It's Doctor Fish time

I don't know about you, but a couple of the first things that came to my mind when thinking of Japan are spas...massages...thermal baths...hmmm. Sure enough, there is this amazing spa house down the way from our apartment, just a half hour walk along the beach to its spot on Sunset Beach.

There is a long, rectangular hot tub outside the baths where you can stop and rest your feet for a while. Day or night, there are always people sitting here and it's a really nice way to relax whether coming from the beach, market, or work.

Terme Villa Chula-U is a whole spa complex with indoor hot baths (male and female ones, since evidently they're strictly nudie places...haven't ventured into those ones, honestly), outdoor cold and hot pools, and this interesting type of 'massage' called Doctor Fish. I've never heard of this before, but for your entrance fee into Chula-U you also get 10 minutes with Doctor Fish. Their real scientific name is Garra Rufa, also commonly known as 'nibble fish,' and they hail originally from Kangal, Turkey, where locals have used them to treat numerous varieties of skin disorders (like psoriasis, eczema, acne, etc.) for centuries. It's also reported that Cleopatra frequently used these fish to enhance her legendary beauty. The Garra Rufa are unique in that they gently nibble away your outer layer of dead skin cells, leaving a fresh layer of new skin cells underneath. So NO, they don't have teeth, but rather little suckers for mouths to pull off the dead skin. While nibbling away, the fish produce an enzyme that aids new skin cell growth and also helps the skin feel softer and healthier.

Come 'n get it!
Now you know why it looks a little scary at first...they look like they're attacking my feet
Kinda cool, huh? It's actually a slightly scary first encounter. You sit down, place your feet into the Doctor Fish pond, and wait as the little guys swarm your feet and begin nibbling away. If I didn't know any better, I would swear they were going to attack my feet instead of help them...but everybody else seemed pretty calm so I figured nothing bad would happen. Sure enough, after 5 minutes my feet felt cleaner and better than before.

Beauty salons all over the world have started employing these fish as natural cosmetic and therapeutic procedures, although Turkey legally guards the commercial exploitation of the Garra Rufa. These spas are commonplace in Europe and Asia, and finally reached the US when the first doctor fish pedicure spa was opened in Virginia in 2008. A few states have banned the use of Doctor Fish treatments, claiming sanitation reasons (although there haven't been any reported health issues from their use). Just make sure you go to a reputable spa!

A Day in Osaka

We probably would have been happy to spend our entire time in Kyoto, but our flight back home was out of Osaka so we figured we might as well make a day of it in another city. Osaka is more of a modern city than Kyoto as it is a huge port and remains one of the biggest commercial cities of Japan. It's the third largest city in population size behind Tokyo and Yokohama, and is also referred to as the 'nation's kitchen' in reference to its culinary prowess. Unfortunately, we only had half a day to see the city so we weren't able to take advantage of the culinary scene :( but we did get to see some pretty neat historical sights.

Osaka Castle: this is one of the most beautiful castles I've seen thus far. You step off the subway and immediately run into an enormous baseball field and convention center, and you begin to think you got off at the wrong stop. But walk just a little further around the bend, however, and you can see the castle rising in the distance above the high stone walls. You have to cross not one but two moats that guard the castle as well, until you can reach the plateau at the top of the hill.


In front of the first moat and wall at the base of Osaka Castle

First constructed as a monastic residence in 1496, it became a large temple known as Osaka Honganji. It was burned to the ground in 1580 during a political struggle, and rebuilt by Hideyoshi Toyotomi as his residence as ruler of Japan. Toyotomi is memorialized as a kind of 'self-made man' because he was born into a peasant warrior class, and subsequently rose from servant status to become one of the great rulers of Japan. His residence, the Osaka Castle, remained a seat of power until the Summer War in Osaka in 1615. There are six stories in the Main Tower of the castle here, with each floor containing historical artifacts, full scale models of original rooms, pieces of armor, battle depictions, etc. Really fascinating historical exhibits.


Look at the view from the top of the Main Tower! You can see the castle gardens right below, and then the bustling commercial city center in the distance.

