Japan - Final Day

I'm vegging out at an internet cafe now and will be heading off to the airport in just a few hours. There's a typhoon heading straight for Hong Kong at about the same time I am, however, which has me worried that my flight will be cancelled or delayed. But, at this point, all flights seem to be on track so who knows.

There really isn't much to report on since the last day in Kobe. I headed out last night with a group of friends from in and around Tokyo and we enjoyed some authentic Katsu Don (the stuff in Melbourne just doesn't compare) and fancy alcohol, including the first sherry (or however you spell it) I've ever had.

So, despite there being nothing really to report on for the last 24 hours, I still felt that a fitting final post was in order, if only for my own benefit. I've learnt a great deal on this trip not just about other cultures but also about myself, which is what I'd always hoped you happen. They say that a bit of worldly travel really does change ones perspective. I wouldn't say that it's really changed mine, but it has certain strengthened it. If nothing else, I feel more prepared for the relocation to London in July because of what I've learnt here.

Finally, there was one thing that I realised I didn't really blog about here, and it is well worthy of a mention. I spoke about the nice people I met and drank with in Japan, but never really spoke about the everyday people that I never said more than two sentences too. The feeling of being a tourist in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan was distinct for each country. But I wanted to stress just how patient and kind the Japanese people really are. And I'm really talking about all of them. Not once did I came across anyone who made me feel unsafe or unwelcome, and not once did I come across anyone who seemed impatient while I struggled to form the sentence I was looking for. While I was in Hiroshima, for example, I went to a convenience store and tried to order a snack, a cooked sausage. Problem was there were three different types of sausages and so when I asked for a sausage, she looked momentarily surprised before politely asking me which type of sausage I wanted and then waited patiently while I fumbled for the words for "any kind of sausage is fine". Trying the same thing in Australia I think would get you rolled eyes from staff and frustrated sighs from customers waiting in line behind you.

This sort of patience that the Japanese people have for foreigners learning their language has been central to the huge improvement I have made in my Japanese since I got here. It isn't because I learnt much new language here, but instead I learnt to change how I approach speaking Japanese. I used to only say a sentence if I was certain I could get it right. As a result, my japanese never really evolved beyond a certain point becuase I was never learning through error, which is really the only effective way to learn a language. Now, I say a sentence even if I know I'll stuff it up. The natives here are incredibly patient and even if your sentence is an incoherent mess, they'll wait with perfect patience while you try again.

My last little comment for this blog will be to advise you all of a big secret that I discovered very early on, and continued to relearn on a daily basis during my travels; I'm pretty much wrong about everything. No, seriously, it's true. I didn't believe it either, but you should come to terms with it. Every one and every place was unlike anything I'd expected. This has motivated me to see the rest of the world for what it really is, not for what I have always thought it would be.

I suppose I'll pick up this blog again when I head over to London and roam around Europe, but for now, this is the end. Thanks to everyone for reading and a big thanks to those that took the time to comment. I did start this thing just for me but I think knowing that other people were interested made me work a bit harder, which is something that I'll personally benefit from when I look back on this in the future.

See you all very soon!
Mike

Kobe - Day 3

It only ever seems to happen when I'm high up in a building. But my experience in Tokyo did prepare me somewhat. At about 4am this morning I was awake, just because I couldn't sleep, and then I felt the whole building move under me. It's really quite a difficult feeling to explain, but the eeriest part was not the feeling itself but the noise the building made as it was twisted out of its natural position. This quake was certainly weaker and shroter then the one in Tokyo, but while I didn't have quite such an extreme reaction this time、I still had to sit there for the next 30 minutes trying to get my heart rate back down.

Kobe is a small-ish city of about 1.4 million located just west of Osaka. In fact, the two cities of will probably one day just end up becoming one city, I'd say. It's geography is very similar to Hong Kong's Wan Chai and Central districts; you basically have a huge mountain range surrounded the city, a 5km stretch of the city itself, and then a bay. If the buildings here were all more than 50 stories, it'd be a perfect replica. Kobe is now one of Japan's three major port cities but has a long history of being the original port city. When Japan first opened up it's waters to international traders, they were all required to port and reside in Kobe, and were forbidden from travelling to the rest of Japan.
I have a friend who lives in Kobe (Azusa) that I arranged to catch up with while I was here and I'm really glad that she was able to act as my guide. I saw a great deal of Kobe that I might have otherwise missed out on.

Our day started out relatively late at about 1pm, and we headed down to get some lunch in Sannomiya, the central area of Kobe that is about 20 minutes walk from my hotel. After which we caught up with one of Azusa's friends and headed out to the port and jumped on a spiffy looking boat for a 60 minute cruise around the bay and then back in. It was a beautiful trip and given the weather yesterday (cold, rainy, windy) we somehow managed to be the only 3 people on a boat capable of comfortably holding 100 people. We enjoyed a $2 can of Asahi Super Dry each and enjoyed the view.

After getting back to port Azusa's friend had to head back to Osaka so Azusa and I headed out to a touristy part of town basically called 'foreigner village'. It's the location of several houses built by western merchants who settled in Kobe and this place has become something of a way for Japanese tourists to see what live is like overseas without having to go overseas. I have to say, the buildings were pretty authentic and they smelt like old wooden western buildings. One of them, the english-style house, had a bar built in and we proceeded to drink there for a few hours.

After we both started to get a little bit toasted, we were picked up by more of Azusa's friends and headed out to a buffet restaurant on the 24th floor of the building overlooking the bay. After all the difficulty I've had reading menus in Japan, I was extremely thankful for the opportunity to look at my food before ordering/taking it. However, it didn't help me too much, since some things were unidentifiable for me. I did however try whatever looked alright and came out with a few interesting but altogether delicious choices, including some sort of egg cake.

Following dinner we headed up one of the mountains to a lookout where we could see all of Kobe, as well as Osaka far off in the distance.

There isn't really anything too interesting to report here, but I had a great day nonetheless. I'm about to head back to Tokyo for my last night in Japan before returning home. I always thought that this would be a sad part of this journey, but it isn't that bad. After 5 weeks of drinking, walking, and cycling, I'm looking forward to going home for a bit of a holiday!

Kobe - Day 1

The Crowne Plaza in Kobe easily wins the title of best hotel in this whole holiday. For a fair price of $140, I have a great view overlooking all of Kobe, a PC in my room with free internet access, and otherwise exceptional facilities. But, I didn't come here to look at hotels so I'm going to write this post and go for a walk around this beautiful looking city.

Osaka finished up very nicely on Sunday and I have received probably the best souvenier that I could get on this holiday. Our friends at the local darts bar had a relatively quiet night at work so we spent a fair bit of time talking with them, and played a few games together. Towards the end of the evening, they suggeted that they record a game with all five of us in the bar (three staff, James, and I) using this little DVD recording system. It was pretty impressive. The screen is split into three sections. The whole right half of the screen offers of a view of the player facing the board and the left half is split again offering a view of the score board (its all electronic) in one half and a view of the darts board in the other half. I came last, but I really don't mind (I still have the higher fucking score than you James, so shutup! :P). At the end, I walked away with a (free) DVD to record the great experience as well as the inappropriate gestures I was making at James while his back was turned.

I transferred to Hiroshima on Monday and after 5 days of seemingly endless drinking I decided it was time to just relax a little. I checked in to my hotel at 3pm, ordered a movie, and read a book. I know it sounds boring but the time out was rather necessary.

On Tuesday I caught up with another of my old Japanese teachers from Melbourne, Miki. She had only returned to Japan a few weeks earlier but I had missed her farewell party in Melbourne due to a bout of the flu. After meeting up at about 9am we headed out towards the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, and the A-Bomb Dome. What was a bright and lively conversation of broken Japanese and English instantly turned into a quiet, respectful silence as we rounded the corner and the dome came into view. That silence continued almost uninterrupted until we left the museum nearby 3 hours later.

I had seen countless photos of the A-Bomb Dome. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, it was one of the very few buildings left standing when the first nuclear weapon was used in war, at 8:15am August 6 1945 (JST). The bomb detonated almost directly above what was an industrial convention hall at the time and it is theorised that this is why the shockwave wasn't able to knock it down, because there was more downward pressure than sideways pressure. Other concrete buildings survived, but most were at least 500m (horizontally) from the hypocentre. The photos I had seen never seemed to capture the building quite the way you can see it up close. It has been preserved exactly as it was after the explosion, and presumably no bodies would even have need to be removed since at that point, there would have been no bodies or anything other than bricks, warped steel, and concrete.

The dome is at the edge of a large memorial area which also incorporates a memorial to the victims, a childrens memorial, a museum, and several other attractions. I visited the museum which was simply incredible. The displays progress through talk of how Hiroshima came to be involved in the war and subsequently a target, and then covered the detonation of the bomb, its immediate effects, international proliferation of nuclear weapons, and the long term effects of radiation. The atomic attacks on Japan are something I've learnt about in the past but there was still plenty of new information.

One thing I hadn't known was that at the time of the bombing thousands of school children had been mobilised to work in the city demolishing wooden houses to create fire breaks for the air raids that were soon to come. The irony of this is that when the bomb exploded, everything within 2km (including these children) was either incinerated or instantly caught fire when temperatures reached over 2000 degrees celcius instantly. The fire breaks would do nothing. An extensive area of the museum displays clothing and other items that these children had when the bomb exploded. There is a further display that depicts those children who were unfortunately far enough to away to have not been incinerated instantly but close enough to have been exposed to such temperatures that their skin had literally melted off their bodies and hung loose as they walked the streets in search of help. Many of them died within 48 hours after their burns and extreme radition exposure took its toll. Those who managed to live beyond 6 months were likely to spend the rest of their lives not only emotionally ruined but also physically disabled, unable to concieve healthy children, and will most likely live short and painful lives.

The bombing may have ended the war and saved more lives than it took, but I think it is too often considered only in terms of dead, injured, or living. The attacks in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for example, did not claim as many lives as the firebombing of Tokyo. However, fires were extinguished, the injured may be healed, the war ended, and Tokyo was rebuilt. There are still over a hundred thousand people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki who continue to experience unimaginable pain to this very day. That pain will continue with the deformaties passed to their children for generations. But the war ended over 60 years ago.

I had always been aware that nuclear weapons were the most powerful destructive force we had ever created. I am now, however, deeply aware that they are also the most inhumane device that we as a species have ever created.

Osaka - Day ... umm ...

The space bar on this thing is smaller than the shift key!

Osaka, it was explained to me, is a lot like Melbourne. The layout of the city, style of buildings, scenery, gardens, and more have nothing in common at all. But there is one vibe you get in Melbourne that is perfectly replicated in Osaka. The people here are just nice. Not to say people in other cities aren't nice (Hello Brisbane), but Melbourne is the only place before Osaka that I have been to where you can sit down for a drink and get to know the people at the table across from you. Yes, this happens in other cities, but it is almost unavoidable in Melbourne and Osaka.

This is not only the first holiday I've ever really had, it's also my first time overseas. I am travelling alone. So I've had to learn along the way how to travel. I know that sounds like a silly thing to be saying, but I really had no idea if I wanted to do tours, go to museums, amusement parks, bars, walking around, etc etc. But I'm happy to say that I've finally found my groove in aimless wandering. I've done it ever since Hong Kong, and I love it more and more every time. Yes, I have an agenda to a certain extent, things that I want to see, so i walk in the general direction of those things and then figure it out along the way. Getting lost is a reward within itself.

