Ginza

Well, I can afford to go to the movies here, but that's about it.

Kamakura

The many temples and shrines of Kamakura were busy preparing the the new years onslaught of worshipers, but it still made a pleasant day trip away from the claustrophobic streets of Tokyo.

I always feel a certain serenity when under the gaze of Daibutsu, but something strange was afoot which left me a little on edge.

The 47 Ronin

Sengakuji is home to the graves of the 47 Ronin. It all started at the Shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi's palace when Lord Asano took a swing at the Master of Protocol Kira Yoshinaka after he was insulted. He was then sentenced to death by seppuku. When his now masterless Samurai (ronin) heard of this they plotted to take revenge. A year later on December 14th 1702, a band of 47 ronin attacked Kira's Edo mansion and took him prisoner. He was offered the opportunity to commit seppuku but he politely declined. The leader of the ronin Oishi then took the same dagger that Asano had used to kill himself and removed Kira's head. The head was taken to Sengakuji where Asano was buried. After this, they then turned themselves in and were ordered to kill themselves. They were aged between 16 and 70.

The 47 Ronin are revered for their loyalty to their lord and have become the stuff of legend.

See here for more info: http://www.samurai-archives.com/ronin.html

And I've been there!

Blah Blah Most Controversial Blah Blah

Yes, Yasukuni Jinja in Kudanshita is the most controversial shrine in Japan all because every body who died due to any kind of war is enshrined there, including a number of war criminals such as the executed Prime Minister Hideki Tojo.

Apart from that, it's not very interesting.

To hear about it from the horses mouth, go here: http://www.yasukuni.or.jp/english/
From a CNN viewpoint: http://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/east/08/13/japan.shrine/
From a BBC viewpoint: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/1330223.stm

I just liked the wall of sake barrels.

Putting the Tokyo in Tokyo

Which is more impressive, the Imperial Palace (which you can only enter twice a year if you are willing to join the millions of others who want a look), the International Centre, or the Tokyo Station buildings?

None of the above, it's the mobile Starbucks of course.

Ueno

Home of museums and galleries, seedy arcade shopping, a park with no grass, lakes, a zoo, some charming temples, and a million bums.

Benzaiten is ruined by commercialism, Tosho-Gu is impressive for being the oldest original unrenovated temple in Tokyo, the Fox Shrine is weird and spooky, especially the altar set up in a tunnel in front of a dark hole in the wall covered by bars (I thought maybe there was a fox in there), the zoo is not worth mentioning (oops I just did), and everything else was ma-ma (so-so).

I did like this building though.

A Leisurely Cruise

Taking a cruise down the Sumida River, you can see such marvels as a bunch of bridges, some architecture, the Tsukiji Fish Markets, some blue plastic homeless "villages", Tokyo Tower, The Fuji TV building in Odaiba, and the multilevel Rainbow Bridge.

But my favorite part was concocting stories about the guy with a dyed brown perm, black polo neck with golden bling around his neck and on his fingers and black overcoat.

I believe he was a Yakuza underling about to take his two "acquaintances" under his wing by getting them addicted to crack that night and then putting them to work in a locked house.

So this is Christmas.....

This Christmas was not my first Christmas away from home, but it was my first Christmas away from Western culture. It was a disappointing experience.

Christmas tunes played incessantly from the first of November. Not only traditional carols sung by choirs and xmas pop by the likes of Mariah Carey and Christina Aguilera, but xmas muzak. This consisted of jazz, brass band, xylophone, hip hop, dixie, and god knows what else versions of all your favorites. Anyone from NZ will be surprised to hear I didn't hear a single Snoopy's Christmas!

If this wasn't bad enough, then came the decorations. The convenience store across the road from me hoisted a cardboard cut out of Santa in a sleigh up above the display shelves, and pasted disturbing pictures of people with presents (I'm thinking drawn by a local school) on the windows. Fake xmas trees appeared everywhere, lights were strung up, albeit spread very thin, around the place, and a very few stores had their windows painted.
This is as far as the similarities went. Christmas in Japan is all about commercialism. It is not a religious event. There is not a biblical scene to be seen. Ask about the birth of Christ, or even St Nick, and you will get a confused look.

Christmas Eve is a dating event - you must have someone to be with, and you be seen in the right place with the right people. Presents are secondary. The main traditional food at this time of year is "Christmas Cake", a sweet spongy confection that does not resemble the brandy soaked fruit cake of the West.

Here are some websites about Christmas Japan style:
http://www.japaneselifestyle.com.au/culture/christmas.html
http://gojapan.about.com/cs/christmasinjapan/a/chrismasinjapan.htm

As for me, I partook of a Christmas dinner in a British pub in Meguro. It had everything including eggnog, turkey, cranberry sauce, roast veggies, gravy, and brussel sprouts! And the price of the meal alone came to a staggering 5,000 yen! Still, Mum would be proud. I ate all the brussel sprouts.
Christmas day was spent in bed with a hang over.

