Brother Annie

Friday the 26th was one of the most interesting nights I’ve had in Japan. Me, Jace and two other friends of ours headed out to a place called Jin’s Place (or something). I’d seen the place before, since it was right by the gates to Kansai Gaidai, but I’d never gone in. The place looks rather shady, you have to admit. But one of our friends had been there before and invited us to check it out. So we did.

It was an izakaya (居酒屋)–a Japanese style pub. And in many (most?) izakaya, you take your shoes off at the front, just like in any Japanese home. Then, barefooted, we stepped out of the entrance and found an empty table. However, after not even a minute of sitting there, we decided to move to the bar counter, just for fun.

At the bar, we each started out with a beer. The owner chatted us up in fairly decent, but still broken, English, and asked each of us our names and where we were from. Then he gave us each a slip of paper, a pen and a pin, with which he asked us to write our names and pin on the world map hung on the wall. For me and the other American friend of our group, he pointed at a map of the US on which he asked us to pin our names. (I was the first person from Texas!)

After the guys did a round of something called a “shotgun” (not the American kind with beer involved–this was a double shot made of soda water and vodka, vodka which was apparently 95% alcohol, which I would argue, is not vodka anymore), we were all prompted to try a free shot of the most bizarre drink I have ever tried, and probably will have ever tried, in my life. Don’t worry Mom and Dad, this was an actual item on the menu and not some creepy concoction made in the back for unsuspecting foreigners. The owner brought out a clear bottle filled with a clear liquid. Also in the bottle–I shit you not–was a dead iguana. All four of us were handed a shot, though it was not one you were supposed to down in one go. So we sat there, sipping our lizard sake. Actually, it didn’t smell or taste like anything. It didn’t sting either, and was really quite smooth.

Through out the night, we also became friends with the staff. Of course we chatted with the owner quite a bit, as I mentioned, but one of the waitresses was first year student at Kansai Gaidai, and she was great to talk to. She was also quite pretty, and at one point in time I remember an older guy waving her over so that he could ask her, in English, “May I have your name?” After she told him, he asked for her “second name” (her last name), and she replied back in Japanese “I don’t have a second name,” and walked away. First time witnessing rejection in a foreign language! I thought it was hilarious.

As the night went on, the older guy sitting next to me, too, started talking to us, in horribly broken English, but mostly in Japanese. He asked us the usual, where we were from, but when he heard that Jace was from Australia, he suddenly got very excited. He asked us a question, which kind of baffled us. He asked “You know how the ground in Australia is red? Why is that?” We told him we didn’t know, and wondered why he was asking. He began to explain to us that mukashi-mukashi (a long long time ago), due to a large amount of iron and bacteria in the ocean, the tides turned red. The water level rose and rose until it covered Australia. When the water level sank, it left the residue on the ground, turning the earth red. This he explained in Japanese.

For some reason, this guy (who we later learned was called “Tsuu-san”) went on for another hour or so explaining various other scientific and historical phenomenon. We still have no idea why he did this, and I occasionally exchanged glances with the owner, who was listening in on our conversation a bit, and would always give me these “What is this guy smoking?” kind of look. But he was great fun, all the same.

As the night went on, we discussed how Japan came to adopt Chinese characters during the Han dynasty (It’s pronounced “Han” in Chinese, but in Japanese it’s pronounced “Kan”–this is the “kan” in “kanji”), as well as why Australian animals have pouches, John Nash’s Game Theory (think “A Beautiful Mind”), and–I am not joking about this–Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. All in Japanese.

When we left Jin’s Place, it was pouring down rain, but it didn’t bother me. It had been a great night.

Even though Nara was on our list of places to go, the boys ended up heading off to Hiroshima after we arrived back in the Kansai area, and I stayed in good ole Hirakata. But before I get ahead of myself, I have to tell you about Nagano and the snow monkeys.

When we arrived in Nagano, it was already dark, and we managed to catch a cab to our hostel. It wasn’t until the next day that we were able to explore. At the hostel, we relaxed with the strangest beer I’ve ever had–Chocolate Beer. It was pretty good, in Paul and my opinions, but Jace was not fan. To me it just tasted like a really really dark beer. Though lacking in snow,  Nagano was still a cold place, and we kept our sole heater turned on for as long as possible before falling asleep. Nagano the city is pretty average as far as Japanese cities go. The transportation was really expensive to get anywhere, and the hostel we stayed in smelled like smoke, but the dodgy neighborhood reminded me of Tennoji back in Osaka. Things were starting to feel familiar again.

