Last Day in Japan and My Journey to Australia

My last partial day in Japan didn’t start until 0900 as I deliberately stayed in bed until then because I realised that the next time my head hit the pillow could be 36 hours later! As I prepared for leaving yesterday evening, I left out only the clothes I planned to wear, some toiletries and my camera, so it didn’t take very long checking out of the hotel. By 10:30, I had left my suitcase and laptop bag with the lovely staff at the hotel reception desk and wandered off to spend my last few hours in Tokyo. Once again, the Weather Channel were miles out, and it was an absolute stunner of a day. My first stop was a small coffee shop in the Satake covered street. I got some strange looks as I ordered and drank my coffee, but I didn’t feel unwelcome. I spent a while there finishing off my book, A Sense of an Ending, by Julian Barnes – really enjoyed it. I’ll be checking out his other books.

Ueno Park was my destination again – it’s very close to my hotel and it had charmed me a few days earlier.

Tiger Lady (the first image) was one of three traditional Japanese dancers who wowed everyone with their acrobatics and general sense of fun. She agreed to pose for me once the show was over. These elderly Japanese were enjoying the game of baseball, especially as just as I arrived, one of the hitters knocked one right out of the arena to much applause.

At Starbucks in the park, I met Walter from the Netherlands. He’s a university student doing a post-grad degree in business and is in Japan for twelve days. We had a very enjoyable chat about Tokyo, Japan in general, and the politeness and warmth of the Japanese, along with a few other topics. He was a really nice chap.

Not long after that, it was time for me to retrieve my suitcase and bag and make my way out to Narita for my flight to Australia. I travelled from the Ueno Keiso station – the arrival of my train at Platform 2 was something worth watching! As the sleek blue and white train pulled in, the passengers got off and the doors closed for a few minutes, then the cleaning staff went on board and worked their way through the train from front to back. Once they got off, and the doors closed again, I noticed that all of the seats in the train rotated 180° robotically!

Narita T2 is a very impressive place. Police on Segways, spotless, loads of great shops and places to eat and free wifi! Once I’d had something to eat, I made my way towards my gate where I saw my Qantas 747 being readied for the trip. Bloody huge!

The flight itself was fairly good for a long haul. I watched Take This Waltz (with Michelle Williams and Seth Rogen) which was pretty good and also Bel Ami and Wanderlust.

Qantas really show BA a clean pair of heels when it comes to service. They seem so relaxed and natural and there seem to be so many more of them than on the BA flight from London to Tokyo. My Twitter pal, Megan, has just joined BA as cabin crew so hopefully she’ll sort them out! I enjoyed their service and the food and facilities so much that I’m almost looking forward to the Sydney-LAX flight in five days!

The flight was only about 30% full so most people slept across three seats. Watching the “flightpath” on the little screen, it seemed a little strange to realise that I was flying above places I have only heard about in my geography lessons in school, such as Papua New Guinea and Guam. This was also my first time crossing the Equator! As the sun in the east rose above the left wing of the 747, I managed to grab a few crappy shots but they couldn’t reflect the experience properly.

Landing in Sydney was a scary affair, as I could only see sea on my side of the aircraft as it got lower and lower on it’s approach! At the last minute, some land appeared and we touched down safely. Unfortunately, I had to wait around forty-five minutes in immigration and passport control where only seven of the twelve desks were manned. There were around two hundred people in line as other flights had joined ours. Once I got through though, it was a very simple matter of grabbing my suitcase and escaping into the sunlight to wait for Adele and Trish, my Blipchums, to pick me up.

My next blog post will cover the following four days in and around Sydney and Blackheath, in the beautiful Blue Mountains!

Tokyo Day Ten and A Half – the Flickr Set

Rainy Days and Tuesdays…

Check this chap out! Japanese sartorial elegance at it’s finest. I met him on Platform 14 in Shinjuku Station, and I knew straight away that I wanted to take his picture. Happily, he agreed!

I had a great lie-in this morning, despite being awake a few times during the night. I managed not to jump up straight away at 07:02, but took the opportunity for a light snooze until 08:00 and then read my book for a further forty-five minutes. It’s a Graham Swift novel called Shuttlecock – good stuff too!

Once I’d showered and got ready to go out, I headed towards Starbucks via the Satake covered market/street. I’ve noticed in various places, Satake included, that it’s common practice for single shop units to be used as small engineering works/warehouses and businesses. I must try to get a few shots of these before I leave.

