On my last day of vacation, thanks to Culture Day on 11/3, I went to Nara. Nara is famous for deer which wander the large park on the east side of town. You can feed them crackers and pet them, since they are more than used to people. One of them even continued to pester me, hoping to get more food.
Nara's main attractions are impressive. Wandering through massive Nadaimon gate to the even more massive Todaiji Temple, which houses the appropriately named Daibutsu (Big Buddha). Yep everything is a big spectacle here in Nara. This monolithic statue was truly a sight to behold, and the entire temple dwarfs most of the other sites I have been to in Japan.
Afterwards I went the the nearby Isuien and Yoshikien gardens. These were a quiet respite from the crowded tourist filled Buddhist temple and park. I spent the afternoon here relaxing in the gardens, and I ate some kakinohazushi, a form of sushi wrapped in persimmon leaves. Traditionally, these leaves helped preserve the fish since Nara is quite a ways inland from the coast. The garden was beautiful and serene, with the fall leaves adding a myriad of colors to the landscape.
On my way back I stopped at a religious iconography exhibit near Nara park, which obviously didn't allow photos. The exhibit featured Buddhist iconography like Kannon and Asura statues I have seen in other temples across Japan, but it was a neat experience to see them up close in exhibition as opposed to being sectioned off in a temple.
On my way back to the train station in Nara, my route was blocked by a large group of people. They were all lined up in front of a small storefront which was making some kind of mochi snack through traditional means. To do so, the staff would hammer the mochi in perfect meter in a grand display. I hopped in line myself to try some of the food myself. The snack was good, abet a bit messy.
And thus concluded yet another long, incredible trip here in Japan.
On 11/2 I set out to the town of Toyota to see the Toyota Plant tour. I arrived early, which gave me time to explore their showroom, which showcased some new technology they are implementing as well as their current line of vehicles The new Land Cruiser is looking pretty cool (it's finally less bulky than the recent models), the 86 sports car had a fun feel to it, and Lexus upped the luxury quite a bit with a widescreen TV for both the front and back seats. And yes you can watch TV in your car (front seats included) while driving in Japan.
Soon I set off for the nearby Toyota manufacturing plant. The tour led us through an upper platform suspended over the whole plant, which is one big warehouse with a snaking assembly line. Obviously for trade secret reasons, we were not allowed to even bring cameras into the plant.
About 90% of car manufacturing is now completely mechanical, so the only human element left is installation of various parts and mechanical oversight, which Toyota calls Jidoka. The idea behind Jidoka is automation with human intelligence. Those workers involved are still valued as an integral part of the manufacturing process, and have the ability to oversee a variety of tasks.
I found it interesting that they build multiple kinds of vehicles with steering wheels on both left and right sides on one assembly line, but I guess that means they can save a lot of space only having one line and break up the monotony for their workers. It also matches Toyota's other manufacturing pillar. 'Just-in-time'. By being able to produce a variety of vehicles in a single place, they only do so to meet demand that day. As the cars were built, large billboards displayed various stats, like vehicles complete, target goals, etc. for the staff to follow. Running along the manufacturing line is a rope that gets pulled if there is an issue during the process. When that happens, the line still keeps moving, but a manager who specializes in the entirety of the manufacturing process runs over and addresses the issue within a small time window. If he cannot manage to do it within that window, the line stops and he continues his work. It's an interesting idea which keeps the workflow smooth despite the minor hiccups which are bound to occur.
The tour ended with watching the welding, where a group of robot arms all work in unison to weld the frame of the cars together. It was truly a marvel of automated machinery, the precision, harmony and speed were marvelous.
After the we were dropped back off at the showroom just in time to watch Toyota's robot play the violin.
From learning about their history in Nagoya, witnessing their processes firsthand, and having relied on their vehicles for years, I have really grown to respect and admire the way Toyota does business.
Afterwards I left Toyota for Osaka to meet up with Ryan Hurst, an online fitness coach who has been living in Japan for over twenty years now. Together we went out for a fantastic dinner featuring a great variety of Japanese food. It was nice to talk to someone about fitness and Japan that evening.
The next morning, 11/1, I joined Mandy and went the the town Arimatsu just south of Nagoya to experience shibori, Japanese tie dying. Japanese tie-dying is completely different from american dyeing practices. In shibori first cloth is stitched into complex patterns, which allows for certain sections of the cloth to be dyed differently. At Shibori Kaikan (tie dying museum) we got to stitch some simple patterns firsthand. Hand stitching our little pieces of cloth was incredibly time consuming and challenging. Yet even our modest efforts had impressive results.