However, our destination in Nagano was actually outside the familiar looking city sprawl, and way way way out in the countryside. It cost a hell of a lot to get there, but it was worth it. It was called Snow Monkey Park. Even though Nagano city was dry, the park which was way up in the mountains was still covered in a blanket of white. After taking a pricey train ride and a bus, we then had to hike for a good half hour to find the park. The trails were very deceiving, and the signs didn’t help at all, and after taking a good hour or so of getting completely lost, we found the monkeys.

As cute as they are, you may be wondering what is so cool about these guys. The cool thing is that the monkeys at this park aren’t here just to live–they’re here to relax. At the Snow Monkey Park, there is a hot spring (an onsen, remember?), but it’s not for people to enjoy. It’s for the monkeys.

After having our fill of squealing over the adorableness, we headed back into the city. We still had a few hours of daylight to kill, so we decided to hit up a shrine on the way home.

We bummed around Nagano station until it got dark. We were going to take yet another night bus. These moments were easily the most boring of our trip. Waiting for the next train, bus, subway, ferry, car ride, whatever, to the next destination. But we were used to it by now, I think. For five hours we snoozed our way to Kyoto, though for a good hour of the bus ride the damn bus driver wouldn’t shut up. How many safety procedures do we really need to know?

The bus dropped us off in Kyoto, where we took the first train to Hirakata city. It was still dark outside when we arrived at Hirakata station. Having no where to go, we waited for the nearest Starbucks to open so we could have a warm place to rest. As the familiar area became light at last, we met up with some Kansai Gaidai friends of  ours. That night was sort of the last night of the trip for me. It wasn’t over for Jace and Paul, who went to visit Hiroshima (I’d already been before), but for me, I spent the night somewhere else. Since I wasn’t able to move into the dorms until the following morning, I had no choice but to stay at a manga cafe.

The place was called Ring. It was actually more than a manga cafe. You paid by the hour for free access to a ton of things. You could sing karaoke, you could play pool, darts, ping-pong, read manga, surf the internet—AND get all the free non-alcoholic drinks you wanted. For me though, it was just a place to spend the night. If you ask to use the internet, you are given your own little booth with a couch, TV monitor, and computer with headphones and everything. So, with blaring music and obnoxious drunken laughter in my ears, I went to sleep, glad to be back in a place I call home.

The end.

School is back in session now, and I’m already up to my ears in new kanji to learn. I feel settled at last in the dorms, and I’m loving it. I’m glad to announce that after this post I will resume normal, regular blogging about Japanese culture and the like. I hope you all enjoyed hearing about my adventures!

Happy rice making, kids.

Because there is no bridge or land mass which connects Honshu, Japan’s main island, to Hokkaido, we took a four hour long ferry ride to our frigid destination. From Aomori we rode to Hakodate, at the southern most tip of Hokkaido. The ferry ride was really fun, and we had a lot of room to ourselves.

Upon arriving in Hakodate, we were a bit at a loss at where to go next. We knew that in a few hours we would be taking a long bus ride to Sapporo, however, at the time we were nowhere near civilization, it seemed. The port was a very drab, industrializing looking place. We went to the office nearby and told them our plan. We kept asking them where the bus stop was, but this seemed to confuse the staff, and we waited as they discussed things to each other in Japanese to figure out what to do with the crazy gaijin. Little did they know how much Japanese I could actually understand, and before they came to talk to us, I was able to inform my companions that we needn’t worry, because we’re getting a lift to the bus station. We were used to this kind of thing by now anyways.

At the bus station we grabbed some food at a coffee shop nearby, and then we were off. The bus ride was beautiful, riding through the snowy countryside as it got darker and darker. At last we arrived at Sapporo station, where we managed to navigate ourselves via subway to the stop near the best hostel (and living accommodation period, for me) of our entire trip. It’s called Ino’s Place.

It’s run by the nicest couple in Japan, both probably in their late thirties, and speak fluent English. It really felt like we were living at a friends house, and not at all a hostel. Downstairs in the lounge were couches, computers, free coffee and tea, movies (Japanese and Non-Japanese) and a communal kitchen. The wife (Miwa) was incredibly friendly and informative. She spoke to me in Japanese the whole time and taught me some Hokkaido-ben (dialect) too. Her husband, Eiji, to our surprise, was a juggling master. In fact during our stay they were in the middle of building shelves in the front of the lobby, because they wanted to open up a juggling shop right there. Eiji’s been juggling for around 10 years now, and Jace was able to learn a few tricks from him. Paul and I also had fun trying to spin plates and such. You can find pictures of us on Ino’s Place’s blog. Scroll down, there are two pictures of us (one under “enjoy juggling” and one under “Annie&Friends”–although they got Jace and Pauls’ nationality wrong.)

