First day of the trip.

I heard about 18 きっぷ (or 18 ticket), which gives unlimited usage of local JR trains for 5 days for a low fee of 11,500 (about $125 at today's rate).  I can use a ticket any day and ride as many trains as I wanted for essentially $25 a day.  I could have used this to see the sights around Tokyo and it would have saved me money if I traveled a lot and exited the stations often, but I wanted to do something else.  I wanted to go to Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Nagoya, and then back home.

Osaka was the first stop, as I thought it would be nice to go there and then leisurely head back and do the heavy traveling on the first day.  By airplane, a trip to Osaka is a little more than an hour.  By shinkansen (bullet train) it's about 2 and a half hours.  By local trains, it's 8 and a half hours.

Here is the route I took on the first day of my trip.  I think I'm missing some stops, because it was a  LONG day of traveling  Starting in Mitaka, I met my traveling companion around 8 AM and left.

It of course was a regular Tuesday morning rush hour for most people.

From there, we went to the always overcrowded Shinjuku station.  It doesn't look like it, but it was pretty crowded.  This platform was just after a train left.

 

We boarded ye olde Yamanote line...

Then we stopped for a fast breakfast in Shinagawa.

 

We boarded our first train that took us outside of the Tokyo area.

  

 And rode it until the end of the line which was Atami.

After a short stop, we went to Numanzu.

There was a stopover here, and not a whole lot to talk about, but a cute town.  I seemed to have missed taking a picture of the train.  Oh well.

Then came Shimizu.

Shimizu was not a required stop, but was the hometown of the popular comic book and TV Charcter Chibi Maruko-Chan.  It was also known for great tea, and we were getting a bit sick of riding trains, so a well timed break was in order.  Look forward to seeing pictures from that town later.

I was kind of disappointed at the trains I was riding.  Not that they were bad, but they were bland.  I was expecting some crazy trains.  They were all pretty normal.  When I went to the hippie festival I rode some crazy trains, and this was WAY further out than that.

Anyway, feeling refreshed, we got back onto yet another boring train.

 

We had to change yet again in Toyohashi.

And we boarded yet another boring train.  Although I'm complaining now they were boring, I should be grateful that they were all comfortable.

Here's a map. 

Then it was off to Ogaki.

And finally, an interesting train!  It was pretty comfortable too.

 After Ogaki, we had to change trains at Maibara.

 

 While waiting at Maibara, there was a guy on the pay phone shouting very loudly and angrily.  First off, I hardly ever see anyone using the pay phone, and when I do, it's only for a little while, rarely a conversation.  Also, this guy was MAD!  I'm not sure what, but it was starting to creep me and my travel companion out.  Apparently he shouted "So, I'm a homosexual pervert, SO WHAT?!?"  In Tokyo, I would have been a little worried, but out here, a family, including a kid that was about 12 were laughing at him and saying "He's drunk.  Hahaha."  It was then I really felt the cultural difference between Kansai and Kanto (Tokyo) people.

The train that finally came was a bit interesting too. 

 Thankfully, the loud drunk didn't get on our train, or was quiet when he did.  either way, it was the last train before...

OSAKA!!!!  After a LONG day of traveling, I was FINALLY THERE!

Okay, we had to get on another train to get to our hotel, but this was close enough.  I didn't take pictures of the last train and stop because I was tired and I kind of felt like the last stop didn't matter as much, because I was IN Osaka.  It was close to 10:30 at this point.  An 8 and a half hour trip became 14 and a half hours.  That's what happens when you take your time.  It was great, though.

So, that was the trip.  I'm pretty sure I left at least one stop off and I'm sure there are some factual errors, but whatever.  Later on, I'm going to post pictures from this day, but that's the route for day one.

In total, this trip would have cost almost 9,000 yen, but thanks to my ticket, it only cost me 11,500 for the whole 5 day pass.

Stay tuned for more pictures and stories. 

Busy times.

Things have been quite busy lately. Now that I'm healthy, I've been getting out more and doing some of my favorite things.

I've been meeting a TON of new people at school. It's almost getting out of hand, but I really like it. It's a bit weird, though. I've never met this many cool people at once. It's a bit overwhelming. It's also a bit strange, as this is what I expected to happen as soon as I got to school, not a semester later. Oh well. Whatever.

