Do You Like Shiny Things?

Check this one out:


Oooooooh, shiny. It's the Golden Pavilion at Rokuon-ji Temple - aka Kinkakuji. It's actually covered in actual gold, and we went to Kyoto last weekend to see it. Getting there was a bit of a trial - the guidebook said it was just a bus from the station. They failed to mention it's about forty minutes worth of bus. Gahhhh. So, it wsa a bit late in the day when we got there, and the best of the sunlight had passed, but the temple grounds were still very pretty.


They also had a nice little outdoors teahouse thingo going on, with classy red umbrellas amongst the trees. So we stopped for some afternoon matcha. The matcha was, you know, matcha, but the sweet was so nice that we bought some to take away.




There were also vending machines for omikuji (fortunes), and they had various languages so I got one in English. Mine says

"In the wonderful moonlight, how glad I am to find a way to go along.
Your fortune: Pretty Good.
Your fortune will be better and better as if the dark road got lighter because of the moonshine. Go slowly but steadily and make your own way, and everything will go well."

Then there's a whole lot of random bits of advice for various situations, like Expected Visitor, Missing Thing, Speculation, Marriage, Childbirth, and Illness. My favourite is the cryptic "Removal". The advice is just "Ask another person".

So, do any of you guys want to remove something for me?

Hiroshima - We Had a... Really Nice Time.

We went to Hiroshima for the weekend, spontaneous-like. It's a rather nice, laid-back sort of place. Not too hectic. Lots of trees.

Here's what a bit of Hiroshima looks like:


We stayed in a hotel called Hiroshima Grand Intelligent Hotel. With a name like that, how could we not stay there? It was a bit swish. They even had a suit of armour in the lobby:



We decided to get the heavy shit out of the way on the first day, so we started with the A-bomb dome:



While we were there, we were approached by a volunteer guide named Akemi who was hoping to practice her English on us. She was lovely and informative, and told us some interesting stuff. Like, the reason that so much of the A-bomb dome building is still standing is that the dome was covered in copper, which melted instantly under the blast. So, the hot air could rush into the building and blow all the windows out, allowing the air pressure in the building to equalise and preventing it from collapsing totally.

Akemi also showed us to this statue that survived the A-bomb:


It's a statue of Jizo the Buddhist protector of children, pregnant women and travellers. You can see statues like this in lots of places in Japan, with their little bonnets and aprons. Akemi showed us how the surfaces of this statue that were directly exposed to the blast were rough where the quartz in the granite had melted. The areas of the statue that had been shadowed from the heat blast were still polished and perfectly smooth.

After Akemi waved us off, we headed for the memorial museum. It's a very interesting place. The first half of the display covers the "capital H" history of the Hiroshima bombing. They cover stuff like the history of Hiroshima, the history of the development of the A-bomb, why Hiroshima was chosen as a target, etc. And you go "Wow, this is all interesting and educational, very sobering food for thought, etc." Then, in the second half of the museum, it's all personal stories, belongings left behind by bomb victims, pictures of people with their skin hanging off, a whole head of hair that came out all at once when someone was brushing it the week after the bomb... It gets very visceral and very personal. And you come out going "Gnah... Bluh..."

Although, in our case the effect was lessened somewhat by the HORDES OF SCHOOLCHILDREN. Or perhaps the effect was increased. They did make me want to go "GNAHARGHAGAHH".

Outside the museum, there's tree that was struck by the a-bomb blast, but then recovered and sprouted new leaves. You can see on the trunk, about half the tree was blown away, and then it regrew.





Actaully, we went for a walk past the remains of Hiroshima castle, and found a gum tree that had a sign on it saying it had been in the blast as well. But it was too dark for a decent photo. (It gets dark really early these days...)

Oh speaking of trees, another interesting the Akemi told us was that after the bomb, an appeal was sent out to all the other prefectures of Japan for trees. 6,000 trees were sent to Hiroshima. So that's why these days it's a really leafy place.

For dinner, we had some tasty Hiroshima-style Okonomiyaki. It's a little different from Osaka okonomiyaki. It has a sort of pancake on the bottom.



