Tokyo with a bullet

Bullet trains are a lot like airplanes. Except for without the excessive waiting in terminals, baggage check, baggage claim, or cramped seats, and with little power outlets at your feet, vending machines, wide walkways and... well.. okay, I guess it's not like an airplane... the similarities are there though, it's really fast and I did pop my ears a few times when climbing and decending through the hills and mountains. Accelleration, also, gives a similar impression to takeoff, but it's smoother, and just when the plane would be taking off, the train just keeps speeding up.

The trip to Tokyo itself was rather rocky. But all of it comes down to how I entered Japan. There are a number of things the normal traveller will have set up already that I did not, or at least did not know of. I didn't notify my bank that I was out of the country, I didn't have an address/hotel set up, I didn't have any friends over there, just some friends of friends. I was flying by the seat of my pants in about as much of the meaning of that idiom as can be done. Travelling with Jeff, I'd, by design, left the first 'little while' unplanned completely. I was going there to meet a friend of his, see some stuff and then go to Tokyo at some time in the future.
This friend of his (and friend of mine now) had a lot on her shoulders I found out. Our 'no plan' adventure was anything but like a typical vacation. None of this is to say that it was not a good one. Just anything but typical. It's in this set that I arrive in Fukuoka from Kumamoto after a smooth bus ride. I go to the counter to buy my ticket... and my card is declined... easy enough, I'm carrying traveller's checks, so I search out a bank for some currency exchange, this takes less than 10 minutes, banks are everywhere, unlike garbage bins. But I do need an address to do currency exchange. This is not a problem, I can call Hiromi and get hers! If she weren't in drive mode and unreachable... Hmm.... How to proceed. I lumber my way through underground passageways and streets in Fukuoka in search of an internet cafe I might use to skype Wells Fargo and I find one. A couple hundred yen can get me half an hour. And I can hook up my own pc to their Ethernet. Seems like a deal so I hook in. And call... call drops at 40 seconds... and call.. call drops at 50 seconds.. and call.. call drops at 40 seconds.. and call.. call drops at 43 seconds... You get the picture. I got so frustrated with their *wired internet* connection that is offered so people can come and play games on it I start surfing for wireless connections. It takes about 5 minutes to find a 2 bar wireless connection that's more reliable than this wired one. I check out and pay my bill. Still not having made the call I need, I try a pay phone to get ahold of Hiromi, no luck. Down on street level the wireless signals have dried up so I try the station and a few other places.
I've long since missed the connection I wanted to make.
Finally I sit down in front of a cafe on a piece of infrastructure. Holding aloft my netbook there's a free network broadcasting close enough that I can send a call. So for 20 minutes I hold my little computer aloft and call into a late night Wells Fargo line.
About 3 hours after I started attempting to buy my ticket to Tokyo, I finally got one. I think I'll forever have a sour aftertaste in my mouth at the mention of internet cafe's and Fukuoka, though the city itself is not to blame.
From there it's been a nice time. There's been lots of walking, the trains are really convenient. I'll have to write more later. It's very late now.