Yesterday is a shining example of how enjoyable this approach can be. I had two things that I knew I wanted to see in Osaka: Osaka Castle and the business district. These were both north, so without even looking at a map, I hit the road and headed in the general direction of north. I walked main roads, side streets, parks and laneways for a good 90 minutes. I had no idea where I was, but as I later discovered, I was headed north west. I had eventually hit, without even realising it, Osaka Castle. I came to the intersection of a convenience store, and a good looking park. I decided to pop in and get some sunscreen and water, and sit down in the park for a minute.

Identifying sunscreen in Japan is an experience in itself.

As I walked into the park I scanned around for a place to sit down when I noticed the castle off in the distance. If I hadn't stopped for sunscreen I would have walked right past it, but that's part of the experience I think.

Osaka castle rests at the top of the hill and stands eight stories tall but not very wide, which is pretty impressive. But, it is actually now the third castle to be constructed at this point. The first was razed just 32 years (1615) after it was built when Japan was in a long period of cival war. 10 years later, the victor rebuilt the castle and grounds which stood until 1868 when it was destroyed by retreating armies to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Meiji restoration's forces. It was rebuilt again a few years later, but is apparently smaller than it used to be.

You can walk into the castle and scale the 8 flights of steps or use the elevator. I opted for the steps. You then progress down the stairs and check out some various exhibits. Plenty of English to be found so a fair bit of time can be spent here familiarising yourself with the history of the castle, and as a result, Osaka. My favourite part, however, was certainly the castle grounds. The castle itself was part of a heavily fortified complex (ironically designed to be impregnable but conquered only 3 decades after its construction) and as you enter the complex you pass through not one but two moats and a gorgeous expanse of gardens. Had I been here two weeks ago when the Sakura were in bloom it could possibly have been one of the most beautiful man made places on earth.

I spent about an hour at the castle and strolling around the grounds before stumbling upon the business district which was just on the western side of the castle complex. After another 30 minutes of walking here I stopped for a drink and realised that I'd only been wandering for 3 hours but I had already seen the two items on my agenda. As a result, I decided to just walk and randomly picked directions to go in for another hour or so, and managed to get pretty lost inside a market. By 4 o'clock I had hit the river and deducted that I must be heading back south and this path would eventually lead me back towards home.

This is where it gets pretty stupid. I have a compass, but for most part I just navigate by the sun when i'm doing my walking. It's been effective, but I just wasn't thinking at this point and decided that if it was 4pm and the sun was on my left, then I must be heading south. Which is completely wrong. I was walking further and further way from my hotel and realised this in two stages. First, I crossed a river that I didn't remember crossing before. Second, I went into a district of town that was unlike anything you would expect to find in the central parts of the city. As I strolled on, I found rail yards, warehouses, low-low cost housing (still decent in very-wealthy Japan). I decided I was lost, but I really didn't care.

Or at least, I didn't care until I walked into a railing on the street and my leg started hurting. I was off day dreaming about something and looking at the sights when I suddenly smacked my thigh and knee straight into a metal post sticking about 3ft out of the ground, barely missing some very important possessions of mine. Fortunately the street was deserted and nobody saw me. My pride was a lot more wounded than my leg was ever going to be.

It was 6pm at this point, and I decided it was time to catch a train home. It took another 30 minutes to find a train station. I did the math on the train, and realised that, after taking away lunch and the castle, I had been doing nothing but walking for 5 hours, and even then I was walking around the castle but just at a much slower pace. It feels good.

Last night was another night at the darts bar, meeting the lovely folk of Osaka and having a little too much to drink and stumbling home far too late. Today I awoke late and went to the park with my friend to partake in some strange sport that he's got himself addicted to... he calls it hockey. I dunno.

Tonight, however, brings a sour note to my trip in Japan. James, my sport friend, is one of the fabulous people I met through my Japanese classes in Melbourne and I have had a great time catching up with him in Osaka and earlier, Hakuba. However James and I are now headed in entirely separate directions with him staying in Japan until May next year (hopefully longer) and me running off the London. It may be 1 to 3 years before we're in the same place at the same time, so tonight will be something of a big deal. Tomorrow I'm off to Hiroshima.

Hope you're all happy and healthy,
Mike

Osaka - Day 3, maybe 4

Osaka seems determined to make itself nothing but a blur. Or, I seem determined to make Osaka nothing but a blur. Regardless, it is officially 6:58am in this amazing but deadly city. Osaka, for me, holds one esteem above all others; my most embarrassing Japanese stuff-up to date.

But, I get ahead of myself.

Kyoto Day 2 was quite exceptional. Despite the pain it caused me to do so, I hopped on my bike and rode around the city from site to site. Personally, I found the tourist attractions in Kyoto to be rather "eh...", but they were beautiful and amazing nonetheless. However, I felt the need for something a bit more substational than temples and castles. As a result, I headed out on my bike for a 10km ride up the eastern side of Osaka, enjoying the beautiful scenery and falling Sakura flowers as I went along. Before I knew it, I had ridden from the middle part of Osaka to it's northern most point, where the city met an impassable mountain range. I proceeded to ride back for about 15km, since I managed to get lost along the way and ended up further west than I ever needed to be. It was an incredibly enjoyable ride though. After returning my bike, I headed back to my hotel where I enjoyed a few (rather expensive) Grasshoppers before heading to bed rather early.

Although it lacked anythign specifically interesting to me, Kyoto is nonetheless an extremely beautiful city, especially in spring, and I highly recommend it. However, if you do go, I think a bike is the best way to get around. Kyoto is unique to Japan in that it's major attractions are not necessarily close to major train stations. Whether you are like me and not terribly intersted in temples and castles, or if that really is your thing, you'll find Kyoto by bike to be an incredible (and convenient) experience.

After waking up bright and or early in Kyoto, I headed back for the short trip to Osaka by bullet train, which takes only about 15 minutes all up. Barely enough time to get comfortable. I checked in to my hotel, and, believe it or not, tried to find a place where I could rent another bicycle using directions provided by the hotel. The directions where however quite useless, so I ended up on foot for the afternoon.

