Yet Another Zoo

I like zoos.  A lot.  I dragged Lee to yet another zoo, this one a bit closer to home.

In going down the list of things we've not yet done that we'd like to do before leaving Japan, biking to the local zoo was a fairly easy one and a good way to log some miles before going on a 5-day ~250 mile bike trip we've got planned for early May.  Luckily, we had one gorgeous Sunday in the middle of a string of rainy days to take an afternoon to see the zoo.

The zoo is a pretty straight shot, only about three turns total, but ten miles away.  It took us roughly an hour to get to the zoo, and what is the first animal we see?  Actually it was a Sea Lion, but the second animal:

was a raccoon.  A raccoon.  We go to a Japanese zoo to see a raccoon.  A well-fed, good-looking raccoon, but a raccoon nonetheless.

We didn't get many pictures, in part because some of the animals were in cages that seemed too small for them, and were not looking all that great.  We saw bald patches on some animals, and others that seemed to have neurotic tendencies, like the constantly chattering raccoon.  That said, some of the other habitats were quite nice and we got pictures of a couple interesting creatures:

These guys just need horns to be the fabled Jackalope. 

Not really all that much to report.  Like the Osaka aquarium, this zoo had a specific route to follow to see the animals.  No way to miss any, but also no way to skip around to see your favorite animals and bypass ones you aren't all that interested in, like, say, Golden Tamarinds (Lee was thankful this zoo, unlike all the others, does not have any) (Lee - they're supposed to be endangered but the last eighteen thousand zoos we've gone to have had enormous areas devoted to them, and I've seen enough for a lifetime).

Lee made friends (or something) with a Meerkat using the tunnel system that was mostly populated by children:

We'll leave you with a picture of a duck with really pretty markings.  There are a couple more on Flickr, but this was a pretty minor excursion so there aren't that many and hopefully you're not feeling bereft.  

Spring 2011 Osaka & Kyoto Trip Days 6, 7, and 8:

We spent the final two and a half days of this trip in Kyoto, and during that time we did five major touristy things - three on the first day, and one each for the following two.  Kyoto has dozens of shrines and temples, more than you could or would want to see in a week, but we found that three of the most famous temples were within easy walking distance of each other in the northwest of the city, and decided to go see those, figuring three temples is about how many we were interested in seeing anyway.

Kinkaku Temple was the first of the three we visited.  This temple is famous for the Golden Pavilion, which is an old residence of a retired Shogun which is covered top to bottom in gold leaf.  I believe that was done after he died and the grounds were donated to the monks.  Anyway, it is very shiny indeed, and the sun was out, so we took a bunch of pictures, viewable as always on Flikr.  While the temple buildings were nice, the pavilion is definitely the main attraction and there isn't much else on the grounds.

They cleverly put the admissions gate far enough out that you can't see the pavilion until after you pay.

Once inside though, you can't miss it

The gold leaf does glow in the sun rather impressively

Ryoan Temple is supposed to have one of the best, possibly the best Japanese Zen rock garden in the world.  They have certifications from UNESCO saying pretty much that and are not afraid to toss around superlatives in their brochures.  Here's what Ana thought about their special rock garden:

If this was the pinnacle of the craft, we couldn't see it.  Supposedly, this was laid out with supreme care and oodles of deeper meaning, but I don't think they chose very interesting rocks (most of them are very small) and the placement, setting, etc. just did not leave us feeling like the whole thing was done by people who were paying attention.  I guess we're Philistines, or else maybe the emperor has no clothes. I'll put up some more pictures here and see if anyone rises to this rock garden's defense. 

I guess the raking of the small stones is pleasing, but overall...eh. 

Bottom line: it's famous and we saw it, but we don't know why.

On the plus side, they had these poofy conifers in their outer gardens that Ana thought were totally wicked.  I believe the Suess-inspired shape is cultivated by cutting the tree off at intervals and letting it regrow.  Most of them have two or more green areas separated by expanses of smooth, branch-less trunk.

Ninna Temple is very old indeed, having been founded in 888AD, and is the biggest of the three we visited, though it doesn't have a "hook" the way the other two do.

Pagoda...check.

Enormous temple gate...check.

Cherry trees growing branches right out of the ground - the temple cultivates a breed that does this

That's all one tree - the branches off the ground are supported. Pretty nifty!

I did enjoy taking a look at some of the very ornate temple buildings.

