Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Tokyo

Sunday 28th May
I managed to lie in past my alarm. Lacking the time (and, once again, hot water) to shave has left me looking like Grizzly Adam. I make my way to the front desk to sign out and deposited yet another postcard of Durham. As I wait for my train, a sense of panic starts to dawn over me - I haven't really checked the airport train timetimes and have assumed 20 minutes from the Ryokan to Tokyo eki. As I reach the Yamanote line after 20 minutes I realise it'll be another 20 minutes from here...En route I decide on the Keisei line Skyliner. I arrive at Nippori station and head upstairs as fast as possible. By some miracle I manage to get a ticket and get onto the waiting train within 2 minutes - my sense of panic evaporates immediately - the timing will now be just about perfect so I settle down to enjoy the ride out of Tokyo. The Lost in Translation OST blares out of my iPod and eventually we pull into the basement of Narita. Immediately there is a security check - this is one of the few places in Japan where they take no chances over security. They are not worried about international terrorism, but from attacks from their own citizens - many were opposed to the forcible evictions in the area due to construction of the airport and many violent conflicts delayed the building of the airport by several years. The protesters then built towers to obstruct the approach of planes from the north. The second runway was only recently completed and in order to avoid a repeat of the conflict, the government had to shorten the runway to a length which left it unable to cope with 747s - which seems pretty useless. Plans for a shinkansen line to the airport were also scrapped.
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A series of elevators lead upto the 4th floor check in area. My tactics of looking vaguely smart (well, trousers and my "presenting" jacket) did nothing to get me upgraded to first class for the simple reason that KLM don't actually have a first class... After picking up some last minute o-miyage I passed through passport control and left Japanese soil. Unfortunately I ended up spending more time on international soil than planned. As I arrived at the gate, the queues that had formed for boarding dissipated and we were told that due to "technical reasons" we would be delayed for 2 hours. Outside the rain was still coming down and watching planes take off was an interesting sight. As soon as they got up to speed on the runway, vapour trails formed at the wing tips and as they rotated to takeoff, huge waves of water could be seen rushing over the leading edge of the wing.
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The cloud was so low that departing planes vanished from sight a few hundred feet from the ground. Landing planes kicked up an impressive amount of spay as soon as reverse thrust was applied. After a while we were informed that we'd be given a complementary lunch. This turned out to be a 100yen (50p) bottle of water...

Eventually we boarded and once the doors were locked the captain informed us that the reason for the delay was because the plane had received a lightning strike on it's journey into Narita and needed extras safety checks. Too late to escape. Eventually we left 2 hours late. By this time the weather had become very pleasant and the tarmac was almost dry. We took off and headed south over the coast before turning around and flying north to Sapporo and heading out over the sea of Japan towards Siberia.
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The food was exactly the same as on the way out - and we didn't get nearly enough. By 9pm Japanese time we were offered the choice of a small tub of ice cream or a pot noodle - hardly a substantial dinner. The 11 hour flight flew by (sorry) and before I knew it we were flying over southern Scandinavia and descending toward Schiphol. Once again, despite drinking copious amounts of fluids and spending 12 hours on board, I had again avoided my pet hate of going to the toilet on a plane. Of course, the 2 hour delay meant that I had missed my connection to Newcastle, but thankfully there was another flight at 9pm. The short haul European flights are really bad after the experience of an intercontinental long haul flight. The planes are tiny, the seats don't recline at all and the sound of hungover Geordies swearing fills the plane. After one of the worst landings I can remember we are back in the UK. Amazingly my luggage has also made the complete return journey and I set about heading to the Metro to get into Newcastle. Within 5 minutes of setting off we are told that the brakes are failing and the train must be removed from service. A proper welcome back to England. I eventually arrive back at central station at 10pm and there are no trains. Not just no trains to Durham, but no trains anywhere. This really is like some kind of bad joke; 10pm isn't that late at all and there aren't even any local trains to Doncaster or Sunderland. I give in and just get a taxi. As I get back to Durham at 11pm my phone's alarm goes off to indicate 24 hours since I woke up in that small Ryokan in a small southern Tokyo suburb. This has actually been the longest day of my life - 32 hours long, but I've managed to make it until night time in England so hopefully the jet lag should have been beaten... My room looks like a bomb site as I go to bed at 1.30am BST, but I don't really care.


Saturday 27th May
I once again woke to the pitter-patter of rain at the window. For my last full day in Tokyo I decided to try see a bit more of the city so I got the train out to Shibuya. This held several fascinations for me. First off, it's probably best known for having purportedly the world's busiest pedestrian crossing outside the station and the world's busiest Starbucks overlooking it.
