Somewhat of a Mystery, and Interesting Things I've Seen and Done...

Let me start this entry off with... "Somewhat of a Mystery!?" So over these couple of weeks and months, I came across some weird things that I've never seen before, ridiculous things that I found funny, and so forth. The first thing I want to talk about is this thing to the left... What on earth is this thing!? When I first saw this, I was like... "What a weird looking cocoon... and what type of winged insect will come out?" I found this "cocoon" on my visit to the farthest school out of the 17 that I go to. Its roughly an hour and a half bus ride on a hella windy road up the mountain. I have heard rumors of passengers yacking all over the bus because the roads were hella windy. Luckily for me, I did not puke nor did I feel sick at all. I enjoyed the beautiful mountain scenery and took some pictures along the way. Anyhow, back to the "cocoon." After I finish my lunch with my students, I found the mysterious looking "cocoon" near the entrance gate and asked one of the teachers what it was... She responded and told me that its not a "cocoon," but instead a flower. My instant response was "WHAT!? REALLY!?" In my opinion, it really wasn't an appealing looking flower... but supposedly, this flower is very rare since it only grows in locations of high altitudes. This would be the last time I would see such a weird looking flower so I took a picture of it and decided to write about it. This mysterious flower has a Japanese name called "Kumagaisou" Or I how I remember its name.. "Kuma Ga Isou" aka "There's likely to be a bear there" (rough translation). This flower only grows in places of high altitudes and is on the endangered plant species list. I found about this later from my favorite nutrition teacher at one of my elementary schools. She told me that its super rare and I'm very lucky to have seen one. When I heard that... I just needed to write about it... plus I needed to write in general cuz it's been too long since my last post. Haha... Anyhow... if anyone gets the chance to see one... take pictures and protect it! Do environment a favor! ;)

On to the next interesting thing I found... I found this thing to the left at one of my schools... It's a cool looking pencil holder box/container? So... what is it exactly? Is it a cat? It could be... but what's up with its random rhino nose? Bizarre... well for me that it... I decided to take a picture... When do you get to see a rhino cat right?


Next thing I found one day at school is super cool! IT'S SO ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY!!! haha.. It's basically a milk carton or juice carton house... now... it needs more work with the roofing, but its cool nonetheless. This cool carton shack was made by Special Needs or Special Ed students. They're super creative and very diligent. This house was well made and its using recyclable materials. I'm very proud of them. =)

Next! Check out the picture to the left! It's an awesome looking dragon right!? But did you know this thing is made out of paper? Yeaup! It's made using special paper called Mizuhiki. I had the privilege in going to the Mizuhiki Museum in Kawanoe City of Shikokuchuo, the Paper City. I went with my friend, Stacy and her family... and we had a blast. We were able to check out all the cool paper craft they had there... a dress made out of kimono... a huge toilet paper roll... and so forth. We also got the chance to make our own postcards through the Mizuhiki process. It was super fun and I recommend it for others! In fact, I'll even go with them. We met a cool man who worked there... He gave us a grand tour of the facility and even gave us a free gift to take home with us. He was super excited when he found out that we were all from the US... He told us that he went to Washington DC before to present a Mizuhiki craft to the senator in DC, and he missed being in the states as well as miss speaking English. If opportunity permits, I definitely would love to meet him again and learn more about Mizuhiki paper and get to know locals of Shikokuchuo.

Nitori!? Ikea!? One Word: Awesome

So a couple of weekends ago... I went to Emiful, one of the main and largest malls in Matsuyama (according to my knowledge) to do some shopping. I needed to buy some Polos and other attires for work since my old ones were.... how do you say it... ummm... getting old? haha Anyhow, I bought some cooking utensils and some foreign foods like Pho and Indian curry mixes, and headed out the door to go back to Okaido in main area Matsuyama. However, I came across a building that caught my attention big time.


