japanographia.com » Japan trip September 2006

Day 10

John Noel — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 10:00:05 +0000

N.B. This was written shortly after I returned and will be rewritten as and when I get time.

Heading back to Tokyo on the Shinkansen took about 3 hours which meant we had the entire afternoon to do any shopping and so forth. So I took another stab at heading to Akihabara, this time using the overland trains. This was a wise move as the shops are all around the overland station rather than the subway station I got before.

Before long I’d found Gamers (let me tell you, searching for that on the tinterweb is not easy) as well as another similar store called AsoBitCity. I could have spent twice as long and three times as much in those places, however my luggage was stuffed when I came to Japan so space was an issue, suffice to say I picked up some nice swag.

The hotel we were staying it was smack bang in the middle of Shinjuku, Shinjuku station is the busiest in the world and sees around 2 million people pass through it every day so of course I went and got lost in it. Interesting station, lots to look at, but at rush hour and a bag full of purchases, I really just wanted to get back.

No sooner than I had did we head out for our last meal which was on the most unhealthy for the entire trip. Basically, you go to a counter and get a lot of stuff on wooden skewers (meat, veg, dumplings etc.). Then, at your counter-top table, you have a bowl of breadcrumbs, a bowl of batter, and a friar. Fried stuff on sticks!

After that our tour leader took a few of us to karaoke where I proceeded to slaughter some songs, after which we all wandered around Shinjuku, skirting the red light district. Let me tell you, no one does prostitutes like Japan, you have a board in front of a seedy little place, and you basically go in, point to the board at the girl you want, then go do your thing. Only Japan could organise prostitution like that.

After drinking at an “English” pub for a while, we all stumbled back to the hotel at about 2am, for which I had to be up at 6am to catch my train to Narita for my flight back.

Day 9

John Noel — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 10:00:06 +0000

N.B. This was written shortly after I returned and will be rewritten as and when I get time.

For the excursion day, a lot of us had decided to head out to Hiroshima and make use of our JR Rail Pass and to use the Shinkansen again. This was mainly on the advice of Gemma who had visited before and said that Hiroshima was spectacular, so it was pretty much decided.

I managed to snap some photos of the awe-inspiring Kyoto station before we headed out.

At 11 stories high it’s this amazing space filled with shops and people and restaurants. The train to Hiroshima was a couple of hours, but on the way a few of us decided to go to Miyajima island just outside of Hiroshima first, and then do the peace museum and park afterwards.

A quick ferry journey (covered on the Rail Pass again) and we landed on the sacred island of Miyajima with one of the most photographed spots in Japan, the so-called “floating” Tori gate.

The entire island is designated a sacred island, meaning that no one is allowed to be born there or die there (or interned), so there are no maternity wards or morgues / cemeteries. This also means that the animals and trees are sacred and not allowed to be harmed or killed / felled.

The most surprising thing about this is the tame deer which wander the lower part of the island. Signs tell you to stay away from the ones with antlers (no arguments here), but otherwise they just sleep and wander about to be petted. The island is so picturesque, especially in the bright sunshine. After wandering the port for a while, we headed up the cable car to the top of the main mountain where there was a monkey sanctuary. The monkeys all had bright red bums, and the males had huge bright red testicles. We had to leave our bags in some free lockers otherwise the monkeys apparently pinch stuff from your bag.

The views from the top of the mountain were just breathtaking, as my (lame) panorama shows.

Heading back down the mountain we had a look around one of the local shrines before catching the ferry back to Hiroshima for the afternoon.

Hiroshima is a lovely city and like Kyoto, manages to have a very good “village” type feel to it without feeling too urbanised. The Peace Park houses the A-Bomb dome, the preserved remainder of the bomb that was dropped.

The next monument was to a little girl who suffered radiation poisoning and believed in the old tale of making a thousand cranes would make your wish come true. Unfortunately she died, but every year, hundreds of thousands of cranes are sent into the memorial, all of them displayed in huge racks near the monument.

The next two memorials are the Eternal Flame and the Cenotaph. The Eternal Flame will burn until all nuclear weapons are dismantled, while the Cenotaph covers the book which, updated yearly, contains a list of all the people who died because the A-Bomb, regardless of nationality.

The Peace Museum I didn’t take any photos of because it really wasn’t worth it. It is one of the most moving places I’ve ever been to, and I get a bit teary just writing about it. It’s completely unbiased and explains about Hiroshima before, after and during the bomb, all about the bomb itself and nuclear weapons as well as who has them, who’s tested them. The final part of the museum is a collection of memorabilia from the bomb site, things like a tricycle or a lunch box, even to things like the skin and fingernails of a child, kept by the mother.

