Fricking Volcanoes

A few months ago, I made a short trip to Beppu. Beppu is a spa town on the north-west coast of Kyushu. Now Beppu is one strange town. For a start, as you come out of the station you encounter a terrifying statue of a man who looks like a nazi scientist and is leaping off the podium with his arms outstretched. The caption introduces him as “Shiny Uncle who loved children”. Truly the most terrifying statue I have ever seen and as a Doctor Who fan, any statue gets my mind racing.

Beppu has many faults, not least that it is clearly a town which has fallen upon hard times. It’s run down, tacky and contains some horrific zoos/wildlife features. Nonetheless, I had a wonderful trip there. It was a novelty to try onsen for the first time and many of them were beautiful and rustic. I went with a top bunch of people and it was impossible not to have fun in their company. Finally, like Blackpool for example, you can enjoy it despite, or even because of all the tack.

Now it’s difficult to visit Kyushu and not pay a visit to an onsen at some stage. They are everywhere. Unzen itself is more of a village than a town. You can walk across the whole place in twenty minutes. It is surrounded by mountains and volcanoes. Meanwhile, there are probably just as many onsen as in Beppu, but all in a more relaxed setting. But the best thing about Unzen is that it is situated in what was Japan’s first national park, so you can go on leafy walks through the forest and up the sides of volcanoes. I’d never walked up a volcano before. It sounded cool.

First, I went for a wander around the “hells” which are a series of natural features where hot water bubbles up through the rocks in a variety of unusual ways. Sometimes the water is so hot that it has been used as a means of murdering people (i.e. they were thrown into the hell to be burnt alive. Lovely.). Whilst the hells didn’t have the same variety as Beppu, you didn’t have to contend with the world’s saddest looking elephant or a hippo in a space smaller than my front room.

The hells of Unzen

Tourist Information were pretty helpful, bearing in mind that the only English word the guy knew was “okay” and the maps appeared to have been drawn by elves, but he managed to get me set on a hiking route up and down a nearby mountain.

It was a long way to the top of the hill.

Of course the Blair Witch isn't real...

It was a bit chilly at first, but the hike was a pleasure. In 2 hours, I didn’t encounter another human being. The forest felt really dense at times and the uphill slog was occasionally quite tough. But in truth, given the number of cream buns and Curly Wurlys I get through, I probably need the exercise. At the top, I had a fine view of the surrounding mountains. You could see frost on the trees at the top of the volcano opposite which, a couple of decades before had erupted killing a whole bunch of people. I’ll admit that it wasn’t quite as impressive as the volcano at Disneysea. To be honest, I feel it was a bold gambit of them to build a theme park around a still active volcano and one which I forsee will eventually end in disaster.

View from the top of Mt. Kinagasa. I got to have lunch on top of a mountain all by myself.

Anyway, on returning to the village I had to summon up some personal courage. I wanted to sample the onsen but I felt more nervous than I had in Beppu. I think the main reason for this was that I was alone. Last time I had friends with whom I could pretend I was completely relaxed and unaffected by 30 years of being told that the naked body is a thing of comedy and shame. We were all in the same boat-entirely willing and keen, but essentially feigning indifference. This time, I had to go through the whole process on my own. As usual in Japan though, I encountered a wave of friendly, obliging people who made the whole thing a relaxing pleasure. Every time I go in an onsen I am reminded that it is something which you can’t and probably never will be able to do in Britain. I always get a thrill from that.

It was a bit of a long evening. The huge beer hall was closed for the winter. Dinner was brief and silent. I was staying up late so that I could listen to the Arsenal v Spurs game on my phone. At 2-0 up, I was tempted to text K Chan with a triumphant “Oh my god, we’re beating the Arse 2-0 at the Emirates, this is amazing” text. I’m so glad I held off from sending it. 40 minutes later, I was too depressed to listen any more and collapsed in a soggy mess.

 I can't imagine any circumstances where I would drink this stuff without feeling the need to cut off my tongue afterwards.

