5/17- 5/19
Some people work and manage brilliantly without sleep. I am not one of those people. I turned into a crazy, judgmental, mean, bipolar, angry, emotional bitch. It's really bad. Those crazy people you see on reality t.v. that snap because they're sleep deprived and stressed have nothing on me. Physically it feels the way I feel when I'm drunk- exhausted, but usually when I'm drunk, I'm quite happy, though a bit annoying and repetitive. Usually when I'm drunk, I'm quite happy, though I can be a bit repetitive and annoying.
Suffice to say, it's absolutely horrible, and for this reason, I will do almost anything (sleep in odd places, skip out on doing something really amazing, decide something isn't really that important when it is) to make sure I get enough sleep. If I'm just a little sleep deprived, I'm still normally okay, but if I get less than about six hours, the craziness sets in.
You can imagine then, that after a 1:25 a.m. flight from Taipei to Manila, followed by a 5:40 a.m. flight to Hong Kong, I was not a pleasant person to be around. I remained as silent as possible to avoid screaming at an innocent person for walking wrong, for example, and wasn't even especially cheered up by the man at Immigration asking me my name to confirm I was the same person as the girl in my passport since he said my face had gotten much thinner. (Side note- my passport photo is horrendous and somehow managed to make me look much fatter and uglier than I was even at the time, when I was much heavier. I don't know why it's so bad because even though I'm not particularly photogenic, most official photos I have are okay (licenses). I blame it on the fact that the photo was switched to digital and somehow added weird shadows and redness, creating chins and rosacea that were never there.)
Whatever. I found an ATM, thrilled that I could finally take money out on my schedule since BoA (the worst bank ever) partners with China Construction Bank so they don't charge a fee. I bought a Coke Zero, found the right bus to take me to a hostel area, was told to go to another bus (same number, just across the road, I still don't know why) and finally got on the right one. On the bus, I kept falling asleep but I wasn't too worried about missing my stop since it was about 45 minutes away.
I'd looked on Wikitravel's Hong Kong guide well ahead of time so I wouldn't have any hostel issues and it had suggested walking along Nathan Road, between Mong Kok and Tsim Sha Tsui (TST) and not booking ahead because there was always room and there were just tons of hostels in this area. So I got off at Mong Kok and started walking South on Nathan Road, towards TST. The area seemed about right for hostels; run down, near a large market, central, but oddly, I didn't see any backpackers or hostels. I do need to mention here that it's entirely possible that there were several hostels I passed with signs only in Chinese, but I sure as hell didn't see any. So I kept walking. And walking. And cursing Wikitravel. And walking.
About 2.5 km later, not having seen any hostels (though later, walking along this same road, I saw one, and only one, I'd missed), I was ready to scream, give up and sleep on a park bench like a homeless person. 2.5 km isn't that far (about 1.5 miles) but it feels like it when you're carrying a backpack that's falling apart and made of crap materials so it feels MUCH heavier than it actually is. It also feels farther than it is when you're exhausted and pissy and homicidal.
I found a little park, that was actually part of a huge park, and sat down. Part of me wanted to go to sleep but part of me thought that was a terrible idea. It was around 11 a.m. and my flight had arrived at around 7:45. Hoping, without any expectations of success, I got out my computer and tried getting Wifi. Amazingly, it came through with a strong, unsecured (meaning open), free, government signal! This actually did help my mood a bit and I felt a little better. Online, I found the name of a specific hostel that Google Maps told me was nearby and headed off. Within a few blocks, several hostel began to pop up obviously and the area became much more expensive and commercial. I passed the Tsim Sha Tsui subway station and it was true that in this area, there were tons of available hostels. I'd only had to walk over 3 km to get there because Wikitravel blows.
The hostel I'd found online was located inside Chungking mansion, which is actually more like a prison. I'd describe it in detail, but I'm doing my best to forget it. I spent the rest of that day and the next two sleeping, walking/wandering around for long periods (seeing a convertible completely covered in crystals on a pedestal in a mall at one point), watching t.v. or movies on my laptop, writing and trying different kinds of ice cream (Dryer's Toasted Almond, which was delicious, and Haagan Daaz Orange Chocolate, which was deeply disappointing).
P.S. This is my last entry without pictures! Thank god, even I was boring myself.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Visiting the Philippines, Almost
5/16-
For my last day in Taipei, I left my backpack at the hostel for final sightseeing. I went to the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall and saw the National Theater and National Concert Hall next door, all of which were just okay. There was a medium sized protest going on, but I couldn't tell what it was about. From there, on my way to Danshui, a popular seaside area, I saw the Grand Hotel from the train. Danshui was swarming with people- tourists and locals alike, and wasn't pretty or interesting. I was disappointed so I just headed back, ate and then spent a long time at the airport waiting for my 1 a.m. flight to Manila. My flight was on a budget airline, Cebu Pacific and it was very strange. The staff at the Taipei airport were incompetent and rude, but the staff at Manila were kind, helpful and in a shockingly welcoming, happy mood at 3 a.m. What was bizarre was that for the transfer in Manila, I had to go through immigration and get my passport stamped and everything and could've just walked out of the airport. Technically, I was in the Philippines for about 15 minutes while having to check in and get my boarding pass for my Hong Kong flight. I considered getting off there (in the Philippines) but I didn't really want to so I just continued on my way.
For my last day in Taipei, I left my backpack at the hostel for final sightseeing. I went to the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall and saw the National Theater and National Concert Hall next door, all of which were just okay. There was a medium sized protest going on, but I couldn't tell what it was about. From there, on my way to Danshui, a popular seaside area, I saw the Grand Hotel from the train. Danshui was swarming with people- tourists and locals alike, and wasn't pretty or interesting. I was disappointed so I just headed back, ate and then spent a long time at the airport waiting for my 1 a.m. flight to Manila. My flight was on a budget airline, Cebu Pacific and it was very strange. The staff at the Taipei airport were incompetent and rude, but the staff at Manila were kind, helpful and in a shockingly welcoming, happy mood at 3 a.m. What was bizarre was that for the transfer in Manila, I had to go through immigration and get my passport stamped and everything and could've just walked out of the airport. Technically, I was in the Philippines for about 15 minutes while having to check in and get my boarding pass for my Hong Kong flight. I considered getting off there (in the Philippines) but I didn't really want to so I just continued on my way.
Tea-riffic Day (I'm sorry, I really am and slightly hate myself right now for that)
5/15-
Today really was a great day. Judy met me at the subway station to take me to the Lin Family Mansion and Garden, one of the few truly traditional Chinese houses left in Taiwan. It was nice and a very kind guide helped explain some of the symbolism for me through Judy's interpretation. Afterwards, we met Judy's Mother, Sister and 3 year old Niece. We went over to see the Taipei 101 building but I didn't go up it since I didn't want to spend the money when it was so foggy (and I'd been waiting all week for it to clear up but it never did). From there, we went over to a Barracks Museum showing the barracks that housed the Chinese soldiers and their families after the split. The soldiers had their immediate families with them but were never allowed to return to the Mainland to see the rest of their families. I'm doing a poor job of explaining this, but they weren't prisoners, just couldn't go back to China, so the families banded together and created an enclave. It was somewhat interesting, more so because Judy's grandparents had been a part of the original settlement.
Next we went for a ride on the Maokong Gondola (cable car) which was really nice, even though it was getting very dark and our visibility was limited. The top town had small hills of tea leaves. I couldn't smell them as tea, but could smell the strong scent. It's known for its tea and Judy said it was one of the few places in Taipei where they still grow it.
For dinner, we went to a tea restaurant with a lovely view out over the valley. Everything we ate had tea in it so we had: vermicelli with tea leaves, fried tea leaves, chopped or crushed tea leaves in fried rice, chicken and seafood soup with tea leaves, pork and shrimp sauce with tea leaves and baby bamboo. Most of it was delicious- I especially liked the fried tea leaves, the noodles with tea leaves and the bamboo. The bamboo didn't have much flavor, but basically absorbed whatever you ate it with (like tofu, but better tasting) so I just dipped it in a yummy chili sauce. It also had a really nice texture, sort of like asparagus (only texture wise, not taste) and was just so much more satisfying than tofu. I hadn't even realized that you could eat bamboo, though only when it's young and basically still a cone, but I wish it were more easily available- I could see myself eating it frequently.
After the tea dinner, which Judy very generously paid for, we took the gondola back down. Judy said there were fireflies out but I didn't see any. I played a bit with her niece, though it was difficult since she didn't speak any English, but was cute and well-behaved. She also had a rather insane amount of energy at 10 p.m. so when we got off we danced around a little bit.
Right next door to the gondola base was Dancing Waters, a large fountain that had free water/music/light shows every hour or half hour so we waited and watched one, which was really pretty. We all took the train back together, though I had to say my goodbyes when I got off at my stop first. Even though I'd started out in Taipei very unhappy with the local who was supposed to show me around, Judy had more than made up for it in the past two days and had really made me feel special and like some weird, half-related crazy cousin (to use sitcom characterization) in a good way.
Today really was a great day. Judy met me at the subway station to take me to the Lin Family Mansion and Garden, one of the few truly traditional Chinese houses left in Taiwan. It was nice and a very kind guide helped explain some of the symbolism for me through Judy's interpretation. Afterwards, we met Judy's Mother, Sister and 3 year old Niece. We went over to see the Taipei 101 building but I didn't go up it since I didn't want to spend the money when it was so foggy (and I'd been waiting all week for it to clear up but it never did). From there, we went over to a Barracks Museum showing the barracks that housed the Chinese soldiers and their families after the split. The soldiers had their immediate families with them but were never allowed to return to the Mainland to see the rest of their families. I'm doing a poor job of explaining this, but they weren't prisoners, just couldn't go back to China, so the families banded together and created an enclave. It was somewhat interesting, more so because Judy's grandparents had been a part of the original settlement.
Next we went for a ride on the Maokong Gondola (cable car) which was really nice, even though it was getting very dark and our visibility was limited. The top town had small hills of tea leaves. I couldn't smell them as tea, but could smell the strong scent. It's known for its tea and Judy said it was one of the few places in Taipei where they still grow it.
For dinner, we went to a tea restaurant with a lovely view out over the valley. Everything we ate had tea in it so we had: vermicelli with tea leaves, fried tea leaves, chopped or crushed tea leaves in fried rice, chicken and seafood soup with tea leaves, pork and shrimp sauce with tea leaves and baby bamboo. Most of it was delicious- I especially liked the fried tea leaves, the noodles with tea leaves and the bamboo. The bamboo didn't have much flavor, but basically absorbed whatever you ate it with (like tofu, but better tasting) so I just dipped it in a yummy chili sauce. It also had a really nice texture, sort of like asparagus (only texture wise, not taste) and was just so much more satisfying than tofu. I hadn't even realized that you could eat bamboo, though only when it's young and basically still a cone, but I wish it were more easily available- I could see myself eating it frequently.
After the tea dinner, which Judy very generously paid for, we took the gondola back down. Judy said there were fireflies out but I didn't see any. I played a bit with her niece, though it was difficult since she didn't speak any English, but was cute and well-behaved. She also had a rather insane amount of energy at 10 p.m. so when we got off we danced around a little bit.
Right next door to the gondola base was Dancing Waters, a large fountain that had free water/music/light shows every hour or half hour so we waited and watched one, which was really pretty. We all took the train back together, though I had to say my goodbyes when I got off at my stop first. Even though I'd started out in Taipei very unhappy with the local who was supposed to show me around, Judy had more than made up for it in the past two days and had really made me feel special and like some weird, half-related crazy cousin (to use sitcom characterization) in a good way.
The Most Disgusting Sounding Thing I've Eaten...So Far
5/14
Didn't do too much today but. I've been trying to get caught up on this blog still, and it gets a bit frustrating- it's starting to feel like a chore that I'm doing for only my Mom to read. Okay, I'm done being a baby now. So, did little during the day, emailed Mei and at night Judy came over. She still seemed horribly rushed and anxious, but at least this time she randomly brought a bunch of food for me. She gave me two different types of pies; pineapple and another one that were pretty good. She also brought some wonderful tea and some pastry sort of snacks. I told her my general plans but wouldn't definitively agree to anything and gave her Mei's phone back.
She said we should go to Longshan temple and the Tourist Night Market right then, and since I had energy from sitting on my ass all day, I agreed. Once we were on the move, I made a serious effort to get her to calm down by asking her questions and talking slowly. Though she never calmed down completely, she improved quite a bit, at which point I could actually enjoy talking to her.
Judy does incentive travel, for companies and so had traveled a good deal and so we talked about that for quite a while. When she wasn't so anxious and didn't have people making crazy demands on her, she was really very cool.
After getting off the MRT we were in between the night market and the temple so she stopped to make me try pig's blood cake, one of her favorite foods. She also made absolutely sure that I knew exactly what I was eating by typing out the word blood on her phone for me to see as I hadn't understood her accent on that word. The taste itself wasn't really bad, it was just such a terrible idea that I couldn't help the name from entering my judgment of the food itself so it was really the idea that actually churned my stomach. It looked like a long, rectangular piece of chocolate cake covered in a ground sweet, peanut mixture. I tasted the peanut mix more than any other flavor, but mostly I just tasted the name: pig's blood cake. Ugh!
Next, we walked over to Longshan Temple, which was incredible. This was yet another point when I really, really wished I had my camera. It was detailed and every surface was totally covered in decoration. Besides dragons and tigers and different buddhas, I saw what looked like a phoenix and asked Judy about it. She told me it was, you know, the thing...Harry Potter and the thing. So it was a phoenix which I just thought was interesting because I didn't know that there were phoenixes in Chinese mythology and I really like phoenixes. One or two people have told me I was like a phoenix and I thought that was just about the greatest compliment ever.
The temple closed and we walked over to the Huaxi Street Tourist Night Market. She had me try several different traditional foods, most were edible but not great. One interesting thing that was available at this market- though I didn't get to try it- was python. They ate regular ones, but most of the live ones displayed were albino, presumably because they look better.
Didn't do too much today but. I've been trying to get caught up on this blog still, and it gets a bit frustrating- it's starting to feel like a chore that I'm doing for only my Mom to read. Okay, I'm done being a baby now. So, did little during the day, emailed Mei and at night Judy came over. She still seemed horribly rushed and anxious, but at least this time she randomly brought a bunch of food for me. She gave me two different types of pies; pineapple and another one that were pretty good. She also brought some wonderful tea and some pastry sort of snacks. I told her my general plans but wouldn't definitively agree to anything and gave her Mei's phone back.
She said we should go to Longshan temple and the Tourist Night Market right then, and since I had energy from sitting on my ass all day, I agreed. Once we were on the move, I made a serious effort to get her to calm down by asking her questions and talking slowly. Though she never calmed down completely, she improved quite a bit, at which point I could actually enjoy talking to her.
Judy does incentive travel, for companies and so had traveled a good deal and so we talked about that for quite a while. When she wasn't so anxious and didn't have people making crazy demands on her, she was really very cool.
After getting off the MRT we were in between the night market and the temple so she stopped to make me try pig's blood cake, one of her favorite foods. She also made absolutely sure that I knew exactly what I was eating by typing out the word blood on her phone for me to see as I hadn't understood her accent on that word. The taste itself wasn't really bad, it was just such a terrible idea that I couldn't help the name from entering my judgment of the food itself so it was really the idea that actually churned my stomach. It looked like a long, rectangular piece of chocolate cake covered in a ground sweet, peanut mixture. I tasted the peanut mix more than any other flavor, but mostly I just tasted the name: pig's blood cake. Ugh!
Next, we walked over to Longshan Temple, which was incredible. This was yet another point when I really, really wished I had my camera. It was detailed and every surface was totally covered in decoration. Besides dragons and tigers and different buddhas, I saw what looked like a phoenix and asked Judy about it. She told me it was, you know, the thing...Harry Potter and the thing. So it was a phoenix which I just thought was interesting because I didn't know that there were phoenixes in Chinese mythology and I really like phoenixes. One or two people have told me I was like a phoenix and I thought that was just about the greatest compliment ever.
The temple closed and we walked over to the Huaxi Street Tourist Night Market. She had me try several different traditional foods, most were edible but not great. One interesting thing that was available at this market- though I didn't get to try it- was python. They ate regular ones, but most of the live ones displayed were albino, presumably because they look better.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Lost In the Wild
5/13
Packing up and moving so often (every other day on average, I think), I lose a lot of stuff. It's usually no big deal because it's an eyemask or a lipgloss or an umbrella or something else inconsequential or easily replaceable but today as I was packing up, I noticed that my camera case was empty and my camera was nowhere to be found. I asked at the Visitor's Center nearby if anyone had turned one in, and they said no and checked with the police who also said no. They wanted me to file a report but I told them I was sure I'd lost it, not had it stolen, so I just left my email and a description of the camera. There was nothing left to do about it so I called my Mom on Skype and told her that I thought I may have subconsciously lost it on purpose, as it was old and pretty crappy and I really did need an excuse for a new one. If it really is gone though, I'll have lost all my Tokyo and Taiwan pictures which would be a bit sad.
