In Kyoto now! Actually, I got here 2 days earlier as I decided that the other couple places in Shikoku werent worth staying in and just jumped to Kyoto early.
So backing up a bit, I was last in Matsuyama, and met this dude named Tomoki in the hostel. Nice guy, really into Hip-Hop and American movies and in the end it seems like end really like to live in LA. He was touring Shikoku on his motorcycle (Harley i think) and was from Fukuoka. Anywho, take a gander at his web page here. Yes, its in Japanese, but if you click on just the right spot(s), you might get to the section with his lion rabbit (very fluffy!) and his friend praire dog.
Leaving Mastuyama, I went off to the Iya valley which is famous for its deep gorges and vine bridges. Unfortunately, the guide is VERY fuzzy about the details in the area and the youth hostel was also all booked out! So...i took a the train out to Oboke which is a very minor train station with one poor sap working both the ticket window and the gate. Upon getting there i stuck my main pack in a locker and started walking....amazingly, i made the right turns cuz i ended up stumbling across the rock museum and finally, the boat cruise place the guide mentions. The boat makes its leisurely way down, and then back up the river, through the gorge which was a pleasant diversion from the city, temples, buses, and whatnot. On the way back to the train station, i noticed the usual vending machines with an unusual twist: one of them actually sold JUGS of beer. 3L cost 2000 yen if i remember right (sounds a tad expensive).
Ok, so after the Iya valley, i took the train back up to Okayama, then Shinkansen'd it into Kyoto where i am now!
Since my rail pass is still valid, Im using Kyoto as a base to visit all the surrounding stuff. With the Shinkansen, the radius is actually quite huge...
First stop was Himeji which is the mother of all castles in japan (still standing at least..). Its very impressive and also considered an "original". I think everyone has a definition of "original" which is how so many castles are labeled as the only "original" this or that. Himeji was actually restored a couple times, but the interior is still all done in the traditional wooden style (opposed to ferro-concrete) which is how it still retains the "original" label. Many of the supporting buildings have also been restored/mainted making Himeji one of the most complete castles around. This is also where ive perhaps seen the greatest density of non-asian tourists.
After Himeji, which took about 3 hours, I stopped in Kobe. Theres not too much here besides a few scant earthquake reminders, a nice harbor area, and really expensive kobe steak. I saw a restaurant that had something like a steak salad for 7000 yen. I passed. Kobe beef is actually pretty interesting looking though and looks fairly different that regular meat. The meat is...sort of speckeled with fat! It actually LOOKs really good...maybe if i get a chance, ill splurge in Tokyo...
Oh yeah, funny thing. I stopped in bar before heading back to Kyoto (called Ryans!) and there were some brits in there. The news came on about Schwartzeneger leading the polls and the only comment was "thats fucked up". I think we will seriously lose any once of international respect if the Terminator makes it into office with Bush still President...blah.
Ok, today I made it out to Nara which is famous because it was the Capitol of Japan for a short stint. Its famous for its Daibutsu (big Buddha)which had tonnes of screaming elementary school kids swarming the grounds....Lots and lots of temples in Nara, some nice gardens and parks, and, like Miyajima, some very tame deer (Theyre apparently considered messagers of the gods!).
Not much to else. Met a friendly French dude who is a CS phd guy giving a presentation at a virtual reality conference in Osaka. We had a freindly chat about 3D stuff and i tried to convince him to go into the games market!
Something i noticed in Kobe was that the Japanese love their Crepes (crepes agogo style) and their Gelato. Funny cuz right before i left, i went to Mondo Gelato in Bezerkley which was my first experience with a "real" gelatoria(?). Here, they're everywhere!
Oh yeah, i also broke down here in Kyoto and had my first McDonalds (the smell of grease in the air was just too much). Out here in Kyoto, i had a Soft Serve for 100 yen (This is actually cheaper than anywhere else in Japan ive seen), and a Filet-o-fish for 220 (special deal). Not bad. Big mac was only around 250 yen.
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Side note...the guys out here might be more fashionable...but some are darn UUUGGLY!
I saw a business man dude with a LV briefcase too..that was weird.
Wheee! In Mastuyama, not to be confused with Mastumoto (place with the castle) and Mastushima (place with the little islands) which is on the island of Shikoku. Weather was perfect today without a cloud in the sky.
