We crashed at our co-worker, Ryan’s, on Saturday. We had to get up Sunday at 5:30A.M. to catch a 6:20 train to Yokohama to catch a 7:20 train in Asakaska going to Nikko. Confused? Let’s just say it was too damn early to be up. But we got to the main train which would take us to the rural area of Japan. It was a 2 hour ride out of Tokyo to Nikko.
I was a tired dude. 3 hours of trains and waking up early.
But the scenery on the train ride was pretty cool. I bet there was stuff that was even cooler while I was asleep. Definitely faded in and out of sleep.
Once we got off the train, we dropped by a Mini-mart and grabbed some gloves and grub. That’s where I found the most bad ass can of coffee ever.
Coffee in cans is pretty big in Japan. It’s always been, even when I was younger. They sell it warm, which is nice. However, I’ve never seen a coffee can this bad ass, so I had to buy it. I can’t read any of the Japanese characters, but I’m pretty sure it says “Bad Ass Samurai Coffee”.
Then we took a bus to Edo Wonderland. Basically, it’s a park that’s theme is that the place you’re walking into is like being from the Edo period (1600’s). During this period, Ninja’s and Samurai ruled.
The first thing we caught was a Ninjashow. Live Ninja Action. In the introduction, the room turned pitch black, then a small light came on, and the guy backflip jumped from a wall about 10 feet high to a section of the stage right next to us. They’d constantly turn it pitch black, then back on with some small lights and fought. While the props were obviously of lower budget, I’d put some of the action on par or a little above Ka in Las Vegas. It really was that good.
The dude on the left is like the Shinobi Ninja. From what I gather, he was the most bad ass of bad ass ninjas. He did the “sit indian style and do super power hand motions” in one of the scenes. It was simple, yet looked absolutely bad ass. Here, he’s in a goofy pose.
And here I’m with my ninja Ninja! He’s the good ninja and rocked the Shinobi’s world after the Shinobi killed Master. Never kill master.
And another one with my Ninjas!
Afterwards, we got to play like Ninja and shoot some bows and arrows. Everyone got a prize for how good they were. Ryan over there got a crazy stuffed animal. I got a postcard. It said “Ninja you suck at Bow and Arrow!”
Next we checked out the Ninja maze. How ha
rd could a Ninja maze be, right?
Wrong. We wandered around for aw
hile, lost and going in circles. Then we stumbled upon this.
Umm, yeah, walk through that and I might as well give up my DBAB card.
Eventually, we found a trick door (basically we followed some decent girls around since we were lost anyway and they found a door) and walked to the center house of victory! Lesson of the story, follow good looking girls.
This was also known as the MAN exit.
Then we entered the Ninja House of Illusion. It’s built slanted, and everything’s placed in the room at an angle. Walking into you, your mind gets effed with. I had a nauseous feeling just from it. Them Ninja were smart.
The floor is angled, so the direction I’m facing is actually vertical, we just tilted the camera properly so it looks like I’m defying gravity. Or as junior likes to call it, everyday life.
When we left, a ninja tried to sneak attack me, so I had to pull out my Matsume Sword and beat him down.
And then the Ninja called his crazy mascot friend. I have no idea man. I have no idea.
Then we walked by the main deity that the Ninja worshipped. By the way, he’s dipped in Gold. Basically, he’s the most bad ass of them all.
Also, we walked by some ancient Samurai Gear. That was dope. One of my biggest regrets was not splurging to dress up as a samurai. For 5000 Yen (55 bucks), you could get dressed up in some Samurai Gear for the whole day. It was cold as heck, and 55 is a lot to throw down. Looking back though, I don’t know if the opportunity to dress up in Samurai Gear will ever arise again. So now, I’m regretting it.
Really, the place is cool. See above.
At noon they had an outdoor Ninja Show. It was awesome, but not as awesome as the first one.
And then we went to see some wax museum type joints. They were a litttle spooky.
Like all other countries, it’s not a good sign when the white man comes a conquistadoring. Uhh, man this pictures a little too spoooky.
And I don’t even know what the heck is going on here.
I do know this dude done got uhfed up.
Then we watched another show. Apparently it was a comedy. The old man killed it with the crowd! Except for the three Americans who couldn’t understand a word. Everyone was cracking up except for us. I felt bad, but man, language is such an important part of comedy.
Then we went to watch this lady do some water magic.
She basically made water go out of a ton of places. I couldn’t help but think that this type of show had some sexual tension in it back in the day.
Then we left Edo land at 2:40p.m. I had a blast there.
So we took a bus to Tobu World Square, but we stopped to eat some dope Ramen before we went in.
Then we went in to Tobu World Square. In summary, it’s a place where they have a ton of modern world wonders squared down to 1:25 scale. It’s neat, but not as interesting as Edo Wonderland. I thought it was cool and highly detailed, but lost interest in each depiction quickly. That is until I figured out you could take some Danzilla pictures. Enjoy!
Then we took another 4 hours on trains to get back home. 7 hours of train time. Worth it.
Day Go: Mt. Nokogiri
In the town, we had to catch the ferry, but beforehand we were able to catch a festival go on. 
Apparently, everyone in town puts “bad fortunes” written on some traditional wood and puts in near the tree. And what do we all want to do with bad fortunes when their put together?
Burn them motherfuckers to the ground! Japanese people are geniuses. This is one reason why.
Next we caught the ferry. I was far more fascinated by their ferry system than I should have been. It was definitely nice riding the ferry as a novelty instead of it being as a means of commuting.
