Father's Day in Gunma

6.16.08

Lauren and I awoke around 6:30am this morning to prepare for our day trip to Gunma. The city of Gunma is located in the Gunma prefecture which is north of the Tokyo prefecture. Accurately speaking, I live in the Chiba prefecture, not the Tokyo prefecture, which is made up of mainly the Tokyo metropolitan area. Anyway, after making our lunch and getting dressed, Lauren and I headed towards the train station around 7:30am. We got on the train around 8am and finally arrived in the Takasaki station at 11am. During the train ride, we listened to a podcast on Lauren's iPod about Trofim Lysenko, Stalin's Director of Bio-agriculture, whose policies may have eventually lead to the Soviet Union's collapse. I should mention that we waited for another train in Ueno for 30 minutes so our total train travel time thus far was about 2.5 hours. We walked around the Takasaki station area and stopped to taste some sweets and then boarded the appropriate bus to Gunma no Mori (Gunma’s Forest).

Lauren and I were two of four passengers on the bus—five including the driver. The pink and green bus with dragonflies pulled up to the curb and the driver got off but said that we could wait on the bus while he took a short break. After we got on and took our seat this older man climbed up into the front seat. Lauren and I thought it was so cute of him to give a bottle of milk tea to the driver when he returned to the bus. Despite its length of the bus ride, Lauren and I really enjoyed looking out the window at all the places and sites going by. Close to the station, the town reminded us of America. The roads had an American suburbia feel to them; they weren’t as congested as the streets in and around Tokyo. The stores and shops lining the road also brought about the same feeling. Lauren and I noticed several Shell and Mobile gas stations. As we rode the bus further and further from the train station, we began to notice that many of the houses were quite large. Many had absolutely beautiful gardens and others had their own plots of crops (rice, corn, wheat and much more). I thoroughly enjoyed our little countryside bus ride/tour.

As soon as we stepped off the bus we called Ryoji to let him know that we had arrived in Gunma No Mori. We all planned to meet at the Gunma Museum of Modern Art, which was about a two minute walk from the bus stop. The museum was surrounded by a large park so we decided to eat our lunch in the shade of a tree. After lunch we visited the museum. There were two main exhibitions: one featuring architectural designs and models of famous art museums around the world and a second featuring both Japanese and non-Japanese modern art. One of my favorite pieces in the museum was a large tapestry reproduction of a Pablo Picasso piece. Ryoji explained that Picasso had been inspired and moved to make the piece during WW2. There was an oil painting of a cracked, dripping egg by Kaoru Ueda that Lauren and I both found fascinating because it was so realistic.

Before heading back to Tokyo, Ryoji, Lauren and I stopped at a cute little local roadside shop to get some ice cream, kakigori (flavored shaved ice) and yaki manjuu (fluffy bread that has been fried on a grill and dipped in sweet soy sauce). I hadn’t ever tasted yaki manjuu but I liked it! At another shop nearby Lauren bought a Hello Kitty cabbage pencil. Gunma is famous for cabbage and yaki manjuu as well as daruma and kokeshi dolls.

We headed back to Tokyo and ran into some traffic along the way. By the time we got there, it was about time for dinner –okonomiyaki!

Random Shout Outs: I would like to wish Ashley McBride and her new husband congratulations! I wish you both all the best. I would also like to wish Mark and the rest of The Andrea Doria guys congratulations for completing their first multi-city tour. I’m sorry you had to cut the tour a little short due to technical difficulties. Last but most definitely not least, Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers—especially including my own—out there!

Random Side Notes: All day long Ryoji, Lauren and I kept singing this popular Japanese song by female singer Hikaru Utada. The chorus goes something like this: “Boku wa kuma kuma kuma.” (I am a bear bear bear.). However, the three of us devised several new versions in light of our current trip to Gunma, replacing kuma with Gunma, uma (horse) and several others.

Lauren and I are ready for our trip to Gunma!

The cute older man that I mentioned above drinking milk tea on our bus.

The number of children that I have seen riding unicycles here in Japan amazes me. I want to learn how to do it too! :)

Enjoying the Sun

Fountain at the Gunma Museum of Modern Art

Museum Entrance

Main Lobby

Children were allowed to draw on tape and then stick it to the wall of the museum in order to make this design.

There was a metal mushroom in front of the museum. At least, that's my interpretation of the shape.

Me

From left to right: Cola and Hawaiian Ice Flavored Kakigori (Japanese shaved ice)

I'm trying yaki manjuu for the first time.

Goya and Basil Plants

Shi No Okonomiyaki (my okonomiyaki) that I decorated with my nick-name (Shi).

This moth was just sitting on the wall outside the restaurant.

Here is Hikaru Utada's music video for her song that I mentioned above. Please watch it!