The Marathon of Life?

"Life ain't a track meet, it's a marathon." Surely when Ice Cube sang those immortal words back on 1999's 'You Can Do It', he was dwelling on the accomplishments of the Greek runner Pheidippides, who allegedly ran the full distance of 26.2 miles from the battle of Marathon to Athens to tell the Athenians about their victory over the Persians. Surely that's what Ice was thinking. He was also surely thinking about the fact that Pheidippides died upon delivering the news. How lovely. Well, regardless of what Ice was thinking, I myself have been thinking a lot and I've determined my time in Saudi felt a lot like a sprint. Going from job to job, rig to rig, remote desert location to remote desert location, and then traveling to this country, that country, and the other country during my days off. It was nothing but hectic and draining. Luckily, now I've had some time to slow down a bit, dwell on what I've learned, and plan for my next move.

I also realized that there aren't many people who are afforded the luxury of time to do literally whatever the hell they want. We tend to get caught up in whatever jobs and challenges and stresses we're in at the moment and many people far too infrequently stop and smell the roses. Well, let's just say I'm finally smelling. I'd read that some of the things people regret when they look back at their lives are never learning a language, never playing an instrument, not traveling when they had the opportunity, working too hard, and failing to take care of themselves and their health. I am determined to avoid such a painful fate and I'll try to lead a satisfying and interesting life. That doesn't stop just because my future has become a lot less certain. Therefore I decided I would push myself in the interim to brush up on some things that had been lacking in my life.

Habla espanol?

I've now traveled to 5 Spanish-speaking countries in the past 5 years and in each of them, I realized it would be so much better if I spoke a little bit of the language. I took classes when I was about 10 years old, so I remember that leche means 'milk' and bano means 'bathroom' (not that there's a connection between those two things), but outside of that, I'd forgotten just about everything. Latin classes in high school gave me at least a little baseline Romance language knowledge, but once again, the finer points of Spanish still eluded me.

After some internet searching, I found a class that suited my very-open schedule. A nice woman from Chile teaches classes 5 days a week at her home here in Brisbane. Our 'Level 2' class met once a week for a couple hours. I was a little nervous going in, since I still didn't fully feel 'involved' in Australian society, probably because I wasn't working. However, everyone in the class was very friendly. There were never more than 5 or 6 other students at any one class, but the most consistent attendees were a retired grandmother who loves to travel and an Australian art student who loves Penelope Cruz. We got along pretty well and our teacher Patricia made every class friendly, fun, and functional. I even decided to continue to the 'intermediate' class for the remainder of the year. It brought back a lot of my old Spanish knowledge and now I'm definitely building up my knowledge,  although not nearly to the point of fluency. I can pick up about half of what is said when native-speakers have conversations, and the other half gets lost just in the speed of delivery and my limited vocabulary. I don't think I ever got more than about 25% of what was said when Arabic guys would have full conversations in Arabic, so my Spanish is officially better than my Arabic.

AP and I still have some destinations in the Spanish-speaking world on our list of must-see places, so hopefully these classes will help me communicate more effectively on those trips.

'Modern-Day Mozart'

...is how no one described me ever. However, I've always loved classical music and the piano, much like Spanish, was something I'd practiced as a youth. I eventually lost the motivation to play, but with time on my hands, I figured I might as well get back into music as well. I poked around on Gumtree, which is the Australian version of Craigslist, and located a decent keyboard at a pretty good price, so I pulled the trigger. I also hunted down as much sheet music as I could find, which turns out, is not so easily found in Brisbane. However, during my search I went into an audio shop and asked the guy if he sold sheet music. Unfortunately, he said he didn't, but the customer he was serving said she was never able to find much sheet music in Brisbane, but she'd ordered a bunch from an online seller based in Sydney. She gave me the contact info and a week later, the books I'd ordered showed up. Plenty of Pachelbel, Adele, and Pink. Don't ask. It's amazing the decompression that takes place when you play instruments. I find it relaxing and pretty damn fun. Luckily for AP, I got headphones and I only practice when she's at work, so she doesn't have to endure my numerous mistakes.

The Running Man

Well, having checked the language and music boxes, the last thing I wanted to do was make sure I got myself in serious shape. I figured it was probably best to challenge myself physically and do something that was both affordable (no income for 2 years) and fun. I had originally considered going down to Argentina to climb Aconcagua, but that would've set me back a pretty penny. Recently it seemed that a lot of my friends and family had gotten into distance running, and a part of me was pretty curious. It's relatively cheap (shoes notwithstanding), the Brisbane weather in the winter is perfect for training, I had a bunch of time, and it would force me to be pretty healthy. So I threw my hat into the ring.

I took the official plunge by signing up for the Sunshine Coast Half Marathon in August and the Melbourne Marathon in October. They fit pretty well into the schedule that I'd worked out, which was influenced heavily by one of my buddies who'd run a marathon a few months before. I'd never really run much more than a 5k in my whole life, so the prospect of somehow punching out 26.2 miles (42.2km) was very intimidating. I started reading about proper diet and proper gear and proper stretching and eventually developed strategies through a sort of trial and error. Legs feeling too sore? Stretch immediately after running, not after a long cool-down. Joints aching? Take magnesium supplements. Getting too hungry during training? Eat enough carbs before and during the runs, and eat enough protein after for recovery. Getting blisters on your feet? Get padded socks and rub vaseline on your feet. Nipple-chafing? Vaseline 'em.

The training got pretty hard pretty quickly for me, but every week, slowly but surely, my distances were increasing and becoming enjoyable. Brisbane has some awesome paths along the Brisbane River that go for pretty significant distances and I could map out my runs before to get an idea of where I would be going. I got briefly inspired to train barefoot after reading 'Born To Run,' but eventually just settled on one of the other themes from the book; people run the best when they are enjoying it the most. I consciously tried to smile as much as possible while training and just enjoy the music and the scenery. I think it paid off in the Half Marathon as I finished ahead of my goals.

The whole weekend was a blast, with the race taking place around and between the beachside towns of Malooloolaba and Maroochydore, about 90 minutes north of Brisbane. The route was extremely flat and I'd loaded up on some carbs with a heavy Asian feast the night before. I was definitely nervous, but the race environment was very energetic and upbeat and it gave me a good vibe. After AP and I watched the marathoners take off, I hustled over to the starting area. I even accidentally stepped on a guy's ankles right before the race and he just kinda laughed and told me 'Don't worry, I won't be needing those.' That put me in a good mood. Once the gun went off, a mass of people started plunging ahead. It was really difficult early to get any separation, simply because there were so many bodies. After probably 3 or 4 miles, the participants started spacing out a little and I found my groove. AP cheered me on at mile 5, which gave me a bit of a mental boost. I stuck with a few people for the next few miles before I started trying to pass people on the final 3 miles. I was still feeling pretty good and eventually came upon a guy running the whole marathon carrying an enormous American flag. I think it was for the Wounded Warriors, but whatever his motivation was, it proved intensely motivating for me. I more or less sprinted for the last kilometer and I'm sure it shaved a minute off my time. I beat my goal by a couple minutes and I was still feeling good afterwards, if not tired. AP even captured my hard charge at the end.

Finishing strong!

Got a medal....and a towel.....

It was a very cool experience and I found it to be a very manageable distance, considering I'd trained for just a little over two months. AP and I even saw the winner of the full marathon crossing the finish line. He was an Ethiopian guy who had previously won the Brisbane Marathon and then annihilated the field at the Sunshine Coast with a time of 2 hours and 18 minutes. I was seriously impressed, especially considering he crossed the finish line barely breaking a sweat.

For me, the training only got more difficult however, as my weekly 'long runs' jumped up from 12 miles to 18 to 14 to 20 miles before then tapering down before the big race. I went back to the US for a couple weeks to see the fam and did some of these long runs around Manhattan, suburban Detroit, and back in SF. The hills of East Bay in SF were particularly not fun. The trip home was pretty awesome as well, as I got to see AP's cousin get married in Central Park in NYC and my uncle finally get married in Ann Arbor. I was able to squeeze as much family time in as possible and got to catch up with old friends and cousins who I hadn't seen in ages.

