So, today I woke up very early to go get some photo shots at the Tsuki-ji fish market. When I woke up at about 5.30, I felt like an idiot for a little while. Come on, what is this? only 5 hours of sleep, just to take some photos? Then, slowly, I made up my mind, and decided to go... thinking that I wold have been the king of fools, I moved to the Nezu subway station, where in fact at 5 minutes to 6 there was very few people. The number of people increases briskly at the Okachimachi intersection. Boy, people go to work early in this city! At the Tsuki-shijo stop a number of people gets out, among which another 4-5 guys carrying heavy photography bags just like me.... ah, I am not alone, there are others with the Lonely planet guidebook :) So everybody moves stealthily towards the market, pretending to ignore the others.... It looks like we are all in one of those Benny Hill shorts :)
Well, the fish market was totally worth the move, even though I missed the auction phase (which ends at 6.30), the rest is great. Giant red tuna, both fresh and frozen, known and totally unknown kinds of fish, the most strangest shellfish I have ever seen, etc. Funnily enough, each stall where a number of rough and weary fishermen treat the animals and cut them with humongous knives in the shape of samurai's katanas, is severely controlled and managed by women. It can be one or two young girls, but most often they are old oba-san, wives or even mothers of the guys working in the front. I took several photos of these characters, all busy with their rigorous inside their tiny wooden case, amidst the noise and the voices of the traders, the fury of the small carts running in all directions, the tons of fish moving around. But I think it is not even worth describing in words, photos (hopefully) will be much nicer explanation of the atmosphere...
On my way back, the city was totally awaken, it was about 7.30. I stopped in a Coffe shop to have a real breakfast, with delicious ready-made pancakes with maple syrup and a decent cappuccino. And then I went back to the ryokan, and set myself for the bed. I slept for maybe 20', just to enjoy the idea that I just had woke up that morning, the fish-market thing being something of the yesterday. But the strange smell rising from my feet reminded me of the absolute necessity to take not just a simple shower... but to soak the feet in some suplhuric acid, or a stronger solution! In fact, I had put on my sandals to go to the market, and as one can easily imagine, the soil of the market was covered by about an inch of water, in which all kinds of other fluids mix and go. This is why most people were wearing knee-high rubber boots :)) OK, the sandal idea was not bad, only I had to throw away my sandals probably.
Then, I knew that there would have been the science meeting at 4pm, so I had not the full day to complete my list of to-do's. In fact, they reduced just to a few. I had to go to Ueno park, give again a look at the Toshogu (without taking new photos, I had plenty from the other time), then move on to the National Museum, to shop for some peculiar items. (I had them the other time I was here, but they all were left back in my .... previous life! so in order to have them back the only chioce is to buy new ones, and luckily the Museum shop still carries them ;) It is almost lunch time, and according to my Lonely planet (and to common sense) it should be worth going back to the fish market to find the best and freshest sushi in the world. I get rid of the too fancy Sushi Zanmai, which I fear should be a tourist trap, and head to one of the small sushi shops lining in front of the big market hall, and enter the one that gives me the nicest impression. And, wow!, it was the right choice. For a mere 3,600yen (22 euro) I can literally stuff myself with the greatest sushi meal ever! I went up a little with the price since I ordered separately some toro sushi, the highest quality of fat-belly tuna, but it was soooooo worth it! And I finished with one of those giant peaches they sell in the street, for a price going from 250 to 350yen. They are individually wrapped in a soft foamy plastic case, to keep them from hurting against each other or anything, and they are the sweetest you can find (I can remember better ones only in a small tiny village in Calabria, south of Italy, a few years back).
In my to-do list there was still Kyukyo-do missing, in Ginza. So I went there, and fired off my about 100euro in washi paper, hanging scrolls etc. One of the must of every Japan visit... And that was pretty much it.
The meeting at 4 (to which I arrived obviously late, I was there around 4.30 pretending I did a bad time calculation since I am living in Ueno now, about 1h30' away from the university... in fact I took my time and took another, necessary and relaxing shower in the ryokan), the meeting at 4.30 then, lasted until 9 in the night !!! Ah, the japanese... well, it was a wrap-up meeting just to check what I remembered after two weeks of vacation.
Then, I stopped again in Shibuya, to do the last sister-related shopping. And could watch again some of that tokyoite nightlife that it is impossible to follow, for someone like me (and, must admit, of my age... I sort of find myself a little out of place in such an environment, albeit there are around a number of not-so-young, and even middle-aged (meaning 'older than me') salarymen mixed in the crowd). Although I think I got some understanding of the youth-pop-urban culture that is developing here, it is something so distant ahead, and projected so far away in time that I think to myself, when such pop customs will make it to the western Europe I will be probably gone. However, the Shibuya-girls are there again, and since I browsed for some information (and got myself some local papers and manga!), I can see the big big difference between the far more developed youngsters here than in Kyoto, and those in Nara which compared to Kyoto's seem quite like country villagers.
Well, I am happy I learned a lot about such young-pop culture. For example, a very characteristic feature is that they shorten and contract words mixing from japanese and english words, such as pokèmon (= pocket monsters), lolicon (= lolita complex, the strange but not criminal obsession of the japanese for young schoolgirls), cosplay (= costume players, teenagers fond of anime and manga who dress up like their favourite fantasy characters). Then, I learned that sunburn, oakwood-shade suntan (faked, of course, obtained with dark skin creams) is totally out of fashion today. The big cry now is long hair waving in ample bouclées (for both girls and boys); girls wear flimsy knee-long coveralls with lots of laces and ribbons, while boys wear their jeans literally below the ass, showing more than half of their brief-covered buttocks. So, the shops in Shibuya are comparatively stocked full with ribbons, knee-high socks, and the fanciest briefs, which of course become the most visible part once the jeans are carefully placed below the belt. Large, bee-like jet-black sunglasses wrapping all-around the face are a must, as much as a boy's hairstyling looking as if someone just gave you a hard slap in the face (kept in place by at least a pound of hair gel and a huge hairspray). Apparently, another trend of the summer is to wear the shirt "as tight as possible", so as to show everyone just how padded your bra is. Apparently, lots of kids in the boring suburbs of Japan dream of coming to Shibuya because it is like totally the most cool place and stuff. They copy the fashions and read the magazines about Shibuya, but most of them never make it here. And of course there is the massage thing. While walking along Bunkamura, Meiji-dori etc., you are often spoiled by some girls offering you a massage, but the kind of smile they give you lets you know that they are obviously offering something else too.
And I learned about the "Manga kissa" and the "Maid cafés". Only from the two guides, unfortunately, since I had not time to give these a try, maybe next time. Manga kissa are a place where you can watch dvds, Playstation games, hook up to the internet, read manga of course, but unexpectedly, you can also spend the night there; Lonely planet suggests it as a last resort, when missing the midnight train, apparently you can get a private cubicle where to surf the internet and get a night nap safely, since the local staff supervise the whole thing. And the Maid Cafés, very popular around the "electric market" area of Akihabara, are bars with acid colours and manga-style decoration, where young girls dressed as soubrettes, with high heels, substantial make-up and soft-headed wigs, welcome you saying 'Welcome home, master'. You can read mangas (again!), play games and get some cuddle from the girls for a small money (however, other forms of 'contact' are strictly forbidden). Apparently, such kind of bars are very popular among the more timid and job-spoiled Japanese youngsters, who need some place to fill their needs of affection and kindness. Pretty much on the same note as the Nekobukuro, the hotel where people can play for an hour with a cat, since for most people living in tiny apartment it is impossible to fulfil the desire to have a pet at home.
Japan, the place where people are REALLY different!
However, in all such fantastic modernity, I often think about who would still remember of the past. Yes, scholars may still keep studying the old ages and the shogun and the bushido. And in Europe, literates can still discuss about Shakespeare and Dante. But who, in this modern world, will be able to retain the taste and the feeling for listening to their words? who will still be attracted to reading Homer, or Eurypides? who will stil care for listening to a song by Sainte-Colombe, or an ancient baroque opera, besides the unwitting crowds of tourists that fill up summer arenas to watch the last boring show of Bohéme or Carmen? Maybe some of such things will just be gone forever. Maybe some of them were never truly understood. But the sad thing is that for centuries such things were retained as excellent, and were passed on with care from one generation to the next. And today, our generation is so proud and so mindless of itself, that in the matter of just a few years all those shining and dark, fruitful and obscure past, will probably disappear. Or be marketed into gadgets, which is even worse.
Then, left to the airport, and it was early morning again. On my way to the Nezu subway, I noticed the serviceman in helmet and yellow phosphorescent stripes who sat at the corner of the stairs to protect people... he must have been there for the whole night. I saw this man yesterday night, coming here around midnight. He is set to stay there to grab falling people, since in that station the incoming trains produce huge wind currents (that is true!), and some elderly people may fall down the stairs. Japanese are a prevident and careful society.
OK, then. Farewell, Japan!
Saturday 26 July 2008
Thursday 24 July 2008
the Nikko-special
So, today I made it for my Nikko trip. In fact, I was a little upset by the idea of having to give up my little outing to this place, because the japanese team had arranged another meeting tomorrow afternoon. So I was straight decided to go there at any rate. I left the ryokan in Hakone at 7.45, without much regret if not for the fantastic hotspring. In the end, they even (politely) refused to carry my luggage downstairs, with some excuse... bah, awful service, average food, moderate location, and the room was exposed in such a way that I had sun coming straight through the main window at morning, so today I opened up my eyes at 4.30 am !! Fortunately, this early leave gave me the opportunity to skip the japanese breakfast. I like it, in general, but having all those salty things early in the morning, never a cup of coffee, never a sweet, I mean, a little chocolate chip, nothing! After a few days I am so hungry for chocolate that I could kill a shop teller and hold up all his cookies.
