02/26/2010 In Japan

The night of Makoto’s wedding ended with Robby, Yoshi and I returning to Makoto’s apartment with bags full of snacks and beer. Yes, we ate more. Yoshi was really funny in the convenience store because someone would pick something to eat or drink and he would say, “good, what else?” We ended up with two six packs of beer, wasabi potato chips and some other snack I can’t remember right now. Once we got into Makoto’s place, we drank and played Mario until Robby and I were falling asleep and Yoshi’s wife came to get him.

Somehow, after all that eating, I woke up the next morning hungry. Makoto was going to meet us at his apartment to take us on a trip to Kamakura, but wasn’t going to be around until lunchtime, so we decided to forage for food in a nearby supermarket.

A specialty grocery

The shelves are packed!

So many sandwich-in-a-bags to choose from

They have Snoopy cereal

I was so overwhelmed by the grocery store I couldn’t make a decision. We finally decided to just pick a pastry-like item and a drink and call it good. On our walk back to the apartment, I decided that I had to get a Mister Donut too, or else my friend Keiko would be disappointed.

Mister Donut

And so, my breakfast was this: a sugary melon and chocolate chip pastry, a cup of coffee that came pre-packed with a lid and a straw like it was some sort of grown-up Capris Sun, and a chocolate glazed donut from Mister Donut. Eating good.

The most important meal of the day

Soon after breakfast, Makoto and Yoko arrived and unloaded a ton of stuff they had received, or was left over from the wedding the day before. They also brought out chocolate potato chips. That’s right, potato chips covered in white chocolate and made to look like real potato chips – serve alongside caviar at your next high-brow Super Bowl party.

Mmmmmm

Once things were settled us boys said goodbye to Yoko and jumped in Makoto’s parent’s car, which he had borrowed for the day. As he was driving us around, he began explaining the concept of the Japanese Love Hotel. Evidently, if you and your lover want to have a quickie, you can go into one of these places and rent a room hourly. Inside the room you will most likely find vending machines stocked with the necessary safety gear. Robby and Makoto said that typically they have really fancy entrances and even themed rooms, but the ones we drove past weren’t really the type – they were just a tad sleazy looking.

Our drive to Kamakura took us up windy mountain roads that, on nearly every corner, had vertical grooves in the lanes. Makoto said this was to stop young kids from drifting the turns. And something that always amazed me was how in some areas, Japan decided not to conform the city to the landscape, but to make the landscape fit the city. There are many places where it seems they cut through a hill or mountain, put up a concrete wall and then built some homes and businesses.

Looking at Makoto’s navigation system, I couldn’t help but joke about the icons that looked like swastikas that kept popping up. Turns out they are the reverse-orientation of the swastika and are used to mark temples.

Find me the nearest 7-11

Nevertheless whenever we would be driving towards one of the semi-swastikas or see a cluster of them, Makoto or I would chime in with something like, “Uh, oh, lotta Nazi’s ahead. Maybe we should pick another route.”

I forgot to say, it was another rainy day in Japan. When we made it to Kamakura, we drove past a giant temple, at which point I thought, “I know we’re going to see a big buddha, but just how big?” Once we parked the car we got out with our umbrellas and made our way to the shrine. Inside the gates was a small place where, if it weren’t raining, you could wash off your face in preparation to view the giant buddha (or daibustu as it is referred to in Japan).

Wash yourself fool!

I don't know what was said, but it was funny

Once you wash yourself the path to the daibutsu hooks left and as you make the corner, you just see a long paved pathway leading to stairs, leading to a GIANT freaking buddha statue. It’s ridiculously impressive seeing it in the distance with a bunch of tiny umbrellas all maneuvering around it.

Daibutsu!

I think that's a lantern in the foreground

There were other awesome sculptures on the premises

Favorite picture I took of the daibutsu

Makoto, Robby and I waited our turn to take a photo in front of the statue and came out with this classic:

We made it!

Had to give you a close up of our faces – classic

Walking around the daibutsu, we saw a little stand where you could pay 20 yen, which is about 20 cents to go inside of the statue. Once inside, we were kind of unimpressed. No wonder it only cost 20 yen, there was nothing interesting in there other than a couple plaques showing the techniques used to construct the dang thing. We walked down the steep stairs (seriously, all the stairs are steep!) and out.

When we made it out of the shrine area, Makoto took us across the street to this cookie place whose logo and all their cookies looked like a pigeon. He bought us each one and we went back to the car.

Bird cookies!

Our next stop was a very interesting Starbucks. Makoto told us the place had a pool, well, not for swimming, but it had a freaking pool. Finding parking was really tough. All of the spots were full so we drove around a bit and almost got stuck in some strange town-hall rush hour traffic, but eventually we lucked out and nabbed a spot in an automated parking lot. I don’t believe I’ve said this yet about Japan, but it has to have some of the best drivers and parkers in the world. Every street and driveway is so narrow it looks like a one-way, but when I asked Makoto’s mom laughed and said “two-way.” And parking spots in Japan are tiny enough to make them tough, even with automatic fold-in mirrors, but everyone has to be fancy and always back into spots. It’s amazing.

Once we parked I took a look at the automated parking lot setup. There are this round things on the ground that, once you park and go on about your business, flip up a blockade after some set amount of time, effectively locking your car in its spot until you go and pay at the vending machine to have the blockade lowered.

Notice they've backed in and the barrier is up

The Starbucks was next door to the lot and its indoors huge. It was well spread out with comfortable looking tables and chairs. It looked more like a restaurant than a coffee joint. Once at the counter I had no choice but to order a sakura steamer, whatever it is, it was staring me in the face.

Sakura is here

We in the building!

Bird cookie + sakura steamer = japanese Starbucks run

The bird cookie was delicious and the sakura steamer was kind of like the green tea latte here in the states. Once those were finished I walked over and took some pictures of the Starbucks pool through the window.

No diving!

Done with our Starbucks, we debated what to do next. Somehow, Makoto and Robby decided on a trip to a Don Quixote – kinda like a Spencer’s Gifts, but two stories and packed with awesome.

The Don Quixote had its own parking garage and elevator.

The elevator doors

That cute little penguin is plastered everywhere in the stores. As for the content of the store, what can I say? There’s cool game stuff like a jenga you play with little gold bricks instead of wood blocks, dirty stuff like man thongs, ridiculous stuff like love bazookas (still not sure what that thing was), and awesome stuff like adult-size Pokemon costumes.

Advertisements outside Don Quixote

Stuffed with good stuff

Robby ponders what life would be like dressed as Stitch from Disney's Lilo and Stitch

None of their trucker hats made any sense

More awesome advertising

I wound up buying an old school nintendo controller themed business card holder and a couple of fake mustaches for my friend Crystal who, if she’s reading this right now, I hope is twirling her fu-manchu all the while.

I’m gonna stop there for right now. I’ve only got one more night and one more day worth of pictures and stories and then I’ll have to find something else to blog about. Sad, I know.