Battle at the Source of Hiro River

I had a great post about the 9th, it was funny at times, a bit contemplative at the start and most of all, it was actually complete and ready to post. Too bad that post disappeared from my copy/paste when I shut down the doc I'd been writing it in, and then I didn't have internet for a few days.
It won't be the same, but I'll start fresh. It started out rather slow, I took a walk in the morning around, and took some nice pictures, like this one. There's something very relaxing about taking a walk in a rural area. Good air, occasional smells like fertilizer that quicken your step as you seek a fresh wind, and that rustic feel of buildings that have been there quite a while, and are still in use for the same purposes they were years ago. I get nostalgic no matter where I happen to be when I run into that.
Somewhere in there was some business involving a cellphone, 55 yen and some discussion of how we were attempting to avoid looking suspicious.
After some lunch in the form of delicious sandwiches made by Jeff, it was off to the kikuchi shrine. At the foot of the hill the shrine resides on, there's a large warrior statue and some very beaten grass in several fields for how much they are used. It's a good place for viewing the sakura in spring from what I hear. A group of about 10 boys were tossing a baseball around and called out “Harro!” and “Konnichiwa!” to us at about a 7:3 ratio. We responded, greeting them in Japanese, which really pleased them. They'd been discussing whether or not we spoke Japanese before they'd called out. Kikuchi shrine itself, as you can see here is a good example of Shinto shrines, we participated in the standard donation/prayer, a little omikuji (fortune telling paper) and bought some omamori (charms) for Jeff's studies and my own endeavors as I head to Tokyo. My 'victory' charm is hanging from my bag even now. I'll get a picture up of that one sometime soon.
Behind the shrine a good long way (down the highway a ways, really, but it starts out by wrapping around the shrine hill and heading off behind it) we went hiking up a very nicely maintained trail that follows the Hiro river. Picking a picture for this is very difficult, the falls are wonderful, the water is crisp and clear, the mountains themselves are packed with tall trees and the pools themselves are very nice for wading.
We wrapped up talking about our first week in Japan at a local Joyfull. It's certainly been an experience. I've made some new friends in Kumamoto and look forward to seeing them again. It's been great practice, knocking a lot of the rust off of my Japanese, and it's been fun seeing things just a little off the beaten path.

The seige of Kumamoto Castle

This was a very good day.
… no, scratch that, this was an average day. Because on average, I'm having some very good days lately.
Actually, on third thought, this actually was a very good day. Because any day that starts with a trip to a 99 year old kabuki theater that's been marked a national treasure? Oh yeah. Bricks are flying and red colored sugar water splatters all over the kids.
Yachiyoza is this little place in a shopping district that was popular like.... 30+ years ago. Now, not so much... Seriously, locals don't even go here, and it's a crying shame. (Aside: Do you have a famous place within an hour's drive that you've never been to?) Somewhere in the 70s the roof collapsed from disrepair, kids were calling it haunted. It was almost torn down. I'll look for a wiki or something to link when I'm actually on as opposed to writing in open office writer. There, link entered. Here's the view from the best seats in the house.
.
We went around downtown for a bit and hit Kumamoto castle too. Massive rocks piled a dozen meters high forming the foundation; winding, yet still rather wide stairs leading up through turreting.. it felt like I was a mob in a turret defense game, but thankfully whoever was playing had neglected their upkeep and there were no guards in the towers. The castle itself has long since been converted into a museum, but there are several facilities on the premise that are being or have been restored through donations and sponsoring. We toured through the Honmaru Goten Palace. It's extravagant. Lavish rooms continue all the way around, and let's not forget the only underground passageways in a building of it's kind. Oh yeah, hidden rooms too!
Hrothgar interjects: “Ninja are sneakysneaky types, someone said they work behind closed and locked doors, good thing trusty axe is better than a string of keys!”
And back to Yachiyoza, we had a great guide, she was knowledgeable and very clear in her speech. She must have had some english experience too, it sounded like she was making some on the fly conveniences for us. We went all over the building, saw much of the seating, the stage, the under stage, dressing rooms... just amazing... We even got several pictures taken of us at key locations.

