One more thing, the retirement of deuce's ring tone :(
Showing posts with label Golden Week '08. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Golden Week '08. Show all posts
Thursday, May 08, 2008
vol. 22! Golden Week '08 rambling!
A wicked long recap of my trip during Golden Week '08! Covered Osaka, Hiroshima, and Kobe! That's about it!
One more thing, the retirement of deuce's ring tone :(
One more thing, the retirement of deuce's ring tone :(
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
GW #5: wrap it up...
So, that was it.
A rough tally of things on the trip:
Train Trips: 25 (4 on the Shinkansen)
Boat Rides: 2
Taxis used: 4
Bike Rides: 3
T-shirts bought: 3
Jerseys purchased: 2
Other fan goods: 3
Pictures Taken: 503
Pain pills: 14
Beers: 40ish?
Mario Kart Wii victories (for me): 17 or so
Baseball Games: 2-1
Great Golden Week! Thanks to dude? and Mrs. dude? for their hospitality! Thanks to the cities of Osaka, Hiroshima and Kobe for rockin'! I hope to visit again soon!
A rough tally of things on the trip:
Train Trips: 25 (4 on the Shinkansen)
Boat Rides: 2
Taxis used: 4
Bike Rides: 3
T-shirts bought: 3
Jerseys purchased: 2
Other fan goods: 3
Pictures Taken: 503
Pain pills: 14
Beers: 40ish?
Mario Kart Wii victories (for me): 17 or so
Baseball Games: 2-1
Great Golden Week! Thanks to dude? and Mrs. dude? for their hospitality! Thanks to the cities of Osaka, Hiroshima and Kobe for rockin'! I hope to visit again soon!
GW #4: Kobe-iton~
神戸いとん～
The 5th and final day of the most epic Golden Week in history began pretty early with me screaming in pain from my still lingering sunburn and mornin's futile attempt to ice my arms down, pain, nothing but pain! Made it up and out of bed and then the bad news came pouring in... rain. I think that the chance had gone up to 90% for rain starting around noon (1st pitch was at 1:00). But, like the troopers we are, we headed out of the dude? hole at just before 10am and worked our way over to Sannomiya （三ノ宮）station in Kobe and picked up a couple of things at the Buffaloes team store before searching around the dirty ass area of town for some beer. The first place we (finally) found was a Family Mart that didn't sell beer... luckily there was a Lawson right next door, under construction... so we finally made it to an AmPm and picked up the beer and headed back to the station and then over to Skymark Stadium! We arrived at the stadium at around 12:00 and found our seats pretty quickly, pretty decent seats too. I was immediately impressed by the stadium as it had a much more sophisticated feeling than most stadiums here, it was spacious, and felt very modern, and was surrounded by trees. One other feature was that the space between rows of seats seemed wider so my knees were never being pressed into someones back! The stadium was really, really good! For sure in my top 5. The only negative really was the concessions, it took 40 mins before the game (and through the end of the 1st inning) to get my giant wiener! All-n-all it was really cool to see Skymark, and it was a really good game to see too, as the Buffaloes scored 5 runs in the bottom of the 8th and held on in the 9th for a 6-3 victory! It sprinkled a little around the 8th inning or so, but that was it for the rain... at the game... Here are some pics from the game:
After the game we jumped back on the train and headed back over to Sannomiya station to... STEAKLAND! Yes! This was one of my goals for the trip,to eat the famed Kobe beef （神戸牛）, in Kobe! It did not disappoint! Man that shit was good! All the things you hear about it are true, it melts in your mouth, and it is tasty! We went to Steakland Kobe because it was cheap as hell! Well... in comparison to other places at least, I ended up going with the Kobe-gyu Sirloin steak set which came in at 4480 yen. It was all soooooo good! Here's some pics, my favorite is the fat kid looking on while they cook up our steak!
