japan trip update (cont.)

sup all. sorry i haven't updated earlier. the last few days in japan were hectic and coming back with jetlag (while working) is making me a zombie. so here's the rest of my japan trip. enjoy the ride...

thursday (women's shopping day)
we (me, my wife, and her father) went to visit my wife's grandparents (her father's side). her grandfather (90 something years old) takes care of her bed-ridden grandmother (80 something year old) with the aid of a nurse. her grandmother reminds me of my own grandmother, a tiny old japanese woman who smiles and talks japanese. her grandfather seems fine for his age. he walks and talks and is able to get around fine. after some tea and conversation, we left and my wife's father returns home.

we then meet up with my wife's sister and her mother in the osaka area. we have lunch at a little bistro, then on to the fashion district. the fashion district is pretty much like LA's fashion district, filled with outlets and maybe some knock-off stores. tons of shopping for the women. for me...i read a book. since i don't have a job that requires me to dress up, and i can get my clothes back in the states, i'll just wait till i get home.

while we were walking around, i caught my first sighting of a japanese fedex courier. i had seen some fedex/kinkos stores around, even some dhl drivers, not many fedex trucks. so i took a pic. he wore the same uniform but drove a small van, cuz the streets are so small. and he was still working around 6 pm! dang, they must stay out late and start late.

thats pretty much it for thursday. just shopping for the women, and me lugging around their stuff. at least i had my book (battle royale) to keep me company. its a good read if you liked the movie. i'm sucked into it.


friday
after taking a 45 minute train ride, we ended up in osaka at the pokemon center. this was one of the places i wanted to visit, as pokemon is dying out in america. it wasn't that big, about the size of 2 sanrio stores. it had a play area for small kids to run around it, and the rest was filled with pokemon goods. they had so many things, it took me a while to look around the shop and figure out what to get. they had everything from stuff pokemons, video games, and trading cards to ramen, clothes, and golf balls. i ended up getting a key chain, a cereal bowl, a small cup and rice bowl set, and a pen. too bad they didn't have any t-shirts in adult sizes. =P

after lunch, we walked around osaka and did some window shopping. we went to a store, kinda like the gap. they had some doraemon gift sets that included a clear doraemon bank and a t-shirt that was cool but the shirts only came in kid sizes. then we went to a mall, which i actually had been to on an previous kobe trip. we looked around in a snoopy shop but things were just way over priced in there. then we found an arcade where we played some amusement games, but didn't win anything.

after shopping, my wife left to get her hair cut by her friend's husband (did you get that?). i went with my wife's sister to do more shopping at a store called 'don quijote' (www.donki.com). its kinda like the store we have here called 'aahs', a novelty store with cards and gadgets. 'don quijote' also had electronics, clothing, jewelry, and pharmacy goods. i think i spent over an hour there going over their 4 floors of goods. at one point, i caught myself accidently wandering into their 'adult' section and quickly ran out before my wife's sister caught me in there. she probably would have thought "pervert" as i tried to explain that i accidently wandered in to there. whew...

after shopping, we met up with my wife at the hair salon. we met my wife's friend and husband as he finished up cutting my wife's hair. after the hair cut, my wife's sister went back home and me and my wife had dinner with my wife's friend (her husband had to stay back and close the salon). we had dinner at a little italian restaurant and had a 5 course dinner set. i forgot that the dinner had so many courses that i was almost full by the middle of it. the only annoying thing about dinner was the table of guys next to us who was smoking after their meal. the smoke drifted right to our table, which made me miss the no-smoking ban in california.

after dinner, we parted ways with my wife's friend, and made our way home. the weather started to get cold, so it made the long walk from the train station to the house a very long one.


saturday
today we went to another of my wife's friend's house. she lived quite a bit far from the train station so she had to pick us up by car. she has this cute little 3 year old son, who i think looks like the asian version of haley joel osment (the kid from 'the sixth sense' movie). she stopped at a small local mall for us to do a bit more last minute shopping. it had so much stuff that i think we spent 2 or 3 hours there. poor kid, had to wait for us while we looked around.

after shopping, we went to my wife's friend's house for lunch. it was a very new and nice house in a residental district. and the furnishings and decor inside was magazine picture perfect. a small tatami room one one side of the house, wood floors, nice kitchen, not to mention the large flat screen lcd/plasma tv. it would have made martha stewart cry. the little boy showed us his large 'anpanman' collection of mini figures and magnets. and we watched a 'little robots' dvd, while his mom made us lunch of cream chipped beef soup and fried chicken. after lunch, i still had jetlag, so i took a little nap while my wife and her friend caught up on times.

