Osaka and Himeji

This past weekend two friends (both girls and my usual travel buddies) and I decided to take a short trip down to Osaka and Himeji. I have always wanted to go to these cities to view their world-famous castles.

I booked the cheapest hostle I could find. It received high ratings, but the living situation was 5 bunk beds (total of 10 beds) in a single room with a single bathroom and shower. Since we went on a Sunday and Monday night, the hostle was practically empty. It also had a lot of character, since people staying there could write whatever they wanted in sharpie on the walls and lockers. It was actually a very cozy and comfortable place. Here are some pictures of the place:





After dropping our stuff off, we went to the cities main cultural attraction: Osaka-Jo, or in English, Osaka Castle. The castle was incredible and everything I dreamed it would be. Although it was not the original (since American "precision" bombing in WWII took out the national monument), it was still incredible and built to look exactly like the real thing. However, the inside was completely remodeled and made into a museum. There was even two elevators in there! It was about 85 degrees outside and about as humid as Florida, so I might look a little sweaty in some of the pictures.






After the castle we wanted to head over to the tallest building in Osaka because there is an observatory on the roof. But, before on the way to the building, we stumbled upon an underground shopping mall. It was HUGE! There were all kinds of shops and, of course, people everywhere. This mall proves that if there was ever a nuclear war or something that contaminated the earth's surface, then entire cities of people could live underground.




We made it to the "Floating Garden" building shortly after. The architecture of that building was quite impressive. I swear that the building was constructed just for tourism and couples.



The two vertical tubes are elevators with clear glass windows, the horizontal tube is a walkway between both sides, and the two diagonal tubes at the top are both escalators. Going up the elevator 40 floors with glass windows on all sides is pretty creepy. I felt like I was on the Supreme Scream ride at the amusement park that just brings and elevator up and then drops you down. The ride up was worth it; the view was incredible from the top, despite the corny 80's love music they were playing. We made it right before sunset so we were able to see the view before and after it got dark.






The next day I had planned a day trip for us to go to Himeji, a nearby city. Himeji has the only completely original castle in Japan, and was recommended to me by many of my teachers.

This castle blew me away. It was way more beautiful and impressive than the one in Osaka. When we went in, there were some Australian and Canadian exchange students starting an English tour. We just jumped onto their tour (uninvited). The most interesting thing about the castle was the multitude of ways the castle could defeat its enemies. For example, there were numerous different walkways around the castle grounds. One walkway, that appeared to go directly to the fortress, was actually the wrong way and led to a dead end with many kill-holes surrounding it. At every gateway, there is a small cement ledge that you need to step over to cross. If the enemies are in a rush to storm the castle, one might trip on this unseen ledge, and then be trampled by his comrades. In one spot, right after the ledge, there are intensely steep and high stairs, which would be very difficult to climb in full samurai armor. In yet another area, the walkway is covered with a certain kind of slippery leaves. If you circumvent the leaves and follow the wall, it leads to a cliff and you fall to your death. Honestly, the defense mechanisms of this castle were incredible and like nothing I have ever heard of in the many European castles that I visited. Here are pictures of the beautiful castle:








We were lucky, because that day there was apparently a festival in the small city. A Japanese festival consists of an area with very many stands of food and games. Also, many people, especially the girls, dress up in formal wear (that means kimonos). There was also a stage where the local school kids were performing a skit. Here are some pictures of the event.






That night we decided to go out and do something fun. After a sushi dinner, we walked around a pretty lively shopping and bar area. We found a karaoke place that had a special for that night: all you can drink and karaoke in a private room for as long as you want for 1800 yen ($18). The room was a tiny box with 5 seats, a table, a flat panel tv, and speakers. So, we did karaoke for like 3 and a half hours. I also got pretty drunk off of whiskey and my friends took some pretty funny pictures of me. Good thing my friends were there or else I probably wouldn't have made it home (let alone out of the building).





The next day we stayed in Osaka and went to the nationally famous ceramics museum. I've never given ceramics more than a passing glance, but the museum was actually very interesting and enjoyable. It's incredible to see the exquisite bowls and pitchers people were using hundreds of years ago.

After that we went to Spa World. Yes, it is exactly what it sounds like. It is the biggest Onsen in the world! The building was ginormous and is several stories tall. the men's floor was European themed while the women's floor was Asian themed. That means that every bath and each room was decorated to fit a certain country. It was awesome. They had some interesting spa stuff. For example, they had a salt bath, where the water was extremely salty, which is good for the skin. They had a bath with a large waterfall going into it. So I sat under the waterfall and got a makeshift massage. Also, they had a salt sauna. In the sauna, there was a big porcelain bowl of salt in the middle, and salt all over the floor and seats. They gave you a mat to sit on so you didn't get salt up your but. In there, I rubbed raw salt all over my raw skin. It felt great. In addition, they had a tea bath. In the bath they had a big bag of herbs, such as lavender, rosemary, sage, peppermint, and etc. The water was a deep purple and smelled really good. We only had time to spend 2 or so hours in there, which was kind of disappointing.

