Sister time in Japan - April 1st - 5th

So, just like in England, the last few weeks has been Spring break here in Japan. I was so happy that these two holidays coincided as that meant that my sister could use her holiday time from school and make a trip out to Japan to sightsee and visit me!

So on Sunday evening, I made my way to my local station ready to pick up the sister I hadn't seen in over a year and a half. To say I was excited is a complete understatement, but I was nervous also. I had a few reasons to be nervous but one of the main reasons was that, although my sister had been in Japan for a week prior to coming down to me, I had only heard from her once on the Tuesday. My overactive imagination was working overtime - what if she had been attacked or abducted?! What if something had gone wrong which meant that she couldn't get to me for some reason?! Happily, all of my worries were for nothing as, bang on time, the train pulled into the station and Emma emerged! It was only strange for a second to see her standing at my train station, in the middle of the countryside, on a Japanese island that no sightseeing tourist ever ventures to. However, as soon as that initial reaction was out of the way, we started talking as if I hadn't seen her for only a week. It was so normal having her in my home and I kept having to remind myself that it was strange. So we got back to my house and Emma got settled in whilst she regaled me with her stories from the past week. It was great to hear everything she had achieved in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Nara, and I am still incredibly impressed by how much she accomplished on her own. I was happy to find out there were a few things that she hadn't been willing to do on her own (namely try different Japanese foods) so I was excited that I would be able to introduce and share in these things with her in the next week.

Monday saw us up and ready to start the day at 9 o'clock. We headed to my supermarket and grabbed some food to have for a picnic that afternoon (we also then had to stop at a combini so that Emma could get her FamilyMart ham and cheese sandwich fix), then drove to the city ready to do a bit of touristy things there. We got there and straight away made our way to Mr. Donut to get our mid-morning snack. Then we headed to Tokushima City Park to check out the cherry blossom and the foundations of the castle. Here Emma got frustrated with me as I didn't actually know anything about the park or any statue or building in it. I think she was expecting me to be a veritable tour guide and a source of information, but unfortunately I check off neither of these two things, so we soon realised that we would have to go and find some tourist pamphlets for her to look through. We didn't need to spend too long in the park as Emma had got her fill of cherry blossom viewing in the previous week, so we made a beeline to tourist information to get Emma some leaflets and maps to keep her happy. We then headed to the mall next door to take some Purikura photos. Purikura is extremely popular in Japan. They are photo booths that make your skin look perfect and your eyes super big (very desirable in Japan) and then afterwards your can add stickers and writing to decorate over the top of them. Living in Japan gives you many opportunities to get these photos, and so I had forgotten how overwhelming and confusing they were the first time I used one. Unfortunately I didn't remember in time to tell Emma what she was supposed to do, so she was a little annoyed at me when I told her afterwards the point of the machines. However, this just meant that she was willing to try again on another day, now she knew what she was doing.

Getting the rope way to the top of the moutain

So after the photos we made our way to the Awa Odori Kaikan - a building only 10 minutes walk from the station that houses the Awa Odori museum and the entrance to the ropeway that takes you up to the top of Mount Bizan - a central symbol in Tokushima city. As it was getting towards lunch time, we decided to head straight up to the top of the Mountain to check out the view and eat our picnic lunch. Mount Bizan (the kanji meaning eyebrow) is so called because apparently it looks like an eyebrow from all directions, and sits at 280m. Although the view of the city was great, I was a little saddened by the lack of views over all of Tokushima, as our view to the west was obscured by many trees. Never the less, it was sunny and warm at the top and our picnic went well. After eating and taking a stroll around the summit, we then took the rope way back down into the Kaikan to check out the Awa Odori museum.

Outside the Awa Odori museum

I won't go into detail about Awa Odori as I feel I have successfully covered that in a previous post (check the posts in August if you have missed it), and although the museum looked interesting, unfortunately it didn't cater to foreign customers as all the information was in Japanese. It didn't take us long to work ourselves around this small museum, but we did stop for a little while to watch the video of the different Awa Odori dances towards the end. Not satisfied with a video, we then went down to the performance hall to see the main reason I had brought Emma to the kaikan - a live show of the Awa odori dance. Again, it was a little frustrating as they had one guy in between short routines explaining about the dance, but he was speaking in Japanese. However, as we went into the room we had been given a leaflet in English about the dance so we followed along as best we could. I was really happy Emma got to see the dance as it is a really big part of Tokushima, and having danced in the festival myself last year, I wanted her to appreciate just how important and interesting it was. It was great at the end of the performance because the dancers pulled members on the audience down into the performance space to have a go a dancing the dance itself and, being a Jenkinson, Emma simply couldn't pass up the opportunity. I stayed on the bench ready to take photos to document the event. It was great fun and I'm really glad Emma had the guts to go up and try it.

