Japan - Friday and Shabbat at Chabad Tokyo

We arrived late on Thursday night from Nagoya after a pleasant one and a half hour train trip.

We checked into our new AirBnB apartment right around the corner from Chabad. It was a large, fairly well equipped apartment, and the location for Shabbat could not be beat.

Since our return, many people have asked us about Airbnb and its network of apartments. Their main concerns were ones of security and consistency. We could say as a matter of simplification that Airbnb is the Uber of vacation apartment rentals. 

Here is how it works: 

People who have an extra apartment or even a person who has an extra room in their home, may decide to rent that space to people visiting. They would go to the Airbnb site and list their space with pictures and details as to location, amenities, cost, available dates etc. 

What makes the system work is that both the landlord and the renter have to register on AirBnb and both sides have to write reviews of their experience. In other words, you rate the apartment as to whether the experience fulfilled your expectations based on how the apartment was represented by the landlord. 

At the same time, the landlord rates you as a tenant; were you easy to deal with? did you leave the space clean? did you answer emails promptly etc.

That way, the next time you decide to rent, a prospective landlord can read the reviews on you and you can read reviews on the apartment that have been posted by many previous renters. 

We used AirBnb during our recent trips to South America and to Japan. And overall, it has worked well. We have been very pleased with the value that we have received. And because we are always looking for the kitchen which allows us to deal with kashrut issues while travelling, AirBnb has become a very valuable resource for us.

Anyway, back to Japan.

Friday morning, we headed over to the Ebisu area of the city as Fran had ordered new glasses when we were in Tokyo two weeks earlier.

We ordered them from a Korean chain, Zoff. Fran has multifocals and that is the only reason it took so long. They need 10 days for multifocal; but all other lenses are ready in 30 minutes. She was very pleased with the work, and so before leaving Japan, she ordered another pair (which will be mailed to us) and I ordered one (which I picked up 30 minutes later). Amazing! Fran with her new glasses.

We had left much of our souvenir and gift shopping for our return to Tokyo. And originally we were going to spend a couple of days of rest and relaxation in Hakone, a pretty resort area not far from Tokyo. But when we looked at the weather report which screamed cold and wet, we figured that it would be a waste of time and money to go to Hakone. So we simply extended our stay in Tokyo and spent our time visiting the shopping areas of Shibuya, Shinjuku, Aeon Makuhari Mall and Kappenbashi. We also took the opportunity to eat out again at Chana's Place at Chabad. 

This was our second Shabbat in Tokyo and when we walked into shul this time, we were greeted like old friends. Everyone wanted to hear about our trips to various parts of the country. There were a few new visitors as well and we spent a very pleasant Shabbat at Chabad. We also finally met the Rebbetzin Chana who had been away the first Shabbat we spent in Tokyo. 

On Sunday, Monday and Tuesday we relaxed, waking up late and then choosing one new area of the city to discover each day. We also revisited Kappenbashi, the kitchen and cooking centre of Tokyo where Fran bought a new Japanese made chef knife...We have since used it and it really is great quality.

We continue to be amazed by the toilets which are the most high tech and the cleanest we have seen anywhere. And this includes washrooms in public subway stations, department stores and places where you would normally visit only if you had no other choice. Here is a urinal and sink at a level that little children 
can deal with:

And how about a high chair in a public bathroom so you have a place to put your baby while you attend to "your business". 

We continue to be amazed by the train and subway system in Japan. It really works!

Here is a sign in a train station indicating the times of the upcoming trains. What makes this so interesting is that these trains were all high speed trains and they were all on the same track. So five minute intervals for the train to zoom into the station, people disembark and board and the train has to get out on time as the next train is zooming in right behind!

So this brings us to the end of our trip.

Our impressions have been written extensively in another post, but if we had to sum up our trip, we would say that while Japan is not the most beautiful place we have visited, it is certainly among the most interesting. The culture is so different from any other place we have been to. It is a very safe place to visit. The people are very service minded and are very proud of their country and very pleased that you have made the decision to visit. 

Among the disappointments we had was less than favourable weather (tho'  we do not let that stop us), and that we were not able to attend a Sumo wrestling match, as it was off season....

If anyone wants information for an upcoming visit, please do not hesitate to contact us.

We may post one more with a link to our favourite pictures from a very memorable visit to Japan. 

