The Melonpocalypse

So I managed to grow on a few melons from seed, enough to fill a couple of bags of compost or soil or whatever it is.  Anyway, having grown the seeds on past the carrying capacity of their small pots, it came time to plant them in these bags and put them outside.  I waited for the right time; warm enough that it was not going to freeze again, and with good enough weather that they would get a decent start.

Yesterday was forecast to have slight wind, fair amounts of cloud and some rain, so I thought I may as well put them out at that time and let the plants get a taste for the outdors before any serious weather came into play.

Yesterday there was a mini-typhoon.  The weather news got it completely wrong (at least the weather news I subscribe to) and it was bloody wet and bloody windy.  The wet obviously isn't much of a problem, but the windy certainly was.  The small seedlings were blown about like comedy umbrellas, folding all over the place.  The upshot is that I don't know whether they've survived or not.  Even if they do survive they'll likely have PTSD and never regain their vigour.

On the plus side I hear that smaller fruit and veg tends to be tastier, so assuming something lives and bears fruit, they'll be the tastiest melons in the world.

I did keep the other germinated melons around just in case of emergency, so if it comes to wholesale change then I'll do what must be done.  Wholesale melonslaughter.  The downside to this plan is that I deliberately chose the strongest ones to put outside, so the only ones that are left are the pathetic weaklings that barely made it out of the ground.  Melongenics is a tough, tough business.

Cloudy With a Chance of Typhoon

So an absolutely ENORMOUS typhoon floated over Japan.

As you can see from the following images, the typhoon was roughly the size of a quarter of the planet, which is pretty big.

I love looking at these kinds of pictures; they really hammer home how small the earth is and how little control we have over everything.

I did not take any of these pictures, in case you were wondering.

Also, in case you were wondering, Japanese TV shows people being rescued much in the same way they are in England - boats in knee deep water.  Of course I understand that the infirm will need this kind of assistance, but it still looks like overkill whenever they pull out inflatable dinghies.

In terms of the impact this particular typhoon had; I think it's safe to say it was naff.  The above picture is actually from a different typhoon altogether (I think).  Okinawa is a tiny island hundreds of miles south of Japan (but still Japanese property) that always feels the full force of every storm that makes its way across the sea.  The island is the first stop for seemingly every kind of natural disaster and as such, gets all the camera crews.  I'm fairly sure that any footage you'll have seen of this particular storm was from Okinawa, or from the very south of Japan.  Those areas were somewhat more affected than the huge population centres (rural areas are hit hardest, who would have imagined) and make for much more dramatic television.

Also, to draw a little more light to the ridiculousness of the photographs above, of course half the planet was not engulfed by the storm.  It looks far more impressive if the entire frame is filled up with clouds though, so that's the image most editors use.

I have no idea whether this picture is from this typhoon or not, but it also looks pretty ruddy big so I'm going to use it to illustrate my point.  That circle of clouds is vast by almost all standards, but nowhere near the size the other pictures make it out to be.

You don't need photoshop to lie with a photograph!

In summary, the typhoon was mostly rubbish and very uneventful.  The upshot is that I didn't get any time off, and now that all the clouds are gone it's 33 degrees and 95% humid.  I've never seen the humidity dial cranked that far round.

All this viewing the earth from orbit made me think of this:

Oh the Heat

So the heat messed me up pretty badly today.

I had to cycle into work, as is usual on a Friday.  It's a thirty minute ride, but by 8.30 AM it was already 28 degrees, with a humidity that rivals rainforests.  It took me about two hours before my body was able to regulate its' own temperature, and by then I'd already had to teach a class.  I'm pretty sure it was the worst class ever, but I can't remember...  I've only just managed (five hours later) to get rid of my headache from this morning.  The upshot - don't bike anywhere when it's this humid.  It's not even the heat so much as the humidity.  Dry-heat is preferable.  I don't know the exact statistic, but I believe it's around a hundred million times more pleasant to have a 35 degree heat with 10% humidity than a 30 degree heat with 98% humidity.

It's also come to my attention that I've been bitching about the heat for a month now.  I honestly don't know why, but it's really messing me up.

