Japan Adventure - Part 3

me looking all sexy on the subway. i never got that gross "i'll catch a disease" feeling i would get on new york subways

we stopped by TGIF in yokohama.

we wanted to sit at the bar for half price happy hour drinks because $9 drinks are painful. but it was full...

baseball is hugely popular in japan. it was funny when japanese sports news covered Hideki Matsui and Ichiro Suzuki, you'd think they were the only players scoring runs on their teams.

... so we just sat a table and had dinner. i went for buffalo wings but they were small and lame.

we got a winner!

next stop... roppongi... this is the nightlife part of tokyo catered to westerners. there were posters for a hello kitty museum exhibition which was odd.

some popular meeting place in roppongi.

this was neat, the vietnamese version of starbucks in japan.

so pretty and glittery

the eiffel tower wannabe looks pretty cool at night. i'm really up close here...

unfortunately, we didn't get to spend too much time on the observation deck because it closed at 10 and we got there at 9:30. the 8 dollar fee was worth it for the view though.... already feels huge when you're on the ground... but it seemed to go on forever from up here. quite overwhelming.

Thursday August 5 2004 - TO KYOTO WE GO

My sister booked a mini-trip to Kyoto. Kyoto is the old capital and cultural center of Japan known for its historical buildings, temples, shrines, theatre, mountains, museums, and stuff like that.

we took the shinkansen, or bullet train, from yokohama to kyoto, cutting a normally 8 hour ride to only 2 1/2. wooooshh...

it was fun going into tunnels cause the air pressure would suddenly increase from the compression and give you the descending in an airplane feeling in the ear.

the inside was like an airplane cabin

cute

later that day....

just one of the random temples we walked by.

we arrived in kyoto and decided to walk to the hotel... first thing we notice was how laid back the people were compared to in tokyo

uninspired view from our hotel window. actually, kyoto has a height restricting building code, so even if the apartments aren't impressive, they also don't block the beautiful mountains that surround the city.

there was a starbucks coffee right in the hotel... my sister is an hard-core coffee drinker... dangerous combination.

we toured the city by foot and enjoyed the outdoor malls that went on for miles.

chicken capital USA

my sister and i got obsessed with this drum game where you hit it when it to a rhythm during a song. you have to have the correct timing to advance to the next round but my sister kept on faling. a cartoon of a sad, crying drum wouild appear compelling my sister to keep trying.... she never passed.

fun with camera

we took a walk through the preserved historical Gion district. i was hoping to run into some geishas which still exist in here

another random shrine

right before we left for kyoto, my sister bought a new cell phone because her old one was messing up... a phone she'll only have for a month since it won't work in the US. oh yeah, and this new phone has a 3 megapixel camera... 3... that's a lot. very much a lot.

the hotel we were at had computers for internet access. the keyboards had japanese characters on it and i kept on pressing the key that toggles between the alphabet and hiragana. look how short that shift key is.

Friday - Kyoto bus tour - my sister booked a tour group type tour to hit some of the major cultural attractions of the city. it was nice cause it took the hassle out of arranging transportation and admission fees.

the tour guide was a funny japanese lady, reminiscent of the better china tour guides we've had for the china trip.

first stop... nijo castle. this is where the shoguns used to live. unfortunately there was no photography allowed inside the castle. the coolest part were the floors which were made to sound like the singing of birds to warn of intruders. when my floor sqeaks, it sounds like dying cattle.

me

a bird

me, sister, and umbrella

a building. actually, this is stop two... the golden pavilion. this is where the shoguns and emporers used to hang out and party back in the day.

it's neat seeing something you spent a week learning about in japanese art history in person.

this is some pine tree that ended up looking like a sailboat. its got identity issues.

the cellphone's out. well, even though it won't work as a cellphone over here, it will at least be useful as a camera, pocket organizer, date book, alarm clock, music player, gaming system.

no photography inside the building. that doesn't mean no photography from outside with really good zoom lense.

next stop, imperial palace. fortunately, kyoto's not a super huge city, so all the stops weren't more than a ten minute drive from each other.

me contemplating

me missing wushu. this place was cool cause the whole pavilion has hand thatched roofs. it takes 25 years to finish the job, and they only last 30 years. so the people with that lucky job only get a 5 year break before they have to start again.

my sister took the next 3 pictures on her cellphone and emailed them to me (isn't technology great?) and these were on the low resolution mode... and i even reduced them to fit here... so you can imagine the high quality pictures.... it's sick, sick i tell you.

one too many raw eggs for breakast.

stalker on the prowl.

this was cool. back in the days i was into anime, one had a group of samurai called the shinsen gumi who were protecting the old ways of of japan during the meiji revolution. this city was steeped in shinsen gumi references and souvenires. blue and white rows of triangles were their symbol as you see the street lined with those banners.

we ditched the tour group after they dropped us off at one of those "westerners will buy anything so lets overcharge" handicraft centers, and headed to the freshfood market and walked all the way back to the hotel.

10 bucks for half a watermelon seems like a steal.

For $150, those mushrooms better be smokable.

the hotel toilet assaulted me. actually what it does is aim a stream of warm water right at your butt. did i try it? yes. did i enjoy it? we'll leave that between me and the toilet.

culinary adventure #12... okonomiyaki, a traditional pancake topped with meat, veggies and other toppings that you cook on a very hot table yourself.

don't think of it as a pancake, it's more like a hashbrown of some sort made with cabbage, flour, egg, and and who the hell knows what, but it's good. mmm....

of course i had to commit the greatest cultural faux pas when i walked onto the dining area with my shoes on. oops. it was fun cause our legs were underground while we sat at floor level. what was also cool was that someone brought out our drink orders before the waiter even finished taking our order. i was very confused until i realized the waiter was taking our orders on some electronic device that wirelessly sent the order to the kitchen. "i changed my mind, i'll have the sprite".