Big Japan Trip Take Two: Plans for the future

We're on the plane home now. It's going to be daytime the entire flight, because we're flying backwards in time. According to our watches, the whole journey is only going to be only 7 hours. It's actually 10 + 1.5hr in Poland +3hours to Heathrow.  Weird how time works, isn't it? I mean, no wonder Trump can't work out time zones!

Since we're not doing anything more this trip, we've already started compiling a list of things to do next time, in 2021 or 2025. What's that? We might have children by then? Well they'll bloody well come with us, is what will happen. Also if we go during my maternity leave, we can go when it's not 35+ degrees.

• Just a few days in Tokyo - about 3 days in Tokyo, to acclimatise after the flight, visit our favourite haunts 
• More Hokkaido - we'd hire a car. They drive on the left. Hubbo can practise his Japanese enough to get by when we have to deal with the men who fill your petrol for you.  That way we can visit the national parks (bears! waterfalls! Coastal paths! Forests!) and other more remote towns that are too difficult/time consuming by public transport.
• Okinawa
• Island hopping
• Moominland - that's opening in 2019! It looks AMAZING.  Tove Jansson's niece or great niece or whatever has been very complimentary and did some stuff behind the scenes, I believe.
• Super Mario Land - because, duh.  And since it's part of Universal studios, I am well up for that. Also we get to stay in our favourite hostel again, maybe. 
• Hakone - without the crap weather this time
• German-style spring water resort places, for the fun of it

Big Japan Trip Take Two: Our Final Days

Best Laid Plans....get ruined by typhoons

After our trip to Hokkaido, we were left with 5 (five) days in Japan. The last one not really counting cause that's the day you try to shove everything into your suitcase, innit?
We had wanted to go to Hakone again, to see the lakes and do the mountain trail and ropeway circuit and try the egg ice cream, but the typhoon that had hit Vietnam a few days before was blowing over the Kyoto region, along with another typhoon hitting other areas. The forecast for Hakone was bleak. We were sad and disappointed but managed to fill our time in other ways.

Return to Ueno

First we went back to Ueno, because the zoo there is Tokyo's oldest zoo. It's large and spans across a main road - to access the otherside you can take the zoo's monorail or walk over a huge bridge, within the zoo boundaries.

Flamingo chick

I like zoos. Zoos are important: They educate people about animals around the world, habitats and conservation. They allow people to see creatures they may never see around the world, either because they're rare or because they will never travel to that region OR, as is often the case, they don't see them despite travelling to that place.  This zoo is no different - they have bred pandas and have managed to breed various raptors and other animals. However I found myself disgusted and angry at times by what I consider, as a frequent-zoo-visitor and outsider (so I may be wrong here, and I would welcome the keepers of the zoo to argue back, but that's unlikely, so....) to be a lack of basic care of some of their animals.

The polar bears were a prime example. The weather in Tokyo that day was 34 degrees, complete sunshine, with the occasional shower, felt like 39 degrees. The Polar Bear enclosure had water, good. It had that crap plastic, "we're making it look like the arctic" environment.  The bears were out of the water, on land, where there was no shade. No drinking water, other than what they swim in. They were panting and languishing in the sun. Polar Bears, let's not forget, have thick fur made for sub-zero temperatures. There was no visible or physical sign of airconditioning; the enclosure was the same temperature as the otherside of the fence and there was no cooling water spray system in place. They were suffering.

I have been to many zoos but I have never seen animals suffering like that. It made me angry that such a basic thing as providing polar bears with shade and a cool environment - their indoor enclosure, if needs be cause fuck the public's desire to see them, frankly - was not provided for these poor animals. Have you ever seen a polar bear pant? It's not pretty. 
A stark contrast to the neighbouring enclosure for the Hokkaido black bear; shaded, complete with cool water misting over it. You can see the ground is wet from the photo.

The Asiatic lion, too, was suffering from the heat. He was panting and drooling and showing signs of over-heating. He too had a water pool, but unlike the enclosure next to his, it was not freshly running water. It was a tepid and unattractive looking pool. I felt sorry for the lion - it's possible he had been drinking, but I can't help but feel that if you can't lead the horse to drink during a heatwave, then there's something wrong with what you are offering, not with the horse.

The meercats, too, were the saddest, motheaten meercats I have ever seen in my life, and they're not hard to keep happy. It could be that they're simply old and on their way out, hence the smaller enclosure (there were only about 5) and they were at least indoors.

Those three animals excluded, it's not a bad zoo - it has a wide range of habitats to explore and many birds, mammals, insects and reptiles. Unfortunately, it was seeing those three animals not looking as well-cared for as all the others, that marred the visit.

Photos of zoo animals

Japan's Greatest Stand Up Comedian

When the laws regulating Airbnb came in, Airbnb gave us a £100 voucher to spend on airbnb experiences. Unfortunately, I messed up - you have to pay for all experiences at once, it's not a code that gets applied to your account, so we only got to spend it on a single experience: a live stand up show in Asukusa, Tokyo, with a private audience with said comedian.

It seemed like it could be a lark, so we booked it.  We were two of 6 - 3 couples, one from England (near Milton Keynes, as it happens) and a Spanish couple who are currently living and working in Wisconsin (poor souls).  We each had a drink on the house and we spent time getting to know each other and letting the comedian practise his English on us - which we were paying for him to do, really. #cynic

The show consisted of two parts, the first setting the scene for Stand Up comedy in Japan (there is none) and why Meshida wanted to be a comic.  There were a lot of jokes that hit home and he interacts well with the audience. One or two jokes were still a little rough - the delivery was a bit too... blunt, I guess. I can't think of a better way of putting it. There were times when it was clear that he didn't quite 'get' the way that "English stand up humour" worked, but there was humour in itself as well.

Tokyo Skytree, Asahi beer-glass shaped building, the flame

The second half still needs some work, but we learned things too - he spoke about religion (though there could have been more about that, particularly about weddings in Japan) and how Shinto Buddhism came to be and the difference between Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples.

We also learned about the strange art sculpture outside the Asahi building, which is famous. Japanese locals call it the golden turd, apparently.  Originally it was upright, and one of three  - they were flames. Then the buildings behind it complained because the three flames were blocking all of the natural light. They took away two flames. Still a problem. So they laid the third flame down, in the position you see in the photo.  I mean, the French are known for their art, but this particular piece is a monstrosity in its size. (It was a French artist)

There were quite a lot of on-going jokes, though Meshida hasn't quite got the hang of call-backs and recurring jokes. When we made a joke referring to one he'd made, he thought we had actually seen the thing happen. It will be really interesting to see how he develops in the next few years and to see if he perseveres and breaks through.

At the moment, the majority of people who see his shows are English tourists, Americans and Japanese hoping to practise their English.  What Meshida has done, quitting his job to become a comedian, was also a source of discussion for him - it married up very well with Convenience Store Woman, which I reviewed earlier this month.