My friend James joined me about about 3pm, helped me to find a bank to exchange some travellers cheques, and then I went with him to do some shopping, which seems to be 50% of what you can do in Osaka (the other 50% is eat and drink). I was happy to know that my hotel had a laudry room and I briefly washed my clothes (since Hakuba I had been washing them with soap and a bathtub) and stepped out with James for a night of dinner and drinking.

It was the drinking part where everything went kind of wrong. I hadn't really had too much, but I had more than enough to be at a point where my abilities with the language were far out the window. By 9, we were back at our 'local' where we enjoyed the always friendly service and some darts. Everyone seemed happy to see us return, for which I was glad.

Now, I need to go into a little bit of detail here. It's not uncommon, even in English, when a good mate says wrong against you in a casual way, that you might want to say 'Hey, are you looking for a fight?'. James said wrong agaist me. I wanted to ask him this very question. Explaining this properly seems beyond me now at 7am, however.

You see, the word for 'fight' (kenka) and 'marry' (keikon) are all too similar (to me) in Japanese, and 'fight' is a word I've only learnt on my holiday. After James' slightly offensive remark of some kind, I wanted to say to him 'Do you want to fight me?', which would have been slightly funny in the situation. But I actually asked him 'Do you want to marry me?', in the loudest voice I could manage.

Needless to say, the whole bar heard me. I spent the remainder of the night trying to assure everyone present that I was, in fact, not gay. Even after spending the whole night there, I'm still not sure that they all believe me after my sudden marriage proposal. It's a great place, but I doubt anyone there will ever treat me with respect again.

I am, however, getting pretty good at darts. :)

Kyoto - Day 1

I've learn't a tremendous amount on this trip, and today was no exception. Today I learnt that I must hate myself, or at least my body. It's the only explanation that I can fathom for the suffering I cause myself.

Somewhere in the last 72-hours I left Tokyo and headed down to Osaka. It's not really clear to me, but I have receipts from hotels that show me that it really did happen. My friend from Hakuba is now living in Osaka so it didn't take very long at all before we were in a bar. For the whole of my time in Osaka, I really didn't see anything about Osaka. In fact, I've been in Kyoto now for only 6 hours, but I know it a hundred times better than Osaka :P

I did, however, have a tremendous time. Darts are surprisingly popular in Japan and they have these wicked electronic boards that automatically tally up the score so the player doesn't have to think (the main reason I never really liked darts in the past). James, myself, and a friend of his stumbled upon a darts bar on Sunday night and proceeded to get friendly with the staff. I now have a local in Osaka, a fact of which I'm rather proud. We drank until 4am, following which we stumbled home and I proceeded to sleep until 4pm that day.

After getting up at 4pm, we were at a restaurant enjoying some Shochu by 6pm. Our local darts bar had a competition running until 10, so we spent until then staying downstairs at a middle-eastern themed bar and enjoy some Shisha. This was a first for James and I, but it was surprisingly not too bad. It is essentially a very light flavoured tobacco smoked from a rather elaborate looking bong. Obviously, it's clean, otherwise I wouldn't have touched it. But it was not harsh or strong, had a nice grape flavour, and lasted us about an hour. I wouldn't really go out of my way to find it again, but none the less, it was a good experience.

At about 11 we were back in the darts bar, chatting with the staff and allowing them to play with us as well. We had our collective arse handed to us. It was still fun, however, I managed to get 17 shades of off-my-face by about 4am, when we did the traditional 'hang out outside a 7-eleven, eat microwave burgers, talk far too loud, but try to convince the locals that we're americans' thing.

4 hours later, it was time to check out and head to Kyoto. My hangover wasn't all that bad, but it was still rather apparent, the lack of sleep did my no favours, and the 20kg pack on my back felt a lot heavier than it really was. Regardless of this, I decided to walk the 5km from Kyoto station to my hotel. And, I enjoyed it!! What made this even more strange was that even after a 5k walk carrying 20kg on my back, I decided I'd like to get a bike, of all things, and ride around Kyoto. Part of me knew this was a stupid, stupid idea. But another part of my knew that I really would love it and it would be heaps of fun. And it was!

Kyoto, I have to be honest, was never going to be my favourite destination. In fact, if not for the fact that everyone told me I had to go, I probably wouldn't have gone at all. But, like most things I wasn't sure I wanted to do, I am now immensely glad that I did.

Kyoto has a population of about 1.4 million, and sits only about 60 minutes drive from Osaka. It was, for almost a thousand years, the capital of Japan until that privilege was moved to Tokyo in the late 1800's. It has resisted every attempt to modernise and sit as a rare jewel, offering a glimpse of the Japan that was, so long ago.

It is also a buddhist mecca, of sorts. Housing over 2000 temples. Not really my sort of thing, but they are incredibly beautiful.

I've got a one hour limit here, sorry, and I think it's time for me to go, so I'll cut this short. I really like Kyoto, and highly recommend it. Especially if you like the arty or religious stuff. I also strongly suggest that when you get here you rent a bike. It costs about $15/day, but the city is nice and flat. Kyoto is ideal for a cycling tour since it's major attractions are not as close to each other as they are in other cities. Cycling in Japan is unlike cycling in Australia. Helmets are never worn, but bikes and pedestrians share footpaths with ease. Most footpaths in Kyoto also have half of the pavement allocated to bikes, and the other half pedestrians.

One last quick point, Lonely Planet really is shit. It is thoughtful enough to offer the location of a bicycle parking lot (they really have these) on the map, but somehow the idea of putting a bicycle rental store on the map just passed them by, not quite entirely. They mention that there are bicycle rental stores, near the train station, but that's it! What good is a bicycle parking lot if I can't get my hands on a freakin bike!

Less than two weeks now! Miss you all heaps! I hope everyone is happy and healthy.
Mike

Tokyo - Day 10

I can only describe it as it was describe to me. It took considerable searching to find any document in English to support what I first found to be an incredible truth. But, it is, true. I may never use chopsticks again.

