Miyako-Jima

I got in the plane at Haneda airport, which is built on reclaimed land and reached via Tokyo Monorail. After having checked in my luggage (it's enough to be there 20min in advance) it took 2,5 hours to reach Naha airport on Okinawa, where i was welcomed by rather high temperatures and humidity.

I didnt see much of Naha, because i had to take the ferry the same day, and thanks to a lousy busservice (No destinations on bus-timetables, 20min delay etc) i had to skip Shuri-Castle. Okinawa is a car society as Japanese use to say, and the only american thing for me to experience, as i did only see one westerner during the whole day, so the Americans seem to rather stay on their bases. Ok, there are lots of Steak-Houses though, of course i eat champloo instead , the obviously name-giving dish for the Samurai Champloo anime (both great!!!). From the rather run down Shinko (New Port) in Naha, it takes 8h by ferry to get to Miyako. I slept well and didnt get sick.

At Miyako port i was picked up by the proprietor of the Kuromonchou-Minshuku, who is a totally nice guy, later that day, he showed me around all over Miyako main island from north to south with his car, told me a lot, and in the evening we had dinner together with one of his friends, exchanged sake and home made Schnaps from Austria. Today we did some snorkeling on the eastern coast, the water being warm, but probably not what you need for that kind of activity, so we had enough after 30min. But i am relaxed knowing now there'll be no problem swimming in 20degree warm water (just as air temperature). Only backlash: it is really cloudy and rainy all the time, and you're not able to foretell the next shower (which normally is over again after half an hour something again).
Watch the Fotos!

Goodbye Tokyo!

Last days in megalopolis! Having left my room with its great view, said good bye to all friends and collegues, i am on my own now once again.

To miss no experience i decided to stay the last night in a capsule hotel in Akihabara, the part of town where all the computer nerds an otaku kids make their shopping dreams come true.

Tomorrow i take the plane down to Naha, Okinawa's main town and from there take the overnight-ferry to Miyako-Jima the same day, an island even farther south, already close to Taiwan. I'll stay there at Minshuku Kuromonchou, the house having been built around 100 years ago, something really special regarding the past, as okinawa islands where the only part of Japan being conquered by US-troops.

I hope to find calm weather there, it's said to have around 20°C, unfortunately it'll be rather clowdy. nonetheless i hope i can go swimming, as the beaches should be magnificent. Saturday i will go on to Ishigaki, the most southern Part of Japan, before returning to Naha, and from there going north again up to Kagoshima.

Some Akiba-Fotos.

Sumo!

As its tournament time now in Tokyo, i finally could witness the best in this traditional style of wrestling. The tournament goes on for two weeks, and takes from early morning until 6pm, when the two Yokozunas (grand champions) have their fights. Of spectators particular interest are of course the major rounds (makuuchi), where the highest ranked compete against each other, from around 4 pm. In fact those guys are not just fat, but incredibly well trained. (Its all muscles, you know...).
As this is thousands of year old practice, it is filled with ritualistic gestures and movements, but those aren't mere decoration. The preparations before the actual fights, with all that throwing of salt, getting in position and then raising again, slapping own bodyparts..., is already a form of engagement. And its possible to estimate who is going to win even before they touched each other. For that it was good to see the minor fights too, because there you see the uncertainties of the contrahents, who don't synchronise that perfectly as do the champions, the later making you think it was only a ceremonial.
Although japanese in tradition, sumo today is rather international, quite a few of the grand wrestlers being of Eastern European origin and the two Yokozunas both being Mongolian.
Watch the clip of one single competition:

And of course there are Fotos as well...

Ekimae

Ekimae means in front of the station. Other than in Europe, where train stations aren't really the place of your choice, in Japan with its public transport society, all revolves around it. So when you tell somebody where you live, you rather say the line and the station where you get off. And of course that's where you meet friends and colleagues or go shopping after work. So the bigger stations (Shinjuku and Ikebukuro being worlds largest) are at once giant department stores, where you can buy what latest fashion trends prescribe, there are floors filled up with restaurants, bars and so on. As the railway companies own the stations, they also usually own the stores (Odakyu in Shinjuku, Seibu in Ikebukuro, again one of Japans largest, and Lumine at major JR-stops).

As it is a meeting point it doesn't stop at the station itself, but the area around those are places to spend free time, where even more shops, bars, game centers and of course red-light related businesses (Shinjuku's infamous Kabukichou) are nestled along, where neon signs or megaphone using staff crying up their services. So today stations picked up a role, filled out by temples and shrines in former times, this tie still being present in the name of the area around Harajuku station, named Omotesandou, literally meaning front way to a Shrine (in this case the Meiji-Jingu).

Also, the places you get to know as a tourist, like the above mentioned are those around the station. And European railway companies seem to try to inherit that concept, e.g. the new central station in Berlin, and the efforts (?) made by OEBB, to modernize their buildings.

Fotos

In the evening, there are often music performars of varied talent gathering around the station to promote their art. One particular good one i saw, was Re-Trick in Shinjuku:

Beans and Rice (part 2)!

