Tag Archives: museum

2nd April 2015 (Maundy Thursday): Here Be (rust) Dragons {France, Easter 2015}

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We spent the day in Toulouse for several reasons – I had been doing a lot of driving and I did not feel like moving, among them. However, we were not going to stay at home all day, so mid-morning we headed off to one of Toulouse parks, the Jardin Compans Caffarelli, which features some sculptures such as a dragon made out of metal scrapes.

And also, there is an area landscaped as a Japanese garden, the Jardin Japonais.

Then we took the tram and went to the The Aeroscopia museum because my friend was interested in planes, and we got to see a bunch of aircraft both modern and classical designs.

18th August 2014: In Osaka, we stand on the right {Japan, summer 2014}

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Armed with my JR pass I headed off to Kansai via Shinkansen. I would be staying in a Kyoto hotel for a couple of days, but my first stop was Osaka [大阪]. Hereby, by the way, I need to remind myself that next time I have to do Kobe. And get a hotel close to Fushimi Inari so I can bloody make it to the top for a change.

Arriving in Osaka, once again, I felt an overwhelming sensation of being home, and that was once again the feeling I got upon remembering that I was to stay on the right on the escalator (in Tokyo, you keep to the left). My visit was carefully planned, even considering transportation times and queues. Yes, it was not the most… travel efficient one if you look at a map, but had to be done like that in order to work, time wise.

My first stop was at the Sumiyoshi Taisha [住吉大社] compound. Sumiyoshi Taisha is one of the oldest Shinto Shrines in existence, so of course I had to go there this time over.

After the shrine I headed off to downtown Osaka to visit the Ōsaka Rekishi Hakubutsukan [大阪歴史博物館], the Osaka Museum of History which features exhibitions depicting the evolution of the city from ancient times to the occupation period and the start of Western influence.

Although this was close to Osaka-jo [大阪城] (Osaka Castle), after I was done I headed back to the train station and backtracked half the way I had previously advanced in order to go to Shinsekai [新世界], the New World. there was something else I had pending here, and that was going up the Tsutenkaku [通天閣] Tower to get a view of the city and, of course, to visit Billy Ken, the God of Things as They Ought to Be, and his sidekicks.

After that I headed back to Osaka Castle area to be up when the sun set, and thus be able to see it lit up, which I had not managed the previous time I had been there either.

Finally I took the Shinkansen to Kyoto and checked in my hotel for the night.

15th August 2014: And then there was shiny {Japan, summer 2014}

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I like Ueno Kōen [上野公園], the main park in Ueno [上野] just because I do, and off I went again, maybe for the fourth or sixth time. In Ueno station we had awesome ramen at a franchise called Ichiran where you buy a basic ramen card from a machine, and are then given a card (English version was available) to mark off what you’d like on it and how. It was delicious (The bits that are missing on the picture are pork slices and spiciness level). There are different styles of ramen, and this one is Hakata ramen from the Fukuoka Prefecture.

After that we took a stroll down Ueno and ended up at the Tōkyō Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan [東京国立博物館], Tokyo National Museum, which holds many important pieces of historic art:

Leaving Ueno, I headed towards the Minato [港] ward as there were a few things I wanted to do. One of them was visiting a special corner of Shiba Koen [芝公園], and then I wanted to go to Tokyo Tower [東京タワー].

Within Tokyo Tower I visited Tokyo Tower Suizokukan [東京タワー水族館], the little aquarium at the bottom. It did not host sharks, sadly, but quite a few interesting species, among them catfish, one of them seemed very intent on trying to eat me.

There was also this fun sclupture thingy of scaled Tokyo Tower and Godzilla.

I climbed up the main observatory (well, did not climb, took the elevator) to watch the sunset, grab a bite to eat and take lots of pictures. You should appreciate Mount Fuji Fuji-san [富士山] with its summer cap in one of them. Once the sun is down, Tokyo Tower is lit, inside, and out.

I love Tokyo Tower, and going up to the observatory always makes my Tokyo trips feel more complete! I got myself an omamori and a model I have to build, if I eventually find it in the luggage chaos!

