they do exist!

Gotta love it. Translated cost: $5.

[Roughly translated, that yellow sheet says 'Wine, World No. 1 Brand, Fresh & Fruity}

i love road trip.

We were hyped. Four people, one small kei car, and some expendable income. We started off well enough, anticipating that beyond Shimane’s borders, Kobe and Osaka held some excitement for us, the inaka folk who lived predominantly next to rice paddies and vending machines.

[Roger, my Australian neighbor, in classic Roger Pose. Chris is in the background]

Can’t honestly say that we did all that much in the city. We ate, shopped, looked at one shrine in Kyoto, got lost a lot, rode a hell of a lot of trains (they should have train point cards), hit up a few bars, and spent a lot of time wandering the streets looking for a love hotel with vacancies. It was a great trip overall, I’m sure it’ll be happening again...though maybe not in my kei car anytime
soon. She was a trooper for that trip, but it might be wise to give her some time to recover.

It was good to meet up with the visiting Guamanians (Mike, Guada, hope you had a good rest of the trip) and to meet one local who I didn’t even know I knew, a relic from the senior-year, underage Gameworks outings.

The Love Hotels were the best part, aside from the difficulty of trying to sneak more than two people in (sorry, I don’t know the word for four-some in Japanese) and the surprising lack of anonymity in a would be anonymous-pastime. Unfortunately we weren’t lucky enough to hit up the themed rooms (clam-bed anyone?), but our accommodations were still really cool. Big beds, karaoke, a huge red-lit bath and shower, and free bad (very, very bad) porn. What more can you want?

After three days of living it up in the city, though, we were eager to head back to Shimane. Turns out the grass isn’t always greener on the other side and there is something to good ol’ country living.