クレイグの日本

I’ve just had my first Japanese island holiday, on Hachijojima.

As usual (our holidays always start like this) we woke up at a crazy hour of something like six, assembled outside the door and set off for Haneda Airport.

We plunged out of the clouds of Tokyo and into bright sunlight, not dissimilar to when flying in England. The flight there was only 45 minutes and ANA failed to provide an English newspaper like JAL do, so I decided to disobey those stupid rules restricting the use of MP3s and sit there enjoying the sun. I mean seriously, how can an MP3 interfere with flight instruments?!

Plunged back into clouds (because islands can be cloudy too ) and landed.

Hachijojima is a highly vegetated volcanic island with two mountains, maybe about the land size of the Sydney CBD, about 300km from the mainland. It’s very quiet and doesn’t have much but it is famous for onsens, aloe vera, it’s swimmable warm oceans and I almost forgot the bioluminescent mushrooms!

In the afternoon, we had a scuba session booked and it was so so fun that it has knocked snorkelling out of my interests. Scuba diving from now on! The water wasn’t tropical or anything special but much like Clovelly. Only differences really were that it wasn’t crowded and one can see schools of cuttlefish/squid here. My Japanese dictionary tells me cuttlefish and squid are the same thing but that can’t be right. Someone explain the difference? Our scuba instructor was a cool guy and kept us entertained.

On the second day we visited a “dairy farm” which I would have called some cows and a fence. I tried to go and pat the cows but they ran away from me. Thankfully, a rather fantastic view made up for the lack of cow-patting.

Feeling lethargic about searching for bioluminescent mushrooms at night, we went to the information centre to check them out there instead. They had a display of them curtained off and it was like seeing glow worms in mushroom form. I wonder if they have any intoxicating effect…

Next memorable moment was experiencing (seeing and feeding grass to) a rare animal found only on Hachijojima and parts of China called a Kyon. It looks like a miniature deer, has funny eyes and goes crazy for grass (the green blade growing type).

That night I waited patiently for the onsen (hot baths) to empty but gave up when there was one man left who didn’t seem to want to come out. So I went in and he got out fairly quickly afterwards. Maybe the being alone and naked in the company of a foreigner got to him. Anyway, I was happy. I had an indoor/outdoor onsen from which nothing but the Pacific Ocean could be seen, to myself.

Dinner was mostly a variety of sea creatures from the aforementioned ocean. I can’t say I snacked in.

The morning of day three, sunlight shined through our hotel room as if a present to us from Hachijojima for our last day. We spent it well, driving around in our rental car, checking out the aloe vera fields, lighthouse, cafés and goats. “GOATS?!” you may ask. Yes, we spotted some goat(s?) in the car and prompty reversed into a large cow dropping in an attempt to park. The goats were also fed grass and they entertained us for ten or so minutes.

So, I think that sums up my holiday.

Kamakura is an oldy-worldy town about an hour south of Tokyo. I came here with my class on an excursion to do all the touristy things of which you can read about here. This time however I decided to tag along to an AFS (other exchange organisation) hike up one of the mountains.

The AFS lady kicked up a fuss when I arrived about it being a meeting solely for AFS students. It was a hike up a public mountain and I really didn’t understand her logic. A big problem with certain Japanese people is they aren’t logical or they make a fuss without being able to explain what the issue is. Endless frustration. Anyway, mid-complaint she decided to let me tag along.

Near the top there was a clearing of trees providing a view of the town and the sea so everyone assembled for a photo.

Because of the aforementioned issue, I didn’t have time to buy lunch. The AFS lady surprisingly gave me some spare onigiri, and we got talking after that. We all sat down at the top and had lunch, we being my AFS friends who came to this meet, Tillie (Adelaide), Boba (Russia), Gabby (Chile), Fiammi (Switzerland), some of their host families and two returnees. The returnees were really fun. Kano went to Germany (really cool seeing a Japanese person speak German!) and Kazuki to America.

There was a temple garden on the way back to the station so everyone went in, Fiammi and Kano provided much amusement with German tongue-twisters.

Afterwards Tillie and I went to catch the cheap movie day and ended up seeing “No Reservations”. It was just another typical American movie but it did entertain.

Just been winter shopping. 2 thick shirts and 3 jumpers all under $100! How I love Japan.

In desperate need of a haircut. I’m going to Hachijojima (an island 300km of the coast) on Tuesday and I don’t want to be scuba diving with insane hair!
Operation emergency haircut commences tomorrow.

EDIT: I had a haircut, the photo below is of me, my newly cut hair and my funky hairdresser (Satomi’s friend, Yuki)!

I had cooking class today. It’s so great! Instead of the usual sitting in class learning food formulas and how calories are going to kill us all, we get to make our own lunch.
Differences to Year 8 cooking is that we don’t spend periods studying the meal beforehand and that it is an actual meal not cookies or muffins or whatever it was we cooked. Yes, I know cookies and muffins are great but you can’t live off them for the rest of your life!
Anyway, today was miso marinated mackrel, soy spinach and egg broth soup.

On Sunday I met with Daniel and took him to the maid cafe that I went to with Sam and Kaspar that I’ve yet to blog about (but will, sometime). We also checked out new cameras for me and a new laptop for him.
Just before we were going to go home Daniel found a Brazilian spit roast joint so he wanted to sit down and have something. I ended up having an acai juice and we shared a bowl of what I’d call cheese damper balls. I’m sure it sounds better in Portuguese.
When I got home, I attacked my broken camera with a screwdriver because really I’m not quite ready to folk out $500 for a new one. I managed to fix the problem but reassembly was a pain in the arse - the alignment of the lens must be exact otherwise it stuffs and then requires ten minutes to unstuff. So yes, as new, YAY! I’m on my way home as I write this. To up my exercise and cut train usage I walk from a farther station. What’s cool though is the walk is a multiple kilometre long river/garden with board walk. If I had a professional camera I’d be here to take photos in a jiffy.
Until next unoccupied moment!

