In June 1994 I was fortunate to take a solo trip to Japan. The exchange rate was roughly 100 yen = one dollar. (At that time I had not envisioned creating this webpage. 1994 was before the web was widely known. All research for the trip was via travel books.)

Arrival in Tokyo

I arrive at Narita Airport on Canadian Airlines on a warm humid Wednesday afternoon, June 1, 1994. It's about 5:30pm, and I need to get through customs, over to Terminal 2 to stop at TIC (Tourist Information Center), and ride trains to Iidabashi Station by 9pm to make my youth hostel reservation.

Train tickets are purchased from vending machines. The TIC told me to buy a $11.40 ticket. I thought it would be "intuitively obvious," but it wasn't -- I didn't see any prices, just a bunch of buttons. I summoned help, and then I saw that prices appear on the buttons as enough money is inserted -- so it was intuitively obvious after all!

Before getting on the train I stop at a Kiosk to try my first Japanese: "Biru, Kudasi." The lady replies in perfect English, "Do you want a small or large?"

A few minutes later I'm on a commuter train (something like BART) kicking back in my Nike Air sandals and sipping a beer. The Japanese, however, are less excited about the train ride: Most are sleeping with bobbing heads. It is already dark. Japan does not switch to Daylight Savings Time, so it gets dark about 7pm, and gets light about 4am.

I transfer trains without error, reaching the hostel in about 90 minutes. The hostel is on the 18th and 19th floor of a new building -- sort of a "Hyatt Regency with bunk beds." From the big Japanese bath I could look out the 19th floor window. Then I take a walk and see the $8 cabbage and $20 watermelons in a store.

During my week in Tokyo I became a regular on the Yamamote line, and on buying tickets from machines that I could not read:

Visit to NEC Super-Tower

Donning slacks, shirt and tie (and Nike Air sandals), I make the pilgrimage to NEC headquarters, the "NEC Super Tower." The 13 floor open lobby is impressive, and the 6 information girls direct me to the 37th floor observation area. The 16th floor has a workout gym with lifecycles and other aerobic equipment which "play an important role to insure the vitality of all workers."

That gives me an idea how the Roseville site could improve the health of all workers: No, not a gym. I was thinking of replacing our cafeteria with a McDonalds and Dairy Queen. OK, it's a nice enough building, for sure.

Since I'm already dressed nice -- and have no intention of doing so again during this vacation -- I proceed to the Sumitomo and NS skyscrapers in West Shinjuku. Again both are impressive, with open lobbies up 30+ floors. Everyone in West Shinjuku is wearing a suit.

In the afternoon I slip into a t-shirt and walk to the other side of the tracks to East Shinjuku. Here the atmosphere is more like a county fair with merchants hawking their goods and people are dressed however they want. There is a big-screen TV on a building at Shinjuku Square, and Kirin Beer has a promotion giving away free beer while beer cans dance and their 30-second commercial repeats endlessly. Some schoolgirls asked to interview me to practice English as a school assignment. (The girl in front had an eye patch on her left eye, which I did my best to digitally remove - thus the imperfect appearance. The big Kirin Beer is in the back on the right.)

Driving on the "wrong side of the road"

More about driving: Not once did I hear the obnoxiously loud bass-booming car stereos we hear in the U.S. -- even though these obnoxious stereos are manufactured in Japan! And apparently the fashion is to recline the seats way back. I saw a lot of younger drivers who were nearly laying down while driving.

Bullet Train Day - Takayama

Saturday June 4th I ride the shinkansen to Nagoya, then change to a train that follows a river gorge to Takayama. When I boarded the second train two Japanese ladies were sitting in my reserved seat. Since the reservation ticket is mostly in Japanese, I assumed I was wrong. (Wrong train, wrong train car, wrong day, or just wrong...) But no, I was right -- they had mis-read their reservation ticket, and moved across the isle.

The group in front of me had an extra bento ($11 train meal), so they gave it to me, and bought me a can of tea to go with it!

I noticed that when JR employees walked between train cars, they would bow as they entered the car, then turn around and bow as they left. This was like I learned in Tae Kwon Do of bowing in and out of the mat.

