i want to kill something.

i had spent a couple of hours yesterday writing all of the updates of the past 1.5 months, then blogger deleted it all. permanently.

dunno when i'll be in the right mindset again to blog. i am so upset.

don't wait up.

suppressing screams,
lilly

the final installment of the winter break saga!

greetings, chaps! shall i finally finish the grand fizznale of kibbeh's and my homeric journey through the underbelly of japan? (and by underbelly, i mean gorgeous and fun cities)

the previous cliffhanger (and remember, in the last post, i told you to take note of my diction and word choice of "cliffhanger," due to its very clunky and obvious literary foreshadowing) left us brimming over with okonomiyaki in the heart of hiroshima, shopping mecca. well, the next day, kibs and i awoke to beautiful blue skies. we hopped, skipped, and jumped our way over to hiroshima's peace park, which had less numerous monuments but was of course still powerful.

a tomb that holds the names of all the victims. when you look through the piece, the a-bomb dome is directly in line

we meandered in the cold, stopping to ring a huge gong-like bell for peace, and then coming across this memorial for the children killed by the bomb. one of the victims, who died later due to radiation-induced leukemia, thought that if she could make 1,000 origami cranes, she'd live--but she died before she finished. now, at this memorial, there are thousands of origami crane designs surrounding the statue, sent from all over the world.

i thought this one was particularly pretty!sorry for the flash reflection...

after meandering through the park, we crossed a bridge over the crystalline river to see the a-bomb dome. it basically is one of the few (only?) buildings that survived the bomb. parts of it have been fortified in order to prevent collapse, but as you can see, it is very much how it was after the bomb dropped in august 1945.

on the left.

we spotted a kitteh friend living in the ruins. matt said he'd seen the cat the year before, which made me happy. i like that something cute and joyful found a home there.

after seeing the park, we were in need of some retail therapy. i was, anyways! once again, i must thank my lucky stars that matt likes to shop and can keep up with my breakneck speed. that is, until we hit the final store, and i kept him waiting for 30 minutes while i wavered between sweaters. i picked the right one, though, and after dropping off our loot at the hotel, we hopped on the tram to get to miyajima, the famed island off of hiroshima.

we took a ferry, and arrived just before sunset. i was shocked and elated to find the island rampant with deer, and snapped a few photos before it got too dark.

the island's claim to fame: a humongous shrine in the ocean. during low tide you can walk up to it, but as you can see, it was high tide for the new year!

abominable purple snowwoman.

as the sky darkened, we saw men in white robes and sashes carrying huge logs around. we knew something was going to happen, given it was new year's eve, and new year's is like japan's christmas.

we stood around in the cold, a bit impatiently, as we slowly but surely began to get jostled by kids and adults alike. everyone kept pressing in in in, and i'm not one for crowds. turns out, SURPRISE, matt's not one for cold (belfastian, my bum!). we got grumpy, but soon were abated by the japanese doing what they do best--setting everything on fire.

logs were lighted, sparks flew, people grabbed bundles of sticks and turned them into torches, fire was on the ground--literally, the island went up in flames. plumes of smoke began choking the happy crowd, which carried on with its pyromania.



delighted, but also concerned with getting ready for our new year's eve pa-ti (party, duh), matt and i hustled back to the ferry to hiroshima. we dozed on the train ride back to the city, washed the smell of celebratory smoke and fuel out of ourselves, and met up with the ever-splendid limey sam and his visiting girlfriend cecily. the gruesome foursome managed to find the seemingly only open restaurant in the city--a coco's curry house--ate some curry, and hit the streets to find "stevie's wonder bar," a place that sounded promising and hilarious.

sure enough, as soon as we entered the small establishment and heard the funkadelic 70s tunes, we knew we were in the right spot. the DJ/bar owner, a heavyset japanese man with an afro (God only knows how he managed to coax his japanese locks into an afro, it defies nature), was very genki and danced along with the jams. his son, a 10 year old, showed up everyone in the bar with his sweet dance moves. the vibe was amazing. everyone was dancing, bopping, and having a blast. everyone had a party popper for midnight, when we all shouted "HAPPY NEW YEAR," hugged and kissed. such a magical evening!

