Fast times in Tokyo

Our first impression of Tokyo is shinjuku station which is whistle of activity serving the needs of 3.6 million commuters per day. These crowds are only more pressing in harajuku's packed alleys or shibuya's mad scramble crossing (left).

Japan is no stranger to the odd, risque or just plain mad behavior. Take the robot restaurant where scantily clad ladies dance with fight or just ride around or robots. The results are spectacular if at times not what we would call family friendly (perhaps burlesque would be a better word). That being said, even the families and couples were, at the end, laughing smiling and waving their glow sticks with reckless abandon as planes tanks and robo-cycles played amidst the laser light extravaganza.

The AnimeJapan2014　convention taught　me　that i know exactly nothing about anime. Thousands of anime and i knew only two or three.

The Tokyo science and nature museum was very impressive. Huge displays which surrounded you, informative and interactive (computers provided English information in many sections but the exhibits themselves where intuitively understandable). Especially impressive was the evolution and speciation information and the high-level of detail (including in physics) through high quality displays including excellent bones and fossils. All up a top museum, probably the best science museum in the world.

No mention of tokyo would be complete without covering the wide range of drinking establishments. From "British" pubs to traditional izukayas where you can get skewers of meat or fish. Then there are the little hole in the wall pubs of golden gai where mixing with the locals can be lots of fun. My favourites were square (listening to anime songs selected by the otacku  barmaid) and Brian bar (where the locals were friendly).

jigokudani snow monkey onsen

Life in the mountain town outside yudanaka is at a different pace. The treatment we received from the ryokan jinpyokaku was amazing! For a start we were 4 hours later than we Spain and yet the lovely staff from the ryokan was waiting for as at the platform in cold wintery weather. The exceptional service and attention to detail was continued everywhere. We spent much of the days In yakuta (a kind of pajama kimono) and relaxing in the private and public onsen. Morning and nightly stuffed with great Japanese food and waited on hand and foot. By day two we felt like royalty... or perhaps  like a "better class of person" as the Victorians would say. I went so far as to cut and clean my toe nails.

A short walk from the ryokan were the snow monkeys. These monkeys came and took over an onsen hot spring killing all the in habitant and claiming it for their own. This is why it is called jigokudani or hell valley ( complete with charming welcome to hell valley signs). OK, that's not the official story but i prefer it.  walk from the ryokan were the snow monkeys. These monkeys came and took over an onsen hot spring killing all the in habitant and claiming it for their own. This is why it is called jigokudani or hell valley ( complete with charming welcome to hell valley signs). OK, that's not the official story but i prefer it.

big mountain to big city

The FujiQ highland amusement park was good fun. But most of the big roller coasters were shut because of the rain and there where long lines. So after a cool haunted house, we went open air ice skating (did I mention it is cold and there is snow on the ground?) And then into an onsen.

A Japanese onsen is a funny place which is hard to figure out as there is no English instruction. Kit off in the locker room (leave towel) wash yourself on the stool then jump in. Your wash cloth can kept on top of your head for no particular reason. Then do that again in reverse easy. After that we needed some food and plenty of sake.

A morning climb of a mountain revealed dramatic views of mt. Fuji. A quick hotpot (yet another dish I was uncertain how to eat) and back on the train.

Tokyo is devided into many Burroughs and we arrive I shinjuku. We start off with the view of Tokyo's Sunshine60 and quicky realized just how big this city is..... BIG. Sky scrapers everywhere - lights out to the horizon on all sides - 30 million people all around. To make ourselves feel big in this super-sized city we checked into a capsule hotel. A "room" (a hole in the wall really) 2m by 1m by 1m complete with tv and very thin mattress.

bamboo, trains, and well made plans

Needing breakfast we did what we do best and went to the Train station. The traditional japanease breaky came with a soft runny egg... how does one eat this with chopsticks? Adding rice was definitely not the right option. We headed off to see the Bamboo forest in arashiyama then two temples one  looked old (jojakuko-ji) the other was (hogonin). I really enjoyed the older feel of a slightly neglected temple , it felt more real with a sense of age and dignity. Plus it was a photographers dream full of contrast in terms of light colour and feel.

