April 1998 - email7
Subject: Fam time contd. D9  4/12

        Sunshine City in Ikebukuro. The families first true experience in the Tokyo area. They liked it a lot. One of the main things that stood out to them was the size of the cell phones. Can you say TINY? I mean, CAN YOU SAY tiny? That's better. The cell phones are so so so soo small here; it really is incredible.

        This was the families first night... in the art of KARAOKE! Tree though it was a wonderful thing and invisioned it as a great place for birthday parties and various other gatherings. I liked the idea. Y? She was refering to it as something to be done.... in the states. I like that idea. I like the idea of Karaoke in the states. Not Karaoke BARS - i don't like that set-up. The small room set-up so friends can have fun together and stuff.

        Anyway, it was a fun day. THANKS AGAIN KAZI MAN!!! You are the BOMMMMBBBBB!!!!!We all went out after Karaoke and rustled up some cattle for the next day. hehe. hasta la pasta dude.

D10  4/13

        ??? I honestly don't remeber what we did. Opps.

D11  4/14

        This is the story of "Evynne and the Train." The train was packed! We literally moved with the crowd on the train, but there was a perk -- the windows were open. Usually the aren't. Evynne had a tough time of it and began to panic. She couldn't stop her breathing quickly. My mom had to comfort her a little so she would calm down. She made it through and really liked the space on the next train. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, luckiness.

        We arrived in Kyoto, checked in and began the sight seeing thing. First stop was the IMPERIAL PALACE. It was cool, but it was a depressing tour because WE COULDN'T HEAR THE GIUDE!!! She was an older Japanese woman. To those of you who know the Japanese you know that they are a generally quite ppl. As they get older they don't speak any louder, usually quieter - as I've experienced while here in JPN. SO, we had an older Japanese woman speaking to about 50 ppl in English, without a megaphone. A small group of ppl could here her, the parts I heard were pretty cool. Oh well.

        Next we went to a Nijo Castle. How can I explain this place..... IT ROCKED!!! Mark and I were the only 2 that went in and browsed, luck us. Inside on of the buildings I saw for the first time NIGHTENGALE FLOORS!!! AWESOME!!!!! While walking on them squeaks would echo around you. If you walked quietly, the same thing happened. These were put in to warn of intruders and also to make the shogun/samurai/etc aware of your presence. AWESOME!!!! They were truly truly truly cool! I liked lots!!!!

        It was getting late so we went back to the hotel and then went out for some food in the Station. The station was absolutely beautiful. Gary S. would have feinted. That's Big Gary in case you don't recognize the last initial. Sleeeeep. Yes Meghan fell asleep at a table as everyone was leaving. We were at getting into the elevator when someone notced Meg wasn't there. She had been woken up and then walked over to another table, sat down, then fell asleep. Danger Will Robinson! Danger! We had a good laugh, then went and did the same thing. Yes we fell asleep at tables in the food court. Free rooms! Haha! What lucky ppl we were. oyasuminasai.

D11  4/15

        Kyoto again. Bus, taxi, which to take... the bus, with an all day pass. Well, as you might expect we did the tourist thing all over Kyoto. Temple, after temple, after toilet, after toilet. Who caused that to happen? Why those great bottling companies! Thanks guys and gals! We walked all over and took the bus all over as well. It was a pretty cool day.

        In the eve we went to Gion. The remaining few Geisha that are around today still work there. Today there are very very few Geisha. In the early 1900's there were more that 400 that worked in Gion, today there are less than 60. Probably less than that. Thresa was happy to catch a woman, whom we thought to have been a Geisha, but after speaking to ppl about my experience it seems that she was only an apprentice. Still, a very cool sight.

        We were also graced with some cool cool music. Three girls were jammin on the street and about 20-30 ppl were gathered at some points during the evening. It was cool to hear LIVE music again. Enough of this techno beat, rock, ballad sutff on CD's or tapes. I want to hear it live. And I did. hehe. Dinner was splendid this evening. We went to a fairly traditional restaurant and had to grind up sesame for the meal. Another first to add to the list. How long is that sucker now? must have at least three things on it... : )

        Girl chat. Yes all the girls, incl. myself, had a nice fun time laughing at each other and we gossiped awhile about all the crazy men in our lives. Then we ate chokoreto. I didn't spell that wrong. chocolate. After that we all went out and got some ice cream and painted our nails. SERIOUSLY we did......n't.  ok so it was fun to type all that stuff, but we really did have a girls night. It was just a bunch of crazy chit chattin... especially about Tree's nylons.  Sorry Tree, had to write about it. : )

D12  4/16

        Hiroshima. I am happy. I am soo happy that I got to go here. This was my reason for leaving the Tokyo area. I wanted to go the Peace Park and now I can say that I have. It was... wow. I felt so strange. It wasn't a "Bash the US cause they did this to us." place. It was against the usage of any and every nuclear weapon on the planet. Everyone needs to see this stuff so they won't want to see it happen to them, family, friends, enemies, etc. It shouldn't happen ever again, if it does... I'll be very very scared to see what happens. I'll be very sacred to even hear about it.... A moment of silence to all those who cried out for the most simplistic thing on the planet.... water. ...................................

           ...........................................        .................................................. thank you
- posted by garyploski @ 4/12/1998 07:07:00 PM