Happy Birthday Walt !!!
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Oh my god, it's my last night here... I'm actually just about ready to go home. I've seen a lot, and taken a million pictures (well actually around 175, but that's still a lot). I hope to have a more detailed account of my trip online in a week or so, keep your eyes peeled. That's all for now, see you all soon.
Hello all... sorry no updates in a few days...I've been busy, and it's been hard to find an Internet cafe. I'm now back in Tokyo, yippy. Only two more full days. I don:t have much planned, but since I still have one more day on my rail pass I might take a day trip tomorrow... So continuing from where I left off. After I typed that last update I went back to the place I was staying and changed rooms, I was staying with this guy George, who snored like a boar, but I changed to a single, cause he left today. After that I went to a sake bar. So cool, It was a small place with only 6 stools, and I tried about 8 kinds of Sake and had some great conversation with the owner from Isrial, and another guy from Germany. I then stagger for an hour on the walk home.
Friday, 11/23/01 - Off to Hiroshima. Met this lovely girl, Stacey on the bus ride, she's a stunt-woman at Univeral Studios (the enemy). When arriving in Hiroshima I checked into a fairly nice Ryokan, and then ...
Howdy folks... Have I told you how fun Japanese keyboards are; When you first start using them they are exactly the same, but if you slip while pressing space you switch it to the Japanese character set, if you do that then the next time you look up all you have is a page of scrible... Just thought I'd share that. Plus there are a few keys that are in the wrong place. But anyway.
On Monday I went to Nikko, a town about two hours from Tokyo, that has a lot of great shrines. I met a lady in the train station, and ending up walking around with her. The best theing was as we approached the main area with the shrines we were stoped by a guy offering has guiding services. His name, Tada, and like magic we had the key to learning about these cool places. We even saw the carving that was the orign of the Hear No / See No / Speak No Evil Monkeys.
On Tuesday I checked out of the New Koyo Hotel and left to come to Kyoto, where I sit now.
Wednesday, got a tour guide and saw the s...
Oh the pictures you will see. I can't wait to get some of the pictures I took today online. Today I took it easy and just wandered around Tokyo, but I went to two of the coolest places yet for people watching. First was the Meji Shrine, this is the largest shrine in Tokyo, and is featured in a lot of postcards and other Japanese paraphinilia. I picked a good day to go, because Sundays in November are when families bring their children in full traditional garb to the shrine for blessing and photos. So I took a bunch of photos of and with traditionally dressed people. Next was the even more interesting area of Harajuku. Harajuku is small area at the base of a train station where all the teens and odd folk come to show off and where strange outfits. It:s really hard to describe, basicly take all the freaks of grenich village and have them congregate in one are to show off. It was so cool, there were a bunch of westeners there just taking photos and laughing (to themselves). ...
It's now Sunday, I haven't updated this in a few days because I've been really busy. I have done so much walking it's rediculous. That being said I have seen a lot of great stuff. I went to Tsukiji fish market (like Fultan, but bigger), a cool fountain gargden, Yokohama (second largest city in Japan), Cirque du Solie, Tallest building in Japan, (with fastest elevators in the world), Tokyo Disney Sea (so kicks ass, most amazing Disney Park), Mt. Fuji, a trained monkey show (damn funny), dinner with a crazy Japanese guy, a whole bunch more shrines.... Today I go to Shinjuku. It's an area within Tokyo that is a lot like Times square, but much bigger. Don't worry, I've been writing a lot more in my journal, and I'll write that stuff down when I have more time, and a cheaper internet connection. Bye for now.
Well I've done it, my first full day in Japan. Today was mostly about getting a feel for the place. A lot of walking around, some parks, two of the big museums, Imperial palace (from a distance), Sony building (played with a few cool toys). I've also made a whole bunch of kinda interesting oberservations, but you'll get more of that later. Tomorrow... Cirque du Solie.
Ladies and Gentlemen... I am now in Japan... Yes folks, you read that right, not only am I updating this website for the first time in 6 months, but I'm doing it from Japan no less. Today, well actually yesterday if you count the flight time, I began my latest effort to see this big wonderful world of ours. I write this from an increbibly seedy little hotel on the outscrits of Tokyo. That's all for now, I'm not sure what I'm going to be charged for this Internet time, and I'm still getting used to this whole Yen thing. More later.
Well my trip is now officially over. I flew back last night and arrived at JFK at 9pm. The last couple of days in London were pretty non-eventful. I checked into a hostel that that was really boring (not anything like the flying pig, but what is) and spent two very leisurly days enjoying more of London. I even got to see two movies, Almost Famous and Quills, both of which were excellent. I also went to St. Pauls cathedral, Kennsington Palace, Hyde park, Notting Hill, Harrods, and a few other things.
Today took it easy. Went to the anne frank house / museum. It was very interesting, I think I would have taken more out of it if I had read the book. Maybe I'll do that, nah, i'll just rent the video. I then walked around the canals for a little while. Next up, the torture musuem, damn this city has too many weird museums. It was cool, they had all sorts off creepy midevil torture devices. It's truely amazing that the more humane devices were used by the courts, and the wicked ones were used by the church, go figure. Then I went to Madam (what's her name)'s wax museum. I went out to dinner at some italian place, it was pretty bad, the soup tasted like it was from a can and the spagetti sauce had that salty chef-boy-r-dee smell. At some point I went to McDonalds here, it's freaky, they give you this special dipping sauce for the fries, kinda like mayo buy yello in color and it has this green spicy stuff in it.
