Turning Japanese-ah (Part 1): The start of the end...

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Konnichiwa!!! I’m in Japan!!!.

(13/11/09) So here I am...in my final country before I return to Blighty. I arrived in Fukuoka (pronounced “Foo-coke-ah“) in Japan’s south west via a fast ferry (took less than 3hrs instead of 11 hours) from Busan in South Korea. I had hoped to leave the drizzle that followed me around Korea behind me, but how does that song go?…oh yeah “Everywhere you go, you always bring the weather with you”..and then make it even worse…it wasn’t raining cats and dogs this time, rather tigers and wolves, which is annoying as it is far from the wet season in this region during this time of year. Anyhows, after a thorough inspection of my hand luggage at customs (for some reason they were not bothered by my big bag) and shaking off an annoying French girl that befriended me on the boat (she was very dangerous when trying to manoeuvre her wheely suitcase), I was very excited to be in Japan. I have always wanted to come here, although for no specific reason…The tourist info lady told me what bus to get from the ferry terminal, but its pretty confusing as you take a ticket as you board the back of the bus, then pay as you leave from the front? I had considered getting into couch surfing (organised through a website) as heard great things and a guy called Yuji offered me a place to stay but in the end I declined as it was an hour out from the city…Anyhows, as I stepped off in the pouring rain I had no idea from my guidebook where my accommodation (no address and the map was Mickey Mouse) would be. Luckily, a young women who spoke absolutely no English walked me to the door in the rain, ten minutes out of her way. What a lovely lady. My intended hostel was fully booked for tonight (which is Friday the thirteenth by the way) so I have paid double (which was already double what I budgeted, so that’s quadruple right?) to stay in a ryokan, which is a traditional Japanese inn (better than a stable in late December huh?). I had my own room which was pretty big and a mattress on the floor, which some of you might think I wasn’t used to, however my last year in Ealing I had the same set up so it was fine.. The guidebook says that Fukuoka is famous for great night life and beautiful women, which should be my cue to get dressed up and party but the weather was diabolical so I just got some food in a traditional Japanese restaurant called Wendy’s Hamburgers and chilled for the evening. I did walk around the swish shopping and entertainment centre called Canal City that had a Christmas music charged fountain display...is it really that time of year already? President Obama was in Japan today and I saw the interview with him on TV. I know he is here to save the world and probably is a good guy, but what an arse licker?! It was all “Ooh Japan is the best..” and “Ooh Japan is my favourite country..”…Admittedly I did put the “ooh“ in that but the point remains...Also tonight I was getting panicky as every ATM machine would not give me any money…turns out I got the conversion wrong and was asking for a thousand pound, rather than a hundred…silly me!

(14/11/09) So I knew before getting to Fukuoka that it doesn’t have a million touristy things to see, so I took the opportunity to stroll around the centre and was quite impressed at this modern city. Apparently they bidded (against Tokyo as well) for the 2016 Olympics, which I think Brazil have, along with the 2014 World Cup. I had my first sushi in Japan and my only advice is this; cook it, and serve it warm…In the late afternoon I met up with a friend of a friend called Mayu. I have had a few offers from people saying “Oh when you get to xxx you should meet my friend..” etc but have never taken them up, until now. Mayu had lived in Australia for 2 years and had excellent English. We just strolled around the streets, chatted and went to a food market (I think it was a year ago today I went to the Good Food Show in London by the way) and sampled various foods including popular and pricey mullet fish roe and Japanese Merlot red wine (actually not too bad). I even won a bottle of Soju (Korean rice wine) on a tombola and Mayu won 3kg of fish! We then repeated the food tasting exercise in a posh department store and I was quite overwhelmed by how polite and gracious the staff in these places are, a far cry from the spotting zombies we have working at Tesco. No idea what I was eating, but I liked almost all of it. If there’s any thing I like, its free food. Mayu was so lovely and after just 2 hours of knowing her we were off to dinner for a friends birthday (her friends, not mine). How cool I thought that I was going to a Japanese restaurant with lots of locals to eat Japanese food?..Then we turned up at the venue called the Three Kings that sold pizza and on the pumps sold IPA, Old Speckled Hen and Bombardier bitters..A BLOODY ENGLISH PUB!!! It was a lot of fun and Mayu’s friends were very nice (mixture of Japanese, American and Aussies). One Japanese guy in particular had me laughing hysterically at his tales from sordid Thailand (he called it Disneyland for adults, although I don’t recall seeing a 6ft mouse..). After the food a guy came up to me and asked me if I was Nick (I am), and it turned out to be couch surfing host Yuji…small world! He was a really nice guy and we chatted for a long time and turns out he knows Mayu quite well. I was pretty shocked that he was there. Afterwards we went bowling and I remained consistent..consistently crap. It was such fun and Mayu, Yuji and I went in one of those naff photo booths for some funny pictures. It was cool to meet these people and lots of them were offering me a place to stay if I ever return. I managed to find my way back to my hostel but couldn’t find the security code I had written down so had to wait a while for other guests to come home. Oh well, still a great evening.

