My Trip to Japan (Lots of pictures)
Feb 25, 2024 17:29:08 GMT -5
drocknut, quartz, and 14 more like this
Post by Son Of Beach on Feb 25, 2024 17:29:08 GMT -5
Recently had the chance to visit Japan for about two weeks, so I thought I would share some pictures for those that are interested.
Japan coastal countryside on landing
First dinner, I was feeling pretty grumpy and overwhelmed at this point. Finished my beer and food and promptly went to bed....what a party pooper lol.
Next morning (Saturday) was better, had a chance to walk around some and get my first try of Ramen...for breakfast
Went to this huge bookstore and found a little rock/gem shop next to it. I spy something familiar...
More breakfast Ramen, you'll see a theme here .
The girls wanted to shop, so we took a tour of the areas busy shopping district.
Next day, they received nearly 12 inches of snow.
Community center for the area. They have periodic meetings and everyone brings trash and recyclables here for pickup.
Luckily the snow stopped and the roads were cleared enough that we could make it to our first destination.
Roadside ramen, I tried ramen every chance I could get lol
Breakfast the next day, really tasty meal.
Figured out this is where the spring water is stored and heated.
There was sulphur type smell and your skin really did feel better afterwards.
Another shopping district after leaving the Onsen.
Probably the best ramen of the trip came from this tiny little 10 seat place, it was incredibly rich.
This is a local raman factory we stopped by on the way back. They had all kinds of noodles in their little shop.
My GF parents have an apple orchard and vineyard, so we got to have homemade apple juice out of the pantry any time we wanted.
Huge Sardonyx vase they had. They also had some local obsidian I forget to add..
Found out as we were leaving it was no pictures allowed, so I felt pretty stupid afterwards, it's kind of farmers market type store. Eggs are high quality and very inexpensive
More proof that I kind eat more than one kind of noodle. We visited a little Japanese/Italian cafe that had incredibly good pasta.
This range of mountains is called the Alps.
Matsumoto Castle
Her dad loved listening to Jazz and sipping on his whisky down here. I found out Jazz is really big in Japan.
Apparently this was a hot bed for old tools, like some kind of archeological dig site.
The had a world map of all the world sites where Obsidian was found. I was surprised there were so few locations and more interesting to me, how it seems to be found only in active volcano zones?
Her mom had a cousin who had his own Soba restaurant.
Clear sunny day with no plans so I took a walk around the local orchards. They have fans for cooling, and speakers for announcements.
Her dad's brother was a monk at a Monastery near Mt. Fuji. We went to pay our respects and have a small ceremony out behind the temple.
The second Onsen we visited just north of Mt. Fuji. This place was really nice, felt like I was on a honeymoon or luxury vacation.
One of nine courses for dinner....I did eat the sea urchin, I did not eat the sea cucumber lol
In the morning, there was a huge spread of food, buffet style
Somewhere along the way I found a little flier for another rock shop, so I convinced them to swing on by. This was more of a museum/jewelry store, some absolutetly stunning displays of work. It was really hard to take good pictures with the lighting, cases and mirror everywhere.
Ice cream/Creamery so fresh and tasty. I'm stuffed at this point...
Despite living in the country, space is still something of a premium. I thought it was neat how he tucked his van in every night. That is a tight fit.
Views from the last morning, goodbye Japan.
Seattle with the Olympic mountains on landing.
This is the flight path from Seattle to Narita, which is just west east of Tokyo. It was a very long flight, (9.5 on the way there, 8 on the way back) which not much land to scope out on the way.
Have you ever seen that vintage video of a bridge bending and turning until it all falls apart? The bridge in this location is where it happened. The Tacoma Narrows. Anyway, I thought it was neat...
Japan coastal countryside on landing
After nearly 10.5 hours to get out of the airport we took a 2 hour bus shuttle to Tokyo.
Our view from the room, we stayed in Shinjuku City, which I found out later is where most of the governmental buildings are.
The one directly across are the office buildings for example.
First dinner, I was feeling pretty grumpy and overwhelmed at this point. Finished my beer and food and promptly went to bed....what a party pooper lol.
Next morning (Saturday) was better, had a chance to walk around some and get my first try of Ramen...for breakfast
Went to this huge bookstore and found a little rock/gem shop next to it. I spy something familiar...
Woke up the next day at like 4AM, poked my head out the window and noticed there was nobody on street, except for a couple of guys that kept walking across this intersection in the rain.
Eventually figured out they were recording a music video and I asked to see their footage. Was pretty cool in hi definition, much better than this picture.
More breakfast Ramen, you'll see a theme here .
The girls wanted to shop, so we took a tour of the areas busy shopping district.
Another 4 hour bus ride from Tokyo to the nearest bus station.
My girlfriends parents lived within eye shot of an active volcano, Mt. Asama. Take note that there is no smoke coming from volcano when we got there.
