So after we arrived at Wakkanai we walked to our hostel called Midori-yu and checked in. The old man that ran the place was extremely friendly and helpful. We met a number of kind Japanese people (as usual) and one German named Klaus. We told him we were heading the Rebun the next morning and he said he would take the ferry with us. The old man who ran the hostel offered to drive us to the harbor free of charge which was very kind. Furthermore, he let us keep our luggage there while we took a day and a half tour of Rebun, a small island off the northermost point of Japan.
When we got up the next morning, the old man actually walked us in and explained the timetables and everything to us before the ferry departed. The ferry ride was extremely beautiful and really put Wakkanai's beauty into a picturesque view. We eventually all fell asleep on the ferry; I slept next to a vending machine on the floor. Somehow that is totally normal in Japan.
After we arrived we asked for the timetables of buses and other options for getting to our campsite, which was on the opposite side of the island. Unfortunately, we found out that it was 10 dollars each way for a bus ride and it wouldn't come for another two and a half hours. So we told them we were going to walk it, and they immediately gave us an ohhhhhh shit look. They suggested we take a taxi and split the cost, which was a little more expensive but faster. We refused and started our walk. After talking to a shopkeeper for a few minutes, the information desk lady chased after us and begged us to rent bikes so that we wouldn't die on our way across the island. We agreed and rented really tight three-speeders with big pimpin' bells on them.
We rode about half way to the campsite and decided to do an 8 kilometer hike to the highest point of the island. That seemed difficult at the time, but in retrospect was not. The wind up there was incredible and I found it hilarious that a Japanese man was smoking a cigarette at the top, not only because it seems contradictory to hiking, but the wind was so hard, I couldn't imagine how he could light it.
Then onto the campsite... We arrived and found Klaus and asked him if he wanted to split the cost of a bungalow for the night -- $11 each if he was in. He agreed and we set up shop then rode around town on our pimpcycles to find food and hopefully a hotspring. We only found a public bathhouse, which we didn't need because we could just wash ourselves in the sink of our campsite.
We watched the sunset and went to bed early, preparing for our return to the ferry early the next morning. We also woke up a little extra early so that we could watch the sunrise and take pictures of that, which was less awesome than our previous nights' sunset. So we fought the wind all the way back to the ferry, really exhausted and really tired. In total, that 24 hour stretch had 40 kilometers of biking and 8 kilometers of hiking.
Then we took the ferry back which we slept the entirety of and walked about an hour and a half back to our hostel to get our luggage. We used the hostel as a home for the next hour and a half while we ate a bunch of ramen to catch up on our nutrition from the previous day and that morning.
Then we rode the train to Furano, where we spent the night. We were in a really nice rider-house style hostel with a lot of kind people there as well. This is where I tried wasabi cheese for the first time -- mmmmhmmm delicious. We did laundry for the first time at this point. The next day we headed up to a small town of under 1000 to do a hike called ashibetsudake, supposedly a 16 km two day hike. We did the first day in about 4 or so hours and rested at beautiful on the outside crappy on the inside cabin after making a fire and eating some snacks of pretty much just bread all night.
The next day was not so relaxing. We woke up at about 5:30, got ready by and left by 6 and hiked until 4 in the afternoon, only resting as much as necessary. However, when we got to the peak of the tallest mountain in the area, it was absolutely gorgeous. We were about 1700 meters up, a tremendous gain from the initial elevation (probably more than the gain of a 14er). The descent was not so great... we were all really tired and I was hurting a lot from the tendonitis in my left leg coming back with vengeance. However, when we made it, it was truly a prideful accomplishment. We had left our luggage the base of the trail at a nice hostel (one we didn't stay at even) and the woman who we had left it with was extremely happy to see us come back and fed us some canteloupe as a little reward for finishing, as well as gave us a picture of the hike. We rode a taxi to the train station (out of necessity since we only had about 1 more kilometer of flat walking left in us before we couldn't walk anymore) and got a lot of food at the nearby convenience store and pigged out.
We then rode to Sapporo to stay for the night at a hotel. The next morning we found ourselves on trains for 13 hours (7am-8pm) but man was it nice to not walk very much. Then, at the end of the day, we checked into a hotel just 100 meters from the train station that was decently comparable to a hostel (way to go Garrett, I couldn't have walked much more) and we went to a very close, very reasonably priced yakisoba place. The waitress was really funny because she took my order and then left so we were confused if she thought we were all splitting it or what; our Japanese is only good enough to ask certain things and confusion is an often occurrence. After eating we hung out and went to bed after talking to Casey for a bit and previewing Japanese porn (the only channels our hotel has if you hit the channel up/down button, although you can manually click numbers to get regular TV).
