[Day 17 - Sumo ^_^] and [Day 18 - Shopping in the rain, again]

So remember my plan to stay indoors all day yesterday because it was supposed to rain all day? Well, it didn't rain. Not even a little! I'm glad it didn't, but on the other hand...

Yesterday I went to the Tokyo Edo Museum, which is right next to the sumo arena. The museum was really well done and had interesting exhibits, and many of them even had English signs, which was nice. You could get a free tour guide who speaks English, too, but I didn't feel like it ._. I was kind of mad because I was carrying around my slightly heavy bag because I couldn't find any coin lockers, which seemed weird. After halfway through the museum I left the exhibit area to go eat at one of the museum restaurants and I found... coin lockers. Yay! I was only sad I didn't find it sooner. >_>

The museum had a lot of replicas, both life-size and scale models, of Edo-period buildings and homes, which were all very interesting. The models that had tiny people in them had binoculars so you could view it as if you were looking out onto real streets and such, which I liked. The little people... :< There was also a live traditional dance performance, which was interesting. I only watched part of it because there were no more seats, and I was hungry ._.;

The restaurant was at the top of the museum and had a nice view of Tokyo. I had cold soba with tempura. I don't think I'm a cold noodle fan. I liked the tempura though. I think one of them might have been okra (!) or a type of pepper the Japanese use in cooking... I forget its name... but either way that was definitely my favourite piece. It had bite, but not really spice, and it had a really good flavour. Now I'm going to look for okra dishes ._.

I met the Blacks at the sumo place around 3.30 or so. There were crowds outside lining the sidewalks, hoping to catch and glimpse and a photo of the wrestlers as they walk in. I saw a couple, all wearing yukata, and all very large men.

Our seats were near the top but they were nice and plush, and we could see the action well. We got some french fries which turned out to be amazing french fries ^_^ so then I got more french fries ^_^;;;; and we watched all the matches til the end of the group for that day. There is a lot of ritual and ceremony in sumo; of the time we spent there, I'd venture to say only about 15% was actual wrestling. The matches only last a few seconds, maybe a minute at the most, but that's once they actually start. Beforehand they do a whole ritual of basically trying to psych each other out, as well as purifying themselves and the ring, etc. The ring is on a mound about two feet tall, and a lot of the time they get thrown off of it or onto the edge of it or something, and it always looks painful. ._. It also looks painful for the judges and spectators who sit on the floor and get sumo wrestlers flung at them >_>

I didn't get any good photos cos my camera just wasn't capable from that distance, but Mr. Black took a ton. I definitely enjoyed sumo a lot more than I anticipated that I would. I'm glad they put a short time limit on the pre-wrestling waffling around, though. There used to be no time limit at all, so they could just walk back and forth as long as they wanted. Then they imposed a 10 minute limit, then 7,5, and the current 4. It still feels like quite a long time because they usually use almost every last second. Enough time to get a snack though, I guess. ^_^;

Afterward I decided to go back to Akiba, to hit up another maid cafe or two and to look intently for some figures, which I did first. I found a good store that does buy/sell/trade so you can get a good deal on a used figure, which I did. I got two Kujibiki-An figures and a fig of Souseiseki ._. She's so cute! I wanted to get her sister, too, but she was more expensive... I guess I'll try to get it another time, some day somewhere. In hindsight it probably would've been better to get Suiseiseki instead of one of the Kujibiki figs, but... oh well.

I also found a few places that are nothing but capsule machines, which was exciting because all the machines I've been finding have been the same stuff over and over. The specialty capsule places have some of the current but less widespread. I was happily surprised that every capsule I got was the one I wanted. There are usually about 4-8 different possible designs. I seem to have unusual luck with the capsule machines, like back at Asakusa when I got the gyoza-headed Kitty bag :<

I found three (!) more maid cafes, and took photos at each. I only went into one, because honestly, I've been pretty hesitant about going into the maid cafes. At this one there were girls eating there, at least, but I always feel bad because I'm not just a girl but a gaijin. I'm also always afraid that I'm going to misinterpret something about the cafe before or during going in, so that I'll embarass myself or others. I went to Cafe Doll, which actually has my favourite figure of all my figures. The maids were really cute .__. just like at Jam. After overcoming the initial language barrier (happy hour is 500 yen, she says), I sat at a little tiny table and ordered picture pancakes, which they put a picture on in chocolate. What I didn't realize is that they bring it to your table and ask you what you want the picture to be :< and then draw it there :<<< the maid... So I asked for... a kuma. (:<) It was cute. She gave him a :3 face instead of a :< face but it was still very cute. All in all, the maid cafe was a pretty nice experience, but you definitely pay for being waited on by cute maids. >_>