However, travelling in Japan is very easy, once you understand the way to jump from one train to another. Dead times are almost nothing, and you can match nicely your trip with your needs. In fact, I was in Nikko before noon, which is a little amazing.
Well, wherever you read around here, "Nikko is Nippon", they just say the truth. This cluster of temples, shrines, buidings etc., is really a showcase of "classical Japan", better arranged even than many places in Kyoto and Nara. Buildings are more recent (even if the oldest ones date from before the 1000 or so, they were rebuilt and their functions changed several times), but nonetheless original, dating for the largest part around 1600, the age of the Tokugawa shogunate. In fact, from its original destination of a sacred mountain, with a number of buddhist settlings along the ages, the Nikko complex had been transformed into a family-run sacred area, hosting the tombs and mausoleum of several prominent members of the Tokugawa, among which the famous Ieyasu,and his son. The setting is indeed impressive, with a large use of gold leaf even in the exterior frames of many buildings (which call for a continuous restoration; unfortunately, one of the most beautiful spots, the famous cedar alley lined with tens of perfectly aligned stone lanterns and its vermilion wooden wall, was under restoration and invisible). Cedar trees here are of memorable height, just like those I saw yesterday (in fact, they were planted about at the same time). Overall, the taste is somewhat more "baroque", compared to the feeling of sheer antiquity that you feel in Nara, and with many decorations in chinese style, a sort of 'revival' styling during the early Edo era.
Anyway, as I wrote before, I was already in desperate need of some sugar, and the walk under the intense heat was such that I had at some point a sort of hypoglycemic crisis. I literally jumped at a kiosk, bought a box of 10 chocolate cookies (50 kcal/cookie) and ate it all in about 3'. Then I raped a vending machine, and drank two Suntory Lemon Water CC37 (the VitaminC of 37 lemons in each bottle, and another 67kcal each). Only then I was satisfied!!
Besides, I keep learning a lot of nice things about customs and pop culture in Japan. For example, the employees of the transportation system, they look very similar to soldiers with their perfect military-looking uniforms. But they have all the typical kindness of the japanese society. For example, the ticket controller on the Shinkansen, at every new car he enters, he takes off his hat, bows deeply to 90° position, and repeats something that means "Goodmorning ladies and gentlemen, please allow me to control your tickets today". And then goes on. This makes a pair with the bus drivers, who drive with their hands covered in immaculate white gloves, and say "Goodmorning, welcome onboard" at every single new customer who jumps in their bus. The taxi drivers, by contrast, have all the same poker-face, a sort of grim look sculpted by years of cigarette smoking that probably comes together with the cab license.
As I wrote already before, the whole japanese society seems based on the idea of the respect for the others, to an extent that is unmatched in the western world. For example, the cards that signal some prohibition, be it in a public bathroom or on the train or in a park etc. You see the usual signs of "forbidden", reminding of the street signal with a red cross bar, and of course a carefully bulleted or numbered list of what to do and what not to do. But the funny thing is that, every time, the prohibition is accompanied by two drawings, one showing a man or a woman or some little kid doing the 'wrong thing', and right next the same character doing the 'right thing' (like for example taking off your shoes before entering the public lavatory). And, even more funny, each one of the two drawings includes one or more other people, showing a grim, furious face in the first case, and a happy, relaxed face in the other case. This marks without any doubt that the prohibition is not there just to make you upset, but to make everybody to behave, to remind you that you are part of a society and do not live by and thanks to yourself. In fact, it is legendary how the japanese feel ashamed and outcast whenever they do something 'wrong', whatever this could be (as for me, I must admit I feel a little proud everytime I can break a bit the rules, even voluntarily, and surely would have a hard time accepting the strict japanese society rules).
OK. Later in the afternoon (in fact, it was almost 7.30pm) I arrived at the Tamanaka ryokan in Ueno, Tokyo. It was such a maze of little streets that the cab driver got lost (another one with the famous poker face; now that I'm thinking about it, could it be always but the same one driver? I mean, couldn't they have cloned a typical one and have it repeated over and over in every city?). In fact, he nicely demanded to be paid only 1,000yen instead of the 2,400 etc marked by his meter. When I unpacked my stuff, I had another surprise: in the shoes I hadn't used since Kyoto, I found a paper note (you know, you leave your shoes at the entrance, and someone ranges them in a rack with a name tag). The american couple who was drunk all the time must have mistaken my shoes for someone else's (no wonder, they must have been drunk again when leaving) since the note, written on an envelope from the Park Hotel Tokyo, said: "Glad we met you, have a safe journey home! Karin and Chris". Mmmmm..... maybe they had some sexual exchange with another couple in the ryokan? strange days.....
However, after a quick shower (was nearly exhausted) I went out and walked in the heat of the night through the maze of tiny streets around Nezu, to find a place where to eat. I entered the one that looked nicer from the outside, and there was another welcomed surprise. The place, called Kushiage Hantei and built on the site of a beautiful old wooden building dating at least the end of the century, is a kushiage (eh!), one of those fried-skewers restaurants which my Lonely planet says to be "not particularly distinctive in appearance, the best places are found only by asking a japanese friend". So, mine was VERY good, the chef was a flamboyant improviser, and the skewers he sent along were totally amazing combinations (you don't even need to order, you just say how many more you want after a fixed starting set, and they send you whatever they have ready, in pairs or triplets, until you say stop). Great food experience, maybe a little expensive in the end, but the food came with a variety of appetizers and side dishes included, great roasted barley tea, and a beer, the whole for about 4,800yen (say, 30 euros). And I sat at a common oval table, with a number of other customers. I exchanged a few words with two girlfriends nearby who were outing together; no words but just a 'hello' with the odd couple in front of me, a middle-aged 'sararyman' in suit and tie, and a young girl all dressed up in a classy-sexy way and nicely decorated, quite evidently she was not his daughter!
After dinner, I went to check into a supermarket, just to get an idea of the kind of food and stuff you find typically in supermarkets (I had done this already in Tokyo Shibuya a couple of times, ending up in buying all kinds of strange stuff). In fact, you see on the shelves anything but strange food 8 times out of 10, only the meat cuts and some forms of noodles can be recognizable to our western eyes. The rest is incomprehensible bags or boxes, filled with awesome things that are supposed to be edible.... fun!! Well, I just bought a little cake to finish up the perfect food of the evening, since I didn't care to order the funny green-pink ice-cream-looking balls they were serving in the kushiage.
And tomorrow, wake up early for my last (self-assigned) photographic assignment!
However, travelling in Japan is very easy, once you understand the way to jump from one train to another. Dead times are almost nothing, and you can match nicely your trip with your needs. In fact, I was in Nikko before noon, which is a little amazing.
Well, wherever you read around here, "Nikko is Nippon", they just say the truth. This cluster of temples, shrines, buidings etc., is really a showcase of "classical Japan", better arranged even than many places in Kyoto and Nara. Buildings are more recent (even if the oldest ones date from before the 1000 or so, they were rebuilt and their functions changed several times), but nonetheless original, dating for the largest part around 1600, the age of the Tokugawa shogunate. In fact, from its original destination of a sacred mountain, with a number of buddhist settlings along the ages, the Nikko complex had been transformed into a family-run sacred area, hosting the tombs and mausoleum of several prominent members of the Tokugawa, among which the famous Ieyasu,and his son. The setting is indeed impressive, with a large use of gold leaf even in the exterior frames of many buildings (which call for a continuous restoration; unfortunately, one of the most beautiful spots, the famous cedar alley lined with tens of perfectly aligned stone lanterns and its vermilion wooden wall, was under restoration and invisible). Cedar trees here are of memorable height, just like those I saw yesterday (in fact, they were planted about at the same time). Overall, the taste is somewhat more "baroque", compared to the feeling of sheer antiquity that you feel in Nara, and with many decorations in chinese style, a sort of 'revival' styling during the early Edo era.
Anyway, as I wrote before, I was already in desperate need of some sugar, and the walk under the intense heat was such that I had at some point a sort of hypoglycemic crisis. I literally jumped at a kiosk, bought a box of 10 chocolate cookies (50 kcal/cookie) and ate it all in about 3'. Then I raped a vending machine, and drank two Suntory Lemon Water CC37 (the VitaminC of 37 lemons in each bottle, and another 67kcal each). Only then I was satisfied!!
Besides, I keep learning a lot of nice things about customs and pop culture in Japan. For example, the employees of the transportation system, they look very similar to soldiers with their perfect military-looking uniforms. But they have all the typical kindness of the japanese society. For example, the ticket controller on the Shinkansen, at every new car he enters, he takes off his hat, bows deeply to 90° position, and repeats something that means "Goodmorning ladies and gentlemen, please allow me to control your tickets today". And then goes on. This makes a pair with the bus drivers, who drive with their hands covered in immaculate white gloves, and say "Goodmorning, welcome onboard" at every single new customer who jumps in their bus. The taxi drivers, by contrast, have all the same poker-face, a sort of grim look sculpted by years of cigarette smoking that probably comes together with the cab license.