This is the traditional Japanese breakfast at the hotel. I'm not generally that keen on rice and fish for breakfast but it does look beautiful when set out properly like this.

Idle Time In Nagasaki

 I was warned beforehand that it isn’t really the best time of year to be visiting Kyushu. Although the temperatures there are milder than Okayama, the grass was still an unattractive yellow and the natural beauty which it’s known for was somewhat stilted by the late effects of a harsh winter. In truth, the landscape, though more mountainous, did not immediately appear all that different from the landscape in Okayama. The city of Nagasaki too, on first impressions, did not feel all that different from most other Japanese cities which I’ve visited. Randomly scattered cube-like buildings of all types, overhead cables, no obvious logic to any of it and the typically beautiful transformation as soon as it turned dark.

So here’s what did feel unique about Nagasaki. Firstly, it was full of pretty bridges over the main canal, that occasionally gave it the feel of a European city. They didn’t avoid the hills when settling, so it felt like a novelty to be in an urban centre that wasn’t predominantly flat. Indeed, I definitely got some much needed exercise walking up and down the many slopes. Finally, the city has a history of trade and interaction with the outside world that gives it a slightly more international feel than many other places you visit here.

Wandering around, you could also feel that there was a limited alternative scene in the city. I stumbled upon some awesome record shops, full of rarities that you’d struggle to get back home. If you ever need to complete your Smiths vinyl collection, Japan is certainly the place to go and Nagasaki would make a great starting point.

I spent an awful lot of time sitting in cafes and ploughing through Haruki Murakami’s Underground which has been a quite upsetting read and one I’ve obscured slightly from my Japanese friends and colleagues as I was a bit concerned how they would react. But it felt like a real luxury to do a bit of sightseeing in the day and then collapse with litres of coffee in the late afternoon. I’m all for sitting around and being idle whenever I get the chance.

I shan’t go into all the stuff I saw in the city as my previous post gave a taster. I may write something specific about Gunkanjima (Battleship Island) as it’s a pretty unusual place, but my thoughts on it aren’t quite fully formed yet. It did genuinely look like a battleship though.

Full of coffee and castella cake, I hopped on a bus to Unzen for hells, spas, hiking and good times…

Nagasaki so far...

Playlist compiled, shinkansen boarded...let's go!

I didn't take many photos of bomb-related sites. But this black pillar marks the hyper-centre of the explosion.  To be honest, I thought the Hiroshima Bomb Museum was much more insightful. For me, the Nagasaki museum focussed too much on the damage done to the city's buildings, without really saying enough about pre-war Nagasaki or the Nagasaki residents themselves. It also kept inserting emotive language into the displays to up the emotional impact when the facts themselves are disturbing enough on their own.

The Memorial Building

Nagasaki's Chinatown.

I loved the pretty red lanterns. I went in search of food...

...and found some! This is called "Nagasaki Kakuni Manju, purchased from a Chinatown street stall. It contained an incredibly tender piece of pork belly. Mmmm. I wanted more...

...so i found this. One of the greasiest, tastiest spring rolls I have ever had.

Then I decided to go for lunch.

Dejima was an island off the coast of Nagasaki, used for trading with the outside world. Nowadays, it's not a restoration so much as a recreation and many of the buildings felt clean and new, like a saloon bar in Disneyland.

This is how we dine in Europe. Sort of.

Japan does this kind of tack so well.

The museum included lots of info on the life of the Dutch. Remember-Dutch people still wear these shoes EVERY DAY.

Child's Play. That is all.

PAT!

I think Battleship Island is going to require a whole post of its own.

Off to Mount Unzen tomorrow for walking, onsen and to generally be a bit of a layabout. Yes!

AKB48 and Smiths Emoticon Games

I’ve just come across this tremendous article about AKB48, Japan’s premier pop group. Damn-this lady’s blog is so much better than mine!

I agree with almost everything here. There is something truly distasteful about a) the age of the members, b) the dressing up as school-girls and c) the sleazy men who go to see them in Akihabara. We witnessed this ourselves when we were in Tokyo. Queues of middle-aged men twisted out from the theatre with few children in sight. I like the idea that “Akihabara is a quarantine for this kind of gross lolita bullshit”.