They had a sort of open clearing around the castle at the top, with the ever-present snow cone and noodle stands, souvenir shops, and then a couple of wandering artists at the base of a large tree. At least one of them was the artist, and I'm not sure if the other fellow was a friend or just bumming some shade for himself and his iguana. I was looking at the paintings when his giant iguana came waddling out. It completely freaked me out, and I think his owner had so much fun laughing at my reaction that he wanted me to hold his pet.
Angie bought a picture from the artist and he was happy to take a photo with his artwork. He was so friendly, and he insisted on wearing his little crown and holding up the peace sign for the photo

Just like New York's Empire State Building and Chicago's Sears Tower (now Willis Tower), Osaka has its own skyscraper building -- the Floating Garden Observatory. This massive structure has a 360 degree view of Osaka from 173 m above ground, and although we couldn't be there for sunset, the view was still pretty impressive during the day. It takes its name from man's continual quest for reaching 'higher and higher,' with the belief that man conceptualizes the air as a garden. Think of the Hanging Gardens of Babylons crossed with the Tower of Babel...





Escalator ride going straight up to the 40th floor where the observatory deck is located

View from the top, 173 meters above the ground

The Old Imperial Capital: Kyoto City

After 2 weeks on the island, I just took my first trip to mainland Japan and realized that THIS is what I came to see. It's such a beautiful city, with ancient temples and monuments that contrast so sharply to the 'old' buildings at home. Their restorations alone are older than our original buildings. It's a humbling experience.

We rented bikes for the two days we were in Kyoto and I'm still in the process of calculating the miles we covered, but I'd say it's easily around 40-50 miles total. Not counting all the hills we climbed without the bikes just to get to the mountaintops. Amazing experience, but I'll probably spend a couple days just sitting down to recuperate.

Anyway, it seemed that literally every street and neighborhood had a temple or castle, and it wasn't unusual for us to arrive at our destination only to realize we had stumbled upon yet another Buddhist temple instead. Our first stop was Nijo Castle, which ended up being practically next door to the hostel we were staying at. Nijo Castle is different than many of the other castles we saw because it has unusually ornate interiors and the famous "nightingale floors." The architects built the floors in such a way that the nails in the floorboards would rub against each other when walked upon and make bird-like squeaking sounds (purpose being to warn against possible intruders). All the tatami mat rooms were lined with beautiful life-sized paintings of pine tree forests, lions, peacocks and flowers. I wish I could have gotten pictures of these wall paintings to show you, but the guards were pretty strict about their no photo policy. I got yelled at for taking my shoes off on the wrong part of the mat, so I wasn't about to take any forbidden photos on that trip.

You can get a glimpse of the ornate decorations of this place just by the carvings on the Karamon Gate here. Check out the gilded peacocks and flowers on this gate!
Angie and I in front of the inner gate, less ornate and imposing than the Karamon Gate before it

As we were riding along to find the Philosopher's Walk, we suddenly stumbled onto Nazen-ji Temple, which literally rises out of the forest as this massive ancient building. This Zen temple has been around since the 1300s and is surrounded by pine trees, waterfalls and gardens. The pictures here don't do it justice, but the size of this Sanmon (entrance gateway) of Nanzen-ji can only be compared to the redwoods of California.


Hopefully you can see how puny I look in comparison to this gateway
One of my favorite places we stopped at was the Rokuon-ji Temple, although everyone knows it by its more popular name, the Golden Pavilion. Like most the temples and fortresses today, the present building is a restored replica after having been burnt down by several fires. There's actually an interesting story around this one: in 1950, a young monk burned it to the ground because, apparently, he believed that the aesthetic beauty of the pavilion detracted from religious concentration...or maybe he was just obsessed with the temple itself. Regardless, his arsonist act spawned a famous book by Mishima Yukio called The Golden Pavilion, and a movie as well.
This temple is breathtaking because it's completely covered in gold and it shines iridescently regardless of sun or clouds. If you've ever seen that golden dome of Notre Dame shining, you'll know what I mean...

I can see how this might get a little distracting. There are over 105 pounds of gold coating this temple!



Last stop of our day: Kiyomizu-dera Temple. Over 1,000 years old, and an absolutely massive complex. Climbing all the way to the main pagoda gives great views of Kyoto.