So, what have I been doing? Well, I haven't been taking a lot of pictures. I've been going to places I've already been to, and spending more time enjoying people's company and less time seeing new things. Not to say my spirit of exploration is dying, but I've been enjoying my company more than new sites.

I did see something new the other day. I've studied subliminal advertising before, but I've never seen something like this. Here's an ad for (I think) pachinko. I know they're Avengelion characters.

Why is that robot's hand located THERE of all places? I'm sure that's not an accident.

Anyways, 2 weekends ago, my friend's mom was in town. We took her around and showed her some of our favorite sites. One of which was the Village Vanguard Diner. I've been there 2 times before, but I never noticed the odd spelling on the sign.

Vilidg?? Huh? Sure it sounds the same, but it's... Well, nevermind. And is that spelled "Vanga:d"? Well, whatever. It's the same as the Shimokitazawa sign.

And of course, it's not the spelling of the sign that matters. It's this:

That has avocados, chili, and salsa on it. It was great.

Later on, we went to Harajuku. We saw the rockers there, as I've seen before, but they were REALLY rocking out. It was quite amazing. Also, in front of them was this:

That looks out of place in America, but in Japan, it looks REALLY out of place.
Also, in that day we went all around Harajuku, Shinjuku, Shibuya, and Kichijoji. It was a lot of walking and it felt great to get outside and get a lot of exercise. Too bad it's bitterly cold still.

The next day, I went to go see one of the most enjoyable bands I know. They're called (I think) BB Mojaco.

They are truly delightful people and a ton of fun to watch preform. The first time I saw them play, we hung out afterwards and it was a blast. This time was on a holiday Monday (I had off on Tuesday, but they didn't), so there wasn't that much hanging out, but it was still a blast.

Other than that, I've been doing a lot of normal things. I went to this amazing bar last night that was filled to the brim with a ton of weird toys and lighters and just wacky things. I'll probably go back, so I'll take pictures then.

I've been lazy all day today. I was going to go out, but the wind is blowing like I've never seen before. It's pretty crazy, actually.

Anyways, that's my life now. I think I left a shirt or two hanging up to dry. Now I need to see if I can find them.

Robots and friends

Today I made my 'triumphant' return to school. Classes started on the 16th and I got a terrible case of the flu that evening. After the most boring, painful, frustrating and all around worst week since I've moved here, I couldn't miss anymore class, so I dragged myself out of bed and headed to class. I'm still not over my flu, but I survived today okay. My hope is that tomorrow I'll be even better.

But, I'm not writing about being sick. I'm writing about Ueno and robots.
On January 8th, my Japanese friend who lives in America stopped into Tokyo to visit. Previously she'd been spending time with her family in Japan, but on the 8th, it was me and her and robots!

I'd never actually been to Ueno, so I didn't know what to expect. All I knew was that there was a museum with robots in it, and honestly, what else did I need to know? I took this picture while changing trains at Akihabara. I find it quite disturbing and beautiful simultaneously.

I pulled out my regular camera and took one picture and it shut off. Either my camera has problems or the batteries do. I'm hoping it's the batteries.

Anyways, robots.

They really liked Gundam here.
Here's a piano playing robot.

That crazy silver thing in front is supposed to be a new type of wheelchair. It's more than just a wheelchair, but I can't remember exactly what it does. I read about it online a while ago.

This cute little guy was about 2 feet tall. I'd seen him somewhere before too. I like how he has a smile in his stomach.

I wasn't supposed to take this picture. There was a lot of Astro Boy (Mighty Atom) stuff such as hand drawn comic pages, early renderings, and just all sorts of stuff.

I'd heard about this robot too. Apparently his looks were designed by a Gundam comic writer. I don't know what was special about him besides that. I think he can climb stairs. He was shorter than I had expected.

And of course you have Doraemon on the front and that other thing I think actually is avaliable to buy somewhere. Or at least was. I don't know what it did, though.

I'd read about this ballroom dancing robot. Apparently she can teach someone to properly ballroom dance. She was also shorter than I had imagined.

Here was an automatic feeder robot on the right. Handy for those who can't feed themselves.

Didn't quite get this guy.

