Thursday, June 22, 2006
Japan Day One: Ice Cream, Naked Men and an anti-climax
just deleted blog twice. didnt understand kanji word for delete instead of post. ARGH. doesnt help that this keyboard is about the size of my hot springs towel earlier today, so do forgive the typos and the total lack of apostrophes. japan keyboard layout very funny. sigh.
anyways, id best type this out while my memory is still fresh. japan is a place of many surprises. seriously. almost all the tips i got from people whove been here is wrong.
used to lack of apostrophes and caps yet? hope so. will edit later if i feel like it. will also add some photos when i get the chance. got some really good ones. promise.
anyhows... from the air, fukuoka looks like simcity. its got tightly packed buildings that look the same, only in different colours, and a bright blue highway that spirals its way around the city. me and sf (short for smallfart) hardly had a wink of sleep on the plane, so we pre-decided to just take it easy for our first day in japan. based on the title of this post alone, you can safely assume that things didnt quite go according to plan.
first thing we noticed? things arent really as expensive as people have led us to believe. a can of coke costs about 3 ringgit, while a pack of ciggies goes for rm10. anyhows, fukuoka is a really small airport with no duty free so after a brief language problem with the customs people, i was out into japanese air for the first time in 20 years.
felt the same as when i left kl. its 8am on a thursday morning and its quite bloody hot. i took off my jacket and went for a smoke in the cute little designated smoking area OUTSIDE the airport. weird thing... everyone smokes here, and most restaurants allow smoking, but make sure you do it in the designated areas.
anyway, soon after, sfs uncle arrived. sf is actually a friend of mine from back in my apiit days. his uncle married a japanese woman many years ago, and then settled down in kyushu (the southern most city of the southern most island of japan). he kindly offered to be our host during this trip, and his house is about 2 hours from fukuoka.
so we pop our stuff into the car, and shoot off. now, the best thing i like about travelling is that everything is new to you. because of that, i was hesitant to nod off, since i wanted to take it all in. but lack of sleep caused me to cave in in seconds.
woke up and had my first meal at a little convenience store. ice cream with red beans. sf was tellin me that ice cream in japan rocks! and i have to agree with him. for some reason, its damn good. anyway, while munching on my ice cream, i noticed that the air here was alot colder than back at the airport. i asked where we were. apparently, khengko-san (sfs uncle) had taken us to the hills of kiramoto... a province about an hour south of fukuoka. first thing on the agenda? a natural spring.
the countryside here is really nice. its kinda like the countryside of any first world nation (like aussie or the uk), except with little japanese huts and a big gaudy mall every 5km or so. ok, maybe huts is the wrong word... more like little modern houses like the ones u see in animes.
anyway, cos i seem to be rambling, and my wrists are starting to hurt from this measly keyboard, ill cut it short, springs were awesome. you cn drink (and bottle) the water straight and it tastes damn good. i always poo pooed all those expensive waters, saying that all water tastes the damned same. i stand corrected. anyhows, had my first real meal of more ice cream and some assorted tofus and headed off for somewhere more exciting... an active volcano.
a short drive later, i soon found myself thinking "hmmm... maybe a cable car ride up to an active volcano isnt such a good idea". but by that time, i was already on it. pictures at the base showed glowing red magma spitting out and huge plumes of smoke. they also had a sign warning asthmatics and heart conditioners not to go up because the volcano had been acting up lately. great. and also, here 2000m above sea level, the weather was freezing.
we arrive at the top and the first thing i see is a haagen daaz vending machine. these guys are nuts. shivering and whipped with a light drizzle and a heavy wind, we begin the short climb right up to the mouth of the volcano, and peer down into the crater with anticipation.
mist.
alot of mist.
we wait for about ten minutes for it to clear and then this short official looking guy comes up to us, and tells us that the mist came about ten minutes ago, but probably wouldnt let up for another coupla hours. great. oh yes, and incidentally, were here in japan smack in the middle of a one-month rainy season, so its been raining intermittently all day. oh well.
we head off for some ramen (rm15) at a stall to warm our insides. oh, interesting fact - in japan, people just order "a bowl of ramen" without stating the type. apparently, each province has a different "default" ramen. kiroshimas version is a slightly milky broth that comes with half a noiled egg and a big juicy piece of char siew. yum!!!!
after that, we head off to a place called hells springs - for my first japanese bathhouse experience.
