Because you asked for it
Japan Trip Report
This is, for the most part, a transcription of the entries I made in a notebook during the trip. Edited for length, spelling, punctuation, grammar, spoilers, and good taste.
Saturday, June 9
8:34 am Atlanta time
T -1:26
Sitting in the airport waiting for boarding to start. CNN coverage of the Democratic primary debate on the LCD screen embedded in front of me. There were security/checkpoint shenanigans earlier. First we waited for 10 minutes in the wrong line on the outside of the terminal; the girl in front of us had too many bags that were too big and too heavy. When we got to the front of the line, we were told we had to go inside because the outside check-ins were for domestic flights only. Because mom is technically still an alien she had to go to the check-in desk and show her green card (I was able to use a self-check in kiosk). There was a tall rude guy in front of us who pissed off the check-in clerk. He tried to use the Delta check-in kiosk, but not only was he booked on AirTran, he was also late for his flight. Looked like a stoner, with heavy dreds.
I got about 2 hours of sleep last night, maybe 3. Woke up around 4 am, went to bed around 1 am. Karl, Josh, Justin, and Brad were hanging out in the living room watching Karl play the last level of Odinsphere. In the morning, I grabbed 2 Diet Mountain Dews and began driving to my parents' house. I made the best time I've ever made on that trip, except for maybe similarly-timed drives on Christmas or Thanksgiving morning.
The small tree in the back isn't so small anymore; I remember it was planted when I was a little kid, I don't think it was much bigger than I was. Now it's maybe 3 stories high. Wow. My parents' dog, Kitty, is going to be in the kennel for two weeks (it's a Shiba Inu, a Japanese breed that looks a lot like a fox. "Fox" in Japanese is "kitsune", so my parents have named the dog Kitty). Shibas are very one-person dogs, and this one is my mom's. She hates my dad, and is far too quick and nimble for him to ever have a hope of catching, so into the kennel.
On the way to the airport, swing by Krystal's for a couple of Sunrisers. The security checkpoint inside wasn't too bad, everything was moving pretty well. My luggage was 47 pounds, too close to the 50-pound limit for comfort. Maybe I should wear my jacket on the flight back? Or mail stuff? Leave some clothes? We'll see.
Saturday, June 9
2:20 pm Atlanta time, 3:20 am Tokyo time.
Somewhere over Saskatchewan (the northeast corner)
590 miles per hour 32,000 feet -52F 1995 miles travelled
Planes have gotten a lot cooler since I last rode on one. Instead of the single screen with movies and purchaseable earphones, each eat has a touchscreen/LCD display mounted in the back of the seat in front of it. You can watch movies, shows, listen to music, play PopCap games, all kinds of stuff. I watched an episode of The Office, part of "Toy Story" and "Children of Men". The earphones hurt my ears, though. It's warm in the cabin, and I'm sweating, which is I guess why I haven't had to use the bathroom since leaving. The dude in the seat next to me has been sleeping since we got on the plane. I think I'll try to take a nap now as well.
Monday, June 11
8:55 am
Obachan's [Grandma's] House - Kofu, Japan
Watching a segment on a morning show about black crows building nests on power lines, causing power outages. They use wire hangers, strip cables, and other assorted detritus to build their nests. One team of workers has had to remove 170 nests just this year. The crows are highly territorial, so a lot get driven out of forests and parks, and have to live on the power lines. They've devised a massive metal antenna-like thing that looks like a robotic Christmas tree that they've started putting on the tops of poles to discourage crows from building nests, but they can't put them up everywhere.
Arrived at Narita about half an hour early yesterday, despite a small rain delay. On the final appraoch to Tokyo, there was thunder outside, which the captain assured us was perfectly normal "Static discharge", but I have my doubts. The drive home didn't take long; the early arrival led to an early start, so we were able to beat most of the traffic out of Tokyo. Driving through the mountains, lots of verdant green hills, lots of forest. I think this was the first time we drove to Obachan's house during the daytime, so it's almost my first time seeing a lot of this stuff. Snapping away with the digital camera.
Got back to the house, dropped stuff off, then went to dinner at a sushi restaurant right down the street. Good stuff - some kind of crab-meat/paste thing which is very salty, to go with beer. Shoju (some kind of rice whiskey, maybe a brand of sake?) ordered by my uncle. I got pretty tipsy, but managed to hold it together. Other than a brief nap on the plane, I'd been awake for well over 24 hours at that point.
When the weather clears up, will take picture of Mt. Fuji from the small bridge down the street; didn't know you could see it from here.
The morning show is now repeating some segment about disgustingly expensive potatos which you can only buy in Denmark.
Only used the bathroom once on the plane despite drinking a lot; it was kind of warm, and I ate a bunch of cashews and a whole package of beef jerky. Guess that explains it. At one point I wasted the better part of an hour playing Bookworm on the touchscreen.
Uncle Tatsuya brought down an old laptop and set it up for us to use; got to teh email, but noone's emailed me yet, no surprise there.
Tuesday, June 12
5:46 am
Obachan's House
Went to "Mosburger" for lunch yesterday. A plain one for Obachan, a spicy MosBurger for mom, and a "pork cutlet burger" for me. The regular MosBurger comes with some kind of meat sauce (kind of like a thin sloppy joe mix) and a slice of tomato on top of a meat patty. each was about the size of a Jr. cheeseburger from Wendy's, but cost 320 yen, which is about 3 bucks. 3 burgers, 2 small fries and a drink cost 1620 yen, the better part of $15. This was declared a "good deal" by my grandmother. (Mom tried to pay for this with a 10,000 yen note... I helped the cashier by paying with 2 1000's.)
Starting to sneeze a bit, getting some watery eyes. Just took a Claritin. Will probably make a habit of it.
