アとアンディの神隠し

A little publicity

2009-08-14T06:03:00.003+09:00

I have a little writeup on the Oberlin college website that went up this week. You can check it out here.

I left out two pretty major aspects of the trip, though, I guess because I wanted to keep the story short. However, I really ought to give them their due.

My mom taught me a lot about having fun while touring. She was a rockin' mentor. It was also great to see how Japan would look from the eyes of someone totally new to the culture. I'm glad I got to show her parts of the country where few foreign tourists venture, particularly in Kyushu.

And my trip would not have been anywhere near as wonderful if it weren't for Siena. She was my lifeline, my rock, and all those other goofy romantic things. Some people say "We'll always have Paris," but Siena and I will always have Hiroshima, Osaka, Kyoto, and Amanohashidate.

つまり

2009-06-19T04:38:00.003+09:00

So that's the end of my pictures to post. My next little project will involve arranging photos on the Google map overly that Siena made, marking every time I told her where I was. However, that will have to wait until I ship my computer to Palo Alto and find the time while starting my new job (at Facebook!).
Oh, and you can check out a short series of ads about smoking and subway etiquette that I put up here.
---
I think there are a lot of wonderful aspects of Japanese culture (like hot baths and not having to tip), but there are also plenty of aggravating things (like xenophobia and a lack of good bread). I thought I might have some reverse culture shock, but instead I just find myself appreciating all the English everywhere. I also really enjoy how everything around me in the US is organized and decorated in a symbolism that I can easily understand. And it's great to be able to get food that I love, and to understand all the nuances of a conversation with a random person.

I feel pretty great about the area I covered and the things I've seen, and I'm also glad that I still want to visit Japan and study Japanese. But I'm ready to go back to a steady consumption of Japanese popular culture and contemplation of their history and social issues.

I also want to thank everyone who helped me along the way. There are a lot of you, and no one wants to read a long list of every memory I have of being helped. But thanks.

Back to Tokyo

2009-06-19T04:15:00.003+09:00

After rebooking my flight, I had a few days to wander around Tokyo. There was something refreshing and exciting about coming out of the subway in Asakusa. The first thing I saw was the Asahi building.

The bartender at the hostel suggested that I check out 井の頭公園 Inokashira Park, since I'd seen most of the major tourist destinations in Tokyo. It turned out to be perfect for an overcast day, and also for adjusting back to the city.
It looks rural, but I am on a jogging path and behind me up the hill are apartments.
I can't stop taking pictures of shrines and temples. This one might actually be a teahouse. Anyways, I liked the bright red sticking out of the greenery.

Inokashira Park is also home to the ジブリ美術館　Ghibli Museum, which I saw described as the anti-Disneyland. Only about 60 people are allowed inside at a time. You also have to buy tickets ahead of time for a specific time of the day, and your reservation expires if you are more than 20 minutes late. I didn't go in, but I got some pictures.

I had seen a picture of Mike and Mog in front of this robot, but I never would have guessed it was actually on the roof.

Zenkoji

2009-06-19T03:50:00.004+09:00

The next day we woke up in that soccer field and headed to Nagano. Our first stop was 善光寺　Zenkouji Temple. I had thought that by this time I would be sick of temples, but this one was actually pretty awesome. The signs led us to the back way, so this is what it looked like from that angle.
So we toured it backwards, starting with the main building and working our way down to the front gate. We weren't really supposed to take pictures in the main building, but Gray stood outside and zoomed in to take a picture of me rubbing this Binzuru healing statue.
There was a really active tourist info booth, where we learned that お焼き oyaki are the local snack food, basically vegetable dumplings. I naturally went for かぼちゃ kabocha pumpkin, and it was delicious.
We had missed a special once-in-five-years display of an ancient hidden Buddha statue (although Wikipedia says it's only a replica on display). The pole in this picture is attached to the statue (not sure if it's the real one or the replica) by five golden strings, so everyone likes to touch it afterwards.

Then we got waylaid by another English-speaking volunteer guide, who took us all around the temple complex. This included the main sanctuary and a pitch-black tunnel that goes under the holy of holies. Inside the tunnel is the "key to paradise," which felt like a door knocker. Having touched it, I am now guaranteed to be reincarnated in the Pure Land, where it's super easy to attain enlightenment.

After that, we participated in a tea ceremony that had been arranged by the conference that had taken up all the hotels the night before.

And then our guide took us to the museum where they have replicas of a number of the statues on site. My favorite were the three-headed Hindu-inspired ones that live in the main gate.

---
Despite having an awesome morning, as we were starting our climb out of Nagano, I reached the end of my tether and decided to turn back. From my perspective now, I think it was a very good idea to give myself a full 8 days to sort everything out before moving to California. Also, three months is a very long amount of time to be travelling in a foreign country. Someday I'd like to go back, but not for a few years.

On to Matsumoto

2009-06-17T12:25:00.009+09:00

The next day we descended to Matsumoto, through some fairly unpleasant, narrow tunnels. Along the way we stopped at a 道の駅 road station which just so happened to have REAL BREAD!

The actual bakery was just across the street, too! It was expensive but I got really excited.

Matsumoto was surprisingly picturesque. I've already mentioned how nice it was.

It's got a castle, where I was waylaid by an English-speaking volunteer guide. It also had a ton of little touristy sites downtown, most of which are in that statue album I posted recently. We stayed for two nights, and since we had access to a kitchen, we decided to shop at the local supermarket for dinner. Being from Pittsburgh, we were excited to find this:

On our rest day, I was excited to go to the Japan Ukiyoe Museum.

Ukiyoe is the Japanese word for woodblock prints, although it literally means "pictures of the floating world." Apparently it houses the largest collection of woodblock prints, collected and passed down by a wealthy merchant family since the art form's heyday in the Tokugawa era. I was also treated to a slideshow in English, and then right afterwards the narrator appeared behind the ticket desk.

To be honest, though, I was more impressed with the Matsumoto museum of art.

It focused mostly on native artists, but they were pretty cool, including Yayoi Kasuma. I also really enjoyed an exhibit devoted to a landscape painter that included a reconstruction of his studio.