There was also an abundance of maids out on the streets that night, probably because it was Saturday, and they were all passing out fliers. I took a lot of them because a maid gave it to me, heh. There was also one that was a ticket to do the lotto game, which was run by another maid, but I got a red ball so I just got a cracker as a prize ._. I got up the courage to ask one of the street maids if I could take her photo because you definitely can't in the cafes, but the street is a little borderline, so I thought I'd give it a shot. She was so shy and cute and she didn't know why I would want to take her picture. I tried to tell her it's because she's so cute, without sounding too creepy... hope it worked >_> She let me take her picture though ^_^

The other person that let me take their picture was the terrifying Suigintou-san. He (he!) was scary as hell, but that's why i had to take his picture. He was wearing a Suigintou costume (which, for those who don't know, was the second costume I've made for myself), but with weird shoes, and a generic loli headband instead of the regular one, which also had cat ears. And he had sparkly make-up on. He was terrifying. He even had props to pose when I took his photo, lol. I can't tell how serious he was about his cosplay o_o;;

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Part two of this epic entry is about today. First I went to the Meiji Shrine, which is one of the bigger and more famous shrines in Tokyo. There are usually some weddings there but as it was pouring, I wasn't very hopeful. But...! I saw two ^_^ Well, at least one, though I'm pretty sure the second one was also a wedding... I don't know what else it would have been. One of the brides was all in white kimono, and the other was in a vibrant red one. Both were really pretty. I liked the guys, too ^_^; There was also some sort of ceremony or ritual happening in the shrine itself that I didn't understand, but it involved a few priests and a giant drum, so I was happy to watch it anyway.

I ate at the restaurant on the grounds, which was promising enough. My remaining skepticism mostly faded when I sat down and saw the food other people were getting nearby, which looked very good. My food, however... sucked. Totally. This is the only time I can say I've had an outright bad meal in Japan. The tempura was greasy and soggy...! Two things tempura should never be. Eew. And all the soggy greasiness dripped down onto the rice, so eating that wasn't too enjoyable either. They didn't give me a spoon for the miso, and I wasn't inclined to ask for one. The sides were tofu, which I don't enjoy no matter what, pickles (which looked pretty bad even for pickles), and something or other else. It was unidentifiable, but also not appealing. To top it off, it was a pretty damn expensive meal. I was pretty mad about that whole thing.

I walked back to Harajuku in the rain. Rainrainrain. It poured all day. A few times it went down to a mist/drizzle and I didn't put my umbrella up. The streets were packed as usual, but with umbrellas in the mix, it's even more chaotic, as there is now a third dimension in play with bobbing and weaving. Somehow everyone manages, though. I found a lot of fun little stores tucked here and there, as well as the stores on the main street. I found this store with interesting clothes, and when I went inside and talked to the owner, I found out that he designs and makes everything in his store himself(!) so they are all originals. He has piles of semi-complete clothes and pieces of things with his sewing machine near the cash register. He loves rock, which is sweet, because I also love rock. The little space in his store that isn't full of clothes is full of posters of bands like Pantera (lol), etc. I tried on a bunch of his stuff, and went for a sweatshirt with bunny ears on the hood (I couldn't resist >_>). It has a very punky attitude. The only problem was that, on the ears in particular, it said some things that probably wouldn't be... uh... appreciated in America. It was nothing really bad, just nothing I should be wearing around everywhere. He brought out a baggie full of different patches with the phrases on it that are found all over his clothes, and we worked together to decide a solution. He did it in about three minutes for me on the machine... ah, true customization. :3

He was really fun to talk to, and drew me a map to the post office. While he was drawing it we were both singing along to "November Rain" because that song is sweet. ._. lol He also told me that if I ever design any cool characters, he would buy them, because he's looking for new characters for his clothes. So now I'm thinking about clothing characters... heh

I bought a ton of souvenirs for other people, and a few other things for myself, then I went back... fortunately the rain slowed down so the walk was fine. Still no Harajuku girl photos... stupid rain :(

