On Saturday morning I got up early to catch the bullet train to Nagano. There I transferred to the JR line to Myoko Kogen. Click here to follow along with a map.
I'll admit, I was pretty excited to ride a bullet train. They go crazy fast, but you definitely don't realize it. I slept most of the way.
When I arrived I was greeted by a member of Powder Recon. They had me on the hill at the local resort to "warm up" in less than an hour. Some of the others had already been on a prior tour, so they were off on a day trip. This gave me a day to ride on my own. The runs were so beautiful, the snow is so light and there is so little wind that it just sits on the trees.
That evening we packed up the van and drove to Niigata City on the north coast. I really enjoyed the road trips--our longest was about 5 hours. Great time to listen to music and get to know our fellow travelers.
Here we are at the first of many great dinners. Greg is on the right, I met him in Chile. Next to him is Bryce, the owner of Powder Recon and a great snowboarder. Next to him is Paul, another Australian tour operator in Japan. He was along to check out some more resorts to possibly add to his itineraries. Last is Jan, the guide I was with most of the time. He's a great skier from Switzerland.
As a friend of mine would say, I was happier than a pig in slop for the entirety of this trip. Powder so light you could float through it, the best tree riding of my life, and great company the whole way along. It was Six Australian guys snowboarding, two Aussies skiiing, one French Canadian, two guides, and me.
We hit six resorts in seven days, repeating only once. The general areas were Myoko Kogen, Bandai (3 resorts), Geto Kogen, and Morioka, where I caught the train back to Tokyo.
Veronique, our skier from White Horse, Yukon, Canada, and our guide Jan. The three of us were definitely the youngest and tended to hang out together.
We stayed at a variety of hotels, many of them slopeside, but this was definitely the most traditional. We slept on the floor (made of straw mats) on thin mattresses.
Me in my yukata ready to go to the hotel's onsen.
Many Japanese drink milk after onsen. Count me in! The one on the left is milk mixed with orange, banana, and pineapple. It was great. On the right is normal skim milk. Of course, they came out of a vending machine.
One of my favorite pictures, and a frequent occurrence. Snow stuck to my beard like crazy, and I loved it. When you turn hard and the snow flies up over your head they call it a "face shot" for good reason. There were lots of those.
Riding through the trees. So much fun. I love the quick decisions you have to make when flying through the trees and all the little side hits and pillows you can find to jump and trick off of.
I actually won this jacket at the beginning of the season in an online contest. The timing was perfect, and it's an incredible jacket.
A timely photo after I did a cartwheel through the snow. You just sink into this snow, it's so light!
Part of snowboarding is injury. On Wednesday I went full-speed into a rope across a run. It clipped me under the armpit and whipped my arm backwards. The pain still comes and goes, and the color spectrum I've seen since the injury is impressive, but after an afternoon of icing, I was able to get right back out there the next day. I'm very thankful it wasn't worse; nothing broken, nothing snapped.
Veronique disappearing into the snow! Seriously, almost every day involved runs like this. The pow was so deep, we had snow almost every day.
On my last night on tour we went to a Korean Barbeque place. I did this once before, and it's a lot of fun. They bring you marinated raw meat, fish, and veggies and you cook it on your grill at your table. It's a very social way to eat some delicious food.
Unfortunately when I fell I lost my camera, so there is a day or two missing here. I returned Friday night and went straight to the sushi place owned by my new friend I met at Eduardo's place the week before. After another fantastic sushi meal, we went back for drinks at Eduardo's and I fell into bed exhausted (we had been riding earlier that day as well). On Saturday, I got a new camera and went to see Sumo Wrestling. It was so cool! This is the drum tower and all the wrestlers' flags out front.
The program said there are two secrets to sumo wrestling. One is practice, and the other is the stew prepared by each wrestler's stable. On each day of the tournament a different stable offers their own recipe for $2.50 a bowl. It was so good!
The National Sumo Stadium. I got there very early to get a general admission ticket. They start with the trainees, so it was pretty empty. It gradually fills until the higher orders wrestle in the afternoon. The Japanese go nuts for this stuff.
