So now we are in Osaka. After we found our hostels we quickly took showers, which I have never been happier to do, alone, standing up. And for most people who know me well you know that usually I dont love to shower. it was very exciting and really enjoy feeling clean. We met a brit named Ian, 23, who was traveling and also staying at our hostel and although he was leaving for Hiroshima at 11 decided to come have a drink with us. He and Yumi, the manager of The Peace House Showa, the hostel we are staying in, both recommended we go to the community bar. It was a very good thing that Ian was with us because this "bar" would have been impossible for us to find. The outside was covered with a blue tarp and the inside looked something like a run down repair shop. What anyone would bring there to be fixed I dont know. So we sit down at the bar which was perfect size. Exactly 4 bar stools. Behind the stools was a small table where two old men sat chain smoking cigarettes. One of them spoke a little english and eventually told us that the man he was with was from India and was now homeless. He told us that his homeless friend liked girls and if we wanted to be escorts for the night. We said no. No hesitation. Finally a man popped out from behind another tarp at the end of the bar. This was Momi and he was the bar owner/tender, etc. He said "Hi, Hi,Hi, Hi, Hi, Hi, Hi, Hi, Hi, Hi, Hi, yes uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh take your time, take your time, take your time, take your time." His lack of english did not help his speech impediment and it was shocking. He then asked us what we wanted to drink and then told us he only had Asahi beer on tap. So we ordered our beers, after each order he responded, "hi, hi hi hi hi hi hi ok okokok take your time take your time" "hi" in japanese means yes, though with either translation it was hilarious. He was very animated and friendly and the whole experience was just odd and ridiculous. We decided to venture off somewhere else to eat and ended up at the only place that could seat 4 of us. The restaurant spoke no english and we ended up ordered from boxes full of raw meat. Each plate we recieved had 4 small pieces of of meat on them and after we were done we were starving. After learning that each plate was 650 yen we decided to go to the 7/11 and get a rice ball to curb our hunger in a cheaper manner. We entered another bar and learned that they were doing karaoke. We sat down and participated and everyone was really nice and clapped for us and sang along until 11:30 when they gave us our bill, which included charges for songs (not mentioned prevoiusly) and literally kicked us out.
After that experience we decided to walk around and came across a red light district, 2 blocks from our hostel. When you think of a red light district you think scantaly clad girls, whores coming up to your cars, pimps in fur coats. Not in japan. It was almost like shopping for barbies. The girls were in open rooms and sat on little towels that each had Mickey Mouse or some character on it. SOme were dressed in teddies, some in nurses outfits, some in sports gear, some in pretty dresses, some with glasses, some with hats, etc. They didnt move they just sat and smiled. To each of their left sat an older woman, probably in her late 60s, early 70s, probably their grandmothers, or greatgrandmothers who were their pimps. They were the ones that hollered at the men walking by. At the beginning of the road the girls were very pretty and probably in their teens - mid 20s. The farther you walked down the street though they became older and uglier. The last few were probably mid 60s and had missing teeth. I think they were probably cheaper too. it was a very weird experience.
After looking through lonely planet and talking to people about Osaka, we decided the most important thing to see here was the aquarium. It was a great choice. The aquarium was huge and we were probably there for about 4 hours. The main attraction were the Whale Sharks, which are held in the biggest tank of any aquarium, anywhere in the world. They were pretty big but I had hoped they would be bigger. There were a ton of different, beautiful fish and I loved it because I think fish are really interesting and love to look at them but hate being in the water with them, snorkling, etc. So this was really perfect for me. Since weve been in Japan weve realized we have seen very little pda. No kissing, no groping and not much hand holding. That all changed today. Apparently there are hundreds of pda couples in japan and they all hang out at the aquarium.
We were also told that while in Osaka we had to try Takoyaki, hot dough with octopus inside. We tried them and i probably scalded my mouth for life. Im still not sure if I liked them or not because they were so hot. Over all it was a very satisfying day. Tomorrow we leave for Kobe for a night where we want to go see the cows being massaged and then we want to eat one. Hopefully this fits into our budget...? I guess we'll find out! Till next time!
