Day 76 - Happy New Year!

Well that was a lot of fun. We had an awesome New Year's Eve, starting with waking up in my incredibly hot tent, then going up to Nancy and Jessie's temple to give food to the monks (Nancy and Jessie own Irie Bar, where I'm staying). When we got there, about 12 of us in all, including Puppy. We went in, gave them their food, and were all blessed (for want of a better word) in turn, while the monks chanted and we had water flicked over us, while the dogs fought around us. It was a pretty good way to spend a morning. Afterwards we raced back to town for as shopping excursion - they have a sort of secret Santa thing on new year's eve here, which we were all involved in, with a 200 baht budget - and then on to a nearby cafe which has 116 types of healing tea. It was then time to go and get Kate from the bus station, which we sort of succeeded in doing.

We had a BBQ back at the Irie (which Chris burnt a lot of), and exchanged presents, let off paper lanterns (which the town is now strewn with, the next morning), which looked amazing, and then realised we had done it too early and let off another load at midnight. After this we hopped on bikes to head out to Monkey bar, run by another member of the Irie crew, Pong. This was in the middle of a little cluster of bars just out of town, and was a bit odd - it was only really people who lived or worked at Irie in there, and Pong shut the doors pretty early, trapping us inside. Most of us then went on to a party down by the river, with quite rubbish music, for a bit of a dance. I bought some food, which turned out to be cold noodles with really spicy chicken on top, with a bag of garlic fried insects on the side. I'm not too sure why I bought the insects, I only managed about four spoonfuls before I threw them away - it wasn't the taste, they were just like tiny shell-on prawns, but the texture and number of legs, mainly. They kept getting caught down the side of my gums, where I couldn't easily fish them out.

We went on to Don't Cry Bar for some better food but the kitchen was closed (it was 3 am on new year's day, I don't know why we were surprised) so we just hung out in the hammocks. When we tried to return to the party we found that the Police had shut it down, possibly for noise, so we returned home on foot (I think) as someone else had already taken the Mopeds, and it was probably inadvisable for any of us to drive home.

Day 74/5 - Arrival in Pai, after 28 hours on the road.

After a ridiculous and awesome five days at home, which included a happily surprised mum and Hannah, unexpected awesome presents (mostly dvds and slim books, which I have brought with me) and a night out with the one and only Ben Bruce and John Kelly, I have arrived back in Thailand. It was a rather epic journey, taking about 28 hours and involving one car journey, two train, three planes, a taxi and a bus. Almost all of these were caught in the nick of time - I queued at heathrow for an hour or so, said goodbye to Clare and then found that my flight status was 'gates closing', meaning I had to dash (beltless and shoeless - since when have they had a machine specifically for scaanning shoes?) all the way to what seemed like the furthest departure gate in Heathrow. I was sitting next to an arab chap who Clare had earlier accused of having breath "like he'd been eating actual shit" for the first flight, which was lovely. In Doha we had a bout 10 minutes to rush through security and then straight back onto our next flight, which I (miraculously) slept straight through. At Bangkok I picked up my baggage for my 12:50 flight at 12:45, so I figured I was stying in Bangkok for a night. I turned my phone on and received a text update from AirAsia saying it had been delayed by 40 minutes, so I rushed through and got on it just in time. At Chiang Mai, I got in at 15:15, and the last bus to Pai left at 4 - I dashed to a taxi, made it there by 15:53, to be informed that the last bus was full. Shit. At the last second I got rammed into the back seat along with 4 Thai guys, and a four hour ridiculous journey commenced, along the windiest roads I have ever seen. Chiang Mai is only 175ish kilometres away, meaning we averaged about 40 km/h (we had a fried chicken break).

As we arrived in Pai, I was looking out of the window and I saw the Irie bar, and sitting in it I saw two dreadlocked folk who looked an awful lot like Kate's friends Chris and Katie. I asked the conductor (for want of a better word) to stop, he refused, so I jumped out at the next slow turn and ran back - I was right, it was them! Really friendly people, who sorted me out with a place to stay - I am in a tent on the first floor balcony out back, which is a LOT better than nothing. We had a few beers and played shithead for a while, then I hopped on the back of Sam(from Melbourne, lives in a place called Pailand, but more about that later)'s moped for a trip to an art opening nearby. we became deeply engrossed in conversation, which resulted in us missing the turning three or four times. When we got there, it was amazing - you walk through a sort of corridor of plants, over a tiny stream which leads to a waterfall, into a little gallery and on down to the main area - a big fire surrounded by rugs and mats, which in turn are surrounded by noodles, BBQ, local food stalls, a bar and a stage. There were bands playing all night while the guys from Pailand 'played fire'. This involves fire poi and firestick, which fitted in perfectly and was wonderful. Pailand is a sort of farm nearby, down by the river I think, where Sam lives, along with Ben, Joey, Bobby and Bang. They keep their horses out back of the Irie in the garden - last night they rode to the place. Seldom has horseback been a viable alternative to motorised transport. Anyway, the place we were at can best be described as a kind of permanent Glastonbury healing fields. In fact, the whole town can. The second you get out of town there are loads of little hammock filled bars and guesthouses, strewn with cushions and either playing reggae or umm, y'know, trancey indian music. Not sure of the genre.

This town seems really awesome - I can quite see why people come here for months on end. Everyone I have met has been really friendly, although Emily (also staying at Irie) was criticising people for being too hippy. I quite understand what she means, there were some people at the art thing who seemed to be using wafting as a means of perambulation, and others who seemed to be dressed as elves.

Day 73 - Flights and London

Once again, I'll be brief - I was up at 5 to get my taxi, met an English guy in the departure lounge with whom I discussed Japanese culture, and who later came and gave me a Valium on the plane. As a result the rest of the flight flew by, Doha was pretty dull, looking out of the window it is entirely sand, apart from the occasional wealthy Oasis of green, and one McDonalds right by the airport.

In London I was greeted by Jack (as expected) and Josh (big surprise!) who had made me a sign and everything. We got the tube to Oxford Street and went to a very London pub on a very foggy day, nice and stereotypical. I got the train home at 9, and met a couple called Max and Mika, who had a fake baby Panda in a box. Max and I talked about Mario, the concepts behind theories and hypotheses, and 10 dimensional space, which was really cool and made the journey fly by. When I arrived at home, Mum was really happy and surprised, so it's all been worth it.

Day 72 - Chatuchak

I'm writing this on the 3rd of January, so I'll be very brief - We got up earlyish to get the 10am bus to Chatuchak Market, where you can supposedly buy anything. The girls were a bit keener than Matt, Ville and I, but we spent the whole day there. Apparently they had a baby elephant in the pet section recently, but I didn't see any. Boxes and boxes of puppies though. It was also the hottest day so far in Thailand, meaning I was drenched in sweat for every second I wasn't in the shade. Nice. A couple of interesting transport options - the Thai Police, in their tight black uniforms with guns and aviators, were riding around the market on Segways, possibly tyhe most inefficient mode of transport in existence. Also, we managed to cram all 5 of us into one Tuk-tuk for the journey home, which was both awesome and terrifying.The guys all left for Koh Phangan about 5ish, I went to sleep until 9, meaning I was completely out of my sleep pattern, but as I was about to spend 24 hours on planes etc. it didn't seem so important

Day 71 - Boots, Boats and Buildings

We convened for a breakfast of fresh fruit, and headed out to our first stop - the Boots at Sala Deng, then on to Patpong market. Due to my lack of knowledge, we found out when we got there that Patpong is a night market. We got the Skytrain to Central Pier, where myself, Matt and Ville try to outhaggle each other to get a cheap longtail for a river tour. this proves to be an awesome Idea, as we tear along with only five people in the boat, getting up some incredible speeds in the boat around the small rivers near the Chao Praya. On our way back to the Skytrain we went to investigate a massive empty building we had seen from the river - we climbed the fence and went in for a wander. Apparently (according to a Thai guy we met at the bottom) the building was a victim of the 1997 Asian economic crisis. It's 46 storeys high, and possibly called SC Garden. Inside is truly bizarre - the place is full of cables and bathroom fittings, the escalators are in place, loads of the apartments are fitted out with flooring, plumbing, elecrical points and so on, yet noone lives there, in a city where loads of people live in tiny shacks. Odd. We went up to the first balcony level and admired the view, until we were shouted at by some workmen down below. The building leans a lot as you get higher - near the top a couple of storeys seem to have collapsed onto the ones below - we were toying with the idea of going to the top for sunset, but this was quickly nipped in the bud by the far more sensible girls.

