Love this video, be sure to check out the other 2 of this series as well.
So I’ve been obsessing over this movie for the past 5 months and finally had a chance to watch it about a week ago. TOKYO! is more like 3 short films each with their own director. Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine) is one of my favorites and really made a phenomenal film. Surprisingly, everything was filmed in one take which gave off this totally different feel with the interaction between characters. The short films as a whole made TOKYO! hit the number one spot for my favorite films. If you haven’t seen it yet, please do.
And if you have traveled through Japan as I have, the connections you make with the movie are pretty intense.
CHECK IT OUT.
Synopsis:
In TOKYO!, three of the world’s greatest filmmakers come together for an omnibus triptych examining the nature of one unforgettable city as it’s shaped by the disparate people who live and work inside one enormous, constantly evolving, densely populated Japanese megalopolis - the ravishing and inimitable Tokyo.
Triptych, rhapsody, psychogeography, omnibus, urban valentine, freak show, mindwalk and many other things, TOKYO! is a fantasy in three movements that will make you see one of the world’s greatest cities - if not any city - in unpredictable new ways.
Yeah, it’s been awhile.
Well it has obviously been quite sometime since I have posted on here. It probably came from the combination of being absolutely depressed about being back in the US and having ungodly amounts of work to get done between school and 8090 design. As you can see after that night in Kyoto, we spent the last 2 days back in Osaka. I became too bummed to post anything, knowing I’d be back in the cornfields soon enough. Japan was a great experience and definitely a dream come true for me, I can only hope to be there again sooner then later.
I am on the final semester of my senior year at NIU and am slowly watching the days count down until I can get out of this place and on with my life. I’ve decided to do my senior project on “Tokyo Youth Culture” and am pretty excited to see how it turns out. It was reminiscing through past photos and memories that brought me back to this blog and got me thinking that I should stop being a bum and update this thing. I’ll be doing a informational book and website that focuses on various aspects of the culture such as music, fashion, entertainment, food, etc. and will hopefully have a part where I can help aid people plan their first trip to Japan. I’ve gotten some really great material, but have been having some trouble gathering all my content so we’ll see how that goes.
I ended up starting up a company with my cousin, Nick, called Eighty Ninety Design (or 8090, depending on how we use it). We’ve gotten some great jobs and have started up a blog just to get a portfolio of our work up for show.
You can visit the portfolio at: http://eightyninetydesign.blogspot.com
We will probably be creating a website for ourselves soon and get some of our newer work up on it. Right now we don’t know whats going to happen to the company once I graduate, but we’re going to try and keep it going on while we have jobs - hopefully producing it into and actual design firm (once we’ve worked at some studios and gotten our name out in the design communities). I also am working on a redesign for my website, but it doesn’t have a set end date because it has been difficult to find time to work on it lately. Hopefully soon though!
Over winter break my good friend Brian and I went out to Winter Park, CO to get some serious skiing in this winter. It turned out to be a really great time out there, despite how much more I’ve fallen in love Utah over the years. We hit up as many runs as we could for that week and we’re able to knock out all the double blacks, blacks, and blues at the resort. The hardest runs on the mountain were pretty intense, but were by far the greatest with the views and how solitary it was.
You can view pictures from the trip HERE
Now spring break is right around the corner and I am actually leaving for Poland in less then 2 weeks, to study design and their culture. I’m looking forward to some different scenery and am interested in how this compares to my feelings during my time in Japan. Although, I’m sure the Japanese and their culture will always be the most interesting to me. I haven’t learned too much about the Polish culture and do not know what to expect food wise, outside of sausage haha. Hopefully I’ll be able to come back with some great work and some new ideas and outlooks that will help me with my career in design.
Well that generally brings things up to speed. I should have more to post in time with all these new things coming up so soon. I’m sure Poland will allow me sometime to blog about my experiences there, so definitely check it out in March.
Laters.
