Yokohama

Today I went to Yokohama. (To see the morning musume bunkasai but that’s a matter for another blog.

It was good to see the sea again . And these little crabs kept being washed up on the pavement. One boy was collecting them in a plastic bag.

It may have just been me but Yokohama's port area seemed to give off slightly seedy vibe during the daytime.

But at night it vastly improved.

In the end I only visited the Minato Minai area and didn’t get to go to Yokohama’s famous China town but all in all I liked Yokohama a lot. Nice to get away from Tokyo for a little bit too.

Tokyo Dome City

I went to Tokyo Dome City yesterday but I forgot my camera so no photos. I had Indian food which is always good for a vegetarian. There were lots of interesting shops there too. Like a Thomas the Tank Engine shop (Kathryn) and a Shonen Jump shop (Alice). Afterwards we had some drinks in an odd little imported beer place. It had pumpkin candles and photographs of the UK on the wall. Even one from Edinburgh, the view from Calton Hill.

Harajuku

Last weekend I visited Harajuku. Mainly to see the vegetarian and Indian fairs there but I ended up spending more time visiting the Meiji shrine in Yayogi park.

While I was there, a Shinto wedding ceremony was taking place. The procession had a really ethereal quality, like a procession of spirits. But getting married at Meiji shrine has its downside as you can expect to be photographed by dozens of foreign tourists. (Like me)

After checking out the fairs, I wandered over to Shibuya to engage in more staring at pretty lights.

Also, there was a V6 (Japanese boy band) concert being held in Harajuku so the concentration of young Japanese fan girls was quite overwhelming. The number of ticket scalpers by the station was amusing though.

Sensouji

This evening I went to Sensouji temple in Asakusa.

Leading up to the temple were these cute market stalls with things like souvenirs and snacks but unfortunately they were all closing up as we got there.

The temple itself was very impressive and looked really pretty lit up in the dark.



There were these lanterns everywhere decorated with various illustrations of everything from traditional images to popular anime characters.



Afterwards we ate in a Japanese noodle restaurant. I feel a bit bad though, since everyone walked around looking in restaruant windows for ages to find something vaguely vegetarian I could eat.


In other news I am now a registered foreigner after submitting my application in Ikebukuro earlier today.

Shinjuku

Today I went to Shinjuku.

I spent about the first 15 minutes wandering about the station, one of the biggest in the world trying to find an exit that lead somewhere interesting. I was quite overwhelmed with the scale of the place and aside from looking in one of the department stores, I spent most of my time gawking.

After enduring the heat and crowds for a while I decided to go to the nearby Shinjuku Gyoen park which is a very peaceful and relaxing place. I really liked the way the traditional Japanese garden areas contrasting with the skyscrapers behind them.

There were also some interesting wildlife in the park including this turtle,

These odd looking spiders which made giant webs, are these common in Japan? I hope not......

And there were parrot like birds living in the trees which I believe are descended from escaped pets.

After the park closed, I went back into Shinjuku to look at the lights. For me this was a must see aspect of Tokyo. Although the streets filled with Pachinko parlours and porn shops seemed much more seedy at night.

In Japan

こんばんは！

I have been in Japan for a few days now. The main thing that has surprised me is the heat. Its hotter now in September then it was all summer in the UK. I'm also amused by the little differences. Such as Big Issue sellers just like we have in the UK and the crows here being bigger and louder. The first night I was woken up by one which I, at first, thought was somebody impersonating a bird it sounded so different.

The dormitory is nicer then I had expected. I'm particularly impressed by all the stuff that is provided. And by the impressive toilet and shower room that doubles as a drying room for washing. The rules are little draconian though. No men allowed in the suites at all, even relatives, and only female relatives can stay over night. And I have to inform the matron whenever I am going to be away over night or later then 12. But it could have been worse I guess. The rules also state that prostitution is forbidden in the rooms. I wonder if any other country then japan would include that rule?

My first view of Japan

じゃね

Off to Japan tomorrow!

