Rain rain go away

It's only raining in the north, so I decided to take the train 20 hours to the south. So now I'm in Osaka, with a whole day of tiredness in the body.

Thinking Straight

Going for the brewery.

Upload Celebration Night

So, my plan was simply to go to the center of the fifth biggest city of Japan, find a big commercial internet cafe and upload my pictures. Sounds simple right? - given Japan's buttload of technology thingies and internet telegraphy.

It's not quite so. (also I think backwards)

Given my perfect execution of the plan the only remaining item, before going to Club Air or 500, is to upload the pictures. I already bought pro-access to Flickr so it was just a matter of click-and-go.

Ofcause, being given a machine in my hands, I have to try to make it better. It also mostly worked, except that I've now wasted an hour of upload time, that could have been used on good partying (read drinking).

Main two problems:
1) Flickr's fancy upload manager tells me that I only have 170 KBps upload :(
2) The damn thing halts after uploading 16 items. I also had to take two tries to establish that.
[3) Aircondition is broken]

Good thing is that the staff gave me an hour for free as a bandaid (maybe for them not understanding the sentence "more upload please?"). There's also free coke here (party party) and beer in the local Lawson (read Lolson (and replace l->r))

Stand by for more grilled thingies on a stick,
your truely,
Morten

Sapporo

Er ankommet til Sapporo i det nordlige japan. Her er koeligt. Er traet efter en hel nats transport. Snakkede med et dansk par i morges om lokale sevaerdigheder.

Har oplevet en del ting siden sidst:
- Vaeret paa "stranden" i Tokyo. Hoppede i vandet fra havnebassinet. Besteg Mt Tsukuba. Farede vild paa vej ned. Alle japanere er vilde med at sige "Skaaaal". Japanere er overrasket over for meget danskere kan drikke, uden at miste bevidstheden ;).

- Set verdes naeststoerste buddha i Nara. Den har et hus, som ogsaa er meget stort (og flot). Aede ogsaa rensdyr i Nara. Farede ogsaa vild i Nara. Men hvad betyder det, naar man har venlige lokale til at hjaelpe en.

- Har erfaret at alle piger paa de lokale spisesteder er sygeplejesker (100% rate).

- Danmark er kendt for at table i fodbold og Lego.

Skal have uploadet en masse billeder, soevn [done] og bad[done].

av

av mit hoved :( tager til Nara i dag. At faa en del vaeske igennem systemet er heller ikke en daarlig ide.

Kyoto 11

Will sort later ;)

Kyoto day 10

After waking up in a sauna, I decided it was better to look for another accommodation and went looking for good old K's House Kyoto division. Turns out that they were full. The reception is so nice to find some other hostels for me, and so I head out in the blazing sun and 35 degree heat, both backpacks included, in search for a new and better place.

That is fail.

Or a test on how stubborn that you can be. After being constantly lost, concluding that my map is missing a lot of very real roads and discovering that my map is also missing streetnames, then an old japanese man bikes in front on me for 10 minutes until we get to the right hostel. Thank you japanese man! The hostel is very cozy (I'm writing from there now) and I was greeted by Ai, which also was the one that had the pleasant fortune of having me hanging up on the phone, while trying to make the reservation. The place had a bad, which was immediately taken in use.
After that I was recommended a local sushi place and that sushi was great in every way :) It came in sort-of a lunch box, with a layer of rice on the bottom, and different kinds of seafood (saschami) on top.

Then I went for another shower.

Afterwards I decided that it was time get lost with the bus system. Since I had to wait for 20 mins for the place that I wanted to go to, then I can simply take another bus to a place that might be a temple. The flawless plan was executed with perfection and I ended up in some place. That place is a famous zen-garden and temple. And since I don't like temples, I have to say that the zen-garden was kick-ass quiet. Very elegant and beautiful. Good for a change. The macha icecream that I had before entering the temple also did it's part for making 35 degrees bare-able (and tasty).

I also fell into conversation with a japanese mom with her two daughters. They have only five days of vacation in japan, so choosing to spend three days in Kyoto, really says something about the city. In the end, they were also responsible for me finding the right bus back.

