Nous sommes pauvres.

Would you like me serve your food with an AED now, or shall I wait until you pass out from having your arteries completely clogged?

Ugh.

So much food today. Really, I didn't see any sights today, it was just stuffing my face, and spending LOTS of money.

Our day started out with the Japanese take on Ukrainian food... We ordered two dishes each, since each one was 600 yen, and we assumed that they would therefore be small.

Wrong.

After stuffing myself to the point that I couldn't possibly eat another bite, we wandered to Mr. Donut, and I proceeded to purchase their burger donut set, and threw that down as well (10 minutes after finishing brunch). And I wonder why my tummy was so mad at me earlier this trip...

We returned to Shinjuku station (which is close to the red light district) to carry on. Before we left, we did hear a lady get propositioned in broad daylight. She wasn't actually a STW though, so she totally wasn't impressed. (Although to the guy's defense, she sorta was dressed like one. But c'mon people, 9 AM!!)

Onto electric town, where I proceded to purchase any camera equipment in site that was more than 50% cheaper than you could find in Canada. (*sigh*). Yodabashi is a site to be seen though... it's an entire city block and 9 stories high and ALL filled with electronic goods (or, female goods to distract them long enough for the men to go buy their stuff. I'm not actually kidding about that one). Bonus 5% discount for being a foreigner too (yay tax breaks!) -- apparently you get a full 10% off if you're from China and have a credit card from there. Yang - better get on that one for us.

Dinner tonight was at the top of Cross Tower. It was at La Rochelle, a french restaurant run by the French Iron Chef, Chef Sakai. I've never been in that fancy of a restaurant before, so I felt very out of place. Luckily, so did everybody else sitting at my table :P, and actually most of the other patrons too seemed like they felt out of their element. Thankfully, they didn't comment on my lack of formal attire (I was wearing a button up shirt, cargo pants, and amphibian shoes. :P). I felt as mismatchedly fashionable as a poker star. The food was tasty, and the view was fantastico. Apparently, it's usually alot smoggier, so the waiter said we got one of the better views for spring/summertime.

Ultimately, dinner set us back ~17000 yen (that's about 200 CAD). So... it now ranks as the most expensive meal I've ever had (and had to pay for... BTW: thanks Roche Pharaceuticals... :P). They seemed to be somewhat quizzically confused about our foreign credit cards, but thank gawd, none of them bounced.

After dinner, they escorted/led us to the door. Jack disappeared to go to the bathroom, so when they noticed he was gone, they marched us back to the waiting room and then back to the elevator when he returned. I'm sure they meant well, but I almost felt like that's what it'd be like if we ever got thrown out of the restaurant too :P.

I closed out the night with some Karaoke with Jack - just to say I've done it. I was sober, but you can't really tell that from the videos.

So, in summary - I need to take more money out :(, I think I blew 40000 yen today. Ouch.

Photo Albums:

Food
Everything Else

Nana... (Momo redux)

I visited Akihabara today.

Oh. My. God.

Electronic and gaming stores everywhere. You'd never have to leave. There's arcades, food for when you get hungry... and uhh... 'men's stores' if you ever get lonely. =)

Anyhoo, that's where I spent a good portion of my evening. Prior to that, we checked out the new waterline area. Sadly, most things are closed on Mondays instead of Sundays here. (So our TV station with observation tower, and the panasonic electronics display were closed). However, it had the Toyota showcase, so we decided to test drive the new model Prius. (Man, Jack's international driver's license has really come in handy). The thing runs on batteries when you first start it up, so we couldn't even tell it was on when we started. We dubbed our brand new car Nana.

We played a simulator which shows rally car racing with and without VSC. After playing Forza motorsport, I thought I'd be better at it. Jack got ratings of B without VSC and A with it on. I got an E (which is their friendly way of saying F) with my driving with VSC, and a solid C with it on. Basically, it was saying my driving blows. All the time.

We also played an electronic version of touch the hedgehog (I guess they meant whack a mole...) - which made me feel like I redeemed myself. A bit.

I found my new favorite video game. It's like gun games in Canada, where you try and do little tasks. Except the catch in this game is you use ikea balls which you whip at a screen instead. It's INTENSE! (My arm was sore the next day).

