Yokohama

A few days before I left, Julia messaged me and asked me if I had some time on Thursday morning. She said it was `super important`. (Forgive the quotes, I can`t seem to figure out Japanese keyboard functions). I agreed to reserve some time on the morning of my departure for my dear friend, thinking it was a last waffle breakfast or walk at the arboretum. As I sat waiting for her at our regular coffee house in the city, I felt the accumulated stress in my neck and shoulders as bad as it has been in a while. I had just turned in my apartment keys and dropped off my trekking gear at a friend`s so I didn`t have to lug it around Japan when Julia surprised me with my gift of a 2-hour facial & massage. She walked me into the massage room and said, `See you in 2 hours!` It was heavenly, melting away my stress like a popsicle in the hot Jeju sun and preparing me for travel.

But enough about my awesome gift, I`m in Japan! It was an easy 2-hour Korean Air flight over the Sea of Japan/East Sea - depending on who you ask - and an easy 1 1/2 hour bullet train ride to the train station to meet my Yokohama host, Sachiko. Sachiko stayed with my mom last year on her 5th visit to America and extended the offer that I was welcome to stay with her if I ever came back to Japan. Her and her family have been graciously hosting me and showing me around Yokohama for the past 3 days. Tomorrow I will head out solo down to the famed city Kyoto on the slowest trains possible, making it a day of air conditioned train rides and train station food. Actually, that sounds heavenly. It`s hot. We`ve been walking an average of 5 hours a day and sweating continuously. Sachiko has packed about as much sightseeing as possible into our 3 days together and I`m grateful for the chance to blindly follow and not make decisions. As safe, clean, and easy as it is to travel in Japan, it`s still Japan and I know about 5 phrases of Japanese, none of which will get me where I need to go in a pinch. As for train station food, I`ve had good luck so far. I have yet to have a bad meal in Japan. In fact, I may like the food more than Korean food! Well, at least the same. Japan is a very expensive country, especially when you`re converting from Korean won, so I`m on a tight budget and train station food fits the bill nicely. I`ll be staying in a hostel, which I haven`t done since NZ a few years ago, but it seems clean and quiet and also fits into the budget. Thanks, Lonely Planet!

Tonight was my favorite Japanese experience so far...a rolling sushi restaurant! You sit at a booth and single plates of sushi, usually 2 pieces, roll past your table. You can pick up whatever you want and all dishes are 100 Yen ($1.25ish). When you`re finished eating, the plates are counted by sliding them one by one into a dish receptacle at the end of your table and every 5 plates an animated game comes on to your tables`s computer (yes, each table has a computer where you can order any dish to come sliding to your table side) where you can win a free dish or little toy. It was so much fun! And the sushi, which I can only eat selectively, was delectable. It felt like a very Japanese experience. We were joined by Sachiko`s daughter-in-law and 9 year old grandson from Tokyo and my gracious hosts paid for our dinner. Between the 5 of us we had over 50 plates! They kept asking me to eat more and try everything, but I can only eat so much sushi before I start to feel a little sick. I didn`t think I was a picky eater, but there were actually a lot of dishes I couldn`t eat. Or maybe I just didn`t want to...

Tomorrow morning I`m going to the train station at 6:50am to start my long journey south. I`ve been told it will take 6-8 hours with various transfers to reach Kyoto Station. There`s a screaming deal on train tickets that`s only available during school holidays, like right now. It cost 1\4 the price of a 7 day JR Rail Pass with the catch that you can`t take any high-speed trains. That`s $140 vs almost $500 to travel at a leisurely pace. Well worth it to me. And I get to see Mt. Fuji from the train! Woohoo!