Whew, all the pictures are up now. Here's day 6, day 7, and day 8. I don't have any pictures from day 9. Nothing worth posting though. We now return to your irregularly scheduled blog.

I wrote part of this while waiting for the plane at LAX. We had about a 3:30 hour layover, so I had some time to write some of this. But due to weather and other random crap, our 10:15pm flight didn't actually leave the ground until 1:45am. So we were on the ground from about 6:45pm to 1:45am to take a 40 minute flight. We got in to SFO at about 2:30am. Our driver had waited until 2am and went home. So we took a frigging cab back home. Arrived at about 3:45am. Man, that sucked. But here's day 8. Not much happened in day 9 so I might not write about it. We'll see. Enjoy day 8....

Japan Trip Day 8: 12/21/2004
So this is the last real day of the tour. Tomorrow morning, we leave the hotel at 10-something for a flight at 12-something. I woke up early (partially because my roommate woke up early) and wandered around the shopping center. It was closed, but looked a lot better in the sunlight than it did at night. There were a few people scampering around on their way to work and one silly tourist loitering.

We had a breakfast buffet blah blah blah. This one had some more western-style foods than other places. Their chocolate muffins were pretty good. But like I said, blah blah blah.

The first stop was great: Hakutsuru Sake Museum! We were first treated to a 15-minute commercia...er video about the company. The company's sake factories were completely destroyed during World War II, but they were able to resume production after 3 days or something. They sure have their priorities straight. The museum had mannequins performing various processes in the traditional sake-production process. There was also a room where one could enjoy a nice cup of cold sake. My sister said it was too strong and my mom said it tasted like water. Our introduction video ended with a poem by a Japanese poet (whose name I didn't catch) that said something about how the poet, weary from traveling, drank some sake, felt much better, and could resume his journey. I drank a cup, felt much better, and could continue my journey. Of course, we had to buy a couple bottles of the stuff to take home. The sake we bought was only available at the museum I think. Either that or it was only sold in that area. Either way, it's good sake.

Then we went somewhere very Japanese: Chinatown in Kobe. There was a part of it that was a lot like Chinatown in SF or Oakland, except that everyone spoke Japanese. The street right next to it was a lot like the big shopping areas we've been to earlier on the tour. Kobe had been exposed to quite a bit of western influence (particularly German and Dutch), so there were a lot of chocolate and cake shops there. So we had some time to shop for stuff. I'm getting sick of shopping now. I'm still pissed off that I didn't buy that floating, wiggling thing in Asakusa. Argh.

For lunch, we had Kobe beef. It's some good stuff -- very tender, juicy, and tasty. It was just perfect. We also had some Kobe salad, Kobe rice, Kobe water, Kobe corn soup, and Kobe orange juice. It was cooked tepanyaki-style so we got to see the cook slice the Kobe fat off of the Kobe steak, chop it into little Kobe pieces, and then cook the Kobe meat and Kobe vegetables in it. Tasty. The floors of the place were very, very slippery, presumably from all the Kobe grease splattering. Our guide told us to wear something we didn't care so much about, and I'm glad I heeded his warning. Outside of the restaurant, the street was full of big, colorful banners for some dating thing with some great Engrish. I'm not too sure what it all meant. I didn't have much time to try to interpret it.

Our next stop was amazing. We visited the world's longest bridge: the Akashi Kaikyo bridge. It's 3910 meters long. There was a nice walkway where you can walk along part of the bridge. They have this glass floor and a little wooden log you can stand on and look down 47 meters at the water. It's really quite a site to sit on the log and look at the churning strait below. There's an observation room with high-power binoculars. I saw a house boat being tugged by a tug boat and some fishermen. No cute girls were withing binocular range. They also have some cameras pointed at the traffic going across the bridge. You can control the camera and look at the cars from different angles. Next to the bridge, there's a park with a giant donut. No idea what the deal is with that. Homer Simpson maybe?