Speaking of intense, I should probably touch on the fish market. (Hurray for blogging in reverse chronological order). The photos probably describe it better than I could, but wow... what an experence. There was more seafood there than I've probably seen altogether in my entire life. Add on top of that all these mechanical carts whizzing around at 40 clicks up and down the walkways (I almost got smoked 6 or 7 times, and I was actually trying to pay attention).

We had sushi, done the traditional way. It took forever to get in there - there was only 1 bench, and the sushi chef's make your sushi one piece at a time, as you're ready for them. It was delicious, and well worth the 2 hour wait. (That's not a fib, we got there at 7 AM, and got in at 9). The only thing that marred the food was this really rude, agressive couple that were taking flash photos of everything. (They pointedly ignored the brochure they were holding, which requested no flash photos at the market). I think they had just bought the camera prior to coming on the trip. It was an SLR, so they took rapid fire flash photos, blinding the chef.

I almost cried when they said they were from Canada. Way to make our country proud :(

Well, on that note -- I'll stop to talk about what really makes me happy. Retail therapy. Go go spending spree. (See tomorrow's note :P)

Like an overhyped movie...

Sadly, we've just had a really big run of bad luck. I think one of us didn't pay enough at one of the shrines or something cause we seem to have accumulated some bad juju / karma.

I had hoped we had put the whole Aso fiasco behind us. We traveled about 1200 kilometers by lunchtime (we left at 7 am). Fast bullet trains are fast!

Upon arrival, my first order of business was to go see the Harajuku girls everybody had been raving (heh) about. Sadly, it was kind of a shady day, so there weren't many out. Supposedly, they're supposed to love the camera. Not this group... the ones on both sides of the street were able to mime no photos. *sigh*. Interesting sub-culture though.

We watched Angels and Demons. The theatres here are a bit different, it's expensive to get in (1800 yen), but they give you an assigned seat, and you don't get gouged for food / pop. Too bad it started out with rapid fire Japanese. "Hadon Particle Collider" was written in engrish though. Wewt.

We called it a night and went for Sumo tickets today. It was a bit insane, as it's the very last day of the tournament. Lonely planet recommends arriving at 6 AM to ensure tickets. We accidentally slept in till then, and... well... you can see the photos of the lineup. A full city block (along the outside of it), for just the day's cancelled tickets.

The licks just keep on coming.

So... since now it's really, really pouring (and hence no 2nd attempt at seeing Harajuku girls) - we're just taking a shopping day instead. Imma gonna have ze nap (we still did get up at 6), and then see if I can break the streak with some retail therapy.

Go go duty free electronics stores. Wewt. I'll probably have more to say about electronic town later. (They alternate electronics, camera and sex stores. What an amazingly, fantastic neighbourhood!)

Updated Albums:

Food (Yummies!)
Tokyo

Mount Ass. O.

Our last two days in the Japan countryside have been based out of Hakata. Basically, we're using it as a base of operations and doing full day out trips.

Yesterday, we traveled to Beppu to experience their 8 hells. Tash was all pumped about them... they're basically 8 different variations on hotsprings. In total, we spent 4 hours traveling, and probably only about 90 minutes looking at the various springs. Each one of them was pretty simple, but each also had its own gimmick (like a crocodile farm...).

Generally, the Japanese people seem to have pretty reasonable common sense. I think we found our first exception. There was this Japanese woman, who, despite seeing the warning that the water was 95ºC, decided to try testing the temperature of the water and steam by putting her hands over one of the geothermal vents. Hilarity ensued of course. I guess the tourist bug trumps all.

Our second day was even crazier... we traveled 6 hours round trip (3 hrs each way) to Mt. Aso, which is apparently the world's largest active volcano + caldera. The weather report read sunny... so we decided to header. Upon arrival, we were greeted with a mean visibility of 3-4 meters (that's not an exaggeration, see the photos). "Although the cable car is running, there is poor weather today so you will not enjoy the view." Yeap.

So in summary... 6 hours of travel and 30 bucks in travel/admission charges, for 10 minutes of Mt. Aso (fog) viewing pleasure. But hey... the sulfur was still going strong. At least we got to smell the mountain. Oh. And funny english signs, we saw those too.

