Winter means cold

Alright,

Back in Tokyo right now, after two days up waaay north. Aizu-Wakamatsu, where I attempted to see a festival I read one sentence about in Lonely Planet. Turns out that place is like a city, but not huge like Tokyo. So needless to say, I found no festival, but lots of things were closed, so maybe there was a festival. More beautiful castles, wonderful people, and communication problems. I was having dinner at this small place, with homemade gyoza, where the chef was interested in talking with me once he found out I was a cook (that works well around here), but due to my crappy phrasebook, I understood nothing, and our converstation was at a standstill.

I feel that this trip would be so much better if I knew even the slightest bit of Japanese. I mean, I`m definately picking it up, and the grammar isn`t very difficult, but it`s hard to learn vocabulary or even guess at a word if you can`t comprehend the alphabet. If you go to Japan (or any asian country), bring a pocket dictionary, in addition to or instead of a phrasebook. It will prove infinately more useful.

Item number 2: Fashion. Even in winter, when it`s cold (and it`s damn cold), girls wear short skirts and high boots or stockings. It`s crazy. I saw one girl on the Metro with hardcore goosebumps. Small price to pay for looking good, right? All the buisnessmen are stereotypical there, and I`ve seen alot of them. There are normal people too, but they are few and far between in Tokyo, but more prominent in the outer regions. Granted, on a train into tokyo from these places, the girls fancy up...

I stayed in a buisness hotel at the suggestion from a lady at 7-11 (yes, they have them here..), it was small, there was an alarm clock radio with 4 preset stations, and there was a television, so I absorbed some culture (from what I could understand). Not exciting, but restful... finally a western style bed.

Next was Morioka. That was a long trainride. I`m getting to be a regular on the bullet train, and I`m a fan. It was another city, but a beautiful one, with rivers all over the place, and a destroyed castle in the middle of it turned into a park. It was snowing, and I`m beginning to believe that it snows everywhere north of Tokyo, and doesn`t stop throughout the winter. I checked into this place that was suggested by the tourist place and by lonely planet, so it must be ok.

Couldn`t find it at first, because there were no english signage. However, I`m not too bad with a map, so I guessed well. It took 10 minutes to get someone though, and it was about 12:30, but they were out grocery shopping. It was a Minishiku (sp?), basically a japanese style inn. This nice old lady ran it, and I had a japanese style room, with Tatami mats everywhere, futon bedding, a TV and space heater (!), and a porch (did not get used, covered in snow).

Walked around, found free internet, had an adventure of eating in the basement of a department store. Those places are like food courts on speed (sorry for the drug references in this blog, but you have to see it to believe it). They had everything, from bakeries, restaurants, noodle stands, a grocery store, cheese shop (!), and tons of confectionary stores. The Japanese are perfectionists when it comes to fine food. Presentation is everything, and these things look beautiful. I haven`t tried many, because I save my money for the savory, but the ones I`ve had are really good (Paul - Beard Papa! I had a mille-fueille).

Wanko soba is a unique experience, probably best done with a group. I screwed it up of course, because I could not understand my server, even when she was repeating things like 5 times. (she showed me a glass and a bottle of beer to ask if I wanted draft or bottled, I motioned for both) Basically, they give you a bunch of side stuff, and a bowl with a lid. The waitress stands over you, and pours a mouthful of soba into the bowl, you eat it, she pours another one, you eat it, etc... It`s odd to have her standing over you the whole time, for one thing, and you feel like it`s some kind of race. I did 51 bowls, and I could have done more, but I felt like I was going to burst at the time.

Anyways, I roll back to where I`m staying, intending to read. The lady hears me come in, motions me to the bathroom, and says ``Shower!``

Now this means Japanese style bath. It`s a room with a deep bathub and a faucet/minishower, stools, and a brush. Basically, you clean yourself off really well using the minishower, and then relax in the bath, like at the onsen.

My skin was going to boil off.

That saying: ``Some like it hot.`` The Japanese like it exceedingly so. It was hotter than the onsen, and that`s saying something.

When I was done with that, I had a couple of mikan (Japanese clementines), a can of tea and some crackers waiting in my room. What service! I made good use of the space heater that night, because that`s all there was...