Joining in!

After this we left the kaikan and headed back to the car. Because of the booklets we had picked up at tourist information, Emma had stumbled upon a museum that hadn't originally been on my list. However, because of the lack of time restraints and the want to please Emma (and see things I hadn't seen yet either) we found the location on the map and headed to the traditional Awa puppet museum (Awa no Jurobe Yashiki). Because we hadn't originally planned this, and because we had stuck around to see the first performance of Awa odori at 2pm, we didn't make it in time to this museum to see the daily performance of the puppet play. However, there was a brief video (in Japanese, with an English handout) about the puppets, and around the quaint museum there were a lot of information boards thankfully written in English. We spent a little time at the museum and I was really glad we got to go. What is so nice about having Emma here is that it encouraged me/gave me a reason to go and do and see all the touristy things in Tokushima that I have yet to do (which was most of it!). Unlike when my parents came for a visit, I feel far more comfortable in my surroundings and feel that my Japanese is good enough to get me through the most simple conversations without completely falling apart. It was really fun to experience these things with Emma. Once we left the museum we took the drive back to my apartment. I took the route that is the quickest from the city to my town, and I think I might have worried Emma a little as the road we went on is little more than a pavement, running along the bank of the river. I have a 'take no prisoners' attitude when it comes to this road and not slowing down for the tight barriers may have given her a slight cause for alarm, but we made it home safe so that's all that matters. The evening was taken up with a dinner with Todd - a chance for Emma to finally meet (and hopefully approve) of the boyfriend for the first time. We chose to go to an okonomiyaki place as I feel that out of all things Japanese, this dish is one that would probably be the easiest on the taste buds. It is a Japanese pancake mainly consisting of a mixture of flour, egg and cabbage with your choice of extra ingredients. On top of this pancake goes a generous helping of brown sauce (which is pretty much a mixture or Worcestershire sauce and ketchup) and some mayonnaise and seaweed flakes to taste. I was pleased to see that Emma enjoyed her dinner (we did order her one with 4 types of cheese so couldn't really go wrong) and we had a nice evening just catching up and chatting. After dinner we headed back to my place to watch a DVD before bed. A great first day.

yummy okonomiyaki dinner!

Outside the bridge over the 'whirlpools'

The next day saw us up to grey skies (which is why we had the picnic the day before!) We hopped into the car again, had another quick stop off at the combini and then started the hour drive to Naruto to see the whirlpools. The whirlpools in Naruto are apparently some of the world's greatest whirlpools and occur because of the meeting of the Inland Sea and the Pacific ocean. It is supposed to be pretty spectacular when you see it. When we got there I was thoroughly annoyed to see that I had been misled. Apparently the Naruto Whirlpools are a sight to behold, but they only appear at certain points in the day depending on the tides. I had checked and rechecked the website, where it said the tide times and at the bottom said it was good to see the whirlpools an hour before or after these times. What it didn't make clear that it was best to see the whirlpools at these times!! Sigh, so we ended up getting to the bridge that spans over the whirlpools a mere 30 mins after it's prime viewing time. We paid our money anyway and walked along the walkway underneath the highway bridge, looking through the glass flooring trying to catch a glimpse of these elusive pools. Unfortunately, although the water was rough and every now and again we did see a tiny whirlpool start up before is was sucked back into the natural flow of the tide, we didn't get to see anything spectacular. And we left feeling a little bit let down, but still glad we gave it a go.
 

Yay! Rough water!

Not much to see...

Next up was a trip to the Naruto German House - built on the site of a relocation camp for German prisoners of World War I. I have been to the house a few times before, but only to enjoy the Christmas market, or see some events that are happening. I had yet to be upstairs to the museum. Again, this was something I hadn't really planned to do, but Emma seemed keen on it so I was glad to go to experience it with her. The museum was actually really interesting. It talked a lot about the prisoners and how they interacted with the local Japanese community, talking a lot about the musical accomplishments of the camp - namely, to put on a performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony. It was a cute little museum with a lot of English information so it was definitely well worth the visit.

