A Brief Visit of Chichibu

Many things happen in the town of Chichibu, in Saitama. It's a town that, although calm during most of the year, brims with festivals on multiple occasions, and has found its way to the public eye. The town is spread on a fairly wide area which it also shares with vast fields of flowers of different types - so many in fact that it doesn't take all that much luck at all to find at least one such field in full bloom. This, and its surrounding mountains and temples, have given Chichibu somewhat of a picturesque look, while removing none of its tranquility.

 I found myself making a short trip to Chichibu in order to have a look at the town, not quite sure what exactly to expect, and found myself walking amongst pilgrims. As it turns out, one of Chichibu's main selling points to visitors is the 34 temples scattered in the forest and mountain trails. The pilgrimage through all 34 temples has been done for nearly 700 years now, but though the pilgrims of Chichibu today don't necessarily do it for the sake of actual religion, it was easy for me to see the appeal of such a journey. Based on nothing but a picture on a pamphlet, I picked one of the 34 and decided I'd have a taste of it.

 Temple 28, the Hashidate-do, was only a short distance away from one of the train stations of the local line, and a very short hike up one of the mountains lead directly to it. Nestled amongst tall trees at the top of a staircase, tucked under one of the faces of the mountain behind it, the small, ancient temple was a small marvel in and of itself, and radiated with history and lore. Unlike most temples in Japan, it's said that as many as half of the temples in Chichibu are not attended by priests, and are instead cared and maintained for by locals. Happy about my discovery, I soon decided to move on.

  As I mentioned above, Chichibu's flower fields are also fairly well known. Unfortunately, I had just missed the blooming of the pink shibazakura (or moss phlox) fields, which is widely considered to be the most beautiful of the bunch. I did, however, catch the blooming of the buckwheat! Granted, buckwheat's not all that impressive of a flower at all, and I'm not even that big a fan of soba noodles, but it was still kind of neat to stand in a field of it. But a little color would have been nice.

 Altogether, though, I didn't spend so much time in Chichibu, and I'm quite aware that there are adventures to be had here if I went looking for them. There's rafting on the Arakawa river, and zip-lining from tree to tree a bus ride away from the center of the town, let alone the whole 100 kilometer pilgrimage across the 34 temples. But those will have to be for another day, perhaps.

Brief Note: Counting Down

I'm approaching my last three months in Japan! I've set up a timer on the web version of the blog to countdown the days, and hopefully motivate me to set into motion the last few things I'm hoping to do in Japan! It's the beginning of the end!

A Tochigi Day Trip - Part 3 - Kayabuki Tavern

I confess, when I originally planned the whole Tochigi day trip thing, I planned it around the one place I knew I absolutely had to visit. I made my 7PM reservation for the Kayabuki tavern a week early, and then realized we would be traveling on train a total of four hours, which seemed a little excessive. It was only then I thought of filling the day with a whole lot of other activities.
 So what's so special about the Kayabuki? The food's good. Also, two of the waiters are monkeys.
 That's right. Two of the waiters are monkeys.

Fukuchan isn't exactly light.

The Kayabuki tavern's owner has had pet monkeys for over two decades. At some point it occurred to him to have his pet monkeys, which could already do simple tricks, bring customers items such as hand cloths and simple orders such as beer. The idea was a success, and now Kayabuki has been featured on television shows around the world. Having met the monkeys personally, I can assure that Fukuchan and Yacchan are both very real and have lost nothing of their wild demeanor during their years of service to the tavern. They're well-trained and know to behave in the presence of customers (though they do occasionally howl and scream and jump.) Their offspring, though present within the tavern, haven't yet earned the right to become waiters, and are still in training.
 In order not to put too much strain on the animals, the monkeys are only allowed to work two hours a day, during which they dress in uniform. As I wrote above, the monkeys are extremely well-trained and put on shows for customers at certain times, where they jump through hoops and do other similar tricks, though I haven't seen this for myself. Allegedly, Fukuchan is also 4th Dan karate practitioner - though I'm not sure how this is possible.

