Part 2: A capital time

A short hop, and by short I mean sleepless and gruelling 9 hour trip by night bus, had us arriving in Tokyo bright and early on Wednesday morning. Sadly there was no respite from the heat but the capital, as always, managed to blow me away with its impressive scale and supreme business. I managed to decipher the wonders of the Tokyo underground much faster this time and had us over to our hostel in Asakusa in good time.

Asakusa is a pretty cool place but I’ll come back to that a bit later because we had other places to be. Our first stop for the Tokyo tour was the Miyazaki Hayao Ghibli museum. Huge fan-boy that I am this has been on my to visit list for ages and now I was finally getting the chance.

The museum is way out in a city on the outskirts of Tokyo, Mitaka, and getting there was in itself no small task since we were practically the opposite side of Tokyo. Being  cheapskates money savvy we had purchased day tickets for the Tokyo underground and so plotted a course for Mitaka that allowed us to spend as much time on the subway as possible. This took a bit more time but you know, save the pennies.

Mitaka is itself not really a very attractive location. It’s far enough outside of Tokyo to not be dominated by lines of apartment blocks but it’s slender streets and mundane choice of building colour do give it a bit of a dingy feel. My mate also noted that there was a lot more rubbish on the streets and that it ‘looked like birko’ yeah welcome to Japanese suburbia.

As always there were no signs that were of any use and whilst there is a bus that runs directly to the museum we opted to walk. The websites map is decidedly unhelpful but it did at least indicate the museum was in a park. We headed through some of the winding side streets towards the tree-line in the distance. The heat was starting to pick up again and although we can’t have walked more than a kilometre it felt like forever.

Still arrive we did and I must say that whilst the museum is small it was also very impressive. The museum itself is a 4 storey building of just the sort of quirky design you’d expect from the ghibli team, all round edges, overgrown vines an odd little domes. After being greeted by Totoro at the entrance I knew I was in for a treat.

Inside it’s a little bit chaotic. Firstly it was pretty busy, I get the impression its like this most of the year. Secondly there is no real floor plan as such. There are various rooms and exhibits but they are not laid out so tha you can move from one to the next in a logical order. This is also not helped by the lack of a central staircase, apart from a weird spiral staircase in the middle. The décor however is incredible and you really feel like you’ve just stepped into the world of Ghibli.

The main exhibition room is essentially a history of animation, detailed with bright colours and some incredibly impressive moving exhibits. We once again hit a snag though. Shockingly not a single exhibit in the museum had a translation. Whilst they were in fairly basic Japanese, fine for me, you would miss out on a lot if you couldn’t read, so a bit naff for my friend. This really surprised me given the wide appeal of the films. There was a second exhibit further up that I really didn’t understand. I think it might have been something to do with how Ghibli artists where influenced by European fairy tales maybe? The Japanese was just way beyond me.

The highlights were definitely the wonderful reconstructions of sketches and storyboards of the various films and of course the Saturn theatre. Throughout the day this little theatre screens short films that are only aired within the museum. If I understand correctly they are different each day, I guess as a kind of incentive to go back.

We watched one called, 星をかった日(which could mean the bay I bought, raised or harvested a star depending on how its read.) The story was fairly basic; boy runs away from home, moves in with random older lady, works on her farm, swaps turnips for a weird seed from a mole and a frog, normal stuff really. The visuals and music however where stunning as always. The art direction is based around works by Naohisa Inoue in his Iblard collection, worth a google if you like quirky fantasy art. I think there is a whole other world there just waiting to be explored and I loved the seamless blending of old clapped out technology with a super futuristic city.

This all took a good few hours and by the time my we got back to the hostel my mate was knackered. I decided to have a short wander around the local area since I’d not been to Asakusa before and I’d heard it was home to the oldest Buddhist temple in Tokyo, senso-ji. It apparently used to be the most popular entertainment district in Tokyo before being levelled in WWII. These days it has more of a reputation for being an excellent site of budget accommodation.

Not having any real plan beyond getting to the temple I just went for my usual plan of wander in the general direction and see what I see. Man am I glad I did. As I strolled past a random supermarket I spotted out of the corner of my eye something I’d been searching for since I arrived in Japan. A square watermelon. These badboys will set you back a whopping 10000yen (about £82) and well they just look weird. I’d actually doubted their existence but can now confirm they are a reality, albeit a fairly pointless one.

Marking the entrance to Senso-ji is the equally, if not more, famous Kaminarimon, or thunder gate. The giant red gate, originally built in the 10^th century stands at a whopping 11.7m and is nearly that wide, not your average garden gate. It is home to 4 statues including two very impressive busts of Rajin and Fujin (Gods of Thunder and wind respectively). At the centre of the gate is a giant paper lantern (almost 4m in height), which has an elegant dragon carving on its underside.

