Jan 30
Today we went to Kyoto for the second time, taking advantage of the ¥500 all day unlimited bus pass to see some of the sights that are more spread out around the city; while Kyoto’s host to all sorts of world heritage sites, they’re not the easiest to get to, but the bus and public transport system is GODLY so we got our way around them.
We started off with a breakfast in Shinsekai of toast with butter, a hardboiled egg (sitting in its shell on the plate which was a bit bizarre), and lemon tea… walking back from the café, a random old man grabbed my arm, asked me where I was from, patted my arm and walked off. O_o” On the train there a little girl was staring at me, I waved back and she became embarrassed and hid in her mum’s lap for the rest of the journey. On the bus to our first site, we passed under the largest Torii gate in the world spread out over the road. We then started off the day with Ginkakuji, or the Silver Pavilion, which has beautiful gardens and raked pebble Zen Buddhist gardens; on our way out at the gift shop we ran into a Belarusian lady that we’d been talking to next to the enlightenment hole at Nara, with her Polish husband in toe. What are the odds of that. O_o”
After sharing a delicious chocolate and ice-cream crèpe (which Prue managed to smear on her face), we headed to Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavilion, one of the most famous sites in Japan; it was packed out – though it was beautiful, it looked almost tacky. After that we tried to get to the Ryoanji (sp?), a temple with a famous Zen rock garden of 15 stones arranged randomly, but it was closed until late February. Sad panda. =(
‘Twas getting late and so we went back to Kyoto station to try and get a bus South to a famous temple lined with 4km of Torii gates and stone foxes along its entrance, but the bus was half an hour away at least, it was cold, and the train ride home beckoned. After the shinkansen home, we came home, got delicious rice and beef again from the fast food place, and are now doing washing. Joyous. Photos to come to facebook by tomorrow night.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Jan 29
Today we slept in and left for Himeji Castle at midday, known for being the most well preserved and beautiful castle in Japan; it’s never been touched by war and is pretty much in its original state (apart from restorations). We planned on going to visit the Okayama Gardens as well, half an hour away from Himeji, though we ran out of time, but it’s winter and the gardens are mainly grass so it wasn’t that disappointing to not see it.
The castle was really beautiful, with lots of really deep water wells surrounding it and towering white walls; the views from above were amazing though nauseating, and the staircases to get up each floor were insanely steep with ducking required to get under support beams. The highlight though was the free bicycle hire at the train station and riding to and from the castle. I’ve not ridden a bike for nearly ten years… oh god I was uncoordinated. It was great fun, nearly falling into bushes and using my feet to stop. We walked through a Japanese supermarket before leaving, which was a bit bizarre with fresh stinky seafood sitting there for you to take, wondered through the department store at the train station (which was incredibly bizarrely laid out; clothes, stationary, laundry/bathroom products and bed sheets in the one section) and caught the shinkansen home, just because we could.
We went out to Dotombori for dinner and had the same ramen as last time (which wasn’t anywhere near as good because I’d binged on Milky lollies again), attacked some arcade machines again (we both won stuff ^_^), walked into a pachinko parlour, got BLASTED with noise and colour, had no idea what the hell to do with the free balls we found laying on a counter, then came home. Hooray.
Tomorrow: Kyoto again to see the Golden and Silver Pavilions and a famous Zen rock garden temple.
Jan 28
We visited Nara today, a city renowned for its world heritage listed buildings, but by now we were a bit shrined and templed out so just went to see the main one - Todai-Ji, a Buddhist temple which is the largest wooden building in the world, containing a massive Buddha, the Daibutsu, the largest enclosed Buddha in the world.
We set off by train in the morning and walked to the temple, along the way seeing dozens and dozens of deer, darker in colour than the ones in Miyajima but even more everywhere. We walked through a park shrouded in mist with a small stream running through it, laughed at the animal warning signs that were there (the cartoon angry deer and apparently farting dog were the best) and headed down the pathway towards the temple. Along a strip of tourist shops we tried out Japanese soft-serve ice-cream cones; I had sweet potato, Prue had green tea, bizarre flavours but actually pretty tasty. We got surrounded by curious/hungry deer, and decided to buy deer biscuits from a vendor to feed them. What a mistake that was.
While cute, slow-moving and curious, once food is on the agenda the deer suddenly became fast and vulture-ous large seagulls. I quickly got rid of my biscuits as they started biting at my clothing, my hand and my bag straps (which now has smudged deer biscuit and spit over it, yuck). Prue on the other hand opted to start feeding them slowly, each one a piece of biscuit. She quickly got surrounded (“One for you, one for you, ahhhhh, you’ve already had one, go away!!”), had them biting at her scarf and started off in a trot herself as she began to jog away from them. They chased, and the hilarious scene is on film, with Prue eventually giving the biscuits away then running for dear life. =P Okay so not all that dramatic but they were greedy and annoying.
In front of the temple are two massive wooden gates, with really large statues on either side, kind of like the one at Koyasan; we went inside the temple, which smelled strongly of the delicious incense they burn everywhere here; the Buddha was freakin MASSIVE!!! Maybe three storeys tall? I didn’t realise how big it’d be. Beside it were two smaller ones, but the lighting was pretty dark so no photographs really turned out very well. Apparently the temple is a third smaller than the original when it was built, so I can’t imagine how big the original must’ve been. Behind the Buddha is a hole in a pillar of wood the size of the statue’s nostril; it’s believed that if you can fit through it, then you will be enlightened. After nearly peeing herself laughing while a bunch of tourists looked on, Prue managed to pull me through the hole and vice versa, but neither of us feels any holier. Yet.
We caught the bus back to the station after Prue bought a deer beanie for her head, and had udon noodles (they were really kind of slimey) for a late lunch/early dinner before heading home. At night we went out to Shinsekai for fried food on a stick for dinner (cheese, chicken, beef) after attacking capsule machines in Den Den Town to complete our World Axis sets. After chocolate milkshakes for dessert we headed to Spa World. It’s an eight storey hotel/onsen that has a European themed and Asian themed onsen floor alternating between men and women each month. After trying out the top communal family level together in swimmers, we headed down to give the singular gender levels a go… but we couldn’t face being naked in front of total strangers (so much nakedness O_O) and so opted instead to ditch that idea and just play the capsule machines instead. I won a few Pokémon plushies and we took awesome SPARKLING purikura… win. ^_^
Today we slept in and left for Himeji Castle at midday, known for being the most well preserved and beautiful castle in Japan; it’s never been touched by war and is pretty much in its original state (apart from restorations). We planned on going to visit the Okayama Gardens as well, half an hour away from Himeji, though we ran out of time, but it’s winter and the gardens are mainly grass so it wasn’t that disappointing to not see it.
The castle was really beautiful, with lots of really deep water wells surrounding it and towering white walls; the views from above were amazing though nauseating, and the staircases to get up each floor were insanely steep with ducking required to get under support beams. The highlight though was the free bicycle hire at the train station and riding to and from the castle. I’ve not ridden a bike for nearly ten years… oh god I was uncoordinated. It was great fun, nearly falling into bushes and using my feet to stop. We walked through a Japanese supermarket before leaving, which was a bit bizarre with fresh stinky seafood sitting there for you to take, wondered through the department store at the train station (which was incredibly bizarrely laid out; clothes, stationary, laundry/bathroom products and bed sheets in the one section) and caught the shinkansen home, just because we could.
We went out to Dotombori for dinner and had the same ramen as last time (which wasn’t anywhere near as good because I’d binged on Milky lollies again), attacked some arcade machines again (we both won stuff ^_^), walked into a pachinko parlour, got BLASTED with noise and colour, had no idea what the hell to do with the free balls we found laying on a counter, then came home. Hooray.
Tomorrow: Kyoto again to see the Golden and Silver Pavilions and a famous Zen rock garden temple.
Jan 28
We visited Nara today, a city renowned for its world heritage listed buildings, but by now we were a bit shrined and templed out so just went to see the main one - Todai-Ji, a Buddhist temple which is the largest wooden building in the world, containing a massive Buddha, the Daibutsu, the largest enclosed Buddha in the world.
We set off by train in the morning and walked to the temple, along the way seeing dozens and dozens of deer, darker in colour than the ones in Miyajima but even more everywhere. We walked through a park shrouded in mist with a small stream running through it, laughed at the animal warning signs that were there (the cartoon angry deer and apparently farting dog were the best) and headed down the pathway towards the temple. Along a strip of tourist shops we tried out Japanese soft-serve ice-cream cones; I had sweet potato, Prue had green tea, bizarre flavours but actually pretty tasty. We got surrounded by curious/hungry deer, and decided to buy deer biscuits from a vendor to feed them. What a mistake that was.
While cute, slow-moving and curious, once food is on the agenda the deer suddenly became fast and vulture-ous large seagulls. I quickly got rid of my biscuits as they started biting at my clothing, my hand and my bag straps (which now has smudged deer biscuit and spit over it, yuck). Prue on the other hand opted to start feeding them slowly, each one a piece of biscuit. She quickly got surrounded (“One for you, one for you, ahhhhh, you’ve already had one, go away!!”), had them biting at her scarf and started off in a trot herself as she began to jog away from them. They chased, and the hilarious scene is on film, with Prue eventually giving the biscuits away then running for dear life. =P Okay so not all that dramatic but they were greedy and annoying.