Walking through temple buildings

The next day we contemplated going on a trip out of the city to see a castle in Hikone, but decided we'd rather have a less full schedule and a more full wallet and took a much easier day.  We went to the Imperial Palace Gardens.  Now, I'm pretty sure my parents went there before us, and they'd mentioned not being allowed to go through the part they really wanted to see.  We checked the internet and it confirmed that some sections of it are off limits, but said that most of it was open.  What they don't mention is that the parts that are open look like this:

Truly a delight for fans of extremely broad crushed stone boulevards.  There are a few small gardens and relatively pleasant places tucked away inside the grounds, which are very large, but apparently all the good stuff is behind walls, with guards on the doors.  We felt a little lead on - I mean, why name it Imperial Gardens and put it on all the signs, when nobody can see the big ones?

One of the smaller ones

Luckily for us, we hadn't had to expend much effort to get there, and it was a really nice day, so we had a decent walk, took some pictures, and then went back to the hotel and took a nap.

One of the big things that Ana wanted to do in Kyoto from the beginning has been to go to one of the large temple bazaars.  These bazaars were originally something to do with pilgrimages to the temple, but over several hundred years they got pretty commercial, and they're a good place to go looking for Japanese crafts, antiques, just plain stuff, and no small quantity of junk.  The biggest one is on the 25th of each month, and this trip had been carefully constructed to allow us to attend the event just before we headed back to work.  I hadn't thought that the bazaar sounded like that much fun, but once we got there, saw what was being offered, and started to take in the size of the thing, I started wishing they had the same deal back in Kanazawa.  It was awesome. 

The bazaar went for blocks in all directions around the temple - people get up very early indeed to claim a place to set up shop

It was kind of like a giant yard sale, except that all the stuff was Japanese and some of it was pretty old.  For sale was stuff like ceramic and wood plates and bowls, cloth for kimono or other garments, all kinds of dried fruits and vegetables and other food stands, old tools, vases, lots of old iron tea kettles, scrolls, fans, alongside used electronics, furniture, jewelery, and probably all kinds of things I'm forgetting.  I had expected that Ana would spend all or nearly all of the money there, but she didn't find anything that impressed her enough to buy it and I bought four different things.  

I ended up getting two gorgeous wooden plates, one with a glowing clear lacquer from an antique shop and one with a finish the likes of which I've never seen before from the craftswoman who made it.  Most of the wood grains were polished over to be charcoal colored, but in two areas the wood was polished to what appears to be a natural and brilliantly red cedar color, then clear-coated.  I managed to not buy anything the first time we passed her stand, but I had to go back and get something later - I'd have regretted it otherwise.  I also got one ceramic bowl that I liked the glazing on that was only about a dollar, and a rhinoceros figurine for the collection.

We ended up staying much longer at the bazaar that we thought we would want to, and had to rush back to the hotel to make our check-out time.  We made it with time to spare, though, thanks to a conveniently timed bus, which pretty much wrapped up the trip, as after that we took the train back to Kanazawa to get settled back in before the new semester started.

Spring 2011 Osaka & Kyoto Trip Day 5: A Bridge That Wasn't Too Far

The longest suspension bridge in the world, the Akashi Kaikyo, is less than an hour's travel from Osaka.  I'd been interested in seeing it since we moved to Japan - I originally read about it in middle school and have always thought the project was cool as a serious work of engineering but sketchy in terms of ever paying back the billions of dollars it cost to build.  That aside, this trip was our chance to go see it and thankfully we're both nerds and I didn't have to spend the whole time with my wife wondering what the hell I was thinking when I said I wanted to go see a bridge.  So, we bought train tickets and headed out there.

I'm just going to say that this is a very large bridge.

If you're not ready for pictures of a bridge, you are in the wrong blog today.

This bridge is so big, it has two lobbies and and an elevator that goes up eight floors before you can get to the observation deck...which is well below the roadway deck of the bridge.

The observation areas were mostly covered completely on all sides... but they put glass in the floor.

The girders basically come to a point on the horizon before they even reach the first piling.

The observation deck also features an enclosed viewing area with a small cafe and gift store...literally inside the bridge itself, suspended over the water.

The gift shop has a cornucopia of bridge-themed goods.

Including their very own special bottling of beer

 

They did warn you about bridge pictures, yes?

