Sayonara sojourns Pt 2. Takarazuka, Trains and transits

Well part two is now upon us. After Ikumi and my hospital appointment I set out on what would be my last major adventure around Japan, as such I wished to make it a biggie. In fact my idea was to go and see all my friends who were further afield so that I could say goodbye. That decision marked the start of a large amount of travelling.

First on my list however was a trip to Takarazuka (宝塚). I'm not entirely sure of the reason but I have totally fallen in love with this area and I just knew I'd regret it if I didn't manage to visit one more time. Now whilst it is a very fancy area, home to the famous Takarazuka revue, an all female theatre troupe, and many fancy buildings and restaurants, my main goal was to go back and visit Osamu Tezuka's museum.

My previous visit had been around two years earlier and I was quite taken by it then, regardless of how little I understood of the displays. I grew up watching a lot of his anime and to be honest he is not called the "Godfather of Manga" for any trivial reasons, his stuff is highly excellent. This time, armed with a much better ability to read and comprehend the Japanese language I was even more impressed with what I saw. Judging by the displays of his primary school work the man was a genius from the very beginning. 

In addition to being able to read more there were also a few extra films on in the small theatre including a very touching piece about a very friendly Ame-furi-kozou (a kind of rain demon that wears an umbrella and looks like a small child) who just wanted some rain boots. He befriends a local boy and helps him out with three requests in exchange for his rain boots. Sadly at the last minute the boy moves away and never returns the Ame-furi-kozou's help. Once he is a fully grown man (now a granddad in fact) he suddenly remembers his promise and goes through hell and high water to get back to his countryside home and present the demon with the rain boots. It had a nice simple line style and the Japanese wasn't too difficult which was great for me.

Afterwards I moved on to Osaka to get on board a night bus bound for Tokyo. I've lost count of how many times I've used that service now, though I am now a gold member so it must have been a lot. It's uncomfortable, it's tiring, but it's just so damned cheap that I can't help myself, I am my Nan's grandson it would seem.

This time, whilst my main purpose was to visit a friend, I was also very excited to be  heading into Tohoku, the northern region of Honshu, for the first time. Since I never like to do things the easiest way I got it into my head that it would be a fantastic idea to go by local train, a journey of a whopping 7 hours. Why would I do something so crazy you ask? Same reason I do everything the way I do. It was cheap. Also I thought the scenery might be nice.

The initial departure from Shinjuku went fine, if a little bleary eyed, and I arrived in Shinigawa in good time, enough time intact to actually buy breakfast. I boarded the first local train, bound for I-can't-remember-where, to begin about two hours of sitting still. I was hoping to read a bit and just spas out from tiredness but alas no such luck. A pair of Ojisans (old japanese men) sat next to me and started nattering away, so much for peace and quiet. It wasn't till I couldn't help but laugh at one of their jokes that they clicked that I understood Japanese. After a bit of a chat we realised we were off to the same place. Well that was that, I was stuck with them for the next four hours.

For the most part they were pretty interesting but once the Sake started flowing I knew I was in trouble as the conversation began to get steadily more and more unintelligible. I'd love to say that I did the right think and stuck it out but alas I am a bad man and ditched them on the third train transfer. I was tired, hungry and in no mood to try and decipher their slurs. I stepped out a little bit before Fukushima, grabbed a bento, played a bit of UFO catcher and just generally chilled for an hour or so before getting back on board for Sendai.

I think even if you know very little about Japan you have at least heard the name Sendai before as it is the capital of Miyagi prefecture, the area that was worst effected by the great Tohoku earthquake of 2011. I have to say I knew pretty soon when I had crossed the border into Tohoku as I was suddenly surrounded by vast seas of green, boundless nature. It is such a contrast to the urban sprawl that dominates central Honshu and I think had it not of been for a combination of the quake and a busy work schedule I think I would have made the journey sooner and more frequently. 

Right that is your lot for today. Next time I'll talk about what I actually got upto in Sendai.

