Our First Anniversary

This past weekend, Adam and I celebrated our one year anniversary on the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. For those of you who are wondering why we celebrated on June 13^th instead of the 28^th (the actual date we were married), allow me to explain. Last year, the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary was on June 28^th. This feast changes every year, but it’s always on a Saturday. It’s like how Easter changes every year, but is always on a Sunday and in fact, this feast changes according to how Easter changes. So, our anniversary will almost always be in June and will always be on a Saturday. Although we didn’t know this feast day changed every year, it’s rather nice to always have our anniversary on a Saturday.

Adam planned our anniversary date. He made me breakfast while I slept in and then we went to the Hana Festa (Flower festival). It was quite the process to get there using the trains, but we finally arrived. This was the 20^th anniversary for this garden and it really was beautiful. We could have spent the whole day there. The garden has three large rose gardens and then other park space and random things going on- like musicians playing.

After the park, we went to Ogaki and had a private Mass with Fr. Rey. It was such a blessing to be able to attend Mass on this special Feast and also on our anniversary. Father had prepared a little script for us to renew our marriage vows and everything.

Lastly, we went out to eat at a restaurant near the church. A friend of ours called to book a reservation for us and as soon as we entered, the hostess knew who we were and led us to our table. Unfortunately, the menu was entirely in Japanese. Although, I could read some of the katakana, it was still rather difficult to know what things were. Our waitress came and explained a little how the menu worked. Left for a bit, and came back with a bunch of pictures of food. In the end, we had a very delicious meal.

Our First year went by really quickly, but has been so good for us. I’m really glad that we spent it in Japan. It really has ended up being a one year honeymoon.

Big Bugs, Big Bugs, What ya gonna do? What ya gonna do when they come for you?

Only three weeks left in Japan now, it’s kind of hard to believe. I went for a walk today along the Ai river and just soaked in the experience. I was thinking that it won’t be long until I don’t have this opportunity anymore.

I was actually debating whether or not to blog about this past weekend, but thought I might as well. We went to the SCMAGLEV and Railway Park in Nagoya. We just did a half day trip to see this museum since it had such great reviews on tripadvisor. Unfortunately, neither of us found the museum that great. I think that’s because it was a bunch of trains and we’ve been on so many different trains in Japan that it wasn’t that special. We got to learn a bit about the history of train development in Japan, but not all the information was in English. Anyways, it was interesting to learn about the Shinkansen. They opened the Shinkansen (bullet train) for the Olympics in 1964. At that time, the train could go 200 km/h. Now- about 50 years later it goes 270 km/h. I was surprised that they hadn’t developed anything faster, but at the same time how fast do you need a train to go? The main reason we went to the museum was to learn more about the MAGLEV train. This train is propelled and levitates with magnets- pretty cool eh? They actually had a real one on display. From my understanding, they send an electric current through the magnets and by the SNSNSNS attraction scheme the train is pulled forward and levitates. It can go 500 km/h because there’s no friction caused by the tracks. The conductor also isn’t on the train, the trains are operated from a station. Personally, I don’t know how comfortable I’d feel with riding on a train without a conductor. They’ve been doing test runs with the MAGLEV and are hoping to build one for public use soon in Japan. I guess they already have one running in Shanghai.

This is how they used to operate trains.

The MAGLEV

This is Dr. Yellow- the Shinkansen that makes sure the Shinkansen tracks are on track. 

You used to be able to eat at a restaurant on trains.

Adam tried a conductor simulator.
Driving a train is harder than it looks.
Especially when the instructions are in Japanese.

Yes, that's right. I'm standing next to the oldest bus in Japan. No biggie. :)

This is from Sunday, we were wearing the masks to protect us from the dust and pollution.

On Monday night, we went over to a friend’s house for dinner. During dinner, we got to talking about bugs in Japan. Our friend was born and raised in California, but has now been living in Japan for seven years. He was talking about his first adventures in Japan and all the bugs he would get in his room. Now, his Japanese girlfriend has helped him purchase more bug poison and deterrent products. He showed us some of his and we told him what we’ve been using. If you go into a drug store, they have quite the selection of different products for everything from mosquitoes to giant centipedes.