When I got to Starbucks, I found my usual perch in the open air smoking area on the first floor. Something I hadn’t noticed before in the corner, was a metal box containing the rope ladder to be used as an escape route should the coffee shop catch fire. You can see it in the 30 second video clip below:

The weather forecast for the next three days is for light rain. It’s just pretty dull so far this morning and of course, I’ve forgotten to bring my umbrella from the hotel. In other news, I had my first and last iced coffee this morning – bloody awful stuff!

I pass a busy corner supermarket on my way to breakfast every morning. It’s at a major road junction and is always a hive of activity. Every square inch inside is given over to selling space to the point that they need to store most of their spare stock out the back in the alleyway. I found myself wondering how long it would stay there if it was in Belfast. Not very!

Thanks for all of the positive comments on Flickr, Tumblr and Blipfoto yesterday. It appears that my “Looking Down” and “The Face” shots were pretty popular. Nice to know! I realise that the vast majority of images I’ve uploaded so far are more for content that any particular artistic quality, but my main aim with these shots is to show what Tokyo and some of Japan is like for the first time visitor.

My next stop will be the Ueno Park walk starting at Nippori Station – a walk from my guide book which covers Aoyama cemetery and the Tokyo National Museum. This is weather dependent though; who knows where I’ll end up! [Journal]

Just after leaving Starbucks and heading up towards Ueno Station, I spotted this Noodle Robot!

Yep. The rain started just then, so I decided to jump on a subway train and head by to Shinjuku –  and I was glad I did. I was particularly pleased with the iPhone ninja-shot below with it’s juxtaposition of East and West. I spent the rest of the afternoon wandering about in the drizzle taking the shots in today’s Flickr set. Wet but ultimately enjoyable!

Once I got dried off, and FaceTimed with Mrs P and Natalie, I went out for tea. Of course, Mr Fuji came too.

The rest of today’s shots and videos are in the Flickr set link here: Tokyo Day Nine

Thanks for reading!

Phew! Relieved.com.

Photographs weren’t my main concern today. I must admit that I have had a great sense of unease over the last few days as the Japanese currency I brought with me started to dwindle. Despite having called into my bank before coming away and inquiring about access to my funds while in Japan via my Delta card, and having been assured that there wasn’t a problem – I was still nervous. On the occasion of my fourth and fifth visits to different banks over the last few days without success in this regard, I was starting to panic. Common sense told me that around Ginza where Cartier, Dolce and Gabbana and dozens of other designer labeled items are sold, there would be bigger international banks, that should be able to sort me out. Thank you, Daiwa Securities! I had visions of hitchhiking to Narita next Thursday evening, hungry and blistered…

Anyway, once I had a few yen in my hand again, I felt grand. I headed off to grab some lunch at Pronto again, where I devoured Ginger Spaghetti and with various bits in it including Kisai plums! Tasty it was too.

Following that feed, and a coffee at Starbucks (I think that’s where lots of my money is going!), I headed off to Tokyo Station to catch the Shinkansen or Bullet Train. Very slick! I chose the Asami to Nagano but I got off at Omiya and got straight back on the next return train as I needed to find a book shop selling English titles. £12 a book! One of them, The Sense Of An Ending by Julian Barnes, we sell in work for £3.86 – that’ll teach me! Spending so much time on the subway and trains over here, has allowed me to get back into actually reading books, as I’ve been mainly listening to audiobooks over the last few years. My brother lent me Kowloon Tong by Paul Theroux and it was excellent, but I finished it today.

The top picture here was taken in Freshness Burger on Kasuga Dori – it’s where I have my evening meal, more often than not. They make a fantastic Chicken Teriyaki burger thing and it’s only a few hundred metres from my hotel. Recommended! This chap was awake when I came in and reading his book, but before long he nodded off. I see dozens of people sleeping everywhere, every day. They must work very hard, very long hours.

By the way, clicking on any of the pictures in the blog posts take you directly to the Flickr set for today, but I always link to it at the bottom of the page.

I’ve nothing set in stone for tomorrow yet, but as I have a few blisters, I imagine I’ll not be going terribly far from Ueno itself. There’s a park and a cemetery to explore!

Tokyo Day Eight – the Flickr Set

Early Bloody Start!