As I wrote already before, the whole japanese society seems based on the idea of the respect for the others, to an extent that is unmatched in the western world. For example, the cards that signal some prohibition, be it in a public bathroom or on the train or in a park etc. You see the usual signs of "forbidden", reminding of the street signal with a red cross bar, and of course a carefully bulleted or numbered list of what to do and what not to do. But the funny thing is that, every time, the prohibition is accompanied by two drawings, one showing a man or a woman or some little kid doing the 'wrong thing', and right next the same character doing the 'right thing' (like for example taking off your shoes before entering the public lavatory). And, even more funny, each one of the two drawings includes one or more other people, showing a grim, furious face in the first case, and a happy, relaxed face in the other case. This marks without any doubt that the prohibition is not there just to make you upset, but to make everybody to behave, to remind you that you are part of a society and do not live by and thanks to yourself. In fact, it is legendary how the japanese feel ashamed and outcast whenever they do something 'wrong', whatever this could be (as for me, I must admit I feel a little proud everytime I can break a bit the rules, even voluntarily, and surely would have a hard time accepting the strict japanese society rules).
OK. Later in the afternoon (in fact, it was almost 7.30pm) I arrived at the Tamanaka ryokan in Ueno, Tokyo. It was such a maze of little streets that the cab driver got lost (another one with the famous poker face; now that I'm thinking about it, could it be always but the same one driver? I mean, couldn't they have cloned a typical one and have it repeated over and over in every city?). In fact, he nicely demanded to be paid only 1,000yen instead of the 2,400 etc marked by his meter. When I unpacked my stuff, I had another surprise: in the shoes I hadn't used since Kyoto, I found a paper note (you know, you leave your shoes at the entrance, and someone ranges them in a rack with a name tag). The american couple who was drunk all the time must have mistaken my shoes for someone else's (no wonder, they must have been drunk again when leaving) since the note, written on an envelope from the Park Hotel Tokyo, said: "Glad we met you, have a safe journey home! Karin and Chris". Mmmmm..... maybe they had some sexual exchange with another couple in the ryokan? strange days.....
However, after a quick shower (was nearly exhausted) I went out and walked in the heat of the night through the maze of tiny streets around Nezu, to find a place where to eat. I entered the one that looked nicer from the outside, and there was another welcomed surprise. The place, called Kushiage Hantei and built on the site of a beautiful old wooden building dating at least the end of the century, is a kushiage (eh!), one of those fried-skewers restaurants which my Lonely planet says to be "not particularly distinctive in appearance, the best places are found only by asking a japanese friend". So, mine was VERY good, the chef was a flamboyant improviser, and the skewers he sent along were totally amazing combinations (you don't even need to order, you just say how many more you want after a fixed starting set, and they send you whatever they have ready, in pairs or triplets, until you say stop). Great food experience, maybe a little expensive in the end, but the food came with a variety of appetizers and side dishes included, great roasted barley tea, and a beer, the whole for about 4,800yen (say, 30 euros). And I sat at a common oval table, with a number of other customers. I exchanged a few words with two girlfriends nearby who were outing together; no words but just a 'hello' with the odd couple in front of me, a middle-aged 'sararyman' in suit and tie, and a young girl all dressed up in a classy-sexy way and nicely decorated, quite evidently she was not his daughter!
After dinner, I went to check into a supermarket, just to get an idea of the kind of food and stuff you find typically in supermarkets (I had done this already in Tokyo Shibuya a couple of times, ending up in buying all kinds of strange stuff). In fact, you see on the shelves anything but strange food 8 times out of 10, only the meat cuts and some forms of noodles can be recognizable to our western eyes. The rest is incomprehensible bags or boxes, filled with awesome things that are supposed to be edible.... fun!! Well, I just bought a little cake to finish up the perfect food of the evening, since I didn't care to order the funny green-pink ice-cream-looking balls they were serving in the kushiage.
And tomorrow, wake up early for my last (self-assigned) photographic assignment!
Wednesday 23 July 2008
the Mount Fuji-san
Just coming out of the famous hotspring in the garden... I have strange feelings sometimes, a mix of romantic and gothic, for example thinking that I will probably never see this place again in my life takes me immediately to very obscure meanings, like facing death and the unknown...
However, yesterday I made another interesting encounter in the hot pool. A guy from Taiwan, on holiday with wife and kids, a teacher in an elementary school. So I took immediately the long-awaited occasion. I wanted to learn how do they teach writing to the little ones in chinese. You know, without an alphabet to spell out letters, but only thousands of symbols... for example, one can have the sound "tià" in many words, with many different meanings, and every time this same sound will be included in a differently written symbol. So, one has no correspondence between sounds and written representation in symbols... how the hell does one learn? only by memory, sign after sign? well, it turns out that to teach writing.... they start from the latin alphabet!! No way!!
Now, that's really funny and interesting, since the chinese (japanese etc.) language and writing has a completely different structure from ours. I always thought that such profound differences must reflect different structures of the brain... like we have words to express a sentence such as "being lazy like a lion sitting under the moon of august", but we cannot catch the meaning, if not by metaphor. In oriental languages such expressions have an immediate meaning, and relate to mental concepts. In fact, when you think about it, if one starts from the assumption that every human thnks more or less of the same concepts, one should prize the fact of someone being able to express such concepts in the most economical way. Therefore, languages requiring the smallest number of symbols should be the ones with better efficacity (albeit the structure of the language could become more and more cumbersome, until you reduce two just 0 and 1, and you must talk via computer programs...) But then, it looks like people must be able to express different concepts, in order to have developed such a radically different approach to the language. Which could be reflected, for example, in the very different approach to "philosophy" and "religion" (if we stick to these words) of the oriental mind.....
But let go the chinese. Today was a relaxing one, I had a nice day of sun and light mountain air. It started weird, though, with a boat trip over the lake Ashi. Now, the boat was arranged as an ancient galeon, with pirates and cannons and treasure chests (all plastic) scattered here and there, and a real guy dressed as a pirate Hook, going around to take pictures with the kids. The ship was a fake 3-mast cruiser, but then... a Union Jack was waving from the back post,... and ancient (fake) maps of England were hanging from the walls, together with.... a painting of Horatio Nelson! It turned out the ship was a (vague) remake of the 'Victory' vessel, and this was even its name :-)
OK, the rest of the day was less adventurous. I went up hill to about 1,100m, to see the smoke-pits on the slopes of Owakudani, where people boil eggs in the sulphuric water until they turn totally black, and eat them to get 7 years of prosperity. The view of mount Fuji from up there is splendid, like a postcard (indeed). Then I went to see a wonderful open-air museum of modern sculpture, with an entire pavilion dedicated to Picasso, and the Hakone National Museum, with beautiful ancient pottery dating back to centuries BC. I even went to eat wonderful sushi at the Inarizushi little rest', as advised by the Lonely planet. I am following the LP strictly on such things :) The national museum is located inside a beautiful park, with one ancient and one reconstructed tea house, and a nice japanese landscape, with (listen to this)..... a moss garden! Now, where else but in Japan would you find a perfectly cared for, and wet, and shady moss garden? LP is great, I am so glad I found the english edition.
The french guide of Le Routard, instead, is totally silly. It is completely french-minded, it lists and hints at everything you can find of french, here in Japan.... how about that? how provincial of the french... (as usual, they always think that anything happens just in France, and things eventually happening anywhere else always need to get compared to Paris etc. .... mmmm, I hate the french!)
For example, the open air museum above, they say it contains works by: Maillol, Rodin, Bourdelle, Saint-Phalle (what a name!), all french artists! Now, it turns out the museum merely hosts the “largest collection in the world” of Henry Moore (28 sculptures)!!! plus a large number of Giacometti, Medardo Rosso, Boccioni, Miro', Dali', one of the "globes" by Pomodoro, some Brancusi, a wide selection of less known german artists, many modern (and genial!) japanese.... and TWO (2!) works of Rodin! But all the guide talks about is French artists.
And the guide totally missed the National Museum and the moss garden, not even mentioned. Of course, there is no french stuff there, who should care???
However, they succeeded to include the 'Museum of Saint Exupery and the Little Prince' (!) and the 'Museum Lalique', dedicated to the famous french designer. No mention of course of the 'Venice Art Museum', with thousands of fine glasses! No wonder, it isn't french!
They missed even the meaning of Fuji-san (which you often hear, in the place of Fujiyama): they pretend it's like the japanese calling their preferred symbol 'the mr. Fuji', whilst 'san' is but another way of reading the kanji for 'yama', mountain, indeed without any relation with the honorary attribute 'san" that you give to respected people.
And they, the French, have such a disturbing attitude in writing about the japanese customs.... looks like they are describing some martians! This guide is a total failure. It even goes as far as saying that the manga comics are inspired by the french dark-movie characters!!! grrrrr!!!!
Mmmm..... Fortunately, I could end my day of long walks with a stretch along the little bits of the ancient Tokaido road, the one way that connected Tokyo to Kyoto with the famous 53 resting stations along the way, as depicted by Hiroshige. Some pieces of this road are conserved around Hakone, and restored to somewhat the original appearance. The narrow trail is lined by humongous cedar trees, of some 20mt height, that were planted to shelter the walker from the sun or the snow. A beautiful ending in the shadows of the evening, until well after the sunset. And right in the middle of the cedar tree forest, I found an elementary school, where some kids were practicing the kodo and other drum playing. I said hello to the few moms that were sitting there watching their sons and daughters playing, and could take a few nice photos of the young musicians.
Well, now it's time to pack for tomorrow. I will take a bus early morning, and get to Tokyo, from where I hope to find a fast train to Nikko. There I am supposed to go see what is called the "real heart and soul of Japan" (hadn't I seen that already in Kyoto and Nara... huh, let's go and see....)