It was the Nitori building. According to rumors and the commercials (Japanese people call it CM) I watched in the past, it was basically like an Ikea. When I was in college back in California or Davis... I always went to Ikea to do my shopping for kitchen utensils and other household items. It was on the way toward Sacramento or Natomas, and it was very close to Davis. Whenever a spatula got f'ed up by the apartment gas stove, I would hop on the car to Ikea. haha... Ikea was the place to go... cheap furniture, utensils, photo frames, wine racks, and also food. Their Swedish meatballs were the bomb! A couple of them in a pot of marinara sauce or other tomato based pasta sauces... and you got yourself a quick and easy spaghetti and meatballs. Mmmmm yummy! =)

Anyhow... Nitori is kind of like Ikea... the only thing different is they dont have a food court. haha. And I guess you could say.. the prices are debatable.. But that was kind of the same thing at Ikea. The one thing that both Ikea and Nitori are similar in is the showcase floor upstairs. When I entered the showcase floor of Nitori and checked out the models of furnished kitchens, living rooms, and dining rooms... I hella remembered the times when my friends and I ventured into the Ikea showroom playing "house" or role playing as a family in their new home and so forth. haha. I was being nostalgic as I checked out Nitori's model rooms.

After taking some pictures and realizing that I dont need a bed or couch since I had no way of carrying it or paying hella muns to have it sent to my home... I went to the shopping area to check out the stuff I could afford and carry back home with me. I went to the kitchen utensil aisle and found myself stupefied or amazed with the affordable prices of some pots, pans, and dish racks. After doing a nice sweep look around of the shopping floor of Nitori, I came back to the utensil aisle and bought a compact two-story dish rack and a very large and deep frying pan. The total cost was like 1300 yen. Affordable pricing! Well I think it is haha

I left Nitori with great satisfaction for I was able to buy stuff for my kitchen and I remembered all the good times I spent in Ikea with my friends and so forth. Both Nitori and Ikea are awesome places and I recommend for many other!

On my way back home, the pan and dish rack eventually got heavy on me and became a little bit of a nuisance, but it now sits in my kitchen glistening brightly as ever and making my kitchen convenient and better to work in. All I need for my kitchen is a table to have more space to do some dicing, chopping, and slicing haha.

Sandwich... I Miss You So Dearly...

So the other day, I made myself a sandwich. I have been doing my self-introduction again and again for the past month or so... and my students ask me... "What is your favorite food?" I use some gestures, motion a chopstick picking up some long noodles and make a slurping noise, and tell them my favorite JAPANESE food is ramen. The students go crazy and make comments like "WOW! Me too!" or "WOW! He can be Japanese if he wants to!" or "WOW! That was a pretty awesome slurping sound he made!" Oh the funniest things kids say these days...
Anyhow, I then mention my favorite food in America is a sandwich. More like a SUBWAY sandwich. I am a big fan of 5 dollar foot longs, the 900yen foot long Japanese SUBWAY sandwiches is simply not the same. haha. Same as small Japanese triangle sandwiches that usually have three kinds of filling. Japanese sandwiches are delicious, but most bakery make egg salad sandwich or ham and lettuce sandwich or a veggie sandwich. They are other kinds like katsu sandwich, tuna salad sandwich, and etc, but most places I have been to have the three I mentioned. After thinking about small variety and size of sandwiches and talking about SUBWAY sandwiches with my students... I was determined to make one for myself.

Now here's the thing... my goal was to make a sub sandwich... but I failed in terms of finding a long bread aka sub sandwich bread. So I ended up using Japanese version of brown/unpolished rice bread aka 玄米 (げんまい) bread. For the sandwich meat, I grilled some chicken with a garlic salt, pepper, lemon pepper, red pepper, and herb seasoning. I sliced up some tomatoes and red onions, and I prepared some leaves of red leaf lettuce. For the spread, I used melted blue cheese on one side and spread the other side with some fresh avocado.

The sandwich was not a SUBWAY sandwich, but it did the trick. It was full of flavor and mouth-watering delicious. The avocado was expensive, but it did the trick in giving a creamy texture and flavor. Nature's butter is the best. =) Speaking of avocado... I started this new craving for avocado dishes... it's gonna be fun, exciting, and delicious... but I'll write more about that in another blog to come. But anyhow, grilled chicken sandwich.... it was awesome and it just simply made me miss a good old American sandwich... Haaaa... Sandwich... I miss you so dearly... haha

LOST: What an Adventure It's Been!

