Adventure 40/50 : Nidoto Nai Yoni, the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial

Whenever we decide to go on a trip, I try to learn a lot about the destination. Maybe I get a little obsessive, but I read a lot and look for documentaries and local events to learn more. 

So when we were planning our trip to Japan, I decided to attend a lecture called "Let it not happen again: Lessons of the Japanese American Exclusion. 

I didn't know very much about the topic -- I knew that a lot of Japanese people were rounded up during World War II and sent to internment camps. But I don't remember ever learning about it in school. 

The speaker, Clarence Moriwaki, told the story of his first week at the University of Washington in the 1970s, where he attended a meeting of Japanese-American students. As they sat around, one of the other students said to him, " So... what camp did your folks go to?" Moriwaki said, "Man, my folks were farmers ... they didn't have time for summer camp." Everyone stared at him, in silence, until one of them said, "InTERNment camps, man. During the war."

He had never even heard about it. 

Turns out his parents lived just far enough away from the coast that they didn't get sent to a camp. And he grew up in a small, tight-knit community where a few other Japanese families, none of whom talked about it. 

Moriwaki told us about the Japanese community of Bainbridge Island, near Seattle, and how over time they integrated. He showed pictures from the community in the 30s: the strawberry festival, school pictures, pictures of local businesses. And then he told us that on one day, in a coordinated, synchronized effort, each of these families was visited by a representative of the U.S. government and told that they would have to leave their homes and travel to a secret location in six days. On March 30, 1942, all 227 residents of Japanese descent -- many of whom were American citizens -- were rounded up, loaded on a ferry, and sent to unfinished camps in the desert. 

He told us about how in most places, the Japanese didn't return to where they had been rounded up; but because a lot of the community on Bainbridge Island -- notably the Woodwards, editors of the local Bainbridge Review newspaper -- kept in touch with the internees and welcomed them home after the war. '

In all, some 120,000 Japanese -- two-thirds of whom were American citizens -- were imprisoned in concentration camps during the way. There is a wealth of information about these historical events. I still can't believe that I never learned about this when I was in school. 

A few weekends ago we finally made our way over to Bainbridge Island to visit the Japanese American Exclusion Memorial. It takes the form of a memorial wall that follows the road to the Eagledale ferry dock. 

image from the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial site, bijaema.org, combining historical photo with the modern memorial

The names of all 227 people are inscribed on the wall, along with beautiful art pieces showing the history of the Japanese community on Bainbridge Island. It was quiet and somber and beautiful and moving. 

Nidoto Nai Yori means "Let it not happen again":

The view down to the former location of the ferry dock.

The panels are accompanied by stories and reminiscences; I loved the story of how the coach of the Bainbridge High School baseball team let all the Japanese kids play in the last game before they were imprisoned -- even though some of them weren't very good, and the team lost badly.

People who were children at the time remembered how frightened they were, carrying their things and wearing multiple layers of clothing.

And others remembered continuing their studies behind the barbed wire of the camps.

But the final panel showed the community welcoming the Japanese back to the island with open arms.

It's a beautiful, quiet place and I haven't done justice to it or the history here. But I'm really glad we were able to visit it, and someday would like to visit the Minidoka National Historic Site in Idaho to learn more.

Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial website
Minidoka National Historic Site website
Clarence Moriwaki's speaker page on Humanities.org, where you can learn where he is speaking

Adventure 33/50 : Otter Cafe!

Look, I like hedgehogs. They're cute in seemingly every way. I had never seen one in person until one day Wil and I were walking along a country lane in the UK and one was "sleeping" next to the road. With his intestines out. Poor fella.

Japan started the craze of "cat cafes" -- places where apartment-bound Tokyoites could gather for a while to drink tea and hang out with cats. The phenomenon has spread around the world -- we even saw one on Beijing last year. Some cities in the US use the cat cafes as a way to promote cat adoptions -- or at least a way to raise money for shelters. I'm all for it.

In Tokyo cat cafes have become passé. Hedgehog cafes have replaced them ... possibly because hedgehogs are a more "possible" pet? There are competing chains of cafes in Tokyo, including Chiku Chiku, who place their hedgehogs in "dollhouse settings":

And Harry Hedgehog Cafes, of which there are many, such as this location in Roppongi...

and this location in Harajuku...

But then we read that *this* location in Harajuku... HAS OTTERS.

OTTERS!!!!

Otters are my favorite animals. Out of all the animals in the world.

Full disclosure -- I feel this is problematic. Animals kept strictly for human entertainment. Are they treated well? Is this horrible?

But... still... otters.

So we went. First and foremost, the staff was very engaged and seemed to deeply care for their animals. It was clear that the welfare of their animals was higher priority than customer experience, so I felt less anxious. Oh, and I BOUGHT TREATS TO FEED THE CRITTERS!!!

In addition to the 30 minute session fee (extendable in 30-minute increments), I also bought a little platter of treats for the different animals. There were otter treats, hedgehog treats, and treats for rabbits or chinchillas. I bought them all.

Of course, first stop was the otter enclosure outside on the terrace.

LOOK AT THAT LITTLE HAND!!!!

I would hold a little treat on the tip of my fingers, and he would reach out and grab it off my hand and pull it in, and then -- audibly -- make a NOM NOM NOM sound. Though it might have been difficult to hear over the sound of my SQUEALING.