Millo notably unamused to be kept waiting.

 Our experience at the Kayabuki tavern wasn't all smiles and laughter, though. As it turned out, the tavern was unusually crowded on that day, and it was plain to see that they were short-staffed. Being that this was the case, there was no way for the staff to effectively bring out everyone's orders and handle the monkeys at the same time, so we didn't get to experience the monkey waiters firsthand despite having sat there for two and a half hours. We were quite disgruntled by the time they did actually bring out the family of monkeys, and when they did, they offered customers only private time with them and the cost of 1000¥ per person.

 Unwilling to leave Utsunomiya without making contact with the monkeys, we gladly paid for the private session, which almost every other patron in the restaurant did as well. No doubt we would have not even had a turn if Ken hadn't told the staff we were in a hurry to get back to Tokyo. Despite the shortness of the time we had, it was hard to stay disappointed after that. Not only did the monkeys not mind the presence of people, but they seemed to actually love it. We had barely even sat down with them that they were jumping on our shoulders and into our arms, with the children being especially affectionate. Fukuchan, head of his family and largest of the bunch, was eager to impress and constantly challenged us by opening his mouth wide and showing his teeth if we made eye-contact with him, but he remained docile and offered lots of handshakes. Meanwhile, the owner gave the monkeys a variety of masks, which they wore without much complaint but eventually took off when they grew tired of.
 By then it was already time for us to return home after our eventful day, satisfied that we had seen a side of Tochigi that we hadn't, until then, known existed.

A Tochigi Day Trip - Part 2 - Oya

We hadn't spent much time in Utsunomiya before we decided to move out of the city and into the adjacent town of Oya. To be frank, when I first planned the road trip, Oya was meant to have been more of a distraction than anything else, but the cozy town turned out to be so much more than that.
 Oya is the exclusive place where Oya stone can be found. It's a unique rock that pretty much put the town of Oya on maps. Within the town, there are countless monuments made of it, and blocks of it seemed to have been carved right out of cliff faces, giving the landscape a bit of a peculiar look.

The Oya-ji Temple and the Oya Kannon.

Our first stop in Oya was the Oya-ji temple, a Buddhist temple with a very ancient history. The temple itself is nestled in a cave-like depression in a rock made of Oya stone. Upon entering it, a 1200 year old Kannon Goddess can be seen carved into the face of the rock. You're not supposed to take pictures of it, but I sneaked one for the sake of satisfying the curiosity of the few readers I have. Other figures are also carved into the rock, though notably not as important as the Goddess herself. Ken noted that there were words inscribed into the stone next to each respective figure, but the writing looked so far removed from Japanese that I couldn't help but wonder at the evolution of the written language.

The Heiwa Kannon and some unphotogenic Adventure Friends.

 Across from the temple, though nowhere as ancient as the Oya Kannon within the cave, is the Heiwa Kannon, another Goddess carved out of the indigenous rock. Overlooking a square, the Heiwa Kannon is much taller, standing at nearly 30 meters in height, and an impressive sight in and of itself. From what I've read, it was carved by hand as a World War II memorial. There are steps allowing visitors to climb up to its head, and give visitors a good view of the Oya-ji temple. We promptly did that, and, lo-and-behold, what we discovered from up there turned out to be even more interesting...
  A haikyo! We told ourselves we'd get back to it later, since we had one more thing we wanted to check out within the town. I'll elaborate further down.

All credit to Agha for this brilliant picture. It's hard to make Ken look like a child molester but he pulled it off.

 Our next stop was the Oya Stone Museum. And though my companions originally weren't sure what
to think of a museum based on stone, they were open to the idea of checking it out, and it sure as hell didn't disappoint. Essentially, the museum itself is a gigantic cavern. Located deep underground, the dark, cavernous halls of the museum were approximately 15 degrees colder than surface temperature, and we could see warmth of our breaths in the dim light. The cave turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip despite our initial skepticism. It was hard not to be amazed by the vastness of the underground chambers located under the small building on the surface. The walls were so high that the ceiling above was plunged into darkness. The whole thing felt very much like some kind of Egyptian tomb. Here are there, small art installations were installed and lit up in colored lights. We later on found out that many different music videos, commercials, and movie scenes were shot within these very halls. Some parts of the cavern were barred off and inaccessible, making it hard to tell how deep the man-made tunnels even went. We left the museum pretty satisfied with what we had seen.

