At Home

I didn't do a thing again, just stayed at home and go to 7/11 to buy food, i'm not sure I even did that. I don't even know if i ate during this time period.

Waste of $500

Today, I was supposed to be back in San Diego, and coming back to Japan. But since I never went back to San Diego, that ticket expired, and it was non-refundable. Such a waste. And to top it all off, I did nothing but sit at home on my computer. That sucks, I shouldn't have bought the ticket before I left. Since I would end up not going back to San Diego at all.

Ginza again

We met at Yurakucho Station early in morning, but it was later than we decided, so we ended up not going at all. She was really bummed. But we spent the day together walking around Ginza and Yurakucho Area. We walked from there all the way to Tokyo station. We went into Bic Camera to look for some DVD's. It was raining pretty hard today, and I didn't know why. It might have been another hurricane. We chilled and talked at a cafe until the rain passed over. She was looking at some of the papers that I had about the Non Government Organizations that I still had. We called it an early day, since niether one of us slept well the day before.

Sakuragicho station / Spiderman 2

Today, I met up with another friend of my from the San Diego - Yokohama Sister City Society. MKro and I met at Sakuragicho station right by the big ass esculators. We then went inside the Landmark Tower, just to look around and then into Queen's square.

We really didn't know where we were going and she asked if I wanted to go to the YOKE office. I said yes, and then we went. It wasn't too far from where we were. It's in the Pacifico Building, it's really nice compared to the last building they were in. When we went inside, there was only 2 people there. Because we went kinda early in the morning. I did some research for Non-Government Organizations. They have SOOO many in Japan, it's ridiculous. They even print out an NGO guide and it's pretty thick. But it didn't have the one that I was looking for, which was the one that I visited on my last trip to Japan in November. I did find some more information about another group that I'm interested in, so I made copies. When I left, I had a pocket full of papers. We then walked to another building with that type of information, but this time is was government sponsored, JICA. Don't know what it stands for, but they aid 3rd world countries and other stuff. Modernizing the world and sorts.

Around that area was a HUGE Reggae Festival. It was the weirdest thing to see a bunch of Japanese people sporting Jamaican wear and holding up Jamaican flags. They were really into it. The music was so loud that you could hear it from pretty far away. We then went looking around Aka renga soko, or the brick warehouse. Nothing really special. It was good that we were talking and catching up on things since Last November.

We were quite hungry at this point, so we walked over to Yokohama World Porters and ate some Ramen. It was pretty good and we just sat and talked for the rest of the time. She had to go to work at 5pm at the Landmark Tower. She's a librarian, which sounds like a pretty easy job. I walked her to her job and then I left to meet MTka at Shimbashi station. But she was far away, so we ended up meeting at Ueno station. We didn't know what we were doing, so we decided to go see a movie together.

She hadn't seen a movie in a long time, and I wanted to see a movie too. I'm such a movie-holic, but movies are so damn expensive in Japan. We went to the Yurakucho Station Movie theater to see Spiderman 2. It was much better the second time than the first, but it was hard because I couldn't laugh during the movie. Everyone in the movie theater didn't understand the jokes, so it was so quiet during the movie. The translation from the English to Japanese was horrible. The ones that I read didn't make sense and they butched up the jokes. But I enjoyed it. It was funny.
MTka ended up losing her phone though. She left it on the train, and the janky people at JR station didn't do much to help her, but we had a pretty good idea where it would be and how to get it back. But it would have to be the next day before she could do anything. We started to head home because the next day we were planning to go see the Waterboys 2 at Fuji TV and you'd have to get there early to get tickets get in.

Cleaning Day

Today, I just vacuumed my place and cleaned up a little bit. I don't think I did much of anything else, except work on my website again.

Hongodai Station

Today was the first time that I found Hongoudai Station. It's important because it's much closer than Ofuna, which is the one I've been currently using. It's a shorter walk, but I have a big hill to deal with. I looked around at the shops and the restaurants in the area. It was interesting and I like the atmosphere better than around Ofuna Station. But I think Ofuna offers a lot more than Hongoudai.

Ofuna really is a big station. A lot of trains start and stop there. I'm glad I got to explore it and there are a lot of shops that I shop at too. I've found 3 new grocery stores in my area so I can actually start cooking, although I still haven't. I just buy the food that they make and take it home and eat it. It's easier that way. It's kinda expensive, but some of it is actually good and worth it. Others .... well.... yeah.

Yokohama Shopping

I met up with one of my friends from the San Diego - Yokohama Sister City Society. TSrai met me at Yokohama station, bascially so I could follow her in her pursuit of a new handbag for school. I didn't mind it actually, it was fun. I learned much more about Yokohama station that I ever knew existed before. There were a few things that I've never seen and I didn't realize that it was such a huge station. I'm typically only going to the same places.

We met around the Lumine front doors, and then went to Sony plaza and then had lunch at a cafe around there. It was kinda weird because there were no guys in the restaurant at all. And the restaurant was full. Gave me a weird feeling, since I'd be working at an all girls high school, I guess it was a preview. We walked all around and even out of the station to look at a few other things at another store. She was also looking for some cream for something. I'm not sure what, but I didn't really want to explore and find more information than I wanted to know. So I just tagged along which was nice. Since it was a day away from the house. We ended up at a book store and I bought another learning Japanese book. I bought the second edition of the Japanese book that we used in my class for first semester. I'm determined to learn the language. After that we parted ways and I went home.

NOTHING

Today was a big waste. I didn't do a single thing. I just sat at my computer like usual, you'll be reading more about that soon. I have a lot of these days. Just working on website and looking for a good website host.

Internet

I met up with MTka today to fix her internet. This was the day I was expecting to go back to San Diego, but my papers never arrived. So I just sat around doing nothing. I met MTka at the Starbucks at Shimbashi station and then we went to Bamiyan to get some dinner. We stayed kinda late and I never really got a chance to look at her computer, but I did fix it, Amazingly.

Chat with family

That's all I did today, I just sat at my computer talking to my sister and my mom on MSN messenger using my webcam and microphone. We were connected all day until they went to bed, then I just sat there and worked on improving my website. I was looking for a good website host too.

Website

That's all I did all day. I worked on the San Diego - Yokohama Sister City Ambassador Association website. It looked really good too. I was so proud of it, and I got to show it off to people. I mailed a link to the top people and they appreciated it too. I made a cool logo for it too.