The next day we headed for an "organic pizza restaurant" that was on my map, which turned out to be in an artsy farm-y town north of Matsumoto. It started to rain as we zeroed in on the area, and then based on my reading of the map we had to push our bikes along an unpaved path to get to it. I'd say it was probably one of the most magical moments on the whole trip. The food and decor and atmosphere were all very comforting, and I even shelled out the extra money for 玄米 brown rice, because you can never find it in Japan. These pictures don't really do it justice, but I'll post them anyways.

They are actually called Shalom, and right now the literature they gave me is tucked away. They've got a ペンション bed and breakfast, a cafe where you can see them make the bread, and a "bazaar". What actually made me almost cry was hearing American folk music playing in the bazaar.

2009-06-17T11:31:00.010+09:00

So after a fun evening in Takayama, which included eating dinner at a curry place called Jakson's (best Japanese curry I've ever had), we set out for the serious
mountains I'd thought about all trip. We soon could see them in the distance.

This gave us some inspiration during a totally exhausting climb.

We camped just outside an onsen town, where I tried the "onsen egg," which is just an egg cooked in hot spring water.

And I have to post this picture, because it's so silly and it worked so well.

The next day we had planned to leave our gear and bike up this crazy climb, but Gray hadn't slept well, and I couldn't find any decent climbing food. So I took the bus, which turned out to take about an hour. I think we made the right choice, because it took Aston Martin 3 hours to climb the road, and 30 minutes to get back down. The top looked kinda like this:

I only had about an hour between busses, so I quickly climbed the peak that the maps said would take 15 minutes, and then wandered around the shops. Here's me at the peak. Although I sort of trimmed my beard in Takayama, it's gotten pretty long since I last shaved in Tokyo.

That afternoon we crossed 安房峠　Abou Pass. I'm not sure how much we climbed in 7km, but we ended up at 1790 meters above sea level. Either way, this one was a little easier, and had better views.

Note that that is the road I was just on over there.

The top happened to be the border between Gifu and Nagano Prefectures, so we got a nice dramatic view.

Then we coasted down, learning that Nagano Prefecture likes to post signs counting their hairpin turns, and the proceeded to climb up to Kamikochi. Inside a tunnel. At 11% grade. For 1.3 kilometers.

After I recovered, we were greeted by monkeys! The scenery here was also completely gorgeous.

That's me on Kappa Bridge. Immediately afterwards we discovered that there are no restaurants in Kamikochi, and that everyone had either brought food for their camping stoves or were eating at exclusive hotel restaurants. I suppose we lucked out that some hotel receptionist was willing to sell us some rolls and rice balls, but it was one of lower points on the trip.

2009-06-17T11:24:00.001+09:00

The computers at Asakusa Smile, the hostel I stayed at in Tokyo, left a virus in every folder on my ipod.

Statues collection annotated

2009-06-16T06:26:00.002+09:00

I've finished annotating my collection of interesting statues and sculptures. You can find them here. Some are historical, and some are artistic. Many are weird.

お帰り、マクドナルド

2009-06-15T13:34:00.002+09:00

As I'm going through my old keepsakes while preparing to move to California, I found an old info sheet on Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald (ラジオの時間　or Radio Time in Japanese), a Japanese comedy movieshown at the Carnegie around 2000/2001. I still remember this movie, which was pretty great, and I also remember mentioning it to people the following summer in Okinawa, although I didn't realize that it had won several Japanese Academy Awards. Looking at this sheet now, I see that the film series was organized with the assistance of Keiko McDonald, who I didn't actually know, but who I heard headed the Japanese Studies department at the University of Pittsburgh, and who I believe recently passed away recently.

Shirakawa-go and Mountains

2009-06-14T13:27:00.004+09:00

So the day after that dam, we came to Shirakawa-go, a World Cultural Heritage Site for its thatched-roof houses, called 合掌造り　gassho-zukuri or "clasped hands." People still live in them.

(note the satellite dish)

Here's a better picture of what the town looks like, taken from Wikipedia

My other cool picture of this town is of the Buddhist temple.

---
After that we proceeded to bike through 天生峠　Amou Pass, an 800 meter climb over 12 km according to the Japanese Wikipedia. It was drizzly and foggy, but that was good because I tend to overheat. I had trouble for the first few kilometers, but by about halfway I had found my groove. Great views, though.
Actually this is a poster next to the road. All I could see was fog.

There was a sweet plaque to mark the actual pass. It's written right to left, which was how they did things before 1945. I couldn't really read the plaque, sadly, but someday I'll read it, too, like the plaque on the Peeing Boy of Nakatsu.

Then we descended carefully down the other side. I caught a picture of Gray going by across a curve.

Eventually we made it (through some pretty run-down towns) to Furukawa, yet another cute historic town. This one is kind of famous for its carpenters, who all had distinctive cloud patterns on the eaves.
Finally we made it to Takayama, where we met up with our host, Mike. He took our picture with this weird statue (I'm still annotating my album of statues, it'll be done soon).
On the way up to his apartment, Mike pointed out this cult building, which is apparently going to survive the apocalypse and is incredibly tacky.

Cartoon series

2009-06-13T04:18:00.003+09:00

I took a lot of pictures of odd cartoons on my journeys. You can check them out, with comments and some locations, in this Picasa album. I'll upload all the sculptures and statues next.

If any tech-y people have advice on incorporating geo-location into photo albums, lemme know.

Going home

2009-06-10T14:24:00.001+09:00

This will be my last cell post unless i get bored in the next 2 hours before my flight takes off. ill post more pics and thoughts as i readjust to life in the USA.

2009-06-10T07:52:00.009+09:00

So then after looking around Hachiman and filling my water bottles from a spring in town, we continued northwards.

Here's the spring.

The next fun attraction was a waterfall that Kobo Daishi (remember him?) meditated under.
This was in the middle of our first real climb.

Then we crossed the Continental Divide. There was a little park.
One side of this arrow flows to the Pacific Ocean, while the other flows to the Sea of Japan. You see a lot of this kind of cheesy stuff in Japan. Otherwise the park was really nice.

Next we rode around a huge dammed lake, which wasn't very pretty, but was cool.
Here are two giant sakura trees transplanted from temples that were submerged by the dam. The placards try to tell a story of the trees' survival as a symbol of nature being okay with these sorts of dammed lakes. I'm not so sure. Still, the dam was pretty cool to look at.

more pix

2009-06-10T07:01:00.007+09:00

Okay, so we didn't end up exchanging photo data before he left, but I'll probably post some of the best ones later on.