Kyoto - Day 9
Today was another hot one, we got to Kyoto in the early afternoon. Kyoto’s train station was amazing and enormous. Coming out of the station, you are right in the downtown area of the city. Our place was within decent walking distance so we made our way over there. The place was very nice and even had small flat panel tv’s in the room. Chris and I had a nice queen bed in the room so we had a good sleep ahead of us. Which actually - we didn’t get back until past 6am the next morning, but I’ll talk about that in a bit. After dropping off our bags and settling in, we made our way over to my first real temple. We had gone by others before, but Kyoto temples are the REAL temples. On our way there we traveled through back alleys, down river sides, and tiny streets that lead up to the temple on the mountain side. Kyoto is definitely the more beautiful and colorful of the bigger cities in Japan, but you’ll see what I mean by the pictures. The Kiyomizu temple was so big and was incredible to walk through, since we had bigger plans for the night we made our way through there at a faster pace. Kyoto in general is extremely touristy so many of the locals that we saw out during that day had an obvious distaste for foreigners. You can really blame them though, its amazing how little people care to read up and learn how to respect the Japanese culture while traveling. It definitely even got to me at times.
Kyoto Station
Kiyomizu Temple
The amazing shrine at Kiyomizu Temple
After getting through the temple we headed to the part of the downtown area that had more of a nightlife scene. On our way there we stopped and got some really tasty Ramen (surprisingly my first spicy food here, why? I have no idea) and some more Gyoza that was so much food to take down. We then walked downtown and did a little shopping before it got dark. We stopped at some departments stores, some thrift shops, and an anime store where I dropped some serious cash. They clothing selection in Japan in phenomenal. I really wish I had known more of what to expect cause I could literally (and will next time) buy my entire clothing selection here. Some of it is expensive, but if you look around enough you find some really sweet deals and the clothes have so much character and fashion.
Anime store
This is the place that was shown on Anthony Bourdain’s - No Reservations (Travel Channel). Unfortunately we had already ate, but it was cool to see!
New Ghibli film coming out - I’m pumped.
Once it became dark we decided to hit up another all-you-can-drink place that ran us about 2,000 yen each for 90 mins. Plus we had to buy some food, but it worked out alright. By the end of that we had 4 beers and 3 cocktails each (and yes, mine were all gimlets). By the time we left we were feeling good, but had not expected what the night had planned for us. Chris had come to Kyoto once before while he was out here studying, so he mentioned a place where people line up along the riverside and hang out/drink. We decided to stumble our way over there and it turned out to be unreal. Within like 2 seconds of sitting down to listen to some music, a bunch of locals came up to us and started talking, they were the sweetest guys we had met here yet. They were very interested in who we were and where we were from and ended up buying me 4 huge beers while we stayed out around that area (Chris had stopped drinking at this point, so I had to throw down for the sake of showing that Americans aren’t all lame ass tourists). We ended up meeting some people from other countries that had been studying out there from 4 months to almost a year. Some of my favorites were Sora who was a local and had studied at University of CA -Berkley for a year. He knew the best English out of everyone we met and had become a great friend by the end of the night. I can only hope to have a chance to hang out with him again next time I’m out here. Another guy that was kick ass was Sam, who has been in Japan for 4 months doing mixed martial arts. He had some great stories and really made the night memorable. I had met the most interesting people out here, but there were also the people (more so from other countries) that were just huge creepers and had definitely only had sex with japanese girls on their mind. This really makes us look bad, which pisses me off. Some of the dudes were just groping and following around these girls, it was ridiculous and got even worse at the bars and clubs. Luckily enough throughout the night, many of the people saw us different and were so nice in making our last big night in Japan the best. They had ended up taking us to some crazy dance club where we had to pay like 1,000 yen to get in, but I got a gimlet and 2 shots for FREEEES. After spending some time there we went back to the river area for a bit, grabbed some more peeps, and then they brought us to this bar on the top floor of some building where we stayed for the rest of the night. I was pretty out of my mind, and had no recollection of how many drinks I had knocked back. I ended up looking out of the window for some reason to find that the sun was already up and it was about 6am. Considering that, we decided it was a good time to leave and got less then 4 hours of sleep that night. I had my roughest morning in Japan today and had to really try not to pass out EVEN when I was walking to our next hostel. All in all though, best night in Japan.