Now it's bed time... tomorrow is the trip to Kamakura. Big Buddha awaits ^_^; Also, the image upload for my blog is being weird, so fewer pictures in this entry than intended... sorry. It's probably a long enough entry, anyway. ;p

[Day 16 - Shopping in the rain] -and- [Day 10 - Shimabara and Kumamoto :<]

I didn't do much of note today... I switched my Nikko day with a shopping day from next week because it's raining today (typhoon's comin in... it's pouring right now >_>) and it's supposed to be decent weather next week. Also, Mrs. Black can come to Nikko, too, if I go next week, which is an added bonus for both of us... she really wants to go there, and I like having a traveling partner. So my new itinerary looks like:

Sat - Tokyo Edo Museum, Sumo, Akiba (horray for staying indoors during the typhoon...)
Sun - Harajuku :< and Meiji
Mon - Kamakura
Tues - Studio Ghibli Museum, last minute souvenir shopping
Wed - Nikko, packing
Thurs - Playing with the puppy (:<), packing, going home

That's it! Today I shopped in Shinjuku and Shibuya. It looked like they were setting up for a festival in Shinjuku, but it's probably tomorrow... and it will be raining.... I might stop over depending on how the day goes and how hard it's actually raining.

I went back to OIONE up to the goth/loli/etc floors and got myself a sweet jacket ^_^ I got another jacket later at 109 ^_^;;; fall's coming... jacket season! I've also been having a lot of Krispy Kremes... there's one nearby, and if you're waiting in line to buy something, and they are making donuts (they always are), a lady comes out with a tray of hot donuts and gives you a free one :< Nom!

The rest of this entry will be me talking about my day 10, going back and filling in some of the gaps of my blog when I couldn't use the internet.

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Shimabara greeted me with the usual blast of humidity, which I'm used to by now. It turned into rain later, which I'm also used to >_>

But I did everything before it rained, except getting back to pick up my bags at the hotel. I started off by seeking out the big reclining Buddha, which is one of the big Shimabara attractions. The way there is through a covered shopping arcade (those are common in Kyushu, it seems...), which was nice. There were many regular stores and also some carts and shops selling fresh produce and, most of all, flowers. There was a small garden with some little fishes in it, which was a nice break in the shop row.

Near the end of my shopping arcade trek, there was much to-do over a high school (? maybe? middle school?) taiko(?) drum group, which was really cool. I filmed part of their performance, so I have something better than my blurry photos to remember it by (I was being jostled a lot by little old ladies -_-;). They were fun to watch, though I didn't know why they were there. I had also passed a group of Japanese cheerleaders on the way to the arcade (so cute ^_^;)... hmm...

I made it to the Buddha site, which was a shrine with a huge cemetary, which was cool in itself. At the main buildings of the shrine there were some other statues that were also really nice... I would've gone just to see those and the vastness of the cemetary, with a big mountain in the background (very cool about Shimabara). I wound my way through the cemetary, where the stones were so close together that you could really only walk on the prescribed path to the Buddha unless you were trying really hard. Then it was up some stairs to the Buddha, which was really cool. It's the longest or second longest reclining Buddha in Japan, and the carving was really fine. I couldn't fit it all in one camera frame because you could only step back about 10 feet from it >_> but I did my best, and took a movie to remember later.

Walking back through the arcade, it turns out that all the high school orpossiblymiddleschool action was revolving around a store. I wasn't sure exactly what was going on, but it appeared that they rented out or were loaned a store for a few months, and bought, made, or were given some wares to sell, and this was their big opening day. Everything in the store was well priced, and all the school girls (and a few school guys) were all cute and eager. I got a lunch bag (¥100) and a really cute little figure which I think is Jizo (¥300). I hope the girls didn't mind that I took their picture... at least I didn't take one of the cheerleaders, though I probably could have... they were all peppy and stuff.

Also, finally, my duffel bag being unable to accommodate my growing Kyushu souvenir pile along with what I had brought along, I bought an inexpensive rolling bag at a department store, which was a tremendous help for the rest of my journey. It will probably also prove useful on the way back to the US. Also in the department store, I tried the cup-dispenser-type vending machine for the first time. They carry hot and cold drinks. I don't like coffee and it was hot out so I got peach Hi-C. Peachy deliciousness ^_^ The cup falls down, then the ice, then the drink. It's cheaper than the regular vending machines because there is less waste, I suppose... providing a paper cup is probably cheaper than a plastic bottle, ne? At any rate, I like the cup vends. On the way out of the store I got a pastry with some shredded veggies and... ham?... in the middle. However, the binder for the veggies ended up being more mayonaisey and less cheesy than expected, so I only ended up eating about half ._. They love mayo here, heh.

