As hard as it was to send Johnny off to Japan, it afforded John and me the opportunity to travel there for a visit. I would not have chosen Japan as one of my top priority travel destinations, but it was a pleasant surprise. Actually more than pleasant, it was wonderful. Johnny was teaching in Hirado, a small island town at the uttermost west point of Japan, which gave us an idea of rural Japanese life. It was beautiful, and the people were very nice. On top of that, Johnny knew all the best restaurants, and I've never eaten such delicious food! I thought I would be politely avoiding things such as octopus and seaweed, but out of our whole week there I only found one dish that I ate to be less than wonderful. On top of that, I had my first cup of coffee ever there, thanks to their incredible cream. At The Bay Leaf restaurant, the owner, whom Johnny had befriended, 
gave us a complimentary serving of coffee. In order not to be rude, I felt obligated to drink my cup. I proceeded to add as much cream and sugar as available in order to be able to stomach it. It was delicious! From then on I didn't drink any more coffee, but I added the cream to every cup of tea I had.
gave us a complimentary serving of coffee. In order not to be rude, I felt obligated to drink my cup. I proceeded to add as much cream and sugar as available in order to be able to stomach it. It was delicious! From then on I didn't drink any more coffee, but I added the cream to every cup of tea I had.We also visited Kyoto, the cultural (and ancient) capital of Japan, and the incredible bamboo forest. It was timeless, and I felt so small, with the straight shafts of green shooting up to a sky you could barely see for all the leaves at the top which rustled with the wind. The sound made it easy to believe, as I thought the ancients may have, that there were spirits in the forest. 
We also saw a golden palace situated in a lovely garden and by a small body of water. It was easy to feel a calm serenity, even though there were seemingly scores of noisy schoolchildren in yellow caps surrounding me. Ahh, the age-old field trip!
From there we made it to Tokyo. What a contrast with our previous stops. Huge buildings everywhere, every square inch put to use. But it was still very beautiful, in a busy sort of way, and cleaner than I expected. Since Johnny had to leave us early, we were left there for a day by ourselves without anyone to translate and specific instructions from him to find a rotating sushi bar. It was like a scavenger hunt and charades rolled into one. But we succeeded. I'm so glad we did. We were greeted by the ubiquitous "irashaimase!" as we entered, and just stood on the fringe observing in order to figure out how it worked. 
Eventually we sat on stool at a counter which had a sort of a conveyor belt that went around the preparation area in the middle where the chefs stood and worked their magic. As the items passed by in front of us, we chose whatever and however many items we wanted. We were both cautious, but each with different reasons. Knowing how expensive sushi can be in the States, John used restraint. I did as well, but more because I'm not that fond of sushi. After we finished, we followed suit with our fellow patrons by counting our plates and telling the person at the cash register how many we had and they charged us by plate. The total? A whopping $12! John wanted to go back and eat more! We then made our way back to our hotel room, the doorway to which hit John at about the middle of his forehead. 
We watched Japanese TV one last night, which was hard to give up. It's hilarious! Just imagine a chimpanzee hosting Who Wants to be a Millionaire. As a matter of fact, almost every program has a chimpanzee in it. Strange but very funny...
Eventually we sat on stool at a counter which had a sort of a conveyor belt that went around the preparation area in the middle where the chefs stood and worked their magic. As the items passed by in front of us, we chose whatever and however many items we wanted. We were both cautious, but each with different reasons. Knowing how expensive sushi can be in the States, John used restraint. I did as well, but more because I'm not that fond of sushi. After we finished, we followed suit with our fellow patrons by counting our plates and telling the person at the cash register how many we had and they charged us by plate. The total? A whopping $12! John wanted to go back and eat more! We then made our way back to our hotel room, the doorway to which hit John at about the middle of his forehead. 
We watched Japanese TV one last night, which was hard to give up. It's hilarious! Just imagine a chimpanzee hosting Who Wants to be a Millionaire. As a matter of fact, almost every program has a chimpanzee in it. Strange but very funny...Our flight departed on a Saturday. We headed for the train station to catch a train to the airport, and I was surprised to see the number of people walking around downtown (our downtown LA is pretty quiet on the weekends) and the station itself was packed. Now I understand what they mean when they say that Tokyo is one of the most densely populated cities in the world. There were people everywhere. We arrived at the airport early, having given ourselves plenty of time for mistakes. We spent the time looking around and then having our last Japanese meal. It was actually the least memorable of the trip, but I do remember the drink I ordered. 
It was called a cream soda, but we had learned from Johnny earlier that it's nothing like our cream soda. Which is not a bad thing when it tastes like this did. Although it was an eerie bright green, it tasted like a Big Red Float. Not what you'd expect. What a fitting ending for a visit to a country we didn't expect to like that much but ended up being pleasantly surprised at every turn. It now tops some of our fondest vacation memories.
It was called a cream soda, but we had learned from Johnny earlier that it's nothing like our cream soda. Which is not a bad thing when it tastes like this did. Although it was an eerie bright green, it tasted like a Big Red Float. Not what you'd expect. What a fitting ending for a visit to a country we didn't expect to like that much but ended up being pleasantly surprised at every turn. It now tops some of our fondest vacation memories. 
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