Miyajima part 5 - Torii and the School girls.

As already covered in this blog, we are popular in Japan :-P - Big, bulky and tall gaijin attract attention. And if said gaijin is willing to pose with school kids? In front of the most famous Torii in the world? Hilarity ensues!

We give you: School kids, and the gaijin!

These three started the show!

Makiwara-San takes over! METAL POSE!

Usagi-pose!

Aaaaaaaaaah!

I'm afraid we might be part of a sect now =P

Double punch!

Special Torii-pose, we were told!

Neko-San posed in a flexing stance with these girls. Apparently I'm stronger than them

Do-you-remember-me-San second from the left.

She climbed the sign to be as tall as Sensei!

We posed for probably twenty pictures more, but got no shots with our cameras. That's life, I guess =)

And also: I've never been bowed to so low by apologetic Japanese school teachers before. They seemed a bit embarrassed, but we very happy to pose :)

/Kristian

Miyajima part 4 - Coffee, sake and the Torii

A quick note on sake: Sake is delicious. Almost always. There is, however, one exception to this rule, and that is as follows:

If you find a vending machine that sells sake, and you decide that the 60yen pink sake cup served in a plastic cup with a twist off cap, you MIGHT have picked the wrong sake...

Kuma-San is in for a surprise. Pink, late night sake from vending machine is not recommended.

Small breakfast at the ryokan, and off to find coffee.

Japan has a lot of small coffee roasters, and on Miyajima there are plenty of small roasters and coffee shops, but we quickly got a favorite. During our two day/one night stay, we visited this place probably five times!

Delicious coffee!

As the merry band of six traveling with Neko-San have learned,  CHOCOLATE is an international language. The first time in this coffee shop, we were blown away by the service and the coffee, and after drinking our coffee, Neko-San produced some of his chocolate, and offered to the girls behind the counter. They were, as the rest of the Japanese who got chocolate, very happy!

After consuming the chocolate, we got a small present back, a cup of iced cherry tea. Most Oishii tea ever! We all ended up buying, and we bought them empty :-P

Coffee-San Sr. and Sensei

Coffee-San making BANANA LATTE for Makiwara-San

Coffee-San and Coffee-San Sr.

Sensei, Coffee-San and Kawaii-San

Time for the Torii! And school kids. So. Many. School kids.

Miyajima part 3 - Still no coffee?, no schoolgirls and dinner!

All dressed up in Yukata, we went for dinner. And what a meal it was. Apparently dinner was being set up for us in a private dining hall, and our friend Kojima-San did the serving.

A beautifully set table

Spot the smallest one ;)

I think we all felt quite Japanese. Notice also the bags on the floor, serving as handbags.

Sashimi

Hotpot. "Soup" served at the table, with Miyajima oysters.

More seafood

Huge, fresh oysters. Nom!

Pickles!

Desert. Jelly desert. Oishii jelly desert!

No, Kawaii-San isn't drunk. He just struggles with certain textures.

The meal was fantastic. Miyajima is famed for it's oysters, and we got plenty of that. A first for many of the 7 samurai, but a great experience :)

The ryokan is most definitely recommended if you're going to Miyajima - And you are, at least once, because Miyajima is so close to heaven on earth it's ludicrous.

/Kristian

Miyajima part 2 - Finally Coffe?, more schoolgirls and pink sake!

Sensei gets a lot of respect here in Japan. We refer to him almost always as Sensei in public, and the Japanese pick up on that. Sensei is the Japanese word for Teacher, and in and of itself it doesn't hold that much status. However, when we all address him as such, it garners a lot of nice attention for him, and the Japanese treat him with a respect bordering on reverence, especially when they find out that he has been doing Karate for more that 45 years.

On Miyajima, however, Neko-San was king. Picked up dockside by a bus, we went to the Miyajima Arimoto Grand Hotel, a lovely Ryokan style hotel. The shuttle buss pulled up in front of the hotel after an exciting ride on narrow roads, and we were greeted by a woman in a lovely Yukata. She showed us inside, and we didn't even have time to put down our bags before Neko-San was greeted by name, and handed a registration form, already personalized. Japan's level of service is above and beyond ANYTHING we've ever experienced.

Kajima-San was apparently assigned to us, and he showed us our rooms. They were two huge rooms, facing the Torii bay. We had agreed beforehand that the Dan-grades shared one room, and the other boys one. Boys got room 302, a semi western style room, with two beds. Usagi-San wanted a bed, in stead of futon, so he got lucky as the rest wanted the Ryokan experience with sleeping on the tatami.

The blackbelts got the sweet deal. A huge four room apartment. Amazing. Upon entering the room, shoes came off, and slippers came on. Kneeling by a sliding door, Kajima-San opened a door, and it was an amazing sight!

