Winter Break Trip: The Beginning

It`s been awhile since I wrote, partly due to an exciting 2-week winter holiday escape-from-the-island travel extravaganza ^^

The intinerary broke down something like this:

December 20-- wake up early, pick up Rose in the south, make our escape via airplane to Osaka.

December 21-23 Osaka

December 23-26 Tokushima (Shikoku)

December 26-January 3 Kyoto

...travels started off well and I arrived in Osaka only slightly travel-weary and in desperate need of a bath. Traveling about in airplanes, especially if I have to transfer, makes me feel very disgusting. Thankfully, Osaka has the perfect cure, a multi-floor complex called SpaWorld, which is the first place we hit up after dropping our bags at the hotel. There are two floors of baths, an Asian-themed floor and European-themed floor, each with many specialized baths. The floors are single-sex only and switch sexes each month. When I studied abroad, I had the opportunity to check out the European-themed floor, replete with Roman pillars, Grecian urns filled with mud (for a do-it-yourself mud bath... it was kind of awesome to be scooping out mud from the urn next to a obaachans), herbal baths, a milk-and-honey bath in a low-lit recreation of a cave, and an aquarium-themed bath with a glass bottom and a tank with sharks underneath. In other words, completely wild. So of course I wanted to go back, either to have a dip in the same baths again or, hopefully, check out the Asian floor.

Luckily, it was the ladies` turn at the Asian floor. Although not quite as unique as the European floor--many were Japanese-style baths, similar to onsen everywhere-- there were still many baths to sample. A few indoor Japanese-style baths made of different materials; countless outdoor baths (rotenburo) of varying temperatures, sizes, and materials; a few indoor mini-waterfalls perfect for standing underneath to pummel those tense neck and shoulder muscles; and many other baths, including one with a whirlpool.

Of course, this is public bathing Japan-style. You ditch your clothes in lockers and then run around with a mini-towel just big enough to drape over the unmentionables. But the water`s usually piping-hot and, in addition to coming out squeaky-clean (you completely scrub down before entering any of the baths), it`s great for working out muscle kinks and just relaxing.

Here`s some pictures of the SpaWorld baths (both European and Asian floors). ...for obvious reasons, cameras aren`t allowed inside, so I could only get a picture of an advertisements for the baths.

After getting clean, Rose and I were starving, so we went to have some real American food (okay, okay, I was after the sour cream that comes with the fajitas) at Osaka`s Hard Rock Cafe. Mmmm delicious.

The next day Rose and I got up relatively early to get to the Osaka`s aquarium. I`d never been before but had heard that it was one of the best aquariums anywhere. And, indeed, it was a huge complex with many different aquacultures, organized by region. Like Boston`s aquarium, there is one central gigantic tank which visitors spiral around... except Osaka`s giant tank is much, much larger than Boston`s and you begin the spiral from the top, working your way down. There are also so many more side-tanks, including ones with dolphins, seals, penguins, a coral reef system, Hokkaido`s deep sea (with crazy basketball-sized crabs, their legs at least a foot long when extended), and other Japan-specific marine ecosystems.

The beginning may be the best; a smaller aquarium tank wraps around the hallway covering all sides, except for the entrance and exit, and the ceiling. It`s like going inside an aquarium without getting wet, with fish swimming all around you. Very cool. I wasn`t able to get a satisfactory picture of that initial tank, but here are some others from later on.

...out of all sea life I`ve seen so far, sting rays are probably my favorite. They remind me of underwater birds... I`ve seen a few while scuba diving, and they so elegantly flutter the edges of their bodies to move along. Spotted stingrays have more of a flapping motion, but it`s very smooth.

...and the sea turtle was pretty cool, too. Bugger moved fast, though, so he was harder to photograph.

This is a little foreshadowing for later, but Christmas in Japan is crazy. I got a hint of that craziness coming around a corner and seeing scuba-diving Santa.

...he waved madly to everyone (which makes me think the glass is two-way and, indeed, makes me wonder what the fish think of us) and posed for shots. Only in Japan. (Please note that his tank is wrapped up like a sack of presents).

After spinning our way through the aquarium, we emerged to find it had started drizzling, so we made our way over to the IMAX theater. There was the traditional under-the-sea informational video as well as one on the pharoahs of Egypt; since we`d just spent much of the morning seeing fish, we opted for pyramids. The general audio was in Japanese, but we got special headsets set to English. Combined with the usual IMAX glasses... well, we looked pretty funky.

The next day was devoted primarily to shopping and a wonderful visit to see a Takarazuka show of The Brothers Karzmanov. Takarazuka is a group of all-female theater troupes that do Broadway-musical-meets-Los-Vegas-glitter-and-glam-line-dance shows. In a word, it`s spectacular.

