I'm in Japan

Hey, look what I just found.

2010-10-11T15:13:00.000-07:00

This is pretty cool.
http://www.lifeinthefastlane.ca/worlds-longest-escalator/offbeat-news

He later found out that its NOT actually the worlds longest, but still pretty cool.

And as an added bonus, I'll show you all what it's like going up it. Not as good as actually being there, but you get the idea.

Photobucket Bandwidth

2010-10-08T14:41:00.000-07:00

I know while I was there, I exceeded my bandwidth on Photobucket, so from now on I'll be hosting all my pictures on Imgur.com. Much easier to use.
The Photobucket pictures are back to normal now, but I wouldn't be surprised if they exceed bandwidth later this month. I'll switch those links over to Imgur one of these days.

Already a Week!

2010-10-08T14:38:00.000-07:00

It's already been a week since I got back and it went extremely fast.
While I was in Japan, time just seemed to slow down. I'm not complaining or anything, though. I'm finally over my jet lag and over the mild cold I got from the plane.

I've been picking away at the videos I filmed while I was there, so I'll soon have a DVD made with all the pictures and videos if anyone wants one.

I was curious the other day and I checked plane ticket prices on Delta.com just to see what they were at. They were under $1000! And even the website that I bought the tickets originally from were still over $1000. It's crazy!

I have been reading through my Lonely Planet Japan book and finding things that I didn't get a chance to do while I was there. Next time I go, I'm hoping to spend at least a month there. Perhaps the end of July to the end of August. We'll see how life is going at the time, but I definitely want to be in Hiroshima for the Lantern Floating Ceremony next year.

I've noticed my sleep schedule has changed quite a bit. I used to get to bed around 3am or so and wake up around noon or after. Now I'm in bed around midnight and get about around 9. I like it. And all but one of my classes are before noon, so that should work out quite nicely.

For those of you who don't know: my neighbors suck at life. I'm living in a townhome/duplex sort of thing and these immature morons on the other side of the wall are so LOUD! They'll go out drinking every night, come home about 2-3am and start slamming things all over the place and stomping. They have two untrained dogs that they lock in the bathroom while they're gone. They've been living there for about 6 or 7 months or so and, as far as I know, they have not payed their trash bill once.

Well, I think they finally did pay it, or at least some of it, because right now at the end of their side of the driveway is their trash barrel and about 30 bags of trash surrounding it. (I say "some of it" about their trash bill because garbage day was last Wednesday and I think the garbage man only took what was in the barrel).
And, from what I understand, their garage is even worse. Ugh, I can't wait for them to move out. I can't believe I can't smell it from over here. Just ew!

And they have dog crap all over their yard...

I'm going to bed, my contacts are drying out.
Night.

2010-10-03T16:53:00.000-07:00

Ugh, I think I caught a cold or something on the plane ride. I'm all congested and blocked up. It pretty much SUCKS!

And I've still got jet lag. I keep waking up at like 0500 and can't get back to sleep. I'm always ready to pass out around 1800 while at work. Ugh.

But the good news is I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to Geico.

I weighed myself this morning when I woke up. I lost 10 pounds while I was in Japan. I am now down to about 150. Sweet. I feel so skinny.

I also picked out some of my favorite pictures, went to the little picture printing kiosk at Walmart and printed them out. 68 pictures for $20. On 4x6's. Wasn't too terrible.

I also bought Disturbia while I was there. Still an excellent movie.

It's currently 0615 and I'm pretty hungry. I could go upstairs and toast a bagel with some jelly, or I could have a bowl of cereal. Or both?

Yeah, both sounds good.

I have to work today, again. I hope I can stay awake for the whole 12 hours. :(

But at least they'll have free cookies today. I may have to stock up.

I also need to claim 2 on my taxes. I had put 0 when I changed them back from 9. Oops, too much taken out. Ouch. Hell, maybe I could claim 3.

I'm gonna go have breakfast and start my day right with two scoops of raisins.

Or toast.

I'm now home.

2010-10-01T22:31:00.000-07:00

I'm home now! Finally! I thought It'd never make it.
And yay, all my blog links are in English.
They were all in Japanese since it was Japanese internet. That was fun.

Wow, what an interesting trip, though.
I left my sweet hotel and started my half mile walk to the train station with all my bags in the sticky humidity. I had to wipe sweat from my face every 2 minutes. Bleagh.

Anywho, I got to the station, got my ticket to Narita Airport. 1000 yen. Ouch. Oh well.
While standing in the station, I found a trash that accepts pets...

I know I saw it move a bit...

Anyway, I got to the airport early. Probably at about noon. So I walked around, got some food. I had some delicious "Ethnic Chicken Rice"
Just chicken and rice with some peppers in it. Mmmm. I even ate it with waribashi. (Disposable chopsticks).

I finished eating and wandered around some more. Saw group of flight attendants, so I had to get their picture. :P

That was fun. And pretty random.

I got to my gate, gate 25, and sat around until it was time to board the plane at 3.
As I was trying to figure out where the end of the line was, I met a really really awesome girl, Yukiko. We stood in line and talked about everything. She goes to college in Iowa, and she's 22. She's been studying English almost all of her life; it was pretty good. And she's pretty cute. :P
We boarded the plane and went to our seats (Yukiko and I weren't sitting next to each other)
I ended up sitting next to these two Australian women who were going to be traveling around the US. They were pretty fun.
Well, finally, 3:55, our departure time, came and went. We sat on the plane for a good hour after the captain came on and said, "Ladies and gentleman, this is your captain speaking. Kohneecheewah..." (I laughed pretty hard at that and made fun of him the rest of the flight). "...we are currently experiencing some problems under the aircraft. There is a clamp that seems to be broken. We're currently in contact with Minneapolis trying to get it fixed, but if we can't get it fixed, we will need to switch planes. Sorry for any inconvenience."

