I told you there were loads.
Parade-tastic Part I
So a trip to Disney it was. The following post is only suited to those of you who LOVE a parade. I took many many videos and photos of the parade, I loved it so. It was pretty strange going round an amusement park in the semi-darkness but it was good fun. I'm glad we went when we did, the parade was better than I hoped and getting to go on Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain and some of the other rides was a right good laugh. We came out absolutely knacked. And the rain just started. A sign that it is time to go home.
Digging our heels in
So we had planned to do little on the last day; visit a bakery and toyshop in Ginza to pick up a train for a young boy I know and then head up to the Akihabara - the electric district. A famous area in Tokyo where you can get all sorts of electrical equipment. All sorts. It was probably held in a bit more reverance before the advent of mobile phones, etc. There is less to be awestruck about these days. We had a nice wander round though, it is pretty crazy.
We had originally planned to do pretty much nothing else but laze around nursing our hangovers but it just didn't seem the proper way to end this magnificent odyssey. We needed something pizz-azzy, some sort of fanfare. Some sort of fireworks. I know, let's go to Disney. Yessir.
You can get a special night-time ticket to see the Parade and the Fireworks. Now that seemed like an appropriate send off.
By jove, it worked a treat.
Karaoke in Tokyo
After Studio Ghibli and a trip to Fabrictown, what better way to end the day than dinner, drinks and karaoke in Shibuya.
It was nice being back in Shibuya, we went there at the start of the trip and going back felt so different. We were so accustomed to everything. That is to say it's still totally breathtaking being there. It is a part of the world that doesn't get dark, the neon illuminates it so that it appears like daytime all the time. The picture of Jason looking a bit unsure was taken about midnight.
Nippori - Fabric Town, Tokyo
Over a kilometre of shops devoted to selling fabric. If I had any more money, I could have blown the lot in Nippori, a district of Tokyo devoted to material. As it was, I limited myself to a few sensible purchases. We skipped up to here on the way back from the Ghibli Museum.
I then spied this t-shirt - the mother of all Japenglish. Japenglish is that wonderful language that allows for things to be lost in the translation process. If you get a chance to read the front of this t-shirt, please do. It beggars belief. It now forms part of my wardrobe as I had to have it!
The Studio Ghibli Museum
We awoke to a bright sunny morning on Thursday. Good thing too as today was Ghibli day. The Studio Ghibli Museum (responsible for animated movies such as My Neighbour Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Kiki's Delivery Service - the list goes on) has a strict 'phone ahead' policy. You can't turn up and buy a ticket at the door, you have to book it in advance. We booked ours back in February to ensure that we got the date we wanted. Visitors are therefore limited to 2,400 a day so that there is space for everyone to enjoy their day out.
A strict no camera rule felt like a challenge had been set so Jason did his best to take the odd sneaky photograph and I caught this video of what was easily one of the highlights for me.
The museum was interesting, the building it was in was even more interesting. Narrow spiral staircases, low ceilinged doorways, the whole place felt like it was made with children in mind. Especially the Catbus Room which was a giant furry cushioned catbus that was for kids who were 3 and under. They were loving jumping about on the comfy cat.
The other highlight was that included in the ticket price was a trip to the Saturn Theatre in the museum to see a little mini film about Mai and the baby cat bus; a ten minute treat for all Totoro fans. It was super. We both loved it.
It was a thoroughly perfect way to spend a sunny Tokyo morning. A walk through the park on the way back to the station topped it off.
Utopia (or talking to God)
It being our first time on an outdoor snow slope and given that everything was in Japanese, it wasn't surprising that we got on the wrong cable car to start with. We got a clue half way up when the bottom of the slope seemed vvvvveeeeerrrryyy far away and the slope looked quite steep. When we got to the top, we saw that the slope was called Utopia.
The cable car going down was scary enough, never mind actually boarding down it.
How many kit-kat flavours are there?
Apple and grape seem relatively tasty after the baked potato and edemame paste flavours, but come on, how many can there be?
