December 15th, 2004 15:55 hours Tokyo Time
Currently listening to: the hum of airplane workings and passenger noise.
Feeling: like I've left my heart in Saitama City.

I didn't write this journal on the plane like I did last time. It's being written piece by piece when I have time at work. Instead of rapidly scribbling my thoughts down in a notebook I spent the flight home wrapped in a warmth of memories. This trip was incredible. I feel almost stupidly happy when I'm around Yuka. Even when I'm not around her I find myself suddenly laughing about something she said or did. Or I'm just laughing because I feel good because of her.

My flight to Tokyo was uneventful. We were taxiing at O'Hare for nearly 45 minutes. I thought we were going to DRIVE the plane to Japan. We made up our time by flying over the north pole. I had never seen glaciers before. It was really beautiful. The man named Don who sat in the aisle seat (we lucked out and had an empty middle seat) had 10 more hours of travel ahead of him as he was going to stay in Bangkok for the winter.

The movies were terrible again. "The Notebook" and "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy" were my two choices. I missed the luxury of an American Airlines flight where I had my own little TV screen and could watch a movie whenever it came on. Instead of feeling like "this is my only chance. better not fall asleep." Although, it's been proven time and again that I can't sleep on a plane for more than about 15 minutes.

It was already dark when I arrived. As cliché as it is, seeing Yuka felt like a breath of fresh air and suddenly I wasn't tired or stiff or warn out from 13 hours of being stuck in a metal tube without sleep. However, when we got back to her place, the moment I laid down on the bed my body wanted to give in to sleep. She cooked a wonderful dinner and then I was allowed to pass out. ;) sort of.

She had to work on Friday, so I met her for lunch at Meguro. I was pretty proud of myself as I switched trains twice to get there and made it right on time. Awesome. We picked up some Japanese lunch boxes and walked to a gorgeous little park near the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum. We ate in the sun and watched the GIGANTIC crows (hello, Resident Evil!) hop about on the tables. After she went back to work, I walked around this really cool koi pond and took my time when leaving the park. I walked around Shibuya for a while and then met Yuka back at Meguro.

More park pics: ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^

We took a train all the way out to the bay and went to the Disney Sea section of Tokyo Disney. We were going to watch the big x-mas lights display, but decided to grab food since all the people were waiting for the lights. The display was pretty damn cheesy and we laughed a lot, realizing that even though the food wasn't that good, we made the right decision. We went on the "20,000 Leagues under The Sea" ride and I had flash backs to when I was a kid. Disney knows how to make lightning look really freaking cool. It was strange to hear the narration in Japanese. I can't recall what the original dialog was, so it didn't really matter. We then went to the "Indiana Jones Adventure" and that was a BLAST. Again, strange to see a caricature of Indy that speaks Japanese, but whatever. ;p I think we were the only ones on the ride who were screaming or laughing. Hahahah. I think they fit 16 people in the cars and we were in the front on the right. Such a good time. I had the hardest time staying awake on the long train ride home. I wasn't used to the time change yet.

We had a nice lazy start to Saturday. It was a bit rainy, so we took the electric umbrella that I sent her for her birthday. We went to Ueno and checked out this 7 store story toy store. Now since I put that in italics, you would think I would remember the name of it, right? WRONG. I've noticed that Japan still has a wonderful obsession with the Nightmare Before Christmas. Way cool. Jeff and Kim need to visit Japan if only for this one reason. We ate lunch at some underground restaurant that had stairs which could kill anyone not fully sober. After this, we traveled to the Akibahara district and I was blown away by all of the lights. We were wearing out, so we stopped in a coffee shop rather similar to Starbucks, except that this place sold beer. Awesome. We visited Aso Bit City and also Sofmap. Didn't buy anything, though. Oh if only had a had a region free DVD player.

