Visitors!

Well, the Olympics are almost over, I'm still obsessed, and I haven't had a chance to update my blog!

I've actually been THAT busy.

Because, well, in typical Topher-in-Japan fashion, I got sick right before my friends arrived, and had to go on drugs and vocal rest once again.

Then, Cathy and Meg arrived and we had a WHIRLWIND seven day tour of Japan. No, not just Tokyo. JAPAN.

Seriously, them girls are travelling crazy nuts, and their feet paid a heavy toll for their efforts.

The first two days they enjoyed Tokyo while I fought with management at work over sick tracking. Luckily, the girls were awesome enough to take my computer to the Apple Store on their second day so it could be repaired! YAYZA!

The night they arrived, we had a delicious noodle dinner at the station, and the oishii Japanese meals got better from there. The second night we ate at the amazing Yuuzan Yakiniku place across the street, replete with our own private room and delicious barbecuing fun! The third night we ate at the Tonkatsu place in the Atre I've always wanted to try and it was MECHA OISHII.

Monday morning we set off early (as we did most days) for Kyoto, and the girls were unfortunately at their most exhausted. We had a beautiful day for the Philosopher's Walk, though we didn't make it to Ginkaku-ji, the Silver Pavilion and final stop on the walk. Luckily, it's not the top sight to see in Kyoto and isn't actually covered in Silver like the Golden Pavilion (Kinkakuji) is covered in gold on the other side of town.

We visited the amazing Nanzen-ji, which was down the street from our hotel and got to see amazing zen gardens and a view of Kyoto from the upstairs of the main gate. We also stopped for a great bowl of noodles along the way, and visited the many Buddhist temples. I can only imagine how beautiful it is in sakura season.

But we had a fantastic stay at our ryokan, with a large, gorgeous room and very friendly English-speaking staff. Sadly, most of the guests were gai-jin, but our keiseki dinner was AMAZING. I only wish we would have had a traditional onsen with a beautiful nature view instead of an ofuro tub with no view.

After dinner, we left exhausted Meg to sleep, and I forced Cathy to take a walk with me through Gion. It was AMAZING, because we saw the old traditional street that seems like it is a glimpse back in time when geisha houses ruled Kyoto. And we walked down one of the famous streets on the canal, and I actually got to see two geisha with their patron and mama-san despite the fact that it was Monday night. Thank you, universe!

Day 2 we had the most delicious boiled tofu (a local delicacy) for breakfast and set off on our side trip to Nara. We had a great time hanging out with all the deer, seeing the amazing giant buddha (though I have to say I like the open air one in Kamakura better... something about the sunshine), and had an amazing mountaintop view from one of the temples. I had to wait 20 minutes in line behind an annoying school group to reach enlightenment, but I have to say it was worth it.

Even if old Japanese tourists are rude and cut in line.

Basically there's a skinny hole cut in one of the huge pillars holding up the largest wooden structure in the world (and it's 2/3 the size of the original one!) over the buddha and if you can squeeze through apparently you will reach enlightenment. So yeah.

I did that.

We also travelled outside of town to see one of the great temples there, but sadly the very old pagoda was covered up for construction. There were some really awesome artifacts there, but the 800 yen cover charge was a RIP OFF. Especially when your top sight was covered. Rude, Nara, rude.

The girls loved the Nara Deer Boy character we saw everywhere, but I just found him creepy.

That night we had shabu shabu at the ryokan, but I'll be honest, I liked the tofu better than the beef. Topher likes Tofu! HA!

Wednesday morning we had originally intended to hit more of Kyoto, but the girls were really interested in visiting Himeji castle, about an hour and a half side trip away. And I am SO GLAD WE DID.

It's one of the most historic and preserved castles in Japan, mostly because it never has been under attack. Most of it was built from 1601 to 1610, and it is an incredible maze of engineering and architecture. And sadly, they will cover it up in April for 5 years to do more preservation and restoration, so I'm thrilled I got to see it before it goes under.

Now, Nara should really learn a lesson, because we got in for 600 yen, and had a 2 1/2 hour FREE volunteer English guide take us through the ENTIRE complex. He gave us tons of history that we would never have otherwise learned, and pointed out some fascinating details in the complex. By the fourth gate, I realized I would never have been smart enough to successfully siege that castle. It was GENIUS in its construction.

After we left Ken, we had curry for lunch, and visited the gorgeously new garden built just West of the castle. And then it was time to head back to Kyoto, leave the girls for their last night at Yachiyo, and head back to Tokyo myself.

