Day 7 - Kobe

... i'm tired.

Breakfast - Rice, miso soup, konnyaku, fruit, hashbrown, bacon, and green tea

We had an early morning, took a bus across the world's largest suspension bridge (Akashi Kaikyo Ohashi) to Awaji-shima Island from the hotel to meet with expert panelists in the office for a couple of hours.

We had lunch in the office cafeteria which is MUCH more delicious than our own cafeteria in HK. Then we walked to our next destination to search for more data. After a couple of hours, we drove across the bridge to community centre to do some more probing and ended the day at the Sheraton for cake and tea (and another meeting) :).

N and I said goodbye to M (our new dear friend) and rode the bus back to Sannomiya for a little bit of shopping (N bought a beautiful dress!), and tonkatsu dinner at Katsukura! :) This was another one of my favourite restaurants that I used to go to in Shinjuku. I was so happy to share this restaurant with her because of its unique ritual and absolutely amazing tonkatsu! :)

We were both mentally and physically drained that we decided to head back to our hotel. We have a big day tomorrow -- Kyoto!

Day 6 - Kobe

Today was another full day. We were able to get up a little bit later than usual. My breakfast was the same Japanese / Western style but I added a cheese omelet for a little change ;)

The three of us met up with some experts in a cafe in Osaka. It was only a 2 hour meeting but we learned so much from them that we wanted the meeting to continue. This organization has research and reports I really wanted to get my hands on. I knew that there would be some data that would validate the research we were doing for the past couple of days, but at the same time I was so excited to realize that we were walking into new territory with the learnings we soaked in from our own observations.

It started to rain so we ducked into a neighbouring Japanese restaurant for lunch bento-box style :) We had the white fish which was absolutely delicious and a deal for 900 Yen!

We visited a bookstore to buy some magazines as part of our research and then rode a taxi to our next destination.

We visited a home that was incredibly old -- exactly 300 years old -- which belonged to an incredibly famous samurai in Japanese history -- Kusunoki Masashige!

Kusunoki Masashige (楠木 正成, b. 1294-1336) was a 14th century samurai who fought for Emperor Go-Daigo in his attempt to wrest rulership of Japan away from the Kamakura shogunate.

A brilliant tactician and strategist, Kusunoki's cunning defense of two key loyalist fortresses at Akasaka and Chihaya helped allow Go-Daigo to briefly return to power. However, one of the loyalist generals, Ashikaga Takauji, betrayed Go-Daigo and led an army against Kusunoki and the remaining loyalists. Kusunoki suggested to the Emperor that they take refuge on sacred Mount Hiei and allow Takauji to take Kyoto, only to swoop down from the mountain, and with the help of the monks of Mount Hiei, trap Takauji in the city and destroy him. Go-Daigo was unwilling to leave the capital however, and insisted that Kusunoki meet Takauji's superior forces in the field in a pitched battle. Kusunoki, in what would later be viewed as the ultimate act of samurai loyalty, obediently accepted his Emperor's foolish command, left his death poem with his young son and knowingly marched his army into almost certain death. The battle, which took place at Minatogawa in modern-day Chūō-ku, Kobe, was a tactical disaster. Kusunoki, his army completely surrounded, committed suicide along with 600 of his surviving troops. According to legend, his last words were Shichisei Hōkoku! (七生報國; "Would that I had seven lives to give for my country!")

After the full-scale introduction of Neo-Confucianism as a state philosophy by the Tokugawa Shogunate, Kusunoki Masashige, once-called a traitor by the Northern Court, was resurrected with Emperor Go-Daigo as a precursor of Sinocentric absolutists, based upon the Neo-Confucian theories. During the Edo period, scholars and samurai who were influenced by the Neo-Confucian theories created the legend of Kusunoki, and enshrined him as a patriotic hero, called Nankō(楠公) or Dai-Nankō(大楠公), who epitomized loyalty, courage, and devotion to the Emperor. Kusunoki later became a patron saint of sorts to the World War II kamikazes, who saw themselves as his spiritual heirs in sacrificing their lives for the Emperor.

~ from Wikipedia

A statue of him stands outside the Tokyo Imperial Palace.

The man of the household is a direct descendant of Kusunoki -- being the ___ generation living in the 300 year old home. The building was incredibly old but absolutely beautiful as it has been taken care of incredibly well. We felt like we had walked into a museum. Really only pictures can show you how beautiful it is and even then you'd have to visit it to really understand.

Now of course, since Kusunoki lost the battle with Takauji, his family changed their last name which explains why the man of the household's last name is no longer Kusunoki but now ___________. The home still stands with a beautiful Japanese garden which has a tree in it with the same name "Kusunoki".

Sitting in such a beautiful and historical home sent chills down my spine. It was an incredibly eerie feeling as I literally touched such an important part of Samurai history...

