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Sakuragasm

The big temptation for this time of year I would imagine is just snapping roll after roll (meabytes of megabytes?) of cherry blossom pictures. It’s not that they’re ugly, but there is the risk of beginning slightly pink-blind by it all. So for now, I’m trying to snap photos that contain more than just pink. Apart from that one of the branches, that’s just purty.

I made a monumentally bad coice when it came to shoes this time around as I either didn’t break these shoes in correctly or they are in fact shoes crafted by the devil himself because my left leg has some traumatic blisters on it. One on either side of the heel that means one blister plaster isn’t large enough to cover both. By now most of the skin that would have protected them has gone and they are red and angry which has spread to the rest of my leg which is slightly disturbing. I’ve taken to paddig my shoe with a bit of grey foam cribbed from my camera bag to protect them but I get the feeling that at some point in the holiday I may have to plump for new shoes or end up crippled. It’s odd how things like that can prey on your mind, especially as my jet lag still hasn’t full dissapated yet (dammit) and fevered dreams of my leg dropping off from these blisters are not uncommon.

Bit of a revisit of some locations yesterday. Senso-ji has moved its construction from the outer gate to the main building which is now ensconced in scaffolding. The good weather and cherry blossoms makes it an almost entirely different place to visit than my first time when it was raining and I had just stepped off the flight. Hama-rikyu we managed to visit the tea house which was a brilliant experience and good cake. The Sumida river taxi was packed which meant we had to go into the underbelly and a miss a lot of the view nfortunately. I came back to the hotel at Meiji-jingu now being in some pain from the evil shoes and napped for a spell. I’d also managed to catch the sun on my head a bit which is odd for April!

Off to Nikko now!

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7 April 2009

Day 3

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:

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15 September 2006