Just a small update...

Not much has been happening, really. I'm leaving for Kyoto tomorrow (I have to get up at 5 am), and then a few days later I'll be leaving for Korea.

A few days ago, I went out with a friend to Shibuya. We went to this Mexican restaurant, where they had all these tacky decorations and yodley bull-riding music, and where all the waitresses were dressed in cowboy gitup. They still did the obnoxious “irashaimasssseeeeeee” though. The food was tiny and expensive, but that’s nothing new. The burrito I got was about half the size of a small American one, and was 12 dollars! It was still yummy though, and I know where to go now if I’m craving a burrito in a dry spell. At one point, the waitress came over and was re-filling our water glasses, and she accidentally knocked over like a whole water pitcher onto my lap. My friend told me that my facial expression didn’t change at all, and after about 2 seconds of water pouring onto my lap, I just kind of looked down at it passively. Great to know I would be so fast and ninja-like if some danger were actually to befall me. But no, I just waited until the whole thing had emptied onto my pants. The waitress started hyperventilating and running to get me towels and napkins, and apologizing profusely. At times she would stop and just turn to me and look me in the eye and be like “GOMENNASAI!!!” It was kind of funny having this Japanese girl in this ridiculous cowboy hat and outfit looking so tortured, and apologizing to me profusely. She looked so distressed, in fact, that my friend and I decided that if we hadn’t properly assured her, she would have commited seppuku in the bathroom out of shame. Again, the cowboy outfit makes that scene a little humorous. I actually ended up feeling bad for HER. But then she didn’t even give us a discount, so I didn’t feel so bad.

Then yesterday, I met up with another friend in Roppongi, where we saw a giant fire-breathing robot baby. It was really creepy, actually. I still don't know what it was doing there.

Kyoto, 1st trip

Kyoto was a lot of fun. It’s such a nice city! Much prettier and HAPPIER seeming than Tokyo. It also seems to be like the mecca of Japan or something – I never saw so many kimonos before. So I think people come from all over Japan for their fill of culture and shrines. The trip itself isn’t very interesting written down. We went to a ton of places, some very touristy spots as well. We basically just walked around the entire day. First, we went to 銀閣寺 kinkakuji、then went on the philosopher’s walk (but we were on the wrong path for about 30 minutes before we realized), then various other temples and zen gardens. Then later we went to 祇園 Gion, which was pretty awesome. I think if I lived in Kyoto instead, that would be my spot. They have these nice cobblestone streets, and it’s the biggest Geisha district left in Japan (although there are only a few in the whole country, and only under 2,000 geishas left in existence I believe). But we got lucky, we spotted two geisha! One was clearly late for one of her appointments, so she was walking EXTREMELY fast, which honestly, must take a lot of skill in those kimonos and block shoes. It was pretty fun chasing her, actually. I saw her up close at first, but I was caught off guard, so I didn’t have my camera. Then we proceeded to run after her, but she was too fast. And even all the Japanese people stopped and stared when she passed by, so it was difficult maneuvering. We saw another one later on, but just as we approached her, she bowed and ducked into a building for her appointment.
We went searching for a restaurant in Gion, and finally came upon one that looked reasonable. It looked really traditional on the outside, but once we got in, it was pretty strange, like something out of a futuristic sci-fi flick. There were weird objects, like shaving cream, in these glass tubes scattered around the room, next to the tables. And they were playing this music that sounded like it should accompany an alien touching things for the first time and going “ooooooooohhhhh” in an E.T. voice. But everything else about this place was very traditional, including the waitresses’ dress, and the food. They only had sets, so we decided to order off menu. It was pretty funny, my dad got huffy because he thought the waitress was flirting with me exclusively and not paying any attention to him. When she came to our table, she would only look at me, and she was very shy. So he tried to strike up conversation with her, but she turned to me and asked me some questions. And then finally, when she brought the cheque, she gave it to me, even though it was pretty obvious I wouldn’t be the one paying for it. At that point, he was pretty pissed. I told him to get used to being old. We returned home after getting directions from a very friendly dude, watched some weird Japanese TV with cringingly bad acting, then went to bed.
The next day, we visited that place I don’t remember the name of, the one that has 1,001 torii shrines all in a row. It’s really pretty. Also went to 金閣寺kinkakuji (not to be confused with ginkakuji), which was another pretty touristy spot, and then to Ryoanji, with the zen gardens. We got back to our shinkansen platform literally 2 minutes before it left. We cut it WAY too close, because dad decided he wanted to go back and see another zen garden last minute. But we made it, so all is well.
Once we got home, we had dinner with Kyoko, Nu, Tomoko, and Nobukazu, who I met for the first time. It was a lot of fun. It was one of those times I felt really good about my Japanese, because I understood practically everything they were saying. But those days are always followed by days where I understand nothing and feel like shit.

The Return of Japan...and Aizu!

I'm back in Japan! It's been a while since I've posted anything here, hopefully someone is still reading!