So...Matsuyama is famous for....you guessed it: having one of the oldest Onsens in Japan! The spring is supposedly 3000 years old and the story goes that it was found by a bird that hurt its leg, stuck its leg in the water and then was miraculously healed! Sooo, this one was a little weird in that the bath is on the main floor, but you go upstairs to get this yukata which is like a robe. But then the guys change upstairs in the shared room (not naked, but down to underwear), but then the girls just do things normally and pickup their robe upstairs and then go downstairs to change. Weird double standard, no? But then again, i guess the guys here in japan really dont care too much since they even had a lady (very old) working in the bath area where all the nekkid guys are. So apparently this water in the onsen is alkaline and is good for "rheumatism, neuralgia, and recovery from exhaustion. After soaking in the water, the skin becomes smooth and soft and so it is good for the complexing as well." Outside of the spa area they also had a hot spring foot soak for free which you could use while watching their wacky clock do its thing (sorta like a cuckoo clock).
Mastuyama also has a....you can probably guess this one too, a castle! Its perched on top of a fairly high hill (high enough that they made a chairlift for it) and is more or less an original castle. The definition of "original" is used somewhat loosely as the castle apparently burned down in the 1600's, and then again in 1784 due to lightning. It got rebuilt sometime in the 1800's, and then restored in the 1900's...Soo...its not quite original, but it does maintain the traditional wood construction as opposed to "rebuilt" castles which are ferro-concrete.
Also saw Ishite-Ji which is one of 88 temples that form a loop of temples on Shikoku related to the Shingon sect of Buddhism. Pilgrims basically visit all 88...Used to be quite a feat to do in the old days, but the pigrims i saw today (distinguished by their traditional white garb) had a bus.
Thats about it for mastuyama. I visited the usual shopping arcades and malls which were not really any different than any others. Those basement floors with all the food are pretty damn amazing (probably because i'm feaking hungry!)
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Another note about bike riding. Dunno if i mentioned this before, but one huge difference about bike riding in Japan is that unlike bike in the US that share the street with cars, bikes in Japan share (loosely speaking) the sidewalk with the pedestrians! This took some getting used to when i was riding a bike. Of course, I kept riding in the street which was a lot easier anyways ( I saw a bike whose rider must not have been paying attention cuz the bike was still in the Canal!). This actually worked quite well at first cuz the cars, being relatively polite, didnt mind. But i kept having to check and re-check the map and in the end i had no idea where the heck i was! Then i realized....all the freakin signs were on the sidewalks (often on only 1 side of the street for the path i was riding). So bikes also dont have a "proper" side of the street to ride on either.....
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Arrgg! I dunno whats triggered it, but im getting bitten more and more by the squitos out here! Everything was fine for the first couple of week and now im all friggin itchy! The guide book didnt mention anything about bringin repellant!
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Hmm, saw some fake samurai at the castle today. No ninjas yet though. I will ask around and try to get a picture of one before i return.
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Oh yeah, was wandering around looking for a convenience store for some cheap food and came across some sort of "neon" (the only words i could read) quarter. It was totally dead, but i think this old lady was trying to pimp out some ladies. I told her i didnt understand Japanese, then she started making these hand gestures...
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I got one mean Teva tan.
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Youth hostel im staying at is a little expensive at 3340 Yen. But its amazingly nice with a restaurant (that sells instant noodle that i might need to take advantage of), a room with a sink and writing table, free internet, free corn snacks, and tea! Oooo, and a motorized foot masager. Ah, this is the life...
Today the weather was pretty nice, so i did the Kibi bike route as recommended in the guide. The route entails taking the train to an outlying area of okayama, then renting a bike at the station where you then follow a recommended bike path to Soja where you can then drop the bike off. Pretty nice change of pace to tour the area on the bike. It was sort of a weird area cuz it was almost rural in the sense that there were rice paddies everywhere. Half the bike ride is pretty much in the middle of rice paddies. Theres a few temples and shrines along the way, as long as some people burial mounds, however I visited a major one that supposedly looks like a keyhole from high up, but it was more or less just a hill with lots of spiders and mosquitoes! (Im starting to get eaten alive out here! )
So about midway through the trip i discovered "hey, they gave me a girls bike!" Then, after observation for the last 4 or so hours, i discovered all the bikes out here are girls bikes (with the bar angled down from the steering column as opposed to straight across). Other thing i noticed is that many bikes are in fact locked in a way. Basically theres this little bar that can be slid in between the spoke preventing someone from just riding away with your bike. Its pretty subtle though...
So the bike ride was about 15km and took about 3 hours to finish. I then took the train to Kurasaki which is famous for it historical quarter in which it preserves a number of old building styles (which have all basically been converted to souvenir shops or restaurants). Some parts were pretty nice, but on the whole, there was a lot of construction work going on, and on top of the cars sometimes parked next to the buildings, the spider web of electrical lines running about all the buildings detracted from the effect of an "old historical town".
Returned back to Okayama by about 2 and, with some time to kill, ventured out to the Sega "Joypolis" and a budget mall next to it. Nothing all too thrill, so im just chilling now at an internet cafe.
