The last one.

Well, I'm back in Canada now - but I need to wrap up the blog by updating the last few days I spent in Tokyo.

After Beppu I headed up to Himeji and spent the afternoon exploring Himeji castle, as well as the covered shopping street leading up to it. I was raining and overcast, but I did manage to get a few nice pictures. I caught the train the rest of the way up to Tokyo and spent the night in the "Green Plaza Shinjuku Capsule" hotel - it was fun finding the place, Shinjuku is pretty much the busiest place in Tokyo. I was tired, but the next day I got up early and caught the train to Nasushiobara where I met my friend Makoto.
He and his wife met me at the train station with their little daughter, who we dropped off at his brothers place out in the suburbs of the town. We stayed there for a while and I met his family, then we left for a "hobby farm". The farm was set up somewhat like a market, but it also had some rides and things to look at. We had lunch at an Italian restaurant nearby after wandering around for a while. Our next stop was Sesshoseki, "The Killing Stone". Essentially it is a valley with hydrogen sulfide gas leaking out everywhere, so it (and the surrounding town) smells like farts all the time. The legend is that the nine tailed fox demon who had been terrorizing China and Korea finally came to Japan, and was sealed here in a giant stone, which was then shattered by a monk. The place was very surreal, a valley with volcanic rocks and a stench of death. There was a shrine on the hill overlooking the valley, incidentally it was the same shrine where Makotos sister was married. We walked down the stairs from the shrine and took a foot bath in a small hot spring (the water was very hot). It was getting later in the day so we drove back into town and went for supper at a sushi train restaurant - first time for me, a nice way to end the day. They dropped me off at the station and I made my way to my hostel back in Tokyo.

The next day I went down to Sensoji to buy souvenirs then back to Akihabara again, spent pretty much all day wandering through shops and looking at all the cool stuff there. I found a store that sold airsoft guns and equipment... they had everything... pistols, rifles, machine guns- big and small. I bought a face mask and called it a day. I woke up early the next morning to finish my shopping down in Akiba, but I failed to plan my trip to the airport properly... so I started heading back to my hostel at 3:00, left at 4:00 - got to the airport at 6:45... my plane took off at 7:00, without me. I panicked a bit, called my parents and they arranged for me to fly out on the 10th, instead of the 7th. I got myself back together and booked a cheap hotel for the next few days then hopped on a train to it. I got off at the JR Koiwa station, wandered around for 10 minutes then went back to the station and asked a police man where the hotel was. It was at the Keisei (another rail company) station, not the JR station. He flagged down a cab for me and sent me on my way - took about 5 minutes to get to the right place, not a big deal in the end. I slept in late the next day and went down to Akiba again, this time I actually bought some stuff at the airsoft shop ("Aso bit city - hobby" if you want to know). I got a combat suit, a different face mask, a sling for my M4 and some Bolle airsoft goggles. I went back to my hotel and ordered some pizza - which was an adventure in itself... I got what I ordered but it was interesting trying to order in Japanese without being able to gesture or point at pictures.
The next morning I hopped the subway down to Shinjuku and went up the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building to the observation deck on the 54th floor. It is the tallest sky scraper in Tokyo - quite a sight. Afterwards I went down to Roppongi and visited Roppongi Hills - a hyper-modern district in tokyo, all brand new. I went up the Roppongi hills tower to visit the Mori art museum, the current exhibition was "The Kaleidoscopic Eye". The collection was a bunch of modern avaunt guarde pieces... the majority of which were very though provoking. I got some good photos of the Tokyo Tower from the sky deck on top of Roppongi hills, then headed back to my hotel. The next morning I had one last trip down to Akiba, I got the 8th "Yotsuba" book then headed to the airport around 2:30, got there at 4:00.
The flight back seemed very short, I watched "Yes Man" and "Marley and Me", slept a bit, listened to music. Transfered in Vancover, had some "lunch" at Whitespot in the airport then got on the plane back to Winnipeg.

I am happy to be back, but I am missing Japan. I'm having an "AWESOME" time adjusting back to the timezone here, and am glad that I can have breakfast cereal/pancakes whenever I want (strange, but true). It's going to be a few days before I can normalize, but I don't think it'll be too bad.

Well thats it for now - hopefully I can go back again!

Pictures from the last few days!

So I went to Mt. Aso today - pretty much the biggest volcano in japan. Its not so active anymore, but there was a steaming pond at the top (complete with dangerous SO2 gas). I started off at the town below, took a bus to the top area, rode a cable car to the summit and walked around for a while. Then I took the cable car back down and walked a few kilo's to the Mt. Aso Volcano museum, which was also kinda interesting (but old..). Then I took the bus back down the mountain, had some supper at a cafe and caught the train back to Beppu. I'm leaving for Himeji/Tokyo tomorrow, the last few days should be fun.

Here are a few videos that I took at the top of Mt. Aso.

Kanazawa, Takayama and Shirakawa go

Oh wow, long time with no posts. Well instead of going to Fukuoka we went up to Kanazawa and saw the gardens up there. We visited Kanazawa Castle and Kenroken Garden on the first day, but then Mike had to head back to Tokyo because his JR pass was about to expire. I spent the next day in Kanazawa, saw the samurai district then headed to Takayama the next morning. Takayama is in the Gifu prefecture, pretty much central japan - in the mountains. It was very beautiful, water/streams everywhere and lots of old buildings. Takayama has a very nice "Old town", so I wandered through there for a while, then went to figure out the bus schedual and lodging info for Shirakawa go, my next stop. I left Takayama in the morning, and arrived in Shirakawa go around noon. The town is a village of old farm houses "Gassho Zuriki", steep grass thatched roofs. I walked to the observation point after checking in, then wandered around until about 5, then went back for supper. We had a very traditional japanese dinner, then I went to the local Onsen for a soak. In the morning we had a japanese style breakfast, then caught the bus back to Takayama and the train to Nagoya. I didn't do much in Nagoya, just went to an internet cafe to figure out lodging again and then checked in at a business hotel. I went to the Outback steakhouse for dinner... very good, very not japanese. I got up at 9 and caught the train to Beppu - a hotspring town in Kyushu (island south of the main island, Honshu). I'm staying at a youth hostel here - plan to go see if I can see a volcano tomorrow (the whole island is riddled with them).

Anyway - pictures from the last few days are Here, here and here