Mt. Fuji, Tokyo, and we are back!

Konichiwa dear friends! 

After 12 hours trip, the ISX-mas party (Epic party guys!) and some jet lag we are finally back in Toronto. 

After the great night in Osaka we left the next day to Shin-Fuji and we planned to stay the last night in Kyoto. Also we want to thank Masako and their lovely family for hosting and guiding us in Osaka, that was such a great time! 

Mt. Fuji, the highest mountain in Japan and active volcano. In order to get near to the mountain you need at least 1 hour bus ride. We had some time constraint so we checked the mountain from the city and we got some free bikes to tour the city just because we were tourist (amazing).  It was a little bit cloudy but you still can see and contemplate the enormous volcano. 

Also, in Shin-Fuji you can presence bloody and naught battles between cats and crows in order to preserve their territory and honour. We were witnesses of this furious mental/looking battle.  

(No animals were harmed taking this picture)

Plus, we were able to take a picture with a Maiko/Geisha, they have some beard but they are still nice and lovely persons.  

 

We arrived to Tokyo and met our friend Hanae who was in Toronto just a couple of weeks ago (great surprise too!) And of course, such a great tradition in Japan we had to take some more Purikuras! 

So here ends the first episode of Where The Hell Am I Going?! Thanks again to Leslie, Sonia, ISX Staff and our contacts in Japan for  giving us this terrific opportunity and experience! But stay tuned because we are going to edit some fun videos and sharing more crazy stories and mad-ventures! 

Japan Wins!

A short list of reasons why Japan is BIG HOT

1. Heated toilet seats, all the time everywhere. Like a loving bum hug each every time.  Not only that, but then the toilet washes and blows hot air on your little marshmallow until it:s dry.
 
2. Combini vending machines.  They sell hot cans of coffee for a $1.20, and they roll out piping hot, no waiting in line, located everywhere and cheap.  Why the Hell doesn:t Canada have these. It:s much colder in our land of ice and snow.  Tommy Lee Jones is in an ad for Boss coffee, so clearly we have heard of these on our side of the pond.  Not only that, but we have seen neck ties and vacuum bags in them as well.  I:m still looking for the panties though... I:ll keep you posted.

3. EVERY girl is in a very short skirt and it:s winter.  I:m told they fight the cold in the name of fashion and learn to wear high heels even when running. It:s remarkable and impressive and sexy.
When I say short I also mean my belt is often wider than their skirts.  Oh my.

4. Onigiri or Rice ball.  They have a store called Family Mart which is like our 7/11 (which they also have)  Instead of a fatty hot dog, slurpy and nachos they sell this rice ball which has tuna in it wrapped in seaweed. It:s a buck and fills you up while being healthy, it:s Oishi (delicious) and it:s good for you.  They whole cuisine here is based on keeping you fit, fast and attractive. There are almost zero overweight people here. I heard a legend that a flying monkey swoops down from the mountain and uppercuts you if you get porky.

5. Drinking anywhere you want.  No rules, No limits, and they sell it in vending machines. We do see a lot of business men passed out on the trains, but that is just funny.

6. Temples, ancient outdoor party places with tons of history and room to celebrate the various seasons, feudal lords, and festivals.  They look really really suge (cool) too.

7．Lockers in bars.  No coat check, no lines, full safety. Seems like a no brainer to me. We have a lot of gear with us on the trip with camera bags, and valuable things like a camcorder and stethoscope so this really feels safe when you can stow it in a nice lock box while you wiggle your booty to the sounds of a Michael Jackson and Kamikaze fighter plane mash-up.

Next we can see a few pics from yesterday. Including Kyoto, temples, and a bar called Onzieme (11th in French)  it was on the 11th floor. It had nothing french inside except the kissing. It did however have TRON!

Spice the Dice,

J Pop and Toby Sherona reporting

T-SHART! bahh and other japanese Engrish.

For the times you expected wind, but got hail. The T-Shart. 

This little guy must be experiencing a t-shart right now.  Poor sucker.

Hung like a panther? Be ready for the ladies in 25 unique designs.

Who wants to play with pan-pooh?

This was my friends nick-name in highschool.  Pills to assist with hogging.

Possibly the best/worst band name rip off EVER
Featuring Anthonysuki Keidis-san  and Fleao.

Molestation Station just around the corner.

Now travel with us to Arima Onsen for hours of relaxation followed by man eating fish. Yup, you heard me.

Onsen:s are hot springs that naturally flow deep underground. Ours was located near Osaka and from the mountain depths flowed a powerful healing spring.  at 98 degrees this water was piping hot and contained iron which colours the water and rocks orange. 

I:m not exactly used to 30 naked japanese dudes lounging in a giant hot tub, but it was relaxing and the outdoor relaxation areas with their old style tiny round tubs was right out of a samurai movie.  I felt light as a feather and the hot stone sauna was a trip. 

