Category: Miscellaneous

With Our Thoughts We Shape The World

June 2, 2009

Before I start, some shots of the room in our ryokan…

And a shot of me eating beef bowl breakfast (again) in Yoshinoya:

Yesterday we went to the mountain! Mt Takao (pronounced ta-ka-oh) to be precise:

This had been a highlight of our last trip and we were looking forward to another visit. The 599 meter tall mountain is about an hour from Tokyo and is a very popular tourist attraction (and for good reason). Closely associated with a type of Japanese spirit called a Tengu, the mountain is home to many different shrines and many hiking trails wind up and around the peak.

On our last trip we thoroughly enjoyed the chairlift that takes hikers up the the starting point of the climb. We actually rode it twice it was so good, but alas yesterday it was closed and we were forced to take the cable car. Even though we were initially disappointed, as it turns out the cable car was no less thrilling!

In fact, rather than describe it, why don’t you ride it too! Here’s a video I shot of the trip so you can do just that!

The climb up Takao (assuming you take the most common route) is reasonably leisurely (excluding the several flights of torturous stairs) and passes a dozen or so temples and shrines. While the mountain views and nature appreciation level is high, this path is more about the shrines than the nature.

At one of the temples KLS enjoyed a delicious grape ice cream! I tried to steal some and ice-burned my tongue (and complained about it endlessly for 15 minutes or so)!

At one shrine we observed a monk performing his morning chant (yes, these are ‘working’ temples):

< Monk on Takao

Here is a video so you can hear what it sounds like.

The above is a tengu statue at one of the temples, and the right is a detail of what he is holding in his hand. So Japanese! This made me smile 🙂

We reached the peak in about 2 hours, and had a delicious lunch of chips and drink!

< Yum!

We were both tired-ish by now (you would be too, believe me!) but the Chip Stars and Mt Dew combined in my body and allowed me to activate Devil Satan Power, thus giving me unstoppable energy to begin the walk down!

Oh yes, a shot of Fuji from the top:

< Fuji from Takao

Can you see it? It’s really there! In the very middle of the picture, towering above all the other mountains! What, you can’t see it…?

And thus we began the walk down. Last time we took the path that followed a stream, this time we took the one that followed a ridge. And it was amazing! Here are some shots taken on the path on various points:

The path followed a ridge almost all the way down, and was frequently steep, or treacherous with tree roots, or narrow. Very rarely were there any railings at all, and the drop off was so steep at points that falling seemed like it would have been certain death. And yet the views were magnificent, as were the sounds of birds.

Here is a video to give you an idea what it was like.

KLS had some trouble with the walk because she was scared of slipping and hurting herself, but her ganbare spirit never faded and she made it all the way down safely!

In her own words...

Yesterday we tired ourselves more than any day so far this trip! We went to the mountain, and climbed the mountain, and we beat the mountain. But it was a narrow victory indeed! So today, well today you would imagine we’d have something restful planned wouldn’t you…?

Duffy

June 1, 2009

Just now I was watching a TV show that seemed to be about sending a cute girl to cake stores all over Tokyo and showing her response to eating delicious cakes. Such things are typical for Japanese TV 🙂

Also, my whack-a-bison video from the other day has already received 2 comments! Maybe I should post another UFO catching video and try to surpass the hits on my one from Australia?!

Anyway… here’s what we did yesterday:

As with other Disney parks, Disney Sea is one of the happiest places on earth, and you can be absolutely sure you won’t be rubbing shoulders with criminals here:

< Read that fine print!

Disney Sea is built around a large lagoon, and features a half dozen or so themed areas including ruined South American temple, a Jules-Verneish zone (inside a volcano), a Mexican zone and an early-twentieth century America. Architecturally, this is perhaps the most impressive of all the Disney parks, and it is a real treat to just walk around and admire the attention to detail Disney put into virtually everything.

That edifice on the right is the Tower Of Terror, a reimagined version of the ride of the same name at Hollywood park in Florida’s Disney World. It is a ‘drop ride’ where you sit in an elevator car that drops in the dark three times. It’s thrilling and a lot of fun, especially when 75% of the car are Japanese teenage girls screaming their brains out. It is clearly the most popular ride in the park, and only minutes after opening the ride looked like this:

< Tower Of Terror ride

The line is visible on both sides of the image, and curls around behind me. The actual end of the line is not visible (it’s beyond what you can see on the left side) and that’s just where it enters the building – there’s a good 30 minutes more wait inside. We joined this line! Why? Since the Fastpass line was almost as long! It took us maye 45 minutes (maybe more) to ride the first time 🙂

Disney Sea yesterday was very, very busy! I’d estimate attendance at about 30% families, 30% dating couples, 39.98% gaggles of Japanese teenage girls and 0.02% westerners. Happily Japanese people love the parades and the shops, so even a very very busy park doesn’t translate into absurd lines (above exception notwithstanding), so it wasn’t a problem for us!

We ended up riding Tower Of Terror 3 times during the day, and it got better every time. Here’s a couple of photos of photos of our rides:

Obviously, by the third time (rightmost photo) we had worked out when they actually take the shot. Note my Billy Mays impersonation!

We’d been to Disney Sea once before, way back in 2002. The park has changed a lot since then, mostly since it was very new before (for instance, all the trees have grown in now). There seem to be a few new rides (our memory of ’02 is dim). Tower Of Terror is one, and Raging Spirits, a rollercoaster, is another.