I sat at the corner by the bus stop, not knowing when it was coming, but aware that there were five daily. I walked over to the shops area and got a Taiwan sausage, which is basically a coarser pork bratwurst and ended up going back to get another, more because I was hungry and haven't eaten enough meat lately than because they were so fantastic. While over there, one of the people I'd seen yesterday said 2 and held up two fingers. Then the man making the sausage did the same. I told them I only wanted one, though I'd had one before- two total. The woman said "No. Hualien?" which is the name of the city I had to catch the bus to before getting the train to Taipei. I nodded and she told me the bus was coming at 2. It was just before 12:30 so I was glad to have this information, but sad that I couldn't write the image of myself I'd conjured while waiting: The girl sits on the corner, waiting alone for a bus that may never come. Oh wait, I did just write it, and no, it's not great, I just liked it- every once in a while I get a bit emo. Deal.
Knowing I had all this time, I decided to walk up the mountain to the temple nearby. Since I had no camera I couldn't take regular pictures, but I got a few with my phone, though of course, I don't have a cord so I can't download them anywhere.
I met a girl from Singapore, Julaina, who was there with her Mom and Grandmother. Her English was perfect and she told me about studying in Toronto and her backpacking trips through Europe. She also recommended couchsurfing and invited me to stay with her if I found myself back in Singapore. I know the idea of couchsurfing with strangers seems extremely suspect but this site has been around for quite some time now and they verify identities and I've heard nothing but positive feedback from several solo travelers, including many females so I'm planning on trying it in the near future.
The temple was nothing amazing, though the setting really is spectacular. The gorge is made of a river running through mountains that rise, often at a 90* angle, up to 3,000 feet. It's not a chasm, so the river flow is level to the basic ground level and the road is just a few hundred feet above it so the mountains block large swatches of the clouded over sky and holds the mist inside its cleavage.
The bus ride back down to Hualien showcases the gorge's dramatic scenery. It's quite amazing, but given the amount of rain pouring down everywhere I go (including here, at the time of descent) and cloud cover, I'm disappointed in the tiny cracks of waterfalls that drip down. One of the best sights is a temple built so that a waterfall rushes out beneath it, and this one, at least, has a decently strong stream.
Eventually the bus winds its way down to the flat area near the ocean, and on highways to the city where I catch the 4 p.m. train to Taipei with two minutes to spare.
Packing up and moving so often (every other day on average, I think), I lose a lot of stuff. It's usually no big deal because it's an eyemask or a lipgloss or an umbrella or something else inconsequential or easily replaceable but today as I was packing up, I noticed that my camera case was empty and my camera was nowhere to be found. I asked at the Visitor's Center nearby if anyone had turned one in, and they said no and checked with the police who also said no. They wanted me to file a report but I told them I was sure I'd lost it, not had it stolen, so I just left my email and a description of the camera. There was nothing left to do about it so I called my Mom on Skype and told her that I thought I may have subconsciously lost it on purpose, as it was old and pretty crappy and I really did need an excuse for a new one. If it really is gone though, I'll have lost all my Tokyo and Taiwan pictures which would be a bit sad.
I sat at the corner by the bus stop, not knowing when it was coming, but aware that there were five daily. I walked over to the shops area and got a Taiwan sausage, which is basically a coarser pork bratwurst and ended up going back to get another, more because I was hungry and haven't eaten enough meat lately than because they were so fantastic. While over there, one of the people I'd seen yesterday said 2 and held up two fingers. Then the man making the sausage did the same. I told them I only wanted one, though I'd had one before- two total. The woman said "No. Hualien?" which is the name of the city I had to catch the bus to before getting the train to Taipei. I nodded and she told me the bus was coming at 2. It was just before 12:30 so I was glad to have this information, but sad that I couldn't write the image of myself I'd conjured while waiting: The girl sits on the corner, waiting alone for a bus that may never come. Oh wait, I did just write it, and no, it's not great, I just liked it- every once in a while I get a bit emo. Deal.
Knowing I had all this time, I decided to walk up the mountain to the temple nearby. Since I had no camera I couldn't take regular pictures, but I got a few with my phone, though of course, I don't have a cord so I can't download them anywhere.
I met a girl from Singapore, Julaina, who was there with her Mom and Grandmother. Her English was perfect and she told me about studying in Toronto and her backpacking trips through Europe. She also recommended couchsurfing and invited me to stay with her if I found myself back in Singapore. I know the idea of couchsurfing with strangers seems extremely suspect but this site has been around for quite some time now and they verify identities and I've heard nothing but positive feedback from several solo travelers, including many females so I'm planning on trying it in the near future.
The temple was nothing amazing, though the setting really is spectacular. The gorge is made of a river running through mountains that rise, often at a 90* angle, up to 3,000 feet. It's not a chasm, so the river flow is level to the basic ground level and the road is just a few hundred feet above it so the mountains block large swatches of the clouded over sky and holds the mist inside its cleavage.
The bus ride back down to Hualien showcases the gorge's dramatic scenery. It's quite amazing, but given the amount of rain pouring down everywhere I go (including here, at the time of descent) and cloud cover, I'm disappointed in the tiny cracks of waterfalls that drip down. One of the best sights is a temple built so that a waterfall rushes out beneath it, and this one, at least, has a decently strong stream.
Eventually the bus winds its way down to the flat area near the ocean, and on highways to the city where I catch the 4 p.m. train to Taipei with two minutes to spare.
Nature: Not So Bad?
5/12
No internet. I feel hardcore. And I'm actually rethinking this nature stuff- it's not really that bad. I'm currently sitting on part of a giant marble mountain that forms one side of a gorge with light gray waters stippling on the immersed rocks as they rush by me. I'm at Taroko National Park in Taiwan and I had to climb sideways to get where I'm sitting now. The only sign of human existence within 360* of where I'm sitting is an old cable the color of the dark mountains behind it, now tied to the branch of a tree which has twirled itself partially around it, resting on it for support. The temperature is perfect; not humid nor dry, not hot nor cold and I'd say the weather was perfect except that the clouds and surrounding mist are covering any hint of sunshine, making the whole valley look as if only two colors have ever existed: dark-grass green and gray.
It sounds quite depressing when I put it like that but it's kind of nice. I heard a beeping a while ago and was concerned that someone else was on their way to steal my tranquility (albeit, tranquility with a laptop) but I realized that it was actually just a bird chirping. Am I that far removed from nature and has it been that long since I've been in it? Maybe I've just avoided it because I think of it as "NATURE" meaning hardcore wilderness trampling through a humid jungle. Perhaps I just don't like humidity? It does make me love my netbook even more. Now I can have peace, but not too much. Also, I might spot a leopard in the wild- how cool would that be?
I got here by leaving my hostel, late as usual, at around 6:30 a.m. for a train that left at 6:45. In my usual dashing way, I made it with two minutes to spare. Through the tunnels and the city and into the rural countryside, we traveled. The train trudged uphill, pushing its way as if through sand, through the unexpected rainforest.
I was reading my book by my window seat on the right side on the train, glancing up occasionally to see the verdant mountains in the mist on my side when I looked over to the left, and there was the ocean view I'd been longing for in Japan, at least for a short while. I hopped over to an empty seat on the left side and watched the small island we passed, and the shoreline, all large, dark boulders. And I think we just passed a large white mosque.
The roadside temples I've seen so far are particularly different from those in Cambodia, Thailand, Korea and Japan. The same basic structure is there, but these ones have incredible carvings of dragons with fine details and many spikes.
If you'd asked me what I'd expected of Taiwan, after first admitting that I hadn't particularly considered it, I would have said that I thought it was little more than a city-state island nation, with Taipei and a little bit around it. But it's surprising me, more and more. It's much closer to a large Caribbean island, with one main city, but several other cities/large towns and huge jungles, beaches and rural areas. I'm still not impressed by the people, but little bits of the country are unexpected and interesting.
Mei told me one interesting thing and that was that -keeping in mind that this is just what she said, I'm not stating facts here- about half of the Taiwanese, including herself, wanted reunification with China, which surprised me as I wouldn't have expected it to be that high. She also said that the reason they couldn't be reunited was because the U.S. wouldn't let it happen because then China and Taiwan together would be too powerful! I thought that was a pretty preposterous thing to say as I don't particularly think of Taiwan as threatening in any way. China is, of course, but to suggest that the difference Taiwan would make is that significant strikes me as hugely arrogant, and quite delusional. To me, it's the equivalent of a Puerto Rican saying that other countries would be threatened by the combination of them and the U.S. because together they'd be too powerful. It's just insane.
After a three hour train ride, I bought a bus ticket for Tiansiang. The bus didn't leave for another hour so I went and got a breakfast burger before boarding at 10:50. The bus ride, half of which was truly exciting scenery along the Taroko gorge, took about an hour and forty-five minutes, so I arrived a bit after 12:30. I walked up to the hostel and checked in. The manager wanted to charge me $400 NTD, about $13 but I said that it said $300 online and he said, it's for your own room. Considering that the sign in sheet had only had two other visitors (two couples) in the entire month of May, I felt fairly certain that the dorm would be my own room anyway so I made him give me that price.
After feeling the beds, which are basically wood covered with very hard, tightly woven hay mats, I'm grateful I didn't pay any more, though now I almost wish I'd skipped it and camped outside, though then I might be eaten by black bears that inhabit this park- they're nocturnal right?
I spoke too soon. The thing I'd forgotten about Nature was the reason that I didn't like it- I'd just remembered the fact that I didn't like it. It's boring. It is boring as all flip-all. When you're actually doing the hiking or something like that you're usually too miserable to be bored, but at night, especially if you're alone, it's totally uninteresting. I need stimulation, even for meditation, I need stimulation, and I don't like the idea of forced calm- I want to choose to be calm when it suits me, like in the Tokyo train station, not when the rest of the world wants to force me into it by lulling me to boredom.
Boo, I wanted to learn Mandarin tonight. Now I can't because there's no internet access (and yes, I'm going with that as the reason I can't learn an incredibly complex language in one night).
I met some of the local people when I went down to buy beer and guess what? I was right. They're people, exactly like everyone else anywhere.
No internet. I feel hardcore. And I'm actually rethinking this nature stuff- it's not really that bad. I'm currently sitting on part of a giant marble mountain that forms one side of a gorge with light gray waters stippling on the immersed rocks as they rush by me. I'm at Taroko National Park in Taiwan and I had to climb sideways to get where I'm sitting now. The only sign of human existence within 360* of where I'm sitting is an old cable the color of the dark mountains behind it, now tied to the branch of a tree which has twirled itself partially around it, resting on it for support. The temperature is perfect; not humid nor dry, not hot nor cold and I'd say the weather was perfect except that the clouds and surrounding mist are covering any hint of sunshine, making the whole valley look as if only two colors have ever existed: dark-grass green and gray.
It sounds quite depressing when I put it like that but it's kind of nice. I heard a beeping a while ago and was concerned that someone else was on their way to steal my tranquility (albeit, tranquility with a laptop) but I realized that it was actually just a bird chirping. Am I that far removed from nature and has it been that long since I've been in it? Maybe I've just avoided it because I think of it as "NATURE" meaning hardcore wilderness trampling through a humid jungle. Perhaps I just don't like humidity? It does make me love my netbook even more. Now I can have peace, but not too much. Also, I might spot a leopard in the wild- how cool would that be?
I got here by leaving my hostel, late as usual, at around 6:30 a.m. for a train that left at 6:45. In my usual dashing way, I made it with two minutes to spare. Through the tunnels and the city and into the rural countryside, we traveled. The train trudged uphill, pushing its way as if through sand, through the unexpected rainforest.
I was reading my book by my window seat on the right side on the train, glancing up occasionally to see the verdant mountains in the mist on my side when I looked over to the left, and there was the ocean view I'd been longing for in Japan, at least for a short while. I hopped over to an empty seat on the left side and watched the small island we passed, and the shoreline, all large, dark boulders. And I think we just passed a large white mosque.
The roadside temples I've seen so far are particularly different from those in Cambodia, Thailand, Korea and Japan. The same basic structure is there, but these ones have incredible carvings of dragons with fine details and many spikes.
If you'd asked me what I'd expected of Taiwan, after first admitting that I hadn't particularly considered it, I would have said that I thought it was little more than a city-state island nation, with Taipei and a little bit around it. But it's surprising me, more and more. It's much closer to a large Caribbean island, with one main city, but several other cities/large towns and huge jungles, beaches and rural areas. I'm still not impressed by the people, but little bits of the country are unexpected and interesting.
Mei told me one interesting thing and that was that -keeping in mind that this is just what she said, I'm not stating facts here- about half of the Taiwanese, including herself, wanted reunification with China, which surprised me as I wouldn't have expected it to be that high. She also said that the reason they couldn't be reunited was because the U.S. wouldn't let it happen because then China and Taiwan together would be too powerful! I thought that was a pretty preposterous thing to say as I don't particularly think of Taiwan as threatening in any way. China is, of course, but to suggest that the difference Taiwan would make is that significant strikes me as hugely arrogant, and quite delusional. To me, it's the equivalent of a Puerto Rican saying that other countries would be threatened by the combination of them and the U.S. because together they'd be too powerful. It's just insane.
After a three hour train ride, I bought a bus ticket for Tiansiang. The bus didn't leave for another hour so I went and got a breakfast burger before boarding at 10:50. The bus ride, half of which was truly exciting scenery along the Taroko gorge, took about an hour and forty-five minutes, so I arrived a bit after 12:30. I walked up to the hostel and checked in. The manager wanted to charge me $400 NTD, about $13 but I said that it said $300 online and he said, it's for your own room. Considering that the sign in sheet had only had two other visitors (two couples) in the entire month of May, I felt fairly certain that the dorm would be my own room anyway so I made him give me that price.
After feeling the beds, which are basically wood covered with very hard, tightly woven hay mats, I'm grateful I didn't pay any more, though now I almost wish I'd skipped it and camped outside, though then I might be eaten by black bears that inhabit this park- they're nocturnal right?
I spoke too soon. The thing I'd forgotten about Nature was the reason that I didn't like it- I'd just remembered the fact that I didn't like it. It's boring. It is boring as all flip-all. When you're actually doing the hiking or something like that you're usually too miserable to be bored, but at night, especially if you're alone, it's totally uninteresting. I need stimulation, even for meditation, I need stimulation, and I don't like the idea of forced calm- I want to choose to be calm when it suits me, like in the Tokyo train station, not when the rest of the world wants to force me into it by lulling me to boredom.
Boo, I wanted to learn Mandarin tonight. Now I can't because there's no internet access (and yes, I'm going with that as the reason I can't learn an incredibly complex language in one night).
I met some of the local people when I went down to buy beer and guess what? I was right. They're people, exactly like everyone else anywhere.
National Palace Museum
5/11
Got up at a reasonable time, but didn't get out until about 1 p.m. because I had to do my laundry and go to the train station to get my discount youth pass (free and in the form of a cool luggage tag!) and buy a train ticket for tomorrow before leaving to go to Shilin, where the National Palace Museum was. I got to the right subway station, but couldn't find the bus I wanted for the life of me. I did however, see a place making something described as Chinese Pizza (though it was nothing at all like pizza), which were incredibly good. I still don't know what they're called, but it was basically a very airy bread with green onions, seemingly strings of wheat wound together, with an amazing lightness, then an egg, tons of basil (not sure if it was thai basil, but definitely not italian), pepper and a bit of soy sauce. It was about $1 and so good that later, on my way back, I got another one.
So I walked around, asked someone who gave me particularly heinous directions, but eventually found a sign that had the right number and color. I didn't actually arrive at the museum until about 3:20 so I didn't have tons of time, since they closed at 5. It's a very nice, clean museum and some of the collection was incredible. Unfortunately, so much of it was boring that I felt it really detracted and overwhelmed the worthwhile bits. I actually feel this way about museums often, that they just need to edit their collections better: charge the same price but show half the stuff. Perhaps you're thinking "But Laura, everyone has different tastes- you can't know what everyone will like." This is true, but if it looks like something I could buy at IKEA, I don't care how old it is, it should be kept for admiration by pottery scholars.
Like I said, though, some of it was very nice. They had interesting sections on border maps that were just declassified in 2007 (though for some reason these descriptions were only in Chinese), some of the pottery, some paintings and some truly incredible curio boxes and ivory and wood carvings. It was definitely worth my time, but maybe not more than the 1.4 or so hours I put in. Another interesting section was their calligraphy collection which started to explain the different meanings of particular brush strokes and why it's so much more important in Eastern culture. It's something I'd really like to learn more about and might take a class on in China.
I felt quite tired after catching the bus back to the station, so just did a brief tour around what I thought was the Shilin Night Market. As it turns out, it wasn't, but after enough time, most markets seem to look the same. Even after discovering that I hadn't been at the right place, I just didn't feel like going over to the other so I just went back to my hostel and chilled out for the rest of the night.
Got up at a reasonable time, but didn't get out until about 1 p.m. because I had to do my laundry and go to the train station to get my discount youth pass (free and in the form of a cool luggage tag!) and buy a train ticket for tomorrow before leaving to go to Shilin, where the National Palace Museum was. I got to the right subway station, but couldn't find the bus I wanted for the life of me. I did however, see a place making something described as Chinese Pizza (though it was nothing at all like pizza), which were incredibly good. I still don't know what they're called, but it was basically a very airy bread with green onions, seemingly strings of wheat wound together, with an amazing lightness, then an egg, tons of basil (not sure if it was thai basil, but definitely not italian), pepper and a bit of soy sauce. It was about $1 and so good that later, on my way back, I got another one.
So I walked around, asked someone who gave me particularly heinous directions, but eventually found a sign that had the right number and color. I didn't actually arrive at the museum until about 3:20 so I didn't have tons of time, since they closed at 5. It's a very nice, clean museum and some of the collection was incredible. Unfortunately, so much of it was boring that I felt it really detracted and overwhelmed the worthwhile bits. I actually feel this way about museums often, that they just need to edit their collections better: charge the same price but show half the stuff. Perhaps you're thinking "But Laura, everyone has different tastes- you can't know what everyone will like." This is true, but if it looks like something I could buy at IKEA, I don't care how old it is, it should be kept for admiration by pottery scholars.
Like I said, though, some of it was very nice. They had interesting sections on border maps that were just declassified in 2007 (though for some reason these descriptions were only in Chinese), some of the pottery, some paintings and some truly incredible curio boxes and ivory and wood carvings. It was definitely worth my time, but maybe not more than the 1.4 or so hours I put in. Another interesting section was their calligraphy collection which started to explain the different meanings of particular brush strokes and why it's so much more important in Eastern culture. It's something I'd really like to learn more about and might take a class on in China.
I felt quite tired after catching the bus back to the station, so just did a brief tour around what I thought was the Shilin Night Market. As it turns out, it wasn't, but after enough time, most markets seem to look the same. Even after discovering that I hadn't been at the right place, I just didn't feel like going over to the other so I just went back to my hostel and chilled out for the rest of the night.
Internal Monologue: To Run or Not to Run?
5/10-
Last night, I'd stayed up until about 4 a.m. working on this blog. That sounds like a terrible idea but it actually worked out very well- I woke up at about 12 today, feeling totally rested and energized. Since it's Mother's Day, I called my Mom and talked to her for a while, before attempting to take a shower, and failing since there was no hot water.
For lunch, I stopped at a little restaurant and pointed at a picture (with an English description underneath!) of shrimp won tons in soup. The soup was the same as you get anywhere; basic chicken stock with some spring onions and maybe some other green thing, seaweed or bok choy, but the dumplings were fantastic. The shrimp was chopped but not ground in with breading or other filler crap, and had lemongrass and ginger in it, which made it wonderful.
After lunch I walked over towards the Museum of Contemporary Art and passed an art installation on the way, which was interesting.
Sadly, the Museum itself was closed on Mondays. I wandered around the streets and through market alleyways before going into the D building, where I found a shop where I could "test" nail polish remover by removing the polish from all of my nails. I was trying to decide what to do then and realized that I still had a lot of energy and I didn't have any idea of what to do with it. It was too late to go to another museum, and they'd probably all be closed, and it was too cloudy to go see the Taipei 101 building.
As I was thinking about it, I noticed that the weather was actually perfect for running; slightly chilly and breezy but not really cold. Weather is one of my main excuses for not going running, the other two I use most frequently are: exhaustion and that my stomach isn't right (either too full or too hungry- it sounds strange, but it's actually very hard to find the exact hunger level to run on). I couldn't use any of these excuses as I was energized and my stomach, for once, was at that perfect point. The only problem was that I didn't want to. I tried rationalizing with myself;
"You slightly twisted your ankle a while ago and can still vaguely feel it- you don't want to injure yourself more."
"Yes, but you can only even feel it if you move your ankle in an awkward sideways manner that you wouldn't do when you run AND the pavement here is surprisingly even and good."
"Yeah, but I just really don't want to."
"Stop being so lazy and pathetic!"
"That's mean- you're a jerk."
"I'm sorry, that was out of line, it's just that you'll feel so much better if you do, and you'll sleep better, just put your running clothes on- you can do it!"
"Okay, I'll just change and go. Just change and go before I can change my mind."
So I did. And I was right. I went for a decent run (about 50 minutes run/walk) and it was okay and I did feel better afterwards, especially after a shower. I got some noodles and pork dumpling thing for dinner that looked pretty disgusting but actually tasted okay, and then went back to the hostel where I've been busy working on my blog and relaxing by: painting my nails with clear polish, enjoying another cup of homemade hot chocolate, reading "The Motorcycle Diaries" and using a face mask I bought in Tokyo at Muji, a cool minimalist store. I'd been proud of myself at the time because I only bought two things at Muji, a mini foundation pump for my makeup that I actually needed, and these face masks that came in a set of 5 for something like $1.50. The reason I couldn't resist them was because they came in a tiny bag, each one looking like a large, flat, round white pill. You saturate the "pill" with a face oil, which makes them unroll and then you put it on your face like a regular mask.
Last night, I'd stayed up until about 4 a.m. working on this blog. That sounds like a terrible idea but it actually worked out very well- I woke up at about 12 today, feeling totally rested and energized. Since it's Mother's Day, I called my Mom and talked to her for a while, before attempting to take a shower, and failing since there was no hot water.
For lunch, I stopped at a little restaurant and pointed at a picture (with an English description underneath!) of shrimp won tons in soup. The soup was the same as you get anywhere; basic chicken stock with some spring onions and maybe some other green thing, seaweed or bok choy, but the dumplings were fantastic. The shrimp was chopped but not ground in with breading or other filler crap, and had lemongrass and ginger in it, which made it wonderful.
After lunch I walked over towards the Museum of Contemporary Art and passed an art installation on the way, which was interesting.
Sadly, the Museum itself was closed on Mondays. I wandered around the streets and through market alleyways before going into the D building, where I found a shop where I could "test" nail polish remover by removing the polish from all of my nails. I was trying to decide what to do then and realized that I still had a lot of energy and I didn't have any idea of what to do with it. It was too late to go to another museum, and they'd probably all be closed, and it was too cloudy to go see the Taipei 101 building.
As I was thinking about it, I noticed that the weather was actually perfect for running; slightly chilly and breezy but not really cold. Weather is one of my main excuses for not going running, the other two I use most frequently are: exhaustion and that my stomach isn't right (either too full or too hungry- it sounds strange, but it's actually very hard to find the exact hunger level to run on). I couldn't use any of these excuses as I was energized and my stomach, for once, was at that perfect point. The only problem was that I didn't want to. I tried rationalizing with myself;
"You slightly twisted your ankle a while ago and can still vaguely feel it- you don't want to injure yourself more."
"Yes, but you can only even feel it if you move your ankle in an awkward sideways manner that you wouldn't do when you run AND the pavement here is surprisingly even and good."
"Yeah, but I just really don't want to."
"Stop being so lazy and pathetic!"
"That's mean- you're a jerk."
"I'm sorry, that was out of line, it's just that you'll feel so much better if you do, and you'll sleep better, just put your running clothes on- you can do it!"
"Okay, I'll just change and go. Just change and go before I can change my mind."
So I did. And I was right. I went for a decent run (about 50 minutes run/walk) and it was okay and I did feel better afterwards, especially after a shower. I got some noodles and pork dumpling thing for dinner that looked pretty disgusting but actually tasted okay, and then went back to the hostel where I've been busy working on my blog and relaxing by: painting my nails with clear polish, enjoying another cup of homemade hot chocolate, reading "The Motorcycle Diaries" and using a face mask I bought in Tokyo at Muji, a cool minimalist store. I'd been proud of myself at the time because I only bought two things at Muji, a mini foundation pump for my makeup that I actually needed, and these face masks that came in a set of 5 for something like $1.50. The reason I couldn't resist them was because they came in a tiny bag, each one looking like a large, flat, round white pill. You saturate the "pill" with a face oil, which makes them unroll and then you put it on your face like a regular mask.
Still Being Lazy
5/9-
Today I went for a long walk, even though the weather's still quite gross. The only thing I saw that looked at all interesting was the Museum of Contemporary Art, so I might go see that tomorrow. I booked a flight to get to Hong Kong for May 17th. It's $170 USD cheaper than the next available flight but it's on a super-budget airline, I have to leave at 1:25 a.m. and there's a two hour stopover in...Manila. Look at it on a map and tell me that makes sense. Oh well, saving that much is worth it to me and it does mean I won't have to pay for a hotel that night. Eh. Other than that, I didn't do much today besides writing and updating this blog.
Today I went for a long walk, even though the weather's still quite gross. The only thing I saw that looked at all interesting was the Museum of Contemporary Art, so I might go see that tomorrow. I booked a flight to get to Hong Kong for May 17th. It's $170 USD cheaper than the next available flight but it's on a super-budget airline, I have to leave at 1:25 a.m. and there's a two hour stopover in...Manila. Look at it on a map and tell me that makes sense. Oh well, saving that much is worth it to me and it does mean I won't have to pay for a hotel that night. Eh. Other than that, I didn't do much today besides writing and updating this blog.
Do (something, anything) Another Day
5/8-
Finished "Shadow of the Wind" and it really is a great book- I'd recommend it. It wasn't raining, though it was still gross and humid and gray out, so I went for a short walk. I'd planned on buying dinner but didn't see anything particularly appetizing so I bought pre-seasoned chicken pieces which I fried up on one of the two burners available and added to my lettuce and chopped up red bell pepper to make a salad, and to my ramen for extra protein. I washed it all down with milk since I think I've been short on calcium lately, all while watching the most recent 007 movie on t.v. I was reminded of how crappy Daniel Craig is as Bond, and how old and short and unattractive he is.
Finished "Shadow of the Wind" and it really is a great book- I'd recommend it. It wasn't raining, though it was still gross and humid and gray out, so I went for a short walk. I'd planned on buying dinner but didn't see anything particularly appetizing so I bought pre-seasoned chicken pieces which I fried up on one of the two burners available and added to my lettuce and chopped up red bell pepper to make a salad, and to my ramen for extra protein. I washed it all down with milk since I think I've been short on calcium lately, all while watching the most recent 007 movie on t.v. I was reminded of how crappy Daniel Craig is as Bond, and how old and short and unattractive he is.
Sad and Slow
5/7-
I spent today recovering from my nuclear particle collision speed in Japan by reading "Shadow of the Wind." It's a wonderful book so far, but I had to put it down at one point just because it was so sad. In fact, all the books I've read recently that have been really good have been sad. Between that and all the sad sights I've seen, I have to wonder if I'm being masochistic, but I don't feel sad or hurty overall? Also, it seems like Spanish and South American authors in general tend to write very depressing books, I wonder why that is, and why that makes me like them- because they understand pain and sadness?
The city is drowning today, so I only went outside once to get food, which was forgettable. I'd planned on changing hostels to a cheaper place, but they had a dorm bed available here for the same price, and searching for a random building in the rain sounded terrible, so I'm staying here. I did buy a bar of chocolate and milk, which I successfully combined into really yummy hot chocolate, so I'm counting that as my achievement for the day.
I spent today recovering from my nuclear particle collision speed in Japan by reading "Shadow of the Wind." It's a wonderful book so far, but I had to put it down at one point just because it was so sad. In fact, all the books I've read recently that have been really good have been sad. Between that and all the sad sights I've seen, I have to wonder if I'm being masochistic, but I don't feel sad or hurty overall? Also, it seems like Spanish and South American authors in general tend to write very depressing books, I wonder why that is, and why that makes me like them- because they understand pain and sadness?
The city is drowning today, so I only went outside once to get food, which was forgettable. I'd planned on changing hostels to a cheaper place, but they had a dorm bed available here for the same price, and searching for a random building in the rain sounded terrible, so I'm staying here. I did buy a bar of chocolate and milk, which I successfully combined into really yummy hot chocolate, so I'm counting that as my achievement for the day.
Sayonara!
5/6-
Naturally, I woke up a bit later than I wanted, so I rushed to the post office to ship a package home, and then took the subway, and then the special, expensive train ($20!) to the airport. I checked in just in time, weighed myself on the baggage carousel and got some sushi I hadn't tried, to take with me on the flight.
I don't know if I mentioned it specifically, but I have, of course, had sushi while in Japan before this, and it was good, but didn't blow my mind. This sushi, that I ate on the plane, didn't either, though that's probably because I was trying the weird stuff I hadn't gotten to before; unagi (eel) and sea urchin, though the other piece was a safe bet of grilled salmon. The unagi was okay, but the sea urchin was truly revolting. I'd heard it described as having the consistency and texture of wet brains, but that didn't bother me too much. The bright orange, the coldness of it, all of that was okay, but the true texture: solid and thick outside, giving way to gross, oozing orange pus and foam with a terrible taste, that was horrible.
They gave me something to eat on the plane that was edible and the rest of the flight was uneventful, though we had a fair bit of turbulence at one point. Even so, it was a perfectly decent flight and I have no complaints, which, for a flight, is saying a lot.
I'm a little sad to leave Japan and it's definitely somewhere I'd love to go back to and see more of in the future. For such a small country, there's just so much. I also really liked Tokyo.
I was able to disembark quickly and get through immigration without too much time or trouble, changed a tiny bit of money and walked out. Mei, a teacher friend of a friend of my Moms, who lives in Taipei and is sort of helping me out and sort of just annoying and a little bit crazy, was there with a sign to meet me.
Her "help" turned out to be more of a pain and more expensive for me than if I'd had no connections whatsoever. She was just a bit spastic and anxious and really didn't seem to know her city very well. Additionally, she kept telling me that Taipei is very difficult and confusing for foreigners if you don't speak Mandarin (it isn't- it's actually easier than Tokyo as more people speak English here) and implying that I really needed to rely on her and should be SO grateful for her help. On the bus ride, she asked me if I had a hotel for the night. I said I didn't but that I had looked up a few places. She said that was okay, that a student of hers was a travel agent so she called her.
Her student said she's found a place for around $40 USD. I said that was too much and that she really didn't have to worry or do anything about that for me- I'd find my own. Eventually, I did get a hostel and then after much unnecessary fussing, she left for a while, before forcing me to go out to a bar (which sounds like an oxymoron but I was tired and really didn't want to go out to this crap ex-pat bar with a 50 year old woman). After about two hours, she let me leave, though I wasn't allowed to go to sleep until she finished giving me a crash course in Mandarin pronunciation- yes, at 2 a.m. Not fun.
Naturally, I woke up a bit later than I wanted, so I rushed to the post office to ship a package home, and then took the subway, and then the special, expensive train ($20!) to the airport. I checked in just in time, weighed myself on the baggage carousel and got some sushi I hadn't tried, to take with me on the flight.
I don't know if I mentioned it specifically, but I have, of course, had sushi while in Japan before this, and it was good, but didn't blow my mind. This sushi, that I ate on the plane, didn't either, though that's probably because I was trying the weird stuff I hadn't gotten to before; unagi (eel) and sea urchin, though the other piece was a safe bet of grilled salmon. The unagi was okay, but the sea urchin was truly revolting. I'd heard it described as having the consistency and texture of wet brains, but that didn't bother me too much. The bright orange, the coldness of it, all of that was okay, but the true texture: solid and thick outside, giving way to gross, oozing orange pus and foam with a terrible taste, that was horrible.
They gave me something to eat on the plane that was edible and the rest of the flight was uneventful, though we had a fair bit of turbulence at one point. Even so, it was a perfectly decent flight and I have no complaints, which, for a flight, is saying a lot.
I'm a little sad to leave Japan and it's definitely somewhere I'd love to go back to and see more of in the future. For such a small country, there's just so much. I also really liked Tokyo.
I was able to disembark quickly and get through immigration without too much time or trouble, changed a tiny bit of money and walked out. Mei, a teacher friend of a friend of my Moms, who lives in Taipei and is sort of helping me out and sort of just annoying and a little bit crazy, was there with a sign to meet me.
Her "help" turned out to be more of a pain and more expensive for me than if I'd had no connections whatsoever. She was just a bit spastic and anxious and really didn't seem to know her city very well. Additionally, she kept telling me that Taipei is very difficult and confusing for foreigners if you don't speak Mandarin (it isn't- it's actually easier than Tokyo as more people speak English here) and implying that I really needed to rely on her and should be SO grateful for her help. On the bus ride, she asked me if I had a hotel for the night. I said I didn't but that I had looked up a few places. She said that was okay, that a student of hers was a travel agent so she called her.
Her student said she's found a place for around $40 USD. I said that was too much and that she really didn't have to worry or do anything about that for me- I'd find my own. Eventually, I did get a hostel and then after much unnecessary fussing, she left for a while, before forcing me to go out to a bar (which sounds like an oxymoron but I was tired and really didn't want to go out to this crap ex-pat bar with a 50 year old woman). After about two hours, she let me leave, though I wasn't allowed to go to sleep until she finished giving me a crash course in Mandarin pronunciation- yes, at 2 a.m. Not fun.
Beautiful Neon Explosion
5/5-
Though I got a slow start, I did actually do and see quite a bit today. I started by going to asakusa, an old temple, blah, blah, blah. It was no better than any other temple, even with a nice garden and vaguely interesting history. I spent some time in the area shopping for souvenirs to send home and found a cheap kimono for myself. There's some argument about kimonos. A truly traditional kimono that a geisha would wear, made of silk and embroidered, is wildly expensive and can get into the couture price range (tens of thousands of dollars) so many tourists set on getting a kimono of sorts, opt to buy a yukata which is kind of like a thin bathrobe geishas wear underneath a kimono. Even these are very expensive so many opt to buy them second-hand. Unfortunately, second hand stores selling kimonos and their accessories are very difficult to find. The kimono stores near tourist areas often sell some high end kimonos, but sell many more cheap ones to tourists or Japanese who wear them traditionally. Some people argue that these are not "real" kimonos, and while they are much, much poorer quality than the ones geisha wear, they are still kimonos and that was good enough for me and my slim wallet.
I found a blue-greenish one that was actually fairly plain, though it has a basic bamboo leaf pattern. It fit well, though it was a little long and I liked it emotionally more than I logically should have aesthetically. It was also my last day to possibly buy one and was the right price.
Taking the Tokyo Metro from one station to another should be simple. The stations and trains are fairly clean, there are Women Only cars for peak hours so you don't get molested by a chikan (yes, they have an actual word for subway sexual predators!) because you're so packed in, most signs are in Japanese and English and trains are reasonably fast Unfortunately, there are serious organizational problems that make stations illogical and transfers ridiculous. Amazingly, I never actually had too much trouble, but the system was so illogical and bizarre, I don't know how I didn't. My trip today emphasized that. On the map, Asakusa station is one a particular line, Asakusa. It stops at Bakuro-yokoyama station, where I could transfer to Shinjuku line to get to, Shinjuku. So I entered Asakusa station but didn't see a single sign for that line, despite seeing several for the Ginza line (though I did later find a very small single one, squashed in between other, useless information, that I'd missed). There was a man at an information desk I asked and he told me to leave this station to the street through a particular exit then follow the signs to Asakusa station Asakusa line. In other words, there were two unconnected Asakusa stations. It wasn't a long walk, but just shockingly unplanned. I got to the station, got a train to Bakuro-yokoyama, my transfer point and was again shocked at the confusing directions. To transfer to the other line, I again had to leave the station, go aboveground and walk. Again, it wasn't a long walk, just a few blocks, but there were turns so it wasn't just walk two blocks straight, and few signs, through a neighborhood that didn't feel unsafe exactly, but underpopulated- a place I wouldn't feel completely comfortable walking through at night. Like I said, I somehow managed all this without getting lost or confused, but I just thought it was an insane system. I took a picture of one of the signs to show the craziness, but lost the picture with my camera.
In the middle of the transfer, I stopped at a Yoshinoya, a Japanese fast-food place, for a beef bowl for dinner. Finally, I arrived at Shinjuku. Shinjuku is probably the area closest to the super busy Tokyo at night stereotype you imagine. It's just all neon lights and people and noise and it was wonderful. It was the sort of place where I think other people might feel overstimulated, but I felt like "Finally! A place I won't be bored!" There was also this area of three tiny alleyways nearby filled with tiny bars, most with only the bar and three or four stools before you ran into the wall. Many of them had vague themes and apparently many of them are so exclusive that you can't go in unless you're a regular (so how one becomes a regular in the first place, I don't know, maybe it's hereditary). Anyway, it was just really cool and dark and dingy and off and low-key and happy. I don't know, but I thought it was fantastic.
Though I got a slow start, I did actually do and see quite a bit today. I started by going to asakusa, an old temple, blah, blah, blah. It was no better than any other temple, even with a nice garden and vaguely interesting history. I spent some time in the area shopping for souvenirs to send home and found a cheap kimono for myself. There's some argument about kimonos. A truly traditional kimono that a geisha would wear, made of silk and embroidered, is wildly expensive and can get into the couture price range (tens of thousands of dollars) so many tourists set on getting a kimono of sorts, opt to buy a yukata which is kind of like a thin bathrobe geishas wear underneath a kimono. Even these are very expensive so many opt to buy them second-hand. Unfortunately, second hand stores selling kimonos and their accessories are very difficult to find. The kimono stores near tourist areas often sell some high end kimonos, but sell many more cheap ones to tourists or Japanese who wear them traditionally. Some people argue that these are not "real" kimonos, and while they are much, much poorer quality than the ones geisha wear, they are still kimonos and that was good enough for me and my slim wallet.
I found a blue-greenish one that was actually fairly plain, though it has a basic bamboo leaf pattern. It fit well, though it was a little long and I liked it emotionally more than I logically should have aesthetically. It was also my last day to possibly buy one and was the right price.
Taking the Tokyo Metro from one station to another should be simple. The stations and trains are fairly clean, there are Women Only cars for peak hours so you don't get molested by a chikan (yes, they have an actual word for subway sexual predators!) because you're so packed in, most signs are in Japanese and English and trains are reasonably fast Unfortunately, there are serious organizational problems that make stations illogical and transfers ridiculous. Amazingly, I never actually had too much trouble, but the system was so illogical and bizarre, I don't know how I didn't. My trip today emphasized that. On the map, Asakusa station is one a particular line, Asakusa. It stops at Bakuro-yokoyama station, where I could transfer to Shinjuku line to get to, Shinjuku. So I entered Asakusa station but didn't see a single sign for that line, despite seeing several for the Ginza line (though I did later find a very small single one, squashed in between other, useless information, that I'd missed). There was a man at an information desk I asked and he told me to leave this station to the street through a particular exit then follow the signs to Asakusa station Asakusa line. In other words, there were two unconnected Asakusa stations. It wasn't a long walk, but just shockingly unplanned. I got to the station, got a train to Bakuro-yokoyama, my transfer point and was again shocked at the confusing directions. To transfer to the other line, I again had to leave the station, go aboveground and walk. Again, it wasn't a long walk, just a few blocks, but there were turns so it wasn't just walk two blocks straight, and few signs, through a neighborhood that didn't feel unsafe exactly, but underpopulated- a place I wouldn't feel completely comfortable walking through at night. Like I said, I somehow managed all this without getting lost or confused, but I just thought it was an insane system. I took a picture of one of the signs to show the craziness, but lost the picture with my camera.
In the middle of the transfer, I stopped at a Yoshinoya, a Japanese fast-food place, for a beef bowl for dinner. Finally, I arrived at Shinjuku. Shinjuku is probably the area closest to the super busy Tokyo at night stereotype you imagine. It's just all neon lights and people and noise and it was wonderful. It was the sort of place where I think other people might feel overstimulated, but I felt like "Finally! A place I won't be bored!" There was also this area of three tiny alleyways nearby filled with tiny bars, most with only the bar and three or four stools before you ran into the wall. Many of them had vague themes and apparently many of them are so exclusive that you can't go in unless you're a regular (so how one becomes a regular in the first place, I don't know, maybe it's hereditary). Anyway, it was just really cool and dark and dingy and off and low-key and happy. I don't know, but I thought it was fantastic.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Another Day of Very Little
5/4-
Today, I didn't get out much just because I didn't feel like it. I had ramen again for lunch, wrote a lot and talked to the owner of the hostel for a while. He was very interesting. He was born in Japan but had moved to Oakland, California when he was under a year old. He grew up there and started selling drugs and at some point he was caught and sent to jail for three to five. He told me he was caught just for selling pot, but with that sentence, especially in Oakland, I don't quite believe him. Regardless, while he was in, a California law was instituted that any naturalized citizen felon would be deported so he was sent back to Japan. Imagine being sent back to a country that you've never known and having to start a whole new life.
I asked him how to get to the station since I was so lost yesterday and with his directions, it was about a five minute walk FROM A DIFFERENT STATION, though on the same line, just one more stop. It pissed me off, but at least I now knew. He also told me where a 100 yen shop was nearby so I could pick up a few things. 100 yen shops are like dollar stores, but with a much larger variety and much cleaner. Somehow, they really are similar but yen shops are just much cooler. Grabbed some chicken for dinner and spent the night writing, fussing about online and watching t.v.
Today, I didn't get out much just because I didn't feel like it. I had ramen again for lunch, wrote a lot and talked to the owner of the hostel for a while. He was very interesting. He was born in Japan but had moved to Oakland, California when he was under a year old. He grew up there and started selling drugs and at some point he was caught and sent to jail for three to five. He told me he was caught just for selling pot, but with that sentence, especially in Oakland, I don't quite believe him. Regardless, while he was in, a California law was instituted that any naturalized citizen felon would be deported so he was sent back to Japan. Imagine being sent back to a country that you've never known and having to start a whole new life.
I asked him how to get to the station since I was so lost yesterday and with his directions, it was about a five minute walk FROM A DIFFERENT STATION, though on the same line, just one more stop. It pissed me off, but at least I now knew. He also told me where a 100 yen shop was nearby so I could pick up a few things. 100 yen shops are like dollar stores, but with a much larger variety and much cleaner. Somehow, they really are similar but yen shops are just much cooler. Grabbed some chicken for dinner and spent the night writing, fussing about online and watching t.v.
Sleeping in the Shower (Still Stuck on Stupid alliteration)
5/3-
I woke up in the shower at around 9 a.m., tired and with a bit of a hangover. Since I was already there, I took a shower then left the hostel through a side door. Looking around for a breakfast place, I found loads of options but few that really appealed to me so I ended up getting something random. On the way, I passed a brand new internet cafe. The rates seemed high but I really wanted a nap and it was brand new, just opened in April, so I went in. They didn't have free soda, which made me sad, but I had a very nice, actual room (about 4' by 6') to myself, instead of just a cubicle. There was also a gorgeous, huge new flatscreen for a monitor and a sort of mat/chair that could fold down flat instead of a regular chair and it was more comfortable than my bed at the hostel had been! I did, however, notice some things that were rather odd.
At the entrance to the cafe, they had some random things for sale. This is normal, but it's usually something like snacks. This cafe seemed to be selling vibrators. I was surprised and looked closer to make sure I was seeing correctly, since the writing was all in Japanese and the women were in, let's say, compromising, position. They weren't vibrators. They were fleshlights (that is what they're called, right?), the, um, rubber/silicon/whatever tubes some men use to masturbate with to approximate a vagina. I then realized that the library of what I'd assumed to be manga books (most internet cafes have large manga collections) were actually adult books and magazines and the DVDs available for sale were all porn! Well, okay, that was weird, but I'd already paid, and it was like 10 a.m. so it wasn't busy at all and as bizarre as it was, it was totally clean and safe.
In the basket the guy gave me, there was: a clipboard with my bill, a pair of headphones, and two wet wipes. Inside my room, besides the above mentioned, was a box of tissues. I turned on the moitor and was immediately greeted by a naked Japanese woman moaning in a very squeaky annoying voice. Apparently the monitor was also a t.v. and they had one channel of free porn, which, unluckily for me, had been the last thing turned to by the previous occupant. Immediately, I turned down the sound, embarrassed, as I hadn't plugged the headphones in yet, and tried to figure out how to change it to computer use. It seemed to take a long while, though it was probably only about a minute. Finally, though, I got everything working and checked my emails and took a nice nap.
When I left, around noon, there were several people dressed up in traditional Japanese costumes, beating drums, marching and carrying a portable shrine which kept bouncing up and down as they jumped in unison. Everyone seemed so happy and excited and as I walked away, I saw two other such groups with portable shrines. I remembered that the next day was a festival in that area and assume they were all practicing, but it was still very cool to see.
I'd decided to try to check into a capsule hotel early to put my stuff down and then go sightseeing. In Asakusa, there was one that accepted women, so I found that. It was a hugely touristed area, though with an admittedly very cool view of part of Tokyo's skyline, and bizarrely for a capsule hotel, they were already completely booked for that night! I made a reservation to stay the next night, just for the experience and asked them if I could use their phone to call another place to see if they had room. For some reason, they made this into a BFD and wouldn't left me, even though it was a local call and I'd wanted to stay at their hotel and had just made a reservation. They told me where a payphone was, but I was really annoyed and felt their behavior was quite uncourteous.
I did use the payphone to call my next choice, New Koyo Hostel, since it was sort of far out, but very cheap. They had a single room available, so I said I'd be right over. Using the directions from my POS Lonely Planet guidebook, I tried to find the place and ended up wandering around for about 45 minutes. I asked one person for directions and they weren't very good so I ended up lost in an area that I later found out was called Soapland. It was very strange- the buildings looked like love motels; I saw castles and harems, most with towncars and men in black suits with white shirts parked in front. Even though they looked like love motels, they almost all had signs showing women in lingerie with prices that were far too high for an hourly rate at a love motel. This all indicated that they were strip clubs.
Later, I asked the hostel owner about it and he said they were actually brothels and the area was the original Red-Light district in Tokyo (though I read somewhere else that another area held this distinction). Regardless, it was a sort of creepy area (though not terrible, I felt relatively safe and think it was semi-upmarket as far as brothels go) and I was glad I was lost only in the daylight and not at night.
Eventually I did find finding New Koyo and even though it was only late afternoon, I felt exhausted and discouraged and depressed from the difficulties, so I just stayed in, wrote, watched t.v. (both in Japanese, and online) and had ramen for dinner.
I woke up in the shower at around 9 a.m., tired and with a bit of a hangover. Since I was already there, I took a shower then left the hostel through a side door. Looking around for a breakfast place, I found loads of options but few that really appealed to me so I ended up getting something random. On the way, I passed a brand new internet cafe. The rates seemed high but I really wanted a nap and it was brand new, just opened in April, so I went in. They didn't have free soda, which made me sad, but I had a very nice, actual room (about 4' by 6') to myself, instead of just a cubicle. There was also a gorgeous, huge new flatscreen for a monitor and a sort of mat/chair that could fold down flat instead of a regular chair and it was more comfortable than my bed at the hostel had been! I did, however, notice some things that were rather odd.
At the entrance to the cafe, they had some random things for sale. This is normal, but it's usually something like snacks. This cafe seemed to be selling vibrators. I was surprised and looked closer to make sure I was seeing correctly, since the writing was all in Japanese and the women were in, let's say, compromising, position. They weren't vibrators. They were fleshlights (that is what they're called, right?), the, um, rubber/silicon/whatever tubes some men use to masturbate with to approximate a vagina. I then realized that the library of what I'd assumed to be manga books (most internet cafes have large manga collections) were actually adult books and magazines and the DVDs available for sale were all porn! Well, okay, that was weird, but I'd already paid, and it was like 10 a.m. so it wasn't busy at all and as bizarre as it was, it was totally clean and safe.
In the basket the guy gave me, there was: a clipboard with my bill, a pair of headphones, and two wet wipes. Inside my room, besides the above mentioned, was a box of tissues. I turned on the moitor and was immediately greeted by a naked Japanese woman moaning in a very squeaky annoying voice. Apparently the monitor was also a t.v. and they had one channel of free porn, which, unluckily for me, had been the last thing turned to by the previous occupant. Immediately, I turned down the sound, embarrassed, as I hadn't plugged the headphones in yet, and tried to figure out how to change it to computer use. It seemed to take a long while, though it was probably only about a minute. Finally, though, I got everything working and checked my emails and took a nice nap.
When I left, around noon, there were several people dressed up in traditional Japanese costumes, beating drums, marching and carrying a portable shrine which kept bouncing up and down as they jumped in unison. Everyone seemed so happy and excited and as I walked away, I saw two other such groups with portable shrines. I remembered that the next day was a festival in that area and assume they were all practicing, but it was still very cool to see.
I'd decided to try to check into a capsule hotel early to put my stuff down and then go sightseeing. In Asakusa, there was one that accepted women, so I found that. It was a hugely touristed area, though with an admittedly very cool view of part of Tokyo's skyline, and bizarrely for a capsule hotel, they were already completely booked for that night! I made a reservation to stay the next night, just for the experience and asked them if I could use their phone to call another place to see if they had room. For some reason, they made this into a BFD and wouldn't left me, even though it was a local call and I'd wanted to stay at their hotel and had just made a reservation. They told me where a payphone was, but I was really annoyed and felt their behavior was quite uncourteous.
I did use the payphone to call my next choice, New Koyo Hostel, since it was sort of far out, but very cheap. They had a single room available, so I said I'd be right over. Using the directions from my POS Lonely Planet guidebook, I tried to find the place and ended up wandering around for about 45 minutes. I asked one person for directions and they weren't very good so I ended up lost in an area that I later found out was called Soapland. It was very strange- the buildings looked like love motels; I saw castles and harems, most with towncars and men in black suits with white shirts parked in front. Even though they looked like love motels, they almost all had signs showing women in lingerie with prices that were far too high for an hourly rate at a love motel. This all indicated that they were strip clubs.
Later, I asked the hostel owner about it and he said they were actually brothels and the area was the original Red-Light district in Tokyo (though I read somewhere else that another area held this distinction). Regardless, it was a sort of creepy area (though not terrible, I felt relatively safe and think it was semi-upmarket as far as brothels go) and I was glad I was lost only in the daylight and not at night.
Eventually I did find finding New Koyo and even though it was only late afternoon, I felt exhausted and discouraged and depressed from the difficulties, so I just stayed in, wrote, watched t.v. (both in Japanese, and online) and had ramen for dinner.
Annoying Alliterative Appetite
5/2-
The idea of doing anything seriously touristy or requiring much effort never even entered my mind today, so I looked at a map and saw that the East Imperial Palace Garden was nearby. My guidebook confirmed that I wouldn't have to do much besides walk around and told me that it was free, so I set off. They were very nice and it was a lovely bit of green. I planned on reading The Shadow of the Wind , which I'd brought with me, but after reading the prologue- or was it actually the first chapter? Who knows? Oh well- I realized that this was going to be a really good book that should be savored and that I didn't really feel like reading right then anyway. I'd save it for the flight to Taipei.
I walked over to Marunouchi Brick Square, the food area Saveur had recommended, and immediately was pulled into the La Boutique de Joel Robuchon. I bought a gorgeous "Religeuse Chocolat" a large cream puff topped with a profiterole with a very thick chocolate cream/pudding inside the cream puffs, covered in a dark chocolate ganache, topped with two discs of carmelized chopped nuts I couldn't quite identify; walnuts or pecans, and a sprinkling of gold leaf. It was a wonderful treat and quite reasonable for how good it was- around $5. I wandered around the corner and saw a long line outside one store, Echire. The plaza had a very strong Parisian influence so the name didn't surprise me, but the product did: butter.
Completely random sidenote- the square also had a strong Boston influence in the form of its fauna and masses of red brick/ architectural type. I thought this was quite strange as the Japanese have an obvious (and one sided) love affair with French culture, but nowhere else did I see a strong, particular American region/city influence.
But I'd better get back to the bountiful bevy of brunettes bartering for butter. Sorry, that was a bit much, but I couldn't stop myself. Alliteration: I am an absolute addict. There really were quite a few people waiting to go into the roped off butter store, and since I'm in Japan, they did all have dark hair. Like in Singapore when I waited because I had the time and wanted to know if it was really worth waiting for, I got in line here.
Besides selling butter, they also had a small bakery inside. Unfortunately they were all out of croissants for the day, so I got a rectangular Madeleine and a large pat (30 grams) of demi-sel butter. You may be wondering why I bought butter and what the fresh hell I thought I was going to do with it, but here's the thing: I really like butter. I don't know as much about it as I'd really like to, but I do like tasting it, using it in unholy amounts, and I've even made my own (which was good, better than the regular kind you'd get at the grocery store, but not as good as I'd expected).
So I bought it just to taste it, basically, with bread. But now I want to start alliterating again and you don't deserve that. I didn't know where I'd get the bread, but I knew I wanted good bread, not packaged white crap. And I was still sitting right next to the Robuchon cafe which had just put out a bunch more bread products, so I bought a croissant to eat my butter with. Croissants, of course, already have a devilish amount of butter layered into their soft sheets, but I always like it better with butter (stop me! It's a disease!) especially when cut open lengthwise, toasted and then with butter on top, which somehow never seems too buttery, but just buttery enough.
This croissant however, was already too buttery to put anymore on, so I just had to eat it plain. It was great, but this meant that I was just randomly carrying around a bunch of butter since I was now full, and had to bread (to butter it on, upside down or right side up).
Butter in bag, bag in hand, croissant in mouth, I got on the loop line which circles Tokyo. My guide book had suggested it as a good way to get a feel of the city as it was cheap and mostly above-ground. Part of it was quite interesting, but much of it just snaked past gray buildings. However, it also went to the station I'd decided I had the energy to go to; Harajuku, to go to Baird Brewing Co., the microbrewery bar Food & Wind recommended, as today was obviously a fine food and drink day. To see the whole city, I ended up doing a 1.5 loop around the city which took about 1.5 hours but again, why not, I had the time.
Wandering through this part of Harajuku was a bit more interesting, but still uninspiring, as most of it was the fleetingly trendy childish, typical "Japan-Harajuku" look, with lots of cartoon/ manga images. I found the bar easily, thanks to their websites excellent directions, and entered.
They didn't have a sampler (which I LOVE for drink tasting) but you could buy their beer in very small (I think less than half-pint) glasses so I could try several different beers without getting sloshed. They also had overpriced, overthought and underwhelming bar snacks, one of which I ordered (chicken and blue cheese deep friend egg rolls) since I hadn't had a proper dinner, just good food previously. They also had great T-shirts, one of which I almost bought for my Stepdad, but they were expensive for what they were, so I refrained.
I wish I could describe the beer as well as I would like to, or even tell you the names of all the different ones I tried, but I can't remember them. In anticipation of this, I had cleverly taken a photograph of the menu with all the beer descriptions. Stupidly, I hadn't written this or downloaded those pictures before I lost my camera.
What I do remember is that the beers were all excellently made and more bitter than I really like (as many well-crafted beers are). I also tried one beer that was memorably called Black Sails. While drinking, I remembered how just how much I enjoy beer and that I really do love beer tasting and microbreweries. I'd really like to learn more about them. To this goal, I flipped through a book they had at the bar, showing and describing the World's Greatest Beers. Neither Oranjeboom, one of my favorite mass produced beers, nor McMenamins Raspberry Ruby, my favorite microbrew, were listed, but I did write down the names of a few other raspberry beers that I wanted to try in the future (as much as I like beer, I like it in a very girly way, preferring very light, slightly sweet beers with fruit flavors). They also had a free magazine aptly called The Japan Beer Times, the first edition, which was all about beer, especially microbreweries, though they don't seem to like to use that term, in Japan. Obviously there's a microbrewery revolution in the U.S. but I had no idea they were also having a quiet one in Japan, so it was very interesting to read.
Slurring my way back to the hostel, I got out my netbook and started writing, as I seem most inclined to write when drunk (I also think that the readable bits are some of the most interesting and creative writings I do). I sat on the Cafe porch and started talking to the group of three French guys at another table. This turned into a very long conversation in French and I didn't do as badly as I might've expected, given my distaste for Frenchness and how long it has been since I last spoke it. One of the guys told me he wished his English was as good as my French, which I thought was quite a nice compliment.
I was working on a Cherry Blossom Suntory beer I'd bought at 7-11 (I'd bought some special pack of two beers for cheap, and very oddly, they'd given me a free orange juice with it,) when Marybeth came back. I asked her if she wanted to go out and she said no but that we should just hang out at the hostel. So we went and bought a flask of vodka and a Coke Light and just chatted with each other and two other English guys she'd met previously. It was nothing special, but a relaxing, enjoyable evening.
For the past two nights, I'd stayed at the Sakura Hotel in Jimbocho, which was were I was drinking. It was a decent place in a good area so I'd wanted to stay longer but they hadn't had any beds available that night, so I'd made up my mind to sleep in either a capsule hotel, a love motel or an internet cafe. Each of those options were very "Japanese" experiences I wanted to try and both the love motel and an internet cafe would be cheaper if I checked in after 11 at night which was why I was hanging out at the Cafe at the hostel. Marybeth went to bed at around 1 a.m. I stayed up for another hour writing and then decided that it would be dangerous and bothersome to walk around somewhere trying to find an internet cafe/love motel/capsule hotel that would take women (the large majority, like 95%+ don't).
At some point, I went downstairs where the dorm rooms and bathroom were. I had my purse and my backpack, everything I own (well, that I have on me) with me. I don't remember making this decision, but I decided to sleep in the shower. It locked from the inside and was a bit larger than a bathtub, split down the middle- half of it for the shower itself and half for a changing part outside it, separated by an accordian glass door. I locked myself inside with my belongings and slept for about seven hours. I think my body is just adapting to insane and horrible sleeping conditions because it didn't seem that bad, and, it was free.
The idea of doing anything seriously touristy or requiring much effort never even entered my mind today, so I looked at a map and saw that the East Imperial Palace Garden was nearby. My guidebook confirmed that I wouldn't have to do much besides walk around and told me that it was free, so I set off. They were very nice and it was a lovely bit of green. I planned on reading The Shadow of the Wind , which I'd brought with me, but after reading the prologue- or was it actually the first chapter? Who knows? Oh well- I realized that this was going to be a really good book that should be savored and that I didn't really feel like reading right then anyway. I'd save it for the flight to Taipei.
I walked over to Marunouchi Brick Square, the food area Saveur had recommended, and immediately was pulled into the La Boutique de Joel Robuchon. I bought a gorgeous "Religeuse Chocolat" a large cream puff topped with a profiterole with a very thick chocolate cream/pudding inside the cream puffs, covered in a dark chocolate ganache, topped with two discs of carmelized chopped nuts I couldn't quite identify; walnuts or pecans, and a sprinkling of gold leaf. It was a wonderful treat and quite reasonable for how good it was- around $5. I wandered around the corner and saw a long line outside one store, Echire. The plaza had a very strong Parisian influence so the name didn't surprise me, but the product did: butter.
Completely random sidenote- the square also had a strong Boston influence in the form of its fauna and masses of red brick/ architectural type. I thought this was quite strange as the Japanese have an obvious (and one sided) love affair with French culture, but nowhere else did I see a strong, particular American region/city influence.
But I'd better get back to the bountiful bevy of brunettes bartering for butter. Sorry, that was a bit much, but I couldn't stop myself. Alliteration: I am an absolute addict. There really were quite a few people waiting to go into the roped off butter store, and since I'm in Japan, they did all have dark hair. Like in Singapore when I waited because I had the time and wanted to know if it was really worth waiting for, I got in line here.
Besides selling butter, they also had a small bakery inside. Unfortunately they were all out of croissants for the day, so I got a rectangular Madeleine and a large pat (30 grams) of demi-sel butter. You may be wondering why I bought butter and what the fresh hell I thought I was going to do with it, but here's the thing: I really like butter. I don't know as much about it as I'd really like to, but I do like tasting it, using it in unholy amounts, and I've even made my own (which was good, better than the regular kind you'd get at the grocery store, but not as good as I'd expected).
So I bought it just to taste it, basically, with bread. But now I want to start alliterating again and you don't deserve that. I didn't know where I'd get the bread, but I knew I wanted good bread, not packaged white crap. And I was still sitting right next to the Robuchon cafe which had just put out a bunch more bread products, so I bought a croissant to eat my butter with. Croissants, of course, already have a devilish amount of butter layered into their soft sheets, but I always like it better with butter (stop me! It's a disease!) especially when cut open lengthwise, toasted and then with butter on top, which somehow never seems too buttery, but just buttery enough.
This croissant however, was already too buttery to put anymore on, so I just had to eat it plain. It was great, but this meant that I was just randomly carrying around a bunch of butter since I was now full, and had to bread (to butter it on, upside down or right side up).
Butter in bag, bag in hand, croissant in mouth, I got on the loop line which circles Tokyo. My guide book had suggested it as a good way to get a feel of the city as it was cheap and mostly above-ground. Part of it was quite interesting, but much of it just snaked past gray buildings. However, it also went to the station I'd decided I had the energy to go to; Harajuku, to go to Baird Brewing Co., the microbrewery bar Food & Wind recommended, as today was obviously a fine food and drink day. To see the whole city, I ended up doing a 1.5 loop around the city which took about 1.5 hours but again, why not, I had the time.
Wandering through this part of Harajuku was a bit more interesting, but still uninspiring, as most of it was the fleetingly trendy childish, typical "Japan-Harajuku" look, with lots of cartoon/ manga images. I found the bar easily, thanks to their websites excellent directions, and entered.
They didn't have a sampler (which I LOVE for drink tasting) but you could buy their beer in very small (I think less than half-pint) glasses so I could try several different beers without getting sloshed. They also had overpriced, overthought and underwhelming bar snacks, one of which I ordered (chicken and blue cheese deep friend egg rolls) since I hadn't had a proper dinner, just good food previously. They also had great T-shirts, one of which I almost bought for my Stepdad, but they were expensive for what they were, so I refrained.
I wish I could describe the beer as well as I would like to, or even tell you the names of all the different ones I tried, but I can't remember them. In anticipation of this, I had cleverly taken a photograph of the menu with all the beer descriptions. Stupidly, I hadn't written this or downloaded those pictures before I lost my camera.
What I do remember is that the beers were all excellently made and more bitter than I really like (as many well-crafted beers are). I also tried one beer that was memorably called Black Sails. While drinking, I remembered how just how much I enjoy beer and that I really do love beer tasting and microbreweries. I'd really like to learn more about them. To this goal, I flipped through a book they had at the bar, showing and describing the World's Greatest Beers. Neither Oranjeboom, one of my favorite mass produced beers, nor McMenamins Raspberry Ruby, my favorite microbrew, were listed, but I did write down the names of a few other raspberry beers that I wanted to try in the future (as much as I like beer, I like it in a very girly way, preferring very light, slightly sweet beers with fruit flavors). They also had a free magazine aptly called The Japan Beer Times, the first edition, which was all about beer, especially microbreweries, though they don't seem to like to use that term, in Japan. Obviously there's a microbrewery revolution in the U.S. but I had no idea they were also having a quiet one in Japan, so it was very interesting to read.
Slurring my way back to the hostel, I got out my netbook and started writing, as I seem most inclined to write when drunk (I also think that the readable bits are some of the most interesting and creative writings I do). I sat on the Cafe porch and started talking to the group of three French guys at another table. This turned into a very long conversation in French and I didn't do as badly as I might've expected, given my distaste for Frenchness and how long it has been since I last spoke it. One of the guys told me he wished his English was as good as my French, which I thought was quite a nice compliment.
I was working on a Cherry Blossom Suntory beer I'd bought at 7-11 (I'd bought some special pack of two beers for cheap, and very oddly, they'd given me a free orange juice with it,) when Marybeth came back. I asked her if she wanted to go out and she said no but that we should just hang out at the hostel. So we went and bought a flask of vodka and a Coke Light and just chatted with each other and two other English guys she'd met previously. It was nothing special, but a relaxing, enjoyable evening.
For the past two nights, I'd stayed at the Sakura Hotel in Jimbocho, which was were I was drinking. It was a decent place in a good area so I'd wanted to stay longer but they hadn't had any beds available that night, so I'd made up my mind to sleep in either a capsule hotel, a love motel or an internet cafe. Each of those options were very "Japanese" experiences I wanted to try and both the love motel and an internet cafe would be cheaper if I checked in after 11 at night which was why I was hanging out at the Cafe at the hostel. Marybeth went to bed at around 1 a.m. I stayed up for another hour writing and then decided that it would be dangerous and bothersome to walk around somewhere trying to find an internet cafe/love motel/capsule hotel that would take women (the large majority, like 95%+ don't).
At some point, I went downstairs where the dorm rooms and bathroom were. I had my purse and my backpack, everything I own (well, that I have on me) with me. I don't remember making this decision, but I decided to sleep in the shower. It locked from the inside and was a bit larger than a bathtub, split down the middle- half of it for the shower itself and half for a changing part outside it, separated by an accordian glass door. I locked myself inside with my belongings and slept for about seven hours. I think my body is just adapting to insane and horrible sleeping conditions because it didn't seem that bad, and, it was free.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Random Ranting and Wandering in Trendy Tokyo
Saturday May 1, 2010
Lately, I'm having crazy cravings, like the kind you hear about women getting when they're pregnant (I'm not, don't laugh, it's not something funny, and never something to joke about). Right this second, I would be willing to die for: cottage cheese, a really good salad, and caramel, the hot liquid kind you'd put on ice cream, though I really just want the caramel, though maybe with some whipped cream and peanuts in my mouth at the same time.
I really want to go running again, and I think the weather would finally be nice for it, but I'm afraid that I'll hurt my ankle. I twisted it on my most recent all-nighter in Osaka at some point, but barely, it really didn't hurt much, just bruised and swelled up a bit. It doesn't hurt at all anymore, but it still feels weak and I don't want to push it because then I'm afraid I'll really hurt it and I won't be able to run, or even walk long distances, for ages. Actually, I seem to twist my ankle a fair bit, though it's usually (including currently) no big deal, though it was pretty bad once when I nearly broke it. Anyway, irrelevant.
Tonight, while uploading pictures, I realized that I only have four pictures of me in Japan and two of those are at the Sapporo factory; good thing I've got my priorities straight.
I can't believe it's May already! How the hell did that happen?! That means I've been traveling for just under two months (8 weeks on Monday).
In all that time, and in all my time staying in the hostel upon my arrival in Oz, I have yet to meet a single American female traveler (in the way of doing what I'm doing). I've met single American male travelers, single female travelers from other countries (including Sweden, the U.K., Germany and France,) I've met American couples traveling and two or more American females traveling together, I've even met single American females traveling within a country in which they were based (by which I primarily mean, English teachers in Korea and Japan) but I have yet to meet any other single American female traveler backpacking around countries. This makes me really sad. I know I'm not so unusual or special, so why aren't more American women doing this type of thing?
What it really makes me wonder is if we don't have (additional) sexism in the U.S. that we're unaware of. I don't think I've spoken about it much here, but in Australia, there is extreme sexism (more than I saw in Western Europe in my time there, or in Japan, now) but Australians barely seem to notice. It's a difficult type of sexism to explain; quite subtle, but very obvious if you come from somewhere, like the U.S. that doesn't have it (at least in that way). Most of it is the judgmental views of women (especially, as is true everywhere I've ever been, in regards to their sexuality) that are so totally different from the views on men, but additionally, it is the type of subtle sexism, that if you saw it in the U.S. you'd think, "Huh, that's weird that they'd say that/ That's kind of offensive/ rude/ I wonder how they get away with that," but you don't think too much of it, because it happens so rarely. In Australia, it's still those little things, but they occur constantly. Constantly.
Anyway, that's all in Australia. My point here is that perhaps it exists much more than we realize in the U.S. in a way that we don't recognize, much as they don't recognize it in Oz. About two years ago, I read a book called After (P.S. shout out here to Google for knowing the name of it when I could only remember a few random details). It's meant for teenagers, but is an excellent book that feeds into all my paranoia about privacy and rights. In it, the school slowly becomes more and more restricted and controlled; with extraordinarily harsh punishments, metal detectors and, if I remember right, nationalism in the form of high school rivalry. Throughout, the parents are kept "informed" by emails explaining the additional dangers facing teens and why the restrictions and privacy invasions were so important, essentially brainwashing them (the parents).
I'm not some conspiracy theorist, and I don't really think we need to seriously worry about high schools being controlled, and parent brain washing anytime soon, but I do worry about the effects of what we see and hear, particularly with the recent passing of a law that allows lobbyists greater access and input than ever before.
Again, I'm getting away from my original point, and this really isn't supposed to be political, but what I mean is that perhaps in the U.S., we've convinced women that they are in so much danger, that we are restricting them and their freedom in a way that we simply don't restrict male freedom.
This also isn't to say that women don't face a greater danger than men do. We do. We shouldn't have to, but, shouldn'ts don't really matter in the real world do they? I know I take a risk, and yes, it is a bit of a greater risk than most women take. I'm not denying that in of itself. I'm suggesting that the actual risk has been overblown and that the rewards we miss out on, may be worth it. They certainly are for me.
*This entire post is discussing sexism outside of the spectrum we obviously know it exists in: wages, promotions, reproductive rights, etc.
Quick Note: The above was all actually written on 5/1 and is mostly rambling. The long sexism rant was partially inspired by Marybeth, who you'll meet below. The rest of this entry was written later and actually tells what I did that day.
I finished Lucy this morning, had a very slow lunch at the Cafe that was part of the hostel (margarita pizza that was obviously not really margarita pizza but more edible than I expected upon ordering) and wrote for a while.
I met Marybeth, an American woman teaching English in Japan, about my age. She was pretty interesting to talk to, and very interested in me, which the narcissist in me adores. It had been a while since I'd really spoken to pretty much anyone so I had a fairly long conversation with her. One of the most interesting things she told me was that she had a boyfriend back in the U.S. even though she'd been in Japan since last August! She said that he had been in Japan for three months too, but that still leaves six months, which to me is just insane, but then I'm not a believer in long distance relationships. I told her maybe I'd go out with her that night.
Since I had a few days in Tokyo, I slowed down a bit and decided that today I just wanted to read some magazines at a bookstore and look at a guidebook for Taiwan. Of course, it's not as simple as running out to Barnes and Noble and picking out a comfy chair.
First, I had to look up a place with English books and magazines in my guidebook, then I had to buy a pass, take the subway, transfer once, and then wander for about an hour looking for the right place. I happened to be wandering in a very nice and interesting area: Shibuya up to Harajuku. Shibuya is full of several small boutiques and restaurants in side alleys and huge designer stores on the main Omote-sando street so it was fun to look around. As it was a Saturday it was fairly busy but I didn't feel crushed by the crowd or anything like that. I didn't get too far into Harajuku but what I saw was surprisingly ordinary and trendy/fashionable only in a boring, overdone way, like hipsters. It wasn't nearly as interesting as I had hoped/expected.
I finally found the bookstore on my way back towards Shibuya since I'd missed it on the way up and read Cosmopolitan and Saveur almost front to cover, sitting on a stool I found in the Childrens section. Sitting there for at least two hours, I also skimmed: Food and Wine, Marie Claire, Vogue, Lucky and glanced at a few others. Food and Wine recommended a beer place in Tokyo, while Saveur recommended a particular area to eat. I walked out, much happier, into the semi-darkness. Night had come while I was reading, but the lights, everywhere, were so bright that it would be misleading to actually call it dark.
And now I could feel the crush of people and density of Tokyo. There was particular point when I was right before a large intersection, like a smaller Oxford Circus as the light changed.
In Sydney, at the huge intersection of George St. and the street Woolworths and one end of the QVB is on, people walk in straight, bulging cords as the cars stop. All at the same moment, people walk either way on each four sides of the square and diagonally across, forming a human square with an X in the middle. Though it's a large rush of people, and every once in a while a straggler swerves into one of the four triangles of concrete created in between the X and the square, the crowd always retains this structure. Somehow, the rivers never burst from their path.
This intersection in Shibuya reminded me of that one in Sydney, but with three times the people and none of the order. It was like a fishing net in the open sea where some fish are visible and then, instantly, something changes, and all the fish are caught wildly squirming in the net. It was a vibrating block of people, with nothing below them. I took a picture because it so perfectly captured the idea we sometimes have of Tokyo, as a big city totally filled with people, but of course, lost that picture when I lost my camera in Taiwan (which is why there are no pictures from this point until 5/23).
It was a nice afternoon and I enjoyed my wandering and seeing areas of Tokyo I had wanted to see on the way, but I was tired so I got some ramen and beers at 7-11 and went back to the hostel. I went to bed at around 12 and Marybeth told me that was about the time she'd come back looking for me but we'd somehow missed each other. After how busy I'd been lately, I really didn't mind missing out and getting some extra sleep.
Lately, I'm having crazy cravings, like the kind you hear about women getting when they're pregnant (I'm not, don't laugh, it's not something funny, and never something to joke about). Right this second, I would be willing to die for: cottage cheese, a really good salad, and caramel, the hot liquid kind you'd put on ice cream, though I really just want the caramel, though maybe with some whipped cream and peanuts in my mouth at the same time.
I really want to go running again, and I think the weather would finally be nice for it, but I'm afraid that I'll hurt my ankle. I twisted it on my most recent all-nighter in Osaka at some point, but barely, it really didn't hurt much, just bruised and swelled up a bit. It doesn't hurt at all anymore, but it still feels weak and I don't want to push it because then I'm afraid I'll really hurt it and I won't be able to run, or even walk long distances, for ages. Actually, I seem to twist my ankle a fair bit, though it's usually (including currently) no big deal, though it was pretty bad once when I nearly broke it. Anyway, irrelevant.
Tonight, while uploading pictures, I realized that I only have four pictures of me in Japan and two of those are at the Sapporo factory; good thing I've got my priorities straight.
I can't believe it's May already! How the hell did that happen?! That means I've been traveling for just under two months (8 weeks on Monday).
In all that time, and in all my time staying in the hostel upon my arrival in Oz, I have yet to meet a single American female traveler (in the way of doing what I'm doing). I've met single American male travelers, single female travelers from other countries (including Sweden, the U.K., Germany and France,) I've met American couples traveling and two or more American females traveling together, I've even met single American females traveling within a country in which they were based (by which I primarily mean, English teachers in Korea and Japan) but I have yet to meet any other single American female traveler backpacking around countries. This makes me really sad. I know I'm not so unusual or special, so why aren't more American women doing this type of thing?
What it really makes me wonder is if we don't have (additional) sexism in the U.S. that we're unaware of. I don't think I've spoken about it much here, but in Australia, there is extreme sexism (more than I saw in Western Europe in my time there, or in Japan, now) but Australians barely seem to notice. It's a difficult type of sexism to explain; quite subtle, but very obvious if you come from somewhere, like the U.S. that doesn't have it (at least in that way). Most of it is the judgmental views of women (especially, as is true everywhere I've ever been, in regards to their sexuality) that are so totally different from the views on men, but additionally, it is the type of subtle sexism, that if you saw it in the U.S. you'd think, "Huh, that's weird that they'd say that/ That's kind of offensive/ rude/ I wonder how they get away with that," but you don't think too much of it, because it happens so rarely. In Australia, it's still those little things, but they occur constantly. Constantly.
Anyway, that's all in Australia. My point here is that perhaps it exists much more than we realize in the U.S. in a way that we don't recognize, much as they don't recognize it in Oz. About two years ago, I read a book called After (P.S. shout out here to Google for knowing the name of it when I could only remember a few random details). It's meant for teenagers, but is an excellent book that feeds into all my paranoia about privacy and rights. In it, the school slowly becomes more and more restricted and controlled; with extraordinarily harsh punishments, metal detectors and, if I remember right, nationalism in the form of high school rivalry. Throughout, the parents are kept "informed" by emails explaining the additional dangers facing teens and why the restrictions and privacy invasions were so important, essentially brainwashing them (the parents).
I'm not some conspiracy theorist, and I don't really think we need to seriously worry about high schools being controlled, and parent brain washing anytime soon, but I do worry about the effects of what we see and hear, particularly with the recent passing of a law that allows lobbyists greater access and input than ever before.
Again, I'm getting away from my original point, and this really isn't supposed to be political, but what I mean is that perhaps in the U.S., we've convinced women that they are in so much danger, that we are restricting them and their freedom in a way that we simply don't restrict male freedom.
This also isn't to say that women don't face a greater danger than men do. We do. We shouldn't have to, but, shouldn'ts don't really matter in the real world do they? I know I take a risk, and yes, it is a bit of a greater risk than most women take. I'm not denying that in of itself. I'm suggesting that the actual risk has been overblown and that the rewards we miss out on, may be worth it. They certainly are for me.
*This entire post is discussing sexism outside of the spectrum we obviously know it exists in: wages, promotions, reproductive rights, etc.
Quick Note: The above was all actually written on 5/1 and is mostly rambling. The long sexism rant was partially inspired by Marybeth, who you'll meet below. The rest of this entry was written later and actually tells what I did that day.
I finished Lucy this morning, had a very slow lunch at the Cafe that was part of the hostel (margarita pizza that was obviously not really margarita pizza but more edible than I expected upon ordering) and wrote for a while.
I met Marybeth, an American woman teaching English in Japan, about my age. She was pretty interesting to talk to, and very interested in me, which the narcissist in me adores. It had been a while since I'd really spoken to pretty much anyone so I had a fairly long conversation with her. One of the most interesting things she told me was that she had a boyfriend back in the U.S. even though she'd been in Japan since last August! She said that he had been in Japan for three months too, but that still leaves six months, which to me is just insane, but then I'm not a believer in long distance relationships. I told her maybe I'd go out with her that night.
Since I had a few days in Tokyo, I slowed down a bit and decided that today I just wanted to read some magazines at a bookstore and look at a guidebook for Taiwan. Of course, it's not as simple as running out to Barnes and Noble and picking out a comfy chair.
First, I had to look up a place with English books and magazines in my guidebook, then I had to buy a pass, take the subway, transfer once, and then wander for about an hour looking for the right place. I happened to be wandering in a very nice and interesting area: Shibuya up to Harajuku. Shibuya is full of several small boutiques and restaurants in side alleys and huge designer stores on the main Omote-sando street so it was fun to look around. As it was a Saturday it was fairly busy but I didn't feel crushed by the crowd or anything like that. I didn't get too far into Harajuku but what I saw was surprisingly ordinary and trendy/fashionable only in a boring, overdone way, like hipsters. It wasn't nearly as interesting as I had hoped/expected.
I finally found the bookstore on my way back towards Shibuya since I'd missed it on the way up and read Cosmopolitan and Saveur almost front to cover, sitting on a stool I found in the Childrens section. Sitting there for at least two hours, I also skimmed: Food and Wine, Marie Claire, Vogue, Lucky and glanced at a few others. Food and Wine recommended a beer place in Tokyo, while Saveur recommended a particular area to eat. I walked out, much happier, into the semi-darkness. Night had come while I was reading, but the lights, everywhere, were so bright that it would be misleading to actually call it dark.
And now I could feel the crush of people and density of Tokyo. There was particular point when I was right before a large intersection, like a smaller Oxford Circus as the light changed.
In Sydney, at the huge intersection of George St. and the street Woolworths and one end of the QVB is on, people walk in straight, bulging cords as the cars stop. All at the same moment, people walk either way on each four sides of the square and diagonally across, forming a human square with an X in the middle. Though it's a large rush of people, and every once in a while a straggler swerves into one of the four triangles of concrete created in between the X and the square, the crowd always retains this structure. Somehow, the rivers never burst from their path.
This intersection in Shibuya reminded me of that one in Sydney, but with three times the people and none of the order. It was like a fishing net in the open sea where some fish are visible and then, instantly, something changes, and all the fish are caught wildly squirming in the net. It was a vibrating block of people, with nothing below them. I took a picture because it so perfectly captured the idea we sometimes have of Tokyo, as a big city totally filled with people, but of course, lost that picture when I lost my camera in Taiwan (which is why there are no pictures from this point until 5/23).
It was a nice afternoon and I enjoyed my wandering and seeing areas of Tokyo I had wanted to see on the way, but I was tired so I got some ramen and beers at 7-11 and went back to the hostel. I went to bed at around 12 and Marybeth told me that was about the time she'd come back looking for me but we'd somehow missed each other. After how busy I'd been lately, I really didn't mind missing out and getting some extra sleep.
Samurai Culture at a Great Sight
4/30
There was absolutely nothing I wanted to see in Sendai and since the cherry blossoms in Kitakami still hadn't bloomed (I'd checked on my way down yesterday), I found a random daytrip in my guidebook.
On my way to the station, I saw these cherry blossom trees, perfectly in bloom, but not a whole orchard of them, the dream I'd pretty much given up on. They were inside a school yard and the two little girls you can sort of make out were running around trying to catch the petals as they wafted to the ground. It was really cute, but I didn't want to be creepy so I just took one picture.
Matsushima is another of the "Three Great Sights" in Japan (remember, I visited Miyajima, one of the other two, near Hiroshima?) and it's another place that's extremely popular with Japanese tourists but not really with foreigners (which was why it was so amazing that even though it was the Friday before Golden Week, it wasn't too crowded). It's basically a town surrounded by tons (about 250) of little islands that dot the ocean like large stepping stones. One of the islands, Fukuura-jima, has a botanic garden on it while others are renowned for their rock formations.
From Sendai, it was about 30 minutes on the train to Matsushimakaigan Station (confusingly, that's the stop, not Matsushima Station) and as I walked out there was a Visitor kiosk, manned with people beckoning me over and smiling. A very helpful woman gave me an English map with descriptions of the different places to visit.
First I went to Godai-do, an old wooden temple that is only opened once every 33 years, last in 2006. It provided a nice view and I got to walk over a funny bridge that didn't actually pose any threat of falling down, but was very awkward as the slats were too far apart. Besides that though, it wasn't too exciting. The botanic garden island was pretty much the same- nice but boring. The views were lovely, but as with almost anywhere, I think it would have been much more impressive had the sun been shining.
Matsushima really is still a small fishing town and locals were collecting oysters in a very dark, stinky black mud. I walked on the beach and saw that this island was actually connected by said mud to another of the little islands. I decided that I really wanted to go to this island, just because. Very gently, I stepped on the dried or stronger parts of the mud and oyster shells so I didn't fall through the mud and get wet and dirty.
For a while, I did very well, accumulating only a tiny bit of mud. But then, that's how life is, isn't it? It's going well, going well, going well, and then you take a wrong step and BAM! you're up to one ankle in muck and you're getting the other foot filthy in an attempt to get the first one out. One of the shell collectors laughed at me and started talking to me, fairly extensively, in Japanese. I didn't mind the laughing and laughed back a bit. I'd known I was taking that risk and it was just kind of fun. Maybe I was just in a good mood, but I felt happy.
I made it over to the island, only to discover that I could only get about four feet onto the island unless I wanted to swim. The return to the larger island went much the same way- very good until it wasn't. It was at about this point, when both shoes were soaked and covered in grime, that I stated to think it hadn't been my best idea ever. I had to wash my shoes off in the public bathroom sink and then try to wait for them to dry while I played my cell phone game I'd just discovered. Since it was going to take forever, I knew I had to put them at some point and just deal with the uncomfortableness. My socks had somehow stayed relatively dry, so I tried to cover them to keep my feet warm. I covered one with the plastic tissue holder, taking out the tissues, and the other with my sunglasses case which is made of some cloth/ not really but sort of waterproofy stuff. It wasn't great, but it worked, kind of.
Hoping to buy some indoor slippers, which I'd seen at 100 yen stores (about $1 USD) I went back to the town. I didn't see a 100 yen store so I tried some tourist shops but all they had was the traditional wooden flip-flops which were too expensive for something I'd only use for a few hours. Oh well. I passed by the Zuigan-ji temple but decided to skip it since I wanted to get back sooner rather than later. The one thing at the temple that sounded interesting was closer so I just looked at these Buddhist rock carvings. They're tablets or whatever carved directly into the cave walls. It was okay, but not quite as cool as I'd imagined.
Next I went to the Kanrantei tea house, which means "a place to view ripples on the water" which was beautiful and had a spectacular view of the bay. In the late 16th century, it was given to Date Masamune, a famous samurai Lord who nearly became the shogunate to control the whole of Japan. He was known as the One-Eyed Dragon as he was blind in one eye from a childhood bout of smallpox. Due to his influence, this area seemed to display more samurai culture than any other place I went in Japan.
The walls and sliding doors of the teahouse were decorated with gorgeous gold paintings by Kano Sakyo, a famous painter of the period.
Inside the back part of the teahouse building was a samurai history museum. The museum was small, but fantastic. They had a lot of samurai stuff used in daily life, including suits of armor, makeup brushes and a case, clothes, an old painted map of Matsushima and a golden shell game (all shown below in order), which was all really interesting and even better, they had information in English!
I bought a bit of squid on a stick, and some large scallops on a stick from two different food windows on the main street and headed back to Sendai, to pick up my backpack, which I'd left in a locker at the station, and to try gyutan (cow tongue).
My Mother makes tongue sometimes and I love it. She prepares it by boiling it for a very long time with cabbage, potatoes and carrots and then slicing it. I usually put butter on top of the slices and eat them like that. Every once in a very rare while, I'll also enjoy a tongue taco at Papis, my favorite taqueria. So the idea of cow tongue, far from appalling me, appealed to me and I was looking forward to seeing how they cooked it here.
It's a specialty in Sendai that was first cooked during one of their many "hard times" and I'd been told there were several good places to get it in the station. I chose one that had a somewhat decent price (since it's a specialty now, it's fairly expensive, though still, not really, I'm just cheap) and went in. I sat at the counter and watched them prepare it. They grabbed raw slices and just threw them on the grill and cut them in half and served them on a bed of rice, with some other accoutrements, including tongue soup, in which the tongue tasted more like I'm used to. It was very good though. I had it with a large beer and a bit of sake that a man sitting near me shared.
