conclusion

Back home again, and I am already missing Japan... It was a great trip and theres still alot to be seen there for my next visit, so I am very looking forward to going back soon!

as promised, here are some (not all) pictures from the trip.

Japan

and here are some videos

Japan vids

winding down

The last few days have been pretty slow, in terms of treking around the country. We arrived in Nagoya and spent a few days at Marc`s, just hanging out and taking it easy. I was to come to Tokyo yesterday, but never made it. Deena and I joined Marc and his mates for dinner and drinks, and finished off the night with some karaoke rockin`. As we left karaoke we went for some famous japanese curry, someone pointed out that the sun was rising. I thought it was around 2 or 3, but I was way off. Getting back to Marc`s around 6:30, I decided that I was going to stay another day and recover before heading off to Tokyo City... and I`m glad I did.
This morning, feeling fresh as a daisy, I hopped out of my sleeping bag, took a shower and headed for the train to Tokyo. I got here around 5ish and decided to hang around the Shinjuku area untill I was ready to crash. I played some video games, and walked the streets for a few hours untill now... I found a fancy internet cafe and its almost bedtime.
Tomorrow I`m going to meet Deena (she stayed in Nagoya an extra day to catch up on some work) at our hostel in Asakusa (Tokyo). Afterwards I plan on wandering around Roppongi and Akihabra one last time before our flight home in a few days. Hopefully I will be able to remember where the locker was that I stashed my suitcase full of goodies (I had found an almost perfectly good suitcase in the dumpster and it amazingly fit all my junk snugly like a good game of tetris).

thats all for now
so long folks

Sapporo, Hiroshima and Italy

Silly me, I forgot to mention our 2nd day in Hiroshima! After our first fun filled night in Hiroshima we had a more depressing view of Hiroshima. We started off by visiting the A-bomb dome, which was a building thats still standing (with a little help) after the atomic bomb was dropped nearly directly over top of it. They kept the building there, despite its delapitation, to remind the world of the destruction that took place there many years ago. We then strolled through the peace park and visited various statues and reminders of the atrocities that took place. Most of them were in memory of all the innocent children and older folks that died in the attack. After working through most of the park it was time to go to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museam. In it was a timeline of all the events that took place in Japan before, during, and after that fatefull day. They started off by saying how there was many battles being faught between Japan and China. After that was resolved Japan became active in World War 2. Hirshima was a mobilized military town which housed many soldiers and military personell. They also mention that Hiroshima was the prime target because there were no allied priosoners of war on site. Once the bomb was dropped it had destroyed most of the city centre. There were many pictures and miniature models showing the path of destruction left behind by the bomb. It was very depressing, but that was only the begining. After the introduction there were ruins brought back into the museum. Metal girders warped by the heat, burned clothing, melted glass bottles and roof shingles. They even had a stone staircase that was charred by the atomic rays, but left a shadow where a lady was sitting on the bank steps, waiting for the bank to open during the time of the explosion. This was all very emotional, and it could have done without the wax sculptures of 2 kids and a woman walking through the rubble with their skin melting off their arms. They then showed the effects of radiation on the human body (short and long term) and revealed to us how many of the countries today still have stockpiles of atomic weapons. It was really scary actually. In the end, the museum never justified Japan`s involvement in the war, but rather show the effects of the kind of destruction atomic weapons can produce and are trying to show all the people that we shouldn`t let this happen again.

After the museum we were pretty bummed out to do anything fun, so we then decided to get the hell outta there and hopped on a train to Fukuoka.
We all know what went down in Fukuoka and Nagasaki.

Right now its day #2 in Sapporo. 2 days ago we took a real long train(s) ride to Sapporo from Fukuoka. The train ride was fun for the most part. During the longer train we enjoyed ourselves by sitting on a couch in the train watching black sheep (not the chris farley movie) on my ipod, dined in a fancy traincar and then had a nice sleep on a bunkbed. It was a real fun experience and I would love to do it again.
The next morning we awoke in Sapporo and were releived to enjoy some nice fall weather. My first impression of Sapporo was great. Nice weather (in comparison) wide streets and not too many people (in comparison). We stuck our bags in a locker, took a change of clothes out, and then made our way to the Sapporo Brewry Museum. Along the way, we stumbled by our new favourite Japanese chain store, Hobby off / Book off (no Hard off there). There was lots of fun junk to buy, but I had to restrain myself and only walk away with a Power glove for my new (very used) famicom system, and a copy of Super Mario Bros 3. when we got to the Sapporo Brewry Museum were greated by very friendly staff and the enterance was free! yippie! We made up our own explainitory captions, since there was no english, and then we came to the first bar. 400 yen for 3 glasses of various Sapporo beer products, with cheese! It was quite delicious, and very cold. After finding out how cheap of drunks we were, we continued through the museum and came by a 2nd bar, only one exhibit away too. We then drank a bit more cheap and tasty beer. Then we staggered into a Sega arcade, played some games and walked through the mall. Tired as hell, we then went to our internet cafe where we stayed the night and barely got any sleep at all.

