omiyage

Birthday Surprise, Blizzard Surprise

It never feels good when your highschool friend invites you to your brother's birthday party. Had he forgotten? Is this a secret? Nevertheless I felt I had a duty to swallow my pride, make a trip to Boston late at night, and scare the shit out of him.

My friend Amol and I drove up, fully aware that the news was telling us the biggest blizzard in recorded history was about to happen (only the 5th biggest, sheesh).

The birthday was fun. Chris has all the pictures.

The next day was insane though because we drove from organic market to organic market stocking up for the storm that would leave us snowed-in indefinitely. Every young professional in Boston was panicked; "we need hemp toilet paper! we need endive!" Completly non-athletic men were long-bombing eggplants to their partners as the lines to Wholefoods touched the back of the store. Perfect spiral, bro! My idea of stocking up for a blizzard (and our Dad's) is to buy a dozen candy bars and one of those compressed brown logs that burns in the fireplace for 10 hours.

Still, we ended up eating a great meal of something, we stayed in and watched the Pats beat someone, we drank a lot of stuff, and something else happened but I forget. It was an awesome weekend. 3 feet of snow and only 2 related deaths!

We rule. Boston rules. And Chris is 28. Damn!

Thank You and Goodnight....

We had an amazing time in Japan and it's all thanks to this special group of people here and abroad. Thank you all for everything, it is a memory we'll have forever. Arigato!

Grandma & Grandpa for the JR passes and all the contacts in Japan as well as years of subliminal Japanese. And for being the best grandparents we could ask for! Thank you for encouraging us to take this trip!

Oba chan for being so generous and funny and for letting us stay with you as homebase Tokyo. We think you're an excellent cook and loved all the language lessons. We'll try and come back soon! We were spying some of your clothes designs and they look really cool!

Naoko and Shinkichi - Thank you for a wonderful evening of laughing and picture sharing and great food. Your advice about Bic Camera paid off. Thanks! Our prayers are with your family.

Taizo & Yumi, Yukihiro & Sayaka - Thank you for a great dinner and lots of laughs. Sayaka will be a black belt in no time and Yukihiro a soccer star. As long as he roots for the Red Sox!!

Naoki-san - You were the best food host we could ask for. The udon in the mountains and Fuji san as well as the fresh sashimi was a real treat. We'll also never forget the sulfer eggs! 14 years longlife!! Thank you!

Kazuko & Akira - It was a pleasure meeting you and spending the day in Kamakura with you. Little Kyoto is wonderful and enriching. The ryokan, the shrines and the manju was amazing. Thank you.

Tamami and everyone at Honke Bankyu Ryokan - This mountain spa was heaven. A truly unique and amazing experience. We won't soon forget the onsen, the mountain food or the picturesque environment. Your hospitality made us want to stay for 2 more weeks. Thank you!!

Kristyn & Yoshi - You guys just rule! Kyoto was a blast because of you two. It was the most laughing we did the whole time. Japan suits you Kristyn. We think us too!! Yoshi, don't touch my mustache and soon we'll all be famous, ok!? Think food samples. Much love. Tell the Master we'll miss his kare rice and udon and his horrible english. Just kidding.

Lucy & Daisuke - Thanks for being so amazingly cool to total strangers. We love the fact that we can bond with anyone over food in Japan. Japan seems cooler knowing people like you live there. Thanks for the Nakano experience. And a huge thanks to Laura Potter without whom we might never have gotten to know Lucy and Daisuke. Potter rules!

Hiroko, Keita, Shige, Maria, Yasu and the rest of Hato Bus Crew - Wow, we hardly remember any of it since we were always drinking with you guys but it was fun! Thanks for befriending us, thanks for teaching us japanese, thanks for being so much fun. Keep in touch, ok!! Come to Boston or New York and we'll show you all a good time.

Kyoko & Yoshiko - Kobe was terrific with our super cool tour guide, Kyonkyon. Thank you for being so generous and funny. We loved the Kobe beef. Tell your daughter to call me! Yoshiko, it's too bad we only had one drink but thank you for meeting us out that night. Good luck in your job search!

Many thanks also to Mayu with Kintetsu who helped point us in the right direction. We wouldn't have been able to stay at some of the nice hotels without her. Come to think about it, we wouldn't have been able to fly to Hokkaido without her help!

Auntie Marie - We love you! Thanks for all the pre-trip info and advice over Thanksgiving. We needed it. And a big thank you for hooking me up with Jeannie, who had tons of advice and recommendations. Thanks Jeannie!

Rie & Norm - Rie, you were invaluable to us in our planning! Thank you so much for sending all the info and websites. It was tremendously helpful and we did just about everything you recommended. We couldn't quite make it to the Mori Art Museum but we tried. Twice. We just ran out of time. Also, I called Ryuko but she was in Korea. Again, thank you for downloading all your knowledge about Tokyo and Honke Bankyu. It was very clutch!! especially the orientation of the benjo.

And last but not least,

Mom - who helped on the financial side (a million thanks) but who also encouraged us to make this the killer trip of a lifetime. Thanks for all the support and love and encouragement. And for sending this blog to all your friends...I think.

Dad & Marian - who helped financially (a million thanks) and encouraged us to live it up. We did!! Thanks for all the love and support and advice. We didn't get a chance to see Kabuki but that's what we'll do first on the next trip. The spare socks on the flight worked really well!

Love,
Chris & Packy

Nakameguro (take 3) & Sumo

We finally made it to Loopwheeler, Groovisions and BonzaiPaint. High priced design shwag, just as I had suspected. But it wasnt' a complete loss as we got to eat onigiri at our favorite street vendor.