Next, we visited the UCC Museum. UCC stands for U-something Coffee Company, with U-something being the founder's name. Mmm, coffee. I was really exited to see this. We didn't have much time to view all the stuff though. You can tour the museum and see coffee in its various stages from seed to roasted bean. They also show the molecular structure of the coffee bean after different stages of roasting. Interesting. Finally, you can take a quiz and then become a certified doctor of coffee. I got 2 out of 5 questions right (hey, it was all in Japanese). One thing that was really neat was that they made a coffee cup for people with mustaches. Half of the top of the cup is covered and there's a small hole at the edge to sip the coffee from. With the cup covered, the distinguished coffee-drinking gentleman can get his cup of joe without suffering a coffee-flavored mustache for the rest of the day. Brilliant! Oh, and of course we got to drink some coffee. I got iced coffee with grass jelly pieces in it. The coffee was pretty frigging strong so, once again, I had to add sugar and a shot of weak sauce to it.

The very last stop of the trip was an entertainment center called Mosaic. There was a bunch of stores, restaurants, a big mall, and a ferris wheel. I think there was movie theater and a pachinko place there too. We just walked around for a while. I was kind of jittery from the coffee so my attention didn't last long and any one store. Dinner was at one of the restaurants there. It was a seafood restaurant with lots of western dishes like pasta and pizza. The best part was the ice cream bar. There were a lot of different flavors like cantaloupe and watermelon. Well, I thought it was watermelon but everyone else said it was honeydew. But it did taste like watermelon Jolly Rancher, not real watermelon. Oh and I learned that the drink Calpis is pronounced ca-lu-pees, not cow piss, as I've been saying all these years.

Finally, we stopped at our last hotel, which was about 15 minutes away from Kansai International Airport. No more nightly adventures for me. Just sleep and then suitcase management in the morning.

Here is my last journal post from Taiwan. I'm heading back at 11pm tonight and arriving at 11pm...er...tonight. Frigging timezones and crap. Oh well. Like yeterday, pIctures will probably come up when I get back home.

Japan Trip Day 7: 12/20/2004
I woke up looking for a sunrise again (hey, we were staying at a hot spring hotel, it should have a sunrise right?). But I didn't find one. It was very cloudy. And this hotel was next to a construction site. Bah, I'll just stay inside this hotel. I took another dip in the outdoors bath and saw a bit of sky-brightening, but no sunrise. Bah.

Breakfast was laid out a lot like how dinner was laid out. We even had a hot plate like last night. The food was different, but still full of pickled vegetables. They had a little yogurt drink this time. I haven't had one of those since I last went to Taiwan. I think I was 8 years old at the time.

We first visited Kyomizu temple up in a mountain. There's a deck over there that is completely supported by interlocked wooden poles. No nails were harmed in the making of the deck. Apparently, people would pray at the temple and then wonder if their prayers were heard. So people would jump off of the deck (which is pretty high up). If his prayers were heard, then the jumper wouldn't die. If his prayers weren't heard, then the dude would die, but he'd get to live in heaven with the gods. The guide said something about 8 out of 10 people who jumped surviving. Or maybe it was 8 out of 10 dying. I forget. There was also a set of three waterfalls. Drinking from each one gives you wisdom or wealth or something. But you can only drink from one. The last attraction I remember is a set of Love Stones. The idea is that you stand at one of the stones and think of a person you fancy. Then you close your eyes and walk towards the other stone. If you make it, then you and your love have some sort of chemistry.

The street down from the temple is filled with little shops that are basically all selling the same things. There were stores that were selling swords and knives, but they didn't look all that cool. Either their blades were spectacular and the hilts were plain, or the exteriors were extravagant and the blades were bland. A funny thing is that as you get farther away from the temple, the prices tend to go down. Aside from swords, there were a lot of stores selling tea, red bean cakes, and mochi. And a store selling soy milk donuts. I got some because it had a cool Super Donut figure in front of the store.

After visiting all the little stores, we hopped back on the bus and experienced a glitch in the matrix. We ate lunch at the same hotel we stayed at two nights ago. The food was fancy, but not especially tasty. The appetizer and the desserts were very nice though.