In front of the main gate leading to Kiyomizu-dera main hall (left); Main gate guarded by the ubiquitous shisa, a lion/dog talisman that wards off evil spirits (right)

View from main hall. Know the popular expression "just take the plunge"? It comes from the Japanese epression "to jump off the stage at Kiyomizu." This refers to a tradition that said if you were to survive a 13m jump from the stage, your wish would be granted. Believe it or not, 234 jumps were recorded in the Edo period (from 1603 to 1868). Even more surprising, 85% survived. Thankfully, the practice is now prohibited.
Funny part about this temple: the Jishu Shrine on the side of the pagoda is a shrine dedicated to Okuninushi no mikoto, the god of love and good matches. Thousands of pilgrims write their love wishes on wooden plaques called 'ema' and then tie them to the wall by the shrine in the hopes that their wishes are granted.


Love requests written and hung on the shrine (left); And what's up with the rabbit?? Well, in ancient history, when a rabbit gained what it wanted by deceiving others, it was forced to peel off its skin. Okuninushi was a nice god, however, and healed it and made it mend its ways. So that's why the rabbit statue is here...and I guess it doesn't hurt to whisper your requests to the rabbit as well (right)


ANDDDDD next post: Osaka!

We could use some of these back home

For all the entrepreneurial types out there, there are a couple things out here that would do great back home:

1) Coffee vending machines. We've got the standard soda/candy machines, but the Okinawans have really mastered the vending machines out here. They are literally everywhere - main streets, side streets, deserted mountainside roads, you name it. Makes me wonder how many people are employed to solely make the rounds and restock the thousands of machines scattered around this island. But anyway, what makes these amazing is the fact that you can get so much more than just soda. You've got ice cream sandwiches, a variety of sodas, juices, teas, and enough coffee options to put you on a perpetual caffeine kick. The best thing is that they offer both hot AND cold coffees from the SAME machine! You can get cafe mochas, cafe au laits, regular coffees, iced coffees, espressos...Why these haven't reached the US yet, I don't know.


These little guys are my favorite. The red button below it means it's the hot option, so I can decide if I want a cold au lait or a hot one

2) Cocos Curry houses. Besides the fact that yes, the Japanese have the ubiquitous Starbucks and McD's out here, they've also got these amazing fast-food curry joints. It was one of the first restaurants I tried, and the Japanese curries are sweeter than their Indian counterparts. Doesn't mean they're not as spicy either, but it's just a different taste.
This curry chain is scattered all over Japan and they're simply awesome -- they're cheap, easy, quick, and you can get any combination you can think of. Whether it's veggie or chicken, steak or fish, they've got it all and a bunch of toppings and spiciness levels to choose from, too. (Or maybe they're in the States already, and if you've seen them then you're ahead of me) but they are sooo goood.








My last curry selection: Level 1 spiciness + red curry + steak and veggies.
I think I'll venture to Level 3 spicy next time, although I've heard the average person cries from just eating a Level 5.




And this isn't a new idea, but I thought these were the funkiest things. It's the traveling Boogie Bagie Boxes! You wouldn't know it by the name, but they're hot dog trucks with little attached canopies on the side that function as a bar. The names out here crack me up.

A rare Brit in Oki

So I've kinda felt like an outsider since arriving in Okinawa since a) I'm leagues taller than most the men and women out here and b) I can't understand a single sign or spoken phrase. But every once in a while you come across some random foreigner who's made it this island their home and you kinda have to shake their hand. Take this little spot we took a dinner party to the other night:
My sister had heard about this spot a couple months ago so we decided to check it out. The British Wine and Tea Shop is this little restaurant run out of this British fellow's home stuck way up in the hills in Nago. Once again, you follow the obscure directions past the Pineapple Park...make a left on the windy road...follow a couple brown signs and then find your way up the one lane road...and voila!


And here's our host, John!

He wears this quirky clown hat for a chef cap, walks around in flip flops, and is about 5'3" tall. Kinda reminded me of a leprechaun except that he's British haha -- and his dry, sarcastic sense of humor kept us laughing most the night. Either his humor or the free-flowing champagne, that is.
But anywayyy, in his younger days, he was a professional photographer in the advertising world. Then he switched to the culinary scene and opened up his own restaurant outside of London. His wife, Maki, trained at Cordon Bleu London and then they both decided to return to her home country and open up a restaurant and tea shop in Okinawa. He does the cooking and she does the pastries, so they form an excellent and unique partnership.

