Haikyo! Snake Research Center (Part 1)

A couple hours north of Tokyo; past Saitama prefecture; is Gunma. Having lived in Maebashi, the capital of Gunma, for a short time, I can comment. Gunma is ok... if you have a car. Seriously, how would you feel if you lived in a city with nothing except some second rate watermelons.



And a snake research center.



Sorry, the Japan Snake Center. The Japan Snake Center was built sometime in the 60s, the purpose being to advance the study and knowledge of snakes. It is still functioning, and a 1000 yen fee gets you in.



This place is part legit exhibition, part crumbling haikyo. About half of the complex is in utter ruins. Hop over a rather pointless guard rope, and travel back a few million years. No one is there to stop you. If they did try to stop you, you could probably just give them a bill or two and they would turn a blind eye. Ok Doc, let's go back in time!



Back to a time when might T-Rex was king (emperor?) of the land.



Did you bring your boots? The still water looks almost invisible up close, but runs half a meter deep at some points.



Long shutter times and a tripod hide the fact that it is almost pitch black inside this ruined dinosaur cave.



I suppose there is a connection between dinosaurs and snakes.



Though the more likely reason for the existence of this exhibit was just to make money.



T-Rex has seen better days.



As a child, I could name all of these no problem. Is this an Allosaurus?



Some sort of pathetic acid trip art adorns the walls.



If you climb up the wall, you'll have a 50% chance of seeing another room which is full of barrels, or a 50% chance of falling and breaking your neck. Roll the dice!



Stuck in a perpetual roar, with no one to be terrified.



Be careful of the slippery sludge. Fellow haikyo enthusiast Paul almost slipped and fell into the deep. I won't lie, it would have been funny.



I'll rant about the Snake Center's goal to squeeze as much money out of you as possible next time. So it goes without saying that the dinosaur cave would sell dinosaur related gifts.



Or Pokemon literature.



Or some sort of... medicine?



A successful haikyo exploration, though a bit on the small size. Afterwords, we set off to look at the snakes, which was pretty lame. There was one room with 5 pythons called the Big Snake Festival. You could have your picture taken with a boa for $10. The gift shop sells $200 packs of medicine made from ground up snakes and snake leather purses. As someone who has owned many many snakes, and volunteered at a science museum, I was a bit offended.

Then we discovered the... storage room. Stay tuned!

You can see Paul's account of the trip here.

Ice on Lake Yamanako

It's easy to forget about the geography of Japan.



The Kanto plains, stretching out from the Tokyo metropolis, are uniformly flat and relatively warm this time of year.



But a mere 100 kilometers away, at the base of Mt. Fuji, the lakes have frozen over.



Keep this in mind, and pack a jacket.

Fishing in the Ishigami River

The Ishigami River in the north of Tokyo is home to many native fish. Yum, do I spy an elusive river eel?



Put the sweet plum sauce away, it's just a rusty bike.



Would anyone dare drop a line in this cement lined, toxic flow?



Without a doubt.



Strictly catch and release though.



Good god, I hope it's catch and release.



If you live in Tokyo, take time to explore the off beaten paths.



The cold concrete jungle is subtly flavored with joy and tradition.



Just pick a direction, and go.

Pooey the Globetrotting Ostrich

This is Pooey.



Pooey was born (purchased) somewhere in North Carolina about 2 years ago. Passed from rider to rider, he was the torch on a charity motorcycle relay across the good old United States of America. When you see motorcycle and USA in the same sentence, you're probably thinking a big fat dude on a big fat Harley. But ADVRider.com is all about adventure riding. Off road, middle of nowhere stuff. Cool! You can check out the hellllla massive thread about Pooey here. Check out a couple rad shots from his tours so far:






So after touring America, Canada, Australia, India, and China, Pooey is here in Japan. There's not a lot of epic adventure style riding in Japan, unfortunately, and I don't really have the right kind of bike for that anyways. How to satisfy Pooey?



Booze! Yep, I use my vegetable crisper drawer for liquor. Shochu is made from vegetables, right?



Nothing screams Japan as much as Mt. Fuji, so on a brisk Friday morning I hopped on the CB1000 and headed west...



...with my new sports video camera mounted on the ride. This is a GoPro HD Hero camera. It's meant to be worn on a helmet or mounted on a vehicle. I'm still working out the kinks, but check out a short video of me getting onto the expressway! (warning: it's boring)



Sorry, no more videos. A 2 gigabyte memory card fills up pretty fast. I have a video where I'm at a stop light behind a truck for 2 minutes. Should I upload it?



Headed west on the Chuo expressway. Cafe culture sucks in Japan, so McDonalds is the choice for caffeine. I ordered a cafe latte, and the girl behind the counter freaked. Turns out they don't have McCafe in the countryside. Also talking to foreigners is hella scary to some countryside folk.



Arriving at the prime view spot of majestic Mount Fuji...



... was a disappointment. Fuji's magnetic cloud powers were in effect. Sorry Pooey.



Took some new roads on the way home (route 147 out of Yamanako to the 246). Monkeys!



Lookit them crazy monkeys!



I made a left onto 76, which I thought was 70. After a nice ride along a lakeshore and up into the hills...



... a dead end. I've got a nice collection of "Don't Enter" signs from Japanese roads. The benefits of being too cheap to buy a proper GPS system.



Check the map, and try again.



Managed my way back to the Tomei expressway. Inside a rest stop is a massive real-time map of Tokyo's expressway conditions. A little traffic ahead, but nothing too serious. On a Sunday night, you'll see a lot of red, but on a Friday you're ok.



Use of an electronic toll collection (ETC) system saves time and money. Being Japan, shit is all fucked up, and the unit for a motorcycle costs 4 times the price for a car. Regardless of that fact, they've been sold out for like 2 years. I just bought a used car one, which is technically a no-no, but it works so I don't really care.

Seriously, if I get busted for using a non-regulation payment system before getting busted for something else...



Thus ends my day with Pooey the globetrotting ostrich. He is, yep, a Beanie Baby. And, crime of crimes, his tag is missing. Would this ruin the value of this collectible toy? A quick google search, and it looks like Pooey (nee Stretch) isn't on the top of any collector's lists. Onward Pooey, see it all.

Drinking at the Kinnokura Izakaya

Next to every major train hub station, down every popular shopping street, above any Starbucks in this great land is a 金の蔵 izakaya. Kinnokura's selling point is that everything on the menu is 270 yen. Beer, cocktails, snacks... it's all cheap. By the way, Kin no kura... the gold warehouse?



Keeping with the New Year resolution to drink more, this spot is a go to. Cause it's cheap. And I'm kind of poor lately.



5 people, drinking for a couple hours and eating many delicious foods was less than $20 each. That's less than 2 drinks at many places. Solid.



You work up a mighty thirst after going to art museums all day.



Or in my new friends' cases, having a recital for their modern dance fusion performance. Traditional kabuki dance and music mixed mixed with modern western influences. Rad!







If you stay out too late and have to walk home because your last train is long gone, be sure to grab a limited edition パックまん, Pac-Man steamed bun, from the convenience store.



Granted, the food at a super cheap chain izakaya like this is not so great. Everything, though, "goes well with beer". And your choices of things like beer or Japanese sake are limited to one choice (tons of shochu and cocktails though). Anyone know of any rad izakayas in Tokyo? I can't eat ramen for every meal (though I can).