Needless to say, we had to switch planes.
They gave us coupons for $10 for any vendor in the airport and 2000 bonus FF Miles.
Yukiko and I sat near our new boarding gate, gate 24, until we were able to board.
They just HAPPENED to have an extra plane of the exact same model just LYING around. Somethings fishy. They probably just moved the broken clamp plane to the new gate. Oh well.
We finally took off at about 6:15PM.

The inflight movies were pretty good. They played Disturbia with Shia Lebeouf (or however you spell it). I thought he did an excellent job. He's a pretty good actor. Maybe someday I'll be in a movie with him... and show him how it's done. :P

About 9 and half hours later we arrived at LAX where the people are just so gosh darn friendly. Yay.
Took about an hour to get off the plane, get luggage, get through customs, and get in line to get a new flight to MSP. Since I saw the one I was supposed to be on take off.
Yuki and I stood in line, got new flights, went through baggage check, and parted ways. My flight was in about 10 minutes, while hers was a few hours later. We exchanged Emails and parted ways.
I found her Facebook, here’s a nice picture of her:

I got home around 10:30pm, unpacked, and slept.
Gotta get used to the new timezone. Ugh.

Well, that's all I've got for today.
Sayoonara!

Tony-san

ShiBOOYAH!

2010-09-30T19:07:00.001-07:00

YOU will NOT believe what I FOUND in my LUGGAGE!!!

Silly cat. You’re not clothes, get out of there!

Anywho, I left Kyoto this morning at about 11:30 and started on my two hour train ride back to Tokyo. WEEEEEEE.

While on the train, I FINALLY saw Mount Fuji.
These were the best shots I was able to get. I did do a bit of Photoshop work to enhance the colors of them.
Hope you like em

I'm back down to the Tokyo Metro. These subways are MUCH cheaper than the ones in Osaka and Kyoto. Don't know why.

Empty Station Kind of

While on the subway, all the doors between cars were open.

And here's the shot of the train controls.

I checked into my room and so far, I think this is my favorite room. I wish I stayed here when I first got to Tokyo.
Here's a view from the hallway.

Gotta take off your shoes when you walk in.

The bathroom is right on the right.

And here is my living quarters. I like it. The bed is actually pretty comfy. And if I fall off, which I have been known to do (Especially on bunk beds), it isn't as far of a fall.

There's even a sweet closet with a fridge and trash underneath it

The windows slide open. There's glass behind them, don't worry.

I even get my own AC

I dropped off all my stuff and headed for Shibuya, a HUGE shopping district.
Watch this trailer of Lost in Translation. The part where the Dinosaur is walking across the giant screen is in Shibuya.

I highly recommend that movie. I'll probably see it differently the next time I watch it. "Hey, I was there!!!" or "I did that!"
Sweet.

Anyway, here are pictures of the Shibuya screen (from right to left)

I tried to get as high up as I could, this was the best that I could do. Not the greatest shots, but it shows ya what it's all about.

Here's a couple more shots of just the screen

They were playing this music video throughout some of the streets. Ugh, I strongly dislike this song. (Notice how I didn't use hate!)

If you haven't heard it, this guy took the beat of the "Stand By Me" song and put his own lame lyrics into it.

Here are some more shots around Shibuya.

A guy wearing a face mask. Guess he doesn’t wanna get SARS.

These Lawson stores are EVERYWHERE!
They are the second largest convenience store in all of Japan. (7-Eleven is number one)

What? Pachinko? NO WAY!!!

Throughout my travels, I've probably come across a good 50 different Pachinko parlors. Most of them are right across the street from each other. It's CRAZY.
And if you go inside, it's really loud. I played it once, couldn't figure it out, then left.

You're not going to believe the store that I found. Needless to say I bought them out of stock of everything.

Finally, before I left Shibuya, I got a few shots of the screen while it was a bit darker.

Everybody's waiting for the green man signaling go!

HE'S GREEN! Let the crowd surfing begin.
I can only wish.

Well, that's about it.
Tomorrow I'll probably be spending most of what's left in Japan in the airport.
Don't know how many pictures I'll be getting while I'm there. I might get one here or there in LAX. We'll see.

Thanks so much for everyones comments. And if you haven't commented, I appreciate you at least checking out my blog. Leave some comments, though. They make Tony happy. :)

Keep checking the blog, though. Tomorrow, while on the flight, I'll probably pick out my favorite pictures and make computer wallpapers for everyone. Hell, I'll probably print a few of em out and frame em.

And don't forget, I've got about 2 hours of video. Although I'll probably edit that down quite a bit. So an hour and a half or so. I'll be posting those on Youtube and embedding them in here.
Arigatoo Gozaimasu
Sayoonara

Temples and Shrines

2010-09-29T16:04:00.000-07:00

I started off my day with a nice breakfast at a small restaurant near the place I'm staying. I had some rice balls and some weird soup. I'm getting pretty good with the chopsticks, although still not super fantastic.

Afterwards I headed out towards Nijojo Castle. It's about 2Km away from the Hostel.

Along the way I saw an "Outside" car wash.

You just park under this thing, get out, stick some money in the side of it, and it goes to work.
It was pretty neat to watch.

A little further down the road, I found a samurai sword shop. Some of these swords cost 1,000,000+ Yen.
I was able to take pictures of these

But she said I couldn't take any pictures of these

Shh, don't tell anyone.

