Korea
Japan
Hong Kong
But there are so many other places I may wind up... (hopefully not jail or dead).
I am using this space as a blog, and as a way to dump the dailies I take from my camera (Panasonic GH1 and Samsung TL320). I want those who are interested to get a daily-updated, unfiltered view of my crazy Asian adventure.
Power up! Geisha, Kyoto, Shinkansen a GO GO! - Japan, Day 4
David and I had to get up ass-in-my-face early for hotel checkout (we should be used to it by now…). Thank God the hotel let us store our bags there while we went out exploring that day.
We people-watched at Kyoto station for a while, it was pretty fun. The place is so huge and open! And the architecture is really amazing.
We took the train to Karasuma station in Kyoto. On the little map we had, there was some mention of a market close to the exit? A MARKET NO SHIT SWEET!!
It was packed, yo. There were tons of smelly foods and trinkets to buy. Thankfully I didn’t give in, I coulda blown a wad there, but the thick smell of fish got my legs movin. The market stretched for DAYS.
At the end of the market there was small courtyard/temple where these dudes dressed in white kept lighting a fire and then putting it out. I’m not sure why, but fire is always cool!
I also liked the contrast of the fire next to water:
I’m sure it means something! But who has the time to think, anyways? I’m busy.
There’s a bell there you can ring for bonus points. Top score!
David and I hung out at a Starbucks and people watched for a bit. Had a deep conversation about a lotta crazy shit… but I won’t bore you with that garbage, on to flowers!
As some of you may or may not know, Japan, in late-March-early-April is all about flower-watching (called hanami). Kyoto is supposed to be one of the most beautiful areas to do this sort of thing. Unfortunately, weather has been pretty bad in Japan, causing the flowers to bloom later than usual. What we saw was beautiful, but I can’t imagine when they’re all in full bloom. Too bad we missed it in Kyoto.
David and I walked along the main road from the train station towards Gion, otherwise known as Geisha town, and the setting for much of Memoirs of a Geisha. It really is a beautiful film, I’m surprised I never watched it until recently (probably cause most of the cast is Chinese, and that really bothers me! haha)
Dividing Kyoto is this river where people gather and chill. We crossed high up on a bridge, a great lookout/hangout spot. It was really nice!
Bullet Vans
As we crossed into Gion, David and I were greeted with what I have dubbed “bullet vans” (or space vans). These things are everywhere. Pimped out, dumped-ass vans. Can you believe this is a Honda Odyssey Nissan-something in Japan? (Actually this is a Honda Odyssey in Japan. EVEN BETTER!) I’d drive that shit. ANY DAY OF THE WEEK. I kinda wanna do a post of just the bullet vans I’ve seen here in Japan. They’re all so awesome.
Geisha town
Ah, Gion! We’ve arrived! Wait…where the hell are all the Geishas? Ah….contrary to popular belief, Geishas aren’t just everwhere, roaming, chilling. Its actually really rare to see a real one. You’ll see tons of posers walking around, ABC’s walking around in kimonos. Gah fooled every time!!!
Down one alley I spotted what looked to be a real one. I chased them from alley to alley trying to figure out where they were going, trying to remain inconspicuous. I am pretty convinced it was the real deal, but I’ll never know for sure. She had an escort and everything. She disappeared into some building where foreigners clearly weren’t welcome, hah.
Now this dude…..was hilarious. You can’t believe the facial expressions he is capable of. Fucking ridiculous. I’m still trying to get used to my camera (and dusk was rapidly approaching), so I couldn’t get as many good pics as I’d liked (plus, I had to be inconspicuous about it….the dude looked hella nuts! I was afraid for my life!)
HAHAHAHAHHAHAHA
Hey look its us!
After walking around in random directions, we came across a temple. It was there, just as dusk came, my camera’s battery died. The place lit up at night….it was spectacular. Incredibly beautiful. I wish I had enough juice to capture it :/
Suddenly, we realized how late it was getting…we were going to miss the Shinkansen to Tokyo! As always, we rushed back, stuffed some food in our faces, and ran with our luggage to the train tracks. Just. barely. made it.
The Shinkansen was strange. David and I had to sit separate from each other, but we both ended up getting sick from the ride. Dunno what’s up with that.
When we arrived in Shinjuku, I realized I forgot to write down the address of our hotel. It was 1 in the morning, and we had no idea where we were staying for the night! I asked around different convenience stores for a pc-room or a manga cafe. Eventually some dude was all “its right there across the street” damnit I wasted a half hour looking for that shit!
Entering the place felt so weird. Like I was descending into the seedy underbelly of Tokyo. There were hella naked cartoon porn magazines. I’m not down with that shit. I rented a room for a half an hour for like 3 bucks, and got to use the internet. They provide free drinks! That was cool, but I don’t trust their machine.
About manga cafe’s: people go there to kill time/need a cheap place to crash for the night. You can rent a tiny, cramped cubicle for about $13 for 6 hours, just long enough to sleep! Its actually a pretty sweet deal. You get a dirty computer, internet access, and some privacy. If we couldn’t find our hotel, I was considering just crashing there.
Luckily, I found the hotel’s phone number, called them, and caught a cab there. We finally made it to Tokyo, the Big Apple! Er…big sushi roll? No pics to commemorate it. For some reason I was able to snap just a few more pics when we arrived, but all I got were some pics of the food David and I ate….cheap katsu-don!
Um, by the way, I’m not sure if you all know this or not, but at the end of every blog entry I post a link to the daily dump from my camera. This is an unfiltered look into the events of the day. Please browse at your leisure!