They enter the stadium wearing full yukatas. There's quite the air of tradition around the whole thing. I caught a few of them wandering around outside and they happily posed for a picture.
The two highest orders enter wearing traditional aprons, performing something of a ritual dance. Everyone cheers when their favorite wrestler enters.
The fights themselves are wildly entertaining. Some last 3 seconds, some last almost a minute. The rules are very simple: first to exit the ring or hit the ground with any part of the body other than the feet loses. The edge of the ring is raised, and many times they push off the edge to regain control.
Watch a complete match here. You'll see them prepare for the fight, anoint the ring with salt, and size each other up many times before the actual fight begins.
I couldn't leave Tokyo without riding a roller coaster. Thunder Dolphin has been on my radar ever since it was build. Intamin, who built Millenium Force out at Cedar Point, my favorite coaster, also put this one together. It was a great ride, lots of air time and a fantastic head-chopper through a little hole in a wall. Plus it passes through the hubless, spokeless ferris wheel which I rode for an aerial view of the city.
My last pictures of Tokyo were in a karaoke booth with my Notre Dame friend Adam who is working in the city. We had so much fun. These buildings are just stuffed with tiny rooms you rent out with friends to sing at the top of your lungs and order drinks. Afterwards we went to a club and danced the night away. We had such a good time that I slept through my alarm and barely made it to the airport for my flight, but I got out just fine.
What a great trip. I had a blast, everything from the city to the snow. I can't believe how blessed I am. After 2 days at home, I hopped a plane to Florida where I caught up with friends for a couple days. I'm currently on a plane to Atlanta where we'll connect to Dubai and on to The Maldives to do some serious diving. One adventure after another. Come back in a couple weeks for a post, you won't want to miss these pictures.
Japan! Why not, right? I met Greg and Lyndell, both Australians, while snowboarding in Chile. They invited me along on this trip, and the snow in Japan is supposed to be the best in the world, so I booked it. Here's a map to follow along.
The first week I spent in Japan was in Tokyo. This post is devoted to Tokyo alone, and I'll warn you, there are a LOT of pictures. I'll try to be brief with the words. Post coming soon covering the snow portion of the trip.
Task number one: contact fellow 2010 ND graduate Dhairya Doshi, with whom I'd be staying during my time in Tokyo. He gave me a contact number, so I found a pay phone, put in 100 yen (about a dollar--it's around a penny to the yen), and thankfully got the right guy.
I took the bus into the city, around 90 minutes. Thank goodness someone told me which bus to be on, because I can't even pretend to read this sign.
Actually, pretty much everything is translated to English, which is great for tourists. This sign included, anything digital will switch back and forth between English and Japanese, along with Korean and Chinese on some signs.
Dhairya and I got dinner then I hit the sack.
I had so much fun figuring out the train system. Everything is pretty simple as long as you aren't cartographically challenged. If you can get around any large English-speaking city, Tokyo is not much different.
My first stop Tuesday morning was the Tsukiji fish market to see the tuna auction around 5 a.m. Every website and tour guide says to see the tuna auction. The cops that escorted me out had a different opinion. Apparently as of 2014 no tourists are allowed. Oh well, I got a few pictures before I was booted.
Fish are giant, maybe 4-5 feet long, and go for between $6,000 and $10,000 USD.
The outer markets around Tsukiji carry everything you could ever need by way of fish and most other food supplies you can imagine.
Another big draw to Tsukiji is the incredibly fresh (like off the boat 20 minutes ago) sushi. So sushi breakfast is quite popular. Sushi Dai is locally regarded as the best, so I waited in line an hour for a seat.
7 a.m., best time for sushi.
This stuff was crazy delicious. Freshest, best-quality sushi I've every had. Abour US $35 for 10 pieces of chef-selected nigiri. Among the pieces were tuna, yellowtail, clam, salmon roe (biggest I've ever seen), sea urchin, snapper, flounder, and mackerel.