We met up with Taka and Yukari from Hartfield in Shibuya and went to this fantastic sushi restaurant. They had tons more than sushi and I swear to god we ordered the entire freaking menu. This was basically my THIRD Thanksgiving meal this month. No wonder I feel fat. Doesn't matter how much walking I did during the day (and I did a lot), I ate like a lumberjack during this trip. The food just kept coming. Yukari is just starting to learn English and it was the most adorable thing ever when she said the word "present" to me and gave me a bag filled with two different kinds of chips. Sweet potato and Goya. YUM. Taka commented on my expert use with chopsticks. Yuka's friend Aya showed up and we ordered MORE food. There was this sort of soup that had pieces of meat in it that I tried and Yuka and Taka gave me a wide eyed look when I kept eating it. I asked what it was and Taka sort of mimed a heart beating and also being stabbed in the stomach and then he said "oh! guts." So I was apparently eating intestines and stomach pieces. Woot. We all said our goodbyes in the rain outside of Shibuya station and then went home to pass out.

Sunday we took a day trip down to Yokohama. This was the most beautiful day. 66 degrees and a clear sky. We kept laughing and commenting about how beautiful everything was. We walked to a shopping mall and placed a takeout order for Mexican food. Japanese style Mexican food is basically taco ingredients on top of rice. We walked a long way over to the main port of the bay. The woodwork on this thing was amazing. There were grassy areas as well and we sat down to eat lunch. The wind was incredible. This whole day felt like a spring day in Chicago. Kids were rolling down the grass hills and running everywhere. Lots of couples walking around. We could even see Mt. Fuji. We walked and walked. I finally had my first experience with a Japanese public bathroom. I have to say, as freaky as it was, once you use it you realize how sanitary it actually is. Moving on, we walked past a very cool stair case up to a garden. There was a local brass band/drum corps practicing at the base of it, which is the shape of a giant fish mouth. We walked through Chinatown and ate mango pudding. It was a perfect day.

More Yokohama pics: ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^

I finally got to see the Tokyo office for my company. It's pretty small. Hiro, my counterpart there, hardly even has a desk. hahahah. He lived in the US for 15 years and is English was great. He took me to a western pub for lunch. Had a club sandwich. They pretty much nailed it. I met Yuka for her lunch break and we went to the park again. This time we both walked around the koi pond together. I started the afternoon in Shinjuku and found a guitar shop that had some absolutely gorgeous Fenders and Rickenbackers. Why do the Japanese all get the cooler colors??? I left Shinjuku and took the train to Shibuya. Bought a really great scarf and a few x-mas gift items. That's one thing that got my attention. The use the phrase "X'Mas" all over the place but then pronounce it "Christmas". Kind of cool. I just say x-mas since to me it's not a religious holiday.

I met Yuka at Meguro when she got off work and we went to Roppongi Hills to view the city from a skyscraper. The view was incredible. I didn't have my flash on, which is why the pictures are so blurry. We went to an Italian restaurant and I ordered pesto linguini for her and lasagna for myself. It was sooooo good. The waiter was on the ball and kept refilling my water glass. I realized that I was chugging them because I was so dehydrated. Japanese don't drink a lot of liquid when they eat, so this was a nice change of pace.

I slept in most of Tuesday morning. The met Yuka for lunch again. This time, a new place that was awesome as always. I get easily addicted to Japanese food. I think at this point I was feeling really exhausted, so I went back to Yono and crashed the rest of the afternoon with Chobi and read more of my book. We went to the shopping center north of her place and had dinner at a great Ramen place. Japanese food rules! We watched "The Incredibles" in English with Japanese subtitles. Not many people in the theater so we kept our laughter to a low volume, so we wouldn't look retarded.

Since it takes about an hour and a half to get down to Meguro, I didn't meet Yuka for lunch on Wednesday. I had to meet her at 6 with our bag so we could hustle to Tokyo station to get on the bullet train to Kyoto. So I walked around Saitama for a while and then went up to the shopping center north of her place. I had a rather tense moment when I used my credit card at one place and they tried to explain to me that it wasn't go through. Luckily they tried it again and all was well. I had lunch at the same ramen place and read my book.