(15/11/09) Good morning. Sadly I woke up too late to go see some fatties at the Sumo wrestling. I got on a bus and headed southish to Nagasaki which is quite famous for being the second city to have the Atomic bomb dropped on it, a few days after Hiroshima in 1945. By the time I checked in it was pretty late, but I got talking to a Japanese lady staying here and we went for dinner. On the way there we saw the oldest stone bridge in Japan called Spectacles Bridge (it kind looked like some specs). The chef at the restaurant (I estimate he was about 150 years old) came out and started talking to me in Japanese (I still aint fluent) and Misa translated. He said I looked like David Beckham!! Not heard that before, I wonder if any one has said the reverse to Goldenballs? The chef would then pop out with random things to say and seemed really intrigued by me. My favourite line was him coming out and giving me a line in Japanese and in the middle of it said..”roast beef and Yorkshire pudding..” with a thumbs up. Nice man. Whilst walking back we watched a guy giving a performance on the old guitar and reminded me of my days in The J-Ones (my band from 10 years ago that were simply better than the Beatles).

(16/11/09) Despite the last few hostels being excellent, I am yet have a decent nights sleep in Japan. Perhaps the fear of returning home soon is playing a part? Or I’m just not sleeping very well? I think it’s the later. It’s annoying as I have a busy day ahead. It started with the hostel organising a local woman to show me around the local area for an hour or so for free. She was called Naoko and I think she did it to practise her English. She took me to the oldest shrine (apparently different to a temple) in Nagasaki and she had me drinking some holy water and I pretend to pray with her just so I didn’t seem rude. She then took me to a food market, however there was little free food around. Another nice lady. I then jumped on the tram to an area called Urakami where the A-Bomb hit. I first checked out the Peace Park and statue, then to the Hypocenter Park which has a single black stone column marking the exact point above which the bomb exploded. I then went to the associated museum and it‘s hard to put my feelings down on what I saw...Basically, on 9th August 1945 (a few days after Hiroshima - where I am off to soon) our American cousins planned to release the A-Bomb on the first target of Kokura, however as it was cloudy/smokey they aborted and instead headed for the second target, the Mitsubishi shipyard in Nagasaki. At 11:02am (they had a few clocks displaying the time they stopped ticking) the B-29 bomber dropped the 4.5-ton bomb that exploded 500metres above Nagasaki with the explosive power equivalent to 21 kilotons of TNT, almost twice the power of Hiroshima a few days before. In true Yank fashion, they missed the target and scored a near direct hit on the largest catholic church in Asia at the time (I went to the rebuilt one also). The explosion killed 75,000 of Nagasaki’s population of 240,000 and then it’s thought another 75,000 died as a result from their injuries or diseases from the blast. As the men were at war, 70% of the deaths were children, woman and old folks, also 13,000 Korean labourers and 200 POWs. Pretty bad you might say. Everything within 1km of blast was destroyed and a third of the city was destroyed through fires. The museum had lots of information and I perhaps read almost all of it and the eyewitness accounts and pictures are disgusting, as is the video footage of the actual blast. I had the same sickening feeling I had after visiting the War Museum in Vietnam, another one of the USA’s finest work? I am not an expert on any of the World Wars and I know Japan were guilty of countless atrocities at Pearl Harbour, Burma Railway, Singapore and China over the last 100 years alone but I couldn’t help feel that obliterating a whole city (well 2 in a week) was as inhumane as it gets…The museum was really interesting and I came out of there in quite a sombre mood, but glad that I had a little more of an understanding. People are still affected in Nagasaki and the rate of leukaemia, miscarriages is still very high, and I have noticed a few elderly with scars from the burning they would had received at a young age. I had seen enough sad things for the day, so I headed back on a tram and checked out the rest of the city. Back in the 16th century, the Portuguese (when they were good at exploring) were the first to set up trade links in Nagasaki and they brought guns and Christianity to Japan. This was not well received so they were booted out in favour of the Protestant Dutch and so there’s influences of both nationalities around the Dejima area, which has now been spruced up and reminds me of fancy Gunwharf Quay in Portsmouth if you know it? I strolled on here and then to the Dutch slopes which has a bit more European architecture (these neck of the woods survived the big blast it appears). I then walked around Chinatown (seems a bit crap now I’ve actually been China). Despite the atrocious past, Nagasaki is a nice city with plenty of canals, trams and bicycles that give it a real European edge to it. I was just here one full day but there is plenty of stuff to see, but today had been busy enough physically walking around and mentally trying to absorb lots of information. I must also say that this is another ace hostel with very helpful staff.