All the best

Fran and David

Japan - Thursday in Yaotsu and Nagoya - A memorable day

Today (Thursday) we got a very early start from Osaka. We were out of the apartment at 7:30 AM and took a taxi to the Shin Osaka station at the north end of the city, for an hour long train ride to Nagoya. Our goal was to visit the special museum and memorial to Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese consul in Kovno, Lithuania, who was responsible for saving 6000 Jews and the Mir Yeshiva in WWII and then, later in the afternoon, go to the Hilton Nagoya, where a special kosher sushi meal was being prepared for us at the exclusive Gonji restaurant, one of the finest restaurants in Nagoya.

The Sugihara Memorial is in the village of Yaotsu (population 12,000) which is about a 45 minute train ride north of Nagoya, plus a connection to a 30 minute bus and then a taxi from the centre of Yaotsu to the Sugihara Museum. 

In short, Yaotsu is not an easy place to reach; however, we felt that as a show of Hakarat Hatov (gratitude) to all that this man had done, it was something that we could not ignore simply because of the difficulty of getting there. 

Because Yaotsu is a bit off the beaten track, the trains and buses heading in its direction do not run with the same frequency as those on the major north south routes of the country, that contains Japan's major concentration of population. And while we could prebook and pre determine the schedule of the trains, there was not much to go on in terms of the bus schedule for the final leg of the journey from the train station to the centre of Yaotsu. 

So we left Osaka early and arrived in Nagoya at about 9:30 AM. We checked our luggage into a locker at the train station and then boarded our train west to Mino Ota station at about 10:30 and arrived there at 11:15. So far so good as far as timing was concerned. 

Here is where it got a bit tricky....from Mino Ota, we were told to take a bus. But when we arrived in Mino Ota, we saw that the next bus would leave for Yaotsu at 12:30 (a wait of over an hour), and based on that schedule we would be hard pressed to return to Nagoya by 4 PM. 

The reason for getting back to Nagoya by 4 PM was that we had to go to the Hilton and turn on the rice cooker, to ensure that there would be no bishul akum issues in the preparation of our meal; more on that later.

So we hailed a taxi and headed up to the suburbs of Yaotsu in the hills above the town to visit the memorial to Sugihara's memory. This was not a cheap cab ride, about $60 one way, but then again, as I said before, it is a small price to pay in showing respect to Sugihara who risked everything to save 6000 Jews, a number that has now mushroomed to an estimated more than 100000 persons. It really is a confirmation of the rabbinic dictum "whoever saves one soul, is as though he has saved an entire world".

For those unfamiliar with the story, it is worth watching this short 12 minute video as an introduction. There are many more longer videos on Youtube which discuss this amazing person's self sacrifice for others. If you have trouble opening the link below, here is where you can find it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA_xNVtRsjo

We had emailed the centre in preparation for our visit and had a number email exchanges with Ken Takashima, an official with the Yaotsu City Council. We told him that we knew a number of individuals whose fathers were saved by the Sugihara visas; among those, Josh Gordon, Abe Kaplan and Rabbi Eliezer Langer. Ken was very interested in getting information from them as he was working on securing UNESCO status for the town, which in essence would put the town on the map, and bring more tourists. Ken told us that getting actual copies of the visas would assist him in his efforts with UNESCO. 

We really did not know what to expect when we would arrive. I sort of had a vision of a small house where Sugihara was born and a few artifacts. In fact, when our cab pulled up in front of the Museum, we saw a modern large structure and quite a few visitors. 

Ken was waiting for us at the curb with another individual who we would learn was the director general of the Museum.

The two bus loads of visitors were all Japanese and we would learn that Sugihara has become some sort of hero to the Japanese, especially with the release of a recent dramatized documentary movie called "Persona Non Grata". We tried to secure a copy but since it is still in Japanese theatres, they are not selling it commercially. And when it is sold it will have English subtitles. 

The museum is set up as a self guided display of many panels which explain the lead up to the seizing of power by the Nazis and the development of the Holocaust. 

It then moves to panels which highlight the heroic decision by Sugihara to defy his government and write visas for 6000 Jews which allowed them passage to Kobe Japan and eventually to Shanghai, from where most emigrated to North America and Israel. There are also panels that feature other notable heroic acts by other government officials around the world who were instrumental in saving Jews in WWII.

One of the pages from the list of those saved by Sugihara. The second name on the list is Moshe Kaplan, my Junior High Gemara teacher in Eitz Chaim. 

