Advertisement
Published: April 26th 2010
Edit Blog Post
Since Japan is so expensive ($350 one-way to Kyoto by train) our plan was to just stay in Tokyo until we found this couch surfer -Mochan- who was doing a Sakura (Cherry Blossom Festival) tour of Japan. All we had to do was split the gas money. So we went to Mochan’s house in a city close to Fuji mountain, just outside of Tokyo. He is a really generous man and we stayed with him for free and he cooked us dinner and fed us breakfast. He inherited his father’s house which was a traditional style home with paper walls, sliding doors, tatami mats to sit on and a low table to eat around. Tim, who is a photographer from England, was also staying with Mochan. He is a really funny guy and we became good friends with him over the next 2 weeks. He is an incredible photographer and has been working for rough guides for the last 5 years traveling mainly through Asia and South America. Being a like-minded travel bum we got along well. For the first day Mochan took us to different Mount Fuji viewing spots around his city and to a black sand beach which had
huge waves straight out of Hokusai’s paintings. The second day we were joined by ‘the German guy’ Bjorne, ‘the French man’ Antoine and ‘the Malay people’. We all hopped into Mochan’s mini-bus and drove overnight to Osaka. Mochan is a machine driving all night long! The next morning we arrived at Osaka castle to watch the sun rise over it. Afterwards we spent the afternoon in the castle grounds under the cherry blossoms and experienced our first Hanami party. This is a thing that the Japanese people do every Sakura season and involves sitting on a blue tarp under the cherry blossoms drinking sake with friends. Mochan picked up about 15 other Japanese friends while we were at the castle and we had a great afternoon with all of them. We made lots of friends, but I particularly made friends with 2 girls Ami and Junko. We chatted all about Japan and its culture and customs, about their boyfriends, about working in Japan, and about life in Canada. After the party they took us to a big shopping area in Osaka and the girls showed us specialties from their city. This is where we discovered sticky rice. It is awful
and I don’t recommend it. Basically they mush up rice and compact it into little balls and add sweet or savory flavouring. When you put them in your mouth they expand and fill your whole mouth and are impossible to chew. You feel like you’re suffocating. See photo. We also went to an amazing photo booth which makes you look more attractive. It’s amazing. It lightens your skin and gives you a perfect complexion with pink lips and cheeks. It also makes your eyes bigger and eyelashes darker. Amazing! That night we headed to Kyoto. In Kyoto, Dana and I couldn’t afford a private room so we had to stay in a dorm (which still cost us $60).
Advertisement
Tot: 0.074s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 12; qc: 55; dbt: 0.0377s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Jorn-Bjorn and Ida
non-member comment
yooo
hahah, can not believe this. We were just registerring on couchsurfing, and fumbling around to try and find Mochan on the site. Without luck. So we checked the web, and hey! Wait a minute, isn't that... ahha Great to read you blog. It was really good meeting you guys. Hope your tuk-tuk got your safely to the busstation, and that the massage made your sleep easy. :) If you know his details, we would really appreciate you helping us get hold of it, and get in touch with him. When you have a minute, feel free to check out our blog, too http://www.lonelyplamet.blogspot.com All the best, guys!! Hope the rest of your Laos stay is wonderful. JB and Ida