Earthquake!

Two earthquakes hit Japan yesterday. I felt a tremor around 5 PM in Osaka - maybe an aftershock. So I have been exposed to both a typhoon and earthquake now! I only experienced some wind and rain from the typhoon though. It has passed, although it's still very humid here. I'm starting to get a little burnt out on traveling and, frankly, I am starting to run out of money. I think I planned too much time in Japan, especially Osaka. There is not much to do here other than shop and eat, the famous dishes being okonomiyaki and takoyaki (doughy octopus balls). Osaka is popularly associated with the phrase kuidaore, meaning "eat until you drop." Tonight though I will have healthy vegetarian food at a buddhist temple in nearby Koyasan (Mt. Koya). I'll also be staying overnight at the temple. I'm hoping this excursion will give me a second wind and recharge my batteries in preparation for Taipei later this week.

Lost in Translation, found in the rain

I'm in a trendy Osaka cafe called Planet3rd right now (there are 4 Internet terminals free for customers, yay!) and their menu features the item "giant corn" (English translation) in the Snacks section. I want to order it to see what this giant corn is all about, but I'm too scared.
At the dollar store (100-yen shop) the other day, I saw some kitchen items with the brand name "Lube Sheep." I guess that's better than "Sheep Lube." I don't want to make fun of awkward English translations but they are all around me - I can't help it!
It has rained the entire day here in Osaka. I hear that a typhoon is on its way, but I don't know if the rain is part of that or just the normal rainy season that refuses to go away. It has rained a lot while I've been in Japan and it hasn't really bothered me up until now. It's a bit of a pain to sightsee and shop whilst carrying an umbrella all day, especially when you are expected to put your umbrella into a rack or wrap it in a plastic bag before entering any establishment, lest water drip on the pristine floor. They're kind of finicky here about things like that. I won't even get into the subject of wearing shoes indoors... But truth be told, places are very clean here, so the rules exist for a reason. The rain has also been annoying because I have had to buy at least 4 umbrellas since I've been here, because I keep accidently leaving them places (well, a cheap one broke so I left it behind on purpose). Also, I constantly have that Rihanna "Umbrella" song in my head.
Anyways...today I went to the Aquarium, one of Osaka's best sites. It was a bit smaller than I expected, considering the steep price of admission, but it is a great aquarium. The creatures seem to have adequate room to move around and play and be happy. The highlights were the super-cute river otters and the captivating, otherworldy jellyfish. I spent quite a while taking photos of the jellyfish. You will have to be patient to see them. Most Internet cafes do not allow you to insert external devices like cameras or flash drives. Now I know that in order to keep a good travel blog you should bring your own laptop with you. I will write some posts retroactively once I get home and have more time to share stories and photos. I have a lot of stories from this past week. I saw so much in Kyoto and Hiroshima as well as my overnight at Sensuijima, a little island in the Seto Inland Sea that none of the Japanese people I've told to about it have heard of. The highlights of the past week have been successful geisha hunting in Kyoto (I saw about 5, some only for a few seconds); walking through endless bright reddish-orange toriis at Fushimi Inari; my indescribable edo bath experience at Sensuijima (really, I don't know how to describe it, because I still don't know what was going on); and seeing the historic A-bomb dome in the now peaceful, vibrant city of Hiroshima. Stay tuned for elaborations!!

Cool mountain air and hot hot springs

After an exciting urban experience in Tokyo it was nice to get out into the countryside and breath some fresh mountain air in Nagano prefecture. I first stayed overnight in Matsumoto, which has a beautiful, well-preserved castle and a small-town, laid-back feel but modern infrastructure. It kind of reminded me of Portland, even though I've never been to Portland. There are lots of cute little shops and places to eat and you can walk anywhere in about 20 minutes or less. I stayed in a ryokan, which is like a bed and breakfast where the rooms are decorated in traditional Japanese style - simple decor and tatami mat flooring; you sleep on a futon mattress on the floor and use shared baths. This ryokan was not as fancy as some are and no meals were served, but my room was comfy and cozy, the building had lovely wooden floors, and the owner was super nice. She let me stow my big bag there while I did my 2-day excursion to Kamikochi and Hirayu-onsen. Kamikochi National Park is famous for its hiking, mountain scenery, and clear blue Azuza river. It rained a lot while I was there but I did a few hours of walking on some pretty trails. I stayed overnight in a dorm room at a lodge with meals included (only had 2 roomates - 2 Aussie girls), then took a short bus ride to Hirayu-onsen, a town with many natural hot spring public baths (onsen). The lodge at Kamikochi had an indoor onsen, but at Hirayu I was able to experience various outdoor baths (rotemburo), which smelled of sulfur and were really hot! (I couldn't stay in them for very long), and they gave me a yukata (robe), which guests wear when walking from their room to the baths and also to the dining room for dinner. I was a little lonely at the onsen, as most guests were retirees or other couples and families, but I enjoyed the onsen experience. You are totally naked when you bathe in an onsen, but they give you a washcloth that you can use a "modesty towel." Nowadays at most onsen the men's and women's baths are separate. The most important thing to remember is to wash yourself thoroughly before soaking in the bath. This is done in a public shower room between the changing room and the baths. At an onsen you can take time to relish the bathing experience and get yourself really, really clean. If you go in the evening you sleep very well afterwards.
I returned to Matsumoto for 1 more night, which happened to be the 4th of July. I found myself missing America more than I thought I would. Maybe I just missed having someone to speak English with and joke around with in American-style humor. I have not had any major problems getting around in Japan, but it has been more challenging than I expected. I feel illiterate and mute much of the time due to the language barrier, and the only people who will talk to me are other travelers, customer service people (who are so nice I feel guilty I can't respond to them properly), and random old men. I had heard that younger people in Japan are more likely to speak some English, but from my experience it has been mostly men over the age of 55 who dare to speak to me (in English or Japanese). I guess they have gotten over their shyness by age 55. There are English signs in most tourist areas, but sometimes only the most basic signs and explanations are provided. Thankfully many menus have pictures. I've been eating lots of pasta and green tea soft-serve ice cream.

