Also, this is the first of many days in which I learn to hate stairs...

So, it's before 7:00 am in the morning and I am up and ready to go yet again. This was the day I was going to meet up with my friend Yoshiko in Nagoya! Three days exploring solo was very fun, but I really needed some people to socialize with again - I was getting a bit sick from being anti-social.

	Time to join my Japanese comrades in another morning rush of crowd-squishing train rides.
	A great breakfast combo - two onigiri packs and a bottle of cold coffee. I can definitely live off this for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! Well, if I think about it more, I can live off this for only a couple of days... I will need some variety in my diet... hmm... I don't think you really care about what I just typed down, do you? I'll shut up.
	At Nagoya station. Nagoya is the capital of the Aichi prefecture, which is the home of the 2005 World Expo that started on March 25. It's a working-class town, and the Toyota company is based out of Nagoya.
	Hello Yoshiko! She is a great friend that I met during University times - she was an exchange student in Victoria for only 8 months, but she usually maintains a happy and cheerful mood - a fun person to hang around with!
	The lobby of the KKR Hotel Nagoya. Yoshiko is helping me check into the hotel because I am completely incompetent in Japanese. Anyways, it's quite a nice business hotel with good rates for the low-budget spending people like me. Also, it's located very close to one of the major attractions in Nagoya - Nagoya-jo (aka. Nagoya Castle).
	Yoshiko with her web-browsing cell phone.
	Yoshiko and I went back to Nagoya station after checking in my luggage to grab some refreshments at an adjacent shopping mall. I took this picture because of the English translation of two types of litter here: burnable dust and unburnable dust. An interesting note was a couple of Japanese women looked at me funny and were talking to each other in Japanese, and I was pretty sure they were talking about me taking a picture of this. I had to say, "Sorry, I'm a tourist" to them in English before leaving... they went silent for a few seconds as Yoshiko and I left.
	A view of one of the rooftops in Nagoya. As you can tell, it was a cloudy day. Man, was I ever glad that I went to see Mt. Fuji the previous day when it was clear (Mt. Fuji is located between Nagoya and Tokyo).
	This is the mascot for the Nagoya subway lines. Basically, the head portion represents the dolphin that is situated on the rooftop of Nagoya-jo.
	DO NOT RUN IN SUBWAYS. Otherwise, the doors will chop your hands off or something of that nature... :P
	A street in a suburban area of Nagoya. We were heading towards Yoshiko's car at the time of this picture.
	Going on a little drive around the area.
	Another driving pic. Yoshiko insisted that I do not take a picture of her while she was driving - I obeyed with her orders because I did not want to be the cause of any car accidents.

We went to check out a couple of places in the afternoon - one of the places we went was a Denny's restaurant. Just to let you know, Denny's in Japan is COMPLETELY different than the ones in North America - simply put, you don't have to worry about suffering a quick heart attack if you eat at a Japanese Denny's. The majority of the food served in Japan is not oily and greasy at all. It was definitely nice for us to enjoy talking about what has happened to each of us since we last met while we were at the restaurant. Also, we went to a local supermarket to do some shopping - I needed to get some dental floss since I forgot to bring some from home. Actually, why am I telling you guys that I went to buy dental floss? *shrugs*

However, during the afternoon, both Yoshiko and I started feeling very tired. For me, I think the jetlag finally started to kick in, and for Yoshiko, work and school had taken a toll on her. Therefore, we decided to end the day a little earlier than we wanted to. We would meet up again the next day, so a really good rest could give both of us a lot of energy to have fun together.

	My room at the KKR Hotel.
	A blurry night view of Nagoya.
	A toilet installed with another one of the great Japanese inventions - the washlet. On the right side of the seat (left side of the toilet in this picture), it has buttons you can select - basically, the washlet has the power to spray water at your ass hole after you take a nice crapper, making your ass feel wonderful. Also, for guys, it can spray your hanging dick if you were taking a piss sitting down. And some of the washlet I've experienced warms up the seat. Japanese service is just too great!