Day 2 (today). We woke up kinda, and emmiditly headed for the mountains. Finding our way there was rather difficult as all the english we came across in Japan had suddenly dissapeared. After some minor difficulties, we found a bus to the mountains where we enjoyed some onsen bathing in the outdoors. It was really, really relaxing. After a few baths we headed further into the mountains, up a cable car and ate some almost delicous lamb dish which we cooked ourselves. Had in not been damp outside, we would have have been able to enjoy a beautiful view of the mountain covered with trees in their fall colours. Instead, we ate inside and then viewed the mountains afterwards. It was quite grand. Quite. I can try to explain how nice it was, but that would just be paifully boring to read. Pictures to come within a few weeks.

Tomorrow were off on another long trip, 4 trains and 12 hours later, to Nagoya. I will look forward to finding out if my package made it back to me or not.

chumbawumba
avi

Fukuoka and Nagasakiiiiiii

A slight change of plans... Since Nagasaki was totally booked up for the few days of the festival, we chose to go to Fukuoka and head to Nagasaki the next morning. Our first night in Fukuoka wasn`t very eventful. We got in, in the mid afternoon and found ourselves one of the only hostels availible. We quickly booked it and dropped off our bags. From there we took a little stroll through the city. Fukuoka doesn`t offer anything different than most of the other cities we`ve visited. Tall buildings, busy streets, Japanese food... nothing to write home about. We took it easy that night. Although the most exciting part of the day was when Deena had stumbled onto a few websites that were talking about her`s and Robb`s comic book, Titty Terror. People from all over north america were writing about how much they enjoyed it and there was even a fan art section where people were submitting their own titty terror drawings. It was quite shocking to see this, especially for Deena, since they only released a small teaser comic and handed out some coppies in Toronto. Deena celebrated on our way back to the hostel by jumping up in the air, we then returned to our beds and passed out.

The next morning we were awoken by a construction crew next door. It helped us wake up early and rush to the train station to catch our train to Nagasaki for the day. After a beautiful train ride we arrived at the main station. The weather there was VERY hot and VERY humid... We both felt really gross the instant we walked into the open air. We headed for the tourist information booth, grabbed a bite to eat, and then ventured into the city via streetcar to catch a festival with a big paper dragon (the name escapes me right now). It was really neat to see all the participants walking around and hoisting the dragon up and down in the air. Quite the spectacle. Then we walked down the street and saw a huge staircase with Torii all along the way. I hiked my way up to the top while Deena hung back and enjoyed some shade (not like it would have helped, it was still hot as heck). At the top of the staircase lived a large temple, I didn`t catch the name since it was all in Japanese, but it was still very nice. I also enjoyed a great view of the city from atop of the staircase. After I met back up with Deena we both decided to go back to Fukuoka to escape the tremendous heat, and I`m glad we did.

Along the way we planned a spontanious route to Sapporo to hopefully enjoy some nicer cooler weather, to get a cross japan view of the land and also to take full advantage of our rail passes. The trip leaves tomorrow and should take around 17-20 hours. We are both very looking forward to the trip.
Tonight we are staying at a surprisingly large japanese style hotel in Fukuoka, equipped with tea and a biscut. Hopefully they will replenish our stock before we retire for the night. They were damn good biscuits.

Thats all for today, stay tuned for more updates from the land of the rising sun.

g`bye

goodbye Osaka, hello Koya-san

We, very leisurely, left Osaka early in the morning and slowly made our way to the train station to get to Koya-san. We went to a department store to find a bag for me to carry all my goodies in, only to find that the bags I had in mind cost upwards of 20,000 yen.
`forget that` I said.
we then went for breakfast and then hit up the post office, where I was to spend over an hour trying to mail a box full of treasures to myself in Nagoya. Hopefully this will all go off without a hitch, and I wont end up like the guy next to me in line (from Detroit) yelling at the postal workers that his package was supposed to have arrived a month ago.
`good luck` he said to me.
My heart sank a bit.
From there we were on our way to Koya-san, which is a small village up in a basin of a mountain where there are over 100 Buddhist temples. Along the way, I made friends with an elderly Japanese woman. At least I think we were friends, she diddn`t speak a lick of english, but she was very kind. She gave me a little pack of tissue paper and told me what the advertisement on the back was (in Japanese). She then got off the train at her stop, after many nods of me not knowing a word she was saying to me. Again, she was very nice and friendly. After taking a train, then a train, another train, and a cable car, and finally a bus... we make it to the `town centre`... Its pitch black outside by this point, and we are tired as hell. We decide to go to the only hostel in town for the night and spend the next night at a temple lodge.
We very quickly find the hostel and approach a drunken clerk (at least I think he was drunk, he smelled of booze and stumbled with his words a bit)
`reservation?` he said
`nope` I replied
A shocking look came over his face which only concerned me a bit. He showed us the only room left in the hostel which was all the way up in the attic. He was very apologetic that this was the only space available. He revealed the room to us, after climbing a very steep staircase and crawling through an oompaloompa sized door. The room was magnificent. It was very large (with very low ceilings), it had a window, lamp, TV, a table with a few chairs, and a large log strangely placed across the centre of the room. It was the fanciest attic I`ve seen in my life, so far.

