It's been far too long...

So the last post I made was a week ago so this time you're gonna get a lot of brain vomits because it's hard to keep it all chronological.

Friday Saturday Sunday Monday

If I remember correctly this weekend began with a trip to Tokyo (I don't remember where) to an NSF, yes the NSF, luncheon. It was actually pretty nice. Good food, smart people, and just interesting conversation about things that I had no idea about.

After the luncheon, however, my group was planning to go the Hikone (which is very far from Tokyo) via a rather expensive Shinkansen. I didn't have the money so I plotted a course to get to Hikone with multiple transfers on the local train lines. During this part I found out exactly how nice the Japanese can be...and I'm not sure but I think my knowing a little Japanese makes them a wee bit more comfortable with me. I mean these ladies (yes I had two help desk ladies working with me at one point) were calling buses and train stations to find the best prices and times of departures and were really very concerned that I made it to Hikone alright. I thanked them and was on my way very quickly, actually.

This plan worked out very well ignoring the fact that it took half the night and some of the morning but I made it and I didn't have to pay for lodging since I was constantly moving but that did mean that I was tired the morning after but I did, after some asking around, find the hotel...thing at which my friends were staying. I met five Japanese researchers and we almost immediately set of to see the sites of Hikone, which began with the Castle Hikone. It was actually pretty interesting inside of there as it was relatively cool. In related news, all of the sites we visited began with small hikes up something as if the Japanese have some weird affection for large wooden structures surrounded by impossible moats with very steep stone stairways. It must've been very tiring to be a fully armored 5'7" samurai walking up all those stairs...or maybe I'm a wimp. There was also a little mascot (as there is for every city just about) for Hikone, specifically the castle. It was Hikonyan, a cat wearing a helmet with large horns resembling those on the helmet of the high ranking samurai of the area. After this we went to various gardens, castles and shrines that were all interesting individually but when put all together in one day so start to become tired of walking.

We then went to Nara (the mascot of which is the deer) where we saw a large temple and a five story pagoda. The place apparently was still in construction as the temple that was supposed to be in the center won't be there until 2010 if I remember correctly. It was nice until one of the deer decide to eat my friend's map...then it was great. We went to a museum full of nothing but Buddha statues just about.

After that we went to Kyoto where (I'm sure) we saw our last major landmarks including a small castle plated with gold from the second floor up and a very well built castle. At about this time I realized that most places in Japan were significantly cooler that Baltimore. I figure this is mostly because they have more trees and there houses are mostly made of wood and plaster instead of brick. While brick is stronger and insulates fairly well, it makes the out environment hotter which sucks for walkers...just something I figured. Also they use solar panels here a lot.

We then continued to Nagoya were I saw my first sumo tournament. It has some elements similar to "professional" wrestling in the states, most obvious of which is the art of getting the crowd riled up before an amazing match. The better part of our day was spent walking around the amazing campus of Nagoya U where our PhD we were following around went to study. Researchers at this university apparently had an important role in the invention of blue led technology (if it isn't the case that they were the ones who actually invented them). There was a museum on campus with some old "robots" of Japan long past. There were mostly puppets but there were a couple that were at the most spring powered "robot" servants. Also we got to meet teams that were doing interesting work with lasers and automated guidance systems for cars and a lot of there stuff that I had no idea about but it was fun. After Nagoya we had to part ways...they were going back north on a Shinkansen and I was going south to Osaka while I was down there anyway. So I got on a system of local trains again and arrived at Osaka sometime around midnight.

