Okay, so it's April. 5 years ago I went to Japan with BPS (Beefy Porn Star Club), and it was one of the most fun trips I've ever had in my life. I've been looking back on past entries on my blog and realized that sometimes there were some instances and events I completely forgot now, but were spelled out in great detail in the post. Other times, they were things that I generally remembered, but forgot the specifics. It was pretty fun recalling certain events and emotions. And considering it's been half a decade, I thought I'd pen down what I remembered from the Japan trip in detail. It'd be a good way to document it and look back on next time. 'Cause who knows what other stuff I'll forget in the future? It's going to be a long post, 'cause I'm trying to fill in all the details of an almost 2 week trip. So pardon if it's draggy. Trying to be as exhaustive as I can.
So, where do I start? Around the time that we started to hang out more, BPS decided to go on a trip. We considered a few places, like India, Nepal and Japan. Tough luck. Around that time, Nepal had the bad earthquake that shattered the country (and caused my friend's flight to turn away when he was just 30 minutes away, because of how bad it was). Later on when we were in Japan, an earthquake struck too, although we weren't affected. And one time we wanted to train for the Viper Challenge, we planned to train up our stamina at Broga Hill. The very weekend we wanted to go up to Broga Hill, it caught on fire. Yeah. Apparently Beefy Porn Stars have elemental curses or something. Anyway, I digress. We decided on Japan and gave ourselves over half a year to save up.
Anyway, our flight there was pretty smooth. We landed in Thailand for a layover to Narita airport and took a train to Tokyo, because our resident experts on Japan, Onion and Celine, said screw Haneda airport.
Our first stop was an Airbnb place we had booked for almost the whole week for our time in Tokyo. Upon following the instructions given in the PDF file by the homeowner, we found the exact place, entered the building's keypad code and opened his mailbox with the correct code to his padlocked mailbox... to find absolutely no key. Yeah. We thought we might be mistaken, but then what were the odds of having the exact same codes and combinations to every single thing in the wrong building? We tried calling the guy. No luck, he wasn't picking up. Messaged him on Airbnb. No response. Great. Out of curiosity, I went up to the unit we had supposedly booked and took a peek inside, with Daryl and Onion joining me. The lights were off. I knocked the door several times just to try my luck. There was also an electronic doorbell that was also a voice receiver. I rang it 5 times. Obviously, nothing. Out of frustration at this asshole ghosting us, I rang it quickly 10 times before walking off with the two, and then a weird, creepy voice crackled on the voice receiver, saying "Yes?" I immediately tried to respond, asking for clarifications, because we were supposed to book the place for 5 days, and the Airbnb guy wasn't responding. This guy was instantly hostile, saying he would call the police for trespassing on his property. I challenged him to, saying we could explain the whole thing to the police, and especially as Airbnb had some legal issues with Japan, it'd give him even more trouble. But the other two told me to calm down, saying we didn't want to ruin our trip by going to the police on our first night. Hm, true. The waifu tried to talk to him nicely, saying she just wanted to talk to him and clarify if he was the owner (he said he was), and if there was some issue with double-booking the place. He complained and said he had to work the next day, and that we shouldn't disturb him anymore, again with the threat of police. Seeing no point in staying there to argue, we went down and decided to find a place to eat and rest, as well as find out what to do next. As we walked away from the building, I noticed the jerk's unit's lights were now on and he was staring at us from the window. Seriously, he sounded like a serial killer. And with the silhouette from his window, he looked the part too!
It was late, getting past midnight. It was also sakura season, which meant that all hotels were fully booked. We spent several hours going around, looking for all the hotels and inns that could fit 6 of us. We walked back and forth in the Shinjuku area so many times, we were getting recognized by the people who kept seeing us over and over again. After being unable to find any vacancies within all the surrounding hotels, Onion suggested we try a gay hotel. Yeah, serious. We were like, at this point, we're desperate, sure, why not. Only problem was we couldn't find it. Also, there were 3 guys and 3 girls. If they wanted proof we were gay, I joked and said we were 2 groups of polyamorous homosexuals and we'd make out to prove we were! While looking for the gay hotel, a black guy came over and in a very stereotypical, heavy Jamaican accent said, "'Ey brudda, where you guys going eh? Going back and forth and back and forth wid all dat luggage." We explained we were looking for the gay hotel (the name escapes me at this moment), and he said he knew the place, he'd walk us over. Onion and I followed him immediately while the rest had some reservations. Celine and Ming Han asked "Can we trust him?", "What if he takes us somewhere dodgy?", "What if we get kidnapped?" I was like, we're 6 adults. We can handle him. And worse comes to worst, we run and meet up later. I may have spoken too soon, 'cause along the way, he was high-fiving bouncers and club managers left and right, explaining to them he was helping us to head somewhere. He explained he came to Japan 10 years prior and got started in the night club industry and got to know everyone there. We couldn't be sure, but it sounded like he was a pimp. Either way, he brought us right in front of the gay hotel, and we thanked him profusely for helping us, walking the entire journey with us. We went in. Even the gay hotel was full. Right. Great.
We sat down at some restaurant and had our first meal in Japan. We were tired, carrying all our luggage, walking back and forth to like 10 hotels.
Heavenly, seriously. So good. Especially when we were tired and starving.