Finally, we headed over to Kobe station and some place called "Mosaic" to do a little shopping, eat some sweets, spill some beer and re-enact the "proposal scene". It was a nice place, very new, and pretty. We didn't get much of a chance to check out Kobe's famed "night view" because we were in a bit of a hurry to get back to the Shinkansen station to head back to Tokyo, and it started raining too, but it was cool, Kobe was very nice (except for the dirty side streets of Sannomiya) and I'd like to head back sometime and spend a bit more time there. Pics:
The 5th and final day of the most epic Golden Week in history began pretty early with me screaming in pain from my still lingering sunburn and mornin's futile attempt to ice my arms down, pain, nothing but pain! Made it up and out of bed and then the bad news came pouring in... rain. I think that the chance had gone up to 90% for rain starting around noon (1st pitch was at 1:00). But, like the troopers we are, we headed out of the dude? hole at just before 10am and worked our way over to Sannomiya （三ノ宮）station in Kobe and picked up a couple of things at the Buffaloes team store before searching around the dirty ass area of town for some beer. The first place we (finally) found was a Family Mart that didn't sell beer... luckily there was a Lawson right next door, under construction... so we finally made it to an AmPm and picked up the beer and headed back to the station and then over to Skymark Stadium! We arrived at the stadium at around 12:00 and found our seats pretty quickly, pretty decent seats too. I was immediately impressed by the stadium as it had a much more sophisticated feeling than most stadiums here, it was spacious, and felt very modern, and was surrounded by trees. One other feature was that the space between rows of seats seemed wider so my knees were never being pressed into someones back! The stadium was really, really good! For sure in my top 5. The only negative really was the concessions, it took 40 mins before the game (and through the end of the 1st inning) to get my giant wiener! All-n-all it was really cool to see Skymark, and it was a really good game to see too, as the Buffaloes scored 5 runs in the bottom of the 8th and held on in the 9th for a 6-3 victory! It sprinkled a little around the 8th inning or so, but that was it for the rain... at the game... Here are some pics from the game:
After the game we jumped back on the train and headed back over to Sannomiya station to... STEAKLAND! Yes! This was one of my goals for the trip,to eat the famed Kobe beef （神戸牛）, in Kobe! It did not disappoint! Man that shit was good! All the things you hear about it are true, it melts in your mouth, and it is tasty! We went to Steakland Kobe because it was cheap as hell! Well... in comparison to other places at least, I ended up going with the Kobe-gyu Sirloin steak set which came in at 4480 yen. It was all soooooo good! Here's some pics, my favorite is the fat kid looking on while they cook up our steak!
Finally, we headed over to Kobe station and some place called "Mosaic" to do a little shopping, eat some sweets, spill some beer and re-enact the "proposal scene". It was a nice place, very new, and pretty. We didn't get much of a chance to check out Kobe's famed "night view" because we were in a bit of a hurry to get back to the Shinkansen station to head back to Tokyo, and it started raining too, but it was cool, Kobe was very nice (except for the dirty side streets of Sannomiya) and I'd like to head back sometime and spend a bit more time there. Pics:
GW #3: Hiroshima/Miyajima-nanyo～!
広島・宮島なんよ～
Day 3: May 3rd
Day 3 started butt-ass early as I woke up at 5:30 and left the dude? pad at about 6am. I made my way to Tamade station with the rising sun.
I made my way to Shin-Osaka station and got on the first Shinkansen that came along... it was packed!
