First Days Off

Trip Start Sep 25, 2002

Trip End May 15, 2004

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Flag of Japan Minoh, Japan
Monday, October 28, 2002

Day 13 - 10.28.02 (Mon) Minoh - My days off are Monday and Tuesday, so these will be the days I get to venture out see things. Woke up and went with Brady and Liz (Boston couple) to Minoh Quasi-National Park. I have no idea about the quasi part so don't ask! My first real venture into nature in Japan felt great, I miss the open spaces so much...Colorado spoiled me a bit. Anyway, inside the park are trails and a few shrines and a path that leads to a big waterfall, very nice. The surprise was that a ton of monkeys also live in the park and were running around all over the place...it was like Uncles Phil's house when all the grandkids are over!! Haha just kidding! So, I was able to take a lot of pics of some Japanese nature and monkeys and a few statues and shrines...I was happy. I also had my first big grocery shopping experience...what's amazing to me is how expensive rice is! You'd think that over here it would be cheap and available everywhere, but since the Japanese hate the Chinese, they put this limit on imported rice so as to not mess up Japans rice industry, therefore higher prices

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Anyway, after getting home, Craig walks in with an elderly Japanese man he met at a local pub. The man, Takeshi, invites us to his home for drinks and a bite to eat. He only lives a few blocks, but his house is amazing. Very beautiful, three stories with an elevator. Apparently his family has a very famous name in this area and they owned lots of land, sold it, and are happily retired. Hell, the best part about it was they had two dogs!! An Alaskan Malamute and a mini-dachshund...yes, I played with both of them for far too long. The people were extremely nice and fed me my first true Japanese dinner...I have no idea what I ate, but it was good! Takeshi got wasted and the more he drank the worse his English got, so by the end of the night we had no idea what he was saying. Takeshi then took us back to the Pig and Whistle in Umeda for a final drink. There were a bunch of Takeshi's English speaking friends there and we hung out with them for an hour or so until we had to leave to catch the last train back to Juso. Craig is so funny, he reminds me of Brent because of his hair (or lack thereof haha) and his relentless pursuit of women. Everywhere we go he's skirt chasing. Great guy though, like Brent. Oh yeah, two things I almost forgot...first at Minoh park the place is surrounded by maple leaf trees, which in a month are supposed to turn colors and be absolutely beautiful. But the weird thing is that they actually deep fry the fallen maple leafs and eat them as snacks!! They're pretty good, very sweet, called tempura here. Also, on the way home from drinking with Takeshi, we saw something that I had heard about...in America you know how we have the ice cream vans that drive around the neighborhoods, well, over here they have the Yam Van! Yup, they steam yams and eat them over here, in fact, they're so popular that a guy goes around selling them just like the ice cream man does...with music and everything, except that he runs all night

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! So, there we are at about 12:30 am and the yam van flies by us...too funny.

Day 14 - 10.29.02 (Tue) Relaxing - Another day off, was going to go to Kyoto, very historic city with hundreds of beautiful temples and shrines, but decided I should wait until I have more information to make it a better trip. I guess I mean that I am going to wait until I have a better plan for Kyoto. So, today was just running a few errands, finishing up shopping, getting online and taking care of some business. On another topic, I find that with not watching TV and such, I have been reading quite a bit. I have read three books in 13 days...I kinda like it. I read the Lance Armstrong autobiography, which is very interesting although a bit too self-appreciating...he makes it sound like he came out of the womb and his first words were "what can I do to make it easier for you Mom"! But, I imagine most autobiographies are self-appreciating to a point. Don't get me wrong, it's a really good book, I just think it was just meant more as a tribute to his friends and family than as an inspirational monologue for others. Another book I read is Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. Fantastic and thought provoking book, I truly enjoyed it. If you don't know what its about I couldn't even possibly start to tell you. But if you're looking for a great book that makes you think, then Ishmael would be a good investment. The last book I read is one that I'd bet no one else has read...actually, I'll write about it later.