(17/11/09) I had to be up at 6:30am so I could walk in the rain to get to the bus station. I took a comfortable bus for almost 4 hours to the other side of east Kyushu (the island I am on) to a place called Beppu. As the bus got nearer to the city I could see hundreds of plumes of smoke and I thought this must be a massive industrial area, however I soon realised that these plumes of smoke were in fact plumes of steam from the many hundred natural hot springs dotted around the place. I checked in my hostel and almost straight away Simon and Carolina (I travelled with them in China remember) turned up. This was no surprise to me as we were all heading to Japan and coordinated meeting up for a couple of days. I had to head to a nearby town to sort out some travel admin but we soon had lunch and then headed out on a local bus. Beppu is famous for its hotspings as you might had guessed. Jigoku are hot springs which you look at and an onsen is one you can bathe in by the way. We headed to the area called Kannawa Hells and our first stop on the bus was a jigoku called Blood Pool Hell as it was a red colour. We also dipped our legs in the near by footbath. Down the road we saw a geyser (I always want to say “geezer!” in a cockney accent when I hear that word) which shoots 20metres high ever twenty minutes. Back on the bus we got off where plenty more geothermal activity was. It was weird seeing normal houses and shops with so many random steam plumes around the place. We viewed some more jigoku things (one was a muddy one, and another was a light blue, all with steam coming off them. Quite a cool sight. Simon and Carol then decided to go to a normal onsen, whilst I went for a more different experience. Firstly, I slipped into a thin dressing gown thing and I jumped in a big warm sandpit and buried myself up to the neck. The sand is naturally hot and its meant to be good for you, some how. It was hard work digging the hole so I got pretty hot very quickly. It was a weird experience. After this I went in to the hot pools…..completely naked! It’s the rules. So there was me naked in this big bath, with a few more naked Japanese chaps. Male only, sadly. There were four different pools to jump in (all boiling hot) and one outside which was pretty good as its started to rain and was quite a surreal experience. Bit of a weird hour or so… Later that evening, I had a really nice dinner with my chums (bit like tapas, but Japanese…Japas perhaps?) and a good catch up. A long, busy, but good day.