I had a couple hours to kill, and I thought about climbing the hill to Kiyomizudera, but I refrained, and took a trip to the top of Kyoto tower instead. It was lovely to see the city and see Kiyomizudera and some of the other sights through the free binoculars. And basically I realized Kyoto is HUGE and SPREAD out and very difficult to see in one trip. So I'm looking forward to heading back with momma in a few weeks to see more of the town.

After that I explored the amazing architecture of Kyoto station, walked through the skywalk at the top, grabbed some dinner, and jumped on my shinkansen back to Tokyo feeling like I needed a vacation from vacation!

Then back to work while the girls spent a day in Hiroshima. They came to the park on Friday and it was wonderful to have the great energy that comes when you know you have friends in the audience. For their final night we went to the onsen for an amazing Chinese food dinner, lots of wonderful soaking, doctor fish, and foot massages. Then home to pack, where the girls were AMAZING enough to each take home a suitcase of my winter clothes for me.

And now, I'm exhausted, recouping, planning my Taiwan and Thailand trips, and gearing up for 2 weeks of more wonderful guests in only 2 days! AHHHHH!

It's really happening. My guests are here, the new cast is here, and I'll be home in the states in 2 months. How wonderful!

Obsession of an Olympic Proportion

I'm Olympics obsessed.

Of course, that's nothing new. As far back as Lillehammer in '94, I remember being GLUED to the television from the opening ceremonies to the heart-breaking conclusion of the closing ceremonies. I mean, let's be honest, making a 9-year-old wait 4 YEARS until the next worldwide ginormous sporting event is pretty brutal.

Even Christmas comes every 12 months!

And that just gets worse as you get older, because there are those years when you're working or travelling or whatever, and you just straight up miss a whole set of the games. Like 2004. I don't remember Athens at all. Why is that?

Oh right. I was slaving away 16 hour days at the Barn. Right.

So I'm very thankful I'm in Japan right now, and that we have televisions backstage since most of the competitions air live during the morning here. It's so much better than on tour when I'd RUN to my hotel room and pray I would make it in time to see Evan Lysacek skate.

I'm also thankful I don't have to watch the Olympics on NBC, which I'm now realizing is an evil, evil, EVIL monopoly on the airwaves. Um, seriously... with DVR and all that jazz, why do you INSIST on tape-delaying EVERYTHING when people can just find out via Yahoo online the second it happens? RUDE. If it's that crucial to show in primetime, just REPEAT it. Seriously.

You think half the people who were at the office all day are really gonna be bothered that you're showing them something that happened a few hours earlier when they couldn't watch anyway? Cuz they could watch it on DVR or find out online if they are really dying to know.

AND... if it's that fierce, like some things have been already, people will want to SEE IT AGAIN. DUHHHHHHHH.

But stifling the people who ARE home when the events ARE live... that's just frakkin rude, dude.

WTF, NBC, WTF?

My point is, Japan rocks because they show events live, there aren't commercials on NHK so you see every second of the action live, they have multiple channels airing different events so you can watch what you want to watch and not miss anyone, they don't throw product placement in your face, AND they repeat the big events later at night in case you missed them.

WOW. How frakkin' hard is THAT, NBC? Japan is STUFFING you, and using your footage to boot.

Sucks to be you. Especially once Must-See-TV ended.

Anyway, I'm obsessed. I'm sure everyone remembers Beijing and how we all didn't SLEEP for 2 weeks. I was staying up till all hours of the morning watching events and then going to work at 7 AM at the bank. Retarded. And AWESOME.

Now, I watch everything on TV with Japanese commentators (luckily they show the English transcriptions of results, etc.) and then read all about everything on the internet later to make sure I didn't miss anything. And again, I'm on the OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE WORLD in a country that doesn't have as much pull in the Olympics as the US, and I'm still getting better coverage than NBC's monopoly.

And it's awesome, because I'm pretty international right now, so I get excited when Canada or Japan or Australia or my US homeboys, or heck, anybody who does a bang-up job, wins. It's awesome.

And I don't care if it wasn't Beijing's spectacle, the ice floes breaking apart was one of the most magical things I've ever seen and the modern/Alberta Ballet dancers dancing to Sarah MacLachlan was riveting and heart-breakingly beautiful. I don't care if the torch didn't work.

