Traveling South on the Shinkansen (Bullet Train)

April 24, 2025 Thursday
Mito to Shin-Osaka

We went down for breakfast and gave our tip envelopes to Micah, Matt, Erika, Jackie, and Tiger. They'd made our tour truly interesting and informative as well.

This was our last breakfast together and it was sad to say goodbye to everybody. We always meet the nicest people on the tours that we've taken.

We walked across from the hotel to the train station and bought our tickets to travel to Tokyo Station where we would change trains to continue on to Shin Osaka.

We left Mito at 9:53 AM and arrived at Tokyo Station at 11:13 AM.

Our tour group was leaving the hotel at 2:00 PM for Narita Airport to return to Hawaii. My cousin, Arnold and Nancy would be leaving at the same time.

We arrived at the Shin-Osaka station at 2:06 PM and bought reserved tickets to go Narita Airport in 3 days.

After arriving at the Shin-Osaka station, we talked to a person manning the EXPO booth. He along with several others gave us friendly explanations on what to expect at the EXPO the following day.

Another very helpful fellow also gave us a map written in English for the EXPO. I told him his command of the English language was the best we'd experienced in Japan. Yes, I got a big smile for that.

OK, I know this is crazy, but we then didn't know how to get out of the station. The place is huge! I had to bother a young fellow who was cleaning the floors to ask him how.

This very wonderful fellow asked where our hotel was and then guided us out to the correct exit. I wish we had more candy to give out. 

We do meet the nicest people in Japan.

It was about a 15 minute walk to our Hotel MyStays.

The temperature was about 76 degrees F. Very comfortable.

We've been at other Hotel MyStays, but this one had the smallest rooms we've seen yet. 

It's a good thing we didn't bring all our luggage!

Across the hotel was Nakau-Shin Osaka so we decided to try them out. The pictures out front looked very tasty and we were hungry since we missed lunch.

Uh oh...

No one took your order. You had to key it in to this computer thing. 

It's a good thing we had something called the SUICA card on our phone with money on it to use in Japan.

We enjoyed the unagi (broiled eel) rice bowl with salad and miso soup.

And so our tour was ended that day and our EXPO adventure would bring the following day.

Flowers in the Rain

 April 23, 2025 Wednesday
Nemophila Flower Garden at Hitachi Seaside Park

This would be our last full day with our tour group before we'd be striking out on our own again. I was looking forward to seeing the Nemophila flowers after seeing Yoko's photos on her blog Stardust Talk. 

We'd been very fortunate on this trip with very light rain on just a few days.

But today, it really rained.

There was a little shuttle bus that took us to the hill where the Nemophila were blooming.

Art started to climb that hill but stopped half way and came down to where I was. I'm not a fan of walking in the wind and rain. My shoes were soaked.

But yes, the delicate blue flowers were beautiful adorned with raindrops.

We were taken to a seafood market where we bought some dried sweet potatoes that Erika recommended.

We were then driven to Don Quijote department store and  then Aeon Mall where we could explore and buy last minute omiyage (gifts) or whatever to help Japan's economy.

Freshness Burger was recommended to us by Matt. We tried their Kobe beef burgers and yes, it was very good.

I was taking a photo of Art with his burger to show his sister when a lady at the table next to ours offered to take our photos. That was so very kind of her. There were other places in Japan where people offered to take our photos and it raised our spirits even higher to meet such friendly people.

One of Art's favorite memories and mine happened here.

Lori, one of our tour members at another table came by to say she was happy to meet us, but especially to tell us that she loved seeing how well Art and I got along and were so loving with each other. This surprised us. We don't hold hands and don't tend to show affection in public. We've both been raised in a very old Japanese way by our parents. 

It was Art who said later in the day how much he loved what Lori had said. And it makes me smile to think of it.

Back at the hotel in Mito, we went to the front desk where a VERY KIND desk clerk wrote out the tedious Yamato Transport forms to send our two suitcases and our uuummm.... large box of "fun" things we bought on our trip to Narita Airport.

We went down a little later and gave her a couple of tiny bags of chocolate macdamia nut candies. She was so very happy and grateful that it really made us happy too.