After finishing our handkerchiefs, we watched some pros work on more complex patterns. It said when training to be a shibori seamstress, once stitching has become completely second nature, they are finished with their training. The patterns they create are truly magnificent, and the town Arimatsu is where the best of the best produce these works using traditional methods, in traditional buildings from earlier eras in Japan. The rest of the museum featured various displays of shibori works, from traditional Japanese clothing and wall scrolls, to more creative ideas like a set of armor made of cloth.
Afterwards we walked across the street and ate the other Nagoya delicacy, miso nikomi udon. This rich bowl had a variety of vegetables and the strong Nagoya style miso enriched the savory broth.
Coming back into Nagoya, we ventured to the science museum. Unfortunately the planetarium was sold out (typical Japan), but we explored the other 6 floors of the museum instead. The museum puts a heavy emphasis on interactive exhibits, with each floor having different focuses like space, the human body, or industrial design. At points the place felt like a giant science playground for children, in the best way possible. I apparently had too much fun myself, since it seems I forgot to take many photos. I especially appreciated the attention to detail in designing the rooms. For example, the the human body exhibit floor-plan makes the shape of a person, and the planet earth floor allows you to walk 'inside' the earth's layers. The space room's ceiling had various lights hung around, which when observed through lenses at particular angles, created constellations. Some of the exhibits were rather impressive too, with a two-story cyclone generating machine and large Tesla coils creating lightning.
On our way back to the station, we stopped by the Design museum, which was featuring art deco products like clocks and radios. Being a fan of that era of design work, I was happy we made the detour.
At this point we grabbed tebasaki, Nagoya's notable spicy chicken wings, and waited for Mandy's bus. The more I have spent time in Nagoya, the more the city has impressed me. It's historical sections, large green spaces outside of the city, exciting city centers, and logical transit systems have made the city a lot of fun to explore. One day soon I will get to see that planetarium!
Thanks to the combination of a national holiday and some overtime I have to make up (I can't work overtime, so when I work a Saturday I have to take another day off), gave me a 4 day weekend from 10/31-11/3! Luck would have it some other ALTs, Sarah, Mandy, and Jillian, were headed to Nagoya. I decided to join them to check out stuff I missed on my short one day excursion last month.
We started going to Moricoro Park on a tram. The park is an odd blend of a nature preserve, exhibition area, water park, and gardens. This massive park located to the east of Nagoya seems to be the epicenter for family events. So it was a fitting place for the Ghibli Exhibition and the house from Totoro, the latter which is a permanent fixture of the park (the tram even came with a collectible ticket for the event). The first part of the exhibit celebrated Ghibli's 30th anniversary by featuring all of their promotional posters, from concept to final product. I found it fascinating to look at the original hand drawn sketches outlining the layout of the poster, and how those rough sketches evolved into a clean professional poster. Also in this exhibit they had an area where they showed the process for creating their movies, from storyboarding, continuity checks, keyframes, in between frames, to final production. Ghibli's production style is purposefully old fashioned to give a hand drawn look.
The second exhibition featured the Ghibli film "When Marie was There". The exhibition had large set recreations of areas from the movie, which were quite neat to walk through. This exhibition focused extensively on the background art of the film, which is something I think many fans take for granted. The art is stellar. Many of the paintings I was sure were pictures until you looked at the edge of the canvas on the unframed photos, where the paint strokes shoot off the edge. It boggles my mind that there are artists of this caliber who create such fantastic still life works in bulk to be used for a mere few seconds in a film. The walking path snaked through life renditions of rooms used in the film, further adding to the impressive nature of the exhibit. They even had a massive scale model of the house and lake from the movie, and hologram displays of other scenes. The anime artists in Japan are truly on another level. I wish I could have shown you, but pictures were strictly forbidden.
After going to the exhibits, Sarah and Jillian had to catch a bus back to Osaka, so Mandy and I wandered into the park to look for food. As we wandered the park we came across various gorgeous landscaping exhibits and flower displays. Further in there was a stage and food stalls set up for a concert event going on throughout the day, so we stopped by and got some good food before we wandered into the park towards the Totoro House.
During our walk we got sidetracked, first by a suspended walkway which went through the trees in the park which was a neat experience, and secondly by a notably great Japanese garden. I appreciated this Japanese garden in particular for its use of large trees and rocks, which in my experience is uncommon for these types of gardens. While in the garden we had a surprising conversation with a local artist who was sketching in the garden. I have had great luck meeting a multitude of friendly people in Japan during my travels.
Journeying through the garden we ended up at the Totoro house, which was neat to see. It's oddly surreal to see a place from a cartoon actually exist in real life.
After stopping for some delicious ice cream (I got the tiger tail - pumpkin & dark chocolate), we left the park to our next destination.
