Hobbity photos

Not really Hobbiton, just the Japanese equivalent Hide Folk Village.

Nagoya, Takayama and home again

Sorry it's been a while, but I am rather lazy you know. I am currently planning what to do with Dad and Ishbel when they get here, so I have to finish off my Tales with Mum sharpish.
After Kyoto, we headed back to Nagoya so I could go to work (fun fun), and Mum caught up on some much deserved relaxation time. Jo very kindly showed her around the dizzy sights of Nagoya for a day while I was working. On wednesday we headed up to Takayama for a day. We had to get up at sparrowfart to get there but it was worth it. The train ride up there winds through lush green mountains and quiet valleys, the scenery is beautiful. We hired bikes and rode around the city, and tried some of the local Hida beef for lunch. Melts in your mouth. We rode up to Hide (Hee-day) village - not a good idea up a huge hill in the blazing sun - but the old houses (taken from around Japan and huddled together in one easily tourist-accessible spot) gave an interesting sense of what rural Japan looked like before the 20th century. After the village we free-wheeled back into town and caught the train home, knackered. Mum's sunburn came out, and so did an incredible crop of hives brought on by mosquito bites. Ouch.
And those darned mosquito bites and hives kind of put a damper on the rest of Mum's holiday for her, as she didn't want to stray from the air conditioner.
It was great to see her, but it would have been nicer if she hadn't ended the holiday covered in lumps. Japan is a dangerous country.
Though it seems to have forgiven me somewhat lately. Since it's turned cooler, my skin has calmed down dramatically. This makes me very happy.

Here be dragons

The next day we got up early and tried to head to Kiyomizu-Dera, which I'd heard was beautiful. This was Sunday, and everyone in Japan had decided to come to Kyoto and walk slowly in front of us. We took the 206 bus in the wrong direction and went to Nishi Hongan-Ji instead. This was an ace temple, half of it was peaceful and soothing and half of it was bustling with people attending services.
After that we tried again to get to Kiyomizu-Dera. This time we had more luck with the buses and made it out there. We stopped for lunch at a cafe on the hill (best pastrami sandwich in Japan) then slowly meandered up the hill. I had been frothing at the mouth at our leisurely pace and getting lost, I don't have a lot of holidays here and I want to see things when I've gone to the bother of leaving Nagoya to see things. All this vanished when I got to the entrance of the temple in perfect time to watch a bizarre ceremony involving dragons. I have no idea what it means (or even what Chinese dragons have to do with Buddhism) but it was spooky, exciting and reminded me that watching dramatic ceremonies like this (eerily dressed priests, green and gold dragons, conch horns wailing) would have creeped the bejeezus out of ordinary people in the past.

Kyoto pictures

Bridge at Kamigamo-jinja.




Raked gravel at Kamigamo-jinja. Someone has too much free time on his hands.



Kawaii pose at Kinkaku-ji.

Kyoto

After Hiroshima we headed down to Kyoto. I was hoping to get there early and see some of the sights, but it wasn't to be. We loafed around too much, lingered over lunch in the Kyoto towers high above the station, and then got lost looking for our ryokan so it was 4 pm before we were ready to do anything. All the sights in Japan shut up at 5, so it felt like a bit of a wasted day. The Kyoto museum didn't shut until 7, so we went there and made up our own captions for the non-English labelled exhibits.
The next day we got up early(ish) and went to Kinkaku-ji, the golden pavillion. I like Kyoto as a city, but I hate the way it's so spread out. It takes forever to get to the places where you want to go, and travelling by bus is stressful. I always seem to miss my stop or get lost in this city. Kinkaku-ji was pretty, and I liked the way the scenery and gardens reflected Ginkaku-ji, the silver pavillion I visited when I came here in November. After that we went to Daitoku-ji (not much to see, unfortunately) and then headed to the botanical gardens (Mum choosing what to do, for a change) which bored the pants off me.
We stopped for a quick pint downtown then wandered around Gion, the old geisha district.

Miyajima Photos

This is a statue at Daisho-in, a temple up the hill on Miyajima.


More pictures of Daisho-in.
Outside restaurants and shops, you often see statues of big-bellied animals wearing big hats and holding sake bottles. They're supposed to be lucky but mostly look demented. I asked Takako what sort of animals they were supposed to be, and she said raccoon dogs. I'd never heard of raccoon dogs and assumed this was a mistranslation, but these are the real thing.