Kumamoto Clash

The last few days have been busier than I expected.. See, I've come to a less densely populated part of Kumamoto, and it being farming area, with tons of rice growing all around, I somewhat figured I'd be enjoying the rural lifestyle and slow-paced relaxation. Well, there's been some of that, and there's been some definitely not that. A short chronology resides at the end of this post.
I'd wanted to see peace park in Hiroshima, with the bomb site and all. But as I thought about it, and mentioned it, it seems strange I should want to visit it. Let me rephrase that, it's strange to me that people are telling me that it must be because I feel guilt that I want to visit it.. or I want to apologize... These could hardly be more wrong. It's not like the bombings are something I can be more attached to than an average Chinese citizen today to the works of Mao. These are things I could not have had any sway on even if they happened in my lifetime. It doesn't change anything that I personally believe that the bombings saved more lives than they harmed in any way. It doesn't change that nuclear bombs are indiscriminate, devastating weapons that should be handled with the care due to anything deadly. But I digress. No, I wanted to visit the gardens to take in the site.. take pictures of buildings that had faced the bomb and stood. Maybe catch a feeling or something ephemeral in the air itself, lingering radiation or whatnot. I want to see. And being there seemed like a good opportunity. But I couldn't, so sometime I'll come back alone. Or who knows, maybe I'll find someone who understands what I really want to do there and maybe they'll want to do that too.
On to lighter materials. An interesting find on Sunday, we went to a zoo in Fukuoka, and lo and behold, there's the temple, right there, less than a hundred feet from the entrance of the zoo and even closer to the zoofront bus stop. I took a picture of it, but that's just random.
Okay, on to Kumamoto, On the way down I found out there are a lot of onsen down there, and... wow.. I got invited to come with a group of Hiromi's friends. She volunteered to stay with Jeff, who regretfully declined.
Hotsprings, as a japanese pasttime, is something that really has to be experienced to have any context to talk about it in. I got the grand tour. Touru walked me through the process. And really, within a couple minutes of entering, there's no time wasted before you can get to stripping down. We spent some time in the sauna, which was so hot it was actually difficult to draw breath through my nose. After, we spent some time in a couple of the baths, first a normal heat one, then a hot one (about 39.5C). I decided to finish up with a dip in the cold one, (17C). Touru thought I was crazy for getting right in that one without hesitating a bit. A few observations – the people who were most concerned about covering up drew the most attention, it really is very relaxing, and oddly enough (though it makes good logical sense) I was quite thirsty afterwards.
Finally there's today. We went to Karaoke and did fireworks, and there's not too much mysterious about that. Jeff and I sang several times. I think we wow'd them more by being native english speakers (yay pronounciation!) than by any degree of singing. Though I did draw quite a response for singing Ash like Snow (my first japanese song of the session). I did enjoy the fireworks and got a number of nice pictures and one funny video. I'll share those soon.

Saturday, September 5th
Caught the train to Hiroshima proper, found a locker to stow stuff. Saw the Hiroshima castle grounds, ate delicious okonomiyaki, caught a 4 hour bus to Fukuoka.
Sunday, September 6th
Very short doors in this ryoukan (traditional inn). Found brunch, stowed bags, caught a bus to the zoo. Returned, caught bus to Kumamoto, met some of Hiromi's friends, ate a buffet, did the onsen,
Monday, September 7th
Met Hiromi's friends for Karaoke, then met up again for fireworks.

On the move

We've been moving to a new hotel every night lately, it's rather disorientating, but it's been cheap, so I can live with that. Right now we're waking up in Hotel Kamo, in a tatami room. So last night at 11pm we were spreading out our futon to get ready to sleep, and trying on yukata and that was pretty fun, but I've gotta say that the Yukata were too small for me and Jeff though, but they still went on alright. Mine was parted all the way down into the abdomen area before it closed, that was... interesting. New order of business when I get established, try on some yukata that actually fit. (Aside: Yukata are light robes, worn around hotsprings, baths, festivals, they're light and thin fabric so they're good for wearing around when it's hot out. Sometimes I think it might be fun to be the gaijin who's always wearing traditional Japanese clothing.)
But back to yesterday. Probably the highlight yesterday was lunch. We went to an okonomiyaki place that's probably one of the most famously known ones around here. And even famously known, it's still right next door to another okonomiyaki place. I took some video and pictures. It's a sit down place with grills at every table and you grill your own. That was a real experience, we were drawing attention from neighboring tables because of how much we were enjoying it. Actually, I just remembered an incident from the day before yesterday, we were coming back from a supermarket and it was dark out, now one of us gets night blindness and another is pretty directionally challenged and this left me to navigate the way back to the hotel we were staying at that night. Which I'd only been to the once, to check in. Didn't see that coming, but it went without trouble so I hadn't mentioned it.
More from yesterday! Later we went and met with some more friends of Jeff's, a Shin and a Charlie. We went back to Hiroshima University campus after dropping some bags off with Charlie at her apartment, as she has a free room for the next month, very handy, now we don't have as much to carry. Ate at the cafeteria and sat around to chat. It was kinda like sitting back at Table for those of you who know that, or, just like sitting around talking about random things while eating occasionally. Some other friends of Shin and Charlie were there so it was lively and fun. We stayed there for a while then moved to Charlie's apartment and continued chatting for quite a while. About 8am Mountain time (11pm locally) we got back to the hotel. Now I can say I've slept on Tatami, can't say it was too bad.. if you like your bed really firm then you might enjoy it too.

