FOUND! More Marine Catchers!

I found some more marine catchers this time at an omiyage shop in Nagasaki-ken. All had iseebi, a type of Japanese lobster, in them just like the one in Osaka.

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Originally uploaded by sleepytako.

A 100cm tall ¥4700 parfait

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Originally uploaded by sleepytako.

I saw this $47 100cm tall parfait for sale at a cafe in Nagasaki's main shopping street. Its called ワールドターワ (World Tower)

Boss Commericals

Japan Probe posted a clip of the most recent Tommy Lee Jones Boss Coffee ad here in Japan. The whole series has been great as it inserts him into various tedious jobs such as a karaoke bar waiter. This most recent one is even better as Tommy plays a space alien working in a host bar. (A bar where girls pay to talk to cute guys while they eat and drink.) Check out the video here.

Kii Peninsula Road Trip / 紀伊半島運転旅行

IMG 9603 Sakinoyu

Originally uploaded by sleepytako.

I rented a car. Drove 700km in 29 hours. It was great! I took a route through Osaka to Shirahama for the first day. That night I couldn’t find any hotel, business, love or otherwise so I slept in my car across the street from a konbini. That morning I went to Saki no yu (崎の湯) a great rotenbro (open air bath) that is built into some tide-pools. Amazing. Going at 8 am made the experience better. The cold air and the hot mineral laden water was better than coffee. The view was great. The whole town was very old and was atypical of the aging Japanese resort town archetype with once vibrant paints faded by the sun and half covered by overgrowth plus an ample amount of rust.

Next I tried to go to Hongu onsen (本宮温泉) up in the mountans. This location is famous for Kawayu (川湯) a river that during the summer you can dig your own bath out of the river bank, and during the winter the city digs out the worlds largest rotenbro. Sadly they were in the process of digging out that rotenbro when I got there, so I drove a little north to another onsen Tsuboyu (つぼ湯). It was a great sulfur rich spring. They had a private bath in the river that the spring fed into but it was booked so I took a bath in the public sento.


Kawayu


Tsuboyu

After that I tried to drive to the famous Ise Shrine, while I made it there fine and drove through some beautiful countryside to get there the shrine was closing just as I walked up to the entrance way.

After a pitch black mildly tiring drive down a crowded highway I was able to get on the free way and shoot back to Sanda.

Here’s the link to the few photos I took on this trip, my camera broke during the trip. Today, however, I took it to the Canon Service Center in Osaka who determined that it was the lens that was broken and they will fix it for free, along with they they cleaned the camera for free. Thank you Canon!

US Beef Advertisement

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Originally uploaded by sleepytako.

The US beef lobby is busting out a large campaign here in Japan. Since the BSE related ban on US beef Australian producers have moved in big time. Weather or not the US producers can regain their market dominance is questionable. This ad in the Hankyu train is one example.

Sanda's Fire Department

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Originally uploaded by sleepytako.

In towntown Sanda these are used instead of fire trucks, which makes sense given how small some of the streets are in this part of the town.

My Virtual Soccer Playing Doppelganger

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Originally uploaded by sleepytako.

Kim and Niyan made me into a soccer player for their team--Nishinomiya Reds--on Winning eleven. It looks pretty close doesn’t it.

Japanese Household Item Domino Race

Two teams headed by female celebrities had to run through a neighborhood to collect as much junk as they could and then build a giant domino race. Getting the stuff was great, they found guitars, porno videos, giant stuffed animals, huge beds, bowling balls--one of the women found a book of photos of her from long ago. After accumulating all this they built up a giant domino race. The winner is the team who’s race goes the farthest. Sorry about the quality, recorded this on my cellphone.

Part 1



Part 2