Exploring the Wonders of Northern Japan
The many faces of Jason!
Today, for you viewing pleasure I would like to unveal the first ever gallery of…me and what Japan has done to me so far! Please enjoy!
Angry Nerd!.
I am not Willaim Shatner.
Dazed + Confused!.
I feel the gravity of it all.
Plain old me
So today, I decided I wanted to find out just how far I could run. I had planned on going for a run with my friend Sarah. We did the usual Senmaya run, but aferwards, we took a ride in her car and saw that we’d run 6.15km. Not to bad IMO. That means I now run about 25km a week. Now I just need to know what I should be doing to start my training for the half marathon. Yikes. A half marathon! I’ve only been running for a year and a quarter. Maybe it’s too soon?
The Perfect Day
I’d have to say that today was one of the most relaxing days I’ve had in years. Japan is doing really good things for me. I’m healthier then I’ve ever been before, and I’m not stressed about anything. For you’re reading pleasure, a transcript of my perfect day.
07:30AM – Alarm goes off. It’s saturday. Why am I getting up at 7:30? Oh yeah. Going to Kitakami. Must catch bus. But the bus is at 9:59am. Goes back to sleep.
08:30AM – Wake up and check thermometer. Brr. It’s 8C in the house. Can see own breath. But at least not edmonton. Take shower, put on clothes, get ready to go.
09:50AM – Walk over to bus stop and catch bus to Ichinoseki
10:31AM – Arrive in Ichinoseki. Trying to decipher which train leaves for kitakami. hmm. not the one to Hokkaido. Or the one Sendai. Ah, it’s the local express at 11:36.
12:16PM – Boards train to Kitakami. 40 Minutes later arrives in kitakami. Raining out. Forgets to bring umbrella…>_
It’s been a while since I’ve blogged. Nothing really all that exciting has happpned to me since my last entry. I did go to Morioka last week, got drunk and partied until 3am. And tomorrow, I’m off to Kitakami to watch Kill Bill. There is a massive theater complex in that city, and I feel at home when I go there. Other then that it’s pretty quiet on the Japan front.
December is coming up soon, I’m I’m trying to figure out what to do with my time. I don’t really want leave Japan this year, but I don’t want to stay at home either. I may go to Sapporo or somewhere like that. I was thinking of visiting South Korea sometime in the spring, since at that point I can get many vacation hour to take. I have a friend there I can visit so it would be fun. And of course she is welcome to visit me once we get all that sorted out.
Oh yes. There is an event coming up that will be big to me. November 27th 2003 will mark my 4th month in Japan. Nothing really big in itself, but it will be the longest I’ve ever been away from my home. And I guess even though my family doesn’t live there any longer, I still consider it to be home. It is where I grew up and I feel comfortable there. Strangely, I’m starting to feel very comfortable here in Japan as well. I can’t figure it out. Senmaya almost feels like home to me now. All that’s missing is the wife, kids, and home. I’m falling in love with Japan more and more everyday. That’s about all I can say about that.
Tokyo Chronicles
Last weekend, my friend Sarah and I took a trip to Tokyo for the weekend. To get there we had a number of options. There is the Airplane which is expensive, and the skinkansen, which is equally as expensive. No, we opted for the overnight bus. It came a 11pm and we got to Ikebukuro at 5:45am. I now know that I can sleep on a bus. This is good. So let’s begin.
After we arrived at Ikebukuro, we stopped at Mcdonalds for Breafast. It was the first time in two months I’d been there. No big loss, but it was nice to have some grease in my body after so long. In fact, here is where we were. Keep in mind that there are many Macdonalds in Ikebokuro. This is just one of them.
Ikebokuro Macdonalds.
So, where do we go first? Well, we decide that we will go to Kamakura first. It’s an ancient capital of Japan, and a place full of shrines and a daibutsu. It’s about one hour away from Tokyo station on a local train, but we got to go through Yokohama on the way. Here’s some pics of Kamakura.
This is the group we met up with.
Triforce.
Me, Sarah, and Japanese Garden.
I’d rather not have to explain every temple I went to. So just look at the pictures and if you have any questions, just ask me. The one thing I will say is that many of the temples and the Daibutsu are well over 800 years old. Oh yeah, speaking of the daibutsu:
Dai!
Butsu!
After we got back from Kamakura, we went to Shibuya. There we dropped our stuff in a coin locker and went out of the station and saw this:
Building or Large TV?
There are always about 100000 people on the street at one time coming from or going to Shibuya. It’s famous for shopping and nightlife. That evening we went to a thai resturant for dinner and then to a dance club called Sprial where a live band was playing trance music. It was very surreal. Then at 4am we all decided that we needed sleep, so we took a taxi to shinjuku where we stayed in this cool place for 2800yen. 10 hours gives you a futon in a rest room with 60-100 other guys on the 7th floor of some building. It’s great. There is a spa in the place as well. The capsule hotel was 4200, but this was cheaper for a few hours to catch up on sleep.
When I woke up, I took the train back to Shibuya and met James and Melissa and their baby, Aislyn(cute cute cute). We went to lunch in Harajuku, and then later on, we went out to dinner at the famous(two pounds of meat) shabu shabu place. I tell you. I can still taste that meat. It was so good. And I’d swear we ate at least two pounds of the stuff. After that I said goodbye to the family as baby and parents were getting tired, and need to retreat bacl to their mountain fortress in Gunma.
I went back to Ikebokuro and waited for Sarah. We had four hours to kill so we caught a late showing of Teh Matrix Revolutions. After that, we got on the bus, went to sleep and when we woke up we were back in Senmaya. It was a wonderful trip I must say. I plan on trying to visit a major Japanese city once every three months. I promise to take more pictures. And that is all folkes. I’m off to sleep as I spent the night in Morioka(another big city) dancing and partying. Ohhhh my ovaries.
I’m spending the weekend in tokyo. I will take many a picture. The overnight bus comes at 11pm and it’s cheap cheap cheap. Also.
Japan mind blowing fact of the day! I was at an elementary school in Murone Village(10km from my house) and I learned that all school kids have to learn how to ride a unicycle. Now before you accuse me of lying, I’ll show you proof:
Do Do Dodododo!
Have a good weekend everybody!!
Well I’ll be damned. I just realized that I have all the signs of a desparate man. I don’t know when and where it happened, but it’s sad. That’s going to have to change right away. Confidence must be restored, starting now!
Yay! Check this out. It’s very funny. Also, I went to ichinoseki over the weekend and got myself some new clothes. Also. I saw the best slot machine parlor ever. I will upload the picture in a bit. Gambling is illegal in Japan by the way. Funny that, as everybody is doing it!!
OMG!
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