Wir Habt Veile Spass aus Japan!

There are four types of people on these kinds of trips abroad:
The quintessential obnoxious American tourist, the one who snubs the quintessential obnoxious American tourists, the one who wants to do it all, and the one who complains about everything.

And I've certainly experienced each, including myself.

I'm probably the second to last person. I've been trying too hard to squeeze everything in that I can. I get up early and come back to Hikone late. I'm doing work on top of all of that, but, like my Mos Burger, I am just trying to consume it all!

I've been doing a couple of five hour nights and going full-tilt climbing temple stairs, walking long distances through cites, biking, etc. It's a great way to stay fit and see everything but it can take a lot out of you. Good thing I can take catnaps on long train rides to and from cities!



However, we stayed local just two days ago in the Hikone highlands.

That day, aside from seeing Hiko-nyan everywhere, we visited a historic district of Hikone where some shops have been open for hundreds of years, stopped in to a Buddhist temple, and rounded the day out at this shinto shrine grounds which had close to one hundred lanterns dotting the path through the area.



The best secret this place hid was the path behind the grounds, leading to the hill summit. You could see most of Hikone and Neighboring Maibara from there.




Here's the closer. Check out that sunset!


Hiroshima tomorrow. And I still need to tell everyone how yesterday's trip to Nara and today's trip to Nagahama went!! I'll be gone early and back late tomorrow, so don't actually expect some updates for a while.
I may do an abridged post when all is said and done.

Hikonyan! Hikonyan! Kikkoman! Kikkoman!

I'm telling you. This cat is everywhere!


I've seen him dangling off cell phones as far away as Osaka so far.


He's on posters.


He's at temple altars.



Here he is at the Hikone castle.


HIKONYAN!

We hung around town today. I got some gorgeous photos from the heights of Hikone today. The sunset was inredible from up there, across the water.
I'll put some of those up soon.

In the meantime, you can see some of more gallery-quality-ish images I've taken. Enjoy!

Kyoto... erm... take three?

Soooo... Tokyo was no go today.

Back to Kyoto, and it probably won't be the last time either. We still have people that want to check out more of the neat things there, like this nearly mile-long path of gateways, all painted saffron, and lined up so it almost looks like a tunnel. I will have to send along some pictures when I get some.

Today we saw the Mifune Matsuri (too lazy, just Google it). It took place on the river far on the outskirts of Kyoto, in Arashiyama. It's a very touristy area with a very historical style about it. It's not as over-crowded as some of the rest of the larger Japanese cities, though Kyoto is rather large itself.

Afterward, we climbed up what I will call "Monkey Mountain" because I can't remember the name. It is a steep hill that is a sanctuary for a couple hundred wild monkeys. Lookit how close I got!

I got a little too close to one and it attempted to eat me I think...

I met a girl from England on the way back, where we encountered a portable shrine being set down while the procession carrying it took a break. They set a box of beer right on the shrine, and started handing them out. I would assume this was for the Kami-sama of malted beverages and other related bacchanalia.

Lunch was fantastic. Curry again, with Asashi extra dry beer (same as pictured, LOL), and a desert consisting of an ice-cream, red bean, and kinako-covered, mochi-like dumplings, served with green tea.

We walked through the street shop district later and proceeded to the bamboo forest. It's just like something out of a samurai movie.

We encountered some people we left in Kyoto yesterday on the way out, and from there, headed home.

I will still attempt to go to Tokyo some time this week. I understand the half of our group that did go early yesterday didn't fare so well, as one of the travelers got... let's say, very sick, and was sent to the hospital overnight.

I'll be around Hikone tomorrow and I'll let you know what goes on.






Here are some images from yesterday's excursion:





The matsuri from yesterday was beautiful... but slow moving.


The American embassy.


I wish I could show you more of the museum. They disallowed photography inside. The outside was neat. Like a manga cafe --also quite popular here-- your admission gets you access to the thousands of manga books on the shelves in the museum archive to take with you and sit outside.

The English section is sizeable but nothing compared to the total Japanese language collection. But for 550 yen ($5.25) admission , you could come back time after time and pick up a stack of books, sit there, and read them all day!

Kyoto and Osaka Take Two

Kind of a poorly-executed outing today.
It was the second trip for me to Kyoto and, incidentally, Osaka as well.