The next day, we headed for Miyajima, an island about an hour away from Hiroshima by train and then ferry. It's the site of the famous 'floating' torii (you know, them big Japanese orangey gatey things), and lots of other templey shriney sacredy things. It's cultural 'n' shit. Also, very, very pretty and packed with tourists.

Here's the floating torii seen from the approaching ferry:



And here it is from the land:



And here it is at low tide. People like to walk up and touch it. We were too knackered by then, though:



We have a lot more photos. It's one of those things that somehow fills you with a great urge to take pictures from all angles. It is pretty cool, though. And the associated shrine is also pretty cool. It's all on stilts, over the water. You can see little fish swimming around and everything.



Moving away from the beach, there's also a big ol' mountain on Miyajima, called Mt Misen. We took a cable car up it. You go up a loooong cable car to the top:



Over forest that looks like this:



It's referred to as 'primeval' forest, since it's never been interfered with by humans (except to put a cable car in, I guess).

After the first cable car, you get on another cable car between two peaks, and you see this view:



Specky, huh? There's some excellent scenery to be seen up Mt Misen. Also some of these:

The flame in this temple has (allegedly) been going for 1200 years. It's one of the Seven Wonders of Mount Misen, which also include a very sad looking plum tree that apparently used to be a holy man's staff but took root and sprouted leaves, a hole in a rock that has water that allegedly rises and falls with the tides, and an arch made by a big rock on another big rock. And some others I can't remember because I can't find the pamphlet now. Here's Clinton under the rock arch:



We walked back down the mountain, and it was very beautiful but damn our legs ache now. Luckily, at the bottom of the mountain we found a lovely, tranquil teahouse in whic to sit and have afternoon tea. This is what Clinton had:



And I had something called zenzai, which was a kind of sweet soup of red beans, chestnuts and mochi. It was yummy:



Then we toddled back to Hiroshima Station, and hopped on the Shinkansen back to Osaka and the working week. Sigh.

Sophie Hits Tokyo - Day Three

The first thing we did was check out of our hotel, and try to stash our luggage in a coin locker in Tokyo station, so we could pick it up before getting back on the Shinkansen. Turns out, it's ridiculously difficult to get a coin locker in Tokyo station. We literally had to loiter about until we saw someone take their stuff out, and then swoop on the empty locker.

Having done much shopping over the past two days, the third day was our Culture day. We started with a stroll through the part of the Imperial Gardens that is open to the masses. It's a very pleasant park, and also contains the remains of Edo Castle. Here's me in the remains:


There's a lot of general greenery,


and some bamboo,


and some koi,


and really awesome, BIG spiders in the bushes! Check this lady out! She's all multi-coloured and shit.


After the Imperial Gardens, we headed for Ueno Park, because that's where the Tokyo National Museum is. Ueno Park is also pleasant, and has some cool pathway lamps, with little Japanese scenes painted on them.


The museum was great. Their main display was a chronological display of Japanese art. It was really interesting to see the development from 4000 year old ceramics to the ceramics, paintings and textiles that were much more recognisably Japanese. Oh, and there were samurai helmets and armour and swords. Cooooool, but also educational! We learnt the difference between a tachi (a big sword that hangs from your waist by a chain, and has the sharp edge downwards) and a katana (a big sword that you stick through your obi, and has the sharp edge upwards).

After the museum, we had a little time to kill, so we went to Ginza and had an expensive afternoon tea. Ginza isn't all that interesting. It does have some bright lights though:


Then we headed back to Tokyo Station, got our stashed luggage, and settled into our Shinkansen seats. I snoozed at record speeds all the way back to Osaka.

Sophie Hits Tokyo - Day Two

Why, hello again!

Day two of Tokyo was uber nerdage day. We started by going to Akihabara, the well-known geek Mecca of Japan. Ta-da!


I was a little surprised to see how many tourists were there. Far be it for me to say who looks like a geek and who doesn't but... Well, there were a lot more middle-aged tourists than I expected. I guess Brain Training has made Akihabara a must-see destination now?

