Mostly Pictures: Miyajima, Day Eight
I've arrived in Nagoya and went around to NUFS with my friend Mariko today. I have tons of pictures I haven't been able to post, but instead of going in chronological order, I'm just posting Miyajima, where I went on my eighth day here, because it was really cool.
I took a JR ferry (free with my pass!) to the island. It was quite cold, but a nice little trip anyway.
A view of Miyajima from the ferry.
Miyajima! I got there in the morning when it was still high tide, which made for a nice, impressive first view. I'll spare you the many, many similar pictures I have of it.
A view from the shrine associated with the torii.
Despite not being a fan of heights, I took the two cable cars going up the mountain. I hadn't realized that in the first one, it would just be me in a tiny car. Scary! But a nice view, still. The second leg of the cable car journey up was in a larger car with other passengers. I tried to convince myself that with the tall trees underneath the car, a cable break would not necessarily be fatal. As soon as I was comforted by that fact, however, the car rose to an obviously fatal height.
There's supposed to be a monkey park at the second station, but unforunately, (even though I hung around again for about an hour on my descent), I saw not a single monkey. I did get to see this great sign, though! I would not hope to be such a monkey, either.
From the second cable car station, I decided to go ahead and hike to the top of Mt. Misen, the highest point on the island (where there is a little observation station). My guidebook told me it would be a 20-minute hike, but I would describe it more as a 30-minute HIKE. I made it up by reminding myself how much easier the hike down would be (and it was).
I'm afraid the pictures I have just don't do the view justice. I may play with them a little to reduce the haze before I make a print or two. You can see Hiroshima!
And you can see the islands of the inland sea!
It's not important, but look at this. For a second I thought it was a snake, but I then realized it's some kind of worm. Like a GIANT earthworm. Photographed by my shoe for size reference. Head for the dirt, buddy!
Instead of paying for the white-knuckled cable car ride down, I went ahead and hiked the whole way down (since it's downhill, it only took about an hour). Even though I still didn't see any monkeys (I'm going to give them the benefit of a doubt about that and believe that the monkey claim isn't just a scheme for more visitors), there was some really beautiful scenery, and real, actual, *peace and quiet*! In Japan! Amazing!
When I got back down, the tide had gone out, and you could walk up to the torii (it's surprisingly not that muddy where the water had been). I also had some okonomiyaki with oysters, which are supposed to be a local speciality. My verdict: okonomiyaki = good, oysters = squishy.
Miyajima, by the way, has tame, free-roaming deer. I failed to get any pictures of deer walking along the sea shore (a strange sight, take my word for it), so you'll have to make due with this fake-old-timey sign. It's not actually particularly funny, and yet something about it tickles me... I'm not quite sure why...
I'll try to say more later (I'm leeching wireless from parts unknown), but I'll have to brief because I want to get some rest (and I need a three-prong adapter so my laptop doesn't die).
I went to Tokyo Disney yesterday, my first Disney park! Very strange, but at least I can say I've been on a rollercoaster. I didn't refuse to go on any rides, and I'm pretty proud of that, but I'm still not sure why I would ever agree to go on anything called "The Tower of Terror." I've just never been a huge fan of terror. Still in one piece, though!
I hate mascots. I think they can tell, even in Japan. Pluto came around and gave our group high-fives, but I was last and he totally did a loser fake-out five to me, I think because he knew I was giving him the stink eye.
I went to Kamakura yesterday, which is full of tons of historical things (it was kind of a second capitol for a while). Mainly I went to see the giant Buddha, because... I just like giant Buddhas. Nara got me hooked, I guess.
Today I took the Shinkansen to Kyoto. The unfortunate part is that it has been pouring rain all day, enough to give me blue spots on my legs and blue shoelaces from my jeans. I'm hoping it will be clear tomorrow, but I'm not expecting much.
For anyone who was not yet aware, I am back in Japan for three weeks. Right now I'm in Tokyo. Today I went to Asakusa Shrine, Ueno Park / Shitamachi Museum, Imperial Palace Gardens (only long enough to take a few pictures), Yasukuni Shrine / Kitanomura(?) Park, Meiji Jingu / Harajuku, and Tokyo Tower. I also briefly wandered around Ginza, but that was really only because I was just hoping to find some batteries. Tomorrow I'll be going to DisneySea with Monique (who I flew to Japan with) and some Japanese friends.
I have pictures, but since I'm on a general PC I can't post them right now. Hopefully I'll be able to post some soon! Since I do have intermittent internet access, feel free to e-mail me.
Today: "Lightsabers," or "Nagoya's Gaijin Jedi Order"
I think I've probably told a lot of people about this already, but I think it's time to post some pictures. A select few (the few, the proud, the awesome) have purchased Master Replicas FX lightsabers. With several hard-core Star Wars fans in one place, it was bound to happen, I suppose. The lightsabers don't extend, but it's made up for by the fact that the handles are slightly-larger than scale beautiful metal replicas, and the blades light up gradually, just like in the movies (thanks to a string of LED lights inside the blade). They also make sound effects when idling, moving, turning on/off, and clashing with objects. Pretty sweet. There was lots of anticipation for these to arrive. We were hoping to do a fan film, but we've never gotten around to it. Hopefully we can get some nice fight footage, at least, before we leave (who will we fight if no one else around us has lightsabers?).
(British) Alex and I both have green lightsabers -- this model belonged to Luke in Return of the Jedi (he constructed it himself). It's very industrial-looking, and has a brushed-metal finish. Don't know what else to say about it, except that it's the greatest lightsaber model ever. Green is obviously the best, but I suppose not everyone can have it...
Kate, from Northern England, has Mace Windu's purple lightsaber, from the new movies. It's very shine-y, and a has textured effect on the black bits, quite the fancy saber. And certainly, the only purple model that could possibly be released.
