Hi guys,
Just a quick note - I'm not dead or anything, just there was no net access at all on Iriomote-jima. I'm now in a hotel in Ishigaki (on Ishigaki-jima) which has PCs with internet access but no USB port...
I have, however, found an internet cafe so I should be able to upload some of my many, many photos from Iriomote tomorrow. Hang around, they WILL come.
James
EDIT: Sorry folks, more delays. It seems all the PCs on Ishigaki run on steam power and I've not found a single one running Windows XP yet (and I've tried my hotel and 3 internet cafes). That means I can't upload from my camera (not without installing drivers, anyway). Hang on and they will come, I'm just not sure when.
Sunday, 30 March 2008
Monday, 24 March 2008
Sunny Okinawa!
Welcome to sunny Okinawa!
Well, it's certainly tropical. Words cannot describe how hard it rained yesterday.
However, the rain didn't stop me from heading out on a long bus journey (even longer when you get utterly lost in a Japanese-only bus network) to the Peace Memorial Park down in southern Okinawa. Despite having to walk around it in the rain (the museum was good for a nice dry hour, though), it was really quite sobering, as well as being quite unusual for a war cemetery, listing Okinawan civilians and foreign troops killed in the fighting right alongside the Japanese soldiers. This caused some controversy, but I can't see why it should be any other way.
Anyway, I'll let a couple of photos speak for themselves.
The above is the 'flame of peace', which wasn't lit because it was raining. Oh well.
This is the first real good view I got of the Okinawan coastline (despite it being an island...), which is the view from the end of the Peace Park.
Last night I found this wierd restaurant, in which I had a wonderful seafood pasta dish (right out of the sea about an hour ago, I suspect). I met a couple of American guys at the Peace Park, who were being contracted by the Navy and flying to an aircraft carrier today, so we all went in together. It's absurd and kinda tacky, but that's half of the fun, and the food was suprisingly good. Check it out.
Afterwards I found a neat little back-street Izakaya (Japanese pub, basically) with live Okinawan music and beer from the classic Okinawan brewery (Orion beer is an Okinawan institution).
The weather today has been really nice so I think the rain has moved out now. I went and booked my ferry to Ishigaki today (leaves on Wednesday), which turns out to be a 14 hour overnight journey, from where I can get a short ferry out to Iriomote-jima. For some inexplicable reason ferries only seem to run to Ishigaki every couple of days, and only run back to Naha once a week, but it's all worked out fairly well anyway, giving me about a week down there, which should be just about right.
I also found a microbrewery serving great food here so I grabbed some lunch and tried one of their brews (they're called Helios and you will NEVER drink it anywhere else), and ended up scoring one of the spectacular tall glasses they use. Lord knows how I'll send it back to the UK, but I'm going to try, since it beats most of the tacky souvenirs you can buy around here (like these stupid supposedly-comical cartoon Shisas. I want a real Shisa instead, but there are none small enough to take home).
Anyway, my time at this manga cafe (a cafe of sorts where you get a comfy chair, free soft drinks, access to a PC with a huge screen and a massive library of manga comics to flick through, all for about 400 Yen an hour) is running out so I should move on. I'll try to upload some more photos when I get back from Iriomote, if not before.
Sayonnara,
James
EDIT: But not before I got a mention on Planet Rock, which is officially available 'All over the planet' thanks to the wonders of internet streaming radio. Thanks, Rob Birnie.
Well, it's certainly tropical. Words cannot describe how hard it rained yesterday.
However, the rain didn't stop me from heading out on a long bus journey (even longer when you get utterly lost in a Japanese-only bus network) to the Peace Memorial Park down in southern Okinawa. Despite having to walk around it in the rain (the museum was good for a nice dry hour, though), it was really quite sobering, as well as being quite unusual for a war cemetery, listing Okinawan civilians and foreign troops killed in the fighting right alongside the Japanese soldiers. This caused some controversy, but I can't see why it should be any other way.
Anyway, I'll let a couple of photos speak for themselves.
The above is the 'flame of peace', which wasn't lit because it was raining. Oh well.
