Japan Reference
Thursday, 22. November 2007, 23:32:15
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Geibi Gorge. A tranquil delight. Get punted up a gorgeous gorge on a flat bottomed boat.
Lat: 38°59'17.92"N Long: 141°15'19.79"E (aprox, awaiting better rez on Google Earth)
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Yamadera. 1100 steps up a wooded hillside past many nestling temples. Stunning view at the top. Also some vending machines so you can have a sit down and a drink.
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Star Plaza Hotel, Ikebukuro. Tokyo Hotel picked almost entirely at random, now with instant nostalgia value. Well, for me, anyway. Nearby Ikebukuro Station is fairly bonkers, and a good place to go to get a rather full-on reminder of quite how many people share the planet with you.
- Latitude: 38°20'30.73"N, Longitude 141° 1'17.00"E. Good dog walking country in the woods around this location, which is the base of the local park attendant, and also site of some public toilets. Mister Park will give you traditional local greeting if you say hello. (Rough Guide to Japan please note - well equipped with toilet paper, like every public facility I went into whilst over there. No need to pack four rolls of Andrex, then...)
- Zao mountain range. Right at the top of a lot of toll roads you find Okama Lake, which looks like it belongs in a certain James Bond film.
- Taking time out from Nintendo browsing in Akihabara, Tokyo, I really enjoyed the cramped stalls of the Tokyo Radio Depato. More radio components than you can shake a telescopic aerial at, in a space not designed for swinging said aerial around.
- Kakunodate. Several Samurai houses in their own quarter in this small town. Kakunodate was also home to one of the most memorable moments of my holiday, as I ventured out from the hotel at about quarter to seven, into the dark and rain, confident I would find a restaurant, or, if all else failed, a 7-11 for noodles in a pot. I could smell the restaurants, but couldn't understand the menus, and couldn't find a convenience store. Getting incrasingly wet, I had to admit defeat, and returned to the hotel restaurant for sticky rice and beef.
- Tokyo City View. Towering above the Roppongi Hills development is the Mori Tower, and the city view observation deck is at the top.
I went at night, taking the underground to a station a little way away, a more direct route from Ikebukuro didn't seem to be that obvious. But then, surely the tallest building in Tokyo would be easy to find once you were near?
Well, no. And I walked for half an hour up a road next to a flyover and then back on myself a block to the west before it became very obvious which was the giant building I was heading for. The lifts were ear-poppingly fast, and the view at the top was stunning. The journey to and from the tower summed up my Tokyo experience in some ways, though. Alone and a little unsure in an alien culture, ever-so-slightly lost, and loving every minute.
- Maid Cafe in Tokyo
Harmless but sexist nonsense that sees you paying over the odds for a cocktail because it is being served by an attractive woman in a French maid's costume. You get a reward card, and can presumably graduate beyond "Lv.1 My Master" to a higher level of female genuflection. What you can't see, is that on the back of my reward card, next to my name, the waitress drew a cute bunny wabbit.
Yoshi and I quickly escaped, and went across the city for some Okonomiyaki with Aki in a restaurant I'd never have found on my own.
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Chusonji Temple in Hiraizumi. Gorgeous autumnal grounds around the stunning golden hall.
- Caught a small amount of Japanese TV. NHK's main news at 9pm is a slightly dry affair, goes on for an hour, and appeared to spend most of the time I was there leading with some sort of dispute between a couple of professional boxers. Meanwhile, over on TBS, a host of celebrities, including Hard Gay were covering themselves in cooking fat, and launching their slippery bodies at over-sized ten pin bowling pins, to see who could knock down the most. This hatstand show is called Lincoln.
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