While in Sapporo, we knew we had to visit the Sapporo beer factory museum. It had lots of information about the history of Sapporo beer and how it’s made. Most of the information was in Japanese, but it was still interesting.

The museum tour empties out in a small bar, where you can sample the various beers offered by Sapporo. How clever of them. Paul, Jace and I decided to go for the triple sample one, where you get to try three difference kinds for only 400 yen. We didn’t realize how amazing a deal this was until we found out that what they meant by “sample” was really “a whole glass”.

I mentioned earlier how Western Hokkaido and Northern Japan looked. Near Sapporo was something called “Historical Village”. It is technically a museum, but it’s not just one building. It’s exactly as it’s called: a village, recreated in the style of architecture when people were moving to Hokkaido. It sounds like Hokkaido wasn’t really included (or discovered?) in Japan until much later in its history, as seen in the heavy Western influence on the architecture. Of course, it wasn’t completely un-Japanese.

Sapporo was also the first place we ate sushi during our trip. Luckily there was one nearby our hostel, and was quite good. It was similar to the one I went to with my host family, where you can either order your food, or just grab it from the passing cha-cha line of sushi next to your table.

Mt. Moiwa is another sight to see. Or rather, a place to see a great sight. There’s a rope way that goes up the mountain, and then shuttle buses which drive people to the top where there’s a fantastic view of Sapporo. If there’s anything I’ve learned about going up to high places to sight see, its that its always better at night. This place also took the cake on being the coldest place I’ve ever been in my life. Subfreezing temperatures + high altitudes + wind chill + snow = Annie’s feet fall off.

Yes, it was devastatingly frigid in Hokkaido. However, perhaps its because of this that the hot springs, or onsen (温泉) are so popular. I don’t have photos of inside bath that we went to, of course, but you still wouldn’t be able to understand the feeling of the contrast between the stiff frozen air and snow to the hot bath water. We went to an outdoors hot spring, called a rotenburo (露天風呂), which sounds intimidating when you think about walking around butt-naked in the middle of winter in Hokkaido. But I’ve been to hot springs when it’s hot outside, and believe me, it’s much better when it’s cold.

After bathing, we ate dinner at the restaurant attached to the onsen, where I had a famous meal called “jingisukan”–Genghis Khan. You take slices of lamb and cook them on this round grill. Around the edges you cook various vegetables in a brother, and the juices from the lamb drips down as they cook. Definitely one of the best meals I’ve had in Japan.

Now, with all this snow and mountains around, I probably don’t need to elaborate too much on what else we did.

Skiing was about the last big thing we did in Hokkaido. To this day, I still miss Ino’s Place. Sapporo was one of, if not my favorite, place we visited. It’s really a beautiful city. But after a week, it was time to head back south to our last destination before home. It would take us 11 hours of traveling to get to Nagano.

Gonna blaze threw these last few posts because I really miss normal blogging. Also my birthday is this Sunday, and I’m turning 21. This number kinda loses its significance in a country where the legal drinking age is 20, but still. The point is–expect a post (nearly) EVERYDAY for the next four to five days.

Aomori is high up on my list of favorite places from this trip. It really was a beautiful place, and very different from the rest of Japan which we’d seen before. For one thing, we saw snow. At last.

Aomori (as well as Northern Japan + Hokkaido) is characterized by its very Western look. The buildings weren’t stupidly high with stacked signs advertising four different karaoke bars and seven izakayas. Everything had elbow room all of a sudden, the buildings included. Honestly, it didn’t even feel like we were in Japan, save for the endless amounts of ramen/udon/soba shops, and the kanji.

Our hotel was a place called “Super Hotel”, which was the best place we’d stayed in thus far. For 2500 yen, the three of us got a room to ourselves (no dorms!), as well as our own bathroom, and a COMPLIMENTARY BREAKFAST. It seemed too good to be true, but there really were no strings attached. Amazing. The three of us were giddy about our living situation and celebrated with pasta and pizza at the nearest Italian joint. It was a great start.

In the morning, we all had to wake up early to get our free eats, which was delicious. Half was Western style food (yogurt, pastries, scrambled eggs) and the other have was a variety of Japanese style breakfast foods (assorted fish, rice, tea, etc). It was delicious.

Afterwards, it was Jace who was out the door in a flash to play with his new found toy. For a good hour or so we played in the snow, writing messages, making snow-angels, and the like. It was good fun. But we had only just begun. At the docks was a supposed park, which was now completely buried in snow. There we made this guy.