This is the first real good view I got of the Okinawan coastline (despite it being an island...), which is the view from the end of the Peace Park.
Last night I found this wierd restaurant, in which I had a wonderful seafood pasta dish (right out of the sea about an hour ago, I suspect). I met a couple of American guys at the Peace Park, who were being contracted by the Navy and flying to an aircraft carrier today, so we all went in together. It's absurd and kinda tacky, but that's half of the fun, and the food was suprisingly good. Check it out.
Afterwards I found a neat little back-street Izakaya (Japanese pub, basically) with live Okinawan music and beer from the classic Okinawan brewery (Orion beer is an Okinawan institution).
The weather today has been really nice so I think the rain has moved out now. I went and booked my ferry to Ishigaki today (leaves on Wednesday), which turns out to be a 14 hour overnight journey, from where I can get a short ferry out to Iriomote-jima. For some inexplicable reason ferries only seem to run to Ishigaki every couple of days, and only run back to Naha once a week, but it's all worked out fairly well anyway, giving me about a week down there, which should be just about right.
I also found a microbrewery serving great food here so I grabbed some lunch and tried one of their brews (they're called Helios and you will NEVER drink it anywhere else), and ended up scoring one of the spectacular tall glasses they use. Lord knows how I'll send it back to the UK, but I'm going to try, since it beats most of the tacky souvenirs you can buy around here (like these stupid supposedly-comical cartoon Shisas. I want a real Shisa instead, but there are none small enough to take home).
Anyway, my time at this manga cafe (a cafe of sorts where you get a comfy chair, free soft drinks, access to a PC with a huge screen and a massive library of manga comics to flick through, all for about 400 Yen an hour) is running out so I should move on. I'll try to upload some more photos when I get back from Iriomote, if not before.
Sayonnara,
James
EDIT: But not before I got a mention on Planet Rock, which is officially available 'All over the planet' thanks to the wonders of internet streaming radio. Thanks, Rob Birnie.
Friday, 21 March 2008
One more before Okinawa
Ok, so my hotel in Osaka does have a free internet PC so I can post once more before I head off to tropical Okinawa tomorrow.
Today was uneventful with one exception. The JR Kyoto line, which you use during your journey between Nagoya and Osaka (unless you do it all on the Shinkansen bullet train), passes through the small town of Yamazaki. Yamazaki possesses one thing of note:
The Suntory Yamazaki Whiskey Distillery
Should you manage to make your way there, you can take a half-hour guided tour of the distillery, following the process of making whiskey all the way from the initial ingredients, through mashing, fermentation, distillation and aging, ending with a tasting session of the finished product.
How much does this cost? The princely sum of ZERO.
I don't have the time to really go into details, but the tour was great (it was in Japanese but there was good signing in English), the distillery itself was fascinating to walk around, and the tasting was superb (they basically throw it at you, I guess in the hope you'll then spend more money in the shop).
A few photos:
This is the 'Whiskey Library', walls of shelves all containing different whiskeys. This is amazing (it keeps going all round the walls of the room).
Inside one of the aging warehouses. There are casks going back to 1924 in here (the first Japanese whiskey, apparently).
Trying the Suntory Yamazaki 18yo - great stuff, but at over 100GBP a bottle (THIS is why they aim to get you drunk after the tour) it should be.
I bought a pen, a branded nosing glass and a couple of small bottles and had them sent home from the local post office (so I get the Yamazaki post mark on there, too). Hopefully using half the world's supply of bubble-wrap will keep them intact.
Anyway, off to Okinawa tomorrow. I don't know when I'll next get to update this, so hang tight. If I can, I will.
Take care all,
James
Today was uneventful with one exception. The JR Kyoto line, which you use during your journey between Nagoya and Osaka (unless you do it all on the Shinkansen bullet train), passes through the small town of Yamazaki. Yamazaki possesses one thing of note:
The Suntory Yamazaki Whiskey Distillery
Should you manage to make your way there, you can take a half-hour guided tour of the distillery, following the process of making whiskey all the way from the initial ingredients, through mashing, fermentation, distillation and aging, ending with a tasting session of the finished product.
