Japan take 4

Summer Vacations at last! Work has been intense and crazy. I got new kids. Went through the "I don't really like those brats" to the "OMG they are such adorable little monsters, I love them!" phases. But a teacher in a private school in Korea needs her break. However short it is. 

The last month was COMPLETELY crazy on many levels. I don't know how I managed (1) not to be sick (2) not to go on burn out (3) to keep going for over a month.... I suppose I just did not have the time to be sick. meh.

I'll do some more updates of the month of July, but for now, here is my (almost) last adventure in (?) Korea. Actually no. Just Kidding. I was not in Korea.

Heather and I have been planning a trip to Japan since the beginning of our stay in Korea (well close to it anyways. If you care to know, she wanted to go to China first meh.) I mean, will there be any time in my life where I'll be so close to Japan? It would be a bit insensitive not to go. When will I ever have the opportunity to go to Japan in 2 hours? You get the drift.

So for a CAD$340 we had our round plane ticket booked. And the day I officially started my summer vacation, I was on my way to the airport. It is never the flight that seems never ending. More like the way to and from the airport. From my hometown to the airport in Montreal, it takes 8 hours by car; in Korea, it takes 1h30hr; from Tokyo, it takes 2hrs (if you don't catch the quick train that comes one in out of 3).

 We got to Gen's place (friend from University who lives super near Higashi Shinjuku station in a super nice apartment) quite late, around 8ish PM. Went for food and drinks. I got my first Japano-korean cultural shock then. I remembered drinking a lot with Japanese ppl in my last trip, but then, that was before Korea. I remember when I went with my brother, we met up around 5-6, drank til 11 ish, and everyone was tipsy for the last subway, but still, that was it. They went home to catch the last train. And we did the same. 

I love Japanese bar foods. Just didn't like the $30
tab for so little food. I was happy though, got to
have my love one more time: umeshu (plum liquor)

Cabs start around CAD$7 so people don't want to take cabs in Japan. There are no buses after the last subway, and when you miss it, it basically means that you'll stay downtown til the first train in the morning. Like those tons of partly drunk people walking aimlessly after 12AM in Kabuki-Cho (Japanese "red-light district" near higashi-shinjuku) like a crowd of chickens with the heads cut off (maybe the analogy is too intense. But that's the picture that struck me when I saw them...)

Comparatively, in Korea, both drinking and cabbin' are amazingly cheap so people get MAD wasted everyday of the week, until 4AM - they don't stop drinking at 12-1ish and wait for the metro, they don't see the time go by, they just keep drinking and then all of a sudden, it's morning, and time to take the first metro. Or not. Anyways, you can just cab it whenever you want throughout the evening. Why would they care...? 

Anyways. First slap in the face: we had a nice evening, drank a bit, then everyone left at 11. We felt like we'd be wasting an amazing Saturday if we went to sleep right away, so Heather and I, went to one more bar and had Shochu, an amazing barley alcool that tastes EXACTLY like water, but hits you just like soju. I think it's some 20% ish... And we ended it with karaoke. Was a decent evening in itself. I was just afraid Heather would find it "unspecial" because it was just like going to visit any friend and have fun (didn't feel "super Japanese" or super anything). We went back to Gen's apartment with wine bottles and ended up drinking a bit more til the little hours. 

The view from Gen's apartment's lower window. Something about Japanese apartments, they always
have amazing views, and often have balconies, the latter being really rare in Korea. Shame, really...

Second slap in the face: Japanese Wifi Y__Y. When I went with my brother, we didn't have wifi anywhere, as only the users of softbank seem to have access to the said "free Wifi" all around Japan. I expected to be able to access it tho, having a Korean phone (since so many Koreans go to Japan). After 2 hours of usin roaming, however, I built up a beautiful CAD$100 bill... that had me decide to go without Internet. That was the big downside of this trip. Having no connection was very limiting, as I had expected to get around using my phone instead of bringing Japan guide books. 

I heard from a friend later on that all Korean phone companies have an affiliate with a Japanese phone company so it would have been possible to have unlimited wifi access for some $8/day, had I asked the phone company at the airport. It'll be for another time I suppose. FML.

Met up with Flavie around Shinjuku, looking for a Ramen place in small alleys.
I love how even back alleys look amazingly clean, smell good and are nicely
decorated so they look less creepy when people walk through them at night.

Long time no see Flavie my love!!! <3 Missed youuuuuuuuuu

Tonkotsu ramen (yup. I'm a Kyuushuu woman, deep down, can't deny it) with an amazing
grilled piece of porc. First time I have it prepared this way. SOOOOO GOOOOOD

We had a nice random shopping time in Tokyo with Flavie. Went to many places and had good foods. Looking back, I think that day was the highlight of the trip. We saw a lot in a short time, because Flavie knew the spot and we didn't waste any time getting lost anywhere. 