In front of the temple are two massive wooden gates, with really large statues on either side, kind of like the one at Koyasan; we went inside the temple, which smelled strongly of the delicious incense they burn everywhere here; the Buddha was freakin MASSIVE!!! Maybe three storeys tall? I didn’t realise how big it’d be. Beside it were two smaller ones, but the lighting was pretty dark so no photographs really turned out very well. Apparently the temple is a third smaller than the original when it was built, so I can’t imagine how big the original must’ve been. Behind the Buddha is a hole in a pillar of wood the size of the statue’s nostril; it’s believed that if you can fit through it, then you will be enlightened. After nearly peeing herself laughing while a bunch of tourists looked on, Prue managed to pull me through the hole and vice versa, but neither of us feels any holier. Yet.
We caught the bus back to the station after Prue bought a deer beanie for her head, and had udon noodles (they were really kind of slimey) for a late lunch/early dinner before heading home. At night we went out to Shinsekai for fried food on a stick for dinner (cheese, chicken, beef) after attacking capsule machines in Den Den Town to complete our World Axis sets. After chocolate milkshakes for dessert we headed to Spa World. It’s an eight storey hotel/onsen that has a European themed and Asian themed onsen floor alternating between men and women each month. After trying out the top communal family level together in swimmers, we headed down to give the singular gender levels a go… but we couldn’t face being naked in front of total strangers (so much nakedness O_O) and so opted instead to ditch that idea and just play the capsule machines instead. I won a few Pokémon plushies and we took awesome SPARKLING purikura… win. ^_^
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Jan 27th
Today we headed for Kyoto, which apparently takes a week to see properly but frankly it's winter, and this season doesn't offer up the chance to see amazing parks and gardens in full bloom or golden colours, let alone the patience to walk slowly about them in the cold weather.
We arrived at Kyoto station after the half hour from Osaka, but the cities are so merged that it didn't seem like we changed city at all. We headed for the bizarrely located English tourist information centre on the 9th floor of the very modern building (we had to head into a department store inside the station and take the lift up, it wasn't exactly convenient) and then began the walk to Kiyomizu-Dera, the famous temple on top of a hill that offers stunning views as it drops off into trees. While all the foliage was dead in the winter, it was still great to visit, and I can imagine what it must look like in Spring when the hundreds of cherry blossom trees are in full bloom or Autumn (but given how crowded it was today it'd be thronging then). On the walk there we passed dozens of temples and shrines; there's too many to see and you get sick of them pretty quickly. We walked back down through some really old streets with traditional houses and buildings, trying out a few souvenir shops along the way - Kyoto has lots of them, but they're not tacky and awful like the ones that were in Edinburgh.
We walked to the Gion district and looked around a couple of streets, though nothing was as old and beautiful yet as what we'd seen near the temple. We then headed for a famous street by the river where parts of Memoirs of a Geisha were filmed I think... it was stunning. A small stream ran down the length of it, with really really old houses, gardens and small fences running down the length of the street on one side, and pokey little back-alley buildings with really narrow dark alleyways on the other. A bridge led across the stream to another street, and in the middle of the road was a really well kept shrine with a red torii gate and vermillion fencing. Walking down the road was a posh-looking lady pushing a toy dog along in a pram, which was preened and brushed and pink-bowed up to look hilarious, though I think she was a bit annoyed when she saw me filming... I continued to film as she walked past and the dog went nuts over a schnauzer that was walking past and she struggled to hold on to it, heh heh heh.
We crossed the river that marks the boundary of the Gion district and dead down Pontocho-dori, a street alongside the river that dates back to the 1700s, with very narrow dark alleys shooting off the sides of it and lanterns along its length. Apparently on the weekend in the evening you might be lucky to glimpse a geisha around here; there were many restaurants and what I imagine were private gentlemen's clubs in very old traditional wooden buildings.
We headed home, visited the Pokémon Centre again after getting horribly lost and wondering how we ever found it the first two times, headed to Shinsekai quickly again after I skyped home and then now I'm finally updating my blog for whichever two people read this. I know it's a bit long-winded but at least I'll look back and remember.
Oh! And I'm not sure, but I *think* I might have seen a geisha or a maiko (apprentice geisha). When walking back from the temple through the old narrow streets, I looked down an alleyway and saw a woman taking the photo of what I think was a geisha/maiko outside of an old house in a very old street. While walking around the temple and Gion there were a lot of people dressed up in traditional kimonos and make-up etc, the woman I saw was completely different. Full white make-up to her neck-line, hair up in the geisha style, the right shoes, clothes, accessories... yeah. I'm hesitant to say it was one because of how rare it apparently is to see one but I think it might have been.
Tomorrow: Short trip to Nara to see the massive wooden temple and some deer. Try to relax around the Osaka area and head to Spa World at night.
Jan 26th
We got up at 6am to watch the monks' morning prayer ceremony, and discovered that it had snowed overnight; the garden outside looked even more amazing with about half an inch of snow covering it. We were called downstairs by the traditional bell, and led into the main shrine which was lit by candles and smelt of incense - before we made it in we could hear the loud chanting of the monks, who for about the next half hour chanted, bowed, hit bells and clashed cymbals to the shrine in front of them while reading chants from their books. Totally different and amazing to watch, the atmosphere was almost magical in the morning darkness.
Breakfast was like a smaller version of dinner the night before with even more delicious food, though this time Prue didn't have to stuff herself so full to finish her meal. We started the morning by exploring Okunoin graveyard further, which was also covered in snow, seeing the Borneo Memorial to Australian, Malay and Japanese soldiers, walked further and crossed the bridge and saw prayers on stakes in the river to aborted and drowned babies. We stepped inside a hall and purified ourselves with a dab of charcoal given to us by a monk, and saw an apparently eternal flame burning in front of a shrine, surrounded by lanterns donated (at $20,000 a pop) from devout Buddhists around the world. Outside was the mausoleum dedicated to Kukai, with food left on the shrine as an offering to him while he continued to pray inside. We left the graveyard down the other path back towards the town, seeing much newer graves and bizarre memorials; the White Ant memorial offered apologies to ants killed by a Japanese pesticide company, and there were loads more shrines by corporations such as Nissan and other businesses. On the other side of town were the Hideyoshi mausoleums, dedicated to generations one and three of the Hideyoshis and decorated with intricately carved wood.
At Kongubuji was a frozen pond, zen rock garden and a number of rooms with decorated screens depicting Kukai's travels and establishment of Koyasan, with tea and rice cakes offered inside a new ceremony hall. Inside were two lovely Japanese women who were sisters visiting for the day from Nara, and they offered us delicious Japanese sweets (yama-michi I think they're called; pounded rice cakes filled with sweet bean paste; sticky to eat but totally different to anything I've had here) while one sister practised her English. They were really sweet but had to get going home. There was also a woman there who was born in China but moved to the Netherlands when she was young, but was travelling Japan and kept on being mistaken for a local.
We went out and bought some of the sweets ourselves and went home, catching the wrong train on our line and ending up taking an hour longer than we should have as it wasn't express. On one of the trains home the carriage was filed with high school kids, and it was great just watching them interact and seeing the completely different cultures they had to the adults who we saw every day. I've never seen anywhere where anybody is so fashion conscious or works to create an image for themselves so hard. Despite having to dress conservatively at school, it seemed that as soon as the bell rung, make-up would be piled on, hair messed up, and shoes and skirts swapped for statements of colour and style.
For dinner we tried Osakan okinomiyaki in a pretty nice restaurant at Dotombori; it wasn't anywhere near as good as Hiroshima's but it was nice to be able to sit down and talk.
Jan 25th
We took the train in the morning for Koyasan, the sacred Buddhist mountain that's home central to Shingon esoteric Buddhism. It dates back to 819AD when the Japanese monk Kukai came back to Japan after studying in China, and got permission from the Emperor to establish a Buddhist sect upon the mountain. It's believed that Kukai did not die, but instead is sitting and praying inside his mausoleum until the next Buddha returns... or something like that, I'm not too sure on the details. It's a UNESCO world heritage site and has a lot of really really old temples (over 100 in the town alone) where you can stay with monks, some incredibly holy temples/shrines for Buddhists, and also the largest graveyard in all of Japan (Okunoin Graveyard).
So after paying for a train that wasn't covered by our JR Pass, we got on and soon found out we had to pay an extra fee again because the train was reserved seating only (grr). We arrived at the base of the mountain, took the cablecar (or vertical train, like the one in Katoomba) up the mountain and then the bus from the station to the town - it's such a windy and narrow road that you're not allowed to walk it, and only buses drive on the single road in. It's pretty isolated, but I think it's easier to get to from the highway by car. Anyway.
We checked into our temple (and my legs nearly died trying to sit Japanese-style at the check-in table) and got showed into our room by a monk; it was beautiful. Two tatami mattresses in a pretty large room, and a tea room towards the window overlooking a beautiful Japanese garden, with a kotatsu (basically a low table with a blanket around it and heating element underneath) to warm your legs which was awesome. There was a traditional green tea set on the table so you could enjoy your tea overlooking the scenery.
We set out for the afternoon, saw the Garan temple complex (inside some of the temples was AMAZING but you couldn't take photos... centuries old carvings, massive statues, gold-leafed lotuses, incredible smelling incense) the town museum housing some old relics, took a quick look in the graveyard then headed back to the temple for dinner at 5.30. We were shown to our private dining rooms downstairs, where there was an amazingly detailed and intricate vegan platter for each of us. It was delicious. Back to our room, a quick shower/bath in the traditional bathing areas downstairs (why can't our baths be as huge and deep >_<"), wearing the yakuta provided (so comfy) and sleep, hooray!
Today we headed for Kyoto, which apparently takes a week to see properly but frankly it's winter, and this season doesn't offer up the chance to see amazing parks and gardens in full bloom or golden colours, let alone the patience to walk slowly about them in the cold weather.
