Note - Totally worth staying up late for it. It's DONE!

Thursday, February 22nd 2007. 12:20AM. Minneapolis, MN. My Apartment.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/39747540@N00/sets/72157594549672419/

There it is. That's my Flickr site with all the pictures I see fit to post. These can't really express the great time I had fully, but they help and are full of great memories.

Enjoy!

^_^

Note - 'Bump of Chicken' is a really great Japanese band. You should check them out. If you can get the song 'Karma', it's super addictive.

Sunday, February 18th. 10:45PM. Minneapolis, Minnesota. USA. Home.

Yep. Here I am, back at my apartment in the states, safe and sound. But, for now, lets go back to yesterday. Or two days ago. Or something. Time Traveling is confusing. Stupid international date line. ^_^

So, Saturday was my final day in Japan and I had been charged by the girlfriend to plan the day's events. She was rightly tired of deciding on everything that we were gonna do (We're both very undecisive.) and it was my turn to take her out on a date. So, I choose a couple of new things and a coulpe of old things to do.

So, we got up and, after getting dressed, headed to Sapporo to first check out the Observitory on the 38th Floor of JR Tower at Sapporo Station. Now, I've been up to an observatory at the Hancock Tower in Chicago, which is on the 110th floor, if I'm not mistaken, so I thought that this would be neat, but not too much of a big deal.. the difference is, you see, that Chicago doesn't have any mountians right outside the city. The view was amazing. Sapporo is a really beautiful city to look at. It seems really peaceful when look down on it, as do most cities. But the snow-covered mountians not too far in the disance made it a spectacular sight to behold. Now, because I am some kind of major idiot, as I was looking at this view, I turned to Beth and said "My Camera is in the Apartment."

She replied, "Argh! So is mine!"

So, we felt a little annoyed that neight of us could capture what we were seeing and share it. Luckily, Beth promised to come back at some point and take more pictures and send some my way. So, I'll be able to share those at some point.

Anyway, up there was this really cool Keychain vending machine thing. It spat out this coin that you then stuck into a machine that punched in your name and the Date. Beth got one for both her and me, and mine is now firmly attached to my keys, now that I am re-united with them.

From the tower, we headed to the Old Hokkido Government Building, which is nicknamed 'Akarenga'. (Red bricks. Guess what the building is made of. ^_^) It's a very western-style building, but it's kinda got a colonial feel to it, which is just really cool. A few rooms are open to the public for free tours, so I really wanted to check it out. It was full of historical goodness. Lots of information on the Ainu, which were the actual indiginous people of Japan before the Modern Japanese people migrated there from, I believe, Korea. (I could be completely wrong about this, but this is what I remember learning in my Japanmese Culture class in College.) Also lots about the territorial struggles for Hokkido between Japan and Russia. Really interesting stuff.

At this point, Beth and I were SUPER hungry. So, because Beth loves Italian, I took her to La Pusa, which is a Chain-esque Italian Resturant in Downtown Sapporo. It was actually really tastey. I got some pasta was Cheesy Meat Sauce and Beth got an Eggplan Pizza, which was also pretty tasty. Now, thing about Japan. They do weird stuff with their Pizza. Namely, this one had a raw Egg cracked in the middle of it. It had cooked a little from the heat of the pizza by the time it came out, but it was still mostly raw. So, that was kinda weird to deal with, but it was otherwise a great meal.

From here, we moved on to the stuff we had done before. First, Karaoke. Another 2 hours at the same Karaoke place. Man, that was fun. I continue to love Karaoke in Japan. Got a lot of good songs in, including "Under The Sea" from the Little Mermaid. In Japanese. That was....entertaing. ^_^

After Karaoke, we hit up the Arcade again for more DDR, HL2 - Survivor, and some general gaming goodness. I think I'm geting a little Better at DDR again. I remember being Half-Way decent in a "not really, but at least i didn't trip over myself" kinda way at one point.

After arcading, we headed back to the apartment to finish up some packing stuff and get ready for the Aeon party we were going to that night. Aimee had orginized a Valentine's themed party for Teachers and Students at Aeon English school. At about 7:30, we headed back out to Sapporo, met up with Aimee and a few other people and went to the restruant. The event was 'all you can drink.' Thew prospect was tempting but, since I had an early flight the next day, I restricted myself to 2 Beers. Lots of food, though, and Beth's co-workers are all kinds of fun. Very hyperactive. Basically any stereotypes you might be able to imagine about energetic Japanese women were personified in this bunch.

We sat next to Beth's student, Kumiko-san, and her friend Haruka-san. I spent a lot of time talking to Haruka, actually. Turns out that she had spent 3 years in the US in highschool as part of a Foreign Exchange program. And, coincidentally, one of those years had been in a small town near Mankato, MN. Her English was amazing. Only every now and then could you detect a Japanese accent. Actually, she spoke english with a slight midwestern accent, so it was VERY easy to understand her.

Oh! And I TOTALLY got hit on by a drunk Japanese chick! Ok, so I went to the bathroom and as I was entering, this Girl was coming out. This took me completely off guard because I had thought I was walking into the men's room. Turns out that, in Japan, some places only have 1 bathroom, and it's co-ed. Urinals for the guys and stalls for the girls. Still, this was jarring, especially when she said to me as I walked in, "I wait for you!"

On my way out, she was right there. Sher took my arm and said "Where we going? Take me with you!"

"Uhhhh...I can't..."

"Yes! Why not?!"

"Uhhh...I have a girlfriend...."

"Awwwww!!!" and then she puffed out her cheeks in a really kinda cute, mock angry kinda way.

I rambled for a minute. "Uhh...I'm sorry! Gomenasai! Gomen! Sorry!"

"I'll never forgive you!"

"Oh! I'm sorry!"

Big smile. "Okay!" And then she went back to her table. Beth found this whole thing INCREDIBLY amusing when I told her about it when I got back to the table.

We stayed until about 10 befor needing to go and get some sleep. We headed back to the apartment and fairly proptly went to sleep.

This morning, we awoke at 5AM in order to make a 6:20 bus to New Chitose Airport. We made the bus and, after an hour ride, we were at the airport. I was checked in soon after and we had 2 hours to sit in the terminal and chat and such before I had to go to the gate. Saying goodbye and walking through that Security Check was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. After just a week and a half, Beth and I had re-connected and then some. We're closer now than ever before, and just having to say goodbye, even for only 5 months, was harder than when she left in July.

