Meeting People is Not Easy

Oh wow. It's been a while. I'll try to do a recap. I meant to find an internet cafe a lot earlier in the day but I fell asleep. So now it's 5:45 and I'm kind of hungry so this is going to be short. I may elaborate some other time.

Monday - Tokyo --> Osaka

I `slept in` at the internet cafe and only left around 12 something. Got a 2 something train and got to Osaka around 5. I had seen the website for this budget `hotel` that tried to make itself look like a fun youth hostel and quarter of the way made reservations.　Once again, getting through `B-E-T-H` took about 20 minutes so the idea of attempting Charpentier didn't seem worth it. I said, 'You have a bed for me?' she maybe said yes, and I said `I will come.` Those are the reservations I make.

Anyway, I got to the place and it's exactly like the other super cheap hotels. Each room is 2000 yen ($17.50US) and with it you get a small bed, a small fridge, a small TV and about 5 feet of floor space. Sometimes there's a robe, a toothbrush and a towel. The public bath... room is on the first floor and is open from 6-7am and 9 -11pm for women and 7-9am and 4-9pm for men. Each floor has a toilet for men and a toilet for women. Also, you take your shoes off when you come in, put on slippers and then carry your shoes with you to your room. They still were too big. I thought I was in Japan. I tripped all the time. When you leave the hotel you give them your key and this place had an 11:30 curfew. On the website it said they didn't have a curfew anymore so I think I may have gone to the wrong place. There were like 5 places all with the same name. I showed the guy the phone number of where I had called and he seemed to gesture, `Yeah yeah, that's here` but then after I paid and got the receipt the number was clearly different.

The place was fine. I didn't shower. But they also had free internet which was nice.

Monday I didn't do much. I checked in, went to Ame-mura which is this really cool area in Osaka. It's short for America Mura which means American Village. One of the guys in the band suggested it. It's actually where I am right now. Most of the shops were closed but there was cool graffiti all over the place and I could see it's potential. Then I ended up in some huge flashy shopping arcade near the subway. These things are overwhelming. I can't handle them anymore. It's just streets and streets of people yelling to come in and buy stuff and then a Pachinko (really loud, really bright, really lame pinball/gambling place that like a casino on crack) place. I didn't stay long because I couldn't miss my 11:30 curfew. Oh, I also tried to see live music. I saw a sign for Music Bar ROCK ROCK and thought it might work. The sign was even in English! It didn't really work. I walked in and it was dead. There were 4 people at the bar. One of them was British. I asked him if there was going to be music and he said he didn't think so. He tried to ask the bartender but he spoke just as much Japanese as me. It was funny to watch. It was decided that there are DJs, but only on the weekends. I tried to think of something to say after that but couldn't and said, `Ok, thanks, bye` and ran away.

Tuesday - Osaka --> Kyoto --> Nara --> Osaka

Kyoto is THE place to go when you go to Japan, so I heard. It's where all the history and culture is. So Tuesday morning (after leaving the lame place and going to my first backpackers' hostel) I got on a bullet train and went to Kyoto. I was kind of hesitant because there are over 2000 temples and shrines and it seemed like 1) how was I ever going to make the most of it and 2) wait, do I even care? But I was in Japan, so I had to go. And that's where you the geishas are, so I thought that might be cool. So I got off the train and went to the Kyoto Office of Tourism to get an English map. It was closed. It's closed the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month. It didn't seem worth it to try to navigate the city without a map so I decided to leave and go to Nara )(strongly suggested by Michael Thompson).

It was amazing. I asked the lady at the tourism office for an English map and she was great. She took a map, took out her red pencil, circled the train station, circled 3 or 4 other things, drew lines on the streets between the circles and then how long it was going to take to walk between each place. She then wrote notes about what was going on at each place (deer, 3,000 laterns, nice view) and then walked me through the whole map starting out with, `This is what you should do. It will take 3 to 4 hours. We are here. First walk down this street for 15 minutes. You can take a bus, but young people like to walk.`

So I walked down this really cute street lined with this shops and places to eat. Since I don't have much time, just look through the pictures to see what I saw (when I get them up, probably not tonight. I'm really hungry). It was all really cool. The best part was that after the road of shops ended it turned into a park and all of the attractions were scattered around this huge park! And there were deer and they didn't have diseases and they walked up to people asking for food and there were people selling deer cookies for 150 yen and little kids were scared and old people were bothered. The deer didn't seem to understand the transition from having deer cookies to not having deer cookies. So they would just follow people around for a pretty long time.

So yeah Nara was awesome. Everything was by foot. There was a very comfortable level of people. And a couple of westerners. One guy from Nebraska was really funny. He asked if I would take a picture of him and his Japanese girlfriend. I said yes but then the camera said it was out of batteries. I said I could take it with my camera and email him if he really wanted and he replied, `How international of you.` When I asked what he wanted in the picture he asked his girlfriend, `What all do you want in the picture` which sounded extremely Midwestern to me. When I asked where he was from he said, `Nebraska? The land of... nothing? I came to Japan and saw mountains... and water... at the same time!` He was funny. Also, when he was trying to change the batteries in his camera a deer came up to them and started eating his map.