Mata neee

Tokyo Day 2 – To Fuji

With a big stretch and a yawn our wonderful Liverpool arose to some spectacularly clear blue skies in their swanky hotel in one of the more up market business districts of Tokyo. Ok I’ll drop the weird third person perspective but the sky really was amazing on our second day in Japan’s capital. So clear in fact that it was possible to see Mt. Fuji from our hotel windows. Well that was that then our goal for the day was clearly settled. We were off to get a closer look at Fuji.

I’ll have to just spend a bit of time here to discuss how amazing the train systems are in Japan. It really is easy and fairly inexpensive to get across the length and breadth of the country by train. Now fair enough Shinkansen costs can start to add up but if you are willing to grin and bare through some slightly longer journey times you can get pretty far by local trains.

A quick flick through the guide-book and a potter on the internet found us a likely candidate for a nice place for a bit of mountain watching and photography. Gotemba (御殿場). In truth it’s a tiny little town, in fact there is almost nothing there, but it is the gateway to Fuji, one of the two main trails starts from Gotemba.

 

It was however perfect for our current purpose and the views were spectacular. Fuji absolutely dominates the landscape with clear shots being available wherever you walk. Also with Gotemba being so tiny it gave my Dad his long desired insight into what the ‘real Japan’ looks like. Sadly much like suburbia anywhere else in the world.

After a good wander and much mountain snapping we made our way back towards the train station with our beady eyes peeled for a coffee shop. I think it’s fair to say that, unlike in Europe, there is still little in the way of coffee shop culture in Japan outside of the big cities and, unsurprisingly, we were pretty hard pressed to find anything. Still we did find something eventually although a little outside of our expectations.

 

It was a coffee shop sure, but it also doubled as a clothes shop for women. The most eye catching thing, besides of course the rather flamboyant owner, were the various nicknacks that were all over the shop, including a Princess Diana memorial plate. Well after seeing that how could we not enter. The old lady was pretty interesting, mostly shocked that tourists would come all the way out to Gotemba let alone patronise her shop. There were pictures of her all over the place from her younger days including a picture of her on her way up Fuji. The coffee and tea was pretty pricey but I think the whimsical charm of the shop made up for it.

After that we made our way back. I opted to take local trains rather than the shinkansen, it’s expensive やで。It did mean sacrificing speed but the lovely costal views on the way back Tokyo made up for it, and I got to get a bit of reading in too. I do love trains deep down, I guess I have to since I spend almost a quarter of my time on them it seems, and I think I get all of my best reading done on them.

 

Pretty wiped we just milled about the hotel for a while before embarking into the surrounding madness that is Shiba. This is clearly a central business area as the surrounding streets are just chock full of Izakaya’s and pachinko parlors to cater for the outpouring of office workers after a hard days work. We went into one such establishment for some yakitori and I did some people watching.

The speed at which these guys got totally rat-arsed and chain-smoked their way through packets of cigarettes is pretty alarming. This is a side of Japanese society a lot of people outside of the country don’t see and to be honest it’s something I really don’t like. You sacrifice everything to your company, head out to a bar late, eat, drink away the stress, head home on the last train and then do it all again the next day.

The more I see it the more I realise it is not what I want. I just can’t take the high tension Japanese working life and seeing it up close and personal on this trip really hit that home for me. While I do like it here it reminded of one scary fact. I can’t stay, I just don’t fit. I love the people, and some of the cultural aspects of Japan are truly wonderful and admirable but I can’t slot in as another cog of Japanese society. I want to turn left when it wants me to turn right.

Sorry to end on a bum note but that was a really strong memory from the time in Mita. The lines and lines of men and women in Identical suits streaming out of offices and into Izakaya’s late at night is a bit scary to me. It is admittedly a bit better at least than some of the drinking culture in the UK but if that’s all there is for me if I stay here then I can’t do it. It really hits home how much I love the freedom of thought and expression that is afforded to me by research and how lucky, truly lucky, I am to be paid to do nothing but think somedays.

Next post will be a bit happier I promise, it has clowns and stuff. Also here are some wonderful Japan rail train sounds.

Ja mata neeee.

Fishing with birds.