Today I met up with a friend of mine; Ken, and my first Japanese teacher in Melbourne; Sayaka. Sayaka is a very, very good teacher but unfortunately for me she left Melbourne too soon. I'm grateful for the opportunity to meet her in Japan, but not necessarily for the custom that she has introduced me to.

Let me start by going back a couple of months. It's become my own custom to enjoy lunch at my desk at work by eating some Katsu Don. Katsu Don is a traditional Japanese dish (traditionally prepared, in Melbourne, by Chinese people). It is a bowl of rice, topped with a crumbed pork cutlet, and an egg. It is, when cooked properly (ie, by Japanese people), thoroughly delicious. One day I happed to stand my chopsticks up-right in my bowl of Katsu Don. When my boss caught me doing this, he proceeded to explain to me that if I did this in Japan, it would be thought of as extremely rude. I asked him to explain why, but at the time he didn't know exactly why, but just warned me not to do it.

Tonight, I asked my Japanese friends to explain this concept. I started by sticking Sayaka's chopsticks up-right in the middle of her bowl of Katsu Don (I had already finished mine), and asked her to explain why this was rude. She prompty removed them, telling me that she couldn't even bear to look at it. I apologised profusely, but asked her why. The information that came to me after this made me feel sick to my stomach.

I could never, and will never, judge another culture as wrong or right (see Yasukuni), but the following concepts, wehther wrong or right, made me feel rather disjointed. I regret that they did, but this is simply the way that I felt and I cannot deny it.

First, and not very disturbing, is the answer to my original question. In a traditional Buddhist funeral, a bowl heaped over with rice is offered to the departed, with two chopsticks standing upright in the centre of the bowl. As a result, when eating any ordinary meal, you should never rest your chopsticks upright in the centre of your own bowl. To do so is akin to a Christian woman wearing a black veil anywhere but to a funeral. Imagine seeing such a woman wearing a black veil to the grocery store. It's just a little bit too strange.

But, my teacher did not stop there and proceeded to explain a second Buddhist funeral ceremony. While I thank Sayaka for not sharing this with me while I was eating, I had still only just finished. I'm not really adverse to the practices of another culture, but this one was so... different... that it made me want to remember my delicious Katsu Don experience in the bathroom, in reverse.

I need to take a moment here before I can adequately explain this next ceremony as it was explained to me...

A second Japanese custom that is extremely offensive is the touching of two pairs of chopsticks. Say, for example, your friend offers you a selection of meat at a Japanese dinner. For you to collect such an offering with your own chopsticks is incredibly rude and disturbing to the Japanese people. "Why?", I asked, completely confused as to how such a thing could be considered anything but like offering meat from a fork to a another fork or a spoon. Well, it goes as follows...

In very traditional Japanese burial ceremonies, the departed is cremated to a point that the majority of their bones are still present, and not completley incinerated. As a group, the family and close friends of the departed will sit around the ashes and pick the bones out of the remains, starting with the lower bones and moving to the upper bones of the body. This is to ensure that the deceased is placed upright in the urn. The bones are passed around from one pair of (special) chopsticks to another, and then eventually passed into the urn by the last member of the ceremony to receive them. The last bone is typically the bone of the Adam's Apple (or whatever the equivalent bone is), which is held in a higher regard because it resembles a "little buddha".

This ceremony is very sacred and extremely solemn for the Japanese people, and my friends have both taken part in such a ceremony. I used the word 'traditional', which should not for a moment be confused with 'uncommon'. Personally, I consider myself a devout Athiest, but I have no reservations in celebrating the cultures of various religions. Recently, I was priviledged to take on the role of Best Man in a very Baptist wedding, and I greatly enjoyed the experience and opportunity to honour my friends in the culture that they were accustomed to. However, I am not sure if I could ever take part in a ceremony such as this.

But this is the point, this is Japan, and this is travelling. I wanted to open my eyes to the various and varying cultures of the world. And this has certainly done just that.

Tokyo - Day 9

The hot canned coffee poll is quickly becoming redundant. I've passed the 50 mark (seriously), and it won't be long before I reach the final tier of 150+. I accept that challenge, I'm already at the point where my travelling basically involves bouncing from vending machine to vending machine. Think Fry in Three Hundred Big Boys.

I've put a new poll on, one that matches today's event. I won't tell you exactly how I reacted, I'll leave it up to you to tell me what perception all my friends have of me. Needless to say, I looked like a tard.

Earthquakes are very common in Japan, but for the most part the are mere tremors. The Japanese also have their own measurement scale, called Shindo. Being an Australian, I've never had the experience of feeling the earth literally move, and I have to say the whole thing was very unnerving. It was even more unnerving based on where I was at the time that it happened. But I'll get to that.

I've reached a point in Tokyo where I've done everything I had hoped to do, and there's nothing left to do here that really interests me. So I've moved me plans to go to Osaka and Kyoto forward by a couple of days, and will spend the rest of this weekend just catching up with friends and enjoying the wonderful food and drink that is available.

Today I caught up with a friend of my housemates, whom I met at their wedding back in January. She speaks almost no English so this was a huge challenge for me, as I couldn't back down to English or simply nod and walk away like I was getting accustomed to. No, I had to speak Japanese. As much as my head hurt, I feel like I did a pretty decent job at carrying a conversation in another language. But it wasn't a very natural sounding conversation.

You see, I've found that there are two levels of Japanese that I can speak at. One is the really boring, totally useless, beginner stuff. You can't really make a friendly conversation out of this stuff. Imagine sitting down with a good friend of yours and starting a conversation with 'I like dogs, do you like dogs?', or 'Yesterday I met Jack. Jack got fat'. In fact, the only useful one-sentence conversation I've come across is "I'm drunk".