Wading through the throngs of tourists I wandered down nakamise-dori, a short street that is jam-packed full of shops selling all kinds of wonderful souvenirs and traditional snacks. I’d have loved to spend a bit more time poking my nose about but I wanted to see the main temple itself. The first thing that caught my eye was the five-storey pagoda on my left. These are common amongst large temples but it was my first time seeing one up close. Actually after the gate the temple ground itself weren’t anything special. I guess I’m a little templed out these days.

The next day saw us heading just one stop over on the metro to Ryogoku home of Japan’s main sumo stadium, Ryogoku Kokugikan, and also the Edo-Tokyo museum. Both buildings are right next to the train station, always handy in the summer heat, and are also massive. We picked up our tickets for the Edo museum but first headed to the Ryogaku to have a look at the Sumo museum.

The ‘museum’ turned out to be a single room that consisted mainly of images of old trainers and Yokozuna. Again almost no English in here so we didn’t take too much away from it, but it was free so I can’t complain too much.

Our next destination on the other hand was absolutely incredible. Firstly it is massive as I stated earlier but to give you an impression I’ll give you some figures. It stands at about 62.2m above the ground and covers an area of 30,000 square metres. Adding to this is the fact it is modelled after an old elevated type warehouse so most of the museum is about 30m above ground level.

 

The inside is where the main event is of course. Whilst the exhibits only take up about two floors there is quite a lot packed in as the museum maps the course of Edo’s progression from being a port town to becoming the modern capital it is today. There are many old artefacts as well as intricate models and reconstructions of various important landmarks within the city. The full size model of a kabukiza and the northern portion of the Nihonbashi bridge definitely stand out amongst them.

What makes the museum all the more fantastic is that a lot of care has gone into translation here. The information is displayed in Japanese, English, Simplified Chinese, Korean and a host of other languages. Further to this there are volunteer guides happy to show you round and providing explanations in several languages. It is easy to lose time in here and we must have spent at least 3 or 4 hours, my mind was sufficiently warped after this information overload.

 

After a bit of a history lesson I took my friend to the Harajuku area to get a good look at the more modern, trendy aspects of Tokyo. We wandered through the boutique-lined streets, taking in some of the more unusual styles as we went. Afterwards we turned back down into central Shibuya just in time for rush hour at scramble crossing. Very few times in my life have I seen so many people in one place. Its worth a look if for nothing more than curiosity. 

We just about managed to squeeze in some nighttime skyscraper viewing in Shinjuku before what was one of the more stressful nights of travelling back to Osaka.

Ja mata kondo ne.

Gion Matsuri and Arashiyama

Hey all it’s been a while since my last blog entry and for a good reason, makes a change doesn’t it. This monkey has been on a Journey for a little over a week with a good friend from the UK, travelling around Japan and beyond. I’ll probably dedicate a few posts to our little adventure as we managed to pack quite a bit in. So without further ado I’ll start with the time we spent in Kyoto.

Our journey actually began in Osaka. We checked into my old stomping ground, J-Hoppers. I’m a massive fan of this hostel. I’m not sure if it’s the friendly atmosphere, the eccentric staff (“It’s OK” followed by the best laugh I’ve ever heard) or its fantastic location, the ominously named Fukushima district of Osaka. Either way something about the place keeps me coming back and I’m sure I’ll find my way there again at some point.

At the time we were travelling the Gion Matsuri, one of Japan’s three biggest festivals, was taking place. It was only natural that we wanted to check it out. The festival officially runs throughout the entire month of July however the main event takes place on the 17^th. When I say main event I mean MAIN EVENT. The focus of the festival is the parade of giant やまぼこ(festival floats) and みこし(portable shrines) from Yasaka Shrine in Gion, through the main high street and into the city centre.

The floats were just incredible to watch. The main carriage was nearly as big as a small bungalow, with an estimated weight of nearly 12tonnes. Atop them are large poles, representative of spears used to purify the streets of Kyoto during the original ceremony that the festival is dedicated to, which reach upto 25 metres in height. As you can imagine it takes a lot of grunt to haul these things along with around 30 – 40 burly foot people tugging on their ropes.

Even more impressive was how these things corner. Being so huge it was somewhat of a spectacle. First large sheets of bamboo doused in water are laid under the front wheels (each about 2 metres in diameter). The float is then pulled at a 90 degree angle in the direction it needs to be turned and slides around over the bamboo.

In addition to the pullers there are also many musicians sitting atop the floats playing drums, flutes and a variety of other percussive instruments. On the underside are a few crazy souls whose job it is to guide the wheels using small wooden paddles to keep the float moving in a straight line. I’d say there must have been about 80 people total per float. Pretty incredible.

There other floats that, whilst smaller, are no less impressive. These were adorned with figures and dioramas of famous people and past events in Kyoto city. Each one clearly crafted with care and dedication that I’ve come to expect of Japanese Matsuris. A highlight for me was a shrine with a large preying mantis puppet onto that was operated from inside the shrine. It bowed and waved at the crowd as it moved by.

