Hakone

In celebration of the national holiday (I didn't even bother to find out what this one was about... ahhhh something about Verinal Equinox...) I went to Hakone...which is an hour and a half outside of Tokyo (on a rapid train... it takes a lifetime if you go on the local train). So armed with a special three day Hakone freepass we left Shinjuku for Hakone.

The train took us to Hakone-Yumoto, where we changed on to and older style train (Hakone-Tozan line), which had an average speed of a granny on a zimmer frame and due to the fact that there was only one track (expect at stations) there was a complex system of backing in and out of stations to let other trains pass...

we get off at a tiny station of Miyanoshita and walk to Fujiya Hotel (apparently the oldest in Japan) it's very posh...we even stretched to a very nice Lunch there...i had some very tasty fish (rainbow trout...if you're interested...if not. tough.) Anyway, it was all rather western...the decor on the inside, as well as the menu in the very wood-clad dining room with the nice view...

The terrace of Fujiya Hotel

After lunch, we get back on a train (after *just* missing one) so we have to wait for an entire 15mins for another..in japan this is a very long time to have to wait for a train...they usually come every 3mins...) anyway, we head to Gora, to get the Hakone-Tozan Cable Car...which heads up a nice little hill towards Sounzan...the cable car itself is on an incline so the whole thing looks like a parallelogram from the side.

The view from the inside of the slanty cable car...

Then we transfer again to the Hakone ropeway to get which takes us up even higher over the hills and back down again to the spectacular view of the Owakudani sulphur springs...

The Hakone Ropeway car

View of the Sulphur Springs

This area is famous for it's 'kurumatamago' (black eggs) which Hello Kitty is advertising below

We had a smelly little walk around the Sulphur springs before taking a replacement bus (the ropeway between Owakudani and Togendai (the north end of Lake Ashi) was under repair. We then waited to take the Hakone Sightseeing ship (which was a bit of a sight all on it's own) across to the other side, so that we could get to our bed for the night.

We board, a monster of a 'ship', which included fake sails, rigging (made of steel cable), cannons and complete with a chest of tresure. Anyway, it got us to the other side. From where we had a short walk to the Ryokan (a traditional Japanese guest house). we sign in, and settle into our room (which doesn't have a room number, but has the kanjii for autumn and moon). i'm then shown by a hostess, how to wear my Yukata (a japanese version of a dressing gown which is just one step of complexity down from a kimono...) then we sit down to a very nice and large dinner, there's everything from, sashimi to nabe and tenpura...anyway by the end of it i'm stuffed. the hostess comes back with green tea ice cream to round it all off and then provides us with tea while she clears away the dinner we have just devoured. Then, time for Onsen! which was very relaxing...and most appreciated after a day of walking. by the time i have finished my soaking, someone has already come into the room (tatami flooring) and has set up the futons for us! so that all that's left for me to do is go to bed...in my highly relaxed state.

The next morning we get up for the 8am breakfast. Japanese, of course. rice and some pickled stuff, miso soup, some egg...was a bit strange for me, but good none the less.

we then pack our stuff up and head towards the old Hakone Checkpoint...well it's a nice reconstruction with a museum. mainly lost on me because everything was in japanese.

On the other side of the checkpoint, we walked up to a mount Fuji view point...where i saw this very strangly trimmed tree.
anyway, there's mount Fuji hidden by a bit of tree...at least i think it's mount Fuji.


We then take a walk through Ancient Cedar Avenue, to get back to the other side of lake Ashi on the monsterous ship that we used to get over here.

Ancient Cedar Avenue

one of the other monstrous sightseeing ships

The Temple gate in the water.

We then tried to get a bus to the Lalique museum, we did get off a stop early, but then finally managed to get there...it was a really impressive collection of his work, from perfume bottles to furniture...and some really intricate jewellery too...to be honest, some of his sketches looked far better than the finished product. Anyway, as it was a museam, no photos were allowed.

The next three photos are from a temple near where we took the train back into Tokyo (and i can't remember the name of the station or the temple...but we did climb a rather steep path with takoyaki (light snack) to get to it...anyway it was very nice and peaceful and a lovely end to the trip.

White Day

Today is 'White Day' the Japanese equivalent to Valentines day... so I'm sitting at my desk waiting for an onslaught of chocolates from admirers...

...i think i'll have to wait a bit longer...