So Nara was really nice. Pebbled pathways, tons of stairs and cool things all over the place. I went to a couple of really nice places. I learned that if you want a good picture find the person with the biggest camera and take it from there. There were a lot of people with big cameras in Nara. Everything closed at 5 so then I went back into the town and stopped at a place called Drink Drank and ordered what turned out to be a big bowl with salad, chicken and big pieces of bread. It was great. Then walked back to the station, passing the coolest garbage can I've seen yet, and got on a train back to Osaka.

Wednesday - Osaka

It turned out that Japanese do have some sort of Thanksgiving thing. It's called Labor Thanksgiving Day but it's not about turkey or parades, just about having the day off. So for anything that I would maybe wanted to do, there were already 50,000 Japanese already doing it. I didn't like Wednesday. I did my laundry, which was nice, but I also had big plans for the post office which definitely didn't work out (public holiday) and when I tried to just go walk around some nice areas everything was crazy and packed with people. Eating food was (again) difficult because there were lines everywhere and I don't do well under Japanese pressure. I went to the place where I knew I would be able to order food pretty fast... McDonalds. I got to the counter, flipped over the plastic menu (Japanese one side, English on the other) and ordered. I was fast. That night I went back to Ame Mura. Since it was a public holiday all the stores were open pretty late. I saw some really funny shirts but they were all really expensive. There was a really nice guy who ran the first shop I went into and I asked him if he knew where I could see live music. He told me he was in a band and they were playing at a place down the street Friday night (it was probably something like, `My band! Friday! Near to here!` I bought a shirt from his store and he drew a cartoon on the bag. He was really nice. I'm going to go see his band tonight. I think. If I can find it. I had a good time walking around Wednesday and seeing what they America is all about. I saw a lot of Spam, a lot of Mickey Mouse, a lot of high school sports shirts, a lot of cowboy boots, a LOT of Abercrombie (most surprising, punk/rock kids love it), some Tide, some Scotch tape, and a beer can holding helmet thing. There may be an official name, I don't know. Another guy talked to me that night too. He asked me how old I was and I said 22 and he said, `me too!!!` I think he was lying. So far every Japanese kid who asks me how old I am says they're the same age. So that night was cool.

Thursday - Kyoto
So if you come to Japan you have to go to Kyoto. I was afraid that because I had such a good time in Nara I wasn't going to have a good time in Kyoto. I was right. It sucked. I took a train there, went to the (now open) tourist center. Got a map (the lady was not as nice as in Nara), got a bus map and was sent off. Kyoto runs on busses. I hate busses. I like trains, subways, trams, streetcars, monorails. I hate busses. But the lady at the tourism place said there are only two subway lines and the busses do most of the tourist spots. Lame. I went to The Golden Pavillion, The Zen Rock Garden and Nijo Castle. Each place was just a (99% Japanese) tourist march. You get off the bus, pay for a ticket, walk through a garden, get to a temple/castle, take off your shoes, walk through, put your shoes back on, go through the souvenir shop and then walk back to the bus stop. I had read about these beautiful gardens and was really excited to just see pretty stuff and yeah it was all pretty but it everything was roped off and you just followed a route. Lame. There were no ropes in Nara. And the bus rides were not short! Kyoto is just this normal city that happens to have 2000 temples and shrines in it. But it's not there one really nice park to hold them all. You pass a gas station, a McDonalds and a shoe store and then there's the entrance to the temple. It really doesn't feel that spiritual or any of that. Well it didn't for me. And also, everyone talks about how amazing all of this stuff is so I was kind of expecting like huge gold temples and a gigantic rock garden. But every time I got somewhere I kind of felt I was at one of the sideshows at the county fair. Like you see `WORLD'S SMALLEST HORSE!!!` and there`s a gate that's like 2 feet tall and you're thinking, `wow! that's got to be soooo small!' and give the guy your money and run up the stairs. Then you get to the top and you realized that the fence it only the top two feet and the stairs you ran up were 3 feet and the horse in standing on the ground and is really just a 5 foot pony like any other pony you've seen before. Yeah, so every place I went in Kyoto made me feel like that. The Zen Rock Garden, which I was actually really excited about was 25 meters by 10 meters. I guess it's my fault for not knowing more ahead of time. And being too American (wanting everything to be big and flashy). I had imagined it to be like a huge labyrinth garden maze type thing.

I should be fair. It was all really pretty. Definitely. There leaves were crazy oranges, reds and yellows. It really felt like fall. November is actually Kyoto's second most popular month (first is April) because of the leaves and also some geisha thing. So yes, it was very very very pretty.