Oh, I should add that I've been truly rubbish at eating Thai food since I've been here. Due to the fact that the guys have only been eating Indian food for months, today we've had a Subway, a McDonalds, and some sausages and chips. Rubbish.

Day 70 Part 2 - Bugger

After talking to the lovely people at Jal for ages, trying to build
Seoul into my flight plan, I headed back and phoned Clare, only to
break down a bit, which was somewhat unexpected. I asked her advice
on what I should do - wait here, go to Krabi and find Kate, go to
Seoul, or come home, listed in order of increasing inconvenience. In
hindsight, I should have probably phoned an impartial advisor, like
Jack or Eddie maybe - Clare persuaded me to come home for a week, with
relatively reasoned argument, and we then went about the business of
booking a ticket for the 23rd on Qatar airways, coming back on the
29th, meaning I'll hopefully have enough time to get to (insert
destination here - still not too sure) for NYE.

Annoyingly, almost immediately after we booked the tickets, I went
downstairs and met two couples - Matt and Bel from Ireland/NZ, and
Ville and Cecilia from Finland. They met today on the plane from
Calcutta, and are going to Koh Phangan for Christmas. They told me to
come with them, tell Clare I'd met the love of my life or something,
but when she rang I couldn't do it. Shortly after finalising the
flight I got two facebook messages - one from Leo, Henry and Jim
telling me to come to Seoul, and one from Kate telling me where she
was staying and how to get there. Finally I got a message from Clare,
saying "Ha, you coming home seems a bit mental now doesn't it. We are
the worst at getting caught up in moments." Indeed we are. I really
must relearn patience, willpower and trust, or I may well repeat this
ridiculous situation. To soothe my baffled brain, me and the couples
drink a load of beers (they haven't drunk for four months in India!)
and go out for street food, while discussing plans for tomorrow.

Day 70 - Where's Kate?

I have spent all of today trying to find Kate. Trouble is, I have no way of contacting her apart from facebook, which is proving useless. I have also tried Jan, who I think is still in Thailand, and also Chris and Katie, friends of Kate's from uni, but all to no avail. I was going to fly down to Krabi today to find her, but that hasn't happened. I just spent an hour or so with the wonderful people at JAL trying to re-jig my ticket so that I could fly back to Seoul for a week, but that didn't work out - I am on standby for a ticket tomorrow night, which is a bit expensive, but better than Christmas on my own.

I even considered flying back home, but that's 561 quid that I don't think I have, although it's hard to put a price on christmas... I keep trying to remind myself that it's just another day, I have never felt this strongly about it before, but also a christmas day alone has never been a possibility either. Hmm, this isn't helping my burgeoning homesickness.

Day 69 - Leaving Tokyo, arriving in Bangkok

Soon after writing my last post I went to the bar at the Aussie's Hostel, called 23 bar. Seemed OK, and had 3 drinks for 1000 yen, which is not to be sniffed at. On my way to and from there I saw an amazing building - I think it's the head office of Asahi Breweies, and looks like it has a giant flame on top. Also on my way home I went to Denny's for a steak, and to contemplate Tokyo for the last time. In the morning I made it to the Post Office, posted all my warm stuff home, and made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare. So far, so uneventful...

The flight was fine, I watched Shoot 'Em Up (ridiculous and violent), Stardust (good, with an amazing british cast, and De Niro), Hairspray (ridiculous but entertaining) and most of the Bourne Ultimatum (awesome, but got cut off before the end). The only unusual thing that happened was that the old Japanese woman next to me was sick, as in actually throwing up, for pretty much the whole journey. Made me realise I have never seen an old woman throw up before...

Guesthouse seems nice, but it's just for one night if I can get hold of Kate.

Day 68 - Akihabara

I was awoken today by Jason's morning call, and hustled out of bed to have a farewell breakfast - when I got upstairs, after 3 or 4 hours sleep, I was greeted by a steaming plate of Japanese curry, not quite what I would have chosen. Anyway, we said our goodbyes and I went back to bed. Later I went to Akihabara, the electronics centre of Tokyo. The first place I walk into, I see Phil and Mark (the Aussies from last night) - I find out that they haven't yet slept (it's 4 pm) and we decide to combine forces on a search for a cheap PSP. This failed, but we did see a hell of a lot of cool gadgets, including one which I ended up buying - a Game Boy Micro, which I have read about but never seen, as they were never released outside Japan as far as I know. It was only about 25 quid, and worth every yen.

Another thing they have in Akihabara is loads of manga porn - unfeasibly buxom schoolgirls are a common theme, but also pre-pubescent cover stars seemed to feature quite a lot - some of the things I saw were genuinely weird, going beyond quirky and kinky and into the realms of really unsavoury and worrying. Anyway, that was just an aside, I don't feel well enough qualified to make a judgement of their culture based on what I saw today - although myself and, umm, I forget his name but the Japanese guy I met yesterday, had a big discussion about the nature of Hentai, which apparently translates as 'beyond the norm', and as such encapsulates all sorts of weirdness, excess and perversion, sexual and otherwise. This country, as has been said many times before, is full of contradictions and strangeness, not all of it quirky and cool.

Oh also, I have pretty much entirely lost my voice. I can barely make myself heard above traffic, and it is proving to be very frustrating or me, and a source of much amusement for those around me. Bastards.

Day 67 - Jason's last night

Just after I wrote yesterday's entry, I went to bed for a nap at 9 ish, and slept for a full 14 hours, thereby missing the Aussies' departure, and a large chunk of my Monday. That was NOT a productive day. The evening, on the other hand, was quite a different story. I went for an early dinner with Jason, at a nearby Sushi place, during which we brokered a deal - I would come to Roppongi (the nightlife district) with him no matter what happened, and he would pay for my meal. The meal was awesome, we had some more belly tuna, and bearded clams and all sorts of other wierd stuff. We gathered quite a posse together - Me, Jason, Alex, Kal, John (English), Erin (French) and Shan Wong (sic - Korean). We went to Gaspanic club to begin with, after which everyone exccept me, jason and Shan went home on the last subway, which is rubbish. We went to an arcade and played on a drumming game and a bit of dance dance revolution, which I won! I should point out, this means I beat an asian at DDR, which almost never happens.

As we wandered the streets looking for a "bar full of Japanese" as per Jason's requests, we met a guy leaving a bar who seemed to speak good english, so we asked his advice. this led to a lengthy and baffling journey round the area, culminating in us finding a bar on the third floor of what may have been an apartment block, with a locked door, owned by his mate. This being Roppongi, we figured we were about to either (a) get screwed over with really pricey drinks, or (b) find ourselves in a hostess bar/brothel with no way out. As it turned out, neither of these were the casde - it was just a quiet little bar, with good drinks - the guys who had taken us there both worked in advertising, and their old schoolfriend owned the place. We chatted for a while, and had the two drinks we had agreed on, and then Moto (the older of the two guys) paid for it all! Th8is was an unexpected treat, to get free drinks in the most notoriously dodgy area of Tokyo after Shinjuku. We then went to a bar with a name along the lines of 'spunky event', where we met two Aussies and a Japanese guy, who took us to another bar along the street. For some reason jason then engaged the Japanese guy on the subject of collectivist versus individualist culture. As dawn rolled around, we headed back to the Hostel and the Aussies went to an Onsen, supposedly for a sleep - this wasn't the case, I later found out.