the next day, tuckered out but really satisfied with our travels thus far, matt and i embarked on what we little could have expected would be the adventure of a lifetime. i took this picture of the view from our hotel room, ignorant that such luxury (visibility beyond 2 feet, a bed, contact with the outside world, warmth, etc) would shortly be snatched from us by mother nature.

what with all the adventures we'd had that week, mashuu and i were running low on cash. and for those of you who don't know, "JAPAN IS A CASH-BASED SOCIETY," something that the JET program is constantly reminding newbies. however, we could not obtain more cash. ATMs are not 24/7 in japan. please don't ask me why, because it seriously is the stupidest thing ever and infuriates me. furthermore, during the new year holidays (a period of perhaps 4-5 days?), all of the ATMs are closed. CLOSED. we're talkin' nuffin. squat. diddly. bupkis.

with only about 6,000 yen between us (~$70), we knew that we had to save what money we had for gas. luckily, matt said that the surprise he had in store for me was credit-card friendly (a freaking novelty in japan). he said all would be revealed when we got to fukuoka. i couldn't wait!

but i'd have to. with the gas indicator hovering just above empty, matt and i booked out of hiroshima and headed onto the highway. after about 20 minutes of tense driving involving both of us looking at the gas level, we pulled off into a roadside town. trying to use the handy-dandy iphone, we searched in vain for a gas station that was open. closed. closed. closed. closed. everything was closed. we popped into a konbini to plead for help. some dude pointed us in the right direction, and after some wrong turns, we made it to a viable station and i almost wept with relief. too soon, though.

we spent about half of our money on gas (we'd need to fill up again before making it back home, so we had to be really frugal with food, etc.), then plowed on to fukuoka. it began to snow, and i daydreamed about what the surprise could be. suddenly, in an epiphany, i shrieked, "IS IT COSTCO?!?!" matt laughed. it was!!

a rest stop on the way to costco. please note the blanketing snow.

at about 4pm, we made it to the costco. it was just like in the US! we wandered the aisles for over an hour, filling up our huge cart and marveling at all the products we'd forgotten about or sorely missed. the crowning jewel of my haul: campbell's tomato soup.

finally ready, we ambled up to the cash registers. i went first. i nonchalantly whipped out my visa, the international credit card, and was promptly told it was no good. matt whipped out his mastercard. also no good. it was like the cashier had bitch-slapped us. we literally didn't know what to do. we allowed him to usher us over to a corner with all our (now unattainable) goods, and talked about what to do. we abandoned our cart, and ventured into a nearby family mart to try to get money out of our accounts back home. nope. i almost cried again. matt was seething. however, we managed to cope by returning to costco, avoiding eye contact with the clerk who had shunned us, and spending 800 of our precious yen on costco pizza, fatty meat sandwiches, and drinks. full, but still a little sad, we prepared for the long drive home.

oh yeah, and we had gotten a parking spot right next to the entrance. it was such a good spot that i took a picture. USELESS.

we hit the road, bouncing back from the trauma and getting into good spirits again. we figured we'd be back in nobeoka by 9pm. that is, until the highway closed. due to snow. we, and other hapless drivers, were directed off the highway and onto a one-lane mess of a road, crammed with cars. we decided to try to use the iphone to fenangle a way around it all, and to get back on the freeway further on, but instead ended up going in a gigantic circle that took us an hour. matt drove on, at about 10 km/hour, with the other cars. eventually, though, we decided to take route less traveled, and headed into the nearby mountains.

i wasn't really paying attention to what we were doing until i realized that it was pitch black outside, there were no street lights, the snow was falling thickly, and after a while, there were no other cars. the roads were winding, and we drove slowly. gargantuan branches of trees drooped into the middle of the road. we had to drive through them, knocking snow off as we went along in the stick-shift, decades-old scooby doo mystery machine.

out of nowhere, the car slid. matt kept everything under control, but i felt like my heart had just thrown up in fear. a few minutes later, it slid again. matt drove more slowly, at about 5 km/hour. we reached a hill, and as the car slowly chugged upwards, it began to bottom out, and we began to turn involuntarily. matt put on the emergency brake, and we were stuck, at a tilt, on the hill. we couldn't move. just as i was volunteering to get out and push, another car came up. three japanese men hopped out and approached, jabbering away, and with their help we managed to steer the car into a nearby shoulder. the whole time i was terrified that it would slide off the nearby bank and into the farmland below!

