The next stop is lunch where the 91 year old grand father who is always smiling and clasping his hands together fed the lot of us.  Not just us, the family, but his whole family, about 40 of us.  Plate after plate of food kept on coming, one after the other.   King crab, shrimp, baked fish, soups, and the best was a whole plate of rooster balls and kidneys.  No joke, and yes, roosters do have balls, you just cannot see them.  But the Taiwanese have and we eatthem.  They sort of tasted like little german sausages that burst open when you bit into them.  They were actually quite good once I got passed the thought of eating a chickens balls. 

The grandmother with altzheimers wasn’t as friendly but the grandfather over compensated for us all with lots of food and drink.  So much so that Mike and I who were sitting next to each other laughed about how full we were and also how drunk we were getting.  Full is an understatement to the actual extent that my stomach was being stretched to.  But like a true soldier, I kept up the pace til the end.  Then we were taken to our hotel where we were to rest a bit until we were beckoned again.  It was about 3 o’clock in the afternoon.  We all slept…….until 6, then we were all hustled off to the next feast, this time is was the auntie who invited us.  The location, an all you can eat steak house.  None of us were even slightly hungry yet.  We all ordered a full plate of food and I believe that we all ate all of our food.  Gluttony is such a nice feeling.  The feeling that you are so full that breathing takes effort and you break out in a sweat just sitting at the table. 

The first night that we were there, we were invited to dinner at a friend of Win’s.  It was a very nice restaurant that served european food as well as taiwanese. He came out after we ordered to say hi. He was very friendly and smiled alot. He said that he had alot of dishes to prepare so he quickly left. So, just to let you know, this restaurant was a 5-6 course dinner event.
Minutes later, our appitizers showed up, a salad and soup. Then 4 extra plates of food showed up, all of Sven, Chen-yu, and me. Well, Sven being vegetarian couldn’t eat any of them, and Chen-yu being on good behavior was only nibbling (faker), so being the polite guest that I am, I ate them all. Squid ink spagetti, sea food noodles, a fish plate, and baked pig nuckles. Then my main course showed up, shank of lamb. I ate that too of course, but now feeling the pain of too much, and at this moment, more started showing up. I was then informed by Sven and Chen-yu that if a person eats all of their food in Taiwan it means that you are still hungry and you want more. Me being raised to finish my plate because there are starving children in Africa, thought that I was just being polite, now understood. After the next plate of food, which I only ate half of, dessert and after dinner drinks showed up. It was really the best food that I had eaten in a long time and I told the Chef that the german pig knuckles and sour craut was better than in germany, and it was. He was very pleased and said that if he could take the time off, he would take us all in his boat the next day. It never happened but never the less, dinner kicked ass.

So, for the next few days, all that I can remember is eating, and ….eating. Oh ya, we did drive around and see some of the local sights, a trading post and small temple/castle thing. We were told by Chen-yu that the local government was trying to improve their english signs through out the city and that they were paying 1000 euen for every sign that had miss spellings and gramatical mistakes. Thats about 35 dollars. So Sven and I spent the whole day at these sights not really enjoying the sights but taking pictures of the signs that were wrong. Well, after about every sign, more than 100, I just gave up and we decided that I just needed to come live there for a few months, earn lots of money and help them write in complete sentences, add a verb when needed, and pretty much redo most of the really funny, strange way they have basterdized the english language.

Sven is vegetarian and Chen-yu not, so the two of us are always eating and she is introducing me to the many new foods here in Taiwan.  For such a little thing, she eats as much or more than me, which is amazing.  We were at this one restaurant yesterday, Chen-yu and I had finished our plates (Sven not, still picking), and Chen-yu leaned back in her seat to give her belly some room, and the waitress’s eye caught her stomach (4 months pregnant), and you could see this puzzled look come over her face as Chen-yu talked about how full she was.  Probably should have been there to see it, but you get the picture. 

After Himeji, I went to the largest Buddist temple in Nara. Inside of it there are three Buddhas, the largest is about 50ft, 437 tons of bronze and 200 lbs of gold. It is called the cosmic buddha, and is one of the largest statues in the world. It was very impressive!!!