Well as once again find myself in work at silly o’clock in the morning it is a definite realisation that summer is over. Actually I’d been meaning to write this entry for quite some time now but just hadn’t found the time. I visited an amazing conference on Mass spectrometry; the science and technology used to accurately measure the mass of atoms and molecules. It gave me lots of ideas and also inspired me that hope was not completely lost for Josie.

Anyway that's not really that interesting, though in one of the talks it was revealed that a lab group had modified their million pound piece of equipment with lego. Instead I wanted to write about something I’d been meaning to do for ages.

The conference was in Kyoto you see and during the summer the quieter, more tranquil area to the north, called Arashiyama, becomes a hive of activity. Well after the sun goes down at any rate. A less well known and definitely quirky tradition called Ukai (鵜飼), or cormorant fishing attracts many away from Kyoto’s more popular central districts. The cormorant being Liverpool’s official bird I kind of had to go really.

The tradition itself traces it’s roots back over 1000 years and was most likely brought over from china. Quite a few rivers play host to it in Japan over the summer, the most famous being the Nagara River in Gifu. The Oi river of Kyoto is much nearer to me though and since I was in the area it was worth a visit.

Before I get into what actually happened I have to sidetrack a bit to tell you about the journey there. Now the easiest way to get to Arashiyama from central Kyoto is by the main train line. I however had a free pass for the underground from the conference so I chose to exploit it as much as I could.

Sadly I couldn’t make the entire journey that way but it lead me to riding the rather charming Keifuku electric railroad. This is a one-car tram that winds through the streets of northern Kyoto and gave me more than a hint of nostalgia for some of my European adventures. It’s dead old, it began operation in 1910, but it made the journey that bit more special.

After arriving it was only a short walk to the Togetsukyo Bridge which was lined with boats, their little lanterns beckoning me on. Since the cormorants aren’t so big, and as it is dark, the only real way to view Ukai is up close in a little roofed boat. I got my ticket from the boat stand and, since I couldn’t really understand any of the kanji instructions, followed a pair of Japanese Girls to a nearby platform.

In the end they were as clueless as me and we were ushered back to the ticket office by one of the Ukai boatsman. It did however prove as a starting point for a conversation, a bit of language goes a long way and it was nice to have a bit of company, sometimes experiences are best shared.

The girls it turned out were old friends from Uni in Tokyo, though one hailed from Kyoto. Her friend was visiting and as neither of them had seen Ukai before they decided to make the trip out to Arashiyama, firsts all round then. In fact I'd say it's quite common for natives of a country to have not participated in many of their cultures older tradition. I mean I've never morris danced for a start.

We boarded our boat along with about 20 others and were guided out to the middle of the river. To my surprise once we were anchored in place along side many other eager viewers some small motor boats pulled up alongside us. Each had a few tepans (Japanese hot plates) and hotpots selling grilled squid, oden (a kind of stew) and mitarashi dango (rice dumplings grilled in a sweet sauce). The girls bought a couple of dango and gave one to me, never refuse free food from a lady. Golden rule.

After a bit of snacking the boats moved away and it was time for the main event. The cormorants have small bands around their necks, not enough to be uncomfortable but enough to stop them swallowing any fish they catch. They also have a long rope fixed to the band and are held in groups of about 4 or 5 by the fisherman on the boat. It kind of looks like he’s taking them for a walk I must admit.

At the back of the boat a large bale of dry grass is set alight so the birds can see better and then the event kicks off. It was quite distressing at first for me. The cormorants dip under the water to snag a fish and then are hauled onto the boat to relinquish their prize. It seemed a tad cruel but the birds didn’t seem to mind to much and they are rewarded with a sliver of fish for their efforts, just enough to keep their appetite going.

The leisurely cruise around the river took about an hour all told with the cormorants being paraded in front of us periodically. I guess it’s mostly for show these days really but it is something I may not have a chance to see again, I try my best not to let opportunities like this pass me by.

All in all it was a very relaxing way to wind down after a hard day of science. The river is serene at night and Arashiyama just has such a chilled atmosphere. The boats themselves rock pleasantly and you sit maybe a few centimetres above the water. If I get the chance I think I’d like to go again with some friends. Apparently you can also go to a restaurant afterwards where they prepare sashimi from the evenings catch. It’s a tad expensive however so I gave it a miss.