Celine called up Airbnb to explain the situation, but she had a hard time understanding the lady because she apparently sounded like (Super) Mario. Yes, "It'sa me-ah, Mario!" That one. Lmao. But she really tried her best to help us. And this is where some serious Mario miscommunication happened. Upon confirming we had no minors in danger with us, she named a hotel we could head to nearby, and they would cover the cost for that night, as well as provide extra credit for a future Airbnb place. Now, we thought they said they booked that place for us. So we went there expecting a room for us, but the hotel said they were fully booked and they had no idea who we were and they didn't associate with Airbnb. We called, clarified and found out she meant that it was the nearest hotel as a suggestion, not that they booked it. Zzz. It was past 3am. We sat at their lobby, wondering what the hell to do. We were completely exhausted. We had no place to stay on the very first night in a country most of us were unfamiliar with. The rest decided to try and search another 10 or so hotels around the area while Onion and I stayed behind to look after all the luggage. After an hour or so, they came back and the hotel staff said we had to leave (politely). At this time the waifu remembered that in her prior visit to Japan a few years ago, because they missed a train to go to the next city and also had no last-minute accommodations, they slept at an internet cafe that allowed overnight rentals of private spaces for computer use. We were desperate, so of course we said yes. Between the choice of private spaces for a PC and a larger karaoke room, we took the karaoke room and crashed. It was 5 freaking AM.
Photo credits to Daryl. Unlimited drink refills though!
We woke up a few hours later. We booked another place through Airbnb last night but it wouldn't be ready till this morning, so getting there was our plan. As I got up to use the washroom, I noticed a bunch of porn stars on the wall in front of the urinal.
And then I saw this.
And they were selling fleshlights. WHY ARE THEY SO CHEAP?! I saw the words USB as well. I'm guessing you connect your CHEAP USB fleshlight into the computer and jack it with some interactive hentai. I'm glad none of us had a blacklight in that karaoke room. LOL.
We picked up our mobile wifi and found the place we would stay at for the next few days. Wonderful! We took a quick nap before heading out to see Akihabara. Absolutely gorgeous. We also did what the locals did, hanami, at night, at Ueno park. Chilling and drinking beer under the really gorgeous sakura trees, as did a lot of the other locals around us.
The next day we saw Ueno again, but in the morning, and we went to the Yasukuni Shrine and the surrounding areas. Yeap, Yasukuni, the war memorial. The very controversial one that honours war criminals.
So many amazing and beautiful sakura trees all around. Bloody surreal and gorgeous. We spent the entire morning taking shots of the area with all the sakura trees.
I don't want to spam with sakura trees. But seriously. Seeing them everywhere is just awe inspiring. Utterly gorgeous. My hair also impaled like 50 petals throughout the day. When I showered later that night, petals still fell out.
Watching all the petals fall down is just so peaceful and utterly, ridiculously beautiful.
Somewhere in this time (I don't remember which specific time, or maybe it's even the wrong day) we had our first taste of Ichiran ramen. If heaven was in a bowl, this would probably be it. The whole eating individually concept was pretty interesting. Of course, since there were 6 of us in a row, we moved the wooden barriers on the side so we could talk amongst ourselves.
SO GOOD. We had it again towards our last days in Japan.
Later on we went to Shibuya, where we saw the famous Hachiko statue, as well as their famed crossing.
Interestingly, there was a very cute and chill cat right below Hachiko. The cat was so still, some people were actually wondering if it was real. People pet it, tickled its chin and the cat didn't even open its eyes! Damn cute.
We chilled at Starbucks, getting the best view of the crossing before we went off shopping around the surrounding area. Checked out a few malls and a hilarious condom shop where we bought a pack of condoms for our colleague Adam (he had another kid a few years later, so I guess that didn't help, lmao). We also went to Akihabara to look around. We saw a few examples of Harajuku fashion, but not as much as we expected. Oh, also around this time, a bunch of girls were giving out flyers for some girl group, and when they passed one to me, they said I had awesome hair! Haha! Buncha girls in Akihabara saying I had cool hair? Bragging rights!
Towards the evening we went to Artnia, Square Enix's cafe. Lots of really cool figures of their games there, from Final Fantasy to Kingdom Hearts.
And also a really cool fountain! I bought a mini figurine from a blind box set. There was the chance to get Cloud, Lightning, Sephiroth, Squall and Ace. I was fine with all of them except Ace. I didn't (and still don't) care about Ace, and everyone was curious to see what I got. I opened it... and I got Squall! Okay, not my favourite, but tolerable. At least it wasn't Ace. Pfft. We had dinner at the Omoide Yokocho area, where there were a bunch of tiny little Japanese restaurants packed altogether. Bloody ridiculously cramped, and also ridiculously good food! They really looked like the tiny stereotypes you see on TV. Close, intimate and just so chill.
First time trying whale. I was a bit conflicted about eating it, considering all the issues about their endangerment. But it tasted really interesting, pretty good. And because we took our time, we missed the last train and had to walk almost 2 hours to go back to the Airbnb. Zzz. Our backs ached quite a bit from all the walking, adding to the already tired bodies we had due to running around for several hours with all our luggage the first night we arrived. The long, hot shower was amazing and crazy therapeutic.
The next morning we went to Tsukiji fish market. Obviously we didn't wake up at 4am for the tuna bidding. But damn, the sashimi and sushi we had there was just so fresh.
