Today found out that Japan had it hottest summer since 1946. Japanese summers are usually unbearably hot, mainly due to the humidity. As I write up this entry, it is past 10pm, the sun went down hours ago and yet the temperature remains just over 30 degrees and the humidity it just about up to 100%. Its foul and in a few hours it’ll be September. After several warnings about how stifling the summers were here, I decided to spend as much time as I could in California, as I might as well since I was going so far. And so I spent 3 weeks of my summer vacation in The Golden State.
It was my turn to cross an Ocean and visit an old friend of mine, called Cortney, who I met in London through the Libertines in 2005. I also arranged to meet Kevin my old friend from University and former flatmate, out there.
Originally there were grand plans about hiring big American cars and driving up and down the West Coast all the way from Canada to Mexico but the vast majority of my three weeks was spent in San Francisco, where Cortney has lived for the last 5 years. Nonetheless we did get up to enough around the Bay Area including a trip up to the wine region, a days canoeing around Bodega Bay and a trip out to the university town of Berkeley. We also got up to our fair share around San Francisco. I had visited once before in 2006 but I cycled over the Golden Gate Bridge, volunteered at a soup kitchen for the homeless and hiked around Presidio National Park for the first time on this trip.
The biggest adventure outside the city took place on my first weekend there, when we hired a car and headed to LA for the weekend. I had a great time but still have very mixed feelings about the city. On the one hand the climate was fabulous and most of the people I met were very friendly, on the other, the city seems to be one big sprawling traffic jam and reflects some of American consumer societies’ most vulgar sights. The highlights would have to be cycling along Venice beach and Santa Monica, strutting around like James Dean at the Griffith Observatory and visiting the Getty Museum, which was a stunning and vast and a side to LA that I wasn’t expecting.
I have to say that having to leave such good company, climate, and Mexican cuisine to return to humid, hot, expensive Japan, in the rainiest season of the year, where I would have to start work immediately, I was a little bit downhearted. There was also a feeling that I was halfway home somehow, by spending so much time in an English speaking country. It was as if it would be regressing to be going back, rather than on wards to Europe. However, I shouldn’t dwell on such things. I had a fantastic summer and will remember it fondly for years to come.
Tuesday, 31 August 2010
Wednesday, 11 August 2010
The Holidays Have Finally Arrived
My first week off from school has been pretty jam-packed. The week started with a couple of nights in Tokyo, being reunited with old friends, from my week of training and darting about Tokyo exploiting my rail pass as much as I could. Two of the highlights of time here so far followed, as I climbed Japan’s highest peak and most iconic monument, Mount Fuji ,then went on to a weekend at Summer Sonic, one of Japan’s largest music festivals.
Climbing Fuji was probably my most epic excursion to date. I’ve never done any mountain climbing before, only rambling over the Peak District, so I tried to gather as much information about the climb as possible. Reports weren’t good. One group of friends were soaked through on the ascent, suffered badly from altitude sickness and found little help from the lodges that positioned along the way, another endured freezing -5 degree wind chill factor in insufficient clothes. In comparison we were lucky, low wind, no rain and not too unbearable temperatures.
Fuji is the most climbed mountain in the world and it is traditionally climbed at night, allowing you to watch the dawn rise. You also need to climb at night because it would be almost impossible to bring enough water to climb up and down in the heat of daylight. I brought up about 3 litres and drank half a litre on the way up, in the dark and about 2 and a half litres on the way down in the baking sun. There are several courses up Fuji, none of which are lit, so we all had to wear headlights to guide our way up. It was quite stunning to see the queues of people walking up with these on their heads, making a zigzag of lights down the mountain, as you ascended over the moonlit mountain, with wafts of clouds below.
There were five of us in our team of climbers. Vicky, an ALT friend who lives near Fuji and who’s Birthday we were celebrating, Chris, her mate who was visiting for the week, Rus, who lives in Nagano and like Vicky is an ALT I met through orientation and Dom, an ALT from Hokkaido. We also bumped into a couple of Newcastle student who were on holiday in Japan for the Uni holidays, making us a group of 7 Brits.
