2/27 laying low in Seoul

Sorry, nothing interesting to report today. I packed up from Sophia's guest house and moved to a different "guest house" in a different part of town so I could have internet and get some work done. Also I was tired of sleeping on the floor, even if it's heated. Now I'm in my own room but it smells really funky. I did laundry for the first time on my trip, and it was badly needed. Tomorrow I'll be covering a lot of ground hopefully.

2/26 Day 1 in Seoul

2/26/2013: I slept in until around 8:30am on Tuesday. It took me around 4 hours to get from the Seoul Airport to my "guesthouse" the night before. There was a huge line at immigration, then I had to go through customs, get my luggage, get some Korean Won, and then figure out how to get to my guesthouse, which involved a 1hr train ride from the airport into Seoul station, and then two more trains to get to the right neighborhood. Upon exiting the subway station, I realized it was futile to try to find the place on my own, so I grabbed a cab and showed him the screenshot I'd taken of the guest house's website so he'd know the address. Sadly, that didn't help because his GPS didn't find the address. I'd taken screenshots of its location in google maps, too (I was too cheap to get an international smart phone so I've gotten into looking things up when I have internet and saving it with screenshots for later), so we managed to get close to the hostel's location but we couldn't find it. So the cab driver dropped me off nearby, and I wandered some alleys and found it pretty quickly, luckily. Sophia Guest House, recommended by Rosy, is a traditional Korean establishment. I'm not sure what features exactly are traditional, but it is a different place for sure. My room is about 8 feet long by 6 feet wide, with thin sliding doors to the hallway. The floor of my room is heated, and I sleep on just a thin mattress on the floor with a blanket. With the hot floor and tight space, it gets really warm. There's a shared bathroom, and then the hallway leads into a courtyard. There are rooms and other halls surrounding the courtyard.

In the morning, I cut across the courtyard to the breakfast room, which is free. Having already been scolded the night before for wearing my shoes inside, I was careful to take them off before entering the breakfast room. I put on some sandals before entering, and thought I was getting the hang of Korean customs, but was then scolded for wearing someone else's outdoor sandals inside. I thought they were meant for indoor use, but apparently they were just someone else's sandals. I sat through breakfast sitting between Koreans having a lively conversation and wished I knew Korean. At this point I had no idea what I was going to do during my time in Seoul, and the guest house didn't have any internet. As I was leaving the guest house, I luckily found a printout from the Lonely Planet guide for things to do in Seoul on a desk, so I went back to my room and studied up for a while. I decided I'd spend my day finding internet first, then go to Changdeokgung (a palace) and its secret garden. Luckily every other shop on the nearby street is a coffee shop with free WiFi, so I spent some time in there doing some more research on things to do in Seoul and Skyping with Ariel. Around 1pm I started making my way towards the palace (there are actually 5 different palace areas in Seoul), and came across a tourist information center, so I went inside. There were 2 very nice Korean ladies who gave me about 4 maps and a pastry and we talked for a while (one spoke decent English, the other knew only a few words). I asked about lunch recommendations and they told me to go to a tofu place, but it sounded like a real local place with no English, so I asked them what I should order and they wrote down instructions in Korean. Feeling a little intimidated, I half-jokingly asked if either of them wanted to go with me, and they laughed and said they had to work but they'd meet me at 5 if I wanted to meet them. I agreed to it, not knowing if they were serious, and headed straight to the palace.

There was an English tour at 2:30 from a cute Korean girl carrying a microphone and loudspeaker despite our group consisting of about 5 people. Her information was very fact-based and she didn't tell many interesting stories, but it was cool to see the different buildings and how the royal family lived, in her words, "in the olden days." She said there were 27 different kings in the major dynasty. The last Korean princess was forced to move to Japan at age 14 during the Japanese occupation of Korea, and then she was forced to marry a Japanese count. They had a child, but the child disappeared at some point and it's suspected that it was suicide. The princess had a mental breakdown, which caused the husband to divorce her. She lives back in Korea now I think. There were two princes, as well, but one died young, and the other became an architect in the US and married a white American girl, which upset the Koreans. The couple moved back to Korea, but they couldn't have children, and they eventually divorced. So apparently the royal lineage has come to an end.

The "palace tour" ended and the "secret garden" tour began soon after with a different tour guide that sounded like she had an American accent and sounded very fluent at first until I noticed she was using typical phrases out of context (like "as you can see" and "I'm sorry to say"). I talked to her towards the end of the tour and she was 7 months pregnant. I asked if she knew if it was a boy or girl yet, and she said that because boys were favored so much in the past (and I suppose infanticide and abortion of girls was prevalent as a result), the government does not allow doctors to tell expecting parents the gender of their child until it is born.

The secret garden tour was nice, although it would have been 100 times better if it was spring, summer, or fall. The secret garden was just a private wooded space for the king and his family. The space was massive, with enough room to go boar hunting and leopard and tiger hunting (I assume these animals were imported).

The tour ended around 4:55, so I hustled back towards the tofu place and got lucky and found it without too much hassle. I walked inside and one of the ladies was there, so I took off my shoes and put them back on when she told me I didn't need to do that unless we were sitting in the other section. The other lady joined us too, so it was me sitting across from two friendly 40-something year-old Korean ladies. I assume they were interested in practicing their English, and I was excited to eat a meal where I didn't have to order and worry about what I was getting. Just like in my previous Korean meal experiences, about 7 small dishes were served to us, which included kimchi, some seaweed, and other things. The ladies (I later got their names: Myung Lan and Eun-Huye) ordered some tofu dishes for all of us - a spicy dish and a non-spicy dish. I was nervous about the spicy dish, since Rosy's mom (Korean) kicked my ass with spicy food every time I visited in college. I was also nervous about using chopsticks in front of them because they were both sitting across from me watching my every move, and my hands were cold from being outside all day, which makes my poor chopstick skills even worse. I tried to grab a jiggly "acorn"-thing (they used their smartphone translator and it came up with acorn, but it was pretty gelatinous), and failed miserably with the chopsticks so they quickly ordered a fork for me.