We expected no less from a famous fish market. Even the fish-hating cat Alex liked it. Around then we went for a Kabuki show too! I don't recall all the details, but I remember it was hilarious, called Migawari Zazen. Something about a husband who made up an excuse to spend time with his mistress and called his wife ugly like a mountain monster or something while his retainer was forced to help him out. It was cramped and we had to stand the whole time, although we got to read subtitles off of a screen provided. But it was a very interesting experience to see traditional Japanese theatre. Then we went off to some car-free pedestrian street to check out a few shops, although I don't remember which particular road it was.
Still, pretty cool and a unique concept. Then off we went to Odaiba! A lot of unique buildings there, and of course, the famous Gundam statue.
Quite a sight to behold, honestly.
We also went inside this mall, Venus Fort, where the ceiling was this sky blue that would gradually change shades, which was pretty damn cool. Walked around a bit and came across this beautiful fountain. Took a few more shots of the area outside once it was dark.
The next morning we took a train to Mount Fuji. When we got off, most of us were busy trying to freshen ourselves up and get to the hostel, but Onion told us to follow her. We were like, for what? And then we saw it. Mount Fuji.
At a train station of all places, lol. But seriously. It's hard to put into words (or pictures). They don't do it justice, honestly. Seeing Mount Fuji in real life is very surreal. It's hard to capture just how massive it is, and how... majestic it looks when you see it. Awe-inspiring in every way. I can definitely see why it's such an important part of Japanese identity and culture, and why it was considered sacred. During our few days in the Mount Fuji area, we could see it almost everywhere, from the convenience shops to the windows on a bus ride. It's such a core aspect of the city, and really beautiful all around.
It was also in the Mount Fuji area that we went to our first onsen. It was pretty random! We were just strolling around the area, checking out the places near us when we came across a public onsen. We had wanted to go to one, and we already had another onsen scheduled at another hostel later, but we thought, why not? So we went in, and after checking if they allowed tattooed people to go in, we got naked, lol. Yeah. That was awkward, especially with colleagues. I work with them, not see them naked. Lmao. The first thing I saw when I entered was 20 naked guys heading out. Yeah... 20 penises. Of course, culturally it's no big deal for them, but it was for me. The 3 of us guys stripped awkwardly, bathed ourselves and got into the water, which was hot as hell and damn soothing. We just chilled and talked, trying to ignore the fact we were all naked, lol. There were 2 sections, one indoors and one outdoors. The one indoors was a really nice temperature and really cozy, but we wanted to try the one outside, so we got out and we were scorched. Holy shit, the water outside was crazy hot. Way hotter than the one indoors, which made sense since the weather was more chilly outside, but still. There was a wall dividing the guys and the girls and we could actually hear the 3 girls talk. We joked about if it was possible for perverts to take a peek on the girls side and Ming Han said he tried and you couldn't. Daryl and I stared incredulously at him. Straight out of an anime! Also, after we came out of the onsen, we drank mango milk from the vending machine. The mix of a (delicious) cooling drink after scorching ourselves felt ridiculously good. And we were utterly, internally warmed; the cold night air wasn't a big deal at all after the onsen.
When we were still planning the trip, Alex said she wanted to visit Aokigahara. yes, the infamous suicide forest. I'd read about it long ago and always had a morbid curiosity about it. So when she wanted to go, I was like, hell yeah! Ming Han was alright with it too, wanting to see it. However the other 3 either weren't interested or scared. So we decided that the forest group would head to the suicide forest while the other 3 would do some stuff around the area and we'd meet up afterwards. We were told very strictly by the waifu to finish our trek across Aokigahara by the early afternoon, 'cause we still needed to head up to Mount Kawaguchiko for the cable car ride up to see Mount Fuji. And also because everything in Mount Fuji closes damn early, including buses. So we could take a cab, walk the whole night or sleep with the ghosts if we missed it.
The forest group took the bus and once we got off it was almost nerve-wracking. I was kind of wondering what would we do if we did see a body? (Thanks Logan Paul a few years later, for showing us what not to do).
I took a picture of the map just in case, and we had a paper one too, as a precaution. Ming Han took the lead and said he'd guide us on the correct path for us to experience the ice cave, one more place and a general trek around the forest as best we could. We wouldn't be able to cover every single cave available with the amount of time we had, so we had to make do.
Upon walking into the forest, we saw some signboards and stuff. I couldn't read any of them, but if I recall, the Japanese government put some up to encourage people to think about their loved ones and not go through with their suicide attempts. We also noticed just how quiet it was. The density of the trees seemed to really diffuse the wind, because any of the wind we "saw" and felt mostly affected the tops of the trees. It was actually eerily quiet. We trekked through, following the path and chatting a bit among ourselves when we came across a no entry sign, with chains making a barrier.
That's what it looked like, but this isn't my photo. I found it online. Till today I don't know why I didn't take a photo of that. It was so distinct and morbid, and I ignored it. Alex saw it and stopped a moment, starng at it. We asked her what was up and she said nothing. Later on, she mentioned that this was a path off the route, and was most likely where we would find bodies. Not sure why Ming Han and I didn't try to take a quick look at the time, instead of just ignoring it. Anyhoo, we continued the trek throughout the forest, reaching our ice and wind caves.
The ice formations were beautiful. And also freaking freezing. Because the 2 born and bred Malaysians couldn't handle the cold, I had to take all the pictures with my shivering hands in the caves. Lmao. Apparently they placed ice blocks in there as primitive refrigerators long ago, and it was used extensively in silk production.