Today we slept in and didn't get ready until about 2:30 and only went to one place, the Fushimi Inari Shrine, a beautiful area with 1000s of torii (gates) all lined up to make walkways. Now, we're back at the hotel and are planning on going to the Gion district to view the river at night, as well as spot some Geisha (Geiko in Kyoto) if there are any ceremonies or events going on tonight. I've heard that area is really beautiful.
It sure was nice to rest the past few days after all that hiking but I still feel really sore and can't walk very fast at all... So tonight I'm sure I'll sleep quite a long time as well :-)
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Catching Up On The Past Week
The day after the concert, Travis and Garrett were understandably pretty tired so they spent the afternoon sleeping at the hostel. I couldn't fall asleep so I went out with Frank to explore the town. We went to a really spectacular conveyor belt sushi place that was extremely fair price. After that we hit the train to go to Roppongi to hit up the nightlife. Definitely staying true to the Tokyo feel, it was bright and full of buildings and pachinko parlors.
After hitting that up we walked through a beautiful area that was obviously a set of parks, schools, and shrines that represented the less hectic side of town. We then emerged on the other end where we realized there was a little bit more nighttime chaos going on, but in a less youthful way and more in the form small, dirty shops. There we found a place that had a sign saying that Japanese people only were allowed in. Of course, we went in to see what the secret was. It turns out that prostitution up until intercourse is allowed in Japan if veiled in the right way. We had to leave -- for many reasons.
However, on the way out, we met a man on the streets who redirected us to the side of town where we might have a little more fun. He showed us some cool places to go around town, then we split up with him and started to venture on our own. We went in various buildings to check out what the scene was like and found it to be more hilarious than anything else. Some of Japan's social interactions are just alarming... If this has been an indication, I am sure that I would never want to be a lonely Japanese man or a poor woman working here. Although we didn't really do anything in particular except see what kinds of places we didn't want to enter but wanted to find out about, it was really eye opening and quite an adventure
--------------------
The next day, Garrett, Frank, Travis, and I headed to the Sony building and around central Tokyo. It was definitely the classier side of Tokyo, everyone was really well dressed but not obscenely so. We explored a shopping center that was undeniably nicer than any I'd seen before this -- every store inside was really high class and designer and you could buy a suit or a $400 man bag pretty much anywhere (except the women's stores ^^). Frank started to not feel so well so he took off as we went to the Ebisu beer museum.
The museum was pretty small itself (how much culture could it have, really?) but the area it owned was pretty evident of the success of the industry. We checked out the museum which was less than a 50 meter walk, then headed out for Shinjuku.
This city was insane. When I had previously thought of Tokyo, it was obvious this was the part of Tokyo I was thinking of; surreal lights with LED everything. There were tons of stores ranging from niches for nerds to designer clothes to really high tech gear. We walked dinner and looked around, eventually realizing that it was 12:05. Well, the trains stop running at 12:00 so we had to stay there the whole night. Garrett knew what this town was like at night so he warned us that Nigerian men would hassle you to go to karaoke clubs virtually all night if you were in certain parts of town. He was not exaggerating at all. If you look idle for more than 15 or 30 seconds, a man who claims to come from Nigeria with the name Tony or Mike will come and ask you to come to their bar. After spending about 45 or 90 minutes talking these guys up (mostly in the form of letting them pitch their karaoke bar and then ask them for ridiculously low rates and hassle them about the deals) we lost interest. So we went to a convenience store to get a snack on the outskirts of this area where we met a few late nighters who were very kind and fun to talk to. We talked about music, what they were up to that night, etc. Eventually they all got bored and ready to go to bed, but one led us to an izakaya (tavern/bar) he liked so we could sit down (very very tired feetsies) while we waited for the trains to start again at 5. There we just chatted with him and talked to the bartender. I find myself only capable at this point of talking with Japanese people about their taste in music and what they like to do, so we did that with him. The man that led us there said he was getting tired and so he headed out. A few minutes later, he came back with some candy for us from the convenience store... some kind of ice cream with a chocolate shell on the outside about the size of a thumb. They were delicious. So after a few more minutes of loitering, we headed to the trains, where we slept literally all day long with the exception of saying goodbye to Frank in the morning who headed out to Kansai.