He was thoroughly pleasant and has some good material. I hope that he won't be asked if he'd like more tea* and continues to do what he clearly loves doing.

*In Japan, if you're offered more tea at a restaurant, it usually means, "we've noticed you're taking a long time. Please leave."

Final Days

Well, it was raining or really really hot. We spent one of the really hot days shopping, making the most of the last day of our JR Pass. We went to Akihabara, so that Hubbo could buy a Sega Saturn. And controllers.  I got a pair of joycon sticks, so we can multiplayer the Taiko drum game on the switch. Unfortunately everywhere was sold out of the drum controller, so we've preordered on playasia, which works out for the best, because look how full the Merch Suitcase is.

At least it closes without squashing anything, but good grief.  I was reluctant at first to let him get the controller, because of how frickin' huge the box is. However it cost £7 in Japan and on ebay it's £70+, so it's very difficult to say no to that. I mean, what a bitch I would have been, right? The Saturn itself is in great nick (they look after and do up second-hand stuff so much better than in the UK where they will sell you things in "good condition" that you think, "good god why have they destroyed it?").

We spent time in Ikebukero as well. It was super hot that day - we scuttled back to our flat by 4pm because it was just unbearable. We also decided that it made sense to book a cheap hotel room at the airport, rather than getting up at 4am for a 10am flight.  So we tidied up, packed up and just chilled out for half a day. Which Hubbo finally admitted he needed - he had fun, but he's tired out from all the travelling we've been doing.

Big Japan Trip Take Two: "How can they make beer out of grape juice? That's just wine."

Sapporo: It has beer.

We spent our day half-soggy, as it started raining at about 12pm and lasted until about 7pm. There may have been a lull while we were inside the beer museum, but it's debateable.

We had a clear plan: Go to the Botanic Garden, Visit the Old Government building, See the Clocktower, Go to the Beer Museum, Eat Ramen.

Well, as with most of our plans, it was sketchy and we reordered as required or found that our plan was unattainable.

We went to the Botanic Garden! 

That was easy enough and thoroughly pleasant, though with its faults.  First, there was the inane ticketing system. There was a man in the booth, who directed us to the ticket purchase machine (a vending machine, basically). We bought the tickets, which were little card slips. Then we went back to the man in the booth, who indicated we place the ticket into the box in front of him. That was it. No hole-punching, no turnstyle... If he wasn't there, people could just walked in. I mean, the thing is not as well funded as Cambridge's, the greenhouse made that obvious - lovely though the whole garden is! - but what is the point in that man's job?!?!   He is living proof that we are only being semi-replaced by robots in our jobs. He doesn't have to interact with customers and he is still being paid. The cynical, capitalist-raised side of me thinks, "god, what a waste of a wage. They could easily stick a barrier that requires the ticket to get through, same as the train station."  

Gorgeous waterlily

The garden had multiple sections, all clearly demarked and sign posted (though we later found the sign posts are less than accurate). There was the marsh area, the ethnobotanical area, the Alpine Rock garden (Granddad had most of those), the Canadian Rock Garden, the Rose Garden, The Lilac Garden - hey, we missed that one :( - the Shrub Garden, the Herbacious garden, the Greenhouse, The Aboretum (tree garden if you don't know that word, it was all elms) and I'm sure I missed one just now. You get the idea. Big, windy, well spaced, pretty, loads of insects. We saw honeybees, which are bigger than our honeybees, lots of dragonflies, some brimstone-style butterflies and some whites and what I think was of the fritilliery group (google says yes). Also a lot of mosquitos.  👎

There were some truly beautiful waterlilies - one set reminded me of Tove Jansson's illustrations of waterlilies in the Moomin books. They were stunning colours. I took great pleasure photographing them. UNFORTUNATELY some numpty forgot to label them with what they were. I swear, they were the only plant without a name.

It was nice walking around and we saw a lot of amusing typos and spelling errors, as well as being able to enjoy the quiet together. We also saw a small family - parents and their daughter, who was about 5. She had a massive DSLR camera, the size of her head with a decent lens attached and she was taking photos of her mother. At one point, mum is posing on a bridge and the daughter is standing there, camera to face, shouting directions and instructions for where mum is meant to look (wistfully over the water, apparently) Dad and I found this hysterical. So cute.

There were also two mini museums in the gardens - one a memorial hall to the creator of the garden and the other a sort of anthropological folk musuem, with artifacts of the indigenous people of the island. "The Asians of the North."  It's amazing how even though their paths are unlikely to have crossed, the things we saw there were almost interchangeable with the sorts of things you'd see in a museum about indigenous peoples of Canada or Alaska. The main difference was in clothing style. There was an impressive coat made out of tree bark, barely destinguishable from the cotton version. Simply amazing. 

Photos from the Botanic Garden:

We went to the Old Government Building

I think I mentioned in the previous entries that Sapporo is a fairly new town, with the surrounding culture heavily influenced by its trading partners - that is, Western influences.

Well, I got to go into an American governmental building without even visiting the States. It was uncanny. There were some parts where I thought I was on set for a film I've seen. It was really interesting, just for that! The way that they dressed from the 1800s and the photos of past Kaitakushi leaders indicated that they mimicked the way the leaders of the West would dress. One from looked a lot like one of the King Edwards and another looked like Stalin (as did many people at the time), despite their having their own distinct way of dressing, still. 

There is a section of the building that dedicates itself to explaining the Hokkaido way of life, before it was changed so dramatically by Western influences, though it does so poorly. It seems to me that a lot of the changes (particularly winter dress) came about through necessity.

Where the photos suddenly shrink in size and quality, it's cause it was raining so hard I chose to use my phone instead of getting expensive camera wet.

Photos from the Government Building:

We finally found the Clock Tower!

It had become a bit of a joke, because whenever I saw a clock (there happen to be a lot in Sapporo, all varying heights and tower-like) I'd say, "there's the clock tower". To the point where Hubbo got confused later on about whether or not we'd actually seen it.

We did not see it. We found it, yes! However it's under renovation, so it's completely covered by building stuff and unviewable from the street. Failure~  It seemed somewhat typical that we would find something we'd somehow missed every time we walked in that area and it wasn't available when we finally got there.

We got Ramen!

I mentioned there were rumours of a Ramen street. We spent ages walking through the rain, following google maps and unable to find it... then boom! A teeny tiny passageway between two buildings was lined with the tell-tale lanterns and cloth doorways.  We ordered our ramen and it was all made completely fresh on site - a lot of places just make the broths up that day and are super salty, to keep it going all day... this was not as salty and tasted gorgeous. I had roast pork with noodles in a miso soup - the chef had sprinked ground ginger or something over mine and the ginger was honestly perfectly harmonising with the miso. Hubbo enjoyed his, he went for a fish broth-based one. It was super yummy.

We went to the Sapporo Beer Museum!

It took us a while - there were many routes to take: on foot, by train then on foot, by train then on foot (less distance) or by loop bus. We tried to get the bus, but couldn't work out where it collected from. So we got the train and then walked the rest of the way, about 15 minutes.