So Gray and I set out from Gifu and headed north. It wasn't long before we could see snow-capped mountains, something I hadn't seen in Western Japan.

Having Gray around made me appreciate the scenery again, so I'll post one of the views from the road. This is pretty typical rural Japan.

Right so the weirdest part of the first day was this:

This is the 日本まん真ん中 exact center of Japan (at least by population in 1990). The building is also a giant sundial with numbers in the parking lot. Inside there's a bunch of art and a community center. Also, that needle goes all the way down to a map of Japan:

Then, as you know, we made it to Gujo Hachiman, a cute historic town. The Youth Hostel was also a temple and a day care center, but was closed. Not exactly sure why but it involved the most intense apology i've ever seen. But then it turned out we could camp by the river. The next morning looked like this:

Be sure to ask Gray about his electric bath.

Haha

2009-06-09T18:52:00.001+09:00

2009-06-09T18:22:00.001+09:00

Packed, took Gray to Ueno, saw a contemporary art exhibition at the Royal Art Museum. it was pretty sweet. Nara Yoshitomo had some paintings there, and Murakami Haruki had a screen with flowers like his Louis Vuitton bags.

Also just noticed ads for Murakami Harukis new book, IQ84. sounds interesting.

2009-06-08T16:56:00.004+09:00

So then I left Kyoto and crossed the Biwa Lake Great Bridge, which by the way plays music when you drive across in your car. Then I rode along the coast of the lake, the other side from where I went last time.
When I got to Hikone, I wandered around the castle until my couchsurfing host was done at work. Fool that I am, I did not take his picture (I realize now that I should have taken the pictures of all the people who helped me on this journey, but I guess that's okay), although I did take a picture of this goofy castle mascot.
I've taken a lot of pictures of goofy mascots. I might do a series on that after I get home.

Next day I set off towards Gifu. Not much to see since Sekigahara was lame, but I kind of like this weird futuristic building from early in the day:
That night Gray arrived. Man, how long ago was that? I can't remember.

Finally some pictures.

2009-06-08T16:42:00.005+09:00

So the last time I posted serious pictures was after my Amanohashidate side trip. The next thing I'll photoblog is our trip to Universal Studios Japan:
They have Sesame Street characters, including a dubbed 3D movie with those water spray gimmicks (including bubbles and liquid nitrogen steam). I do love Sesame Street.
All the streets were set up to look like major American cities, like New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. We resisted the temptation to take pictures of US mailboxes, but here's a picture of SF.
Just ignore that girl in the front and focus on the skyline.

I think i mentioned that the most special thing about USJ is that it still has Back to the Future
And for some reason it has a Wizard of Oz land, as dear to my heart as Sesame Street.
This was the 3rd theme park that Siena and I went to. Kind of odd, considering how rarely I go to theme parks in America.

Fun in Tokyo

2009-06-08T16:33:00.004+09:00

Had a good afternoon exploring further reaches of Tokyo. First was 井の頭 Inokashira park, which was really nice even on a gloomy day like today, and happens to include the Ghibli Museum. You have to buy tickets in advance to get in, but I got some cool pictures of the outside that I'll put up soon (gonna post all my pictures chronologically in the next day or so). Then I want to Nakano, which I'd heard about from this free magazine Metropolis. Basically it's another otaku (geek) mecca, particularly the Broadway building, which has intense shops featuring hobbies such as antique toys, action figures, records, comics, collectibles, old books, cameras, costumes, video games, and just about everything else. It was glorious. The biggest store was Mandarake, which covered most of Japanese popular culture, but my favorite was Papier, a tiny cramped store that was mostly devoted to French comics, including gorgeous framed comic art all over the walls.

In other news, Siena found a place for us to live this summer! It sounds lovely. I'm excited.

Knowing when to quit

2009-06-07T10:42:00.001+09:00

Even after having a great time at Zenkouji Temple, finding the key to paradise in the dark and participating in a public tea ceremony organized by that conference, i reached a point yesterday where i realized i wanted to stop early and go home. so ive rebooked my return trip for wednesday and am taking the shinkansen from Nagano to Tokyo today. maybe ill do a day trip to Nikko, maybe ill come back in 20 years and go from Nagano to Hokkaido. ill keep you posted.

2009-06-07T06:29:00.001+09:00

It was when i decided to quit grad school and move to California that i became a grown-up, but i didnt realize it until last night.

2009-06-06T06:57:00.001+09:00

There is a conference in Nagano, so all the hotels are booked, except for smoking rooms. so we ended up camping in a soccer field next to a farm in this suburb. not bad, but i was really looking forward to clean lodging.

2009-06-05T13:23:00.000+09:00

Just had lunch at a hippie community on the way to Nagano. nearly moved to tears.

2009-06-04T20:32:00.001+09:00

So the Woodblock Print Museum was cool, including a slideshow in english, but the best thing today was the art museum. it featured work by artists from matsumoto, who were all really talented. i have to make sure to remember their names.

Matsumoto

2009-06-04T11:36:00.001+09:00

The stars might not be right for photos just yet, but Matsumoto is a lovely, friendly city. theres a sweet original castle, pretty decorated streets, and a woodblock print museum. perfect for a rest day.

Norikura and Kamikouchi

2009-06-03T07:20:00.001+09:00

Today we descend from the mountains to Matsumoto. The views have been spectacular and the climbing hardcore, but finding food when youre not in a hotel is a drag. I promise more details and pics when we take a rest day in Matsumoto.

Takayama

2009-06-01T08:47:00.000+09:00

Forgot to mention the mountain pass between the village and Takayama. i dont care much for stats, so suffice it to say it was intense.
takayama host Mike very nice, went to okinawa on the same program as me the same year. had awesome curry and planed our next few days at the top of japan.

Shirakawa

2009-05-30T21:07:00.001+09:00

Met a bunch of cyclists today at the end of the day. They had just done a grueling mountain climb, and also had suggestions for us. im a little apprehensive about changing our route, but it might be worthwhile.
highlights of today: steep climbs, a waterfall where Bhuddist saint Kobo Daishi meditated, riding around a lake up to the hydroelectric plant and dam, eating peanut butter and dark chocolate, the continental divide park, eatingとろろ tororo ground mountain potato goo on a skillet.
Tomorrow famous old huts and arriving in Takayama.

