Roving Japan

Day 74 Photoset

There was a solar eclipse today! I had totally forgotten about it, but this morning when Yasunobu took us to the nearby temple, the sky was getting darker and through the clouds we could see the sun being cut into a crescent. I tried to take a photo, but I don’t know… you can SORTA see it.

The temple that Yasunobu took us too was really neat. In the back, there is an almost secret house where you can drink traditional tea and relax. The house was once a country retreat for a millionaire. After he died, they somehow moved the entire building to the temple grounds and it is now open to the public. It’s a really impressive experience. There is a very formal, very polite woman who brings the tea and sweets to you in a traditional tatami room. After tea, we were free to wander around, so we took our time and poked our heads into every room we could find.

Through one of the doors, we could access the main temple. I’m not sure if we were supposed to go this way, but I did anyway and Risa and Yasunobu didn’t stop me… so… it was ok right? The part of the temple we entered was the administrative area. Big tatami rooms with tables and chairs. This is the area where real temple business happens. We’ve always seen the front end of a temple, so it was super cool to see the “back-stage” area. After a while, we started to get nervous that maybe we weren’t supposed to be there… so we left. Yasunobu said he had never gone this way because he wasn’t sure if he was allowed. He figured that since it was ME who went first, if we got caught, he could blame the foreigner! It was a classic case of GaijinSmash.

When we were done exploring the temple, Yasunobu took us to his store. We were impressed by the clothes he makes. He started out making children’s clothes, but has since expanded to women’s clothes. It’s all top quality and very classy looking. Yasunobu makes custom clothes as well, so one section of the store is devoted to fabrics that customers can pick out as they order a dress, shirt, or jacket.

The store is due to close soon. Yasunobu doesn’t want the keep the retail shop. Starting soon he will just work out of his apartment making custom clothes for existing customers. We felt lucky that we got to see his store before he shuts it down!

Our final stop of the day was the Toyota automobile museum. This place was amazing. They had cars from all over the world, dating back to before the model-t. They had vehicles I had never heard of, like the motorized tricycle, and a car that ran on coal. I especially liked the area that had an electric car, a steam car, and a gasoline car. You could really tell that during this time, all technology was being tried. Kind of like seeing VHS vs Betamax or Bluray vs HDDVD.

One things for sure, cars took a nose-dive in esthetics in the 60’s. The body designs and most notably the PAINT became drab and boring. I took a ton of pictures of the old cars, but when we hit the 60’s, there was nothing worth photographing. I did, however, like following the logos. Seeing how some logos changed a lot (Toyota, Mazda) while others, (Honda, Subaru) are pretty close to the same.

The car museum took us a couple of hours to get through, and then it was on to the train station.

Our new home is in Sue city, with Risa’s friends the Itoh’s. Risa met the Itoh family while studying in England in junior high school and she’s stayed in contact ever since.

The Itoh’s are super nice, and they have an entire extra building on their property that we are using as a guest house. I say “guest house” but it’s actually a lot more like a hotel. There is a huge garage space downstairs, and the upstairs is just like a hostel or business hotel. Rooms with little bathrooms, and even a “public” bathroom and shower area. It’s pretty bizarre, but it’s nice to have so much space to ourselves!

The best part? We get our own laundry machines! Woohoo!

At precisely 8:15pm every day, Mr. Itoh goes to the local onsen. Even though it was our first day with the family, and we had only been there for a couple of hours, at 8:15, we loaded up in Mr Itoh’s car and were off to the onsen. Nothing like getting to know your new host, like hanging out naked.

Mr. Itoh’s personal favorite thing to do at the onsen is to sit in the sauna and talk politics with his friends. For me, however, 5min in that hell box was plenty of time. After that I had to get out. Mr. Itoh usually does 10min in the sauna, then jumps in the cold water bath. Then repeats it 4 or 5 times. He’s crazy.

We are planning on staying here for a couple of days (which will probably mean several more trips to the onsen), then we will be back on the road.