All-you-can-drinkin’ (Nomihodai)
Some fooder duder
Sweetest chillin place ever
New friends
Crazy dance club
My favorites
Japan Posts and Thank yous
So I have about 2 more posts to show of the last days here. I just went through all my other ones and corrected the misspellings and all that. There were A BUNCH, so I’m really sorry, but I was in a constant rush. They’re good now though! I’ve been pretty backed up on these last posts, its already the day we’re leaving so I’m trying to get all my shit together while still being able to journal these last days without forgetting details.
Well, I’ll see some of you back home soon, and I appreciate everyone who has kept up with my blog and took interest with my time in Japan. This trip has really changed my life.
Beppu - Day 8
Holy shit, this may be quite the post. I don’t even know where to start, today was by far the MOST exciting, beautiful, and inspirational day of me entire life, HANDS DOWN. The train from Fukuoka to Beppu (which was on the other side of the island) was about 3 hours. It was a regular JR line and not a Shinkansen (bullet train) so the ride was much slower. I couldn’t say I minded though, never in my life have I seen anything so unreal then this ride into the mountains of Beppu. I wish I could post all the amazing pictures of this city, but its just not possible. I’m sure I’ll upload them on a Google album and or Facebook once I am back home.
Train ride there
Unbelievable views
Stepping out of that train for the first time was breathtaking experience, there’s no way to put it into words and what you can capture in a little picture can do no justice. By now Chris and I are pros at traveling here. With his knowledge of Japanese, my sense of direction, and both of our knowledge we’ve gained from riding so many trains… we are set for life. Once getting off the train we took a taxi to our hotel (yes, i said HOTEL) so we weren’t walking around trying to find it in the unbearable humidity here. Beppu is definitely the hottest and most humid place we have been yet. I sweat constantly here and the night doesn’t even make that much of a difference. I mean, it is a hot spring resort that sits along a wide bay and brings in about 12,000 tourists a year. Of course we were the only ones there and saw NO other tourists, probably because it’s a know fact not to come in the summer because its so uncomfortable. We didn’t give a shit, we were so hopped up with adrenaline that the constant sweating was the only indication that it is one scorching hot town. I’ll hold off on taking about our hotel until the end, but prepare to be jealous.
Once again they weren’t prepared to check us in (which has happened at probably every place but one so far), so we gave them our bags and got on the move! We had a full day planned for us so we had to keep on a constant schedule to fit everything in. We stopped off to eat first and had some amazing eel and rice in a small restaurant, before catchin a bus for the 30min ride to the Jigoku (the boiling hells of Beppu, its seriously what they’re called). The Jigoku’s were amazing being 9 all together we walked more then we have this entire trip. Each Jigoku has a different function, color, and mineral property. For example Umi Jigoku (Ocean Hell) has the color of a tropical sea, while Chi-no-Ike Jigoku (Blood Pond Hell) takes its color from red dissolved clay. SO we took a circuit of the 9 Jigoku’s 7 of them within easy-ish walking distance and the other a good 2.5 miles away. Of course since we’re so sweet, we bit the bullet and hiked that shit! Wow did that kick us in the ass, but I must say it made the experience that much more memorable. In a couple of the Jigoku’s they had animals, which was totally awesome. One type was a perfect breeding ground for cayman (very large crocs) so we saw piles of them at no more then 2 inches away. I kid you not, 2 inches. The other one had all types: elephants, all types of moneys, lamas, hippos, peacocks, flamingos, black swans, etc. I could go on forever. The cool thing was that we got to feed the elephant AND baboons, it was so much fun, especially for home much I love animals.
Freshest eel I have ever had.
Shiraike Jigoku - The “white pond hell” features a pond of hot, green water. 
Oniyama Jigoku - Crocodiles are bred and kept on the grounds of the “monster mountain hell”
Umi Jigoku - The “sea hell” features a pond of hot, blue water. It is one of the more beautiful hells. 
Taking a break! Surprisingly the hot spring was refreshing despite how damn hot it was.
Yama Jigoku -The “mountain hell” features small ponds of steaming hot water and a small zoo. 
Kinryu Jigoku - The “golden dragon hell” features a dragon statue and a greenhouse, heated by the hot spring. 
The most beautiful plant life I’ve seen.