Having gawked at some swanky food, we set off for a 1.5 hour bus ride to Osaka. Our guide was telling a story, but I fell asleep. I think most people did. The story must have been pretty good because I kept hearing the guide laugh.

The bus came to a stop at Osaka Castle. It's a very beautiful outside and pretty nice inside. The castle is surrounded by a moat that looks really hard to swim across in the front because it doesn't have any water in it. There was water in the other sides of the moat. There were also very large rocks around the courtyards, but they're actually really thin. Just very large in surface area. They're propped up with smaller rocks behind it. The interior has been remade into a museum, so everything is very modern. On the eighth floor, there is an observation deck that offers a great view of Osaka. Inside, the museum has a lot of weapons, armor, and random products (like a towel rack) from the time. There were also volumes of old books about Hideoshi Toyotomi, who either built the castle or lived in it. At the back exit of the castle, there's a pile of rocks with seals from the other leaders who brought rocks for the castle. There were also some traditional vending machines next to the historical gift shop. They sold a traditional Japanese energy drink called Charge. I didn't get one because I didn't have money on me.

Before stopping at the hotel, we went to Shinsaibashi, a shopping area in Osaka. I like this place, very lively, not as crowded as some of the other places we were at. And it had a really big electronics store. The place is like a multi-story Macy's with electronics. They're laptop section is really cool but the keyboards...wtf? They're all strange. I also liked their assortment of PDAs, but they're all in Japanese. I saw the Sony e-book reader for sale there. It's about US$350. Not a bad price, but it's all in Japanese. Too bad. DVDs, CDs and video games are pretty frigging expensive here.

The tour bus took us to our hotel for the night, but I was kind of bored, so I went out and walked around. The hotel is very nice, but as I walked, it looked like some industrial wasteland. And then I realized that if I went the other way, there was a nice big mall (that was closed) and a train station. I ended up walking about 5 blocks before I realized that I was cold and that I should go to sleep.

Whew, what a trip. I'll be glad to be going home tomorrow. Here's day 6 of the Japan part of the trip. I think I'll post the pictures either when I get back home or tomorrow morning.

Japan Trip Day 6: 12/19/2004
This morning my new roommate woke up at 6:15am and went over to his family's room. So...I can't sleep anymore. Damnit. Anyway, I got ready for breakfast and did the usual routine of going to my mom and my sister's room to watch them frantically pack. Breakfast was YAJBB (Yet Another Japanese Breakfast Buffet). This one had these black saussages. It turns out that they're made with cuttle fish instead of pig snouts. They were pretty good.

Our tour bus dropped us off at Sagano. We took a "romantic train ride" to Kameoka. There were some strange animal figures around the train station. I couldn't tell if they were bears or dogs or pteradactyls. Someone later said that they were some sort of racoon. The ride was...romantic. But it was going too fast for me to get any good pictures. The tracks ran along a river. The guide said that the ride was very fair: people sitting on the left side of the train (facing forward) would get to see the river on the first half of the ride and people sitting on the right side would get to see the river on the second half of the ride. Or you could run around and see the river for the whole ride.

When the train stopped, we took a short hike to the Arashiyama bamboo forest where we were surrounded by huge bamboo trees. We couldn't re-enact any classic anime battle scenes, though. There were some neat shrines along the way. One had a rock that would grant your wish if you touched it. I just wanted to touch it, so I forgot to make a wish. I wonder what's going to come true? The path through the bamboo forest was very narrow and people with cars kept driving through. After weaving our way through bamboo and cars, we ended up at this little town where we did some sight-seeing and more shopping. There were more temples and strange racoon-like animal figures at the town too. I bought an ice cream thing from a Seventeen Ice vending machine. It turned out to be a push-pop, but I completely messed it up. There was clearly a diagram on the package saying that you should unwrap the thing, but the actual directions were in Japanese. How was I supposed to know?

