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Published: August 7th 2007
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Geisha
Geisha When I asked my friend, Jon, what he thought of Japan after his travels there he paused for a moment and then said: "well, it's just like Christmas". This enigmatic statement made me even more curious to visit Japan and by the time I touched down in Tokyo I was dying to discover what he meant.
TOKYO
First impression were disappointing and the walk to the city shuttle bus was nothing like Christmas - although the heat that hit me after leaving the air conditioning of the terminal was a lot like opening an oven door to inspect a roasting turkey. The bus ride into Tokyo, through the grey and hazy suburbs, also lacked colour and any festival joy. However, as the bus finally pulled up outside the gleaming glass tower of the Park Hyatt in Shinjuku I did start to experience some Christmas eve excitement in my stomach. The Park Hyatt was the location for the film "Lost in Translation" and although I had to mortgage my organs to raise funds to stay there I figured that one night of luxury would be worth it. You'd have thought that Miss Johansson herself had returned to the film set judging
Shinkansen
Shinkansen by the number of staff on-hand outside to meet, greet and fuss over my arrival. I was whisked through the stylish dark wood and dimly lit interior to my 42nd floor room. The view across Tokyo was stunning and as it started to get dark I was even more glued to the floor-to-ceiling window by the millions of twinkling lights. I could only drag myself away for a toilet break, but little did I know this would prove more fascinating that the view. For you see my bathroom came with a Japanese shower toilet. Not only did it have a heated seat but also a 3-setting bum shower control panel. Three washes, one blow dry and a powder and deodorant and my jet lag seemed to disappear!
Breakfast the next morning was an elegant affair with white linen table clothes and an excess of staff to pour my coffee when the cup went below half full. After such pampering it was difficult to leave the hotel without an army of people to carry my one bag. The hotel staff did warn me that the Tokyo Metro is "confusing, even for Japanese people". I didn't quite believe it until I
Kyoto
Kyoto spent 15 mins just walking around and around the food court of the station trying to find the entrance. Once finally inside the sheer amount of people, signs, exits and ticket machines proved a massive overload for my brain. The whole Tokyo experience followed this pattern - with so many people, flashing lights and things to see I did indeed feel like a child at Christmas.
KYOTO
The bullet train or Shinkansen whisked me at 300mph to Kyoto covering around 500kms in 2hrs 30mins. I was disappointed not to see Mt Fuji because of the haze but the excitement of traveling on such a futuristic and stealth machine made up for the lack of view. Lynsay and her boyfriend Chris stood out like blonde totem poles amongst the sea of dark and petite Japanese at Kyoto station. They are both teaching English for a year in Japan and it's amusing to think of those kids speaking English with a north of Scotland Bettyhill accent. Lynsay and Chris took me to experience my first vending machine dinner. The dishes on offer are displayed in the most un-appetizing array of plastic mock-ups in the shop window that you've ever seen. You
Typhoon island
Typhoon island then simply make your selection on the vending machine and your meal is delivered to your table - genius!
I had very sentimental notions of what Kyoto, and especially the Geisha district of Gion, would be like. For the most part Kyoto was disappointingly just like every other 50's built Japanese block city and only the temples dotted amongst the grey housing harked back to ancient Japan. In the evening I was super excited about going out Geisha spotting in Gion. The thought of Geisha dressed in exquisite silk Kimonos tottering from wooden tea house to tea house was almost as magical as trying to spot Santa Claus. But Gion was nothing like I expected. In place of the elusive Geisha were all too different ladies of the night. Out was the Kimono and in was the plastic 5inch heel. The wooden tea houses were gone and replaced with girls in windows dancing around poles. It was all too similar to the plastic food in the shop window - but we didn't go in to find out if the punters pay at the vending machine!
NAO SHIMA
Desperate to escape the never ending urban sprawl, where one city rolls
After the bomb
After the bomb into another, we decided to go and camp on the small island of Nao Shima in the Inland Sea. The journey on the ferry was odd as the ferry was empty and the captain was trying to tell us something, but we just couldn't understand what he was staying. When we arrival on the island we were shocked at how windy it was and the place seemed to be deserted. After walking two miles to the camp site laden with camping gear, the rather gruff woman there said it was closed. After questioning her for a few moments to find somewhere else she said: "nothing open, typhoon coming"! Right enough when we looked around there were several men hurriedly putting out sand bags against every door and someone else glued to the news channel watching the destruction in other parts of Japan. I had to laugh because only Lynsay and I would rock up during a typhoon, planning to camp in some flimsy tent, with me wearing an off-the-shoulder number and Lynsay sporting a fetching clevage inhancing dress. We were all starving and were semi tempted to cook some of the food we'd bought, but after much debate (and our BBQ equipment blowing away) we decided that it best to sod the sausages and not to have our BBQ. Instead we took up residence on the floor of the camp site shower block and forgot our worries for a moment while we made cheese sandwiches. The next ferry of the island was in 4hrs, so we slept and read the afternoon away in a shack near the ferry port. Half an hour before the ferry was due to leave an old man banged on the door and told us all the ferries were cancelled. Great! So we're stuck on the island with only a tent and some sausages with no-where to stay in the middle of a typhoon! After a bit of panic and us generally looking worried and lost a very kind local gave us a lift of a posh hotel on the other side of the island and after parting with a small fortune we secured the only two remaining rooms on the island that night.
HIROSHIMA
Nothing will grow for 75 years was what was said after the atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima 62 years ago. Upon arrival the city is much like any other we'd seen - if anything it was more lively because there was a big baseball game going on and it was obvious that the 75 years of nothing growing was an entirely wrong prediction. The only difference I could see between Hiroshima and other cities was the haunting shell of building by the river, which has been left as a memorial to the atomic bombing. Lit by night it was a very eerie place to visit - even with hundreds of baseball fans screaming in the background.
The next day we went to visit the Peace Museum, which gives the complete history of the bombing. It's hard to describe how moving the museum was. The exhibit of victims was particularly sobering. There were horrific pictures of the victims burns and even some bits of skin and blackened nails, but what really brought things home to me was a simple and rusty child's tricycle bike. The little two year old had been riding it outside when the bomb hit and he was badly burned and died shortly afterwards. His father buried the little boy in the garden with his bike and it remained with him for 40yrs until his grave was moved to a proper burial site. I think this inanimate object powerfully showed how so many normal lives were destroyed at Hiroshima and the brutality of the bombing.
On that low note it was time for me to leave Lynsay and Chris and head home. I don't know if Japan really is like Chistmas, but the pure excitement and novelty did have similarities. Ultimately I think Japan is such a unique place I don't really think it can be compared to anything.
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