SUNDAY 4 NOVEMBER 2007 9:39PM
mt fuji
I caught the train to kawaguchiko, one of the Fuji Five Lakes, to stay overnight. Due to a mix up, I ended up spending about 5 hours on the train. I've already mentioned how impressive the mountains in japan are compared to australian mountains. I saw up close some of the biggest mountains I've ever seen on my life though the window of the train. They were so close and so big.
And then above them, still a long way behind them, Mt Fuji's snowy cone rose into the sky making them all look like tiny little hills. That was the first time I saw Fuji, and I stared at it like a dumb tourist. I was glad to see many of the japanese also enjoying a glimpse of the elusive volcano.
The mountain came clearer into view as we got closer to Kawaguchiko. I have really never seen anything like it. I think the word 'majestic' has found it's home describing that mountain, and no other will ever deserve the adjective. It dominated half the sky on one side. No matter where you were in Kawaguchiko you could see it.
After I arrived, I found where I was staying, in a lovely little japanese style room with a tatami floor. I headed over to the local onsen to relax and try to fit in. I succeeded in relaxing, failed at fitting in, being the only gaijin in a japanese bathhouse, and I think I used soap on my hair and washed my body with shampoo. But I did end up clean nonetheless. And soaking outside in a hot bath looking at the unfamiliar stars was a really great experience.
I caught the bus to the 5th station the next day, which was about two thirds of the way up the mountain, and not far from where the treeline ends as you approach the summit. At the 5th station we were above the clouds, a lot higher than I was on Tsukuba, and it was still another kilometre higher. Climbing season was over, but I don't think I'd want to climb it anyways. It's beauty is in looking at it, not standing on it. There were crappy souvenier shops everywhere, and annoyingly overpriced compared to other souvenier shops in japan. I did get a postcard though, and a helpful japanese stamped it for me.
MONDAY 29 OCTOBER 2007 12:03PM
himeji
My last day in japan saw me visit the ancient Himeji Castle. This is one of the few original castles in japan left standing. It's very impressive, and aside from the foundations is completely made of wood. Which is probably why the japanese lost so many historical buildings, any fire and the whole city would burn to the ground.
Himeji castle is an old Tokugawa shogun castle. It is highly defensive and the winding and indirect path to the main castle building is full of twists and turns. Also the walls are punctuated with small windows for shooting enemies trying to reach the castle.
Inside we had to take our shoes off and carry them around in a plastic bag with us. There were people there whose job it was to straighten out used plastic bags and put them in a basket for people to reuse as they came in. We could wear the slippers provided or go in our socks. I thought I would wear the slippers.
Being entirely wooden, the place had an old wood smell to it. A lot of the rooms looked as though they once had sliding screens, but the screens weren't there anymore. There were enormous wooden beams in the ceilings and large thick ones for supports. Staircases were very narrow and steep and on many of them overhead beams didn't leave much room for squeezing though.
The view from the top was spectacular, which isn't surprise really because you can see the castle from most places in the city itself. It was really good to imagine the Shogun standing there in that spot surveying the countryside from the window.
Himeji the city was one of my favourite places in japan. It had a relaxed atmosphere and the people were especially friendly. It was a shame I visited on my last day, because I would have stayed longer if I had more time.
MONDAY 29 OCTOBER 2007 11:54AM
hiroshima and miyajima
I was in hiroshima today and it was very sad at times. It was a really huge thing that happened there. Also the museum there had a pretty unbiased view of what happened, they had done their research and it wasn't as american-centric as the version we usually hear, but it wasn't anti-american either.
Hiroshima had a very strong message of peace to promote. The bomb wiped out the whole city. Nearly everyone died. The extent of the devastation is hard to imagine. The accounts of people who survived or witnessed the event seem most of all to describe the utter confusion of the situation. There was no one to help because everyone was dying. People who came in to help after the bomb could do little for the victims, injuries were one thing but the radiation exposure was not treatable and most died. So they poured enormous energy into rebuilding the area, and even now you can see the sense of pride they take in their city. It's one of the neatest cities in japan. They say 'World Peace begins in Hiroshima' and they are devoted to that idea.
The place was absolutely packed with school children though, and they seemed to be doing some assignment where they had to ask gaijin about why they were at Hiroshima and what our views were on peace. That was the best part of my trip there, having these primary school kids reading their introductions off a piece of paper and then shoving an question sheet at me to fill out. Which they then watched me fill out with awe and curiosity cause I s'pose english is a tricky thing for them to write. But then afterwards each group would give me a folded paper origami heart or a crane with 'thank you' written on it in terrible english, and their names on the back. I passed some groups who would yell out 'Hello! Have a nice day!' at me, and they seemed delighted when I answered back. I heard one tell his friend something about me being australian, and I smiled and nodded, and he seemed surprised that I'd heard and understood him. So he asked me if I am Australian and I said 'Hai' and they all giggled amongst themselves. They were funny.
