25sleepingguy.jpg Here is a guy sleeping on the train. On the average train there are dozens of sleeping people, but I took a picture of this one because he is crazy-looking. Also notice the cute girl behind him sending email on her ketai(mobile phone). This is almost as common a sight on the train as people sleeping. Also also notice all the junk she has hanging off her phone. For some reason people over there hang all these cutesy bangles from thier phones. I don't get it. Sleeping Guy
22fruitmark.jpg Here you can see how expensive fruit is at the market. Compare these prices to the fish prices in the next photo. Fruit at the Market
18underbridge.jpg Here we are under my aforementioned favorite bridge. There were actually many of these bridges around Japan, but I haven't seen any anywhere else. Under The Bridge
01takeno.jpg This is my teacher from Japanese class, Takeno-sensei, who arranged this whole trip and set up the home stay and everything. He is a pretty cool guy, and also a professional photographer. Part of his reason for going was to take pictures of other people from Towson who are in Japan. Here he is at Dulles airport checking all his gear before we leave. He was very jealous of my one tiny little camera. Takeno-sensei
27kimikoshouse.jpg This is Kimiko's house. It is a very large house by Japanese standards, with enough room for three extra guests. In front is parked their Toyota Nadia. All the houses I saw in Japan had walls around them similar to this. Kimiko's House
41ladies.jpg Here are the ladies standing gabbing and fooling around before we head up to the volcano. It turns out that hanging out with four Japanese ladis is very similar to hanging out with four American ladies. Although you would hardly be likely to find four American women as nice as these four. The ladies
11upsidedown.jpg Sometimes Tokyo can be pretty disorienting. I often feel like this. Fortunately I am not particularly attached to the idea of knowing what is going on. Upside Down
47beerontrain.jpg This guy is drinking a beer on the train, which I was glad I could do when the trains stopped running for two hours leaving the football game because someone had killed themselves on the tracks. It was so incredibly frustrating because it was so crowded and everyone knew what was going on except us because the announcements were only in Japanese, and we were so worried about being late for a karaoke appointment which we had that night. We were in fact very late, but fortunately the peopel we were meeting watched the news and figured out where we were. Sadly my camera also had a beer and could not keep focused. Beer on the Train
34speakers.jpg The kids also like to pack as many speakers as possible into their rides, but since they use vans they can hold many more speakers than in the US. Speakers
35monkeys.jpg In Kyoto we visited Monkey Mountain. It is just a little mountain you can climb which has a lot of monkeys on it. The monkeys are not afraid of humans, but there are signs all over warning you not to stare them in the eyes or they will supposedly go berzerk and rip your face off. I didn't see it happen though; I am just reporting what the sign said. Monkey Mountain
46soccer.jpg here are me and Doung on the way to a football game at Saitama Stadium. We didn't have tickets or anything, but we wanted to check out the whole scene surrounding the World Cup, which happened to be in Japan at the time of our visit. Doug is of course wearing a shirt that says "Happiness is (American) football" which drew many snide comments, not from Japanese people as much as all the other wacky foreigners we happened to encounter. Football game
09meiji.jpg Here is a massive and ancient shrine in Tokyo. Sometimes if you throw money in the little thingy you can get a fortune. I got one and it actually said that I was going to be hit by a car. Strangely, it didn't happen. Meiji Shrine
33vans.jpg In Japan, instead of hopping up tiny little Japanese hatchbacks like we do here in the States, the kids tend to trick out these minivans into monstrous flourescent things like you see here. In Osaka, they then park up and down the sides of the street at night and badger each other about who's fins are biggest and so forth. Vans
38shinkansen.jpg This is what a shinkansen, or bullet train, looks like. They are really long and can reach speeds of up to 150 miles per hour. Half of the cars have reserved seating and half don't, and if you are unlucky enough to be rising without reserved seating (It doesn't cost any more, you just have to get there early enough to reserve the seat) you may find yourself stuck in one of the smoking cars for several hours, which I can tell you is just horrible. Overall, the experience is just what riding a plane should be like. The seats are big and comfy and there is food and drink service, and you just show up and get on instead of waiting in line for 2 hours. Shinkansen