(18/11/09) Today was Carolina’s birthday and what better place to go than the site of the worlds first atomic bomb, Hiroshima. I boarded my first Shinkansen (also called Bullet Trains that go 300km/h, which is small potatoes after the 431km/h I went in Shanghai..) of Japan and they were not over hyped - on time, fast and comfortable. We got to our hostel and were soon walking around the city and enjoy the sun that had finally put his hat on (hip hip hip hooray!). We headed to the impressive Carp Castle which was the first Japanese fort I had seen and although it was rebuilt I though it was cool. After a spot of lunch we headed to the sight the Peace Memorial Park. Hiroshima was the first place to get the Atomic Bomb dropped on it a few days before Nagasaki in 1945. As I had seen some awful things in Nagasaki I was a little more prepared but Simon and Carolina seemed pretty stirred. We viewed the A-bomb Dome which was a building quite near to the hypocentre that’s frame and a few walls survived where every other building in a few kilometres were flattened. The actually park was nice with plenty of trees and tributes, and millions of school kids in matching hats. We headed in the museum which was a bit different to the Nagasaki one. We were there for some time and I thought it was good as it was fairly unbiased (it also talked off the awful things the Japanese were doing leading up to the bomb). It showed letters from US officials and one basically said that they had spent so much money on the project that if the bomb was not used then questions would be asked, which I think is sick. There was also an exhibit on current nuclear weapons and its quite scary that US and Russia have enough to wipe each other out. It listed the countries who possess them which included UK. It also said about other bombs since then and the Russians tested one which was 3000 more times powerful. F*CK! The Hiroshima bomb killed 140,000 by the end of 1945, but it was more sad to see the other illness people got up to ten years (and even now) from the blast. I am officially against nuclear weapons for your information. It was never going to be fun to go to see these museums in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, and although it was not fun to see, I feel a little wiser. Despite the city was levelled, it has been rebuilt to a really nice place. Its set across a few islands and has some nice rivers running through it. In the evening we were off to celebrate Carolina’s birthday. We went to a place that did a local speciality. It was ace but hard to explain: We sat at a big grill where a guy fried a tortilla like pancake, with noodles, onion, pork, shrimp, squid and herbs on top, then flips it on a fried egg, then puts cheese on it. It was really good. After strolling through a busy street market we then went to a funky bar and had shochu (distilled liquor - still foul with a mixer) which was dreadful. We decided to head back to the hostel to enjoy some beers and to consume the present I got Carolina, sake. Think it’s the first time I have had it, and its not too bad.

(19/11/09) Just to explain, Japan is made up of thousands of islands. The main four islands are Kyushu in the very south west (where I started in Fukuoka and has Nagasaki and Beppu), the main island of Honshu (that has Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Hiroshima), Shikoku (smallest island, south of Honshu) and Hokkaido (in the very north and has lots of skiing places, as well as Sapporo). Today, we were up early to visit one of the smaller islands about 30 minutes by train and 10 minutes by ferry from Hiroshima. It is called Miyajima and has one of the most photographed sights of Japan, which is a shrine that’s in the water. The pictures will do it better justice, but its an orange thingy surrounded by water.. The small town, though touristy, is really nice and has tame dears walking about the place. We even saw a guy comically roll down a few steps on to the beach.. There’s also a really nice five tiered pagoda and this place has more of a traditional feel to it than the busy cities I have seen of late. The weather was pretty bright so we decided to head up to Mount Misen (530m) on the island. This involved 2 quite long cable car rides and then a 20-30minute hike. The views from the top were quite amazing as you can see over to Hiroshima, and many other islands around. As well as the dears that have made it up here there were also hundreds of red faced monkeys all misbehaving…big red bottoms too! The hike to the top was quite tough at times but was well worth it as we enjoyed the views (including one of though parasailing/gliding/fans on the back of a parachute kind thing flying over us) and some cake, which I somehow managed to sneeze through my nose, much to Simons amusement. It took about an hour for us to walk down and we passed quite a few shrines and similar, and every one of the passing Japanese would say “Konnichiwa!” to us. Back in the town, we saw Japan’s biggest rice server (was like 30ft long) and tried the local sponge cake with cream or chocolate filling. Lovely stuff. As we got back to Hiroshima, I said my goodbyes to Simon and Carolina as their tight schedule meant they had to move on north to Nikko. It was great to see some familiar faces and I had an excellent time with them. Ever since Seoul I have made little effort to chat to other travellers for some reason, so was nice to see two that I liked very much. I chilled and sorted out forthcoming accommodation for the rest of the evening and chatted to a guy in my room who was slightly balding shall we say?..In fact, even though he was maybe a bit over 30 years old, he looked remarkably like Mr Burns from the Simpsons (Homer’s boss?).