There was so much hype about how strenuous the climb up Fuji would be, how bad altitude sickness is and how the trip was anything but a walk in the park. After preparing for the worst physically and mentally I have to say that the climb up, I found relatively easy. It was almost 6 hours of continual ascent, some of which was almost vertical but after the huge build up it was fine. We reached the summit at around 3am and so had a long wait in the cold for the dawn to rise but it was definitely worth the wait. We were so lucky with the weather, as I said, so visibility was more or less perfect. You could see the Kanto plain, urbanised and stretching out for miles and the intensity of the lights increasing around Tokyo. You could just about make out the bay and a row of lights that would be the coast of Chiba. You could just about make out where Kamakura was and just about make out the Landmark Tower in Yokohama but most importantly there was a really clear and beautiful view of the dawn rising above it all on the horizon, which gradually gave colour and detail to the valley below that shrouded in patchy cloud. It was an amazing experience that I’ll never forget.
A couple of days after Fuji I went to my first Japanese music festival. Summer Sonic, is probably best compared to the Reading and Leeds festivals, in that it attracts a similar number and calibre of bands and operates in the two main regions of the country Kanto (Tokyo) and Kasai (Osaka). Unlike the Reading and Leeds festival I arrived to Summer Sonic to find that most of it is air-conditioned, there are no porter loos and no screaming 16 year olds. One of the best things about the festival was the ability to get right up to the front at the last minute with no trouble at all. I just walked straight to the front of the stage for the Pixies, the Smashing Pumpkins and the Drums and with half of the stages being inside they really felt a lot more intimate, which I think is one of my biggest problems with festivals compared to concerts.
Some old friends from Hertfordshire happened to be playing on the Sunday and they managed to get me and my friend Sam a guest pass. So, the second day I was able to explore the hospitality guest area, where the Drums were having a photo-shoot, Sum41 were playing table tennis and me and Sam were mistaken for artist and asked to sign their wall. Needless to say we complied and I scrawled a tag just above A Tribe Called Quest. Strangely enough I also bumped into an old London acquaintance there, that I hadn't seen for years. Ed, the Art Brut tour manager, who I met through supporting Art Brut and various other London shindigs was there acting as tour manager for a really young band from Florida called Surfer Blood.
Now however, I’m in San Francisco California with darling Cortney and Kevin having a welcome break from sweltering, cramped and expensive Tokyo. I’ll get back with details once I’ve done a little more. Heading to LA tomorrow and can’t wait.
Climbing Fuji was probably my most epic excursion to date. I’ve never done any mountain climbing before, only rambling over the Peak District, so I tried to gather as much information about the climb as possible. Reports weren’t good. One group of friends were soaked through on the ascent, suffered badly from altitude sickness and found little help from the lodges that positioned along the way, another endured freezing -5 degree wind chill factor in insufficient clothes. In comparison we were lucky, low wind, no rain and not too unbearable temperatures.
Fuji is the most climbed mountain in the world and it is traditionally climbed at night, allowing you to watch the dawn rise. You also need to climb at night because it would be almost impossible to bring enough water to climb up and down in the heat of daylight. I brought up about 3 litres and drank half a litre on the way up, in the dark and about 2 and a half litres on the way down in the baking sun. There are several courses up Fuji, none of which are lit, so we all had to wear headlights to guide our way up. It was quite stunning to see the queues of people walking up with these on their heads, making a zigzag of lights down the mountain, as you ascended over the moonlit mountain, with wafts of clouds below.
There were five of us in our team of climbers. Vicky, an ALT friend who lives near Fuji and who’s Birthday we were celebrating, Chris, her mate who was visiting for the week, Rus, who lives in Nagano and like Vicky is an ALT I met through orientation and Dom, an ALT from Hokkaido. We also bumped into a couple of Newcastle student who were on holiday in Japan for the Uni holidays, making us a group of 7 Brits.