265kimiko.jpg This is Kimiko, the lady who I stayed with in Japan. She is a wonderful person. She was vey patient and generous with us. I am sure that we especially demanded a lot of patience. Kimiko
40toilet.jpg This is the infamous Japanese-style toilet that everyone always hears about. Contrary to the mythology, I had a hard time even finding one. Unfortunately, I only noticed this one after I just finished using a regular, western-style toilet and turned around to leave, so I couldn't use it. But I would have, just once. Japanese Toilet
45dougsleep.jpg After spending the night in the cabin, we went to an onsen, or hot mineral spring bath. I didn't take any pictures at the onsen because we were all naked. But I could see why this practice is so universally loved by the Japanese, because the onsen felt really really good and was so incredibly relaxing that everyone slept on the bumpy hour-long busride back, even Doug. Onsen
20road.jpg This is what most of the major roads in Tokyo look like. Only the main roads have names. These roads define the borders of neighborhoods, which are divided into little sections by little tiny roads. Since most buildings aren't numbered and the streets aren't named, it can make finding places difficult. Big Road
15asatemp.jpg Asakusa Temple is also in my video game. Way down at the end of this tunnel, past hundreds and hundreds of chintzy stalls, is another temple. In the game you have to race right down this narrow passage, but fortunately it is not filled with people in the game. Asakusa Temple
24mcdonalds.jpg This is what a McDonald's looks like in Japan. The menu looked somewhat different, but it didn't look any better so I didn't try it. McDonald's
05uenover.jpg The first night I got to Tokyo we stayed in Ueno. I thought that it was a crazy disorienting place, but it turns out all of Japan is like that. Ueno at night
32osakapanorama.jpg One day we got to visit Osaka, and we rode a giant ferris wheel on top of a 12 story department store. So I took this panoramic shot of the city. I like the way this panorama looks all funny because of the stitching software. Osaka Panorama
03ridein.jpg This is a shot of Tokyo fromt he car on the way in from the airport. It all looked like that. The Ride In
14goldendoo.jpg For some reason, some company decided to put a giant golden doo on top of their building, I don't know who they are or what they were thinking. This exact spot was in a video game that I have, so it was really strange to see it in real life. The Golden Doo
28washinomiya.jpg This is Kimiko's neighborhood, taken from the Higashi-Washinomiya train station platform. Her house is right in the middle somewhere. Notice the fairly small car park and the giant bicycle lot. The bicycle lot is so big that is has letters and numbers on the various sections so you can find your bike when you stumble home from work at 9:30. Washinomiya
17boatride.jpg We all took a boat ride down some river in Tokyo. It was really cool because there were so many bridges, each with a different design. The one in the background is my favorite one. Boat Ride
04hotel.jpg This is a shot out the back window of the hotel in Ueno in which we stayed the first night. Everything here is this cramped, including the hotel, and I think it is perfect. I mean, who needs all that extra unused space? Behind the Hotel
31naked.jpg Here is another cute car. This one is especially cool because it is named the Daihatsu Naked. Naked
23fishmark.jpg Here you can see the prices of the fish at the market. This fish is also exceptionally fresh, having just come off the boat a few hours ago, at most. Fish at the Market
10meijiwash.jpg This is the spot where you wash your hands and mouth before you go into the shrine. There is also a big smoking vat of incense nearby which you are supposed to use to scent yourself before entering. Wash your hands
08ps2.jpg I thought that this ps2 ad was funny. Sometimes I wish I had little cleats for my fingers when playing that thing. PlayStation ad
39naganogroup.jpg This is the group with whom I went to Nagano. Kimiko's sister Sanae has a cabin on the side of a volcano known as Asama near there, and she took us on a little excursion out there. The Group