(20/11/09) Time to say goodbye to Hiroshima. Despite its devastating history, a very nice city indeed. I jumped back on the Bullet train and headed east to Okayama where I dropped my bag off in a capsule hotel. You have probably see them on TV but I think Japan were the pioneers as they seem to be everywhere. I was sort of expecting a coffin to sleep in but it was a lot more room - 2x1x1.25(h) metres - more space than in a bottom of one of the many bunk beds I have stayed in this year. Rather than it being closed in, there’s a curtain at the end and inside is a/c, lights and a TV, and downstairs is a communal area. Anyhow I was soon on a local train to the town of Kurashiki (it’s pronounced as if it’s Russian). This place is barely in the guidebook (which I think you may have realised I do not hold in much regard - in fact it would be more useful carrying the Yellow Pages of Hull on my travels than this expensive piece of crap. In fact, the most use this book has been is when I had a dodgy connection with an electrical socket and used it to help balance the plug…Oh well, perhaps I will need something to burn one day. Sorry, this bracket is too long….must stop now..) but after a good recommendation I thought I would check it out, and I was very pleased that I did. I think this is the first I have seen of old, traditional Japan. The old town is low lying and every house has black-tiled roofs and it was very cool strolling about. I got lost a little but enjoyed walking through the back streets exploring. The best bit was set along a canal (I do like a good waterfront) with a gondola taking a few tourists up and down along the little shops and many museums, neither of which I went in. The sun was out and I was very content indeed. In the evening I headed back to Okayama and had a curry in the evening. It was Friday night and I thought about maybe heading to a few bars, but have not managed the courage to go in to where all the cool kids hang out…yet.

(21/11/09) So I survived the capsule/coffin. In fact one of my better sleeps in the week or so I have now been in Japan. I was up fairly early and I headed to Koraku-en gardens which has been called one of the three most beautiful gardens in Japan. It certainly was very nice, although smaller than I had in mind. More lawn than lots of flowers, but had a lake, streams and a small tea plantation (I had a cuppa). My mother would had liked it. Across the river I went to Okayama-jo castle. In the end I didn’t end up going in (pricey) as there was a mini festival happening out the front so I wondered through there (had my picture taken with a Samurai) and watched a performance by some traditional drummers (although one was a white dude). Very nice. It’s weird to think that a few years ago the chances of me choosing to go to some gardens and a castle would had been very slim, but now I can’t get enough of them. I picked up my bags (for some reason feel extra heavy - must be my lucky bowling ball I have been carrying with me for nine months..) and boarded a train heading to Takamatsu on the north of the smallest of the major islands, Shikoku. To get there I went on the Seto-Ohashi Bridge which carries road and rail and is over 8 miles long although it is actually six separate bridges with mini islands in between. I had hoped to do some sight seeing when I got there but was told the local train wasn’t leaving for an hour and it was getting late. I took this time to stroll about (again, ANOTHER really nice city). I walked through the grounds of the old castle which are now some nice gardens (its been a busy day with gardens) and later that evening I ate the local speciality of sanuki udon noodles, which are just a thick noodle, but nice. Then I chilled at another capsule hotel, which had a hot bath and steam room.


(22/11/09) Ten months today I was at Heathrow waiting for my first flight. My, how time flies? The weather was not as nice today, but I still had one more garden in me. I took a fairly long walk to Ritsurin-Koen which was by far the best of all the recent gardens I have seen. I was still surprised how quickly I managed to walk round it though. Afterwards I got a train to Yashima (also on Shikoku) as the guidebook recommended it, but it was the first place in Japan I was not keen on. Very industrial. Think Slough on a rainy day. In the afternoon I got the train back to Okayama in Honshu where I changed for another Bullet train to rainy Kobe. I was staying in another capsule hotel and although I ventured out for some food, that was it for me. But it seemed like a cool place when lit up. I was desperate to have the famous Kobe Beef, but not at 75 quid a go. That is silly money to eat any relaxed, pissed animal (they massage the cows and feed them wine to get a favourable flavour).

