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Buddha Brad
Practicing some floating yoga Konnichiha mis amigos!
So another year has passed since my wanderings in Indonesia and Thailand and the unquenchable travel bug has struck again. I have returned to Asia but this time aimed my travelquest in a northernly direction for the quirky and well-polished Japan. But Brad (of the Jungle), you might ask, are there really enough sharks, cliffs, rapids, caves and Jungles for you to keep your jungle-name? Maybe. Won't people be wearing 3-piece suits instead of hand-made local clothes? Yeah, kinda...but I am hoping the incomprehensible language, vastly different cultural traditions and puny amount of tourism will be an assault of my assumptions about humanity. A Jungle of the Mind, if you will. And besides, it is only a matter of time before I stumble upon some ancient buddha cave or zen-blessed river to fulfill my adventure quota.
This trip will be tag-teamed by the equally adventure thirty Kristi...picking up where we left off in Thailand. We flew into Tokyo a few days ago and got busy exploring the peculiarities of dense urban life right away. So far we have seen the bustling energy of the subways and trains, the gothic trends of the Harajuku fashionistas (including a
synchronized dance off by a team of Japanese Elvis impersonators) and a political protest by a long line of around 50 trucks and buses equipped with super loud megaphones that were echoing down the streets. In spite of the protests, Japan is by far the safest place I have ever been. Everyone is totally content with their own lives and journey for the day. The streets are impeccably clean. No body locks their bikes up. And this isn't just true of a few small rich areas...everywhere we have been so far is friendly and safe. I can't help but find this a bit odd as most of my trips take me through some pretty shadey elements. Although maybe a bit too sterilized for me to enjoy forever, there is definitely something nice about feeling truly safe. I don't think I could ever fully take my guard down (probably a good thing), but I find myself looking over my shoulder way less often than I do back home in LA.
We have also experienced some of the quieter parts of Tokyo living as well. My good friend Dave from my St. Louis high school has been living in Tokyo for
almost 8 years. I had been meaning to visit him for a long time and surprisingly I got my act together before he moved away. Dave lives in a nice part of Tokyo in a larger-than-expected single apartment. He works at a large financial institution translating all of their crazy business transactions. He has a Japanese girlfriends that works for a domestic airline. In other words, he is fully immersed in Japanese culture. This means we get to eat at his favorite noodle joints, drink at his local bars, get some excellent tips and language assistance and hear about life in the work-centric Japanese culture. I can definitely see the long hours and strict corporate culture being difficult to balance a healthy independent life. Although we clearly have a hard-working culture in America, so far Japan seems to take the cake for relentless super driven work ethic.
Today we are off to Kyoto on a bullet train.
Sayanara!
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jlo
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Tickle me elmo!!!!
Awesome. The Cure has a tune called 'Kyoto Song', you should download it and listen to while your there. continue to rawk.