What with the rainy season coming into full swing, departed friends, a touch of the man flu and a badly executed, inspected, lesson, it really felt that the original buzz of being here has faded slightly this week. I’m still having fun and looking forward to exploring, experiencing and tasting more but I’m no longer here on holiday. Which is often how it’s felt over the last few months.
Anyhow it’s not all doom and gloom. As I said I’m still having a lot of fun and had a great final weekend with Kevin. Last weekend was much like Kevin’s first with a local night at my local Indian and pub followed by a night out in Tokyo, although no Elmo appearance this time. However, there was more Chu-Hi drinking in Yoyogi Park, followed by our favourite dirt-cheap izakaya. This time accompanied by the delightful Sam and a couple of token random Japanese, who proved to be very entertaining. Me and Kevin also managed a bit of sightseeing beforehand by taking a quick trip to Asakusa. Its one of the most famous temples in the Tokyo area and was packed but after a weekend at Kyoto it seemed fairly tame. Even so I did witness my first Shinto car blessing. You might think this ritual strange but it was a Toyota, so who can blame them, they need all the help they can get.
After the izakaya the three of us returned to Kisarazu to watch the England –USA match. It started at 3.30am, so I was struggling to keep my eyes open and called it a night at half time. Which was probably a good idea in hindsight, as it was a goalless second half. Nonetheless it was surprising to see quite how busy the bar was. I’m really lucky to have it on my doorstep.
Sunday and Monday I was treated to some of the best food I’ve had since being here. Sunday afternoon I was treated some very tasty Bavarian cuisine courtesy of lederhosen-clad Alex. He made some really delicious dumplings as well as several other, unmistakably European dishes that contained a decent amount of vegetables compared to their Japanese counterparts. Then on Monday I headed over to Rowena’s for some fantastic food, great company and even better entertainment (Prince nonetheless). It was the first ‘Monday Social’ in a while and really nice send off for Kevin. Rowena’s cooking was fabulous as ever.
Other than that I’m just looking forward to my sister etc. arriving next month and hoping that the rainy season’s gone by then. I’m also in the process of sorting out tickets to California. If the June’s weather is any indication of how the summer’s going to be, I’ll be glad to get out of here. I can’t wait to see Cortney and just hope I manage to save enough to go on some sort of road trip.
Friday, 18 June 2010
Thursday, 10 June 2010
Disney Sea, My first Shinkansen and Kyoto
Unfortunately I don’t get all that many holidays off at my current job. On the other hand, Japan has so many public holidays and I get several school holidays, so I shouldn’t complain. Anyhow, The one day I chose to take off, while Kevin was here, we decided to go to Disney Sea. It made sense to go on a weekday that wasn’t a public or school holiday, unless we wanted to spend the whole day in a queue. It was a fun little day trip. Disney’s theme parks (outside the US) are never the biggest or best but there really is an attention to detail that makes them a little more special than most. It was as if the theme park was designed so that the Japanese didn’t need to leave the country to see the world. They recreated a New York dock, a Middle Eastern square, Venetian waterways and a South American Jungle. After whizzing around on few measly roller coasters we headed into Tokyo for the fastest ride of the day, the Shinkansen. That is, the high speed Japanese railway line. The plan was to go to Kyoto, Japan’s cultural and historic capital.
This was my first experience of going on the Shinkansen, and for good reason, they’re pretty bloody expensive. It cost over £100 to get down to Kyoto and over £100 to get back. Nonetheless I’d sooner see a similar system put in place in Britain to reduce domestic flights. The distance between Tokyo and Kyoto, is comparable to London to Edinburgh and yet it doesn’t take much more than 2 hours on the Shinkansen. The carriages are fitted more like planes than trains with all the seats facing the direction in which you’re travelling. It was quite a scenic ride down, with the sun setting over the horizon and the various views of large rivers, seas and waterways. Part of me hoped I might see Mount Fuji but sadly it was not to be.
There are countless buildings across Kyoto that have qualified for the UNESCO world heritage status; more than anywhere in England and probably more than anywhere in the world, bar Rome. It’s impossible to do Kyoto properly in anything less than a week but it would also be rather tiresome to spend a week looking at all the shrines and temples. They all begin to look the same and a thus less impressive. Me and Kevin hired bikes at the hostel we were staying at to maximise our sightseeing potential (Kyoto’s quite a flat city so it was the perfect mode of transport). I think I managed to see around 10 temples and shrines, half of which were UNESCO and many of which were free. My favourites were probably the Shimogamo Shrine, at the confluence of the rivers, Kinkakuji and Fushimiinaritaisha Shrine.
I’d heard of Kinkakuji as a temple that my students had been to, on their trip to Kyoto but I didn’t realise quite how famous it was until I noticed it on the front of my Japanese phrasebook, and have seen it in several places since.