It was a clear sunny day, and scenery up the mountain was fantastic. I arrived at Takayama about 1:30pm.

I was only in Takayama a few minutes when two guys and a girl pass me walking the other way. One guy comes back asking if I mind if the girl practices her English with me. Why not? So for 1/2 hour Yoshie acted as my personal Takayama tour guide along the street of "old private houses." Then they took me out for "snow cone it a bowl." They worked for a Vinegar company that is trying to expand its U.S. market.

I spent the next two nights at Tensho-ji, an old temple that is now partially a hostel. It was on a hill on the edge of town surrounded by other temples and graveyards.

This was my first night sleeping on a Tatami floor and beanbag pillow. The floor mat and blanket were thick, making it a comfortable bed. (About 6 other guys slept in the room, while several girls slept in a room down the hall.)

The next day I rented a bicycle from Tensho-ji and headed into town. The bike was "girl-style" -- low bar to seat, and had a "sissy basket" on the handle-bars. In the U.S. I would not be caught dead on this bicycle, but here it is what everyone rode.

My first stop was the open market at Takayama-Jinya:

The watchband on my NEC-Lead watch had broken, So, in perfect Japanese, I asked the lady in the store across the street if she could recommend a place I could get this fixed. (Actually I didn't say a word -- I just showed her the broken watch and shrugged my shoulders.) I couldn't understand her directions, so she waved her hand for me to follow her, and started running down the street! She kept saying something over and over, and I was running behind her saying over and over, "Please don't run. It is not an emergency!" I can't imagine what people who saw this thought. Anyway, she led me to a watch shop that fixed the band in one minute for one dollar.

After walking through Takayama-Jinya (reconstructed 17th century government building) I bicycled to the other side of town to Hida Folk Village. This is a collection of old houses from the region which were dismantled and reconstructed on this hillside.

Here are school-kids crossing the famous Takayama Bridge:

The most surprising thing at the Folk Village was to see Jolt Cola in the vending machine! I thought Jolt was just for Silicon Valley computer nerds, and I don't see any nerds around here, ummm, so I had to buy one.

Oh, beer is sold in vending machines too, which came in handy many times:

While waiting at a red light on my bicycle two young guys in a new Jeep Cherokee pull up beside me and start laughing. I have no idea.

In the evening I hiked up the hill in Shiroyama-koen park. Now time for a good dinner. I had planned to try "san cai" (mountain vegetable dish) while in Takayama. In Tokyo restaurants can be identified by the imitation meals displayed outside. Not so in Takayama. I took a long evening walk, and did not even see a building I was sure was a restaurant. Sounds unbelievable, but I finally stopped in market to buy a pound cake and cookies for dinner.

Takayama is a small, remote tourist town without any manufacturing or professional work that I could see. Therefore I was surprised at the large number of young people driving expensive cars, equivalent to Infiniti and Lexus -- for example, as well as new 4-wheel drives, including Jeep Cherokees. Even stranger since you can bicycle across the town in 10 minutes. Also, about 70% of the cars were white, 20% black, 10% other. And most of the "other" was silver or gray.

Most of my trip I stayed in Youth Hostels. There is a misconception that these are places only for kids. I met several people over 30 from all parts of the world (a surprising number of whom were on several month world tour vacations). One of the guests was a 72 year old Japanese man who periodically hostels around Japan. We rode on the train together to Toyama the next day.

Eihei-Ji

 Eihei-ji is one of Soto Zen's two head temples. It is located deep in the mountains near the rugged west coast of Japan. The terrain is similar to Oregon's rainforests. It was founded in 1244 by Dogen Zenji.

This is both a functioning religious temple and popular tourist attraction. The buildings were incredible, and I was fascinated by the harmony chanting of the Buddhist Ceremony. (I purchased a cassette of the ceremonies if anyone is interested.) Having visited so many fake places such as Universal Studios, I had to keep in mind that what I was watching was real -- people's weddings and funerals. This was not a show. One of the times a monk bowed at me I felt a rush of emotion -- as if he knew my problems just by walking past.