Wow.... I just finished watching the last episode of a TV show that I have been following for the past 5 years.... LOST ended today with their 2 hour series finale. My mind and heart is filled with so many words and emotions right now and I just needed to share these raw emotions through this blog. Prolly so raw that I am prolly gonna repeat myself and so forth haha.

Right after work, I rushed back to my apartment anticipating how they would end a show that was filled with many questions and mysteries. I've been following LOST since I was a Sophomore in college. I had time warp episodes in my life where my roommates and I would sit down and watch good chunk of one season in a day. We would start in the morning and then finally notice that the sun was setting down and be like... "Holy fudge! It's dinner time! What a time warp!" The show was addicting. Season One and Two were soooooo entertaining and I simply wanted to know what would happen to the survivors of Oceanic 815. Season Three and on got a little boring and ridiculous (they get off the island and they need to go back!? What the deuce!? WHY!?), but it was exciting, entertaining, and interesting nonetheless. They would present more mysteries and questions, but the storyline was still captivating and left me wondering... "What will happen next?" I was determined to see how this show would end regardless of how ridiculous it got or even if my friends said that it was not worth following it. I am so glad that I was determined and watched LOST to the end. This is my first American TV show that I kept up with and watched till the end. Wow... 6 seasons worth of dedication. haha

The last episode of LOST left me with emotions of satisfaction, relief, and "WTF? What just happened?" I still gotta analyze it more..... my mind is in a whirlwind of sorting out what just happened. But like I said before, I am in relief and satisfaction since many questions were answered and most importantly... it ended with a decent and very proper ending in my opinion. Some of my predictions came true and some did not, but still... I am satisfied.

What's going through my mind is not only what I will eat for dinner (haha), but the fact that I kept up and watched a TV show for 6 seasons (5 years for me technically)... What an adventure its been! Seriously! LOST was a huge part in my young adult life and I hope to buy the DVDs soon in the near future to share with future generations.

One word to summarize LOST right now..... "WOW...." =)

Am I About to Eat a Cocoon for Dessert?

So for kyuushoku aka school lunch... I was very excited to eat my lunch. I was like "Cool. I'm starving... Let's see what we have here... Ok... Milk... Seaweed soup, bamboo rice, chicken cutlet, boiled vegetables, and.... huh?" I paused and noticed something next to my milk... It was in a plastic bag and it was some bamboo leaf wrapped with a string. At first... I thought it was nattou aka fermented soybeans. I tell my students... "Hey cool! We have nattou for lunch today!" But one of my students says.. "No teacher... its not nattou... that's our dessert." I then took a moment to think what else it reminded me of... and the next thing that came to my mind was... a cocoon. I was like... "I know some parts in Japan eats bugs as a delicacy... but didn't know Ehime... or my city ate something like this for... dessert?" I asked my students to confirm and they say.. "No it's not a cocoon... It's chimaki!" I questioned myself, "Chimaki?"

I have never heard of chimaki (粽: ちまき) ever in my life. My students didn't know how to describe it, but they told me it was a dessert mochi served during the Children's Day celebration. A little different from the famous kashiwa mochi (柏餅: かしわもち) that most kids eat on Children's Day. I finish my lunch quickly like always and open the little "cocoon" slowly and carefully. I take the twine off and unravel the bamboo leaf to find myself a sticky mochi. The mochi did look like a white worm of some kind, but I told myself again that it was mochi haha. So I take out the mochi and take a bite assuming there was gonna be some red bean paste in there, but nothing was there. The mochi was sweetened and it tasted great thanks to the flavor of the bamboo leaf.

I am always amazed with traditional Japanese sweets and how delicious they are. At first, I thought chimaki was a cocoon, but it was actually sticky delightful sweet that made my school lunch better. What an interesting experience. haha =)

Hey YOU! CAT! What the heck do you think you're doing!?

