RazzleBerry

Only in Japan would you find "beautiful" frozen yogurt.

While walking to Enoshima, I almost walked past this storefront until Andrew brought it to my attention. I stopped dead in my tracks and then insisted that we had to go in, to the amusement of my dad:

Inside, the decor was very girly - hot pink and black - complete with a pink and black chandelier. Even more amusing was how the menu was set up - the frozen yogurt portion of the menu was called the "Fitting Room" and the portion sizes came in cute, sexy and glamorous - take that Starbucks!

Toppings were called "Jewelery" and as you may be able to make out on the mirror-shaped menu below, each fruit was assigned a different jewel name - for example, I believe raspberries were called rubies:

Putting all the kitschy trappings aside, how was the frozen yogurt? Considering that we're in Japan, the portion and topping sizes were accordingly small. Andrew is still complaining about the fact that he only got three blueberries. The flavor was OK, a bit washed out compared to what we have access to in the states. Not that these two minded.

Land of the Great Buddha

After a fairly restful day on Sunday, Andrew, my dad and I were ready to head out on the Japanese trains for another day trip to Kamakura and Enoshima.

Andrew caught on quickly to the Japanese ticket and turnstile system and readily complied with my request to capture his first Japanese train ride:


With the help of my dad's memory and a map, we successfully made it to Kamakura. As Monday was a national holiday for Japanese, the streets were flooded with people heading towards the same temple that we were going to:

As Kamakura served as one of Japan's capital cities in the past, it is filled with tons of historic shrines and temples. By far, the most famous is Kotokuin Temple, which features a giant Buddha which measures 11.312 meters in height (my rough calculations are putting that at around 34 feet high):

The pictures don't do it justice - I can't tell you how impressive it is to stand there in person and gaze upon the Buddha. It sounds a bit corny but even with the holiday masses swarming around us, you do get a sense of peace from the Buddha:

One section that's not so peaceful is a little exhibit hidden at the back of the temple featuring a Korean Kannon statue in the back that was (my words) stolen during Japan's occupation of Korea in the early 20th century. It remains locked behind a wooden door so you can barely see it, but the picture was clear enough to make my mom and Korean aunt angry when they visited the same exhibit earlier this year.


The structure behind us is what houses the Kannon statue - as you can see, my dad and I were calmer about the whole situation and it was tough to get too angry in what is truly a tranquil environment:

Back to the Great Buddha, Andrew and I couldn't miss the chance to go inside:


For a mere 20 yen each, we were able to squeeze ourselves on a narrow stairway that lead to the interior of the Buddha - the cavity you see in the wall leads to the Buddha's head:


Andrew was a good sport about visiting the interior, despite getting squished on the stairwell by hordes of tourists:

Finally, no visit to a temple or shrine is complete without visiting their souvenir stand at the end. One of my favorite gifts is to give a charm that has been blessed for a particular purpose, which is why Andrew got one for safe traffic (no car accidents) on one of my last trips to Japan when he had just bought a new car. On this visit, Andrew ended up buying the strong legs charm (which is funny if you know him) on the upper right hand corner as well as for healing up for his grandfather:

Korean Japchae for Breakfast

One of the things I always enjoy most about being home is having access to my Mom's Korean cooking for every meal of the day!



Monday morning was no exception - on top of everything she already made for us (lumpia, kimchi, my favorite miso soup), my Mom whipped up a large amount of japchae, a Korean noodle, vegetable and beef dish.

When I say large amount, I mean a massive tub of it:

This means Andrew had his first taste of japchae for breakfast:

Finally, a shot of japchae plated for my Mom to bring into work for a Thanksgiving potluck meal:


You would think Andrew would be tired of all the Asian food he's eating (Korean for breakfast and dinner, Japanese for lunch) but he seems to be surviving admirably. :)

Japanese Grocery Store

On Sunday, Andrew and I took a day of rest. Which means we slept in until 7 am (which is late for jet lag, considering we woke up at 4 am this morning) and stuck with our vow to avoid anything with a lengthy amount of travel. Instead, Andrew got the five minute tour of Zama, which was the full tour considering how big the base is. We ventured off base for a quick trip to one of my favorite restuarants, Bamiyan, for lunch and then we walked through the Odakyu OX grocery store that is connected to the Sobudaimae train station.

It reminded me of Whole Foods in terms of how attractively the fruit was displayed (notice that each peace of fruit is in its own separate protective wrapping) and the prices!

Here's a shot of my Uncle Rich's favorite section, the beer. My Dad and Andrew stocked up on a few choices to enjoy with a pizza dinner later on in the day:

One of my personal favorites, the ice cream section which extended down both sides of an aisle:

More desserts in the prepared foods section:


And finally, similar again to Whole Foods, an impressive prepared meals section which I would love to have in the US:

Andrew's Coffee Tour of Japan

One of the things that Andrew has really enjoyed so far on his first trip to Japan is trying Japanese coffee out of vending machines.

While this doesn't sound too appetizing, you have to realize that vending machines in Japan are far superior to anything you see in the US - I'm not quite sure why American beverage companies haven't caught onto the same technology, but I digress. So vending machines here vend both hot and cold drinks, which are indicated by a blue- or red-colored price. Behind Andrew in this picture, you can see the cold rows of drinks.


There are a wide variety of tasty drinks (and even corn pottage soup, which has a corn chowder consistency) that come out of vending machines and Andrew's gotten a kick of trying a new flavor each time. The first picture captured Andrew's first purchase in Japan, which was in the parking lot of Narita Airport.

