Life is What YOU Make of it!!!

The rest of the photos can be found here: 2007 Japan Photo 

Oke in Osaka

I got to Osaka a day early with Mark and his roommate. Both of them were leaving out of Osaka the next day to fly back to Korea. Once off the subway and up to natural ground in I felt at ease there and knew that I was going to have a good 6 days there. I wasn’t able to get to my hostel until the next day so I booked a hotel near Mark and his roommate hotel and then went out on the town. We went to a couple of places around town and were amazed with the easiness of the subway system. Osaka is a smaller Tokyo, but had its own dank that made it unique. That day we went to a spot that was one of the Street Fighter Stage, the Floating Garden, the electronic district and Dotombori to catch some food and beat Mark one more time in Initial D racing game. When I got to my hotel I didn’t realize how small it was; I couldn’t take a proper bath in the shower, washing my face was difficult, a 2.5 feet hallway was ridiculous, and my bed was small as shit, but it worked for the night and was grateful for amount of good rest I got that night.

The Next Day

Throughout my trip I thought for the most part that I would be on my own exploring Japan and socializing with the locals. But that simply wasn’t truly the case, everywhere I have gone I have met somebody and enjoyed their company. Whenever I tell people that I went alone to Japan they are amazed, but after experiencing it and looking back at my photos that isn’t the case at all and would think of me going alone to another land as me vesting a place with friends unexpectedly and doing random things in a place we don’t know much about.

After seeing Mark and his roommate off I was on my own and found my hostel with some difficulty. I thought the area I was staying in was a bad part of town because of the attendants at the other hotel telling me so, but I felt safe where I was and really didn’t see what they were talking about. I also realize that different people preserve situations differently and there is an even bigger difference in understanding of people from different cultures.

When I entered my hostel I was amazed with the cozy space and welcoming atmosphere that it presented. I was also greeted with the owner of the hostel, which was a Black Brazilian, named Oliver. We started to chat about the city, my plans for the future, what brought myself to Japan, and what he found so interesting to still be there after 7 years. I then went out on the town to do some sightseeing and some relaxation of the trip up until that point. When I got back to the hostel I was planning my next day until I saw some Australians chatting it up about something and I then joined the conversation. After while some other people join the conversation and we started to talk about our trips and so on. I believe later that night I went with the Australian guys (John and Procapus) to a club and had a pretty good time with the locals dancing to mainly hip hop. All I can say is damn, the Japanese know how to dance to our music and are crazy with perfecting it also, I was happy to see everyone having a good time and the woman feeling me (I danced with a couple of them). The club didn’t let out until 5:30 a.m. in the morning and by the time we got outside the sun was up and made our way to McDonalds for breakfast. I didn’t get a hangover because our hostel was about a 3 mile walk and started our day at around 11 a.m.

Universal Studios- We Were the Attraction

I decided to follow the Australians to Universal Studios for the day. I have never been to any Universal Studios and it seemed like the Australians have been to all of them. When we first walked in we saw a performance show of a lady dragging a monkey around doing tricks. If this show was done in the States she would have been taken to jail, she was dragging this monkey by the leash and I just kept laughing at the way she was man handling the monkey.

Most of the rides at Universal Studios were kiddy rides, but still very fun, the first ride was quite fun because I haven’t been to an amazement park in awhile and the steep deeps, crazy turns, and loop got me remembering of old times. One thing that I wish we would have done was to get the special pass that would allow us to skip a lot of people in line because we waited awhile in each of the rides/attractions that we participated in. Once riding a couple of rides we went to eat lunch at an American style diner and got some of the best pizza I have ever tasted, sausage and egg. Throughout the day we met some interesting characters; a lady worker that yelled, ”ARIGATO GOZAIMASU”, every second with a high pitch voice, it was quite entertaining; and another lady worker nodding her head frantically as we entered the ride. However, the biggest attraction of the whole trip was us, everyone was staring at us, people curious and a few took a photo also, some waved at us as we rode the rides, and girls we smiling at us while holding there boyfriend’s hand. The night was a great night of enjoying each other company and also spending time with the Japanese while they were on their holiday. It was nice for a change for the locals and people of Japan to be like tourist and enjoy their homeland in a relax-ful manner and getting away from routine.