There were many places in the shopping arcade pumping in water from the Shimabara fresh water springs, which are another great thing of note about Shimabara. You're supposed to drink from those little fountains, but... I didn't. Even when I read somewhere that you are allowed to/supposed to do something, I'm often still unsure about it unless I see a Japanese person do it first, heh. I'm afraid of offending someone, or possibly their religion. I always feel a little bad when I go to shrines and take photos... oh, well. I do it anyway.

I walked down the street to the "carp stream," which supposedly holds about 1500 koi. I reached one end and there was a group of fish, but I didn't see any a little further down. Walking down further meant getting further from the other places I was trying to go, and it wasn't really worth it for the carp, so I enjoyed the little group for a while before moving on. Also it was hot... ._.;

I walked in the nice heat to an area that has some old samurai houses, which were really cool... old thatched rooves and everything. You can even go inside. The one I went into had a life-size diorama of the samurai and his family eating, which was cool. Also, down the middle of the street there, there's a channel through fresh water constantly flows, which back in the samurai days provided the households with fresh water.

I walked back to the hotel after that... I wanted to make sure I got a ferry to Kumamoto. It started raining on my way back, but it wasn't so bad. I didn't visit Shimabara Castle, which I could see lit up from my hotel window the previous night, but I saw it from pretty much every angle except up close, heh.

I took the ferry to Kumamoto, which was a pleasant ride, though it was too hazy for photos of the distant mountains to come out. ._. Then I had to take a bus to the centre of town. At first I found Kumamoto a little depressing, because it seemed a bit industrial and devoid of bustle (I like bustle...!) and also the weather was dreary, which didn't help my perceptions. My hotel room wasn't too bad... no window though, haha. Such is the business hotel. It was clean and contained a bed and that was good enough for me. But all this combined with having a difficult time finding accommodations in Beppu (apparently, it was a holday weekend! >_>) made me sort of sad and irritated.

I went downstairs to the convenience store for a snack, and when I looked out the window... hustle (e.g. bustle)! It was raining but I just went :< toward the bustle, without my umbrella and camera ._. which was unfortunate but oh well, such is the impromptu magnetic pull of bustle. I walked down a small, busy street and found... a covered shopping arcade! What a surprise! What was nice about it, though, is that it was around 9 or 10 and totally full of people. The arcade and the many side streets coming off of it were full of restaurants, bars, clubs, and some of those more dubious clubs with the pictures of pretty ladies on the outside :< hee

As I walked down the arcade I saw lights... sound... ye..no! Pachinko, damn. But then...! Crane machines ^_^ This place was a bit different... the people who own it made up their own games, usually involving moving some mundane object (like a slipper) rather than the prize itself. Then, you get a prize for completing the task. Yes, I got a thing. ^_^; Partially because the guy who worked there was nice to me and kept moving the thing to help me get it more easily, hee. It would've been impossible otherwise, though.

I also found a cute bakery that features many animal-shaped baked goods. My favourite were the turtle-turtle-turtle stacks, which was a big, medium, and small bread stacked on top of one another, each made to look like a turtle. They actually looked like they might have been melon pan... o_o; all sugary and stuff, and their shells were coloured. I wanted one as a souvenir but, as you could imagine, it wouldn't have kept well. Instead I bought a kuma-shaped bun (in Kumamoto :<) and a mango-apple juice box and took it back to my room for dessert. ^_^

The kuma bread is the only evening Kuma(moto) picture you get, because like I said, I didn't have my camera. His eyes look a little creepy because they got messed up on the way home ._. but I promise it was cute!

After this novel of an entry, I'm going to bed. Back to early days starting tomorrow. ^_^

Day Fifteen - Odaiba

So today, it rained. This was day 2/2 of making up for lost sleep, and it was nice ^_^ it also worked out for the best because it rained all day until around 4 ._.

Because it was raining, I chose an indoor thing to do in Tokyo, which was going to the Odaiba area. It's an artificial island that contains many futuristic, industrial, and otherwise interesting buildings. This includes the Fuji (as in TVs) building, which is all these pieces at 90-degree angles, with a big sphere set amongst them. To get there, you have to take this new train system that's pretty cool, actually... it's unmanned, and all new and modern. You go all woosh up and over the bridge to Odaiba ._. woosh...

