Last Photos from Japan

Hey everyone, I am home, safe and sound. Got home yesterday. Here are the last two photo albums for your viewing pleasure! Post JCMU 4 - Tokyo Post JCMU 5 - Hiroshima There ya go. Enjoy!

Two Photo Albums!

Piles more Pics for you Kiddies Post JCMU 2 - Nara Post JCMU 3 - Kyoto I am uploading the Tokyo and Hiroshima pics as I type, so don't worry, they'll be available when I get home. I will be home soon, by the way, and one more Japanese journal entry is going to wrap it all up. Not disappointed to be going home though. Not at all.

Last Leg - Hiroshima

We woke up to depart Tokyo in the morning, and had quite a travel day ahead of us. We first walked to the Koiwa station, rode to Akihabara, transferred and rode to Tokyo, then got on the first Hikari Shinkansen (Bullet Train), transferred to a RailStar Shinkansen at Okayama, transferred to the local train at Hiroshima, rode to Miyajimaguchi, where we rode a ferry to Miyajima Island, and took a car to our Ryokan, called Mizuha-sou (The Lodge of Winged Water, by my closest approximation). That more or less sums up the travel day. A few notes: I got a good view of Mt. Fuji from the Shinkansen. It rained a bit when we got off of the train and then on the ferry. At the lodge, they thought Kevin was a little baby (hehe, he's just a child!) so they told us they were going to charge us more, even though I politely argued with them. I mean, a "child" has counted as "anyone up through middle school" usually. But they weren't going for it. I can't really blame them, they really don't have any guests. One room besides ours is filled. We got a fairly large room (10 tatamis), but the bathroom and shower is all communal. Oh well, we'll deal. We decided to go get some dinner, but the island shuts down at 5:30pm apparently. It sucked, walking past every single shop that was closed. Did I mention this island has deer? They're everywhere! And there are so very many baby deer. They are adorable. Eventually, we found one of the three restaurants that was open. Two had Okonomiyaki (that savory pancake-omelette thing those Japanese people make), and the last was very expensive Japanese food. We opted for okonomiyaki. We had warm sake (coke for kev, of course) and split two Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki. They are Hiroshima style because they are layered, batter on the bottom, soba noodles in the middle, whatever additions are there (meat, et cetera), then dough on top with sauce. Dad got a seafood one, and I picked grilled garlic. We shared, and they were very good. The evening ended early, around 8:00pm when we went to our room to read. We had to get some rest for our big day the next day of exploring Miyajima Island. The weather the second morning was much better, the rain had cleared up, and it was only about 82-85 degrees, but still very humid. We had a lot of things that we could see. Miyajima is a little touristy island that has a lot of cool things on it. First is the Itsukushima Shrine, with its "floating" Torii, which is firmly implanted in the ground, our in the water, and back in the 1100s, in order to come to the island, you were required to go through it. They don't do that any more, because of low tide, and all... Besides, the ferry wouldn't fit throught it. There is what I think of as Tourist Trap Alley, which has 500 shops selling the same crap at similar prices. Momiji-dani Park is a nature park (duh). There is an Aquarium across from our lodge, and Mt. Misen above us. Mt. Misen was to be our destination for the morning. We fueled up with a can of coffee and set out on a short walk. We skirted around and found a path that led to Daisho Temple, with so many cool statues. There was a statue of a Tengu, mythological Japanese beast with wings and a really long nose that dad liked, and on the stairways, so many little Buddhas, all doing something different. Around the temple, we found a path leading up a stream, so we followed it, and Kevin dunked his head in the waterfall. Shortly thereafter, we found a staircase of stone leading up. I have come to despise staircases of stone leading up. We climbed up, sweating profusely, and found a bench. Dad joked, "Come on, we're one tenth of the way there!" thinking he was kidding. Two and a half hours of climbing later, with no water, no food, and 6oz of coffee in our systems, we reached the top, lightheaded and dying. At least I was lightheaded. Kevin emptied his stomach on the way up, another sign of dehydration. Dad, the mule, was okay. He was plodding along too, though. But he is in better shape than either Kev or me. Definitely better than me. When he got to the top and tossed down 200ml (about 7oz) cans of Coke to Kev and me, we drank them, but then I thought I was going to throw up, the carbonation hitting me that hard. At the top, there were about 6 deer, which Kevin instantly bonded with. He is the Deermaster. The top had a bunch of boulders also, absolutely gorgeous views that, once I recovered from almost dying, I could appreciate. We looked at the whole island, and the surrounding islands and mainland from our vantage point of the highest spot on Mt. Misen, and up on the roof of the observation tower. After a while, we recovered energy enough to go downhill. Passing up another temple, we went towards the Ropeway, which we were thinking of taking. After all, we worked our asses off getting up the mountain, so why not? If it would not have cost 2500Y to get us three down, we might have taken it. Instead we walked. There was a couple of people that we kept playing tag with. We would pass them, they would pass us, so on and so forth. We got a little break thanks to Kevin, and I got a picture of a tiny frog. Near the bottom, there was a free bus to take us three minutes of the way to the entrance of the Momiji-dani Park (which we walked through on the way down), then hit the showers before getting something to eat. Believe me, we needed the shower. My shirt was like I dropped it in the stream, it was so wet. Before my shower, I weighed myself like I had done the night before. I had lost 2.5kg since the night before, that's about 7 pounds. Just from almost killing myself with no water! If that's all it takes.... Nah. Forget that. We wandered out to a restaurant we saw the night before (which was closed then) that had honest-to-goodness Beefbowl. It was very delicious, but it was still only 4:15 or so by the time we finished. On the way back, we pet the deer, wandered through the Ikutsushima Shrine, and watched the sun sink lower towards the mountains on the mainland. I was so happy to lie down to read for the night. You have no idea. This morning, we decided to go to Hiroshima proper. A walk, ferry, train (while we were waiting for the train, another train pulled in on another track, and two girls waved to me. Apparently I am cool here), and a streetcar later, we were in front of the Atomic Bomb Dome (Genbaku Dome). It is the only remaining building from before the Atomic Bomb hit on August 6th, 1945, 8:15am. We saw that, and a random Peace Statue, where a few girls recognized me. I was just oh-so popular. They were checking in to the hotel we stayed at in Kyoto when Kevin and I got back from our Lawson's run one night. Small world, Japan. Before we got into the real heavy stuff, we decided to get lunch. Lunch was delicious, consisting of chunks of beef, bean sprouts, rice, chicken broth, and the beef cooked on the skillet that was brought out to us. Very cool. After lunch, we walked through Peace Park and saw the everburning flame that will be kept aflame until there are no more nuclear weapons in the world. I fear it will be alight for many years to come. Then, we went to the Peace Museum. It detailed what happened when the atomic bomb hit, and I don't think I can accurately describe it. It was amazingly moving, from the little boy's tricycle, the woman's "shadow" on the steps of a building, the dioramas, the photographs, the testimonials... I just hope it never happens again. It was a very moving experience, and it was a shame that it happened in the first place. Now, back to the not so depressing stuff. We wandered around the city now, and in the direction of the castle, which is a ferro-concrete reconstruction of Hiroshima Castle, since it was devastated in 1945, and went to look at it, but didn't bother going in. The moat outside was more interesting. It was filled with carp and turtles that followed us and wanted food. I wish I had some, one turtle was practically climbing the wall to get it. He deserved it! We walked to the Hiroshima Station, passing a restaurant that had all sorts of dishes selling, not beef, but horse. We did not go in. Back at the station, we decided to eat dinner, since everything would be closed on Miyajima. We had McDonald's at Kevin's behest. Then we came 'home' to our little lodge on the island, stopping to pet many baby deer on the way and look at the crabs that walk sideways into their little hidey-holes. Kevin also fed the deer leaves. They enjoyed it. Now I am back in the room writing this, and in the morning, we go to Hikone to get my baggage to take to the Ramada Kansai (by the Kansai airport) where dad and kevin will leave from, and I will leave the following day from Nagoya. It will be good to be home. I am glad I got to give Japan a Farewell Tour 2004.

Tokyo for Two, and Two for Tokyo.... Days that is.