Below, Andrew took his own pictures of the coffee choices he made on our Hakone bus trip.

As we were leaving the shrine, Andrew made two more selections. He told me that they can make excellent hand warmers (as they come out of the vending machine toasty warm and the perfect temperature to drink), which is something all we Zama people discovered when we were high schoolers. There was many a cold day when I would buy a drink from a vending machine to use solely as a hand warmer, and then pop open to drink once it had become lukewarm.


Day two in Japan, Andrew sticks with just one coffee since we brewed some at home that morning:

I know Andrew will definitely miss the vending machines once we leave Japan!

Part Four: Hakone Shrine

Our last stop of the tour was Hakone Shrine, whose Torii gate we had seen on the water during our boat cruise across Lake Ashi. The presence of a Torii gate indicates that you are passing a gateway into a spiritual world, which is definitely what it felt like at the Hakone Shrine:

I don't know if you can get the feeling from the pictures, but it was incredible to be walking up to the shrine surrounded by these incredibly tall and ancient trees, which exuded a sense of peace:


Before entering the shrine, visitors traditionally wash their hands and mouths with spring water. In this time of swine flu, we skipped touching our mouths but made sure to show respect for old traditions by rinsing our hands:

For a lack of better words, this was definitely one of the coolest springs that I have ever seen at a shrine - can you see the water coming out of the dragon's mouth?

Andrew standing under a Torii gate for one of the smaller shrines along the path to Hakone shrine:

When we made it to the top, one of the first things we could see was a wall lined with people's prayers and wishes:

This was Hakone Shrine itself, located in a clearing amongst the tall trees and facing Lake Ashi - it was a pretty impressive sight:

Andrew and I posing by the front gates - I love how the light is illuminating the front entrance:

Also on display at the bottom of the path for the shrine was a piece of fossilized tree - I wish I could tell you more about its significance, but the sign was all in Japanese:


Peering through the tree, my wise guy's head popped up on the other side:

After this, we were exhausted. We hauled our butts on the bus and promptly fell asleep on the two hour ride home. After being stuck on the Narita bus for over three hours the night before, we decided to take a break on Monday from anything that would require us to travel long distances!

Part Three: Japanese Lunch

Part of the adventure of traveling in Japan is finding a restaurant with food that you want to eat and if you're lucky, a menu with pictures or even better, with English on it. We found a promising restaurant to try in Hakone and both Dad and Andrew were relieved to see that they offered beer:

My drink of choice was a lemon soda, as in lemon juice mixed with soda water - it was pretty and refreshing:

Andrew went with minced pork cutlets as his main meal, accompanied by miso soup, white rice and some dishes that I didn't recognize (they looked a bit unappetizing so he left them untouched):

My Dad had tempura seafood and vegetables over rice with a side of miso soup:


I went with a Japanese classic - tonkatsu (breaded pork cutlet) with curry, served over rice:


I'm happy to report that Andrew enjoyed his first Japanese meal in a restaurant, and that we were able to follow it up with some excellent soft serve ice cream afterwards.

I had never seen such a wide variety of exotic flavors, there was sweet melon, black sesame, custard pudding, edamame, purple sweet potato, tofu and your more typical flavors such as strawberry, chocolate and vanilla, cookies and cream, etc.

Andrew went with blueberry (listed as bluebelly), I chose one of my Asian favorites - chestnut, and my Dad chose caramel. I have to admit that I love ice cream no matter what country I eat it in, but I do have a soft spot for Japanese soft serve - yummy!

Part Two: Ropeway and Lake Ashi

After leaving the hot springs, it was time to make our way down into Owakudani Valley. We had driven through it but didn't get a chance to appreciate how beautiful it was until we could see it from above!

Our tour group split into two trams on the "ropeway" aka cable cars for Americans:

We had stunning views of Fuji again, as seen over Andrew's left shoulder:

Here's a view of the valley and Lake Ashi, which would be our last stop. I don't think I realized how high up we were until we starting going down, if that makes sense. If you squint, you can see the ship we would be riding across the lake:

After arriving at the bottom, the pirate (?) ship greeted us in its full glory. Although my Dad endlessly mocked it for historical accuracy (the Japanese weren't exactly known for their pirating history), I have to admit that it was a majestic sight each time it sailed across the lake:

We crossed from one end of the lake to the far end, and you guessed it, could still see Fuji in the distance although it was beginning to get obscured by clouds:

On our way to the historical checkpoint, we happened to see a Japanese bride and groom - dressed in traditional garb - headed to their wedding ceremony! I was super excited by this and even yelled out congratulations, hoping that they would understand the well wishes behind the comment even if they didn't understand the word:

Our final stop before lunch was a historical checkpoint from the Edo period - as the name states, it was a checkpoint that all travelers needed to go through in order to travel to Tokyo. The brochure said its main purpose was to keep arms out and women in - we couldn't figure out if that meant that women were being kidnapped or if they wanted to flee!

Admittedly, this exhibit was kind of boring since it just featured statues of people performing traditional tasks. I'll spare you from that and instead, bring you another picture of Andrew and I from within the checkpoint:

Although the checkpoint itself was boring, the lake views it offered from its lookout tower exhibit were wonderful (after climbing a bunch of stairs):

As we headed out to find a place to eat lunch, Andrew stopped to show us what his inner samurai looked like - ready for battle (or a large meal!):