Then I saw the Heian temple, which was okay. By asking a local man on when local the museum was open, I got a guide for the next hour or so. And not for the museum for that was closed. But I got to see a lot of other places in the city and to learn that the river flowing through Kyoto is called the duck-river (there was some ducks swimming on it).

Getting very hungry, I walked around for half-an-hour, or so, and found Apollo which turned out to be a nice place (and slightly on the pricey side = 225 kr in total, for three dishes, beer and juice). I had some nice conversation with the chef, Sei-chan, which showed me that the restaurant was featured in fashion magazine.

Then home, onsen and blog, blog, blog ^^

See you tomorrow.

-------------------

Kyoto bear restaurant?



Mmmm, lovely drinks based on 100% kittens - no additives!



Fantastic sushi lunch!



Girls playing in the middle of the big duck-river.



If it's from asia and it says "healthy" on the bottle, then surely it must be good for you!
Actually... it was quite good.



Yum, yum. Macha icecream. Also had to stop for another one on the way out! (no! it does not look like yoda's feces!)



Zen garden



Me in zen garden (btw I'm planning on creating a zen/programming t-shirt)



Me and Keiko, which was the nurse that wanted to practice some english and help me get along with the bus system. Thanks to her, I learned that the japanese only have five days of vacation. [I didn't feel to say that I have six times more..]



The torii in kyoto. Btw, it's very very big.



At the Heian temple. Looked like a wishing tree. People had written notes on paper and put them on the tree.



The Heian temple entrance. This makes me conclude a point about big temples: They are big, end of story.




The duck river. A stranger walked me around for an hour, trying to speak english and find me a map of the local onsen.



Dinner at the Apollo. Apparently a famous local restaurant. After learning the words for "todays special" (kyo no tokubetsu) eating out has become more interesting. The local dish here is snake. (or maybe eel).



And Tempura for the main course. 10 deepfried grill screwers. Tasty.


Old trance album on vinyl!! yea. I'd but it except that I have no space to bring it and I don't have an old record player.

Kyoto By Night

This was after the forementioned 8% lemon beer, plus being lost for quite a long while. Worth noting is that monday was national holiday and so most shops/stores/bars were closed. But not completely in the entertainment district.

Lets start...

[what? are you grabbing her ass? nods to chris cunningham]


Double parked!



Ah! finally. A bar with beer is something I can recognize. It seemed like a student band playing the asian blue pop/rock combination. I noticed that the audience was surprisingly quiet. One nodded with the head, but most just looked. And lets just say that the volume wasn't turned down. 10 points to the band for having the singer jump-kick the hi-hat, at the end of the final song.




A personal danish greeting to japanese 7-11. FUCK YOU! 7-11 also functions as a bank here and so this is the place to go to for drawing money on international credit cards. Surprisingly, it is harder to pay with money in Japan than in Tibet. I was in denial until now. Anyways, you are given three options for withdrawing: 10.000, 20.000 and 30.000 yen. My finger comes into the pictures, where there is a small text saying "only 10.000 possible". If this is not chosen, you get an "invalid card" error. The japanese service guy, that didn't speak english, could not come up with helpful explanations either... So remember kids, if you're drunk in Japan, always withdraw 10.000 yen - several times in a row ;)



Oh yeah, finally a bar. We all know what this means ;)

Tons of peanuts on the floor? I should have read the fine print... The woman to my right tried to explain her sisters employment situation to me.. moving on.



Another bar suffering for the nationwide only guys-in-bars epidemic, which is ravaging japan. Logically all the girls are gathering in some ultra-fashionable underground shelter. The guys were friendly though, and even knew about winning over denmark in soccer ;)



It was then decided, by some rational brain center, that enough money was spent tonight and some snacks, sleep and water would be a good idea.

Kyoto

Took the shinkansen to Kyoto. Everything seems hotter here. The tourist maps are terrible, but with some local help I found a very nice place. I stayed at an old, local ryokan (Nihonkan). An old sleep- and bathing hotel it seems. It had a nice onsen.