The building was pretty easy to spot from a distance - its 15.5m red-brick chimney with the star icon on the top was a bit of a give away. It really is a gorgeous building, a fine piece of 19th Century brickwork. According to the video in the "mini theatre", it was built using the English Bond, (where they have a row of stretchers above a row of headers) which is "seen as a rational, sound way to lay bricks".  I love how passive the sentence came out in translation, as though they've not seen the rationality and structurally soundness for themselves, just heard it on the grapevine.

There were several men involved in the beer brewing history of Sapporo beer, with the Kaitakushi being instrumental in building up the industry. One of the main figures was educated in England and learned about breweries and what have you there, and the other was taught how to brew beer in Germany (which explains the flavours, if you ask me).   The city of Sapporo was pretty much built around the beer industry. The brewery building itself started life as a sugar factory, and was converted in the 1800s. Then after only 60 years it was reconverted into the museum. Before the sugar factory was recommissioned, the beer company began its life in Tokyo, but there wasn't enough access to ice and snow, which Hokkaido has plenty of!

They had plenty of displays, showing how the brand has evolved over time - bottle label designs and advertisement posters. To start with, pretty much only pretty women holding a beer. It isn't till later that men started to be included, displaying a bit more diversity in appearance and dress, too.

We also got a bag of "nuts"!

Entry to the museum is free, and there is a free self-tour with notes available in English, Chinese and Korean. There is a premium tour, complete with a beer tasting at the end, however it cost a fair bit and it was all in Japanese. As it happened, we got more beer this way, because it was only 600yen for three taster glasses, compared to the price of the tour where you only got two. Though apparently one of the tasters was a dark ale that Hubbo really wanted to try. BUT WE GOT CHEESE, so let me ask you this: Who are the real winners here?  [Answer: we are, we got cheese]

Personally, I liked the Kaitakuchi beer best, followed by the classic and I liked the Dark Label least. For Hubbo, it was the other way around. He has always liked stronger flavours, though my friends and I suspect it's cause I have more tastebuds per square cm on my tongue, so I can taste more full stop. #sophisticatedpalate

I didn't much care for the aftertaste of the last one and the classic had an edge to its aftertaste that was reminiscent. I'm not a beer-y person, anyway. I'd much rather bright, fruity drinks that may or may not come with a mini umbrella.

Photos:

How today's blog got its title

We decided to retreat to the hostel, as our phones were out of juice and we're beginning to run low on cash for the last few days and want to be able to buy some things.  We ordered a pizza between us (it was ok - the dough was gooey and soft) and Hubbo ordered one of This Month's beers, which was a grape flavoured ale. It tasted like a flavoured up Shloer. Which prompted Hubbo to explain why he'd chosen this one over the brown ale - because he wanted to see "how they can make beer out of grape juice, that's just wine."

Big Japan Trip Take Two: Home of the Herring Mansion

A small fishing town

The canal, complete with factories and store houses

We went for a day trip to Otaru on recommendation of just about every website to do with Hokkaido and Sapporo. It is a harbour town, complete with a large bay and relatively short canal, built up in the 1800s. It is right in the mountains and the train journey there from Sapporo is pretty, with a lot of coastal views as you get closer. 

We spent pretty much all day walking, largely because we didn't have any set plan of what we wanted to do. We found the canal easily, where they charge muppets about £12 for a boat ride along the canal for 40 minutes - it's a very short stretch that they do, as well.  Not worth it - you can walk it for free. It's not like Cambridge, where at least if you're being punted you get some historical background to what's along the river.

What is along THIS river is a bunch of old factory and warehouses from the early 1900s, some of them rare in that they'd been built entirely with brick, which is unusual for Japan. They have all been converted into restaurants and things - it reminded us of the ruin bars in Budapest. 

We walked along the road parallel to the bay and enjoyed the view and then trekked to the botanic garden which, it turns out, is set into a mountain side. There was a delightful sign on a small residential road warning us that it was about to be a 20% incline, only slightly mitigated by my wedges. It was an interestingly landscaped garden and we saw a lot of things while we were there and on our way to it. I saw a beautiful lizard but Hubbo was in the way and then he moved and the lizard hid in the brush so I couldn't photograph it. It was about 20cm long nose to tail and it was irridescent stripy and blue, with the last half of its tail completely blue. After looking it up online, I'm fairly confident it was the five-lined skink, which is common and younger skinks have bright blue tails - which was visible even when it was in the brush.

We saw butterflies, a variety of spiders and webs, giant ants - Hubbo got chased by a wasp/bee/hornet/large aggressive winged hellbeast. Then we walked all the way down, taking a shortcut that google guided us to. 

Fishing Town means Fish for Lunch

One place tourists are guided to is an indoor fish market, which also has a restaurant or two. We chose one and waited in a queue for a table to be made free. It was interesting seeing people coming and going from restaurants to pick up fresh ingredients for the next dish they were murdering cooking. I have never seen so many live crabs in one place at once, not even when we went crabbing in Blakeney. 

Hubbo had the "Season Special" bowl, which meant there was a bit of everything.  Prawns, shrimp, tuna, sea urchin (the current in-season thing), salmon roe, whelk. He ate all of it.  I've been feeling a bit off the last 24 hours so I played it safe and got grilled salmon and grilled sablefish, which I've never had before, and a bowl of rice. Ok, yeah I had to work around the bones, but the salmon was good. The sablefish was delicious. A fatty fish, so it was soft and tender and it broke apart fairly easily. It was well worth the wait (it came a while after the rest of our food).

Safe Passage and Good Business Blessings

There was a sign for a bus towards the cable car that would take us up to the summit of Mount Tengu, so named because... nobody's really sure. Some people think that people who'd travelled to Hokkaido missed their mountain which was called Tengu so they named another it. Some people think it looks like Tengu, a goblin or mountain god, others think that he was made on the mountain... either way, he has a long phallic nose and there were a lot of masks and statues inside the museum by the gift shop.

By rubbing his nose at the summit shrine, you're apparently blessed with safe travel and good business opportunities.




It was a strange station at the summit. There was the main building, which had the observation deck upstairs, a gift shop, small museum, restaurant etc. Then outside there was jazz piano playing all the time, a chipmonk enclosure, a shrine which had a fairylights walkway, some coloured lighting on a couple of birch trees for no obvious reason other than to make them different colours and what appeared to be an unused ropeway from the past. There was also a rentable blow up dome tent, which they sprayed with insect repellent. By the time dusk arrived, I rather wished we were in said bubble, but I don't think I've been bitten again*.

We walked along the woodland path a bit, as well, and saw other parts of the area surrounding Otaru, which was nice. We would have done the complete path but it became an unbeaten track and I didn't fancy it in my wedgets. Why am I wearing impractical shoes? Because my toe needed some air today - I've got a minor problem with my toenail again, it would seem. I didn't even have pinchy shoes this time, I think it's just triggered by walking on swollen feet for hours.