--------------------------
That night, Taka-san was staying at our hostel because it had better deals. I woke up around 6 to the great news that if we gave Taka-san $4 he would cook everyone dinner. About an hour later, 6 of us ate some really fantastic dinner that in both quality and quantity exceeded a four dollar meal. We thanked him, said goodnight and went back to bed.
--------------------------
We started our JR pass the next day but missed the first option of trains to get there around 7-8, so we ended up there around 10 (or later, I forget). Travis was pretty beat from 10 hours of trains from Tokyo to Sapporo so he stayed in the hotel while Garrett and I wandered around looking for some food. After that we got to our hotel, I took a shower, and went to bed.
--------------------------
Today, we woke up around 10 and started our Sapporo adventure. We found Korokke (fried potatoes incomparable to hashbrowns) for 50 cents a piece at a local restaurant and I pigged out on that for breakfast. Afterwards, it was off to the Sapporo factory which was pretty similar to Ebisu's except less busy because its in a more distant location than Tokyo. Along the way we hit up some nice modern art (fountains, towers, etc) that we saw along the way. It was really a great town and I loved the hybrid feel of something between New York and Boulder. We all agreed it would be nice to live in a place like Hokkaido :-)
We went to another fish market today and wow it smelled like fish... I never realized how much I liked that smell if its in the right setting I suppose. After that we had some errands to run
We went back to the hotel to get our stuff (they kindly let us keep it there for free all day... I didn't know hotels did that too) after buying sleeping bags and a flashlight at the local Don Quijote <-- I just realized I don't know how to phonetically spell Spanish, I hope that's correct.
Ever since, we've been on a train to Wakkanai, our destination for the night. We're going to stay there and hit up Rebun tomorrow, truly getting out of the city life and into an area preserved if nothing else, by proximity away from Tokyo and a smaller influx of foreign travellers there; primarily only Russian's come into Japan from that area.
After hitting that up we walked through a beautiful area that was obviously a set of parks, schools, and shrines that represented the less hectic side of town. We then emerged on the other end where we realized there was a little bit more nighttime chaos going on, but in a less youthful way and more in the form small, dirty shops. There we found a place that had a sign saying that Japanese people only were allowed in. Of course, we went in to see what the secret was. It turns out that prostitution up until intercourse is allowed in Japan if veiled in the right way. We had to leave -- for many reasons.
However, on the way out, we met a man on the streets who redirected us to the side of town where we might have a little more fun. He showed us some cool places to go around town, then we split up with him and started to venture on our own. We went in various buildings to check out what the scene was like and found it to be more hilarious than anything else. Some of Japan's social interactions are just alarming... If this has been an indication, I am sure that I would never want to be a lonely Japanese man or a poor woman working here. Although we didn't really do anything in particular except see what kinds of places we didn't want to enter but wanted to find out about, it was really eye opening and quite an adventure
--------------------
The next day, Garrett, Frank, Travis, and I headed to the Sony building and around central Tokyo. It was definitely the classier side of Tokyo, everyone was really well dressed but not obscenely so. We explored a shopping center that was undeniably nicer than any I'd seen before this -- every store inside was really high class and designer and you could buy a suit or a $400 man bag pretty much anywhere (except the women's stores ^^). Frank started to not feel so well so he took off as we went to the Ebisu beer museum.
The museum was pretty small itself (how much culture could it have, really?) but the area it owned was pretty evident of the success of the industry. We checked out the museum which was less than a 50 meter walk, then headed out for Shinjuku.