the japanese men, though very well-intentioned, kept talking to us for about 15 minutes, even though we understood nothing. finally we told them we'd sleep in the car, which made them leave. by now it was about 9:30pm. we didn't know what to do, but knew that we could never make it up the hill. so, after peeing in the snow a ways away, i got behind the car and helped matt ease it back onto the road. we went back the way we came (very carefully), and decided to go through a potentially less dangerous mountain pass.

we began on the mountain road, in extremely tense silence. the only noise was the gentle hum of the car plodding along at 5km/hour. we made it through some hairy turns, and were gradually going uphill. the only thing separating us from the valleys below was a thin metal rail.

going up another hill, the car slid. suddenly, the back of the car went left, the front went right, and it was just beginning to spin out of control when matt put on the brake. i think i might have cried out. we stopped. i croaked, "no more!" and we decided to turn around and sleep in the car in someone's driveway.

but first, we had to turn around. matt, the driver of the millenium, managed to back up the van into the safe side of the road, against the mountain and cushioned by a small snowbank. slowly but surely, he wrangled a 10-point turn, getting us out of the snow and turned back around to safety. after twenty more heart-wrenching, stomach-twisting, throat-tightening minutes, we came back towards civilization and saw a school and some houses, dark, silent, and smothered in snow.

i helped direct matt into the large driveway, which happened to have a very conveniently-placed vending machine. only in japan. i bought a water bottle, we set up the futons, and i never felt so grateful to be alive!

we awoke the next morning to melted snow and clear skies. if the snow hadn't stopped, we would've been stranded, but i think we had used up all our bad luck on new year's day. we were elated as we drove with ease through the sunny mountains, which seemed so much prettier and so much less sinister in the light of day!

we made it back to nobeoka just fine that afternoon. and after getting more gas, we even had enough money to buy food. and we lived happily ever after in snow-less miyazaki.

jokes on jokes, we're hitting the snow hard starting this saturday, when we and some other JETs will be in hokkaido, where snow was basically invented. but, this time, no driving! wish us luck and life!

feeling sickened from recounting that brush with death, but otherwise content,
lilly

road trip, part two (not the last bit though, sorry!)

allow me to quell any loving complaints from my dear audience about the lack of postings as of late: it is so cold that my hands can barely type, i've been bizzy, and my english is deteriorating at such an alarmingly rapid rate that i fear my prized spelling skills will soon be all for naught. never fear, though! here is the second installment of kibbeh's and my winter adventures!

so my last cliffhanger (take note of that word choice by the way, it's literary foreshadowing for the next blob) left us in our first night in nagasaki, full to bursting with delicious chinese grub and wonder at the beautiful city. that night, kibs and i were grateful to not be sleeping in the car, a la the night before, and sank into the hotel monterey's warm, bedding-y embrace.

the next morning, fresh and dapper, we hiked uphill to the oura church area in search of breakfast. after nabbing some free pork sandwichy samples, i chose a hilarious place for breakfast: an uber-fancy, frilly teahouse run by the cutest little obaasan (grandmother) ever. kibs and i each got a gorgeous slice of homemade strawberry cake, as well as some coffee and cocoa. obaasan lady chitchatted with us for a little bit in japanese, during which i mostly shot confused looks at matt and expected him to translate everything, which he did, kinda. i then forced him to take this priss photo of me.

check the whipped cream on that strawberry cake. drool. oh, and the daintiness of it all!

sugared and caffeined up, we trekked over to glover gardens, a sort of expansive park with preserved FOREIGN houses from the 19th century. as mentioned before, nagasaki was the gai jin ticket in and outta japan, so there was a lot of european influence. madame butterfly is set in nagasaki! anyways, the park was really pretty, full of random statues and historical hooha, and offered multiple nice views of the city.

we asked some older japanese folks to take this pic. they done gud.

what matt lovingly dubbed "lilly in the morning," har har har. it actually is the front of a boat in the glover gardens museum.

after a pitstop in the glover gardens giftshop, in which i tried in vain to find postcards of the brilliant art featured rather obscurely in one of the garden houses, kibbeh and i ventured down the road to check out the oura catholic church. i was totes keen since i hadn't been inside a proper (read: catholic, JOKES) church since july (they literally do not exist here. don't judge!). it was pretty, and even had a little garden with a statue of JP2 himself.

we wandered in, after i grumbled quite a bit about having to pay to go into a church, and walked around for a few minutes. i could tell protestant matthew's skin was crawling, though, so after a quick prayer and wonder if it was actually a real catholic church (no sign of holy water or the Eucharist anywhere, bootleg), we exited. i spotted a dank cat with eyeboogers and went over to fawn on his eyeboogery face. matt ditched me.