Ah, thats right. I didnt go over yesterdays event....lessee. Visited Okayama castle which is called "Crow" Castle because of its black exterior. Didnt go in considering the number of castles ive already been to. Right next to it are the Koraku-en gardens which are 1 of the big 3 gardens in Japan (one other being in Mito and the other in Kanagawa). It was a pretty nice garden with just about everything...lawn, forest type settings, fruit trees, ponds, even had an aviary where they kept some birds (egrets?) for display in the pond.
After that, i just wandered through the entertainment districs (amazingly similar to all the others..gaudy flashing lights, multi storied, etc) and the outdoors shopping arcades.
Met a swiss guy in the Hostel named Stephan who was pretty interesting. Hes an avid traveler and did a 2 yr round the world trip about 3 yrs ago (he was going through the ME during 9/11) and it was his first time in Japan. So he was a pretty hardend traveler with all sorts of stories about getting his pack stolen in South America(he fell asleep on a bus) and such, but stuck to the guide a surprising amount..it sounded like he probably read it 3-4 times as he knew about all the places id been to even though he didnt visit them himself. He had an interesting story about a hostel manager out in Kagoshima chewing him out for not calling ahead, and then proceeding proceeding to follow Stephan in his car pulling over twice to continue to chew him out! Guess im pretty lucky i havent run into any of those types!
(Although there was a guy in the train station today screaming and yelling at apparently nobody, taking a few steps, and then beinging to scream and yell again...)
OK, random thoughts and Q&A time since ive got another hour of internet time....
Fruit in Japan. Holy cow its expensive! An apple or peach costs about 2 bucks. And I saw some really, really expensive melons.....Theyre called Musk Melons. I dunno why, but they were about 12,000 yen in a nice gift box. They had some as cheap as 6,000. Only fruit that seems reasonably priced out here are bananas.
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Baths
Well, what can i say? It seems to be a very japanese thing to do with everyone from the young to the old doing it. It really aint so bad, although its also not really any different than just soaking in a hot tub (WITH a swimsuit) back in the states. The hot springs, with there added minerals, are supposed to have added thereapeutic value but who knows? The beppu guide actually has a list of ailments with a list of hot springs that are best for treating them! Ive actually run into many foreign tourists in the hostels who have, surprisingly, gotten into the onsen thing as well. The guy i just met, Stephan, was the only one so far who was like "Onsen? Hmmm..i still have to try...are you like, naked?"
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Changing Money
Oddly, the ATMs or the CCs havent been giving extraordinarily good rates. Theyre actually quite comparable to the rates ive been getting changing TCs (except for the last time). Weird thing is that cash gets a worse rate than TCs; most other countries ive been to have been opposite. Unfortunately, lots of the ATMs here do NOT work with foreigh issued cards, so ATMs end up being a little less convenient than TCs. And many places dont take CCs...
Ok, tomorrow off to Matsuyama on Shikoku! Oh yeah, and ps, saw some info on the earthquake today in Hokkaido, but im waay far from Hokkaido right now so everything's ok. Hard to believe i was just there 11 days ago though!
Ok..Umm...hmm, how many cities have i been in? Lots. Doing about 1 a day right now. Trying to make the rail pass worthwile. Funny how i remember doing South East asia i was feeling like we were blazing through it to fast (cuz James was doing everything and i was just hitching a ride pretty much). But now that im in the drivers seat, i feel like im pretty much doing the same thing. On top of the 3 wk limit of the rail pass, i guess its a matter of momentum. Its rather amazing covering so much ground in a given time cuz that evening ill try to remember what i did in the morning and it will seem like days ago!
Okkk, so in Okayama right now and managed to hit the free Internet facilities in the Prefectural Office before they closed. So far so good. Okayama is the town where Momotaru, who was apparently born from a peach, originated. The storys goes on that he befriended a monkey, a rooster, and something else and slew some deamon. I cant remember all the details, but momotarus picture is everywhere here.
So before Okayama, I was in Beppu which is one major tourist town. Understandably so though cuz everwhere you turn you see steam rising from some vent! Beppu is sort of like the Onsen capital of Japan. They have Jigoku which are steam vents for viewing only (called Hell pools), and then they have regular Onsen, some which you pay for, others, since hot spring water is so plentiful, that are free (there were 4 around my place that i stumbled across). They even have vents at restaurants which they use for cooking!
Before Beppu was Kumamoto which has a huge castle, and a pretty nice garden where i ran into a couple of friendly American girls whove apparently been traveling for 6 wks. One was from Colorado, the other from Montana. I think these are the first American girls i met that are traveling and doing the teaching thing as well. Its nice to hear other foreigners struggle with Japanese too!
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Small side note: Wassup with that US dollar?!?! I just changed money and the exchange rate was 110! Last time i changed it was 116! And another bank i visited (just to verify the rate) was 108! Ick. Did Arnold get elected? Whats going on in the states???