It’s such a moving place, and at the end of it you can’t help but be certain that nuclear weapons should never, ever be used anywhere else again. I just kept thinking that if world leaders saw this place that we’d get some progress, unfortunately a lot of them have been there, and still nuclear weapons are being made. I really can’t recommend enough that if you get a chance to go there and experience it, it doesn’t point fingers or feel false. After leaving the museum and seeing the devastation, you really get a better outlook on the city and why it feels the way it does, simply because they built it up from nothing.

Heading back to Kyoto, a few of us had some beers and talked for a bit before heading off to bed.

Day 8

John Noel — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 10:00:59 +0000

N.B. This was written shortly after I returned and will be rewritten as and when I get time.

A full day for wandering around Kyoto however we started with a boat journey down the Hozugawa river. We all piled into a large gondola and had three staff in the boat as well, one who punted, the other steered and another paddled / steered (I couldn’t work it out, I guess both).

The journey took a good 3 hours but was absolutely spectacular. We cruised down rapids and got stuck on a reef at one point, but the weather and the countryside were just awesome. We were also made to walk a short distance of the journey as a rock slide had happened, so people in hard hats drove our boat down the treacherous part while we walked. As we approached the end of the journey, a small motor boat came up alongside us.

It was a snack boat, replete with little cooking stove (squid!) and snacks. The three staff on our boat tied the motor boat to ours then proceeded to have a can of coke and a packet of peanuts while the motor boat steered us.

Now in Arashiyama on the outskirts of Kyoto, we grabbed lunch and had a wander around the Zen gardens nearby.

The gardens were exactly what I was expecting: ordered, calm and relaxing. A small monk came out at one point to neaten up the gravel however he was too swift for me to nab a photo of him.

After that we headed towards Kinkaku-ji, or the more common name of “The Golden Pavilion”. Originally the pavilion was covered in gold leaf by an opulent warlord, however WWII saw the gold leaf get picked off for the war effort. The current pavilion had been renovated in the 1960’s and you can no longer go in or even touch the pavilion.

After that, a few of us headed to the sister site of Kinkaku-ji, Ginkaku-ji or “The Silver Pavilion”. Unlike the golden pavilion, it never actually got covered in silver as the warlord who owned it ran out of money, however the pavilion is original so it’s about 400 years old.

Joel managed to drop his sunglasses in the Koi pond, he managed to get a gardener to fish them out for him; however he joked the sunglasses were now blessed, and if worn would give him sight beyond sight.

Day 7

John Noel — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 10:00:16 +0000

N.B. This was written shortly after I returned and will be rewritten as and when I get time.

The typhoon had passed by and the weather was glorious and stayed that way for the rest of the trip.

Leaving the guest house, we went to the main Hakone station for our first ride on the Bullet Train (which is a translation of the old project name and is actually called the Shinkansen).

The train is stunning and zips by at 270kmh (~160mph), the entire train is air cushioned meaning it’s quiet and smooth. The second picture doesn’t really show you the amount of leg room you get on these, you can pretty much stretch your legs out and only just touch the seat in front of you. For being 40 year old technology, the Shinkansen just blows away anything we have here in the UK.

The hour and half journey to Kyoto went by swiftly and our first port of call after dropping our bags in the gorgeous ryokan was Kyomizu-ji, one of the oldest and most visited temples in Kyoto (which avoided the bombing of WWII so a lot of the temples are original).

Kyomizu-ji managed to be uniquely different to all the other temples we’d yet been to, with it’s signature temple on 400 year old camphor-wood stilts and various other attractions. The main one being the “Love Rock”, which is two stones separated by about 4 metres, and couples start at each stone and walk towards each other with eyes closed; if they meet in the middle without falling over or bumping into people then they’re “meant to be”. I saw two school-boys doing it (numerous times), as well as a single woman doing it (a different kind of love, a forbidden love).

Moving on we walked through Hagashiyama park on towards our meeting with another tour guide.

We met up with Peter Macintosh, basically a world reknowned expert on Geisha. He was recently hired by a Hollywood studio to do research and location scouting for “Memoirs of a Geisha”. He’s been in Japan for 13 years, owns his own bar and is married to an ex-geisha so he knows his stuff, he also seems to know half the people in the Geisha districts.

The first picture is of a 14 year old maiko we met who Peter asked about her mother and so forth so evidently they knew each other. The second is of a typical geisha residence, the latern above the door has three circles which (I think) denotes the Miyagawa-cho geisha district (the other two being Gion-cho and Ponto-cho). The only good photo of a full geisha is there, they may have wooden sandals and can’t move their legs much but boy, they can really book it. All my other photos were of geisha blurs. The lighting at this time was absolutely stunning and my Gion photos are some of my favourites.