I had a rude awakening this morning at 05:41 when four guys were rhythmically beating a drum continually, while dragging one of those Shinto altar things down the street outside the hotel. They must have wakened most of the street as I had my window closed! 05:41!!!

These are they:

If only I’d had a water bomb!

Today has been in my holiday diary since before I came away as the day I wanted to visit Harujuku to take photographs of the Cos Play crowd. These are kids who dress up in outrageous Manga and Anime outfits and wander about Harujuku station and Yoyogi Park on a Sunday. I was a bit disappointed that the numbers weren’t bigger but the kids that were there were very friendly and were a lot of fun. I also met a few other people in the park playing music, blowing bubbles, taking blind people jogging and exercising, so it was well worth a visit anyway, and the weather was glorious!

Harujuku itself was heaving with people and even the non-Cos Play people were very trendy and a little weird in their choice of dress – or I’m just getting old (say nothing!).

Click here for Tokyo Day Seven Flickr Set

In the afternoon, I decided I’d get out of Tokyo and heading off to Kawagoe, a small town an hour north which is likely to be absorbed into greater Tokyo before too long. It’s a nice spot, but the sun had gone in so there wasn’t much of an opportunity for photographs. What I noticed most was the lack of crowds and that most of the available space was given over to growing crops, evening in the centre of town. Many gardens also were growing vegetables etc.

Each day, I’m more and more impressed with Japan and it’s people. They’re going to hard to beat. Ya hear that, San Francisco??

One of my favourite shots from today:

Sumimasen?

I’ve learned some more Japanese, thanks to Ben, a fellow Blipper who is resident in Japan:

“Sumimasen…shasin-totte ii desu ka?”

May I take your photo please?

I didn’t get much of a chance to use it today as rain started overnight and is still falling (it’s 21:15 here), but the weather is to improve tomorrow, in fact we’re looking at potentially 81°! I travelled on the Oedo line this morning to Roppongi, home of the famous, but rather wet, Roppongi Crossing. Looking for something to do indoors, I decided to go there to visit the Sun-Tory Museum of Art, the Tokyo Mid-Town Centre and a few other places. The museum was closed while they prepared for the next exhibition, but the Mid-Town centre was just jaw-dropping in scale and variety. It’s over 753,000 square feet of selling space. to put that in perspective, that’s more than twelve Tesco Newtownbredas!

Shops selling fruit as gifts – a single unblemished and rather large mango in a box was over £23! It’s a Japanese thing. There was a pet shop, just for dogs, with a glass fronted grooming parlour where the pooches were being spoilt and loads more. Worth a visit, if you’re ever here.

I stayed in Mid-Town for lunch and had a very decent Vietnamese chicken curry meal with Saigon beer.

This evening when I was back at the hotel, I heard drums beating for about twenty minutes. I decided to see if I could track them down, grabbing my umbrella and camera. Two streets away, there were over one hundred men and women carrying three altar-type decorated “things” while chanting, along the street. They were almost all barefoot, and dressed in colourful kimono jackets and loin cloths and were enjoying themselves despite the drizzle. Unfortunately due to the low light, my pictures weren’t great but I kept a few.

If the good weather turns up tomorrow, I’m off to Harujuku to shoot the Cos Play crowd, and if not, I’ll need to find another dry spot!

Here are the rest of today’s shots: Tokyo Day Six

Chickened Out!

I chickened out of the eight hour round trip to Hiroshima this morning, as I thought I might. The reason I changed my original holiday plan from driving across the US to my current destinations is that I thought I’d spend too much time looking at highways and not the “real” America. So spending eight precious hours staring out a train window lost it’s appeal. I decided to use today to visit Shibuya instead.

The hotel breakfast really sucks, if I’m honest, so I ended up just having coffee in Ueno Station at a Wired Cafe. It’s not very “wired” though – the Freespot free wifi was very intermittent, but I had quick Twitter conversation with @johnnygoatboy and @dudeiloveyou. Johnny’s working in Ghana at present and Boo just couldn’t sleep.

I subsequently caught the Ginza Line right to the end and arrived in Shibuya –  a really straightforward trip. I mention this because I caught the Yamamote Line home but from the wrong platform. It’s a large loop line that goes right around Tokyo, so I saw a little more of Tokyo itself whizzing past, due to my circuitous meanderings. Shibuya Station, or at least the plaza outside, is home to a statute of a famous Japanese dog, Hachiko. The statue is a well known meeting place for every generation and today was no exception. It is always very crowded and many people want their picture taken with the statue.