Oh, also I had a chat with Mum and my sisters - my Christmas parcel arrived early, so they rang to ask if they could open it. I allowed them to open a bit, and taught them how to say thanks very much in Japanese. It was really nice to talk to them all at once, and it made me feel a bit homesick - I'm sure this will subside a little when I'm with Kate in the sun.

Day 65/6 - A rubbish morning, a cool night and a lovely day

Day 65 - I would say that this ranked as my 65th best night's sleep since leaving England.

Having extended my stay in the cafe by 6 hours, and moved to a larger, comfier seat, I watched about a week of neighbours, chatted on MSN and read back issues of B3ta. Due to my inability to resist the lure of the Internet, I got to sleep about 5 am, and was turfed out at 6 - in total I got about half an hour's sleep. As I was up anyway, I decided to head to Tsukiji fish market which is the largest fish market in the world. I net a bloke there called Al who was a post-doc in Electronics at Imperial, and was in Tokyo for a conference. We met in a Sushi place, where I had some of the nicest, freshest sushi I've ever had. Presumably all the fish is straight from the market to the plate, and it was worth the somewhat higher than usual prices as a result - I also had the fatty belly of tuna, which was 400 yen per piece, and worth it. It was almost buttery in texture, and melted in your mouth. After a long browse in the lonely planet I decided to head off to Roppongi via Ebisu, to look at the fancy architecture there. However, I fell asleep on the subway and decide it was probably best to find a capsule and have a nap. I found one just around the corner from the station and booked in for an hour (ended up staying 2) for 500 yen. I made a few observations about Japanese TV while I was in there - there was a channel showing someone playing Pachinko, and nothing else. There was a quasi-titillating show involving girls in bikinis, seemingly in an office meeting room, blindfolding each other and trying different types of noodles, then celebrating getting it right by bouncing around. There was a channel, at noon, showing weird porn, but all genitals were so pixellated that when the camera zoomed in it just looked like someone was juggling Rubik's Cubes with only two colours.

Refreshed and showered, I walked to Shibuya, to the big crossroads you always see on TV shows about Tokyo. It was impressive, a huge surging mass of people for the entire time I was there. I found an internet cafe and rang a couple of Hostels, both of which said they were fully booked. I emailed Sakura hostel in Asakusa, who auto-replied saying that they would check and I should wait for a reply, which I did. For an hour. Just as my time was up, I got a reply saying that I had a room, and no longer had to sleep in another 'net cafe/capsule, which was a massive relief. I headed to Harajuku to go to the park and marvel at the people who supposedly would be thronging the streets with their weirdness, but due to the fact that it was (a) cold, (b) 4pm and getting dark, and (c) Saturday, there was noone about really apart from a few skaters. There' s a chance I went to the wrong park as well, but that's not important. I got to the hostel at about half 6 last night, having lugged my bag, which now somehow weighs about 25 kg, through the streets. I met some cool Aussies here, (Kate, Jay, Murph, Dr Ew and another one) and a Canadian guy called Jason, who lives in Seoul and seems keen to meet Leo etc. There were also a load of Argentinians here to support Boca Juniors in the club world cup here, who were singing loud football songs, clapping and shouting. At one point they got out an enormous (20m +) flag and started waving it around - the guy behind the desk objected and tried to roll it up, and when he wouldn't let go one of the Argentinians punched his arm to try and release the flag - there was a small ruckus, but nothing too unpleasant. We drank and chatted for a while, and they weren't really too up for going out, until Jay and Dr Ew got talking to a couple of Swedish girls who were going out for Karaoke, Easily swayed, we all ended up going - it was a shaky start (bad songs were chosen, noone knew enough words) but pretty soon, partly due to the choice of Last Christmas as a singalong and partly due to the 2 hr all-you-can-drink deal we had going on, we were all singing our hearts out. We got in about 3 this morning, and I ended up watching The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift purely because I recognised bits of it. Sort of like justifying watching all of Rush Hour 2 because you've been there - in retrospect, an error.

Day 56 - Somehow I managed to get up and into Yokohama for 1 today, where I met Hana - we had a great time, just walked around the (future harbour) area for hours, had a wicked meal, encountered an all Japanese gospel choir singing Christmas songs, swapped stories from the last few years and saw quite a lot of the city. But mainly, we walked, almost non-stop, for 3 1/2 hours - I reckon we covered about 10 miles in all, which is why (in conjunction with the shedload of free cocktails and the lack of decent sleep for a couple of days) right now I am absolutely exhausted. Just by where we had lunch there was a trio of female violinists in gold dresses playing Christmas songs, which overwhelmed me a bit due to my fragile state - I suddenly felt all festive and warm, much as I did when we saw the gospel choir as well. Yokohama seems pretty nice, has a manageable feeling about it, probably due to the comparatively few towering buildings they have there.

Day 64 - Fuji Go-Ko, Louis, and Tokyo

Right, I warn you - as I was on my own all day today, I took to writing down my thoughts in note form in my Memo book (I carry one everywhere now, thanks for the inspiration Jack). They may prove to be a little rambling on recounting, we will see. So here we go, from the top...


11:25 Right, I got lost again. I was up at 8:15 this morning, out of the hostel by 9:30, aiming to be on the train by 10. I walked up the street, looking for the station which should be very obvious, and I have failed utterly. On the upside, at this very moment I can see Mount Fuji, looming above everything else, and it is an absolutely perfect day - so perfect in fact, that I am in only a t-shirt, in spite of the altitude. I found a helpful lady and asked her "Fuji-Yoshida station dess-ka?" while gesticulating wildly. She answered with "Hai, (insert loads ofJapanese and pointing here)", I followed the pointing and asked three other women where to go, eventually finding that the station was a building I had walked past an hour previously, not more than 500m from the hostel. I had some delicious ramen in the station and got the 11:21. I am not good at the trains.


12:00 Well, I am currently sitting on top of Kachi-kachi Mountain, at the top of the ropeway. the view is awesome, I can see why Fuji seems to be such a huge part of the Japanese psyche. From where I sit in my t-shirt, if I look to my left I am blinded by the sun, to my right there are icicles, down the mountain there is a heat haze above the town, and ahead of me is the snow-capped peak of Fuji. This is a confusing place.

13:35 I am now on the sightseeing bus, which goes round the south side of Lake Kawagushi-Ko before making a loop of Lake Saiko. I can hop on and off at will, so I'm planning to go to the Onsen on the north shore, The Bat Cave and the Ice Cave, while enjoying the views of the lakes and mountains.

14:35 Well that's annoying. I have been informed by the driver (I'm the only person on the bus, by the way) that the Bat Cave is closed. I have been dropped off at the wind cave - I walked straight through the gate to find a load of guys having a bonfire, who cheerily informed me through sign language that the Wind Cave was closed for winter. The Ice Cave is apparently about 20 minutes up the road, so I hope for better things.


14:47 Now here's an odd thing. I can only assume the meeting went something like this:

Fuji Councillor #1: So, we have a problem, this bendy bit of road in the mountains gets awfully slippery.
Councillor #2: Let's put up signs?
Councillor #3: Salt it?
Councillor #4: Nah, let's HEAT THE ENTIRE ROAD AND FILL THE AIR WITH THE SMELL OF MELTING TARMAC ALL YEAR ROUND!
All: Awesome!

(high fives)

15:07 Well, that was rubbish. The ice cave (I am so disappointed I begrudge it capitals) was just a hole in the ground, a small tunnel to another hole, and a tunnel back again. There was a lump of ice down there, to prove it's 0 degrees down there. Hmm. I told an Australian family I saw on the way out that it was a waste of money, and also that the Wind and Bat Caves were closed. They seemed a little crestfallen, but went in anyway, I think. I feel I might resign from sightseeing - the touristy things I have attempted to see here have all failed, instead I shall sit, observe, or do something, rather than going to see things. Maybe I should have gone to Kyuku Highlands theme park. Maybe I should go to Tokyo Disneyland...