The last image is taken from a bridge which is apparently where the protagonist of MoaG meets the love of her life and is an awesome picture if it wasn’t for that annoying bit of foliage in front of the lens. After the tour we all had food at a local restaurant (geisha-free unfortunately). Peter also said that if we wanted to (as a group) we could hire a geisha for the evening, however some people were against it which meant the price for the people who wanted to do it was prohibitive.

Places visited:

Hakone
Kyoto
Kiyomizu
Higashiyama
Gion
Shirakara Canal

Day 6

John Noel — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 10:00:21 +0000

N.B. This was written shortly after I returned and will be rewritten as and when I get time.

We all headed up the maintain on a cable car to the source of the onsen today, the sulphurous springs in the Owakudani valley. The cable car had rain drops on the windows however which meant photo-taking was futile apart from a few shots.

The springs themselves come out piping out, so we got to sample one of the “Black eggs” which are cooked in the sulphurous waters. Once you get past the black shell however, it’s basically just a boiled egg, but one purported to give you 7 years of extra life.

Heading back down the valley we grabbed a gaudy pirate ship across the lake when it promptly starting pissing it down with rain.

With a walk around the forest now treacherous to say the least, we headed into a local museum which resembled someone taking stuff out of their garage and putting it on display. A really random collection of things like clocks, cameras, cabinets and samurai armour.

With the rain now mist, we headed down the cedar lined alley of what used to be the old Tokkaido trail between Kyoto and Edo (Tokyo).

I also managed to snap a picture of a tori-gate in the mist which turned out to be one of my favourite photos.

After wandering about lower Hakone for the afternoon everyone headed back for a relaxing evening at the guest house and making use of the onsen.

Places visited:

Hakone
Owakudani
Lake Ashi
Random Museum in Hakone
Cedar lined alley (Tokaido trail)

Day 5

John Noel — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 10:00:53 +0000

N.B. This was written shortly after I returned and will be rewritten as and when I get time.

Heading out from Kamakura first thing we got a train to Hakone which is nestled in mountains, literally. How they got all the machinery and builders up to build this fantastic town is beyond me, but such an achievement. When we got the bus from the train station to our guest house, there were road works and a bus ahead broke down meaning it was a long and tortuous journey up the hills.

The guest house itself was rocking, a family run establishment, it had a few young female staff, one of which (called Taki) was again extremely cute but our tour leader James seemed to have a thing for her so that was a bit peculiar.

The typhoon had stirred up the weather again meaning the afternoon trip to the Open Air Sculpture museum was a bit wet. Heading back on the bus however was an exercise in terror. The bus driver was taking hairpin bends down this mountain at maybe 40mph, bearing in mind the road is wet and the bus is full of (now scared) tourists. The driver was completely dead-pan throughout it which was slightly worrying.

The evening I managed to sample the onsen. My word. Relaxation doesn’t even begin to sum it up. The water was milky with minerals (mainly sulphur) and at about 28-30 degrees celsius and I could have spent hours in there.

Places visited:

Kamakura
Hakone
Hakone Open Air Museum

Day 4

John Noel — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 10:00:28 +0000

N.B. This was written shortly after I returned and will be rewritten as and when I get time.

This was to be the day we leave Tokyo and head on down to Kamakura, however there was the option to head to the Tsukiji fish market early in the morning. So having just gotten over my jet-lag, I wantonly get up at 0430 to get the first subway train to the fish market.

Tsukiji is the biggest working fish-market in the world and is this huge place that sells pretty much every variety of sea-food possible. We were warned beforehand, but because it’s a working fishmarket and we would be tourists, you have to watch your back constantly as stuff goes on swiftly and if you don’t move for someone or something, then you’re going to get shouted at. Good thing really as these crazy electric cart things scream around you constantly as you’re weaving in and out of what is essentially organised bedlam. How people know what they’re doing is beyond me.

The first call on the trip was to the tuna auctions. Kicking off at around 0530, these auctions sell these huge whole tuna, sometimes for exorbitant prices to restauranteers, other sellers etc. Essentially the tuna come with their gills hollowed out and a small chunk out of their tail, all fast frozen from being caught literally 4 hours ago. People wander about in wellies and aprons with a torch and small pick axe and examine all the tuna before the auction gets underway. Each auction only takes about 15 seconds in which there are some unintelligible words and raising of hands.