On the way back however I had a wonderful moment of serendipity. I managed to get off the train a stop too late, I was daydreaming a bit as always. My stomach was grumbling at this point and I came across a burger place with a skateboard for a sign. I was sold before I even crossed the door. It was awesome, best burger I’ve had in Japan and genuinely spicy. A top end to a boss night.

Ja sore de ijou desu,

Mata nee. 

Big Buddha, Big Bridges and local trains.

At last some time to blog. Work has been hectic and exhausting so I haven’t really prioritized blogging, terrible really. Actually this weekend was almost a wash out. My plans for Saturday fell through and so I spent the day moping about in my apartment. This is exactly what I’d told myself I wouldn’t do this year. That evening I flicked through my guide book and decided to just go on a little adventure.

Rising early on Sunday morning I headed down to the station and headed over to a town called Hyogo. It’s just outside of Kobe and not particularly big, but it does have one thing going for it. One of the three daibutsu (giant Buddha statues) of Japan has Hyogo as it’s home. I figured it was worth a visit since it’s not so far away.

Sadly the weather wasn’t so grand, but hey I’m English I can handle a bit of drizzle. Hyogo whilst not so large does have a rather large number of temples. I figured that finding a giant statue of a Buddha wouldn’t be too difficult and set off in the direction of the waterfront.

I stopped of at a number of temples and shrines along the way, whilst they don’t have the grandeur of those found in Kyoto or Nara they were still fairly pleasant. To my surprise there were a number of people dressed in black at one of them. It’s not so shocking that people would go to a temple for a funeral really but it caught me a little off guard and reminded me that I was venturing into other peoples sacred ground.

 

After going the length of the promenade I couldn’t find the daibutsu but I did have a lovely hit of nostalgia. Ok so it’s not a spectacular little promenade but it just made me think of New Brighton, especially with all the drizzle. I started heading back towards the station since I’d come to the end of the temple quarter.

Still having not found the statue I was about to walk into a convenience store and ask for directions until I noticed another temple just behind it. I was happy I hadn’t as getting a bit closer I saw the top of the Buddha’s head. I would definitely have looked very silly.

The temple grounds were plain, nothing like the daibutsuen in Nara, but the statue is still quite a sight. I don’t believe it’s the original sadly, it was reconstructed in 1999, though it is a feat of craftsmanship nonetheless. Satisfied with my find I headed back to the station.

My initial intention had been to go to Kobe but for some reason I decided to ride the local train and see where I ended up. On the journey to Hyogo I’d noticed that there were many stops close to the sea and for some reason, maybe just a touch of homesickness who knows, I decided I wanted to just gaze out the window.

After about 20 minutes of riding I came to a stop under the giant Akashi Kaikyo bridge called Maiko. It is famous for having the longest central span (nearly 2km) of any suspension bridge in the world. I’ve passed it by so many times I though it was about time to give it a visit.

The first thing that caught my eye upon exiting the train, excluding the giant bridge above my head, was that there was a small pine forest right alongside me. It was really pretty and quite unexpected. In fact most of the stations environs have been converted into parks and other facilities for tourists. It was surprisingly peaceful, though that could have been down to the weather, so I sat there for a little while.

Some quick facts about the bridge. It’s total length is nearly 4km and it is about 300m above sea level. It was designed to withstand earthquakes upto 8.5 on the Richter scale and winds of upto 300km an hour. All great facts though you really can’t get a good handle on how impressive it is until you are up close. Standing below it with giant metal girders spread out above and the deep thrum of cars going by I felt pretty small and over awed.

 

After leaving the ‘pine forest’ I set out to the bridges visitor and exhibition center. On the way over a strange looking western-style building caught my eye and so I had to take a little look inside. To my surprise it was a museum dedicated to the Chinese revolutionary, Sun Yat Sen, and his connection to the port town of Kobe.

For those who don’t know Sun Yat Sen was a prominent figure in the 1911 Chinese revolution, helping to overthrow China’s imperial rule and start the formation of the Republic of China. I won’t go into the details here, google is a wonderful thing, but I will mention why this small museum is located in Kobe.