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Friday, November 27, 2009
Recap of the past 5 days
Alright. Blogging has been difficult with my lack of internet access, but now I have a minute so im going to try and fit as much in as possible. I wrote some journal entries and I:m going to relay some of that so there are some things i will remember much better than others. Ok, here we go.
On November 23rd we left Suzaka and our first host and headed to Kyoto. on the way we arrived in Nagano and got our japan rail passes, which turned out to be nothing more than colorful slips of paper and aside from being a prepaid method of travel, actually adds a few annoying steps to each trip. Now, not only do we need tickets, but we cant use the machines. We have to wait on line to get tickets then go to another teller and show our tickets and passes which both need to be stamped on entry and departure from each station. All in all they were a good purchase though and we would have decided to see less had we been faced with the questoin "do i want to pay 110 dollars each way to go to hiroshima." After a grueling train ride from Nagano to Nagoya, which would have been fine had the compartement been airconditioned and the blind next to me not smelled like rotten fish and dirty underwear. Going to the bathroom on the train was a task in itself. I took a step up and held on for dear life as I straddled the porceline hold in the ground of the rocky train and some how managed not to pee all over myself!
We arrived in Nagoya with 4 minutes to make our next train, which, miraculously, we did. THe next ride was a mere 30 minutes in which time Mimi and I counted 9 driving ranges. Driving ranges in Japan are long, tall, narrow nets that form a rectangular shape and are easy to spot as they usually stick out of huge spans of farm land. Last Saturday Nagata gave us the afternoon off and Ashley and Dan we to the driving range while the rest of us non-golfers opted to take a nap. THey said it was fun, but thought it was odd that the minimum number of balls you could get was 800. I guess the japanese really like to practice. Aside from counting the driving ranges we also counted the white people in our car. 8 whch surprisingly is more than wed seen since departing our plane from chicago. 2 backpackrs from london asked us for directions in the station and although we were no help, it was nice speaking english to people who would respond in english. We ended up running into them a few days later and met up with them later that night. But that is a whole other story that might require its own blog. Back to the train station. A japanese man helped us find the information desk who then helped show us on a map where our hostel was located. Yuka had made us a map which was very sweet, but there were few specific landmarks and no one had ever heard of it before. Eventually we found it and we were very happy. The Izumi house is known only by the japanese and no one there speaks english. The manager speaks no english either but we managed to communicate that we wanted to spend 3 nights there and we were only willing to pay 150 yen. We were VERY excited to find gthat we each got our own rooms. the walls were more than paper thin, they actually might have been made of cardboard, although I think that would have provided a stronger sound barrier even. I could hear Ashley snorre and mimi unzip her sleeping bag, but at least there was visual privacy. We later discovered that there were no showers at the Izumi house. We were given directions to a bath house near by. We arrived at a small door where they made us remove our shoes (shock) and put them in a cubby. We then had to pay 400 yen to take a shower. We had been to the hot springs so we werent shocked when we saw two lines of women sitting before low shower heads in front of mirrors. We stripped down and entered the bathing area, having come prepared with our very own privacy towels. The springs w ehad been to previously had been different temperatures and we chose the the hot one because there was no one in it. We figured wed do the same at this bath house, but on entering one empty bath one japenese woman looked outraged and started yelling and talking about us and pointed. We finally figured out it was because we did not shower off before entereing the tub and agreed it probably would have been the logical thing to do. We then lined up to shower, sitting on our little stools and wondering if all the old japanese women were there because they wanted to use the baths or if they, too, did not have a shower of their own. The women were definitely over 80 years old and very tiny. tHey are much more agile than the elderly in the US. After our showers we paid 40 yen to use the hairdryer. It was the most expensive, weirdest shower Ive ever taken.
That night we went to a restaurant called A bar which we found in lonely planet. We had a really great meal of japanese bar foods and made our first japanese friends, Kae and Masa who took us to Karaoke after. A bar is a really cool place where you sit at family style tables and pretty much talk to everyone. Most people who go there speak some english at least and they have an english menu. Karaoke was funny and very lost in translation - like. We had a lot of fun.