After the auctions had calmed down and we’d had a little wander on our own we all went to a pseudo-famous sushi restaurant right there in the fish market. Pseudo-famous as people like Justin Timberlake and Cameron Diaz has been to the restaurant before, even though it was only big enough for about 8 people max. I’m not a big fan of sushi, but fresh sushi caught the night before was pretty gorgeous, certainly makes every other sushi I’ve tried else pale in comparison.

Heading back to the hotel, it was now about 0730, when I should have been getting up instead of almost being run over by little electric carts or being talked to by drunken businessmen. We grabbed one of the local trains from Tokyo station and headed out to Kamakura which only took about 30 minutes.

Now brilliant sunshine, Kamakura is pretty much a small village on the outskirts of Tokyo. However, it was now in the midst of a festival for the 3 day bank holiday weekend for Japan which meant there were all sorts of things going on.

(The drumming lady on the right was exceptionally cute but didn’t hang around enough for a better photo.) The shrine maiden you see there is a candid shot as you’re not allowed to take photos of the maidens as it apparently steals their souls (or some such). Suffice to say that one doesn’t have a soul now, mwuh ha ha ha ha.

The main temple we went to was hosting the Yabusame festival, which translates to Horse Archery. Our tour guide had sweet talked our hotel owner into getting us some decent tickets which meant we all got a rosette which let us into a nicer section for viewing the event.

After standing about for 2 hours (having been up for 12 hours now) and listening to them drone on over the tannoy about the origins of the festival, the archers paraded up and down. The long track was lined with three targets, basically plywood boards, the archers set off down the track and tried to hit each target in one run. As the event wears on, the targets get smaller. Even with our rosettes the position we were in wasn’t great so I had to point my camera and hope for the best during the runs.

The power of the bows and speed of the archers though was stunning. If an arrow actually hit the target dead on, it pretty much just obliterated it, sending bits of wood everywhere.

After watching a few rounds of that, a few of us headed out to see the big Buddha, another of Kamakura’s attractions.

Not much to say really, it’s a big bronze Buddha. Good thing the religious man who built it put those handy dandy windows in the back for tourists to look out of. Prognosticators the lot of those Buddhists. Heading back with Gemma, we both got lost trying to get back from the funicular rail station so we grabbed a rickshaw to the hotel which was awesome.

Dinner that night was Kaiseki (stone pocket) which amounted to nouveau cuisine Japanese style.

Places visited:

Tsukiji fish market
Kamakura
Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu
Great Buddha

Day 3

John Noel — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 10:00:08 +0000

N.B. This was written shortly after I returned and will be rewritten as and when I get time.

The first official day of the tour and the weather was looking up. Apparently there was a typhoon battering the south of Japan which caused the rain and so forth where we were, but with that abating the sun was finally coming out.

Onto the government buildings (Tochomae) and the 45th floor observatory.

Nothing spectacular as the humidity made seeing Fuji impossible, but quite nice urban views.

On the subway down to the Harajuku area and into the Meji-jingu shrine. All of the shines and temples in Japan have one thing in common, and that’s that they’re the most peaceful places you could visit that are smack bang in the middle of the city. There’s plenty of vegetation around you, but the places just feel so serene, and everyone else around you is generally pretty respectful. So things like mobile phones are always switched off, I literally didn’t hear one mobile phone go off in my entire time in Japan.

We managed to catch the end of a Buddhist (or Shinto?) wedding ceremony there, must have been strange having a bunch of foreigners all snapping your wedding photos. The was also a huge wall of sake barrels all donated by various companies and people with their names on the front.

Lunch was in Harajuku which is like ground zero for trendy. You could literally just people watch for a week and you probably wouldn’t see the same style twice. The restaurant some of us ended up in was a facsimile of a generic British restaurant but with scruffy-hip Tokyo students waiting tables.

On from Harajuku through Shinjuku Times Square which houses a huge department store which was interesting for a bit, but essentially it’s a big department store. Moving on from there we passed through Shiodome which had the Dentsu (huge advertising company) skyscraper.

On from there we got a circle-line overland train to Hama-rikyu, but got on the wrong direction so the train journey took a while which meant we needed to book it through the gardens if we wanted to catch the last river taxi back to our hotel.

The river taxi is a working public transport route that heads up and down the Sumida river but was a brilliant way to finish off the day.

In all the journey took about an hour and a half which meant when we got back it was time for dinner. This time it was Okonomiyaki which is essentially “make your own omelette”. So you get a huge electric griddle in front of you, you order your ingredients and you make it there yourself. I had octopus and some random sea food (shrimp I think). The octopus was fine if not a little chewy, but the suction cups get stuck on your tongue pretty easily.

Places visited:

Tokyo Metropolitan Building
Meiji-jingu
Dentsu building
Hamarikyu
Sumida River

Day 2

John Noel — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 10:00:57 +0000

N.B. This was written shortly after I returned and will be rewritten as and when I get time.