After a while we decided it was time to head back to Sapporo for the evening - Hubbo is sunburnt and tired (probably heat exaustion as well) and I was feeling headachy (also sun exposure, though I wear suncream, so no burns here!).

Tomorrow we're going to explore Sapporo a bit better and visit the brewery!

Photos:



* I got two: one on each ankle. 👎

Big Japan Trip Take Two: Sapporo #1

We should have brought our jackets

We knew it would be cooler. The forecast said it would be cooler. It's further north and therefore would be cooler. We failed to put our jackets on this morning at 6.15 when we left, because it was already boiling in Tokyo.

We got off the flight and began to shiver in the cloudy, breezy, 23 degree climate. Hokkaido is completely different - it is flatter for larger sections of countryside and Sapporo, its main city, has the feel of a small, westernised city. The area we are staying in, I could easily compare to areas of Essen in Germany - you know, built up, wide streets, fairly nice but not shiny in the way bigger, expensive cities are, not empty but not busy and a hint of an industrialised past.

Sapporo isn't an industrial city in the same sense though - it is largely known for its fishing ports and trading ports and of course, its beer. We'll be visiting the brewery at some point in the next two days, along with the Herring Mansion (yes, that's a thing!). 

After depositing our stuff, we went to a clothing department store to find a jumper for each of us. Annoying that we didn't bring our jackets, but I managed to spend as little as possible and we both like our jumpers enough to keep them. [Horribly aware the idea is to leave clothes behind]

We found a restaurant that was open early enough for us to eat, before the crowds but also before we starved - we hadn't eaten since breakfast at the airport, nearly 10 hours earlier! Two of the local dishes are seafood donburi (donburi being meat ontop of rice) and a curry soup thing.  We had salmon sashimi and roe donburi which was really nice. I'm not a fan of curried things unless I can choose which spices and how hot etc, so I'll leave that one to Hubbo.

Our hostel is hipster enough to be comfortable and modern feeling but with a hint of pretention about its concrete pillars, bare lightbulbs and stripped concrete surface on the first floor. It'll do. The bed is the softest and most comfortable bed we've had all month so I will NOT mind sleeping on that. 

We mostly wandered around and got a feel of the place - it's heavily Westernised, but there was some sort of local festival happening down a side street. There are rumours of a Ramen Street. There is a clock tower, but it's not the thing I photographed with a giant digital clock on, oh no, that's the t.v. tower or something. Pretty at night, either way.

Big Japan Trip Take Two: Tokyo Dome and Ueno

Tokyo Dome: A place to take your children

It is chiefly a sports arena but around it is an entire complex fitted out with a rollercoaster (not for children), amusement park rides  - viking boat, up-and-down thing, ferris wheel, roundabouts etc - a waterpark, tonnes of eating outlets and stands and merchandise shops. 

It was nice to wander around - it had a great atmosphere, if you weren't queuing for the day's baseball game tickets. 

It was not entirely what we had in mind for our day's excursion so after browsing some fandom shops, we hopped on another train towards Ueno, which has a massive park and zoo.

Ueno Park

I couldn't think of a take away phrase or title for this. It is simply a huuuuuuge park that spans two sides of the road, encompassing a huge zoo (the oldest in Tokyo), a temple and 5-story pagoda, a giant lilly lake and a pond with pedalo boats.

We arrived too late to go to the zoo and appreciate it properly - last entries were 4.30, closing at 5. We got there at 4.15, and one had to have queued for the giant pandas (it was one of the panda's birthday that day) by 4 and you weren't guaranteed to even get to see them. 

So we'll go back at the end of the week next week - we've not done a zoo this time round and it'll be a change of pace. 

The park took us a couple of hours to walk around and I'm sure we didn't see everything. We started with a memorial bench and trees planted by Ulysses S Grant, or General Grant as he was back then. 

Then we followed a path that led to a temple. It was quite a bit older looking than others we have seen and we took the opportunity to write down our hopes and wishes on a charm to add to the wall this time. I also bought a "Children's Happiness" charm for my classroom. I might glue it to the underside of a particular group's table...! #tryanything

The giant lilly lake was a real change of scene for us - they stood about a meter and a half tall out of the water and went as far as the eye could see, with the edge of the park marked by a few tall buildings. There was another temple and shrine there, which had particularly good smelling incense. 

We decided to go for a ride in a pedaloboat which was a mistake because Hubbo was way too tall for it and was distorted and the seat was bang upright, with my spine riding against the ridge of it as I tried not to scrape the bottom of my wedges against the boat. It was very nice just I have an actual bump bruise on my back! And yes, I'm sure it's not just my vertebrae sticking out! Hubbo tried that question too. It's a bruise and it's raised flesh. So. There.  Had a nice view though and got to see how people behaved in their boats. Just because their swan was wearing a bow tie did not mean they were dapper on the water.  I almost got to photograph some non-mallard ducks! Exciting! But a couple of teens powered their way up and chased them. #unimpressed

Ueno's mascot is the illusive panda

Then we walked around for a bit after dark, looking for a place to eat and spend some time. There was an area where it was similar to areas of London - you know, built under a railway line and all shacks and lights. We found a bar with cheap snacks and drinks and got carried away.

Then we walked over to a karaoke place to carry on the fun - Hubbo will do it when it's a private room and Bad Religion is popular enough in the country to have loads of songs by them. It's great to see that side of him.

Photos from Ueno Park

Big Japan Trip Take Two: We'll be back, Hakone!

Our Mountain Lodge

We made a very pretty, scenic journey towards the coast, to the mountains of the Fuji-Hakone-Izu national park area. We had booked a hotel for the night and it was humid when we got there. You see, the heat we can deal with, when it's dry heat. You sweat, sure, but at least it doesn't feel close. But all those god-damn trees and ferns and green plants made it sticky and damp! Blasted nature.

Hubbo said we were early and that we should kill time by walking up the very very steep mountain side to our hotel. There was a train that would take us there with our passes, but he thought nah, it'd be too quick. 

When we got to our hotel, so did the people who had been waiting for the train. Turns out, we could have killed time with less sweaty exersion.  Also a shuttle bus pulled up with other guests. 

Wifey was not impressed. Wifey's fringe was pasted to her forehead and her t-shirt was drenched where her hiking bag was covering any drying sunshine. 

We went into the hotel to check in, a process made longer by their desire to find someone who speaks English for us.The lobby was lovely - they had a little open-room shop, with complimentary sorbets, little cans of soft drink and beers, yakutas to choose from based on height, size and colour. They also had a popcorn machine you could help yourself from - it was a really chilled out little area. For a posher hotel it had a relaxed vibe which meant we were comfortable donning and walking about in our yakutas and everybody was super chill. 

On the 2nd floor (first floor in the West, the Japanese don't have "ground floor") they had massage chairs that were hard core. At times a little painful.  Hubbo did NOT enjoy it, whereas I felt better afterwards.

On the first floor there were public baths and showers (segregated) and some private huts - our room came with one free private bath entry, which we used at 6.30pm, before dinner at 8.

