WELCOME TO JAPAN – PART ONE

Last March, 2024, I finally traveled to one of the places that had been on my bucket list for years and years – The Land of the Rising Sun – Japan.

For years I dreamed of visiting this country, having fallen in love with it from reading books like Tai Pan, Memories of a Ghesia, The Sailor That Fell from Grace to the Sea, and more recently watching the fabulous production of Shogun. Finally, I had the time, opportunity, and funds saved so I could go. I cannot tell you how excited I was.

I flew Starlux Airlines out of LA. This is Taiwan’s new airline which they hope will be a competitor to Emirates. It had a 3-hour stopover in Taipei before going on to it’s final stop in Osaka where I was getting off. Starlux is part of the One World Alliance so I could use my American Airlines and my Alaska Airline points to purchase my Business Class seats. Worth every mile spent as this is a really long flight!

I arrived in Osaka and needed to get to Kyoto where I would stay until meeting-up with my traveling companions in 2 days. I had read about how stressful, overcrowded, and difficult it could be to find the train ticket booth, purchase a ticket, and then get on the right train. I’ve found that if you just smile, look lost, and ask, you will always find someone who will take you by the hand and lead, or at least point you in the right direction. I didn’t even have to do that this time as everything was well-signed in multiple languages.

When I went down the stairs to get on my train, I had to laugh because it was one of the famous Hello Kitty fast trains! My granddaughter would have loved this! Welcome to Japan.

I had a very speedy ride to Kyoto and found that my hotel was within a 10-minute walk from the train station. Flat sidewalks and no cobblestones, easy-peasy! But my mouth fell open as I stopped directly across from the hotel and saw this amazing structure – The Higashi Hongan-ji – or ‘The Eastern Monastery of the Original Vow,’ where the first structure was built on this site in 1602. Welcome to Japan!

The little hotel I was staying in was lovely, and like many of the doorways here, welcomed you instead of a door but with colorful cloth blowing in the breeze, followed by an entryway with quiet lighting and often a water feature.

After being greeted by much bowing and very little English, I was shown to my very small, by American standards, but well-furnished room, where the television was turned on the the very top photo! Not football or even soccer, but sumo wrestling – in the morning. Welcome to Japan!

I had two days on my own to explore before neeting my friend and sewing buddy from San Miguel de Allende, MX, Phyllis, her husband Arturo, and a friend of theirs, Jerry from New Jersey. Phyllis had lived in Yokohama for quite a few years growing up while her father worked at the US military base there. A return trip had been at the top of her bucket list for years.

We planned our itinerary to accommodate everyone’s interests (so I thought) but came to find out that that is an impossibility when you don’t know the people you are traveling with well – or at all. More on that later.

My first night I discovered a tiny, wonderful and delicious restaurant not 2 blocks from the hotel were the owner/waitress communicated well-enough to tell me she wanted me to enjoy a true Japanese dinner. It was a wonderful Welcome-to-Japan meal. A glass of Suntory whiskey, followed by a pot of green tea rounded out the menu.

I spent most of the next day wandering through the famous Nishiki Market. The sites, sounds, smells, amount of people, everything, was wonderful and overwhelming to a totally jet-lagged old body. I loved every minute!

The last photo on the bottom is what the market looked liked when I first arrived – before they opened. The rest are what the market was like less than an hour later with the aisles were filled with literally hundreds of shoppers.

The next day, before our little group connected, I took time to go across the street to wander through the Higashi Hongan-ji , a totally free experience, and then take some photos while just walking around the the neighborhood.

The final photo – the one of the dragon – it’s a robot!

I walked into this little hotel lobby to ask directions as I was a wee bit lost and he/it was manning the receiption/check-in desk! Not a human being in site. I realized he only ‘spoke’ Japanese, so he was not helpful when I asked him which way should I turn at the stop light…but he chatted away like crazy when a Japanese couple arrived and signed the guest book!

Very early the next morning I was off to meet the others in Osaka where we would head south. We were off to spend a day and night on Naoshima, one of the well-known Art Islands of Japan, and then another day and 2 nights in Hiroshima. (The Art Islands are in the bay below Hiroshima and appear as little green dots in this map. You must take 2 trains and ferry to get to them. Fun! – for some of us.)

Until next time…..