Busy day trips

Well, Osaka isn't much of anything spectacular. It's a big place, but mostly shitty stores, business, fashion and pollution. Not much in the way of cultural heritage on its own. What Osaka IS good for, however, is a starting point for day trips on JapanRail trains. I have a railpass until June 10, so this was nice. My hotel was located a block away from the station, so traveling was convenient. On Tuesday I took a daytrip to Nara, which was a pretty nice place. Went to the Todaiji Temple, constructed by the Emperor Shomu, which houses the other Daibutsu (Giant Buddha). I did not see the Buddha since the entrance fee was a bit steep. Photographed the main hall and such, though.

Todaiji Temple, Main Hall housing the Daibutsu

The rest of Nara was interesting enough. Old temples, shrines, gardens and parks. Plenty to see and do.



On Wednesday I took a two-hour shinkansen to Hiroshima to visit the atomic bomb peace museum, and Miyajima- the Island with the famous floating red gate in the sea. On the way there, I stopped off at Himeji to view its famous and enormous castle.




On my way back to the station I stopped in a little shop to buy some furoshiki. I talked with the shop owner for a short while about washi, Japanese handmade paper. He informed me that a lot of Japanese papermakers are going to Nepal (at around 2000 meters, he said)to teach them Japanese papermaking. Apparently kozo and mitsumata, two of the three main fibers used in its production, grow very well there. I'll have to keep that in mind...Anyway, after Himeji I continued to Hiroshima. The peace museum was about what I expected, but it was still quite interesting. Lots of little kids around. I was interviewed briefly by a small group of kids as a part of an English class project. There were a number of interesting monuments and such.

The only remaining original building that "survived" the atomic blast

Atomic Bomb Peace Monument

I stopped by a beautiful little garden before heading to Miyajima. It was a beautiful little place nestled in the heart of the city. A beautiful place, and very reasonably priced. I guess you could say it was a beautiful little place!



The HIT of the day was by far seeing the floating torii (gate to a Shinto shrine) at Miyajima Island. The island is roughly 30 minutes southwest from Hiroshima by train and ferry. I timed it so I would arrive about 30-45 minutes before sunset at 19:15. Just as my ferry was arriving loads of moronic tourists were boarding the dock to LEAVE the island- just as the sun was setting! Thank god! It was absolutely beautiful, and all the better without the herds. Here are four of the over 60 photos I took. A bit excessive, maybe. But then again, when will I have another shot at it?

Good times in Osaka

I arrived in Osaka on Sunday night and started of well. I stayed at Hotel Raizan, which is more like a large hostel with individual rooms. I had a television, a refrigerator, my own room, a window etc. Even got a toothbrush.


It wasn't the largest room in the world, as you can see, but it was nice to have my own personal space and to be able to sleep in without others noising around in the morning, turning lights on etc. Not bad considering the price is the same as a hostel in Japan at around 2000 yen (18 bones, USD).

The real prize of Hotel Raizan, however, was the guest list. There were a lot of people staying at this place- Japanese businessmen, English teachers, college students etc. There seemed to be a representative of every country.


The night I got there, around 23:30, everybody was sitting around the common room drinking and having a good time. I joined in and got to know everybody- all good people. The English character in the middle was probably the most interesting, if not drunk, of the bunch. Richard S Wrigley was his name.

Richard, drunk

Richard has done just about everything. He has started a small business selling his vegetables at a local market. He has traveled everywhere. He has been married twice, once to a woman from Trinidad and once to a Japanese woman. The BBC started production on a documentary about him. He has produced music in Japan, United States, South Africa and other places, including notable artists such as Takiko (something) from Japan. He produced the soundtrack for a movie using a Genesis album. He has met the members of the band Led Zeppelin without knowing it at the time. He has met the band Pink Floyd. He helped change alcohol laws in the United States that previously prevented microbreweries from being attached to restaurants (He did the same in Japan). He has started numerous breweries in Boston, Seattle, Japan and other places. He has died (his heart stopped for several minutes). The coolest thing Richard did, though, was to start a beer modeled after the 400 year old Dutch tradition of beer that was sailed to Japan in the 1600s. He had hand-made ceramic bottles crafted by a German company in the exact style of that dutch beer. He then sailed his beer on his yacht from Seattle to Japan. We were lucky enough to all share one of his beers, valued (by him, I'm sure, at $100) the other night. The beer was 13 years old, and still tasted delicious despite its lack of carbonation.

