Those damn onsen blues

So today I was hoping for some onsen action. For those out of the loop an onsen is a hot spring, Japan being on a major fault line is blessed with both Earth quakes, and shit loads of hot water coming out of the ground. The best onsen are out in the forest somewhere, and that was what I really wanted, to go out to some freezing cold mountain somewhere and sit naked in a pool with a bunch of strangers. But unfortunately due to my lack of research and sleeping in, there was no time for a trek to some onsen out in the middle of nowhere. Instead I did some research and found that there are a few onsen in the city. Even though I hear there are many around my neighbourhood, but my lack of ability in the 3rd Japanese alphabet(kanji-from the goddamn Chinese) means that I have no clue to the fact that there's probably one right next door to my house.
Anyway, where was I? Yes, I smsed young Matthew from Canada, and he was "all systems go", but when I met up with him he asked "Do we have to get naked at this thing?". Of course, immediately his enthusiasm died, that's the best bit about about it I said, sitting in a boiling pool naked with a bunch of Japanese men, whet more could anyone want??? Then we met up with Energi(probably spelt that wrong) from New York, his enthusiasm was also lacking. What is it with these young punks, they've never been naked in public? Anyway, we took part in my greatest specialty for the next few hours- procrastination(thanks my father for passing on to me one of your more formidable traits), through the means of coffee and looking at bicycles. After a while we decided the onsen plan was truly dead and the best option was to visit the viewing platform in the nearby Carrot Tower. I have no idea why it's named that, but I think once we were in we could've gone anywhere in the building, cause it seems at one stage we wondered into a bunch of offices and no one seemed compelled to stop us.....
Man, it looks like this is gonna be one of those longer rants, so buckle in folks and enjoy it while you can. I've been feeling guilty the last week for not writing in this, but who the hell is reading anyway? So where was I? Yes, the Carrot Tower, after it was decided we would head to Shibuya, this is kind of the down town, but after tonight I've decided it bites arse, here are a few notes from the various bars we visited-"Chelsea Bar- The scene feels like we've crashed someone else's party. We just sauntered in, the dudes at the door had puzzled looks on their faces(so did I), but some chick made them let us in(those goddamn foreigners, but we spent 3000 yen here.-I've never seen a bar where the bar tenders are sitting down.). Anyway, the rest of these notes are bullshit, basically no one wanted to talk to us cause we weren't hip enough and had no rock'n'roll cred. The atmosphere there was ok though, especially compared to the next joint we ended up at. The dreaded "Gas Panic". This is a chain of cheesy bars full of the world biggest wankers, the owner must be commended for his uncanny ability to assemble such a vast array of fuckwits, but nonetheless the bar is consistent in this area. There are a few of these gas panics around Tokyo, and this one had a rather large crowd of pale Arab dudes, guess they might've been Afghans, anyway, not the kind of freaks we wanted to get in any kind of confrontation with. There were also a load of cheap as Japanese girls there, but after a while it seemed to be mostly guys dancing here. The most notable was this extremely stylish Japanese dude in a kind of 80's suit strutin' his stuff all over the dance floor. I tried to shake his hand in admiration but he didn't seem to understand my point, a true stylemaster.
Well if anyone's still reading this installment, I went to Kamakura last week, it was pretty cool. This is a place with heaps(literally) of temples and shrines, we saw a few, but there are many more, it's a massive place, I put some pics on the pic page. The highlight of the day of course was meeting Steve from San Diego, some random dude that approached us just after sunset as we were wandering around town looking for somewhere to eat. He asked us if we knew where he could get a map, the only map we knew of was stuck to the wall of the train station, but he was welcome to take it if he wanted. We talked to him for about 10 minutes, during this time he told us he was heading back to the states tomorrow, after our exchange he felt obliged to introduce himself to us. Now this is the best bit, what compels a man to introduce himself to someone he's almost definitely never going to see again in his life. We were kind of stunned as we presented out hands and names to this complete nutball. My biggest regret is that I told my real name and didn't take this precious opportunity to tell him crazy tales of giant snakes and that my name was Bruce from Broken Hill and I'd never seen the sea before I came to Japan. Next time, if I ever get this opportunity again. Anyway, the place was cool, but make sure you get up early if you wanna go there. Think I'll end this one now, if I've said the same thing twice I'm sorry, but I don't see anyone else writing here. Argh...