Picked up a small notebook to jot down whatever (at Eclan, a department store attached to the Kofu train station). Walked back with food (the aforementioned MosBurger), a walk that took about 30 minutes. Obachan likes to complain about stuff (kind of like me, but worse). She complained that we brought back too much food. But later on she kept trying to feed me.
Came back, ate, took a nap from about 1 - 5pm. More jetlagged than I had thought. Woke up, went to 7-11. A shorter trip than I had remembered... Everything was smaller/shorter than I remember. Mom says the same thing. It looks like we're not going to do anything today; Obachan has a doctor's appointment, and wants us to bring in the laundry if it starts to rain (hang-drying laundry is still pretty popular in Japan).
Sunrise was at 4:25 this morning. It's not helping things. Looking at going to Tokyo sometime next week. Probably going to visit my great-uncle's grave tommorrow, grandfather's grave this weekend? Haven't done any reading or writing other than this.
12:50 pm
Crazy Japanese Game Shows:
"The Woman's Choice" - 1 woman (with 2 'helpers') do a Dating-Game style quiz with five men. Men provide their answers on cards and show them, "Jeopardy final answer" style. The woman has five signs that she can place above the men: 3 that say "Friend", one that says "Lover", one that says "No way". They're placed so that the men cannot see them, but the audience can. The woman gets to rearrange the signs after each round. After the last round, each guy has to guess what sign he has above him. If you're wrong, a washtub falls on your head.
Apparently you can see Mt. Fuji from right outside the house - never knew that. Been checking to see if it clears up so I can take a picture. No luck so far.
2pm
In the News - Last August, a 22-year old drunk driver got into a wreck and sent another car into a river. The other car had a family inside; the mother and father got out, but the 3 children drowned. The driver is going to court today. Constantly repeating footage of the wrecked car being hauled out of the river with a crane in the middle of the night, footage from home videos of one of the kids' birthdays. I think their names were Hiro, Tomo, and Saiya?
Wednesday, June 15
8:45 am
Aunt Michiyo made tempura last night - it was really good. Yesterday, around 4:30, walked down to the river area. Took some pics of Mt. Fuji that should turn out okay.
Will go visit great-uncle's grave in a bit. Stop by the train station and eat at the tonkatsu [breaded fried pork cutlet] restaurant first. Also, the bank. Mom needs to exchange some money, and I need to break my big bills.
Thinking of going to Tokyo tommorrow, will check prices and schedules at the train station today. Discount for mass ticket purchases? (Define 'mass').
It's chiming 9am in Obachan's room now. Time for breakfast.
It's 8pm Tuesday back home.
9:20 am
Grandma Complaining:
[I open the suitcase for 30 seconds to pull out some clothes]
Grandma: "Close that."
Me: "But I'm changing pants."
Grandma: "Just make sure you close it before we leave."
7:45 pm
Before I forget - recipe for bacon/carrot/mushroom wrap things. Get big wide slices of bacon. Thin strips of carrot. Mushrooms cut into thin strips. Cooked, somehow, with soy sauce and some kind of rice wine... Rice wine vinegar, maybe?
Today went to great-uncle's grave. Train stop a few stops up the way. Paid a taxi to drive us to the graveyard, wait for us, then drive us back. Just over 2000 yen for the time; apparently this is very cheap. Encounter with the vending machine Kit-kats. [Will post that as a separate story with pictures later on]
On the way back, picked up some postcards and other stuff.
I'm most of the way through reading "Lake Wobegone Days".
Going to Tokyo tommorrow; leaving early, like 6am. Get there by 9? Big day, so turning in early(earlier) than usual. Probably need to clean out my bag, take it along. Keep stuff in it. Ah, whatever.
Thursdasy, June 14
8:20 pm
Back from Tokyo a little while ago. Got up early, went straight to the station. Bought tickets to Tokyo on a multi-trip discount thing - 6 total on the Limited Express Super Azusa. Went by McDonald's, got a filet o' fish combo for breakfast. Almost accidentally ordered 3 combos, since I forgot some of the counting words in Japanese.
The train ride took a couple of hours, as the train wasn't quite as Limited Express as others; had several stops. Got to Shinjuku station around 9, the tail end of rush hour. Or maybe it was 10 - I much later figured out that my watch was an hour off. Got on a different subway, rode over to the Imperial Palace. Wandered around, took some pictures with Dewey the Dinosaur.
Got on another line, went to Ginza, then to Asakusa shrine. Went to the big shrine, which was surrounded by tourist stuff. Wandered up to the temple, looking at everything. Parts were under renovation/construction. Got hungry, went to the Aoi-Marubashi ("Blue something") tempura place listed in one of the guidebooks. It's a weird place, 6 floors of tempura goodness. Got the daily special, ate, left satisfied. Good bargain, since it doesn't really cater to tourists (none of the signs were in English).
Went back to the shrine and picked up some gifts. Went back to the train station, and got off at Akihabara to look for Yellow Submarine, an RPG store.
On the way, stopped by Shonen(?) book tower. A sign outside said they had "TRPGs" - Tabletop RPGs? Up to the 7th floor, found a bunch of D&D and other books but no dice (ha ha). The books were fucking expensive, though - a Japanese 3.5 PHB was just under 5000 yen.
Left the bookstore, started wandering around. Vaguely following directions from RPG.net about Yellow Submarine. North wasn't always "up" on the maps we had, which led to some serious confusion. More confusion was generated because I came out of the Metro Tokyo Akihabara station, not the Japan Rail Akihabara station. Major difference.
Found it, picked up some stuff, rode a loop-train back towards Shinjuku station. It was getting later on in the day. The restaurants at the seventh floor of Shinjuku were way too expensive and classy (Wolfgang puck has one of his places up there), so we just grabbed some snackage before heading back. Canned cold coffee and dried squid. Mmmm.