Except for the temple, there was one main street lined with gift shops and a few blocks of houses. One of the houses was the hostel. No one spoke English, and there was only a few other guests -- all Japanese.

 I walked to the street with gift shops, but everything had closed at 5pm. Some shops still had their wares on the street, but there was no one in sight -- like Disneyland after closing or something. So I walked around and saw someone walk out of what looked like a house with a plastic grocery bag. Sure enough, it was a house with one room converted to a little store. For the second night I had cookies for dinner, and was thankful for it. ($1000 in my pocket, and I'm having cookies for dinner!)

Back at the hostel I had a 24-mat tatami room to myself. At 9:30 one young Japanese guy traveling by motorcycle joined me in the big lonely room. But he did not speak English.

The next morning I walked up a dirt road into the mountains, never seeing anyone else, and ignoring all the Kanji signs. They may have said, "Welcome to our beautiful mountain," or "Trespassers will be shot on sight." Since this was not U.S.A., I wasn't concerned. The road turned to a nice trail with ferns and other rainforest foliage.

On the bus a school boy perhaps age 9 got on, wrinkled his nose at me saying, "Gagin Kana," then sat across the aisle from me and kept staring at me. I pulled my camera and took his picture as he covered his face saying, "Iie, Iie." Here's the photo:

Nara

At noon I caught a train to Nara in time to visit Deer Park and see the Nara Great Buddha in the world's largest wooden building:

 The place was packed with school kids wearing uniforms.

 A teacher had a group of about 15 kids, 10 to 12 years old, lined up in four rows for a photo. As she was about to take the photo I walk beside her and took a photo. All the kids came running at me: "Hello, how are you?" "What is your name?" "How old are you?" The teacher then asked me to be in the photo so they would settle down:

This is also known as "Deer Park":

I spent the night in a hostel tucked in a neighborhood of exclusive homes, and had the best udon of my trip at a neighborhood noodle shop.

The hostel staff and most guests spoke English. My next destination was Koyasan, and by chance two girls from Cologne Germany (with good English) were also going there. And unlike me, they had bothered to get a train schedule. Here is their photo in Koyasan:

Koya-san

The German girls and I made the three hour train-changing trek to Koyasan. The trip includes a cable car ride up perhaps a 50% grade.

 We started at Okunion, a one mile stone walkway through a several hundred year old graveyard with several hundred thousand tombstones and monuments of former famous elders, Emperors, Shoguns, Samurai warriors, landlords, religious prophets and others. The sky turned dark and it started to drizzle -- perfect graveyard weather!

After visiting some more temples, the girls caught the last train to Nara, and I stayed at the Haryo-in Temple, part of the Shingon Mikkyo Buddhist sect.

All guests (three older Japanese couples and me) dined at the same time on the tatami floor neiling in front of a tray. Dinner was Shojin-ryori -- vegetarian food prepared without meat, fish, onions, or garlic. It has been the traditional food of monks for 1100 years. After dinner I sat in my robe in my small tatami room, drinking green tea and reading "The Teachings of Buddha" as rain tapped on the window.

At 6:30 the next morning I attended the Buddhist religious service. For 30 minutes we sat on our knees as the monks chanted and banged out rhythms. The closest I can compare it to is the dances of the American Indians, or the scene from "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" where they pulled out a guy's heart while it was still beating and showed it to him... anyway. The room was lit with about 100 lanterns on the ceiling and candles everywhere.

After the service we walked into the ceremony area, and the oldest monk had us bow over a table and tapped the back of our necks.

During breakfast (yes, I ate the raw egg) I talked with one of the guests about the ceremony. He told me that, just as Western religious ceremonies are often in Latin, the ceremony I witnessed was in the language of India, so the Japanese didn't understand any better than I did.

I told him it was interesting to me -- considering the isolation of Europe and Japan 1000 years ago -- that a 1000 year old graveyard would have granite headstones just as would a European graveyard. Where did the idea of granite headstones with carved epitaphs originate? He didn't know either.

