Uchiko or the incarnation of kindness

The next day, we had to plan things to do on our own, since our friends were working. Our original plan was to go to Beppu for the day, but the ferry takes 3 hours in each direction and since we had to pass through there anyway to go to Fukuoka, our next stop, we decided to stay in the area and at our friends' advice, go to Uchiko.

Uchiko is 25 minutes away by train, and there is a train every hour, so we took our time in the morning, especially since it was snowing so hard. Talia asked for a snow day, to which Rony replied, "Sure, we can be outside in the snow all day!" Not what Talia meant...

We took our train tickets, not without saying hello to Kei's friend who works at the train station (see previous post) and went to see this small town. We didn't expect much, but from what we were told, it's a cute little town with traditional streets and a few attractions there. It was perfect for us.

On the train, we took a few pictures of the beautiful surroundings: Everything was covered with snow.

Since it's a small, local train, the controller asked us where we were from and what we were doing. So we explained that we liked the view and we took a few pictures. So he told us that there is a nice castle we will soon pass and that we should take a photo. He explained which side of the train we will see it on so we were prepared and could take that photo:

And he also offered to take a picture of us:

We keep being amazed by the people here. In the most remote places we have incredible experiences and we're surprised by their kindness.

After saying goodbye to our nice guide/controller, we started walking toward the main street. We received a free map of the town at the station, with explanations in English, and we were off.

Just off topic for a moment, we'd like to say that the tourism office in Japan is great: Most of the places we've been to have explanations in English, every little town has some information in English about the places to go and how to get there. And if that's not enough, everybody is very helpful when you ask for directions. Even if they don't know a word of English.

On our way to the main road, an old couple in a car started to ask us if we need help. We knew more or less where we were going, but the couple insisted on helping us and pulled over. We'd like to reiterate that it was snowing. They got out of the car and asked us where we were from, what we wanted to see and looked at our map. Of course all this in Japanese. They started to tell us where to go and how to get there, and then they just offered to give us a lift to the closest attraction, the Kabuki theatre.

Good Samaritans: the old lady help us find the kabuki theatre

They were incredibly sweet and kind. We've never seen anything like this. Maybe it was because there was no one there, especially Western tourists. The city looked empty of residents and visitors alike. But we liked it. We could enjoy the place as if it was our own, and we could appreciate the music that was playing in the street: We first thought it was coming from a car or a house, but they have speakers set up all along the street and music like in a theme park was playing all the time.

And in a way we felt like we were in a theme park, with all the typical and traditional houses, the small stores, and the mountain view.

We arrived to our first attraction, the Kabuki theatre. We first thought it was closed, but after looking around for opening hours signs and fares, a lady came at the counter, probably surprised to have visitors, and told us that there was a combo ticket for the theatre, the Commerce and Domestic Life museum and for the wax museum. All this for 390 yen (instead of 300 for the kabuki alone). So we took it. We planned on seeing them anyway.

The Kabuki theater

After we took our shoes off, the nice lady at the counter gave us a private tour of the place, mainly in Japanese but with sign language subtitles so we could understand. She then offered us to come on stage, ware kabuki jackets and take a couple of photos, which we did:

Kabuki is, by default, dramatic.

We stayed a bit longer alone and toured around the place. It's a small theatre, but it looked very nice. We could have seen a show there, but we wouldn't understand anything.

Once we were out, the lady insisted on taking a picture of us in front of the theatre:

And she explained to us how to get to the next attraction, even if we already had a clear map of the city. We then departed as if we were good friends who came to visit her. We really started to like this place.

The next stop was the Commerce and Domestic Life Museum. You can't miss the entrance of this museum when you see this:

That scene is displayed on the street, you can't miss it

Creepy!

The whole place was a old pharmacy transformed to museum and in each room there were dolls like those that started to talk when you were entering the room. We saw worse in New Caledonia with the dolls in the prison cells, so Talia wasn't too afraid of them (and didn't have nightmares at night). (Unless that's what the kicking and screaming was...)

It was quite interesting and after seeing so many people... sorry - dolls - eating, we were ready for lunch. We found a nice Japanese restaurant there which has a cool Japanese garden:

And the lunch was delicious!

Our next stop, and last on our combined ticket, was the wax museum. For a small town museum it was very well done: Explanations in English, interactive computer screens, movies, and small displays explaining the wax making process.

And a cute little girl with her family ran everywhere excited by everything there:

At last we arrived to the last highlight: The shrine and sleeping Buddha at the end of the main street.

We went back to the train station, followed by the theme park/children songs music (we even heard "Yonatan Hakatan" in Japanese!!!)  On our way home, we bought a few groceries from the supermarket, so we could prepare dinner for our hosts.

