Japan -part II

This last Japan post is soooo overdue, but somehow we didn't manage to finish writing about the last part of our trip yet. Since today is the first day that we have internet at home in Lausanne, there are no more excuses for me.
We've been in Lausanne for the last 2.5 weeks and meanwhile all our new buddies we had met during the trip - Satoshi-san (Japan), Abe-san (Japan) and David (Australia), have settled into their new homes and can be seen at IMD. I have appointed myself the 'IMD MBA 2009 paparazzi', so I will keep on trying posting pics once in a while.

But now it's time to recap the days we spent in Kyoto and Nagano where a little dream came true - we saw the Jacuzzi monkeys.

First of all, we had a lot of fun going on the Shinkansen and even managed to see Mt. Fuji. When we arrived in Kyoto we thought that everything would be easy peasy and we would find our hostel within a few minutes. Well...that didn't work out. Instead we were running around like headless chickens and eventually gave up. We jumped in a cab, but that didn't help much either. The driver didn't know our hostel, so we continued driving around in circles for 10-15min.

As soon as we succeeded and dropped of our stuff we walked to the first attraction, Sanjusangen-do, a beautiful temple housing 1001-armed statues. Unfortunately, there it's forbidden to take photos. But wherever we could, we photographed like crazy. The temples and shrines are really picturesque and most of the time they are located in areas full of small traditional shops and houses. It all looks like in a Japanese fairy tale.






Not only did we enjoy all the nice historical places in Kyoto, but we also spoiled our taste buds. On two nights we had okonomiyaki (a kind of Japanese-style omelette) and we tried yudofu (tofu hot pot) and cold kuzukiri (transparent arrowroot noodles) served with kuromitsu, a sweet black sugar syrup/sauce.




And in between all the food there were more temples and more shrines and more monuments and loads of other pretty things...






On our second day we went to a cultural show in Gion, where Oren volunteered to participate in a cultural tea ceremony (all the other foreigners were too shy and the rest were Japanese anyway). Other elements of the show were traditional music, comedy, Ikebana and dancing Geishas.



The day we left for Nagano we went to a food market for some more culinary adventures.



Before boarding the train to Nagano we were stopped by yet another TV crew working for a Japanese channel. This time they were looking for handsome boys in Kyoto. Had it not been our honeymoon and had we not been running to the train, Oren might have been a new celebrity in Japan by now ;-). But he had more important things to do - he had to take me to the Onsen monkeys living in Jigokudani Yaen-koen close to Nagano. And these funny creatures were really worth a visit.













After all the monkey business we took another Shinkansen and returned to Tokyo for two more nights. We meandered through the streets and had more delicious food...





...and all of the sudden 13-weeks of traveling and honeymooning were over and we couldn't believe it. We just had too much fun for it to finish. Frankly speaking, we were quite sad. Besides, we knew we'd be facing now the other extreme: after 3 months hanging out together all the time, this year we will hardly see each other from Monday to Saturday. Mais c'est la vie....

See you in Lausanne. (Yes, Lausanne, not Luzern/Lucerne) :-)

Japan - part I (Tokyo)

On our first full day in Japan we had the luxury of a private guide. Satoshi-san, a future classmate of mine took us around Hakone and gave us the insider's view. It was a great day and an opportunity to get to know him before we are all stressed out at IMD.
We started with the open air museum and then continued the smokey mountain, Owakudani, close to lake Ashi. We climbed up with a train and cable car and then down to the lake with another cable car. It was a bit cloudy, so we could not see the view of Mt. Fuji. On the shore of the lake we visited a small shrine and it was cool to hear how the shrine is used for worship.
After eating some yummie soba noddles we went to our first Onsen - a Japanese bath. I was lucky to have Satoshi with me (it's not mixed sex) to explain all the rituals but Anita was alone and had to observe the others (looking without staring at naked people is not easy). After an hour in the hot pools we were very relaxed and headed back to Tokyo for dinner. We went to Ninja restaurant and were joined by Ryo-san, another future classmate. The place was all designed like a ninja cave with small private rooms in an underground maze. The waiters and staff are all dressed like ninjas and every dish is served with a 'twist'. After the food the 'head ninja' came to the room and did some magic tricks that left us dazzled...In the next few days we explored Tokyo by foot, covering as much ground as possible. We ate in small places, trying to figure out from the pictures and models what is offered. After a few days Anita mastered a few critical words: meat, fish, vegetable and it became easier. In any case, everything we ate was extremely tasty (and no, Japan is not only about sushi).We also had an early morning at the fish market - the biggest in the world. We skipped the big auction, when frozen tuna is sold from the ships to wholesale. Instead we just wondered around the stalls, trying to avoid the little electric cars flying around and enjoying the sales atmosphere. After seeing so many fresh fish the only thing that was left was to eat some. We had a great sushi breakfast and as people told us in advance (good tip Uri), it does taste much better when it comes straight from the sea to the plate.

Japan - a place like many others?!

Japan is a country like most other countries in the world.
The streets look the same as any high street in any big city and they are not very full, nor is the public transport. People dress the same as we are used to from Europe. It doesn't seem like the hobbies people have are any different from those we are familiar with either. There are only a few vending machines and they only sell cold drinks, just like anywhere else in the world. Hotel beds and rooms are also quite similar to what we know from other places and shops sell the same old touristy stuff. Finally, food in Japan in never displayed in perfect models outside the restaurants and it typically tastes ok, but not presented in a very interesting way.


NOOOOT (hope you get irony...)


We have 2 more posts from our amazing 10 days in Japan...