We arrived at Kyoto station after the half hour from Osaka, but the cities are so merged that it didn't seem like we changed city at all. We headed for the bizarrely located English tourist information centre on the 9th floor of the very modern building (we had to head into a department store inside the station and take the lift up, it wasn't exactly convenient) and then began the walk to Kiyomizu-Dera, the famous temple on top of a hill that offers stunning views as it drops off into trees. While all the foliage was dead in the winter, it was still great to visit, and I can imagine what it must look like in Spring when the hundreds of cherry blossom trees are in full bloom or Autumn (but given how crowded it was today it'd be thronging then). On the walk there we passed dozens of temples and shrines; there's too many to see and you get sick of them pretty quickly. We walked back down through some really old streets with traditional houses and buildings, trying out a few souvenir shops along the way - Kyoto has lots of them, but they're not tacky and awful like the ones that were in Edinburgh.
We walked to the Gion district and looked around a couple of streets, though nothing was as old and beautiful yet as what we'd seen near the temple. We then headed for a famous street by the river where parts of Memoirs of a Geisha were filmed I think... it was stunning. A small stream ran down the length of it, with really really old houses, gardens and small fences running down the length of the street on one side, and pokey little back-alley buildings with really narrow dark alleyways on the other. A bridge led across the stream to another street, and in the middle of the road was a really well kept shrine with a red torii gate and vermillion fencing. Walking down the road was a posh-looking lady pushing a toy dog along in a pram, which was preened and brushed and pink-bowed up to look hilarious, though I think she was a bit annoyed when she saw me filming... I continued to film as she walked past and the dog went nuts over a schnauzer that was walking past and she struggled to hold on to it, heh heh heh.
We crossed the river that marks the boundary of the Gion district and dead down Pontocho-dori, a street alongside the river that dates back to the 1700s, with very narrow dark alleys shooting off the sides of it and lanterns along its length. Apparently on the weekend in the evening you might be lucky to glimpse a geisha around here; there were many restaurants and what I imagine were private gentlemen's clubs in very old traditional wooden buildings.
We headed home, visited the Pokémon Centre again after getting horribly lost and wondering how we ever found it the first two times, headed to Shinsekai quickly again after I skyped home and then now I'm finally updating my blog for whichever two people read this. I know it's a bit long-winded but at least I'll look back and remember.
Oh! And I'm not sure, but I *think* I might have seen a geisha or a maiko (apprentice geisha). When walking back from the temple through the old narrow streets, I looked down an alleyway and saw a woman taking the photo of what I think was a geisha/maiko outside of an old house in a very old street. While walking around the temple and Gion there were a lot of people dressed up in traditional kimonos and make-up etc, the woman I saw was completely different. Full white make-up to her neck-line, hair up in the geisha style, the right shoes, clothes, accessories... yeah. I'm hesitant to say it was one because of how rare it apparently is to see one but I think it might have been.
Tomorrow: Short trip to Nara to see the massive wooden temple and some deer. Try to relax around the Osaka area and head to Spa World at night.
Jan 26th
We got up at 6am to watch the monks' morning prayer ceremony, and discovered that it had snowed overnight; the garden outside looked even more amazing with about half an inch of snow covering it. We were called downstairs by the traditional bell, and led into the main shrine which was lit by candles and smelt of incense - before we made it in we could hear the loud chanting of the monks, who for about the next half hour chanted, bowed, hit bells and clashed cymbals to the shrine in front of them while reading chants from their books. Totally different and amazing to watch, the atmosphere was almost magical in the morning darkness.
Breakfast was like a smaller version of dinner the night before with even more delicious food, though this time Prue didn't have to stuff herself so full to finish her meal. We started the morning by exploring Okunoin graveyard further, which was also covered in snow, seeing the Borneo Memorial to Australian, Malay and Japanese soldiers, walked further and crossed the bridge and saw prayers on stakes in the river to aborted and drowned babies. We stepped inside a hall and purified ourselves with a dab of charcoal given to us by a monk, and saw an apparently eternal flame burning in front of a shrine, surrounded by lanterns donated (at $20,000 a pop) from devout Buddhists around the world. Outside was the mausoleum dedicated to Kukai, with food left on the shrine as an offering to him while he continued to pray inside. We left the graveyard down the other path back towards the town, seeing much newer graves and bizarre memorials; the White Ant memorial offered apologies to ants killed by a Japanese pesticide company, and there were loads more shrines by corporations such as Nissan and other businesses. On the other side of town were the Hideyoshi mausoleums, dedicated to generations one and three of the Hideyoshis and decorated with intricately carved wood.
At Kongubuji was a frozen pond, zen rock garden and a number of rooms with decorated screens depicting Kukai's travels and establishment of Koyasan, with tea and rice cakes offered inside a new ceremony hall. Inside were two lovely Japanese women who were sisters visiting for the day from Nara, and they offered us delicious Japanese sweets (yama-michi I think they're called; pounded rice cakes filled with sweet bean paste; sticky to eat but totally different to anything I've had here) while one sister practised her English. They were really sweet but had to get going home. There was also a woman there who was born in China but moved to the Netherlands when she was young, but was travelling Japan and kept on being mistaken for a local.
We went out and bought some of the sweets ourselves and went home, catching the wrong train on our line and ending up taking an hour longer than we should have as it wasn't express. On one of the trains home the carriage was filed with high school kids, and it was great just watching them interact and seeing the completely different cultures they had to the adults who we saw every day. I've never seen anywhere where anybody is so fashion conscious or works to create an image for themselves so hard. Despite having to dress conservatively at school, it seemed that as soon as the bell rung, make-up would be piled on, hair messed up, and shoes and skirts swapped for statements of colour and style.
For dinner we tried Osakan okinomiyaki in a pretty nice restaurant at Dotombori; it wasn't anywhere near as good as Hiroshima's but it was nice to be able to sit down and talk.
Jan 25th
We took the train in the morning for Koyasan, the sacred Buddhist mountain that's home central to Shingon esoteric Buddhism. It dates back to 819AD when the Japanese monk Kukai came back to Japan after studying in China, and got permission from the Emperor to establish a Buddhist sect upon the mountain. It's believed that Kukai did not die, but instead is sitting and praying inside his mausoleum until the next Buddha returns... or something like that, I'm not too sure on the details. It's a UNESCO world heritage site and has a lot of really really old temples (over 100 in the town alone) where you can stay with monks, some incredibly holy temples/shrines for Buddhists, and also the largest graveyard in all of Japan (Okunoin Graveyard).
So after paying for a train that wasn't covered by our JR Pass, we got on and soon found out we had to pay an extra fee again because the train was reserved seating only (grr). We arrived at the base of the mountain, took the cablecar (or vertical train, like the one in Katoomba) up the mountain and then the bus from the station to the town - it's such a windy and narrow road that you're not allowed to walk it, and only buses drive on the single road in. It's pretty isolated, but I think it's easier to get to from the highway by car. Anyway.
We checked into our temple (and my legs nearly died trying to sit Japanese-style at the check-in table) and got showed into our room by a monk; it was beautiful. Two tatami mattresses in a pretty large room, and a tea room towards the window overlooking a beautiful Japanese garden, with a kotatsu (basically a low table with a blanket around it and heating element underneath) to warm your legs which was awesome. There was a traditional green tea set on the table so you could enjoy your tea overlooking the scenery.
We set out for the afternoon, saw the Garan temple complex (inside some of the temples was AMAZING but you couldn't take photos... centuries old carvings, massive statues, gold-leafed lotuses, incredible smelling incense) the town museum housing some old relics, took a quick look in the graveyard then headed back to the temple for dinner at 5.30. We were shown to our private dining rooms downstairs, where there was an amazingly detailed and intricate vegan platter for each of us. It was delicious. Back to our room, a quick shower/bath in the traditional bathing areas downstairs (why can't our baths be as huge and deep >_<"), wearing the yakuta provided (so comfy) and sleep, hooray!
Monday, January 25, 2010
Jan 24
Today we spent the day exploring Osaka a bit more. In the morning we got up and headed to Takarazuka, home to an apparently reputable all-female theatre company and the Osamu Tezuka Manga Museum (creator of Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion). However, neither of these were our targets and we spent a couple of hours in the Takarazuka Garden Fields, which is basically a dog park. You pay 600 yen entry and get to bring your dog to a semi-large-ish oval with lots of different dog courses, but basically the attraction I guess is to just bring your dog and let it play with others. There’s also a pen of maybe 25 different dogs, of all kinds of breeds, which you can rent for half an hour for 800 yen. We didn’t do this but spent 45 minutes or so patting them. Lots of them were in winter coats, with a small toy poodle and a large chocolate Labrador in a kind of Dorothy the Dinosaur get-up, so we nicknamed them Dogosaurus and Dogzilla respectively… Prue was going gaga, and bought her dog a stuffed doughnut toy. We had a lunch that was basically an omelette shaped into a kind of croissant stuffed with rice, bits of bacon and veg, and topped with tomato sauce. It was delicious.
We left Takarazuka and headed to Osakajokoen station, or Osaka Castle Park station, which are the grounds surrounding the castle. There seemed to be a concert on in the stadium next to the castle, or maybe it’s just because it was a Sunday afternoon, but there were hordes of people in the gardens around the castle, with bands playing and carnival style food being sold by vendors. One band was actually really good, got some on film and wouldn’t be surprised if they’re signed, and there was an older Japanese man dancing hilariously to the music that Prue pointed out, which we also got on tape, hoorah! We walked up the path to the castle, and took some photos, the setting is breathtaking. We didn’t go in though as we’re saving our castle experience for Himeji – basically the best castle in Japan, it’s huge, beautiful and all original – it’s never been destroyed by warfare.