We ended up returning early to Hakata, and drowning our sorrows with food. Lots and LOTS of food.

Photo Albums:

Hakata
Food

It's da bomb

Okay... that was in poor taste, but I couldn't resist.

Our night and day at the temple were pricey (11000 yen each for the night. For you Canadian folk, if you divide by 100, you get the price in USD... roughly). The food was fantastic though -- I was a little skeptical about the whole vegetarian thing, but it worked out okay.

The grounds themselves were beautiful. We ended up going to bed pretty early on account of the whole wanting to catch the service at 6:05 AM thing. Unfortunately, the next two rooms didn't feel like going to bed at a reasonable hour, and didn't really understand the concept of indoor voices. (I remember that lecture still from Gr. 2, but hey... who's counting). Add on top of that the paper thin (lol... literally - the doors are made of paper) walls and... well... good thing call rooms have taught me to sleep through earthquakes.

I got awoken at 5 AM by the monks. Apparently, even though we can control our lights using the pull switches, so can they. They turned on our room lights at 5 AM. My roomies kept on sleeping. I started to fall back asleep but the monks must be telepathic or something. They must have realized that and started flicking the lights on and off right as I put my head back down on the pillow. Actually, speaking of telepathic, they have this eerie ability to knock on your door to take the finish trays of food out, usually only a minute or so after you're done eating. Creepy.

The service itself was unique, and our only opportunity to view to main hall (which was beautifully decorated. I didn't feel quite right taking photos though, so there are none). I really wish I could understand what they were saying. I tried kneeling like everybody else... but I must have been very fidgety. After 10 minutes, a friendly japanese guy behind me tried to explain using finger signs that I could sit down cross-legged.

I ended up cheaping out and doing that (and here I was trying to be all hardcore and all that). Despite that, both my legs fell asleep (I asked Jack about the anatomy of that. He was actually able to explain it quite well. We're such geeks...). The same friendly Japanese guy tried to tell me that I could get up and walk around after the ceremony to view the shrine. I didn't know how to sign back to him that I would fall on my face if I tried, hence me crawling around...

Anyhoos.

After that, we had our breakfast (also vegetarian) and returned to Osaka. Jack had some frustrations cashing his traveller's cheques. (They get really uppity if you try and cash them on the same day you're travelling somewhere. We must look sketchy). Then we bullet (super-express all the way!) trained it to Hiroshima. Thus, we continue to flee the influenza outbreak.

So far, all we've seen is the original gate. There are ALOT of foreign tourists here... more than we've seen the entire trip. (Like... 50-60% caucasians on the shore we were visiting). This unfortunately included a blonde bimbo who kept on screaming at the top of her lungs every time she got approached by a deer. The maps clearly warn you in big letters that the deer are wild and they love to eat souveineers, so I'm not sure why she was surprised when they ate her paintbrushes...

<3 amarichans.

We watched the sunset, and then watched as somebody drove their boat through the remains of the Hiroshima gate. I idly wondered how much trouble they'd be in if they acidentally bumped the gate.

Updated Gallery: Koya-San

New Galleries:
Hiroshima
Food (Round 3 :P)

Hey?! Where's the cream filling?!

So it's been awhile since I posted.

It's probably going to have to wait a bit longer sadly. I've had gastro for the past few days (I've narrowed it down to either bento box from Lawson's, the potatoe salad from Hakone, or the warm potatoe salad from the bento box in Tokyo.

Moral of the story: No more creamy salads or sketchy trays from convience stores.

To make a long story short - I feel like ass, and we're getting up for the Buddhist ceremony at 6:05 AM tomorrow -- therefore, I'm passing out now :).

Likely, I won't have time to chart errr... I mean blog on the last few days. So, I've instead tried to caption my photos as best I can. Invite you to check them out and if a picture really does say 1000 words, then hey... here's 96000 for you.

Food Photos
Osaka & Kyoto Photos (Part 1)
Kyoto & Mount Koya Photos (Part 2)

Oh... and despite all their paranoia, Japan now has swine flu. In Osaka of all places. (They showed alot of the tourist attractions we were JUST at on the news).