This city was insane. When I had previously thought of Tokyo, it was obvious this was the part of Tokyo I was thinking of; surreal lights with LED everything. There were tons of stores ranging from niches for nerds to designer clothes to really high tech gear. We walked dinner and looked around, eventually realizing that it was 12:05. Well, the trains stop running at 12:00 so we had to stay there the whole night. Garrett knew what this town was like at night so he warned us that Nigerian men would hassle you to go to karaoke clubs virtually all night if you were in certain parts of town. He was not exaggerating at all. If you look idle for more than 15 or 30 seconds, a man who claims to come from Nigeria with the name Tony or Mike will come and ask you to come to their bar. After spending about 45 or 90 minutes talking these guys up (mostly in the form of letting them pitch their karaoke bar and then ask them for ridiculously low rates and hassle them about the deals) we lost interest. So we went to a convenience store to get a snack on the outskirts of this area where we met a few late nighters who were very kind and fun to talk to. We talked about music, what they were up to that night, etc. Eventually they all got bored and ready to go to bed, but one led us to an izakaya (tavern/bar) he liked so we could sit down (very very tired feetsies) while we waited for the trains to start again at 5. There we just chatted with him and talked to the bartender. I find myself only capable at this point of talking with Japanese people about their taste in music and what they like to do, so we did that with him. The man that led us there said he was getting tired and so he headed out. A few minutes later, he came back with some candy for us from the convenience store... some kind of ice cream with a chocolate shell on the outside about the size of a thumb. They were delicious. So after a few more minutes of loitering, we headed to the trains, where we slept literally all day long with the exception of saying goodbye to Frank in the morning who headed out to Kansai.
--------------------------
That night, Taka-san was staying at our hostel because it had better deals. I woke up around 6 to the great news that if we gave Taka-san $4 he would cook everyone dinner. About an hour later, 6 of us ate some really fantastic dinner that in both quality and quantity exceeded a four dollar meal. We thanked him, said goodnight and went back to bed.
--------------------------
We started our JR pass the next day but missed the first option of trains to get there around 7-8, so we ended up there around 10 (or later, I forget). Travis was pretty beat from 10 hours of trains from Tokyo to Sapporo so he stayed in the hotel while Garrett and I wandered around looking for some food. After that we got to our hotel, I took a shower, and went to bed.
--------------------------
Today, we woke up around 10 and started our Sapporo adventure. We found Korokke (fried potatoes incomparable to hashbrowns) for 50 cents a piece at a local restaurant and I pigged out on that for breakfast. Afterwards, it was off to the Sapporo factory which was pretty similar to Ebisu's except less busy because its in a more distant location than Tokyo. Along the way we hit up some nice modern art (fountains, towers, etc) that we saw along the way. It was really a great town and I loved the hybrid feel of something between New York and Boulder. We all agreed it would be nice to live in a place like Hokkaido :-)
We went to another fish market today and wow it smelled like fish... I never realized how much I liked that smell if its in the right setting I suppose. After that we had some errands to run
We went back to the hotel to get our stuff (they kindly let us keep it there for free all day... I didn't know hotels did that too) after buying sleeping bags and a flashlight at the local Don Quijote <-- I just realized I don't know how to phonetically spell Spanish, I hope that's correct.
Ever since, we've been on a train to Wakkanai, our destination for the night. We're going to stay there and hit up Rebun tomorrow, truly getting out of the city life and into an area preserved if nothing else, by proximity away from Tokyo and a smaller influx of foreign travellers there; primarily only Russian's come into Japan from that area.
Friday, September 3, 2010
TLDR
Yesterday was sick but really long. Originally I planned to sleep in a little bit (till about 11) so that we wouldn't be too tired to go to a concert that would last till 4 in the morning. Fail. I woke up around 7:30 and just tooled around in the morning around the area of Sakura Hostel. We had plans to meet Shota in Harajuku so around 1:00, about 45 minutes away. We had invited Taka-san to join us for the day the night before, so I woke up him up about 15 minutes before we had to leave. The 5 of us (Travis, Garrett, Frank, Taka-san, and I) got to Harajuku first so we waited for a few minutes before he got there. I was so suprised to see him I couldn't say anything in Japanese for about 5 or 10 seconds. He'd been working out so much since I saw him last I had no idea it was him at first.
We walked Takeshita-dori (across from the station where we met) and stopped at a ramen restaraunt to eat lunch. It was really good - I ate pork and beef and made it as spicy as possible. I loved it but when I almost started to cry from it being so hot. It was quite dericious. Shota tricked us and paid for the entire meal. I started to feel a little guilty because ontop of that, he paid me back the money he owed me +$20 more. After that we crossed the street and walked Meiji Jinju. It was really surreal being in such a lush area in the middle of the city. I literally forgot I was in the middle of the city at one point until I saw a single skyscraper peeking through the trees. At the end of the Meiji Jinju was a beautiful temple where we got to see a wedding going on, as well as learn a little bit about offerings and prayer. After that, Taka-san had to depart to take care of a friend in the hospital.