We headed back to the city centre after stopping by a big fountain to see kids playing on unicycles and foot-half-skateboards (which Australia probably won’t see for a couple of years? they were bizarre) and spent an hour or so wondering around Amerika-Mura, which is Osaka’s take on an American village, filled with clothing stores and teenagers – basically Osaka’s Harijuku. There’s a mini Statue of Liberty on top of one of the buildings. It would probably be really interesting to go and watch in the summer, and there were lots of teenagers about (it’s a Sunday night), but not all that many dressed bizarrely. We saw a girl in a bright pink kind of maid’s outfit (like something from a Gwen Stefani clip) - she must’ve been FREEZING, and an old guy dressed in jeans, piercings and a bright sparkly t-shirt with bling on it hanging out with a bunch of teenagers, which was kind of weird.
It was getting dark and we headed back to Umeda again, went to go to the Pokémon Centre again but it was closed, we were tired, hungry and sick of walking again so came back to the hostel. I finally figured out that there’s good wireless reception in the hallway so can now use Skype, yay!
Before I finish off this entry though, just a little rant on Japan. I still can't get over the bizarre contradictions in Japanese culture. It's not okay to show affection, but it's okay for men's toilets to have no doors (you walk past and see them peeing) and have female cleaners in there, and it’s okay to have disgustingly eroticised naked sexual figurines of children in shops, and suggestive posters of young girls on the streets. You shouldn't eat/drink on the street, but there's hundreds of vending machines, basically at least two every twenty metres, which nobody seems to touch, and basically no bins for rubbish anywhere (apart from bottle/can recycling ones next to the vending machines). I’ve seen five or six repairmen fixing vending machines, yet only once have I seen people buy something from them, and I must’ve walked past hundreds. Despite the eating/drinking in public taboo (which we’ve been ignoring), there's no limits to smoking inside. Everywhere you go there’s the smell of smoke, with people smoking in arcades or pachinko parlours – today at lunch, inside the café, the two men at the table next to us were smoking, which was disgusting. You shouldn't walk around on tatami floors with shoes because it’s dirty, yet there's basically never hand soap except in public toilets, and sometimes no toilet paper. The novelty of getting stared at has worn off and is getting a bit irritating... but apart from all of that, almost every single person we've come across has been amazingly understanding, hospitable and friendly.
Oh, and ther’s a complete and utter LACK OF BENCHES. Walking around for hours, it’s painfully rare to ever see a place to sit unless it’s to pay to eat and sit down in a restaurant. No wonder the Japanese are so healthy, they never sit down in public unless they’re eating. >_>
So now I’m finally caught up to date with my blog. Yay! Though virtually nobody is reading this and it’s quite boring. I’ll hopefully figure out what photos to use and post them soon.
Jan 23
We spent the day visiting Namba (again), Den Den Town and Shinkesai. Den Den Town is basically one of the best locations in the world to buy electronics apparently (32 inch Bravias for like ¥800 O_o’), and is an 800m or so strip of basically electronics stores of every variety and comic stores in between which also sell capsule toys, figurines etc. We got the train to Namba, went looking for Den Den Town, finally found it, walked down it, got to the end, and realised that Shinsekai was at the end of it. Shinkesai is the suburb next to ours (Shin-Imamiya); we could’ve walked to Den Den Town in like 15 minutes but instead had a one and half hour process finding it… le sigh. We had lunch in an awesome fast food noodle bar, which was rice, beef, onion, miso soup and salad, and was amazingly delicious. We went back to find a capsule machine we’d had to miss before due to a lack of hundred yen coins (I now have a Stitch coin purse that I bought from a hundred yen store solely for the purpose of keeping hundred yen coins) and got three figurines – I got a little caricature of an American and a Japanese guy, and Prue got an Austrian guy. The other three countries you can get are Italy, the UK and Germany. We wanted them ‘cause they were awesome little flag people, but I realised that they were all powers from WWII, and the German looked kind of Nazi-like… we then looked at the name of the series – it’s ‘World Axis’. UK/USA v Japan/Germany/Austria/Italy. WTF?!?!?! So wrong yet hilarious and cute as hell capsule thingies. We each want to go back and get the rest of the set. >_> After that we wondered around a bit and headed to Shinsekai.
Shinsekai was established in the 1980s and literally means ‘New World’, but because of the economic bust at the same time, the area was badly affected by the building industry that collapsed around it and lots of people lost their jobs (hence the higher than average homeless rate around our area), and so the place is kind of stuck in the 80s as far as its resemblance, but it’s freakin cool. It looks kind of like the streets from Blade Runner, it had a lot of older shops which were a mix of discount stores, arcades, pachinko parlours (THESE ARE EVERYWHERE in Osaka, at least one a block), clothes stores etc. Even the capsule machines here were a couple of years old, with Ratatouille and Super Mario Galaxy, Mario Kart figurines that I hadn’t seen anywhere else in Osaka, which was great because I got some of the Nintendo ones I was looking for. ^_^ Though I ended up with Peach, so, bleh to her. Our feet were killing us so we basically went to bed and had an earlyish night. Yay!
Today we spent the day exploring Osaka a bit more. In the morning we got up and headed to Takarazuka, home to an apparently reputable all-female theatre company and the Osamu Tezuka Manga Museum (creator of Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion). However, neither of these were our targets and we spent a couple of hours in the Takarazuka Garden Fields, which is basically a dog park. You pay 600 yen entry and get to bring your dog to a semi-large-ish oval with lots of different dog courses, but basically the attraction I guess is to just bring your dog and let it play with others. There’s also a pen of maybe 25 different dogs, of all kinds of breeds, which you can rent for half an hour for 800 yen. We didn’t do this but spent 45 minutes or so patting them. Lots of them were in winter coats, with a small toy poodle and a large chocolate Labrador in a kind of Dorothy the Dinosaur get-up, so we nicknamed them Dogosaurus and Dogzilla respectively… Prue was going gaga, and bought her dog a stuffed doughnut toy. We had a lunch that was basically an omelette shaped into a kind of croissant stuffed with rice, bits of bacon and veg, and topped with tomato sauce. It was delicious.
We left Takarazuka and headed to Osakajokoen station, or Osaka Castle Park station, which are the grounds surrounding the castle. There seemed to be a concert on in the stadium next to the castle, or maybe it’s just because it was a Sunday afternoon, but there were hordes of people in the gardens around the castle, with bands playing and carnival style food being sold by vendors. One band was actually really good, got some on film and wouldn’t be surprised if they’re signed, and there was an older Japanese man dancing hilariously to the music that Prue pointed out, which we also got on tape, hoorah! We walked up the path to the castle, and took some photos, the setting is breathtaking. We didn’t go in though as we’re saving our castle experience for Himeji – basically the best castle in Japan, it’s huge, beautiful and all original – it’s never been destroyed by warfare.
We headed back to the city centre after stopping by a big fountain to see kids playing on unicycles and foot-half-skateboards (which Australia probably won’t see for a couple of years? they were bizarre) and spent an hour or so wondering around Amerika-Mura, which is Osaka’s take on an American village, filled with clothing stores and teenagers – basically Osaka’s Harijuku. There’s a mini Statue of Liberty on top of one of the buildings. It would probably be really interesting to go and watch in the summer, and there were lots of teenagers about (it’s a Sunday night), but not all that many dressed bizarrely. We saw a girl in a bright pink kind of maid’s outfit (like something from a Gwen Stefani clip) - she must’ve been FREEZING, and an old guy dressed in jeans, piercings and a bright sparkly t-shirt with bling on it hanging out with a bunch of teenagers, which was kind of weird.
It was getting dark and we headed back to Umeda again, went to go to the Pokémon Centre again but it was closed, we were tired, hungry and sick of walking again so came back to the hostel. I finally figured out that there’s good wireless reception in the hallway so can now use Skype, yay!
Before I finish off this entry though, just a little rant on Japan. I still can't get over the bizarre contradictions in Japanese culture. It's not okay to show affection, but it's okay for men's toilets to have no doors (you walk past and see them peeing) and have female cleaners in there, and it’s okay to have disgustingly eroticised naked sexual figurines of children in shops, and suggestive posters of young girls on the streets. You shouldn't eat/drink on the street, but there's hundreds of vending machines, basically at least two every twenty metres, which nobody seems to touch, and basically no bins for rubbish anywhere (apart from bottle/can recycling ones next to the vending machines). I’ve seen five or six repairmen fixing vending machines, yet only once have I seen people buy something from them, and I must’ve walked past hundreds. Despite the eating/drinking in public taboo (which we’ve been ignoring), there's no limits to smoking inside. Everywhere you go there’s the smell of smoke, with people smoking in arcades or pachinko parlours – today at lunch, inside the café, the two men at the table next to us were smoking, which was disgusting. You shouldn't walk around on tatami floors with shoes because it’s dirty, yet there's basically never hand soap except in public toilets, and sometimes no toilet paper. The novelty of getting stared at has worn off and is getting a bit irritating... but apart from all of that, almost every single person we've come across has been amazingly understanding, hospitable and friendly.
Oh, and ther’s a complete and utter LACK OF BENCHES. Walking around for hours, it’s painfully rare to ever see a place to sit unless it’s to pay to eat and sit down in a restaurant. No wonder the Japanese are so healthy, they never sit down in public unless they’re eating. >_>
So now I’m finally caught up to date with my blog. Yay! Though virtually nobody is reading this and it’s quite boring. I’ll hopefully figure out what photos to use and post them soon.