There was also some kind of altar inside, and we tossed a coin for luck.
We continued our way through the forest, and came across the first and only human being we met along the forest trail; an old uncle with a walking stick and in full-on camping/trekking gear. We greeted each other in Japanese politely as we crossed paths and continued our way. It was also around this time we noticed just how empty the forest was of any animal. No birds, no land animals of any kind, apart from like 3 insects. Seriously devoid of obvious life! Ignoring the millions of trees around us of course, lol. I was mostly taking pictures of the trees, but I mean, the name of the forest is literally "Sea of Trees". There's only so many pictures you can take of the same trees over and over. We reached a souvenir shop which sold a lot of Mount Fuji related things, and it was almost a cute, brief respite from the famed forest. We continued on and reached a fork in the road. We knew from the maps we were on the right track and that we were supposed to take one of the trails. I forgot which one, but Ming Han led us on the wrong one. Lmao. The guy leading us got us lost! We only noticed because we were seeing very unfamiliar trails, and it didn't seem to match the path shown on the map. So we kept going and going, passing by a huge swatch of dead trees.
I felt it was thematically appropriate, considering it's the suicide forest after all.
When we saw a small hut, we thought we had found our way, but it was just a small settlement inside the forest itself.
And you know what? Also utterly devoid of life! Really living up to it's name! This painting of a horse was the first thing we saw.
Followed by an actual horse itself, but no humans. We tried to look around to ask for directions, but every single building was empty.
They had cars, buildings, a horse but no bloody humans! Geez! Remember I said thematically appropriate earlier? This was also very apt! A seemingly abandoned settlement in the suicide forest. Perfect. Straight out of a horror movie. After a while we finally found one old Japanese man and thankfully Alex, using her Japanese language skills, managed to find general idea on where to head to get out. Ming Han and I only know English (and Malay for him, but good luck finding a Malay-speaking Japanese in the suicide forest), we were completely useless in this regard. We later joked that the man we met was probably a ghost, since everything here was dead.
But yes, the man did lead us on the right path. We eventually reached a road shouldering a section of the forest and just followed the sidewalk until we reached the bus stop we were supposed to get to. Whew! Getting lost in the suicide forest. Quite an experience! All in all, a very serene and peaceful forest. We didn't get any bad vibes there, aside from all the morbid jokes we were making. Maybe we would have thought differently if we did see a dead body. Either way, a beautiful place to visit. Not often I get to visit a place I read about because I was going down an internet rabbit hole.
We went over to some restaurant to grab a quick bite where we had hamburger steaks. Apparently that's something really common there? We saw it on nearly every menu in Japan. We managed to contact the other 3 after much trouble and met up. They went around and were taking pictures of themselves, panoramas and wondering where Mount Fuji was. Well, it was right there in their shot and they didn't realize! Lmao.
We took a cable car up the Kachi Kachi Ropeway and rode up to get an amazing view of Mount Fuji from really high up.
And bloody hell the clouds blocked a perfect view. Zzz. Still, it was a stunning view of the surrounding area. We also had something called yaki dango. Cute and pretty nice!
Onion and I also took this ❤.
After heading back down we went to the Ninja Village and the 9 Lakes area.
These 2 ladies posed nicely with us and took a group picture with us! Yes, I'm doing my Italian WTF impression, as usual. That's my ninjutsu.
I didn't bother to count if there really were 9 lakes, but I'd assume it's correct. Several bodies of water and a few shops and houses around. Very quaint, peaceful area (ignoring all the tourists).
We grabbed a bite at this really cozy place before heading back to the hostel. Now, I don't remember the order of what happened later that evening, but we took a stroll around the area, and also went to the onsen that the place we stayed had. So I'm just going to assume we took the stroll around first. Anyway, we went out to take a stroll around the neighbourhood because we wanted to see what was up. The Mount Fuji area closes almost everything by 6pm, so there's very little to do at night, and with no public transport, we had to walk around to see what was open at night. It was pretty dark, save for one lamp around the bend of the road. There were some bushes blocking the view of the other side of the curve, so we didn't really pay attention as we were walking and about the reach the middle of the curve, where the lamp was. The moment we reached, Ming Han froze, I stopped suddenly in my tracks and we were all generally shocked. There was a lady in an all-white dress waiting directly under the light. LOL. I'm sorry, but you can imagine how freaked we were upon seeing her?! It was like a ghost! All white dress? Under a lamp? In the middle of the night waiting for someone? Yeah, every box ticked. Holy shit. I was like, "Whoa!" when we saw her. We continued to walk past her, whispering among ourselves if we had really seen a ghost. When she spoke Japanese in a typical girly fashion later, it kinda put it at ease, but still. That was hilarious. There wasn't much going on, so we walked back, but not before I noticed the Big Dipper constellation in the sky. Having been in Malaysia and Singapore for 15 years at the time, I hadn't seen any constellations in the northern hemisphere in ages, so seeing the Big Dipper was pretty cool, and I pointed it out to them.