The next day we walked around downtown Kyoto and then went to Kuruma shrine. We took a 40 minute train ride there and the train slowed down along the way to give everyone a good look at the beautiful folliage. Once we got to Kuruma we took a 30 second shuttle up a mountain and then hiked 45 minutes up to the top, seeing shrines along the way. We got lost as it was getting dark but finally found our way. THat night we went to a French restaurants that we found in Lonely planet that actually had moved and was now an Italian restaurant. We decided to eat there anyway. the food was the smallest size wed ever seen and we left the restaurant starving and ventured off to find another restaurant for dinner #2. it was pouring now and we knew we had a long walk ahead of us. What we didnt know is that after 2 hours of walking we would discover that this place was also closed. We ducked into a busy restaurant to eat something and get out of the rain. No one spoke english and we realized there was a hot plate in the middle of our table. we looked around and ordered what some other people were eating. The waitress came over and cracked an egg on our table and asked what kindo f sauce we wanted. She then instructed us to pour the sauce on the egg. THen she walked away with no further explanation. We sat there, staring at the egg for about 5 minutes, wondering why it was there and if we were supposed to eat it or just let it burn. She then came over with some noodles that she just plopped down next to the egg. Everything tasted bad and we left very dissapointed and still puzzled abou tthe egg we all decided not to eat.
We decided the next day to do a walking tour of Southern Hagashiama, which led us to many beautiful temples and parks. We saw some geishas and took pictures only to discover that they were FAKE! We passed a shop where you can pay 150 dollars to get dressed up as a geisha for the day and have people take pictures of you. We learned that very few geishas actually exist and they are hard to find so we settled for our fake geishas and took a few more photos. We then ran into the brits we met in the train station and made a plan to meet up with them later. We went to dinner at a round about sushi restaurant but befoer that we decided to buy some sake because drinks at 7/11 are way cheaper than at dinner. We werent sure if we could drink on the street, even though they do sell beer in vending machines, so we went t oa department store bathroom where they have a sitting area which we found when we were putting on department store makeup samples the day earlier. It was a good choice. We then went to the restaurant where as usual i had about 10 pieces of sushi and mimi and ashley barely ate anything. They had ume and shiso rolls and I was very happy. We then went to an irish pub called McLoughlins where we met some interesting characters and I talked about politics, the holocost, america and obesity. I felt very smart and besides the sake which I had had hours earlier I was completely sober so I knew I wasn:t just spouting complete bullshit. It was the best intellectual time Id ever had. After drinks, which ended up costing far too much, we went to karaoke again where things got weird and one of my travel buddies made a special friend. They wish to remain nameless and as much as Id love to divulge the story I cannot. Great story though. Ask me later. I put the other one to bed and called my mom for the first time which was great and made me very happy to hear her voice.
The day after that we took a day trip to Nara, deciding it would be cheaper to stay 3 more nights at our Hostel in Kyoto. Nar, the first capital of Japan, is a weird place which features the largest shrine made out of wood (largest in the world) and a deer park. You feed the deer and pet them and they are everywhere and I hated it. I hate deer. I dont want to touch them or feed them or pet them I just want to eat them. There were so many and they came right up to you and asked three times with the head nods for yu to feeed them. We had a free guide that day and he explained that we had to wait for all 3 nods otherwise they weren:t allowed. He put up his hand like a fake gun and said BANG BANG and they ran away. It was really weird and I didnt like that either. The temple was very large and there is a giant budda in it. You cant really tell how big it is even when you looked at it so our guide explained that the nostrel is so big that you could actualy climb inside. It was giant. We ate dinner in Nara and then headed back to Kyoto to go to bed.
The next day we went to Hiroshima which was powerful but you still cant really feel how expansive the descruction was cause they did a really good job rebuilding the city. We felt like America just sucked afterwards. THe musuem took us 3 hours to get through and I probably read a text books worth of information and felt exhausted afterwards. We went back to A bar that night and got some more travelling tips. Now we:r e in Osaka and I have to go shower! ANother blog coming soon!