The trip home was incredibly easy. The flight from Sapporo to Tokyo was on a 747, so I had pleanty of room this time around. No claustophobia, which made me very happy. Once at Haneda, I quickly got a bus ticket and was on my way to Narita. Once there, I had my bags examined and then got checked in and made my way to some food. Interesting thing to note: Japanese McDonald's tastes JUST LIKE American McDonald's. No reason to think otherwise, but I just thought I'd inform everyone. That was a tasty Big Mac.

I made my way to my gate and got on the plane bound for home fairly easily. There was a scare for a second when the line after they announced general boarding stretched on for 3 gates, but there were no worries. I got on and got to my seat with no problems. Before too long, I was on the plane and 10 hours away from home. I stayed up for the first meal and an episode of The Office that they played, but then I settled in for some sleep at about 3AM, MPLS time. 6 hours later, I was up and an hour and a half away from home. I haddn't slept well, but I had slept and the plane trip had gone by incredibly quickly. They fed us again and before long, we were on the ground.

For the record, I could already tell I was back home because the Customs guy when I got off the plane was a total asshole.

"YOU HAVE A NEW PASSPORT! SEE THIS SYMBOL! THERE'S AN EXPRESS LANE FOR YOU! YOU NEED TO STOP AND READ THE SIGNS."

This would have meant more to me if I haddn't just gotten off of an 11 hour flight and had ever gone through US customs before. He also yelled at me for not itemizing all of the things I had bought on the Declaration Form. Yeah, like I was gonna do that. What a jerk. Everyone in Japan is so nice and understanding. That was my momentary "Back Home Culture Shock."

I got my bags and went out to the arrival area and there were Ben and Betsy waiting for me. Perfect timing. They gave me a ride home, where I was instantly accosted by my attention starved Cat.

So, that was the end of my first experience with International Travel. This account is really just barely a record of how amazing the whole experience was. The past 10 days have been incredible, full of all kinds of personal firsts and adventure. The most important thing I got from it was the realization at how really accessable a completely forign country can be. this has opened up all kinds of travel possiblities for the Future.

As for Japan, it is a wonderful place full of pretty much everything. I know Sapporo is only one part of the country and not a fair representation of all of it, but that just means that I have to go back and explore more of it. Tokyo, Kyoto, and Okinawa are the other places I really need to go to. tokyo because it's Tokyo, Kyoto because it's full of history, and Okinawa because it's tropical and seems like all kinds of fun.

Sapporo is a great place to be though, and a perfect introduction to the country for me. It only took about an hour in Downtown Sapporo before I felt comfortable and at home there. For some reason, Sapporo kinda feels like an extention of Minneapolis. Maybe it's the climate, maybe it's the fact that everyone seems so laid back and welcoming, but I felt a connection there. This was helped in no small way by the fact that I was with Beth the whole time. She is able to make me feel at ease in even the most forign and new situation. (I sometimes have trouble leaving my comfort zones.) I would not have been able to make it through the trip on my own. Beth is the reason I had the wonderful time that I did, and I look forwad to even more wonderful exoperiences with her when she returns in August and beyond.

So, this has been Andy's Japan Tavel Log. Next step is to upload all these pictures I have. Well, it's almost midnight and, if I'm gonna fight JetLag, I need to get to bed. So, I shall upload them in the morning and post a link here when they're done. I hope you have enjoyed reading this report as I have writting it.

Until Later!

Arigato Gozaimasu!

Friday, February 16th, 4:48PM. Sapporo, Japan. Beth's Apartment.

My hold on reality has been comprimised. I am unsure if I can go on. The very foundations of my beilefs have been shaken. More on this later.

When last we left our intrepid hero, I was just about to head out on my own into the harsh cold that was Sapporo. (It actually did get kinda cold.) Anyway, I set out and went to the Subway to ride into Downtown. Have I mentioned that I love the Subway system here in Sapporo? It's really great. The trains are all roomy and clean and really comfortable. Really fast and efficiant, too. Like it better than the light rail, actually. (Manily because it doesn't inturupt traffic.)

Once I got out at Sapporo Station, I needed me some Raman. The building that contained Ramen Country is right off of Sapporo station, so it was a really quick trip. Man, that Ramen was just as good the second time around. I ordered the exact same thing as last time and was waited on by the exact same girl. I think she remembered me, but I couldn't tell, seeing as she just spoke moonspeak and I don't quite have a grasp on it yet. At all.

Anyway, from Ramen Country, I headed down West 3 Street to do a little more shopping. (This is a theme on this trip. I have no idea how I'm going to get all this stuff home...) After wandering a bit, I headed back to the station to get myself back to Asabu. After the return trip, I walked down to Best Electronics to make my one Big Purchase of the Trip: My Japanese PS2. What with all the games I've been buying, I now need one to be able to play them at all. I also picked up cheap copies of Shinobi and Seiken Densetsu 4 (That new Secret of Mana game coming out for PS2, since Jamie, Ben and Kyle will know what this is. I figure we can mess around in the JPN version and see if the English version will be worth it.) I got a Silver PS2 (one of the skinny ones.) It's pretty Boss, actually. I'm considering getting the thing modded so it can play the JPN and the US games, since my American PS2 is on it's way out. Not sure if it's possible on a Slim PS2, but might be worth looking into.

When I finally lugged everything back home, I was a little tired, so I threw in DVD's of Arrested Development and was Lazy for a little bit while I waited for Beth to get on her break.

At about 5, Beth got back and we went out for a bit of a Snack at Gombei Spice, which is a little Soup Curry place not 20 feet from the door of the apartment building. Now, I have never had Curry before, and Sapporo is known for it's Soup Curry, for some reason that Beth is not aware of. I will tell you right now: Soup Curry be TASTY. Oh, man. Spicy and delicious. The one bowl we got came with a chicken leg and it was SO tender. I was able to take the meat right off the bone with just chopsticks.

After snacking, we czme back to the apartment and watched some more anime before Beth had to go back to work. Once she did, I basically played games and caught the end of the new Naruto episode. (Woo! Back to the storyline!)