In the morning, we got up, showered and got out of the hotel, and then had a good time getting to the station with our bags in tow, stopping at a good donburi place. We got some cheap Butadon (pork and onions on rice) before heading stationside to get our train. In the station, I stopped to make a call to Air Canada and try to confirm my flight. However, in my waiting on hold, I noticed an American with a "Tune In Tokyo" shirt like Bendar-san had. In fact, it was Bednar-san! Daniel Bednar has been travelling around Japan for the past week with his father, and heading to Kyoto the day I left it, and I happened to run in to him. Pretty damn cool. He was on his way to enjoy Kyoto, and I was on my way to Tokyo. So somehow, I had the opportunity to run into all of the JCMU students that I knew were still in Japan travelling while on my own travels. What a small world, eh? By the way, hope you had a good time, Bednar-san! We waited for an hour for our train, and then got on to what seemed like an airplane on the ground. It looked the same on the inside, except for being fairly spacious. I was pleased. We rode along, the Shinkansen banking left and right with the turns, and just cruising along. Soon enough, we got to Tokyo station, transferred to the Yamanote line (Kore ha Yamanote-sen desu ka...?), rode to Akihabara, transferred to the Sobu line, then rode to Koiwa, and made my familiar walk to Ryokan Toki. Can you believe it, I am in the same room I was in when I came with Allan! Room 111 once again! We relaxed a bit, since it was about 4:30, and then went for a walk. I forgot my camera, but there were a few good shots to be taken. Kevin led the way for a while, getting us suitably lost in the Koiwa suburbs, although I knew where Flower Road (the main road) was the whole time. I think dad knew too. Perhaps even Kevo knew. We went to a yakiniku place for dinner, and it might be the best meal I have eaten in Japan (asided from the feasts of our weekly barbeques). Kevin got chicken, I got Kalbi Beef (Korean sweet-marinade beef), and dad got squid. I also got us some rice and "Cabbage Salad" which was absolutely delicious. I was so stuffed, I did not even think about getting a snack at night. That is pretty rare. You know how I like my snacks... With our bellies full of tasty grub, we read the night away and slept a long time. Our full day here was not wasted. We first went to get our Tokyo Tower, like Allan and I did a few weeks earlier. However, we went through Zozoji, the temple out front, and around back, followed a hidden staircase, and found a few Shisaa (guardian lions) guarding... a thing. It was cool, but the lions were better. Then we were in the Tower. It was great, Kev and dad enjoyed the view, and we found the glass floors so Kevin and I stood on them and were freaked out being 300 feet up and standing on just glass. We looked through the tourist trap vendor shops on one of the lower floors, where they had really cool lighters, and kept going. Our next stop was to be the Imperial Palace. Hop on the train, go to Tokyo station, get off the train. Logic would dictate that exiting the train station to buy a beverage would be the best course of action, saving some precious yen, so I convinced them that we should find a convenience store just outside the station. No luck. Nothing in site, not even a vending machine. Just my frigging luck, to find the one place in Japan that has no beverage access! The imperial palace was all right, but we only got to go to the outer edge, since it was no special occasion, we could not go inside. Oh well. Wandering around, we saw a strange thing in the moat, and it turned out to be a giant carp about two and a half feet long by our estimation, swimming on the top of the water. Its dorsal fin was sticking out of the water the whole time. We also saw a turtle, and another lizardy creature that had a long nose, kept its head above water, and seemed to be a shelless turtle. Kevin named it Frank because we didn't know what it was. We determined that these mutants (except for the turtle) kept invading forces out. Shortly thereafter, we found our salvation, a nook of vending machines in the shade of Yuurakucho station, pop and beer, as well as sake. We got many a stare sitting on the steps sipping our beverages of choice, but we gave them right back. It was kind of fun, actually. Kevin's feet hurt, so we kind of just headed back to the Ryokan after this. We discussed going to Rainbow Town, a popular place to visit, but that did not look fun (all shopping). So we read for a little bit, then got some Chinese food for dinner. It was delicious, and now I am here writing this journal entry now. In the morning I go to Hiroshima for three cool days at the beach. See you then!