First I went to Venus Fort, which is a big shopping mall with an old Roman theme, like the Caesar's Palace shopping mall in Las Vegas, except smaller. It was a good place to kill a couple hours, even though I didn't get anything. Across the walkway from VF is the Toyota showroom/info center/entertainment place, where you can do things like go on a ride where you sit in a hybrid car, which I did not do. I spent no time in the Toyota place, really, except walking through it to get to the giant ferris wheel.

Supposedly, it's the tallest ferris wheel in the world, as of 1999 (I think). I'm not sure if it still has that distinction, but it's still pretty cool. It was a nice ferris wheel and gave good views out over the water to Tokyo. I went up around dusk, so the lights of the city were just coming on. The whole thing made me feel kind of nostalgic and, of course, made me think about Honey & Clover :<

... :<<<<<<

Anyway... after that, I made my way over to Sega Joypolis, which is a sort of indoor theme park. Like most theme parks, it's the kind of thing where you pay a high admission price, and then everything inside costs money, too. I got the "passport" which lets me go on any of the rides without paying more, but everything else... food, video games, carnival games, etc... costs more money, of course. Annoying. ALSO ANNOYING which made me really sad, is that they were doing this stamp program where you get a stamp card and try to fill it up by going on a bunch of rides and playing 2 carnival games. Then you turn it in and get... something or other. I got my card filled up by 9.30 and headed back to the card place... it was gone! You had to do it by 9! ._. I was really sad about that. I don't know why it made me so sad, rather than just mildly annoyed.

Other than that, my experience was pretty good, although it made me miss my friends... everyone there was doing everything in pairs at least. I went on the spinning roller coaster, which was actually really painful... very very jerky. It's unfortunate, because it would've been fun. I also went on a bunch of virtual reality rides where a bunch of people sit in a car or something in a dark room in front of a screen and the car moves around, etc. Those were all pretty enjoyable. I also did three different things that were similar, except they were games... two shooters and one hang-gliding game. Those were interesting though not as enjoyable.

The only thing I actually skipped because I was alone was probably the coolest thing there (sadly) but it also had the longest line. It was a half pipe with giant snowboard shaped things attached to poles in the ceiling. One person stood on each end of the board, facing out in opposite directions, and the arms swung them back and forth, while they tried to spin the board around. There were four going at the same time and the team with the most points at the end won. It looked pretty sweet, I have to say.

I came away with some prizes, all won in the carnival area (I bought carnival tokens to get some stamps on my card, but... we know how that turned out >_>) and I have to say that Joypolis was fun... definitely a good way to spend a rainy day.

After all that, I came back to Shibuya again, cos all the restaurants in Odaiba were closed ._. I ate Italian again .____. mostly because I wanted to eat at a nice-ish sit down place after walking around all day, and it was the first and possibly only one open. There are a lot of places to eat that are open late or 24h, but most of them are very casual, or stand up places, or those little shops with one small counter with just a couple of stools. Wasn't in the mood for that. The place where I ate was called La Bohemme, I think, and the food was good and reasonably priced. I had some risotto... nom ^_^;

It's supposed to rain again tomorrow, but I'm going to Nikko, which is north of Tokyo, and home of the infamous "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" monkeys, among many other cool things. I'm pretty excited about going, even though it's likely that it will rain for at least part of the day. I walked through a bamboo forest in the rain in Usuki, so some temples and such in Nikko shouldn't be too bad.

Day Fourteen (!) - Ueno, the pandaless wonder :<

Hello. ^_^

I really enjoyed my trek across Kyushu, but I have to say, I'm pretty glad to be back in bright and busy Tokyo after all of that.

Today I went to Ueno, which is mostly a park, with many museums and some shrines both in and around it. Also, there's a zoo! BUT. Oh, that damn zoo.

Mrs. Black came with me at the start of my day... I slept in to make up for the previous night so we got going around 1 or so. We were going to go to Ueno Zoo to see... PANDAS. YES. I heard the zoo wasn't that good except for the fact that it had pandas, and that was worth $5 to me. :< But when we got to the zoo... no pandas! There was a sign saying that there has been no panda exhibit as of April 2008, when... the panda... died. ._____.;;;; It died! There's no more panda! Needless to say, we were sad and disappointed, because we really wanted to see a panda. But at least we didn't pay admission first.