Day 3 at the Club…Reggae Night

That same night we decided to go to the club again and this time it was Reggae night. We got there around 12 and the club was completely empty and we asked the people at the door why there were no people and they said people usually come around 3 a.m. So we stayed and had fun dancing with each other and mingled some with the locals. Once 3 came around the club was really packed, some of the people we came with left, but the locals really came there to have a good time. During the end of the night I just stepped back and watched the locals do what they do and it was crazy seeing them change up the dance style depending on the song, it was really something to see and just made me realize that if you really want to learn something you will do it in a way that you will want to become a master at.

Himeji and Kobe…

The night before we went out to the club again and got up late and myself and the British guys decided to go to Himeji and Kobe for the day. We woke up late “again”, but the trip was still enjoyable, we took a JR train out to Himeji first and l loved looking at the country side during the day. Once off of the train we stepped onto the streets of Himeji and within minutes were in front of the oldest castle in Japan. It was a site to see and was really amazed of not only the castle itself, but also the surroundings and how it was used during war time. Charlie, Rich, and myself enjoyed going through every part of the castle, taking pictures and some video shots, Charlie working on his Japanese with the locals, reading the interesting signs that were translated in English and realizing that the Japanese have a different way of expressing themselves through words and emotions. We didn’t know that we were going to stay at Himeji that long, but it was well worth it because of the things you can do there. Inside of the castle there were rooms everywhere and also hidden ones that would have been a perfect spot of hide and go seek. Once at the top of the castle you can look out and see the surroundings of the castle and also the beautiful city of Himeji. We quickly made our way through the garden, but only stayed for about 10 mins and made our way to Kobe.

Kobe…Beef…”The Pound is Strong”

I really wanted to go to Kobe, Japan because of the beef. I have heard so many things about the beef and really wanted to try it out myself. Charlie and Rich really didn’t want to go there, but went along anyways. It was getting dark outside so we decided not to do the mountain pass lift ride and went to the 10^th tallest building of Kobe, viewed and took some pictures of what we could see, and man was it nice during sunset. Whenever I get a chance I will have to spend some days at Kobe to really enjoy the city, however, we were there for one thing and that was Kobe Beef. I was getting a little discourage and the guys kept the excitement going and Rich with his savviness figuring out maps found the place. This was really the only time I used my lonely planet and it came through during this time. I am not saying that the lonely planet was useless, but I rather ask the locals and observe with my eyes what places were good to go to and besides it is more fun to get lost in find a great or shitty place then rely on a book for all my travel needs.

The Steakhouse

When we entered the steakhouse I was amazed with the limit space, but was intriguing with the chefs, only 3. We sit down and ask for a menu and our jaws dropped because of the price. The expensive dinner with more amount of meat cost I believe 8400 yen (about 70 bucks) and the cheaper dinner plate was around 6400 yen (about 55 bucks). We closed our eyes and went for the cheaper plate and had our own beers. It was something of amazement; they cooked our beef with a couple of sides- french fries, green beans, and onions in front of us. Once the dinner plates came out I was the first one to take a bite and my mouth dropped with the flavor and tenderness of the meat and wanted more with the compliments of the other foods of the dinner plate. Every single drop of the beef was mouth watering and simply couldn’t get enough. Charlie and Rich were also enjoying the best meal of their lives and poked fun of me because I finished my plate first and was wanting more.

“The Pound is Strong”…

Well after finishing my food watching two British guys laugh in my face due to the amount of food that they had left on their plate I had two options. 1) Wait until they finish and leave tasting the best meal of my life or 2) Get another plate of delicious Kobe beef. I wasn’t to sure if the guys were up for another plate and ordered another plate for myself. They looked at each other and were wondering to get another plate as I did, I simply told them, “The Pound is strong” and won’t know when they’re going to enjoy a meal like this for some time. So we ate another plate together, I bought one of Charlie’s piece of beef for 1000 yen because I finished my food first again, we also took more pictures and video of the place and took pictures with the chefs. We went back in style to Osaka with our aprons on and got funny looks from the Japanese people and we enjoyed every bit of it.