After getting our fill of frolicking, we headed out for the real adventure. We caught one of the few buses which were bound for the Showa Daibutsu (昭和大仏)– the tallest outdoor Buddha in Japan. The ride was long, and took about an hour. At the very last stop, we were dropped off in what seemed like the middle of nowhere. Just a small little shack of a bus stop, surrounded by snow, trees and a temple off the right. I can’t remember the last time I was in a place that quiet.

Upon walking into the temple grounds, it was like entering a real winter wonderland (yes, I made that analogy, get over it). But really, it was gorgeous.

At last, we arrived at the Showa Buddha.

It was dark when we arrived back in Aomori City, and we decided to hit up the last big attraction — the ASPAM (アスパム). It’s really just a sightseeing building shaped like a triangle, that lights up pretty colors at night for no apparent reason other than to look pretty. It also had a great viewing deck on one of the top floors, which is what we set out to visit.

That night we chilled in our dirt cheap hotel room with a couple of beers and Pocky, resting up for the long trek to our next journey. The next day we would leave the mainland of Japan for the coldest and Northern most place I’d ever been in my life: Hokkaido.

The night traveling from Shinjuku to Sendai was hazy and quick, and after a bumpy 5 or so hours of sleep, we arrived at our destination. It was still dark when we stumbled off the bus, and considerably colder. We poked our head into the Lawson (convenient store) by the bus stop and asked where we could use the internet. Being the winner that I am, I lost my cell phone back in Shinjuku, and so we now had to look up the number and location of our hostel. The Lawson workers told us there was a internet cafe near by, so we headed off to find that. We stopped at what we THOUGHT was the place, but when we got to the floor, we were quickly ushered out (or at least I was, because there girls aren’t allowed in this kind of establishment. <_<), but he did point us in the direction of the REAL internet cafe, which we found at last. We crashed there until it was light out and we were able to check in. After hopping on a bus from Sendai station, we had to walk about 5-10 minutes before arriving at our hostel. I say hostel, but really this was a full-blown ryoukan, a Japanese style inn. For a little extra, we even got a Japanese style breakfast the following morning.

Rice, grilled fish (salmon?), omelette, and some picked stuff + tea

Since it was still early in the morning when we arrived, we had the whole day to explore. Our lonely planet guide book (yes, they are not useless!) suggested we go on Sendai’s “Loople” Bus Tour. The route of these guide buses were located at cultural locations of Sendai. There were too many to thoroughly visit in a day, plus a number of the cool things were closed for the winter, but we still got our moneys worth.

Probably one of the most brilliant, colorful, beautiful temples I’ve ever seen was in Sendai, at the Zuihoden, a mausoleum. Although all the buildings were reconstructions, this was apparently what they looked like in their prime. It was enshrined in a very tall forest, which added to the feel a lot.

Next up was Sendai Castle. Or at least, the grounds of it. There is actually no castle at Sendai Castle. It was destroyed long ago (in WWII?). What we did find was a statue of Masamune, and an awesome view of Sendai.

Masamune

The last thing we visited was a museum of natural history. Seeing as nothing else interesting was open, we decided it was an okay idea. It had nautilus.

At last we decided to return to the hostel. However it was around dinner time by then, so we decided to go on a hunt for Sendai’s famous gyuutan, or cow tongue. We asked around, but everything seemed to either be too far away, or too expensive. It was getting dark, so at last we settled for ramen, which turned out to be some of the best ramen I’ve had in Japan.

That night we took it easy, watching strange Japanese television and kicking back (ridiculous situation! — comment if you love Ross Noble) with some cold Kirin. The next day we headed back for Sendai station where we would catch our next bus to the tip tip top of the main island, Honshu, to our next destination: Aomori.

Also, an apology to all you people who watch my videos: I have all the footage I need to make a new video, but a good chunk of the files are MTS files, against which iMovie is prejudiced, a refuses to play. So I searched for a converter for Macs, and one that didn’t slap watermarks on my videos, but when that failed, I looked for other means of obtaining such a program. In the end I just went a head and bought the damn thing. So hopefully once all my files are converted I will be able to reverse your current boredom. My apologies!

Anyways, until next time.

Before I elaborate on our longest leg of the journey thus far, I’d like to point out that I’ve created an email account for all Brother Annie inquiries or comments, relating to either my blog or my youtube channel/videos. You can find it on my About Me page.

So where do I even begin? We trained our way to Gotemba station and then took a stupid long bus ride to Shinjuku–the district of Tokyo in which we were scheduled to reside, at a little ole capsule hotel called Ace Inn. I’ll take this time to explain what I mean by capsule hotel. For some of you, its a term of which you’ve heard ridiculous rumors about hotels which consist only of rows and rows of cocoons for people to sleep in, Matrix style. Hotels where the inhabitants aren’t charged per room, but per bed.