We went to Sannomiya and walked Flower Road and Moto-machi for 30 minutes of window shopping, then met with the client "big boss" for kaiten sushi dinner! :)

With full tummies and our hearts full of inspiration, we walked the 15 minutes back to our hotel.

Tomorrow is an early day for us. We'll be speaking to a panel of experts for the morning and then visit another center for more data collecting in the afternoon. Then its a major brain dump onto our computers, battery charging, file downloading, etc in the late afternoon. Hopefully we'll get an opportunity to do some souvenir shopping (or maybe another trip to Arima!) ;)

Day 5 - Kobe

I didn't get much sleep last night. Tried to download and backup video and picture files from the company's video camera.

WHAT A NIGHTMARE.

I swear, I will never buy a JVC video camera. The software hung my MAC when I tried to install it the first time. Then when I tried to backup files onto the computer, it crashed my computer AGAIN the 2nd and 3rd time I tried... I ended up manually dragging the files from the stupid thing onto my desktop at 2am!

So I woke up really groggy but was able to drag my butt down to The Terrace for buffet breakfast. I was the usual can't-make-up-my-mind-between-Japanese-or-Western-breakfast, so I had a boiled egg, miso soup, rice, fruit, hashbrowns, tomatoes, and stewed vegetables. I would have liked to have a Japanese breakfast but N isn't too fond of fish in the morning :(

This morning was good. The weather was cooler but the sun peeped out once in awhile to give us a good shine. Our research went well this morning and really gave us some great insights. I'll have to write them all down tomorrow so I can bring it back to my team.

We had lunch with M and then headed to Arima Onsen -- the oldest hot spring area in Japan. Arima hot springs are rare worldwide ones containing lots of minerals and natural ingredients. There are 7 ingredients, except sulfur spring and acid spring, out of 9 main ingredients (simple hot spring water, carbon dioxide spring water, hydrogen carbonate spring water, chloride water, sulfate water, ferruginous water, sulfur water, acid water, and radioactive water) designated as ones to be included for medical treatment. You can read more here.

After 2 and a half hours of hot spring soaking, saunas, and hot stone back treatments, we walked away from the building in a daze -- strolling down the walkway feeling relaxed, refreshed, with baby soft skin!

We wandered into a few souvenir shops that were still open and spent some money. Hungry, we entered a local izakaya and enjoyed fresh tomato, ume onigiri, gyoza, enoki and bacon wraps, and of course some green tea :)

Sigh.. I wanna go back!

Day 4 - Kobe

After only 5 hours of sleep (I had to unpack and steam iron my clothes), I woke up groggy in my comfortable bed (which I successfully turned the sheets and pillows into a fort) at 6:30am. I got dressed, and met N at the restaurant for some breakfast buffet. 2500 Yen later, I wasn't feeling too well so I went back to my room to pick up some meds.... but I couldn't open my door!

After 15 minutes I got a new card key and went down to the lobby to meet up with our client.

Today was good... we did our research and got some good stuff. The day ended early and I was hoping we could do some sightseeing or souvenir shopping but no such luck. N and I went over our material and made some notes while I tried to figure out how to transfer our video and pictures to my Mac.

We had Korean food for dinner, sharing everything, and we both retired to our rooms..

Tomorrow is another full day and a trip to Rokko - Arima Onsen!!!!!

Day 3 - Tokyo to Kobe

On the trains I was AMAZED at how things had changed since I was last here. On the JR trains, there are now announcements in Japanese AND English, and a couple of digital displays above the doors explaining what the next station was. I was really surprised...

N and I trained to Shinjuku to tackle Takashimaya and Tokyu Hands. I knew exactly where that was and how to get there as if I was just there yesterday. The only thing that had changed was that the construction on the road was finished, leaving a nice black and even asphalt.

We spent the afternoon bugging salespeople and sneaking video and photo. I'm surprised we didn't get caught!

Time flew so quickly that we realized we had to rush to the airport! It was almost 6pm and we had 1 hour to train to Shinagawa, pick up our laptops from the lockers, then train to Hamamatsuchou, transfer to the monorail to Haneda, pick up our luggage at Takyubin, then rush to the check-in counters in ... 1 hour :P It took 15 minutes to get to Shinagawa so we were in a bit of panic (hahahahaha)... We were 2 girls running around like chickens with our heads cut off.

We made it to the check-in counter (after nearly knocking a kid down with his grandma) at 7:15pm. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 7:55pm. We had 20 minutes to eat our Beef Curry, then rushed to the security gate. We were the last ones to board the plane! :P

An hour later we were in Osaka Kansai. We grabbed our luggage and rushed outside to take Bus 6 to San-no-miya. The baggage guy took our luggage, gave us our baggage claim ticket, and we boarded the bus in a rush, not realizing we hadn't paid for our boarding tickets yet!