We ate Korean BBQ for lunch. It was supposed to be "Japanese-style" but...it tasted like Korean BBQ to me. For dessert, they took the leaves off of a strawberry, stuffed the insides with custard and then put it into a plastic wrapper with a green top so it looked like a strawberry again. Sort of. Did I mention that they were frozen strawberries? Badass. When we left, the tour bus driver tried to pull a U-turn on a 4-lane road. The width of the road was almost exactly the same as the length of the bus. Needless to say, we didn't make it, and ended up re-enacting a scene from the first Austin Powers movie.

The next stop was shiny. We visited Kinkakuji temple. It was once someone's home but it became a temple when he passed away. The main building is completely covered in gold. It's quite a site -- a must-see for anyone visiting Kyoto. However, it was overcast when we went. I would have liked to see it gleaming in the sun. Now THAT is some bling bling. I also wish we could have gone inside. Near the temple, there was a 600 year old tree that was trimmed in the shape of a boat. The story is that when the people of the family of the fellow who once lived in the temple died, that was the boat that took them to heaven. There was also a little shrine thing in the middle of a lake. I forget what the story of that was. Something about a snake. And then there was a rock where if you sit on it, people will help you. I could have put it more eloquently but that's what I was told.

After vising the temple, we made our way to Nishijin Textile Center. What's so great about textile? Three words: kimono fashion show. w00t! Also, the fabrics there were all made with traditional fabric-making methods. According to the guide, if the sleeves of a kimono cover the hands, then the girl is not married, and also that her family is pretty well off. I think the idea is that women need to do housework after they're married so they can't have kimono sleeves in the way. Also if the belt is tied into a square in the back, then the girl is married. I don't know what the deal is with that tradition.

After watching Japanese girls showing off kimonos, we drove off to our lodging for the evening: a hot spring hotel next to Lake Biwa. This hotel was fancier than the last one. The rooms were bigger and a bit more modern, but I liked the location of the other one better. The outdoor hot spring in this one was nicer though. It was completely open and overlooked the lake. Unfortunately, it was cloudy so I couldn't see any stars. Oh, and there was ample shrubbery surrounding the bathhouse so no one can sneak a peek from the lake. No worries there. I'm getting the hang of these hot spring things now. I now enjoy hopping into a pool of steaming hot water with a bunch of naked people I don't know and can't communicate with. I'm also groovy with the traditional Japanese dinner thing. We had another one, complete with karaoke this time, and with a whole bunch of people singing. I didn't sing in the interest of not making anyone's ears bleed. Then, after another dip in a hot, steamy, public bath, I was more than ready to zonk out. Zonk.

It's getting tiring on vacation. I can't wait to get back to work. Here's day 5 in Japan....

Japan Trip Day 5: 12/18/2004
Since our hotel was so close to the ocean, I woke up at 6:30am to try and catch a sunrise. Boy, oh boy, was it beautiful. I got a bunch of shots of the surrounding area. I can't think of a better place for a hotel. Well, a large electronics store nearby would be nice. I've never seen the sun rising over the horizon before. It's amazing to see a glowing ball of gas slowly lighting up the sky. I can't believe I could actually see the sun rising. That's probably why it's called a sunrise. I took a time-lapse video but it didn't lapse enough so the sun is rising really slowly in it. Craps. Hopefully I can get another video.

Breakfast was in this elaborate, Victorian-era room overlooking the ocean. Oh, one thing about the hotel we were staying at was that it's upside-down. The lobby is on the top floor and all the guest rooms are under it. The restaurants are at the bottom two floors (along with the bath houses). The main dining room, where we ate breakfast, overlooks the ocean with front-row seats to a small waterfall and a wall of rock. We had another Japanese breakfast buffet again. One thing the Japanese can really do well is potatoes. All the potato dishes in Japan are awesome. Take that Idaho!

Our tour group was splitting up today. Most people were heading back to Tokyo for some more shoppingu and stuffu. Only nine of us were leaving on a jet train. We went to the shinkansen station to ride to Kyoto. Many of us were debating whether or not the train was a mag-lev, but it turned out that it wasn't. Bah. It's a lot like riding BART. The seats are very roomy, much better than anything I've been on this whole trip. There were tray tables and people selling b33r. w00t! The train ride from Atami to Kyoto was only about two sleepy hours.