Our plans were to travel down to Osaka the following day to see the EXPO without our heavy luggage and box. 

We again bought some carry-out dinners and relaxed in our room with it.

Our tour was ending and we would be on our own again. I was nervous. Art was looking forward to the adventure.

Strawberries and Wisteria!

 April 22, 2025 Tuesday 
Ashikaga Flower Park

Actually, what gave us the idea about going on this trip in the first place was a friend mentioning how beautiful wisteria was. And now here we were at last.

Our morning started off with our usual healthy breakfast.

Art had noticed some people taking advantage of a foot/hand onsen (hot spring bath) at our hotel. 

OK, so I didn't go to the regular onsen, but I'd never been to a foot/hand onsen so I was happy to try it. 

And you know what...it was lovely.

We then got on the bus which took us to another gift shop where we picked up rakkyo (pickled scallions) which Art loves. OK, I do too. 

We then arrived at a strawberry farm which was nothing like I'd ever seen in the U.S. There were dogwood trees there. I've seen the white varieties, but had never seen this pink type. They had something called Skyberries there. 

This is from the Specialty Produce website:

Skyberry strawberries, botanically classified as Fragaria ananassa, are a modern Japanese cultivar belonging to the Rosaceae family. The variety was developed in Japan in the late 20th to early 21st centuries and was released to commercial markets in 2014.

I'd forgotten we'd be going to a strawberry farm. There were rows upon rows of these greenhouses with something called Skyberries and Super Premium berries.

We got to try LOTS of berries called Tochi-Aika. It was developed by the Strawberry Research Institute, and 2020 was the first year of shipment.

We were given little cups to put our stems in and then allowed to go free and eat as many berries as we wanted.

Good gosh! We could NOT believe how sweet the Skyberries were. It was rather a shock. They were as sweet as candies and I'm not exaggerating.

We all ate so many berries that when we were taken to a restaurant to have ramen for lunch, I really, really couldn't eat much of it at all. I don't know if anybody was able to finish their meal.

The tour bus then took us to Ashikaga Flower Park. We were a little early for the full bloom, but it was truly still awe inspiring. The wisteria is over 150 years old and all these branches come from a single trunk! 

There were smaller wisteria trees that were absolutely stunning.

There was also gorgeous white wisteria trees.

But one of the flower varieties that really grabbed my attention were these azalea bushes.

I thought at first that they were growing from different plants and sort of stuck together or grafted. 

But no, that wasn't the case.

Absolutely incredible!

The satsuki azalea actually produces different colored or patterned varieties on one bush!

They also had wisteria soft serves. Soft serves are called soft creams in Japan and they are wonderful. There are different flavors everywhere you go in Japan. I remember going to a brewery once a long time ago and seeing beer flavored soft creams. Ummm.... we didn't much care for it.

That evening, Matt took us to an izakaya. 

According to AI: An izakaya is a traditional Japanese pub or tavern that is more than a mere dining establishment. Rooted in Japanese history, the term 'izakaya' is a fusion of 'i' (to stay) and 'sakaya' (sake shop), reflecting its historical origins as places where customers could enjoy sake and stay for a meal.

We sat with cousin Arnold, Nancy and several tour buddies from our trip. I discovered that one of those tour friends had been a teacher who once taught at an elementary school I attended... ummm many decades ago. 

Hawaii is such a small state that there's a joke you just have to start every conversation with a new person asking, "What school you grad?" 😃

I was a little melancholy thinking the trip was coming to a close, but like our meeting Phyllis on this trip, I'm hoping to see these tour members again on another trip.

The Tragedy of the Teenage Samurais

 April 21, 2025 Monday 
Aizu-Wakamatsu

We had an interesting conversation at breakfast with Micah (our Tohoku escort), Matt (Translator) and Tiger (Baggage Handler). We were surprised to learn that Matt had been to Chicago's Southside because he loved blues music and wanted to see and hear it first hand. 

We lived for 35 years in the northside of Chicago and had heard about the dangerous areas of the southside. Art on the other hand worked in the Loop and used to go for lunches with friends in the southside.

