Greetings from the land of the rising sun...after a 4 month long distance skype fest, Sarah, came back to Japan for her 2nd trip a few weeks ago and I wanted to share the stories and pictures from our adventures. I have to say, that Sarah put in a champion's effort to get ready for her trip...I gave her a laundry list of requests for American goodies (see pic) and she came through with flying colors...I forgot how much I missed real jam, dried fruit and oatmeal/nut bars. Also, Sarah took up learning katakana, one of the 3 Japanese alphabets. This gave me a good excuse to give her the menu reading responsibilities for a few dinners...and she learned first hand how much of a brain-drain it can be to read, speak and listen in Japanese :) But...she did well, b/c we got our food!
We visited Japanese Hot Springs (Onsen) again...a favorite Japanese pastime and now one of ours...Here is what it is like to experience an onsen - think, hot natural spring water bubbling up from the earth's crust...covering your sore, tired and weary body...your skin, muscles, bones, tendons and ligaments coaxed into a relaxed almost stoic state...and then you look around and notice old naked Japanese men (or women and children) staring at you...ahhh...This Is Japan. One of our onsen experiences had views of the Hakuba Mountain range in Northern Nagano Prefecture (see pic)...This is Japan indeed.The region of Japan I live in is called the Kansai Region. The geographic area covers Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe and the general vicinity. Kansai is smack dab in the center of Japan and has tons of amazing places just waiting to be seen...one of our favorite places to go is Kyoto (京都), the kanji means Capital City. It is no longer the capital, but the sights and sounds of Kyoto are a 
mix of both modern and traditional. Temples and shrines abound in the cosmopolitan and zen atmosphere.
We had two separate trips to Kyoto...first, we visited a food market where you can buy all sorts of interesting confections....like dried fish skin flakes. We passed on the fish flakes and decided to have lunch at a small restaurant where the owner encouraged us to have katsu don (かつ丼), which is a very tasty, yet simple dish - fried pork cutlet over a bed of egg, onions and white rice. Afterwards, we headed Northeast to just outside Kyoto to a town called Arashiyama (嵐山 - meaning, storm mountain). We rented a boat and floated and paddled up and down the river...almost smashed into a families boat and ruined their ice cream treat (doh!)...I apologized profusely - this is Japan. Our 2nd visit took us to a Zen Buddhist Temple called Shunko-in where we were coached in the art of Zen meditation. We also got a tour of the temple in English by a stocky and young Vice Abbott. He studied and worked in America for 9 years and his English was spectacular. He schooled us on the different sects of Buddhism, described the influences of the pristine gardens and shared periods of national upheaval and its impacts on religions. Pictured above is a screen painting made w/ real gold...this IS Japan.
In search of more culture and new experiences, we visited Nara (奈良). Nara, like Kyoto, once served as the capital of Japan. The are many main attractions in Nara, but we focused on Nara Park (hundreds of deer roaming around) and walking into the precinct of Kasuga Taisha Shrine and got 
swallowed up by the two thousand moss covered stone lanterns lining the walkway...this is Japan. Nara is also famous for the largest Buddha in all of Japan. Like Hiroshima and Kyoto, you could feel something special in the air in Nara...a place where the sounds of a deep and rich history echo out for every visitor to hear.
After the park, shrine and big Buddha, we found a local cafe named "drink, drank, drunk" and got curious...turns out they have some pretty good panini sandwiches and amazing fruit smoothies...this may sound boring to many of you, but these kinds of places don't grow on trees in Japan...they are very hard to come by. Also, Sarah and I are total foodies and "oooh and ahhh" at every bite of our food...
The main excursion during Sarah's visit was a 4 day adventure to Hakuba (白馬), which was the host city for the 1998 Winter Olympics. The kanji for Hakuba means "white horse." We took a 6 or 7 hour train journey from Kobe to Northern Nagano Prefecture to get away and be in the mountains...well, as luck would have it, we pretty much had the town of Hakuba all to ourselves. Nestled right next to what are called the Japanese Alps, Hakuba resembles Switzerland - 9,000 foot peaks lined the horizon. The lodges, chalets, food and scenery all screamed Europe. The only things that make us remember we were in Japan were the onsens, the Japanese signs and of course the people...but there were not that many people.You never know what type of experience visitors will have in a foreign land...they may say, "it
was different" or "now I can check that one off the list" or "never again" or "wow, what a beautiful place"...but regardless of what they say, hopefully there is a new found appreciation for another culture and even a new perspective on your own culture. Sarah has spent six weeks in Japan now and I know that she enjoyed discovering Japan...she gained valuable insights and respect into the Japanese way. She has done a lot here...helped teach lessons to High School students, seen World Heritage sites that will be preserved for generations to come, learned to read and speak some Japanese and found one of the most peaceful places for her...a Zen rock garden named Ryoanji -- THIS is JAPAN!Ja mata (until later)...
Click on the link below for more pictures of our adventure:
http://picasaweb.google.com/steve.papp/BestOfJapan?feat=directlink