Then I went to Miyajima, and the island was beautiful, but it was raining! It would have been fantastic in the afternoon sunlight, with deer wandering around the place. I stopped at this little restaurant where they specialised in these pancake things, it was delicious. The whole island reminded me of the start of Spirited Away the movie, when Chihiro first enters the spirit world, with the ferry and the tide coming in as the lights all come on in the little restaurant street. It was a lot like that so maybe that place inspired that part of the movie somewhat.
WEDNESDAY 24 OCTOBER 2007 7:56PM
kyoto
I am in Kyoto at the moment. This is prolly my least favourite place of the whole trip. The city has some beautiful temples, but is otherwise boring, and I have never seen so many gaijin. I am staying with gaijin and had to go on the kyoto palace tour with them as well. Noisy americans and british people.
I did have a fun adventure today. I went to the Fushimi inari shrine, the one with the thousands of orange torii gates. There were thousands of them. I went to follow the path of the, which goes all the way up a small mountain in a loop and comes back down. There are lots of forks in the road though and no english signs. I came to one and wasn't sure which way to go but this old japanese man pointed uphill so I followed him up. He was puffing and panting and so when he stopped to rest I overtook him. Then I reached another fork in the road and got to a dead end, so I came back down, and he was waiting there for me and said 'You turn a wrong turn' and pointed the right way. So I walked with him the rest of the way. I am a lot fitter so I had to walk a bit slowly, but he was determined not to be left behind so he really pushed himself hard.
We walked all the way up to the top shrine and then back down and when we were near the end he suggested we stop for tea, so we went to this little tea shop on the side of the path near another shrine. There was an old lady there, and I sat with them while they were reading this 200 year old book and telling me bits of what was in it. 200 year old book! It looked fantastic. And we had green tea and I tried to understand what they were talking about. The old lady spoke no english and the man spoke very little. And then after tea he walked with me a shortcut back to the train station and shook my hand. That was a good afternoon.
All my best adventures in japan have been when I have been doing something with japanese people. The people are so nice and interesting.
I also stopped by Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavillion, just in time to catch it reflecting the afternoon sun from its golden walls. It was a very impressive sight to behold. The peaceful serenity of a golden temple by a lake in a beautiful park was spoilt somewhat by the several hundred school children also there to see it. The rest of the place was a bit of a tourist trap. I did eat some interesting black sesame sauce on a rice dumpling stick though. All in all it was a good afternoon.
FRIDAY 19 OCTOBER 2007 9:58PM
kamakura
Today I went to Ginza in the morning. I wandered around a bunch of department stores for ages, got lost a couple of times, and was a bit tired and frustrated, cause I hadn't had any breakfast yet and it was like 10:30am. Then I randomly walked into this stationery shop and they had Hanko! I then spent a laborious half hour trying to explain what I wanted to people who don't speak english. Again. Eventually it was all sorted out. I have to pick them up on the 23rd, which is the day I go to Kyoto, so I will stop by ginza on my way.
Then I stopped by a department store food level. OMG it was a sight for a hungry person. There were boxes of salads, obento, cakes, cheeses. The cakes in japan are works of art. We have nothing like that here. Also they have these strange cakes that they cook on enormous rolls. They look like tree trunks, and then they just slice donut shaped cakes off the roll. It looks crazy. So I got a heap of food and then caught the train to Kamakura.
Kamakura is where the giant Buddha (daibutsu) is. I got to see it, and you'd think it would just be a large statue near the sea, but it is really an awe filled experience to stand in front of it. It's enormous, but has such a sense of peace about it. Like most places here it was overcommercialised, souvenier shops all around it, and for 20c I got to go inside it's belly. But even all that can't take away that strong sense of something other hanging over the statue. I am glad I went there. There was also a market street in kamakura, and it was really fun. Just relaxed craft shops, not like tokyo or osaka. I had lunch there, I got a big steak lunch set, and I was really hungry so I devoured it. The staff were watching me covertly, cause gaijin girls can eat a lot apparently, also I have expert mastery of knife and fork utensils.
When I got back I decided to visit Tokyo Tower. Now that was overcommercialised without the sense of awe. At least I can say I went though. One thing I did notice, since it's raining a bit here and cloudy, the sky doesn't get dark over tokyo. The lights of the city reflect off the clouds and the whole sky remains in a kinda semi-permenant twilight. It's kinda weird.
FRIDAY 19 OCTOBER 2007 9:37PM
tsukubasan
Yesterday I ventured to Mt Tsukuba. We don't have very large mountains in australia, and the ones that I am used to, the Blue Mountains, were formed from a plateau and therefore are all the same height across the top. No jagged rearing peaks. So it's quite a surprise for me to see a larger mountain than I've ever seen before just poking out of the ground.