...but i still managed to cajole him into taking a picture of me in my natural habitat.

having walked all around for a few hours, we were ready for chinese food, part two. we returned to the place where we had eaten the night before, and were very pleased yet again with the eats. the family was excited that we'd come back, too! also, sidenote, mostly for ms. jessica williams, who is obsessed with mixed kids. there was a family with a white (american?) dad and japanese mama. they had two absolutely darling little girls, the cutest ever. the end. shoutout's over, jess.

chinatown, haiiiiiiii

even though we'd just snacked on a veritable feast, i wanted a donut. because there is ALWAYS room for donuts. we went to "mister donut," a decent chain here, and i got a rilakkuma donut. rilakkuma is my favorite japanese character...a round bear with a little face. he was especially cute in mutant donutty form.

truly ready to puke, we got our car from the hotel's parking lot (which included a stint in a CAR ELEVATOR!) and drove over to peace park. it was a clear, cold day, and coming up on the statue, i felt chills that had nothing to do with the weather.

my pictures really don't do the statue justice. it is massive.

it is supposed to be a god-like figure, with the right arm pointing towards the threat of nuclear war, and the left hand holding evil at bay. seeing the tranquil, giant face against the vast sky was deeply humbling.

there were probably dozens of different monuments, donated by different cities and countries, scattered throughout the park. this was one of my favorites:

the shape is of a dove's wings, and is a tribute to the victims who died of thirst.

we walked all around peace park, then went to the hypocenter, where there is a black marble column marking the spot. nearby, there were stairs you could walk down, encased by three walls. in one of the walls, protected by glass, was a large chunk of preserved ground. bottles, cans, and other debris were literally half-stuck into the ground, or just melted onto it.

not one for being political on ma blob, but i will say this: i didn't support nuclear armament before visiting nagasaki and hiroshima, but visiting those places has cemented my feelings in a way nothing else could. i would encourage anyone who believes in the viability to visit one of those cities. k that's it!

even though we were knackered, matt and i had quite the evening ahead of us. due to ridiculously expensive tolls, we planned to drive from nagasaki to hiroshima from 12am-4am, when the prices would be half as much. so, we booked out of naggy-sacky in the evening, heading towards saga. it took us two hours to get out of flipping nagasaki, during which time we jammed to sweet tunes, yakked, and dubbed saga the armpit of the world.

we made it into saga somewhere around 9pm, i think, and we decided to kill time by having a quick snooze in the car. both of us were really, really tired. i felt terrible that i couldn't help matt drive, but he was a champ! we ducked into a bootleg noodle place for a hot dinner (just for matt, i felt strangely ill and nursed a ginger ale instead), then at around midnight hit the road.

surprisingly, we made it to hiroshima in about three hours, if i remember correctly, spritely conversation the whole way. i had vowed not to fall asleep on matt during the drive, and i made good on my promise! we pulled off the highway into--but of course--a mcdonald's parking lot, where we spent the next six hours sleeping sweet sleep. obviously, the next morning we had mcdonald's breakfast, and matt was the happiest i'd ever seen him.

we couldn't check into our hotel just yet, so we meandered to the hiroshima castle grounds, where lots of vendors were setting up booths for new year's (there's a shrine there as well, that everyone visits on new year's day).

this was a tree that survived the a-bomb

castle. of course!

after some walking around, we finally had killed enough time to head to the hotel and refresh ourselves. we did so, and reemerged to a chilly, gorgeous hiroshima night! we both had one thing on our minds--FOOD--and we left in hot pursuit of some.

along the way, just outside our hotel, there were stellar illuminations!

before much ado, we arrived at the special snack shack, an okonomiyaki establishment. okonomiyaki is a hiroshima specialty, and it basically is a stack of thin crepes, veggies, meat, sauce, onions, and whatever the flip you want. it was spectacular.