I don't want it to sound like I "get" Sumo now just because I saw it live but....it does make a hell of a lot more sense when you see it in person. Patrick pointed out that, ironically, Sumo is all about subtlety. Hearing the crowd erupt at times you don't expect makes you realize they're all responding to these very subtle gestures the wrestlers make as they're posturing and psyching each other out. It's incredible to see the theatre involved with Sumo. They, bow, throw salt, assume positions 2-4 times before they finally make contact with each other. And there's no best of 3 bullshit. You get one chance. And the crowd always goes for the favorite. Being the underdog sucks. We bought the cheapie tickets and then snuck closer with our bento and beers. It was pretty cool to see. The smaller guys always seemed to win because they were better at redirecting their weight. Lucy had told us that she's addicted to Sumo, which I remember thinking was weird at the time, but having seen it in person, I can understand what she means. I really want to go again. and again and again. I bet Grandpa is jealous!

Shibuya, Harajuku & Nakano with Lucy & Daisuke

Laura Potter hooked me up with some friends of hers in Tokyo so we arranged to have dinner on one of our last nights. But we had a full day to check out parts of Tokyo we hadn't seen yet. So we went to Shibuya. Shibuya is that famous intersection they always film where about ten thousand people cross the 6 way intersection all at once. Shibuya station is famous for the memorial statue of a dog that used to accompany his master to and from the station everyday. One day the master dies at work and the dog continued to wait at the station everyday for 10 years, hoping his master would come home. Finally, the poor dog died and the residents erected a bronze statue of the loyal dog. It's a popular meeting place but it just made me really sad when we went there. We asked this american kid to take our picture in front of the dog and when I looked at the picture, he had cut the dog out of the picture. Dumbass American. Then we hit Harjuku and checked out stupid expensive skate shops. If anyone wants to make a ton of cash, take all your old nasty clothes and bring them to Harajuku - you can sell nasty t-shirts with pit stains for $80 US.

And off to meet Lucy and Daisuke...we had an awesome night eating and drinking and talking and laughing. Lucy is absolutely lovely, Daisuke is hilarious fun, both love to eat like us! He told us a story about how he saw some random japanese dude in Harajuku (or was it Tokyo station?) wearing the gym shirt of his old junior high buddy, Mike Tebby from the US?!! Apparently M.Tebby caught on to the whole selling his sweaty clothes to make a profit in Japan. Weird. We also ate 'Mochi-pouch', a favorite dish not many people have ever heard of. Oh and plum wine. Why haven't we had plum wine before this night? It's delicious!!! At the end of the night, we had some drunk guy take a picture of us 3 times because he kept taking blurry pictures. This is the best one. Sorry guys! You guys rock!! Thanks for an excellent night in Nakano! Anytime either of you are in Boston, I'd love to reciprocate. Thanks again! Laura, your friends are cool.

Kazuko & Akira in Kamakura

After a dizzying experience at Tsukiji, we headed to Kamakura (AKA Little Kyoto) to see Grandma's friend Kazuko and her son Akira. They must have caught wind of the nature of our trip because the first thing we did was eat! Manju on the island of Enoshima. We went to the top of the tower, saw Fuji (it's always impressive seeing Fuji) and then went to eat again. This time at a local fish joint called Honolulu where we had fried aji and tempura. In fact, the whole time we were visiting with Kazuko and Akira, we felt as though we were in Hawaii. Kamakura is very tropical feeling for some reason. Akira was wearing tropical print shirts also (he designs them and gave us some! Thanks Akira!) Then we hit the Temple and Shrine trail. We visited a huge bronze Buddha that weighed 230 tons and was over 800 years old! We even walked inside of it and could see the casting lines. The highlight was a shrine tucked inside a bamboo forest where we had a small tea ceremony. Then we shacked up at a local ryokan and hit the baths again. It was a great visit with Kazuko and Akira. You are so generous and kind showing us around Little Kyoto. Finally, we hit a paper store where we spent an hour poring over beautiful block prints on handmade washi. Thank you again Kazuko and Akira!

Samurai exist...and they work at Tsukiji Fish Market

Shortly after 5 am, we arrived to the most insanely intense place either of us has ever been.

Tsukiji is like a fish market from another planet. Everything is gigantic. We arbitrarily walked in and out of stalls, taking pictures of things like crab legs that were 24 inches long and clams that had arms that squirt water like the Disneyland fountain.

We walked into an open air warehouse where the latest catches come in and these tuna were HUGE. Hundreds of pounds! Longer than a man! Frozen solid! Delicious! Watching the auctions was also funny because auctions (even for fish) sound the same in every language.

The fish are bought on the floor, carted away to a band saw, or in this case a fish samurai, cut up, and packaged all on the same property. We followed one tuna on a wheelbarrow to a 5x5 foot cutting board where three men had to take turns chopping it apart. They had swords!

This is incredible

Download MOV00719.MPG

We got pushed around a lot. There were dudes running around everywhere and driving little tiny carts and carrying boxes of stuff. I got fish juice all over my pants. But we did find these super chill old guys who slice up the eel. They didn't mind us shooting them. They even made casual conversation with us while they expertly skinned the eel alive. It was mesmerizing. So gross, so beautiful. Was I hungry or feeling sick?

If you're happy never knowing what happens to unagi before it arrives on top of a bowl of rice, then don't watch this video. If you like sharp knives and sea anatomy, definitely watch this video. Download MOV00739.MPG

Chris said that the best place to eat was wherever the fishermen ate. We walked about 20 feet to a coffin of a restaurant where Chris ate tuna that was fresh enough to sympathize with... which is why I abstained.

I think this is the freshest tuna I've ever eaten. It was so cold I could feel it all the way down to my stomach.

Hato Bus Part Deux

Just like the first time around, but this bus didn't have wheels and we didn't go anywhere. We sat and partied like bilingual rock stars. The funniest part was realizing that we could communicate best with Maria who spoke spanish as well. My spanish is better than my japanese and her spanish is better than her english. By the end we were mangling three different languages into one strangely coherent dialect.

We partied in this long skinny room with just a table; it's the kind of place I always imagined in which yakuza would hang out. We ate things like tacoyaki (octopus balls) and tuna face (tuna face). It was all delicious. The funny part is whenever we eat food in front of people here, they always seem shocked that A) we can hold chopsticks and B) we actually like the food. We love the food.