They watched anxiously as I tasted the spicy tofu dish and it ended up being fine. It only had a little kick to it but was totally manageable. I ate that whole dish, and the bowl of non-spicy tofu, as well as most of the little side dishes. Myung-Lan and Eun-Huye weren't very hungry, but we had some good conversations. They each travel around a lot - Myung-Lan had just come back from playing golf in China, and Eun-Huye was going to Eastern Europe in April. Eun-Huye told me I had to try a "bomb," which apparently is just soju mixed with beer. I told them about "sake bombs" and "car bombs" which they enjoyed. I had a great time, and the food was phenomenal. Eun-Huye slipped her credit card to the server before I had a chance to even ask for the bill. I was disappointed, because I really felt like I owed them for being the nicest tourist information center employees ever. I started the day feeling isolated and overwhelmed, but ended it feeling pretty good.

2/25 Tokyo to Seoul

2/25/2013: The Tsukiji Fish Market is the world's largest fish market, and supposedly offers the freshest possible sushi. Sash and I met in the hostel common area around 8:30am, not because that's when we most want sushi, but because that's apparently when the fish market is open and busy. We took the Oedo line train a few stops down to the Tsukiji-shinho station (the name was something like that) and wandered around, finally finding the fish market. You would think that it would have been easy to find because the place would just reek of fish, but it actually didn't. I was still a bit congested though, so maybe it did. The guide book says to be on alert at the fish market, since it is not actually a tourism spot and people are actually trying to do their jobs moving fish around. The place was teeming with little carts and other vehicles, so we froggered our way across some streets and into the market. The market had a lot of seafood, none of which was being served in an edible form. It was, I assume, meant for restaurant owners and other people that buy the fish in bulk and then serve it somewhere else. It was a fascinating place, with all sorts of weird sea creatures. I didn't have much time before I had to head to the airport, so we wandered back out and found the nearest sushi restaurant. I'm not sure if we did the "fish market" right, but it was fantastic sushi, even at 10am. I had "naturally rich tuna" (more expensive than regular tuna and it appeared to just be fattier), some salmon, crab, and sea bass. The tuna was the best, but they were all good. We hustled back to the hostel and I made my way to the airport for my flight to Korea. The fish market was fun, but I wish I had more time to spend there. The hard core tourists / fish enthusiasts can get to the market at 4:30am and witness the tuna auction. I didn't find anything anywhere that explained why it is worth getting up so goddamn early to see a tuna auction, but apparently that is a major event for tourists. I don't regret not having done that.

Overall, Japan was a great experience. I wish I had spent less time traveling between cities and activities and more time seeing the various sights, but I think I made the most of my 10 days in Japan. The Japanese are extremely friendly - I never had a negative encounter with anyone. One girl chased me down to offer me her spare umbrella while walking around in the rain in Kyoto, and the hotel worker in Sapporo lent me his own jacket so I could get to the post office in time to withdraw money. My best day of the trip was my 2nd day skiing at Rusutsu. My best meal was probably the Japanese pancake for my final dinner in Japan. I feel like I didn't see enough of Japan, and I would love to return in the spring to see a different side of the country. I also didn't do enough in Tokyo and would like to spend more time there when it isn't bitterly cold and windy.

• Ride bullet train: done
• See Mt. Fuji: done (from bullet train)
• Eat sushi: done
• Ski Japanese powder: done
• Eat lots of noodles: done
• Drink sake: sadly no

2/24 tourist in Tokyo

2/24/2013: My plan was to walk from the hostel to the Ryogoku neighborhood and visit the Edo-Tokyo Museum. Then visit some Japanese gardens nearby, eat some lunch, and grab a train to the west side of the city to check out Shinguku and see the Meiji shrine. I left the hostel around 9:15am and walked along the big river for about 20 minutes. Crews were out getting ready for the Tokyo marathon, which was happening later that day. I fairly easily found the museum around 9:50, bought my ticket, and found the spot where you ask about English-speaking volunteer guides. I was in luck, and I had a private tour of the museum, which was pretty interesting. Tokyo's original name was Edo until it was officially made the capital of Japan, at which point they changed the name to Tokyo, which means Eastern Capital (Kyoto was the previous capital, which means "capital city"). The history begins a little before 1600, where the city was a "military city," run by the shogun and half the population were samurai warriors. The guide was an elderly Japanese man with a thick accent, but seemed to know a lot. After almost 2 hours, we had finished the Edo section (up to around 1886), and he had to return to the desk to do another tour and I was left alone to learn about the history of Tokyo up until present time. A lot of the displays in the more modern section were dedicated to the Allied air raids of Tokyo in WW2, so it's probably best we parted ways before reaching that awkward section. In 1943, the Allies had bombed the city so much that it had been essentially levelled, and over 100,000 people had been killed. By 1964, 21 years later, Tokyo was hosting the Olympic games, which is an impressive turnaround. I was starving, since I hadn't eaten breakfast, so I left the museum and found a noodle shop nearby. I had Tempura Soba, which was delicious. I couldn't really find the gardens, and I was very cold, so I hopped on a train and headed to Shinguku. It wasn't any warmer there, so I forced myself to walk around for a bit but hated most of it. I decided to just head back to the hostel and get a warmer coat and do some touristy stuff in that neighborhood.

I was talking to one of the girls working at the hostel  about where I should grab my final dinner in Tokyo, and an Australian guy came up and introduced himself to us. His name was Sash (at least his nickname) and he had just landed in Japan about 2 hours ago. I invited him to dinner after the girl recommended Okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake). The place turned out to be very Japanese - we had to take our shoes off at the entrance, and the tables were short with just cushions on the floor for seats. I was glad Sash had come along, since it would have been intimidating on my own. We got a table after waiting about 10 minutes and each ordered the "pork and egg pancake," which is what the hostel girl had recommended. At Okonomiyaki, the table has a grill on it, and the customer is responsible for cooking the meal. Two Japanese girls sat at the table adjacent to ours, so we kept a close eye on their cooking process to make sure we weren't doing anything wrong or offensive. The pancakes ended up being really delicious, and we had tried some interesting drinks too. It was a great experience. We talked a little to the Japanese girls next to us - we had guessed that they were 16 years old but they said they were 20. An apparently drunk Japanese guy came up to our table and started talking to us in Japanese but didn't get very far before realizing we didn't speak any Japanese. He looked to the girls next to us for help but they only knew a little English. We ended up just exchanging "sorry" to each other (he said it in English, I said it in Japanese). I bet he would have been fun to talk to.

