Realisations

I've made a few realisations...

Cheap food, that fills you up good... is always going to be Chinese food. Yep, that includes Chinese food in Japan... even if it's with a Japanese twist.

Chinese food made by nonChinese, is not the same. Hainanese Chicken rice by Malays... not nice. BBQ pork noodles in Japan... you call that lump of fat pork?

Clothes that keep you warm, are cheap. Clothes that keep you warm AND look l33t... are more expensive.

Little old ladies, though a good source for awesome old cars, are hazardous. *using a David Attenborough accent* "in the natural habitat of urban Kyoto, the little old lady will either waddle, destroying anything in its path... or when on a rampage, charging forward... causing traffic to halt and grant her safe passage"

There are car modifying magazines for any kind of car... including people mover vans... and tall box kei cars!

When you have an idea, but don't say or do anything... it turns out that if you had, you would have avoided a lot of back tracking and fixing up mistakes.

Umm... you always forget all the good ideas the moment you start writing!

food desu

Miso is horrible. Cooking stuff on top of hoba leaves is a rip off, and doesn't enhance flavour. In short, miso sucks.

I think from now we'll be buying packaged food from 7-11 (for half the price) and heating it up ourselves.

O yeah. Damn MSG. That shit keeps me awake all night with a dry mouth. Or maybe my mind is full of things... I'd rather blame the ajinomoto though.

Takayama was pretty awesome. Went to the alpine region for the onsen. Quite an experience I must say. In Kyoto now. Will be visiting various temples (more of them) and either the imperial palace or nijojo castle. Also day trips to Hiroshima and Himeiji.

I'm running out of ideas for funny pseudo jap titles....

Which button is to post this? It's in JAP!

That's right...

That's right...

Tomorrow, we're waking up early to take the shinkansen to Takayama. Then after a day or so... to Kyoto. If there's no computer there for me, or if I never find myself some flat pin adapter. That will be all.

Japan - Day 2

Day 2

Super Happy Fun Photo Takey Time
Half the day was spent visiting gardens and temples. So lots of time spent walking everywhere, taking photos as though we were Japanese tourists in Australia... except we're the other way round :P. So we went to the Imperial Garden, some place in Asakusa (including some street mall that is much like Bugis St, but cleaner and more open, and less fake stuff), Ueno garden, and the Ueno market. Saw some BB guns there. Going for around 2000 yen. Didn't get any. Shame.

Happy Pointy Lunch Upstairs
We had lunch in Asakusa. Tempura. What sucked was that the menu only had 2 pictures. Udon and tempura fish, and the same but with prawn. Guess what we had?
It was pretty nice though. Not as good as the chicken katsu we had at TonKatsu the other night at Akihabara.


Funny Looking People Place
Harajuku... the place where kids dress up in all kinds of funny outfits. Some being outrageous and undescribeable. Others being outrageous but describeable as maid outfits, animeish cosplay, gothic, punk... etc.

I got me a whacky hat there. Well, it's not really whacky. It's a bowler hat or something. Quite formal, really. But who the hell wears it with a suit like a Mafia mobster? My point exactly. Whacky.

Super Red Light Crowded District
Shinjuku is what we usually imagine when we think of a crowded and modern Japan. Neon lights. Lots and lots of people. Strip joints, karaoke bars, etc etc.

We had dinner here. At some dingey looking sushi train place. Everything was raw :(.


Can't think of anything else to report.

Japan trip (day 0 & 1)

Yeah... I'm in Japan now... using a computer with a keyboard that has some of its keys in different places. And I suck at touch typing to some extent. I know where the letters are, but symbols... I don't. Doing emotes is tricky.

Anyhoo

Day Zero
Umm... the whole day was packing my bag, going to church, filling out application forms for winter vacation. Exciting stuff.

Nothing much was exciting for the day.

Except for the guy at customs. His name was Girish. Mother Fucka!





Day One

Arrived at Narita Airport at about 10am. Took one of the trains into Ikebukuro. Long journey. Slept for a bit of the ride. I did look at the scenery for the first 15 minutes til I got bored. OMG. All the boxy JDM cars. Why can't we get the bB in Australia?

Lunch
We ate in some tiny little pokey restaurant that had a name written in jap... and had a smiley face. Ordinary food, but the way the place was designed was... interesting. Except there are plenty of other places that are just like it.

Cars
Nothing much noteworthy. Mostly new cars. A lot of them tall narrow boxy cars. Lancer coupes are actually Mirages here. Toyotas have a different logo. And there was an ordinary looking sedan which had the letters SKYLINE on it... that can't be right.
Then there's the usual pimped out body kitted, lowered, bling bling rims on... VANS! And bB type boxy cars. I love those boxy cars... they're just so... boxy... and... probably not fun to drive.

Food
I think I have found the fabled melon bread! I'm a bit full now, so I'll find out tomorrow. Bread dough and cookie dough combined into one l33t bread... mmmm....