Richard, with beer.

Has he done these things? I have no idea. He was nonetheless a very interesting and good-hearted person. We had numerous conversations on politics, human rights, globalization, his divorces, his children and his various and numerous supposed exploits. Glad to have met him.

Musings on Tokyo

Well, I've been out of Tokyo for a few days now so I have had some time to reflect on my experiences there. I also just haven't had a ton of time to post the last few days- lots to catch up on and little time to do it.

Tokyo is a very, very interesting place. My initial itinerary was to only stay for four or five days, assuming I would easily tire of the intensity, filth, consumerism and coldness. Much to my surprise I really enjoyed my stay there. My Mount Fuji interim was a nice break from the city, and really all I did when I went back this past weekend was Design Festa- but I was happy to be back. It's an exhausting city with a lot (probably too much) to do. There are travel guidebooks hundreds of pages long for Tokyo alone.

I think if I had to describe Tokyo in one word, it would be the Japanese, "Sugoi". Here is its entry in my Japanese-English translation dictionary:

Sugoi, adj. 1. amazing; wonderful. 2. awful; terrifying.

This sums up Tokyo pretty well. It is a strange, enormously powerful place. It thrives with a creative energy that I have never seen the likes of elsewhere, a sort of mental (over)stimulation that is probably not equaled any other place on Earth. On the other hand it shows every sign of a globalized, consumer society where many modern cultural trends, i.e. fashion, are fed to the masses by the big corporations. You can tell that everybody has good intentions but that those intentions are perverted (literally and figuratively) by their environment. A good comparison would be a tidal wave, like this one:

"The Great Wave at Kanagawa", by the Japanese master painter and printer, Hokusai

I believe the term "sugoi" aptly describes something like a tidal wave as well as Tokyo. Both are amazing and awe-inspiring. At the same time, their potential for destruction is tremendous. In Tokyo, for example, a certain few ride the crest of the wave without effort. Some just tread water and many drown, overtaken by it. Homelessness is one example of this- walk a kilometer or two anywhere in Tokyo and you will pass a dozen homeless men and women. Sleeping in parks, sleeping on sidewalks, eating ramen from the 100yen shops, collecting cans etc. And most of those who do end up leading "successful" lives work their asses off 6 days a week from 9:00-19:00 or so. This in turn results in the purchasing of Louis Vittoin handbags, cellular phones with hundreds of useless features and $300 shoes that will be rained on in a month. Rush hour in Tokyo lasts from about 18:00-21:00. It's like observing a school of fish- a seemingly inert, neutral group albeit extremely complicated in its interactions.

This brings up something I've been tossing around in the brain lately. Typically people consider large cities as cosmopolitan places of fashion, trends, money etc. But it seems to me that these are the places where people act the very most like animals. It's so much easier to see a human being as a primate when they're selfishly moving their way along, pushing through crowds, pissing in bushes, smoking on trains, etc. ad infinitum. Being from an entirely different country might have something to do with it as well...Anyway. Here are handful of photos from Tokyo and its environs.

Shibuya District, Thursday May 24 2007, around 21:00

The same very famous intersection, roughly same time. I felt like the guy in the foreground.

Who does this girl think she is? What she is is a moron. I guess it's acceptable from a very liberal artistic point of view...

A really awful advertisement

Moving on!

