Its kind of like a car. Or really anything that can go fast that can also be stopped suddenly. One second your speeding by at 100 km/h the next you hit a brick wall and all motion ceases. When two polar opposites meet. Backpacking then stopping to work is one thing, but stopping to study is a totally different matter.

Either way life is good. Classes haven't started yet, so life is even better.

The campus is a bit bigger than expected but we're pretty much confined to the dorms, and one or two buildings on campus. I've bought a bike, which is perhaps the world coolest thing on two wheels. I never thought anything with a basket on the front could be so cool. Also I've found a pretty good group of guys from europe, the u.s and australia who make exploring the neighborhood a bit more interesting.  Plus that we all stand out as 6' and above kind of make for interesting reactions when we go out. At a ramen place today a Japanese high school student walked in, looked at one of the guys who's 6'5 and let out a long impressive "wwwowww" Last night was a bar hop around including a place called "mummy's" accurately named the partner of "daddy's shoes" just up the block. Plus it provides a gourmet alternative to instant rice and curry that comes from something resembling the Canadian Forces emergency rations, just boil and serve. The latest extrodinaire was cow tongue done with green onions, salt and a pound of butter. Not quite as tender as beef, but clearly still from the same family.

I dont know if it's just because I've stopped moving, but man I had three dinners the other night. Literally I cant even remember eating this much while planting. And I've come to accept chocolate as a food group, and as someone very wise noted, 'it's not an addiction, its a way of life."

To enroll for classes we had to draw numbers today, literally pulling paper from a box and I scored the ever unlucky 344th leading me to expect that I will not get one or any of the courses I hoped for, especially ceramics. But such is life, I'm sure other doors will be opened. 

Oh and another mildly interesting fact, while out for a run I realized I was parallel to a path I had been on from a 40k out of Kyoto awhile back, meaning that not only do I have a 50k running route but also that I can bike directly to downtown Kyoto in just under 2 hours and make for an interesting trip. Plus being in one place and no longer having to do searches i the dark for running paths is mighty handy.

Call for advice! I just got a job offer for Northway camp this summer working as a canoe trip leader in Algonquin from June 24-mid August and I have to respond imminently. The only reason I delay is that there may be other opportunities: working with Chris doing confined space stuff, living in Quebec and studying French... that's all I got. Plus it's pretty much volunteer. I'm not sure if it would hold the peaceful bliss and educational experience that I picture, but could still be an experience.

Many of the people here are literally getting right off the plane and into school, then finishing school and getting back on the plane. How lucky I am! Plus one of the guys I was with ordered french fries last night, and another wont stop complaining about how everything smells of fish. Honestly?!

I've decided its best to fill my Canada craving with podcast downloads from CBC. Love it.

-The hosts

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A-bomb dome, one of the few standing buildings, about 600m from the hypocentre.

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Iwami Ginza Tori

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The world's largest rice scoop that will never touch rice!

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After a quick tour of Hiroshima mom headed off to Tokyo then Toronto and I went to Kurashiki to check out the old town. It was exciting enough town for me to move to another more important area of focus, Japanese bakery's. 

There are several things one must understand before going into a Japanese bakery, first and foremost: don't.

But now that you've made the mistake, passed the void and picked up a tray and tongs you may have some questions. No, that isn't as good as it looks. Really nothing is. No, thats no icing its butter. That isn't a baguette its limp bread filled with sugared margarine. Yes that is a hot dog, yes it is wrapped in a pizza. No those aren't raisins, its chocolate. It is always chocolate. Yes thats white bread with butter on it, you'll be hard pressed to find anything less white than me. No, I don't think you should buy that, you should ever have come in here. Those things that are garnishing those other things, yeah... you don't want to know what either of them are. So just stay away, this is the voice of reason and experience talking.

The same thing goes for getting generous rides from Japanese people. Just because they all have GPS' in their car, doesn't mean they use them. Also, just because roads or rather freeway exits have do no enter on them, does not mean people know how to read them. I am frequently amazed by my own and other humans capacity for blatant life threatening ignorance.

Tomorrow...a new home!

Iwami Ginza

The world's largest hourglass, it runs for exactly one year turning every December 31 at midnight.

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Most mine entrances were about the size of a doggy door. The mine ran for 400 years and the used to employ 10 year old kids to do the digging.

Iwami Ginza Silver mine.

We reached the peak of tourism cheese today. We went to a sand museum. I know there are museums for shoes and other random objects, but this is one for sand. Who knew? Impressively only half of the museum was devoted to sand while the other half contained awesomely horrible galactica meets wildlife meets holistic therapy paintings. It made for an odd combination. 