Shibuya seems to be the trendiest area of Tokyo in terms of teenager wacky fashions and there were certainly some innovative outfits on show today. The place definitely has a vibe of it’s own with TV crews filming, different stores and buskers competing for everyone’s attention on loud hailers. I’ve quite a few shots taken in Shibuya today in the Flickr set below.

Starbucks in the plaza got some more of my money for a coffee and a tasteless macaroon – it’s always an adventure when you try different foods, but this was a fairly safe bet.

It’s 1330 now and I’m sitting in a local park now enjoying the shade [journal], in the company of five workmen who’ve come in for a smoke. I’ve been here about thirty minutes and I’ve been thinking about what has impressed me so far in Japan. More about that later, but I need to hunt down some lunch…

…Teriaki Chicken was found and devoured, and I’ve also bought a jar of Nescafe for my room for less than the price of one Americano in Starbucks!

This afternoon, I’m going to relax with Christina Hendricks (on my laptop, Mrs P!), and later, I will forage for some dinner. I ran out of battery power this morning, so I have fewer photographs to edit and post, so I may also take a walk to the Sumida River (Soo-mi-dah, I think) which is only 1800m away.

Things I’ve noticed so far:

• iPhones are a small minority in Tokyo. Clamshell phones are still a thing here and they’re massive; not far off two iPhone 4s hinged together.
• Sleeping is the second most common activity on the train, following close behind reading on their phones.
• Apples are often three or fours times the size of those we can get at home.
• I’ve yet to see a Kindle – perhaps there are few Japanese titles available?
• Those who read real books often have cloth or leather covers on them, and sometimes just a sheet of white paper. To protect the book cover or hide what they’re reading? Who knows?
• I love the way the Japanese will stand at a red light and not cross the road even if there is no traffic.
• Graffiti is comparatively rare.
• Everywhere is spotless, especially trains, stations and parks, which are very well used.
• Local police posts are everywhere. I passed two in my 1800m walk this evening. Usually built into small corners of buildings with one or two policemen in attendance, known as coban. It’s a nice feeling, although I’ve yet to feel at risk in any way since I arrived here.

I’m just back from my evening walk and dinner. The Bridge over the River Sumida was all kinds of awesome. Art Deco in style and built like a battleship.

On my way back, I took a chance on a local eatery, and I’m glad I did. I had the usual nonsensical ordering experience (completely my fault) until the waitress asked another gentleman to help. Raj is an Indian who was having a meal with his wife and two children in his “local”. He has lived in Tokyo for thirteen years and speaks fluent English and Japanese, and helped me understand the menu. A very decent chap and handy to have around. I may go back there!

Anyhoo, another very enjoyable day! Christina wants more of my time, and she gets what she wants 😉

I’ve linked to the photos from today below – please have a look! My Flickr pages have had almost 5000 hits since Sunday, and it’s good to know that they’re being looked at 😀

Tokyo Day Four

Shinjuku Baby!

Isn’t she very cute? I asked permission but she still blushed!

Awake at 03:42 this morning; teatime at home in Bangor, following a seven hour sleep. I used the time to write the previous blog post featuring short videos of the area around Ueno, where I’m staying. Breakfast isn’t served until 07:00 so I had THE BEST SHOWER EVER, and then got ready for my walking tour of Shinjuku. I’ve still no wifi but I’ve managed to FaceTime Mrs P and the kids twice now which has worked out very well. Amazing technology!

Breakfast was a little strange, with shredded lettuce, some form of scrambled eggs that looked like tagliatelle pasta and some Japanese salad dressing that I could still taste three hours later. At least the coffee was good!

My next stop was Ueno station where I bought a Suica card (works like an Oyster card on the Tube) from a very friendly girl behind the counter in the Eastern Railways shop. Having mapped out mentally the changes necessary to get to Shinjuku station, I managed it without much drama, and some of the pictures I took on the train are in the link below.