 Thereafter, we took our bikes to the abandoned place we had seen earlier, from the top of the Heiwa Kannon statue. It took a little research for us to find out that the ruins before us were those of the abandoned Yamamoto Grand Center, which had been left to ruin at some point during the '80's (not a hundred years ago, as one of the locals tried to get us to believe.) The surface of the decaying structure was covered in vines and other various plant-life, so deep the ground-level of the building could hardly be seen. The tall grass was a nest full of vipers, as was made evident by the nearby signs. Though we were in broad daylight, we promptly decided to ditch our bicycles and find a way inside the building, but as we approached chains barred our way, alongside with a camera and another sign warning trespassers of an alarm. I swear to God, a pheasant also jumped out of a bush and scared the shit out of us, and so we decided it wasn't in the cards for us to visit this place, and we turned tail. Maybe some other time.

 Evening was encroaching on us by then, and we still had one appointment left, back in Utsunomiya. In fact, what came next was the very reason we had even come to Tochigi in the first place.

A Tochigi Day Trip - Part 1 - Utsunomiya

Utsunomiya - the Nashville of Japan, located in Tochigi prefecture, an hour and a half away by train. Yes, it's a modern city, but really, no one would go out of their way to visit it. It kind of tries hard to be something and puts upon a pedestal what simple areas of cultural significance it does have, no matter how minimal or insignificant. And even so it doesn't have all that much. If anything, it suffers from its prestigious neighbor, Nikko, which by anyone's standards is a lot more interesting. It's no wonder travel guides often skip Utsunomiya.

 But there are hidden nuggets of awesome to be found here, if you chance to look around! And so, the Adventure Friends of the day, Millo, Agha, Ken and I, tasked ourselves with the seemingly daunting mission of making a good day trip out of Utsunomiya and its surroundings.
Step 1? Rent a bicycle. You wouldn't believe how incredibly cheap it is to rent a bicycle for a whole day. The following is no typo. It's 100¥. There are no zeroes missing there. You can even return the bikes as late as 9PM. It's the perfect way to go out and about a decent sized city with interesting things few and far apart. With a price like that, cabs, buses and the subway just don't compare. We had no trouble getting ours after asking at the information kiosk at the JR station from which we had arrived. It only took a few moments for us to be upon our trusty new steeds, off to explore the city.

A chart of gyoza along with our lunch.

Utsunomiya is actually the capital of gyoza, or Japanese dumplings (though no one really calls them that.) There's no real getting around that, so a gyoza lunch was the first thing we got off our list. Well, we tried to see how deep the rabbit hole went by going into a food court where every shop specialized in gyoza. And we found it to be pretty god damn deep. Every variety of gyoza you could possibly imagine could be found in that one spot - and most likely a few you could not possibly imagine were as well. Tea-flavored, anyone? Shrimp? Or yuzu - you know, that sour citrus that only grows in East Asia? No? Didn't think so. Maybe Utsunomiya deserves its name as gyoza capital after all.

After lunch, we headed right downtown to the Futaarayama Shrine. Sure, it's no Meiji-Jingu, but the shrine is built on quite an attractive hill, almost right in the center of the city. It's hard to stand from the street level, look up at the shrine past its large torii gate, and not think it beautiful. We climbed the steps and paid brief visit to the shrine grounds, but found it to be nothing exceptional. Still, it's not without its charm, and some areas off the side of the central building itself were surrounded by beautiful trees, creating quite a nice and cozy little atmosphere. Still, the shrine and its surroundings do look the best from a little distance away, I thought.

