My trip to Japan,...arrival in Osaka and Tokyo

After 7 years of desperately wanting to visit Japan, I finally made it come true :) I am so happy. First let me say, that Katie and I are 2 very 'camera happy' people. In the 7 days we were there, we took over 1000 pictures between the two of us...I'm not posting all of those. So the few posted are some of the better ones. There are about 180 posted on my facebook. Ok so....
Chuseok, is Korea's version of Thanksgiving. This year, it fell on a Wednesday, giving us Tues-Thursday off. I asked for the Monday and Friday off back in May and bought a ticket to Osaka. It took awhile to find someone to go with, but my friend/neighbor Katie finally arranged it so she could go with me. We had an incredible time!!!

I first arrived into Osaka at 11am on Saturday. Katie had a separate flight and was arriving later in to the evening. So first things first, I had to exchange papers to get my rail pass, and figure out how, via rail, subway, bus, etc I would get into the city of Osaka. I had read in my travel book that no one in Japan spoke very muh english and it was hard to get around. I actually found it quite easy. There were english signs, and if I looked lost, people would volunteerily come up to me to help me. VERY VERY nice people. It took me about 2 hours to take the train and subway to Tenjibashi___6-chrome in northern Osaka area (the name is sooooooo long). Then I managed to get a bit lost on my way to the boys house...naturally. But I arrived safe and sound at around 1pm.

Saturday:Katie and i had decided to give couchsurfing a shot. For those who don't know about couchsurfing, check it out, www.couchsurfing.com. A website dedicated to young people traveling on a budget. People all over the world offer up their couch or floor for travelers to sleep on for free. I wouldn't do this alone (unless at another girls house) but since it was Katie and I, we decided to try it. There were a few guys in Osaka (they were English teachers from Australia, Canada and US) who were letting us crash. I will just say now that they are the "Kings of Couchsurfing." They have a whole calendar full of hosting couchsurfers like 5 days a week!! and up to 9 people per night!! That's dedication! Luckily, it was just me and Katie this night. Mark was the only one not working on this specific day, so I hung out with him, for a bit exchanging stories about the differences between Korea and Japan, relationships, movies, and I got a lesson in Japanese writing (they have 3 alphabets!!! CRAZY!! And I can actually distinguish them now, with his help). We didn't do much touristy stuff upon my arrival since we were picking up Katie around 5 and I just wanted to relax a bit. Around 7, we met Katie at the subway and went out to dinner with Mark and his roommate David. They took us to a Yakitori restaurant, chicken skewers. They were delicious! katie is a Vegetarian (or pescetarian because she eats fish) but she managed to find some veggie stuff as well. We had a great dinner and we treated the boys for letting us stay there (and yes, it was expensive).

Sunday: On our first big day out in Japan, we decided to go to Tokyo. We took the Shinkansen, the bullet train to Tokyo. Took about 3 hours :) My friend Alan (the one who visited me here), his brother Andrew lives in Tokyo so we were going to stay with him. However, with a bit confusion with arrival dates, he had other plans, but still offered to let us stay at his place...very nice of him. So we arrived at his apartment in the Meguro area of Tokyo, unpacked, and headed into the city with the intention of buying tickets for a Kabuki show. We really wanted to see a Kabuki theatre show. First things first...conquering the Tokyo Subway system. We managed to get around but it was sooooo confusing at first. Of course with our luck, once we arrived, tickets for Kabuki were sold out. So instead, we decided to venture the streets of Shinjuku (the entertainment area of Tokyo). Katie and I both had 2 different travel books so with the combo of the two, we had a lot info about the city. Once we arrived in Shinjuku, we saw a large group of people marching the streets in robes, carrying some kind of shrine. We were curious what was going on. We took a few pictures and watched the chanting, etc. There was a huge table lined up with tons of sushi and everyone was drinking beer in a very happy mood. We realized it was the 1st day of Autumn Festival. We were standing on the sidewalk, looking at a map (trying to get to 'piss alley') when a random guy came up to us and just handed us both a beer. What a nice guy he was :) Then his friends came over and started talking with us, which some how lead to 2 guys giving us their robes to wear and a big photo session took place...their idea, not ours...though we were happy to oblige :) It was a very funny, random, great first introduction to Tokyo. Shinjuku was HUGE! We read in her book about this tiny alley area that was really cool to go down, had cheap food, and intresting things. Well it was actually pretty hard to find. We wandered the streets for a long time. Once we got there, we sat down at another Yakitori restaurant. They made us chicken and vegetable skewers which were very delicious. They kept giving us more skewers so we kept eating. We didn't realize until later that we pay by the skewer, not for pre-set number. So our 'cheapish' dinner turned very expensive already. We weren't very happy...but weren't letting it get to us. Lesson learned. So we started walking the brightly neon colored lights of Shinjuku, Tokyo, just taking it all in. We found some interesting bars, funny signs, random english errors, and even manged to find ourself lost in the 'adult entertainment' section of Shinjuku. There were posters of girls everywhere and the girls themselves dressed to different fetishes. I don't know if they're 'strippers' or 'karaoke girls' or 'massage girls' or what. If they were there for 'company' or 'happy endings.'
Definitely an interesting experience. We headed back to the apartment on the earlier side in order to get a good head start on the next day ahead.