Oniishibozu Jigoku - This hell is named after the mud bubbles, which emerge from boiling mud pools.
I wish i had pictures of all of them, but my camera (of course) died before the last 2 and I was on low battery the entire time. LAME, but Chris got some nice shots - they’ll be up on Facebook later.
After we had finished touring the Jigoku circuit, we took a train back to our amazing hotel (yes i’ll post pics now) and had the traditional japanese bath along with soaking in the HOT baths all heated by the spa towns springs, it was an absolutely unforgettable experience. Our hotel room was amazing, very traditional japanese setting that was all inclusive with a shower (we didnt even use it), bathroom, sitting/dining area, COMFORTABLE beds, balcony, tv, fridge , etc. You get the idea, but check these pictures out! Oh an also, we were right on the beach, that was such an amazing view the mountains so close.
Amazing views right behind our hotel
Hitting up the baths!
The walkway to our room
Front area where slippers, shower, and the bathroom are.
The door into our main room
The sitting area and doors out to our balcony
Where we slept
Entrance to rooftop bath
Japanese style bath- located on the roof of our hotel
The bath you soak in after you wash yourself
Our night in Beppu was so sweet. Every year they have a 3 day festival where they block off the streets and set up food stands, music/comedy stages, shopping stands, ALCOHOL stands, etc. It was such a place to be, especially with there being like no tourists it had such a true japanese feel. Now looking back, we really lucked out with how our days lines up for this trip. We ended up drinking a bunch (more so me just getting really drunk) and eating the most amazing street food anyone could dream of. Turns out we end up sitting next to these ladies and striking up a conversation. Their names were Misato and Yokosume, and luckily Yokosume spoke some decent english. Chris and Yokosume were pretty much on the same level with what they know of each others language. Funny thing is it was more so Chris and Yokosume chatting it up and Misato and I having a pretty awesome time communicating with having NO idea of each others language. It was so much fun. They ended up walking us around town and taking us to the beach where we sat out together. Another unforgettable experience and the first locals that we actually hung out with, I was one happy man. They ended up having to move their car closer so we waited up for them and met some other locals who invited us in on lighting off fireworks. Even with such a language barrier, we were so happy to have met and we’re just having a ball. The fireworks were gorgeous reflecting off the ocean. Once the ladies came back we headed to our hotel and ended the night with some music and tea. We talked until about 12:30pm or so, but both of them had work in the morning, so we said our goodbyes and parted ways. I couldn’t of asked for any better of a time in Beppu, definitely the highlight of the trip, as expected.
The festival!
Holy shit - street food.
My first gimlet in Japan - and yeah, they make em fuckin good. The place we went in was really classy too.
Misato and me
Yokosume ad Chris
Our firework buddys
I will never forget this day.
Fukuoka – Day 7
We got up extra early today to ride the train from Osaka to Fukuoku, which is in Kyushu, an island located on the very bottom of Japan. We were expecting it to be a 5-6 hour ride, but we got lucky on one bitchin’ bullet train that shot us there in 3 hours!! Hellsssss yeah. Once again we got some bento boxes for the ride, they really work well when traveling this way. We got to our hostel in good time and were able to get a good amount of sight seeing accomplished. The beginning was a little rough cause the damn lady told us to get on the WRONG bus that took us the complete wrong way and we pretty much rode it to the end of the line. It was bullshit. We kept our heads high and just got on the train where we were at (which was luckily close) and headed over to Ohori Park for our afternoon. The park was gorgeous, we got to walk pretty much straight through the middle of it (taking any other route wold of been a hike) and got to see some really nice scenery. We lucked out and found a garden on our way which was my very first in Japan. The things they do to upkeep and preserve these gardens are really amazing and I respect that in every way imaginable. The garden had some beautiful plants, bridges and streams that all surrounded the big pond in the middle that was swarming with coy (japanese fish).
Today’s bento box
Ohori Park
Mom, Dad, and the kids.