At the end of the historical panels, you enter a recreation of Sugihara's office where you can watch a number of short films highlighting his activity as consul. 

The beginning of our tour was personally guided by Ken, the city official. I then recalled that the rabbi in Kobe had told me that there was an Israeli woman on staff at the museum and we asked if we could meet her. 

She came out and was clearly pleased to see Jewish visitors. She said that while many Israeli visitors to Japan do come to Yaotsu as part of organized tours, very few Jewish visitors from other parts of the world make the effort to come up to Yaotsu. She, her husband and five children have been in the Yaotsu area for many years but are now considering moving to another country where there is a sense of a Jewish community. 

She then spent the rest of the tour with us and we learned that she was responsible for the design of the current centre which was totally remodelled just two years earlier. Previously there had not been an emphasis on the Holocaust, but her input had put the Shoah front and centre to the entire story.

Here is a view of the small town of Yaotsu from the second floor window of the Museum

Our assessment is that it is worth the trip to Yaotsu. Besides the element of showing gratitude to the man, the museum is worth visiting despite the difficulty in getting there. 

We were very pleased when Ken told us that he would drive us back to the train station, and on the way, he drove us through the centre of town where he showed us Sugihara's home. 

What was remarkable however, was that on every lamppost there was a banner with Sugihara's name and picture. Ken explained that the town was totally behind the UNESCO application and therefore the entire town was plastered with pictures and banners in a show of support. 

We returned to the Nagoya station with enough time to walk the 20. Minutes to the Hilton.

When we arrived at the Hilton, in typical Japanese fashion, they were ready for us. As soon as we approached the counter, the concierge said, are you Mr and Mrs. Woolf? She then made a call and asked us to take a seat. Four people appeared a few moments later, the Executive Chef of the Hotel, the Food and Beverage Manager, our personal sushi chef (with the white cap) and the Maitre D (in the kimono) of the exclusive Genji Sushi restaurant in the hotel.

So how did this all come about? When we were in Israel in January, we met with Tiorah Simantov who together with her husband Rabbi Dr. Hertsel Simantov had spent 13 years living in Tokyo. We contacted her to get as much information as we could in preparation for our trip. 

Tiorah was very helpful. Her husband, besides teaching and practicing Japanese medicine in Tokyo (to where he commutes part of every month from Israel), is a mohel and is one of the leading mashgichim in the area representing the OK, the OU and other agencies. In his travels throughout Japan where he supervises over 100 plants, he developed a friendship with the Nagoya Hilton kitchen staff and arranged for them to secure a special knife, cutting board, rice cooker etc. which are only used for kosher. He also explained to them the intricacies of kosher laws pertaining to kosher fish. 

So when we arrived and were greeted by four hotel officials, we were ushered up to the Genji restaurant and met the head sushi chef who unwrapped the special knife and cutting board and watched as we turned on the rice cooker, which would be used to prepare the rice for our sushi dinner.

We returned an hour later and were ushered into a private area of the restaurant by our Maitre D. She had spent some time in Australia and spoke english well. We were in a private section of the restaurant, just us and our personal sushi chef. 

In front of him was a refrigerated case containing various fresh veggies to be used in the preparation of our sushi. Cucumber, carrots, avocado, ginger, daikon, lily flower root among others. There was another refrigerated case with fresh tuna and salmon. As well, there was a brand new bottle of soy sauce, pickled ginger and fresh wasabi root. 

And the performance began. Our chef who had apprenticed for ten years before being able to do it on his own, began making various types and forms of sushi for us. And while it looked very much like the sushi that we get at home, the taste was remarkably different. The nori was much softer and fresher tasting. Each roll was made after we completed eating the previous one and the rolls took various forms and shapes.

What we did not realize was that the would be no end to his preparation until we said so. And when we began to feel stuffed, we asked the Maitre D how much longer this would continue; whereupon she explained that he had all night and all we needed to do was say "enough". 

So feeling very satiated and pleased, we walked back to the train station, collected our luggage and hopped a high speed train for Tokyo and our final Shabbat and days in Japan. 

Our final posting on Japan is still to come...soon we hope.

All the best

Fran and David

Sent from my iPad

Japan - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday in Osaka and Nara

On Monday afternoon, we caught the train to Osaka. It is really a very short ride as Osaka, Kobe and Kyoto are all very close to each other. In fact, if we were to do this trip again or if we were to advise people about visiting these places, we would recommend that they stay in one place and take advantage of the amazing train service to visit each of the other cities. That way, you would not be wasting time packing up every few days and moving. But as they say, hindsight is 20 - 20. 