Well, I got to the shrine and you're not going to believe what I found...
A parking lot office

Here's a shrine inside.

There were signs that forbid scribbling. Man, I'm being naughty today.

I met these ladies. The one on the left is 28 years. The middle is 21. And on the right is 30.

Here's another shrine inside.

Here are a bunch of random pictures.

I saw this bird far off and I decided to test out the zoom on my camera.
It's probably about 60 meters away.

Pretty good if I do say so myself.

This is a shell of one of those annoying cicadas.

EEEEEWWWWW

And here's a birdie

I left the Nijojo castle and headed for Heian-Iingu Shrine.
There was a little stream running through the neighborhood. I wanted to jump in so badly...

As I was walking toward the shrine, I found a gas station that had the pumps hanging from the ceiling.

Wicked!

Here is the entrance to the shrine.

Here's a house off in the distance on the way to the entrance.

Now, I saw a couple of these around here. First of all, these people must be ripped. I should drive one.
Secondly, I cannot understand how these people don't die of heat exhaustion. It's so gosh darn HUMID. Atsui desu nee. I mean, It's about 11:30PM right now, and I'm sweating just laying in bed typing this. Ugh.

And here's the entrance entrance to the shrine from the inside.

Now, before I go any further, I want you all to watch this clip (if you can).
It's a scene from the movie Lost in Translation in which Scarlett Johansson's character is exploring Kyoto.

Okay, now that you've watched that, you may recognize some of these pictures from the video. :P

This is looking inside from the entrance.

Pretty neat!

Off to the side is the entrance to the gardens. Here is a sign right as you enter:

And here are various shots of inside the garden.

The remains of the little engine that couldn't take it anymore.

Small creek running along the path.

Alright, now this spot is in that movie clip.

And this is me in that spot from the movie clip.

Pretty picture of lily pads

Here's a little stream on the side of the path.

It goes under the path to the opposite side.

This is a bridge viewed from the path

While on the bridge there are carp and turtles below that beg for food. I say, someone didn't train them very well.

Back in the main entrance area now, here's a little fountain with some cups. I think you can drink from the cups, but, eh, I decided not to. But I did use the to poor water in my hands to splash on my face.

And finally, here's me in front of the shrine

The next temple is within walking distance, so I began my trek.
The walk is along a river that had a fun fountain in it

Finally I made it to the Nanzenji temple.
This building was in the video

Up the path a little ways (from where those people were walking down in the video)
There's a place to light an incense stick

And then you stick it in a pile of sand

And then say a little prayer or something if you want.

A little further in is this giant water canal that was made in the late 1800s.

And the inside of it

There's a little mini garden inside, too.
Here's a few shots.

Cool little waterfall

Well, I got out of the shrine area and walked through a small neighborhood.
I think this is the same stream I saw earlier that I wanted to jump into, just further up the hill.

I headed back to the train station, hopped on a train and got off at a station near my hostel.
While I was in that station, I found the Stairway to Heaven

And as soon as I emerged from the top, I was dumbfounded on how to pronounce this

Say THAT three times fast!

Anywho, that's all the pictures I have for today. I'm gonna go to sleep. My train leaves for Tokyo tomorrow morning at 11:30.

-Tony

It was dark, and I got lost in the woods

2010-09-27T11:16:00.000-07:00

Edit: I got all the pictures (for this post) fixed. Rehosted on Imgur.com
Please click my ads. :)

Konnichiwa everyone!

I've been here nearly two weeks, and I'm not really homesick. I could spend another two weeks here, or even a month. But, alas, my bank account would dry up and I probably wouldn't have a job...

I arrived at Kyoto today. The train station is HUGE. It's also part shopping center, just like every other train station in Japan. :P

There was even a little concert going on while I was in there. I could only assume it was in my honor.

And the stands:

On my way to the Hostel I'm staying at, called Tour Club, I spotted this VW Beetle. Pretty hawt!

I wasn't able to check in until 4PM, so I just bummed around the town, scoping out THA LADIES!
:|

I finally checked in about quarter after four and sat in the living room area to figure out what I was gonna do for the remainder of the day. There are a bunch of other English speaking folk staying here, too. Even some people from England. So whenever they're around, I'll talk with a british accent. They bought it. Hehe.

Anywho, for tonights event, I decided to go to a temple/shrine called Fushimi-Inari Taisha. There were a lot of tombs there. Kinda creepy.

Found a little micro Zen Garden in there

There are also a lot of stone foxes scattered about. The fox is considered the messenger of Inari, the god of cereal grains. The Japanese traditionally see the fox as a sacred, somewhat mysterious figure capable of 'possessing' humans.

Don't worry, I didn't get possessed. At least that's what I’d lead to believe. I might be possessed. But probably not. BUT MAYBE I AM. Or not. OR I AM.

Anyway.

There are hundreds of tunnels of red torii along the paths. Those are pretty cool:

No flash

I even found an icky spider.

Eventually, the path got a bit more wooded and creepy.

There were a couple instances where I ran into spider webs hanging across the trail. EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EWWWWW.

They're in my hair, THEY'RE IN MY HAIR!

Lots of bamboo

And then a really skinny trail.

But that skinny trail eventually ended at a nice little pond.

These are some of the tombs that are scattered about the area

There was also countless flights of stairs. I think it's about a 4km hike up to the top of the mountain.

Endless stairs. I was pretty wiped once I got to the top.

Once at the top, there were nice openings to see the city.