Gorgeous garden
Following that we decided to explore the Fukuoka castle ruins. Now keep in mind in Kyushu (the very bottom of Japan) it is HUMID and HOT. Literally if I didn’t drink water at least every 2 hours I would feel very light headed and possibly close to heat stroke. The castle ruins were very neat, but man was it a tiring hike. We climbed up many stairs which were not in good shape nor good angles, so it was some rough walking, especially in sandals. Once we got to the top, it was worth the view and a pretty good feeling, plus I’m getting a insane amount of exercise on this trip and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Fukuoka castle ruins
After all that walking we were pretty wiped out and I was soaked in sweat. Oh, I forgot to mention that because it is so humid here and EVERYONE sweats ALL THE TIME, pretty much each person carries a sweat cloth to wipe their face. They are pretty crucial to have and some places even hand them out for free (you’ve probably noticed me holding various ones in previous pictures). ANYWAY, so we headed back to our hostel to check in (since it wasn’t until later, but every place holds your bags which is really awesome) and we also grabbed a shower and a hour or so snooze.
Our night in Fukuoka was the shit. We found a rooftop beer garden that had all-you-can eat/drink within 90 mins for about 30,000 yen and we were all over that. They had gorgeous waitresses dressed in kimonos that came and catered to your every need. The food there was buffet style with various meats, seafood, fruits, veggies, dumplings, etc. The drink menu was also INSANE because they offered a huge variety of beer, cocktails, shochu (japanese 50-90 proof alcohol), and sake. We had a blast, downing pretty much everything in our sights. By the end I had 4 beers, 2 screwdrivers and some shochu on the rocks. I was completely gone and Chris trashed as well. We walked the city for the rest of the night, and stumbled in (literally) to some shrines. We headed back early enough to get a little sleep before Beppu, which was our true destination out of all the cities. We’ve been really looking forward to it this entire trip and can’ wait to experience all it has to offer.
Top floor lookin down
Too much alcohol 4REALZ
Delicious food.
After dinner.
Shrine
We were on the huge TV screen! I was amazed, mostly cause of the booze.
Heres some pictures of our hostel in Fukuoka, its was another good one, and man am I happy about that.
Morning rush - you think Americas bad? you have no idea.
Quick Stop in Osaka – Day 6
Well this time in Osaka was a far better experience, we got so see an entirely different side to the town and what it really has to offer. That first night we spent there was no good, we actually coined the term “slum city” because of how shitty it looked and all the bums that were hanging around the area. This time our hostel was located in a much nicer area and gave us easy access to the train lines to get everywhere we needed to go. The train ride to Osaka from Yokohama was short and gave us a little time to relax. We got some bento boxes for the ride which are very filling and pretty delicious for what they costed. Once we settled in to our room, we headed out pretty quickly. We had been planning on going to the Osaka Aquarium (the largest in the world) and kind of play out our night from there. The aquarium was one of the coolest things I have ever seen. It housed over 30,000 different species and was (if i remember right) 5 or more stories high. The sea life they had there was some of the most amazing things I have ever seen, the best being the giant manta ray and 2 whale sharks. We then decided to take a ride on the ferris wheel (which was right next to the aquarium and also the largest in the world). It gave a beautiful view of the city and was well worth the 700 yen.
Back Packin!
Our bento boxes
OSAKA AQUARIUM!!!!!!
Baby Whale Shark - we’re talking over 20 feet here.
We then made our way down to the most amazing, and more touristy, part of the city. It was unbelievable being all lit up at night. We walked around the area for awhile and had a very expensive and filling dinner (i spent 30,000 yen alone) that consisted of another cooking pot in middle of our table, tons of beer, and another order of food after that. I WAS STUFFED. After dinner we continued enjoying the city, but sadly again, didn’t end up hanging out with any sweet japanese people. We did although make small talk on the way home with some ladies that were just coming back from a reggae concert (which would have been fuckin awesome) but got caught off guard at our stop and ended up rushing out without seeing their plans for the night. STUPID MISTAKE. It was alright though, we got some gyoza (japanese dumplings, my favvvvorite!) late night and passed out in like 2 seconds with in hitting the bed.
Could it be any more sweet?
The place we had dinner
One damn good fish, we were sooo stuffed. Way too many orders of food.
The place we stayed in Osaka was very nice and comfortable this time around and we are looking forward to staying there again our last day in Japan. Here are some pictures of it:
