2001-11-05 - 11:53 p.m.
I went to the eye clinic today, having developed my first medical problem besides a cough -- an attractive sty in my left eye. I don’t really know what was said during my visit, but I assume that the nice women in white nurses dresses and the authoritative doctor in the lab coat have seen this kind of thing before, so I’m not to worried about misdiagnosis. I’ll just take my regimen of medicine -- 2 eye drops four times a day, 1 packet of powder twice a day, and 2 pills three times a day -- and hopefully it will go away. Between you and me, I made SUCH a big cultural faux pas today at the eye clinic. In my rush to get through the door and to the reception desk, I did just that -- I rushed through the front door and to the reception desk. It was only after I’d filled out the paperwork and sat down that I realized that everyone else in the waiting room had taken off their shoes at the front door and was wearing the provided slippers. Doh! In my defense, it is not THAT common to have to take off your shoes in public buildings. Sure, you have to do it at schools, but you don’t have to do it at banks or at the City Hall and Board of Education buildings. I didn’t even think about it. So then I had a problem. Do I go through the rest of the visit clomping around in my boots? Or do I go over and change my shoes in front of the entire waiting room? As a patient was called back, I realized that this was not the only waiting room. This was just the first waiting room. Who knew how many lay beyond that door -- and how many floors I would sully with my outdoor shoes. So, in front of about a half dozen fellow patients, I slunk over to the entrance way and removed my shoes as graciously and as humbly as possible, and then put on my slippers and bowed my way back to my seat. Whoops.
My hot springs weekend in Hakone was fun, despite having been endured with a swollen eyelid. The Lonely Planet Japan writes... “Hakone is the Japanese tourist-mecca par excellence. If the weather cooperates and Mt. Fuji is clearly visible, the Hakone region can make a fun day trip from Tokyo... If it’s rainy or cloudy, however, you may simply feel that you’re riding a conveyor belt whose sole purpose is to strip you of your cash.” So it was on a very rainy Saturday morning that Saori and I set out to be stripped of our cash. It was a national holiday, so we had a lot of company. For comfort’s sake, we chose to take the fancy “Romance Car” train rather than the local one, so we reached Hakone in less than an hour and a half from Shinjuku Station in Tokyo. We started out in Hakone-Yumoto, where the main street is lined with tourist shops selling omiyage (souvenirs). Every Japanese tourist stocks up on souvenirs on even the briefest trip away because it is expected that you’ll bring something for friends, family, and co-workers after every vacation. Hakone is popular for its hot springs, and because it is popular, many seemingly random museums have sprung up to entertain the masses when they are not soaking. Saori and I visited the Antique Toy Museum and the Music Box Museum, but unfortunately did not have time for the 3-D Dinosaur Museum (which looked shoddy, and thus all the more appealing) nor the Little Prince Museum (as in the French children’s book). We soaked for a while at an outdoor hot spring before heading to our lodgings. That night we stayed at an out-of-the way hotel in a small mountain-town. What the place lacked in interior design (decoration consisted of kitten posters from the 1980s) was made up for by the bath -- a huge room with two six by eight foot stone baths, one hot and one warm. The hotel clerk had promised Saori on the phone to give us “a good room” -- it over looked fast-running river with a waterfall.
Sunday morning we woke up early and were pleased to find that the weather was perfect -- sunny and a bit cool. We took a bus to the top of Lake Ashi, where we boarded the “tourist ship” -- a garishly decked-out ferry named “The Victoria.” Seeing the landscape in the daytime, it looked a lot like West Virginia -- mountains and foliage, etc. After our ferry ride we walked around the town of Moto-Hakone for a little while, visiting Hakone jinja, a spectacular temple in a cedar grove with tall red torii (see the red archways in the pictures below). We walked along a stone path by the lake and came upon a camera crew filming a couple similarly walking along the lake. At first Saori suggested that they were probably filming a karaoke video -- the silent movie (often of a romantic scene) that roles behind the lyrics on the karaoke TV. But upon a second look, Saori realized that it was actually a very famous Japanese actor, and they were filming an episode of his TV show, a night-time murder-suspense drama.
After our brush with stardom, we boarded the ferry again and headed back to the top of the lake, where we got on the “ropeway” -- a cable car suspended some dangerous number of meters above the mountains. Despite my fear of most things that are fun but scary (like roller coasters and cable cars suspended over mountains) I managed to enjoy the spectacular views. The highlight was going over this huge valley that was smoking with sulfur. It kind of looked like Mars (or is it Venus?). Once we were back on land, we took another kitschy form of transport -- what the Japanese call a cable car, but it’s actually just a train with a cable running along the top of it. Still, someone seems to have thought -- if we call this train something special, slap a cable on top of it, and run it through the mountains, we can make a FORTUNE selling all sorts of “cable car” souvenirs!” Another train ride put us back in Hakone-Yumoto, where we joined in the Sunday-night rush for Monday morning’s office omiyage. Away from the mountainous stacks of pre-wrapped boxes of cookies, we found a small tofu maker recommended to us by Saori’s sister. We ate some tofu in the shop -- the silky white kind, some cakes fried with carrots and spices, and yuba, a soft white tofu created by skimming the top off of boiling bean curd. Saori loaded up on tofu to bring back to family in Tokyo, and I just loaded up on tofu to bring back for myself (I appreciated my thoughtfulness today).
Hakone was great, but there is definitely something to be said for avoiding tourist spots on national holidays in a country of professional tourists. We have another holiday coming up in a couple of weeks, so it will be tempting to go away again -- but I definitely will seek out something a little more off the beaten path.