The other level of Japanese sits more in that intermediate range, where I am still strugging. But this is the stuff that a half-decent conversation is made of. While I can run off the beginner stuff without too many problems now, saying something like "I was surprised that when I was in northern Japan, people there seemed to avoid me" is much more difficult. After two or three attempts, the listener can understand what I'm trying to say, but it in English it would sound more like "Surprised! When I in north Japan, people afraid me was!". Think of that nice Chinese guy that does your laundry.

I had hoped that my friend would be able to show me some sights and take me somewhere nice and traditional for dinner. I'm selfish like that. I know it shouldn't have surprised me, but given that she lived over 90 minutes from Tokyo itself, she hadn't seem much of the city for a while. A bit of a role reversal took place, and I found out about some places I had visited that she hadn't, so I took her to those places and showed her around. I couldn't let the opportunity to take someone along to the lookout that I visited two days ago go by. It was again approaching sunset, so off we went.

This is where it happened. The lookout, to reiterate, is on the 53rd floor of the Mori Tower in Roppongi. It's a new building, and the earthquake was relatively small by Japanese standards. It measured at a 3 on the Shindo scale, which translates as barely fucking perceptable. I have my own earthquake measurement scale, based on my own experiences with earthquakes. Since this was my first time, on my scale this translates more as oh my god, I'm going to die. At first I thought maybe it was just wind, somehing I had felt once before in my apartment and that was pretty unnerving, but this lasted for far too long. What's more, the building wasn't swaying in one direction, but all directions.

Really, it wasn't strong. While the building moved (I think) quite considerably, it wasn't strong enough to make anything else move. We were sitting down having a drink watching the city, and it wasn't even strong enough to make the bottles move. Nevertheless, I freaked a little, mostly because it didn't occur to me what it was. Neither my friend nor I knew the word for this in each others language, so she typed it into a translator on her mobile, and showed me the translation of 'it was earthquake'. Childish as I know it seems, I wanted to bolt down the stairs. I felt like there was this spectre looming even after the shaking had stopped; 'what if it comes to finish me off', I thought.

I'm going to cut myself off right there, because I know how retarded I sound. I'm just telling you how it really happened. I won't, however, tell you what my real reaction was just yet. I'll leave it for you to vote.

In lieu of any real news to offer you, I'd like to branch out now and talk about two things that really have surprised my about Tokyo, and Japan in general.

First and foremost - trains. Connex/QR needs to be flown up to Japan to get an idea of how a rail system should be run. The defensive argument here would be that, yes, Tokyo has a better railway system because it is bigger. Bullshit. Tokyo should have a worse railway system for precisely that reason. There are at least 30 surface and subway rail lines in Tokyo, and easily over 200 stations. It took me a couple of days to break out of the habit of running for a departing train, until a friend of mine made the astute (and obvious) statement of 'umm, there'll be another one in like 3 minutes', and there was.

There are numerous efficiency improvements that Tokyo has embraced, which I sincerely hope Australian rail companies will follow suit on. First, in the idea of the Yamanote line. This is basically a huge circle in the middle of Tokyo that just goes round and round to every major stop. As a tourist, this was incredbly useful because all of the common tourist stops (Tokyo, Akihabara, Ueno, Asakasa, Harajuku, Nihonbashi, Ikebukuro, Shinjuku and Shibuya) are on this line, and those that aren't (namely Ginza and Roppongi) are only a one or two station transfer away. I'd love to see something like this in Melbourne.

The second great efficiency is six-door trains. I've seen these only on the Yamanote line so far, but they're a huge improvement on the two-door trains in Melbourne and Brisbane. When a train arrives at a station in Tokyo, they play this little jingle (different for every station) and you have until the jingle ends to get on. That jingle lasts only about 5 to 10 seconds. A six-door carriage makes this surprisingly possible.

The other little bit I have reserved for a slow news day is toilets. The whole concept of an assembly line must have been lost on loo makers in Japan. No two toilets, public or private, that I have visited are the same. The only thing that seems to be a trend is that everything, of course, is electrical. No chains to pull on at a urinal: when you walk away, it flushes itself. The option of hot or cold water at a tap is controlled by a button, not a tap. And, outside of your hotel/home, you never have to use a tap to control water flow. It's all automatic.

But simply the coolest thing I've seen in Japan is their version of a air towel. None of those 40w air towel crap. The air towel machines in Japan basically involve putting both hands inside a box, and letting this monster blow away your top layer of skin. Within 5 seconds, your hands are dry.

I know the above little tidbits are really quite boring, but I've put them in hear more for my benefit. When I finally get back to Aus, I want to remember even those little details that make Japan so unique.

Take care everyone,
Mike

Tokyo - Day 7

I made a mistake. An error in timing. A fucking huge faux pas...

I caught the Tokyo Metro during rush hour.

I think it was the US Marines or Army Rangers who originally came up with the statement of 'leave no man behind'. But, this would be just as suitable for the Tokyo railway systems. It doesn't matter if the train is already full, and the people waiting on the platform could fill a separate train on their own, everybody gets on the train. Nobody gets left behind. I couldn't reach a hand rail, but I didn't need to, the sheer pressure of all the bodies around me was enough to keep me standing up right. I found the whole thing to be pretty remarkable, but it was the crush when everyone wanted to get off at one of the major stations that was the most surprising part. You can imagine this, however. Just think of how much enthusiasm you personally would have at the prospect of finally getting off a train that was almost this busy. Okay, so it wasn't that bad, but it was no more than 10 people from being at that point.

So the last few days have been pretty relaxing. Yesterday I felt like I might finally have been ready to shrug off a cough that's been nagging at me since Hakuba, so I tried to rest up and do some reading, only stepping out of my hotel for a mere 7 hours. The highlight of the day was a trip to Ginza, the Mayfair of Tokyo. It's also the home of Japan's first Apple Store. I was remarkably excited about getting a chance to visit an Apple Store. Anybody who works in IT would know that these places have a certain reputation as being sexy and down right cool.