Sash and I headed back to the hostel and he said he'd be interested in heading to the Tsukiji Fish Market with me the next morning before I left for Korea. I went to bed somewhat early.

2/23 Laying low in Tokyo

2/23/2013: I slept in for the first time on this trip. I decided I'd have a down day and try to beat the head cold, so I laid low in the hostel and did some work for most of the day. I went to a Japanese fast-food place called Sukiya that has rice/meat/curry bowls which was pretty tasty. While finishing up work, I started talking to a British guy named Jim at the hostel. He had been living in Chiang Mai for 3 months with his girlfriend. They had come to Japan for a few weeks, but his girlfriend got a "once in a lifetime" type job offer and quickly returned home, leaving him on his own for another 5 weeks before returning to the UK. He seemed to be still adjusting to traveling solo, and was set on fulfilling his duty of photographing landmarks for his girlfriend. We spent some time looking at the map of Chiang Mai and he told me about where the nice spots are to live, how to get a bike, etc. Feeling like I was past the worst part of my cold, I went out looking for a tempura restaurant, but I think it was closed, so I ended up at an Indian restaurant and talked to the Nepalese chef for a little bit. I got chicken tikka masala, which was pretty good, but very small portion. Luckily I got a table-sized piece of naan, which filled me up and helped me scoop up the sauce from the masala since I had only been given chopsticks. I spent the evening trying to plan out my next day, wanting to make the most of it since I hadn't done anything special in Tokyo yet.

2/22 Sapporo back to Tokyo

2/22/2013: First, the end of 2/21: The bus dropped us off, I managed to get back to the New Otani Inn without getting lost, and then went back out into the cold to find a place to have some dinner. I found a little spot about a block and a half away that sold grilled things on skewers. I ordered a beer like a pro (birru kudesai…."beer please") but had a serious issue ordering food. I used the usual method of pointing at things on the menu, but there apparently was a snag with this process, and the teenager at the counter couldn't get across whatever the issue was. I found in my "Japanese Phrasebook" app a phrase that said "what do you recommend," and then I gave a thumbs up, meaning "I'll have whatever you recommend." The boy hesitated but went away, so it seemed to work. Food arrived shortly after and I ate it. Then another server came by with about 3 times more food than what I had just ate and apologized, acknowledging that it was a ridiculous amount of food. I'm guessing I ended up getting whatever I had originally ordered, and also whatever the boy recommended. Another server came back with a pencil and paper and asked me where I was from in broken English. I said the US, which he wrote down. Then he made a baseball swinging motion, and we both nodded together enthusiastically about the existence of baseball. He said Yu Darvish is from Hokkaido (the island we were on). I don't think he took any more notes. Later the chef came over to talk to me, but he didn't know much English either. He did some flamboyant skiing motions, meaning he skis occasionally, so we talked a little about skiing. The meal ended up costing around $30. I considered it a "not knowing the local language tax." Bummer though.

The next morning I skyped with Ariel, did some work, then headed to the airport to fly back to Tokyo. I arrived back at the hostel around 5pm, so it ended up being a whole day of traveling again. I was starving when I arrived at the airport, so I had some udon there, and ended up not needing dinner. My cold was at its worst that night, so I spent a decent amount of time trying to find cold medicine. The guy at the hostel helped me translate my symptoms into Japanese script, and then gave me a map to the pharmacy. I took it easy that night.

Check in from Seoul

Just fyi, I'm still alive, just didnt have internet access lately. I'm in Seoul now. More info later.

2/21 Skiing Day 2 at Rusutsu

2/21/2013: Another fantastic day of skiing. I made some changes to my approach which improved things:

1. I listened to my iPod all day, so I had Wilco in my ears instead of the cheesy Japanese pop they blare from every chairlift tower.
2. I decided it didn't matter where I skied, that as long as there were trees and a decent pitch, I would get lots of powder. Yesterday I stuck to one main area, which seems to be where all the Aussies go, so it was a little tracked out.

So I had big plans for the evening of 2/20 (after day 1 of skiing). I was going to drink beer. I was going to get some work done. I was going to hit the onsen. Maybe do a little night skiing, or at the very least wander around outside and get some nice snowy night pictures. Instead, I showered, wrote a blog entry, then went to dinner for like 2 hours and passed out afterwards. Rusutsu is an odd place, where everything is contained within the same building (which actually isn't that odd, just really convenient). Hotel check-in, the hotel rooms, the ski rental area, lockers, a gym, onsen, ping pong, a carousel, an odd robotic band playing creepy "Dixie" music, and like 6 restaurants. There was a British pub, a German place, Italian, Chinese, and a few Japanese places I think. I went to Sekkatei, the traditional Japanese place. I had purchased my dinner in advance (one big lodging/lift ticket/meals package), so there were some meals designed for those tourists with the "dinner voucher." I got the hot pot type meal, which was around 5 courses. The first ones were scary. Raw things I didn't recognize. Once again, octopus is very chewy. I didn't really enjoy those dishes, and I was trying to be open-minded. There was a table of Australian guys near my table, and they were very suspicious of the food. I think one guy wanted to check the place out, and the others just wanted burgers. They kept looking over at my table and saw me putting down the raw fish, and I got a "if he can do it, I can do it" kind of vibe from them. There were two hot pots, cooked at different times in front of me, so the meal took a long time. I only had my phone with me for entertainment, so I read the article that Michael Lewis (author of Moneyball) wrote about his time spent with Obama over the summer. It's a really good read, but really long (it took me most of my meal to finish it). http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2012/10/michael-lewis-profile-barack-obama. The hot pot dishes were very tasty, so overall it was a good meal. Just really long. I thought I was done at one point, and the waitress put another hot pot in front of me, lit the little burner, and said it would be ready in 25 minutes. At least I had time to get hungry again.

I was super tired afterwards, so I just went to sleep in preparation for the next day. It was snowing again, so I was hoping  our tracks from that day would be filled in.

For those who already hate me for getting to go skiing in Japan, you may want to stop reading here.

