landoftherisingpun's latest blog entries

Oh gosh this is overdue!

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:49:45 EST

Greetings,

It’s well over a year since those first heady days in Shinjuku, we’ve watched the bare trees turn pink, steamy green, and back to orange then bare again. Now the plum blossom has come, bringing spring in it:s wake. Soon the cherry will bring spring proper and the conclusion of our sojourn in the sunrise. Now a lot of our thoughts are on the next step of our journey, but we need to bring some things to their finish first and this is one part of that. As we retroactively update this blog it:s evoking beautiful memories of a time well spent, of things we will trasure for ever and of poison noodles that made us both retch. The house is being tidied and cleared out already and Emma is managing not to cry. More stuff will come, both on the blog and in the mail. We:ve not been so good at keeping up the blog, obviously, but there you are, maybe we:ve had too much fun. i think we both look at Japan and are sad to be leaving yet excited to be going somewhere new. That:s no bad thing is it?

In Japan there are two important dates for choco lovers: Valentines Day and White Day. On Valentines, the girls give gifts to the boys (not only their loved ones, but any men who play a major role in their life: fathers, colleagues…) and then a month later, we have White Day, where the boys have to buy presents back (known as giri-choco or obligation chocolate)! A double whammy for consumerism. Around this time there is an explosion of white in the trees as the plum comes to blossom, even though the more famous and beloved cherry will comprehensively steal the thunder soon. For my money, the plum is better though, more elegant and much less crass than the garishly pink cherry. Of course, our front garden has a plum courtesy of our bonkers landlord and it:s been a delight to watch it in the early mornings with the sparrows dancing among the branches. The weather is somewhat schizophrenic now, oscillating between near-summer and near-winter. It can be 22 degrees one day and 6 the next. The frogs are back though and Em reported sighting a mosquito in an ominous sign of things to come. The big festival this time of year is Hina Matsuri but it:s a bit crap without a young daughter so we:ve ignored it.

Updates coming thick and fast for the next month!

Oli

Nikko

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:31:49 EST

Nikko is Iron Maiden:s drummer, but Nikko is also a small town about 2hrs outside of Tokyo. As a tourist, if you were to visit just one place outside Tokyo, Nikko would be a good pick with it’s temples, beautiful scenery and tourist friendly atmosphere. It has stunning temples, built to exquisite detail, which was an attempt by the shogun to stop the feudal lords from getting too powerful by draining their cash on gilded building after gilded building. The Japanese say that you can't say beautiful until you've seen Nikko. Which isn't really true, but there you go.

We were lucky in avoiding the hoards of people who reportedly throng to Nikko, though the temples were still fairly busy. We strolled past tranquil water features of perfectly balanced mossy stones and still ponds, took tons of pictures of the gaudy gold/red buildings, including one set adorned with a mythological zoo including elephants (drawn by someone who clearly had never seen an elephant), monkeys (speak/hear/see no evil), birds and dragons.

Our main reason for going to Nikko was the hiking, so much of the trip was spent in the mountains. We saw the top three waterfalls of the area, romped around lakes, up and down hills and managed some of the more challenging mountain hikes with plenty of ice, snow and wilderness. We saw deer and not very many people at all. Sadly there appeared to be no bears although a man did warn us not to go into one area because of bears. Emma said we couldn't go in if he said that. All through most of the flat trails were wooden pathways raised up from the ground so as to avoid the natural inhabitants of the marshes. Pretty ace. They do say that many years ago the principal marsh in the area was formed by a battle between Nantaisan and Shirosan, the two volcanoes at either end. A giant centipede general (I'm not making this up) died and his blood stained the marsh red FOR EVER, a bit like the Lancashire rose. To top it all, the hostel we stayed in had its own private hot bath, a real luxury after the day’s hike.