It’s covered in glittering gold and is something of an icon of Kyoto. Sadly like many of the temples and shrines, it has been re-built in the last 100 years, this time due to an arsonist monk. Around my region you will often find that temples and shrines have been rebuilt because they’ve been flattened in earthquakes. This doesn’t seem to be the case with Kyoto, probably due to the location of fault lines. Neither was it affected by American military bombardment. It would seem the main reason that buildings are rebuilt in Kyoto is fire. This would probably be much more the case of European churches too, if they were all built out of wood.
The Shimogamo Shrine was nestled in some woodland in between the two main rivers in Kyoto. The colours were so vibrant; the vermilion red of the temple and arches against the lush green of the forest and the deep blue of the sky. It really was breath taking, even after a day of shrine viewing. I saw the Fushimiinaritaisha Shrine on the Sunday. It grounds are huge and contain hundreds and hundreds of torii gates that lead all over wooded hillsides to various shrines, lakes and cemeteries.
However, what I enjoyed most of all in Kyoto, was riding the bikes down by the river. The weather really was perfect, the scenery; spectacular and there’s still some childish exhilaration that I get from riding a bike. Breezing downhill with the wind in your hair, it gives you such a sense of freedom. It was one of the few moments where you want to take a step back and appreciate how happy you are because you know it won’t last forever.
This was my first experience of going on the Shinkansen, and for good reason, they’re pretty bloody expensive. It cost over £100 to get down to Kyoto and over £100 to get back. Nonetheless I’d sooner see a similar system put in place in Britain to reduce domestic flights. The distance between Tokyo and Kyoto, is comparable to London to Edinburgh and yet it doesn’t take much more than 2 hours on the Shinkansen. The carriages are fitted more like planes than trains with all the seats facing the direction in which you’re travelling. It was quite a scenic ride down, with the sun setting over the horizon and the various views of large rivers, seas and waterways. Part of me hoped I might see Mount Fuji but sadly it was not to be.
There are countless buildings across Kyoto that have qualified for the UNESCO world heritage status; more than anywhere in England and probably more than anywhere in the world, bar Rome. It’s impossible to do Kyoto properly in anything less than a week but it would also be rather tiresome to spend a week looking at all the shrines and temples. They all begin to look the same and a thus less impressive. Me and Kevin hired bikes at the hostel we were staying at to maximise our sightseeing potential (Kyoto’s quite a flat city so it was the perfect mode of transport). I think I managed to see around 10 temples and shrines, half of which were UNESCO and many of which were free. My favourites were probably the Shimogamo Shrine, at the confluence of the rivers, Kinkakuji and Fushimiinaritaisha Shrine.
I’d heard of Kinkakuji as a temple that my students had been to, on their trip to Kyoto but I didn’t realise quite how famous it was until I noticed it on the front of my Japanese phrasebook, and have seen it in several places since.
It’s covered in glittering gold and is something of an icon of Kyoto. Sadly like many of the temples and shrines, it has been re-built in the last 100 years, this time due to an arsonist monk. Around my region you will often find that temples and shrines have been rebuilt because they’ve been flattened in earthquakes. This doesn’t seem to be the case with Kyoto, probably due to the location of fault lines. Neither was it affected by American military bombardment. It would seem the main reason that buildings are rebuilt in Kyoto is fire. This would probably be much more the case of European churches too, if they were all built out of wood.
The Shimogamo Shrine was nestled in some woodland in between the two main rivers in Kyoto. The colours were so vibrant; the vermilion red of the temple and arches against the lush green of the forest and the deep blue of the sky. It really was breath taking, even after a day of shrine viewing. I saw the Fushimiinaritaisha Shrine on the Sunday. It grounds are huge and contain hundreds and hundreds of torii gates that lead all over wooded hillsides to various shrines, lakes and cemeteries.
However, what I enjoyed most of all in Kyoto, was riding the bikes down by the river. The weather really was perfect, the scenery; spectacular and there’s still some childish exhilaration that I get from riding a bike. Breezing downhill with the wind in your hair, it gives you such a sense of freedom. It was one of the few moments where you want to take a step back and appreciate how happy you are because you know it won’t last forever.
Yamanashi: Psycho Lakes, Bridge Festivities and the Bat Cave
I missed last week’s blog but here’s a quick round up of what I got up to the weekend before last.
So, it was agreed that I’d come visit Vicky, with Kevin, for a weekend. She’s one of the other ALTs, that I first met in London, but then actually got to know on the orientation weekend. She lives in Yamanashi prefecture, which is out in the mountains above Tokyo and actually contains the highest mountain; Fuji-san, which she lives very near. I’m very jealous of her apartment not only because it’s four times the size of mine but also because she has no neighbours either side and so can make as much noise as she likes. The highlight of the first evening had to be the tiny karaoke bar, that Vicky calls her local. It was owned and run by a Japanese Tina Turner, who plied us with wacky Japanese snacks throughout the night. Although, Kevin wasn’t the keenest to get up and burst into song, he really enjoyed watching the old salary men belt out some tunes and after enough beers and some Elton John, well how could he resist.