Arriving back in Kofu, we had dinner at Yoshinaru(?), a quick-eats donburi place. Donburi is kind of like shepherd's pie, I guess. Meat, egg, onion, and other stuff mixed up and fried and dumped on top of a bowl of rice. Good if you need a quick meal in a hurry, most of the others in the place were businessmen on their way home. There was a Waffle House-vibe to the whole thing.
We walked home, it started raining, but we didn't care since it cooled us down.
Tommorrow I'll probably go to the library with Dewey, and the post office to send off some postcards. Also fire up the CD player for the first time, see if I can get some alone time mentally if not physically.
It's amazing what you can build when you don't have to worry about the Americans With Disabilities Act. Screw the handicapped!!
I think I'll go to bed now.
Friday, June 15
8am
Japanese Television:
Therapy for the elderly: Bring in old-fashioned things to stimulate conversation. Old mousetraps, briefcases, anything that you just don't see in the same style/fashion/type, or at all, these days. Things donated from attics and stuff. The younger people who run the program have to do research into just what these things are.
3:40 pm
Reflections on a commercial that played far too frequently.
Get paid $? an hour to wear thigh-highs, look alluring, and waltz with no one while holding two cans of potato chips (the brand name of which is displayed prominently on the shiny material of the tight, short, one-piece dress they make you wear). The bitch in front is cuter, and she's the famous one. She gets paid about ten times as much, and has her own dressing room. Take some small comfort in the fact that she's the one that has to deal with fans blowing in her face to make her hair fly backwards. Hear the song in your head when you crawl into bed at four in the morning. Four chords. One lyric. Gaban, gaban.
Visited the post office and mailed the postcards off. Only 70 yen apiece via air mail. Not sure how long it'll take for them to get there. Went to the library, took pictures with Dewey. I clumsily explaind that I worked in a library in America and wanted to take pictures. Pics are okay, as long as no one is in them. Sounds familiar. Took a bunch inside, including a Japanese copy of Hungry Planet. Walked to a nearby bakery, bought lunch, walked back. Hamburger (with a hardboiled egg inside?!?), curry-filled bun, something else.
Imagined dialogue on the set of the commercial:
"Potato chips aren't sexy"
"They are when a sexy girl is eating them."
Been sitting here pretty much ever since. The hard tatami mat is hurting my ass. I'd kill for a La-Z-Boy.
I'm still trying to get a shot of a 1-20-666-666 phone number. A lot of 30-second infomercials have that as the number to call, flashed up briefly at the end of each segment. Too quickly to grab the phone and turn it on.
5:07 pm
A famous comedian in Japan ran for Governor of a Prefecture (state, basically), and won. He's become a major tourist attraction. An earlier variety show had a segment where two of his old sidekicks went to his office and spent the afternoon harassing him. Comedically.
7:57 pm
Japanese Cooking/Game Show
A panel of seven celebrity guests watch as various exotic dishes are prepared. They then all eat, and must guess how much the dish cost, writing their guesses down in secret. The emcee/head chef then reveals the guesses, starting with the most accurate (or least inaccurate). This person wins money. Then they go down the accuracy list, revealing who is next in line, then next, then next. It comes down to the last two, and the chef brings out the bill. The person who is furthest off from the real cost has to pay for the whole thing.
The guy who just lost apparently also lost last episode. He had to borrow money from the other contestants to pay the bill.
"Doping Panda" is a great name for a band.
Saturday, June 16
8:25 am (7:25 pm Friday Atlanta time)
Going to grandfather's grave today, then a waterfall, then something else on the way back.
"Every hook that's worth a damn has a barb"- Neal Stephenson, "Cryptonomicon".
Sunday, June 17
7:59 am
Lots of stuff yesterday. Drove to grandfather's grave, poured water over it, lit incense. Same with mom's aunt. Bought lunch (onigiri - rice balls) at a convenience store before heading up into the moutains.
Took 2 cars the whole way, aunt Michiyo following. Drove up to Shosenkyo Falls, a touristy place up in the mountains. Took a cable car even further up to the top of a mountain. There was a hiking/climbing trail, went on most of that. Took lots of pictures - the air was very clear, got all my great pictures. Could see the Japanese Alps, and all the way clear to Mt. Fuji. I didn't make it to the last part of the hiking trail, which involved going over bare rock, then up a steep ladder/staircase carved into the rock, sans handholds or rails or anything. Fuck that noise.
There weren't any handrails or guards, except for in a few very difficult places, like one set of steps where the individual steps were shorter than my foot.
Brief visit to a shrine at the top of the mountain, then to another lookout point. Eat lunch, then go down the cable car, walk over and down to the waterfall. Lots of crystal/geode stuff for sale. Take some pics, walked back up. The cable car tickets came with a free pass to a museum there, went in and looked around in there to cool off. The shadow/light/etc. pictures (would pick up bookmarks of these on the way out). Old cashier ladies complimenting me on my Japanese.
Visited the shrine of Takeda Shingen, an old samurai warlord. There's a miniseries on television right now of his life, and it's a hugely-popular thing, so it was crammed with tourists. Lots of famous actors in it, including the Jpop singer Gackt. There was a granite Hello Kitty statue in the shrine, and I wasn't the only one taking pictures of it. Even for the Japanese, that was a "WTF" moment.
Back to home, before dinner at a Sukiyaki(?) place, where they give you the raw meat on plates and there's a little gas grill in the table; you cook stuff yourself. Drove over to a small shopping plaza before heading back. Wandered around a bookstore, staring at all the books I couldn't read. Strange feeling. Dark by this point, took a random detour back up into the mountains to look for fireflies / lightning bugs. They seemed very excited about them; pollution had driven them away, and they were starting to come back since things have been cleaned up. Didn't have the heart to tell them that back home there were tons of the damn things in the backyard of my parents' house. Winding mountain roads in the nighttime, vaguely worried about driving off a cliff.
