temples temples temples... kyoto is full of them. kate and i climbed mt. hiei the other day, its 800m or so. sitting on top is a massive shrine/temple complex that is a world heritage site. it was originally built in 964 or something, then burned down, then rebuilt. i rang a very large bell. one of the shrines here is were monks officially become monks. this was also where the japanese form of buddism started. buddist disneyland, as kate called it.
kate participates in an english speaking group thingy, which, really is just people sitting around a dinner table speaking english (or attempting). it was really fun, ate japanese curry and talked about random things.
im more or less over seeing temples, because thats most of what i've done so far. getting around kyoto is really easy, and no japanese skills are needed. the city is more or less a grid with mountains all around to orient yourself in the orient easily. theres lots of good food, and biking on cheap bikes is simple.
most of japanese foods is not sushi, but they do eat a lot of fish. we did go to a conveyor belt sushi place last night and had amazing cuts of fish, many of which i'd never seen. we went to a different japanese restuarant the other day where kate knows the chef. he made us a plate of sashimi to start which had squid that melted in your mouth. animal fat is butter goodness
Monday, October 12, 2009
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
dog poo vs. customs
no matter how much you train a drug dog, a dog loves the smell of dog poo.
while in seattle for 36 hours, i managed to step on some dog poo prior to flying to japan. japan has harsh drug laws. in customs at kansai airport in osaka, while waiting for your checked bags, there is a repeated message in english that says "drugs are not allowed into the country. we have dog detectors for smelling drugs" or something close to that. (it sorta sounds like they say dog addicts...). on my way through, a drug dog took a sniff of my shoe and must have given the "that mans got drugs in his baggage" sign or some shit because at quarintine they asked to search my bags. first, they pulled out some laminated pieces of paper with pictures of a variety of drugs and asked if i had any of them. as opposed to the normal quarrantine search, where they empty your bags at the customs desk in the open, friendlyish environment that is customs at any airport, they took me to a room that was down a long hallway across from a bunch of sinks. this room was occupied with sterile stainless steel benches, curtains, and a few other customs officers wearing white gloves. they spoke english, slighly.
after emptying my pockets completely and removing my shoes, the customs officer frisked me with no shame. they then emptied my bags and found sand and lint in the pockets, which they got excited about and put the "samples" onto a tray. they asked me what it was, and i told them it was probably sand because it looked mostly like sand. they also found a old gum wrapper with a brown stain on it. brown is, as i saw from the pictures of heroin, a common color for heroin. they asked me what it was, i told them it looked like a coffee stain (to which, after translating, laughed and tossed it aside). they then found an empty plastic bag that had white powder in it. i could not for the life of me remember what this bag previously contained (i haven't cleaned my backpack out in a while). they always asked to search and open new things, which is very polite, but in all reality probably just a ploy to see how i react because you don't have any rights in customs. you are in national purgatory. they did like my gameboy color though.
in came another few officers with white gloves, vials of liquids, more laminated paper and some trays. a female officer took one of the laminated pages, which had multiple colors and the opposite of english, and told me in a very happy and cheery voice (very counter to the situation) that if the test on the sand turned either of the colors on the page that the substance was marijuana. nothing happened because, well, it very clearly was not marijuana. (keep in mind, these tests take some time and, just like when cops drive behind you on the highway, even if you know you're innocent you still feel guiltier than shit). the second test was on the unknown white substance. the officer showed me a larger laminated page with about 50 colors laid out in a tree diagram, saying that if it turns any of these colors the substance is illegal. i then realized what the bag had held. i've had many prescriptions for painkillers throughout my life thanks to surgeries, injuries, etc... this bag had previously held some vicodin. the particular vidodin was 500mg acetometaphine and 5mg hydrocodone. hydrocodone is an opiate, a synthetic opium-like substance, or, much closer in chemical structure to heroin without being heroin than just about any other unknown white substance could be. i'm already a cracker, but im pretty sure i was as white as the powder they were checking. luckily it came up false. either they don't check for hydrocodone, or it was in a small enough quantity given that hydrocodone is at most 1% of the powder, but probably less due to inactive fillers used on pills.
while packing up my belongings, one of the officers asked if i had a dog at home, i said yes, and he laughed. they then told me to enjoy my stay in japan.