i have a rather bootleg gleam in my eye, probably because i was so ravenous

properly chowed down, we explored some of the fabulous nearby shopping. hiroshima is a great shopping destination, and i'm quite the lucky girl to have a male companion who likes to browse! we hit the stores hard, bought some sweet threads, and sojourned back to the hotel early for some serious r&r.

that's where i leave you for tonight, kiddle-muffins. i promise i'll update again this week, seeing as i have little choice (next week i'm off to hokkaido for the snow festival, whoop whoop! so i have to finish up this nonsense first). thanks for reading, stay warm(er than me, which is easy to do)!

aching for some okonomiyaki right about now,
lilly

interjection, HEEEEEE?!

a engrish teaser:

"winter is good. snow freak is very beautiful."

"winter is santa come here."


and the ever-present confusion between b and d:

"i will eat a digger breakfast."

"i felt sick in my boby."


and bonus sidenote: i have chilblains on my toes. officially an idiot/incapable of living in the cold.

colbly,
riri

at long last! part one of the epic post-christmas travels!

hisashiburi, ne? it's been a long time! i'm done apologizing for my lackluster (nonexistent) blogging, because it's getting embarrassing! for all of us! ...well, actually just for me. so let's skip the now-standard apology and crack on to relive the magic of oshougatsu (new year's) break!

on the morning of december 27, mashuu and i woke up early so that i could finish packing (slacker), stuff down a quick brek, and hit the road. we cruised along for an hour or two before entering gokase, a mountainous town northwest of nobeoka. it began to snow along the way, making me squeal with excitement and making matt roll his eyes at this california n00b.

the snowy gokase road

before long, we stopped at a konbini for snack provisions (onigiri and hot coffee), and i made matt take this picture of me. i had no idea what kind of snow we were in for later in the trip.

before digging into our onigs and ko-hi, matt decided to sample the snowy delights. he said it tasted lovely and fresh, so i eagerly chomped a puff of it. it tasted like a dirty tree.

we drove for a few more hours, hastening towards that day's destination: kumamoto, the city/prefecture that neighbors miyazaki. we arrived around lunchtime, and immediately headed to kumamoto castle, the tourist hotspot. no disappointments! the caste and grounds were really beautiful and impressive, and we even ran into another pack of miyazaki JETling friends! they kindly took this picture of us:

the grounds were rife with costumed people. a rando jumped into this pic with us and the "samurai" peeps

the castle was high up. here's a view of kumamoto city!

the castle was restored a few years ago, so everything inside was pristine and gorgeous. there were many artifacts from hundreds of years ago (no pics allowed, sorry!), along with gorgeous tatami rooms, the utmost japanese style.

my favorite part. that's a ceiling!

after fully exploring the grounds, castle, and gift shop (at which i bought a bag of amazing donut-like pastries, booya), kibbeh and i headed for suizenji-koen, one of the purportedly most beautiful garden parks in japan. japanese gardens always incorporate the same elements: stone, water, and plants. the landscape of the koen was indeed interesting and pretty, and we enjoyed a stroll around the deserted grounds.

unfortunately, greenery was replaced by deadery, seeing as it was freezing and winter. you can still appreciate it, though!

so effing hilariously, as we were walking towards the shrine in the garden, we spotted a chub boy throwing bread to some ducks. upon seeing us approach, he abruptly turned and ran away, dropping all his bread in the process, and causing the ducks to fly into a quack-attack frenzy at all the free grub. i let out a huge shriek of laughter, which surely echoed throughout the park and embarrassed the poor kid!

but i didn't care. i had more important things to worry about. like posing!

by the time we finished up in the park, it was late afternoon and time to hit the town. we had no accommodation for the night, so we found a trusty lot in which to park the scooby doo mystery machine (matt's delightful, ancient stick-shift van), folded down the seats, and set up the futons for later! we then took to the kumamoto streets, which were filled with fun and funky shops and restaurants--including an eatery called "cabbage and condoms." i mean, why not?

we were quite hungry at that point, but not yet ready to have our basashi (horse) dinner. kumamoto is famed for its basashi, and we were planning on getting our neigh on. it was too early, though, so we stopped into a quick place to split some chicken nanban. before seating yourself, you had to select what dish you wanted on a machine. you pressed the buttons, paid, then sat and waited for your food.