Our new guide met us at Kyoto station. (The other guide took everyone back to Tokyo.) He's a bit different. The old guide switched between Mandarin and Cantonese with every sentence. This new guide does his entire spiel in Mandarin, then he does it in Cantonese. But what does it matter? I can't understand it anyway. The guide said that, in Kyoto, there are restaurants or tea houses that don't take first-time customers. New customers must come in with returning customers. I think the idea is to provide the best possible service and if you're a new customer, they don't know how to best serve you. Either that or they're just haters. The shops that have this policy will have a sign in the door. And the sign's in Japanese. Great.

My sister is telling me to say how cool she is.

We ate another traditional Japanese lunch. The guide warned us that our portions were very small, but they were very pretty. So we shouldn't be angry at the small portions (it's bad to be angry, he says). Instead we should take a picture of it because it's pretty. So I did. After lunch we had some free time to visit this temple thing. So we did. I'm not sure what the story is with that temple.

Then we went to Nijo Castle, also in Kyoto. Considering it was built in the 17th century, it's been very well maintained. The paintings and carvings on the well are very beautiful. They don't allow pictures in there because the flash might damage the drawings. (Yeah right, it's just so they can sell postcards in the gift shop.) Another interesting feature is that the floorboards in the outer wings of the palace make a mockingbird sound to warn of intruders. I think it might get pretty annoying, but if it keeps you alive, bah, that mockingbird better sing. The rooms were all empty except for a few that had life-sized mannequins that showed how people looked and dressed back in the day. One thing I didn't understand is how they were able to see anything. The "windows" were thin sheets of paper that allowed light through, but were otherwise opaque. They let in a surprising amount of light, but much of the palace was still very dark. So did they use a lot of candles or lamps? Geez, no wonder the place burned down a few times. The garden behind the castle was very beautiful as well. All the trees are so well maintained it seems like a diligent crew of gardeners manicured every single leaf.

Finally, we checked into a swanky hotel in Kyoto. The housekeeping staff put paper cranes on the pillows, but my sister stole them so I don't have one. The bathroom has a clear shower stall and more shiny chrome than the streets of Milpitas at night.

Tonight, the guide let us loose on the streets of Kyoto. Everyone piled into the bus and drove to downtown Kyoto (probably had a name). The guide showed us around and then we dispersed. My mom, sister, and I wandered around one of the main streets looking at lots of little stores. The stores are very little. I didn't know I was kind of claustrophobic until I came here and tried to shop in stores with aisles that I could barely stick a finger into. Japanese girls seemed to float through those aisles with ease an grace. I went to a movie shop and found Full Metal Alchemist and GITS (the first movie) but they're freaking US$40! Dude, that's expensive. We had some really good ramen for dinner at the top of a department store. At the basement of the department store, there was a supermarket. Well, imagine a Macy's, but instead of a Tommy section, there is a Godiva chocolate shop. And instead of a shoe section, there's a bakery. This was a great find, because apparently, many department stores in Taiwan have a supermarket/food court in the basement and my mom wanted to find one. My sister wanted to buy some pretty-looking sushi and I wanted some melon bread. We all found what we were looking for in the basement of a department store. The melon bread is good, it has a light melon taste, crunchy outer shell, and soft bread inside. Mmm. Thanks Sri.

My new roommate (the other one was on the shorter tour and went back to Tokyo) arrived later at night. His wife and daughter were on the tour also and he spent most of his time over there. He just came to the room we shared to grab a towel and sleep.

And that's all for the first day in Kyoto. Pictures will come later.

Update: Now is later, and here are the pictures.

Merry Kurisumasu everyone. Actually, since I'm not in Japan anymore, I shouldn't say that. Things are pretty fucked up over here right now. Sigh. Here's day 4 of the Japan trip. It was one of my favourite days.