Makiwara-San, kneeling on the tatami, watching Kojima-San making tea.

Some prefer the pillow ;)

Tea, maple cakes and apple! Oishii!

Delicious cake with red been filling!

Staying at a Ryokan makes for an interesting time for simple Norwegians. Off with the familiar, and on with the Yukata. The Yukata is a traditional Japanese garment for both sexes. The men's version is quite simple in design, usually, and is worn with or without a west, and with both and obi and geta shoes.

Neko-San sporting the whole nine yards!

Makiwara-San wearing something NOT BLACK! 0_o

Sensei looking like he fits in! :D

We were in 301. The smallest room ;)

Kenjima-San showed us how to tie the obi, and told us that we were free to use the Onsen at the hotel. A heated public bath, albeit not hot spring based, for relaxing. Everyone is naked and clean. Tattoos usually are strictly forbidden, but our friend told us to show up after 22:00, and we should be fine! He actually joined us when his shift was finished, although I think it was by chance and nothing more =)

We got dressed, and went for dinner! We thought we were to have dinner in the dining hall, but we were wrong. Very wrong. We got sent downstairs, to a SPECIAL place where Neko-San really felt great!

Neko-San never had his name lit up on a entrance post before!

Stayed tuned for the dinner, coffee and the pink sake!

/Kristian

Miyajima part 1 - Coffe, schoolgirls and the 7 samurai!

The trip to Miyajima was a special surprise from Neko-San to the rest of the travelers.

It was planned and arranged without the knowledge of the others, and Neko-San hoped it would be a success.

Miyajima was a part of the Hiroshima-trip, but I won't blog about that part yet, as it was extremely upsetting and hard. Sufficient to say; we needed Miyajima after our trip to Hiroshima ;(

First up! Shinkansen from Kyoto, to Shin-Osaka, and then to Hiroshima! Hikari and Sakura lines!

The Shinkansen is an impressive sight! And very comfortable!

Miyajima is in the bay outside of Hiroshima, about 30 minutes with a cattle train. There is a ferry crossing over, and the JR rail pass is a valid ticket for that too!

On the ferry, the mighty gang of Gaijin attracted a lot of attention from several of the Japanese school classes. Especially the tall Sensei - Oddemann. Some brave girls wanted a picture with sensei and he obliged. We always do!

The girls (and a very select few of the boys) find us all terribly interesting, and they seek some sort of acknowledgement  from us. Usually they just say "Hello" or "Hiiiiiii", although certain brave individuals stop to stammer their way through a sentence or two. The school classes we pass all say hi, and a lot of them want, and get, high fives.

We have taken to dubbing a lot of our encounters by name. There is Coffee-san, propaganda-san, chocolate-san, cookie-san and a lot others. We'll cover some of them later :)

This first part is about a big fan of Sensei, the very first girl on the ferry who dared to make contact.

The girl who first spotted Sensei froze like this for several seconds.

This girl made first contact. Daring to ask for a picture!

And both she and her friends posed for us. The Japanese girls ALWAYS pose like this it seems.

I'll skip to the next day in this blogpost now, because on the beach the day after, we all stood admiring the Torii gate and looked at the Myriad of Schoolchildren. Suddenly up popped a girl, drew her breath, stepped up to Sensei and said "Do... Do you remember me?"

Sensei's smile was priceless! He replied; "Yes from the boat yesterday", and the smile Do-you-remember-me-San gave was the biggest this humble blogger ever saw on a Japanese girl, and believe you me, that is saying A LOT!

Her teacher even spoke to us later, and thanked us for being so kind.Posing for photos is just fun, and we hope that the girls remember the tiny Norwegians. Sensei is probably forever ingrained in Do-you-remember-me-San's memory, and that is a nice thought to bring with us!

Follow us next to find out why Neko-San gets full of himself, and why our waiter was naked with us!

/Kristian

Surrealism - Not what I promised.

I know I promised you Miyajima blog, but I beg forgiveness for not delivering. This takes precedence.

Yesterday, on the 20th, we went to look at and buy iaito. Swords were bought, and it was the first time ever handling Swords for a couple of the team. 

After the sword shop, the group divided. Sensei and Usagi-san left for shopping and massage, and the merry band of five who remained went to the Kyōto Anime and Manga fair. Free entrance for foreign passport holders. :-D

In of itself, this isn't very surreal or exciting. However, the fab five who went to the fair decided to walk back to the hotel, and on their way, they stumbled upon Kyōto city hall.