I got to Hiroshima at a little before 9 am and then headed over to the stadium for my first visit to Hiroshima Stadium! I was super excited and made my way to the line after picking up my new Carp jersey. I got in line at about 10am and waited... for a long ass time... in the baking hot sun! Needless to say, I got a horrible, horrible sunburn! I have pretty fair skin and just got scorched. I forgot my sunscreen in my other bag (the one I left in the coin locker at the station) and mornin' didn't arrive with some for me until around noon. The game was great (Carp held on for a 4-3 victory), and the stadium was great, but it was also really hard to enjoy because I was just scorched! scorched! It was really hot all day... I got some good pics, and here they are:
After the game mornin' and I headed over to the hotel, and I took a nap and then we headed out for some aloe and some of Hiroshima's most famous food; okonomiyaki! We went to a place that was in the Hiroshima magazine I had picked up a few weeks back that was pretty close to the hotel called Rei-chan (麗ちゃん). The line was pretty long, but moved fairly quickly, not quick enough for one screaming baby that ended up sitting right across from me... The shit was really good, again, hard to enjoy with my wicked burn... but, here's what it looked like:
Day 4: May 4th
The day started with the sun coming up (=early). We headed over to the department store down the street to grab some medicine and some breakfast before the big day of sightseeing around Hiroshima and Miyajima. God that medicine was great! I woke up in so much pain (by the way, really just my arms hurt. My face and neck and legs weren't too bad, but my arms...) and after taking some medicine, and smearing on some more I was ready to roll! We took a taxi over to the Carp team store to pick up a couple more things and then walked over to Tokyu Hands to get some sandals and a hat for me (I felt wrong walking around in a red Carp jersey and blue Dodgers hat...) and then took the street car over to the A-bomb dome (原爆ドーム). It was really interesting. Lots of tourists, and that's cool, but it was strange to see so many people smiling or holding up their fingers in a #1 sign when they were having their picture taken in front of that building... Here's some pics:
After The dome we headed across the river to the peace park and then to the museum. It was quite a heavy feeling. It was a stark contrast between the glorious day, and the flower festival happening all around and the images that we saw inside the museum. A very interesting place, and an amazing 50 yen charge to get in. I was expecting 500, or maybe even 1000, but 50! That's great! I'm not gonna put up anything from the inside (I only took a couple of pictures of the models of the city that they had, and yes photos are ok, no flash though) because you should go see it yourself, but here's a couple of pics from the park that surrounds it:
So after the peace park, and the museum mornin' and I took a short break and then weaved our way through the flower festival traffic and headed back to the street car station and headed on our way to Miyajima...
Day 4: May 4th cont.
After a transfer in Nishi-Hiroshima （西広島〉we made it down to Miyajima-guchi （宮島口） sometime around 2pm and headed straight to an Anago-don restaurant to try Hiroshima's 3rd most famous food (#2 is Kaki （カキ）(oysters)) conger eel（アナゴ）. It was really tasty! Here it is!:
After lunch, mornin' and I boarded a ship and headed over to the island of Miyajima. It's a very short boat ride but pretty cool, you can get a good view of the island's most famous feature, the Torii （鳥居）in the water, on the way in. The island is pretty cool, after you get off the boat, you take a walk through the shopping streets and then you can enter the shrine for a price... don't remember how much it was exactly, but I think it was 300 yen. The shrine was pretty cool, like others, I guess most similar to Heianjingu in Kyoto, except that it's on the water. The only problem (besides the millions of people that were there) was that we didn't get to the place until the afternoon, so it was low tide and the water wasn't actually surrounding the shrine, and not even up to the famous gate (Torii). As the afternoon went on, the tide did begin to come in, but I recommend going in the early morning so that the tide is in, because the place closes at 6pm, before it's really back in again. Next time... Another cool thing about the island is all the deer that are just roaming freely around, and for the most part are cool with the folks. There are some signs up warning people of the deer, but no one seemed to pay much attention to them and I saw many people f'n with them a bit too much. I was hoping for the deer to start a revolution and kick some ass, but on that day, they didn't :(
On the backside of the temple is a street leading deeper into the island and you can find bus that will take you to the ropeway leading to the mountain in the center of the island. At the top of the ropeway is a monkey sanctuary! There are also a bunch of other sight spots up there and you can hike up to the top of the mountain, but I wanted to see some monkeys! Didn't happen... We debated for a bit whether or not we'd have enough time to do it and at last we decided to give it a shot. It's only a short ride up, and we thought about just taking it up and back, but when we arrived at the base of the ropeway there were soooo many people waiting! Of course there would also have been tons of people waiting at the top so we bagged it, and got our money back (I think it's about 800-1000 yen for the trip) and decided that something that can be saved for next time! We walked back through the streets and grabbed some Hiroshima sweets called Momiji-manju （もみじ饅頭）. The fried one was actually really good! We ordered 2 cream ones and I accidentally got a An (sweet bean paste) and normally I can't stand the stuff but it was actually good, but mornin' and I switched and I ended up with the cream baby! Tasty! We also got some cold ones with some kind of yogurt stuff in them that I didn't care too much for, but oh well. After that we just walked around, took a few more pictures and then got back on the boat and headed for the mainland, then back to the station to get our bags and jump on the Shinkansen headed to Osaka swollen red arms and all!
