Noli the Anomaly

This post is devoted and dedicated to Noli.

It should be known that:

1. Noli is a good friend of mine.
2. Noli lives about 45 minutes away via car.
3. Noli is one of the smartest people I know.
4. Noli is pronounced nori in Japanese, which means seaweed.
5. Noli has many peculiar interests.
6. Noli is half Cuban, half Greek.
7. Noli is from Texas.
   
8. Noli likes sumo as much as I do.
9. Noli rarely wears pants.
   
10. Noli is an anomaly.
    

Meet Noli. He is an English teacher in Japan, but he studied paleontology at an Ivy League school in Pennsylvania. He is wicked smart in more areas than one. He speaks Japanese and Texan drawl. He has a $100 ping pong paddle and beats me only 45% of the time. He hates it when I call it ping pong ("it's table tennis!") and when I mention how he can't beat me even with a $100 ping pong paddle.

Noli really enjoys hiking and camping. He also likes to position his head between your legs right before a picture is taken. It is, in a word, exhilarating.

Noli is a fantastic juggler. Noli puts most of his energy into spelling immature, blasphemous, and ebonics words during a game of Scrabble. Noli once criticized me for using the word G-love in a Scrabble game, to which I replied, "It's glove!"


On a trip to Tokyo with Noli, I discovered he bookmarked the Mark Twain book he was reading on page 2. I asked him if he needed a break from reading that one page, to which he replied "the font is small and the margins are big!" He also affirmed that he wouldn't be able to remember that he was on page 2 without the bookmark.

Noli is the best (and only) mountain unicycler I have ever met. On a recent trip to China, he unicycled along the Great Wall. He also ate scorpion and centipede. I'll ask him for photos. Noli, nice to meet you.

Trains to Terrains

CHUGGA-CHUGGA, CHUGGA-CHUGGA, CHUGGA-CHUGGA

Gunma to Kyoto: 11 hours on the train.

Enid and I took the slow train because we are, let's face it, cheap. We each got five 1-day JR train passes for 8000 yen (about $70) and decided to head down south like many the spring breakers before us. Our three days in Kyoto were filled with visits to mind-numbing zen temples, over-the-top ascetical shrines, and bike rides through quaint bamboo-lined streets and, later, through the rush hour mass exodus of salary men, high-heeled women, and taxis acting like Shriners.

Japanese moment: learning that, in Kyoto, there is a job for those who like to remove moss from trees.

CHUGGA-CHUGGA, CHUGGA-CHUGGA, CHUGGA-CHUGGA

Kyoto to Shikoku: 8.5 hours via the Moonlight Rapid Service (night) train. Plus many more side trips.

Shikoku is the smallest of the four main islands of Japan. We spent three days here, too. Here the cherry blossoms were in full bloom amongst the many castles, seafood shops, fertility shrines and sex museums. Yep, the most famous fertility shrine in all of Japan lies in the coastal town of Uwajima, and in the 1960s the sex museum was erected alongside it. Women from all over Japan come to the fertility shrine to pray for easy childbirth and healthy babies, among other things. We came to learn something about the culture, and, much like 95% of the others, to gawk at the strange collection of sexual images, "toys", cartoons, sculptures, and world sexual artifacts (India, Nepal, and sadists were all strong contributors).

CHUGGA-CHUGGA, CHUGGA-CHUGGA, CHUGGA-CHUGGA

Shikoku to Osaka: 7.5 hours via the Moonlight Rapid Service (night) train.

Osaka is Tokyo on amphetamines with a cement chaser. Everything is sped up and industrialized. We only spent two days here, visiting the famed Osaka Castle, America Village (equivalent to a chinatown), and a Salvador Dalí exhibit. It was utterly fantastical and just what we needed before the 12-hour train ride home.

Kyoto Confidential

While visiting temples and shrines throughout Kyoto during spring vacation, Enid and I decided to go into stealth mode to make things a little more interesting. By 'stealth mode', I mean we acted like ninjas in the temple complex areas. Just watch the videos.