The centipedes is what I want to talk about. There’s a certain type of centipede here that can grow long like a snake. He said he’s seen some that are a foot long. They can go through small cracks since they don’t seem to have a firm exoskeleton. The lack of this skeleton makes them harder to kill. Previously, we had met another American who said that he heard you can only kill them by boiling them or with fire. He had a lot in his house so he would trap them and then take them far away since these centipedes are smart and can apparently find their way back to your house. However, our Californian friend said that a woman told him that she managed to kill one by smashing it repeatedly with the heel of her shoe. Needless to say that these centipedes have quite the reputation. Basically every foreigner we’ve met here has a story or two to share about them. Oh and I almost forgot, if they bite you, you have to go to the hospital.

Therefore, I would feel quite satisfied with my stay in Japan if I don’t have the luxury of seeing one. Or if I must see one, I hope that it’s outside. I don’t mind giant bugs as much when they aren’t in my house. I have put poison outside our door to try and kill them before they enter.

The morning after having dinner, I went out to get groceries. I came in carrying my baskets of groceries. I put them down and saw a four inch centipede with 1 cm long legs. I don’t know how long I stood there staring at it. I was evaluating the situation. I had found smaller ones like this one before in the house, but never one this big. I didn’t know if it was already dead, but it wasn’t moving. My options ran through my head: ignore the problem- go upstairs and hope it doesn’t follow you, take a shoe and smash it, or step on it with the shoes I’m wearing. It’s never a good practice to stare at giant bugs, it just ends up freaking you out more. In the end, I summoned my courage and stepped on it. I felt and heard its little skeleton crackle. I removed my foot. It was twitching. I stepped on it again. I’m pretty sure none of its guts were left in its body at this point. I removed my shoes and went upstairs to put away the groceries. Now, I knew as much as I would like to leave that dead centipede there, I couldn’t. I had to go downstairs to do the laundry. So once again, I girded my loins (I just think that’s a funny expression), took four pieces of paper towel (I didn’t want to feel any of it when I picked it up), and went down to face my fears. I cleaned it up, wiped the guts off the floor and disposed of the paper towels.

That evening, we were having our Christianity discussion group and I was telling them about my centipede experience. The one man there said the longest centipede he’s ever seen in Japan was about six inches. Which makes me think that mine was pretty long. In any case, this wasn’t the type of centipede that’s poisonous as far as I know. I’m pretty sure that since I stared at it for so long, its image shall be engrained in my memory for some time. I’m super paranoid now too and I’m always checking for them. So, that’s one thing I’m looking forward to about Canada- no giant bugs.

Note: Google pictures of these centipedes at your own risk.

Tokyo- The Biggest City in the World

I can’t believe it’s already June. May has gone by so quickly and now we only have a month left in Japan. I’m ready to come back to Canada though. It’s been really hot and humid here lately which is hard to take.

Adam and I finally took the plunge and went to Tokyo this past weekend. We took the normal train to Nagoya and then took a shinkansen to Tokyo. Tokyo station is quite large, so when we arrived it took us a while just to get to the tourist information place and then to be on our way to the Edo-Tokyo Museum. Tokyo has a fairly complicated public transit system. It’s not that there’s so many lines, it’s more that there’s so many different companies running subways or trains throughout the city. There’s 9 city metro lines, 4 Toei metro lines, some other companies running other lines, JR train lines, busses, etc., etc. Instead of having a flat rate ticket, the trains and metro charge different amounts for the distance travelled. Looking up at a complicated map and trying to find the station you want so that you know how much to pay can be difficult- especially if only some of the stops have their English/Romanji names posted. Luckily, google maps is fantastic and tells you all the information you need about how to get from point A to B, and I had mapped it all out before we went and knew how much the tickets were supposed to cost. Another tricky part is buying a ticket to transfer between two lines that are run by different companies. Both times we had to do this, we got someone to help us.