15:35 Having said all this, the area is very nice and picturesque. Lakes, pine forests, mountains... maybe it's just because I grew up in a flat bit of a flattish country, but these things all impress me maybe more than they would someone from Austria, say. However, my advice to someone visiting the Fuji Five Lakes area would be to go up the ropeway by Kawagushi-ko, and also hang out at the NW corner of Saiko, where the best views are.

18:29 On another note, as I have been reading Call Of the Weird by Louis Theroux, I have started to envy him to a degree - his ability to remain innocent and questioning, while also detached and sceptical about his subjects/experiences. I can't see him slipping into despondency while pondering elements of the human condition, as I have felt myself all too close to doing these lase few days. I no longer seem to enjoy my own company as much as I once did, although this may be because the novelty of being my own boss has waned somewhat after five years. It should also be remembered that I am here entirely of my own choosing, meaning that worrying and regrets will get me nowhere, as I will only end up blaming myself. Sack that, if I'm not enjoying myself just go elsewhere, find new people - I have only commitments to myself at the moment, so I should just shut up.
Also, back to Louis, while he is talking to the 'pimp' Mello T, he compares lifestyles - where Mello sits in sleazy strip clubs scouting for new talent, Louis says that last night he went to bed with a glass of wine and his notebook and did a crossword, much to the envy of Mello. I am sitting on the train with a glass of wine writing in my notebook, although I fear that is where the similarities end. Also, he discusses the need to not object to peoples opinions and beliefs where doing so would reach no useful conclusion and only create an awkward atmosphere - not what you want when trying to interview someone. I found myself in a situation the other day with Nick, where he made some odd claim about why he didn't want to go to India, and I said that he'd "put forward some pretty tenuous premises there". He looked at me in a kind of 'what the hell?' way before turning back to his conversation (this worried me a bit, as this was before we had agreed to go to Miyajima the following day, and I really didn't want to do it alone).

20:39 Made it! To Shinjuku at least. I have contacted Leona, found somewhere to eat, and decided to either sleep in a capsule hotel or Internet cafe (not as trampish as it sounds, apparently many young Tokyoites do this as a cheaper alternative to the capsule).

21:30 Wow, Negishi house red is even worse than Otsuki satation wine. Didn't think that was possible. Just finished Louis, found more little things in the epilogue that make me like him even more, eg: his fantasy of returning to school as an adult and knowing more than everyone else, having reasoned debate with teachers etc... one I share, but I'm sure everyone does. Also something about him being less susceptible to whimsy and coercion than his first documentary tour, and now I'm just rambling on about bollocks, this is no longer a travelogue, sorry.


00:40 Wow, that's how long that took me to write up the last three days. Three hours on the dot, as it turns out. guess I'm staying in the internet place tonight - they have massage chairs, PS2, TV, DVD players, free drinks, all for 1.50 an hour! Also, I went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building North Tower Observatory on my way here, and took MORE nighttime cityscape photos. So there.

Day 63 - Sleeping, Trains, getting lost in the cold and I AM MENTAL

Well, I screwed that up. I fell asleep the second I got in last night, woke up on the sofa at 1am, made up a futon for myself and set an alarm for 6am, figuring that two 4hr sleeps were as good as one 8hr one, and I could always sleep on the 3hr Shinkansen to Tokyo. How wrong I was... I woke up at 6:00, 6:10, and 6:15, and then fell asleep until 10:25. That's an oversleep of more than 4 hours! Somewhat annoyed with myself, I hurried out of the house by 10:45 - this time should be noted. I got the Subway to Shin-Osaka and Caught the Shinkansen to Tokyo, the Yamanote line across to Shinjuku, the Chuo Line to Otsuki, and the Fuji-Kyuku line to Shimo-Yoshida, where I was booked into the youth hostel. The Lonely Planet lied to me and sent me on a bit of a wild goose chase down the wrong road, I called Clare in the UK and got her to look the place up online, although just as she found it I saw the sign pointing me in the right direction. Check-in closed at 8pm, I arrived at 19:53. That's 9 hours and 8 minutes door-to-door, which is quite a long train journey by anyone's standards. And then it was time to go to bed, as I was unaccountably knackered. What a good use of a day.

Also, two odd things happened today. Firstly, I vaguely remembered two things about my dreams last night - firstly, someone punched me hard in the jaw, I think inspired by the Augment who punches Gordon in The Postman, which I read recently. Also, I was having a bad dream and wanted to wake myself up (this happens a little more often than I would like, I become trapped in my own psyche and cant escape, so I hit myself and shout in the dream, until I wake up into the real world - this has never happened when there has been anyone else to witness it, and I hope it never will - I can imagine noone in a hostel would want to talk to me if I awoke flailing and screaming). Anyway, I was slapping myself in the face in my dream, until I awoke, and even now as I write this, two days later, my jaw still clicks and aches, and is noticeably swollen. I can only assume, therefore, that I smacked myself so hard in the face that I have bruised myself, and possible the other dream was merely a manifestation of the real-world pain I was feeling, without disturbing the dream. Before I have actually accused others of hitting me in my sleep (sorry Bob) to account for having this jaw pain, but I think it's just that I am slightly mental and beat myself up as I slumber.

The second thing is less odd - I had a Mega-Tomato meal from McD's this morning - three burgers and a load of tomato in a Big Mac style bun - and the tomato one was more expensive than the one with a fried egg in it. I would have thought it would be the other way round. Anyway, please comment with any thoughts on the jaw thing, I am intrigued to hear others opinions on the subject.

Day 62 - Miyajima in unfavourable conditions

Right, I have three days to write up, and the last one is going to be a sodding mission, so I'll be as quick as I can. Also, sorry for any spelling mistakes which may arise as a result.


So, I made plans on Tuesday night with Nick and James, a Brit and an American respectively, to meet at 10am in the common room and go to Miyajima Island, to climb the mountain and generally soak up the atmosphere. We were all early, and walked to the station (I didn't necessarily consent to this, but I saw no point in arguing). As we were getting on the ferry at Miyajimaguchi we saw some boat racing going on, and swore to come back and check it out on our way back if possible. Already the day didn't look too promising, it was cloudy and misty, getting cloudier as we approached Miyajima Island. Upon our arrival we were greeted by a bunch of schoolkids proffering leaflets - Nick shrank back instantly (obviously fresh from China where anyone proffering stuff is probably going to ask for some money), whereas I engaged them in limited conversation - they were doing it for a school project, giving us a map and guide to the area, for free, which was very welcome indeed (as it turned out, the lack of scale on the map gave us problems later, but only to a minor extent). We walked through the town past a load of deer, similar to Nara, but with one major difference - there is very little traffic on the island, so the deer roam more freely than in Nara.

Having snacked on some beanpaste-filled-deep-fried-maple leaf pasties on a stick, we visited the main shrine on the island, Itsukushima. This was the main reason to come here, being as it is surrounded by water, looking out onto the Torii which is supposedly one of the three most photographed sights in Japan, although I have no idea how one would measure this.


We had been informed that the views from the top of Mt. Misen were spectacular, so we walked to the cablecar, to find once we were on it that the fog was pretty much impenetrable - not good for a scenic lookout. All was not lost however, as when we eventually made it back to the mainland (via Oyster Okonomiyaki in a restaurant on Miyajima - I wasn't a fan, but I don't think the oysters were up to much. Probably why I was ill all of Friday) we walked to the boat stadium I mentioned before, and caught a race! We decided, being backpackers, that frugality was essential, which is why we watched it by peering over the wall, therefore not paying a single yen.

All this sightseeing over, I booked myself onto the 18:30 Shinkansen to Osaka, raced back to the hostel, grabbed my stuff, and jumped in a taxi (anathema for backpackers in Japan, but I was desperate) and proceeded to miss my train by 1 minute. I got there at exactly 18:09:30, as the whistle blew for the train to leave. I have probably caught over 100 trains in Japan, including subways which run on a timetable, and not one has been delayed or run late by even 1 minute. This is quite incredible, I have no idea how they achieve this. The few buses I have caught have all run to the minute as well.