On a bizarre side-note, the average Japanese person is terrified of lightening.  They warned me about lightening, pointing out that 'when it is thunder, flash from sky... flash is dangerous.'  Well, aside from the Engrish (I would love to be able to say even that much in Japanese at this point), I find it incredible to think that they think no other country in the world has thunderstorms.  I've been asked if England has thunder and lightening, whether it rains a lot, (I thought England was notorious for that) and whether it's dangerous in England.

I would say I'm in far more danger being here, as I'm at least half a foot taller than average.  Considering the fact that right now it's thundering, and there's a wickedsick storm outside, I'll have to do my best granny impression and ride my bike bent over double.

Or not, considering open plains are not common here.

5Km Run, Cancelled

It turns out the deadline for the 5Km run application was at the beginning of the week.  Due to some crazy stuff that happened in the office, my boss wasn't able to spare the time to complete the application.

I was up to 4.25 Km at 13 Km/h.  This equates to a substantially lower speed when not on a treadmill.

I was sad that I couldn't participate, so I bought myself a gingerbread man shaped cake.  Alas, I have no camera on hand to take the picture, so you'll have to imagine it.  It's Christmas themed, with a bread cane, earmuffs  and a little present (also some kind of bread product) underneath.  It has a delirious smile.

In other news, it's rather cold now.  No snow, as of yet (I think England wins on the cold and snow front right now) but I'm hopeful.

In the Market for a New MP3 Player

So my venerable Sony Walkman Mp3 player is on its' last legs.  The fact that it's been on its' last legs for the past three years is neither here nor there...

The fact is I'm worried that it's going to give up in the middle of a file run (carrying files from home to school or vice-versa) and drop me in a pile of the sticky stuff.  The obvious question is 'why don't you just use a pendrive?'  This question can only be answered by looking at my current PC setup.  I've an SD card in the back of my laptop running a flavour of Ubuntu, a pendrive that's essentially keeping all the files not critical for booting the operating system, and a few other pendrives that are burned out or full - lying around the place.  I go through portable storage like meals.

At least, I do when the device is primarily used for storage.

For some reason my MP3 players have always been a reliable way to carry files; at times the fringe benefit has been playing music, rather than the other way around.

There are tons of options on the market, and going through them all would be impossible, so I won't even try.

My criteria for the player are extensive, but could be (somewhat) boiled down to capacity, flexibility, (the range of file formats it supports) and modability.

Since I've been using linux I've found myself modifying things a lot more.  My PS3 and Xbox can run video and music from a media server.  In most cases this means 'Windows Media Centre.'  If you buy a fresh network storage device (like a mybookworld) you can often modify it to run as a media server.  This is possible because they all run some version of linux natively.  You just crack it open (metaphorically) and change the program it runs.

Alas, I couldn't change my own NAS because it would mean wiping the whole thing and starting again (which I'm not prepared to do), but after installing a media server on my baby laptop (just to see if it could be done) I think I'm ready to do something more ambitious.

Being able to play all my media files without converting them would be a boon, and I think it would only be viable with a hacked player.  Which players natively support .ogg for example?

So the challenge has been set, internet.  Go find me a huge, highly modable solid quality Personal/portable Media Player for a decent price.



On an unrelated note: the weather is insane here.  Yesterday I was wearing a t-shirt under my school shirt.  It wasn't particularly cold, warm enough to stay outside at least.

Tomorrow I will be wearing my skiing jacket, and it will be zipped up.

Fastest changing weather in the world?  I think so.

That Homely Touch

So the water is back up and running.  Luckily I remembered to turn the taps off in my room, as one of my colleagues left a couple of his taps on, forgetting that the water was due to reconnect that night.  I can't wait to see his face when the water bill comes through - it might even cost him ten pounds!  (An unthinkable figure considering my last water bill totalled roughly four pounds for the month.)

I've also finally come round to furnishing my apartment a little better.  This trip essentially amounted to buying some kitchen roll, some soap and a cloth to wipe down kitchen surfaces.  The room is already feeling a little too feminine with these additions, so I'm thinking of strategically placing beer cans about the place.

Just to let everyone know, the debate about ghosts has finally been solved:

I managed to capture it unawares and snap it.  Presumably my room will now be haunted.

A small price to pay for gathering irrefutable evidence.

This is the town of Gohyun.  It's the largest on the island, and is pretty much the epicentre of all things Geoje.  It's rained for a couple of days now; it's safe to say we're finally entering the rainy season.  This will continue for a month or so, relentlessly if the foreigners on the island are to be believed.  Personally speaking I don't buy it, as English people often talk about constant rain despite spending only two thirds of our lives sodden.

On a side-note, the rain here is pretty impressive.  When I say it rained all day yesterday and all of today, it really did rain non-stop.  Not half-assed English rain that stops and starts, it really did not stop.  At times it was heavy, at times it was weak; but it never gave up.  Kudos to Korean rain, for making me wet through.

Kudos also to Korean heat, as I never felt cold.  Sure, I weighed an extra five kilogrammes, but not once did I feel cold.

This is Gohyun as seen from the top a local department store.  I say local, but it's the only one on the island.  This may not seem like a big deal to the sane world, but having only one department store per 250,000 people is like English people having a single for the same number of people.

The mere notion of only having one department store makes grown Koreans weep, and is a driving influence for migration away from the island, and towards large cities.

They love department stores here.

The lack of alternative venues mean the youth of the island congregate in the same places every weekend, staking their own spots inside on both Saturday and Sunday; until they leave for the university on the mainland.

Weather Update

19°C | °F

Current: Rain
Humidity: 96%

Thu

28°C | 19°C

Fri

27°C | 20°C

Sat

30°C | 20°C

Sun

30°C | 20°C

Check out the humidity.

The Weather Then.

It's humid.  Really humid.  This makes it feel substantially warmer than it is, (as of right now, 20 degrees or so) although it will get much hotter than this.

The beaches are nice, but the water is too cold for swimming at the moment.  Presumably the water will get warmer too.

Everyone is really nice, and the kids in school are pretty energetic.

I seem to have hit the jackpot in terms of location, because the supermarket (which I've only visited once, in order to get some breakfast; everyone has been so kind that I've not needed to cook yet) and gym are within five minutes of me.  Pretty much everything I need is already here, (thank you previous owner!) and so my shopping list is rather sparse.

I'm going to play some american football later in the week.  My limited experience of this sport suggests it will be easy to  begin with, (as it was when I played it before) but I suspect as with all things, the more involved you get, the more intricate the theory becomes, besides; it's always fun to learn new things, especially sports - it should be a laugh!

I'm debating whether to bother with pads or not for the training, we'll see how it goes.

I'm still suffering with timezone differences.  I woke up at 2AM today, and despite my best efforts only dozed until 5, I'm going to be zombified tonight.

I need to get myself a camera.  I find myself looking up at the scenery at every given opportunity.

What I did Today:

What I did today was get very wet.

I decided to go to the botanical gardens; and seeing as today is my second to last full day in Kyoto, come hell or high water I was going to see these gardens.

Knowing this, He gave me high water.  It's the most rain I've seen since I've been here (including the 'typhoon' (if you want to call it that) because I was asleep when that hit, so I didn't really see any of it) and it finally enabled me to put on my waterproof trousers!  They saw some in anger use, finally!

The gardens are actually really nice, and they fit the tempo of the area to a nicety.  Kyoto is a relaxed city, if that's not an oxymoron.  It's certainly a lovely place to be, and I wouldn't mind teaching in this area.  Hell; I'd love to teach here.

After that expedition I went chinese dress hunting.  Kyoto is as traditional as it comes, and with that come traditional values.  Traditional values essentially means there are no chinese shops in this area, let alone ones selling chinese dresses.  I will continue my brave search however; maybe into the furthest reaches of Tokyo, who knows.

On another note, JET applications started today.  I spent an hour filling in the forms I'll need, only to find out their 'save' option doesn't appear to work.  It's going to take a considerable amount of time to complete, that's for sure...

If you're reading this JET officers:  Please let me come back here!  Please!  I'm begging you!

I'll put the photographs of today up when I have some time, but at this rate that may well be after I arrive back in England.

Pictures of the Typhoon... Kind of.

So these are the pictures of the typhoon.  Or rather, these should be the pictures of the typhoon, except that it moved an awful lot quicker than people were expecting, and therefore the brunt of the storm hit around 5AM here, instead of the predicted 9AM.

I even woke up especially early (8AM) in order to capture this event on camera.  However it had already passed, so all I managed to get were a few shots of the wind, and an incredibly high tide.

The air pressure was so low it made my joints ache, as if I'd been scuba diving or something.  This also made the sea level extremely high, and if there had been any wind whatsoever I'm sure the sea would have caused some problems.

As it was, the wind was actually pretty strong.  But there was nothing else of incident really, no blown over houses, no cows sailing past the window.  It was strong enough to physically push me off my seat a couple of times, which would have been hilarious for anyone who happened to be watching, had there been anyone else within fifty miles of me.  In the early morning there was no one anywhere close to me.  I think everyone was still under the impression it was storm weather, or had the potential to be stormy.  By midday it was sunny.  Annoying.

So basically I've never been blown away before, (well not since being a child presumably) and this did make me think that if it had the power to move me when it was only the trailing edge of the main event, the winds inside must have been really impressive.

The whole event has basically made me want to see a proper storm close-up.  I think it really would be impressive.

Anyway, onto the pictures!

So I found some other people out and about like I was, so I felt duty-bound to take some pictures of them.

A lot of the people walking around were salarymen aimlessly wandering about, when they definitely should have been at work.  I made the assumptiont that their employers had given them time off, but they didn't want to spend it at home, so they pretended they had to work anyway; suits and all.

Having said that though, wearing a suit seems to be obligatory for men here, even wearing the tie at all time must be adhered to.  So I'm sure I won't be climbing any corporate ladders if I get a job here.

Ok so I bought a set of waterproof legs to go over normal trousers in the local corner shop; thinking I'd need them for the reporter style 'being blown down the street in pouring rain and thundering ocean spray,' camera shot I was looking to get.  Of course that didn't happen, and I was thoroughly disappointed when I took them off.

This is me looking confused.  It was pretty much 9AM at this point, and I was wondering where the storm was.

I was all done up in plastic finery to avoid gettinng wet, but there was no rain!

Palpable disappointment in this photo, I think you'll agree.

So this cool looking building is a ferry terminal, and a park.  There's grass and benches and whatnot on top, and this was my primary destination originally.  However they denied me access to the park on top, even though I'm sure it wouldn't have been much worse than where I took this picture from.

You can also see the height of the tide in this picture.  That little road is an access road for cars and whatnot, and when I came here a few days ago the sea was about two metres below that, despite being at a high tide then!

So this is the biggest building in Japan again.  Remember when I said you could see it from anywhere?

I wonder what it's like to have those winds in a building that high and wide?  I'm sure that would have been an interesting experience for anyone inside.

So it did rain a little bit, but nothing worth shouting about really.

I put on my waterproof trousers just to get some kind of use out of them.

Stupid?  Yes.  But I'm never averse to making myself look like an idiot.

Even the few people that were out and about disappeared at this point, and it felt like I had the whole city to myself.  It was quite an interesting situation, and let me get pictures of the sea that would have been impossible without this weather.

And this was on the way back to the hostel, about thirty minutes after that last picture was taken.

People think the weather changes quickly in England, come and visit Japan during a storm.  It's amazing how quickly everything switches around, and going from rain and wind to bright sunshine and... wind takes seconds.

By this point the general populace were out and about too, so a few people were falling over, and stuff was getting blown around so the walk back to the hostel was quite fun.

And people still had their umbrellas.  No-one here has quite  twigged that imbrellas, rain, and fifty mile per hour winds do not mix.  It's really funny to see a line of people put up their umbrellas, and them all get snapped in succession.  I would love to video it, and maybe I'll get the chance another time.

And we end with this guy.  He's staying in the hostel too, and is studying Japanese at the moment.

I've not had a lot to do in Yokohama lately, because of all the interview based waiting around, so I've spent a long time aimlessly wandering, and chatting to the random people who turn up about the place.

I've spent a long time talking to this guy, so I definitely feel he's worthy of recognition in my blog.  Brazilian born Japanese are becoming commonplace in my travels!