Upon my return to Brisbane, I continued my tapering down by running 12 and 8 mile 'long runs' on the weekends and doing shorter stuff during the week. I also noticed that my carb and protein loading added at least 2kg to my overall weight, which I was hoping I could simply shed on marathon day itself. My general strategy, which I stole from a guy who trained the British Olympic running team, was to protein load for 7 days and then switch to carb-loading for the final 3 days before the race. The protein would help with recovery during the week and the carbs would essentially hang out in my system in the form of glycogen until they were needed. And oh boy were they needed when the race finally came.

AP and I flew down to Melbs on the Saturday before the race and wandered over to the Melbourne Cricket Grounds (MCG), where the race would finish the next day. MCG is the biggest and most famous sports stadium in Australia, so finishing a marathon there would sort of be like finishing in Yankee Stadium or the Rose Bowl. Just a quintessential cathedral of Australian sporting history. We walked the grounds a bit and got our registration packs, which included adorable backpacks with visors and t-shirts. We tried to soak in as much of the vibe as possible and I know AP started to get psyched for her 10K as well. We trudged around town and found a nice little lunch spot in the Southbank area of Melbourne on the Yarra River. Beers and burgers later, and we headed back to the shopping district and hunted for good deals on suits. I've noticed that my body type is strangely un-American and the suits back home always end up being way too large on me. Luckily, there's a few Australian brands that I've come to realize actually fit me and look good, so we sought sales on these suits. Naturally I found nothing and continued my streak as the 'worst shopper ever.'

That final night before the race we needed to carb-load one last time, so we met up for Italian food with a friend of AP's and mine who we actually met all the way back in Peru. She and her friends were running the half-marathon dressed in 'Where's Waldo' costumes (actually called 'Where's Wally' in Australia). It was pretty nice catching up with her because I hadn't seen her since Peru and she was one of the 3 or 4 people I got close to.

Yarra River

The second consecutive night of pasta left me completely stuffed and AP and I retreated back to the hotel to try to sleep. This proved quite elusive. The hotel we were staying at actually had a night club in it and despite sleeping 4 floors above it, I couldn't avoid the pulsing sounds and vibrations it produced. The techno rang in my ears as it coursed through the building's skeleton into my pillow. My plan was to sleep from 10pm until 5am, which inconveniently were the exact times that the club got going. I think I might've slept for approximately 45 minutes the entire night. The only reason I think I even slept that much is because I sort of came to around 4:45 and realized I'd just dreamed about finding the owner of the club and beating him mercilessly in front of his staff. I really should've just read the damn reviews online before booking. That certainly explained the lower prices!

Anyway, when I finally got over (or at least tried to get over) how angry I was, I started doing a full stretching session, not unlike my pre-half marathon routine. I smashed a Berocca and one of the little GU running gels as AP reluctantly woke up and got into running gear. I think I probably short-changed my stretching and I know the lack of sleep was probably pretty unhealthy before a big race, but it was too late for any drastic changes to my preparation. We finally zipped up our hoodies and got walking over to MCG at the pre-dawn hour of 6am and we ran into another girl running her first marathon. We all slowly started seeing everyone in their little red race backpacks emerging from the nooks and crannies of the city, including a few people jogging over, no doubt to get the juices going, but AP and I were thinking we shouldn't waste any energy.

We wandered around Batman Street (really!) as we found where the race was set to begin. People were already gathering and stretching and hydrating. It was pretty exciting! Although of course I didn't do my research and found that the place where I was supposed to leave my hoodie was at least a 10 minute walk away and the race was to start in 15 minutes! Thankfully AP supported me and took my hoodie to put with hers, although she missed watching me take off on the full race. I finally got settled into the starting block, eyeing one of the 3hours-45minute pacers that were around. The announcer came on and we had a rendition of the Australian National Anthem playing. It was actually an awesome experience, since that was certainly the first 'sporting' event in which I'd participated in another country.  I definitely felt a little more Aussie.

Sleepless and still excited 

We're fucking ready! 

And with one mighty flash of a gun, all of us participants, with our countless hours and miles of preparation, gallons of sweat, probably a little blood and tears were off. I did the math and apparently I ran about 480 miles in my 4 months of training, which, according to Google Maps, is almost like running from Ann Arbor to St. Louis. In other words, far. The first few kilometers of the race were definitely very crowded, but I was feeling strong. The route took us through some of the botanical gardens west of the MCG and we slowly started being less shoulder-to-shoulder than we were at the start. My game plan was to get a drink at every station and to eat a little carb-heavy GU pack every 45 minutes for the first hour and a half and then to go every 30 minutes from there until the finish, since that's when the body typically runs low on the precious glycogen that carbs provide. I had my race playlist going strong and I finally noticed that the 3:45 pacer had caught up to me after about 10km, which means my pace was slowing to his. I therefore tried to stick with him for the remainder of the race. We kept trucking through the main roads of Melbourne, not breaking into massive sweats thankfully. Since we started at 7am, the weather was actually perfect for running. The forecast called for a high of 22C (71F), but during the race it probably didn't get higher than 16 or 17 (60-61F) with clouds. It was pretty ideal actually.

From about kilometer 12 to 29, our route took us down along the water through St Kilda, where it was noticeably cooler, but also windier. We slowly approached the half-way point (21.1km) and I was just a few meters behind my 3:45 pacer. It was around that time that I noticed a funny tension slowly building in my right hip. During the course of my training I'd experienced most types of pain - soreness, ankle pain, blisters, fatigue, knee pain, hamstring tightness, twitchy calves, chafed nipples, sunburns - but never anything in my hips. It was really strange, but I figured I could just keep running through it, try to perfect my form a bit, and it would correct itself. Once '99 Problems' came on my playlist, I thought I could subdue the feeling by singing 'I got 99 problems but my hip ain't one.' However, the more I ran down by the water, the more that tension built up into full-fledged pain. My entire upper body and my left leg were both feeling fine, but my right hip was on fire. Every step was getting more and more uncomfortable. I was definitely falling further and further behind my 3:45 pacer, and I noticed the 3:50 crowd was on my ass. However, being the stubborn idiot that I am, I decided to push through, consequences be damned. I started throwing my arms a bit more, trying to draw power from my upper body to put less pressure on my hip. The funny thing about the hip though is that it's seeing a lot of action every single stride, and to my knowledge, there wasn't a ton I could do about it. As soon as we finished up our trek through St. Kilda's, I wasn't necessarily feeling fatigue, but more of just deep pain in my hip. My father had warned me that his hip was what prevented him from doing any distance running, and I was wondering if, after 500 miles, genetics was finally catching up to me...

I started really slowing down when I passed the water stations from 30kms and later, almost getting run over a few times, but I needed to give my hip a little very light walking every 3 or 4km. I picked myself up every time though, slowly noticing the hip less and less. Unfortunately, the reason for this is because the pain had somehow shifted, moving down to my knee and, in a very piercing fashion, my right ankle. I was at least used to this kind of pain, so it became something I was a little more comfortable with. I noticed the 3:50 pass me by and the 3:55 crowd was pretty much all around, although they were passing me with ease essentially. When we got to the Botanical Gardens, we all discovered the real treat of the Melbourne Marathon: a big bloody hill. I was getting pretty beat at this point, to say the least, with pains in all my main joints of my right leg. I noticed a lot of people had pulled up lame throughout the past few kilometers and I was determined to avoid that. I worked too damn hard to NOT finish. The uphill portion was more or less all arms for me, using as little energy for my legs as possible. Apparently the hill was where the winner of the marathon took charge, passing his nearest competition and finishing strong. I didn't exactly have the same strength, but I also didn't get terribly worse by that time. I inhaled my last scheduled gel and kept pushing. I think the 4 hour pacer got ahead of me by a bit and was pushing everybody to finish.

My little legs were trying!

We passed by some of the most scenic places in Melbourne over the last few kilometers, including the Flinders Street station seen above. There were plenty of people cheering us on throughout the entire race, but I was particularly touched by the people at this point, because every single runner was struggling at that point, and every little bit of encouragement helped. I tried to channel the 'Born To Run' secret to racing - my inner happiness - by smiling and throwing the occasional thumbs-up whenever I could muster it. I recognized the area close to the stadium and when I finally saw the tunnel entrance where we would finally enter MCG, I knew the end was near.

Only a few more KMs left

The slight downhill run of the tunnel was very necessary and when I got into the MCG, the sun was shining brightly and the 20,000 or so people were cheering. The emcee was keeping everyone pumped up as we made our final 3/4 lap around the stadium to the finish.

Final lap

I was still getting passed, but once I saw the time was still under 4 hours, I was pretty pumped. I crossed the finish line at 3:56:09, gave a puny fist pump, and grabbed whatever water was available to me.

Kindly note the fist pump

I think someone gave me a towel, but eventually I saw AP right down in the front row waving me over, so I hobbled my way over to her. We chatted quickly and I found out she had done very well during her 10K, so we were both understandably proud. However, that brief moment of pride subsided and I realized immediately that my legs were dying. I did a little stretch right there next to AP in the front row of the stadium. Then she informed me that there were further treats and refreshments underneath the stadium, so I slowly marched down that way. That walk felt like something out of the Walking Dead. Everybody was hobbling, their faces more or less dead, the setting was dark and people were hungry and thirsty. I was no exception, although I managed to squeeze out a smile for the camera once I got my medal.

I eventually made my way out of the stadium after eating an apple and taking down whatever Gatorade and water found its way to my mouth. AP and I found a nice little nook on the grass to sit down, and I tried to get another stretch, but everything was pretty tense at that point. We'd both finished our distances and it was almost lunch time. We walked over to the hotel, stopping only to get me some much-needed chocolate milk, and cleaned ourselves up for the rest of the day. I could only manage walking very gingerly and anything uphill or downhill became painful. But it was still good to know it was over and I wouldn't have to think about that distance for a while. I still to this day wonder what I could've done differently to avoid that hip pain, but my guess is that the lack of sleep probably didn't help my muscles and I would've been more prone to injury as a result. I also know I didn't do a LOT of hip stretching throughout my training, and a few couple minutes here and there probably would've loosened it up and strengthened all the little supporting muscles for the joint. Regardless, I'm still happy that (A) I finished the distance, and (B) I finished under 4 hours. The only unchecked goal was under 3:45, but I think if not for my hip, I probably would've met it, or at least had a half-decent shot at it. The first half of the race was actually better than my half-marathon time, and even if I had slacked a little in the second-half, I would've been right there.

It was a very hard distance, but I'm convinced that any able-bodied person can train themselves into shape and can complete it. You certainly don't have to be a great 'athlete' but a little commitment and discipline go a long way. I'm pretty happy that I did it and I'll always have my medal to hang up somewhere.

So. Many. Steps.

AP and I rounded out our weekend in Melbourne with a little bit of romantic row-boating on the Yarra River and then devouring an Asian-fusion tapas meal before actually getting some sleep that night. We flew back to Brisbane and AP went back to work, while I searched for things to keep me busy from there-on out. I finished up my intermediate Spanish classes, and I definitely noticed improvement in my vocabulary and verb knowledge. It was hard to say goodbye to our teacher and to some of the other students who made the class fun. I also tried to heal myself from my marathon. I was 100% sore for the first 48 hours, but slowly the pain subsided, except my hip and my ankle. They have now finally healed, at least to my knowledge, a full 2 months later and I can run a 5k easily without pain. I don't have any marathons scheduled for 2016, but I think a half-marathon is a manageable distance and I can see myself training again for that.

The last few months of the year, AP and I went to some weddings and engagement parties around town. We visited Sydney for a quick weekend and moved some of our stuff into the new apartment. I managed to take a trip back home for Thanksgiving, which provided me with awesome times with my family and friends. I helped organize my high school reunion and it was simply fantastic catching up with a lot of my old buddies. I got to spend even more time with my two newborn nieces as I visited them at their homes. The trip really reminded me just how lucky I am to have a strong family and friend network.

My 2015 ended in roughly the way I wanted it to, although the route to get there was way different than I'd planned. Was I in Australia? Yes. Was I working? No. Did I have a plan? Yes. Was I in Brisbane? Sort of, since Sydney beckons. I even managed to gather up the courage to ask AP to marry me, and thankfully, she said 'yes.' My inner romantic kicked it up a few notches as we spent a great weekend at the beach and she was rewarded with a beautiful ring, flowers, champagne, chocolate, and one goofy-ass fiance. Another big step in the journey of life. It turns out that my bird astrologer back from my India trip was right: '2015 will be a big year for your love life.' Who knows what he'll predict for 2016.

An American in Japan

Two posts in two months?!?! Crazy, I know. However, I thought I'd finish the story of what on earth I'm up to on the other side of the world, and I suppose this blog gives me some creative outlet. Well, after taking a brief trip to California to grab some of my things, I flew to Brisbane and began to settle in, taking note of what my new life would look like. I knew that I needed to have some sort of plan for my future and the thing that seemed to make the most sense was getting an MBA.

I knew that I wanted my next chapter in life to include AP a lot, so I started focusing my search on programs in Australia. The thing about doing well on the GMAT is that a lot of (American) schools start to reach out. I think because I was registered in California, none of the Australian schools really had me on their radar. But after perusing a lot of different websites and respectable publications, I narrowed my choices down to two of the premier programs in Australia: Melbourne Business School (MBS) and the Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM) at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. Each program had different strengths and weaknesses, and their structures and schedules were unique as well. I leaned toward MBS early on since it started in August, and I therefore threw my full efforts into the application. Luckily for me, I've got an incredibly strong support network and I had a few very experienced people look over my CV and my essays. It became quite apparent just how unique my experience was during my time in Saudi. Think about it: international experience, very diverse multi-cultural teams, stressful environment, managing teams, helping set revenue records, and even introducing new technology. My time in the Kingdom was certainly a blessing in disguise. The disguise was of course a sandy camel-skinned niqab, but who am I to judge a book by its cover? I also might've left at the ideal time, with the industry struggling and the Kingdom susceptible to increasingly frequent attacks by Islamic State sympathizers and recruits. It seemed as though the planets aligned. As far as the MBA stuff goes, AP helped me with my prospective interviews and I finished up my applications in time for our next big trip...Japan!

My next chapter involves making myself a lot of food

Back in February, Brisbane held its annual Travel Expo, which is AP's favorite day of the year. She had been wanting to go to Japan for a long time, having taken Japanese classes in her earlier days. I'd always been fascinated with their unique culture and once AP found some flight deals that were irresistible, I was very on board. We even had some excellent company, in AP's brother as well as his friend CM. After I'd submitted my MBA applications, we all began our journey to the Land of the Rising Sun - grabbed an Uber, hopped on a train to the Gold Coast, found a bus to the airport and then flew direct to Narita Airport in Tokyo on the new Boeing 'Dreamliner.'

We arrived into Tokyo and found that the Narita airport has track lanes everywhere, apparently to prevent people from getting lost, but it gave the whole place a very sporty feel. We also made the very wise decision to rent a portable wifi hotspot from a vendor at the airport. This small handheld machine was the size of a phone, but provided unlimited data for wifi users, provided we were in range of a signal. Split four ways, it became a great deal and it made our whole experience a lot better.

