Day 6 - Asakusa

Firstly, sorry for the delays in uploading this and the subsequent blog entries.  What can I say, I've been out having too much fun and haven't had time to write.  Here goes:

Today was another opportunity for some solo exploration.  This time I had the opportunity to go back to the Asakusa district in Taito.  Those who followed my blog last time will likely already know that Asakusa is known for the large Budhist temple (the Senso-ji temple).

Senso-ji Temple

The temple complex is incredible and definitely worth a visit. There is also a nice market near to the complex (the picture above is in the market, approaching the temple gate)

In the complex there is also a garden, this includes a small pond with some Koi.

Koi!

One word of warning, being a an old district, the layout can be confusing to say the very least.  While I managed to find the market and temple easily enough, I did need to use the portable Wi-Fi hotspot and Google maps to find my way back to the station.

Asakusa is served by both the Tobu Skytree line and the Tskuba Express (which I used as I was staying close to Minami Nagareyama on the Tskuba Express).  While there is also a Tokyo Metro station, this is a little further afield.

There were a few items on my shopping list this time.  First was an obi for my mother.  Last year I picked up a yukata for her so I suggested that this year I get an obi.  You never know when there might be a matsuri (festival).... right?....

Next up was 2 sets of wedding dolls.  I know a few people who are getting married and thought these would make a nice gift.  These proved a little harder to find than I initially thought but there are a few stalls selling them.  The ones I found are traditional style wooden kokeshi dolls.

On my way back to the station, I came across an artist who was using spray paint to create space scenes.  Being the first time I've seen this being done, it was interesting.  My parents saw something similar once in Australia.

It just goes to show you never know what you're going to encounter and what surprises are in store.

Later in the evening, Kyle and I decided we wanted to face walking in the gruelling heat to LaLa Port (the shopping mall in Shim Misato) for dinner.  It's not Tokyo, but it has a good food court (and a place that sells sweet potato/aubergine ice cream - really!)

Time for some curry!

Kyle, about to tuck in

As a combination of heat and being on my feet all day, this was a pretty tiring day but well worth the effort.

Day 5 - Back to Misato and a Nomikai

For the most part today was a fairly quiet day.  We spent around 3 hours getting assorted trains from Nikko back to Misato.  Combined with a long few days I was feeling tired and needed a rest.  So Kyle went in to work and I went back to the apartment in order to collapse.

Resting until the early afternoon, I finally decided to grab some lunch in Misato.  Wanting to practice a little more Japanese, I tried to start a little small talk about the weather when paying:

Me - *points outside* Tenkou wa totemo atsui desu (the weather is very hot)
Waitress - *agrees*
Me - irigisu no tenkou wa samui desu (the weather in england is cold)
Waitress - irigisu jin desu ka? (you are english?)
Me - Hai, irigisu jin desu (yes, I'm english)

The highlight of the evening was going out for a meal with some of Kyles work colleagues at a restaurant in Minami Nagareyama.  An evening of good food and interesting conversations.

Day 4 - Shrines

As we'd been cut down to 1 (full) day in Nikko, we tried to make the most of it.  The day was spent exploring one of the shrines in the area.  This particular shrine is a large complex dedicated to the first Tokugawa Shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu.  Unlike the Meiji shrine (Meiji Jingu) in Tokyo where he is only enshrined, Tokugawa Ieyasu's ashes are also here (Meiji was buried in his home city of Kyoto)

The complex is vast and the structures are decorated with gold leaf and ivory.

Enshrined within are Ieyasu's ashes and armor

Two interesting parts of the complex are the shrine of the crying dragon and the deep shrine of the sleeping cat.  In the main room of the shrine of the sleeping dragon, echoes in the right place are the sound of the dragon.

One of the great things about these shrines is that they are beautiful places, filled with nature.

Nearby there is also a bridge for the nobility.  It was built next to the regular bridge.  There were originally 2 guards, one stationed at either end.  Their job was to kill commoners caught trying to cross - I expect this served as an effective deterrent.

Interestingly, there is also a shop in Nikko which sells nothing but Hello Kitty themed products.