A speciality in Eastern Japanese cuisine is Natto, that is fermented beans, you mix with soy-sauce, mustard and scallions and then pour it over your rice. It is said that foreigners and even kansai people cant eat it. In fact it smells rather funny, and is often compared in its taste to mould cheese, which is somehow fitting and then again not. I tried it sometimes, and could eat it without problems (surprise, surprise), nevertheless its consistence is rather hard to get over, because it is really sticky (“newa newa” as this type of food is called in Japanese) and the look of it is just gross! Despite it is considered uneatable, there seem to be even more smelly foodproducts in this country.

All in all, food is very important here. I first realised that when turning on the tv, and there you have at least 2-3 channels, where there is some food related show. This doesnt stop with all the dull cooking shows, i know back from home, but includes presentations of the current seasons specialities, or those of the different regions, or from all over the world (This years rice, hokkaido clambs, beaujolais nouveau). The very unusual about it, you can watch people eating the most diverse things on screen and yelling “oishii” or “umai” to confirm its tastiness, which can also go wrong from time to time (like with one show, where the showmaster had to taste dishes prepared by fans of the show and just couldnt keep up his face...).

And of course there are eating contests, its contestants having some sort of celebrity status.
But this goes right into daily life. After having been dared by my iaido sensei with strange types of sushi, like wasashi (raw horsemeat), yuke (sliced raw beef topped with a small raw egg) and last but not least the infamous shirako (sperm filled fish testicles), which i had to eat while being oservated by him as well as the shopkeeper, i could proudly yell “oishii” at the next occasion, whereas the members of the dojo really had a hard time swallowing!

Food related Fotos.
Couple who just had to carry the natto-experience to excess.


Another newanewa dish: Me eating Sticky Seaweed soup at Nokogiriyama

Tonoyaki at Torigoe-Jinja

Somewhat awkward title, i know, but thats how its called. Shops and restaurants all reopened again, but The New Year period lasting for quite some days here in Japan and are followed by various typical acitivites. One i visited is the said Tonoyaki, where New Year decorations are burnt. Additionaly, people hold Omochi into the fire, using long bamboo sticks. Both of it is considered bringing good luck, for the new Year. This custom used to be a rather widespread one, but in Tokyo now it only survived at Torigoe-Jinja.

Omochi is typically eat for new year, it is a small cake made of - Yes! - rice. You hold it into the fire until its starting to turn black. Then you can eat it. I got my own stick, and roasted my own one. The taste was funny!

A more relaxed way of roasting your Omochi
The Dark side of Omochi

Video

Where we went....

As I have mentioned before, my girlfriend and I travelled to central Japan during the winterholidays.
We started in Hida-Takayama, the capital of Gifu prefecture, famous for its quater of dark wooden buildings dating from the Edo period and also its beef, which in fact is delicious, but somewhat expensive. You eat it together with cold soba noodles. Takayama is rather small and very calm so its perfect for just walking around. And i spotted snow for the first time, since i came to Japan!
We stayed overnight at a youth hostel adjunct to Tenshoji one in a row of buddhist temples at the east end of the city. A great place! Overall there seem to be much more temples than Shrines in Central Japan, just opposite to eastern part.

Further up north is Shirakawago a narrow valley beneath a reservoir. Ogimachi is its largest village consisting mainly of old farmhouses (gasshotsukuri), with their triangle shaped roofs, beneath which silkworms where bred in former times. The silkworm waste then was buried in the ground under the living space, where it transformed into a base material for gunpowder, and remained the main source for it for several hundred years. We stayed in one of these old houses. Otherwise than stated on their homepage they didnt serve dinner at the fireplace, where a small stove directly is put on the ground. So unfortunately we missed that experience.

Finally we arrived in Kyoto, the must-see-town of Japan. There we got a glance of Kansai-livestyle. People seem to be much more relaxed over there, walk slower, talk louder and laugh more. Kyoto is the spiritual center of Japan. As a tourist you experience that as a decent sightseeing tour threatens to turn into a temple-marathon. We tried to avoid this, but had a somewhat hard time doing so, as non spiritual facilites where practically all closed down for the Year End period. Nevertheless the temples are impressive, not least because of vast meditational gardens surrounding them. Personally i liked Touji the most, because of the magnificent groups of buddhas and boddhisavatwas inside the lecture hall.
Our base there was Shimaya, just between towncenter and the station, the atmosphere there was one of the best i witnessed in Japan so far!

Happy New Year!

After a short but pleasant journey over to Kansai we celebrated New Year back in Tokyo! Despite theses days being the main holiday season here, it is rather a quite time, families coming together often from far distances. And there are just no fireworks at all. As my girlfriend returned today, we had to get up early and skipped heavy partying, instead dancing to the tunes of the danube waltz home, after we heard the temple bells starting around midnight. Later on we followed customs and visited a shrine in the neighbourhood bowed and drank some warm sake afterwards.


Much happiness and all the best for 2008!
It's the Year of the rat now!

Japanese New Years customs
Photos from our the Journey