Okay I realize I’m awful at this whole updating thing, but trust me I’ve been busy!
Can you believe just 48 hours ago I was in Japan and now in just 3 short hours we will be heading down the river towards China! Not much time between these ports at all! But here’s my update…bullet style. Enjoy. ((okay I typed this so long ago so the hours are a bit off now))
TOKYO [the BIGGEST city in the entire world!]
· I woke up at the crack of dawn to make it down to my 8am fdp entitled “Cultural Tokyo City Tour” Lis and Steph accompanied me. Steph made it on to the tour last minute which ended up being a great idea.
· The tour took us to pretty much any famous location in Tokyo that our allotted time would allow. This included: The imperial palace, the 53rd floor of a building (spacing the name) that overlooked all of Tokyo (well all that we could see). The city is SO gigantic that even if you look out as far as you can it’s STILL the city. You can take the train for one hour and still be in what looks like downtown Denver. It’s so insane. There was also a super cool art museum on the floor below this observation deck; my mom would have loved it for sure. Anyways we also saw shrines and temples that were gorgeous (I’m lacking the names cause I’m not in my room where the info is).
· So after the last stop of the tour we got off the bus and on our own, me, Steph, and Lis navigated onto the public bus and met Rina at the dog statue in Tokyo where Rina again managed to find more SASshoes. We were pretty tired so we navigated our way to the hostel and rested for a little bit before we decided to head out at around 6:30.
· As soon as we got the train to Shibuya we met up with Rina’s best guy friend who lives in Tokyo, his name is Shin. He didn’t speak much English but we somehow managed to talk to him through Rina, hand signals and the minimum English/Japanese we both knew. The weird thing is, most Japanese kids we met can’t really speak or understand English, but they can read English perfectly well, so we’d get out my phone and “text” him what we wanted to say sometimes.
· Anyways we made our way to what is called an Izakaya (basically a restaurant). But in order to get to one of these places and get a good deal while you’re there, you converse with one of what Lis calls “streetmen”. There are like 100 of these guys outside on the streets with clipboards and you pretty much haggle a deal with them and we ended up paying all you can eat and drink at this place in 90minutes for I think it was 10 or 15 bucks each-not bad at all.
· So we get to this place and the food was amazing and the place was so modern and clean. Like a nice Japanese restaurant you would find in downtown Denver, except I was in the biggest city in the world. We got lots of good beers and drinks and we all tried different foods such as: sticky rice balls, various cooked veggies, edamame, soups, some egg dish, and a desert that was as they said very sweet and we thought it tasted like bean paste or something. Rina says American candy is WAY sweeter than theirs, which I’ve learned is very true.
· After the Izakaya we decided Karaoke would be a good idea since that is THE thing to do if you are my age and in Japan. It’s not like American karaoke. Youre in your own private room with whoever you came with and in that room is like a big bench/couch and a flatscreen with a book of pretty much every Japanese and American song you could ever imagine.
· Karaoke was SO much fun! We got a deal from another “streetman” at this place to be in a room for I think an hour or two and it went by way too quick. They’ll bring you food and drinks to your room too. It’s so much fun!! We sang a little N*SYNC, destiny’s child, Eminem, and Neyo (which is apparently huge in Japan) and a few others. We have videos of the whole night that are hilarious.
· After this Rina wanted to take us to one last food place, which is in Roppongi (famous for shopping, so we went to this place that Bruce Lee (??) apparently goes to when he’s in Tokyo. Anyways we got some pot sticker deals and some noodles there that were delicious.
· After this we were beat and decided to call it a night. We said bye to Shin and headed back to our hostel.
· The next morning we woke up grabbed some breakfast at the hostel (I think we downed about 5 or 6 pieces of bread with butter and jelly, maybe we were craving American cuisine?) and then we were off to Harajyuku.
· Yes, the “harajyuku” girls Gwen Stefani is obsessed with were everywhere on this street that’s literally called Harajyuku Street. There were SO many shops on this street that was packed with people everywhere. We saw a few SASsholes but not too many.
