#205 Return to the izakaya!

Transcript

So it's a nice quiet Monday afternoon, still overcast, nice grey skies. I met Chiba Central Park, which is where I met that random ass dude who I thought was just trying to find someone to speak English to and then took me to Coco's family restaurant with the robot and then took me to his Buddhist sect, arguably a cult meeting where I had to pee so fucking bad and it was so boring but then he got a little gold star and then immediately ghosted me.

Was my Instagram friend for like fucking ten minutes and then cast me aside. What a strange experience but yeah this was that spot where I just got a little bit of time to kill today and I was like what do I do with myself? I was like oh yeah the monorail, the Chiba monorail goes right by that park so that could be cool because Chiba I do find central Chiba it is fucking confusing but I was like hey I can just follow the monorail track and get to that park and I didn't totally manage because I couldn't follow directly under it there's just a lot of train lines and stuff going on but like I got turned around at one point and went off to the side a bit but I went through a neighborhood with a bunch of you must be 18 to enter here and one place that was a soap land just said right outside on the sign soap land I don't think I've ever seen such a direct soap land where a soap land I mean I guess I've only seen it through you know Japanese porn movies I don't know how the real thing works as much but I guess again because I feel like the real thing has got to not be it's so super performative in porn where it's like you're getting washed by a lady so you know she covers herself in suds and rubs her body against you and then does sexy time stuff maybe that's how it works in real life seems like a lot to do I was wondering that too though about like Amsterdam that's been a few weeks of my life in Amsterdam I wander through the red light district kind of an exciting weird place but I was kind of wondered about the logistics of that too I guess you just kind of go in and it's like a little dimly lit creepy bed or something I don't know I feel like I would probably the whole thing who weirds me out that I'd even if I was partaking of of the sexy time services I think I would just be like oh can you just like watch me jack off and watch me jack off the whole thing would be weird and sad but it's kind of neat just to walk through those neighborhoods sometimes and just like oh shit I wasn't supposed to be over here look at this place the seedy side of Chiba and I bought a coffee I had one of the machines just because it had a cool can it was just like a little polka I think it's called pio kka on espresso but it had a little silhouette of a cat next to the espresso and it's late October it looked halloweeny I don't think it was just coincidence but man marketing sure does work we're just because it felt halloweeny I'm like yeah I'll buy that yeah basically I just got a couple hours to kill because I'm going back to the izakaya with Nora he goes friend Satoru who I met last year I had a really hard time falling asleep last night and that reminded me it's funny how you just forget these things so I was thinking back like oh yeah now that I think back I mean I'm kind of an anxious fucking we a little lad anyway obviously I don't want to touch ladies I'm uncomfortable with unfamiliar processes it's a pretty loud helicopter sound but with the overcastedness I do not see it but yeah I was like reminded that oh yeah I was actually kind of wound up about this last year I was like I kind of didn't want to do it like I knew it was a great opportunity to see something in Japan I wouldn't normally a little local izakaya that I would never have gone to on my own but since I didn't know the people and stuff I was like oh I wish I could just turn them down but that would be crazy I spend enough of these trips by myself I really can't turn down the 5:00 opportunity to go hang out with someone even though that that's what got me wrapped up in a Buddhist cult for a whole like three hours of my life wish again in hindsight man that went so much better than everyone else's stories about those things where you know if you live in Japan and they're trying to make you a permanent member and they get their tendrils in and they won't stop bothering you I got off pretty easy on that one but yeah this year I definitely felt different I was like oh yeah I want to do that like I think Noriko set this up just because you know I'm just gonna give them the the basic update hey I was in South Korea here's where I went unexpected six month visa then it was summertime the flights were expensive so I went to Taiwan and then it's like well now I'm back in Japan I walked around Jeju you know just that type of thing but but I really haven't been able to you know talk to him really because his English really is bad and I have no Japanese so we could sit there with Google translator whatever or we could go to the Izakaya and good old Satoru can just ease the conversation for the evening since he speaks English and Japanese and yeah I got to admit after an entire year of wandering around the earth by myself I'm starting to feel a little little I'm like oh yeah you know I could go with hanging out with somebody I could go with doing a thing but I guess my subconscious is still kind of wound up because yeah I really had a hard time falling asleep but I guess it's still I don't know not only am I not like directly nervous like I was last year I actually even forgot about that I forgot that that's how I felt but I guess my stupid subconscious didn't forget wound up little human person it's such a nice fantasy to just pretend like oh I'm just confident I'm just a confident man on the earth yeah I can just go wander around I can do whatever oh I can go to the airport and got to get through customs off they don't let me in whatever laugh it off fly somewhere else haha but I mean now that I'm an older person it's like why lie about this oh doing some constructiony stuff here at the park oh I think they're cutting branches branches of trees but yeah why pretend why pretend that you're confident the only people who are gonna believe it are other young people that are also trying to pretend fuck it life is a tricky we are all soft little soft-shelled beings wandering around the earth just waiting for bacteria to invade our bodies and kill us for real it's kind of nice being here just walking around the little lake nice being here when it's really really not crowded I mean I guess she but wasn't crazy