No matter what I do, I can never avoid that damned cat!

At the hostel we met some interesting people, including two Americans (one of who does the same type of ALT work as Kyle) who were interested in going to the shrines and went along with us.  With spectacular sights and interesting conversations, this was certainly an enjoyable day.

Bonus Feature - Kusoneko

That hat looks familiar...

I think, you'll find that's mine!

Take that! Thieving cat!

Day Three - Getting to Nikko

In preparation for Nikko we had to rise at a rather early hour.  Reason being, the journey takes a considerable length of time.  If you have a Japan Rail pass, the Shinkansen may be worth a look.

Because of the travel time I strongly recommend booking accommodation so you can get a full day.  We opted to stay at the zen hostel,  which Kyle has stayed at before.   The hostel is run more like a traditional guest house and some rooms are traditional Japanese style, complete with futons.  As it is quite rural,  the owner offers a shuttle from Nikko station.

Zen Hostel

There is a nice fish restauant within walking distance, run by a rather energetic elderly chap.  I enjoyed the food and service was friendly.

Local Restaurant

It's all a bit out of the way but it's set in a beautiful location and I'd strongly recommend it.

Stunning Views

Free Wi-Fi is provided along with some communal PC's so those who can't survive offline are catered for.

The original plan was to start exploring Nikko upon our arrival but it looked like the weather was going to turn (read - thunderstorm).  Since I've been caught in one downpour so far this trip, I wasn't eager to repeat the experience.

Tommorow, shrines!

First and Second Days - Broken Brains and Anime Adventures

There was no blog update on day 1 (depending on whether you count the writing in Frankfurt), my brain was completely knackered!

After boarding, despite my best efforts, I managed to get maybe half an hour to an hours sleep.

Dan used "Inflatable Pillow"
It wasn't very effective

The pillow didn't help much, it seemed to deflate over time and in the end I resorted to my usual trick of crossing my arms over the table tray and try to get a little sleep that way.  With no way of getting sleep I decided to sample the in flight entertainment.

I'm not sure if I've said in previous posts that the interactive screens on Lufthansa flights aren't all that great.  It seems like I have to jab the screen quite hard to actually get it noticed.  Not all that good but it's still usable and it helps to kill time.  Consequently, I didn't spend very long using my music collection and still have movies on the tablet PC for on the way back.

On the way I opted to watch 2 movies: Oblivion and Iron Man 3.  Time for a movie review I guess:

Oblivion was entertaining.  I got the impression that it was trying to look smart but it left me with the feeling that I've seen this before.  I won't be unkind to I'll just say that this film draws inspiration from a few other films.  Without giving too much away, there are some similarities to Moon, Total Recall and possibly The Island.

Iron Man 3 I didn't consider to be as good as the first two.  I did like the way it was driven more by Tony Starks realisation that underneath the armour he's only human.  Since I've already talked about similarities to other movies, there is a television one that applies to this movie.  The idea of "the man behind the curtain isn't what you were expecting" seemed very... La Femme Nikita esque (watch the final season and you'll understand what I'm saying!).

Day 1

So anyway, upon my arrival my brain effectively tofu.  Strangely, this time round there was a much larger queue at immigration/customs so it took me 2 hours or more to clear it.  The baggage carasell (can't get a spelling suggestion for that!) had actually stopped by the time I got to collect my bags - definitely a first for me!

After renting a phone at the airport, I arranged to meet Kyle and check how to top up my Suica card for train travel (it still had 200 Yen on it - score!).  These days I've found the Keisei Narita Sky Access Line to be the best way of getting from the airport, but that's because when getting to Saitama, the Sky Access line gets me most of the way and I could take the Musashino line for the last few stops (Sky Access from Narita T1 to Higashi Matsudo then Musashino line on to Misato).  Carrying 2 bags, this was going to be a challenge.  Now I'm carrying 2 bags to get some new clothes to Kyle - so he'd better appreciate it!

