Our experiences -- Western Tokyo, Japan, Oct 19-21, 2017, Ray M

Hiroshi and Eiko S., our most gracious and friendly hosts

Western Tokyo - Ray & PJ's highlights

Outbound to Gufu + Tokyo Japan, October 19-21, 2017
By:  Ray M

Our FF Tokyo hosts were Eiko and Hiroshi S.  She is a retired dentist who has an extensive rose garden, he is a doctor, currently working on his second career taking care of a nursing home of 150 people.  In the 1970’s, George M, our AC for this trip, helped Hiroshi-san apply for an internship at Johns Hopkins in the US – so there is a long connection, even though he and Eiko-san have only been in Friendship force a few months. They both have an excellent command of English so we had some good discussions.  And they were so generous – we only found out toward the end of our stay that they had given us their bedroom to sleep in, and they slept in separate twin beds in other rooms.

Looking around in Tokyo

We’d expressed some interest in art and in seeing the night lights of Shinjuku, so that’s what we did the first day.  We went to the Ōta Memorial Museum of Art to see the Ukiyo-e exhibit of Edo-era prints by Katsushika Hokusai, including his series his “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji”, including “The Great Wave off Kanagawa.”  No pictures allowed unfortunately but here is a (link).   

Hiroshi, Eiko and PJ about to see “The Great Wave off Kanagawa” 

Then a walk-about in Shinjuku.

Shinjuku lights

Our hosts took us to Kabuki-cho, just off the main street, and not to be confused with a Kabuki show.  Kabuki-cho used to be a not-very-reputable area but now is just 'interesting'. For example, these robot women inviting us in for a meal (we didn't accept).

Hiroshi, Eiko and PJ at Robot restaurant

This robot restaurant is not to be confused with robatayaki, which is like Yakitori - both are skewers of meat like shish-kabab; yakitori is chicken, robatayaki is any meat.

Godzilla menacing us above the buildings

A Halloween Christmas Tree - this place has everything.

'

Fuji Five Lakes Area

We’d been in Tokyo at the start of our trip so expressed an interest in seeing the Mt Fuji area.  Eiko-san and Hiroshi-san were happy to show us – that’s where they used to wind surf , a hobby they started at age 50!!  But now they wanted to see the area more.

We met up with Sachiko, George and Lynn to see the kimono exhibit at Itchiku Kubota Art Museum – displaying the spectacular kimono art created by Itchiku Kubota.  Kubota Itchiku (1917-2003) was the artist who revived the lost art of Tsujigahana silk dyeing, used to decorate elaborate kimono during the Muromachi Period (1333-1573).  His work was on exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum earlier.  No photos inside this museum either but here is a (link) so you can see some of his work.
.

Hiroshi and Eiko at museum entry gate - an antique from India

The museum main building

And then they surprised us with a visit to an extensive collection of 19th century European music machines, calliope, etc. at Kawaguchi-ko Music Forest.

Lynn, Sachiko, George, PJ, Eiko, Hiroshi ready to watch the musical fountain performance

The Musical Forest was celebrating Halloween too. Halloween has become very popular now in Japan in the past 5 years.

One last stop in the Five-Lakes area - to a doll museum "Kawaguchiko Muse Hall". This is a permanent museum exhibiting creative doll author Kurihiro Yuki's works. He makes very real-looking dolls using an intricate process of (1) sculpting in clay, (2) making a cast, (3) filling with paper mache, and then (4) all the finishing work.  No pictures allowed, but here is a (link).

Their apartment

Hiroshi-san and Eiko-san live in a very nice apartment building (condo's - owned, not rented).

There are about 35 units, and only one garage door but it can hold over 30 cars.  Inside, there is a conveyer system to bring cars up: you press your code on the keypad by the garage door, and it will bring your car into position.  Then there's a turntable to rotate your car out ready to roll...

And Hiroshi-san showed us the toilet. It is all automated. When you open the door, the light comes on, the toilet seat lifts by itself. The first time I tried it,  Handel's Water Music played in the background (the music changes each time).

It of course has full controls: front and bidet sprays with massaging action, deodorizer, and dryer.  Instruction sheet in English was thoughtfully placed by the control panel:

And Eiko-san has a little dog named Moko. Here is Moko getting ready to go out for a constitutional in the rain.

Moko with rain gear

Typhoon Lan

We had to cut our visit short by one day in order to avoid any flight cancellations.  The typhoon caused some damage (link), but Hiroshi-san emailed to say they had no problems through the storm.

In Friendship and Peace