LAST EPISODE, AUSSIE MONKEYS BATTLED SNOW MONKEYS, Beric reached a NEW power level, and we arrived in OSAKA!!
In Osaka we were lucky enough to stay with our friend Chisato and her family for a few days, this lead to all sorts of madness such as bathing naked with hundreds of people..
Chisato's mother Satoko is one of the best cooks I have ever met! Her healthy food was a great change from the McVomit we were forced to survive on for our last day in HongKong. Satoko has some sweet hobbies such as making her own dresses and taking uber creative photographs.
Satoko cooked us a traditional Japanese meal called Takoyaki and we all got involved with the cooking process:
One night Steve and I turned the tables and taught Chisato how to cook some Italian food:
It was all highly documented:
We were quite cosy staying in Chisato's room, I'm telling you, Japanese girls invented all that cute sh@t!
We were extra cosy on the veranda too:
Chisato and her brother (Samo) are both elite tennis players of Japan. With a population of 180 million that's a pretty impressive status. They took us to play tennis and gave us some coaching (and kicked our asses):
OBEY THE CRAB!!!
On the way home we stopped in the insane department store region. This city never sleeps and the place was buzzing with people. We jumped in a Japanese photo booth, man they really invented this shit!!
Chisato and Julie took us to Kyoto the next day which is really beautiful in autumn and famous for the many geisha's that live there. Chisato and Julie bought us sweet potato ice-cream (glorious and confusing) and then we caught night tram through the forest and rang a symbol bell in some hidden bamboo woods. Kinda like the lost woods in Zelda..
That night back in Osaka, Samo and his father took Steve and I to a public bath. Nomad wasn't interested in this cultural experience. You see in Japan many people do not generally shower at home. On every block in the neighbourhood there are these public baths. Bathing is something they take very seriously and its like a meditative, ritualistic, relaxing process that takes up to 2 hours. The bath we went to was 3 stories high, it had numerous spas with various temperatures and features. One spa was full of apples. It was like some sort of divine ritual. You transition your way through the whole building, going from scorching hot spas, to ice spas and shower room with little stools, shower hoses and buckets. Everyone is naked too of course. Didn't bother us, Steve and I had NOTHING to hide or be embarrassed about. . .
We exploited our rail passes and whizzed over to Hiroshima for a day trip. We saw the peace museum dedicated to the atom bomb tragedy. It was rather sad to see and the perfect way to wreck your day to be honest. However, at the same time it was very educational and eye opening and so I highly recommend you visit it.
These images are disturbing.. but people need to know just how horrible nuclear war its. Lots of these people were mutilated by the black radio-active rain that falls after the blast..
This scale model gives you a good idea about how screwed the world is..
Australia does not have any nuclear weapons but Russia and North Korea are still plotting our doom. We are seriously screwed man if these countries decide to start bombing the world when the resource war begins. Anyways, fear malingering aside, we also went to the art museum in Hiroshima. This was possibly better than the louve in Paris. There was no one in there and the exhibition features a few Monet's, Van Gogh's and Picasso's. You can get right up close too!
One minute a bum, now.. all distringuished like...
You weren't supposed to photograph the Picasso's so I took this stealth shot:
We did not want to leave Osaka but all good things come to an end I'm afraid. Such as this world trip.. reality sucks man! To hell with the real world. To finish off Japan we went back to Tokyo and hung out with Hikari and Saki!
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We explored the 'Electronics Suburb' which is nerd heaven. Nintendo shops and fancy spancy electronics as far as the eye can see!
They have shops selling any computer game and console you can imagine dating back to the beginning of time. Yep, mario, Zelda, battle toads, pokemon red.. its all there!
Most of the electronics never make it to Australia, these people don't bother with movie cinemas, they have virtual movie majangies now:
There are also strange young girls dressed provocative clothes wandering around. These are 'maids' and Japanese men pay good money to sit in strange cafe's and be served 'tea and cupcakes' by these girls...
Some sort of weird fetish apparently. Every second sky scraper was a uber porn shop too. As you wander up higher to the different floors in these porn buildings things get crazier and crazier!...so we're told.. Who knows what's at the top!
Our crazy friend Sarah from China joined us to visited the Toyota building, she's a fashion designer and has her own factory!
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| Sarah - fashion designer extraordinaire |
Then we went to the 2nd tallest building in the world (634 meters). It was damn
tall and what really blew my mind is the fact that its still only half
the height of El cap. Yep we really went and done it with the El Cap
mission. Climbing that absurd cliff was the longest, torturous challenge in my life.. and I'll do it again!!
Hikari was extremely hospitable and took us out to a swweet dinner. The table was some sort of hybrid bbq! Steve and I have decided we need to install a webba Q right in the middle of our dinning tables when we get home..
Yep, she even cooks...
Hikari literally dragged us around half of Tokyo and then to the top of a huge building with a magnificent view. When this girl gets walking she is seriously on a mission. We like that! Steve and I were EXTREMELY impressed..
In the Japan people are very generous and enjoy giving gifts. These are some of the amazing gifts that I received while in Japan from people I met:
Thanks Hikari and Chisato!!
You know how every time you go to a train station there is always that one estranged wierdo there. Well in Japan everyone is wearing suites in the train station, and for once we were the only nutbags to be seen! We really hit rock bottom..
It was this deranged state that lead to the death of Rahfiki. Rahfiki never made it off the train to the airport... Something about me talking to 2 attractive girls holding Rahfiki and then falling half asleep.
Japan was certainly one of the best cultural experiences of the trip. It is super cheap to get to Japan from Cairns so seriously, get over there! And good riddens to that tick ridden monkey. Always hanging around and letting Steve and I do all the work. Getting the attention from all the women...
That Monkey was a burden!!
Good riddens!
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