During his lifetime he was exiled from China multiple times for his revolutionary activities. He spent a fair amount of time in Japan where he had made contacts with other democratic revolutionaries. Quite a few of these were based in Kobe and also I’m sure Kobe’s large Chinese population. He also gave his final speech about his “Three principles of the People” in Kobe.

I’ll be honest he was a historical figure I knew next to nothing about and it was a nice surprise. I’m always up for coming across new things. The exhibits were almost all in English as well as Japanese and, thankfully, presented in a clear type face which is fairly unusual. The building itself is very nice, it put me in mind of some of the smaller rooms in the Williamson art gallery from the inside and the outside reminded me of the old Queen Vic.

My final stop was the Maiko Promenade. This is a small, about 200m, elevated walkway that is within the structure of the Akashi bridge and extends out into the Seto inland sea. After taking an elevator to the 8^th floor (about 45m) you can then walk along the underside of the bridge as well as check out a few viewing platforms.

There is not too much in there really but the views make it more than worthwhile. I’ll admit it would have been nicer on a clear day but I also like a good stormy seascape. Other than the views you can fiddle about with a camera mounted on one of the suspension towers and eat at Tom’s Café, which seemed to serve only octopus based dishes.

All in all a bad weekend turned good with a bit of enlightenment, education and exploration. I need to get back to my wandering routes and just hop on a train to somewhere when I’m bored for sure.

Ja mata neeeeee. 

Free time and Three places.

So not that long after my parents returned to the UK I actually got a surprise present of three days off work. It was nice surprise, and one that I’ve been assured by Masamoto-san will not happen again.  I decided to use the time to visit some places that were a little more unusual and therefore would require some more time to get to.

Due to the repetitive “I went here and I did this and then this” of the last few posts I’m switching up the style a bit. Hope you still enjoy it,よろしくおねがいします。

Kyoto station

 

A weird place to visit but it was more because I was there than anything else. Actually it is a really impressive place and incorporates quite a lot. Japan seems to pride itself on efficient use of space, and Kyoto station is no less of an exception.

It is a wonderfully pretty structure, very futuristic all irregular cubes an swooping edges, with a sleek black gloss finish. With an expansive central hall as well as two adjoining towers the whole structure is nearly half a kilometer long there is a lot to do and see.

First stop for me was the garden and viewing area at the top of the western tower, well I do love climbing. I decided on the stairs to climb the eleven floors although there are escalators available. At the top I was greeted by a small and very jolly terrace, one could even say it was Happy, and some big glass windows looking out over Kyoto. The city itself is pretty low to the ground for Japan, so even though I wasn’t so high the views were great.

On the 7^th floor there is an art museum called, “EKI Kyoto”. The exhibit running at the time was a wonderful one displaying the works of a famous kirigami (or Mon-Kiri) artist whose name has slipped my mind. He was heavily influenced by nature and most of the works were of birds and insects.

Unfortunately none of the explanations were in English so I couldn’t fully appreciate what I was looking at, though they were pretty and very impressive nonetheless. Also not many pictures, it was an art museum after all, though I did get a cheeky one of some penguins.

Iga Ueno Ninja Museum

 

This had been my main goal for the short holiday and let me tell you now it was a bugger to find. Admittedly it is a ninja museum so why I expected otherwise I don’t know, I mean it is a ‘Ninja’ museum, they aren’t supposed to be easy to find right?

First task get to Iga Ueno. Not so easy as it is a little town famous for its ninja museum, and not a whole lot else. It is accessible by the Kansai line, which I believe is one of the oldest train lines in the region. Trains consist of one carriage and it even has the old school ticket machines like Japanese buses.

From Iga Ueno station the museum it is actually only a short trip by the local area train, which is covered in pictures of ninja. Of course no one told me this and instead suggested I walk the 3 miles between the station and the museum, thanks guys. It was hot and sweaty but I did manage it eventually.

It was worth the treck. The centrepiece of the museum is an old converted farm house that had been set up as a traditional ninja house. The multitude of traps, secret doors and tricks had been faithfully restored and were demonstrated with gusto by the attendants.