3:58 pm
"Arguing with anonymous strangers on the internet is a sucker's game, because they almost always turn out to be - or indistinguishable from - self-righteous sixteen-year olds possessing infinite amounts of free time." - Neal Stephenson, "Cryptonomicon"
4:40 pm
For the second time in half an hour, someone next door has let out a truly horrifying BLAARRRGGGHHHHHH noise.
wtf
Monday, June 18
8:23 pm
Yesterday afternoon, went wandering around Kofu. Had a teriyaki burger at McDonald's; not impressed. At the 100-yen store, played a fish-chopping game and a "wave a sword around to kill samurai zombies" game.
Plan on going back to Tokyo and Matsumoto this week before heading back. Check out Akihabara, maybe get another memory card for the camera.
Tuesday, June 19
6:55 pm
Crazy Japanese Game Show:
Dogs sitting on a small platform. A conveyer belt goes around them, carrying various toys, treats, and other distractions. Owners awarded money for each temptation resisted, like cake, dog food, or... A singing James Brown bobblehead?
Today, went to Matsumoto up in the mountains, took a train. Walked to Matsumoto castle, which is still in very good / restored condition. Have to take off shoes inside. Very steep steps inside. Outside in the moat, koi fighting over breadcrumbs with ducks. Big koi.
Went to Delhi, a curry restaurant mentioned in the travel guie. Very good, but no veggies in the curry. Afterwards, cool off in a museum of some weird Austrian stuff, then wander back towards the train station.
The sauna blew up in Tokyo today.
Wednesay, June 20
2:20 pm
A Stupid Theory on Why Japanese put Mayonaise On Everything:
As I learned from a book called "Mindless Eating", the human body is geared towards 3 tastes; salt, fat, sugar. Salt for internal processing, sugar and fat for caloric value. "Diet" foods re-engineer these; sugar-free cookies have lots of fat, fat-free foods have lots of sugar, etc. Diet soda adds sodium?
Japanese diet is very high in sodium (rates of heart disease) due to the fishy nature of everything, and pickling everything. The diet isn't so high in fat; so perhaps mayo caters to the (otherwise-neglected) desire for fat? Especially becauese animal fat, or other kinds of meat is very expensive to import. And when meat is imported, it's generally not eaten by itself, like a slab of steak. It's generally chopped up and incorporated into a vegetable dish. Also mayo's suitability to adaptation into traditional cooking, or to perceived appropriateness of adding to foreign food?
Friday, June 22
7:03pm
Went to Tokyo for the second time yesterday. Rode bus to train station, caught express train. Rode through Shinjuku all the way to Tokyo, then hopped on a loop-line to Akihabara Electric Town. Much easier this time, since we got off at the Japan Rail Akihabara station. SD cards were all more expensive than Fry's or Best Buy back home, so I didn't get anything; would only be using it for this trip, anyway.
Wandered around in one of the big buildings filled with shops, tons of anime and fanboy stuff. There was one floor which was nothing but hentai. Yecch.
Had lunch at a Japanese place under a bridge, it had good sashimi. Went to the Miraikan museum of science and innovation. There was a Wendy's attached to the side of the building. Inside just looked at a couple of the exhibitions - one was a model of how the internet works (NO TUBES??). Saw Asimo the robot, surpsingly small. He can run. Technically.
The museum area felt very different; it was built on 'reclaimed' land that had been made in the middle of Tokyo Bay by dumping tons of trash into the bay until it turned into an island. Much roomier/open than pretty much anywhere else in Japan. Spent 30 minutes on the loop back to Shinjuku, tooled around a couple more hours.
Got dark quickly on the train ride home; it got too dark for pictures pretty quickly. Got back to Kofu after everything else had closed, ended up eating dinner at McDonald's. A serious downgrade from the sushi I was eyeing in one of the department stores.
Saturday, June 23
8:15ish pm
Leaving tommorrow. For dinner, went to a conveyer-belt sushi restaurant. Ate 10-11 plates' worth.
On tv right now are a dozen people dressed up as Captain Jack Sparrow. They start filling up plates at a buffet, then someone comes in and yells at them for some reason. I'm not sure why.
Today was boring. Wandered around town, got a coffee at Starbucks. Had lunch at the top of a department store, a Chinese place that had ramen. Bought some cake, came back and sat and did nothing for about 3 hours.
Crazy Japanese Show
"Meka Ike"? - a bunch of segments run together. Each begins with a 10 year old girl in overalls and pigtails beatboxing and rapping outside a house. Members of a comedy sketch group come over dressed as gas deliverymen come over and join in (different segment for each person). Her lyrics turn out to be not very flattering. "Your wife is a bitch, get a divorce! Get a divorce!" "You're too fat, stop eating cake! Stop eating cake!" "You would be pretty if you take off the glasses! [woman takes off the glasses] Put them back on! Put them back on!"
One of the women dressed up as Jack Sparrow got yelled at for using crab legs to dress up as a pirate.
No more rapping pigtail kid, Obachan changed the channel. Guess I'll go to bed.
Sunday, June 24
2:25 pm Tokyo Time
Sitting in front of the gate at Narita, waiting to get on the plane. Had sandwiches for breakfast, brought leftovers in the car. Stopped at a restaurant by Narita airport, had tonkatsu. Left early, made good time. Long lines at check-in; two sets of morons in front of us. One didn't know about the liquid thing, and had to re-pack a bunch of their luggage right there. The second was a couple who had randomly decided to leave on an eariler flight and didn't bother telling the airline. They also didn't know about the liquid thing.
6:25 pm Tokyo Time
5:25 am Atlanta Time
Somewhere over the Pacific
Dark outside, beyond the wing. Purple-dark about an hour ago. Just finished watching "Letters from Iwo Jima". I can use my headphones instead of the crappy ones provided. Wish I'd known that on the way over.
