Hello!
There comes a time when living in a camper van when you just need to have a shower. I've nipped into a hostel at the moment near Lake Taupo and paying over the odds rates to use a computer which has failed to a) back up my photos b)work at a fast enough speed to give me time to type up my blogs.
I am currently in Turangi, south of Taupo and fishing every day. Driving to a small Lake tonight so I can wake up and fish straight away. It's much colder than forecast and my rule is I don't get out of bed [which is made partly from my table] until I can't see my breath any more. This morning that time was 11am. It got to minus 6 the other night - colder than the South Island!
And I'm enjoying using the letters c and b. My phone has refused to type them since Japan and also fails to do other highly useful things - so apologies to people [and twitter followers] who might get posts such as 'enjoying kamper van'. Try texting without the letter c or b - you have to find elavorate ways of saying/spelling simple things.My phone is still taking photos though - and some are really nice. So when I'm on a computer that works nicely I'll upload as many photos as possible. For now just imagine a scene from Lord of The Rings and replace Gandelf with my unshaven face.
So my apologies for lack of blogs recently! They are kurrently being written in good old fashioned pen and ink and I'll type them up in the next week using as many Cs and Bs as I like. Thank you to everyone who is reading - more still to come on Japan and plenty of in-depth detailed fishing stories, listing each pattern and describing in great detail the size of each fish that got away...
That's all for now - keep the messages coming :)
Friday 29 May 2009
Sunday 17 May 2009
I left my umbrella in Hiroshima [written 9th May 2009]
[I'm writing this in Auckland from notes I made in my diary]
I'm sat in Kyoto station, it's 9pm and I'm about to get the Shinkensen to Hiroshima. I was planning on getting the day started a little earlier and heading out sooner, but I was up late drinking and in a Karaoke room until 5am. At this point I'd just like to say the following:
If anyone tells you how 'fun' private karaoke is 'after a few drinks', ask this: 'can you ever truly be drunk enough to endure being locked in a room with a load of tone deaf drunk people you've met that evening who are working their way through terrible U2 medleys with flashing neon and cheap tasting Sake?'. They might say 'just wait until it's your turn'. This is true. Once it's your turn out comes this rather surprising sensation. It's like you've gone past embarrassment or caring - you're locked in a room with people you'll never meet again and only they can hear you. Now you can pretend you sound as cool as the guy from Kings of Leon [even though you're from the Midlands] and that your sex is indeed 'on fire' even though you don't really understand what that means. 'Yeah, I love Karaoke! Yeah!'. Then it's the turn of the balled guy from Tasmania to unflinchingly murder a song you once held dear but can never hear again without seeing his shiny balled head.
Anyway, what that was leading to was that I had a latish start today.The past two days in Kyoto have been lovely and I enjoyed my time in Kyoto very much. Most of it was taking up chasing after various temples and shrines and it was hard to chose. Staying in a hostel is great for getting tips and ideas but not so great for early nights and early rising. That said, I think I saw as much as I comfortably could.
Kyoto certainly had a very different vibe to Tokyo. One Canadian girl I met said that Tokyo was 'exhuasting' and it's a very apt word. Imagine the furious chaos of any huge city [such as London] and add to that all the stress and energy expended by not speaking the language. All simple things are made harder. I'm reminded of a similar experience my sister told me about in Hong Kong where she had to mime wiping her arse in order to get some toilet roll. Gestures can only go so far and some simply don't work. Shake your hands as if to say 'it doesn't matter, forget it' and you'll get a baffled and concerned look in return. If you've done something wrong, such as wear the wrong pair of sandals into the toilet [there are designated sandals for different areas of scrupulously the clean hostels] then you get someone crossing their forearms in your face in a giant X like you've got the plague [which is pretty much how we were treated when we arrived in Japan owing to HNFU2 virus....saying that, the Auzzies had heat cameras to see who had a temperature - or who'd wet themselves].
Anyway.
While in Kyoto the average person will speak less English than in Tokyo, it's much less Bonkers [with a capital B] though challenging to travel in a different way.
The Golden temple was lovely - as was the tallest Pagoda in Japan, the Tuji Pagoda [Dave recommended I go here and see the family of terrapin. I couldn't find them but I did get my finger sucked by a carp. Make of that what you will].
So I find myself bound for Hiroshima. It's weird heading to Hiroshima. It's a place EVERYONE has heard of, but for one unfathomably horrific reason. Like Vietnam [or perhaps Hastings....] it is a place where the name is scarred with associations with conflict more than the current day goings-on.
