Monthly Archives: April 2011

Travel

kyoto to tokyo to kyoto

Feeling a bit deflated after purveying an allegedly anime & cosplay shop (I would have loved to pick up a Susumu Kodai (Derek Wildstar) jacket) in Akiba which actually sold what looked more like p*rn, we thought we’d head to see Tokyo from above so wandered towards Shinjuku and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building.

We would have liked to have seen the Shibuya intersection, one of the ‘must see’ destinations in Tokyo for being a famously busy intersection with people coming from all angles. Time restricted our choices and we started to get a feeling of general voyeristic unease at the Shinjuku underground.

We were fortunate to have not felt any major quakes or aftershocks in our brief time in Japan, but the eerieness of the lack of crowds, the turned off and roped shut escalators and travelators, and the dimmed lights contributed to our heightened nervousness of being underground and possibly in trouble should the ground start to move.

The Government offices are a particularly good vantage point to view the city from all angles. They were unfortunately all closed due to the earthquake and pending ok from the powers-that-be to reopen. The nearby Sumitomo building’s observation deck was open, so another (creepy, for being bereft of people) visit over there ensued.

The day over, we bulleted back to Kyoto.

Travel

Tokyo 2

Another Japanese city, another camera store! We happened upon the multi-storied Yodabashi Camera in Akiba and spent an hour or so wandering the floors of camera & electronic goodness. At least, Anna & Sarah were wandering; I was on a caffeinated high darting from one display to the next, rapidly calculating conversion rates and excess luggage capacity, and generally trying not to drool on things.

Much like Bic Camera, Yodabashi just blew the mind for its breadth & depth of stuff compared with what gets retailed in Australia. The contrast too of the modern digital age compared with our last trip in 1998 was also apparent.

What was also becomming apparent was the distinct lack of foreigners (white people) in Tokyo itself, most having been evacuated by their respective governments, or concerned parents as the case may be.

A destination visit to the Ginza district was in order to view the Leica Gallery. After a fruitless hour or so of searching (starting to miss my iphone maps functionality) we finally came across the store only to discover that it was closed Mondays. Today was Monday. Curses!

I remember Ginza from our previous trip as having a great buzz which was understandably not there. The mood was similar to Hawaii a few months after September 11; much of the local population still in shock dealing with the new reality.

 

Travel

Tokyo

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We spent part of the Takayama trip agoinising over our inability to use our JR tickets fully and explore Tokyo. Having kept an eye on radiation levels in the Daily Yumiuri, we decided that we’d have a day trip to Tokyo. The trip on the slow bullet takes  almost two and a half hours to cover 500km. Roughly the same time it takes us back in Melbourne to get Camperdown (half the distance) on VLine. Still, it’s not fair comparing gold rush era infrastructure to 1970s infrastructure, or Japan’s can-do mentality to our own she’ll-be-right one. Or is it?…

We thought we’d get a look at Mt Fuji as the bullet sped past but ended up with a lot of blurry images which sort of look like clouds or fuzzy buildings but could be the famous mountain.

I was keen to check out Akiba (the local nickname for Akihabara) at least, having missed out on the 10th annual Anime Fair (cancelled due to the earthquake/tsunami). The local train network was still picking itself up after the disaster, and electronic bulletins informed passengers that whatever scheduled train had been cancelled or delayed reason being earthquake. In Melbourne we have similar notices where the 8.47 from Broadmeadows has been cancelled due to a kitten crossing the tracks.

My memory of Akihabara from 1998 was of an exciting place with lots of exciting things happening. People, colors, lights, noises (sadly, I came down with a migraine from hell that time which could explain the colors, lights & noises), and wild & weird electronics as far as the eye could see. Post earthquake reports were unfortunately accurate. There were no thronging masses. Electronics shops and department stores had their power dimmed and all their displays turned off with signs indicating they’d gladly demo them for you if requested. And the tip of the Tokyo tower was as reported, slightly bent.