Most importantly, the songs are generally lame. I admit that if I’m in the right mood, I can find myself thinking “this isn’t so different from Josie and the Pussycats” and I have fond memories of doing Heavy Rotation karaoke in Beppu. But the image gets in the way of the music for me.

This has given me an idea for a post about our visit to a maid café in Akihabara. I wasn’t a fan.

Also, please check out vivianlostinseoul's Smiths emoticon game. It's almost as good as "Guess Which Belle and Sebastian Song I'm Playing On The Kazoo".

A quick whinge before I head south.

One common element of culture shock is for the individual to lose their sense of independence and self-worth. It’s very easy to see how this can happen to participants of the JET Programme. From the moment we arrived in Japan, our every action was planned out for us. At Tokyo airport, you are met by a greeting party who ensure you get the correct visa, help you post your luggage to your prefecture and then guide you onto a coach. From there you are taken to the Keio Plaza Hotel where you have two days of occasionally useful training. You are provided with a map of the local area, from which Kabukicho has been entirely removed, so as to discourage you from visiting such a seedy part of the city. Your travel to your prefecture is also arranged by the local board of education. On arrival, your JTE will spend a day or two taking you round the city to help you get settled with utilities, phones etc. You will be told where to catch your local buses from, how to take out your rubbish, how to pay on a local tram and anything else that might cause you stress or trouble.

So for several days, you are basically managed like a campaigning politician. You live in a bubble where you don’t have to do anything for yourself. This pattern continues throughout the year. My Japanese is pretty basic, though I’ve reached a level where I can have simple conversations and survive on a day to day basis. Last week, I asked some teachers to recommend a local restaurant to visit with my parents. They were surprised when I insisted on phoning to make the booking myself as they assumed that they would need to do this for me. Even afterwards, when I told them that I had made the reservation, they looked doubtful that I had done it properly. I was a bit put out by this as I know my Japanese isn’t that great, but I would have thought it was obvious I was capable of doing such a basic task as making a restaurant booking.

A similar situation occurred yesterday. A part on my washing machine has broken so I asked a colleague where I could buy a replacement. They insisted on coming with me to the store as they were clearly doubtful I would be able to go to the shop, find the part and buy it by myself. Of course, that’s what I did, actually having to order it as it wasn’t in stock. It wasn’t really very difficult and I probably could have done it even if I spoke no Japanese whatsoever as there’s a lot that you can communicate in sign language anyway.

I’m extremely grateful for how helpful people have been here. It has surpassed anything I’ve experienced elsewhere and I’ll never forget how kind people here can be on a day to day basis. However, I do sometimes feel that the expectation is that I’m not capable of doing anything by myself. I can order in a restaurant, use chopsticks, buy a train ticket and know what an izakaya is-I don’t need to have these things explained to me every time I encounter them.

Equally, I didn’t like the way our arrival at Narita airport was so closely managed. On arrival in a foreign country, getting from the airport to your hotel is part of the experience as it is your first opportunity to try and master the local transport system, get used to the local sounds and smells, talk to random tourists you meet on the way and maybe even get lost. All those things are part of settling in. Now I can absolutely see why JET might think it’s easier to ensure that everyone gets to the hotel without a hitch, as planned, but I felt a bit too old to be bussed around in that way.

I hope the above doesn’t sound as if I don’t appreciate how kind people have been. But the truth is that coping with all things Japanese isn’t actually all that difficult. Obviously there are situations where you really do need the help and advice of a local person-such as signing up to a phone contract or opening a bank account. But I don’t need someone’s help to order a drink in a bar and don’t actually appreciate being offered a fork when I sit down in a ramen restaurant. All these things are symptomatic of people’s incredible willingness to help others here, but it also sometimes feels like there’s an expectation that, as a gaijin, I’m incapable and that everything Japanese is too complex and foreign for me to understand. Which is annoying.

A very European-looking church in Nagasaki.