Monday: Venture #1: Happoen Lake. Katie read in her book about a cute park near Andrews apartment. So we spent the morning venturing out to find it. Once we did, we realized how absolutely beautiful it was. It is supposed to be famous for cherry blossom season, but this was still gorgeous. With the start of autumn, the trees were starting to turn colors, the lake was beautiful with the orange fish inside. We really enjoyed it. Turns out that it was a National holiday as well so there were not 2, not 3, but 5 wedding that we witnessed in the park. The wedding pictures were all taken at the same place. One couple would finish, the next one would come in. It was pretty funny. We were at one point, on this little peninsula on the lake (where the picture was taken) and we were waiting there for quite awhile because we couldn't leave due to all the pictures being taken. We enjoyed the view. It was very interesting to see the bride and groom and their family and friends all dressed up. Some of the brides wore traditional Kimonos first and then changed into the regular white wedding dress afterwards. It is very noticable how much the people do NOT smile in pictures. Everyone looks miserable! But I think that's just part of their culture in some way. So we walked around a bit. Wound up finding a cute little tea house, a pagoda, and shrine (the picture). It was a beautiful walk.
Next on the agenda: tattoo parlor. For the past 5 years, I've been wanting to get different tattoos. Nothing big, just small. Recently I came to the realization how I can incorporate all of them together. I'm going to get a charm anklet about my travels. So one of the charms on it is that I want the word "passion" written in Japanese Kanji letters...and I had to get it done in Japan. So Tokyo was probably the best place. Tattooing is still not very common/popular in a majority of the Japanese culture (not to the extent it is in Western culture). The tattoo parlors were very hidden and our maps were not very good. We must've walked around for HOURS looking for the places. We asked several people who sent us on a wild goose chase. But getting lost in a new city is always fun :) We were in a pretty suburban like area but we randomly stumbled upon this building which was huge and looked like it was made from legos. So random...but so cool. In the picture on the right, I'm taking a picture of the map on this guys camera...naturally, while I stuff my face. Attractive, I know. But low and behold we found the parlor. I made a reservation for that night. All of a sudden, the fact that I was getting a real tattoo kicked in. I was sooo nervous, but so excited :) We had a few hours to kill so we ventured around a little bit more. In the same area, is also the World's Largest Intersection. Something like 3 million people cross the street there everyday. Ridiculous! so of course, we contributed to those statistics as we crossed the street ourselves...and took pictures of course.
Right next to that intersection, next to the subway station was this statue of a dog. The dog is named Hachiko. The story was that he lived in a house there with his owner. Everyday, he'd wait for his owner at the subway station when he got off work. One day, his owner died of cerrebral hemmorage and obviously didn't return. The dog went back to the subway station everyday for 9 years waiting for his owner. Even when it was taken in by another family, it still escaped in order to make it to the subway station to wait for his original owner. That is loyalty. So they put up a statue in his honor. I thought it was a very sweet story.
So a few hours and Japanese noodles later, I went back to the tattoo parlor to get my very first tattoo. My tattoo artist was really nice. She showed me the sanitized, packaged needles when she set everything up. She pretty much wrote the design of the tattoo exactly like I wanted it...size, font, location, everything. I was very happy about it. When I arrived there, I was sooooo nervous. The reality of the situation kicked in...I hate needles. I say that but then I've had my belly button and tongue pierced so I knew i could do this too. I just remember everyone talking about how much it hurt. I was so nervous. I was definitely mentally preparing myself for awhile. Katie was a rockstar, reassuring me everything was good and holding my hand, etc. Once it actually started, it didn't hurt as much as i thought at all (granted i got it in a good location, away from the bone area, etc). When she started, it mostly just felt like a papercut....and yes, I know papercuts hurt...but i was imagining A LOT more pain so I was ok with that. It was VERY tolerable. The closer to the bone, the more it did hurt but it wasn't 'painful.' The total process took about 1 1/2 hours (prep, and the tattoo itself). I was VERY happy with it all. Happy that it didn't hurt as much, happy the way it looked, happy with the place, the price...not so much. But I guess I'm paying to have it specifically done in Japan so I was ok with it. So the picture is the actually process and what it looks like. "passion" :) The size itself is about the size of my first knuckle on my ring finger.
Afterwards (I couldn't feel it at all...felt totally normal), we returned to Miguro to the apartment. We caught my friend Andrew just as he was coming home. We all went out together, along wtih 2 of his friends, to grab some food and drinks. I had some YUMMY food that night. Seared chicken (raw chicken...like raw fish...seared...wierd but DELICIOUS), asperagus (oh how i miss asperagus and artichokes), and other veggie and chicken dishes. After snacks, we went to O bar. We had more snacks. I indulged in a drink called Sometimes a Bitch... I'm sure some people think that's approriate :) After O bar, we went to Red Room Bar. It is a tiny tiny, hole in the wall bar that is literally filled with HUNDREDS of red chandeliers and lamps. Some were really cool, some were really wierd. Drinks were strong, but cheap. Quite an interesting bar. They actually don't allow pictures inside (why? who knows) but we snuck a few anyway. It was a fun night. A great, almost night out in Tokyo.

