In Tokyo again - soon off to the farm

It's been more than a week without an update, sorry about that!

The last days has been quite hectic: I went from Kyoto to Osaka, where I spent around six days, then I went to Tokyo again, where I am now.

The days in Kyoto included more sightseeing of temples, and also the Miho Museum: a gorgeous museum about an hour by bus outside Kyoto, located in the mountains.
The museum was designed by I. M. Pei: he was supposedly given free hands, as well as an unlimited budget, to construct the museum buildings, and it shows - the building is placed beautifully in the mountains, with the entrance connected to the museum itself by a tunnel and bridge. The walk from the entrance to the museum itself - around five minutes on foot - looks, as the Lonely Planet guidebook describes it - as "... something like a visit to the secret hideout of an archvillain in a James Bond film ...".
I'll let the pictures talk:

Entrance to the Miho museum

The Miho museum

Other side of the tunnel, from the entrance

The Miho museum

A great view from inside the museum

The collection in the museum is perhaps less interesting, compared to the building itself. The permanent exhibit is followed by explanations on how "the search for beautiful things is the search for god", and other such religious connections. The reason for this is, that the founder of the museum also startet the Shinji Shumeikai (Shumei) movement. I found that this detracted somewhat from the otherwise nice exhibits. But, the museum is still very much worth a visit, should you ever come to Kyoto!

Also, in Koyoto, I went for yet another walk, no guidebook in hand, just figuring that if I walked long enough, I would eventually stumble into a temple. Luck was with me, as I stumbled into the Fushimi Inari Taisha temple, another absolutely fantastic sight. This temple features hundreds upon hundreds of red torii-gates, all located on footpaths up on a small hill in the outskirts of Kyoto. Amazing sight.

A few of the many hundres of torii-gates

Apparently, the temple is, at least partly, dedicated to some fox-god/godess - hence the many fox-shaped... things

Oh the wonders of faith

"Kawaii neko!"

A view of Osaka, with me in the way

A gate to another temple I stumbled upon.

Kyoto Station - an odd colossus

A day or two later, after more walking about in Kyoto, I took the train to Osaka. Just a little over half an hour by train, but a very different city. Where Kyoto has many beautiful sights, Osaka is the epitome of urban Japan: a noisy, colorful, flashy and crowded city, with the same endless feeling as Tokyo. But Osaka is different than Tokyo: from small changes, for example that people stand to the right on the escalators, to the less obvious differences, like the behaviour of people. I find people in Osaka to be slightly more rude than what I experienced people to be in Tokyo or Kyoto. Rude by Japanese standards - but rude nonetheless. There are things like riding the bike on the sidewalk - something that happens in Kyoto, and to a lesser extent in Tokyo as well - but in Osaka it happens, even when there's absolutely no room for it. I would have thought, that the massiveness of the crowds would have made people more aware on how best to behave in the public space, to ensure that everyone can go where they want to, in the most efficient way, even if it means getting off the bike, making way for people, and forming lines. It works very well in Tokyo, but less so in Osaka.

From Osaka - "Everyday High price!!"

Another picture from Osaka

Osaka again...

Hordes of salarymen

I went to the zoo in Osaka as well - no shouting at the animals!

Even the zoo was crowded

From a park near the zoo (I think it was called Tennoji Park) - more spotlessness

Angry templecat is angry

A view of Osaka Castle

Osaka Castle again - impressive view

A view from Osaka Castle

A panorama of Osaka from Osaka castle.
Shared under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA-license, should anyone want it. Here's a slightly larger version - original is 10340x1750px.

The flag is rarely used. "Welcome please"

I went to the Panasonic museum as well - it gave a good insight into the company culture in Japan. There was a great personal cult about the founder of the company.

Osaka seems, all in all, as a bit more brutish city. There's garbage on the streets, more homeless people, more neon and more noise. Still, it's good to have visited that city, and good to experience what Japan can be like this too.

The days I've had here has included more ordinary sightseeing - museum, castles and the odd temple. Most of it enriching experiences.

When I was staying in Osaka, I went for a day-trip to Kobe. Just about half an hour by train, and I step out in an entirely different city. While I can only judge from the first impressions from barely a day there, it seemed like a nice city. More focus on food, less focus on flashy signs and Pachinko-parlors. Kobe is mashed in between the coastline and the mountains - the view from the Shin-Kobe Ropeway is fantastic. A long walk down from the mountains, and barely twenty minutes on foot through the city, and I stand by the seaside. Kobe seems like a city worth another visit someday.

A view over Kobe, on the way up the Shin-Kobe ropeway

Kobe and I

More endless city

A densely populated area. Osaka must be somewhere in the background.

And mountains to the other side

More mountains

And Kobe again

I believe that the outerlying islands are artificial - reclaimed land

The grasshoppers were huge

Kobe, mountains, ropeway and I

A sign I spotted on the Osaka station, before I got on the bus to Tokyo.  "Inhaled. Burned. Thrown away. If it were anything but a cigarette, it would surely be crying."

Oh, the trip from Osaka to Kobe was also an impressive sight in itself: about half an hour by express train, and all the while, there was no apparent change in scenery - it was all a built-up urban areas, rarely less than three-story buildings, and all of it in the for Japan characteristic seemingly unplanned expansion  of the city. The cities blend together. I don't know where Osaka ended and where Kobe started, it was all one mass. I'm continually impressed by such sights.