The rumors are true, folks. And the beds are rather cozy to be honest. This one was geared more towards youngin’s like myself, and not businessmen who had drunk a little too much at an izakaya and missed the last train home.

That night we went out for a ridiculously expensive (but delicious) meal at this restaurant where we ate Japanese BBQ. In the middle of the table was a grill, and we would order raw meats and vegetables that we cooked ourselves, right there on the table. It was delicious.

The next day it was off to Shibuya, another district of Tokyo. It’s famous for shopping, and that big sprawling intersection with the giant screens. The sort of Time Square of Japan. In Lost in Translation, a brontosaurus walks across the screen of the middle billboard. That’s the place.

In Shibuya we shopped for shoes better suited for walking/snow, as well as hats and other warm weather attire. It was very busy, and in general I really liked the atmosphere. We also found a Burger King where you could order Heinekin with your meal.

Perfect Match

On January 2nd, we took a trip to visit the Imperial Castle grounds. Seeing as its rarely open to the public, this was a rather big event. At the front we went through two security check points, one for checking bags, and another for a pat down. I was a little surprised at the level of security for just having a stroll through the grounds, but I soon learned the reason for this. Being such a nationally treasured day, most of the mob of patriotic Japanese held paper Japanese flags. There were people handing them out at the front, so we grabbed some ourselves. After walking for a bit, the crowd collected and stopped at a particular building. This was the reason for all the security:

The Emperor of Japan only shows himself to the public two days a year. Once on his birthday, and once on the 2nd of January.

Afterward we left the grounds we headed over to a shrine where lots of venders had sprawled out their stands. The smell of every different marine creature being fried and skewered wafted over the crowd. Once past the giant torii and into the temple, there were more vendors and performers. The temple was all decked out for the new year of the Tiger.

It was getting dark by the time we left, and we decided it would be a perfect time to visit the Tokyo Tower. Like seemingly every tower in Japan’s major cities, it resembled a glowing orange Eiffel Tower. Though great in the day time, I think these kinds of buildings are better enjoyed at night. We paid to go up to the viewing deck. Tokyo, I’ve found, is a very sparkly city.

Tokyo Tower

Other districts in Tokyo we visited included Harajuku and Akihabara. I mentioned in my update video on just how disappointed I was with Harajuku. Being the fashion district, it is supposed to be known for its swarms of young Japanese sporting eccentric, unique attire, often in the form of cosplay. I saw two girls on the train on my way there who were dressed up in Alice in Wonderland style dresses, which was super cool, but other than that, when we went to the famous bridge in Harajuku where these crazy teenagers supposedly amass, there was nothing to be seen. The jerks.

However, what Harajuku lacked in nerdy cosplayer goodness, Akihabara completely made up for. If you are interested in Japan, there is a high likelihood that you are interested because you are fascinated with anime, manga and/or Japanese video games. Akihabara is the place for you, my friend. Similar to Den Den Town in Osaka, Akihabara is pulsing, thriving, living anime convention that lasts all year round.

Another interesting place we visited was Ueno Park. To be honest, I kind of wish I’d waited until spring to see this place. Absolutely gorgeous, and undoubtably even more so when its trees are flushed with cherry blossoms. There we visited a plethora of shrines, pagodas and temples, although we came across this one temple, which looked really cool from a far until we realized it was under construction, and what were looking at was just a giant tarp with the photo of the actual temple printed on it.

In the evening, we then headed off to the most expensive adventure yet. In the end, only Jace and I were willing to cough up the dough for this one, but it was totally worth it. Since I’ve come to Japan, I have fallen in love with the movie Lost in Translation. It’s a very different feeling when you watch that movie, and then are able to look outside and see the exact same thing. In the movie, Bob Harris and Charlotte both are staying in a hotel in Tokyo called the Park Hyatt. It also happens to be one of the most expensive hotels in Japan. We decided to go to the bar of this hotel, where a number of memorable scenes were shot. First we had to pay a 2000 yen cover charge. Although Bill Murray advertises the whiskey in the movie, Jace and I ordered a Suntory beer. It was the cheapest thing on the menu. It cost 1100 yen.

Totally

Worth it

As our time in Tokyo came to an end, I realized there was one very important place I still had to visit. West of Tokyo in near Mitaka station, Studio Ghibli has a museum dedicated to the work of Hayao Miyazaki and his team. I am a huge fan of all their work, and the museum was just like one of their movies. Essentially, its an art museum, but more interactive than that. Unfortunately I wasn’t allowed to take photos inside, but outside they had a giant robot from Castle in the Sky (Laputa).

