Japan: Mike feeds a monkey

On day four I did a day trip to Kyoto. It's only a fifteen minute ride from Osaka on the bullet train but ends up taking more like forty-five minutes to an hour once you factor in the travel time to get to where the bullet train leaves from. Still pretty good.

The first thing I did in Kyoto was hop onto a train to Arashimaya. It has this bridge that people really like, plus the hills are colourful in the fall.




Across that bridge is possibly the best thing in Japan: Monkey Park! You pay your entrance fee (about $5), walk up a pleasant, hilly path for about fifteen minutes, and you're there. You can saunter around and the Japanese macaques will wander really close to you. You can also go inside a building with wire-fence walls, buy peanuts or apple pieces, and feed them to the monkeys through the walls. It's really great.

Here's a picture of a few Japanese Macaques:

And here's a video I took of two child monkeys playing:

This is a picture of the beautiful path you follow to get down from the park.

After hanging out with the monkeys, I knew that nothing else that day would be quite as good. But I figured I'd better at least try.

I headed to this nearby bamboo grove. I had seen it on Reddit more than once and my guidebook made a big fuss about it, so I was really looking forward to it. But when I got there it was crowded, it didn't go on for very long, and there were absolutely no monkeys in sight. I was a little disappointed.

I went across town to the other main sightseeing area, Higashiyama. I walked up a narrow, touristy pedestrian street with many, many other people.

If it sounds like I have a bad attitude about this, it's because: 1. No monkeys.  2. Crowds move very slowly and erratically.  3. I can't tell how accurate this reconstruction of old Japan really is, and I have little historical context, so it doesn't mean much to me. But don't worry, I was generally happy to be there.

At the top of the pedestrian street was the fine looking temple that you can see in the photo.

More importantly, I finally saw schoolgirls in their sailor uniforms. You should be able to see them if you click the photo. I had been looking out for these since the start of my trip but the uniforms I saw in Tokyo and Osaka weren't sailory enough to satisfy me.

I didn't end up going into that temple. I felt like continuing on my way.

I kept walking past temples but knew that I had to go into at least one. I chose Shoren-in, which was appealing because my guidebook said that most tourists walk on past.

Although it had no monkeys, it did have an exceptional garden with a short walking path that leads you up a little hill, through a forested area, and back around.

Having successfully visited a temple, I figured I should probably head on back to Osaka for the evening. To get to the subway station, I walked down a street that my guidebook says is one of Kyoto's most beautiful. It was a pretty good street despite having no monkeys, and there were several women hanging out there in kimonos, as you can see to the right.

Back in Osaka, I wanted to do absolutely nothing because I had just spent four days walking. But I forced myself to get off the couch and find some okonomiyaki for dinner.

Okonomiyaki is another specialty of the city. It is likened to a pancake or pizza and has a variety of toppings, like shrimp and octopus, green onions, and bonito flakes. It was very nice.

After the yummy dinner, I went back to my Airbnb and its high-tech toilet. Google Translate helped me find the 'ass input' button, which I regret not experimenting with. The toilet also had a heated seat, which was really great the next morning before I had warmed the apartment back up.

Pictures for day four are here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/pH9SS3FBT0aGx6Tw2

Japan: Mike gets nude in Osaka

On my third day in Japan I travelled to the hit city "Osaka!"

I rode the Hikari bullet train, or shinkansen, which was pretty exciting for me. Here it is coming into the station.

There's a faster train in Japan but you can't use it with the Japan Rail Pass.

Train stations sell these boxes of food to take onto the train. It was a tasty treat.

It took about three hours to get to Osaka. I wasn't really sure what to do there so I just picked a neighborhood from my guidebook: Shinsekai.

It's a strange place. It has a theme park atmosphere but it isn't one. I read that the part I was in was modelled after Coney Island.

Osaka's motto is roughly "eat til you drop." They have various specialties, one of which is takoyaki, battered octopus balls slathered in mayo and teriyaki sauce.

It was cold and rainy out, most of the museums are closed on Tuesday, but what happened to be nearby? Spa World! It has various themed pools to soak in and apparently uses real hot spring water. But, like all hot springs in Japan, you must enjoy them nude.

You may be surprised by this, but I am not completely comfortable being nude around other people. I tend to be very selective about who can see my genitals and generally keep them covered in public.

I was provided with a very small towel but didn't want to blatantly cover myself because it would make people think that I was ashamed of myself. On the other hand, I didn't want people seeing what I had going on down there. I solved the problem with these two strategies:

1. I used my pale hairy body as a distraction mechanism. There's no time to judge a man's genitals if you're busy judging the rest of him.

2. I held the small towel close to my crotch but didn't completely cover it. I employed a technique that made it seem like I wasn't trying to hide anything but that still made it difficult to see anything.

After my soak, I checked into my Airbnb and set out to enjoy Dotonbori, a popular nightlife area. I wandered around and bought some gyoza to make my stomach and my dad happy (he is really into them these days).

There are also smaller, less busy side streets here that seem very cool.

Here's a more normal Osaka street, just for comparison.

The city also has a lot of freeway overpasses and wide streets that often made it tricky to navigate as a pedestrian.

You can see more photos from this day here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/LeebluloB1LOsIcG2

Japan: Mike eats fish

On my second morning in Tokyo I went to the Tsukiji Fish Market. There's a wholesale market that restaurants buy from but tourists generally aren't allowed in until 10 am and by then the vendors were packing up.

There's also a nice street market, shown here. It mostly sells seafood.