crowded last year but it was a lot more than this I don't know if it's the weather or what but things have been very not crowded on this trip and I don't don't mind that but yeah I set up an Airbnb further down the coast so after this I'm going to Yokohama then further down the coast where again maybe another case of being saved from myself where it appeared that it was available for like two weeks so I booked a whole two weeks day but then the guy told me it was only actually available for one week that is like a week's fine a week is a lot a week is plenty re-books for a week all good so now I guess I just got to keep going just got to plan the next step of the journey but one thing I did now that I actually know when I'm going home January 22nd I believe it is which looks crazy on a calendar because it's you know the end of October and it's just like November December most of January I'm like wow I'm going to be in Japan for all those days because again since this is the bonus trip this is the second trip back if I came back for a fucking week that'd be great if this was it and then I left it'd be like cool got a nice little second taste of Japan but yeah just weeks and weeks and weeks I know it'll pass quickly but at this point it really looks like a long time like wow wowzers but yeah since I had that unexpected six months stay in South Korea rather than just three and then I got out of there in the middle of the summer and all the flight prices were fucking crazy for like not a fast flight for just like a death flight home so that's why I went to Taiwan and then back here and it's like yeah let's just wait so yeah I did book my flight home because it's like I got to do that now it's finally time so it's still expensive Canadian is like a little over 900 dollars to get from Tokyo to Toronto so I just got to be back by Narita by the end of January or January 22nd and it's still a very long flight where I'm going from Tokyo to Vancouver to 10:00 Calgary to Toronto so a lot of changes and switches and it's going to take like 16 or 17 hours but really that first like nine hours to Vancouver at that point I'm in Canada it's like whatever it doesn't feel the same as just like if I did that same trip but just random stations around the world that might feel a little strange but it's just within Canada who cares no problem I'm going to arrive quite late in Toronto that's the only way to think too flying against the time change against the date line so even though it's a 17 hour fucking flight I'm still getting there the same day but like nine at night so I might hit up one of my friends and just be like hey could I just crash at your place this first night instead of trying to check into an Airbnb late at night but it's weird too I really don't quite understand flights so I did just stick with air Canada because there's not a lot of options anyway in Canada but there might be some stuff like instead of flying straight to Vancouver what if I flew to you know fucking Las Vegas or something through different airlines and you can set these things up but then you got different airlines you're dealing with and it's a whole to do and it's really not as much cheaper if it all because Canada is just expensive to fly to so it's just easier to use they used WestJet on the way over but it's cheaper to use air Canada this time but just one of the Canadian Airlines where all the legs are with the one airline and it's no problem and I just booked through the actual airline website just do not have to worry about stuff during travel middlemen and flight resellers in Yadiyada but it is quite strange I don't really understand how it works luckily the day I'm leaving is a Wednesday and it just happened to be cheaper that day it was like a couple hundred dollars more if I had to leave the day before or the day after so that was lucky but it's weird it's like if I'm flying to Vancouver and then Calgary and then Toronto I was like well what if I just flew to Vancouver what if I just did the Vancouver bit I don't know I mean the problem is it's hard to find a cheap Airbnb in Vancouver these days but I wouldn't kill me to go back to Vancouver I like Vancouver but it's more expensive just to go to Vancouver somehow tacking on two extra flights was a couple hundred bucks cheaper so I'm like okay whatever good enough Toronto that gonna go see my Toronto friends and yeah my only other plan was maybe go the other way go to Paris but I am getting a little burned out on travel some day I'm sure I'll do that but it was only a couple hundred bucks cheaper to get to Paris you know still like 700 dollars and then I'm still stuck in Paris then I still got to get home from there and whatever you know it would still be considerably more expensive the benefit would be I could go to Paris but I don't want to give a fuck I don't care some other time ready to go home or I mean there's the weird thing where it is like the two things in my brain where there is part of me that just feels like this loop should just this loop is continuing so perfectly like oh I'm back in Japan after this I mean I could just go back to Seoul I just feel like I should almost do the whole thing again but instead I'm going home yeah I am feeling those two tracks in my brain where also as fun as it is to be in Japan and I keep saying I've got these nice little like spring in my step like oh I feel so cool to be back in Japan but I did have a very distinct I guess while I was laying in bed last night aesthetically trying to fall asleep but I did start thinking about Taipei I've only been gone a week but I'm just like oh yeah I do miss that already just walking out of my Airbnb there and just like man Taipei is such a fun city of just like I could go walk across the bridge to Shiman or I could just go hop on a train and just go to one of a bunch of different mountain hikes just all this stuff I could do I'm excited to be back in Japan but I do miss Taipei at the same time I feel both things mostly I'm excited to be back in Japan but late at night in sconce in the darkness I'm still like oh yeah Taipei though pretty good pretty good It was weird to the fucking air candidate website. I guess maybe it's because I had a VPN going or something. But it kept defaulting me to American price. Like I checked on the little app and found the 900 and whatever dollar flight. But then I was like, all right, for proper booking I'll go do it through a web browser just to, it's easier to input credit card info and blah, blah, blah. And it came up as only like $650. And I was like, wow, that's like a good deal.