Neko-San thought there was a fair or festival taking place, with some market booths and such installations. Upon further investigation, it turned out there was a small festival to mark the commercial opening of Japan to foreigners and foreign trade in the 1850's. And we very the only foreigners there!  The festival celebrated the Bakumatsu period

We bought some lovely art painted on hand made Japanese paper, and we were told there was to be a short sword demonstration, and some theater on the steps of city hall. We wanted to watch, and went to sit. 

The Art seller.

Seating was sparse, so otsuki-san decided to stand. The rest of us sat down on the ground up front. Neko-San and Makiwara-San sat in seiza, and this drew some attention.

During the demo and the theater, one of the hosts wanted to know if we were interested in trying some sword play later. We happily agreed. Little did we know that it was on stage...

The group joined those on stage, and yours truly went first. Applause was had for us all, though some struggled more than others with the instructions given. :-P

Sword training

The play

Neko-San during sword fun

Kawaii-San during show

The locals were obviously impressed, and as mentioned before, the Japanese are very fascinated with Norway. One thing led to another, and suddenly it was decided that we were to do a karate demonstration... What have we gotten ourselves into?

First on stage, however? The Mayor of Kyōto. He gave a speech, and introduced us Norwegians as karate-ka from Otsuka-dojo in Tokyo, and on stage we went...

After the demo, people ooh'ed, Aaaah'ed and bowed to us a lot. It was quite fun, and very enjoyable. I shook hands with the Mayor, and we all got Sakamoto Ryôma crest flags as gifts.

Here is a Link to the Video, Blogger won't let me embed from my phone =(

The surreal day doesn't end here however. 

For dinner Sensei decided that he wanted sushi, but not any kind of sushi. Sensei wanted specific sushi, and off we went.

This was our second visit to this particular restaurant, and we were guided onto the second floor.

We had dinner, and towards the end of our great meal, we noticed familiar sounds coming from one room over. Upon further investigation, we recognized that it was the Norwegian parliaments committee of transportation and the Norwegian ambassador dining together with a Japanese host.

I was taken to the table and introduced and had a brief but lovely chat. I asked for a post on the Norwegian National Budget for Tendo Karateklubb, but the motion was declined. 

It was worth a shot ;)

The Norwegians went off to "other traditional Japanese engagements" and bid us goodbye. We exchanged some contact details, and our blog now has been tweeted about by Abid Raja of the Norwegian parliament. (I have promised him a vote in the past, and I shall stand for brother Abid next election! Win the people over, one vote at the time?)

This is proper cultural exchange, and who knows what these surreal meetings can lead to in the future! 

How can we not love Japan?

/Kristian

A karate house wonderful at a gentleman - Part 2 of the Naramachi tale

Happily full of sake, and with both "Number one sake" and "Most expensive sake" we went outside with Hideko-san again. We were due to say goodbye for the third time, but she asked if we liked museums. Most of us said yes ;)

Bringing us around a street corner or nice, she took us to a museum in Naramachi. This museum is apparently privately owned, and operated by the son of the original collector. The museum was closed when we arrived; The lights off, the garbage put out in front, the curator ready to go home for the day. The museum closes at 16:00, we arrived 16:00.

Hideko-San, using her awesome powers of persuation, spoke to the curator, and explained to him that we were all Norwegians sightseeing in Nara, and despite everything quit nice also. And what do you know? They opened the museum just for us.
The museum itself was small, and probably most interesting for the Japanese natives, but the collection had a lot of beautiful pieces regardless. Considering the entrance fee of zero yen, it was most definitely worth it.

We all ended up buying stuff, and while checking the items out, the curator chitchatted. He knew hardly any English, but communication isn't terribly difficult when both participants want to understand. We told him we all were karate-ka, and the curator insisted we all get our names written in Japanese, with a special greeting as well.

Sensei-Oddeman got his name and "Most strong", I myself got my name and TENDO!

A lovely garment.

A tiny plate!

A karate house wonderful at a gentleman! Tetsuro Minami, Kawaii-San, Otsuki-San, Sensei, Kuma-San, Neko-San and Makiwara-San.

 Tetsuro-San wanted to know if we were in a hurry. We weren't, and he decided kindly to give us a special tour of the Naramachi area! Marvelous!

We trotted off with Tetsuro-San, and he took us places we'd never see without him. He showed us Temples and shrines, and took us to a Japanese graveyard, and told us the story of the princess that once lived there, and he took us to a very special place, where apparently the gods had reached down, and prevented a death. It was very special.

Graveyard

Our new friend explains

Temple garden

Spot the foreigners! Bet you you can't!

He took us to a pharmacy that had a doctor that was the 24th generation in a row of medical practitioners.

This trip was amazing, and we were truly lucky for meeting Hideko-San!

Next up? The friendliest coffee in Japan at Miyajima!

/Kristian