Cuz Vancouver rocks. And that's only been shown by the AMAZING Chinese pairs skaters, the women's moguls surprise winner, the Koreans committing speed-skating suicide, and Canada's first gold at home.

Heck, even the bad news has been riveting and breath-taking.

And I'm obsessed. Which happens every couple of years in alternating seasons.

Good luck trying to drag me away.

Diva Wars

There's a pun in that title. At least I think there is. Read on to find out.

I haven't written all week, mostly because Evan and I are having a Star Wars marathon! Spread out over many nights, of course, and we are currently halfway through Episode 2. And this makes me very happy. I've always wanted to marathon the movies to see the through-lines and connections; it's awesome to see it developing in a matter of days.

I also am getting really excited because I will start the craziness of 6 weeks of visitors in 5 days!!! I just booked our ryokan for Kyoto this evening and now I need to start my research. Oops. Probably should've done that one earlier.

My camera still hasn't been found. Nor my sunglasses. Nor my green fleece in Hiroshima. St. Anthony must not believe in working overtime in a Shinto country. :(

The biggest news of all, though, can be summed up in a song lyric.

Now for those who know me, I NEVER express my feelings on the internet in song lyrics. And even if I did, I wouldn't EVER post a lyric by Stephen Schwartz, because, well, I don't care for his work.

And yet. This is speaking to me today....

Something has changed within me/Something is not the same/

I'm through with playing by the rules of someone else's game/

Too late for second-guessing/too late to go back to sleep/

It's time to trust my instincts, close my eyes, and leap...

I'm not sure what Japan has done to me, but I'm pretty darn sure of what OLC has done to me. The guy who didn't really ever find it necessary to argue for what he wanted has suddenly grown a backbone.

I mean, I've always been willing to stand up when something is blatantly wrong or rude or unfair, but I rarely stand up for what I want, or even deserve. And today, well, today was the final cement in the divo coffin.

It's happening. I'm turning into a diva. Just a bit. In a good way. And to be truthful, I'm loving it.

Because I've stopped being the guy who cain't say no, the one everyone turns to whenever they need a song played, the guy who just wants to keep the peace. And all it took for me to get there was a job where no one has my back, no one has my interests at stake, and no one's fighting for me to step up and say no.

Like today. A co-worker has badly mistreated me for four months by choosing not to acknowledge my presence. Which I find even more offensive than if he/she were to be rude to my face and or problematic. But to blatantly ignore someone is not only rude, it's discourteous and unprofessional.

And so, today, when my co-worker decided, after pretending I was Casper the Friendly Ghost for months on end, decided to berate me for requesting something relatively minor, I stood up for myself and what I felt was necessary. The diva came out; I would not allow someone to abuse my person when he/she has pretended like I don't exist until now.

Could this reflect poorly on me? Absolutely. Was this action called for? Maybe not. Will I apologize? Probably.

But one thing is certain. I stood my ground, and I'm damn well proud of that. Tokyo has taught me a few things, and one of those is a staunch belief in my self-worth. Anything less than that won't be tolerated.

Just so you know.

Sapporo Yuki Matsuri Part 2

Day 3, Thursday. Teine, Ramen Yokocho Alley, Susukino Ice, Park View Spa.

The day started bright and early with a hangover. And the despair of losing my camera.

Luckily, the fresh, cold air and hot breakfast buffet helped, even if I was still a bit woozy as we headed out of town on our ski shuttle bus for 3. That's right, the full-size charter bus took 3 people up the mountain! HA!

Of course, we foolishly assumed this meant we might end up having the mountain to ourselves, forgetting the joy of school trips and ski school. In the end, though, we did pretty much have most of the upper mountain to ourselves and it was AWESOME!

Did I mention that skiing is a great hangover cure?

We chose to ski at Teine because it basically had two mountains we could ski for 6 hours for 3700 yen, and the fact that it was only 45 minutes out of Sapporo. Not only that, it was used for some of the slalom and downhill runs during the '72 Olympics, and it has crazy beautiful views of the city.

Oh. And the ocean. Nobody told us about that, and I don't mind a bit. That surprise was well worth the wait! I mean, I could practically see Russia from my house! (wink, wink).

My brother has told me about this awesome race in Seattle called the Ski to Sea, where the relay of 8 or 9 people on 6 different types of transportation goes from the top of the mountain to the ocean... And I thought the Japanese should definitely adopt that idea at this place.