After that we walked to Shibuya where we ventured through Yoyogi Park, a park with few humans and many cecedas. We did get to see a pair of guys practicing their comedy routine. Shota simply said that they aren't really popular. We got pretty tired by this point from all the walking (we were still pretty tired from walking the day before) so we took a short rest on some benches at the edge of the park. After that, we emerged in Shibuya, a town with intense fashion. I say intense because it isn't exactly all impressive; sometimes it can be quite... alarming... We walked around the area with no intention of shopping but intent to people watch the shoppers there. We yet again found ourselves really tired so we took a rest in a department store, and then a Starbucks (which has incredibly expensive and incredibly small cups).
Sometime during those rests, we ran across Shinjuku crossing, the busiest intersection in the world! We did the whole standing still picture thing while everyone walked by. Then we saw a 25~ story hotel where Shota was able to charm our way into a place that has multilingual signs that say do not take pictures from here. It was really sick to be so high up, it gave us the opportunity to take in the awesomeness of the buildings there.
After that... we transitioned from tourists to nightlife participants. We got to the concert venue, Club Asia, about an hour early because we thought it would benefit us. However, we found out it was not only unnecessary, but impossible to buy tickets in advance. So we waited around for about an hour and then said our goodbyes to Shota for the next 20~ days or so (he insisted on taking us to the airport) :-) and Frank for the night. We went in and saw a handful of good bands that are a lot less popular than Lil and Gekkan Probowlers, but talented and great in their own right. We ended up buying a CD for the opening band because we knew we couldn't get it on the internet. When Lil came on, things really got awesome... Stage presence was insane, the lead singer was a cutie with great style and her male counterpart playing the synth was equally as exciting. The Japanese people around us started the concert off reserved but when this set started they leveled up a few notches. Next was Gekkan Probowlers. They were truly flawless... the Dj was so smiley, every time I looked at him I got a little bit happier because you could tell how much fun he was having getting to perform. And the lead singer was a lot of fun he danced around a lot and acted really carefree. For a number of reasons it was the best concert I've been to.
After that, we had about an hour and a half to kill before Yasutaka Nakata's concert started. We met some girls from the first show and told them we were gonna meet up with them for dinner where they were headed (Freshness Burger ^^). They didn't seem to have a problem so we killed an hour seeing how Japanese girls react to American guys that know a little bit of Japanese. They had good taste in music which was a really nice double threat along with them getting our sarcasm. We then headed back to the concert, but first I had to buy Crocs (Vanessa -- I am sooooooo sorry) because my feet hurt so bad and nothing else looked like it would fit me at the store one of the guys called the Japanese Wal-Mart.
Then we went to the next concert. It started at 11 and it was pretty evident that Japanese people were just drunk enough around this time of night to initiate conversation with foreigners. That was fun for a short while, and killed some time that was desperately need since the first DJ played forever and basically did the same thing over and over again. We started to lose confidence that this concert would be as good as the first, which turned out to be more than true. When Yasutaka Nakata came on, we were already dead tired from the long day and excessive jumping around early in the evening. Unfortunately, he was not very impressive in person because he primarily was just equalizing his songs and didn't have any stage presence whatsoever.
The walk home was less than fun because we had a good time but were too tired to appreciate it while we spent two hours trying to get to Tsukiji Fish Market to meet Frank. However, the trains don't even start running until after the Fish Market is over for the day (Done by 5:00). So when we arrived, we found ourselves in the middle of a fish factory with no walls. It was cool seeing the stuff there but because we were so exhausted we had trouble seeing the bright side of getting to go to the Fish Market, regardless of not being able to eat. Also, we missed Frank (fortunately he got to eat there). So, we finally got back to Asakusa around 7:00 and Frank was still out, which was a bummer because we left our stuff in his room because we didn't rent one for the night since we planned on being out all night. So, we slept in the lobby until the staff arrived for the morning and they said we could stay and wait for him but we couldn't sleep in the lobby while we waited (It was very understandable and he was very considerate about it).
