Bottoms up!!!

Day 1

Our recent trip to Nagoya was slightly “derailed” when we found out that we could not take the shinkansen (bullet train) all the way to Nagoya, but only to Tokyo. That meant that we would have to take the 6 hour donko (very much not a bullet train) from Tokyo to Nagoya. The donko gets its name because it always goes donko, donko, donko on the tracks. We had just started along from Tokyo when we suddenly came to a stop. Somewhere on the line, there had been an accident, though we still have no idea what happened. Thus we had to wait on the train for about an hour before they cleared things up. The shinkansen would have taken us about 4 hours from Sendai to Nagoya, but instead it took us about 11 hours in total, and when you are not mentally expecting to travel 11 hours in one day, it tends to be a VERY LONG day.

I said we traveled to Nagoya that first day, but that is not quite accurate. We actually traveled to Taketoyo, which is about an hour south of Nagoya, where the Morita’s graciously gave us first class treatment for the length of our stay. Mrs. Morita had told us to come hungry (which we certainly did since we hadn’t even packed a lunch for our expected 4 hour journey), and she sure didn’t disappoint. I’m sure we had enough food on their table for 10 people, and I may well have eaten enough food to feed about 4 people. The combination of extremely good food and an extremely empty stomach is a great combination.

Day 2

The next morning we took off for Nagoya to see the expo there. The best way that I can think of describing the expo is to say that it is probably the closest thing to a modern day worlds fair. There were corporation buildings there displaying some of their latest technology, country pavilions from what appeared to be every county in the world, and all the while maintaining the theme of sustainable development for the future (I was greatly looking forward to it). Though it was about 36 degrees centigrade and 99% humidity my enthusiasm was not abated. Nor was it lessened by the average wait of 90 minutes of standing in line just to get into the buildings. (does anyone actually believe that?) The good thing was that the inside of the buildings were almost worth the wait to get in. One of the more redeeming qualities was that the Morita’s came with us. They were really cute. They would walk along slowly at times almost as if they weren’t having a good time, but then they would take off running, beckoning us to come with them quickly. This happened on two occasions. The first was to get into a building that had cars you ride on though different sorts of scenes (very Disney like). The second was to see a talking information Robot. Mrs. Morita thought this was the greatest thing in the world. You could ask it questions, and then it would answer them for you. All in all it was interesting, and at the end of the day I can say that it was worth it, but if you asked me if I would do it again, or if I would recommend it to someone else, I would hesitate to say yes.

Day 3

Mr. Morita returned to work while Mrs. Morita took us to a small town called Tokoname, which subsists almost exclusively on the production of Pottery. The entire town was a production of pottery actually. The sidewalks had shards of pottery in them, the city walls that held back the terraced land was built with rows of pottery glued together with cement, and there were no shortage of shops for us to stop at to admire the traditional Japanese pottery. Despite the heat, the trip was well worth it. That said, you can only look at pottery for so long, so we returned to the Morita’s house later that afternoon.

While waiting for Mr. Morita to return from work for supper, we discovered one of the true marvels of the region, and one that really topped both the expo and the pottery village combined. I should mention that the Morita’s are the parents of Yuki, and Ko-Ichiro, our good friends in State College, and we had learned from them that Mrs. Morita does her own weaving. So, to fill in some time we asked to see her do some weaving. Well, she showed us her huge loom, but it wasn’t currently threaded, and since there are over 200 slots to be threaded, that demonstration wasn’t going to be happening anytime soon. She did however offer to show us how she spins HER OWN THREAD, from HER OWN COTTON that SHE GROWS. It was absolutely amazing to see here pull out her own mini cotton-gin, separate the seeds from the cotton, flatten the cotton, roll the cotton, and then spin her own thread (an experience that I latter tried and accomplished myself). She then showed us some of the material that she had woven on her loom, including some that she had made literally from the ground up. As if this were not enough, she then showed us how she makes her own wool (though it was disappointing to find out that she doesn’t have her own sheep, but rather visits a local sheep herder). It was amazing.

Later that night we went to dinner at a very nice restaurant. I would say it was a 5 course meal, but that is not being entirely accurate, and really I feel as if I must be quite accurate for posterity sake. It was really a seven course meal. Mr. Morita asked if we wanted any Sake (Japanese beer/wine of sufficient potency to be used as engine degreaser). I looked wishfully at Jori in hope that we might dodge that one, but she said it would be insulting to them, so just “suck it up” and have one for the team. So, I obliged. You can see why I became nervous when we were first brought a very healthy size, or not so healthy size, stein of beer even though I had not ordered one (Mr. Morita had for me). The beer was a good, stout, Japanese beer (I wouldn’t have expected any less). Then came the sake, you could almost see the fumes of alcohol evaporating from the mug. Normally when having some of the stronger wines or whiskeys you might expect a shot glass or at the least a very petite size glass—not so on this night. Again, we received a very healthy portion. However, whereas the Morita’s joined us in the first round of beers, they did not partake in the engine degreaser elixir. I have never been pushed to my limits with alcohol, but I was convinced that tonight would be the night. Amazingly, light headed was the worst that I ended up (though I slept VERY well that night).
I must digress for a moment. Those of you who know my dad, know that if we have a family dinner or so (say pizza), he will find a way to beat everyone to the punch and pay for the pizza. Moreover, if anyone should try to insist on paying for their share, he will refuse out of generosity. The Morita’s are even more of this line. We wanted to pay for the meal since they had offered to let us stay with them for a few days and were our own personal tour guides, but they would have none of it and paid for the whole thing.

Day 4

That morning Mrs. Morita took us to the train station and we departed to Tokyo (this time mentally expecting the longer donko ride). That night we walked around in Tokyo with Jori’s high school friend Pe and also had dinner with her. Later we returned to our hotel which normally would have cost us $200, but Mrs Yoshida in Sendai has a business contact there that allows her to stay there for about $50 a night which is the price we received (we were very thankful).

Day 5

In the morning we slept in and then had lunch with Tanmi (one of our friends who had lived in State College). All I have to say about Tokyo is that it is a very big city with super inflated prices, and impersonal people. We were ready to head back to Sendai on the oh-so-very-nice shinkansen, where people are more relaxed, willing to smile, and only slightly inflated prices.