Week 3 - Japan

typical trains in Kyushu (the region we are now in)

Picture of Hiroshima from the top of the beer garden

Fukuoka beer garden

Ohayo gozaimas from Fukuoka Japan!

So this is our last post from Japan, we are leaving today and flying to Busan Korea the country most famous for eating man`s best friend!

The last post I mentioned something about beer gardens... Yes, we have discovered beer gardens! So here is what we have been doing the past week...

Tuesday -BEER GARDENS - Hiroshima, one of the coolest places in Japan. Being made up of islands, it has many beautiful canals and water passages. Hiroshima; a name which congeurs thoughts of its horrific past is now an incredible place to visit. Notably Miyajima an island nearby which is fantastic for hiking, we spent the day here on Tuesday hiking and taking in the scenery, like Nara it has deer which can be hand fed, along with lots of lizards, big bugs and snakes - we didn't try feeding any of the later. That night was the best part of Hiroshima, its nightlife. We were just finding out about beer gardens - having wondered why Japan does not have a very exciting bar scene - its all about the beer gardens - this is where the Japanese go after work to have fun! They are on top of shopping malls so not too easy to spot unless someone tells you. The place we chose had the following; all you can eat (with a little grill we rented for the top of our table called a Baikan) - they had loads of great cooked food and also lots of meat (beef, pork, lamb) along with prawns you can grill - on top of this was all you can drink BEER and SAKI! Marina and I made sure we drank the charge of the night in beer - then its kind of like free food. To get in is about 3000Yen each (30 bucks) - what a bargain! This was open until about 10pm so a good 3 and a half hours! We then went partying with some expat students we met.

Wednesday - Nagasaki - Starting with a hangover, we wanted to see more about the nuclear attacks in Japan so we made our way to Nagasaki. Very quickly we saw that this was different to Hiroshima in many ways. Mainly it was not as beautiful and charming. The city was well worth visiting except we were finally seeing our first rain in Japan - so with umbrellas from the hotel we ventured out for a Ramen dinner.

Thursday - Kajira - In the morning we went to the Nagasaki suburb of Urakami visiting the epicentre of the nuclear bomb and learning more about the destruction it caused. Both bombs essentially destroyed both cities, although roughly half of the people of the cities survived, however many died shortly there after from the radiation. We then made our way to the city of Kumamoto to see its beautiful castle. Compared to the European castles I have seen, the Japanese are seriously fortified. Once you see one of the major ones, you wonder how an attack could be successful. During the evening we tried Kajira! I`ll give you a hint what this is... You can only legally buy it in Norway, Iceland or Japan... Yes we ate Shamoo, but to make it worse, this was not even cooked whale, it was raw sushimi, and one appetiser was made of its tongue. I promise you this is only the beginning of the "gross" food :D

Friday - We arrived in our final Japanese location - Fukuoka. The evening was dedicated to yet another beer garden - this one wasn't nearly as good as Hiroshima and they were strict about only being there for 2 hours so we made our way off.

Saturday - BEACH PARTY- This day was dedicated to the beach and we made our way to the island of Nokonoshima which is just outside of Fukuoka. This place was a jackpot as it is where the Japanese of Fukuoka go on the weekend to enjoy the beach and party. We were only there about 15 minutes when we were invited over a group of guys who were in the Japanese Army! We spent most of the day getting pushed saki, good beer, and the food they grilled. Whilst they were partying hard they were mostly lightweights and a lot were a sleep by 2pm on the beach. The others did exactly as guys do, either bury them in the sand or make them look silly. One thing you may find interesting; they were asking me what I eat for lunch in America and being unsure what they meant by this - they started saying bread, bread, bread?? With army guys, you never know if its a joke, but this one was for real, when I said I often eat a sandwich for lunch they were so impressed, bread is not very common here as you can imagine.

And today we are leaving this fine country, having enjoyed it far more than we ever imagined. Japan is one of the safest, cleanest, friendliest, most advanced countries of the world. If only the leaders from the West can take note at Japanese transport, food, and cleanliness of the cities. I cannot believe that Japan is not a top destination on everyone`s agenda. They place is so easy to travel to without knowing Japanese and I can`t imagine how anyone would go home disappointed. Just for a quick ranking of the cities we have liked - Tokyo is the undisputed number 1; followed by Hiroshima in 2nd and Kobe in 3rd.

Siyanara and speak to you in Korea (south Korea if anyone is wondering) :D

Dan and Marina

Week 2 - Japan

Kanichiwa people!