I got to the first gondola around 8:45am after an uninteresting breakfast (American style, although apparently Japanese think we'll eat salad with any meal). In accordance with #2 above, I dropped into the first tree run I came across, and it was deep and fantastic. The snow overnight certainly filled in all previous tracks. It's hard to say how much fresh snow they had from the whole storm system, including the night before I arrived, but I would guess around 2-3 feet. The snow was very light, too - it required no effort to make turns. Like the day before, it just felt like a dreamlike state where I floated through bottomless powder, past cool, perfectly-spaced gnarled Japanese birch trees just completely caked with snow. It was just like the ski movies from Japan. On my 2nd ride up the lift, the Japanese guy next to me asked me where I was from. We talked a little, but his English was limited. He'd actually been to Mt. Hood and Portland. They asked me what my name was, and I asked them where they were heading. They pointed to a double-black on the trail map, and I asked if I could follow them. They said yes (I think). They were all snowboarders. I got a sense that "it was on," that they were going to go pretty hard as if we had to prove ourselves. They were much better than I expected, and pretty much straightlined it down the run (it wasn't extremely steep or narrow or bumped out, more like a blue-level run with a bunch of powder). I think I was cocky and ended up losing my balance, my ski popped off because they didn't set the DINs very high, and the Japanese snowboarders disappeared down below. I couldn't even put my ski back on real quick and catch up because my ski was buried in the powder somewhere. I had to dig around for a while, by which time the others took off. I don't even know if they noticed that I wiped out. Hopefully not. They probably just thought I couldn't keep up, which isn't much better. So, I did not represent the US very well. I can't believe I wiped out on my one opportunity to hang with some Japanese riders. The deep powder made me forget pretty quickly though. I made countless laps off of that same lift, just going a little further down the main run before cutting into the trees. I was still getting mostly untouched powder, but there was a line at the lift that I had been riding, so I decided to move on. I went back to the East Mountain and had some good powdery tree runs in there. I went in for an early lunch, had some ramen with miso broth, and went back to Mt. Isola, where I stayed for the rest of the day. I stupidly though I might quit early and hit the onsen before catching the 5pm bus back to Sapporo, but each run was still deep and I'd say "ok one more." I quit after 4pm. I didn't count my runs, but it felt like over 20, and I was exhausted. I got a lot of pictures, but none of me (since I'm by myself). Most of the pictures are just shots of trees crippled by massive amounts of snow. I couldn't get over the odd formations, and the unlikely spots where snow accumulated. Because of the types of trees and disgusting amounts of snow, it just created a scene that I've never experienced before. Hopefully my pictures capture that, but I'm guessing they don't.

https://picasaweb.google.com/108933817613007660268/Rusutsu20130221?authkey=Gv1sRgCIvW5NrCi4D1kgE

2/20 Skiing Day 1 at Rusutsu

2/20/2013: It's 5:30pm and I'm in my cozy hotel room at Rusutsu, a ski area south of Sapporo. I woke up around 7am this morning, found the bus pickup area for Rusutsu, and hopped on. I was early, so I got back off and went to the nearest convenience store for some breakfast. My throat is sore, too, so I looked for cough drops. All the packaging was in Japanese, so I stared at everything for a while and couldn't make any sense of it until I realized I was in the condoms and tampons section. The next aisle over had some Vick's cough drops. I also got another triangular rice-seaweed-fish snacky thing, my go-to snack in Japan.

The bus ride was about 2 hours to Rusutsu. I picked Rusutsu because Tomo's brother recommended it, and he's apparently a big skier and knows what he's talking about. There is a more famous ski area nearby called Niseko, but it is apparently more built-up and overrun with Australians. Rusutsu certainly has its fair share of Australian gapers too though. In doing some research for this trip (I probably spent more time figuring out where I wanted to ski than the rest of my trip), I learned that Rusutsu averages around 14 meters of snow per year. That's over 550 inches, which is more than anywhere in Colorado, and even more than Alta and Snowbird in Utah (I think they average 500 inches). On the drive to Rusutsu, it was obvious that 14 m is not an inflated number. I don't think I've ever seen so much snow. The bus arrived, everyone hustled in and was corralled to the check-in area. I was given my meal vouchers, my ski rental vouchers, and some coins for the locker. An Australian was working at the rental shop, so I got some tips from him on where to ski, and I hustled out to the lift around 11am. On my first run, I was just trying to cut over to another lift, but I found a little section marked "advanced" and received my first of many powder face shots of the day. On my next chairlift ride, we passed over a big wide glade that funnels into a ravine, just a few tracks leading into it, and I think I drooled. Before entering, there was a sign that said "off-piste skiing is prohibited" but then went on to just say that if you get hurt, we're not responsible. I took my chances and it was incredible. The powder was knee-deep, and pretty light. I was given some parabolic skis that were pretty skinny, so I was missing my own skis, but it was definitely manageable. The trick was to ride in someone else's tracks and pick up speed,  then veer off into the untouched snow. While the runs could be a bit longer and steeper, I won't complain about knee-deep powder. The trees are perfect too. No big evergreens with huge tree wells, just gnarled leafless trees, perfectly spaced, covered in crazy amounts of powder. I stopped for a brief bowl of roasted pork and rice, but skied until around 4pm, and every run included trees, powder, and face shots. I've never had a deeper day of skiing. Rusutsu definitely exceeded my expectations. I've found a resort with an A-Basin vibe, some of the deepest snow on earth, and most of its patrons prefer groomers. And no Texans! Actually, I'm the closest thing to a Texan there. All the other foreigners are from Australia it seems.