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My main reason for visiting though is not this. Viewers of Matt Groening's space-age comedy Futurama should be familiar with the episode Jurassic Bark. The story was influenced by the story of Hachi-ko a dog who met his master's train at the same time every day. When his master died at work one day in 1925, Hachi-ko kept on returning to Shibuya station at the same time every day until his death in 1935. He had become such a celebrity that a statue was erected outside the station. Being a massive Futurama fan (it pisses over The Simpsons) this was too good an opportunity to miss out on. In fact, the station exit is even named the Hachi-ko entrance. The crossing itself is indeed pretty busy, but the area is actually much smaller than you'd think. A mile up the road is Yoyogi Park where I stopped for some yaki-soba from a road-side vendor. A large number of people were passing by and the sound of music could be heard. Firstly I thought it could be to do with the MTV Japan music awards taking place later that night at the adjacent national stadium, but then a fellow tourist informed me that the many flags around the area were those of the Japanese communist party.
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Further up the road is the Meiji Jingo Shrine - home of the largest wooden Torii of it's kind in Japan. Despite the fact that the shrine was open to the public, there was a traditional Japanese wedding in progress. As I walked back to Shibuya I decided to abandon the few moral values I have and go into Starbucks for the classic view of the Shibuya crossing. I very much doubt that it is the busiest store in the word as it's literally the size of a potting shed as it's tacked onto the side of a music/film shop. The highest customer:volume ratio, however, I would accept. I wait at the top of the stairs, but everyone is extremely reluctant to move. The place is worryingly full of Americans sitting studying Japanese kanji. Eventually a table becomes free and as I sit and as I drink my reassuringly expensive cocoa I watch the crossing.
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It's only a couple of minutes between pedestrians being allowed to cross, but every time the pavements are filled with waiting people. The entire scene is reminiscent of that from the Laughing Man incident in Stand Alone Complex (although that was set in Kobe) and the scene plays out in Lost in Translation too (in this case, they filmed illegally from Starbucks). As I reach the bottom of my ever-increasingly dense cocoa, I start to doubt that this place even has a high customer:volume ratio as people sit transfixed, their drinks long since finished, staring out at the crossing and 5 storey high video screens. Eventually I brave the crossing again and take the long way around the Yamanote line to the central Tokyo station to visit the Imperial Palace and gardens. First I pass the international convention centre - not as large as the Grand Cube, put very futuristic none the less. Another large Bic Camera store attracts me in, the large screen LCD displays showing off the HD broadcasts that are transmitted in Japan. Again, the mere mention of GPS confuses all the sales reps. I continue on to the Imperial Palace and the weather continues to deteriorate and by the time I arrive, visibility is down to a few hundred metres.
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Walking through the gardens I spot the Tokyo Tower in the distance and make the foolish decision to walk to it. Forty five minutes later and it seems as far away as it was when I started. Finally I reach it. It certainly is tall and a single ground level photograph is the only thing I take away from the encounter. Thankfully, the density of stations means that I don't have to repeat the walk back to Tokyo eki. I arrive back at the Ryokan just as the heavens open. Now seems to be the perfect time for a Japanese style bath. The weather rules-out the open air bath so I head across the complex to the indoor bath. The etiquette is simple, the bath tub is designed for soaking and relaxing, so around the large bath are lots of taps and showers. The idea is that you go in and soap your self up all over and then wash all the dirt and suds off so that when you finally enter the bath you are already clean. As I enter there already several people in the bath. I strip off and sit in the corner scrubbing for a good five minutes before I finally feel ready to enter the bath. I'm not sure how the water is kept hot, but it's an absolutely perfect temperature. I relax into it alongside the other bath-goer. After 5 minutes, he's had enough and departs leaving me alone. I'd read that it's good to get out and repeat the washing phase which I do. Once again, getting into the bath is an amazing experience and my mind completely clears. 15 minutes or so pass before I decide I'm relaxed (and wrinkly) enough and dress in my yukata and return to my room.
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By this time it's too late to get into a restaurant so I head to the local conbini and stock up on some interesting looking food for the princely sum of about £5. One of the items was a pack of chicken yakitori. First up was the standard yotsumi (chicken), next was torikawa (chicken skin) and finally what appeared to be nankotsu (balls of chicken containing cartilage). The last of these was too much as the crunch of cartilage just is not pleasant no matter which way you look at it. I settled down to cram all my clothes and o-miyage into my bags whilst wasting time on YouTube and GoogleVideo. I still wasn't sure how I was going to get to the airport - £15 on the JR line or £8 on the Keisei line...