10th August 2014: Typhoon & Odaiba {Japan, summer 2014}

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One of the things I noticed when landing was the solid thousand-metre column of clouds. The reason for it was Japan’s almost-trademark hot humidity, but aside from that, there was a typhoon in the making. Now, a typhoon is basically he same thing as a hurricane, only that it happens in the Pacific Ocean. Temperature difference between seawater and the air above it create upwards convection currents that rotate around an axis due to the Coriolis force. This causes rain, strong winds and the famous “spiral structure” that we see on weather reports.

Well, on Sunday we were scheduled to have a typhoon passing by Tokyo/Saitama. Our plans for the day were picking up a friend in Odaiba after performing the tea ceremony. However, when we were close to the place where tea ceremony was to be held, it was raining quite strongly, so we decided to go directly to Odaiba [お台場]. The reason for choosing that meeting point was seeing the hanabi (fireworks) in Tokyo Bay, but those were cancelled in the end due to the weather.

Far from being deterred, we decided it make the most of it, rain or no rain. The first stop was at Tower Records, where I got myself a magazine, just because I could. Then we headed off for a kushikatsu restaurant.

Kushikatsu is a typical Kansai food, anything you can imagine covered in mayonnaise, breaded, skewered and deep-fried. This restaurant allowed you to choose your uncooked skewers and fry them at the table. It was an all-you-can-eat for 80 minutes. In Japan it is very typical to have a time-constricted meal deal, during which you can order or eat as much as you want. However, when it ends you get kicked out a bit unceremoniously.

As rain seemed to have stopped somehow and the girls humoured my wanting to go to the Fuji TV shop to search for a Galileo phone strap that I had regretted not buying the previous year. On our way we walked into a “Hero” (drama by Kimura Takuya which is getting a new season) mini event. It had a mini museum with items from the series and shootings, and a small background for you to take pictures in.

After that we headed out to Shibuya [渋谷] and cavorted Tsutaya and once againお台場 (another branch, though).

(Zoom on the Tackey & Tsubasa billboard up there because… unexpected for JE)

15th July 2014: Robots and Drums (Madrid, Spain)

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A bit over ten years ago, when I was in universe one of my neighbours was paying for a proto-on-demand TV subscription, and it turned out that my TV caught it for some reason. At that time I got to watch a bunch of anime – in Spanish, badly-translated and rather… altered. Among the series I watched was Gainax’s “Neon Genesis Evangelion”, or Shinseiki Evangerion [新世紀エヴァンゲリオン]. Evangelion is a rather confusing series in itself, but the creative translation and censorship made it almost impossible to understand. Evangelion tries to be a giant robot anime with a religious / philosophical background, where humans piloting huge robots (“EVA”) battle monsters called “angels” which apparently seek to destroy humanity. Or something.

The point of this anime-history paragraph is to explain how I ended up at the Museo ABC de Dibujo e Ilustración, the drawing and illustration museum in Madrid. They were running an exhibition about Evangelion and the Japanese katana Evangelion y las katanas japonesas. It was something interesting to see, and the first time I’ve ever seen actual Japanese katana information. The exhibition has three focuses – actual katana, recreations and figures of elements of the series, such as the robots, pilots or weapons, and weapons inspired by the anime.

After the exhibition I took the underground towards the thratre Teatro Circo Price to watch a taiko exhibition: “Taiko Performing Arts Ensemble: Dandan” by Kodo. Taiko are the traditional Japanese drums and there is a whole drumming style for them. It was really, really fun. Due to a fluke of destiny, I had very good seats, so I could enjoy to the fullest – far away from the reverberation and echoes, close enough so I could even sneak in a good picture or two!

The performance was amazing. I think this was the first time I’ve ever seen something so grandeur. Even when I saw a taiko school in Japan, it was just drumming, while Kodo added a lot of acrobatics to the mix. It was really great!

Unfortunately, I could not even check the merchandise after the performance as I had to run for my train, or risk getting stranded overnight in Madrid.