We also hit up the ever fascinating silver mines which provided the majority of Japans silver for over 400 years. The day was then wrapped up with a scalding hot onsen to burn away the snow storm.

Oh and I got lost running. Then by some miracle and a farmer with good hand gestures and some english I came out of the forest literally on the opposite side of town from where I had started and only 4k from the hostel, not the 11 expected. I'm going off to polish my horseshoe. 

Nagasaki, Lazy travelers, fast trains, boats and such!

Just a little sulfurous gas. This spot is named the Japanese word for hell, then each part of the hot springs has hell in its name.

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Heres an incredibly cheesy tourist picture in front of a spot that 26 christian followers were sacrificed. Pleasant.

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Peace memorial... no comment.

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The Nuclear Bomb Hypocentre. On August 9, 1945 at 11:02 a.m the 'big boy' nuclear bomb exploded 500m above this point.

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'big boy'

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Right then, volcanoes... From there we went to Unzen (the hot springs noted above) to check out some more volcanoes, but seeing as the beer hall was closed there didn't seem much reward for a hike, so we took the early bus onto Nagasaki.

After checking into an ever so dingy ryokan we started the sightseeing with the old dutch and portugese settlements. If any of you have ever read Shogun, you have an idea of what I'm talking about. If you have never read Shogun, do so. Immediately. It's written by James Clavell. 

The next day we made our way to the ever horrific nuclear bomb park and museum as well as the hypocentre of the bomb. I think for some reason Nagasaki is ignored in favor of Hiroshima, despite being the larger of the 2 bombs it was the second, and not quit as a shock as the world's first. Since then there have been over 2,000 atomic bomb tests, over 1,000 of those are by the U.S. So who's the terrorist?

In a horribly ironic way Nagasaki's current success and the end of the war is a testament to the force of violence. In a much more forceful way, the bombs were horrific in a totally indescribable way of which I will not even attempt to touch on. If you are ever in Japan I highly recommend a visit to open our eyes just that little bit more. 

After seeing all Nagasaki had to offer we jumped the trains to Nima, where we are tonight and to the lovely abode of a Buddhist priest and his wife, most certainly off the tourist track, or so I like to believe. Tomorrow is a long run followed by silver mines and Im sure an excess of temples/shrines and just maybe some more old stuff. 

While eating breakfast on a bench at the train station an elderly lady and what appeared to be her middle aged daughter joined me at the bench for a discussion. Of course this was a somewhat unusual discussion considering I don't speak a word of Japanese and she didn't speak a word of english yet she managed to go on, without pause, for just over 10 minutes. At first when she did pause to breathe I would say something along the lines of 'I don't speak Japanese', in english of course, but as this soon proved useless I just resorted to the occasional 'hi' (yes) every so often. Then at one point the eager elderly lady pulled out a pamphlet and handed it over hoping that I could read and maybe understand the word of god through it. Of course this was only one of my possible conclusions as to her intentions, the other main possibility that crossed my mind was that they were both either covert spies or more likely expert con artists. As she handed me the pamphlet the younger lady walked around behind me and placed both her hand on my back, which could signify a relaxing shiatsu massage, an attempt to draw the sin out of me, or preparation to hit a fully paralyzing nerve to temporarily immobilize me while they purged me of all my worldly belongings. Luckily for me none of the above was true and I got off with several more hi's and other vague Japanese words which may or may not have been correct for the situation, whatever situation that was.

Tonight I had the opportunity to try on a traditional dragon slayer dress, or so described by our hosts and their ever helpful 30 minute video detailing the last ceremony of the dragons. Pretty cool actually.

p.s.

Just forgot to mention. Though we have both been thoroughly enjoying our anonymity, and for the most part the stares are to a minimum, mom had a flashback while we were at the volcano. When she used to travel Japanese people used to come up to her and take photos with her in front of sights as if they were best friends. Well sure enough a Korean woman got her husband and child to stand aside and take a photo with the white lady at the volcano. Which by the by is named Naka-dake. 

This example aside its kind of fantastic traveling in a place where your not the target audience and therefore mostly ignored. Apologies if this has been mentioned already.

Kyushu Island, Castles, Volcanoes and sheep innards!

We climbed that peak!

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Wow

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Down at the rim.

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Turret of a castle in Kumamoto

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To get a true idea of this, many many photos are required. Note the bomb shelter.

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Ironically its pointing away from the pavement. I guess I can no longer make fun our Japanese tourists in Canada for taking pictures of inanimate objects.

