Anker's Away

Japan Trip Intro: Work and Appreciation

Jean and I were in Japan from Sept 23-Oct 7. I work for a Japanese company in the video games business and the first few days of this was a trip that I do every year to go to the Tokyo Games Show (TGS). TGS is where Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo and just about everyone in the games business show off there latest games and gadgets and where, over the years, I've learned the meaning of Cosplay, Otaku, Anime and Manga. Through TGS and my work in the games business I've had a chance to be immersed in modern Japanese geek culture and to learn how the average Japanese person thinks about Nichiren specifically, Buddhism a little less specifically, and religion generally. (For the most part they don't think about any of those things at all except in terms of formality and family obligations, but of course that's a gross generalization).

All the times that I've been to Tokyo for work though, I've never done any sightseeing in Tokyo let alone seeing anything outside of Tokyo. It's always just a few days packed with meetings and dinners. No complaints form me though, some of the dinners have been spectacular and I wouldn't have traded them for anything. When I was planning this trip though, my boss suggested that I should take some time after the show to go see Kyoto and temples and such since he knows that I'm a buddhist and interested in such things, and that I should take Jean with me so we could have a nice vacation after my work was done. Not being one to argue with my boss, that's what we did.

I am obviously incredibly fortunate to have had a boss who encouraged me to take this trip, to have had and assistant in my office who was willing to help me figure out where to go and where to stay and who could make arrangements in Japanese at the hotels in out of the way places that don't see alot of western visitors, someone who could put together a train itinerary for us that was so detailed that at any place we were I could just point to some japanese writing which said "I want to take the train to xyz place, we want to get 2 tickets, and tell us what time and what platforms we should go to, kudasai. " It was truly amazing and allowed for a relatively stress free trip without having to be tied to any kind of tours.

We felt like locals the way we got around on all the trains and subways. Though with our giant luggage and bags of all sorts hanging off our shoulders we certainly didn't look like locals. Otherwise I'm sure we would have fit right in. NOT! :)

I also have to thank my wonderful wife. Jean puts up with alot. We got to Tokyo on Wednesday night Sept 23rd. Thursday, Friday and Saturday she was almost completely on her own day and night as I had meetings and dinners to go to. She was thrilled to be in Japan and made the most of it without me. When we were together I was cranky, not used to having someone else I had to think about while on a business trip. She made it easy and forgave me quickly when I was a jerk, which was often. Then saturday night she joined me with a bunch of game developers who speak mostly Japanese for a Sukiyaki dinner unlike any Sukiyaki we've ever had before. After that meal Jean said that she doesn't see how our meals are going to get any better than that. And while that was great it certainly wasn't the best. Food was an important part of this trip.

Anyway, that was the last work related thing I had to do. Then, on Sunday, my vacation began. It was the only day the two of us had in Tokyo together. I was so sick of Tokyo by that point and really didn't care what we did. We had talked about going to the SGI Headquarters in Shinjuku and then to Honmonji Temple in Ikegami where Nichiren died, but we hadn't actually planned anything. So in the morning I really wasn't sure what we'd do.

Before getting into the details of the the trip let me just say that this was not a pilgrimage, it was not planned primarily to visit various Nichiren sites. It was planned as a trip to visit and experience Japan. About the only thing we did specifically to visit a Nichiren related site was that we scheduled two days in the little town of Minobu so that we could visit Kuon-ji Temple on Mt. Minobu where Nichiren spent the last few years of his life. I found a little hotel outside the town which had a hotspring, but it was just a place to stay so we could go to the temple. I wasn't looking for anything special in terms of lodging. And while the experience at Kuon-ji was great, our experience at Shimobe Onsen Hotel was unexpectedly wonderful and turned out to be great training for the full on Ryokan experience on the Izu Peninsula in the little town of Shuzenji which came about a week later.

That's it for now. I'll start getting into the details of the trip as I have time.

Posted by bill at October 13, 2009 12:15 PM