 We hopped back on our bikes and made our way to the Utsunomiya Castle Ruins next. Here's what you should know about the Utsunomiya Castle Ruins: skip 'em. Really, there's little more than a wall and two turrets left. Again, these, too, look better from afar, but that's not even saying much. I couldn't figure out a way to even take a picture of the ruins that could make anyone kind of give a damn, and that's something I don't ever really recall saying before. So never mind them.

 Though it may not have seemed much, at this point we had already decided we had seen what we needed to see of Utsunomiya. Gasp! But wasn't this supposed to be a day trip? Fret not - our bicycles took us next to a place beyond the city borders. A place which was, I would say, exponentially more interesting. Thirty minutes and nine kilometers away, we came upon the second part of our day trip - the provincial town of Oya, and a small, very different adventure in and of itself.

JICOO - The Floating Bar

When I used to live in the Tokyo Bay area, I would often happen upon what appeared to be a space-pod-looking boat decked in lights, floating upon the waters under the bridge. It wasn't until a year or so later that I identified the boat as the same one used for the floating bar, JICOO. I sent a shout out to my Adventure Friends, and Ken and Eri responded to the call!

The title Sean the Alien has never felt so literal.

I love how it's like a raffle, you never know who you'll get.
 Though no one can really agree on how the hell to read the name "JICOO", the futuristic boat shuttles between Odaiba and Hinode pier, making stops between the two every 30 minutes, making for a pretty scenic route.
Of course, given the circumstances, you can't really leave between those 30 minute intervals, and if you want to get off from the same place you boarded, you're in the bar for either one, two, or three hours, so it's best to think of these things before boarding. Whereas Thursday nights and Friday nights are lounge-like and rather quiet, despite there being a DJ on board, Saturday nights apparently get jam-packed, and events take place.

Inside JICOO.

 Personally, I can't vouch for the drinks much, though. My own cocktail seemed badly mixed and Ken got wine that might've been the most awful I've tasted since coming to Japan.
 But unarguably, the best thing about the JICOO experience is the fact that it lets you take in the bay area skyline from atop the water, granting you an unobstructed view. Odaiba is full of interesting looking buildings that light up at night and look really scenic with a little distance, though unfortunately my own camera crapped out during the night and I was unable to take any pictures of said cityscape.


 It costs 2600¥ to get in JICOO no matter how long you want to stay inside, so it's kind of an affordable way to bring your friends on a boat and enjoy the view with a (crappy) cocktail in hand! Ups and downs, I guess, but I thought it to be an enjoyable experience.

Eorzea: The Final Fantasy Cafe

Despite my friends having done so, I haven't played the latest iteration of Final Fantasy, the 14th in the series. The series itself though is one I've pretty much grown up with and look back at fondly - and it's still hard for me not to get giddy when I hear the music from the games starting up. Though I can't say I've loved every Final Fantasy game I ever played, the name of the brand itself holds a special place in my heart. I guess.

But I'm not the only one! I've also gathered fellow gamers and Adventure Friends Millo and Agha to my cause, as we set out to discover the official Final Fantasy Cafe, named Eorzea. As simple as it may sound, getting into the cafe in itself is somewhat of a quest. From what's been made apparent to me, you can't just stroll in and expect to be seated. One has to reserve online and get a ticket for one of the two hour time slots. They take everyone in at the same time, and kick you out after two hours. When we showed up I was even afraid for a moment that they wouldn't let us in, because I apparently didn't go through the typical reservation process. But in the end we made it!
 In truth, Eorzea is just about completely based on Final Fantasy XIV (that's 14, for the roman numeral illiterate.) But given that the series has familiar characters and items that made regular appearances, it wasn't too hard for us to find things we recognized.

In terms of decorum, Eorzea has this really nice polish to it. Whereas many themed bars kind of haphazardly throw objects related to the theme around, this one had this really neat, posh kind of feel to it. Wonderful looking stained-glass windows were set up, and cast a nice light upon some of the tables in the cafe. Not unlike the Dark Souls bar I had been to a while ago, weapons of all types were suspended on walls and over the bar counter. At the very center of the room were the trademark Moogle characters, kind of serving as an anchoring point for everything else. I really thought the presentation was on point, despite the cafe itself being pretty humble in size all things considered.