I’d really recommend this place as whilst not many people speak English the signs written in English are fantastic. I think someone who had studied the language for quite a while created them, or was a native speaker, as they contained none of the usual grammar pitfalls. In fact they were very informative and I learned some interesting little factoids, begin list.

1. 1.     Ninja’s did not wear black. In fact it is actually quite conspicuous at night. Instead they wore a dark blue coloured outfit that also doubled up as a disguise as it was a similar shade to the clothes of many farmers.
2. 2.     Ninja’s actually developed there own language based on letters created by ropes, some believe this maybe one of the earliest examples of an alphabet, rather than kanji, in the Japanese language.
3. 3.     Place names ending in ga or ka, such as Iga and Koga, tended to be strong holds of ninja and in fact were part of something known as the “がのまち“ which provided a safe passage through Japan ninja.
4. 4.     Ninja’s were damn good farmers.

Factoids over I was very glad I managed to get there. There was also a “Ninja Show” but it seemed more for kids so I gave it a miss and instead checked out Iga Ueno’s castle. It’s not bad though not as Impressive as Osaka-jo. As you can see from the pictures Iga-Ueno is in th back end of beyond.

The Osamu Tezuka Manga museum

This was another place high on my to visit list. Following the fun time I had at the museum in Kyoto it seemed only right that I take a trip to a museum dedicated to the “kami-sama” (God) of manga, Tezuka Osamu. Putting out works such as Astro boy, Kimba the white lion and (my personal favourite) Blackjack, this guy is a legend and the museum is a must see for any manga fan.

It is situated in, what I thought, was the rather picturesque town of Takarazuka, just beyond Amagasaki prefecture. This is where Tezuka spent his childhood, although he was born in Osaka, and was clearly a place dear to his heart. Just outside the museum is a large statue of “火の鳥“ (Phoenix) which was a comic that Tezuka cites as his life work and one he constantly came back to.

The museum itself is very colorful and so well reflects the style of the artist. There is a strong theme of nature running throughout the whole building as Tezuka often said this is where he drew his inspiration, in fact his pen name and animation studio take their names from insects (むし)and they are recurring characters in much of his art work.

The ground floor is dedicated entirely to the man himself with many artifacts from his childhood, his early works, the development of his style and so on. There are some interesting pieces about his relationship with Disney, whom was a major influence upon him, and also the boom period of manga following world war 2. There is also a wall displaying a time line of Tezuka’s, which is absolutely staggering .

The focal point of thi floor is a small cinema which runs a 30 minute animated film dedicated to Tezuka’s early years in Takarazuka. It’s a lovely piece about him and some insect, a bee maybe, anyway no words but a wonderful score.

The bottom floor contains a large space where you can have a go at making your own animation. I drew a winking crow, only two panels but it’s a start ey, it was a lot of fun. The top floor has a small library of Tezuka’s work, all in Japanese so a no go for now but soon, as well as a display area for temporary exhibits and a video area to watch some of Tezuka’s anime. I probably would have stayed longer had I the time and I may have to go again.

So that was my three day holiday, obviously there was  lot of travelling in between and I did other stuff but these were some really cool spots. If you are in the Kansai area definitely check them out if you haven’t already.

Mata atode minna

Tokyo final Day

Yet again we had an early start to the morning, so much for the holiday ey. We got all our gear together and got ready to check out of the hotel. Our pla for the morning was to head into Higashi Ginza to a theatre there and watch some “かぶき”which is classic Japanese theatre. These shows are quite epic lasting around 6 hours over several acts. We figured that 1 act would be enough.

Whilst on the way I missed a call from Jane due to being on the underground. I was a bit gutted as it would probably mean I wouldn’t get to say goodbye before she headed to Oz. When we got to the Kabuki theatre it was absolutely chocker with old ladies, somewhat akin to the floral pavilion on a Saturday. We had been reassured that Kabuki wasn’t that popular anymore but that seemed far from the truth.

Apprehensively we checked the ticket office but only the premium seats were left. At 12000yen a ticket we decided to give it a miss. Whilst kabuki was something I’d really wanted to see, I didn’t want to watch it that much. So with our plans ruined for half the day my parents decided to just head back to Osaka whilst I waited till 8pm for my bus.

