The long way home

Carrying 3 suitcases by yourself is not fun. It's near impossible and very painful. My bruise hands are the proof. You would think I had learned my lesson last summer.

Tuesday morning. Time to go. The sun is shinning, the birds are singing... we get a phone call: the trains are not running. Because of the storm the day before.

Mamiko generously offers to drive me to Tatebayashi. We get there early so we stop for tea. A tear scene later, I am sitting by myself on the train. I will not go through all the details but here are a few things to important to remember for future consideration:

• 3 suitcases and 1 person = no good.

• Narita station is not Narita airports

• Bring a change of clothing so you get get ride of the gross sweaty cloth you are wearing when you get to the airport.

• 3 suitcases and 1 person = no good. I know I am repeating myself... but after doing it 2 years in a row, it is time for me to learn.

At the airport, nothing to report. I slept none stop in the flight between Narita and Los Angeles. I got to LA early. My plane back to Toronto was delayed. Then delayed again. I finally got home after living July 28 twice! Talk about a long long day!!!

The day the sky came down.... again

My last full day in Japan the sky came down. Torrential rain. I packed my luggage. To no avail, I had to leave things behind. I scrambled. I tried packing again. We went and had sushi for lunch. The cheap, 100 yen a plate sushi. I wish I had one of those here in Canada. The dollar store of sushi! I went to work with Marie. Then it happened. The sky opened and the rain came down faster than a waterfall. Within minutes, it was covering the streets. I had the great idea of "needing" to go back to the apartment, so under the waterfall I left. I had water up to just below my knees. It was scary. I finally got to the apartment completely soaked. A few minutes later, the storm at past... the water drained away and the sun came back... I was still wet. Turns out, we were the talk of Japan. A tornado touched down not to far from us!!

So I went to work again. The spent the afternoon there talking with her boss. It was great.  

 

Then at night, Mamiko came to get us and we went for Okonomiyaki and Karaoke!!! Saying I had a great time would be an understatement!! Really I could not think of a better way of finishing my trip. First the food was amazing and I tried something new (I forgot the name). Then at Karaoke we pretty much sang every K8 song in the book while doing the full dances. Mamiko's friend was there and even though she doesn't speak english we had a great time. At the end of the night, everyone had teary eyes as we said our goodbyes!

The final count down

Sunday, July 26 2009

Natsu Matsuri time

I love festivals!!!! The atmosphere is great. The food is amazing. The music is great. But I have to say, the best part is wearing a Yukatta.

Marie's boss wanted to take us to the local festival. She bought us beautiful yukata that her mother help us wear. She tied the nicest bow I had ever had (much nicer then the bow I tie). The whole family we took off. The festival was really big considering it is such a small town!! There were many portable shrine being carried around and people were throwing water at them!!

Waaaaaaaaaaaashhhhhhhhhoi!!! Waaaaaaaaaaaaashhhhhhhhoi!!

We ate chocolate dipped banana, okonomiyaki and takoyaki. I forgot to buy the yakisoba ;-) We had a great time! Later at night, there was a parade of carts on which all the school age kids were playing Taiko! I really love Taiko. I am thinking I want to start learning. They teach some classes down at the JCCC.

Shopping in Ota

I was back in Ota and only had 3 days left to my trip. Marie and I spent sunday at the Aeon mall. We went shopping an dplayed in the arcade. I bought Kanjani8's new album : Puzzle. I also bought some t-shirt and other random souvenir. I wasn't in a spending mood... or I should say: I had no money left. For lunch, we had Korean food and Mister doughnut (green tea matsuri doughnut).

We went home and watched some random old episode of Ya-ya-yah. Then VS Arashi was on Tv, so we also watched that.

Nagano-Matsumoto or the bloody mess...

After my Osaka trip, I came back to Tokyo, slept at Lindsay and got up early the next day to catch a train for Nagano. That morning was my first goodbye of the the trip. I hate saying goodbye... so obviously there was a tear scene at the Shinjuku west entrance Jr line. I have to put this in here: Thank's Lindsay for having me over. I had a great time!!
 

So I was off to Nagano. Got there... nothing to see. So I kept going and took the train for Matsumoto. I thought it would be a 20 minute train ride... turns out the limited express takes 1 hour!!!!!!!!!! I had not taken that in consideration in my plans so I actually got to Matsumoto at 5 pm!!! I jumped on a bus and went to the castle. I had to be back in Oizumi for 9pm so that left me a big 20 minutes to visit Matsumoto. So got the the castle walked quickly around, took some picture than walked back to the station through the frog street. And that was it.