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Ok, off to see that castle, the gardens, and a all that other touristy stuff!
Phew!Made it to Nagasaki! Apparently my grandfathers old boss, back in the Taiwan Sugar Company days was from Nagasaki and he helped my grandfather out a bit, so this city has some family significance...
Unfortunately, my first couple hours in this city were quite daunting as the 2 hostels mentioned in the guide were closed and the one i got from the tourist information folks had a HORRIBLE map. Actually, all the maps of Nagasaki ive gotten so far (including the one in the LP guide) have been not-so-good. The problem is that these maps dont bother drawing in all the small streets, even though some of the small streets are significant! And of course, they dont name the streets either. Ohwell, after 2 hours of spinning around in circles and asking 3 or 4 people (who had to scratch their heads looking at the map given to me), i finally found the place!
First stop was the Abomb park and museum. Being the site of the 2nd bombing, the park and museum were somewhat less impressive than those at hiroshima, and covered most of the same stuff. The had some remnants of a catholic church which was destroyed as well as an old stone Tori which had one leg destroyed, but remained standing.
Afterwards, i took the tram down to the Harbor area where the foreign communities resided. There were apparently many foreigners who got pretty wealthy dealing in arms and then tea. There is also the old Foreigner ward (Dejima??) where they actually qarentined foreigners in their own man made island to prevent the spread of Christianity! Nowadays, its no longer an island, having had much land reclaimed from the bay, however theyre is some work going on to restore more portions of it and at least make it back into an island.
OK, 15 time limit (at least its free!) on the computer at the hostel. Tomorrow im off to Kumamoto! Will write more then!
Aigh. Seems like the farther out from Tokyo I get, the harder it is to find internet access, and the more expensive it gets! Im currently at Kinkos shelling out 200 yen for 10mins. Ok, so thisll be fast and typo ridden!
When from Nagano to Nagoya to Hiroshima, to my present location in Fukuoka/Hakata. Nice little town they got here. Im staying in a capsule hotel for the first time because they dont have any youth hostels in the city. Its a pretty good deal actually considering i get a free sauna/bath (multiple i think....), lounge chairs, etc along with the capsule which sort of reminds me of one of those pet carriers....
I happend to stumple across the Asian Pacific Festival theyre having right now. Looks like they were doing Korea, Thailand, New Caledonia, and one other spot i cant remember. Anyone know where New Caledonia is? Only thing i could think of is BG3 from DAOC (if any of u r reading!).
So Fukuoka doesnt have too much in the way of cultural sites..the usual temples and stuff. So i just wandered around and ate. The malls hear have one interesting characteristic and that most seem to have cooking schools in them! They also got art galleries. The mall right by where im staying is especially nice with a couple hotels, a movie theatre, and a faux river...and an enterntainer dude that comes out every now and then doing tight rope tricks and the like. Oh ya, and it has the first Wendys ive seen so far!
Louis Vutton seems to be everywhere in the malls.
Hiroshima was pretty cool, seeing the abomb dome and the like. Really amazing museum. Curiously though, Hiroshima is the first place in Japan ive seen gokoburi, or cockroaches! The place i was staying at WAS rather dingy (as described in the guide), however can u believe they actually served me MOLDY tea? GROOSS. And the tatami mats had mildew growing in them, and the room itself smelled like pee. Ohwell, it was cheap and close by to the station. The people also seemed nice.
So in Hiroshima i had Okinomiyaki which is sort of a japanese pancake. Not enough time to describe in detail, but it has an egg, noodles, pork, some extra filling of your choice, some sauce (sorta like oyster sauce) and a batter thing at the bottom. I tried it twice thinking the first one i got was no good. The second one tasted about the same and my conclusion is that it tastes sorta like a bland spring roll.
Oh ya, had Ramen again tonight in Fukuoka and this place (apparently in business for 40 years) has these tiny little stalls to wat ramen in and a curtain so you cant directly see the servers. Funny. It felt like being in a porn booth or something! Anyway, it was cool cuz you get to specify how you want your noodles cooked. How much "special" sauce to use. How much fat to use, etc. It was taaaassty. wish they gave more though. Ok, running out of yen. More next time!
Eating in Japan is sort of interesting experience in itself for me, mainly cuz 1) theres lots places to eat, 2) Im trying not to spend a lot and 3) Most of the time im out, im busy romping around somewhere and by the time im back to the hostel, im pretty tired. From both #2 and #3, i end up really not eating a whole lot!
