Tokyo from atop a Bus

(Doug is back to work today so I’m taking over blogumentation for a few days)

Mrs. Kai, who really should be a professional travel agent, had arranged for us to take the Tokyo Open Bus Night Tour with them during our first night in Tokyo together.   

They were such amazing hosts and we had so much fun together!  Even riding the subway was fun with them!

Their son Takayuki also joined us and added to the fun of the evening.  He is Makiko’s older brother and works at a company in a cool part of Tokyo that develops videogames for Smartphones. 

We, along with about 30 other tourists, left Tokyo station (see above) around 6:30pm, just an hour or so before sunset.  For those of us used to the sun setting late in the summer, we had to remind ourselves that Japan does not participate in Daylight Savings Time and is farther south. 

We listened to a recorded narration in English while those who understood Japanese were treated to a very enthusiastic live guide.  If you’ve seen “Lost in Translation”, think of the scene where the translator listens to about 30 seconds of instructions in Japanese and tells Bill Murray “look there please”.  He says “is that all he said?  Really?  Are you sure?”  It was about the same for us.  We enjoyed listening to the English recording and THEN listening in on the Japanese narration and picking up what we could. 

The scenery was really stunning.  It was fun to  be able to take in the tall buildings without fear of tripping over something while walking down the sidewalk.

The bus crossed the Rainbow Bridge as the sun was starting to set and we had some time in Odaiba to watch the sunset over the city.  It was beautiful!

After arriving back in the city center, we had dinner at a great Izakaya where Doug may or may not have participated in eating jellyfish. 

Mike Berg in the City

 

On Mike’s first day in Fukuoka, we did some WW II related sight seeing and then went to Tenjin, the downtown neighborhood of Fukuoka, a city of about 1.2 million people. Here we all had ramen which in English translates to something like ramen. Its basically pork soup with ramen noodles and scallions and ginger.

It’s much better than the instant ramen noodles ya’ll ate in college. A fork was provided for Mike’s utensil needs.

This was a non-touristy very local ramen shop. Oishii (tasty).

Sue and I used to make shopping trips to Fukuoka about twice a month. It was about 45 minutes by train and cost about $8 per person each way. That sounds expensive, doesn’t it? Japan has a great public transportation network but it costs money to use it.

Mike purchased a one day subway pass for about $6. Each subway trip costs between $1 and $2 so it was worth it.

Father and daughter Berg.

This is the shed that houses the Kushida Shrine’s festival float.  Once a year during the town festival they bring these out and carry then through the streets. This one was very tall.

 

Naoko, who lives in Fukuoka recommended this shrine to us.

Mike bought a prayer piece of wood for Nicole Baca, his Pammy K’s friend.

Boys will be boys in every culture. . .

Japanese Home Away From Home: The BW’s First Home

When Mr. Hirata picked Makiko, Sue, and I up at Kanzaki train station, he took us to the old neighborhood where we saw our home from 1997-1999! The school board or city or whoever owned the house no longer lodges foreign teachers here.

Here is the view from our front door.

We were invited into Mrs. Kubo’s house for some green tea and conversation in her tatami room. Note the mini shrine / temple in the background. Mr. Hirata was instrumental in orchestrating our visit to Kanzaki by being in touch with our old neighbors, Sue’s old boss Ohkuma, Toshiko (daughter Higuchi) Makiko, and Naoko. We’re on Facebook with most of these people but Mr. Hirata handled all of the organizing details with aplomb.

The unidentified man on the back right is Toshiko’s husband. Mike and Judy Berg, do you remember touring Mrs. Kubo’s house in 1998?

Makiko identified herself to everyone using the words “home stay”. It was great to introduce Makiko to our Kyushu friends!

Mrs Kubo’s oldest child, Asako is now living in Chiba, just east of Tokyo. She was Sue’s junior high student and later my private English conversation student. She’s around 30 now. Mrs. Kubo also showed us photos of her two sons who I used to play baseball with in the street. We did not even recognize these boys.

Mrs. Kubo should definitely come to Minnesota for a visit. She would love it here! Actually, we extended the invitation to all of our old Japanese friends to visit us here.