Now, as I was saying, we went to the Edo-Tokyo Museum which, as the name indicates, is all about Tokyo (which was called Edo at first) and its history. It was a pretty good museum and they had a bunch of life-size models. It was really interesting to see the tiny little rooms families of the low class used to live in. The walls between these rooms/houses were made of wood or paper. That’s the reason one fire burned 2/3 of the city down, after which fire prevention methods were put in place. I also found it interesting how negatively the old “geisha” part of town was portrayed. Most of the museums in Japan that we’ve been to generally don’t portray anything Japanese negatively, but this part said what horrible living conditions the women were forced to have. Finally, a silly/sad thing we learned about were balloon bombs. During WWII, the government got Japanese school girls to make a bunch of balloon bombs. These were, as the name suggests, bombs that hung from giant balloons. I guess they sent 9000 of these across the Pacific Ocean to the US and only 600 actually ended up in the US. Maybe it was a sneaky idea, but it mostly seemed kind of silly.

Life size Replica of the Kabuki Theatre

This is what Daimyos used to get carried around in.

Replica of a float used at a festival.

Kabuki Theatre

We were already behind schedule leaving the museum, museums have a habit of taking longer than I think they will. We stopped for some chicken burgers before going to the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. This is a garden that you have to pay to get into, but it seems more like a public park. I think the reason you have to pay is so that they can keep it well-maintained. It’s quite a large park with a Japanese garden, French garden, and English garden. The English garden basically just seemed like a nice lawn, but maybe that’s the most iconic item of English gardens. Unfortunately, we got there kind of late- at 3pm and the garden closed at 4:30pm- so we didn’t have time to relax, but only to walk around.

French part of the Garden

The name of this rose is "My Granny" :)

Edelweiss rose

 Then, we headed for our last stop of the day, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building which has a free observation deck on the 45^th floor. I had opted not to go to the Sky Tree (which is the tallest tower in Tokyo and 2^nd tallest in the world) because I didn’t want to have to wait in line. Anyways, we walked to this building from the garden. First, we went the opposite way we needed to go and ended up having to walk all around the outside of the garden. We finally got to Shinjuku station which we mistook for Shibuya station and for a minute thought we were at the busiest intersection of the world. In the station, we asked for directions to the building since we were so mixed around and I think we were both secretly thinking of giving up. We got directions to take an underground passageway all the way to the building. We thought we followed her directions to a T, but I think it was more of an S that we followed. We ended up on a sketchy deserted underground tunnel for a bit before coming back up into the open air. Now, you might be thinking, “How hard can it be to find a giant building?” Well, it’s a little bit hard when there’s giant buildings all around. A short walk later we found the building and then eventually found how to enter the building. There was a line up (maybe 10-15 minutes) to go up the elevator which I didn’t think was too bad. In the end, I was really glad we persisted in finding our way. It was really incredible to see Tokyo from way up high. There were some other tall sky scrapers, but for the most part you could see for a long distance and on a clear day you’re supposed to be able to see Mt. Fuji. We got there as the sun was beginning of set and it was quite nice. It wasn’t beautiful, it was more just crazy to look for so far and see only buildings. That’s what it looks like when you put the entire population of Canada into one metropolitan.

This wasn't actually Shibuya, it was right by Shinjuku Station.

I think this video is pretty funny though.

On our way to the government building, this was a busy intersection.

Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building

Buildings as far as the eye can see

You Can see Tokyo SkyTree. It's the tall thing that's hard to see with the smog.

Beautiful sunset

 Next, we found a place for supper- a Thai restaurant. Afterwards, we both agreed we should’ve just gone for the pizza place, but since I had never been to a Thai restaurant I thought I should try it. The food was ok, but there were a few too many mystery foods that I didn’t like the look or taste of in my noodles.

Since it was 8:00pm, we figured we should go to our hotel, especially since we’d have to somehow find our way back to Shinjuku station. We were walking along when lo and behold we found a brightly lit underground passageway that said Shinjuku Station. I guess that was the passageway that we were supposed to take on our way to the government building. We bought our tickets and got on the train. The train went one stop and then stopped and stayed stopped for a long time. This was nothing new to us, we’d been on trains before that stopped for 10-15 minutes at stations. So, we waited patiently. There were announcements in Japanese. Everyone else was waiting patiently on the train.  About 20-30 minutes later, I finally noticed a screen that showed different train lines and whether they were delayed or not in service because of an earthquake! Well, that explained why we weren’t moving. We still didn’t know what to do though. People were coming on our train and then getting impatient and leaving. We brainstormed options- both the lines we supposed to take were not in service and we didn’t know when they would be. We considered taking a taxi. It was really difficult to know what to do without any information about the earthquake or the damage it may have caused. Finally, after an hour and a half we left the train, went to the bathroom and got our tickets refunded. We asked if the metro was running and were surprised to hear that it was. So, we bought different tickets and decided to try the metro.