Usually the shows are performed in Takarazuka, a small town outside of Osaka, or Tokyo. Because we were visiting in the off-season, though, there wasn`t much going on, and the few shows that were running were at small theaters in Osaka. The Snow Troupe`s `The Brothers Karzmanov` that we saw was a preview that will officially open soon in Tokyo. It was wonderful, though, and included a scene with priests spinning about madly and singing about love. There was also a troupe of peasants in brightly-colored clothing that would appear whenever something good happened (Russian tradgedy, so not that often) and gaily dance about.

Afterwards, a woman approached us and asked if we`d like to stay afterwards to see the actresses ceremoniously emerge from the dressing area after changing. Figuring we might not get the chance again, we were game, and about an hour later got to see my favorite actress (the main male-character lead in both `The Brothers Karzmanov` and an earlier Snow Troup production I`d seen, `Elizabeth`) in plain clothes.

So very suave. It was amazing to see her off the set and equally astounding to witness the official fan clubs. They set themselves up at strategic spots along the path that the actresses walk through when exiting the theater and kneel every time an actress emerges. Members of the fan club must swear to not do things like talk to the actresses or even take their picture. These rules are all meant to prevent scandals, which I heard have happened in the past.

...the morning after takarazuka, it was time to head off to Tokushima. Now, every Japanese person I told that I was going to Tokushima asked me why there. I can`t explain why, but the place resonates with me. Maybe because I had so many good experiences last time I went or because I discovered a new independence there... it`s hard to say. I just really love Tokushima. Outside of the eastern city (both the region, kind of like a U.S. state, and the main city are both called `Tokushima`), it`s mostly mountains.. but these mountains are not at all like Tsushima`s mountains. Tokushima`s mountains are huge and form ranges and have giant plains between the ranges were villages can form. You can admire the mountains from a distance (unlike Tsushima`s `rice ball` mountains which are small but so clustered together, so it`s difficult to escape from the middle of them to admire the bunch)... maybe Tokushima`s mountains are a little more vain. Tokushima also is famous for many handicrafts, including paper-making and indigo-dying, and the Awa Odori dance, which is performed every year during August and Obon, a holiday for honoring the dead.

One of the first things I noticed upon arrival was the different flora. I remembered palm trees (although it is cold and more nippy that one would expect of a palm-tree locale), but I was surprised to find the plants below, which are identical to an errant plant at home in Maine. There were whole clusters of them in bloom.

It took most of a day to travel to Tokushima and get settled, so Rose and I didn`t really get out to see much until the next day.

Which was Christmas Eve ^^. And what better way to spend Christmas Eve than trekking into Tokushima`s rural countryside to make paper? I`d been to the paper-making factory before and wanted to go again. This time, there was a special display upstairs of New Year postcards and calendars (entering into the year of the ox, so they were mostly decorated with oxen). There was also a very long sheaf of paper in a corner with descriptions of kendo gear and beautiful pictures.

The highlight of the factory, at least for me, was making my own paper. I think the process is so cool. There are vats of suitably broken-down tree-bark fibers emulsed in a water-and-glue mixture and wooden frames with mesh to catch the fibers.


First, you stir up a vat with a bamboo stick to mix the fibers evenly. Then you dip the frame in, shake gently (a 1-2 mini-earthquake on the Richter scale, not a 8-9) to get the fibers to settle evenly as the water drains through the mesh. Repeat a couple of times to achieve a proper thickness.

Then it`s time for decorating! ...there were small tubs of colored, emulsified tree bark for pouring into a cookie-cutter design or making splashes of color across your future-piece-of-paper, as well as different-colored bits of more substantial tree fibers for fine-tuned designs.

I made a Christmas card postcard for Rose (complete with colored bulb decorations on the Christmas tree and a star on top), a night-time fireworks scene, a recreation of a paper-artwork I`d seen in the museum with a sunset sky and two flying birds, and then had some fun with random splashes of color.

After decorating, the future-paper is removed from the mesh of the wooden frame, quickly vacuumed by a special machine, and then rolled onto a hot sheet of metal to dry. The water was a little cold to work with and everything done standing up, but I could`ve spent all day making paper and deciding how to decorate it.

...we had other plans for the day, though, and headed back to Tokushima city for karaoke-- including many Christmas-y songs and ending with a resounding `We Are the Champions`-- and a nice Italian Christmas-dinner-a-little early. Since Christmas in Japan is more of a romantic holiday for couples than a family event, fancy restaurants would most likely be booked on Christmas day. For some reason Kentucky Fried Chicken is also a popular romantic Christmas destination... go figure. In any case, we celebrated early. The lasagna was delicious ^^