24th – 26th May 2014: Paris (France) for Yoshiki Classical

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24th May 2014: Evening in Montmartre

I was going to atted Yoshiki Classical concert in Paris on Sunday, so I made planes with a a friend to meet up with her over the weekedn so we could do some stuff together. We booked a hotel close to the venue, Le Triannon. I arrived in Paris in the evening of Friday the 24th and met my friend direcly at the hotel – the first thing we noticed was that the area was not the safest, but we could still get to the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur to see it lit.

Sacre Coeur, a basilica on top of a mountain, lit in gentle green light at night

And also to see a nice view of the Eiffel Tower all lit up.

A shot of the Eiffel Tower from afar, lit reddish orange

25th May 2014: Under ground, above ground

On Saturday morning we went to Catacombes de Paris, the Catacombs of Paris. The ancient quarries and mines of Paris became the final resting place of more than six million people. In the late 18th century it was decided to eliminate a good portion of the quickly-overcrowding cemeteries and graveyads of Paris and for a 1786 the bones were carried to the catacombs at night. Today they are consisdered a museum and thus managed as such.

Creepy catacombs of Paris, with thousands of human skulls and other remains

After the catacombs we moved onto the Ille de la Cité, the “island of the city”, an island in the middle of the Seine, to visit Notre-Dame de Paris, our Lady of Paris, a magnificent Gothic cathedral built in between 1160 and 1260. In the 19th century an extensive renovation was carried out, and a few features were added, such as a the gargoyles and a replacement spire for the original one. We climbed the towers and were treated to a really cool Paris view before going inside.

Collage of Notre Dame; the main façade, the gargoyles, the inside of the main navev, and a view of Paris from the top

Leaving Notre Dame, we headed our the Île de la Cité and passed by Saint Germain l’Auzeroix, which mostly dates from the 15th Century and used to be the church for the Louvre inhabitants.

A restored gothic church with an octogonal tower

At the Louvre, by the way, there was a humongous queue, so as both of us had seen it before, we decided to skip going inside.

The Louvre palace from the outside

We passed by the Luxor Obelisk, an Egyptian monument which is over 3000 years old, located in the Place de la Concorde. I’ve always found that name very ironic considering that many people were guillotined there. But hey, the obelisk is cool and all.

A black Egyptian obelisk with golden decoration

We continued walking up the Champs-Élysées until we got to the Arc de Triomphe de l’Étoile (the “Triumphal Arch of the Star”. Okay Paris. Okay.), which is one of the biggest triumphal arcs in the world. It was completed in 1840 and it honours the casualties in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

Commemorative gateway or triumphal arch in white stone

From there we took the underground back to the area of the Sacré-Cœur, which we could see at the end of the streets.

Sacre Coeur peering at the end of a street

And to finish the day, we had some Japanese food because why wouldn’t we?

26th May 2014: Bad weather, queue & Yoshiki

On Sunday, we started off back in the Île de la Cité and we walked around Notre Dame on our way as my friend wanted a walk along the Seine.

The back gardens of Notre Dame

We took the underground towards Les Invalides (Hôtel national des Invalides or The National Residence of the Invalids), a complex of buildings erected between the 17th and 18th centuries and that hosts the military museum and some notable graves, among them Napoleon’s.

Les invalides, a neoclassical palace with a golden dome

Afterwards we took the underground to Champ de Mars, the long park where the Eiffel Tower stands. The Tower was built as an entrance to the 1889 World’s Fair exhibition and it was controversial at first (and rather ugly if you ask me, but hey to each their own). Eventually, it became so famous that it was not taken down as originally planned, and to-date it is one of the most visited landmarks of the world.

Eiffel tower in the clouds

Eiffel Tower from underneath, with a tennis ball hanging in from the second floor

As you can see in the pictures, the weather might not have beent he nicest, but we made our best. We walked all through the Chaps to the Trocadero on the other side. There were very few people on the street so I convinced my friend to take a ride in the carrousel over there, because I’m insane like that. Soon after we had left, a group of random people decided to emulate us.