I’ve just had a jam packed fun day. I started my day with a ride in a shinkansen (bullet train) to Odawara, which in itself is excitement enough! It was my first time in one so I feel I must report the experience.

I bought a shinkansen-only ticket yesterday on my run, unsure if it alone would let me ride, which in the end didn’t. What I had to do was buy a cheap admission on my end and get Tillie to bail me from her station by buying some on her end (thanks Tillie!).

Anyway, the experience! It did zoom, but it wasn’t surprisingly fast. The shinkansen tracks are raised from the ground so looking out the window feels like you’re in a plane about to hit the runway. As smooth one too! Disappointment with the seating however, I had to use the smoking car to have a window seat. Looking forward to a faster/longer shinkansen experience when mum comes.

From Odawara we caught a train to Hakone. Hakone can be done by car or otherwise but most people (ourselves inexcluded) decide to take the scenic transport route. The first was a train that zigzagged up on of Hakone’s mountains by reversing the same way out of each station but on an inclining track. Funny to see the confused ones wondering why we were reversing. Second was a 20゜inclined train pulled up by a cable. Halfway up I was playing with my camera and checked the memory stick slot to find it was empty. Because my screen has now broken, I couldn’t tell it wasn’t actually taking all the photos I took that day. I was pissed off. Am now in much need of a new camera. On this second cable train type thing we could see the clearing in the trees for the large kanji that they bonfire once a year on the mountain (wiki photo).

The third transport component of this adventure was a cable car that delivered us to Owakudani Station (wiki photo), where a few things can be done. Whilst on the way to Owakudani you pass over the workers below working near the smoking sulfur-releasing ground. The whole of Owakudani smells of sulfur, and while Tillie hated the smell, I don’t mind it so it was OK. We both bought a cooked sweet potato and set on our way to see the sulfur boiling pond thingyos (maybe like a geyser but with gas and not so insanely powerful). At the top of a small trail the were hard-boiling eggs in the ponds which made them black eggs once they came out. It’s the thing to eat up there so we bought a dozen to share. Sadly they weren’t very different to their white counterparts.

Off we were on a different cable car to Lake Ashi for our pirate boat trip to the other end of the lake, haha. I think the population of that boat was 50% foreign, the largest ratio of foreigners I had come across until a few hours later (I’ll get to it). Took many a-photo but sadly I can’t retrieve them from Tillie yet.

We arrived at Hakone-machi (Hakone city) and did some exploring of souvenir shops, little Japanese boutique shops and a temple. An extremely friendly storekeeper enticed us in with free tea and samples of all sorts of food, so we had a look. Then she showed us these boxes that required up to 24 moves to open. Great for keeping secrets I imagine.

The bus stop was already crowded when we got there and we’d managed to decide to catch a bus before the last service thankfully. The bus was 25 minutes away but there was a line already and we did want to sit when we got on the bus so Tillie stood and I sat patiently in the line. We farewelled Hakone from the bus while the sun set.

At the station we arrived at next, providing us with a route back to Odawara, there was a whole group of Australian looking teenage boys. We got on a waiting train and when the teacher of the group was asking people if the train was going where they wanted in Japanese I stepped in. So they all bundled in and we got talking with the teacher, who happened to be a Japanese teacher at Barker College. So here we were in a train carriage with 30 or so Barker boys and their teachers, which outweighed the ratio to Japanese by more than 50%. It was really odd to see so many Australian teenagers at once because it’s been so long.

At Odawara, we sent the group off in the direction of the shinkansen and Tillie and I went to get purikura (common thing to do in Japan). With no time for coffee, I set out to Kawasaki to meet Satoshi. Received a phone call from dad so that kept me entertained on the way there. After arriving at Kawasaki with an hour to spare I decided to go to Uni Qlo (major clothing retailer) for a cheap jumper, of which I did score for $20. Met Satoshi, he did what he needed at his fathers office and then we set out to have dinner with his mother. She’s a real character, always makes me laugh. Today she said (in English) in a creepy voice, “Come in…”. She meant when we go over to their house on Monday we should “come in” and clean, haha.

So anyway, a shinkansen ride, a trip to Hakone, meeting the Australian population on a train and dinner with Satoshi’s mother. What else could one need from a day?!

The Tamagawa is the most famous River in Japan, separating the Tokyo metropolitan area from Kanagawa (second most populus area of Japan), home to the two famous cities Yokohama and Kawasaki. I live near the river on the Kanagawa side and go to school near the river on the Tokyo side. It’s about the only green/natural thing anywhere near Tokyo so it’s great to be near it. My new Friday timetable consists of two free periods in the middle of the day. I’m supposed to be in the library for them but it’s so damn uncomfortable it’s impossible to study in. Which is why, today, I have decided to spend my Friday free periods lying in the grass on the banks of the river eating lunch, studying Japanese or blogging like now. There are mums and grandpas with kids having picnics, elderly men fishing in the river, cyclists out cycling, joggers out jogging. The sky is blue, the grass is green, the river is sparkling, the sun is shining, the birds are twirping and there’s a nice warm breeze. This is what I call a place to study!

I’m currently being taught Australian history by my Japanese history teacher. This teacher is so interesting, even though it’s in Japanese it’s more interesting than it ever was in English lol. Things I’ve learnt today: * Tasmania supplies Japan with soba noodles out of season. * There’s a mountain in New Zealand called Mt. Cook.
I’m sure the list will keep growing!

Yesterday at two thirty in the morning we had another earthquake. We hadn’t had one, or at least I haven’t noticed one in months! Sometimes you get the odd bitchy one that shakes you awake (I’m a futon user). I’m still not quite used to them yet so it’s always a mental process of “Why have I gone dizzy?” then “Oh no I’m not, that’s just coming home” then “Oh no, it IS an earthquake!”. Then you (or at least I do) sit watching the furniture, thinking about bullet trains and gas pipes and people walking on the street while the ground dances. As long as the massive overdue Tokyo earthquake doesn’t hit while I’m here I think I’ll always be intrigued by them. Today, I’m back at school and I’ve just had an IT lesson. We’re obtaining the fantastic skill of copy and paste in Excel. Terribly hard, I know. I’m trying my hardest! These teenagers seem like cavemen but they live in this technologically advanced world. *shrug* Just had a yum cooked lunch. Loving the Japanese style lunchbox! “Obento” if you’re Wikipediaing. Better get back to a completely ununderstood calligraphy lesson!

Just been to IKEA Japan with Tilly! Went there to purchase a $5 reading light but instead came back with one costing $15 and one of those curly bamboo things for $1.50! Probably can’t smuggle it home though

We caught the free IKEA bus which happened to play a video of this Swedish blonde speaking Japanese playing over and over. She had such perfect Japanese I’m fairly certain it was dubbed. Anyway, weird bus video experience that.

Oh, forgot about the non-IKEA stuff we did today in all that IKEA excitement. We went to Sakuragicho because I knew there were good shops for clothes shopping. In need of a nice cheap jumper due to this fantastic cold weather it changed to in a matter of two days. Didn’t find anything perfect which is good for budgeting but not great for body temperature. Tokyo has some great districts of second-hand clothing so I’ll resume my search of a good jumper in those places when I confirm this isn’t just a cold wave (opposite of heat wave is…?) Almost home so I’ll get onto that Fuji blog if I don’t feel MSN-sociable, lol.

So after many failed attempts of trying to blog I have an idea. Do small blogs on my phone whilst unentertained on trains and such. Like now. Today’s plan was to meet a giant bunch of AFS exchange students in Kamakura and check out the things there again. Kamakura has a giant Buddha and a beach among a few other rare things. Anyway just had a message saying it’s cancelled so I’m now on my way to Oofuna to meet Tilly and decide what we can do today. It was cancelled I’m sure due to weather because Tokyo just turned wintery and is currently raining. I love this weather!

Tilly is running late so I had a coffee at my local coffee shop which does the best coffee in Japan and has a friendly owner. He always goes “Hot chai, isn’t it?” usually my reply is yes but today I surprised him by deciding to check out the coffee and have a latte.

Almost at Yokohama now so I’ll wrap up this blog. Hopefully I can keep up this style. I think I have to add photos from my computer at a later stage because if I send phone photos it likes to append an essay of gobbledygook to the end of the blog instead.

P.S Almost have the Fuji blog ready too so check back! Comments, comments, comments?

We had planned long and hard for this trip to and up Mt. Fuji, so we weren’t going to give up halfway up the mountain by any chance. Another reason not to stop halfway is when you make it to the top you have the royalty to be able to drop “I climbed Mt. Fuji” into any mountain-related conversation.

The months prior to the actual climb were spent emailing, faxing, mailing, calling and discussing every aspect of a 48 hour trip with host families, exchange organisations, insurance companies, etc. We wanted Kaspar to come along also but his host family change was right in the middle of our plans. Anyway, in the end everything worked out because we purchased a personal guide to take us up the mountain the trip was approved. Team members were Sam, Shota (previous host brother), Mr Guide and myself. Since I had no mountain-acceptable clothing I had my ski suit sent over (Thanks mum!) which I remembered on arrival was still and probably will always be slightly too big for me.

Set out just after five, Noborito bound, to meet with Sam and then meet Shota in his car in Shinjuku. The map we had with us was surprisingly unhelpful but thanks to my intuition we met with Shota unproblematically. After a few hours in the car and we’d driven to 2300 metres altitude, we arrived at Mt. Fuji Fifth Station. This is the highest point of vehicular access and is where most climbers start from. We were a few hours early for the guide so we had a brunch of noodles and checked out the souvenir shops. Sam and I bought small wooden stick things to be sear-stamped at the peak. Went back to the car for a last organise of what we actually needed and then waited for the Guide.

Mr Guide turned out to be about 30, looking all professional with his fancy shoes, radio, flashing lights etc. We got under way after he gave our gear a visual inspection and we’d chatted, everyone happy and energetic.

Somehow, Mt. Fuji looks innocent and tame from the fifth station. As you’re going to be climbing more than a kilometre vertically you’d think you’d look upwards to the top, but no, it’s a sidewards glance. Very misleading. This photo makes it look like we’re going for a walk in the park (photo).

At the very start, you go downwards. Not at all settling seeing as the more you go down the more there is to climb back up again at some point. At this stage it was very cloudy but good weather otherwise. The initial climb is exhausting and steep and you start to hope it isn’t like this for the next eight hours. On the way to Sixth Station, we passed people on horses. Apparently you can pay for a lift to Sixth Station! If anyone is thinking of climbing this mountain I’d say get a horse and have a) less to climb and b) more energy. Got a pre-sick happy photo (photo).

Sixth Station didn’t really have anything except a man handing out brochures, and some port-a-loos. With nothing to see here, we carried on.

The route from Seventh Station to the top is dotted with huts for resting/sleeping or buying food. I had a cup of noodles and later on a cup of cocoa. The terrain became rocky/volcanic (photo). When we realised we were above the clouds we started taking photos (some members wearing crazy beanies) (photo). At three thousand metres we had a nice group shot taken (photo).

We arrived at our hut (Eight Station) at maybe 5 or 6, and it was a GREAT view. Not only where we now in the layers of cloud but looking down at Japan was like we were in a plane! The cities looks miniature, the ocean looks pretty, you know, that kind of view.

We had a set meal in the really small sit-on-the-floor-type dining room, which wasn’t too bad. Got hurried out and had nothing much to do but rest so we got ready for bed. The space allocated for each person was just enough to sleep in. Meaning no space to turn or stretch a leg. I’ve never had to sleep like that so I was surprised how hard it was. The pillow was beans in a bag covered in plastic and the doona was a sleeping bag. They didn’t have to give us this little space because no one actually came to sleep in the twenty allocated spaces next to us during the night. I was fed up of being cramped so I crawled over and stretched like a star in bliss. I would have maybe had an OK nights sleep if we had had the whole twenty persons area.

We all woke up with bad hair, bad moods and feeling overall crappy six hours later at midnight. It was time to continue our climb to the top to be in time for the 4:45 sunrise. The great view of yesterday was even better now it was at night with the glistening city lights. I tried to take photos but none were worth uploading.

We found our guide and set out again. The path was now clearly visible because of the thousands of people climbing with their head lights. Right bar lights were also flashing to indicate the mountain guides. Because our group was so small, Shota was given the other red bar light. At this point I was starting to get a headache and I remember Sam and I swearing about how bright they were. Whenever we stopped, it would be flash, ow, flash, ow, flash, ow. Due to large groups, it was a slow climb to the top. Can’t remember much about this part of the journey because everyone was really tired, I coming down with a headache and we were mostly silent, stuck in uphill motion. At 1am we had a quick rest and had a group+guide photo (photo)!

Right at the top, just before you come to where everything is, you walk through a Japanese style gate (I’m sure Sam has a photo of us here, I’ll receive photos from her soon, won’t I?!). The sky brightened like someone was using a dimmer switch and the sun threatened to rise early but then it dimmed back down due to clouds.

At the top is a large wooden marker and we had photos with it. I was feeling completely awful with my headache and starting to become nauseous so I had to fake-smile through photos that we took with Sam’s camera (Hi Sam!). We had our wooden sticks seared with a stamp and then went in search of toilets and somewhere to sit down. In the end I didn’t eat anything, but was sick a few times in the $2 pay-toilet. Ah, the fun had at the summit. Anyway, felt a bit better after everything was out of my stomach and returned. The sky changed dramatically again and everyone “ooooohed” and rushed to the cliff face. I was in so much discomfort I thought who cares about the sunrise but then talked myself into going for it because what else was I up here for?! I got some nice photos but the one I like most has someone’s camera and hand in an outline (photo).

After everyone had realised the sun had risen we had a bit of a walk. The crater of Mt. Fuji (don’t forget it’s a volcano) was really interesting, I wish I had of taken a photo. There were trees growing down in there! With snow! And it was a really big drop down!

We departed surprisingly early, but I wasn’t complaining as I wanted to be magically transported to a nice bed on ground level. I found the downhill easier and there’s no doubt it was faster, but Sam really hated it and had a bit of a yell after one of her more dramatic stacks. That gave me a laugh and cheered me up a bit (I know, I’m evil). Descending Mt. Fuji means zigzagging all the way down the mountain on small volcanic rock that gave way all the time. Once you get the hang of it it’s like skiing with shoes… on rocks. It was more mentally painful than physically because we could see the bottom and zigzagging took so long and felt so wasteful. If there were snow and we had skis I’m sure we could have descended in less than half an hour. And what a fantastically long trail it would be too! There was actually some snow on Mt. Fuji that we did touch (photo) but you couldn’t ski for more than two lengths of a ski on it so that would have been unpurposeful.

We had the last few kilometres of going upwards because you know, we went downwards at the start. I just wanted to go as fast as we could and hug the car, but the group trailed behind. I felt ever-so-slightly better down at Fifth Station. The heatlhy members of the group had icecream (photo). We said our thanks and byes to our guide and he said he’d better go get some sleep because HE WAS CLIMBING IT AGAIN TOMORROW. He was also climbing it every day for the next few days! Here’s the three of us thinking “Never again will we climb this mountain” and he was climbing it tomorrow for probably the bazillionth time!

I’m so glad I climbed it but I don’t think I ever will again, mostly due to how sick I felt. It was undoubtedly a once-in-a-lifetime experience watching the sun rise with nothing around it and to have been above the clouds, just completely different to living on the ground.

WE’VE CLIMBED MT FUJI!

Link to Sam’s blog on our Mt. Fuji climb here.

So, for the last umpteen hours I’ve been trekking Mt. Fuji. It’s a hell of an amount of work climbing from 2000m in altitude to 3776m. Currently writing this at 3454m. Brain complaining of lack of oxygen but surprisingly my legs are yet to. You all complain it’s cold in Sydney?! Try trekking Mt. Fuji in skiwear! Over and out.

Blog written whilst ascending Mt. Fuji. My blog-by-phone checker stuffed up and is now working you see.

Satomi had organised a big farewell dinner for a doctor leaving her hospital. I had woken really late and Satomi was ringing every five minutes and asking where I was. When I eventually did end up leaving, she was waiting at the front with the bike on which I got a lift

Everytime there’s a group gathering there are always people who are like “Who’s foreigner is this, why is he here and where did he come from?” Apparently us foreigners are pretty interesting people. I don’t imagine Japanese people meet foreigners very often so when they like to talk to you and ask questions and occasionally give you things. I’ve received high-class umeboshi (thanks Kuniko!) and finger-trap-toys from Okinawa (thanks Rika!).

Anywoo, it was nice food and there was a good atmosphere. Satomi took a photo of Me, Rika and the departing doctor (photo).

We all walked down to the local peace park to set off fireworks. Yep, peace park, fireworks. It had been a present for the doctor so we had a giant package of fireworks to use up. So many photos on the photo gallery of this night so check them out! The doctor and I lighting fireworks (photo) and a group photo (photo).

If you’ve been to a sushi train restaurant in Sydney, you probably thought it was pretty rad. Wait until you here about a Japanese one! We went by car with Satomi’s friend Hozumi and her boyfriend. When we arrived there was a short wait but that wasn’t much of a problem.