For some reason, one of the trains I was on stopped at Shinjuku before it got to Shibuya and started going the other direction. I was a little worried, so I got off at the next stop. At the same time, Yuka's spare cell phone ran out of minutes, so I couldn't text message or call her. Luckily the Yomanote line was right there, so I made it to Meguro right on time. The bullet train was rather cool. The lights were on in the cabin and it was so dark outside that it kind of felt like we were on a plane. The train moves so fast that when we went through a tunnel or past another train, your ears would pop. We took a cab to our hotel and then walked to a neat little restaurant in the red light district.

Kyoto is utterly beautiful It's a very nice change from the busy, cramped Tokyo life. The shrines and temples are everywhere. I mean, you trip over them, there are so many. We did a bad job of planning for this trip, as we didn't have Brian's phone number. We stopped at an Internet Cafe and looked up the hotel where Chris was staying and left a message. We got a little lost when we left the hotel and found ourselves in front of the imperial palace grounds. Next time I'm there I want to walk through this. It's too bad we didn't have an extra day in Kyoto. We walked to Sanju-Sangen-Do, which is the temple that houses 1,001 Kannon statues, that most people just call the 1,001 golden Buddhas. We walked in our socks and it was an incredible site. The chill in the air and the musty smell had a very haunting quality. It was beautiful. We were not allowed to photograph anything inside this shrine, but we took several pictures of the exteriors in the courtyard. There were lots of students there, including a group of young high school girls being photographed by their sensei. They saw us kissing at one point and all went "ehhhhhhhh!?!?!?!" and giggled a lot.

We wandered around to several other shrines and temples. Kyoto seems to have a rather unhealthy obsession with the color orange :P. I think I would have preferred red or another shade of orange but at first glance it seems like the temples are getting ready to go dear hunting. Forgive me if this disgustingly disrespectful. I'm trying to be funny. Seeing this much orange on these majestic buildings was just a little weird to me. Yes, I'm fully aware that orange is the Shinto color. It's a joke, people. Yasaka shrine had a huge pond full of ducks, obviously. Not sure why I took so many duck pictures, but there you go. Cats! These two were on patrol for food. I think my head was going to twist off because I kept looking at everything. Holding hands has a dual purpose. 1) It's romantic. 2) It keeps me from walking out into traffic because I'm staring at some amazing piece of architecture. ;p

Pictures of Yasaka Shrine, Heianjingu temple and surrounding areas: ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^

We finally heard from Chris and got Brian's phone number. Cool. I was a little worried that we would miss them completely. As night time approached, we made our way through these wonderful cobblestone streets and alleys full of little shops, up a long set of stairs to Kiyomizu temple. This is possibly the most beautiful place I have yet seen on the planet. They temple was primarily lit by candles and lanterns, with the outside areas lit by floodlights. The fall colors gave everything a warm red/orange glow. I kept stopping in my tracks with my mouth open, in awe of this spectacular view. From the top, you could turn around and see the glittering city lights of Kyoto. Then turn back around and it's a spooky hillside with little stone idols as far as the eye can see. I could have spent all night here. I could have spent EVERY night here. My focus for pictures was mainly on the colors of the surrounding trees, so you don't get a good sense of what the temple actually looked like. The feel of the wood planks under your feat or the fresh smell of the water, pouring from bamboo pipes or rock formations.

Pictures of Kiyomizu temple: ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^

We made our way back to an alleyway that was chock full of restaurants. Yuka was searching for a specific one that she had been to previously. I honestly don't know how she could tell. Every door was an unnamed entrance way to a place serving food. But she found it and we were lucky to get seating upstairs in the tatami room. As much as I love it, I still have to get used to eating on the floor like that, simply because my legs fall asleep. :/ The food was wonderful. We made our way down a different street, looking for a small bar. We found one called Shaft '65 (Soul Sonic Force) on the 4th floor of some building. This place was way cool. It was a little early, so we had the whole back room to ourselves. Awesome. We would be back here tomorrow night.

