Encapsulated!

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Have reached the stage of my holiday where I substitute seeking out the next temple or shrine with seeking out a good english bookstore!! The last few days in Osaka were fairly uneventful. It's a very grey city and was quite a shock after the quaint little towns I had been to previously. Miyajima island out of Hiroshima was a great day out-- on the ferry past the 'floating torri' that is quite famous and said to be one of the top three photographed sights in japan. I have a few snaps of it---and about a million of the tame deer that wander about the island. They were the sweetest things ever!!

Hiroshima itself was interesting, saw the burnt out shell of the a-dome thats been left up as a memorial to peace. Also had a bomb survivor speak at the youth hostel (with the help of a interpreter) about his experience. Can still not make a decision on my opinion on the whole deal, definately two sides to the story (one thing i didn't know previously was that 1 in 10 of those killed by the bombs were actually Korean's who were forced to be slave labourers during the war.)

On a much more trivial note, another feature of the youth hostel here was the bathing!! There could be no mistaking I was in the 'girls' bathroom because Everything was PINK. floor, walls, ceiling, towels and... the bathwater.

So after Hiroshima I moved on to Osaka (actually Shin Osaka which is near the station.) and stayed in an excellent youth hostel. They were voted the top youth hostel in the world, and it definatley showed. Cool new building with perfect fitout. Really spacious dorms with lockers, table and chairs, curtained and timber bed compartments and a great view of the skyline. Took a day out at Nara, which also had wild deer walking around (but much rougher, dare i say uglier deer than Miyajima. I think the deer there must have been taken in for manicures and spa baths at night)

On my return I checked out the Umeda sky building, which looks like two twin towers with a bug flat donut shape linking the two. I took the glass elevator up the the 86th floor, and from there you have to go up a glassed in escalator across the void to get to the top of the donut. Looked around for a bit and then went backdownstairs to the inner courtyard where they were holding what seemed like Germanchristmasfest. Had some gleuwien (sic?) to warm myself up (its starting to get wintery finally.)

Yesterday came back to Tokyo on the Shinkansen and met up with Monique for our night in the capsule hotel!!!
Was a big adventure... First we bought our nights accommodation from a vending machine, and went up to the ladies only floor (thank god) and had a look around. Our capsules ran parallel to the corridor so you climbed in one end and had the rest enclosed for privacy. they were actually quite spacious, definately more room that i'd had in some of the bunks at the hostels. The lockers were quite funny, sort of interlocking so you had a but of a shelf and then a long hanging space. After taking some pics we went out for some dinner and found a great place with yummy food (strangley enough paid for in a vending machine also) and had a look in a few stores, sampled different types of saki, includin one that was 19 years old. Then went back to the capsule hotel where Mon bravely navigated the japanese bathing facilities. Some more photo ops in our suppliesd PJ's followed, after which we crashed out. One word on our fellow encapsulates: strange. The place has a reputation for being where drunken businessmen stay the night after missing the last train- as for the women who decided to stay, for the most they were skinny older ladies who talked to themselves, one who lined up a string of stuffed animals along the edge of her capsule before going to sleep. There was one however, not that old, who who was completely off the rails and by the sound of her continuous cough and the amount of cigarettes she managed to get through in the lobby, she should have been in hospital. I somehow managed to sleepthrough it but Monique told me another lady got up about three am and got the staff to evict her.

Allrighty! so its the next day after all is said and done and i think that it was definatley a fun thing to do despite a few unsavoury events. Very clean and a good view over the river to the very odd Flame d'Or of Asakusa.

Now i've got three more nights in Asakusa before flyiing back to Melbourne on Saturday night.

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