Unfortunately, my camera battery died, so I only took some photos with my phone, which aren't as good. I'll recharge tonight and take some better ones tomorrow hopefully. It's hard to capture just how much snow there is here, but I'll keep taking pictures. Here is my first batch:

https://picasaweb.google.com/108933817613007660268/Rusutsu20130220

2/19 Tokyo to Sapporo

2/19/2013: This day was supposed to be a laid back day with a quick trip to Sapporo from Tokyo and not much else planned. I had a 11am flight from Tokyo to Sapporo. Narita Airport is located very inconveniently outside of Tokyo, so they recommend planning on 75 minutes of travel time to get there. I decided the night before that I should leave at 8am to be there 9:30ish for my flight. As I left, I realized I was running a bit low on cash, so I went to the nearby 7-11 to hit the ATM. It didn't like my card. I went to another ATM, and it didn't like my card. I went back to the hostel, grabbed my stuff, and headed to the train station. I'm starting to figure out how to get around, but I still get thrown off-track pretty easily. I took hopped on the train at Kuramae, got off at Uedo-somethingsomething, and must have taken a different exit out of the station, because I ended up wandering around what appeared to be the red light district. I finally found my way over to the other station, got to the platform, and when the train arrived, it was packed full of people. Every car was jam packed, no room for me and especially no room for my big pack. I waited for the next train, but it was just as full. The third one had space for half a person, so I crammed in and was glad I was taller than mostly everyone else. This was just for the train to Tokyo station, where I had to catch another train to the airport. At this point I'm nervous about making my flight, and nervous about running out of cash. I made it onto the next train with no problems, bought a cheap tasty snack with rice and seaweed with a little bit of fish and hopped on the train. I made it to my gate with no problems. The flight was a little late, so we got into Sapporo around 1:30pm. At this point I'm still thinking I need to ration my cash, but I'm starving, so I stopped at "Mos Burger," a Japanese burger joint for a cheap lunch. It was pretty bad. While there, though, I looked in my Japan travel book and saw that not all ATMs accept foreign cards. Some convenience stores do, and all post offices have ATMs that accept foreign cards, so that was a relief. I just had to find a post office.

I took the train into Sapporo from the airport, another 40 minute ride. I got into Sapporo around 3 or 3:30 maybe. It was incredibly snowy. Snowbanks are piled high on the streets, taller than cars in some places. The sidewalks are mostly shoveled, although I came to a point where the shoveling had stopped and there was about a 2 foot step from cement up onto packed ice. I knew the ski areas south of Sapporo get slammed, but I didn't realize this major city gets dumped on also. From the train station in downtown Sapporo, it was supposed to be an easy walk to my hotel, the New Otani Hotel. I had taken a screenshot of Google maps showing the walking route from the station, but I somehow got lost and wandered around for about another hour. I asked some girls for help, because most of my map was in Japanese, so I couldn't read street signs or anything. They didn't help much. I asked another guy for help, and he didn't know much either. Turns out I'd been looking for a much crappier looking hotel and I think I'd walked right past the New Otani a couple times. I booked it using hotels.com points, so I was pretty pumped. I checked in, got in my room, made some tea and did a little work. I realized I should try to find a post office before it closes, so I went back downstairs and tried to talk to the people at the front desk. They had very limited English, but way more advanced than my Japanese. They determined that the post office was a few blocks away, and that it closed at 6. At that point we both looked at the clock and realized it was 5:50, then I looked back at the lady at the front desk and was going to say that I was going to run up to my room on the 10th floor to get a jacket real quick (it was about 20 degrees F and snowing), but she had a weird look on her face and said something to the other guy at the desk. He ran into the closet and pulled out his jacket and offered it to me so I could make it to the post office in time. I thanked him a lot and put it on as I ran out of the hotel. I found the post office with plenty of time and successfully withdrew some money. I thought it would be funny to buy the two people at the front desk some candy as a "thank you" for helping me, so I stopped at a convenience store and got them some "Crunky" candy. I have no idea what it is, I just loved the name. They were confused when I gave it to them, hopefully it was actually candy and not like tobacco or something. I just thought it would be good to end the story with "then I bought them some Crunky."

I got some work done, then wandered back towards the train station to get some dinner at a Japanese curry restaurant. The guy asked what spice level I wanted (0=not spicy, 1=spicy, 2=very spicy) so I asked for a 1. It wasn't spicy at all, I should have gone for 2 at least. The meal had the kind of numbing spice that I've had in a Chinese dish before. It had a chicken leg, a hard-boiled egg, some veggies, and taro root, and came with rice on the side. It was very tasty. I went back to the hotel and got directions to the Sapporo Factory and walked there around 9pm. It wasn't really the factory, and I'm not sure I even went to a Sapporo-related place. It was more like a Japanese attempt at a German beer hall. They had a bunch of different types of Sapporo, though, so I drank a stout and took off as they were closing. I hustled back in the cold and prepared for my ski day.

In China, Amy and I were very impressed by Chinese women and their agility in high heels. I am equally impressed by Japanese women. I saw one girl crank through some packed snow and ice with huge heels on. Another woman ran past me in heels over the snow.

Oooh and the girl at the hostel in Tokyo calls me Daniel-san and isn't joking. It's awesome.

I've learned some more Japanese:
"sorry" = "gomennasai"
I can count to 999
"beer" = "birru"

2/19 WebAlbum Links

2/19/2013: First, I've finally been on some good quality internet and was able to upload photos so far. Don't get too excited - for one, I'm by myself so there are no pictures of people besides random tourists or passersby. Also, you can't take pictures in temples, so none of that is included either. Anyhow, enjoy:
2/16 Kyoto: https://picasaweb.google.com/108933817613007660268/Kyoto20130216
2/17 Kyoto: https://picasaweb.google.com/108933817613007660268/Kyoto20130217
2/18 Kyoto: https://picasaweb.google.com/108933817613007660268/Kyoto20130218
2/19 Sapporo: https://picasaweb.google.com/108933817613007660268/Sapporo20130219

I will later write some details on my long day of getting to Sapporo from Tokyo. I didn't expect it to be such a long day.

2/18 Kyoto and back to Tokyo

2/18/2013: Actually, a few more things about my day on 2/17. The temple of 1,001 buddhas is called Sanjusangendo Temple. It was actually a really interesting site. It was built in the 12th century. The main attraction is a giant hall filled with 1,001 buddhas. They are all about 5 or 6' tall, and lined up in a "bleacher" type arrangement. It took around 100 years for everything to be completed. They are wood statues with gold plating, and each buddha has 42 (or 43?) arms, each hand holding a different tool that could improve your health (if I remember correctly). The main buddha is just a larger version of the other buddhas - around 11 feet high. There are also other deities spaced out in the front section, including a wind god and a thunder god. There were some monks doing some loud chants (more like wails) in the hall. The hall is the longest wooden building in Japan (which may not be surprising since it contains so many buddhas). Outside, there is a spring, which was discovered by a priest through his dreams, and the water is said to be good for preventing babies from crying at night. 

