Japan, Part 1 of 3

Sam, my couchsurfing host and new friend, was kind enough to drive me to the international airport in the very wee hours of the morning, where I caught a flight to Naha, Okinawa. Okinawa is a cluster of Japanese islands between Taiwan & Japanaland. The original plan was to take the 4 day ferry from Taiwan all the way to Kagoshima, Japan, but soaring fuel costs forced the only ferry company into bankruptcy, so the compromise was to fly halfway and boat from there. I arrived in Japan and was greeted with posters warning me against drugs, weapons and pornography. After they confiscated my drugs, weapons, and pornography, they went on to take away the sandwich I was saving, which was given to me on the plane, ironically. I got some hostel info from a japanese girl at the info counter who had spent a few years in Banff, Alberta, and I set out into Japan. The hostels all seemed way too expensive (Okinawa is a very touristy area, as I discovered) so I asked a pair of girl travellers on the train (1 from england, 1 from sweden) if they knew of a cheap hostel, and we ended up spending the day together finding the hostel, hanging out on the beach, going to my first "Hotto Motto" (Japanese fast food chain) and legit Ramen noodle place, and learning some japanese numbers. The hostel turned out to be the sweetest one I'd ever stayed in --- $10 USD a night got you a bed, free internet, free laundry, free bikes, guitars, djembes, a dozens different spots to hang out in on comfy cushions, and a ton of people to hang out on them with. That evening, we got into a serious guitar sing-along. With access to the internet, the lyrics were flowing. At 2am, I found myself heading to a Kareoke room with one of my new friends. We belted out some Spin Doctors, Hanson, Bon Jovi, the list goes on... We also put a major dent in Japan's beer supply. These kareoke places are private kareoke rooms, so we have our own kareoke machine, comfy couches, and a phone to order more beer. Eventually 6AM rolled around and I had to be at the docks to catch my ferry, which I was looking forward to, because I could sleep for 25 hours straight. I staggered home, packed my bags, but upon arriving at the terminal, I found out that they did not accept credit card, nor were there any ATMs open in the city until 8am, and maybe in all of Japan for that matter. An exploratory cab ride that I could not pay for in the end proved this true. I missed my ferry, then couldn't find the hostel that I had come from. The hangover set in. After an hour long walk around, I finally found the place, somebody saved me from sleeping in the hallway and let me back into my room.

I woke up an hour after check out time, with a pretty solid headache on and no money to pay for this extra day I'd be spending here. I set out to find a bank machine from which I could withdraw funds, absurdly thirty and hungry, and discovered that the only ATM that would work for me, the guy with the foreign bank account, would be the Japan Post machine. I found this out after trying every other bank machine, of course. I now had money. I drank enough water to drown a whale. I spent most of that day chilling at the hostel because there was so much to do there, but interrupted that with a walk in the late afternoon around a hilltop castle, where I met some nice ducks, a cat, a turtle and some fish.

I'll speed this up a little now because at this pace, I'll be writing a novel on my 3 weeks in Japan. So, the next morning I finally caught the 25 hour ferry to Kagoshima. 'The Last Samurai' dude comes from here, not Tom Cruise but the other guy, and not the actor but the character. On the ferry, nobody spoke a word of english except for the one creepy drunk japanese guy who I kept catching staring at me with his head peering around the corner, and I'd have to pretend I was asleep to avoid him.

I arrived at 7 the next morning to find Virginia, a friend from back home who was teaching english in Japan, waiting for me at the terminal. Awwwwww. I stayed with her for 4 or 5 days, during which time I was further initiated into the Japanese lifestyle through shopping malls riddled with xmas sales, amazing restaurants, a freezing foggy hike along a volcanicaly active mountain ridge, some "onsens" (hotsprings), and a bike around an island who's centerpiece was another active volcano. The school kids on that island wore hard hats for protection from flying debris, and there were busstop style shelters in case of a major eruption. Lava flow tenches revealed solidified magma, which was very cool. I finished that day in a hotspring that doubled as a buddhist temple. So I was sitting there in the water robe they give you, surrounded by japanese men and woman, in this lagoon style place under huge outstretched trees, surrounded by rocks down a cliffside, seperated from the ocean by not more that 2 feet of stacked stones (you could lay back with your hand in the ocean and your body in the warm water...pure awesomeness), all the while people worshipping in front of the statue and candles carefully placed under one of the trees. Pretty cool stuff. The outdoor mall also had a foot massage hot water trench...almost as cool.

I said my temporary goodbyes to Virginia and her friends, who I had had an awesome time with, I activited my JR pass, which gave me unlimited access to their train system for 2 weeks, including their famous highspeed 'Shinkansen' trains, and I headed up to Nagoya to meet up with Les and Sarah, 2 more friends from back home. I had a great time staying with them for another 4 or 5 days. They introduced me to the game Jungle Speed. Check it out, you will never be the same. Nagoya is fairly central, so I was able to check out nearby places during the day too and head back to stay with them at night. Japan can get pretty pricy, so this helped me quite a bit. I rented a jam space with Les, Sarah made all sorts of awesome Japanese dishes, I also ate at great restaurants, and went on a couple of hikes.

Also, I happened to be there on a weekend and as I walked around to explore a bit, I stumbled upon lots of outdoor concerts. I ended up hoping from show to show. Started of with a Japanese Idol type guy on a stage in an outdoor mall, then I caught the end of a punk show with 10 bands playing 3 songs each, then on to a punk and funk type show that was just starting and went on for a good couple of hours. I was realizing that there was tons of good Japanese music in Japan....go figure! Also noticed that skateboarding, bmx-ing and breakdancing were all over the streets here at night.

I then headed to Tokyo for a brief stay.....

Mike