Anyway, we started out the day renting our skis (which they were so kind as to have in giant foot sizes for Evan), and then working up our nerves on the bunny hill courses on the lower hills with 8 million people. Did I mention that there's an amusement park at the top for summer -- bizarre! Anyway, somehow we learned that we got to cut in front of everyone in the lift lines with our passes, and we never questioned that decision. That privilege was AWESOME!

After a couple wimpy runs from me, we jumped in the express gondola to the upper mountain with a bunch of kyusai (9-year-old) kids. Naturally they spoke very little English and it was then I figured out how little conversational Japanese I speak. But they were awesome and adorable, especially this one kid who kept saying, "Whhhaaaaat?" And "doko?doko?doko?doko?doko?doko?" (where?where?where?) and cracking us up. We do understand enough to know that one kid basically said to the other, "They're Americans. Of course they can't speak Japanese," which probably could have made me mad, but didn't. Cuz they're right.

So we get to the top of the mountain and see the beautiful view for the first time, take some pictures, and make our way down what we hope to be the easiest trail, only to discover ourselves at the top of quite a scary blue/black. Luckily we found a narrow but slightly easier side trail to get down, but the long run that followed didn't do anything to boost my confidence. And so, about an hour in, as we were returning to the top, I was getting frustrated with myself.

So I started skiing down the back bowl where the actual easy trail was, and Evan and I separated for a bit. Somehow not having to compete with or impress him really forced me to suck it up and stop being a wimp, and I suddenly found a couple trails in the back bowl I really liked. And thus began our love affair with a certain course for the next few hours. We basically skied there all day, with very few groups to get in our way. About 1 some fresh powder started falling which was awesome since the slopes were just starting to get a bit icy.

And I absolutely had to stop and eat PB&J at the top of my FOURTH mountain in Japan. The first in Hokkaido! YATTA!

From there the day just got better and better and we made our way down the mountain to the lower one, stopping along the way to call and change our bus reservation to the 5 PM one. Now how that was ridiculously easy to do, despite not speaking Japanese, yet in 3 days I couldn't actually get 10% of the people I asked to help me find my camera, I'll never understand. But I'm thankful we didn't have to hang out in the lodge for 3 hours with nothing to do!

Once back in town we ventured down to Ramen Alley for a DELICIOUS post-skiing dinner of Sapporo miso ramen. Man was that noodle bar oishii and cheap!

On the way home, we stopped to gaze at the finished ice sculptures at the Susukino site, along with a couple receiving their finishing touches. They were stunning, though I have to say I think, in the end, I like the snow sculptures better.

You can't really complain about the chainsaw and firetorch though! AWESOME.

Back at the hotel, I started making some phone calls about my camera and made a little headway with the police, but no really avail.

So we headed up to the 14th floor to the onsen where we soaked and relaxed and zen-ed out whilst overlooking the gorgeous snow sculptures for the next day's festival.

It doesn't get much better than that, folks!

Day 4, Friday. Odori Koen Site, Sapporo Beer Museum, TV Tower, Sapporo to Tokyo.

Friday dawned with grey skies, but super delighted spirits! It was SNOW FESTIVAL day!

After a final delicious breakfast and checking out of our hotel (I'm pretty sure they missed something cuz they only charged me 40 yen for all my phone calls, including one to Urayasu, as well as our 500 yen per person onsen visit... but we didn't complain) we walked across the street and began our journey through the Festival!

And look who was right across the street watching us every step of the way... AHHH! I can't ever get away!

Basically, the sculptures were as amazing as we had expected, but breath-taking in that must-be-seen-to-be-believed sort of way.

My favorite was the Asahiyama/Maruyama Zoo Sculpture because the detailing was just AMAZING.

Similar to Hiroshima, there were tons of school children practicing their English and interviewing foreigners, and we humbly obliged them. Luckily we didn't have to rush through the day, or we'd have been up a creek!

About 20 minutes in, a random Japanese man came up and started talking to us, and translating to some of the students. He seemed quite interested in chatting with us and offered to walk the loop with us. As we learned a bit about him, he seemed nice and harmless, so we let him play tour guide for the next few hours.

It turns out, we were hanging out with an 80-year-old man (!) who basically was just bored and likes showing foreigners around the touristy areas. He gave us all sorts of information and stories, and we learned about his daughter and granddaughter in New York and his grandson who recently came back to Sapporo for university. Basically, he was the kindest, coolest grandpa ever (besides my own, of course).