We hopped on a train and headed for Shibuya, which was allegedly one of the cooler, trendier districts in Tokyo. As we pulled out of the station on a Saturday night and entered this haven of Japanese culture, I cannot even express the extreme sensory overload we all experienced. The colors and the lights were vibrant, the apparel of the locals was inspiring, and the smells and sounds of the streets were both intoxicating and pulsating. We activated our little wifi thing and AP's brother tried to contact our AirBnB guy, who was supposed to meet us close to the heart of Shibuya. After farting around for probably 30 mins, we got a hold of him, figured out where we were supposed to be, and met up. The section of Shibuya we were staying at was, according to our AirBnB host, the 'Beverly Hills of Tokyo,' a moniker that didn't seem quite right, considering our room for four was the size of my living room in Brisbane. Apparently, most Japanese interior designs involve condensing a lot into smaller and simpler living spaces. Ours was no exception. We quickly cleaned ourselves and headed out to track down our most necessary indulgence: Ramen! Our host gave us a few recommendations, but we opted for the local shop that was right around the corner from our place. You also order everything there by using an automated meal selection machine, similar to a vending machine. Naturally, everything was in Japanese, but the pictures that accompanied it seemed to tell enough of the story, so we ordered heaps of ramen and gyoza (fried dumplings), and the friendly cooks and waiters delivered our orders. I can testify that these noodles and gyoza hit the spot unlike any meal I'd had in ages. After a full day of travel, using a wide array of transportation options, we'd made it to Tokyo and we were finally satisfied. So satisfied, that we all passed out very shortly thereafter.

Which one is the fast lane?!

Out of the train station. Into this.

Every corner was like this

Yes, more Ramen please

Destroyed it

Not built for tall foreigners

After resting very snuggly, we decided to start our day by simply walking around town. Shibuya was still a colorful place, even in daylight. We noticed several shrines located very near the main commercial centers, and many smaller ones among the buildings themselves. Back alleys were even decorated with lanterns, luminaries, and colorful ribbons. We also noticed that Tokyo seemed pretty clean as well. There weren't exactly rubbish bins everywhere, but we didn't see much littering at all. Props Japan!

The ultimate pedestrian crossing

Thank God a Starbucks

Those models look particularly non-Japanese

Colorful signs everywhere

Even the alleys had some style

Once we got our bearings, we passed through a Sunday morning food market outside the United Nations University, where we discovered some familiar English being spoken and ran into an even friendlier beer cart. From there, we trekked over to Omotesando. This tree-lined street has been dubbed 'Tokyo's Champs-Elysees', and it also was a must-see architectural showcase for the two architects in our group. A ton of fashion and clothing stores (think Prada, Louis Vitton, etc.) have flagship stores along the road and each building is insanely unique from the next one. Every possible architectural style could be found there and it was pretty inspiring. We took some peeks into some of our favorite stores (like Nike), but eventually found ourselves at the end of the street, where sat the entrance to the enormous Yoyogi Park and the Meiji Shrine Gyoen. This is one of the many huge parks throughout Tokyo and we were greeted by a massive arch (torii) at the entrance. As we strolled around, we happened upon dozens of sake barrels, small wooden shrines that lined the path, and a confluence of tourists from all over. We also headed towards the Meiji Shrine, which was built for the spirits of Emperor Meiji and his wife, although they are not buried there. We witnessed a wedding procession inside the shrine, which I assume must be fairly common. A lot of people in the procession donned traditional Japanese attire and the priestly character up front had the largest shoes I've ever seen. It was a refreshingly peaceful ceremony and we followed it up by reading some of the prayer placards that adorned the trees in the shrine's main courtyard.

Yes please

Polo keepin' it classy

Omotesando Drive

So trendy

Whoa

Entering the Meiji Shrine

Sensing some sake

Wedding time!

Prayers for everything

They were so massive

We took a walk around the rest of the Yoyogi Park area as well. It offered a welcome respite from the more crowded shrine area. It was amazing how these parks were so centrally located within the city, yet felt as if they were actually miles away. Such was the serenity we experienced there. Water lilies, gardens, painters, beds of vibrant flowers and intensely lush scenes filled the park. It was a beautiful reminder of just how amazing places like parks can be and how much they can mean to the community.

So green. So.....not sandy like Saudi

'dem lilies

Everybody likes flowers

He had the right idea

The garden was about as tranquil as our next stop was overly boisterous. Just across the road from the Meiji Shrine area was Takeshita Street (surprisingly NOT pronounced like 'Take a Shit A Street'), one of the main bustling shopping hubs of the Harajuku area, known as Japan's youth culture and fashion hotspot. It was also the sight of the infamous Harajuku girls, most of whom are actually females, but all of whom dress up in outfits right out of a Little-Bo Peep story. There are an insane number of subcultures of Japanese fashion, especially women's wear, and they were just about all on display prominently on Takeshita Street. There were kogal and gyaru - where grown women wear schoolgirl outfits; ganguro - which included super tan girls; and the hime gyaru - which basically involves insane amounts of pink clothing and makeup. Either way, we fished through as many sock shops and candy stores as we could and even found a lunch place. The fun thing about Takeshita Street was that nobody really even tried to speak English to us, except one dude who saw AP's brother's Toyota hat and got tremendously excited. I also discovered that every single worker at every single shop was constantly, and I do mean CONSTANTLY, saying the required greeting when people enter the store: irasshaimase. Imagine a thousand tiny Japanese girls saying this every three seconds at dangerously high pitches. You can imagine it wasn't the most pleasant thing, although the girls (and boys for that matter) were constantly smiling and very friendly. Luckily, I'd been listening to Styx on the flight over and I was prepared to respond with my excellent Japanese rendition of 'Domo Origato.'

Everyone was dressed like this

Takeshita Street

After the sensory overload that Harajuku gave us, we opted to get a more formal dose of culture by heading over to the Tokyo National Museum at Ueno Park on the northeast side of town. The walk through the park was quite pleasant, as we passed by the Museum of Nature and Science, which ironically has an enormous whale statue out front, ironic because of Japan's known attitude towards whales. The National Museum itself was pretty nice, with ancient artifacts depicting life in feudal Japan. Samurai outfits abounded, as well as fine art that dated back centuries. None of this compared to the fantastic ice cream available outside however. If there's one thing the Japanese got right, it's the summertime ice cream. It's readily available almost everywhere, and its awesome. That's all I have to say about that.

We may hunt you, but we also honor you

Tokyo National Museum

That's cool

That's cooler

That night, our team felt we needed to indulge in the ancient Japanese tradition of karaoke. Luckily, Shibuya was teeming with karaoke joints and, after failing miserably at trying to book one karaoke joint, we found the place where (allegedly) some of Lost in Translation is filmed. We booked a room probably 10 or 12 stories up with a view of Shibuya below. The Japanese certainly do karaoke right. We had full menus and bar service and a fantastic collection of music, spanning decades and genres. The lessons we learned that night were (1) 'Lose Yourself' is a terrible karaoke song, (2) red wigs make everything better, and (3) I'm so cooooooollllld.

Edamame helps the vocal chords. It's science. Probably. 

Our next day, we headed out to explore another trendy neighborhood of Tokyo called Shinjuku. Also known for its fashion, the area was supposed to abut the number one thing on TripAdvisor: the Shinjuku Gyoen. It is a massive park located in central Tokyo and we unfortunately learned the hard way that the park wasn't open on Mondays. That didn't stop us from exploring the surrounding area though, with colorful skyscrapers towering over us and a comical number of high-end shopping malls. The best parts of Shinjuku, however, we would discover that evening.

Shinjuku.....

Good ole Jugglee World

What a lovely urban cityscape. Wait, is that...  

GODZILLA!!

I just thought this building looked cool.