The fly back to Canada. Why is the price so different? And then I realized it had defaulted me to American, rather than Canadian. And I'm like, okay, and then when I logged in fully, it defaulted me again. It got me twice, where I was like, oh, good deal. No, nope, nope. Come on, air Canada. The fuck you doing. Don't get my hopes up like that. Because that really is kind of the roughest part of this whole environment. 15:00 Of this whole endeavor. I mean, obviously I got my money's worth out of it. But I can see how it must be really tough to fly over to this part of the world for just a week or whatever. Goddamn, it's such an expensive flight. But I got like a goddamn year and a half out of this shit. So I can't complain.

I'm on a rails really small. It's only two cars. I wonder if I should ride that again. I mean, when I took it to the shellmounds last time that did sort of seem like the only thing there was to see. I didn't go all the way to the end though. So I will see.

But yeah, things are officially wrapping up. But yeah, not for some time. Goddamn, I got a long time left in Japan. ludicrous.

And yeah, because I'm just going to keep trying to do what I've been doing so far just sort of stay off the beaten path and let things be nice and empty. Because yeah, I think I mentioned this, but even at Norahiko's place. So he did have somebody else there over the weekend, which was why I booked the private room at his place. Because he has kind of like a private room and a little dorm area. And it was a girl in the dorm area who was from Taiwan. I didn't meet her. I just saw her name in the guest book when I was signing it. But he doesn't want to mix men and women in that little dorm area. Understandably. So I just booked the private room for the weekend. But he's just allowing me to stay in the private room the whole time. You know, even though it's double the price and I only booked it for two days out of my 10 days or whatever. He's like, hey, if anyone else books it, obviously I'll move you, but until then go ahead. It's just empty anyway. So yeah, again, I'm just not quite sure the Japan overtourism thing. I hear so much about it. It doesn't seem that bad.

Norahiko's place was like a lot busier last year. Chiba was a lot busier last year. Everything seemed a lot busier last year. Maybe because of the weather? I don't know. Maybe just again more of a build-up of people wanting to travel after COVID. And even, yeah, this place that I got Yaizu, it's going to take me a bit to get used to saying that. Like when I first learned how to say Segwapo.

But you know, that place, it was booked on just the weekends. But all week, it's available. But yeah, I don't know. I guess with the delayed releases of these podcasts, I don't know how useful stuff like this is. Like my run last year where I just kept talking about how good the weather is. And it's like, yeah, but that was a one-time thing. It's not that way this time, and it probably isn't normally. That could be a similar thing here. I'm like, yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I'm not finding Japan fantastically tourist-filled. It doesn't seem that bad. There seems to be stuff available. Whenever I'm wandering around places, I don't. I barely ever see another foreigner.