On November 23rd we left Suzaka and our first host and headed to Kyoto. on the way we arrived in Nagano and got our japan rail passes, which turned out to be nothing more than colorful slips of paper and aside from being a prepaid method of travel, actually adds a few annoying steps to each trip. Now, not only do we need tickets, but we cant use the machines. We have to wait on line to get tickets then go to another teller and show our tickets and passes which both need to be stamped on entry and departure from each station. All in all they were a good purchase though and we would have decided to see less had we been faced with the questoin "do i want to pay 110 dollars each way to go to hiroshima." After a grueling train ride from Nagano to Nagoya, which would have been fine had the compartement been airconditioned and the blind next to me not smelled like rotten fish and dirty underwear. Going to the bathroom on the train was a task in itself. I took a step up and held on for dear life as I straddled the porceline hold in the ground of the rocky train and some how managed not to pee all over myself!
We arrived in Nagoya with 4 minutes to make our next train, which, miraculously, we did. THe next ride was a mere 30 minutes in which time Mimi and I counted 9 driving ranges. Driving ranges in Japan are long, tall, narrow nets that form a rectangular shape and are easy to spot as they usually stick out of huge spans of farm land. Last Saturday Nagata gave us the afternoon off and Ashley and Dan we to the driving range while the rest of us non-golfers opted to take a nap. THey said it was fun, but thought it was odd that the minimum number of balls you could get was 800. I guess the japanese really like to practice. Aside from counting the driving ranges we also counted the white people in our car. 8 whch surprisingly is more than wed seen since departing our plane from chicago. 2 backpackrs from london asked us for directions in the station and although we were no help, it was nice speaking english to people who would respond in english. We ended up running into them a few days later and met up with them later that night. But that is a whole other story that might require its own blog. Back to the train station. A japanese man helped us find the information desk who then helped show us on a map where our hostel was located. Yuka had made us a map which was very sweet, but there were few specific landmarks and no one had ever heard of it before. Eventually we found it and we were very happy. The Izumi house is known only by the japanese and no one there speaks english. The manager speaks no english either but we managed to communicate that we wanted to spend 3 nights there and we were only willing to pay 150 yen. We were VERY excited to find gthat we each got our own rooms. the walls were more than paper thin, they actually might have been made of cardboard, although I think that would have provided a stronger sound barrier even. I could hear Ashley snorre and mimi unzip her sleeping bag, but at least there was visual privacy. We later discovered that there were no showers at the Izumi house. We were given directions to a bath house near by. We arrived at a small door where they made us remove our shoes (shock) and put them in a cubby. We then had to pay 400 yen to take a shower. We had been to the hot springs so we werent shocked when we saw two lines of women sitting before low shower heads in front of mirrors. We stripped down and entered the bathing area, having come prepared with our very own privacy towels. The springs w ehad been to previously had been different temperatures and we chose the the hot one because there was no one in it. We figured wed do the same at this bath house, but on entering one empty bath one japenese woman looked outraged and started yelling and talking about us and pointed. We finally figured out it was because we did not shower off before entereing the tub and agreed it probably would have been the logical thing to do. We then lined up to shower, sitting on our little stools and wondering if all the old japanese women were there because they wanted to use the baths or if they, too, did not have a shower of their own. The women were definitely over 80 years old and very tiny. tHey are much more agile than the elderly in the US. After our showers we paid 40 yen to use the hairdryer. It was the most expensive, weirdest shower Ive ever taken.
That night we went to a restaurant called A bar which we found in lonely planet. We had a really great meal of japanese bar foods and made our first japanese friends, Kae and Masa who took us to Karaoke after. A bar is a really cool place where you sit at family style tables and pretty much talk to everyone. Most people who go there speak some english at least and they have an english menu. Karaoke was funny and very lost in translation - like. We had a lot of fun.