At 9:10, I left the apartment to go across the street to meet up with Beth at work. Tonight, She, I, Aimee, their Co-Worker Yuka, and her boyfriend Kazuhiko, were going out for Burgers. Now, this was the second time that Beth and these guys had gone to this place but, the instant they did, I heard nothing from Beth beyond how flapping good these burgers are. I was excited, but hesitant. I mean, come on. Japanese Burgers? I disbelieved.

So, this place was tiny. And, when I say tiny, I mean there was room for 15 people total in this place. It was nice, but small. What was INCREDIBLY awesome was the restruant's mascot: A big, ol' Adorable Black Lab. Never caught his name, but he was leashed up near the enterence to the kitchen and was as nice a dog you'll ever meet.

Now, in Japan, it seems that any kind of meat on a bun with toppings is considered a "Burger". So, we ordered 2 Fish Burgers (Fried Fish Sandwiches), a Chicken Salsa Burger (Grilled Chicken Brest covered in salsa) and a Delux Burger with Meat Sauce. (What it sounds like. A Burger patty swimming in Itallian Meat Sauce.) Kazuhiko and I also got glasses of this REALLY STRONG booze. I forget what it was called, but it was really tasty. I'm a lush, I know.

Ok, remember how I said that my grip on reality is slipping away? Here's why. I had to go to JAPAN to have the BEST DAMNED BURGERS I HAVE EVER EATEN IN MY ENTIRE LIFE!!!!

Those fish burgers were SO GOOD. I usually shy away from Fish Sandwiches but OH MY GOD. We only got 4 for the 5 of us because they were each huge. We cut them into pieces so everyone could try some. AND THE FRIES! OH, MY GOD, WERE THEY GOOD! This was, by far, one of the best eating experiences I've ever had. If I were to ever live in Sapporo, this place could EASILY be my Chipotle replacement. Just, wow. So good. Once again, I am hungry just typing it up.

We got back home at about midnight and Beth was full to the point of it being painfull, so we stayed up a couple of hours watching more anime to give her stomach time to settle before turning in for the night.

This morning, Beth had to work again, but not until later. So, we decided to take the Morning to do a little more shopping and grab some lunch. Beth got Birthday presents for her mom and we found a store that had Honest to Goodness Engrish t-shirts. So hilarious. Beth got the one that we agreed was by far the best.

Front:
RECYCLE
MARKET
Seve the Earth & Children

Back:
RECYCLE
MARKET
PERPER AND PLASTIC
Because it is important resources,
I protect it carefully
SAVE THE EARTH&CHILDREN!

Oh, and around the inside of the collar, it says "Ravishing Virgin" over and over again for some reason. So hilarious.

After shopping, we got lunch at a really nice Indian resturant called Taj Mahal. I needed to try regular Curry, now that I had experienced Soup Curry. (The difference is Soup Curry is basically a soup with a whole bunch of stuff in it. Regular Curry is like a really hearty sauce poured over rice. This is incase anyone needs to know.) Do you know what I found out? I REALLY love curry. It was SO good. I got Chicken Curry and is was just great. I was crazy full after this meal, too, so I've been very well fed over the past few days.

After that, we headed home and I've basically been working on getting all of this stuff I've bought orginized so I'll be able to get it all home. Shouldn't be too hard, but I have this massive Doll box to navigate. (Beth's having me bring one of her dolls back to the states. But, without the head. She wants to work on painting it some more. How creepy is that?)

Rest of the night at home and some fun plans tomorrow for my last day here. I can't believe that the trip is really almost over. It feels like forever ago that I arrived, but also like I'm leaving way too soon.

Thursday, February 15th, 2007. 12:18PM. Sapporo, Japan. Beth's Apartment.

Been a couple of days, and for that I apologize. Haven't been overly busy. Just lazy. ^_^

Anyway, where did I leave off? Right. Just getting back from Jyozenkei.

After getting back and blogging a little bit, Beth and I decided to take a walk down to Sapporo from the apartment, which is about an hour walk. On the way, we stopped a couple of places. The first was Best Electronics. Think Best Buy, but way more Japanese. Game, Computers, music, movies, appliances, the whole 9 yards. Really fun place, actually. Didn't buy anything, though.

Second place we stopped was this "Book Store" place. Now this book store, not book-off, had an entire half of a floor devoted to games and manga. Not as impressive as Book-Off, but different stock, so more stuff to look for. I caved in and bought a few more games. So cheap here! Of course, cheap does add up really quickly. But, I also found this FF7 book. It's basically just fluf and a little bit of art from the game. Not big deal, but pretty cool. I'm glad I snagged it.

By the time we got down to Sapporo, we were a little hungry, so we decided that it was time for me to have some Ramen. Not instant Ramen, or anything like that, but the real deal. We went to this building (Sorry, Beth's at work right now, so I can't ask her the names of these places that we went to. ^_^ ) and on the top floor was 'Ramen Country.' This is basically a food court full of a bunch of different Ramen places. We chose one and sat down. Oh, man, let me tell you. You have not had ramen. I scoff at the ramen you have had. This stuff is GOOD. Soupy and noodly and meaty and veggie-y. So delicious. We also got an order of Pot Stickers which were also QUITE excellent. Oh, and have I mentioned that Soda is MUCH better here than back home? I got a Pepsi and it was SO good. Hmm... I'm going back to Sapporo here before too long on my own. I might hit that place up again. Getting kinda hungry.

Anywho, after ramen, we headed downstairs to the "OMFG GAMER HEAVEN" floor of this building. Huge arcade and a Gamers store. Some of you may know this, but Gamers is THE Game / Anime store in Japan. Beth tells me that the one in Tokyo is 8 floors. Basically, this place is like what you wish the anime booth would actually be like at any Geek Convention you've ever been to. So much cool stuff.

After Gamers, we decided to relax a little and catch a movie. One of the other buildings had a ticket counter place in it, so we went there and parused the selection. We decided on 'The Departed.' I really wanted to see it and Beth said that it looked interesting, so we checked it out. Movies are WAY more expensive here. We got our tickets at a discount and they were still $13 a pop. (1300 yen)

The movie theatre was in another building near the train station, so we headed over there. Nice theatre. What you'd expect.

WE TOTALLY SAW A PREVIEW FOR HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHEONIX! RAWK!