Friday 26th May
The early morning waking had now completely worn off. As I came back from the shower room I discovered that all the taps in my building were refusing to dispense hot water so shaving wasn't an option. Today was my first day to get a really good look around Tokyo. The city is simply a collection of smaller towns that happen to be near each other. I took the circular Yamanote line back to Shinjuku. My Wikitravel guide had tipped me off to the presence of the viewing platforms on the 45th floor of the Metropolitan Government Building.
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It may not be the tallest building in the city, but free certainly beets the 1500 yen asked at other high spots. Thankfully, there was an underground walkway that lead from one of the station's many exists straight to the building itself. The express elevator took me upto the platform which combined several tacky souvenir shops and an overpriced cafe with the views. The views were fantastic although the haze on the horizon obscured the view of Fuji-san once again. The south tower also had a viewing gallery, this time with a view over the east of the city. From here I was able to look down onto the advert-plastered Shinjuku, the minuscule-by-comparison Tokyo Tower and out to the harbour. I walked back the post office to change some more money. The post office adopts a similar system to the Norwegian equivalent - ticket-based service with lots of chairs to wait in - none of the British-style queuing in lines.
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From here I walked all the way through Shinjuku. Tokyo doesn't crowd you as much as I was expecting. Places like London make you feel small, crowded and insignificant - often fighting for space with the other pedestrians. Tokyo on the other hand offers wide pavements, lots of greenery; parks, hedgerows on the roadside and frequent wooded shrines. With the very low crime rate (petty crime that is, organised crime is still rampant), you feel perfectly safe wandering around looking like the kind of lost tourist that appears at the start of Batman. From the far end of electric street I walked back through one of the many park/bird sanctuaries. After some lunch I caught the Chou line across town to Akihabara.
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Known throughout the world as the best place to buy any kind of electronic equipment, the truth however is that with the advent of stores like Bic Camera at many other towns in Tokyo, Akihabara isn't quite the same force it once was. In fact, browsing around, the prices aren't even as competitive as I was expecting - the main things I was after were impossible to find in the right circumstances. My search for a new small camera ended in frustration as I found all the models were essentially the same price as the UK (or even more expensive!), the Nintendo DS Lite was still in short supply 2 months after launch so those few stores that stocked them were charging full rrp - add in the cost of a stepdown charger and there's no reason not to get a cheaper model from Australia and my quest for a bluetooth GPS unit met with blank responses from all the staff I asked. The real change in Akihabara has been towards manga. And by manga I mean hentai/porn. Even the electronic stores had basement sections offering DVDs & Manga with suggestive posters plastered over the walls (and some beyond suggestive). After a while I headed back towards the city centre to a musical instrument zone. There is a high concentration of guitar shops that quickly attracted my attention. Given the high number of Japanese guitar maestros on the internet (look here and here for examples) I was expecting these place to be rammed with ridiculous guitars and people trying them out. To my disappointment they all seemed to stock budget brands I've never heard of and the standard Fenders and Ibenez models. The potential buyers trying out the wares are also lacking a bit in the talent department. I'm not saying I'm much better, but most of my guitar shop experience revolves around Musical Exchanges/Sound Control in Birmingham where some amazing player go to try out guitars. I walk back to Akiba and have another walk around as the sun goes down and the neon switches on. As the sun sets completely I head back to Shinjuku to get a night time view over the city from the Government Tower. From the 45th floor, the lights seem to go on forever and the city stretches out into the distance. The restaurant has now turned into a high priced bar complete with pianist to accompany the views.
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I decide to take a different path back to the station which turns out to be a mistake as I wander through busy streets for half an hour, eventually ending back at the massive Bic Camera store. This is the Tokyo from films - the bright neon and massive crowds of people. What isn't seen though is that this never feels overwhelming and the crowds aren't out for a big night (well, some businessmen are out for dinner and a night of drinking and karaoke) but they are simply coming home from work and doing some shopping (shops don't close until 8pm).


Thursday 25th May
Back in the late 1980s, ITV showed an animated film one December Saturday morning. I watched it and was enthralled as it differed from the formulaic stuff Disney churned out. I didn't realise it until 2002, but it had been my first experience of a Studio Ghibli film. The entire reason I'd extended my stay in Japan to include Tokyo was so I could visit the Ghibli museum in the suburb of Mitaka.