The most interesting thing about Onsen`s for my tatoo covered friends is that you are NOT allowed to enter if you have any tats.   Now I have one on my backside but I:m a ninja and managed to hide it, but they would have thrown me out if they discovered it.  I had to literally cover my ass.  I:m told the rule stems from a time when only Yakuza or criminals had tatoos and they wanted to keep these lowlifes out.  So, something to think about before you get that flaming dragon playing heads up poker with jimi hendrix on your back. 

From left to right.  Justin `earth mover`  Masako `burning passion star`  and Nabil `sunshine surprise`


Now for the man -eating fish!   These little monsters are doctor fish, they are supposed to heal and restore the feet by munching on your flesh.  It feels like a thousand vibrating chatter teeth nipping away at your skin. It:s ticklish and horrifying and downright awesome.  They squirm between your toes and flick past your feet and fight each other for the best bits of you.

It:s the vibration that gets to you. The powerful little teeth at work.  It:s a real test of bravery.

Say hello to Panda, just relaxing in the trees. 

Justin has gone off the deep end. 

Here is how to get a free massage in Japan. The staff never bothers you and you can stay as long as you like. These machines are the best I:ve ever felt and the heated vibration is super good.

J Pop and Toby Sherona checking out.

Octoballs! Katana Strikes! Cooking Death!

Ohio!

J Pop and Toby Sherona reporting from Osaka.  Osaka it to me baby, we are riding hard and taking no prisoners.

Today we met up with the epic and talented illustrator Koji Yasui a former ISX guide and all around great guy. Watch his transformation from Canada Koji, to Nippon Koji.  Conformity required at the border...

With our new found guide we headed to Osaka Castle, created to house and protect the Feudal General Toyotomi Hideyoshi around 1550-1680.  Many bad ass battles were fought here with real samurai slicing and dicing each other in the name of honour. Here is one being fought right now! Bonzi!

The castle has a working moat and is famous in the summer for cherry blossoms or Sakura.  For those Canadian:s out there, when you go to Sushi on Bloor and order a Sakura box, you:re ordering a cherry blossom box. Cool Eh?

Panda says; `When it comes to Kabuto, size Does Matter`
Note+ Kabuto is a helmet.

 

Next we try the Osaka famous Octoballs in Americamura or America Town in Shinshaibaishi.  It:s called takoyaki.  The sauce was created here and these little balls of squishy deliciousness just melt in your mouth.  Toby can fit five in there all at once. Sometimes you bit into one and it squirts all over. Some are salty, some are sour, and my favorite are the real saucy ones you see in the middle. Mmm,  balls.

We also tried our limited Japanese in Namba at the bridge famous for two things.
1. The Glico candy character you see here, everyone stops to take a pic in this pose and.
2. The bridge where guys spend all day trying to pick up girls.

You:re going to want to try this line.  `Antawa totemo kawai ee desne`
We failed. Hard.

Have you ever looked death in the face and found out it was a dead fish?
We wanted to avenge the near death of Mr. Homer J. Simpson and complete a fan challenge by trying death on a chopstick.  The slow painful poison of the FUGU fish awaited us and we took the challenge with a nervous smile.

Fugu is the deadly pufferfish, or blowfish, that crazy little creature that blows up when threatened and has spines all over.  If prepared wrong, it:s an angonizing death from a spine chilling neurotoxin.   Did that frighten Toby Sherona or J Pop.

NEVER!
We munched and lunched and came out alive.  Take that FUGU!

The night ended with an amazing surprise.
We headed to Koji:s bar where he works and over litre sized pints and meeting great new Japanese friends in walks Masako,  ISX intern extraordinaire with news that not only is she spending the night partying with us that she also has a place for us to crash in the mountainous hills of Osaka with her lovely family!  we are treated like Kings here.  Kings I tell you!

the thrill of communicating with people who don:t speak your language is very unique.  We tried everything from drawing on knapkins, singing, hand signs, and using very broken Japanese. More like Smashed/Mashed Japanese.  For instance our Blogging job here at Where the Hell am I Going was described with the hand sign for typey fingers, saying Blogo,  Jobo, air writing in an imaginary journal got us the word diary. Some smiles, head shaking and they understood Blogger. 

Ichiban.

Last we did another round of Purikura  and beat our record for number of people in one booth, up from 3 to 6.

Miss you all, love you all,
and happy birthday to Yu, the nice girl we met in the picture here and her boyfriend Suguru.

Toby Sherona and J Pop.

Hi Ya

How to get Robbed like an Ass Hat.

ASS HAT!

Now that I have your attention,

Hey everyone!

So another couple of wild days in Tokyo, this time starting with a cool breakfast seafood place in Shinjuko. Got to try Natto and my mouth has yet to forgive me.  This soya bean fermentation is sticky and sicky.  It smells of mice fur covered in oil and left in the rain. Thankfully they mixed it with tuna... and yam rice... so the concoction resembled the inside of a cow`s tummy.   The salty shrimp soup more than made up for that mess and was delicious.  Nabil had charbroiled chicken rice dish that was tres bon. 

