Konichiwa y'all!

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karen's blog -- Karen has graciously agreed to write about her experiences in Japan so as to break up the monotony of my hilarious anecdotal musings...enjoy! And thanks Karen!

Life in Japan as I know it:
If I didn't live in Hawaii (aka- greater than 50% asian already), I think seeing the sea of dark haired- not particularly tall- population streaming past might have a greater impact on me. As it is, it kinda feels like home (Hawaii), except that the signs and spoken words are in a make believe language. The whole time in Tokyo, we kept saying, 'this is just like New York!'. Before coming here, people warned me that we'd get stared at. And I've actually been a little dissapointed that we haven't been! hahaha. There's the occasional onlooker, but most people just go about their business, just like we do of the Japanese tourists in Hawaii. There's so many of them, it's no big deal anymore. I wanted to be a novelty here, but no such luck.
Tokyo:
We started off in Tokyo for three nights. Our 'hotel room' reminded me more of my college dorm days, only this room was smaller, and the bunk beds harder. The bathrooms were in the hallway, and so were the showers. But, it was nice, and fun. It felt a little like camp. One new thing here is that they make you give back your room key every time you leave the hotel, and they give it back when you return. (weird) Other than that, Tokyo seems like a very big, extended New York. The subway system is very clean, reliable, and extensive. It's a little confusing, (not every map is in english), but we haven't gotten lost yet, so that's saying something. One thing I'm grateful for is that one version of Japanese has English numbers! That has made so many things, like paying!, a lot easier. However, whenever i'm at a vender and they just say the numbers (verses seeing them writen down), i feel like a little kid b/c i just hold out my hand with the money in it and let them pick out what i owe!! lol.
Amy and I have mastered such phrases as good morning, hello, thank you, excuse me/i'm sorry, wait, water, good, and good bye. We're practially local already. Although, when ever we look for food, we always go to places with pictures of food in the window, or those neat little 3D plastic faux food plates on display. We walk by now looking for '3D food'. :)
Speaking of food: We've been trying hard to eat only at places that are Japanese. (So far we've been diligently avoiding all the McDonalds, Starbucks, and other such tempting comfort food places). The funnest discovery is that many restaurants have you order your meal from a vending machine! The buttons have pictures of food on them, and you put your money in, push the button, and take your ticket inside. So far the food has been amazing, and most everything we've tried so far has been very different than the last. We've had a soup with noodles for breakfast, a rice and meat dish on a super hot pan that cooks the meat as it's in front of you, sushi!, and a list of other dishes that might be hard to describe. Anyway, don't worry mom, i'm not starving! Even the snacks here are intersting. I bought a neat looking package on the train to Osaka thinking it would be like potato chips or something, as is showed pieces of what looked to be like a root or a sweet potato. Well, it turned out to be exactly that! Cooked pieces, (room temp mind you) of sweet potato. Interesting! (Can't say that I recommend this one, but very edible if you're hungry). We've also tried the famous 'octopus dumplings' (don't really recommend this one either), and okonomiyaki (a Japanese pancake) here in Osaka.
We got to do and see a lot in Tokyo. First we visited the electronic area, and Shibuya, the trendy-crazy-younger kid area. We went up Tokyo Tower. It's like a smaller eiffle tower where you have a super high 360 deg. view of Tokyo. We went to an Onsen, a hot bath/springs place. Yet another place you buy what you want from a vending machine. You go in and scrub yourself down sitting on these tiny stools, and then you bare all in front of every other Japanese woman and relax in the hot water. Very relaxing and welcome in the middle of the day. We took a last minute trip to see the Kabuki theatre. The whole play lasts 4-5 hours, but we opted for the brief one hour version. I'm glad I also splurged for the english translation headsets. Very neat!
Oh! and I went salsa dancing too! It was pretty fun! I kept hearing how awesome salsa was in Japan, so i really wanted to try this one. The club was super crowed and small, so it was hard to really put these dancers to the test. But, most were friendly and pretty good.
In Osaka we've been doing a lot of walking around of foot, window shopping, and eating. We also got to see the Osaka castle museum. Very neat, but it's been modernized since it was last rebuilt. I think it would have been neater to see it as it was originally. The hotel here is awesome! It's super nice, clean, and modern. And free breakfast. ;) Can't beat that with a stick!
Tomorrow we're off to Koya-san, and then Kyoto. Stay tuned for more adventures of Karen and Amy.........

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