So tomorrow evening, I will be heading south to Nagasaki prefecture in Kyushu. It will be nice to be in a region with a slightly warmer climate as spring has not quite reached Okayama yet. I will have to buy some Castella cake for my work colleagues as they keep mentioning how delicious it is. This will be the first big trip that I have done in Japan on my own, as K-chan is staying in Okayama. In some ways, it will be nice to be an independent traveler for a few days, as I haven’t actually done a solo holiday for over 3 years. This month has been full of fun and adventures.

Decisions, decisions.

Mt Unzen - The perfect hide-out for a supervillian.

On Thursday I will be setting off on another adventure. The trouble is, I don’t yet know where it will take place. I have been terribly indecisive lately. There are plenty of areas I want to visit but I have been unable to make a final choice. At the moment it looks like a toss up between touring round Western Kyushu where I could check out Nagasaki, hike around a volcano and do the onsen thing. Or Tokyo, where I could do the city justice and maybe check out Hakone or Kamakura at the same time. It’s really difficult to decide.

I do realize that these are nice choices to have.

Right now, my parents are visiting Okayama. We took them to Korakuen yesterday which was as blissful as always. Sadly though, much of the lawn was indeed blackened, albeit not actively smouldering. When I pointed out the castle but mentioned that it was entirely re-built in 1966 they were unimpressed. I tend to feel the same way. However, I suppose that in 200 years time, people won’t be quite so snobby about it. In saying that, I still think building a lift into the castle was a mistake, authenticity-wise.

Japanese is a struggle at the moment. The main problem for me is memorizing the vocabulary. I don’t have a problem with the grammar and verb formations. Basic Kanji is perfectly do-able if you put the time and effort in. But no matter how much I study, I just can’t retain the words themselves. It has got to the point where I am jealous of my students’ impressive ability to memorize 50 words a week without breaking a sweat. Admittedly, they sometimes struggle to say anything out loud beyond “Good Morning”, but at least they know the word “phenomenon”.

Fun Times In The Snow - Part 4



Sapporo Shrine

I imagine that, if you live in Hokkaido, you are rather blasé about snow. But in London we might only get snow once every couple of years. So it’s still quite a novelty and I was determined to build a snowman before leaving Sapporo.

First though, there was the matter of breakfast. Today, raw fish was on the menu as we headed down to Nijo Fish Market. Hokkaido is famous for its seafood and the market didn’t disappoint. I have never seen so many crabs. They were piled (still alive) next to the biggest, freshest looking fish I have ever seen. Dotted around the market were counters and stalls where you could stop to taste the produce. We sat at a tiny counter where a gruff man served us hot green tea, along with some of the tastiest sushi I’ve ever had. It turns out that raw fish is quite a refreshing breakfast. The flavour of the fish really hits you when it’s the first thing you eat in the morning.

Nijo Market

Best. Sushi. Ever.

We had a whole afternoon to spare so headed to Hokkaido’s biggest park where we tried and failed to build the aforementioned snowman. It was, to paraphrase the possibly apocryphal British Rail quote, “the wrong kind of snow”. Too icey to hold in any kind of shape, our snowman was a total failure. All the time we were building it, we were watched by a murder of crows who mocked us with their incessant hooting. Yes-I had to look up the collective noun for crows.

It didn't work.

It was fun to wander deep into the park and have a look round Sapporo’s main shrine. It was the first time I have visited a shrine in the snow and it felt like I was ticking another box on my list of “things I must do before leaving Japan”. One of the nice things about snow is that it suppresses outside noise, so the walk was very quiet and peaceful. And because snow is not such a big deal here, there weren’t hordes of kids to get in our way.

We spotted the St John's Wood Irish pub. Hmm.

Sapporo will always have a special place in my heart. I want to return and try more ramen, get to know the nightlife district properly and head out to one of the national parks. That’s my plan for this summer, so I shall get organizing. The next few weeks are full of visits from friends and family. Tomorrow, my parents arrive in Okayama so I will be touring the usual places once more. I hope they haven’t burnt off the turf at Korakuen when we go to visit. I have this vision of us standing there surrounded by a field of black, smouldering grass. Let’s hope it turns out okay.

