Eyal's Travels

I`ve been back in Japan for about two weeks and I`ve been getting some worried messages about all the disasters going on over here. The typhoon did hit Osaka, where I`m currently staying but all it did was cancel my plans to go surfing in Shikoku that weekend. The earthquake that hit a few days ago was far away from Osaka so I felt a slight tremor. Also, the nuclear contamination that resulted from that earthquake is nowhere near me. So just in case you were worried, I`m fine.

I had actually been planning on updating this blog more regularly when I was in China but it was banned from use by the Chinese government. I do have 2 gigabytes worth of pictures and movies from the trip so it will take a while to upload all of them.

Recently I`ve been decompressing in Osaka and hanging out with old friends. I`ll be back in Miami on July 28th!

Eyal

So it's been a few weeks since I last updated. I've been traveling in Awaji, Kyushu, Yakushima and Hiroshima areas and couldn't find the time to upload all the pictures and videos then write a blog. Instead, I'll hold off on the multimedia for now and just put it up later when I have time.

At the moment, I am in Hong Kong. Hong Kong used to be a practically barren island before the British gained the territory from their victory in the First Opium War with China. It remained a British territory until 1997 when it was returned to China. In order to avoid total chaos, the Chinese government promised that the way of life in Hong Kong would not change for 50 years in order to allow for a smooth transition. This means the money, the visas, the freedoms, and of course the culture here are very different from mainland China.

Hong Kong is very modern and densely packed with skycrapers but has some of the most beautiful vistas in the world. It's status as a financial center for East Asia means that the people, the languages, the cultures, and of course the food are all incredibly diverse.

So far I've visited the Dr. Sun Yatsen (The founder of the Nationalist party) museum, Kowloon, the Hong Kong museum of art, and various shopping streets.

Tommorow I'll be visiting the famous Victoria peak where I'm sure to get plenty of great pictures of the city. I'll also be going to the world's longest escalator (800 meters long)!

That's all for now, I hope everyone is doing well back home!

Eyal

I spent the past week in the Kansai region of Japan. This includes Osaka, Hyogo, Kyoto, and Wakayama among other prefectures in the Western part of the country. Many people compare East and West in Japan to North and South in the United States. The dialects of Japanese are different and people in the West are said to be more outgoing and friendly.



These are some of my friends from study abroad two years ago. We got together on Wednesday to play a 3 hour long game of Ultimate Frisbee!

I also had the pleasure of meeting up with Russ, a good friend from Florida who now lives and works in Osaka.



That's him with his girlfriend Yoko (who is also a friend of mine). Russ has been kind enough to let me use his apartment while I'm in the area. In fact he even invited me to come along with him and his students (he teaches English) to Universal Studios Japan...



USJ is pretty similar to the Orlando version except everything is in Japanese. Also, there is a roller coaster called Hollywood Dream in which you can select music to play while you are on the ride. They also have interesting parades...



This is a good time to point out an interesting facet of Japanese Culture. Many people see a contrast between Old and New or East and West in Japan. In reality, things aren't that simple. Japan has historically been very good at taking new or foreign things and making them Japanese. This is very much the case with USJ.

Another good example would be the sphagetti restaurant I went to on Saturday with my friends Eriko and Natalie.



Sphagetti is a typical Italian dish but this Japanese restaurant served it in a Japanese style.



The dark green is seaweed and the pink is tarako (fish eggs). These two very Japanese ingredients were combined with sphagetti to make something new (and tasty)!

Earlier that day, I had met up with Natalie in Kobe. My friends Yuki and Nanae were with us too, but I know they prefer not to have any pictures of them posted on the internet. Kobe is about a 30 minute train ride outside of Osaka. It used to be one of the few ports were foreigners were allowed to trade and thus its atmosphere is very similar to Yokohama.



It just so happens that Kobe was having an international culture festival that day!









Kobe is famous for it's Samba and Jazz clubs and has one of the most diverse populations in Japan. Of course, that made for a very interesting festival.



This video is sideways, but it shows a Turkish ice cream stand we ate at in the festival. If you notice, the ice cream is much more sticky than normal American ice cream. However it tastes very good. I highly recommend it if you ever have the chance.

Another pleasant surprise was a dance competition. Here is a short video...



This dance team is made up of adults, teenagers, and children. It is common for neighborhoods and families to get together in order to participate in festivals. This has the very positive effect of strengthening community ties.

Of course, as in almost any large Japanese festival, the streets were crowded.



I finished off the weekend meeting up with Russ and Yoko again. This time, we were joined by Simon, Taisei, Mio, Go, and Mai. I was good friends with Go and Simon at UF and had the pleasure of meeting the others for the first time. We started off with Karaoke and then went to a nearby Ushinabe restaurant.



Ushinabe is a sort of stir-fry in which meat and vegetables are cooked in their own juices. This means that you don't really use any extra oils or fats, which makes for a very healthy, tasty meal. Of course, it was all-you-can-eat so we had to be sure we didn't get too excited and make a mess...







We ended the night with a nice walk to Osaka castle. This is the old castle of Hideyoshi Toyotomi, the military dictator that united Japan after centuries of civil war.



Simon and I decided to see if the castle walls were really good enough to keep out invaders...



Of course, we didn't climb up all the way.

That's all I've got to say for now. Be sure to e-mail me any news from the States!

Hello Everyone,

I am going to be updating this blog on a semi-regular basis in order to share with you what I am doing on my trip. At the moment, I am at a friend's apartment in Osaka Japan.

What have I done so far?
I arrived in Tokyo on May 4th.



Tokyo is a very large and densely populated city. Some of the places I went to over the next few days include...

Yasukuni Shrine:




(A momunment to the horses that died for the Japanese imperial efforts in Asia.)

Yasukuni is a controversial Shinto Shrine that pays tribute to many Japamese soldiers who fought in WWII, including some class A war criminals. The place has a very militarist, nationalistic feel which is very atypical of most of Japan. Over the past few decades there have been various controversies over the shrine, but I won't go into detail here.

I also visited the world's busiest intersection in Shibuya:



The rest of my time in Tokyo was spent meeting with friends old and new:





On a side trip from Tokyo I went to Yokohama Bay and China Town. This is the famous place were Admiral Perry landed on his mission to "open Japan". As you can imagine, the city is more Western than other Japanese cities with many open spaces and wide roads...





The Yokohama Chukagai (Chinatown) is a great place to walk around and sample different foods. I found a store that supposedly made the best nikuman in the world. Nikuman is a steamed meat dumpling. Naturally I had to try it...







Another side trip I took was to Kamakura. Kamakura was the capital of Japan between 1192 and 1333. It is less urban than Tokyo and was not as badly damaged in the end of WWII. Kamakura is known for being a very traditional place, and probably has the highest concentration of genuine Shinto followers.





I visited the famous giant Buddha and even got to go inside!





There was also a peony garden open for display with some very beautiful flowers.







The biggest treat of the day was stumbling upon a traditional Shinto wedding, here are some pictures and a short movie clip.







On my way back to the train I picked up a very Indiana Jones like hat for about 10 bucks. I always wanted a hat like this, though I'm not sure when I'll wear it...



Well, That's all for now. I'll do my best to keep updating regularly.

Eyal