There was so much hype about how strenuous the climb up Fuji would be, how bad altitude sickness is and how the trip was anything but a walk in the park. After preparing for the worst physically and mentally I have to say that the climb up, I found relatively easy. It was almost 6 hours of continual ascent, some of which was almost vertical but after the huge build up it was fine. We reached the summit at around 3am and so had a long wait in the cold for the dawn to rise but it was definitely worth the wait. We were so lucky with the weather, as I said, so visibility was more or less perfect. You could see the Kanto plain, urbanised and stretching out for miles and the intensity of the lights increasing around Tokyo. You could just about make out the bay and a row of lights that would be the coast of Chiba. You could just about make out where Kamakura was and just about make out the Landmark Tower in Yokohama but most importantly there was a really clear and beautiful view of the dawn rising above it all on the horizon, which gradually gave colour and detail to the valley below that shrouded in patchy cloud. It was an amazing experience that I’ll never forget.
A couple of days after Fuji I went to my first Japanese music festival. Summer Sonic, is probably best compared to the Reading and Leeds festivals, in that it attracts a similar number and calibre of bands and operates in the two main regions of the country Kanto (Tokyo) and Kasai (Osaka). Unlike the Reading and Leeds festival I arrived to Summer Sonic to find that most of it is air-conditioned, there are no porter loos and no screaming 16 year olds. One of the best things about the festival was the ability to get right up to the front at the last minute with no trouble at all. I just walked straight to the front of the stage for the Pixies, the Smashing Pumpkins and the Drums and with half of the stages being inside they really felt a lot more intimate, which I think is one of my biggest problems with festivals compared to concerts.
Some old friends from Hertfordshire happened to be playing on the Sunday and they managed to get me and my friend Sam a guest pass. So, the second day I was able to explore the hospitality guest area, where the Drums were having a photo-shoot, Sum41 were playing table tennis and me and Sam were mistaken for artist and asked to sign their wall. Needless to say we complied and I scrawled a tag just above A Tribe Called Quest. Strangely enough I also bumped into an old London acquaintance there, that I hadn't seen for years. Ed, the Art Brut tour manager, who I met through supporting Art Brut and various other London shindigs was there acting as tour manager for a really young band from Florida called Surfer Blood.
Now however, I’m in San Francisco California with darling Cortney and Kevin having a welcome break from sweltering, cramped and expensive Tokyo. I’ll get back with details once I’ve done a little more. Heading to LA tomorrow and can’t wait.
Friday, 30 July 2010
Ane Anne etc.
So much has happened since my last post. I’ll fill you all in what I’ve been up to a gradually.
The highlight of July has to be the arrival of my sister and co. My sister came to visit with her boyfriend, and best friend/business partner, Kate, the other week. So for a week I was running up and down the country sightseeing and exploring new parts of Japan.
We were lucky to be greeted by the shrine carrying ceremony, when we arrived in my home ‘city’ of Kisarazu. It was quite lucky that the gang got to see something so quintessentially Japanesy for the first day. Day two was a trip straight into the big city. First stop we had the slightly disappointing visit to the Imperial Palace. Then onto a whistle-stop tour of Shibuya and Harajuku, where we met up with some old friends from Sheffield. Sunday, in Harajuku is famous for ‘Cos Play’; where people dress up as their favourite anime character or Little Bow Peep or few drinks before we headed to an izakaya.
High at the top of Anne & Kate’s list of ‘things to do in Japan’ was Tokyo Disneyland and admittedly I didn’t need much encouragement to visit the other Disney amusement park. Again we met up with Kate’s old friend Joe and her sister, who also happened to be visiting Japan. I actually preferred Disneyland to Disney Sea, which is always purported to be the more grown up, but actually Disneyland has a lot more rides and a lot more of the classic rides. It was quite nostalgic going on some of the rides I remember from Disneyland Paris, like Star Tours and Michael Jackson in ‘Captain EO’ (which I found hilarious). Other highlights include being told that we’re all too big gaijins that needed to be in the two-person carts alone.
