Aizu - Part One

Rory was home and we were all so excited for him to join in the touring fun! Up nice and early at 3:50am. We were pushing it trying to get every last minute of sleep we could:) Aizu is approximately 400 miles north of Yokosuka hence the early morning! This town was one of the most prosperous towns in the Edo Period and is known as a castle town. The Samurai were the big wigs in the land during the Edo Period. To give you a Hollywood reference (as off base as that may be) for the Edo Period, the movie the Last Samurai was supposed to be set during the end of the Edo Period.

Dylan and Daddy hanging out on the bus at 4:30am!


Surprise!!!
As we headed north we headed into the snow!


Dylan loved crunching the the snow on the side of the path:)


To help keep Dylan occupied Daddy did some singing. This was a major hit and Dylan kept using baby sign language to ask for more - encore, encore Daddy!!



The first stop on our trip was Kura no Sato - Old Store-House District

In the above pictures you saw the village of "kuras" in Kitakata. A "kura" is an old-style building made with special thick walls due to their use as store houses as well as homes and shops. If you notice in the above picture the window "shutters" are extra thick, this is a sign that the building was used as a store house for goods such as soy sauce or miso (made from soy). There were extra thick doors and windows on the warehouses to protect the merchandise from the elements. You may also have notice thatched roof building. From the articles inside it looks as though this one was used as a residence. The area we visited is a sight-seeing attraction but there are still kura houses in use today.

Aizu -Part Two

The second stop on our trip was Kitakata which is renowned for it's Ramen. The very popular Japansese Ramen noodles are nothing like the cheap ramen you buy in the plastic wrappers at the store in the states. I truly wondered for a while because I kept hearing about the wonderful Ramen, this or that great Ramen shop or how great it was to go out for Ramen. I for one am not a fan of the ramen packets from the states so I was confused! As I mentioned before Ramen here is nothing like what I am used to - go figure. It was orginially introduced to Japan from China right here at Kitakata where we stopped for lunch. There are over 120 Ramen shops in Kitakata (population: 54,684) which feature thick curly noodles, and a hearty soup based of clear water, soy sauce and sake produced locally.



Our tour guide provided us with a map and guide of the Ramen shops in the area that we parked. Rory was checking out the guide as Dylan was trying to find the shop on he map. It was too cute. Dylan was very serious about his mission to find the shop on the really grainy photocopy of a Japanese map!



Rory and I both got pork ramen. You are seeing udon ramen noodles in a soy sauce broth with scallions, two rolls of pork on the right side of the bowl, a small pile of greens, a couple slices of bamboo (the beige strips) and in the center a gelatin disc made of fish. Rory and I both enjoyed our nationally renown Kitakata Ramen.

Ramen enthusiasts come from all over Japan to eat noodles in Kitakata. We actually weren't the only people taking pictures of our food either:) We saw a group of Japanese guys do the same before noisily slurping up the noodles. Remember slurping is polite here!

Our next stop was Aizu-Wakamatsu and the Tsuruga Castle

Dylan and I at the entrance to the castle

The next few pictures are from the observation deck on the 5th floor

Rory and Dylan in the bonsai garden at the back of the castle

The Tsuruga Castle was originally built by ASHINA Naomori in 1384 when Aizu-Wakamatsu was flourishing as a center of Samurai warrior culture. It was rebuilt by GAMO Moriuji who made the prototype of the castle you see in our pictures.

In 1591 a 7-story castle was constructed by GAMO Ujisatoand and named Tsurug-jo. After being damaged by an earthquake in 1611, KATO Akinari repaired it and constructed a 5-story castle like the present one in 1639.

In 1868, during the Boshin Civil War, when the imperial army fought the Tokugawa Shogunate regime the castle was attacked. The Imperial Army won the war resulting in the suicide of many teenage Samurai and the destruction of the castle.

In 1934 the castle ruins were declared a national historical site as Wakamatsu-jo Castle and the current castle was rebuilt in 1965.

As I was writing out the castle history above did you notice the men's proper names being all capitals? This is the "sir" name of the Samurai Lord that was from the Aizu clan. 8 Lords ruled over the castle from 1384 to 1868

Aizu-Part Three

Aizu Bukeyashiki

Daddy wearing Dylan:) I was thrilled to have a shoulder break on this trip.

The last stop for our Aizu trip was to this Aizu Bukeyashiki Samurai residence. Wow I feel as though I can't begin to explain all that we saw here.