We watched them play for a while, then went in to see the chinchillas. No photographs of this exist because the "chill chinchilla" was pretty antsy about hanging with us, and kept leaping out of the basket we were holding on our laps. The employee would pick up the chinchilla, hold her, soothe her, stroke her, and gently place her back in the basket. And the chinchilla would LEAP TO FREEDOM and try to hide behind us. In the end, we just enjoyed watching the employee hold her, and gave the anxious little fluffball tentative pets.

Then we moved on to HEDGEHOGS. All of them were in little sleep balls the entire time. Which is pretty darn cute, if not particularly interactive.

You can see the had to wear gloves so I still don't really know what they feel like. We fed them dried mealworms using tweezers, and our hedgehogs would uncurl a bit, eat a mealworm, and ball back up. Still, pretty sweet.

Can't see us.

Nope, not us either.

We were then told we could visit the rabbit, a huge Dutch Giant. He was pretty mellow, shuffling around in his enclosure. Wil sad down near him and the rabbit flopped over. Note how big his feet are. Wil AND the rabbit.

We were getting ready to go when an employee said, "They're about to feed the otters." Oh! So we went outside to watch. Talk about excitement!

He would hold up a bit of fish, toss it to one of them, and that otter would scarf it down. When not eating, the otters let out a high-pitched whine -- EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

One guy in particular -- quite possibly the one I fed earlier --would whine and whine until he got a fish, and then make a NOM NOM NOM NOM sound, turning back into an EEEEEEEEEEE until he got the next bit.

We remembered, on our way out, that we could select a drink from one of the drink machines on the terrace. See, it's not *really* a cafe, but a drink is included in your visit. We were just too busy with the beasties!

There are other, maybe less appealing "animal cafes". We saw one that advertised a capybara. Now, who doesn't want to see the World's Largest Rodent™ in action... but that seemed to go too far.

I do still feel ... weird ... about having gone. I do think the animals were treated well in this location, but I wonder if there is any regulation / humane society oversight into these places. I hope so. 

Adventure 32/50 : Robot Restaurant

A glance at the reviews for the Robot Restaurant in Tokyo on TripAdvisor is enough to see that people are highly divided. A lot of people love the crazy technicolor weirdness of it all, and see it as an enjoyable night out. Some people think it's fun, but want to make sure you know that the food is terrible and "there aren't many robots". And some people hate it ... "it's a tourist trap!"; "THOSE AREN'T ROBOTS"; "not sure it has anything to do with Japan"... but a good portion of those who do are upset that they arrived late and weren't allowed in.

Before we went to Japan we weren't sure whether we wanted to go. Yeah, it seemed absurdly kitschy, and most definitely a tourist trap. Some friends came back from their honeymoon and said they had fun, another friend was disappointed ... due to the lack of robots.

In the end, we thought it would be a fun thing to do on the night before we headed off to climb Mount Fuji ... something weird, kitschy, and time-limited.

We read the advice to buy your tickets in advance -- we booked ours online through Klook and paid about 30% less than advertised prices. ("Other services are available..."). We also listened to the advice not to bother with buying any food there. And we observed the required check-in times...  I suppose if you don't think you can arrive on time, don't take the risk and just buy your tickets at the door.

We arrived in the area -- we weren't sure where the actual entrance is, but you go to the box office across the street to get your tickets, and then to the entrance... Our tickets came with a "souvenir worth 800 yen" which made us laugh and laugh and laugh.

Yep, it's a pen.

We then went across the street where we were encouraged to take a photo...

... before heading into the "theater". First we took an elevator upstairs to the "preshow" area, a long and skinny space with some gaudy seats at one end, a stage at the other, and some tall bar tables next to the stage. The "preshow" consisted of a singer who appeared to be doing his best Rod Stewart impersonation, backed by a band primarily dressed as robots... and various dancers performing various skits.

Yeah, I don't know either.

Then we headed down to the "theater" itself, and found our seats. We were in the back row, but there are only three rows on each side and each one is raised above the others, so sightlines are very clear.

The theater is really a large open "street" with curtained off ends on either side, and the "show" is almost more of a parade with floats moving down and back. Before the show started there were little stands selling food, drinks, and merchandise. It's funny, some people complained about "being pushed to order food"... but all we saw was some signs noting that you could order food.

The first act started with a bang, and was my favorite one -- essentially a neon-lit taiko drumming battle between good and evil, with good spirits and demons trading control of a shrine. And it looked like this:

I
t was noisy and frenetic and colorful and fun. And I think it was the best part of the show.

There were 4 different "acts", each with an intermission between them. And each act was crazy and weird and funny... if some seemed to run a little long or be just plain weird.

There was a segment about nature fighting off man-made "demons" like pollution... I think...

... that ended with a giant cobra fighting off laser beams ...

... and swallowing the demon.

And then a neon-lit London double-decker bus filled with dancers in national flag sequin dresses!

Oh, and a bit with lasers and robots and glow-wire-clad dancers!

See, robot!

Later, glow sticks were distributed... NOT TO KEEP.

And the crowd dutifully waved them while the dancers come out and performed some more.

Wait, the bit international number with flags and dancers and glow sticks wasn't the finale? No? No! It was a battle between various types of marine life called FISH FIGHT!

And then it was over. We all filed out and climbed up the stairs, into the neon-lit Kabuchiko night.

Was it a tourist trap? Yep. Was it still worth seeing? Yeah. It was funny and weird, and very enjoyable. Not something you need to see more than once, obviously, but still very good fun.