So we have finished week two and it was action packed!!! But first just a few of our thought about Japan and the Japanese;

crime - Most of you reading this will have grown up in western society and know the feeling when you realise you have walked away from a table where your cell/mobile phone is sitting or bag was at.... Ok, you may not believe this, but the Japanese (at least the ones in Japan) do not have this problem. Japan is probably the safest major country in the world! People on a regular basis leave their belongings without worry - I think this is a perfect example of a very honest society and culture of people.

Weather - We have been very lucky and unlucky; I mean we have escaped the rainy season by a few days when we first arrived and have only had one hour of rain the entire trip. However, the weather has been a constant 35 - 40 degrees Celsius (approx 95-102F) every day. And those who are reading from St Louis, you know humidity - this is like bad St. Louis humidity on the hottest day of the summer - every day!!

Natural Disasters - thankfully this topic is not a summary of any issues we have had, but about 4 days ago when we were in Osaka there was a 5.4 earthquake. Japan is sit right on the ring of fire and the earthquake belt - just a little of a shake and they do want these because if they do not have this for some months or a year they are concerned about a big one building up. Just 15 years ago about 7,000 people died in the earthquake in Kobe.

So a bit about our adventures so far... and there have been a lot of cool things happening!!

Tuesday - Fugo (puffer fish) - You are reading this so you will know we survived our fight or dinner with this famed fish of death. We were in Osaka the Fugo capital and had a few types. The sushimi (raw) type of Fugo was the best. And you who have seen pictures or in the fish in real life, it is not big like tuna. Its about the size of an American football. So the sushimi was quite small. It was a bit rubbery, but good and unlike any fish we had eaten. We also had fugo cooked on the table in front of us. Very nice again; however there was not a lot of meet as we are used to with salmon. AND most importantly, we survived!!!

Wednesday - KOBE Beef! We arrived in Kobe at about 0830 and made our way to Himeji castle very amazing indeed, but not quite as nice as our meal that night. We had a nice bottle of an Australian Red and had our Kobe beef cooked in front of us (tapenyaki style) along with some good veggies and starters. Marina had not tried Kobe beef so this was a real treat for her. And especially for some soon to be hardened backpackers who are just not quite used to being away from the good life.

Thursday - NARA. This place is essentially a small town renowned for their busshist The temples were all very nice and I could tell you all about these, or at least something I`ve retained, but the most interesting thing I think you will want to hear about is the dear. So Nara`s main park area has probably 1000 wild deer which are all very comfortable with people and will come up and eat out of your hand. They are similar to dogs in the fact that you can pet them, feed them, and possibly pick up the small ones, however I wouldn`t recommend that!

Friday - Geisha..... so, you need to research this a bit.. geisha`s are like seeing a A list celeb meaning seeing brat pitt or cameron diez.... these are like the elite and very cautious girls who are for entertainment but not sex. they pretty much spend their time entertaining oligarchs - so its like a one a once in a life time situation to see one as they are very secretive. I can`t still believe it but Marina found one - she ran like a tiger when she saw us take out the camera and being 1900 in Gion area while being protected by uber business men`s bodyguards, she was probably the real thing.

Saturday - Being a geisha, so this is funny, but not crazy. Marina and I went to a shop and she dressed as a geisha; she looked very hot!

Sunday - The was a fun day - we started with and Onsen in Kinosaki - which is in Western Honsho. This is a posh spa town and the onsen (spa) and the main highlight was a room which was called the m1 eat locker and was -1 degrees C (30 degrees F). such a nice relief after the oppressive heat! That night we went to a place called Moroyose - big mistake, it had a great beach, but it was such small town we could not even get dinner being that everything was closed. So dinner was a few cans of Asahi, not so bad ;D

Monday - Sand dunes........probably not believable, but its like the desert, very strange for Japan, and the heat was blistering.. check out the pic.

So we are now in Hiroshima and will have some cool stories coming soon... wait to hear of tbeer gardens!!!!!!!!

Week 1 - Japan

Tokyo is the London of the East - an absolutely perfect city and incredibly easy for foreigners. I heard from people that Japan would be difficult and hard to get by on w/o speaking Japanese - hahahahahaha.....Most Japanese we have met speak a bit of English - they are required to take this in school for about 7 years. The metro is the best of Ive seen; for example, incredible cold air conditioning...imagine this you who live in London, looking forward to getting on the tube to cool off; next its all simple and colour coded with numbers made for someone with any language to understand and the names are all written and announced in English....then the Japanese are super people; any where you need help its around; on top of this the average person will go out of his/her way to show you where you are going. I have seemed to forget that in the east, westerners are well looked after.

