Koyoto

I had hoped that a long sleep would allow me to wake refreshed and feeling great about the world. It didn't. I had a bath, then grabbed everything I needed and headed to the front desk. I thought if I can just get into the Internet, do a bit of research, get the info Deb from work had given to me (and i had left at home, and Mum had searched for and found and emailed to me) then I'll be ok. Ha! I'd gotten a map for getting to an Internet cafe the day before from the concierge, a lovely girl. I now asked the two men behind the desk where I could find tourist information. Blank stares. I asked about 10 times, trying different ways, they tried desperately to help me, eventually we all gave up. I screamed inside a little. Then, spent half an hour traipsing up and down the street where the Internet cafe allegedly was but not finding it. I asked several different people in convenience stores and coffee shops - no luck. I had a coffee. I screamed inside, had a minor panic and thought about the fact that I don't even know where in Tokyo I am, or what station serves Tokyo... is there a Tokyo station? I then remembered that I had my train maps in my bag. I grabbed them out, had a look and discovered that yes, there is a Tokyo station, but that Ueno was probably better for me as it has a tourist information booth. I got a station person to help me figure out my fare (it was wrong, but rather than getting in trouble for not having the right fare, you just see the fare adjustment person who issues you with the correct ticket and you pay the additional if you need to) and made it to Ueno. And then set about finding the tourist information. Which ended up being crazy difficult, because the tourist information is in the other Ueno station. There are two. How I was supposed to know this, I don't know. A Starbucks employee helped me out.

I found it, eventually, and it opened at 10. It was 9:30. I screamed a lot inside, then grabbed a sandwich and coffee from the shop next to the tourist information booth and sat and waited. When they opened, I went over and asked for directions to an Internet cafe. They spoke perfect English, (and no, I'm not one of these people who think everyone should speak my language etc. etc., but I was terribly relieved to get good, clear directions which I fully understood. If you were unsure previously, you should know that I have a terrible sense of direction... more of that shortly...) and gave me very, very clear directions on how to get to the Internet cafe. It was upstairs above a shop, and had very kooky beds which you can lie in whilst playing Internet games and the like. Essentially, you are booked into a booth where you stay as long as you require then pay on the way out. Apparently, a lot of people do online gaming and stuff overnight. I only wanted minimal time there, and so tried to keep it just under twenty minutes, but still ended up paying for 30. Whatever. As I hadn't figured out the exchange rate (and did not manage to get my head around this the whole trip), I may never know how much it actually cost. The Internet there drove me nuts, because whilst I managed the multiple language keyboard in Finland, in Japan, the keyboard was fine, but I kept getting error messages in Japanese and had no way of figuring out what to do. Being grumpy Margaret, I just copied down the information I wanted and left. Possibly overcharged. Whatever. By this stage, I was just so over it...

All I knew was that I wanted to escape. I didn't want to think, I didn't want to talk, I just wanted to sit. If my hotel had been any more comfortable, I may well have just escaped there. Luckily for me and my travelling experience, it was too hot and pokey and not welcoming for just hanging out. So, I went back to the very helpful tourist information people. One thing Deb had suggested was a daytrip starting at Kyoto looking at the Temples, then stopping in Hiroshima. When I spoke to the tourist info folks, they said that there is not enough time in one day to do both. Perhaps in summer it is ok, but the days were kind of short (nothing compared to Helsinki, but still short). So, Kyoto it was.

I grabbed a ticket for who knows how many yen and jumped on the Shinkansen, the fast train, to Kyoto. Absolutely beautiful - the scenery was amazing, and it is a very fast train! It was probably about two hours, and when I arrived there, I went straight to the information booth to get ideas on where to go. In Tokyo I'd been given a couple of absolutely useless maps, and the lovely rotary man at the info booth gave me a slightly better one and the advice to make sure I saw the famous bamboo forest -so famous I've never heard of it. Actually, I think that may say more about my knowledge than anything else... I jumped on a local train to the area which had a lot of temples, and possibly a palace. Kyoto is particularly famous for the temples. I looked at the map and planned a route (unusual for me, I know) and then set off. And got lost. Quite spectactularly lost, actually. I just kept wandering, and seemed to be heading into farm land, but didn't really want to just turn around. The light seemed already to be dimming as the place I was wandering was in a valley, so eventually I asked a little old local lady to show me where we were on the map. And, in any indication of how bad the map was, she couldn't. But we walked a bit, I stopped to take photos whilst she continued to walk, and then she figured it out and pointed it out. Surely enough, I found my way back to the main road, just in time to find that the temple I wanted to see was closed. But about five minutes. Nice one. So, I then wandered up to the bamboo forest. The sun had gone behind the mountain top by this stage, but it wasn't too dark yet. Who should I bump into? The lady who gave me directions. We laughed and waved and I said "konnichiwa" and she was very excited at my one word of Japanese. And so was I. I then decided to meander my way back to the train. Kyoto was definately a delightful place to wander through, and there were temples and little shrines and the like everywhere, which was gorgeous. But, my mood really wasn't much better, so back to Tokyo.