(23/11/09) I was very pleased to wake up in a very sunny Kobe, which is in the Kansai region of Japan. The best weather of my Japano trip to date. Kobe is not a major tourist spot, and I think the main reason I wanted to go here was that I did geography project in Mr Wright’s (I hated that lanky idiot) year eight class on the 1995 earthquake that really buggered up this place, so was intrigued to find out how they’ve moved on. Very well seems to be the answer. This city is wicked. Meant to be one of the most cosmopolitan of Japanese cities as it’s always been a popular trading port over the years. I went to one the top of one of the buildings for a free look out and I liked how the Kobe is sandwiched in between mountains and the harbour. I relaxed in the sun of the memorial park and saw the half sunken promenade that they have left as a reminded. There were plenty of sculptures and lots of high buildings. You are perhaps bored of me saying similar, but Japan has some great cities you know. In the afternoon I got a ropeway, gondola or cable car (you chose which) to a nearby mountain (don’t think Everest here). The view was really good as you can imagine. I then strolled all the way down and walked through a herb garden (I recognised basil) and saw a waterfall etc. I was loving strolling about in just a t-shirt. In the early evening I got my even heavier bag (I really don’t know how it has gained so much weight recently) and got the local train west for just 30 minutes to Osaka, one of Japan’s biggest cities. I was only in Kobe for a short time but there were plenty of museums and things to see. Well worth visiting. I checked into my hostel, which was pretty much an apartment with some extra bunkbeds in, but I liked it. After the success of meeting my first friend of a friend with Mayu in Fukuoka, I decided to meet with Shigeko, who was one of Mayu’s friend. She was very friendly and we went for some more Japanese tapas type food and I enjoyed a lager and melon liquor drink. I was pretty tired and short on conversation, but it was nice to meet a local. This was my busiest city to date in Japan and I liked the hustle and bustle of it.

(24/11/09) I think I have been in 7 different beds (all alone sadly) in 7 days. That is hard work. I know people think this is a holiday but its not. It’s travelling. Big difference. Little time to relax recently, since Australia actually….I need a holiday. Would of course rather do it than work mind you. Today was a day my legs almost fell of. I walked and walked. Firstly, I ate some octopus balls for breakfast (I liked them) and then strolled about the Namba area as the overcast weather settled above, although it was mild and dry. Osaka doesn’t have lots of must see places, which I knew about, so I was keen to take in this Blade Runner city. I decided to have a mid morning coffee, and ended up in a bizarre place. Its safe to say that the target customer would be male, and that only ladies have ever worked there. It wasn’t seedy particularly but the waitress wore very bizarre clothes (which I since found out are comic book characters). It turns out there’s loads of these coffee shops where u might get served by a school uniformed or similar girl…It had comics in and all sorts…very strange…nice coffee though! I continued walking more but I ended up in a derelict them park and it was a bit of a gloomy sh*thole, far from the glitz and glamour just a kilometre or so away. I then changed direction after briefly stopping at a temple (I go Kyoto tomorrow and will get my fix there) and headed to the Osaka Castle. I thought I would quickly walk round and grab some lunch as it was getting late, but the grounds were huge and took me forever to circle. I thought about walking some more, but it was almost 4pm and I still hadn’t had lunch. I grabbed some food and the heavens opened so I headed to my hostel, where I stayed for the remaining part of the day. Osaka wasn’t a bad city by any means, but I think I preferred the likes of Kobe, Hiroshima and Fukuoka over it.

