Dave & Buster's on Crack

This weekend was extremely busy and so very fun. I don't want to write about it all in one post so I'll break it up into at least a couple.

Saturday evening we were invited out with a Japanese couple to "eat an eel" and to check out a sportscenter. I know I have previously mentioned that eel is not my favorite of all Japanese cuisine, but I have changed my mind. We had an absolutely delicious dinner. It was so much better than the last time I had eaten it. I chowed down on it until I was full. So yummy!

Here's a pic of our dinner. It is suggested to eat the eel in three stages. The first stage includes removing about a third of the eel/rice concoction, placing it in that blue and white bowl and eating it basically as it is with large chunks of eel and with a little bit of rice. There is also a delightful sauce you add to it. The next stage is when you take a second portion of the eel and rice and mix it all together in the blue and white bowl. At this point, you can also add some of the green onions and wasabi to it. I also added the sauce again. For the last stage, you mash the rice and eel together and add green tea to it to make a soup. I skipped the last stage and decided just to eat mine the first way I described as it was delicious!

After eating the eel for energy, we made our way to a sportscenter. The best way I can describe it is as a Dave & Buster's on crack. It is enormous and so fun! It includes six floors of every game you can possibly imagine, and the top floor is reserved for outdoor sports. You can play tennis, volleyball, enjoy a batting cage, play darts, shoot pool, ride a mechanical bull, get a massage in a massage chair, shoot pellet guns and play a bazillion arcade games. There is also a bowling alley on the third floor. We walked in and our jaws instantly dropped. Needless to say, we had a great time and will be going back in the near future.

This is the ground floor of the sportscenter. On this level, you play with tokens. Most of the games on this level are similar to ones you'd find in a casino. They have slot machines, bingo and magnetic horse racing. There are also tons of those crane games where you can grab stuffed animals, candy or ice cream. I got pretty addicted to one of those coin sliding games. We were playing with tokens, but it reminded me so much of the hours I spent playing the quarter games at the Tri-County Fair. Not a great way to spend your allowance but very entertaining.

In addition to all the games, there is also a skating rink. At a certain time each evening, the skating rink closes and patrons have the opportunity to ride little motorcycles. I immediately knew I had no interest in such a thing. Those of you who know me well know that I despise "playing" with any sort of motorized vehicle. I loathe go-carts and hate any sort of racing activities. Too many real-life accidents, I suppose. 

Travis was all over it. So, he and the Japanese couple signed up to ride. I volunteered to take pictures and laugh my tail off!

This is right before the race. 

Eager to begin.

It's worth noting that there is a weight-limit for these bikes. Our Japanese friend thought it appropriate to fib about Travis' weight by oh, say 45 lbs. or so! As soon as they took off, the reasoning for the weight-limit became obvious.

Don't be fooled by Travis' placement in this photo. He is about to be lapped for the third time. His bike was barely going. I thought the back tire was going to blow out. It was one of the funniest events I have ever witnessed. The best part was that after the race was finished, a manager approached Travis and apologized repeatedly for his slow bike. He informed Travis that he thought the bike hadn't been charged sufficiently. Right...

Shumatsu wa nani o shimashita ka?

Nothing too exciting has been going on this week so far, but I really don't want to abandon my faithful readers (all four of you) so allow me to provide you with a few pics and a weekend recap.

Our weekend was pretty low-key; at least for me it was.  Travis got up at about 4 a.m. on Saturday morning to meet up with some folks to go surfing. He was gone most of the day, and although he had a fun time, I think he's decided surfing is just not for him. So much for my Matthew McConaughey dreams.

Dude!

After Travis finished riding the waves, we met up with some friends to celebrate Beth's birthday. We went to a favorite restaurant called Yamachan's for some wings and fried cheese.

Jessica B., Beth and me.

No Pain, No Gain

After returning from Guam, we drove to Mt. Fuji (Fuji-san) with three other couples. Mt. Fuji is about 3.5 hours from Nagoya by car.

Travis had already climbed Mt. Fuji last summer, but he was up for it again this year. They say "one who never climbs Mt. Fuji is a fool and the one who climbs twice is twice the fool." Now I know why.

We got off to a late start and finally arrived at Mt. Fuji around 2 p.m. 

This was our view from the car.