 Gamers who have a hard time separating themselves from their gaming sessions will be pleased to hear that Eorzea actually has gaming stations. Not that any one of the customers was actually using these seriously, but the option was there. Though most people including ourselves seemed like they were there to satisfy their curiosity about the bar, I figure it wouldn't be a bad place to meet playmates.
 Food wise, Eorzea had a few nifty themed menu items going for it. Most (surprisingly not all) of the items on the menu were based on in-game items or creatures, which was quite amusing, actually. Where else, for instance, can you get a TITAN, GOD OF THE CRAGS burger? Names aside, the food wasn't actually fantastic. Though we did marvel at the Leviathan Ramen Noodles, which came in a blue colored soup, none of us had the guts to order it (or particularly wanted to eat seafood noodles.) We also each ordered drinks - the potion, ether and elixir respectively, and were disappointed that our hit points weren't restored. No joke, though, it was really difficult to figure out what we were actually ordering, since the descriptions of the items were all really cryptic.

 Before we knew it, our two hours were up and it was time for us to get going. We got to keep coasters with cool artwork on them, and our bill was surprisingly cheap altogether, which isn't something you usually get to say when coming out of a themed establishment. So hey, all together, I feel like I can't complain about the time I spent in Eorzea. 

Brief Note: May and June in the Works

May and June aren't usually my busiest months, but with the help of the Adventure Friends, I'm on the verge of packing the two months with as many things as I can fit. Which is saying a lot from me, since I don't usually plan anything more than two weeks ahead. But here are some things in the works. I'd like to share with you guys.

In May:

May 11th: Eorzea, The Final Fantasy Cafe
This place, based on the hit game series, is supposed to be pretty hot shit, seeing as you have to reserve online and pay ten bucks just to get in. Let's see what that's about.

May 14th: The Floating Bar
It's a bar and it's a boat. With neon lights. Looking forward to this cruise.

May 18th: Utsunomiya and Monkey Waiters
A biking tour of Utsunomiya city, culminating with a visit to a bar where two of the waiters are actually monkeys. I mean that literally.

May 25th: Oiran-za
A fabled stage show promising to have martial arts, traditional dance, flashing lights and swordplay.

In June: (Dates to be determined)

Return to Western Village:
I usually don't do things twice, but I actually have a reason to go there. So why not bring the Adventure Friends, I figured.

The Asylum:
An abandoned asylum, four floors deep underground. If I can get details of the location from a certain someone, I'll be all set.

And that's just the Adventure Friends stuff. I have a few other things in mind too.
 Remember, if you're reading the blog and you want in on some of this, just ask and I'll see about making you an Adventure Friend too!

Tentacles

Ken and I have been having this ongoing struggle for the last three years. We've been trying to find a place where they served squid live, and, although there is a handful of places that do it, we've just been down on our luck. It's been an endless cycle of us calling places, figuring out they did, asking them if we could get some, learning that they ran out. Throughout the years, it's happened a solid five or six times.
 Well we decided we'd go at it again, and just did the smart thing and reserved not only a spot at the restaurant, but a damn squid too.

 The restaurant in question this time around was the ikasentaa, or the Squid Center. It's a pretty bland name for a place specializing in squid, but what the name lacked for in creativity, the place made up for in quality of food. In this wonderful yet not-so-well-known restaurant, squids of every kind are served in every way imaginable - including the freshest of all ways - cut live and served immediately.
 To be frank, I thought they'd do it more or less like they do horse-mackerel, but for squid, it's a little different. The tentacles were served to us first, then the pod, served in fine slices. It was excellent with a little bit of minced ginger. As much as it's hard to describe the subtle taste of squid, if you've ever had any, you would know it's quite chewy.

 Really, there isn't much else to this story. I was simply happy to be eating something uniquely Japanese (or is it?) In short, we had squid served to us so fresh the tentacles wriggled. The moral is if you want very fresh squid, reserve it!