I went to Yamazaki in the 'inner market' of Tsukiji to have a sushi breakfast. I chose it because there was a line but not a ridiculous line. It still took about thirty minutes to get in as there are only about twelve seats inside.

This picture is of my meal. Two pieces of tuna and a piece of uni came out after I was finished the stuff shown.

It was tasty but I regret picking a set meal. One American couple picked from the daily specials list and were getting some awesome things, including seared fatty tuna (which I would have gone for) and live prawn (no thank you).

In Japan, people bury the dead in special parks and mark the burial spots with stone blocks. They call these 'cemeteries'. This picture is from Yanaka Cemetery. It was part of a nice walk that my guidebook suggested.

The walk continued past a train station where I saw a bevy of unlocked bicycles. That's right, a bevy. I saw this a lot in Japan. Invoking International Rule 513.4 (Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers), I spent the remainder of my vacation collecting and reselling bicycles.

Actually I just continued on my walk.

I was feeling a bit peckish again by this point, but not enough to eat at this Live Dog restaurant.

Not far from that restaurant, on the pleasant Yanaka Ginza shopping street, was an escapee. I didn't rat on him. I crouched down to pet him and when I came back up, an old Japanese man gave me the largest, warmest smile.

"You are a good person," his smiling eyes seemed to say. I responded with my own smiling eyes: "I really am good, aren't I? What a fine person I am!"

Buoyed by these compliments, I set off for Shinjuku, which is similar to the area I was staying and its tall buildings, crowds, lights, etc.

I wanted to try some more ramen so I went to Ichiran, a popular chain restaurant in which you eat in little solo booths. There is a partition on the left side as well, not shown in the photo.

The partition in the front lifts up so that they can deliver the food.

With food in my belly, I was ready to hit up Harajuku, a fashion district that I knew about from old Gwen Stefani songs.

My favourite part of this area was Takeshita-dōri, a busy and narrow shopping street that Lonely Planet says is "a pilgrimage site for teens from all over Japan." You can see a picture of it on the right.

Here are more photos from this day: https://photos.app.goo.gl/RfZkEJwXv7Gandre2

Japan: Mike explores Tokyo

Being in a foreign country when you can't speak the language is tricky. You can see a storefront and not have a clue what it even is. For example, what is this place trying to sell?

I only started taking pictures later in the day, so unfortunately I can't show you my breakfast at the cheap chain restaurant Sukiya. Please imagine this: white rice, miso soup, pickled vegetables, and natto (fermented soybeans). Here is what natto looks like:

from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Natto_on_rice.jpg

I didn't mind the taste but the stringiness was off-putting because the strands are really hard to break. I felt like they ended up on my chin on every bite, so I kept wiping my face with a napkin.

I was told you can get anything in a vending machine in Japan. I was disappointed to discover that this wasn't true. To me it seems like 97% of the machines are for drinks, 2% are for cigarettes, and 1% are for ice cream treats.

But: they are everywhere. The picture to the left is just some side street and there are four machines there. That's in Akihabara, the neighbourhood for people who like video games, comics and electronics.

As the day went on, I found myself getting used to Japanese writing. I can actually make out a couple of the characters in this sign!

For lunch I went to the mall at Tokyo Station because there are several high quality ramen places there. I didn't feel like waiting in a long line for the most popular one so I just picked one at random.

While eating, I had a nice chat with a young Japanese woman from Osaka. She asked me if I had ever used chopsticks before. This is after she saw me using them. So either I am not as good at chopsticks as I think I am, or she was hoping she had discovered a chopsticks prodigy. She likely wanted to train me up to be a Grandmaster and make a comfortable living as my agent or manager. She was disappointed to learn that I had been using chopsticks for years.

Later in the afternoon I walked through Ueno Park. It's a large park with beautiful trees and this wooden structure which looks nice when it's lit up. A lot of Japan looked nicer in the dark. They've got the night time thing down pat.

The park also has a zoo and the National Museum but I didn't go to either.

If there's one thing a beautiful park needs, it's a large Starbucks. There's a line out the door!

Tokyo must have a fancy coffee scene developing as there are several Californian shops there. The Verve Coffee location list is: Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Tokyo. It's odd seeing it there.

A lot of casual restaurants, especially ramen places, have this system where you pay for your meal at a machine and then hand the ticket over to someone. It's convenient.

Eating in Japan was easy as a solo traveller. A ton of restaurants have bar seating so that you don't have to feel bad about taking up a table in a small place.

This is a temple entrance at night, lit only by the vending machine in the courtyard.

I had a lot of fun on my first day in Tokyo. There are more photos here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/CUlXxhXo22WepcLj1

Japan: Mike watches a movie

Hello. I went to Japan! Or, as they like to call it, 日本国.

On the airplane to 日本国, I was excited about experiencing the off-the-wall aspects of the culture. So when I saw that the (hit?) Japanese movie Let Me Eat Your Pancreas was available, I jumped on the opportunity to watch it. It turned out to be a touching drama about a schoolgirl with a terminal illness who teaches her friends to embrace life. I enjoyed it.












When I arrived at Haneda Airport in Tokyo, I hopped on the subway (which I was also excited about) and got off at the station closest to my Airbnb in Shibuya. This was my first glimpse of Tokyo and it was awesome:

This is Shibuya Crossing, supposedly the busiest intersection in Japan and maybe the world.

I was pretty tired so I found my Airbnb, had a surprisingly good microwave dinner from 7-Eleven, and went to bed.  More photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/B5HiFPBceCTHvCTt2