By the time I got into Shin-Osaka I really couldn't be bothered to get the next train to Nagoya then on to Fuji-Yoshida. I hadn't really slept the night before anyway, as I kept waking for no reason every hour or so, so I headed once again back to #303 Natty North, Kita-Tatsumi, for one final night before posting my key back through the door, never to return again.

Day 61 - Learning in Hiroshima

Today I got up nice and earlyish, checked in, paid, and went off to find somewhere to have a coffee before I went to see the sights. After finding a coffee shop full of fish tanks containing really cool tropical fish, I walked from the hostel to the Hiroshima Peace Museum, in the Peace Park. I took the full audio tour round all 56 exhibits, from the initial planning stages of the Manhattan project to evidence of the cancerous after-effects of the blast. There were loads of models, photos and recorded testimonials of victims of the blast (I didn't take many photos, it didn't seem appropriate and I was too caught up in the exhibits). I learnt a load of new stuff, like I didn't know that Einstein was cajoled into writing the letter to the US government recommending investigation into atomic weaponry, and also many of the most prolific scientists on the project, when it was completed, wrote a letter of protest to the US war secretary campaigning for a warning to be given to Japan prior to the bomb being detonated - this was denied. There were displays, wax model like, of victims immediately after the detonation with skin falling off, and melted eyes - in fact they used the phrase "my skin sloughed off", which made my skin crawl a bit. Some of the relics chosen were fairly gruesome too, the worst of which being the skin from the hands and the top cm or so of someones fingers, which fell off soon after the explosion. They have also kept the old Industrial Promotion Building as it was when the Bomb dropped, as a constant reminder of the horrors of war - the actual Hypocentre, however, is now a car park.

After I had a look around the rest of the park I headed off for some food (over the Aioi bridge, the actual target of the bomb) and ended up in the Sogo department store food court. I headed for an Italian buffet, as I was knackered and it seemed like the easiest thing to get, as there was minimum waiter-customer interaction necessary. The waiter did not share this opinion, and wouldn't let me go and get any food until he and the chef had explained that it was a buffet, and I should choose either Pizza or Pasta. This took about 10 minutes, and was solved by me pointing, saying "Pizza, pasta, buffet. Pizza o kudasai" and getting up and getting stuck in, much to their relief. It was ok, apart from some eel Ｉ　had in a tomato sauce which seemed to have skin both inside and out. I left the mutant eel. I came home and had a brief lie down, which accidentally turned into a 3 hour nap, rather annoyingly.

Day 60 - I jibbed it.

I got the subway home at half 5 this morning, therefore failed to get my train to Hiroshima at about 9 as planned, so I'm now sitting in the flat, packed, working up the energy to leave and get the train. I think I'll probably end up going with Les to Namba in a couple of hours, then getting another Shinkansen (Yay!) to Hiroshima. I won't get there until very late indeed now, so tomorrow will have to be very active indeed. Also, I have bought myself a cheese Okonomiyaki, which is delicious and cheap, wish I'd discovered them before.

We went to the post office earlier to send a load of Les's stuff to Bill in Korea, and on the way a small boy on a bike in a Judo outfit stopped and asked us a question, but unfortunately we had no idea what he was saying. I responded with "Sumimasen, watashi no nihon-go dess". This was meant to be "Sumimasen, watashi no nihon-go wa heta na no de" meaning "Sorry, my Japanese isn't very good". What I said roughly translates as "Excuse me, I am the Japanese language", which quite apart from being nonsense, doesn't even convey what I meant. In the post office we were informed that the parcel could take 6 weeks, as the government would have to open it up and check it. This was baffling, until the very helpful lady who was translating for us said Kita Korea, meaning north - if we hadn't picked up on this and shouted "Minami! Minami Korea!", Les's parcel would have ended up in entirely the wrong country.

Also, despite us having to leave here in an hour, and her not being packed, Les just went for a shower and is now sitting next to me eating the rest of my Okonomiyaki, seemingly unperturbed by any of this. Curious...

----

Les got all packed in time, she got all her stuff packed into three bags, the two to be ckecked in weighed about 29 kg total - her limit is 20 kg, so she said she'll have to do some pleading. Also, her flight tob Glasgow only allows 1 bag, so she should really have posted twice as much stuff to Korea. This would have been an extrememly unhelpful thing to point out though, so I kept my mouth shut. I have made it to Hiroshima, I got in about 12 hours later than I intended. Hostel seems nice, everyone's a bit silent though, which is odd... I'm off to bed so I can get an early start tomorrow, although the BBC forecasts "heavy rain", which is a bit of a bugger. I may have to stay for an extra day anyway, so I can go to Miyajima when it's dry. This keyboard is the filthiest I have ever seen - all the keys have brown stuff round the edges and the gaps are full of hairs.

Day 59 - Okayama, and Bill's Sayonara

Last night I managed to persuade everyone to watch Blues Brothers, my favourite film of all time, and they loved it. I was pleased.

I managed to get up at 8 this morning, and was out of the house early, got to Shin-Osaka by half nine, got my Railpass sorted, only to find that the first Shinkansen I could get (I'm not allowed on the super-fast Nozomi trains with my Railpass) to Okayama wasn't for another 45 minbutes, which I could have spent sleeping. The Shinkansen is really impressive, we were rocketing through the countryside at incredible speed - the inside is more like a plane than a train, with enormous reclining seats, and individual porthole style windows for each row. Okayama was really nice, I went there in order to see the Crow Castle and the garden, both of which were impressive. The garden was full of little ponds, waterfalls, islands, teahouses etc., the only problem was that it had a lawn (the first one I've seen here, there isn't much grass about) which had clearly not had enough water, meaning that the ground was a shade of arid yelloww, instead of the lush green that was intended. The castle wasn't too big it had 6 floors, but the top one was only about 4 metres square. I realised that this sightseeing had only taken me to about 3 o'clock, so as I meandered back to the station I tried to find out if I could go to Shikoku and see the Naruto whirlpools, but it seems impossible to get there in less than a day. I came back to Osaka on another Shinkansen (less nice, HIkari instead of railstar) and came back to the flat. I fell asleep, only to be woken at half nine by Les ringing to inform me that I should come over to Eric's place, as they were going out for Sayonara drinks for Bill. We went to a tiny bar called Y's in Shinsaibashi, owned and staffed by a really cool friendly guy called Masa, whoc gave us all free shots as Bill was leaving, and knew loads of the guys by name. There was a baby in there, can't have been a year old, being passed around all the girls with much cooing while its parents boozed and smoked away. The baby was encouraged to play bongos with Bill, which it did with an entirely impassive face. I have a picture of said face on my phone, which I shall put up ASAP. I ended up discussing sexual politics with an australian called Christy for hours (she is a terrifying girl, I've never been so afraid). A good time was had by all, it was an awesome little bar. I said my goodbyes, and found that I'll really miss a lot of these guys, it makes me wish I had more time (and a purpose) here.

Day 58 - Small change of plans.

Since Bill is off to Korea and Les is off to Scotland on monday, I have decided to delay my departure until then. This has the added advantage of meaning that I am not going to Hiroshima and Miyajima on the weekend, when it would be rammed. So the plan now goes:

Monday Okayama, Tuesday Hiroshima, Wednesday Miyajima, Thursday Nagoya, Friday Takayama/Fuji Lakes, Saturday Yokohama/Tokyo, Sunday Tokyo/Yokohama.

My friend Hana, who lives near Yokohama, has said there may well be some cool stuff going on there this weekend, so this is another advantage of my new plan. Also, I just went for all-you-can-eat pizza with Bill and the guys, and managed 13 slices including a custard and chocolate one. Japan is wierd.