The next morning we left to find our self a temple to stay in. The lady at the tourist information centre told us that many of the temples were very full for the night, and that the one we were to be staying at would have an outhouse and paper walls separating the rooms from one another. That was fine, we said. Having booked our accommodation for the night, we headed off to get some breakfast. We went to a little restaurant by the tourist centre. I ordered Udon noodles, and Deena vegetable rice. During our meal I made conversation with an elderly Japanese man, who also diddn`t really speak any english. He was talking about how Canada was cold in the winter and warm in the summer (at least thats what I gathered from playing a spontaneous game of Japanese style charades). He was also very friendly and cheerful, and in great shape for a 72 year old mountain man. From there we headed off to launder our clothes. We were both very stinky, more so Deena, and felt that it would be a fun experience (doing laundry in the mountains).

It was time to check into the temple, I was really looking forward to this experience. We were very cheerfully greeted at the front entrance by a monk who was happy to check us in. He was a very tall man, but acted very small and humble. He asked us what time we would be eating dinner and bathing, and took our drink orders for dinner.　He walked us to our room, down a very very clean wooden corridor and showed us in. The room was magnificent. Not only were there solid walls between the rooms, but we also had an indoor washroom. After dropping off our bags, we went for a stroll through the town. We looked at some temples and walked through a very nice and almost eerie Buddhist cemetery.
Finally, it was time for this very refined Buddhist dinner I`ve been hearing so much about. We were walked into a rather large room, with 4 little tables and 2 floor mats, quite the private meal. It was a strictly vegetarian meal consisting of 2 kinds of tofu, various pickled mountain veggies, some sort of seaweed dish, some kind of lemon soup (to fight the mountain scurvy), white rice and a rice cake they call `devils tongue` (I believe).
After dinner we waited in our room for bath time. After a half hour there was a very quiet, but persistent, knocking at my door.
`sumi, sumi, sumi, sumi...` he said, until I opened the door.
`this way` he said
by the time i got to the bottom of the staircase, he was already waaaay down the hallway by the bathhouse. My fat feet don`t really fit into these slim slippers they gave me, which makes walking (quickly) a challenge. The bath was lovely, I had a good soak in the stone hot tub and then washed myself clean.
Then Deena showered. Then we went to bed.
early the next morning, around 6:30 in the AM we were greeted by another very persistent knocking at the door.
`sumi, sumi, sumi, sumi...` I answered the door and we were off to the morning ceremonies.
I diddn`t know what to expect, as I know nothing about Buddhist culture. Our favourite monk walked us to the ceremony hall. We entered a room full of ornaments, statues and all sorts of religious things that I diddn`t know of. In the centre of the room was 2 stools, for Deena and I. I thought that there would be other tourists here also observing the ritual, but it was just the two of us. We sat and watched them chant (a) very mesmerizing prayer(s?). I wonder what they were saying.
`zee zee wuh wuh nai uh gee wah zee zee..` this went on for about 30 min. There was some cymbal crashing throughout, and some gong dinging with a little bit of bell bonking. It sounded neat, but nothing I would put on my ipod. Now was time for the tourist interaction. We got on our knees and were told to put 3 pinches of some dried plant on a burning incense. Then, after a little more chanting, the main priest in the centre of the shrine turns to us. From behind he looked like a really old man, but was surprised to see him as a young man when he turned.
`thank you very much for staying and observing our ceremony, we hope you enjoy your time here. Breakfast will be served... arigato`.. or something like that , I can`t remember it word for word. It was a really great experience watching them do what they do... whatever it is that they were doing.
Breakfast was similar to dinner, but with other styles of pickled veggies, miso soup, seaweed and some sort of tofu and bean pancake. There was also what looked like a baby plum, which was EXTREMELY sour, and somewhat tasty.
After breakfast we took a little nap and I charged my dead ipod for the trip that lay ahead. We left the temple and headed to the cable car station where we would take the train back to Osaka. On the cable car we met our Belgish/kazakastanian chums... I knew we would be seeing them again, somewhere. We rode the train back to Osaka together, and one of them psychoanalyzed Deena with some mind games (quite accurately too). When we got to Osaka we said goodbye and went on our way.

We make it to Hiroshima around 4 and find out that all the hostels and hotels are booked.
`this is preposterous` I thought.
We then decide that we should stay the night at one of these luxury Internet cafes. We checked it out, and it turns out that it would actually be cheaper to spend the night in a private internet booth with a TV and internet than an actual hostel. I opted for the room with a bed and Deena selected the reclining chair option. This was definitely more worth while than just a straight up hostel. They supply us with towel, slippers, toothpaste and brush, and a locker for the night.. and all for 2300 yens! I should also mention that there is an all you can drink fountain pop machine, espresso machine, soup and soft serve ice cream. Man, am I going to be sick tonight!
Before we got here, we killed some time around the city (since all the museums and such were closed for the day). We had a nice soba noodle dinner at a tiny hole in the wall and saw some action on the street shortly afterwards. I wasn`t sure what was going on, but there was a tall American looking guy holding onto a pole with a small Japanese man pulling on his bag with all his might. They were both screaming at each other while the obvious tourist`s friends were only watching on. Deena had pointed out that the Japanese man was wearing a jazz club t shirt, and we had noticed smoke or steam billowing out of the jazz club as we walked by. I wonder what was going on.
This post has gone on long enough... Tomorrow we are to check out the city and then make our way to Nagasaki for a festival we only found out about today. The whole city`s accomodation is already booked up, so we may be staying at another internet cafe, if we get lucky again.