Back to Tokyo

OK, I've been going for a week packing up each morning. All my clothes are dirty. I've left 1/2 my stuff in a locker in Tokyo Station. Time to "go home" to Tokyo, get organized, then maybe head north.

The trains took me to Osaka Station. But then to catch a Bullet Train to Tokyo, I had to take a subway to the Shin- Osaka Station. I ask the lady next to me on the subway which exit for Shin-Osaka. She says it will be the one after she gets off. She then tells me she is going to the Protestant Church near her stop and invites me. Why not?

We went up some stairs into a small room with an electronic keyboard and about 20 folding chairs. the white guy running it explains how he came to Japan 10 years ago to run away from his religious up-bringing, then eventually started the church. He invites me to stay for the 90 minute service. Ummm, well, ummm, no. So they say a quick prayer for me, and I walk the kilometer to Shin-Osaka station -- in light rain with bags in both arms and sweating.

I figure out which track is going to Tokyo, and jump on without reservations as the buzzer is sounding. I walk back to the non-reserved / no smoking section. Everyone is wearing a suit and has a leather briefcase, and there are only a few empty seats. I pick one, say "sumimasen," and sit down, wiping the sweat from my face and arms.

The guy has an English newspaper in front of him, so after about five minutes I say, "So, you must speak some English?" he says yes, and then asks about the NEC on my luggage. Turns out he is an assistant manager for NEC in Fuchu, so we discuss distributed processing, downsizing, etc for the entire three hour trip. (Excuse me, waiter? Two Jolt Colas please!)

When we arrive at Tokyo Station Hiro offers to call to make reservations for me, since I had mentioned that was a problem for me. OK, but first I needed something from my locker.

Problem #1: I couldn't locate the locker. The station is a confusing place. He reads the Kanji on the key tag, asks a few people, and find the locker.

Problem #2: The key doesn't work. Hiro tracks down a locker attendant, who gets my stuff from another location. Seems there is a three day limit on locker usage. I pay the attendant $15 and get my bag.

Problem #3: Hiro phones three places, but they are all booked. So he offers to let me stay at his place, the NEC housing in Fuchu! Sounds exciting to me. He calls to check with his wife, then we start the one hour ride to Fuchu from Tokyo Station.

From the Fuchu Station we took an NEC bus to his apartment. His wife arrived later with their baby, and we all went shopping for dinner. At the market I was surprised that a 6- pack of Kirin costs $15 -- twice in Japan as it does in the U.S. Imported Coors is cheaper at $11. An 11 pound bag of rice is an incredible $50!

Hiro explains that even the rice the U.S. sells to Japan cheap gets sold retail at Japanese prices. The U.S. sells barely above cost, so someone is skimming off some serious profit. Anyway, his wife fixes an excellent dinner, and I sleep well.

Hiro and I have stayed in touch, and he and his family have since moved to San Jose, California! In 1996 both our families rented an RV together, and vacationed in the Redwood Forest.

Kamakura - Great Buddha

For me the top symbols of Japan are Mount Fujii and the Great Buddha at Kamakura. Due to clouds I never did see Fujii, so I had to at least see the Buddha.

Kamakura is only a one hour train ride from Tokyo. It was interesting to stand at the Buddha, but Kamakura was not what I hoped. I expected a small village, but instead it was a crowded suburb of Tokyo. The sidewalks were narrow, and I kept getting stuck behind people who were walking at 1/2 speed.

Enough of Youth Hostels

Once back in Tokyo, I checked into the "Kimi Ryokan" near Ikebukuro Station. For $43/night I got a clean private 4 1/2 tatami (about 9 feet by 9 feet) room where I could unpack and leave stuff during the day. (U.S. readers note: No bathroom, no TV, no chair -- just a pad and blanket on the floor, and a small knee-high table.) I decided the trouble of packing and traveling a day each way to visit somewhere else was not worth the trouble. So I spent the remainder of my vacation in Tokyo.

Even within Tokyo it can take one hour to ride a train then subway to a destination.

For future reference: Twice I was told the best hostel in Japan is the Dochu-an in Sendai (a few hours north of Tokyo). Maybe next time.