Shinjuku has to be seen to be believed. Swarms of people move in every direction constantly. It is the busiest railway station in the world serving 3.5 million travellers a day, and has seven railway companies and three subway rail companies feeding it with passengers constantly. It’s a bit overwhelming at times. Hundreds of thousands of people, all quietly making their way to work, dignified and seemingly having some sort and anti-collision radar built in. I’ll be posting a video of the station in the next few days.

I’m writing this [my journal earlier] from the outside dining area of a Starbucks near the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building. It’s an incredible structure with a free observatory on the 45th floor giving commanding views on a 360° basis. Visitors’ bags are checked by the two politest security guards on this earth, who bow to every lift passenger before and after searching their bags, and then you are guided in and out of the lifts by female assistants. In the gallery itself, I spotted a baby with it’s father and his eyes followed me across the room. It may have been my shorts! He had a wicker pram – see links below. I noticed that many Japanese attractions supply rubber stamps for stamping journals, pieces of paper and whatever else you have to hand. This is a thing in Japan, and it’s a great idea, IMHO.

Once outside, I crossed the road into the Shinjuko Chuo-Loen park and visited the temple in it’s grounds, along with what seemed like a dog walking area fenced in and with not one turd in sight. There was also a series of named flower beds. I imagine that each one belongs to a neighbouring apartment building or individual families and they were very well looked after. This part of the park was alive with butterflies, and was very impressive. Further around the park towards the back, I saw a number of gerry-built tarpaulin shacks housing homeless people. As I walked past, a guy on a bike cycled up and left packets of bread and pastries with one of the residents – it may have been a donation of some sort.

There were also about twenty various homeless people living on cardboard under trees. Without exception, they all looked very dignified, many with what seemed like all of their household goods in large bags wrapped in plastic.

Crossing the road and walking towards Shinjuku station again, I noticed further homeless people with huge bags of aluminium cans that they had collected to trade for cash and some of these were attached to railings next to the TMG building.

Next on my agenda was lunch. My guide book suggested a number of options but I plumped for a nondescript small restaurant on the far side of Kabukicho, the red light district. Buying off a picture menu could have been problematic, but I was very pleased with my Chicken Satay with noodles, boiled rice, pickle and some other white goo. The owner was very quick off the mark suppling me with green tea and refilling it each time she passed. A younger waitress, who may have been her daughter noticed my crappy chopstick skills and walked over unsolicited with a fork and a smile. well, at least I tried. An impressive place, overall. (tainan-taami.com)

Piss Alley was next. It’s in Shomben Yokocho. If you’ve been reading this blog from the start, you will have seen an interesting video which shows live salamanders and eels been grilled and eaten – this is the spot! A very atmospheric place built around 1948 and many of the tiny food serving buildings have been continually owned by the same families since then. Apparently the yakitori is excellent and inexpensive. US bombers flattened most of Shinjuku on 23 May 1945 and this was part of rebuilding the area. From there, I walked up to Kinokuniya, the book store which has a floor of English language books – I bought Factotum by Charles Bukowski, for the flight to Sydney. This area is full of the most fashionable young people I’ve seen since coming to Tokyo. I must say I looked very much the gaijin in my daft shorts and Pawnography (chess geek) t-shirt. I think I stood out too much and felt out of place among these guys and the thousands of salarymen. Jeans tomorrow!

Apart from a harrowing twenty minute search for the Marunouchi Line in the wrong part of Shinjuku station, I got home safely and vegged out for a while before heading out around 22:00 for a bite to eat. Of course, Mr Fuji came along and the results are the night shots at the end of the Tokyo Day Two Flickr set below.

Tomorrow will be a take it easy day as my leg is playing up a little and I’ve some blisters now – I reckon I walked seven or eight miles today around Shinjuku and Ueno –  if it wasn’t for the Salomen hiking shoes, it could have been much worse.

Hiroshima on Thursday, I think!

The Flickr Tokyo Day Two set

Choo Choo!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Japan Rail voucher arrived yesterday. It is the most cost-effective way of using trains in Japan. For example, ticket will allow me to travel return from Tokyo to Hiroshima (one of my planned trips) and use almost every other train, both local and subway for seven days, for the cost of one normal medium distance trip to residential Japanese. Organising the actual ticket, rather than the voucher, is quite fiddly as I need to ensure that my passport is stamped for the ninety day visa rather than the fifteen day visa on arrival at Narita, or my ticket is invalid. That’d would be £242 down the drain – I’ll be concentrating on that particular process then!

55 more days 😀