The other day, I was with a bunch of peeps and David showed all of us a hilarious video he found on Youtube about a cat named Maru. We were all like... "What the heck do you think you're doing!? Stop that!" If you check out the video as well as the other videos, you will see why... What type of creature would do such a thing!?



He's basically the cutest and hilarious cat we had all seen. David always like to say negative things to ridiculously cute and hilarious animals. We were all pretty much... "Wow Cat.. What the heck are you doing? Please stop being so cute and hilarious..." haha
There's other videos of Maru doing random things, but I like this video the best because I simply love it how in how he slides into the box and just stays in there... haha

Check out for more: http://www.youtube.com/user/mugumogu

What Will You Do When You're Sick?

So this week, I was struck with some random stomach virus in which my doctor had a hard time explaining to me and did not know where I got it. I asked him if it was food poisoning and he simply said no. I found it odd... but I did not complain for he prescribed some medications for me. At first... I was hesitant... Never been a fan of Japanese medicine because of all the rumors and stories I heard from people and just in general in terms of how they don't work or made the symptoms worse and so forth. But I took the chance. I was in pain for geebus sakes haha. And I am very glad I took them. The meds worked in no time and as a result, I feel better now. Not fully recovered I guess, but almost there. But during my three days of rest, I was able to catch up some reading, some cleaning, and watching new shows and movies.

I had the opportunity during this week to see the hyped up show, Glee. My friends back home were talking about it and I simply did not see what the big deal was. Since I had nothing else to do, I watched the Pilot episode aka 1st episode and... well.... it was pretty good. It was very entertaining and the music they arranged and sung was pretty awesome. I found myself having this desire to watch more and as a result, I watched Season 1 up to Episode 19. There's a little more left till the season is completely over so I look forward to the season finale. So now I have a new TV series that I can watch after LOST is over.

Speaking of it, wow... LOST is finally coming to an end. Wow... it's been roughly 5 years keeping up with that show. haha. I saw a couple of episodes back in college during my second year and I got hooked. When I got Season One for Christmas, my roommates and I were pretty much addicted to them and had these time-warps watching them. We would watch one dvd and keep on watching more till we realized it was dark outside. We were like "WTF!? That was a time warp!" I remembered Season 1 and 2 being very awesome and we were addicted to watching them. But then Season 3 and on got a little weird, confusing, annoying, and so forth. Some of my roommates gave up watching them because it was getting ridiculous, but I continued to watch the series wanting to know more about the secrets behind each character and most importantly... the freaking island. I may write a blog about LOST, but it'll prolly have to wait till after the Series Finale which is coming up this Sunday. Or more like Monday for me here in Japan.

Anyhow, Glee is a good TV show to watch. I'm into people doing covers and sometimes I find myself liking their version. And at times, its the opposite. Its very entertaining irregardless and I can see why my friends like it and why some of my friends are auditioning for it. Anyone looking for a new show to watch after LOST is over or another show ending for the season and so forth... check out Glee.


Along with Glee, I watched The Office. I've been keeping up with it since college as well. It's been getting interesting, but there are some episodes that disappoints me.

On top of the TV shows, I got to watch Kick Ass and Daybreakers. My friends back home were talking about Kick Ass and recommended that I should watch it. When couple more friends here in Japan said the same thing... I decided to watch it as I ate my soup and crackers. And to my surprise.... it was pretty dang good. It had some ridiculous scenes, but it was entertaining nonetheless. Tons of ass kicking scene, violence, comedy, and so forth. What I liked best about it was that when an actual person tries to become a super hero... he or she gets their ass kicked pretty hard. Like.... they can die trying to be the hero. The movie didn't focus on the person magically becoming a hero suddenly... but rather... after several attempts... with the right equipment and knowing the right people... they finally become hero. Basically... happy ending. The movie has a quote and that's "I can't see through walls or fly or be invisible, but I can kick your ass!" And I guess if you have the power or the ability to kick people's asses... you can be a super hero. Interesting and entertaining movie that focuses on another aspect of super heroes. I enjoyed it and recommend it for other.