We arrived at Namba Station in Osaka and we grabbed a cab to our Airbnb apartment. 

For those who have not used Airbnb in the past, many times you never meet your host. Rather, they leave the key in a mailbox or in a lockbox and when you arrive at the location, you simply let yourself in. 

And to ensure that you are the only one to have the combination to the mailbox, they usually email you the combination for the mailbox and you are good to go.

In this case, Jin, the proprietor was very creative. He did not email us the combination; rather, he emailed us a very creative video on YouTube showing you how to walk from the closest subway station and basically "walked" you to the apartment, into the mail room and you saw on the video how he opened the mailbox. If you want to see some creativity, watch Jin's short video.

Herein lies the problem and my huge mistake. 

I did not transcribe the combination on paper before leaving (when we had wifi) and since we would not have wifi again until getting into Jin's apartment, we arrived at the apartment and had no way of getting into the building. 

We tried a few people who were walking in and out of the building and asked if we could use their phone to call Jin, but there was a serious language problem and also what we had been told many times, that even tho the Japanese can be overly  helpful when it is their job to service you; in general, on a personal basis, they are very cautious about opening up to strangers. So we were stuck, sitting outside the building with all our luggage and no way to get in.

I finally asked someone where there was a Starbucks. She pointed in a specific direction and indicated that it was just up the road. So I told Fran to sit tight and I would be right back with the info. Well, just up the road meant about a kilometre away. And then to make matters even worse, when I finally logged on in Starbucks, it seemed that their internet was not working that day. My mazal that every other Starbucks that we entered in Japan had excellent wifi, this one was not working. 

What to do now? I saw someone who looked American and asked him if I could call Jin, and he graciously said yes. But when the fellow at the other end answered the phone, he spoke no English and hung up on me. 

I thought, Fran must be panicking...I had been away for quite a bit and she was sitting there all alone. 

Finally, I walked over to a Japanese fellow working on his computer and although he spoke no English, through sign language and showing him the address in Japanese, he picked up his phone, called Jin and within a minute was writing the combination down for me.....in Japanese!!! I looked at him and he instantly inputted the combination into Google Translate and showed me "turn left twice to the number 8 and once left to the number 4". 

I thanked him profusely and literally ran the kilometre back to the apartment where Fran was sitting patiently waiting, clearly worried....we tried the combination and we were in....Baruch Hashem!

Well, after two Airbnb experiences with very small apartments and hard mattresses, this apartment was a dream. It was much larger. Two large comfortable American style beds, and every modern convenience in the apartment. It looked totally new. And it had something that we had only seen once before...in China. A combination washer - dryer machine. 

We had wasted a few hours with the combination problem, but we were in and were very happy with the accommodations. 

We unpacked and set out to explore the town. 

Osaka is a huge city, very modern and bustling. Especially at night. They have these "shopping streets" all over the midtown area and while we had nothing to shop for, it was amazing to be in the centre of all this activity. Thousands of people milling around. 

We walked past a very large department store and the sign indicated that on the top floor of the store there was a Cineplex-type movie theatre. We wondered whether there was a chance of seeing a movie in English and when we asked, we found out that two of the movies, The Martian and The Marigold Hotel were both in English with Japanese subtitles. 

So two of our evenings in Osaka were spent at the movies. Both good movies and both attended by only Japanese (other than us). So they were either practicing their english or watching the movie with the subtitles. 

Tuesday morning, we went to see the Osaka Umeda Sky Building with the Floating Garden Observatory. It is at the north end of the city, and it an amazing architectural masterpiece. 

Before entering the building, we saw numerous office workers who were sitting outside on what was presumably their coffee break. They were all dressed identically...black suits and white shirts for both the men and women. This was indicative of what we saw over and over again on our Japan trip; the formality of dress by workers is rigidly followed.  Take a look at this short video.

There are two identical office towers about 40 storeys each, and at the very top, there is a circular structure that joins the two buildings. Apparently, when they built the towers, they hoisted the centre circular structure up between the towers and then bolted it in place. Here they are hoisting the centre into place before they added the cross escalators and the following picture shows the finished product.