I guess you could call it an express visit to Matsumoto. Took 3 hours to get there and well I stayed 20 minutes. I went back to the station, did a bit of shopping and learned that there would not be a limited express to take me back because of an accident. So I had to take the local train back to Nagano (1h45 minutes). So local train it was... but because of it, I was badly behind scedule. I had to be back in Oizumi for 9pm. I just had too. So I finally got to Nagano, took the Shinkensen to Takasaki. Got bento boxes there for dinner (the daruma bento box). Took the next train for Isesaki and that's where disaster struck!!! 

I only had 2 minutes in Isesaki to catch the Ota train. 2 minutes to cross the station and change line!! i was carrying all my stuff from Osaka so it was going to be hard. Usually we have to run to make it. Not making the train meant I would have to wait another 1 before the next one. I was already so late and even by catching the train I was not going to be back in Oizumi until 10:00. So like everyone else, I ran to catch the train. The wheel of my suitcase got caught and I flew in the air (about one meter) and landed flat out on my stomach in the hurrying crowed. Yep. That was embarrassing. Also very painful. 4-5 people rushed to help me. All my stuff was spread out on the platform. At least they held the train so I still ended up making it... but my left leg... what a disaster. It was completely in blood. Actually it looked exactly like when I tumbled down Mt. Fuji last year (same leg also). When I finally got to Oizumi, Marie laughed when she saw my leg, she said it was becoming a End-of-trip-to-Japan-tradition for me...

So I got there at 10pm just in time for Orthros no Inu!!! Yep, all this so I could watch the first episode the the new Tackey-Ryo drama.

Sukiyanen Osaka

It feel funny writing this now. I am back home in Canada. I am looking back at my wonderful memories wishing I was still there making more. But let's go back in time where I left off. My last day in Osaka. Oh, I still have to mention how much I love Osaka. But at the same time, Osaka can be a bit scary. On my last day, I was approached by a weird man and he kept asking weird question which led me to think I should get away from him as soon as possible... which I did by jumping into a tour boat along the Osaka Canal. I didn't let that bad start ruin my day. Once more I was on a mission. Last year, during my visit to Osaka, it was pouring rain, so this year I intended on doing the same itinerary, in the same order but under the sunshine. So I took out,my map and my notes from last year and used the exact same schedule. I even went back to the shrine where I had met and save the little old lady from the rain.

Once I was done, I went back to Namba and ate more Okonomiyaki and Takoyaki. I still can't believe how much I ate while in Osaka!! But the food is on a whole different level there.

To finish the day, while waiting for my train, I shopped some more till I dropped. Clothing, omiyage, food... There were lots of end of season sale so I got Russ-K t-shirts for 900 yen!!! I also picked up a whole new outfit at Uniqlo for under 3000 yen!!

Now I forgot to say: during my visit to Osaka, there was a solar eclipse. I had known this for a long time and I was so excited to be able to witness it. Last time there was one in Canada, I missed it!!! So it was my chance to finally see one!!! Well, no luck. I stood on the bridge of the canal with thousand of people, news reporters, cameraman... and saw nothing. It was too cloudy. We did notice it got darker but that was it...

Tegomass concert report

Well… I finally saw Tegomass. Not that I am a fan or anything. Well I am. So I had tickets. Bad bad bad seats… actually we didn’t even had seats. My tickets were Tachimi. Which means I had to stand at the very back of the arena… and well see nothing. But gladly for me, this concert was not at all Johnny’s like… no costume, no dancing. All singing, amazing vocals. A full 12 pieces band. The concert opened with an Acapella version of Miso Soup. These guys can sing but I have to say I was highly impress. They sang none stop for 3 hours by themselves. No solos, so no time to rest. They really connected with the crowd and against all odd they did really well at MC.

Koyama and Shige were the guest for the MC. I have to say the crowed went absolutely crazy and so did I!!! At first I thought Nishikido would be the guest since the concert was in Osaka but it makes so much more sense to have Koyama and Shige there for the MC.

They sang many many songs. Some I knew… some I didn’t. They sang my favorite song. They also sang their new single Tanabata no Matsuri but without the yukatta ;-)

Funny coincidence, the girl I went to the show with is from Brampton and goes to Ryerson… small world!!

Note: They gave me trouble when it was time to get into the arena… because it wasn’t my name on the ticket!!! So heads up for those attending this tour!