Department Stores

Apparently the world's largest department store is the Ikebukuro branch of Seibu. (Here's a photo from the web:)

I arrived before 10am to experience the opening. First a girl comes to the door and talks for a few minutes welcoming the waiting customers to the store, bows a few times, then lets everyone in. Then the employees line the main isle and bow as we walk past.

Part of what makes the major train stations so confusing is the maze of underground shopping malls. Often an "Exit" is really just a tunnel into another underground array of shops.

While in the U.S. it is difficult to find someone to help you, in Japan there are information girls sitting in booths around the store. Although usually they were just sitting, they always came in pairs.

You did not have to go indoors to watch TV. Many of the intersections had TVs, such as this one playing music videos:

Ginza

First I visited the NEC Showroom at C&C Plaza. The exhibits fell into two categories: Exhibits for kids, and exhibits for adults who had a clue and spoke Japanese. Oh well.

Next I visited the "Nissan Showroom." It consisted of a small room with 3 cars (with the steering on the "wrong side") on display, a TV playing Nissan commercials, and two info girls who would give out new car brochures. How did this place get in the TIC info?

The only visit I recommend is to the Sony building. There are seven floors of exhibits ranging from high-definition TV, cellular phones, audio, and a futuristic 3-D movie. My favorite, however, was a 100-disk CD player loaded with a dozen "oldies" CDs. I sat for 45 minutes blasting oldies on the headphones while the two (always two) information girls kept looking at me. The only need I can imagine for two is so that one can keep smiling while the other one phones a guy who can actually answer the question. OK, a little joke.

Whenever I would pass a record store I would stop. Most had several CD players loaded with the latest CDs to listen to. My favorite store was "The Wave" in Roppongi, which had 6 floors of music.

I only purchased one music CD in Japan: Man on the Moon by R.E.M. ("Are you having fun? Are we losing touch?")

Harajuku

From Harajuku Station I walked down narrow Takeshita Street, which is lined with gift, jewelry, t-shirt, and eccentric fashion stores.

On Meiji Street some guys were passing out brochures for the "Devil's Mine Ride" -- $8 for 10 minutes. I said, "Why not?"

The ride was a wide screen of a computer animated ride on a mine car down a virtual mine shaft. The effect was enhanced by the high fidelity sound and seats that would violently jerk around.

In nearby Shibuya I stumbled into the "Rock On Company" music store. They had a great selection of high-tech music equipment like samplers and sequencers. I bought a sampling CD for $80, that goes for $100 in the U.S. I tried to ask the guys if they knew anywhere that modern music bands played, but they never understood what I was asking.

Food in Japan

 Selecting food was easy in the major cities because the restaurants placed displays of fake-food outside.

The hostels all provided a Japanese breakfast including rice and miso soup. For snacks the bakeries were fantastic. For $1.50 I could choose from either sweet things like donuts or an assortment of sandwiches.

The problem with bakeries was they did not have any place to sit and eat. Apparently in Japan it's socially unacceptable to even stop, much less sit down beside a building to eat! Only the derelicts did that! Within a few days even I was looking down at anyone who would sit down in public.

Another thing about bakeries is, like the department stores, they are "package happy." Buy a muffin. First the lady puts it in a clear plastic bag, and tapes it shut. Then she puts it in a waxed paper bag and folds it over. Then she puts that in a big white plastic bag, like in grocery stores. Is this being shipped overseas? After the first time I would wave my hand and say, "Iie" after the first bag. I hope that wasn't incredibly rude of me. But it saved about one minute of packing and unpacking.

Besides bakeries, grocery stores had pre-packaged sushi things, but eating them presented the same problem as bakeries.

If I was hungry I would stop at a noodle shop for a $6 bowl of udon (like a good "Top Ramen").

The worst meal I had was the $6 lunch special at Shakey's Pizza: A small coke that was gone before the meal arrived; two small slices of pizza; A large spoonful of cold canned corn; and three soggy deep fried potato slices. For those who don't know, in the U.S. $6 lunch at a pizza place often includes all the pizza and salad you can eat, and free drink refills. [Shakey's originated in my home town of Sacramento, California -- as did Tower Records.]

