patchmonkey.net

Japan Probe

Another good site with random Japanese news.

And funny.

Some may call it the Disaster Tour. Some may call it the \”food everywhere\” tour. I took a week-long trip to other places in Japan - Nagasaki, Miyajima, Nagano, Hiroshima, Fukuoka…Japan really is beautiful.

We started by leaving Tokyo early in the morning, 7:40-ish to be exact, heading for Shin-Osaka, in order to catch the train to Fukuoka. In Fukuoka, Aaron and I walked around, ate famous \”Hakata Ramen,\” went to a sake brewery, saw the famous \”yatai\” (street stalls - usually they sell fast food, but these ones sell everything from sushi to French and Italian cuisine! Very impressive), and then wandered around for a long time looking for a bar. We finally wandered away from the red-light district and over to the \”International Bar,\” which was actually quite interesting, and drank for a while.

The next morning, Aaron and I woke up, grabbed some \”Hakata Okonomiyaki\” (different because there\’s an egg on top) and headed for the limited express to Nagasaki. Nagasaki, as you may very well know, was bombed in WWII with an atomic bomb. Today it\’s a lot more like St. Thomas - complete with cruise ships! There\’s also a large christian/catholic influence because it was the only area where foreigners were allowed for quite a long time. And the atomic bomb museum is very depressing and very enlightening as well.

In the evening, after Aaron and I went to the top of a local mountain in a gondola (where we saw a Japanese man singing \”Country Roads\”), we went down to eat \”Nagasaki Champon,\” which is nagasaki ramen. On the way out of the restaurant, we ran into these two Californian girls who missed their boat. Yes, they were late making it back to the cruise they were on. Not very lucky. We ended up making two friends and took them back to Fukuoka with us to go to the travel agency there.

Saturday, we were back in Fukuoka with the two stranded girls, and we took them to the travel agency before checking in at a capsule hotel. I would recommend a capsule hotel  as a one time and then never again experience. One sleeps in a little tube - but many have the benefit of having a nice sauna and bath to go to, so that evens it out.

We also then took them out for a different brand of famous ramen, some shopping, some yatai, and then some more International Bar, where much enjoyment occured. However, we don\’t know if the girls made their plane.

From Fukuoka, I headed off to Hiroshima (on the anniversary of the atomic bombing), ate some Hiroshima Okonomiyaki (which has noodles in the middle), and headed off to Miyajima, which has deer, a beach, and a big water shrine (the one always seen in pictures of Japan). It is also the most boring place in the entire world when you are alone, because it was me, the deer, and the lady who ran the inn I stayed at - I didn\’t realize how boring it could be. I took a lot of pictures, and headed out to Nagano in the morning.

Nagano, by the way, took 8 hours from Hiroshima. It was very very far, but riding the trains was very nice. I stayed with my friend Justin at his cabin up at Lake Nojiri, which was amazing. It was the absolute most beautiful place I\’ve ever been - the lake was gorgeous, the mountains were beautiful, there  were all sorts of onsen and pretty cool people there. It was tremendous…

I\’ll finish up with more about my last days in Japan when I get back to the USA…

Ports of Call

Originally uploaded by patchmonkey.

Nagasaki is apparently a port of call for Princess Cruise Lines.

It is pretty tropical here.

Ah…well, it’s coming down to that time - I only have a few more weeks left here in Japan before I have to return to the USA and the tragic life of the law student. Specifically, the 3L law student, who has naught to face but bar exams and many years of work, which may or may not suck one’s soul out of one’s body. But I don’t know yet.

July has been rather chill. I’ve mainly been working, and it’s rained or been cloudy for nearly half the month, which is rather depressing. However, the sun did ALMOST come out today, which was almost pleasant. I’ve been spending much of my evenings, though, doing work (or buying games and playing them on my Nintendo DS Lite), applying for clerkships, teaching, and stuff.

It’s been fairly busy since the end of June with looking at things, though. I went over to the Indoor Part of the Edo-Tokyo Museum, which was very cool - the museum chronicles the history of Tokyo and has really neat things. Photos are here.

The next week (wow) and a little later, I went back to Harajuku (always a treat) and did some more shopping and saw cute dogs wearing sunglasses. I also ate taco pizza at Shakey’s (all-you-can-eat, just 990 yen!).

There’s also a trip out of Tokyo, about one hour, to see the Star Festival (Tanabata Matsuri); the Temple University Japan summer festival, and with my buddy SK, a pretty cool trip to the Outdoor part of the Edo-Tokyo Museum, which has amazing examples of architecture from around the Tokyo area.

And because I have a great love for things that light up, food, and festivals, here’s the Yasakuni Shrine Lantern Festival. There are at least 20,000 of these lit up all over the shrine.

I’m so happy! 7-11 has started another Snoopy related promotion, so I plan on getting some nice Snoopy dishes for my apartment.

Yes, you read that right. Snoopy dishes. See, here in Japan, everything is a promotional item. I have gotten skiing Hello Kitty from a cola bottle, a Paddington Bear cell phone charm, waving cats for good luck, World Cup poker chip keychains, and much much more. It’s actually nice - I don’t have to buy extra presents just in case - “Oh, of course I got you something, here…a stained-glass Goofy!”