It definitely sucked that Yoshiko and I didn't get to spend a long together, but as stated before, we would meet up the next day and with the good rest, we would really make that day a great one. Meanwhile, I will use this space to type down a number of things I've learned and experienced in Japan:

• Stairs are EVIL, especially when you have a large, heavy luggage to drag around your stuff. I learned that the hard way when I started lifting my bag up and down some flights of stairs in Ikebukuro, but I started to HATE it when I was lifting within the Nagoya subway system because the exit we had to go through MANY flights of stairs. Man, was I ever glad I played hockey and did some working out before coming to Japan.
• On a similar note, try not to bring a large luggage around - small or medium are much easier to go around with if you have the option. Simply put, Japan likes things smaller than North America. As an example, a medium bag in North America would probably be considered a large bag in Japan; therefore, my large bag will probably rank itself as SUMO size in Japan. Anyways, one incident involved a little kid laughing at me while I struggled trying to fit my bag through a subway turnstile. Yoshiko did make a kind remark that it was good that I humour people. But then again, should I really feel good that I make people laugh from my misfoturnes? Whatever works, I guess!
• Taking pictures in public places such as trains, subways and restaurants is not a good idea, as it can be considered rude. Whoops. :P Then again, Yoshiko said that this applies to smaller cities; large cities such as Tokyo might be alright, but all in all, it's best not to do this.
• Hugging is primarily used for intimate relations. I wanted to give each of my friends a hug, but I was advised not to... otherwise, boyfriends and husbands would be coming after me with their katanas and start slicing me to bits.
• Chocolate Sundaes/Parfaits are super kick-ass desserts in Japan! I ended up eating quite a few of these around Japan, with the first one being at the Denny's restaurtant. Many of them will have different condiments included; the chocolate sundae at Denny's included chocolate ice cream, brownie pieces, cream, pastry dough, Cocoa Puffs cereal, mint, banana slices, chocolate fudge syrup, and a chocolate piece designed with the "Denny's" logo.
• Some restaurants serve all-you-can-drink non-alcoholic drinks, including coffee, American coffee (aka. weak coffee), tea, iced coffee, iced tea, pop/soda, etc. Denny's was no exception. I dranked a lot of iced coffee there, and instead of sugar, you add gum syrup to sweeten the drink. Anyways, for the first two drinks, I had one gum syrup pack for each cup; however, on the third order of iced coffee, the waitress gave me two packs of gum syrup instead of one because she noticed two empty packs of gum syrup that I used for the previous two orders and she thought I use two packs of gum syrup per drink. Anyways, I decided to go stupid and try two packs of gum syrup on one drink. Now, combine the sweetened iced coffee drinks I had PLUS the chocolate sundae mentioned above. Does your teeth and gums feel like they want to rot away right now? That's what mine felt like.
• Japan is one happy cell phone country. However, unlike Hong Kong, the Japanese keep their cell phones on silent on trains and most other places. Also, they LOVE to send SMS messages.
• Japanese TV shows are quite interesting to say the least. For most of my North American friends, we are aware of some dubbed Japanese TV shows and anime such as MXC (aka. Takeshi's Castle) and Dragon Ball. Now, when I was at my hotel, I decided to watch some TV to see what a typical Saturday Japanese TV line up in Nagoya would consist of. Well, here's what I saw:
  • You remember the Japanese classic TV hit Iron Chef, where a professional chef compete against an "Iron Chef" and they have to use a theme ingredient? Well, there's an "ordinary Joe" version, where two ordinary people compete to make the best dishes possible. I ended up watching Ken vs. Hori compete, and for those who care, Ken won.
  • A "Doctor Know-it-All" who will use the wonders of science to impress celebrities.
  • A live soccer match in which Japan trounced Kazakhstan.
  • An old re-run of an NBA game between the New Jersey Nets and the Los Angeles Lakers
  • Other weird, indescribable shows. Can't explain them.

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