The movie was really good. It was subtitled, so it was in english. The Japanese Subtitles were pretty cool, too. Gave me a chance to practice my Hiragana while watching. The movie was a tad on the violent side, too much for Beth's tastes, but she did say that it was a really good movie all the way around and that she was glad she saw it. I'd put it up there on my recommended viewing list. Really intense and keeps you guessing right up to the end.

On the way home, we were a little hungry agian, so we stopped at that Old, Classic, Genuine American Food Chain, KFC. It was pretty good, actually. They fry the chicken a little different. The Crispy Stips were more like Long John Silver's Chicken than KFC's, but they were really tasty. After all that raw fish the night before, it was welcome to have some American Food.

Came home, watched some Bleach, generally relaxed.

Then, it was Valentine's day. We didn't really do anything too special yesterday, actually. We had just had a romantic getaway, so we decided that it would be good to lounge around, be geeky, and clean Beth's apartment. So, that's what we did. I did give Beth the necklace I got for her, whch she loves. It looks very good on her. She also loves the Gadiva Truffles that the 'rents got her. Gadiva is her favorite chocolate, by the way. ^_^

She did have to work a half day yesterday, so I took the oppertunity to do some mroe shopping for people and just relax some more. Went back to book off to get a PS1 mem card to start a save on my FF7 moonspeak copy, which I did. (I came home with 3 additional PS2 games, as well. Bad Andy) Oh, and I caught the airing of this week's episode of Bleach, too. Hmm... Ep 115, and I'm at 36. Yeah, No Clue what was going on.

Beth got home at around ten (Her Co-workers were INCREDIBLY jelous about the necklace, aparently. ^_^ ) and we spent the rest of last night watching Subtittled Bleach on You Tube so I could work on catching up. Good Times.

Today was the first day that Beth has to actually work a full day so, before that, we hit up the Bank so I could get a little more Cash, probably the last that I'm going to need. We also hit up Tokyu Department Store for even more shopping before I dropped her off at Aeon.. I got to meet a few of her Japanese co-workers and, I swear to God, I'm like some kind of celebrity over there. They were all incredibly excited to meet me. I gave Beth a quick kiss on the cheek as I was leaving and there was a ltteral EXPLOSION of Girlish squeals. One of the girls tried to get me to kiss her too before being smacked by one nof the others. Aimee came in durring all of this and just looked at me and said "Uh..Good Morning."

"Yeah. Aparently." I replied.

So, now, I'm back here writting this and I'm about to head to the subway station for a Solo Sapporo Adventure! Woo!

Untill Later!

Tuesday, February 13th, 2007. 11:46AM. Sapporo, Japan. Beth's Apartment.

Ok. Wow. Most amazing day ever. So, let's not dilly-dally and get started.

So, Yesterday was our overnight trip to Jyozankei. But, our bus didn't leave until 3PM, so we had a bit of the day to fill up firts. After a tasty breakfast of Mr. Doughnuts, we headed out to Sapporo from Asabu to hit a Karaoke joint. We had been planning to go with a bunch of people a few nights ago but, as you'll remember, I was not feeling well, so those plans fell through. So, the two of us decided to go on our own.

Man, Karaoke is fun when you don't have to worry about other people listening to you. Karaoke in Japan, for those who don't know, is in individule rooms. So, the only people you sing with are the people you come with. Much less threatening. So, we sang all kinds of stuff for fun. Both American and Japanese. (I sing a wicked Sweet Child 'o Mine. Not so much on the anime songs, though.)

So, after two hours of Karaoke, we headed off to the Fabric store to buy Kimono Fabrioc for Melisaa, which we did. From there, it was back to the Arcade for DDR, Guitar Freaks, and some random Light Gun Game. I think I was shooting Vampires.

So, Guitar Freaks is like Guitar Hero in arcade form. There are only 3 fret buttons, though, and the songs were all Japanese. I didn't like it as much as my Guitar Game fo Choice, but it still had it's merrit. We'll probably be back there at least once before I go.

Alright, from the Arcade, we grabbed a snack from a different Mr. Doughnuts and headed to catch the bus. The initial sign of what was to come came from inside the bus itself. It was a charter bus, of course, but the damn thing had a small chandelire light fixture on the celing. Things got progressivly more "Ritzy" from there.

The bus trip took us about an hour and we used the time to finish something we started the other night. I am now proud to say that I now know Basic Hiragana, one of the 3 "Alphabets" in Japanese. Beth is a really good teacher and I was really surprised at how quickly I was picking it up. I'm now having all kinds of fun trying to read everything everywhere at this point.

Ok, so we got to Hanamomiji, the traditional Japanese hotel in Jyozankei that we were staying in and, man, was the lobby fancy. We quickly got checked in and were led up to our room. Holy. Crap. This was the nicest hotel room either of us have EVER STAYED IN. It was amazing. For those of you who know, remember the rooms in Love Hina? Yeah, kinda like that. (Before you even ask, yes, we got TONS of pictures. I assure you that these will get on the internet, but I might wait until I'm back home. Not sure when I'll have the time to get them up like I want them to.)

So, yeah, as we were busy being flabberghasted by the room, a little old Japanese lady in full Kimono came in and served us tea and this little, strawberry desert thing, which was really good. This was more foreshadowing for what dinner ended up being.

After we ate our little desert, Beth gave me my birthday / valentine's present. 2 boxes of Chocolate (Valintine's) and a really great, really warm, really comfy home-knitted scarf. It is so comfy. I was incredibly impressed.

Anywho, Jyozankei is home to a museum of Traditional Japanese Eroticism. You know how the Japanese have shrines to the Male Phalice and things like that? Yeah, this place was supposed to be a museum of all that kind of stuff. Fracking hilarious sounding. Both Beth and I really wanted to check it out so we could laugh our asses off. We weren't sure where it was, so Beth needed to ask the desk clerk. This was hilarious in and of itself. Beth told me the guys was all like, "Oh, you don't want to go there! It's incredibly dirty! And far away. It's not very popular. I think it's closed down now. No one ever goes there." We got the impression that he thought we didn't really know what we'd be getting into and that it might offend our Nieve Gaijin sensitivities. Beth, unfortunatly, didn't quite know how to tell him that these were all the reasons that we wanted to go and check it out, but, alas, he talked us out of it. He did tell us a few other things that we would want to go check out, so we headed outside for a walk around town.

