BETWEEN NAGOYA AND BALI

PR 437 from Nagoya to Manila plus 100 is PR 537 from Manila to Bali, the former replete with hot ramen bowls and a cold morning pint that were smuggled to Bakal 2 in duty free bags as chilled cans of Japanese beer and boxed bottles of sake...

....the latter denied by failed credit card transations, flavors that tasted like watered canned Chinese beer and insipid soup in a taijitu of three hot pots warmed by the waves of Manila Bay. 

At Hogwarts, a desperate petition for Reinforced Concrete Design netted an apprenticeship outside the summer class that nailed a welcome pack, two presentations, a final agenda, and arrival requirements upon the foreheads of the Bali Assembly moderators.  

At the City of Angels, old historical houses safeguarded a refugee of the power outage in Bakal 2, an insistence on brand development that will gather content and raise funds for the initiation of social protection from the huge doors of Pisamban Maragul, temporarily closed in protest of Aling Lucing's stagnating sisig, and in defense of a delayed acquittal report submission.  

In Bakal 2, a sinister motive was detected from the team in Manila who unexpectedly agreed to have the Bali Workshop rebooked and the frozen tulya thawed with reheated tahong which smelled of canned Budweiser and kalderetang baka that looked like tiim na manok but tasted of sweet and sour pampano.

In San Rafael, a crime was uncovered with a request to open the doors at the convent of San Juan de Dios and liberate Sisa, Basilio and Crispin from allegations of scalping the reservations at Vikings to redirect the crowd to Four Seasons.     

The lounge was finally accessed an hour before boarding, just enough time to cure a highball with a mug of beer 4 hours before the e-gates of Gusti Ngura Rai International Airport confirmed its refusal to scan crtain passports...    

FUJISAN

In our Japan itinerary, an encounter with Mt. Fuji up close and personal has been strongly insinuated by the wife.

That we consider as the bidding of the Cherry Princess, the godess of Mt. Fuji itself, so we scratched Kobe (we can have Kobe beef somewhere else) and mined Google on where it will be best to view Japan's holy mountain.

Our research indicated that Mt. Fuji will be visible in the morning of May 3  in Fujinomiya which is 219 kilomters away from Nagoya.

Thus, we started walking to the Nagoya Station at 4:30 am for a fast but expensive Shinkansen ride to Shizuka where we took a regular train to the Fuji Station.

It was on the last train ride to Fujinomiya when Mt. Fuji slowly revealed itself in an almost striptease way. 

Outside the Fujinomiya Station, the mountain is fully visible, framed with medium rise buildings.

Some 750 meters from there is the Mt. Fuji World Heritage Centre, a symbolic representation of a "mountain of water" that was opened in 2017 to celebrate the listing of Mt. Fuji as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a complex cooled by water from the mountain's springs that empties into a reflection pool. 

Nearby is the ancient Fujisan Hongu Sengen Taisha Shrine, the cnter of worship for Mt. Fuji that is also listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

But being a Sunday within a Japanese Golden Week which is the equivalent of a Filiino long weekend, Fujinomiya is deserted.

We found a small teppanyaki shop with an "open" sign, its door ajar but no one inside. 

That's when we decided to return to Nagoya, relying on a liquid diet from vendo machines for breakfast and lunch, counting stops and train changes as we endured a 4-hour trip until finally, a table at a popular yakiniku shop we booked the previous day. 

We smelled of grilled pork skirt, wagyu steak, chicken cartilage, beef tendon, thinly slice beef tongue, and marinated pork intestines after being smoked for 2 hours but it was the best way to conclude the first of our Japan adventures. 

I had a highball and Sapporo beer, and we have a 5-year visa to Japan. 

NAGOYA REDUX

My lasting memory of Nagoya Castle are two Japanese ladies clad in the sexy Joshi Kosei mode (JK Style) that were actually the main subject of a photo I took of the edifice.

But we came too early this year and there is none of that, yet.

We did encounter a number of these Lolita-influenced fashion as we traveled through 3 train lines to Nagoya, our biobatteries charged with a ramen brunch at the Kyoto Station that enabled us to lug our bags through the streets of Nagoya to a superb dinner of the city's famous tebasaki, must try oroshi karaage, cochin oyakodon, a specialty tamagoyaki, and tonkatsu at the Nagoya Maruhachi Shokudo. 

I had a highball and a Morita Kinshachi Craft Beer.

That was our prelude to a 360-degrees view of the Nagoya Castle that we captured in several frames by walkng around and killing time, before breaking our fast at one of the breakfast trucks parked just after its entrance gate.

Someday, I too will build have a a teahouse within my own Japanese garden where I can drink shots of sake while watching a monkey do a lap dance. 

At the Osu Kannon Temple, we offered prayers to the Buddha of Compassion.

I tried recalling the flea market spot where I was sold a fake katana and the small shop where I had a lunch of ramen topped with raw egg 20 years ago.

Instead, buntings of the Philippine flag at the Osu Shopping Streets led us to a lunch of gyutan, a Wagyu steak, pork donburi, and mackerel.

I had a highball and Yebisu Beer. 

At the Atsuta Shrine, we clapped our hands twice before and after our prayers to commune with the deities, to heal us of our sickness, and to request for a graceful exit into the sunset.

This ancient Shinto shrine is home to the  Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi (Heavenly Sword of Gathering Cluds) which is one of Japan's three sacred treasures and imperial regalia, and honors Amaterasu-Omikami, the supreme sun god, and all other deities that is connected with the sacred sword. 

I rode a bike to the Atsuta Shrine from the JICA Chubu, maybe once or twice 20 years ago.

I once had  a 1993 Toyota Corolla for company use. 

Just recently, my mother-in-law bought a Toyota Hiace Commuter De Luxe van for Bulan

It was then inevitable for us to visit the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology in Nagoya that showcased the company's evolution as the Toyoda Automatic Loom Works into its incorporation as the Toyota Motor Corporation in 1937.

We saw models of its Model A1 passenger car that it frst produced and the Toyopet Crown that apparently broke the market for Japanese cars, and were serenaded with a crappy violin concerto by Toyota's Partner Robot.  

Then it was dinner, a meal we failed to find at Sakae's red light district where once upon a time, I desperately scrounge for a bottle of San Miguel Beer that will be used for our commencement ceremony in lieu of our flags.

The options around the vicinity of the Nagoya Station turned out to be beyond what we are wiling to spend so we walked until stumbling into what seemed to be a newly opened and empty shop between rows of full izacayas.

We were prepared to be surprised and that's how it turned out with the superb ramen and and donburi nbowls we happily found out to have ordered.

I had a Kirin beer.