Hiroshima was rad, except for the wicked terrible sunburn!
I think I'll put out a bonus Hiroshima/Miyajima picture post, with smaller pictures, after I finish the whole trip update. I got tons of pictures from that part of the trip!
Day 3: May 3rd
Day 3 started butt-ass early as I woke up at 5:30 and left the dude? pad at about 6am. I made my way to Tamade station with the rising sun.
I made my way to Shin-Osaka station and got on the first Shinkansen that came along... it was packed!
I got to Hiroshima at a little before 9 am and then headed over to the stadium for my first visit to Hiroshima Stadium! I was super excited and made my way to the line after picking up my new Carp jersey. I got in line at about 10am and waited... for a long ass time... in the baking hot sun! Needless to say, I got a horrible, horrible sunburn! I have pretty fair skin and just got scorched. I forgot my sunscreen in my other bag (the one I left in the coin locker at the station) and mornin' didn't arrive with some for me until around noon. The game was great (Carp held on for a 4-3 victory), and the stadium was great, but it was also really hard to enjoy because I was just scorched! scorched! It was really hot all day... I got some good pics, and here they are:
After the game mornin' and I headed over to the hotel, and I took a nap and then we headed out for some aloe and some of Hiroshima's most famous food; okonomiyaki! We went to a place that was in the Hiroshima magazine I had picked up a few weeks back that was pretty close to the hotel called Rei-chan (麗ちゃん). The line was pretty long, but moved fairly quickly, not quick enough for one screaming baby that ended up sitting right across from me... The shit was really good, again, hard to enjoy with my wicked burn... but, here's what it looked like:
Day 4: May 4th
The day started with the sun coming up (=early). We headed over to the department store down the street to grab some medicine and some breakfast before the big day of sightseeing around Hiroshima and Miyajima. God that medicine was great! I woke up in so much pain (by the way, really just my arms hurt. My face and neck and legs weren't too bad, but my arms...) and after taking some medicine, and smearing on some more I was ready to roll! We took a taxi over to the Carp team store to pick up a couple more things and then walked over to Tokyu Hands to get some sandals and a hat for me (I felt wrong walking around in a red Carp jersey and blue Dodgers hat...) and then took the street car over to the A-bomb dome (原爆ドーム). It was really interesting. Lots of tourists, and that's cool, but it was strange to see so many people smiling or holding up their fingers in a #1 sign when they were having their picture taken in front of that building... Here's some pics:
After The dome we headed across the river to the peace park and then to the museum. It was quite a heavy feeling. It was a stark contrast between the glorious day, and the flower festival happening all around and the images that we saw inside the museum. A very interesting place, and an amazing 50 yen charge to get in. I was expecting 500, or maybe even 1000, but 50! That's great! I'm not gonna put up anything from the inside (I only took a couple of pictures of the models of the city that they had, and yes photos are ok, no flash though) because you should go see it yourself, but here's a couple of pics from the park that surrounds it:
So after the peace park, and the museum mornin' and I took a short break and then weaved our way through the flower festival traffic and headed back to the street car station and headed on our way to Miyajima...Day 4: May 4th cont.