Mr. and Mrs. Higuchi, our immediate neighbor to the left, arranged for us to go inside of our old home. These two people are the current residents of our Japanese house. Can you believe they let us come in to look around? The house looks the same but just more decorated and somehow more Japanese than when we lived there. On top of all of this, we were presented with a hand-made craft from the shelf above his TV. Amazing!

From here we headed over to the Hirata house for the reunion party. What a great time! Mike, who was feeling worn out from his Grand Day in Nakatsu, did not attend this festive evening but everyone there asked about Susan’s “Chichi”, her dad.

Domo Arigato Mister Hirata

Here’s Susan with her old boss Ohkuma-san from the Kanzaki Town Office. He works in another town office now but still lives in the area with his wife.

 

Here’s Naoko with her daughter whom we stayed with in Fukuoka for two nights. Mrs. Kubo and Mrs. Higuchi were our neighbors in our Kanzaki neighborhood. Mrs. Kubo and her friend were my English conversation students while Mrs. Higuchi used to give us asparagus and take no ko (child of bamboo – bamboo shoots). Our Kanzaki friend  Hirata-san organized this whole party and hosted it at his house. He was nice enough to invite our neighbors, too!

Here’s Mr. Higuchi on the left with Mrs. Kayo Hirata and Hirata’s daughter.

Then there is HIrata’s mother and father who we remember pounding mochi with back in 1998 and Makiko, our Kyushu tourist.

There’s Hirata-san in the back with the grey vest on. Thanks Hirata family for throwing a great reunion party!

Traveling with a Berg and a Kai

Here is what Mike Berg looks like riding a subway in a large Japanese city. We have decided to put pictures up on the blog in a willy-nilly manner with no regard to time or topic.

We really enjoyed seeing in Makiko on Kyushu, the third largest island of the Japanese archipelago, an island that Makiko had not previously visited. She rode the train down from Yamaguchi a few hours to meet us on the train platform in Hakata station in the big city of Fukuoka.

Makiko is now 23 and gainfully employed by a Japanese company that has something to do with machines. She will be moving to a different Japanese location after she finishes her training in Yamaguchi. Note my shirt.

We last saw Makiko in February of 2013 when she returned to Minnesota for a visit.

I remember Saga City seeming like a nice size medium-ish Japanese city bustling with activity. We were there from a Saturday to a Monday on a holiday weekend. This may explain why the streets seemed so unlively, unpopulated, and unexciting. Sorry Makiko!

And boy was it hot! We took a hot walk after checking in to our hotel.

on the train to Saga City

The Scramble intersection in Shibuya, Tokyo where thousands of people all cross the street at the same time compared with . . .

. . . The Saga Scramble!

We Have Returned

 

Sue and I arrived home safely last evening at 930pm after a fairly long return journey that began on Japan’s Monday afternoon when we got on the airport bus in Shinagawa. Here I am with the Kai family (Mr. Toshiji Kai and Mrs. Shukuo Kai) in front of Makiko’s old building. We arrived wearing black shirts and the Kais also were wearing black shirts. There must have been a memo stating “please wear a black shirt for the Kai and Berg-Williams family photo”. The Kais welcomed us warmly for our last three nights in Japan. Over the next several weeks we will post pictures and tell stories of our amazing trip -- Japan 2015: The Return.

After touring some of Makiko’s neighborhood sights, we stopped in to a café for the latest Japanese trend, shaved ice. We each got the small size which was an icy feast that hit the spot on this excessively hot day. Saitama-ken, the “state” just northwest of Tokyo is known for having the hottest temperatures in all of Japan. Add some humidity to that and you get: Mushi-atsuka desu ne? (really humid, isn’t it?).

 

We felt like we already knew Toshiji and Shukuko. Makiko’s mom is a long time follower of the Berg-Williams blog and our friend on Facebook.

I was sporting my Hippo Club T shirt that Makiko gave me in 2009. It lists “hello” and “thank you” in a variety of languages.

The name “Kai” can be broken down into two characters, “Ka” and “I” as you can see by the family name placard near their front door. The Kais moved into a new house right after Makiko returned to Japan in 2010.

Here’s our little Makiko-chan with their longtime dog Kurumi.

And some other photos from the wall. . .  We got to see Makiko’s room and we met her brother Takayuki in Tokyo. More photos to follow.  .  .