What is remarkable, is that when you go up to the observatory, you go up one tower to about the 35th floor, and then rise to the observatory by means of an escalator that takes you to the top of the other tower. Then when descending, it is in the reverse. 

From the top you have an amazing view of the entire area. 

But it is really the structure rather than the view that attracted us. 

From here we were off by subway to the Osaka Aquarium. 

On the way we stopped in the subway to confirm directions and one of the english speaking attendants explained to us that we could buy combination subway entrance passes that would save us money. we did the transaction and then I filmed the now obligatory bowing ceremony at the end.

We have been to a few aquariums and enjoy them. This one rated with the best that we have visited. Fran and I are debating whether the Singapore Aquarium was better. Here are three of the favourite videos that we took there...

We spent a few hours and then spent the rest of the evening walking through town and enjoying the local colour.

On Wednesday morning, we had an appointment to meet a student guide in Nara, an ancient city about 30 minutes train ride from Osaka. 

Mikio, our guide, was waiting for us at the Nara Station. He spoke English better than any other guide that we had in Japan. He was graduating college that week and this was to be his last guiding job, before moving to Tokyo where he had secured a full time job as a manager of a comedy club.

We had almost cancelled the day because there was a steady downpour and all the activity in Nara is outdoors. But since Mikio had committed his time to us, we felt that would be unfair to him, so we pushed on.

By the time we arrived in Nara it was pouring. So we got on our raincoats and umbrellas and off we went. Nara was the capital of Japan before Kyoto (8th century). There are some very famous temples and shrines and a few beautiful Japanese gardens in Nara and there are wild deer everywhere. Each day they come down from the mountains to the city and mingle among the tourists. Other than grabbing your bags if they have food, they do not bother you. 

The problem was the rain, we kept hoping that it would let up, but it did not so after a couple of hours walking around Nara, we called it a day and said goodbye to Mikio and headed back to Osaka. 

We went back to the apartment to dry off and change our clothes and then went out to see the Second Marigold Hotel movie, which was a good way to stay inside, warm and dry.

We caught an early night's sleep, to prepare for our exciting day awaiting us on Thursday.

More to come

Fran and David

Sent from my iPad

Japan - Friday, Shabbat, and Sunday in Kobe

We began our day, last Friday in Kyoto, by visiting Beit Shalom, the headquarters of the Christian Zionist movement that was responsible for the creation of the Holocaust Education Centre that we visited earlier in the week in Fukuyama. 

We arrived at the centre at 9:30 AM and were greeted by the director of the Center, Hideo Yoshida, who is the identical twin brother of the director of the Holocaust Centre. It was like déjà vu! 

The Beit Shalom is a complex of buildings in a residential neighbourhood of Kyoto. The main building houses a museum dedicated to the founder of the movement. We watched a brief video where the now deceased leader spoke, at the age of 94, to a group of visiting Israelis, and told them the story of his vision and his love for Israel and how all parts of historic Israel has to remain under the control of the State of Israel. 

Below is a poem written by Reverand Otsuki when he visited the Kotel.

We saw and read the various plaques and dedications that were displayed in the museum; letters, pictures and greetings from former President Yitzchak Navon, former Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren, former Defense Minister Moshe Dayan; honorary degrees from Bar Ilan and Hebrew University. 

We then met with the current director who is the son of the founder and met the director general of the Holocaust Center, Makato Otsuka, who speaks a fluent Hebrew, having spent a number of years studying in Israel. 

It was very moving to meet non Jews in Japan who truly loved Israel and what it stands for and who have not been swayed at all in their commitment to Israel's success and future by the untruths and negative propaganda spouted in today's media and by many foreign governments. We shared with all of them our message that we value their friendship and that even tho we may have different religions and even different concepts of Mashiach, that it is very valuable when we can respect each other and join together in the pursuit of peace. 

We returned to gather our belongings and continued our journey to Kobe. 

Kobe is an old port city with a population of 1.5 million, that was devastated by a huge earthquake in 1995, officially called the Great Hanshin Earthquake. Close to 5000 people were killed in Kobe and over 400,000 homes were irreparably damaged. 120 out of 150 shipping docks, which are the lifeblood of this port city, were damaged. Highways buckled and caved in at numerous spots. 

As a result, visitors to Kobe today are viewing an almost totally rebuilt city. It is modern and bustling and the port, which was totally rebuilt in less than 2 years (on time and on budget....typically Japanese) has now been expanded and reinforced to prevent any future damage of this magnitude in another earthquake. 

