Brother Annie

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.

Christmas has already passed, and that was an adventure. However before jumping into that, I think I should tell you guys about my last night with the host family.

After lunch my host mom, two sisters and I went to the giant (average for America) grocery store to buy ingredients. For what? Well, I decided that I was going to cook my host family an American meal before I left, and being from the South, I thought the BEST meal I could offer would be one which I had never before attempted to cook: Fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy. Leaving it to the last minute actually ended up working out quite well. At the store though, I was having trouble. I knew the ingredients I had to get, but I had to convert the recipe into the metric system–a system I am mostly all for, except when I did the conversion, somethings which I converted into milliliters were sold in grams. In the end, it was all ok.

I’m pretty proud of how it turned out. I think I could have used a smaller, deeper pan to cook the chicken in, because the pieces weren’t really submerged in butter, but that’s probably okay. They still turned out awesome. My little host sister Yukie helped me make the mashed potatoes, and she had fun smashing them. Pretty adorable. I ended up just eyeballing a lot of the ingredients like oil, cream etc. Along with my meal, my host mom ended up making pizza. To top it all off we had Christmas cake, made by Yukie (she really loves to cook).

Here’s out it turned out:

It was delicious.

The next day my host mom drove me to school so I could pick up my winter student ID. We were about to head home when the car’s battery wouldn’t start. My host mom “Sumimasen-ed” a number of people until she grabbed another Kansai Gaidai student who gave us a jump. My first time experiencing car troubles in a foreign country! Alright I guess it’s not all that exciting. After getting home, I packed up all my things and had lunch before heading off. My last meal with my host family: Instant Curry Ramen.

When it came to saying good bye, my host mom walked me to my bus stop. We headed for the door and walked outside. Honami and mom came down to the street with me, but Yukie stayed at the door. She waved goodbye, and my host mom scolded her, saying “Say a REAL good bye!” But she just giggled and shrank back into the doorway. But she kept watching as we walked down the street. Honami walked a little ways, but then headed back. At the station my host mom showed me which train to take. After buying my ticket, we hugged an awkward goodbye, and I was off. And that was it.

I began my journey on Christmas.

Look forward to learning about my travels. You can follow where I’ve been by checking out the new Winter Road Trip page. Should have the a post about my first stop tomorrow: Osaka.

Today realized just how pushy old people can be in Japan–but you don’t realize this until you’ve been moved to the back of the line. At my bus stop, there’s never a line though, there’s just a mob. Everyday I make sure to be at the front of the mob, right where the bus will pull up. However, as soon as it does, like a solid object, the mob shifts to the sliding door. I am quick to stay at the front. But even as I come to stand square in front of the door, as soon as I’m about to proceed, about five people manage to weasel their way in front of me. They don’t push or shove they just walk. It’s never rude, but I just don’t know how these old guys do it. I’ll be there, a foot from the door, and still these tiny elderly people slide in. I don’t know how they do it. My guess? They are actually all leprechauns.

Also, remember this old thing?

Nikon Gangstah Pix

It has served me for years now, but the time to say goodbye has come. I got a new camera today–a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ7. And let me tell you–it is snazzy. Free of orange electrical tape and all.

Hello Lumix

If you didn’t know already, I don’t actually own a video camera. I use my regular camera for both still and motion pictures. The Nikon Gangstah Shot is what I HAD been using. It was an awesome camera back in the day, but as you can see, it’s lost some pieces over the years, as well as acquired a loose lens, which is why a lot of my footage is incredibly shaky. Sorry about that guys! I have a hard time editing my own videos just because seeing those hiccups all the time gives me seizures almost as bad as walking past a Pachinko place.

But now my camera troubles are over–or at least my old ones. There’s just one tiny itty-bitty problem:

It's in Japanese.

Yep. I asked the guy at the store and he said there were no language settings. That’s one way to learn kanji, eh? Anyways in other news, I think I might have found the Maroon 5 of Japan, which I’ve completely fallen in love with–Monkey Majik. And aren’t they like, half Canadian? Or something. The point is, I think they are rad, and so should you.

Happy rice making.

Well, finals are over and the stress bomb hit me hard on Wednesday when I had to write 2 essays and study for 2 finals. All in one day. But I did it! And then went out for drinks and karaoke with good people. Twas a good night. It’s really nice to not have any more school work to think about. However I can already feel the holiday boredom creeping up on me, so I’m trying to keep busy until Christmas.

Why Christmas? Because that’s when I leave for my Trek Across Japan! But we actually lost two of our members: one of the Aussies and our token British guy are scheduled to be kidnapped by their home countries and held there until the end of the break. Sad! Other than that change, basically all our plans are exactly the same as before, save for a few changes in dates.

Also, sorry about the new video coming kinda late! I should have been out on Friday but YouTube was being teh poops and kept giving me errors. It also probably doesn’t help that I have the slowest Internet in Japan. It’s coming, I promise! And soon after will be my host family video.

Today I’m packing up my stuff for the trip today. Since I have to drop off my excess luggage at the seminar house (the dorms), I’ll be living off of just the stuff for my trip starting today. My room feels so empty. ;_; Things I still need to buy are a good winter hat (I left my awesome brown one in my texting video on the bus. fail.), an extra bag to carry my shit in, and some boots for snow and sub-freezing temperatures.

Also the other night when we all went out to this bar (the いしでん place, what would you call it?), and our waitress spilled a whole bunch of beer on this Korean girl (I forgot her name because I’m a bad person), who got pretty distressed by this. The manager and two other employees came over to bow profusely for the accident, but our awesome friend Maki decided to push things and see how much free stuff we could get. The Korean girls drinks ended up being free, and then ALL OF US received a ¥1000 off coupon.

Free Stuff Rox

Anywho, sorry for the late post, this week is kinda boring, I’m just preparing for the trip and working on new videos. Hope you all are well and having an awesome Nondenominational Winter Holiday!

Happy rice making.