After Disneyland we headed to Kyoto and then Nara. We were lucky enough to stumble upon 3 shy geishas in Kyoto, which really impressed the girls. This was my second trip to Kyoto and so I tried to encourage the exploration of districts I hadn’t seen, which wasn’t hard, there is so much to see in Kyoto. We ended up exploring the Higashiyama district, which has some of the most quintessentially traditional Japanese streets. After a portion of temple shrine and geisha viewing we moved on to Nara to gawp at the huge Buddha and stroke some very tame deer. Probably the most memorable episode of Nara was the Youth Hostel we stayed in, which had a very 1960s Scout hut feel to it. It was a very nice traditional room with tatami mats and futons but we were requested to check out by 8.00am, there were no real showers to speak of just a large, communal Japanese style bath and no breakfast. There was also an 11pm curfew. Nonetheless we had fun playing drinking games (which was against the no alcohol rules) in our traditional Japanese style room and had a lot of fun.
There’s a lot more to tell about Anne’s etc. time here, which I’ll hopefully update later. Needless to say I was very pleased to see everyone and enjoyed having them round and guiding them through my favourite parts of Japan.
I’ll try to update this soon. I have my friend Jenn down from Hokkaido with me at the moment and we’re doing a fair bit of travelling. We’ll be off to Yamanashi on Tuesday and hopefully climbing Mount Fuji on Wednesday. Can’t wait.
The highlight of July has to be the arrival of my sister and co. My sister came to visit with her boyfriend, and best friend/business partner, Kate, the other week. So for a week I was running up and down the country sightseeing and exploring new parts of Japan.
We were lucky to be greeted by the shrine carrying ceremony, when we arrived in my home ‘city’ of Kisarazu. It was quite lucky that the gang got to see something so quintessentially Japanesy for the first day. Day two was a trip straight into the big city. First stop we had the slightly disappointing visit to the Imperial Palace. Then onto a whistle-stop tour of Shibuya and Harajuku, where we met up with some old friends from Sheffield. Sunday, in Harajuku is famous for ‘Cos Play’; where people dress up as their favourite anime character or Little Bow Peep or few drinks before we headed to an izakaya.
High at the top of Anne & Kate’s list of ‘things to do in Japan’ was Tokyo Disneyland and admittedly I didn’t need much encouragement to visit the other Disney amusement park. Again we met up with Kate’s old friend Joe and her sister, who also happened to be visiting Japan. I actually preferred Disneyland to Disney Sea, which is always purported to be the more grown up, but actually Disneyland has a lot more rides and a lot more of the classic rides. It was quite nostalgic going on some of the rides I remember from Disneyland Paris, like Star Tours and Michael Jackson in ‘Captain EO’ (which I found hilarious). Other highlights include being told that we’re all too big gaijins that needed to be in the two-person carts alone.
After Disneyland we headed to Kyoto and then Nara. We were lucky enough to stumble upon 3 shy geishas in Kyoto, which really impressed the girls. This was my second trip to Kyoto and so I tried to encourage the exploration of districts I hadn’t seen, which wasn’t hard, there is so much to see in Kyoto. We ended up exploring the Higashiyama district, which has some of the most quintessentially traditional Japanese streets. After a portion of temple shrine and geisha viewing we moved on to Nara to gawp at the huge Buddha and stroke some very tame deer. Probably the most memorable episode of Nara was the Youth Hostel we stayed in, which had a very 1960s Scout hut feel to it. It was a very nice traditional room with tatami mats and futons but we were requested to check out by 8.00am, there were no real showers to speak of just a large, communal Japanese style bath and no breakfast. There was also an 11pm curfew. Nonetheless we had fun playing drinking games (which was against the no alcohol rules) in our traditional Japanese style room and had a lot of fun.
There’s a lot more to tell about Anne’s etc. time here, which I’ll hopefully update later. Needless to say I was very pleased to see everyone and enjoyed having them round and guiding them through my favourite parts of Japan.