I also watched Daybreakers. It was also an interesting and entertaining movie. I didn't hear too much about it. Like I did not hear from people that it was good. But I was personally interested in seeing a world that were only vampires and there were limited humans. I was intrigued to see the vampires acting, walking, and talking like human beings... but the only difference was they needed blood to survive. Like how we now in reality have shortages on supplies such as oil, endangered species, and so forth... this movie focused the shortage of blood and the end of humanity as well as the end of vampire kind. I recommend Kick Ass over this movie, but those who are interested in watching a movie about a world conquered by vampires... I guess I recommend this one. Hope you enjoy it. =)

My Friends Invade Japan - Part 5 (Kyoto)

Right after our visit in Nara and Osaka, we quickly headed over to Kyoto. We arrived in Kyoto roughly about 4pm and we took a bus to our hostel. We got there around 5pm, and it was a nice place to be honest. But all of us did not digg the 10:30pm curfew that they had. They also had other strict rules that made us feel like it was a prison cell. We all wanted to enjoy night life Japan... it was all part of traveling, but this hostel denied us this opportunity. But it was better to have a place than have no place at all.

Knowing that we were like Cinderella and had to be back at a certain time... we left the hostel and walked over to Gion Street to check out some places to eat and drink and chill for the next day. Along our walk, I found a cool wine that had cherry blossoms in them and I was this close to buying it... but after having cherry blossom frappuccino at Starbucks in Matsuyama before and not enjoying the slight aftertaste.. I decided to not buy it. There were many people on Gion Street and we were simply amazed. We checked out the sakura trees that were lit up that night and we enjoyed its beauty.












Along with finding a place to eat for the next day, I went searching for my favorite ramen shop. I visited this ramen shop thanks to my friend Robert when we came to Kyoto with two other friends in the Summer of 2006. I remembered vaguely where it was and as I used the surroundings as hints, I found it in no time. It was how I last remembered it. I was determined to take my friends here for a "second dinner" the next day, and I was very determined that I would get a bowl. I really wanted to eat this ramen. The best that I have had in all of Japan. And that's saying something... I guess haha.

We got something to eat and walked back to our hostel before our curfew kicked in. We found a mochi/dango store along the way where we bought some sweet rice cake dessert. We ate them on the side of the street. They were grilled on the fire so they were very hot, but they were nice and warm and crispy. I would definitely come back to this stand to eat more. Anyhow, we walked forward and got back to our hostel. There we met a German guy who was actually half Japanese. He was on vacation and to my surprise, we had something very in common with each other. I found out that his mother is from the same prefecture as my mothers and his middle name or his Japanese name was Daisuke. I was like "Whoa!? What a small world!?" Indubetibley... we live in such a small world and the people we meet is simply amazing. We talked for a little bit, and it was like 11:30pm when we finished talking. My friends and I were all tired so we decided to sleep early. As we closed our eyes, we did think... dang... curfew is lame haha

The next day, April 1st... there were no April Fools jokes whatsoever. I guess my friends didn't feel like doing anything and playing jokes on people. What a relief that was. Anyhow, I woke up a little early to go on a run around Kyoto. It had always been my dream to take a stroll in Kyoto when it was quiet and peaceful. At 6am, there were no tourists in my way as I ran up the stairs to a temple to hear a morning service by a monk. His voice was vivid and boisterous and so harmonic. His chants were amazing and I felt so happy to hear this. I continued my run up the mountain to visit other temples and shrines and I eventually headed down to Gion River to check out the sight there. The river scenery was also gorgeous and I just kept running along it. Eventually, I realized that my friends and I were gonna check out out of our prison hostel early so I ran back. I took a route where I could see the most cherry blossom trees to finish up my morning run.