From there, I caught my last shinkansen to Tokyo, found a hostel and relaxed a bit. I found two books that looked good on the communal shelf; Lucy In the Sky and The Shadow of the Wind. Lucy was a chick-lit book that was reasonably well written, though with mostly dislikable characters, and since I didn't feel like thinking, I went with that, though I took The Shadow of the Wind with me as well. After reading in bed for a while, I fell off to sleep on my granite bed.
There was absolutely nothing I wanted to see in Sendai and since the cherry blossoms in Kitakami still hadn't bloomed (I'd checked on my way down yesterday), I found a random daytrip in my guidebook.
On my way to the station, I saw these cherry blossom trees, perfectly in bloom, but not a whole orchard of them, the dream I'd pretty much given up on. They were inside a school yard and the two little girls you can sort of make out were running around trying to catch the petals as they wafted to the ground. It was really cute, but I didn't want to be creepy so I just took one picture.
Matsushima is another of the "Three Great Sights" in Japan (remember, I visited Miyajima, one of the other two, near Hiroshima?) and it's another place that's extremely popular with Japanese tourists but not really with foreigners (which was why it was so amazing that even though it was the Friday before Golden Week, it wasn't too crowded). It's basically a town surrounded by tons (about 250) of little islands that dot the ocean like large stepping stones. One of the islands, Fukuura-jima, has a botanic garden on it while others are renowned for their rock formations.
From Sendai, it was about 30 minutes on the train to Matsushimakaigan Station (confusingly, that's the stop, not Matsushima Station) and as I walked out there was a Visitor kiosk, manned with people beckoning me over and smiling. A very helpful woman gave me an English map with descriptions of the different places to visit.
First I went to Godai-do, an old wooden temple that is only opened once every 33 years, last in 2006. It provided a nice view and I got to walk over a funny bridge that didn't actually pose any threat of falling down, but was very awkward as the slats were too far apart. Besides that though, it wasn't too exciting. The botanic garden island was pretty much the same- nice but boring. The views were lovely, but as with almost anywhere, I think it would have been much more impressive had the sun been shining.
Matsushima really is still a small fishing town and locals were collecting oysters in a very dark, stinky black mud. I walked on the beach and saw that this island was actually connected by said mud to another of the little islands. I decided that I really wanted to go to this island, just because. Very gently, I stepped on the dried or stronger parts of the mud and oyster shells so I didn't fall through the mud and get wet and dirty.
For a while, I did very well, accumulating only a tiny bit of mud. But then, that's how life is, isn't it? It's going well, going well, going well, and then you take a wrong step and BAM! you're up to one ankle in muck and you're getting the other foot filthy in an attempt to get the first one out. One of the shell collectors laughed at me and started talking to me, fairly extensively, in Japanese. I didn't mind the laughing and laughed back a bit. I'd known I was taking that risk and it was just kind of fun. Maybe I was just in a good mood, but I felt happy.
I made it over to the island, only to discover that I could only get about four feet onto the island unless I wanted to swim. The return to the larger island went much the same way- very good until it wasn't. It was at about this point, when both shoes were soaked and covered in grime, that I stated to think it hadn't been my best idea ever. I had to wash my shoes off in the public bathroom sink and then try to wait for them to dry while I played my cell phone game I'd just discovered. Since it was going to take forever, I knew I had to put them at some point and just deal with the uncomfortableness. My socks had somehow stayed relatively dry, so I tried to cover them to keep my feet warm. I covered one with the plastic tissue holder, taking out the tissues, and the other with my sunglasses case which is made of some cloth/ not really but sort of waterproofy stuff. It wasn't great, but it worked, kind of.
Hoping to buy some indoor slippers, which I'd seen at 100 yen stores (about $1 USD) I went back to the town. I didn't see a 100 yen store so I tried some tourist shops but all they had was the traditional wooden flip-flops which were too expensive for something I'd only use for a few hours. Oh well. I passed by the Zuigan-ji temple but decided to skip it since I wanted to get back sooner rather than later. The one thing at the temple that sounded interesting was closer so I just looked at these Buddhist rock carvings. They're tablets or whatever carved directly into the cave walls. It was okay, but not quite as cool as I'd imagined.
Next I went to the Kanrantei tea house, which means "a place to view ripples on the water" which was beautiful and had a spectacular view of the bay. In the late 16th century, it was given to Date Masamune, a famous samurai Lord who nearly became the shogunate to control the whole of Japan. He was known as the One-Eyed Dragon as he was blind in one eye from a childhood bout of smallpox. Due to his influence, this area seemed to display more samurai culture than any other place I went in Japan.
The walls and sliding doors of the teahouse were decorated with gorgeous gold paintings by Kano Sakyo, a famous painter of the period.
Inside the back part of the teahouse building was a samurai history museum. The museum was small, but fantastic. They had a lot of samurai stuff used in daily life, including suits of armor, makeup brushes and a case, clothes, an old painted map of Matsushima and a golden shell game (all shown below in order), which was all really interesting and even better, they had information in English!
I bought a bit of squid on a stick, and some large scallops on a stick from two different food windows on the main street and headed back to Sendai, to pick up my backpack, which I'd left in a locker at the station, and to try gyutan (cow tongue).
My Mother makes tongue sometimes and I love it. She prepares it by boiling it for a very long time with cabbage, potatoes and carrots and then slicing it. I usually put butter on top of the slices and eat them like that. Every once in a very rare while, I'll also enjoy a tongue taco at Papis, my favorite taqueria. So the idea of cow tongue, far from appalling me, appealed to me and I was looking forward to seeing how they cooked it here.
It's a specialty in Sendai that was first cooked during one of their many "hard times" and I'd been told there were several good places to get it in the station. I chose one that had a somewhat decent price (since it's a specialty now, it's fairly expensive, though still, not really, I'm just cheap) and went in. I sat at the counter and watched them prepare it. They grabbed raw slices and just threw them on the grill and cut them in half and served them on a bed of rice, with some other accoutrements, including tongue soup, in which the tongue tasted more like I'm used to. It was very good though. I had it with a large beer and a bit of sake that a man sitting near me shared.
From there, I caught my last shinkansen to Tokyo, found a hostel and relaxed a bit. I found two books that looked good on the communal shelf; Lucy In the Sky and The Shadow of the Wind. Lucy was a chick-lit book that was reasonably well written, though with mostly dislikable characters, and since I didn't feel like thinking, I went with that, though I took The Shadow of the Wind with me as well. After reading in bed for a while, I fell off to sleep on my granite bed.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
On the Rainbow Express
4/29
At around 6 a.m., the train, not nearly as comfortable as the one on the way up, rolled into Aomori. I took the Express train to Morioka, then got on a shinkansen, sleeping as soon as I got on each train and waking up only as we arrived.
The train stopped at Sendai, and I was aware of it stopping, and woke up for a moment, but I decided that I still wanted to sleep some more so I stayed in my seat as we left the station, Tokyo bound. I didn't quite sleep all the way to Tokyo, but far enough to make it worth it so by the time I arrived in the busiest train station in the world, I felt pretty good. I had previously considered taking a long, slow train route from Sendai on my way down to Tokyo that would travel along the ocean but I now decided that I would take it that way back up. I had the time and my rail pass so it wouldn't cost me anything extra. I went to Information to make sure it would actually be along the ocean for most of the time, and the tracks indicated that it would be, so I reserved a window seat on the sea side.
On the map, the tracks had looked closer to the water, but it wasn't until just before Hitachi that I could first see the ocean, and even then it was just bits, never a solid ride along the water like I'd hoped/thought it would be when looking at the map.
This train ride has been very disappointing overall, as I could only see the ocean for a very, very short time. However, the rain stopped and the sun came out and showed the most extraordinary rainbow I've ever seen. It arched clearly all the way across the sky, solid from one end to the other, and had three layers of the rainbow colors in it (ROYGBIVROYGBIVROYGBIV)!
It also, randomly, made me think of the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen. Surprisingly, it wasn't over an ocean but on a stopover in Zurich on my way to Prague. The snow covered mountains were black and white, reflected in the lake and covered by a gorgeous dark pink/orange/red/purple/gold sky. I remember wanting to take a picture at the time but I was in an aisle seat so I would've had to reach over someone to do so. Now I think I should have done it anyway.
After all that rambling, I made it to Sendai and found a hostel. I did my laundry, got some take away dinner and just slept.
This picture does it no justice but was the best I could get.
At around 6 a.m., the train, not nearly as comfortable as the one on the way up, rolled into Aomori. I took the Express train to Morioka, then got on a shinkansen, sleeping as soon as I got on each train and waking up only as we arrived.
The train stopped at Sendai, and I was aware of it stopping, and woke up for a moment, but I decided that I still wanted to sleep some more so I stayed in my seat as we left the station, Tokyo bound. I didn't quite sleep all the way to Tokyo, but far enough to make it worth it so by the time I arrived in the busiest train station in the world, I felt pretty good. I had previously considered taking a long, slow train route from Sendai on my way down to Tokyo that would travel along the ocean but I now decided that I would take it that way back up. I had the time and my rail pass so it wouldn't cost me anything extra. I went to Information to make sure it would actually be along the ocean for most of the time, and the tracks indicated that it would be, so I reserved a window seat on the sea side.
On the map, the tracks had looked closer to the water, but it wasn't until just before Hitachi that I could first see the ocean, and even then it was just bits, never a solid ride along the water like I'd hoped/thought it would be when looking at the map.
This train ride has been very disappointing overall, as I could only see the ocean for a very, very short time. However, the rain stopped and the sun came out and showed the most extraordinary rainbow I've ever seen. It arched clearly all the way across the sky, solid from one end to the other, and had three layers of the rainbow colors in it (ROYGBIVROYGBIVROYGBIV)!
It also, randomly, made me think of the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen. Surprisingly, it wasn't over an ocean but on a stopover in Zurich on my way to Prague. The snow covered mountains were black and white, reflected in the lake and covered by a gorgeous dark pink/orange/red/purple/gold sky. I remember wanting to take a picture at the time but I was in an aisle seat so I would've had to reach over someone to do so. Now I think I should have done it anyway.
After all that rambling, I made it to Sendai and found a hostel. I did my laundry, got some take away dinner and just slept.
Sapporo Means Beer
4/28
Amazingly, I had a very good nights sleep on the train- it was a bit older so the seats were wider and soft from years of use, like an old sofa chair, and ugly, of course. I woke up right before we got to the Sapporo station at around 6 a.m. It was freezing. Literally. Of course, I only had my black hoodie, which I'm sad to report is insufficient for Siberian weather. Since it was too early to check into my hostel, I left my backpack in a locker there and started to walk around the city.
The weather really sucked and I wanted a hot chocolate in a warm cafe to keep me hot but it was too freaking early for any of the coffee shops to be open, so instead I walked over to the Nijo Fish Market. As it started raining I wished I'd brought my umbrella- safely stowed in my backpack in the locker- with me. The fish market was not fully open, again because it was too early, though by now it was about 6:30, but some of the stalls were and one kind fisherman let me try two different types of crab: Hair Crab, which he told me comes from Hokkaido, and King Crab. It was really good, but it was, as it should be, cold. I walked over to see the T.V. Tower, which was less than thrilling.
I was completely miserable; it was cold, wet and windy. I found an internet cafe, which is expensive, but gets you free soda/tea/coffee and a private half-cubicle booth, and hung out there to dry.
Two hours later, I was ready to face the rain and walked bravely out of Comic Land Sapporo into the slush rain. I looked dutifully at the Clock Tower, which apparently we're supposed to recognize as the symbol of Sapporo, though it also has the real symbol of Sapporo, the red beer star, on it. From there I walked along the Odori-koen promenade, where they hold a giant ice sculpture festival during the winter, thought I couldn't ever imagine it getting colder than this. A LED display showed the temperature as 5*C but I assume that wasn't taking the windchill factor into account because it was really much colder. I was cursing myself for the lack of umbrella and feeling sorry for myself because it was so gross when it started to snow. Just barely. Very light snow that didn't stick, I admit, but those white clumps of frozen water doused my hoodie. I wanted to kill someone. I hadn't seen snow since last winter sometime, December of 2008 or January 2009. I don't necessarily dislike snow, but I wasn't in the mood for it and I like snow to either be pretty, falling gently, or on the slopes. Otherwise, I don't want be cold. I wanted my permanent summer back ASAP.
It didn't help that I couldn't find the Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art I was looking for. I finally went into a strange looking building and found a woman to give me directions. That got me as far as another random art museum and they were able to give me directions from there. The museum was small, but actually quite good, though that may have been simply because it was warm and I hadn't been to an art museum in a while. An interesting exhibit was on called On the 750th Memorial for Shinran Shonin: The History and Treasures of Hongwanji. Most of it wasn't that good, as the majority of it was scripts with descriptions exclusively in Japanese, but near the end, they had lovely gold paintings, exquisite windows and jewelry to die for. I also quite liked the permanent exhibition which had several woodblock prints by Sadao Abe, an exhibit of Arinori Ichihara's prints which played around with different textures, effectively, in my opinion, which seems to be difficult to do in abstract art, and a Contemporary Glass Art exhibit and I always love glass exhibits.
Though it was still snowing, I braved the cold looking for the subway station which was supposed to be just two blocks away. A lady at the information desk inside the museum had even given me a copied handrawn map and had told me it was easy. Ten minutes lost in the snow is equivalent to about an hour lost in the sun so I was again, miserable. At this point I decided that there was no freaking way I was going to stay in a place where it was snowing, so I would have to take the night train back in the opposite direction. I finally asked someone else who gave me better (and just verbal) directions and found it tucked away in the side of a building with a small sign indicating the station. This experience, of someone telling me that getting somewhere is easy and giving me a copied handrawn map with some English writing on it, and me trying to use that map and ending up lost, seems to be becoming a pattern.
I freely admit that I'm terrible with directions, but that's why I get so excited when someone tells me it's simple. The problem is that these maps tend to omit certain intersections or street names or alleyway/streets or will show most, but not all, of a certain type of business on the map. I'm sure most people just assume they're going the right way anyway, but even when I try that, it just doesn't work. I'm also much better with visual cues for directions than numbers or names. For example, I can tell you, even now, that to get to the place to go up to the observation deck at the Petronus towers, you exit the subway station, going up an escalator with an advertisement with a northern asian woman who is crying about love in one picture and happy above love in another. You turn left from her, then pass by several bakeries and a juice stand on the left side, through the mall, and you walk until you see the Shisheido makeup area (with a Dior makeup ad visible on the floor above it) and turn right to go up an escalator, passing Chanel. Go towards the Prada store, and just past that exit into the main lobby (past the two banks of ATMs on either side) and turn right. Walk a short while and you'll see an escalator you go down and turn to the right at the bottom.
Now ask me the name of the street my hostel was on, that I left about an hour and a half ago. I want to say it was Nanjing. I just looked on the business card. It was on Changan West. How many blocks was it from the bus station I walked to directly from there? Maybe half of one up, then two or three over, then 2?3?4? blocks down. I know people would normally say 1 block North/East/South/West but I have absolutely no clue which direction was which. I can't even guess.
So, that was random.
There's a tiny little underground alleyway of noodle shops in central Sapporo called Ramen Yokocho that's supposed to have incredible, wait for it, ramen. Ramen styles vary regionally, though they're ubiquitous and I never noticed a huge difference, but Hokkaido style is supposed to be really good, and with the weather as it was, hot soup sounded great. I got a bowl in one of the shops and spent a while working on it. It was good, but nothing spectacular in my opinion. Once I was slightly drier and slightly warmer, I headed out to the subway station to go out to the only thing left to do, and the most important thing, the Sapporo Factory.
The one I saw was the original factory- they don't make any beer there anymore, just keep it for historical value, tourists and events. My guidebook had said I could take a 50 minute tour which was followed by 20 minutes of all you can drink beer, without stating the price. When I got there, after another ten minute walk in the (at that moment) rain, I saw an old wood stove lit by the entryway, inside the vestibule. I pushed back the guarding grate so I could stand just inches away from the fire and just huddled for about ten minutes, hoping the two Receptionists wouldn't yell at me. Finally feeling nearly warm, I headed in. As it turned out, there was no actual tour, just an exhibit that was only in Japanese. They had a large English packet that they gave me though, which was actually quite complete so I learned a bit. Even though the exhibit was free, sadly, the beer was not, though it was still cheaper than it would be even to buy it in a convenience store. I walked through the exhibit, learned a bit that was very interesting at the time, but which I forgot almost immediately and got someone to take a picture of me.
The two things I learned that stuck with me were that: Sapporo Classic beer is actually the original beer they made and is only available in Hokkaido because it's formulated without preservatives and only lasts for two weeks, and Yebisu cans or bottles with two red fish on the label are lucky because only one such label is printed per hundreds produced (most Yebisu labels show the red fish in the front but not the red fishtail sticking out of the basket on the left).
After all that hard learning it was time to drink! I started with a sampler that included these beers: Black Label, Yebisu "The Black" and Kaitakushi Beer. Surprisingly they were all very good. I expected them to be more bitter, especially "The Black" but they really weren't. I liked them all enough to get another sampler, but I had other beers to try instead.
At this point I went to their other bar inside the factory, passing by this awesome photo opportunity on the way. It's a terrible picture of me, but it's a fantastic picture (currently my Facebook photo).
Now at the other bar, I tasted the Sapporo Classic, which was also very good, Yebisu, which was pretty good, and their beer of the month, a German inspired/type beer. Lastly, I bought a Naporin orange soda because it's also only available in Hokkaido (nothing special).
Back in central Sapporo, I stopped at Hall Stairs Espresso Bar which my stupid, useless guidebook described as "unique." It wasn't. It was just a normal bar, with black walls. Quite disappointing. Still with quite a lot of time to kill and not wanting to drink anymore, I went back to Comic Land Sapporo internet cafe for a couple of hours.
I think I grabbed some dinner in the train station while waiting for the train back, then left that hell that was white; snow white. (You'll get my undying respect if you can guess what I paraphrased that quote from. Also, I think Sapporo might be quite a neat city in proper summer, it was just frozen hell when I was there.)
Amazingly, I had a very good nights sleep on the train- it was a bit older so the seats were wider and soft from years of use, like an old sofa chair, and ugly, of course. I woke up right before we got to the Sapporo station at around 6 a.m. It was freezing. Literally. Of course, I only had my black hoodie, which I'm sad to report is insufficient for Siberian weather. Since it was too early to check into my hostel, I left my backpack in a locker there and started to walk around the city.
The weather really sucked and I wanted a hot chocolate in a warm cafe to keep me hot but it was too freaking early for any of the coffee shops to be open, so instead I walked over to the Nijo Fish Market. As it started raining I wished I'd brought my umbrella- safely stowed in my backpack in the locker- with me. The fish market was not fully open, again because it was too early, though by now it was about 6:30, but some of the stalls were and one kind fisherman let me try two different types of crab: Hair Crab, which he told me comes from Hokkaido, and King Crab. It was really good, but it was, as it should be, cold. I walked over to see the T.V. Tower, which was less than thrilling.
I was completely miserable; it was cold, wet and windy. I found an internet cafe, which is expensive, but gets you free soda/tea/coffee and a private half-cubicle booth, and hung out there to dry.
Two hours later, I was ready to face the rain and walked bravely out of Comic Land Sapporo into the slush rain. I looked dutifully at the Clock Tower, which apparently we're supposed to recognize as the symbol of Sapporo, though it also has the real symbol of Sapporo, the red beer star, on it. From there I walked along the Odori-koen promenade, where they hold a giant ice sculpture festival during the winter, thought I couldn't ever imagine it getting colder than this. A LED display showed the temperature as 5*C but I assume that wasn't taking the windchill factor into account because it was really much colder. I was cursing myself for the lack of umbrella and feeling sorry for myself because it was so gross when it started to snow. Just barely. Very light snow that didn't stick, I admit, but those white clumps of frozen water doused my hoodie. I wanted to kill someone. I hadn't seen snow since last winter sometime, December of 2008 or January 2009. I don't necessarily dislike snow, but I wasn't in the mood for it and I like snow to either be pretty, falling gently, or on the slopes. Otherwise, I don't want be cold. I wanted my permanent summer back ASAP.
It didn't help that I couldn't find the Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art I was looking for. I finally went into a strange looking building and found a woman to give me directions. That got me as far as another random art museum and they were able to give me directions from there. The museum was small, but actually quite good, though that may have been simply because it was warm and I hadn't been to an art museum in a while. An interesting exhibit was on called On the 750th Memorial for Shinran Shonin: The History and Treasures of Hongwanji. Most of it wasn't that good, as the majority of it was scripts with descriptions exclusively in Japanese, but near the end, they had lovely gold paintings, exquisite windows and jewelry to die for. I also quite liked the permanent exhibition which had several woodblock prints by Sadao Abe, an exhibit of Arinori Ichihara's prints which played around with different textures, effectively, in my opinion, which seems to be difficult to do in abstract art, and a Contemporary Glass Art exhibit and I always love glass exhibits.
Though it was still snowing, I braved the cold looking for the subway station which was supposed to be just two blocks away. A lady at the information desk inside the museum had even given me a copied handrawn map and had told me it was easy. Ten minutes lost in the snow is equivalent to about an hour lost in the sun so I was again, miserable. At this point I decided that there was no freaking way I was going to stay in a place where it was snowing, so I would have to take the night train back in the opposite direction. I finally asked someone else who gave me better (and just verbal) directions and found it tucked away in the side of a building with a small sign indicating the station. This experience, of someone telling me that getting somewhere is easy and giving me a copied handrawn map with some English writing on it, and me trying to use that map and ending up lost, seems to be becoming a pattern.
I freely admit that I'm terrible with directions, but that's why I get so excited when someone tells me it's simple. The problem is that these maps tend to omit certain intersections or street names or alleyway/streets or will show most, but not all, of a certain type of business on the map. I'm sure most people just assume they're going the right way anyway, but even when I try that, it just doesn't work. I'm also much better with visual cues for directions than numbers or names. For example, I can tell you, even now, that to get to the place to go up to the observation deck at the Petronus towers, you exit the subway station, going up an escalator with an advertisement with a northern asian woman who is crying about love in one picture and happy above love in another. You turn left from her, then pass by several bakeries and a juice stand on the left side, through the mall, and you walk until you see the Shisheido makeup area (with a Dior makeup ad visible on the floor above it) and turn right to go up an escalator, passing Chanel. Go towards the Prada store, and just past that exit into the main lobby (past the two banks of ATMs on either side) and turn right. Walk a short while and you'll see an escalator you go down and turn to the right at the bottom.
Now ask me the name of the street my hostel was on, that I left about an hour and a half ago. I want to say it was Nanjing. I just looked on the business card. It was on Changan West. How many blocks was it from the bus station I walked to directly from there? Maybe half of one up, then two or three over, then 2?3?4? blocks down. I know people would normally say 1 block North/East/South/West but I have absolutely no clue which direction was which. I can't even guess.
So, that was random.
There's a tiny little underground alleyway of noodle shops in central Sapporo called Ramen Yokocho that's supposed to have incredible, wait for it, ramen. Ramen styles vary regionally, though they're ubiquitous and I never noticed a huge difference, but Hokkaido style is supposed to be really good, and with the weather as it was, hot soup sounded great. I got a bowl in one of the shops and spent a while working on it. It was good, but nothing spectacular in my opinion. Once I was slightly drier and slightly warmer, I headed out to the subway station to go out to the only thing left to do, and the most important thing, the Sapporo Factory.
The one I saw was the original factory- they don't make any beer there anymore, just keep it for historical value, tourists and events. My guidebook had said I could take a 50 minute tour which was followed by 20 minutes of all you can drink beer, without stating the price. When I got there, after another ten minute walk in the (at that moment) rain, I saw an old wood stove lit by the entryway, inside the vestibule. I pushed back the guarding grate so I could stand just inches away from the fire and just huddled for about ten minutes, hoping the two Receptionists wouldn't yell at me. Finally feeling nearly warm, I headed in. As it turned out, there was no actual tour, just an exhibit that was only in Japanese. They had a large English packet that they gave me though, which was actually quite complete so I learned a bit. Even though the exhibit was free, sadly, the beer was not, though it was still cheaper than it would be even to buy it in a convenience store. I walked through the exhibit, learned a bit that was very interesting at the time, but which I forgot almost immediately and got someone to take a picture of me.
The two things I learned that stuck with me were that: Sapporo Classic beer is actually the original beer they made and is only available in Hokkaido because it's formulated without preservatives and only lasts for two weeks, and Yebisu cans or bottles with two red fish on the label are lucky because only one such label is printed per hundreds produced (most Yebisu labels show the red fish in the front but not the red fishtail sticking out of the basket on the left).
After all that hard learning it was time to drink! I started with a sampler that included these beers: Black Label, Yebisu "The Black" and Kaitakushi Beer. Surprisingly they were all very good. I expected them to be more bitter, especially "The Black" but they really weren't. I liked them all enough to get another sampler, but I had other beers to try instead.
At this point I went to their other bar inside the factory, passing by this awesome photo opportunity on the way. It's a terrible picture of me, but it's a fantastic picture (currently my Facebook photo).
Now at the other bar, I tasted the Sapporo Classic, which was also very good, Yebisu, which was pretty good, and their beer of the month, a German inspired/type beer. Lastly, I bought a Naporin orange soda because it's also only available in Hokkaido (nothing special).
Back in central Sapporo, I stopped at Hall Stairs Espresso Bar which my stupid, useless guidebook described as "unique." It wasn't. It was just a normal bar, with black walls. Quite disappointing. Still with quite a lot of time to kill and not wanting to drink anymore, I went back to Comic Land Sapporo internet cafe for a couple of hours.
I think I grabbed some dinner in the train station while waiting for the train back, then left that hell that was white; snow white. (You'll get my undying respect if you can guess what I paraphrased that quote from. Also, I think Sapporo might be quite a neat city in proper summer, it was just frozen hell when I was there.)
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Pinwheels, Spinning in the Wind
4/27
Aomori doesn't have a lot to see and I'd already seen most of the things I was interested in last night so I slept in and took my time getting up and ready. I made an obligatory stop at their fish market (which I could smell- yay, except...ewww) and got some takeaway. I was eating it in a large plaza and kicking at pigeons simultaneous when I saw the largest crow I've ever seen. It was probably three times the size of a normal crow and was really intimidating. I felt like I could finally understand why Tippi Hendran would be afraid of them in "The Crows" as I made a plan for what to do if it attacked me (kick, mostly, and whack with my purse).
Since I still had lots of time, I shopped around a bit, walked a bit farther and got a cup of Haagen-Daaz cookies and cream ice cream (I was PMSing, or at least, used that as my excuse). Finally it was time to get on the bus to see the one thing I particularly wanted to see in, well, outside of, Aomori; Seiryu-ji.
Showa Daibutsu is the largest outdoor Buddha in Japan. The complex it's in, Seiryu-ji, also includes numerous statues and a temple and five storied pagoda (the tallest one North of Kyoto). Amazingly, they had a very detailed brochure (4 pages of explanation on computer paper stapled together) in English! Usually this would be nice, but full of basic, vaguely interesting information that you'd forget in an instant but this brochure had a diatribe discussing the problem of secularism, a decline in ethics and insincere Buddhist priests! It was funny, bizarre, unexpected and fascinating. Western Honshu is seen by many Japanese in the same way that many Americans see the deep south: as a deeply religious, outdated place full of agriculture and bigotry and lacking education and pretentiousness. This rant made me understand this stereotype a bit better and amused me because if I replaced just a few of the words and removed a sentence of two I could easily imagine a middle aged white woman saying it in a Southern accent. Below, I've typed the best part, using parentheses to show words I would replace to make it work.
"There is another big reason for building the Daibutsu. (church.) After World War II in Japan, (the United States,) religion was excluded from the education curriculum due to separation of state and religion. Is moraland emotional education capable without religion? The answer is obvious when we look at the current situation. We have witnessed a decline in ethics. Such miserable cases as parents who have killed their children and children who have killed their parents and indiscriminate murders have often been reported. In contrast to the poverty-stricken society after WWII, (during the Great Depression,) we now enjoy the benefits of a developed economy, high quality education and scientific culture, which enable us to lead a very convenient life. However, there has been a growing concern that moral degenerations is progressing year by year. Although our economy, education and culture have developed, if we don't cultivate richness of the mind, Japan (the United States) will be in ruins someday. Then, who takes care of the issue of the mind? Religious people do. However, many Japanese Buddhist priests (American Preachers) behave as if priests' mission were only to perform rituals like funerals and memorial services."
Weird, right?
The temple was nice, as was the pagoda, but the real reason I came was to see Jizo Bosatsu (Boddhisattva) and put a pinwheel on this hill. The pinwheels are left by parents for their children who have died. Since my mother couldn't be there, I bought a green one and left it as high as I could get on that hill to catch the breeze for Joseph.
I walked up to the Giant Buddha and inside the hall underneath where you could see part of the structure. There was one group of Japanese tourists who came through while I was there but for the most part I had the place to myself.
Walking away from Buddha, I ran into Ichigan Kannon, who grants you just one wish.
Then I passed this fearsome god, Fudo Myooh, who is actually supposed to be good because he slays your negative thoughts with his sword and lassos people back onto the path of righteousness.
Kobo-Daishi is the statue on the other side of this pond and the founder of the Shingon sect of Buddhism. Each of the plates around the pond holds sand from one of the 88 temples associated with the Shingon sect. According to my brochure, it would be "a great experience to follow the footsteps of Daishi by stepping on the plates one by one, chanting his honorific name (Nama Daishi Henjokongo)." I tried it and it was just okay, not great.
This part, outside the main complex, is Kobo-Daishi-do, and these are the cool things that were inside it.
My overnight train to Sapporo (included in my rail pass so I didn't have to pay extra or for a hostel one night!) didn't leave until 10 p.m. but since I had nothing to do, from 8 onwards, after going online at the free internet place and getting dinner: a small crab and cheese omelette that was awesome and remarkably cheap and fantastic calamari, I just sat in the train station and finished reading The Lady and the Unicorn. On the train, I brushed my teeth and curled up with my mini tempurpedic pillow, my microfiber towel as a blanket, and an Ambien, and shortly, I was out.
Buddha's Head, Watching You Over the Treetops
Aomori doesn't have a lot to see and I'd already seen most of the things I was interested in last night so I slept in and took my time getting up and ready. I made an obligatory stop at their fish market (which I could smell- yay, except...ewww) and got some takeaway. I was eating it in a large plaza and kicking at pigeons simultaneous when I saw the largest crow I've ever seen. It was probably three times the size of a normal crow and was really intimidating. I felt like I could finally understand why Tippi Hendran would be afraid of them in "The Crows" as I made a plan for what to do if it attacked me (kick, mostly, and whack with my purse).
Since I still had lots of time, I shopped around a bit, walked a bit farther and got a cup of Haagen-Daaz cookies and cream ice cream (I was PMSing, or at least, used that as my excuse). Finally it was time to get on the bus to see the one thing I particularly wanted to see in, well, outside of, Aomori; Seiryu-ji.
Showa Daibutsu is the largest outdoor Buddha in Japan. The complex it's in, Seiryu-ji, also includes numerous statues and a temple and five storied pagoda (the tallest one North of Kyoto). Amazingly, they had a very detailed brochure (4 pages of explanation on computer paper stapled together) in English! Usually this would be nice, but full of basic, vaguely interesting information that you'd forget in an instant but this brochure had a diatribe discussing the problem of secularism, a decline in ethics and insincere Buddhist priests! It was funny, bizarre, unexpected and fascinating. Western Honshu is seen by many Japanese in the same way that many Americans see the deep south: as a deeply religious, outdated place full of agriculture and bigotry and lacking education and pretentiousness. This rant made me understand this stereotype a bit better and amused me because if I replaced just a few of the words and removed a sentence of two I could easily imagine a middle aged white woman saying it in a Southern accent. Below, I've typed the best part, using parentheses to show words I would replace to make it work.
"There is another big reason for building the Daibutsu. (church.) After World War II in Japan, (the United States,) religion was excluded from the education curriculum due to separation of state and religion. Is moraland emotional education capable without religion? The answer is obvious when we look at the current situation. We have witnessed a decline in ethics. Such miserable cases as parents who have killed their children and children who have killed their parents and indiscriminate murders have often been reported. In contrast to the poverty-stricken society after WWII, (during the Great Depression,) we now enjoy the benefits of a developed economy, high quality education and scientific culture, which enable us to lead a very convenient life. However, there has been a growing concern that moral degenerations is progressing year by year. Although our economy, education and culture have developed, if we don't cultivate richness of the mind, Japan (the United States) will be in ruins someday. Then, who takes care of the issue of the mind? Religious people do. However, many Japanese Buddhist priests (American Preachers) behave as if priests' mission were only to perform rituals like funerals and memorial services."
Weird, right?
The temple was nice, as was the pagoda, but the real reason I came was to see Jizo Bosatsu (Boddhisattva) and put a pinwheel on this hill. The pinwheels are left by parents for their children who have died. Since my mother couldn't be there, I bought a green one and left it as high as I could get on that hill to catch the breeze for Joseph.
I walked up to the Giant Buddha and inside the hall underneath where you could see part of the structure. There was one group of Japanese tourists who came through while I was there but for the most part I had the place to myself.
Walking away from Buddha, I ran into Ichigan Kannon, who grants you just one wish.
Then I passed this fearsome god, Fudo Myooh, who is actually supposed to be good because he slays your negative thoughts with his sword and lassos people back onto the path of righteousness.
Kobo-Daishi is the statue on the other side of this pond and the founder of the Shingon sect of Buddhism. Each of the plates around the pond holds sand from one of the 88 temples associated with the Shingon sect. According to my brochure, it would be "a great experience to follow the footsteps of Daishi by stepping on the plates one by one, chanting his honorific name (Nama Daishi Henjokongo)." I tried it and it was just okay, not great.
This part, outside the main complex, is Kobo-Daishi-do, and these are the cool things that were inside it.
My overnight train to Sapporo (included in my rail pass so I didn't have to pay extra or for a hostel one night!) didn't leave until 10 p.m. but since I had nothing to do, from 8 onwards, after going online at the free internet place and getting dinner: a small crab and cheese omelette that was awesome and remarkably cheap and fantastic calamari, I just sat in the train station and finished reading The Lady and the Unicorn. On the train, I brushed my teeth and curled up with my mini tempurpedic pillow, my microfiber towel as a blanket, and an Ambien, and shortly, I was out.
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