The only minor disappointment was that much of Nikko seemed to shut by 6pm… Which actually didn’t stop us from enjoying several good meals out, and one night drinking till we felt horrible for the next morning's hike. The moral of that story is that when in a pub with all kinds of junk surrounding you, do not trust the friendly bartender not to get you hammered. Certainly do not compound the error by proceeding to the bar of the most expensive hotel in town and talking about camels till the early morning. The hike the next day involved getting lost and having to go off piste because they closed our trail and we had to dodge across some bamboo. Most notable though was the curmudgeonly service at the pizza shop that looked so inviting. After waiting 15 minutes to be acknowledged, the rude %*^£$ skipped past us to serve someone else who wasn't even in the cafe, for "£$**^'s sake. We left and found surprisingly good coffee in an antiques shop next door, provided by a very cheerful old lady.

Fuji-san

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:16:54 EST

できたね。　　富士山を野簿りました。

We climbed it! Fuji climbing season is July and August – the rest of the year it’s off limits. We went up on the first week it was open, not realising that not everything had opened. Sadly it was the only time we could go, so the bad weather didn’t stop us.

We’d been told that while we shouldn’t underestimate the mountain, it is certainly not Everest – there are fairly easy footpaths, and plenty of septuagenarians make it up every year. Equally, people do die.

The other Fuji tradition is that it looks best at sunrise. That means climbing part way in the afternoon/early evening, and then getting up at 2am and doing the final push in the dark.

It was pouring with rain, phenomenally windy and freezing cold. Neither of us were very equipped for the weather, and our bike lights offered only a little illumination as we scrambled up the path. I suffered with the altitude and my lack of fitness, and at points could only take a few steps before pausing to get my breath. Our visibility was less than a rheumatoid bat's and so there was little to see the whole way up.

All the way up, we were encouraged by the promise of ramen and a respite from the weather at the top. When we got there, we discovered that:
We couldn’t see the sunrise because it was too cloudy
The hut selling ramen was shut. As was every other ‘shelter’.

We cuddled a little, enjoyed the fact that we’d made it, and turned fast to the descent. There was a nice group of Japanese students and a Czech who kept us company on the walk/run back to our dry clothes and the relative warmth of the 5th station. Oh, and the 4 hr wait for the bus to take us back down to civilisation.

I was shocked at the lack of resources or care on the mountain. Given the scrupulous manner in which most things take place in Japan and the extraordinary lengths people will go to in order to help, this was a surprise. To open the mountain for climbing but not the first aid hut was a monumental mistake. Also, the grasping nature of much of it seemed to jar with the normal Japanese attitudes.

After safely sleeping off the mountain mishaps we got a crappy dinner with the very pleasant Czech mate we'd met, Janna, drank some of that lighter fluid they love so much out there and promised to meet up later in Tokyo (which we did). The next day it was time to leave Fujigoko. First stop was Fuji-Q Highlands. Fuji is so popular in Japan that there are any number of things one can do in his almighty shadow. Our choice was jet (roller) coasters. Eejanaika had rotating seats on rotating carriages which were awesome. Dodonpa accelerated at 175km in a second and Fujiyama was...closed due to high winds. Which weren't all that high. The park was half-empty but we had 90min queues left right and centre for some reason. overall, it was fun though...

