...and so we reach the end

Today was a beautiful day, full of beautiful things. We woke up this morning, enjoyed some more of those great bagels (blueberry with blueberry cream cheese, just in-case you were wondering), and headed off to the Imperial Palace and Ueno park to enjoy the cherry blossoms.

First on our list was the palace, which only allowed you to enter the outer garden and walls due to the fact that it is still in use.  There weren't a whole of interesting things but it was cool to see the moat and walls.  Oh, there were also a group of people practicing kendo behind a wall.  It was sad that we couldn't really see them because it sounded truly interesting. 

After our tour of the palace we headed off to Ueno.  Although the park was so full you could have swore they were giving out free money, it was still rather enjoyable.  The cherry blossoms were in full bloom and lined the streets of the mile of walkways leading through the park.  As usual there were large groups of people consuming alcohol and partying it up, which led to some interesting people watching.

Gundam Wins!

Last nigh my Gundam beat out the internet. Sure, I could have got online and wrote a little something or two, but we had been shopping and I bought a few different Gundam models, one of which was the green guy you see to the left.

For those who don't know, Gundam models are essentially the same as building your own action figure.  Seeing all over Japan you will see old men, young women, children and teens alike, toiling away to make these robots, I take no shame in being too addicted to take the time to write. Besides - Josh was doing it too.

A Castle's Castle

Today was an awesome day.  See that picture to the left (or, "right," for you dyslexic folks out there).  That my friends is one of the only remaining original castles in Japan and boy is it a cool one.

As has been the routine for a few days now, we woke up nice and early to catch a ride on the Shinkansen, although this time was for a much farther trip to the town of Himeiji.

With four hours of on-and-off sleep we felt pretty rested despite having left the house a little after 6:00 in the AM.  Right from the platform we were greeted to a lovely model of the castle and a large yellow sign leading pointing us on our way.

Winding through a series of catacombing shops we popped onto the ground level with the castle in plain sight on the horizon.  It's amazing that even in the modern day, with skyscrapers throughout the city, how the castle can still manage to loom over everything.

The walk would have taken us around 15 minutes but having skipped a true breakfast we were all hungry.  Much to our surprise though there were few food outlets and even the ones we could find weren't open until after 2:00 in the afternoon.  Out of luck we stooped to the level of McDonalds, where I enjoyed a thoroughly gross Big Mac.

With food in stomach, and a herd of people in front of us, we made our way to the castle entrance.  As with all things in Japanese the motto I have given them rang true once again, "We build lines - you stand in them." 

Approximately one hour of line standing led us into the series of chokepoints leading into the inner castle.  Although the castle had never been attacked during it's active life, I can only imagine there would have been a blood bath for the apposing forces. 

Staggered along the way were multiple towers and openings for gun and arrow fire.  Secret holes for warriors to hide in lined the walls.  Boiling pots of water would have been poured over gates on to forces.  Spears thrust into men's sides as they climbed through gates.  Maybe the best defense isn't a good offense after all.

Inside of the main tower were six floors, each with a different pourpose.  Some were for storage of weapons, while others were for storage of food.  The sixth and final floor was closed to the public, but it was said to have gold plating.  I can only imagine that it was used for a last hiding spot if for the local ruler.

With every inch of the building you could feel as if you were walking through living history.  You could imagine the the arrows flying as you picked off invading forces.  You could see the rice patty being tended beyond the middle wall.  All together, the history, the beauty and the mystery, made today and awesome day.

 To see today's pictures - click here.

Tokyo...Fridgid...Ocean

Tokyo Sea...meh, more like Tokyo frigid ocean, swirling with winds and young Japanese girls.  Before we get to that though, lets step it back to yesterday.

For some odd reason I was getting a 505 error and was unable to access the blogger sight, so I decided to skip the fight and move onto sleeping.

That morning we woke up to allow Randi and Melissa to return to Harajuku to complete the tour of shops along with visiting the four story "Forever 21" store.  Here is my bit of advice to you all - if you're a woman, make sure you don't miss it - if you're a man, make sure to do anything you can to avoid it.  It's basically one giant ball of lace, bows, and straw hats (they are popular over here these days).

Once we were able to pull the ladies away from the clothing stores we made our way to far less traveled place for the common tourist; Nakano Broadway.  Put simply, I'm not sure I've ever been to a cooler place in my entire life.  Jam-packed into the four floors of the broadway are a plethora of shops to suit your every wish.

503 Error

Just so everybody knows, I had a 503 error happen all last night and wasn't able to access the blogger website to make a post.  We have to leave for Tokyo DisneySea here in a minute, so I'll make a double post tonight.

And then God said, "Let there be snow!"

"Hello, I am a cute little deers and I would like some of your nummy foods."  I'm sure that what this guy would have said if he wasn't so busy biting at Melissa's legs.  We'll get to them later though.

Today we woke up bright and early to catch the 5:30 local train to Shinagawa, which would allow us to transfer onto the Shinkansen Hikari (bullet train) to Kyoto.  The ride was approximately 3 1/2 hours long, with intermittent stops along the way.

At first I would have assumed today to be a great weather day.  Cruising along at 167 mph, the warm sun shone through bright enough to warrant taking your jacket off, while a mist steadily lifted from the mountainside.  Sadly, Mt. Fuji was covered by distant clouds - but there shall be other days.