From yesterday; we got a letter through today informing us that:

your account was cancelled by the trustees in bankruptcy of Nova corporation,
which was the contractor of your account...(if a new account is not taken
out by wednesday) we will cut the electricity service for security reasons.

This is another advantage of our leaving next week. Also, there is a perfect square of flesh missing from my elbow, and the floor under my mattress was soaked in some kind of soapy liquid when I went to bed. Noone can provide me with an explanation for either of these things.

Day 56 - Nara, Ramen, and Bill gets hit by a car

I got up incredibly early today, by which I mean half 8, determined to have a full and exciting day out. I got the train to Nara, I was there by 11, and headed straight to Nara park. Having braved the herds of tame deer which come and nibble any part of you which looks edible (in my case, my back pockets and knees) my first stop, via the enormous gate with its fearsome guardians, was the temple of Todai-ji (right), which is the largest wooden building in the world, and houses an enormous 600-year-old bronze Buddha. There's a hole in one of the poles holding the place up, and if you can squeeze through it you're supposedly guaranteed enlightenment - however, there was a crowd of whooping schoolchildren round it when I was there, so I chickened out and didn't try it. So no enlightenment for me, I guess. Next stop was the hall up the hill, for more views. There was a rest stop just next to it with free green tea, so I took full advantage and let myself be lulled into a little doze by the unrelenting buddhist chanting. I wandered through the park to the Kasuga shrine, along a road lined with hundreds of stone lanterns, and then on to the five-storey pagoda at Kofuku-ji, the second tallest in Japan. While all this was very pleasant to look at, I realised after a while that I don't actually care that much about Japanese history - I was more interested in the architecture of the buildings, and the number of lanterns etc. This does not bode well for my week of intensive sight-seeing. All this gentle wandering eventually brought me back to the train station, so I headed back to Kita-Tatsumi and went to the Ramen place downstairs, which is, if the internet is to be believed, the only thing to to do in Kita-Tatsumi. I had one bowl, which was delicious, had some Gyoza dumplings, and then had to have another bowl immediately after. This left me absurdly stuffed, so it was lucky I only had to walk about 30 metres to get the lift back up to our flat. This evening I headed out to meet Bill and a few other people in a 280 bar, finding on my arrival about 15 Nova people all crammed into one tiny booth. I had a great night, talking to a chap called dave about his time in Seoul (he's been there two weeks), discussing the ultimate weekend of food with Kim who's going back to the UK in a week or two, apologising to a guy called Mike for chatting nonsense at him for hours the other night (although he did the same, so all's well), and arranging to meet up with Ray and Ash in Thailand if they get the 150000 yen in time. On the way out of the bar Bill tripped up and managed to cut the bridge of his nose on the pavement - a tiny cut, but he was very upset about starting a new teaching job looking like he'd been in a fight - and when we were crossing the street to get a cab, and I looked behind me to see Bill getting hit by one! It was a slow collision, only about 15mph, but a collision nonetheless - he rolled off the bonnet and got up laughing, seemingly unphased. The cabbie jumped out, ran to the front, totally ignored Bill and examined his cab for damage! It was an unlucky night for Bill.

Day 55 - Umeda Sky Building, and plans have been made...

Today the original intention was for another visit to Kyoto, however this for some reason didn't occur, and instead I decided to try out one of the (very few) places the guidebook to Japan recommends going in Kita (North) Osaka - the Umeda Sky Building. This is supposedly in the same area as the Candle thing yesterday, however when I arrived at the station I found myself similarly lost. I walked round for ages, missed sunset, and eventually found a visitor's information booth, where I was instructed to go through the other station, around the huge department store, through what seems to be a building site, and I will find the underpass to the Sky Building. I did this, and upon arriving was greeted by an unexpected sight - I had completely forgotten the offhand comment yesterday about there being a German Christmas market here - there were loads of wooden stalls and a 40ft Christmas tree, with festive German carols blaring out. Deciding to keep this for later, I went into the Sky Building itself. It consists of two 37-storey towers, linked by the "Floating Garden Observatory", a huge ring which extends a further 3 storeys above Osaka, giving pretty amazing views of the whole city. The main thing you can tell about Osaka from here is that it is seemingly endless, and everywhere is lit up in every direction - only the thin threads of light along roads and power lines give a hint to the surrounding mountains. I won't put a load more photos of nighttime cityscapes on here, if anyone is interested they're in one of the photo albums on the left. It was impressive, and well worth the visit - my appetite for vistas sated, I headed down to the basement of the building, where I had heard that there were a huge variety of restaurants, all set up to look like a traditional Showa-era street, complete with fake animals and a small shrine. However, I became baffled by the menus and choices, and realised that I have no idea what Japanese numbers look like, which was a problem as all the tasty food was in the more Japanese places. Scared and bemused, I headed back to the Weinachtsmarkt, where a hot Black Forest Ham roll and a hot mug of Gluhwein sorted me right out.

Concerning my future plans, I spent ages last night going through the Lonely Planet & DK guides to Japan along with my Overseas Timetable book, trying to find out where I should go and how best to make full use of my 7-day Japan Railpass. My itinerary is roughly as follows, although the advantage of the Railpass is that I don't have to plan at all, if I suddenly decide to go somewhere else:

1. Wednesday - take train to Nara, go to Nara Park and see as much of the place as I can in one day. If possible, go to Iga-Ueno Ninja Museum on the way home.


2. Thursday - do anything else I can find to do in Osaka, before it's too late. Get Railpass, to start friday if possible.


3. Friday - go to Hiroshima on the Shinkansen as early as possible. See Peace PArk, A-Bomb Dome, Shukkei-en gardens, Manga Library. Stay the night in Hiroshima.


4. Saturday - go to Miyajima Island for the day, then see anything I missed in Hiroshima and get Shink. back to Osaka.


5. Sunday - get Shink. to Okayama for the day, visit the Black Castle and Koraku-en gardens.
   
6. Monday - leave Osaka for last time, Shink to Nagoya, then on to Takayama (although I forget why I chose it, may skip this one), stay in Takayama, possibly in Tensho-ji temple.


7. Tuesday - return to Nagoya, spend day there, then get Shink. to Tokyo and possibly stay in a capsule hotel.


8. Wednesday - go to Fuji-Yoshida, around the Fuji Go-ko area. See five lakes of Fuji, look at mountain lots. Stay in Fuji-Yoshida.


9. Thursday - head back to Tokyo, and find a day trip to use up last day of Railpass.


10. Friday onwards - stay in Tokyo, maybe leave to Bangkok on following monday.

Sounds rather exhausting, and I need to figure out if I know anyone in Tokyo, but it should be great - I get to go on no less than 6 Bullet trains, which is pretty cool. I'll keep track of all the money I would have spent on trains as well, to see if it's more than the 23,600 yen I spent on the week's pass. If not, I shall be severely perturbed, and just ride the Shinkansen all day on the last day, just to spite JR.

Day 54 - Laura's Departure

Today was mostly spent trying to make Laura feel better about going back to Burnley, even if it is only for a few weeks (phase one of this was watching Love Actually last night - chosen partly for the joyous scenes at Heathrow, I'm sure). We went for an awesome Mexican lunch in Shinsaibashi, at a place called El Pancho - it turned out to be happy hour as well, with half-price margaritas, which helped to cheer us all up a little, I must say. We then went to try and find the Umeda Million Candle Festival, which I had read about in a magazine on saturday night - on arrival at Umeda station, everyone turned to me for directions, meaning I had to confess that not only did I not know how to get there, I also didn't know where it was. Eventually, after nearly giving up a few times, we found the area the festival was in. I had read that for two hours, the streets were to be lit by candles, as all the shops and offices turned out their lights, unheard of in such a neon-filled city as this. What actually happened is that there was one street, and a small square, which was filled with candles - in jars lining the road, inside decorated shopping bags and laid out on the floor in coloured patterns. Not too discouraged, we waited until the big switch-off was to take place, and I must say it was pretty rubbish. Starbucks and Tulley's Coffee, which have huge glass windows and were on either side of the main display, left all their lights on, as did all the shops along the street. All that was turned off was the streetlights and christmas decorations, which were the nicest things to look at anyway. We rushed to Namba, the other end of town, to get her on her bus in time, only to find that she had to change buses in Umeda anyway, meaning we could have avoided our frantic(ish) dash across the city. So, not the best send off for Laura. As she left she bid "Goodbye my Osakan Family (and Eric?)", meaning Les, Bill, and Myself. I felt quite honoured, and I'll miss her. I hope she can find a job in Korea too, and soon - the only one available in Burnley is apparently being one of Santa's elves. Seriously.