With not much to do I made up my mind to head back to Ikebukero, there seemed to be a fair amount going on there and I might even get a chance to catch one of the comedy shows. Whilst in transit I spotted a sign for a Studio Ghibli exhibit that was somewhere on the underground. I’d seen it a few times but this time I plucked up the courage to ask where it was.

As it happened it wasn’t far away at all, about 1 change of line and four stops so I figured, what the hell. Upon my arrival I was a little disappointed. It didn’t make up for my inability to go to the Ghibli museum, something I’m definitely doing another time,

Anyway the exhibit was as tiny as the metro station it was located in. It was actually just a few displays showcasing the various cover artworks of the Ghibli films and also some of the posters from their cinema releases. Not exactly what I’d been expecting but well it was free so I coundn’t really complan. Onwards to Ikebukero.

En route Jane phoned me again. She had just got back to her hotel from a Shibuya shopping trip and wanted to say bye. I was the other side of Tokyo a this point but I really wanted to see her off so after a short bit of route planning I was off. It was also at this point that I realized I could have gotten in touch with her if I’d used her mobile number with an international dialing code, fail.

After another 30 minutes of riding the rails I got to Shinagawa and met her outside a maccies. I handed over the ‘yokan’ (a Japanese sweet) I'd been meaning to give her all week. We had a good chat about things back home, although it appears that biosciences is rubbish for gossip but it was nice to have a chat with someone and not speak slowly.

We finished nattering at about 3:30pm, Jane went back into the hotel to get herself ready for her flight and I set off for Ikebukero. On the way I stopped at a department store in Shibuya to grab a “べんとう”box, lunch basically. One thing I really love about Japan is that even the off the shelf supermarket food (デパチカ as its called here), is great quality and very tasty.

By the time I was finally in Ikebukero it was 4:45p, I'd spent most of the day on trains it seemed, good job I quite like trains really. I found the entertainment hall much quicker this time, it wasn’t so bad now I knew where it was.  Walked up to the desk and found out I was just in time for the show and that it would last 3 and a half hours. At first I was apprehensive, it would be a close call getting my bus, however my Mum’s earlier words “Just go for it and let the Japanese culture wash over you.” inspired me. This opportunity wouldn’t come up to regularilly.

 

The show consisted of 12 acts and the majority was taken up by men performing ‘Rakugo’. This is Japanese (sit-down) stand-up comedy. I’ll elaborate, it’s is basically a man sat down on a cushion telling a long comical story. At no point in the story will he  stand an he uses gestures and facial expressions to add emphasis.

Whilst I could only understand about 5% of what was being said I could still appreciate the skill involved. The artists would rapidly change between characters within the story, manipulating both their voice and their expression with little pause for breath. A highlight for me was one artists who reproduced not only spoken word but instrument noises and also performed an eerily accurate impression of  a puppet.

Aside from this there were a number of other comedy forms on display including “まんざい”a kind of stand-up comedy where a duo consisting of a straight man and a funny man and the act is built around verbal misunderstandings and puns. Alongside this was a lady playing the Shamisen, a three stringed Japanese lute, and singing comical kouta.

My favorite however was the final act. An old man came on stage and sat down with a pile of paper and a pair of scissors. He then proceeded to take requests from the crowd and then cut these shapes out of the paper. It sounds mundane but the images he produced where unbelievably intricate considering the speed he performed it. This is known as “きりがみ”from ‘Kiru (cut)’ and “gami (paper)’ and is related to the more famous origami.

Unfortunately I don’t have many pctures of the whole event. This is partly because I thought it was a bit rude but also because I forgot as I was so captivated by the whole thing. It really inpired me to improve my understanding of the language, I’d love to go again and be more involved in the acts and understand the jokes.

Well thus concludes my hols, apart from a much more comfortable and mundane bus journey back to Japan. It was awesome to have some time off work and I’ve really enjoyed typing it up and reflecting on the fun things I’ve done. This country has a lot to offer and I look forward to the next time I get chance to explore.

Mata kondo mina-san.