Japan Trip - Day 3 (May 20, 2003):

Woke up and cruised over to Taeko's parent's place for breakfast. Taeko made us some really good food (again), and then we were on our way. Unfortunately, Taeko couldn't join us on our excursion because she had to help her mom out with some stuff, and prepare for the kick ass bbq later that day. So, Shawn ended up being our tour guide today. We took the bus to Fujimino station, and hopped on the train to Ikebukuro. There, we scheduled the opening of our rail pass for the following Monday, May 26th, so we could use it for our planned trip to Kyoto, and for our ticket on the Narita Express on June 1st (it's a one week rail pass). After that, we took a train to Ueno, and walked around this cool park.

We then jumped on the subway and headed for Asakusa. According to tour guide Shawn, Asakusa is where all the school kids that live over near Kyoto and Nara come for their class trips to check out some temples. Which would explain all the school kids running around. First, we trekked off the beaten path to this really good unagiya place for lunch. I ended up having the unagidonburi which was excellent, and it only cost about $20. Here is what the dish looked like (only a little bigger as I stole the pic from Tony who got the smaller dish):



After lunch, we checked out the Sensouji Temple at Asakusa. My first thoughts were, wow, this temple is huge.



The first picture is of Chris and I standing in front of the Kaminarimon (The Thunder Gate). The second image shows one of the structures of the temple. (pics courtesy of Shawn). If I remember correctly, tour-guide Shawn made up some story about how this was the largest wooden structure in Japan, or some other nonsense. All of us ponied up 100 yen, and got a fortune. All of us got bad fortunes except for Shawn, who got a neutral one. My fortune said something about how my mind is not set on one goal, and thus I will never complete a goal. Good thing I don't believe in this stuff.

After checking out the temple, we jumped on the subway back to Ebisu to check out the Sapporo Beer Museum which was closed the day before. Before heading down the stairs, we decided to capture yesterday's fall on camera for everyone to see. Here is the recreation (image courtesy of Shawn):



Yes, that is me on my ass, while Chris is standing there pointing and laughing. Ah, good times. After many clicks of the cameras, we eventually made our way to the Beer Museum to check out all it had to offer. It was cool to see all the past advertisements, and see a little bit of the history behind the beer. The funniest thing had to be this weird holographic display that showed some kind of fairy-tale story about the brewing of beer. It had a beer fairy, a hero, and some evil looking dude. It was kind of trippy, and very funny. Finally, we got to the best part of the museum- the sampling area. I started off buying a token for the Sampler from the vending machine, which included 4 samples of different lagers they brewed.



Here we (from left to right: Chris, Tony, and me) are, testing out the sampler. The beers were decent, but I decided that I wanted more. So, I headed back to the vending machine and purchased a token for the Dark. Now that was very good, imho. I wish they would import it here in the states. Very smooth.

After drinking our fill, we hopped on a train back to Ikebukuro, and then took another train to Fujimino station, where it was pouring. Taeko picked us up at the station, and we all went back to Eiichi's place for some yakiniku, home-made style. Eiichi setup a bbq in his workshop and invited a few friends (Ayano, Lily, and Nishikawa) to chill with us (Miho, Tatsuki, and Taeko also joined us). Lily, Ayano, and Nishikawa all worked at a military base, and all of them spoke English well. Here is a picture of Taeko, Tatsuki, and Lily chillin at the bbq (thanks again Shawn for the pic):



The food was outstanding, and the beer was free flowing. It's safe to say that I was pretty buzzed by the time the food ran out, and we all just hung out, listened to music and talked. It was a great time. One thing I have to mention is that Eiichi is one crazy dancer. Also, I was really attracted to Ayano, and at one point she was sitting on my lap while I was rubbing her shoulders. Unfortunately, nothing else really happened in that arena. Eventually Taeko, Ayano and Nishikawa left, and the rest of us crashed at Eiichi's place.

What a great third day. How can we possibly top this day? Stay tuned.
Posted 6:25 PM by MZ

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