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Fields of ash

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A continuation of the rim we climbed.

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Well now, I may have mentioned this before but just to catch up we were last in Kobe and met up with some of moms friends who took us to a local and renowned pottery village. We saw lots of pottery. I did a sudoku. As eating is such a social thing, we did a lot of that as well.

Next we got the overnight ferry to Kyushu Island where we then took the bus to Aso and the above featured Mt. Aso and accompanying volcanoes. The authorities sporadically close the mountain due to wind and gas conditions, but as we were waiting for the bus our luck struck and it was re-opened on high alert. Once at the rim, we couldnt get to close so decided to go for a stroll down the boardwalk pictured above, then to the base of the upper mountain. As you may know, my mom has an incredible fascination for whatever may be around the next corner. Using this to my advantage I convinced her halfway up the mountain until we heard an alarm, but since we didn't speak any Japanese we decided to ignore the flow of cars leaving the parking lot and continue to the peak. Although we joked about possible excuses pending our arrest upon returning to base, the volcano has been active twice in the last thirty years killing several people each time.

From the peak we got some of the most stunning views of the crater and came to realize that in fact we were in a larger crater of its own encompassing several mountains and surrounding towns. Once we made it back down and to the rim they had reopened it for viewing so we got some good views of the innerds. One of the coolest things is looking at that water and steam and thinking 'thats from the center of the earth' (or at least close to it). Despite a wish for magma it is most likely better left in the earth.

Then today we took an early (for us) bus into kumamoto to check out a castle, then split up and mom investigated some pottery while I went for a run.

Along our tour de castle, we went into a reconstructued samuri house and had another interesting experience of Japanese hospitality. 

Having made our way into the house and realized it was surrounded by raked gravel I thought this would be the prime opportunity to make splash so (very jokingly) pushed mom towards it. From there on the sole security guard followed us around in an impressively creepy fashion, showing up outside each window as we walked by. The second thing was after leaving our shoes at the door, mine with the laces left as they fell, we returned to find both our shoes straightened with the laces tucked in. Who know you could find a whole country filled with obsessive compulsive people? I am truly impressed.

Tonight was another desperate search for a restaurant that had both plastic depictions in the window (necessary for pointing and nodding) and doesn't represent a Japanese Denny's. We ended up with a delish korean meal cooked at the table that was unfortunately topped with a chicken resembling meat turning out to be sheep's stomach. Know how people stick gum on the bottom of desks and chairs? Imagine boiling that.

Tomorrow...more volcanoes!

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p.s. kudos to mom for keeping up on the mountain. Once again proving you dictate how you age.

Koyosan and Kobe beef!

Old giant cemetary

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One of Japans many contradictions. This is in the corporate area of the 800 year old cemetary.

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Sitting here with a gorgeous view of downtown Kobe skyline enjoying a particularly bad Japanese beer thinking about how fantastic it can be to be over 10,000 km from anywhere familiar. Today we went from Koyosan, or Mt. Koyo to Kobe and spent most of the day either in transit or attempting to find the hostel.

Our victory in finally finding the hostel was eventually rewarded with several ekonimayike and brews, eventually leaving a cumulative tab  equivalent to a weeks grocery shopping in Canada. Either was, lesson learned and experienced. 

Tomorrow we are of to see moms friends, then an overnight ferry to Beppu on Kyushu Island. There should be excessive amounts of pottery and volcanoes. Cool pictures to come.

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Despite Japan having excessive prices due to their incredibly inefficient delivery system (ironically it is intentional so everyone has a job, trading low unemployment rate for high prices, keeps a happy economy) it somehow has incredibly cheap alcohol. Beer is par, but wine is from $5 bottle and hard alcohol is about 2/3 the price with a bottle of decent blended scotch going for $10+. Primo.

The near vertical tram up from the railway to the village

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Thought BC had old growth?

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Of all the photos that dont do justice, this is the biggest. This thing is massive, it has 5 golden Buddha's inside. That doorway is about 3-4 times my height.

Well after one or two to many days in Kyoto we decided to burn rubber for the mountains. Our last day based in Kyoto we headed out of town to a beautifully set onsen or hot springs for an afternoon of steaming relaxation. On the return we did a side trip to visit my soon to be school, which actually turns out to be huge and filled with mostly Japanese students, not the small private school I had heard it was. 

Then after a run and a leisurely morning we jumped on the train to Mt. Koya and the neighboring town Koyosan. The train dropped us at the base for the near vertical train pictured above that felt more like an elevator than cable car. Then we spent the last few hours squeezed under one umbrella touring the cities historic temples and shrines. 