It was sooooooooooooo good and sooooooooooooo hot. Fortunately it was really windy and raining, so we had that to help with the heat. It was semi-covered, so we weren't IN the rain, but we could put our feet out into the rain to help cool off a bit.

When your town smells of egg, sell egg.

We hopped onto the trainline through the mountain town to go right to the top, where the rope car was to the mountain. The cable car took 8 minutes, which is quite a long time if you've been on a few. The view was amazing. The mountain is still volcanic, with large hot air shafts billowing smoke and steam the entire time. The ground is suphurous yellow and it was the source of the eggy smell that pervaded everywhere outdoors. 

The most recently created vent was made in 2015, when the volcano had a minor eruption.

At the top of that station, you can change to another cable car to get to the lake behind the mountain, on the next mountain, but unfortunately we didn't have time - everything shut at 5 and we had to be off by then, or else get a taxi.

The wind and thick smoke and cloud that was coming with it made the entire area seem as though we'd stepped off into a different country. It was cold and damp and the wind was really strong. It was a buzz with activity, and the huts sold various things next to a geology museum. 

One of the big souvenirs you can get is a bag of 5 black eggs.  These are eggs whose shells have turned black from the way they have been cooked. The inside is just regular hardboiled egg. They were still warm when we ate them in our room about 40 minutes later. 

You could also buy egg flavoured soft-serve ice cream, but the shop had just switched off the machines. 

We agreed that we would get up early the next morning and have the ice cream and explore the lake properly before going back to Tokyo, while admonistrating ourselves (well, Hubbo, cause I was awake at 6 while he only got up after 9) for not getting a move on earlier in the day.

On our way back down the cable car - I swear, we were only up there 20 minutes, tops - it was impossible to see through the cloud that had moved in. I took a photo, to illustrate how far ahead we could see.

When it rains, it ruins everything

It started raining that night, as I mentioned, when we decided to have our bath. Then it kept raining all night and into the next day. It wasn't heavy rain, more a driven drizzle with the occasional heavy shower breaking through. 

We optimistically took ourselves (and our things) to the mountain shuttle to get up to the cable car. Better to see the lake from the cable car loop route than not at all, we thought.

Well, the cable car wasn't running because of the winds.  There was a bus we could use but when we were waiting the rain kept getting heavier and it was cold and we weren't dressed for it and in the end, we glumly turned back and headed for the train station.

We decided to stop at Yokohama, the second largest city, on our way as it was just one stop along on the shinkensen.

It's ok - I can see why a lot of people would go there for a shopping day out, or to just see the harbour and walk about a bit. It's rather big and spread out, but the central part is just the shopping area and cinemas. They had a few of those - more than we saw in areas of Tokyo. It was very nice and I got some lovely photos, but it was a bit... empty.

They were doing the giant pikachu parade that evening, but that would mean hanging around for another 4 or 5 hours waiting for it with all our stuff, so Hubbo made the executive decision to go back to the flat. 

We'll try to go back to Hakone for the day after our trip to Sapporo, which we're leaving for tomorrow.

Review: Convenience Store Womanby Sayaka Murata

I've a subscription (it's free! You should too!) to Domestic Sluttery and aside from the many cool things I have learned about women in history, every so often they are onto a great clothing deal, trend or book recommendation. Their recipe suggestions are also amazing to salivate at and perhaps try one day.

Just before the end of July, I had a list of summer books to try in my inbox. I read the synopses of three of them and thought, "yes," then ordered them (and a few others) on my kindle.

The first I read was Convenience Store Woman, seeing as it is the most topical of the three (or so I thought) in that I am currently in Japan, where the book is set.

It is the story of a woman who works part time in a convenience store - could be a Family Mart, 7-Eleven, Lawsons or other brand, they're all very similar with only slight variences - in her thirties and is trying to get on with her life, despite her choices being outside of the norm. She has pressure from all sides to conform to societal expectation and when she tries to, she becomes miserable.

The way DS sold it was that the book was a discussion about how being single, living alone and working as a shop floor assistant doesn't mean you're not worthy.  I was immediately there, because feminism and civil rights is on a slight upward trend, at least as far as the West is concerned, in Japan, in that they younger generations are talking about it. It's becoming news and topical, rather than a "just muddle on despite it" sort of culture. I will get to that later.

First, the book itself: I enjoyed it. It was easy to read, well translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori - it would use one or two Japanese words but translate the rest. I don't think there is a Western equivalent to "Irasshaimasé!", to be fair, which is the word called out by all shop staff across the country.

If you are interested in a slice of life of an "ordinary", someone who's not a high flyer in Japan, this books is pretty good for that. It also discusses the contradictions and frankly nonsensical attitudes of people towards people like our main character.

It is no secret that Japan has a rather extreme work ethic - long hours, must be able to support yourself and family etc.  It also sticks to a lot of traditional values, even within some areas of the LGBTQ community. There are some bars that are gender separated/segregated, and not necessarily for the safe space reasons. You must be married, you must have a "proper" job (at a desk, in a company, not on your feet in a convenience store, full time or otherwise) by your thirties, you must have your own place, otherwise you're a burden on society - even if you are contributing to society by running the stores that are intrinsically part of every day Japanese life!

It struck a chord with me, just because it's the sort of thing you hear racists and xenophobes in the West say about immigrants - that they are a burden on society, that they are welfare riders etc, when the vast majority are doing jobs that those complainers don't want to do (cleaning, plumbing, street sweeper etc) or are more qualified to do (doctors, nurses, scientists).

Sexism is rife in Japan - you will no doubt have heard that one of the top medical universities in Japan has admitted to fiddling with women's scores, because they don't think women doctors are worth having, because they'll leave to have a family.  Even if you're an international, even if you're more qualified than the male candidate, they will go with the male candidate. They also push (female) international workers towards child-care based careers, such as tutoring, teaching, au pairing, whatever their professional background or personal ambitions - all women love children, right?!  A recent twitter hashtag in response to the female doctor scores has been very enlightening about the daily misogyny, double standards and blatent sexism that they go through every day.

These things are brought up both by our protagonist and by her "male counterpart", who actually reads as an Incel. He is an extreme case, perhaps, but actually he is just as much a victim of the strict patriarchal social rules as she is - he is expected to have a family, to earn enough to keep one, to be the higher earner, etc etc, when actually he is a drifter, a job-hopper and deeply unattractive - both physically and mentally. He is a big man-baby, is what he is, a slob and as deep a sexist as anybody else. He is a typical man who is unable to "attract a mate" because he does nothing to present himself in a desirable way and he blames everyone else for his problems while looking down on our protagonist for being happy the way she is.

It is no wonder that this book has been a best seller in Japan and was hotly anticipated in the UK.
It touches many social concerns that people no doubt have and highlights the absurdities of it - in the end, she cancels an interview for a "proper" job because she had popped into a different convenience store and seen how poorly run and set up it was and quickly fixed it, displaying her inate ability and affinity with that job. It is who she is, she says, the shop speaks to her and she is a Convenience Store Worker.