Which is not to say i havent eaten. As far as variety goes, there some stuff ive stayed away from because its exorbitantly expensive (maybe towards the end of the trip..). So far ive had Ramen, Sushi (the cheap kind!), Zaru-Soba (cold noodles), tsukune (i think thats what its called...basically meatballs), yakitori, and a Japanese breakfast. Additionally, ive had all sorts of funky concoctions from the convenience stores (there are an abundance over here) which range from the normal sushi/nigiri stuff, to weird things like noodles with fried fish cake in a hot dog bun, and whipped cream with fruit in a sandwhich (this was pretty tasty!). I also went to this burger joint called Lotteria (funny name for a burger joint, i thought) where i had a burger with an egg in it. Not bad!
My favorite so far has got to be Kaiten sushi which esentially like the Sushi boat thing back home except that its super cheap! The quality is about par with sushi back home, but its probably about half the price of what youd pay in the States which makes it an even better deal. Its pretty cool cuz it's fairly automated and 95% of the stuff you just serve yourself (including tea and extra plates/cups).
Stuff still on the list to try: Curry rice, Tenpura, Pricey sushi, Udon,Donburi, Tonkatsu,and a whole bunch of other stuff!
Ok, now i'm hungry! Off to seek food...mm..
Not to be confused with Matsushima which is the place with a bunch of islands in the bay, Mastumoto has the only (?) Japanese Castle that is still in its original form; There are a number that exist, but have been rebuilt. Anyway, very cool, as you get to walk through the main keep which is actually pretty darn small, and they have a few display cases setup showing off the armor and weapons (guns) used during the period (The castle was made in 1592-3). The moat looked a little low on water though, as the multitudes of Koi were scraping the bottom and making little silt trails wherever they went.
On the way back, I stopped by the "Olympic Stadium" as its called, however, i think they just slapped that name on it because aside from a little Sculpture with a little of medalists for the 98 Winter Olyumpics, the structures in places were all for Summer activities: basketball, swimming, baseball, soccer, they even had wrestling (at least thats what the picture looked like). Youd think theyd at least have an ice skating/hockey rink! Overall a pretty nice facility though with all sorts of park areas surrounding and oddly enough, right across the street, some rice paddies, some peach trees, and what looked like grape vines.
Going to Nagoya tomorrow! Looks like someones on to me cuz i tried to do another overnight trip, this time from Nagoya to Hiroshima and the only types of trains they have are sleeper cars which,even with my rail pass, i need to pay extra for. Darn it!
Another thing this trip is teaching me is patience! After waiting nearly 8 hours in the station, i left Hakodate at 3AM on my way to Nagano. Funny thing about doing these night trips is that sometimes I forget to eat! I went nearly the whole day in Hakodate without eating and finally had a bowl of Ramen around 9PM, right before the restaurant in the train station closed, only cuz i figured that with an 8 hour train ride ahead of me, i needed to eat.
Almost got on the wrong Shinkansen too, cuz i remembered the time wrong (gotta stop doing that!) and was off by 2 mins...anyways, by the time i got to the platform, the bells were ringing for the doors to close. Before thinking, I just lept into a train. Luckily it was the right one (Otherwise, it would have been a while before i could have gotten off!)!
Ohwell, so just got into Nagano and am staying in the youth hostel really close to the Zenkoji temple. The temple here is actually quite nice (I wasnt expecting much after seeing the temples in Nikko)! I met a Bolivian/German dude fresh off the plane here and am working at trying to get him adjusted.
Now that ive gotten the rail pass activated, ive gotten my average daily costs down to about $60 bucks! woot! hope is stays that way. If so, major party and gifts for everyone!
(if i dont die of accidental hunger first!)
Greetings! Been a while!
First of all congrats out to Ed Milovic out there who is now a proud daddy! Also thanks out to Griffin who let me crash at his hotel room (the very lavish Cerulean towers in Shibuya which drew many ooos and awws from the locals at the pubs) and also bought me a nice western style buffet breakfast.
Ok, where did i leave off..hmm..So i ventured back from Sendai back down to Tokyo to meet up with Grif. Unforunately, Somehwere between his and my email systems there was a a HUGE delay and he JUST got my email about 5 hours after i said id be in tokyo. Luckily, I hung around a smidge more than id said i would and he popped up!
So Sendai turned out to be a pretty cool spot, albeit a little slow on the night life. Of course, its probably going to be pretty darn hard to beat Tokyo where just about every night ive visited a pub ive found some cool people to hang out with.
