Yakushima Part 2

So after a nice relaxing day at the beach we decided to go on a relatively easy 4 hour hike to Mononoke Hime, which for those Anime people out there was the inspiration behind the movie Princess Mononoke.

Me and Scotty getting psyched for the hike:



The island is just amazingly beautiful, the trees and moss and water all come together to make something that almost seems like another planet.



While on the hike we saw some deer.



Then we had a barbeque and ate the deer.



The owner of our cottage also lives in the house next door, and that morning he went out into to woods with his son and came back with SEVEN deer. We made Kababs to go with the deer and had a feast!

The next day we went to a waterfall, it was about 100 feet high. Pretty cool.


Here is our group, Kaori and Scott in the back, Courtney, Kelly and I in the front. We are all averaging about 4 hours sleep for 4 straight days at this point, so we look a bit haggard, but the excitement of seeing new things kept us going.


That evening we decided to relax, and we found this cool outdoor onsen on the ocean. Great way to watch the sun set.


With our reservation at the cottage over, we had one more night to spend in Yakushima. We decided to spend the night on the beach. Being a bit tired of playing cards, we decided to have a chicken fight.


Scott and Kaori won the judge's decision, but it was a very questionable decision and may get overruled with instant replay. I sure looks to me like Kaori's left foot is touching the sand.......


Later I would go night swimming, and saw pretty much the coolest thing ever....Sea Fireflies. Ume Hotaru as they are called here in Japan. There were literally hundreds of them swimming around me, and when I moved my arms they would glow electric blue for a second or two and then fade back into the darkness.



The next day we had a bit of drama with returning the car, buying gifts and making it to the ferry on time, but it did nothing to overshadow the greatness of experiencing Yakushima.

Yakushima Part 1

This will be more of a image post than actual prose, but I will add some commentary to complete the picture.

Arriving in Yakushima after a 4 hour ferry ride:



We then took a bus to our pre-reserved cottages. Apparently when Kaori reserved them she didn't ask how big they were.



They were also full of spiders and cockroaches, so we rented a car and were lucky enough to find this bad boy.



The next day we awoke at 4:30 am to embark on a 10.5 hour hike to see Jomonsugi, the oldest tree in the world. It's like 7000 years old or something.





After the hike we were very tired, so the next day we decided to go to the beach. It was beautiful, with warm clear blue water and nice thick sand.





After throwing the football for awhile, I climbed a rock to do some Karate Kid practice.



Then everyone decided to join...



Hear no evil...see no evil...speak no evil...pee no evil


So after three days on the island we were having a great time. The next half of the trip would have even more surprises and all-around goodness. Part 2 coming soon!

Random Stuff

I saw this bottle of awesomeness in Family Mart the other day......



I wonder if this is why every J-boy has hair that looks like this:



Which reminds me, maybe I should eat my last onion?



I am thinking of planting it in a pot for my houseplant. I might name it Leon: The Professional.

Visiting the Fam in Himeji

Two weeks ago I took a couple of days off from work to travel many miles to visit my uncle in Himeji. Himiji is about one hour south of Osaka. If you remember, I went to Osaka for Christmas, and I was on trains for 17 hours. This time I took the fast train though, and it was a much shorter journey...like 5 hours. My uncle and his family are awesome, super hospitable and very generous. I had a great time. We went to Himeji castle, which of course was beautiful....



Here is me, my uncle, who is hiding behind my aunt for some reason, and my cousin who happens to be a dominator at karaoke. My uncle and I......not so much. But we make up for it with enthusiasm.



Standing next to the sakura (cherry blossoms)



For Sunday dinner my aunt's father took us out for a blowfish dinner. Actually, only him and I ate fugu (blowfish) because everyone else was vegetarian. On this night, being a vegetarian was a bad idea because this was the best meal I have ever had. This first course is blowfish sashimi (raw meat). It was delicious. Then came blowfish tempura (pictured), which was equally fantastic, and finally we had blowfish nabe which is kinda like soup. If you didn't already know, the blood of the blowfish is poisonous to humans. You need a special license to prepare it here. Apparently like 3 people died a month and a half ago because they ate some poorly prepared blowfish testicles. (I am not making this up, Google it.) So the whole meal everyone was telling me I was going to die.



I also ate an entire mix plate of seafood sashimi. I felt and looked like I was about 3 months pregnant. My host was pleased. I guess being able to eat a lot is a good thing here. Its also a good thing he didn't order any more food or I would have exploded.

The best part of the trip was just being around family again. Joylani and Matt came to visit during the summer, but since then I haven't seen family in about 6 months. That is just too long. I will definitely be back in Himeji soon.

YouScore

How many times have you watched a movie, only to be disappointed by the song selection? It happens to me all the time, especially with those low budget movies that can't spring for quality songs and end up with someone's little brother composing a score on a $60 Casio keyboard. What if you had some type of software on you computer that enabled YOU to be in charge of the songs in a movie?