Miyajima photos

Caution, hungry deer

After a night tossing and turning on the thinnest futon in Japan, we got up and went to Miyajima, an island just south of Hiroshima. Itsukushima-Jinja (shrine) is famous for its 'floating' tori (gate). You can see why in the photos. The maps of the area proudly announce it is one of the three most beautiful views in Japan, which makes me wonder what the rest of the top three is (or the top ten, even) and who gets to decide. I like the idea of a group of Japanese scientists with clipboards standing on the end of the pier giving the view marks out of ten.
Just outside the station roam gangs of ravenous deer who pose photogenically for two minutes before trying to eat anything to hand. Cloth and paper also counts as edible. Green shirts, as my mum found out, are extremely tasty, and so are maps. One followed us halfway along the seafront, determined to get some of our icecream.
The island is gorgeous, peaceful, beautiful. I could have spent days there. Japan specialises in ugly cities, but the countryside is amazing.

Hiroshima pictures

This is the cenotaph. Looking through the arch, there is a casket containing all the names of the people known to have died in the bomb; the atomic flame (which will only be extinguished when the last atomic weapon on Earth is dismantled); and in the distance, the atomic bomb dome.



This is the atomic bomb dome, formerly a council building. It (mostly) survived the blast by being underneath the hypocentre. Everything else was reduced to rubble.

No more Hiroshima

My mum is out visiting　me just now, and it has been great to see her. Her flight was luckily delayed an hour so this gave me time to race from work and meet her at the airport. She was driving me crazy approximately twenty minutes later on the train asking every two minutes, "are we nearly there yet?"

On Wednesday we got the shinkansen to Hiroshima (a surprisingly nice city) and looked around the peace museum. This was horrifying, depressing, and made us wonder why on earth we go to museums such as these. Bizzarely I find myself becoming numb to places like this having been to the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem, the war museum in Ho Chi Minh City, and the River Kwai memorial museum in Kanchanaburi. It`s strange that we feel the need to bear witness to war horrors while on vacation.
I felt sad and sickened by the fragments of clothes, skin and fingernails that families had clung to as mementoes of loved ones who died in the blast or the firestorms that destroyed Hiroshima. The copies of letters between members of the American war cabinet chosing which cities should be targets bewildered me. The process of war, the logistical details of exterminating as much human life as possible in the most economical way possible, always bewilders me.
Seeing the peace museum in Hiroshima and comparing the experience to other war museums I`ve seen in other countries is an odd feeling. There is no right side or wrong side, everyone is as brutal as everyone else, and ordinary people suffer the same everywhere.

Like an idiot child

I met up with Takako and her friend Azusa today for some high speed chat (Takako) and Japanese practice (Azusa). Japanese people tend to be kind and encouraging when it comes to foreigners' attempts at mangling/learning their language, but sometimes you have to put your progress (or lack thereof) into perspective. Japanese schoolchildren learn 10 kanji a day from their first day of elementary school. I know about 50 kanji. This puts me at the same reading level as a 6 year old after one week of elementary school.
I suspected I wasn't studying enough.

For what I promised myself was going to be a quiet week, I managed to get around quite a lot. My friends Kate and Toni abandoned Nova and so had to move out of their Nova flat pretty quick, they left the back end of nowhere and came to live just around the corner from me. They unpacked their futons and set about trashing the place and pissing off the neighbours with the best party I've been to in Nagoya. In fact, they pissed off the neighbours so much the police turned up. I met heaps of people there and wandered home at half past two in the pouring rain after a late-night icecream run. Sweet potato icecream is pretty tasty.
Not wanting to be outdone, Shannon moved out of his flat down the road from me and joined the hoardes in the gaijin ghetto, Freebell, and set about trashing the place and pissing off the neighbours with another great party. I wasn't in the mood for that one so much - it felt like there were too many people and I couldn't be bothered with them all. A lot of the same people were at both parties, including Sian, who invited me to hers for drinks on Sunday. That night was a nice change, just a small group of people I knew well and it was easier to chat and have a laugh together.
Finally, I have just survived Mitchell's party last night. Mitchell is one of the guys who works at my new school, Jusco Atsuta. Mitchell seems to know every skater in Nagoya. Lots of Japanese people at that party optimistically asked if I could skate, or speak Japanese, but I had to confess I could do neither. Some Japanese girls asked me if I had a boyfriend, and when I said no they started trying to set me up. With Iain. It was pretty funny.
Now I have a night in the flat by myself, and it is goooood.

Surprise me

Lisa rocks. Not only is she coming out to see me at Christmas, she also sent me this ace Camera Obscura t-shirt. Lisa, we love you.