The reputation is not deserved. Unless you're one of these folks with a premenant semi for Steve Jobs, the Apple Store is really not very impressive. Yes, it has 5 floors filled with sexy Apple products. But, two floors are for presentations, and the other three all look exactly the same! Try going to the Apple Store in Ginza and ask them where you can buy an iPod; Levels 1, 2, and 4. What about a MacBook; Levels 1, 2 and 4. Okay, now try a copy of OS X; You guessed it - Levels 1, 2, and 4. It really struck me that Apple has a store that's simply three times bigger than their entire product catalogue. Nevertheless, I gave myself over to the thrill of it and just kind of touched things, hoping nobody noticed the look on my face.

Today was all together far more interesting. I managed to get up before midday, which is a new one for me in Tokyo, and headed out to Ikebukuro. This is another of the major cities in Tokyo and has itself something of an inferiority complex. Ikebukuro has to be as well regarded as it can be, not that it really has very much substance. If cities in Tokyo were drivers, it would be the 5ft tall bald guy driving the convertible Astra. Ikebukuro has the second busiest station in Tokyo (second only to Shinjuku, which I'll tell you all about one day when I'm drunk enough to painlessly relive the tales of walking for an hour to try and find my exit only to give up and walk out on the wrong side and then walk around it instead of through it), it has two of the biggest department stores in the world, quite possibly the longest escalator you've ever seen, and what used to be the tallest building in Tokyo.

Shinjuku Station, by the way, is the busiest train station in the world and (barely) accommodates 3.5 million passengers per day.

Despite all these things that Ikebukuro would like to remind you that it can compensate with, I have to be honest, I really didn't find it very interesting. After 30 minutes of wandering around the station and surrounding areas, I saw an unusually flat part of Japan in the distance where no building could have stood more than 7 stories (and none less than 3). I decided this was a residential area and, keen to find out how the Japanese people lived and not just worked and played, I decided to take a walk through it. There wasn't really anything impressive, of course, but it was a good experience for me. One day I plan to live in Japan, so an insight in to how you would live here was a welcome one for me. The concept I came away with in the end was that if you want to live in Japan, bring as little as possible. Space is really limited in these little apartments, but convenience is abundant. Every block had vending machines and corner stores and of course, being Tokyo, a train station would never be too far away.

After a couple of hours of just walking I surfaced in a more commercial area again and decided it was time to head out to Yokohama, which had been on my list for quite some time. Unfortunately I didn't research this part very well and the main reason for my wanting to visit Yokohama actually wasn't in Yokohama at all, but in a smaller town to the south of it called Yokosuka. After WWII, the Americans used Yokohama as their primary base and for a while it was the service point of most of their Pacific fleets. I was hoping to get a glimpse of the USS Kitty Hawk which is forward deployed at Yokohama (I mean, Yokosuka) but that wasn't to be.

Nevertheless, Yokohama is a beautiful city. It's not actually part of Tokyo, but is just 30km from Tokyo itself so it falls into that Greater Tokyo Area. It has a population of 3.5 million and it was here that the Japanese first opened their ports to foreign interests. I started my time in Yokohama by taking a walk through a large shopping mall, hoping to find some food, and before long I had walked out the other side and stumbled upon a street performer. I noticed he had some fire sticks, so I was compelled to watch. Shortly after beginning his performance he asked every one to gather closer around and sit towards the front of the ampitheatre. I stood there, pretending I couldn't understand him (which surprisingly I could) and he looked at me and asked me to sit down in the front in English. I thought momentarily about pretending I was French or German, and decided to go with pretending I was French. I held up my hands in surrender, and went and sat down closer to the front.

The performance gradually moved into a magic show, which I have to admit was pretty incredible. As time progressed, he started to play with the fire, which made me very happy. In the end, he was standing on a 1ft long piece of wood that was resting on a moving cylinder. He balanced and tossed his fire sticks into the air. It was incredibly impressive and easily the best street performance I'd ever seen. He'd earned himself 1,000 yen (10 bucks) from me at the end of the show.

After the performance (which I am very glad I video taped a lot of) I proceeded to walk along the bay, which was simply beautiful. After a while, I headed in the direction of China Town, which my Lonely Planet told me would be worth a look. To be complete surprise, Lonely Planet finally got something right. China Town in Yokohama makes China Town in Melbourne look like China Hut. But somehow I found myself thinking about Taiwan and Hong Kong, and realised that China Towns the world over really weren't very much like the real thing at all. I think I might have spoilt myself by visiting Taiwan especially, and now China Town in Melbourne might lose some of its special appeal. But with that said, Melbourne still has menus I can read, which earns it a lot of points. :)

As beautiful as Yokohama was, and as relaxing as the walk around Ikebukuro was, it all paled in comparison to this evening. I headed over to Roppongi, which is well knwon as the foreigners space in Tokyo. It's a big place for expats and has a night scene that matches. But by far the best attraction in Roppongi is the Mori Tower observation deck. One thing that hadn't really occured to me about Tokyo is that while there are few buildings at less than 5 stories, there are even fewer buildings with more than 50 stories. Skyscapers are certainly here, but Tokyo doesn't seem to have made the effort that other international cities have in ensuring that they can have the tallest buildings in the world. So even though the observation deck at Mori Tower was on the 53rd floor, it was perfect for viewing the city.

I walked out of the elevator without even really thinking about it. I think I might be starting to get used to being amazed. But, after a couple of seconds of actually seeing the view, it occured to me that I was seeing the view. Floor to ceiling windows opened out into the expanse that was Tokyo, and Roppingi is close to its centre. I'm glad I left this to the 7th day in Tokyo, because it was all the more exciting to try to recognise all the different places I had been in the last week.