bless spellcheck
avo

osaka, the city of many flashing lights

Two more days in Osaka have gone by, and weve see quite a few specacles. The first one being the Osaka Aquarium. This is a huge aquarium with 9 large tanks inside, and as you descend in a spiral down from the top floor to the main floor there are 9 different depths of sea creatures to view. Everything from sea lions and penguins, to giant spider crabs and jellyfish... with a manta ray and whale shark in between. It was most incredible. Afterwards we rode a large ferris wheel next to the aquarium which moved veeerrryyy slowly, but eventually made it all the way around and we got a great view of the city en route. From the ferris wheel we headed to see an underwater 3d IMAX film. It was great, I actually felt like I was underwater with all those sea creatures, untill tremendous strain came over my eyes and I started to get very sleepy... 3d really takes a lot outta ya.
After we left that zone, we dicided to walk in a single direction from our hostel. Eventually we came by this street that sold all sorts of good goodies. Used video games, and large toy stores. We quickly hurried by most of the stores, as I was to spend the better part of the next day there. We then finished off the night by eating various fried foods off sticks and falling asleep to a kickass japanese assasin film.

The next day I hit up that video game district we had found earlier, of course. I bought all sorts of goodness for myself, but now I have nowhere to put em. My best finds were an original nintendo famicom and a 3do system for 1000 yen.. WHAT A DEAL! now I gotta carry this crap everywhere I go, but it will definetly be worth it in the end.... unless it breaks. We then took the rest of the day off and just wandered around the area for a while.
So far there seems to be the largest homeless population here in Osaka, at least around where we are staying that is. There are ALOT of them, compared to the other cities we visited (I maybe saw one other along the way). Its kind of comforting though, it reminds me of home.

Today we are off to try and get to Koya-san, i think its called... A bhuddist monastary up in the mountains. I expect to eat some great vegitarian meals and find jesus along the way. From there we are to go to Hiroshima and then continue on with the rest of our trip, but right now I gotta run and try to find a suitcase to buy and put all my goodies in it...

bobye

kyoto to osaka

Kyoto.... what can I say... its a VERY large city, with lots of streets and buildings on either side. Riddled througout the newer buildings are temples and shrines everywhere. Kyoto used to be Japan's capital city, before the [capital] moved to Toyko. There were very many sites to see in Kyoto, but very little time to see them in.

On our first day out in Kyoto we rented a pair of bicycles and rode them to the western outskirts of the city to see some temples. By looking at the map, I figured we will be able to see plenty of hotspots before 7pm (we had to have the biked back by 7). After about 40 minutes we began to realize that the scale on the map(s) that we had wasn't very consistant at all. Also, our maps diddn't have any street names labeled, making the journey quite difficult. Deena then decided that we should ask someone on the streets for directions. She approached a lady on a bike at the intersection and pointed to where we wanted to go on the map. The bike lady pointed to herself and then down the street, assuming we were to follow her. We kept pace with her for about 20 minutes, winding down and around small streets, and eventully come to a glorious Tori surrounded by trees. This wasn't really where we wanted to go, but we were very glad that she had showed us the way. We would have never found this temple on our own, all tucked away within the suburban outskirts of Kyoto. Beyond the tori lived a large and rustic temple, surrounded by all sorts of exciting plants and a thick bamboo forest. We walked the grounds, stunned by the awesomeness that it was. I payed \200 to try and shoot 2 arrows at a target. Apparently my arching skills aren't as good as I remember it being. I missed the first one by alot, but the 2nd arrow almost made it to the actuall target.
After that temple (i think it was called the grand temple) we tried to find a shrine dedicated to insects. A pesticide company here felt bad for all the insects it helped slaughter, so they built a shrine for them. I'm not sure if we found it or not, but we did come across a really nice shrine with a very large lineup. We looked at it briefly, then went on our way. Leaving there we met a very friendly security officer, who was very eager to talk to us. He was very interested in why we came to Japan and how we ended up so far from the city. He was also very interested in the sweet bikes we rented... mine was brown and deenas was green. Upon leaving the shrine we figured that there was no way we would be able to see all the sites i had planned for the day, so we rode back to the city centre to return the bikes.
Needless to say we were really pooped out by the end of the day, so we just went for some eats and then off to bed.

Day 2 in Kyoto, it was a very rainy day. I awoke with itchy bites all over my body (much like the first night). The first night there I saw a little black spider crawl away from under my pillow, so he was my main suspect. I decided to let him be the first night, hoping he wouldn't do it again, but I was wrong. The 2nd morning was the final straw. Again I saw the little critter crawling away from me as I woke up, so I grabbed the can of raid in our room (handy that it was there ,eh) and sprayed the little bugger to death. After a few minutes my face felt a little numb so I thought it would be a good idea to open the window. I also gave Deena a little nudge just to make sure I didd't kill her so early on in the trip. I was ready to roll, and Deena was still in bed, so I went on without her. I walked in the rain to a covered street where they sold clothing and touristy shops. Not soo exciting, but at least I was out of the rain. From there I headed off to Sanjusangendo Temple which is home to 1001 wooden cannon statues. It was very spectacular, seeing all these hand made statues lined up all the way down a narrow corridor. Throughout them were various deities. Unfourtunetly picture taking was not allowed. Afterwards it was time for me to walk back to the hostel. I was already soaking wet at this point, so I didn't have to worry about getting any wetter. When I got back to the hostel, Deena looked very comfortable, having taken both matresses and pillows, and wedged herself into the corner of the wall. She had drawn some lovely pictures and wrote some stories while I was gone. We then hit up foods and hung out at a media cafe for some good ol american TV. On the way back to the hostel, I stopped in at the 711&holdings (its what they call 711 here) for a can of fresh flavoured oxygen. I decided to get the forest aroma flavour, rather than the coffee scented one. Feeling bright and refreshed after some good oxygen, we went right to bed.