The main difference between this sushi train and a Sydney one was its size and layout. All the ones in Sydney I’ve been too are just a counter-type set-up where you have lunch right next to strangers. Here, there were two branches of conveyor belt with tables on each side of each branch. Each table had a fancy touch-screen order panel (many restaurants here seem to). You can order particular sushi rather than pick something from off the train. The table system then will notify you when your sushi is coming up so you can grab it off the train. Your drinks and deserts and salads and whatnot all come on the train (photo).

Once you had finished your plate, you put it into a slot that I presume carries your plate into the kitchen washing machine. It also calculates your total and notifies the waitress when you tell the table you’re finished. Everything’s just so efficient! After you’d put in six plates or so it offered you a game and if you won, a toy would be released from the machine.

Satomi took us a happy snap outside the place (photo).

I’m waiting for the introduction of these fun sushi restaurants in Sydney!

First invite to go somewhere with school friends and I wasn’t about to turn it down! Not that I’m a great fan of football, but now at least if someone’s having a conversation about Manchester United I can go “Hey! I saw them!” and them go back to my non-football thinking self.

So, I met up Naoto at a station near my house. Despite there being a single train from that station that would have taken us all the way there he wasn’t keen on the idea and so we took umpteen trains there, getting lost at several points across Tokyo and Saitama.

We eventually arrived at the station for Saitama Stadium. It’s kinda like Telstra Stadium in the way it was used for some massive event (FIFA World Cup) and now just little things. Followed the trail of supporter clothing, mostly red.

The line for entry was already huge because they were unallocated seats. We sat on the ground under umbrellas waiting for two other friends. Eventually they let us in but our other friends hadn’t come yet so they had some heavy waiting to do when they did come. We grabbed some seats, wiped them down and put towels over them.

We had a few hours to wait out and while we did it decided to rain continuously. Everyone had their umbrellas out so no one could see the field. As the game started we all had to take down our umbrellas and sit there in the rain. In the middle of a Tokyo summer and we were there freezing it out soaking wet watching the game.

I managed to get a photo of a goal just as it flew past the goalie’s hands (photo). Didn’t get any nice photos of any of us, however :(.

The walk back to the station took about 40 minutes at a Japanese-style crawl in the rain. Apparently the whole world’s population was hanging out at Saitama Stadium that day.

Having had my haircut, and testing out my natural colour for a week or so, I thought it too boring and went to look for suitable bleach. The problem with using packet bleach from Japan is that it’s all designed to be used on jet black hair. So I was imagining myself with something like white hair or bright yellow.

So I went out and bought the strongest grade because it pictured the best resulting non-yellow colour. I showed Satomi and then she transformed into a hairdresser and got the gloves on. We mixed up the bleach and then squirted and rubbed it all over. It suggested 30 minutes for jet black hair so we gave it 5 minutes and then I rushed into the shower because I thought i’d over done it. With no mirror in the shower, I was imagining all these different weird colours it could have turned. Rushed out, shut my eyes, got in front of the mirror and opened them. Slightly yellow, but otherwise, awesome and much better than before! Sadly, no before/after photos. However, if you look at my Aomori photos you’ll find my natural colour.

Thankfully, all yellow was gone after a week!

Today Satoshimi kept me in the dark and just said we were going to Harajuku somewhere to see something. We arrived at some giant gorgeous building, checked in at some desk and then was taken via the lift to a room with a load of seats. Someone then came to fetch us and let us through a giant door into what looked like a temple. At the same time, a couple dressed up for a wedding came through from the real entrance and a trail of people after them. So for a few minutes I thought I was at a real wedding until I noticed tea pouring people fake-pouring tea and the couple were fake-drinking the fake-tea. Still, being here in Japan my mind has been widened so I thought well OK, maybe it’s tradition. But then I realised the guests were all couples and all had cameras and such and most were dressed in casual clothes. Then it clicked! A fake wedding! Weird experience.

After that there were other things that they demonstrated. Everything from music to kimonos to dresses to food to seating layout to room style. We were all served nicely presented pieces of food, Japanese style. I ate something that looked like egg but I fear was something scary from the sea. The waitress kept asking me what drink I wanted next and so I had to check with Satomi that we weren’t being charged lol. Once I had that established I drank like a fish :D. Not that fishes drink?

So they organised a heap for their wedding. We were taken onto the balcony and I saw that there were turtles in the pond below (photo)! So that was me convinced. As long as there are turtles I’m there!

The wedding will be on January the 12th in Harajuku.

We woke for an early breakfast for 8:42 according to my photos. This Ryokan had a large breakfast area and a buffet with so much yummy looking food! We had breakfast outside which must have been the first and single time i’ve eaten it outside in Japan (photo). I miss outside breakfasts. Leaving the Ryokan we got a group photo (photo).

We paid a visit to a relative / family friend of Satomi’s. I’d never seen a house so traditionally Japanese! It had prayer rooms, walking rooms, drinking tea rooms, all sorts! Another wonder that I can’t explain, nor can photos, of traditional Japan. I got some snaps of rice growing (photo) (I’d never thought about how rice grows!) and some yellow flowers against a bright blue sky (photo).

We said our farewells, hopped in the car and then drove to a small café that Satomi had some connection with again haha. The food was nice, but the drinks were more interesting. They had things like “Magic Mystery Juice 1″ and “Magic Mystery Juice 2″. Satomi and I had to check them out! Number 1 was lovely but number 2 consisted of tomato juice and something tropical, not a combination I go out of my way to drink. Oh! Juice drinking photo (photo)!

Hopped in the car again, this time to Hirosaki Castle. It’s now a museum but they’ve retained the original stairwells and you could still stick your head through the stone windows. It has a moat and cute water lilies and tiny bridges and all sorts. Got a nice snap with my host parents and the castle (photo).

Satoshi’s dad picked some berries from a tree and gave them out to us. We all ate them, something you just can’t do in Australia without potentially requiring hospital treatment! They were yum, I’m still here! Another thing he did was catch a dragonfly in his hands and then swing his hands around. This is just something they do in Japan. When you open your hands, the dragonfly is so dizzy it will just stay clung on and slowly moving its wings (photo).