So Grif ended up leaving Tokyo on the 13th, so i activated my railpass and took off to Aomori which is on the Northern tip of Honshu. This was the first time i rode the Shinkansen (the Japanese bullet trains). Theyre pretty darn fast (it took about 2 hours to get to Sendai vs the 7 it took me via local trains which is the cheapest method in lieu using a rail pass). So it took about 4-5 hours total to get up to Hachinohe which is where the Shnkansen line ends, then another 1.75 hours to get to Aomori. Unfortunately, little did i know that this weekend was a holdiay weekend (i only know cuz grif mentioned it) and EVERYTHING was booked. Blah. Funny because Grif actually offered to let me make calls from his room. So, after walking to about 6 different hotels and calling about 2 others. I gave up and went back to the station where i was looking for a cozy park bench (The lonely Planet has a nice little sidebar about this EXACT same thing happening to one of the guys, although THAT was during some sort of festival in august). So, lucky for me, the bus stop benches are in this nice covered area....However, I went in the station to check one thing out and lo and behold, a 10:45PM train to Sapporro that takes 8 hours!! woot! Its where i wanted to end up anyways, so i booked it. Lucky thing too cuz the wind started to pick up....
So the Japanese trains typically run like clock work and are ALWAYS on time. Only this time, the train ended up arriving in Sapporo a little late, which worked out fine for me cuz i dunno what i was going to to in Sapporo at 6 in the morning anyways. It wasnt until i met a German dude in the hostel (who was on the same train) who explained that it was because of a typhoon (that apparently hit S. Korea pretty hard) that the train was delayed (so thats why it was so windy in Aomori....)!
Hohum, so, starting out at 7AM in Sapporo, I made a good day out of it. The best deal ive had so far, is a place called Kaitaku no maru which is a collection of old buildings (Early 20th century) from all over Hokkaido. 610 yen. The had actors dressed in old style colthing, a tea ceremony thingy with a manju, and bunches and bunches of cool buildings to walk through. The bus out there was also free cuz of my rail pass!
So other things in Sapporo I saw were a nice little park, the old prefecture capitol (where i stumbled across a dude jacking off in the garden!), and also the local mountain top which had a soso view of the city cuz it was a bit hazy.
Sapporos also famous for its Ramen, so i went out of my way to grab a bowl before i left! Compared to the ramen i had in tokyo, it was only soso, but I think it had more to do with the broth i chose. Out here, theres three different kinds you can choose from: miso, salt, and a third one i forgot. I had Miso in Sapporo, and i dunno what i had in Tokyo (it was a milky white) but that was definitely the best ramen ive ever had! I dunno if i can ever eat that instant noodle crud any more!
So, after a night in Sapporo (spent the night in a hostel next to the train station, and on top of that, 2 of the dorm mates came in at 1am sounding drunk or something cuz they were loud as hell despite 2 others sleeping) I came back down to Hakodate where i am now. Not too much here. Its a harbor type of town slightly reminicent of smoehting like fishermans warf (touristy). Theres quite a few western buildings here because it was one of the ports opened upon Commodore Perry's arrival (with his Black Fleet).
So, next stop: Nagano! Ive got a train to catch at 3AM(!). Dont know what im gonna do till then (10 more hours....), but i decided to do this night train thing every now and then to save time and money.
Wow, what an amazing coincidence. Here in Sendai there's rather a lack of events to really report (Temples, museums, shopping, eating..), so i was just thinking about doing a little blurb about bike riding!
Its sort of weird because depite such great mass transit, theres tonnes of cars. Of course, unlike in the US, the car drivers all seem to be pretty curteous, especially to pedestrians. Surprisingly, despite the narrow streets, SUVs and the larger cars can be found (even with lifts and BF Goodrich All Terrains) on the city streets intermixes with the usual sub-compacts. Oops, back to bikes. Tonnes of people also ride bikes! I guess its really convenient because crime is so low that people just leave their bike parked and unlocked and can actualy return to find it still there!
But for the most part, the bike riders are horrible. Theyre like the cars in the US. They arent paying attention half the time while riding through PACKED crowds. Here in Sendai, bikers are weaving their way through Mall foottraffic (outdoors), while doing things like talking on the phone, or playing games (i guess the guy could have been dialing...whatever it was, he wasnt looking where he was going). Ive yet to see an accident yet, but have heard a few brake squeals. They also ride their bikes FAST and zoom right past you! None of that "reduce speed while passing" stuff. Oh yeah, and the bikes share the sidewalks with the people too.
Its pretty amazing to see people from all walks riding a bike too, from the usual kids/casually dressed folk all the way up to business suits and stylishly dressed women. Lotsa folding bikes too. Up till last month, ive never seen one (one of my old coworkers got one to take on bart and caltrain), but here theyre everywhere,although i have yet to see one on the subway/train....
Anywho...in the end it seems like bikers are fairly well catered to here with only very few "no bike" zones. Had a close call with a bike once so far when i wasn't pay attention (was in the mall checking out the restaurants and bars).
Half the bars here are NOT on the first floor and thus quite hard to find, not to mention makes checking them out (to see if its bustling or not) quite difficult without actually going in...