Sadly the heat of the day was extreme, it must have been about 40 degrees, and the streets were incredibly crowded so we moved away from the festival towards the centre of Gion. We took a turn into the nishiki street market to ogle at the random food on sale and grab a quick smoothie before carrying further on to try some Kyudo.

 

Alas the Kyudo instructor was out. The sign said he was either to drunk to come in to work or he was teaching at a middle school tournament, I like to think it was the former. Instead we went and had a look at the manga museum. As would become a theme for the trip I got a little more out of this than my friend since I can read Japanese.

The previous day we spent some time wandering around the Arashiyama district in the northern part of Kyoto. It’s a little bit out of the way but I thought it would be a nice place to wander around away from the crowds.

Admittedly there isn’t so much in Arashiyama if you are wanting to do some major sightseeing. It does make up for it in two ways however. One it's a stunning place in terms of natural beauty, I don’t recall seeing any buildings above two stories and it very much has a feel of Japan in ‘the old days’. Secondly there is a massive river flowing through the centre providing much needed cooling in the summer heat.

Our first stop was lunch. Options were a bit limited but we found a nice little caf off the beaten track. One thing I learned from this is that in Japan when you enter a restaurant check the age of the people in the kitchen. As a rule of thumb if they look over 50 you are onto a good thing.

With full bellies we made our way to the riverside to see the Togetsu-kyo (moon crossing bridge). It was a little underwhelming sadly due to the foot and tyre based traffic but I reckon it would look really cool at night. Forging on over the bridge we made a short trip up the nearby mountainside to arashiyama monkey park.

This small mountain was home to roughly 200 Japanese Macaques. Whilst wild they were pretty used to having a human presence and barely turned a bright red cheek at our approach. Normally I don’t go in for animal stuff in Japan but these guys seemed to have it made. Plenty of food and space to chill provided they put on a little show every couple of hours during the day. In fact during one such show there was a stage invasion in the form of a wild boar, much to the crowds amusement.

Descending the mountain we headed towards Tenryu-ji (Heavenly Dragon temple) one of the more famous Buddhist temples of Kyoto. Entering it was clear to see why. If I’m honest the structure didn’t impress me so much, it was fairly typical of temples of the time. The garden on the other hand was amazing. Spreading out into the nearby mountain it covered considerable ground and had one of the prettiest ponds I have yet seen in a temple.

We wandered around the garden for a fair while before heading out the northern entrance to wander through the bamboo forest before turning back to the train station. Sadly we didn't manage to check out Ukai (fishing with trained cormorants) that was happening later in the day but there was always next time ey.

Right that's enough for this leg. Next Tokyo.

Mata ne.

If I were born again.

You know it’s a question that often gets asked and I’m sure a lot of people often consider it. “If you could live your life again what would you do differently”. Now I could be cliché and say “nothing” and that would obviously be a lie. I do love the life I’ve lead and I don’t want to change anything, there is nothing I regret doing. That being said would I do things different given the chance.

Hell yeah.  I mean there are a million, billion possible lives branching of every second that we live. Who knows if they are better or worse but for certain they are different. If you believe the many worlds interpretation then those branches are going on right now. I can definitely say for some of those branches it’s rather other me than me.

So why am I writing this post? Well it was just an interesting thought that came up when talking to some friends and fellow researchers. When a researcher is presented with this question, or some derivative there of, about 90% of the time their answer involves not doing researcher. It amazed me really. If they could change thing they wouldn’t change their field but get out of science altogether.

That got me to thinking, “Is the research life really so hard?”. Well I think not. I’ve never met anyone who does this that isn’t deeply enthralled by what they do, with the drive to do something or find something new. In fact some are so driven that it’s a little scary. Then why given the chance would they get out of science?

I think part of it is that research is always research. Whether you are a field biologist or a theoretical physicist. Ok so in one case you’ll be dredging your way through mud in torrential rain to get that elusive worm sample whilst in the other you’re stuck in front of a huge string of code trying to figure out how the universe comes together but the processes involved are the same. You think of an idea, why it might be so and then you test and test and test.

It can be tough and it can be grinding but in the end it’s always rewarding. The funny thing is, and I know it’s cliché, is that science requires a hell of a lot of creativity and unilateral thinking. It’s no wonder that when asked most scientists cite things as ‘literature’ ‘painting’ ‘graphic design’ etc etc, as their alternate professions. I think no matter how we would be ‘born again’ it would always be into something that requires an unwavering, single minded, determination.

Sorry nothing much about Japan today but just a little bit of insight into the research world. I’ve been thinking a lot about it through the sleepless nights recently. I’ll leave you with a quote from the big boss man of RIKEN and Nobel laureate Professor Noyori.

“If I were to live my life again would I still be a scientist. Definitely not. I’d be a painter”

oyasumi nasai,mata kondo ne.