We checked out of our hostel by 8am and we headed over to our new hotel which was a capsule hotel. This was my second time at a capsule hotel and it was the first time for all of my friends. We were imagining small closed sleeping quarters, but to our surprise... they were pretty huge. They actually looked comfortable. They came with a comfy bed, TV, air conditioning, and so forth. It pretty awesome. The best part was... no curfew! haha We dropped our stuff and headed toward our first destination, which was the Silver Pavilion. Now.. I gotta admit, but the Silver Pavilion is way cooler than the Gold Pavilion. Well that's my opinion, but the Gold Pavilion kind of not satisfies me because it looks kind of fake and it's a huge tourist trap. But the Silver Pavilion is a little different... it satisfies me in terms of authenticity and the beautiful garden that surrounds the pavilion. Anyhow, there's mix opinions on which one is better and so forth... but my vote is for the Silver Pavilion haha

Anyhow, we take a bus there and we check out the cherry blossoms that are in full bloom along the road up to the Silver Pavilion. They were very beautiful. We took pictures and videos of how beautiful they were. We were also asked by some tourists to pose in their picture with them. Now it was a little weird at first, but it was all in good fun. We finally get to our destination, and just like I remembered it from the last time I visited... the Silver Pavilion ceases to amaze me. I am very glad that I was able to take my friends here and have them check out one of my favorite Kyoto spots. It was cloudy that day, but the garden and view was spendid.

We left the Silver Pavilion, did some shopping along the way to the bus stop, and headed towards another favorite Kyoto spot of mine. We headed over to Sanjūsangen-dō or also known as Hall of the Lotus King. Its an amazing temple hall holding over a thousand deity statues and the very famous Thousand Armed Kannon. It such a sacred place that no one is allowed to take pictures. Its a long hall of just simply amazing-ness. haha I like this place, because I am amazed with the incredible amount of statues that are housed in this hall. It's hard to describe, but it will definitely leave most people stunned with amaze. My friends and I were very impressed and we took our visual photos in our mind. I hope my friends wont forget this place even though they did not take any actual pictures. =)

We left Sanjūsangen-dō and headed over to Kiyomizu temple, which is another favorite Kyoto destination of mine. We walked up the hill all the way up and we were presented with a great view of the city. Once again... it was a little cloudy that day, but still beautiful. We checked out the Love Shrine that is part of Kiyomizu and none of us were really into having our love life predicted haha. We were amazed with the combination of the temple and sakura flowers, and I felt happy to see Kiyomizu again... but this time during Spring. Always seen it during Summer. We left the temple and walked down to get some grub. We found ourselves eating cheap and delicious beef bowls for lunch.

After lunch, we decided to split off and do our own thing. Some of us wanted to shop, others wanted to walk around and find an arcade, and others wanted to sightsee more. So we split off and decided to meet in an hour or so. I went with Rishi, Brian, and Dudley, and we ended up at a Starbucks drinking matcha or green tea frappuccinos. We did some people watching and developed interesting theories about foreigners in Japan in comparison to different groups of people in the US. When our hour of free time ended, we met up with everyone and did some souvenir shopping in the shops near Gion Street. After shopping and finding some random UFO catcher games to waste some money on, we went to dinner... which was a treat.

Now I went to this place before thanks to Robert who I traveled with 4 years ago. It was an all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ place for like 2000 yen and all-you-can-drink for like an additional 1000 yen. My friends and I decided to go all out because it was the last night in Japan in which I would spend time with. We ordered many plates of food and many rounds of drinks. We were very full and pretty buzzed when our two hours came to an end. The food was good and we decided to celebrate our night with some arcades. We visited some arcade parlors near Gion and played the usual games as always.... Mario Kart. Rishi really wanted revenge so we played... and hands down.. Rishi won. Piece of cake for him. He is truly the master at that game. haha I just dont know why I won that one time in Matsuyama haha. Well anyhow, we played other games like this one game where we use these block to create towers for these bird creatures to jump to the highest point they can. Very simple... but very fun. We owned the game with just the three of us: me, Rishi, and Dudley. We also did some UFO catcher as well and we actually won something. Dragon Ballz! muahaha... We just need 5 more!