The ascent up the mountain is divided into different trails varying in difficulty. The hike is split up by ten stations, starting at the bottom. The typical hike starts at the 5th station, which is where we began. We parked in a lot at the base of the mountain and rode a bus to the 5th station. We started our hike by purchasing wooden hiking sticks. Upon arrival at each station, we paid to have a stamp burned into them, and they ended up being pretty dang cool souvenirs.

We took the second most popular route, which ended up being a bit more difficult than we had anticipated.

This smile didn't last long.

When we started the hike, it was pretty hot outside, but it quickly began to cool off. The first hour or so wasn't so bad, but the hike quickly became the most physically challenging task I had ever completed.

We nicknamed Travis "The Bounty Hunter." I was a bit concerned at first because if he was "Dog," that made me "Dog's" wife. Yikes! The nickname did seem appropriate, though.

Hillbillies do exist on Mt. Fuji.

Hikers typically plan to hike from the 5th station to about the 8th station for some R&R before going to the summit. That was also our plan. We made reservations to spend the night at a little inn at the 8th station to get some rest and to fill our bellies. Although our intention was to make it to the inn by dark, we quickly realized that it would be impossible. We hiked and hiked and hiked. My legs felt like wet noodles and my thighs were on fire. I literally questioned every step I took. It was painful and grueling.

It got dark and cold and windy, but the view from the mountain was spectacular. We could see fireworks shows lighting up the sky, and the sky felt enormous. We were walking in the clouds.

After what felt like ages, we finally arrived at our inn. There are many inns on Mt. Fuji, and they typically consist of little wooden lofts covered in sleeping bags. The inn we booked was a little smaller than most and only slept around 200 or so people. It was far from glamorous. They put all eight of us in a tiny little area filled with sleeping bags, complete with a curtain to draw. We basically ended up sleeping with only an inch or so between us. The inn was very stuffy and humid, and most of the other guests opted to get up between midnight and 2 a.m. to climb to the summit, which meant it was extremely noisy. To boot, they decided turning the lights on at 1 a.m. would be a good idea. Needless to say, none of us got more than a couple of hours of sleep, if that.

We decided the night before that we would wake up around 4 a.m. and watch the sun rise from our inn so we could avoid the mass crowds at the summit. So, after some Excedrin and a granola bar, we began our ascent.

We were so well rested. Doesn't he look like a million bucks?

It hurt, but it was so worth it. I have never seen such a breathtaking sunrise.

Amazing.

Here are the girls posing with the sunrise. I don't think I would have made it to the top without their encouragement. The camaraderie was a boost for us all.

After about three or so more hours of hiking, we finally made it to the summit. And what a joyous occasion it was! I was absolutely famished and was thrilled to purchase a bowl of hot ramen. It tasted sooo good. Unfortunately, it was the brick kind, but I didn't care.

Yummy in my tummy.

We made it to the top! 3,776 meters and Japan's highest mountain.

The only downside was, now that we had made it to the top, we had to go back down. The descent was much faster, but not nearly as easy as I had hoped. Just imagine walking downhill in loose sandy volcanic rock for 3.5 hours. My thighs and hips were killing me, and I got three enormous blisters to top it off. I was absolutely ecstatic to finally get off that mountain. 

It was worth it, but never again. Ever.

Talafofo Falls is Creepy

Well, I decided to go ahead and devote a post to further explaining the horrific experience that was Talafofo Falls on Guam. 

Travis and I had been reading about various destinations on Guam, and Talafofo Falls sounded like one of the "must sees." I'm still debating whether or not it qualifies since it was certainly like no other place I have ever seen.

Allow me to explain....

We followed our little map to Talafofo Falls. When we pulled up to the entrance, we were greeted by nasty pigs. They were splashing around in slop and were apparently part of the Talafofo Falls experience. In fact, you could purchase pellets to actually feed the atrocious creatures.

We couldn't help but wonder if this little Japanese boy was going to have to check that box on the customs form that asks if you had any interaction with wildlife. These pigs were disgusting.

We approached the ticket counter and were handed a brochure outlining what awaited us. It looked like a wonderful little fantasy land complete with rides for children, a petting zoo area, a little fun house and cable cars waiting to take us away to a beautiful paradise of waterfalls. $40 for the two of us seemed like a steal after glancing through the brochure! Oh, and once we forked over the $40, the ticket gal told us that our admission even included access to "Love Land." So, of course we asked, what Love Land was. "It's for couples, you know, adults," was her response.