The bridge: not small

After seeing as much of the bridge as we were going to that day, we got back on the trains and headed for Kyoto.  We got rather less lost in Kyoto Station than in Osaka Station and our hotel was literally right in front of our subway stop, so the transit went quickly and smoothly and we were surprised at how upscale the hotel was.  We'd gotten another $50/night deal and hadn't been expecting the army of uniformed bellhops and so forth.  The room was appropriately small, though, about the same size as the last place we'd stayed.

After settling in, we decided we wanted actual Japanese food tonight after eating our fill of Western cuisine on previous nights, and got the location of a rotating sushi bar from the internet.  We walked over to where it was supposed to be...but it wasn't there.  Other restaurants were, but not the one we were looking for.  We walked around for maybe half an hour, because, dammit, you know there is a rotating sushi place around there somewhere, downtown in a major city, but we didn't find any.  We later determined that we'd walked by at least two, but we didn't get close enough to identify them for what they were at the time.  We (horror of horrors) just went to a regular sushi place instead which worked out fine as a replacement.  I did eat one thing that I'm still not sure of the identity of.  I'd recognize it if I saw it, but I'm still not sure if it was fish or seaweed or something else or what.  Couldn't recommend it.  Hazards of the trade over here, I'm afraid.

The following day we found we have mixed levels of appreciation for some of the most iconic, famous, and revered shrines in Japan.

Spring 2011 Osaka and Kyoto Trip Day 4: Universal Studios Japan

To complete our conquest of major theme parks in Japan, we visited Universal Studios Japan, which is located on the outskirts of Osaka.  USJ focuses heavily on live shows and other things that are half live show and half 3D video over rides, though there were a few rides.  Some of it was good, some of it was so bad that it was good, and some of it was just plain bad.  Overall, I'd say it's pretty pricey for what you get but it isn't a bad way to spend a day. As before, see Flikr for the full picture set.

The Universal Studios in Florida carefully cultivates the teenage audience, trying to distinguish itself with the message that Disney is for little kids and that if you're cool you should come to Universal Studios.  Meanwhile, USJ has train cars advertising their new Sesame Street 4D attraction.

When you first approach the park you walk through sort of a commercial / restaurant district, which I wouldn't have commented on except that Ana found this popcorn place.  In looking at the original picture at full size, I'm pretty sure one of the 32 flavors is fried octopus ball.  I felt we needed to put that out there.

When we arrived at the park proper, it turned out that we were visiting during their 10th anniversary festivities.  That would probably mean the park should have been more full than usual, but the day was kind of gray and misty, and it was a Monday, so the crowds balanced out to merely significant rather than overwhelming.

All park employees had stickers or paint on their faces for the event - slightly creepy

I don't particularly want to go through all the different rides or shows and discuss them in depth - most readers have never and will never go there - but I'll toss out some tidbits and show some of our pictures.  I mention the others briefly towards the end.

1) The ride that looks like a kiddie ride where a space princess is supposed to save an anthropomorphic sun is actually a high-impact roller coaster, in the dark, where the car itself can spin laterally on the track.  Mom, you would definitely have puked.  We however, were pleasantly surprised.  It's kind of a Space Mountain clone, but then again, Space Mountain is fun...so that works.

2) The Waterworld show - yes, based on that Kevin Costner movie that bombed way back - rocked my mind in several ways not related to the show being awesome.  First, there was a line to get in.  Not a small line.  Several hundred, maybe a thousand people, were waiting outside in the rain ahead of us for the doors to open to let them in.  Arriving ten minutes early, when we did, we got put in the we're-not-sure-we'll-have-room-for-you overflow line.  They pretty much filled the bleachers for this, though we got decent seats anyway - didn't want to be in the splash zone.  The show itself was fairly amusing and I laughed through a lot of it - perhaps not at things that you're supposed to laugh at and I may have gotten some dirty looks from the Japanese around me who were all "this is serious business in here young man" - but laughing none the less.  From time to time they had pretty big explosions / fires / something large coming through a wall of the arena when you didn't expect it and that kept my attention from wandering too far.

Typical example of transport after the polar caps melt and they put gills on Kevin Costner

The thing that really blew my mind though, was just the fact that the show existed at all.  Tens of thousands of people must decide each year that they want to see this show.  There are a couple dozen people who get up every day and what they do is act in or run the Waterworld show at Universal Studios Osaka.  They have a guy whose job it is to impersonate Kevin Costner in one of his less-loved movies.  That's what he does.  Right now, someone might be impersonating Kevin Costner and riding around this arena on a jet ski while yelling in Japanese, in front of a full crowd.  You have to admit - that's pretty trippy.