3 Kyoto Days

Okay, this one is going to be another long one. Probably. We woke up our last morning in Nara and made our way to the train station, because we had to go to Kyoto next. I was very pleased with this, as Kyoto is my favorite city that I have been to in Japan yet. The train was not bad, we did get seats, although dad sat away from Kev and me. Silly old man. From the Kyoto station, I went upstairs and wasted a half an hour (and two hundred yen) uploading some pictures to the internet, which is how you have Osaka pics on the entry before this. I still have Nara's and Kyoto's to upload, and hopefully I can get those done whilst in Tokyo. It was a short walk to the hotel, which is off of Shichijo-dori (7th Avenue), quite near the Kyoto station. Although it is close, we still passed three Lawson's, one of which was very, very fancy. We were early, and couldn't check in yet, but we left our baggage in a little room and headed out to see the city. Armed with a map of Kyoto's bus routes, we went to take over Kyoto. Our short bus ride took us to Kiyomizu-dera, the temple of the clear water. I think that this one has become my favorite because of how beautiful the views are here. After our climb through the tourist traps that line the streets, we got to the temple. The buildings that stand there now are only 400 years old, compared to the 900-1000 years old that they should be, but it is still really impressive. We went in to the complex, and went in to one of the buidings (where we had to remove our shoes, of course) and walked around a dark passageway, lined with bronze statues of Bodhisattva and Kanon. Some of them had pretty creepy eyes that seemed to glow, and that was fairly odd in and of itself. Coming out of there, a group of people was gathered where the monks were performing a ceremony, beating their drums. It was pretty darn cool to watch, though I had no idea what was happening. The platform that they were working on restoring last time I was here (last month) was half way completed, so we could go out on to it. Can't emphasize it enough. Gorgeous view. Trees everywhere creating a blanket over the contours of the land, with the city in the distance. Wandering through the other buildings in the complex, we decided to follow the scenic route that we did not take when last I was here. The trail gave us another good view of the hanging platform, even if construction was being done on it. At the end of this path, we found the tiny pagoda that teased us through the hills. And it was tiny. But it was old, really old and weathered. After this we started down the hill, but dad saw a closed gate that led down some dark stairs, and had to go. He insisted that we were allowed because the gate was not locked. He is an idiot. Eventually, Kev and I joined him (to make sure he didn't break his neck or something) and found the temple graveyard. It was very nice, but I just don't think it polite to go traipsing through a graveyard. Especially in Japan where Shinto beliefs are pretty much a mix of Animism (everything is imbued with a spirit) and Ancestor Worship (they may be dead, but they can still influence your life). Down near the spring/waterfall area, there was a little restaurant that we had a beer at (Kev a Coke). Since we sat and did that, there was no pull to wait in line to drink water. Even though it may be blessed. We just slowly meandered out after that, no real rush or hurry. It was nice, kind of like this whole vacation. We went back down the hill a different way, and I was starting to direct them to Shakey's, the all-you-can-eat pizza place, and we got all the way up to Shijo-dori (4th Ave) and Kevin said he wasn't hungry. That killed that, so we went back to the hotel, and when we got back, they realized that meant another 45 minute walk each way for pizza. That'll show them. We checked in to our room and were surprised. Very surprised. This is the cheapest hotel we have at about 9345Y a night. ($87USD a night), and it is the biggest room. It has an entrance way and sitting 'dining room' with a tiny bathroom and little balcony ( that you can just dry clothes on), plus a tatami room with three mattresses on the floor, real mattresses, as well as a 17 inch flat screen television. The walls of the bedroom are even golden. Plus, of course, the air conditioning. We immediately settled in to read because we were tired after our long walks, but eventually our hunger got the best of us. Dad had seen a place that seemed to have fried rice, which Kevin wanted, so we set out for there. There was also a yakitori place that looked intriguing. It turns out that they were the same place! Although there was no fried rice, it was a tofu dish, (Chichi no baka, I said to the waitress. She laughed. [My dad's an idiot]) and we feasted like kings on yakitori. It was awesome. This restaurant had room to seat about 20 people, including a hidden seating area, two tables, and the bar area. I love yakitori, also. When that was consumed, we headed back, and dad fell asleep early, and talked all night in his sleep about all sorts of made up Japanese words. Kevin and I made a Lawson's run around 11 or so, but that's about it. Morning came on day two, and our plans had two things: Kinkaku-ji and the Daimonji later that night. Nothing in between... So we took a bus to Kinkaku-ji, which stopped at Ritsumeikan Daigaku (where I was last time I went to Kinkaku-ji), and we headed in to see the Golden Pavillion. We got our picture taken by it, as I have done with everyone I went there with. It was nice walking through there, and it just was nice and relaxing. Afterwards, we were going to get a bus to Arashiyama to go to Monkey Mountain, but we didn't make the bus, so dad said we should keep walking while we wait. So I said to Kevin, "This means we're walking, we won't be able to get a bus." I was right. Damned dad impatience. We walked about an hour and a half at least, winding up and down hills, but we found some beautiful sights. One was a big pond with the mountains in the background, also the bamboo forests lining the road. We were also walking along and dad let out a surprised noise. He saw a Tanuki statue on the side of the road. What he didn't notice is that there were a bunch of marble genetalia around. These things, both male and female varieties, were about 3-4 feet tall. Pretty impresive. It was crazy. We continued along the way, stopping for directions a few times, and then just kept going, walking, walking, walking some more. Eventually, we came to the place that I had been told about in my directions. It was the road that I had walked the last time I was in Arashiyama. Somewhere along this road we found a ball. It was about the size of a Lacrosse ball, had dimples like a golf ball, and the semblance of threading like a baseball. It was clearly confused. It bounced well, so we kept it and had a grand old time. Kevin was tired. Oh so tired. We got to the bridge that led to Monkey Mountain, but it was starting to get late. As we ascended the stairs that would have allowed us to begin a hellish climb to Monkey Mountain, the old man who worked there was putting out the "CLOSED" sign. Oh well, we were too slow. If we had taken either of the two buses that would have brought us there sooner.... Well, we got to see the edge of Kyoto there. I guess that counts for something. Didn't get to see any monkeys though. In the area around the bridge at Arashiyama, there seemed to be a festival of sorts picking up. There were stalls all along the river, selling all sorts of foodstuffs and drinkstuffs to all sorts of people. Kev got a huge stick of yakitori, and dad got a big grilled corn. I decided not to eat, not all that hungry. It turned out that we could see one, maybe two, of the Daimonji (big burning symbols) on the mountains, but we had to wait about an hour and fourty five minutes. However, in the meantime, there was a bit of fun sitting and watching lanterns float down the river, which we also had to wait for. But it was cool, and we enjoyed it. Dad kept being impatient and trying to leave or make us walk, which actually got me into kind of a bad mood. Why couldn't the man be patient and just sit and relax, enjoying the river for one stinking hour? Well, he is only in Japan for two weeks, and there is a lot to see, so he was rushing. In the interim between the lanterns going up and the lighting of the Daimonji, we went over to see these fairy lights set up over the river, and got a few special treats. One, there were a bunch of boats hanging out on the water, and they had food, fireworks, and other fun stuff, served to them by a boat which sold it all. After that, I saw a couple boats with giant flaming lights on the end, and went to investigate. It took a second to convince myself, but they were cormorant fishing!! They were using cormorants (birds who swim and fish in the water) with rings around their necks to stop them from swallowing the fish they caught, and then the fishermen took them from the birds. It was crazy. I had heard of that before, but never had I seen it. Friggin cool. Then, dad went to fetch a few beers, to celebrate the occasion, and came and reported that the Daimonji on the right side could be seen from the middle of the bridge. Kevin and I went to see. It was great, but my camera would not report any of it back so I cannot show you how cool it really was. About 5-10 minutes later, the one closer to us, a giant Torii, the gate that leads in to Shinto shrines, lit up. That was cool, but the crowds were starting to get to us, so we tried to make our way back. I was going to ask for a bus, but I seemed to remember a faint tickling in the back of my brain of a JR station close by, so I asked for directions to that, and it was a life saver. Instead of a crazy crowded bus, we got our train right back to the Kyoto station, and on the way back, we stopped at our yakitori place. Yakitori was delicious, and we tried a few other things, one of which was a pork skewer, wrapped in a leaf and with plum sauce on it, and the other was grilled mochi (that sticky pounded rice stuff) with cheese and bacon wrapped around it to make it delicious. The bacon was nice and crispy also. That ended our lovely second day in Kyoto, and the third was also lots of fun. The third day, we did something different. We rented bikes from the ryokan (actually, from their sister inn down the road) and literally circled half of the city. We rode along Shichijo-dori (7th Ave) to the river, turned left, and rode down along the river, on the river, for quite a while. Just past Shijo (4th) Kevin's valve shot off of his front tire, and we had to walk the bikes. We stopped at the Lawson's I knew of at Sanjo (3rd) where I had seen Pepsi Blue being sold when we were here for Gion Matsuri, and asked for directions to a bike place. I got one right across the river, but it turned out to be a bike rental place that claimed to not have a bike pump. We walked to another, but their pump did not help, but finally got to a place on Nijo (2nd) that was built into a small corner of a building, and the guy there inspected Kev's tire and found it to be sound, then filled up all of our tires, all for 1000Y, about 9.50 US. Not too bad, since our ryokan charged 3000Y for each bike messed up. From there, we rode along the river until the path disappeared, found a Daily Yamazaki (another convenience store) for some liquid fuel, and then kept riding through the city's edge in order to find the mountains or the woods. This ended up riding up really steep hills in Kyoto suburbs. It was the most fun bike ride ever, I think, because we got to see some gorgeous sights, and my dad nearly got run over by tiny Japanese cars. Also, we had to go uphill, but there was fun downhills as well! We stopped at one place that we thought might be one of the sites of last night's "Big Burn" as dad called them. I don't think it was, but from our vantage, we could see a different view of the city, as well as the Daimonji that said "Hou." It was pretty cool. Later on our journey, we found a fun little place that looked like a walking path (which meant riding path to us!) and went along it, with the woods and mountainside at our side. Kevin and I were riding in the lead, and started saying "Snake, SNAKE!" because there was a two foot long snake on the edge of the path, and stopped, but it was hidden before dad got to see it. However, there was a little bridge over the stream we rode along, and the bridge led into a path into the woods. The path led uphill (it is a bad idea to climb in the woods in Birkenstocks, by the way, so don't even bother), and to another vantage of the city. We were just rocking out on our bike tour, and I think it may have been the best part of the Kyoto trip, next to the yakitori place. After our fun path ended, we went downhill, and found ourselves near Ginkakuji, but we didn't want to go into another temple. We were kind of templed out for a while. The downhills were really fun, so we kept at them, and the sky just started getting darker and darker... We stopped at what was like a dead end just in time to see a public bathroom, park our bikes and run to the overhang as the deluge started. The sky just opened up on us and dumped down. It was pretty cool that we found somewhere to hide. I was enjoying it, anyways. After a little bit, the rain let up, and we got back on the road, rode down and around for a while, finding a little place to stop and grab a beer (this stop called for my favorite, Yesbisu) and relax for a few while the rain stopped. Then, after that, we found our way back to the river (I am surprised that my direction sense is holding up) and went back home. It was a long day of riding for 6 hours, and we were tired and fairly moistened by the rain. Also, on the last turn, my bike decided to hate me and slid out from under me, and I fell down. I cut up my knee, but just a scratch. Kevin saw a few people in a car laugh, so he flipped them off for me. Good little brother. On the way back, we scheduled our first Shinkansen (bullet train) of the trip, heading to Tokyo. And then, back home, we rested and read for while, as well as wrestled. Kevin likes to attack us, so he gets the crap beat out of him, in the nicest possible way. I mean, I know he is a fragile little boy, who could snap if I played too roughly. Still, he asks for it! Eventually, dad wanted pizza, so we went to what we thought was a pizza place. I ordered a bacon, eggplant, and spinach one for dad and one for me, then tried to make a special request. Kev wanted just a cheese pizza. I said "Cheese and sauce only," to which the waiter responded, "Do you want green peppers or onions?" I said once again, "Cheese and sauce only." He says, "Bacon----" and I cut him off with, "I DON'T NEED THAT! Cheese and sauce only." He finally understood that. It turned out that my dad and I got pasta with those toppings on it, while Kev is the only one who got a pizza. Punk. That pretty much ends the Kyoto trip. The morning after is the trip to Tokyo, so I shall leave off here!