Went to Shibuya, Harajuku, Yoyogi (was it really yoyogi?) park, took sticker pictures, tried coffee at the amazing coffee shop where she volunteered (and where we walked by a couple of Japanese models :P ) I have rarely tasted such a strong coffee (4 expressos in a Latte) that tasted so SMOOTH and soft, while waking me up and getting me rid of a headache. Stupid caffeine addiction...but that's another story.

Oh and at night we walked past a stadium as Hamasaki Ayumi finished her concert. SOOO many fans walked by! Would have been nice to see that. Never looked into concert tickets for possible events while we were there. But then, we really didn't stay long enough...

Day 3-4 : Kyoto

If I remembered one thing of Kyoto, it was that before we got used to the metro system, my brother and I got lost in Kyoto station so many times, and that sometimes walking the distance was less complicated than taking the risk to get lost in the subway. 

So I told Heather: I am sorry, but I am telling you we WILL get lost around here. I was right. Our whole experience in Kyoto was tainted by the fact that we couldn't make out where we were most of the time because of the lack of wifi and getting lost everywhere. In a similar setting, I now know that it's best to be spontaneous and try to get to know different places than trying to find places I'd been to before. While we did find most of the places I'd been to, it was after wasting a lot of time looking for them. Better to just go with the flow. 

We always learn.

In any case, we did get to try amazing new places. A nice pasta restaurant by the Higashi-Yama river on the way to Kiyomizu-Tera, a photo studio right by the sKyoto station, a fancy stick food place by the river (never found the tofu place I was looking for, after going back and forth twice...) and got to see the actual "kiyomizu-dera", temple that my brother and I hadn't had the heart to go visit, felt too bothersome at the time, it was rainy and cold, we didn't feel like paying more to go further...

The Ryokan we stayed at was great. Near Kyoto station, it was cheap and people were really nice. I wish we had stayed a bit longer, to have the time to chill there. It was also one of the only place where we had wifi...

 Kyoto day 2

An alpaca wearing a Yukata....

Sleepy Breakfast at Shimizu Ryokan

After looking for directions for hours on the first day, I was disappointed to see the Geisha picture studio I had been with my brother was closed. Fortunately, at the Ryokan we were staying at, they found a place near Kyoto station where we made reservations :) They were having a promotion on the shooting so we got it for JPN$5,800. The reservation was at 1PM so we killed some time by visiting a temple (Nishi Hongan-ji) next to the station. It was beautiful even if the weather was CRAZY hot (we'd been lucky so far, had had rain in the mornings, that lowered the temperature). Sadly, while we could go inside, we were not allowed to take any picture in the prayer room, which was beautiful... here are some pics of the outside.

I learned something very interesting from this temple. I learned that the expression "Itadakimasu" comes from buddhism. I always say it as a way to say "thank you for the food I received" since itadakimasu directly translates as "I am receiving". While it does mean "I receive", the expression comes form the idea that, whatever kind of foods you eat, there will be beings that will die in order for it to get to your plate. Meat is obvious. But vegetables as well. Think about the worms and insects that died during the plowing of the fields where your food grew. Let's remember that buddhists believe in reincarnation, that is, people being reborn in one of the 6 different realms of being (Human, animal, hungry ghost, demonic hell, god realms, and the titans/asura)... which make buddhists sensitive about any being that can live and die...

Itadakimasu is meant to express your understanding that being died for you to live, and that you receive their lives with gratitude. Respect.

Before...

After...

Derping after the photoshoot...

Those pictures were actually taken with my phone. I have a CD with the actual picture taken during the shooting, but I have no CD player in my computer so I will have to find a way to get access to the pictures later... meanwhile... enjoy the derping.

Tokyo: Last Day

I don't know why both Heather and I thought our flight was around noon on the 31st, but we were completely wrong. The flight was at 6PM, so we found ourselves with an extra half day to chill in Tokyo, both broke (actually, Heather was not broke. I was. She just didn't have access to her money since it was from a Korean account, and her visa was full, so I was broke because I had to cover her spendings for the whole trip) without having planned anything. Luckily, Tomoko was free that day so she came to meet us around yuurakucho station, and we chilled there. Both bought nice hats :) and got to see Tomoko's daughter Emma, the cutest japanese little girl in the world.

I LOVE Japan. I especially love its bathrooms. They are the most amazingly clean and nicely designed toilets I have ever seen. This one was worth taking a picture of. There was even a map of the design ha ha.