"so how far do we strip?" i ask khengko-san...
"everything" he replies while flashing me his buttocks.
and all i have to cover myself is a cloth the size of a paper napkin.
ok, honestly, i dont have anything against being naked, but being naked in front of someone youve known for a while can be a bit awkward. yknow guys and the whole penis thing right? its like if you know someones penis is smaller than yours, you can own them for life.
ive never seen any of my closest friends penises.
there i said it. anyhows, i was surprised how easily i took to it. but ive got to say that later, when i was drying myself, i found myself unconsciously turning away from sf. later i noticed he was doing the same, so it felt less awkward. no i didnt sneak a peek.
the hot stpring itself was damned relaxing, and you get over the slight smell of sulphure quite fast. getting back out into the cold weather is even better after that, so feeling extremely relaxed, i konked out in the car while we drove to our next destination... to meet someone called nagai-san.
nagai-san is a fifty plus japanese man, whos currently trying to get someone to market his revolutinary new hifi system. in a nutshell, the subwoofer, tweeter and mids are housed in this football-shaped wooden box, with each having multiple outputs in different directions. very cool stuff. check the photos later.
walking into nagai-san's house though, i felt like i was walking into a bizarre anime. there was barely space to walk, with wires, speaker cones, books, cds and god knows what else strewn into every imaginable crevice, shelf, box and piece of floor. you had to step on something walking in. it was impossible not to.
anyways, he gave us a quick demo of the system (to the tune of a cello recording he performed himself) and introduced his son, hidae-san. hidae-san is a really quiet guy, who speaks halting english - thanks to a brief stint in melbourne. we chit cat, have a ciggie, and soon were off for dinner in his toyota prius.
the prius is FUCKING cool. its a hybrid car that basically stores energy when you brake, to use it when u accelerate, thus using abouft half the fuel of an equivalently powerfrul car. it also has this way cool display on the dashboard that shows you everything like efficiency graphs and so forth - and the coolest thing... a view of the camera mounted on the rear bumper to help you park, complete with grid lines to tell us exactly the right position. i pulled my camera out to take a few pictures.
at this point, sf turns to me and tell me that all the people we met to far must think were sakais. weve been taking pictures of everything, from japanese myvis to cans of drink.
i will never laugh at another japanese tourist ever again.
dinner is delicious once again, consisting of pancakes cooked with mui chee rice cakes. damned good, and goes well with the beer. after that, we head back to hidae-sans place, where apparently were spending the night. hidae-sans apartment is not much neater than his dads, except that in the place of wires and equipment, there are piles and piles of manga books, toys, game consoles and soft drinks. he is what the locals call an otaku. a fanboy.
well, we get along just fine, and soon, were playing soul calibur and gran turismo up to about 1am in the morning, at which point we head off to sleep.
except me, cos ive been typing this journal. but now its my turn too.
tomorrow - itll be the audio-dojo, shopping and off the kagoshima - khengko-sans home.
gnight marasia. boosh.
anyways, id best type this out while my memory is still fresh. japan is a place of many surprises. seriously. almost all the tips i got from people whove been here is wrong.
used to lack of apostrophes and caps yet? hope so. will edit later if i feel like it. will also add some photos when i get the chance. got some really good ones. promise.
anyhows... from the air, fukuoka looks like simcity. its got tightly packed buildings that look the same, only in different colours, and a bright blue highway that spirals its way around the city. me and sf (short for smallfart) hardly had a wink of sleep on the plane, so we pre-decided to just take it easy for our first day in japan. based on the title of this post alone, you can safely assume that things didnt quite go according to plan.
first thing we noticed? things arent really as expensive as people have led us to believe. a can of coke costs about 3 ringgit, while a pack of ciggies goes for rm10. anyhows, fukuoka is a really small airport with no duty free so after a brief language problem with the customs people, i was out into japanese air for the first time in 20 years.
felt the same as when i left kl. its 8am on a thursday morning and its quite bloody hot. i took off my jacket and went for a smoke in the cute little designated smoking area OUTSIDE the airport. weird thing... everyone smokes here, and most restaurants allow smoking, but make sure you do it in the designated areas.