Japan Trip Day 4: 12/17/2004
For breakfast today, we had 3 choices: western, Japanese, and something else. I chose the traditional Japanese breakfast for us because I had no idea what we would be eating. Despite not knowing what all the dishes were, it was pretty good. They did have several different egg dishes, some fish something, and assorted pickled vegetation.

After breakfast, it was back on the bus. The guide told us a whole bunch of things about Japanese saleswomen. They need to smile without showing their teeth, bow to 60 degrees when a customer is coming in and bow to 90 degrees when the customer bought something and is leaving the store. When paying, they say a whole tone of stuff: Thank you for buying x. Item x cost y yen. You gave me z yen. I will give you (z - y) yen back in change. Please wait here while I get your change. Thank you for buying x. Then our guide realized that everyone was all tired from shoppingu yesterday and sleeping, so she stopped talking.

The first stop was Mt. Fuji. Well, not quite Mt. Fuji, but we got to see the mountain in all its glory. It's the highest mountain in Japan and it's so important it is referred to as Fuji-san. In Engrish we should call it Mr. Fuji or Sir Fuji or something. In Chinese, it's called "second-to-none mountain." And when you see it, it really is second-to-none. They say it's a great achievement to climb Mr. Fuji once, but to climb it a second time is stupid because the best view of the mountain is from the surrounding area. We stopped by Hakone park. It boasts a great view Mr. Fuji-san and some hotties in the form of bubbling pools of water. These springs are anywhere from 80C to 100C in temperature. That's hot enough to cook eggs in, so they do that. The sulfur in the water causes the eggs to become black. Mmm. Kuro tamago (I think that means black egg). It's just the shell that turns black. The egg itself looks and tastes like a hard boiled egg. The eggs are magical. Here's how they work:

• Eating one egg gives you +7 HP (add 7 years to your life)
• Eating two eggs gives you another +7 HP
• Eating three eggs is a -7 HP potion (takes 7 years away from your life) because it's not good to eat so much egg in one day

They sell them in packs of 6 for 500 yen and I ate two of them. I plan to spend my extra 14 years dancing in the rain and helping the endangered albino sea bass find its pigment. The gift shop at the springs had a bracku Harro Kitty, only available in Hakone. It's just Harro Kitty wearing a black egg costume. I didn't buy one. I'm too manly for that. Actually I was just too cheap to buy one of those things. We did buy a bag of snacks in the shape of small crabs: complete with claws. Tasty. I think they were actually crab shells cooked until they were so hard that they became brittle.

Lunch was some hot pot or shabu shabu. It was nice that all the food was sitting there waiting for us so we could dig in right when we got there. Yummy. There was a strange eggu-rollu-like thing which tasted like Mentholatum. I ate it anyway.

After lunch, we went to Lake Ashi (which was about 1 minute away by car) and rode a pirate ship across. Argh! There were some other ships too but we were on the pirate ship. Unfortunately, we couldn't board other ships and plunder their booty. Anyway, the water is very clear and the view is beautiful. I haven't seen such a clear day in a very long time. There was a recorded tour that was partially in English, but I didn't realize it until it was almost over. All I heard were descriptions about a pair of "twin mountains" (that I couldn't find) and a fortress (that I could find). When the ride was over, everyone boarded the bus again. Everyone except for the driver, that is. Our guide decided to lock him out of the bus. But she's nice so she let him back on. Our guide is kind of weird.

Tonight's accommodations were great: a hot spring hotel built onto the side of a mountain in Atami. Everyone wears this robe thing (a yukata) and walks around the hotel. (The guide said I would look good in a yukata...because I have a gut.) Then, the wearer of said robe may choose to discard the robe and go take a bath with a bunch of other naked people. Our guide assured us that no one would be looking at your hidden regions. If anyone's looking, it's going to be one of us tourists because REAL Japanese people don't look. So I dropped my robe and went in for a dip. (Yes, men and women have separate bath houses. And separate changing rooms.) The water was very hot and salty. Something didn't sit well with me and I started feeling numb all over, kind of like I was going to pass out. In that dazed state, I had a nice conversation with one of the dudes on the tour. There is nothing like sitting around naked in a pool of steamy water and talking to people you've just met. I got out of the bath before while I was still medium-rare and washed my hair with some sumi shampoo made from charcoal (I think). The stuff was dark gray, almost completely black, but it won't turn your hair black. Instead, it made my hair silky smooth. (I patted myself on the head, Grace, so you didn't have to.)