The next day, our last day in Tokyo, Katie and I decided to have a sushi lunch...mmmmm. We went to the conveyor belt sushi place. We've heard the were pretty cheap and delicious. They were pretty cheap...but omg I could eat sushi all day and it could've easily added up. I have heard that American sushi is different from Japanese sushi but I didn't find it THAT different. American sushi joints have a lot of rolls. They use things like cream cheese and hot sauce. In Japan, they do have rolls, but definitely not very many and very different. They're fans of mayonaise...wierd right? It actually works pretty well with sushi. But the fish and rice, itself wasn't that different. It was nice to have some salmon. I hadn't had that in awhile and it was delicious :) There was a water faucet for every seat at the sushi bar. We were really confused until an older woman showed us that we pour green tea powder (powder??) into our cups and the faucet has scalding hot water...and there is our green tea. Strange?? Cool? Ok. :)
After sushi, we headed to the Ryogoku Sumo Wrestling Stadium. Yes, we were very excited to see some Sumo wrestling...especially since we missed Kabuki and those were the 2 cultural things we really wanted to do. During the day is when a lot of the amateurs compete. The stadiums was pretty empty for that, but that just means we got better seats. We had no idea about the rules for Sumo or how to do it, etc. It was easy to learn. Turns out that each match is 30 seconds-1 minute long!! First person to go out of bounds or hit the floor loses. So we watched for awhile, cheered a bit, and even got to meet some of the amateur wrestlers. Seriously, they were HUGE!!!!!! Katie and I took WAY too many pictures of the Sumo wrestling. P.S. I've never seen so many butts in my whole life. It was just craziness.