However, yesterday I made another interesting encounter in the hot pool. A guy from Taiwan, on holiday with wife and kids, a teacher in an elementary school. So I took immediately the long-awaited occasion. I wanted to learn how do they teach writing to the little ones in chinese. You know, without an alphabet to spell out letters, but only thousands of symbols... for example, one can have the sound "tià" in many words, with many different meanings, and every time this same sound will be included in a differently written symbol. So, one has no correspondence between sounds and written representation in symbols... how the hell does one learn? only by memory, sign after sign? well, it turns out that to teach writing.... they start from the latin alphabet!! No way!!
Now, that's really funny and interesting, since the chinese (japanese etc.) language and writing has a completely different structure from ours. I always thought that such profound differences must reflect different structures of the brain... like we have words to express a sentence such as "being lazy like a lion sitting under the moon of august", but we cannot catch the meaning, if not by metaphor. In oriental languages such expressions have an immediate meaning, and relate to mental concepts. In fact, when you think about it, if one starts from the assumption that every human thnks more or less of the same concepts, one should prize the fact of someone being able to express such concepts in the most economical way. Therefore, languages requiring the smallest number of symbols should be the ones with better efficacity (albeit the structure of the language could become more and more cumbersome, until you reduce two just 0 and 1, and you must talk via computer programs...) But then, it looks like people must be able to express different concepts, in order to have developed such a radically different approach to the language. Which could be reflected, for example, in the very different approach to "philosophy" and "religion" (if we stick to these words) of the oriental mind.....
But let go the chinese. Today was a relaxing one, I had a nice day of sun and light mountain air. It started weird, though, with a boat trip over the lake Ashi. Now, the boat was arranged as an ancient galeon, with pirates and cannons and treasure chests (all plastic) scattered here and there, and a real guy dressed as a pirate Hook, going around to take pictures with the kids. The ship was a fake 3-mast cruiser, but then... a Union Jack was waving from the back post,... and ancient (fake) maps of England were hanging from the walls, together with.... a painting of Horatio Nelson! It turned out the ship was a (vague) remake of the 'Victory' vessel, and this was even its name :-)
OK, the rest of the day was less adventurous. I went up hill to about 1,100m, to see the smoke-pits on the slopes of Owakudani, where people boil eggs in the sulphuric water until they turn totally black, and eat them to get 7 years of prosperity. The view of mount Fuji from up there is splendid, like a postcard (indeed). Then I went to see a wonderful open-air museum of modern sculpture, with an entire pavilion dedicated to Picasso, and the Hakone National Museum, with beautiful ancient pottery dating back to centuries BC. I even went to eat wonderful sushi at the Inarizushi little rest', as advised by the Lonely planet. I am following the LP strictly on such things :) The national museum is located inside a beautiful park, with one ancient and one reconstructed tea house, and a nice japanese landscape, with (listen to this)..... a moss garden! Now, where else but in Japan would you find a perfectly cared for, and wet, and shady moss garden? LP is great, I am so glad I found the english edition.
The french guide of Le Routard, instead, is totally silly. It is completely french-minded, it lists and hints at everything you can find of french, here in Japan.... how about that? how provincial of the french... (as usual, they always think that anything happens just in France, and things eventually happening anywhere else always need to get compared to Paris etc. .... mmmm, I hate the french!)
For example, the open air museum above, they say it contains works by: Maillol, Rodin, Bourdelle, Saint-Phalle (what a name!), all french artists! Now, it turns out the museum merely hosts the “largest collection in the world” of Henry Moore (28 sculptures)!!! plus a large number of Giacometti, Medardo Rosso, Boccioni, Miro', Dali', one of the "globes" by Pomodoro, some Brancusi, a wide selection of less known german artists, many modern (and genial!) japanese.... and TWO (2!) works of Rodin! But all the guide talks about is French artists.
And the guide totally missed the National Museum and the moss garden, not even mentioned. Of course, there is no french stuff there, who should care???
However, they succeeded to include the 'Museum of Saint Exupery and the Little Prince' (!) and the 'Museum Lalique', dedicated to the famous french designer. No mention of course of the 'Venice Art Museum', with thousands of fine glasses! No wonder, it isn't french!
They missed even the meaning of Fuji-san (which you often hear, in the place of Fujiyama): they pretend it's like the japanese calling their preferred symbol 'the mr. Fuji', whilst 'san' is but another way of reading the kanji for 'yama', mountain, indeed without any relation with the honorary attribute 'san" that you give to respected people.
And they, the French, have such a disturbing attitude in writing about the japanese customs.... looks like they are describing some martians! This guide is a total failure. It even goes as far as saying that the manga comics are inspired by the french dark-movie characters!!! grrrrr!!!!
Mmmm..... Fortunately, I could end my day of long walks with a stretch along the little bits of the ancient Tokaido road, the one way that connected Tokyo to Kyoto with the famous 53 resting stations along the way, as depicted by Hiroshige. Some pieces of this road are conserved around Hakone, and restored to somewhat the original appearance. The narrow trail is lined by humongous cedar trees, of some 20mt height, that were planted to shelter the walker from the sun or the snow. A beautiful ending in the shadows of the evening, until well after the sunset. And right in the middle of the cedar tree forest, I found an elementary school, where some kids were practicing the kodo and other drum playing. I said hello to the few moms that were sitting there watching their sons and daughters playing, and could take a few nice photos of the young musicians.
Well, now it's time to pack for tomorrow. I will take a bus early morning, and get to Tokyo, from where I hope to find a fast train to Nikko. There I am supposed to go see what is called the "real heart and soul of Japan" (hadn't I seen that already in Kyoto and Nara... huh, let's go and see....)
Tuesday 22 July 2008
hotspring in hot summer
My friends, you're in for another late account of my second Japan experience. In many ways different from the first one (the experience, not the account). For example I feel more relaxed and happy about travelling on the road, by changing plans by the moment (the only schedule to respect is the reservation at the ryokans, that imperatively pretend you to be there no later than 6pm, otherwise they could not be able to serve you dinner..... on the other hand, in Japan at 6pm it is almost night, and most activities, temples, museums etc close at 5, so there is not much left to do...)
For example, today I had planned to leave early from Nara and go back to Kyoto to see some other stuff. But then I said, what the heck, isn't Nara the heart of ancient Japan? isn't it worth spending a few more hours here? So I headed for the older set of temples, which are located indeed outside the city. Dropped the luggage at the JR station lockers (what a fantastic custom we have lost, in all Europe, because of the fear of terrorism), and found my way with the bus to reach one complex of temples dating from 670 to about 1340 (with some more recent reconstructions, since temples are all made in wood and catch fire easily during the centuries). Some unbelievable statues of bronze Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, testifying the indian origins of japanese (and chinese, by that matter) buddhism (because of the indian-like styles of many statues). Even some unexpected surprise, such as traces of greek culture, like the decoration of some altar with sculpted vine leaves (likely,a trace of the north civilization of the Indo river overtaken by the hellenistic Alexander for quite some time).
I wanted to go also to another set of temples, where the oldest buddhist temple in Japan dating 607 is still standing tall, the oldest wood building in the world they say (it's true our architects in the ancient mediterranean basin, from Egyptians to Romans, built everything in bricks and marble...), with its 5-stories pagoda and again a treasure of art that one cannot find even in Kyoto (all too obvious, since Kyoto developed in full only a few centuries later). Interestingly, at the bus stop on the way back I made friends with a little girl that was waiting for the bus, together with her mum and the younger sister. I sold her an italian finger-in-the-cheek technology that she trusted enthusiastically, and won some nice photos as a payback. And on the train to Kyoto I made friends again with two old guys, in their 80s, the one more shy and courteous, the other more finely cultured (he knew lots of stuff and travelled with an old guide of Japan full of stitches and pages attached with scotch tape) very outgoing, probably also because of the Suntory whisky (albeit diluted with water) he was sipping from a can.
Everything is small in this country, or smaller. Cars (but some are big too), ceilings, chairs... when in the hotel I can't never find a pair of slippers that fit my feet. I imagine what could happen when some of those giant round-bearded mormons from Utah (I said mormons, not morons...) or some health-looking californian big-guy come visiting here, they won't even fit in the bed, let it go stuffing their knees under the table for dinner. Everything is small and cut to size, for example I am putting together a full collection of those little toothpaste tubes they give you for free in the hotels... gee, they are tiny!!
I am spending a fortune in these (small!) vending machines that you find at every corner to buy refreshments. Such machines are widespread, and way more frequent in the streets than the trash bins (totally unnecessary, on the other hand, since the japanese are by far the cleanest people on earth and they probably would rather swallow their waste, to keep the streets neat). They sell everything in these machines, from the obvious cigarettes and condoms, to drinks of 1,000 different kinds, including Suntory whisky diluted with water, to... replacement underwear! The busword is: Japan is an easy society, where the living runs smoothly (at least on the surface). Therefore, for just 120yen you can buy a can of Miiu lemon water, containing nothing less than microelements from the Muroto deep seawater: "Deep seawater is seawater that has settled at the bottom of the ocean having beome cold and heavy, and which spends about 2,000 years circulating the world's oceans". Cool, huh? (I wonder how did they estimated that figure of 2,000 years..... why not 4,000?)
So, after a longish travel (3hrs of shinkansen bullet train, 10' of blurbing slow odakyu local train, 50 minutes of bus winding uphill) I arrived in the beautiful mountain village of Hakone, at the slopes of the mount Fuji. Here at 800m altitude the night is fresh, even coldish. The Yugiriso ryokan is nothing special, a modern interpretation of the hostel, looking more like a low-class motel. But it has its "pluses", as I will tell later. Here the service is more basic, in any respects, the maids are kind but less careful, and are dressed more 'country-style' (well, japanese country-style :-) than the city geisha-look. The food is good but far from excellent, for example their kaiseki tonight (it's becoming a tradition in such ryokans) was quicker and also with some pre-confectioned food (I found a little piece of plastic wrap in the fish).