Interview in Shinjuku

I decided to get up pretty early to get at the interview place early. I left around 10:30am and was supposed to get to Shinjuku around 2pm for my interview. It doesn't really take that much time, although for me it took almost 3 hours to get there. Normally it only takes 1.5 hours. I missed a couple of trains and I had trouble finding the building on the room. It was impossible I went into the wrong building because the flight of stairs was connected to the next building, the doors weren't labeled clearly. I thought the whole thing kinda sucked and it was hot as hell and I had to be wearing my winter suit. It was terrible.

I arrived just in the nick of time, and then he had me sit in the next room and fill out some paperwork while he was in the next room doing something. He then came in and we did the interview. There wasn't much to it actually, we just talked a little and about BCk in San Diego, who wrote a letter of recomendation for me. And introduced us to get together. Their policy is to test us out first so I had to make and appointment on September 2nd to come back and to help teach a class of business men.

After that I walked around the area just to see what was around, I stopped at a local 7/11 to get some bite. And found that there was an imperial palace not to far away. It's not THE imperial palace, just a palace. It looked really nice so I ate lunch there with a black crow looking at me eat. It was kinda scary, but I finished and walked to the station to get back home. When I got home, I realized that I had nothing left in my vacation of Japan, but just wait for my paperwork to arrive.

Shopping at the outlet

The next morning we had breakfast together which was nice. I couldn't eat that much though even though it was good. I was still stuffed from the night before, I felt so bad.

We then left to go shopping at an outlet mall around the Isogo area (Yokohama Bayside Outlet). It had a lot of good stuff for really cheap. Even cheaper than you could find in the States which is really really good for Japan. It was a really hot day, and we stayed there for a little while. After that, TTki and JLn had tickets to go to a musical so they had to leave me, and then I just had to walk home from the train station. When I got home, it was time to get ready for my interview for my 3rd job the next day.

Dinner with JLn

In the day, I didn't do a whole hell of a lot since I was exhausted from all the traveling. I just sat at my computer all day just talking to people and working on a few other things like my website and doing some laundry.

In the evening, JLn arrived in Japan. So me and TTki and his mom took her to a yakiniku shop. The food was pretty good since we cooked our own meat. I also ordered Bibimbop. But I couldn't finish it since there was a lot of food that they were putting in our face. It was terrible that we had to eat so much. We stayed there pretty late too. One of TTki's friends was coming to meet us and eat dinner too. We didn't end up leaving until 1 or 2am. It was fun, TTki had to drive because his mother was drinking. He's a safe driver which is good. From there we went to a Family Mart to get some drinks and then went home.

Narita Airport

We got up early to head off to Narita Airport, YSki was going to go back to the United States today. We took the shinkansen to Ueno station, and we were taking weird pictures of ourselves on the train. When we arrived we had to locate where the private line to the airport was. We had to leave the station building all together to get to the private line gate. The trip to Narita was 1000 yen.

When we got to the Sakura station area, the weirdest thing happened. We were getting pretty close to the airport and one of my friends and former classmate walked right into the train where I was sitting. I was like "I recognize her." She was in my chinese class at grossmont. It was the strangest thing. She was also going back to San Diego that day. We talked a little bit as we were going to the airport. I offered her my seat since most of the seats were already taken by then.

We got to the airport rather early so we stopped and talked a little more as we enjoyed our really tiny Starbucks Coffee. It was a weird experience I'd have to say. But we made an agreement that we would meet again with another one of my classmates and her friend to have dinner or something when she came back to Japan.

We went to the ticket gate area around 4pm, and we saw CNto and her family there. And then ATya arrived to see YSki off to San Diego. There were a lot of people from Grossmont there going back to San Diego. That was also very weird. We kinda just wasted a few hours just waiting for the airplane to board, but we all talked and exchanged gifts. It was sad that everyone was leaving Japan, and I'd be the only one left and I'd be staying here. As we were saying good bye, ATya noticed that there was someone crying to see her leave her boyfriend and she noticed that it was one of her friends too. I knew her too, but not like we were friends. Just someone I met at a party a long time ago. It was cool, from there ATya went home on a private line, and Since I was on the last day of my JR pass I took the JR Narita Express to get home. It was a nice pretty smooth ride back home too. It's not crowded at all, since it was pretty expensive to ride it in the first place. I was lucky enough to get that pass to ride on it, I probably would have never been able to otherwise.

I arrived to Ofuna station and then got ready for the 30 minute walk home with all my crap in my backpack. I made it and that was the end of my perfectly planned trip to explore everything in Japan. All in all, I must have saved at least a thousand dollars on travel expenses and hotel fees that I didn't have to pay because of my wonderful friends and their equally wonderful hospitality. I've met most of my friends families which is a rare experience. I've had all the food I could possibly eat. I really do feel lucky that I'm here and I get to experience all of this. Now the next step is getting ready for work and the life after that.

Song of the Moment: Green Day - Good Riddance (Time of your life)

Sendai Again...

I was waken up about 2 hours early by SKdo's mother and their dog. I didn't think it was that nice since she just barged into the room and the dog licked me all over to wake me up. I wanted to get up early to get a picture with her, but that was ridiculous since I wanted to get enough rest to ride the train for 12 hours. That's a tiring experience trust me.

We got a few pictures, she gave me a nice card as a going away thing to read. It was all in Japanese though. She made us breakfast and then we were on our way to Sapporo Station. I was finally on my return trip back to Yokohama. I was happy that I did what I planned to do. It worked out perfectly so far. So I caught the train from Sapporo to Hakodate. From there I had to wait 2 hours for the next train so I got out of the station and walked around the area looking for lunch. I walked for about an hour and decided to go back to the station. I ended up getting a Bento box at the station and then waiting in the LONG line to get a non-reserved seat. Fortunately I was able to secure a seat. Most of the time if you don't have a reserved seat you don't sit at all, which wouldn't have been fun since this train trip would last 3 hours.

Then I arrived at Hachinohe, and I really understood why they said that I didn't want to stay there the night. There's nothing there, So I just stayed at the gate waiting for the train to come. I didn't do much, I think I might have fell asleep even waiting for the train. All seats were reserved in this train so I was lucky to get a ticket during the busiest weekends in the year. I got back to Sendai late in the evening and YSki was there to pick me up with her cousin. We then walked over to her cousin's house because that's where I would be staying the night. We talked a little bit and watched the olympics some more. After awhile we went to bed, actually it was a lot later.