The first train we took was quick and we had no problems. Then, we came to our transfer station and found hundreds of people waiting for the subway. Luckily, we met a really nice English speaking Japanese lady who helped us out. Every ten minutes or so a completely packed train would come, a couple people (if any) would get off and then somehow more people would cram on. The lady, who helped us, fit on a train by putting one arm and leg in, as the door was closing she squeezed the rest of her body in somehow. She had informed us that it’s like this every day during rush hour, it wasn’t normal for a Saturday night, but was only busy because of the earthquake. Train crew went up and down shoving people’s things into the train so that the doors could close. Finally, after at least 30 minutes of waiting, we were at the front of the line, another completely full train came. Adam and I thought that there was no way we could possibly fit since it was already so full, but then a “miracle” happened. Everyone behind us pushed forward and not only did we somehow fit, but another 3-4 people got on behind us. The pushing wasn’t in any way rude or rough like you might expect, it’s not like people were trying to butt in line to push forward. Rather, people were being helpful in pushing you on the train. Once I was in, I literally couldn’t move my legs or arms or anything and I found the whole situation pretty ridiculously funny- maybe it’s because I was already so exhausted. I maintained a small injury from this experience, a slight rug burn and bruise on my right arm. I felt that Adam and I were getting the real Tokyo experience.

Unfortunately, we got off before we needed to and ended up having to wait to get onto the same train line we had just left. Luckily, when it came to be our turn, a completely empty train came and we were able to fit on quite comfortably. We were also very blessed that our hotel was 100 m from the station. We arrived at 12:15am and I was so glad that the reception was still open.

People waiting for the metro.

 Sunday morning, we got up and went straight to Mass at a church about half a kilometer from our hotel. We didn’t get up early enough for breakfast. I’ve really been appreciating the welcome that we receive at the parishes in Japan. This was a small church, but really full. We were greeted by people and a man gave us English copies of the readings. After Mass, a man came and talked to us and gave us some postcards from the church.

We left and got some McDonald’s for breakfast/lunch before heading for Shibuya- the busiest intersection in the world. On the train ride there, I noticed how full the train was on a Sunday in the middle of the day and thought no wonder it’s so full during rush hour. It wasn’t crowded, but it was full. We went out the Hachiko exit of Shibuya and into the thicket of the intersection. I really felt like I was in New York or something since there were all these giant screens playing videos with music, people everywhere, and shopping complexes. We went into a Starbucks/book store across the street from the station. On the second floor, we could watch all the people crossing. I really didn’t think this intersection was going to be much after watching videos on youtube, but in real life I really enjoyed it. There were just people going everywhere. Again, I thought, “If this is a Sunday afternoon, can you imagine on a weekday during rush hour!?” Unfortunately, we only took videos and no pictures.

This was actually Shibuya- the busiest intersection in the world.

It looks cooler in real life.

Adam and I enjoyed walking in this busy neighbourhood to Yoyogi Park. One thing I noticed about Tokyo was the amount of vandalism. It’s not like it was bad compared to Canada or Europe, it’s just that there really isn’t much for spray painting around, so when I saw it there it was more noticeable.

As per usual, we ended up lost and walked through along a beautiful forest-y path before realizing we were in the wrong place and had to walk all the way back. Yoyogi Park is a large public park with all kinds of crazy stuff happening on Sundays. There were some people dancing, people playing instruments/selling their CDs, people practicing instruments, etc. We got to see some of Tokyo’s culture, international culture, and sub-culture.

This guy had built his own percussion kit.

Our last stop of the day was the Shimo-Kitazawa neighbourhood. I had heard that it was a nice neighbourhood to walk around and it was. There were little shops and restaurants and people milling around. This time, we got pizza for supper and enjoyed the air conditioning. I was wondering how many people were in the restaurant just for the air conditioning.

That’s a wrap- we went back to Tokyo station and then back to Tarui. Overall, we had a really positive experience and Tokyo ended up being a lot less intimidating than I expected for being the largest metropolitan in the world.