The next day we woke up and checked out of our hoste. Before we hopped on the train to Osaka, we hit up the Golden Pavillion. This place was real nice. A 3 story old style house, with 2 of the upper floors covered in gold leaf, surrounded by a lake with little islands througout. Needless to say, it was quite shiny, quite.

We then rode the bus back to our bags and then trucked it to the train station. We waited for about 50 minutes for our train and were really concered when the train diddn't show up at the time specified. Every train/bus we caught here came and left the minute it said it was supposed to. Finally the train showed up, and 29 minutes later we were in Osaka. Again surrounded by a huge city with bright flashing lights. We booked a last minute hotel in the northen disctrict of Osaka, dropped off our bags, and then headed out for some tasty eats (cold soba noodles with tempura). Before we went for food, we wandered around a 9 story department store (there seem to be alot of these in Japan). I was looking around at gundam figures, when the airsoft department caught my eye. I've been looking for an airsoft gun here since day 2, specificly a mini electric MP5 that I've been eyeing for years (since I first became interested in non leathal firearms). There it was, the last one in stock. I emmidietly bought it and am looking foreward to practicing my target shooting all night. Moving and non moving. Which brings us to today... here.... right now... sitting at the Media Complex Space in Osaka, wondering which direction I left the hotel at. With some luck and little guidance, I'm sure we will once again find our way back.

good-bye
a.

this field was intentionally left blank

It has been a few days now since we left Nagano. The train ride to Nagoya was quite magnificent, winding through valleys surrounded by even more moutains than we saw before. We also watched vanishing point on my ipod during the trip, which was also a spectacular movie.

We arrived at Nagoya and was greeted rather quickly by Deena`s friend, Marc. He took us to his apartment just down the street from the train station and we got settled in before he left for work (teaching english). Deena and I took this time to wander around Osu, which was an area of Nagoya much like that of kensington markets. There they had vintage clothing stores selling all sorts of vintage tshirts from my childhood (star wars, ninja turtles, alf, californaia rasins etc.). We also came across many amazing toy stores with lots of toys that I could never find at home. Of course many of them were too big and expensive to fit in my bag, so I decided to wait outside the stores while deena browsed. As I was waiting outside a toy store, I noticed a hippy looking japanese man riding his bike past me. I thought that he looked familiar and I only realized who he was once he rode past me. Cotton Casino was his name from the (in)famous japanes psychedelic band Acid Mother Temple. For a moment I though to chase him down, but I was too starstruck to even move. A few seconds later he was long gone.

Later that night Marc and his room maties took us to a Japanese bar/resturaunt (Izakaya). I`m unsure what the resturaunt was called, but we all ordered many small dishes and shared them amongst each other. It was quite delicious. After a few small meals there, and a few drinks later, we headed to an irish pub where we drank a little more and then headed back to Marc`s apartment.

The next day was pretty laid back. Deena and I headed into the middle of the city to try and buy Battles (the band) tickets, only to find out that it was sold out. Pretty dissapointing. Afterwards we went back to Marc`s to meet his roomate, Bob Moody, for some japanese curry. Very delicous it was and a little spicy. Afterwards we went to an american sports pub, hung out and played some darts.

One of Marc`s friend`s, Phil (I believe his name was), was also at the bar with us. He began to tell us an interesting story about how he was to have some couch surfers crash on his couch, but got disconnected during the phonecall and they never called back. He felt pretty bad about it, because they called from a payphone so he couldn`t call back. Somewhere in the story he said that one of them was from Belgium.
`was the other from Kazakastan` i said
`yes` he replied, somewhat intruiged as to how I knew.
We had met them our 2nd night in Tokyo and saw them again in Nagano. They seemed to be taking the same route as us, and I`m sure we will be seeing them again soon... somewhere...

The next day, which is today, we left for Kyoto... once our landry was done drying. We had just checked into our hostel, which was rated pretty low on hostelworld.com and were very surprised with how nice the room was. It was a traditional japanese style room where you sleep on the floor. With the air conditioning blasting, I`m sure we will have a good nights sleep.
Tommorrow we are to once again get back into the sightseeing groove and hit up as many temples as we can, here in Kyoto. So far the weather here is nice and dry feeling, with a cool breeze cutting across the streets. This is a nice change from the humid and hot weather we had in Nagoya.