Overall, I give the book 4 out of 5.

Why not a perfect score?  There was one thing that did not sit right with me....

In the beginning of the book, the protagonist takes you through episodes of her childhood which highlighted to everybody that she was strange and needed to be "cured".  This is a theme throughout the book - that she is good at mimicking the behaviours of others to fit in and she is scared that if people realise that she doesn't feel anger towards the small things they do, or she doesn't want to get married or somehow does or says anything that lets people see she is "wrong" somehow, she will lose her friends or her job. Which is fine, I guess.

Except that the incidents and behaviours described come across as sociopathic and/or ASD.  There's no reason why the protagonist can't be on the spectrum, but it seemed a bit of too much of another level of difficulty and "explanation" as to why she is only happy as a part-time conbini worker.  Why does the protagonist have to be non-neurotypical at all? What if she is simply someone who is not particularly skilled at anything else and just likes being a store worker, which is what the main take away is anyway? What if she has no ambitions above that, enjoys her solitude and has no desire for a family? That is weird enough in Japan as it is!  There's no need to have childhood episodes where she seems to display violent and borderline sociopathic behaviours.

That is my only criticism - the overall quality of the writing and the way she brings the store to life (and the behind the scenes working of these stores!) and comments on society and its often contradictory expectations (people are happy she has a man, even if she is the main breadwinner and is keeping him and they disapprove of him) is enjoyable, thought-provoking and will strike a chord with Western readers as much as with its Japanese.

Big Japan Trip Take Two: The City with the Old Soul

Apologies

I've taken blinking ages to get round to this. Frankly, I was over-walked and over-travelled and I needed to REST.  We've had two days off in back in Tokyo and I needed it. Not that we did nothing, we just did less. And had a ball at the same time.

We did a lot with our two days in Kyoto, despite the typhoon threatening to rain us out a second time. I also had a slightly costly mishap with my photos but I've restored them and it's fine and they're all on flickr now, so they'll never be gone. Unless Flickr disappears. But I'll have downloaded them onto my home pc by then. Maybe.

The City with the Old Soul

Kyoto was, of course, the capital before Tokyo was - it was also less heavily hit during the war, so its palaces and temples are far more complete and often still in use. There are a lot of temples - in fact, our hostel was in one! It was one of those side buildings that had been converted into a mini flat for visitors as a side income. It was basic but it was ok. Made our hard mattresses in Tokyo seem cloud-soft by comparison, let's put it that way. The man who did all the online bookings and checking in and stuff was absolutely lovely. So friendly, so kind and really helpful. Very sweet. So we don't feel as begrudging of the fact that the futon and pillows needed replacing a good 5 years ago.

The buildings are all older in Kyoto, temple or not. They have air conditioning and what have you, but from the outside they're quainter and more traditional, and you can easily spot a restaurant or a fllorist from the facade of the building. Although it has an old feel, there were a lot of young people about - a lot of students because of the university there, who partake in wearing the yukata during August as part of the Spirit of Summer festival. I have seen some truly beautiful cloths and patterns and what the girls do with their hair is super nice, too. 

The first day, once we had checked in, we decided to visit the Imperial Palace because it is practically by our temple, on the map. Walking distance. The nice man at the temple warned us that it was very wide and might make feet tired. It is very wide and it made our feet tired.  I kid you not, the majority of our walk was trying to find the correct kilometer long wall with the entrance. At least it was free to get in. We made it just as a quick tropical storm literally blew through - it was blowing against us and then it was gone.

Afterwards we went into town and found food and walked along the river, then headed back for a relatively early night at the temple. 

These are the photos from the walk to and inside the palace, and afterwards:

The Light and Dark Sides of Nara

The areas outside of Kyoto are, in our opinion, more interesting - they have more building variety, landscaping variety and they produce a more varied day out.  We didn't get to go to Nara last time we came, partly because with the exception of a few key things, we don't plan ahead at all! We're too laidback and "let's see what happens, we have a month to play with" in attitude to these long holidays.

Nara is one most people have heard of, even if they haven't taken in the name: it's the temple complex with all the deer.  There are loads of temples and loads of deer - male and female - to wander through and around.   We did not partake in feeding the deer for two reasons: 1, large animals that have the potential to harm you when throwing a strop make Hubbo uncomfortable, even if they were essentially just large dogs with antlers.  2. I disagree with the foodchoice that was on sale and weird touristy way these animals are being profited from. 

I have fed semi-domesticated deer at a tourist trap before, at Castle Mountfitchet, Stansted. There, you get a bag of wholesome grains and corn and things that won't be nutritionally bad for the deer.  At Nara, you got biscuits that essentially looked like wafer waffles from a distance. The deer have been trained to recognise a bow as a signal for food and if they see you with the biscuits in your hands, they hound you.  The problem is that these biscuits have no nutritional value that I can see, and, similar to the old way of feeding hedgehogs in your garden bread, these wild animals (constantly reminded by signs that the animals are wild) are filling their stomachs on these biscuits and not on the grass and greenery that is more important for them.  

When we made our way to the main temple, with the giant Buddha statue, we saw a emaciated deer, probably an older one, lying on the steps. It was hot, it was in direct heat, it was skin and bone and it had severe diaorrhea. I didn't see it when we came back, but I doubt it would have lasted the day in the 38-feels-like-42 degree heat.  I am not an expert, I did not do vetinary sciences or biology, and it could be that this deer was old and not able to stand up to the hundreds of younger deer at the park and find a shaded, grassy spot. However I am willing to bet that this deer had been fed those stupid biscuits so many times, it had not been eating and drinking properly - don't forget, animals get a good intake of water from greens (humans included: why do you think the majority of summer food is salad? Not just because it is seasonal!). 

There was also the case of one woman we saw feeding deer - there were two female adults and one fawn. It was a case of "remember you're a parent!" with the doe. She was so crazed over the biscuit, she literally would snatch it from the fawn. The woman threw some biscuit to the ground to distract the older two and then gave some to the fawn, who was frankly a bit young to be fed this nonsense anyway, cause it was barely gripping the biscuit - but the does came along and ate before the fawn could.  

I just disagree with the whole money-making nonsense whole-heartedly.  Let the deer roam. Let them be used to humans and sure, sell some sort of grain mix. Those deer biscuit stands should be curtailed and disbanded, in my view.  

The only amusing thing were the shrieks of women who were cornered by several deer because they bowed too close to a group or had the entire stack in one hand while feeding bits with the other, and not realising that deer can see and smell the biscuit stack. 

No tourists were harmed in the feeding of these animals.

We visited the main temple and then made our way.... you guessed it, uphill! Hah.  We got some food and watched the world struggle by in the heat, and then we went up one last interesting looking building before heading back for the trains.