< Raging Spirits

This ride is notable for two reasons:
1) It has a loop, which makes it (to my knowledge) the only Disney ride in the world with one. You can see it in the left image if you look closely
2) It’s a half-man ride. During the actual ride (we waited about 45 minutes…) I was heard to yell out “This is a ride for babies!”. Given the excessive amount of warnings during the line I was expecting something thrilling, but had I been asleep upon boarding I’m not even sure it would have woken me 🙂

Aquatopia, by the way, is the worst ever Disney ride. I’ll provide images, but spare you the details of it’s horror:

Random Disney photo time!

From the left: KLS looking sweet in the Tower Of Terror Line, Goofy with the levitation buff, and a wedding parade through the park (yes, an actual wedding). Lord knows how much they spent for that!

< Wow

The above shows planters full of… orchids! It was amazing seeing so many in one place like that. The park as a whole is full of flowers that have been placed as part of the Spring festival that is ongoing.

< Tiny Burger!

< Nadeshiko

The above shows an attendant on the Tower Of Terror line. All the attractions at the Tokyo Disney parks have unique uniforms, but this was one of the best.

< Donald Duck

Although we didn’t stay for the fireworks, we ended up spending over 8 hours at Disney Sea yesterday, which (believe it or not) made for a relatively restful day compared to those so far! Dinner was Denny’s (KLS choice, not mine!) before collapsing into a dead sleep.

Those Denny’s fries tasted like the fries we used to get at the Oak factory in my youth. How’s that for a memory?

And JAF, you’re not keeping Emi!

Titty Boo

May 31, 2009

Before I start today – no comments??! Is anyone reading this?

Yesterday started with an as-soon-as-it-opened visit to the Tokyo Institute Of Nature study in Ebisu. A fancy name for an untended park (think Blackbutt), which is one of the very few of it’s type in Tokyo. Nice enough, I suppose, but no doubt much more appreciated by a Tokyoite that rarely gets to spend much time in nature.

Afterwards we headed over to Harajuku and the Meiji Shrine. We have been here before, but the shrine is so close to Harajuku (itself so close to Shibuya) that it seems silly to get off the train there and not visit. As it turns out it was a good thing we did, since we got to see two separate traditional shinto weddings in progress:

The meiji shrine is a monument dedicated to the eternal souls of a departed Japanese emperor and his wife. It’s beautiful, serene and very popular with tourists (both Japanese and foreign). One of it’s big attractions is writing a wish/prayer on a wooden postcard and placing them around a sacred tree. Eventually they are collected and burned in the hope the prayers will come true. Here are some examples of the thousands hanging there yesterday:

Of course we had to make our own, or at least I did. I caved again to disbelief in superstition, and instead embraced absurdity.

Harajuku and neighbouring Shibuya are the two most popular destinations for trendy Japanese teens to go shopping in. And when I say popular I mean really popular, as ininsanely popular 🙂

< Harajuku, Shibuya

We were getting tired by now (it was mid afternoon) and headed back to the ryokan for a couple of hours rest. As we were riding the train back the heavens opened and a truly monsoonal rain fell. By the time we’d got back to the ryokan, we were drenched (even with umbrellas!)

< !!!

After a rest, we headed back out (the rain had stopped) on a lazy walk toward downtown Ueno (about 30 minutes). In Ueno park we were quite surprised to find a flowering bonsai tree competition, or at least the end of one (it was being packed away). There were about a hundred of the bonsai originally in display, and happily quite a few grand ones had still not been picked up by their owners .

Are they azaelas? Maybe AS or JAF could identify. By the way the hydrangeas are blooming all over the city right now, and KLS always stops to have a gander!

The more I visit Ueno, the more I like it. The ameyokocho shopping street is a crazy mix of pachinko parlour, restaurant, adult establishment and game center and really comes alive at night.

The third shot above is of a Pachinko parlour. Can you see the gigantic Evangelion poster on the side? Evidence of the marketing towards younger players the parlours have (successfully, apparently) undertaken in recent years. Every licensed property you can imagine – from Harry Potter to Thunderbirds – has been used in Pachinko!

Here’s some shots of some very, very, very expensive fruit (think 100 yen = 1 US dollar approximately).

Would YOU pay over $100 for a rockmelon/cantaloupe? I think not! (These are in the special fruit gift shop in the basement of a department store and are popular gifts to give when you really need to impress someone)

And the obligatory arcade shots of the day, including the ‘dating game’ House Of The Dead EX (left), the Arc-Systems fighting game BlazBlue (center) and the (awesome) fighter Tatsunoko vs Capcom (right).

To quote Doctor Who quoting someone else (yes I know), in Tokyo, there are “more games to see than can ever be seen and more games to play than can ever be played”!

I did see a cute bunny cake though!

And KLS purchased a tiger washcloth, and also some coffee that came packed with a cute girl ‘bottle topper’:

Yesterday’s food choices for breakfast (Wendy’s) and lunch (Subway) were bland, and chosen simply because they happened to be nearby when we got hungry. Dinner though, well that was another story…

< Delicious!

I’m writing these in the mornings, as you may have guessed. Which means I already know the plans of the day after the day you’ve just read about. So what will you read about tomorrow…?

Robot Claw