How much does this cost? The princely sum of ZERO.
I don't have the time to really go into details, but the tour was great (it was in Japanese but there was good signing in English), the distillery itself was fascinating to walk around, and the tasting was superb (they basically throw it at you, I guess in the hope you'll then spend more money in the shop).
A few photos:
This is the 'Whiskey Library', walls of shelves all containing different whiskeys. This is amazing (it keeps going all round the walls of the room).
Inside one of the aging warehouses. There are casks going back to 1924 in here (the first Japanese whiskey, apparently).
Trying the Suntory Yamazaki 18yo - great stuff, but at over 100GBP a bottle (THIS is why they aim to get you drunk after the tour) it should be.
I bought a pen, a branded nosing glass and a couple of small bottles and had them sent home from the local post office (so I get the Yamazaki post mark on there, too). Hopefully using half the world's supply of bubble-wrap will keep them intact.
Anyway, off to Okinawa tomorrow. I don't know when I'll next get to update this, so hang tight. If I can, I will.
Take care all,
James
Thursday, 20 March 2008
Rain rain rain
I woke up here on my last full day in Nagoya this morning, and it was raining again! Argh.
In fact, today provided even more problems. Not only was it raining, but it was a national holiday of some sort, which meant everyone wanted to go somewhere. There aren't many indoor attractions in Nagoya, so whatever you choose, it's going to be packed.
I chose to take a look at the Port Of Nagoya area. Yes, it was packed.
The port area has been redeveloped in recent years (apparently) to draw in the tourists. Attractions here include an aquarium, an observation deck, a maritime museum, an Antarctic museum (on board the Fuji, an Antarctic exploration vessel permanently docked at the port) and, somewhat bizarrely, an 'Italian Village'. A ticket to all of these (bar the village which is free) costs 2400 Yen all in (about 12GBP or 24USD), which isn't a bad deal.
The aquarium was superb, and I found it better than Osaka's. This was mainly because it has an excellent selection of dolphins and whales, and, at several points throughout the day, dolphin and whale shows. I was lucky enough to catch the Orca show from underwater (through the tank viewing panel) and a later dolphin show from the 3000 person stadium built around the pool. Very impressive indeed. Add to this the usual array of displays (coral reef, deep sea, etc) and it's a good way to kill a few hours without getting (too) wet.
Later on I moved onto the Fuji. You first walk around in a self-guided fashion to see how Antarctic exploration on a ship is carried out (which is actually quite fascinating) and what the living conditions are like. It also houses the Antarctic museum, which is a small but very interesting (and bilingual) museum about the continent itself.
Moving on from there I went to the observation deck (not much in bad weather, really) and the Maritime museum (disappointingly entirely in Japanese).
Finally I figured I'd take a wander to the Italian Village, which proved quite...well, strange. Someone thought it'd be a good idea to attempt to recreate Venice (complete with canals, etc) in Nagoya, and really, it doesn't work. Think of a Disney version of Venice, like the whole city crammed into 3 square blocks - overdosing on statues and pizza restaurants is seemingly what this place does best. Oh, and ice-cream - I bought an ice-cream (which was crazy, considering the weather, but I don't care) from a place offering 'Gelato, softdrink, meet pie'. Do I really want to meet this 'pie' guy? I don't know.
Anyway. That's the Port Of Nagoya area - a mix of the impressive, the not quite so impressive (unless you speak Japanese, I guess) and the just plain wierd.
And that's also my day today. Tomorrow I travel back to Osaka, hopefully with a brief stop for a guided tour of the Suntory Yamazaki whiskey distillery thrown in for good measure, before flying to Okinawa on Saturday. I can't guarantee internet access there, but I'll try my best.
Take care everyone,
James
In fact, today provided even more problems. Not only was it raining, but it was a national holiday of some sort, which meant everyone wanted to go somewhere. There aren't many indoor attractions in Nagoya, so whatever you choose, it's going to be packed.