When we got back, we got into the onsen provided. Unlike the first time, this one didn't feel quite as nice. I'm not sure why, but it actually felt suffocating and hard to breathe. All 3 of the guys felt the same way, and only when the window was opened did it feel more bearable. Still hot as hell, but the awkwardness of seeing my naked colleagues was less of a thing, although still a bit weirded out. A British guy came in, with the small towel they provided being the only thing to cover his privates. He asked me if it was okay to wear the towel in. I told him that it's expected for you to be completely naked. He said it was awkward and I said I know! But he could take his towel off once he got into the onsen itself, since we couldn't see it under the bubbling water and ripples. He did that and we had a short chat before he went back to his room. Later Daryl felt a bit of exercise was in order, so he jumped out and starting doing push ups. Yeah, I turned my head, because. Lol. Even though it wasn't as nice as the first one, we still enjoyed it, and went back to the room, where Alex, Ming Han and I drank some Japanese whisky while discussing US politics. So much for our analysis, Trump won.
The next day the guys woke up to some breakfast prepared by the ladies on the roof of the place.
I got to say bye to the British guy as we were heading out, heh. We went to The Little Prince Museum after. I'd heard of the book, but had no clue what it was about, even till today when I have the e-book downloaded but haven't gone around to reading it. But it was pretty cool. There were several rooms with a different theme, each related to the worlds he visited as well as places relevant to the author. I didn't know the context, so I didn't appreciate it as much as Alex, who's a big fan of it.
And the waifu bought me this adorable elephant-in-snake stuffed toy from the gift shop there! I know the context of this at least. I brought it with me to Canada.
Either way, a neat place to visit. I'll probably appreciate it more in hindsight once I read the book, perhaps? Anyway, our next stop was the Hakone shrine, and we were taking a ship over.
Damn cool! It was drizzling a bit, so together with the wind and waves, it was a bit chilly. Ming Han and I stayed on the deck while the rest took shelter inside the ship during the actual journey. It wasn't too long, maybe 15-20 minutes or so, but it was pretty nice having the wind, waves and drizzle all around. A good atmosphere (literally) I'd say!
We reached the shore of the shrine, and took a few nice shots, including one with the torii gate over the water.
Very beautiful!
The road to Hakone shrine was actually quite a trek, with plenty of staircases around and shrines. We also ritually cleansed ourselves. The thing with the... ladle? Washing your hands, and you rinse your mouth and spit. That one.
Hakone shrine itself was very serene and peaceful. The light drizzle added to the peaceful ambience too. Riiiight until the tourists from mainland China showed up. Zzz. Yeah, that was a constant we noticed throughout our entire trip; the mainland Chinese tourists were the most inconsiderate, loudmouthed and rude tourists everywhere we went. They went in everywhere like the owned the place, disrespectful in sacred spaces. I found out later a lot of the rules and guidelines regarding tourists were written up because of them.
Later that night we took a coach to Kyoto by overnight bus after dropping most of our luggage into long-term lockers. Pretty fancy for a bus! The terminal was pretty much in the middle of the city, and the berths were at the top floor! The buses basically had to go up several ramps to get passengers, and then head back down to the main road and proceed to wherever they were going. But of course, what do you expect from Japan? In the bus itself, it was pretty cozy. Big comfy seats with this shade-hood thing you could roll over your head to block out the sunlight. Oh God, so convenient. It helped with the street light and lamps at night, and helped quite a bit in the morning hours when we were almost at Kyoto. For an overnight bus, it wasn't too bad.
After checking in at the Khaosan Kyoto hostel, we went to one of the most famous places, Fushimi Inari, the thousand gate temple. Onion, Alex and Celine dressed up nicely in kimonos (yukatas, if you want to be pedantic) while the guys didn't bother, lol. But the ladies looked lovely, each in a different colour.
Lots of ladies were dressed up in kimonos too, 'cause it's a common business there, renting them out. Also because it's like one of the biggest tourist attractions, there were lots of tourists from around the world, and a lot of them asked the 3 girls if they could take their pictures. I suppose an Asian in a kimono is close enough, eh? Lol. But it was nice. They were always gracious about it and the tourists were nice when asking. Of course, being in kimonos meant they couldn't walk fast, so they took little steps at a time going through all the torii gates there.
Absolutely beautiful. Going through hundreds of the torii gates was pretty cool, and there were so many different versions. Some had extremely thick pillars, some were thin, and there was a section with many tiny torii gates arranged around shrines.
I also noticed that the torii gates had names written on them; donors I assume. Oh, and at the entrance to the place, they were selling this INCREDIBLE barbecued pork. Thick, succulent and delicious. Like, holy shit, that's "some pig". We ate it several times, haha! It was also around here I bought some sakura-flavoured tea. The samples they let us taste convinced a few of us on the spot to get it. A pity I couldn't recreate the same flavour back home in Malaysia.
The next day we went to another famous attraction, Arashiyama, the bamboo forest. But first, we took the romance train! It was a nice little train that went through some forest tracks on a slow and steady speed. I just noticed I don't have any pictures of the train itself, and no one uploaded it onto the BPS album on Facebook. Our pictures were all about the scenery, lol.
But basically, this is what we got on.
On the way to the bamboo forest, we took a journey through a famous actor's home and garden (he was famous for portraying a ronin, if I recall), and a smaller river where they were offering boat rides.
Anyway, when we finally reached the bamboo forest, just like the thousand gate temple, this place was also jam packed with foreigners. Celine had told us to wake up early and go there early to avoid the huge crowds. Obviously we couldn't wake up at 4am like her, but we still got up pretty early. And there was already a small crowd, which grew like crazy over the course of the day.
