Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Japan Feb 2012 Part 6

Live A Live - Warm A Live - Live Over Again  

I originally made these into parts because I thought I could cover multiple days in one entry.  That hasn't happened yet!
Man that package looks attractive.  Tell me you wouldn't have gone in.

The result.  I ended up keeping only 4 of these games.  Which 4 would you keep?  Which 4 do you think I kept?  Stay tuned to the end of this entry for the non-exciting answer.  Until then it's time to hike a mountain.
We woke up, checked out, and store my luggage in a locker inside Shinagawa station.  We then rushed out of the station and across the street.  Under the shadow of the Shinagawa Prince Hotel (where we would be staying in two days (circular)) we just caught McDonald's Breakfast.  Hey we were both craving it for some reason.


We headed up to Shinjuku navigated the always crowded Ikebukuro Station and got on the Seibu Line.  We passed by the girl's old work and an hour later into Saitama.  I held the Aroma Impact Coffee in my hands, considering what whiffs and fragrances opening it would release.  It turned out to have nothing about it be remotely memorable.  Well the can actually felt really good to hold.  The ridges and shape gave it a great grip.
Hanno Station was a lot less rural than I expected it to be.  It had a Starbucks and another Uniqlo.  The book store on the top made it difficult for me to find any Jojo Manga.  I thought it would be nice to read it that evening in the hotel, but that dream wasn't going to come true.

We bought some bread that the bakery and stopped and ate the local ramen.  She had pretty good Miso and I had mediocre Salt.  She revealed to me that she actually didn't like Kagetsu Ramen, my main go to ramen chain.

Out here is what a lot of foreigners call "real Japan".  I'm still not sure what that means.  Tokyo isn't real enough for them I guess.  I've also met people dissappointed they aren't on rickshaws and wearing kimonos and yukatas all the time.  People have weird expectations for the 2nd biggest economic power in the world.  What is fascinating is how different this is from Tokyo and it's less than an hour away.   Keep in mind I actually lived in the very point the sprawling urban Greater Tokyo Area ended.  This place looked wonderful compared to that.

It being the middle of winter we decided to try and see the Buddha before going to the hotel.  The sun sets fast and early.  Of course this being our day outside and in nature it was also the only day of the trip that was horribly overcast.  We got on a bus filled with asshole high school students that made me stand up and give his bag a seat to itself.  The bus cut through the mountain roads that sometimes became 1 and a quarter lane wide.  I was happy I didn't rent a car.  I wondered how the bicyclists I saw on the internet got around here.  We quickly entered more rural ground and just about the last stop was the Buddha, kind of.

I have to make ridiculous faces because if I smile normally it doesn't even look like I'm making any facial expression at all.  Also check out that fucking buckle backpack, tourist.  God damn look at your touristing it up in here.  Too bad your messenger bag can't fit two days worth of living essentials huh asshole.  The girl meanwhile had a canvas bag equal to my backpack slung across her arm Japanese girl style.  I would end up carrying it up the mountain.

At the base we were greeted with noticing we were the only human beings there to climb that mountain.  Also that it would take 40 minutes to reach the top.  The sign said the path was to the right so we went to the right of the sign started walking and found ourselves in someone's backyard.  They came out and told us the path was down the road.  I considered how many times a day they had that conversation.  We still didn't see another soul  there for sightseeing. We found the car pass that would take all of 5 minutes locked up and closed for ice.

Actually starting up the ascent I noticed it was definitely easier than Nogogiriyama in Chiba.  That Buddha is the biggest old one being made of stone carved in the side of a mountain and extremely impressive.  This one was built in 1971 is on top of a mountain and about 53 meters tall.  So not built by a crazy monk and his disciples but directly as a tourist trap.  Not that there were any tourists that day.  The mountain air did a great job of taking out all the nasty stuff that had built up from Chiba Kanteidan. 

While I expected her to get tired quickly, I was also surprised how tired I had already gotten 10 minutes up.  At 20 minutes up we found our only close up of something to see that day.  Some sort of jungle-gym globe thing.

I was actually enjoying the righteous journey of fighting to see something upclose.  That we had to work for it.  I was also enjoying being the only people there.  The whole ascent you could see the Buddha getting closer and you could see the road you started from.  The clouds getting darker and the air getting more humid bothered me though.  5 more minutes up and the girl said we had to go back.  The isolation was getting to the city girl.  She was tired and frustrated.  I regretfully accepted.

As close as we got.  It was still probably 30 minutes away.

Her need to turn back ended up being the right move.  My knee had started to hurt somewhat on the ascent and 5 minutes into going down the mountain became unbearable.  She took back her bag and I gritted my teeth and hobbled down the root stairs and dirt slant.  Thankfully the ground was dry.  There wasn't an option of staying there to die.  We didn't see anyone on the way down.

Across the street from the entrance we sat down at Kenny's Family Village.  It looked exactly like a shitty lake camp site you would see in America.  BBQ grills included.  It even had a plastic US Post mailbox.  I drank a Dr. Pepper and noticed my knee didn't at all hurt while I was sitting down.  I ate my banana bread from the bakery and hoped my knee wouldn't scream at me when I stood up.  It did.  I could still walk though, and I didn't like the thought of trying to get to the inn from here.


