Long, Strange Day

For reference in the rest of this post, I need to explain the "levels" the Japanese train systems use. Also, I'm talking trains, not subways. Every subway I've ridden has stopped at every stop on the line, which is why they tend to be fairly short in terms of overall distance.
Now, if you look at the following table, you can see a bunch of squiggles that are kanji. The top row shows the Japanese as it's written, the middle shows the reading in roman letters, and the last is the meaning when translated. None of this is really important, but what you should know is that as you move to the right on the table, the train will stop at more places. A 普通 ("local") train stops at every stop, while a 特急 ("special express") will only stop at large transfer stations.

快特	特急	快速(快急)	急行	準急	区急(区準)	普通
kaitoku	tokkyuu	kaisoku (kaikyuu)	kyuukou	junkyuu	koukyuu (I think)	futsuu
Special Rapid Express	Special Express	Rapid Express	Express	Semi-Express	Sub-Express	Local

To get to Umeda, for example, you can take the Hankyu 普通 train bound for Umeda (a part of Osaka) and it will take roughly an hour and 10 minutes because it stops for a little while at e-v-e-r-y stop along the way. About 15 stops, I think. On the other hand, the 通動快速* stops at, I think, four, and gets me back to my house from Umeda in about 40 minutes.
*As I mentioned in this post, these are a near-mystical creature, and that's why it's not on the table.

I dropped off Roxanne at the airport (KIX) today, and it was relatively uneventful. After going to get Jes and dropping her off, this third time back felt kind of old hat. I guess Japan decided that meant it would be a good time to throw me a curve.*

There was some kind of accident - that's the extent of the details I have, before anybody asks - on the normal Japan Railways line that I've used to go back and forth to the airport, so it wasn't running until some later time. They let me* board the Nankai (a different railway company with different tracks that uses a different part of the same station) line free of charge, which I thought was pretty cool. Not only that, but they apparently got the word out fast enough that, by the time I got to my first transfer, they knew what was going on and let me through all well and good. That's a pretty good system, if you ask me.
*By "me", I mean "me and all the other people who were too stupid to listen to the announcement and bought tickets on the JR line". And no, not just us stupid foreigners did that.

On the way back, I took a 区急, which I don't know how to read and can't find any useful information on. I think it may be kukyuu but it may be koukyuu. The latter sounds more official-sounding, so that's what I went with on the table.
I also took a 快速 kaisoku ("limited express" - it skips more stations than a semi-express, but less than a special express) sat by someone who I think was a hobo. Japanese hobos have a special smell about them, and this guy had that fairly strongly. He also had this super-old MP3 player, though, so I don't know what to think about that.

To top it off, I went to ask a random person a question on the way back and he ignored me, looked away, and quickened his pace. I quickened my pace a little to match him and put on my gloves. After about a block of this, he took a sharp corner - backwards - and I went on my merry way and asked a couple of people that were down the road who seemed quite happy to talk to me. Or well, you know.

Jes Visits! - Himeji

So while Jes was here, her, Roxanne, and myself went to Himeji, a city to the South where Himeji castle is located.
As you approach the castle, there's a large field that was probably used as a staging ground or something. It's just a big dirt field. You can see Jes wearing her new jacket in the center of the picture at left. This is a panorama that is composed of, I think, 12 different pictures.

As you come closer to the castle, you can see some of the battlements and the arrow slits and stone-throwing holes and suchlike. At left, Jes is just about to look out one, and you can see another square one at the right side of the frame. There were circular, rectangular, and triangular slits. I would guess they were for different purposes, but I don't know how those specific shapes would be advantageous to anything.

At right is a sign that I liked for the "No danger!" symbol in the lower right. The blue text above the sign says "Plastic bottles are allowed".

This just occurred to me now, but the walk up the walkways was pretty tiring as-is, so I can't imagine what this would be like while constantly trying to dodge rocks and arrows and oil and fighting well-rested sword-/pike-men.

Oh, feel free to add musketeers to that list as well.

This was one rack of guns that was to be seen, but there were probably racks for well over a thousand longarms such as this.

This is "Princess Sen's room" or one of them. She had a whole section of the castle devoted to her and her serving girls, if the signs are to be believed. I don't know what she's doing with the rocks, but I would guess it's some kind of prayer ritual or something like that.

This room is not very high up in the castle and kind of off to one side, but as you go up into the main castle area, you see these little fish guys (left) at random. I think they signify some kind of dolphin (though the tails are sideways for that) or dragon or something. I dunno.

Of the stuff at the castle, I think these fishy statues are probably the most artistic, useless thing there. The rest is fairly bland and militaristic, largely because it consists of empty rooms and hallways.

And doors like the one seen at right. They still work, I think, but were locked so you couldn't open them.

From the top, you have a great view of the city, and I managed to get something like a 280-degree panorama, as you can see.

On the way down, we saw a couple of really neat sights, and I got what is probably my favorite picture of the castle proper, at left. The sunset is what's causing it to turn that nice orange color, though I think they have lights that come on at night to keep it that color. If not, I don't know what they use the massive lightbanks that they had set up for.