I've figure it out. Should the behemoth of a school I am about to attend just happen to disintegrate in worldly act of god, then Im going to put plan B into effect. 

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Plan B is activated upon moms departure and completes somewhere in the next 5-25 years. It starts with an overnight ferry to China, from where I will follow the silk road hitchhiking and peddling my service as a man servant or maybe fan holder.

When I make it as far as India I will pay Steven a visit and have him show me the ways. Then onto France to meet Andy and experience some fine French Cuisine. Then up to Sweden to couch surf with Robin for a bit, and finally, providing no one else establishes themselves abroad I'll head down to the Mediterranean to deck scrub my way across the Atlantic to the Caribbean where I will work the boats until I hit retirement age, or decide there's more to life. Unlikely.

Makes you appreciate not being a monk. Shoveling snow suddenly seems easy.

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Fushimi Inari temple of 40,000 Tora's. The big orange is a Tora.

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Foxes keeping guard


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'Bridge to Heaven'... they didnt let us through.

Well overall a mellow couple days. Yesterday mom went to visit an old friend and see some wild pottery and kimono exhibits. Unfortunately for me, I had to go running, sure missed out on that pottery. So I did a long run along a big Kyoto valley but decided it was time to double back when red signs depicting angry cobra's started to line the path. We later met up, but I was short on energy and the whole need to be fed every 30-40 minutes becomes waring. 

With high ambitions we set off for the Fushimi Inari temple of 40,000 Tora's and due to a national festival were greeted with a spectacular street of vendors. Though we limited ourselves to sushi and dried persimmons some were marketing salted snakes. Imagine a snake, all curled up. Now imagine it salted, dead in a bag, but still all curled up and intact, less a flattened head. Tasty.

We then planned a day trip to the opposing coast, but turned out to be $200 round trip, so saved that for another day. Then in the true Gillespie, and possibly backpacker stle we headed to the pub. Nothing polishes off a day like giant bottles of brew and anonymous unnamed delicacies while receiving a Japanese lesson from the cook. 

After an english menu and several rounds we found ourselves back at the hostel where an interesting thing happened.

Mom has some friends, Pat and Dave Prescott who she used to be good friends with but has lost contact with in the previous years. Last she heard they were in Perth then Brunei, but had no way of contacting them. So tonight when we came back I was having a read and she decided to head into the common area where she struck up a conversation with a kiwi (New Zealander) and found out the woman worked in Brunei. Mom-"I've been to NZ, and got some friends from there who used to live in Dunedin, then moved to Perth and then took work at a university in Brunei" Random kiwi-"Oh you must be talking about the Prescott's". Weird. Anyways so this lady who my mom completely randomly started a conversation with just happens to work closely with a family Jan hasn't talked to in 10-15 years. Small world.

So next time your somewhere and you think, what the hell I'll never be here again my reputation doesn't matter. Think again.

Eel sandwiches with green tea ice cream for dinner!

The ever gorgeous bamboo forests of Kyoto

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Think crouching tiger hidden dragon.

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Some movie stars villa, gorgeousness

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A Pagoda of mammoth proportions, and my lame attempt and artistic-ness. 

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Sweeping roof

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Lets ignore the phallic symbol

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The Golden Temple and most likely one of the top most photographed spots in Japan. For a reason.

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The definition of Zen Buddhism

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Doorway!

Well today was conquer Kyoto epic day. Between meals, snacks and pre-meals, plus coffee breaks and deserts we managed to squeeze in what seemed like innumerable temples and shrines. The pictures sort of tell themselves, yet don't even come close. We bought a bus pass and polished off the north and west of Kyoto with hopes of hitting up the SE tomorrow after a long run. 

You know if you were to put our situation into a sentence or headline it might sound kind of weird. 21 year old travels Japan with 60 year old mother. But actually its enlightening. Enlightening in the sense that she has money and I do not. No really, I think were both doing things we wouldn't normally on a trip such as this. For me, its largely based in not living off pb sandwiches, for her its taking the time to sit and enjoy. Either way we know how to eat well, drink even better and compensate for each others losses. I can't read/speak Japanese, she can. She can't hear I can. It makes for an interesting combination really, I translate silence to Japanese... she translates Japanese to English. I show her one pot dishes for dinner, she shows me that we can afford the ingredients. She carefully reads the Japanese lettering on signs, sounding out each syllable and character... I read the english below it. "Pa...go....da..." "Ya think?" (said while standing in front of a giant pagoda).