It had me wondering though -- how successful can a tiny place stuck up in the hills really be? It sounds idyllic and nice, but he was quick to respond with the problems they were facing: it's tough to get high quality foods on the island so they have to get the necessary goods flown in weekly from the mainland, their location makes it hard to receive frequent visitors, and they don't have regular hours. Tough situation, but they did a beautiful job and they made us quite the spread! We had grilled ratatouille, boeuf bourguignon, chicken breasts wrapped in proscuitto, an amazing bouchées aux crevettes (these pastry puff shells with shrimp covered in béchamel sauce), and an array of desserts that topped it all off. Ah! Makes me hungry again just thinking about it - and I just finished breakfast. I'll be back here again before I leave for sure.







Doesn't this look good??

Theme park and castles

We sought out the ultimate tourist trap today: Nago Pineapple Park. It's exactly what it sounds like -- a theme park dedicated solely to pineapples, complete with a ride on a pineapple car through the pineapple garden to - what else? - a pineapple tasting room! We had samples of fresh pineapple, dried pineapple, pineapple wine, pineapple juice, pineapple cake, pineapple bread...basically, anything you can think of with that fruit in it, they had it. Pretty cool place, and I don't care if it's a tourist trap because it was that fun I'd go again. The pineapple car ride through the gardens kinda reminded me of the It's a Small World ride at Disneyland...same song playing on repeat as we circled through a tropical forest (although it had real trees this time).

Pineapple wine tasting
The guys in front of us were having way too good of a time posing in front of Mr Pineapple...we thought they were funny, so we took their pictures too
We figured we might as well have a serious educational stop along the way too, so we toured Nakijin Gusuku Castle on our way home. I'm not a big museum person since I've always preferred to be outdoors as much as possible, so castles and ruins are definitely more my thing. And this particular fortress was quite impressive -- Nakijin was built near the end of the 13th century, and although it's mostly in ruins now due to years of wars and typhoons, the remaining castle walls and dwelling places are incredible to look it. Placed in a strategic spot bordering a cliff drop-off into the river below, the castle has a sweeping view of the valley directly to the sea.
It remained for centuries as the seat of power in the North and a valuable trading partner with China, until attacking forces brought down the dynasty in the 1400s, and it was fully abandoned two centuries later.








Favorite picture of the day haha. These people LOVE their hot sauce...Smack my Ass and Call me Sally is evidently a legit, manufactured hot sauce. Who knew??


Channelin' my inner Asian :) Sayonara til next time!

It's just a little wind...

I woke up excited for Angie's day off as we had planned on driving up north to visit some cool spots on the island...only the island had other plans, evidently. The rain was falling like rain can only do on a Pacific island in the humid summer, and the wind was shaking the flimsy-looking tatami mat rooms. It's a TCCOR 4 warning kind of day.

According to the military definition:
TCCOR 4: Destructive winds of 50 knots or greater are possible within 72 hours. TCCOR 4 will be continuously in effect as a minimum condition of readiness from 1 June to 30 November annually. Now is the time to stock-up on food and Typhoon Supplies.

Typhoon?? I thought that was the kind of storm that happened only in books. Being a California girl, I've never had to deal with those kind of storms. I know we get earthquakes but that doesn't really count...and the last one I remember was in '92 anyway.

So there go my plans for the day. Fingers crossed that this typhoon warning passes soon.

Trip down South

My first day trip from Chatan was spent driving around the southern part of the island. Angie and I grabbed our coffees, got in the car, and just headed south, determined to stop at all the interesting spots along the way. Turned out to be a grim history lesson - the Battle of Okinawa in WWII was the only ground fighting fought on Japanese soil, and also the the largest scale fight in the Asia-Pacific War. Every stop catalogued a pretty horrifying statistic, as more than 120,000 civilian lives were taken in the Battle of Okinawa. The Japanese essentially used Okinawa as a battle of attrition, forcing innocent civilians and students to delay American forces as long as possible and resulting in huge losses of life.

Stop One: Glass blowing factory and Ryukyu lacquer ware factory

The Okinawans (also known as Ryukyuans) are famous for their glass blowing and lacquer ware. The skill of the craftsman in their glassware pieces is pretty evident, and I found these to be more impressive than the lacquer ware art pieces, personally. Hence, no lacquer photos this time.