After Osaka, I went to Tokyo, to visit Mihoko, her boyfriend Masatoshi, Mihokos sister Mahoko and her husband Shisei. It was the first time I met Mahoko and Shisei: incredibly nice people. We went to an onsen near Mount Tsukuba, and to a restaurant serving Okinawan food later on. It was my first visit to an Onsen - great experience, very relaxing. The food at the restaurant was great - one can do wonders with tofu and seaweed - the company was nice: all in all, a great day.

After Onsen - from the left: Masatoshi, Mahoko, Shisei and I

From the left: Shisei, Mahoko, me, Mihoko, Masatoshi

At the Okinawan restaurant

On the way back to central Tokyo - Mihoko and Masatoshi

Now I have another day in Tokyo, before I go by ferry to Tokushima in Shikoku (just over 18 hours on the boat), and from there to Kochi - and then off to the farm on the 27th.

I'm pretty sure by now, that after I've stayed at the farm, I'll go directly to Kyoto, to find a place to stay and find a job. I'm looking forward to unpacking the backpack!

And just a word about comments: I've changed the setting, so that anonymous comments are now allowed. Previously, the setting was to allow comments, if one had an account (a Google-account or similar) - or an OpenID account - I had hoped, that a site like Facebook was an OpenId provider, so that people could use that login to place comments here. That is apparently not the case. Please enlighten me if you know different!

Comments are still moderated, though, so they won't appear instantly, should you leave one.

I'll most likely be without internet on the farm, so updates may be delayed.

The first couple of days

So, I've been here a few days, and it's still fantastic.

I'm currently in Kyoto, where I just got back from another busy day - so I thought I would write a stream of words on the experiences so far, while they are still relatively fresh in the memory, not being clouded by the many new things I see, try and do here.

The last few days have been incredibly interesting. While I was in Denmark, I got the email-address of, Mihoko Yuki, a young lady who had been studying danish at the university: we emailed a bit, and we agreed to meet for dinner with her, her boyfriend Masatoshi, and a friend, Hiromi, in Tokyo, at the 3rd of September - we also agreed to go for a bit of sight-seeing in Tokyo on the 4th. So, after arrival on the 2nd of September, my plan was to spend the first day on getting in, seeing a bit of Tokyo, and then go buy a mobile phone on the second day + more sight-seeing, and go for dinner in the evening.
But, luck would have it, that I met a German guy, Wolfgang, at the hotel where I was staying: Wolfgang had arrived the same day as I, had eight days in Japan, a Lonely Planet guide, and no definite plans for what to see and what to do. We agreed to go see Tokyo together, and maybe more of Japan as well: so on the evening of the 2nd, we saw the neighborhood around the hotel (around Iidabashi), and on the third, we went around Tokyo, seeing, among other things, Tokyo Tower, the Sony Building, a few temples, some parks - a really interesting day, with a lot of walking around. In the evening on the third, I went to have dinner with the aforementioned people. We met at the Hachiko statue in Shibuya.

Hachiko statue in Shibuya

Shibuya is VERY crowded on a Friday evening, even by Tokyo standards! It's filled with young people, being there to "see and be seen", as the Lonely Planet guide puts it. It was really a display of the diversity of the youth of Tokyo, a very interesting sight.

I would put a picture here, was it not for the fact that I had forgotten my camera. Instead, you get a less interesting view of the Shibuya crossing on a sunday, when I went there again with Wolfgang. The previous image is from that later visit as well. Flickr has more from Shibuya, though.

The dinner on the 3rd was incredibly nice, it was very interesting to be taken out for a meal with people who knew what to choose (and who could read the menu!).
The following day, on the 4th, I went out for sightseeing with Mihoko and Masatoshi, starting at a nice French café near the Kyodo station. Mihoko and Masatoshi were really great guides, trying their best to answer my questions about the Japanese society. After visiting the café, we went to Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, a tall building with a great view from the top. It was fantastic to see the endless Tokyo - the concrete jungle! It was truly one thing to cross out on the "to do" list of my life :)
I still need to go up the Tokyo Tower, though, and take some pictures from there as well!

Imagine Godzilla walking through this...

:)

The sightseeing also included a walk through Shinjuku, a visit to Takashimaya Times Square, and an attempt at buying a phone.

The day after, I went for sight-seeing with Wolfgang again, first to Shibuya, then to Akihabara, the electronics district, to a random station on a metro-line, to see something that the Lonely Planet-guide didn't mention, and then to the Tokyo National Museum, for a bit of original culture.

Street corner in Akihabara - notice the finely dressed saleswomen

Random crosswalk

An inspired picture from the Tokyo National Museum

It's dangerous.

The following day, Monday, it was time to check out. Wolfgang and I had agreed to go to Kyoto together. We ended up taking the Shinkansen, though it was expensive (> 13.000 ¥ ~ 900 DKK)

The extent to which Wolfgang is  a good guy should be pointed out here: after a discussion of the different travelling patterns he and I might follow (I have enough time, and want to save money on travelling around, he more the opposite), Wolfgang put 50 € in my hand and said "let's take Shinkansen". This more than made up for the difference between the price of taking a bus and taking the Shinkansen. Incredibly nice.

So, we went to Kyoto by Shinkansen (the N700 - 300 km/h!)

Shinkansen at Tokyo Station

Wolfgang

So, we arrived in Kyoto today, we've just been around to see a few temples and have some good food - now we're back at the hotel, I'm writing this, and am about to go to bed. Stay tuned for more updates soon - I'll end this stream of words now!