With flash

Without flash

I kept on walking, hoping that the trails would just be a big circle. Boy was I wrong, and it was getting pretty dark.

Luckily, I packed my handy-dandy Mag-Light with me in my backpack. So that helped a little bit.

I finally came to the end of the trail and ended up in a small neighborhood.

I was pretty lost. I managed to find some building and had the receptionist draw me a map back to the train station, about a 1Km walk. Not too bad.

I finally found the station, got on the train, and headed back to the hostel at about 2030 hours. Woo.

(A LOT of things are done in military time, so I've gotten kinda used to it)

I need a shower, I think I have spider web stuck in my hair. It's all...weird feeling.

Night everybody. (Or have a good afternoon)

Tony san

Osaka, Japan - Day 3

2010-09-26T14:44:00.001-07:00

Today was probably the most uneventful day ever.
I left my camera and backpack at the hotel and just walked around all day.

I found an international ATM. Yay.
There was a little dart game in front of an arcade and the guy running it was giving out coupons for the arcade. Well, I tried it and got a bullseye. Woo! So I got some candy and coupons for tokens.

So I went in and got my tokens. I got maybe 20 of them and started playing games. That 20 soon turned into 100+ on the game I was playing. I sat in there a good two hours playing games. Oh well.

Tomorrow I check out of Osaka and go to Kyoto.

Yay!

I'll update later.

Osaka, Japan - Day 2

2010-09-24T23:53:00.000-07:00

Osaka's Underground Aquarium was todays field trip.
They've got lots of fishies and sharksies and peoplesies. Ugh.

This is what I saw most of the time.

If there was an ugly contest for turtles, this turtle would take first, second, AND third place.

Friggin Penguins

A dolphin playin some basketball. He thinks he's Shaq.

Oh my God, a Whale Shark. This thing was pretty huge.

Off to school.

Dun dun dun dun dun dun

This turtle was pretty good looking. Swimming around and pimpin'

Ahh, Spider Crabs. Wouldn't it suck to find one of these in your bed?

CRIKEY, MATE!

Takin' on the Jellies!
You've got some serious thrill issues, dude.

I like how this one turned out with the slow shutter speed.

Well, that was the end of the tour. I went outside and found the worlds tallest ferris wheel, at least so they say. I didn't go on it, though. Not for 700 Yen.

At this point it's only 1 in the afternoon. And so to kill off the rest of the day, I went to Universal Studios Japan!

4.2 JIGAWATTS ON THE FLUX CAPACITOR!!!

I went on the Jurrasic Park ride not once, but TWICE. I was sweating, and that ride consisted of getting wet. So it was good.
The Spiderman, Back to the Future, Terminator 2 rides were all pretty cool. We got 3D glasses to enhance the experience. Hehe.
Don't buy any food or drinks there, though. Everything is way overpriced. Bring your own bottle of water and refill it at the bubblers.

Before I left, there was a Peter Pan play, I didn't stay to watch. I could only understand the "Wercome to Nevelrand" hehe.

Earlier in the day, I spotted an Outback Steakhouse, so guess what I had for dinner? Some Japanese food. Nah, kidding, I went to the steakhouse.

While I was there, another American guy named Brian sat next to me. He acts in a play called "Hairspray" that's playing here in Osaka. It was pretty cool meeting him. I think I may go see the play tomorrow. Maybe, not sure, though.

Anywho, I'm getting tired, and I've gotta finish washing my clothes.
That's all for tonight.

Goodnight.

EDIT:
I forgot to show you all a picture I got of inside the A-Bomb Dome. I didn't like how it turned out, so that's probably why I haven't posted it before.

They haven't cleaned it up at all. Just left it as is as a reminder.

And please click on my ads, guys. It really helps a lot. :)

Osaka, Japan - Day 1

2010-09-23T17:52:00.001-07:00

I had a weird thought on the train today. What if everyone in the train car suddenly burst into song and sang Paradise by the Dashboard Light with me. That'd be cool. That song was on at the time.

I made it to Osaka, but just about died of exhaustion while trying to find my hotel. All my bags combined are a good 100+ pounds. It sucks.
Wish I brought the bag with wheels.
Anyway, I eventually found my hotel. (Naturally, otherwise how else would I be posting this? HMMMMM?)

I got into my hotel room and dropped off all my stuff, sat down and scimmed through my Japan guide book (excellent book, by the way) to decide what I'm gonna do today.

I Know! I'll go see the Umeda Sky Building: a futuristic looking building that gives you a view of the whole city and an excellent sunset.

I started off by unloading my backpack a bit (My bed is currently full of random stuff that was weighing it down) and set off toward the building.

(By the way, I'm wearing my Looking for Japanese Girlfriend shirt today)

I've gotten a lot of looks, a lot of smiles, a lot of laughs.
Funny Shirt Guy strikes again!!!!

Anywho, I got to the Umeda Sky Building and saw a pretty cool fountain in front of it:

When I came back down, there were colored lights on it, but they were shut off before I could get a picture. :(

When you look up, you see this:

I went inside, got a ticket (700Yen), and headed up.
It starts off in a windowed elevator that goes up 35 stories I think. No pics.

After that, there's an escalator that goes up another 5 stories.

Finally I got to the top and had an AMAZING view of Osaka

I tried combining these three pictures to make a panorama view, but it didn't work out, they were uneven.

Nice shot of the river.

And the city

I stayed around until sunset to get some cool shots. I got a picture of everyone taking a picture

And then the sunset

More shots of the city

While I was up there I met a nice girl named Naomi. But she was 23. Little old for me :P But she was real nice.