After that temple, I wandered up past the Kyoto Women's University, then to Kyomizu Temple, which is  UNESCO World Heritage Site. This area, if I remember correctly, started as a shrine built by a monk, and developed into the headquarters for the biggest sect of Buddhism in Japan. This one seemed more touristy to me than the first area, but it was still interesting and offered a nice view of Kyoto. I stopped at a small restaurant within the park, which offered elevated tables with pillows for seats so you had to sit with your legs crossed. I ordered some ramen with an egg over it, which was pretty tasty although the egg seemed uncooked (on purpose). From this temple, I walked around through some different streets for a while. The streets are lined with stalls selling trinkets, desserts, drinks, food, etc. Excellent people watching as well. Having burned out on temples, I made it as far as Maruyama Park, where I sat on a bench and read until I was too cold and walked back to the hostel. It was a really cold day.

So on the morning of 2/18, my only roommate, the old Japanese guy from the previous night, woke up at 5:45am and turned the light on and proceeded once again to crinkle plastic bags for a while. When I finally looked up to see what the hell he was doing, he was just about to drop his pants, so I put my head back down real quick. He must have been applying some balm somewhere, since the room smelled very strongly of ben-gay. He finished lathering, then left, and I finally got back to sleep. I struggled to wake up when my alarm went off (7:15) and finally got out of bed around 8:30am. It was raining pretty hard, so I decided to just grab breakfast at the café adjacent to the hostel. Not having made any plans for the day, I decided it was a good day to get some work done, but the internet wasn't cooperating so I was unable to accomplish much. I talked to Ariel over Skype briefly, but it was such a weak connection that we didn't really get to say much besides "can you hear me?" The rain seemed to keep everyone at the hostel from going out and exploring. The common room was still really busy around noon, whereas on the day I arrived it was empty at that time. I spent a little bit of time talking to an odd Australian guy who I could tell from a few other instances was really looking to talk to someone at the hostel. He was older - I'm guessing late 30's, early 40's, and had darting eyes and dressed like a 15 year old. He spoke so fast, with an Australian accent, that I had to ask him to repeat everything. He said he's from Sydney, but I don't remember ever having trouble understanding anyone when I was in Sydney. He spent 2 weeks skiing in the Nagano area, which is in the Japan alps on Honshu island (the main island, where Tokyo is). He said the skiing was good and kept emphasizing that Hokkaido would be brutally cold. I was feeling confident about the cold until the day I walked around Kyoto with my ski jacket on and still got cold. Whenever speaking about Hokkaido, people mention the "Siberian wind," which doesn't sound inviting. I suppose I'll have onsens to look forward to.

I decided to abandon my plan to take the train north from Kyoto to Sapporo, since it is a very long train ride and there's no fast way to get there by following the west coast of Japan, which is what I was hoping to do. Instead, the fastest route is to take the bullet train back up to Tokyo, and then switch to another train that heads north from there. I was more interested in seeing the west side of Japan, so I figured I may as well just stick with the flight I originally booked and fly to Sapporo on the 19th. I booked another room at K's House in Tokyo for the 18th, which meant I had to take the train back to Tokyo today.

Before doing that, I decided I'd go back to the Arashiyama area to try to find the bamboo grove and also see the monkey park.  It was still raining pretty hard, but I thought I'd be disappointed if I didn't try. After consulting the girl at the hostel front desk about the do's and don’ts when in the presence of monkeys (since I was bitten in China), I bundled up and caught the train to Sawa-Arashiyama. In case you're wondering about the do's and don'ts, here's what I was told:

1. Don't show them any of your food
2. Don't carry plastic bags, as they will think they might contain food.
3. Don't make extended eye contact with the monkeys. That includes staring contests.

I wandered around for a while before finding the bamboo path, which is just a path through a bamboo forest. It was actually a great experience - similar to that feeling when you walk through a dense aspen grove, where for some reason it is more exciting than just walking through any old regular forest. I reached the other side of the forest (only took about 10 minutes) and didn't see any signs for a monkey park. I was thoroughly wet at this point anyway, so I just meandered back towards the town where the train station is. While walking back, I could hear loud short steps coming up from behind me pretty quickly. It was a girl (probably actually mid-20's but it's hard to tell) that chased me down to offer me her extra umbrella. She had a serious look of concern on her face for my well-being and said "you look so cold!" I had been wearing my rain coat with my hood up and hands in my pockets and actually was pretty cold. I didn't accept her umbrella though since I was already pretty soaked and it was mostly just my hands that were really cold. She seemed frustrated that I wouldn't accept, but I thanked her a lot and kept walking. I was astounded by how nice she was to chase me down and offer an umbrella though.

I decided to abandon the monkey park, reasoning that I'll see plenty of monkeys in Thailand. Instead, I stopped to warm up at a little café back in town before heading to the train station. The woman there was very nice and spoke a little bit of English. Trying to save room for sushi back in Kyoto, I just ordered a steamed bun and some coffee. The woman that worked there was very friendly and we talked a little about skiing. I caught the train back into town and went straight to the sushi train restaurant again. I tried some different dishes this time. Oysters are extremely chewy. The "lobster salad" roll was good. Salmon is still the best. I had 3 cups of green tea but refilled each time mostly just so I could use the heat to warm up my hands. I like the sushi train not just because it is so easy to pick out what you want, and not just because it is so tasty, but also because you are sitting with a bunch of other Japanese people and get to see how they go about eating their meals. The guy I sat next to for dinner on 2/17 stuffed like 3 bags of green tea into his tiny cup. Everyone I've watched (subtly) really loads up on the pickled ginger before even looking at the sushi train. And the girl I sat next to for dinner would eye up seemingly identical dishes and pick out whichever one looked best. I don't know what she was looking for, but I assume she has a more refined eye for quality sushi.

I returned to the hostel, changed into dry clothes, picked up my bags, and headed back to the train station to catch the shinkansen (bullet train) to Tokyo. I'll have my own room for the next few nights, which will be nice. Hopefully no bunk beds for a while.

Another Japanese observation: every historical building has at some point in its history been destroyed by fire. I don't think I've seen any historical site that is original. Every sign says "it was lost in a fire in the year XXXX and was rebuilt in YYYY."