On Saturday Vicky drove us up to one of the famous lakes near Fuji-san. Unfortunately the weather was overcast and although I promised this to be a trip where Kevin would get to see Fuji, it was sadly shrouded in cloud all weekend. Nonetheless, there was no short supply of postcards, pictures and souvenirs to remind us of exactly what we were missing. After a lap of the lake, we were ready to move on and were inspired by some signs to ‘Lake Saiko’ (pronounced Psycho in Japanese). But it wasn’t just the name of this lake that intrigued us. There were also signs to a bat cave. Well the decision was already made for us, what better an excursion for a Saturday afternoon than visiting Batman’s residence on a creepily named lake in the mountains of Japan. When we arrived at the bat cave, we were disappointed to find that it was not in fact Batman’s residence but a cave with bats in. And what was even more disappointing we didn’t see any bats. Nonetheless, we had fun crawling around igneous rocks underground with silly helmets on.
After heading back to Bicky’s (as the Japanese call her) hometown of Saruhashi we headed down to the bridge (which puts the ‘hashi’ into ‘saruhashi’) for a bridge festival. The bridge is a focal part of the town and has stood there for 500 or so years and was apparently built by monkeys, as I was told. Every year there is a festival to celebrate the bridge, as to some extent it is the raison d’être of the settlement. The bridge stands over a very deep valley that has flourishing lush green forest on each bank. It really is a stunning little part of the country. The festival consisted of some traditional drum performances, archery, children’s stories being narrated, a poetry competition and some more traditional music. We managed to find ourselves in a conversation with a guitarist girl, who was currently studying International Relations in Ibaraki. She then introduced us to her father who was a sculptor, who had trained and sculpted in Italy for over half a decade. What followed was a very surreal conversation in three or four languages. The sculptor would speak in a mixture of Italian adding English where he could and Japanese where he couldn’t. Although Kevin claims to know no Italian his exposure to it in Switzerland and maybe more importantly French gave him a decent guess at what the guy was saying. Even my limited French helped pick out a few sentences and words. Kevin tried to answer in limited Italian but occasionally stumbled into French and I used all the Japanese vocabulary that I could muster.
So, it was agreed that I’d come visit Vicky, with Kevin, for a weekend. She’s one of the other ALTs, that I first met in London, but then actually got to know on the orientation weekend. She lives in Yamanashi prefecture, which is out in the mountains above Tokyo and actually contains the highest mountain; Fuji-san, which she lives very near. I’m very jealous of her apartment not only because it’s four times the size of mine but also because she has no neighbours either side and so can make as much noise as she likes. The highlight of the first evening had to be the tiny karaoke bar, that Vicky calls her local. It was owned and run by a Japanese Tina Turner, who plied us with wacky Japanese snacks throughout the night. Although, Kevin wasn’t the keenest to get up and burst into song, he really enjoyed watching the old salary men belt out some tunes and after enough beers and some Elton John, well how could he resist.
On Saturday Vicky drove us up to one of the famous lakes near Fuji-san. Unfortunately the weather was overcast and although I promised this to be a trip where Kevin would get to see Fuji, it was sadly shrouded in cloud all weekend. Nonetheless, there was no short supply of postcards, pictures and souvenirs to remind us of exactly what we were missing. After a lap of the lake, we were ready to move on and were inspired by some signs to ‘Lake Saiko’ (pronounced Psycho in Japanese). But it wasn’t just the name of this lake that intrigued us. There were also signs to a bat cave. Well the decision was already made for us, what better an excursion for a Saturday afternoon than visiting Batman’s residence on a creepily named lake in the mountains of Japan. When we arrived at the bat cave, we were disappointed to find that it was not in fact Batman’s residence but a cave with bats in. And what was even more disappointing we didn’t see any bats. Nonetheless, we had fun crawling around igneous rocks underground with silly helmets on.
After heading back to Bicky’s (as the Japanese call her) hometown of Saruhashi we headed down to the bridge (which puts the ‘hashi’ into ‘saruhashi’) for a bridge festival. The bridge is a focal part of the town and has stood there for 500 or so years and was apparently built by monkeys, as I was told. Every year there is a festival to celebrate the bridge, as to some extent it is the raison d’être of the settlement. The bridge stands over a very deep valley that has flourishing lush green forest on each bank. It really is a stunning little part of the country. The festival consisted of some traditional drum performances, archery, children’s stories being narrated, a poetry competition and some more traditional music. We managed to find ourselves in a conversation with a guitarist girl, who was currently studying International Relations in Ibaraki. She then introduced us to her father who was a sculptor, who had trained and sculpted in Italy for over half a decade. What followed was a very surreal conversation in three or four languages. The sculptor would speak in a mixture of Italian adding English where he could and Japanese where he couldn’t. Although Kevin claims to know no Italian his exposure to it in Switzerland and maybe more importantly French gave him a decent guess at what the guy was saying. Even my limited French helped pick out a few sentences and words. Kevin tried to answer in limited Italian but occasionally stumbled into French and I used all the Japanese vocabulary that I could muster.
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