It started to snow quite heavily halfway through the morning, but we trucked on through till he took us to a cheap little Japanese cafeteria for lunch. We would never have found this place without him, but basically it was a cafeteria in the bottom of an office/government building. But for 560 yen, I had miso soup, rice, sushi, pickled vegetables, and tempura in a set. Talk about a bargain! It was fantastic too.

And then, he took off to go play Go, the Japanese chess-like game. That's how he spends his afternoons, and we had a great new friend to remember!

The sun came out a-shining, but it was still -10.2 C, and we thought we'd head to the Beer Garden for one last attempt at finding my camera. By this point, the restaurant had been called 5 or 6 times, and they were quite annoyed at being asked, but we perused the grounds to no avail. We decided since we were out there again (and had chased a bus 5 blocks and failed to get on it to get there), we'd take a tour of the free museum that unfortunately was not nearly as cool as Coors. It had some interesting memorabilia, but was definitely not a factory tour of the process.

Still got some good beer to bring home though.

Then we headed back into town to go up the Sapporo TV Tower and have a great view of the Festival. Saw some awesome snowboarders on the jump in the middle of the park, and an incredible performer playing an electronic organ. She was INSANE!

Finally, we headed down to the international competition section of the park (where 16 teams compete to build the best sculpture in 3 days) to have some delicious Iranian Kebab Pitas for dinner. It's experiences like meeting the owner of the stand who speaks 4 languages and lives in Japan selling kebabs, that make me grateful for and ashamed of my own life all at the same time.

Seriously. He speaks 4 languages. And sold me a delicious kebab. I don't get it.

And from there, it was a journey back to the airport for souvenirs and our short flight home.

Basically, it was one of the best trips I've ever taken and merely a sampling of how much that island has to offer. I can't wait to return someday and explore more!

Sapporo Yuki Matsuri Part 1

Sapporo is AMAZING.

I lost my camera.

There was a TON of light, powdery amazing snow.

That's pretty much all you need to know. If you want details, read on!

Day 1, Tokyo to Sapporo, Okurayama, Mt. Moiwa, Sapporo City.

Evan and I got up tour early (read: 4:30 AM) for a 5:56 Bus Call at Fountain Terrace. Which was pretty brilliant since we had about an inch of heavy wet snow on the ground as a precursor to our trip. I'm just hoping we didn't wake anybody up and break curfew what with my super noisy suitcase wheels and the fact that we were RIDICULOUSLY excited.

Haneda Airport was relatively easy to navigate, though I'm amazed at what I bad traveler I became when I didn't have to fly for 6 months. Holy cheese, Batman, I can't navigate security anymore.

Check this one out, though. We boarded a 777 (10 seats across) to full capacity, from first person on board to backing up from the gate... in 15 minutes. And they do that EVERY TIME. Reason #85 Japan will someday rule the world.

We slept through most of the flight, which only disappointed me in that I wanted to see the ocean! But no matter, the half hour train ride through the snow-covered countryside to Sapporo city was breath-taking. Foolishly I didn't take any pictures, though even more foolishly (spoiler alert!) I lost my camera later in the trip, so it wouldn't have mattered anyway.

The sun was out but it was cold all day Tuesday, yet we walked the 5 blocks to our hotel and got a preliminary glimpse of some of the statues near/nearing completion. And we jumped up and down like schoolkids.

For lunch we wandered a bit and found a Japanese restaurant that looked delicious. Not a word of English, but we've been here long enough now that that's no worry! And boy was our Japanese lunch delicious! Even if the Japanese ladies were freaked out by how much food we ordered. Nonetheless, there was definitely no way I could have done that even 3 months ago. Just waltzing into a foreign establishment and breezing through the menu successfully and actually having quite a good idea of what was happening and I was going to be getting. AWESOME.

We then decided to make the most of our first day and started off visiting the Okurayama Ski Jump, site of ski jumping for the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo. It had an incredible view of the city and was super scary to peruse from the top. Evan accidentally dropped my Nalgene off the lift and the best part of the day was watching the Japanese man traipse up the hill in 3 feet of snow to get it! Again... no pictures.

This trip began the never-ending cycle of "we need to be on that bus THERE (as the bus is pulling away)", though we were ever so fortunate this one and only time to have to wait only 3 minutes for the return bus. Especially since they only come once an hour. PHEW!