We walked all the way down to Kyoto Station and met with Brian and Maria. We had a yummy lunch at a tempura place underground and then met with Chris and his friend Aabae. We walked down to another temple but got there right after it closed, unfortunately. So after a quick conversation with a local woman, we got on a bus back to the area from the night before. I realize that I'm not being very good with the names of these areas but I don't have my Kyoto book on me and Yuka is asleep. :P Brian took us to a Chinese restaurant where we had a tatami room all to ourselves. Our tables reminded me of little writing desks. The menu was hand written, but luckily Brian and Yuka ordered for us. I had a chicken and noodles dish that was really a lot like chicken noodle soup. Perfect since I finally caught Yuka's cold. I have to give props to Chris, because he figured out that the water for the bathroom sink was operated by a little foot pedal.

We heard from Cara while we were walking through a huge market and she was on her way in from Osaka. Awesome. We were in a huge photo booth when she called, which is why I'm the dork with the phone. hahahah I can't decide which is my favorite picture. I think the haunted house one is. The screen had blood on it and stuff when it was counting down. Hilarious.

Photo booth pictures: ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^, ^_^

We stopped in a little dessert place and we all got something amazing. I had a chocolate & banana parfait thing, but the one I remember most was Chris's pink grapefruit tart. Totally cool. We met Cara at the station and then walked to a gaijin bar. Gaijin is a semi-rude word for "foreigner". This place seemed very much like a bar in a college town. I didn't get any pictures of the drunk-ass guy at our table, but he loved that we had Japanese-speaking white kids near him. Hahahah. He repeated everything that Cara and Brian said and then we got him into our toast when our drinks arrived. "Kompai!!!!" On the ceiling, written in English on little pieces of paper was this phrase:

"If you are not a LOSER, you should must order one two more Yebisu beer or get the fuck out of here soon!! Thank you!!!"

We moved on to the Shaft '65 (Soul Sonic Force) from the night before. Even though there were people in the bar this time, we still had the whole back room to ourselves. It sort of felt like I was back in Chicago. Brian was definitely having a good time. Maria: "Look! I'm a fork!". We wandered around a little afterwards and then took cabs home. Yay! Chicago vs. Kyoto was a success.

The bullet train was really crowded getting home. We were worried that the hazy weather wouldn't let us see Mt. Fuji, but then it cleared up and BAM! Isn't that beautiful?

We left Kyoto early simply so we could have time to be lazy. We spent the rest of the day inside, cooking and watching "How Do You Like Wednesdays?" and playing with Chobi. My flight back to Chicago was in the evening, so we got to sleep in one last time. Getting home took a looooong time. I arrived in San Francisco to discover that all flights to Chicago were delayed because of wind. I couldn't let myself sleep because I needed to pay attention to flight announcements. I sat around feeling like a zombie and realizing that I was back in America. Overweight, slow, bitchy people. Even if the politeness of Japan is a facade, I will gladly take that over listless Americans. Somehow, I don't know how, I lost a 10,000 yen bill from my wallet. I swore that I had 3 1,000's and 1 10,000 but I couldn't find the damn thing. Weird.

My flight into Chicago was fine.....until we tried to land. We had a tail wind the whole way east, but you can't land from the east at O'Hare; only west and northwest. We went all the way out over Lake Michigan and turned around. The entire 747-400 was lurching up and down, left and right. it was really bad. Worst turbulence I've ever been in. I try to read during things like that, but my book was moving around in font of me so much as I held it that I just had to put it down, shut my eyes and grip the arm rests, just like every other person in the plane. Bleh. I looked around at the other passengers as we waited at the baggage claim and we all had the same ill look to our faces.

Not a graceful end to my 2nd trip to Japan, but whatever. I had such a good time. I can't wait to go back. Yuka Yuka Yuka Yuka Yuka. ^_^

If you want to check out Yuka's pictures, they are here. ^_^

If you want to check out Maria's pictures, they are here. ^_^