We intended to see the Aoi Matsuri (blue/asarum caulescens [plant] festival) in Kyoto today, but when we arrived to the park where the procession leading from the palace was staring, the crowd was already so dense, it was impossible to see anything.

Afterward, we resigned ourselves to go wander a bit and eventually came back to a main street where the matsuri was continuing. After waiting over half an hour, the procession actually started moving, but it was rather quiet and unexciting. It was a beautiful show, but I'm surprised there was such a turnout for an hour of historically-bedecked people quietly walking into the street... nay, hijacking the streets, as the drivers running through the road got very confused and unsure which ways to proceed. The worst part was the giant bus blocking the view of the end of the procession of the saoi-dai girl, who is essentially like Santa Claus is to the conclusion of the Thanksgiving parade, she is the show queen. Or princess, rather. She has to be unmarried and a virgin in order to be selected I believe.

We met someone from Missouri during the parade and he took us, after some gentle nudging from me because of how antsy I was getting having spent so much time not doing anything in Kyoto, he took us to the International Manga Museum.
Manga can be likened to comic books from Japan, typically with adult themes, but not always. The entire show... wasn't what I was expecting, but a very different experience and a neat memory, even if things got a tad rushed at the end.

Then we had to book it to Osaka because several of us wanted to catch this jazz/funk band our defacto tour guide (who lived here and speaks fluent Japanese) was going to go see. Out group arrived at the Osaka station from Kyoto early, but the other group going to the concert also was nowhere to be found.

After an hour or so, the rest of my group left and I wandered Osaka, had some so-so curry and rice for dinner and wandered in to my first pachinko parlor... just as it was closing.
Then I caught a series of trains and taxis back to where I am staying. One direct line closed so I had to wait almost a half hour for the next local train.

All in all, it was still another great day in Japan, but some things could have possibly worked out better.

I will have more updates and pictures tomorrow or so. I'm a little exhausted from the long days, and Tokyo is coming up tomorrow. What a ride that will be!

The Hot Springs Episode

Just got back from the onsen! I brought a beer with me to calm myself ever so slightly before jumping in the hot waters. It was fantastic aside from the... ya'know... nudity...
I had a gym membership before and saw a lot of that in the sauna though, but the onsen does not compare to the benefits it gives the weary visitor. It was a little breezy and chilly this evening on the bike ride back though.

Sorry, cats, no pictures of this particular expedition. You can enjoy some of Hikone Castle though.




Sumimasen! I just noticed this was saved to my drafts, not a new post, so this is actually yesterday's news!

The Sacred Hamburger

Okay. I've been kind of excited since I got here about getting a special kind of burger from what you could equate to the Japanese McDonalds, MosBurger. The "buns" are made of rice, and the middle, is anything and everything tasty.

Yesterday, I took a two (or maybe three) hour bike ride to find this promised land. And here it is, the gyuuniku (beef) gohan burger. I really wanted the fried tako (octopus) rice burger, but they were not stocking them.
Either way, it was a delicious meal, and very different.

Later, I intended to join our group for a trip to a Hanshin Tigers baseball game. I somehow lost track of an hour of time and arrived back to the meeting point late.

So... using what little Japanese skills I have, I bought a phone card to contact the group leader who has my ticket to let him know I'm coming, whilst a Taxi, which would take me to the train station came to pick me up from the phonecard store. Then I waited for a train to Osaka, where I met a young fellow who spoke to me in some English and gave me a CD of Hawaiian music which I've been told by some I've shown this disc to, is really cool. I managed to switch trains with help from the kindness of strangers. Then came to the stadium just as the game was starting.

By the way, those strangers, these are they. When I saw them at the station, I knew they had to speak some English. They did and they were going to the game too. Very nice folks, everyone here generally is so very polite and helpful.

At the game I did get some octopus; a sort of tako crepe. It was kind of like breakfast food, filled with potatoes and a cracked egg.
Like calamari, I really enjoy tako--it was good!

I also wanted to show you some photos of that cemetary with the view of Kyoto. There were so many headstones--thousands--it was quite a moving moment standing nearly at the top of this vertical graveyard and seeing it all.

Learn Japanese Slowly With Will

Yay! It's time to learn Japanese slowly with Will! Today's word is: shashin.
Shashin means picture, and here are a bunch, in leiu of a blog entry for today.





Caught an Hanshin Tigers baseball game yesterday. Just made it in time too. I'll have the story about that later.