Next we transferred to the streetcar and took our "Romantic Passport" ropeway journey up Mt. Moiwa that was included in our tour package. We originally felt like it might be stupid and cheesy, but the view at the top was pretty spectacular, and we got to ride an awesome giant snowmobile vehicle with huge treads to the summit. And heck, it was free, so it was ALL GOOD.

And then again, at dinner we just wandered into some random Yakitori place that looked good to us from the street, ordered a delicious array of chicken skewers, rice, and a bloomin' onion with Wasabi mayonnaise that was the SHiznIT! Seriously. We should be commended for following our instincts and noses. That being said, we were oblivious to the fact that we were a mere 20 feet away from the Ramen Alley I was half-searching for and that we would eventually eat at after our ski trip, but who cares? We had a GREAT Japanese dinner to end the day.

And at that point we were so beat from a long day of travel (bus, plane, train, subway, ski lift, ropeway, snowmobile, and streetcar for those who are paying attention) that we hit the sack and passed out in our lovely little hotel!

Day 2: Sapporo City, Ice Skating, Maruyama Zoo, Sapporo Beer Garden

Day 2 started with our first of 3 DELICIOUS breakfast buffets at the hotel, and our one and only sleep in day. 8:30 AM has never felt so good! We had our first Hokkaido potatoes and milk and they were farm-fresh oishii. We then decided to head down the festival to go Ice Skating with the final coupon of our Romantic Passport.

It ended up being one of our best ideas the whole trip, because we got our skate rental for free, a souvenir pin for free, and 2 hours of skating for free. By week's end the rink was crowded and you were surely held to your 30 minute time limit, but we just made friends with several of the Japanese employees who spoke English and had a great time. We were doing choo-choo trains with random Sapporo university girls and basically charming them with our baka gai-jin ways.

It seriously was one of the most fun experiences I've had in Japan. If only I hadn't lost the video of our adventures!

We then trekked back out to Maruyama to go the zoo there, which is very nearby to the Okurayama Ski Jump. Now, I'm still not a big fan of Japanese zoos since I don't believe the animals have big enough cages, but this zoo was pretty amazing. Because of the cold weather, the animals were incredibly active, there were hardly any guests and we caught most of the animals right before feeding time.

There's a zoo 2 hours out of Sapporo that is supposed to be the best one in Japan, but Evan and I needed a day of as little traveling as possible (not that that worked...) and I'm glad we stayed near town. The keepers brought out a raccoon and it nearly jumped down from its poles onto my head, which would have been awesome if they hadn't "Dame"-ed it from happening. And most of the animals were just inches from our face. Like this slow loris who wanted to join us so badly...

Then we strolled back through the beautiful snow-covered park and watched kids play baseball in the snow. It made me miss my family and our crazy kickball game last year!

For dinner, we decided to head out to the Sapporo Beer Garden for all-you-can-eat-and-drink genghis khan Mongolian BBQ, beer, sake, and alcohol for 40 bucks for 2 hours. Of course, this became our best and worst event of the trip. Worst because a) my camera somehow got lost between the restaurant and bus when we left and b) because we went an hour out of the way to get there! Best because we ate and drank like crazy goons!

But whoever decided to create two different Bus #88 lines in Sapporo city should be shot. One is very clearly a tourist bus and you'd think the fact that Evan and I talked to 3 people and asked for the 88 bus to Sapporo Beer Garden would have gotten us proper directions to the proper bus. It's a shame it didn't.

Somehow we ended up on the 88 Bus that goes to Sapporo Dome (the far end of the city), and instead of listening to my instincts, we boarded that one for 25 minutes before I finally ixnayed the situation and we jumped on a bus across the street back to town.

Again, we got lucky (this one time only) when we got off that hour long detour through Southern Sapporo and were trying to find someone to ask where to find the correct 88 Bus when Evan went, "like that one there"? With its giant images of the beer garden and friendly Romaji spelling! I don't know how he saw that and we actually caught the bus that time, but we did.

And then we ate, and ate, and ate, and drank a bit too... and somewhere in a snow bank or a police station or bus lost and found office lies my camera. And I'm still praying to St. Anthony it'll come on home.

I think that night was the one time I completely wiped out on the ice whilst walking home, and I surely regretted some of my ingestion choices the next morning. But that night, in all our desperate attempts to find the right bus and find my camera and just enjoy our meal, was totally worth the memories!

Part 2 coming tomorrow! Nighty night!

Respite

I just had a most wonderful evening.

And I know I haven't blogged in a week, but there's good reason for that...

I was on VACATION!