Kobe's Jewish history began in the 1860's. Japan had been a closed society until then and when they decided to open their borders to foreign trade and to foreigners living in Japan, they did so, in two port cities, Kobe and Yokohama. And naturally Jews came to trade in these two now open cities. It is for this reason that when you walk thru Kobe today, you see many more signs in English than in other parts of Japan. 

By the early 1900s there was a well established community and a Zionist movement in Kobe and the first shul was built in 1912. When the great earthquake of 1923 hit Yokohama, most of its Jewish residents relocated to Kobe. 

Two distinct communities, Ashkenazic and Sefaradic, developed and in the Second World War when the Sefaradic shul was destroyed in an allied bombing raid, the two communities decided to share premises. Today the Ohel Shlomo Synagogue functions as a Sefaradic synagogue with an Ashkenazic Chabad Rabbi and a membership of immigrants to Japan from primarily the USA and Israel. 

We arrived at our apartment at 1 PM and Shabbat was to begin about 5 hours later. 

We unpacked and walked over to the shul mainly so that we would know the route as there is no Eruv in Kobe and we would not be able to carry a map. 

We walked mainly uphill to reach the shul and met Rabbi Shmulik Vishedsky, originally from Kfar Chabad in Israel. The rabbi and his wife Batya and their three daughters have been in Kobe for two years and clearly have made an impact on the community. They are loved by their members. 

In contrast to many other Chabad centres that we have visited, the rabbi was working in the kitchen when we arrived and he explained that because the community is small and not wealthy and because labour in Japan is very expensive, much of the work has to be done by volunteers. 

Rabbi Shmulik instantly impressed us as a warm, selfless, non judgemental and caring person and over Shabbat, our initial impressions were confirmed. 

We returned to shul at candlelighting time and a little while later people began to arrive. There were a number of regulars and a few tourists like us. What was surprising was that a few of the regulars, who lived in Osaka and Kyoto, nearby cities, actually moved in to the apartments above the shul as they were Shomer Shabbat. 

By the time we sat down to the Seudat Shabbat, there were about 25 people there and we had a very enjoyable Friday night experience. We met Batya, the Rebbetzin, also from Kfar Chabad, and she was the perfect complement to Rabbi Shmulik. They were both so positive and welcoming to the guests and to the locals. 

What was noticeable was the level of intermarriage between primarily Israeli men and Japanese women and their resulting offspring. This presents challenges to the Rabbi and Rebbetzin and they amazingly take it in stride. They see their mission to bring the warmth of Judaism to the Jewish partner and to the children and they work very hard creating programs to highlight Jewish pride and identity. At the present time, they are preparing for a major Purim program and the Pesach Sedarim. They hope to have about 250 people at the Seder.

When I asked Rabbi Shmulik how many Jews were in Kobe, he replied that it is not just Kobe but the entire Kansai region which he estimates has over 1000 Jewish residents. He is working tirelessly to create a database of all the Jews in the area and he jokingly told us that he was "the chief Rabbi of over 60,000,000 people", the population of the Kansai region in Japan. 

Shabbat morning, davening began at 10:30 am. This was the latest start ever for a Chabad minyan that we have attended anywhere in the world. But by the middle of Pesukai D'Zimra, we had a minyan and by the time davening was over, there were about 18 men and 5 women there. I had volunteered to layn and I am now able to add Japan to the growing list of countries where I have had the privilege to layn the Torah. 

We met some very interesting local residents there and a number of visitors as well. One was a professor from Bar Ilan who was lecturing in Kobe and one was a lawyer from Washington specializing in the shipping and logistic industries. 

The meal was noteworthy in that Friday night's menu contained only fish and Shabbat's menu had mainly fish with a cholent that had a little chicken. You see, Japan has only recently been able to import kosher chickens from Iowa and supply is very limited. Beef cannot be imported yet and Chabad is working hard to either import meat or shecht Kobe beef in Japan. But the meals were very good, there were many salads and home baked Challot and both gefilte fish and salmon. 

On Motzaei Shabbat, the Rabbi and Rebbetzin invited us, together with a young American man from Miami studying Japanese in Kobe, and a visiting student from France who was just completing an internship in Shanghai, to a Melave Malka in their home above the shul. The meal was great, the shakshuka was amazing and the conversation with the rabbi and the other guests was interesting and lively. 

