Ruth's Korean Adventure: A Little Jaunt to Japan

What a week we had.  Rather than chronicle our day to day with names of neighborhoods and temples that will just read as gibberish to most of you, I'm going to stick to the highlights of the trip...  Boiled down and aside from what I've written below, we visited various temples and shrines, went to Tokyo Tower, did a lot of shopping in various neighborhoods, and ate a lot of good food (duh.).  

First, a video of Desiree on the train from the airport:

Highlight 1: Spending a day with Sho

Sho was a foreign exchange student at North Cedar during my senior year of high school, and, for Ruth and I, meeting up with him was a non-negotiable.  So, on our first full day in Japan, we met Sho at a train station about an hour and a half away from our hostel, hopped in his minivan (this kid is awesome.), and began the short drive to Kamakura (a seaside town) to the Hase-Dera Temple (whose brochure bills it as a temple with a view and lots of flowers - they weren't wrong).  Before reaching the temple, we stopped for lunch at a popular sushi restaurant that serves its sushi on a conveyor belt.  Twenty-five plates of sushi later (I'm not joking), we were back on our way to the temple.  The temple itself was beautiful (though there weren't many flowers given the time of year...), beautifully set overlooking the Pacific ocean and a colorful array of houses below.  The temple was bustling with people there to pray and make offerings for the new year - the religious (and inherently cultural) practices of Buddhism are profoundly interesting and strangely beautiful to me.  And, spending time with Sho was priceless.  After we covered every nook and cranny of the temple (including going inside the huge Buddha in front of which we are standing in the picture above), we drove along the ocean on our way to try to see Mt. Fuji.  Let me just say, road trips are the best.  Ruth and I thoroughly enjoyed simply spending time with Sho in his van, rehashing high school and our class reunion and listening to a strange mix of all of our music.  Sho, however, was very disappointed to find Mt. Fuji covered in thick clouds upon our arrival, impairing our ability to experience what I'm sure is a beautiful mountain.  It didn't bother Ruth and I in the slightest - we were so thrilled to be in the general vicinity (with Sho!) that not being able to see the mountain itself was not so bothersome...  The day ended with us eating a delicious, completely random dinner in an area of Tokyo called Shinjuku.  Overall, a very simple day, but one of the best, in my book.  Seeing a country at the hands of someone who lives there is always the best way.

Highlight 2: An early morning tuna auction and sushi breakfast at Tsukiji Market
We arrived at the market (after all night (for some... not this kid - I took a much needed nap!) karaoke) at 4:30 AM to secure ourselves a spot from which to view the impending tuna auction (only the first 120 people to arrive get in!).  Though we weren't sure what was going on, watching various rubber boot clad men inspect the tuna via specially cut flaps in the frozen tunas' flesh was kind of fun.  After the auction was over, we made our way to the best of several sushi bars, waited in line for two freezing hours for five of the 10 or 12 stools to open, and savored every single bite of the best fish into which I've ever sunk my teeth.  Seriously.  I now understand why Bob and Kris rave about the shore lunches of their Canadian fishing exbeditions.  Fatty tuna that, somehow, tasted creamy.  Deliciously strange sea urchin.  Beautifully colored salmon rolls.  UGH.  Take me back!  For real, if I could start each day like this, minus the waiting in the freezing cold morning part (I was a crabby pants - ask Ruth - she'll corroborate), I would.  Sweet Jesus, that was one of the best meals of my life!  We were home by 10 AM, sleeping like well-fed little babies.

So there you have it - the two absolute best parts of our week in Japan, and a butt-ton of pictures :)

Next (and last post about Ruth's Korean adventure): Ruth's epic exit - we did those last two days right.