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Published: December 13th 2008
I heart Japan! I know that I have said this about a lot of the countries I have been to in the past few months, and it is true again--Japan is awesome.
I arrived into Tokyo & my friend Karen was waiting for me as soon as I got out of customs--a familiar face in a new city. Yay! We made our way to our budget accomodation which turned out to be pretty nice for going cheap. We had a room with 2 bunk beds so we each got our own bottom bunk--no camp nightmares of falling off the top bunk when having to get up to pee in the middle of the night!
We explored Tokyo for 2 days and everywhere we went friendly people helped us--some even approached us when we were looking at our maps and offered help. So cool!
Highlights of Tokyo for me were: friendly people, awesome public transportation, vending machines, an onsen, Kabuki theater, the crazy fashionistas in Shibuya and getting to experience it all with Karen! After traveling alone and traveling with people--for me, I choose people! Thanks for meeting up with me Karen.
My onsen thoughts--an onsen is a Japanese hot
springs that you go to and it's like a spa but in this case less fancy and wayyyy cheaper.
The onsen experience was interesting for a few reasons:
1) you buy your ticket for it out of a vending machine (& you buy a towel & soap from a vending machine too)
2) truly Japanese experience -- I felt almost local hanging out with all these Japanese ladies
3) 2 words -- birthday suit
4) you sit on a tiny little stool to shower before getting in the hot bath -- have you ever showered while sitting on a 6 inch stool? me neither!
5) the bath is brown like black tea that has been steeping for a long time
6) it was H-O-T like 42 degrees Celsius about 107 degrees Farenheit -- ouch!
7) i sat in one part where I swear I felt like I got electrocuted -- electric shocks coming through the water and zapping me. At first I was confused & then I realized I was in pain & then a few seconds later I realized that I should move away from the electric seat I was sitting in -- ouch!
Overall time in the onsen
hot bath = 7 minutes.........total cost $7..........experience = priceless
Kabuki theater was pretty cool. We only bought tickets to see an hour of the show because they usually last 4 to 5 hours! I also wanted to practice my Japanese so I did not rent the English audio guide -- Karen apparently doesn't care about practicing her Japanese cause she rented the headset & got the dialogue accurately delivered into her ear. Borrring. I much preferred to make up my own stories about what was going on -- actually knowing the real translations was kind of a let down.
After Tokyo we went headed south to Osaka. The shinkansen is an awesome, fast, smooth bullet train that we took to Osaka. I wanted to do 3 things in Osaka--check out the cool looking castle, experience the nightlife and try the okonomiyaki (savory Japanese pancake). Our hotel here is awesome & they have free, fast internet which rocks.
Osaka is so beautiful. We checked out the Osaka-jo castle. We explored the city on foot which was really fun too. And we -- finally -- got some sushi which was sooooo good. We explored the nightlife too and found
Imperial Gardens Tokyo
the whole place looked like a postcardout that people in Japan really like to smoke, especially when they are in bars! Once it felt like the smoke was so thick that I was eating it like a thick foam or some-like oatmeal. Not awesome. I think that I am spoiled by the non-smoking laws in Hawaii and California. Anyway, I figured -- when in Rome, so I started smoking like a chimney. Some people pick up souveniers, not me, I'm picking up bad habits!
Tomorrow we leave for a small town called Koya-san where we will stay in a temple! Then it's onto our last stop -- Kyoto. Stay tuned. Also, Karen has agreed to write a blog to entertain the folks at home -- so check out her's too!
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