The snow made everything so peaceful.

Fun Times In The Snow - Part 3

Sapporo is perhaps most famous for its beer. In Japan, “beer” basically means lager. It can be quite difficult to get hold of any other types of beers such as ales and stouts. Personally, I don’t really like lager all that much as I find it a bit fizzy and tasteless but Japanese lagers tend to be better than the norm. There are 4 major beer companies here that compete ruthlessly for the huge Japanese beer market. Sapporo Beer is one of these companies and has its farms and factories spread across Hokkaido. We decided to give the Sapporo Beer Museum a try.

I’d never visited a “Beer Factory” or “Beer Museum” before. I always thought it was one of those crap touristy things that you only do on a stag weekend. But it turned out to be surprisingly interesting. The display was pleasingly short and kept things simple. We learnt how beer is made and read about the history of the Sapporo company. There were lots of old bottle designs on display. I really liked the styles of packaging from 1900-1930, which reminded me of the Museum of Things in Berlin. They also had a section where you could view their adverts in chronological order from 1890 up to the present day. It was interesting to see how the style had evolved over time from an elegant woman just sitting on a chair, to women downing pints and later on to male celebrities gurning for the camera. I was slightly surprised that they used so many images of female drinkers when the campaigns must have been targeted primarily at men. I think I need Don Draper to sit me down and talk me through it.

Toy models showing how beer is made!



A history of Sapporo advertising.

They proudly displayed the chair that the Emperor once sat in. We like to think they secretly take it out of the case at night.

In the final room, you could taste the various lagers which was fun but hey, they're all pretty similar tasting. Nonetheless, it was a relaxing rest-spot and they had people who came round and offered to take your photos, as well as giving away complimentary snacks. Bearing in mind that the only thing you paid for at the museum was the beer, this all felt like great value.

In the evening, we followed the advice of just about everyone, and headed for the nearby city of Otaru. What we found there was perhaps the most special evening of our time in Japan so far. Otaru has its own snow festival which is run by volunteers from the local community. It is mostly based around small snow sculptures lit with candles and lanterns. Much of it takes place alongside a pretty canal, where the lanterns float on the water at night and everyone acts couple-y. We made some good friends on the train and ploughed through the snow together. Minus eight degrees? Pah.

 



Pretty warehouses by the canal.



At this point, the snow started to come down at an alarming rate and the great north wind began blowing it sideways into our faces. It became difficult to walk and we threw ourselves desperately into the nearest bar, plonked ourselves down and ordered lots of hot wine and camembert. Now basically, as long as you have hot wine and camembert, you can survive absolutely any weather phenomenon. Restored, we walked up a massive snow hill, went on a tyre slide, took photos in a heart-shaped tunnel of love, ate bits of grilled potato given out free by locals, climbed up more hills and threw snowballs. Meanwhile, the blizzard continued and whilst it was fun, we decided to head for the station and home.

Icicles!

We didn’t realize it when we booked the trip, but Otaru was what we had come to the snow festival for. It had been fun to look around the Sapporo site the previous day, but there was an overarching tackiness about it all, not to mention that everything took place next to the main roads with huge crowds (this isn’t to say that those sights weren’t amazing, just that they didn’t really meet my expectations). Otaru felt much more intimate and romantic. It also felt like a lot more love and care had gone into the snow designs dotted around the place.

The evening was capped with a bowl of corn butter ramen. We found the restaurant on “Ramen Alley”, a passageway containing tens of stand up ramen counters, all of which were appetizing. Corn butter basically means sweetcorn and butter are added to the broth on top of the normal ingredients. The butter added a richness to the flavour which helped to make up for the dripping ceiling from which drops of moisture fell relentlessly into our food.

I was really happy to have a day that exceeded my (extremely high) expectations of Hokkaido. I know that this kind of evening is why we threw our lives up in the air to come here and why it was so worth it.

