Tokyo: A Photo Essay

What is there to say about Tokyo that hasn’t already been said? The last few days have been a blur of neon lights, food, people, history, engrish, and subways. It is an amazing city with just about something for everyone. We ended up exploring most of the major areas and in hind sight I think the photos will tell the story better than I will ever be able to.

"Jazz" Bar







This could be my favorite photo from the trip. Its a shame it came out blurry.

Yakitori, we ordered every possible part of the chicken

!!!





This was this cool claw machiene we found that used a spinning net to catch the prize. Peter said it was impossible but i totally won a stuffed hamster

Bikes are the way to go



Epic Recreation

Fabulous!

















This photo is fairly awesome, the guy in the back looks terrified



I am sooo artistic





Where do i sign up for this?



au revoir

Sumo Kimono

With Nara out of the way our next stop was Nozawa Onsen. This is a small mountainous town an hour outside of Nagano. Some of the Olympic events were held here but as to which ones we are not sure. The town acts as the ski basin and we had booked it in the hopes of being able to ski. With no snow and temperatures in the low 40's this turned out to be a difficult task. They are also famous for their natural onsen's that are ranked as some of the best in Japan. We tried to fake pictures of us skiing but it didn’t work out so well:




It was quite an adventure getting from Nara to Nozawa Onsen. Our path went Nara to Kyoto, Kyoto to Nagoya, Nagoya to Nagano, Nagano to Nozawa Onsen Station, and finally we had to take a 20 minute buss ride from the station to the actual town. Once we arrived we managed to find our hotel and were shown to our room. We were staying in a traditional Japanese style room. Our hostess was showing us the perks of the room and then she got to the yukata's. If you are unfimilar with the yukata it is a casual summer kimono usually made of cotton. She saw the yukata, stopped and looked at us, and then politely said she would get us larger garments. Nothing makes you feel better than when they have to specially request the larger kimono for the fat Americans.




Life in Nozawa Onsen is very laid back and slow paced. We were about to walk through the entire town in about 20 minutes. One strange thing I noticed was the large amount of liquor stores. It seemed like every 3rd or 4th shop was exclusively selling booze. I guess with nothing to do but sit in hot springs and ski that alcohol was the next logical step. When in Rome. I invented a new drink on this trip. I call it an Onsen. It consists of 2 parts melon cream soda to one part vodka. I give it a B+.



On our last night we participated in a traditional Japanese dinner. This consisted of about 10 courses and was full of things I have never eaten before. The most exotic thing on the menu was raw horse meat. Other dishes included a meso udon dish that was heated at the table by a small torch, fish, duck, a variety of pickled items, rice, miso, tempura, two mushroom dishs, and a desert custard made out of potatoes. It was an overwhelming meal but totally worth it.


Not much really happened other than us relaxing. The onsens are a pretty awesome experience. You know its legit when the water has volcanic ash floating in it. We are off to Tokyo today and will remain there for the remainder of out trip. Catch you then. In the meantime I am attempting to find this sweatshirt:

If you are having trouble reading it says "Unicorn Fort". One please.

P.S. I iced Peter.

Do Not Feed The Deer

Our second day in Osaka was pretty laid back compared to the first. It began with a trip to Osaka castle. This turned out to be fairly boring. It looks really awesome from the outside but then you go in. The thing about a lot of these castles in Japan is that they have all burned down like 50 times so you are never looking at the original. Osaka castle apparently really likes to get torched. It once even burned down when they were attempting to restore it. The current iteration looked like it was build in 1990 or something. The inside was completely modern and it was really more of a museum rather than a representation of what the castle use to be.

From the outside

From the inside...
After our exciting tour of mid 90's architecture we went to the Osaka aquarium. Having never really heard much about it I did not know what to expect. We were lucky enough to go at feeding time so all the animals were active and visible. It was one of the best aquariums I have been to. I will let the pictures do the talking on this one.




"Please ride the dolphins"
Santa!
Bullet Bill!

"When surfing on rays, please watch out for flying anthropomorphic sharks"


I found this photo opportunity creepy despite the fact it makes zero sense. I think I managed to make it even creeper
The next day we headed out to Nara. When we arrived our hotel room was not ready so we rented some bikes and hit the town. Nara is a smaller town that was one of the formal capitals. They are known for their old temples and for the deer that freely roam the city. The first place we stopped was Kofukuji Temple. The thing about the temples in Nara that becomes immediately evident is that they are much older than those in Kyoto. They seemed to have had their last burnings some 400 years ago rather than 1980. Kyoto suddenly seemed less interesting.



We were lucky enough to be in Nara for the 1300 anniversary of it being named the capital of Japan. Because of this some of the temples that are not usually open to the public were now open for a limited time. We got to go inside some places people who lived in Nara all their life probably never got to see. Japan likes to have all this sweet stuff that they let people know is there but will not let them see. They then will randomly for no reason open it up or close it off.


After Kofukuji Temple we went to Todaiji Temple which according to the guide book is the biggest wooden structure in the world. Peter and I found this debatable seeing as the Tacoma dome appears to be much larger. As we arrived the building was quite massive and housed the biggest Buddha I have ever seen. It was quite impressive. The Buddha was nice and all but is this building capable of holding events like WWE Monday Night Raw and Monster Jam? Tacoma Dome 1, Todaiji Temple 0.


"Do not feed Pac-Man"
It is hard to grasp how massive this thing was in this photo. We are about the size of one of its fingers

Throughout our time in Nara we were surrounded by deer. They roam the parks and walkways. As we left Todaiji Temple I decided to buy some deer biscuits that are sold all around the temples. This was a horrible mistake. As soon as the vendor handed over the biscuits the deers surrounded me. Terrified I started feeding them but they got aggressive. Then they started to bite. Hard. One kept biting my butt while one broke skin on my inner thy. Having grown quite fond of my penis I threw the stack of biscuits at the biggest deer I could find and ran off. Golddiggers...



After a bit more sightseeing we headed home and got some dinner at a local Indian restaurant. We both got the combo plate and received the biggest piece of naan known to man. It was bigger than an elephant ear. It was delicious. Just give me a big piece of naan and a bucket of sauce and im good.


We are off to the mountains of Nagano tomorrow. The trip should take all day. I am unsure if they will have internet so stay tuned. I will leave you with these words of wisdom: