Starry Wisdom

Well the blister on my little toe is the size of a grape. If I can find a pin and a source of flame I am going to lance it at the hotel tonight.

Ok, so the capsule was uhm, an experience. The bed was not uncomfortable. But i woke p to pee and some dude had porno on super loud. Japanese porn actors’ “voice acting” is nutso. I wa asleep at 10:30pm. At 4:56AM I woke up again, to loud snoring, several rows away. So i decided to get up and start my day. The shower was fiiine, and I was on my with to B@gus. I had some tea, checked my email and then out to get a snack (mr donut). So I have to say that Kabuki-cho is hilarious. First I was offered a shoer, bj and sex for Y20,000 by what I hope was ap imp, not a male prostitute. Which I quickly declined. Then 10 minues later I was at a shinto shrine. Har!

Still hungry, and with a sore foot, I stopped at a convini. I got what I thought was plum in syrup. But it turned out to be plum in jello. And it was delicous. And now i am sitting outside the garden waiting for more stuff to open. Perhaps the drug store. Or the park.

I ended up eating a screwey sandwich with 5x the normal amount of mayonaise from Family Mart. It was not ideal, but it helped me survice. I went to nishiki-dori, which is the big kyoto market. I sampled some delicious pickles, and took some pictures, then I went back to the Sumiya to get my stuff and head to the JR station.

They really are so polite at the ryokan. It’s great. Barley tea while waiting for my taxi, along with some an mochi. 3 people bowed to me on the way out. When I got to the station I had about 10 minutes before the next Hikari, so I investigate food options. I found a bento stand that looked ok. Well it was pretty good – I ate it on the train. The only downside was the weird snail. It was sealed shut, so uhm, I didn’t eat it. I finished Artemis Fowl book 2 today. Started up on Serve it Forth. The train ride was uneventful. But when I got to Tokyo station I took about 15 minutes looking for the big lockers to stash my luggage for the night. I hope I can find it again tomorrow. Anyhow, I stopped here to check my email before checking out the Capsule hotel across the way. Mmmm free calpis. One of the best features of this cyber cafe is the beverage machine!

Man, Chion-in is impresive. I saw this and Nanzen-ji today. Well, the gate at Nanzen-ji is fantastic, but Chion-in is just wonderful.

I had Japanese breakfast this morning, but no natto (turns out it’s a Tokyo/Eastern Japan thing). Well it was good. Miso and grilled fish and rice. I am pretty hungry – I went to a Lawson’s earlier, but I wussed out, and didn’t get anything. I guess I’ll have to try again someplace else later.

I also went to a really small shinto shrine. On my way out an older Japanese woman said Konnichiwa to me. I said Konnichiwa back, and this made me happy.

Dinner. So, I got what I thought was a human sized glass of water. And then I realized it had a small lip. It was a pitcher. This amused me. Here is what I had for dinner:

1. Carp Sashimi
2. Snapper, shrimo, kanpachi and “conga” no clue what that least this is, but it tastes pretty good
3. Soup with mushroom and conga, along with egg tofu. The latter is for the moon viewing season, which is going on
4. Unagi
5. Grilled fish and pickles
6. Smoke fish and roe
7. mushroom, dried shrimp, and fish dish, and some melon
8. more soup with fish
9. More sashimi, including some sort of liver and flying fish
10. Miso and rice with ume, and more pickles
11. Fruit with champagne jello

All of this took about 1.5 hours. It was pretty much all very tasty

The shinkansen ride was nice. About 3 hours. A highlight is that i pooed in a Japanese style toilet on the train. I had a choice between floor toilet and regular. And I thought “what the heck”.

I got to the Kyoto station and navigated my way to the taxi stand and off to the inn. I dropped off my bags and was greeted with ice mugicha (barley tea) and rice crackers. Yum. I was 90% sure of my stomache, but soon would be the real test. I went to East kyoto, but first I stopped at an unagi restaurant. It was very good, and my gut survived, so I think I am all clear.

After lunch I went to Heian Jingo, which was nice, but there was some event going on at the shrine, and they were seting up lights all over. Oh well, it’s still pretty. Afterwards I hiked over to Nanzen-ji. But, arg, it started to rain. Not that hard, but I scrapped the trip to the temple, especially since I left my rain jacet in my luggage.

To be prudent, I decided to go to the post office near Kyoto station to get me some hakagi no kitte. I actualy asked for them in semi-proper japanese – niju mai hagaki no kitte o onegai shimasu. After getting the stamps and mailing some postcards, I went to the TIC at kyoto station to get some internet time. It’s a good thing, because I had a deadline for confirming my hotel for the last two nights in Japan. Hah. Anyway, by the time I was done with that it was pouring out, so I made my way back to Sumiya. The map that I had was pretty crappy (oh, did I miss the awesome Tokyo atlas) , and so it was kind of a crap shoot if I was going the right way. In my head I could see a lot of people just giving up and hiding from the rain. But I made it. A bit wet, of course, but that’s ok.

I decided to take some pictures of my room, but the rechargeable batteries in my flash were dead. I should have charged them before leaving, but oh well. I went back out to 7-11 just down the street for some AAs. When I got back I took pics, jumped in the shower, changed into the yukata and wrote postcards while waiting for dinner.