anyway, soon after, sfs uncle arrived. sf is actually a friend of mine from back in my apiit days. his uncle married a japanese woman many years ago, and then settled down in kyushu (the southern most city of the southern most island of japan). he kindly offered to be our host during this trip, and his house is about 2 hours from fukuoka.
so we pop our stuff into the car, and shoot off. now, the best thing i like about travelling is that everything is new to you. because of that, i was hesitant to nod off, since i wanted to take it all in. but lack of sleep caused me to cave in in seconds.
woke up and had my first meal at a little convenience store. ice cream with red beans. sf was tellin me that ice cream in japan rocks! and i have to agree with him. for some reason, its damn good. anyway, while munching on my ice cream, i noticed that the air here was alot colder than back at the airport. i asked where we were. apparently, khengko-san (sfs uncle) had taken us to the hills of kiramoto... a province about an hour south of fukuoka. first thing on the agenda? a natural spring.
the countryside here is really nice. its kinda like the countryside of any first world nation (like aussie or the uk), except with little japanese huts and a big gaudy mall every 5km or so. ok, maybe huts is the wrong word... more like little modern houses like the ones u see in animes.
anyway, cos i seem to be rambling, and my wrists are starting to hurt from this measly keyboard, ill cut it short, springs were awesome. you cn drink (and bottle) the water straight and it tastes damn good. i always poo pooed all those expensive waters, saying that all water tastes the damned same. i stand corrected. anyhows, had my first real meal of more ice cream and some assorted tofus and headed off for somewhere more exciting... an active volcano.
a short drive later, i soon found myself thinking "hmmm... maybe a cable car ride up to an active volcano isnt such a good idea". but by that time, i was already on it. pictures at the base showed glowing red magma spitting out and huge plumes of smoke. they also had a sign warning asthmatics and heart conditioners not to go up because the volcano had been acting up lately. great. and also, here 2000m above sea level, the weather was freezing.
we arrive at the top and the first thing i see is a haagen daaz vending machine. these guys are nuts. shivering and whipped with a light drizzle and a heavy wind, we begin the short climb right up to the mouth of the volcano, and peer down into the crater with anticipation.
mist.
alot of mist.
we wait for about ten minutes for it to clear and then this short official looking guy comes up to us, and tells us that the mist came about ten minutes ago, but probably wouldnt let up for another coupla hours. great. oh yes, and incidentally, were here in japan smack in the middle of a one-month rainy season, so its been raining intermittently all day. oh well.
we head off for some ramen (rm15) at a stall to warm our insides. oh, interesting fact - in japan, people just order "a bowl of ramen" without stating the type. apparently, each province has a different "default" ramen. kiroshimas version is a slightly milky broth that comes with half a noiled egg and a big juicy piece of char siew. yum!!!!
after that, we head off to a place called hells springs - for my first japanese bathhouse experience.
"so how far do we strip?" i ask khengko-san...
"everything" he replies while flashing me his buttocks.
and all i have to cover myself is a cloth the size of a paper napkin.
ok, honestly, i dont have anything against being naked, but being naked in front of someone youve known for a while can be a bit awkward. yknow guys and the whole penis thing right? its like if you know someones penis is smaller than yours, you can own them for life.
ive never seen any of my closest friends penises.
there i said it. anyhows, i was surprised how easily i took to it. but ive got to say that later, when i was drying myself, i found myself unconsciously turning away from sf. later i noticed he was doing the same, so it felt less awkward. no i didnt sneak a peek.
the hot stpring itself was damned relaxing, and you get over the slight smell of sulphure quite fast. getting back out into the cold weather is even better after that, so feeling extremely relaxed, i konked out in the car while we drove to our next destination... to meet someone called nagai-san.
nagai-san is a fifty plus japanese man, whos currently trying to get someone to market his revolutinary new hifi system. in a nutshell, the subwoofer, tweeter and mids are housed in this football-shaped wooden box, with each having multiple outputs in different directions. very cool stuff. check the photos later.
walking into nagai-san's house though, i felt like i was walking into a bizarre anime. there was barely space to walk, with wires, speaker cones, books, cds and god knows what else strewn into every imaginable crevice, shelf, box and piece of floor. you had to step on something walking in. it was impossible not to.
anyways, he gave us a quick demo of the system (to the tune of a cello recording he performed himself) and introduced his son, hidae-san. hidae-san is a really quiet guy, who speaks halting english - thanks to a brief stint in melbourne. we chit cat, have a ciggie, and soon were off for dinner in his toyota prius.
