Day 8 Nagaoka

Finally, Nagaoka--the main show!  The one thing on the must-do list, other than visit my dad's old mission stomping grounds, was to see the famous annual fireworks show here.  Our trip was structured around this event, and it did not disappoint.  

This fireworks festival is an all-day event.  We arrived early and staked our claim on the hillside.  If I haven't said it before, I have to say it again:  The Japanese are the nicest, most polite people I've ever met.  We put our blanket down as well as a few belongings that we wouldn't miss too terribly should they go "missing."  There was no need to worry, though.  Everything stayed put all day.  There is this understanding that you can put your things down in your spot and that everyone will leave it alone.  While this seems like it should be a basic standard for human behavior, sadly it isn't and it stands out when people do behave this way.

After leaving our things on the hillside, we walked into town where various performances were going on as well as a lot of vendors selling a variety of trinkets, souvenirs, and food.  It was, of course, very hot and humid, so my favorite thing we did while waiting for dark was sitting inside an air conditioned space and watching traditional dances.  Seeing as how we arrived so early to get our spot, we had A LOT of time to kill, and I will admit it wasn't my favorite part of the day, although there was fun to be had.

Sundown did come, though, and we settled in for the show.  It was a bit different than the way we do things here in the US.  There would be a short display and then some narration.  It was, of course, in Japanese, so I had no clue what they were saying.  And the displays themselves weren't that impressive--not to justify a trip around the world, anyway.  This is an award-winning show, so I was underwhelmed at first.  

I should have had more faith, though, because finally Nagaoka delivered on its promise.  Watch, and have your mind blown!

I didn't take many pictures on this day, but here is a small sampling of the event, other than the masterpiece above as well as a video of one of the smaller portions of the show.

Day 7 Suwa

This was a pretty chill day in the sight-seeing department...although the weather was anything but!  I'm glad we didn't have TOO many places to walk to, as the places we went really wore me out from the heat alone.  My dad wanted to go to a Japanese castle located here, and lucky for us, the place we stayed was SUPER close.  Practically next door.  Now, I have to admit, when he used the word castle, I had the European image in my head.  This turned out to be *slightly* inaccurate.  It did have a moat, though!

 The pictures below were taken from the top floor of the castle where there was a viewing deck.

After the castle, we decided to go to this lake made famous by a popular anime movie called  Your Name.  When I saw this listed in the "things to do in Suwa" left by our hostess, I knew I HAD to go.  The thing is, I haven't seen this movie--yet.  But I happen to be addicted to a couple of podcasts hosted by Rachel Wagner:  Rachel's Reviews and Hallmarkies.  I feel like we could be the best of friends as we actually have quite a bit in common, and I actually respect her and her opinions very much even though we have never met or even interacted online.  I have actually wanted to reach out before as she is very warm and friendly on Twitter and welcomes that, but it has always felt a little stalkerish to me.  But...if I had real-life pictures of a setting from her favorite movie...for some reason I haven't shared them with her yet, but I will.  I wanted to finish the blog first, and that has only taken me about a year.  (Don't judge!)  Plus, my dad and I didn't really have anything else to do, so why not?

This actually turned out to be more than a best friend stalker experience.  While there, we met with a man, who started talking with us.  Or rather, with my dad in his rusty Japanese with me standing there in my nonexistent Japanese.  I'm not sure how, but through the conversation we discovered this man is a member of the church!  The church is small in Japan, so this was quite the "Mormon small world" moment.  He immediately felt like an old friend, even for myself who couldn't understand the words he was speaking.  We truly are all brothers and sisters.

This large sculpture had pictures of the Japanese Zodiac.  I thought it was only a Chinese thing, but I was wrong.  This is me pointing to my animal the Rooster.

Day 6 Mt. Fuji

Today it was time to leave the man-made beauty behind and spend some time admiring what God has made:  Mt. Fuji.  This was a day FULL of trains, trains, and more trains.  So getting out and hiking for a bit felt really, really good.  It was also beautiful (to me) weather: slightly cloudy which kept temps down and the colors brighter.   

