Weepingly Wet Wednesday: Japan, Day 2

The seed that was planted the day prior by Mike the bartender came to full fruition on Wednesday. Weepingly Wet Wednesday. Sidenote: I decided that the titles of my Japan posts should contain alliteration. Sorry for partying.

Anyway, blah blah blah...came to full fruition...and we woke up bright and early at a pathetic 10 AM to get on our way. Our ultimate goal today was Yanagawa, a fairly sleepy town 45 minutes south of Fukuoka. Yanagawa would probably be pretty worthless as a tourist attraction if it didn't have one thing: 470 km of canals. Even after this little tidbit, I'd argue that Yanagawa is not that exciting of a destination. They cart you in and give you funny Raiden hats and you sit on a boat for 70 minutes drinking beer and listening to the gondolier sing you down a peaceful canal with a few old buildings on it and then you're done. I can say it was still pretty neat, though. Our trip was (get ready for the title reference) made all the more exciting when the sky opened up and we got absolutely pissed on by rain. There is no cover in a small boat, so we and our funny hats took it like men and enjoyed it anyway. There was a long period of time when pictures were unable to be taken because of this common weather phenomenon so my documentation of this experience is minimal (or just photographically tragic).

While our trip out to Yanagawa was mired with a broken train and copious waiting, our trip back was painless and on time. We were ripe to try sushi in Japan, so we found an authentic place near Hakata Station and went for it, trying almost everything offered. Probably the second best sushi I've ever had (the first still being in Las Vegas of all places [happy now, Kristen?]). We hung out at the hostel for a bit and met a Dutch chick who, since growing up going to an international school, sounded remarkably American. We headed down to an island in the middle of town which is commonly known as the red-light district. Our new Dutch friend had a different idea of what a red-light district is. What we were met with was a panoply of bars, a bustling nightlife, and hundreds, if not thousands, of Japanese businessmen escorting decked out women all over the place. It was a pretty unique experience.We headed down the street a few blocks and found the riverside food stall street, where we stopped to get some really great ramyun and figure out our plan for the rest of the evening. It was peaceful looking at that dirty, filthy river and the lights all around among the hustle and bustle of the small food stands. We ended up back to the red light district to be met with another pretty unique experience. We found a bar that surely must have been a front for something. There we were in this lounge club with only us and this seven piece oldies band just going to town, nobody to listen. We would clap, and they'd pretend they were playing to a sold out crowd and we'd pretend we were part of a sold out crowd by making more noise than necessary. I think the lead singer got noticably sour when one of us mentioned that he probably touches little boys based on his appearance.

Doesn't he look like it? Still, it was a fun night. Our Japan journey would hit a climax with our final day...Tragic and Thoughtful Thursday.

Before I forget, I should talk about another subtle difference about Japan that I failed to mention earlier. You are probably aware of this from The Simpsons or some other American culture staple, but Japan has some complex toilets. When your toilets need instructions and has a separate thermostat, maybe you're taking it too far. On the bright side, the toilet seat was always heated and they're environmentally friendly.