But still, it was another beautiful sight. The whole bamboo forest had a very exquisite and almost charming look to it. Seeing the bamboo stalks sway, and walking through the path with them surrounding us was quite the sight. It was really serene.
Like the ultimate zen garden. Minus the people of course. It got harder to take good photos later as the crowd grew, so most of my best shots were taken right when we reached. The bamboo mildly diffusing the sunlight also added a very ethereal lighting to the place, which really added to the ambience too.
We dropped by Kyoto Station after we had gotten our fill of the bamboo forest, and the crowd was really starting to pile up.
One hell of a marvelous structure. Seriously. The metal grates and structures covered the entire ceiling and sides, making for very eye-catching pattern throughout the whole station. We took a quick break at a cafe, eating all sorts of green tea related drinks and snacks. It was around this time we also saw a signboard saying the Shinkansen operations were suspended due to an earthquake. Luckily, we weren't affected by it during our entire trip, and it wasn't a major one for the Japanese.
The next day we went to Kiyomizu Dera, a temple over 1200 years old, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
There were several pagodas and other temple structures around the area.
Oh, one hilarious thing happened there. This here is the Love Stone. As the signboard says, there are two stones a short distance from each other. If you get from one to the other with your eyes closed, your wish will be granted. I had already found my waifu, so we didn't need to take it, lol. But Ming Han and Alex tried.
I took the liberty of combining the two videos. Ming Han touched the ass of a stranger and didn't make it to the stone. He will find no love! LOL. Meanwhile Alex aggressively walked through everything in her path, like her inner mantra was "Don't get in the way of my LOVE!" And bashed her head against people blocking her path to love. So yeah. She will find her love, and you won't get in her way.
Pretty awesome seeing the entire structure from the bottom. And with such age too! No wonder it's a protected heritage site.
Later that evening we went geisha hunting! Haha, okay, not really. It was more like taking a night stroll around, and we were informed that it was a geisha area by Celine. So while walking we looked around and saw one or two going from building to building quickly. We also saw from Japanese salarymen having drinks and toasting several times. But apart from that, pretty much just chilling and exchanging jokes.
One of the alleyways where we saw a geisha rush to the opposite side.
We saw this poster too. No idea who Sarah Moon is, and 5 years later, I still haven't bothered to Google her, but this poster was pretty freaky to see in the dark. Seriously eye-catching. Get it? Eye-catching? Eh? Eh?
We took a train to Osaka for our last few days. And our first stop the next day was to... get drunk! Lmao, okay, technically no, but honestly, yes. While waiting for our turn for the tour at the Asahi beer factory, we took a lot of pictures at a park nearby to kill some time. Once inside, we got to see how Asahi beer was made. From the barley, hops and brewing, fermenting and the giant tanks they use. I forgot the exact number, but they said considering the size of the tanks, if you drank 3 cans of beer a day it'd take you like several decades or centuries to drink all the volume of beer in it. I know I immediately thought of Symposium and was like, that sounds like a challenge they'd take. At the very end of it, everyone was entitled to 3 beers each.
We got the standard lager, a stout, and I forgot what the third one was. Obviously some didn't drink that much apart from a sip or two, so the drunkards got to have more than their own share. Wee!
We went over to Osaka Castle after that.
That immense structure is ridiculously beautiful. I know it fits the standard style of Japanese castles, and a lot of them share the same design elements, such as the tenshu, but seeing this huge thing was pretty awe-inspiring. I know the original went through countless battles, sieges and fires before being destroyed, but seeing the modern restoration and replica is still really cool. Unfortunately, most of the group didn't manage to see the interior. You know how the Japanese have a reputation for being extremely punctual and particular when it comes to time? They showed us that right there. The last admission is 4:30pm, and all of us were walking over, heading towards the entrance. By virtue of coincidence and walking speed, the waifu and I were ahead of everyone by like, a few metres at most, and they would have caught up to us within a second or two. At like a few seconds to 4:31pm sharp, Onion and I walked through but the guard stopped the rest of BPS from entering, saying it was past the time, and he began rejecting everyone else who was behind them. I thought it was kinda dickish, 'cause they were literally just a step or so behind us! The waifu said she was willing to switch places with one of them because she had been there before, and it would be wasted on her. The security guard still said no and told us to go inside. Oh well.
It's basically a modern museum inside, with an elevator and other modern amenities.
There were sections where they recreated certain historical dialogue and stories, with holograms overlaid on top of some physical settings.
Suits of armour from some of the major players of the war. Well, recreations. And these are actually bottle covers, lol.
The view on top is gorgeous though! I was imagining how it must have looked in the 1600s, with the old buildings around, and scouting for enemies. And also how it must have felt as invaders crossed the moat and came to destroy the forces in the castle.
We strolled around the area and checked out a bit of the city afterwards.
Also got the closest picture of a cityhenge, in this case, Osakahenge. Not perfect, but I thought it looked nice.
We went to take the Osaka boat ride towards the evening.
It was a sweet boat ride! A very calming and peaceful ride. It was nice just going over the waves, taking shots and chatting with the rest of BPS.
Going under the bridge was a cool part.
At night we went around Shinsaibashi and Namba, shopping around and eating some of the extremely generous street food.
We saw the famous Glico running man!
I don't remember the cost, but I recall it was reasonable, and the octopus tentacle was huge! They know their tentacle porn well.
It was crazy crowded, but we still managed to get around easily. A fantastic atmosphere though, walking through the crowds and checking out everything. One thing I observed in Osaka was that everyone seemed to be more chill and relaxed, compared to the almost stoic Tokyo salarymen. Not to say Tokyo residents (Tokyoite? Tokyojin?) weren't friendly (Japanese in general are just crazy polite), but there seemed to be this very... I don't know, loose impression. Very at ease in Osaka.
We started getting hungry after all that walking and we were deciding what to eat. Celine suggested we could eat authentic wagyu beef. In Japan? In Osaka? Hell yeah! She remarked that it would be expensive, but we thought, hey, we're in Japan. And considering the reputation, it'd be worth it. We went to the one she had gone to previously, and they were full, lol. Jam packed. The staff asked if we had a reservation. and we said no, and they mentioned they were completely full for the night. Great. We tried every restaurant around there that served wagyu, but unfortunately every single one was fully booked. Aye! In the end we just picked a restaurant that seemed decent and had space. It was some sort of ala carte restaurant where you could order small bite-sized pieces of food from the menu. They had an interesting selection of things as well, like iberico (iberian) pork and wagyu beef. So I still got my fill even though we didn't get "proper" wagyu.
And hey, trains delivering food to your table? Choo-choo. Awesome! Haha, it was so cute!
My timeline for the Osaka ferris wheel is a bit fuzzy, as I don't remember the exact day we went. It was either after the "train meal" or the next day. Either way, because we bought the tourist Icoca cards or something like that, we were given a free or discounted ride to the ferris wheel. And like the Malaysians we were... we were late, lol. At least this time, all of us barely made it for the last rotation of the night.
Seriously, the view up there is amazing.
The ferris wheel itself was also really beautiful, and the changing lights along with the structure of the rotating ferris wheel was just really awesome. I think it was Celine who said something about a fear of heights, and of course we messed around a little with that. As we do, lol. After the ferris wheel, we went off to the arcade right next to it. Japanese arcades are next-level. A shit load of games I'd never seen in arcade form before, and lots of uniquely Japanese games I'd never heard of. We played around with a few different games but the funniest was probably the Sonic vs Mario racing game. We had to do a bunch of stuff in order to win the race, and three of us played it together. I was first! Daryl was second. And despite there being only a maximum of 4 human players at once, Celine was 8th. LOL. I died laughing. She was worse than all the computers! I used Mario, and I started doing his "Itsa me, Mario!" line every few minutes to annoy the rest (mostly Celine).
The next morning, our journey to Universal Studios Japan was... messy. To make the most of the day at the theme park, we needed to head there early, clashing with the morning rush hour at the Osaka train stations. Holy shit. I'd seen pictures and videos of it before. Experiencing it was another thing.
Absolutely insane. It was orderly and efficient, but still insane.
There were 6 of us and thousands of them. Obviously we got separated, lol. Forced by circumstances, we ended up in pairs. Onion and I, Alex and Celine, Daryl and Ming Han, and we knew the station we were supposed to go to. The waifu and I reached first, and now we had a second problem, where do we find them? The platform at the destination station was also ridiculously big and crowded, so even if we did end up at the station together, finding each other would be another nightmare. Thankfully, it wasn't so. Remember that mobile wifi we carried along? I don't recall the person carrying it, but I sent a WhatsApp message to the group in the hopes that whenever that person arrived, my phone would connect to the wifi and the person would receive it. And it worked! We all managed to find each other as we reached the station, connecting to the wifi and receiving the messages on where to meet up. Geez. What an experience, and we hadn't even made it to the theme park yet.
And then we were off to Universal Studios Japan! We wore matching shirts for the day, designed by Daryl. It featured Mount Fuji and several other Japanese landmarks, and an icon to represent each of us, based on our nicknames (mine was a hedgehog... because I don't think Daryl could put a pornstar on mine, lol. It impressed the staff at the Spiderman ride as we were entering, enough that we even got some free stickers from them! So as I said, the first stop was the Spiderman ride, which was basically a 4D "virtual" rollercoaster where the seats move, rumble, heat and air are felt, and you get impacted by the things happening on the screen in front of you as you see Spiderman deal with his rogues gallery. Pretty damn awesome. Also, I think it was Alex or Celine who really liked the voice for Spiderman 'cause he sounded very youthful. Pfft, pedos. Later on we went on the Harry Potter ride, which was also bloody magical (eh, eh?) and crazy impressive; the dementors floating away was a really nice touch.
Seriously, the Hogwarts model towering right beside us was really cool. Very well made.
We had some butterbeer, which tasted really delicious, and looked through some of the stores in Hogsmeade. Although sadly, a lot of the storefronts were fake and just to add to the atmosphere; most weren't real stores we could enter. Anyway, at this point the crowd of the theme park had started to come in, so the next few rides had us wait a long time queueing up. The most notable was the Jurassic Park roller coaster, which had us wait over an hour and a half just to get on. Was a crazy thrill though! Onion had never been on an insane roller coaster before, so we asked her if she was alright with this and she said yes. So when it was finally our turn, we got on and she was next to me. The loops, twists and spins were damn fun. When it finally came to a stop, Onion's hair was in a mess and she was hanging off the roller coaster like a dead body. Lmao. I checked if she was okay, and she didn't respond. Yup, dead. *Check*.
We went to a few more rides before grabbing a bite at the Jaws-themed restaurant, where we had expensive fish and chips. Then we walked around, exploring a few statues and models, especially the Attack on Titan ones.
And this absolutely massive one. I haven't watched the anime or read the manga, so the only thing I know about this guy is he was discovered encased in the wall, and it was a huge deal when that chapter came out. Even though the series is finished, I still have no idea what the details are. After walking around and checking a few more places, we decided to split up to do our own stuff, as different people wanted to do different things. So we split 3 ways; Onion and I, Daryl and Ming Han, and Alex and Celine. We went on the Jaws ride, which was meant to to lull you into a false sense of security by being a boat joyride, but it goes massively wrong when Jaws attacks! It was a really nice twist! Later on we walked around a bit more before going into the Kyary Pamyu Pamyu 3D VR roller coaster. It was getting dark and there was still a significant crowd, so we had to line up. Let's just say it was super trippy, lol. Like you overdosed on LSD or something. But it was pretty entertaining even though it was so random. They strapped a VR headset on your head and you went on a roller coaster that would enact whatever you saw on the headset, which involved Kyary Pamyu Pamyu going through a journey, growing big and blowing you away and stuff. Surrealism wishes it was this random.
It was nearing the time for us to meet up, so we gathered at the arranged meet up point and went off. All in all, super fun! It was nice going to a top-notch them park after so long.
We went back to Tokyo the day after, and we visited Sensoji Temple.
Of course, we saw the famous giant lantern.
There was some time spent at an art store that Onion and Alex really wanted to go to while Ming Han and I waited for them, checking out some stuff there as well, while Daryl and Celine explored some other places nearby. Later on we went to Tokyo Skytree and went inside, doing some minor shopping. It was here I bought some candy as souvenirs for the office, and bought myself the famous Tokyo Bananas, the cream cakes shaped as a banana (I bought the strawberry variant too, because you know, strawberries). Had a view of the city, walked around a bit more and it was evening. It was our last full day in Japan, so we took our time heading to a cheap hotel near the airport, where we'd go to the next morning. We split into 3 rooms, which was basically the same 3 groups we split into at Universal Studios Japan. Finally had some time to just chill and relax, and talk about what a great trip it was.
The next morning we woke up early and went to the airport, and there was this big sense of, I don't know, I wouldn't say sadness, but reminiscing of the past 2 weeks. When we landed in Thailand on the layover going back, there was drama. Lmao. There was a huge crowd and line up, and unlike our time heading to Japan where we had loads of time in between flights, this one only had an hour, and we waited 45 minutes just lining up to stamp our passports. Ridiculous. We were going to miss our flight! Desperation trumped our need to be polite and we asked people in the front if they could let us go first, because our flight was in less than 15 minutes. We showed our tickets as proof and thankfully some of them were kind enough to let us pass. As each of us trickled through, we agreed that we would RUN LIKE HELL to the gate (which, oh so conveniently, was located at the furthest gate) and tell the staff there were still passengers. I was the 2nd or 3rd and ran like hell along with the rest who had gone through, and we reached the plane, exhausted, tired and with the staff seconds away from preparing to close the gate. Whew!
There's a few things I didn't mention up there because they didn't quite fit chronologically or I really forgot when it happened. Like all the times we prayed in the traditional way at the Japanese temples we visited with ringing the bells on the rope. Like, throughout the entire trip, we kept scaring Celine. Non-stop every few hours. It was a big source of joy in the trip, lol. Damn funny!
Like how can you not die laughing at this?!
We also dropped by the Studio Ghibli museum, but I didn't appreciate it as much because I hadn't watched any of his films yet. But now having watched several classics, I think I would've appreciated it much more. Also, we ate at Family Mart or 7-Eleven for most of our breakfast meals, 'cause it was dirt cheap yet really tasty, and it allowed us to save plenty of cash for more expensive lunches and dinners. Stuff like the crazy variety of vending machines everywhere and the noticeable lack of garbage cans, which we found out was to encourage people to litter less, bring their garbage home and also helped lower the rodent population digging around trash.
Hence why this was a worthy photo, haha!
There was also one night in the first few days of Tokyo, right around the Ueno Park hanami, that we wanted to sit and chill outside but it was one of those freezing nights. So, like idiots (and the only idiots there) we sat next to a river drinking beer and shivering, trying to enjoy the night air as our asses were frozen solid on the pavement. Geniuses!
Overall, Japan was a fantastic place to visit. There's so much beauty and things to see and do, and the mix of traditional culture with the modernity is very interesting. Apart from the serial killer on our first night, the Japanese were friendly and very helpful, offering directions, suggestions and friendly interactions all around. Obviously I'm aware of the politics and social issues that plague Japan as a nation, but as a tourist? Absolutely beautiful, and all we could do when we were back was rave about the trip. Because we had gotten so accustomed to saying "Arigato" in almost every interaction with the locals, back in Malaysia we (mostly I) had a reflex of saying arigato to the storekeepers and waiters here, lmao. Even though in Malaysia saying thanks and you're welcome is relatively rare, except in more upscale places.
It was definitely a fun trip with a great group of friends. And I enjoyed it tremendously. Of course, this was around the time when we were super tight and hanging out regularly, but over time with changing dynamics and lack of effort, naturally things aren't the same anymore, so I doubt there'll ever be a trip with them again. But it's still very a fond memory.