That's a little in the style of the lieu, Hakone is your classical popular holiday resort of Japan, only 1+half hours away from Tokyo, and as usual in such tourist traps, prices are high and quality gets lower (I pay just about 15 euros less than in Kyoto, for a far lesser quality location). But this place... has a hotspring!! In fact, this region is heavily volcanic (remember the old white cone of the Fuji?), and geysers, hotsprings, smoke-pots (?) are scattered everywhere. Hotspring pools (in japanese they are called osen) are very popular, and many hotel propose them. So, right before dinner I treated myself with a fantastic splash in the outdoor pool: a circle of rocks with a stone channel dripping slowly water from underground, at a temperature of about 57°C, strong smell of sulphur, and vapours coming from the surface of the water. All around a nice garden, with some pine and cedars, and bushes of hydrangea.
For example, today I had planned to leave early from Nara and go back to Kyoto to see some other stuff. But then I said, what the heck, isn't Nara the heart of ancient Japan? isn't it worth spending a few more hours here? So I headed for the older set of temples, which are located indeed outside the city. Dropped the luggage at the JR station lockers (what a fantastic custom we have lost, in all Europe, because of the fear of terrorism), and found my way with the bus to reach one complex of temples dating from 670 to about 1340 (with some more recent reconstructions, since temples are all made in wood and catch fire easily during the centuries). Some unbelievable statues of bronze Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, testifying the indian origins of japanese (and chinese, by that matter) buddhism (because of the indian-like styles of many statues). Even some unexpected surprise, such as traces of greek culture, like the decoration of some altar with sculpted vine leaves (likely,a trace of the north civilization of the Indo river overtaken by the hellenistic Alexander for quite some time).
I wanted to go also to another set of temples, where the oldest buddhist temple in Japan dating 607 is still standing tall, the oldest wood building in the world they say (it's true our architects in the ancient mediterranean basin, from Egyptians to Romans, built everything in bricks and marble...), with its 5-stories pagoda and again a treasure of art that one cannot find even in Kyoto (all too obvious, since Kyoto developed in full only a few centuries later). Interestingly, at the bus stop on the way back I made friends with a little girl that was waiting for the bus, together with her mum and the younger sister. I sold her an italian finger-in-the-cheek technology that she trusted enthusiastically, and won some nice photos as a payback. And on the train to Kyoto I made friends again with two old guys, in their 80s, the one more shy and courteous, the other more finely cultured (he knew lots of stuff and travelled with an old guide of Japan full of stitches and pages attached with scotch tape) very outgoing, probably also because of the Suntory whisky (albeit diluted with water) he was sipping from a can.
Everything is small in this country, or smaller. Cars (but some are big too), ceilings, chairs... when in the hotel I can't never find a pair of slippers that fit my feet. I imagine what could happen when some of those giant round-bearded mormons from Utah (I said mormons, not morons...) or some health-looking californian big-guy come visiting here, they won't even fit in the bed, let it go stuffing their knees under the table for dinner. Everything is small and cut to size, for example I am putting together a full collection of those little toothpaste tubes they give you for free in the hotels... gee, they are tiny!!
I am spending a fortune in these (small!) vending machines that you find at every corner to buy refreshments. Such machines are widespread, and way more frequent in the streets than the trash bins (totally unnecessary, on the other hand, since the japanese are by far the cleanest people on earth and they probably would rather swallow their waste, to keep the streets neat). They sell everything in these machines, from the obvious cigarettes and condoms, to drinks of 1,000 different kinds, including Suntory whisky diluted with water, to... replacement underwear! The busword is: Japan is an easy society, where the living runs smoothly (at least on the surface). Therefore, for just 120yen you can buy a can of Miiu lemon water, containing nothing less than microelements from the Muroto deep seawater: "Deep seawater is seawater that has settled at the bottom of the ocean having beome cold and heavy, and which spends about 2,000 years circulating the world's oceans". Cool, huh? (I wonder how did they estimated that figure of 2,000 years..... why not 4,000?)
So, after a longish travel (3hrs of shinkansen bullet train, 10' of blurbing slow odakyu local train, 50 minutes of bus winding uphill) I arrived in the beautiful mountain village of Hakone, at the slopes of the mount Fuji. Here at 800m altitude the night is fresh, even coldish. The Yugiriso ryokan is nothing special, a modern interpretation of the hostel, looking more like a low-class motel. But it has its "pluses", as I will tell later. Here the service is more basic, in any respects, the maids are kind but less careful, and are dressed more 'country-style' (well, japanese country-style :-) than the city geisha-look. The food is good but far from excellent, for example their kaiseki tonight (it's becoming a tradition in such ryokans) was quicker and also with some pre-confectioned food (I found a little piece of plastic wrap in the fish).
That's a little in the style of the lieu, Hakone is your classical popular holiday resort of Japan, only 1+half hours away from Tokyo, and as usual in such tourist traps, prices are high and quality gets lower (I pay just about 15 euros less than in Kyoto, for a far lesser quality location). But this place... has a hotspring!! In fact, this region is heavily volcanic (remember the old white cone of the Fuji?), and geysers, hotsprings, smoke-pots (?) are scattered everywhere. Hotspring pools (in japanese they are called osen) are very popular, and many hotel propose them. So, right before dinner I treated myself with a fantastic splash in the outdoor pool: a circle of rocks with a stone channel dripping slowly water from underground, at a temperature of about 57°C, strong smell of sulphur, and vapours coming from the surface of the water. All around a nice garden, with some pine and cedars, and bushes of hydrangea.
night dreams from orient
I am unable to find an internet place in the faraway countries I am visiting. Therefore, the connection is dropping out, and I can't read what you people eventually answered to my spy story suggestion... Yesterday's post was kind of broken by the difficulties of typing with the japanese keyboard (NOTE: I clean'd it up before re-posting :) Moreover on a ugly windows pc which has some settings different from apple. In fact, there was one piece missing, where the yose-nabe meal was described. Not much to remember, since it was ok but not as exciting as the kaiseki. It was basically a kind of fondue bourguignonne, with everything inside the boiling pot. However, the cooking fluid is a broth and, here is the smart idea of the japanese, they serve you another cuplet where to pour the same broth cold: so you can dip the stuff you pick from the boiling pot and cool it to eat without danger :)
Tonight I am in Nara, in another wonderful hostel. This ryokan is even more fantastic than the other, if you fancy to take a look at a map of Nara and try to see where the Kankaso ryokan is located. Right in the middle of the Nara park, among the most magnificent temples of the whole Japan! Deers all around, they are completely tamed and familiar with the humans, to the point that one came to me and tried to bite my Lonely planet guide, stamping his teeths in the paper...
The hotel has a wonderful japanese garden that I can see from my window, I am a being treated regally. For dinner another kaiseki, and at this point I am so expert that I can even judge. The quality is still at the top, but there are a little few details here and there that make the one in Kyoto superior, as far as the care and attention to the serving is concerned. And after such a dinner, I coud allow me another walk after night, to take some photos of the Todai-ji temple illuminated and other stuff around (they do such night illumination in summer, and the july 31 there is a famous peace fest celebration, the Nara To-an (if I remember well the spelling), for which all the hills of the large park, several km by each side, are illuminated with a dense network of tealights placed on the grass (very romantic, as the whole atmosphere around Nara is, provided only some deer does not try to eat the tealight).
The day of visit was long and hot, one wonderful temple after the other but not as terrible as yesterday in Kyoto, after I adopted the local customs to beat the sun: walk aorund with a towel to dry your sweat and an open umbrella over your head. I was the local hit, sporting my Evening Standard blue cover!! It also helped the fact that a good part of the path developed under a beautiful woodland, with ancient trees as tall as 15 or 20 metres.
I am now sitting in the ryokan, on the tatami and dressed in the light cotton yukata, looking a faraway moon, the smell of a thousand flowers in the warm summer night...
Tonight I am in Nara, in another wonderful hostel. This ryokan is even more fantastic than the other, if you fancy to take a look at a map of Nara and try to see where the Kankaso ryokan is located. Right in the middle of the Nara park, among the most magnificent temples of the whole Japan! Deers all around, they are completely tamed and familiar with the humans, to the point that one came to me and tried to bite my Lonely planet guide, stamping his teeths in the paper...
The hotel has a wonderful japanese garden that I can see from my window, I am a being treated regally. For dinner another kaiseki, and at this point I am so expert that I can even judge. The quality is still at the top, but there are a little few details here and there that make the one in Kyoto superior, as far as the care and attention to the serving is concerned. And after such a dinner, I coud allow me another walk after night, to take some photos of the Todai-ji temple illuminated and other stuff around (they do such night illumination in summer, and the july 31 there is a famous peace fest celebration, the Nara To-an (if I remember well the spelling), for which all the hills of the large park, several km by each side, are illuminated with a dense network of tealights placed on the grass (very romantic, as the whole atmosphere around Nara is, provided only some deer does not try to eat the tealight).
The day of visit was long and hot, one wonderful temple after the other but not as terrible as yesterday in Kyoto, after I adopted the local customs to beat the sun: walk aorund with a towel to dry your sweat and an open umbrella over your head. I was the local hit, sporting my Evening Standard blue cover!! It also helped the fact that a good part of the path developed under a beautiful woodland, with ancient trees as tall as 15 or 20 metres.
I am now sitting in the ryokan, on the tatami and dressed in the light cotton yukata, looking a faraway moon, the smell of a thousand flowers in the warm summer night...