We'd read about the small enclave within Shinjuku known as 'Golden Gai,' in our guide book, and we decided to check it out. The area is essentially a collection of dozens of back alleys grouped together and flooded with bars that only seat 5 or 6 people. Each bar is cramping on each other's space and we made the ill-advised move of trying to find food there. One ramen place came up in our searches, and we took it upon ourselves to order whatever was on the colored machine there. We discovered that our bowls of ramen, while initially tasting delicious, slowly gave way to an unnecessarily savory soup of anchovies. Gross. I still cringe when I think about it. However, the rest of Golden Gai certainly gave the feeling of the seedy underbelly of Japan, although the geishas apparently kept away. The locals generally fill the bars for after-work shots of sake and whatnot, but we ended up finding a quality bar that happened to only be serving fellow gaijin (basically the Japanese equivalent of 'gringo') at the moment.

Doing our generation justice

Golden Gai

Small bar. Big Deer.

After Golden Gai, we walked over to a place known simply as 'Robot Restaurant.' A buddy of mine who'd traveled to Japan a few years ago highly recommended it and we figured we might as well see what all the fuss is about. Well, after buying tickets we were ushered into the waiting area which, in its own right, was the trippiest place I'd ever seen. It was like we were viewing life through a kaleidoscope, as every imaginable color/shape combination decked the walls and ceiling. On top of that, there was a very talented band dressed in super futuristic science fiction-y outfits and short-skirted singer who could really belt out western tunes. We were pretty much in awe of our surroundings for about an hour, sipping on our pre-purchased drinks (my only complaint was we had to plan in advance how many drinks to have), and admiring the absurdity of our environment.

What did we get ourselves into

Band could play

The band finished up their set and we were then called to descend down the rabbit-hole via an acid-induced bender of a stairwell. Up to this point, I could only imagine that a Star Trek fan had accidentally gotten ahold of peyote and decorated the place while listening to 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.' We got downstairs and found our assigned seats. There was a middle area and seating on both sides, giving it an almost catwalk/model feel, except that the walls were digital aquariums and we were at least 3 stories below ground.

The 'Restaurant' doesn't really serve anything except small finger foods and tons of popcorn. It was more of a bar and a show, and when the show started, everyone was excited. Massive illuminated floats came in with drummers donning neon tribal garments and rhythmically thumping away as they pleased. The sounds and colors were pulsing and the dancers were....well dancing. After the floats departed, the real action started. What ensued was difficult to fully determine because of the Japanese (or possibly just very hard to decipher English) that was spoken on the loudspeakers, but I think there was a massive battle between the tree people and the robot people. Massive animal-robots appeared in the shapes of sharks and snakes and they attacked the militaristic robot teams. This wasn't exactly like the old Battle-Bots TV show, but this 'restaurant' did have enormous hydraulic puppets that were manned by earthen-clad girls battling against tank-ish souped-up Jeeps manned by the evil warlords from outer space. Pound-for-pound, it might've been the most entertaining show I've ever seen. The energy in the place alone was enough to make up for the fact that I'd already drank my allotted amount of alcohol. The coup-de-grace was undoubtedly the parade of peaceful robots that followed the epic battle. One very talented Japanese singer slowly rode through the arena singing 'Ave Maria,' followed by another enormous python robot and a robot that might've been from 'Lost in Space.' Beautiful women. Robots. Ave Maria. It was insane. The pictures below will never do this place justice, but I heartily recommend this as a must-do experience in Tokyo, provided you pay for enough drinks and food in advance, and you prepare for utter tomfoolery.

Thundering drummers

Procession of lanterns?

Ah yes, the good forest mother

This shark physically ate one of the evil dudes

So did this snake.

Ave Maria singer

This was the most robotic robot they had

It came within inches of my face. Oh, and ONE LOOKED AT ME

Daft Punk making an unexpected entrance. *Note* not actually Daft Punk

I think there was a guy in there

Either way, it was ridiculous

Nothing we did could've compared to the sheer ridiculousness of that restaurant, and I'll never again listen to 'Ave Maria' the same way. Our next day, we finally decided to explore the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, which was the top-ranked thing to do in Tokyo according to TripAdvisor. After the lunacy that preceded us the night before, we were hunting for some relaxation and we certainly found it. As beautiful as the Meiji Shrine area was, this was surely better. The gardens were larger and more vibrant. The park was ENORMOUS and we could've spent days there. It was remarkably peaceful and green. The day itself was quite overcast and the colors of the park seemed to jump out from everywhere.

Future Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle?

Beauty

Found some man-made glory as well

Perfect for staging fights among friends

About to get romantic. Well done creepy Magoo.

AP was keen for the flowers

We almost had the place to ourselves

Vibrant as f*ck

Not a bad place to relax

We also thought we'd explore the Imperial Palace, home to the emperor and his family. The Palace area has quite a long history. When the emperor relocated the capital from Kyoto to Tokyo in the mid-1800s, he used Edo Castle as his primary residence until a fire destroyed it in the 1870s. He then built a new Imperial Palace, which would later be destroyed in the fire-bombing of Tokyo in WWII. The current Palace is built on those grounds. As part of the Japanese surrender in WWII, the Emperor had to vacate his position as the political and military leader of the country, and he now serves as a figurehead similar to the Queen of England. His Imperial grounds were quite beautiful and serene, although the complex was probably too large for us to fully appreciate. We took in the gardens, but didn't bother trekking over to the palace to see if we could get in. We had been walking all day and were definitely ready to conk out, so we headed back to Shibuya to explore our more materialistic urges.

Crossing the moat

The place had some impressive walls

The guard tower with a Mt. Fuji view

Our quiet afternoon of shopping took a pleasant turn when we found one of the infamous purikura photo-booths. These popular (with teenagers) stalls essentially accentuate your more glamorous features, as users are able to make hundreds of digital edits and photoshop-type adjustments to each snap. It was actually pretty entertaining, although not as much our toilets back in our accommodation, which I discovered that night actually play music. 

So many functions

Purikura fun....

The next day was a travel day for us, as we awkwardly loaded up our large packs, grabbed a comical amount of snacks, and boarded multiple trains for our trip out to the mountainous village of Hakone. Hakone is home to many of the Japanese hot springs that serve as outdoor (or indoor) baths known as onsens.  This was something AP had been wanting to undertake for some time. Our journey to Hakone also provided our first experience with the Shinkansen, or the famous 'Bullet Trains' of Japan. We absolutely flew from downtown Tokyo to Odawara in about an hour, going about 175 mph. As impressive as the speed was, I found that the smoothness and quietness of the ride was even better. You didn't feel like you were going that fast until you looked out the window and saw village after village zooming by.

From Odawara, we took a non-bullet train to Hakone, where we took an even more 'local' train up the nooks and crannies of valleys and mountains to get to the town. The space for the trains was so limited that they had to perform numerous 'switchbacks' just to make their way up the valleys. We got off at the end of the line and then took a cablecar up a hill to a bus station, where we hopped aboard and watched a wonderfully soundtracked Hakone tourist video, telling us about the area. Under normal circumstances, the bus trip would've been replaced by yet another cablecar ride, but unfortunately due to seismic activity in the area, that cablecar was closed. Hakone is in a seismically active area and occasionally you can smell the pungent aroma of sulfur in the air. We even saw hillsides that appeared to be simply steaming. Regardless of the stenches, we got off at our stop and walked the last few hundred meters to our hotel, the lovely Hakone Green Plaza Hotel.

That village looked fun!

Very local train

That's sound advice

Very local cable car

One of the benefits of traveling to Hakone is the prospect of catching fantastic views of Mt. Fuji over the nearby Lake Ashi. We'd travelled to Japan before the official Fuji-climbing season, so we figured this would be our best chance to catch a glimpse of the famed volcano. Unfortunately, the day we arrived proved particularly cloudy, but we headed down to Lake Ashi anyway to have a look. The lake is the center of the Hakone area and there are a few small towns on opposite ends. To get from one side to the other, we had to take a pirate ship across the lake, which actually provided us with a peaceful ride and lovely views of the area, although not Fuji itself. We tramped around the town, indulging in our daily ice cream tradition, and eventually made our way to the Hakone Shrine, which was set up in the hills a bit. Most of the shrines have the large torii that symbolize the path to sacredness. The Hakone Shrine has torii all the way from its perch up in the hills down to the lake below. We were slowly discovering that beauty exists everywhere in Japan, and this shrine was no exception.