Instead we went to a nearby shrine, which is unusual in that your admission fee lets you actually go inside and view artifacts and get an up-close look at the relief carvings, lauquer, and gold leaf that make up the structures. We took off our shoes and went inside. There were some cool things on display, including a very old map of Japan done in metal. You weren't supposed to take photos inside but I snuck in a few covertly... the negative side to doing that is that framing and focus of the shots is sort of a mixed bag. The rest of the grounds were nice, and included a hundred or so very VERY big stone lanterns, as well as, unusually, about 50 copper lanterns. This is one of the main attractions. I certainly is the only shrine I went to where I saw copper lanterns, and they were huge like the stone ones! They were really pretty. A sign said they aren't used for regular lighting, but only when lighting fires for rituals, etc, or something to that effect.

Afterwards, Mrs. Black left to take care of some things... it was her daughter's birthday today. :< I continued on through the park, deciding to choose one of the many museums to go to. I chose the biggest one, the Tokyo National Museum, which is supposed to be very good. While looking at the Ueno Park map, a Japanese man approached me and asked if he could talk to me, as he was practicing his English. I said yes, and so he asked me several questions about where I was going, if I was in Japan on vacation, etc. He was surprised to hear that I like the craziness of Shibuya :< He offered to come to the museum with me to continue the conversation, as he is a member there, but I declined.

I went to the museum by myself and it was very large, consisting of four separate buildings. I only made it to one building, and part of it was a whirlwind tour, at that, since I was running out of time before they closed. ._. I did get to see a lot of cool things, though, including their current exhibit of awesome statues and other artifacts from a temple in Kyoto that is being renovated, which is the only reason they allowed the items to leave the grounds. The statues of Buddha and related figures that they had were awesome. Most of them had inlaid crystal eyes, which I have never seen before. It made them look almost alive. No photos allowed in that room, of course :<

After I sort of ran around seeing as many rooms as I could before closing, I left to go take a look at the big pond of the park, with a shrine in the middle. The pond is sort of divided by paths into three sections. One is open for renting little boats, and the rest is entirely covered in enormous lotus leaves. Huge! Without the flowers, so many lotus plants with the giant leaves and the pods were almost gross :< I was torn about how interesting versus icky I found them. However, there was some nice animal life... really big fish, lots of turtles ^_^ , and some ducks. The shrine itself was not terribly interesting, though it's sort of hard to describe why, so I'll leave it at that.

I spent the rest of the evening at a shopping arcade near the park, which consisted basically of three parallel streets (plus some cross streets) of stalls and shops. Lots of fish and some fruits, veggies, and mushrooms for sale. The stores were mostly clothing or cosmetic stores offering discounted merchandise. Some were more regular clothing stores. There were also a lot of pachinko/slot places mixed in, heh. One street had a bunch of capsule hotels (I'm dying to try one of those >_>) and other facilities to appeal to the male on his own for the evening. All in all it was a nice area to spend the time as it got dark, since it was full of people and energy. One of the fruit vendors was selling skewers with a big slice of fresh fruit on it for ¥100. I got a nice slice of pineapple ^_^ it was yummy.

Afterwards I went back to Shibuya seeking food, where I went to a really nice restaurant-sized cafe and had pasta with sauce. I like that you can usually get some kind of a set of food at most restaurants, or you order something and it ends up being a set. I guess since more traditional Japanese meals consist of several components, that often translates into other kinds of eating establisments. At the very least, you often get a "mini salad," which can be any number of things, but ever since Fukuoka, I always try the little salad. At the museum in Fukuoka, there was a tiny mound of salad consisting of shredded cabbage or lettuce and shredded carrot, with some sort of peanuty dressing... really good. I've received the tiny salad at a few other places, and it always has some kind of great dressing, so I always eat it. My pasta set tonight came with a little bowl of chips and a little bowl of salad (really little... a 3-or-so-inch dia. ramekin) and the pasta, which was really good.

I finished off the day with a strawberry parfait at the Blue Seal Cafe, which is now my favourite place to get ice cream. ^_^ They even have flavours from Okinawa, and there's good people watching from the second floor eating area.

