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Japan - Day 20 - Finished

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Well, I got back yesterday.

Day 20 was spent on planes and trains (and automobiles to the train station, so that’s the trifecta). Nothing much to report about that, except to remark that everything went very smoothly, especially the plane.

It was a little sad to leave but nice to come home; I think 3 weeks is an optimal time for such a holiday, enough time so you don’t have to stress about spending each day to the maxx, and long enough to sort of miss home.

A little.

I might post more insightful impressions about Japan a bit later, once I’ve had time to consider the implications, and contrast to us. Notes so far include “Canberra is pleasant but tiny” and “there are lots and lots of cars here.” I expect to be nominated for several insight awards for these observations.

Cheerio.

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Japan - Tally - 3

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Amount of time spent on trains - 35%
Amount of spoken Japanese comprehended - 40%
DS-to-PSP ratio - at least 5 to 1
Number of times impressed by JR staff’s courtesy & professionalism - all of the times

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Japan - Day 19 - The Finale

Thursday, December 20, 2007

The End ;n;

Said goodbye to dad & all the girls this morning, fairly painless.

All packed & ready to go, my bag has only put on 2kg while I’ve been here - I wonder if I’ve not been trying hard enough?! Then again I did post my dogi back, so it’s closer to 4kg of PURE GIFTS.

You’d all better like them cos they’re bloody heavy to carry.

Anyway, no real thoughts about leaving Japan - I don’t feel like I’ve been on a soul searching Lonley Planet travel experience but I do feel like I’ve had a fantastic holiday. It’s a really awesome place to visit.

The only thing I feel like I haven’t got to do is go & see Mt Fuji. You can see it from Tokyo though so it’s not completely foreign (though it IS completely big. OMG it’s really really big). Apart from that, I feel like I’ve pretty much made the most of the trip, which is fantastic!

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Japan - Day 18 - Onsen & Morioka

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Yesterday was nice!

We got up at sparrow’s to get on the 40min train journey to catch the 40min bus ride to the hot spring resort.

It was up in the mountains, and snowing, so it was very picturesque! Sadly it turned out to be more of a Roman Baths-style deal than the sort of Onsen I had in mind - but there were still outdoor baths and it was snowing (and there were still many other naked men). I think the water was from a spring but the baths were artificial? Or maybe we were just bathing in CLR Clear. Meh, it was still highly relaxing!

Then we had lunch at the resort, a sort of personal sukiyaki steamboat thing, which was interesting but not actually very nice. It was definitely the meal with the fewest identifiable elements so far.

THEN we wandered around Morioka, Iwate-ken’s capital, for a couple hours. It’s got a smaller population than Canberra in a space the size of Woden/Weston Creek. It felt absolutely desolate after Tokyo - I can’t imagine what ACTUAL Canberra is going to feel like!

It’s been really nice staying here with the family, everyone’s very lovely and the daughters are good fun to be around (although I suspect that if I could understand them they’d be less “fun” and more “annoying”). We had yaki soba for dinner, twas yummy. Kumiko-san seems to be a good cook.

Then I got fed shochu and dried sour octopus by the Dad, which was actually rather nice despite how it might sound.

Then to bed to rest up for our 24hrs of travelling…

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Japan - On TV Tonight

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Is a sort of game show featuring elementary school kids as contestants.

They have to hold something in their mouths, and watch a COMEDY DUO (one of which was a pair of boys in gym gear, the other was one Japanese guy dressed as a parody of Dylan from 90210 and the other in a pink “California” sweater, blonde wig & pompoms) for 60 or 120 seconds. If they laugh, discharging whatever was in their mouths, they’re out.

There doesn’t appear to be any prizes or anything. In fact, it seems to be more a challenge for the COMEDY DUOs than the kids.

Also, the things in their mouths are milk and balloons and things, nothing unsavoury.

Just thought you might like to know. I haven’t watched a lot of TV, mostly it’s variety shows where they’re either shopping or eating, or morning “Good Morning Australia” equivalent, the host of which is remarkably similar to Moonface Newton (right down to the toupee).

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Japan - On Yahaba

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

It’s here.

Zoom out for more context.

See also: Yahaba weather.

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Japan - Day 17 - Some temple near Yahaba

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Well, as planned, last night we went to an obaa-chan’s house around the corner. She was thrilled to see Alice again (she brought out a letter that Alice had sent her when she was last here @.@) and was closer to the embarassingly-polite stereotype I would have expected. We had red bean rice (sort of like sticky rice with red beans in, yum yum yum) and homemade tempura (also yum yum yum, hereinafter abbreviated to YYY).

Also of note was that they appeared to be rather rich - not only was the house huge even by Australian standards, the father (who wasn’t home, and doesn’t seem to be so very often) had a massive TV, a projector & screen, about 6 sets of speakers, a bajillion Albums/CDs/DVDs, and most suprisingly, an original Gibson Les Paul AND an original Fender Stratocaster hanging on the wall!! Needless to say I didn’t have the guts to ask to even touch them. Just as well, really, as all I can play on the guitar anymore is the Sesame Street theme song. Still, it will go down in memory as the best Sesame Street cover the world has never heard…

Today we went to a world heritage site temple complex about 2hrs away from where we’re staying. The dad took the day off to drive us, which was nice.

We tramped about the complex - it was very cold but the snow made things pretty. It had a “golden hall” (a mini-temple that was housed in a bigger temple) and a “hall of treasures” with a bunch of cool, interesting artefacts from the 12th century (when the temple was built).

There was also a Shinto shrine and a No theatre stage, but no showings unfortunately.

Then we (got slightly lost while we) drove home, stopping to eat our home-made onigiri on the way.

Tomorrow is our real last day in Japan (I got mixed up yesterday). We are spending it at an onsen (hot spring).

RAD.

A fitting way to end it ne~~~

Sorry about the lack of photos recently, the facilities are not suitable. Expect a large online album when I get home. Unlike a traditional slide night you won’t be forced to sit through them all; you can just click “random photo” and say it was your favourite when I ask you about it later, giving the impression that you looked at them all.

Ah, the wonders of the internet!

Dinnertime! Gotta go! I hope it’s YYY!

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Japan - Day 16 - Yahaba

Monday, December 17, 2007

So here we are in Yahaba, Iwate, in the north of the main island of Japan.

It’s very cold, ~2º. It’s snowing! Pretty!

We had a quick breakfast (nothing exciting - cereal, toast & coffee with a kind of cabbage soup, yum) then off to a neighbour’s house for a visit.

After Alice interpreted and chatted, we had some delicious sweet red bean & mochi soup (and I’d fixed the lady’s computer…) we came back here and went into town with the family to go to lunch at a hotel all-you-can-eat buffet on the 14th floor. It was really delicious, with an interesting mix of Japanese and Western food, for $10.50! Not at all what we would associate with an all-you-can-eat buffet here! (or there I guess).

Then we went to an Anime store, as last night had been occupied by chatting about Anime, determining if we were otaku or not. I’m not sure what was decided but I think it must have been decided that we were, because we got a tour of the house and all its figurines (the Dad likes Gundam and also has a few “sexy” figurines, bit weird that) and then to the Anime shop. It was interesting to go to one with people rather than just by myself for a change.

Then we went to a temple, which was pretty. Then we came home and opened all our figurines we bought at the anime store. Currently, the 9-year-old is playing my DS (and the 13-year-old absolutely handed it to me in Taiko no Tatsujin last night)

THEN I happily returned to discover my blog had been fixed by the wonderful people at Dreamhost. If anyone is looking for hosting then I would thoroughly recommend them, not only are they cheap, they’re really helpful - my domain name had expired, but they hold on to it for 30 days in case you forget anyway, and then renewed it for me, and they were generally good. So ++ to Dreamhost.

Tonight, we’re going to some old obaa-san (grandma)’s place for dinner, apparently to make some sort of traditional red-bean & rice… thing and then eat it. Could be interesting… Not sure I will have any idea what’s going on at all…

I must say though, I’m surprised at my aural comprehension. Although I’d have a hard time translating it on the spot, I feel like I can understand about 30% of what’s going on in everyday talk, and can probably catch the gist of maybe 40%. Feels like it would be a waste of time learning a language anywhere but in-country now, that’s for sure.

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Japan - Day 15 - Travel, and Iwate

Monday, December 17, 2007

Not much to report for day 16 really (except it was Alice’s birthday!). This is a job for…

CAPTAIN POINT FORM!

-We both finished packing.
-I booked us a bus back from Sydney and tried to fix my blog.
-Alice finished cleaning the house.
-We headed into Omiya to wait for our train to Iwate. We went to a lovely cafe.
-We caught the shinkansen to Iwate with a bunch of drunken Russians who were sitting in the reserved car when they shouldn’t have been. Tut tut!
-We were picked up from the station by Alice’s old host family from when she was on exchange here.

That was exciting, thanks Captain Point Form.

The family are really lovely, a husband, wife, and three daughters (16, 13, 9). Everyone is really nice but not embarassingly hard-to-deal-with nice, and welcoming, and all those good things.

Then we went to bed.

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Japan - Day 14 - No Hangover, More Aikido

Monday, December 17, 2007

“Here’s to good health” is a terribly misleading phrase in certain contexts.

Ah well.

So on Saturday I was feeling 100% (no Centrum required), thank god. We had to leave on Sunday, and Alice had an apartment inspection on Sat morning, so we cleaned a little and I made myself scarce when her employers came around (we weren’t sure if my presence was kosher). I wandered around her suburb, which wasn’t entirely exciting, but pleasant and interesting.

Afterwards we went to Omiya again to finish off the gift list. After a shopping blitz I headed off to Akihabara again briefly (just one last thing - I bet you’re not surprised I haven’t been able to keep away from there, though) before going to Shinagawa station to be met by the Aikido sensei!

He was really nice, and spoke OK English which always makes things a bit easier. He rode his pushie down to pick me up and then we walked the ~15min to the dojo from the station, it was very nice of him (not least because it would have been hard to find).

The dojo was in a high school (wish my highschool had a dojo) and it was a small class, only 4 people. This was really great, as 2 of them were shodan so it’s always good when you can get that kind of attention. Aikido is really rubbish for two beginners to train with each other. The class was really interesting, he was SO relaxed & gentle, really cool, and I think I took some of that away from it - my upper body has been feeling nice & relaxed ever since. I guess he might have just severed some ligaments or something, though. He also did some stuff with legs (more explicit trips and leg throws, very unusal & interesting). So that was really great, and I’m very glad I got to make up my lost opportunity from the night before…

Then I headed back into Omiya to meet Alice & her friend/student Yukiko briefly. The most notable thing about that visit was the dinner I had from the convenience store! “Kombini” are everywhere in Japan (seriously, I mean it, everywhere) and there are two main differences between theirs and ours: 1) they sell grog and 2) they have food that is not only not terrible, it’s actually rather nice! I had a chicken… thing which the guy heated up for me and it was only ¥390 (~$4). Awesome.

Then we went home to pack…

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