Next we stopped by the Toyota Automobile Museum, which is a show floor of cars from Model Ts to Fuel Cell powered vehicles. Some notable cars were an electric carriage from 1902 (guess green energy has been around for a while), the first Honda car, and Teddy Roosevelt's presidential coach. There was also an exhibit with hood ornaments, which were illuminated. In person their appearance was impressive, the photos couldn't handle the lighting well. Speaking of hood ornaments, the cars on the show floor came from so many different eras that I was able to see many of the older company logos. Subaru and Mazda have some cool retro logos, and Toyota interestingly enough used to have font that spelled Toyoda. There was tons of other interesting vehicles and things to see in the museum, far too many to discuss, so please just browse the gallery up top.
This evening we went out for a famous Nagoya specialty, Miso Katsu. We went Yabaton, a notable local restaurant chain specializing in the dish. It did not disappoint. Nagoya is known for a darker, stronger flavored miso than the rest of the Japan, so their signature dishes often feature it.
On our way back to the hostel we also saw an incredibly large dance meetup at an underpass in the middle of the city, as well as three street performing drummers jamming. The group's name was Mamy and Seven. All three were incredibly impressive, and the little girl added a unique charm to the whole performance.
On Sunday October 25th I went back to Mt. Mitoku for another spiritual event, Mt. Mitoku's most famous festival. This time I would not be walking up the mountain, but walking across fire. I joined many other ALTs, and together we went to the base, where the festival was already underway. At the festival you could buy a headband which would allow you to walk through the fire, wooden planks that you could write wishes on which would be burned as part of the festival, and eat the monk's porridge free of charge, which warmed us up on that rather chilly Sunday. I also managed to grab some ramen from a local shop who had set up a stall at a nearby cafe. The deck had a fantastic view of the valley adjacent to Mt. Mitoku.
Wandering the grounds I happened to run into my school's librarian and nurse, who were also planning on walking the fire. They mentioned a concert would be starting soon. Prior to the religious rituals, an Enka concert was held on the festival grounds. Enka is a particular type of music genre that is particularly popular with older generations, but the music is pretty good. The second performer was particularly charismatic, with impeccable style. As he sung he often shook hands with the audience (myself included), and at one point, event ventured out into the crowd. He was a huge hit! After watching two really impressive performances, the religious ceremonies began.
The festival consisted of a procession of a large party of monks proceeding up to the temple, blowing on large, conch-like shells rather liberally, where they offered a long prayer before proceeding to the main festival grounds. At the main grounds a variety of rituals were preformed (with even more conch). First the monks acted out an old folk tale which I believe had to do with the history of the ritual, and also probably explained the elaborate attire. Afterwards an archer shot arrows into the crowd, where those who caught them got to keep them for good luck. Ceremonial weapons were then used to maybe bless the bonfire wood prior to ignition. At one point some speeches were made about sponsors of the event. Then the fun began.
First they lit a large bonfire with kindling which created thick white smoke and burned incredibly fast. The wishes written throughout the day were then burned within the fire. Next, the path was set ablaze. As the fire calmed, the monks rotated the scorched logs and built a low bridge sitting over the still burning fire, laid salt at the beginning, and began to allow people to cross. During the entire ritual one particularly grizzly sounding monk bellowed a stirring chant throughout the complex. I still distinctly remember his voice, which added to the intensity and epic feeling of the ritual. As people cross over the fire it is said that earthly desires are burned away, leaving one cleansed. It is also said if the walk is hot or if someone is burned by the fire they possess many earthy and impure desires. With the weather being rather chilly, I thought the walk was rather nice, so that either means my feet were really cold, or I'm a rather content person.
At the end of your walk you are given some mochi, which was a nice treat before we set off to grab sushi that evening.
I appreciate how Japan blends their religious customs with more lighthearted, modern sensibilities. It makes the events more approachable for a foreigner like myself, and also more fun for everyone I would imagine.
On Friday, 10/17, I headed across the prefecture to Yonago for a fun filled weekend with some of the ALTs. I met up with a large group of us at an Italian restaurant. I enjoyed being around such a large group of English speaking people, even more so because all the ALTs I have met are quite interesting and fun. While this was not the first Italian restaurant I have eaten at, here I realized that in the same way Americans 'Americanize' food from other places, Japan 'Japan-izes' a variety of food. Not to say this is a bad thing, the pizza and pasta were still delicious. But if you ever see a picture from my albums that looks a little odd, this is probably the reason.