This is, for the most part, a transcription of the entries I made in a notebook during the trip. Edited for length, spelling, punctuation, grammar, spoilers, and good taste.
Saturday, June 9
8:34 am Atlanta time
T -1:26
Sitting in the airport waiting for boarding to start. CNN coverage of the Democratic primary debate on the LCD screen embedded in front of me. There were security/checkpoint shenanigans earlier. First we waited for 10 minutes in the wrong line on the outside of the terminal; the girl in front of us had too many bags that were too big and too heavy. When we got to the front of the line, we were told we had to go inside because the outside check-ins were for domestic flights only. Because mom is technically still an alien she had to go to the check-in desk and show her green card (I was able to use a self-check in kiosk). There was a tall rude guy in front of us who pissed off the check-in clerk. He tried to use the Delta check-in kiosk, but not only was he booked on AirTran, he was also late for his flight. Looked like a stoner, with heavy dreds.
I got about 2 hours of sleep last night, maybe 3. Woke up around 4 am, went to bed around 1 am. Karl, Josh, Justin, and Brad were hanging out in the living room watching Karl play the last level of Odinsphere. In the morning, I grabbed 2 Diet Mountain Dews and began driving to my parents' house. I made the best time I've ever made on that trip, except for maybe similarly-timed drives on Christmas or Thanksgiving morning.
The small tree in the back isn't so small anymore; I remember it was planted when I was a little kid, I don't think it was much bigger than I was. Now it's maybe 3 stories high. Wow. My parents' dog, Kitty, is going to be in the kennel for two weeks (it's a Shiba Inu, a Japanese breed that looks a lot like a fox. "Fox" in Japanese is "kitsune", so my parents have named the dog Kitty). Shibas are very one-person dogs, and this one is my mom's. She hates my dad, and is far too quick and nimble for him to ever have a hope of catching, so into the kennel.
On the way to the airport, swing by Krystal's for a couple of Sunrisers. The security checkpoint inside wasn't too bad, everything was moving pretty well. My luggage was 47 pounds, too close to the 50-pound limit for comfort. Maybe I should wear my jacket on the flight back? Or mail stuff? Leave some clothes? We'll see.
Saturday, June 9
2:20 pm Atlanta time, 3:20 am Tokyo time.
Somewhere over Saskatchewan (the northeast corner)
590 miles per hour 32,000 feet -52F 1995 miles travelled
Planes have gotten a lot cooler since I last rode on one. Instead of the single screen with movies and purchaseable earphones, each eat has a touchscreen/LCD display mounted in the back of the seat in front of it. You can watch movies, shows, listen to music, play PopCap games, all kinds of stuff. I watched an episode of The Office, part of "Toy Story" and "Children of Men". The earphones hurt my ears, though. It's warm in the cabin, and I'm sweating, which is I guess why I haven't had to use the bathroom since leaving. The dude in the seat next to me has been sleeping since we got on the plane. I think I'll try to take a nap now as well.
Monday, June 11
8:55 am
Obachan's [Grandma's] House - Kofu, Japan
Watching a segment on a morning show about black crows building nests on power lines, causing power outages. They use wire hangers, strip cables, and other assorted detritus to build their nests. One team of workers has had to remove 170 nests just this year. The crows are highly territorial, so a lot get driven out of forests and parks, and have to live on the power lines. They've devised a massive metal antenna-like thing that looks like a robotic Christmas tree that they've started putting on the tops of poles to discourage crows from building nests, but they can't put them up everywhere.
Arrived at Narita about half an hour early yesterday, despite a small rain delay. On the final appraoch to Tokyo, there was thunder outside, which the captain assured us was perfectly normal "Static discharge", but I have my doubts. The drive home didn't take long; the early arrival led to an early start, so we were able to beat most of the traffic out of Tokyo. Driving through the mountains, lots of verdant green hills, lots of forest. I think this was the first time we drove to Obachan's house during the daytime, so it's almost my first time seeing a lot of this stuff. Snapping away with the digital camera.
Got back to the house, dropped stuff off, then went to dinner at a sushi restaurant right down the street. Good stuff - some kind of crab-meat/paste thing which is very salty, to go with beer. Shoju (some kind of rice whiskey, maybe a brand of sake?) ordered by my uncle. I got pretty tipsy, but managed to hold it together. Other than a brief nap on the plane, I'd been awake for well over 24 hours at that point.
When the weather clears up, will take picture of Mt. Fuji from the small bridge down the street; didn't know you could see it from here.
The morning show is now repeating some segment about disgustingly expensive potatos which you can only buy in Denmark.
Only used the bathroom once on the plane despite drinking a lot; it was kind of warm, and I ate a bunch of cashews and a whole package of beef jerky. Guess that explains it. At one point I wasted the better part of an hour playing Bookworm on the touchscreen.
Uncle Tatsuya brought down an old laptop and set it up for us to use; got to teh email, but noone's emailed me yet, no surprise there.
Tuesday, June 12
5:46 am
Obachan's House
Went to "Mosburger" for lunch yesterday. A plain one for Obachan, a spicy MosBurger for mom, and a "pork cutlet burger" for me. The regular MosBurger comes with some kind of meat sauce (kind of like a thin sloppy joe mix) and a slice of tomato on top of a meat patty. each was about the size of a Jr. cheeseburger from Wendy's, but cost 320 yen, which is about 3 bucks. 3 burgers, 2 small fries and a drink cost 1620 yen, the better part of $15. This was declared a "good deal" by my grandmother. (Mom tried to pay for this with a 10,000 yen note... I helped the cashier by paying with 2 1000's.)
Starting to sneeze a bit, getting some watery eyes. Just took a Claritin. Will probably make a habit of it.