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The weather was set perfectly after the storm the night before and I was soon strolling down the canal from Mitaka station towards to exclusive museum. So exclusive is it that foreigners need to apply for tickets in advance specifying the day and passport numbers of those attending and if these don't match reality, entry is denied. Needless to say I'd booked my tickets months before. Upon arrival I was greeted by Totoro in a faux ticket office. Around the corner at the real ticket counter my advance ticket is swapped for my actual museum ticket, consisting of three frames from an actual reel of a Ghibli film. Mine came from 2002 release The Cat Returns. Walking down the stairs and I'm in the world of Miyazaki. The supplied leaflet declares - there are no paths, let's get lost together. None of the displays are in English, but it doesn't matter. The first room is devoted to how animation works - from how introducing a strobe can create the illusion of movement in several Ghibli themed examples, to how a film projector converts single images into a 24fps film. Moving upstairs leads to a recreation of Miyazaki and Takahata's work areas. The walls are plastered with sketches and watercolours from all of Ghibli's films and the desks are strewn with all the influences and tools the animation masters need - from photos of locations, books and cards from American colleagues at Pixar and a seemingly lifetime supply of paint and pencils.
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Moving though, we are presented with complete storyboards for all the Ghibli films for us to flick through. Along the hall way is the rotating exhibition. Until the week before this had been devoted to Pixar, but at the moment has been turned over to UK world-beaters Aardman Animation, creators of Wallce and Gromit and loads of other characters you'd never realise. Aardman's Curse of the Were-Rabbit beat Howl's Moving Castle to the 2006 Oscar. The 2 room exhibition has been put together largely showing off Wallace and Gromit, but with honourable mentions for Creature Comforts, Angry kid and the many adverts and music videos the studio have worked on. Props and models from the films and shorts are on display along with many screens showing interviews and clips. Another staircase leads up to the top floor where a giant Catbus is being clambered over by a large number of Japanese children, their parents relaxing on the sofas provided. Squeezing past this room takes you out onto the roof and a spiral staircase up to the only photo opportunity (inside the museum photos aren't allowed) - a lifesize replica of a Laputian robot. The queue to have your photograph with it leads up the stairs and its at this point when the trouble of being a lone tourist crops up. Finally I have to turn and smile to the family behind me, offering them my camera, I offer up ii desu ka (is it ok?). Thankfully, they are more than happy to help me out and I continue on my way around the roof garden to the next Laputian artefact - a model of the central cube. Heading back into the museum and downstairs to the Saturn Cinema for of the most exciting part of the tour - a screening of one of the many museum-exclusive shorts. These 15 minutes films have never been seen outside of ths building and are an excellent reason for repeat visits (should such a reason be needed). Of course, the films are in Nihongo and have no subtitles, but by and large, they're not needed. The film was entitled Hoshi wo Katta Hi (The day I harvested a star) and the story is about a small boy who lives on a rural farm. This is a universe of technology where the urban areas closely resemble those of Coruscant in the Star Wars films. The rural areas are lacking in most of this technology. Our protagonist is delivering a crop of giant size turnips when his bike breaks down. Wind-in-the-Willows-inspired toad and Rat-like creatures happen to be nearby and, in exchange for a turnip to eat offer the boy a gem. Once planted the gem sprouts a small ball of mineral that floats above the flowerpot it was sown in. Over time, the mineral slowly evolves into a planet. The short was directed by Miyazaki himself and is based on Iblard by Inoue Naohisa.
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Finally come the 2 gift shops (one for books and one for o-miyage). I plump for the museum book (a pricey £15, but then when am I ever going to come back?) and plush Totoro. I was interested in some Laputa stuff but all the robot models are very expensive. Indeed, the shop is full of expensive items; from hand drawn cells to a Breitling watch modelled on the one worn by Poroco Rosso and costing cool 525,000Yen (£2.5k). Finally, all that is left to do is head outside to the cafe to grab some food before bidding farewell to the museum. The building is set in parkland and it's a pleasent walk through the park to an earlier station.
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On the way back I decide to stop off at Shinjuku - one of the well known districts and grab a look around. The station links a lot of lines and is practically an encased city in it's own right. In fact it's known as the world's busiest station handling 2 million passengers a day. I pick an exit at random and happen to emerge on electic street. A large branch of Bic Camera looms large offering almost every kind of electric gizmo. I continue around the block taking in the large advertising hoardings atop the buildings and eventually arrive back at a completely different entrance to the massive JR station. At Gotanda (the station linking the JR lines to the small private railway my ryokan is based on) I spot a Mos Burger. I've heard a lot of good things about Japanese fast food so I decided to try it out. Fast food is pushing it a bit, because once you order, your food is cooked especially for you and delivered to your table. The quality is so far above the standard of Western fast food that it appears to be a meal that just happens to be in a toasted bun. I plump for a teriyaki burger and it is duly excellent.