I mentioned last week that I went to Nikko with Roommate Andy (file photo) and Liz. Nikko is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and my understanding of why is because it has really S H I N Y shrines and temples. And a bridge. And some mountains. And a lot of hot springs, which all come from the top of a mountain (and are very sulfur-y smelling).

Bonus Picture: We are some SEXY bitches.

Liz and Andy stayed for a week. I had to work some of the days, but I did get another trip to the Ramen Museum in and we went to various Tokyo places. Liz did a lot of shopping, which I hear is a popular activity in Tokyo, where there are only a billion stores.

I ended up purchasing a Nintendo DS after they left - Andy and I tried to find one, but apparently they’re squirreled away by rabid shoppers as soon as they’re available. I finally got one, in “ice white” or whatever color white is these days. I bought New Super Mario Brothers, Children of Mana (even though I won’t be able to read much of it), Super Mario Kart DS, and Mario v. Donkey Kong (for the GBA, but the DS plays both). I wanna try racing in Mario Kart DS online, so I just gotta figure out how it works.

In a couple of weeks I’m hitting the tracks to a weeklong trip out of Tokyo. I am hoping to get to Nagasaki, Hiroshima, Shikoku (to see my friend Nina), possibly stay at a temple at Mount Koya, and then…well, I’m not sure after that. Then a few days in Osaka and Kyoto with Mariko, and then back home to Philadelphia. So much to do, so little time!

PS: Bonus Quote: “In retrospect, the real victims of Fox News weren’t the liberals it attacked but the conservatives who believed it.”

Okay, you may think Japan has good medicine. Their schools are supposed to be good, they’re a modern country with lots of Science and Technology and Stuff. Unfortunately, maybe that’s true if you’re Japanese, but I just spent the past two weeks experiencing treatment, and it was…um…sad.

I went to the first doctor on May 26th, and said I had an earache. He was supposed to be a generalist, but he said “I can’t look in your ears, but here’s an anti-biotic.” So I started the anti-biotic, and I felt a little better. Status: Severe ear pain, but little ringing

So by the end of weekend, the pain had gone, but the ear was ringing. So on Wednesday (May 31) of the next week, I went to see another doctor. Status: No pain, but ringing The second doctor was an american - he said “I don’t see anything wrong, but here’s some wax remover. By the way, the Japanese dosage is about 1/5th of the US dosage.”

Friday, June 2nd - still ringing, so I take off work and go see the ear, nose, and throat specialist. He says “Wakusu!”, or “Wax!” and he cleans out my ear. It’s still ringing. I go back to the first doctor and threaten him with bodily harm, because I am pretty sure that it is still infected and GOD DAMN IT I WANT AZITHROMYCIN. So he gives me that, and I go home. It rings the entire weekend, but it’s a little softer then.

Finally, on Monday, June 5th, I go to the Akasaka International Clinic. Why didn’t I go there in the first place, you may ask? I didn’t realize they took National Health Insurance - everyone kept telling me that “only Japanese doctors take NHI”. The doctor, Dr. Jerry, takes one look in my ear, says “It’s still infected,” gives me antibiotic and steroid eardrops, and within a few days the ringing almost disappeared.

So there you have it: Akasaka International Clinic, highly recommended. Japanese doctors, not so much.

Japanese Television is bizarre. Today, I woke up, and turned on the television, and there was a news report about living in a soccer ball.

That’s right, in a soccer ball. It’s world cup time, so of course Japanese people are living in a soccer ball. This was followed up by children singing about brushing their teeth in class, which I think was cute, yet sanitary.

There’s also a talking cat puppet (Saku Saku) who I find immensely amusing despite not understanding most of what he says.

I haven’t uploaded pictures from the past few weeks, but when I do, they’ll be here: My Flickr. Look in the Niigata, End of Semester and “Japan Phone Cam” sets for the most recent pictures.

It’s been an exciting past few weeks (actually, I don’t know when I last updated about the activities here). First off, finals went off with out a hitch, but that’s stupid. I hate finals. I wish school was more about learning and less about testing.

Unfortunately, the end of finals means that most of the people in the program, especially the ones that didn’t suck a lot, went home - and my life is a bit different. It’s no longer class every night and playtime every day.

No, I got a job. I work from 9:30-5:30 at a law office here - apparently a famous one for patent and trademark work. On Mondays, I’ll be teaching Introduction to American Law - I’m most excited (many of you know that I’ve been thinking that I’d really like to become a professor or something, so being able to teach an actual class about law is quite wonderful. Wednesday nights I have regular classes - in order to keep my visa, I need to take at least one class at Temple Law, so I’m taking Conflicts of Law, which was something I was going to take in the USA, so I hope it will be interesting.

I also made it back to Niigata, which I may have already mentioned, courtesy of Pinky-san and his wife and their children and friends. I did a little bit of hiking, a lot of eating and drinking, and a bit of rice planting in the rain.

I also had the rare opportunity to get an ear infection. Huzzah!