I left for Japan on Saturday at 4 in the morning, and once again skipped sleep that night. As I was boarding my plane in Detroit, I found out my dad missed his second plane, so he’d be coming a day later. The flights were pretty uneventful. For the killer 13 hour one, I was in a middle seat, next to a Chinese mother and her kid. That sucked a bit, but it could have been worse. When I got to the airport, I waited around for over an hour or so, until I managed to use the public payphones to call Kyoko, and found out that she couldn’t come, so I took a bus to Yokohama. The next day, I got up early to go meet my dad at the airport with Kyoko. The first question he asked was “what’s with all the masks?” We took the damn long train back to Shinjuku. I showed him around my school, and then we went to Shibuya, where he and Kyoko were the oldest people. He had a few humourous reactions to the people there. Dad: She shouldn’t wear pants like that!
Me: That’s a man.
On the return trip from Shibuya, we witnessed a girl attempting to catch a leaving train by hoisting herself between the doors. And she made it! Except for her face, which slammed against the door and caused her to fall and have a complete wipe out. She ended up getting her leg caught between the train and the platform. Luckily, she got it out before the train sped off. After Shibuya, we returned to Shinjuku, where we met up with my host family. It was great fun. We ate at a really tall hotel building, on level 45 (the top), where we had a very fancy meal. Great view of the city. My host mom was in a kimono and my host dad in a suit.
The day after that, my dad, Nu and I set out for Aizu Wakamatsu. It was an awesome trip. Nu was a great host, he paid for absolutely everything, and even made a trip there before to do research on the best places to eat (the transportation alone costs upwards of 200 dollars, I wager). So we really experienced the best of the best. The train rides were pretty long (like 6 hours total, although we transferred about 5 times). When we got to Aizu Wakamatsu, we walked around for a while, and went to a really nice traditional restaurant. The meals were set, but excellent. We had about 20 different dishes, all very different and new tastes. I noticed that in Aizu, people were a lot friendlier to foreigners than in Tokyo. The cab drivers were very chatty. People sometimes acknowledged us in the streets. This one ticket window guy at the train station seemed ridiculously happy to talk to me and use English. He was like “WHERE ARE YOU FROM? OH, I LOVE AMERICA. I SEE YOU AGAIN SOON!” And he was vigorously shaking my hand. I want to see more of these toothless, friendly guys.
We made our way up the mountains to 大内宿 (oouchijyuku), which is a really interesting, old, thatch-roofed village. It was hardcore. There were very few tourists (no white people to be seen), so it was the perfect authentic Japanese experience. It was deserted when we got there – we were the only ones walking around the street(s). There wasn’t much to do, so we went to our ryokan, where we met with the hostess, who was awesome. Since oouchijyuku is way north of Tokyo, it was freezing, and there was still snow around. So it was really nice being in this old, fire-lit inn. It was family run, and at the time, she was the only one there. We were the only guests. So we had a very private dining experience. There was SO MUCH FOOD, oh my god. But it was all delicious. There were several things I tried for the first time. I was the only one of the three of us, who ate the whole portion of horse, I thought it was delicious (although I felt a little dirty while eating it). The next day, we had natto, which is a fermented bean paste, and is known to be particularly disgusting to foreigners, but I didn't find it to be too horrible. When we went to sleep, 主人さん(our hostess) gave us these amazing foot warmers to sleep with. She put hot coal inside this metal box with some heat-retaining material, and it lasted the whole night, and was still very hot in the morning.
In the morning, we walked around the town again, this time with other people around. The local shops were a lot of fun to browse. I noticed that this one shop had a ton of erect cocks (it’s apparently a sign of fertility, so people put them in their houses and worship them). So of course, being the gaijin I am, I had to go photograph it. I didn’t notice the shopkeeper was looking at me taking pictures of her collection of dicks until afterwards, though. They even had this one dick dressed up in a traditional Japanese outfit. Also, in our ryokan, at the entrance, was a statue of a boy in a yukata outfit, sitting cross-legged and laughing. I didn’t notice it until like the 10th time I saw it, but his cock was hanging out under his robes. What the hell?
Finally, we went back to Aizu Wakamatsu, where we enjoyed a nice 温泉 (hot springs) bath. Once again, we were the only people there, which was pretty amazing, and would never happen in a touristy spot. It was an outdoor onsen, so we were on a balcony, overlooking a beautiful river and forest. At one point, my dad went to the top floor, where he enjoyed the scenery. A poor old Japanese lady was out doing her laundry or something, and stopped dead in her tracks and just stared at this stark naked British guy in all his glory. Pretty funny.
The ride back wasn’t terribly eventful. When we got home, we had a great dinner and got quite drunk. Kyoko drunk-dialed my mom in the US, and prefaced the message with “I’m drunk, this is Kyoko.”

I went to Kyoto the day after, so stay tuned for that entry! It will probably be up tomorrow or something.