Speaking of DS games, Clinton and I had a massive double-win when we found an import (i.e. English) games shop down a side street. Clinton found Galactrix, the second Puzzle Quest game (funnily enough, he bought the first one in Edinburgh...), and I found the second Professor Layton game! Well, actually, Clinton found it and showed me and I bought it straight away. Much excitement. Then we realised we'd left the DS in Osaka... Well, that was probably for the best.

Akihabara is well-known for it's array of maid cafes. We didn't go to one, but we almost did... We got handed a flyer for a 'Sengoku Jidai' (warring states period) themed maid cafe. The girls were dressed in purple maid outfits with pink samurai armour over the top, and they brandished plastic katana. So very tempting, but the food looked rubbish, and we were hungreeee.

After Akihabara, we went for a quick wander through Jinbocho. This is a bookshop area, mostly second-hand bookshops. I just wanted to have a quick look because it features in the anime Read Or Die. So we looked quickly, and then went back to the hotel for a break, because we suddenly realised we were knackered.

The evening's entertainment was to be the Kotaku party in Shibuya. We headed to Shibuya early to grab dinner. Shibuya is pretty bewildering.


We wandered around for ages trying to pick a good place, getting marginally lost and somewhat distracted by shiny things. We ended up at a pretty good Italian restaurant.

After dinner, we set off to try and find the party venue. All we had to go on was the name, and a dot on a map. You'd think that'd be enough, wouldn't you? Well, it probably would have, if the party had been where we'd expected it to. When we finally found the place, it was locked up tight. We stood outside being confused with a few other guys who'd also rocked up for the party. Then someone rocked up and explained that the party had moved, and gave us directions to the new place. We had to go on a train and go somewhere else, I have no idea where.

So, we did get to the party, and we talked to random people and it was fun, but it was dark and my camera is crap, so I don't have any photos. Hideo Kojima walked past me. We met a stupid American who didn't know about the differences between US and British English. We also met a lovely German who worked on the German translation of some of the Final Fantasy games. And a woman from Iceland who'd been dragged to the party by her husband. Sucks to be her, I guess.

Clinton and I took a taxi home at 2am. It wasn't nearly as expensive as we thought it might be.


Stay tuned for day three. There are BIG spiders!



P.S. Sorry about the lack of photos. We did a lot of stuff that wasn't really photo-optimal. To make up for it, here is a statue of giant budgies that was near our hotel in Akasuka.

Sophie Hits Tokyo - Day One

Gosh, is it October already?

Well, we've been busy just keeping pace with life, but we did have a brief break recently, during Silver Week. Many of you will have heard of Golden Week, the week of serial public holidays that Japan has in about April or so. Well, this year it had a sequel, known as Silver Week, thanks to a random alignment of three public holidays in September. One of them was Respect for the Aged Day, but I don't know what the others were. We decided to head to Tokyo for a couple of nights, since I hadn't been there before (Clinton went in Golden Week).

We travelled on the Shinkansen. ZOMG, Shinkansen! I've always wanted to ride the Shinkansen, ever since I first heard about it when I was thirteen or so. I remember hearing about the train that could travel at up to 500km/hr and thinking "Wow! You could get from Launceston to Hobart in less than half an hour!". (When you grow up in Launceston, that's your benchmark for a long trip.) So, my dream finally came true, and I had a window seat on the Shinkansen. It's a very nice, comfy, smooth ride. Like being on a plane, but on the ground - so no turbulence and no bumpy take-offs or landings. Though, we did have trouble getting the snack cart girl to stop for us though. She either whizzed by too fast, or was walking backwards the other way, so we couldn't catch her eye.

So, in Tokyo, we basically went shopping all three days, because this is Japan and that's basically what you do. We started with Harajuku on the first day.Since Clinton had been there beofre, he could show me around the backstreets, where there are the best of the crazy little shops with crazy little clothes and crazy BIG prices. We ended up only buying a couple of things from some second-hand clothes shops. I scored a cute jumper, and Clinton bouth an awesome bowling shirt. But I don't have photos of those yet, so instead here is some stuff I didn't buy:


There was a cool gallery/community art space down the lanes of Harajuku, too. The front had decorative scaffolding with fake fur hanging off it. The inside had lots of interesting art in a variety of media.