Beautiful garden and koi pond near the guest rooms of the "compound"

The Skikidai-Genkan "gateway for formal time"
This is the manor's front door

The Shoinichi-no-ma

(the classy room for visitors)

Here you can experience visiting Samurai being served tea

I am not sure what type of flowers were being used to decorate the residence but they were amazingly large. The bloom was huge on the tall stalks you see behind us.

flowering bonsai- a fascinating discipline of plants

Shisha-no-ma

(drawing room for messengers from the castle)

Kawaya

(Samurai's personal lavatory)

There are no ceiling boards which prevents hidden enemies from making a surprise attack.

Strangely enough this lavatory was placed next to the guest room?

I had Rory pose next to this contraption. He was thrilled as you will soon understand;)

You are looking at the underneath of the lavatory. This wooden box filled with sand is on wheels. It could be pulled out to check the health of the Samurai - who got that fun job!

Because we were so amazed at this Samurai manor and knew we could not adequately describe it we scanned in part of the map. Aizu Bukeyashiki totals 7 acres. Most of the buildings in which the Samurai lived burned down 130 years ago during the Boshin Civil War when the castle was destroyed. This residence had 38 rooms and a view of the Samurai castle we had just visited.

Along with the many rooms of this residence there was a

tea ceremony house-

the tea ceremony was regarded as an aesthetic ritual rather than a pastime.

a small Buddhist temple,

and rice cleaning mill-

This mill was 180-years old and brought to this area from Shirakawa City. There was one in the Samurai's residence though not this very one which pounded 960kg of rice every day.

Rory and I back on the bus after an amazing day.

Seeing this Samurai manor was truly amazing and a lesson in Japanese culture/history. I am blown away by how different everything is compared to what I am "used to" I think that seeing the manor of a duke or earl in Europe would be awesome but not as mind bogglingly different.

Another strange part of Japanese history was the idea that commiting suicide was honorable. There was an area at the castle which honored the 19 white tiger teenage samurai that committed Seppuku (ritual suicide) when they thought the castle had fallen. Hara-kiri was the most popular method - this translates as stomach cutting

Then here in the manor was a room that told of a similar story. The family of the Lord (head Samurai) when battle started followed in the same manner. The women killed the children then killed themselves. One woman could not finish the "job" so she asked an enemy warrior to help her maintain her honor. He oblidged. How dreadful! One of my many thoughts was what if the Samurai had won the war? He would have come home to a self slaughtered family.

Guam... "Where America starts its day!"

The next stop on our underway was in Guam. As seen in the title, Guam prides itself on being the place "where America starts its day." We were 14 hours ahead of the east coast of the states. Although just a US territory, there is plenty of American pride in Guam. The culture is a huge mix of everything though. It seems like a cheaper and not as exotic version of Hawaii. There were many Japanese people there on vacation so probably a popular spot for them.

So unless you are big in to the party scene, Guam pretty much just offers shopping, beaches, and activities associated with the water. Since my buddy I hang out with is another married daddy, we just enjoyed some time in the sun and browsed some shops to get out of the heat!

Below is the first beach we happened upon. It is on Tumon Bay. We met some older locals there and chatted with them a bit about Guam and its history. Nice guys who of course invited us to party with them. Seems like all people do there! We just asked them to point us in the direction of some good food.

I tried to capture a beautiful sunset but both nights I was out there were clouds in the way. I thought the one below was still pretty cool looking though.

Below is my buddy Jason and I being silly at Two Lovers Point. There is a story to the point that is quite lengthy, but here is the summary. A girl's father was arranging her marriage to a rich boy and she was upset. She found a poor local that she feel in love with and when the father found out, he was outraged. The girl and the poor boy ran to this point being chased by the father and husband to be and once cornered, decided to jump together. Thus the name of the point. Now it is a beautiful lookout over Tumon Bay which you will see in the next few photos.

This is the spot we chose to hang out on the beach. There was a great cover of trees tuly making it feel like a tropical paradise. That way we could hide out from the sun when we weren't out in the water soaking up the rays!

I had to throw in this next picture. The day we pulled out from Guam, we had some special guests come out with us to perform a concert. Below is a shot of Smash Mouth playing in the hangar bay of the USS George Washington. Although they are a band that was popular back when I was in college, it is still cool that they came out and played. It was a good concert and a nice break from the every day grind.

Well, no more port visits for awhile since I will be at home in Japan with my family. Of course this is much better than any port visit and we have a whole new country to explore!!

