Journey Back Home
This blog started with the adventures of three former Peace Corps Volunteers and their Toyota Landcruiser, La Puta Madre, as they travel the Pan-American highway through the countries of Central America on their journey home to the United States. Unfotunately two of the original three have sold out to the man and are slowly turning into suits. Now, it chronicles the travels of the last of the original three. This would be Colin (the funny one)
Monday, April 25, 2011
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Capsule Hotel
first night in Tokyo, one of the cheaper ways to travel
Friday, April 22, 2011
last stop Tokyo
So from Nara it was the high speed train to Tokyo. Pretty cool, not exactly sure but we were moving around 150 mph. Tokyo is an animal like I've never seen before. So many people, so dense and so expansive. I have never felt so safe throughout an entire city nor so easily understood an entire subway network. I was only there for four days or so and I was all over the place and was never over-intimidated, which I can't really say about New York or Philadelphia. All over Japan and even in Tokyo, hundreds of unlocked bikes are left outside the train and subway stations and noone takes them. You can leave your bag on a bench and walk away from it while you go to get directions. Or just walk without direction. It's probably the safest place I've ever been. A few other little tidbits that might help. Get the national train pass. I didn't and spent too much and lost time buying tickets. I wish I hadn't ignored my friends when they told me not to bring my hiking back pack. I was stubborn mainly because it's been with just about every trip I've taken. But it really gets in your and everyone elses way on the trains. Eat everything, its all good. except may the nato.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
one big Buddha
kinda hard to tell but this guy is probably about 50 ft tall
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
a quick stopover in Nara
So the way I heard it was that Nara was a good stop over and the place to catch the Shinkonsen (high speed bullet train) so that what I did. I did get to see Nara if only for a few hours but as it turned out that is not a place to catch the bullet train so the whole day was extremely rushed.
Monday, April 18, 2011
On to Tokyo
back down the incline and on to Tokyo with a few quick stops on the way
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
worst toilets
Japan is home of the best and worst toilets in the world. The photo here is an example of the worst. The best have heated seats, a built in bidet with warm water and even provide a drying puff of air to finish off the experience.
Okunoin
at the end of town is a huge cemetery planted among large cedars. The story goes that Kobo Daishi the founder of Shingon Buddhism went into meditation in the temple there xx years ago and waits there for Miroku Nyorai, the Buddha of the Future, when he will wake up.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
my room in the Monastery
slept on the floor just about everywhere I stayed in Japan. The table in this photo was pretty cool, ithad a heating element under it so you tuck your legs in and it keeps you pretty toasty. Not too much heat in a monastery on top of a mountain so it came in handy.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Temples in Koyasan
ust about every building in Koyasan is antique, really a beautiful town
Incline to Koyosan
after a long train ride you end up with the last connection being an incline track. Pretty cool final leg of a long long day
Wakayama Traditional Dance
my first night back on the mainland (can you refer to an island as the mainland?) I was in Wakayama and it lucked out to be the same night as the weekly dance exhibition.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Back on the main island
So I ferried back to Honshu and worked my way up to Koyasan. Besides the ferry trips the only other thing that I really planned for my time here was to spend a few nights in a Buddhist monastery. Koyasan is the small town I chose to do that in, it's the center of Shingon Buddhism and a really peaceful little town on the top of Mt. Koya. I stayed in Muryokoin, woke up at 6 every morning to attend the meditation sessions and then had a typical Japanese breakfast before figuring out what to do with my day. The whole of Japan is slightly confused when you tell them you dont know where you're heading to next or how long your staying. The monk that checked me in and showed my around found it pretty amusing as well. So the idea was to figure out the world and my life and what I should do with it and all that but that only took about four days and five nights so I left early the fifth day.
Saturday, April 09, 2011
Naruto Bridge
not a ton of whirlpools the day that I was there but there was plenty for the civil engineer in me to geek out on
Naruto whirlpools
The Naruto Bridge between Shikoku and Awaji Island heading towards Honshu is apparently one of the best places to see naturally occurring whirlpools.
manicured gardens
small lots with even smaller yards still had some of the best kept gardens I've ever seen
a little grub
normally i'd be completely game for a little fish on stick but still relatively queasy I was more than ok with just the picture
vine bridge
apparently at one time these were all over the place. Bridges made of vines were made so that if pursued by enemies they could be cut down to slow them down.
