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I didn't think that, of all the things in Japan, gardens would be a highlight for me. But it makes perfect sense, given my love of Japanese art and cuisine. The Japanese seem to follow the axiom "less is more." They have realized, and continue to strive for, elegance in simplicity. A fresh piece of fish doesn't need to be paired with anything to be delicious, in the same way that a perfect rose bud could exist in a vacuum and still enchant us. There's a purity inherent in the Japanese notion of beauty, the idea of capturing existence itself at its absolute peak.
So I'll let Koraku-en, the garden at Okayama, speak for itself.
On the way to the garden in Okayama.
The garden in Okayama.
More of the garden.
More of the garden.
A woman stopped me as I was making my way out of the garden, towards the castle. She was tending a small table of confections. "You try," she said, motioning towards a bowl of quartered candies. I sampled one of the gelatin-based candies. It wasn't bad, but I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't have rather had a gumdrop.
"You like?" the woman inquired.
"Yes, very much," I lied. "Unique."
It was the wrong answer. The woman thrust a box in front of me and said, "It is... one-thousand yen. Big box two-thousand."
"No, no," I said. "No room in backpack."
"You are American?" she asked.
"Yes, California."
"Oh! I know song by... you know, I wish they all could be California girls." She was singing. A Japanese woman was singing the Beach Boys to me in the middle of one of the most beautiful gardens in Japan. Was I really here right now? Was this seriously happening? I tried to keep my eyes from betraying my thoughts.
"Beach Boys," I said.
"Beach Boys?" she repeated.
"Yes, Beach Boys."
"Oh, yes, yes, yes. Beach Boys. Yes. You want traditional tea Japanese?" she asked.
No, no thank you," I said, bowing as I walked away.
"Please have fun Japan!" the woman shouted after me. I bowed in response and continued towards Okayama-jo.
Thankfully, the builders of the castle, back in 1597, remembered to include central air conditioning. No, just kidding! The reality is that, due to Japan's history of internal and external warfare, most castles in Japan are restorations. Still, I was too warm to care about the authenticity of the castle. The air conditioning felt wonderful on my sweat-soaked skin.
The bottom floors of the castle were something of a miniature museum, with relevant artifacts on display, things like tax records, suits of armor, swords, and art. I made the climb to the top floor and enjoyed the view for a few minutes before turning back towards the train station.
Okayama-jo, the castle.
A kindly old man noticed that I was alone and asked if he could take a photo for me.
Along the way, I noticed a sushi bar, walked in, and reeled at the scene. Eight chefs were standing in the middle of an enormous, circular bar, shouting at each other and frantically plating endless varieties of sushi. A conveyor belt covered in small plates ran the length of the counter. Waiters were running around the perimeter of the establishment, delivering checks and taking drink orders. Save a few vacant stools, the bar was completely full. I sat down next to an old woman, who regarded me quizzically for a moment before pointing to a small bowl of powdered green tea. She handed me a mug and said, "Two spoons."
I thanked her, dumped two small spoonfuls of powder into the bottom of my mug, and topped it off with scalding water from one of the many spouts attached to the bar. I grabbed what I knew to be fatty tuna belly as it approached on the conveyor belt.
It was love at first bite. Where had this been all my life? Toro, I thought, dipping it lightly in my shallow dish of soy sauce. This was a word to remember.
I was so enamored with the toro that, when I arrived at the train station, I realized that I did not know where I was going next.
This is a (bad) shot of a conveyor belt sushi joint. I didn't want to be any more conspicuous than I already was.
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ahhh sushi...i gtta go japan one of these days just to eat it there :D
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United States17042 Posts
Japan is always so...picture perfect. I hope that you found your way to (apparently) a computer...
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Woot, another DJEtterStyle blog ^^
The Toro you say is a type of Sushi right?
Which towns have you been to already?
edit: oh and how have you been handling there with english? From your posts it seems like any random jap you bump into speaks and understands english fine. Is it that easy? I wanted to go there with my gf but I was worried about language (she speaks japanese 100% but I speak zero).
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Omg! I love toro! I had some toro sushi during my prom night dinner and it was delicious.
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On October 09 2008 14:53 VIB wrote:
Woot, another DJEtterStyle blog ^^
The Toro you say is a type of Sushi right?
Which towns have you been to already?
My trip is over, but because I wanted to do a good job on this blog, I am slowly but surely composing posts based upon my memory and the 50 handwritten pages of notes I took during the trip. All told, I made it to: Izumi-sano, Osaka, Okayama, Matsue, Hiroshima, Miyajima, Matsuyama, Takamatsu, Kyoto, and Tokyo over 17 days of travel.
I have... a lot more to write. This is good news if you are enjoying the blogs, but it is a daunting task for me. I didn't realize how much work each one of these posts would take! Still, it's something I want to look back upon in 20 years and be proud of. I will finish the blog before 2009.
As for my level of Japanese, I went without speaking a single word, and I didn't have any major problems. My experience was that, although most Japanese people cannot form grammatically correct sentences in English, they have a pretty damn good vocabulary. So it was matter of finding key words with which to communicate.
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If you feel like write more of these, don't think that you're wasting your time. I enjoy reading anytime I see one. ^^
I specially like it when you post about food 
Which one of these places would you recommend the most? If I go, the only place I'm sure we would visit is Nagoya because all my gf's family is there. But I don't know anywhere else.
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On October 09 2008 15:08 VIB wrote:If you feel like write more of these, don't think that you're wasting your time. I enjoy reading anytime I see one. ^^ I specially like it when you post about food Which one of these places would you recommend the most? If I go, the only place I'm sure we would visit is Nagoya because all my gf's family is there. But I don't know anywhere else.
It's hard to say just a single destination, but Matsue was probably my favorite. It had a small town feel while still having plenty of awesome stuff to see and do. It's got an <i>original</i> castle. There's an INCREDIBLE art museum a few minutes away by train and a major shrine (that I did not see) an hour away. The night life was fantastic, hotel rates were reasonable, the food was outstanding, it was situated on a lake...
Oh Matsue, how I miss you...
But if you like bigger cities, Osaka and Tokyo were amazing. People in the big cities are much friendlier to foreigners, as well. Kyoto was... well, it was great, but it was such a tourist spot that I didn't enjoy it as much as most of my other destinations.
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In my honest opinion this is the best blog on TeamLiquid, everytime I see it I stop what I am doing and read. It really makes me want to visit Japan some day, not only the beautiful photography and scenery there, but also you have a very nice way of describing your surroundings. I couldn't tell if you were doing this from memory or not, though I did suspect the latter since the quality was so high. Keep em coming man I really do enjoy reading.
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On October 09 2008 15:36 Sp1ralArch1tect wrote:
In my honest opinion this is the best blog on TeamLiquid, everytime I see it I stop what I am doing and read. It really makes me want to visit Japan some day, not only the beautiful photography and scenery there, but also you have a very nice way of describing your surroundings. I couldn't tell if you were doing this from memory or not, though I did suspect the latter since the quality was so high. Keep em coming man I really do enjoy reading.
Thanks, Spiral. I really appreciate comments like this. I tend to get a little disheartened when I see my blog posts hovering around 350 views while "my life sux T_T [emo]" has 2,000, but it feels <i>really</i> good to know that people are indeed enjoying these. I have a lot of fun writing them!
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I would love to tour asia. I'd like to go to Tokyo, Kyoto, hiroshima, seoul(to watch sc kekeke), Vietnam, singapore then to my folks in indonesia. Fuck i'm gonna start saving now.
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Wow i would love to travel Asia tooo!!!
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EPT