After milling around the markets a couple more hours, I went to the beautifully serene Hama Rikyu gardens next door. My favorite thing about Tokyo was the juxtaposition between gardens that haven't changed in thousands of years and the high-tech sky scrapers in the background.
This garden featured long Japanese cedar bridges over mirror-like lagoons and quiet, elegant tea houses on islands.
The Shogun who had his castle here was a big fan of duck hunting pre-weapon style. They would hide in these shacks, lure the ducks into a channel, then scare them into flying up and catch them with nets.
Language barrier strikes again. I got on the wrong ferry, but it was only a 10 minute journey, so I crossed back over the river and got on the right one bound for Asakusa to the north.
We crossed under 13 bridges or varying style and complexity. I'm glad I decided to travel by water, it gave a unique perspective to the city.
Asakusa is most famous for its giant traditional temple devoted to a golden idol trapped in fishing nets over a thousand years ago. The Japanese come from all over the country to pay homage.
All Japanese shrines and temples I visited follow the same ritual, but this one was equipped for high occupancy. People of all ages (like the elderly lady in the foreground here) come, dig coins out of their purse, and do their best to throw the coin into the box in the middle. Then they pray to the god/Buddha/idol for whatever they specifically grant or protect against. It's a cool ritual, and people are very serious about it.
Since I was on my own in Tokyo, there aren't a whole lot of pictures of me, but I made a point to take a few. You're welcome, Mom!
I walked over to Ueno Park from Asakusa. It was quite a hike, but I definitely prefer to travel above ground whenever I can. So much to see!
This Samurai was a great warrior back in the Edo period and inspired the Tom Cruise movie The Last Samurai.
Part of the park is this beautifully ornate temple filled with more gold than I've ever seen in one place before. The dragons on either side of the door (the colorful vertical sculptures, tough to see here) are rumored to go drinking in the nearby lake at night.
After walking the park I took a stroll through a nearby cemetery as night was falling. It was a very cool experience, the Japanese have a very traditional way of preparing graves. I'm not entirely certain what the wooden slats are behind the stone, but they were on many plots and appeared to be interchangeable.
This guy has a beer in the center of his stone. You know, in case he gets thirsty.
After Ueno I headed to a very cool restaurant my guidebook recommended (great guide book, by the way, Rough Guide to Tokyo--thanks Anna!) called Hantei. They specialize in food on sticks, and it's delicious. They start you off with a "first course" of six sticks. Then I ordered a half course, which includes...
Crabs on a stick! These guys were small, the bodies were probably the size of a quarter. I asked the waitress, "I eat the whole thing?" motioning eating it all. "Hai, hai" (yes). As the Japanese say, Kampai! Down the hatch. A little crunchy, with the distinct flavor of crab.
Words that served me well: Arigato, Ohaio, Konbanwa, Sumimasen, Sumenesai, Eigo ga dekimasu ka, Itodakimasu, gochiso sama deshita (thank you, good morning, good evening, excuse me, I'm sorry, do you speak English, bon apetit, that was delicious). Gozaimas can be added to just about everything to make it more formal/polite, hence the name of this post.
On Wednesday I took the monorail over the Rainbow Bridge to the island of Odaiba. It's a man-made island that is devoted to all things technology-related which fed my geek side quite nicely. This is a picture of the Tokyo Convention Center from the monorail. They have a giant saw, because why not?
My first stop was the Panasonic building. No photos were allowed inside, but it was quite impressive. They had a show floor on the bottom level devoted to green energy, and the top two floors were an interactive math and science museum. I could have spent all day there, I had so much fun.
I spent a few hours at the Miraiken in the afternoon, a science museum showing science of the future. This globe was probably 30 feet across and was constructed of LCD screens. They had presentations about global warming every half hour that showed Earth's climatological changes in a yearly cycle. Cool.
These numbers were real-time data from all over the world. You could click a computer screen to see what each represented, and they changed every once in a while to a different subject. I think the green one was gallons of beer produced that day to the minute.
More cool toys. This was a representation of a computer sending an email message. You input the message letter by letter using black and white balls (representing 0s and 1s), they're "processed" in the computer, and the message is received on the other end.
"Hi Mom!"
My last tech stop of the day was the Toyota building. I saw some pretty crazy concepts. They're confident the next thing in automobiles will be hydrogen. They're having hydrogen stations installed all over Japan, and this sweet-looking hydro-car will be on the market in 2015.
They had a bunch of driving simulators on the floor where you could activate different safety features of a Toyota. You could also drive the new models out on the streets, but considering the quantity of cars I was seeing on streets and the fact that they drive on the left, I decided to opt out of that one.
Odaiba has a statue of liberty. Because, why not? Rainbow bridge in the background.
The Japanese are crazy about Ramen noodles. I ate a lot on this trip. This particular bowl has pork, bean sprouts, bamboo shoots, corn, all topped off with a tablespoon of butter.
I finished off my day at Odaiba by going to an onsen. This was quite the experience. Japanese bathing is segregated and is done in the nude. It takes some getting used to; there's a cleansing ritual to it all, which takes practice. This one was huge, it had 8 pools inside and 3 outside, all around 100-110 degrees Fahrenheit and one cold pool next to a sauna. Every ski resort we went to had an onsen, much smaller than this one.
Thursday started with a trip to Ginza, home of Tokyo Station and Ginza chome-4, the busiest intersection in the city. Lots and lots and lots of people here.
Ginza borders the Imperial Palace and Gardens. The current palace and residences are hidden from view, but there are giant reminders of what the old castle looked like in the Edo period, like this huge entrance gate to the East garden.
This place was impressive. The stone interlocking reminded me of that seen at Machu Picchu. The views were great, and the design very impressive.
I can't get enough of these pagodas set over water. They're so pretty.
I ran into a camera crew more than once, but this one made me chuckle. They found a family that was obviously foreign and interviewed them about the information signs which can be found all over the city. These things were a life-saver. They're oriented to the direction you're looking, have the best English street-naming system, and show how to get to the nearest train. My guess is this had something to do with Tokyo's bid for the olympics, showing how easy is is for an English-speaker to navigate the city.
Also found in Ginza is the Sony building. Most of the building is devoted to showing off their latest gear and some future-release stuff. The set-up was pretty cool, very impressive.
De-constructed camera
These were so cool. They're high-resolution lenses that can attach to your smart phone to transform it into a better camera, or you can detach the lens to turn it at any angle, reach around corners, into tight places, and still operate the shutter from your phone. Neat concept.
Sony's big thing they're pushing right now is their 4K sound system. They had a little educational area about sound. This booth said that humans can hear up to a 20,000 Hertz frequency, but most adults can't hear anywhere near that high. I was surprised that I could hear it without any trouble, and the woman at the booth said she had never met anyone who could hear it. Must be a product of never using ear buds--great choice! If you want to test it out yourself, click here (best in a silent room with headphones)
There's a bakery to the north of Ginza chome-4 that has been serving up the same recipes for over a thousand years. I had to try it out. This great attendant picked her three favorite sweet rolls, they were awesome.
I promised a Chilean friend that I would take lots of pictures of the Manga culture in Japan. Manga is every Asian cartoon-themed thing you can imagine.
I went to a book store up in Akihabara with 9 floors purely devoted to Manga. It was intense. If anyone wants to see more pictures of anime-related stuff, let me know. I have lots.
One of the not-to-be-missed experiences was to visit a Maid Cafe in Akihabara. It was pretty interesting, these girls devoted to Manga culture are the servers and their sole purpose is to talk to you about your life while you're there. The language barrier was a little tough, but I got to learn a lot about Japanese culture, see some art she's done, and talk about music.