More Pics!

Here is one photo album, still no comments. Since I am paying about 4 dollars an hour to use internet, I won't be commenting until I am home. Post JCMU 1 - Osaka I have our shots from Osaka up, and my Nara and Kyoto pictures will hopefully be up in a few days. Later!!

A Day in the Old, Old Capital

Morning came to Osaka, and we made out way out in search of breakfast. We had a traditional Japanese breakfast... of Subway. The best part was the little napkins they gave us, which were of course individually wrapped in plastic, and said "Subway, The natural ideal style of eating vegetable." Whatever that is supposed to mean, wacky Japanese. After that, it was shower and check out time, then we went to the Tennoji station to hop a train to our next destination, Nara. It was not a long train ride, and when we got there, it was still quite early. We wandered our way down the road towards our hotel. I kept thinking that this street looked familiar, and it turned out to be the street that had the all you can eat place I went to three years ago! Though it seems to not be there now... Oh well. When we were just about to our hotel, we saw a random 5 story pagoda just hanging out in front of us. We decided to check it out after checking in. Because we're cool like that. We easily found the Hotel Sunroute, our little home for the night, and went inside. I checked us in, but they didn't have the room ready yet, and told us to come back at 2, but we could leave our luggage with them. No problem. We stopped to get beer (melon soda for Kev) from the vending machine in the lobby, and dad started putting money in it, and there was already about 600Y in there! Free beer and pop for us! We got a free round on the vending machine. I liked that a lot. Since we had time to kill, we went to the pagoda up the street. It was old, it did not seem to be rebuilt, and was showing its age, which, in my opinion, makes it cooler. Also, dad and Kev saw their first Nara deer. Oh yeah, they rock. I think that the place is called Kokufuji, but I am not sure. From here, it was time to meander towards Todai-ji, which holds the Daibutsu, Giant Buddha. Since we were not coming from the Kintetsu Nara train station, we were coming a different way, but it was easy to figure out the way. We walked through old woods and parks covered in deer (and, subsequently, deer poo) that led us to the street that I was familiar with, the one that led directly from Kasuga Taisha and Todai-ji to the Kintetsu station. We went down the tourist trap streets, chiefly ignoring it all, but my dad, after all of the shops, starts asking me every 10 seconds if that sign said bathroom, or that one, maybe the other one over there. No, they were not. He had to wait his turn. Another odd thing, the pond in front of Todai-ji that has the Shinto shrine on it was filled with little metal shapes, like animal cutouts. It different, but probably something for Obon tonight. So we went in to Todai-ji, and dad and Kev were floored by how huge the building is, and the fact that it has been there, in its current incarnation for about 500 years. The original was built in the 700s, but the current building is its third generation of it. Still damn impressive. The Daibutsu is still huge, and it was pretty crowded today, being the day of a festival. We took our time examining the different things in the building, the giant bronze lotus leaf, the other Buddha, the statues, and so on. Kevin became enlightened, and got a rugburn from Buddha's nostril as payment for his passage. I never said the path to enlightenment was easy! All in all, Todai-ji is still cool, even after seeing it three times. We wandered out a back way of Todai-ji and were starting to head towards where Kasuga Taisha is, but we didn't want to get there while it was light out, so we turned down other side streets, came down the little alleys that the taxis went to on the far side of Todai-ji, and wandered through Nara neighborhoods. It was pretty cool, we even found a little bamboo forestation. By the time we got back to our hotel, it was about 3:00, so we decided to laze for a bit, read, play some Game Boy, and watch the local tv. It seems that the Olympics start today, and that is cool. Earlier in the morning, dad mentioned that he had wanted to go to one of the places that had a large selection, like a family restaurant (that I equated with having a drink bar, ala Gusto's). I saw a Gusto's on the way in, so I started leading us there. It was way back by the station, and dad and Kev whined, but we made it there in one piece (meaning I didn't beat them severely about the head and neck area), and got our drink bar, I mean food. Fanta melon soda flowed freely, though it was only Kevin and I who partook of it. While eating our lovely little meal, we watched the Olympic Judo on tv, but could never tell who really won. Not a bad little meal, but dusk would be approaching in the hour, so we went off towards Kasuga Taisha, and as we were walking, I stopped dead in my tracks. It was Rajeev! He and his dad have been travelling around Japan, and met up with Yoshi today in Nara to bum around. It was quite unexpected to have a few people from JCMU to wander around with for the next few hours, but there are no complaints. Our newly expanded group started wandering towards the shrine where the lanterns may be starting to be lit. The lanterns were in fact lit, and we spent quite a bit of time slowly making our way through while talking with Rajeev, Rajeev's dad, and Yoshi. The lanterns were amazing, when we got to where there was a cluster of them. My pictures just don't do it justice, because they would give off a fairly dim orange glow, softly lighting up the lantern, but not much else. My camera could not pick up the subtlety of that light. We parted ways when Rajeev et al decided to pay the 500Y to go see the lit hanging lanterns in the back recesses of Kasuga Taisha. We don't think we missed anything by not going back there. It was a nice long walk out of there, and we were just enjoying the night. On a little back road, we found a place to buy another beer, and Kevin made an observation that if we were wandering around like this in a big city in America, we would not feel so safe. True, there would be people to mug us and not to sell us beer. I am pretty sure I prefer this country's practices... We found ourselves walking through some darkened woods (as it was night time), and gravitating towards a light music. Could it be a Siren's Song or something to lure us to our unwitting demise? Nah, it was a concert being held in the Daibutsu Park (outside of Todai-ji, which was filled with little glass vases with a floating candle in each. It was pretty amazing, all of those candles lit up everywhere. We stood and appreciated the two people playing the music a for a few minutes, then made our way out. Even the museum on the road home was filled with the little lights. Nothing wrong there, it makes night time Nara prettier! By the time we were almost back, we found three Japanese women working a booth selling draft beer. How could we pass it up? The women were crazy-energetic (sugoku genki) and seemed to be thoroughly impressed that I could speak Japanese. Not an odd occurrence. Another thing, since I do all the talking, and dad all the paying, they never know who to give the change to. They give change back and thank the person, but if the person receiving the change is not who they were talking to.... Oh well. It works out. We stopped to sit and look at the large pond by the hotel strung with fairy lights and have our drink before coming back upstairs. By the way, from our hotel, we can see the pagoda. We win the hotel view game thus far. Though it won't hold out... All we did tonight was watch some of the Olympics (the Brazilians beat the Japanese at Women's Volleyball, by the way) and read. Everyone was out by 1030, but I couldn't sleep till midnight. I mean, why bother if you are going to be leaving the hotel at 11 anyways? I don't need 12 hours of sleep! Now, it's the morning of the 15th, 930, and Kev is finishing up his shower, and dad should be next, followed by me. We will then head out to the train station, getting breakfast on the way, and trying to figure out where our hotel is for the next three nights. Wish us luck!