2009-05-29T20:22:00.001+09:00

First day with Gray a success. as expected, he is bringing new enthusiasm to the trip, which i needed.
made it to Gujo Hachiman, not extremely far but good. saw the 日本まん真ん中 very center of Japan (details later), had an electrified bath, and ate local river fish. camping by the river tonight (in the middle of town).

Donutsburger

2009-05-28T20:13:00.001+09:00

2009-05-28T09:56:00.001+09:00

Didnt make it on a bus before Gray got to the station, but he made it to my stop just fine. today we assemble his bike, but now that hes here, i feel optimistic.

2009-05-27T19:57:00.001+09:00

Staying in a desolate part of Gifu, although in japan even the crappiest of suburbs have rice paddies next to the parking lots.
going to meet Gray at Gifu station. maybe downtown gifu isnt so bad？

rough day

2009-05-27T14:53:00.001+09:00

Im not sure if its the weather, or the pollution, or the traffic, or the lack of sleep last night, but im taking the train the rest of the way in to Gifu. my legs just dont want to pedal hard any more. Made it as far as Tarui 垂井, a little past Sekigahara. For being a historic battleground, it was pretty lame.
Hoping to hear from Gray soon, when he lands, and also from our couchsurfing host.

2009-05-26T17:57:00.001+09:00

Im a little late, but congratulations 卒業おめでとう to all my friends who graduated from Oberlin recently. Now go do awesome things with your life！

Mosburger

2009-05-26T17:46:00.001+09:00

Mosburger is my number one favorite fast food joint in Japan, for many reason, primarily to do with their unique sandwiches. They also have various limited time specials, and this month theyre teaming up with Mr. Donut. Mr. Donut is offering a confectionary that resembles a burger, and Mosburger is offering what is pictured below: a burger with a donut-shaped patty, with wasabi mayo sauce filling the hole. Genius, and delicious.

ITS OVER 3000！！

2009-05-26T13:33:00.001+09:00

its not totally accurate, but my odometer is now over 3000km, roughly 1800 miles. v(^o^)

2009-05-26T13:11:00.001+09:00

Im not sure what the difference is between what the Japanese call ピラフpilaf and what the call チャンポンstir-fried rice. They look the same to me.

back on the road

2009-05-25T22:03:00.002+09:00

Two days in Osaka, having fun with Siena. The first day we spent all afternoon doing Karaoke with some of her Japanese friends and then had awesome, very authentic Mexican food. Then the next day we went to Universal Studios Japan for real, where they still have Back to the Future. The absolute best ride was Spiderman, though, because it was a 3D (plus little water sprays) movie combined with a roller coaster. And I do love Spiderman, even in Japanese.

Today I biked from Osaka to Kyoto, then immediately got on a train halfway back to Osaka to see Siena. Tomorrow she's flying back to the land of the free and the home of the brave. Meanwhile I'll be heading back to Lake Biwa, this time going around the other side to Hikone.

I like the Kansai area, but I'm definitely more into the countryside than the deep urban jungles.

2009-05-25T11:37:00.001+09:00

Found the Bike Friday dealer in Osaka, but theyre closed on mondays. (-_-)

Softbank

2009-05-22T23:00:00.004+09:00

Recently there have been ads in the subway for Softbank, the cell phone company that makes the prepaid phone I'm using.

Obama, and Amanohashidate

2009-05-22T22:16:00.004+09:00

So after I camped on the shore of Lake Biwa, I biked along the coast for a while, and then headed across to the small resort town of Obama.
They are excited to suddenly have the same name as the American President. I stopped in the Tourist Information desk at the train station and they asked me to fill out a survey, and then gave me free chopsticks (every town in Japan has a local product).
This was on her desk.
These were actually in a rest stop before I got into the city. I think the pictured guy there is actually someone else who vaguely resembles Obama. The words are confusing - right now I'm not sure if it's saying to cheer on the town of Obama, or that the town is cheering on the president. I mean it makes more sense if the town is cheering for the president, but anyways.

After that I biked along the coast, with some nice bike paths that got seriously close to the coast (there's some sort of long distance nature trail that was going my way). I learned from my map that there are two nuclear power plants on peninsulas around there. Creepy.

That night I ran into two Australians who had found the same abandoned campground. Their names are Peter and Ruth, and they were very nice. I invited them along to the Italian restaurant my map recommended, with a counter that overlooks the sea, and they were delighted to have someone who could read the menu. I want to be them someday, taking vacations to bike through India and Southeast Asia and Japan. They were so easygoing, happily meandering along the coast. Sadly I didn't take their pictures, but they are awesome folks.

Next day we set off to Amanohashidate, another one of the three most beautiful views in Japan. Parted ways with the Aussies in Maizuru, though they caught up with me by the time I got to the Youth Hostel.
Which was mostly because Siena and I walked across the land bridge instead of cycling. Apparently inside of the land bridge wasn't that picturesque, but the view the next day from the mountaintop was pretty great.

You're supposed to look at it between your legs, because upside-down it looks like a bridge to heaven. (That's what the name means, by the way, bridge to heaven.)
I'll leave it to you to decide. I think it's awesome.
Also we are happy, even if our heads are in the way.

Then we took the bus back, and here I am back in Osaka. I've got a few more days here before I head off on my bike again. I'm definitely glad I did these side trips.

Sometimes I miss having a home, not having the stress of finding a place to sleep for the night. But there is something nice about being out in the countryside, a rhythm to pedaling and finding food and setting up the tent.

2009-05-20T07:23:00.000+09:00

Slept on the shore of Lake Biwa last night.

2009-05-18T09:19:00.003+09:00

This was my approach to the Youth Hostel in Ise (actually Futami-no-Ura, the neighboring town, but whatever). I knew that the hostel had the same name as a local temple, but the taxi driver dropped me off right here (actually down the hill a little, but those pictures aren't as good). It was raining, and quite magical. Just inside the gate are your standard angry guardian statues and everything. Then after I checked in, the monk (who looked middle-aged and had hair) showed me the Boddhisatva inside the temple. It was beautiful, really a once in a lifetime experience. He told me that it's been designated a National Treasure, and was from the Kamakura era.

Next day I went to see the "wedded rocks," which I posted about yesterday. They were smaller than i had imagined, but still pretty cool.