Pirate ships. Real original..

Prayer/fortune placards. Apparently everyone asks to pass exams or find true love.

Cleansing our spirits

Millenials

Nice hotel that we weren't staying at  

What a lovely group

Shrine had color, I've got to give it that

Torii by the sea, the gateway to the sacred

And they lived happily ever after

After our excursion around the lake and shrine, we headed back to the hotel to finally indulge in the onsen. Onsens are heated geothermally, with temperatures generally ranging from 35-40 degrees celsius or 95-104 F. The Japanese also believe the waters have healing powers due to their mineral content. The most unique thing about the Japanese onsens, at least to the casual Western tourist, is really the entire experience. Everyone who enters the onsen first needs to wash themselves. There are small showers and tons of soaps, shampoos, conditioners, and exfoliants to choose from. Then, you have to enter the onsen naked. Yup, butt naked. It's a huge part of the Japanese experience. Before your thoughts wander too much, yes, the men and women have separate onsens. For those who identify as trans, I'm not really sure what to tell you. Don't think the Japanese have thought that far in advance. Also, you can't have tattoos. You just can't.

Anyway, in preparation for the experience, we put on our traditional Japanese yukata outfits, which are basically less formal kimonos. We took a few friendly pictures and headed down for our baths. AP's brother and I headed for the men's onsen and first went into the locker room-ish area outside and stripped down. We then headed into the bath area and plopped ourselves into small private-y stalls where we showered ourselves while sitting on small stools. Then, we plunged ourselves into the onsens. Naturally, AP's brother and I thought it was going to be awkward as hell, so we timed our entries and exits to minimize inappropriate viewing of each other. Having said that, there were lots of naked Japanese men coming in and out of the onsens the whole time and they seemed pretty cool with the whole thing, so we figured we might as well not be weird.

The baths had both indoor and outdoor pools, with the outdoor ones giving excellent opportunities to 'cool down' a little. The one inside could be a bit stifling, but I must say, thoroughly relaxing. I sweat out at least a few pounds, but I felt very clean. I took a turn outside as well and found it to be even more serene, since there were plants and views of the surrounding hills. On clear days, you could even see Fuji from the outdoor onsen. Unfortunately, we were still cursed with cloud cover. Regardless, the 30 or 40 minutes I spent in the sauna were extremely relaxing. It did wonders to my skin as well, since my pores were about as open as possible. I took my time getting washed and dressed again. The locker-room area had plenty of men's grooming devices and creams and, most importantly, a cooler of ice water. This topped off a pretty nice experience. I walked outside the room finally wearing my yukata and slippers and found some of those electronic massage machines and gave my legs and neck a quick dose of vibration. This place was truly worth every penny.

Oh, I also discovered the world's tastiest candy in the form of the Green Tea Kit-Kats

Our lovely room in Hakone

Rocking the yukata!

That post-onsen glow!

That night we had what was essentially a Japanese degustation at the hotel's restaurant, which included fantastic sashimi and a whole bunch of other stuff I can't remember. AP and I finished off the night with some drinks in the bar and then crashed. Hakone had been pretty good to us so far.

Our next day, we all decided we needed another onsen to start the day, so before breakfast, we treated ourselves to another bathing session. I spent more time in the outdoor bath that morning, and getting up, I got spectacularly dizzy and realized how dangerous it could be spending too much time inside. Apparently the girls got sake offers from the old Japanese ladies in the women's onsen, which I can only guess would've had double the effect when you consider the dehydration that occurs. Either way, the onsen was a perfect way to start the day and our breakfast, which offered both Japanese and western cuisines, gave us energy to get through the day.

As we left our hotel, we decided we would trust TripAdvisor once again. We took our bus/cable-car combination down the hills and then walked over to the Hakone Open Air Museum. We'd read about it online and it came highly recommended, so we figured 'What the hell.' The museum is actually a modern art museum. What makes it insane is that it is almost entirely outdoors! The grounds are massive and the whole museum is set in a lush valley just down the road from the Chokokunomori station. This was probably the most pleasant surprise on our entire trip because the museum had an astonishing collection of sculptures and statues. They even had a Picasso exhibit that earned its own dedicated building. I think we probably spent 2 or 3 hours just roaming around because the area was so beautiful and the artwork just meshed with the entire environment.

They know their stained-glass

Sup?

Not a bad place for a museum

Aim small, miss small

Note: not a real dead person

Is that a moai in snake form?

Creative

There was like a playground inside there

From beneath giant metallic ball

Creepiest. Statue. Ever.

At one of the few indoor exhibits. 

After the museum, which can really only be described as 'really, really cool,' we hopped aboard a train to Odawara and then caught the Shinkansen bullet-train further south on the island of Honshu, and we even managed to finally get a glimpse of Mt. Fuji on our way to our next stop: Kyoto.

I see you Fuji. Far away and from a train, but I see you.

Kyoto is a very unique city in that it was the ancient capital of the Japanese Empire. Basically, before Japan opened up to the west, Kyoto was king. It was also on the short list of sites spared from Allied fire-bombing in WWII, although that meant it was also on the short list of potential targets for the atomic bomb. In fact, only a last-minute intervention by Henry Stimson, Truman's Secretary of War, spared the city. He'd honeymooned there decades earlier and saw its value and place within Japanese culture and knew that wiping it off the map would be a calamitous assault on the country's culture, similar to the German attempts to eradicate art and culture from their conquests. Remember Monument's Men? Stimson wanted to avoid that.

Well, we arrived in this ancient capital of the Japanese Empire in much of the same way as that scene in Inception when they start their master plan. I was kind of sleepy and the next thing I know, it's raining everywhere and there's giant trains. We'd all been excited for Kyoto, which is known for its far more traditional vibes, its numerous shrines and temples, and the heaps of ryokan-style hotels that were available. Ryokans are the hotels where the walls and doors are basically made of wood and paper. You only wear slippers inside and sleep on tatami mats, which are planked and flat. We stumbled around the train station trying to figure out how to get to our hotel, and since our pocket wifi had run out of battery, we actually had to use our brains. That didn't go as smoothly as we'd hoped, but we packed ourselves onto a crowded bus and took up more space than the 10 people around us. We eventually found the ryokan, located in the trendy area of Gion and nestled close to the Yasaka Shrine. We quickly settled into our rooms, talked with the friendliest receptionist of all time, and settled in a bit before heading out for dinner.

Our room

I'm still bamboozled as to the significance of this closet painting

We then wandered around the back alleys of Kyoto, many of which had small restaurants that were designated only by tiny lanterns outside with their names inscribed on them. Many geisha-friendly 'hotels' apparently operated in the area, and we even saw a few girls dressed as such. Our receptionist had given us a few key areas to explore for dinner, so we crossed the river over into the Kawaramachi area and found a delightful barbecue restaurant with an amazing all-you-can eat deal. Basically for the equivalent of about $40, we could eat and drink as much as we wanted in the allotted 2-hour time frame. And this place served some seeeeerious meat. Each table had a small BBQ pit right in the middle, so we controlled how much meat me cooked and how long it was cooked for. The restaurant just provided the seasoned meat and some sauce as well. It was a spectacular feast, one whose bang-for-buck hasn't been approached since. We all stuffed our faces with all sorts of beef and pork combos, and we washed it all down with plum wines and various whiskey combinations. It was a spectacular smorgasbord and we were tremendously pooped (and a bit drunk) by the time we got back to the ryokan.