Anyway, as I may have already mentioned to some of you...Valentines day is done a little differently around this side of the 'ring of fire' and girls are expected to give boys (any boy will do... you don't even have to like them) chocolates... If, however, your chocolate-giving has more of a romantic inclination, the chocolate is somehow meant to be hand made and then hand wrapped in some ornate or cute and fluffy fashion and then handed over to the object of this romantic endevour...probably accompanied by some very cute giggling and eyelid battering...

Funnily enough I didn't make any chocolates. Not least because I have no idea how to...I have a feeling that making your own chocolates actually means buying some chocolate then melting it back down so you can shape into a heart-shape...Personally I consider this cheating.

Anyway, I shall continue to wait in vain...then I'll be off for some climbing this evening....how romantic! :D

Hanami and climbing!

Greetings!

Sunday was a day of looking at the plum blossoms in Yugawara whilst climbing...

It was a lovely sunny day, which made for excellent weather. We were practicing our skills for our upcoming trip to Krabi, Thailand! Muchos Thanks to Bill and his teaching skills and amazing patience.

All the photos below are courtsy of Greg...who isn't in any of the photos, on the account that he was on the operating end of the camera...


From left to right: Annalisa, Bill, Gero and Rei

oooooh look! shoes! how facinating...do you like my felix the cat helmet sticker...I think it's soooo cool...the best thing is, was that is was free... I was buying trash from my favourite 390yen shop (btw the lovely green T-shirt I'm modelling is also from the same shop in Harajuku) on saturday and they didn't charge me for it...mind you, better yet, I found a 380yen shop (wow and extra 10yen saving!!!) which sells rather nice clothing....Barginous!

Gero smoking yet another ciggarette...i counted he smoked an infinite number of ciggaretes ...although i'm not so good at counting, so my counting system goes: 1, 2, 3, many, lots....then InFinitY! Anyway despite his chimney-like properties i have to say that i've never been so impressed that one man could be so entertained by a single stick...which was mainly used to torment Rei...

Me, rope and plum blossom.

close up of plum blossom

Tsugaike Kogen Ski Trip!

The International Students Office organised a tour for the international students of the Univeristy of Tokyo to Tsugaike Kogen. Leaving on the evening 16th Feb for two days of skiing then on monday 19th Feb a visit to a rural Japanese Junior High School.

I was one of the lucky 30 people (the trip is always heavily subsribed...I probably only got in because I'm from england and I think they were making an effort to have a mix of nationalities...)

Right, here are some photos of the ski trip that i just went on...it was amazing! I love it! have to go again...anyway I'll try and fill in more details when I'm feeling less ill (I've managed to catch a cold from faffing about in the snow...)

Group B



Group E

The ski lift up to 'Champion'

At the top of 'Champion'...and yes it was VERY steep... that's why the hill suddenly dissapears behind us....

Me in a kimono! They really pull hard on that belt around the wasit when they put it on. Anyway I think the other girls kimono is much prettier than mine.

The Group Photo at the end of the trip, outside the univeristy ski lodge where we stayed...

on the way from the ski lodge to the junior high school there was lots of lovely snow covered scenery...

The view from the balcony of the school...nice isn't it?

Another almightly group photo...but this time out side the school...and some school kids are with us too...

ahhhh.... the typical japanese pose!

some more lovely scenery...

Chichibu

Another 'study' trip organised by the University of Tokyo for their international students! hurrah!

We had about a 2hour drive from Tokyo to Chichibu, a tiny little town sitting on a little plain surrounded by little hills (mountains by UK standards...)

First stop was making soba noodles...which was very energetic...



This involved jumping up and down on then dough, which was great fun. Unfortunately, i think our group was a little over enthusiastic and managed to break 3 of the plastic bags that we put the dough in before jumping up and down on it...





After the Soba making we crossed over the road to the paper making workshop to make traditional Japanese paper 'Washi'...

That's me trying to make washi...not that you can really tell because my stupid hair is in the way...

...actually it's a stunt double...





The outer layer of the wood is used to get the long wood fibers for washi, here being hung out to dry.



ahh the best part of making soba...is eating soba... with nice tenpura veggies...we actually ate the soba we made.




We then got back into the coach and headed to the river...i'm assuming it's Chichibu river...and had a big group photo and scuttled about on the rocks for a bit...



Me and Tatiana on some rock.