After a transfer in Nishi-Hiroshima （西広島〉we made it down to Miyajima-guchi （宮島口） sometime around 2pm and headed straight to an Anago-don restaurant to try Hiroshima's 3rd most famous food (#2 is Kaki （カキ）(oysters)) conger eel（アナゴ）. It was really tasty! Here it is!:
After lunch, mornin' and I boarded a ship and headed over to the island of Miyajima. It's a very short boat ride but pretty cool, you can get a good view of the island's most famous feature, the Torii （鳥居）in the water, on the way in. The island is pretty cool, after you get off the boat, you take a walk through the shopping streets and then you can enter the shrine for a price... don't remember how much it was exactly, but I think it was 300 yen. The shrine was pretty cool, like others, I guess most similar to Heianjingu in Kyoto, except that it's on the water. The only problem (besides the millions of people that were there) was that we didn't get to the place until the afternoon, so it was low tide and the water wasn't actually surrounding the shrine, and not even up to the famous gate (Torii). As the afternoon went on, the tide did begin to come in, but I recommend going in the early morning so that the tide is in, because the place closes at 6pm, before it's really back in again. Next time... Another cool thing about the island is all the deer that are just roaming freely around, and for the most part are cool with the folks. There are some signs up warning people of the deer, but no one seemed to pay much attention to them and I saw many people f'n with them a bit too much. I was hoping for the deer to start a revolution and kick some ass, but on that day, they didn't :(
On the backside of the temple is a street leading deeper into the island and you can find bus that will take you to the ropeway leading to the mountain in the center of the island. At the top of the ropeway is a monkey sanctuary! There are also a bunch of other sight spots up there and you can hike up to the top of the mountain, but I wanted to see some monkeys! Didn't happen... We debated for a bit whether or not we'd have enough time to do it and at last we decided to give it a shot. It's only a short ride up, and we thought about just taking it up and back, but when we arrived at the base of the ropeway there were soooo many people waiting! Of course there would also have been tons of people waiting at the top so we bagged it, and got our money back (I think it's about 800-1000 yen for the trip) and decided that something that can be saved for next time! We walked back through the streets and grabbed some Hiroshima sweets called Momiji-manju （もみじ饅頭）. The fried one was actually really good! We ordered 2 cream ones and I accidentally got a An (sweet bean paste) and normally I can't stand the stuff but it was actually good, but mornin' and I switched and I ended up with the cream baby! Tasty! We also got some cold ones with some kind of yogurt stuff in them that I didn't care too much for, but oh well. After that we just walked around, took a few more pictures and then got back on the boat and headed for the mainland, then back to the station to get our bags and jump on the Shinkansen headed to Osaka swollen red arms and all!Hiroshima was rad, except for the wicked terrible sunburn!
I think I'll put out a bonus Hiroshima/Miyajima picture post, with smaller pictures, after I finish the whole trip update. I got tons of pictures from that part of the trip!
GW #2: Osaka-yanen～!
大阪やねん～！
Day 1: May 1st
March 1st came, and I went... to Osaka! I left Tokyo around 8:30am and arrived in Osaka just before 11. I ended up meeting dude? in Namba at around 11:30 or so and we stopped by to pick up a couple of games (look forward to a review in the next show) and then went over to Kua'aina in Namba Parks for some sweet hamburgers and big ass beers. Afterwards we headed back to dude?'s for some gaming, drinking and then prepared to go over to Koshien stadium for the night's game. We rolled into the stadium around 4 or 5, don't really recall, doesn't really matter. Game was alright, lost. Can't really remember the score, but had a good time.
Here's a couple of pics from the game:
Day 2: May 2nd
The day began surprisingly early and the weather reports were not good. The forecast for rain was about 50% and we were supposed to go on the "Osaka Loop Line" ride... so, after some discussion, dude? and I decided that we would bag it for this trip and just take a short ride down to the Namba area again for lunch, and to look for a stupid shirt for me. No luck with the shirt, but, oh well. The most surprising thing on the short ride that day was going through an area of town called "Nishi-Nari" (I think). This place was shocking. It started with a dead cat and a guy sleeping in a parking lot, and ended with the distinct smell of urine, and scattered with loads of drunk, unemployed old guys along the way... it was like a different country. I've never seen that level of poverty here in Japan. I've certainly seen it back home in the U.S., but never here... shocking...
Here's some pics from that part of the day:
We made it back to dude?'s and rocked some video games and some beers and then later headed out for dinner (yakiniku) with Mrs. dude? and her parents. Good times, they are really good people, and it was some good eats. After dinner we headed back to the dude? pad and prepared to head out for an evening bike ride to cover 3 bridges around town. It was a really cool ride. Pretty short, came in around 2-3 hours, and had some spectacular views of the city along the way, and also some sweet corkscrew offramps that we flew down! Good times in Osaka!