Joy.

Wow. It's so biiiig!

So, we finally got to see all of the elusive Mt. Fuji. This friendly chinese couple also was wowed by its very essence and continued to snap photos of the green hill 45º to the right of Mt. Fuji. We all didn't have the heart to correct them.

Anyhoo -- Mt. Fuji town base was a bit of a let down (except for the view). It was VERY low season since we can't actually climb Mt. Fuji yet. Hence everybody was in a very bad mood, or closed, or in a bad mood because they really SHOULD have been closed. In our only examples of poor service so far - our Taxi driver didn't talk to us and ran up the meter as best he could, our lunch host never said anything other than grumbling and tossed our plates around at us... and the hotel told us that they hadn't turned on the AC yet this summer - so open a window. ;-).

Wow.

But hey... when the sun and Mt. Fuji came out, everybody was friendly again, so maybe it was SAD.

We took the express trains back to Tokyo and then onto Nagoya. We all picked up bento boxes from the station -- unfortunately I made the mistake of eating the potatoe salad one (warm). Bleck.

Nagoya's ridiculously windy - apparently a tree branch fell on somebody today. It's kinda chilly too -- the first time I wanted a jacket. We ate BBQ eel (in 4 different steps) for dinner today. Then we finished that off with some sponge cake - which has a lineup around the corner, even for takeout.

Tomorrow... we tackle the subway system and see if we can find this castle.

I am having the Weak Constitution

So... mad hiking continues. We read the tour guide, and set ourselves up to walk the old cobblestone highway to Ashinoko Lake. It was sold to me as a somewhat idyllic stroll down to the picturesque lake. What we didn't know (because the warning was in Japanese...) was that this hike is considered to be the most challenging parts of the Hakone highway. Oops.

Really, I should have been able to figure this one out. I refer the reader to the map whose photo I took the other day. It shows the relative elevations of all the places around Hakone too. Our hotel is happily situated at 200m above sea level. The lake is at 750m. We hiked straight from the hotel, so obviously SOMEWHERE in there, we woulda had to have hiked uphill just a teensy bit. I didn't really put that together until we were cruising up the path. I wish the path had a warning sign like the sulphur mountain did.

Halfway through the hike (and thankfully just before I ran out of bodily electrolytes) we stopped at a cozy tea house. (Probably situated there for people just as insane as us). We had delicious chewy rice snacks, sweet tea (no sugar added - just fermented rice) and some interesting green too. The hostess was awesome - she spoke almost perfect english (she did college in Seattle 25 years ago... which is weird, because she doesn't look a day older than 35...).

After that, we carried on over the stone path. In total, we hiked 6 KM (excluding the hike to the start of the path... which was also uphill from the hotel...). The rest of the day was relatively tame after that. We ate some amazing tofu... Ate ice cream parfaits (about 20 minutes after cramming the entire giant tofu set lunch down), and then bought more snacks for later... come home... and ate some more. And took pictures of us eating (the guy who sold us rice snacks posed for us. Ten guesses what pose he chose.)

So in summary: I guess hiking makes us hungry. Who knew?

Just the tip...

It's been a wee while since we updated... let's see what's happened in the meantime. Well, our last full day in Okinawa started out at the stalactite cave.
Actually, it started with the three of us being forced to finish the rest of the lime / pineapple juice we bought yesterday. Unfortunately, we didn't realize it was unsweetened. Of course, we're all asian and tres cheap, so we just can't waste it - retardedly sour or not.


Back to the caves.... (It's too bad I have absolutely no idea how to spell stalactite). 29oC, 90% humidity. Wow. Hey, it was pretty to boot too - too bad it was way too dark for me to get any decent photos. Then we tromped outside and enjoyed the 'tropical fruit nursery' -- the random things you can find in tourist traps! We sure confused all the Japanese though, we walked backwards -- against the 'usual route' that seems to be posted in every trap. Oooh, we're rebel rousers now.

We ate lunch at a seaside cafe, booked it over to the Okinawan land bridge and then travelled to one of Okinawa's most popular beaches to watch a free concert. The concert itself was amazing - the only thing that marred it was... again... the 10 bajillion drunken soldiers on shore leave. I don't think belligerent quite covers it. But the concert itself was amazing, and we sure couldn't balk at the price.