I came to Hiroshima out of a kind of respect - like you would the house of Anne Frank. While visiting Anne Frank's house is a difficult experience - she represented just one life, which told a similar story to hundreds of others. The story of Hiroshima is the total destruction of an entire city in an instant. So I wasn't really sure how to 'do' Hiroshima. I was also interested in Hiroshima's more distant history. It was once the capitol, far superior to Tokyo. It became the centre for military operations as they grew out of its enormous castle.
When I started my day there, I decided to have a leisurely day. It was beautiful sunshine - the hottest day yet - and for the first time I left my umbrella and took a hat. You can certainly tell it's further south than Tokyo.
I wondered around the huge peace memorial park. This park is pretty much occupies where all the wooden houses and buildings were that were flattened. I hadn't had any breakfast so I got an icecream and visited the Atomic Dome. This is the only building in Hiroshima which stands as a reminder of the Atomic bomb [like coventry cathedral]. The A-bomb exploded 600 metres almost directly above the dome of the building [which was designed by a Czech architect] and the domed roof of the building was left almost intact
as a result. The building was voted to be kept as a reminder and serves as a visual focal point for the peace memorial park.
I went to the museum there and asked for a free English tour. The tour guide was called Himiyiko - who apologised in advance [in perfect English] for his poor English. At the start of the tour he was sweating heavily and I commented on what a hot day it was, so he didn't feel awkward about sweating. He said 'I not sweating because I am hot - I sweat because I am nervous about my English'. He was literally mopping the sweat form his brow as he was so nervous. He was a really nice guy. He was a volunteer at weekends and works for Mazda during the week as an Engineer. 'Do you enjoy the work for Mazda?' I asked - 'It hard' he said 'especially at the moment with the economy'. I learned a little about his family. His father died when he was 6 so he didn't really know him that well. His mother was still alive, and on the day of the Hiroshima bombing had travelled to the city to help and to search for her old teachers.
He was very interested in what I thought about nuclear disarmament - and I was honest with him. I said that I thought the UK spent far too much on our missiles and that the English were very un-optimistic about disarmament. It's happened, it's going to happen - it's almost an inevitability. Even though Obama has spoken for disarmament, it's practically impossible to rid the world of nuclear weapons and there was nothing anyone could really do on an individual level.
He considered this and we moved onto other exhibits about horrific human experience. He then showed me an exhibition about the Hiroshima International Mayors' convention. It's basically where all the mayors of major cities world-wide are invited to come to Hiroshima and discuss disarmament. He told a story of how the museum had paid for an exhibition to tour around the USA in schools and museums. It visited one high school in Chicago which subsequently prompted the students to write to their mayor - [who had previously declined to invitation to the convention] and demanded he attend. This he did.
'So', said Himiyiko, 'we can do something - our power is small, not nothing - and we must use it'. I could do nothing but agree. However, I shortly learned that in Japanese schools they spend less than 2 hours in a year studying WW2. 'They're too busy studying other things' he said. We both agreed that learning history was important - but he argued Japan was a forward looking country.
So there is an interesting split in Japanese culture, which is exemplified in Hiroshima. On the one hand is a desire to understand and learn about the past and spread the message of peace. On the other hand is a hyper-modern Japan, unstoppable in it's innovation - inseparably part of the commercial world and more dependant on fossil fuel imports than any other country [and all that that implies]. Most shockingly the current government went against the constitution to send troops to Iraq and is currently discussing quite what to do with a potentially Nuclear North Korea.
In the wake of this it's hard to see how one city can make a difference. It's tempting to say there's no point - but of course there is. When we parted he made me promise I'd tell my friends and family about the message of Hiroshima - which I guess this what I'm doing [sat typing up at 4am in Auckland]
I wasn't sure what to expect from the museum. It's hard to summarise the place. It's fair to say that a dark concrete building about nuclear war doesn't instantly appeal on a sunny day - but I was glad I made the effort to go. It seemed to have a mood of not simply optimism and determinism but the centre of an almost militant peace movement [which seems contradictory].
After the museum I sat in the sun and spotted some English speakers....more Canadians! [7 in all]. They had all just been to the museum too. We drank some beers in the park and pondered.