This is fabulous. I kind of wish I had the time to do this while I’m still here. Making a pilgrammage to 88 temples is a very famous and ancient tradition here in Japan, and this man wrote about his experience doing it.

I’m kind of jealous. I don’t like travelling alone, and I think I’d be pretty miserable if I did end up doing this alone. But would I really want to do it with someone else? I dunno. I have a feeling that sometime soon I’m going to do the pilgrammage to all the shrines to the seven lucky gods in Kamakura. Not because I have to, but because I want to pay my respects and because it’s interesting. It’s not quite 88 temples, but it will be quite a day.

Nick in Japan: not because it is easy…

Without a doubt, this journey was my greatest physical accomplishment. There has never been a time where I demanded more from my body. For those who do not know Shikoku (and Japan), the island is really a never ending mountain range.

Okay, I’m super lazy about updating my blog, and I don’t know why. So here’s a short update with links to the photo section.

KYOTO (Pictures)
Went to Kyoto again, it’s still beautiful. Hit up Sanjusangendo (1001 Buddhas Temple), Kiyomizudera, Kinkakuji, Ginkakuji, Fushimi Inari, the Philosopher’s Path…

We (Lauren, my guest, and I) also went to the “tea town” and “home of the Tale of Genji,” Uji. Walked around there for a bit and also bought some tea.

The hotel was pretty nice, and the entire trip was fairly inexpensive. I still haven’t had the opportunity to see Kinkakuji (the Golden Pavilion) in the sunshine, although it’s still beautiful in the rain.

HAKONE (Pictures)
After we got back to Tokyo, we chilled around, went to some St. Patrick’s Day parties, and then on Sunday headed out to Hakone. Hakone is a National Park that is super-beautiful, and you can buy a three-day pass that lets one ride all the transportation in the area.

We got on the train early, and then headed out to Hakone, where we checked into the ryokan at which we were staying (a ryokan is a traditional japanese inn), called “Kappa Tengoku.” Although it was a little run down, it was comfortable, and it had an onsen, which is lovely.

Odakyu Co. owns a lot of the transportation out there, and they decided to go a little crazy. So from the train station, we took an “old-fashioned” train, complete with switchbacks, up to the Hakone Open-Air Museum, which has all sorts of sculpture that is just sitting outside. It’s the largest of it’s kind in the world. From there, we walked through a park and looked at plants as well as eating udon for lunch.

To get places from the top of the “old fashioned railway,” one takes a cable car to the top cable car station, and then you take a high-speed gondola to Owakunadai, or the “Hell Mountain.” This is a mountain where there are large sulfur deposits which are constantly releasing sulfur into the air, and upon which you can eat black eggs, boiled in the hot water of the springs on the mountain, and they give you seven years of good luck.

From there, we went back down the mountain, and all of a sudden decided to run to the base of the lake to take pictures of Mt. Fuji, which was completely clear and very pretty. We then went back to the ryokan, ate some food, hopped in the onsen, and went to bed.

The next day, we woke up, took another dip in the onsen, and headed to the Old Hakone Checkpoint, a museum structured at the point where people had to check through on their way to Tokyo. The next stop, on the way to the pirate ships that carry visitors to the base of the belching mountain, was a walk through the “Hakone Detached Palace Garden” and the Old Cedar Highway (filled with lots of really tall cedar trees planted long ago. Passing by the pirate ship for a moment, we proceded to the Hakone Shrine, and then climbed the stairs up, looked around, and then hopped on back down to the pirate ship and sailed across Lake Ashi.

From there, we got some soba and hopped on the other side of the gondola, going back up to Owakunadai, where we were able to see Mt. Fuji very clearly - a very nice thing. It’s very beautiful, and I got some very nice pictures. We headed from there to another onsen, bathed, and then got on the train back to Tokyo.

MIURA-FUJI and SAKURA MASURI (Pictures)

In early April, Taro-san (a neighbor from home’s cousin) invited me out with his family to do “traditional Japanese activities.” Namely, strawberry picking, bamboo shoot hunting, and BBQ. The next day he invited me to ohanami, otherwise known as a cherry blossom viewing party (although most of the viewing is of the food and drink.

On the first day, my friend Dai joined me, and it was a lot like being a small kid again…we were the big kids. There were parents, and small children, and the two of us, who were effectively small children because we’d never done some of this stuff. Started off the day by taking a train out to Miura, which took about 50 minutes. We headed from there to the strawberry farm, where we picked strawberries and ate them with condensed milk, and then we climed to the peak (only about 250M) of “Miura-Fuji,” a small mountain in the area.

After the mountain, we climbed back down, and ate lunch in a garden before going “baby bamboo hunting.” This is effectively looking for dirt colored things in dirt, but it’s still fun - we found a bunch and I took them home (my couchsurfer of the week, Christine, cooked them - pretty tasty!). We then went to a beach, where there was an enormous amount of drinking and eating of BBQ’d meats, and I also met a schnauzer on the beach.

The next morning, I woke up, and met up with Khahn to head to Tsukuda park, near where Taro-san lives. It was a little crowded, but the trees were beautiful and there were cherry blossoms everywhere. The park itself overlooks the Sumida River, and the party boats and ferries were crusing by as well.