Ok so I took a few videos as well.  This first one is during the night, and is basically demonstrating why I couldn't sleep, with a little voice-over on my part.



Ok now this second video is to demonstrate how windy it was.  Think of this video as the base level of windiness, gusting much harder than this at times.



And that's pretty much all there is to that day of disappointing non-typhoon action.

A Lot of Hot Air!

It basically came overnight, much faster than anyone predicted.  By the time I got up at 8AM (especially early to go out in what should have been peak storm times) it had already gone!

The shinkansen stopped running because of the safety risks, and the local services were severely disrupted on what was essentially, a bit of a windy, perfectly sunny day.

A number of shops were closed, and my friends' lecturer cancelled her university lessons for today because everyone thought it was going to be bad, but it turned out to be a reasonable day.

Last night sucked though.  A bunch of Italians, who are noisy at the best of times, were hysterical at being stuck in the middle of the storm and were crying in the hallways, literally, and generally keeping everyone up.  That coupled with the noise of the rain, (it hit overnight) meant I didn't get to sleep until 5AM.  I now dislike Italians, which is interesting because in Italy they're a part of the landscape; some countries travel well, Italy doesn't

The weathermen get it wrong here too it seems.

More pictures and whatnot to come at a later date.

'Super Typhoon Melor'

So here I am in another coffee shop, thinking on the day that's passed.

There's a typhoon coming; but those on the news aside, there's not much fuss about it. Although I'm certain it's the biggest one this year (a few reports have mentioned as much) and although I'm certain it's changed direction and is now going to pass right over here, rather than glance us as previously predicted; the people here pay little attention to the matter. Only upon prompting will they talk about it, and this is puzzling me. Maybe the fact that a serious typhoon is a threat to life plays a part in my perceived ambivalence surrounding the subject. Not wanting to relive past events and whatnot. Think back to the storm in the late 80's in England, and the furore that caused. Think winds that are twice as fast and more rain than is logically possible and you get the kind of idea of what typhoon means here.

Or maybe I've got it all wrong. The reason they don't talk about it, even though it's already affecting southern areas of Japan as I write this, is because it's not a big deal. Between the typhoons, massive fires, earthquakes and tsunamis this little bit of wind and rain is probably nothing to get excited about. Six feet of overnight snow would plummet England into the dark (I toyed with the idea of putting ice here instead of dark) ages, but in the Scandinavian countries? What you're used to defines your responses to such situation, I suppose.

Anyway, I'm in an absolutely prime position to witness this storm first-hand and have made the necessary preparations to do so. Yokohama is on the North Eastern side of a peninsula just below Tokyo, and the storm will (if it carries on as predicted) travel overland to hit me. Essentially, the storm is travelling at around 40m/s North North East, and will be weakened by the time it reaches me, because of the land it travels over.

Quick geography lesson: Oceans fuel tropical storms, evaporated water provides the storm with energy, so when it's over the ocean it has the potential to incorporate more water into its' mass. Once over land water can no longer join the storm, so at most the storm will stay the same intensity, but in most cases will rapidly dissipate. Lesson over.

Therefore, travelling up Japan means the storm will lose energy as it rains all over the southern parts. It also means the leading edge can't affect the seas here, as it will on the other side of the peninsula. The high wind speeds will counteract the extremely low pressures (935 millibars!) by essentially forcing the waves away from shore. The situation is completely different on the other shore, with winds and low pressure forcing high tides towards the land. It should be interesting to see the effect on damage between both areas, if there is any of course.

On the news I've seen the smaller islands south of Japan being battered, trees coming down and whatnot. There has also been at least one death, but where I have no idea. The warmer the waters are the more ferocious the storm, (until you go too far south, then there are no storms, but that's a whole different lesson) so these islands are always the ones you see on the news being destroyed by all manner of different god (sic) based acts.