Izu Islands

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 06:32:03 EST

Holidaying (like many things in Japan) is infinitely harder if you decide not to do it in the same way as everybody else. By which I mean, go on the right days, go to the places the guidebook suggested, travel by car… In fact, ideally, one should join a big tour group with an official tour bus and proper guide who will point out all the important sites along the way.
So, for your happy-go-lucky gaijin with non-seasonal, odd days off and a limited (if growing) cultural awareness, a three day trip to an island resort just BEFORE the official holiday season, life was not as care free as we had hoped.
Oshima
We caught the jet foil from Tokyo, arrived before lunch and set off to find “the best sushi in the world” in a little fishing harbour on the other side of the island. The harbour was gorgeous, lots of fishing boats, sunshine, gulls. But the sushi restaurant was shut. In fact, EVERYTHING was shut. Lunch was crisps in the bus on our way back across the island.
We got to the volcano museum 5 minutes too late for the main attraction (some big screen volcano simulation), looked around for a bit, and decided to climb the volcano. Fuelled by vending machine coffee and our bus-snack-lunch, we followed the road up the hill for two and a half hours. By the time we reached the top, it was so misty we could only see one meter in front of us, which was not the safest situation. We were rescued by a kind young couple who drove us back to the guest house.
The day improved vastly when we got back to the guesthouse. They took us to a nearby outdoor hot bath and we watched what there was of the sun set over the sea. They laid on a feast of a meal, course upon course of perfect tiny dishes – sashimi, spring rolls, cooked fish, soup, rice… We even had fresh bread rolls in the morning.
Niijima
The next day, we caught the ferry to Nijima – a fantastic island, filled with moyai stone sculptures, huge long empty beaches.
We did almost everything there was to do there – Niijima Museum, which shows the history of the island (lots of fishing and people in exile), the stone zoo (see pictures), the wonderful Glass Museum (where you can see glass being made from Niijima stone). We lay in the outside collesium style hot bath AND let someone bury us in hot sand and leave us to cook.
Oli shared shochu with two Japanese guys at the guesthouse, who then showed us Niijima nightlife. I think it is the first time (maybe last time) that we’ve got Oli to go to a karaoke bar in Japan. Much to his embarrassment, I sang.
Shikinijima
Finally, we made a brief trip to the famed Shikinijima, which has sea side hot springs. We rushed all over the island to try to lie in all three of them before the last ferry left for home, but sadly only made two. It was a bit like lying in a hot rock pool. Complete with wildlife.

The Big 5 of Ichigaya

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 08:19:35 EST

Rainy season has been and gone. How was it? Well, a bit underwhelming, frankly. Some way off proper tropical rain, closer to a fairly intense English summer. It did rain quite consistently, but it never felt like we were under siege, as we had been led to believe by the haters. Anyway, all is good now, we're baking in 30+ degree temperature and 80%+ humidity. The real killer, though, is that it doesn't drop at all come nightfall. Even inside the flat it's well over 25 most of the time now and very very sticky. I estimate each pint of water lasts 6 minutes before being sweated out again. The heat's OK, it's the humidity that saps you. The Japanese refer to 'summer funks' which is not a dig at Jamiroquai ($%"*) but instead a total lack of energy. Today is Bull Day which means we have to eat eel to give us strength.

However, there are plenty of upsides. Munching on a teriyaki bagel while listening to Lou Reed (swiftly followed by Ting Tings - which is new here!) in Ikebukuro looking over what passes for a park is definitely one of life's simple pleasures. Wearing Japanese traditional style clothing is really fun and rather practical too. As is drinking more milk coffee and milk tea. I admit it, I'm a convert! Milk tea is not tea - but it's a pleasurable alternative for a different occasion. Oh, and shiso (garnishing leaves from sushi)-flavoured Pepsi. Combined with Gekikara MANIA crisps (so hot my students were still complaining the next week), the world is rosy indeed.

One HUGE downside. Well, strictly speaking, dozens of tiny problems. Insects. Lots of insects. If the 'Big 5' of our Stockwell home were:

fox

squirrel

cat

blackbird

pigeon

...then in Ichigaya, it's:

frog

crow

sparrow

cockroach

jumping spiders.

Luckily for us, all 5 are easily findable in the grounds of our house. Other notables include fruit flies, mosquitoes, strange Japanese birds with woodpecker heads, funny beetle things the length of my thumb, smaller spiders, bigger spiders, cicadas, grasshoppers, stick insects, lizards, earwigs, millipedes, ants, death's head moths, flutterbys and various others. It feels like a jungle sometimes. Through judicious use of Kinchol insecticide and Black Pig oil burners, we've kept the flat mainly free of the enemy. It's an unwinnable battle though. The jumping spiders are the hardest to track and kill, these things can clear a table in a bound and take four men to be subdued. Overexaggeration? Just a little, tiny millionth of a per cent, yes. Still, that's the joy of living at this latitude, insect heaven. At least the cicadas are nice to listen to. It would be nice to see a rhinocerous beetle or something cool rather than roaches (mercifully few of those so far) though. So, must dash, barricades to man and all that...