more Tokyo and Yokohama

Thanks to other people's cameras I bring you 2 new photos! The first is me at karaoke with Yoshiko, a friend of my awesome guide Hiroto, and the other is me at a Chinese temple in Yokohama, the second largest city in Japan, not far from Tokyo. Yokohama is known for its Chinatown, and I will always remember the lunch I had there, a fabulous marriage of two wonderful cuisines: conveyor belt dim sum!!! Dumplings and egg tartlets that you can just grab off the belt and stuff into your mouth! sugoy!
I had another delicious meal on Saturday with my guide Hanae: okonomiyaki, a cross between a pancake and pizza topping, which you make yourself on a griddle at the table. You can use different ingredients, but we made one with cod rose (fish eggs), cheese, bacon, cabbage, and some yummy sauce. It had a really nice comfort-food taste to it. In other words, I'm not going to lose any weight if I keep eating this during my trip, which I will, because it's a speciality of the Osaka region and I haven't gone there yet.
On Friday night I enjoyed an izakya, a lively bar/restaurant with an all you can eat and drink in 90 minutes special (and lots of amtosphere on a Friday night) and karaoke with my guide Hiroto and his friends in Shinjuku area. They didn't have all the songs I wanted to sing, but they did have many English songs. Then I went dancing both Friday and Saturday nights at some cool little clubs in Shibuya, one called Ruby Room, the other Loop. Both had guest gaijin (foreigner) DJs, but I liked the local residents DJs who went on before and after at both places better. One of the DJs at Loop looked like a Japanese Jack Black, wearing a beret. The cover charge was steep (about $25 including 1 drink) but worth it.
I spent a lot of time in Tokyo just walking around admiring everyone's fashion sense, which is sometimes questionable but usually quite cool. People really do dress like in the photos from the fashion site I check every week! (see link to the right). I saw a lot of girls with lightened, teased hair, like a beehive in the front, party in the back (reminded me of Amy Winehouse's hair) and a lot of guys with highlighted hairsprayed rocker hair or the baggy hip hop or skater look. Many (straight) men carry "man bags"!! Joey from Friends would be proud. I also saw some people with scary-looking fake tans, including brownish-orange faces. I guess not everyone is into the ideal of pale skin anymore. And I don't know how so many Asian women walk in heeled shoes everywhere every day and night, but they do...

"gozai masu...gozai masu... gozai masu..."

I'm in the coolest cafe ever right now, Cafe Respekt, in the Shibuya area of Tokyo, drinking a "tea float" - iced earl grey tea with the richest, most delicious (oyshi) soft-serve vanilla ice cream ever - surrounded by super-stylish people as house music plays softly in the background and a chorus of "(something something) gozai masu" echoes from the staff as customers come and go. (Customer service is amazing here!)
I've been busy sightseeing and meeting with my guides from Tokyo Free Guides this week. Last night I went with one of my guides and her friends to dinner in Ginza, followed by too much bourbon drinking at a tiny, basement country-western bar, where the bartender wore a cowboy shirt and an Alan Jackson CD played on the sound system ("Here in the Real World"...). I've been marveling at creations such as the "ice bagel" (a bagel with ice cream inside it) and figuring out how to work the remote-controlled toilets, not to mention navigate around this city with a confusing address system, so many different train lines, and maps where North is never put at the top. Usually I make at least one mistake every time I go somewhere, but I eventually correct my course and get to where I need to be.
And now I need to go meet another guide at the Hachiko statue and head to karaoke!
Will post more this weekend...