Dinner was wonderful. We ate a traditional Japanese meal with a lot of unidentified frying objects. Actually, the guide explained what everything was, but she did it in Mandarin and Cantonese, so it's basically unidentified to me. It was here that I found out our guide can't pronounce my name so she calls me sea-ay-are (first three letters of my name, spelled out). Also, I apparently look very Japanese, and my family has thought that I look very Japanese since I was born. Since we were eating a traditional Japanese dinner, there was also traditional Japanese karaoke. After dinner, we watched some guy teach how to make mochi (speaking in Japanese). Apparently you get a bunch of kids to hit the dough with a big hammer while banging on a drum. Not too sure about that. Then I took another dip in the bath (the one outdoors, this time) and fell fast asleep. In my room. I made it back to my room before I fell asleep.

Argh! Here be the pictures!

Merry Christmas Eve everyone. I just had a happy Christmas dinner here in Taiwan. It's weird how big Christmas is over here in Japan and Taiwan. I didn't think it was such an Asian holiday. Welp, here's day 3 of my Japan trip. And here are the pictures.

Japan Trip Day 3: 12/16/2004
I woke up this morning and my roommate said I snored like a jackhammer. Craps. First night and I'm already being a pain in the ear. But he had earplugs so that was OK. Breakfast was at the hotel. They had western-style food (like sausage and bacon) and Japanese-style (like rice porridge and tofu). It was probably to ease us into Japanese food. Anyway breakfast was good. I had some coffee, but it was very light, even without the half glass of water I usually add to my coffee.

On the tour bus, our guide introduced herself. She said she was "100% made in Hong Kong" and she has lived in Japan for 12 years or something. She was married to a Japanese dude and had a kid. So there are three tour groups in Japan right now managed by the same company: two were mostly Mandarin and the other was mostly Cantonese. I was in the mostly Cantonese group. Splendid. The guide would say one sentence or paragraph in Mandarin and then repeated it in Cantonese. Sometimes she'd be talking and I wouldn't understand what she was saying. Then I'd realized that she was talking in Cantonese. Anyway, I got about 40% of what she said in Mandarin, so I figured that it was OK. She also taught us some Japanese: goodu morningu, rookingu, shoppingu, eatingu and sleepingu. I'm not too sure what they mean.

Our first tour stop was at the Meiji Shrine. This is the place where Japanese Imperial bigwigs get married. It's a very peaceful place full of beautiful trees and crunchy gravel roads. And there was a squat toilet. I didn't use it but I was so amazed that I took a picture. Oh, and there was a big wall of sake casks. Mmmm, sake.

There was a big row of vending machines outside of the shrine. I bought a can of Jack Black. Yes, in Japan, they have Jack Black in a can. I didn't know it was a hot drink (although it was clearly labeled as HOT) and I picked it up. It was hot. It was also pretty light coffee leading me to think that coffee in Japan is much lighter than the sludge the serve at work. Anyway, the can is going on my shelf because they figured out how to make Jack Black hot and fit in a can.

We then went to Asakusa for lunch. There was a cool temple there with some smoke thing. You wave the smoke over your head to make you smarter, over your face to make you more beautiful, etc. We had sukiyaki for lunch. The raw egg didn't sit very well with me. After lunch, they served coffee...very strong coffee. So strong I had to put cream and sugar in it. I take back what I said about weak Japanese coffee. We then went shopping. The small shops had a bunch of trinkets and stuff. I wasn't very interested in anything except for this little floating thing that wiggles if you push a button. I now regret not buying one. I regret it a lot.

The next stop was the Imperial Palace. The guide said she called up the emperor yesterday and he said he was busy so we couldn't go inside the palace. Our guide is funny. So all we got to see was the outside of the palace and the park across the street.

