I successfully made it through Made of Honor and Kung Fu Panda, and most of some movie featuring Demi Moore stealing diamonds in London, but had lost interest during the fourth movie.. That football one with Jim Halpert and Renee Zellweger and George Clooney (I know).

For dinner on the plane I had curried chickpeas, lentils, and those little white beans with black spots. Black eyed peas? Anyways, served with jasmine rice which contained raisins and almond slices. Surprisingly delicious. Breakfast, on the other hand, was severely disappointing in that it was hot pineapples served with steamed barley. And then a cup of cold pineapple. And a dry bagel. Which was cold.

Anyways, we got off the plane after 12 hours and were herded onto a monorail which took us to the passport check. Since there were so many foreigners, they sent some, incl. me, to the Japanese citizen check in. I don't know why that was a good idea, considering they weren't trained to speak to english-speakers. So basically he prompted me in Japanese the whole time while he took pictures of my forehead, eyes, nose, mouth, chin, neck, and shoulders as well as my fingerprints.

The sign said "STRICT INSPECTION BEING CARRIED OUT FOR PREVENTION OF TERRORISM."

So, that was fine... my mom brought sausages illegally into Japan and had to check the corresponding box on the customs form that was in the same category as firearms and other weapons. I don't know either. It specifically said "sausage" though..so she checked yes, and the customs guy figured it was a mistake, laughed at her, and waved us through. Sausages secured.

Nicky then found us, we got on a bus to Kobe which was a little less than an hour..the bus had a bathroom on it and was really nice. We got off in Kobe at the train station and climbed aboard to ride another hour to Ono, which is where my brother lives. Mom had her first encounter with a squatting floor toilet, which is similar to peeing in a bowl on the floor.

We reached Ono and then had to walk about 10 minutes, 50 lb suitcases in tow, to Nicky's apartment. I saw the biggest beetle of my life. All of the bugs here are gigantic and I'm making an effort to collect photographic evidence, with emphasis on the word "graphic." I ate some subtly unpleasant fish crackers and then fell asleep immediately around midnight.

written by  RoboRaptor on August 6, 2008 from Osaka, Japan
from the travel blog: Japan: Irashaimase!
tagged Osaka, Bugs and Hot
Send a Compliment

---

comment on this...

Some things I've noticed:
-Firstly, a LOT, like, 90% of the women wearing heels cannot walk in them
-Usually, a short "hai" or "mm" + nod will do the trick, if you have no idea what they're saying.
-Squat toilets are unfortunately common, however, not so bad when TP is supplied
-Mayonaise goes on everything
-The water tastes fine
-The bugs are huge.
------------------------------
Anyways, had my first Japanese meal this afternoon; we went to this place, which I forgot the name of, but, it was a "yaki" restaurant. This concept is impossible to explain but I am attempting to defeat all odds:
A yaki is somewhat similar to what we know of as egg foo young, except, way more complex. One sits down in their booth like normal, and a waitress comes over and turns on the gas under your table. Right. Your table is a flat grill. Okay. So she brings a menu that is made of wood and about 4 feet tall, and stands it up on your table. Everyone chooses from this giant wooden menu. Now, the yaki itsself is...here goes. If you put a non-sweet (barley?) pancake on a grill, let it cook, and then topped it with eggs, and added many many ridiculous toppings...you would be close to a yaki. Mine, for instance, was Italian themed. Atop the layer of eggs was a sheet of thick mozzarella goo, with mystery brown sauce stripes, under which you found a few shrimp and many tomatoes. Nicky's had a layer of fried noodles, and...something... and squid rectangles and grilled shrimp. Topped with some weird but tasty brown sauce. My mom's was indian themed, and had potatoes and pork layered in/on the eggs, and covered with a brown curry sauce. (Pictures.)

I ordered a calpis in Japanese, which was terrifying.

Anyways it was delicious and came with miso soup, rice, and ice cream.
I was so full.

We taxi'd back and for some reason I then fell asleep for four hours. Wtf. We were supposed to go to Kobe. I can't help but feel like it was my fault we didn't.