In Sapporo!

In a winter wonderland of SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But more on that later...

Tonight, I met up with a new Japanese friend for the first time. Now we know each other from work, exchanged emails, and two months later finally found a day that worked for both of us to hang out. Satoshi's a university student out in Chiba so he really only works at Disney on Sundays, but he actually didn't work today since it is such a slow season.

But I was really nervous because he speaks VERY little English, and as was reinforced for me in Sapporo, I speak VERY little conversational Japanese.

And surprise, surprise! We had a great afternoon talking over coffee, looking at pictures from Sapporo, making pasta for dinner in my apartment, and watching Japanese high school volleyball games on TV. And it was just really nice. Really nice to hang out with someone from a different culture, get completely confused and lost in translation at times, and remarkable to figure it out enough to learn more about him and his life.

And that's the part of Japan I'm going to miss. The part of me that is unafraid and patient enough to make new friends with someone I'd never otherwise have the chance to spend time with. Who is incredibly different than me.

Other than that? I'm ready to go home.

Vacation really hammered that point home for me. Don't get me wrong. I LOVE my job and I LOVE the money. But unlike normal people, I don't get a 3-day weekend here or there. I work EVERY national holiday, both Japanese and American. I work on weekends, and when I do switch to have longer weekends, I have to work a 6-day week to make up for it.

Basically, I'm burnt out.

I still love performing and I love working here, but the little things in life, the favors and the BS and the scheduling crap I've been dealing with at work are getting under my skin and unleashing the Mr. Hyde side of me.

And I don't like that.

So I'm looking forward to going home. I'm looking forward to having visitors. I'm looking forward to NOT working a 45 hour week doing the same show 5 times a day. I ran away from repetitive office work for a reason.

This has been an amazing experience, and one I'm sure I might very possibly repeat. But I'm ready for a break. REALLY ready.

If only I could take my new Japanese friends (and food) home with me!

Winter's Here

I thought I had to wait until tomorrow to see beautiful snow at the Yuki Matsuri in Sapporo, but Tokyo surprised me tonight with a beautiful downfall of the wet white stuff!

Now I'm just hoping that it doesn't mess up my 6 AM bus to the airport or my 8 AM flight... fingers crossed!

It was amazing seeing so much snow in a place I never thought I'd see it, and I really never thought I'd be in DisneySea walking through it! Despite the fact that it was ridonculously cold out, I already had a ticket to tonight's Valentine Nights show, and we had to brave the yuki with everyone else.

And tomorrow I'll be knee deep in the stuff in Sapporo and I couldn't be happier!

LET IT SNOW!

And on that note, since I need to get up in 5 hours... good night.

A Japanese Dinner Party

So last night my friend Nikki held a wonderful little party in her room. And even though we got kicked out of the downstairs lounge because we hadn't filled out the proper party application (since we had Japanese guests and food), we had a great time.

Some of Nikki's friends from church brought a bunch of food and their families and made mochi and gyoza for us! Mochi is special rice that is pounded into a sticky dough and then topped or filled with just about anything. Gyoza are dumplings that the Japanese stole from China and absolutely adore. They're usually filled with ground pork or beef or shrimp and dipped in a soy/vinegar sauce. And I love them.

It was really fun to make them, like when you're a kid helping mom make Christmas cookies!

But the BEST part of the evening was when the little girls made us origami cranes and wrote our names and favorite words in Japanese calligraphy. It was AWESOME! We each got to leave with our own personal souvenir of Japan. Words cannot express how much that truly touched me.

And, even though the girls were completely intimidated by the gaijin, their parents could speak English, and they couldn't understand why we didn't like nato (fermented soybeans)... they absolutely went NUTS over the frozen berries Nikki pulled out of the freezer. They ate like you had to at my house if wanted seconds. And it was the first time I've seen ornery Japanese children fight like siblings. Made me proud!

And though that was simple and I didn't take any pictures... I'm sure it will be one of my favorite memories from Japan!

Hakone!

Evan and I just got back from a short, but super relaxing, night at the onsen. And it reminded me, in my completely zen-ed out state that I never posted pictures and stories from Hakone, another great onsen experience.

So, here goes. Especially since I will hopefully be having another onsen adventure in a few days in the snowy mountains of Sapporo!!!

Hakone was a great day on my day off this week, though I'm not convinced the "Romance Car" train from Shinjuku is really worth the extra money. It's not like it really got me there any faster, and I slept the whole way both times.