Now, what I didn't actually realize going in is that Jyozankei is a Hot Spring town in the mountins. So, that wonderfully relaxing sulfer hot spring smell is everywhere. It's great. And, not only this, but there's a lot of open springs where, in the winter, even, you can go wading in, which we of course did. Jyozankei is a really nice little town. We got all kinds of great pictures of the surrounding area and we even found a little Shintoh Shrine! This was something I wanted to find on this trip but wasn't sure if I'd get a chance to. It was small and it was dark, but it was still really cool.

So, after a really good walk, we headed back to our room to await our dinner that would be brought to our room. Ok, here we go. "Dinner" is not the word to explan what this meal was. It's not massive enough. Now, Beth was thinking that, since this dinner was just included with the reservation, it was just be a little fish or something. No big deal, right? HA!

Ok, course 1. The little old Japanese lay brought in these HUGE trays of food. There was Sashimi (Just raw fish. Not the rolls or anything like that.), a mini grill on which to cook a small plate of Beef and Veggies, A Lobster Salad, Some more sushi-like plates, a small glass of Blueberry wine, and a BUCKET of Crab's Legs. This was more food than we'd ever seen. Those of you who know me know that I am somewhat pickey about weird foodstuffs. You'll all be glad to know that I tried pretty much everything that was served to me. As Beth and I stared down the feast that was in frount of us, the little Japanese Lady left us to eat saying that she'd be bak soon with the "Hot Food." More?

Course two was, indeed, the hot food. A basket of Tempura for the both of us, a Western-Style Seafood Pie thing (like a chicken pot pie), a fish soup, a different kind of fish soup, and a bowl of egg tofu. Oh, and a big thing of Rice (With more seafood in it. Sensing a theme?) for the both of us. Already pretty full from the first course, we weren't sure if we could handle all this new stuff. And, as the lady was leaving, she mentioned being back soon with more. Cry!

Course three. This one was small, but still. It was a bowl of Miso Soup and a smal fruity cake thing. (Desert, basically.) We could barely eat these things before we had to call down to the front desk to have them take away our dishes because we were finished. These words cannot fully describe the massiveness of this meal. You haveno idea. The pictures will help, but still. SO MUCH FOOD. Oh, and everyone may be interested to know that I tried ctopus Tenticle with the Suckers still on. It actually wasn't all that bad. A bit rubbery, but pretty good.

Ok, so that was dinner. There was one more thing on our itinerary for the evening. Beth had reserved time in one of the private Baths for the two of us. I won't go into this too much except to say that I have never in my life been so relaxed. I now know what it feels like to have all of your muscles melt. ^_^

We came back upstairs and, after some chocolate / strawberry birthday cake that Beth had gotten for me, went to bed feeling more contented and relaxed than either of us had in qute a while.

So, mornig came and we hit up the Breakfast Buffet that the hotel offered. Mostly traditional Japanese things, but some western food, too. Very yummy.

After breakfast, we had about an hour and a half before checkout, so we spent it watching Japanese Kids' TV which is, by far, the best thing EVER to watch. OH!!! OH!!!! You guys remember those Japanese Rude Golber Device TV things that we found on YouTube a while ago? I ACTUALLY GOT TO WATCH THEM ON JAPANESE TV!! What they are are just little fun things inbetween skits as part of a Sesame Street Style show on NKH, which is basically Japanese PBS. It was, by far, the best thing I've EVER SEEN on Television. ^_^

Anyway, we checked out at about 10 and got on a bus right back to Sapporo. Now, we're just chilling back in Beth's apartment. Beth's playing Tales of the Abyss and I'm typing this up. Before too long, we'll figure out what we want to do for the rest of the day, but after being so busy in the last 24 hours, it's nice to just hang out in front of Games and Internet. ^_^

Until Next Time!

Note - This post is semi-fuled by that wonderful Hot Rice Wine that I love so. You have been warned.

Sunday, February 11. 10:15PM. Sapporo, Japan. Beth's appartment.

What a day! So, where to begin. Well, I woke up at about, oh, 5:50 this morning after promptly passing out at about 8PM last night. Icky feeling mixed with general tierdness after the snow festival just did me in. So, I lied around awake for two hours waiting for Beth to get up.

The good news was that I was feeling 100% better. The bad news was that Beth was in slightly worse shape. She wasn't sick or anything, she just didn't sleep very well and was mentally exahusted. I felt pretty bad about this, actually. I felt like it was my fault, what with being sick and making best laid plans fall apart and all that.

But, today, I was feeling great. So, we had plans to go to the costal town of Otaru and be all turisty for the day, which I'd be damned if I was going to screw up, so they were on. First thing, we decided to go to Book Off and I would splurge a little bit. Yeah, a "Little Bit" turned into a little more than a little bit really quickly. ALl said and done, I came away witht eh FF4 soundtrack, the PaRappa the Rapper soundtrack, the Spirited Away soundtrack, a Japanese copy of FF7 (I am SUCH the fan boy), Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix Street Fighter 2 for Super Famicom (Japanese Super NIntendo), Super Metroid for Super Famicom, and fracking CHRONO TRIGGER for Super Famicom. In box, with the instructions and everything. Cost? 550 yen. 5 Bucks. Rock out. This thing would cost me about $100 back home. Book Off is Geek MECHA.

Alright, so we got back and I finally ate my first full meal of the trip. Kraft Mac and Cheese and some Instant Mashed Potatoes. Beth was still in a bad mood and I tried to cheer her up best I could and it seemed to work. Silly Sunday morning Anime seems to help with that a lot.

Ok, so at 12:30, we headed to the train station to meet up with Beth's friend, Aimee, to head for Sapporo. Amiee is a fellow teacher at Aeon with Beth. She's from Atlanta and has been in Sapporo teaching since 2005. So, she's an old pro around these parts. Really nice and lots of fun to hang out with.

We took the subway to Sapporo Station and then jumped on an actual train to Otaru. The trip was about half an hour and we got to see a lot of the area outside of Sapporo. Really Pretty. I saw both mountians AND ocean on one train ride. Oh, and it was snowing pretty hard, so it was BEAUTIFUL.

Otaru is a really turisty kind of place, known for Sushi, Music Boxes, and Glasswork. Tons of really cool shops to go into and, what would be the crowning event of the day, a Do-It-Yourself Glass Blowing place called "K's Blowing." (Any "Blowing" Jokes in the comments for this post will earn a fairly painful smack when I get home. Jamie, Kyle, and Betsy, I'm looking in your direction.)