A few times I spent $20 on a complete tempura meal. Naturally that was always good.

Weather

The entire two weeks was t-shirt weather day and night, even in the mountains. Although the rainy season was about to start, there was only a few minor warm drizzles.

It wasn't until I returned home that I realized how humid it was there.

Nightlife

Monday evening, June 13th, I visit the English speaking bar "One Lucky" near Ikebukuro -- the only sake I have during my visit. I met an American earning $2500/month teaching English 25 hours per week. There's a bookshelf of photo albums of all guests. My photo is now in the album.

 I heard the real nightlife was in Roppongi, so I headed out there. My first stop was Hard Rock Cafe, just to get some t- shirts and say I was there (June 12^th, while O.J. Simpson is busy slashing his wife to bits).

Clubs seemed to fall into three categories: Those with no cover charge, but expected that you would continue to consume beer at $8 each; Those that charged $20 to $50 cover charge, and sometimes that was only for an hour or two; Clubs that excluded foreigners. (Imagine the ACLU tolerating a club like that in the U.S.!) For all types of clubs there were girls lining the sidewalks handing out flyers advertising clubs and offering discounts.

In the places I visited Corona was the favored beer. Seems about five years ago Corona was "in" in the U.S.

I stuck with the no cover charge category, and stayed at my third stop, the "Gas Panic Club." This is an English speaking club where the bartenders shove a plastic bucket in front of you when you buy beer to remind you to tip. I say, "I thought in Japan there was no tipping?" The white bartender replies, "That's true, but this is not Japan."

Here's a photo culled from the web:

The music is nice and loud (Sound Garden, The Offspring, Tom Petty), so I decide to stay past midnight, missing the last train home. About 2am a girl tells me she is the manager at another bar and has to go to work. Would I like to see her work? Why not?

We take a $30 taxi ride (she paid) to who knows where to this small bar. There are 4 Japanese guys in suits, and a male and female bartender. The girl I came with apologies for being "a little late for work," then falls asleep face down on the bar.

After about 20 minutes I decide to leave, and slip out. But after walking a few minutes I realize I cannot read street signs and have no I idea where to go, so I return. When I walk back in the Japanese guys say, "Yeaa, Kim is back!" And we all talk English for awhile.

At 4am (already getting light) they direct me to the nearest train station. I catch the first train "party animal special" back to Ikebukuro around 5am.

My last night in Tokyo I want to see live music, but can't find anything besides Jazz and Country. Eventually I wander back to "Gas Panic Club." At 10pm two girls I'm talking to say they are going to try to find a place with dance music, and ask if I'd like to follow. Why not?

We are bombarded by flyers walking down the street. One that looks promising is "Base Club" that some black guys from Jamaica were handing out. They wanted a $25 cover charge -- and spoke English. I said we would go and buy drinks if there was no cover charge. He said OK. So up to the 7th floor into this club with a small bar, and DJ, decorated in black-light paint, and ... no one else in the place!

I didn't care for the music: "Hey, Ho, Hip hop ya don't stop..." but it was loud and danceable. So for about an hour we had our own private Rap music club.

We leave at 11:30 to not miss the last train, and took the subway in opposite directions. I look up across the Roppongi platform just in time to wave goodbye before my train cuts between us.

On the Yamamote train home, I have my head down, eyes closed, listening for the Ikebukuro station announcement. A Japanese guy in a suit is sleeping on my shoulder...

Time to go home

Thursday morning I wander around near Ikebukuro Station, Have a nice Tempura lunch at 5th floor Kinshicho Station, then arrive at Narita about 3pm.

I request a window seat. The nice surprise is that there's no one in the seats beside me, so I put up the armrests and made a nice bed across the three seats. After an eight hour flight I'm in Vancouver Canada having another lunch during the five hour lay-over.

By 7pm I'm driving across the San Francisco Bay Bridge -- speakers vibrating the back of my seat. The sun sets on a cloudless California evening as I approach Sacramento.

The next week I'm back at my job as a programmer at the NEC wafer fab near Sacramento, California.