I'd timed this pretty well, too. It was about 5 when I'd stepped out of the elevator and the sun was already beginning to set. I walked to a bar located on the observation deck, grabbed a beer, and sat down in front of one of the windows. Slowy, over the course of an hour, I watched over Shibuya and Shinjuku as the city transformed itself from a booming economical powerhouse to a cosmopolitan utopia. Lights flickered on, big-screen billboards invaded synapses with their dazzling displays, highways cramped up, and the biggest city in the world moved flawlessly from day to night.

Tokyo - Day 5

Today wasn't really like any other day on my holiday so far. While every day so far has been an incredible and happy experience, today was a serious and sobering affair.

After yet again catching up on years and years of sleep, I woke up, did some washing, and headed out of my hotel at around noon. I had planned to head out to the bay today but the rainy weather in Tokyo at the moment wasn't very accommodating. I decided it was a good day for an indoor event, and there was one very serious visit that I felt the need to make.

Yasukuni Jinja is a Shinto shrine located in Tokyo the cause of considerable controversy. Its existance is of significant importance to the Japanese people, but that same existance is a hinderance to the improving of relations between Japan and China. The reason? Yasukuni Jinja is a memorial to the Japanese war dead. The list of those enshrined there includes over 1000 war criminals responsible for atrocities during WWII. Visits to the shrine by members of the Japanese parliament have sparked outrage in China, Korea, and Taiwan. As I understand it, in the Shinto religion, the Japanese do not believe that one can be held accountable for their actions after they have died. Those in the Book of Souls and Yasukuni are remembered by the Japanese for giving their lives to Imperial Japan.

I feel compelled to respect the beliefs and traditions of any culture. The Japanese do not honour the crimes these people commited, but instead honour the memory that they gave their lives for
the country they loved. It's a really difficult situation, because despite my position that you should not always judge another culture as if it was your own, I cannot deny my feeling that honouring some of these people for their service to Imperial Japan is akin to honouring Hitler for his efforts in rebuilding a shattered German economy. I cannot say that Yasukuni is wrong or right. I simply cannot answer that question.

I spent a long time before coming to Japan trying to decide if I would include Yasukuni in my tour, or if I would boycott it like so many others have. In the end, a philosophy of mine that no educational opportunity should ever be refused won out. Knowledge is an innocent treasure, so long as it is offered to the right mind. My late grandfather fought the Japanese in Guinea during the war, and while I truly hope that he would not feel I was dishonouring his own memory by visiting Yasukuni, I sadly cannot hold that hope with conviction. This made my decision to visit particular difficult, and I almost didn't walk in the gate.

I am however glad I chose to include it. It was a good experience on many levels. Architecturally, it is a beautiful complex and the Sakura in bloom made it so much more beautiful. There is a museum that has displays in English and Japanese and it is easily one of the most informative and well laid out museums that I have ever been to. It took me over 2 hours to get through all the displays.

The museum starts right back at the beginning, with information on the first sightings of western ships in Japans waters, and how the Japanese people at the time responded to these. Japan was a highly isolated country and in its past, any ships from another land almost always resulted in an assault. The Americans, British, and Dutch wanted an opportunity to expand their trade and colonisation and the Japanese just wanted to be left alone. Eventually, the Japanese relented at the threat of war and opened their ports, which in turn changed the face of their country forever.

The tour walks through the various, clearly identifiable stages. The opening of ports bought in trade and opportunity but also caused outrage within Japan. Over the years, this outrage helped to overturn the exisiting political system in Japan and returned the country to the former system of imperialism, with the whole country united under the Emporer. The removed system was more like the fuedalisim of medival Europe, although there was a King (Emporer), the Lord and Barons (Shogunate) were mostly autonomous. In Japan, this new era is referred to as the Meiji period.

During the Meiji period Japan sought to modernise its country and went from rejecting the west to embracing it, and sent engineers, architects, linguists, and diplomats to western lands for periods of time where they would learn as much as possible and then return to impart that knowledge for the benefit of their own country.

At this point one can draw one of two distinctions. Some would say that Japan was concerned about colonised rule in Asia and began a process to liberate the colonised lands of Asia. Remeber that at this point (mid 1800s) all but China, Siam and Japan were under colonial rule. Others would say that Japan sought the same colonial and imperialistic ends as the west. It is not my place or desire to say which distiction is right or wrong.

Anyway, back on track. As the tour progresses it covers the modernisation of Japan, the building of an imperial navy, and then the almost overnight switch in the early 20th century from being a defensive nation to an offensive nation. There is, of course, a large section covering the events of WWII and I was at one point jolted back to a sober reality when I say a map of the Pacific outlining areas that Japan had attacked, and saw a few arrows heading towards Australia.

Towards the end of the museum there were countless photos and letters of war dead on display. Whilst the vast majority of these were in Japanese, there was one lone book of final letters home that had been translated into English. I have to admit that I found it very hard not to weep openly as I read letter after letter or officers, privates, ensigns, and kamikaze pilots knowingly write their last letters to their parents, wives, and siblings. One that will stick with me forever is a kamikaze pilot who was writing to his wife. The letter indicated that he was only recently married, but they had attempted to concieve a child before he was drafted. In the letter he asked his wife to ensure, should she be pregant, that the child receive a good education and if it was a boy, he would like his son to become a solider. I cannot begin to imagine the torment of writing your final letter to a wife you had loved only a short time, asking her to care for a child you weren't sure you had. The letter was written with a strength and conviction that I found incredible. It was the last letter that I could bear to read and with it I closed the book and moved on.

While I would like to recommend Yasukuni to you, I won't. Having read above I'm sure if you ever have the opportunity to visit, you will make the decision that is right for you and I won't try to influence that decision at all.

After leaving the shrine I headed out for a very, very long walk. Past the imperial palace and into places that I cannot remember. After about 3 hours I finally stopped walking and found that I was four towns over from where I started. It was a simply beautiful walk and fortunately the rain had stopped, so hopefully tomorrow the weather will be fine for even more walking and a trip over to Tokyo Bay.

Mike