It was dark when I got back to the bottom. Here's a shot of the building then:

Oooh, cool.

I headed back and took a shortcut through a shopping mall that was in the train station. I found a computer store. It was HUGE:

I got back to my hotel and dropped off my camera and backpack and went out to eat. I had a Panini. It was a panini in my butt. Ha, no, just kidding, had to say that, though.

Afterwards, it was around 9 o'clock, I strolled through some of the side streets with a bunch of stores and neon lights and stuff.
I found a pet shop. "I love pets" I thought to myself, so I went in.
All the animals looked miserable. They were all in small glass cages with a sheet of newspaper. Some had food, some didn't. Poor things.
There were six cages with little kittens in them maybe 3 or 4 months old. Total, utter cuteness. But they looked so bored.
So I bought them all a little mouse toy to play with.
I figure it'll keep them from being bored and they'll look so insanely cute while playing that it will increase their chances of someone buying them and taking them to a better home.

I left and came back an hour later or so and they were still going nuts. I felt happy.

Well, that's all I have for today.
I leave Osaka on Sunday.
Tomorrow I'm thinking about going to Universal Studios theme park and HAVING FUN!
I've been walking around everywhere, kinda getting sore.

This is Tony, over and out:

Back again!

2010-09-20T04:38:00.000-07:00

After Beppu, I was supposed to go a little further south for a night. But I decided not to.
Instead, I came back to Hiroshima for one more night.
On my way to the train station in Beppu, I saw this:

Thought I'd get a picture of it. I also grabbed a little brochure about it. Fun fun.

I got back to Hiroshima and Saori took me out on the town with a couple of her friends. We had fun!
We went to dinner.

This tasted kinda weird. It had pork and noodles and egg in it. Not an egg fan, though.

And then we went to an arcade.

They had a bunch of those claw games there. I won a Winnie the Pooh doll. Although we had a worker there "adjust" Pooh so he would fall easily. Wish we had that sort of service.

I found an arm wrestling game. Naturally I won!

Afterwards we went down to the river near the Atomic Bomb building. I got a picture of this monument.
It represents the children who died from the bombing.
There's a story about it where a child had survived the bombing at like 2 years old, but there was so much radiation that when the child was 10, he died of leukemia or something.

And then we went to a Karaoke room. It was pretty fun. I'm singing Bohemian Rhapsody in this picture.

Mito on the left and I cannot remember the name on the right.
I hate that.

Tomorrow morning I leave for Osaka, Japan. I will stay there until Saturday. Then I will go to Kyoto until Tuesday. Then I'll go back to Tokyo and leave on Wednesday.

Beppu

2010-09-19T10:11:00.001-07:00

The town I'm in right now, Beppu, is pretty lame. Not to many photo opportunities, but I did get a few.
The room I'm in is almost exactly the same as the one in Hiroshima. But the hotel does have a hot bath... and you're required to be naked.

There wasn't too many people in there, so I spent about 15 minutes in the bath. Hey, c'mon, I'll never see them again.

I did go jogging earlier around by the beach. It was getting dark. I got sweaty and took off my shirt. I got a lot of looks ;)
Hehehe.

There's a lot of fish markets around. It kinda smells, but I did find some new sunglasses, although I think they're a it wide...I dunno, haven't decided yet. But they were like $12 and I got a nice pouch with them and a cloth to clean the lens for free. So I'm not complaining about that.

Pictures:

Bullet Train!

Beppu.

There are a lot of kitties around. Don't worry, I didn't touch em.

Shots near the ocean.

Kid getting OWNED by the fountain. OWNED!

You're lucky, a little further to the right was an old guy in a speedo...
I think I will have nightmares...

Tomorrow I head to a small down called Nima. Don't expect much.

I'm going to bed.
Night!

2010-09-17T11:07:00.000-07:00

Today I visited the hypocenter of where the A-Bomb exploded, but we'll save that for last.

The day started at about 8am this morning. I woke up, cleaned up, ate up, and buckled up for my trip to the Hiroshima A-Bomb Dome.

It's about a two mile walk from my hotel, but that's okay. At least my backpack wasn't weighted down with anything too heavy.

I crossed one of the rivers that flows through town. There was a bit of graffiti on the wall of the bridge.

As I was walking, there were some kids playing baseball, I had to get a picture.

I walked a bit further and I came upon a bridge that went above the road. Sweet view shot:

'Nother pop machine. These things are EVERYWHERE!!!
But I suppose, since it's so humid out, if you need something to drink immediately, these aren't hard at all to come by.

This is actually the first gas station I saw. Gas for them is a little over $1 a gallon. Grr... Not sure if it's the same "kind" of gas. And yes mom, we all know you have gas, no need to share it anymore.

I walked past a really neat mall. I liked the architecture of the building.

Statue!

Hiroshima Castle

This is a nice place.

There was probably a good 10 turtles that are floating around the surface by the bridge.

These trees are still standing after the A-Bomb destroyed everything around them.

This is the Hiroshima Castle itself.

a 1/100th scale of Hiroshima "back in the day"

Another statue. I had to make sure to get the castle in the background.

Little girl playing near the river.

This is one of the many tunnels that go beneath the road so people can cross the roads easier.

This was in a nice little garden I passed.

This is the Motoyasu-gawa river. The river just below where the Atomic Bomb exploded.

Two girls near the river.

The A-Bomb dome. It stands approximately 490 feet away from the hypocenter of the bomb (nearly directly above it). The building has been preserved in the same state as immediately after the bombing, and now serves as the reminder of nuclear devastation and as a symbol of hope for world peace and elimination of all nuclear weapons.