Not having much else to do as I rip across Japan in the shinkansen at 180 mph (I made that number up), I'm going to copy a funny section from the book I'm reading (takes place in Japan in the 1980s):

"At nine, the woman of the ryokan brought us a dish of sliced apples, and the dental man told me about his son.

"My son's fifteen. A boy scout. He's out camping this week for one of his badges. Up in the mountains. All by himself. It's hard for a lad, but it'll do him good. The first night I drove up and took him a chicken. The chicken was alive and he didn't know what to do with it. I said nothing, I just stood there and watched him. He told me over and over that he didn't want to kill the chicken, but I said nothing, and eventually he wrapped it in a newspaper and snapped its neck. The second night I took him a live eel and a diagram of how to cut it up.

He's not a bright boy. He cried for a while when he killed both creatures. He wanted to tell me something, but I came away before he could speak. I'm rather worried about his future.

He's not much good with an abacus, even though I've told him it's one of the basic skills. Reading, writing, and the abacus. We make two thirds of the electronic calculators in the world, and four out of five Japanese shopkeepers still use an abacus. My son's a disappointment. He made a mess of the eel."

Ok, that's all so far!

2/17 Kyoto

2/17/2013: Woke up around 7am again, the other 3 guys in my room also woke up around then. Partially because the older Japanese guy in the room started crinkling plastic bags for some reason and continued to do so for about a half hour. He then went back to sleep for some reason. A British guy and I complained about it together. Turns out his name is Guy, and he's traveling all over the world. He had recently been in Breckenridge for skiing, and had discovered "steez" which he was excited about. He had been in South America, where he and his girlfriend broke up, and now he's traveling around Asia. He's a banker and hoping to find work in one of these places. I told him to email me if he's in Chiang Mai later…hopefully that's ok with Ariel. Seemed like a nice guy for the 10 minutes I talked to him.

I packed up my bags, put them in storage, and made my way to "Amazon Café" for breakfast, which involved some coffee and a "Japanese sandwich" which was kind of odd. It was toast and egg, with maybe some seaweed, some sauce, and maybe something fishy? I proceeded to the temple with 1,001 Buddhas, which was pretty cool. Apparently in the 17th-19th centuries, they held an annual archery competition. One of the competitions was to see who could shoot the most arrows in a 24 hour period. The record was over 13,000 arrows, which averaged out to over 9 arrows per minute. Then I wandered up to another temple, and then through a bunch of different streets with shops and restaurants and things. I eventually ended up in a nice park and sat and read for a while as I debated about going to another temple. I decided not to go to the other temple, even though it's apparently the one you're supposed to go to if you're only going to see one temple. I don't get extremely pumped over temples, though, so I decided I'd rather walk around and see another part of the city, which is what I did. I returned to the hostel around 4:30pm, drank some beers in the adjacent café and talked to the bartender, a Japanese guy who for some reason is a big Phoenix Suns fan. I spent a while trying to plan out other parts of my trip - so now I'm heading to Taiwan on March 5, then flying back to Denver on March 9.

More Japanese observations: Everyone is extremely law-abiding. If the traffic light doesn't say "walk," nobody walks, regardless of how barren the streets are.

For dinner, I went to a "sushi train" restaurant. I now believe all food should be served train style. It was fantastic. I was nervous about eating sushi alongside Japanese people, since I probably made a lot of feaux pas'. There was a hot water dispenser at every other seat, which I couldn't figure out, so the girl next to me did it for me. Dishes were marked as either having wasabi or not. A few of the ones had a ton of wasabi, which made me tear up a little. Hopefully no one noticed. It was a great experience, I might go back again before I leave.

2/17 Trip Plan Update

I spent today touring Kyoto and looking at temples. Maybe more on that later. More importantly, I have the remainder of my pre-BradyandKaraWedding trip planned: On March 5, I depart Hong Kong and arrive in Taipei, Taiwan. On March 9, I depart Taipei, have a layover in Seoul, then layover in Vancouver, then arrive in Denver at 6:27pm on March 9. Yes, it sounds like a brutal trip. 20 hrs, 32 mins total. I didn't have many other options. Plus it cost me $36 so I can't complain too much.

What I do in Taipei is yet to be determined. But there is a lot that is still yet to be determined...like tomorrow (2/18). So I'll keep plugging away on the laptop.

2/16 evening starting in Kyoto

2/16 evening: After getting off of the shinkansen (bullet train) I found my way to the hostel and checked in. After talking to the girl at the desk about things to check out, I hopped on a train to an area west of Kyoto with some temples and a bamboo grove.  I ended up not walking through the bamboo grove, but I think I saw it from a temple I went to. The temple had very cool gardens, and it started to snow, which made it look even cooler. After the garden closed, I wandered around the neighborhood for a while, eventually heading back to the hostel. They recommended a ramen place, but there was a really long line, so I wandered around until I found a restaurant that seemed to have an English menu and looked reasonably priced. It ended up being a good find, with tall beers and my spot at the bar gave me a good vantage point to see what the head chef was doing. I got some noodles, and managed to successfully ask for a spoon in Japanese ("supunu"). I was extremely tired when I got back to the hospital. We'll blame it on jet lag.

2/16 On the way to Kyoto

Blog Notes

2/16/2013: I woke up before anyone else in the hostel after a decent night's sleep. Went to bed around 11pm, got up around 7am, showered, then quietly packed up my stuff and went down and hung out in the common area. 8am the hostel employees showed up to open up shop. I asked for recommendations on a good place to get breakfast. They recommended a place a few blocks away. The place had fake dishes displayed in their front window. I walked in and sat down at a table. The waitress started speaking Japanese to me, quickly realized I don't speak Japanese, then guided me over to a little electronic kiosk where you pay and select your dish. I had no idea what I picked, but the picture looked good. The food arrived a little later, and apparently I'd ordered some curry-type dish, which was really tasty. There was some meat (maybe pork?) and an egg "over easy," noodles, and cabbage, all in a big boiling bowl. This also contained what looked like a hot dog but tasted more like a little smokey. There was a dish of steamed white rice, and then also an odd "fried" sausage patty or some kind of patty. All in all, very tasty first meal in Japan. I returned to the hostel, got my things in order, checked out, and the girl at the hostel helped me figure out how to get to the "shinkansen" (bullet train) to make my way to Kyoto. So far, people are very friendly and helpful, although I've had some trouble getting around and figuring out train maps, buying tickets, etc. because of the language barrier.