Here's that same sunset, a few minutes later, looking the other direction.

And some cats we found. A little after us, an old guy came with two little girls and they fed the cats.

These pictures could really use some warming up, but I guess I missed that when I was working through this set. Oops.

And then there's the toilet. We went to an okonomiyaki place on the way back to the train station, and the place we ate had this toilet. The picture at right really doesn't do the horror of the thing justice, but suffice to say that it had the strangest color scheme of any bathroom I've ever seen.

On top of that, the girls commented that the toilet was kidn of strange, so I had to go investigate. It turns out that it's an old-style toilet with what something like a booster seat on it so that you can sit down like a Western-style toilet. I moved the seat aside for this picture so you can see sort of what's going on. And yes, I washed my hands afterwards.

Random Picture Post

While going through the pictures I want to post in the next post about our trip to Himeji, I kept finding random unrelated pictures I wanted to put up. So, here are some of them.

My parents send me to some stuff for Christmas, including a jacket that basically works magic and a nice pair of sneakers. Even while unwrapping the presents on Christmas Eve, it didn't really feel Christmas-y. What really reminded me of Christmas as a kid was the pile of discarded wrapping paper.

At right is a train in the 通動快速 mode, which I've seen on all kinds of signs and things, but never actually ridden before. It's nothing really impressive, but I've been wondering whether or not they exist since I got here, and I was really excited to discover that I had finally found one.

My airsoft arsenal has grown considerably in the past month or so, as you can see here. Included in that pile is my $4 cheapo generic airsoft gun (far right), a Tokyo Marui spring-powered H&K USP (middle-right), a Tokyo Marui AEP H&K USP and its associated battery, charger, 30-round magazine, 100-round magazine, and 20mm rail converter, and a quick loader that works for every airsoft magazine I've tried it on as yet.

And Yanavy sketched this out because we got bored at the Italian food place near here. That was Jes's first time meeting that group as a whole, and I think she was bored out of her mind because she ended up on the far end and didn't get any of the massive quantity of in-jokes. Poor kitten...

Nara: Sleepy Pre-Post

Yanavy and company (plus me) went to Nara today. I took a lot of pictures, but I haven't really looked through them yet. A couple of them that needed some Photoshopping, though, I did just now.
These picture are from a game center (usually "arcade" in American English") we found completely by accident on the way back to the station. Cool thing: four-player air hockey! I teamed up with Angela against Sara, Cassie, and Yanavy, the latter two of whom took turns.

We also found a super-super cheap place to get takoyaki and I found some really tasty mochi to boot.

Anyway, inside the game center were these banners, which I felt pretty much required to take pictures of. Tails is my favorite character of them, and pretty much always has been. I just noticed that Sonic and Knuckles both have a species name, whereas Amy and Tails both just have their full names.

The quality of the pictures is kind of bleh, at best, but I did what I could for them. Eh.


Here's one last picture so you can see what they look like coming out of my camera:

Tokyo: So Far (Day 0) - Traveling

First off: Apparently, you can buy large JR tickets with a credit card. Good to know.
I had a number of transfers due to the distance involved, but I ran into three other people going the same place as me on the second or third transfer, so I had a good time talking with them and we helped each other find the way. It was really lucky.

I somehow (probably due to the people I met) managed to get here without any major problems except my own stench - big thanks to Kyoto's humidity for that one - which I fixed by tossing one of my prized blue shirts. The last three times I've worn it, it's smelled really bad, really quick, so I think there may be something growing in it or something. It now smells bad somewhere between Kyoto and Tokyo, in a trash can in a bathroom.

It took Shimpei (the guy I'm staying with) a few minutes (~15) to find me due to the massive monstrosity that is Yokohama station. From there, a 15-minute train ride to the actual town he lives in, and a 15-minute walk to his apartment from the station.
Total time from leaving my apartment to getting to his apartment was... Long. 7:20AM to 6:30PM, so nearly 11 hours. Shinkansen (bullet train) would've put me here around 11AM, but would cost more one-way than my round-trip ticket did.

Dean said he's going to send me some cashes, so I should have some money to do some shopping while I'm here, which will be cool. It looks like Akihabara may not be the best place to get camera gear, but there's some pretty good deals at... some place. I dunno if I can find it.

Last thing before I hit the hay: the warm water here has a switch. I'm not kidding at all. You have to turn on the hot water knob, then turn on the hot water heater. Then you have hot water. I thought it was just really, really slow. I figured after five minutes, I was probably just missing something.

[Edit: I was just looking through my pictures I've taken so far, and I found these two signs, which felt left out, so they're getting put in to assuage their feelings.]

Train Warning-er

There are a lot of small train overpasses here. They're fairly minimally constructed; just a couple of girders bolted together with a mesh to keep things from falling on peoples heads underneath. If you're under the overpass when the train goes by, it is almost painfully loud.
I didn't notice it until today, but there's a strange hissing noise that you hear if you stand under the overpass if a train is coming. It gives you a few seconds' warning, which is plenty of time to plug your ears or get out from under it.