And so I climbed it.
First let me say a bit about Tsukuba city. I caught the express to Tsukuba city and then the shuttle bus to the mountain shrine. The train was great, once I worked out which one was rapid express and which was local stopping everywhere. Once I got there though, I discovered that Tsukuba isn't as english-friendly as everywhere else I've been. I also got stared at a lot more than usual. The lady at the Information centre thrust an english map/brochure at me and seemed relieved when I accepted this and left. I found the shuttle bus ok and endured the inevitable staring. The bus ride was great fun. I saw a side of Japan that I haven't seen in the metropolitan areas. It was a very neat place and kinda reminded me of canberra in the way it looked, laid out so orderly. The mountain itself has some kind of mountain village clinging to the side of it, all the way
up to the Shrine. There were a lot of cheap souvenier shops near the shrine, but that seems pretty normal for japan. All of them were selling cheap bokken, probably to cash in on the reputation of the real master bokken maker, nestled in a tiny unassuming little shop amidst them all. But more on that later.
I set off to climb the mountain, along with a bunch of other japanese tourists. One guy looked at me in disbelief and asked if I am going to climb (most people take the cable car rather than hike the mountain), and I said I was and he just stared at me. As it turns out my legs are longer than all of theirs, and I am pretty fit, so I soon overtook just about everyone on my way up and beat them all to the top. It was a friendly place though, and everyone I passed said 'konnichiwa!'. I emerged puffing and sweating at the peak and got a drink from the first shop I saw while they giggled and seemed amazed that the gaijin girl had just climbed it by herself. I then sat and rested and watched everyone else finish the climb. The top of the mountain is all cheap souvenier shops, full of frog related merchandise as the god of the mountain shrine is a frog. So I bought a frog for rina and then took the cable car down.
When I got back to the shrine, I went and found the bokken shop where the best bokken in the world are made. Surrounded by flashy souvenier shops, it was the only one with its door closed, so I let myself in, up the back was the little old man who makes the bokken, his wife, and another customer. I ended up staying for 2 whole hours, looking at bokken and trying to have my very poor japanese understood by 2 people whose only english seems to be the word 'OK'. I tried to ask for a bokken like the one I was looking at but with a rounded end rather than a cut off end, he showed me a small piece of wood with what I wanted and I told him that was it, so he took the bokken I was holding and went outside for a minute, then came back in and it was exactly right. He'd gone and shaped it on the spot for me.
He was very pleased to have an australian in his shop, and I heard him tell another customer that there is a gaijin girl in his shop from australia who does martial arts and can't speak japanese. He seemed amazed. All my bokken shopping (and customisation) took too long though and I only had a minute or two til the bus came, so he wrapped up my weapons for me and then directed me out to his little truck and drove me to the bus stop himself. How's that for service?
I got a few looks carrying a bundle of large sticks back on the train with me, but I didn't care, it was a fantastic day, and my first really japanese experience.
WEDNESDAY 17 OCTOBER 2007 11:02PM
imperial palace tokyo
I went for my tour of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo today and the first thing I noticed was that out of the hundreds of people there, there was only one gaijin present. That was me. There were prolly 90 percent old japanese people and they all stared at me, but that seems pretty normal to me now. The tour guide looked at me and then told me to wait a moment, I don't think he knew I understood him though, cause he kept waving his arms and insisting I wait, even though I wasn't moving. He sorted everyone else out and then gave me an english tour guide headset, which was my companion for the afternoon.
The imperial palace itself was very fancy but plain. We mostly walked around the grounds and I was expecting a proper japanese garden, but they only had walls and trees really, with a huge moat.
It's kinda sad really cause most of their old buildings and temples were destroyed by fire, earthquake or WWII. I've heard of Hiroshima being bombed of course, but I really had no idea how much bombing went on everywhere else. All their temples and palaces are reconstructions. Only a few in outlying areas survived really. It was an interesting look at their culture though to see the palace, and I could see it meant a lot to many of those old people. A couple even volunteered to take my picture for me, which I'll post up later.
TUESDAY 16 OCTOBER 2007 7:04PM
to tokyo
This morning I went back into Osaka station and found my way to Shin-Osaka station and caught the Shinkansen! I just jumped on unreserved and sat near a window so I could see everything. It took about 3 hours to get to Tokyo. I am an old hand at working out subways now. The view was interesting, the houses never stopped really. It was like all the cities were joined together. And there were tiny farms, like there would be two large factories and in between som little farmer with 2 small paddocks of rice. That was really strange to see. Some old lady sat next to me to Nagoya, she gave me lollies and seemed pleased to have spoken to a gaijin. And then another lady sat nearby and she guessed I was australian and said she used to live in melbourne teaching english and then as an air hostess for qantas. I talked to her all the way to Tokyo.