Friday, April 08, 2011
steep slopes
finally got the energy up to take a train out to the middle of nowhere, which offered up some pretty amazing views
sick in Japan
so as I mentioned before, I got pretty ill my second day on Shikoku. Violently ill on a train platform actually. Luckily as I was on all fours losing my guts on the rails the polite Japanese peoples were doing there best to not notice me. When I turned around there wasn't a soul looking at me which was a real surprise when you imagine the lip curls you would get for performing this same stunt just about anywhere in the US. Sick while traveling is just about the worst thing in world. I don't care how old you are you want your mom and hate everything about the place you're in. I was stuck in a hotel bed for 24 hours straight and extremely disliked everything about Japan that I could think of. Luckily the hatred subsided with my illness.
Thursday, April 07, 2011
Wednesday, April 06, 2011
Translation gems
there were a bunch of these all over the place. My brother actually has a better collection on his blog. He talks about a bunch of aspects of his life in Japan, it's pretty funny and worth checking out. www.livingandteachinginjapan.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, April 05, 2011
to Shikoku
So a few quick days in Hiroshima and Miyajima and it was time to move again. I was determined to get into the middle of nowhere a bit so the island of Shikoku was the goal. Just about the only part of the trip I had planned on prior to flying to Japan was this idea of hopping a Ferry through the small islands on the way over to the Shikoku. I asked quite a few people who all told me it was impossible and I had to take a bus but I ended up finding one over after a couple hours of trying. Kinda proud of myself for having no Japanese.
Monday, April 04, 2011
Decommissioned floating dock
one of the guys working at the hostel mentioned he knew a place that he collected his own shellfish and we ended up crawling around on this thing
A Wedding
kinda got swept up in the moment but these guys came out and were posing for professional pics and every Japanese tourist ran over and started taking pics so I did too. The traditional garb is pretty cool. Apparently you're part of a pretty important family if you get married on the island.
Miyajima's Tori
this is one of Japan's biggest tourist attractions. You're supposed to wait for low tide and walk under it but I hit it at the wrong time. One of the crazy things about Japan was that domestic tourism is so big that entrance fees often actually costs more for a Japanese tourist than a foreign one
Miyajima
I stayed in the "Backpackers Miyajima" hostel just south of Hiroshima and right across from the island of Miyajima. They're really friendly and just about the only place I found other travelers right after the tsunami, I'd suggest it to anyone. I was nice being on the water and the island itself is definitely worth seeing. Good hiking, tons of temples.
Sunday, April 03, 2011
Atomic Bomb Dome
one of the very few buildings that was left standing
Hiroshima Peace Memorial
I've not been extremely proud of being American before but never truly embarrassed until I walked around the Peace Park. Everyone really should go if they get to Japan.
Cherry Blossoms
I didn't plan it but I really lucked out being there during the Cherry Blossom Season
Steppin out on my own
So after about 2 weeks with my brother Pete it was time for him to go back to work and me to start the backpacking part of my trip. When I left for Japan I really thought that all my time solo traveling around Latin America prepared me for this as well but even though I had learned a few phrases under my brother's tutelage (Ubinkyoku wa doku deska? = Where is the post office? really served its purpose of getting my to a useful ATM but it's just about the only one I still remember) I was surprisingly nervous. As many places I've traveled to and around on my own before I've never run into such a language barrier nor been in such a foreign culture. There are a lot of etiquette rules over there that I new existed but had no real clue about and it made me a bit worried that I was going to accidentally offend the entire nation. I barely caught my first bus out of Yonago heading to Hiroshima but I'm glad I did because it's an eye opening and powerful place.
Saturday, April 02, 2011
the brother
in this picture of him looking out at the Adachi Garden you can really tell he's an intellectual just look how he crosses his legs
The Adachi Museum and Garden
this place was amazing, I've never seen such care taken in gardening. Noone was even allowed to walk on it.
Friday, April 01, 2011
Onsen number 1
so this was my first Onsen or Public Bath. pretty go get naked with a bunch of Japanese men and soak in hot water or hang out in steam rooms. They even have a tub with electric shock panels embedded in the walls I really has some reservations about it while I walked there but after you get over the naked in public thing its fantastic. You walk out feeling the cleanest you ever felt. I visited quite a few more before I came home.