I figured we might as well see the temple right here though, it's at least something.   That's one of the weirdest lion statues I'd ever seen.  There was actually an elderly couple also looking at it.  They looked like us, confused as to how to get up the mountain.  I told the girl to talk to them.  The girl conveyed what we already knew, it took a long time to hike up and the road was closed.  We started walking to the bus stop.  My knee started hurting more and more.  We said "hi" to the dogs that had greeted us after getting off the bus.  Good dogs looking out for their owners.

Shenmue - Main Theme

The older couple then drove up and offered us a ride to our hotel.  We gratefully accepted.  My back of the mind plan ended up paying off.  They were from Saitama and we were from extremely grateful.  Let's pretend their car was this thing.

The ryokan seated us and gave us coffee and tea while we waited.  We had to pay for the drink of course, but they gave it to us all the same.  The room even had the girl's name outside of it.  It was exceptionally nice, except for my pained leg.  Tatami style with futons already laid out.

The chairs by the windows were sunken so I could actually sit in them and rest.  I stared and enjoyed the fading Japanese mountain view.  The girl called the front desk and asked about restaurants or convenience stores in walking distance.  The room could have provided dinner but it was about 40 bucks more and mostly seafood.  The only option turned out to be a kind of pricey restaurant right next door.  Getting a taxi to the station and back would have run us around 10,000 yen.

So we got up and went to the restaurant next door.  Or tried too.  As soon as we stepped outside the hotel I almost collapsed.  My knee didn't exactly hurt, but it felt like I was moving it in a way that it was not supposed to move.  She supported me like the end of a war/horror (warhorror) movie and we climbed up the hill to the only restaurant around.

We entered and sat down at a Japanese low table with sunken foot area.  That gave my knee some relief.  Had it just been flat I'm sure I would have started screaming halfway through the meal.  We were once again the only people in the restaurant and would be their only customers the whole time and possibly the night.  We ordered Tempura Udon and J-style fried chicken.  The menu advertised wild boar.  Why not?  Time for an adventure in the culinary if not travelling.  They then informed us they hadn't caught any boar lately.  Good for the boar.

They came back a second time.  Bad for the boar.  It tasted like most thick slices of meat, like whatever it was cooked in.  Beefy texture but some pig like things in it.  They ended up serving us a lot more food than we expected.  We tried to as much as we could.

That was just a small portion of the udon.  Are bellies were plenty satisfied by the end.  I thought it interesting that the waiter and cook did not even attempt to give small talk to their only customers of the night.  Outside of the waiter serving us, he stood out of sight.  I debated whether that was a cultural thing or just the way they operated a kind of upscale restaurant (our bill ran to about 4200 yen.)

We got up to leave and oh hey I still couldn't walk.  It was even worse now.  I was thankful it hadn't started raining because we'd probably have fallen down getting back to the hotel on the steep slope down.  I grunted in frustration.  We got some cold patches from the front desk.  The Japanese absolutely love menthol and the patches reeked of it.  I had bought "men's" chapstick earlier in the week from my lips getting horrible dry from the sudden frigid weather, also heavily scented in menthol.  You can even get menthol condoms.  The Japanese they love menthol.

But before I put on the patch I needed a long soak in the Ryokan's public bath.  I'm going to assume since it was on the top floor of the building it wasn't authentic hot spring water.  I also didn't care.  My only worry was a bunch of salaryman wanting to stare at my white man package.

There wasn't anyone in the bath.  I washed myself with...unique bath products.  Yeah those up there.  I washed myself in horse oil based soaps.  I kept thinking how my vegetarian/vegan friends would be screaming at these circumstances.  There was also a row of hard soap like things I couldn't read the kanji nor figure out the exact uses for.

I rinsed off and dragged myself into the hot bath.  I stretched out and enjoyed the solitude.  If not for fog on the windows I'm sure I'd have a pitch black view of a quiet mountain town on an overcast night.  Indeed in the outdoor part of the path I did.  There wasn't even any artifical fog on the glass railing.  Guess people didn't look up out there.  At the public bath by my old apartment I always loved the feeling of winter on my top half while my lower half remained submerged in the hot water.  That place didn't even have a roof so a snowy or rainy day was particularly grand.

I moved to the 3rd and last bath in the room which turned out to be cold water.  It's still an experience whatever a cold water bath does.  You feel a lump form in your chest and you can't tell if what's happening is good or bad but you want to let it to continue to happen.  Then you wonder over to the super hot bath and fight the urge to feint. 

My knee let me move a tiny bit better after the bath.  I wondered downstairs in the hotel provided kimono and got myself a coke.  I considered getting sweet potato cakes as a souvenir.  I decided against it.  Yuri was back when I got upstairs.  We watched some terrible Japanese TV in a weirdly positioned LED and went to sleep.

I kept Xenosaga 3, DBZ, Saint Saiya, and Sega Rally.

Next Time: Back to Tokyo and the absolute worst love hotel experience we've ever had! To Part 7!

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