Finally Friday Fukov Hash House Harriers

This post is a little over a week late, but when it came down to my last 48 hours in Japan, I decided it would be best spent going places and doing things instead of sitting in front of a computer typing up these posts.
There was almost a solid week in between my hash with the Sumo H3 and the F3H3 so I spent it traveling around Japan in a whirlwind self-tour.
On that Monday, the 5th I took a train down to Kyoto, arriving late into the night and finding probably the most local of hostels to stay in. There were no locking doors, only sliding panels, the tables were all sit on the floor style with a comforter attached which was warmed by a heater. The place had no showers, only toilets so I had to walk a block to the local bath house in order to bathe. You really don't get much more cultural than this! Even better, the extremely cheap 2000 Yen a night rate (in comparison my Tokyo hostel cost about 3600 and the capsule hotel was closer to 4000) included all you could drink local whiskey and rum from 9:30 until when the cartons and bottles were gone.
Tuesday I spent wandering around a couple of the 2000 or so temples around Kyoto and taking a train to nearby Mt. Inari where I hiked around for about 3 hours and had a bowl of Soba noodles at a path-side café.
Wednesday morning I took an early train to Hiroshima, arriving around noon. I dropped my bag off at the hostel and took the tram to Peace Park, the epicenter of the A-bomb blast. It was haunting and beautiful at the same time. I took the opportunity to visit the museum, take some pictures and ring Peace Bell. They say the total number of deaths related to the Hiroshima blast was around 200,000. Mostly women and children.
That night I tried the local flavor of Okonomiyaki, a nutritionally balanced sort of fast-food that the Japanese eat in places where it is easier to grow wheat than rice. It consists of batter, cabbage, pork, egg, onions, sprouts and Okonomiyaki sauce. Quite tasty!
On Thursday I jumped on a train back up towards Tokyo, making a stop at Himeji to see the castle there.
Something about Japanese castles just makes them appear so much cooler (to me) than their European counterparts. The way they appear to be segmented with wild flailing corners to their roofs. Couple that with blossoming sakura (cherry flower blossoms which I was unfortunate to be a couple months early for) and the sights are absolutely amazing.
Post castle I got back on the local trains toward Kyoto, where I switched to a high-speed bullet train to get back to Tokyo at a reasonable hour (7:00 p.m. vs. 11:30 p.m.) where they local trains would still be able to take me to my hostel in Asakusa.

Friday arrived with a tormental spell of bad weather. The wind was ripping and it was raining for most of the day. Cold was an understatement, but I didn't want to waste a day due to weather so I braved the storm and trudged down to the Pokémon Centre and then over to the Square Enix Store in order to get my geek fix in.
Post that I grabbed a bowl of noodles and then slid back to the hostel to change for that night's hash trail. Without long pants I would have to endure, so I slid on my running shorts, threw on a wicking shirt and long sleeve combo, then threw on my windbreaker which I had to hope would hold the horizontal rain at bay long enough for me to do trail. The worst part was my face though, which I combated the blistering cold with dual bandanas, going checkerboard ninja with my LVH3 bandana on my head and my Munich H3 bandana over my nose and mouth.
Trail was a short 3.5 miler, but felt much longer as we faced into the wind most of the time. Honor to the hare though as he actually laid a live trail, something I hadn't seen in a while.
Without an on-after to go to, we hunkered down under some stairs to protect ourselves from the elements during circle before a bored security guard kicked us away from the building. So, we walked 20 feet over to the sidewalk where an overwalk was creating a rain break and held circle there. It went fairly quick as Rapunzel went down the usual list. I got called out for only remembering the names of harriettes I met on previous Tokyo hashes (Pee Wee, Second Hand Job and Anchor Twat), and was given a patch to add to my collection. The hare was blamed for the weather (someone had to, and there was no RA!), then we all went our separate ways.
With my plane flight on the coming Monday, I took the opportunity over that weekend to finish up some personal goal loose ends in Tokyo, skipping the hashes as a result.
"What? Skip a hash? Never!" You may say, however I felt the following justified my absence.
Eating fresh sushi at the Fish Market in Tsujuki. It was the best sushi I have ever had in my life, even if I had to get up at 5 a.m. to get in line for it.
Watching Japanese Rockabilly clubs do dance battles in Harajuku with pompadours the size of small pick-ups.
Getting a spare pair of glasses. It turns out glasses in Japan are extremely cheap. Frames range from $45-$125 U.S.D. and they include both the lenses and an eye exam in the price.
Frame+Lenses+Eye Exam in the U.S. can add up to $200-$300 easily.
Checking out the electronics stores in Akihabara. If the DSi wasn't regionally coded, I would've picked one up.
Getting a full 6 course Fugu meal. Fugu is Japanese for pufferfish and it has one of the most potent neuro-toxins in its system. The Fugu chefs have to be specially licensed to fillet and serve the fish. My personal favorite was the fugu sashimi. Sliced so thin you can see the plate beneath through the fish.