The next day we walked around downtown Kyoto and then went to Kuruma shrine. We took a 40 minute train ride there and the train slowed down along the way to give everyone a good look at the beautiful folliage. Once we got to Kuruma we took a 30 second shuttle up a mountain and then hiked 45 minutes up to the top, seeing shrines along the way. We got lost as it was getting dark but finally found our way. THat night we went to a French restaurants that we found in Lonely planet that actually had moved and was now an Italian restaurant. We decided to eat there anyway. the food was the smallest size wed ever seen and we left the restaurant starving and ventured off to find another restaurant for dinner #2. it was pouring now and we knew we had a long walk ahead of us. What we didnt know is that after 2 hours of walking we would discover that this place was also closed. We ducked into a busy restaurant to eat something and get out of the rain. No one spoke english and we realized there was a hot plate in the middle of our table. we looked around and ordered what some other people were eating. The waitress came over and cracked an egg on our table and asked what kindo f sauce we wanted. She then instructed us to pour the sauce on the egg. THen she walked away with no further explanation. We sat there, staring at the egg for about 5 minutes, wondering why it was there and if we were supposed to eat it or just let it burn. She then came over with some noodles that she just plopped down next to the egg. Everything tasted bad and we left very dissapointed and still puzzled abou tthe egg we all decided not to eat.
We decided the next day to do a walking tour of Southern Hagashiama, which led us to many beautiful temples and parks. We saw some geishas and took pictures only to discover that they were FAKE! We passed a shop where you can pay 150 dollars to get dressed up as a geisha for the day and have people take pictures of you. We learned that very few geishas actually exist and they are hard to find so we settled for our fake geishas and took a few more photos. We then ran into the brits we met in the train station and made a plan to meet up with them later. We went to dinner at a round about sushi restaurant but befoer that we decided to buy some sake because drinks at 7/11 are way cheaper than at dinner. We werent sure if we could drink on the street, even though they do sell beer in vending machines, so we went t oa department store bathroom where they have a sitting area which we found when we were putting on department store makeup samples the day earlier. It was a good choice. We then went to the restaurant where as usual i had about 10 pieces of sushi and mimi and ashley barely ate anything. They had ume and shiso rolls and I was very happy. We then went to an irish pub called McLoughlins where we met some interesting characters and I talked about politics, the holocost, america and obesity. I felt very smart and besides the sake which I had had hours earlier I was completely sober so I knew I wasn:t just spouting complete bullshit. It was the best intellectual time Id ever had. After drinks, which ended up costing far too much, we went to karaoke again where things got weird and one of my travel buddies made a special friend. They wish to remain nameless and as much as Id love to divulge the story I cannot. Great story though. Ask me later. I put the other one to bed and called my mom for the first time which was great and made me very happy to hear her voice.
The day after that we took a day trip to Nara, deciding it would be cheaper to stay 3 more nights at our Hostel in Kyoto. Nar, the first capital of Japan, is a weird place which features the largest shrine made out of wood (largest in the world) and a deer park. You feed the deer and pet them and they are everywhere and I hated it. I hate deer. I dont want to touch them or feed them or pet them I just want to eat them. There were so many and they came right up to you and asked three times with the head nods for yu to feeed them. We had a free guide that day and he explained that we had to wait for all 3 nods otherwise they weren:t allowed. He put up his hand like a fake gun and said BANG BANG and they ran away. It was really weird and I didnt like that either. The temple was very large and there is a giant budda in it. You cant really tell how big it is even when you looked at it so our guide explained that the nostrel is so big that you could actualy climb inside. It was giant. We ate dinner in Nara and then headed back to Kyoto to go to bed.
The next day we went to Hiroshima which was powerful but you still cant really feel how expansive the descruction was cause they did a really good job rebuilding the city. We felt like America just sucked afterwards. THe musuem took us 3 hours to get through and I probably read a text books worth of information and felt exhausted afterwards. We went back to A bar that night and got some more travelling tips. Now we:r e in Osaka and I have to go shower! ANother blog coming soon!