After spa-world, that night, we headed home. I was exhausted the next day in class.

Homestay

As part of the program, each student has an option to stay with a host family for one weekend. I of course wanted to partake in the home-stay program. When I was first given my family assignment (An older couple in their 50's and a grandmother in her 70's) I was a little nervous that I wouldn't be able to relate with them or share any interests. It turns out that my host parents have a daughter (age 27) who is married. They are acting as my friend Aaron's host parents. So, it worked out that our two families would be spending a lot of time together.

My host mom and Aaron's host mom picked us up from school on Friday. After making a short stop at Aaron's family's house, we picked up Aaron's host dad and went to dinner at a fish restaurant. My host Mom and Aaron's host dad spoke almost no english besides very basic greetings. Aaron's host mom had a little bit of understanding of English, but had a very difficult time speaking it. Therefore, I was able to practice my Japanese a lot this weekend. However, I was extremely nervous. I was on my best behavior, scared to death of offending my house family or making a culture mistake. Well, at dinner, I made plenty of them.

In a nutshell, I was spoiled all weekend. At dinner, they ordered so many plates of food. First was cut tomatoes and some sushi nigiri. I made the mistake of dipping my eel in soy sauce, which you aren't supposed to do since it already comes with a sauce. When I did it, the three host parents stopped eating and made an "Eeeeee" sound. It was embarrassing. Then came a potato plate, then a salmon plate, and at that point (after two beers) I was full. Then, the waiter brings over a giant boat full of sashimi (literally a boat covered in sashimi). I managed to find a place in my stomach for that delicious fish.

After dinner, my host dad picked up my host mom and I from Aaron's host-parents apartment. My host dad was a skinny little Japanese guy. He spoke the most english out of anyone, but I still tried to speak to him mainly in Japanese since I wasn't sure exactly how much English he understood. We talked about his profession on the ride home, and he turns out to work for a telegraph company. Yes, telegraphs, like the ones they used in the 1920's. Apparently, telegraphs are the preferred way of communication when you are rsvp-ing for parties and when you want to tell your loan shark that you can't make the payment. It took them a very long time to explain this to me in Japanese...

The apartment I stayed at was tiny, but humble. It consisted of 3 bedrooms, a kitchen / dining room, a toilet room, and a shower room. It was very narrow. Also, they had little "chyatchskis" (for lack of a better word) everywhere. Regardless of my protests, my host parents gave me their bed to sleep on while they slept on futons on the floor in the other room. Not that I'm complaining, but I found it interesting that the bed was just an elevated piece of wood with a tiny bit of padding over it. Here are some pictures of the place:





The next day, I woke up at 7:30, and my host dad had already left for work. The grandma had woken up early to make me a delicious breakfast. I had an amazing salad and some mini-sandwiches. Check out this salad:



I haven't eaten vegetables like that in forever.

Aaron and his host parents picked my host mom and I up and we drove to Hakone. Its at least a 2 hour drive to the mountain town we were visiting, so we stopped at a rest stop on the way. A Japanese rest stop is a little bit different than what we're used to in America. The place was ginormous! Not only was there a bathroom and vending machines, but they had a huge food court and a giant convenient store. Look at these pictures to believe it:





Hakone is a beautiful mountain town at the edge of a lake. We took a scenic drive and had an overview of the area. Here is a picture of the area and one of me with my host mom:





At the top of highest mountain in Hakone is a Sulfur hot springs. Of course, it smelled horrible (and not because there were Chinese tourists everywhere). One of the main attractions of the hot springs is that they make hard-boiled eggs in the actual sulfur hot springs. The eggs are blackened on the outside. Supposedly, if you eat an egg, it increases your life by 7 years; I ate two. It sounds really gross but it just tastes like a normal egg. Here are some pictures of the area:




Following the theme of steaming-hot water, we went to an Onsen (the Japanese public bath) after leaving the sulfur hot springs. It was a super nice onsen in the hills of Hakone. We also ate a very traditional Japanese lunch there that consisted of cold soba noodles, rice (of course), some sashimi, tempura vegetables, and miso soup. Once again delicious. I felt bad because my host Mom would not let me pay for anything.