We walked Takeshita-dori (across from the station where we met) and stopped at a ramen restaraunt to eat lunch. It was really good - I ate pork and beef and made it as spicy as possible. I loved it but when I almost started to cry from it being so hot. It was quite dericious. Shota tricked us and paid for the entire meal. I started to feel a little guilty because ontop of that, he paid me back the money he owed me +$20 more. After that we crossed the street and walked Meiji Jinju. It was really surreal being in such a lush area in the middle of the city. I literally forgot I was in the middle of the city at one point until I saw a single skyscraper peeking through the trees. At the end of the Meiji Jinju was a beautiful temple where we got to see a wedding going on, as well as learn a little bit about offerings and prayer. After that, Taka-san had to depart to take care of a friend in the hospital.
After that we walked to Shibuya where we ventured through Yoyogi Park, a park with few humans and many cecedas. We did get to see a pair of guys practicing their comedy routine. Shota simply said that they aren't really popular. We got pretty tired by this point from all the walking (we were still pretty tired from walking the day before) so we took a short rest on some benches at the edge of the park. After that, we emerged in Shibuya, a town with intense fashion. I say intense because it isn't exactly all impressive; sometimes it can be quite... alarming... We walked around the area with no intention of shopping but intent to people watch the shoppers there. We yet again found ourselves really tired so we took a rest in a department store, and then a Starbucks (which has incredibly expensive and incredibly small cups).
Sometime during those rests, we ran across Shinjuku crossing, the busiest intersection in the world! We did the whole standing still picture thing while everyone walked by. Then we saw a 25~ story hotel where Shota was able to charm our way into a place that has multilingual signs that say do not take pictures from here. It was really sick to be so high up, it gave us the opportunity to take in the awesomeness of the buildings there.
After that... we transitioned from tourists to nightlife participants. We got to the concert venue, Club Asia, about an hour early because we thought it would benefit us. However, we found out it was not only unnecessary, but impossible to buy tickets in advance. So we waited around for about an hour and then said our goodbyes to Shota for the next 20~ days or so (he insisted on taking us to the airport) :-) and Frank for the night. We went in and saw a handful of good bands that are a lot less popular than Lil and Gekkan Probowlers, but talented and great in their own right. We ended up buying a CD for the opening band because we knew we couldn't get it on the internet. When Lil came on, things really got awesome... Stage presence was insane, the lead singer was a cutie with great style and her male counterpart playing the synth was equally as exciting. The Japanese people around us started the concert off reserved but when this set started they leveled up a few notches. Next was Gekkan Probowlers. They were truly flawless... the Dj was so smiley, every time I looked at him I got a little bit happier because you could tell how much fun he was having getting to perform. And the lead singer was a lot of fun he danced around a lot and acted really carefree. For a number of reasons it was the best concert I've been to.
After that, we had about an hour and a half to kill before Yasutaka Nakata's concert started. We met some girls from the first show and told them we were gonna meet up with them for dinner where they were headed (Freshness Burger ^^). They didn't seem to have a problem so we killed an hour seeing how Japanese girls react to American guys that know a little bit of Japanese. They had good taste in music which was a really nice double threat along with them getting our sarcasm. We then headed back to the concert, but first I had to buy Crocs (Vanessa -- I am sooooooo sorry) because my feet hurt so bad and nothing else looked like it would fit me at the store one of the guys called the Japanese Wal-Mart.
Then we went to the next concert. It started at 11 and it was pretty evident that Japanese people were just drunk enough around this time of night to initiate conversation with foreigners. That was fun for a short while, and killed some time that was desperately need since the first DJ played forever and basically did the same thing over and over again. We started to lose confidence that this concert would be as good as the first, which turned out to be more than true. When Yasutaka Nakata came on, we were already dead tired from the long day and excessive jumping around early in the evening. Unfortunately, he was not very impressive in person because he primarily was just equalizing his songs and didn't have any stage presence whatsoever.
The walk home was less than fun because we had a good time but were too tired to appreciate it while we spent two hours trying to get to Tsukiji Fish Market to meet Frank. However, the trains don't even start running until after the Fish Market is over for the day (Done by 5:00). So when we arrived, we found ourselves in the middle of a fish factory with no walls. It was cool seeing the stuff there but because we were so exhausted we had trouble seeing the bright side of getting to go to the Fish Market, regardless of not being able to eat. Also, we missed Frank (fortunately he got to eat there). So, we finally got back to Asakusa around 7:00 and Frank was still out, which was a bummer because we left our stuff in his room because we didn't rent one for the night since we planned on being out all night. So, we slept in the lobby until the staff arrived for the morning and they said we could stay and wait for him but we couldn't sleep in the lobby while we waited (It was very understandable and he was very considerate about it).