after several hours, my wife's friend's husband came home. and a few hours after that, her friend dropped us off at the train station. before we left, we hopped into a kinokunya book store to do some browsing. my wife got some books and i got a cool model 'hobby' mag, a thick, glossy mag with photos of toy models. its just like being back in 'toys r us'. then we caught the train back home, and ate sukiyaki with the family.


sunday
we started the morning packing all our stuff. we (or rather my wife =P ) bought so much stuff, that we actually brought back more stuff than we came with. so much stuff that we had to borrow a duffle bag from the family, just to get all our stuff on the plane. we took a break for lunch, delicious ramen, then back to packing. finally i got all of it packed in and ready to go.

after packing, i wanted to run to the local market one last time to grab a few goodies. on our way there, i saw a house that was styled after american houses (pic to come later). kinda wierd as it stood out amongst all the other japanese houses.

then after 1pm, the airport shuttle arrived (after getting lost and being late). then we packed up the shuttle, said our goodbyes, and boarded the shuttle. we had to pick up a few more passengers, so we didn't get to the airport till 2 hours later.

we checked in and got our tickets (also checked in all those heavy luggages). then we roamed around the airport, checking all the stores. they had free internet computers there, so we checked our emails and even wrote some. then we decided to wait in the waiting area to board.

while waiting, i noticed on the floor a piece of folded color paper. i pointed it out to my wife and we decided to investigate it. it was under a seat, so i carried my bag to the seat and we both sat down above it. i smoothly bent down, picked up the paper, and put it in my pocket. then i carefully examined the paper and it turned out to be...10000 yen! ($100!!!). someone must have dropped it and i found it. i suppose i could have asked out loud "hey, did anyone drop 10000 yen?" but then i think everyone there would have said 'yes'. and being the kind of person who doesn't want to cause mass hysteria and commotion, and thinking about the safety of the public, i decided i better keep this one to myself (just like that UFO incident).

so the plane flight was good (being 9 hours instead of the 12 hours to get there). we didn't have any friends that could 'block out' a row for us but we did end up getting a whole row to ourselves. at first we were sharing a row with some asian american guy (probably in his mid-30's and not too stylin). the plane wasn't even half full so there was a possibility of getting an empty seat next to you. so i think this guy asks the flight attendant about changing his seat and i think there's a good possibility but the flight attendant has to see if everyone is on board and has their own seats first. then the guy asks the flight attendant "where are you from?". me and my wife totally thinks he was trying to pick up on her but the idiot didn't look at her ring finger (not too bright). plus, she probably gets hit on a couple times during one flight (come on, this isn't the 70's). so the flight attendant finds an empty row but it has no window (next to the wing). i guess the guy didn't want that row, so he offers it to us. the row that we were in was the first row in economy class, which means the arm rest doesn't raise but you get lots of front leg room, and my wife likes to spraw all out while sleeping. so we take the no-window row and we end up having a whole row to ourselves...again.

on the trip back, i caught all the movies i didn't get to catch on the way there. this time i watched 'crash' (a good flick about racial tension and stereotypes), 'batman begins' (my second time watching it cuz i fell asleep during it the first time. too cluttered at the end), and then i caught a japanese movie about a modern army unit time traveling back to the samurai era and surviving/battling. whats funny is that on another channel, theres a different movie about the same thing (but was made in the early 80's). i guess japanese likes to see g.i. soldiers fight samurais.

after landing, i had some hassle going through immigration (i guess we're suppose to stay together but one sign said 'US citizens' and another sign said 'green card', so we went into different lines). then we got our bags, went through customs, and looked for the supershuttle.

when we got into a supershuttle, it was packed. it seems a group of people ,coming from arizona, wanted to go on the game show 'the price is right'. i used to pick up from the CBS studios, so i made some small talk with them and told them what was around that area. they were only going to be in town for 2 days, so i told them what they could do that was close to their hotel. wow, people are still fans of that show...much less watch that show?

after we got dropped off, we loaded our car, got some groceries, and went home. we showered up, cracked open the luggage, and went through all our stuff.


epilogue:
i'll try to put up a pictorial blog of my japan trip later, after i resize the pics and slim them down for easy loading. here are some things that i had thought about while being in japan....