We sadly then had to part with Momo (*sniff, sob*), and flew back to Tokyo before travelling to Hakone. The train ride was... interesting. Imagine the worst rush hour EVER, all packed into a Tokyo subway train. Imagine you're crushed to the point you can't move... and then imagine adding another 50 people to that pack at the next stop. Then throw in 3 Canadian travellers all wearing gigantic traveller's / backpacking packs and you've got a fun recipie for hillarity. The tiny lady behind me got me back though... so sneezed all over my pack.

Damn swine flu.

The fun and adventures didn't end after we got off the train. we then had to hike up a vertical hill (well, almost vertical) that switched back 3 times. It made me very, very sad I brought such a big pack, and a heavy camera. After we got to the hotspring hotel, the front desk lady refused to believe we came that way. We found out after the fact that most normal (Japanese understanding) people walk to the hotel at the bottom of the hill, take the elevator all the way to the top and walk across the flat ground to our inn. I like to think that at least I burned off 1/5 of breakfast.

Speaking of getting fat -- we sat down to the most enormous dinner ever. Jack's got photos (screenshot or it didn't happen, right?). And the beef... OMG... marbeled and even better than the beef from Okinawa. It basically melted in my mouth. We went dipping in the springs afterwards, but that definately didn't help with the impression that I seem to have gotten pregnant during this trip. Or at least, I've now got a gigantic bulge in my abdomen from something...

It's OK though. I already told Jack my ultimate teams hate him. :) (I promise I'll run it off when I get back... eventually).

What else... well, we went to Japan's version of sulphur mountain. We even saw Mt. Fuji (although veiled behind fog). Or... as Jack put it... 'just the tip.'

Anyhoos... that's it for now. See you when we exit the 'no internet blackout' zone :).

The Ahmahrican Soapbox

While Jack was busy driving us, I was responsible for GPS operation and also the radio. So there are 5 FM stations on the island. One thing I've noticed about Japanese radio DJ's is that they really love talking alot more than their Canadian counterparts. Often, they will talk for 2 minutes in rapid-fire Japanese, then talk for the first minute of the song while it's playing. Then after 2 minutes, they'll start talking over the song again. The net result of this is that there's usually only one station that's playing music.

That station is AFN-Okinawa. American Forces Network... *shudder*. They play rock, which is nice -- but it's really frustrating to have to listen to commercials which include (and I'm not joking) ads encouraging you to consider Power of Attorney for your loved ones, ads on selecting safe passwords, and 5 minute history diddys (like Canada's Heritage commericials just more about have the Americans roflpwned everybody else). The Americans also have an AM station here that basically repeats a 3 hour loop detailing American history and why they are the awesome.

*sigh*.

I really wish I had paid more attention to history class. WW II has had an enormous impact on Japan's culture and its economics. You'll notice the vast majority of photos on the facebook page with people in them are displaying the peace sign. (Either because we're poking fun at the ubiquitous camera pose, or because a Japanese person IS posing like that for us :). It's a cute, cultural stereotype - but it really portrays an interesting message when one considers its the automatic Japanese reaction to counting to three.

Anyhoo. Enough talking about the Amahricans...

Today we went for Soba noodles. Absolutely fantastic - check out the photos. I still can't slurp them quite right. Afterwards, we went for a snorkelling and sea kayaking trip out by 'Blue Cave'.

The cave was neat. The guides get you to face to wall as you shimmy into position so your eyes can adjust. I, as usual, spaced and didn't hear him say that. So I kept turning around. The tour guide kept on frantically telling me to turn back around and hold the wall. (Actually, his exact words were, "Turn round, Nose!"). Apparently Nose is my new nickname. It IS rather prominent, but I was going for Nels. *sigh*. The cave was well worth it though, it was bright blue due to the reflection of the sky and water inside the cave mouth. We kayaked for a bit... Jack stepped on something marine-ish and caused a giant flood of purple to spew forth and color a 2 meter squared region of water.... and I had alot of fun.

