Our Roadtrip to Awaji

So we did it! We rented a cute, little, blue Japanese car and made it on our roadtrip. We almost got a Honda (some model we don't have in the states), but ended up with a 4-door Mazda. All the cars were automatic (whew). Our model didn't even use a key; it used a creditcard-sized "intelligence card" which basically had to be near the wheel to start it. It wasn't expensive, either... and not too scary to drive on the other side of the road (even after 7 months on a bike)! We did get the highest insurance plan, though, just in case:) Actually renting the car turned out to be kind of a fiasco (did it all in Japanese, which went ok, but they didn't copy my Intl
Getting the CarDrivers permit or passport - just license - and called me about 20 times freaking out that they had given the car to someone without a valid license when were supposed to leave on Sunday morning; we think the guy who made the mistake might have gotten fired - not good). Once we got everything figured out, we were about an hour and a half behind schedule. Then we couldn't find the entrance to the bridge (spent over an hour looking for the tunnel - which actually opens 5 km away!) and ended up takin the car ferry, finally making it to the island about 3 or 4 hours behind the schedule. Despite the setbacks and drama, however, the trip was so, SO, so much fun and it turned out to be a spectacular day!! We just went to a nearby island (Awaji), but the landscape is mountainous and pretty different from where I live. It is speckled with palm trees (which are present, but not as populous where I live) and the weather turned out to be really, really warm, so we kind of felt like we were in the tropics (well, sort of).
Bunraku
Our original motivation for the trip was to check out Bunraku, an ancient puppet art, where the puppets are 4/5 the size of humans. Awaji was synonymous with puppetry 500 years ago, so we truly went to the source. The theatre, which turned out to literally be on the other side of the island, was modern and we were able to see a 30-minute play (tragedy). There were two characters (puppets) in the performance, on the main stage in front of us (with meticulously-detailed and beautiful sets), with a smaller stage/window to the right where the narrator (who did ALL the voices in sort of an animated singing) read and a woman next to her played a Japanese guitar-like instrument. The performance started with one puppeteer holding a little lecture on Bunraku history and how the puppets are maneuvered (in Japanese, but we had a written-translation), and we even got to hold a puppet and take pictures with it (you pretty much put your arms IN the kimono and pull levers to make the face move). They are pretty cool; it takes 3 people to man one puppet!
After the show, we considered going to the next island over from that, Shikoku (where I went rafting), but there was not enough time. Instead, we spent time watching the tide (from the Pacific) come in under the Naruto bridge (on the other side of the island from my big bridge) and THINK we saw the Naruto whirlpools (yes, real whirlpools) which are supposed to be most-visible during this time of year. You can take a tourist boat (shaped like an old pirate ship) to the side of the whirlpools, but Claire and I agreed the time and fee wasn't worth it. We were going to try to hit up the monkey center and maybe a hot spring on the way home, but we decided against it to be conservative with time (um, and when we found out the hot spring was radioactive).
So yeah, pretty amazing experience! I will *definitely* be renting a car again!! The yakitori restaurant down the street from me let me park overnight for free (because we had a common-friend), so parking was not as bad as I was worried it might be, and it can be a really economical way to travel in Japan if you have a few people. I was worried about how much the tolls would cost, too, but there are a lot of highways off the main freeway, so it wasn't even that bad. The roadmaps are all in kanji (like Chinese characters), but you can figure them out pretty easily or read the in-car navigation system, and most road signs are written in English, as well as Japanese.
Claire's first izzie and karaoke
Japan has a no-tolerance rule with drinking and driving (which actually keeps people very responsible), so we decided to go get a beer once we turned in the car to celebrate a successful trip (esp considering I was SO freaked out about driving on the other side of the road and car beforehand). We ducked into this extremely cute little izzikaia (spelling? - Japanese pub) and ended up staying for dinner. Eating at an 'izzie' is a lot like a Japanese tapas bar. We were starving (despite all the onions and huge mandarin oranges we bought on Awaji), so we decided to just go for whatever they had, but discovered the food sat surprisingly well with Claire's stomach (she's had issues with food here, so we've been more careful - went to the Brazilian place on Friday for example - yum). The cute little woman that ran the place babied us a bit and gave us each little presents, and Claire discovered Chuhai (a drink). It was really fun. We weren't quite ready to head home yet, so we did an hour of karaoke and took the trains back to our bikes. Excellent adventure.
Earthquake
On a sidenote, I know Claire has been getting a lot of nervous emails from folks at home who read or heard about the big earthquake here this week. I got a few emails today, too, so I just wanted to let everyone know we are ok. Awaji was ironically on a faultline and the epicenter of the Great Hanshin Earthwuake (that crumbled Kobe in 1995), but thankfully, it was nowhere near the big one this week and were hardly affected at all. Thank you for your thoughts and concerns, though!