Hiroshima Impact

At the rear, 2 Japanese gentlemen who are talking in real old man japanese talk, it's fun to hear, I think Jeff and I are the only two native english speakers in the passenger list. It's amusing hearing all the announcements in Mandarin, Japanese and then in English, I wonder idly if Jeff is also thinking that they could cut out the English announcements... since both of us are quite the studies of Japanese. Well, naturally, for that very study, neither of us can admit it, it's the Japanese way.
Oh yeah it is. The day we spent out in Taipei was full of adventure and all of feeling like a fish out of water. Knowing not even enough of the local language to be able to say 'I'd like that' or 'how much' or 'where's the bathroom?” Getting back to hearing a language that I can comprehend (even if not natively) is very comfortable indeed
There are several men to my left in suits, but they appear younger than me. One is very interested in this netbook I'm typing on. His eyes are getting larger with every piece of tech I'm pulling out.. headphones and mp3 player really shouldn't be drawing attention like this. Well, I suppose the fact that they are large, over-the-ear, noise cancellation headphones does something.
Ah, there's immigration papers that must be filled out.
I'll have to post more about Taiwan, and the 7 7-11s I saw in a small radius there another time. Or maybe about all the starbucks? ah, here we go... those tiny little shops off the tourist-beaten path that students and locals know about. The ones with the incredible grean bean, passionfruit, or black plum smoothies that Starbucks can only bring out pale imitations of for twice the price... literally. 150NT for the starbucks imitation, but about 80 or 90NT for the one from that stand we were led to. Oh, it seems I've talked about Taipei now. Maybe I'll come back to it later.
Immigration in Hiroshima... Wow I should've booked a guest house or something. They literally wouldn't let me in without a pre-arranged location. and since I had none.. we had to come up with something... Jeff's dormroom was it and that's how it went. They then fully searched my bags. I was, after all, the last passenger out of the airport that night. They were courteous, and surprised I opted to speak with them in Japanese, everything went alright though, and I'm in Japan. Hiroshima... well, more specifically Saijou. We did lots of running around errands and stuff today, and then had a little party at Bistro PaPa. That was something else. 3 people ate well, for about $20. And they had good fries. As I finish off this glass of CC Lemon, I'm pondering the things that need to be done. If we move hotels again tomorrow, I'm getting close to going off and finding a more permanent room sooner.

Taipei invasion

So, as I've alluded to in facebook, I'm no longer in the western hemisphere. A short flight from Reno to San Francisco with a fairly short layover there and then it was 12 and a half hours to Taipei.
... I didn't sleep very well on that flight, and now it's been more than a day since my last shower, take all that in with the necessity of economy class flying?
Imagine a picture of Hrothgar, devourer of souls, wedged in a tiny airline seat between a mother with a crying baby and sleeping fatman here and you have the gist of what I was expecting. But no, that was not the case. In fact, thanks to the seating arrangement Jeff and I had gotten when getting our boarding passes (in between security areas, as SFO is not laid out for coherence, at least not for the security zones (and all of this thanks to a very nice chinese lady helping us. Chen, you don't know who I am, but you and others at China Airlines are truly marvelous employees, I hope you are recognized).

Hmm.. looks like my flight for Hiroshima is preparing to board. I'll continue later.