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.

A day in Kyoto

Let me describe an extraordinary Wednesday in Kyoto...

I got up at around seven o'clock, ready for another day of temple-watching and extraordinary polite people. After eating breakfast at a small café near the train-station, I saw Wolfgang off at around ten o'clock.

There are many temples around Kyoto, but one temple that had been spoken well off, was a temple to the northwest of the city, called Tenryū-ji. I figured that it would perhaps take a few hours to walk there - the train and bus-services are excellent here, but the weather was good (30+ degrees and scorching sun), and I was in no particular hurry, walking there seemed like a good idea. So, after studying the Lonely Planet guide, I set off from the train-station. The train-station itself is not directly in the center of town: "downtown" Kyoto is a bit further north. Walking through Kyoto was a nice experience in itself: the change from the busy station, with the many taxis and bewildered tourists to the even busier downtown was slow, but noticeable. The change was not only reflected in the people, but also in the shops and restaurants. There seems to be relatively few mom-and-pop noodle shops near the station, instead there are more izakaya's -  restaurants with a focus on serving snacks for beer -  but as I came closer to downtown, more even these restaurants were replaced by bigger restaurant chains such as Mos Burger and Mcdonalds. More ordinary shops also began to appear, with them the endless amounts of retail stores. The amount of tourists seemed lower in downtown as well, the majority of people being either sharply dressed youngsters or small groups of salarymen, always dressed the same way: a white shirt and black trousers. Downtown Kyoto is not so interesting if you're searching for temples. So, I hastily trod on, toward the hilly outskirts of the city, towards the temples.

Outskirts of Kyoto

As I moved on, the city changed again. The retail stores thinned out, the small noodle-shops began to appear, and ordinary one-story houses began to be a common sight. The people changed again: now the most common sight was the elderly and the housewives. The temple came closer, and I managed to spot a pair of geishas on my way there.

I've posted this one already, I know.

I finally arrived at the temple, after having walked a bit over four hours. It was, as most of the larger temples here, a grand sight, a truly wondrous creation. It seems as if every little detail has been thought of and taken care of: one can only guess how many times the paths are swiped every day to keep the leaves away, and how many times every tree and bush on the temple-grounds are nipped to keep them in the exact shape and form that is intended.

Small part of Tenryu-ji

Pond with carps

Well-groomed path in the forest

More carps, with reflection

Spotless path

After having seen the temple, I went to a nearby bamboo-grove. Another stunning sight: the slow breeze through the leaves, the kimono-clad women out for a Wednesday walk: an unforgettable sight.

Kimonos and bamboos

Tired and happy

Following this, I was quite full for the day. I walked back towards the nearest train-station, and took a tram-line back to central Kyoto, followed by another hour-long walk through the more-and-more densely populated urban Kyoto, back to the hotel.

On the way back to central Kyoto

End of the day: two very tired feet, many unforgettable sights richer. It's great here.

A tentative plan...

So, I've been in Japan for just over a week, I've had a first look at the country, and I really like it. No surprise there. I'm trying to figure out where to go and what to do after the visit to the farm. I was wondering whether to try out more farms, but right now, I think I'm better off just going to a city, find somewhere to stay, and find a job. It seems to be relatively easy to get jobs teaching English, and it seems to be a very common job for people in Japan on a working holiday visa.

So, my plan now is to stay a few more days in Kyoto (until the 13th), then a few days in Osaka (until the 18th or so), then somewhere else (maybe Hiroshima?) - then back to Tokyo, and off to the farm on the 27th to the 4th. After this, I'm considering going to Kyoto to find somewhere to stay and a job. Kyoto is nice. There's much to see here: so many temples: if I visit one temple a day for a year, I might be able to get through them all.

I think I'll skip Nagasaki for now, it's simply too expensive to get there and back, especially if I'm just going there for a few days.

The last few days have been interesting. on Wednesday, Wolfgang and I went to Nara to see more temples, and a large Buddha-statue.

Buddha and Superman

Wolfgang went back to Tokyo yesterday; he's flying back to Stuttgart today. It was really good travelling with him, and to discuss the oddities we encountered.

Wolfgang and I in Nara

After seeing Wolfgang off at the train station, I walked to a temple in the outskirts of Kyoto, and went to see the bamboo-grove. I saw two geishas on my way to the temple! It was great to check that off on the list of things to see/to do :)

Photo of a geisha taking a photo of a geisha.

More pictures tomorrow, it's getting late here.

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!

I've arrived and all is well!

Going to Japan was the best decision ever!

It's incredible here. It's fantastic to see all these things I've read about for so long in many books and seen in so many movies. It's fantastic to experience how incredible helpful and polite people are here: I can't help but smile as a policeman, posing as a stern guard of something-or-other, goes to become the most eager and polite guide I've ever met. I really really like it.

So far, I've had one-and-a-half day in Japan. The trip here was uneventful: a long flight, and fairly straightforward way to the hotel. A visit to the first noodle-shop was a success - I was able to communicate with the polite cooks (with an ugly combination of sign-language, Japanese and English), and got a fantastic meal. I'm most certainly going to gain weight here.

Yesterday evening consisted of a walk around the hotel, the area is called Iidabashi. It has a nice feeling of a small town, with lots of small shops and fairly small houses, but always with the skyscrapers in sight just nearby. A surprising thing here is that the city is much more quiet than I had expected: no-one honks in traffic, very few noisy salesmen, and a fairly limited amount of noisy televisions,commercials etc.

I did, however, visit a Pachinko-parlor - it must have been ~120 db in the room, terrible!

I'll return with more pictures and stories from what I did and what I saw today.

Leaving Denmark soon!

There's now less than 12 hours till I leave Denmark! The last few days have been quite frantic: I had my last day at the job - so I've said goodbye to the colleagues there. Although I have only worked there about a year as a full-time employee, it was quite emotional to say leave my first proper job.
I've also visited some former colleagues, and visited my workplace at the publisher Wiley-Blackwell. The work I do there I can do from anywhere with a computer and an Internet-connection, i.e. almost everywhere. Fortunately, I can keep that job while in Japan!

The last few weekends has also included visiting friends and family to say goodbye: it's quite weird saying "see you" to people, not having any idea when I might see them again! Still, it's been good to do so.

Now, the bags are packed, I've received some last minute vaccinations just this evening, and I'm just about ready to leave.

Band-aid after vaccination: now I can't get hepatitis A or encephalitis ("Japansk hjernehindebetændelse")

The last last few days has also included arranging something to do when in Tokyo, but more about that later. Now it's time to get a last night of sleep in Denmark.

Hotel booked

The first preparations for the vacation has now been completed: I've booked four nights at the Tokyo International Hostel - and I have bought the newest edition of Lonely Planets guide to Japan. I still need to figure out which cities I want to visit. I'm thinking of going to Tokyo-Osaka-Kyoto-Nara-Nagasaki-Tokushima, and then to the farm.

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