Streets of Kyoto

Pre-feast

MID-FEAST

  The next day we set about hunting for good coffee and also trying to find our way west to the bamboo forests of Arashiyama. We found the most cost-effective way to get from our ryokan on the east part of town to the exact opposite side of town was with the Randen electric railroad cars that have been in operation since the 1910s. The cars themselves looked surprisingly vintage, and certainly sounded like they'd been around for a while. These retro trolleys took us through the heart of the town and we arrived in Arashiyama certainly feeling like we'd been transported back in time.

I suppose it's because it was our first good glimpse of Kyoto during the daytime (the day before was murky and rainy and we'd seen everything at night), but we definitely could feel the history around nearly every corner. The architecture everywhere was traditional Japanese-style and there really were shrines and temples everywhere! We walked over to the area known as 'Bamboo Grove,' where countless enormous bamboo stalks surrounded us during our stroll. The grove itself isn't exactly a 'forest,' but a 10-15 minute walk in the park while being dwarfed by the size and sheer volume of tree. It was very beautiful and, when the occasional massive tourist group managed to get far enough away, quite peaceful.

Retro Railcar..

Bamboo Grove

When the tourists clear, it's quite nice

They definitely towered over us

There I go, trying to be 'artistic' again

We eventually walked into the park that abuts the Grove area and wandered around down by the river, whose waters took on the deep green hue of the surrounding tree life. It made the Chicago River on St. Paddy's day look like child's play. The pocket wifi also let us know that we were actually pretty close to the Iwatayama Monkey Park. Everyone was excited, mostly since we weren't able to make a trip to the famous monkey island off the coast of Tokyo. We once again indulged in our daily ice cream ritual and made the 20-minute trek up the hills next the Katsura River until we arrived at the top. The monkeys are actually the 'snow monkeys' that exist in various other places in Japan as well. The park offered a tremendously clear view of the entire city of Kyoto below, but the monkeys were the highlight. They behaved very, how shall I say, 'Japanese', meaning they were very polite and didn't really bother anyone. In other places I've been to around the world, the monkeys can be very aggressive and eager to steal things from any unsuspecting tourist. The Iwatayama monkeys were very calm and well-behaved. There were places where people could feed the monkeys, but they roamed very freely throughout the park. Mothers nursed and protected their baby monkeys and the other family members played in the trees and ponds nearby. We'd finally gotten our monkey fix.

Katsura River going green

Just checking each other out

I'm convinced he was trying to give me a thumbs up

How can you not love that face

Monkey fam

Standing guard

Too damn cute

Our monkey excursion had worn us out, so we managed to scrounge up some food and quick shopping in Arashiyama before heading back east. We hopped on the train and headed to the Fushimi-Inari Shrine, world famous (and frequently Instagrammed) due to its 'Thousand Gates.'

Fushimi-Inari is a Shinto shrine complex that has a lot of massive individual shrines near the bottom, but more importantly stretches up into the hills above. The 'Thousand Gates' are actually torii and lead to the upper and inner shrines as you progress up the mountain to the summit. It took us about an hour and a half to hike through these gates to the top, and it would've been much less if I didn't stop every 30 seconds and take another picture. I've realized why the Japanese tourists take so many pictures when they're outside of Japan: because I take so many pictures when I'm actually IN Japan! It's a way of society maintaining equilibrium. Anyway, the shrines were very pretty, and the higher we went, the fewer tourists there were. This was especially nice because near the entrance, we had been swarmed by people trying to enter the first of the torii. The reward at the top was a lovely fountain to cleanse my body and mind. We were significantly less sweaty going down, thank God.

There were waaaay more than just a 'thousand' of these gates

They seemingly went on forever

But they all had their own messages

My Japanese is a bit rusty, but I think it says 'There Will Be Sweat"

Hundreds of smaller shrines lined the hills on the way up

It just. Keeps. Going.

We were pretty spent after all the walking we did that day. I think my Apple Health app recorded ~20,000 steps, which was a supremely healthy day. We showered up and took some lovely baths at our ryokan that were supposed to be like onsens, but fell a bit short of expectations. We trekked out to dinner and strolled through Gion again, eventually settling on a non-all-you-can-eat-BBQ place that still served some fantastic karaage. Our day ended with happy thoughts of shrines and bamboo.

Our next day, we decided to get some exercise while also being efficient viewers of the sights of the city. Kyoto has a reputation as being a bicycle-friendly city, and we walked over and rented some bikes from J-Cycle. They provided us with a map showing known routes and the major tourist sites you can see along the way. They also rented out iPhone holsters, which was perfect since I took the role of navigator and ensured we didn't get too lost among all the traditional buildings. There were signs that indicated which areas were acceptable for bikes and I found the city was pretty well set up to handle a large volume of bikers. We didn't have to really dodge traffic and we were never honked at by cars, only beeped at by other bicyclists wanting to pass by the obvious gaijin. We rode past the Nijo Castle, although there was a long line and a fee to get in, so we quickly decided to keep moving after replenishing our water bottles. Our next stop was at the Kitano Tenman-gu shrine, a Shinto complex that was first dedicated over 1000 years ago.

BICYCLES

That is one very old shrine

We kept riding and eventually came to the crown jewel of Kyoto shrines, the 'Golden Pavilion' of Kinkaku-ji. This is actually a Zen Buddhist temple which is used for housing relics of Buddha. It earned its 'Golden' nickname because the top couple stories have roofs that are covered in pure gold leaf. It really does shine brightly. This was the first stop where we weren't really able to escape the tourists, so whatever tranquility we were hoping for certainly was not apparent there. We salvaged our inner peace by indulging in probably our best ice cream purchases of the trip. I swear there is ice cream EVERYWHERE. Plus, Kyoto is known to have the warmest temperatures of the region and the days we were there were no exception. We needed the cool-down because our ride back the bike shop would take another 30-40 minutes and we were aiming to catch the afternoon train to Osaka. Quick recap - bikes in Kyoto? Good. Ice cream? Great. Monkeys? Yup. Shrines? Plenty. Tourists? Too many. Kyoto in general? Awesome.

Kinkaku-ji

I think that's the ass of the Phoenix 

Searching for serenity

Our walk to the train station also involved getting stopped by a massive protest going through the Gion area. I guess the current Prime Minister (Shinzo Abe) has proposed changes to the Japanese constitution that would allow their military to 'assist' in supporting their allies. This pissed off a lot of Japanese citizens because of the slippery slope they believe it leads down. Start by 'assisting' allies, and eventually you become the aggressor, which is a position Japan has not sought since the end of WWII. The Allies forced them to re-draft their constitution and they've been one of the most peaceful and productive societies in the world since then. People were very pissed off and it will definitely be interesting to see if or how Japan continues down that path.

Our train ride to Osaka wasn't on the bullet train, since the two downtowns are only about 60km from each other. In fact, the stretch between the two cities is really now just urban sprawl and the two cities almost form a massive mega-city, similar to Dallas and Fort Worth. However, the two cities were very different, since Osaka was severely destroyed by Allied fire-bombing in WWII. It has since grown to become a symbol of new Japan, with enormous malls and shopping complexes dotting many regions of the city, as well as the numerous skyscrapers one expects from a major metropolis.

We opted to stay in Shinsaibashi, an area very close to the shopping districts that we were hoping to take advantage of. Our hostel was pretty nice (for a hostel), and the bunkbed room that AP and I got actually had a pretty sizable mattress. Our hostel had also just opened a sake bar on their ground level and we got free sake upon arrival. We walked around for a while, just taking in the various sights and shops. It was Saturday night again and the city was definitely bustling. We definitely didn't quite see the same levels of Harajuku girls as we did in Tokyo, but there were certainly impressive displays of Japanese fashion varieties.  We found a lovely gyoza place and paid about $10 each for insane amounts of dumplings. Totally worth it.