Jan 23
We spent the day visiting Namba (again), Den Den Town and Shinkesai. Den Den Town is basically one of the best locations in the world to buy electronics apparently (32 inch Bravias for like ¥800 O_o’), and is an 800m or so strip of basically electronics stores of every variety and comic stores in between which also sell capsule toys, figurines etc. We got the train to Namba, went looking for Den Den Town, finally found it, walked down it, got to the end, and realised that Shinsekai was at the end of it. Shinkesai is the suburb next to ours (Shin-Imamiya); we could’ve walked to Den Den Town in like 15 minutes but instead had a one and half hour process finding it… le sigh. We had lunch in an awesome fast food noodle bar, which was rice, beef, onion, miso soup and salad, and was amazingly delicious. We went back to find a capsule machine we’d had to miss before due to a lack of hundred yen coins (I now have a Stitch coin purse that I bought from a hundred yen store solely for the purpose of keeping hundred yen coins) and got three figurines – I got a little caricature of an American and a Japanese guy, and Prue got an Austrian guy. The other three countries you can get are Italy, the UK and Germany. We wanted them ‘cause they were awesome little flag people, but I realised that they were all powers from WWII, and the German looked kind of Nazi-like… we then looked at the name of the series – it’s ‘World Axis’. UK/USA v Japan/Germany/Austria/Italy. WTF?!?!?! So wrong yet hilarious and cute as hell capsule thingies. We each want to go back and get the rest of the set. >_> After that we wondered around a bit and headed to Shinsekai.
Shinsekai was established in the 1980s and literally means ‘New World’, but because of the economic bust at the same time, the area was badly affected by the building industry that collapsed around it and lots of people lost their jobs (hence the higher than average homeless rate around our area), and so the place is kind of stuck in the 80s as far as its resemblance, but it’s freakin cool. It looks kind of like the streets from Blade Runner, it had a lot of older shops which were a mix of discount stores, arcades, pachinko parlours (THESE ARE EVERYWHERE in Osaka, at least one a block), clothes stores etc. Even the capsule machines here were a couple of years old, with Ratatouille and Super Mario Galaxy, Mario Kart figurines that I hadn’t seen anywhere else in Osaka, which was great because I got some of the Nintendo ones I was looking for. ^_^ Though I ended up with Peach, so, bleh to her. Our feet were killing us so we basically went to bed and had an earlyish night. Yay!
Sunday, January 24, 2010
FINALLY have internet access and power so will try to do a more detailed break-down of the trip so far and include a few photos. Sorry if this is a bit rambling and boring. It's 12.25 at night and I didn't get to finish off today's blog entry so will hopefully post that and the next 24 hours' tomorrow night. Will maybe upload some photos and back-date them if this connection works. I want to ring home with skype but haven't been back at the hostel at a decent hour yet and don't know if the connection will hold up.
Jan 22
We got up in the morning, checked out of the hotel (and will miss the comforts of what was the best place we’ll be staying in, god it was amazing value, warm, cosy and just generally awesome… though the internet we paid to use the night before will not be missed, the keyboard was whacked), took the street car back to Hiroshima station and dumped our luggage off, took a train to Miyajima-guchi and the ferry across to Miyajima, gawping at and trying to simultaneously film/photograph the floating torii gate, apparently Japan’s most photographed site. Luckily we arrived when the tide was relatively high, so the gate did indeed look like it was floating; apparently at low tide it just stands there on the muddy bank. I’d read that there were relatively tame wild deer on Miyajima, but hadn’t realise how many there would be. Straight off the ferry and there were deer. Four or five were just past the ferry terminal, sniffing and eating around for food, completely adorable. Prue went nuts and started to photograph them left, right and centre, and we both had to fight the urge to feed and pat them. We were lucky that the day started off so relatively warmly, as walking around the small island was really beautiful in the sun, visiting the temple that had been started but left incomplete by Toyotomi Hideyoshi when he died, which had a number of large spoons inside for some reason, as well as lots of really really really old paintings, carvings and other different artworks hanging from the ceiling.
The views from the temple across Miyajima were breathtaking, with the massive, jagged, tree-covered hills climbing steeply in front of us amazing. There were hawks circling around above the trees and over the torii shrine, it really was a stunning view, which was impossible to capture on camera. Next to the temple was the 5-storey pagoda (which was completed), and an ancient-looking tree which had been pushed over and started growing sideways with supporting timber posts holding them up – Japan seems to do this a lot with any tree that looks a bit iffy. Down the twisting stairs and narrow streets through old traditional houses we wondered through tourist shops, past beautiful cobble-stone-lined streams and into the back end of the Itsukushima Shrine, where we paused to look at the prices of incense sticks as a shrine where somebody was praying. Out of nowhere a hawk swooped down, stole Prue’s bean-paste doughnut and scared the living crap out of us. It was like a flash of lighting, and must’ve swooped through a tiny gap between the tree behind us, the roof above us and the person near us to grab precisely the food and then fly off before we even knew what the hell had happened apart from a sudden whoosh and a wing flap to the head.
In a state of hilarious shock we wondered around the corner to see a hawk on top of the shrine roof eating something. Bird: 1, Us: 0. From then on Prue didn’t want to eat in the open and was by now starving. She didn’t want her hands butchered. We entered Itsukushima Shrine, which is really beautiful sitting on top of the waves as they reach the shore, and had maybe four of five small shrines, paintings and good luck offering rail… thingies, for lack of knowing the actual word. >_> People tied small wooden tags illustrated with the year of the tiger that they’d bought to rails with wishes. We had another photo in front of the Torii gate and were now getting cold, hungry, had very tired feet and so wondered back to the ferry dock. Our feet were starting to get worn out. We bought momiji, Miyajima’s signature food, which is kind of like sponge-cake stuffed with sweetened bean cake in the shape of a Japanese autumn maple leaf. I had lemon, cream, original and some kind of berry, and thinking about it I want more right now.
After catching the ferry and train back to Hiroshima, we wondered for a couple of hours (in the wrong direction for a bit thanks to my amazing *read: almost entirely non-existent* sense of direction) through Hiroshima, past the A-Bomb dome and took a few last photos (I know that its history is awful but it’s a really beautiful landmark in the park by the river at sunset) and swung by the hypocenter, which is a plaque on the sidewalk beneath where the bomb exploded mid-air, then back through Honodori before giving in to our aching feet. We headed back to the train station, picked up our luggage, grabbed some food and then got on the shinkansen back to Osaka. We ate rice balls on the way back, which I’d never had before, and now want lots of – they’re freakin’ delicious. Getting back from Shinosaka was a bit confusing (after having a bit of a hard time finding my suitcase locker again), and after waiting on the platform for a train (when you have a JR Pass you don’t want to pay for the subway) >_> Prue asked and found it was best to get back from Osaka to Shinimaiya… so we hopped on a packed train, I nearly took Prue out when I wasn’t holding onto the handles and flew forward, found our hotel and checked in. They didn’t speak much English and we need to change our reservation at the end to get a few days in Tokyo but the place is really nice and clean and new… OK so that’s irrelevant but I’m tired and rambling. We don’t have to take our shoes off to walk inside (YAY ‘cause that got annoying) and there’s an ELEVATOR too. =D And with that I’m off.
Jan 21
We got up in the morning to go to Hiroshima. Arriving at Shinosaka and getting our rail passes activated was pretty simple. I dumped my awkwardly large suitcase in a locker for the night, scabbing change off the nice old man maintaining them. The shinkansen was amazingly efficient, clean, comfy and just pretty much cool. It’s hard to judge the speed when you’re in it, but looking outside and seeing how quickly buildings fly past… wow. And that’s in built up areas, going up to Sapporo should be amazing. We got there in 1 and a half hours, took the cable car down the city, and walked to the hotel we’d found online but couldn’t make a booking. It was huge, 8 floors high and really wide compared to the rest of the skyline. We managed to book a room but couldn’t check in yet for a few hours, so wondered around the city, over a couple of bridges and walking down the river the wrong way to Peace Park. We wondered past a school group who started waving at us as I filmed, their school was pretty awesome and their uniforms like something straight from anime… I know that’s hardly surprising but they just look so awesome. Hiroshima as a city is beautiful, built over a number of intertwining rivers, with wide avenues and a low skyline.
Peace Park is serene and beautiful. Walking around the city it’s hard not to feel something, but it’s amazing how completely the city itself embraces its history; the park is a monument but at the same time there were school children playing, people walking dogs, cats wondering around and tourists from Japan and beyond. And friendly as hell local Japanese who talked about their own stories, family losses and then the Bible. Jehovah’s Witnesses apparently, but they were really really really nice. [“Do you believe in world peace?” “It’s a long time coming,” was my less than diplomatic answer, Prue’s was “I wish for peace one day,” which seemed to elicit a better response.] One of them said that her aunt was killed by the bomb at age 15, and when the family went to look for her they couldn’t find anything. That’s one story, and in the memorial hall there were hundreds more, all deeply moving and extremely sad. The horror of nuclear weaponry is almost beyond comprehension when you visit the memorial hall, the fact that nuclear weapons are still tested and hauled today is disgusting. All of the descriptions, shrines and monuments had a water element, with offerings of bottles of water and eternal fountains of water being there to quench the thirst of the victims of nuclear fall out, who died begging for water as a result of the nuclear fallout. That was the part that got me the most – seeing a bottle and glass of water in front of almost all of the shrines and some monuments. The long-lasting effects of nuclear fall out were marked in the memorial hall, with the names of victims who’d died as a result of A-bomb related diseases and conditions retold in the exhibits. 150,000 thousand people died instantly, with a further 200,000 slowly dying after as a result of the long-lasting effects of radiation in the proceeding decades.