Karaoke Time

When finally back in Osaka we told the hostel people of our adventures in Himeji and Kobe and decided to go do Karaoke. I didn’t want to participate in the singing, but the laughing and taking photos of everyone are what I wanted to do, but I did end up singing a couple of songs with the help of beer and friends encouraging me on. We ended up karaoking for 3 hours and once again went to McDonalds for breakfast (fries and burgers). All and all the night topped off a day that was truly one to remember as of all the days I was in Japan. Every day I learned something and that day I learned that as long as you have a couple of on your side it didn’t matter what you did, because the companionship, laughter, and randomness was all that was needed to have a good time. We could have easily spent a whole day in the hostel just goofing around watching tv and movies and would have enjoyed ourselves, but experiencing the moment with also the locals really gives a person a good understanding of the place being visited.

Electronics and Tokyo…

Well this was my last day in Osaka and pretty much bummed around and then went to the electronic district to get a Nintendo DS, some video games, and looked around various stores in the area. I didn’t want to leave, but had to catch the JR back to Tokyo to get on the plan back to the States. When I got back to Tokyo I arrived at the hostel late and wasn’t able to get in so I went to an eatery and then to the internet café. I did come to the realization that my trip was going to be over less than 24 hours and will be in a land that I am so familiar with, but my eyes were changed so much because of the 2 weeks spent in Japan. The next day I went to the hostel I couldn’t get into the night before and asked them what I could do for the next 5 hours. They told me the harbor and headed out that way for my last site-seeing/adventure trip in Japan for some time. The harbor was cool because of the different views I got of that part of the city and I took more time to reflect on my trip and totally understood that I am not the same person that I was when I arrived and will continue to grow as a real man and human being because of the Japan. I fully realize that I can enjoy myself with having so little possessions and really know what truly makes me happy in life.

A Day and Night on the Town

After sleeping in the comfortable capsule hotel the guys and myself went around Asakusa, Tokyo looking at various markets and finally ate at a small place that the lady kept on saying Hai. She said it at least 20 times before we were able to sit down, but nonetheless the food was pretty good. We then proceeded to go to Shinjuku to check out the goth kids and do some shopping. The place was really packed with tons of people and there were people dressed with goth clothing all over the place and actually had quite a few shops that specialized in goth clothing. I bought a couple of accessories, but was really shocked with most of the clothing and apparels being westernized. At the time it was raining and was the first time I heard a Japanese thunder and damn did it scare the shit out of me, the sound was like a defiant striking sound with a slight echo. It is hard to explain but you know for sure that you were not in the states. The highlight of the day was walking in the area of Shinjuku, the time square time of place. There were lights, large tv screens, and tons of people everywhere. I loved when the lights changed green and everybody in the area from all sides of the circle crossed the street. You had to be there to get a feel of the shear excitement it was to cross “The Street” of Japan; you can get a good idea of the excitement it is by watching Tokyo Drift. My hostel buddy and myself continued to walk the streets around the area doing some window shopping and looking around finding some interesting things. We eventually stopped at this local restaurant that was serving all you can drink for 1800 yen (about 15 bucks) for 3 hours. We quickly jumped on the opportunity and drank all that we could and ate appetizers. They had the best chop sticks I have ever used and kindly asked them if I can have them. We also took various pictures of the employees and talked about randomness and about the importance of traveling. Getting back to the hostel was an adventure within itself and I quickly passed out once there.

Fishy Fishy…

Monday was a laid back day. I woke up early at around 5 a.m. to go to the fish market with a couple of friends from the hostel. I don’t know how to really describe it, but it was madness everywhere and all of the people working were in harmony with it. There were small bed vehicles moving in and out of traffic while tourist and locals were walking and being fascinated with the selection of all the types of sea food. We eventually tried to find a place to eat breakfast but all of the good spots were backed up with people standing in line.

Randomness Around Town

I rested throughout the morning and I convinced a couple of people to go to Tokyo Zoo. The trip down there took no time, but the rain was still out and about and almost messed up our day, but we eventually got to the zoo’s entrance to find out that it was closed on Monday. This is when the trip got pretty random; we rode the subway to various places none of us have been and walked around not caring what we got ourselves into. We ended up at a restaurant building that had at least 30 floors and looked at the city from the top and viewed the stores at the bottom of the building, next we went to the Tokyo Tower to also view the city from above and then went back to the hostel afterwards. I didn’t know how BIG Tokyo really was until I got to see it from a tall building, it really overwhelmed me with the amount of space they had and the things they can cram into it. However, I did enjoy looking at the city at different sides of the structures that I was in because Tokyo did present uniqueness with different buildings, water and landmarks, cemeteries in between buildings, tennis courts on top of buildings, ferris wheels, harbor, and so on. Words cannot explain how much fun I had just doing things with no mission to plan and it showed me that we as humans are not designed to have everything figured out. We may think we know what we want to do for our lives, but a person can get a better understanding of what they want to do when doing things with no direction.