Did a day trip out to Matsushima today which was soso. The guide makes it out to be a pretty big sight to check out, as it contains 1 of the 3 (i forgot what the other 2 are) that MUST be seen. I also when into Shiogama (dunno if i spelled that right) and took a boat to Matsushima like the guide recommended. The boat was freakin expensive and the view a little anticlimactic. The gist of the place is that there are 260 little tiny islands that dot the bay and its supposed to form a spectacualr view. Ohwell, it wasnt that bad. There was also a temple and a nice little trail around one of the closer islands that was pretty cool.
I am not going to escape the bath thing. So im staying in a hostel, but its Japanese style (called a Ryokan). There is 1 shower. So i get in at 4:30 and i figure nobody else is gonna take a shower (bath time is regimented and supposed to be 5-10:30). Just my luck, an old guy casually breaks in 1/2 way into my shower (theres 3 'washing stations' and 1 bath which your supposed to soak in after you wash yourself). Ohwell, not really a big deal, but just thought feed your imaginations a bit!
Not much else going on in Sendai. I visited a department store for the first time (missed em in Tokyo) and wow, they are HUGE. This one place had a grocery store, complete with restaurants, snack vendors, and food/gift vendors all on a floor of the basement. The subway was beneath and the clothing and other stuff consumed the upper 5 floors.
People out here dress pretty stylishly too. Id say as a percentage, people here in Sendai look a lot better than Tokyo. Funny, cuz now that i think about it, most Japanese dress up ALL the time. When i was in Nikko, romping up 5 flights of stairs and going over uneven stone floors for the temples, there would be women wearing 2in heals there! Just saw a chick with a short short skirt riding a bike too! hehe. They're pretty good about covering the goods though (not that im looking!)
OK, quick entry cuz im outta 100 yen coins.
Made it into Sendai just now after a 5hr train ride on the local trains. phew!
Yesterday i attempted a little hike while in Nikko. Theres this mountain which erupted and made a lake and a waterfall. Anyways, i looked at the map and it said 2400...2400 ft i figured, not bad...ill do it.
3 hrs later and panting for breath, i asked a dude, how much further to the top? 3 mins i heard him say....so i go...hmm..ok. 15 mins later i ask another dude...1 hr..very difficult he says (btw still typing on a japanese keyboard which precludes proper punctuation at times while im trying to churn this out)
sooo..i hit the abort button and came back down. it was a pretty arduous climb up, it not having a proper trail for the middle 2/3 that i made up. Anyways, as i was going down, it dawned on me that the japan, like the rest of the world except the states, uses the metric system and thus the maps was in meters, not ft. woops.
ok, of to shower.
btw, i tried the bath thing again. quite nice the second time around without having a gay guy asking me to :face me so i can hear you better:.
(apologies in advance for all the typos, these days my typing has gotten terribly bad and on top of THAT, I'm typing on a Japanese keyboard!)
Had a rather eventful day yesterday in Tokyo. Toured the Imperial Gardens which, together with the imperial palace, lies on the ramains of the former Edo castle. The place is HUGE. There's a moat within a moat, an inner citadel, and an outer. Seemed like every few minutes I'd come across a new moat and a nother wall. And that was only in the East Gardens (the only part that's open to the public).
OK, nuff of the boring stuff. Backing up a bit, I also visited Kinokuniya in Shibuya to look for a nice map that gives transit times between the major cities. I didn't find any, but i picked up a good little book for 990 Yen called "The Tokyo Pub Crawl" which basically has a bunch of bar recomendations for the various districts of Tokyo. So on my way back from the gardens, I decided to check out this place called "The Celtic Warrior". In the maze of the Ueno (2 subway stops away from the place i was staying at), I almost gave up looking for it.
So I go in during happy hour for a nice pint of Guiness (500 yen still). The place is half full (its a tiny place) and I just kick back reading a bit more through the LP guide. So about 30 min later, i'm about done when this chick comes in, seemingly meeting with a friend, but then she sits down next to me! Shes obviously a gaijin and i just sit there sipping away at the last drops of my drink. So she orders a Corona, and after the first sip she flags the bartender down and ends up spitting a mouthful of corona out into an ash tray. okaaaay. In a nutshell, she then starts talking to me: she's from Venezuela, married a japanese guy, moved over to Tokyo, has 2 kids, her 14 yo has a great body and big boobs (her description!), and how people in Tokyo are so unfriendly and how people are all sad, how her kids have a tough time cuz they're mixed, how the guys grab her when she runs through Ueno Park at night. All this in broken English with mixed Japanese. Bleh. Oh, this lady's got serious issues. Lucky for me this dude sitting next to her goes "Hey I overheard you're from California, what part?" Turns out the guy graduated from Cal in '95. So i start talking to him and the lady escuseds herself to talk to someone else.....
