Japan

Hi all,
First off, new feature! Our trip map which can be seen over there --->
We hope to add new thumbtacks periodically. There are a couple on there now from Bali when I was first playing around and another from Tokyo.
Is it simply too annoying? Its an idea I was playing with and I got up too early this morning and theres free internet here so there it is. Let me know if anyone has problems seeing it, or if I should just get rid of it.
Moving on, weve just spent the last 2 weeks in Japan and were now spending the last 5 days here in Tokyo before we head out to China.

We love Japan
The first thing Gay did when we got off the plane was to use the airport toilet. After a good 10 minutes, she came out of the bathroom beaming.
"dude, the toilets are so cool!"
"what?"
"heated seats and you can push buttons that make funny noises to cover up your own farting noises."
"wow"
we knew we were going to be in for a wild ride after that experience. we have since experienced many new and exciting inventions in the bathroom sciences but in addition to that weve seen some great sites and had an overall fantastic time. The best thing we did was bought ourselves Japan Rail Passes which lets you use Japans incredibly extensive railway system to go anywhere in the country. The best part about it is that we got to ride the famous bullet trains, or shinkanzen.
Unfortunatly we didnt have enough time on our passes to see everything we wanted to but I think we got a great variation of what the country has to offer.

Onsen
Japan is a very clean country. The trains are clean, the streets are clean, the public bathrooms are even clean. So it's no surprise that people take bathing very seriously. This combined with the fact that Japan is a very geo-thermally active country makes for a love of what they call the Onsen. Onsen is basically a hot bath (sometimes a very very hot bath) powered by geo-thermal natural forces. There are all kinds of Onsen: public, private, indoor, outdoor, with sand treatments, with mud treatments, etc.. The thing they all have in common is that you must be naked and as such there are strict rules and protocol. Gay and I have had a total of 4 onsen experiences and the scariest ones by far are the public onsen. Stripping down and getting into a room with about a dozen naked Japanese dudes, having only a faint idea of the governing rules, and not an english speaker in sight is something that gets you right out of your comfort zone to say the least. After getting over all of the nervousness, onsen can be a very relaxing and theraputic experience.

Culinary Courage
this trip is not only about seeing and doing new things but weve made a determined effort to eat as many new and authentic foods as possible. With Gays culinary background and my penchant for eating weve gotten through a number of amazing meals and some pretty scary ones. Now eating our way through Asia sounds a lot easier than it actually is. We've seen the travel shows, our favorite being the Anthony Bourdain one where all he does is drink and smoke cigarettes. He casually rolls into a resturant and suddenly the most amazing or scary dish appears in front of him, he eats the dish has one of those mouth-gasms that only chefs like him can pull off, he takes a sip of his beer and in the next shot he's partying with the locals and having the time of his life. The part they sometimes leave out is that his travel companion who not only speaks the local language, but knows all the best places, is in the backghround making everything happen. Gay and I dont have a friend like that, although we once tried unsuccesfully to bribe a tuk-tuk driver in Thailand to come have lunch with us so he can explain the menu and order us some vegetarian food. Regardless, the truth of what happens is that it's really hard to find english on menus in some places weve been. In addition, the best food, especially in Thailand is not even in resturants, it's on the street vendors who rarely know English. Once in Thailand, Gay and I went to an open air market and we were determined to get our dinner from a vendor. We purused the line and tried to figure out what each of them were selling. As I was looking in on one vendor I happen to raise my head and catch the gaze of the owner/cook. He cocked his head to me, saying non-verbally, "you want somme of this?" I nodded back then I turned to Gay and said "whatever this guy is cooking, were having it for dinner." Somehow, through the cooks broken english, my deft pointing and hand waving and gays cheer of "no meat! no meat!" we ended up with a nice glass noodle salad and seafood soup combination.
Since then we have gotten a lot braver. We have ducked into some ramen shops here in Japan and made ended up getting some truly fantastic meals. Staying meatless on the other hand is a difficult chore. Gay has been pretty steadfast but I've broken down and had some meats of known and unknown origins.

Well try and get some pictures up soon..we got some good ones here in Japan..next stop is China.

Bye for now,
Jon