I feel much better today – not 100%, but probably 90%. Pretty certain. I guess I got bit by stomach virus. Oh well. I am abotu to head to Kyoto. Tonight is one of my fancy nights, in the pimp ryokan. That should be nice

Ok, so the train is now off. Wow, its a pretty nice and smooth ride. Only been underway for 10 minutes but I’m liking this

Guts OK. Mango Yogurt and some awesome blueberry and chery gummy candies was m dinner. YUM.

Ugh, today was well… not a complete waste, but very bad. Some combo of jetlag, food poisoning, I dunno. I woke up and had the hotel breakfast, and then I think I doomed myself with a Wonda After shot. WTF? Ok, so the I went to Shinjuku with the intention of writing out some postcards and check email. Well, I felt like poo. I planned 2 good meals for today, unagi and tempura, but no. So I felt like shit but I thought it would pass. So after sitting at Mister Donut for a bit, I got on a JR train to Harajuku. Well after sitting in the park for a bit I still felt awful, so I headed back to the hotel. Good thing, because soon after I got back I puked up all my pan and co-hi- from the morning. Ugh. I lied down for a bit and then felt a bit better. I decided to go back to Harajuku and the Meiji-jingu – a big shrine in the park dedicated to the Emperor Meiji and his wife – it was quite beatiful. I saw a wedding procession while I was there, which was really neat. Woot. But then the sicks came back. I rested on a bench for a bit, but then I decided I had better get back to the hotel. While I was on teh JR train I was basically hanging from the handhold I felt so crappy. When we got to the Shinjuku Station I was feeling most queazy. I tried to sit down on the platform, but vomit. I felt like a complete birk. I was kind of surprised that no one said “daijobu desu ka” to me. Ahh well, at least it was really watery puke, and not too pungent. So after the vomits, back to the hotel I went. Of course, when I got back, they were cleaning my room. So I went and sat in the park in Hatagaya for 45 minutes. There as some sort of religious event happenign in the square on teh other side of the park. One of those big portable shrine things. It was neat to see and rather random. So now it was 2:15 and I went back to the room. I barely made it back to my room I was so dizzy. I had some unfortunate toilet time, but it wasn’t so bad. I was very dizzy, but I managed to get down 1 floor and start some laundry. But when I had to go back between steps I was so drained and dizzy. I figured I was dehydrated so i grabbed a beverage that turned out to be a grapefruit flavored sport drink from the vending machine near the laundry. It felt really good to drink. When I got back to my room with my dry laundry and the bottle, i dropped it all ont he floor and flopped down into bed. I ended up take an hour and a half or so nap.

Next thing I know it is 7pm and I feel not awful. So I ate my last bit of pocky and drank some more water. I figure that if I am feeling ok at 8:30PM I might go get some AMPM. I am watching Doors, a pretty absurd ‘danger show’. The toughest transvestite in Japan is on and is being a complete wuss. At most 1/10 of the contestants made it through round 1’s obstacle course. It’s very video game esque. Speaking of video game, it’s funny that Keio is a train that i take, a mall, and also makes games for the DS.

Fuck are my feet sore. Too much sweating and too much walking. Tomorrow I will try to control my walking some – or at least that’s the plan. 5km or less is my goal! I don’t want to know how many km I walked today. To say dozens would not be a lie.

Ok, so I went to Roppongi, got off the train, and hoofed it to Tokyo Tower. Not a bad walk, but a little hilly near the tower. Oh, yeah, a couple of americans asked me if I knew where the Hardrock Cafe was, while I was still in the station – I didn’t but my map did. They were impressed by it. Anyway, I got some postcards at the gift shop at Tokyo Tower, then took the subway back to Roppongi Crossing.

I explored Roppongi Hills, and I am a bit mixed on this place. It’s pretty nice, but it’s also a bit sterile. It could almost be in the US. But it has an elegant simplicity i can appreciate. On my meanderings I came across Chinese Cafe 8, another place recommended by my friend Joan. I had dinner there which included a complimentary glass of Asahi? Uhh, ok! I had a ginger duck stirfry and welsh onion dumplings. It was very tasty stuff. The restaurants specialty is a whole fried duck, and from where I was sitting I could see them carving this for presentation for the lucky people who ordered it. The cutting was very skilled and neat to see. After I finished dinner I decided it was time to head over to the Mori tower.

I went up the Mori Tower to the Tokyo City View. It was a good time there, and I took some mediocre pictures of the city at night. I also saw the Sky Aquarium, a strange art exhibit with the concept of aquariums as art. This British guy berated the Japanese women he was with for saying that the weird fish (which I thought was pretty creepy) was oishii. That’s funny and stereotypical, but I thought that at some other tank, as well. But really, the one that they were pointing to, kowai desu ne! Well after going through the art exhibit based on some architect, I decided it was time for some dessert.

Haha, I ended up at cold stone. It was weird, because the workers are crazy insane happy – and they sing after each order since there is no tipping. The fruit was exceptionally deliscious. I decided to head back at this time as Heartland, a bar I wanted to check out, wasn’t open, and I was pretty tired anyway. I soaked my feat, then hit the AMPM and got a 10% off onigiri. It was an ume one, and really, I can only take so much Ume. But the rice and nori were really good. Calpis Melon Cream soda is really good. Now it is time to go to sleep.