I'm currently reading "The Roads to Sata," which was written by a British guy in the 80's who walked from the northernmost tip of Hokkaido (the northernmost major island of Japan) to Sata, the southernmost tip of Japan. It is around 2,000 miles. He points out that the difference in latitudes for this walk is equivalent to going from Ottawa to Mobile, Alabama. I had no idea Japan covered so many latitudes. Apparently the southern islands of Japan are warm year-round and are almost tropical. Hokkaido, on the other hand, is currently experiencing the Siberian winter. That's where I'm heading after Kyoto to do some skiing.

Japan first impressions: lots of men in suits (at least in Tokyo). Even more people wearing masks over their mouths. Lots of Australians at the hostel. Extremely orderly.

I am so pumped to eat a lot of noodles. Also I saw at the hostel that there is a cat café somewhere in Tokyo. That might be fun, if one was the type of person that enjoyed the company of cats. I saw a lady with huge earmuffs, each earmuff was a cat face. I bet she'd like that café.

2/14 On the plane to Japan

First funny encounter: Male flight attendant is serving drinks, I ask him for a beer. He starts to pour it into a plastic cup. Not wanting a cup, I say I'll just drink it from the can. He ponders briefly, lights up and says in a thick accent "like a man!....yes, awesome." I didnt want to waste plastic but now he thinks I'm somewhat of a badass.

2/14 Sitting at LAX

Equipped with the knowledge of how to say “hello,” “thank you,” and “hot spring” in Japanese, I am confidently making the long journey to Japan. Before we continue, I would like to make the point that this blog is mostly written with two purposes:

1. Document my experiences for my own enjoyment so I can remember all the small things that happen that make the trip an “experience” rather than just “seeing some stuff.”
2. Provide updates to Mom and Dad so they know I’m still alive and in good health.

Note that neither of those items includes “writing entertaining and thoughtful prose that will enlighten readers and illuminate the wonders of foreign countries.” I believe there are millions of other websites where you can find that. The only reason I may make an effort to make this slightly interesting is so that my blog is more interesting than Ariel’s, who I believe is also making a blog for reasons 1 and 2 above.

Ok. While I haven’t had a chance to fill in all of the details, this is the current game plan:

2/14/2013: Flight from LAX leaving at 2:15pm and landing in Tokyo at 7:05pm 2/15/2013.

2/15/2013: Stay in K’s House Tokyo (Hostel) after finding my way from the airport into Tokyo. There I will hopefully pick up my “Japan Rail Pass,” which I ordered online on Monday and had sent to the hostel. The Japan Rail Pass is offered for foreigners only and allows unlimited train travel for 7 days anywhere in Japan. K’s House Tokyo: 20-10, Kuramae 3-Chome, Taito-ku, Tokyo, Japan 111-005, phone # +81-3-5833-0555

2/16/2013: Take a train (hopefully of the bullet type) to Kyoto and drop off my pack at K’s House Kyoto.

2/16-2/17: Do touristy things in Kyoto, staying at K’s House Kyoto (418 Nayacho, Shichijo-agaru, Dotemachi-dori, Shimogyo-ku, phone # 075-342-2444).

2/18/2013 – 2/19/2013: Make my way by train to Sapporo. This is a very far trip, so I think most of my time will be on trains. I’m hoping someone at the hostel in Kyoto can help me determine where the best place is to stop along the way. I’d prefer not to go all the way to Sapporo in one shot. I have a hotel reservation in Sapporo for the night of 2/19. Hopefully I’ll have time to check out the Sapporo Brewery. Hotel info in Sapporo: New Otani Inn Sapporo, 

Nishi1-1, Kita 2, Chuo-ku

Sapporo,  060-0002

Japan

+81112221111

2/20/2013: Hop on free bus to Rusutsu Ski Resort south of Sapporo. It’s something like a 2 hour ride, but I’m excited for the scenery. Arrive at Rusutsu, drop off my gear, change into ski clothes, rent skis, and start skiing. I have a hotel reservation at the base of the ski area (supposedly ski in/ski out). In the evening I’ll eat some dinner and try some “onsen” (Japanese hot springs). Aside from the language barrier, I think onsens are currently my biggest concern because it involves nude bathing with strangers. As far as I can tell though, Lonely Planet has devoted around half of its Japan guide to the merits of onsens, so apparently it’s worth checking out.

Rusutsu Resort
TEL: +81-136-46-3331

2/21/2013: Ski all day, then hop on a bus in the evening that takes me back to Sapporo, where I’ll stay the night. I still need to make a hotel reservation for that night.

2/22/2013: Make my way from Sapporo to the airport, fly to Tokyo. I have 3 nights reserved at K’s House in Tokyo. I don’t have any plans in Tokyo, but I’d like to see the fish market. I’d also like to see if I could make my way out of the city and get closer to Mt. Fuji. We’ll see.

2/22/2013 – 2/25/2013: Tokyo

2/25/2013: Fly from Tokyo to Seoul, South Korea. No plans yet for South Korea. I need to book some rooms, etc. Rosy gave me a nice long email with some useful information on it. I’d like to get out of Seoul for a day (possibly overnight), so I have some research to do.

3/1/2013: Fly from Seoul, South Korea to Hong Kong. Hang with Rosy for a few days.

After Hong Kong….TBD. I’m considering going to one more city before returning to CO for Brady and Kara’s wedding (3/15). I’m thinking either Taipei or Singapore, but I’ll have to look at United flights to see which one would be more convenient for returning to the US. I think both of those cities have direct flights to LAX and SFO. 

2/2 Preface

2/2/2013 - Denver

Because the internet does not contain enough blogs from people who think their trips to foreign countries are interesting to everyone, I have created my own blog that will likely start out extremely detailed and then fizzle out as I lose interest in documenting my experiences in foreign countries. Nevertheless, I am committed to starting off strong, keeping detailed notes, documenting funny stories, taking interesting pictures, and mostly just bragging about how much fun I am having, even if I am not actually having much fun.