Chris pounded beers and I started ordering these sweet cocktails with apricot liqueur and grapefruit juice. And I hate cocktails! But these were good.

We spent that time yelling stuff and trying to teach American slang which always turns out to be harder than it seems. Suddenly, I'm Marty McFly and I'm asking myself if Americans still say "take it easy." Our friends, as usual, had kind hearts and we had a blast.

Onto the District of Tokyo that never sleeps A.K.A. Denny's. We asked our Hato Liasons, Hiroko and Keita, what places stay open all night. They both said that Denny's is close and a sure thing. We got there and it was like Denny's in the year 2045. All the food is tiny and not like Denny's at all. In fact, only the name was the same. They had Tonkatsu sauce called Denny's sauce. OK. The menu had fish, miso soup, and some beef stuff. No grandslams, no triple decker egg sandwiches, no twice-fried onion rings. But they had beer of which Chris and I had three. I looked around and noticed that many of the patrons at 3:00AM were alseep at their tables. Then I looked back across the table and I noticed that Chris was also asleep.

The only reason we stayed up so late is so we could hit the famous Tsukiji fish market early when the best fish are auctioned off. We left Denny's at 5:00AM.

Dinner with Taizo's family

We went down the street from Oba chan's house and met Taizo for the second time. The first time we met I was 8 and Patrick was 3. I presented Yukihiro with a Boston Red Sox hat that might cause some controversy here. Matsui, while a great fielder and solid hitter, couldn't help those loser Yankees win the pennant. Side note: what's really funny is that Matsui put Boston on the map, so to speak, in the Japanese consciousness. Every time I mention that I live in Boston, invariably, the response is something to the effect of, "Oh, congratulations on winning the World Series! Yes, Matsui wasn't having a very good year, no."

Yumi made delicious roasted chicken wings and salmon & onion salad while Taizo kept the drinks coming. Sayaka showed off her karate uniform and played on the piano. And the kids love Back to the Future 2. Thank you for a wonderful evening all!!!

Patrick: Take a look at the picture above. Try and guess which person had too much beer. I'll won't say but here's a hint: There's more than one right answer.

Also, this is a picture Yukihiro made. I love it because what American boy would paint a lobster?

the Maco Hookup

So Maco is the reggae bar where Kristyn met Yoshi. When Chris and I went there for the second time, Master (the owner and the guy in the checkered helmet) started pouring us two big'uns right away. We must've made a nice impression the first time to be regulars already!

The place rules. It is one bar with 3 tables. There's printed art all over the walls, shelves loaded with comics, and a steady stream of jazz and reggae on the system. It's the bar I wish I could go to in the states.

Master, aside from being adorable, is also quite the chef, as he whipped up a plate of curry rice for me in about 30 seconds. No microwave! He also made me and Chris some udon with green onions he pulled right out of the ground. For free, damn! Also, his family name is Saito, and after making that connection, he became very interested in our mother and ended up giving me a packet of hot Kyoto spices as a gift for her (us).

Maco is such a sweet place. It's super chill and the last time we were there the patrons (all three of them) were all drinking beers and reading comics. I don't know how Master keeps the place up, splitting his time equally between banging on a drum in the back and hooking people up with free beers and good food.

I'm coming back to Kyoto.

Osaka Shuffle

Our last night with Kris and Yoshi, we ate sushi from a conveyor belt, visited a shrine and wrote our new year's wishes to hang, bought mouth organs and hit downtown Osaka for some nightlife. We wanted to go to Nihombashi area because rumor has it that the models of food are made in factories there. But it was a holiday and it was closed down, so we settled for some real food, Osaka ramen (with cabbage!). Then we did the most fun thing ever: We got goofy in puracura, photo booths. It's the most fun Patrick and I have had in a long time. Our JR rail passes also ran out this day. As it hapapened, we were flying through Osaka station to make the last bullet train to Tokyo on the last day of our rail pass. We got to the platform literally as the train was taking off. It wouldn't have been an adventure unless there was a little panicked hustling, dodging and weaving with major baggage (I think packy took out some poor little japanese women, sumimasen!) and hurried goodbyes and thank you's. Much love to Kristyn and Yoshi who made the last 5 days in Kyoto amazingly cool!!! You guys hang the moon!

Yesterday, we hopped the bullet train to Hiroshima and went directly to Peace Park and A-bomb Dome. We arrived just as the sun was setting.


The dome is a world heritage site and is the only preserved remain from the explosion. The memorial in the park was designed to align with the Dome. If you stand directly in front of the memorial, you see the eternal flame and the dome together on the horizon line.

The Key to the City

Kyoto: We're in. We're now honorary locals thanks to The Master and his fuinki at Maco. Arigato!

Too much happened in the last day to explain but the executive summary for Kobe is:

we meet a friend of a friend of aunt Marie named Kyoko who takes us to an expat village in Kobe.

We hit chinatown and eat gyoza, buta man, ramen, peking duck snacks and many fried things on sticks....all street food all the time. We wait in a long line for the best buta man in Kobe and eat 3 each with the best spicy mustard ever.

check out the number of buta man makers in this tiny hole in the wall placeDownload buta_man.mov

Next up is harborland where the earthquake memorial is, as well as a giant fish sculpture. oh and the Kobe tower.

Wagyu! We eat kobe beef and it is everything I hoped for and more (like the price). Jeffrey Steingarten is right, it's best to let someone who knows what they're doing prepare it for you. It is like butter, and by butter I mean pure animal fat. The Kobe farmers feed these cows beer and massage them to achieve the marbling, all true. This photo costs 5,300 yen and it's the smallest portion. The largest portion is 9,800 yen.

We return to Kyoto and meet the friend of the friend of the friend of aunt Marie, Yoshiko. We drink astronomically expensive, tiny cocktails at this hotel bar for some ridiculous reason. Yoshiko takes off.