View from the German House

Statue of Beethoven

After the German House we made our way to lunch. Today's special? Sushiro! My favourite conveyor belt sushi chain in Tokushima! Each plate comes with two pieces of sushi on it, and each plate is 105yen. Again, it was with much trepidation that I brought Emma to sushiro as my sister doesn't like fish! However, this is something she definitely needed to experience, and I was glad to find a few things that she enjoyed, and I know that she enjoyed the whole experience.

Tempura crab - a hit!

Taking our order of the belt

Great fun (with an unfortunate photo of the server!)

Outside one of my elementary schools

After lunch is was back in the car and back towards my end of Tokushima. I took the opportunity to take Emma to my schools but unfortunately I couldn't take her inside. Unlike England, the new school year starts in April in Japan, so there was a new change of staff in the schools. In both my junior high school, and one of my elementary schools, my principal had changed, so I couldn't get permission before the Spring break to bring Emma into the schools. However, as we pulled into one of my elementary schools, I realised that I was quite disappointed that Emma couldn't see inside, and I got the impression that she was too, so I called my JTE (Japanese teacher of English) hoping that she would be working. Luckily she was (at my other elementary school) and she quickly got the permission from the principal there for Emma to come and have a look around. So I quickly drove to the school, and after a brief introduction to my JTE, we were given space and a free reign to look round the school. A unexpected treat that I think Emma greatly appreciated.

Starting up!

Having got our fill of looking around the school, we said a brief goodbye and thank you to the teachers and, laden with cakes, we headed out to another one of Emma's added trips - a brief stint at the local pachinko parlour. I think I have explained about pachinko before in previous posts, but pachinko is basically the most popular form of gambling in Japan and there are pachinko parlours all over the place. It basically involves the player to shoot ball bearings into a kind of pinball machine at the right pace to get them to fall into the 'lucky' holes. The whole point of the game is to get more balls out than you put in. This being my third time into this particular parlour (one time as a whim on leap day, the other with the folks) I half knew what I was doing. Emma put in her 500yen coin (about £3.20) and she was off. Soon we were in fits of laughter as we realised that Emma is a natural at pachinko. Although at first we didn't really know what was going on, for some reason new balls kept pouring out of the winnings slot at the bottom. She actually played it so long that we had enough time to work out what was going on, and started getting excited when we saw we had a chance at a 'lucky' stage! It was brilliant. In then end we had to physically stop Emma from playing by taking remaining balls out of the 'in play' section to add them to her winnings so we could leave. For what was supposed to be only a 10 minute stop off, ended up in us leaving with Emma coming away 1100yen richer and us losing 45 minutes from our schedule! Oh I almost forgot to mention, our amusement also increased when we realised that the loud music on the machine appeared to being going in a quick loop, and non of Emma's balls were being shot into the machine anymore. That's right, Emma had broken the machine!! I had to call over a employee with a bemused expression and she soon sorted out the problem. At first we thought that it had broken Emma's winning streak, but she soon picked it back up again!

Getting into it

The start of her winnings...

woops! Broke the machine!

Collecting her winnings through a hole in the wall!

This didn't really matter though as there was only a few short stops left of the day. I had planned to take Emma to the local popular ice cream shop to get her daily fix. Unfortunately the store was closed so we headed straight on to our next destination - Dochu Sand Pillars. Although not the most overwhelming thing I have seen (it didn't help that it was raining by this point) it was interesting to have a brief look at these limestone pillars that had been created from 200 million years of erosion. Apparently there are only two other pillars of this type in the world, one in America, and one in Italy, so that was fun to know that it was only a brief drive from me. Not needing to spend long at the pillars, we snapped a few photos and then headed back to my place for a quick freshen up and a change before the evening shenanigans!

Bracing the rain at the sand pillars

Not much to look at...

Ok, we've seen it, can we go home now?!

That evening I had invited a few of my friends to join me and Emma at a traditional Japanese style restaurant when we had a set course dinner comprising of grilled, fried and steamed meats, fish and vegetables (and noodles of course). Once everyone had eaten their fill, we then headed out for another 'must-do' activity when you're in Japan - karaoke. We had great fun at this karaoke place (aided by the all-you-can eat soft serve ice cream) and everyone had lots of fun choosing songs to show off their various *ahem* skills! I was sad when the night came to an end but I think everyone really enjoyed themselves and I'm glad Emma got to experience that side of Japan with some great people.

The group at dinner

First up, introducing Emma to karaoke...

...the song of choice!!

Concentrating hard.