I went to Ueno when I got to Tokyo, and I had a few hours to kill so I wandered about there for a while. There was some huge street market area which was neat. And then I went to Ueno Park, there was lots of cats there. I never see cats anywhere but in parks. I went to starbucks and got a Macha tea latte. Which was a green latte, it was kewl. And I got some noodles at this place that sells noodles with a ticket machine out front. I pressed the wrong button and ended up with rice bubbles on my noodles instead of fried tofu, but it was still good. Everyone slurps their noodles. I couldn't get the hang of slurping noodles. I tried, it was hard work. I even had to slurp the broth. And there were these washcloths for cleaning the bench when all that slurping sprays broth everywhere. I don't know why they even do it.
Food here is very cheap. Everything else costs a lot. Tourist spots are cheap compared to australia. Vending machines are awesome. I had one give me a cup of coke with ice and it poured it and everything, it was only $1.20. Cakes and things like that are expensive. One little slice of cake cost more than my noodle lunch. It all looks so tempting though. I did have a chocolate dipped waffle yesterday, very yum. Tomorrow I think I will try and visit Ginza and other places. There's lots of walking and I get very tired. My feet are sore.
TUESDAY 16 OCTOBER 2007 7:03PM
Osaka
The plane trip was good. I was a little scared at first, but takeoff was smooth and the whole trip was uneventful. 10 hours is a bloody long time on a plane too! Kansai airport was confusing, we had to take light rail from the arrivals area to immigration. It took 5 mins to get there. From Customs I got my rail pass, and then couldn't work out how to get through the ticket gate! (I have since learnt to just go past the ticket attendant waving my JR Pass at them) So I got a Nankai pass to Namba and caught that. That was my first experience of japanese people staring at me, cause this dude on the train was staring all excited like. Apparently a gaijin female on her own is strange. A lot of people seem surprised I am travelling alone, but I haven't had any worries at all.
Anyways, I got to Namba and promptly got lost. As I thought I would. I spent an hour wandering around aimlessly, trying to read my shonky map. Eventually I went back to the station and asked directions from the ticket dude, who pointed at 'exit 31' on my map and at a walkway. So I followed that down and asked someone else, and I found the subway, and the subway had maps of it's own, which I then followed to exit 31. Once outside I naturally went the wrong way, but I was done wandering about, so I asked the first person I saw, this old lady outside a restaurant, and she actually walked with me to the front of the hotel.
The capsule hotel was as kewl as I imagined it would be. It was so shabby but clean. Osaka was like that in general, everything is old and shabby, but well maintained and clean. I went straight to sleep in my capsule. They gave me breakfast in the morning, and it was a boiled egg, this really thick, kinda sweet toast, and some fairly decent coffee. And since I then knew my way around the subway intimately, I went into town.
I should mention at this point that I haven't had to speak a word of japanese. Sometimes I do voluntarily, but never by necessity. And when I do they all stare at me. I usually just get by with one or two words, pointing and holding up fingers. But knowing how to read some japanese has been very useful, and listening for directions on the subway as well. Most signs have english, but not all.
So I first went to Osaka Castle. It's a recreation of the original, so it looked fantastic on the outside, and commercialised concrete on the inside. There were all these little school children there though sitting outside sketching the castle and they were really cute. Some of the little girls giggled at me, so I said hello to them in english and they thought it was funny. Some dude came up and took my picture for me, and then wanted to escort me all around town, but I refused. He looked creepy. He's not the last one who tried to 'help' me either.
I then went to Umeda Sky Building in the middle of town. It was kewl, a nice view and all. The escalators that go through the air weren't as impressive as the glass elevator that got me up there. Down in the basement level they had all these old style restaurants that looked really kewl, but it was lunchtime and they were full of salarymen, so I went back to Osaka station and found a convenience store, I got a box of sandwiches, a large riceball which turned out to be smoked salmon and nori, some sort of gooey beancake, and a tropical fanta, all for about $5, which was pretty good. The riceball was the best one I have ever eaten, it was fantastic.
I went back to Namba after that, and walked up to Americamura, which is like a youth hangout. Seriously it was like the Canberra Show during the daytime but more permenant, full of carnies and creepy signs, and shops full of junk. It even smelled like it. I then wandered through donbotori which was big, but not very interesting. I got some octopus balls, they were covered in BBQ sauce and bonito flakes. They were gooey inside with an octopus tentacle each. I took pictures. I was so tired from walking about at this point that I went back to my capsule and slept til morning. I didn't even visit den-den town, I couldn't be bothered.
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