· Anyways we shopped there for a while and we got a picture with the craziest dressed Harajyuku girls that I’ll send a picture to my blog of. They were so sweet and gave us candy after we took about 100 pictures with them.
· We got pretty hungry from all that shopping and stopped into this small restaurant where we literally filled the table with I think it was like 5 plates of food per person for like 800yen (8bucks). They tried giving us a raw egg in a bowl to eat and we tried explaining to Rina that we probably shouldn’t be eating raw egg. But we ate everything else such as: pickled radishes, beef with veggies, miso soup, cabbage and fried shrimp tempura, and a bowl of rice! So much food but it was DELICIOUS. [And can I just tell you, any of the food I’ve mentioned I have eaten with chopsticks, I’m pretty sure I can eat just about anything with chopsticks now.]
· So after our meal we decided to say farewell to Tokyo and head on down to Kyoto. We took the BULLET TRAIN! To Kyoto which was so neat! It’s like being on an airplane/the polar express, but better and cleaner and roomier.
· I was awake for part of the ride, but we were EXHAUSTED so I took a nap for like ¾ of our hour and a half ride.
KYOTO
· We had finally made it to Kyoto and once we got there we spotted our friends Kelcie, Lauren, Lindsay, Stacy, Graham, and Annie in the train station. They were all soaking wet and said it was pouring outside. Great.
· So I bought an umbrella and we all ventured out in the pouring rain to attempt to find our hostel. I felt so bad for Rina who is wheeling around a suitcase and like 4 bags and trying to hold her wilting and soaking wet map while navigating her away around. We tried to give her an umbrella or carry her bags, but she wasn’t having it. We got a little lost finding the hostel, but she called the owner finally and we found it and he welcomed us in.
· The man who manages this place is one of the nicest people I had met in Japan. His English was almost perfect and he showed us up to our room and how to work everything and he even gave us each a pair of chopsticks once we left the next day!
· So we got up to our room and rested for a little bit and got ready for the night. We were determined to have a good night despite the rain! On our way to dinner we stopped by this shoe place and I got the sickest fold over converse for 25bucks! And Steph got a pair too!
· Our first stop of the night was another Izakaya (we seriously need these in Colorado/America). At this Izakaya it was also very modern and clean and so pretty! I’m pretty sure Rina ordered us an entire cow because that’s exactly how much beef came to our table. It’s kinda like Benny Hanna where the foods cooked in front of you but here you cook the food yourself and it’s a smaller circle grill. Anyways were just loading this beef and veggies on here and eating it like crazy! We also had rice and some other kind of meat dish/bowl that was delicious and TONS of ice cream and beer and we did indeed try sake-I’m not the biggest fan, but it was okay.
· ALSO as we are all just eating this stuff like crazy I eat this piece of beef (or I thought) that was kinda circle shaped and I asked Rina what it was after I ate it cause it tasted different, yeah it was COW TONGUE! Ahhhhh!!
· There were also these Japanese high school boys next to us, I think 4 of them. We started to attempt to talk to them and started the texting trick again to get them to understand us and they were hilarious. Apparently we were too nice and they waited outside for us for like 45minutes and once we came out Rina pretty much told us to ditch them and leave haha. All I know is a runny nose will never mean the same to me ever again! (some strange meaning in Japan)
· So after our 90minutes were up we walked around for a while and somehow ended up seeing some SASsholes and talked to them for a while. They were with their friend who is from America but she teaches in Japan and they were all going to a bar so we decided to join. At the bar it wasn’t that many people but we had SO much fun.
· We got to take a sake bomb in Japan which is pretty much the coolest thing ever besides eating real Japanese sushi!
· We woke up the next morning, exhausted again. (I have no idea how Rina always has so much energy). I had the best waffle covered in chocolate at the train station- we also need these in America. We got on the train and headed to what I thought was the most beautiful shrine I had seen yet. It is called the Fushimi Shrine (googie it-seriously!)
· It was kinda overcast and wet out but not raining and they say this is the best time to go to a shrime/temple. They are so beautiful when the weather is like this. This shrine is all orange with black Japanese symbols everywhere and the contrast of that with the low clouds and lush green trees and shrubbery is so gorgeous. I have like a million pictures of this place that I can’t wait to show everyone!
