Headed home

After the late night out, I awoke early the next day at my Sakura apartment. The night before, I had packed all of the additional stuff that I had left in Tokyo while I traveled. My luggage was bursting at the seams. I also had to carry some other things that couldn't be put in a suitcase. I hobbled down the street, weighed down with baggage, carrying by busted suitcase with a missing wheel. It was awful. I had to make it all the way across town to Tokyo station by 9:30am to catch a train to Toke station near Chiba, a town east of Tokyo. Here I would be met by a couple Nikken folks to take a tour of a new museum under construction designed by one of my supervisors, Suzuki-san.

Unfortunately, this promotional image for the Hoki Collection that is already online is the only image that I can show at this point. There is a website with a few more images at http://www.worldbuildingsdirectory.com/project.cfm?id=1846.

The building is nearly complete, with nearly all of the interior finishes applied. It will house an collection of hyperrealism paintings, or paintings that are made to look like high definition photographs. The building has been designed in such a way that almost all seams and corners disappear, and where the material surfaces seem to have a continuity that almost defies what you think might be physically possible. The curves of the volumes make me think of stroke of a paint brush. An amazing steel cantilevered volume thrusts out over 100 ft. past the base of the building. There are many amazing little details to find everywhere. I felt very fortunate to visit this place before it opens. Despite all the amazing architecture seen on this trip, this was certainly one of the most inspiring buildings I visited.

After the visit, we had a final delicious Japanese lunch near the train station. We then rode together to Chiba station, where I would change to continue on to Narita Airport, and they would head back to Tokyo. We said our goodbyes, and I reluctantly departed for the airport. I say reluctantly because I'll miss those guys and I could have used a couple more days in Tokyo before leaving. However, the last two weeks had been exhausting, and in many ways I was ready to head home.

I was more than happy to hand over my awful luggage once I got to Narita. I browsed the gift stores, picking up a few extra things for some friends.

Finally, I boarded my All Nippon Airways flight home, glad that I at least had a few more hours of Japanese food and drinks aboard the plane at my disposal.

Last night in town

I'd made plans to crash at my old Sakura House apartment in Tokyo for my last night before flying back to the U.S. Unfortunately, most of the Sakura folks were working that evening. But, I had managed to set up a dinner with some of my friends from Nikken. I decided to take them out to try to try some Tex-Mex food, since some of them had never tried it before. I met them down at the office that evening and we headed over to Roppongi, where most of the western-centric entertainment can be found.

While it certainly wasn't the best Tex-Mex food I've ever had (the fajitas were okay), we had fun trying the spicier salsas and they got to sample some things they hadn't tried before like mole sauce. If was great to see these guys again and have one more meal with all of them.

Nakamura-san, party animal, convinced everyone to head out for a drink afterwards. We went to a bar with cheap drinks, dancing (including some on top of the bar), and western pop music. We all had a blast, and I have to admit we ended up having more than one drink. We got out of there just in time to catch the last train home. I couldn't have asked for a better last night in the city.

Sumo!

The morning before leaving Nagoya, I decided that I had to check out a Sumo tournament that just happened to be be going on while I was in town. A few people at the hostel had said that they checked it out and that it was definitely worth going.

The tournament goes for about two weeks, and there are sumo matches all day. Usually the lesser known participants go in the morning, with the highest skill level bouts in the late afternoon. I only had time to go in the morning, so I had to settle for the unknown guys. The benefit to going early, though, was that the crowd was much lighter and I could actually go up and sit in the 2nd or 3rd row with no problem. It was great to be so close to the action. Also, my Australian friend from the previous night just happened to already be there when I arrived, so we hung out and placed bets on who would win each match.

We got a good assortment of wrestlers, from scrawny guys who should probably find another sport to huge monsters who would just manhandle opponents. We were so close that we sometimes had to bail out of the way if a wrestler got knocked out of the ring on our side of the platform.

I also found it amusing how around the area of the city near the arena, sumo wrestlers could be seen carrying their equipment to work, or just taking the subway home.

I was glad to check sumo wrestling off my list of things not to be missed in Japan. I only had one more day, after all.

Takayama

Though I planned to stay in Nagoya for two nights, I was really only using it as a base to get out to Takayama for a day trip. Takayama is a small town way up in the mountains, about a two hour train ride from Nagoya station. It's supposed to have some very well preserved old parts of the city as well as some old farmhouses.

The ride through the mountains was beautiful, snaking through tight valleys between towering peaks alongside a rushing river.

Though I had been enjoying the nicer weather after the dreariness in Kyoto and Osaka, the heat was starting to become a problem. I had an umbrella to help provide some shade, but wind sometimes made it too much of a nuisance to use. I ducked into the city streets of Takayama hoping to find some shaded places to walk around.

They have preserved the center of town extremely well, with old storefronts and residential buildings along quaint narrow streets. I think they are known for craft work here, and many stores are filled with beautiful wood and metal pieces.

Many streets still have small water canals along the street edges that still brings river water to residences and businesses.

They're also known for having several local sake breweries. You could spot them easily by the bunched balls of cedar branches that are hung out front, called sugidama. I stopped inside one and did some tasting, picking up a few bottles for gifts. The brewery also had this beautiful little courtyard with a terrace made from wood tiles.