The next day we had a nice relaxing start as we didn't need to get going until noon. We took the opportunity to finish packing and watch the DVD of the pantomime that Emma had starred in in her local pantomime group. The show was Dick Wittington (Emma playing Dick!) and although she felt a little uncomfortable at watching herself on the screen, I was really glad that I got to see it and share it with her, as she didn't join the panto group until I had moved to Japan and so had yet to see any of her shows. Midday came along and Todd came with it, being extremely helpful and giving us a ride to the station with all our baggage. Our destination? Hiroshima. 

On the shinkansen

I have been to Hiroshima two times already since being in Japan but both of those times were to partake in the sake festival (see past posts) in October. I was really excited to go back, especially in April when I'd get the chance to see it with the cherry blossoms in full bloom. Our journey saw us taking two local trains and a shinkansen, but three hours later we found ourselves spat out at Hiroshima station. From there is was a short tram ride to our tiny ryokan that we had decided to call home for the next two nights. 

Our little ryokan, with only 6 rooms!

We got to our ryokan (traditional Japanese style hotel) and were a little surprised to find it abandoned with a sign out with our name and room number on it, and our room key sat on the table in the kitchen. Unperturbed, we picked up our key and scaled the alarmingly steep and narrow stairs and let ourselves into our little room. It was very cute, big enough for two futons to be rolled out and a little table with tea making essentials laid out. We took a few snaps of our room, and relaxed until we heard the little owner return with other new guests. We let them get settled and then went downstairs to greet the lady and settle our bill. I had a good giggle when she called Emma my mother, but apart from that the lady was an absolute sweetheart and was very helpful in giving us maps and telling us how to get to the tourist destinations.

Careful on the stairs!

Our little room!

Oh yes!

Armed with a map we headed out back to the station to book tickets for Emma's train journeys back to Tokyo on the Friday. I then took Emma to a little okonomiyaki place that I had been to the past two times I visited Hiroshima and we settled down for a great dinner of Hiroshima style okonomiyaki (the same as normal okonomiyaki with added soba noodles). Delicious. We then took the tram back to the main shopping district where we wondered around checking out the sites and sounds and also found a game arcade where we could have another go a purikura (a much more successful attempt this time around) from here we strolled back through the peace park towards our ryokan. Emma went for a shower and I quickly unfolded the futon and, after a mandatory yukata photo, we settled down for the night ready for more sightseeing in the morning.

I love this place!

Shopping street

Purikura take 2

In our yukatas on our futons!

A-bomb dome

So the next day saw us up and ready for a great day of touristy things. The weather was perfect and we were in high spirits when we left the ryokan. The first stop was the A-bomb dome and peace park. I have written about this before so I won't go into depth, but it was nice to experience these things with Emma as she always has a different (perhaps more intellectual) perspective on things. It was once again very humbling to go to the park and see all the things related to the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. I even went into a museum that I hadn't been to before - an unnerving experience of walking a curved route down into a room that had the scene of after the bomb had hit drawn by the thousands of names of people who had died as a result. After this we checked out the children's memorial statue where Emma donated her own paper crane of peace and then I went for a sit down by the river whilst Emma checked out the museum. It was very peaceful sitting by the lake, until I was completely surrounded by a large group of Japanese mums and children enjoying a hanami picnic. Sigh. Emma was out of the museum in an hour and a half, and although she found it interesting, she was slightly overwhelmed by how much there was in there (something that I felt when I went before). She was very excited though because whilst she was in the museum, a group of sumo wrestlers also turned up, so that was another bit of cultural sightseeing for her.

Donating a peace crane

There it goes..

Colourful paper cranes to pray for peace

Ringing the peace bell

The dome with some cherry blossoms

Famous in Miyajima - the deer, rice spoon and large

 torii gate!

After this we made our way from the Peace Park and onto our next tourist destination - Miyajima Island. Again, I have talked about this place before, but although I had already been, this time round was completely different as I went to a temple and a shrine that I didn't visit last time I had gone. It was great. We wandered through the small shopping streets on the way to the temple, snatching up souvenirs and presents along the way, and I had a great sense of accomplishment as I managed to help Emma return a pencil she didn't want because she thought it was a pen! I was strutting around like a peacock for a little while afterwards as I felt, finally, I had managed to use my Japanese for something actually helpful! We also made sure that we took a photo with the giant rice spoon (the largest in the world) as Miyajima invented the rice spoon.

Local, famous cake - momiji

Biggest rice spoon in the world!