So either it is that it's like just only the hot spots are crazy. Maybe things are a little bit exaggerated. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe my sample size is too small. But anyway, what time is it? I must have wandered around to this park long enough. Yeah, 3.30. I should head back. We're going to the place at 5. So yeah, if I get back around quarter after four, just to make sure I'm there and ready to go because I do remember from last year, nor he goes saying that the best bet is to get there early because then you can easily get a seat and just hunker down. Where later in the night, it gets busy.

And of course, the trick now, this was of course the famous, I got so drunk that I threw up all night, situation. Since then, I have never had more than two drinks. Really probably just one. Have I even had two drinks since then in a row? Probably not. So today I'm going to aim for two drinks and I'll do three if it gets crazy. But I mean, I don't even know what it was last time. Eight, it was fucking stupid. That is the one potential social faux pas I'm going to have to stick to. No matter what's going down, no matter who's drinking what, I just can't. I can't and I won't. It was so fucking miserable. Other than that, it was great though. So yeah, I'm looking forward to Ezekiah round two.

Alright, it's the next day. Still overcast, actually raining, just a little bit, a little bit of pitter-patter today. Doing the greatest hits of Chiba. I was walking around and I was like, man, that Buddhist sect church place, temple or whatever that I went to last time.

But those dudes, as I was describing last, segment and the full stories in the classic episode, whatever it was called, going to a Buddhist ceremony in Chiba. I was like, oh yeah, that's around here. That's totally around here. But I couldn't find it. But I did find a book off where I went into the book off that night, I remember. I saw the book off, but I went in right as they were closing. They play old-lang signed to let you know that the store's closing. So I got to go in today with more time. So I did my classic scavenger hunt. This is a smaller store. But I did find a Eurocamp figure. It's in a dish-go-again, the pink-haired girl. That's always what I find if I find anything, but that's fine. Just finding any Eurocamp thing is cool. This one was only $12. No magic cards. And I kind of got the feeling, because they did still have like a bunch of trading card stuff. I kind of got the feeling it might be the one-piece card game that has pushed out magic. I mean obviously magic has been low on the totem pole for a while in Japan. But one piece was the newest game that had its whole own section on the wall. And from what I understand, one piece is doing pretty well. So I bet that's it. I bet if magic has just been hanging on for a while and just not doing especially wonderful. And then this new game comes that needs space. It's like, yeah, let's just forget this. Let's just give it up. Just let it go. Get on out of here, magic cards. And I did not find a Sega Mega Drive sports game. They had Super Famicom sports games, a bunch of them. But that's not quite rare enough. That's probably always there. And right now I'm walking by the little local museum that has stuff about the Chiba clan.

And they had like recreations of old apartments, apartments from the 70s and apartments from like the 20s and 30s. It was a pretty cool little place, but you might hear a little construction noise. There's a ton of construction going on around here. So I wasn't intending to come here anyway. I just walked by by accident. But because it was raining, I was like, oh, I don't know maybe. But I can't even actually figure out how to get in. There's so much construction on these grounds. So perhaps it's just not open today.

But Eno Hana Park is where this is, I-N-O-H-A-N-A Park.

And it's a pretty cool little place that apparently it is one of those things that like tourists go to and the locals kind of don't because that's what Norrico was saying yesterday. Whereas like, yeah, I went to that place. And it's the Toru, the other guy I know around these parts. He's like, oh, yeah, I've never been.

Nor he goes like, yeah, locals never go. But that's not uncommon. It's kind of natural to take your local stuff for granted. Oh, here we go. Okay, I did find the entrance. I'm actually walking toward because it is cool. It is like an ancient castle, this whole museum. You know, it's set up to look that way.

I know. Indeed, it is closed today. Yeah, there's little pylons in front of the steps. Not open today. Well, that's all right. I was here not that long ago and due to my dual trips.

Yeah, I'm basically just moseying around this general neighborhood in just like semi-recovery mode. You said to go out, get a coffee, get some deep.

Pickled plum on a giri, man. I've been loving those fucking things. I have noticed, too, the way you unwrap stuff here, like the onigiri, where it's like a three-step process with the numbers. One, two, three. You pull down the one is the middle. You pull that down and then you remove one side and you remove the other side. And it's so that the seaweed, the nori, will stay separate from the rice until right before you eat the rice ball.

They have the same thing in Taiwan, but the Japanese version is distinctly easier to open. Just these little things, like as you pull down the center part, it kind of widens. I don't know, there's no point trying to describe the exact little specific details.