Sunday, November 22, 2009
The Monkey Park
Today we went up into the mountains to go to the monkey park to see the snow monkeys. Our original plan was to see the monkeys and then go to the hot springs in the area, however our plans changed slightly once we actually started our journey. Getting to the monkeys was not as simple as we thought it might be. Instead of the easy car ride we thought we were receiving from our host we had to take a 40 minute train, followed by a 20 minute bus, followed by a 40 minute hike to our destination. We arrived at the monkey park hoping to spot a few monkeys around the forest and on the mountains, and we had no idea what was in store for us. Hundreds of monkeys chasing each other around the mountains, running right past our legs (and into Mimi's leg) and the most shocking and amazing part of all, monkeys bathing in their very own hot spring, just like people. It was very odd and amusing and had I not been completely overwhelmed with the fact that I was entirely outnumbered by a lot of hyper monkeys and their children, I would have wanted to stay there all day. We stayed for quite a while when our stomachs got the best of us and we decided to ditch the springs and venture off to find some food. Our options were traditional soba, which I have been wanting to try since arriving in Japan, or Italian food, so we opted for the soba. We arrived at what look like a tiny house and which turned out in actuality to be, a tiny house. We sat down in what looked like an old kitchen and were promptly served clams and a variety of pickled root veggies. As per usual I was thrilled and Mimi and Ashley being the picky eaters they are gave theirs away. The soba arrived and it was everything I had hoped it would be. Our walk/bus/train ride back was longer and more drawn out than the previous one and everyone fell asleep on the train. We arrived back at the house sad that our stay at Nagata's apple farm is ending but excited that we have so much of Japan and our trip left to explore. Tomorrow we are stopping in Tokyo again and then off to Kyoto!
Finally uploading pictures tonight but I:m going to put them directly on facebook because this is complicated and I wont have much time. Check my facebook page for pictures!
Thursday, November 19, 2009
The Fire House
Today was a very questionable day. After we finished the harvest this morning (there were no more apples to pick) we went to the part of the mountain that our host owns. Soon he plans of turning his land into all sorts of fields growing mountain fruit, wasabi and other interesting japanese crops. For now though, some of his land is used as a burn area. Burning plastic in the states is not ok. Burning plastic in japan is the norm. Today our job was to burn plastic house siding, tires, basketballs and shoes. Then toss in some fire wood to keep it going. Not only did i probably lose 17 years of my life, but i felt very guilty depleting the ozone layer and furthering global warming and polution. Everyone seemed very disturbed but our host just laughed the whole time saying , good job good job. After the burning he took us on a hike through the woods to two different natural springs, one used to collect fish and the other small crabs. We saw mushrooms, and trees and it was very beautiful...until we were led back to the fire house and back into the toxic fumes, pulling our heads out of the mysterious forest and back to the reality that we were killing the planet.
Later today we went to some hot springs. For only 500 yen, or around 5 bucks, men and women enter different changing rooms and strip down. Then, because the japanese are modest, you use a small towel to cover your private areas as you walk from the changing room to the springs. There is an inside spring and an outside spring and they are both very very hot. We spent most of our time half way in and out of the water and a distinct red line appeared where the water had touched us. After the soak we sat on little platic stools in front of a low detachable shower head and washed our hair and our bodies, again, covering up with our small towels. We changed and exited the dressing room where we were greeted by our host who offered us some bottled milk from a vending machine. We accepted to be polite and watched him chug his milk in .5 seconds and place it in a glass milk bottle recyling bin, as this was apparently not a rare happening.
It was an interesting day and I hope I dont have to burn any more plastic tomorrow.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Apple Boys and Honey Girls
We arrived at our first farm in Suzaka on sunday night. After waiting at the train station for an hour for our host to pick us up we thought possibly we were in for a long drive to the farm. The house turned out to be a mere 10 minute drive and we later found out that our host had been at a bar and had lost track of time. We are staying in our own seperate house and I share a room with Mimi Ashley and our newest wwoofer friend, Bob, 22, from Scotland. There are also 2 other wwoofers here, Dan, 23, from England and Yuka, 28 from Japan. He picked her up at his last wwoofing place and they are now dating. Its a funny situation. We all get along very well. Our first night here Nagato, our host, showed us his library and let us hold a 300 year old samurai sword. He also brought out a bottle of jack daniels as an american welcome party. The next day we were put to work. As it turned out the farm we were staying at was actually an apple farm! We are apple pickers and its harder than it looks. There is a precise way of picking apples to get the stem to look right and apparently americans do not have that soft japanese touch that is required. It took us a while to get it right and some types of apples are easier than others. We have already decided which trees we prefer picking from and which we detest. For instance, some trees are very very large and have tons of apples up high and when you climb up your ladder you really feel like you're in a tree. Others have very thin trunks and when youre at the top of your ladder you really feel like you will just fall off and die (my least favorite type of tree). All the apples taste very good and last night at our official welcome dinner and after a few drinks our host decided that we were going to be called "honey girls" and the boys would be "apple boys." He did a little dance and it was hilarious. Aside from the apple picking we are trying to take turns cooking our meals, although Yuka is the primary chef because all the ingredients are in japanese and none of us know how to cook japanese food. One of these days we are going to venture up the mountains and go to the hot springs and see the monkeys there. For now we are just exhausted from a long day of harvesting apples and happy to catch a seat on the couch.
Dont forget you can email me! willysteigman@gmail.com !!! love you all hope all is well - till next time!
oh also, japanese candy is amazing and i have 180 cavities. and right now i:m eating chips called "wasabeef" because they are wasabi and beef flavored...welcome to japan!
Saturday, November 14, 2009
internet cafe: nagano
Home of the 98 olympics! We are only here because we were supposed to transfer trains to go to our first farming host in Sazuka. Turns out we are not organized and cant seem to get in touch with our host so we decided to postpone our immediate departure time and see if we could reach him through email. Fingers crossed. Day 4 of this trip and we have no cell phones. no service on mine or ashleys and although mimi has service, we can:t seem to figure out how to get blackberries to charge. also our trusty computer takes a three prong outlet which converters fail to accomodate. so this internet cafe is our best friend right now. obviously i:m the first one on the trip to get sick. most of the japanese wear doctors masks all the time especially around americans. its as if we are carrying a sign that says HELLO! MY NAME IS H1N1! so they especially hate me because i:m always coughing and sneezing. i guess those masks are getting put to the test now.
on a different note, i dont know how many of you are familiar with the japanese toilet, but i was not and let me tell you, they are different. say goodbye to sitting down when you want to do your business. japanese toilets are essentially flushing holes in the ground. just got of a subway? have to go？take a nice squat. reading the paper is not an option as finding your balance is hard enough with two free hands. occassionaly we did come across the western toilet and when we did they had a few extra perks. for example they always have a bidet button. i haven:t tried it but i like that there is the option. also, heated seats are very common. my favorite button though, was in the mcdonalds bathroom. this was the flushing sound button for people with stage fright. if you dont want people to hear you go, instead of wasting water constantly flushing you just press this button and people think youre flushing. it doesn:t sound like running water, but mroe like a dying hippopotomus, but it gets the job done all the same.
i hope you enjoyed this educational experience. till next time
on a different note, i dont know how many of you are familiar with the japanese toilet, but i was not and let me tell you, they are different. say goodbye to sitting down when you want to do your business. japanese toilets are essentially flushing holes in the ground. just got of a subway? have to go？take a nice squat. reading the paper is not an option as finding your balance is hard enough with two free hands. occassionaly we did come across the western toilet and when we did they had a few extra perks. for example they always have a bidet button. i haven:t tried it but i like that there is the option. also, heated seats are very common. my favorite button though, was in the mcdonalds bathroom. this was the flushing sound button for people with stage fright. if you dont want people to hear you go, instead of wasting water constantly flushing you just press this button and people think youre flushing. it doesn:t sound like running water, but mroe like a dying hippopotomus, but it gets the job done all the same.