I chose to take a look at the Port Of Nagoya area. Yes, it was packed.
The port area has been redeveloped in recent years (apparently) to draw in the tourists. Attractions here include an aquarium, an observation deck, a maritime museum, an Antarctic museum (on board the Fuji, an Antarctic exploration vessel permanently docked at the port) and, somewhat bizarrely, an 'Italian Village'. A ticket to all of these (bar the village which is free) costs 2400 Yen all in (about 12GBP or 24USD), which isn't a bad deal.
The aquarium was superb, and I found it better than Osaka's. This was mainly because it has an excellent selection of dolphins and whales, and, at several points throughout the day, dolphin and whale shows. I was lucky enough to catch the Orca show from underwater (through the tank viewing panel) and a later dolphin show from the 3000 person stadium built around the pool. Very impressive indeed. Add to this the usual array of displays (coral reef, deep sea, etc) and it's a good way to kill a few hours without getting (too) wet.
Later on I moved onto the Fuji. You first walk around in a self-guided fashion to see how Antarctic exploration on a ship is carried out (which is actually quite fascinating) and what the living conditions are like. It also houses the Antarctic museum, which is a small but very interesting (and bilingual) museum about the continent itself.
Moving on from there I went to the observation deck (not much in bad weather, really) and the Maritime museum (disappointingly entirely in Japanese).
Finally I figured I'd take a wander to the Italian Village, which proved quite...well, strange. Someone thought it'd be a good idea to attempt to recreate Venice (complete with canals, etc) in Nagoya, and really, it doesn't work. Think of a Disney version of Venice, like the whole city crammed into 3 square blocks - overdosing on statues and pizza restaurants is seemingly what this place does best. Oh, and ice-cream - I bought an ice-cream (which was crazy, considering the weather, but I don't care) from a place offering 'Gelato, softdrink, meet pie'. Do I really want to meet this 'pie' guy? I don't know.
Anyway. That's the Port Of Nagoya area - a mix of the impressive, the not quite so impressive (unless you speak Japanese, I guess) and the just plain wierd.
And that's also my day today. Tomorrow I travel back to Osaka, hopefully with a brief stop for a guided tour of the Suntory Yamazaki whiskey distillery thrown in for good measure, before flying to Okinawa on Saturday. I can't guarantee internet access there, but I'll try my best.
Take care everyone,
James
Wednesday, 19 March 2008
Planes, trains and automobiles (and rain)
Another day in Nagoya, except this time, the weather is ABYSMAL. Rain - consistent, cold, winter rain - all day. Unsure of what exactly to do, I hit Google in the hope of finding enclosed attractions, and I found out that Toyota are largely based in the Nagoya area. This is great for 2 reasons:
1 - The Toyota Automobile Museum is about an hour away by train, and is entirely enclosed
2 - You can book free tours around one of the Toyota assembly plants
The museum made the ideal thing to do on a rainy day, so off I went via a combination of subway and a private railway line (the Linimo, Japan's first MagLev railway - click here for more information).
The Toyota Automobile Museum is not, as you might imagine, a museum of purely Toyota cars. Rather, it traces the history of the automobile from the first steam cars through to the late 1990s (the newest car on display is a prototype Toyota Prius hybrid car). This covers all manufacturers from all over the world, spread over 2 large floors (one for Japanese cars, one for cars from other countries), plus a special exhibit in the annex. The vehicles on display are all lovingly restored and displayed (with both Japanese and English notes, too) and it's all really rather impressive. The only problem is that the lighting isn't great for photos (at least not for small cameras), but it's all very pleasing to the eye and a good way to kill a few hours.
On to point 2, the factory tour. You have to reserve this 2 or more weeks in advance, so I need to look at my dates and find a convenient time. However, from what I hear (and I only hear good things about this), you get picked up and taken to one of Toyota's current production plants. Here you get a guided tour (even in English if you ask) of both the hand-production line, where people work to put cars together, and of the welding plant, where the huge robots work to weld all the major component parts of the chassis together.