Its finally here! In about 24 hours I will be in Japan. I think. Travelling to the future is confusing. I can safely say that all excitement has largely been replaced with fear right now. The plane journey, the journey from the airport, what my room will be like, paying the deposit, being able to take money out at all, the placement test the next day and perhaps scariest of all for me, meeting new people. I feel very unready right now. I just hope I can get Internet relatively easily. Or I really will feel completely out of water.

Almost there

Less then two weeks more till I go to Japan. I have my Visa all sorted out and now there's just packing and money stuff to worry about. Its hard for me to really describe what I feel right now but standing on Waterloo bridge yesterday watching the sun go down and London light up I felt ready in a strange way.

In addition I'm starting my pop culture side of things blog, in preparation. Link should be in the side bar soonish.

I ran into Butterscotch in Southampton yesterday

Poor child in the picture. She has no idea whats about to happen to her...

Cactus Baby

It looks like my cactus is growing another baby.

Well, I know its just a division of the main plant but I'm excited anyway. Yays.

Aliens have landed in my garden!!!!

Or something like that. I have absolutely no idea why there is this almost perfectly circular patch of taller grass in the garden.

Perhaps the invasion is imminent.

Guildford

On Wednesday I met up with Kathryn in Guildford. We saw ducks and cows and canal boats. Every-time I see a canal boat I can't help but wonder whether Rosie and Jim are in there.

Oddly enough the day after, I was watching a program about street crime and saw various trouble makers and arrests right where we had been walking. What a comforting thought.



Apart from that I can't really say much about Guildford.

Blair Atholl

On Monday I went on a random trip with a friend.

Random trips are where we go to the train station and buy tickets to a random destination without any prior knowledge or planning. So far this has worked out well for us, and we've been to places like Dunbar and Dunfermline, both of which we enjoyed. This time we went to Blair Atholl, not far from Perth, which is a little further then we had been before.

It turned out to be a bit smaller then we had hoped but we headed to the main attraction, Blair Castle, and spent a couple of hours exploring the grounds, although we didn't go in the castle itself (cos it was like £9 and we are cheapskates).

It was quit interesting, despite the rain, with lots of very tall species of trees and pretty flowers. Though I swear the birds there were pocessed or something. This one peacock especially seemed to be following me.

There was even this slightly spooky, ruined chapel that we spent some time examining.


This garden appeared to be locked up already, though supposedly it was open for another half hour. Shame, since it looked really pretty too.



We did get a good look at naked Hercules though.


Next we attempted to get to a nearby glen which started off fairly well, with a walk past a fast flowing river and through some picturesque woods.

Here we stopped for vital provisions. Thats my friend in the picture.

Somehow between completely missing signposts, terrible senses of direction and fear of the local neds, we ended up back where we started from at the castle. Eventually around 7, we found the right path to the glen and made a desperate attempt to reach our goal. However, due to the fear of missing the last train, (we had no idea when this would be since neither of us checked the times) we had to abandon our search just short of the end.

On the way there though, there was this odd wooden building, containing and surrounded by derelict cars, and for some reason, what appeared to be a heap of rotting turnips. To make things more bizarre the car in the picture above, despite missing most of its wheels, contained a variety of puzzling objects, including an Eeyore air freshener, some novelty Christmas antlers and a ring binder. Definitely wins the prize for biggest WTF of the day.

On the way back to the station we got fairly lost and ended up wandering through the wilderness for quite some time before we finally found this glorious way out sign.

In turned out that we had nearly an hour and a half left until the last train. We would have eaten in this period, but the only place that seemed reasonable was closed for the day. To top it all off, we couldn't change in Stirling due to diversions and would have never gotten back to Edinburgh at all if it wasn't for Inverkeithing. But all in all it wasn't a bad trip and I will definitely go on more random trips in the future.

First Post!

So I finally got round to making my first post. I am making this blog mainly to share and record the experiences, I have in Japan next year. Until then I guess it will function as a kind of personal blog for anything I find interesting. I intend to create another blog parallel to this one for my more geeky interests (anime, manga, video games J pop etc) so that my more normal friends don't have to endure my ramblings on those subjects.

For now I leave you with the glory that is Shortsman

http://youtube.com/watch?v=HfffJ9vHBAQ