So, I got off of the train and my stomachwas a little urpy and, so, the first of three "Firsts" for this day happened. I used a traditional Japanese toilet for the first time. Now, a tradtional Japanese toilet is basically a urinal, only set into the floor. No seat. Just...squatting. I'll let the mental image formulate for you.

...

Yeah, it was bad. Really kinda demeaning, actually. I have know idea how people can actually use those on a regular basis. Only redeeming thing in that bathroom was that the hand driers were, like, jet powered and really freaking awesome.

Ok, so we basically started wandering around the main drag of the city that had all the glass and music box shops and everything, stopping in places that perked our interest along the way. I got a TON of great pics of Otaru and they, with the ones from yesterday will be on the 'tubes as soon as I can manage.

First real stop was to make an appointment at K's Blowing. We were there at about 3 and needed to make an appointment for 5:30, so we had pleanty of time. So, yeah. Tons of Glass shops with some REALLY nice stuff in them. I got some good suviniers for people, too. So that's a couple of things to scratch off the list.

OH! OH! The japanese make the BEST CHOCOLATE EVER! I got a box that this one place and, holy crap, I died. I am dead. I am writting this from hell, because no human can taste anything that good without commiting some kind of mortal sin. But, yeah. I'm not going to break into the box I got until I get home so I can share. This should be shared. So good.

So, after a couple hours of wandering, we made it back to K's for our appointment. Now, what was hilarious about this is that everyone there knew Beth. She had taken her mom there about a month and a half ago when she was visiting and everyone remembered the tall, blonde gaijin who could speak fluent Japanese. Now, how is that possibly memorable to a Japanese person? ^_^

Anywho, the glass blowing was all kinds of fun. The guys helping you basically walk you through it and do all the fun stuff with the fire, but it was still a bunch of fun. The guys working with us were really nice and helped me with actually really good, if broken, English. I made a fairly decent drinking glass, if I do say so myself. It will be shown off to all when I get home, so no worries. (Oh, yeah. This is the second "First" of the day. Glass blowing. I'm counting it. Forgot to mention it above.)

After this, the girls needed to find some sushi, both being quite obsessed with the stuff. Now, at this point, we were getting pretty cold and it was becomming difficult to find a reasonably priced one. We walked into a book store and asked about some and they gave us an idea. So I looked around while Beth was being our Japanese guru and, with help from a clerk, found something I'd been looking for for the past couple of days. The last three volumes of the Yotsuba Manga that ADV doesn't seem fit to release Stateside. Sure, I can't read it, but that's not the point, dammit! Damn the man!

We decided that it was time to head back to Sapporo and get sushi there. So, we started making our way back to the train station. On the way, we came across this candle lit snow sculpture path that we had to walk through. It was really pretty and I managed to snap a lot of great pics of that, too, so it'll be shared.

We made our way back to Sapporo eventually only to find that the sushi place had a 2 hour wait. So, we wandered around and decided on an Udan Noodle place down the way. So, here is my last "First" of the day: my first actual Japanese meal. Udon Noodles with Shrip Tempura. And sake, Sake, SAKE!!!! WOO! It was really super tasty, so I think it's safe to say that my fear of Japanese food is gone, at least for now. There's still time to be weirded out. ^_^

So, now we're back home, safe and sound after a super long, but entirely fun, day. Beth's drawing and when I'm wrapped up here, she's going to continue to teach me Hiragana, which I figured was entirley practical at this point and time. So, off to that now. Tomorrow, we go to Josanke, where we'll be spending the night at that super nice hotel. Woo! That'll be awesome, too.

Until later!

Note - Yeah, I got nothing. Just thought I should be consistant.

Saturday, February 10th. 6:59PM. Sapporo, Japan. Beth's Apartment.

So, yeah. When we last left our intrepid hero (me), I was just about to venture out and around on my own while Beth was at work. This actually didn't turn out as well as I thought that it would. I had all kinds of plans of going to Book Off and all that, but they pretty much fell through when I totally face planted in the middle of the street. I didn't get hurt or anything beyond a bruised ego, but, you see, they don't salt the roads or sidewalks here. So every walking surface is basically a foot thick slab of ice. (or more. Beth tells me it's about 2 and a half around Odori Park.) I thought I was doing alright, but I just lost it and fell face first onto the sidewalk. This lessened my resolve. I ended up just walking a couple of blocks down the main drag here outside of Beth's apartment and then coming home.

By the time I got back, I was really tired, so I decided to lay down and take a quick nap. this quick nap was inturrupted an hour later when Beth got back for her break. I had totally crashed and by the time she got back, I was kinda not feeling well. It's very cold in her apartment and I had kinda gotten a bad case of the shivers. She stayed for about half an hour before needing to go back to work, and I subsequently fell back asleep for the remaining 2 hours.

When Beth got back, I was still in a not so good place, but she was starving and I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast, so we went to a place called Kushidori which serves a whole bunch of different things on a stick. Now, I was really not hungry to the point that even smelling food was making me feel a little ill. I tried to eat a little bit, but it really wasn't working too well. We headed back home with Beth worried about my health, for which I can't blame her. I'd felt better. When we got home and crashed, though, I started feeling better. Enough to get enough sleep, at least.

This morning when I woke up, it wasn't much better. A bit of a headache and still an upset stomach, I really didn't want to eat anything. Basically, I spent the first half of the day just lying around trying to feel better. We had had plans to go out for Burgers and Karaoke with Beth's co-workers this evening, but I just wasn't feeling up to it so Beth Re-scheduled. I felt incredibly bad about this, but yeah, for some reason, I just wasn't feeling good at all.

By mid afternoon, we were thinking that some fresh air might actually do me good, so we decided that we would get out and check out the Snow Festival in Downtown Sapporo. It turns out that this seems to be exactly what I needed. So, I'm not sure if it was culture shock, or nerves, or left over jet-lag, or what. But, once we got downtown, I felt rejuvinated. So, this proves one thing to me: Do what Beth tells me. She seems to know what's right. ^_^

So, the Snow Festival was AWESOME! THese snow sculpture were amazing. I got all kinds of pictures, too. So, whenever I'm able to get them on some sort of interweb site, they will be there. Seriously, it was great. I even finally got myself able to eat something again. Big slabs of meat on a stick. It was pretty good. I was at a festival and I needed to eat me some festival food.

