land of the rising sun

my boss loves department stores. he says that being in a department store can rejuvenate him. make him feel better, more alive. i used to be a shopper (there truly is something to retail therapy). but i gave it up.... (mostly). it was becoming too much of a problem, too expensive. and to be honest, i tired of the continual accumulation of "stuff". so even though department stores don't restore my sense of well being, as they do for him, i can understand the sentiment. because that is exactly how i feel about traveling.

for as long as i can remember, i have always had a significant amount of wanderlust.

sometimes i travel for fun, sometimes i travel for work. in either case, i love every opportunity to see the variant corners of the globe as well as all the diversity those accompanying cultures have to offer.

this past july, i had the opportunity to travel to japan for work. my boss and i went for 9 days. because of the nature of our travels, we ended up in tokyo, kyoto, and sapporo. it was nothing less than a whirlwind adventure.

day 1
there was no time on this particular trip for much relaxation. we were working, after all, and we had a substantial list of things to accomplish...

we arrived in tokyo on a tuesday afternoon at about 4:00 pm. after passing through customs, we took an hour taxi ride into the city to our hotel in the ginza district. after literally dropping our bags in our rooms, we headed out into the dark humidity in search of the train station. the streets were filled with people. most everyone had a walking stick umbrella hanging on one arm... a scene i'd never seen the likes of before.

i think now is an appropriate time to talk about the weather. which, by all counts, was hot. HUMID and hot. uncomfortable even for me. my boss hates any thermometer reading over 63 degrees farenheit, so this was absolutely miserable for him. but he was a trooper.

once we got to the train station and found the ticket counter for the shinkanzen bullet train to kyoto, we communicated the best we could to get tickets for thursday morning. despite a significant language barrier, we managed to get the information we needed and walked back to the hotel. once there, i cranked up the a/c (something i rarely do in hotels) and finally went to sleep. i had told my boss that he couldn't sleep at all on the flight over. so by the time we finally got back to the hotel for the night, we had been up for a straight 24 hours... at which point, one thing is painfully clear. i'm not as resilient as i used to be with time change.

day 2
tokyo. we ate breakfast in the hotel. i never did get used to the food. i'm all for trying new things, but i prefer to do that when i have some idea of what it is... it would probably have helped to have a culinary interpreter, but that was not our luxury. the japanese eat all sorts of interesting things for breakfast. noodles and fish, soup, etc. i was lucky to find frosted flakes, a couple of slices of bread and some peanut butter.

we took advantage of being able to use the metro.. this was something new for my boss. he loved it. i'm glad, because it's way easier to cover distances underground.

in many japanese restaurants, they have plastic molds of their food displayed in the window. i think it was supposed to help with identification. whatever the purpose, i didn't find them the least bit appetizing. so, we stopped at a hotel and had lunch.

for dinner, we walked up and down the street. my boss was even more weary of the food than i was. we ended up at the hotel again. i got spaghetti. it seemed the most harmless of all the options. it came with an egg on it that looked like a large white gelatinous eye. disgusting. turns out, they put eggs on everything.

later that day, we ended up in a high rise building. while looking out the window, we saw a park below that looked like it had been plucked right out of the 1800's. it had wood buildings with traditional japanese architecture and a wide expanse of japanese gardens and gazebos. the juxtaposition of that with the contemporary city of tokyo built around it was remarkable. the contrast of old and new. a concept that is so integral in the project we are working on over there.
please excuse the wardrobe selection... it was certainly not japan fashion week for me.
day 3
tokyo. my boss has several blisters on his feet so we had to walk a little slower. found lunch at hard rock cafe. hey, don't judge.

day 4
shinkansen bullet train to kyoto.

kyoto was absolutely beautiful. between the quintessential japanese architecture, trees dripping with moss, and the occasional geisha, it was nearly magical. and it was my favorite city out of the 3 we saw. this place seemed to encompass all the tradition and grace of the japanese people.

day 5
kyoto... same packed schedule as all the days before. same humidity and heat. same magical landscape.

day 6
kyoto. since my boss had reached the end of his rope with the blisters on the "bloody stumps" that were his feet, the hotel offered him a limousine to the clinic to get help. i found really yummy bread in the hotel and that was pretty much what i had been eating for the last day and a half. that, and water.

after a ridiculous amount of walking, we found a department store. i was glad for 2 reasons. the first reason was because i know that department stores lift my boss's spirits and i needed him to be on his A game. the second reason was because he got to buy a new pair of shoes. (which were not the italian leather he had so desperately hoped, but were actually made in china... hilarious.)
day 7
flight from osaka to sapporo. we flew a japanese airline. the efficiency and graciousness of the flight crew was astounding. japanese people in general are overwhelmingly gracious, which i never tired of. i loved that while on the bullet train, there was a girl pushing a snack cart up and down the train. when she would get to the door connecting our car with the one in front of us, she would turn around to us and bow before pushing the cart through the next train. loved it.

sapporo looked more northern-european than the 2 cities we had been to previously. since sapporo is one of the farthest north cities in japan, it is like the park city of japan and their winter sport destination.

after settling in the hotel, we set out to find dinner. (are you sensing a theme?) since sapporo is known for it's ramen noodles, and i wasn't going to leave japan without having tried them, we found a place and ordered a bowl for each of us. ok, so it wasn't my favorite, but it was great to try it. because let's be honest, even the mcdonalds looked shifty over there.

day 8
sapporo. we had only 1 day in sapporo. in the morning, we grabbed a taxi at the hotel and set off to find the site for the building we are working on. because of the significant language barrier, combined with the fact that we were looking for a field (and not an actual building since it has yet to be built), it took us a while to get where we wanted. but we eventually found it. when we did, my boss stayed in the taxi, and i ran behind a stand of trees to see the site. its one of the most rewarding aspects of my job. to see a plot of ground covered in undergrowth turn into a beautiful landscaped building.

at our next stop, i was taking pictures of a caterpillar that my boss happened upon. while i was looking through the pictures i had taken, a gigantic dragon fly flew up in front of my face. i did what anyone would do. i screamed. there was an older japanese couple who looked at me, clearly startled by my outburst. my boss turned to me and said, "those two people survived two world wars only to be finished off by you." hilarious. he certainly is funny.

day 9
going home. flight from sapporo to tokyo. 6 hours in the tokyo narita airport delta sky room. flight home with a connection in portland. in portand, our next flight was delayed by 3 hours. (this is the point when you just want to be home). but eventually we did get there.

one of my favorite quotes is by T.S. Eliot:
"we shall not cease from exploration,
and the end of all our exploring
will be to arrive where we started
and know the place for the first time"

i love the perspective of seeing other places and then having a better understanding of where i come from. and as much as i love to go abroad? i also do love home.