After much meandering we finally made it to Daisho-In Temple - one of the most prestigious Shingon (Buddhist) temples in the western part of Japan. There were many different parts of this temple, but the highlights for me included the 500 Rakan statues, depictions of disciples of Shaka Nyorai, each with a unique facial expression, and the Henjyokutsu Cave  - a room filled will the principal Buddhist icons of the eighty eight temples of the prestigious pilgrimage route of Shikoku (my island). Worshippers believe that they get the same blessing by visiting these statues as they would if they visited all 88 temples (this way is much easier and quicker!). The best part about this room for me was how it was lit by hundreds of lanterns suspended from the ceiling which dimly lit the room. The photos don't really do it justice but it looked pretty fantastic.

The entrance of the temple (lots of stairs!)

Oh yeah, and most of them had wooly hats on!

Once we had finished in the temple, we made our way back to the main street to head into the Itsukushima Shrine - a unique shrine built on stilts out over the water. The famous part of this shrine is its gate that at high tide is surrounded by water. We visited the shrine at high tide so got to see the gate from a distance whilst it stood in the water.

Where we were about to go

 A great view of the gate at the end of a small pier

A rare photo of Emma doing the Japanese peace sign!

 We had a brilliant afternoon on Miyajima but we were both a little relieved when we managed to sit down on the busy ferry headed back over to the mainland. From here, we made our way back to the ryokan, chilled out and cleaned up before heading back out for our final night together in Hiroshima. We just wanted to go for a nice dinner, and I hadn't had any major brainwaves of anywhere special to take Emma, so we ended up deciding to walk back through the shopping streets to see if anything took our fancy. As it turned out, we happened to stumble on a hamburger steak restaurant that Emma had been brave enough to try by herself in Tokyo. Finding it very amusing that she was recommending a place for me, we decided that it would be as good a place as any for dinner and so we headed in to enjoy a final night of food, ice cream and talking, before we were well and truly ready to slink back to the ryokan to sleep.

I never told you about the cutest part of our ryokan. When we got there, as we were climbing up the stairs, we were stared down by photos of past guests at the ryokan. Not disappointed, our gracious host took a photo of us outside the ryokan on morning, and by the time we got back we had been added to the wall of guests, and had been given a spare photo as a gift! So sweet!

On the right, in pink and black! We're famous!

So we woke up to our final morning, and said a sad goodbye to our little room and the owner before dragging Emma's case back out onto the street. Emma's train back to Tokyo left at just gone 3, so we had the morning and lunch to ourselves before we had to part ways. Wasting no time we headed back to the station and found a locker to store our luggage in whilst we enjoyed our morning. First stop, Shukkeien Garden. This garden is absolutely beautiful and displays many of the popular aspects of Japanese gardens what with it's rolling hills, bridges, large pond with small islands, and many places to stroll and sit. We spent a glorious hour just wandering through the garden, taking in the sights and enjoying the beautiful weather. We were also greatly entertained by the resident tortoises in the pond. It was a nice relaxing start to our morning.

Beautiful cherry blossoms and trees

Small 'rainbow' bridge in the middle of the pond

On top of the bridge

Pretty!

From there we walked over to Hiroshima Castle - something I had yet to see. Not being a huge fan of museums, I really enjoy going to Japanese castle museums as I know as I go up each floor, they get smaller so less and less information is provided! This castle was actually one of the better ones I have been to in Japan and had some very interesting information. A great part of it was the trying on section, where Emma and I tried on a samurai helmet (very heavy) and Emma tried on a kimono-type outfit. We made it all the way to the top and had a great view over Hiroshima. Heading back down and out we stopped for some ice cream and I tried my first green tea ice cream! It was nice, but surprisingly sickly, and I don't think I'd go for it again if I had a choice! After this we headed back to the station (with a quick stop in a combini to get a picnic dinner for Emma) with the plan of grabbing some lunch before Emma's train.

Green tea ice cream!!

After a lovely lunch and a look around a bookstore, it was time to get our luggage out of the locker and see Emma off. I had had such a great time hosting Emma and didn't truly appreciate how much so until I had to say goodbye. We managed to take a nice photo just before I turned to her and promptly started tearing up (especially once I saw she was doing the same!) Saying goodbye to my sister was honestly the hardest goodbye I've had to say yet (and that includes when my parents came to Japan!) I think that being apart for so long has actually helped us grow closer and (in her words) I have grown up, so now it feels less of a sibling friendship than an actual 'grown up' friendship. Anyway, good times were had the week Emma came to visit and I am now looking forward to when I can go home and hang out a little more with her!

Just before our tearful goodbye at the station!