For the most part the four of us slept on-and-off until we arrived at Kyoto station, where we would then transfer on towards Nara.  At the station I bought the most wonderful chocolate and almond bread twist.  If there was one thing the Japanese are good at it's pastries.  Well, pastries and putting cute faces on inanimate objects.

Maid Cafe!

Due to it being late, and needing to get up at 5:00 in the AM to catch a train to Nara, this will prolly need to be a shorter post than most.

To help facilitate the shortness here is a bulleted list of our day, from which I will elaborate as needed.

• Woke up and went to Starbucks.  White chocolate mocha and a slice of poppy seed bread.
• Train ride to Akihbara, the electric town, full of all sorts of wonderful gadgets and anime related goods.
• Went to Yodobashi Camera, a seven story version of Best Buy, where each floor is much larger than your average Best Buy.
• Searched around all of Akiba for a Perfect Grade Gundam model for Josh.
• Went to a Maid Cafe - will elaborate below.
• Purchased some goodies.
• Went to Sunshine City in Ikebukuro, a five story, underground mall.
• Ate udon noodle at a not-so foreigner friendly restaurant - will elaborate below as well.

 Now, to elaborate on the two highlights of today.

Oh, Octopus Balls!

See that right there?  That's Randi "enjoying" a wonderful ball of battered, seasoned, octopus covered in mayonnaise.  As you can tell, she LOVED it!

Let's take it back a few hours though to some food that she did enjoy.  This morning we went to the Hogwarts of Bagels where skillful magicians churned out flavors far superior to their American counterparts. 

Randi had a banana and caramel; Melissa had blueberry with blueberry cream cheese; Josh had sweet potato and black seed; and I had green apple.  In addition to these delectable flavors they also had cherry blossom, double pumpkin, chocolate and a whole lot more.

After breakfast we played a quick game of Munchkin prior to meeting Gary's friend Suyama-San.  He met us in our hotel lobby along with his wife and son.  As a whole I would have to say that his wife is one of the nicest people I've met.  She was funny and enjoyed giving us all different sorts of foods to try for the first time.

My fingers hurt...

Well, actually my feet hurt, and if they could talk then I'm sure they would agree that this is the best way sum up today.  Why do they hurt so much though?  Follow along mister question-asker and you'll find out.

To start off our day, both Melissa and Josh's debit cards wouldn't work in the ATM at 7-11.  This led to us searching out a post office in hope that they would be able to help (because they say that almost every card works at a post office).  With much circling, due to sorely outdated maps, we found our way to the, "Metropolitan Waterworks," where we were informed the post office had moved rather far away.

Frustrated we decided to try another 7-11, which thankfully worked, although it only allowed Josh to make withdrawals in increments of 10,000 yen (about $100).  $100 was better than nothing, but we needed the almight 50,000 that most 7-11's allow.  Desperate we headed out of Ikebukuro to find the Shinjuku post office.  With a properly created map we were able to find it, but the results were still the same - 10,000 yen or nothing.

Can we sleep yet?

Sad story.  It looks like we all died in a tragic plane accident, somewhere, I presume, over the northern Pacific.

Okay, so maybe that didn't happen, but if you had been with my sister you might have assumed that to be the case.  It was a weird mix of progressive hysteria and "ghost skin" syndrome; with each portion of our trip leading her to change into a slightly lighter shade of paleness.

Somewhere between take-off and our first patch of turbulence things seemed to calm down, from what I presume to be a coping mechanism similar to what one would use after seeing the traumatic slaying of a close family member.

This is how we're going to do this...

View Larger Map

It’s calculator time! Awesome!


Take 4829 miles on a aeroplane. 2131 miles on slew of different train types. Dash in 130 miles of blistered feet. Add them all together and what do you get? That’s right; the craziest 14 days that I’ll probably ever spend on a vacation with family*.

Now sure, 4,829 miles seems like a lot, but it will be the comfort of an airplane, watching “Best in Show,” while attempting to block out Melissa listening to the High School Musical soundtrack a tad too loud, and Randi mourning the death of Dobbie and Fred. No, the real meat and potatoes of the trip will be the train rides.

2131 miles is near the equivalent of jumping on the back of a crow and flying off to Philadelphia. While we won’t have the crow we will have the pleasure of cruising along at 160mph on Shinkansen (Bullet Train). Smooth and luxurious it will whisk us about the countryside in fashion suitable only for a king…well, or at least a fashion suitable for middle class businessmen in black suits.

If you’ll note above you can click on the map to see exactly where said train shall be taking us, but for the full list check after the break:

*This is tentative. In the event that Josh and Randi don’t get married replace the word, “family,” with either, “a jerk face,” or, “my stupid sister.”

And so it begins...

 Welcome to my Blog: Four Thugs in Japan.  Why four thugs?  Mostly because we think that gang signs look cool, and the pirate thing from the last trip is soooo played out.  Chances are if we met any real thugs we’d get beat down, ending up telling some story about how we “accidentally” fell down the stairs when getting ready for work, but until that day happens we’ll try to make the best of things.

On Wednesday we set off for the Land of the Rising Sun, and on each day after I will try to make a post about the days happenings – usually around 7:30AM PST – and will try to include as many pictures as possible.  Each post will be broken into two parts, so remember to click to "read more."

As a primer I’ve decided to post a bit of useful information related specifically to our trip, so follow along as we prepare for our journey.