and breaths a sigh of relief that 64D didn't go down while he was gone.
Sorry I exaggerated on 2 weeks, was really 10 days.And some of you may have noticed I was online yesterday, however I was super tired and couldn't finish this blog.I'm sorry rc and all the other dial-up members, this page will hurt ;_;13688So, first we took off from LAX to San Fransisco and from there made our flight to Japan. At 1:35 pm we left California and 10 hours later we landed in Japan at 4:35 pm. I don't usually experience jet-lag, I had just gotten a pretty hard dose of it. First pic, this was the train station below the airport.
As soon as we left the airport I felt the brutally hot and even more brutal humidity of Japan. Idk, I've never gone further east from CA than Wyoming, so I've pretty much always lived in the dry desert that is LA.
Because our train wasn't until tomorrow, we stayed in a hotel by the airport for one night. This was our view. Everything is so green O-o I love it. Sure the hills are so dense that it's not worth cutting though, but because of it they build all around the forests, and I think that's awesome.
This is me. I'm super tired in this pic.
That is our train coming towards me, it's not the bullet train, but it sure moves pretty damn fast. Looks cool too.
I then took a bunch of photos (only showing some) on the train on the way to Hiroshima. We landed in the Tokyo area in case you were wondering and are now visiting relative's of Cranium's. It's so green!!!
I really like the way the houses look, the way they are all small and look comfy at the same time. Idk, I just love the way the residential areas look.
More pics while on the train. I love the way the city looks, everything is so pressed together that they just build tall but skinny towers.
I'm now in Hiroshima and our group is walking around an looking at the stores near the hotel. Again I just love how everything is; how every building has multiple levels, idk I just like it, stop judging. I also love the large amount of wires flying across the city.
This is the view from our hotel in Hiroshima, at night.
We stopped at a relitive's house, again I took a picture to show how green everything is, of course we are in an agricultural area so I guess that's not fair. Still, green.
This is a one tenth model of the Japanese battleship Yamato, which was the largest and most powerful warship ever built. It was destroyed in a suicide mission. Cool museum.
Here we are climbing this really high mountain that over looks the bay and islands. Of course it just happened to be the hottest day while we are in Japan that we are hiking. I don't think I have ever sweated so much in such a little amount of time. Then again I could be wrong.
The view from the top. It was really hot up there d;
This was another hike, this time in the shade. I think the trees are pretty, skinny trunks, lots o' leaves.
On the same day we went down to that beach and ate some kabobs, they were tasty, but unlike our KaBob, it didn't have any taste of cheese. We then crossed that there arching bridge, and after took a gondola to the top of another peak and it had a pretty sweet view.
We crossed this bridge, it's pretty impressive looking.
Here we are walking to the temple ahead of us. The two people you see in front of us is Ichiro (forgot his relation to Cranium) and his granddaughter. Ichiro is awesome.
One part of the temple.
Here is another part of the temple.
And that is the main part of the temple.
What I just showed you with the bridges and hiking and all was over a span of a few days. On our last day with Ichiro, he took us to an extremely good dinner. This picture is of some fish we had cooked on that grill in front of us. We tore them apart with our chopsticks and with our hunger.
Here is a final pic of Ichiro. He is awesome. It's amazing how much gift giving happens between Japanese when visiting relatives or friends. Ichiro was super generous and freaking funny. Crainium and I could speak a little Japanese, Crane more than I, but we were able to keep a conversation some how mixing English with Japanese (and having Stephen's grandma near by to translate what we were missing).
The next day we went to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum; I didn't take any pictures. I'm not going to lie, the museum was pretty sickening and sad. It really makes me want to join the movement to eradicate all nukes from the planet, although I know it's just simply impossible. There was a great amount of peace in Hiroshima, I just think it's sad that other countries can't feel the same way. This is a pic I got of the A-Bomb Dome, known for being one of the very few buildings to still be standing after little boy was dropped.
I thought the name of this store was funny.
Crazy gas station, you get your gas from the ceiling O-o
Street pic, I thought it was nice, and you guys wanted pics.
More pictures of Japanese buildings.
Intersection in Hiroshima.
Soon after we left for our hotel in Tokyo. On the way I got to see Mount Fuji. It's very nice looking, especially since it's sacred ground so no buildings are on it.
Tokyo, at night. Tokyo is full of lights, it's pretty.
We were walking around and I saw this crazy curvy building O-o
Tokyo during the day. Walking to the Imperial Palace.
There was a river surrounding the palace and I thought this looked nice so I took a picture.
Obviously the important buildings were pretty restricted, so we were pretty much looking at guard houses, walls, and lawns. Still, it was all pretty.
Oh and on this day we went to Akihabura, Japan's famous technology retail district. 10% of all the technology in Japan is sold within a radius of a couple blocks here. Anime and Tech everywhere, it was heaven. Oh and the weather is much better in Tokyo than Hiroshima, a lot cooler.
Another pic from Akihabura.
The next day we went to the famous fish market. It was huge. I didn't get very good pictures that day so this one is the best I can give. You can't see it here, but a lot of the stores were crammed under really low ceilings. It was crazy how packed in everything was O-o. Very wet too.
Street view of Tokyo. Sorry, I just really like the way it all looks with the tall buildings everywhere and wires running up and down the streets.
Another pic of Tokyo.
We were going into a curry house, this sign was on the front. I submitted it to engrish.com, I still haven't gotten a response.
More Tokyo architecture.
Freeway ride to the airport back home :(The freeways are cool.
We then flew from Tokyo at 3:30 pm and 9 hours later (less turbulence thus faster) we landed in LA at 9:30 am. JET LAG O-o. I was super tired and couldn't finish this blog. I woke up at 12:30 am today and couldn't fall back asleep. So I played Demon's Souls. I'm rambling.So yeah, probably lots of errors in this because I wrote it half awake.I missed you guys.Edit:I forgot to mention, I went to a baseball game in Hiroshima, Carps vs Bay Stars. And it was while I was gone for 5 minutes to get a drink that the amazing catch happened that was later broadcasted around the world.And yes I do realize I'm getting a little too crazy over the green-ness, I'm just not used to it from living in LA for so long.
Crap sorry. Lots of errors. So freaking tired when I wrote this.
And LA is just brown with the exception of trees that shouldn't be here sprinkled with litter.Looks like you had a great time. Got any souvenirs?
I am satisfied. Japan is as green as I'd hoped. But sadly, pictures cannot fulfill my need to visit there myself, so when I'm a rich bastard, I'm creating a Japan blog of my own.
Great pics!
Oh yeah and LA sucks, but not as bad as Phoenix.Gotta love that gas-station ^^
I've always wanted to visit Japan. But that's too much for my paycheck. Thanks for the pictures, so I can see what Japan looks like. And I'm surprised that Hiroshima is so… alive?
So cool [:)]
Sounds like a really cool trip, and ichiro seems awesome.Thanks for sharing the pictures, I'd like to visit Japan one day too. That engrish one was hilarious, it almost seems as if it could've been done intentionally to amuse the english :P
And, quite unsurprisingly I suppose, a lot of the photos remind me of anime I've seen. The wires across the streets remind me of the opening of Evangelion, and the temple reminds me of the one in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, and the fields remind me of the train scenes in 5 Centimeters Per Second.