Tojimbo

Last weekend, I went to a ryokan, a traditional Japanese inn to have a meal. We drove about an hour and a bit into the next prefecture. Fukui, is a relatively rural prefecture on the Sea of Japan, known for delicious crab and their funny accent.

The Ryokan was right on the sea, perched like an Eagle's nest on top of these cliffs. The food was incredible and YES! I managed to take a photo of it before eating this time!

The food was absolutely incredible! It was served with hand-made clay glasses of beer or sake. Along with the sounds of the waves breaking below on the rocks. We could actually see the ocean through the windows in all directions. I took some pictures but it's pointless to show because it couldn't possibly convey the feeling of it.

The ryokan also had a hotspring! There was no one else in the mens' onsen, so I thought I would sneak in a camera to FINALLY take an onsen picture for my blog.

The onsen was also right next to the sea. I could actually hear the women in the bath next to me, but we were unable to have a conversation because the waves were to loud.

After the delicious meal and a soak, we drove to Tojimbo, the main tourist attraction in Fukui. It's basically these enormous cliffs that reach like grasping hands into the ocean.

Here's my hyper-UNrealistic picture of one side of the rocks. On the background there's a long red bridge leading out to an island.

When we got there the sun had just started to set. And there was a massive hawk floating around the sky, looking for fish.

My own version of Hokusai's The Wave.

Erin taking a picture of the ever-present hawk.

a walk around Nagamachi

While walking around Nagamachi, the neighbourhood around my house, I saw some persimmons hanging over an old samurai wall.

The area is usually filled with tourists, but that day it was serenely quiet. It was as if I stepped back 200 years...Except, I had my cell phone out to snap a pic of this delicious-looking fruit. (Actually, I never heard of persimmons until I came here)

Lucky I had my phone out and on camera mode, because as I crossed the canal. A giant heron swooped down and slowly walked under the bridge I was standing on to search for fish.

And he caught one!!! Unbelievable! He speared it with his beak. It was an interesting walk through Nagamachi.

Halloween...already?

Yeah, i know it's early...

Here are the pictures from our Halloween Party!
the atmosphere was great! Lots of people showed up and most were dressed up. It was just like a cosplay party gone wild! All the staff were dressed like pirates. The next day my voice hurt from saying 'Yarg!' too much.

me, Remi and Erin

an Indian woman, a witch, and a princess

Jason, me, and a mad scientist

Jason getting murdered by Keiko

me and Kotaro

me and Captain Kontani

the school girl you expect to see in dirty manga: Tomoko

monolith

Just came home drunk off a real-life geisha experience!

No jokes, yo! Very different from the maiko you all imagine, but lemme tell you...Interesting!

Anyways, I won't go into detail. You can read about it from my previous experience here. (Yay! cross-referencing)

I just wanted to post a video, actually.

The Monolith

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the truth behind punctuation

check out this hilarious link!

The funniest thing I've seen in a long time.

I laughed my ass off. Mainly because I know exactly how he feels!

you gotta be kidding!

I couldn't believe it when I saw it myself! I was pretty confused when people started selling bottled water in North America some years ago. The truth is, I couldn't understand why people would buy water when they could just open a tap and drink perfectly good potable life-essence. I mean, I can understand in South/Central America and Afrika, where the running water is 60% human waste, but in North America?! In Canada?! Canada basically has fresh-water mana flowing out of its taps. The water there is more healthy than a vegetable omelette! And yet, despite everything, it caught on.

Well, I guess after all that, I'm not surprised that people would be buying DIET water...

The next thing we'll see will be oxygen cigarettes, that filter out the "bad" air.
Am I right?! I'm right, right?

commuting to clown school

They told me they made things small in Japan. But you would never believe until you saw it. This bike was comedy-sized! Yes, that's my bag sitting in front of it!

Can you imagine a businessman in a suit riding this thing to work?

buildings

This post is about some cool buildings I've seen around Japan.
This one looks like it came from an anime. I like the dark Gothic look, mixed with sci-fi. It almost has a Batman feel.

This one from Tokyo's Odaiba area, it looks like a spacecraft too. The inverted pyramid look must be in these days.

Another upside-down pyramid right here in Kanazawa! Let's all go for a ride in the Stargate, boys and girls!

In Japan, all buildings that are being renovated are covered in a Christo-esque canvas.

What?!? This building has my last name!

By the way, I love the look on the guy's face. It's as if his towel called him a bad word. Simultaneously shocked and disgusted. But they must be good friends, because why would he be carrying a towel anyways?!

Takayama

This weekend I took a trip to Takayama. The name means "high mountain", and truly it is high in the mountains. Until semi-recently the town was inaccessible by car, as the town was kind of a hidden secret. You can still see very traditional thatched-roof houses in the area, which are covered with a thick layer of snow in the winter.

The steep roofs protect the houses from caving in in the winter under the weight of the snow. This town looked like I had stepped back in time to a much older age.

The lifestyle here is also a lot slower, despite a heavy influx of tourists. You still see people in traditional rice hats, farming, gardening and making crafts.

The interior of the houses, probably look something like this. The all used to have a small fireplace in the middle, where people cooked and heated themselves in winter. Nowadays they are still sometimes the centre-piece of a dinner.

The outside doors were slid open and a wonderful breeze blew into the house. This was actually, the government administration building, so it had a large garden in the middle.

This is what I saw.

Outside the narrow streets were bustling with action. The city is actually a city of carpenters! About 80% of all stores sell wooden goods. They were such specialists in their field that the Edo government would often call upon them to build palaces and temples. And in fact, many of the ordinary things were made of wood.

Bowls, forks, spoons: all wood!

The city is still very self-sufficient and lives in relative harmony with nature. If you go into a convenience store, you are likely to see the person behind the counter sanding or carving a wooden toy. The famous food from the area is called 'sansai', and is actually a collection of miscellaneous mountain plants. Most of which I didn't recognise. Some looked like ferns, others like a sweet asparagus (a kind of grass maybe?), yet others like potatoes. All very delicious. So delicious, in fact, that I ate it all before being able to take a picture!

something fishy

The particular sect of Buddhism that was historically practiced in Kanazawa was fascinated with the 6 aesthetic virtues. Their values were so strong that the Togugawa general fell in love with it and allowed a kind of self rule, instead of enforcing the Edo government's law. Still to this day you will see art all over the city.

Two weeks a year there are special art weeks in Kanazawa. In these weeks artist take to the city and set up fantastic installations everywhere. The big ones are well known locations, but more likely you will just be walking around and discover them.

While walking home, I saw these fish swimming in the canal.
One fish! Two fish!

Red fish! Blue fish!

holy smoking guitars, Batman!

This is unbelievable!!!

kids guitar trio

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some street art

This is lame, but I kind of miss this kind of thing, so I sometimes fulfill my desire to see some wicked street art by looking for websites with pictures. This one is good.
It`s by a London artist. I hope you like.

cool site

PS. Know any good get-rich-quick schemes?