Ise proper has two shrine complexes, the 外宮　Geku , outer shrine, and the 内宮, Naigu inner shrine. The outer shrine is devoted to the goddess of the harvest, who really just guards the offerings to the Amaterasu Omikami, the sun goddess and most important god in Japan. You can't take pictures of the real things, but here's an example of an auxiliary shrine to get a sense of the architecture.
Passed a catholic church between shrines, lol.

During the Edo period, people would say "at least once in my life I want to go to Ise." Here I am, as close as you're allowed to photograph to the main shrine.

All in all, it wasn't as moving as anything in Italy, but still a wonderful side trip.

More about Ise tonight.

2009-05-17T09:39:00.001+09:00

2009-05-15T21:19:00.011+09:00

Okay, so tonight I am renting a computer for 1000 yen, and staying in a business hotel, in Iga-Ueno 伊賀上野. It is the hometown of Matsu Basho, the great haiku poet, and ninjas (according to wikipedia, that includes Hattori Hanzo, of Kill Bill sword-making fame, and I think i remember seeing something about that). I'm a little bummed not to be camping, but I'm making the best of it. But let's rewind (bwip bwip bwip bwip) -

Last time I posted I was talking about the river in Kyoto. By the way, this is the Kamogawa River. But I've been meaning to write about my haircut experience, which was awesome. I always get nervous when I go to get a haircut, about whether I can retain the look I want while having less hair. I have enough concerns conveying what I want in English, let alone Japanese. But I needed a haircut, so I asked the friendly staff at K's House where I should go for a cheap haircut. They directed me to a mall south of the station, and it turned out to cost 1000 yen. You pay at a machine, then wait in line with your ticket. They call you up, saying various keigo (very polite speech) phrases. There's a closet at each booth for your stuff, a little TV with the weather and headlines. The hairdressers all wear surgical masks and uniforms, and I saw them sweep all the hair from the previous guest into a vacuum suctioned hole along the wall. Then I sat down and he asked me basically the same questions I get in English. Do I want the ears exposed? 耳は、出せる感じ？Do I want the back up the the hairline? 後ろはぎりぎり？ I stuttered in Japanese, and then we got to work, although not until after I placed my glasses in a special box.

He worked quickly, and then proceeded to vacuum my hair. This was prefaced by a polite "I will now (humbly) vacuum your hair." In case you didn't know, hair that is not connected to your head is considered unclean in Japan. But you know, I didn't feel itchy afterwards. And my hair looks great.

Now I just need to shave, but I don't really want to.

Then I swung by the Historical Site of Rashoman Gate, which is now a playground. I guess it burned down a long time ago, but it's still ironic.

The next day I went to Kinkakuji, aka the Golden Pavillion. I know it's probably cliche or something, but honestly I think this is the coolest thing in Kyoto. There were a million schoolkids, and I got interviewed by some middle schoolers practicing their English.

Apparently each floor is done in a different style. And it was burned down by a crazy monk in 1950. I'm glad they rebuilt it. Actually, most of the temples in Kyoto were burned down at some point and rebuilt, although usually in the 1200s.
Then I went to an amusement park with Siena, but I didn't bring my camera. Bug her for pictures of the whole day. The rides were fun - there was a wooden coaster and a knock-off of the wild mouse, and I did a free fall for the first time. Hardly anyone was there, so we did all the cool rides twice.

Then yesterday I biked to Nara! I like Nara a lot. It's much quieter than Kyoto, and more laid back. Of course, I didn't spend that much time downtown, except to eat at a super fancy bar, the kind with tiny entrees for 8 bucks, but at least it was unique. (I went to マク McD afterwards for something to actually fill me.) That evening I did see Kusaga Taisha 春日大社, the grand shrine there, and the front of Todaiji 東大寺.

The first one is all about Lanterns,

and the second one is just totally sweet.

I went back the next day because there's a giant Buddha in Todaiji. Hey, that's today!

Then a bunch of stupid things happened involving me leaving my helmet in the bathroom and forgetting that I left it there. Finally I set out and had some glorious riding, with lots of hills and nature and not that many cars. Eventually I got to the suburbs, greeted by this:

Also I saw this on my way to the hotel.

And now I can go to bed.

2009-05-13T12:05:00.001+09:00

My favorite part of Kyoto is the Kamogawa River. When you go down to the bank, all the city noise fades away. There are ducks and crane-type birds and grass growing in the shallow parts. There are shanties under nearly every bridge, and i can see why. Its the most peaceful part of the city.

2009-05-12T13:28:00.001+09:00

Went to the Kyoto International Manga Museum yesterday. They had an exhibit on Moebius, a French creator who has had a very big influence on manga. I loved his surrealism. But the exhibit on La Bande Dessinees (French language comics) was the most exciting. So many gorgeous and fascinating titles id never heard of! I might have to relearn french - Im sad to say i can understand written french better than japanese.

2009-05-11T20:09:00.001+09:00

I kind of appreciate the wide variety of tourists and foreigners in Kyoto.

More Osaka, and some Kyoto

2009-05-11T11:06:00.007+09:00

So what else did we do in Osaka? We went to the castle park one day, and had a picnic.

We also went to the ultra-modern waterfront, and rode the ferris wheel.
It was too rainy and crowded to actually go to the aquarium, but we did wander around the Universal Studios shopping center. Hopefully we'll get to go back soon.

By the way, these pictures are all on Siena's facebook page. I think you need to be her friend to see all of them, so I'll still upload a bunch, but there are more (really cute ones) over there.

Now I'm in Kyoto, where I've already gone to a ton of cultural things.

Like Arashiyama (super popular bridge and garden),

Ryoanji (zen rock garden),

Kiyomizudera (drank from the holy spring, forgot to do the womb tunnel),

and the National Museum exhibit on Zen treasures.
I like how this museum, built in the late 1800s, looks very European.
Except they used Eastern gods of art and culture for their relief.
By the way, my favorite artist was Hakuin, from the Edo period. This is a portrait of Bodhidharmu, known as Daruma in Japan. This portrait is huge, and I saw it in real life.

Oh, and Kyoto Station, which is not ancient at all but still really awesome.

--
I feel weird sending postcards from places I haven't actually seen, but I feel weirder sending multiple copies of the same postcard. I understand that this is silly.