Every year on August the 6th, people from all over the world visit Hiroshima and they all send off thousands of paper lanterns that represent the souls of the dead down the river.

During the festival, musicians come to play their instruments and some artists come to sing.

And there are lots of nice and friendly people!

Saori and I.

Me with some new friends :)

I helped out with some of the lanterns. I got in the water and helped push them out. They were all gathering on the sides. But silly me didn't take off his shoes and socks, so they're drying right now. :P

That's all I have for you all. Tomorrow I leave for Usuki. I will spend the day there and then at the end of the day, I will travel to a town called Beppu.
Not sure when I'll get the internet again, so please be patient.

It's 2:10Am right now, I've gotta go to bed.

Dewa Mata

Yes, I'm a little late on this post.

Hiroshima

2010-09-15T11:54:00.001-07:00

I checked out of my hotel at about 9:00 this morning and headed toward the train station. I presented my Japan Rail Pass and got a little train ticket thingie so I can travel unlimited distances on the trains and some busses. I just have to present the book thingie and they give me my train ticket and I go.

The ticket scanner is pretty nifty. It's like a little gate: you have to slide your ticket into a slot while you're walking through it, it goes in, scans it, and comes out the other end in about 1 second. And when you get to your destination, you slide it in the machine and it'll keep it and you keep walking. I'll get a video of it and a picture or two.

Well, I boarded the Shinkansen, aka The Bullet Train. Its max speed is a little over 180mph. That's pretty fast.

Here are some pictures that I took from the train:

This barbed wire looks nasty.

The food cart came around. I got some Pringles that tasted like the chicken noodle soup you get in a box. Wasn't the best, but I had the Coke with a smile! :)

Here's a batch of random pictures.

At this point I had to potty. I went to the bathroom area and there was a bathroom on each side of the aisle. One said 'Western Style' and the other said 'Japanese Style'
Naturally I tried the Japanese Style one. Guess what? IT WAS A SQUATTER!!! Luckily I didn't have to poo...

About 4.5 hours later, we got to Hiroshima Terminal. I got outside and found the hotel right away. I got inside, checked into my room and here it is:

Awesome!

It even has a little tea making stand.

And it has a mini-fridge beneath the tea making stand. I had to run down to the 7-11 down the block to get some pop to put in it. :P
Yes, a 7-11. But I was pissed, they didn't have a slushie machine. Grr.
It wasn't themed like the Kwiki Mart like all of them in the US are. Bah!

I went to walk around some stores. I found a building that had a bunch of books and magazines on one floor. It was like a Borders/Barnes and Noble. The next floor was a Music/Movie store. I bought some new headphones there cause the piece of crap Sony headphones are pieces of crap. One of the ears went dead. Bah. Same exact thing that happened with my last pair (same model).

Then I went further upstairs and found a fun arcade. Lots of games. I played a couple point and shoot games. Bang Bang.
There were some other cool games kinda like DDR and Guitar Hero. With drums and stuff.
They even had a bunch of these enclosed spheres that were kinda like a virtual reality game. You could sit inside and control some sort of vehicle. I didn't play it as it was 500Yen. Or about $4.

That's about all I have for today.
I need to find some new sunglasses, too. These ones broke; the same way my last ones broke of the same model.

Maybe if something of mine breaks, I should get a different model of them :P

I'm gonna go watch these funny soaps on TV. There's even porn for like 300Yen. But don't worry, I'm not gonna watch it, I gotta save my Yen for the subways and stuff. Those aren't covered by my train pass.

Oh cool, there was just a commercial on about these scanners that will bill you automatically. Like, they'll give you some sort of card or chip. Most people put it in their wallets, but I've seen some people put it in their cellphones.
What they do is they'll run the card/chip over these scanners at stores and even at the train stations instead of buying tickets.
They're pretty sweet. I'll try and get some video of that, too. It's AWESOME.

They also use 3G on their cellphones. (Which is why mine didn't work, my phone doesn't support 3G)
3G stands for 3rd Generation of cellphone service. You can have video chats with people over the cellphones, and even surf the web extremely fast. (Well, a lot faster than our phones in the US).
I stopped at some clothes store and tried on a couple shirts last night. The girl working there helping me pick stuff out didn't speak any English. But she was able to use her cellphone to go onto Yahoo and translate. Worked pretty darn slick.

Well, it's running on 10am. I've gotta wake up for breakfast before 9:30.

Dewa Mata

That's the Yen, by the way.

2010-09-14T07:50:00.000-07:00

Kampai!

So, I just got back into my room and I could hardly take off my shirt. It was drenched… in sweat. Awesome, I know.

Today was pretty eventful! I woke up, took a shower, and went and had some f*cking toast with jam! Sweet!

I finished up and went back into my room to figure out what today’s events would consist of. Opened up my handy dandy Lonely Planet Japan book, (I’ve noticed a lot of tourists have this book).
I decided today that I would go to a city called Shinjuku.
As I was passing through the Tobu Mall that connects to the local subway, I stopped at a small Wallgreens type store and bought some sunscreen. (They confiscated the bottle I had at MSP Airport because it was a 4oz bottle, and their limit is 3.4oz. Assholes. They just wanted me to burn. I hope THEY burn in heck!

Shinjuku is a bustling city with packed streets and LOTS of shops.
I even somehow ended up inside a mall; so, I wandered around in there for half an hour or so.