I have an idea for a software that lets you sync your iPod with any DVD that is playing on your computer. I will call it YouScore. I think this would revolutionize movie viewing in the home. Wish that Rage Against the Machine pumped you up for every fight? This can make it happen. Do you think that Gimme Shelter should be played during every 1970's drug scene? Just plug in your iPod and sync it up. The software would make every movie fully customizable to the viewer.

Imagine cuing up Bullet with Butterfly Wings during Blade right when a vampire is about to bite someone. Talk about awesome. Take the move below. This scene kinda sucks by itself, I mean it's Crocidle Dundee, not exactly the pinnicle of modern cinema. But with YouScore....well here is a little taste of the greatness. Just let both videos load, turn off the sound for the first video and start the second video when the first one has run for 25 seconds...

Christmas in Osaka

After doing all there was to do at Universal Studios, Frank and I headed into Osaka. We split up as Frank met a friend for dinner, as I wanted to try some of Osaka's famous takoyaki. Takoyaki is basically a pancake ball with octopus inside of it. They were delicious. I ate 10.



About 10:00 Frank and I met up and we headed into Namba, which is the part of Osaka where all the nightlife is at. We were looking for a certain British pub that Frank had previously visited on an earlier trip. After walking around in circles for 2 hours, Frank finally relanted and asked for directions. Come to find out, the pub had been closed for six months. We then walked around for another hour before finally finding another British style pub. By now it was past 12:00 so it was officially Christmas. We sat down next to a girl who was receiving a box of take-out from the kitchen we asked her what she ordered. Much to our excitement and surprise, it was a turkey Christmas dinner! We immediately ordered some, and I am happy to say I ate a full turkey dinner on Christmas. (with cranberry sauce!)



The girl introduced us to her friend, who upon hearing that we had come all the way from Sendai on local trains, decided she was going to be our Namba Tour Guide for the night. So after our meal was finished, Laura (our new tour guide) took us to a cool little place owned by one of her friends. Apparently, the owner of this particular establishment, although born in Australia, was half Irish (I will call him The Austrish from now on). I was wearing my totally awesome Guiness hat, and he offered to buy it from me. As it was my only hat (and also since it is an awesome hat) I politely declined. This did not please The Austrish, and he spent the next half hour doing his best to convince me that he needed that hat. Finally Laura suggested that we play foosball for it. She had seen me and Frank playing at the previous pub, which, as I would later find out, was formerly managed by The Austrish. As I am a very competitive fellow, I immediately accepted.

On our ten minute walk to the British pub this guy talked more trash about foosball than I have ever heard in my life. Apparently, he had never lost a game on this particular table. I did my best to pump up his confidence, and told him that I might be lucky just to get 5 points in a game to ten. Frank was trying to talk me out of it, but at this point there was no going back. The match would be best two out of three. Right off the bat I won the drop, and had the ball on offense. One beautiful snake shot later, and I was up 1-0. Boom Tho.

I won the first game 10-4 and the second 10-3. I returned to the bar a conquering hero. The bar staff could not believe that their boss had lost. The Austrish, however, was a good sport about it all. As my prize for winning, he reached into the cooler and produced a bottle of Jagermeister. I then poured a drink for everyone in the place. I was suddenly a very popular man. Every guy wanted to be me, and every girl wanted to be with me. (note: the last statement may be false)

This was probably the first and last time that being good at foosball has ever made somebody a hero.

Yup, I experienced very own Japanese Christmas Miracle.

Frank's first rollercoaster ride.

Needless to say, after Frank and I arrived in Osaka we were beyond exhausted. We slept until about 1:00 in the afternoon, woke up, and decided to go to Universal Studios Japan (or USJ as it is known in these parts). I hopped downstairs to take a shower, only to discover that our jobless friend with whom we were staying had not paid his gas bill. So no hot water. I pulled a Mexican shower with my Old Spice deodorant stick. Yup, the ladies would be hot after me on this day.

We made it to the park at 2:00, and after a few shenanigans we arrived at the ticket booth. The all day pass was 5500 yen, but a "twilight" after 3:00 pass was only 3000. So we bought the cheaper pass and used our savings to buy overpriced but delicious burgers from the Hard Rock Cafe near the park. Oh, I also took this touristy looking photo...



While eating lunch, Frank revealed that he had never been to an amusement park before. He was a little skeptical about how fun this was actually going to be. It did not help that the first ride we came to was E.T. (and the 30 minute wait was definitely NOT worth it). Frank was unenthused. This photo is evidence that sarcasm is apparently alive and well in Kenya...



Next we came to Spider Man, which rocked of course. Frank disavowed anything bad he had ever said about amusement parks. He thought that the automatic photo that they take at the end of the ride was the greatest thing ever, and purchased it immediately after the ride. He also bought the photo after the Jurassic park ride as well. That one was particularly awesome, hopefully I can get it scanned in soon. Until then, here are some of us that are slightly less awesome...but still good...




We ended up hitting every single ride at USJ (except for the big roller coaster which was broken...which was fine by me because I am a scared little girl when it comes to those super big drops, Jurassic Parks' blind 85 foot drop almost made me crap my pants). Not bad for 3000 yen. We would then head back into the city, to experience the craziest Christmas eve/Christmas morning that I have ever been a part of....