That was the end of our weekend minibreak. Got a snap with the map of Aomori at the airport (photo). On the flight home a flight attendant gave us some Tanzaku (small strips of paper you write your wishes on that are attached to trees / poles at shrines. The last time I came to Japan we visited a shine in Saitama that had a tree completely covered in these you almost couldn’t see the tree! Anyway, we wrote our wishes and gave them back to her (photo). Translation: I wish to be able to become a pilot. Satomi’s says I wish to be able to get married in January.

It was a lovely trip right up north that was a break from Tokyo’s summer heat and lack of vegetation. I have discovered a love for vegetation. Not to eat! To look at!

Aomori is located right at the top of the major island of Japan, right below Hokkaido. Our main aim up there was to convince Satomi’s father that Satoshi was a good guy to be marrying her. Other aims were to be absorbed by greenery and relax, away from bustling Tokyo.

Because the flights were just so damn early, Satoshi’s father and mother came to pick us up. They were coming with us too but were on slightly later flights. It was a lovely view of Tokyo Harbour from the car on the way to Haneda Airport.

Our flight was with JAL. Everything was in English after the Japanese and the captain even spoke in English afterwards! I don’t know if this was because I was on the flight or if they have to speak in English all the time as a rule. My foreigner bonus was a free edition of The New York Times and, although American, gave me something to read.

We arrived in Aomori before we knew it and the captain told us it was a lovely temperature of 22 or something, very exciting to me living in boiling Tokyo. Satoshimi had a smoko break and we hopped on a bus to some shopping centre in the middle of nowhere where we were to meet Satoshi’s parents in a rent-a-car. On this bus I just looked out of the windows in awe at the rolling hills of lush, green tress. I have never seen so much green! Or, maybe I was just overwhelmed because we’d just woken up in Tokyo and now HELLO TREES.

Did some shopping of cheap running shirts and had a look at the rest of the shopping centre before we got a call that the parents had arrived. We had lunch in a really traditional Japanese restaurant and I probably had tempura again (I love tempura! Such an easy and delicious way to eat veg!).

Decided to get the aim of the trip hit on the head so we could relax the rest of the time away. Satomi’s dad had proved to be a very difficult man on the phone and if anyone was expecting a welcome, they were utterly wrong. Satomi’s mum eventually convinced him to let us into the house for a civilised discussion and when we had all sat down in the lounge I felt extremely out of place! I was blonde, foreign, unknown to him and in a bright blue shirt. The others were all in formal and/or dulled down clothing, civilly discussing marriage. It was very tense for the first ten minutes while I sat uncomfortably trying to look like I had some clue about what was being discussed. Afterward, Satomi took me into the back rooms to meet her grandmother and to have tea and a chat with her mother.

Everything seemed to have been sorted when we went back. Satoshi’s mum looked like she had done a great job rebutting any issues in extremely polite Japanese. Kudos to her! Everyone but Satomi’s father came to mingle in the very pretty vegetable garden, also home to the family dog! He was damn cute but seemed to have an issue with me, haha. Oh well, I got heaps of photos of him from the safety of where his leash wouldn’t go (photo).

On the way to a restaurant of which Satomi had some connection, we passed many great places for photos and finally I demanded we stopped the car so I could photo one of the surrounding mountains (photo). I just love mountains. The only exception are mountains where you can’t see the top while climbing (shakes fist at Mt. Fuji!)

We had all sorts of things at the restaurant, but two members were getting tired and needed to go back to the Ryokan (photo), so it came to a close.

Satoshimi went to the Ryokan’s Onsen while I read (I’m not keen on the public nakedness, especially when everyone looks at you even when you have clothes on) and it was called a night.

Started the day lazily and went for my haircut in Roppongi with Satomi. Always wanting a change when I go to a hairdresser but never seem to get anything wonderfully fantastic. After the haircut I had my real colour but it was too boring so (in the future of today, haha) I dyed it again.

We popped up the road and into a cute little restaurant and had a tempura meal or something like that. Satomi had a headache so she decided to go home instead of come with me to meet Shun.

As Shun was on his way out of the country back home to Sydney, I thought I’d better catch up with him.

Having never been to Shinagawa before, I thought well, why not meet there? But it turned out mostly a commercial district with not much to do and hard to find somewhere nice to eat! Probably could have met somewhere better but Shun’s train to Narita left from there.

The station was so packed with shops it felt like there were more shops inside the station that out! Walking out of the ticket barriers, looked at the triangle clock and Shun was standing right under it. Easy enough.

Searching for a nice place to eat meant getting lost a few times in a shopping centre and crossing the main road a few times. One time we crossed the road a woman appealing for donations for something came up to Shun and started yaddering away. Shun played the I’m-a-foreign-tourist-from-Australia-I-can’t-speak-Japanese trick and then she started throwing English keywords at us! Feeling really bad, as you do, we crossed the road tearing away from her. It was real funny for me knowing full well Shun speaks fluent Japanese.

So, we found an American-styled café with waitresses in really weird dresses and dined over food I can’t remember, haha. It was good anywho.

We then went and waited for Shun’s train on the platform and laughed quietly to ourselves because of all the foreigners panicking with no clue as to where to wait for their train.

Haha, fun day it was.

Today I made the Craig version of Tamagoyaki. Apart from doing the folding self-surprisingly well, I managed to create something that wasn’t overly sweet nor salty, but edible, for my Japanese host parents (keyword Japanese).

Making the mix is incredibly easy, just throw in two eggs, soy sauce, sugar and dashi into a bowl. Give it a bit of a whisk and there’s ya mix!