Roppongi

Why does a small Pipe Dreams style store need such an awsome facade?

Ikebukuro

If you are into department stores, then Ikebukuro is the place for you. You can get lost in the worlds second and third largest department stores (The largest is in Yokohama), or spend a day in Sunshine City, a building that incorporates a shopping mall, movie theatre, museum, art gallery, planetarium, aquarium, and viewing deck.
What most people don't know is that Before Sunshine City was built in 1971, there was a famous prison called Sugamo on the very same spot. It was built in the 1920's to house political prisoners. After WWII it came under control of the US who then used it to house war criminals. A number of prisoners were hung here during this time.

You can read more about it here www.geocities.com/sugamo_prison/history.html

Asakusa

The biggest jandal of them all.

Ebisu

What the Dickens?

Shinjuku

Do you see what I see?

Shibuya

Don't ask, I don't know....

Yutenji

My two charges for the duration of my time in Tokyo are Dom and her son Sasuke, pictured below.
They live in Yutenji, a nice neighbourhood just off the Yamanote train line. Here's the view from the rooftop.

It's strange how living in the rural area of Niimi my one complaint was the noise of the traffic on the 180, yet on my first morning in Tokyo, I was kept up by the noise of numerous cat fights, duck fights, trains, and in the morning was awoken by a rooster that lives next door.

Having no choice but to rise early, I went for a walk in the grounds of the local Yutenji Temple. It was eerily empty and desolate. The wind blew through the power lines and clacked the wooden funerary tablets together. I was waiting for a tumbleweed to blow by.

A number of beheadings had recently occurred in the area.
Police are investigating.

It's a long way to Toki ii yo...

As I boarded my flight, the JAL staff presented me with a handcrafted birthday card made of leftover boarding passes, but it was not this, nor the insipid Christmas carols pan-piped into the cabin that was worrying me. The plane taking me to Tokyo was very small, with the engines and wings attached to the very rear of the aircraft. Just the kind of plane that appears in one of my all time favorite television shows, Air Crash Investigation.

Within minutes it was chocks away, and the ground crew were bowing and waving as we went barreling down the runway.
Goodbye Okayama.
How's it going Mt Fuji?

Hello Haneda.

I arrived without incident. Whilst lugging my bag through the crowds of foot traffic of three Tokyo train stations, I was struck by the difference in weather. While it was snowing a blizzard in Niimi, in Tokyo the sky was a perfect blue and sunny with a refreshing icy cold wind.

Let the good times roll....

Snow Business

Nothing going on here this week other than snow, snow, and more snow.

I am now experiencing lower temperatures than I ever have before, and getting around is becoming difficult. I wonder how people managed when electricity and cars weren't invented, and houses were made of bamboo, mud, and paper.

Having said that, there are still people living in houses constructed of mud and bamboo, and insulation is a concept the Japanese haven't quite grasped as yet.....

It has been snowing so hard in Niizato that today I felt like I was in one of those glass snow balls after a good shake.
The snow lends a depth to the surroundings I never noticed before by filling up all the empty space in the air. And unlike rain, you can focus on a single flake as it falls. If you're moving, you can get a wrap around view of that flake, which to me felt a bit like one of those 360 degree shots made famous by The Matrix.

Remember that Kaki tree I took a picture of previously.....?

Also today, as I was missioning from the train station to the school, I passed by a Japanese dog that always launches itself from it's kennel to yap at passers by. Today, during an attempt to startle me (I've worked out it's tactics now), the dog yapped so hard that a pile of snow fell from the garage roof and landed on the dogs head - classic.

Bright Lights, Big City

Friday night was spent in Niimi, visiting a izakaiya, or traditional Japanese drinking hole, an Okinawan restaurant/bar, and another variety of drinking establishment complete with Master and Mama-san.
The last place was a hoot, with the local patrons all being middle age or over, and full of sake cheer and sexual innuendo. One guy I spoke to was in his 60's, and had decided it would be easier for him to give me the Japanese name Yoko. He decided for himself that he would take the name John for the evening (A Beatles fan, perhaps?). We kept the owners up until 3am and yet Master still came outside and wiped the frost off our bicycle seats when we finally left. Now that is hospitality!

Saturday saw me heading into Okayama City to visit an orphanage. I was impressed with the facilities and the surrounding area; it wasn't at all what I had imagined an orphanage to look like. The day was filled with jump rope, sumo, rugby, soccer, basketball, hide and seek, and general milling about. Indoors there was games, food and present giving. This was the best part of the day, as I got to watch the kids playing with their new things - the little ones especially were brilliant. Some of them even preferred the boxes and bags the gifts came in. One boy was zooming around the room pushing a box containing a toy truck along the floor in front of him.