Our last day in Tokyo was extremely long, and began with the Tsukiji fish market. This was very different from most of our other stops. Its the largest fish market in the world (correct me if I’m wrong). To see it in action we had to wake up at five in the morning and get there by six or so. There fish is sold and auctioned off. I’m not sure there’s any creature from the sea that I didn’t see that morning. It was busy and we were constantly dodging trucks and carts and smelly Japanese workers, but it was alive and exciting.

That's What She Said

The last thing we did before catching a night bus to Tokyo was visit Odaiba, a man-made island. A major battle was fought here between good and evil, by Digimon, next to the Fuji TV building. This was honestly our main motivation for seeing the place. Comment a high-five if you love Digimon! On the island we also visited this Toyota car expo thingy, where they sported their latest gadgetry.

Fuji TV

Sheep Car

It wasn’t until 11pm or so that we headed back to Shinjuku to catch a night bus to our next stop, Sendai. I’d never taken these kinds of overnight buses before, but they are super super cheap. They’re easier to sleep in than normal buses because the seats are all separated and you can lean your chair back reaaaallllyyy far. This helped a lot seeing as I have a hard time sleeping in moving vehicles.

Anyways, I am really really sorry this post was so late. This was, and will be, the longest post about my journey, and I’m gonna really try to crank out my other posts ASAP so that I can start doing some regular blogging. Thanks for bearing with me! Hopefully these trip posts aren’t boring to guys too much. Don’t forget to check out the pictures for each leg of the trip if you’re interested!

Happy rice making.

I don’t know what the seven wonders of the world are, but if I’m working on my own list right now, starting with Mt. Fuji. On the train to Fuji City (where our hostel was–Fumoto no ie) at one point, Jace said he saw the mountain. After calling bullshit for a while, the train came to a curve in the tracks. The sky had been replaced by rock.

There are many cities from which you can see Mt. Fuji, which, once you’ve seen the thing, doesn’t really surprise you. Fuji city seemed about the size of Hirakata, but the place we stayed at was way out in the countryside. We ended up taking a bus to what seemed to be the middle of nowhere. Luckily there was a hospital nearby, so I ducked inside to ask for directions. They hadn’t heard of our Fumoto no ie, but I gave them the number and were finally able to locate it. One of the staff members, this old guy, came out from behind the counter and waved me to follow him. This happens a lot I’ve noticed. You ask them one question, and it’s suddenly a huge deal. The Japanese will go to the end of the earth to get you an answer. Anyways, we walked outside where he told me he’d drive us there himself, since it was only five minutes away. Woot! So we pilled our stuff in the car and headed down the road.

The most noticeable difference between this countryside and the kind I’m used to in Japan was that there were no rice fields. Instead, houses were scattered among rows and rows of these odd bushes. I asked our driver what they were, and he replied in English: “Japanese tea.”

At last we arrived. By far the DODGIEST PLACE I have ever stayed at in my life. It was run by this old couple, who were incredibly sweet. Obaasan (old lady) showed us our rooms. It looked like this place hadn’t been live in in years. Cobwebs covered old records, ceramic decorations, and left over soap from previous international travelers.

Once settled in, we realized how hungry we were, so we asked the old couple where the nearest place to buy groceries was. There was some discussion between the two, and then Obaasan turned to tell us that her husband would drive us there himself. This was great except for two things: our driver was both old, and Asian. I don’t like racial profiling, but it’s people like Ojiisan (old guy) that reiterate these stereotypes. Nearly hit two cars! It was a bit of a terrifying ride to the store, but once there, Paul, Jace and I rummaged around to gather up the ingredients for our dinner. In our present serene setting at the foot of Japan’s national geographical treasure, we decided an appropriate meal for such an occasion would be–

Burgers

Aussie style burgers. The hostel had a rickety old kitchen specifically for guests, which we managed to grease up and put to work. The burgers were delicious.

That night we bundled up and watched Ross Noble’s owl lecture before going to bed. We were lucky that we had such thick blankets, because like most Japanese homes, we had to turn off the heater before going to bed so that the house wouldn’t burn down or something. The next morning was quite an adventure. We woke up at 5am to catch the sunrise behind Mt. Fuji. Talk about cold. It was definitely freezing outside. We went outside when it was still dark, but even in the dim light we were able see the mountain clearly. The lighter it became, the more beautiful it seemed.