43cabin.jpg This is the cabin that we stayed in on the side of Asama Volcano, with Kimiko in the front. It looks gigantic in this picture but amazingly it is only two and a half tatamis deep, which comes out to about 15 feet. But it was a really fabulous cabin. Cabin
44cooking.jpg This is how we cooked food in the cabin. Here you can see us prepare some scallops and giant mushrooms over smoldering wood. This was the beginning of about 20 different things which we cooked, all of which were excellent. Cooking in the Cabin
13lunch.jpg Here are some people eating lunch. Eating lunch
02doug.jpg This is doug, one of my classmates from Japanese class. Doug
30daimini.jpg One thing I really love about japan is that they have so many cute tiny little cars. This one looks an awful lot like a Mini, but it is actually a Daihatsu. Cute Car
335izakaya.jpg Here is Takeno-sensei and Anna at an Izakaya, which is basically a bar. Anna is a JET from Towson who is stationed near Osaka. Takeno-sensei got her to come hang out with us for a few days. Even though he looks blurry in this picture, Takeno-sensei did not get particularly drunk, although he often seemed concerned that I was too drunk. I was okay, but sake can be some dangerous stuff. Izakaya
19trainin.jpg Here is what it looks like inside the train. This one is not particularly crowded compared to most trains. Sometimes the trains are so crowded that they have special subway workers with white gloves who shove people into the trains. We were stuck in such a train for two hours when some person killed themselves on the track in front of us. Of course we didn't know what the hell was going on at all, and we were pissed because we were going to miss karaoke, but it all worked out okay in the end. Except for the dead guy. Inside the train
37kyotomall.jpg In Kyoto there is an enormous mall that is shaped like a battleship on the outside. Inside it looks like this. It is maybe 20 stories high and all open on the inside, with level after level of escalators. We went there because they had a food court. I ate at Subway and much to my surprise it was very good. They even cut the bread the old way. Battleship Mall
21instreet.jpg This is what one of the small roads look like. These are where all the good stuff is, like crazy little shops selling the most arbitrary things. This particular spot is actually under a train bridge and is quite famous for it's exceptional selection of arbitrary things. Small Road
26outsidehouse.jpg This is a shot out the back window of Kimiko's house in Washinomiya. She lives in a really nice neighborhood. You can even see some of her candy factory to the left, as well as some of her incredible garden at the bottom. Outside the house
395potrainguard.jpg This guy who stands on the platform when the shinkansen comes in and does nothing got kinda mad at me for leaning out over the tracks to get a photograph of the train. I guess part of his job is to keep morons such as myself out of the way of the train, but I doubt there are too many morons such as myself over there. Shinkansen guy
36bambookyoto.jpg Also in Kyoto we went to some sort of Imperial Temple, and here we saw this great bamboo forest. I want a bamboo forest. Bamboo Forest
42asamashrine.jpg This is the shrine near the volcano Asama, which you can see gurgling in the background. Here you make a donation and then ring the huge bell with the striker. Asama Shrine
245styrofoam.jpg Here is a huge pile of styrofoam from all the fish they haul around at Tsukiji fish market. They push it around with little cute bulldozers. Styrofoam Mountain
29yoshinoya.jpg Yoshinoya is Japanese fast food. It is not very good except by fast food standards, but it is really really cheap. Yoshinoya
12tokyopan.jpg Here is a panoramic view of Toyko from some tall building that we went to the top of. You can't tell because of the haze, but it actually goes on like this forever. Panorama
16debate.jpg Doug and Takeno having some sort of debate. Debate
06coke.jpg Here is a vending machine, one of several trillion in Tokyo. They sell coffee, tea, beer, water, health drinks, juice, and sometimes even soda. As it turns out carbonated beverages are about the least popular type of drink in Japan. Coke's most poppular brand, Georgia Coffee, can be seen in this machine. Also visible is Coke's Japan slogan, "No Reason", as in you don't need a reason to have a Coke, or Coke product. More on the Japanese soda market here. Coke Machine
07uenolily.jpg Here is the gigantic lily pond in Ueno Park. Underneath the lily pads live koi that are upwards of three feet in size. Underneath the trees around the pond live lots of homeless people, in elaborate and amazing cardboard shelters. Ueno Park Lily Pond