Yesterday, I was eating a ビビンバーガー bibimburger (bibimba is a Korean dish, and this bakery decided to put it in a bun) by the side of the river in Shijo (between the Geisha district and the shopping district), and a HAWK FLEW DOWN AND SNATCHED MY LAST BITE. I think that is my craziest experience in Japan so far.

Also yesterday I located an outdoor supply store (in that shopping district), right underneath an anime store I'd been to twice. Anyways, now I have a new bag for my tent, and padded biking gloves. Hurray!

Kyoto

2009-05-07T19:14:00.001+09:00

central Kyoto has a classic feel to it, a beige and mahogany tone to the streets. i like that, even if im not that taken by Kyotos attitude as the arbiter of japanese high culture.

2009-05-05T22:53:00.001+09:00

I have officially given up on japanese beer.

Days in Kyushu with Mom

2009-05-04T23:08:00.000+09:00

The best thing about Kyushu was the food. This is what we ate for lunch on our first full day. It was all delicious.

We only stayed in Fukuoka for one night (although it was a really cool city). The tonkotsu ramen was pretty awesome, too. I found a good route to take up the next few days onbikely.com. Then we dashed off south to Kurume 久留米, a town that has a bike path, and headed northwest. The bike path stopped at Harazuru　原鶴, a little onsen (hot spring) resort town, where we stayed at a real hotel. My mom was excited to wear the yukata robes.

The next day we backtracked a bit to see the 8th biggest tree in Japan. It's supposed to be 1500 years old. My mom also took pictures of three little old ladies who were tending their gardens right next door.

Next we passed through a cute Meiji era historical town, crossed a mountain path, and headed to the Yamakuni 山国bike path.
Here's a torii gate with a tunnel dug by monks in the background. The actual shrine is behind us, but you have to pass between a gas station and a convenience store to go there, and we didn't want to photograph them.

At the end of the bike path was Nakatsu 中津, with a lovely castle and shrine. There was a cute high school couple eating lunch in their uniforms to the left that I really wanted to photograph.

And those are my Kyushu pictures. The main thing that's missing is the landscape, which is much more spacious than Shikoku or western Honshu, and the wheat fields. Also the Shinkansen, which I was very excited to take back to Hiroshima. Also, it's funny how no one outside the area knew of any of the towns except maybe Kurume.

2009-05-04T22:43:00.001+09:00

So, I'm in glamorous Osaka, after a short stay in Kobe. Here's a picture of the Kobe waterfront, from a hip new shopping area called Mosaic (pronounced Mozaiku).

Osaka is great, although I kinda miss the countryside. Yesterday we took the train to Takarazuka, home of the all-female revue (which is famous for its actresses who play male roles),

and hometown of Osamu Tezuka, the "God of Manga."
This is the Phoenix, from his epic life's work. (Oh, and I bought a new shirt!)

Then we went to Namba, Osaka's equivalent of Time Square. Siena will probably post better self-portraits on her Facebook.
Now I'm gonna post some pictures from Kyushu.

水虫

2009-05-01T12:20:00.001+09:00

It kind of disturbs me that athletes foot is called みずむし "water bugs" in Japanese.

Holy crap a castle！

2009-04-28T10:42:00.001+09:00

2009-04-28T07:58:00.001+09:00

On another ferry, this time to Himeji, site of a world famous original castle.
Shodoshima was pretty unimpressive, despite vigorous promotion. although the soft serve ice cream at Tsukudani was the best ive ever had.
Apparently the japanese dont eat raw carrots, and even mentioning it to the onsen desk guy prompted him to offer me some corn. it came sealed in plastic, and i think he boiled it in the bag. ate with the last of the butter mom bought.

seeing siena today！<3

2009-04-27T11:04:00.001+09:00

also every time i take a ferry i think of the"Im on a boat" music video.

Okayama

2009-04-27T10:50:00.001+09:00

Had some good experiences in Kurashiki and sme mild disasters in Okayama. The hostel owner and other guests in Kurashiki were amazingly friendly and taljative. the town itself has a pretty meiji era district with a canal and a great art museum.

Okayama is supposed to be the original location of the folktale Momotaro, and there are statues everywhere. it also has Korakuen, one of the three best gardens in japan. pics to come.
lost my shoe somewhere on the way to the ferry to shodoshima, which i wouldnt have caught in time anyways. ended up back downtown at a business hotel but it wasnt so bad.
now on the ferry to Shodoshima.

2009-04-25T08:43:00.000+09:00

It sucks to wake up to rain. Its supposed to clear up by the afternoon, but it makes everything more complicated.

Anyways, I have some pictures and stuff.

Here is my mom in front of the Miyajima Otorii at high tide. This is considered one of the three greatest views of Japan.

This is the castle at Iwakuni. There are a lot of reconstructed castles in Japan.
Getting to Iwakuni was a terrible suburban slog, but the historical park around the castle was lovely. There were three stray cats lying in the road when we arrived.

This is the famous Iwakuni bridge. Built in the feudal era after several previous bridges washed away, it was reconstructed in 2004 using traditional techniques.

Blogger keeps inserting pictures at the beginning of the post instead of at the cursor. Grr.

We didn't make it all the way to the next town, but camped in a small town on the way. I:d post a picture if i weren:t getting sick of this computer.

Next was Tsuwano 津和野,　which is famous for a heron festival, a street with carp swimming under it, Christian martyrs, and an Inari shrine with tunnels of hundreds of torii.
Next was Hagi. It's got castle ruins, but mom has all the good pictures.

After that was some lovely countryside and twisty forest roads to Akiyoshidai, a limestone plateau with that Karst (had to look it up too) and caves.
The sign says "Hell Plateau," I think because the Buddhist hell has lots of pointy rocks. I took a picture of the full sign to translate later.

Here's the entrance to the cave. Most of my pictures inside the cave are blurry, but highlights include Mt. Fuji and "1000 plates."

I already posted our best picture of Shimonoseki. I think I'll do our Kyushu adventures a little later.

2009-04-24T22:11:00.000+09:00

Back in Hiroshima. Saw mom off on the bus to the airport, and I haven't gotten a desperate phone call so I think she's made it safely to Tokyo. I'm contemplating my next move and realizing that I don't quite yet have the patience to go through my pictures and write all about the past few weeks. Maybe when I make it back to Osaka.