i hope you enjoyed this educational experience. till next time
tomorrow we farm
Today we woke up at 5 am and went to the famous fish market in Tokyo. It was crazy and I saw a tuna as big as me. at 7:30 am we went to a restaurant in the market and had the best sushi of my life. Right out of the water and into my mouth. By 10 am we had already seen the fish market, eaten breakfast, seen the japanese embassy and east gardens. we decided to eat lunch at mcdonalds because we were feeling poor. it was gross (shock). i had an allergic reaction to something and my right hand swelled up to 3 times its size. i freaked out and iced it in the mcdonalds. its still not quite the same size as the left one but getting better. we went to the hotel that lost in translation was filmed in but were hurried out of the bar on the 52nd floor because we looked disgusting and clearly weren't there to buy anything. we wanted to have a drink where bill murray and scarlette johnasen did but it was 2 pm and the bar didnt open until 5, and again, we wer ein hiking boots and smart wool (which ps does not keep you smelling fresh). a bit defeated we decided to go to harijuku where we heard ther was a fun busy crowd. i have never seen so many people in my life and it took us about an hour to walk 2 blocks. we ended up going into a travel gear store and i bought a travel wallet and ashley bought a day pack. we slowly made our way back to the hostel. we finally are starting to figure out the subway systems but they are very confusing and although everyone is very friendly almost no one speaks english. anywhere. so its almost 7 pm and i'm sick and tired and can't even fathom the idea of getting on the subway and going to eat dinner but that is whats happening. tomorrow we go to our first farm in chubu and i can't wait. it will be nice to not be running around constantly. thats all for now! hope this has been mildly entertaining!
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Sayonora Mrs. Kackalman!
I made it to Japan! After a grueling 13 hour flight that left me sick :( we made it to the airport and realized we had a thousond questions and no idea where we were going (oops). we managed to get directions to our hostel, exchange money and then take a bus and a subway to our destination. The japanese are very friendly and were helpful when we asked our stupid questions. We had a bit of a hard time finding our hostel as its on a side road and as we asked 2 police men to help us another tourist told us we'd been standing in front of it for 10 minutes. We definitely underestimated how hard it was going to be to carry our backpacks, day packs and purses. We struggled a lot.
Our hostel is very very tiny and ashley and i are sleeping in bunk beds that are in what was once a small closet. my head hits one wall and my feet hit the other. Ive never felt taller in my life. Last night we went to a japanese restaurant that actually turned out to be a korean restaurant. It reminded me of shabu tatsu and we ordered from pictures of raw meat because no one spoke english and ended up ordering an assortment of beef and mystery meat that turned out to be liver and either pork, tongue or any other white meat that is definitely not chicken. We tasted everything but we're still not sure. At the table next to us a man fell asleep while eating and his friends did not wake him for an hour. We took pictures. People like to laugh as us because we're clumsy with our backpacks and have no idea what is going on. Once we took our backpacks off we got sea legs. It was definitely an odd experience.
Sorry this blog post was a bit boring, I still feel a bit disoriented. Today we are going to explore Tokyo! I hope I start to feel better as the day progresses. Email me about your life! I love and miss everyone!
Our hostel is very very tiny and ashley and i are sleeping in bunk beds that are in what was once a small closet. my head hits one wall and my feet hit the other. Ive never felt taller in my life. Last night we went to a japanese restaurant that actually turned out to be a korean restaurant. It reminded me of shabu tatsu and we ordered from pictures of raw meat because no one spoke english and ended up ordering an assortment of beef and mystery meat that turned out to be liver and either pork, tongue or any other white meat that is definitely not chicken. We tasted everything but we're still not sure. At the table next to us a man fell asleep while eating and his friends did not wake him for an hour. We took pictures. People like to laugh as us because we're clumsy with our backpacks and have no idea what is going on. Once we took our backpacks off we got sea legs. It was definitely an odd experience.
Sorry this blog post was a bit boring, I still feel a bit disoriented. Today we are going to explore Tokyo! I hope I start to feel better as the day progresses. Email me about your life! I love and miss everyone!
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
The Night Before Departure
Hey All!
I know you never thought the words Willy and Blog would ever been uttered in the same sentence, but here it is! My journey begins in approximately 8 hours. I have never been so excited and nervous for anything in my life. I never would have been able to take this great leap without the love and support from all my friends and family (and the job which I briefly held), so thank you everyone. I am going to try and update this blog as much as possible so every once in a while sit down and take a break with my life updates! I love and miss everyone! Feel free to email me at willysteigman@gmail.com or bbm me (its free!)
i love you all! here i go!
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