I'm sat in Kyoto station, it's 9pm and I'm about to get the Shinkensen to Hiroshima. I was planning on getting the day started a little earlier and heading out sooner, but I was up late drinking and in a Karaoke room until 5am. At this point I'd just like to say the following:
If anyone tells you how 'fun' private karaoke is 'after a few drinks', ask this: 'can you ever truly be drunk enough to endure being locked in a room with a load of tone deaf drunk people you've met that evening who are working their way through terrible U2 medleys with flashing neon and cheap tasting Sake?'. They might say 'just wait until it's your turn'. This is true. Once it's your turn out comes this rather surprising sensation. It's like you've gone past embarrassment or caring - you're locked in a room with people you'll never meet again and only they can hear you. Now you can pretend you sound as cool as the guy from Kings of Leon [even though you're from the Midlands] and that your sex is indeed 'on fire' even though you don't really understand what that means. 'Yeah, I love Karaoke! Yeah!'. Then it's the turn of the balled guy from Tasmania to unflinchingly murder a song you once held dear but can never hear again without seeing his shiny balled head.
Anyway, what that was leading to was that I had a latish start today.The past two days in Kyoto have been lovely and I enjoyed my time in Kyoto very much. Most of it was taking up chasing after various temples and shrines and it was hard to chose. Staying in a hostel is great for getting tips and ideas but not so great for early nights and early rising. That said, I think I saw as much as I comfortably could.
Kyoto certainly had a very different vibe to Tokyo. One Canadian girl I met said that Tokyo was 'exhuasting' and it's a very apt word. Imagine the furious chaos of any huge city [such as London] and add to that all the stress and energy expended by not speaking the language. All simple things are made harder. I'm reminded of a similar experience my sister told me about in Hong Kong where she had to mime wiping her arse in order to get some toilet roll. Gestures can only go so far and some simply don't work. Shake your hands as if to say 'it doesn't matter, forget it' and you'll get a baffled and concerned look in return. If you've done something wrong, such as wear the wrong pair of sandals into the toilet [there are designated sandals for different areas of scrupulously the clean hostels] then you get someone crossing their forearms in your face in a giant X like you've got the plague [which is pretty much how we were treated when we arrived in Japan owing to HNFU2 virus....saying that, the Auzzies had heat cameras to see who had a temperature - or who'd wet themselves].
Anyway.
While in Kyoto the average person will speak less English than in Tokyo, it's much less Bonkers [with a capital B] though challenging to travel in a different way.
The Golden temple was lovely - as was the tallest Pagoda in Japan, the Tuji Pagoda [Dave recommended I go here and see the family of terrapin. I couldn't find them but I did get my finger sucked by a carp. Make of that what you will].
So I find myself bound for Hiroshima. It's weird heading to Hiroshima. It's a place EVERYONE has heard of, but for one unfathomably horrific reason. Like Vietnam [or perhaps Hastings....] it is a place where the name is scarred with associations with conflict more than the current day goings-on.
I came to Hiroshima out of a kind of respect - like you would the house of Anne Frank. While visiting Anne Frank's house is a difficult experience - she represented just one life, which told a similar story to hundreds of others. The story of Hiroshima is the total destruction of an entire city in an instant. So I wasn't really sure how to 'do' Hiroshima. I was also interested in Hiroshima's more distant history. It was once the capitol, far superior to Tokyo. It became the centre for military operations as they grew out of its enormous castle.
When I started my day there, I decided to have a leisurely day. It was beautiful sunshine - the hottest day yet - and for the first time I left my umbrella and took a hat. You can certainly tell it's further south than Tokyo.
I wondered around the huge peace memorial park. This park is pretty much occupies where all the wooden houses and buildings were that were flattened. I hadn't had any breakfast so I got an icecream and visited the Atomic Dome. This is the only building in Hiroshima which stands as a reminder of the Atomic bomb [like coventry cathedral]. The A-bomb exploded 600 metres almost directly above the dome of the building [which was designed by a Czech architect] and the domed roof of the building was left almost intact
as a result. The building was voted to be kept as a reminder and serves as a visual focal point for the peace memorial park.
I went to the museum there and asked for a free English tour. The tour guide was called Himiyiko - who apologised in advance [in perfect English] for his poor English. At the start of the tour he was sweating heavily and I commented on what a hot day it was, so he didn't feel awkward about sweating. He said 'I not sweating because I am hot - I sweat because I am nervous about my English'. He was literally mopping the sweat form his brow as he was so nervous. He was a really nice guy. He was a volunteer at weekends and works for Mazda during the week as an Engineer. 'Do you enjoy the work for Mazda?' I asked - 'It hard' he said 'especially at the moment with the economy'. I learned a little about his family. His father died when he was 6 so he didn't really know him that well. His mother was still alive, and on the day of the Hiroshima bombing had travelled to the city to help and to search for her old teachers.
He was very interested in what I thought about nuclear disarmament - and I was honest with him. I said that I thought the UK spent far too much on our missiles and that the English were very un-optimistic about disarmament. It's happened, it's going to happen - it's almost an inevitability. Even though Obama has spoken for disarmament, it's practically impossible to rid the world of nuclear weapons and there was nothing anyone could really do on an individual level.
He considered this and we moved onto other exhibits about horrific human experience. He then showed me an exhibition about the Hiroshima International Mayors' convention. It's basically where all the mayors of major cities world-wide are invited to come to Hiroshima and discuss disarmament. He told a story of how the museum had paid for an exhibition to tour around the USA in schools and museums. It visited one high school in Chicago which subsequently prompted the students to write to their mayor - [who had previously declined to invitation to the convention] and demanded he attend. This he did.
'So', said Himiyiko, 'we can do something - our power is small, not nothing - and we must use it'. I could do nothing but agree. However, I shortly learned that in Japanese schools they spend less than 2 hours in a year studying WW2. 'They're too busy studying other things' he said. We both agreed that learning history was important - but he argued Japan was a forward looking country.
So there is an interesting split in Japanese culture, which is exemplified in Hiroshima. On the one hand is a desire to understand and learn about the past and spread the message of peace. On the other hand is a hyper-modern Japan, unstoppable in it's innovation - inseparably part of the commercial world and more dependant on fossil fuel imports than any other country [and all that that implies]. Most shockingly the current government went against the constitution to send troops to Iraq and is currently discussing quite what to do with a potentially Nuclear North Korea.
In the wake of this it's hard to see how one city can make a difference. It's tempting to say there's no point - but of course there is. When we parted he made me promise I'd tell my friends and family about the message of Hiroshima - which I guess this what I'm doing [sat typing up at 4am in Auckland]
I wasn't sure what to expect from the museum. It's hard to summarise the place. It's fair to say that a dark concrete building about nuclear war doesn't instantly appeal on a sunny day - but I was glad I made the effort to go. It seemed to have a mood of not simply optimism and determinism but the centre of an almost militant peace movement [which seems contradictory].
After the museum I sat in the sun and spotted some English speakers....more Canadians! [7 in all]. They had all just been to the museum too. We drank some beers in the park and pondered.
Friday 8 May 2009
BulleToKyoto [written 7th May]
[[I'm a little behind on my blogs for various reasons. I'm in NZ now - but here are the blogs as I wrote them at the time. It's 4am so please excuse bad grammar]]:
I am sat in the Tokyo Shinkasen [Bullet Train] station and about to get on my first Bullet Train - the Hikari super-express.
The Bullet train is incredible and they look how trains from the future are supposed to look. Ever since I was little I`ve wanted to go on one and I can`t honestly remember ever being this exited about getting on a train.
I'm off to Kyoto today and I've booked 2 nights to stay. Having a rail pass is bringing back memories of inter-railing round Europe - but these trains are incredible. After an airport-like check-in you just flash your pass and you can get on any train [except the fastest - Nozomi] and go anywhere without booking. If you want a guaranteed seat, you just turn up and say so, it
's free and you can be on a train within 5 min and at your destination 300 miles away in under 2 hours. The trains are so long and the carriages themselves so long that most stations have about 6 different escalators along the platform so that you can emerge near your carriage. The whole system works amazingly well. In comparison - in France if you want to go on a TGV you have to book at least half a day in advance and you have to pay about 10 euros for the privilege, whist enduring the endlessly tedious French customer 'relations'. The Japanese courtesy and efficiency is a real breath of fresh air, and as a European you can't help get the feeling that our rail system was supposed to be like this...
The whole Shinkansen system is typically Japanese - especially in that it is hyper-modern, yet also has very traditional elements of Japanese culture. For example, all the staff are very formal. Trolley wheelers and ticket collectors bow before entering the carriage and turn around and bow to the carriage before leaving it for the next. And there are 'Western Style' toilets, 'Japanese style' and even urinals for those who can't decide. There is a room in one carriage for noisey children to to isolated and people who feel 'unwell'. And yet mixed with this modernity and forward thinking, there are smoking carriages, 3 in fact. I will return to the issue of Japanese and smoking later in the later blog.
So everyone is very polite to each other [a little like a giant first class lounge] which in a way it is. The Shinkansen is very expensive if you are Japanese. Tourists only can buy a rail-pass and you have to show your passport at each gate. It is wonderful to be treated to the best trains in Japan, where as places like Turkey and Italy seem to resent your presence on their trains.
Inside, the carriages are bright white, ten feet wide [3 seats then 2 seats] and each seat placed about 3 feet from the next, so even fully reclined it doesn't disturb your rear neighbor.
On the trains they serve delicious [and expensive] box lunches - wooden boxes full of yaki udon and sushi - all served with beer. There are even whole carriages you can sit in which don't have any announcements at all - unlike East Midlands trains who can't seem fight the urge to read out the entire ingredients of a packet of pringles before telling you they've kindly reduced the price to 8 pounds. It's pretty much a rolling heaven.
I'd like to say that it's beautiful rolling by all the Japanese scenery on the faultless rollingstock - but it's not. Granted it's raining, which never helps, but each town runs into another. [In my whole two weeks in Japan and 1000 miles of rail travel I never went more than 3 seconds without passing a house - that's passing not seeing!]. The view is intersected with green stabs of watery rice fields or huge hills and mountains. Japan has the most tunnelled mountains in the world and the Japanese population perches in between them using every square mile there is. So even at a basic level, it's a very differant view from the train in England and totally different from France.
I have a GPS gadget with me on my phone which measures speed and the fastest I clocked at a train going was 177mph. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it FELT faster than the groundspeed an airbus 330 needs to take off. And the faster you go the more amazing Japan seems. Though, anything looks good at 177 MPH! I'll be fair though - there are glimpses [and I mean glimpses!] of outstanding beauty. Be it a clouded mountain top, an ancient shrine or a view of a small figure clinging to a terraced mountain with a terrifying incline up a hand built stone path winding its way to an ancestral shack at the top before you slam into another mountain tunnel at a huge speed. Emerging you might see sights like vines, car garages or concrete clad mountain sides. And you wouldn't even know if you passed through a National Park, as Japan is almost unique in it's policy of not letting Natural Park status affect construction of habitation in anyway.
With a population closer in size to the USA rather than the UK, it's little wonder Japan looks as it does and a small miracle it's not more spoiled.
So I'm well out of Tokyo and the size of buildings begins to increase again - I'm reaching Kyoto. Kyoto has a much more relaxed vibe than Tokyo [once your're outside the immence station/shopping complex]. It is very traditional and is the only city that wasn't carpet bombed or A-bombed by the Allies during the Second World War [although if the weather was differant it would have been nuked instead of Hiroshima]. As a result, there is a wealth of temples and shrines in the area - mixed of course with the modern insance Japanese culture of gambling, food and flashing signs.
I was staying in the Geisha area and couldn't wait to explore the city...
I am sat in the Tokyo Shinkasen [Bullet Train] station and about to get on my first Bullet Train - the Hikari super-express.
The Bullet train is incredible and they look how trains from the future are supposed to look. Ever since I was little I`ve wanted to go on one and I can`t honestly remember ever being this exited about getting on a train.
I'm off to Kyoto today and I've booked 2 nights to stay. Having a rail pass is bringing back memories of inter-railing round Europe - but these trains are incredible. After an airport-like check-in you just flash your pass and you can get on any train [except the fastest - Nozomi] and go anywhere without booking. If you want a guaranteed seat, you just turn up and say so, it
's free and you can be on a train within 5 min and at your destination 300 miles away in under 2 hours. The trains are so long and the carriages themselves so long that most stations have about 6 different escalators along the platform so that you can emerge near your carriage. The whole system works amazingly well. In comparison - in France if you want to go on a TGV you have to book at least half a day in advance and you have to pay about 10 euros for the privilege, whist enduring the endlessly tedious French customer 'relations'. The Japanese courtesy and efficiency is a real breath of fresh air, and as a European you can't help get the feeling that our rail system was supposed to be like this...
The whole Shinkansen system is typically Japanese - especially in that it is hyper-modern, yet also has very traditional elements of Japanese culture. For example, all the staff are very formal. Trolley wheelers and ticket collectors bow before entering the carriage and turn around and bow to the carriage before leaving it for the next. And there are 'Western Style' toilets, 'Japanese style' and even urinals for those who can't decide. There is a room in one carriage for noisey children to to isolated and people who feel 'unwell'. And yet mixed with this modernity and forward thinking, there are smoking carriages, 3 in fact. I will return to the issue of Japanese and smoking later in the later blog.
So everyone is very polite to each other [a little like a giant first class lounge] which in a way it is. The Shinkansen is very expensive if you are Japanese. Tourists only can buy a rail-pass and you have to show your passport at each gate. It is wonderful to be treated to the best trains in Japan, where as places like Turkey and Italy seem to resent your presence on their trains.
Inside, the carriages are bright white, ten feet wide [3 seats then 2 seats] and each seat placed about 3 feet from the next, so even fully reclined it doesn't disturb your rear neighbor.
On the trains they serve delicious [and expensive] box lunches - wooden boxes full of yaki udon and sushi - all served with beer. There are even whole carriages you can sit in which don't have any announcements at all - unlike East Midlands trains who can't seem fight the urge to read out the entire ingredients of a packet of pringles before telling you they've kindly reduced the price to 8 pounds. It's pretty much a rolling heaven.
I'd like to say that it's beautiful rolling by all the Japanese scenery on the faultless rollingstock - but it's not. Granted it's raining, which never helps, but each town runs into another. [In my whole two weeks in Japan and 1000 miles of rail travel I never went more than 3 seconds without passing a house - that's passing not seeing!]. The view is intersected with green stabs of watery rice fields or huge hills and mountains. Japan has the most tunnelled mountains in the world and the Japanese population perches in between them using every square mile there is. So even at a basic level, it's a very differant view from the train in England and totally different from France.
I have a GPS gadget with me on my phone which measures speed and the fastest I clocked at a train going was 177mph. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it FELT faster than the groundspeed an airbus 330 needs to take off. And the faster you go the more amazing Japan seems. Though, anything looks good at 177 MPH! I'll be fair though - there are glimpses [and I mean glimpses!] of outstanding beauty. Be it a clouded mountain top, an ancient shrine or a view of a small figure clinging to a terraced mountain with a terrifying incline up a hand built stone path winding its way to an ancestral shack at the top before you slam into another mountain tunnel at a huge speed. Emerging you might see sights like vines, car garages or concrete clad mountain sides. And you wouldn't even know if you passed through a National Park, as Japan is almost unique in it's policy of not letting Natural Park status affect construction of habitation in anyway.
With a population closer in size to the USA rather than the UK, it's little wonder Japan looks as it does and a small miracle it's not more spoiled.
So I'm well out of Tokyo and the size of buildings begins to increase again - I'm reaching Kyoto. Kyoto has a much more relaxed vibe than Tokyo [once your're outside the immence station/shopping complex]. It is very traditional and is the only city that wasn't carpet bombed or A-bombed by the Allies during the Second World War [although if the weather was differant it would have been nuked instead of Hiroshima]. As a result, there is a wealth of temples and shrines in the area - mixed of course with the modern insance Japanese culture of gambling, food and flashing signs.
I was staying in the Geisha area and couldn't wait to explore the city...
No Giant Robotic Spiders
(Written on the 5th May)
Japan seems a very logical culture in many ways. Things that in England are a real ballache, well here they just seem to work. Take being hungry in a station. You just make sure that doesn't happen in England. It's financial suicide if you make it a habit of it - so you resort to vending machines stuffed full of sugar and crisps. Maybe a sandwich or a pasty if you feel like you want to treat yourself. [just to say - I'm sorry to have written so much about railway stations, but I seem to find myself blogging in them and I've noticed I'm talking about them probably more than anything else interesting (like the giant robotic spider down the road -I'm not even joking- but I don`t want to bore you writing about that....)]. So, back to every day life and stations. Well, in Japan if you're hungry, even small stations have a range of food. Granted, there are some over priced ones - but just as easy to find are these little noodle bars. They have ticket dispensing machines which you use the good old passmo to pay with (remembering to touch the special area) and then you eat a good meal, for about 3 US dollars. And Passmo is even built into new mobiles - and it just works. Really well. Also attached to many stations are shopping centres twice the size of the Bullring in Birmingham - probably over 20 in Tokyo alone. And even in malls you can't escape vending machines. They are everywhere. Literally one every 20 square meters through the whole station. Even walking home last night, on a 15 min walk from the station to the house i'm living in, I counted 7 - all on a mile long residential road. Some seem to be owned by private homes. The equivalent of living on a busy road in London and planting a coke machine in the middle of your privet hedge next to your car. Not a bad idea - but I don't think one would last ten min at night in most English towns. And before you ask, (I can hear everyone thinking it) I haven't found any used pants vending machines. I was told, without asking I might add, that they've been outlawed. It's a shame as I was hoping there would be some deposit ones where I could generate some extra income by cashing in my own. But it is puzzling - I mean, why would you want used pants anyway? I'm at a loss. I know a couple of friends who'd find clean pants vending machines much more useful. I'm not mentioning any names.