The following day I joined ALTs Tim, Tim, (it was only marginally confusing) and Maria on an adventure to Niimi, a small mountain town in the middle of Japan, on the north end of Okayama prefecture. The town is famous for the Ikura-do and Maki-do limestone caves. Mika-do was the first cave we checked out. This (very) low clearance cave lead us through a variety of interesting cave formations, culminating at an underground lake where the ceiling opened up to a staggering height. Enhancing the spectacle, the whole cave was illuminated with the entire color spectrum, adding a surreal element to the tour. I felt bad for one of the Tims, who stands well over 6 feet tall, since at one point I was crawling on the path within the cave to avoid hitting my own head.
Next we ventured to Ikura-do, which contrasted greatly with Maki-do. This cave consisted of a winding narrow 1200 meter passage leading through an awe-inspiring vertical opening and underground waterfalls. The confined nature of the path gives you the feeling of being a true adventurer, which was rather fun. Many of the stalagmites and stalactites had epically amusing names. Unfortunately I seemed to have misplaced the pamphlet, so I cannot name any for you.
Heading south, we detoured to Soja to see Bitchu-Kokubunji temple, a 5 story pagoda in an unusually flat farming region of Japan. The pagoda's featured intricate carvings of the zodiac, and sat on a small hill, surrounded by flower fields, grassland, and parks. While I live in truly rural Japan, the sprawling landscape of Soja hosts the rural feeling reminiscent of American.
Afterwards we headed into Okayama where we got to briefly check out their famous Korakuen park, one of the 3 best in Japan. Similar to a Japanese garden, but with more of an emphasis on zones, variety, and open space. Sections of the park contained majestic, tall trees, while another looked like and asian-inspired Shire.
Then, after briefly wandering the grounds of the adjacent Okayama castle (it was closed by the time we arrived there), we ate at a small Mexican restaurant, with the wonderful name FREEDOM TACOS. Mexican food is always a rarity in Japan, but thankfully restaurants here are always faithful to the flavors, and honestly better than many Mexican restaurants in America. As the sun had long set, we headed to Tim's place for the night. If you want to check out more photos, the other Tim has some on his blog.
The next day in the coastal city of Yonago I hiked Mt. Daisen with Maria. A mountain that goes from sea level to roughly a mile high, Daisen is a fun summit. The beginning of the hike starts at some old shrines, which unlike many shrines in japan, have not been given a fresh coat of paint in probably hundreds of years. I appreciate this aesthetic, for the grandeur remains but the history is more apparent.
Our timing couldn't have been better for fall colors and weather. The brisk air kept us cool as we climbed, and the colors shifted from summery greens to vibrant yellows and reds as we made our way up the mountain. I took way too many photos, but the views were gorgeous. During this hike I came to understand why Japan is so enamored with "fall colors", to the point they even include leaves changing in their weather forecasts.
As we hiked we passed a variety of hikers. But everyone we passed said hello, which was a nice friendly atmosphere to be surrounded by. I got a kick out the majority of the hikers, most whom had large backpacks, boots, hiking poles, and jackets. Many looked like they were fully ready to camp. While it seemed popular to cook lunch (with small burners and all) at the peak, most everyone looked like they could have been on a 3 day trek (the hike is 4 hours round trip). But it's a trend I appreciate in Japan, people take their recreation seriously, gear and all.
As we approached the peak, we hit something akin to timberline. The trees stopped, and the ridge-line was lined with shrubs and tall grass. The path changed from a standard hiking trail to an elevated wooden walkway which seemed to float above the sea of grass. The peak of Mt. Daisen is a whole different world from the path up, with a panoramic view of the ocean and the cities of Yonago and Sakaiminato.
After eating a quick lunch we ventured back down, and got to experience the beautiful scenery once again.
On my last day of vacation, thanks to Culture Day on 11/3, I went to Nara. Nara is famous for deer which wander the large park on the east side of town. You can feed them crackers and pet them, since they are more than used to people. One of them even continued to pester me, hoping to get more food. 
Nara's main attractions are impressive. Wandering through massive Nadaimon gate to the even more massive Todaiji Temple, which houses the appropriately named Daibutsu (Big Buddha). Yep everything is a big spectacle here in Nara. This monolithic statue was truly a sight to behold, and the entire temple dwarfs most of the other sites I have been to in Japan.
Afterwards I went the the nearby Isuien and Yoshikien gardens. These were a quiet respite from the crowded tourist filled Buddhist temple and park. I spent the afternoon here relaxing in the gardens, and I ate some kakinohazushi, a form of sushi wrapped in persimmon leaves. Traditionally, these leaves helped preserve the fish since Nara is quite a ways inland from the coast. The garden was beautiful and serene, with the fall leaves adding a myriad of colors to the landscape.