On the other side of the ferry, we took a skybridge up to the temple area. Here’s a picture of how high it goes up. It’s kinda scary.
Also, they cram as many people as they can in each cabin. Kind of uncomfortable for 5 minutes.
At the top, I took some pictures of the view.
Then we first walked to the Buddha in the wall. It’s amazing that somebody, back in the day, etched this thing out of the stone.
Then there was a skywalk thing, where you could look down on the people. I tried to take a picture on it like Tubo would, except I just looked lame.
Next we walked to the Big Buddha. On the way they had a ton of little buddhas to guide you. Some got their domes chopped. Poor dudes.
There were a lot of steps going down to the buddha. I dreaded this, mainly because that means there’s going to be a lot of steps going back up. At the bottom was a big ass Buddha. When I was young, I thought it was dorky to take pictures next to a big buddha. Big Deal. Yes, it is a big deal. And i was an idiot. But I’m older now, and I couldn’t resist!
Then we checked out this wooden temple. The fact that someone carved this piece is amazing. You’d have to see it to see the detail. I was amazed.
Then we took stairs up. It was long.
Another thing that was long: The fertility festival prop. I shit you not. On our way to the skybridge down, I walked right by it and was amazed. My co-worker explained it’s for the fertility festival.
On the ride home, I drank a Chu-Hi. I don’t know how to explain the drink. It’s fruit flavored, but 8% alcohol, So it’s stronger than most beers. They sell them in cans or as a mix drink. One can definitely gets a buzz started. I like them, but tooo many and you have a wicked hangover.
We then went to a 100 Yen (About a $1.10) Sushi Go around. It’s pretty much on par with Sushiland, but it’s dope for 2 reasons.
They have Tubo’s flamed shrimp, salmon, scallops, and tuna.
And you don’t have to ask anybody for special orders. You just order straight from a computer screen, then they put it on a special plate that rings a noise as it passes your table. Effing amazing.
We then went home. The end.
San, Shi
First real day of work. That kind of hit hard. The 2 and 1/2 weeks of vacation and easy work was over. I walked to work; I’m still not comfortable with the layout of the base enough to bike around. Did work. Lunch was cool though; they had bento boxes. I got oyakudon with rice (pork, egg, and onion mixture). The initial plan was to hit the gym right after work, but I ran into the guy I met back in September. He invited me on a trip to Yokohama, but the thing is they were leaving right after work. The trick with Yokosuka is that we have to travel with the train system. The last train out from Yokohama is midnight. So party early to get the most of it.
Eff it, I’ll go. We made a quick stop at the hotel room, at which point I was going to change, but neither of the two guys who were going were dressed down, so I decided to keep the pretty boy fits in the closet. Finally, I was getting on a train. It’s a pretty damn neat system. You get a prepaid card that can stay in your wallet and operates with RFID. You just press your wallet up against the reader and it realizes where you started, then you do the same thing at your destination and it automatically deducts it from your card. After that, you just load thee card every week or so.
The trains weren’t too crowded, but it was a fairly uneventful ride going to Yokohama. Getting off the train was awesome though. Once we walked out and into Yokohama station, I hit a point of nostalgia. I remembered walking through the station as a 13 year old, and when I walked through it again, I half expected to see the same break dancers that were at the corner. They weren’t. However, once you walked up and out the station, “real” Japan was here. A busy, crowded, and lively city surrounded. There was no longer a base and it was a real city. So I was slightly disappointed to be walking into a British pub themed bar.
But only slightly, the drinks were roughly 300 Yen for mixed drinks such as Long Islands, Vodka Crans, Jack and Cokes, and other staples. Each only had a shot, though, but whatever. Hint, captain morgan and Ginger Ale is pretty good. Or maybe it was SoCo. The place was really nice and clean and was filled with people. After about 10 drinks, I was still not feeling like my socialable self. I blame the jetlag. At this point, one of the dudes suggested a Red Bull Vodka, and I said why not, I wasn’t really, really enjoying myself at this point. Afterwards, I also drank beers, and suddenly, it was my normal liquored up self. I noticed, that while people dressed nicely, nobody seemed to be turned off by our non-pretty boy fits. An outgoing attitude got you further than pretty looks and nice clothes.
We got a group of three, (2 girls, 1 guy) to sit with us. When I say we, I mean the one guy who could speak Japanese was liquored up enough to go around and start chatting with every group with a girl in it. The nice thing with these themed places is you usually meet Japanese people that are a) wanting to meet English speaking people and b) are willing to try and speak English themselves. Apparently, it was the guy’s birthday. I wanted to buy him a shot, but didn’t know how to order shots at the bar (i just point at pictures). We sang happy birthday to him, and everyone cheered. Then some folks in our group and their group exchanged business cards. I learned in class this is what they do. Cool. After this the night became a blur. I will say, I found out the only thing that stuck from the Japanese classes I took this fall were “Hello, my name is”, “what is your name”, and “What is your cell phone number”. Also, as I drank more, I became more willing to try it out.
We rode the train with one of the folks we met, walked her to the car, and called it a night. Japan’s fun.
The next day, I worked, and went to the Commissary. The highlight was eating some oyakudon. I ordered it from this vending machine that gives you a paper with your order. You hand this to the waitress and she gets it for you when it’s ready. No confusion here.
Sorry no pictures, but the next blog should be picture filled. (visited a temple). Later dudes!