Funky Town Osaka

Ohhhhhhhhhh! How much I love Osaka! The city looks, like crayons were given to a four years old and he had designed the whole city! Osaka is weird, beautiful, colorful and absolutly over the top. So what did I do in Osaka? 

Well what else… I walked down the streets over and over again trying to take in all the sights, I ate. I ate. I ate even more… okonomiyaki, takoyaki… I went to visit Billiken and I watched a johnny’s concert! I also shopped till I dropped. Oh my favorite place in the world for shopping is Osaka. I mean Paris is great but out of my league. Now Osaka has great “Bargain Sale”. The people are also really different there. Osaka is a world apart from Tokyo, Osaka is dirty, Tokyo is clean. Osaka people are a bit rude (well to Japanese standards anyway), Tokyo people are annoyingly polite (and fake). Osaka’s food is amazing. Tokyo’s food is… good. Osaka is a lot like Canada! So anyway, I spent all in day in random conversation with old people there… Let me tell you, the Obachan are nosy!!! But very nice and funny.

I also got caught in the middle of the variety show featuring a famous Kansai comedian. So I will probably be on TV looking like a lost gaijin with my map in my hands… and totally in the way of the comedian.

Miyajima rainy blues

Rainy blues would have been not so bad but instead I had to battle vs Arashi. (ok I am laughing at my own joke here) Ok in plain english… 70mm of rain in less than an hour. I got stuck inside a temple where a nice lady was offering towel and hot tea to everyone. It was scary at time. It didn’t look like rain anymore, it looked like a waterfall from the sky. When it finally calmed down to pouring rain, we were told we should hurry back to the boat and get back to the train station as soon as possible and leave the area. Which I did…

But let’s go back in time. I got to Miyajima early in the morning and was amazed at how beautiful the island was. I walked to the main temple and took may picture of the Tori (one of Japan’s 3 sight). Last year I saw Fuji so now I only have 1 sight left to see. The tide was high so we could not walk all the way to the Tori (same principle as Le Rocher Percé à Québec). So I decided to visit other sights while the tide would go down… that’s when the sky opened up and fell on our head!

I still had time to eat one Hiroshima-fu Okonomiyaki with Kaki!!! (Hiroshima style cabbage and soba pancake with oysters) It was delicious!!! The Oyster were huge!!!

Hiroshima-fu Okonomiyaki with Kaki

This is a place I really want to go back too… I want to eat more oyster and I would like a sunny day so I could take pictures of the beautiful scenery.

So I got back to Hiroshima and played text message tag with Ayumi (who is in Canada).We spent the whole afternoon texting each other back and forth. I was bored and the rain showed no intention to stop. I decided to check out a few famous Okonomiyaki restaurant. First I went to Mitsu (okonomiyaki restaurant from 47 live) but it was closed for mid-afternoon break. So then I made my way to the okonomiyaki street and found Hachimasa (okonomiyaki restaurant feature on Arashi’s TV show) but it was not opening till 5 pm. Out of luck I decided it was time for me to leave Hiroshima and to finally hit Osaka!!

I got to the train station only to find it under a state of pure chaos!!! Turned out all that rain had flooded a city further south and had damaged the shinkansen line. Thousand of people were laying on the floor of the station, waiting for the next available train. Luckily the only track still in function was the one for Shin-Osaka. But what a nightmare… everyone trying to get out of Hiroshima with no where to go… Even the Osaka bound trains were delayed for hours. I jumped in the next departing train (even thought my ticket was for another one) and played the foreigner card!! I had no intention of being stuck one more day in Hiroshima.

Hiroshima mon amour: NOT!

I guess Hiroshima is a nice city. Maybe there’s lots to do there. Let’s just say I was not really impress. I started my visit with the Atomic Bomb memorial. It was nice but so Disneyland like. I thought it missed a big of humility. But that’s just my opinion. 

Then I headed towards the castle (which had to be rebuilt after the atomic bomb). For once I have to say I enjoyed a Japanese Castle. The inside of it was a museum with very interesting exhibit. Then it was time to go find my hostel for the night. Well it turned out to be on the outskirt of the city after a 15 minutes walk in the wood. Not fun!! When I finally got there, my legs and arms were devastated with bug bits. At least the actual hostel was nice and clean… but the cafeteria was serving some awful meal (some sort of beef patty) so I walked all the way back to go get some onigiri at the combini. Oh and I should add… off course it was raining the whole time. Just my luck!