the prius is FUCKING cool. its a hybrid car that basically stores energy when you brake, to use it when u accelerate, thus using abouft half the fuel of an equivalently powerfrul car. it also has this way cool display on the dashboard that shows you everything like efficiency graphs and so forth - and the coolest thing... a view of the camera mounted on the rear bumper to help you park, complete with grid lines to tell us exactly the right position. i pulled my camera out to take a few pictures.
at this point, sf turns to me and tell me that all the people we met to far must think were sakais. weve been taking pictures of everything, from japanese myvis to cans of drink.
i will never laugh at another japanese tourist ever again.
dinner is delicious once again, consisting of pancakes cooked with mui chee rice cakes. damned good, and goes well with the beer. after that, we head back to hidae-sans place, where apparently were spending the night. hidae-sans apartment is not much neater than his dads, except that in the place of wires and equipment, there are piles and piles of manga books, toys, game consoles and soft drinks. he is what the locals call an otaku. a fanboy.
well, we get along just fine, and soon, were playing soul calibur and gran turismo up to about 1am in the morning, at which point we head off to sleep.
except me, cos ive been typing this journal. but now its my turn too.
tomorrow - itll be the audio-dojo, shopping and off the kagoshima - khengko-sans home.
gnight marasia. boosh.
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
4-month blog syndrome
I haven't blogged for more than a month.
Sure, I'll go into the usual tirade about how it's been crazy, or that I haven't really felt like writing anything, but i think the fact is that bloggers reach a critical point after 4 months.
After the initial joy of blogging is gone, after you've gotten used to exposing your thoughts to an unknown public... yadadada. Also, now that I've actually got people reading what I say (unlike my first ever post), I can no longer say anything. Trust me, no matter how little you care about what other people think, sometimes you just can't always write what you feel. Why? Because when you weigh the importance of your words against the potential to hurt someone, free speech just isn't that important all the time.
Anyhows, aside from the necessity of telling people i know that I'm in Japan as of tomorrow (22-29 June), I've also decided to continue blogging. Alot of people have commented that my blog isn't much like myself. It's alot more sombre, and sometimes depressing.
Well, to be honest, the first thing is that I always find it harder to be funny in writing. I think it's something to do with the fact that it's not as spontaneous as talking. Anyhow, the 2nd reason (and i think this one is bigger), is simply because you probably don't know me that well.
I'm a very introspective person by nature, and this blog is in a way, for me to explore myself. Someone who recently wrote a column anonymously pointed out to me that her first writing experience was like a journey. I guess in a way, it's like love. If you really care about your subject, it's always a journey.
Man, I'm rambling. Anyhows, will be in Japan, where my phone won't work. Despite this, I've just (really, just) decided to use this blog as a Journal of my Japan trip. Will post pictures (not of chuck norris).
Sure, I'll go into the usual tirade about how it's been crazy, or that I haven't really felt like writing anything, but i think the fact is that bloggers reach a critical point after 4 months.
After the initial joy of blogging is gone, after you've gotten used to exposing your thoughts to an unknown public... yadadada. Also, now that I've actually got people reading what I say (unlike my first ever post), I can no longer say anything. Trust me, no matter how little you care about what other people think, sometimes you just can't always write what you feel. Why? Because when you weigh the importance of your words against the potential to hurt someone, free speech just isn't that important all the time.
Anyhows, aside from the necessity of telling people i know that I'm in Japan as of tomorrow (22-29 June), I've also decided to continue blogging. Alot of people have commented that my blog isn't much like myself. It's alot more sombre, and sometimes depressing.
Well, to be honest, the first thing is that I always find it harder to be funny in writing. I think it's something to do with the fact that it's not as spontaneous as talking. Anyhow, the 2nd reason (and i think this one is bigger), is simply because you probably don't know me that well.
I'm a very introspective person by nature, and this blog is in a way, for me to explore myself. Someone who recently wrote a column anonymously pointed out to me that her first writing experience was like a journey. I guess in a way, it's like love. If you really care about your subject, it's always a journey.
Man, I'm rambling. Anyhows, will be in Japan, where my phone won't work. Despite this, I've just (really, just) decided to use this blog as a Journal of my Japan trip. Will post pictures (not of chuck norris).