Next day, they received nearly 12 inches of snow.
They live in a kind a farming agricultural village, and everyone is expected to pull their weight in keeping things running, so we were all on snow shovel duty.
This is only about 4-5 hours of snow, we did this a few more times.
Community center for the area. They have periodic meetings and everyone brings trash and recyclables here for pickup.
Luckily the snow stopped and the roads were cleared enough that we could make it to our first destination.
Roadside ramen, I tried ramen every chance I could get lol
Our stay was at a place called an "Onsen". It's like a hotel/resort where mountain spring water is pumped in and heated.
There is a public bath and we had a private bath.
Breakfast the next day, really tasty meal.
Figured out this is where the spring water is stored and heated.
There was sulphur type smell and your skin really did feel better afterwards.
Another shopping district after leaving the Onsen.
Probably the best ramen of the trip came from this tiny little 10 seat place, it was incredibly rich.
So I made the mistake of running my mouth and saying that I wanted to cook one night, maybe something more "American" for everyone.
Apparently that was passed on to her parents and we stopped by this amazing little Wagyu beef shop. I really can't explain the quality they put into the selection and preparation of their meat.
If you are curious, roughly 1500 yen equals 10 USD. From what I could put together, they had purchased around 90$ in steak that was mine to mess up.
This is a local raman factory we stopped by on the way back. They had all kinds of noodles in their little shop.
To my suprise, the volcano was no longer quiet. I started asking around if any one else noticed that, and apparently it happens all the time. OK!
I found out later, you can either rent or purchase these vending machines and put what ever you want in them.
This one happened to be apple products, but we saw some with rice and eggs as well.
My GF parents have an apple orchard and vineyard, so we got to have homemade apple juice out of the pantry any time we wanted.
So these are the steaks, 200g each, just under a 1/2lb each. Found out from the butcher was like a shoulder steak, I can work with that.
They basically had 2 stove top camper style burners and a couple of large skillets, so I had to play with the heat some to figure out to do it.
I nailed it though, one of the best steak dinners I've ever cooked and better yet didn't fumble dinner. The high quality meat made the cooking predictable, which probably saved me.
Huge Sardonyx vase they had. They also had some local obsidian I forget to add..
Found out as we were leaving it was no pictures allowed, so I felt pretty stupid afterwards, it's kind of farmers market type store. Eggs are high quality and very inexpensive
More proof that I kind eat more than one kind of noodle. We visited a little Japanese/Italian cafe that had incredibly good pasta.
This range of mountains is called the Alps.
Matsumoto Castle
We stayed a day up in her parent's mountain cottage. A cozy little sleepy place in the woods.
Her dad loved listening to Jazz and sipping on his whisky down here. I found out Jazz is really big in Japan.
I just liked this picture. They call these K trucks, from what I could gather it mostly used for all the local travel or working in the fields or orchards. We didn't use this while I was there, but many people own these.
There was an Obisidian Musuem that they wanted to take me to knowing that I loved all things rocks.
Apparently this was a hot bed for old tools, like some kind of archeological dig site.
The had a world map of all the world sites where Obsidian was found. I was surprised there were so few locations and more interesting to me, how it seems to be found only in active volcano zones?
Her mom had a cousin who had his own Soba restaurant.
Clear sunny day with no plans so I took a walk around the local orchards. They have fans for cooling, and speakers for announcements.
I'm actually terrible at gifts and I didn't know what to give them. I wanted to give them something from Michigan, but didn't have much that came with me, so I had small pile of my top 50 little rocks I found in MI and bought a little bowl in Tokyo to put them in. I think they really liked them, and the gifted them to some of their neighbors as well.
Her dad's brother was a monk at a Monastery near Mt. Fuji. We went to pay our respects and have a small ceremony out behind the temple.
The second Onsen we visited just north of Mt. Fuji. This place was really nice, felt like I was on a honeymoon or luxury vacation.
One of nine courses for dinner....I did eat the sea urchin, I did not eat the sea cucumber lol
In the morning, there was a huge spread of food, buffet style
Somewhere along the way I found a little flier for another rock shop, so I convinced them to swing on by. This was more of a museum/jewelry store, some absolutetly stunning displays of work. It was really hard to take good pictures with the lighting, cases and mirror everywhere.
Mt. Fuji in the distance.
Eh, you can barely see it, but I spotted a goat/deer. Thought it was a boar at first. Here is a picture of a Japanese Serow
I ended up reading two and half books when I was out there. Amazing what a little down time, language barrier, and no internet will do for your brain.
Anyway, I thought it was neat how this 50 year old book had bookmarked itself over time at chapter starts.
Sorry for the excess pictures, but it was hard to leave some things out. I have some thoughts about the culture that I'd like to share later.
I guess spammers can achieve something beneficial after all 
I guess spammers can achieve something beneficial after all 