I've done a small loop now, from Hiroshima to Kyushu and back again. Soon I'll be closing the loop with Osaka. This is kinda cool.

Went to a Jamaican place for dinner, which was pretty good but not amazing. It's charming that a Japanese family would create a Jamaican restaurant. Then I went for a second dinner because kids in the hostel invited me and that's what you do.

Contemplating my next move, and what to do with the next few days. It'll depend a little on how long it takes to clean my bike tomorrow morning. And when the bike shop opens (I hope it opens in the morning). But i'm pretty sure now that i'll head to Okayama, and take a bike path to Kurashiki.

Oh, and today i went to the Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary art. It was really cool, especially their exhibit on "the uncanny," really about ghosts and goblins and creepy things. I especially like this guy Nishio's drawings of ghost women.

Northern Kyushu is gorgeous

2009-04-22T16:14:00.001+09:00

2009-04-21T21:45:00.001+09:00

Caloriemate comes in a yellow box that does not look like it would contain food. Inside is essentially shortbread. i have been using them like energy bars, or at least trying. the last one was potato flavor.

Kyushu is lovely

2009-04-21T15:15:00.001+09:00

Kyushu!

2009-04-21T09:47:00.001+09:00

Kyushu is a great island. Unfortunately we have to be back in Hiroshima by Friday, so we can:t go too deep in.
Anyways, the roadside fruit is delicious, the tonkotsu ramen (Fukuoka:s famous dish) is phenomenal, and the people are very friendly. Oh, and the scenery is lovely.

It did suck to ride in the suburbs in the rain, and to try to shepherd my mom with her bike in a bag through the train station. I fell once before the rain started, too, and my hips are still a bit sore.

Currently at an international hostel in Fukuoka, and it:s nice to hear people speaking in English (even with a New Zealand accent), about their adventures hitchhiking in the 70s. I:m thinking about spending the next few weeks at international hostels in Osaka and Kyoto, seeing all the gardens and temples and making 1 or 2 day trips to Ise and Amanohashidate.

Shimonoseki 下関

2009-04-19T12:11:00.001+09:00

These statues comemmorate the Genji-Heike battle of legend, in the 1100s. The bridge goes to Kyushu.

2009-04-19T08:26:00.001+09:00

Internet at hostel here is some open source thing that breaks when i use blogger. will post pics from last week soon, i promise.
on to Kyushu today. excited but will be nervous until i get the map book.

2009-04-17T21:13:00.001+09:00

lots of good sights and fun riding these past few days. mom distracts me from posting every day, but next computer ill post some pics.
saw limestone caves today and rode along a karst.

Kintaikyo bridgd

2009-04-15T10:07:00.001+09:00

Hiroshima

2009-04-14T21:36:00.000+09:00

Hiroshima is a wonderful, cosmopolitan city. I really enjoyed taking a break from the riding and hanging out there. I really love Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki, which is a grilled thing with layers of batter, cabbage, soba noodles, some other filling, and egg. Way better than Osaka style. ;P I also had tsukemen, which is a Chinese-influenced cold-soba dipping thing, and today at Miyajima I had the local anago eel.
The Peace Park is very moving. I could just imagine the bomb exploding over the park, and looking at the pictures and diagram of before and after is so intense. The Sadako monument, aka the children's peace monument, was the most moving for me. Sadako was a girl who died of leukemia 10 years after the bomb, and she became a symbol for the anti-nuclear movement at the time, as she tried to make 1000 paper cranes before she died.

We finally got on the road today, although it was all a suburban slog with trucks, until we got all the way to Iwakuni. This is a historic town with a famous wooden bridge with a bunch of arches. We're staying at the youth hostel here, since we went so slow today, what the with rain and taking my mom to Miyajima. Tomorrow we're heading north towards Nichihara. I'm guessing that's about as far as we'll get.

Utsukushima

2009-04-11T13:18:00.000+09:00

One of the three most beautiful views in japan.
〓

2009-04-09T21:36:00.001+09:00

Had a crazy day. i need to learn to take it easy.
i decided to go all the way to hiroshima today. figured it wasnt that far, but didnt count on the hills or the heat or the crazy suburban roads. i ended up too far from anywhere reasonable by sunset.
lucky for me theres plenty of room at the miyajima youth hostel. i even ended up taking a train cause it got so late.
the best part of today tho, was a country lunch place that was so charming and had delicious food. they were so excited to have a foreigner. it was hilarious.

2009-04-09T07:22:00.001+09:00

So i dont forget：
the lady who works at the cafe looks like Liza Minelli, and powdered creamer is called Creap.

2009-04-09T07:10:00.001+09:00

Made it to Onomichi yesterday, which turned out to be really cute.the owner of a coffee shop all about author Fumiko Hayashi waylaid me and gave me free oj and offered a place to stay. i didnt take him up on it until i got to the campsite and freaked out about squatting. ill have to get over that eventually but right now im eating a delicious free breakfast.

End of shimanami

2009-04-08T14:18:00.001+09:00

Now taking the ferry to Honshu

2009-04-07T20:10:00.001+09:00

Halfway through the Shimanami kaido, the trail through a bunch of islands between shikoku and honshu. loads of great views and archaic tourist attractions.

Day 3:102 km

2009-04-06T21:05:00.001+09:00

I am covering much more distance than i expected.
crossing the mountains was really cool, though i took the tunnel and skipped the 2nd pass.
several cute cafes, edelweiss as a morning siren, and great luck at getting a campsite. the restaurant/onsen has an adjacent playground i can use if i stay out of sight〓
the only bad parts today were losing my map book when zipping downhill and the final 20 km through stinky suburbs

Today is my mountain climbing day

2009-04-06T11:05:00.001+09:00

2009-04-05T19:37:00.001+09:00

On tv, a japanese obama impersonator just did the best ever at biking across a narrow floting strip wo falling.

Day two

2009-04-05T18:55:00.001+09:00

Took it easy today, but got everything done.hopefully ill sleep better tonight.
currently at a restaurant on rt194

2009-04-05T04:23:00.001+09:00

My first day was pretty cool, except that it rained all afternoon.i didnt make it to the campground until after dark, which meant no washing up. its not much of a campground, just a park with space and level ground.
didnt sleep well so ill take it easy today

best part of first day was chatting with other travelers at a rest stop.

シュッパーツ！

2009-04-04T06:30:00.001+09:00

Heading out tomorrow

2009-04-03T17:32:00.001+09:00

The weather looks kinda bad but im still trying to go about 115 km (71 miles) from here to 高知 Kouchi tomorrow. Itll be along the coast so im pretty sure i can do it. The next concern is finding food along the way, and then finding an onsen and the campsite at the end.

After that its mountains, so wish me luck.

WWOOFing has been okay, but im pretty sick of tomatoes. i def dont want to be a farmer when i grow up.

Pasta!

2009-03-30T15:38:00.001+09:00

I keep meaning to write about Hetalia, a new sensation in the anime world. Its about the anthropomorphizations of various nations, particularly Italy and Germany,and its hilarious. Siena and i saw posters and other stuff all over Akiba.
Go look it up, im tired of typing on my phone.

Henro

2009-03-27T18:44:00.001+09:00

I should explain that henro is a pilgrimage to 88 temples around shikoku, and an ohenrosan is someone making a pilgrimage.
harvested today. back is tired. afternoon
cycling is fun tho

行見

2009-03-26T15:27:00.001+09:00

Ikumi is apparently famous for its surfing. its nice and a lot different from farmland in the US. Saw an ohenrosan yesterday.
ive decided to bike from here to Hiroshima instead of starting in Kyushu, and then we can loop thru the south together.
Typing on a Japanese phone is hard.

到着。

2009-03-24T21:30:00.001+09:00

Gorgeous mountains and coastline. Went to onsen right after picked up. farmers are two young guys who seem pretty cool.

ADVENTURE 時間

2009-03-24T13:35:00.001+09:00

I am on a bus leaving osaka for SW Shikoku. I know not what I willfind when I arrive. the elderly couple across the aisle have wonderfull rural-sounding accents

2009-03-23T11:39:00.001+09:00

TESTING POSTING FROM PHONE

One week in

2009-03-22T22:03:00.001+09:00

So I'm in Osaka tonight, chilling out after an exhausting journey from Ueno in Tokyo to Moriguchi. It was exhausting both because it was an all-night bus ride, and because I had to carry my bike on my back through various train stations at both ends of said bus ride. I need to stop carrying my bike and start using it, or at least figure out how to arrange it in the special carrying bag so that it doesn't poke me in the spine.

Anyways, this week was pretty awesome. We had a variety of awesome food from around the world (the Japanese do wonderful pasta and pastries, not to mention yakitori and tonkatsu), saw some wonderful sights (Minato Mirai in Yokohama and Odaiba are both great futuristic date spots with Ferris wheels), gawked at bizarre outfits in Shibuya, and shopped in famous places. There were a few other great miscellaneous things, too, like some quite successful purikura pictures and acquiring a cell phone.

Oh, and we went to Tokyo Disneyland. Siena will probably do more on that since she's a big Disneyland fan. It was my first time at a Disney resort since I was like 5, and it was pretty fun. Everything is designed to be fun to look at, and of course it's exciting to see my favorite Disney characters parade by. I read an essay on Tokyo Disneyland back when I took Japanese history, but I just have to say, the quintessential symbol of Tokyo Disneyland is the Mickey Mouse shaped manju (steamed pork buns).

I'm always coming up with regrets and anxieties but generally overcoming them. Every once in a while I wonder if I forgot some crucial item while packing, or remember how I failed to contact any previous host families. Or I wonder if I should have just started biking through Kyushu instead of working on a tomato farm in Shikoku for a week. But every once in a while I get really excited about hitting the road, like when I met up with Oliver and heard some of his stories.

First day in Japan

2009-03-16T21:10:00.001+09:00

So today was one of those incredibly long days, because that's what happens when you fly west. I got up at 5:30am, came up with several last minute things to worry about which were of no consequence, and got on a plane to Newark. It was pretty cool to land and see Manhattan and Liberty Island looming out of the fog.

Anyways, Continental has a pretty good selection of classic movies. I watched Edward Scissorhands, the third Matrix movie, and Chinatown. I was pretty disappointed with all three. Oh, and I finished Obama's Challenge which was pretty good reading.

But yeah, then I landed in Japan, and moved through immigration and customs pretty quickly, and found myself in Siena's arms. We rode the slow train to Ueno, checked into our really cute and tiny foreigner's hotel, and set off for Mosburger and Conbini snacks. I'm not going to dwell very long tonight on the glories of Mosburger (Siena discusses her current favorite sandwich here) or Japanese snack foods (Green tea teramisu kit-kat, anyone?), but suffice it to say that I am very happy to be here.

I haven't opened up my bike suitcase yet, but I'm going to assume everything is okay. And now I'm going to sleep.

My sweet ride

2009-03-10T12:59:00.000+09:00

Here's a picture of my sweet bike with panniers. Eventually I'll load it up with everything and take another picture but I didn't feel like strapping the tent stuff to the back.

Here's my cute custom label. It makes me feel cool.

First!

2009-03-09T02:09:00.001+09:00

So this is my new official public blog, chronicling my three month adventure in Japan. I'm leaving in a week, and I'll likely write about my preparations. At this point I don't know how often I'll have access to the Internet while I'm in Japan, but hopefully I'll at least be able to get a cell phone and post via email there. Or I'll copy things from my notebook whenever I get the chance.

Anyways, I'm currently in the process of gathering all my materials. I've got a sweet custom-made folding bike from Bike Friday (the Pocket Crusoe), and super light tent and sleeping bag from REI, not to mention really nice, nearly new panniers that were pretty cheap on ebay. I also want to give a shout-out to Kanji Sono Mama, a program for Nintendo DS that will serve as my language dictionary. It's great 'cause you can use the touch pad to enter kanji you don't know, removing the biggest language barrier.

Just a quick preview: I'll be spending my first week in Tokyo with Siena, who will be on spring break. Then I'll work on an organic farm in Shikoku for about 2 weeks. Then I'll start the cycling in earnest, beginning in Kyushu and working my way North. I'm generally following this route but with lots of detours.

For the past few months I've been soliciting recommendations for places and people to visit - let me know if you're in Japan and anywhere near where I'll be. In the meantime I'll be freaking out and riding around with dictionaries in my panniers.