Then back on the coach...whence upon a had a nice little nap and then neatly woke up at the next stop where we went to Chichibu festival hall to look at the very ornate wooden carts that they celebrate the Chichibu festival with on the 3rd of December.


After this we walked on to find another little museam...unfortunately everything was in Japanese so we kinda lost out on the cultural significance of it all.

Then a long bus ride home...

there is also some form of PDF slide show available at the website below...
http://gwp01.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/kouryu/students/CultureHistory.htm
where you can play a game of spot the wayway...

Borat...sorry, Morat

Guess what! I managed to meet my first Uzbekistanian person yesterday. He lives in my halls and his name is Morat!!! How cool is that?!?!?! Anyway apparently there are more Uzbekistanis living here...he knows of at least 5...even better!

Tsukiji Fish Market

No trip to Tokyo is complete with out sushi...and the famous fish market is, well, revered for it's freshness so we thought we'd have to go try...SO, despite Quans jetlag we get up very early and head towards Shimbashi...

Unfortunately, living in Odaiba means that we miss the auctions, which start at 5am (i'm told that you have to be there before 5am to get a look in). Anyway the Yurikamome line's first train is at 530...so No Chance!

Anyhoo, we have a wonder around looking for the famed 'Daiwa Zushi' sushi restaurant, where the guide book tells me is the best place for a sushi brekkie.....mmmmmmm....fishies :D

We wondered around for ages and still could not find where the guide book said Daiwa was...I ened up asking this guy at a stall in very bad Japanese where building 6 was (this is what the guide book gives as an address). Anyway, we were blatently in the wrong place, so we eventually wondered back out of the fish stall bit...trying to avoid being run over by the little motorised trolleys zipping about in very tight spaces laden mostly with polystyrene...


A very bad picture of one of the motorised trolly things...

Eventually, after some near misses with some of these trollies, we found Daiwa, along with a very long queue...but i made Quan stand in line...after all the effort of finding the place i wasn't about to leave with out a sushi breakfast! that would be crazy talk...anyway the very carefully organised queuing system was interesting...especially in such a tight space.



After about 45mins of diligent queuing and a couple of minutes of smearing our faces up against the window we managed to get seats at the counter...and then the fun of ordering in Japanese began!

I only knew the word for tuna = maguro, which is great, because i love tuna! but there were different levels of tuna...normal, fatty, and coronary (ie. more fat than fish). But OHMYGOD!!!! the coronary tuna (it's not really called this but Quan was convinced he could feel his arteries tightening after he ate it) was *gorgeous*...aaaaahhhhh...

We also tried some sea urchin...uni...or something like that (I usually end up saying the word for plum instead of sea urchin...which can be interesting). The worst thing was the prawn...not that it tasted bad...it was just the pyschological trauma (not least to the prawn) of eating a 'not-properly-dead-yet' prawn. It was a little too fresh for my liking. And by 'too' fresh I mean that it was having muscle spasms on my little (giri) lump of rice. This was despite it having been beheaded, de-shelled and de-legged. I was trying to wait for it to stop twiching before I ate it. But it kept on twitching too much...and I rather wanted to stop watching...so mr. prawn met a acidic end...

I'm still planning to go again...so any of you planning to visit are more than welcome to request a trip there... ;)

Imperial Palace - Welcoming in the New Year

Yokohama

After a nice little new years in Odaiba we went to Yokohama in the morning in the search for chinese stuff...

A very strange sculpture of shipping containers near the port of Yokohama...

The view of the port of Yokohama... as we were walking along the promenade we watched a pair standing together, one was throwing bread into the air to the seagulls making them catch it in mid air...whilst the other was just grabbing at the birds who were hovering to try and get the food...a couple he actually just ended up hitting away...but then he caught one by the body! The sea gul flapped alot...but calmed down once the other friend (not holding the bird) fed it some bread. The seagull, a bit pissed off, then proceeded to try and free itself by by biting the guys hand with it's beak...when this didn't work it then turned it's head fully around to the guy holding it to try for his face...which was very far away from it's beak but it had a go anyway. Theh guy holding the bird then taunted the seagull by moving his face closer...sticking the cigarette that he was smoking out towards it's beak, which the bird then bit and very quickly realised it was a bad idea.

A very well designed decking area and roof garden to disguise a port terminal.

A bento box full of traditional Japanese new year foods very kindly given to us by a member of YiPings Lab who drove all the way into Yokohama to meet us for about half an hour!