Japan seems a very logical culture in many ways. Things that in England are a real ballache, well here they just seem to work. Take being hungry in a station. You just make sure that doesn't happen in England. It's financial suicide if you make it a habit of it - so you resort to vending machines stuffed full of sugar and crisps. Maybe a sandwich or a pasty if you feel like you want to treat yourself. [just to say - I'm sorry to have written so much about railway stations, but I seem to find myself blogging in them and I've noticed I'm talking about them probably more than anything else interesting (like the giant robotic spider down the road -I'm not even joking- but I don`t want to bore you writing about that....)]. So, back to every day life and stations. Well, in Japan if you're hungry, even small stations have a range of food. Granted, there are some over priced ones - but just as easy to find are these little noodle bars. They have ticket dispensing machines which you use the good old passmo to pay with (remembering to touch the special area) and then you eat a good meal, for about 3 US dollars. And Passmo is even built into new mobiles - and it just works. Really well. Also attached to many stations are shopping centres twice the size of the Bullring in Birmingham - probably over 20 in Tokyo alone. And even in malls you can't escape vending machines. They are everywhere. Literally one every 20 square meters through the whole station. Even walking home last night, on a 15 min walk from the station to the house i'm living in, I counted 7 - all on a mile long residential road. Some seem to be owned by private homes. The equivalent of living on a busy road in London and planting a coke machine in the middle of your privet hedge next to your car. Not a bad idea - but I don't think one would last ten min at night in most English towns. And before you ask, (I can hear everyone thinking it) I haven't found any used pants vending machines. I was told, without asking I might add, that they've been outlawed. It's a shame as I was hoping there would be some deposit ones where I could generate some extra income by cashing in my own. But it is puzzling - I mean, why would you want used pants anyway? I'm at a loss. I know a couple of friends who'd find clean pants vending machines much more useful. I'm not mentioning any names.
Tokyo`s Special Place
[written on my phone - monday morning 4th May]
After a few broken sleep sessions I headed out of Pat's lovely but empty house to meet my friend's girlfriend for the first time. She'd offered to show me round Tokyo while Pat set the reactor going. At the station barrier I got out my Passmo. This is a great example of a modern Japanese word. Take an English one and add 'o' or 'mo'. (See 'hotto' and 'milko'.) It's a fun game to make up your own, half the time they seem to understand - but that's probably because they speak English, rather than me being a linguistic pioneer. Anyway, at the barrier I did the equivalent of putting my oyster card (my Passmo) into the paper ticket slot and jammed the machine with a satisfying clunk. Now any Londoners would agree that in London, that would have caused a big que, elicited quite a few tuts and probably resulted in the semi-closure of the northern line for a full lunar cycle. But here? 'excuse me sur' said the barrier attendant - before i'd even asked for help. He began swiftly dismantling the machine to free my ticket and said 'you just put it here and touch it on the special Passmo place'. He bowed politely and smiled and I instinctively bowed back. I have to say I quite like all this bowing. It beats the sarcastic patronising smiles I'm quite sure any tube worker(or even myself would) quite freely dole out to any Japanese person on the tube making a similar mistake. So off I went, remembering to always touch my Passo on the special passo place.
*
I saw so much of Tokyo today. It's really really big. Clean and friendly. But no one understands the underground system, never mind a tourist with no grasp of Japanese! Even Makiko (Pat's girlfriend who was showing me round) admitted it was hard and had to consult her directions on several occasions. She said 'don't even ask me to go to Tokyo central -it's a nightmare!'. So we passed the day visiting sites like the Imperial Palace (just a big wall really, as you're not allowed in) and had some udon and sushi.
We parted and i'm wondering the streets of Harajuku. Found some free wifi so here I am blogging! Bye for now!
After a few broken sleep sessions I headed out of Pat's lovely but empty house to meet my friend's girlfriend for the first time. She'd offered to show me round Tokyo while Pat set the reactor going. At the station barrier I got out my Passmo. This is a great example of a modern Japanese word. Take an English one and add 'o' or 'mo'. (See 'hotto' and 'milko'.) It's a fun game to make up your own, half the time they seem to understand - but that's probably because they speak English, rather than me being a linguistic pioneer. Anyway, at the barrier I did the equivalent of putting my oyster card (my Passmo) into the paper ticket slot and jammed the machine with a satisfying clunk. Now any Londoners would agree that in London, that would have caused a big que, elicited quite a few tuts and probably resulted in the semi-closure of the northern line for a full lunar cycle. But here? 'excuse me sur' said the barrier attendant - before i'd even asked for help. He began swiftly dismantling the machine to free my ticket and said 'you just put it here and touch it on the special Passmo place'. He bowed politely and smiled and I instinctively bowed back. I have to say I quite like all this bowing. It beats the sarcastic patronising smiles I'm quite sure any tube worker(or even myself would) quite freely dole out to any Japanese person on the tube making a similar mistake. So off I went, remembering to always touch my Passo on the special passo place.