Since I was wiped out and Kyle needed to go in to school to work, I spent a good chunk of the afternoon sleeping.  In the evening, we decided to go out for a meal to a Japanese steakhouse (as I enjoyed Stone Burg last time).  3 types of steak (beef, chicken and, I think, gammon) with some curry rice certainly hit the spot.  As usual, it didn't take long for us to start catching up like old times.  Once again, I think we picked up from the end of the last conversation we had when I was in Japan!

Day 2

Day 2 was a slight change to the plan.  Kyle was needed in school again.  It says a lot about him that he's in demand.  This meant that it was time to spread my wings and do a little exploring.  Kyle suggested I use the opportunity to do some exploring in Akihabara, as I was planning on going back again at some point during this trip.

After arming myself with details of getting to Misato eki (looking at Google maps to see what direction to go in) I began my journey to the station (not really that hard, just go in a straight line parallel to the train tracks).  Changing over at Minami-Nagareyama I took the Tsukuba express to Akihabara.  This is part of the reason I opted not to get a Japan Rail pass this time.  We weren't expecting to take the Shinkansen and Tskuba Express is privately owned so it's not covered by the pass.  25 minutes later I was in the heart of geekdom.

First task was to go figure hunting.  Surprisingly it didn't take me long to find the shop I went to last time - this must be my lucky day.  After much browsing, I settled on 2 figures from 2 shows I am quite familiar with.

Rei Ayanami and Anarchy Panty

Following the success of that first mission, lunch was the next order of business.  I was walking past the UDX building and saw the adverts for the various restaurants in the building.  After wandering around the 2 floors of eateries a few times (a little easier since the place is air conditioned) I opted for a noodle place (although I was tempted by the Tonkatsu place).  Like many small restaurants, you order by vending machine.  you make your selection and pay at the machine to get a voucher/receipt.  You use this to get the food.  This time I opted for a bowl of Kake Ramen.  This didn't have any meat in, I thought this would make up for the many steaks I had the previous night.

Suitably sated, it was time for more shopping.  There is an anime merchandise shop in the UDX building, it forms part of the anime museum.  I knew I couldn't stay too long in that place - there was so much stuff I wanted to buy.  By the time I made my escape, I'd already purchased 2 Evangelion T-Shirts (I'm going to wear the hell out of those when I get back to the UK!), a similarly themed metalic mug with the NERV logo and slogan on it (my new work mug, I think) and a stuffed "Jiji the cat" from Kiki's Delivery Service.

On the way back the mental map I built up (noting key landmarks) proved useful in getting back (remember which station exit to use and which side the train tracks need to be on) and I made my way back.  Just as would be expected for the kind of luck I normally have, a thunderstorm broke out on my way back.  Only a few minutes away from the apartment the paper bag my figures were in started to structurally fail.  With a bag in one hand, a partial bag in the other arm and rushing I must have been quite the comical sight.  Moral of the story - Bring an umbrella, these downpours can catch you off guard!

A little bit later on we're going to go out for dinner and prepare for the trip to Nikko tomorrow.

Incidentally, I've found that roaming in Japan isn't as problematic as I previously thought.  After taking the Galaxy S3 out of flight safe mode (in order to connect it to a Wi-Fi 3G dongle) I found that it had a cellular connection and could receive SMS messages.  It reports that the connection is "NTT DOCOMO giffgaff".  Strange, as I thought that Japan used CDMA so a GSM phone should not be able to get a connection out here.

4th August 2013 – The first blog entry (of this trip)

Today is the start of my latest trip to Japan.  So far things are getting off to a good start although in some ways things are less familiar than before.  Previously, I’ve used BMI to get to Frankfurt and Lufthansa to get to Tokyo.  BMI no more, so it’s Lufthansa all the way.

After checking in, I looked up the flight# and seat allocation on SeatGuru.  According to the seating chart they provided, it looked like a business class seat.  Score!  Joining the frequent flyer programme has definite advantages.  That satisfaction was short lived, it turned out that the seatguru chart was incorrect and I was only in economy class.  Bugger!  (mental note – being at the front of the plane means boarding last)

Back to the details.  I opted for a 09:00 flight rather than 07:00, so I only had to get up at 04:30 – thank the Kami for small mercies!  I noticed in Manchester Airport that Starbucks now have a strawberries and cream Frappachino.  It’s not bad, but not as good as the vanilla ones I used to have last time I was in Japan.