Osaka Fun

Okay, let's see. It's been two days since typing at all. It has been fun. Lots of walking, but fun. I was sitting reading my PDA-book waiting for the airplane with dad and Kevin to show up when somebody kicked me in the ankle. What do you know, it was Kevin! They had happily shown up and made my night. No more do I have to wander around alone in Japan, and that is the best part. We were an hour off of catching the bus to the hotel, so we spent it like any red-blooded Americans, by visiting Lawson's and getting a few beers! Well, Kevin got a few Cokes. It all works out. I led us unerringly to the bus stand (which I had figured out where it was before they came.. I had a bit of free time), and a 25 minute ride later, and we were at the fairly nice Ramada Kansai. They only had booking for 2 adults, no "child" (Kevin is hardly a child at 15), so I had to do some bargaining. They had no rollaway beds. Great. So I found out that they did have a room with two double beds instead of two singles. Okay, they upgraded for free, even better! We were up on the 12th floor, and had a happy fun silent elevator ride up to the room. It was pretty dang nice, for being the basic room. Two double beds, big shower, bidet toilet (they just don't have those in the states that much), two chairs, table, tv, and our own view of a multi-purpose game court. It was currently being used for soccer. It was snacky time, so we went wandering and found a Mos Burger, and dad and Kev got their first taste of Fanta Melon Soda. Kevin was instantly hooked. Since then, every vending machine that has it, he buys one. Not to mention he isn't as used to the heat as I am, but that's beside the point. After the Mos Burgering, we promptly fell asleep, after a bit of reading. In the morning, we leisurely got up, showered, and wandered over to find dad some hot coffee. He didn't want to get cold coffee from a vending machine. We found a 7-11, but its hot beverage machine was on the fritz, or something. He had to settle, and he was pleased with cold coffe and pan (bread) for breakfast. No melon pan available, but I had a really good french toast like bread, dad had a bacon/mayo bread, while Kevin had the standard of chocolate stick in a croissant. Not bad for their first introduction to crazy Japanese breads. At 11, we took the bus to get the train at the airport (quickest and simplest way to the hotel), got our rail passes, and set off on the country. I feel bad for all the Japanese people. The train took us directly to Tennoji with reserved seats on our special express train. If this is what it's like travelling with a bit of cash, I don't want to do it any other way, because, man, it's so much more comfortable than standing on a train for three hours at a time. At Tennoji, we decided to grab some food, because the pan was a nice filler, but not good enough for a meal. Yoshinoya was the first stop with butadon, pork and onions on rice. Just what Kevin wanted. Now it was time to wander for a while. We found the Tennoji garden, but it looked fairly dried out and cost 600 yen to see each, so we passed on it, and kept going to try to find Shitennoji, the oldest temple grounds founded in 593AD. Pretty darn old. On the way, we got distracted by a street with a wedding chapel and a temple at the end of the road, and though it was not what we were looking for even remotely, it was still kinda neat looking. There was a cemetary there also, the first they saw. It smelled of incense that has been offerings and rememberances of the deceased for years. We walked along the garden's edge and found a street leading downhill, a main street that I thought led to a 100 yen shop, but it ended up being a bank. Go figure. The place was called Yen Shop, I just automatically added 100 in front of it. We found a fun looking little covered shopping arcade and wandered down it for a while. Well, we stopped in a little tempura shop and had a big ol' beer first, but we wandered a while. It was a fairly seedy looking shopping area, but it actually kind of neat seeing it. Japan is usually so prim and proper, seeing this Abenobashi Shopping Arcade (not Magical, sorry guys), it really put things in perspective. I kept glancing up to try to find a pelican or tiger, turtle or dragon... Five points if you get that anime reference. Now it was an uphill wander back towards Tennoji station, because, surprise surprise, we were going in the right direction to start with, but dad pointing out the temple near the wedding chapel got us off course. Back on course, we found a Lawson's, got a few more beers and a sports drink for Kevin, who was drinking what should have been drunk by me all day in 95 degree heat and high humidity. I already omitted a few cups of sake... Whoops, there they are! In short order, we found Shitennoji which had a huge stone Shinto Torii out front, and a little flea market almost of vendors selling everything from traditional geta sandals to children's toys. In the temple grounds itself, we went into the pagoda, and there was a little open door leading up. So what else, we put on the little tiptoe slippers and went up! Crazy dad leading us. Five stories we spiraled up, past all the bodhisattvas with their offerings in front of them, until we conquered it. After the pagoda fun, we went and looked at the Buddha, which isn't nearly as large as the one we will see in Nara at Todai-ji, but it was big. And the paintings around on the walls were pretty cool, but nothing to write home about. It seemed to tell the story of a particular journey, and had a lot of Chinese and Indian looking people in it. It was time to meander back towards the Tennoji station to go to Osaka Castle. Osaka castle grounds were pretty cool looking, and on the way, we passed Osaka-jo Hall (Osaka Castle Hall) which is a concert hall near the castle. They are doing some sort of Disney princess show, because the kids (ages 2-8) were flocking to it. the castle grounds were pretty nice, but the view from the top was the reason we were there. Osaka castle is pretty darn high up, and we got to see a lot from up there. The corners of the castle has golden fish-dragons on it, and they are traditionally meant to protect from fires. On the way down the castle, was museum stuff, and we saw everything from books written by the guy in the castle, to the sword said to take the head of one of the rulers when he committed seppuku (seppuku is where you honorably commit suicide by slicing open your stomach, first horizontally from left to right, and if you have enough strength, up from the groin to your sternum. When you cannot take it any more, your second will take your head to stop your suffering. Gruesome, eh?). When we left the castle, and headed back to the Tennoji station, I had stopped to look at a map for a minute, and dad said "New Otani Hotel" which was written on the side of that hotel. It sounded familiar, somehow... Two mistaken trains after some stationside curry (how very delicious I may think it is, I don't think dad liked it, and I know Kevin didn't), we were back at the airport to catch the bus, which we barely made by running. That just about ends the first day in Japan. Pretty full, eh? Waking up once more at Ramada Kansai, we went to the Circle K for a pan and coffee breakfast, not the 7-11. Circle K actually had warm coffee, and dad and Kevin braved the various egg salad sandwiches with other stuff in them, like ham and cucumber for Kev and fried ham that seemed glazed like sweet and sour pork for dad. I had some inari sushi and a curry onigiri. I was happy with mine. We confirmed the room for the 23rd at that hotel and then checked out, heading to the airport yet again as our jumping point to Osaka. We realized that I don't have a paper ticket for my flight home, so we went to see if I could get one printed, and they couldn't, but if I didn't need to wait long after my dad and Kevin went home, why should my flight be the 27th when they leave on the 24th? So I made a phone call, and now I am on the waiting list for the 25th. Sorry I am changing it so much, but at least I may be coming home yet earlier!! I will know for certain next week, but until then, I am still definitely coming home on the 27th (be home on the 28th). We went to go check in at our new hotel which happened to be the New Otani Hotel. Like I said, I knew it sounded familiar! I had to argue with the lady at the front desk. For the second night in a row, dad forgot to book the room with Kevin in it, and I was left to the bargaining. In my best polite-yet-insisting voice, I told them that, for the orignal price we will take the room, but will have the third person, and we will not pay the extra 4000 yen for that, thank you very much. It turns out that this room is even better than the one at the Ramada, including a mini bar! Dad of course checked the price after he cracked open a can of Kirin, which cost 750Y, and we decided to replace it with one bought from a convenience store for 200Y. Sounds good to me! Our room here overlooks Osaka-jo Hall and Osaka Castle itself, and it is lit up beautifully this night. Could not ask for a better view. Back to the day, at 2pm, we went to find Den Den Town, the electronics district. We were hungry, and I wanted ramen (like usual...), so we got off one stop before Tennoji, where I saw a sign that said "Ramen" and we found the shop and went in. We each got a little bit of Kimchee (slightly spicy Korean pickled, fermented, stuff...), the best chahan I have had in Japan (fried rice), and a bowl of ramen. Even now, 6 hours later, I am not hungry. And everyone knows that that is saying something. From there, we walked towards Den Den Town, for over a half an hour, past Shitennoji where we were yesterday (of course! I guess our tour of Osaka was just this small area...), and finally find it, but it wasn't as cool as Akihabara was when I was there. It was neat, wandering around, and the iPods were still pretty dang expensive, so my dad has no new fun toy. We walked for quite a while, but didn't want to shop, so we crossed, and walked back on the other side of the street. We walked past three porn shops in a row. THREE! of them all displaying their 'wares' with no regard to whom may be walking past. So very different from the states. But still fairly amusing. The shop after that was a 7-11, but with it's magazine rack against the wall (the backs of many Japanese magazines have pretty girls on them), and dad and Kevin thought I was taking them into a fourth porn shop. I wonder how they all stay in business. Do they specialize? Does one pervert walk in to shop A and request porn genre 2, and then get sent to porn shop C because they specialize in that form of debauchery? Who knows. I didn't investigate. Another ten minute walk took us to another JR station. If we went there in the first place, we would have cut about 35 minutes off of our walking, and off of Kevin's hurt feet. He isn't used to walking across Japan in his sandals yet. Yet. So we came back here, and they are reading while I type this. Apparently there is a McDonalds and a Subway nearby, and my dad wants to try the Fish McNuggets with Wasabi sauce, because they're weird. So tomorrow, we head off to Nara to go to Todai-ji (giant Buddha statue, Buddha's nostril), Hou Ryu Ji (oldest wooden structure in the world), and Kasuga Taisha (lanterns). More to come!