 

 

 

 

We ended the day in our next location and a taxi ride to our AirBnB.  I have decided I really do not like Japanese taxi drivers.  The people as a whole are truly the nicest, kindest people I have ever met...but I'm exempting taxi drivers.  This one refused to use his GPS and ended up costing us a lot of extra money.  Grrrr...but we got there.

Japan Day 4 Tokyo/Kamakura

What is a trip to Japan without going to Tokyo?  When we first planned this trip, we were going to go to the Tokyo temple my church has there.

Unfortunately, it was under repair, so we couldn't.  At the time I admit I wasn't too upset.  It was a trip with a lot of traveling and being hot and sweaty...I just wasn't feeling very "churchy."  Now, though, I admit I am disappointed we couldn't.  It would surely have been an amazing experience.  Oh well.  There's no use worrying about things you can't change, and location isn't what makes a temple special anyway.  It's what happens inside, which is the same around the world.

So we went to the Ginza instead.  This is a large hoity-toity shopping district in the city.  When my dad served his mission, the area was off-limits, so he really wanted to see what he wasn't able to those many years ago.  As it turns out, not much.  It's probably more impressive at night when everything is lit up, but during the day it is just....a lot of tall buildings.

 
Definitely worth checking off the list, but there you go.  Shopping centers looks the same around the world!

After that, we went to a beautiful shrine and temple with a large outdoor market in front of it.  I did not get pictures of the market, but just think a farmers' market but for touristy things and you get the idea. My favorite part might have been the large, covered area with misters.  It is HOT in Japan, people!

Japanese architecture is just stunning, and I never got tired of seeing the shrines and temples.

Day 5 Yokohama/Otsuki

This was a fun day.  It started with a visit with a childhood friend, Maria, whom I have not seen in years. The last time I saw her, I was living in Georgia.  I didn't know it at the time, but she was working as a librarian in South Carolina, and we were in the same temple area.  I had gone one day, and she happened to be there as well.  Neither of us knew that either was even living in the area!  This Japan meeting actually had a similar feel of serendipity.

My dad had happened to have a conversation with her dad and brought up our planned trip to Japan.  Maria's dad was thrilled to hear that because Maria was currently working for the DOD library system there.  Not only that, the base she was working was actually in the same area that we were traveling.  And so the stars aligned, and we were able to arrange a meet-up.

Before leaving the area of Kamakura, we met up with Maria at Daibutsu, or the Great Buddha.  As the name would suggest, this shrine houses an impressively large statue of Buddha.

 

The shrine was beautiful, and seeing Maria again, in a foreign land of all places, was a special treat.  It did not last long, though, as she had to go to work.  And so we parted ways after about an hour.  She went to work, and we headed to Yokohama.

Yokohama is the second biggest city in Japan--or at least, that's what Google just told me.  What is much more interesting is that it is the home of the CupNoodles Museum, which sounds very similar to the Coco-Cola Museum, for anyone that has been there.  They talk about the history of CupNoodles, and then the part I was looking forward to, you get to make one.  Sounds great, right?  History plus food--what can go wrong?

Well, what can go wrong is that the day you are there is the one day that week it is closed.  So...moving on to a new plan:  a boardwalk where I got to (sort of) confront a fear. This boardwalk is home to the Cosmo Clock 21 ferris wheel.  There is one important thing to know about me.  I am scared of...everything.  I joke that I am scare of life, but there is definitely truth in that jest.  One of the many things on my list is heights.  So I told my dad I was happy to sit at one of the picnic tables while he took a scenic ride of the port.  He wouldn't go without me, so I had a choice to make...

 

(In the ultimate irony, take note of my shirt.)

I did open my eyes.  A few times.  So I didn't miss out completely.  It was a stunning view.  And I was very happy to put two feet on the ground again.  At this point, our day was mostly done.  Or so we thought.

We hopped on a train to go to the next AirBnB.  After the long ride was over, we hopped off, stepped outside, and pulled out the directions.  It was at this point, when nothing looked right, that it was discovered the AirBnB was booked for a different, very similarly spelled, city.  We were where we wanted to be to start the next day's adventures, but we had no place to sleep!  Luckily, there was a hotel with a vacancy right across the street from the train station.  It was a tiny room, but it was a room with two beds (after we asked for one to be added), and all was well.