First, I jumped right on the Tozan Railway which does these amazing old-fashioned switchbacks as it slowly makes its way up the mountain. Really cool. But keyword: SLOW. Definitely a fun touristy thing to do, and a rather interesting point that public transportation can be feasible even in mountain valleys, but not a really convenient mode of transport.

I stopped off at Gora Park at the upper terminus of the Railway, and it was quite nice, though the outdoor garden was rather blah in winter. But the park had 4 greenhouses that were quite stunning in their array of flora.

Then I jumped on the next part of the transport circuit, the funicular, or cablecar. Again, not that exciting, and surprisingly slow. But it all kicked into high gear when I transferred to the Hakone ropeway and started really enjoying my day of free-pass-transportation.

Especially when we crested the ridge and saw this to the left and below us:

And then my old friend on the right side of the car:

Seriously, I'm gonna get back to the States and question why I have so many darn photos of the thing. It's like how tourists feel after they visit the Statue of Liberty. You just get so darn snap happy!

So I got off at Owakudani, and it was WINDY! I had thought about doing a 2-hour hike down the mountain to the lake, but the wind and cold rightly convinced me otherwise. But I did make the short 10 minute trek to the volcanic steam vents and pools where I got some nasty whiffs of sulfur and incredible pictures (like this kitten in the steam -- looks like a movie, ne?).

However, I'm not really sure why another tourist got so offended when I "Sumimasen"-ed him and asked him for a "shashin". Seriously. He looked at me and said, "Uh, I'm Korean". Like I'd be absolutely nuts to speak Japanese to anyone while WE'RE IN JAPAN. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm learning the differences in cultural genetics and am somewhat able to distinguish Asian nationalities, but I'm not really sure what I did wrong by saying "Excuse Me" in Japanese IN JAPAN. WTF, Korean man who spoke English? WTF?

Doesn't really matter... I got my picture after all!

Now, we all know I have an egg thing (see here if not), so I wasn't particularly interested in trying the kuro tamago (onsen egg) that is so popular. Basically it's an egg that's been hard-boiled in the hot sulfur springs and the shell turns black. It's supposed to add 7 years of longevity to your life. But I just couldn't try one for myself. Especially since you had to buy them in packs of 5 for 500 yen.

BUT.

In the wonderful Japanese style that pervades this country, and in reminiscence of the random man in Shinjuku Goen (see here), I got on the next ropeway to head down to Lake Ashi, and the Japanese man next to me felt it extremely necessary to give me one of his own. I didn't really understand at the time why he said "nana" and showed me seven with his fingers... did he get seven by accident when there were 5? Until I got home, did more research, and learned about the whole longevity thing... Glad to know the Japanese are worried I'm gonna die too young!

Yet, DILEMMA. Mow I was awkwardly sitting in a trapped car dangling above the mountainside wondering if it was more disrespectful not to eat the egg or to start cracking it open in a confined mode of transportation?

Luckily, I took advantage of the stop halfway down to get off and do something totally BACA. That's right. I ate the darn egg. And video'd my self the whole time for your viewing pleasure.

After THAT experience (shocking, I know), I reboarded the ropeway and made my way to the pirate ship that would sail across Lake Ashi to two of the main towns of Hakone National Park. Going into the trip, I thought that would be the most obnoxious part of the tour, but to be honest, in a weird way, it was my favorite. It was SO touristy, it became fun. And I met some nice Saitama Japanese who took pictures with me and chatted in the cold windy sunshine.

Then I saw the cutest stray dog ever trying to hi-jack a ride on the ship and being shooed away by the Japanese workers,

stopped at the old Hakone gate of the old Tokkaido road,

took in the view from the top of the park, and walked down the giant-Cedar-lined path of the historic Tokkaido Road,

all the whilst with beautiful vistas of Lake Ashi and Mt. Fuji.

I probably could have continued exploring, but I was looking forward to heading back to Hakone-Yumoto in the valley and visiting the onsen at a ryokan, so I jumped on the express bus down the mountain and did just that. And what a beautiful hour and a half soak that was! Too bad I couldn't take pictures of the gorgeous pools (what with the nakedness and all).

They had these giant teacup looking baths that one person could immerse himself in. And an amazing outdoor shower, plus a stunning pool up a flight of stairs and nestled in the mountain. A bit expensive, but well worth the experience. Especially with this awaiting me!

And on that note, I'm taking my zen to bed!