Well, That Was Quick!

Here I am, at Kansai International Airport outside of Osaka, usurping their bandwidth to send off another missive to the internet! Okay, let's see... Start with leaving JCMU. It was really sad leaving JCMU for what would be my last time as a stufent, well... kind of. I had already graduated, but hadn't exactly left. The whole last morning, I knew how alone I really was. The only people left there were faculty and Fumiaki. Fumi is one of the Japanese students learning English. He goes to Shiga Daigaku, so he gets to stay at JCMU. He has been in Tokyo, though. In any case, I finished up my last minute packing, and got everything ready. I went and printed out the necessary documents, made sure everything was confirmed, and then got ready to set out on my own into this country of Japan all alone. It is really the first time I had gone somewhere in this country alone, also. Pretty odd feeling, actually. Backpack and laptop case weighing on my shoulders, as they would for the next two and a half weeks, I walked out of JCMU with one final "Ittekimasu" caught in my throat. Nobody was there to respond with the standard "Itterasshai." For those who speak no Japanese, those are the set phrases used when one leaves a home on a daily basis. I crossed over to my Lawson's, and yes, it is mine, and got a final Melon de Melon, the delicious melon flavored sweet bread that Allan and I feasted upon regularly and a Dakara Life Partner, because the day was already hot, even at 10am. Just my luck, it was supposed to be about 88 degrees and very muggy. I sat and waited for the bus to come, and Fumiaki drove up to me, and we said our goodbyes, and he went on his way. Hopping on the bus, I sat and watched my little town of Hikone pass me by for one of the last times. Sure, I will be back to show dad and Kev around a bit, but it will be as a tourist. No more will I be a resident of Hikone, even for a short period of time. By he way, all of the bitterness of classes has passed by now, replaced by nostalgia, even before I was gone! I got off the bus a bit prematurely, as it rode through Ginza and walked my own way to the ATM to remove a bit of cash for the trip to Osaka. I wandered fairly slowly, even through Al Plaza to Hikone-eki. It was a very nice day, truth be told. Waiting for the train, I got out my PDA and started reading more of the Wheel of Time series. I had a stroke of genius (or just the boredom triggered something...) the night before and downloaded a PDF to TXT file converter and spent an hour saving 1170 pages of the book into 10 page files (that's 117 files out there for you math majors), so they would be small enough for my PDA to happily open. Now this thing is more than useful. Japanese dictionary, book, and if I ever get around to getting a good SD card, it will have a bunch of mp3s on it also. The train took me to Kyoto, and I barely read anything, so caught up in the countryside was I. I transferred to Osaka, and then got off at Osaka-eki and wandered around. I really had no idea where to go. So I decided to get something to eat. It was well after noon by this point. I found a little ramen place at the edge of Osaka-eki that had a Karaage Set lunch. Karaage is breaded, fried chunks of chicken breast. For about 780Y I got a dome of chahan (fried rice), three chunks of karaage, and a bowl of Shoyu Charshumen (Soy based Pork Ramen). Quite a deal! My belly more than full, I wandered outside to sweat some more. I mean, to find where I was going. I finally figured out where to go, taking one subway, taking a train, then transferring that train, and I got to my destination of Iharanosato out in BFE. That's right, in BFE. If you don't know what it means, look it up in The Urban Dictionary. Be warned, you can find anything there, and nothing is censored. Have fun! I was to stay the night at Lodge Tyojirou, and I had no idea where to find it other than "A 5 minute walk from Ihara station," so I started walking. And what do you know, five minutes later, and one sidestreet later, I was there! Lodge Tyojirou was actually a pretty pleasant, if a little dark, youth hostel type place. They had a bunch of pictures of previous guests who had stayed there, and all dressed up as samurai or in kimono.. It was pretty cool. The owners seemed truly happy to have me there. Now, to the room. It had bunk beds with a folding cot also in the room. Every room looked like it could have 3-4 crammed into it. I was blissfully alone in mine, and since it was so hot, I took advantage of that. You may draw your own conclusions. When I got tired of that, I took a little walk, and didn't find that much other than a Friendly's, which had a drink bar (free refills!!!) so I planned to go back for dinner, though it was about 5pm. I wasn't hungry. I actually passed out in my room for a while after reading a bit, and woke up at around 9pm. Now it was dinner time. I meandered my way over to the Friendly's, and got myself the drink bar and some Teppanyaki Steak (a steak griddle with thinly sliced steak which was absolutely delicious, a few fries, cabbage, onions, and, surprisingly, carrots). The drink bar was pepsi products, so I wasn't holding out for melon soda. Luckily, I was surprised when in their selection of Pepsi, CC Lemon, Grapefruit Soda, and White Water (which was a lemon-lime like cider drink), they had Suntory Melon Soda! I promptly poured myself three glasses (about 12 ounces each) and went to my seat to read while I waited. I hung out there until about 30min before the curfew (curfew of the hostel was 11pm), adding a much-missed cappucino to the list of beverages drank, and then sauntered home, my belly full of beef and melon soda with a hint of cappucino, and read myself to sleep. I didn't fall asleep until 1:30am this time, though. I did make it home in time to get a shower in, and you have no idea how good that felt. This morning, I left Lodge Tyojirou and hit Osaka on my own. I went back to the Namba-eki with the intention of transferring and going to Sony Tower, but I saw something called Namba Parks. I had seen it in a magazine the day before, and decided to check it out. It was a beautiful shopping area, with really unique architechture. The first thing that caught my eye was a series of gardened terraces that had water features running through all of them. If the Hanging Gardens of Babylon existed in Japan on the edge of a mall, this would be them. It wasn't awe-inspiring, but pretty amazing that they could have that many gardens in the middle of a city on an 8 story buidling. When I got up to the top, I went and looked down from my lofty perch. This is where the architechture astounded me. It was designed to look like a canyon, windswept and wavy walls made with variegated layers of earth tones running from pale sandstone to a dark burnt sienna, it caught the eye, and dragged it to the floor of the mall which had designs of swirling blue, obviously meant to be a stream. It was even called Canyon Road. Well done, Japanese architect. Well done. I wandered around there and found an ad at the three story Sports Authority (three stories?!) that said "Impossible is Nothing!" I thought dyslexia have advertisers? The food there was too expensive to eat, and after wandering aroud practically every store in an 8 story mall, carrying laptop case and backpack, I was pretty hungry. I had eaten nothing else that day except for a delicious almond-encrusted belgian waffle made in front of me (and it was still warm....) that morning. So I looked at the restaurants, and everything ranged at least 1200Y, so I passed on that. I wouldn't even get a drink bar there, so what was the point? I headed out of the Namba Park to the city below. I bought a Dragon Ash CD, Mustang (yes, Jamie, you can have a copy, since you let me copy yours) at Book Off, and got a free 50Y off coupon by winning a slot game outside. After I bought the CD. So I had to go back and visit the 105Y manga shelves, ending up picking a Slayer's manga. By this time, it was 4:30, and my dad and Kevin arrived at 6, so I decided to go wait at the airport. My dad's email said he would meet me at the bar closest to the gate, but he doesn't understand Japanese airports; they don't have little Cheer's pubs dotting the gates. They serve draft beer at the magazine stand though.. But there are only two Arrival gates. North and South. I think I'll be able to find him. It is now 6, and his plane was delayed. I bet it was his fault too, hehe. Luckily there is free internet available to me (and a place to charge my PDA, more reading time for me!) The most interesting thing about Kansai International Airport is not the fact that it is on an island that was built specifically to house the airport, but that I was wandering around and found a Lawson's in the basement below the arrival gates. It is down about 1.5 stories, so it is the lowest Lawson's I have ever seen. It was decidedly lacking in their Melon de Melon, however, so I just got a big carton of green tea. In the last hour I will wait for my dad and Kevin, perhaps pull my Dragon Ash on to my mp3 player. That would make me happy. In any case, this is David, signing off, from Kansai International Airport!

Update!!!