I said there’d be three parts to this. In fact there will be four. I hope this series isn’t boring-I sometimes hate blogs that just describe one event after another (“And then this happened. And I was sad. And then this happened. And I was happy…”). But I hope there is stuff of interest here inbetween the waffle. Also, sorry the photos are a bit blurry-turns out the iphone camera isn't that good after all.



I loved these little houses.

The reason all these photos are blurry is because snow confuses iphones.

We stopped for cheese!

Fun Times In The Snow - Part 2

As we made our way to Kansai Airport at 6.30 in the morning, I began to regret the excesses of the night before. I had a sore head, slight nausea and lack of appetite for any of the delicacies that Hokkaido is so famous for. Crab? Sashimi? Butter ramen? I think not.

The plane started its descent into Hokkaido and we began to see the first, spine-tingling glimpses of snow. Meanwhile, we braced ourselves for the cold. I can honestly say that this weekend I wore every single item of clothing that I own. We piled on the jumpers to the point where it became difficult to move. This blogpost was brought to you by the Uniqlo Heat-Tech range.

We suppressed the urge for an immediate snowball fight and made our way to the main festival area in the centre of town. This is a taster of what we saw.

It seems churlish to say this, given that I saw a 4:1 snow-built replica of the Taj Mahal and a castle-sized snow walrus. But I was a little disappointed with this part of the festival. There was a one-way system in place and you walked round past all the attractions, stopping at the various stalls to admire the wide range of Hokkaido foods on display. Every famous Japanese anime or video-game character was represented by a snow statue. We saw Anpanman, Mario, most of One Piece and, of course, Doraemon. Impressive, in a kind of tacky way. But it wasn’t the fairyland of pretty lights that I had imagined. There was a lot of in-your-face corporate sponsorship and a strong sense of the “organized fun” that is so prevalent here. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy myself. There was a 50ft snow walrus for heaven’s sake! And a replica of a great white shark! You could stick your head in its mouth!

Rather oddly, the festival’s smoking areas were predominantly indoors, with portakabins dotted around the site. But at one end I found an open air smoking area that was encased by a huge wall made of ice blocks. Suitably impressed, I made my way in. An attractive lady walked up to me. “Excuse me, are you over 20 years old?” Um. Yes. “Would you like to take a free sample of the new Regal Cigarettes? They have a smooth, relaxing taste with a slow-burning after-effect.” Okay. I was handed a pack of 20. Promoting smoking by giving away free packs of cigarettes in an enclosure made entirely of ice. Nice. Also, I noticed that they had encased a pack in an ice block as part of their attempt to join in with the festivities. Hmm.

We headed out to explore Sapporo’s nightlife. I was still not at 100% after the rigours of the night before. But it was immediately clear that Sapporo is an awesome city. A lot of people say that Japanese cities tend to be very similar-covered malls, overhead cables, box-like architecture dropped seemingly at random onto the landscape etc. Whilst I think there is some truth in this, I also think that most places have something unique about them once you get to know them better. With its grid system and snow-covered landscape, Sapporo is obviously quite unusual. But what I hadn’t realized was just how fun it was. This was clearly a city where people knew how to have a good time. Not only that, but the walls were properly insulated, so when you stepped inside you were actually warm!

We eventually found a restaurant that did Genghis Khan. This is a dish where you fry thin strips of lamb on a half-dome shaped grill (said to resemble Genghis Khan’s helmet) at the table. Lamb is quite unusual in Japan and many of my Japanese friends say they dislike it because of its supposed “strong smell”. But it felt like a real treat to us and we stuffed ourselves silly. More edamame were consumed.

Genghis Khan-note the bowl of edamame skins...

We went for a wander to see the beautiful ice sculptures that were laid out in the centre of the main nightlife district. .I had never seen such intricate ice sculptures before and it felt like the artists were trying to outdo each other with the scale and attention to detail. We also found a bar made entirely of ice where we stopped for some mulled wine. We sat outside, leaning our drinks on the ice counter whilst the snow began to build up around us. It was quite an evening.

Later, on the way home, we finally got round to that snowball fight. I lost.

Fox in the snow!