Afterwards I did more walking. I found a Pachinko casino. Where they play Pachinko… I have no idea how the game works. But I see that it involves little metal balls that tumble down little pegs. Kinda like Plachinko on The Price is Right (wonder where they got the name…)

Right across from the Pachinko place I saw a McDonalds. It was a small shop, but it had like 3 floors to it for eating. Now, I’m going to be honost, I haven’t had any McDonalds for a month or two (trying to stay away from it), but I was curious as to how their food compared with ours.
I went in and ordered one ‘hanbaagaa’ (think that’s how its pronounced). I went up to the second floor and ate it. Needless to say, it tasted almost exactly the same as the US version. I guess the only difference is that the shop was cooler/cleaner. Oh, and I noticed they had “hottudoggu’s” on the menu (take a guess as to what that is). I even saw a Subway as I was walking around. I didn’t get anything, though.

I took loads of pictures while I was in Shinjuku. I walked around the city for a good 3 hours. I probably walked 5 miles or so. I should’ve brought a step counter with me or something. I’ve been walking A LOT. Good exercise. And carrying around my heavy backpack works out my back muscles quite a bit.
And if I want to be modeling in a swimsuit in December when I go to Miami, I have to look super HAWT!

Anyway, after walking around Shinjuku I found a subway and got on a train. I’ve figured out that if you get lost, keep walking, eventually you’ll find some stairs that lead to a subway station. They’re everywhere.
I decided to take the train back to Tokyo, the same place where I was yesterday. It’s Saturday and I was intent on seeing the Imperial Palace Eastern Garden. And let me tell you, it was BEAUTIFUL GIRL, THAT’S WHY IT’LL NEVER WORK, YOU HAD ME SUICIDAL… sorry, got carried away. But yeah, it was gorgeous. The admission is free so that’s good news. There’s paths that go through trees, stone paths, stone stairs, and amazing scenery. Perfect tourist attraction.

I got done walking around there and at this point, I was sweatin’ balls. Across the street from the gardens there is a small park and they had a small rest shop with ICE CREAM! Needless to say, I gulped that thing down in 5 minutes.

It was running on 4:30 and I decided it was about time to start heading back, but I had to make one.more.stop.
At LaQua Tokyo Dome City: a small theme park with lots to offer. I went on the giant ferris wheel first. 800Yen for that thing (about $8), It gives an AWESOME view of the cities around. I took plenty of pictures. Too bad it was enclosed so I got pictures of glares on the glass as well as the city scape. I even got a bunch of video while I was on it. I’ll put it on Youtube when I get home and have it edited.

After the giant ferris wheel adventures, I knew that I had to try out that water slide. It was the closest thing I had to swimming. And I needed it! I got a cart all to myself. Damn, didn’t have any cute girls to hang onto for support. Oh well =\

I spent about 45 minutes at the park. I saw a KFC as I was leaving, didn’t stop, though.

I left the park and came back here. All sweaty, gross and smelly. I think I need a shower, or a nice, hot, relaxing bath.

My canker sore is gone. Yippee!!! Feels so much better without it. That thing was a bitch! It was like Ann Coulter on speed. Ugh. I’m glad that’s over

Well, that’s all I have for tonight. I think I might go find a café to get some munchies.

Sayoonara!

I don't go anywhere without my handy-dandy subway map.

Shinjuku City

Hey, a Krispy Kreame!

...with a line?!?!?

Back in Tokyo

Big Fissies!

Watch out for the Pinus...
(I think it's pronounced 'Peenoos' :P

Das a lot o'rock.

LaQua Tokyo Dome City

This is the water slide...

I got wet.

Time to go home!

Short, fun little adventure.

2010-09-11T10:20:00.001-07:00

So, I was looking through my suitcase and I realized... I forgot my towel at the other hotel.

So I went and got it.

I've gotta figure out how they determine how much it is between each station so I pay the right amount for a ticket. Ugh.
I was short 10Yen and a nice ticket dude hooked a brotha up!

Well, I went to the Sakura Hotel, found my towel, and headed back here.

I got a lot more looks than usual.
"WTF... A white guy carrying a towel around his neck."
That's what they were all thinking when they looked at me.

I even tried the whole stick out my chest thing and say "Hey, you know where the weight room is? Ahh, I'll check it out"
They didn't get it... =\

On my way back here I had to walk through a mall...
That's right, a sweaty white guy walked through a Japanese mall with a towel wrapped around his head.
I should've at least taken my shirt off, then they'd have something to stare it ;)

I made it back and now I'm typing about it. I think I'm gonna go watch a movie on my laptop... but first perhaps find a bottle for some water. Ugh, I'm thirsty and they have a water cooler thingie mabob here. Awesome!

God it's so humid here. Its rediculous. Luckily my room has AC.

There's still a few people wearing face masks to prevent SARS or something.

And A LOT of people have iPods. I see em all over the place on subways.
And a lot of people have these cellphones that double as TVs and they have a widescreen screen on em. It's pretty cool.

Oooh, and I saw a 30 somethin year old dude playing POKEMON!!!! OMG, MY PIKACHU COULD BEAT ALL OF HIS GUYS!!!

Okay, I need water and BAD.

Sayoonara

The Day in Tokyo

2010-09-07T01:05:00.000-07:00

Hey all.
Well, I left the Sakura Hotel this morning around 10 and headed for the subway (NOT for sammiches).
I left there and arrived in a small town called Ikebukuro. I'm staying at a hotel called Ikebukuro until the 5th.

Well, I dropped off my suitcase at the hotel and headed for Tokyo. Didn't have too much trouble getting around the subways. They're pretty easy to figure out. I r smart.