Then everyone hopped back on the bus and we headed to Ginza, the shopping district. We spent a lot of time in the Sony store. The Aibo robots are really cute. They'll sit, walk around, and even fetch a ball. If you pet them, they'll make some sounds. I'm assuming those are happy sounds. Most dogs I pet are happy. The exceptions are the ones that bite me. The PSPs were really cool too, but everything was in Japanese. There was a robot on the screen with a cube for a head. Each side of the cube had a face with a different emotion on it. Everything I did made the angry face show up. Apparently those things don't like me. All we bought in Ginza was some mochi. Some really good mochi.

Our final stop was the Metroplitan Tower. We went up to the 45th floor and looked at Tokyo at night. Very pretty. I wish I took some good pictures, but they all came out blurry. Bah. There's a toy store up there. They had Astroboy toys among other things. Um, yay.

Keio Plaza Hotel was our humble abode for the night. Well, humble is not the right word. Uber-swanky is closer. The place is very nice. There's something comforting about a sharply-dressed bellhop with a funny hat and white gloves directing you to the next available cashier. So we met up with my sister's friend who is working in Tokyo, and then we went out to Shinjuku to eat udon. Afterwards, my sister's friend helped me find out that all the PSPs in the electronics store were sold out. My sister, her friend and my mom all went back to the hotel because they were tired. I zipped up my jacket and wandered around Shinjuku some more. By then, most of the stores were closed and people were heading home. I wandered explored the place in the cold, dark hours of the night (around 10:30pm) and then I went home and slept like a baby. A baby jackhammer.

It's day 2 in Taiwan and I'm going to fill my spare time by writing up my travel journal for the trip to Japan one day at a time. Should be able to post pictures for that day too. Here goes....

Japan Trip Day 1/Day 2: 12/14/2004 - 12/15/2004
Well, today we begin the trip to Japan and Taiwan. It's my first time to Japan and the first time to Taiwan in about 13 years so I'm very scared. OK, not really, more excited than scared. We arrived at SFO at 6:15am and flew a small A320 to LAX. I noticed that either I've greatly expanded since I was last on a plane (senior year in high school) or the seats have gotten smaller. Either way, I now know what a sardine feels like. We arrived in LA without much trouble. Dude, the guards in LAX have assault rifles. I don't plan on fucking with those guys. I decided to eat something American before I left the country: a Big 'n' Tasty.

The flight from LAX to Narita was on Singapore Airlines. When we checked in at SFO, they said we wouldn't need to check in again at LAX but when we tried to board, they wouldn't let us through until we checked in. Bah. We checked in and all was well. On the airplane (a cool 747) we made our way to livestock class and sat down. They had some neat monitors in the headrests showing movies and stuff. My controller was missing the rewind button so I couldn't rewind the movies. I ended up only watching Collateral from start to "finish" (if you can call it an ending). I saw bits and pieces of a bunch of Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Bourne Identity, Bourne Supremacy, and some others.

The person in front of me kept leaning back further and further. She was so far back I thought she wanted to sleep in my lap. But she didn't want to sleep in my lap, and that made me grumpy. Of course, a vodka and coke lifted my spirits right up. When I ordered the drink, the stewardess asked me three times if I was over 21. I was like the dude with the fez in Austin Powers 2 who can't stand being asked the same question three times. I don't wear a fez so I'm much weaker: I answered truthfully the first time.

Upon landing at Narita, we needed to fill out a form for immigration. I managed to pack the best writing utensil for traveling: a fountain pen. The stupid thing leaked all over my right hand and I couldn't wash it off. So there I was, first day in Japan, with black stuff all over my hand. Wonderful. We met the guide briefly and she went with us to the hotel. My sister and my mom shared a room and I had a roommate. He's from Houston, Texas and he's been to Japan a few times already. Cool guy. He invited me out for some drinks, but I think I mumbled something like, "abkooriderib." I think it means "I'm so tired I need to sleep" because I lay down and I was out instantly.

Here are a few pictures. Not too many for the first day.