· We stopped for some lunch which was so good as usual. We had noodles which was like ramen kinda which tofu in it and then a rice bowl with tempura shrimp with this sauce on top that would be comparable to the east by south west roll at east by in Durango (I guess only you’d know that Em J )
· After we ventured around this area we decided to check out the San Ju Sangen-do Temple (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanj%C5%ABsangen-d%C5%8D) . It wasn’t as aesthetically pleasing as the shrine but it was so neat. You can’t wear shoes (as is most traditional Japanese places) so we wore these ridiculous looking slippers.
· At this temple it has 1000 armed statues and though if you look at them they all look the same, if you look closely each and every single one has a different face. Its so insane how much work and detail must have gone into that. There are also special warriors(?) who are placed at the front and the detail and meaning into them is crazy-they gouge real crystals through the eyes of the sculptures to make their eyes look life like-and it works!
· In the middle of these is a GIANT Buddha which is I think the largest bronze Buddah in Japan (that could be wrong but it was the largest Buddha in some category). No pictures were allowed so just memoires for this place.
· Next we went to another temple that over looked all of Kyoto-it was SO amazing, It’s called Kiyomiza (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiyomizu-dera) (I sent a pic a while ago of me, Lis and Steph at this temple and a view of the city).
· After this temple we took a train to Osaka to meet up with RIna’s boyfriend. We met at a café where we talked with him for about 2 hours..and again we used the “texting” to talk to him. We have no idea what his name is cause its super Japanese, but he was super cute and very nice.
· After that we took another train (or maybe it was the subway?) down to Kobe where Rina is from and her mom picked us up in what was like a mini cooper but it was a mazda (they have crazy cars there). Anyways she took us to a traditional Japanese dinner. At the table they have 2 girlls where you cook your own food in a “hot pot”. The table is down very low and you sit on a pillow which is on mats and your feet go under the table which is like underground (hard to explain).
· The dinner was delicious. We tasted warm sake which tasted like warm Smirnoff, not a fan. But the beer was good and we were served about 1000 pieces of beef again and sashimi and tempura too.
· After dinner we headed to another Izakaya. This one was a little less formal and seemed more like a hole in the wall place but it was still fun and the food was good. Rinas mom was SO kind and paid for ALL our stuff and got us sooo much food.
· At the Izakaya we got lots of different drinks to try and pretty much anything you could fry. Fried hotdog, veggies, egg, mocha, and devils tongue. We each tried a little of everything and we ate this mysterious this Rina said in Japanese and she translated it on her phone and it came up as DEVILS TONGUE uhhhhh…
· Turns out its some sort of sick jelly that they fry-no more devils tongue for me!
· Also Rina’s sister met up with us at the Izakaya and she is hilarious. Very friendly and she knew more American music than any other Japanese person I had met there!
· After this we were SOOOOOOO tired so Rina’s mom took us to Rina’s grandfather’s house. His house has an elevator in it! Its so gorgeous and though we didn’t get to meet him we could just tell he was so kind!
· He laid out a bunch of towels for us and toothbrushes and made up beds for us with 20 poofy blankets along his floor which is made up of mats. Traditionally wed sleep just on a thin mat but he knew we are American and did that special just for us.
· Rina’s mom went to the store real quick and came back with like 1000 snacks for all of us and got 3 of everything (one for me, one for Lis, one for Steph).
· After we toured the house and talked a little, we fell right asleep.
· In the morning we had to get ready quick to make it back to the boat for an FDP me and steph had.
· Rina’s brother stopped by in the morning so we could meet him, he’s 9 and SO cute. We are the first westerners he’s ever met! He didn’t speak any English except Hello but it was good to meet him still.
Once again that was LONGG.
SO that sums up Japan in a nutshell.
I had an FDP of a traditional Japanese ceremony the last day
I will write about it in another blog. Soon enough.
I literally wake up here every single day and am so thankful im able to be doing this.
Im so fortunate and even though I miss home, I never want to get off the boat and come home haha
Im think I'm in a very long dream and I dont ever want to wake up!
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