Angie with a couple of her favorite pieces

Stop two: Himeyuri Peace Museum

As we were driving down the road, we came upon a group of tour buses at the entrance of this memorial site. During the Battle of Okinawa, the Japanese Army forced students to work in the cave tunnels - running food and water supplies from cave to cave, helping wounded soldiers, and burying the dead. Himeyuri was the nickname given to the Okinawa Women's Normal School and High School, from where these students were drafted. The students were untrained for battle conditions obviously, and when the Japanese soldiers suddenly 'disbanded' them (essentially kicking them out of the caves when the bombing got heavier), the students had nowhere to go under the U.S. firing. Consequently, almost all of them were killed.

Monument site at the entrance to one of the caves, covered with mourning bouquets
Stop three: Cornerstone of Peace Park and Memorial

The Peace Memorial was erected in 1995 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Okinawa. It's a beautiful memorial site and kinda reminds me of those Forest Lawn cemeteries back home -- wide green lawns, clusters of trees, an enormous and recently re-done museum at the top of the small hill, and rows upon rows of stone monuments on which are inscribed the names of all those who were killed (Okinawans, Americans, Koreans, and Europeans were all included).

I always love the symbolism hidden in these monuments. I know they're aesthetically beautiful and really peaceful on the outside, but it's the underlying subtle references and architectural details that make it even more interesting.







Take this Cornerstone of Peace to the right:
1) the rows of monuments with the inscribed names of the dead are arranged accordion-style, to reflect an image of praying hands
2) all the walkways converge at the Peace Plaza, which holds the Flame of Peace at its center. The flame is composed of flames from three other places: Akajima Island (the first landing of the US forces on the island), Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
3) the main walkway leading to the Flame of Peace is designed to align with the position of the sun as it rises above the horizon on June 23 (Okinawa Memorial Day). Neat fact, huh?



Looks kinda like the Cliffs of Moher, huh? Sadly, these don't have a similar peaceful past...thousands of Okinawans and Japanese committed suicide by jumping off these cliffs in order to escape oncoming US troops
After reading more about this war and all the horrifying events and huge losses, I was slightly expecting an undertone of bitterness, or perhaps even hostility. I mean, over 240,000 people were killed in the battle in this little island, and it was only 50 years ago -- those decades are so very present in our own parents' lifetimes that it can hardly be classified as history. It really was not all that long ago since this battle was fought...

Yet the message was anything but bitter here. It was overwhelmingly a message of peace. The people believed that only through promoting peace would the dead souls receive justice, and repeat of such a tragedy be avoided for future generations.

Me in the peace butterfly garden tent
Stop four: Thai in the Sky

On a less serious note, I have to pause to comment on a) the frustrating driving situation here, and b) one of my best food experiences yet. The roads are well kept and everyone drives an even 40mph, so I can't complain about the driving itself. But for some reason, they've got an issue with roadway signs and maps. Signs and arrows are all over the place - it seems that local authorities like to rename highways at whim. So when you think you're driving along Highway 58 just fine, all of a sudden it turns into a completely different road (without you making any turns at all) and you're left to just navigate yourself to your final destination by North-South coordinates, or land markers that you might recognize from a previous time you drove that road. Funny thing is, the maps don't reflect this change in highway number at all, and the whole experience becomes extremely frustrating when you find out half way through the journey that the road has switched on you.

Example: we were determined to eat at this Thai restaurant Angie had been to a couple months ago, called Thai in the Sky (it's the American translated version, called so because it's a Thai restaurant, and it overlooks the ocean on a cliff so you feel like you're 'in the sky,' so to speak). Our directions as written down by a friend:
Take Highway 331 to the 86...then follow the large brown signs with red half arrows on them...look for a T-Rex dinosaur statue on the side of the road...make the first left turn after the dinosaur...if you've gone past the windmills, then you've gone too far

Doesn't seem too complicated from first glance, right? Only until we realize that the 331 doesn't connect to the 86 after all, and there are tons of brown signs all over the place, and it's kinda easy to miss a dinosaur statue in the middle of sugarcane fields on both sides of the road...So several U-turns and road changes later, we finally made it to the place and the food was hands-down the best Thai food I've ever had.







Pad thai, Malaysian curry, and papaya salad