Kris, Packy and I hit Nagaoka Kyo and meet Yoshi at a reggae bar which is named after the mother of the owner, The Master Maco. We drink and learn many unsavory japanese words while yoshi, The Master and Kaoro play drums.

Patrick buys a very cool calendar printed by a friend of The Master.

Now we're on our way to Hiroshima by bullet train. Bento on the train!

Patrick on Kobe beef: It's expensive fat. Along with the Kobe filet, we got a steaks from Kyushu and Australia. Blasphemy, I know, but they all tasted the same to me. That is to say, delicious. Thanks for buying, Chris! I'll pick up the tab next time we're in Kobe!

Old guys sleep on trains

Kyomizu dera & Arashiyama

It's been pissing down rain for the last two days but it makes all the temples look really cool. Kyoto has such a different feel from anywhere else we've been. There's literally 900 year old temples around every corner. So far, we've gone into three and they've all been pretty distinctly different. The first was Tenninji near Gion Corner in Higashiyama district of Kyoto.

Next was Kyomizu. We're standing at the vermillion Tori at the entrance to the Temple. This temple was really cool because there are winding paths up the mountain behind it as well as a spring where people drink the mountain water. Kyomizu means 'clear water'. And from up above the temple, you get a pretty good view of downtown Kyoto and the surrounding misty mountaintops.

The old avenue leading up to the temple was filled with little food stalls, antiques dealers and craft shops featuring bamboo and ceramic everything. We stopped every 4 feet to eat mochi on a stick, hot pork buns, little bean paste cakes hot off the little-bean-paste-making machine.

This is looking up at the corner of a straw reed roof.

We arrived in Arashiyama just as the rain really started in.

We ended up walking through this haunting bamboo forest. We found a pond named Ogura.

We happened upon this bamboo processing plant, if you could call 5 guys hanging out using strange equipment in someone's backyard a 'plant'.

check out said strange equipment
Download bamboo1.mov

wrong tool to cut bamboo with...and no safety glasses
Download bamboo2.mov

rub the bamboo, rub it! we have no idea what this dude is doing.
Download bamboo3.mov

yin yang snore

At Kristyn's we share a futon on the floor. Chris has blankets, I have a sleeping bag, and we sleep head to foot. Now apparently, last night we were both snoring loudly and kicking each other in the head to shut up. In the morning, Chris was like, "last night you were snoring so loud, I was kicking you in the head." That's funny, I thought. I was doing the same exact thing. His style was crazy dragon kick, but being confined to a sleeping bag, my kicks were mermaid-style. I wonder how loud our snores really are when we don't have our ear plugs in.

music making

Yoshi rocks the sanjin from Okinawa
Download yoshi_rocks.mov

Later, Chris & Patrick try to rock the didjeridoo...at the same time
Download MOV00323.MPG

Oba-chan

These pics are from New Year's and earlier. I wanted to have a section about our aunt who is a fabulous cook even though she keeps saying she's not. We love you Oba-chan!!! And Thank you for everything!!!

Here she is with her dictionary

This is New Year's Breakfast - mmmmmmm

She's whipping up the tasty - our favorite was the fried squash

Sukiyaki deconstructed - after we ate all the goodies, she put udon in the pot!

The ladies

At home

The hood

For the record: Chris is not dehydrated.

My theory is also that all the hot springs we've been in have been very hydrating.

Salt of the Earth

I've noticed something. Chris doesn't believe me, but I think we're extremely dehydrated. Well I am, for sure. The food here is all very salty. The last time we ate ramen there were three flavors to choose from: miso, soy sauce, and salt. We chose salt because soy sauce isn't nearly salty enough for us. We also drink beer with every meal, which I guess is pretty common here. My favorite is when you order a Sapporo big boy and they give you a shot glass to drink it with. It makes me feel both tiny and huge at the same time. ALSO, there are zero places to buy water. Only fancy restaurants will serve it early and a few vending machines have little baby Evians for five bucks. Basically, water is hard to consume here.

Big brother logic dictates that there is water in beer.

Also, Japan as a whole suffers from osteoporosis. Little old ladies (even the ones on bikes) are all about four feet tall and they all have arthritis. Not a lot of dairy here. I am mom.

Hokkaido - Kyoto (via Osaka)

We took a bus, then a plane, then another bus, then a train, then another train but we made it to Kristyn's house with no problem. We're at Kristyn's house in Kyoto!!!

Her place is made for a family of four, so it's pretty big. Last night she and her man Yoshi took us out for Okonomiyaki, a grill-it-yourself cabbage and egg and you-pick-the-toppings dish, which we both think would make great drunk food in the US. You get little spatulas and fry a giant pancake thing at your table and add hot sauce, mayo, and fish powder. Sweet. Except for the mayo.

Chris and I woke up today and Kristyn was at work (teaching English), but she left us a breakfast of yogurt and granola. No osteoporosis for us. We love Kristyn!

The Tasty

We discovered that Hokkaido, besides being popular for really good kani, is the place to get ramen. There is a joint called Ramen Alley that we ate at twice. It's 9 or 10 ramen stalls and each one represents a style of ramen from different regions of Hokkaido. Ajisai stall was all about Hakodate shio ramen.Gokoju was all about the bamboo and pork ramen from Sapporo. We waited in these crazy long lines to get the tasty.

Afterwards we checked out the mall in Sapporo. Turns out that below ground there is a whole other city. It's like a huge underground network of shopping malls and they're all connected. When we finally surfaced, we ended up in the red light district. But it was during the day which just kind of felt weird and skeezy. We learned the Japanese word for pervert is Skebe.

That night, we redeemed the Godzilla fiasco by seeing Kung Fu Hustle, possibly the greatest movie that neither of us understood. It's chinese with japanese subtitles but the action and physical comedy was enough to satisfy. Try and see it.

Here's some shots from the underground shopping megalopolis. This is packaging designers heaven. We started out in this chaotic food mall, which was beautiful and delicious.

These store displays with the people were really freaky. Patrick had just bought a see through umbrella at the 100 yen shop and I think it makes the whole affair seem even more ominous.

One last note. For some reason, the two major landmarks in Sapporo, the Old Government Building and the Clock tower have Boston connections. The Old Government building is nicknamed 'Red Bricks' and is modeled after what the Japanese call the Commonwealth Of Massachusetts building. It has an octagonal top. The Clock tower, which is really only 2 stories, houses a masterclock built by 'expert timepiece makers' in Boston, Mass. Neither of the buildings really stand out in Sapporo but are still pretty famous here. Strange.

Download takoyaki.mov watch this video of a guy making takoyaki, little fried octopus balls.

Niseko - Mt. Yotei

At the top of Grand Hirafu, the slope we were on, we had a great view of Mt. Yotei, a mountain that looks like Fuji's little brother. Patrick found his snow legs pretty quickly on the snowboard and was making turns like a ninja after a half hour. He looked good on the board and confessed that it felt a lot better than skiing once he could make turns. Another converted skiier. I found some deep, dry powder at the top of the mountain right at the magic hour. I went off trail and was riding in the trees with the locals. At one point, I hit a flat and had to unstrap. The snow was up to my hip. It began to snow as it got dark but we kept on riding into the night. So cool.

They had E-Z Pass at the ski lifts which was so cool. You wore a little transponder on your arm. It was called handsfree ski. After a full day of riding, we began the wild goose chase to find our ryokan, Kanro no mori. When we arrived it was like a mountain oasis. More hot spring, more amazing food and this one woman was amazingly helpful even changing our flight out of Sapporo for us. This place also had a really badass front entrance.

After dinner, we hit the hot spring (and this time we got nekkid with the locals!), Patrick crashed early and I went to the bar that the nice lady recommended because her friend was the owner and he wanted to practice his english. It was just him and me for about an hour and we talked about American counter culture, the best places to get uni in Hokkaido and what he thinks about Bush politics. Then two hotel staffers showed up after their shift and it got really fun. They taught me some slang words in japanese that I already forgot and Mitsu is a huge fan of Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra. When I told her that the guitarist was my cousin (sort of) she acted like I was in the band. Tetsu grabbed his guitar and started playing Elvis, Jimi Hendrix and Bob Marley songs and the girls danced like teenyboppers. Oh, and the people of Hokkaido love Doritos.

A follow up on Japanese construction.

They beat the Amish at building and the only reason is because the Amish get all their kids and neighbors and friends to help them raise the barn. I may be wrong but it seem like Japanese build houses here in teams of two. Like, two guys. Buddy system style. If Japan was in charge of rebuilding Iraq, it would be sparkling new in 8 weeks, under budget, with bullet trains and love hotels.

If Japan were a place in the Disney Universe it would be called Better Land.

New Year's Eve Blitz

Yesterday Chris and I hit the snowy Tokyo streets with a hard ambition to buy stuff. I haven't really bought anything yet except gifts and food. Food is really the most important thing; I eat 4-5 times a day while Chris eats twice a day... what can I say, I want to capitalize on this occasion by eating as much as possible.

ANYWAY, our new friend Keta told us the best place for shoes is Okachimachi. As far as I'm concerned, Okachimachi is one long street I'll call Knock-off Alley. It's like Canal Street except the cheap stuff is kind of expensive. They have Air Force 1's with homemade injection-molded rubber soles. KOA was shoulder-to-shoulder people scrambling for shoes, army surplus gear, and frozen crabs. Each stall (there were probably 200) had a dude standing on a crate, screaming himself hoarse, waving things like octopuss tentacles and Coca-Cola tallboys. I almost picked up some Air Force Ones but then I realized A) I'm not a rapper and B) Air Force Ones are dumb.

Naka-meguro is on the up-and-up for designers and hipsters, so we checked out some of the stores that were open on New Years Eve. Basically, it's like this: your average trendy boutique here is about 8x8, has one androgynous employee, and a rack of $80 t-shirts (but the labels are made out of rice paper!). Less is more, and by more I mean expensive. Boo! Take me back to Knock-off Alley! The snow turned into rain, so we split.

We hit the Ginza next. Ginza is where Japanese girls cut their hair short and showed their legs at the turn of the century. I am happy to report that girls are still cutting and showing with reckless abandon here. Tradition rules! To celebrate, Chris and I went to a movie.

Appropriately, this year (2004) marks 50 years of Tokyo-crushing madness by Japan's favorite atomic lizard, Gojira (Godzilla to the whities). Yes, they made another one. This movie, Godzilla: Final Wars, has Godzilla fighting EVERY MONSTER HE EVER FOUGHT IN ANY OTHER MOVIE and a few new ones. I won't spoil the ending for you, but I'll give you a hint: he kills all of them. Chris hated it, but I think it's because he had high expectations. I didn't because well... it's Godzilla. I mean, it's been half a century and he's still a guy in a suit! The same suit! Maybe he's just mad that movie tickets are $18 a pop. Thanks for buying, Chris!

After the movie, Ginza was deserted because of the coming new year. We accidentally came upon MUJI, Japan's answer to IKEA but with clothes and more food. It ruled. I bought a hipster suit for about 70 bucks and I'm going back to buy a George Jetson bike that folds into a little metal suitcase.

We ate traditional soba for dinner at some restaurant where the English menu is half the size of the Japanese menu (jerks!), contemplated celebrating new years at a bowling alley, but ended up going home, drinking beer with Obachan and watching TV. It was sweet. Bad Japanese singers, beer, and beer. And mochi. New Years Eve must be a fight night also because every channel that wasn't singers was kick-boxing. Bob Sapp was on one station kicking some guy's ass. We were in bed by 12:30.

Once we figure out how to shake the pictures out of C's new Mecha Camera, we'll throw them on here. We saw some HUGE crab legs.

Old ladies ride bikes

Happy New Year! We arrived in Hokkaido and it`s freezing here. Actually it feels just like Syracuse around October-ish. I forgot the docking doohicky that allows me to upload pics from SuperCamera so there may not be any pics for a little while. Those designers at Sony removed the USB port so they could make the housing that much smaller. Damn! But it`s so small and cool! But Damn!

Occasionally Patrick and I will turn to each other and say things like, `Whoa, do you realize that the dogs here must be japanese also?`, or `Cool, even the clouds here look japanese!`, and the funny thing is that we`re even starting to look japanese to each other. I turned around yesterday and all of a sudden Patrick looked completely japanese. I lose him in crowds all the time. And to whoever told us that the Japanese are short, you`re wrong.

Everything in Japan really is 15% smaller and more integrated. Some things are more like 50% smaller like kegs of beer and trucks (which we find endlessly funny). All the surfaces, textures, colors and materials are the same as everywhere else but they`re all somehow scaled differently, which makes them seem much better, whether it`s cell phones, buildings or lunch. Bento is the greatest idea ever. Super-compartmentalized food: small portions and big flavors.

Tomorrow is snowboarding at Niseko. If I could put a picture here it would be of some cool street art and graffiti that we saw when we went to Nakameguro, which was shut down for the new year. Kato-san described Tokyo as a series of Manhattans (shopping manhattan, financial manhattan, teen girl manhattan etc...which really put Tokyo into perspective for us, size-wise). We think Nakameguro would be like Brooklyn, or at least, the tragically hip part of Brooklyn. I almost bought a bag there but it was $600 bucks and made of fake leather.

Back on the Attack

Packy and I hit up the Bic Camera that Kato-san recommended to us.

Holy Shit!

It was 7 stories of hyperdesigned consumer electronics!!! We were in heaven! I bought a new digital camera and named it SuperCamera. I got it at duty free price and it rocks heavily. Also, Pack and I have become masters of the JR Rail Pass. We just wave those suckers wherever we are and they roll out the red carpet (well, sort of. but it makes negotiating the metro a whole lot easier).

Here is a list of trends that we approve of:

very short skirts and tall boots.

very large, brightly colored mobile phones (Packy pointed out that everyone in Japan seems to have one and yet, we haven:t heard a single one ring yet. There are signs posted all over the metro to turn the vibrate on so it:s quiet! And people do it!?!)

Very thick, large slices of white bread. White bread here is amazing.

Expediency of construction. the day we arrived in Oba-chan:s neighborhood, there was a dirt plot. day 2, it had a foundation poured. day 3, the wood framing and insulation was up. day 4, the walls are up. we:re half expecting the family to be moved in and a car in the garage when we walk by again tonight.

Dinner with Naoko & Shinkichi

Last night, Packy and I headed back to Shinagawa (which seemed appropriate as it marked the end of our first week and Shinagawa is where it all started) to meet Naoko and her husband, Shinkichi. We were surprised to discover that Naoko and Mom look strikingly similar! It was a lovely meal (they keep getting better and better, which seems impossible but keeps happening) that included sashimi, oden, grilled salmon (wow!), soba and a delicious tofu dish. There were others but I forget the names. Kato-san entertained us with stories of his travels to Arkansas, of all places, and we each shared pictures with each other all night. Towards the end, they gave us a good tip on where to get a new digital camera (n.b. I forgot to mention that during our stay at Ryokan, I was trying to take a picture of me and patrick together and used my giant beer as a tripod. The camera was very thirsty and I'm sorry to report, drank himself to death). So we are off to Yuraku cho to see the 7 stories of consumer electronics at Bic Camera. Thank you so much Naoko and Kato-san!!!

Winter Wonderland

When we tell people we went to Nikko, they have all asked us if we went to the temple. Before I answer that question, I want to say that we found the coolest slide ever! And no, we didn't go to the temple. By the time our train hit the Nikko stop, it was snowing hard. We didn't know where we were or how to find the national forest we'd heard so much about. The only thing we did know was that it had been a whole two hours since we last ate, and we needed to fill our bellies again.

We settled on a ridiculous 50s diner/Japanese Noodle hybrid where the waitresses had kimonos AND paper hats and the radio played disco. Food was decent. Everyone there looked sort of confused so we hightailed it out of there. We also gave up on finding the forest because basically, we were full of noodles it was snowing.

Our crude map did indicate however, that there was a wood-carving center about one mile from the disco noodle, so we huffed it up a mountain trail stopping every 30 seconds to take pictures (and catch our breath). We got lost, ran into a British woman a couple times (also lost), found a brewery (closed) ran through some backyards, oh, and found the wood center (closed) and then went down the biggest slide we've ever seen. It was one of the slides with rollers that went down the mountain. So fun! By this time, we were soaked with snow, sweaty, I had bent my glasses, and our bullet train was about to leave. But the slide was so awesome.

So, yeah. Nikko was sweet. No temple, no national park, but check out the video.

Download nikko_national_park.mov

Tokyo - Yunishigawa

Hato Bus Hangover! We somehow made it to Asakusa to catch the train for Kinugawa where we picked up a bus for Yunishigawa that wound its way up into the mountains. As we were driving up the mountain, we hit the snowline and it got C-O-L-D! Pretty soon, we were very high up in the backcountry; no homes, no people, nothing and I suddenly began to question the reliability of the bus we were on. We were headed to Honke Bankyu Ryokan which is the oldest inn in Tochigi prefecture, some 300 years old. It is owned by a wonderfully generous and kind friend of Rie's named Tamami who greeted us at the entrance with a ceremonial banging of the drum.

This ryokan is magical! It is built on both sides of a mountain river in a very small remote village. At the heart of the ryokan experience is the Onsen, the hot springs. And there were many here. In fact, off our room, we had our own private onsen outside and down some stairs.

Just as we were about to get in, we saw the first snowfall at night. It was unreal. Tamami also led us to another private onsen which was a little bigger and had a beer fridge!

And then there was our first meal at Honke Bankyu. Wow is all I can say. First some background: In the 12th century, two clans were at civil war in Japan. The Heiki clan went to these mountains to hide out and learned to subsist in harsh conditions. Tamami explained that the meal we were eating was a replica, albeit a much nicer version, of this mountain food. The menu consisted of everything that was local to the mountain: raw deer, ground wild mountain chicken w/bone, river fish, wild bamboo sake, lots of root vegetables and buckwheat noodles. Tamami, upon hearing that Patrick had just graduated, brought out a special creamy sake in a giant bowl to celebrate his matriculation. This sake was out of this world, it was milky and had a skin on it that shimmered like pearl. Her family is direct descendent and the mountain way of living and eating was very much the feel of the experience we had. But it was also like being in a 4-star luxury spa in the mountains.

The next day, we decided to take a hot bath. Again.

Outside, there was this incredible bridge that looked like it was the inspiration for the one in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, but shorter. At night, they lit it up and below was a giant Ice stage they were building for the Winter Celebration in February.

We're looking very japanese in our kimonos, no? These were so comfortable to wear, we had them on for 2 whole days. It was nice because we could wear them to the baths and when we were done, we'd put them back on and wear them to meals and then repeat. Packy and I think the mountain way of living rocks very heavily!

Also, that next day, we were very lucky to see the making of the mochi, the rice gluten that is made once a year for new year's. They make it by taking boiled rice and beating it with a huge mallet until it changes consistency into a sticky, stretchy, yummy paste. They even let us try pounding the mochi.

Download mochi.mov

We decided to check out the few stores there were in the tiny village and found some very interesting gift items. We didn't buy any.

Later on, we found these on a log in the woods. Even the snowmen here are tiny!

The Hato Bus Adventure

Yesterday was our bus tour of Tokyo. We hit up all of the important places: Ginza shopping district, the financial district, and the Imperial Palace... well actually, we saw the Imperial Palace gates. The palace itself is shrouded in pine trees and surrounded by water; apparently nobody has seen it. Our tour guide said nobody knows what it looks like, but everyone owns it because it belongs to the Japanese people.

The bus tour was fun, but the real adventure began when the tour guide introduced us to a group of Japanese English students who were taking the tour to help their speaking and listening.

We have friends! They stuck to us the whole rest of the tour, asking us about baseball, food, and shopping. They also took about 7,000 pictures of us; we are, after all, beautiful Americans.

The group of them, about two dozen altogether, were incredibly disciplined with their English. They had to put 100 yen into a collective piggy bank each time they spoke Japanese. For this reason, these people were the best friends to make on our trip. They were Japanese, they spoke English, and they wanted to be with us!

After the tour, which was a blur for the rest of the day, they invited us out to party with them. We went to a bar where you had to pay about $50 for unlimited food and drinks for two and a half hours. It was a fantastic time; they subsidized part of the bill with the piggy bank money.

Maybe it was the festive atmosphere, but almost all of our new friends reminded us of people we know stateside. Some people were dead on Japanese alter-egos! Chris and I both agree that there are universal personality types.

We ended up getting back to Obachan's house late; we couldn't figure out how to use her cell phone (refer to our list of problematic devices on day 1) so we couldn't tell her about our new plans. We felt bad, but she was just happy that we made friends. We're happy too.

Tokyo - Hakone

Naoki-san picked us up on Christmas morning and we began our all day journey to Hakone. Naoki is hilarious and probably the best food guide we could ask for. He loves to eat as evidenced by his amazing knowledge of little out of the way eateries. The first stop was on the way to Ashigara toge where we could get a good eastern view of Fuji-san. We stopped at Manyo Udon which is an old farmer's house where they make udon fresh in the mountains.











Naoki was telling us the secret is in the fresh mountain spring water. Udon only tastes this good in the mountains! The same flour used with Tokyo water isn't the same. Packy and I were standing in front of the noodle making guy drooling and mumbling. This place only makes it 2 ways, hot and cold. Naoki recommended the cold and it was indescribably good...so chewy but not gooey, springy and light. We dipped it in a cold sesame broth with wild potato while we drank our biru.

Next up was the first view of Mt. Fuji. It was a pretty clear day so we got a good view of this monster. It's 2.3 miles high.

Naoki was eager to get us back in the car so we could head up to Sounzan where we rode a funicular to the famed Sulfur Springs above Togendai Lake.

Thanks to Naoki, Chris and I are going to live for an extra 14 years. We rode a cable car to the springs, where tradition dictates that eating an egg boiled in the stinky hot water will lengthen your life by 7 years. Naoki bought us four just to be safe. The egg shells are stained black from the sulfurous water! There were hundreds of people there just to eat eggs! All the surrounding gift shops sold the boiled eggs in cardboard sleeves. They also sold black egg t-shirts, keychains, and buckwheat pillows. I'd be lying if I said that it didn't smell bad. It smelled pretty terrible. All the Japanese tourists had bandanas and turtlenecks over their faces; it reminded me of the SARS panic. Coincidentally, sulfur smells like eggs, and at the springs we found both.

After the life extending egg adventure, we took a ferry across Togendai Lake. Noaki picked us up on the other side and we went for the last meal of the day, Sashimi! If this picture could move, it would. Literally. Fresh sashimi is code for sashimi that wiggles for about 20 minutes on your plate. Another one of Naoki's secret eating nooks was a restaurant right on the ocean. He's a regular here so we got the royal treatment. First tempura, then asari (small clams in miso broth) then sashimi: ami eba, isaki, aji, maguro and uni. The uni was delicious, not at all like the tidepool tongue-like stuff in the states. It was creamy and mild. Patrick kept exclaiming, "everything is so soft!" And it's true, the texture of fresh fish is really incredible. I think Patrick was a little shaken up by the still live fish. I just saw tasty little morsels that the sea gods had kindly provided us. These fish lived good lives that ended well...in my stomach with wasabi! I love you little fishies!! This was the best Christmas dinner ever!

Shinagawa - Omori village

Chris: This is the first picture I took in Japan. It's a map of the roads leading out of Narita airport with real time traffic indicators. Beautiful and useful, just like almost everything we've seen here so far. We got to Oba-chan's house without too much difficulty except that our cab driver was I-N-S-A-N-E. Grandma's map was perfect but I think the driver was new to the area because he couldn't negotiate the one way streets. Even still, the cultural emphasis on service blows me away. Here he is calling Kaeko from the street to let her know we arrived (or to ask which house was hers!) Kaeko is making sukiyaki for dinner and the ingredients keep showing up one at a time because she has them delivered. First the tofu arrived. Then at 2, the beef showed up. Later, our bedding and udon arrived. Again, the service is amazing. Her neighborhood is really beautiful and we've deduced that it must be a pretty wealthy neighborhood because all the cars are BMW's and Mercedes and they look to be the European styles so they're very large. I keep taking pictures of the bricks here because they're so much more elegant than the ones in the US. The homes look like they're made of LEGO! Did we already talk about the food? Wow. Now I know how dogs must feel because my nose is doing all the navigating. All the smells are so unlike anything I know but I know I want to eat whatever is responsible. The fake food samples in the windows are pretty awesome too. The egg has a different surface finish than the rice...you can tell they're molded out of different plastics. I mean, they could have just taken a photo but instead, here is this immaculate, perfect replica of a whole dish. The soup models are so cool because they even managed to model little oil bubbles in the broth. Packy and I tried to take a photo of the three of us but oba-chan got camera shy. She said she'd let us know when she would be ready later on. By the way, she loved the See's candy and the salad dressing. Oh and the calendar of New Jersey was a big hit. Her home is quite the calendar collection. She has one on every wall!

The Rule of Hot

Generally, the only time you enjoy burning your tongue on food is when the food is really, really, reallyreallyreally good. This might happen once or twice a year. We've had burnt tongues for 2 days straight. Udon.

The Eagle has Landed

When we taxied to our stop, I was wondering how much English Chris and I would see at Narita Airport. Actually, the first thing I saw looking out of the window was giant three-foot neon reading WELCOME TO NARITA AIRPORT! So I guess that answered that.

"Do you have anything to declare?"
"Yeah. Japan rules!"

Our hotel, the Shinagawa Prince, is sweet. Heated toilet seats, complimentary green tea, red Christmas trees, the works. Our bathroom mirror also had a fog-less window so you can shave (shave? psssh!) right after your shower. We racked our brains for about 10 seconds trying to figure out how it worked, but then we ate some noodles that blew our minds even more.

Here's a list of some of the things we didn't quite understand how to use:

1.) telephones

%*&@#$ iPod has no juice...

So the 11 hour drive ended up taking 19 hours thanks to a snowstorm in Indiana, a blanket of ice in West Virginia, a 70-80 car pileup in Pennsylvania and us stopping every half hour to get gas, pee, eat, pee, pee, pee, get gas, pee and eat (that's an overturned 18 wheeler that was carrying a bunch of wood. I know, I know, why was I taking pictures and rubbernecking? I don't know but I did, OK?) Mom even did a 180 on I70 right in front of us but my ninja handling of the 10' UHaul ensured 'no contact, no foul' between the car and the truck and we were on our way again (we were traveling at 2 mph at the time of the spinout, which ended up being our average rate of speed for the whole trip, which was 700 miles. do the math and feel the pain.) Mom wanted to stop at Eat n' Park to support Zander's dad so we did. I'm sorry, but those stupid smiley cookies suck. And there was a big nasty black hair in my chicken sandwich.

G&R plays Indy, sort of...

I've never seen Guns & Roses live...until no..w..wait, actually I still haven't seen Guns & Roses live. But we did see Paradise City, their chubbier, friendlier and less talented wannabe tribute band on Packy's last night in Indy. Paradise City was immortalized in Chuck Klosterman's Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs which I may have read out loud to you at some point because it's hilarious. We actually got to see this pathetic band. They exist! And it was cool! The "Axl" did a pretty good hipslide/shuffle thing and he handled the mic and swung it really authentically. He also did like 3 or 4 costume changes including the kilt from the Use your Illusion era. We were in the front row for that part and it was actually a girl's pleated plaid skirt. The "Slash" was really funny because if you squinted and cocked your head, you actually sort of felt like it might have been Slash, just a little hairier and shorter. Same curls, sort of the same hat, he had the les paul but his chin dimple kind of made him look like Magnum PI. We all thought the "Duff" was wearing a wig because his hair was perfect. In fact, he even wore the CBGB shirt that Duff always seemed to be wearing except it was tucked into his faded black jeans, which were tucked into his hoopty-ass black cowboy boots. The "Izzy" was just way off because apparently while I was getting the camera, he stopped by in between sets and made small talk with Packy and his friends Phoebe and Joanna. They said he was really enthusiastic and nice and not at all hopped up on smack and jack daniels. A sober, nice, outgoing Izzy? And the drummer. They just gave up on the drummer. Picture that guy from Braveheart, the really old axe guy, the mean motherfucker. Yeah, well he's the drummer now in Paradise City. They even gave the axe guy his own drum solo and it was awesome!(read: the worst drum solo in the history of drum solos, which are all bad to begin with. I mean, he dropped one of his sticks and was using his hand to slap the cymbals!) But all in all, they rocked all the favorites and it was a pretty fun way to go out on the last night of college.

guess who's a college graduate...?

I made a stealthy exit from the Continuum holiday party to hop a plane to Indiana where Patrick was waiting with cap and gown (He graduated in the very same basketball arena where Bobby Knight was fired for strangling a couple IU basketball players....ahhh, the memories...) The ceremony was nice, very short and sweet. We packed up the UHaul and got ready to say goodbye to the Hoosier state, but not before having chicken vindaloo at the really good indian place. mmmmm....vindaloo. and props to whoever put the christmas lights on the trees in the center of Bloomington!