That night we went to an uncle's house (I don't know who's uncle he was). It was the largest Japanese house I have seen (which means it's small by American standards). In the family was 3 daughters, in highschool and middle school, a husband (the uncle), his Philipino wife, and the grandpa. The adults made fun of me the entire night; it was terrible. First, they served just my friend aaron and I bowls of rice. Then, I put some soy sauce on the rice - Big No No. Apparently, it is disrespectful to rice to put soy sauce on it, even though every Japanese person I have asked agrees that it tastes delicious. So, especially when you at someone else's dinner table, you don't do that. I didn't know this at the time. So, when I did that, everyone stopped eating and stared at me. The wife even gave a little scream. I was so embarassed. Then the grandpa started making fun of me, and I had no idea what he was saying, except that everyone was laughing a lot. He then gave me a spoon and told me to eat the rice with that. No one explained why, but thinking back on it, I think that he was trying to say that I have disrespected rice so much that I do not deserve to eat it with chopsticks. Anyway, dinner got a lot better when they brought out the sake. I drank quite a bit, and ended up falling asleep immediately after getting back to my homestay parents' apartment.

The next day we went to Asakusa, in Tokyo. It's a famous temple in Tokyo and the prime location of souvenir shops. After that we ate at this delicious teppan place. I have noticed that in many restaurants throughout Japan, you have to cook your own food on the hot table infront of you. While this is usually a lot of fun, it gets annoying when you're really hungry, tired, and just want to eat. Here are pictures of lunch and Asakusa.





Later that day, my host mom had to go to work and do end-of-the-month accounting, so I hung out with Aaron and his host parents. For dinner they took us to a local ramen shop that specializes in spicy food. They have a spicy scale of 1-5, and, feeling adventurous, I chose 3. My mouth will never be the same. Aaron, who grew up on spicy food, picked a 5 and didn't even think it was spicy. Aaron's host mom picked 0 spiciness. Look at the pictures comparing a 0, a 3, and a 5 (in that order):





Since it was a local restaurant, Aaron's host parents knew the owner, who happened to be quite drunk at the time. He, of course, was intensely interested in foreigners. We told him about some of the souvenirs we bought in Asakusa, and then he wanted to show us how to make "samurai pants." Samurai pants are not pants, but actually just a loincloth. The samurai used to wear them in the Summer when it was very hot and humid. This guy was pretty funny. The pictures sum it up perfectly:





After I said thank you a million times, They took us back home that night, where I caught up on some much needed rest.

Tokyo Metal Concert

Sorry, but the blogs are going to be a little out of chronological order from now on. I just don't have time right now to write another long one, and I want to post something (since i haven't updated the blog in at least a week).

A couple weekends ago I went to a hardcore metal concert in Tokyo. I have always wanted to see a metal concert in Tokyo because all my favorite rock bands record their live albums at their Tokyo concerts. However, due to the hard economic times, none of my favorite bands are able to travel to Japan for some concerts. So, instead, I went to see some local bands at a small venue.

An old friend from Jewish Summer camp, Andrew, is currently living in Tokyo working for a music company. His job is to pretty much to go to smaller concerts and listen to local bands, and try to find good artists for his record company; Pretty sweet, huh? So he found a concert for us to go to using his abundant resources.

The Japanese concert experience was like nothing I've ever experienced. First, the venue: The place was tiny. It was a single narrow room with a small elevated stage and a tiny bar in the back. Surprisingly, the sound was INCREDIBLE. I could hear every single guitar string being plucked. For a place that small, it was unbelievable. I've been to small venues before, like the Whiskey on Sunset (which is at least 3 times the size of this place), and the sound in this small place was 100X better.



Next, the dancing: This was a thrash metal or hardcore concert. So, you know that screaming music that makes you cringe whenever you rarely hear it? It was that kind of concert. Very heavy guitar melodies and super fast and loud vocals. There's a certain style of "dancing" to this type of music called "Hardcore Dancing." The best way to describe hardcore dancing is that a person enters the center of the opening in the "dance floor" and starts fighting as hard as he can against the air. He will kick, punch, swing his arms, and just go crazy, hitting nothing but air. They dance like this in states to this kind of music, But the Japanese kids put a little bit of a twist on it. Instead of just punches and elbows, the Japanese youth went flying through the crowd doing flying round-house kicks. It was insane. If you were on the edge of the mosh pit, you got beat up, all there is to it; I got a bruise or two. It was interesting to say the least




Finally, the audience: Japanese concerts are notorious for their audiences. In this type of music its very typical for people to just unleash all the energy that they have been bundling for the week. As I explained, the people mostly do this through hardcore dancing. But, in-between songs, the crowd goes COMPLETELY silent. Not a sound. Everyone listens intently and with the utmost respect to what the artist is saying.

After a few songs and a few flasks of Whiskey, we talk to some Japanese guys. Andrew, who has had a lot of experience being a white person at a Japanese show, told me "they will ask you if you like so-and-so band, and no matter what, say yes, and they will buy you drinks." So, after saying I like blah blah, They take us to the store next door and buy us beers.



After the show, we met another white girl (from australia) and her Japanese boyfriend. We end up going with them to some english pub down the street to greasy drunk food. Delicious....




I made it onto the last train, and almost slept through my stop. I slept the entire next day!