Anyways I woke up and we went to dinner at a tiny yaki tori (grilled chicken) restaurant where I ate a lot of fried things. I.E. Yams, potatoes..As well as a plate of shiitake mushroom tops, half a butter potato, and a delicious tuna salad with japanese dressing. They had a crazy clock collection and a lot of American themed wall stuff/music.

Then we went to dinner AGAIN. 20 minutes later. Down the street at RASTA which is a hilarious marijuana themed restaurant. The food's still Japanese...just..the seat cushions and wall hangings had pot leaves on them. And they played bob marley. I ate some raw fish and it was fine but I don't think I look forward to having it again.

Walked to the supermarket for the first time, bought a bunch of little japanese cakes and drinks etc, and got myself another frogstyle keychain. I am good to go.

written by  RoboRaptor on August 6, 2008 from Ono, Japan
from the travel blog: Japan: Irashaimase!
tagged FrogStyle, Rasta, Yaki and YakiTori
Send a Compliment

---

comment on this...

Pictures are already up from today, detailing my lunching adventure. Dinner pics soon.

Also maybe I should explain the blog titles. Basically it's the phrase that I heard the most that day. Irashaimase = welcome, Atsui ne? = Hot, isn't it? Calpis Hitotsu onegaishimasu = ONE CALPIS PLEASE because I can't stop drinking them.

Today's is jyuu hachi, honto? (18, really?!) because two people guessed that I was 23 (impressive that they at least chose the same number and weren't even in the same room together) and someone else guessed like 20. They all said JYUU HACHIIII? HONTOOOO?!

We met up with Nicky's co-worker, Kawashima san, and she treated us to lunch at a veggie friendly buffet, which to them is called "viking style." MAKES SENSE THOUGH. It was delicious and I ate so much, and spoke some Japanese to the lady. (My plate includes yaki soba, rice w/ seaweed flakes, egg something, tenpura vegetables, something that was like rice and vegetable florentine, which was delicious, some sweet spongey material similar in concept to tofu...and I don't remember what else. Also the token calpis.) We left that place and she took us back to her traditional japanese home w/ garden, which was amazing and also awkward, and really really humid.

She then took us to the "national treasure," whatever that means- but from what I observed it is a giant buddha shrine in Miki, which is where we ate lunch, and is right outside of Ono. Pics. The buildings were of course lovely, and I almost got in trouble for photographing buddha, but thankfully I remembered how to construct a sentence in japanese, asking if if was okay to take pictures.
-----
6:30 rolled around and we went to Matsuyama san's house, aka the Bus Lady for dinner... she practically yanked me out of the car excitedly and hugged me and was like NICE TO MEET YUUUUU and I said HAJIMEMASHITEEEEE... And she giggled, as they all do, when I attempt to speak their language. She had prepared a lot of fish and vegetable dishes in my honor, knowing I don't eat meat (the land dwelling variety) and also hand-made my mom and I a little purse. Which is totes cute. Tote, hah. She made these little whole fish bodies for me, bones and all, and I felt bad so I tried to eat one but the bones in my mouth made me kinda want to puke. I bit an effing fish in half. Anyways the rest was delicious (maki rolls with tuna salad inside, and other kind with egg, that sweet tofu sponge, and shiitake) (and more tenpura vegetables)... we finished it off with tea and a hilarious birthday ceremony for Matsuyama san, whose bday is tomorrow. Everyone was very cordial and talked a whole lot to me even though I only understood a fraction of what they were saying. They complimented me on my japanese a lot, (both the matsuyama dinner party and the kawashima lunch party) (NIHONGO GA JYOUZU!!!) but probably because I just say "mm, sou." all the time. As I said before, the head nod and "mm" works just fine; although I did answer two questions wrong in that manner.

Oh also the 15 year old girl Mikiko got me a little fan and some stickers, which was super cute. She was reallyyy nice. Her brother, who sat next to me, "Shin," didn't talk much at all. Actually, he just didn't talk. I felt bad because I felt like I was supposed to talk to him but clearly we're both shy and the ladies we were eating with weren't making it any better by pointing at us and saying IIIIII (iiii) COUPLE. ii meaning "good, fine," etc.

Awkward.

written by  RoboRaptor on August 7, 2008 from Miki, Japan
from the travel blog: Japan: Irashaimase!
Send a Compliment

---

comment on this...