The last 2 times I seems to set off from Frankfurt from the exact same departure gate – it was the same pretzel shop I went to on both occasions!

Lufthansa, in their infinite wisdom, decided to break with tradition and made me walk across the entire length of the terminal! (I’m pretty sure they parked the plane in such a way that I would have to walk even further).  It seems this part of the terminal is a little thin on eateries.  There are a few places but they are such a distance from the departure gate (and I had a much shorter layover) that I decided not to chance it.  I’m so hungry now that I’m actually looking forward to an aircraft meal!  HELP!

This also means that I don’t have enough time to justify paying for Wi-Fi access, fortunately Frankfurt Airport provide 30 minutes free access.

At least soon I get to see Kyle again.

So not much to update on so far, I think they’re going to start boarding soon.

Not long now

Getting Ready for Japan - Travel Light

This August I'm heading back to Japan again to visit Kyle.  Having learned from my previous trips I'm opting to travel light this time, I'm not bringing my laptop.  Last year I took my Asus Transformer and my E5420 laptop (the friend I was staying with had wired internet only so I used the E5420 as a temporary hotspot), this time I'm bringing the Transformer only.
As a travel laptop, the E5420 has proven quite useful.  It's a 14" model so it doesn't take up too much space and the 9 cell extended battery allows for a reasonable runtime.  With it, I was able to log in to a Wi-Fi hotspot in Frankfurt airport and blog/surf away to my hearts content while waiting for my flight to Tokyo.  Unfortunately the size meant that using it on the plane wasn't especially practical so I generally opted to use the Transformer.

Dell Latitude E5420 with Extended Battery

Even though the laptop is not oversize, it still takes up a lot of space in my carry on bag and does add a substantial weight.  Again, not massive but for a carry on bag size and weight really do matter.  The advantages of the Transformer are:

1. Smaller - it's netbook sized
2. Weight - it's probably twice the weight of the average tablet, much lighter than a laptop.  With the E5420 and the Transformer, my shoulder did start to ache.
3. Tablet/Netbook - I've got a tablet PC that I can connect a keyboard to for typing - a touchscreen tablet with the best of both worlds.  Writing a blog with the on screen keyboard is not something I look forward to.
4. Runtime - with a battery in the tablet and keyboard, it should be enough to keep me occupied during the layover and long haul flight

Asus TF101 Transformer with Keyboard Dock

There is another reason for reducing the number of devices carried.  It takes much longer to get through security as there is more to check, especially if you have a large box of AA batteries.  That slowed things down at Manchester, then it slowed things down at Frankfurt, on the return leg I opted to store them in my suitcase.
One final point is that I've written this post using the Transformer and keyboard dock (I've made a few formatting changes from my main PC).  Typing isn't as comfortable as on a full size laptop keyboard but it's no worse then most netbooks.  The blogger application is obviously designed for phones but it's usable on tablets (it does lack a few formatting options present in the web interface but for a basic post it works fine).  For any documents I might need to write, Kingsoft Office does a good job and recently introduced Dropbox integration.  The Polaris Office software included is okay but on the whole I prefer Kingsoft, I'll probably write a separate review and comparison of the 2 applications (I'm not sure how useful this will be as this version of Polaris is 2 years old and is only included OEM)
I have to admit, these days I haven't actually used the keyboard dock that much.  For the most part I browse websites that are already in my bookmarks list, check my emails, message/call on Skype and check Dropbox.  I think I'm going to start using it more.  The only issue I really have with this device is that as a TF101 (probably 2 or so years old) it no longer seems to be receiving software updates.  There will be no Jelly Bean update but Ice Cream Sandwich does a good enough job.  This tablet has become increasingly sluggish for a while now but a factory reset seems to have resolved this.
For what I'm going to need on this trip it will suffice.  It's not as powerful as an actual laptop but it does what I need and saves weight/space.