The monuments around Peace Park were really moving, especially the Children’s monument, with thousands upon thousands upon thousands upon thousands of paper cranes stringed together and placed in rotating displays, from school children, charity groups and whoever else. I wanted to leave one but didn’t know how, and making it on paper from yet another Jehovah’s Witness’ pamphlet felt a bit wrong. (On a different side-note, the pamphlet was given by a nice old man pointing to the illustration at how all the races of the world were living together in harmony, with him telling me “here is a child playing with a lion, the way God intended”. I had dark and evil images of a lion mauling a child come into my head and had to stop myself from pissing with laughter before thanking him and turning away.)
The toilets around Peace Park are by some weird design domed, and on the bank directly facing the A-Bomb dome, it was a bizarre sight literally watching somebody pee. Japanese men’s toilets don’t have door. So we naturally got a photo of Prue taking a pee in them. >_>
The A-bomb dome is left intact and maintained so that it appears the same way that it did after August 8 1945. There was debate in the city over whether or not to leave it as a monument or tear it down, but in the 1950s they decided to leave it, and in the next decade it was protected as a UNESCO World Heritage site. It has a small park radius around it, with evergreen trees and a beautiful view of the river. The entire building is gated so that you can’t enter, but looking inside the wreckage you can see the frames of the rooms. The bomb exploded 580m almost directly above the building, and because the blast force was downward, all of the wall structure more or less remained intact. The heat was above 1500°C, with tiles apparently bubbling and blistering, many shattering and flying into the river (some later recovered and made into monuments) yet the building stands, more or less the only thing that was left in-tact on the skyline. Photos and stories from the impact zone were horrific. It’s hard to comprehend it while you’re there, because you don’t see the tragedy in the beauty of the city, but it’s a really deeply moving site. I always wanted to go there from mid-high school after studying the history of WWII, and finally visiting it was something I never thought I’d do. Walking back through the park, looking toward the building through the Cenotaph to the Victims of the A-Bomb, and then seeing the count-down clock in the visitor’s office of the number of days since the last nuclear test (I think it was something like 206, Prue thinks it was less), it’s mind-blowing to see how the world stage doesn’t seem to comprehend or care about the devastating effects of nuclear warfare. Anybody who calls anti-nuke protestors lefty hippies or whatever…. Go to Hiroshima.
On a lighter note on with what else we did that evening, wondering up Hondori (the main shopping strip) and trying to find the area that has lots of okonomiyaki (Hiroshima’s specialty dish), we asked a group of high school boys on bikes, outside the front of a karaoke bar. They were excited by the idea of taking us there (calling u cute couple >_>) and were hilariously bantering along the way, letting me film them and acting up for the camera. They told Prue she was Santa Claus because of her red coat, and the ringleader kept on telling us that he was a Japanese Idol. After we all nearly got run over on the road, they dropped us off out the front of a restaurant, where we pointed, ordered and had delicious Hiroshima okonomiyaki. The dish is area around Kansai is where the dish started, so we’ll need to try Osaka’s version and compare.
Jan 20
Today we explored the city’s two main areas, Umeda (in the north) and Namba (in the south). By a stroke of luck, the subway system has its “No My Car Day” unlimited subway pass for only ¥600, so before activating our JR Pass on the 21st we still managed to get cheap transport. The ticket machines are pretty easy to figure out, with English guidance buttons and fares determined by the distance you travel; you pay a set amount and if you’ve gotten it wrong there’s a ticket adjustment machine before the exit gates at your arrival station.
We began in Umeda, wondering around the (huge) underground train station for a few minutes while trying to figure out our exit, arrived on the street and got blasted by the smell of bacon cabbage. Pretty much immediately we headed for the GIANT Yodabashi electronics store, seven floors worth of electronics and toys... this thing was freakin ENORMOUS, with every level probably twice the size of a JB Hi-Fi. We were in awe... so many electronics, so much random crap, so many games not released here, so many DVDs, CDs, pointless electronic gadgets available in every shape, brand, size, colour and cartoon character. Plushie cakes and donuts to clean your screens with. Hello Kitty and Stitch light switch dangly things (a lot of Japanese lights seem to have those stringy things hanging from the roof). Everything.
The toy level was awesome, with a giant area of hundreds of puzzles and framed puzzles for different animations, and a capsule area the size of a large living room. I finally got told to stop taking photos but sneaked a few, of the random highly sexualised cutesy female figurines that were like a metre tall and sold for a few hundred dollars each.
After that we headed to the POKÉMON CENTRE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!shift+11!!!!!!!! I think I could easily spend my entire holiday budget in there, and will be going back for a Pokémon umbrella, and want to find a shoulder bag in one of the stores... eventually we’ll see 5 out of 6 of them. >_>
Had KFC for lunch with a bizarre chicken pot pie, which was literally chicken filling and pastry wrapped around a plastic pot. Prudence had an apparently awful twister with gross garnish and melon-flavoured fanta. We spent some time wondering around the arcades, blowing money on UFO catcher machines, had an awesome time doing Purikura for the first time. The entire time we’d been at KFC Prue had left her coin purse in there (after thinking the machines were broken) and when we got back it was still there. Would not happen here. PURIKURA ARE FUN!! That is about it. And frantic.
After Umeda we headed south to Namba, where Prue decided that she needed new shoes as her feet were in agony. After a few hours of searching she settled for brown boots lined with faux fur, and what looked like polar bear testicles hanging from each side. Animals beware. The department stores are completely beautiful, with more staff on than necessary, no wonder the unemployment rate is so high. There’s people paid to direct the traffic on zebra crossings, like lollypop ladies for adults. The Pokémon Centre had more staff on than customers when we’d gone in to it, trying to promote their surprise gift bags and cookies. The novelty I’d been looking forward to of hearing IRRASHAIMASE soon turned to annoyance as every second storeperson you walked past said it to you no matter how long you’d been there for. And I finally bought a watch that Mum and Dad were getting me for my 18th, only took three years to find one I liked. >_>
Oh, and one of the most hilarious and random things to happen so far. We walked into a small entranceway, headed up a really long escalator and found ourselves in what I guess was a comic book store – lots of manga, figurines, trading cards and CDs/DVDs. Wondering around the shelves, hearing what sounded like godawful music being played, and turning the corner, to see an actual stage a couple of metres off the floor, with a guy in cosplay drag singing different songs from what I presume was TV or video games. Serious WTF moment, and only in Japan.
For dinner we had the bestest and most tastiest ramen ever. Then wondered back to the hostel, freezing and tired, did the awkward balance-slide-into-provided-slippers thing without touching the tatami, and slept.
Jan 22
We got up in the morning, checked out of the hotel (and will miss the comforts of what was the best place we’ll be staying in, god it was amazing value, warm, cosy and just generally awesome… though the internet we paid to use the night before will not be missed, the keyboard was whacked), took the street car back to Hiroshima station and dumped our luggage off, took a train to Miyajima-guchi and the ferry across to Miyajima, gawping at and trying to simultaneously film/photograph the floating torii gate, apparently Japan’s most photographed site. Luckily we arrived when the tide was relatively high, so the gate did indeed look like it was floating; apparently at low tide it just stands there on the muddy bank. I’d read that there were relatively tame wild deer on Miyajima, but hadn’t realise how many there would be. Straight off the ferry and there were deer. Four or five were just past the ferry terminal, sniffing and eating around for food, completely adorable. Prue went nuts and started to photograph them left, right and centre, and we both had to fight the urge to feed and pat them. We were lucky that the day started off so relatively warmly, as walking around the small island was really beautiful in the sun, visiting the temple that had been started but left incomplete by Toyotomi Hideyoshi when he died, which had a number of large spoons inside for some reason, as well as lots of really really really old paintings, carvings and other different artworks hanging from the ceiling.
The views from the temple across Miyajima were breathtaking, with the massive, jagged, tree-covered hills climbing steeply in front of us amazing. There were hawks circling around above the trees and over the torii shrine, it really was a stunning view, which was impossible to capture on camera. Next to the temple was the 5-storey pagoda (which was completed), and an ancient-looking tree which had been pushed over and started growing sideways with supporting timber posts holding them up – Japan seems to do this a lot with any tree that looks a bit iffy. Down the twisting stairs and narrow streets through old traditional houses we wondered through tourist shops, past beautiful cobble-stone-lined streams and into the back end of the Itsukushima Shrine, where we paused to look at the prices of incense sticks as a shrine where somebody was praying. Out of nowhere a hawk swooped down, stole Prue’s bean-paste doughnut and scared the living crap out of us. It was like a flash of lighting, and must’ve swooped through a tiny gap between the tree behind us, the roof above us and the person near us to grab precisely the food and then fly off before we even knew what the hell had happened apart from a sudden whoosh and a wing flap to the head.
In a state of hilarious shock we wondered around the corner to see a hawk on top of the shrine roof eating something. Bird: 1, Us: 0. From then on Prue didn’t want to eat in the open and was by now starving. She didn’t want her hands butchered. We entered Itsukushima Shrine, which is really beautiful sitting on top of the waves as they reach the shore, and had maybe four of five small shrines, paintings and good luck offering rail… thingies, for lack of knowing the actual word. >_> People tied small wooden tags illustrated with the year of the tiger that they’d bought to rails with wishes. We had another photo in front of the Torii gate and were now getting cold, hungry, had very tired feet and so wondered back to the ferry dock. Our feet were starting to get worn out. We bought momiji, Miyajima’s signature food, which is kind of like sponge-cake stuffed with sweetened bean cake in the shape of a Japanese autumn maple leaf. I had lemon, cream, original and some kind of berry, and thinking about it I want more right now.