The best part? It's free. Absolutely free. I don't know why Toyota feel the need to be so generous, but I'm not going to complain, and I think I'll take them up on the offer. You can't take photos, but obviously you can write about it, so I should be able to put up an entry about that in a few weeks time.
Oh, and while I'm in a technological frame of mind, watch out for the first airplane manufactured by Mitsubishi, currently in development. I got talking to a guy from Chicago last night, who was over here working on Mitsubishi's very first (a 100 seat small passenger aircraft, if you really want to know). It must be a tough market to break into but they're going to try, so if that interests you, keep an eye out.
Anyway, enough of the technological stuff, even if I am in Japan. It just all makes a refreshing change from shrines, temples and castles, at least until Okinawa serves up its mix of tropical waters and mangrove swamps, which should prove to be absolutely beautiful.
Take care everyone,
James
1 - The Toyota Automobile Museum is about an hour away by train, and is entirely enclosed
2 - You can book free tours around one of the Toyota assembly plants
The museum made the ideal thing to do on a rainy day, so off I went via a combination of subway and a private railway line (the Linimo, Japan's first MagLev railway - click here for more information).
The Toyota Automobile Museum is not, as you might imagine, a museum of purely Toyota cars. Rather, it traces the history of the automobile from the first steam cars through to the late 1990s (the newest car on display is a prototype Toyota Prius hybrid car). This covers all manufacturers from all over the world, spread over 2 large floors (one for Japanese cars, one for cars from other countries), plus a special exhibit in the annex. The vehicles on display are all lovingly restored and displayed (with both Japanese and English notes, too) and it's all really rather impressive. The only problem is that the lighting isn't great for photos (at least not for small cameras), but it's all very pleasing to the eye and a good way to kill a few hours.
On to point 2, the factory tour. You have to reserve this 2 or more weeks in advance, so I need to look at my dates and find a convenient time. However, from what I hear (and I only hear good things about this), you get picked up and taken to one of Toyota's current production plants. Here you get a guided tour (even in English if you ask) of both the hand-production line, where people work to put cars together, and of the welding plant, where the huge robots work to weld all the major component parts of the chassis together.
The best part? It's free. Absolutely free. I don't know why Toyota feel the need to be so generous, but I'm not going to complain, and I think I'll take them up on the offer. You can't take photos, but obviously you can write about it, so I should be able to put up an entry about that in a few weeks time.
Oh, and while I'm in a technological frame of mind, watch out for the first airplane manufactured by Mitsubishi, currently in development. I got talking to a guy from Chicago last night, who was over here working on Mitsubishi's very first (a 100 seat small passenger aircraft, if you really want to know). It must be a tough market to break into but they're going to try, so if that interests you, keep an eye out.
Anyway, enough of the technological stuff, even if I am in Japan. It just all makes a refreshing change from shrines, temples and castles, at least until Okinawa serves up its mix of tropical waters and mangrove swamps, which should prove to be absolutely beautiful.
Take care everyone,
James
Tuesday, 18 March 2008
Nagoya
So here I am in Nagoya. Like I said before, Nagoya reminds me a little of Kobe for some reason, and I quite liked Kobe, so that's no bad thing.
I've decided to stay here a couple more nights if I can, rather than moving on to Nara. There's more I want to see here and in the surrounding areas, and accomodation in Nara is hard to come by right now, so I'm going to try a couple of days there when I get back from Okinawa. The temples and parks in Nara may then coincide with the sakura (cherry blossom) season which would surely be quite spectacular.
What does Nagoya have to offer? There's a very attractive castle (sadly a replica, since the original was entirely levelled in 1945) with some very nice gardens, plenty of temples and shrines, a couple of decent parks (although one appears to have a fairly large homeless population - a side of Japan arguably not often seen), some decent opportunities to pick up some traditional items to send back home (and for sub-Tokyo prices, too), and some smaller attractions in outlying areas. Not a bad place to kill a few days.