Picked up a small notebook to jot down whatever (at Eclan, a department store attached to the Kofu train station). Walked back with food (the aforementioned MosBurger), a walk that took about 30 minutes. Obachan likes to complain about stuff (kind of like me, but worse). She complained that we brought back too much food. But later on she kept trying to feed me.
Came back, ate, took a nap from about 1 - 5pm. More jetlagged than I had thought. Woke up, went to 7-11. A shorter trip than I had remembered... Everything was smaller/shorter than I remember. Mom says the same thing. It looks like we're not going to do anything today; Obachan has a doctor's appointment, and wants us to bring in the laundry if it starts to rain (hang-drying laundry is still pretty popular in Japan).
Sunrise was at 4:25 this morning. It's not helping things. Looking at going to Tokyo sometime next week. Probably going to visit my great-uncle's grave tommorrow, grandfather's grave this weekend? Haven't done any reading or writing other than this.
12:50 pm
Crazy Japanese Game Shows:
"The Woman's Choice" - 1 woman (with 2 'helpers') do a Dating-Game style quiz with five men. Men provide their answers on cards and show them, "Jeopardy final answer" style. The woman has five signs that she can place above the men: 3 that say "Friend", one that says "Lover", one that says "No way". They're placed so that the men cannot see them, but the audience can. The woman gets to rearrange the signs after each round. After the last round, each guy has to guess what sign he has above him. If you're wrong, a washtub falls on your head.
Apparently you can see Mt. Fuji from right outside the house - never knew that. Been checking to see if it clears up so I can take a picture. No luck so far.
2pm
In the News - Last August, a 22-year old drunk driver got into a wreck and sent another car into a river. The other car had a family inside; the mother and father got out, but the 3 children drowned. The driver is going to court today. Constantly repeating footage of the wrecked car being hauled out of the river with a crane in the middle of the night, footage from home videos of one of the kids' birthdays. I think their names were Hiro, Tomo, and Saiya?
Wednesday, June 15
8:45 am
Aunt Michiyo made tempura last night - it was really good. Yesterday, around 4:30, walked down to the river area. Took some pics of Mt. Fuji that should turn out okay.
Will go visit great-uncle's grave in a bit. Stop by the train station and eat at the tonkatsu [breaded fried pork cutlet] restaurant first. Also, the bank. Mom needs to exchange some money, and I need to break my big bills.
Thinking of going to Tokyo tommorrow, will check prices and schedules at the train station today. Discount for mass ticket purchases? (Define 'mass').
It's chiming 9am in Obachan's room now. Time for breakfast.
It's 8pm Tuesday back home.
9:20 am
Grandma Complaining:
[I open the suitcase for 30 seconds to pull out some clothes]
Grandma: "Close that."
Me: "But I'm changing pants."
Grandma: "Just make sure you close it before we leave."
7:45 pm
Before I forget - recipe for bacon/carrot/mushroom wrap things. Get big wide slices of bacon. Thin strips of carrot. Mushrooms cut into thin strips. Cooked, somehow, with soy sauce and some kind of rice wine... Rice wine vinegar, maybe?
Today went to great-uncle's grave. Train stop a few stops up the way. Paid a taxi to drive us to the graveyard, wait for us, then drive us back. Just over 2000 yen for the time; apparently this is very cheap. Encounter with the vending machine Kit-kats. [Will post that as a separate story with pictures later on]
On the way back, picked up some postcards and other stuff.
I'm most of the way through reading "Lake Wobegone Days".
Going to Tokyo tommorrow; leaving early, like 6am. Get there by 9? Big day, so turning in early(earlier) than usual. Probably need to clean out my bag, take it along. Keep stuff in it. Ah, whatever.
Thursdasy, June 14
8:20 pm
Back from Tokyo a little while ago. Got up early, went straight to the station. Bought tickets to Tokyo on a multi-trip discount thing - 6 total on the Limited Express Super Azusa. Went by McDonald's, got a filet o' fish combo for breakfast. Almost accidentally ordered 3 combos, since I forgot some of the counting words in Japanese.
The train ride took a couple of hours, as the train wasn't quite as Limited Express as others; had several stops. Got to Shinjuku station around 9, the tail end of rush hour. Or maybe it was 10 - I much later figured out that my watch was an hour off. Got on a different subway, rode over to the Imperial Palace. Wandered around, took some pictures with Dewey the Dinosaur.
Got on another line, went to Ginza, then to Asakusa shrine. Went to the big shrine, which was surrounded by tourist stuff. Wandered up to the temple, looking at everything. Parts were under renovation/construction. Got hungry, went to the Aoi-Marubashi ("Blue something") tempura place listed in one of the guidebooks. It's a weird place, 6 floors of tempura goodness. Got the daily special, ate, left satisfied. Good bargain, since it doesn't really cater to tourists (none of the signs were in English).
Went back to the shrine and picked up some gifts. Went back to the train station, and got off at Akihabara to look for Yellow Submarine, an RPG store.
On the way, stopped by Shonen(?) book tower. A sign outside said they had "TRPGs" - Tabletop RPGs? Up to the 7th floor, found a bunch of D&D and other books but no dice (ha ha). The books were fucking expensive, though - a Japanese 3.5 PHB was just under 5000 yen.
Left the bookstore, started wandering around. Vaguely following directions from RPG.net about Yellow Submarine. North wasn't always "up" on the maps we had, which led to some serious confusion. More confusion was generated because I came out of the Metro Tokyo Akihabara station, not the Japan Rail Akihabara station. Major difference.
Found it, picked up some stuff, rode a loop-train back towards Shinjuku station. It was getting later on in the day. The restaurants at the seventh floor of Shinjuku were way too expensive and classy (Wolfgang puck has one of his places up there), so we just grabbed some snackage before heading back. Canned cold coffee and dried squid. Mmmm.