Oh, and we did go to Yoyogi Park, but it was not the epicentre of wackiness we had been led to expect. There were just a few rockabilly guys dancing, but they were pretty crap dancers, actually!


Later in the day, we dabbled in a little tourism, as well, and went to seek out a view of Tokyo at night. Most people would head straight for Tokyo Tower, but I had had the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building (aka Tokyo Tocho, in Japanese) observation deck recommended to me. Unlike the Tokyo Tower, Tokyo Tocho is free! So we had a crack at that. Clinton felt it was less impressive than Tokyo Tower, which has a 360 degree view, but I liked it. Oooh, shiny!


Tokyo Tower is in the vicinity of Shinjuku station, so for dinner, we went to a tempura restaurant in Shinjuku. It was light and crispy and hardly greasy at all - so tasty! We were seated in a tatami room, too, so it was super old skool Japanese style. Here's Clinton embarking on some crispy deliciousness while seated on a floor cushion:


The great thing was that the tempura came with a sheet of English instructions, explaining how to properly apply the range of condiments attached to the meal. It was very handy, because what we assumed to be tea (because it was in a teapot) turned out to be sauce!

After our traditional style dinner, we zapped forward in time and hit 8-bit Cafe. No photos, I'm afraid, but it was pretty cool. There was stuff to play with all over the place, mostly retro gaming systems but also board games and action figures. And in the (unisex) toilet, there was a sign instructing tipsy male patrons to urinate sitting down. I found this humourous.

So, that was day one. I'll tell y'all about the next day soon... Maybe even tomorrow!

Summer in Japan

Right now, it's summer with a vengeance. Oh, sweet mother of fuck, it is disgusting, sticky and hot. But, we have been getting stuck into it, nevertheless.

One thing we started to notice when the weather heated up was an explosion of people wearing yukata. Yukata are light-weight summer kimono. Women's yukata are usually brightly coloured, with bold patterns. They are fastened with a broad obi tied around the waist with a sizable bow at the back. Men's yukata are more muted, and the sash is narrower and tied around the hips. To deomstrate the difference, here's a couple of photos of me and my work buddy, Barrie, in our yukata. The school we were working at that day was having a yukata week, so most of the staff were wearing yukata, and the teachers were invited to as well.


(Yeah, yeah, not exactly tradtitional footwear. Mostly you see people wearing the old-skool wooden things, but you do see crocs and more modern sandals too. Even high heels.)


My bow is a bit wonky, but I tied it myself, you know. Not easy!

Of course, wearing yukata to work isn't all that common... I think the most common place to wear them is to festivals. There are festivals all over the place at the moment. Every weekend, there's something going on somewhere. Lots of little stalls set up, selling food like yakisoba, yakitori, okonomiyaki, takoyaki – pretty much all the 'yaki' you could hope for – plus fried chicken, toffee apples, and even iced cucumbers on sticks. Oh, and beer of course! Another really popular summer food is shaved ice with flavoured syrup – basically, sno cones.



Not all the stalls sell food – some sell masks, or have games to win prizes. The games usually revolve around getting something (eg. a goldfish, a bouncy ball) from a tub of water into a bowl using a net made of tissue paper.

Last weekend, we went to Himeji (so I could see the castle) and it happened to be the Himeji Castle Festival. Along with all the stalls, there was a big stage with dance performances. The costumes were colourful, and the dancers were highly energetic. It was great fun to watch.



Here are some of the off-duty dancers hanging out in their awesometastic costumes:





Another festival-y kind of activity is going to see fireworks. We went to see some last night, at a town called Otsu on the shore of Lake Biwa, Japan's largest lake. It was called Biwako Dai-Hanabi Taikai (basically 'Massive-arse Biwako Fireworks'), and I don't know how many people were there but it was expected that there would be about 350,000. It sure was jam packed. Holy moly. You could barely move. We turned up three hours early, and we got a pretty good spot, but all the really good ones had been long taken by then. And the place just kept filling up. It was phenomenal.



