ryanjapantrip

After a night of next to no sleep on a long couch pillow, I decided to get up around 5am. The futon is something I would recommend skipping for a real bed. I decided to explore Kamakura a while as it was waking up. Maren, a girl at the guesthouse told me that Lawson’s was way better than the other Japanese convenience stores (Family Mart and 7/11). A coffee and egg sandwich later, I was walking the streets of the sleepy beach town with a light drizzle of rain. I sat and watched the markets open and come to life with old ladies stopping in for their groceries. I headed back the hostel and waited for Marc and Jose to wake up. They must have been pretty tired from the night before because they slept in till around 9am. We went to a local bakery to buy some snacks for the upcoming 3 hour train journey to Ito. When we came back to the guesthouse the housekeeper had prepared a traditional breakfast with soup, fried fish, along with pickled vegetables and rice. Over breakfast I learned some new Japanese phrases like met-cha (means hella), shogonaiyo (it is what it is), yo hoi (what’s up), gei-ki deska (all good?) to name a few. I met another American from California who has his own guitar amplifier business that was taking off in Japan. His company is named Silktones. Jose and Marc took a while packing their bags so we left an hour after check out at 11am. After a couple of packed train rides we started to see the Izu Peninsula, an area that is known for its lava rock formed coast. The whole train ride I could tell that Jose and Marc were exhausted from the day before so I gave them the idea to just take it easy at the hotel for the day while I continued hiking. Honestly my patience with these two was running thin this day because of how late we left. I rushed into the hotel and checked in dropped my bags, packed a day pack and I was off finally free from being a tour guide for a few hours. I traveled on a train to the Jogasaki Coast and immediately started the hike. One of the most breathtaking views I’ve ever seen was the suspension bridge overlooking the lava rock coast. I hiked for about 4 hours with an elevation gain of around 1000 meters. All throughout the hike you could hear birds chirping and thunder like crashing of the waves into the rocky coast line. Towards the end of the hike I started to lose visibility in the deep forested areas. At one point I started to think the place was haunted because I kept hearing creepy noises from the forest. You know this place has graveyard shrines all over the trail so it’s bound to have some spirits floating around. I quickened my pace and ended at the local shrine. I was exhausted and out of water. Usually at these shrines there’s a drink machine or a water fountain for this exact reason. There was no water fountain because it had been raining the entire time the trail was barren. I decided to hike another mile to the train station hopping to find water along the way. The road was a steep incline with moss covered sidewalks. Finally about a half a mine into the natural stair stepper I found a vending machine and threw my hands up in victory. I downed a coke and tea real quick and got to the train station. Once there I quickly looked up a place to have dinner and told Jose and Marc to meet me there. Jose wanted me to shower and change and such before going but I didn’t want a repeat of last night and got there as early as I could. I arrived back to ito and walked through the deserted streets to a small restaurant. In any restaurant here you are greeted warmly. I arrived before Jose and Marc and because we were a group of three, I was ushered to the back room where I would have to remove my shoes and sit on a pillow where my legs would inevitably go numb. I was sat next to the only other table in the small back room full of some beautiful Japanese ladies especially the one on the back left of the table. We immediately caught each other’s eyes and smiled. Looking over the menu I knew I picked a great place. Jose and Marc arrived and we ordered giant glasses of highballs and Sapporo draft beers. This was a long day so before dinner even came I had downed 3 drinks. Now I remember putting my hat and water bottle down behind me at this moment. We ordered yakatori (skewered meats) grilled eel, tuna sashimi that melted like butter on the tongue, 100 year old never ending soup and many many pieces of the house dish. I have no idea what was in it but it was sweet and salty with some sort of mea base. After countless drinks more we paid our bill. I had been practicing my Japanese pick up line all night as me and the Beaty across the room kept locking eyes the whole meal. Jose and Marc left I downed my drink and went up to their table. Immediately I had forgotten the pick up line and what came out by some miracle was translated into a compliment about this woman’s beauty and how I could not keep my eyes off of her all night. I learned her name and left hoping to see her again on my next trip. Once outside I quickly realized I had forgotten my hat and water bottle. I rushed back in to check and none of the girls or staff had seen it. Bullshit. I know those girls definitely stole my stuff cuz their faces were bright red when I came back in asking for it. Oh well maybe she’ll wear it and think of the time the drunk American attempted to hit on her in broken Japanese. We stumbled through the back streets of the deserted town back to the hotel where I was in desperate need of a shower….this hotel did not have a shower though only an onsen. Now an onsen is a private bath were you go completely nude and chill in a natural spring hot tub with a bunch of other people. Great. I changed out of my hiking clothes down to my birthday suit and put on my ukata (Japanese bath robe). I headed to the onsen stripped down and took a shower on a stool pouring water from the onsen over my head to clean myself. I stepped into the hot tub and relaxed drunk and happy from an another great day in Japan. I would again sleep on the floor tonight. Futons suck.