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Wednesday 24th May
After packing up and presenting the Ryokan owner with a postcard of Durham , I headed for the station to catch the Shinkansen to Tokyo. The Shinkansen are even more amazing than the regular train network. Not only do they also run exactly to time, but the station staff perform amusing little pointing rituals as trains arrive and depart. The trains themselves run every 10 minutes (itself pretty amazing) and have been specifically as an extension to the rail network. As such, they have exclusive lines (a different gauge from the rest of the network) ensuring that they don't get stuck behind slower local trains like the Virgin tilting trains have to put up with. Normally on trains, you always get the impression you aren't travelling very fast when you take a mid-range look outside the window - you have to look at the ground near the train to get a appreciation of speed. On the shinkansen you know ou're travelling fast. The trip from Kyoto to Tokyo takes less than 2 and a half hours and before I know what's happening we're pulling into Tokyo central station (right on time). I set about taking the local lines until it feels like I'm out in the sticks - a tiny little suburb. My Ryokan's map claims a 1 minute walk from the station to the Ryokan and I was doubtful - but no the area is tiny (yet still packs in 3 conbinis, postbox and multiple restaurants). This rokan is set back from the road and is essentially a series of accommodation blocks around a small Japanese garden. I'm shown to my room and just as I decide to head out I hear a rumble. Up until now, the weather has been sweltering...perhaps too sweltering. Or it could just be the nearby trainline. I hold back and utilise my in-room network connection to sort out some details and then the storm starts. Very slowly it moves directly overhead and stays nearby until 10pm. With any hope of exploring gone, I finalise the plans or the next day and go to bed. It's at this point I'm starting to regret opting for the Japanese-style room. After yesterday I've noticed two things: I really like beds and I seem to be losing weight as my jeans are now in dire need of a belt.

Sunday, May 28, 2006

Kyoto Part 2

Tuesday 23rd May
I awoke to the patter of rain. It seemed to ease as I left the Ryokan but the drizzle mist persisted. I decided to explore the station areas that I hadn't got to yesterday. The station is a very big modern building. Above the promenade that Ang and I had sat on the previous day was a garden with views over the city, linked by a skywalk to a garden on the opposite side of the station.
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After admiring the view I decided to walk to Gion in the hunt for Geishas and then on to the Philosophy path near the Silver Pavilion. By the time I reached Gion the rain had come back and there was not a single Geisha in sight. I carried on through a park containing various shrines. It's at this point that my map stopped bearing any relationship to reality. I think I broke some kind of personal record cos in total I ended up walking for 5 and a half hours. And I still didn't find the fecking philosophy path. I did however find a number of shrines off the tourist trail and then walked back through several shopping arcades.
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I arrived back at a cafe in the station for a quick lunch before heading out to an amusement arcade for a go on the new MarioKart GP arcade. After Blondie and I had shed blood, seat and many tears finishing the Gamecube version I was pretty happy to finish the race in first place. I was less happy when it demanded more money to keep going - surely I play till I lose??!? The Japanese arcades seem very weird - and not in the way I was expecting. Traditional cabinets seem to be out and the majority of space is taken up by those damn grabby machines (I wonder if they're as impossible as in England), horse racing betting games and the novelty controller games (Light guns, taiko, guitar, drums etc). Watching the Japanese schoolboys played the drumming game convinced me that not only did you actually need to be able to play the drums to be good, but it also required the ability of very quick sight reading. I returned to the Ryokan before heading back to Gion. Alas, still no Geishas, but a whole street of doormen trying to entice as many people as possible into various strip clubs...

Monday 22nd May
After another weird night of interrupted sleeping, I was up and dressed by 9. It was Ang's 22nd birthday so I gave her a card and presents and then we headed to the station to sort out our onward travel arrangements. For me this involved booking a shinkansen on to Tokyo and for Ang it involved changing her bus time from 11.30pm to 3.30pm. With this done we set out on the bus to pick up where we left off yesterday.
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It was another boiling day and the packed bus didn't help the temperature (9 people give off the same amount of body heat as a bar on an electric fire). Our first stop was Nijo Castle. The reception rooms were well preserved including the famous nightingale floor - purposefully made squeaky so that intruders would register a sound like that of the eponymous bird. What would have happened if the castle were infiltrated during the day when people were walking around anyway? I'm not sure. The spacious gardens and moat full of coi carp were very pleasant to experience before we headed on to the Golden Pavilion. As with much of the other "ancient" buildings of Japan, this one was also reconstructed within the last few years after a disgruntled monk burnt the original to the ground. As expected, the place was packed with tourists, but the classic scene of the temple from across the lake was worth it.