Day 52 - Another failure, and Osaka Nightlife

Les and I had grand cultural plans today, aiming to go to the National Museum of Art and the Osaka Science Museum, as well as having a walk around the City Hall area of town, which is on an island in the river. We walked up from namba, all the way up Midosuji to the top. The area is pretty swish, with lots of sculptures, impressive buildings, and tree-lined avenues - very much like Gangnam in Seoul, in fact. When we got to the top, however, we realised that Les wasn't exactly sure where she was, which was a problem. We walked around for a while until she spotted the APA Hotel, meaning we needed to cross the river. The area around the riverbank is also covered with sculptures and trees, making it a nice place to get lost anyway. We found the Museums at 5 o'clock, which also happens to be exactly when they both closed, which was somewhat frustrating. They're really impressive buildings, apparently the art museum is all underground in a Louvre style, with a huge steel entrance hall that appears to have wings.

We went to a restaurant which claimed to be "Organique et Naturelle", just at the bottom of the APA Hotel. It was really good, and is underneath the Organic Tomato Cafe if anyone ever wants to find it. Our food was really good, and nicely presented, although they served us with the smallest glasses of wine I have ever had. We headed down to Tennoji afterwards, to watch a friend of Les' band play in a place called Tin's Hall. It was an awesome bar, full of surfboards and loads of other hippyish stuff, and it was also happy hour, meaning we could actually afford to drink there! We met a Canadian guy called Kwami, who has been here for four years, and is a Videogame Programmer, working on the physics side of things, which sounds like an awesome job to me. The band were pretty good (especially the bassist). We headed up to Ame-mura to meet Bill and a load of other Nova folk for Karaoke, but we got sidetracked by a moroccan shisha bar on the way there. As Kwami had by now missed his last tube home, he resigned himself to having to get the first tube home, and joined us for the rest of the night - that's a wierd thing here, the taxis are so expensive that in general people will choose to stay out until dawn rather than get one, even for a 20 minute journey - not like HK or Seoul, where a taxi is often a cheaper alternative to the subway, which itself is dirt cheap anyway! We found we had missed all the Karaoke by the time we got there, so we went on to another place (Bababushka, I think?) to wait out the night. On the way home Bill, Les, Laura and I went to the same Ramen place I went to the other morning (look at that, I'm now recommending things for them to do in Osaka!), which met with everyone's approval. I win at Osaka.

Day 51 - Kyoto!

My grandmother told me Kyoto was lovely, and all the guide books about Kansai concentrate almost entirely on the place rather than any other city, so today I went to check it out. I was up at 8, and out of the house by 9:30, which is fairly unheard of for me. The day got off to a bad start, as I had a can of coffee at the train station and immediately felt terrible, and had to spend the next half hour or so throwing up in the loo, which somewhat ruined my "get there early before the crowds" idea. When I eventually made it onto the train, I went to Inari station so I could see the much-photographed Fushimi-Inari Shrine, which has thousands of Torii gates making a 4km path up the mountainside. It was an awesome place, really tranquil and beautiful, with lakes and forested areas surrounding the main path. It was almost hypnotic walking through the gates in the noon sunshine (it was really warm today as well, about 18 degrees, which made the place even nicer), with the gates forming a seemingly endless tunnel of orange. Certainly better than the beginning of the day, at any rate. At the top of the hill you can look out over all of Kyoto, which seems like a much nicer city than Osaka, surrounded by traditional Japanese houses, Temples and Shrines in every direction, with the occasional pagoda poking out of the trees.

My next stop was the Philosopher's Walk, a trip from Nanzen-Ji Temple to Ginkaku-Ji, the Silver Pavilion. The route takes in loads of other temples and gardens, so numerous that I cant remember how many I went to, let alone their names. The ones that stood out most were Honen-in, a complex of temples joined by covered walkways (no photos allowed, I'm afraid), which has a Pagoda at the top which also gives awesome views of the city. Also there was a really nice little one with incredibly neat raked sand gardens, about half way along, but I have no idea what it was called - it was a bit out of the way, and signposted only in Japanese. The Silver Pavilion itself is not too spectacular, but the gardens surrounding it are, especially at this time of year. There is a 6ft(ish) mound of incredibly neatly raked sand representing mount Fuji (supposedly). Next to it is a vast expanse of raked sand representing the ocean. Its pretty impressive, meticulously raked every day. All the Maple leaves are turning orange and red at the moment, prompting huge crowds of tourists to come here to see this, and take pictures of themselves next to the trees - this struck me as a little odd, but I must admit I gave in and took a few pictures myself. After all this sightseeing, I got on the most crowded bus I have ever been on, for 30 minutes of constant toe-crushing and groin-elbowing (another problem of being tall in Japan), before returning to Osaka and instantly falling asleep when I got in.

Day 49 - Failure at Koya-San

Today was supposed to be a great day of sightseeing, as we went to Koya-San for a day of temples and shrines. However, we ended up not getting to the cable car station until about 3 o'clock, a problem as it gets dark around 5 here. We went to the temple of Okunoin, which has the largest graveyard in Japan (half a million graves), but got lost in the graveyard and subsequently failed to make it to the temple itself. We then headed to the other end of town to try and get to the massive gate before dark, as there are apparently awesome views all the way to the Seto inland sea, however we took a detour via the great pagoda, and happened to catch the 5 o'clock bell, which eched around the mountain and was answered from other temples. It was incredibly loud, and we were the only people around to hear it. After this we trudged onward through the rapidly darkening town for a kilometre or two, and managed to reach the gate just as the last light faded from the sky. This meant we then had a miserable walk back in the dark, and it started to rain, making it somehow reminiscient of many other failed attempts at tourism which I have been a part of - I swear I have been on more than my fair share of dark, damp, half-lost walks through cities and fields all over the world (in general due to poor planning on my part), while insisting that it's all very much worth it and everyone will agree with me when we get there. This is seldom the case.

We headed back to Osaka, and had Sushi at the place across the road, which has an awesome delivery system - instead of waitress service, if you order things from the touchscreen menu, they arrive on a miniature Shinkansen/Bullet Train which whizzes down a track above the conveyor belt!

Tonight was poker night - Bill and Eric came over, and we played Texas Hold-em for a 2500 yen pot - Eric was out first, then me, then Bill, leaving Les and Laura (who didn't even want to play) to battle it out for the money. This isn't exactly what happened, as Les wasn't paying attention, and Laura was bored, so they ended up (in spite of our protests) splitting the pot down the middle, in a terribly fair and sporting manner.

Day 47/8 - Kobe and Karaoke!

There has been an interesting development in the ongoing Nova debacle - Les and Laura attended a meeting yesterday afternoon with the company who have taken over Nova, in which it was promised that all remaining Nova "employees" would receive ¥150000 (about £670) if they signed up to restart work on January the 10th, regardless of whether or not they run away and not honour this promise. While this falls well short of what they're owed, if it happens it will certainly make it a lot easier for them to survive here, go home, or move to Korea.