It was now raining significantly outside which meant my original plan to go to Akihabara was on hold. Instead I decided on the Tokyo International Museum which was all indoors. Unfortunately it was also through Ueno park which meant I had to invest in an umbrella, let me tell you, best 600 yen I spent all trip.

The museum itself was awesome, but photos not allowed in most places which I adhered to. Exhibits ranged from swords (so purty, even saw an original Murasame sword) to poetry, to woodblock prints to Ainu pottery and all sorts.

After leaving and with the rain abated, I did a bit of people watching in Ueno park. Don’t stay still in Tokyo too long, someone will come and speak to you; an older gentleman just came and sat down next to me and started eulogising to me in damn fine English. He talked at me for about 40 minutes about everything from the student population in Harajuku to how the government should be culling the crows. After a while, I decided it was time to make my apologies and head off somewhere else. Nice guy, bit crazy though.

The art museum nearby cost to get in, but the sculpture outside reminded me of the gate in Full Metal Alchemist so I snapped a photo of that.

Heading on the subway to Akihabara, it was uniquely underwhelming, and the guide of “the shops are around the station” didn’t help. I spent a bit of time in a random electronics store before heading out from all the noise and bright lights.

With the rest of the afternoon left I headed out to the Imperial Palace and gardens for a little look around.

I managed to get some really nice fountain photos (slow shutter FTW) but the grounds were under construction in places so access was even more limited than usual. The grounds were huge, evidently to hold all the people on the two days of the year when it’s open, but otherwise it was a big open space in the middle of an otherwise busy city.

Heading back, I phoned the tour leader to see whether there was a meal going on that evening which there was, so I got to meet the entire group. The meal was fantastic and was a selection of dishes chosen by the tour leader and a set of beers as everyone got to know each other. In all there were 9 of us, 10 including the tour leader.

Lisa was mid forties and had left her husband and two children at home to come to Japan. Larry and Joel were the only Americans in the party and Larry was the father while Joel was in Japan for his 21st birthday. Sam(antha) and Andy were two Brits who basically had travelled the world (glacier climbing in Chile, Tibettan mountain climbing). Pat and Tony were mid 60’s but ran marathons so were more fit than most of the group members. Gemma, another 21 year old who had been to Japan earlier in the year on another tour with her mum but had had a shitty time so came back on her own for this tour. And myself. Quite the eclectic group really.

Gemma, Joel and Larry had only just got into Japan so left early (weaklings) while the rest of us got boozed and eventually adjourned at about 11pm.

Places visited:

Tokyo International Museum
Tokyo Imperial Palace

Day 1 – Travel and tourism

John Noel — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 10:00:23 +0000

N.B. This was written shortly after I returned and will be rewritten as and when I get time.

Went through passport control and customs then met up with the tour leader, James as well as another group member, Lisa. James got our JR Rail Passes there then gave us instructions for getting to the hotel in Tokyo. Essentially it’s an hour and half train journey from Narita airport to Tokyo and James had to meet others at the airport so didn’t have time to take us to the hotel personally.

Dropped my bag off at the hotel (no check-in until 4pm) then went with Lisa to Senso-ji which is a temple just round the corner from the hotel.

By this time there was a fine rain or mist around and after 14+ hours of travelling it was nice just to wander in the peacefulness and soak in some of the ambience. The story behind the temple involves 2 fisherman finding a statue of the goddess Kanon while fishing; figuring it was uber holy they built a temple up around it which became Senso-ji. The figure is not on display as it’s considered too holy for us common people to view.

After a spot of lunch (menu pointing is the only way to go) Lisa and I split up and I went off to Tokyo Tower, which – as nice and touristy as it was – didn’t really hit home in the rain and mist.

By now the subway was becoming quite familiar: it was quick, efficient, clean, easy to navigate and generally quite awesome. There is of course the concept of a “Gaijin Raidus”, whereby if other passengers can possibly help it, the seats either side and in front of you will not be filled. When you’re the only westerner in a 10+ carriage train I can kind of understand it.

Now able to check into the hotel, I came upon the glory of the Japanese toilet:

Having been awake for 28+ hours and being faced with this, it was a case of “I just want to use this thing not drive it.” So you can heat the toilet seat (apparently very useful in winter-time up in the mountains) and get front and back water streams (of which you can control the water pressure). Without putting too fine a point on it, these things have impeccable aim.

Now 5pm, I couldn’t be bothered going to scavenge for food so I went to bed and slept on and off until the next day.

Places visited:

Senso-ji
Tokyo Tower