We walked through the gates and BAM! this is what greeted us.

Oops, someone forgot to mention that the cutesy little train was out of order since, oh, I don't know, maybe 1993.

Oh, and I guess the pool's not exactly open either. Check out the fenced-in area behind it. What we thought was a petting zoo is actually a cock fighting ring. Sometimes those are easily confused.

Beautiful little garden with green moldy water. $40, seriously!

The "tram" was a bargain. Only an additional $1 to ride it.

After we had lost all hope in this place, we thought that surely the historical museum would have something to offer. We were such fools, though.

Is that not so wrong?

Well, I'm sure at this point, you are wondering what "Love Land" entailed. I can't go into much detail, but I will say that curiosity did get the best of us. We just had to take a peak. It was by far one of the most disturbing experiences I have encountered. It entailed approximately 40 white statues doing very inappropriate things. Needless to say, we didn't stay long.

So, if you're heading to Guam, I would suggest avoiding Talafofo Falls unless, of course, you enjoy dysentery.

We Love Guam! (3 of 3)

The end of our trip included a trip to Gun Beach, which was located across the bay from our hotel. The beach is appropriately named Gun Beach as two guns from the War are still found there today.

Gun Beach.

View from Gun Beach.

We also went to what claimed to be the world's longest underwater aquarium. We got some half-off coupons from one of the restaurants where we ate. The aquarium actually ended up being one of the highlights of our trip. 

The likeness is astounding.

Pretty cool, huh?

This is a lion fish. I'm pretty sure he's poisonous.

We were there when the shark feeding took place. 

Thanks for reading about our trip. The below picture seems to be the perfect conclusion.

 

We Love Guam! (2 of 3)

The next few days of our Guam trip consisted of a little shopping, shooting at a gun range, watching Dark Knight and going for a scenic drive around the island.

As you may recall from a previous post, Guam is home to the world's largest KMart. After having been there, I'm not sure if it is the largest, but I will say that it's pretty big. The carts seemed especially huge, though. We're getting pretty used to the little tiny Japanese shopping carts so the carts at KMart seemed enormous! They also had a HUGE selection of SPAM-turkey, Italian, hot and spicy, bacon, garlic, etc.  I had never seen so much of it in my life. 

We also finally got to watch Dark Knight. They have it here in Japan now, but we hadn't gotten around to watching it. We scored a matinee so we both ended up watching it for only $8.50! I really enjoyed it, but I thought it was a little lengthy. Two and a half hours is too long for me. 

Before we left for Guam, Travis made it very clear that he would really like to go to a shooting range if we could find one. Unfortunately, we did find one. It was extremely overpriced, but as soon as we walked in, the owner said, "You guys get 50% off." Umm...ok. Guam is a hot spot for Japanese tourists. There's a ton of duty-free shopping on Guam and it's a short flight from Japan. I would venture to guess that 90% of all Guam's tourism is funded by Japanese tourists. That being said, nearly all touristy activities are overpriced because Japanese tourists have the incomes to support it. Since the shooting range owner could tell that we were obviously not Japanese and knew that the pricing was nuts, he gave us half off. I wouldn't exactly call it fair, but I wasn't going to argue.  Anyway, we ended up shooting there for a little bit. We chose a package that included a Desert Eagle and an M-16, which was pretty cool. 

The individuals working at the shooting range definitely could have used a gun safety tutorial from Max Thornsberry, but we did manage to survive unscathed.  Below are a few pictures from our shooting escapade. I will admit that they are a bit disturbing, but the shooting range dudes insisted that we take them. I did a little extra "work" to them in iPhoto so they'd be even more disturbing. Enjoy!

I'm thinking this one will be perfect for this year's Christmas card.

Travis and I decided we wanted to see as much of the island as possible, and because Guam is a tiny island, it wasn't that hard to do. We drove around the southern part of the island and stopped at various attractions along the way.

This guy was just laying beside the road. This animal is indigenous to Guam. It's kind of like a water buffalo. It's called a carabou.

This photo is of one of the highest points on the island. If you look closely, you can see crosses at the top of this mountain, Mt. Humuyong Manglo. The crosses were placed there by faithful Catholics who trek up the mountain annually on Good Friday. 

Here we are at the Cetti Bay Overlook. We enjoyed a spectacular view at this stop.

Another view from the Cetti Bay Overlook.

