I found out quickly that the western toilets have heated seats, front and back biday options, with adjustable water temperature and spray functions. They also have a motion sensor so that the toilet can circulate water to make a mock-urinating sound. I was impressed.
While in Tokyo, I managed to see the 2007 Marathon.
Some people had dressed up as giant pink rabbits.
I purchased a Canon EOS Kiss Digital + lens + kit + 1Mb for $550.
In Asakusa, I visited the Asakusa shrine, Kannon temple, and the Denpoin temple. I wasn't too pleased, there were far too many tourists crammed in the little shops around the temples empting their pockets on useless items. /hyprocrite.
From there I went to Kyoto. I managed to find a rather nice hostel and met some interesting people. We all went out for dinner and drank some beers. The next day I met up with
Zobop. He treated his girl and myself to japanese beef. We then decided if we drank countless cups of coffee and sang kareoke we could very well conquer the world.
In Nagoya I met
Aficionado. He took me to The Site of Reversible Destiny. It was a worth-while experience to say the least! He even bought me a super rad tshirt as a momento
. We then paid respects to the Osa Kannon shrine, as well as the Osa Kannon shopping district. They had some awesome thrift stores, as well as an awesome view. I had wanted to visit My Bar, since my friends' cousin owned it.
Aficionado and I went and had some delicious white russians before heading to Heaven's Door, another bar, to listen to some wicked tunes. I had to leave by 9pm so I could catch the last train back to Kyoto. Failing to do this, I ended up back in Kyoto at 230am (instead of 10pm), and passed out with all my clothes on.
I wanted to stay in a capsule hotel, and the only one I could find was back in Asakusa. I checked out some other places in the area, but I was rather tired so I basically stayed around the lounge. I ended up going back to Nagoya,
Skank_Zero wanted to meet up with
Aficionado and myself. We went out for brazillian food where we were served exquisite meat from the sexy meat man.
Skank_Zero and I couldnt find a bar so we ended up crashing at an internet cafe. We slept in until 12pm, and I was supposed to meet up with
DurrrtyDan at 12:30pm in Hiroshima. Unfortunately I had to post-pone meeting him until the following day.
I met up with
DurrrtyDan at a Starbucks at the station before heading out to the beautiful Hiroshima Castle. We wandered around the park some before taking a streetcar to the Abomb Dome. We visited the museum there, which was lovely, but I seriously could have cried.
The next day I woke up early to spend the day at Miyajima Island. I met an Austrailian fellow on the ferry who accompanied me around there. We got all touristy at the floating shrine before checking out the pagotas and museums. There were several deer around the area, and one tried to eat my backpack. I tried feeding it, which only called more deer over. Dont try to run when your surrounded by hungry deer. They will chase you. When we managed to ditch the deer, we went on a hike up the mountain. Unfortunately we couldnt do the 5h hike due to the construction (tsunami), so we didnt get to visit the monkeys. It was only a small loss, since we had so much fun. He took me back to the hostel he was staying at, and a bunch of people from the hostel (+ourselves) went out to a western bar for some beers.
The next day I went to Glass Village. The museum was breath-taking, it had several mosaic pieces and statues, mirror mazes, and some rooms that were supposed to look level (but in fact were the opposite). I had to sit for a bit afterwards from extreme virtigo. Trippy ass shit yo. The main reason I went there was to blow glass, but because of the language barrier it was deemed unsafe.
Next was Shin-Osaka. I stayed in a Hostelling Int. site, which was packed with middle-aged business men. It was no fun attal. Everyone in Shin-Osaka was rude, there was litter everywhere, and everything was rather pricey in comparision, (not to mention they only had squatters). I only stayed one night before running back to Kyoto.
I stayed in a different hostel, this one contained some japanese travellers. I bought everyone some baked goods and crystallized sugar candy, and they brought sake. We had a lot of laughs.
The following day I met
Zobop downtown for some shopping. We drank countless cups of coffee and sang kareoke. Afterwards we decided to have some fugu. Our experience consisted of: fugu skin, sashimi, sperm, heads, stewed porridge and fugu-less mango ice cream. It was delish. We drank more coffee before parting ways.
I was planning to take a 5h walking tour of Kyoto the next day, but since it was raining I packed up and went to Shibuya. I wasnt a huge fan, the people there seemed so fake. I spent the night there anyways, and then travelled to Harajuku. The indie scene was awesome. They even had vegan-friendly cafes there. I spent a lot of time just walking around and taking pictures.
When it was finally time to leave, I spent my last day in the heart of Tokyo before going back to Narita airport. I spent a very uncomfortable, sleepless night cramped on chairs.
Aaaand there you have it!
(I realize I wasted a lot of time riding the Shinkansen, but I managed to get a lot of sketchies done
)