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As we walked around, we were accosted by several high school students eager to practice their English. Under the watchful eye of their teacher we were asked our names, where we lived and how long we were in Japan before being asked to write a "message for world peace" in one of their exercise books... Ang suggested we do a tea ceremony - the drinking of a frothed green tea in a certain way before eating a wagashi cake made from sweet bean paste. After enjoying a fantastic strawberries and cream ice cream we set out for our final visit of the day before Ang was due to leave - the Silver Pavilion located on the other side of town. This was a much more peaceful location and the pavilion itself was less garish (and not silver at all). There was a small walk around the site from where we saw the odd sight of a man brushing leaves off the moss bed that covered the ground.
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Kyoto is a very strange place - from arrival at the station it seems like any other city in the area but the guidebooks and tourist information make out that it's a peaceful oasis in the wilderness. Try to imagine a more built up version of Cambridge (sort of Cambridge crossed with Birmingham) - the city has continued expanding around all the temples, palaces and shrines. Just as in Cambridge where the touristy colleges are next to large shops, so in Kyoto, UNESCO world heritage sites could be beside an office block. We ate lunch in a small cafe and set out back to the station with seemingly enough time - 50 minutes. From that you can probably guess that the bus got stuck in traffic and duly arrived too late. After Ang had rescheduled her departure back to 11.30 again, we looked around the station's department store and then decided to go to the cinema. The tourist information point us back to Nijo so we took a train and found a modern entertainment complex mixing restaurants, and arcade and cinema. We played around in the arcade for a bit and then watched The Da Vinci Code. If Blondie is reading this - sorry, I've seen it with out you BUT I can tell you it's absolutely toss. In 2 and a half hours nothing happens, Tom Hanks' character doesn't do anything even remotely heroic and I guessed the "twist" after about half an hour. We followed this up with dinner at a strange cafe that was very similar in appearance to the Selfridges store in Birmingham - lot's of plastic in a 70s style. The orange decor and faint taste of citrus in the water could have been easily solved if we'd just realised the place was called the Orange Cafe. I left Angharad at Kyoto station to catch her 11.30 night bus back to Izumo and returned to the Ryokan.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Kyoto part 1

Sunday 21st May
Once again I was awake and unable to get back to sleep at 6. I eventually got up and packed up before leaving with Angharad to head for JR Osaka. Here we set about getting to Kyoto. Surprisingly, a ticket was only about £3. The trip took half an hour and we were soon in the modern steel builing that houses the station, many shops, a department store and several rooftop gardens in a 12 storey design.
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The weather had fully turned and it was a scorching day with no clouds at all. The walk to our ryokan (Matsuba-ya) only took the advertised 10 minutes and we found that although we'd to book 2 separate rooms (Angharad was only staying for one night) they were next to each other and actually connected by an internal door. With our excess luggage dumped, we set out to explore western Kyoto. A 20 minute train ride left in the suburb of Arashiyama. The narrow streets filled with tourists lead us to a bamboo forest. The experience of being surounded by these unusual trees was very weird. A half hour walk lead us down to th river where a lot of people had gathered. Eventually the reason became clear as a festival parade passed by. Crossing the river lead to the Iwatayama Monkey Park. My Wikitravel guide warned about a steep climb, but nothing could have prepared us for the mountanous hike we had to undertake to reach the monkeys at the top. Along the way we were bombaed with signs telling us among other things, not to let thm see we had food and not to make eye contact with them. I'm not really sure why making eye contact with a macaque monkey is a bad idea; perhaps a zoologist can leave a comment. The top of the mountain thankfully contained a panoramic view over the sprawling city that we enjoyed as we got our breathe back. A keeper offered to take our picture with a monkey (which involved throwing nuts at our feet), but all he managed to do was to get a fully overexposed picture of pure white - I'm not quite sure how. We then went into the small hut where there was a strange mix of howling monkeys and screeming children - hungry, grabby monkeys and small children don' mix well. We fed them some apples and then wet outside for a talk which unfortunately was in Japanese.
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After the long decent back down to the river we had an ice cream - Angharad choosing the curious combination of vanilla and green tea flavour - and caught a bus back into town. From here a series of bus rides around the city began as we found ourselves arriving at various locations too late to gain admition. In the end we decided to cut our losses for the day and get some dinner. After consulting the Wikiguide, we arrived near the river where there was a strefull of restaurants. First, we cut into a bar for some margaretas and snacks before walking up the small street looking for food. For some reason my appetite has been odd all week - I can walk all day and not feel even remotely hungry. This was one of those days. We found a nice place that catered to us well and offered me the small meal I needed. Angharad again suggested karaoke and this time I was in the mood so headed back to the main street and into the first karaoke box establishment we found.