But I definitely find the Japanese ones easier to open. They just have that extra little level of detail that you just see in stuff in Japan where they've really thought through every little part of the process. It's very cool.

There's a larger park around here that I don't know if I've been to or not. I actually walked around Chiba quite a bit, so we'll see. Maybe once I get there, I'll be like, oh yeah, I've been here before. Well, it's just Mozi over there for an excuse to Mozi. See, I'm just walking around the neighborhood in slight recuperation mode, but I don't feel too bad. After Izakaya trip number two went way better than last time. Last time, drank a bunch of beer, switched to high balls, think I had some sake. Then came back to Noriko's place and had whiskey mixed with whatever. And then I'd barfed and barfed all fucking night, goddamn miserable. I haven't drank more than a couple of drinks at a time since then. So this time, things went way better. So it's this same cool little Izakaya near Noriko's place that is just again just the perfect example of a place. You know, there's a lot of places that I don't go just because by myself, it's a little uncomfortable to try to navigate them. This would be impossible because it's like handwritten signs on the walls that are all just written in Japanese. But also, I wouldn't even know this place was a place like a little sliding door that is the easiest thing to just walk right past. If you don't know that it's there. So yeah, it was one of the coolest things that I did on my last trip to Japan, and I was excited to go back. So the place opened at four, we got there like 4.30, we were the first ones in. And it was weird because being there with just the two of us, it felt smaller. It was like, oh, this is much smaller than I remembered. But ironically, I don't know, as the day went on. We were there till about 6.30, so a couple hours. And it was packed by the time we left. And it felt bigger when it was full of people. I don't quite know what the science behind that is. Obviously, it's just mental brain science. It's not a real thing. But it really felt bigger once it was all packed full of people.

And we only drank beer. We just got big bottles of beer that we just split into like we each had our own little tiny glass. So I have no idea how many little glasses I drank and how many bottles it adds up to. But it really wasn't that bad, you know. It was like a nice little buzz. It was like a nice little buzz, but it wasn't insane.

And Sataru came in, who is a guy who I think he actually became friends with Noriko by staying at his Airbnb. Because Sataru is, I guess, mid to late 30s. Noriko is an older guy. So that's how they became friends. And Noriko did tell me like, I haven't really seen him since last time we all hung out. So that kind of made me feel a little better too of just like, that I have a slightly useful part in this process too, like I'm just, there's a benefit to having me around. Yeah, I'm not just a freeloader. I'm a good conduit. I'm a good excuse for Noriko to get in touch with Sataru and to get him to come hang out because he lives way down south in Chiba. You know, a couple hours away. Chiba is pretty dang big. And they ended up doing some business talking because Noriko, he is trying to get away a little from the Airbnb stuff. But yeah, I have no idea how the behind the scenes works as a host. But I know as a guest, you know, as a chronicle, the Airbnb is a lot less cool than it used to be. It's not just as like free wheeling of like, oh, someone's just got a spare room. It's turning into a weird little hotel service. And apparently on his end, it is like they get, he gets a lot of messages of like, here's the new regulations, here's how things have to be blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And for domestic travel, he's kind of more comfortable with domestic people anyway because, you know, he's Japanese, his English is not great. So he'd be more than happy to just kind of rent to people directly and do less Airbnb stuff. So he's talking to Sataru about that, how to set things up that wise. So yeah, I was happy to be the conduit because, you know, again, I just want, I just want some people to take me to a place I could never go to.

And last time they insisted on paying for stuff. And I was like, that was a little bit in the back of my mind. Like, oh, I hope I'm enough of the gang this time that they just will let me pay my fair share. I'll just feel more comfortable that way. But yeah, they didn't even remember that that's how it had been last time. They were like, oh, did we pay for you? Okay, whatever. Yeah, definitely you can pay this time. No worries there. Pal, that's like, okay, good. It was four of us last time. This time it was only three.

But yeah, we just shared the beers and I don't know, it was kind of neat too, where Sataru was only like half Japanese. He grew up, he lived in Japan as a little kid and then his early adulthood, his teenage years and early adulthood in America, and then back to Japan.

So I think he is full Japanese, but you know, half Japanese culturally, he's been around a bunch. 30:00 But I do wonder if this ties into a kind of Japanese mindset where he was a little bit, you know, guarded at first because, you know, I only met the guy once. I don't really know him. So at first he was a little bit like, oh yeah, you know, hey. Oh, is that how it went last time? I don't really remember. Oh, we became Facebook friends last time. Okay, if you say so. I mean, it was just, you know, while we were drunk. Yeah, let's just be Facebook friends. We never did anything with it. But I guess the only reason I'm even mentioning that or why that stood out is because that evaporated really fast.