We took a break from the Sumo for a few hours to go check out Asakusa's Shensoji Temple. This was really beautiful. Our original plan was to just stop by the Temple, see it for about 40 minutes or so and then go and see a professional Sumo match. Once we found the Temple, we realized there was a long street we had to walk through with SOUVENIR shopping (my favorite :) ). We stopped in, looked at some things, and decided we'd buy some stuff on the way out. Ironically, the little street had significant historical value. It is a bit much and a little boring to write, but it is was significant. Interesting, I thought. Then we arrived at the Temple. It was beautiful!!! Bigger than I thought.
The big red thing in the middle is a pretty important trademark for this specific Temple. On the side of the Temple also has a 5 story Pagoda, the biggest in Tokyo. The combo of it all which makes for some beautiful pictures. On the picture on the right, you can see the Temple entrance in the background and then some smoke in the middle. The thing in the middle is filled with incense. You're supposed to breathe the incense which are supposed to have healing powers. Healing what? I don't know, but I'll take it anyway. The incense thing, I noticed were just about every Temple we went to in Japan. Pretty important. We saw one of the shrines which was made out of gold and really beautiful, big too. We walked around a bit and explored the premises. I can bombard this page with pictures of the Temple. One of the pictures on the left, is me taking in the incense. Below that are some people who are washing their hands. Washing their hands in this water signifies purity. So I since I participated in the hand washing, I feel safe to say that I am once again pure :) Then comes the Omikuji. I read about this in my tourist book. They are fortune tellers (which we noticed also at almost all of the Temples). Since this was our first one, it's special. It's the one that means the most. So here is how it works. You shake the shaker box and a stick falls out. You match the characters of the stick with one of the boxes in front of you and you pull out your fortune (as my serious of photos will demonstrate). My fortune was 'regular' (it literally said that on the fortune). It said "when spring comes, Katsura tree flowers are in full bloom, smelling so well. Your fortune will open wide when your season comes. If you get the chance, open, you will get fame and honor, climbing the way to top of the sky, you can meet the fortune soon. Your request will be granted, the patient get well soon, The lost article will be found, it is good to start a trip, and marriage and employment are both well."
I found this fortune hilarious in many ways. 1. Because the english is not proper and it just makes me laugh now. 2. There was a drawer with hundreds of this fortune. 3. It's soooo vague. But I guess that's what we get. The good news is that my marriage is well. lol. So my fortune was 'regular' and katies was bad. We didn't see it till later, but we realized we were supposed to tie our fortunes to what looks like mini clothes lines. Her response "my fortune is just bad. I'm not tying it up there." But I did. We didn't know what it meant but figured we were doing the right thing. It wasn't until I arrived home and read up on it that I realized that if you have a bad fortune, you're supposed to tie it up so that the bad luck gets lost in the wind. Since she still has her bad fortune and I tied up my 'regular' fortune, I wonder what that means for us lol. So we walked out of the Temple, bought a few little things for souvenirs for ourselves and friends/family and went back to Ryogoku to watch the professional Sumo Wrestlers. There were a ton more people in the audience. There was also a huge difference in the bodies of the wrestlers. The amateurs were just plain FAT. The professionals were still fat, not as fat, with a lot more muscle. And there were actually several foreign wrestlers as well. I've never known any foreigner whose grown up to wish to be a sumo wrestler. I think that would be hilarious. The amateurs, went through all the rituals before a fight, and then they just fought. The professionals, would get ready, and then psych each other out...like 5 times! It got boring after awhile. We just wanted them to fight already. So yea, we really enjoyed that. On our way out, we saw the Asahi Brewery in the distance. I was told to try to seei it, but we ran out of time. Still looked cool from the distance. The gold flame is pretty famous. Definitely a distinguishing feature you can see. So after Sumo, we headed back to Andrews, retrieved our stuff, and headed to the JR Shinkansen Station where we took the Bullet train to Kyoto for our next adventure :) Tokyo did us well :)

It's the time of the Season for Change

The past few weeks have probably been the hardest on me yet. It seems like a little bit of everything slowly ate me. It started with the sadness of more of my co-workers leaving. My boss left, whom I was close with (who I found out later also screwed me over with vacation days. Sneaky snake), one of my closest friends here in Korea, decided to go behind my back with a couple of things (and chose a guy over our friendship...sadness), and so many of my friends just all left at the same time. Not to mention the Italy drama I've been dealing with. The Italians sure don't make it easy for people to live there for more than 3 months. Uggg. So granted to say, a little bit of everything creeped up on me, wore me out, prevented me from sleeping for months, and eventually gave me lymphangitis (which I didn't discover until I had a big lump on the side of my neck which scared the bejezus out of me). A mix of all, also creates for a bit of homesickness. I hate to use that word and I hate to say that i miss home...however, I think I do. I miss little luxuries of home like bathtubs, ahi tuna tacos, and frozen yogurt.
Even though, I'm in a low (hey i'm a poet, and i didn't even know it...and a nerd), I've still manage to have some fun and meet new people :) A few weeks ago, I heard of a Russian ice skating show that was in town. I knew that after all my 'girl-drama,' that an ice skating show was just what I needed. I had also recently met a new girl in town (literally new to my small town). So I spent the day with her showing around and my new Korean friend Suzie (the girl I met on the bus on the entry below). Suzy is a 20 y.o Korean student who wants to move to England in December for school (and boys). She's very cute. We spent the day having sushi, exploring the beaches, and ended with the Russian ice skating show. Half the show was a ballet and the 2nd half was a cirque de soleil type of show with lots of acrobats. It was very different from what I expected but VERY good :) Besides the ballet, they did ice dancing, men and womens singles, group performances, they had arialists, ridiculous hula hoopists, a guy even performed a fire show on the ice...again, I've never seen that before. It is amazing how no matter where I am, ice skating always makes me happy. I really hope in the future I can do more with it. I left very happy. Liz's Korean co-teacher, Michelle was also at the show with her family. It was a great surprise to see her there. We had a great day.