And this is what we prepared:

Shakshuka

Shakshuka, cause Talia missed it a lot. It's an Israeli dish based on tomatoes and eggs on top. Actually it was the first time we've prepared it. When we say "we" we mean "Rony prepared it and Talia couldn't stop drooling just at the thought of eating homecooked food." But we digress.

Quiche

Quiche, because we both missed it. And it is French, so it can't be bad :)  And our famous salad.

You should have heard the "wooow!" and "waaah!" and "sugoi!" ("cool" in Japanese) we heard while we were preparing them :)

And for dessert, we had the famous pancakes made by Talia.

It was our way to say thank you to our hosts, for the wonderful time we had together. We hope to see them again, here or there.

Kampai! Saying goodbye to our friends with some sake

We were sad to leave them all, humans and pets alike, but we are glad we had the chance to know them and have a good time together.

Photos can be found at the end of the album:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=611372&id=906005363&l=c1c7224165

Yawatahama and Matsuyama or how to get to an onsen

When we were in New Caldeonia, one of our friend's roommates (who became our friend in her own right) told us that she has a friend, Kei, in Japan and that we should contact her for advice. Rony started talking to her via Facebook and she soon invited us to stay at her place. She lives in a small town named Yawatahama, where there isn't much to see, however it is a central location to reach several other great towns that we wanted to visit, so we obliged.

Since we had missed our original train, the one that we had already told her that we would arrive on, we tried calling her to let her know we'll be arriving an hour later, but as much as we tried, we couldn't get through. We had general directions of how to get to her, but the end of the directions were "and then call me and I'll meet you because the rest is hard to explain."

A few days before coming, Kei sent Rony a message on Facebook saying she's really excited that we're coming (not that we had ever met) and that she organized a small party in our honor with a bunch of her friends! We arrived an hour late, of course, and proceeded to call her.

But she didn't answer.

At this point, we were stressing out a bit. The people at the station were incredibly nice (as usual) and let Rony use the station's phone, not a pay phone. Meanwhile, the station manager proceeded to talk to Talia and (of course) ask where we are from. He then told her that our friend had come by an hour earlier to pick us up and left when she saw we didn't arrive. At this precise moment, Rony was able to get through to Kei and she came to pick us up.

We stayed inside the station since it had been snowing all day. (On a side note, if in Australia we brought the rain, in Japan we bring the snow). Kei arrived with a friend and was sweet as can be, and we hopped into her car and arrived at her apartment 5 minutes later. To our surprise and delight, about 8 or 10 of Kei's friends were standing in the cold at the entrance to the building complex, holding a big sign that said, "Welcome Rony and Talia!" We were so touched, it was just amazing. Here are these people who have never met us, who don't even know where we are from ("Wait - you aren't from France? OH!"), and they are doing all of this for us.

The guys all volunteered to help us carry our things upstairs, but we were fine, and we entered the cutest apartment (and large by Japanese standards!) when suddenly a bunch of the girls yelled, "Stop!" Turns out that Kei's pug (dog), Anzo, was also so excited about our arrival that she pooped in the living room!

Anzu the dog

We removed our shoes at the entrance, and entered the apartment, where there was a room full of food of all kinds - all looking delicious! - and the sign that they had held was now hung on the wall.

Since we had already arrived, they began making a Japanese specialty, which is balls of dough with stuff inside - in this case, vegetables and sausage. It was DELICIOUS! Mid-way through eating these really delicious balls, there was a ring at the door: Turns out that the train station sent over pizzas for our party! It's a very small town and everyone knows everyone, plus one of the guests works at the train station. We were just flabbergasted! Where else in the WORLD does a train station send pizzas to a party in honor of two people who no one knows?

After the "salty" version of the balls came the sweet versions with chocolate, and omigoodnesstheyareyum! The guests consisted basically of two groups of people: Those who Kei had grown up with since school, and other people from work. She organizes the English program at all the schools in the towns in the area (they have native-English speakers come to be assistants) so there were a few native English speakers there from London and Guam. It was just an incredible evening and we had the best time.

The next morning, we had the funniest wake up call. All of the doors in the apartment are sliding doors, and, as it turns out, a lack of thumbs does not prevent a dog from opening them. Thus, a few minutes before 8 am, we heard the door slide open and tiny little paw steps on the wood floor, and we opened our eyes to see a smiling pug staring us at the face. We just busted out laughing, it was the funniest look ever, and then she hopped on the bed (after being invited) and started running around us in circles. Since we speak dog fluently, it was very clear that she was saying, "It's morning! Come play! Come on! I want to play! Play with me! Look at me! Let's plaaaaaaay!!!!"