More exciting updates to come soon!

so long and thanks for all the fish

Mountainous protruberances

It was a wet morning in Nagano today, as we slipped and slided our way to the train station. From there we headed to Jigokudani Monkey Park via Kanbayashi onsen guchi. The trip went surprisingly well, transfering seamlessly from train to bus. Although we don`t speak japanese, and the people there diddn`t speak english, we managed to find our way quite easily. My excitement grew as the bus winded its way up the mountainside and let us off somewhere along the way. The air was cool and fresh, and I was very excited to meet these monkeys.
After a 40 min hike up the mountain, we had finally arrived at our destination. The monkeys sprawled on the roofs of the buildings were a dead giveaway. After paying our 500 yen enterence fee, we were free to walk around a gyser and watch the monkeys play in a hot spring. The best part of all is that there were no cages, so the monkeys were all around us. On the paths and even in the trees right over our heads. We sat stood aside and watched as the monkeys played and clawed at each other. We even had a little scare when a group of monkeys a few feet beside us got in a little scuffle and nearly ran right into us. One of the monkeys ran away while spraying its pee in a mad dash, missing me by only a few inches.
As we walked back to the town, we stopped off at a little noodle house / monkey candy shop. The elderly ladies there kept repeating "monkey candy" at every item we looked at. We both ordered Soba noodles with tempura. It was the best damn delicous soba ive ever had, and some tasty potent wasabi. Before we got to the bus stop, we stopped off at a japanese onsen (natural hot spring). There we sat (in seperate pools) enjoying the sweet sensations of natural springs. The air had a little bit of a sulphury scent, but it was enjoyable knowing that it came from the cracks in earth`s crust, instead of the crack`s of the old mens butts as they sat around me. We managed to find a direct bus for the ride home, which was very enjoyable aswell. Giving us a nice view of the valley as we descended from the mountains.

From there I went on a solo mission to the Zenkoji temple as quickly as I could (before sundown) On my way to the temple I had passed a few hobby stores, and I just couldn`t walk by them without checking them out. About an hour later I had reached the temple enterance, after sundown. Although it was dark out it was still very visible, and the bats circling the area made it look even more mystical. Unfourtunely all the shops along the walkway were closed, but im sure I will return to there at some point in my life.

And as promised, here are some pictures from the last few days here in Japan.

japan part 2

canned coffee

It was a glorious overcasted day today in Tokyo, which made our trek to the Shinjuku bus station all the more comfortable. We arose from our capsule and emmidietly headed off to the bus station, after my morning soak of course. Right when we got to the subway station, we were greeted by 2 english speaking travellers. They noticed that we were canadian because of the canadian flag patch I was sporting on my bag (thanks mom). One of them was from Saskatchewan and the other was from South Africa, and both were english teachers in the Japanese Alps area. Lucky for us, they were also heading to the same bus station, so they let us follow them. It was such a pleasure not having to try to figure out our own way, and just follow them blindly to the station. Of course they were very friendly, telling us all sorts of interesting tidbits about japan and teaching here.

From Tokyo we headed off to Nagano. Deena and I were both very excited to get out of the big city. Tokyo was really fun but very similar to Toronto in terms of it being a giant city with shopping centres and neon lights. We were both glad to leave the hustle and bustle of the city and get some fresh air. The busride to Nagano was breathtaking. The bus winded around mountains, across valleys and through clouds. The Mountains were beautifully arranged (thanks god/buddah/allah/zappa) and covered with very green, lush trees with clouds billowing out. The bus took a 10 minute break along the way and we took the oppratunity to sit outside and breathe in the fresh mountain air as we watched the clouds seep from the forests. Shortly afterwards we arrived in Nagano and were relieved to find that the city`s air was nice and fresh and there was a cool breeze with almost no apparent humidity. There were also no skyscrapers making the moutainous surroundings a pleasure to look at (we get a great view from the hotel room window) and it was very quiet. So quiet in fact, people seemed to move in slow motion compared to the hecticity in Tokyo. There were still billboards and personholes (because manholes just isn`t PC anymore) advertising that the 1998 winter games are/were here. Unfourtunely there weren`t any [visible] olympians lingering around anymore.
We decided to take the 2nd half of the day off from sightseeing, and just stroll around the main part of the city. We found a store along the way called Hard-Off, which was a used electronics store much like value village is a clothing store. This store puts Akihabara (Tokyo`s electronic district) to shame. It was full of old laser discs, old instruments, cameras, video games, comptuers and whole lot of other junk. My best find was on the 2nd floor, labeled the JUNK floor, where I had found an original Famicom system (the first japanese nintendo console) for only 1400 yen!! (which is roughly $14-$15). But alas, it was too big and delicate for me to bring with me on my trip, so hopefully I can find another one on my way back. I was also very tempted to buy a large synthesizer that I wanted eversobadly. I ended up purchasing a single computer speaker shaped like the *?* block from the mario brothers games. Can you tell that I`m a sucker for nintendo? Which reminds me of the night before in Tokyo. Deena and I were looking for some Yakitori when I noticed an arcade, and right in the window was a Mario Kart arcade game. I couldn`t not play it. I raced against Deena and kicked her sorry little ass. go me!!
After purchasing my speaker and Deena`s records, we went for some ramen and gyoza. It was damn delicious, with the returaunt priding itself in serving special salt from the x-mass islands which was tasty and not as salty as one would think... with it being salt and all.