Design Festa

This weekend, after visiting Fuji-San, I returned to Tokyo for Design Festa, the largest art exhibition in Asia. It is organized by the Design Festa Gallery, an international gallery in Harajuku, Tokyo. It has somewhere over 6,000 exhibitors with live music, fashion shows, performance arts, fine art etc. Everything about the event was amazing. The building, Tokyo Big Sight, was a work of art on its own:

Inside I found an enormous creative energy and stimulation like I have never seen. Thousands of art fans, thousands of artists and hundreds of thousands of works of art of all sorts. I could have stayed there for a year. Words can do the event no justice.

Trip to Mount Fuji

On Friday I left Tokyo via bus to spend a night at mount Fuji, arriving at the hostel around 16:00. It was cloudy, rainy and cold. Fuji was nowhere to be seen. I knew I didn't have much time to enjoy the place so got my stuff together, rented a bicycle and tried to ride as close as I could. This was more work than I expected. I got about 4km past the Fuji visitors center and realized my attempt was futile. My view of the mountain:

This made me slightly depressed, but alas- nothing I could do about it. I woke up at 6:00 the next morning to a clear blue sky. I took some time to stroll around the town. Kawaguchiko is situated on the edge of Kawaguchiko Lake, one of the five lakes around Fuji. It was a nice view.

I could see Fuji very easily from the town.

I took the first bus at 9:40 to the fifth station (of eight total). I hiked around a bit and took in the scenery.

I'll have to take more of these panorama shots. The gift shop at the fifth station offered a nice rest, some food and a few...interesting...souveniers...

What is this place?

Fuji-San!

Well, it's a beautiful morning in Kawaguchiko, a nice little town at the foot of Mount Fuji! Much, much better than yesterday. Yesterday sucked- I had to find the Design Festa Gallery so I could buy tickets to the Design Festa, the largest art show in Asia. It was shitty and rainy all day and I had all of my luggage with me the entire time, since I had to get the ticket on the way to the bus station to leave for here, Kawaguchiko. It was really busy with shopping folk and I was hot, sweaty, wet, tired etc. Not much fun. Then, arriving at Fuji-yama around 15:00, it was still shitty and Fuji was entirely hidden behind the clouds. I rented a bicycle as soon as I got here and tried to ride as far as I could, to see if I could manage some sort of view. Nope- just rainy, wet and cold. The weather predictions for today were the same, but praise Allah! Clear skies!

I have to get going, because I'm taking the bus to the fifth station! Hopefully I'll have some good shots of Fuji!

New Friends in Tokyo!

As much as I was avoiding a busy day, Tokyo would not allow it. My main goals for the day were simple- to check out Ueno park, which is about a half hour walk West of the hostel I'm staying in, and to pick up a translation dictionary, since I idiotically did not bring one. I started the day by going to the information desk to get free maps. Then I took the train to Ueno Park, where they had a free guided tour of the park. It was a small group- myself, an older Canadian couple, and the tour guide. There are a few art museums I might check out if I have time before I leave.

After this, I went to Shibuya, a fashion and shopping district where a lot of the trends in Tokyo originate. If you've ever seen an image of a huge intersection in Tokyo with tons of people crossing the street, it's probably the one in Shibuya. I found an English language bookstore and got the dictionary. I didn't want to leave, knowing it would be a pain in the ass to come back to see the rest of Shibuya, so I foregoed (forewent?) lunch, which would necessitate a long train ride back to the hostel, and back again, and had a coffee instead. I walked around the area and went to some parks. While taking a picture at the entrance to the Meiji Shrine, I met two Japanese guys, my friends for the rest of the day- Keusuke and Eisuke.

These guys kicked ass. They are both finishing their Junior year in college(same as me!) and are both architecture students (I wish I had the balls or opportunity!). We all got some beers (alas, confirming that beer is expensive in Japan. 150yen per beer is cheap, apparently) and took some photos. Keisuke needed to take a photo for a free college student magazine so we all had a photo session. (Eisuke pictured below)

Next we went to Shinjuku, another big fashion/entertainment/shopping district where my friends lived. They took me to the 28th floor of some enormous building where there was a Nikon store (they noticed my camera) and an INCREDIBLE view.