That kind of, the little bit of the barrier, as soon as we just hung out a bit and started drinking. First off, Norahiko's English got way better all of a sudden, and I've heard that before too of just, uh... Oh, just some of that. That's a Japanese bus. This is going to help pleasant that beef is.

Uh, Taiwan? Why don't you adopt that idea from Japan? That's downright pleasant that beef.

Oh, and there's an entrance sign. The upside-down triangle, or more of like a little teepee, and the square. The one word I can read. Oh wow, near that park already.

Aobanomori Park, AO-B-A-N-O-M-O-R-I Park. I don't think I've been here before. I guess we'll see. But yeah, I've heard that before. I mean, it's no difference in me in French. I kind of trend away from French until I'm sort of forced into it. I got to be nudged in that way.

So similarly, people whose English isn't super great in Japan, you know, they're like, like Noreiko was really... I guess I was a little surprised by it at first. How apologetic he was about his English and not understanding. Because I was like, I don't know. I felt like things went pretty smooth here before. And yeah, it got back to that once he got drinking a little. It's like, oh yeah, like he does have just very little English, but how much do you need? Yeah, I mean, it was fine. He just needed to be encouraged to get over the hump a little, just to roll with it. But also having satore there did just make it easier to describe stuff. And yeah, at the end of the day, my story's not really that complicated. It really is just, well, by within Japan, decided to go check out South Korea. Unexpectedly stayed in South Korea twice as long as I expected because of this weird Canadian visa. By then, the flight prices were horrible. So, killed more time in Taiwan, killed a little more time coming back to Japan than heading home. There you go. But when I told him about walking around Jeju, he mentioned Shikoku. He's like, yeah, he probably not on this trip necessarily. Maybe it's something you might need to plan out a bit. But he mentioned the 88 temples of Shikoku. He says he's done it twice, where there's a similar pilgrimage path all the way around Shikoku in Japan. And it's like cool. I mean, yeah, that is good to know just like that it's something set up specifically. Really makes a difference. Like the fact that there was that Ole trail on Jeju. The Shikoku route is apparently famous enough that, you know, there's stuff set up there. It's not like you're just trying to circumnavigate a landmass on your own. But rather than like 200 kilometers or at a stretch, how I think the full Ole trail is like, you know, 350 or 400 kilometers. But the Shikoku one is like 1400, I believe he said. I haven't double checks. But it's like big. It's a whole other thing. But you know, if you stick with it, you can still do it in like 50 days.

It's certainly not high on my agenda. That does sound like, you know, it's something that I have to really sort out. And I did such a nice little cheat on Jeju of just taking the bus to where I stopped previously. Even if I was to do something similar in Shikoku, I still have to like sort out what I was doing. Because those bus rides even on Jeju got pretty brutal. So something the size of Shikoku I really would have to set up places around. Yeah, I just don't know. That would be a lot harder. But it's neat to have that idea tucked away as a potential thing. And then last time, I think he was trying a little harder to sort of try to freak me out with the food a bit. Where we got like, it was like this mound of diced radish. But it had all these little tiny like weird little warm looking sardines in it. And we got like a grilled tuna that was just like the whole head. Here's the head, eat the head. So I think this time he was chiller. He's like, yeah, fuck it, let's just get stuff.

So we did get like chicken neck. That's a little unusual. I guess I've never really had that before. But the just neck is just kind of cartilogy. And like stew and, you know, we just got a bunch of neat stuff that was like not too unusual. 35:00 Was this place closed too? Strange.

It's just a random weekday. I'm not sure why everything is closed today.