After catching the ferry and train back to Hiroshima, we wondered for a couple of hours (in the wrong direction for a bit thanks to my amazing *read: almost entirely non-existent* sense of direction) through Hiroshima, past the A-Bomb dome and took a few last photos (I know that its history is awful but it’s a really beautiful landmark in the park by the river at sunset) and swung by the hypocenter, which is a plaque on the sidewalk beneath where the bomb exploded mid-air, then back through Honodori before giving in to our aching feet. We headed back to the train station, picked up our luggage, grabbed some food and then got on the shinkansen back to Osaka. We ate rice balls on the way back, which I’d never had before, and now want lots of – they’re freakin’ delicious. Getting back from Shinosaka was a bit confusing (after having a bit of a hard time finding my suitcase locker again), and after waiting on the platform for a train (when you have a JR Pass you don’t want to pay for the subway) >_> Prue asked and found it was best to get back from Osaka to Shinimaiya… so we hopped on a packed train, I nearly took Prue out when I wasn’t holding onto the handles and flew forward, found our hotel and checked in. They didn’t speak much English and we need to change our reservation at the end to get a few days in Tokyo but the place is really nice and clean and new… OK so that’s irrelevant but I’m tired and rambling. We don’t have to take our shoes off to walk inside (YAY ‘cause that got annoying) and there’s an ELEVATOR too. =D And with that I’m off.
Jan 21
We got up in the morning to go to Hiroshima. Arriving at Shinosaka and getting our rail passes activated was pretty simple. I dumped my awkwardly large suitcase in a locker for the night, scabbing change off the nice old man maintaining them. The shinkansen was amazingly efficient, clean, comfy and just pretty much cool. It’s hard to judge the speed when you’re in it, but looking outside and seeing how quickly buildings fly past… wow. And that’s in built up areas, going up to Sapporo should be amazing. We got there in 1 and a half hours, took the cable car down the city, and walked to the hotel we’d found online but couldn’t make a booking. It was huge, 8 floors high and really wide compared to the rest of the skyline. We managed to book a room but couldn’t check in yet for a few hours, so wondered around the city, over a couple of bridges and walking down the river the wrong way to Peace Park. We wondered past a school group who started waving at us as I filmed, their school was pretty awesome and their uniforms like something straight from anime… I know that’s hardly surprising but they just look so awesome. Hiroshima as a city is beautiful, built over a number of intertwining rivers, with wide avenues and a low skyline.
Peace Park is serene and beautiful. Walking around the city it’s hard not to feel something, but it’s amazing how completely the city itself embraces its history; the park is a monument but at the same time there were school children playing, people walking dogs, cats wondering around and tourists from Japan and beyond. And friendly as hell local Japanese who talked about their own stories, family losses and then the Bible. Jehovah’s Witnesses apparently, but they were really really really nice. [“Do you believe in world peace?” “It’s a long time coming,” was my less than diplomatic answer, Prue’s was “I wish for peace one day,” which seemed to elicit a better response.] One of them said that her aunt was killed by the bomb at age 15, and when the family went to look for her they couldn’t find anything. That’s one story, and in the memorial hall there were hundreds more, all deeply moving and extremely sad. The horror of nuclear weaponry is almost beyond comprehension when you visit the memorial hall, the fact that nuclear weapons are still tested and hauled today is disgusting. All of the descriptions, shrines and monuments had a water element, with offerings of bottles of water and eternal fountains of water being there to quench the thirst of the victims of nuclear fall out, who died begging for water as a result of the nuclear fallout. That was the part that got me the most – seeing a bottle and glass of water in front of almost all of the shrines and some monuments. The long-lasting effects of nuclear fall out were marked in the memorial hall, with the names of victims who’d died as a result of A-bomb related diseases and conditions retold in the exhibits. 150,000 thousand people died instantly, with a further 200,000 slowly dying after as a result of the long-lasting effects of radiation in the proceeding decades.
The monuments around Peace Park were really moving, especially the Children’s monument, with thousands upon thousands upon thousands upon thousands of paper cranes stringed together and placed in rotating displays, from school children, charity groups and whoever else. I wanted to leave one but didn’t know how, and making it on paper from yet another Jehovah’s Witness’ pamphlet felt a bit wrong. (On a different side-note, the pamphlet was given by a nice old man pointing to the illustration at how all the races of the world were living together in harmony, with him telling me “here is a child playing with a lion, the way God intended”. I had dark and evil images of a lion mauling a child come into my head and had to stop myself from pissing with laughter before thanking him and turning away.)
The toilets around Peace Park are by some weird design domed, and on the bank directly facing the A-Bomb dome, it was a bizarre sight literally watching somebody pee. Japanese men’s toilets don’t have door. So we naturally got a photo of Prue taking a pee in them. >_>
The A-bomb dome is left intact and maintained so that it appears the same way that it did after August 8 1945. There was debate in the city over whether or not to leave it as a monument or tear it down, but in the 1950s they decided to leave it, and in the next decade it was protected as a UNESCO World Heritage site. It has a small park radius around it, with evergreen trees and a beautiful view of the river. The entire building is gated so that you can’t enter, but looking inside the wreckage you can see the frames of the rooms. The bomb exploded 580m almost directly above the building, and because the blast force was downward, all of the wall structure more or less remained intact. The heat was above 1500°C, with tiles apparently bubbling and blistering, many shattering and flying into the river (some later recovered and made into monuments) yet the building stands, more or less the only thing that was left in-tact on the skyline. Photos and stories from the impact zone were horrific. It’s hard to comprehend it while you’re there, because you don’t see the tragedy in the beauty of the city, but it’s a really deeply moving site. I always wanted to go there from mid-high school after studying the history of WWII, and finally visiting it was something I never thought I’d do. Walking back through the park, looking toward the building through the Cenotaph to the Victims of the A-Bomb, and then seeing the count-down clock in the visitor’s office of the number of days since the last nuclear test (I think it was something like 206, Prue thinks it was less), it’s mind-blowing to see how the world stage doesn’t seem to comprehend or care about the devastating effects of nuclear warfare. Anybody who calls anti-nuke protestors lefty hippies or whatever…. Go to Hiroshima.
On a lighter note on with what else we did that evening, wondering up Hondori (the main shopping strip) and trying to find the area that has lots of okonomiyaki (Hiroshima’s specialty dish), we asked a group of high school boys on bikes, outside the front of a karaoke bar. They were excited by the idea of taking us there (calling u cute couple >_>) and were hilariously bantering along the way, letting me film them and acting up for the camera. They told Prue she was Santa Claus because of her red coat, and the ringleader kept on telling us that he was a Japanese Idol. After we all nearly got run over on the road, they dropped us off out the front of a restaurant, where we pointed, ordered and had delicious Hiroshima okonomiyaki. The dish is area around Kansai is where the dish started, so we’ll need to try Osaka’s version and compare.
Jan 20
Today we explored the city’s two main areas, Umeda (in the north) and Namba (in the south). By a stroke of luck, the subway system has its “No My Car Day” unlimited subway pass for only ¥600, so before activating our JR Pass on the 21st we still managed to get cheap transport. The ticket machines are pretty easy to figure out, with English guidance buttons and fares determined by the distance you travel; you pay a set amount and if you’ve gotten it wrong there’s a ticket adjustment machine before the exit gates at your arrival station.
We began in Umeda, wondering around the (huge) underground train station for a few minutes while trying to figure out our exit, arrived on the street and got blasted by the smell of bacon cabbage. Pretty much immediately we headed for the GIANT Yodabashi electronics store, seven floors worth of electronics and toys... this thing was freakin ENORMOUS, with every level probably twice the size of a JB Hi-Fi. We were in awe... so many electronics, so much random crap, so many games not released here, so many DVDs, CDs, pointless electronic gadgets available in every shape, brand, size, colour and cartoon character. Plushie cakes and donuts to clean your screens with. Hello Kitty and Stitch light switch dangly things (a lot of Japanese lights seem to have those stringy things hanging from the roof). Everything.
The toy level was awesome, with a giant area of hundreds of puzzles and framed puzzles for different animations, and a capsule area the size of a large living room. I finally got told to stop taking photos but sneaked a few, of the random highly sexualised cutesy female figurines that were like a metre tall and sold for a few hundred dollars each.
After that we headed to the POKÉMON CENTRE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!shift+11!!!!!!!! I think I could easily spend my entire holiday budget in there, and will be going back for a Pokémon umbrella, and want to find a shoulder bag in one of the stores... eventually we’ll see 5 out of 6 of them. >_>
Had KFC for lunch with a bizarre chicken pot pie, which was literally chicken filling and pastry wrapped around a plastic pot. Prudence had an apparently awful twister with gross garnish and melon-flavoured fanta. We spent some time wondering around the arcades, blowing money on UFO catcher machines, had an awesome time doing Purikura for the first time. The entire time we’d been at KFC Prue had left her coin purse in there (after thinking the machines were broken) and when we got back it was still there. Would not happen here. PURIKURA ARE FUN!! That is about it. And frantic.
After Umeda we headed south to Namba, where Prue decided that she needed new shoes as her feet were in agony. After a few hours of searching she settled for brown boots lined with faux fur, and what looked like polar bear testicles hanging from each side. Animals beware. The department stores are completely beautiful, with more staff on than necessary, no wonder the unemployment rate is so high. There’s people paid to direct the traffic on zebra crossings, like lollypop ladies for adults. The Pokémon Centre had more staff on than customers when we’d gone in to it, trying to promote their surprise gift bags and cookies. The novelty I’d been looking forward to of hearing IRRASHAIMASE soon turned to annoyance as every second storeperson you walked past said it to you no matter how long you’d been there for. And I finally bought a watch that Mum and Dad were getting me for my 18th, only took three years to find one I liked. >_>
Oh, and one of the most hilarious and random things to happen so far. We walked into a small entranceway, headed up a really long escalator and found ourselves in what I guess was a comic book store – lots of manga, figurines, trading cards and CDs/DVDs. Wondering around the shelves, hearing what sounded like godawful music being played, and turning the corner, to see an actual stage a couple of metres off the floor, with a guy in cosplay drag singing different songs from what I presume was TV or video games. Serious WTF moment, and only in Japan.
