Meeting up with Nate

Our amigo Nate arrived in Tokyo the day before we left, so we got to catch and spend the day walking the streets. Had a good laugh in Harajuku when we ran into a music video being filmed in the middle of the street. Those dudes were MANIC!

We hadn't seen Nate since he visited Hawaii the year before we got married. Good times, and some good beers at a nice little bar called Brussels.

Robo Toilet

I am missing my throne in Tokyo!

The control panel looks like you could control the Millennium Falcon with it. And look at the lights on the crapper! Amazing!

Straight Hair and the Design Festa (Harajuku)

One of the big events of our stay in Tokyo was Veronica deciding to get her hair straightened (mainly because the Japanese invented the ION Straightening Perm System. She went to the salon Kua frequents in Harajuku, It took 6 and a half hours!

Meanwhile, I had a bit of free time. I wandered through the immaculate stores that make everyone just want to BUY things. Managed to stumble into the Design Festa, a free art gallery. While having a coffee I struck up a conversation with Hiro, a self professed Tokyo homeboy who loves P-Funk. He was busy running his own art installation, the Milk Bar, which in essence was a free bar. I ended up spending the afternoon with him drinking Jack Daniels, being involved in a photo shoot at the gallery, and meeting some cool Japanese artists and some fellow travelers.

Tokyo

Arriving in at Narita Airport from Bali, it felt as if we had landed on a different planet, not just a new country. Chaos was replaced with efficiency, and it is hard to believe that a city of 13 million can be so clean!

We are staying with friends here in Tokyo. Kua, who was Veronica's last roommate before me, now lives in Tokyo with her husband. WOW is the only way to describe their apartment!

They have robo-toilets, literally toilets that you operate with a keypad! We will post commode pictures later, I promise.

Our first few days were spent wandering around the Shibuya (home to the world's busiest intersection), the Harajuku (fashionista's) district, and Nakamegura (where the hipsters live). Good places to people watch.

Balangan

Our last week in Bali was spent back on the Bukit Peninsula, just North of Bingin (where we spent the first week). Another world class wave is here, so we trudged down another hill with all of our bags in the hopes of finding a place to stay on the beach.

Turns out the homestays in Balangan were not as nice as their counterparts in Bingin. After searching the length of the beach, we ended up going back to the first place, which was at the bottom of the stairs. Damyan's Warung was right on the beach, and it only had one room. One small room, and no fan. But it had a proper crapper, not a Indonesian squatter, and it was only $6 a night.

Didn't sleep all that well, but we had a great time nonetheless. Probably the best beach to lounge on for Veronica. As for the surf, well, it got huge. SCARY BIG. Had some great rides, but I left Bali without a barrel. In the words of Jeffrey 'The Dude' Lebowski, 'F'n bummer man'.

Nusa Lembongan

After a nice week spent in the rice fields, we made our way South to Sanur. From Sanur we took a boat over to Nusa Lembongan, a tiny island to the southeast. Stayed in a nice place called the Secret Garden (which served the greatest coconut juices of all time!), but man, that island was STINKING hot! Literally stinking from all the seaweed that the locals were farming and drying to sell to the Japanese (their biggest industry).

The island also housed an amazing amount of flies. During the day they were constantly on you, or your food. The only respite was evenings, and that's when the mosquitoes came out. :)

Surf was pretty much flat all week, but it paid off because the lack of swell meant the dive boats were making the long journey out to Manta Point. We tagged along and went snorkeling, and DANG, it was magical. Saw around 15 manta rays during the trip. Huge ones, medium sized ones, and some smaller ones. Perhaps the coolest part was seeing one of the smaller ones do 5 backflips in a row as it ate plankton.

Really wished I had an underwater housing for the camera, it would have been SPECTACULAR!

Oh, and I got schooled by an 8 year old playing Connect 4. Kid was a NINJA!