Kamikaze Canuck

Hitchhiking!

Posted: February 24, 2011 in Japan

Over the last few days I’ve been doing a ton of hitchhiking here in Japan. I haven’t really elaborated on what it’s like to hitchhike here so I’ll give it a bash.

Me hitchhiking on the Yamanami Highway in central Kyushu.

Firstly, I embarassingly have to admit that hitchhiking is one of most mentally challenging things I have ever done. Without hesitation, I have skydived, bungee jumped (the highest in the world), white water rafted, etc. NONE of that compared to the resistance I felt in my body the first time I took a deep breathe and put my thumb out into the air. It’s a vulnerable feeling that I can’t really describe.

Nonetheless, I did it. And the last three days (of hitchhiking) have turned out to be 3 of my best in Japan. I’ll start from the top.

6AM my alarm clock started buzzing in my Kumamoto hostel. With a quick look at the map, I decided that the best course of action would be to take a brief 20 minute train ride into the countryside where I could easily access a highway to begin my hitchhiking.

I walked 3 or 4 kilometres to find a suitable spot to stand, and put out my thumb. The look on the faces of the Japanese drivers in passing cars was one of utter disbelief. Hitchhiking is completely unheard of in Japan. No one hitchhikes. I was undoubtedly the first hitchhiker they had ever seen. “How do they know what it means when someone is standing on the side of the road with their thumb in the air?”, you ask. American Movies. That’s the only reason they know what the wierd white dude is doing on the side of the road.

20 minutes later, a big white van came to a screeching halt. “Doko made?” the drivers asked while popping his head out the drivers side window. “Aso ni ikitidais” I replied. He motioned for me to get in, and we were off. His name was “Massa” and he was a 30 year old security camera maintenence man who was on his way to work. Super cool guy.

Massa

After getting to Aso. I explored the famous Aso Volcano. They bill it as “the only active volcano in the world that tourists can look down safely”. How safely is debatable. A few years back the volcano hiccuped and killed 3 tourists standing 2km away. Here are the pics of my trip up to the volcano:

The couple I hitchhiked to the volcano with. He was a retired business owner in the pulp and paper industry and she was a teacher.

Comforting

These are the concrete bunkers we were instructed to run into if the volcano erupted. Also comforting.

The volcano.

After that, I took a bus back into Aso, the town where I was staying. I wanted to try raw horse meat (the delicase in this part of Japan) so I walked down to the local butcher and picked some up. While at the butcher shop, I struck up a conversation with the butcher, who also happened to play guitar. He asked me if I wanted to go to the local onsen (hot spring) with him that night. Sounded like a good time so I accepted and it turned out to be a ton of fun. While we were BSing in the hotspring, Yoshi (the butcher) told me of how he moved to Los Angeles at the young age of 19 to find fame as a rock and roll guitarist. He spent 7 years playing the clubs in Hollywood and is still personal friends with many of the guitar greats in the world that he met while living in the US. Among others, he is still close friends with Zakk Wylde (Ozzy Osbournes long time guitarist), CC Deville from Poison, and the guitarist from Ratt (can’t remember his name at the moment). My jaw hit the floor. He was personal friends with some of the guitarists that I grew up idolizing. How could this be?!?! I run into this guy in a butcher shop in rural Japan??? How random is that.

Zakk Wylde

He then invited me to his house where he has his garage set up to record music. We sat in his garage and jammed for 5 hours. 5 HOURS. This guy was a world class guitarist so it was a real treat for me. I was like a kid in a candy shop. Here is a video of us jamming to Blue Rodeo’s “5 Days In May”:

After exchanging gifts with Yoshi (a must do in Japan), me getting horse jerky and him getting Canadian gourmet tea, we said our goodbyes.

My gift of horse jerky. It was much like beef except maybe a bit better…….. (kidding Grandpa Goodings. Don’t disown me for saying that)

I still can’t get over how fun that night was. Something I’ll always remember.

On the road early. 6:00 AM, February 24th.

The next morning, I was on the road hitchhiking by 7 AM with aims of reaching Yufuin by Midday. Here are some of the people I hitchhiked with to get there:

Hitaya: A professional tennis coach.

The Isaka’s: She is a Japanese teacher, and he teaches business at a local university.

Kaisaka: A professional driving instructor

Onward and upward. I rolled into the next town, Yufuin, at exactly noon today and after visiting a local onsen, I’m now primed to walk into town and do some exploring. Stayed tuned for further updates…….

Domo arrigato Kumamoto

Posted: February 22, 2011 in Japan

After leaving Nagasaki I spent nearly a full day hitchhiking, and ferry riding to reach my destination of Kumamoto. A man and his aunt graciously pulled over to give me a ride. The dude who picked me up had just returned from 5 years of studying in Spain. We spent our time interlanguage chatting between Japanese, English, and Spanish. His semi-senile aunt in the back seat had no idea what was going on.

Arriving in Kumamoto, I strolled into a tiny pub/restaurant and met some new friends.

My new Kumamoto gang. Nakamura-San (on the right) has bought my drinks at the same tiny pub for the past 3 nights!

The day: I was off to see the 3rd largest castle in Japan, Kumamoto castle. I also came back at night to check out the night view with a few peeps from my hostel. Here are the pics:

Kumamoto Castle

Samurai’s still hang out at the castle. He was cracking jokes about the whitey (me) to the crowd.

The aftermath is too gruesome to show on the blog…… 🙂

And for the night view of the castle!

Castle at night

Legend has it that years ago, a famine rolled through the Kumamoto area and the residents were forced to eat dead horse (not kidding). Now, horse is a delicase here in Kumamoto and it’s offered at loads of restaurants. Pic to prove it:

Nummy….

Sayonara folks!

It’s time to head down to the local pub to drink some beer! (Warning: More mature/sophisticated readers of this blog need not watch the following video)

Kyushu!!!!

Posted: February 20, 2011 in Japan

Me attempting my best Sebastian Bach impression. Skid Row - 18 & Life.

After a version of Bon Jovi’s “Living on a prayer” that momentarily made me jealous of the deaf (sorry Tom, it was really bad. When you hit that high note in the chorus, it sounded like 10 dying cats were let loose in the karaoke room), I made my way to the city of Fukuoka on Valentines day. I was presented with chocolate upon arriving at the hostel. A nice treat. The chocolate was accompanied by a paper that read “I (heart) Fuk”. Undoubtedly, they have no idea what this means in English, but nonetheless, it was good for a laugh.

I contacted my friend Makoto that I had met in Tokyo and he introduced me to the city of Fukuoka with a dish of the famous local food (ramen) and a night at a traditional Japanese pub. The ramen is absolutely incredible here. I won’t even bother to try to explain the taste of it, because I almost certainly won’t do it justice.

At the Izakaya. After a number of beers, Makoto helped me find the train station and track that would take me back to my hostel. He instructed me to buy a ticket and walk to track #2, where my train would be along shortly. After a couple minutes of waiting, Makoto came sprinting up to track #2 with a look of complete shock on his face. He was completely out of breathe and I couldn't help but think that the kind of urgency he was showing could only be indicative of a huge emergency. When he caught his breathe he explained "Jason... (gasp).... I am so sorry..... (gasp)....I have had too many beers..... Your track is the next one over........" hahahahah that's Japanese dedication for you. He literally bought a train ticket and sprinted in the train station just to tell me that. Once again, the Japanese people have outdone themselves 🙂

The next day I set out to explore the baseball scene in Fukuoka! The Japanese league home run champion is named Sadaharu Oh. He retired with 868 home runs (more than any MLB player) and is the most famous baseball player to ever put on baseball cleats in Japan. I headed to his museum and had a blast. Here are some pics taken at the museum:

"Sadaharu Oh" Museum

Sadaharu Oh practicing at his house. Look at the size of this dudes legs. Unreal....

At the museum they had a radar gun to clock the speed of your pitches. I couldn't pass that up.

Fastest pitch of the day! Saweet!

Leaving Fukuoka, I was an hour early for my train. I found a small bar in the train station and decided to wet the whistle with a couple sake’s before embarking on my next journey.

I have no idea what's going on......

Naturally, every person in the bar had to have their picture taken with me.....

Next stop: Nagasaki!

Arriving in Nagasaki, I discovered that a “Lantern Festival” had just ended. The entire city was covered in lanterns of all shapes and sizes. An amazing sight. The city of Nagasaki is, for the most part, very old looking. The atom bomb that hit Nagasaki did much less damage than the one in Hiroshima due to the topography of Nagasaki. The city is built amongst a series of hills that would be comparable to size of Wapiti hill near Grande Prairie. My 2 days in Nagasaki were absolutely awesome. Again, I visited the memorial and museum dedicated to the atom bomb that struck Nagasaki. The more I am in Japan, the more I get the feeling that this once agressive, militant country doesn’t want to touch war with a 40 foot pole. Nagasaki pics:

This clock was 4 blocks from the bomb when it struck. You'll notice that the hands of the clock are stuck at 11:02 - The exact time that the bomb hit.

They make note of Einstein's strict opposition to nuclear war after the atom blasts in Japan. The caption explains how Einstein teamed up with Bertrand Russell to rid nuclear weapons from Earth entirely.

The local dish here in Nagasaki. I asked the waitress in broken Japanese what the purple stuff was. "Koray wa nan des ka?" She brought me a japanese dictionary and pointed out the words "fish paste cake". Fish paste cake?! Clearly it must be part of any balanced diet....

Japanese Lantern Festival in Nagaski!

This pic of Nagasaki was taken from a famous hot spring above the city.

"NO TATTOOS ALLOWED!" reads the sign. I wasn't supposed to get into this hot spring but luckily they let me in. In Japan, tattoos are looked down upon because Japanese tattoos are reserved strictly for Japanese mafia members named "Yakuza".

Today, I’ve arrived in the former home city of my friend Jeff, Kumamoto. Admittedly, I’m slightly intoxicated writing this update because, once again, Japanese people have taken me under their wing and paid for my dinner and drinks. Not only did they pay for the drinks, but every time my glass gets below half, they insist that it be topped up. The generosity I am experiencing here in Japan is nothing short of amazing.

Until next time, keep fit and have fun!

A-Bomb

Posted: February 13, 2011 in Japan

I’ve spent the last 3 days in Hiroshima studying everything to do with the atomic bomb. It can be very taxing emotionally to be around the A-bomb dome and the Peace Park Museum. There were a lot of elderly Japanese people paying their respects and weeping at the A-bomb dome. Undoubtedly, some of these men and women lived through the bomb and the memories are still very vivid to them. I wanted to talk to some of them about the incident,　but didn’t have the guts.

The "A-Bomb Dome". This was one of the only buildings left standing in Hiroshima after the Nuke hit. They left it standing as a reminder to never forget about the events that happened on that horrible day in August of 1945.

Me in front of the A-Bomb Dome.

The bomb exploding 600 meters directly above the bridge you see in the left of the picture.

The Peace Flame. This flame has been burning since WW2 and will not be extinguished until every nuclear weapon in the world is destroyed.

Memorial services are held here every August 6th

Hiroshima pic - post bomb

Since 1966, every time a country in the world tests a nuclear weapon, the mayor of Hiroshima personally writes them a letter asking them to please cease testing nuclear weapons. A wall at the museum is dedicated to these letters. There are HUNDREDS of them. Most of them are sent to the US and Russia (go figure). The current nuke count in the world is as follows: Russia 4000 nukes, USA 2700 nukes, France 300 nukes, Britain 60 (I believe)

People started to set up make-shift shelters. 2 months after the A-bomb.

Actual clothes that were worn by school children that day.One childs story and drawing.

One childs story and drawing.

This picture hit me the hardest. This is 2 orphans shining shoes on the streets of Hiroshima after their parents were klilled in the blast. It would make you grow up awful fast wouldn't it...

I know this was kind of a depressing blog post but I think this is something everyone should see.

Off to rural Japan!

Posted: February 10, 2011 in Japan

Oh haro

Tons to update on this blog so I’ll have to be rather terse.

From Tokyo I took a 7 hour bus to Kyoto, the former capital of Japan. This turned out to be the place where I would have a lot of cool memories and random adventures. I started out my first morning in Kyoto by renting a bicycle at 6AM and cruising the city. School children making their way to school paused in awe to watch the wreckless “gaijin”(foreigner) fly past on his bike. Soon after, I came upon multiple firefighters (in front of their firehall) performing a cadence of army-like salutions and marches before starting the days work.

Kyoto Firemen (Shoboshi) getting ready to start the day!

After that I spent 4 + hours exploring some of Kyotos’ many temples and shrines. Unfortunantly, they do not allow cameras inside these temples so an outside shot will have to suffice.

Friggin high Kyoto temple.

I wouldn’t be Canadian if I didn’t take advantage of legal public drinking, would I?

After that, Me and a fellow canuck (the only North American I’ve met in Japan) from the hostel named Sarah hit up the karaoke bar beside the hostel for some karaoke and sake.

Doing my best　Kurt Cobain

Nirvana-All Apologies

After a couples days of exploring Kyoto, it was time to make like an Usain and bolt. I took my 1st Shinkansen (bullet train) ride to a city called Himeji with aims of catching the local ferry to an island called Shodoshima.

After a missed bus, and some poor directions, I found myself with a 2 hour wait in the ferry terminal. Enter: My 2 newest Japanese friends, Goro and Tomoru.

Tomoru

Goro, a 64 year old civil engineer who still runs marathons with his wife.

These two dudes pumped Sake into me for 2 hours at the ferry terminal. Every time it was my turn to buy a round, they would refuse. and discreetly sneak off to the gift shop to buy another round. 2 hours later, a slightly less coordinated Jason boarded the ferry amidst a terrential downpour of rain. Upon finding out that I had plans of sleeping outside, Goro insisted on paying for a hotel room for me. Hows that for Japanese generosity? After settling into my hotel room, I met Goro and his work colleague for dinner. They pumped me full of sake and fed me excellent Japanese food until my stomach hurt. Again, letting me pay for nothing. Here are some pics:

Tofu

The feast.

I presented Goro with a gift of gourmet Canadian tea’s as a thank you for his generosity and kind spirit, and parted ways.

In the morning I set out to explore the island of Shodoshima, which is best know for its mountains and wild monkeys. Here are some random pics from throughout the day:

Buffet breakfast in Shodoshima.

Wild monkey’s picking the fleas off of each other. Nummy……

View of Uchinomi

Gondola ride into Uchinomi

From the island of Shodoshima, I took another ferry to the city of Takamatsu, where I currently am (but will be leaving shortly). The residents of Takamatsu have been awesome to me. Both times I’ve eaten at a restaurant here, I’ve had drinks sent my way from people who are genuinely curious to meet a foreigner.

: Japanese Toilet

Fast Fact!

One thing I forgot to mention in my last blog post was that you pretty much need a PHD to operate a Japanese toilet. All Japanese toilets have heated seats (something we need in Canada!) and each of the buttons you see above performs a different function. I haven’t figured all of them out yet, but one makes a flushing sound without actually flushing the toilet (???), and one shoots water up your bum. The knobs you see are to regulate the water pressure. So, I suppose if your up for a particular thrill, you could crank that knob up to 10.

Sayonara! Stay tuned and stay thirsty my friends….