The Imperial Palace, Tokyo (at last)
Followers of this blog will know that we attempted to enter the Palace gardens on the first day of this wee trip but they were closed. Now that we are back in Tokyo, we decided to go and see what we missed on the first day. We saw beautiful gardens, expertly tended. The grounds of the Palace are open to the public but not the actual Palace, as it is still the royal household.
The reason we chose April to come to Japan was to see the sakura (cherry blossom). The watching of the sakura in Japan at this time of the year is called Hanami. 2 and a half weeks ago we saw the blossoms in full bloom. Coming back to Tokyo, it was also kind of nice to see the end of Hanami. The 'snowfall'.
The last picture was one I took when we first arrived to show the local interest in the sakura.
Yudanaka
This is the little village where the monkey park is - Yudanaka. We had a lovely dinner in the restaurant; unusually for Japan, I had too much on my plate and the very hospitable chef cum waiter boxed the surplus for me and I had it for my lunch next day. Yum. I took a picture of his wee restaurant. I also snapped the obligatory Pachinko Hall!
The reruxing (relaxing) space made us chuckle. Japanese/English is at times as hilarious as you think it would be. Kind of like Thai/English for those of you who have been to Thailand.
And the silhouette of the forest scene was of a child's bedroom on the way back to the hotel.
Yudanaka was a nice wee onsen town. The place is full of bath houses and they all use the natural hot springs, kind of like the monkeys. We got the train with a tonne of old women who were all probably going to bathe in the hot baths.
Here's a real life geyser in action.
Vending Machines
I could think of a dozen things a day to blog about Japan, I have only chosen a mere chunk to share with you. Partly due to time constraints, partly due to the daily exhaustion that inevitably occurs near the end of another busy day. I do however want to make a special mention of vending machines. They are not as we know them.
They only serve drinks. None of your McCoys or family size M&Ms. Drinks only. In cans or plastic bottles. No change there then. The real difference is that you can buy a hot can of coffee; a hot tea or a hot chocolate. Yum. Sometimes, it's just what you need.
And they are everywhere. Like pachinko halls, you are never more than 20 yards away from a vending machine. Seriously. In the smallest village to the biggest city, vending machines are on EVERY corner.
My personal favourite is cold green tea. There are about a dozen different kinds in the vending machines. Jason is not a fan favouring coke zero or water.
Monkey Park
Monkey Park Day!
When we started planning this trip, one of the most anticipated days out was in Yudanaka, at Jigokudani Monkey Park. Snow monkeys, as they are known, handle the extreme winters by sitting in the hot outdoor pools. It's a comical sight.
If we had been here in February we would have seen them do just this, but we arrived in April, and the weather was considerably milder. So they weren't hanging about the onsen (one or two were) they were just playing all around us. It was fantastic. They were so close. They clearly didn't care a jot about us. The park maintain a "Don't feed them, don't scare them” policy which means that they don't see men as friends or enemies. We took hunners of photos and a fair few videos. Here are the highlights. And an excellent video that Jason took. It wasn't set up. One of those happy accidents.
Bad wire management
You may or may not know about my fastidiousness for good wire management. I hate wires. Of all kinds. They must, wherever possible, be neat and tidy. It's one of my charming quirks.
These examples of bad wire management do not suit Japan at all. Come on Japan, sort it out. You should be able to get some plastic tags wrapped round some of those wires.
Watergate (Sendai night out)
Hungry for dinner, we got this feast and 3 minutes later, we were left with the empty dishes. A dinner to rival my Kyoto Korean soup.
Then I spotted this Red Panda Boy. I was planning to blog separately about the Red Pandas but I haven't got any photos of them, bar this one. The easiest way to explain it is
1. Young people like to be different from old people.
2. Everyone in Japan has black hair.
3. To establish difference, certain of the youths (the ones who would like Paris Hilton) dye their hair a strange shade of rusty brown, the exact colour of this wee chap http://www.sch.im/wlp/large%20images/red%20panda.jpg
4. To accompany the colour, the hair is styled to within an inch of its life, like a real life L'oreal advert. Some serious Zoolander type styling.
5. Who knows why. It's obviously a youth thing. The haircuts can cost up to and more than 150 hundred quid.
This guy, you will note, works at the Romeo and Juliet Entertainment Space Club.
Below, is the entrance to an establishment called Louis's. The video explains it all.
Edemame kit-kats
I love edemame.
I love kit-kats.
Could I love them both together?
Could I love them both together?
I think we know the answer.
Matsushima Bay
The third and last of the 'must see' sites of Japan, it was a picturesque fishing village with high speed mini-ferries waiting to whisk tourists around the islands that surround the bay. The islands are lovely, only a few metres in diameter with bonsai style trees on them. We forewent the ferry in favour of a walk up to Saigyou Modoshino Matsui Park as we had heard that this was the premium viewing spot to catch the whole bay. It was nice but I felt that they didn't fully take advantage of the height. The park was not really available to people after a certain point, so we could only get half way up the hill. It afforded a good view, but not a spectacular one. I think secretly, we both wanted another one of those wee single person chairlifts at Amanohashidate to whisk us to the top of the hill and let us see the whole bay.
It was lovely though.
Afterwards, we wandered along the seafront and turned off into Hiyoshi Shrine. A beautiful temple shrine, it had painted room partitions that dated back to the 17th century. Unfortunately, no photos allowed. Peacocks, gold leaf, cherry blossoms, hawks and all sorts of scenery were round the walls of the shrine. Manasume spent time here. As did the bodies of the 20 men who killed themselves in his honour when he died. Yes, seriously. 16 of them killed themselves when his son died.
There was also a small museum at the side of the shrine , Zuiganji Art Museum, which had some wonderful old Japanese artifacts, not to mention a wooden statue of the main man, Masamune Date. Him, his wife and his daughter (the girls were both bald for some reason - I will investigate and report back on this).
On the way back to the seafront, we saw these caves, formerly burial caves. It was all a bit Indiana Jones.
Manasume Date was given a teahouse, Kanrantei, and it has such a great view of the bay that we decided to indulge in a little tea ceremony ourselves.
It was back to Sendai for some lunch and a trip out Mr Date's castle ruins.
Masamune Date
This afternoon we took a trip up to the remains of Sendai castle. Built by this dude,
only the side walls are left. There is a statue of the man himself. His presence is felt everywhere in Sendai. That's a stained glass window of him in Sendai train station.
The castle was at the top of a hill which affords a fantastic panaromic view over Sendai but my camera ran out of battery so you'll have to just imagine it...
Atop the hill, I spied this in the distance https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbLOIT2S4Mb-X4nB0d_82MsWQYMLoFBvAHVpJEdN9RlXlpmHsAFir9TULiZYzqtXV9k0vTK_60zrgoRjUuv3r9Hum3L88sy8bCMIj-QXqDC6vloPMYqQ1p9Yx6VfqQdEqVSjRll8-5jYI/s320/Sendai_Kannon.jpg
It's massive! We were about 10km away and it still looked massive in the distance. We couldn't believe there was no mention of this in the guidebook, it would have been great to see this up close but we had been on the hoof all day (Matsushima Bay this morning, see next post) and the onsen was calling my name. Another day in Sendai and we would definitely go out to see what we have since learned is the 6th largest statue in the world. But alas, you can't always get what you want. It's not all bad, this is tomorrow's adventure
Bring on the monkeys.
Haikus thought up while chillaxing in the onsen
Steaming salt water
At woman only onsen
No boys allowed. Good.
Submerging in pool
Takes your breath away a bit
Distant traffic sound
Got muscle spasms?
Red torturous massage chair
Will sort of sort them
At woman only onsen
No boys allowed. Good.
Submerging in pool
Takes your breath away a bit
Distant traffic sound
Got muscle spasms?
Red torturous massage chair
Will sort of sort them
Fire hazards (or the club scene in Japan)
I think I have previously mentioned that a lot of the bars, restaurants, live music venues and even nightclubs are on the upper floors of what look like ordinary office blocks. Here is the list of bars, etc that are in one such building in Susikino, Sapporo. Knowing Susikino, some of these will be girly bars. A lot of people trying to get out of one measly exit. By the way, each one of those yellow words going across is another establishment.
When did I start sounding like my dad?
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