Our tour guide was fantastic. He spoke a bit of English, having stayed in Vancouver for a year on exchange. He was so appologetic that he didn't know all the words - but truly, he had, by far, the best English we've encountered so far. Certainly, the snorkel wouldn't have been as enjoyable if I hadn't understood a single word. We ended up convincing him to pretend it was like Canada and accepting a modest tip.

We basically had to force him to take our tip (which worked out to be like, 8%). It amazes me that the service industry and its workers work SO hard to please people and the workers don't expect any extra compensation for their efforts. On the flipside, I can definately recall situtations at home where the server couldn't have cared less, but still expected their 10 - 15. I probably shouldn't get too much into that though... lest Riley, Bri and I start that whole conversation up again...

So with that, I will pass out now. There's talk of waking up at 6 AM to find a film developer to do the prints from our snorkel trip.

Bye from Japan,

Nelson

One Hot Date

Welcome to another bi-daily edition of Titrate's travel blog section. Yesterday started out with us getting accosted by Mr. Taximan for the second day this week. Basically, he's now twice offered to drive the three of us around Okinawa and be our tour guide for the ultra low price of approximately 40 USD each. Personally, I was hurt he didn't seem to remember that he asked us the exact same thing the day before. If he ever asks again, I'm answering in spanish. That's right - a spanish speaking Asian. Deal with it. Anyhow, I felt a little bit vindicated this time because as of yesterday - we have our own set of wheels.

Our car is a brand new Honda Life. It's hot pink, and its name is Momo. It's amazing what a car will do. Previously, while walking past all the shopkeepers in the red light district, we got nothing but glowers and dubious stares. Now, in our car, they all wave and sometimes try and entice us to stop and check out their establishment. I like to think it's because of the added status our car gives us. It might also have something to do with the fact they can't see Natasha in the back seat.

Anyhoo.

One thing we've noticed about Okinawa slogans is they tend to be quite dramatic. They're all NO (INSERT OKINAWAN OBJECT HERE), NO LIFE. We've so far had, "No music, No life.", "No bitter gourd, No life.", "Hambergers are life" (Okay, so that one's a little more positive). So we've decided to make a bumper sticker. "No Momo, No Life." Our car really is that awesome.

Driving in Japan's a bit of a challenge. Parking lots are a really big issue - everyone in our car tends to forget that we're supposed to drive on the left. Usually, one of the three of us will remember and yell it out - but especially in large intersections, it's nervewracking to see cars barreling at us from the right side of the road. Driving attitude's a bit different here -- there's no road rage and everybody drives really slow to conserve gas. However, nobody uses their turn signal either, at least, not until they've started turning. Maybe that's also a gas saving measure.

In terms of what we did with our new set of wheels - Jack took me out on a date. Apparently since cars are a luxury item in Japan, what people often do for dates is rent a car and just drive. So Jack took me out into the country -- we went to the aquarium (biggest freakin' sharks and crabs EVER. The crabs would give the facehuggers from Aliens a run for their money).

Then we mosied onto the pineapple museum. Five bucks for all the pineapple and pineapple wine / snacks you can eat. One would think that would be a losing proposition for them. But we ended up walking away having bought like, 40 bucks worth of wine and pineapple cake. Next tourist trap please....

We finished up the evening with a trip to the northern most point of Okinawa and watched the sunset. The moment was kind of ruined by the little kid who decided to throw a temper tantrum by picking up his little sibbling's stroller and throwing it sideways onto the ground. The baby WAS still inside. Wow.

Oh, yeah. And Tasha kept us company this entire time too ;-).

Can I hazs speaking Japan?

Another couple of glorious mornings in Okinawa. What to talk about today?

Well, we started off with a ride on the city monorail. It was awesome - there's friendly chiming music between all the stops. Even cooler is that the conductor hops out of the car every stop, and upon hoping back in, does all those chopping / pointing motions that Anime mech-robot drivers do when they get into their vehicles.

We visited the Okinawa castle grounds - which was a neat visit in their history. I really regret not remembering Social 8 any better. It's really a sad story -- basically the entire castle has been rebuild from scratch to the best of their memories. Virtually every single descriptive placard in the building reads "The original was destroyed in the Battle of Okinawa, and has since been rebuild in _____." We have the technology...