The exterior building also had interesting walls made from what appeared to be cedar and bamboo.

I spent the afternoon walking around town, and also saw some traditional farm houses, but sadly my camera lost battery power later in the day. There was so much more to do here, but the fact that I had to get back to Nagoya, along with the stifling heat, made it necessary for me to leave visiting some of the surrounding area until my next trip. I did manage to get the camera to turn on for a last shot of the sunset out the window of my train on the way back to Nagoya.

That night, I met a few other solo travelers in my hotel's common room. Four of us, including an Australian, an Italian and a Frenchman, all of whom spoke good English, went out and did a little bar crawl around our neighborhood. We tried a british pub, a very small karaoke place where people actually sat at the bar and sang, and a few yakitori places with food and drink. We met a bunch of people, but after the subways closed our neighborhood emptied out a bit, leaving us searching for a place that had any people inside at all! We headed back to the hostel to hang out before heading to bed.

Awaji Island / Kobe

I had a lot of things planned for today, so I tried to get an early start, checking out of the hotel and leaving my bags with reception for the day. I walked to Sannomiya station in central Kobe and took a train headed west along the coast of Osaka Bay.

My destination was a pair of structures by Japan's most famous architect, Tadao Ando, both built on Awaji Island.

As I approached Maiko station, out the window I could see the enormous span of the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge, the largest suspension bridge in the world. Its length is more than 150% of the length of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. The station where you can pick up a bus that takes you across the bridge is actually on the bridge itself. From the train station at ground level, you take two elevators to the bridge level to reach the bus station.

The bus dropped me off at the Awaji Westin Hotel which also happens to be the location of Ando's Awaji Yumebutai. Built into the side of a mountain, this site was actually the location where all the dirt was excavated for an artificial island in Osaka Bay that Kansai International Airport was built upon. The idea was to rebuild the carved out mountain side into an environmental park, gardening laboratory, and performance space that blends into the surrounding landscape. Ando created an impressive structure with concrete framing gorgeous views and forums for performances, numerous waterfalls, flower displays, and greenhouses. It is a sprawling piece of architecture, with many places to explore.

The views across the bay were spectacular, with Kobe and Osaka easily visible in the distance at the base of steep mountain ranges. I spent at least 2 hours exploring the place and taking pictures.

I happened to run into an architect from Canada and two men from Thailand, both of whom were also there to see Ando's work. We all had Ando's Water Temple next on the agenda so we took the bus over together.

It was starting to become a very hot afternoon, and the Water Temple is not exactly easily accessible. It was about a 15 minute walk up a steep, unshaded slope from the bus stop on the main road. By the time we got the top we were exhausted, and briefly pondered the idea of just jumping into the water instead of entering the temple.

A very deliberate and interesting path brings you inside the temple grounds. You ascend up a path through a hill of gravel and enter a perforation through a curved concrete wall, and then you follow another curved wall back the other way before you come around the edge to open up a view across the water filled temple covered with lily pads and lotuses.

A staircase takes you down beneath the water's surface into a dark chamber.

Surprisingly, inside the temple itself there were more traditional elements than I expected. The red vermilion wood, religious signs and figures, and the altar were used in similar ways to the many traditional temples I'd seen. However, here it is all integrated into a modern oval shaped chamber of concrete.

We headed back down to the bus stop before we looked at our bus schedule and realized that the next bus wouldn't arrive for another 90 minutes! We were frying out there on the sidewalk. We ended up walking for 20 minutes back to the hotel to see if we could catch another bus back across the bridge from there, but it turned out that it didn't make a difference. We were stuck there. At least at the hotel we could duck in for some air conditioning, though.

By the time I got back to Kobe, I'd lot a lot of time, unfortunately. I did manage to briefly stop at two more places I had wanted to visit, but sadly they had closed early that day for some reason. The Kobe Earthquake Museum was a pretty cool building on it's own. It's pretty bold to build an earthquake museum almost completely out of glass, but despite the materials, the building itself is supposed to be extremely resistant to the strongest earthquakes.

Next door was a contemporary art museum, again by Ando. The building form is quite dramatic, with huge horizontal overhangs cantilevered out over the stepped facade. I would have liked to have seen the inside, but it will have to wait until next time.

The boardwalk along the water in front of these two buildings was also a popular place for bikers.

I stopped back at my hotel to pick up my bags. Unfortunately for me, the wheel on my bag seemed to have finally given out, and I was forced to drag my bag almost the whole way to the train station. The heat and the exhaustion were killing me! Eventually I made it to the station, grabbed some food for the ride, and slid into my seat on the comfortable, air conditioned Shinkansen bound for Nagoya.

My hostel in Nagoya wasn't too far from the station, thankfully, and it was a pretty nice place, too. I got the bunk right under the air conditioner, which is actually just fine in the heat of the Japanese summer. I managed to pull myself together enough to do a short night out, hopping on a subway train bound for Sakae station in the center of town. Nagoya seemed like a pleasant place actually, with lots of parks and handsome architecture, at least from the parts that I saw. I ended up at an Australian bar called the Red Rock. I hung out there for most of the night, manging to strike up a conversation with some local people who tried to give me their best English. We also watched the end of a tight extra innings baseball game on TV, with the hometown Chunichi Dragons winning it with a walk-off double in the 11th inning.