Arriving back in Kofu, we had dinner at Yoshinaru(?), a quick-eats donburi place. Donburi is kind of like shepherd's pie, I guess. Meat, egg, onion, and other stuff mixed up and fried and dumped on top of a bowl of rice. Good if you need a quick meal in a hurry, most of the others in the place were businessmen on their way home. There was a Waffle House-vibe to the whole thing.
We walked home, it started raining, but we didn't care since it cooled us down.
Tommorrow I'll probably go to the library with Dewey, and the post office to send off some postcards. Also fire up the CD player for the first time, see if I can get some alone time mentally if not physically.
It's amazing what you can build when you don't have to worry about the Americans With Disabilities Act. Screw the handicapped!!
I think I'll go to bed now.
Friday, June 15
8am
Japanese Television:
Therapy for the elderly: Bring in old-fashioned things to stimulate conversation. Old mousetraps, briefcases, anything that you just don't see in the same style/fashion/type, or at all, these days. Things donated from attics and stuff. The younger people who run the program have to do research into just what these things are.
3:40 pm
Reflections on a commercial that played far too frequently.
Get paid $? an hour to wear thigh-highs, look alluring, and waltz with no one while holding two cans of potato chips (the brand name of which is displayed prominently on the shiny material of the tight, short, one-piece dress they make you wear). The bitch in front is cuter, and she's the famous one. She gets paid about ten times as much, and has her own dressing room. Take some small comfort in the fact that she's the one that has to deal with fans blowing in her face to make her hair fly backwards. Hear the song in your head when you crawl into bed at four in the morning. Four chords. One lyric. Gaban, gaban.
Visited the post office and mailed the postcards off. Only 70 yen apiece via air mail. Not sure how long it'll take for them to get there. Went to the library, took pictures with Dewey. I clumsily explaind that I worked in a library in America and wanted to take pictures. Pics are okay, as long as no one is in them. Sounds familiar. Took a bunch inside, including a Japanese copy of Hungry Planet. Walked to a nearby bakery, bought lunch, walked back. Hamburger (with a hardboiled egg inside?!?), curry-filled bun, something else.
Imagined dialogue on the set of the commercial:
"Potato chips aren't sexy"
"They are when a sexy girl is eating them."
Been sitting here pretty much ever since. The hard tatami mat is hurting my ass. I'd kill for a La-Z-Boy.
I'm still trying to get a shot of a 1-20-666-666 phone number. A lot of 30-second infomercials have that as the number to call, flashed up briefly at the end of each segment. Too quickly to grab the phone and turn it on.
5:07 pm
A famous comedian in Japan ran for Governor of a Prefecture (state, basically), and won. He's become a major tourist attraction. An earlier variety show had a segment where two of his old sidekicks went to his office and spent the afternoon harassing him. Comedically.
7:57 pm
Japanese Cooking/Game Show
A panel of seven celebrity guests watch as various exotic dishes are prepared. They then all eat, and must guess how much the dish cost, writing their guesses down in secret. The emcee/head chef then reveals the guesses, starting with the most accurate (or least inaccurate). This person wins money. Then they go down the accuracy list, revealing who is next in line, then next, then next. It comes down to the last two, and the chef brings out the bill. The person who is furthest off from the real cost has to pay for the whole thing.
The guy who just lost apparently also lost last episode. He had to borrow money from the other contestants to pay the bill.
"Doping Panda" is a great name for a band.
Saturday, June 16
8:25 am (7:25 pm Friday Atlanta time)
Going to grandfather's grave today, then a waterfall, then something else on the way back.
"Every hook that's worth a damn has a barb"- Neal Stephenson, "Cryptonomicon".
Sunday, June 17
7:59 am
Lots of stuff yesterday. Drove to grandfather's grave, poured water over it, lit incense. Same with mom's aunt. Bought lunch (onigiri - rice balls) at a convenience store before heading up into the moutains.
Took 2 cars the whole way, aunt Michiyo following. Drove up to Shosenkyo Falls, a touristy place up in the mountains. Took a cable car even further up to the top of a mountain. There was a hiking/climbing trail, went on most of that. Took lots of pictures - the air was very clear, got all my great pictures. Could see the Japanese Alps, and all the way clear to Mt. Fuji. I didn't make it to the last part of the hiking trail, which involved going over bare rock, then up a steep ladder/staircase carved into the rock, sans handholds or rails or anything. Fuck that noise.
There weren't any handrails or guards, except for in a few very difficult places, like one set of steps where the individual steps were shorter than my foot.
Brief visit to a shrine at the top of the mountain, then to another lookout point. Eat lunch, then go down the cable car, walk over and down to the waterfall. Lots of crystal/geode stuff for sale. Take some pics, walked back up. The cable car tickets came with a free pass to a museum there, went in and looked around in there to cool off. The shadow/light/etc. pictures (would pick up bookmarks of these on the way out). Old cashier ladies complimenting me on my Japanese.
Visited the shrine of Takeda Shingen, an old samurai warlord. There's a miniseries on television right now of his life, and it's a hugely-popular thing, so it was crammed with tourists. Lots of famous actors in it, including the Jpop singer Gackt. There was a granite Hello Kitty statue in the shrine, and I wasn't the only one taking pictures of it. Even for the Japanese, that was a "WTF" moment.
Back to home, before dinner at a Sukiyaki(?) place, where they give you the raw meat on plates and there's a little gas grill in the table; you cook stuff yourself. Drove over to a small shopping plaza before heading back. Wandered around a bookstore, staring at all the books I couldn't read. Strange feeling. Dark by this point, took a random detour back up into the mountains to look for fireflies / lightning bugs. They seemed very excited about them; pollution had driven them away, and they were starting to come back since things have been cleaned up. Didn't have the heart to tell them that back home there were tons of the damn things in the backyard of my parents' house. Winding mountain roads in the nighttime, vaguely worried about driving off a cliff.