I got out of the subway up to street level and saw the Imperial Palace East Garden. It's open to visitors all year, but not on Mondays or Fridays. Blast, I couldnt get in.
So I walked around it. It was about a 3 mile walk or so. I had my backpack with me as well. Ugh, my back is sore right now. It sucks!

While I was walking around, there were quite a few awesome views. See pictures below!
On the way around there was an art museum. I thought 'what the hell' and looked around.
I didn't get any pictures of inside because I wasn't sure if photography was aloud or not, so I thought it'd be safe to keep my camera tucked away.

I continued walking. Along the paths there are bushes and trees and there are some sort of strange bugs making strange noises that were really really friggin loud! I finally found one and got a picture of it. Can anyone identify it?

Towards the end of the walk there was a really cool bridge with awesome scenery behind it. Yes, I got a picture of it. I even had a cute girl take a picture of me. Should've gotten a picture of her, too. She was eyeing me up. Hehehe.
Aaanywho. That was (so far) the highlight of my day.
I'm using a public computer at this hotel and the maids are cleaning EVERYTHING from top to bottom. Kinda funny. And there's a midget japanese girl who just checked in to a couple rooms down from mine. Not that I'm being mean or anything :P

Well, I'm gonna go back to my room and RELAX. My back is sweaty from the backpack, my shoulders are damn sore from the backpack. Ugh.
That thing is heavy. I'll lighten it up for tomorrow. Not sure where I'm going to go, tomorrow. But wherever it is, I'll be sure to talk about it tomorrow.

PICTURES

These shots are of the city I'm in right now.

These are in Tokyo

Gosh, I hope I don't have to go there...

You could walk right past the pidgeons without them flying away. They'd just scoot out of your way.

This is the bug I was talking about. It was really loud!

For a second there I thought I was in Paris...

Up until now

2010-09-04T04:44:00.000-07:00

I got to Frisco at around noonish (SFO Time).
I got a little lost at first, but I found my way. Sweet.
I even enjoyed a grilled chicken panini and a salad while I was waiting for my flight. It was delicious.
I boarded the plane and found my seat. This plane is friggen huge. Each seat has it's own little monitor that you can watch movies and check the location of the plane on. It even has games on it. I played Bejeweled and Solitare, and there was a multiplayer trivia game where other people could join in, too. I, naturally, won.
I watched Spiderman 3 while I was on there. That was pretty sweet that they had it. They had a few good movies on there. Awesome!
Fast forward 11 hours or so.
I arrived at Narita airport. Got off the plane, claimed my baggage, and registered with customs. Easy enough.

While I was there, I realized my cellphone didn't work. My phone didn't support their network, so I was able to rent a cellphone for pretty cheap at the airport. I can even use my SIM card in it, so it has my same number. Call me, free incoming.

Well, after I got that, it was time to go hunt down my first hotel. Sakura Hotel.
I went to find the subway and got on. Weee. Damn that thing goes pretty fast.
Spent about 45 minutes on that train, then I had to switch to a different train.
Spent another 20 minutes on that train and switched to the last one.
So I got on my last one, there was a weird girl who got on who kept staring at me. She wasn't Japanese, though. Before I got off, she asked me if I was French. I said 'Oui' and took off.
Well, I got out of the subway area and went up the stairs to street level. I didn't realize it would be dark. Wow, it feels like walking through NYC, although I've never been there.
And it sucked carrying all my luggage. It was HEAVY!!! Arg.
Long story short, I got a little lost. I found a very nice young woman who was working at a tiny garden shop who gave me directions. Very easy to follow directions, too. Just pointed to the next street over.

Well, I got to Sakura hotel. Turns out I didn;t have a reservation. I guess I missed the email saying they didn't have any room. Must not have been paying attention cause I was excited I even got a reply. Oh well.
They told me I would be able to stay in a dorm room that hasn't been filled. Lucky for me!
So now I'm here typing this in the cafe that they have. I'm pooped, though. I've had 20+ hours of sunlight and haven't really slept. arg.

I also made a few videos of taking off and landing on the airplane, as well as on the subway. Woo.
I'm gonna go upload pictures from my camera. I only got a chance to upload a few.

Sayoonara

Airports

2010-09-04T04:36:00.000-07:00

Well, the airport bus was a fun trip. About an hour and a half drive and it was totally awesome. NOT!
I had a seat to myself until we made another stop. Then this kid probably about my age sat next to me. A chubby lady and her chubby kid sat behind me. And the kid apparently had a whistling booger. It was SO annoying. I had to put on my headphones just to tune it out. I felt sorry for the woman trying to nap who was sitting next to her.

Well, I got to the airport alive after that maddening trip. Woo! I checked in and put my luggage on that little rollie thing behind the check in counter. It went bye bye. I wonder where it is now…

I found the NWA gate where I was supposed to get my stuff screened. I took off my shoes, belt, cellphone, MP3 player and took the laptop out of the bag. Put everything on the xray roller thingie mabob.
The guy didn’t like what he saw in my backpack. The bug spray. He let me keep it, though. What he DIDN’T let me keep was a 4OZ bottle of sunscreen. So if I bake, it is COMPLETELY his fault. Although he didn’t find the 4.4oz bottle of hand lotion I had in the front pocket. I WIN!!! MWahahahhahaha. IN YOUR FACE!

I found a currency exchange place, so right now I have a wallet full of Yen. Too bad the Yen is a bit taller than USD, so it sticks out the top of my wallet. Better keep an eye on that one.

Hopefully I have the same luck in San Francisco.

Well, it’s a little after 3, my plane leaves at 4:05, I’m gonna go get a bottle of water or something to drink while on the flight.