Maybe that's just a parking lot. We will see. But the main thing I guess that was interesting. It was all delicious. I mean, it's just awesome to have as much as I love the convenience store food to go have like actual stuff. And he's the kaya is awesome. But the main thing was horse meat. And I was like, oh, yeah, no, I'd like to try horse meat because Jeju had horse meat. But I only found that out right at the end. And, you know, I just wasn't going to go to a place by myself once again to just try to eat horse meat. As far as what I saw on YouTube, it was Dan does Korea that I saw eating horse meat on Jeju. And he went into a place where you cook it. This was horse meat sashimi. But I do remember Kevin Smith having a story of eating horse meat tartar in France in a hotel. And he ordered two portions rather than one. And then he threw up like crazy. And it's all I know about raw horse meat. But in this case, it was just thinly sliced horse meat. And rather than just ginger and wasabi, it came with a garlic, a little bit of garlic on the side. And you just dip it in soy sauce. And it was really fucking good. It was really good. I really liked horse meat. I kind of joked to them like, geez, I hope I don't like it too much. Because when the hell am I ever going to eat this again? So then they asked, if you ever had whale, then they start looking on the handwritten signs on the wall. And I was like, you're fucking with me. There's no way they have whale. And they had to like search all the signs and like behind someone's coat. They were like, yeah, that looks like they might have whale. And I was like, okay, settle down though. Settle down. I am curious. But I don't need to do horse and whale in one day. Let's like, if I come back by this way before I leave Japan, on my way back to Narita in January, hey, maybe we'll see about that. And then I mean, there's always like morally, I don't know, something feels very unusual about whale. But I mean, I'm already eating other animals. I'm eating chickens. I just ate horse. Can I really get all uptight about whales? I don't actually know anything about whales or the state of whaling just that I generally get the sense that it's pretty uncool and most people don't do it anymore. And like, why is Japan still whaling? I think it might be all right if I just don't eat whale. But that the offer was there was pretty wild. Like, fuck me. A cool place could actually give you whale. What the hell? Crazy man.

Yeah, more parking lots.

And this parking lot does have a tour bus at it. But I don't understand this at all. And then this further part of this park has like, fencing up all around it. But not permanent fencing, like temporary fencing. This does not make sense to me.

If this is a place you can approach, I have approached it from the wrong fucking side.

Anyway, whatever. I'll just keep walking around to do cares.

But yeah, super delightful. Just awesome to go back to this place.

And like I was saying with the, you know, it's the tour route just kind of loosened it up. Going from, you know, what again is the pretty natural reaction of like, hey, yeah, okay, I'm not your best friend right away, but yeah, I only met you one time. But yeah, once he got going, he's like, jeez, you know, I'm going up to see my brother. His brother's about my age, maybe a little older. And his brother does pop up restaurants and food festivals. So he's like, I'm going up to Fukushima. You ever been up north and going up to Fukushima up north? See my brother for a couple of days. And he invited me along. And briefly, you know, I had that little moment probably also, because I was drinking where I'm like, is this the future? Do I just accept the call of adventure? I'm just suddenly, because he has a car. He's going to drive up there. It's like, well, I mean, an opportunity for a road trip up north. Maybe I should just take that.

But as we talked through a bit, it is basically just like, you know, the right up there would be a couple hours. That'd probably be all right. But then he's staying for a couple of days. He's just staying at a capsule hotel. So I'd have to just book a thing there. And then the reality of what's going on there is like, you know, he's just hanging out with his brother for a couple of days. I don't know. I feel like that would just get awkward pretty fast. I'm pretty fast of just like, now I'm also just there. And besides this one little food festival, why am I even there? Just the kind of encroaching on the family gathering. It probably would be fine. I don't even, you know, I don't. It's not like I think I would ruin the day or anything. But even just from my perspective, just my little fucking, 40:00 hang out by myself. So low heart. I can just imagine like, geez, yeah, this would really wear me out. Like an afternoon would be one thing. But two days of just hanging out and maybe the only people that really speak English are Satoru and his brother. And they got other stuff to do. And I'm just wandering around. And I was just like trying to figure out what to do with myself. I think I would rather just go up north by myself sometime. Get an Airbnb for like a month. And just be on my own like on the long term. That wouldn't, ironically, that wouldn't feel very long. Where two days of kind of being attached at the hip to someone else. And not really able to just go wander off and do my own thing. And having to always kind of also, because I don't have a proper data plan. So I have to always kind of be near-ish enough Satoru that he knows where I am when it's time to go home.

It was a very nice offer. But again, I don't know how much of it was just him being drunk. And the logistics of it, I'll like get it. And actually would not have a great time with that. But it's cool that the offer was there. It really is kind of feast or famine with friendships. I've always had a pretty easy time making friends with people. But I understand when people don't really have friends. Because I have had plenty of times where I'm in a certain city or a certain situation where I just really don't have friends. Because if you try to force it, if you try to make it happen.