This was a kit to build your own robot. Once built, you can train them to do flips, handstands, crazy tricks, and if you get a bunch, they can play soccer.

After meandering for a bit, I heard about a show going on, so we got ourselves situated and waited.

That cool thing, sadly, did nothing. Nothing at all.

What I did get to see is a Toyota robot give a long winded speech about itself and it's friend in Japanese. The other robot did a fairly good job of playing the trumpet while awkwardly dancing to it's own music.

Now I know the revolution begins with "I just called to say I love you" on trumpet.

The exhibit was also there to remind us that robots weren't new. In fact, they'd been around for quite some time, just not the same ways.

These were some amazingly old robots.

And yet another Gundam. The red armor-like suit on the right is supposed to be an extra skeletal system, to allow people to lift more than they normally could, or to give someone who's almost paralyzed the ability to walk. Yet again, it was smaller than I expected.

Random flying things:

Nothing says awesome like a very old school robot playing on a very old school synth. I really wanted to hear those sounds.

But he was just for decoration.

Here are some little programmable camera robots.

Don't know what that red one does, but he looked cool.

These robots were pretty small. Not quite sure their purpose, though.

Here was en example of an industrial robot doing it's thing. It was pretty fast and efficient at organizing those tiles. Too bad for the robot, but those tiles just got dumped onto a conveyor belt. Kind of a sad existence, if you ask me.

After part 1 of the robot exhibit, we got a chance to meet Asimo. Asimo is Honda's robot. I may sound like a broken record, but yet again, I thought he was bigger. Asimo looks like a kid with a backpack. And he can kick a soccer ball.

He can also serve drinks, or at least take a tray of drinks across the room and not spill them. He apparently is also the only robot that can technically run. By that, they mean have both feet off the ground at the same time.

There was a cheesy demo where he emailed people he kicked soccer balls, he helped someone remember dance routines, and he 'served' drinks by bringing a tray to the table. None of it was all too impressive, but one must remember, this is a robot. It's entirely man-made, and isn't run by internal thought processes. It is just a box of electronics. And for that, the things it could do are quite impressive.

The day when helper robots in the home are commonplace isn't any time soon, but it looks like people are actually trying.

And here are the older models.



And at this point I said bye to Asimo and all the other robots.

Bye! See you in the future!!!



Attached to Ueno station is this MASSIVE platform. I'm not really sure what it's there for, but it was just huge.

There were some houseless people living there and some people resting on benches, but it was so incredibly wide, I couldn't fathom why. I'm sure it gets busier than a weekday afternoon, but even so, it was so gigantic, I can't imagine it ever being full or even crowded.

My friend took me to this area called Ameyayokocho, which is supposed to mean American village. It was one of the most un-American places I've seen in Tokyo.

Ueno had a much dirtier feel than what I'm used to. I guess that Shinjuku, Shibuya, Kichijoji, these are the newer, nice parts of Tokyo. Ueno seemed a bit seedy and very very old. Things were worn down from use. Buildings were selling everything from dried fish to fake designer wallets. There were a few stores that were only selling one or two name brand's products, but selling them for significantly cheaper than seemed logical.

It was an unusual experience, and I'm going to go back eventually. It was so terribly chaotic.

There also is a massive park in Ueno. Much of the park felt like what I described. Not new by any standards and not in the best condition. Not disheveled based on lack of care, but on age alone.

It was really different than what I was used to. We went in this one building and got to walk on a tatami mat that was quite old. It was amazing to not just see how people lived a few hundred years ago, but to walk around in it. I couldn't take any pictures, but it was amazing to feel.

It was quite a lovely place, despite it's obvious flaws.

They have a crazy police box, though.

So, then my friend and I went to Akihabara for a bit. Nothing truly amazing to speak of, but I did see this:

Yeah, I didn't quite get that display.

Anyways, my friend and I were going to meet up with another mutual friend in Shinjuku. It's the first time I've spent with both of them and it was a delightful experience.

I only wish we could have spent more time together. But, that's how life goes.

I will see everyone over the summer, it seems so I have that to look forward to.

The food at this place was amazing.

So, that was my day. After dropping my friend off at the train station, everyone went home. I can't wait to be reunited with everyone again.