Another fun/cultural experience I've had recently was learning how to make Makali. Makali is the Korean rice wine. It can be delicious or gross...kinda an acquired taste, but I enjoy it. We took the cable car to the top of Geumjeong Mountain/Fortress. I had never been up there. It was so beautiful. There was a short hike (hard to miss all the Koreans in bright neon clothes in full hiking gear), and we arrived at the top. We were picked up in a van and taken to the location. There were some little villages along the way. I'd never guessed there would be. It was so quiet, so surrounded by nature, and quaint. Very lovely. When we arrived, we were in the middle of a farm like area. There was a big tent with a small pool kinda area. We were told that we could put our feet in...it was a hot day, so some of us did! And it felt amazing. It was kind of a random spot for just a big tub of water. We weren't sure what to think, but no questions asked. Our 'sun-sang-nim' aka teacher, didn't speak English, so we had a nice Korean girl with us to translate. The teacher started off by giving us all a bottle of his own makali that he is famous for making. It was very different than we were used to (no carbonation) but very fresh and natural. So we learned that at first they take the 'nudo' (that's how it sounded like it was pronounced. I think it's rice that's been soaked in water for a bit and grain/wheat) and mix it with other stuff... and then you step on it to mush it together... as demonstrated by the nice Adjumma here. She said she was very famous for her makali and been on TV before. She was so funny and cute. We were all a little bit turned off at the idea that this alcoholic beverage, which is commonly served at many Korean restaurants, was made by feet!!! (however we realized that grapes are usually stomped for wine as well... some things are just
better left not knowing). However, when given the chance, I did it as well. We rinsed off our feet before taking the plunge into the unknown. It was so sticky and gewy feeling between my toes... but almost therapeutic at the same time (i know, i'm crazy). It got to be more and more sticky vs. grainy. When it was at the perfect consistency, we had to shape it into pizza pie type shapes. We had a contest for the perfect shape... I thought mine was good, but I didn't win :( Turns out that our teacher, also was a Vetenarian and made/sold pottery... a man of many talents. Very interesting person. He gave a piece of his pottery away to the winner. OK... Once the nudo has been in the closet a few weeks, it gets hardened... then we put it in the big bowl and pound it into powder. That big stick thing was pretty heavy. Once the powder is all crushed up, we use it as a filter... and out comes makali! :) Oh the wonders of the world :) Very interesting. Our teacher was a very interesting man. He made pottery, he was an animal doctor and he put on this show playing a korean mandolin type thing. It was very beautiful. An amazing cultural day :) I really enjoyed it.

Another newbie in my life is Ms. Yeboni (Yeboni means 'pretty' in Korean). My friend Dominique is leaving Korea to go home to South Africa for a few months. She is planning to come back in February. She had 2 kittens. So I took one and my friend Katie took the other (she named her Saja). Katie lives really close to me so we sometimes get the cats together to play. But they're about 3 months old...still pretty little. So cute. Yeboni definitely brings liveliness back into my apartment. It's nice to come home to her. She's very active and very cuddly. :) Makes me miss my Lila so much.

So a few weeks ago, I went with a group to Hobakso Lake...aka Pumpkin Lake in Miriyang. There was supposed to be a lot of cliff diving and natural rock water slides. It looked amazing. It was sponsored by a church group so I got to meet a lot of Philippino missionaries who were really so nice! Their english was perfect. Just very sweet people. We took the 'scenic route' which involved a mini hike up a mountain to see the 'freezing place.' a random glacier area. It was a VERY hot day. The higher we went on the mountain (and we didn't go very high), the cooler it got. We arrived in this area that was gated off and it was just freezing!! It felt incredible! REALLY it felt great! Then we hiked back down, drove about 4 minutes and we arrived at Hobakso. It was really beautiful!!! We were planning on cliff diving in the big lake (in the background), however the 'korean version' of a lifeguards kept blowing their fog horns at us... yet they wouldn't motion or say anything. Just blow the horn. Ultimately it got annoying, so we had to stay out of that area. We found out it was because that area was very deep. Most Koreans can't swim very well, if at all. So they don't allow swimming in the deep end. At least there were some other slides there and other smaller cliffs to jump off of.

OK I gotta go to bed... i'll finish later :)