Another pretty emotional morning as Nils and I decided to go to the Hiroshima museum again. We then took a taxi to hurry to the train station and get on together. He soon got off in Osaka. Said he was going to spend some relax time working on the piece he has to write on what he thinks of Japan for the newspaper and relaxing before he got back to work. I stayed on the train and got off once again in Nagoya to call Yuno twice and finally meet him at the station. I'd forgotten how much I liked hanging [View Full Entry]

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Nils got woken up by my knock on his door as he'd told me to do the night before. I came in to wait until he was ready and we walked over to the tram we needed to take. Before getting on we stopped for breakfast and I translated the set from Japanese English to normal English aas the woman told it to me so I could tell him. Once on the tram Nils figured out we could buy our day pass from the conductor - saving us a bit of time and money. We took the ferry and got off [View Full Entry]

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Today was a super emotion filled day as it was my first day here in Hiroshima. I took the Shinkansen to get here quickly and left my stuff at the hotel before going for lunch (I was starving). So I'm sitting in the place eating alone for a bit when three boys came in from my Kyoto Hostel to eat. I asked if they were following me and then ended up joining them for the meal but also while walking around to see the sights which was really good in the end because they were pretty laid back and knew their [View Full Entry]

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I just went to see a really awesome geisha performance. The music was pretty cool. There was one scene with a transvestite and a bird. The trans came in with a cute sleepy mask on and changed to a woman's, then the bird came and the trans stole the bird's feathers (another fan) and left her woman's mask. The bird was sad because it couldn't fly but found the woman's mask and decided to give it back. When she tried he shooed her away with the feathers. Granted I only understood through actions as I don't know Japanese but I still [View Full Entry]

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Happy Halloween! Part of the funny part about me is I don't really enjoy being alone a lot of the time (as I'm sure you've noticed if you've managed to paid attention long enough). I do my best to avoid an empty room and leave it to the sleeping. I also tend to talk to strangers enough that I have them constantly around me when I travel. So even for me traveling isn't really alone. Granted I can make my own decisions. Like I did in Tokyo there's nothing stopping me from walking out of the restaurant and onto a bus [View Full Entry]

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I love Jazz music but I don't get to hear it much out here. Right now I'm at a cute little after work place that's playing jazz over some awful electric buzzing in the kitchen (which I don't think anyone can hear but me). It's a really great relaxing place. I think all in all today has been a fairly relaxing day. After putting my pictures on a CD (which not only took 30 minutes but cost twice as much as I'm used to paying). I was shocked about the CD as I normally get it done in places with no [View Full Entry]

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Today I went and saw some awesome places a bit more in nowhere than yesterday. In the morning I went to Toji behind the station which is a 5 story pagoda - extremely awesome. I met a Brazilian there who was touring for the day and works in Japan. We talked for a bit before going our separate ways. I took the wrong bus to my next place but figured it out pretty quickly and fixed it. There were 2 nice American kids traveling with their mom on the bus. I saw an awesome lake with mountains in the background and [View Full Entry]

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Generally I really dislike places that have turned into tourist traps. I went to Ginkakuji after getting some tourist information and it had a huge line of tourist shops before you reached the entrance and then way too many people all over. Granted the way they rake the rocks to make gardens is pretty cool but I kept thinking to myself "what's the big deal?" Then I stopped, "Can you take my picture?" I asked a nice looking Japanese guy who seemed to speak English. After taking mine he and his friend asked me to return the favor. We thought nothing [View Full Entry]

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We all want different things in life and we all go about getting those things in different ways sometimes those ways don't make sense to those around us but they are still our ways. One thing we all have in common is none of us want to be alone and we'll do whatever it takes to make sure that never happens. At times we scare ourselves into making us think we are alone but it's never true. I met 3 people today through these circumstances. Two were named Karen and Wayne - grandparents from Hong Kong who had been living in [View Full Entry]

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Today I decided to take the train (Japan is probably the best country in the world for trains) to Inuyama (a place Sarah recommended to me). I Think this town was hit upside the head by the ulitmate cute stick. It's a place like this that I would love to learn the language and spend the rest of my life. It's absolutely gorgeous and surrounded on most sides by a canal (which I'm currently sitting beside). Beyond the canal are beautiful small mountains and hills covered in trees. I went to the castle here - which is the oldest in Japan [View Full Entry]

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