The folding is the annoying part. Basically you throw enough mix in to make a very thin layer, let it omelettise, start from one side and fold it over and over. Once you have a long folded up piece in on one side of your pan add some mix and once omelettised, fold the large piece over the new stuff. Keep repeating until you’ve used your mix up. The idea of this folding is to create a texture you can see when cross-cut. Anyone who’s had it on sushi can understand. So, do the cross cutting into little bite-sized pieces, and voila, you (hopefully) have Tamagoyaki on your plate.

Yoriko (my first long-term Japanese homestay in Sydney) taught me how to make this however many years ago it was. Feel proud Yoriko (or disappointed, haha).

A photo of myself (looking extremely feminine) and the Tamagoyaki in question:

Shin-Yurigaoka became the hang out place to meet Sam for two reasons. A) It was pretty cool and B) Sam was too lazy to go anywhere and ShinYuri was only five minutes for her.

So, the usual things we got up to in Shinyuri were; stationary shopping, buying books to add to the libraries we seem to have started at home, coffeeing, Maccas salading, food court browsing. Sometimes even going to the library gardens and being attacked by giant flying Japanese insects.

Today we had lunch in a restaurant called “Ducky Duck”. Only because I had a real problem recalling what the hell Ducky Duck was and why I’d spend $20 at it when going through my receipts can I now remember the name of this restaurant. Had a real hard time trying to work out what the waitress was trying to tell us so agreed it was probably something about the salad bar.

Had a green tea latté, probably did some Mt. Fuji shopping and then farewelled Shinyuri.

After getting up at some hectic hour like 10, we were meant to make our way to the festival thingy for about 12, but after lazing around we discovered it to be 2 and so we rushed out to see what this festival really was.

Most of the presentations and speeches and such were over but there was still ten minutes of a Wollongong University presentation left so we went to have a look. The last ten minutes ended up being two male Wollongong University students who looked like they hadn’t showered in a while in jinbei (pyjama-like Japanese clothes) singing something in thick Aussie accents whilst strumming to a guitar. Two girls in yukata (presumably also from The Gong) were there but they must have already finished their performance. I thought they’d be all Japanese-fluent like, but after the first unsuccessful Japanese question no one asked anything and it finished up.

A few African / Middle Eastern women were offering coffee making and dancing demonstrations and the like but I couldn’t see myself nor Satoshimi attending them.

So, we had some lunch bought from a woman who kept bunding food into Satomi’s hands and saying 3.2 for the price of 2½ and other confusing stuff, Satomi gave in and bought whatever it was. It ended up being prawn everything, so I had to operate on the various items of food before they were Craig-safe.

We gave the area a last survey and headed off to Kawasaki to watch Shrek 3. Arrived a tad early and so went scavenging for coffee/cake. Found a pub with cake so all was well. It was rather western style but really modern so I needed a photo of myself in it (photo).

We’d received news that Satomi’s sister was in hospital for a throat infection or something of the like. So, we hopped, skipped and jumped all the way to Funabashi. Took a taxi to the hospital and asked for her sister’s name. They told us there was record of her in the system. We checked the mail from the sister, checked the name of the hospital and wore very muddled faces. We checked the nurse station, and no recollection of her there either. It wasn’t until we got into a taxi outside the hospital that the sister rang back and told us that she was in a different hospital after all.

So, my first meeting with Satomi’s sister was in a Funabashi hospital and she was walking around attached to a nutrient bag. We walked around, talked, sat, played with her nutrient drip and then went downstairs to lounge on the lounges.

Before leaving, we took some photos. One is of me fake-reading a manga (photo), and the other the critically ill (!) and myself (photo).

Just look how fine she was:

So, you may have picked up from the title that I’m not a big seafood fan… Why I’m in the land of seafood, I don’t know. What I do know is the Japanese use any excuse to include seafood in food.

People are always surprised when they learn I cannot eat most seafood. It’s not the taste, I don’t need to “try” things out to start liking them. It’s the thought. It’s the thought of that slimey Octopus with an unnatural amount of arms (legs?) and weird sucky suckers and tenticles and brains that can work out puzzles and squirt ink and all that jazz that gets to me. I don’t eat tiger cubs, because they are cute. I do not eat Octopi, because they are ugly. It’s as simple as that. I basically filled myself up with tuna sashimi. Because folks, tuna are quite normal looking things.

The calligraphy teacher is my calligraphy teacher, the calligraphy exhibition was a large one in Japan’s National Art Centre and I was the seriously calligraphy-deprived child. Hah, now I’ve seen enough calligraphy to last a lifetime.

I spend my Monday and Tuesday lunchtime with my calligraphy teacher, and she tries to teach me about Kanji and every so often I give her an English lesson. She’s a very talkative and interesting person but has yet to fully understand how poor my Japanese is. She offered to show me her Calligraphy piece in an exhibition in the National Art Centre, so I went along.

Despite leaving home a whole hour before I was meant to meet, I became lost and consequently late. Now Hibiya Roppongi Station exit 4A was meant to point me in the right direction, so I walked straight down the road, until it became less busy and less likely to throw the National Art Centre into view. Looked at a very annoying map and decided to go back up to the junction and turn left. Still no National Art Centre… Popped into a convenience store to ask for directions and was told it was the opposite direction, i.e straight over the intersection again. Looked at another map, and saw it was just down the road! Being late, I tried to cross the lane way outside the centre but someone had the job of stopping people doing that. So he tried to stop me from crossing the road without walking all the way around the barrier, and being late, I didn’t care for his opinion in the safety of crossing a road with no cars, ran around him and copped a mouthful in Japanese.

Arrived in the foyer surrounded by many, many people, to check the card that told me I was meant to meet outside entrance 3B or something. Got there, my teacher not in sight. Then, someone came up to me, and asked if went to ***** High, so I said yes, and she proceeded to tell me she was Akatsuka, which is the name of my teacher. Not thinking very straight, I thought a) I wasn’t meant to meet my teacher after all, I was meant to meet this stranger or b) someone was filling in for my teacher and thought I wouldn’t notice. She then told me that Akatsuka went to the toilet. I thought it very odd that she was telling me that she herself went to the toilet, but after we stood around waiting it all clicked. The problem is, the Japanese use last names to introduce themselves. It was my teacher’s daughter (not that either of them had the sense to tell me). So, my teacher appeared and all was well.