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We were shown up to our small booth on the 5th floor (4th floor in UK terms). Drinks were brought to us and we set about ruining some of the finest songs to emerge in the last 20 years (and S Club 7). After our hour, Ang managed to get us another half an hour and the catawalling continued culminating in a duet of A Whole New World that would have had Regina Bell and Paebo Brsyon ruing the day they ever agreed to record the song in the first place. A brisk walk got us back to the ryokan easily before the 11pm curfew. As I lay on my futon whishing the air conditioning was more powerful I went to sleep with the thought - I never did figure out what was wrong with that river...

The rest of Osaka and Fpi7

Saturday 20th May

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The last day of Fpi7 dawned bright and sunny. I made my way to the Grand Cube Osaka for the final time and sat through some very thorough OLED talks. By the coffee break the sun was beating down and there were proper, distinguishable clouds in the sky replacing the overcast curtain of white that had lasted all week. The last 2 talks were from two well-known materials chemists and were very enjoyable as they actually contained some chemistry and not just device studies.
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After the conference was closed I went with Kara and Yvonne to the Tempura restauant across the river and then headed back to the hotel to wait for Angharad. Kara reurned to Namba in search of wax food keychains for o-miyage (souveneers). After a long wait, Angharad arrived at 6pm. Kara decided to pack and get an early night for her 7.30am trip back to Kansai Airport the following morning so Angharad and I walked down to the rose gardens whilst catching up and then back to catch the free bus to Umeda. Here we ate at a restaurant inside a small arcade. Afterwards we headed back to the hotel.
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Friday 19th May
Once again we set off to lectures. The keynote talk was given by our head of department, David Parker. It seemed to confuse a lot of people because it wasn't based around devices of any sort. By this point, the lectures were dragging really badly - chemistry seemed to appear less and less. However, before lunch we had a couple of very good talks including one including the actual demonstration of a solar cell from Peter Baurle from Ulm. At lunchtime I went with Kara and Yvonne across the river once more in search of food, finding a small, out-of-the-way place where we got a mix of fried fish and crab cakes. I couldn't take more unrelated lectures so I attended a total of 4 in the afternoon. Afterwards Kara presented her poster drawing a lot of questions about its potential use in devices. As most delegates sloped off to the conference banquet that we hadn't been told we could apply to (£50 each seemed a litle steep), Kara decided she was still full from lunch and didn't want to return to the rainstorm that was raging outside. At 8pm I set off alone to explore the Umeda district. Taking advantage of the free Rihga Royal bus to JR Osaka I straight away got lost around the station. Nearby, the behemouth that is the Umeda Sky Building looms over a district of warehoues. Combined with the weather and darkness the imagery from Blade Runner and Bullfrog's Syndicate games rushed back into my mind. Ridley Scott's epic, although set in LA was based on Japanese cities. Businessmen and women milled around on their way home from work (9pm) and the advertising hoardings provided a seedy faux-lighting. Eventually I managed to orient myself with the post office and navigated to the Hankyu Grand Building on the 29th floor of which, WikiTravel ensured me was a very good and cheap restaurant.
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The 29 floor indeed had a number of resturants and some great views over the city. I eventually found the resaurant in question and joined the entry queue. More young couples passed by; perhaps all the talk of a declining birth rate is premature. A glance at my watch showed me it's 9.30 and these couples are still in work clothes - so maybe the problem does has some validity. Eventually I was shown to a fantastic window seat and given a menu in English. The view extends over Umeda all the way out to Osaka Castle in the distance. I plump for the Kansai speciality, okonomiyaki, a cabbage and meat pancake bound with egg and smothered with mayonaise and other sauces. The table contains a hot skillet and soon the ingredients arrive in a bowl and are upturned onto the hot cooking surface right in front of me. It's at this point I decide talking off my jumper maybe a good idea. After a while, my waiter returns to flip my cabbagecake and then inform me it was ready to eat.
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To most people, the idea of a cabbage pancake seems odd, however I am a cabbage fan(!) and sure enough it tasted great. After finishing I hurried back to the station to try and catch the last Bus back to the convetion centre but was just too late. I decided to take the subway - an easy journey. Even at this late hour though (10.30) the tube was rammed with businessmen returning home from work - I guess there's no such thing as a rush hour in the evenings here.