Travel

Takayama ho

A day trip out to Takayama saw the first use of our normally excellent value JR passes. Typically you can travel the entire rail network with some small exceptions, and you have to be a foreigner & purchase the pass overseas, but otherwise excellent value. Except that our plans went skewif due to the Great eastern earthquake/tsunami.

Takayama was about 2 hours out from Kyoto and at the foot of very snowy mountains. A popular skiing holiday destination I believe, and I was disappointed to have not thought at all about packing the K2s. The beautifully preserved old town fascinated, but carried a tinge of disappointment of being more tourist oriented than historic (not that it was a problem). I was delighted to be back online as Takayama is better known for having free wifi almost everywhere (and b*gg*r paying Telstra $29 for 10MB!).

After lunching on Japanese style toasted sandwiches in another delightfully jazz music filled cafe, we wandered the historic streets admiring the copious amounts of Japan Black adorned fascias. We happened upon a pagoda with a particularly old (1000+ years!) gingko tree and pondered the gingko sapling we’d planted at home not too long ago.

A bus tour then took us to the Hida Folk Village where we could have spent much longer, but for the time restrictions. A historic village of carpentry and timber makers – several of the buildings had slid from their original locations due to various earthquakes. The plaques and displays of tradition timber making was revelatory, as was the below zero temperatures.

For dinner, we thought we’d try some bento boxes from the JR station. On purchase, the seller lady made some tugging motions at our food boxes. Thinking it to be a local greeting, we motioned the same back to her. Only later did we discover that each bento has its own heating device which warms up your food when the string is pulled. Delicious instant hot food!

 

Travel

More around Kyoto and Ohara

The day started a bit unusually as I thought I’d head into Kyoto CBD to pick up some Bonito soup mix for mum (it’s much cheaper in Japan, she says) and thought the food court in JR Kyoto Isetan might be a goer. My lack of Japanese languaue and my lack of an idea of what I wanted to purchase bogged me down a little except for the iphone picture I had. I found a kilo’s worth and, yes it was much cheaper (rough the same price for 1kg as for 60g in Australia!).

I caught up with Anna & Sarah again at a patisserie Sarah’d been eyeing off. Unusually, this particular patisserie did not serve coffee.

Time to visit brother Jon’s place and have a bit more of a wander around. Judging by the landscape, there is a giant ‘big’ character carved into the side of the hill. I’d seen some postcards around showing that with some celebration where they light up the symbol at night.

The climate continued to be bitterly cold, so it only seemed appropriate to eat ice cream from a street vendor. They had a dozen odd varieties generally unknown in Australia. I had the black sesame whilst Anna had the cherry blossom. Cold but yum.

Visiting Ohara, we discovered another temple whose name completely escapes me now. Picturesque but freezing, so we kept moving.

 

Travel

Nara and Inari

Our intention was to visit Inari first and then Nara, but a slight miscalculation in the express-ness of our train landed us at Nara in the early hours.

Righto.

Must.

See.

Temples.

The park full of bambi was a little bit of a pleasant diversion, as were the multitude of cartoon deer-boy characters. The surprising thing about the temple was the giant buddha inside. How many giant buddhas are there? I know there’re a few in China but this is getting ludicrous! Even more ludicrous (or perhaps portentous for those that way inclined) is the number of times Buddha’s head has fallen clean off after various (not 2011) earthquakes.

We had a small stop along the way to admire a random house with a grand old cherry blossom in the front yard, held up with various bamboo crutches and the flashbulbs of many admirers.

Inari turned out to be surprising also what with the thousands of torii gates at Fushimiinari Taisha Shrine (conveniently located at the exit of the Inari JR Station). I can just imagine the conversation with the subbies: “You wanted 100 gates? I thought you said 10,000!”

We ran out of daylight a third of the way up the mountain of torii gates (which worked out better than had we run out of daylight at Nara) and headed back to the Cube for an interesting Japanese take on spaghetti for dinner.