Last Friday was my last day of work- after getting a doctor's note to work a couple weeks past my official maternity leave start date I finally decided to let work go and ... well, I wasn't sure what I would do next.
Very luckily for me, the first few days of my leave included hosting Mindy, a good friend and teaching mentor from home who was visiting Japan. Her husband was attending a conference in Tokyo and she decided to look me up while she was in the country. She even agreed to venture all the way down to Kobe so I wouldn't have to make the trip up to Tokyo. On top of everything, she rolled in like Santa Clause with a bag full of baby gifts from her, my mother (who will be reprising the SC roll in a few weeks when she arrives) and even from at least one kind person who I have never met! This will be one spoiled kid!
As luck would have it, Mindy also brought along one of her colleagues, Betsy, who recently started working in Tokyo and hadn't been this far south yet. Mindy stayed with Russell and I, and Betsy got a hotel downtown. We had Monday night, all day Tuesday, and Wednesday morning to play with. We decided to visit my school Wednesday morning and Kyoto Tuesday.
Mindy is always the life of the party. She's just one of those ideal travelers. She is up for absolutely anything, seems to enjoy everything - or at least see the humor in it - and just generally makes everyone around her happy. Betsy was an equally enthusiastic traveler and we all had a great time. While the visit went by way too fast, its also hard to believe we fit so much in! So much fun...
The first evening when they arrived, we walked from the bullet train station to my apartment and then had tea and cookies while I got showered with gifts. An excellent start to any visit in my humble opinion. We then went and got Betsy checked into her hotel before heading to the center of downtown for dinner - okonomiyaki. At that point Mindy and Betsy were tired, so we just called it a night.
Day two we had all day, so we got up early and went to Kyoto. Our first stop? The must-see Kiyomizu temple. It was really fun. We ventured down into the pitch black basement of one temple which was said to mimic a womb and our birth back out into the light. It seemed appropriate. We washed our hands before entering the main temple, we also saw the two romance rocks, Mindy tried lifting the steel shoes and scepter at the entrance and we got our fortune from the temple- our fortunes were all lucky, but not SUPER lucky. Towards the end of our stay, we stopped at a little restaurant in the temple to have some traditional matcha (tea ceremony-style green tea) and rice cake sweets. While we were there a thunderstorm suddenly rolled in and started dumping water. It lasted about 15 minutes, so we were sure glad to be under cover! We were lucky to have sat down before the rain because the cafe filled up fast! We chatted until the rain let up and then continued on. The last attractions at the temple were drinking from the temple waterfall for good luck and getting a good look at the underside of the famous, wooden deck, which is made without any sort of nails. I love Kiyomizu temple - there are just so many things to do in one place. 
Plus, there is a whole street of restaurants and souvenir shops as well as old traditional buildings ringing the temple. We did some souvenir shopping and then had lunch once we finished at the temple.
For lunch, we had delicious cold noodles and home made tofu. We took our time and just enjoyed the ambiance and good company.
After lunch we were walking down an old street and the rain started again, so we hid out under the entrance for a small temple. Inside, the temple was decorated in these strings of what looked like upside down, four-legged octopus-shaped stuffed animals. I have seen them before here and there, but never so many, and I didn't know what they were. Mindy and Betsy braved the rain to go inspect the temple closer and saw that the central motif inside the temple were the three "hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil" monkeys.
The rain seemed to be slowing down, so we headed on down the road, but the rain wasn't finished. We pulled over under another awning and saw more of the stuffed shapes on strings. While we were wondering about them through the half closed door, the shop keeper opened up the door all the way (he had closed it partially to block the rain) and invited us in. He was an older fellow, and had handmade all the figures in the shop. He explained that they represented hanging monkeys- since monkeys can touch their hands to their feel. The chain of 5 monkeys (made out of traditional Japanese cloth) was suppose to be hung in your home to bring luck to your family. Apparently it's all related to a god in the shape of a monkey- and you see these hanging figures and the three monkeys at temples honoring that god. He was very friendly and shared maps of places in the neighborhood we should visit, the ancient layout of Kyoto, etc. We each ended up buying a string of monkey figures.
After that it was past 4:00, so all the sights were closed. We ended up walking down a shopping street (and poking around) on our way to the subway, which took us back to Kobe. We met Russell in downtown Kobe and then we went to an izakaya (traditional Japanese bar with food) to get dinner and try lots of Japanese flavors. We ended the day with karaoke (Mindy seemed to enjoy herself in spite of being a little skeptical at first) and then we crashed for the night.
Day three, Mindy and Betsy were planning to leave in the afternoon, but we went out to KSGU first to meet with some Oregon-bound students and so I could show them where I've been working. We spent about two hours with the students, then I showed off our in-house textbooks and took them for the admittedly short tour of the school. When it was time to go, though it was absolutely pouring rain- and the wind was blowing in from the bay, so the rain was pretty much horizontal. We ended up calling for a taxi instead which was the RIGHT thing to do. The taxi was hydro-planing at times, the rain was so heavy, but we had a very good driver and got safely back to downtown. There we went for lunch at a carousel sushi place and then when to have fancy siphon coffee. Something about narrowly missing being drenched in the street makes watching coffee bubbling up and back down a siphon an extra special experience.
At this point, the rain was mostly finished, but Mindy and Betsy were getting a late start back to Tokyo. We went home to get bags, but when we got to the bullet train station there were lots of train delays and the line for tickets (which was also the line to change pre-bought tickets) was really long. It took quite a while for Mindy and Betsy to get to the front of the line. The lady helping them with tickets didn't speak much English, so they called me over to help. It turned out that there were a few complications. First, because the heavy rain had hit all up and down Japan, the train schedules were a mess. Second, because Mindy had a special tourist rail pass, she could technically only ride the slower Hikari bullet trains - not the top speed Nozomi trains. I assume that in order to get people moving and trains back on schedule the rail company was putting Nozomi trains through with higher priority and it wasn't clear when another Hikari train would be through. Mindy could forgo her pass and buy a Nozomi ticket at full price - but that was $150 and she would end up losing money on the JR pass she had bought (she was barely coming out ahead by using it for a round trip to Kobe from Tokyo). At this point they would be arriving in Tokyo so late I suggested they just stay one more night with us and leave early the next morning.
We checked a few other options, but they finally agreed to stay (I was so happy!), so we all returned to my place, dropped off bags and then went down to the grocery store to get dinner. We made a big salad, had cold noodles with dipping sauce, sliced up some white peaches and munched on giant grapes (which actually taste like grape juice - no joke). By this time it was almost 11pm, so we turned in.
At this point, with Betsy staying as well, we pulled out our last futon and every square inch of our living area was covered in bedding. We didn't have enough sheets, so we used blankets as bottom sheets and just sleep on top of them with no covers - which thankfully wasn't a big issue since the weather has been warm (cooler after the rain, though!).
This morning we were out of the house by 6am and they caught their train and were on their way. I had plans to meet up with friends, both at work and in the city during the day, but it was sure lonely when I got back to our empty apartment.
As I look back on the visit I am pleased with how well I could keep up with all the excitement. I had gotten used to sleeping long hours and taking naps - but we were on the go all three days and did a ton of walking - with no lack of hills and stairs, no less. I'll admit I suggested a lot more down time enjoying meals and relaxing in cafes between adventures than I usually do with guests, but that was a lot of fun, too. There are so many more places I wish I could have taken them, foods we could have tried and experiences we could have had... they definitely need to come back!
So much fun!