Next our amazing guide Rio  brought us to the Metropolitan Government office tower with a free ride to the top to see Tokyo in a 360 degree panoramic view... of totally cloud cover!  No worries because we were excited to try the fan chosen Sailor Moon Ultimate Fan Challenge in the Hall of Anacronisms.  We will have  a special video of that once we get real internet access..  lets just say, it was a mystery and it:s not what you:ll expect.  Seeing that Im also not a 13 year old girl, it was a little out of my knowledge base.  tee hee.

Now,  this is pretty special.  Japan has a little thing called the Cat Cafe.  Picture 40 cats roaming around a starbucks. Yup, you get to roll around on the floor with them, tease them with cat toys and watch as they leap and jump around you.  The words F-in Adorable came to mind.  They had a menu with a little bio of each cat too. 

Now we hit up the Lock-UP restaurant in Shibuya.  This themed restaurant got us handcuffed to a rather attractive, no... ridiculously attractive prison guard and dragged to our seats. which were in a jail cell.  Iron Miaden, Slayer and the heavy metal hairbands are being pumped through the restaurant and bloody psycho inmates wander the halls. My drink had a floating eyeball in it and Nabil:s had a bloody bandage made of cotton candy that melts when mixed and crackles like the breaking of bones.  They also lit my food on fire.

Now for the `best* part of the night.  After dinner Nabil and I head to the Red Light District to see the seedy underbelly of Japan.  We are macho tough international spies, so it should be a walk in the park right?
It was also a five minute walk from our Manga Cafe where we were crashing for the night, so easy peizy.

There are dudes in suits in the middle of streets who acost you with offers of everything from strip shows to sex in anime costumes with a bevy of ladies. I:m not about to get The Clap while Im here so Nabil and I are politly declining.  Try declairing The Clap at the border...  Guard: `are you taking anything back with you from Japan`  Justin; `an intense burning sensation in my johnson`  Guard;  `was her name Suki Sextronic the dirty robot girl`  Justin; `she was so sweet`   bahh!

We wander around watching all the action and this nice guy from Zimbabwe asks if we want all you can drink for an hour for 3000 yen.  Thats a losing bet on his part with the way Nabil and I can drink and the promise of a live show and hip hop was enough for us to say Yup!  Now, here are a list of mistakes.

1. Don:t go to a bar in a basement. 
2. Ask how many people are inside
3. Ask how big the bar is.  this one was just slightly larger than a bedroom
4. Watch the bartender make your drinks.
5. Leave together!
6. Know where your hotel is relative to the basement one room bar your in.


Now, Nabil leaves and I stay for another couple drinks to maximize my invenstment in said all you can drink hour.  Just after he leaves something gets tossed in my tequila and tonic and my lights go out.  I was still walking and talking, but my memory is shot. 

Here are a few 3 second clips of memory I have.

`the bartender has me by the arm and asks me if I:m ok`
`i get the feeling something is wrong and do a spin move away from who ever is with me`
`im running, from who or what I don:t know`
`im standing in the manga cafe and Nabil is there!`
`I tell him i ran from the Yakuza`
`I tell him all my money is gone`
`I tell him I:m going to use Facebook`
`I pass out`

I:m totally fine now, lighter $150 bucks but heavy in the story i:ll tell my kids department.

We have implimented some new saftey rules all travelers should know.

1. Have a safe word that means lets get the hell out of here with no questions asked.

Our safe word is PANDA!  

2. We have both be appointed `Minister of Morality` presiding over each other.  We are responsible for the safe keeping and avoidance of bad decisions. We are no longer capable of making good decisions for ourselves.

3. Hide some money other places on your person, like a sock.  That way when the Yakuza robs you they have to look harder for all your dough.

4. Never split up no matter how many free drinks are available.

5. Learn a spin move.

More to come!

Much Love,

J Pop and Toby Sherona

Harajuko and the lights of Akihabara

Day 2 in Tokyo.

We were requested to explore two areas, Harajuko and Akihabara.

We arrived early in the morning to Haraujo and our challenges were: find the Harajuko girls (lolitas, pinups, gotics, etc.) and Justin had to busker to buy food. Apparently every Sunday people gather around Harajuko and specially at Takashita st. to hang out.. You will be able to see a bunch of people with really crazy and amazing outfits.

One of the challenges was for Justin and he had to busker and make enough money to buy lunch. He did it well and people really enjoyed but we found that people who play at the streets usually don't ask for money, but Justin managed to get some and he succeed buying lunch!

After we took a stroll to Akihabar, the light district, very very big lights. We had to find a maid cafe so for you guys who might be wondering what is it, basically it's a cafe where the waitress are dress up like maid and they serve you like Japanese maid. It was such a cool experience and we had a really good time trying to find out how worked because was no way to understand a word and they were unable to speak any English. Unfortunately we can't show pictures of that place, but on the other hand Justin had a small concert too.

Stay tuned!

PS: On the other hand, would you like to pet this beautiful cat?