I am coming home two days earlier than planned!! Yay!! Here is the updated itinerary. Friday August 27th Air Canada 0010 Depart: Nagoya, Japan, 6:00pm Arrive: Vancouver, Canada, 11:05am 9h5min in the air Air Canada 1062 Depart: Vancouver, Canada, 12:30pm Arrive: Toronto, Canada, 7:59pm 4h29min in the air I have a stay overnight in Toronto that night, then back to the airport. Saturday, 28 August Air Canada 7993 Depart: Toronto, Canada, 11:20am Arrive: Detroit, Michigan, 12:48pm 1h28min in the air Not so bad, eh?

Last Pictures with JCMU People

Here we are kiddies, just the last two weeks of photos on Photogra. Sorry, still no comments on them. I've been busy being lonely here, okay! Week 8 Hikone Week 9 Hikone Sorry, no pictures from the onsen, I didn't want to take my camera where a bunch of naked guys would be. I stand by my decision. For now, I am leaving JCMU for the last time as a resident in the morning, and this will be my schedule. Perhaps I will have updates, maybe... 10th - Osaka by myself 11-13 - Osaka with Dad and Kev 14 - Nara with Dad and Kev 15-17 - Kyoto with Dad and Kev 18-19 - Tokyo with Dad and Kev 20-22 - Hiroshima with Dad and Kev 23 - Osaka with Dad and Kev 24 - Dad and Kev leave, I am alone till the 29th. 29th, return home, get home on the 30th. Yay!!

Still Playing Catch-Up, and I am Caught Up!