I think thats all for today. I`m sooo sreepy right now and can`t wait to jump into my extremly soft bed and fall alseep to the japanese home shopping channel.

skate straight

avi

ghibli museum and harajuku

Today was another fine day in Tokyo City. The weather was beautiful. I nice overcast and a coolish breeze, which made wandering all the more comfortable. We spent the night in a capsule hotel, which was quite the experience. For those of you that dont know what a capsule hotel is, it is what it sounds like. Picutre a hallway of pods stacked 2 high. Inside said pod is a bed, big enough for one person to lie in comfortably, given they aren't taller than 6 feet. There is also a TV, a radio, light, and alarm clock. There was also a AC vent installed, which was not working, thus making the pod extremely hot. They also supplied a pair of stylish pajamas, razor, towels and toothbrush. everything needed for a tired businessman to spend the night. They also have a dry cleaner on site. The shower room was also a new experience for me. There was a bucket in the shower room to sit on while you wash yourself, and a really hot tub to soak in as well as a very hot dry sauna. All while on the 9th floor of the building which provides a great view of the city.

From the capsule I grabbed some street tempura and we headed to the Ghibli museum. The museum was much more than I thought it would be. Studio Ghibli is a famous Japanese animation studio that created great cartoons such as Laputa: Castle in the sky, princess mononoke and spirited away. The architecture of the museum was very nicely done up. It reminded me of the salvador dali mansion, but more childlike with round walls and pastel colours with a soft stucco finish. When we entered the museam we were very enthusiasticly greeted by the staff and given 3 animation cells which were to be our tickets into the Ghibli theatre. The first room we visited was quite mindblowing. It featured various animation stills of the films and minuture dioramas of their animation studio. Next were some zeotrope animations of their characters (a disc with drawings on it and slits on the opposite side, when you look through the slits, the object looks animated). That was impressive, but next up was probably one of the most amazing things i have ever seen. We peered into a glass tube and saw about 30 sets of statues all surrounding a big tree. After a few seconds the whole platform of characters starts spinning. Next the lights start to flicker at a specific rate. And right before my very eyes the statues start to come to life. I've seen animations before, and i understand how they work, but i never thought I would be seeing this. It was as if I was watching a live action stop motion cartoon, but in live action right in front of me. It probably doesnt sound all that exciting in writing, but I highly recommend the trip to the museum (if your in town) just for that exhibit. The rest of the museum was also very magical, but diddn't make as much of an impact on me like that spinning doohickey did. The museum in whole was very magical. There were some rooms that were built right from childrens story books, we got to wander through goldie locks and the three bear's house, sat in baby bear's chair and played with his or hers poridge. There was also a rooftop garden with a giant metal robot (statue), and replicas of some home animation studio (all the signs were in japanese, so I could only assume what I was looking at).

After the museum, we took another one of our famous accidental detours around the town, which was very nice. From there we headed to the Harajuku district. Despite not having a map we found our way, thanks to Deena's lip reading skills. She noticed some other people across the street asking for directions to Harajuku, so we just followed ever so stealthily behind them.
We navigated our way through very tiny streets, crammed with people and checked out some of the most fasionable people in japan. I kind of felt more like a bum wearing plaid shorts and a t shirt, instead of being dressed up like a vampire (i left my costume at home). There were some really interesting people there, wearing the strangest costumes i've seen so far. Some covered with blood, a few wearing eyepatches, and even a girl dressed like strawberry shortcake. Alot of the stores were selling band shirts, the most popular being the sex pistols, the clash and the misfits. I couldn't find any leftover crack shirts.

Tonight will be our final night in Tokyo (for now). We will be in Nagano tomorrow if all goes well. Playing with macaque ( snow monkies) and enjoying the (hopefully) quiet countryside.

Happy Passover
avi

tokyo game show day

Today we hit up the tokyo game show. The biggest video game convention in the world. It was pretty hectic with flashing lights, crazy sounds and lots of people dressed up as their favourite gaming characters. Most of the lineups were too long for me to bother standing in, just to taste some games of the future. But, boy howdy, there are some great looking games to look foreward to. Mainly Metal gear solid 4, and metal gear online looked pretty badass. as well as some sword fighting game for the wii. Although the best game i played there was spaced invaders for the DS. There was no line, so I grabbed a DS and played away. It was great fun, and I am really looking foreward to playing it again in the future.

Getting there and back took some time, so we diddnt do much else today. We ate some tempura, which was delicious of course. And i think i may have eaten jellyfish too.

Right now I am in a namco internet cafe which is pretty amazing. Im in a little booth with a nice reclining chair, a fast computer with a large screen, and all you can drink beverages. There is also a DVD room with a large TV and a huge selection of DVDs and manga books. I guess living quarters in japan are soo small, that its more worth while to go to a place like this with your friends, then having to pay lots more money for a bigger apartment or house. I could even get used to this life.
Tonight we are staying in a capsule hotel, so stay tuned for an update on that. As well as some pictures if i can get them online.

peace out

pictures

Japan

day two and thre3

So much has happened since i last updated ... where to begin? I guess i'll start at the beginning.

