March 25, 2005 I left LAX for Japan on board Thai Airlines. My friends and I arrived at KIX roughly 7 pm Japan time, meeting up with my JET friend stationed in Osaka.

March 27+28 we trained it to Umeda and from there subway-ed to Namba and Shinsaibashi to get the le grand tour of city life down south.

March 29 was a long, comfortable commute to the country's historic cultural center: Kyoto.

March 30 found our little group chilling with deer at the Nara shrines and Todaiji temple.

March 31 -- end of the month, so my two traveling buds and I separated from our JET friend and survived getting "lost
in translation" on our own.

April 1 saw two travel destinations: the moated castle at Himeji and a last-minute stopover to Kobe at night in Chinatown.

April 2. Even though it was only a week
it our stay felt much longer. But it was time to pack up and head home.

>> friday

The 12 hour flight was incredibly surreal. Since we were traveling forward in time, it was amazing just to look out the porthole windows and see the outside turn from light to dark, and back again.

So... if this sounds romantic, that's because it was, kinda.

now playing: Royksopp - "In Space"

>> sun. + mon.

Transitioning from my friend's small quiet neighborhood to the busy streets of Umeda was overwhelming at first -- I've never seen so many people in one spot my entire life. It got worse once we hit up the trendier areas of Namba and Shinsaibashi. But because of the high activity these spots were great simply for people watching.

now playing: Fragile State - "Every Day a Story"

>> tuesday

Kyoto was supposedly going to be a little over an hour by train to get to. Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable ride filled with pictures of distant mountains, a few ghettos here and there, and the wide open green fields of the countryside. One hour was nothing.

So, we arrived in downtown Kyoto -- completely not what I expected. It's easy to forget that Kyoto is a modernized city; you read so much on the historical aspect of it that you'd think its portrait remained the same after all this time, but it's not. Remnants of the past, however, were still abound, and I found it interesting how there was this clash or mix of styles hailing from two different time periods.

now playing: Hydraulic - "Vindaloo"

>> wednesday

We a saw a buttload of deer this fine Wednesday afternoon. The area around the Nara shrines happened to be a giant deer park. They weren't afraid of people so much as they were curious -- especially if you had food. But that's beside the point.

We hiked up the trail towards the shrine at top and passed a bunch of stone lanterns on the way. Halfway up we took a break and noticed a curious procession of people and media slowly hiking the trail. It wasn't until my friend got a closer look through his camera lens that we discovered the media were following these four celebrity women, apparently to witness a blessing ritual (which we also caught a glimpse of).

Afterwards we trekked back down and headed over to the great Todaiji Temple, known for the giant Buddha statue seated inside... and chilled.

now playing: Lamb - "Cotton Wool (Fila Brazilia Remix)"

>> thursday

Since arriving in Japan we'd been going places with my JET friend. Well, today for the first time we separated from her after visiting the high school she taught at. It was going to be somewhat challenging considering our own levels of Japanese weren't, uh, pretty.

...Nevertheless, we made do. We revisited Umeda to shop around for friends back home, and ate cheese curry burgers (best damned things EVAR!) at a Wendy's. Later on we trained it a few stations past our JET friend's place to meet up with her and her friend for Happy Hour at a local bar. Inebriation is fun, especially if you're in a foreign country and singing obnoxiously WHILE dancing at a train station in the wee-hours of the night. YES.

>> friday

A giant, moated castle -- that's what Himeji was.

It took a great many narrow climbs and ducking/weaving through the dark corridors to reach the top of this seven-story structure. The view was simply amazing, as everything else in the distance -- the city, the streets, the houses, and more -- seemed to melt into each other. From this view I got the first real impression of just how densely crowded this country was.

After many passing hours we hightailed it to Kobe last-minute to see the its Chinatown and hang about the night life. Even more last-minute was the decision to go karaoke at midnight near my friend's apartment.

now playing: Elak - "Remember Me"

>> saturday

In the past six days we'd covered almost all of the Kansai area, and it was obviously too far and time-consuming to travel anywhere else. Therefore, we designated this day to do whatever the hell we wanted. So I said I wanted to blow cash on food. You can't go wrong with food. A while later I was popping takoyaki in my mouth like candy.

As the day grew on and night fell, me and my two friends who came with to Japan dragged ourselves to pack for the morrow's early-afternoon flight back home. A week was far too short. Even if that was regrettable, the greatest aspect of this whole trip was the fact that we came on the grounds of semi-experiencing what life here was like; as opposed to the typical tourist route riddled with much pressure and consumer-spending.

All in all, every place we went to was really a fat excuse to hang out in disguise. A great spring break. THE END.

now playing: Zero 7 - "Morning Song"