MOS burger and KFC

This morning we woke up kinda late, I guess we were both tired from the day before. I was feeling much better and I think it was because I got enough rest tonight. I think I was finally over my stomach flu problem. So we decided to hit the town again. We got kinda hungry around lunch time so we stopped by a MOS burger to eat. It was the first time I ate at MOS burger this trip. It's supposed to be one of the best hambuger chains in Japan. We ordered one set each. We ate it kinda fast and it really wasn't enough, but we didn't want to go back to reorder so we left.

There was a KFC right around the corner so we stopped there and ate some more. There we stayed for the rest of the time. We were talking a lot just catching up on old times and telling stories about everyone and how they've been since he's seen them last. It was really fun. I missed those kinds of conversations. It was enjoyable. I had to get back to the Sapporo station around 5pm to meet SKdo and YYto had to get back to his hometown in Akabira.

When SKdo came to pick me up, we went back to his house. There we waited for some of his co-workers to come to his house. They were two guys, Kenji and someone else... They came over to play me Winning Eleven on PS2. It was a weird experience since they were really good. They play a whole lot, I'm sure. And it was only the second time i've ever played so obviously we know the result.

After the game, we met up with his ex-girlfriend again to go bowling. We were kinda sitting there for a little while as we waited outside of Sapporo Station. When she finally arrived we went to the bowling alley. We bowled two games and not-surprising was how bad I became at Bowling. It was terrible, I was doing so average. I had the lowest score both games. I'm not sure if I even broke triple digits. It must have been the balls or something. But completely different from the last game I bowled in the states. Anyways, we did our good byes and I invited both of them to come visit me in Yokohama. I think SKdo will come in the spring sometime, so that would be nice.After that we came home and took some pictures of the family, and then I got ready to return to Sendai.

Reunion

Again I had to get up around the same time. I had to be around Sapporo station around 10:30am to meet YYto. It took about half an hour to get there, and I just got dropped off since SK had to go to work. I haven't seen him in about 10 months. He didn't get there until around 11:00 because the bus was slow, so I was walking around the station and found the FIRST display for Utada Hikaru. I thought she was the biggest pop singer in Japan, but it was the first time in two trips that I saw anything about her. She's releasing a new cd in English in America. I finally met up with YYto. Then we were walking around the Station looking for each other. I was waiting underground, but he was outside. So I went out to look for him. It wasn't hard because he looked EXACTLY the same. As one of my friend's say "unfashionable Japanese." Which is pretty funny. I think it's just typical Japanese, but not unfashionable.

From there he pulled out his list of things to do in Sapporo. It had about 5-6 things. The first place from Sapporo train station was the Sapporo government building. So we walked there, which took about 10 minutes or so. I took pictures and then we went inside. I found out from YYto that the bear isn't the mascot of Hokkaido, but it's actually the fox. It was a nice building formally the Governor's Mansion.

Then we walked over to the VERY famous Sapporo Clock Tower. Actually it's not really a clock tower, but a building. It looked historical, but he had told me that it looks like a tower in print because they only take pictures of the top. It's a little misleading, but then I realized that the city was really quite small.

From that point, we went to the TV tower. All there was to do there was a drinking garden, and he couldn't drink and I don't like drinking so we just walked around. He had told me that was most of the things on his list and it had only been 30 minutes or so. We walked through Sapporo Park and since we didn't have many things to do, we decided to go inside the NHK Building. We entered the lobby but then realized that it was pretty much closed to tourists.

After that we proceeded to a Shopping Mall that was pretty famous. We had a picture taken with Spiderman. We really looked like tourists then. I took him to the ADIDAS store because I wanted to show him their new slogan. "Impossible is Nothing" I really love that. It's so great.
We decided that since it was around check in time we would walk to the hotel. We had to pass through the city's Shopping Street, there we saw someone promoting her cd. She was singing a famous song and then finished off with one of her songs. She was really pretty. So I kinda felt sorry for her that she had to promote her CD like that. She had a little platform to on and then did a CD signing session for her new single. If you bought the single she would take a picture with you. But the single was $10. The song was ok, but I really didn't think it would be worth it. Although many males bought it, I'm sure just to get a picture with her. Since they wouldn't be that lucky in their entire life to be standing next to someone that beautiful.

We got to the hotel and just chilled and talke for a little while. We stayed at the Hotel Sunroute New Sapporo. We watched a little of the Olympics and just talking about things that happened over the past 10 months. It was a very interesting conversation, and I found out a lot about what he's been doing too. I told him that I was pissed off at him because he didn't bring his girlfriend with him. But then I picked a bad time to go too...

From that point, I went to go meet SKdo because he finished work and wanted to meet YYto. He didn't get there until a lot longer than I expected and that was because he took the train. I thought he was going to drive so then we went to meet him at the station which wasn't that far, but still kinda far. We went to go get some dinner together and decided on eating a special kind of Curry, I had American Curry. Which was kinda weird since I'm American and I didn't know we had a specific kind of Curry. They were challenging me to eat the spiciest curry and I asked what kind of spices they used and that took about 5 minutes before they came back. And I ordered the spiciest, but we didn't look at the menu carefully and didn't realize that I couldn't add spicy ingridients to my meal. So it was kind of a waste, the food tasted pretty good though, although afterward I felt sick again. YYto gave me a 2000 yen bill, well actually we exchanged it. From there we parted ways with SK, he asked to stay with us, but our room was really small for two people that it would have been impossible to fit 3. So he went home and then we went walking around Sapporo for a little bit. Then went back to the Hotel to talk and watch the olympics.

Otaru

We got up around 8:30am to get ready to go to Otaru. We went to go pick up SKdo's ex-gf and then we were off to Otaru. Otaru is a little known town outside of Sapporo. It's supposed to be really famous for it's architecture. So it took about an hour or so to get there. The town was really nice. The weather was kinda getting cold and it was raining. I mean it started to rain as soon as we got there. I actually missed the rain since I haven't seen it in a LONG time.

But they didn't like it so we decided to go get something to eat to pass the time. We walked into a really nice shashimi restaurant. I ordered something mixed, which costed around $30. It tasted really good too. It came with some killer desserts and a grip of other stuff. But SKdo being the nice guy he is paid for it. I didn't really like that, but since I was a guest and paid for things when he was in San Diego, he wanted to pay for me.