So, tentative plan for the last week of my trip:

Thurs - Roppongi and/or Odaiba(?), cos it's raining.
Fri - Day trip to Nikko
Sat - Sumo day! With dinner and/or shopping afterwards.
Sun - Harajuku, for another attempt at seeing some Harajuku girls, plus shopping and the Meiji Shrine.
Mon - Day trip to Kamakura with Mrs. Black
Tues - Stuido Ghibli Museum!
Wed - Shopping in Shinjuku (and picking up some melon pan :<), probably packing.
Thurs - Packing, then going home ._.

Man, I've been so tired... I'm falling asleep here >_> oh well. Here I go!
(actually, I did fall asleep writing this, which was probably obvious. But now I fixed it! ^_^;)

Back in Tokyo ^_^

Hello everyone...! I finally made it back to Tokyo... and the internet, heh. I'm going to put up an entry (or two?) tomorrow some time. But right now, my eyes are closing... sleepy time. ._.

I'll leave you with one photo of some deer in Nara (more tomorrow).

Day Nine - Nagasaki and Shimabara (sort of)

Sooo hi from Shimabara! ^_^; I'm moving pretty quickly, I guess.

FIRST OF ALL. I just wanted it to be known that I have finally figured out how to check my voice mail on my phone, so leave as many messages as you'd like now. ^___^

I have no idea what these cute bunnythings are... they're the resident spokesperson of something-or-other in Nagasaki... but they are everywhere, including souvenirs. ._.

I spent the day in Nagasaki until attractions began to close and darkness loomed. I woke up early and dropped by bags off at Nagasaki Station in a coin locker (best things ever, and they're everywhere here). Then I took the tram to the Peace Park, which houses the Peace Statue, among a fountain and many other statues and memorials of the atomic bomb. The statue is waaaaay bigger than I realized, which made it very much worth the effort of climbing the many stairs and hills to get to the park.

Nagasaki is essentially built on a river that cuts through the mountains. They didn't cut down all the mountains or anything (obviously) so everything is built onto and into the mountains. This results in both (1) an awesome looking city that goes up rather than out, and (2) lots of climbing. EVERYTHING is at the top of hills, stairs, etc. Some places like the Atomic Bomb Museum and Glover Garden, which are trying to be very accessible to the elderly and handicapped, have an elevator, escalator, or the like. But most don't, and just walking around town, you usually end up going up and down some pretty intense hills, or you turn a corner and are faced with a steep set of stairs. It makes Nagasaki very unique and interesting, but I'm feeling all the not-so-good-for-me food I've been eating ._. and my lack of exercise for the past two months ._____.;

After the park I went to the bomb hypocentre, which is represented with a black monolith. There are a few other things in the park, such as the "actual ground level" at the time of the bombing (the current ground level is now raised in that area), a pretty statue, and a section of a church that was almost totally destroyed. Right when I got there there was a group of Japanese kids singing, which was rather cute... I took a video. They didn't seem to know the songs very well though :< ...then they left.

Then I moved on to the museum, which was actually a really good museum. It was smaller and, I think, more concise than the Hiroshima museum was. The introduction was dramatic, but I don't think they overdid it. By contrast, Hiroshima a little bit of the drama/cheese factor going on in their peace messages, and they were delivered often. Nagasaki had much more information on nuclear weapons and how they are being used today, as well as how they have been used in history. I had a simple omuraisu (omelette rice) lunch at the museum cafe, because I was very hungry from climbing everything. It didn't seem homemade or anything but it tasted pretty good anyway.

I made my way back onto the tram and took it to Glover Garden, which was perhaps the first western settlement in Japan, and so is full of more western and western/japanese style buildings. After taking a brief "detour" (ahem >_>) I was walking up the stairs(! no way) to the entrance. The whole thing was really nice from start to finish. Some Japanese girls took my photo after I took theirs for them, so I have a nice memento (though not my most flattering angle... brings out my hip chubb ._. hee). There was a lot of upupupup action, but fortunately, there were some escalators, moving walkways, and ramps to get up. The houses were pretty and interesting, and the route through the garden was very scenic in many ways. The garden itself was really pretty, with a lot of nice trees and flowers, many of which were identified on plaques. There was also a small Japanese garden and a few koi ponds with the largest fish I've seen yet. HUGE. HUGE KOI. There was one of the first (perhaps the first) western restaurant, which is now a tea and cake place... I avoided going inside. The houses were nice and had displays inside, including one house with displays on the woman who was most famous for being "Madame Butterfly." There was also a statue of her.

