things learnt while spring cleaning

I always wondered what this stupid piece of metal did on my stove. I always figured when I moved in, the stove was clean, and everything was the colour it was supposed to be, i.e. The parts that were black were supposed to be black, not blackened from smoke and not being cleaned for months and stuff. Boy, how wrong I was.

where's the beef?

I know, I know. For someone who has what some may say a slight obsession with food, I somehow managed to travel 3 hours by train to Kobe for the weekend, and not eat the famed Kobe beef once. After just buying a car this month that cost more than I expected (i.e. more than the amount in my Japanese bank account) I was a little weary of spending $80 on a single meal, when they say the lesser-known Hida Beef in my prefecture is about the same, if not better, and also since this whole month I'm trying to survive on just $5 a meal until my next pay cheque arrives.

But still, as it inevitably happens, the highlight of my trip this weekend away, was the side-trip to another city outside the city I was visiting. Kobe was good, but the most touristy thing we saw were the ijinkan, or "barbarian houses", built by the small foreign population in around the 1900s. I can see how they would be a popular tourist spot for Japanese tourists, but it was really hard to convince ourselves to pay $10 just to see what an old English house looked like.

But our side trip took our crew to Himeiji, a lesser known city known for having one of the top three castles in Japan. Our trip coincided with cherry blossom season, which made for an excessive amount of pictures involving the castle, cherry blossoms, or both.

Unfortunately, it seems that all of Japan kinda knew about the picturesqueness of Himeiji and the spring time, and conspired against us to make sure it was ridiculously packed when we got there. Which mean facing the crowds while walking through the maze-like grounds of Himeiji castle, and spending what seemed like an hour of lining up and waiting just to reach the top of Himeiji castle (there are like 5 floors). We kinda gave up on the 3rd floor, when we noticed we weren't even looking at any artifiacts, and heading straight to the line just to keep going up.

Still, despite the lack of Kobe beef consumption and the crazy packedness that was Himeiji castle, it still was a pretty cool weekend. We decided to stay at a capsule hotel (again), which actually turned out to be way better than our previous experience - I think we just happened to luck out and find a luxury capsule hotel, as opposed to your standard, run-of-the-mill capsule hotel that's usually meant for people who have missed their last train. It still wasn't roomier than the other one, but I the word "dank" didn't really come to mind this time. It was like, clean, and fancy, with its attached onsen and like 4 or 5 different types of baths to try out - my highlight was the green tea bath.

Also, in lieu of our expensive Kobe dinner, we went to an all-you-can eat/drink place instead. We were kinda expecting like a buffet type thing, but turned out to be way cooler.

Plus, at the all you can eat place, I they also had heaps of cool steaky foods on the menu. So, technically, I did eat beef in Kobe... so does that count?