In hopes of at least learning something, I booked a reservation with Peter someone. I can't remember his last name. He's from Canada and is the one Western to be accepted into the world of geisha-ness. He's written books and is in all kinds of documentaries and gives tours. So I paid 3000 yen to walk around with him and this family of four from California for 90 minutes. Even that was kind of disappointing. I know that he knew a lot, but he didn't really talk much. I tried to ask questions and he would answer them but for most of the time it was kind of quiet. When he did talk it was kind of half way creepy. He talked about the tea house he's a member of, and we ran into a 15 year old girl from that tea house that was going to be making her premier as a maiko (geisha in training) on the 29th. He is also married to an ex-geisha. I don't know, but the whole thing just sounds so sketchy. Girls drop out of high school to enter these 6 year contracts where they live in boarding houses and go to geisha school to learn things like walking, tea ceremonies and flute. During that time they're hired out by their houses to entertain rich and/or famous people by dressing up in expensive clothing, white makeup and fancy hair and serving tea and doing dances or something. And they get paid a ridiculous amount of money. And you can only get an appointment with a geisha if you're rich and/or famous and have rich and/or famous friends who already have connections somewhere. I think if it wasn't such an underground deal it wouldn't seem as creepy. Sorry, sorry, it's not underground, it's traditional. And everything is about face and that's why everything has to be so strict. But let me just add that during our walk we apparently passed the head of the organized crime circuit of the area. Ok, so that was my 4:30 - 6:00 time slot.

Dinner was a difficult. I ordered macaroni gratin. They had an English menu so I thought this was going to be easy. But instead of having Japanese and English on the same menu there were two different ones. And the waitresses couldn't read English so she kind of guessed which one it was similar to on the Japanese menu. So I ended up with macaroni gratin with shrimp. And then tried to say I was allergic to shrimp and I just wanted the macaroni and then it came back with squid. I figured I would try one more time and then just eat whatever came and the third time it came back just macaroni. So that was my Thanksgiving. Macaroni gratin at San Marco's in Kyoto, Japan.

I was thinking about getting a McDonalds apple pie for dessert but it didn't work because after I took my first step from San Marco's to McDonalds I started crying hysterically in the middle of the sidewalk. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and Kyoto was not helping me get my mind off of the fact that I was far far away from the people I loved. No one in Kyoto loved me.

After standing at each possible wrong bus stop I finally got on a bus and went back to the train station and then back to Osaka. I wrote some depressing emails then decided to try this foreigner's bar that was serving turkey dinners for $13. I went there. There were foreigners. Some Americans definitely. An American band called Shit Creek playing. There were probably about 12 tables, 5 of them completely full, 7 completely empty. I ordered a drink and gave myself till the bottom of the glass to meet people. But realized I'm a lot shier than I thought I was. I didn't talk to anyone, no one talked to me and then I left.

I ended up getting the last train back to the hostel but it only went part of the way. I had to walk the rest. I had gotten off at that stop before but all the exits I knew were being closed and I had to go through an exit I didn't know.

One thing that's really good about Japan is that it's really safe. There aren't really muggings or rapes or many bad people to people interactions. So that's good. I found a hotel and asked how to walk in the direction of the next subway stop (which is where I would have gotten off at if it had been running). The guy was helpful and I got home fine. I saw my first Japanese salaryman peeing on a street. That was kind of awkward.

So that was Thursday.

Friday - Osaka

I woke up, decided I wasn't going to let today suck as much as yesterday. I had to leave the awesome backpackers place because when I checked in on Tuesday I said three nights and since by Friday I was the only person still there they decided to close for the weekend. So I was kicked out. Nicely though. I remembered seeing a hotel in Ame Mura so I went there and got a room. I couldn't check in until 3 so I left my bag and then went to the Osaka Castle. Pretty much like the stuff in Kyoto but there were benches and I just walked around the area and didn't pay to go inside. I got back to the hotel around 3:30 and fell asleep for two hours and then came here. I'm going to go to the bar again and get the $13 turkey dinner (Thanksgiving celebration is two days, both nights featuring Shit Creek). Then back to Ame Mura for the guy from the clothing store's band. If I can find the place.

Tomorrow I'm going to go to Mt. Fiji finally. The guy from Earth Embassy gave me his cell phone number because he realized he was bad at responding to emails. Then Sunday I'll go back to Tokyo, meet up with my `Killing Skill 48 & friends` friends and hopefully Lindsay and Sarah. I got an email from Yuuki (the God shirt) that was really funny.

`hi!beth
my name is yuuki
the day before yesterday??I drunk with you. do you remenber?
my band name is spinwake.
My favorite song is richard marks.
do you remenber me??`

I wrote back but then he wrote back saying it didn't work right and he gave his number. I called yesterday but it didn't work and then called today but hung up because I got nervous. As hard as it is to talk to people who don't speak the same language, it's even harder over the phone. But he called me back and we talked for a little bit. I said I was going to come back on Sunday for the Killing Skill 48 show. He said`You come to Tokyo on Sunday? I am happy! I want to meet you!`

It was great. I told him I would call him on Sunday.

So that was my week. There was a lot more interesting stuff that I'll try to write about soon. The women only subway cars, the super cool hostel I stayed at, and a funny conversation I had with a family that now lives on a US Army base somewhere near here. It started off with, `Do you have any pet cats?` Yeah, I'll explain later.

Here are photos from...
Nara- http://www.flickr.com/photos/wigramroad/sets/1439918/
Osaka - http://www.flickr.com/photos/wigramroad/sets/1439881/
Kyoto - http://www.flickr.com/photos/wigramroad/sets/1439949/