After it was fully light, we packed up our stuff and were about to head out when after I asked Obaasan how to get to the station, Ojiisan interjected by asking us if we’d ever heard of a word I hadn’t heard before. Yes, I know I’m very descriptive, but I can’t remember what he said. Anyways, needless to say, I had no idea what he was talking about, but he quickly disappeared into the house. He returned with a katana in his hand. For those of you that don’t already know, a katana is the kind of sword samurais used. We all ended up getting five minute katana lesson from Ojiisan, who apparently was also a master at Judo and had studied it in college.

Jace is a samurai too

I have officially been trained in the way of the samurai, so watch out. Anyways, we all piled in the car with Ojiisan who drove us to the station, where we began our journey to our longest stop thus far: Tokyo.

Sorry for the infrequent posts guys, traveling is very busy but I’m actually in Sapporo now so I’ve got time to update videos and posts and all that jazz. Thanks for being patient, and I hope my post about my travels doesn’t bore you all to tears. Hope you all are well and having a great break!

Happy rice making.

Nagoya was our last stop on a long ass day. We arrive at the station and had to ask for directions to our hostel. This time it was in a much less dodgy area of town than Peace House Showa from Tennoji. After dumping our stuff off at the hostel, we headed out for some an awesome ramen dinner. It was a delicious end to a long day of walking.

The next day we went in search of things to do before my friend Akane would meet up with us in the evening. I’d heard of a rather big temple which I wanted to check out, however, we ended up getting ridiculously turned around, and ended up walking in circles for a good half hour until I finally asked a guy on the street where Kanayama shrine was. Something I’m starting to notice about the Japanese, is that when you ask them a question, even if they don’t know the answer at the time, they will work until they give you one. In the case of giving directions, when I asked this guy if he knew where the shrine was, he thought about it, kinda looked around for landmarks, and then waved me over to follow him as he jogged down the road for like, oh, TWO BLOCKS. Anyways once I was sufficiently out of breath we found the shrine. It was tucked in between two buildings. Talk about a stark change. But it was a really small, local shrine actually, and very nice.

After that we kept walking until we hit an arcade with a bunch of crazy games. One of them was this pod which you got into and it was like you were actually inside the gundam/robot/whatever. Inside was basically just a rounded white wall on which the game was displayed by a projector. Virtual reality five! There were also lots of other strange games like a taiko (Japanese drums) version of DDR, or something.

After the arcade we decided to head out to the town to see a fancy bus station called Oasis 21. We befriended a guy at the arcade named Ken, and when we asked him where the Oasis 21, he just offered to drive us there himself. Turns out he’d lived in America as well as Australia, which was why his English was spot on as far as accents go. He ended up giving us a little bit of a tour of downtown Nagoya, and it was really quite cool.

At last we arrived at our destination and waved goodbye to Ken and headed off to the awesome bus station. It was only when I actually saw the thing that I realized I’d been there before. When I was 16 years old, I lived in Japan for 6 weeks in Toyota city (right by Nagoya), and one of the American English teachers (Tony) took me to Nagoya one day to show me around, and Oasis 21 was one place we visited. Along with this we saw the Nagoya TV tower, which was visible from the station. It was quite nostalgic.

Now, because I’m stupid, I didn’t get any photos of what came next. We met up with my friend Akane (who I hadn’t seen in 5 or so years). It was really good to see her again, though her Kiwi accent had faded (she learned her English in New Zealand). First we hit up a British style pub (with no Brits in it! weaksauce). There we met two other American dudes who came up to chat with us. They were both just visiting I think, but it turns out they were staying in the same hostel as us (Hostel Ann), and after the pub we all headed out for karaoke, where I proceeded to tear up my throat like nothing else. It was pretty fun, and we did a Maccahs run afterwards. Our two American friends ended up following us back to our room, I think they were just being social, but it was 3 in the morning and we all wanted to sleep. Anyways when they finally left we crashed.

The next day we did our best to get up early and leave, saying goodbye to Akane. After a Starbucks run, we headed off to the next stop: Mt. Fuji.

We headed off from Tennoji for Hikone on the morning of the 27th. Beforehand though we had breakfast at a pretty awesome coffee joint. Had ham toasted sandwiches and hot coffee—delish. Then it was off to the station. We zoomed over to Kyoto station, and while we were they’re I saw this one train called the “Twilight Express”. Inside I saw tables with candles and wine bottles, as well as some sleeper cars. It had come all the way from Sapporo, Hokkaido.