Saturday 19 July 2008
the spy who loved me
Today it was great, very hot and humid as usual, but I managed. I had my tourist day in Kyoto and went up and down temples, shrines and pagodas, carrying along my 4kg of photographic materials (2 metal cameras, 2 lenses old-style, all brass and glass, a flash unit with heavy old-fashion AA batteries) etc. I spent some good money for presents to take home, and for myself I mostly went for very chic pottery. I also got an original little cup from the Meji era, beautiful piece with painted fishes swimming on a sea bottom. Heavy, again. In the afternoon, after going home (ryokan) for an hour of relax, I went out to the shopping center of Kyoto (which quite funnily resembles an arabic souk, only with much higher ceiling, more lights, cleaner and less smelly, but the idea is there) and had to buy another travel uffle bag, to carry all that stuff. Heaaaavy, under the suuuun.
Luckily, immediately after she spotted me, the maid came up to my room with refreshments and cold barley tea (its called mizu-cha, its not real tea, they drink it coldish in summer only). Mmmm... service here is just spectacular. Listen what my Lonelyplanet guide says about my ryokan: "Top-end Motonago ryokan may have the best location of any ryokan in the city, and it hits all the right notes for a ryokan in this class: classic japanese decor, friendly service, nice bathtubs and a few small gardens." And I picked it just by chance :))
Now I must ask the collaboration of you, guys, for a spying service. Yesterday I was getting bored while on the Shinkansen (which sounds very close to "chimpanzee") train to Kyoto. So I started peeking at the e-mail my neighbor was exchanging. It was mostly in japanese, but few parts and mails were in english. They are collaborating with some Massimo Sisti, in Spain. The mail address of this mr. Sisti is at qualicaps.es . While italian looking, Sisti is not a sicilian name, therefore I would exclude mafia connections.
They were talking about a project to make some capsules. The spanish was telling that they were encountering some difficulties, and the main component of Hydrea (?) is "hidrofilus". He could have meant "hydrophile", since he was later saying that the problems were the "excessive brittleness of the capsules", and that they had to "increase humidity to the maximum". They were talking about capsules with PEG (it could be poly-ethylene glycole, a soft plastic semi-transparent). At some point, the japanese correspondent seemed very angry, and he was asking about sending the correct artwork for the capsules. He went reading a previous mail from mr. Sisti, where the latter was announcing that Synthon was going to visit them on july 12. And the japanese was very stiff in asking whether they had any informations about Synthon people.
Now, it could be just daily business, I understand that. But. But....
What if they were talking about bombs? Could capsules be explosives? They were too fragile and risk premature failure? Were they planning some terrorist attack on a ship, this could be the meaning of "increase humidity"?
Or maybe they are illegally trading alcohol. PEG could be for example "press-extracted grape", to mean "wine" :)) and "increase humidity" could mean to add some water to dilute the wine, and make more illegal money out of their business... and capsules could just be bottles? And Synthon could be a code name for the police?
ok, I understand you could not believe too much in conspiracy theories, but when one is tired and sleepy, and you find some interesting neighbor.... wouldn't you friends help me with some internet search?
and, needless to say, you keep all this under the maximum secrecy....
Luckily, immediately after she spotted me, the maid came up to my room with refreshments and cold barley tea (its called mizu-cha, its not real tea, they drink it coldish in summer only). Mmmm... service here is just spectacular. Listen what my Lonelyplanet guide says about my ryokan: "Top-end Motonago ryokan may have the best location of any ryokan in the city, and it hits all the right notes for a ryokan in this class: classic japanese decor, friendly service, nice bathtubs and a few small gardens." And I picked it just by chance :))
Now I must ask the collaboration of you, guys, for a spying service. Yesterday I was getting bored while on the Shinkansen (which sounds very close to "chimpanzee") train to Kyoto. So I started peeking at the e-mail my neighbor was exchanging. It was mostly in japanese, but few parts and mails were in english. They are collaborating with some Massimo Sisti, in Spain. The mail address of this mr. Sisti is at qualicaps.es . While italian looking, Sisti is not a sicilian name, therefore I would exclude mafia connections.
They were talking about a project to make some capsules. The spanish was telling that they were encountering some difficulties, and the main component of Hydrea (?) is "hidrofilus". He could have meant "hydrophile", since he was later saying that the problems were the "excessive brittleness of the capsules", and that they had to "increase humidity to the maximum". They were talking about capsules with PEG (it could be poly-ethylene glycole, a soft plastic semi-transparent). At some point, the japanese correspondent seemed very angry, and he was asking about sending the correct artwork for the capsules. He went reading a previous mail from mr. Sisti, where the latter was announcing that Synthon was going to visit them on july 12. And the japanese was very stiff in asking whether they had any informations about Synthon people.
Now, it could be just daily business, I understand that. But. But....
What if they were talking about bombs? Could capsules be explosives? They were too fragile and risk premature failure? Were they planning some terrorist attack on a ship, this could be the meaning of "increase humidity"?
Or maybe they are illegally trading alcohol. PEG could be for example "press-extracted grape", to mean "wine" :)) and "increase humidity" could mean to add some water to dilute the wine, and make more illegal money out of their business... and capsules could just be bottles? And Synthon could be a code name for the police?
ok, I understand you could not believe too much in conspiracy theories, but when one is tired and sleepy, and you find some interesting neighbor.... wouldn't you friends help me with some internet search?
and, needless to say, you keep all this under the maximum secrecy....
Friday 18 July 2008
kyoto
I am in the splendid ryokan Motonago, sitting in the common desk trying to push buttons on this funny japanese keyboard. I just had an ofuro, and am still sweating like a squeezed sponge. in fact, this is what you do all day in this weather, it is really terrible, humid and hot.... it takes you away all forces and it is difficult to be motivated to do anything but sit in some place with air conditioning, be it a bar or a shopping place. The ryokan atmosphere is just great, it is like living in the past, in that “Geisha” movie. In fact, i went out for a very short walk in Gion after dinner, and spotted 2 or 3 nice young girls in complete geisha attire, and behavior. It was a sweet sight, to see the girls very tired, clearly intended to go home after a night of working in some ultrachic restaurant entertaining expensive customers, but still trying to keep their status.
A noisy american-english couple just entered the ryokan, with the blond woman chatting rumorously, and both clearly drunk! The owner, an old lady about 140 years old, is sending awful looks all around, she ould drill a hole in the wall!
Tonight in the ryokan a japanese woman in kimono served me the most fantastic kaiseki, the formal japanese dinner that you can have only at selected restaurant (quite intimidating places for the gaijin, foreigners - however, given the conditions of this blonde here, clearly foreigners do not find intimidating the itzakaya or the pubs). It was a 13-course meal! Of course, small courses, but in the end it was such a tourbillon, such a maelstrom, such a tsunami of flavors, smell, colour, changing plates and porcelain, that my eyes were even more amazed than the tongue :) travelling in ryokans is just a fantastic experience. I have my japanese style room, with gliding doors and windows, the kimono-dressed woman enters any minute to check if I need something, while absent she prepared my bedroom and left an origami paper heron on my pillow.
A noisy american-english couple just entered the ryokan, with the blond woman chatting rumorously, and both clearly drunk! The owner, an old lady about 140 years old, is sending awful looks all around, she ould drill a hole in the wall!
Tonight in the ryokan a japanese woman in kimono served me the most fantastic kaiseki, the formal japanese dinner that you can have only at selected restaurant (quite intimidating places for the gaijin, foreigners - however, given the conditions of this blonde here, clearly foreigners do not find intimidating the itzakaya or the pubs). It was a 13-course meal! Of course, small courses, but in the end it was such a tourbillon, such a maelstrom, such a tsunami of flavors, smell, colour, changing plates and porcelain, that my eyes were even more amazed than the tongue :) travelling in ryokans is just a fantastic experience. I have my japanese style room, with gliding doors and windows, the kimono-dressed woman enters any minute to check if I need something, while absent she prepared my bedroom and left an origami paper heron on my pillow.
pachinko king
yesterday night I was quite tired for the long day, and today it was quite the same... we had a laboratory meeting from 2pm to 6pm, including 2 long talks (about Brownian motors... mmhhh...). Therefore, yesterday I went just for a basic dinner in a pub, where I had a too sweet white wine and a good sake. At that point, it was well after 10, I could not go to sleep since I felt a little stuffed. After going for the Bic Camera superstore, which closed at 10.30 (f**k), I passed in front of one of those humongous Pachinko game halls. Enter? Enter.
My first attempt was with the mechanical grip, 100Y each try, trying to fish some rag puppet. I was aiming at a little black cat with a crossed eye. Tried 4 or 5 times, then realized it was not the right moment...
So I went inside, and spent quite a long time watching people play the last cry from Nintendo, that is Tekken 6. It is basically a fighting game, some kind of electronic Kung-fu, the human player against computer characters. Leo is a nice-looking character who always wins over Feng Wei (supposedly chinese but with facial traits and a dress that made him look closer to a black ugly spanish pirate). One of the guys kept playing female roles, over and over, I thought he might have had some identity trouble. His favourite character was the sweet Lili, a slender blondie wearing a pink corset, black fishnets and pink sneakers (funny combination), she won against Anna, a chinese dressed in the typical chinese dress (that's how you could guess she was chinese), and against Julia, some indian-american looking squaw with long braids and prominent tits.
Then I started peeking people who played SpinFever, a very simple money-eating game. Basically, you get the equivalent of some money in tokens (I guess it's about 200 for that money). Then you throw your tokens in the machine by two slits, tryin to let them fall in a good position. There are three "floors", and you drop your token on the upper one. Tokens slowly accumulate, and fall down the three stages, and eventually they fall into a hole, and you "win" them. Of course, the whole game is designed such that at each run you get back much less tokens than you put in. However, I got completely addicted, and for just 1,000Y I had almost one hour of fun, before losing my last token.