*
I saw so much of Tokyo today. It's really really big. Clean and friendly. But no one understands the underground system, never mind a tourist with no grasp of Japanese! Even Makiko (Pat's girlfriend who was showing me round) admitted it was hard and had to consult her directions on several occasions. She said 'don't even ask me to go to Tokyo central -it's a nightmare!'. So we passed the day visiting sites like the Imperial Palace (just a big wall really, as you're not allowed in) and had some udon and sushi.
We parted and i'm wondering the streets of Harajuku. Found some free wifi so here I am blogging! Bye for now!
Tokyo from Kyoto
Hello! My apologies to everyone for not writing sooner.
I am currently in Kyoto where it is very sunny and warm after days rain.
Just to quickly explain - I write my blogs on my phone and have quite a few I have not published yet so the order I publish them might be slightly confusing. I am at a computer now as I can`t use my phone to blog at the moment...
After a lengthy bath the other evening my phone got quite steamy. As a result I now can`t use the number 2 or any associated letters (which means I cant write or log into blogs to upload it). My phone also randomly uploaded pictures from my phone about 20 times, so my apologies!
Anyway, without further ado - here are some blogs!
I am currently in Kyoto where it is very sunny and warm after days rain.
Just to quickly explain - I write my blogs on my phone and have quite a few I have not published yet so the order I publish them might be slightly confusing. I am at a computer now as I can`t use my phone to blog at the moment...
After a lengthy bath the other evening my phone got quite steamy. As a result I now can`t use the number 2 or any associated letters (which means I cant write or log into blogs to upload it). My phone also randomly uploaded pictures from my phone about 20 times, so my apologies!
Anyway, without further ado - here are some blogs!
Saturday 2 May 2009
Touch down in Tokyo
Well I've arrived in Japan. From the dream like state of flying and insomnia, you land back in a city where the new day is just starting, with real people, familiar things you recognise (like phones and vending machines) but which are all ever so slighty unintelligable. It doesn't feel like i'm in Japan, just a wierd dream where everything actually works. People are polite, speak excellent english and my first touch down in Japan was going very smoothly. 'I'll pop to the loo' I thought. I didn't need to go, it's just that I'd managed to get not only tooth paste down my trousers, but also chocolate during the journey. I therefore had to sponge off both a white and brown stain from my crotch. So it wasn't urgent, but i wanted to see a toilet. I could barely wait, as you just hear so much about japanese toilets. I half expected to be greeted at the door by my own personal Bumi-Wipo robot. I wasn't. So i went into a cubicle and suddenly - rather than seeming like any other airport in any part of the western world - it felt very foreign. What the hell was this!? Even france builds proper toilets these days. A country that pretty much leads the world in innovation appears to prefer squat-pots. So this was my first japanese toilet experience- see picture. I failed to remove the white and brown stain and gave myself a big wet patch as well for my efforts. With my multi-coloured damp crotch drawing crowds, I marched onto japan's railway system to meet my friend Pat and chiba.
*
I've only just arrived at a place I can sleep. Pat was running late as he had to start up a nuclear reactor (he's not a bond villain, he just works for the navy...) and we spent a pleasant hour or 2 meandering along Japanese cross country railways before arriving where ever it is I am. I geo-tagged a photo in the hope I could figure it out!
Anyway, i've had to stay in someone else's flat while Pat goes to work. 'if he gets back don't worry' he said. 'just explain who you are and how you know me - don't start off with any jokes - he can get a bit stabby'. At this point Pat's friend made the appropriate gesture. At my request, Pat rang his friend so he now knows i'm staying here. Right. Bed time!
*
I've only just arrived at a place I can sleep. Pat was running late as he had to start up a nuclear reactor (he's not a bond villain, he just works for the navy...) and we spent a pleasant hour or 2 meandering along Japanese cross country railways before arriving where ever it is I am. I geo-tagged a photo in the hope I could figure it out!
Anyway, i've had to stay in someone else's flat while Pat goes to work. 'if he gets back don't worry' he said. 'just explain who you are and how you know me - don't start off with any jokes - he can get a bit stabby'. At this point Pat's friend made the appropriate gesture. At my request, Pat rang his friend so he now knows i'm staying here. Right. Bed time!
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