Japan, land of the shiney

Having arrived in Shimonseki from China you are left in no doubt that you have moved from one country to anther, Chinese cites generally have a fairly lacks approach to rubbish there are many people employed as street cleaners however these are needed as the common approach to rubbish is to drop it in the street and hope someone else picks it up. Not so in Japan streets are all slightly worryingly immaculate another new trend was the re discovery of the weekend. In China shops are almost universally open 7 days a week however our first day in Japan was a Sunday and the vast majority of the shops where closed. We did manage to activate the rail pass we got in Qingdao so we could use it to get to Tokyo. Rail travel in Japan is very, very efficient and quick, and also very expensive, our 7 day pass cost us about £130 for unlimited travel on all but the fastest trains (the ones that go faster than bullet trains). We found this very useful for travelling around in Japan and also inside Tokyo as the rail network is very well spread. Our first night was spend in a Japanese business hotel which was newly outfitted, well designed and absolutely tiny. The bath was only long enough to sit up in however after 4 ½ months with no bath at all this was a welcome sight none the less.

In Tokyo we were lucky to stay in the Sunroute Plaza hotel in Shinjuku district this was ideally situated just a few minutes from one of the main train stations, a bit soulless but very comfortable and modern. Tokyo is an absolutely amazing place filled with an amazingly focused population, almost everything seems to have been carefully designed hundreds of people march about with looks of determined purpose on their faces, about a third of the tube travels appear to have just stepped out of a fashion shoot and one got the impression that the teenage boys lounging about had spent hours carefully arraigning their grungy outfits so as the look like they hadn’t bothered.

Generally Tokyo was not a high rise city due to earthquakes fires and wars knocking everything down at regular intervals. In spite of disasters there were many temples and old looking buildings that had been painstakingly reconstructed. The whole city felt like it had been beautifully crafted rather like a formal garden.

Things we saw:

Adults Day at Meiji-jingu: on the first day we arrived we went to the main Shinto shrine in Tokyo to see Adults day, on this day traditionally young men and women who have turned 20 attend the shrine for blessing. At this event many of the young people arrive in sumptuously decorated kimono which are stunning if not always totally tasteful, fur lined elaborate fabrics are on show for the ladies with rather more restrained and less patterned fabrics for the men. The shire itself is beautiful and tranquil in spite of the large number of tourists. We where lucky enough to see a wedding procession going past as well as what must have been I guess a blessing for the managers of some company. About 100 men and women all in best suit and tie all solemnly bowing to the beat of a huge drum, it really did feel like a scene from a movie.

Studio Ghibli Museum. Museum dedicated to the Work of Miazaki creator of Spirited away and Princess Monaloko highlights included; a life size (nearly) model of the Cat bus, beautiful models from a number of his movies which where used to demonstrate various principles of animation and loads of original artwork. Unfortunately only small children where allowed in the Cat bus, sniff.

Delicious Tempura. Fish cooked in light and delicious batter in front of us at Tempura Tsunahachi , yum.

Mori Tower, Great views out over Tokyo.

The Edo museum. Charting the history of Tokyo this museum showed its development form the capitol of the Shogun, filled with palaces to the modern city. One of the most interesting bit was a real section of earth taken from under the ground showing the old wooden sewage systems and dark lines in the soil where the city was burned down. Tokyo really is a city built on Tokyo.

The Shitamachi Museum.

A museum showing Street life of the ordinary citizen in Tokyo around the beginning of the 19th Centaury. Gave a very good impression of what life was like in Tokyo 100 years ago, families living in very small wooden houses every inch of space made use of with sliding doors and removable floorboards to store things under. It was very interesting to see that many shops would store all their goods in a large wicker basket overnight which lived on a pole high in the shop. In the event of the fire men could rush into the shop, pick up the pole and rush out to safety.

The Japan national museum: Beautiful swords, armour and paintings from Japan. Amazing and beautiful stuff, although presentation was not great.

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