This was some of our breakfast selections. Salted squid guts? Really? Nope. I didn't try that.

And then we were on our way again. There was a rest stop in Ishima. Since the tour is generally for a senior population, they make rest stops every half hour to an hour. And since we're using their facilities, you do happily purchase something to thank the shop owners. We did buy those two packages of pickled baby eggplants. And yes, they were very good.

There were more beautiful cherry blossoms when we arrived at the castle town of Aizu-Wakamatsu. 

We took a steep escalator to visit Mt. Iimori  where 20 teenage samurai had performed seppuku (ritualistic suicide by disembowelment) thinking their clan had lost the Boshin War because they saw from the hill what they thought was their Aizu castle burning. Actually, it was smoke from a house near the castle that was burning. Nevertheless, the Aizu would fall several weeks later.

You often hear of seppuku referred to as harakiri in the west. Harakiri is a rather crass term that translates to stomach cutting.

Samurai City website:

The Byakkotai (White Tiger Brigade) was a military unit primarily made up of boys aged 15–17. The boys were the sons of Aizu samurai families involved in the Boshin War (1868–1869), which was fought between the Tokugawa shogunate and those opposed to its continued rule. 

Mt. Iimori is the final resting place of 19 members of the unit who took their own lives after being cut off from the rest of their troops. 

One of the group survived to give his account of the tragic incident. Today, the Byakkotai are an enduring symbol of the spirit of the Aizu samurai. 

Erika told us this would be the last domestic war in Japan.

The bottom photo shows the gravesite of the 19 young boys who ended their lives with seppuku during the Boshin War. There were actually 20, but 1 boy was found still alive and rescued by a farmer. He lived to tell about the tragedy.

Once down from the mountain, we went to a restaurant for lunch where a server dressed in samurai gear did a dance for us about the tragic events.

When I returned home to Hawaii, I asked mom if she knew the story of the Byakkotai.

"Of course!" she said, rather insulted. "It's tragic! All such young boys!"

That rescued Byakkotai boy lived out his life in Sendai (which was my mother's hometown) where he was an official in the local post office.

Our hotel that night was a very large Japanese style room. We really enjoyed it.

That afternoon, we had a lovely balcony on which to enjoy the mountains and reflect on the sad history we'd learned about.

And yes, Art did go to the onsen for a lovely soak that evening. I stayed in to write my notes for the day in my travel journal.

Riding in a Washtub?

 April 19, 2025 Saturday

When we went to breakfast at 7:00 AM, it seemed the entire group from Hawaii was already there.

I guess we spent too much time admiring all the origami displayed around the hotel. The toki bird had wings that flapped when you pulled the tail.

Since we had time before the departure of our tour bus, we took a walk around Senkaku Bay.

We couldn't resist having our photos taken with Arnold and Nancy. 

We also had a group photo taken with the tour group near the beautiful bay.

Our next stop before going to Ogi port to catch the jet foil to return to Niigata was the Ex-commissioner's office that was once managed by the Tokugawa government in the Edo period (1603 to 1867).

We saw how gold was separated from rocks. 

There was also an exhibit showing how gold dust was separated from other debris.

When we arrived at Ogi port, we were told we'd be experiencing a ride in a tarai-bune (traditional wash tub boats).

AI Overview:

Originally developed for fishing, particularly by woman divers (Ama), tarai-bune allowed for better navigation of the rocky coastline. 

When I spoke to our oarswoman she was surprised that I was able to converse a bit in Japanese. 

Mom had warned me not to speak in Japanese while in Japan because I don't often know the correct grammar. There are also different levels of conversation with how you speak to or refer to someone of a higher (boss), same or lower (child) level, not to mention male or female language. Sigh...

So I was careful. 😌

We then got to experience the Onidaiko festival. Onidaiko translates to demon drumming.

This is from the Sado Tourism Navi website:

It is unknown when the tradition of Onidaiko started on Sado Island. The oldest known record of Onidaiko is an illustration of the Aikawa Festival that dates back to around 1744. Onidaiko is very often performed at local temple and shrine festivals especially around April (rice planting season) and October (rice harvesting season) to pray for an abundant crop. Though not official events, you may happen to run into an Onidaiko performance during a stroll through the streets “off-season”, as well, when they perform “Kadozuke” within their community, going from door to door to cleanse every household from harmful energy. The Oni dances to the rhythm of the taiko drum, then enters the house, taking all the bad energy upon himself. When it comes out again, the Oni brushes off the bad energy sticking to its hair and body with drum sticks while dancing and drums it into the taiko.

We also saw a theater with robots, but uuummm... not sure what it was about.

We then boarded the jet foil and returned to Niigata and were welcomed by Erika and Jackie who were not with us on the trip to Sado Island.

April 20, 2025 Easter Sunday, Niigata

A tour member had thought ahead and brought fun little Easter eggs with chocolates to hand out to everyone on the bus. 

Our first stop of the day was Niigata Furusato (Hometown) Village. It was fun to see so many beautiful tulips in Japan. 

We had to take a photo of Jackie and Erika clowning around with Micah, our Hawaii Tohoku tour escort. 

Erika told us that tulips were first introduced to Niigata in 1914 and that their climate was perfect for growing tulips. There's a tulip festival there from April to May.

We  then stopped at this senbei factory where we could heat our own senbei.

Senbei are rice crackers. There are many, many different kinds of senbei.

We stopped at the Aeon Mall where we bought uuummmm.... quite a number of things.

I was at this desk applying to have our purchases in a tax free bag since we spent more than 5,000 yen (about $35.00).

And yes, we also stopped at this 100 yen (70¢) store. 

It was fun to see the Ichishima House. The house was established in 1897. It was interesting to see how the wealthy lived in that era.

We were on the last few days of our trip so it was great to be able to sit with my cousin, Arnold, Nancy and Phyllis. We're hoping to travel again with them someday.

After our elegant dinner, it was fun to see Micah, Matt and Tiger sing and play on the percussion drums for us. It turned out that Micah is from a musical family in Hawaii. The surprise for me was that he knew my nephew who was also a musician/singer in Hawaii when he was younger.

It was a very lovely ending to a fun day.

Cherry Blossoms and Sado Island

 April 18, 2025 Friday

After our buffet breakfast at the hotel, we looked out our window and was surprised to see a canal lined with blooming cherry blossoms!

We decided to go down and see it close up before our bus left for the next destination.

And yes, they were absolutely gorgeous!

We boarded the bus and saw more cherry blossoms on our ride to our next stop.

Tsubame-Sanjo is a stainless steel factory. We got to buy some high quality items like vegetable/noodle strainers, nail files, nail clippers and sink strainers. I'm wondering if stainless steel item prices would be going up with the Trump tariffs. Hmmm... maybe we should have bought more things. 😕

We then went to the pier to board the jet foil to take us to Sado Island.

We were provided a very lovely lunch onboard the boat for the 75 minute ride.

Once on the island, we were told about  their toki bird which is a Crested Ibis.

Wikipedia:

In the 1980s, the birds were decimated by overhunting, the use of pesticides, ongoing habitat loss, their already small population size, their limited range, winter starvation and persecution, which together brought the endangered species to the brink of extinction.

On September 25, 2008, in Sado, Niigata, the Sado Japanese Crested Ibis Preservation Center released 10 of the birds as part of its crested ibis restoration program, which aimed to introduce 60 ibises into the wild by 2015. It was the first time the bird has returned to the Japanese wild since 1981.

On June 23, 2022, nearly five hundred toki returned to Sado, where the bird's delicate pink plumage and distinctive curved beak now draw tourists. They represent a rare conservation success story when one in eight bird species globally are threatened with extinction, and one which involved international diplomacy and an agricultural revolution on a small island off Japan's west coast.

Sado Island is known to have a rather debated history. 

Mom is saying it was where prisoners were sent. 

I've read online that Koreans might have also been conscripted to work in the gold mines.

Whatever the case, it was a rather terrible place to be forced to work in order to get the gold out.

They had a bar of pure gold on display that we could try to lift. And no, there was NO way I could lift it at all.

That evening we had one of the biggest rooms we've ever stayed in when on a trip to Japan. This was a very interesting, thought provoking day.