2009-10-9 Japanese Toilets

The bus tour stopped and the guide directed us to the restrooms. There was one western style toilet but it was out of order. And there was no toilet paper. I ended up buying tea-flavored ice cream for the first time in order to get some napkins to use for toilet paper. They wouldn't give me any napkins unless I bought an ice cream cone. Apparently, this was a common problem with western tourists. 

I bought a waffle cone and it was really good! The store was skimpy with the napkins. They could have given away all their napkins as toilet paper if they weren't careful. Either that or they took advantage of the paper shortage to sell ice cream. 

The toilet stall was similar to the one below except without the toilet paper. When I got back to the bus, I complained to the guide. She said paper was not usually available in public restrooms. 

Women in Japan have learned to carry their own paper or rags. Plus, they usually have bidets so they don't have as much need for paper. 

Japan had the greatest variety of toilets of any country I visited. Often there was one western style toilet and a couple of Japanese style toilets. You need thighs of steel to use a toilet that is flush with the ground. There is nothing to pull yourself up with. So, if you don't want to crawl around on the bathroom floor, you need to be able to stand up from a crouching position.

Hotel toilets were top of the line. They were similar to the one below. The toilet seat lid moved in and out of position. There was a bidet and a stream of warm air to dry you off. Plus, the toilet seat was warm! 

There were buttons that I didn't understand so maybe it took your dog out for a walk, too.

Whenever we saw a cool toilet, we invited the other women in our group into the bathroom to check it out. 

(UPDATE 2022)  I have bidet at home now and use it everyday.

2009-10-9 Tour of Tokyo

This is a torii. A torii is a traditional Japanese gate which is typically found at the entrance or inside of a Shinto shrine. They are not all a reddish-orange color but that's the only color I saw. It is a symbol of walking through the ordinary to the spiritual or sacred.

We took the Tour of Tokyo by bus because we were having too much trouble walking. It was wonderful! We could NOT have duplicated the places we visited without a great deal of effort--cabs, busses, walking, etc. While we were off on our own we discovered that many people in Japan did not understand or speak English. We also discovered that we couldn't use a Japanese keyboard. It was pretty complicated. 

We visited the Imperial Palace. 

We saw the Golden Pavilion also known as Kinkaku-ji Zen Temple. The top two floors are covered in gold leaf! If this was in the USA, people would be swimming over to scrape the gold leaf off. 

This is the Senso-ji Temple in the Asakusa section of Tokyo. 

We walked down a long stairway at one point. 

Bill took some pictures of me in the beautiful garden. 

  

We went to the top of Mt. Rokko in a cable car. 

We saw the panoramic views of Kobe and Osaka from the top of Mt. Rokko. Then our tour of Japan was over.

2009-10-8 Seiryu-ji Temple and giant Buddha, Aomori, Japan

Visiting here is like visiting the Mormon temple in Salt Lake City or another religious shrine. This is the showplace of a particular Buddhist sect in Aomori, Japan. 

This building is called the Daishi-do, a smashing red hall named for Kukai Kobo Daishi, the founder of the Shingon sect of Buddhism. He was born in 1774. Saeki Moa was his original name. His posthumous name means that he was a great teacher. 

This building looks old but it was built in 1984.

We walked around and took pictures of the huge Buddha.  

The seated pose is the most common one for a Buddha. There is a building next to the statue where the monks have meetings and you can buy religious items.  Bill is talking to our guide who is holding the sign. We saw some monks in orange robes but I didn't take any pictures of them. 

There was also a cemetery there and places to offer prayers.

The pinwheels are to commemorate children who have died. Again, it's very touching to see how many babies have been lost.

This is a field we drove by on the way out. We don't recognize what they were growing here. It might be sheaves of rice.

2009-10-7 Jomon Era Site, Sannai-Maruyama, Japan

I'm not quite sure the date we visited here but we took a trip to a Jomon Era archeological site. There are 17 sites and some were added to the World Cultural Heritage list in 2021. I dated this post from 2009 so I can keep it in chronological order. 

This site was occupied from 3900 to 2200 B.C. It started out as a storage place for nomadic peoples but ended up as a big village. The remains of about 500 pit houses were found in this area. 

The site was discovered in 1992 when a baseball stadium was under construction. The stadium was moved somewhere else and the area was preserved. 

This large wooden structure might have been a monument, a watch tower, a shrine or a lighthouse. No one knows exactly why they were constructed. Only the bottoms of the large pillars of the structure were found but engineers figured out the dimensions from that. And there were other six-pillared structures like this one in the area so they that information to help them. All the towers all faced in the same direction so there is probably some significance to the way they face.

Storehouses were built on stilts to keep food dry. 

This is what the interior looked like: 

They buried their deceased infants in pottery jars. Everyone was quiet while we toured this area. Burial of loved ones shows our common humanity. 

This is a long house or a lodge for large groups.

Some people were found buried within stone circles like this one. There is speculation that these were leaders of the group.

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This was a great excursion! I am glad we chose this one even though it was hard for us to keep up with the guide. We asked questions of others in the group and picked up brochures in Japanese and English.

These are postcards we bought.

2009-10-6 Aomori Nebuta Festival, Japan

We had a wonderful, chatty tour guide on the bus. She was as cute and charming as she could be. I am sorry I don't have a picture of her. At the end of the tour she said she was dismayed that none of the men on the tour had proposed to her. Her parents want her to get married but she said she wouldn't be able to work if she was married. She would have to stay home and care for her mother-in-law. This was all in jest but there was a kernal of truth.

This festival is held in August each year when the floats are paraded around town. We visited on Oct 6 so we didn't see the parade. The floats are so popular that people come to see them even when they are just sitting in a viewing area. A museum to display the floats was opened in 2011. 

"The main attraction is large, colorful and dramatic human-shaped floats called Nebuta, 9 meters wide, 7 meters deep and 5 meters high, most of them resembling ancient warlords, historical characters and kabuki characters in early days."

The floats were lit by candles and were banned in some years because of the fire hazard. Over time, the frames were changed to wire from bamboo and the light sources became safer. Here is a picture of a float frame. 

Bill in front of a Nebula or float. 

Here I am making the same sign as Buddha. To make the sign you put your index finger and thumb together. You should keep your other fingers straight. It's a form of missionary work to spread the words and thoughts of Buddha and his followers. 

The floats are very heavy. Several men are needed to lift a float. Each Nebula can weigh four tons and be roughly 30 feet wide, 20 feet long and 15 feet high.

Volunteers from the group were chosen to lift up a smaller float. I volunteered and was selected. All of us together strained to lift it, let alone walk around town with it. 

Lastly, here is a picture of Bill with the lady who guided us around the festival area. 

 

While Bill was chatting with the festival guide, I was giving a tour of the toilets to the other ladies. We ran into some of the most amazing toilets in Japan. The toilet in this public restroom had a seat warmer, a bidet and a blow dryer! It wasn't as beautiful as the picture I chose online but it was, nevertheless, a thing of beauty!