Beef Heart, Beef Tongue, and the Yamagasa

Today was the fifth and final day of the auction. The rain was pouring down this morning during the equipment inspection time. We got good seats in the auction tent on the front row. This video shows what I had to listen to all week. It is all in Japanese until they say "Final Call" and "Sold."





We went to dinner with our Japanese host Kazu. He chose a Korean barbecue restaurant. I am pretty sure that portions of animals exist that really aren't meant to be eaten.


++++++JOSLYN STOP READING NOW!!!+++++++++++


The menu had pictures of what looked like perfectly good meat. There were Japanese characters below the pictures, then Korean characters, and then good old English letters. I am not sure what the proper way to react is to seeing Soaked Large Intestine on the menu. Or Upper Tongue Salt Burning. Or Beef Tail Soup. Or Special Beef Heart. Yup, I ate it all. I was doing fine until the heart. Hearts are not to be eaten. The regular steak was good so overall the meal was fine and we had a good business discussion. Hopefully Kazu will visit Salt Lake this year.


There is a large festival going on in Fukuoka right now that ends tomorrow. The Hakata Gion Yamakasa Festival ends with a parade and race tomorrow morning. There were lots of people wearing traditional Participants all wear shimekomi, which are traditional loincloths. Each day of the two-week festival period is marked by special events and practice runs, culminating in the official race that takes place the last morning before dawn. Tens of thousands line the streets to cheer on the teams. During the festival period, men can be seen walking around many parts Fukuoka in long happi coats bearing the distinctive mark of their team affiliation and traditional geta sandals. The costumes are worn with pride and are considered appropriate wear for even formal occasions, such as weddings and cocktail parties, during the festival period. I copied all of that from Wikipedia, and as Michael Scott declared on The Office: "Wikipedia is the best thing ever. Anyone in the world can write anything they want about any subject, so you know you are getting the best possible information." I know the information is right.
We were walking back to the hotel from our beef parts dinner and saw this:




These guys had practiced building their float for the race, and were taking it down, then loading it in a truck to take all the parts to wherever the race will be held in the morning. Kazu told us it is not uncommon for severe injuries and death to occur to race participants when these floats come crashing down.

I took another video yesterday of the bullet train that took us from Kobe to Fukuoka. I finally got a shot of the train approaching the station. They come fast and are extremely quiet so I missed all my previous opportunities.





This trip is basically finished. We fly from Fukuoka back to Narita tomorrow morning and then get on the flight back to San Francisco tomorrow afternoon. That means we leave Japan at 4:00 pm on Saturday and arrive in San Francisco at 9:00 am Saturday morning. The jetlag will be wonderful!! Typhoon Man Yi wreaked its havoc on Okinawa today. So far, over 300 flights have been cancelled due to Man Yi, but ours is still on the schedule. Keep your fingers crossed.

Here are a few more pictures from the trip. Most of my time was spent at the auction which wasn't very picturesque.

Japan

I can't wait to see everyone again. I have been able to call home every day of the trip, and that has been nice, but it will be much better to hold and hug everyone again.

Catching up...

We travelled from Yokohama to Kobe yesterday afternoon. It was my first opportunity to ride a bullet train. I think it is now my favorite way to travel. I took the following video of us going over 150 mph during our ride:




Our ride was on the Tōkaidō Shinkansen, from Shin-Yokohama to Shin-Kobe. The ride was about two and a half hours long and we only stopped 3 times between our stops. The Japanese countryside was as beautiful from ground level as it was flying into Narita. It was a cloudy afternoon so most of the mountains were not visible from the train. We arrived in Kobe at dusk and took a taxi to the hotel. We are right on the waterfront again.
It rained all morning this morning. Our hotel in Kobe has CNNJ, which stands for CNNJapan, which is the only English channel on the television. As I left my room this morning, the last story on the news was a weather forecast for the western Pacific, and a little storm named Typhoon Man-Yi. Man-Yi is supposed to slam the southern islands of Japan on Saturday morning. This map shows the forecast track. We will be in Fukuoka on Saturday morning trying to catch a flight to Narita to come home. The weather forecasters at home are almost always wrong, so I am not too worried about the storm.
Three more days to go, then it is time to get home.

日本へようこそ (by the husbsand)

Today was a long day that soon will be over. I am settled in my hotel room at the Yokohama Royal Park Hotel, on the 53rd floor of the tallest building in Japan. When I travel to Elko, NV or Gillette, WY my hotel rooms aren't this nice. The hotel sits next to what I assume to be Yokohama Harbor, with lots of loading docks, crane and mountains of cargo containers. I have a spectacular view out the window. My day started with a cancelled flight, a quick trip to Los Angeles, and then finally, a completely uneventful flight from San Francisco to Japan.

Narita International Airport sits about 60 kilometers outside of Tokyo. Narita is out in the country side of Japan. Lots of green fields, houses, and even an occasional golf course. All my stereotypical impressions of Japan were quickly erased as the 747 glided down gently into the rural Japanese backcountry.

Once we were on the ground, we waited in line to go through customs, picked up luggage, bought bus tickets and got on the bus to Yokohama. The highway from Narita to Yokohama goes right past Tokyo Disney Resort.

Joslyn would survive in Japan. The hotel is immediately adjacent to a large mall that has a Gap, J. Crew, Banana Republic, and even a Build a Bear Workshop. It all seemed a lot like some of the malls in Chicago.

We ate dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe that is next to the hotel. I know it is hard work, but someone has to do it.

I almost forgot....my hotel room has the fanciest toilet that I have ever had the privilege of sitting on. If you ever get the chance to sit on one of these, make sure you are careful with the controls. Just because the Water Pressure dial can be turned up higher doesn't necessarily make that a wise thing to do.

Hopefully you can see a few pictures from today in this post!

Japan