Thursday, September 2, 2010
People Will Love You and People Will Hate You
Here's a picture to exemplify our experience with Taka-san. Women over 40 need not view today's pictures. Make that... Women in general... There was a lot of... International learning...
So... I just typed everything I did today and as I was finishing, I selected all and deleted my entire day's worth of typing... About a 3 page paper worth of stuff. So, I will summarize today's most important events and explain to anybody that wants to hear about it at a later time.
Basically today was filled with touring Sensouji and Akihabara. A nice combination of technology and shrines, very beautiful.
More importantly, I learned a valuable lesson about racism, as well as kindness.
In senseouji, as we approached a shrine's staircase, a woman started speaking about us negatively in Japanese. We explored the area and when we walked back down the stairs, she was sitting and waited for me to reach her step and then threw out her right foot to trip me down the stairs. She failed. Next, fast forward to night time, we went to a hot spring and we were shunned away because the tenant accused us of being drunk so we couldn't go in. He seemed upset that we weren't Japanese and Frank (the only asian with us at the time) didn't speak Japanese. Our third encounter was with a German in our hostel who spoke to us only half heartedly later in the night when were were trying to make friends with our fellow hostel travelers. He apparently didn't realize that Americans understand English sarcasm... especially when you smurk and look 15 degrees away after you finish giving it.
Inversely, we met a wonderful Japanese man who spoke great English by the name of Taka-san. He took us out to his favorite bar in the area to meet some locals and explained to us the importance of Brazilian women in his life, as well as pretty much anything you could ever talk about surrounding Brazilian girls. He was really funny and truly a good friend to make in a town with virtually no night life.
So... I just typed everything I did today and as I was finishing, I selected all and deleted my entire day's worth of typing... About a 3 page paper worth of stuff. So, I will summarize today's most important events and explain to anybody that wants to hear about it at a later time.
Basically today was filled with touring Sensouji and Akihabara. A nice combination of technology and shrines, very beautiful.
More importantly, I learned a valuable lesson about racism, as well as kindness.
In senseouji, as we approached a shrine's staircase, a woman started speaking about us negatively in Japanese. We explored the area and when we walked back down the stairs, she was sitting and waited for me to reach her step and then threw out her right foot to trip me down the stairs. She failed. Next, fast forward to night time, we went to a hot spring and we were shunned away because the tenant accused us of being drunk so we couldn't go in. He seemed upset that we weren't Japanese and Frank (the only asian with us at the time) didn't speak Japanese. Our third encounter was with a German in our hostel who spoke to us only half heartedly later in the night when were were trying to make friends with our fellow hostel travelers. He apparently didn't realize that Americans understand English sarcasm... especially when you smurk and look 15 degrees away after you finish giving it.
Inversely, we met a wonderful Japanese man who spoke great English by the name of Taka-san. He took us out to his favorite bar in the area to meet some locals and explained to us the importance of Brazilian women in his life, as well as pretty much anything you could ever talk about surrounding Brazilian girls. He was really funny and truly a good friend to make in a town with virtually no night life.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Arriving in Japan
I don't really have time to worry about grammar, spelling, or even the way that I write this so forgive anything I say that sounds dumb as hell.
Flying to Narita was shorter than I expected... I slept most of the way, waking up every once in a while to talk with Garrett or get some food/drinks.
When we arrived in Japan the customs guys didn't speak English so we got our first interaction with a non-English speaker. We (Garrett and I) left to the baggage claim where we found Travis really quickly and easily. After getting our stuff together we went to the train ticket area and tried to figure out where we were supposed to go. We looked just lost enough for some Japanese policemen to come over and help us. That was really nice of them. However, they didn't know which train to take either, so they basically were just chilling with us awkwardly for a second.
When we finally go to the train station we met Frank, our new travel buddy. Frank is a graduate student at Stanford touring Asia for the summer. We asked where he was going, "Asakusa," "Us too! Where there?" "K's House Hostel" "Us too!!" So we went together and checked into the hostel as a group; Frank in his room and us in another. Then we went out to familiarize ourselves with the area.
After that is more easily explained by this picture but lets just say that Japanese people won't look at you while doing... anything whatsoever in public.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)