First port visit... South Korea!

You will have to bear with me since there are lots of pictures, but I will try to be brief in the descriptions. This was an awesome port visit though to South Korea since there is so much history. It started off by us participating in the International Fleet Review hosted by South Korea. Over 26 countries participated with their ships and air support. There were numerous exercises that were put on by the different countries. Then we actually docked pierside in Pusan (or Busan), South Korea.

The first day I went on a tour with some friends to Gyeongju (or Kyongju), which was the capital of the Shilla Kingdom from 57 B.C. to 935 A.D. Today it is known as the "museum without walls" for all the amazing history that is there. We first went to the Pulguksa Temple (a buddhist temple) that was built in 535 A.D. A couple pictures are posted below.

These guys protect the temple

This was the front side of the temple. The whole area was massive but I don't want to bore you all to death with too many photos.

Next we went to the Kyongju National Museum. There were actually four different buildings you go through all with so many artifacts and lots of history. You could easily spend a day looking through this stuff. At the end of walking through, my friends and I saw a sign that says you could actually take pictures inside. I wish I would have known that in the beginning. Oh well, but below is a picture of the main building and some of the grounds surrounding it.

We then went to the Ch'onmach'ong Tumulus. Not sure what all that means, but it was a huge park that had many tombs for the old kings. They were huge earth mounds that the kings were buried in with all their treasure. Below shows one they had actually excavated and you could go inside and see the remains of one of the kings. It is the Royal Tomb of King Michu (ruled from 262-282). It was all encased in glass but you could see the jewelry and bones. Pretty interesting.

After the tour, myself, Jason McConnell (on the right), and Ryan Beasley went out for traditional Korean Barbeque. They cooked the steak and vegetables on a coal fire pit right at our table. There were several other sides you could eat as you can see below. I am not sure what some of them were to this day but it was a pretty excellent dinner!

Below is just a taste of some "Engrish" in Korea. Not sure what they really wanted to say in this sign but we got a good laugh out of it.

The second day was the most amazing tour. We went basically all the way across South Korea to get to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). It was a six hour bus ride one way but worth every bit of that ride. Kim and I had watched a show on the History Channel about the DMZ and the history of the conflict between the North and South Koreans, so I did not want to miss the chance to see that part of history still in the making first hand.

Below is when we stopped at a lookout over the DMZ. We were basically looking down right over the border into North Korea. I am actually standing just to one side of a line they would not let us take pictures beyond. I am guessing it is so you could not get pictures of the posts and plan your attack! There was a large group of South Korean soldiers on a tour there as well.

We also got the chance to go down in to the Third Tunnel the South Koreans discovered. These tunnels were made by the North to infiltrate into the South. This tunnel was 73 meters below ground. We had to walk down a slope with a pretty decent grade for quite some time to get in the tunnel. Then we could walk down the tunnel to the point were the South had barricaded it off. This tunnel was discovered in 1978. Below is a sign showing the lay of the tunnel and how to get in it.

There were no pictures allowed in the tunnel so here I am after just coming back out at the entrance. We had to wear the hard hats you see behind me since it was not built for tall people to walk through. The South Koreans touring had no trouble walking right on through though without bending over. I think they were laughing at us as we duckwalked our way through! It was quite humorous.

The next portion was the best part of the trip by far. Below, the sign at the entrance to Camp Bonifas, just outside the Joint Security Area. Here both the South Koreans and Americans are stationed to protect the Souths side of the Demarcation Line (the border between the North and South).

This is a picture standing looking across the border to the big building across the way, which is the North Koreans building. The blue buildings in the middle are the Souths, however these buildings are half in South Korea, half in the North. The one on the left is the building we got to go in to and stand on the North Korean side. It is also the building where the two sides have their negotiations. There were a few North Koreans out monitoring us while we were there. You can just feel the hostility between the sides being there and it was quite amazing!

Yep, I was actually there!

Here I am in the building mentioned above standing on the North Korean side with my South Korean body guard! The door behind us is where the North Koreans come through.

Below is a picture of the "Bridge of No Return." Quite a bit of history in all of this. I would love to write about it all but that would just take forever and probably bore you to tears. But if you don't know much about all this history and are interested in learning more, I would say this is a great bit of history to read up on. So many amazing stories. One of my favorites is Operation Paul Bunyan which took place right near this bridge. Sad it had to come to the operation, but amazing history none the less.

Well I hope you all enjoyed these pictures and my take on the trip. The port visit to Guam is next up.