10 things Japan has that NZ doesn't have

1. Toilets with control panels


2. Shrines in the middle of shopping malls

3. Green Tea-flavoured Kit Kats

4. Bunches of schoolkids that wanna have their picture taken with you because you're a foreigner



5. Face Absorb Paper


6. A bajillion vending machines, mostly selling drinks but also ice cream, cigarettes, alcohol (no ID required, but there's a stern warning on the machine to make you feel guilty) and 2-minute noodles. Drinks are either hot or cold, most are only labelled in Japanese.

7. Tommy Lee Jones selling drinks out of said vending machines


8. Bloodthirsty deer



9. Ninja shoes that separate the big toe from the other toes - and rickshaw drivers that wear them



10. and of course, Engrish!

The Japandamonium continues!

Hello all,

Just a quick update on the last couple of days. Days 3 and 4 in Japan have gone fast, the time is already flying by and we only have 3 more days before heading off to Tokyo. Yesterday we went to the Chion-ji temple to check out the local flea market. It wasn't so much of a flea market, more of a folk handicrafts & food market. It was so much fun, we were pretty much the only tourists and as usual, nobody spoke a lick of English. I'm really glad we did that rudimentary course last year, knowing a few phrases makes all the difference!! The temple setting was really nice, and we saw lots of traditional Japanese handcrafts, mostly involving making things out of printed textiles. The Japanese are very cutesy but moreso a very visual/aesthetic culture, as in everything has to look just right, neat & tidy, everything has to 'go' perfectly. Everything is just so cute, probably quaint is the word I'm looking for. Anyway I got a hairpin with 2 flowers made of red printed silk on it.

Oh, another interesting thing - every other shop (tourist-targeted and otherwise) sells squares of fabric, again, very beautiful to look at, nice Japanese prints involving cherry blossoms and cute animals. They're not handkerchiefs. They're called tenugui and furoshiki (depending on the size). The Japanese use them to fold carry bags, most often to wrap up their lunchboxes. The larger ones (furoshiki) can be folded several different ways into decent-sized handbags. Sugoi desu ne! I've been thinking about getting one but really, what do I need a square of fabric for?

After the market we went tp Ginkaku-ji, another pavilion/temple type thing (they're starting to all look the same, Kyoto has about 17 shrines/temples/pagodas per capita and you can't walk a block without tripping over one). Then we headed over to Kiyo-mizu area to do our maiko-hensin!! (Maiko dress up). Laura has posted some cool photos on her blog, I've put one below and one of my own. Later that night we went to Gion corner and saw some real-live Maiko on the streets! After being dressed up like that and having everyone stare at me (literally stopping in their tracks to stare open-mouthed, cameras poised), I have some sympathy for the real geisha and maiko that are just trying to do their jobs, and get hassles & followed on the streets by nosy tourists. there's an unobtrusive way to observe a local culture, then there's being a disrespectful tourist who runs after a geisha.

Tomorrow we're headed to Arashiyama, there's a bamboo forest and monkeys. Let's see how that goes :P Bedtime now, see yous later ow!

Irasshaimase!

Minnasan, konnichi wa!

Welcome to Japan! I arrived yesterday morning after a gruelling 22 hour journey from Auckland (6 hours at Changi airport - 10/10 btw, free wifi and butterfly garden!), dead on my feet, sleep deprived, feeling quite grimy but very excited to be here. Made my way to the J-hoppers hostel after much difficulty finding the right exit (read: ANY exit) from the bohemoth Kyoto train station then walking for about 10 mins. Met Laura & Stacy here who had hired a guide to show us around the for day; I literally just dropped the bags & headed out the door. It was a great first day, we visited the Kiyomizu shrine, Yasaka shrine and had okonomiyaki for lunch (Japanese pancakes with meat & cabbage inside). NOM! We spend some time wandering the streets around the Kiyomizu shrine; it's rows and rows of shops selling all kinds of Japanese stuff, some aimed at tourists but mostly specialist eateries selling only one kind of food (e.g. mochi/sweets, udon, fried... things). The area is an old district of Kyoto and the buildings are very historic-looking, it's the same area where we will be dressing up at maiko on Thursday.

Today we made an early start, hired bikes from the hostel and headed to the Fushimi Inari shrine around 8am, before most of the tourists got there. It's the shrine with lots of red torii (gates), that go for several kms around a hill. Good exercise to work off all the yummy food we've been eating! Photos below.

Today we also went to Nijo Castle. The castle itself was a bit meh, the gardens were gorgeous with lots of weeping cherry trees. It feels a bit like being inside a fairy tale, with random shrines and temples absolutely everywhere, cherry blossoms on the trees and little old Japanese women in kimonos here & there. the Cherry blossoms are starting to fall off the trees, so if there's a breeze they fall down and the effect is magical :)

OK so the panda hat - it was a present from Laura & Stacy. Looks a bit naf, bit it kept my head warm while we were biking around today!












Initial impressions of Japan: despite everything being cramped, it's very neat & tidy. The houses are so close together neighbours can probably touch each other out their windows, alleys are very narrow but full of bicycles, but everyone has gardens with beautiful Japanese pine trees and flowers. There are little eateries everywhere, anything from a bowl of udon to a full-on set including miso, salad, todu, dessert, pickles, rice and your main meat item. Fruit & veges are REALLY hard to find - an orange costs 300 yen (NZ$5, 2.5 euros). We're keeping the local 7-eleven running by buying bread, eggs, chips (bread comes in packets of 3 slices).

OK now it's bedtime, email me and/or leave a comment, will post photos of the maiko-henshin asap!!

ML

Surprise Farewell Party!

I got a big surprise on Thursday night; what I thought was going to be a quiet farewell drink with Marion turned into a surprise farewell with a bunch of my closest friends :) Their leaving present for me? A ride on a 1450cc HARLEY DAVIDSON... awesome!! :D It was a beautiful clear night for a cruise along the waterfront, and I even got to wear a very stylish black leather jacket with "Harley" emblazoned across the back.

The bike ride was followed by dinner at Daikoku, the local Japanese Teppankayi restaurant. Leave it to Marion to think of something fitting like that!

To all my friends, thanks for a wonderful evening and I will miss you all dearly. Keep an eye on your mailboxes for postcards :)

2 sleeps to go. Panic attacks happening several times a day. And I can't make my clothes fit in my pack. Bugger.

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PS - new banner image, what do you think?

7 sleeps to go!

The final countdown has begun! (no references to 80's pop songs please) I've been off work for a week already, finishing off some photoshopping work and tying up loose ends. Already the days are beginning to blend into on, and now it's time to make copies of all my documents, decide which clothes I'm going to pack etc.

I've embraced the new itinerary - got the Japan and Tokyo Lonely Planets from the library and dusted off my Japanese language course notes from some time ago. Practised some polite phrases at Soto during lunch - "AsahiBIIRU o onegaishimasu", "oishikatta!", "TOIRE wa doko desu ka?" and "gochisousama deshita!" - all the essentials. Really looking forward to hanging out with Laura & Stacy and laughing our way through Japan. I'm also planning a day trip to Kawaguchi-ko to see Mt Fuji and take some sunset photos - did you expect any less from me? I will post it asap, I promise.

That's all for now - will write again once I'm on the road!

ML