It’s All About the Adventures of Honda

The night before I took a nap and was wired for the rest of the night so I decided to take my trip to the Honda Museum and Twin Ring Race Track in Motegi, Japan, about 2.5 hours away from Japan. I will have a separate post about this trip because it truly provided so much direction of what I ultimately want to do for my life and I was a kid again the whole day, so stay tuned. That night I ended up staying at an internet café, so I was able to catch up on email and just bummed around for a couple of hours and get a good night sleep. The café had great liquid selection ranging from cold and hot coffee to fruit drinks of all different flavors and there was one vending machine you had to pay for in order to get food, but it was crazy putting a couple of coins in and waiting a couple of seconds for your food to heat up.

Travel Time…Kyoto

The next day was time to go to another place, I could have easily spent the whole 2 weeks in Tokyo and still wouldn’t have seen everything, but that just gives me an excuse to come back. So I took the bullet train to Kyoto for 3 days, I had a great time looking out of the window observing the country side and reading a great book called, Never Eat Alone. Once getting to Kyoto I was lost for at least an hour trying to find the hostel (very shitty directions). I took a nap and headed out to check out the town. If you want to see temples all you have to do is go to Kyoto and you will see them everywhere; on a cliff, near the park, in the middle of the city (scary as hell if walking alone on a pitch dark night), and so on. I would have loved to see what Kyoto looked like back in the day where there were no modern buildings, cars, and subway systems in the way. After going to my first temple I then proceeded to go to another temple and loved taking pictures during the time of day that I was there. As I was walking a guy with a warm smile said hello to me and we introduced ourselves to each other and started taking pictures of temples, scenery, and also the Geisha district. His name was Mark Soni, who is from Maryland and he was exploring Japan as I was. We talked about the reasons why we were in Japan, school, sports, God, had a mega mac, girls, the locals, about our friends, and whatever came to mind. Whenever you travel you never really know who you are going to meet and ironically I don’t think we would have met if we were in the states being so close, it took to strangers that had an interest of a place and just stop all the bullshit and take that leap of faith and find out about that place. And that was the same case with a lot of the foreigners I met and that are what I believe what kept most of us comfortable around each other. I ended up going back to my hostel and said that we were going to meet up the next day to do some more sites seeing. This never happened because I got lost that night trying to find my way back to the hostel, finally getting on the bus…the bus stopping because it was the last stop…me telling myself wtf… me walking at least 5 miles back to the hostel…a temple shooting straight into the air…me getting scared because of the temple and bums sleeping in the street…me finally getting to my hostel walking up steep as can be stairs to lay in my thin mattress and pillow filled with rice or rocks…just awful, but now I can laugh about it.

Day 2- Exploring Kyoto Alone

The following day I woke up late and was suppose to meet up with Mark, but that didn’t happen, I was too tired and missed him and his roommate at their hotel. So I walked around looking at stuff I hadn’t before and went to a pachinko bar to play slots and walked around town taking pictures of scenery and more temples. One of my gracious parts of the trip was when I saw 2 Japanese girls around the age of 10 smiling and waving at me, so I smiled and waved back. I believe at the time I was taking pictures of the scenery and crossed over to take pictures of the other side when I noticed another set of 3 Japanese girls also waving and smiling at me. All of them were friends and continued to wave at me, so I couldn’t pass up a moment to ask them to stand together to take a photo. A good day I tell ya, people are interesting and curious at the same time and until you get them in that comfortable state the expression on their face, the way they move their body, the sudden pause in their mouth will tell you what that person is truly feeling that words cannot describe.