For dinner we had the bestest and most tastiest ramen ever. Then wondered back to the hostel, freezing and tired, did the awkward balance-slide-into-provided-slippers thing without touching the tatami, and slept.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Day two: Osaka
I won't post any photos yet because I'm running my laptop off its battery until Hiroshima where hopefully the powerpoint will be grounded... watch this space.
I'll make this quick before we go out again...
THE POKEMOMON CENTRE IN OSAKA!!! AHHH!!! I WANTED IT ALL!! But settled for a Raichu plushie. We'll go there again plus four more in other cities and I so want an umbrella. >_> And maybe a bag. >_>
PURIUKRA!! The machines are confusing as hell to work, we were practically lost running between different booths after finally realising they were connected and not just broken. >_>
THERE ARE VENDING MACHINES EVERYWHERE. I can't stress that enough.
THE STREETS SMELL OF BACON CROSSED WITH CABBAGE.
More lengthy updates later on after my battery works and stuff. Photos to come.
Other than that, phoned home so they know I'm alive, am excited and bizarre'd out.
Oh, and spent half the day looking for new shoes for Prudence 'cause she was in agony. =P
I'll make this quick before we go out again...
THE POKEMOMON CENTRE IN OSAKA!!! AHHH!!! I WANTED IT ALL!! But settled for a Raichu plushie. We'll go there again plus four more in other cities and I so want an umbrella. >_> And maybe a bag. >_>
PURIUKRA!! The machines are confusing as hell to work, we were practically lost running between different booths after finally realising they were connected and not just broken. >_>
THERE ARE VENDING MACHINES EVERYWHERE. I can't stress that enough.
THE STREETS SMELL OF BACON CROSSED WITH CABBAGE.
More lengthy updates later on after my battery works and stuff. Photos to come.
Other than that, phoned home so they know I'm alive, am excited and bizarre'd out.
Oh, and spent half the day looking for new shoes for Prudence 'cause she was in agony. =P
Day 1!
Wrote this this morning but only got wireless connection tonight... will post another entry about today's adventures. =)
I have so much to write about and half of what I want to say probably won’t come out in time.
I got picked up at 4am (after 45 minutes of sleep and feeling like death warmed up) by Prue’s grandparents and was at the airport by about 6.15am... after a lovely *read: cold-faced and personality-less*reception at the Jetstar check-in to mine and Prue’s nervous banter about airport security, we were through to immigration and security and then to the other side. With a two hour wait and not really much to do. Dammit, why did I think it was a good idea to check in to departures early, eh.
The plane ride to the Gold Coast was alright (despite the Japanophile ski group), the airport wait at the Gold Coast was fairly quick, and the plane trip to Japan was painfully slow. For some brilliant reason Jetstar decided to serve their main meals within the first hour, then shut all the shutters for half the flight (despite it being mid-afternoon) and not come back with food again until the last two hours. There was a cute old lady on the plane wearing a kimono and a little kid running up and down the aisles. ^_^
After getting to the airport and being forwarded through immigration (^_^) we were on the train. There are ads everywhere. And they all hand down like fliers from the roof... it wouldn’t happen here ‘cause they’d be ripped or stolen straight up. With little cartoon characters everywhere, no idea what any were for though. The train was quicker than our trains... can’t wait to see what their express trains are like, let alone the shinkansen.
We got to our station and... I regret how much I pack. There are no escalators at the station. I have two suitcases and a laptop bag (yes, excessive, I know, but I tried to condense). An old man decided he’d take it upon himself to carry my suitcase down the stairs, shake my hand with a nice to meet you and walk off awkwardly... after Prue trying to decipher the (crap) hotel directions, a woman decided she’d help us by walking us the ten minutes to the station. Japanese hospitality so far? Wow, amazingly nice. Another shaking of hands, nice to meet you, and we arrived at our hotel exasperated but happy.
Got to the hotel and the two guys at the desk lifted our suitcases up the three flights, we checked into our rooms, dumped our stuff then went for a wonder. Given the reviews we’d read, for $15 a night for our private room each, this place is pretty awesome. Both guys at reception spoke a bit of English and were really friendly. Sure the toilets are a bit disgusting (though there’s a western style so win for OCD) but it’s in an awesome location.
We wondered around the area for the next three hours, tried three ATMs unsuccessfully before realising that our cards were upside-down, went and got McDonalds after attacking a vending machine for grape fanta, got cold, went to bed.
To condense it... some observations.
• First bizarre moment – using the toilet at the train station, which had no door and was open to viewing from the outside (urinals included) and having a woman cleaner in there at the same time.
• Being gawped at for being a foreigner... I find this kind of humorous. On the train a guy sitting in front of me was staring at me. Every time I looked up he’d go back to his paper quickly.
• There are vending machines EVERYWHERE. SO MANY FREAKIN VENDING MACHINES. Seven in a row opposite our hotel doors, three in the building itself, and countless more around the corners.
• Japanese guys look incredibly androgynous with hair/make-up/clothing, and everybody is so well dressed.
• Japanese TV is awesome. I saw the most bizarre ad I’ve ever seen in my life. A close-up of the Mona Lisa with a guy’s face superimposed over the top singing “Mona Lisa candy” over and over again, it was hilarious. Kids’ TV was like play school but with kids present, trying to sing along but half clearly not having a clue what they were doing and looking around lost. It was adorable.
I have so much to write about and half of what I want to say probably won’t come out in time.
I got picked up at 4am (after 45 minutes of sleep and feeling like death warmed up) by Prue’s grandparents and was at the airport by about 6.15am... after a lovely *read: cold-faced and personality-less*reception at the Jetstar check-in to mine and Prue’s nervous banter about airport security, we were through to immigration and security and then to the other side. With a two hour wait and not really much to do. Dammit, why did I think it was a good idea to check in to departures early, eh.
The plane ride to the Gold Coast was alright (despite the Japanophile ski group), the airport wait at the Gold Coast was fairly quick, and the plane trip to Japan was painfully slow. For some brilliant reason Jetstar decided to serve their main meals within the first hour, then shut all the shutters for half the flight (despite it being mid-afternoon) and not come back with food again until the last two hours. There was a cute old lady on the plane wearing a kimono and a little kid running up and down the aisles. ^_^
After getting to the airport and being forwarded through immigration (^_^) we were on the train. There are ads everywhere. And they all hand down like fliers from the roof... it wouldn’t happen here ‘cause they’d be ripped or stolen straight up. With little cartoon characters everywhere, no idea what any were for though. The train was quicker than our trains... can’t wait to see what their express trains are like, let alone the shinkansen.
We got to our station and... I regret how much I pack. There are no escalators at the station. I have two suitcases and a laptop bag (yes, excessive, I know, but I tried to condense). An old man decided he’d take it upon himself to carry my suitcase down the stairs, shake my hand with a nice to meet you and walk off awkwardly... after Prue trying to decipher the (crap) hotel directions, a woman decided she’d help us by walking us the ten minutes to the station. Japanese hospitality so far? Wow, amazingly nice. Another shaking of hands, nice to meet you, and we arrived at our hotel exasperated but happy.
Got to the hotel and the two guys at the desk lifted our suitcases up the three flights, we checked into our rooms, dumped our stuff then went for a wonder. Given the reviews we’d read, for $15 a night for our private room each, this place is pretty awesome. Both guys at reception spoke a bit of English and were really friendly. Sure the toilets are a bit disgusting (though there’s a western style so win for OCD) but it’s in an awesome location.
We wondered around the area for the next three hours, tried three ATMs unsuccessfully before realising that our cards were upside-down, went and got McDonalds after attacking a vending machine for grape fanta, got cold, went to bed.
To condense it... some observations.
• First bizarre moment – using the toilet at the train station, which had no door and was open to viewing from the outside (urinals included) and having a woman cleaner in there at the same time.
• Being gawped at for being a foreigner... I find this kind of humorous. On the train a guy sitting in front of me was staring at me. Every time I looked up he’d go back to his paper quickly.
• There are vending machines EVERYWHERE. SO MANY FREAKIN VENDING MACHINES. Seven in a row opposite our hotel doors, three in the building itself, and countless more around the corners.
• Japanese guys look incredibly androgynous with hair/make-up/clothing, and everybody is so well dressed.
• Japanese TV is awesome. I saw the most bizarre ad I’ve ever seen in my life. A close-up of the Mona Lisa with a guy’s face superimposed over the top singing “Mona Lisa candy” over and over again, it was hilarious. Kids’ TV was like play school but with kids present, trying to sing along but half clearly not having a clue what they were doing and looking around lost. It was adorable.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
5 days to go...
Well, here it is. 29 nights in one of the world's most amazing countries, 30 days trying to take it all in and then some kind of profound cliché to finish this sentence. 5 days until I leave for Japan, and presuming I have decent wireless access, I hope to update this every day. I'm definitely not the best writer, but I'll try and keep this as a journal that records some of my best memories, as something to look back on and hopefully to give others an interesting read.
I haven't packed, I'm only halfway through figuring out a rough itinerary of things I want to see, the nerves and excitement are building up and I just want to leave right now!
I haven't packed, I'm only halfway through figuring out a rough itinerary of things I want to see, the nerves and excitement are building up and I just want to leave right now!
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