While waiting for the right train, we turned to the college guy behind us if the next one went to Hikone/Maibara. He told us yes it did—in English. He asked where we were off to and we said Hikone, and that we were backpacking around Japan. As we told him our route, he stopped us as we told him we were staying near Fuji. He said he was on his way back home to Fujinomiya: the town where our hostel would be, three days from then. Turns out this guy was a student from Kansai Gaidai, and had studied abroad in Australia when he was fifteen. What was even crazier was that he lived in the same city as Jace and Paul are going to school right now. It’s a small small world. He gave us his phone number, and we’re gonna try to meet up when we get to Fujinomiya.

Anyways, at last we hopped on our train and made it to Hikone. Turns out it’s not at all a big city, which was a nice change of pace. We trudged our way to where the entrance was for the castle where we found some lockers where we could put our stuff—keep in mind that we were carrying ALL our belongings for the trip, and they were getting quite heavy by then.

Up the castle grounds we went with a much lighter load (yay), everything was quite beautiful and old. Not too different from other castles I’ve seen, but beautiful none the less. The castle itself looked older on the outside though. The ones I’ve seen thus far (Osaka and Nagoya), had been very pretty to look at from the outside, because they’d been referbished, etc. They look like they’re in their prime. However the insides of these referbished castles have mostly been redone so that they look like museums, leaving very little of the original internal structure intact. This was not the case with Hikone.

After the castle we headed out to eat a budget lunch of peanut butter sandwiches outside a corner store. It was good. It was getting late at the time and we still had another city to get to that day. So the three of us trudged back to the station to catch the train to our next destination: Nagoya.

Next post will come tomorrow! Sorry for the wait. Traveling is very distracting. Hope you all had (have?) a fantastic New Years Eve and Day!

Happy rice making.

Our journey began on Christmas, even though it began on Christmas Eve for my Aussie friends. After saying good bye to my host family I took a train to Tennoji where I met up with Jace and Paul. The two of them walked me to our first hostel. Peace House Showa it was called, and in a rather dodgy looking part of town. All the houses were close together and rusty, but I really enjoyed it. Although there was one point when we were looking for a post office, and when we turned the corner, we saw a group of men in business suits standing on either side of a very expensive looking car. As one man got into the car, all the other men chanted a quick “Rei!” or something, and bowed. The first that popped into my head was HOLY SHIT ITS THE YAKUZA (the Japanese mob). We walked past that area again, and apparently it was just a “car wash”. Yeah. Car wash. There’s always some cover up.

The hostel was smaller than anything I’d ever stayed in before. Being budget-minded youngsters, we went for the cheapest option–the dormitory style rooms. My bed was basically a whole in the wall with a futon laid down. I shared my room with five other people, and it was pretty crowded. Jace and Paul had an even smaller room, so small you could hardly breathe. But in general, I liked it. It was still very Japanese, with tatami floors, sliding doors and weird toilets.

On Christmas we didn’t actually spend a ton of time in to Osaka. In the evening we headed back to Hirakata (the town where we go to school) to meet up with some of our Kansai Gaidai buddies to do hit up Toriki (a bar) and later some karaoke. It was a fantastic night, and a really fun sending off party (not REALLY for us, but whatever). I’m gonna miss Hirakata.

The Aussies and I had to head back early that night in order to catch a train back to Osaka, so around 10:30 we made our way back to our shack of a hostel and crashed. The next day started out nice and slow as we went in search of breakfast, right at the crack of noon. We landed for Subway. There I had my first taste of Melon Soda, and let me tell you: it tasted like diabetes, but in the best way possible.

Then we headed off for Den Den town. Den Den town is a street (around Ebisucho, or Nipponbashi in Osaka) lined with electronics, anime and porn stores. Paul had to buy an SD card which is why we hit it up. It was by far the nerdiest street I had ever walked.

After walking along for quite a while, we headed back to the hostel to take a rest before doing out to check out Shinsaibashi and grab dinner–at a middle eastern restaurant. So far we have had yet to eat some real Japanese food, but whatevsies. It’ll happen at some point. But this place was really good, they have really good pita sandwich things.

Unfortunately by the time we went to Shinsaibashi, most of the shops were closed, so we headed off to find our Glico friend. If you’ve every eaten a box of Pocky before, you know what Glico is, but perhaps you’ve not seen the man himself. I know I posted him once before, whatever. ALSO, this has nothing to do with the trip really, the bridge where you see the Glico sign and the giant Asahi DRY sign was in a manga I read a while ago (21st Century Boys, woot!). But check it out!

Annie was here

Anywho after a good night of awing at Osaka’s colorful night life, we headed back to the hostel to catch some Z’s. The next day would be a traveling day for our next two destinations: Hikone and Nagoya.