Day Three in Kyoto………and Nara

I decided to wake up early this day to see if I could catch up with Mark and his roommate and do some early site seeing. I wanted to go to Kobe for half the day and enjoy the night in Kyoto one last time, but that didn’t happen. I ended meeting up with Mark and his roommate and we decided to go to Nara, because it was a little bit closer and Kobe went through Osaka which was my next destination and also that was where Mark and his roommate was flying out of. Nara isn’t big at all. I think you can see a very good part of Nara on bike in a couple of hours, but it is so relax-ful there you can easily spend a couple of days (I mean a full day) there. Once you get off the subway you walk through the shopping center and go into a park that is filled with deer, everywhere is deer, and they are so friendly, but will chase you if you have food. There is one deer that everyone knows which is a blind baby deer that just stands there; he/she is a really cool ass deer. As we walked through the park we approach a huge temple and it housed the 3^rd largest Buddha in the world. I think the temple was the first temple made of wood, I am not sure, but it was the oldest of something. The Buddha was crazy big and the design of it was very descriptive, I would only imagine how much bigger the other two Buddha carvings are. We headed back to Kyoto for the night and was raining some, but the night was great just walking around, enjoying the place, not taking a photo, and enjoying life.

From having beer with my first local, being less than 300 meters from my hostel and couldn’t find it if my life depended on it, toilets everywhere, dancing with a young girl, getting looks from nearly everyone, stopping at almost every vending machine, getting overwhelmed from all the temples, walking atleast 6 miles per day, eating the best beef of my life, to arm wrestling with a clothing owner, and realizing that I the best 2 weeks of my life was ending in a couple of hours we some, but not all of the great memories of a place that I dreamed of exploring for a long time.

Why Nippon?

Well I don’t know when, where, and why my fascination for Japan came from, but it was there and now had all the power, money, and determination to get myself there for atleast 2 weeks. I went ahead in booked my flight in April, looked for podcast relating to Japan, bought a guidebook that came in handy once during the trip, applied for my passport that almost became a nightmare, and continued to dream. I also asked a couple of people that seemed like they would be interested, the responses I got were, “We should plan to go next year”, “That time of the year won’t work for me”, “That is alot of money”, or whatever else. None of the people I asked ended up going and were surprised that I actually booked everything.

Day 1-Tokyo… Getting lost and drunk

It was weird being up 24 hrs and chasing sunlight for that 11 hrs on the plane to Narita and not being able to go to sleep because of the excitement. Once I got off the plan I boarded the train to Tokyo and a couple of minutes later I was greeted with my first Japanese person. I believe his name was Mi-tei-ha-tei, something like, but he was laughing at me for setting in the wrong setting area and in his seat. He left and came back and continued to make fun of me so I proceeded to get up and he pushed me back into the seat and insisted that I stay there. We got to chatting, him working on his English and me working on my Japanese and managed fine. He really surprised me with a beer and some snacks and we continued to talk to each other. Once I finally got on the subway it became difficult to understand what was going on, but managed and took well over an hour to find my hostel.

I met some guys at the hostel and they were going out to the club district called Roroppongi. We went to a couple of bars/clubs, got really drunk, at late night food, and slept outside until 5 a.m. to wait for the subway to start running.

The Festival…

Since sleeping late a couple of guys and myself decided to check out the Asakusa firework festival. It was nearly 8 hrs before the beginning of the festival so we booked our capsule hotel and went sightseeing around the area, which Sensoji Temple was in the area. We found a spot near the back and started putting our cardboard and backpacks to mark are territory. There was one Japanese guy that gave us one of his spots and we had some drinks with him and his friend.

There were more people as time got closer to the event and there were some young girls that sat right in front of us. After awhile we started chatting with them, we took various pictures with them, talked and tried to communicate with them and there was one of the girls that I was teaching how to dance salsa. I mean who would have expected any of this to happen, that is one part of many that I loved about the trip, the shear fact that things done and happened randomly. The girls and alot of the people were fascinated that we were out there having fun with them and I had an exciting time with some strangers I met the day before and the locals.

The Capsule

I didn’t know what to think of what a capsule hotel was until we walked into the area. It was an open space in the middle of the room and on one side it was a setup of 2 x 7 capsules and on the other side there were something else and a couple of capsules. The capsule didn’t feel so much like a coffin as I thought it would and was very spacious for it being deep enough for my 6′1″ frame. If I had to guess the volume of the capsule was 2.5′ x 2.5′ x 6′3″. I slept very good with the blind pulled all the way down and everyone there kept to themselves.