We left with a wonderful impression of the Chabad couple's dedication and mesirat nefesh on behalf of the Jewish residents of this area of Japan. 

On Sunday morning, we took the cable car to the top of the mountain overlooking Kobe and could see the huge man made island that had been built off the shore of Kobe using landfill from the 1995 earthquake. From the top of the mountain, there is a walkway to the mid level and it is an amazing herb garden with every imaginable herb growing along the paved and picturesque pathway down the mountain. 

We spent the rest of the day walking through the city which has numerous "shopping streets", covered midrachovs with tons of shopping. The streets were packed with shoppers and it was a very colourful way to spend a Sunday afternoon in Kobe.

On Monday morning before we left for Osaka, we walked down to the shore and visited the Earthquake memorial. This is an area of town that has been left exactly as it was immediately following the earthquake of 1995. We watched a short film in English which recounted how the citizens of Kobe and its government pulled together to rebuild in record time. It was truly an impressive accomplishment. 

We picked up our bags and headed by train to our next stop Osaka.

To be continued....

All the best

Fran and David

Japan - Thursday in Kyoto Arashiyama

Last Thursday, our last full day in Kyoto, we had arranged for a private walking tour with Good Samaritan Guiding Group, which is a group of about 100 university students who wish to improve their spoken English and who love showing off their country to visitors.

We had wanted to visit the Arashiyama section of Kyoto. It is a beautiful area outside the city nestled in mountains, rivers and forests. We decided to meet at the train station closest to Arashiyama. Our guide was Riana Sahara, a 19 year old student and when we arrived, she told us that until this time, she was in training and always had to be accompanied by a more experienced mentor; this was her first time guiding all alone and that she hoped that we would be satisfied. 

Like the guides before her, she was personable, knowledgeable and very pleasant.

One of the activities to do in this region is to ride a heritage old style train through the mountains alongside a rushing river. Seats are reserved by number and you can choose to sit in the closed car or in the open air car. 

She reserved the closed car for one way and open for the return trip. It was a beautiful sunny day but the temperature was not yet in the teens, so the return ride was quite cool especially when going thru the numerous mountain tunnels on the journey. 

The scenery was nice, but nothing spectacular, although we could imagine that taking the train in the fall with the changing colour of the foliage might be spectacular. 

After we returned, we walked for a bit through the town which was a couple of streets lined with eating places and souvenir shoppes. Because we started relatively early in the day, there were sparse crowds when we arrived but now many more were arriving to take advantage of the sunny day and the fresh outdoor air. We walked alongside the river for a bit enjoying the beautiful scenery. 

We were headed to the monkey park, an area of Arashiyama accessible by climbing a steep, gravel paved hill with a number of switchbacks to make the climb a little easier. 

We had been to the Park Hakofim (Hebrew for Monkey Park) in Israel where monkeys roam freely and you walk among them but always separated by a fence. As we were approaching the top, we noticed a number of monkeys in the surrounding forest, roaming freely. But when we reached the top, we were on a flattened area, and there were many monkeys all around us. 

They are used to visitors and do not bother you, tho the males are bothered by direct eye contact and there are signs warning you of this.  There are park rangers all around to ensure that everyone is safe from any potential "monkey business" (sorry, could not resist)!

There was a very beautiful view over Kyoto from the summit, but the real attraction here was the roughly 200 macaque monkeys. You could literally get up close and personal with them. We spent some time watching the monkeys and then headed back down. 

We found a very nice spot along the river and ate our lunch with Riana who also brought her lunch. She was quite interested in our religion and asked us many questions about our observances. We were the first Jews she had ever met. 

We then walked to the bamboo forest, another feature attraction in the area. 

This is an enormous grove of very tall and straight bamboo trees. You walk on the path through them and you definitely feel very small. It is very photographed site that is featured in many travel magazines that highlight Kyoto.

By now it was mid afternoon and we boarded the train back to Kyoto station where we said our goodbyes to Riana. Before we left, she told us how memorable this day would be for her as we were the first tourists that she had guided as a graduate guide and she gave us a very beautiful thank you card that she had designed. It was really quite touching. 

We cannot say enough about these free guide services. They are a very good resource when visiting Japan. 

We spent some time walking through the shopping areas of Kyoto and then headed back to our apartment to pack up for our trip the next day to Kobe where we would spend our second Shabbat.

More to come...

All the best

Fran and David