Food - WOW!! Japanese food is far better than I expected. Ive had the noodles, sushi, and sashimi... well that's just the tip of the iceberg. One great simple lunch time dish is Raman noodles; you may be thinking, this is what I ate at collage/uni and it would be like 50 cents, what kind of budget is dan and marina on.... This raman is cheap, not that cheap and it is purchased outside the restaurant through a vending machine and then you bring the receipt inside. Several minutes later you receive a delicious bowl of the best asian noodles you will have ever eaten with fresh pork/fish, etc. Japanese raman is not in the same league as the western type - kind of like comparing orange kool-aid to freshly squeezed orange juice.

Lots of you were asking if we would take the bullet trains. These are pretty cool, firstly they are very simple to use, extremely spacious (more than 3 feet in front of your chair), and as you know, they are fast. \so while going about 100mph (160kph), you all of the sudden hear this noise, kind of like the sound of Michael J fox`s hoverboard in Back to the Future. Then the train just speaks up to about 160-180mph.

So what have we been doing...

In Tokyo on Wednesday we had a pretty cool time out with Takeshi from MessageLabs and sampled some excellent food with lots of beers.

On Thursday we pulled an all nighter and bar hopped seeing some very interesting characters. The Japanese standing bar was insane - this is literally a bar where you can`t use chairs. At about 3am we headed over to the Tsuiji fish auction. This is the world`s largest tuna auction and some fish go for 10,000`s of thousands of dollars.

Friday was dedicated to Japanese baseball - Marina and I went to see the Tokyo Swallows take on the Osaka Tigers. The first and most important thing to know about Japanese baseball si the beer. Not the type or quality, its all good - mainly Asahi, Sapporo and Kirin but its who is serving the beer. I`m still lucky to be married as there was a bit of rubber necking. what I mean is the girls who serve the beer are all cute Japanese girls in essentially cheerleading outfits. They come by with a keg of beer on their backs and you never wait more than 30 seconds to get one. The game was very cool; a bit like triple A (one below the majors) and the atmosphere was phenomenal - the opposing fans have the whole 3rd base side of the stadium and fans can only cheer when their team is batting - then its a bit like mardi gras in a sense of the musical instruments and cheering. So in the 9th inning it happened... a foul ball was hit over my head. I rushed out to the stairs as these things have a tendency to follow gravity and it bounced right to me. With one grab I had the best souvenir from the night!!!

Sunday was for FUJI - Mount Fuji that is, Japan`s tallest mountain (approx 3800 meters or 10,000 feet). We had an early start about 6am and eventually made it to the fifth station by about 8:30 by bus. The actual climb up to the top from there was a brutal one. I was joking before this as there were old ladies and young children so it would be a breeze - I was wrong!

This was seriously tough and very dangerous - not like you would fall off and die,but more like a broken ankle, twisted knee, or falling and hitting your head, arm, etc.... we were on a bit of a tight schedule so we were hell bent for leather up the mountain. Now I have some serious respect for the old ladies doing this. Marina met a 77 year old Japanese lady. I also have a lot of respect for Marina who was like Speedy Gonzalez. We went up faster than about 99.5% of the people - about 4 hours. At the top it was amazing and knowing we had to catch the 520pm bus, we tore down the mountain with not so great of agility. Or down time was 2 hours and 45 min which is also about 99.5% faster than the others. The old ladies tried to keep up, but just could`nt ;D

Monday (today) was for Sumo! The bus we needed to catch was to Nagoya where the grand sumo championship is being held. Now I wasn`t sure what to expect, but this was wicked. We must have seen about 75 matches with the last 15 being the professional matches. To learn about the traditions and history of sumo was fascinating. For example, the dance they do before wresting is for various reason; show the hands to prove no weapons are being held, clap the hands on the leg to ward off evil spirits and was surprising to see quite a few europeans competing. I asked if there were any English and the Japanese people laughed at me.. sorry lads.

So this could very well be our last post.......

Tomorrow we will be trying Fugu. To you non-Japanese speakers, this is pufferfish....so fingers crossed they cook this right.

Now we are in Osaka and are planning on seeing Kobe, Nara, Kyoto, and a few small towns over the next week, speak to you then.

Siyanara!

Dan and Marina