From there we went walking around into the different shops and up and down the streets. I took a lot of pictures. There was even a showcase that had John Lennon's Glasses. We went to a couple of stores with music boxes, but they were damn expensive. There were a lot of statues of bears around, which is the presumptive mascot of Hokkaido. We went shopping a little more and then SKdo and his ex-gf bought a huge 6 flavored ice cream cone. She was eating it all weird too. She litterally ate half of it, but only on one side. It looked very strange.

We got back into the car and headed back to Sapporo. We were off to a place that we would be playing some pool. It took about an hour and a half to get there. We were talking a lot in the car. We started to play some pool. SKdo isn't that bad. He's been practicing since the last time we met. His ex-gf wasn't that bad either although she always lost. I kept on losing for technical mistakes, like calling the wrong hole or knocking the 8 ball in out of turn. But, I still won the most that night. From there we went back to his house and he had fireworks that we took to a park to play with. It was very fun. But every family i stay with in Japan loves to play with these things. It's kinda interesting. They make a big deal about it too. It lasted for about an hour or so. I realized tonight that SKdo is a very competitive kinda guy. It's very interesting. I'm not sure why, but it could be an inferiority complex. Interesting....

Leaving Sendai for Hokkaido

As the title suggests, I'm leaving Sendai. On the way, we stopped off at a Lawson to get something to eat. I bought a donut, because I love donuts. We were going to meet up with YSki's Cousin and walk together to Sendai Station. She wanted to meet me and I wanted to meet her. She looked younger than her age. At the station, they bought me a Soy drink, but it tasted nasty. I like soy beans and soy bean juice, but that was nasty.

I jumped on the train going to Hachinohe. It took around 3 hours so I just took a nap on and off taking pictures here and there. Once I got to Hachinohe, I had to switch to a limited express train going to Hakodate. That's the first main city in Hokkaido thus completing my objective on getting on all the main islands. The scenery was really amazing, it's a beautiful island. The landscape is really nice to look at.

I arrived at Sapporo Station about 9 hours after I left Sendai, so it was quite a trip to get to Sapporo. When I arrived, SKdo was there waiting for me. As we were walking around the station, there was Bump Of Chicken in JR Tower being interviewed. Lately I've been listening to their songs, and they just released a new album. It's number one in Japan right now too. From there SKdo drove to around his neighborhood. We stopped to get some Ramen. It was pretty good and I was starting to feel a lot better from the Stomach Flu. It lasted a long time to be honest with you. I had the stomach flu before I left for Japan and it was almost a month later and still I had it. The Miso Ramen tasted nice. Then we went back to his house and chilled out some. SK just got a new laptop and it's amazing. I really want it, it looks sleek and has all the cool toys that go along with it. And that was the night.

Sendai Day 2

This day we started off rather late, around 10am. YSki's dad came to pick us up at the hotel. He drove us to a place called Matsushima. It's a collection of a bunch of islands around the Sendai area. It was nice and peaceful. We walked inside of a temple, but I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside so I took a bunch of pictures outside. It wasn't anything spectacular inside, but outside was. It had a bunch of carvings in stone and in caves too. They brought them outside so people wouldn't have to go inside the caves. The trees were extremely tall too.

We took a boat ride to tour the islands of Matsushima. Hehe. I fell asleep on the trip though. I wasn't sure if I was tired or just it was so boring. Near the end of the boat ride we found that people were feeding the seagulls and that taking pictures. So I took a picture of them taking pictures of feeding seagulls. It was quite amuzing. When we stopped, it was at another place not where we started, and her dad drove there. We had lunch there. I had a bowl of rice with Unagi. I actually really like that a lot. It was pretty tasty too, but looked expensive. I also had steak too, that was pretty good. Actually it was a cow's tongue, but it's not as bad as it sounds. More chewy though, but not bad.

From there he drove back to Sendai, and dropped us off somewhere near Sendai Station. I was really starting to feel kinda sick again, but we went on an hour tour around Sendai on a tour bus. It took us to Sendai Castle, or the gate, because it doesn't really exist. Not sure why, but there isn't anything there. Then we went all over the place, naming things that I don't know and nothing that I can remember at the moment. After the hour long tour, we went back to the famous street area, and went into a media mall tech center. We checked e-mail and went on the internet for 40 minutes and went into the library. I found an interesting book that taugh me how to learn Japanese faster. It really works, although right now I'm not really working on it. I'm doing things the more structured way. That was really interesting for me to learn though.
Around 6pm we met up with YSki's dad and his family to go have dinner at Ducca. I felt so bad because I couldn't eat most of things that they ordered. They were like you can't have anything with dairy, how do you survive? That's a very good question since everything here in Japan has dairy in it, and if it doesn't they add it.

So it was pretty tough, but we got through dinner. I didn't like tea so I didn't drink much of it, I only ordered Orange Juice and Grapefruit juice and alternated when I finished it. The dinner was average, nothing great, but nothing bad. I did have to eat a Shrimp head. I've never really done that before and it was a tad bit on the strange side for me. They told me it's high in Calcium, but I'm like so what? After dinner, we went back to the hotel and then YSki had some stuff to give to her sister. Then we went upstairs and I sat in that confortable chair in the elevator and we went to sleep.

Sendai Day 1

I had to get up early to make it on my way to Tokyo to get on my train. It takes about an hour to do so. I woke up kinda late, and was in a hurry. I missed my bus of choice. And when I got to Totsuka station, the train was slow to get there since I missed my bus of choice. I was for sure that I wouldn't make it to my train in time, but when I arrived at Tokyo station, I ran as fast as I could to get to the platform. I wasn't carrying so much crap this time, and I got on the train just in time.

The train took a few hours and when I got there, YSki was waiting there for me. We then walked out, it was much cooler than it was in the southern half of Japan. That was the first thing that I noticed. We walked about 15 minutes to go to the Mos Burger that she used to work at. We walked through a very famous street in Sendai, that has many festivals there. People from all over go to that park area, actually I don't know why, but every prefecture has their little thing that they do.

When we got to Mos burger, we met her friend that is the manager there. He's only 19 years old too. We walked over to Italian Tomato to eat some pasta. It was pretty good and talked for a few hours. He tried to speak English, and it wasn't bad. Afterward, we walked over to another park area, but he had to leave because he had another appointment with a friend. At the park, when we were looking in the tree, there was a balloon that was stuck. It was a balloon of NEMO. So we found Nemo hanging out in a tree in Sendai.