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Thursday 18th May
The first three lectures this morning were excruciating. The first one was about using OLEDs as LASERs which went over my head, the 2nd and 3rd ones said absolutely nothing - I have no idea why they were plenary talks. The third one was so dull that I managed to get through another chapter of my Japanese language learning book. David Parker confirmed my suspicions that they had been crap. Thankfully the second session was a lot more interesting.
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After they finished there was the prospect of the excursion to Nara. We made our way down to the buses where all notions of Japan being an organised society went out of the window as the JTB rep attmpted to make the simple proceedure of checking people off a list as complex as possible. When we were finally boarded and on our way, our tour guide piped up with an unintentionally hilarious self-introduction. For some reason the bus did a slow figure of 8 aound the area and Kara and I both spotted that we'd passed certain points before. Had the bus driver got lost or was he just buying more time for our tourguide to point out more average buildings? Finally we made it onto the toll road towering above the streets of Osaka. For some reason the sides of motorway had high opaque barriers so seeing any scenery was out of the question. Perhaps this was due to the fact - as our guide happily informed us - that suicide is the 6th most common cause of death in Japan. The national speed limit is a leasurely 80km/h (50mph) so the 15 mile trip took us an hour. Nara is the kind of place that really wasn't meant for mass tourism. The narrow streets to the sights has to support 100s of coaches per day and the deer that are free to roam frequently roam into the road. "They don't understand the traffic signals - or if they do they ignore them" chirped our guide seemingly indicating that the deer were possibly deliberately flaunting the rules of the road. Our first stop was the Todai-Ji temple, home of the world's largest wooden building (now rebuilt at 3/4 the size) and the world's largest Budda - made of bronze and weighing a scale-bending 500 tons. It is said that 20 children can stand on his outstretched palm. The whole site is one giant tourist trap - hundreds of simultaneous school tours mass around the area and the number of cheap tacky souveneer stalls is mind numbing. This is partially organised chaos. Our guide instructs us to follow her flag on a pole; a good idea until we realise that every other guide and school teacher has had the exact same idea.
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We amble around the temple and then gain a massive 20 minutes of free time (just enough to get back to the bus) before we are whisked off to Kasuga Taisha (shrine) - founded when Nara became the ancient capital of Japan. Once again, the peaceful surroundings have been shattered by the regular influx of oversized coaches - each of which carries a girl who's only job seems to be to count the passengers, shout irasshaimasse (welcome) as we leave the coach and stand behind the coach shouting "Hai" to the diver so he know when to stop reversing. At Kasuga Taisha, the back of the bus extends over a drop and there was no room to the sides so I had visions of this poor girl having to dive into a 5 foot drop as our bus backed ever closer. Our guide whisked us around the shrine attempting to convey to a group of material scientists the history and customs.
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The place is a lot more peaceful than Todai-Ji, but the school parties were arriving as we left... Those attempting to sleep on the return journey were awakened to take part in an origami class - I've long since forgotton how to make Japanese cranes, so I was hopeful this would reteach me. In the end we made minature hats, much to the chagrin of several postgrads behind us who had been woken up to participate. Eventually we were dropped back at the Rihga Royal and Kara and I decided to follow David Parker's advice and head the opposite way along the river in search of food. As is always the case, we walked around for ages before deciding on the first place we had seen - a small tempura restaurant just off the river. The waiter immediately picked us out as gaijin (well, let's face it we sick out like a sore thumb) and took us back outside for us to duly point at the wax food replicas in the windows. The light tempura tiger prawns were excellent and again, the meal was very cheap. I'm now actually very fond of miso soup to the extent that I'm upset when it doesn't come with a meal. After we got home I decided to go out for a walk. Armed with my iPod I strolled along the riverside promenades until I reached the rose gardens at Nakanoshima Park.
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Even in the darkness, the place was full of young couples walking hand in hand. After duly failing to get any decent photos (hand holding a 1sec exposure is not easy) I headed back, mildy alarmed to find the hotel entrances shuttered up - is ram raiding a problem here? Thankfully a small door next to a security desk remained open and (with absolutely no checks of who I was) I gained reentry.

Wednesday 17th May
The second day of the conference dawned and once again I hadn't gotten full night's sleep. Our head of department, David Parker, had arrived and chaired the first session. As the day wore on, the lectures seemed to get longer and more dull. After they finished the next poster session started. I chatted to Prof Parker about the conference and he seemed very underwhelmed with some of the talks branding them as being crap and containing bad science. He introduced me to several people from the journals who were trolling for business. Amusingly he also gave me a glimpse into the world behind the scenes as he revealed how he taunted just about everyone he met - whether it be about historic battles or cricket.
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