Today I will start posting my pictures, videos, and journal that I kept while traveling in Japan from July 18 - July 31. The journal entries will be backdated to the day they were written. I’d like to thank several people who made my trip amazing:
Raynor - Dude, great college roommates make great travel companions. It definitely took both of us to navigate from Tokyo to Tokushima :). Let’s go on some more trips in the future. I also still have a ton of stuff to show you in CA :).
Pete - Thanks for hosting us man. I’m really glad you’re still loving Japan, but you know we all want you to come back to the US.
Angelica and Kenzo - Thanks for hosting us as well :). Now I really want to see all the other temples in Kyoto we missed by using Angelica’s random-walk navigation method. And when you guys join Google in Tokyo I’ll have to come visit! Or if you want to start some sweet robotics startup…
Sara - Thanks for showing us around Kichijoji. I really loved Inokashira park.
Xan - Hanging out in LA beforehand was sweet! Come back anytime!
As for Japan itself, I didn’t really know what to expect. I mean, I’ve watched some anime and hung out with some people who like Japan a lot, but I personally didn’t have a strong opinion. However, after going there I realize that it’s definitely one of the nicest places I’ve ever been. The people I met were, on average, the most polite and genuinely curious people I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. I appreciate the food a lot more now as well (yay for ramen, yakitori, and sushi) so that should make Lynn happy, now that I’m over my temporary Japan satiation :).
As a side note, having my Kindle saved my life several times over with emails to hotels and friends and quick maps / websites for directions. Hooray for free 3G worldwide. And it definitely kept me entertained - I read a lot of books :). It turns out it’s way too slow to write your journal on the thing, but it’s useful for everything else. That’s why the first half of my entries are way shorter than the last half.
Without further ado, here’s the content you’ve all been waiting for:
Sadly, Picasa didn’t like a few of my videos since they were too epic. So if you really want to see Pete dance or Raynor and I do our best karoake rendition of “Somewhere I Belong”, here you go.