Posts from — October 2008

This is in memory of my sister’s dog Eddie. He was a Japanese breed (a shiba inu) and meant the world to my sister. He escaped a couple of weeks ago and was picked up by the pound. He was a regular visitor to the pound since he liked to escape. They are a very stubborn breed and have a mind of their own.

I guess Eddie tried to bite one of the workers at the pound and they put him to sleep. I’m not sure why they thought this was the proper course of action, but it was an action that is not able to be undone.

Having owned pets my whole life and the cutest little kitty right now, I can sympathize what my sister is going through! Good luck getting through this hard time sis!

In loving memory:

Just a quick message before we head to breakfast for rice balls, pickles and miso soup … seriously, that’s our ‘continental’ breakfast here.

We are NOT in Japan and we did not breach Japan’s Imperial Palace Moat….

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/10/07/japan.skinny.dip.ap/index.html

Although, today we are going to Kyoto’s Imperial Palace … so if you see a similar story with the word Kyoto before Imperial Palace be weary.

We are now in Kyoto, staying at a super swank hotel.We took a bullet train to get here that goes 200km/hour! It was pouring rain and we arrived after dark, so we decided to splurg a little and then downgrade tomorrow. We are staying at the Hotel Granvia Kyoto. It is very classy and has provide us with a few luxuries that we have been missing lately.
1) a bed large enough to share.
2) a soft bed
3) a pillow filled with feathers instead of carbs (macaroni or rice)
4) internet
5) a view (from the 11th floor)
6) a tv with english channels. Ok, maybe only 1 english channel.

Jeff forgot this story from the other day. While we were up at the view point to Fuji, we popped into a tourist trap. It is on the side of the mountain beside a sulphur plant. The volcanic activity produces sulphuric steam vents. The Japanese sell black eggs…hard boiled over the vents and sell them to tourists. We thought it was great!
Here are the black eggs:

At the tourist attraction Fuji is one way, and if you look the other way this is the view. Some say tourist attraction, I say eye-sore:

We are having a super great time. Eating lots of strange food and on a diet of strictly carbs and protein. We do miss our kitty though…

Time to go explore Kyoto…so much to see. Where to begin?

I realize that literacy is nothing to joke about, however, Lindsay and I feel Illiterate right now, seriously. We just spent the last day and a half at Hakone Yumoto which is a little mountain village nestled in a valley. It’s probably the equivalent of the Banff of Japan, 1 hour from Tokyo, tourist trap, etc…

The funny thing is that although it’s a HUGE tourist trap there are very little english signs. We spent a good deal of time trying to ride the right bus, follow the right signs and read the maps. When we were in another tourist town we were trying to find the great Buddha. We deciphered the Buddha Kanji symbols (Japanese writing) to be Man-14. Which, can be translated into a sign that looks like a man and a sign that looks like 14.

Anyway, enough about us not being able to read. Onto the Fujisan and fish eating our dead skin cells!

So yesterday we tried to go and see Mt. Fuji. In fact this is the modes of transportation that we took. Train -> Train -> Bus -> Shuttle Bus -> Walk -> Bus -> Walk -> Boat -> Ropeway (we call a cable car) -> Ropeway. Anyway after all that work Mt Fuji was hiding in the haze and clouds. It actually looked really cool because you could ‘just’ make out the silhouette of it in the mountain.

This morning we woke up and went up to see Mt. Fuji. He was in full glory this morning which was super neat! The funniest part of the whole thing was we took a ropeway (cable car) up to the top. Right when you get to the top Mt. Fuji LITERALLY pops out of nowhere. You seriously can’t see the mountain then BOOM Mt. Fuji. Anyway, when we went up this morning we were looking backwards and then suddenly we hear about 15 excited japanese ladies all saying Fujisan, Fujisan. I wish we would have made a video of it because it was so awesome.

Then this afternoon we headed to the Yunessun which is basically a gigantic Japanese water-park. But instead of water-park more like water pools. There was a Wine Pool, Sake Pool, Green Tea, Dead Sea Salt Water pool (which you’re totally buoyant in!) and a coffee pool (hold the cream and sugar). Heather you would love it, although, I’m pretty sure that you’re not suppose to drink the pool.

However the highlight of the whole place was the fish eating thing. I don’t know what it’s called (see above about being illiterate) but it was awesome. Basically, you sit down and put your feet in the water then tons of fish come swimming to your feet and start gnawing at the dead skin cells. For those of you who have seen my feet will know that I was definitely a popular man at this pool. I had so many fish eating around my feet that the Japanese girls beside me pointed at my feet and said something … probably equivalent to, “Dude, those feet must be disgusting”

Well, now we’re off to Kyoto!

1) The toilets
Seriously. The toilets in Japan are complicated. So many buttons. Impossible to flush. The one I used at the mall the other day and I pressed a button, thinking it would flush, but then a flushing noise started and the water wasn’t moving. Turns out that was just to mask the sound of any rude noises going on. Eventually I found the “real flush” button.
They are also heated. In a public washroom, this kind of creeps me out. Is it warm from somebody before me sitting on it for a really long time, or is it from the seat warmer?
I have not been adventurous to push any of the spraying buttons, but it’s still early in the trip I guess.
I haven’t taken a picture of a musical toilet yet, but here’s a ground toilet (also strange) and a cool hand dryer in the meantime:


2) The food
I’m a pretty picky eater and as such, I have not been full yet since arriving here. The food is strange. If you don’t believe me, read Jeff’s post about the raw chicken.
Also strange:
-pickles for breakfast
-scallops with legs
-eggs – raw, stuffed with pork, half-cooked, all gross
-strange sausages
-not being able to tell which animal you are eating
-cold cooked eggplant and zucchini-like vegetables with sauce
Last night we had some sort of hot pot with meat, fu (lumps of spongy bread gluten), mushrooms and veggies.
3) The driving
Hard to get used to people driving on the left hand side of the road. Driving would be scary as I find walking challenging enough. You always have to look the opposite way that you are used to or you will get hit.
4) Japanese people
One word: efficient. Everything they do is super efficient. The sprinters at McDonald’s are a prime example. Everyone works so hard in every restaurant/hotel/convenience store to treat you like a king and serve you immediately. It feels so wrong not to be able to tip them. Unlike in Canada, these people are earning their tip. What makes it worse, is that we are imbasals who can’t talk (or spell) and just grunt and point constantly. They are so nice and adorably cute.
5) Not allowed to eat on the street!
This is super challenging. We are always on the go and eat constantly. Here, that is frowned upon. People don’t even drink coffee on the go. If you ask for a coffee to go, they wrap it in bags and so many layers so you can’t get to it until you reach your destination. We have only seen one guy eating during transit in 5 days, and he clearly was not from around here.
Here’s our coffees and donuts to go:

Now time to start the vacation. My work obligations here in Tsukuba are done, so we’re off to explore. Off to Yokohama!

Warning: This post is all about me… because I’m selfish…. actually, more like Lindsay was working again (ie: paying for this trip).

The day started off with trying to find a coffee, which in itself isn’t really a story but the workers here are… Anyway, I headed to Mr. Donut but it wasn’t open till 9am so I continued on to McDonalds (hey, I was desperate, Heather understands). Anyway, I place mine and Lindsays order and pay the nice Japanese girl. Where upon she literally RUNS to get my order….. and I don’t mean a slight shuffle… I mean full on run. It was literally like she was trying to set a record for giving me my change and getting me my food. It was probably around 12 seconds. I thought to myself that I’d like to see just one McDonalds worker in Canada run, ever.

Anyway, today I headed to Akihabara in Tokyo… which is also known as Electric Town! What a crazy, weird and strange place.

One of my highlights was when I first got off the train finding my way to the ‘ground level’. I saw a sign that pointed directly right into an elevator… I though, ok. that’s how I have to go. I proceeded to stand in a short little queue and wait for the elevator. Upon it’s arrival we all basically SQUISHED into the elevator as much as possible and up we go. It really reminded me of Heathers experience but without the whole bomb threat.

Electric Town was pretty neat. It seemed that anything and everything electronic was available. This ranged from cellphones and LCD tv’s to Gameboys and old school nintendos to cable wiring and wire connectors. It was pretty strange. I came up with a good way to describe it as this. Picture something electronic, anything electronic or even electronic related for that matter. Now picture China Town. Now place your electronic items and china town together! Voila! Electric Town!

The other thing about Electric Town is that it is also known for its anime and Manga… It seemed that every second shop was Anime. For those that don’t know Anime is those Japanese cartoons with the people with spikey hair and big eyes. Anyway, it was kinda weird that they have … how do you say…. erotic anime too…. and by … “they have” … I mean…. “that have LOTS AND LOTS” of erotic anime.

Tonight we went to a restaurant of some sort to celebrate Lindsay finishing work. It ended up being one of those ‘hot pot’ / Cook your own meat sort of places. Neat. So Lindsay picked something she’d like to share and we got the ’special chicken appetizer’ for the added fee.

Warning: If your initials are BJS please stop reading this section.

Turns out the ’special chicken appetizer’ was RAW chicken…. Slightly seared (and I do mean slight). We both kinda looked at it like… um, you aren’t suppose to eat chicken raw. Anyway, we were both good sports and popped one back. I didn’t mind it actually and finished all 6 pieces. Lindsay thought it tasted like mushrooms?!?! She waited until our ‘hot pot’ thing came out and she cooked hers. To which we got some VERY strange looks from the waitress. Probably thinking that we’re ruining a delicacy or something.

BJS you can start reading again

The ‘hot pot’ that we had you were suppose to cook your meat (chicken neck, liver, breasts) and then you were suppose to dip it in raw egg. I tried it a couple of times but it didn’t really add to the flavour

Well, off to bed and it’s only 8:30pm, “apparently” traveling with me is exhausting. Tomorrow is when the ‘real’ adventure begins. We’ll be heading to Yokohama which is the second most populous place in Japan we’ll be there for a night (or two) and then off to Mt. Fuji (or that area).