Well, after an hour and a half of walking the Festival, our hands were completely frozen. Oh, my god, so cold. So, we made it into one of Sapporo's many underground shopping malls for warmth. WE wandered around for a while and then, when we were ready to brave the elements again, we went to Tanuki Koujo, which is a covered Outdoor Shopping area where we hit an Arcade. Beth got some good Dance Dance Revolution time in, which was very fun to watch. Girls who are good at DDR are hot. That's just the way it is. I got to play that Half-Life 2 Arcade Machine that I've seen on the interweb not too long ago. I thought that it would control really weird, and it did, but it was all kinds of fun. Only got to play one level of it, though, before it cut me off. So, we were both really tired and decided to come home and call it a day.

We stopped at the grocery store on the way home and got some more food, some of which is cooking right now. Tomorrow, we're going up to Otaru, a small city known for glass making and music boxes, with Beth's friend and co-worker, Aimee. Should be tons of fun, especially now that I'm feeling up to it.

Ok, time for some eating and watching Beth play video games. ^_^

Current Location: Sapporo, Japan
Current Mood: Better than I was...

Note - This is the first one just written as I'm typing. Thought you'd like to know.

Friday, February 9th. 3:04PM. Sapporo, Japan. Beth's Apartment.

Well, I just spent about half an hour typing up those last two posts and my back is starting to hurt. FOr those of you who don't know, it seems that the Japanese, while developing amazing strides in electronics, video games, and vending machines, somehow skipped over the part in a culture's development where they creat chairs. So, I've been either sitting or lying on the floor while typing. I only just now have found a setup that seems to be providing relief. So, I should have another post in me.

Ok, so it seems I spoke too soon when writting up that entry at Haneda. The truth is that the worst was yet to come. That flight from Tokyo to Sapporo was absolute Hell. You see, I am a big guy in a country full fo small, Chris Scherrer-sized people. (Sorry, Chris. Couldn't help myself. :P ) So, the airplane seats seem to fit this. I was SO cramped in there. It was horrible. My legs couldn't move at all. Couple this with that fact that I had been awake for basically 21 hours straight at that point, and I was one unhappy camper. An hour an a half flight has never gone so slowly. The claustrophoba was actually making me physically ill. I was shakeing as I got off of the plane. This mixed with a little bit of nervousness about seeing Beth again had be in a poor state. (It's been 6 and a half months since we've seen eachother, so I was a little nervous.)

I found a bench at the baggaige claim and tried to regain my composure while waiting for my suitcases. As the bags started coming out, I got up to walk over to the turnstyle and I see Beth outside of the blocked off baggaige claim, waving enthusiastically. Suddenly, all the claustrophobil, all the upset stomach, all the tirdness melted away. I was here and there was Beth. Things couldn't be better.

I got my bags and walked right to Beth who proceeded to throw her arms around me. Life was suddenly incredibly good.

We had to kind of hoof it to get to the last bus that was leaving New Chitose Airport that would get us to Asabu, which is the area of Sapporo where Beth lives and works. It's pretty far out, actually. Asabu is the last stop on pretty much every public transportation like in the City. So, the bus ride took about another hour. But, by 11:30, we were back at Beth's apartment where we just kidna crashed. These futons are surprisingly comfortable for basically being small mats on the floor. lots of blankets and pillows.

Before totally crashing, Beth informed me of what we're going to be doing to belatedly celabrate my birthday. We'll be going on an overnight trip to another city near Sapporo and staying in this incredibly nice hotel. I'd tell you the name of the city, but I can't. The brochure for the hotel is right here next to me, but I can't read Kanji, Katakana, or Hiragana, so I'll have to ask Beth, who is currently at work. But seriously, I don't know if I derserve something that nice. We're going to be in a very traditional Japanese room and the whole thing just looks amazing. We'll be doing that on Monday and Tuesday, so I have that to look forward to here in a couple of days.

Anyway, we crashed and Jetlag did kinda prevent me from sleeping too much. But, now, in the middle of the afternoon, I feel pretty aclimatized. We'll see what happens when it's time to go to sleep, but I think I'm good. It feels likeit should be afternoon and not the middle of the night, at least.

We got up at about 8 this morning and Beth made me breakfast. Ceral and Egg - Toast Sandwiches. Very tastey. We flipped around TV a little and were generally lazy when we decided that it was probably a good time to get up and get ourselves going for the day.

So, Some of you have seen pictures of Beth's apartment. Now, remember when I said that I was too big for Japan? Yeah, it's really true. Now, I can JUST BARELY sit on the toilet in that tiny closet of a bathroom. Not the most comfortable of rooms. And, the shower is... an interesting experience. Bonnie (Beth's mom, for anyone who doesn't know.) warned me that the shower would be...difficult, and she was right. Not tall enough for a normal sized person by any means and there's only so much hot water that can be used at a time. So, the process is:

1) Get wet.

2) Turn off Shower

3) Soap

4) Rinse

5) Turn off Shower

6) Shampoo

7) Rinse

8) Turn off Shower

It is REALLY COLD in that BATH-room, too. (Shower / Bath tub is in a seperate room from the toilet.) That's Sapporo in February for you. In all actuality, it wasn't so bad, but I have a bad feeling that my back will not like me all that much by the end of this trip. Ah, the things we do for love! ^_^

OK, after we were all clean, we needed to go to the bank and do some money-ing. See, banks are closed on Weekends here. And, they're closed on Monday cuz it's a holiday. And they're closed on Tuesday, too, for a reason I can't fully remember right now. So, if I was going to have any more money for the weekend and our excursion on Monday, I needed to cash in some Traveler's Checks for Yens. We also took the oppertunity to walk around the area and give me a little lay of the land.

The bank was pretty neat, as has every interaction with actual Japanese Society I've had so far. Now, this is probably just cuz I'm a dumb Gaijin who thinks everything Japanese is cool, but still. I'm on vacation here. No reason not to really enjoy being immersed in another culture.