We also stopped at Talafofo Falls on our drive. I won't go into much detail here in the interest of time and space, but it was by far one of the weirdest and freakiest tourist attractions I have ever been to. If you want to know more, just ask. 

This photo of the Falls was taken from a cable car. We had to ride down in little cable cars to see the Falls up close. It's also important to note that near these falls is a cave called Yokoi's Cave. Yokoi's Cave isn't actually a cave. It's more like a small hole in the ground. A Japanese soldier, Shoichi Yokoi hid from U.S. soldiers in a small hole near Talafofo Falls for 28 years during the War. He was eventually discovered in 1972 by two hunters. Kind of a random tidbit I just threw out there, but it is pretty crazy to think that some dude lived in a little hole in the jungle for 28 years because he was too scared to come out.

One of the most famous Guam tourist attractions in Two Lovers Point. Two Lovers Point is said to be where two lovers tied their hair into a single knot and plunged to their death in the waters below. Apparently the girl was a daughter of a rich Spanish aristocrat, and she had fallen in love with a young warrior from a Chamorro family. She got word that she was supposed to marry a Spanish captain so she ran away with her Chamorro boy. They were supposedly chased by Spanish troops to the high cliff. That's when they tied their hair together, kissed and jumped. So sweet, isn't it?

The view from Two Lovers Point.

We Love Guam! (1 of 3)

Well, we are back from our vacation to Guam, and I'm not happy about it. We had such a wonderful time there, and I wasn't ready to leave. I decided I'm going to blog about it in segments as there is so much I would like to share. Plus, now that our vacation is over, I'm not sure how much I'll really have to blog about so I want to make it last.

We set out for Guam last Saturday morning. Traveling here is inconvenient and convenient all at the same time. It's nice that we can get from our house to the airport all by public transportation and can avoid the headache of airport parking. Doing so, however, means that we have to lug our bags to the train station, up and down many flights of stairs and switch to a different train at Nagoya station. As you can imagine, the morning of our departure felt a little rushed and hectic. We got pretty nervous when we saw the crazy long lines at security and immigration. Fortunately, they moved quickly, and we made it to the gate with about 40 minutes to spare. What a success!

The flight was easy and pretty short. Only about three hours. The only downer was that they showed that stupid Fool's Gold movie. I hate that movie. Anyway, we arrived in Guam and ventured to our hotel.

This picture shows one side of the view from our room.

Here's a picture of Tumon Bay, which is where almost all of the hotels and resorts exist. 

The very first morning in Guam, Travis and I went deep sea fishing with a couple of our friends also living in Nagoya, Megan and Frank. Their cousin lives in Guam so he picked all of us up to take us to the marina. We got up around 4 a.m. and boarded our fishing charter around 5.

We just love mornings. Can't you tell?!

Unfortunately, our fishing trip was just that-a fishing trip. Not so much catching as it was just fishing. We were out for about five hours and only caught one measly tuna. It turned into more of a boat ride than a fishing trip. We kept getting all this false hope, too. We would see birds flying atop the water and think that it must mean fish were there. Then, we went through a little rainstorm, which we thought would surely produce some fish. No such luck. A whole ocean, and we only caught one little tuna. Apparently all the fish had swam down to Okinawa. Go figure.

There it is. Our one fish. Oh, and we didn't even get to eat it.

Well, everyone knows that after a bad day fishing, there's only one thing to do-lay by the pool. So, that's what we did. Travis and I decided it was time to work on our tans so we carefully chose our pool (there were five to pick from). As you can see, our choice fared well. 

Gotta love the infinity pool.

Shortly thereafter we met up with a couple of St. Louis friends, Matt and Vicky. We didn't know them all that well back home, but they are friends with some of our good friends. They picked us up, treated us for Thai food (delicious!) and took us to a really neat beachside bar & grill. We had a wonderful time with them and are crossing our fingers that they'll come to Japan so we can return the favor. Yay for new friends!

Here we are with Matt and Vicky. They definitely make The Coolest People We Know List. 

We were thrilled to find out that the beachside bar we went to featured fire dancing that evening. It was so much fun to watch, and besides a little rain, the weather was awesome.

Travis and I were pretty pumped that we got put on the Executive Floor of our hotel. All his business travel has paid off. We got free breakfast every morning and snacks and cocktails every afternoon. I have no idea how we swung that kind of deal, but it was certainly a welcomed addition to our vacation.