3) The special tenth anniversary show was simultaneously pretty decent, both visually and musically, and also reflected some of the most classic Japanese what-the-hell-is-going-on-here we've seen.

 

Note that Beetlejuice is in this picture, right next to characters from Sesame Street, Hello Kitty, and Peanuts.  Beetlejuice, in fact, was the character chosen to emcee this event and was on stage singing and dancing pretty much the whole time.  The theme of this whole gig was that the 10th birthday of some kid lined up with the 10th birthday of the park and for that reason the whole family got to dream about something they wanted, so they each met famous characters and so forth.

Doc Brown on the left of the stage - I believe there were Jurassic Park pterodactyls on the other half

At the end they all dream one dream together...which is that the patriarch of the family will actually take a goddamn day off from work and be with his family for his kid's birthday, which of course comes true.  That theme plays well in many places, but it rings a bit too painfully true here I think, where so many people spend such tremendously long hours at work (I said "at work", and not "working" for a reason) six days a week just because the everybody else does.

4) The rollercoaster pictured below is pretty awesome, as it weaves through the park, but mostly for the extended zero-G sections more than for the view, which you don't have time to pay attention to.  Your individual seat plays music during the ride, which can be selected by pressing a button on the console in front of you at the beginning of the ride.  The first time we rode it, we both screwed it up and got special 10th anniversary J-Pop, which was bloodcurdling. The second time, later in the day, we paid closer attention to the instructions and selected Eminem, which was much more appropriate for rollercoaster-ing.

It also lit up at night.

The roller coaster was so intense (and so over-innocent-pedestrians) that they put rubber bands on shoes they thought might come off during the ride.  Ana got some lovely purple rubber bands that matched her socks.

5) The gift shop and "candy store" were terrifying.  Allow me to illustrate this point with pictures rather than words.

Would you like Spiderman to stare accusingly at you out of your overpriced cup noodle?  Yikes.

How about some Elmo fries, kids?  Anybody?

Jaws likes dried squid strips.  Therefore, so should you.  Get 'em here!

We couldn't figure out if these were animal, vegetable, or mineral.  All I know is they make T-Rex angry and me very afraid.  The writing suggests the contents are fried "Fear Dragon" which I assume means T-Rex, and if there is one thing I'm sure of it is that there is no actual T-Rex in that package.

Do you think that writing "Snoopy Flying Up"  front and center on underpants is perhaps a little risque for a family audience?

Continuing the theme of horrifying themed edibles, Ana bought (and subsequently consumed the entirety of) a Dear Daniel (friend of Hello Kitty) Steamed Pizza Bun.  Despite my concern, the lethal dose is apparently higher than a single helping, as she is still alive and only twitches oddly now and then.

There were a bunch of rides and shows not documented much so far - I'll mention most of them here.  The Back to the Future and Spiderman rides used air currents and tricks of perception to create fairly convincing feelings of flying, swinging, and falling.  The Terminator 2 show had some unbelievably cheesy footage done by the original actors but the 3D effect for the metal monster on the end was pretty convincing - it did seem to be in the theater.  The Jurassic Park ride was completely lame except for the very tall, very steep drop into darkness at the end of it which certainly got my attention.  The Jaws ride was really, really lame.  They even had a show based on Backdraft (Seriously?  Does Backdraft connect with anyone at this point?) which featured an interminable period of talking film clips (dubbed in Japanese of course) followed by several minutes of them blowing things up and setting things in front of the audience on fire, using real fire, that was reasonably exciting.

As we wrapped up our day at USJ we though about eating at some of the fairly upscale places right outside the part that target people leaving the park, but ultimately decided on something less expensive and more satisfying.  We'd previously found a branch of Freshness Burger (ours in Kanazawa closed after getting us hooked) near the hotel, so he headed over there and bought several burgers each as take-out (they're small) and cleverly bought some wine from the convenience store as the liquor stores were closed.  Part of it was that I was really hungry, but a couple of real cheeseburgers and some fruity easy-drinking red wine delivered satisfaction far in excess of the modest price, and a tasty end to the evening.

The following day we'd make a side trip to see a bridge on the way to Kyoto.  Stay tuned for more.