Tokyo is ridiculously huge, as you can see. I had no idea it was as huge as it is. With the most populous metropolitan area in the world, at around 32 million people, it is quite a sight from high up. After this, we went out for a rice and pork meal, which they treated me to. I tried to refuse, but they wouldn't allow it. They did say I would have to buy their meal when they come to visit me in the States, however. I was very sad to leave Keisuke and Eisuke, but I had to get some rest. In all it was a very exciting, fun and busy day. It's pretty damn hard to rest here!

First Post from Japan

Well, I made it! Right now it's 3am Wednesday local time (I've just been too busy during the day). I got here around 3pm Monday afternoon, which is about 1am Monday in St. Louis. I managed to get to the hostel, called Khaosan Tokyo Smile! after some confusion, but a nice guy at the post office helped me with some directions. Jet lag wasn't too bad, and I managed to get a pretty good night's rest. The hostel is pretty nice- free internet 24/7, showers included, a decently equipped kitchen, and one free drink at the bar downstairs every night! I'm very happy about the latter option. I currently share a room with three other guys. David is a British guy who's been in Japan (and the hostel) for four months. He got a job at a bank somehow (even though he doesn't speak Japanese and he didn't go to "university" as they say) so he's just been biding his time in Tokyo. Luke is another roommate who comes from Utah. He's sort of a squirrely guy (I assumed he was my age or maybe younger but he's 28, apparently) and has been in Japan about 9 weeks, having started in Hiroshima. He's done a lot of backpacking/traveling- South America, North America, Germany, China, Australia, New Zealand, and now Japan. He hopes to go to Antarctica. That would be sweet. My other roommate is some German dude who doesn't really talk and I don't know his name. Let's call him Dieter.

I didn't have any time to go anywhere on Monday, but today Luke and I wandered around the area, (Asakusa, the older and more traditional sector in the Northeast part of town) and then took a daytrip South to Kamakura, an older capital of Japan. There were a lot of shrines, temples etc. One of the more exciting parts of the trip was seeing the Giant Buddha statue, or Daibutsu. I wish I could post some pictures but these computers don't make editing stuff very easy. Maybe I can figure something out. After that we strolled down to the beach and saw the ocean, and returned to the hostel. I got some food at a 99yen (1$) store. Food here is quite expensive. Eight slices of bread costs 1$, and that's about the cheapest it gets. I got half a dozen eggs for 99yen, which I was pretty excited about. They also sell tofu blocks for the same price, so I think I'll be getting a lot of my nutrition and protein from tofu and eggs mixed in with ramen or something. Egg and tuna salad sandwiches, maybe.

It was most unfortunate when I discovered the cost of beer here- typically sold by the can for over 1$. On the other hand, I've seen bottles of wine for 450-500yen (about $4.50). It will be a top priority to find a good medium between cost/alcohol/taste.

I should probably get some rest now!

Got it lookin' good

Well let's see... Just yesterday I emailed a potential WWOOF host, and I'm waiting to hear back from them. I won't start WWOOFing until June 12 or so, but it will be good to have that done and behind me. I edited the blog a little bit, changed the header image and size, added some Google AdSense dealios, some links etc. I regret that currently the header image is a photo of mine from China, but hey, I haven't been to Japan yet so I don't have any photos to use. If any of you have suggestions or anything, please let me know- I'd really enjoy hearing from you.

Hello World!

Halooooooo. Peter here. I am making this blog as an online record of my upcoming travels in Japan, and I'd like you to be my e-travel pal! Follow me as I venture forth, two months into the heart of the land of the rising sun! Ahhh! I will make posts as often as possible, and in as much detail as possible. I'll add lots of images so your e-adventure with me will be as real as possible! Maybe then you all won't miss me and my pretty face so much! I've noticed whenever I write anything related to this trip to Japan I use tons of exclamation marks! I guess that means I'm excited!?!

On another note, I'll be posting up my itinerary online so that you can all follow my travels more easily, and see what to expect to see on posts. That's all I can think of right now. If you have any requests for photos/small souveniers, let me know.