Also of note is one of the largest 'gaijin bars' in the country, which I found quite by accident - it's a great place to find out information about the area, and to meet people with some grasp on the English language, too. I ended up making two good friends there last night - an ex-university student from Manchester, UK now living here with her Japanese boyfriend. This afternoon I went for a delicious tonkatsu lunch (tonkastsu is a breaded pork cutlet usually served with rice, miso soup, etc - Nagoya tonkatsu is served with a dark miso sauce quite unlike anywhere else, making it something of a local specialty) with them, and although she had to run to work afterwards, her boyfriend took my round the Osu area of Nagoya and gave me a good insight into day-to-day Japanese life. Oh, and I found out about a Japanese university scholarship (the MEXT Scholarship) which is, for me, well worth looking into.
Anyway, I need to run to see what appears to be some strange march (complete with what sounds like chanting monks) outside my hotel.
James
I've decided to stay here a couple more nights if I can, rather than moving on to Nara. There's more I want to see here and in the surrounding areas, and accomodation in Nara is hard to come by right now, so I'm going to try a couple of days there when I get back from Okinawa. The temples and parks in Nara may then coincide with the sakura (cherry blossom) season which would surely be quite spectacular.
What does Nagoya have to offer? There's a very attractive castle (sadly a replica, since the original was entirely levelled in 1945) with some very nice gardens, plenty of temples and shrines, a couple of decent parks (although one appears to have a fairly large homeless population - a side of Japan arguably not often seen), some decent opportunities to pick up some traditional items to send back home (and for sub-Tokyo prices, too), and some smaller attractions in outlying areas. Not a bad place to kill a few days.
Also of note is one of the largest 'gaijin bars' in the country, which I found quite by accident - it's a great place to find out information about the area, and to meet people with some grasp on the English language, too. I ended up making two good friends there last night - an ex-university student from Manchester, UK now living here with her Japanese boyfriend. This afternoon I went for a delicious tonkatsu lunch (tonkastsu is a breaded pork cutlet usually served with rice, miso soup, etc - Nagoya tonkatsu is served with a dark miso sauce quite unlike anywhere else, making it something of a local specialty) with them, and although she had to run to work afterwards, her boyfriend took my round the Osu area of Nagoya and gave me a good insight into day-to-day Japanese life. Oh, and I found out about a Japanese university scholarship (the MEXT Scholarship) which is, for me, well worth looking into.
Anyway, I need to run to see what appears to be some strange march (complete with what sounds like chanting monks) outside my hotel.
James
Sunday, 16 March 2008
More photos!
Well I haven't updated this thing for 5 days so I guess I owe you all:
1 - an apology
2 - some photos
I have a computer (in fact, a floor of this hotel) to myself and it closes in 2 hours time so I can upload lots of pictures for you guys to take a look at, plus explanation (and some of them need it). I won't go into extensive detail about everything I've seen over the last 5 or so days, either, because that'd most likely be pretty boring. Instead, I'll just give photos with some related words, in rough chronological order.
Let's start with last Sunday in Kyoto, in fact. I mentioned the kids dancing in front of the city hall, to 50s rock and roll. Here you go:
Next a photo of that tiny shrine in the hills near Nanzen-in that I mentioned last time. Not visible: waterfall or even tinier shrine up in the rocks. But this gives you an idea of it.
The next one is of the entrance to a shrine in the Gion area of Kyoto. The real name evades me but it's known locally as 'Gion-san', and is considered the area's local guardian shrine. This is where Gion residents come on New Year's Eve to pray for good luck in the upcoming year.
This next photo is a slice of photo album, picture-perfect Japan. I can't remember quite where it was, and I certainly don't know it's name (I don't think it was even in the Lonely Planet book) but I think this provided some of my favourite photos so far. Oh, that's a real heron (or whatever it is) perched on top of the shrine itself.
Here is a horrible photo of me gurning in the pouring rain (I was soaked through, or at least my lower half was) in front of the ENORMOUS torii gate leading to Kyoto's Heian-jingu shrine, just to prove I am actually here and not writing this from my bedroom in the UK.
