Japan (a summary)

So much has happened... and I haven't really had time or energy to blog... so many better things to be doing... here's the highlights since the last post and a brief summary:

Takayama further described:
- there was snow! We went to this awesome old style village (the one where I'm licking snow in the last post). Man it was cool to see snow, and it was so soft and powdery, not like the crusted over month old artificial crap I've seen in Australia.

Hiroshima:
- Went to this island thing real early in the morning so we could catch high tide to see some floating red gate thing... it was okay, not sure it was worth getting up early for though.
- map of the island was deceiving, or we were stupid and thought we'd be okay... went on this mega fucking fuck up this shitty hill.... the steps when on forever, and my stupid hiking boots weigh over a kilo. Worst shit ever. People I was walking with, Jamie and Reena walk real fucking fast too. Reena was powering forward like we were in a real rush or something.. we weren't though.. we were on holidays relaxing.. everyone in the intrepid group seemed to have forgotten that, they were all real fast walkers, it really shat me. Anyway... we made it to the top and it took like an hour or two of millions of steep steps. I'm sure that it was one of those moments that was meant to be rewarding, I was too hot and sore to give a shit though. I just wanted to catch the gondola back down, regardless of how much it cost.
- Went to peace memorial. Pretty full on. Who the hell thinks it's a good idea to design a bomb, let along make one, let alone drop it on hundreds of thousands of people. We saw where the A bomb was dropped. Saw where it was meant to hit (400 meters away). Saw bits of melted skin in a jar, saw a luekemia effected spine, saw some burnt bits of kids clothing and toys. Pretty awful. Worth it though.
- Went to have a go in the hot tub at the accomodation, when I went to put my feet in there was something that looked a lot like jizz floating around in it... I was always concerned about the cleanliness of these things... this just confirmed my suspicions that they were gross..

Kyoto:
- Went for an excellent bike ride. Didn't wear a helmet. Felt real dirty... but kinda good. Lucky I didn't die.
- Prob saw some more temples, they're getting pretty boring though.
- Gold pavilion thing, cool temple thing made of gold! That was shit hot looking. Best thing about it though were these kids who had some school assignment to practice english to tourists. It was great, had to sign off to say we'd listened to them. All the guys in our group were getting photos with them. After teaching it feels a bit wrong to take photos of school kids... but fuck it hey!
- Saw some castle.. yawn.
- Got lost - family were laughing at me with my toppled over bike, map in hand and hellova confused look on my face... atleast they helped me once they noticed that they'd been busted laughing at me.
- Had Mcdonalds atleast 3 times... was really over Japanese food 3 times a day by Kyoto... such a dirty feeling afterwards. Oh well. It was cheap and filling. Seemed to be hungry like 30 mins after eating Japanese food, even if I'd eaten until being full!

Tokyo - the return
Everyone from intrepid had dispersed by now. I was left in a hotel a few stops up from Ueno in Tokyo, close to where Jamie was. Hung out with him until he left. Highlights include:
- Went to Sony building, checked out all the latest crazy gadgets. Some 007 promotion on, we had to fill in this form from looking at things in the store and finding the stamp on the 4th floor, then we got our own 007 secret agent cards! Hell funny. I felt super lame, all good fun though.
- Shibuya crossing from lost in translation, had another good look at the masses of people crossing.
went into HMV and listened to some Japanese rock pop music. Real good. Also had a listen to the new Franz album, I liked the sound of it, esp track 7, gonna have to make the dl asap!

Travelled around by myself today:
- went to wicked markets in Asakusa
- Saw a whole bunch of crazies dressed up in Harajuku, there was also an area near yuyogi park where there were all these dudes impersonating elvis and dancing around to music.
- Another temple
- This cool street called Takeshita... I kid you not. I was acually the coolest street I have ever been down shopping wise, right up my ally... ha. Real alternative crazy shit, I could have purchased so much stuff.. I settled for a scarf and a shirt though.

K, fucked on about shit too long. Here are some things about my stay in Japan:
- listening to music on long trips in different countries makes me feel real weird, sad almost... reminds me too much of things from home... only been two weeks since I left.. shit I'm lame.
- range of toilets I experienced in Japan ranged from a squat toilet with a damn floor and no toilet paper to one where the lid opened automatically, it flushed automatically, the seat was heated, it played music, there were buttons that sprayed jets of water on your vag or your arse. Really cool!!! The only thing I never experienced was decent toilet paper, it was all this thin rough as guts shit... didn't make any sense.
- Japan needs more bins, more benches and more J walking.
- Although crazy fucking confusing to look at and understand at first, the Tokyo subway sistem IS managable.
- Trying to scam the metro fare system is not a good idea.
- it's impossible to pick a favourite place or thing I've done. The things I've seen and done are just too diverse to compare.
- Birthdays away from home and friends can be a bit hard.
- Kimono's are a bitch to walk in.
- Bullet trains are hell cool (well good, proper good).
- Intrepid trips with fellow single travellers make for a more sociable trip.
- Many Japanese people are entertained by far different things to me - those arcade game places are freakin nuts.
- It'll take longer than 2 weeks for me to get used to not eating toast or cereal for breakfast.
- I'm no good at remembering (not new news)

Once again, go to flickr for updated photo's.