famished, we eagerly awaited our beloved nanban. however, once i saw the waiter appraoching, he was carrying a plate with...fins....sticking over the edge. "that can't be ours," i thought worriedly. but sure enough, he plopped it down. "eeetooo...chikin nanban wa..." matt desperately said while pointing to our receipt. the waiter would have none of it, so we figured we'd pressed the wrong button and tried to tuck in. i fared better than matthew, seeing as i've had years of practice downing unappetizing fish at home (haha, dad!). but matt looked like someone had died...which made me crack up!

after ditching our half-eaten fish, we shopped for a few more hours, then decided to hit up a horse ramen establishment. we found a little place underground that smelled amazing, but--no horse. no matter, though! we feasted on painfully oishii (tasty) pork ramen and guzzled some brewskies! we then hit up karaoke, own private room, nomihoudai (all you can drink) and all. it was magic! we made it back to the car just dandily, and slept like logs.

the next day was truly a day of firsts for me, beginning with a mcdonald's breakfast. i'd never had a mcdonald's breakfast (practically blasphemous in the eyes of mr. mckibbin, who is obsessed with micky d's brek). i tried a mcgriddle and a coffee, and was delighted!

bffs 4 lyfe

kibs and i were supposed to catch a 9:30 ferry, but once we got to the dock, confusion abounded. apparently due to bad weather or some such malarkey, the peeps were unsure as to when the ferry would leave. they suggested we drive for 20 miles to another dock. we did so, keeping our fingers crossed that we wouldn't have to drive to nagasaki. luck was on our side, and we managed to DRIVE ONTO THE FERRY! with no problems. i was so excited about my first car ferry!

amazing!

we parked, went inside, got bored, and went back outside to watch kumamoto fade and nagasaki come into view.

bai

it was windy. also, coke product placement. royalties??

our ferry came into nagasaki in the early afternoon, though we still had to drive into the proper city, which took a little while. we decided to immediately head to the a-bomb museum, which i was, honestly, slightly dreading. i wanted to go, and felt an obligation to go, but i knew it would be...intense.

and it was. don't feel much like describing it at length on here. it's something that i think should be experienced personally, because my second-hand recanting isn't enough to do it justice. all i can really say is, it's so different seeing the artifacts in person, rather than in photographs. seeing blown out clocks, shadows burned into concrete, a charred lunchbox with blackened rice preserved inside--was beyond words. so i guess i'll stop trying now!

after the museum, i felt kind of sick, but after much ado (and me messing up royally while navigating on iphone's google maps, a recurring theme), we made it into our hotel monterey, a much-too-fancy-for-two-people-who-slept-in-a-car-the-night-before establishment with fanciful vintagey elevators and a european feel.

as a matter of fact, nagasaki in general has a much less japanese and much more western vibe/style, which is largely due to the fact that nagasaki was the main (only?) port of access to the outside world for japan during the 19th century. many westerners came to japan through nagasaki, so the foreign community there blossomed. it has a lot of western architecture, a striking number of churches (catholic, no less. score!), and just an inexplicable familiarity.

after settling in and taking much-needed showers, kibs and i decided it was grub time. we decided to hit up chinatown, a mere 10 minute walk away.

we were half frozen from the walk, and were surprised to find that not many people were out and about (it was about 8pm by this point). we decided to duck into a family-owned restaurant that had an english menu and a friendly hostess. we got gyoza (potstickers), pork buns, and i got chanpon, nagasaki's signature dish. it's basically pork, veggies, and seafood over fried noodles and smothered in a white glazey sauce. it was lovely! matt thoroughly enjoyed his sweet&sour chicken, so we both stuffed our weary bodies to capacity. we then went for a little jaunt towards the oura catholic church, 20 minutes away.

the walk was bitterly cold, but since we were bursting with yummy chinese food, we were happy. the streets were deserted as well, since everyone had gone to their hometowns for new year's already. it felt like we were the only people in the city.

oura church, with christmas lights!

finally ready to call it a day (and a very jam-packed day, at that), we headed back to our hoity-toity hotel, and crashed.

that's where i leave you for tonight, my pretties--don't fret, much more is on its way! more nagasaki, driving till 4am, getting lost, more sleeping in the car and mcdonald's breakfasts, hiroshima, everything going up in flames, stevie wonder, and our brush with death. weeeee!

that's all for now, folks,
lilly