Our second day in tokyo started off pretty early, since we are both still jet lagged. We started off by trying to buy sumo tickets. We left the hostel without a proper map (i thought Deena brought hers, and she thought I had mine) so we decided to go on an adventure in tokyo without a map. After almost getting lost we managed to find the sumo stadium, and had stumbled across a very lovely temple dedicated to war heroes along the way. The early sumo matches were amateur wrestlers only, so we decided to go to Shinjuku until the pro tournament started.
Shinjuku was really nice, and not at all what I had expected. The streets were long and wide with huge department stores all along the way. T'was a very fancy shopping area much like yorkville in toronto... only in japanese. We hit up a few record shops in Shinjuku that had a very bad ass selection of records that I never came across in toronto, and at really cheap prices too. Sadly I diddn't want to cary a stack of records along for my trip so I opted to just browse instead. What really surprised me the most is that there were alot of posters and promos for The Shaggs, who were (or still is) a 60's rock trio consisting of ... (3) girls that don't really know how to play their instruments very well. I don't think they were very popular in North America, but are apparently hot shit in Tokyo. We also stopped into a pachinko parlour along the way and were mesmerized by the flashing lights and exciting sounds around us. I think we were doing pretty good for our first time playing, but really, we had no idea what was going on. nevertheless it was a great time. However, I would have to say the biggest and best surprise in Shinjuku was when we got off the subway. There was a Japanese guy walking towards us, and I noticed his shirt from a distance. I thought to myself "that guy looks like hes wearing a leftover crack shirt". I continue to walk down the street towards him, and to my surprise, he was actually wearing a leftover crack shirt. Even the Japanese (or at least that one guy) can't seem to get enough of that crack rock steady beat!
From Shinjuku we went to the sumo tournament which was very exciting. I thought I knew what sumo was like, from watching it on TV, but I never realized how much goes into the tournaments. Each match would start off with a clensing of the ring by throwing salt onto the floor. Then the wrestlers would stomp out (at least to my knowledge) all the bad spirits within the ring. They did this many times before the actual fight took place. The process would take about 5-8 min, and the actual fight would only last a few short seconds. After one of the wrestlers won, some guy would come out and sing a few short notes, and the whole thing would start all over again.
As we were walking back to the hostel for the night, we saw some kids playing catch (with a ball of course) across the street. One kid misses the ball and it bounces across a busy 4 lane street, Which I then caught with my ninja (ferret) like reflexes. I then threw the ball back to the kid, but I seem to have been out of practice, because the ball slipped from my hands, landed short in front of the kid, and then it bounced right into his gonads. He let out a litte yelp and cupped his naughty bits. I felt pretty bad about it afterwards, but it was a good laugh at first.
I also bought some Black Black chewing gum (highly caffeinated gum) and rose gum (supposed to make you sweat out a sweet rosy scent). I think the rose gum actually worked, but I bet Deena would say otherwise.

As for day 3, we started off by waking up at 5 am to check out the fish market madness. After taking a very long and out of the way walk, we finally arrive at our destination. The Fish Market. There were lots of fish. Afterwards we went for breakfast sushi, which isn't always the best idea, but I just had to try some fresh sushi straight from the market. It was pretty damn good, but I still felt a little ill, as did Deena. The sushi we had was much much bigger than back at home, and I was not expecting them to be so big (surprisingly enough, im not much of a fish eater).
After the fish market we headed to my old home, around roppongi. This was to be the most exciting part of my whole japanese trip. We get to Hiro-o station, and we find my old local grocery store, National Azubu market. It was just how I remembered it looking, not much had seemed to change. Across the street was a really nice park that we walked. It diddnt look familiar, but im sure I played in there. Next up was my old home. I was very excited to visit it, and the streets seemed somewhat familiar to me. As I walked towards the side of the house, I notice there is no driveway. Then as I get closer, I notice there is a big white barrier across the front. Shortly afterwards I am standing right in front of the house, only to realize it had recently been demolished.... sacré bleu! It was quite the letdown and very anticlimactic. We then walked very slowly down my street towards the peacock grocery store and eventually find the Wendeys restuurant I used to frequent as a youngster. We ate a greasy burger that made me feel like poop, and headed off shortly after.
From there we hit up Akibhara, the electronics district of Tokyo. There were lots of neon lights and the largest electronics department stores I had ever seen. They had some really nice TVs set up too, and properly hooked up to HD sources for the best possible picture. Unlike future shop and best buy, who look like they connect their HD TVs to VCRs for display. We saw lots of really cheap and elaborate cell phones and itty bitty laptop computers that caught my eye. We even came across a store that sold nothing but robots (for mucho dinero)
From Akibhara we headed back home via a few trains in rush hour. That was loads of fun. Now I'm about ready to hit they hay, after this long day. I hope I'm not forgetting anything. I feel that this entry may not be long enough. maybe next time I can elaborate more.

Evi L. Salem

The beagle has landed

Ahoy!
Deena and I have arrived in tokyo! And so far we only got lost once, which is pretty good i think considering We dont know any Japanese.
After the flight , we immideatly got our train passes and hopped on a train to asukasa station where our hostel is. On our way to the hostel we saw a giant golden turd, at least thats what it was according to a friend of mine {thanks jen}
After looking for our hostel for about 30 min i ask a younger person on the street if he knows where it is. He does\t speak english, but he tells us to go to the police station across the street for directions. Not really understanding him , we walk the opposite direction, only to have him run after us and take us to the station himself. He explaoins to the officer where we are trying to go and the officer draws us up a little map {that was of little help}. We took a spiral pattern around the blocks to look for the hostel, only to find it in the centre of the spiral we took.

I will post some pictures of our adventures soon.

also, its interesting to note that of all the bikes that we saw on teh streets, only one of them was actually locked.... hows that for trust?

avi and out

Pre flight part 2

Europe was great, I got back July 31st.
Japan awaits...I'll be eating sushi in no time*.


*about 4am EST

pre flight

im sitting around home, in anticipation of my flight.... i hope my ears don't explode again making me deaf for my trip.