I’ll try to update this soon. I have my friend Jenn down from Hokkaido with me at the moment and we’re doing a fair bit of travelling. We’ll be off to Yamanashi on Tuesday and hopefully climbing Mount Fuji on Wednesday. Can’t wait.
Thursday, 1 July 2010
Snakes on a Plane! (or rather one snake in my school)
This week I witnessed my first Japanese snake. I was quite impressed that I remembered what the vocabulary meant, after I heard yells of ‘Hebi’ ‘Hebi!’ and a few elementary-school-girl screams, from the stationary cupboard. I rushed over to the front porch to find a snake, as slim as two fingers and about 4 feet long, coiled up in the corner terrified of the 7 year old boy that was bashing the window from outside and screaming at it. For a moment I thought that I might be called upon as the only adult male present, to have to deal with it, despite having no experience with snakes whatsoever (a similar thing happened to my Dad when we were in Italy. There was Pakistani couple honeymooning nextdoor to us and a snake crept in while the newly wed wife was alone. She called on Dad to help, although she must have had much more of a clue what to do). Luckily the Vice Principal came to the rescue with the sasumata, the man catching device I mentioned in one of the previous instalments, and chased it out of the building.
The rainy season really hasn’t been as bad as I anticipated. Or rather the level of rain wasn’t quite as bad as I anticipated. Although it has rained fairly heavily, fairly frequently there has also been decent amounts of sunshine in-between. The main problem has been the heat and humidity, which has been quite unbearable on a couple of occasions. There was one hilarious moment when the Japanese English teacher asked me to drill the phrase ‘I’m really sweaty’. I had to do it three times and control my laughter as 30 Japanese school children replied in unison ‘I’m really sweaty!’.
It was a shame to see England get knocked out of the world cup earlier in the week. The match started at 11pm on Sunday, in Japan, and so what with having to get up for work at 6am the next day, I ended up watching it alone in my flat. Although it was sad to watch them loose after gaining so much of the possession and having a decent few chances on target, I couldn't help thinking that if they were to finally beat Germany in World Cup, I’d like to be in an English pub with English friends celebrating, rather than on my own in a flat in Japan. So I suppose that’s some consolation.
I can’t believe how soon it is until people arrive from Sheffield. It’s only really a week away now. I finally booked my tickets to California. I’m really looking forward to that too. It’ll be really good to see Cortney and Kevin and speak English to anyone in the street. It’ll also be good to get somewhere, if not a little cooler, then a little less humid. It’s going to a summer to remember.
The rainy season really hasn’t been as bad as I anticipated. Or rather the level of rain wasn’t quite as bad as I anticipated. Although it has rained fairly heavily, fairly frequently there has also been decent amounts of sunshine in-between. The main problem has been the heat and humidity, which has been quite unbearable on a couple of occasions. There was one hilarious moment when the Japanese English teacher asked me to drill the phrase ‘I’m really sweaty’. I had to do it three times and control my laughter as 30 Japanese school children replied in unison ‘I’m really sweaty!’.
It was a shame to see England get knocked out of the world cup earlier in the week. The match started at 11pm on Sunday, in Japan, and so what with having to get up for work at 6am the next day, I ended up watching it alone in my flat. Although it was sad to watch them loose after gaining so much of the possession and having a decent few chances on target, I couldn't help thinking that if they were to finally beat Germany in World Cup, I’d like to be in an English pub with English friends celebrating, rather than on my own in a flat in Japan. So I suppose that’s some consolation.
I can’t believe how soon it is until people arrive from Sheffield. It’s only really a week away now. I finally booked my tickets to California. I’m really looking forward to that too. It’ll be really good to see Cortney and Kevin and speak English to anyone in the street. It’ll also be good to get somewhere, if not a little cooler, then a little less humid. It’s going to a summer to remember.
Friday, 18 June 2010
Honeymoon Is Over
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.
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.
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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