Hana Sake Bar

Yes we want free sake

Gyoza wall - definitely a good sign

Our next day forced us to be mindful of peace and it forced me to think about history in a little different way than I'd been used to. We decided to take the Shinkansen out to Hiroshima, the port city infamous for being the target of the first atomic weapon ever used in warfare. I'd almost been dreading this day because I knew I'd face my beliefs about war and what ends justify what means. I'd always felt that the bombs were necessary and I'd never really been forcefully challenged by anyone in that opinion. Luckily for me, AP vehemently disagreed and we had a pretty heated argument about it on the train ride out to Hiroshima. We resolved to both become more informed and decided to use the pocket wifi and just read the entire Wikipedia page about the bombing, including the background, the decision, the controversy, and the other events going on at the time. It was definitely very eye-opening, as I'd never really understood how the Russian troops were about to invade Manchuria. I can understand why people have second-guessed the decision, especially after the horrors about what it was like for the people of Hiroshima and those who survived. I won't try to spew too much political or historical garble, but I can tell you that physically being in the place where the bomb was dropped definitely forced me to challenge my beliefs.

We took the bus out to the 'A-Bomb Dome,' which is a building that was almost directly underneath the bomb when it exploded. Due to its position underneath, the building retained a lot of its infrastructure after the blast, although the shock waves actually went straight down and punched through each floor of the building. It had been used as an exhibition hall but now is one of the few remaining historical shells of life pre-bomb. We walked through the Peace Memorial Park, including the Children's Memorial, where people today send colored ribbons from around the world to pray for peace. We walked through the vast grounds until we got to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. It was the 70th anniversary of the bombings this year and about half of the museum was getting refurbished, presumably for the 75th. It presented the facts about the bombing very matter-of-factly. I didn't necessarily think it was anti-American in any way. The stated mission of the museum is to promote world peace, so they did their best to show what can happen when peace becomes secondary to victory. There were hundreds of artifacts, including a lot of children's items. None of those were as moving as the survivor's tales, which had been recorded and put on screens and played on tv's at the end. One woman described it like this, "Before, the city had been very green and sunny. Now, the only colors I saw were black. And gray. And red."

A-Bomb Dome

Replica of the 'Little Boy' bomb

Even the innocent weren't spared

Some restoration was done to make sure it doesn't collapse

But this is essentially what the Dome looked like after the bomb

Children's Memorial

Peace Memorial Park

Mushroom clouds

We continued to stroll the grounds for a while, and eventually made our way to a shopping centre not too far away. This was a pleasant reminder that Hiroshima is alive and well today. It is a thriving city, with plenty of industry, including Mazda's headquarters. Besides the A-Bomb Dome and surrounding memorials, there aren't many relics of the destruction. Like the rest of the country, Hiroshima built itself back and is now doing well.

Our final stop of the day was at the Hiroshima Castle, which was rebuilt after being completely demolished by the bomb. Inside the Castle is essentially a museum, which honors feudal Japan. It was a beautiful complex. We then decided it was time to head back to Osaka. AP and I treated ourselves to our first true sushi dinner of the trip, at a fantastic restaurant near Shinsaibashi called Honto Sushi Kaiba. It was cozy and they prepared the sushi right in front of us. Plus, the waiters spoke excellent English and their wine selection fit our tastes. Great ending to a very thought-provoking day.

Shopping is alive!

The rebuilt Hiroshima Castle

Our final full day in Osaka started out with another day trip. This time we dedicated ourselves to finding and enjoying the Nara area, for the sole purpose of exploring the Deer Park. AP had gotten pretty excited about the prospect of hanging out with hundreds of deer, so we promptly attempted to take the train out there. However, literally not more than 4 seconds after we'd purchased our tickets, we were approached by a lovely Japanese woman asking us if we were taking the Kobe line to Nara. She explained that there was an accident and we would have to take another route. In typical Japanese style, she refunded our tickets and profusely apologized for the inconvenience. She also directed us to the proper line. The commitment to service quality is really remarkable. When we discovered why there was an accident, we were a bit downtrodden however.

'Human Damage Accident' is code for 'someone committed suicide.' Apparently, it's not uncommon since the trains move so bloody fast, it's a very quick way to end one's life. Japan can definitely be a stressful place for people, since society demands that everyone work very hard. A lot of people can't take that stress, as well as the expectations for personal and family life. This definitely put a temporary damper on our day, but we determined to see some damn deer!

We got off the train at Nara and made the 15-minute trek up to the park. There's no designated 'Deer Park' in Nara. It's really just a park where hundreds of deer happen to live. They are fed by people (almost exclusively tourists) and are pretty content just posting up and living there. The deer were considered sacred in previous imperial eras, and killing them was even punishable by death. After WWII, they were pretty much stripped of the 'sacred' status, but they're still cherished and protected as natural resources now.

We passed through a few shrines before noticing the people gathering and then we finally started seeing some deer! Just a few sedate ones were chilling among some of the shrines and then we moved into a much larger area where dozens were grazing. They were also swarming whenever people came by with these little crackers/cookies that local vendors were selling. We naturally bought a few packs and started feeding the deer. Some were more aggressive than others, but in general, they were very eager to eat, less so to get pet. Some of the older ones, (or those who were just full of crackers) would lie down and they were ok with people petting them. It was a pretty nice little excursion and I know everyone liked playing with the animals.

Deer time!

Plotting their next food swarm

Dasher or dancer? Prancer or vixen?

Comet or cupid?

Donner or Blitzen?

She's running out of food

The polite one

We grabbed some snacks and a bit of deer-related shopping on our way back to Shinsaibashi. When we arrived, it was time to fully dedicate ourselves to shopping. We walked through these covered streets that were entirely shopping stalls. I made plenty of worthy purchases, but was pretty pooped pretty quickly. It's just how I am with shopping. We did pass by a street vendor selling fresh crab legs however, and I regained my energy.

Prepare for shopping!

The shopping never ended! (Yes, we obviously sampled Japanese McDonald's = pretty good!)

After our afternoon, we dressed ourselves up and headed down to Dotonbori, an area known for its absurdly colorful restaurants and vibrant nightlife. The area didn't disappoint, since every restaurant on the main strip had either massive signs or massive 3D symbols meant to draw people in. Enormous fish, sushi, shark, and cattle signs adorned these structures and the array of lights definitely attracted me. We opted for a side street place that served decent ramen and beef noodles. 

We like your lights Dotonbori

I'm drawn to your sushi, kind sir

Blow fish?

This was actually audio-animatronic

This just looked yummy

There's too much to love here

The next morning, we tried to squeeze in some last minute shopping and eventually packed up all of our stuff. It was time to head home. We managed to catch our last Shinkansen from Osaka to Tokyo around lunch time. This one, despite being super fast, still took a few hours and we eventually caught up to Narita Airport. I should point out that the duty-free selection was very impressive at Narita, and I actually found a lot of the touristy souvenirs that I'd really wanted throughout the whole trip. We made some even more last-minute shopping there and then flew back to Australia.

The trip was really really fantastic. I've had some time to reflect and I definitely learned an insane amount about Japanese culture. The things that really stood out were (1) everyone who worked in the service industry was extremely friendly and dedicated to their jobs. Even though we didn't speak Japanese, they never treated us poorly nor judged us, nor got visibly frustrated. This has certainly not been the case in other countries I've been to. (2) Transportation was efficient. The trains were always on time and Google Maps provided us with good estimates on how to get everywhere. (3) Pocket wifi was a lifesaver. I think it was $100 between four people for 10 days, and it was fantastic. We were able to stay connected and figure out good places to go and eat, and obviously post to social media! (4) It was affordable. Considering the favorable exchange rate with the US dollar, this trip was not as expensive as a lot of trips I've gone on and food is reasonably priced, accommodations were reasonably priced (especially when we split between four people), and the trains (most of which we paid for in advance) weren't outrageously priced. I highly recommend traveling to Japan to anyone and I certainly intend on going back!

I'll have to save the rest of my story for another post, so sayonara for now!