Last night I rented a bike and rode all over the town. It was great how much I could see. I treated myself to on authentic Japanese dinner that was hilarious. I was the only one in the restaraunt, so I had all of the staff waiting on me. They were all dress in komonos, bowing constantly, and trying to help me figure out who to eat my meal. I ordered a whole coarse meal that seemed to never stop. And with every coarse I was completely lost on how to eat it. First a wooden box with about 10 different sections in it came with sushi in some, vegetables I have never seen in others, and different meats and sea foods. Along with it came a cast iron bowl being heated with some sort of burning candle thing that I couldn’t touch for 8 minutes(I was told). There were about 6 ladies and one young fellow trying to help me , even so, not one of them spoke any english, so everything was explained in jestures and flat out by showing me first hand. When the box of stuff showed up, the main lady helping me tried to tell me what everything was and it went like this. She held her sleeve back with the other hand and pointed to the first item. “Diss is fish” (with a big smile), and “diss is fish” (big smile), and “diss is fish” (which was octurpus), and “diss is meat” (smile and bow) (which I later found out was raw horse), and “diss is begetable” (never did find this one out). Then when the eight minutes was up, she came back out and opened the cast iron bowl. She then started fanning the tofu/cheese until it formed a thin membrane on the top of it and she took these other herbs and the smallest green onions I have ever seen and placed them exactly in the middle of the membrane and rolled it up into a small crepe thing. All this is done with chopsticks of course. She gave it to me on a plate and started fanning the next one. After she finished a couple she handed the young boy the fan who nervously fanned the rest shaking as tried to wrap the small crepes. Then came out soup and the yakisoba noodles, and more sushi elaboritly displayed, and more tea. Then she turned the remaining tofu cheese stuff into a thick egg looking item and poored the rest of the vegetables in it and served it to me. The main lady helping me was very delicate and gentle, this other older lady who showed me a few ways to eat things was very quick and deliberate, and impatient in a very nice way. So she came out with this tea pot full of who knows what and told me to poor it into the broth that I had put the yakisoba noodles it. I did and then she pretty much made me drink it. By this time, I am completely stuffed right, and desert comes out. I cant even really tell you what it was, or what they were but some of it was really good, the other not so much. But I pretty much had to eat it all because the impatient one kept on coming over and checking on my progress and telling me to eat, eat. Well, they then brought me this very thick and delicious green tea juice and more tea which I sipped waiting the bill (which at this point I was a little apprehensive about). They kept on watching me and smiling and if I would make eye contact with any of them they would come over to see what I wanted. I would just nod and wave them off, hoping that someone would bring the bill. This went on for about 10 minutes until I realized that they weren’t going to bring the bill, I needed to get up and pay for it by the door. As I got up and started for the door (which was clear through the restaraunt) I realized that the entire staff was seeing me to the door, and I mean everyone. I wasn’t really sure how to take it, thinking that maybe they were all waiting for the tip (which you don’t do in Japan.) The bill was only 50 dollars,( thank god!!!) and I was excorted clear out the door, up the stairs, thru the garten, and onto the street. It was really cute and really cold out so I felt guilty for keeping them outside to take pictures with, but it didn’t stop me. As I walked away and down the street, I would occasionally look back to see them still standing in the cold waving to me. I smiled about that one for the next few hours while I walked around the streets lined with lanterns and mobs of people.

After Himeji I decided to push my luck and try to go to Nara which looked to be an hour away on the map by train. It was 2 o’clock which would leave me a few hours to see the temples. Wrong, the train was extremely slow and I got there at 4;30. Most of the sites close at 5 so I took off running for the first one hoping to get into the door. I did and it was one of the best and for sure the biggest shrine in Japan. Inside it lives the largest bronze and gold statue of buddha in the world. My pictures did it no justice.