On Friday I explored the area of Akasaka where I was staying with Dhairya ("Home Base" on the map). This is the National Diet Building. (No kidding. Maybe pronounced Dee-Eht?). It has the two branches of government inside, and the House of Councillors is available for touring. It's kind of like the British House of Lords. No photos were allowed inside, but it's quite ornate. There are special seats for the Emperor and his family when they visit. One of the coolest things is that any Japanese citizen is welcome to come watch proceedings since politics is viewed as "for the people".
Just steps from our apartment was Hie-Jinja, a temple devoted to the protector against all evil.
The staircase was lined with bamboo gates, it was cool to walk through the rays of light coming through.
I saw some interesting characters inside this shrine...some very formal types in suits and women in high heels wishing against evil. Every once in a while it just felt like I was in the presence of the Yakusa mob, and this was one.
I then moved on to Roppongi, kind of the trendy area of Tokyo.
Art...or slides? This was a playground created out of sculptures. They had jungle gyms, swings, and slides all created in a modern art style.
In the center of Roppongi Hills is this giant bronze spider. It's huge.
I didn't spend much time in Roppongi, it felt very Western. It was basically a big mall complex with sky scrapers all around. Interesting to see though.
I jumped on a train to Shinjuku to see the famous Shinjuku Gyoen gardens, possibly the most beautiful in Tokyo. It really was stunning, meticulously manicured greenery everywhere.
The western half of the garden is very Japanese in style with winding paths, bridges, pagodas, and tea houses.
Another pagoda over a mirror-like lagoon. So beautiful. I can't imagine what this looks like during Cherry Blossom season.
In stark contrast, the Eastern half of the garden is dominated by straight lines, huge Birch trees, and long wide-open green lawns in a French style.
I'm not sure if that's a crayfish or a scorpion, but either way I don't know why anyone would want to pick one up.
Even though it was still a little early, I walked up to the area called Golden Gai on the East side of Shinjuku. This place is crazy.
Some 200 tiny little bars are crammed into these little alleyways. I walked through maybe four or five times peeking into windows and taking pictures of signs. Nothing was open yet, but it was nice seeing things in the light.
Since I had some time to kill until the bars opened, I decided to check out something I had read about in the guide book. They call them Cat Cafes.
You pay $5 for an hour with the cats and you can order drinks. I figured at the very least, they had wifi, and I needed to catch up on some emails. It was actually a pretty cool place.
All the cats were pure-bred, which a nearby "cat enthusiast" was quick to tell me you'd never find in the states.
This particular pure-bred didn't look so happy in its costume.
It was rather pleasant. I don't know if I'd need to do it again, but the idea is to enjoy the company of pets without the responsibility of pet ownership. Lots of young couples and a few elderly people who I'm guessing have lost loved ones. I got to talk with some interesting folks.
After the cats I went to have the best Tonkatsu of the trip (breaded pork cutlet). This place is known especially for mixing it with ginger, cabbage, and rice, then pouring green tea over the whole thing to make something of a porridge. It was fantastic.
And I found friends! Gosuke, the guy behind me, grew up in the states and asked if I wanted to join them. They all enjoyed practicing English.
At this point things were starting to move at Golden Gai so I ducked into a place that could maybe fit four people. I had a few drinks with Brian, a Japanese-American visiting family, and Fuji, the bartender who spoke very little English. We had a blast swapping stories and trying to communicate with each other.
And then, walking back to the apartment preparing for a night of clubbing, I happened upon a Chilean flag in a window. I was confused, so I stared at it for a minute. Next thing I know, a drunk Japanese guy in a suit is waving me in and I'm eating Chilean food and wine with a very interesting crowd.
Eduardo, with the glasses in the back, moved to Japan 30 years ago and has been serving up sandwiches Chilean-style ever since. He's good friends with all the Japanese folks in the picture. We had a very interesting night, it was definitely the most ridiculous cultural experience I've had. I was speaking Chilean Spanish with Eduardo, who was translating to Japanese for everyone else. It was a great final night in Tokyo before heading up to the snow. The guy on the right owns a high-class sushi restaurant in Ginza, so we all agreed to meet there after I got back from riding in the North. Stay tuned for phase two in Snow and Sumo!