I had to write my name in a guest book, in Japanese, downwards. All these nicely done kanji names and then here’s this messy foreigner’s katakana name down the page.

Anyway, went around the exhibition, with my teacher telling me all kinds of what would I’m sure have been interesting things if I could understand Japanese. She likes to yadda away in difficult Japanese. Don’t get me wrong, the exhibition was sure interesting and pretty, but I would have liked to understand some of the meaning behind the pieces.

I got some artistic photos of some of the pieces (photo) (photo) and a photo of my calligraphy teacher, her calligraphy piece, a fellow calligrapher and myself (photo).

The National Art Centre is brand-spanking modern (photo) and even has it’s own umbrella hut. Maybe this isn’t unusual to the Japanese public, because they have a huge umbrella culture here (lockable umbrella storage at many building entrances), but it was weird for me (photo).

Afterwards, we went for lunch. Ramen and Gyoza to be specific. I insisted I was going to pay for mine but she was having none of it. Then, to a desert place it was and we ended up in an Italian restaurant. I had ice-cream topped with berry sauce (photo). She wouldn’t let me pay for that either and then offered me $20 for the trouble of coming, train fares and the like. I told her I didn’t need it but she eventually haggled me down to $10. Hah, the Japanese and money…

I went to get introduced to the nurses on shift at Satomi’s hospital today. First thoughts, I’ve walked into a shopping centre. There was a starbucks-like coffee shop, big plasma screens and people walking around everywhere. Second thought, how to get to floor eight… Hopped in a lift, found no eighth button, hopped back out, did my best to convey I wanted to get to floor eight in Japanese, was sent down a corridor and into a different lift.

I was introduced to the nurses, and had a tour of the hospital, and then Satomi got changed and we went to a Japanese pub with one of her good friends and Satoshi.

Japanese pubs are very different. First, you take your shoes off and stick them in a wooden box and take the big chunky wooden key. Shown to a separated little room (all wooden) with slidey wooden doors and rather private. You push a doorbell type thing when you want ask the waiter to bring things. Really hard to explain. You need to see a photo.

Here is me with Tamachan (Satomi’s nurse friend):

So, I knew Shun was visiting Japan for ages now, but he didn’t tell me he’d be anywhere near Tokyo! Anyhoo, figured out on Thursday that I could meet him (and Yoriko even!) in Yokohama today. Fun was had.

The shop that we were going to meet near happened to be right near the entrance of the giant shopping centre that I thought I’d get lost in, so that worked out. Tried to find a suitable unpacked coffee shop, couldn’t find one, did some more looking, ended up in another area of Yokohama Station and found an Italian place.

We all ended up having coffees and cake, both of which were YUM (thanks Shun! ). Minestrone also, which was one of the best I’ve had. In Australia, you usually have foreign people cooking foreign foods. But not here. You’ve got your Japanese Italian cooks and your Japanese Indian cooks. They taste the same, if not better, it’s just slightly weird.

Yokohama being the boring place it is (well, I have no clue, I’ve never actually left the station because the station has everything) we hopped on a train to Minatomirai (Harbour future) which is just that. It’s all brand-spanking new and is full of things to do. Tokyo is to Odaiba as Yokohama is to Minatomirai (the clean, shiny, exciting, unique place).

We did some wondering around and the like to kill time before Satomi was due to meet us. You know, a visit to the Snoopy and Disney shops, pearl milk tea drinking… I had a Green Tea Latte Pearl Tea. You may be thinking, “Wait, you put MILK with the green tea, and then you add PEARLS to that concoction?”. Green Tea latte’s have become my favourite drink. And I love pearls in my milk teas (as all my Sydney Easy Way buddies would know).

Next stop was a sports shop. I was busy looking at the shoes. Shoes here, that would maybe normally cost $130 in Australia are about $30 to $50 here! Amazing! Anyhoo, met Satomi in the shop and so we went outside for something to do. Naturally, it wasn’t hard, seeing that Minatomirai has a giant Ferris wheel in it’s landscape!

The Ferris wheel was fun. Took a heavy amount of happy snaps! (check them out! *waves fist* ) . Yoriko, Shun and myself (photo) (Shun looks well scary in this one!). Oh, and one with my host mummy (Satomi) (photo). I was taking a lovely photo of the Minatomiraian landscape with a massive building (photo) when a rude smaller building decided to poke it’s way into my photo. If I crop it, the dimensions are all wrong. I’m annoyed. That building will suffer.

Shun was too chicken to ride some dark underground near-water hole ride (photo) so that’ll have to be done another time. Yeah, that’s right Shun, I’m embrassing you on the Internet!

There were mobile phone salesgirls dressed up in unusual white leather clothing and handing out bags full of useless junk. Ask one of them for a photo together (photo).

We then had dinner in a (forgotten what we ate, to be added later, maybe… OH! Tonkatsu!) tonkatsu place and that was scrumptious as usual. Satomi and I had vinegar deserts and even though they were hard to eat to begin with, our taste buds committed suicide and it turned out to be alright!

At this point we met up with Satoshi, so we had to find somewhere for him to eat. And of course, we followed the rule of posing for a photo in front of a fountain (photo) before entering a second restaurant in one night rule. Oh, it’s not a rule? Oh, oh well then.

We all decided to enter Shun, didn’t we, Shun? Before entering Shun, Shun got a photo with Shun (photo). Not too sure if I ate anything. Shun was the name of the restaurant for anyone who couldn’t be bothered clicking on the photo to find out, tsk tsk. A happy snap was taken (photo).

I think that just about concludes that catch-up!