Tuesday Wednesday Thursday

I was worried that any hotel in the area would be closed but apparently that's not quite how hotels work but I didn't learn that until a little later. More than scared for lodging I was a little lacking in the food department so I decided to eat first figuring sleep won't be a problem if I starve. I wound up finding a very...very expensive hotel and asked for any cheaper hotels in the area and thank goodness the Japanese are nice because he actually went pretty far out of his way to show me a few. I wound up making and cancelling a couple of reservations but I finally spent the night at a capsule hotel for men...and I gotta say for the money it was pretty kewl. The next morning I set out to explore Osaka. I did the strut for a few seconds but no one seemed to care (if you don't know what I'm talking about look up the Ulfuls). I found a pretty sweet manga store and (after some asking) an even sweeter manga/toy/game/anything else store. This is were I found a ridiculous selection of Gundams for ridiculous prices. Anyway, after I made my shopping list I went back downstairs to leave when I noticed a rack full of little scrap books (I noticed a girl drawing, quite well may I add, in one of them before when I went upstairs) and decide to browse through and apparently the store encourages patrons to show off in them so I drew a little something and left. Upon leaving (I guess this guy saw me but I didn't see him) stops me and tells me he noticed my drawing and wanted to show me some more stores. I told him I had time and he gave me something of a tour of the anime scene at Osaka and oh what a scene it was. By the end of the night I had purchased (using his discount card) a couple of nice Gundam models. We went back to his place where he offered me a night and acknowledged that it was pretty strange for this to happen and it was...a little too strange for me but he did help me find a very cheap business hotel to stay at for the next two nights. During this time I found those Gundam pod arcade games again and decided to try it. I bought a pilot card, put in my "pilot information" and was ready to go but for 5 bucks per two games I could only be ready to go twice. The card however is good for about 200 games. Anyway, the game is a little cooler than I imagined. It was just as cramped but I got to see what Gundam pilots must feel like sitting in the middle of a war with several other robots flyin' around trying to kill you. I came out just about 2nd place in my team (they were 4v4 games) for all of my games. It had a panoramic display that wrapped all around with warnings for incoming fire (in Japanese though...the guy would say, "Look out to the left!" or something) there was voice chat for squad organization...it was crazy...I can't describe the awesomeness...you just have to play it...or something like it. I also managed to eat at Kushikatsu, a place recommended to me but a guy from Osaka I met in Tsukuba, and it was pretty good. There were drunk white collars everywhere though. After a good walk around this pretty big city I took 80 bucks and 12 hours and headed back to Tsukuba.

At this point I realized how cramped and small Japanese city planning was. At some parts of the train ride it seemed like I went the distance spanning maybe half of Baltimore and I thought, "well...I could've walked that." All this to say, their cities are very dense and built up not out and it would be nice if we had a decent train/subway system back home...that's all I'm sayin'!

Friday Saturday

Friday was spent entirely by traveling back to Tsukuba but Saturday we climbed mount Tsukuba which was pretty dangerous because we were climbing through a cloud and it began to rain and the rocks were slippery and all that jazz but we made it alright. Right after that about half our group went to Asakusa for a firework festival which was awesome because it was my first firework festival where there were fireworks on either side of me!!

...and that just about brings me up to today...so...I have a few more musings that I forgot along the way...

first for some reason Japan seems to have some of prettiest black girls ever...food for thought...

the Japanese love building things into things...like bike locks...built into the bike. It's a small metal semi circular hook that swings around the back tire trapping spokes on either side to prevent movement. One can only retrieve the key from it when it's locked. Or fire doors...I've seen more fire doors here than in Baltimore...don't know why. You know, those big metal doors to prevent the progression of fire to another part of a building. Or like traffic cones...sometimes built into the ground as like traffic pillar things like the ones they have in DC around important buildings just not automatic...speaking of automatic...almost all doors here are automatic and to cut down on energy waste you have to hit a button to get in but the ones where you don't have to, you have to get very close to open it.

I chose the wrong country to come to and be tall. At one hotel, all of the doors were about 6' even...I hit my head often.

Also turkey is almost unheard of here besides at Subway and pork is used in everything more so than it is in America (I can't help the fact that the previous sentence can be parsed badly resulting in terrible meanings).

And my feet are 33 cm...the biggest shoe size I've found is about 28 cm...yeah...