We parted ways from Cuyler and Dudley because they wanted to go back to the hotel and sleep. The rest of us decided to roam the city of Kyoto a little more. We went to a random reggae bar where we saw many Japanese people grooving to the jam. We try to visit other bars, but because it was a weekday... it was not cracking. It was raining on top of that. Hence why... in the picture you see next to this passage... we are like "WTF!? Where are all the open bars!?" haha But overall, it was an interesting night full of funny stuff happening and so forth. It's a story worth sharing I guess. Oh yeah... definitely got a bowl of my favorite ramen to seal the deal.

The next day, we all wake up around 9am and check out of our capsule hotel. We all had a good rest thanks to the comfortable-ness of the capsules. We arrive at the JR Kyoto station by 10:30ish and we head to the top of the station to check out the view of the city one last time and go to a restaurant up there. Everyone decided to take pictures of people taking pictures so we did an epic picture battle. Yes... a little strange... but the picture angle we had on each other was pretty funny. As soon as it was 11am, we went to our restaurant, Katsu-Kura, a tonkatsu restaurant to eat some delicious tonkatsu. It was a great meal to end my trip with my friends. We finished eating and did some souvenir shopping again. Once that was all done, we took one last group picture and I saw my friends off at the Shinkansen terminal. They were continuing their trip to Tokyo and I had to go home to run in an 10km race in Matsuno, a city south of Uwajima in Ehime.


I had a wonderful trip with my friends and I am very glad that they came. I had so much fun. I wish that my other friends can come and visit and I can show them around. We now have a number of great stories and I cant wait to go back to the states and talk about them with them and with other people. This trip has been one of my highlights during my stay here in Japan. I was very glad to travel the Land of the Rising Sun with my friends. I thank my friends very much for coming and I dedicated these blog entries to them. I'm not the greatest story teller, but it was sure fun to reflect on the trip and write briefly about it. =)

My Friends Invade Japan - Part 4 (Osaka & Nara)

On the 30^th of March, we woke up early to eat breakfast again. I made the guys a Japanese breakfast which consisted of potato and onion miso soup, chive and bean sprouts stir fry, fried rice, and broiled salmon. I haven’t had a good old Japanese breakfast in awhile so I was very pleased. I also had a bowl of nattou or fermented soybeans out on the table for my friends to try it. I enjoyed putting them on my rice, but the guys did not. The smell and the stickiness was just too much for them haha. After breakfast, we left Niihama and caught a limited rapid to Okayama station. It took about 2 hours, but we all slept on the train to kill the time. At Okayama, we transferred over to the Shinkansen train. It’s been awhile since I rode the Shinkansen so I was very excited. The shinkansen ride from Okayama to Shin-Osaka didn’t take too much time and we got to Osaka by 1pm. We decided to do lunch so we ate some Osaka specialty… Takoyaki or a rough English translation would be Octopus Balls. Now… I’m not a big fan of raw octopus because of the suction cups and just imagining it in my mouth just gives me the heebie-jeebies. But if its cooked and hidden in a ball of batter covered with hella sauce… then its all good. My friends and I asked a person at the information center for recommendations of good takoyaki nearby Osaka station and she showed us a couple. We ended up at a stand where we ate the takoyaki as we stood. It was a crackin takoyaki stand and it was crowded. I ordered takoyaki with hella green onions and mayonnaise and boy was it hella delicious. I’m definitely gonna get this again if I ever return back to Osaka. I hella recommend it for others! ;D

After our lunch, we toured around Osaka. We checked out American Town or Ame-Mura and people watched. We also checked out the stores there and took bunch of pictures of the Japanese take on American fashion, food, and culture. For me, the best part of visiting of American Town was eating at McDonalds and buying some 150 yen prized. During the last week of March and early April, McDonald had this campaign and sold all sizes of fries for 150 yen. Small, medium, or large… whatever it was… it was all 150 yen. Since I love French fries…. I could not let this offer go to waste. I bought some large fries with Brian for a snack and we were very happy. Why pay 150 yen for a small when you can get a large for the same price. This American mentality of getting your bang out your buck or quantity over quality was still strong in me. I believe its part of my American culture. Haha

After our tour of Osaka city, we went to check in at our business hotel were staying for the night. We booked our hotel the night before and we were all wondering where we would be staying at…. Because the price per room was like20 bucks and under… we very worried about why it was so cheap…. And we found out why when we got there. Our hotel was located in a pretty shady area and according to Brian… our room looked like the ones you see in those horror movies. Not to mention…. It was pretty shadynasty dirty. Haha But it was for one night and it was cheap so we went with it. We dropped out shit and headed out to Dotombori to do some sightseeing and get something to eat. We walked down the Dotombori shopping arcade and came across a sushi restaurant which had this buffet deal for 1500 yen. It was a kaiten-sushi and we wanted to eat some fish. We split into smaller groups so we could be seated quickly, and we ate our heart out. Brian and I didn’t mean to…. But we ended up having an eating competition. We ate so much that our stack of plates were hella high. I believe we ate over 25 plates of sushi. We were all hella full and wanted to walk around to burn some calories off and whatnot. We walked around and enjoyed nightlife Osaka.

We wanted to party so we looked for a bar orclub to do so. But…. Because it was a weekday… nothing was open. We were very disappointed…. And the bars that were open were hella upscale or they were one of the hostess bars. We eventually ended up at a Shakys Restaurant and try out their all-you-can-eat & drink deal for 1500 yen. We were all full from the sushi dinner we had early so it was a pretty ridiculous thing to do. Haha. We left Shakys after our two hours were up and we went searching again for a club or bar to party…. But like I said before… it was a weekday and nothing was open. It was very lame…. Only hostess bars were open and we were not into those. We ended our night by going back to our “horror movie” hotel. Brian, Rishi, Marlon, and I decided to look around the shady neighborhood of our hotel and took some pictures along the way. After we discovered that there was nothing open except for more of those hostess bars…. We went home to sleep with the ghosts that were waiting in our rooms.

The next day… on the 31^st, we headed out to Nara to go see the Big Buddha and say hi to some deer. We left our horror movie hotel at like 8am and took the limited train to Nara. For breakfast, we had some Mister Donut because the guys wanted their coffee and Pon De Ringu. We walked for like 20 minutes and once we found some deer in the distance…. We knew we were close to the Big Buddha of Todaiji Temple.

We took some pictures of the temples and shrines within the Nara Park. We were blessed with numerous cherry blossom trees in full bloom. We also took pictures with the famous Nara deer. Marlon-san bought some deer crackers and started feeding them. A bunch of them started surrounding him and trying to get his crackers. They tried to eat his clothe thinking he was made of the deer cracker. When I told him that the Nara deer bow to you before you give them their crackers… Marlon-san did so and had the deer bow to him. All of us noticed that the deer bowed to us when we had our hand up. I guess the deer assumed we had something in the air. But then… we all decided to something funny. It was mostly Marlon-san and Brian-san who did it, but they bowed back to the deer whenever they bowed to them. It was hilarious watching them and the deer bow back and forth. They were being so Japanese. I’m glad that I got a video of them doing it.

Once we bowed enough with the deer, we entered Todaiji Temple to check out the Giant Buddha. As always, I was amazed with the size of the great Buddha. Enormous and valiant as always. I think Todaiji Temple is one of my favorite temples in Japan. Not number one though ;D Anyhow, since it was a weekday… there weren’t that many people visiting the temple that day. Hence… there weren’t that many people lined up to go through the famous hole of enlightenment. This hole is located within the pillar and represents the great Buddha’s nose. Anyone who can go through it will reach enlightenment. Marlon, Rishi, and I decided to take the challenge and try to squeeze through the hole. At first, we were hesitant that we could actually go through, but we simply went for it. Marlon went into the hole first and it was a piece of cake. I went in next and it was hella easy to go through. Rishi went last and it was also easy for him. The three of us successfully went through the hole and we were now three enlightened dudes.

After being enlightened, we left Nara and headed back to Osaka to catch an okonomiyaki lunch. We found a restaurant near the station and we enjoyed our okonomiyaki. I got a regular okonomiyaki with cheese and mochi. I hella recommend this combo to everyone out there! It is the freakin bomb! Off the hizzle! After our lunch, we grabbed our stuff and went straight to our next location: Kyoto.