The fireworks were pretty and shiny, as fireworks are. There were some cat-shaped ones, and some fish-shaped ones, and some smiley-face-shaped ones. The booms and bangs echoed off the building across the street behind us, and you could feel every one in your spine. They went on for a good, solid hour. And when everyone thought we'd just seen the grand finale, they came out with some more bang. At one point, there was so much smoke from prior fireworks that it was actually obscuring the view of the next ones.

Aiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.... can give you Gatsby

We don't watch much Japanese TV these days on account of us not currently owning a TV. It wasn't until we chanced upon these three ads playing on loop in an aisle of the Don Quixote discount store in Shinsaibashi that we realised what we might be missing out on.

All you need to know is that Gatsby makes a variety of hair products, shaving products and deodorants for men. And this is a series of ads for their latest product; "Gatsby Body Paper".








As far as I can tell from these ads Gatsby Body Paper is a product that makes it socially acceptable for men to rub their bodies and dance in public. I wish Gatsby the best of luck in cornering what I assume will soon be a very lucrative market.

Is Can Be Kitteh Tiem Nao, Plz?

On Sunday we went to a place in Amerika Mura called Cafe With Many Cats. Yup, pretty much does what it says on the can. For 650 yen, you can sit and play with cats for an hour. The place is customised for feline comfort, with a variety of floor cushions, cat-sized shelves and climbing equipment, a cat-sized drinking fountain and capacious and private litter trays. It was all very clean, not smelly or hairy. There were a few other people in there when we went. It seems like a pretty popular place to go on a date.

The cats were pretty laid-back. Most of the time they just cat-nap, and are completely disinterested in you, whether you are patting them or not.

They were also pretty friendly to each other, which was a novelty to me. My experience of cats is that they will tolerate each other, at best. But in the cafe they would curl up with each other. Mecha kawaii ~~

There were one or two scraps while we were there, though - all involving this cat (who clearly thinks she's pretty good):

Her name appeared to be Connie. She was the alpha cat of the bunch - the most outgoing and friendly towards humans. Also, weirdly friendly towards the other cats, grooming them and such, until they got the shits with her, and it turned into a fight. I sort of imagine it like this:

Connie: Tut, tut. Look at you. You're so unprofessional. You need to take better care of yourself.
Other cat: Oh, fuck off, Connie. It's just a bloody cafe.

It doesn't sound all that exciting, and I suppose it wasn't really, but it was very relaxing. The atmosphere was very chilled out. And they have air con, so I'll probably go back again.


kthxbai

Interior Design: Buddhism vs. Us

OK, to start with here's some pics of the inside of Todaiji. Clinton was uncomfortable about taking pics in the temple, but not me! I have impinged on far too many European cathedrals to feel squeamish in a Buddhist temple. Anyway, I looked around first, and all the Japanese tourists were taking photos. So, when in Rome...

This is the Daibutsu ("Big Buddha") itself:


And here are a few of his mates... English explanation was sparse, so I have no idea who they are or what they signify. They were very big, though.






Now, from the world's largest wooden building to... Hmmm...
As previously mentioned, we moved at the start of the month. Yesterday the IKEA van came and we finally got the rest of the furniture we needed to fill all our extra space. Chairs! I tell ya, they're a luxury you start to miss after a while. Here's our interior now:

The bell hanging off the light pull is our souvenir from Todaiji.

The new flat is very nice, though it has a couple of iffy aspects. The traffic noise is pretty bad. You'd think on the sixth floor you wouldn't have a problem with traffic noise, but the freeway ringroad runs behind our building, at about sixth floor level, so it's like living on a busy street. Also, the building wobbles. Super reassuring! But on the bright side, we do have a proper balcony, with a proper view:


So, all in all it's an improvement.

I'd like to end this post with a thought from the building across the street:

Aww... Uplifting, eh?

(PS If you're wondering how hot it gets here in summer, while I've been sitting here quietly typing, sweat has been running down my shins.)