(25/11/09) A month until Christmas… how’s the present shopping going?..What ya got me? ..So this morning I got the relatively short train inland (all the places I have been to so far have been on the coast) to the former capital of Kyoto (which is an anagram of “Tokyo” I have discovered). This place is one of Japans biggest tourist attractions and I had heard a lot of great things about it. Bearing in mind I knew it housed around 2000 temples and shrines and was meant to be a beautiful city, I was quite surprised how modern Kyoto train station and surround buildings were. I soon found my really good hostel (actually, every hostel in Japan has been top notch to date), and was out to explore in the beautiful sunshine that was now upon me. Being a former capital, there are plenty of palaces, castles and shrines etc. I took the bus to the north west area of Kinkakuji and first visited the Kinkakuji Temple. I had seen this place in photographs before and it did not disappoint. It was painted gold and had a beautiful pond in front set in stunning gardens. I strolled to a few more temples and palaces. This whole place is stunning. Other than near the train stations, its all low rise traditional style buildings. Lot’s of well kept gardens and folks bombing around on old style bicycles. The weather might have been helping, but I was really enjoying strolling about these places in the sunshine with music from my MP3 player blaring out in my ears. Happy times. The bus took ages on the way, mostly stuck in traffic, so I thought it would be sensible to just walk back. ERROR!. I am not sure for how long or far I walked but Jesus.H.Christ, it was far. It was a good way to see some more of the city, including a cool sheltered shopping place (although every city seems to have this) and then along the river where the trendy youths (I feel so old saying those two words) hang out on the banks. I finally got back to my hostel and got talking to a friendly American guy who randomly supported QPR football club? I would be surprised to meet one of those in Shepherds Bush these days… Just shows how stupid Yanks can be. I also bumped in to Mr Burns who I had previously met in Hiroshima a week or so ago.

(26/11/09) Good lord I can not wait to stop sharing dorm rooms with feckin snorers!!..Anyhow, despite my legs telling me that they have walked their yearly quota this last week, I was off out again. As I was staying in Kyoto a few days I thought I would take the hour train south to another former capital (prior to Kyoto) of Nara. Again, this place is stunning. It was t-shirt weather and I walked so much again. Random dears were running about the place and a lot of the area was set in a lovely park. Loads of temples and shrines etc including Todai-Ji which is the worlds largest wooden building, yet is only two thirds the size of the original size. Lots of tourist about, mostly Japanese who looked like this would be the last time out of the house ever. Really nice place. I could go on for ever talking about all the place I saw today including temples, shrines and gardens (YES YES, more gardens!), but I fear I would bore you too much. Japan has some really nice chocolate called Menji and I bought 2 big bars to keep me going over the next week…well, both were consumed on the train back to Kyoto. ..Also, you may have read/seen the book/film called Memoirs of a Geisha, which I think is set in Kyoto…Two days gone and I aint seen any.

(27/11/09) My last day in Kyoto and I headed to the even more touristy area of Gion. It was like a concert at Wembley. I could barely move with all the tiny Japanese following a flag waving tour guide. Weather was just fantastic again and this area has lots of narrow streets with cafes and souvenir shops selling the usual tourist crap. I walked around some cool old grounds with great views. I even saw some Geishas. BLOODY THOUSANDS OF THEM!! Ok, not thousands, but a few. Well, people dressed up as them at least…that counts right? I really liked this area with all the traditional homes. My legs just about carried me some more to the Imperial Palace Park, that again was nice. Back at the hostel in the evening I chatted and had a few beers with the American QPR fan and some Aussies.

So that’s Kyoto. Certainly one of the most beautiful cities around. Lots of history and millions of things to see. The Lonely Planet guidebook says it is “one of those cities that everyone should see at least once in their lives”….and for once (finally), I agree.

Japan has been ace so far, but will give you a proper review when my work here is done. Shall continue on my next blog….until then…..sayonara…..

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Photos

Hiroshima Castle
..and me dressed like I was in the 1995 line up of Oasis

A-Dome
Or whats left of it

Wicked food withe wicked people
Carolina, Simon and me

How many drummers drumming?
(There' a white dude in there somewhere)

Geisha ladies..
(or they are dressed up like them..)

Peace Park, Nagasaki
The fountains are said to be like angels wings..

Miyajima
Oh dear...