Onsen Dells

the past few days i've done a bit of travel. JOel and Yumishi and I went to Yugawara. we had a little beach time then stayed at a hotel that we hoped would have a nice onsen (natural hot springs baths). the hotel was pretty good but the hot mineral baths were pretty lame. The food they gave us was very japanese I'm told. I think a little too japanese for my tastes. Why would you take a perfectly good piece of cheesecake and put fish eggs on it? I'll have to show pictures. Anyway, after the disappointing onsen, my guides felt obligated to show me what a quality mineral bath was like. They didn't want to to leave believing that blue-tiled tub was it. So we took mnay trains to Gotemba for a very nice onsen experience. They had indoor and outdoor pools, a view of a cloudy mount fuji, saunas, and my first professional massage. A very relaxing time and a family atmosphere. I told Dave about it and he said I may have gone to what some call a 'super onsen.' I then told him my cleverly coined term "WiscOnsen Dells."

Thank you. You've been a great audience. Goodnight!

pics #2

Dan and Joel with Daibutsu


Outside the Imperial Palace


Nagashi so-men (floating noodles) place

busy dan

you might think i've been a lazy person, but actually ive been too busy to spend the time required to update this site. sorry if you're waiting, then again, if waiting for me to update a travelblog is THAT important to you, you should probably get a life of your own.

I went to Kanazawa city last weekend to stay with Masako, a former student of mine in Hopkins, and her husband. They gave me a kings treatment, with homecooked food and tours to local points of interest, such as Kanazawa castle, one of the top 3 gardens in japan, the beach, the floating noodle restaurant, soy sauce breweries, and food food food. we also met up with fujimi, another student from Hopkins, and her family. It was a nice change to get out of the big metropolis. there was a different vibe over there on the sea of Japan. the train ride gave me a chance to see the green of the country.

the past few days i was over in Yokohama, catching up with Joel. He and his girlfriend Yumishi and i went to some of the famous temples at Kamakura. We also attended a fun night at a bar featuring live music, including a japanese grateful dead cover group, in honor of the anniversary of jerry garcia's death.

Now I'm back in tokyo at dave and gan's place. I checked out the area near the imperial palace yesterday and successfully negotiated the subway and ordered food in a resuarant alone. It was in a noodle shop in which you put money in a machine then press a button by the picture you want, take a ticket, give the ticket to a server then wait for your soup.

in between tourist attractions and bowls of soup, i've been attending english lessons, getting the feel for japanese EFL students, helping out if i can. i can't believe i actually miss teaching. maybe its just something comfortable in an otherwise foreign setting.

the plan for the next few days is as follows; wander around more areas of tokyo (Ueno then Shinjuku) today, go to Gan's family gathering then a punk rock show tomorrow, back to yokohama to attend a minor league baseball game and stay in yokohama for the first part of next week.

sorry this is such an abbreviated blog. i guess you'll just have to sit through my slide-show when i get back. I've only got around 600 pictures so far.

trip to island - karaoke

We went to Odaiba island, which apparently didn’t exist 15 years ago. We took a monorail across the Rainbow Bridge to get there. Once on the island we shopped and shopped. There are differently-themed malls. One was old-timey japan, another named Venus Fort, was supposed to be like Italy inside, with dusk-colored sky all day. So cool. We wandered and had some Italian food. We almost got the very Italian curry, tuna and potato pizza, but ended up with pepperoni instead. We watched the sun go down and the lights of Tokyo turning on across the bay.



rainbow bridge from odaiba island


gan at venus fort, i mean italy


My last post about the wacky game center simulations was before we went to Odaiba, where I witnessed the walking-a-dog game, and the stand-up comedian game, which I didn’t really understand but apparently involves punching the comic when he tells a bad joke. We rode the big ferris wheel which “in 1999 was recorded by Guinness as the largest in the world.” I guess the record has been broken since.

Last night we had a crazy karaoke box night. In japan karaoke isn’t quite the same. The preferred karaoke delivery system is the karaoke box, in which your group gets its own room with table, tv monitor and karaoke system. You select your songs and take turns. You can call and order food and drinks to be brought to you. You pay by the hour. The place we went to was six floors of these boxes, maybe 30 or 40 boxes each floor lined up like small hotel rooms. Dave, two other fellows and I rocked the box for two hours. The group I was with was feeling very punk rock that night. I would leave the box to use the restroom and coming back down the hallway I could only hear the singing and screaming of my compadres, even though every box on that floor looked full.



(addendum - odaiba island was actually made from silt in the harbor - which i am sure contained some garbage

pics #1

shinjuku

dave and gan illegally ride two on a bike

british style pub - dan, gan, dave, kenji, oyaji

on the way to Odaiba, former garbage island, with veggie drink (now with asparagus)

Mind is officially blown

I think they brought me the the Shinjuku area as early as possible just for the constrast between it and any other place i've ever been. Shinjuku is the busiest train station on the planet, with about 2 million people passing through it daily. It was nuts and we were there on a weekend when it wasn't at full-capacity. My country-mouse wife would definitely be unhappy there.

The area around the station is all neon and shops and entertainment. It's where much of Lost in Translation was filmed. Dave and I wandered, met up with some of his friends, then met up with my old pal Joel Rush, with whom i did quite a bit of adventuring in Costa Rica in 1993. We hadn't seen each other in roughly 10 years, but out of the crowds we were somehow able to pick each other out. Cell phones of course facilitated this.

We went to a couple Game Centers, or video arcade with pachinko and slots. I think i just watched. They have all kinds of wacky simulation games like guitar, drumming, taiko drum and shamisen simulators, and boxing in which you have to swing your arms and move your body to dodge punches. We searched unsuccessfully for a ping pong simulator.

We went to a restaurant in which sushi comes by your seat on converyer belts and you take what you like. You pay by the color-coded plates when you finish. I have to say that I am now longer afraid of eating eel, but squid is still not my favorite.

We met Gan and a guy named Oyaji at a British pub, then went to the 45th floor of the tokyo government building and looked at all the lights of a city that apparently just keeps on going.

I have a very comfy little bedroom of my own with a TWO futon matress thick bed. Gan's Mom, Fuji-chan, is very kind to have converted a storage room for my stay. She also has been making us food before we go out for the day. tasty stuff. Rice or noodles are good fuel for wandering all day. I try my best to communicate my appreciation but my japanese is a little limited. Yesterday i tried telling someone my age, but ended up saying "i am 3 oclock".

Today's plan includes going to a garbage island, upon which a mall and amusement park have been built.

so far so good

after 2 hours on the runway and 12 hours in the air, i have arrived. met dave at airport and took public transit to neighborhood of adachi-ku in tokyo. drank cans of convenience store gin and tonic by the river and caught up with each other. haven't slept yet.