On a brighter note, after all of that we went for delicious lunch (noodles and pork - with the cartilage still in). Desert was a trip to an ice cream parlor that has the same idea as marble slab, but makes the slab look like a bunch of rank amateurs. Basically, the guy on the left in the photos speed created ice cream creations, juggled his tools while doing it, and could make intricate chocolate drizzle latticework all while calling out the name of his ingredients (think Karate movie fighting move announcements).

The next day was spent at the beach. We had to get ferried out there. The nice thing is, there aren't a whole lot of other boats, so they were free to go full throttle. Golden week ends today, so everybody else was busy trying to get back home. Basically, we were the only ferry on the entire beach, so there were a grand total of maybe 40 people on the beach, TOPS.

We went snorkeling, which was fantastic. I signed my life away on some waiver, but Jack told me I would at least get to keep my first born child (as long as his translation was correct). For the first time this trip, I think the Japanese people finally understood me. I saw a clownfish, popped up, grabbed Jack and shouted NEMO! Every japanese snorkeller then repeated, "Awww. Nemo!" and proceeded to dunk their head in exactly where I popped up. Creepiest thing ever.

But hey... I guess that means I now know 1 word we share. Further truth that Disney really is the universal language. I'm going to try all my communications in the language of WALL-E from now on.

Okay, I think I've monopolized the computer long enough, and now Jack's getting bored enough that he's making us watch Japanese 'learn to speak english' shows (they're also the only shows in English) - so it's time to make a quick escape. Thanks for reading my drivel.

Arrival (AKA: Droplet vs. Aerosol Precautions)

So... we've made it in Japan - and we're in one piece. Hurray!

The first thing I noticed (even before we left) was how at least a good third of the asian people getting onto the plane were wearing facemasks (think SARS all over again). It was even more fantastic once we landed. We sat for about an hour after filling out quarantine 'questionaires' while the haz-mat team fimed us using thermal cameras, collected our forms and nasal aspirated anybody they thought had a fever. They then gave us a little info sheet on what to expect and sent us on our way.

Even scarier was how easily the system didn't really work. The guy behind us was coughing and sniffling the entire flight... and then for the last half hour of the flight before we touched down, frantically rubbed his forehead with an ice pack. (That's not suspicious at all...). As a health care professional, I almost felt the need to call him out. Then kinda figured the Japanese camera guy probably had it under control - and besides - we were on vacation :).

In true nelson fashion, I neglected to read the entire photocopied piece of paper and trashed it on the way to customs. Little did I know that they required that piece of paper to exit. Furthermore, the customs guy spoke ZERO english. I spoke english slower to him, and he responded by speaking Japanese back to me, at a slightly reduced rate. Hilarity ensued, I ended up filling out the damned form again, and then walked past him without actually giving my resubmitted form to anybody. (It's still in my pack, so I'm not really sure why I spent 10 minutes of my life doing that).

Aaaaaanyhoo.

We wound up in Okinawa. Passed out completely bagged and started anew the next day for what proved to be a giant endless parade of awesome food. Things we've noticed: Okinawan people love pork, waving cats and bitter mellon.

We started off with bitter melon burgers (which were surprisingly alot better than they sounded). We then mozied off to the beach -- which if viewed from the correct angle looks beautiful for an inner-city beach. Of course, then you turn your head 90 degrees and see the rusted barge and industrial park... but I digress.

We went for a healthy lunch of ice cream parfaits. My favorite part was the little button they gave us (like a doorbell) to call them back whenever we needed anything. I tried not to abuse it, honestly! We listened to some live violin / guitar music and went to dinner.

Dinner was... unique. There was Japanese dancing, porridge made with squid ink (which I spilt on my shirt) and crepes. All in one dinner. I think I worry about my spilling habits too much. The hostess asked if I wanted our photo taken by pointing to herself... but she gestured towards her nose. I assumed this to mean I had squid ink on my nose and spent the next 10 seconds trying to frantically rub it off. Jack and her figured I was having a seizure.

Well... that's all I can think of mentioning for today. I'll add more if I remember. :)