Oh, the tiny people

Ah, Japan. Land of cleanliness and very odd cartoon characters. Even Japanese pornography (as we learned at a gas station corner store) is in cartoons. However, enough about that. In Aomori, Japan – our first stop in the country – Lucy, Rosanna (Administrative Assistant), and Rodin (Internet Manager) took a taxi to the big Buddha and saw many a beautiful pagoda along the way. It was much warmer than I had expected Japan to be. When my mum took us to Tokyo and Kyoto 15 years ago, we arrived in March and were met with chilly spring weather and even snow. This led me to believe it would be the same climate as Vancouver. Cool and perhaps rainy, just like Vancouver! Instead I was met with uncomfortable humidity and warm, summer weather. After visiting with my old friend, Budda, (apparently the largest outdoor Buddha in Japan) we took a taxi to a weird triangular building near our ship. It turned out to be part office building, restaurant and shopping mall. There is some strange architecture going on in Asia so far. There are bridges which seem to serve no function whatsoever, except maybe to be aesthetically pleasing. The do not go over water and they do not pass over highways or busy intersections. They are just there.

Clearly, the Japanese are overachievers and the bridges prove it. If you really have nothing better to do than build a bridge that doesn’t do anything, then you should really consider baking me a chocolate cake. I don’t know why a cake, but it certainly sounds good.

Back to Japan….we found out they have apple everything and also that anything IN THE WORLD can and will be bought via a vending machine: Apple crackers, apple candy, apple vinegar (which, we thought was a bottle of juice because it looked like apple juice and had a picture of an apple on it, PLUS it was from what looked like a beverage vending machine). Who sells vinegar out of a vending machine and why??
Confusing as it was, utterly immaculate and beautiful is Japan, also I found the people incredibly hospitable and friendly. Expensive, but was nice to see again after 15 years.