This wore us out a bit and we needed a good feed. It seems the portions in japan are smaller which tends to leave us a little hungry. To combat this woods tried to order two meals. This caused a lot of confusion.... 4meals for 3 people this is unheard of. The cook had to come out and double check again  4 meals? Hai. For the three of you? Hai! So des. Then the manager came, we have run out of chicken.... fine we will have 3 meals. I feel we may have transgressed some unspoken rule in japan, two meals at one is a bridge too far.

We went to appreciate the local bridge as we read that it could be appreciated in may ways and from many places. My comment was that perhaps squinting from as far away as possible would be best - this was not well received. The bridge of many reflections duly contemplated we set off for our train to nowhere. Well actually fujiyoshida (according to Google).

At this point i feel i need to address my flawless(ish) navigation of japan, which has been a source or rye humor and (undeserved) criticism from my fellow travelers. So Google told me 5hours including bullet trains. As the rail pass does not cover all trains I switched to a Japanese/English site to fujiyamashida , directions: bullet to tokyo the back south-west-ish connects to a local train... looks good. So I reserve seats on the train leaving in 10min at the desk. his English is limited but i show him my phone and he helpfully organises our journey. So we go to the right platform a bullet train arrives and we take our assigned seats. The awesome train pulls out of the station building up speed to about 250km/hr we plug into chargers get comfortable and relax.

Slight problem, wrong train. This is the one our pass is not valid for, as the conductor apologetically tells us. No bigie the right train is seven minutes behind us and we can change at the next station 100km on. This comes just after my realization that fujiyamasida and fujiyoshida are not the same place, so the other tickets are worthless. Well... at this point haters be hating and it is had to explain that my original directions are still right and I know how to get to fujiyamathingo which is actually called Kawaguchico. We got there. I was right, i was nit believed. By this time no where is open for food so we raided the Lawson (convenience store) for an assortment of crazy things.

Day 2 kyoto under lights

Breaky again at our favourite train station, a look around Osaka castle followed by a trip up the sky garden building which is complete with make out zones. shopping in the mega stores and a large portion of sashimi back at our train station rounded out the Osaka experience. Kyoto was amid a festival of lights which showed off the temples nicely. However finding a drink at night proved nigh impossible so we had Italian food instead :( on the way home we discovered a quirky little bar called circus full of oddities from plants and tools to lavish chairs. This fortified us for the cold walk home.

Japan Day 1 - Sumo, Baseball, Osaka delights

Wakeing up refreshed we search for breakfast. As we seem to have missed breakfast hour we wondered high above the train station to find "western style" Breakfast at wired. This was a burger on rice and some mexican-Japanese fusion food. To settle our stomach we went for a spin in the Hep5 ferriswheel which runs through the middle of a department building. On the ride Adam found out he is either scared of heights or of begin locked in a small glass cage with maniacs rocking the ride...  so this called for chill at a temple. Which was not terribly impressive as was the closed park nearby. On to sumo, what can I say 200kg men smasss with a mirror (the ref) watches on. still impressive. Looking for more food (a recurring theme in japan) we found a baseball batting cage (first time on the plate) and video games designed to give you nightmares. We wondered through dobotori and found a vending machine to order food from. I decided to get a whole cheesecake to share it was a rare cheesecake which made a mess and which proved a spectacle for the locals. The walk home took us through the classy area business men get their ego's massaged... among other things. The sprookers and hostess paid us no heed or interest which is a bit disappointing really, they could at lest try.

japan day 0 why do i do it

3 hours on a bus, 8hours cramped into tiny air Asia seats, 5hours in the dodgy discount terminal of KL, 6hours back in the sardine air seats, 1 hour standing on the metro in Osaka check in then 2 hours of eating... ok 2 hours of drinking and then... DAMN that was a good sleep!!   23 hours of travel and 34 hours since I was in a bed you can understand why I slept like a Log.

As AirAsia skimp on the luxuries such as food and electricity (no charging) the lounge at KL and it's slightly dodgy supply of curry puffs, reasonable seats, free beer and electricity, turned out to be our saviour. True we hit the German sausage and beer hall in Osaka but damn it was good!