Photos from Nara:

"That temple with the non-stop gate tunnel"

Hubbo planned the day trips, because it was his birthday but also he knew what we were both interested in. We were going to go Inari and then on to Nara, but as it happened, it's for the best we did it the other way around. Thank you rapid train for skipping that stop.

Inari is another place where you've definitely seen images of the tunnelled walk, but didn't know what it was. As soon as he got a google image up I said "Ah... THAT place. Yep. Awesome."

We got there during Golden Hour, which made me happy. Also it seems to be an entire complex with fox statues. I love foxes. It also makes a change from dragons or demonic dogs. A bit more refined and classy and local, you know?

The fox statue in the first photo is what you see when you exit the station, then just beyond it is the big Torii gate.  You go up steps to the shrines and follow the path heading up the hill. 

Honestly, what is it with religious types and going up hills? They don't even have a god to get closer to in Buddhism. (I know I'm being reductive here, it's just my thighs are going to be proper hench when we go home.)

The torii gate tunnel is looooooooonnnnnnggggg. And beautiful. Some of them have writing on, which you can see if you look behind you / as you go back out.  These are mostly gates that have been paid for / donated, kinda like a kickstarter reward.  There was one from a Russian which amused us. Fortunately, as it was evening, it was less busy, but there were still plenty types of tourist to experience.  The mother and daughter, where she got the daughter to pose, standing in the tunnel looking whistful and then later she was on a Kirin Ichiban bench and trying to pull the exact face and angle that her mum was happy with. Seriously, this woman took hundreds of photos, and was forever shaking her head and saying "no, do..." 

There were the two Japanese men in their Yukatas, pausing as though they're being caught walking through the tunnel. One had a trilby on so that was amusing.

The Chinese tourists, French tourists, American tourists and the random dude who was clearly training for something cause he ran up and he ran down. 

We only went part way up the mountain cause we (or I) were tired and didn't fancy it in the heat, either. We also wanted food and needed to head back to pack up to leave the following morning.

Still, Hubbo kept us busy and pretty much on our feet for 12 hours, so well done to him.

Photos from Inari: 

Big Japan Trip Take 2: Iconic places

Whoops #2

We overslept. I mean, I set an alarm for 7, so we would be up for breakfast at 8 (Hubbo chose that time instead of 8.30). I snoozed the alarm, because I was up at 3am with itchy bites on my leg, then I needed the loo and I had to use my phone as a torch and then I saw an email from our wedding photographers with a link for the photos for us to check through and ok before making it live to our guests... it was all difficult to sleep on!  Hubbo, it transpired, changed the alarm again so it would go off at 7.30 but in doing so he flipping disabled the alarm. He also let me apologise profusely multiple times for messing up when I jerked awake at 8.45. He did not let on what he had done until he had had some drinks at a food bar in Hiroshima some 12 hours later...!

We packed, checked out and left our luggage at the hotel so that we could visit places in the daylight - the tide was out, so it was interesting to see the gate up close and to go into the temple. 

The temple is still in use and it was interesting to see many Japanese tourists, which is apparently an atheist nation, continue to follow customs and traditions and to pray and seek blessing in the old ways. Hubbo pointed this out and I told him I considered it Spiritual Atheism, if such a thing exists.

We walked on the beach and saw a variety of crabs. We saw other shrines and walked through many shops - it was fun to see Japanese tourist shops for Japanese tourists! There were many taking rickshaw rides - I felt sorry for the rickshaw pullers, it was 38 degrees and pure sunlight.

We hid from the midday heat in the aquarium, known for having fish that are special to the inland sea area. It was small and fairly typical but it was nice all the same and we saw some things we hadn't seen at other aquariums, too.

Then we made our way back to the hotel, got the shuttle bus to the ferry and squeezed onto a train to Hiroshima. I mean, squeezed. It was 9 stops and until stop 7, more and more people were forcing their way on. It wasn't until stop 7 that we realised that it was because there was a baseball game on and we knew from 2016 that there is a baseball arena by our hostel in Hiroshima, so at least we knew we'd be able to get off at our stop. I'm fairly sure that a lot of people waited until Hiroshima to get off in order to get on a returning train and go back to the stop they didn't get off on. The train is every 30 minutes, so it'd be quicker than waiting for the next one in the correct direction.

We didn't do much in Hiroshima - we went out for food, played some arcade games and then went back to the hostel to sleep.  The next morning, we headed to Kyoto, where we hoped we wouldn't be rained out again!

Here are the photos of the sites in Miyajima during low-tide and extreme heat! (There are a lot because I couldn't choose which to cull. I'm sorry!)

Big JapanTrip Take Two: Love Island

An Island for Romance

No, not that show - Miyajima. Apparently it's a romantic island, perfect for couples. What did this couple do on their honeymoon, the most romantic time of their lives after the wedding vows? Climb a mountain in 38 degree heat, that's what!

Well, we took the cable car most of the way, because it was way too hot and I put my foot down and paid for both of our trips.  And it was fine - it was the smoothest car ride ever, no bumps or jerks as it went past the towers holding the wires up and incredible views. What's also fun is that you have to make a transfer - it takes two carts to take you!

View from the summit

It is a 30 minute trek to the summit from where the cable car finishes up. We took a bit longer, cause photographs and my tiny legs not handling the super steep steps! The view was just spectacular. I thought I might cry, seeing the gorgeous blue sky mirrored on the sea, with gorgeous mountains and islands to the distance with a slight mist in front. No photo can do it justice. I did take a video though, in lieu of a panoramic photo; my phone wouldn't let me do it. 😕

Along the trail are a few shrines and temples, including one which has a several hundred-year-old flame in it, which was used to light the Peace Flame in Hiroshima's Peace Park. There were also warnings of venemous snakes and bees, but we didn't see any. 😞 Mixed feelings about that. I did spot a lizard of some kind - it looks skinky to me, but I'm not an expert. It decided to come out of where it was hiding while we queued for our transfer cable car.

These are pictures from our journey up and down again.  Some are a bit out of order, because had to take a couple with my other camera and I don't want to go through and number 61 photos just so you view them correctly. #lazy

5-level pagoda

Once rested, it was time to check in at our hotel. It isn't far from where everything is, which is great. We went back the way we came and were completed with our checking in rituals by 4.40. Had a shower, got changed and headed out to the iconic torii gate at Itsukushima shrine, which is only 2 minutes away. And thank goodness it was! Got there, took a couple of pictures of the pagoda in Golden Hour light, got some of the shrine, very nice... then boom! The battery went. Four days it lasted me and it wouldn't wait another 10-20 minutes. I literally grabbed the room key and legged it back to the hotel (in wedges!) to grab my spare battery. Got back well in time. Turns out the damn sun was behind the gate and it didn't do any of its red flamey brilliance. Not even a hint of pink! Just yellow, like a sunrise. Typical. Still I think there're a couple of nice silhouette shots out of it.