3:58 pm
"Arguing with anonymous strangers on the internet is a sucker's game, because they almost always turn out to be - or indistinguishable from - self-righteous sixteen-year olds possessing infinite amounts of free time." - Neal Stephenson, "Cryptonomicon"
4:40 pm
For the second time in half an hour, someone next door has let out a truly horrifying BLAARRRGGGHHHHHH noise.
wtf
Monday, June 18
8:23 pm
Yesterday afternoon, went wandering around Kofu. Had a teriyaki burger at McDonald's; not impressed. At the 100-yen store, played a fish-chopping game and a "wave a sword around to kill samurai zombies" game.
Plan on going back to Tokyo and Matsumoto this week before heading back. Check out Akihabara, maybe get another memory card for the camera.
Tuesday, June 19
6:55 pm
Crazy Japanese Game Show:
Dogs sitting on a small platform. A conveyer belt goes around them, carrying various toys, treats, and other distractions. Owners awarded money for each temptation resisted, like cake, dog food, or... A singing James Brown bobblehead?
Today, went to Matsumoto up in the mountains, took a train. Walked to Matsumoto castle, which is still in very good / restored condition. Have to take off shoes inside. Very steep steps inside. Outside in the moat, koi fighting over breadcrumbs with ducks. Big koi.
Went to Delhi, a curry restaurant mentioned in the travel guie. Very good, but no veggies in the curry. Afterwards, cool off in a museum of some weird Austrian stuff, then wander back towards the train station.
The sauna blew up in Tokyo today.
Wednesay, June 20
2:20 pm
A Stupid Theory on Why Japanese put Mayonaise On Everything:
As I learned from a book called "Mindless Eating", the human body is geared towards 3 tastes; salt, fat, sugar. Salt for internal processing, sugar and fat for caloric value. "Diet" foods re-engineer these; sugar-free cookies have lots of fat, fat-free foods have lots of sugar, etc. Diet soda adds sodium?
Japanese diet is very high in sodium (rates of heart disease) due to the fishy nature of everything, and pickling everything. The diet isn't so high in fat; so perhaps mayo caters to the (otherwise-neglected) desire for fat? Especially becauese animal fat, or other kinds of meat is very expensive to import. And when meat is imported, it's generally not eaten by itself, like a slab of steak. It's generally chopped up and incorporated into a vegetable dish. Also mayo's suitability to adaptation into traditional cooking, or to perceived appropriateness of adding to foreign food?
Friday, June 22
7:03pm
Went to Tokyo for the second time yesterday. Rode bus to train station, caught express train. Rode through Shinjuku all the way to Tokyo, then hopped on a loop-line to Akihabara Electric Town. Much easier this time, since we got off at the Japan Rail Akihabara station. SD cards were all more expensive than Fry's or Best Buy back home, so I didn't get anything; would only be using it for this trip, anyway.
Wandered around in one of the big buildings filled with shops, tons of anime and fanboy stuff. There was one floor which was nothing but hentai. Yecch.
Had lunch at a Japanese place under a bridge, it had good sashimi. Went to the Miraikan museum of science and innovation. There was a Wendy's attached to the side of the building. Inside just looked at a couple of the exhibitions - one was a model of how the internet works (NO TUBES??). Saw Asimo the robot, surpsingly small. He can run. Technically.
The museum area felt very different; it was built on 'reclaimed' land that had been made in the middle of Tokyo Bay by dumping tons of trash into the bay until it turned into an island. Much roomier/open than pretty much anywhere else in Japan. Spent 30 minutes on the loop back to Shinjuku, tooled around a couple more hours.
Got dark quickly on the train ride home; it got too dark for pictures pretty quickly. Got back to Kofu after everything else had closed, ended up eating dinner at McDonald's. A serious downgrade from the sushi I was eyeing in one of the department stores.
Saturday, June 23
8:15ish pm
Leaving tommorrow. For dinner, went to a conveyer-belt sushi restaurant. Ate 10-11 plates' worth.
On tv right now are a dozen people dressed up as Captain Jack Sparrow. They start filling up plates at a buffet, then someone comes in and yells at them for some reason. I'm not sure why.
Today was boring. Wandered around town, got a coffee at Starbucks. Had lunch at the top of a department store, a Chinese place that had ramen. Bought some cake, came back and sat and did nothing for about 3 hours.
Crazy Japanese Show
"Meka Ike"? - a bunch of segments run together. Each begins with a 10 year old girl in overalls and pigtails beatboxing and rapping outside a house. Members of a comedy sketch group come over dressed as gas deliverymen come over and join in (different segment for each person). Her lyrics turn out to be not very flattering. "Your wife is a bitch, get a divorce! Get a divorce!" "You're too fat, stop eating cake! Stop eating cake!" "You would be pretty if you take off the glasses! [woman takes off the glasses] Put them back on! Put them back on!"
One of the women dressed up as Jack Sparrow got yelled at for using crab legs to dress up as a pirate.
No more rapping pigtail kid, Obachan changed the channel. Guess I'll go to bed.
Sunday, June 24
2:25 pm Tokyo Time
Sitting in front of the gate at Narita, waiting to get on the plane. Had sandwiches for breakfast, brought leftovers in the car. Stopped at a restaurant by Narita airport, had tonkatsu. Left early, made good time. Long lines at check-in; two sets of morons in front of us. One didn't know about the liquid thing, and had to re-pack a bunch of their luggage right there. The second was a couple who had randomly decided to leave on an eariler flight and didn't bother telling the airline. They also didn't know about the liquid thing.
6:25 pm Tokyo Time
5:25 am Atlanta Time
Somewhere over the Pacific
Dark outside, beyond the wing. Purple-dark about an hour ago. Just finished watching "Letters from Iwo Jima". I can use my headphones instead of the crappy ones provided. Wish I'd known that on the way over.