Tis my turn as blog neglect has been high as of late.
I guess I should start where I remember leaving off.
After leaving Tokyo for the several-eth time, we got our 2 week unlimited railpasses activated and set out first for Nagano, a couple hours Shinkansen away from Tokyo. Now there's not much in Nagano, and in fact our only purpose of visit was to go to a small town nearby which had a forest with a bunch of monkeys in it. It did not dissapoint. We paid 5 bucks and were allowed into a park where monkeys roamed without fence/cage/etc and they did not seem the slightest bit concerned that humans were walking among them or even touching the cute baby monkeys. Needless to say we stayed for a good 2 hours observing and taking humorous photos. These included:
- Monkeys bathing in hot springs (they look and act very Japanese)
- Monkeys urinating on each other
- Really ugly monkeys scratching their butts
So you can see why we were so amused. Definately worth it. We got back to Nagano at night and ate our best meal of the trip so far, which was in fact Thai. I have to say that I am tiring of the Japanese cuisine. A couple weeks of rice/2 meals with fish/miso soup probably equate to my salt intake in the last 6 months combined. I'm sure it's doin wonders for my heart :). We have thus gone out of our way in other cities to find ethnic food of other varieties.
Next: Went to Matsumoto for 3 nights. This is a city that is a casting off point for the Japanese Alps and also houses Japan's largest castle. We stayed at a nice Ryokan (traditional lodging with slidy doors everywhere and tea multiple times a day) but the city itself was pretty dull. We learned this after being forced to stay for a day as the downpour prevented us from hiking. Luckily we got to hike the next day. Still slightly rainy though. Well it pretty much rains all the time and is >80% humid which is kinda stinky but what are you gonna do. Many people often appear to be appalled by our collective stench but are too polite to say anything about it. I can only assume repeated thoughts of ritualistic suicide are invading their minds.
Stayed in a small town called Zao onsen for a night after this, the drawpoint being a large outdoor hot spring bath and a gorgeous blue crater at the top of a small mountain. The bath touted itself as multi-sex, though the only other patrons at the time were shameless old men. At any rate, I am thankful that my first fully-naked collective bathing experience was in a Japanese spring rather than in another ethnic group where my endowment may not have been comparitavely superior. Or maybe it was just cause they were old...
After this we went to Kyoto for 4 days/3 nights staying at our first real hostel of the trip, real in the sense that there were actually international YOUTH staying there and not a series of retired 70 year olds. Thus we were allowed to have slightly more human communication for a short while. Anyways, we went to many of the temples/sites that I didn't end up going to at Christmas, including an epic and eerie bamboo forest likely reminiscent of B-rate Japanese horror movies. Kyoto remains one of my favorite cities in Japan, as most of the other 500,000 + population cities are almost cookie-cutter and lack charm. On the other hand, they are full of girly bars where solicitors have used the phrased `Sexu desu ka?` (literally just saying 'Sex?'). No Sylvie, I did not accept their offer. Shame on you for thinking such a thing.
We're in Fukuoka for the last 3 days of non-Tokyo Japan. It's touted as a party capital but is bland during the day, so we've been leaving to do day trips and then coming back at night for R&R. Today (in a stuporous and sordid hangover state) went to Hiroshima for a sobering visit of the A-bomb memorial site and museum. Very nice to see a historically objective and unbiased museum in stark contrast to the Vietnam war museum in Ho Chi Minh. Hiroshima was actually really nice and you would never know by looking that a giant bomb went off there 60some years ago. Over a million people there now apparently. On a lighter note, at the end of the day we sampeled their local cuisine specialty - an unusual combination of egg, cabbage, pork, udon, shrimp grilled in a thin patty and then topped with a delicious (but clearly containing 8000mg of salt) sauce. We followed that up by buying souvenirs from their baseball team, the Hiroshima Carp.
In Fukuoka now and have to go. I will write again when I am in Seoul in 4 or 5 days. I know I have forgotten to include many hilarious moments, but I have them documenented in my journal and will fill you in on them next time.
Sending my love in many forms,
Cal
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