Episode 13: Like a Ninja over the walls...

Konnichiwa Minna-san!!! Choshi wa do? Naniko I koto ata? (Good day everyone!!! How are things? Any good news?)
Watashi wa mecha genki! (I'm very healthy.)

To start off today's blog entry, I must quickly declare that I have been delayed in my posting due to the fact that I didn't bring my camera on a huge trip that Ashanthi and I had Tuesday and Wednesday up in Nagoya. As such, I needed to get the pictures that Ashanthi had on her camera, which took time to get, hense the delay. Without any further ado, voila... Majesty at some of its finest!

Where to begin? Hmmm... here's the story from the beginning. First off, Ashanthi and I decided to bring our stuff with us to work so that we could just head directly to Nagoya when we finished at about 10pm. The plan was to stay over at Mel & Sophie's place up in Nagoya that night, maybe have a couple drinks, and then have a fun filled day full of adventure, sight seeing and of course, some of the delicious cooking that Mel promised us. We managed to do some of, if not all of those objectives before our return late Wednesday night.

Upon arriving in Nagoya, we met up with Sophie and Mel and decided to hit up an Irish bar not far from the station. Here's a couple pics of us chilling out in the pub. Now, they had some awesome stuff at that pub, including some delicious chicken fingers and fries that Ashanthi and I managed to gorge ourselves on since we were famished from our hard day at work. The only problem with the bar is that it is WAY too expensive, with Guiness being $8.50 per pint and even mixed drinks being around six bucks. Anywho, we stayed for one drink, and then got the hell out of there, hit up a convenience store for cheaper booze, and continued drinking & catching up until about 4am.

In the morning, we walked around Nagoya doing a little shopping along the way, and managed to check out some local stores and then went back to the girls' place for some delcious cooking.

When Mel told us that she wanted to cook, we had no idea that she was actually talented at cooking! She made us some scrumtralescent pancakes, coated in some sensual apple-cinnamon sauce that was just crazy delicious. After a tardy start to the day, some groggy coffee drinking and finally some fresh air from the 14th story of their apartment (top floor baby!) we decided that it would be a good day to make a trip to Nagoya castle... YOSHA!!!

Of course, most of you know that I'm a bit of a Japanese history buff... and of course by 'buff' I mean that I'm really interested in it, as opposed to really well versed in dates and events. In truth, besides the Sengoku period, I don't really know enough to claim to have even read a book on it... so much for that Asian history university course... haha.

No, seriously though, it was an amazing castle. Here are some details that you can freely skim over, should you be more intersted in the pictures than the story. I'll try and make it brief. *Cough* Okay, after the battle of Sekigahara back in May 1600, when the realm of Japan was essentially divided and basically conquered by Lord Ieyasu Tokugawa (Eee-ya-su, Toe-ku-ga-wa) defences were as important as offences, and so was trade. This trade was strongly affected by the Tokaido highway, a huge road that was used by many travelling Japanese.


Anywho, Tokugawa decided that he wanted to protect his domains from any potential threats from Osaka (west of Nagoya) and so he decided to build Nagoya castle... and he wanted it done PRONTO! He got 20 different feudal lords to contribute to the building, along side one of the greatest architects of the day, and together (along with thousands upon thousands of people) they managed to complete the building in just two years. It was completed in 1612, and basically just kicks ass. It was badly damaged in 1945 by American bombing runs during May in WW2, and has been rebuilt, and refit with new 18 karat gold dolphin statues (exactly like the one that Ashanthi and I are riding.) It played a huge role in the development of Japanese government until the Meiji Restoration.









Whew! Done and done. That's about all I happen to know about the castle, minus these lovely pictures on the left. Check out the sword wall! It's a wall that would be lined in blades to deter attackers during a siege... a siege that never happened mind you.

The whole of the castle is quite beautiful, and climbing to the top of it, I could feel some of the majesty that the Tokugawa clan must have felt back in the day. Of course, it doesn't rival the love in my heart for good'ol Osaka castle, but I can definitely say that it was a cool trip.


After the trip to Nagoya castle, we met up with one of Sophie's friends and made our way out to a wicked restaurant for dinner. We had some delicious food that was essentially an extremely hot bowl of raw food that somehow managed to retail its heat long enough to cook the food therein. The rice in the bowls was already cooked, but the meat and egg weren't. You stir it for a while, and then it's pretty much done, and you dig it. Mmmmm... so good. Sophie ordered the Unagi and let me have a try. Mmmm... eel.


Finally our trip came to an end, and we said good-bye. We'll hopefully be having them down here sometime soon, so that we can have another adventure! :) Thanks again Melissa and Sophie!!!




So I must say, I'm a little confused at some things here in Japan... especially when it comes to housing. Here in Mie, there seems to be an abundance of dilapidated housing, sitting on land doing nothing, yet simultaneously, land in Japan (even here in Mie) is extraordinarily expensive... and so is housing. My house and it's lot here in Japan would be worth a minimum of eight times its value. Can you imagine the value in Nagoya, Osaka or even Tokyo? We're talking millions of dollars here people. So... my question stands... why the dilapidated housing? My only solution is that perhaps there's a tax break for lots that have traditional houses that have registered for some sort of historical significance or something... in any case, all they do is house the many stray cats that roam the streets.



In other news, I received my first phone bill... yeah, well I'm kinda upset. See, the website must have lied, and so must have my contact, because instead of the paltry 12 cents a minute rate that I should have received, I found out that a one hour conversation I had ended up costing me $60. Anywho, for future reference, I'm not going to call anyone from my apartment anymore.... except for the phone company and of course my contact. Grrrrrr....



Whew. Well since this blog entry has come to an end I may as well take a bit of a seat in this weird looking thing that I found in Nagoya. This is benjamin signing off.

Ja matta ne.

-benjamin out.

p.s. Ashanthi thought the thing that she's on looked like one of those toilets that I detailed in my last posting... hense the squatting.






Hmmm... Homo sausage, eh? Never thought I'd see the day where you could buy that in a tight package from the grocery store.





Awww... why do I always have to be the bitch? j/k.