Also, there were amazing views of Nagasaki and the surrounding areas, including the bay and river, complete with GIGANTIC BOATS. REALLY REALLY BIG. The city just looks really awesome because not only are there cool mountains everywhere, but there are lots of buildings on the mountains. I liked it a lot ^_^

At the end of everything was the Museum of Performing Arts, or some similar name, which really surprised me. I was a little annoyed when I looked on the map and saw that you had to walk through it to leave, as forced museums are often terrible, which is why they're free and forced, heh. But this one was just one big room full of festival floats, which were colourful and interesting and huge. They also had a video going but I just stopped in the shop and left.

I went back to the station, stopping across the street to get the information centre to help me make a hotel reservation (I wasn't in the mood to tough it out over the phone again), then I picked up some takoyaki (little pieces of octopus covered in large amounts of a pancakey-like stuff, then cooked into perfectly round little balls); by the time I got around to eating it, it was mushy and not good ._. Still ridiculously hot though.

I took the shortest and most luxurious shinkansen ride yet. It was only 18 min. to the station where I had to transfer to a regular train to come to Shimabara, but it was fancyfancypants. I wished the ride was longer so I could've enjoyed it more. I don't enjoy tunnels at all though... on the fast trains, the change in pressure makes my ears close up right away, and it's very uncomfortable, sometimes even a bit painful I'd say. I only have that trouble a very little bit in airplanes and such, but in an in-and-out tunnel situation on the train, it's really bad. ._.

Shimabara is much more suburban feeling than anywhere else I've been. I think it's not really a city, but more of a town. It's not like a Connecticut suburb, with houses spread out and open space... it's more urban, but with far fewer people, shorter buildings, and more houses than businesses, or so it seems. I only saw about two streets' worth but you can sort of get a feel of a place.

I got a single room at another business hotel, which isn't as nice as my other rooms were but, like all my other rooms, is spotlessly clean. And I can see the lit-up Shimabara Castle from my window! ^_^ I went to the only place open to eat, which was a ramen shop about half a block away, which had good gyoza, okay curry, and no more orange juice ._. but it was open! This isn't a 24-hour kind of town.

Sleepy time now... tomorrow I'm going to walk around for a couple hours before hopping a ferry to Kumamoto. I'm determined to find one of the (public!) (free!) natural spring foot baths that are apparently in a few places around Shimabara. My feet will like me better then, I'm sure... :3

Day Eight - Fukuoka and Nagasaki

Hello from Nagasaki ^_^ I just got in last night around 8pm. I took the Kyushu train line, which I don't think is a Shinkansen, but it had an actual green car so I got a seat in that. It was really nice! I would say it's nicer than first class on an airplane (not that I would know) just because there are fewer people in each car, so fewer people to deal with overall.

I spent yesterday wandering about Fukuoka. My ryokan was in the perfect place between a bunch of shrines and a museum. First I went to a folk museum right after it opened. It had some english signs and brochure, so it was pretty nice. It described the history of Fukuoka and the surrounding prefecture, and had some interesting exhibits about the history and creation of crafts that are native to the region, such as Hakata dolls, which are carefully created from clay and painted by hand. It also talked about the biggest festival they have every year, where men carry very heavy floats through the town, each group trying to get the fastest time.

They also had some looms set up on which they weave Hakata cloth, which is used for obi, etc. These were in a house that was moved there for the purposes of preservation, since apparently it's a good example of architecture. It was really nice. There was also a gift shop where some Indian men were confusing both me and the shop owners... he kept asking if they put his desired purchases into the bag. It was really strange >_>

Afterwards I went to the Fukuoka Asian Art museum, which was pretty small, but I think it might be the only one (or one of few) of its kind. There was modern art from many Asian countries, like Thailand, China, and Malaysia. They had a special exhibit of Chinese propaganda posters which was very interesting. I ate at their cafe, where the food was okay but the people watching was good because there were cute children. :<

I meandered through the rest of the city, visiting various shrines and temples. What I like the most about Fukuoka besides the nice water are all the shrines and temples peppered throughout. I visited the Kushida shrine, which has many shrines and such on the grounds. They also have a gigantic ginkgo tree, which was awesome.

I'm cutting this entry a bit short because I have to get ready to check out of this hotel. Standard check-out time in Japan is 10am >_> but I want to get going to see the sights anyway.

Bye for now ^^