From there, we walked back the other way to get to Sendai Kokusai Hotel. This was a high class hotel no doubt. The best that I stayed at in Japan. Everyone was nice to greet us at the door, they carried our stuff, and the elevators had chairs in them. That's really good. We had a room on the 13th floor so we had an amazing view. We chilled there for a little bit until it was dinner time and we would meet up with YSki's mom. Her mom is also a nurse. What's with everyone's mom being a nurse? Anyways, we went to a Chinese restaurant. I ate Fried Rice, which was pretty good, but not spicy enough for me. But still it tasted pretty good. We had a group picture outside when we finished. She asked me to buy her some Corn Chocolate when I went to Sapporo, since it was very famous for that and she liked it.Once we finished we all went to a building next to our hotel that was a little bit taller and it had a nice Night view of the city. YSu made sure to tell me all the different things that the city had to offer and why it's the best in Japan. Like every other friend of mine. Then we went back to the Hotel to sleep

Nagoya Castle

I had planned to meet my friend at 11am, but my hotel check out is at 10am so I had to get out in a hurry. I still felt kind of sick, but I think it's because I didn't eat the much and was constantly on the run. I started feeling better from the stomach flu. I bought some stuff at the convenient store, but the food tasted horrible. I was walking around the meeting area, and she found me. I was surprised that she still remembered what I looked like. We've only met once in our lives. It was at an International Club Movie Night, when I first met YYchi too. I gave her a ride home, just when I got my new car.

The first thing we did was go get some lunch. We went to a pasta place and I ended up getting something with Eggplant and shrimp. It was actually pretty good and didn't upset my stomach or anything. This is where me and KO got caught up on things in the past year and a half. She landed a pretty good job working at "Toyota." She doesn't work there directly, but works at an offshoot company that only deals with the navigation for Toyota, so basically she does work for them.

The next thing we did was walk toward Nagoya castle. It was actually pretty nice and the Shogun of the Era had her last name. So, that was pretty cool. Too bad she's not related though. The castle was only 3 stories high or so, but it was a little bit different than the other castles that I've been to. One of the levels was actually made up to look like it was when the Shogun lived there. Actually it was kind of eerie, but still cool. They had a nice model of the city when the shogun ruled. Afterwards, we sat outside and drank some stuff and talked a little more. More about getting to know each other some more.

From there we jumped on a train to go to the shopping street area. I didn't know what it was called, but it was kinda small. It offered some good stuff, but I didn't feel like carrying any more crap and I was low on dough. So we stopped off at a cafe to drink some Earl Grey Tea. It was nice, I think it was a special kind. We stayed here for a few hours until we needed to go back. She had to get back home early since her grandfather had just passed away recently and she was doing things for her family. This is where I told her my ideas about teaching English. I really enjoyed the conversation and learned more about her. She's actually a really interesting person. I'm glad that I had to chance to meet her again. And she said that she might come visit me in Yokohama some day. Although that's what a lot of people tell me. Around 5pm we went back to Nagoya station so I can get my stuff from coin locker.

My train didn't leave until 6pm, but I jumped on a train that was a little earlier and looked for a non-reserved seat. I got to Shin-Yokohama Station and got off. I called EK because I was supposed to have dinner with him and his family, but he was still sleeping at the time. And it was only him and his mom. So he canceled it. Which actually was much better for me since I still was carrying all my crap from the trip. I got back to Totsuka station and then took the bus home. I finally arrived at 9:30pm and the first thing I did was unpack all the non-essential stuff. I was going to go on another trip early in the morning the next day.

3 Island Trip

Today was a VERY busy day. I woke up around 8am like usual and started getting ready for a trip onto 3 different Islands of Japan, all of which by Train. From Hiroshima Station on the island of Honshu, I left around 10am to go to Hakata station in Fukuoka city on the Island of Kyushuu. I arrived around noonish and then started walking to Hakata Canal city.

Hakata is the biggest area of Fukuoka which is the biggest city on the island. At first nothing seemed so different. It was of course, hot and this time I was carrying all my crap with me. The walk was about 20 minutes because I was on my own to find it, but I did so successfully. It's a nice area, but it's just a big shopping complex. It's different because it's next to a canal, and offered a different feel than most other shopping places that I've been to. It had a big place advertising Universal Studios in Osaka. It had many levels, but I didn't have the time to explore all of them. Since it was around lunchtime, I went to find lunch. I should have gotten something traditional and special for Hakata, but instead I parked my ass at Wendy's. How's that for traditional Japan. It was good, I ordered it to go since I had to catch a train, but they made it for a sit-in. .... That must have been lost in translation. Anyways, I enjoyed the food, and I didn't get sick afterwards which was a really big plus for me.

But like I said, I needed to catch the train, but I missed it by one minute. I walked to the platform right when it left so I had to catch the one right after it. It wasn't the fault of the worker at Wendy's though. The person at the platform checking tickets took forever and that's why I missed my train. That's only the second time the whole trip I missed my train. But no one was waiting for me, so I had plenty of time, since I was doing everything today alone. The next destination was Takamatsu city on the island of Shikoku. I arrived at Okayama just in time to transfer to the JR Shikoku going to Takamatsu. At least that's what I thought.

When I jumped on the Limited Express train, I didn't even know where it was going. So I asked a person if they spoke English, but it was a clear indication that he did since he was white. I asked him if it was the train going to Shikoku, and he said yes. So I sat down, then another guy, Japanese said this is a Reserved Section. And we were like, we'll sit here until they kick us out.

The conductor was walking down the aisle and instead we decide to go stand up instead of getting kicked out. We were all trapped in a little compartment in between trains, that's where people had to go if they didn't have a seat reservation. So we all got to know each other. Ruary, the white guy, was from San Francisco and works at ECC language school in Tokyo. He was on his way to Kochii, which was at the bottom part of the island. He was an artist as well and was into Alchemy. A lot of his work is displayed in Shibuya at a famous bar place. So I'm thinking he's pretty good at it. He was planning on camping out there and go to the onsen- hot spring. The other guy that was Japanese, Yu, was on his way to meet his aunt, also in Kochii. He goes to Keio University, which is pretty famous in Japan and learned English at Berlitz language school. He lives by the Tokyo dome. So lucky me, I made two friends on the train that actually live somewhat close to me. I was planning to go to Takamatsu because they had a little known garden that tourists usually go see, but I decided to change my plan on the train. I was going to travel with them, until I absolutely needed to switch trains to go back to the main Island. I decided that would be around 5pm since that would be the half way point.