Ueno train station. Taking this picture made me realize that i had forgot my camera^^. I didn't try the Andersen pastry, but I will come back to tokyo and now this is on the menu.



Inside of a Shinkansen (bullet-train). It was a surprisingly smooth and stable ride. They have a cool sound when they are speeding up. A younger mother and her kid was sleeping next to me. And so I also slept.



The first japanese style bathroom. Handled in the fashionably sit-down-and-don't-care fashion...



I think that this is a hairdresser?



The ryokan where I first stayed in Kyoto. A nice internet arrangement with separate screen, keyboard, mouse and bluray player :) It could not run java apps though :(



Now we're talking old japan. Quite atmosphereical. Unfortunately I had the choice between aircondition blown in my face the whole time or sleeping in 30 degrees. I chose the last one and removed every piece of cloth in a 10 m radius.



View from kyoto tower. This is the shortest expanse of the city, but the most beautiful. Wait for the panorama movie :)

Slow Sunday

Hmmmm. Woke up at 5-6 am. Experimented with raw tuna for breakfast. It didn't convince me that it was entirely fresh and was let go (into the garbage bin). Then I went for the Miraikan science and technology museum. It was but i was too tired to really enjoy it and my stomach have started acting up. I've check into a capsule hotel tonight and had a nice relaxing time in the local Onsen. I feel sleeping is doing me better, but i haven't been fully awake in a short while.

The package looks okay... The texture... kinda grainy.


And me that thought that condoms would be taboo in japan. This was in a very popular shopping center.


The Fancy Building. I don't actually know what was inside it, but it is certainly futuristic looking. This was close to the Miraikan, where I hand to stand in a queue with about 1000 japanese people. In retrospect, bad idea to go on a national holiday, in a country with five days of vacation. The queue, however, progressed very orderly and in a continuous manner. Good queuing culture? you bet! (also, the floor of Miraikan is very good for sleeping on).


Your tired host after his first onsen in the Asakusa Riverside Capsule Hotel. The japanese sit down on a small barrel when washing. Kinda odd, but very relaxing. Cozy place where lots of sleep is possible.



No, I didn't forget my Rocker key, but then I forgot my camera there, halfway through the tokyo subway.



The Capsule. Very cozy actually - like a tent. A fancy-1991-ish atmosphere, cool air and nice and quiet.



Denny's - now awarded for worst western style restaurant atmosphere, EVER. The food was okay and the service friendly enough, but the constant Disney-style at-this-moment-I've-found-my-life's-true-love style romantic serenade, then your brain wants to jump out the window and your body is considering a surprise lobotomy.

Basic Differences

Just some quick observations about the difference between japan and china

1) Everything works.
2) I can trust people.
3) Everything is (relatively) clean.
4) Even though it is very warm and humid there is not a constant smell of garbage.

(no, china did not make a good impression on me)

Saturday

A source tells me that shochu gives bad hangovers. As mentioned before, they may be quite right. I slept till around 5 pm to escape from the hangovers, heat and humidity.

After I get up first over of business is to get some noodles. I'm currently exploring variations of Ramen and get this nice result.

The "soup" in the top is for dipping the noodles. It has beef taste, is salty and enormously good with hangovers. The cook got an "ooisho" from me and was professionally thankful.

Next I had to pay my bill at the bar from yesterday. The new bartender, Kaori, did not understand me very well, but after a bit of patience I was told that the bar opened an hour later. She also posed with the "denki branka" (meaning Electric Brandy?), that is also suspected to be the source of my hangovers yesterday.




Next I went seeing Shibuya that is famous for it's big pedestrian intersection and nightlife. It's mostly shopping which i don't care much for, but at least they are creative with the stores. When you have a normal pink girlish clothing store, why not just throw in a jetplane with that?


I also met a family that was in need for assistance in taking group pictures. Turns out that it was a doctor from china on a four year research position in japan. Nice for him. He though that I should have a picture together with the family. Voila


You can also rent cafes for private arrangements. I accidentally crashed this private party. Crossing your arm in front of you appears to mean "wrong" in japan :)


In the big square next to the train station I learn about japanese etiquette. Smoking is forbidden, outside. Here is the cage for the smokers