jetlag + lactose intolerant = not good
before going to japan, i knew i was going to be eating lots of new foods. so before we left, i got some target-brand, ultra lactose pills to prepare for the worse. i usually can eat ice cream and maybe some cheese with no problem but i would rather be safe than sorry.

while in japan, i took the pills...just in case. sometimes, i would take 2, just to be sure. but wouldn't you know it...it didn't quite work. it was just more than an occasional brap. i had cramps and even...'the runs'. i'm not sure wether it was the cheap brand pills, or maybe the japanese process their milk differently...i had to stay away from dairy. i even got 'tagged' when i ate some peach 'milky' candy (a favorite of mine back in the days). i figured i was safe cuz it wouldn't be real milk, but i think it still got me. add this with having jetlag, and its no fun party. just think, a walking zombie, farting and cramping. good times.

1 ply toilet paper
i noticed not alot of places in japan use 2 ply toilet paper. i understand public bathrooms (to save on costs) but even personal bathrooms use 1 ply toilet paper. all the family and friend bathrooms i used, all had 1 ply toilet paper. in the states here, i use 2 ply. maybe it cuz there's not alot of trees in japan. go figure.

1:5 ratio of good looking women
when i was in japan before (the first time in 1992 and the last time around 1998), i noticed there wasn't too many 'good looking women'. what i mean by 'good looking women' are women who are up to fashion, who wear make up, and take that extra step just to go out shopping. this time i noticed alot more women taking care of themselves and doing the extra effort. is it cuz they're looking for guys, or its just a cultural thing. the last time i was in japan, i would say 1 out of 15 women took the extra effort to prim themselves up. this time, 1 out of 5 women on the street was 'made up', and this was on a normal work weekday. i would say in the big city (osaka) the ration was 1:5, and in the more smaller city (kobe) the ration would be 1:9. maybe its just a trend and more women are jumping on the bandwagon. the guys on the otherhand...they need to be slapped with a fashion magazine. the ration for good looking guys is probably 1:15. if you want to find a good looking woman, go to japan, but you have to know japanese first. sorry vince. =P

battle royale, good read
before leaving to japan, i knew there would be 'dead times' cuz i don't speak japanese. times where my wife would be visiting friends or shopping and i would have nothing to do. so i decided i would have to entertain myself during these times with a book. so i went to a bookstore, browsed around, and finally found a book to buy. i bought 'battle royale' by koushun takami. its set in a society of japan, where the government is like a communist country, where they control everything the people read and hear. people who rebel are sent to labor camps, and a 'program' was set up to 'thin out' the population. the 'program' takes a class of jr. high school students, puts them on a deserted island, puts monitoring/explosive collars on their necks, and let all of them kill each other leaving the last survivor the winner. the book was so popular that they made 2 movies out of it, and 2 manga series. i saw the first movie a while ago and it was good (i would buy it if i could get it cheap). then i read the reviews online and the readers said the book goes into more deeper details, with more action and backstory. so far, i'm almost done with the book, waiting to watch the first movie again to refresh my memory. the only down part of the book is that they use lots of japanese names for the students, so it gets kinda confusing on who's who. but if you like frantic survival stories, maybe give it a try.

cell phone mania
one thing i noticed while walking around or riding the train, is that everyone has and uses their cell phones. text messaging is big there. since there's nothing to do on the train, everyone whips out their cell phones and starts typing. its banned to talk on your cell phone while on the train (something about the signal missing up pacemakers), but text messaging is okay. they also use the internet on the cell phones alot. there were numerous times when my wife's sister would whip out her cell phone and surf the internet, just to look up an address or a definition/translation for a word. i thought it must have cost her a fortune to keep using the internet that much, but i guess using the net over there is cheaper than here.

flat, thin, widescreen tvs
one of the things i noticed in my wife's house was their tv. it wasn't a new tv, but the screen was in widescreen format. i guess all their tvs are in widescreen format, unlike here. also, when visiting other peoples houses, most people have the big, flat, thin, widescreen lcd/plasma tvs. i guess since their house is so small, they need to save as much room as possible. so i'm guessing the lcd/plasma tvs must cost a bit less than here, since they have a huge market for them, unlike here where its just starting to grow.


well that's about it for now. that'll leave you about a weeks worth of reading to d (unless you read fast). whew, i'm glad i finished cuz i'm starting to forget what i did each day. catch ya later and enjoy.