Supersize me

I found some great restaurants this week - or rather, my Japanese friends found these great restaurants and took me there in a bid to wean me off my diet of Doutor sandwiches and Ministop salads. Last Thursday I went to the Orchid Garden with my flatmate Donna, Takako, and 3 of her friends - Yoko, Noriko and Keiko. In the daytime the orchid house is open to the public, and in the evening the patio-style restaurant comes alive. It's set in a beautiful garden complete with a lawn and a pond, and is the largest enclosed outdoor space I've seen in Japan so far. The atmosphere was relaxed and the food was inexpensive and tasty. I would give it 7 out of 10 and recommend it to my friends.
The nicest thing about the evening was hanging out with cool locals. I got on well with Noriko, who spent last year studying in Germany. She was very patient with my high school German (which is an awful lot better than my Japanese, even though I haven't used it much since school) and didn't seem to mind me speaking in pidgin German/Japanese/English to her.
On Sunday night I finally went for dinner with Yoko. I met this Yoko at Dan's leaving party about 3 months ago, and she took me to an organic buffet restaurant in Yaba Cho. All you can eat for 1800 yen. Mmm. And for 1800 yen, I can eat a lot.
I felt very virtous eating all my organic healthy food, then went home and watched Supersize Me. Part of me was disgusted and horrified, and part of me really wanted a cheeseburger.

Bliss!

Oh this is good. I snapped and bought wildly expensive olives slathered with so much garlic my flatmates left the building. This leaves me alone with my gin and olives and listening to Radio 4 comedy over the internet in a state of middle-class bliss.

Shake shake

I was dozing in the livingroom watching Futurama when BANG like something hit the side of the house, only I live on the seventh floor. I'm surprised it took so long to feel an earthquake. It was only a little one, thankfully.

Takako pics

Here`s the lighthouse and Takako.

The problem with saturdays

In some ways I like my work routine. Friday is a half day, Saturday and Sunday go by quickly because we're so busy, Monday is quite relaxing because I have the place to myself, and then there's just Tuesday to deal with before it's my weekend. Saturday and Sunday are hard-going because they start at 10, and the rest of the week I don't start work before 1. Unfortunately, Nagoya goes out on Friday and Saturday night, and though it's fun going out on other nights of the week, The occasional big Saturday is ace.
　　This Saturday I'm promising myself a quiet night in. Two weeks ago was a house party I swore I would leave at 1 am, but anyone who knows me knows that my uttering the fateful words "I'll be home early" means something will mess up my goody-goody plans. Quarter to one and someone produces a guitar and a decent guitarist and the next thing I know its 2 am and my good intentions are wrecked.
Same again last weekend. I went out salsa dancing and again promised I would be leave at 1. I love dancing and the place was just getting going at 1, I couldn't leave then... and the barman was being very generous with his measures. I watched him pour one and realised I was getting triples. And probably more tipsy than was a good idea on a Saturday night. I reluctantly went home at 2.30, but only because I thought I was going to be hungover. Turns out I was right.
I'm now on day 8 of socialising but the appeal is starting to wear thin. I think I may be a hermit this week.

Takako

I nearly bumped heads with this Japanese girl as we both tried to read the notices on the board at the International Centre. We were both reading the notices for language exchange partners. I already have a language exchange partner, Yukie, but I generally only see her for about 45 minutes a week which isn't going to improve my Japanese very quickly.
"Are you looking for a language exchange partner?" I asked, feeling like I was stating the obvious. And this is how I met Takako. We arranged to meet in her home town, Tokai, the next day.
On Thursday I took the train and my hangover to Tokai and met Takako at the station. It was blisteringly hot. I had no bright ideas of what to do, and it suited me to go where she wanted to go since I'd never been there. We took the back roads along the coast and wound through small towns down the penninsula while we chatted about ourselves. Takako can talk for Japan. She is only in the country for a few weeks before she goes back to Australia to study again and doesn't want her English to slip while she's in Japan. In the hour-long ride to the restaurant she had in mind, I learned about her family, dog, friends, job plans and everything else she could think of to talk about while I mostly said little and thought longingly of coffee.
The restaurant she'd chosen was near Noma, a popular beach. The restaurant looked over a lighthouse and for a second it made me think of a similar view in Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia. Cool thoughts of Canadian winter on a scorching Japanese summer day. Lunch was huge, one of these great lunch specials that Japan does so well that includes soup, salad, fish, desert and coffee for the price of two beers in Outback. The lighthouse has a high fence around it and has become something of a shrine for couples. You write your names on a padlock and chain the padlock to the fence, and this will supposedly keep you together forever.

After lunch we wandered along the beach and sweated profusely, then headed back to Tokai. Takako took me up to the big Buddha on top of the hill. It has a scary face. On the plus side, it's in the middle of a gorgeous park with - get this - grass! Japan doesn't seem to believe in lawns very much. I wanted to roll down the hill. I plan to come back some afternoon with a book and laze on it.
A mad, action-packed day that took me to places I would never have gone to otherwise. Remember, kids - always talk to strangers.

Utsumi

Me and Jo hit the beach a couple of Thursdays ago and managed not to get sunburnt at all. Getting out of the city was such a relief. I spent the afternoon floating in the sea and admiring the perfect sky.