Then it was time to change for dinner. We weren't sure about wearing our Yakutas this time, but the girl who checked us in told us we should do it and that it is perfectly ok to. So we did, cause we saw other guests doing it. Only there is more than one dining room, each with a set capacity. Ours had a capacity of 4 tables. Of the three sets of diners, we were the only ones in yakutas!  Oh well, it's such a tourist spot, nobody batted an eye so that's ok.

Dinner was enormous and heavily sea-food based (can't think why 😉) with sea bream as the main fish. It was all lush, but our favourite part was the bream-fried rice. We had at least 8 courses, including oysters (meh), egg custard (yum), sea bream hot pot, sashimi, beef fillet slices and clear soup. I was honestly so full that I was having trouble with the band of my bra!

It's magnificent during high tide

We walked out towards the beach again, cause the temple and torii gate are lit up after 8. I managed to get some photos, we saw deer sleeping on the side of the pavements, saw lots of other couples out and about before I got stung by something so we turned back. I'm ok, just swatted away something on my leg and it left behind a barb about half a centimetre long! Rude - it landed on me, not the other way round.

Miyajima is a lovely place to visit. It was a thoroughly lovely, tiring day.


Here are all the sunset/night shots:

Big Trip to Japan Take Two: "Wherever we go, we go as high as we can!"

The "Wasted" Day

After my exceptionally late night editing photos and then still waking up first and posting the last entry, I really was not in a position to go out. I really wasn't. I was soooooo tired. And so was Hubbo - in fact, he ended up sleeping until 13.07, which he was really angry about in the end. And I can see why, but he didn't wake up when the cleaners were hoovering or when I was sneezing my brains out on 3 or 4 occasions, or leaving and entering the room, or swearing at my laptop cause the program I was using had frozen for the upteenth time, so I figured he needed the sleep.

We got up, got dressed and were out of the house and at Akihabara by 3. We headed for the building we knew would have a great haul, and it did.💜

I got the three "jam jar" Moomin terraniums I would have tried to get for 5x the price on ebay. We saw presents for people - to quote my bestie, "Why does Japan have all the good things?!" - and Hubbo got himself a treat or two.

Then we went for food, because if we didn't, I'd probably faint. 👍   Ramen-O'Clock!

The Best Street Food Place Food

We got up bright and early after the occupants of the room opposite us had finished talking all night and elephant-stomping along the landing. For those of you who are used to a range of tourist types from various origins, I will leave to your own mind to guess which nationality they were. Let's just say it was good to know that even after university age, they don't grow out of the sheer inconsideration for others and blatent rudeness.

Even though we left in good time, it was raining, so we just about made it onto our shinkansen - though that's largely because for some reason the station doesn't tell you what platform the train will be on, only the time and how many carriages. #helpfulnothelpful

I missed most of the journey to Osaka because I was either laughing at the bumbling baffoon in front of us, who was absolutely adorable, or witnessing the entirety of a young girl's waterbottle waterfall all over the floor because it had lurched forward and she'd not put the lid on the bottle, or sleeping. Sleeping was good and sleeping was necessary. 

Osaka was just as we remembered it, and we made our way to our hostel, the same we stayed in last time. It is a really really nice hostel - even if you aren't keen on the idea of hostels, this one is clean, has private rooms available and a great atmosphere, hanging on simple and easy-to-follow rules. Also the futons were way more comfortable than the matress in Tokyo, so we enjoyed that. 

Hubbo did not sleep on the train. He does not sleep sitting up (weirdo) and so he rested his head for an hour while I did a wander around the neighbourhood, photographing what I liked without worrying about holding others up. It's nice to see residential areas sometimes too - there are shrines dotted about in random areas you'd expect to see a garage, the houses are all higgledy-piggledy and you can see the locals going about their business.

Downtown Osaka:

Then I made some green tea in the common room and then I fetched Hubbo and we made our way to Tenoji, which we didn't visit last time.

On google, Hubbo discovered that it was the site of Japan's tallest building (not to be confused with the even taller Tokyo Sky Tree, which is a tower) and wouldya believe it, as he read it out to me, I was staring up at it - it was right at the station entrance as tall and obvious as you like!

Obviously we decided to go up it. No matter where we go, we always seem to go to the highest point. Excep this time (and I guess when we went up Fuji and had to stop) because there was no way we were paying extra to go the last 50m to go on "the edge" at 300m. No, 250m was high enough. It was really pleasant - the building, like Sky Tree, had plenty inside it to fill your day but we wanted to see more. We noticed a park from up the tower building and made our way to it.... but it was closed already. Awh.
So we looked at a couple of statues, walked over the zoo (best sentence ever) and smelled the flamingos before we spotted them and over towards a little area called Shinsekai.

Tenoji and up the tall building:

Shinsekai is a sweet little place by day, but well known for its open prostitution at night - and I hear that the law turns a blind eye to it there.  For its slight problems and being on "the wrong side of the tracks", it was a nice place to visit. The food is cheaper than at Dotonburi but no less good. And what amazed and entertained us were the little random arcade rooms. We're talking a 3mx3m room with arcade machines and stools, from various years - there was one with 1984 pacman. We played old-style Puyo Puyo and a Sailor Moon side-scroller fighty game. I lasted longer than Hubbo which means I win. 

We got to eat the local delicacy which was devised during the war and post-war period: Deep Fried Anything On A Stick. We found a little joint that wasn't too expensive and ordered Set Meal B, which was the same as Set Meal A, only it had a couple more pieces and was an even number, making it easier to share equally. 

There was fried chicken on a stick, fried sausage on a stick, fried fish sausage on a stick, fried rice cake on a stick, fried asparagus (which was my favourite) on a stick, fried sweet potato, cheese, sausage and cheese, beef and pork - each on a stick.  You dipped the fried goodness in the sauce and ate - didn't get enough sauce the first time? DO NOT DOUBLE DIP*. You scoop some sauce out of the dish using a piece of raw cabbage as a spoon. Trust me, it works a treat. 

*There was even a law passed to ban double dipping, because hygiene.

Shinsekai:



After that, we made our way over to Dotonburi, walking through cutely lit streets (👆I got photos - even though my camera kept telling me it wasn't possible. Hah!) and a really really long shopping tunnel.

Dotonbori was busy, of course, and we walked through the areas that Hubbo had visited in his video games, which is more or less the exact way we went last time we came. But this time there was something different! There were drums playing! And sportsball fan singing! And chanting! And waving of flags and umbrellas!  YES! The Baseball had happened! (We think it was baseball)

Upon closer investigation, we found that it was a Buenos Aires team and we suspect they won cause two bridges and the area between those bridges were clad in red and white banners and jumping and chanting fans wearing team shirts.  They were mostly Argentinian fans but there were a few Asian fans there too, while the majority of people in the area were looking on in baffled amusement.

There is also a new statue - Osaka is home to the 2025 expo, apparently, and it has a shiny plaque to go on a shiny granite fist. I liked it, was a cool design. It was punchy. 

After wandering about and drinking or nibbling here or there were made our way back to the hostel because Hubbo booked us an early train to Hiroshima - we're heading to Miyajima!

Dotonbori: