5:33 a.m.: Not sure at this stage whether Typhoon Melor will ground our flight or not...
Thursday, October 8, 2009
The Return (Day 20) Going, going... gone? Typhoon Melor.
5:33 a.m.: Not sure at this stage whether Typhoon Melor will ground our flight or not...
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
The Return (Day 19) - Sayonara
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
The Return (Day 18) Tokyo Disneyland!
Enjoying my time with nine teenagers on a train bound for Tokyo Disneyland…
The Rainiest Kingdom of Them All. The bad news is that it’s raining. The good news is that it’s kept the crowds away so the queues are all short for the rides and movies…
A bit corny, but great singing, dancing and special effects.
This place is huge. You can even stay onsite at Disney Resort if you’re not short of yen.
Not just for children. All Japanese seem to be childlike in their love of the Disney fantasy and characters.
And some of the gaijin are rapt too…
Monday, October 5, 2009
The Return (Day 17) Back-to-school
Another day at school. Ceramics class.
English language lab.
Back near our hotel, admiring the fantastic contemporary architecture for which Shinjuku is famous. The rainforest buttressed-rooted-like Yasuda Kasai Kaijo building reflected in the Zenken building’s glass walls.
The Mode Hal Iko building.
A very wet view from the 50th floor of the Nomura building.
Pachinko parlours abound. I can’t quite see the attraction of these pinball machines but they are EVERYWHERE.
The Return (Day 16) Shibuya, Harajuku, Yoyogi & Blue Note!
We began the day in Shibuya to check out the Love Hotels on Dogen-zaka. Most hotels have foyer displays of the rooms. This one had a push-button service to reserve a room for a night or a “rest” – all done anonymously.
One of the now-famous capsule hotels for men only. Shibuya.
Bo Peeps. Harajuku station.
It was Doll’s Day at Meiji-jingu Shrine. Dolls have souls, so when their useful life has expired, must have their souls put to rest by the priests. There were tens of thousands of dolls, teddies and stuffed-toys on display. Afterwards they are disposed of “in a respectful way.”
One of the less cool shoppers on Takeshita-dori, Harajuku.
Tshirt, Takeshita-dori, Harajuku.
The highlight of my day was seeing one of the world’s great jazz acoustic bass players Ron Carter with his quartet. At 8,400 Yen for about 70 minutes, it wasn’t something that a public school teacher can afford every day – but I’ve been a fan of Ron Carter’s for years and who wouldn’t do this while in Tokyo?!
Saturday, October 3, 2009
The Return (Day 15) - Kamakura
We’d planned to visit Nikko for the day but a nice ex-pat Colombian we met on the train suggested this was better! Once the capital of Japan, (1185 to 1333) Kamikura is still a pleasant little train trip to the country just outside of Tokyo with beautiful temples and the amazing Daibutsu.
The Daibutsu (Great Buddha), second in size only to Todai-ji’s we saw earlier in Nara. Incredible that something 13m tall and weighing 850 tonnes could have been cast from bronze in 1252 - 857 years ago! Like the ancient Greek statues or Michelangelo’s David, the head is enlarged so that it looks perfectly-proportioned when viewed from the front base.
As you move away the head seems to grow. Like its Nara counterpart, the statue was originally protected in a huge wooden hall, but an enormous tsunami washed it away in 1495 and it’s stood exposed to the elements ever since. An earthquake in 1923 destroyed the stone pedestal, but the bronze image remained intact.
The “wings” in the back are shutters to allow light inside. From behind you can clearly see some of the 30 cast sections which were fused on-site.
For a small fee you can enter the Buddha and look right up into its hollow head. The whole edifice now stands on a shock-absorbed stainless-steel plate, so it should survive quakes in the future.
Symbol of autumn, the Japanese Red Dragonfly. (Hasa-dera Gardens)
As well as the usual traditional noh characters, a stall outside Hachimangu Shrine also sold these more contemporary icons.