Today was the first day of rain and I was planning to meet SM in Kyoto and walk around Osaka/Kyoto so that plan just went into the toilet. We decided to wing it and figure it out when she got here. She was taking the shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto and would be there by 11. PC recommended I take an express bus from his house to Kyoto but in my infinite wisdom decided the train would be easier – I should really start listening to the locals. My route planning website had me take a JR train to some small station and then have me walk 10 minutes to a Kintetsu train station. Small stations are pretty dangerous for foreigners that don’t read Japanese since there’s very little English anywhere. I got out of the JR station and to my surprise the Kintetsu station was not linked to it nor were there any signs pointing in the direction of the station. I looked at a local map that was posted and figured out the general direction of the other station on the map and started walking, in the rain, with just a vague idea of the direction of the station – and I had to be in Kyoto at 11. Pwned. I eventually found it – even without my crappy compass (I really need a 3GS!).
I arrived in Kyoto and it was a mad house. It’s crazy to think that shinkansen trains from Tokyo literally arrive every 10 minutes. It’s like a train from DC or Boston to NY arriving every 10 minutes. That’s more frequent than the peak trains on the LIRR which are local. I met her on the platform and she decided she wanted to see the Dotonbori area of Osaka. We took a JR rapid train down to there and then switched to the subway to get to Namba. It was raining pretty badly over there so we did a short walk around the area and took photos at some of the main icons in Osaka – the crab, the billboards near the waterway, etc. We then ducked into an okonomiyaki place. SM was happy that our waitress had a Kansai accent because she wanted to hear it. Some of the words seemed a little mixed up instead of clearly pronounced but that’s as much as I could tell. We had seafood okonomiyaki, pork yakisoba, and some kashikatsu which are katsu pieces on skewers. The kashikatsu wasn’t that great but the okomiyaki and yakisoba were good. They cooked it 90% of the way in the kitchen and then brought it over to your table’s hot plate so you had the same feeling as cooking it yourself. It was a pretty good system and prevents a lot of customers from screwing up their own food.
SM went on a little bit about the Tokyo and Kansai region’s peculiarities which were interesting. Apparently, Tokyo women like Kansai men because they’re more manly – apparently Yakuza speech came from Kansai. Tokyo men like Kansai women too because they’re speech is considered cuter or something since they have these little sounds and stuff in their speech. I think she said Kansai women don’t like Tokyo men though because they’re more girlish than they would like. Haha. She didn’t mention if Kansai men like Tokyo women. I guess Kansai folks are pretty lucky anyway. heh.
After lunch we took some more photos in the rain (it sucks) and then headed back to Matsuiyamate to PC’s place. We really wanted to go to a fancy Japanese place about 1.5hrs drive in Mie (?) but could not make it since SM had to catch a shinkansen and be back in Tokyo by 10. We hung out at PC’s pimpin’ pad for awhile and then PC drove us to iku-san’s temple which was nearby. The rain had just cleared and the temple was empty. It was really nice since there was no one there (including the temple workers). I took some photos of the grounds and eventually a temple worker caught up with us and made us pay, booo. It was Y1000 but when we left the entrance booth indicated prices for Y620 or Y480…wtf. Beh.
After the temple, PC took us to shabu shabu. After the shabu shabu in the Tokyo mall I was pretty much done with it but PC insisted I try this place – I was glad I did. It was amazing. It was all you can eat and pretty fancy. All the waitresses working there were super-polite and bowed each time they came and left your booth. The interior was really nice too. One of the waitresses looked like Aragaki Yui – everyone at the table agreed, I’m not crazy! We had 2 soup bases: yakiniku (we got raw eggs on the side!) and some spicy one which PC described as “it looks spicy, but it’s really sweet” – umm, no. So apparently with shabu shabu you keep the thinly sliced meat attached to your chopstick and just swirl it around the soup base and lift it out. I was leaving in the soups for several minutes on previous occassions – pwned. After many trays of meat, veggies, tofu, meatballs, and other gelatinous things we threw in the towel. We had some almond tofu thing for dessert and it was really good. Chinese style dessert tofu is completely soft and smooth while this tofu was soft but had texture at the same time. I knew my stomach would not be able to take it but I ate it anyway.
We then took SM to the express bus to Kyoto. It was the fastest way to Kyoto to catch her shinkansen train back to Tokyo. I was going to go with her to Kyoto but my stomach did not like the cold tofu dessert mixing with the shabu shabu. I went to the mall bathroom by the bus stop and it was the cleanest public mall bathroom I’ve been to. It had a disinfecting towel for the heated bidet toilet seat and a baby seat in the stall too where I put my baby….my camera. We checked out the Tsutaya after. I originally planned to rent some Best of Enka type compilations to rip but was too tired to try that. Saeko’s Enka performance at karaoke in Kakegawa was pretty inspiring. I just picked up some magazines for people back home. More rambling about parking in Japan: it was pretty crazy with the rearview camera, PC can reverse into a space or parallel park so quickly. It’s a little scary at first since the spaces are smaller (for smaller cars too but his Honda Stream is as big as a full-szie car back home) but also because he’s not looking in the mirrors, just the LCD in the dashboard and he’s reversing pretty quickly.
We got home and then he decided he wanted to do a Gears of War marathon and finish the game since he never finished it. We decided to go back to the mall where we just came from to get some drinks. He showed me his pride and joy, his $1500 battery-powered bicycle. Taking out the bicycle from the bicycle park wasn’t a mission like the old place where I spent 3 months with PC. This place had a sliding rail parking system and reserved slots so you didn’t get your bicycle tangled with another persons and you could make space when you needed to remove your bicycle. I remember fighting with the old parking area at his old place and it sucked. So back to the bicycle, the powered assist technology was apprently pioneered by Yamaha and it was difficult to develop because it had to sense the road and the person’s inputs and assist accordingly without accelerating and getting you killed. It was a weird feeling at first but after a few quick rides around the parking lot and I was good to go. When you need the torque to get the bicycle moving, it kicks in and the first pedal movement is as easy as when you’re cruising. I made PC show me the biggest uphill slope in the area to try it some more and going uphill on it is as easy as going level. It was pretty cool. At full speed on level or downhill it won’t kick in no matter how hard you pedal which was a good safety feature I guess. PC said that these types of bicycles outsold scooters in Japan for the first time last year – I can see why! I miss bicycling around in Japan, well except when it rains.
We went to pickup some Choya Ume Shu and Strong 8% (that’s the name) at the store and then settled in for the GOW marathon. We got to the final boss and couldn’t figure it out so ended up googling it. After a few tries we beat the main boss but it was the worst win ever – I was on my knees in front of the boss and needed to be revived and he pressed the wrong button and threw a grenade at me (and the boss) and then started running towards me to revive me and then the boss died. I’ve gotta say GOW single player is so much better than MW2. I think I’ll pickup GOW 2/3 and finally take up some offers to play it with the folks back home. Nerdy gaming rant over.