I made it back to Kyoto completely exausted and sore. My knee felt like it had finally lost all of the remaining cartilage and the toe is still infected. And when I got back to the cheapest hostel in Kyoto(litterly called that), I had an entourage of young 20 year olds that I had befriended waiting for me to party with them. I did and got completely smashed laughing at this Irish kids thick accent that I really had to listen to to hear, and these two girls, one from Iceland and one from Canada. I finally got 3 hours of sleep st 4 in the morning and awoke to the entire girls side of the room packing their bags at 7 in the morning. So I got up, woke Mike up (Irish) and we rented bikes and rode them pretty much all day. And exausted we met the girls again, waiting for us for hours, who were now drunk off their asses, ready to get us the same. I lasted again until about 4 in the morning then pulled myself away from the whining mass and went to bed. At 7 in the morning, three drunk, laughing, loud little shits jumped on me in bed waking not only me but the whole floor. Thanks. They were all just going to bed and I just got up, packed and made my way back the 9 hours to Tokyo.

I spent the past few days traveling from Nikko to Tokyo, then from Tokyo to Kyoto…….not fun. About 11 hours in trains, and several hours walking from Hostel to Hostel. Thanks to two japanese girls who decided to help me along the way I made it to Kyoto. I was sitting on one of the first trains that I caught out of Tokyo, it had stopped just outside of town, and everyone got off. I thought that I had gotten on the train to Kyoto and all that I needed to do was sit on the same train and wait out the 9 hour trip. So there I sat for a few minutes, knowing that something was not right but not knowing what to do next. So I got up, waked outside the train without my packs, and tried to desipher the train schedule on the poster. That didn’t work so I went back to my pack and sat down when two japanese girls came up to me, one plump and one skinny. When I say plump, I mean healthy, not american plump. There aren’t any fat japanese, not like in the US. I have been here for 9 days now and I have seen maybe 10 fat Japanese. The first ones that I say were in Nikko at this fancy european hotel that served a buffet american style. This girl Julie, a canadian that I kept running into, and myself on a journey to find food, found this place and tried to get in but we couldn’t without staying in the hotel. So ironically, this was my first encounter with a fat japanese family. The whole family!!! I have seen a few sumo wrestling looking young boys but they still aren’t obese, only healthly plump. That’s why the life expectancy here is 85 years old.

So anyways, back to my story. “Do you need help?” the plump one asked. “I saw you get on in Tokyo and I don’t think that you want to go back to Tokyo. This train is going back to Tokyo. ” ウェてィsいsj。っ　てィ(I hit the wrong button on the computer and it started typing in Japanese. So this is what it looks like and this is what you see and what I get to look at most of the time when I am looking for something on a map, in the subway, trains, ect. ) “And I don’t think you are wanting to return to Tokyo.” Slinny girl laughs shyly. “So am not sure, but do you ……where are you going?” ” Kyoto,” I say. “Ohhhhh,” looking around “you need other train. Is it ok that I help you? Because sometimes people don’t want help.” “No,No, I say, you can help me all you want, I need it, “I say .

So anyway, I am not really sure why I decided to write that story book style, but the long and short of this story is that we were on the same trains for a few hours together, and they saved my ass from making this already long journey even longer. The plump one lived in Canada for a year and could speak fairly good english, her friend, very little. They were on a two day vacation to Hamamatsu to eat its famous eel, unagi. They got on their phones and down loaded the train schedules for all of the trains that I was going to hop on and off til Kyoto and let me use their cell phones to call the hostels (which were all booked). Whoooew.

Now I am in Kyoto, paid out the nose for a place to stay last night, and now I am sitting at the cheapest hostel’s computer waiting for check-in. I walked clear across town to get here this morning, toe still red and pissed off, legs still rubbing, and knee very sore. But I wanted cheap living and cheap living is what I have. This place in three levels of dorm, each level one large room with 30 bunk style beds with sheets separating the beds. Sleeping, well lets hope that happens. The keys on this com@uter are horrible and keep sticking, making my already clumsy tpying a real pain. Plus there are extra keys and some of the keys punctuations are in completely different spots.