Okay, where was I? Kiyomizu-dera on the 18th of July. It was rough getting there because it was uphill the whole time, and Jamie, Meghan, and Scott were in yukata that were particularly warm. Not a good combination. Stopping at a multitude of fairly pleasant shops, we finally made it up to the temple. And it was fairly awe-inspiring just from the entrance gate. It overlooked the whole city, and the view just kept getting better as we went in. Inside, there were three tools made of iron. One was a pair of sandals, the next a walking stick, and the last was a prayer staff (jingly staff that priests carry in anime). If you could lift them in succession, you were considered a superman (choujin). Or so the story goes, that the guy who founded the temple carried them around. The first two were fine, but the third must have weighed 400 pounds. Elmer and I decided to be han-bun (half) choujin and shouldered the load together. After that, we wandered through the complex, wondering at all the green and the trees around us. It was amazing. After seeing the sights and enjoying the views, we went down to the spring from which the temple gets its name (Kiyomizu-dera means clear water temple). We had to stand in line, and use these long poles to fill the little cup from three streams of water falling down, but it was good. Nice, cool, clean, fresh water helped so much. Even if I poured it into an Aquarius bottle (sports drink). Supposedly, they give you luck in romance, work, or money depending on which you drink from, though they all come from the same stream. So I don't know how they are different. Afterthe Kiyomizu-dera experience, we hit a few shops on the way down, and decided to head home. Just a little more walking and we were at the train station. The girls and Scott changed out of yukata and we hopped a train home. We did have to sit and wait for a transfer train at one point, and after a few minutes, Elmer looks at all of us and then pokes me and there, on the train across the platform, is a swarm of middle schoolers waving frantically at us. They were inordinately excited to have someone wave to them. But they headed off, and I got a picture, and then we were off ourselves. An hour later we were back at JCMU. That Tuesday we had our koto lesson. A koto is a 13 stringed (some have 16 or 18) floor harp. We played it a bit, and I personally really enjoy the sound it makes. I didn't do so badly on it, really. But it was really nice, getting to sit in the tatami room and listen to good music. For the weekend of the 24th, we had no real plans. I went to the Ohmi-Hachiman Mall with Becca, Rob, Allan, Jamie, Meghan, and Scott. This was a two building mall that was pretty impressive actually, but it really had nothing that I wanted to buy. I blew some money on a game that could have won me a Game Boy Advance SP. But I didn't get it, so I left it alone. After the mall, we barbequed. It was a nice, lazy barbeque. Besides, we had to make up for the lack of one after the Gion Matsuri trip! That was pretty much all of the weekend, besides the studying. Following Tuesday: Final Cultural Activity! Shoudou, Japanese Calligraphy. It was interesting to see how it was done, and it just felt really odd to me to be doing it. I write properly, but not holding the pen vertically. That was odd. I made 6 or 7 sheets of paper. They said things that ranged to 'Gibb' 'Vicious Circle' 'Shinbashi' 'Love' and more. We submitted our best to be displayed in the lobby, and the sensei told me to submit love over vicious circle. I wonder why.... That Thursday, the 29th, everyone was flipping out, including myself. We had presentations the next morning and nobody was ready. I rewrote mine, and it took 6 pages, wrote notecards, got my props (Coke, Fanta, Aquarius, and Georgia Coffee, since I wrote about bringing Japanese Vending Machines to America), and reread it many, many times. In the morning, I was first, and I think I rocked it out. I had my speech fairly well down and it rolled out pretty well. I got a good grade on it. After, Elmer talked about Street Dancing, Bednar-san (Daniel) talked about Japanese Fender Stratocasters, and Megan talked about clothing of the Heisei period. Then we had an hour of class that nobody prepared for. After that, I found Allan, and we ran away to Tokyo. Final on Tuesday be damned, we wanted to go to Tokyo!! Allan and I bolted to the station, and on the way I ran into Matt Sullivan, with whom I went to JCMU three years ago. It turns out that he is living in Hikone these two years with his girlfriend. Small world, eh? Anyways, I had to keep moving. Allan and I got the train to Maibara, had a half hour of a wait, so we went and got some Katsu Curry from the local Heiwado (grocery store) and ate it on the platform. The next train came, we hopped it, rode it for a few hours, transferred, rode another train, and thought we were making good time. At one point we were an hour and a half ahead of projected time. Then we missed a transfer, buggered things up, and then got to Tokyo on time. Tokyo station is just as I remembered it, and just as busy. We went to Shin-Koiwa where I thought our ryokan was, but I was a stop off. Koiwa was the destination, and we got there, walked our 10 minutes to the ryokan, and checked in. Ryokan Toki has changed since coming to Tokyo three years ago. They completely renovated it so the check-in building has a little kitchenette, three big tables, a computer that is online, and so on. Much different than the cramped little entry of before. Allan and I dropped our bags off and went into Tokyo proper. We went to Ikebukuro where there were supposedly some amazing game centers. Personally, I thought they just had a lot of the crane games and fighting games. But they had Taiko no Tatsujin 6 (the drumming game), and I got to play the theme from Kenshin on it. It made me happy. Dinner was a Yoshinoya, which I remember having some delicious beefbowl, but they only had pork this time. Stupid beef ban. In any case, we were getting tired from our long day of sitting, and decided to head back in lieu of going to another game center. It was a good idea we did so. We got the last train, where they had to pack people in like sardines. Oh, in Japan it is called Sushi-zume (packed like sushi). I couldn't exhale without pushing someone, so it was an interesting experience to say the least. Back at the ryokan, with a bit of chu-hi and sake, Allan and I relaxed while watching some tv of a group of Gaijin at a matsuri (festival). Sleep came easily on the comfortable futon on the floor.... In the morning, we got ready for our full day in Tokyo. First on the list was Tokyo Tower, and if we were going to get sucked into an alternate dimension, this was the place it was going to happen. Allan and I took a nice walk through a temple called Zozouji to get to the Tower, which has a bunch of trees around it. It was very nice, actually. At the Tower, we got a surprise. A guy with a trained monkey was performing! The monkey would jump over a hurdle, walk on stilts, climb stairs on its hands, and do backflips. Also, he walked like a man! Man Monkey!! We were entertained for a while with this, then headed up the tower ourselves. It is not really anything i can descreibe with words, being 160m in the air and looking out over a city that DOES NOT END. You will see the pictures soon enough. After the Tower, we went to go find Anna Miller's in Akasaka. Anna Miller's is a restaurant known for their pie and there, uhm, waitresses. At least that's what they say in MegaTokyo. I got to have a monterey-jack, crispy bacon burger with a toasted sesame seed bun, lettuce, tomato, onion, and ketchup with fat french fries, and a slice of Black Cherry pie afterwards. It was heavenly, if a bit expensive. With our bellies full of food it had been missing for months, we struck out again on to the city of Tokyo. Shinjuku was the next stop, to find the big Times Square like place. Instead of finding that, we found a Kinokuniya, which is a huge (7 story) book store, that didn't even have the book I was looking for. Sheesh. On another note, if we didn't come to Shinjuku, we would not have found the Okinawan Festival. Okinawa is a southern island in a chain of islands off of Japan, and they did a bunch of fun dances with drums. And ghosts. I think they were ghosts. Guys would leap around playing the drums, girls would dance around in really, really short yukata, and some other guys with their faces painted white would be the ghosts... or something. It was fun to watch though. After the third group soing similar stuff, we decided to head out to Akihabara, the electronics district. In Akihabara, we found Gamers almost immediately, though we took the wrong exit from the station. Gamers had expanded from their one story from three years ago, to 8 now. They had different floors dedicated to different things. It was amazing. 8 floors of anime goodness, and all I got was the first Slayer's novel. I am getting good at this not-impulse-buying thing. It appeared that Akihabara was starting to close down, so we headed back home, stopping for bento at 7-11 (no Lawson's for us, unfortunately) as well as a bit o sake to celebrate our conquering of Tokyo. More random tv was in order, and we enjoyed our night, and got ready for another travel day the next day. In the morning we checked out of Ryokan Toki, and meandered our way to the train station. We headed out a little earlier than we expected, and caught a couple good trains. One of them was non stop for three hours, which was good, but we didn't get to sit down until almost two hours had passed, which was bad. At that transfer, in Toyohashi, we decided to get some food. The next train left in either 15 minutes or 45 minutes. We figured the 45 minute one would be us, so we went up and found a really fast ramen place that served us ramen of lesser quality than Chanpon (but lesser price too, so it all works out), and we were back on the platform in 10 minutes. How's that for fast food? We did make it home in time for the fireworks, which made the streets crowded with yukata-clad people of all ages. It was almost difficult getting home. Quickly, I got into my yukata, and then got some beer to watch the fireworks with, as they shot up over the lake. The fireworks were impressive, and may have overshadowed the Detroit fireworks. They were pretty awesome. Not a bad trip to Tokyo at all, finishing up with fireworks and friends. Next, was our last Monday of class. Our last real day of class. It went well, actually, and then we spent the day studying for the exam. Of course we had katsudon for lunch at Shirumon, that's tradition! Study, study, study. For the final exam the next day! It actually wasn't as bad as the others, it seemed, and either I had given up or I started to get it. I prefer to think the latter over the former. After the exam, Karen organized a trip to an onsen (hot springs public bath). Elmer, Allan, Kevin Balint, and I were the guys involved, and Jamie, Meghan, Karen, Claire, Amanda, and Lauren were the women involved. We had a train to catch at 2:15, and it was about 1:55, so we hauled ass to the station, bought our tickets, and got on the train. The doors started closing, and a couple more were coming down the stairs, so I stood in the path of the doors, and bodily held them open. Twice. We had hoped that Karen and Claire were on the train, but they weren't. So when we got to our transfer point, we had to wait for them. It was fun though. The train station we ended up at was so small, it had no train ticket machine. You just got on it and bought your ticket later. Or that's what we did on the way home. From the station, a bus picked us up and took us to the onsen. Of course it was segregated. We went to our separate baths, scrubbed up on the little seats, and hopped into the water. The water was kind of reddish with minerals in it. It felt nice, but got really hot. And it's not easy to just get up when you're in a giant bath with a bunch of other naked guys. At least I didn't have my glasses on. We soaked in those two indoor tubs for a while, then went and found an outdoor bath. The girls were on the other side of the fence, and Allan tried peeking. Well, not really. He just put his hand through a hole in the fence to scare them. It was gratifying. All done with soaking, we eventually got back to the station, where we had to wait for the train. We passed the time by playing a game where a group of people stand in a circle, then everyone reaches out their left hand and takes someone else's (not the person next to you) and then you do the same with the right, and try to untangle yourselves. We tried twice and lost both times by the time the train came. Oh well. Later on, we had a barbeque, our last one. It was sad, but we enjoyed ourselves. Not a bad way to spend a day after taking a final exam. The next morning, Rob showed up and wanted to do something immediately. So he and I went to Osho, which was a Chinese place his host family took him a lot. We had Charshu-men (ramen with pork in it. A LOT OF PORK), gyoza, and Anindofu (almond jelly), and it only cost 1008Y. Cheap, really. After that, we went to McDonald's for a giant coke. It was a Jumbo Coke served in a carton. I was pleased with it. Coming back to JCMU, I had to start on my cleaning, and then everyone kinda took off their own separate ways, and I went to catch up to people out on Castle Road an hour or so later. We came back and organized a trip to Shougestsu for a final okonomiyaki. Yes, you have seen this before if you read my journal. I am not explaining it again. There were seven of us who went. Karen, Bednar-san, Scott, Meghan, Jamie, Allan, and me. We gorged ourselves and had a good time, then came back here, watched some anime, and then trundled off to bed. And then we woke up for the graduation ceremony! The ceremony was not bad at all. There were some good speeches by the students of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year. 4th year was lazy and didn't do one... But Dr. Johnson, who is the resident director at JCMU is not a public speaker. It seems my Japanese is better than his, he couldn't pronounce names properly, and just wasn't into it. His speech in English didn't talk about us, he talked about Japanese humility, and then insulted us at the end by saying the teachers have done everything for us, even if we didn't put forth the effort. But I graduated, with a B- just like last time. I spoke with Rob's host mom after the ceremony, and she seemed like a really cool host mom. I wish I had gotten a higher grade, but I will survive. I tried my best. Then it was a mad flurry of cleaning so that rooms could be inspected, which was easy. The plans for the night were laid out as follows: go to Shirumon for dinner, then go to Viva City for game center. That was about it. Dinner was with Kevin, Jamie, Meghan, Scott, and Allan, since Rob had to go to his host family's place for dinner. Then we walked to the station, which took about 45 minutes. Ugh. Hopped a train one stop to Viva City, went to the game center and promptly picked up a shotgun and started destroying zombies. I was playing Time Crisis 3, by the way. I also went and tried to get some slimes from Dragon Quest, since everyone loved them so much. It was fun, and I made the machine tilt by hip checking it. It actually yelled at me and told me not to do that. Ha! We met up with Bednar-san and Karen there, who were going to see a movie, and got Purikura with them (photo stickers) After game center madness, we did some karaoke upstairs. Yes, I did karaoke. It was fun with the other people, in our own room. Rob pretty much took over and was doing a bunch of songs at the beginning, because he had to leave early. It was fun. We ended with Bohemian Rhapsody, which seems to be a standard for them, or something. It was good times. We got a taxi home from the Hikone station, by the way, no more silly walking for us! In the morning, everyone left. It was really sad to me, watching everyone except for Karen leave. It is not something that made me feel good, but empty, thinking that all of these people will probably never be in the same place again, and everything that we made this summer might live on in our minds, but never in action again. I know I'll see the people I hung out with, but everyone else is just on the outside. ::sigh:: Karen and I hung out a bit, and didn't do much else that day. I bummed around feeling sorry for myself. The next day, I slept all day, took a nap, then Karen and I went to Castle Road to look at the shops (she had two bikes still!), and we were going to go to Osho, but we ran into a Tanabata festival on Ginza Road, so we inspected it instead. We ate there instead, at the little stalls and stands. I had some Karaake (fried chicken breat chunks on a stick), a banana-chocolate crepe, and yakisoba. I was pleased. After getting home, we sat and talked until about 4am, and I told her the drama that was David's love life. Mainly because she had some questions come up that she had never dealt with and wanted advice. I woke up in time to wish her well as she went off to Kyoto, then home to Taiwan, and I really was alone. Sure, Ross is still here, but I never really talked to him. So pretty much, alone. I slept most of yesterday, and read when I was awake. I wasted the day. Now today I have a lot to do, since I have to be out of here by 9am. I can do it. And when I leave, I go to Osaka, then the next day, dad and Kevin show up and it's wacky fun time in Japan for us! My pictures from the last week or so should be public very soon, so I will have them posted when I have internet access again.