Yesterday I went for an adventure around Shinsaibashi/ Yotsubashi/Korie/Amemura, and I now feel I know the place fairly well. It's a bit of a warren, but seems like a pretty cool place to be, surrounded by bars and restaurants and people pretty much constantly. We went to Kobe in the afternoon (having failed to meet up, and getting three different trains from Osaka to Sannomiya), which is a very cool city, from what I saw. It's tiny, despite containing about 1.25 million people, and seems to be designed on a much more people friendly scale than Osaka. It has a chinatown, which may seem a little redundant in Japan, but in fact is very different in style and appearance to the rest of the city. While Les taught her lesson, we had a look around the (Lonely Planet recommended) sights within walking distance of the station, and were pleasantly surprised. Lots of restaurants serving Kobe beef, unsurprisingly, which I am determined to try before I leave this bit of the country, to see if it's all it's cracked up to be, although at ¥6000+ per steak it will probably be a one-time only experience.

One culinary treat I probably won't be trying is the super-fresh sushi, cut into sashimi while the fish is (supposedly) still alive, ending up looking like this appetising plastic representation in the restaurant window.

We attempted to eat at a cheap restaurant near chinatown, only to be told that the place shut at "ninety o'clock", and a gentleman came outside and told us where we could get a similar meal, all in passable english. When Laura thanked him in Japanese, he laughed out loud and clouted her incredibly hard on the back, maybe as a form of friendly jostle, maybe as a stern warning never to attempt his hallowed language again. We can never be sure... 10 o'clock rolled around, the time we were meant to be meeting Claudia and others for drinks before Karaoke, and we found ourselves to be in a ¥280 bar in a whole different city, so we probably weren't going to make it on time. As it turned out, we made it to Karaoke about half 12, to find a little room with (just) room for 8 or 9 people, with an enormous bible of Japanese, Korean and English songs, a touchscreen remote for entering your requests, two microphones and free soft drinks. After a shaky start (I have never done booth-based karaoke before, and was a little nervous to say the least) I got into my stride, singing Chop-Suey by system of a down with a girl called Sandy. A rather unlikely song, mainly chosen because she said "Can you imagine trying to sing System on Karaoke?" In total, we were there for about 6 hours, belting out such classics as Eternal Flame, Folsom Prison Blues, Total Eclipse Of The Heart, The Final Countdown, Leaving On A Jetplane (solo by Claudia, as she is...), and a rather stunted version of Gasolina. You can stay in the Karaoke room from 11:00 pm to 6:00 am for only the equivalent of £7, making it cheaper than any hostel I've heard of in Japan, almost making it a viable option when Les and Laura leave and I have to move out...

As I went to catch the Subway home at dawn this morning, I found a Ramen bar just by one of the Shinsaibashi Station exits that did freshly cooked Pork Ramen for only ¥600, with big bowls of kimchi and spiced spring onions for adding. I once again found I can use chopsticks when tipsy and exhausted, as I did at Yoshinoya on my first night here in Japan, the night of the neck-kicking incident. I was proud, and arrived home just as the sun was rising over the buildings around Kita-tatsumi, mere minutes after Laura had (incredibly) arrived back on her bike.

Day 46 - Addendum to yesterday, and window shopping

I feel I should also mention that we may have seen a man die yesterday. As we were waiting for Les at Umeda station, there was a bit of a cafuffle behind us, although noone was paying much attention. We had a little look for curiosity's sake, and there were a group of paramedics giving CPR to a body so limp and colourless that at first I thought it was a dummy. As we were leaving, they wheeled him away on a trolley, with his pallid arm hanging limply out of the side, from under the blanket. I was reminded of this as today we saw an old (maybe 60) man fall off the pavement, really hammered, at about 3 o'clock while his mate was hailing a Taxi. I went over to see if he was ok, and ended up half-carrying him to his taxi while he slurred Origato and Thanks alternately.

Preceding this, we went up to the roof of the OCAT building for a picnic and to say goodbye to Lawrence, another ex-Nova employee who's leaving Osaka. Yet again, another thing to do in Osaka which involves being up high and looking down on the city, something I normally love to do, however not instead of having things to do in the city itself. Les, Laura and I went for a wander round Shinsaibashi/Amemura/Dotonburi looking for various things, and I was left to my own devices for a few hours, during which I tried to cover as much of this area as possible. It's areally interesting place to walk around, a positive warren of shops, bars and restaurants, which I found to contain very few foreign ATMs. After a bit of window shopping I found a cool little cafe on the 2nd floor of a building just by the centre of the Shinsaibashi Mall, called Cocoa, which serves loads of variants on hot chocolate, in a very well decorated (by which I mean cluttered with every concievable piece of chocolate-related media) little establishment. Seemed like the kind of place Clare might really like, sort of like a cutesier, booze free Evaristo...

Tomorrow night we are apparently going for all-night Karaoke with Claudia (a german ex-Nova who I met today on the roof), after going out in Amemura. I'm a little apprehensive, to say the least.

Day 45 - Mino-o and a Naked chat

Last night we got the Glastonbury DVD from the video shop, and had a sleepover in the living room. This may seem a somewhat redundant activity in a flat with paper walls and sliding doors, but it meant that when one of us woke up, the others did too, which aided us a lot in achieving today's goal - To go to Mino-o and climb the mountain to the waterfall. Upon arrival, I discovered that it was in fact more of a slightly uphill path, but it was awesome nonetheless. The area around it seems to have one main commercial interest, which is the deep frying of Maple leaves, coated in Maple Sugar batter. This produces delicious candied leaves, which are nice and crunchy and reminiscient of brandy snaps or those orange sweets you get in indian sweetshops, whose name escapes me. We also had some Red Bean Mochi, called Daifuku, which were a wierd doughlike consistency and bright green.


It was a perfect sunny day today, with not a cloud in the sky, however as a result a few thousand other people had the same idea as us, meaning that the route was pretty crowded all the way up. The main attraction at this time of year seems to be the fact that the leaves are all turning from green to various stunning shades of red, which made for hundreds of whimsical shots of mountainsides clad in leaves of various hues. The walk was really nice, not too strenuous and dotted with loads of extremely Japanese scenes, culminating in a pretty spectacular waterfall at the end of the 3 km(ish) trail. We bumped into two ex-Nova teachers called Owen and Lee, who told us that the Onsen at the Mino-o Hotel was half price after five, valuable knowledge.

To get to the Onsen you go up in a glass lift from ground level to Hotel Lobby level, which commands pretty spectacular views over the endless city of Osaka, so I have yet more cityscape photos. The Onsen experience is a little disconcerting at first, being as it is a large room mainly full of naked Japanese men. The one at Mino-o is apparently below par, although it was nonetheless very relaxing. This Onsen is sex-separated, although this is not always the case. There is an enormous pool in the centre at about 37 degrees, surrounded on two sided by showers and stools, with soap, with a Sauna and a Vapour room at the top. The Sauna was at above 110 F, about 45 C, whereas the Vapour room was very odd. It amounted to a small greenhouse, indoors, with sprinklers in the ceiling which sprayed those inside with a fine mist of water at a fairly neutral temperature. You walk around the Onsen nude, except for a small flannel which you can either use for a little modesty, or (for some inexplicable reason) place folded on top of your head while you sit in the baths.

There was also an outdoor Pool/Jacuzzi full of hot water, which allowed you to look out over the city (in daylight). It was while I was in this pool that I saw Owen again, and we had a chat about degrees and Masters' and the like, while utterly nude. This seemed odd for about 30 seconds, but somehow ceased to be so very quickly, much like the whole experience in fact. The fact that absolutely noone else finds it even the slightest bit odd makes the whole thing a lot easier to deal with. I wonder if such a thing would work at home, where being the naked guy in the changing room is the exception, rather than the norm...
Anyway, the point is that it was a really nice relaxing visit, and I can quite see why the girls are such big fans of Onsen in general. They met Lee in their side, and pointed out that it's somehow wierder being naked with someone you are aquainted with than a close friend or a stranger, although they may well become the former quicker as a result.

(edit - just watched Breakfast On Pluto, with Cillian Murphy - It's really good, I recommend it. Also, we're going for a picnic on top of the OCAT building tomorrow!)