Day 1: May 1st
March 1st came, and I went... to Osaka! I left Tokyo around 8:30am and arrived in Osaka just before 11. I ended up meeting dude? in Namba at around 11:30 or so and we stopped by to pick up a couple of games (look forward to a review in the next show) and then went over to Kua'aina in Namba Parks for some sweet hamburgers and big ass beers. Afterwards we headed back to dude?'s for some gaming, drinking and then prepared to go over to Koshien stadium for the night's game. We rolled into the stadium around 4 or 5, don't really recall, doesn't really matter. Game was alright, lost. Can't really remember the score, but had a good time.
Here's a couple of pics from the game:
Day 2: May 2nd
The day began surprisingly early and the weather reports were not good. The forecast for rain was about 50% and we were supposed to go on the "Osaka Loop Line" ride... so, after some discussion, dude? and I decided that we would bag it for this trip and just take a short ride down to the Namba area again for lunch, and to look for a stupid shirt for me. No luck with the shirt, but, oh well. The most surprising thing on the short ride that day was going through an area of town called "Nishi-Nari" (I think). This place was shocking. It started with a dead cat and a guy sleeping in a parking lot, and ended with the distinct smell of urine, and scattered with loads of drunk, unemployed old guys along the way... it was like a different country. I've never seen that level of poverty here in Japan. I've certainly seen it back home in the U.S., but never here... shocking...
Here's some pics from that part of the day:
We made it back to dude?'s and rocked some video games and some beers and then later headed out for dinner (yakiniku) with Mrs. dude? and her parents. Good times, they are really good people, and it was some good eats. After dinner we headed back to the dude? pad and prepared to head out for an evening bike ride to cover 3 bridges around town. It was a really cool ride. Pretty short, came in around 2-3 hours, and had some spectacular views of the city along the way, and also some sweet corkscrew offramps that we flew down! Good times in Osaka!
GW #1: Golden Week '08 = baseball, beer, and (crying) babies!
Wow! I'm back. Got back into Tokyo at about 11:30 last night and got home around midnight after an intense 5 days that can be put into 3 words: baseball, beer and (crying) babies. So, I'm gonna do at least 3 more posts today, separated into the 3 cities visited, with lots of pictures. The trip was awesome! It was my first big trip in a long time. First time I've ever been to Hiroshima and Kobe and both were great. It was also a rough trip for me, starting with a toothache, and continuing with a wicked sunburn and all on little sleep, but it was very worth it! I had a great time! One thing that I don't like about vacationing is that other people do it too. There were so many people everywhere we went (especially because it was Golden Week) and those people often have babies... babies that cry! Ahhhhhh!
Here's a quick list of places I remember hearing babies ballin':
Shinkansen from Osaka to Hiroshima, and from Kobe to Tokyo.
Miyajima Island.
Anago restaurant in Miyajima.
Okonomiyaki place in Hiroshima.
The Peace Museum in Hiroshima.
Kobe Beef Restaurant in Kobe.
There ya go, there were probably more, but that's all I can remember for now.
This girl wasn't crying, but she was playing with her spit on the train platform in Miyajima... gross!
This boy didn't cry (at least that I know of) but he was rockin' the sweetest Buffaloes gear in the stadium!
This boy didn't cry once! And he knew ever word to every Carp cheer in the book!
I'll be back with more!
Here's a quick list of places I remember hearing babies ballin':
Shinkansen from Osaka to Hiroshima, and from Kobe to Tokyo.
Miyajima Island.
Anago restaurant in Miyajima.
Okonomiyaki place in Hiroshima.
The Peace Museum in Hiroshima.
Kobe Beef Restaurant in Kobe.
There ya go, there were probably more, but that's all I can remember for now.
This girl wasn't crying, but she was playing with her spit on the train platform in Miyajima... gross!
This boy didn't cry (at least that I know of) but he was rockin' the sweetest Buffaloes gear in the stadium!
This boy didn't cry once! And he knew ever word to every Carp cheer in the book!
I'll be back with more!
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