So i'm talking to this guy who apparently graduated from cal, lived in SF for some time and commuted somwhere in the east bay. He even graduated from CED (I forgot what it stands for) and spent sometime in Wurster...Of course i think, hey my GF was Architecture major and also spent some time in there, but before i mention anything, he said "hey, wanna tour of the area".
Why not? so i go around where he proceeds to point out the general thrift market where locals go to buy stuff, the cheap fish market, the international ATM, and other useful stuff. We then pass through the redlight district and describes how they work...a buncha guys with headsets are at the bottom where they basically make a deal, once they make a deal they radio back and i guess you go in. However, they trick you by sticking food or something in there and charge you 10K yen for it. All this is from stories he says, since he's never been to one..."uh huh" i think.
Anywhoo, we pass through with no incidents and only a couple of friendly waves from some hookers. We wander through a Pachinko parlor (often named "Oriental Passage") where they utlize a nice loophole to legally gamble. Esentially, you win a "prize" for a given number of balls. And then, conveneintly enough, there a place right next store that is willing to pay money for those prizes!
Okkkk....Then he oints out a sign "Hey there's the Japanese Bath place i was talking about earlier". So let me preface this with the fact that many guides have large sections about the Japanese Onsen and how the Japanese bath is deeply rooted in their culture. They say they go to one at least once a week (these are less real "baths" and more like day spas). So he asks, "wanna try it?" Sooooo, figuring "what the hell?" I say ok.
Another little background on the Japanese bathing experience. Its esentially a public bath. Single sex (all guys) and it's a no no to even bring a towel into the bath (though you can use it outide of the water). Ok, since i got some extra time, let e describe the process. You bascially go in, stick your shoes in a locker and exchange the shoe key for another locker key. This locker contains a couple towels, some shorts, and a robe. You then stip down, sticking on the shorts and the robe.
You then proceed towards the bath area where you strip butt nekkid and take 1 towel with you (the smaller of the two).
You take some water from the bath and splash it on yourself, then sit on this stool in front of a shower thingy where you wash yourself down. Then they have an outdoor spa and an indoor spa you go into. Again, butt nekkid. In addition to the spa, there's showers, a sauna, a room with seats to read in fron of the TV, a room with lazy boy's with built in LCD TVs, and a room with futons where you can take a little snooze (apparently, you can use these places to spend the night if you're in a bind). Oh ya, there's also a room where you can order food and stuff.
So, things started becoming a little bit awkward (Comments like "gee, I bet you didn't think you'd be seeing me naked" and "Can you turn to face me a little more" [while sitting naked on the balcony] and "They all stare at me because I'm white and want to see my big dick") it basically turns out that this dude I'm with is gay. Well first he said "bi", then he said gay..oh boy...I was outta there pretty fast. So fast that i got lost on my way back and had to double back a couple times!
So now i'm slightly traumetized by the whole onsen experinece....
And i thought i was doing so well with this culture assimilation thing!
SOOOOO. I am in Nikko right now and it is rather a stroke of luck that i have a few hours to kill plus the attendant tripped over the power cord,giving me 1hr free after profusely appologizing.
BTW, not only did that guy go to Cal, the guy who ran my Hotel in Tokyo apparenlty has an Aunt who used to run a Japanese restaurant in Danville and knew the Bay Area pretty well...freaky. It's like i'm being followed!
Made it into Tokyo just a couple hours earlier. Right as I stepped into the doorway of the hotel, the crackle of thunder could be heard.
Soo..first few hours in Japan have been interesting. Within two hours:
1) I saw a schoolgirl using glue stick to keep her socks up (by the look of it, she was re-applying the glue)
2) Saw a guy ride a bike with an umbrella, in the rain, talking on a cel phone.
3) Saw a guy peeing on the side of the street.
So far everything is A-OK, except for all the rain! Preventing me from really venturing forth for fear of getting drenched. (Though the front desk says it won't rain anymore...hmmm...)
Oh, yeah, and i experienced the sink ontop of the toilet thing that Penny's friend Wendy mentioned. Neat idea (It fills the tank via an auto faucet on top of the tank, under which you can wash your hands!)
Ack! Packing is such a pain in the butt. On one hand I'm bringing too much! (My bag weighs a TON!) But it feels like something's missing. But then, if I'm missing something, I can always buy it there. But then again, I'm probably gonna pay a fat surcharge to buy it out there.
Getting all the paperwork and iternerary and organizational stuff ready. One of the things I didn't really realize till now is that the Japanese cities are HUGE! (even the unknown ones) and the addressing system quite random. Thus, to find EACH place (or more importantly, each hostel) you need to print out a nice little map.
Ohwell, we'll find out how good of a packing job i did soon enough....
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