So by preparations I mean I've purchased a few supplies. Firstly, to go with my rain proof jacket, I've bought plastic trouser overall rain proof cover things. If anyone knows their official name, please, do tell. I'm currently hunting for a plastic cover for my bag, and a plastic bag for my camera. Ideally I want a proper bag cover (everyone here has one), but I'll settle for a Tescos bag. (They don't have Tescos here, it was just an example) The plastic bag for my camera has to be completely clear though, I want to shoot through it without taking my camera out. It hasn't stopped raining for two days here because of the weatherfront, so I can only imagine how hard the rain will be once it actually hits – thirty seconds in the rain could spell disaster for my camera. These supplies aside I think I'll be in good stead to check out what's what.
I'll definitely go out and have a nose around when it's dead overhead, that is, until cars start sailing past my window. Then I'm very much the indoor photographer. There's a great park looking onto the seafront, and I think I'll find myself wandering in that direction. I might try taking some drenched reporter style footage, with the trees bent double and twenty foot waves crashing upon the break behind me.

Yeah they do that here too. Send reporters into towns that have been evacuated, wearing bright blue or yellow plastic packaging holding a microphone that's cellophane wrapped to stop it getting wet, shouting something no one can understand into the microphone. Pretty much the scene I described above. I've not had the chance to ask if anyone here thinks it's weird too, but I'm guessing it's stupid in any culture. It must be fun being the guy who gets to do that. Well the first few times it would be fun. It sure as hell beats going into Iraq and doing that kind of correspondence, anyway.

That's pretty much my day tomorrow sorted, I'm going to get very wet.

Then the day after is my interview of course!

And in other interview related news, I have another interview for a strange but cool sounding English speaking cafe. They hold lessons in English, but also have a cafe where the teachers and students hang out outside of lessons, and speak English! Sounds interesting, but I'm not sure how economically viable it is. Maybe it would be something fun to do at the weekends, to meet new people and earn a little money on the side.

That's it for now, I'm going to head back and collect my washing (it's free here, so it's very much a case of fill your boots.)

The typhoon is called Melor by the way.  You can keep track of it on google!

じゃまた。

An Interesting Couple of Days...

I'm now up to date with all pictures, all entries are complete.

So basically yesterday I spent all day helping a college student out with a survey he was doing, eating, and generally dossing.  It looked like it was gooing to rain so I thought nuts to going out anywhere.  I then went to a small bar in the evening, WHERE I BUMPED INTO LOST AUSTRALIAN WOMAN.  So I got her name, Naree, and she is now able to obtain any photograph from me.  She was a little drunk though, so maybe she won't remember to add me to facebook...

Today I had the longest breakfast, European style, sitting and chatting to the people who worked behind the bar.  Tonight is FREE FOOD NIGHT THERE.  Guess where I'm going tonight.

I've not done anything interesting in the last couple of days primarily because of the weather, which is unfortunate but, coming from England, not the end of the world.  Should the weather not improve I'll just go to the other sites(see: sights) anyway.

Next week is 'silver week,' where the country takes a few days off, so travelling is a no no then.  This is unfortunate because I'd like to move on, but I guess I'll just stay here a couple more days, and go after the holidays.

We're having a few tiny tremors, barely noticeable.  Someone I talked to compared them to a truck going past, but this person is an idiot.  The room moves sideways in one plane of motion, whereas when a truck goes past it just rumbles and shakes a lot.  The earthquake in Hull is still the biggest I've experienced!

Kamakura in the rain!

So it was raining this morning.  Me and a fellow traveller, whose name I will now get wrong: Hooshan, were sitting in the lobby wondering what to do.  So he googled 'tokyo in the rain and out popped a review of the ancient capital of Japan, long before Tokyo, and before Kyoto even, this place, 'Kamakura,' was where the seat of power was placed.  The review stated that Kamakura is a nice place to visit in the rain, and upon loudly debating this in the same lobby, a German piped in saying, 'I'm sorry to have eavesdropped, but I hear Kamakura is really nice in the rain.'  So almost entirely swayed we asked the receptionist to give us directions there.

In a bizarre twist it transpired that our receptionist was born there, and recommended that the previous reviews, both electronic and personal, were complete bubkus.

Undeterred we forged ahead into several fascinating areas.  Generally the two most impressive features, a giant bodhivista (Spelling?) and another giant buddha thing were indoors, while the gardens took some (hopefull) great photographs, because the lighting wasn't too harsh to become overpowering, or too dull to render photography impossible.  Therefore, two plucky tourists gambled on the weather machine, and ended up winning.

It did however rain buckets on my way back, after I had parted from my travel companion.  As an interesting side-note, the raindrops  here are fingernail sized, and carry an improbable force, dissipated in a violent fashion upon anything that may dare stand in its way.  I was drenched after ten seconds, and despite wearing a waterproof jacket, my trousers and bag contents were soaked.  Maybe some waterproof trousers and a waterproof bag container are in order at some later stage.

My favourite part of the day was a 10 metre tall wooden statue of a goddess.  It's the biggest in Japan and is absolutely amazingly decorated in gold leaf, with extra sprinklings of vanity all over the place.  It's made from a single tree, the name of which eludes me at the moment, although it's quite a well known tree.  It must have been monumental as well, because this thing was about 2 metres wide, as well as being 10 metres tall.  Unfortunately no photographs were allowed.

Onto the pictures:

The Japanese style full English breakfast contains many odd accoutrements.  Cucumber and what is possibly mashed potatoe, with (offscreen) oddly cut toast.  As usual, portions are quite mean.  Free coffee/tea refills are a nice american style touch though.

Cool looking bus with supporting pole type things on the front.  I'm not sure if that would pass a pedestrian impact safety test in Europe though...

It was a little gloomy at this stage in proceedings, but this temple marker was huge and well deserving of a picture.

At certain religious festivals people wish upon a rock, and try to throw it on top of these markers.  I'm not sure if they get what they wished for, but I'm certain that a lot of people get headaches.

As I understand it, these structures mark the beginning of temples or shrines, but this one led onto a big shopping street.  God is in the dollar I guess.

Perfect lighting!  I hope the rest come out this well.

The submerged plants in the picture to the right looked like some kind of lilly, but they stood up to a metre out of the water with no support.  May any horticulturalist know what these are?

There are also 15 pound (estimated) carp swimming around in there.  They looked pretty common to me.

This place proved to be the first of a number of traditional looking Japanese gardens, the likes of which is universally reckoned within the hostel, to exist only in the movies and an extremely small percentage of upper class, private Japan.  I guess it's not surprising to understand that what we know of another country, may turn out to be misrepresentative of the truth!

Terribly blurred picture of the carp.  Doesn't really do justice to it's size.  Although I guess the old joke goes that it was thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis big.

Looking out of the lily type plants, onto the mountains that permeate this town.  The mountains are as much a feature of the land as the plants that grow on them.

More of the same view.

The younger brother of the one that got away.

The path leading towards the main temple area.  Line of sight is difficult  to recreate with a photograph, but it was impressive to see the temple in the distance, it's a lot bigger than it looks here!

This all looks traditional and quite nice, until you see the bloody kid, on his bloody scooter!

Sans bloody kid, unfortunately still with bloody scooter.

This is on the steps leading up to the main temple.  It's kind of like the scroll containing area in asakusa.

The design of the eaves alone is intricate, before you take into account the paintings on the roof of most of these structures, or the construction of the roof itself.

I guessed that this raised platform was for some kind of performance.  No English speakers were on hand to prove or disprove this theory, so it stands as a tentative reasoning behind this structure.

One guard dog stands with his mouth open, the other closed.  One represents life, the other death.  Their proximity defines the co-existence and intimate nature of both aspects of our existence.  Plus they look mean.














I've sifted through some 150 photos so far, and there are about 200 more to go, so I'll finish the rest up tomorrow.

These must take a long time to paint...  I wonder why all the end parts are yellow?

This is the kind of classic design feature I always associate with Japan, it's nice to see it actually exists over here, albeit in a tourist form.

That's a damn big drum.  I think they're called taiko, but I'm not sure.  This type of drum is the same kind that reach house sized proportions during the big festivals, and I assure you, having experienced the noise from a variety only four or so feet wider than this, the experience is physical.

This is the facade of the main shrine, no pictures were allowed inside so I tactfully took this shot of the outside.

This is a little way off to the right, and is a modest shrine to (presumably) a separate deity.  It has its' own water dispenser/human soul purifying unit, but I didn't manage to get a decent shot of that.  In this one area there were lots of these separate shrines.

This is a different shot of the same thing.

I've no idea what these are, or what their purpose is, but you see a number of  them around the place, and they look pretty cool.  Incense can be burned around the area, or inside the two taller structures, but I've also seen figures inside them instead.  So, basically, they could be anything.

  There were a number of these elongated paths with a single focal point in the far distance.  On the one hand they looked quite spectacular to the eye, but not to the camera...

Sometimes these gates have golden suns on their faces - this represents a royal tie, and usually means the shrines' upkeep is handled by the royal family.

A common problem?

There were a thousand photo opportunities a minute in this particular area.

These things also appeared to be markers of some kind, as they were everywhere in this particular area, and can often be seen in other shrine areas.

The old trees seem to define what makes a shrine area, and what makes these areas different from other areas.  Although it may sound ridiculous, they look to me like full sized bonsai trees, all gnarled and ugly, but perfectly shaped.

These shoes are actually for fully grown adults...

This impressive structure marked the entrance to shrine number two!

A close up view of the detailing in the supporting beams.  That big roof was supported, as you can see from the picture above, on a frame that all bore the detailing on the left.  Again, it must have taken quite some time to construct this.

This is one of several bells around the area.  This one is not used anymore, it's too old.  The sign even says, do not touch, this is a national treasure!  It looked so old that a stiff breeze might disintegrate it.

Another temple structure, bearing many similarities to those found all around this area.  It feels like the same designer worked on all the structures around here!

Inside was another ornate, gods abound festival of sobriety.  The gods on display looked buddhist, but I can't say for certain.

I'm sure Tokyo-ites visit temples and shrines as much for the greenery as the religious aspects.

This view looked pretty so I took a picture... There's nothing more to be said really.

These sites are still actively used for devout worship, and this area is for private prayer.  It also houses a gift shop of sorts, for all your praying needs; including: paper to write wishes on, that can then be tied to a special rope, in a certain knot, that will therein grant the wish; a wooden slate that ambitions can be written upon.  Once tied to a special rack, these dreams will come true.  And of course, incense; for all your smelling needs.

This is a comparative shot.  The people also give it a sense of scale, albeit a skewed one, because native Japanese really are that small!

Welcome to the third site!  This one has some particularly nice gardens, for all the horticulture buffs out there.

This is the first example (I think) of a proper Japanese style garden, and came at the foot of a peculiar shrine.  It's interesting to see how few of these there are around Japan.

The water contains a number of goldfish, and a massive number of coins, many copper based.  How are the fish not poisened?  Or maybe that's why they're such a bright orange...

There's an awful lot happening in this picture, and I included it to show everyone that the 'style' they have over here isn't always minimalistic!

Lots of these little statues arrange all over the place.  The patience to set these up in orderly rows like this is something only a monk could have.

That's going to make a hell of a noise when it's struck...

The view on a cloudy day, across the bay, where we did stay, hooray!

A slightly different take on the same view.

One hundred pounds to anyone who can identify this bird of prey.  There were waarning signs up saying these things eat your stuff, so be careful, and we got a really good look at it, but not with the camera so we're certain it's a bird of prey.  Which kind, however, remains a mystery.

This building is at the top of the gardens as seen before, and houses an incredible 10 metre statue of a deity.  The largest in Japan, and made from camfer (sp?).  It must have been a hell of an undertaking to create that statue from a single piece of wood.

Close up of the little figures, placed all over any non-walking area in the shrine.

A really evil looking guy with a cool sword and flames behind him.  Message:  Don't annoy this guy.

Normally these gateways are well above head height, something that is not always the case as I found to my detriment.  The headache inducing height of this example is aptly demonstrated by my colleague in this picture.  He is roughly 5 foot 8, so I was perfectly placed to tackle this particular obstacle head on.

This cave was carved into the mountain, and was a shrine of sorts.  This tunnel is actually around four feet high, and is quite claustraphobic, and also quite a strain on the back!!!

These small figures were placed all around, on any surface that would hold them.

More of these cleverly placed figures.  They even put them on the power cables supplying lighting to the cave!







At this stage my camera ran out of juice, but we did see a number of other things, so when my travel buddy gets back home and uploads his photos, I'll put them on here.