Anzu (mish-mish) having a good time on Rony's lap

We were supposed to go for a morning hike in the mountain with Kei and one of her friends who was at the party the night before, but it had snowed heavily at night, enough that hiking would have been dangerous. So we skipped the hike and went on to our next stop: Matsuyama. This was our plan all along, but since it was Sunday, Kei and a couple of her friends joined us (one of them drove us) and we all went together. All along the way it was snowing (you're welcome, Japan), which we were told is very odd for the region - it usually snows about once a winter, and even then not as much as it did now.

Those are famous caracters of a manga we don't know. But it was fun anyway

After having some lunch, our first stop was the Matsuyama castle, which is beautiful. There are two options to reach the castle - climb or take the tram. Gluttons for punishment as we are, we decided to climb. A zillion steps. But it was fun. Talia has gotten into such great shape, that she actually ran part of the way (albeit so she can take this Rocky-style picture at the top):

On the way, just after those steps, we saw a temple with a gate an the entrance where the popular thing to do is fling rocks and try to get one to land at the top. So we tried. After huffing and puffing our way up, we arrived at the freezing castle, but it was so interesting! It had a mini museum in it, and views all around (it was several stories high), and everywhere we stopped we saw incredible views of the city and the mountains.

Matsuyama castle

View of the city from the castle

One of the highlights of the castle visit was actually the samurai battle uniforms that we got to put on! Take a bunch of 30-somethings and tell them they can dress up as samurais, and trust us, you'll have a handful of 6-year-ols on hand. :-) Look how awesome we looked!

We climbed down the mountain, spending way more time there than we had originally planned and proceeded to go to the famous Dogo onsen in town.What's an onsen? We're glad you asked! An onsen is a hot spring where people come to bath. You shower before you enter so the water remains pure. It's divided into male and female because... you are naked when you go in. We were taken upstairs, sat down in a communal room where we would later receive tea and cookies, and given a kimono to wear for after the bath. We then split up - the 3  boys went one way, and the two girls went the other.

Dogo Onsen. It was the model of the main location of Spirit Away

Talia knew that we were planning on visiting an onsen or two when we were in Japan, but didn't realize it would be today. Although she tried, and even bought the ticket, she couldn't bring herself to go in. Even though the Japanese go to onsen from childhood (there were really young kids there), and everyone is very comfortable and no one looks at the others, Talia ended up going back to the tea room to wait for the others to return. Rony, on the other hand, had an amazing time.


Rony: It was my first time in an onsen, of course, and luckily I was with Kei's friends to explain to me what to do. There are rules in onsen that need to be followed and a newcomer is always noticed, so it was easier not to be alone.

The rules vary a bit from one onsen to the other, but here is how it works in Dogo Onsen: First you enter the common changing room where you see many dressed, half dressed, and naked men. About 30 of them (it was a Sunday.) You put your clothes in a locker of your choice and take only a small towel with you that is used to cover your strategic part(s) on the way to the common bath. We brought a towel with us, but it's possible to rent it there.

Once in the bath area, there are several showers on the side walls. They are open of course, so everybody can see you shower. For each shower, there is a small stool that you sit on while you shower. You can use soap or not, but you have to scrub yourself with the small towel you brought with you. The whole time you're with your back to the common bath tub.

Now for the strategic part: You have to enter the bath smoothly without showing too much of your private parts (not at all in my case) and keep the towel out of the bath tub (because it's filthy with your body dirt). So my friends suggested I keep the towel folded on my head, as some Japanese do.

The hot spring is not a regular bath, it's a boiling hot bath, which is great in the winter. The room is filled with steam and you can't stay in it very long (I stayed for 20 minutes before I started to feel dizzy), but you're warmed up for the rest of the day.

Talia who didn't get in was still freezing when we got out while I was warm.

After a good bath

When everyone got back (somehow at the same time), we all had some tea and ginger cookies (yum!) and then went outside to head back. We stopped at a local bakery by the onsen to warm up, we mean try another local pastry (which was delicious), and then went to car. The drive is about an hour and a bit in each direction, but at this point it was rush hour, and many of the roads were closed because of the snow, which caused extra traffic.

Just before we got back, we stopped at a local restaurant chain, called Joyfull, for dinner, and then went back home where were enthusiastically greeted by the Anso the dog (which we all now called mish mish because her name actually means apricot) and apathetically greeted by the cat (which we forgot she had). We talked for a few hours, and we updated the blog for your reading pleasure, and turned in ourselves.

Photos from Yawatahama and Matsuyama:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=611372&id=906005363&l=c1c7224165