The driver rejected us and waved for us to go back and buy a ticket! So we ran from the bus to the ticket machine, paid 1800 yen each, and ran onto the bus again!

An hour later we arrived in San-no-miya, hailed a taxi and got to our hotel at almost 11pm.

What an adventure! ;)

Day 1 & Day 2 - Tokyo

Day 1

I really can't believe it. I'm back...

It's been... what -- 6 years now and I'm finally back in Japan! But this time on a business trip (with 1 week vacation tagged on at the end) :)

I arrived in Tokyo Narita, Sunday afternoon and found myself experiencing a bit of ...something. Culture shock? Return culture shock? Culture shock reversed? I really don't know what you'd call it but it was the strangest feeling -- one I've never experienced before. Here I was with a really heavy and huge luggage, my laptop, and the company's video camera -- bogged down with all this stuff and kinda wishing I had a driver come pick me up.

I went up to the phone rental counters and rented a SIM card to use in my 3G phone at about 100 Yen per day, free incoming calls, and 90 Yen a minute outgoing domestic calls. It sounded like a good deal so I went with it. The idea of not having 2 phones to deal with was refreshing so after signing the contract, I walked away knowing I was now fully "connected".. ;)

I arrived at around 2:30 / 3:00pm and it was already almost 4pm after picking up my luggage and getting the SIM. I had to figure out how to get to my next destination.

I took the Narita Express to Tokyo and transfered to a local line for Shinagawa. Waiting on the platform, the memories came flooding into my head. I remember standing on the same platform many times before. I remember the smell of the train, the seats, the roughness of the pavement, the faded yellow markers -- even the uniforms the station attendants were wearing brought a smile back to my face.

It was strange but familiar -- distant but at the same time welcoming. I thought to myself, "Was I really here? Did I really live here for 3 years? Why did I leave? Could I do it again if I had the chance?"

The train came and I hopped on as best I could, dragging my clothes in a purple Samsonite. I sat on the cushioned seats and made sure none of my items were in the way. I heard a kid ask his dad why he couldn't go traveling by himself like I was. His dad explained to him that I must be coming home from studying in University abroad and that his time will come. The words entered my brain so effortlessly -- I understood every Japanese word... and surprisingly, I felt a wave of comfort.

It was raining (ugh) as I arrived at Shinagawa station (still feeling like my cold was coming back to haunt me after a full 8 hour day of a 2 shot-photoshoot the day before), I was praying that the rain wouldn't make me even more sick.

I knew the hotel wasn't far away and only 5 minutes by foot but I just didn't feel like lugging everything around and getting wet at the same time, so I waited for a taxi at the のりば and was on my way to the hotel in 10 minutes.

Sitting in the taxi came another flood of memories. I smiled at the immaculate seat covers, the driver's clean pressed shirt and dress pants, and his white gloves. There's so much I took for granted when I was living here...

The bell-girl (?) took my baggage and I checked in. I had to meet my colleague from Eindhoven for dinner at 7pm so I had a half hour to kill. I read the hotel guide books, like I always do, to see what the hotel I was staying at had to offer, then dragged my sick self down to meet her.

We left the hotel and found a quaint Japanese restaurant -- my first meal back in Japan! I had the tofu salad, plum o-chazuke, and shared the maguro carpaccio with N. Thank goodness for the o-chazuke -- it was warm, filling and SO good.

We left the restaurant soon after and after excusing myself crawled up to my room. I had a double-pack bubble bath (my first real bubble bath in over a year!!!), made myself some houji tea, watched the men's gymnastic pommel horse olympics and fell asleep at 11pm.

Day 2

N and I met up at 9am for some buffet breakfast -- of which I couldn't really decide if I wanted western or japanese, so I took a bit of both with LOTS of fruit. No need to worry about how clean the fruit here is in Japan, like I do in HK and China. So of course I had 2 big servings of fruit, miso soup, and some pickled plums. I had some sticky rice of course and a serving of stewed vegetables -- SO YUM!!!

We went to Sugamo and walked along the road where many elderly visit. There's a shrine there that the elderly go to worship a specific god who will heal any ailments they may have. They wet a towel with water and pour the water over the head of the statue. Then they use the towel to wash the area where they have pain. The god understands where the pain is and will heal and release the pain.

So N and I decided to do like the Romans and after paying 100 Yen for a towel, stood in line with all the other elderly Japanese waiting to get our hands on this statue.

We made some video, took some pictures and N bought some souvenirs. We made our way down the street to see what type of stores and products were being sold to these elderly people.

It's N's first time in Japan and everything she encountered opened my eyes again to what I had just accepted as the norm. I knew I missed Japan but I was just starting to realize why...