiter helped us.

a shrine in Ueno park

The samurai and his dog

Imperial palace gardens

Akibahara

How do we order from this thing?

Gion

We spent an inordinate amount of time getting to Kyoto, since the train was delayed due to heavy rain. By the time we arrived, it was the afternoon. We wandered through what turned out to be the biggest train station I have ever visited looking for food. We went to “ramen street” on the tenth floor, but the lines dissuaded us, so we headed for the hotel. When we got there, it was after three, and since most historic attractions in Kyoto close at four or five and we still hadn't eaten, I considered the day a loss. Fortunately, I was wrong! We walked around our neighborhood looking for a restaurant, and we ended up in a beautiful glass walled place that was surrounded by a zen garden. We were served by women in kimonos. It had a ten page menu, so we ended up getting noodles, sushi, and shabu shabu, which is meat cooked in a hot pot on the table. I finished it off with some fancy Japanese tea, which was refreshing. Thoroughly satiated, we walked down to Gion.

Gion is the historic geisha district, and I was excited to see it. The neighborhood sports historic architecture, but it is still functioning, so it became more interesting as the sun went down. We could peer inside the teahouses where geisha entertained, but we couldn't afford to go in. We wandered down the cobblestone streets for awhile, then went back.

canal outside of our hotel

she was an actress

Gion

Bobby liked this picture

Eastern Kyoto

I had planned to spend our only whole day in Kyoto in the temple and shrine district, which is the “must see” part of Tokyo. I suspected that we would get temple and shrine fatigue after awhile, but we held up pretty well. First on the list was Ginkaguji, which had the loveliest zen garden I have ever seen. We walked down the “path of philosophy,” a peaceful trail bordered by a stream on one side and some old style houses on the other. We wandered into a shrine that was in some disrepair, but had a lot of animal statues. While headed towards Heian Shrine, we stumbled across a shrine that was said to promote easy childbirth. We bumbled around the structure like the clueless foreigners we are and ended up dumping money in the money box in the hopes that that would be enough to get me some good childbirth juju. I think we were supposed to ring a bell, clap, or tie something on a tree, but we were not sure which. Heian shrine was massive, as promised, and had some nice gardens. While walking towards some more temples, we came across a cafe and had lunch. The nondescript looking place made a surprisingly good vegetable curry and honey ginger iced tea. We walked up a hill, stopping periodically to look at temples. We ended with Chion-in, another massive structure with “nightingale floors,” which deliberately creak so that occupants can hear intruders. We headed back, but not until after I bought and consumed ice cream from a vending machine.

Zen garden

People in kimonos!

On the side of the path of philosophy

Overgrown shrine

Rabbits at the childbirth shrine.  Rabbits are symbols of childbirth.

The childbirth shrine

Massive torii gates outside of Heian shrine

The garden with the stepping stones

Paper trees.  I think the papers are prayers..?

Chion-in

Beer vending machine

The gardens at Ginkaguji

Nijo-jo

Our plane wasn't scheduled to leave until evening, so we decided to see one more thing before we left Kyoto. We settled on Nijo castle, which once housed a Tokugawa shogun. Bobby read that it was a castle designed to make your guests fell imprisoned. It had a lot of nightingale floors, as well as elaborately painted wall panels, all of which we were not allowed to photograph. We had to leave our shoes at the door, which is normal at temples, but this was the first shoes-off castle I visited. The gardens included a neat pond with concrete stepping stones. After we left the castle, we went to a ramen restaurant. I had eaten ramen previously, but we had not been to a ramen restaurant. The food was wonderful; a nice goodbye Japan.

The gate to Nijo castle

The main structure

A heron in the gardens

I guess they serve crab