After this I took a walk to Asian Kitchen, where we were told our group was too big to come in. We were then turned away from two other izakayas despite a couple of groups of people leaving while we were waiting. Eventually we found a Chinese restaurant with that would be happy to serve us overpriced drinks and set meals. It was good to sit in a manageable circle facing each other hearing ridiculous stories.

From there we went looking for our next drinking hole, and found Gorilla Bar, which wasn't really a bar. It was more of a restaurant with a drink menu focus. The drink menu was huge and included such items as "the Pikachu" and something you drank using a plastic syringe. The idea was you sit at a table, and the bill is paid when the table leaves. However, we overwhelmed the place with foreigners, and the poor manager was nearly tearing his hair out wondering how to handle all the people queuing up to order drinks at a bar that wasn't a bar with no table to bill. He had to turn away a large number of Japanese clients that night. I wonder if the business did better than usual that night?

Following this of course there was Red Moon, and after everyone went home from there, Club Jam - easily the best sound system I have heard in Okayama so far, and the most fashionable bunch of people. All I had to do was say I knew "Mr Sugimoto" in order to get 500 yen off the 2,500 yen door charge. Then there was time for a feed before waiting at the station for two trains that never arrived, and a large argument with three JR employees. Fun fun fun.

This is the only photo I feel like posting.

Japan Strikes Again

Just when you thought it was safe.....

So this morning I got up at 5am and walked for 50 minutes in the rain with slushy grey snow soaking my feet just to get to Shingo. I walked up that sodden mountain to find - you guessed it - nobody there!!!

At the train station I wait for nearly three hours for the next train back to Niimi.

In Niimi I cycle to the Board of Education in the rain.

I let loose. "What the heeeelllllllll?!?!?!?!?!?!?!". "You don't have to go to school today" I'm told in Japanese, "there was too much snow and the power was cut off". Thanks a million. 7 hours too late, and no apology forth coming.

I was told to go home and warm up. Impossible to do seeing as I can't get the kerosene heater of death to work and no matter how much I ask no-one will help me with it. I mention how cold my apartment is.

My supervisor and his supervisor come home with me. They actually measure the temperature of the air with some electrical thingamy "Oh, it's only three degrees in here". I'm told "All you need to do is push this button" and shown the on/off button on the heater. Nothing happens. "Maintenance" ensues. It really doesn't work. It gets taken to the electrical store, where they're told the heater is due for an explosion any day and it's probably best to buy a new one - it'd cost the same as repairs. I then get a brand new heater, a lesson in how to fill it up with kerosene and how to get the kerosene from the pump at the petrol station, and a lesson in how to use it.

I can take the good with the bad.

White Christmas

Thanksgiving completely passed me by (must be because I'm Kiwi and have nothing to be thankful for), but this weekend, I was invited to share in a Christmas dinner with some of the Kiwis and Aussies in the prefecture. The dinner was held at one of the International Villas in Takebe which was very.......architectural. It was great to be able to say "aye" and "jandals" without getting a funny look, and to talk about places I knew in Melbourne and NZ, and even better was the food! My input was unfortunately only monetary (with the exception of the kumaras I helped peel), but what a feed! Real chicken and pork, real gravy, roast potato, real vanilla custard, apple pie......I am salivating just thinking about it.

The drive there and back was also memorable and interesting - I find that the country looks completely different once you get away from the train lines. Terraced hillsides and winding roads passing under skeletal branches. Everything had an orange hue. And now I know what Danger Cow means!

I also must report that Niimi experienced it's first snowfall, and of course it happened just as I was about to get on my bike and ride home from the station. I believe this is the first time I've ever actually seen the snow come from above. It was a bizarre sensation to have what I thought was rain tickle and stick to my face. After a few hours, flat surfaces were coated in a dusting of powder. I didn't think too much of it until the morning when I had to ride my bike to the station on an icy road with the snowflakes lazily drifting down just like in the movies. Niimi looks a lot nicer with its dinge buried under a coat of snow.

I've noticed in these mountains that the weather changes dramatically from valley to valley. This morning when I arrived in Niizato, the snow was coming down heavily, and it looked as if it had been snowing for months. Horrid Christmas tunes kept jangling in my head as I stomped and slushed and slid my way to school. My feet were soaked, and my nose was numb by the time I got there (a special thank you to all the teachers who drove past me waving as I walked the 25 minutes to school). I learnt that it had snowed over 30cm in the Niizato area, and was currently -3 degrees. It was also pointed out that I wasn't wearing the knee-length boots I was told to buy. Yes, I knew there was something else I was meant to buy....

I liked the colour contrast on the trees.
The entrance to N JHS.
This felt a bit Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe to me.
Apparently they get longer than this....