My friend Ruary got off around 5pm to try to get a bus or hitchhike to his campground, it was pouring and of all the things that he was carrying, he didn't have an umbrella. So I gave him mine since I didn't need it. That's Two good deeds for the year. I was going to get off the train when he did so I could go back, but he recommended that I go a little bit more so I could get a really good view of the mountains and hot springs and river. So Yu and I started talking a little more until the next stop, which wasn't until another 35 minutes and I was really getting worried that I would miss my last train to get to my final destination. Not to mention that when I got off, it was like a ghost town, there wasn't anyone there, and the train was REALLY old fashion. It had that old smell to it. The train itself had only 3 cars and only carried a total of 7 people, including me. Since I got a little worried I asked the conductor if there was a faster train to get back to Okayama. I also wanted to see the castle there, but that was a little impossible since it was already closed at that point. He spoke the funniest Japanligsh. But I owe him sooo much because the information he gave me was sooo helpful. He had told me that I should "changji-changji" tracks at the "Nexto Nexto" station. But I at least understood and my Japanese was worse so I can't really say anything.

Although he'll probably tell his friends how horrible my Japanese was. I jumped the train where he told me to switch to and it was an Okayama Express train. It was actually even faster than the Limited Express, which I didn't know they had. I arrived Just in the nick of time. Actually our train was late, I think because of an accident, but that meant that my shinkansen was waiting for us. How thoughtful of them. So I got on and then was on my way to the last city, Nagoya. I arrived at 9:30pm which is what I planned for and then went around looking for my hotel. It wasn't the nicest looking place in town, but I didn't really care either. The neighborhood looked tough, but this is Japan. Everywhere is generally safe. I took a stop at a Lawson to get some dinner and then back to my room to get some sleep. Today was a busy day.

Hiroshima Peace Museum

Today was a compelling day. It was a day after the 59th Anniversary of the dropping of the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima. It was the cheapest entrance fee that I had to pay, only 50 cents. The overall feeling that the museum posessed was really overwhelming. It was separated into a couple of sections. The first section had a collection of paintings, the second section was of the aftermath, and the last section had a lot of information detailing the effects of radioactivity.
I stayed in there for a little over 2 hours, YYchi and CFka were at the end waiting for me because I was walking really slow. I took a lot of pictures of the place and all the artifacts, and bunch of other things. Really it was something amazing. There were so many stories that were told and how tragic the event really was. The overall message was to dismantle the nuclear arms programs around the world. They had a picture before and after the bomb was dropped and really you could see the difference.

It was like in the Movie Spiderman 2. The fusion of the sun got out of control and they said it would destroy half the city, well in this case, it did. The power of the sun is a force that shouldn't be reckoned with. The area around where the bomb was dropped was clear except for 3 or 4 buildings that still stood. Many students were killed because they were assigned to go there to help clean up other areas that were destroyed previously by other bombing raids. The force and heat melted people instantously. The mushroom cloud that formed about 1 mile up caused the clouds to pick up the sut from all the radiation. And minutes afterward, if the people were not affected, they would have acid rain down on them. The effects looked incredibly horrible. They illustrated exactly what would occur if you got hit with acid rain, as well as what happened to the people burned by the fireball.

Interesting yet gruesome. After the museum we walked over to the Peace Dome, which was actually left standing after the bomb. It's a perpetual reminder of the tragedy that will be preserved forever to let everyone remember all the lives that were lost and why we need to stop with all the nuclear arms. Each year, the mayor writes a letter to address this issue, but every year, the rest of the world ignores it. It's very sad that nothing is being done with it. The non-proliferation treaty says that the top 5 countries that already have the technology can keep it and no one else. But it's unfair because if they have it, other countries would do anything to get it because it still shows importance to WMD like that. Recently Pakistan and India have gone to nuclear status and that's a very volitle situation.

Maybe I should change the subject. After we were there, we went to get some lunch. We walked back to the shopping street area. Shopped some more, even though I didn't buy anything. We then took the train back to the Station and got picked up by CFka's Dad and then we had a BBQ. I couldn't eat that much which was really a shame. They made the best steak that I have EVER eaten in my life. They dethroned Chef Taka. Although when I go back to San Diego, I will go eat there again.... hehe. Really it was a very good BBQ. I was happy, and ate a lot even though I still felt sick. I ate as much as I could.

After dinner we played with fireworks like every Japanese family out there. It's the thing to do. When that was all finished we went back to the house and this time I joined them in their room. I was doing a lot of internet stuff like checking e-mail and planning for my trip the next day. I did a lot of planning and getting all the schedules for going to Fukuoka, and Shikoku, and finding a hotel in Nagoya. It took a really long time, and I should have done it earlier, but didn't. I felt bad because I was keeping everyone awake when they were about to sleep. So i just gave up and just went to sleep. I had most of the trip planned so I was in good shape.

Miyajima Island

It was a little difficult to sleep because of my stomach, but it was ok. CFka's parents wake up really early in the morning too. Anyways, we got up early to head off to Miyajima Island. It's famous for the floating temple gate as you enter the island. It was quite convenient for me since I had a JR pass, I got to ride on the ferry across for free. The island wasn't that big, but the sites were pretty cool. There were deer there, but no one was hurt, just some poor kid was being chased around.

We went into the temple and walked around. There was a really big rice paddle on the island, which I found to be very interesting. They have a lot of little shops there one of which YYchi and CFka stopped to get some ice cream. Too bad for me since I couldn't have any milk I just sat there. Afterward we took the ferry back to the mainland. We got a very nice look at Hiroshima from the water. When we arrived CFka's dad was waiting there. I thought that was amazing because it's a really far drive to get there. We went into a convenient store to get some food, we ended up getting onigiri. From there he drove about an hour till we got to a famous 4 arched bridge. It was said that its in all the Japanese history books. So I feel pretty proud that I went to a lot of places that are in Japanese history books, yet I don't know why.

The area was nice, it had a castle at the top, that we didn't go to. We walked across the bridge, and then toured the area a little. It wasn't anything too special, but I enjoyed it. They had an exhibit with Albino snakes. It was really quite cool and the history of Albino snakes in the Yamaguchi prefecture. For some odd reason there are a lot in the area. And they even have a society there to protect them. They look pretty cool with their pink eyes. We then jumped back into the car to go back to go to the supermarket to get some stuff. We ended getting something at Mister Donut which was in the area. My stomach was really acting up, so CFka's mom got some medicine for me. It was really strong medicine because she's a nurse at a hospital. But the pain was becoming unbareable too. From there we went back to her house to hang out. YYchi and CFka, just hung out in her room while I was downstairs resting and in pain until it was dinner time. We ate and then they went back and I just stayed there and slept.

Osaka / Hiroshima

We spent the first part of the day in Osaka and then went on our way to Hiroshima. We left the hotel around 9:30 to meet up with YSzu at 10am at Osaka Station. At this point I really wasn't feeling good at all. I had already gone to the bathroom a number of times. We sorta had trouble meeting at Osaka station. We were on the wrong side and since we were carrying all our crap, it was tiresome. We found her and then we went to go buy some coin lockers for our stuff.

Then we were on our way to Osaka Castle. This is one of the most famous castles in Japan, even though it was rebuilt and isn't an original one. It was destroyed in WWII. It was quite fascinating. It had to be one of the hottest days in Japan though. We were all sweating bullets. It wasn't that long of a walk to get there, but it surely was a struggle. The heat made it worse for my stomach too. The castle was 5 stories high and we had to take the stairs. The view was pretty good. You could see pretty far, and all the industrial buildings in Osaka. Once I was up there I remembered all the places that we could go to see, but there wasn't enough time to do it all.

After the castle we went over to a restaurant a little bit far from the castle, since everything near the castle was expensive. We found a little spot in an office building area that served things that didn't have any dairy products. I had cold udon noodles with Orange Juice. It's not that great of a combination, but hey, it's all i could eat. From there we went around to go shopping a little since we had some time to kill. Then we split up because we had to go to Shin-Osaka to get the shinkansen to go to Hiroshima.

At the station we saw some famous people again that worked at a tv station. But I didn't know who he was so it was no big deal. Then we were on the train. I was kinda tired so I took a nap and so was YYchi. Before we knew it we were at Hiroshima station. It's a big station and has a weird feel to it. We had to go outside next to a fountain to meet CFka. I was really about to die at this point. It was hot in Hiroshima as well, but no rain. We went walking around to go shopping. YYchi wanted to buy some new clothes so we went everywhere around the downtown area or the shopping street. I felt exhausted and really wanted to die. We got some dinner at a small place. It was nice so I was suprised why no one was in there. We had some tapas stuff, and chicken joints and other stuff. I think it was pretty good, but I still felt sick.

From then we went back to CFka's house and her older sister picked us up at the train station. We took a trip to a convenient store to get some stuff. Then we went to her house. It takes awhile to get to her house, but it's nice and big. That night, her mom and dad greeted us as we arrived. I took a shower first and they gave me a nice Yukata to wear to sleep. We all sat by the TV and talked a little. They felt kinda weird because it's an all girl family and now they had a guy there. I really felt out of place. It was the first time that I did. I spent most of the time in my room, by myself. And to top things off, the stomach flu got worse. Not that pleasant today.

Osaka Day

On this day YYchi and I would say our good byes to MHda and her family. We left fairly early in the morning to go to Osaka Station. We got to our hotel and started to relax a bit. We didn't have much of a plan since all my friends in Osaka flaked on me this day. So I called up YSzu, about meeting her the next day. She gave us an idea to do something today, and this was the beginning of the attack of the stomach flu. I really started to feel really sick, but I'm on vacation and nothing was going to stop me from enjoying it.

We set out to go to Shinsaibashi area. We start off by walking the wrong way to get where we are going. But It's ok, we found a little place that offered some good food for really cheap. It was only a snack till we got to where we were going to go. YYchi also decided to get some Ice Cream too from a guy that seemed like he was from the Middle East doing a performance just to sell his Ice Cream. That was quite interesting.

When we got to the real Shinsaibashi area, its the area with the famous Glico Sign and famous for Takoyaki and Okonomiyaki, we took pictures and looked for a place to get some food. We walked a little bit and found a pretty good place to sit down and get out of the rain....from the typhoon in the area. We got some takoyaki. It was pretty good, and again my stomach was starting to bother me, but i did nothing about it.

From there we walked a little more and YYchi found a place to see a movie. It was ladies day which means she gets a discount. She paid $10 and I paid about $18 to watch Steamboy. Really it wasn't worth it because I couldn't understand the movie. It was all in Japanese. It was an ok movie even though I didn't understand. The graphics and drawings were nice to see, and I'm getting further insight on Japanese people. After the movie, we walked outside and it was pouring. Raining horses and goats. The typhoon was really in full force and the winds were pretty high, yet there were many people still out on the streets. In America, we hear hurricane and we run into another state, while here in Japan, this is the 13th of the season and people are still enjoying themselves drinking and partying. Completely different perspectives on it. We found a place to get some Okonomiyaki, It was pretty good, but I couldn't eat that much since I was starting to get sick. I only ate a little and YYchi ate most of it. From there, we walked back to the Hotel. Still it was raining pretty hard and I was completely drenched and dripping as we walked into the hotel. But it wasn't cold which was very good. From the elevator we went separate ways to our respective hotel rooms, to dry off and dry our clothes.

Nara Day

On this day, we left Kyoto to go to a famous area called Nara. It's famous for a Big Buddha, and guess where we went? That's right the Big Buddha. I'm really bad with names so I don't know what the temple's name is. But before we got there we had a little run in with Deers. There are deers everywhere. We bought some food for the deers and MHda, YYchi, and Me were trying to feed those animals. They get really aggressive when you do that. They start to eat everything up, and when you run out, they still come at you. It was a fun experience though. The weather was kinda weird, it was sprinkling and raining so the grounds were kinda muddy and slippery. We took many pictures of the Deer Ordeal. I'll post them all later.

We then started walking towards the main area where all the tourists go. We past the Museum and ran into more deers. YYchi was trying to get a picture with the deer and when we snapped it, the deer then tried to commit suicide by running into the street with oncoming cars. Actually this happened twice at different locations. It was really funny and we were picking on her for it.
We then got around the area where the big buddha is at. They have many shops for candy and things of that sort. But the most distinguishing feature was the tourists being attacked by deer. The deer were everywhere on the streets, and people were buying deer food, so they would naturally feed them. But they also ran out and to the deer that was unacceptable. It was funny watching a bunch of tourists running away from deers. Kinda sad too because the deers would also eat their bags and chew on their clothes. A lot of girls were screaming and the guys were taking pictures. Kinda mean, but then the guys would get attacked too so it was fair.

We finally got to the temple. It was raining pretty hard at this time and we didn't have an umbrella or anything. Even though it's raining, it's EXTREMELY HOT. That was the annoying part. We walked into the temple and I took many pictures naturally of the Big Buddha. We walked around and found a very famous pole. This pole had a hole in it the size of the nostril of the Big Buddha. And there is a story that if you go through it, you will be blessed with great things. So naturally there was a line of little kids going through it, more than 5 times. Bare in mind, these are little kids under the age of 10. MHda said, "Bryan why don't you try it?" Being the daring person I am, I did. At first I couldn't even get my shoulders in and gave up. But another person with an American tourist said, "Don't give up, you can do it. Just believe" I was like what the F*** but I gave it another shot, she was right, I fit. I got stuck for a little while too. MHda got many pictures of the ORDEAL. But I think it was fun and everyone gave me accolades for being daring enough to even try it. I told them yeah, that's because I'm a foreigner, I already look embarassing. I challenged the American watching to go for it, but We both knew it was impossible. He was about a Foot taller than me.

After that we found a little booth that was selling tiles. Doesn't sound interesting, but when we looked further into what it was, it was tiles for the restoration of the temple. It is believed that if you buy a tile, your wish will come true. So MHda, YYchi, and I bought one and wrote our wish, Name, Country and it will be put in the temple so I can see it for years to come. That's really cool that I've actually done something to help out. They need to money to restore it, and I get to put my signature in it. So that's my good deed for the year.

After we left, I bought some stuff, and then proceeded to another temple. There wasn't many people there. Maybe about 7 people including us. There was 2 ladies going around the temple over 150 times. MHda told me that they are praying for something. They were handed with sticks and told to walk around the temple to have your wish come true. We guessed that it was for the good health of an ailing person. It looked like they were mother and daughter. Everytime they walked around, they threw a stick into a bucket. They had a lot of sticks too. The temple was on an elevated ground so you coud get an amazing view of the city. It really was breath-taking. One of the most amazing things and feelings I've ever had. You feel sooooo at peace being there. I really enjoy that feeling since I'm never at peace being so busy and doing too many things. It was very relaxing.

From there we took off back to the Station. We stopped a little bit to get some ice cream... which is a big no-no for me. I ate it anyways, to see what would happen. That was a big mistake. From there we went to get dinner, I forgot where. Then back to MHda's house. We chilled there for a bit and getting ready to leave. We stayed up late talking again. Talking about San Diego and how things will be so different when they go back. Then Sleep.

Golden Temple

The day started off kinda late, which is around 10am. We had a wonderful breakfast that MHda's mom prepared for us. It was bread and something else, but it was good. We got dropped off at the Station, then commuted to Kyoto station. Once we got there, we purchased all day tickets again. We went to the Golden Temple. I know why they call it the golden temple, because it's actual gold. I must have taken a lot of pictures because my storage on my camera was started to get low.

It is one of the most beautiful sights in Japan. I've never seen anything like it. It's great. It's really peaceful there too. We walked around the facilities for a little while and then went to the souvenir shop to see if there anything we should buy. I bought a few things.

I found another thing too, this is for my mom. We recently received a gift from my mother's friend who also visited Kyoto. I saw the gift and took a picture of how much the cost was. But price is only a number, it's nice of her to think of my mom at all. And being a traveler, I can understand that you want to save some money. I certainly wanted to save money, this was only the beginning of the trip. At the end, there was a little fountain that people like to donate their nickels. But it's really a small cup and if you make it your wish can come true. But most of the people who tried missed. I missed too...

After about 30 minutes, we went to the next attraction. Another Temple. I'm not sure of the name so I really can't go into too much detail. I'm really not doing a good job describing this city, but it's so magnificent. We then went to a very famous Rock Garden. People tell me that you can read about it in Japanese history books, so that's what I'm telling you. It was kinda fun, because me and MHda both laid down, and the lady in charge told us that we couldn't. But when we were walking around some more, we saw another foreigner do it, but he got lucky. No lady told him to sit up.

After that we got Ice Cream. Nice since it was a hot day. Then we traveled back to main shopping street. We walked a little ways and into a famous street. It's so exclusive that the only way to get in to be refered by a friend. They don't accept anyone from the public. There we saw some Maiko, or what we know them as Geishas. It's so rare that my friend MHda hadn't seen them and she's from Kyoto. So I thought was pretty good. They were working entertaining some business men. We had dinner somewhere, but once again, i forgot. Then we went back to her house, where we continued conversation all night while we were checking e-mail.

Kyoto Trip

We didn't sleep at all so we are both tired as hell. We left YYchi's house early in the morning because we had to get to Tokyo Station by 9:30am and we were kinda far from there.
We got there in the nick of time. We got our seats and were off to Kyoto. The Shinkansen was nice, and we slept a lot. We sat next to another American who was there on business. When we arrive at Kyoto Station, MHda was there to meet us at the platform. YYchi and I were both just mystified. It's such a HUGE station. The biggest I've seen in Japan and it was all modernized too. Nothing that people would imagine when they think of Kyoto. We grabbed lunch at the station. We dropped our stuff off at the coin locker and were off to see the city.

We got an all day pass on the bus and traveled to the "Silver" Temple. I don't know why they call it the silver temple since it's made of wood and there isn't anything silver about it. We also went to another temple that day, but it was getting late so we couldn't stay that long. It was very nice though. The city is a great place to be. You really feel at peace in the temple areas. And that's practically everywhere since there are a lot of temples there. I took a lot of pictures. We went to an orange temple, and it's pretty bad that I don't know the names of these places though. But there were a lot of people there. I think it was kinda famous because there were a lot of people. The area was elevated so you can get a great view of the city surrounded by a forest of trees. Very nice indeed.

I know we grabbed dinner somewhere at a restaurant. I think we went to a Katsu restaurant. We all ordered a pork katsu meal. It was pretty good in the downtown area of Kyoto. Or the shopping street. From there we went back to Kyoto Station, picked up our stuff and then went to MHda's house. When we got to the station, her mother picked us up. It was nice, she seems very sweet. We talked a lot and checked our e-mail. We didn't sleep till late either.