My final entry, as it were, is of a festival I attended yesterday. I only knew about this thanks to one of my new friends here, who recommended I went. It turns out that this is a 'gaijin holy grail' - something all foreigners in Japan hear whispers of, but which relatively few actually end up managing to see. I got to see it. The subject of the festival is the fertility of the land for the year's upcoming harvest.
The day starts with food (crepes, takoyaki, okonomiyaki, sausages, chicken skewers, etc) and relaxed beers (with no raging drunks, I might add) while seated in the premium milk crate seating area.
Come 2pm (it was actually late though, surely a first in Japan!) the crowd gathers to view the parade. The Japanese can be suprisingly aggressive, and suprisingly tall, when they really want to see something.
The parade arrives, centered around the portable shrine. This is the portable shrine. No, I am not kidding, and yes, that is exactly what you think it is.
Japan, you may have some crazy stuff, but I'm going to have to work mighty hard to top this one.
Anyway, I am currently in Nagoya, thanks to the Nozomi super-express Shinkansen (bullet train) which took 44 minutes to do what took me over 2 hours on regular trains yesterday. Nagoya reminds me of Kobe despite being much bigger (the fourth largest city in Japan, I believe), which is a good thing.
More photos tomorrow, possibly, but before tomorrow I need to sleep. Goodnight everyone.
James
1 - an apology
2 - some photos
I have a computer (in fact, a floor of this hotel) to myself and it closes in 2 hours time so I can upload lots of pictures for you guys to take a look at, plus explanation (and some of them need it). I won't go into extensive detail about everything I've seen over the last 5 or so days, either, because that'd most likely be pretty boring. Instead, I'll just give photos with some related words, in rough chronological order.
Let's start with last Sunday in Kyoto, in fact. I mentioned the kids dancing in front of the city hall, to 50s rock and roll. Here you go:
Next a photo of that tiny shrine in the hills near Nanzen-in that I mentioned last time. Not visible: waterfall or even tinier shrine up in the rocks. But this gives you an idea of it.
The next one is of the entrance to a shrine in the Gion area of Kyoto. The real name evades me but it's known locally as 'Gion-san', and is considered the area's local guardian shrine. This is where Gion residents come on New Year's Eve to pray for good luck in the upcoming year.
This next photo is a slice of photo album, picture-perfect Japan. I can't remember quite where it was, and I certainly don't know it's name (I don't think it was even in the Lonely Planet book) but I think this provided some of my favourite photos so far. Oh, that's a real heron (or whatever it is) perched on top of the shrine itself.
Here is a horrible photo of me gurning in the pouring rain (I was soaked through, or at least my lower half was) in front of the ENORMOUS torii gate leading to Kyoto's Heian-jingu shrine, just to prove I am actually here and not writing this from my bedroom in the UK.
My final entry, as it were, is of a festival I attended yesterday. I only knew about this thanks to one of my new friends here, who recommended I went. It turns out that this is a 'gaijin holy grail' - something all foreigners in Japan hear whispers of, but which relatively few actually end up managing to see. I got to see it. The subject of the festival is the fertility of the land for the year's upcoming harvest.
The day starts with food (crepes, takoyaki, okonomiyaki, sausages, chicken skewers, etc) and relaxed beers (with no raging drunks, I might add) while seated in the premium milk crate seating area.
Come 2pm (it was actually late though, surely a first in Japan!) the crowd gathers to view the parade. The Japanese can be suprisingly aggressive, and suprisingly tall, when they really want to see something.
The parade arrives, centered around the portable shrine. This is the portable shrine. No, I am not kidding, and yes, that is exactly what you think it is.
Japan, you may have some crazy stuff, but I'm going to have to work mighty hard to top this one.
Anyway, I am currently in Nagoya, thanks to the Nozomi super-express Shinkansen (bullet train) which took 44 minutes to do what took me over 2 hours on regular trains yesterday. Nagoya reminds me of Kobe despite being much bigger (the fourth largest city in Japan, I believe), which is a good thing.
More photos tomorrow, possibly, but before tomorrow I need to sleep. Goodnight everyone.
James
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