Around midnight I got out, eventually, and since I had some change left in my pockets, decided to give it a try again with the rag-cat. I really wanted to get it. However, despite all my attempts, the cat is still asleep in its glass box.
Today was again pretty dense. However, for a change, at lunch break we (three) went for a little sushi-ya place. Holy cowwww. One can't imagine WHAT sushi did I had for the ridiculous amount of 1,400Y (about £8, just unbelievable!). For much less and of quite lower quality, I paid almost five times more in London. And again sushi in the evening, after the long lab meeting, because of some kind of farewell-and-welcome party. Plus some very good japanese beer (which was called "The hops", and indeed the taste was vaguely close to our flemish-belgian beers). Plus the local McDonald specialty, the famous Chicken-shaku-shaku. Now, why McDo doesn't sell this stuff in Europe? This is a medium-sized battered chicken cutlet, kept warm in a paper-plastic bag. It comes with a small box containing hot peppered cheese dry powder. You open the chicken bag, pour the cheese powder inside, and then shake-shake it (guess where the name comes from?). It's filthy piggish delicious :)) Obviously tonight I didn't had dinner anymore. And also felt a little out of place. So I went just to try out some night photos with the Nikon, and then back here.
Some friend made harsh comments because I wrote in the previous mail the thing about people with cranky legs... Now, when looking more carefully, one easily can notice that this ‘defect’ is quite widespread among older people, typically around and above their 40s, and much less frequent in the youngsters. So, my guess is that it must be something having to do with nutrition. Japanese had a very restricted diet until the war, and right after the wartime, mostly based on seafood, fish and algae. Red meat as a general food habit was introduced only in the beginning of the XX century and was not certainly available to the middle or lower class people. And to confirm that, it appears that since the 60s, the japanese have increased their average height by 15cm!! this is quite amazing.... it's just because of vitamines and yoghurt?
Also their sex life must have been challenged... because of those pink corsets, black fishnet stockings, pink sneakers etc. In fact, one of the most sought-after articles in those trash-selling stores around Shibuya, are such boxes with fake dresses, to make one look like a schoolgirl, or a airline hostess, or a hotel maid etc... I spotted several guys browsing across the boxes, and was thinking whether they were looking for a "present" to their girlfriend, or they wanted to wear it themselves!!! However, this proves that even the japanese, who did not have any christian, sexually-repressing education, can become true perverts ;)
My first attempt was with the mechanical grip, 100Y each try, trying to fish some rag puppet. I was aiming at a little black cat with a crossed eye. Tried 4 or 5 times, then realized it was not the right moment...
So I went inside, and spent quite a long time watching people play the last cry from Nintendo, that is Tekken 6. It is basically a fighting game, some kind of electronic Kung-fu, the human player against computer characters. Leo is a nice-looking character who always wins over Feng Wei (supposedly chinese but with facial traits and a dress that made him look closer to a black ugly spanish pirate). One of the guys kept playing female roles, over and over, I thought he might have had some identity trouble. His favourite character was the sweet Lili, a slender blondie wearing a pink corset, black fishnets and pink sneakers (funny combination), she won against Anna, a chinese dressed in the typical chinese dress (that's how you could guess she was chinese), and against Julia, some indian-american looking squaw with long braids and prominent tits.
Then I started peeking people who played SpinFever, a very simple money-eating game. Basically, you get the equivalent of some money in tokens (I guess it's about 200 for that money). Then you throw your tokens in the machine by two slits, tryin to let them fall in a good position. There are three "floors", and you drop your token on the upper one. Tokens slowly accumulate, and fall down the three stages, and eventually they fall into a hole, and you "win" them. Of course, the whole game is designed such that at each run you get back much less tokens than you put in. However, I got completely addicted, and for just 1,000Y I had almost one hour of fun, before losing my last token.
Around midnight I got out, eventually, and since I had some change left in my pockets, decided to give it a try again with the rag-cat. I really wanted to get it. However, despite all my attempts, the cat is still asleep in its glass box.
Today was again pretty dense. However, for a change, at lunch break we (three) went for a little sushi-ya place. Holy cowwww. One can't imagine WHAT sushi did I had for the ridiculous amount of 1,400Y (about £8, just unbelievable!). For much less and of quite lower quality, I paid almost five times more in London. And again sushi in the evening, after the long lab meeting, because of some kind of farewell-and-welcome party. Plus some very good japanese beer (which was called "The hops", and indeed the taste was vaguely close to our flemish-belgian beers). Plus the local McDonald specialty, the famous Chicken-shaku-shaku. Now, why McDo doesn't sell this stuff in Europe? This is a medium-sized battered chicken cutlet, kept warm in a paper-plastic bag. It comes with a small box containing hot peppered cheese dry powder. You open the chicken bag, pour the cheese powder inside, and then shake-shake it (guess where the name comes from?). It's filthy piggish delicious :)) Obviously tonight I didn't had dinner anymore. And also felt a little out of place. So I went just to try out some night photos with the Nikon, and then back here.
Some friend made harsh comments because I wrote in the previous mail the thing about people with cranky legs... Now, when looking more carefully, one easily can notice that this ‘defect’ is quite widespread among older people, typically around and above their 40s, and much less frequent in the youngsters. So, my guess is that it must be something having to do with nutrition. Japanese had a very restricted diet until the war, and right after the wartime, mostly based on seafood, fish and algae. Red meat as a general food habit was introduced only in the beginning of the XX century and was not certainly available to the middle or lower class people. And to confirm that, it appears that since the 60s, the japanese have increased their average height by 15cm!! this is quite amazing.... it's just because of vitamines and yoghurt?
Also their sex life must have been challenged... because of those pink corsets, black fishnet stockings, pink sneakers etc. In fact, one of the most sought-after articles in those trash-selling stores around Shibuya, are such boxes with fake dresses, to make one look like a schoolgirl, or a airline hostess, or a hotel maid etc... I spotted several guys browsing across the boxes, and was thinking whether they were looking for a "present" to their girlfriend, or they wanted to wear it themselves!!! However, this proves that even the japanese, who did not have any christian, sexually-repressing education, can become true perverts ;)
Thursday 17 July 2008
the mostly honorable professor Cleri-sensei
small news since the last one, the japanese working schedule is super-tight I don't even have time to go to pee..... Think that I have been meeting people and talking about 12 different subjects at least, and visiting laboratories almost without interruption. And, my local host had meetings scheduled for 8 and 9 (pm, of course!). Did you know why in Japan they don't use the daylight saving time? It seems that it is considered impolite to go home from work before sunset, and in fact no one leaves. In summer that could mean that people have to be at work until 7 or so.... therefore, this seems to be the actual reason why DST never made it to Japan!
Today I got another free meal, honorable professor Fujita-sensei took me to the Italian reastaurant on the campus (in a short break, then he had to rush to another meeting). The restaurant was good, in the end I must admit japanese have some good idea of what italian pasta looks like. Only problem, to make it even more italian, they put an horrendous quantity of garlic. This is what foreigners usually think about italian cooking, just add some pomodoro sauce and garlic, it will look enough italian :)) this one however was quite good.
In fact, yesterday I went for some japanese bbq grill around 9pm, since I was working on my presentation, to make it more appropriate to the audience (I did have no idea of what kind of people I would have met, except for a couple of contacts I had before). So I had to work late night, and early morning, to cover some other subject of closer interest. Despite that, some 2 or 3 people fell clearly asleep in the middle of the lecture, but woke up suddenly because of my strong italian accent. The lecture was good, and I received unexpectedly a complimentary check of 32,000 Y (it's about 200 euros), a parchment (fake) with an exhalting and joyful bi-lingual declaration of interest, and a gold (fake) medal of honor from the highly appreciative japanese people.
The labs I visited and the people I talked to are very good (in fact, some are extraordinary, but I will understate as usual). I threw my bunch of good ideas here and there, and apparently all the people I spoke to think I am some kind of genius. In fact, this only means that they are too faraway from the stuff I do, so I can sell quite obvious things as if they were pure gold. (Now I am thinking that maybe that's why they gave me the fake gold medal....) Some scientific collaboration is in order. I think they are subtly suggesting that I could come to Japan to work with them for some time, but they go by 2 years minimum sentence, and I could not like too much to be away for such a long time.
Despite all, Japan is great, food is amazing, and lots of nice-looking japanese girls all around. I have a friend of mine who despises me all the time, since I tend to appreciate a lot the oriental (chinese, japanese) woman type, while he thinks they are just ugly and have cranky legs. I think some of them are just fine, instead, and most of them have such an innate grace and elegance that is wonderfully captivating. Their traits can easily be the sweetest you'll ever see, maybe it is the special cut of their eyes, and their dark-black colour, that can be so enticing... Differently from what we see in Europe, most women here dress in a very neat and elegant way, and appear to shun from the kind of rag-doll dress very popular today. Even when you see them dressed as some improbable manga character, roaming in the general stores and bars around crowded Shibuya, they still retain a foreign and mysterious charme, that escapes many european women these days. While I was walking at night among all such a very young population, sprouting flashy girls in fancy dresses (among the under 20s, it is very popular these days to use lots of lace, wide ribbons, short flimsy dresses, giving a girly-dolly-like appearance), I was happy, and so I started smiling and smiling. And I still smile.