Allright folks, time for another update. First off, I'd like to say that I love Internet cafes, particularly 'easy everything' they are cheap, everywhere, and are open all night. Secondly, please note that I don't proof read anything, so ignore spelling, grammer, missing words, and other things that might prevent me from getting the pulitzer. Thank you. For those of you that got my e-mail you also probably got Brian's, as he did a 'reply all', i'm not quite sure if he meant to do that. But anyway, he was the first to respond to the question about the accordian, his answer concertina , anyone know if he's right? Anyway thanks Bri. Oh yeah, I've edited slightly the last two posts to fill in a few gaps, you might want to re-read them. I think after this whole trip is over I might compile my adventure into a little short story or something a little better then the current rants you are getting. I think next time I do something like this I might br...
Well... I is now in Amsterdam! The ride here was great. I took a high speed train, it was so nice, I had to check to make sure I wasn't in first class by mistake. The seats were large and comfortable, there was huge dining car with great food, and it was so quiet and smooth, this ain't no LIRR that's for sure. So now I'm in the world capital of interesting activities. I was able to tell as soon I came into the train station, that sweet smell you only find at rock concerts and friend's houses ;-) I found my hostel very quick, it's called the flying pig (you can go to their website www.flyingpig.nl) and they have a "happy room" as soon as you walk in. I walked around for a little while and went to the to quinticential Amsterdam museums 'the sex museum' and 'the marijuna and hash museum'. It was rather neat to see a growing room in person, particularly a legal one. I got yelled at for taking a picture it was quite funny. I also to...
Allow me to go off on a few little things... Does anyone know what a small 6 sided accordian is called? See above Brian has answered. You think drunken rants are funny when your walking along the street, just wait till you here one in German. Europeans are a little strange when it comes to thier dogs. They take them on the subway and into McDonalds and noone ever has a problem. Porn is way to accepted over here. McDonalds in Paris: known only as "McDo" (Homer Simpson would be proud), no special orders. I don't like that floor numbers over here start with zero. Zero is such a terminal number, and when I agreed to stay on the fourth floor I was saying yes to extra stairs I hadn't planned on, and that sucks. On the way back to the hostle I heard a street musician playing a song that I immediately started to sing along with, what was odd is that it was a Scorpians song. I thought that was strange then I realized I was in Germany, duhhh Dan. They dirve this thing calle...
Tuesday (2/6/01) - No Bonn today. Instead I wandered down to the water front and found out that they don't run the ferry to Bonn during the winter. So I kept walking upstream and went to the chocolate muesuem. Straight out of Willy Wonka, it was a paradise for Shanna. First you walk throught a little history part, and see how the cocoa plant is harvested, then the best part the mini factory. You get to watch the chocolate being made right before your eyes. They even have a fountain (don't worry i took a picture) of chocolate that you get to taste from. Then it was off to wander a bit more. It's very strange what instruments people play here to get money on the streets. Much more then your typicaly out of tune guitar in the NYC subway, so far on this trip I've heard, accordian, violin, pan flute, musical glasses (that was today, just like the ones i advertised in the comercial), african drums, i must say i like the variety. I then decided to go back to the Dom an...
Monday (2/5/01) - WooHoo, I'm in Germany, this morning I took a train from Brussels into Colonge (or Koln as it's written most places). I immediately set out to find a place to lie my head for the night and found a nice Hostle really close to the train station, complete with internet access. Oh yeah, the german military, of some sort, came on the train after we crossed the into the country and said in a loud authoritative voice "Passports" it wa straight out of a movie and so cool. So after getting settled and figuring out what to do with the strange assortment of sheets that came with my bed I set out to explor. The first place I went was to the Bon cathedral. Wow, diffenitly one of the most impresive pieces of gothic architecture I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot on the trip, the story says that it was bombed 6 times during the war but survived. It has some really neat religious artifacts, I was impressed even though I'm not into that. Then I pro...
Saturday (2/3/01) - Off to Brussels I go, wander around in rain, decide on hotel, meet girl with same tour book and decide to join their group for the evening, peeing boy, nice dinner, got dragged into club where we are only ones there, offers to let me make drink (LI iced tea), Brussels is an awesome city, neat nightlife, great little side streets, but it's freaky with two languages everywhere. Sunday - Solo again, Muesum, wandering, try again to get money thing figured out, spent over an hour trying to fax the forms to my mom to have her relay them to amex. we finally got it to work by sending it to a store down the street. Then it was off to wander some more, at some point I managed to get some belgian chocolate and a waffle, i think it's law to have those things while here. Please note: european keyboards are evil. you have to hit shift to type a period, the a and the q are reversed, and all there are other weird things.
Dan's Trip to Europe. (in loose form for starters)
Friday (1/25/01) - Arrive, find Buckingham Palace by accident, Find a Hostel to stay at, tired didn't sleep on flight, see Lion King.
Saturday - London without a net, National Muesum, Tower of London, Milenium Walk, Globe Theater, Fire drill at night.
Sunday - Bristish Muesum, Cirque du Solei, Eurostar to Paris
Monday - Did Disneyland Paris with Gidgit and Geraldines relatives, went to nice dinner and western bar, line danced for first time.
Tuesday - Paris with Gidgit, Eifel Tower, Wandering, Crepe, Notre Dam, Ice Skated for first time, rainforest cafe for dinner.
Wednesday - Disneyland solo.
Thursday - Bus driver attacks guy, Rail Strike, Disney Resorts, Paris, Louve, Arch, Taxi
Friday - Today, Slept in, laundry, off to Paris, internet, Eifel tower, wander qround at night, meet cool guy from NYC at modern art thing, try to fix money problem by faxxing things to american express from the disneyland hote...