So, last night, I went walking and found the coolest little restaurant. The two japanese girls gave me some japanese words for food to try and so I went in and ordered what I had written down. The guy was chinese, and very eager to please me, so he started chopping and frying, and I kept motioning for him to bring more. It was the best food that I have had yet. I knew the word for chicken, so when I asked for momo, chicken, he would ask questions, I would just shrug, smile, and motion to bring it. He would keep asking and I would keep shrugging, and then the food started showing up. A chicken cucumber salad with herbs and sauce, fried chichen nuggets breaded with ginger, onions, garlic and who knows, rice, and these great pot stickers with some sort of crepe batter suspending them individually seperate but all together. I would give him the thumbs up,,,,,,,verrrry nice, he would say,…….very very nice, I would say……..several bows, he would do,,,,,,,,verrrry nice, big smile and more bows topping off my beer…..and then the next plate. He wants me to come back every night…….big smile, bow bow…….I probably will.

So here is the technique for any of you that want to know…..

Onsen Ediquet

Shoes come off at the door. Purchase ticket for bath and towels. You get two towels, one large, one small. Enter through the door with a symbol of a man on it(female if you are that sort). The male symbol has a very small thing hanging between his stick man legs, (I’d draw you a picture if I could) and the female doesn’t (thank god). So you have to look close…..? ………. Just kidding of course, the male symbol is a stick man, and the female symbol is a stick woman….huh??…….she has a triangle for a body….duh

Next, take off all of you clothes and put them in storage baskets provided. Leave the large towel with clothes in basket, and cover your very private parts with the tiny towel (the size of maybe two wash clothes side by side), and enter the bath area.

Quickly walk over to the washing area (faucets and shower heads about two feet off the floor) in one corner of the room. To use them, you have to get a bucket (provided), which you sit(squat) on, and a small bowl which you fill with water and splash over yourself. You can just use the shower head but most people either use the bowl there or they get water out of the bath to rinse off with.

Once rinsed you can get into the bath with your bits and pieces covered or uncovered. At this point it doesn’t really matter, the towel can be left on or put on your head or on the side of the bath.

Soak for a few minutes, then get back out, return to position in washing area (squatting on bucket) and scrub yourself down with soap and shampoo. Rinse very thoroughly to get all soap particles off.

From this point you are free to enter and exit the baths as much as you like, not disturbing anyone……quietly and gently.

Leave anytime.

I read about the onsen ediquet in a book, but got most of my knowledge from watching a father and young son a few days ago. The father was teaching his son the rules. It was very cute, the little boy (5 or 6) would mimmick everything that his dad would do, and it was quite the ordeal. Scrubbing and washing, entering and exiting, squatting and standing, getting a drink of cold water out of the drinking faucet and so on, so I got a first hand lesson kindergarden style.

Now I am back on the town Nikko where I have been for the past three days. I left this morning thinking that I would find a place to stay in that other onsen town I mentioned earlier, but had no luck, so I tried to calling Tokyo to book something there. Not fun, phone machines that talk Japanese and hang up on you for no reason, costing me about ten dollars in change and getting me no where, it was a disaster. So I decided to return to a familiar place instead of dealing with walking around anymore with my gear and newly and very painful ingrown big toe nail, sore knee, and rashy thighs. The toe thing really sucks and I don’t know what to do about it but hope that it gets better by itself. I tried to dig into it but that seemed to piss it off ever more. The worse part is that I don’t have a choice, I have to walk. I figure that I have walked about 10 miles or more everyday since I have been here. After the second day of walking, my newly fattened thighs rubbed together so much that I actually have huge raw spots on the inside of both legs. And since the hair was rubbed off, stubble in now trying to grow back agrivating things even more…. Feels great!!!! Especially in the hot springs!!. Looks great also,….fat limping white guy with a diaper rash and swollen infected red toe trying not to look out of place. Sounds fun hu? …….Well in actuality it really is. I have seen lots of new things and eatten lots of really great food. Like 25 dollars worth of sushi at 6:30 in the morning for breakfast at the Tokyo fish market where every morning at 5:30 am they have an auction and auction off all of the previous days catch of tuna. And in the same building are the produce and fish wholesalers, small cubby hole restaurants and sushi bars, and every other kind of thing that you can imagine for sell. In Nikko, there are several huge old buddist temples nestled back in the trees that date back over 1000 years. Its cold here, there is even snow on the ground in places and ice sickles hanging off some of the buildings. thank god I decided to bring my winter coat last minute or I would a frozen, limping, fat, white foreigner. Things could be worse…….