Today I got another free meal, honorable professor Fujita-sensei took me to the Italian reastaurant on the campus (in a short break, then he had to rush to another meeting). The restaurant was good, in the end I must admit japanese have some good idea of what italian pasta looks like. Only problem, to make it even more italian, they put an horrendous quantity of garlic. This is what foreigners usually think about italian cooking, just add some pomodoro sauce and garlic, it will look enough italian :)) this one however was quite good.
In fact, yesterday I went for some japanese bbq grill around 9pm, since I was working on my presentation, to make it more appropriate to the audience (I did have no idea of what kind of people I would have met, except for a couple of contacts I had before). So I had to work late night, and early morning, to cover some other subject of closer interest. Despite that, some 2 or 3 people fell clearly asleep in the middle of the lecture, but woke up suddenly because of my strong italian accent. The lecture was good, and I received unexpectedly a complimentary check of 32,000 Y (it's about 200 euros), a parchment (fake) with an exhalting and joyful bi-lingual declaration of interest, and a gold (fake) medal of honor from the highly appreciative japanese people.
The labs I visited and the people I talked to are very good (in fact, some are extraordinary, but I will understate as usual). I threw my bunch of good ideas here and there, and apparently all the people I spoke to think I am some kind of genius. In fact, this only means that they are too faraway from the stuff I do, so I can sell quite obvious things as if they were pure gold. (Now I am thinking that maybe that's why they gave me the fake gold medal....) Some scientific collaboration is in order. I think they are subtly suggesting that I could come to Japan to work with them for some time, but they go by 2 years minimum sentence, and I could not like too much to be away for such a long time.
Despite all, Japan is great, food is amazing, and lots of nice-looking japanese girls all around. I have a friend of mine who despises me all the time, since I tend to appreciate a lot the oriental (chinese, japanese) woman type, while he thinks they are just ugly and have cranky legs. I think some of them are just fine, instead, and most of them have such an innate grace and elegance that is wonderfully captivating. Their traits can easily be the sweetest you'll ever see, maybe it is the special cut of their eyes, and their dark-black colour, that can be so enticing... Differently from what we see in Europe, most women here dress in a very neat and elegant way, and appear to shun from the kind of rag-doll dress very popular today. Even when you see them dressed as some improbable manga character, roaming in the general stores and bars around crowded Shibuya, they still retain a foreign and mysterious charme, that escapes many european women these days. While I was walking at night among all such a very young population, sprouting flashy girls in fancy dresses (among the under 20s, it is very popular these days to use lots of lace, wide ribbons, short flimsy dresses, giving a girly-dolly-like appearance), I was happy, and so I started smiling and smiling. And I still smile.
Wednesday 16 July 2008
the Japanese
I had one of the funniest nights in my life :)
I went to this little pub-restaurant in Shibuya, very close to my hotel, mostly attracted by the external appearance, a sort of straw hut with a stone paved entrance and a basement of pebbles with water running around (very very japanese). In fact, it was an Izakaya, namely, a sake house, which serves small foods like "tapas", with a wide selection of alcohols, notably a long list of sakes, but also beer and whisky etc.
So, I started with a beer and a couple of things (mmmmm...... some of the best food I ever tasted, at least among japanese food, but I can say it rivalled with many other meals I remember). Then two guys sat next to me, and started eating some strange meat, and drinking sake. So I went for sake too, and a few more yakitoris. Then I got curious. Knowing how shy are the japanese, I approached, and asked what kind of meat were they having etc. They got immediately very friendly, and we started talking and eating (and drinking !!!) together. I talked also about my travel, and made some issues about Japan, and one of the guys went about wabi-sabi. So I showed them my photos on their cell phones, and the discussion got longer and longer. In the end, after a vast number of sake rounds, one of the two dubbed me as a "wabi-sabi master" and he said that I knew about Japan more than many japanese, which made me very happy :)) and of course we talked about girls, and women, and wives; and soccer, the pope, St Peters, Rome, Venice, and the nexcoming wedding of one of them, and the honeymoon his wife was dreaming about (guess what?!?!? Venice ;)
we all went ot the bathroom, since one of the guys found that it was very much wabi-sabi (indeed, it was...), and we ended up talking about WWII, and similarities between japanese and italians (there are some, indeed).
The very nice thing was that, when we jumped up to get the check, one of the two, Motonago, wanted to pay the whole bill, for everybody! it turned out he had won a large sum with pachinko that same afternoon, and decided to spend all the money in drinking :)) too much fun, he was the unmarried one, he has a girlfriend who lives in Russia on the coast facing Japan, 2 hours away from Tokyo.
So, in the end, I got two new friends (engineers in a small construction firm, where the boss is apparently poorer that the engineers working, I advised them to quit, at the first good chance), a free (fantastic) meal, and was able to make it to midnight, so the jet-lag is partially killed.
I went to this little pub-restaurant in Shibuya, very close to my hotel, mostly attracted by the external appearance, a sort of straw hut with a stone paved entrance and a basement of pebbles with water running around (very very japanese). In fact, it was an Izakaya, namely, a sake house, which serves small foods like "tapas", with a wide selection of alcohols, notably a long list of sakes, but also beer and whisky etc.
So, I started with a beer and a couple of things (mmmmm...... some of the best food I ever tasted, at least among japanese food, but I can say it rivalled with many other meals I remember). Then two guys sat next to me, and started eating some strange meat, and drinking sake. So I went for sake too, and a few more yakitoris. Then I got curious. Knowing how shy are the japanese, I approached, and asked what kind of meat were they having etc. They got immediately very friendly, and we started talking and eating (and drinking !!!) together. I talked also about my travel, and made some issues about Japan, and one of the guys went about wabi-sabi. So I showed them my photos on their cell phones, and the discussion got longer and longer. In the end, after a vast number of sake rounds, one of the two dubbed me as a "wabi-sabi master" and he said that I knew about Japan more than many japanese, which made me very happy :)) and of course we talked about girls, and women, and wives; and soccer, the pope, St Peters, Rome, Venice, and the nexcoming wedding of one of them, and the honeymoon his wife was dreaming about (guess what?!?!? Venice ;)
we all went ot the bathroom, since one of the guys found that it was very much wabi-sabi (indeed, it was...), and we ended up talking about WWII, and similarities between japanese and italians (there are some, indeed).
The very nice thing was that, when we jumped up to get the check, one of the two, Motonago, wanted to pay the whole bill, for everybody! it turned out he had won a large sum with pachinko that same afternoon, and decided to spend all the money in drinking :)) too much fun, he was the unmarried one, he has a girlfriend who lives in Russia on the coast facing Japan, 2 hours away from Tokyo.
So, in the end, I got two new friends (engineers in a small construction firm, where the boss is apparently poorer that the engineers working, I advised them to quit, at the first good chance), a free (fantastic) meal, and was able to make it to midnight, so the jet-lag is partially killed.
Tuesday 15 July 2008
hi fro Japan
Yokoso Japan!!
Great! I am settled in Tokyo, Shibuya. Comfy place, and I have a washing machine and dryer, and even a small kitchenette. Clothes' troubles are over, Fabrizio the FrenchMaid (or Lisetta, for those who know) can do all her chores even here in faraway Japan.
I am finally off the job, and these few weeks will be just pure vacation, traveling around in the old Kansai, the heart of ancient Japan.
Just had a little walk around the neighborhood, but it's steamy hot and cloudy today, so it's definitely not the good season to be here ;) lots of youngsters, the average age of people in the street is around 18. And Tokyo is even more futuristic than I remembered, just from a little 4 years ago. Boy, come here to see what our cities will look like in maybe 20 years from now? (not Rome, and sure enough not Todi :)) However, it's very nice to see that the side alleys still look like outdated places, it's enough to step aside of the main streets to find yourself in a kind of little village, with fruit shops, barber, all kind of repairmen, little girls helping out their mum to sprinkle the grass, men chatting noisily on the door of a bar, etc.
Here, in this famous hotel-stay which costs me about 9400 yen/day breakfast included, I have free broadband cable connection, so I can read and write my horrendously long e-mails, and can even make Skype calls.
I will take a shower, then go out for some dinner and finally go (strangely) to sleep.... which will seem quite odd, but will try to force myself into believing that it should be really nighttime...
Great! I am settled in Tokyo, Shibuya. Comfy place, and I have a washing machine and dryer, and even a small kitchenette. Clothes' troubles are over, Fabrizio the FrenchMaid (or Lisetta, for those who know) can do all her chores even here in faraway Japan.
I am finally off the job, and these few weeks will be just pure vacation, traveling around in the old Kansai, the heart of ancient Japan.
Just had a little walk around the neighborhood, but it's steamy hot and cloudy today, so it's definitely not the good season to be here ;) lots of youngsters, the average age of people in the street is around 18. And Tokyo is even more futuristic than I remembered, just from a little 4 years ago. Boy, come here to see what our cities will look like in maybe 20 years from now? (not Rome, and sure enough not Todi :)) However, it's very nice to see that the side alleys still look like outdated places, it's enough to step aside of the main streets to find yourself in a kind of little village, with fruit shops, barber, all kind of repairmen, little girls helping out their mum to sprinkle the grass, men chatting noisily on the door of a bar, etc.
Here, in this famous hotel-stay which costs me about 9400 yen/day breakfast included, I have free broadband cable connection, so I can read and write my horrendously long e-mails, and can even make Skype calls.
I will take a shower, then go out for some dinner and finally go (strangely) to sleep.... which will seem quite odd, but will try to force myself into believing that it should be really nighttime...
Saturday 12 July 2008
in retrospect
I thought it could have been fun to have a blog where friends could follow (and comment?) my travel adventures in Japan. so I eventually started it. in retrospect.
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