while in seattle for 36 hours, i managed to step on some dog poo prior to flying to japan. japan has harsh drug laws. in customs at kansai airport in osaka, while waiting for your checked bags, there is a repeated message in english that says "drugs are not allowed into the country. we have dog detectors for smelling drugs" or something close to that. (it sorta sounds like they say dog addicts...). on my way through, a drug dog took a sniff of my shoe and must have given the "that mans got drugs in his baggage" sign or some shit because at quarintine they asked to search my bags. first, they pulled out some laminated pieces of paper with pictures of a variety of drugs and asked if i had any of them. as opposed to the normal quarrantine search, where they empty your bags at the customs desk in the open, friendlyish environment that is customs at any airport, they took me to a room that was down a long hallway across from a bunch of sinks. this room was occupied with sterile stainless steel benches, curtains, and a few other customs officers wearing white gloves. they spoke english, slighly.
after emptying my pockets completely and removing my shoes, the customs officer frisked me with no shame. they then emptied my bags and found sand and lint in the pockets, which they got excited about and put the "samples" onto a tray. they asked me what it was, and i told them it was probably sand because it looked mostly like sand. they also found a old gum wrapper with a brown stain on it. brown is, as i saw from the pictures of heroin, a common color for heroin. they asked me what it was, i told them it looked like a coffee stain (to which, after translating, laughed and tossed it aside). they then found an empty plastic bag that had white powder in it. i could not for the life of me remember what this bag previously contained (i haven't cleaned my backpack out in a while). they always asked to search and open new things, which is very polite, but in all reality probably just a ploy to see how i react because you don't have any rights in customs. you are in national purgatory. they did like my gameboy color though.
in came another few officers with white gloves, vials of liquids, more laminated paper and some trays. a female officer took one of the laminated pages, which had multiple colors and the opposite of english, and told me in a very happy and cheery voice (very counter to the situation) that if the test on the sand turned either of the colors on the page that the substance was marijuana. nothing happened because, well, it very clearly was not marijuana. (keep in mind, these tests take some time and, just like when cops drive behind you on the highway, even if you know you're innocent you still feel guiltier than shit). the second test was on the unknown white substance. the officer showed me a larger laminated page with about 50 colors laid out in a tree diagram, saying that if it turns any of these colors the substance is illegal. i then realized what the bag had held. i've had many prescriptions for painkillers throughout my life thanks to surgeries, injuries, etc... this bag had previously held some vicodin. the particular vidodin was 500mg acetometaphine and 5mg hydrocodone. hydrocodone is an opiate, a synthetic opium-like substance, or, much closer in chemical structure to heroin without being heroin than just about any other unknown white substance could be. i'm already a cracker, but im pretty sure i was as white as the powder they were checking. luckily it came up false. either they don't check for hydrocodone, or it was in a small enough quantity given that hydrocodone is at most 1% of the powder, but probably less due to inactive fillers used on pills.
while packing up my belongings, one of the officers asked if i had a dog at home, i said yes, and he laughed. they then told me to enjoy my stay in japan.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
AHAHAHA
blar, ive been slacking on putting words online for people to read. recap of the last few weeks: went to melbourne and stayed with the family of a friend of a friend who i did not know and they showed me around and gave me a key to their house, wandered seattle for a few days and dranks beers with people, flew to london but got bumped in chicago in exchange for $600 but as a result our bags took an extra 2 days to show up, wandered london saw things like the stolen parethenon and the war bunker thing where winston churchill played conductor and some plays and ate food and kew gardens and etc, left london via bus and saw the queens uselessly large castle and stonehenge which was amazing except for the highway that is immediately next to it, ended up in bath for a few days staying at a hotel on the side of a cliffish thing, wandered around there (bath is beautiful), rented a car and drove north staying in ambelside in the lake district which is really really beautiful and would be fun to hike around in then drove further north stopping at another circle of rocks that is even older than stonehenge but ended up in stirling in scotland and along the way became proficient with manual transmissions and small tight winding roads while driving on the left side, in stirling we met up with some of my moms friends who showed us around including foggy waterfalls and clear skies through glencoe and parts of the highlands and a bit of the coast (very very beautiful) and have now ended up in edinburgh. obviously i did not leave out any details what so ever.
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