By the time I got back to Tokyo it was well and truly dark, although not really all that late. I had planned to go to Hirshima the next day and was not sure how late i would be home, so I decided to check out the night lights. According to Deb's notes, Hibiya???? was a good place with all of the massive billboards and screens and the like, so I decided to check it out. It was impressive and bright and fantastic, but grumpy Margaret didn't want to stay long, so just shot off a couple of snaps, wandered for a couple of minutes, and headed back to the hotel and sleep. I can't remember where else I ate - I think I grabbed a bento box at the station which I ate on the train, and perhaps just had some stuff from the 7Eleven when I got home... Cannot recall. Kept thinking I should go to a restaurant, but didn't really feel like interacting.

Konnichiwa

So, after a long and annoying flight, I arrived in Tokyo. I was grumpy, tired, confused and not in the mood to deal with yet another country. That was my downfall, I think. I was overtired, and I was ready to be at home, and I was not wanting to deal with language and transport I wasn't familiar with and money which I couldn't get my head around. But, I came up with a mantra for the last few days - fake it til you make it. I didn't want to just sit in my hotel room and read and sleep and watch TV, I wanted to attempt to appreciate where I was. So, I started faking it. And I think I really started to let go of my angst and truly enjoy myself about 2 hours before I headed to the airport to return to Australia... but have been left with the strong will to return to Japan and do it properly!

When you get off the plane at Tokyo Airport (Narita), you need to catch a tram to the main terminal. It is weird, and the first place you start to see that the cartoons are really based on reality. There are little musical noises that accompany everything and reassuring female voices giving messages in Japanese and English. The tram/bus thing is on a track, but it doesn't have a driver, so the carriage fills up and then it trots along to the terminal. From there, I grabbed my bags and found tourist information to figure out how to get to the hotel I had booked. I love the way the tourist information works here - they have either colour brochures or colour computer printouts of maps and the draw arrows for where you need to walk and circle where you need to go.

The train into Tokyo took quite a while - perhaps an hour or so, (although I just looked at Wikipedia and it says two hours) and this is when I started to nod off. It was not the more luxury airport train I caught, but the standard rail train thingy, although I have a feeling I paid for the more expensive one. Annoying. The scenery was quite varied on the way in - lots of small towns sparsely spread out in the mountains, then getting more suburban to finally the city. Throughout my time in Japan, I loved seeing all of the standard suburban buildings then suddenly a random temple!

Once at Nippori station, I made the change to the Odakyu line, with the confusing help of several of the transport worked. Annoyingly, at Nippori there are kind of two stations, Nippori and Nishi-Nappori, and I found it extremely difficult on several occasions to negotiate my way between the two. Note - I did see the men in the uniforms with the white gloves that is typical on YouTube, but I have not experienced them pushing large crowds onto the train. In fact, almost everywhere in Japan was very quiet. It must have been the time of the year and the lack of tourists, or perhaps just the areas I went to, but Japan seemed empty. I liked it.

I eventually made it to Akasaka and followed the directions to my hotel. I was a bit concerned, because it gave distances in time travelled (walk for 5 minutes) rather than distance, but before I needed to ask anyone, I found my hotel. Sure enough, I couldn't check in, but thank goodness, I could leave my massive bag. I asked the concierge where I could go to fill in a few hours - she seemed very confused. Eventually, I suggested perhaps there was a park nearby (the sun was shining, and after lots of very cold weather, I was looking forward to any outdoors warmth). She gave me a little coloured map and showed me where there was a local park which was directly next door to a massive shopping mall. I thanked her and wandered around to the park. It was very nice - one section had a beautiful Japanese garden with little water falls and bamboo sculptures, I sat there listening to some podcasts and watching the water for quite some time. There was also some modern art - I think there was a gallery also in the park, but I was too tired to cope with investigating that. I sat outside and watched a lot of people with their very small dogs and felt a bit homesick for my own small dog. My favourite moment, which my nephews loved hearing about, was when I saw a woman crouching by her dog and I thought she must just be getting a bag up for its business. Then, she pulled out a tissue and a little spray bottle, sprayed the tissue and wiped the dog's rear end - yuk! I wished I had been closer to get a photo. I soon found out why there were so many well groomed dogs in the area - inside the shopping centre there was an exclusive dog shop with grooming facilities. I nearly bought some crazy dog treats and toys but was unsure of the exchange rate and didn't want to spend $75 on a dog chew or something equally ridiculous. I spent quite a bit of time just sitting on the bench listening to podcasts (in Japan i got through almost an entire year of Radiotherapy and Einstein-a-go-go) and watching people. A lot of people walk through the gardens, and a lot of people sit and eat their lunch and read books. And why wouldn't you? It was lovely. I was in a t-shirt, with the sun on my face and arms. I eventually decided to check out the shopping mall, which seemed like a very exclusive place - lots of open space, shiny floors and felt like everything would be expensive. Upstairs was the Suntory Museum of Art, so I decided to go in. This was where I discovered more of the wonderful quirkiness of Japan - there were free lockers for your bags and jackets, and free umbrella lockers. I'm not sure if I can explain these. Like a wine rack (for very small bottles) on its side so the the umbrella could be placed in an individual hole, which would lock around it so that your umbrella was safe. Funny! The exhibit which was on at this time was Export Lacquer: Reflection of the West in Black and Gold Makie, which was the history of Makie work, which I had never heard of. It was beautiful, but I was not really in the mood to study this master craft work in detail. Quite frankly, I was falling asleep. I decided to see if the hotel would mind if I just sat on the couches in the foyer, and luckily for me, they were happy to let me up to my room early. I went to my overheated room, had a quick shower and jumped into bed. For about 14 hours. Can't say it was the most satisfying sleep, but at least there was lots of it!

Ah, Finnlandia

It's April.  I guess I have had little time to finish the last five days of my travel blog, although thinking about it immediately prior to getting the old laptop set up, I think there have been a couple of psychological factors.  Firstly, the longer I leave something, the more difficult I find it to return to it.  I just need to look at the large stack of half-read books by my bed to get that.  Secondly, I didn't really enjoy my last few days. But, I'll write more on that when I get to Japan. And why would I really want to document stuff I didn't really enjoy (especially when it is likely to sound quite good.  Ah, the human mind!)? But the biggest thing is that when I've written it down, it is really over.  Having said that, I just had a bit of a look through all of my receipts and stuff to get a few maps to remember place names and stuff, and I'll get to do some reliving come tax time!

So, I'm at Beach Rd, sitting on the couch, I have the wireless keyboard on my lap, Bop with his Elizabethan collar on (having had a small fatty lump removed from his elbow, plus two dew claws removed from his back legs) laying alongside me, and I am going to attempt to finish this blog.  Although, given how long it takes, it may need to be finished tomorrow... I'll have it done by the end of Easter, I swear!

So, last entry was the Estonia entry  -what a beautiful trip!  Of course, it had left me with chilblains or frostbite or something all over my legs, so I was not the most comfortable of people - if I had my lovely thermal underwear on, I was ok, but just the baggy jeans tended to rub against the sore skin and made me miserable. My legs had patches of sandpaper roughness for absolutely weeks - it was not very pleasant.

I just went back and quickly read my other entries from Finland - I am hoping to not be too repetitive.  Just had to check that I hadn't complained about the room yet.  The room was fine.  If I ever get around the adding photos to this post, I will put the photo on.  Small room, clean, basic.  Own sink and tea making facilities.  Little cupboard.  Single bed.  Oh so hot.  Had I realised how hot it was going to be in the hotel room in Tokyo, I would have ditched my lovely thermal pyjamas then and there. I have a real issue with accommodation in centrally heated locations that don't allow you to turn off the heat in your room or have  a decent window to open - having said that, I didn't actually ask if I could turn off the heat.  I opened the window, and tried to keep it open during the day, but the latch was broken and it would slam shut.  Sometimes in the middle of the night - good sleeping!

My last day in Finland - I had a pretty decent sleep and got up about 9 or so for breakfast.  Then, packed up all of my stuff into my trusty massive backpack and the lovely little bag I bought at a craft shop (the tourist info makes much of the craft shops, which I thought would be a bit, well, crafty, but actually they were very cool  - often a series of artists who shared shop space.  I bought a few gifts for others and for myself.  Very nice.) and headed into town.  I was meeting Anna at a specific time (and almost three months later, I cannot actually remember what time it was).  I dumped my bag into a locker at the station and wandered over to Kiasma to meet Anna.  Locker security - in London and Edinburgh, they have a guy who takes your bag, pops it through an ex-ray machine, and it is very safe and secure.  In Finland and Japan, it's the old school coin operated locker system.  Interesting.  Well, probably not, actually.

Anna and I had a coffee, the headed in to look at the exhibits.  As I think I mentioned when I went to the exhibit with Dukes in London, I'm not really great at going to stuff with people. I tend to wander off a bit, and I don't expect them to wait for me if I like something, or to be offended with me if I walk off.  It was easy with Anna, possibly partly because I had seen half of the stuff  and didn't mind racing through some stuff.  Also because she was marvellously critical of a lot of it - not rude, just "I don't get it".  I found one of the museum booklets for an exhibit called Full House which was "The Kouri collection of American Minimalist Adventures" and recalled "Untitled (Public Opinion)" by Felix Gonzalez-Torres which was essentially a large pile of licorice candies (wrapped) piled into the corner or a room.  The sign said you should take one, so we did, and were very happy about it - art that really gives back!

After the Kiasma, Anna and I headed to a Nepalese restaurant near the Theatre building next to the station.  Beautiful meal, then we said our goodbyes and I jumped on a train to the airport.  Fairly uneventful wait for the plane... I think it may have been delayed, but I can't quite remember... no. actually, it wasn't.  I'd been vaguely hoping for a delay, as I was checked in to a hotel in Tokyo which I couldn't go in until 4 and knew I would be tired and wanting a shower.  I was due to arrive in Tokyo about 10am, wasn't wanting to carrying my huge backpack around for hours.  Anyhow, uneventful flight.  I couldn't sleep, so I watched some crappy movies (and some good ones... but lots of crappy ones) and that takes me to arriving in Tokyo.