Dave, also from England, went big and got lightsabers representing both sides of the force. He has the blue lightsaber that once belonged to Anakin Skywalker, and is later wielded by Luke in the original Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. He then also has Darth Vader's red lightsaber (which has a really sweet handle). Both those lightsabers have a nice, a-symmetrical design that I'm a little jealous of.
Then Sarven has a really striking piece, Darth Maul's double-ended lightsaber. It can be used as one big saber or unscrewed and used as two separately. A beautiful weapon used by an awesome character, but the unfortunate part is that it's caused us to watch the Jar Jar-heavy Episode I twice since we bought the sabers... maybe it's time to just skip to the fight scenes.
And to make sure this post is sufficiently nerdy, here are two phony Star Wars posters, with us in the leading roles. There's nothing better than pulling out your model lightsabers and spending an hour taking pictures of yourselves, right?
Tokyo Trip: Day ThreeOn our third day in Tokyo we started feeling pressed for things to do. If you like to shop a lot, you probably wouldn't have that problem!
We started off the day by going to Odaiba. Odaiba is a man-made island a short distance off the coast from Tokyo. We got on a monorail that took us on a loop around a few stations then actually goes onto Rainbow Bridge (a well-known site in Tokyo). It was definitely a nice view.
First thing we did at Odaiba was have a look at the Fuji Television building. I had seen its picture in my travel book, and wanted to have a look at it in real life. Quite the interesting piece of architecture. I think it kind of looks like something that was meant to look futuristic in the past, if you see my meaning.
Also at Odaiba, we went to the Tokyo National Museum of Science and Innovation. It was pretty neat, with robotics displays and other science-y things, although it seemed a little child-oriented in some places.
After that, we sat on the rocks by the ocean and tried to decide what to do next. We decided on going to Shinjuku, because I wanted to have a look at some of Tokyo's highest skyscrapers. We went there, had a walk around, and also had some food.
We decided to go back to Ueno park and have a more thorough look around in the evening.
Finally, we took a walk around town at night, before we had to get back on the nightbus and head back to Nagoya (I didn't get a good picture of it, but we did get to see Tokyo Tower lit up in the distance). All in all, quite an excellent trip.
Tokyo Trip: Day Two
On the second day of our trip to Tokyo, we had a late breakfast followed by a trip to the Imperial Palace Gardens. It was
very hot. The gardens are pretty expansive, so we took an hour or two wandering around and taking in the nice scenery. Unfortunately, you can't really see the Imperial Palace from the gardens, but it was still pretty impressive.
After that, we went to a the Tokyo Sword Museum, and saw lots of very, very old swords (though they still look shiney and new). Apparently one was by a mega-famous sword-maker, though I don't know much about swords. Alex was pretty impressed, though. No pictures allowed, though!
In the evening, we went to Akihabara and Harajuku. We managed to navigate ourselves to the busiest part of Akihabara, this time. There was lots of neon, crowds, and music blasting out of shops. Alex found it all a bit irritating, but I thought it was cool, at least just too see. It would probably be more interesting to people who had something in mind to buy. Harajuku is a youth fashion district, which is also something to see. Not as many crazy outfits as I was hoping for (although I've probably become a little immune from my time in Japan), but I did see at least one girl dressed up as a kitty/maid.
Tokyo Trip: Day One
I finally, finally made a trip to Tokyo earlier this month! Alex and I took the nightbus out of Nagoya at 11:30 pm on Thursday night (it was really surprisingly roomy, I'd recommend it), and arrived in Tokyo before 6:00 am on Friday morning.
Friday was definitely our most successful day (probably because we got started so increadibly early!). After we got off the bus, we got on the subway that we thought would take us to our hotel. Turns out, though, that we needed to switch lines, and instead we ended up at Haneda Airport, the end of the line. Still, we managed to get to our hotel before 8:00 am. We couldn't check in, but they took our bags for us, and we had a nice breakfast at the restaurant next to the hotel. Scrambled eggs, bacon, pancakes, and um, salad. Lots of decliciousness! Plus salad. Breakfast salad.
Our first stop was Sensoji Temple (aka, Asakusa Kannon), a very famous Buddhist temple. There was lots of nice architecture, and a million little souveneir shops. (Though you'll be proud I bought nothing more than disposable cameras.)
After Sensoji Temple, we took a walk through Ueno Park, a very large park in Northern Tokyo. Inside the park is Tokyo National Museum, which we went to. Lots of Asian artifacts, like swords from the 16th Century and sculptures from the 4th Century...
This picture is Alex and I in front of Tokyo National Museum. Pictures with both of us were hard to take -- I think the camera was sitting on a water fountain here, using the timing function.
After having some post-museum lunch, we went to Tokyo Tower, iconic location seen in so many anime. It was overcast and a little hazy, but we still got to see a pretty cool view. I had read that paying extra to go to the second stop (there are two viewing decks, one higher than the other) was a rip off, but we went up anyway, and I was pretty fun. You can't see the scenery very well in these pictures, but maybe it will be better once I get my film developed.
(Very difficult to take good pictures together, as you can tell!)
After that we checked into the hotel and had a nice rest (we were pretty worn out). The hotel was quite nice for the price, I think. Swanky-looking lobby, clean rooms. Not very spacious, but we did ge yukatas (Japanese cotton robes) provided.
We had some late supper then went out to Akihabara, Tokyo's huge electronics district. There wasn't much going on, so we went to Shinjuku, the entertainment district. Tons of neon! Unforunately, my pictures of that aren't developed yet, but I'll have them soon.
I'll go on to day two and three (which weren't quite as busy) in another post. Until then...