Once banking was complete, we wandered around the neighborhood a little bit. There's a 7-11, which are aparently REALLY common over here, right accross the street from Beth's apartment. There's also a KFC right down the block which I plan on hitting up at least once before I leave. Oh, and the Mickey D's across the street, too. ^_^

Oh, OH! I entered geek heaven today. A block or so down is a store called "Book Off". This is the Used Manga / CD / DVD / Video Game store. Ok, imagine the biggest Manga section of, say, a Barnes and Noble back in the states. Now multiply that by 100. Yeah, Book Off's selection is even bigger than THAT. It's CRAZY. American Anime fans should be making holy pilgramages to this place. So great. I'll spend some time wandering there quite a bit. I wanna try and find volumes 4 and 5 of Yotsuba, seeing as ADV doesn't seem to want to release them back home. Sure, I won't be able to read them, but that's not the point.

So, then, Beth wanted to get some lunch for at work today so we went to Hokuo, which is a "Scandinavian", I guess, bakery. Really tastey looking things. I got a few things that I'm gonna eat later this evening when I get hungry. I got a tastey looking doughnut, what appears to be an apple turnover, and some Cheese and Pork Sausage bread looking thing that looks pretty good, actually. They also had some other stuff that I was more hesitant to try. A Shrimp Burger thing that, while tasty looking, I'm not sure about yet. Oh, and a hotdog Doughnut. Yep. HotDog on a stick with a big slab of fried dough around it. Not like a corn dog. This thing is a hotdog stuffed into a doughnut. On a stick. I had 2 heart atacks just looking at it.

We got back and watched an episode and a half of Battle Star Galactica, which I got Beth for Xmas, before she had to go to work. Now, I'm here writing this. But, that's all I got for now. I think I'm gonna head out and finally start taking some pictures of the area now. They'll be things some people have seen before, I know, but I need to document the trip. Also think I'm gonna hit Book Off again and maybe pick up that copy of FF7 that I saw earlier. (RAWK!)

Ok! Until I update again!

Current Location: Sapporo, Japan
Current Mood: Relaxed, Euphotic, and Spiffy

Note - This entry was also originally hand written. Now it's digital. Woo.

Thursday, February 8th. 7:13PM Haneda Airport, Gate 64.

That was actually the opposet of difficult. Here, I thought I would be totally freaking out and lost and out of time, and here I am, and hour and 15 minutes before my flight leaves, sitting at the gate watching Japanese "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" on a giant flat-panel Plasma Screen. Much more Relaxing than I ever thought it would be.

Ok, so that 12 hour flight was pain. By the end of it, I was tired, in pain, and TOTALLY freaked out. But, I was in Japan. Getting off of that plane was, by far, the coolest thing I've ever done. You know, for the only major international airport in the largest city of the country, Narita was sure devoid of any actual people. It was so weird. I walked along with the rest of the people on the flight for a ways, and then the hallway branched off to International Connections and...everything else. So, while everyone else headed off to yet another country, I wandered down to a completely empty baggaige claim and customs. Both my bags were already on the turnstyle when I got there, so I nabbed them and basically walked right through customs.

Have I mentioned yet that Japanese people have to be the nicest people I've ever met? Everyone's so polite! Now, that shouldn't come as a surprise to me, but still! When you experience something first hand, it's way different from reading it in a manga or seeing it in an anime. (Duh, I know.)

Anywho, I walked out of the customs area into the main terminal and, just as Beth said, there was the "Friendly Airport Limosine" booth. 3000 yen got me an express ticket to Haneda Airport. (Thanks, Du!) The "Limo" was actually a very comfortable Caoch Bus.

Best thing ever so far: On the bus, a speaker played standard Saftey instructions in Japanese and then in English. The last instruction was " The use of portible phones is prohibbited on the bus because it may annoy your neighbors." I got a kick out of that. ^_^

The trip took just under an hour. The check-in process at Haneda was quick and easy. The security check reminded me of how nice Pre - 9/11 air travel was in the States. Everyone continues to be very nice.

Alright. Moonspeak Millionaire proves to be too distractiong for me to continue writing. Plane will probably board in 20 minutes or so. Then, I'll be on my way to seeing the one person I'm looking forward to seeing the most. ^_^

... Not that I'm in this country to see anyone else, but still. You know what I mean.

Current Location: Haneda Airport - Tokyo, Japan
Current Mood: Finally Relaxed

Note: I started this log on paper but have decided to post it online for sharing purposes. Enjoy!

February 7th or 8th. 6:50PM (USA) 9:50AM (JPN)

I am currently 4 hrs...more like 4 and a half hrs into my urber flight from Minneapolis to Tokyo. Would be further in, but we sat at the gate for an hour before we could even taxi away. Seems that they were having issues with the aircraft's tempurature control systems. Granted, this is a good system to have and I'm glad they fixed it, but you'd think it would be the kind of thing they'd figure out BEFORE BOARDING!!!

So, because of this, we'll touch down in Tokyo with only 3 hours instead of 4 for me to get to get from Narita to Haneda to catch my flight to Sapporo. Probably will not be a big deal, but I'm nervous enough as it is about this layover without the added delay. But, now that we're in the air, I'm much more relaxed.

Man, did I call it when I nabbed a seat in the Handicapped row. There is NO ONE next to me. So, for this entire 12 hr flight, I have an entire row to myself. Leg room? Not a problem. Won't be this way on the way home, but I'll deal. It's over a week away.

I just peeked out the window and, so help me, we were flying over MOUNTIANS! So Cool! Not 100% sure where we are right now. About an hour ago, a map came up on the big screens in the cabin showing that we were somewhere over Caneda. I'm sure that's still the case.

Oh, speaking of this cabin, it's the biggest freaking plane I've EVER BEEN ON! It's Huge! I can stand upright! Craziness.

Already had dinner a while ago. Some beef thing with rice. Wasn't too bad, but it was airplane food. Meh.

Now, I'm not sure if I'm going to be filling it out, but I have this foreigner registration card thing that needs to be done. I thought I heard the flight attendant who gave it to me say that I needed it if I was going to be staying longer than a week, which I am. There are a few feilds I'm not sure how to fill out. And why does the Japanese Government need to know my occupation?

Anywho, been mostly playing FF6. Man, am I glad I picked it up. It's been a life saver so far. Thinking about taking a snooze, but it appears that they're passing ot more foodstuffs, so I think I'll partake of that first.

Current Location: Not Sure...
Current Mood: Flying