Classical caroussel, looking over the ears of one of the horses

After this, we said goodbye. I headed off to Le Triannon for Yoshiki Classical, and my friend towards the airport as she had work on Monday. Yoshiki is one of the most important figures in Japan’s musical scene. He is the leader of the iconic band X Japan, and also trained in classical music. He wrecked his health when he was young, though, so he is not in the best shape. His recital Yoshiki Classical was meant to be a reimagination of some songs of his career, just him and his piano and some invited artist. I have to admit that it was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever been to, and I don’t regret attending one bit. Although this was my first concert alone, I didn’t feel strange in any way.

A concert venue with some people waiting

I don’t know what I was expecting, but this surpassed any and everything I could have thought of. Yoshiki is a wonderful human, and he spoke in English during the whole event – he is living in America now, collaborating with people like Stan Lee and Marilyn Manson to do more great stuff. For me, seeing him in person and playing his piano was a heart-bursting experience.

Yoshiki Classical Banner

Although Le Trianon is a seated venue, tickets were not numbered. I arrived at the queue round 17:00 for a 19:30 concert. It was not a good line – French fans seemed to have no sense of personal space, and the person behind the person behind me was invading my space, and I’m not exaggerating.

Conversely, the venue was quite ready for us, entry was well organised and smooth. Theatre staff, speaking in French and Japanese, made sure that ticket holders did not bother the local commerce nor their patrons. Judging by the faces of the sellers around, they were not used to people queuing for the theatre.

Gates opened around 18:45, and I managed a seat on 7th row, in what I thought it would be a good position to actually see Yoshiki’s face as he played. The stage was equipped with the Kawai piano, a synthesiser, and the seats for the strings, along with a standing microphone. I took in the relative positions of everything to chose my seat. The screen showed the Yoshiki Classical World Tour banner, and staff members sold insanely expensive glow sticks.

By 19:50 the audience had started to get nervous,but the members of the press were being shown in to their seats, which meant that the interviews were over. The concert finally started at 20.05, with the entrance of the supporting musicians – three violins, two violas, two cellos. The assistant gave them the tuning note and the video launched behind them. It started with a fragment of the Golden Globes museum interview, where Yoshiki explained the two sides of him, the destructiveness of heavy metal and the peace of classical music. This was illustrated by short clips of X Japan drumming and other activities, such as playing for the Emperor, or Yoshiki Symphonic, all to the music of Miracle.Finally, Yoshiki walked in, sat in front of the Kawai and played the intro of Forever Love.

He did quite a lot of talking between the songs, with a few words in French, but mostly English. He explained that we would have two parts (I used the intermission to go get goods and buy an overpriced bottle of water).Throughout the concert he introduced the strings by name, he remembered all of their names even with effort (and named them Yoshiki Sextet with great mischievousness), and Katie Fitzgerald, the vocalist of his Violet UK project. he himself said that he had too many open fronts and that he had been recording with X Japan forever, but also with Violet UK. He put the blame on himself for being a perfectionist and thus never finding anything finish-worthy. Katie rolled her eyes at him. They seemed to have a good chemistry going on. At the very beginning he told us that he was used to being in the back of concerts, playing drums and that being so close and seeing us made him nervous. He joked that as it was a classical concert he would not stage dive.

As he played the piano the screen behind him projected images, some of them abstract, some of them related to the song, such as roses for Rosa, stills of the Saint Seiya film for Hero, or raindrops for Endless Rain.

He spoke about the history of X Japan and his own – he started playing piano when he was four, the same year he met ToshI. He picked up drums at ten, in Chiba. He reminisced about how he hunted down Pata, Taiji and Hide, ”having to break their bands to get them to come to his band”. Then he spoke of Taiji’s and Hide’s passings, and not talking to ToshI for about ten years. At this point he broke down. It makes one wonder about the kind of pain this man harbours in his soul. You could feel the rage as he pounded into the piano at some points, and yes, I am sure he was crying during the song he dedicated to his father, Taiji and Hide. He said that he had learnt that big venues and stadiums did not really mean anything, but that the support of the fans was what kept him going.

He played an improvisation of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, and a song he had heard on the radio the day before. He confessed that being on tour he lost track of days and places. He was aware of time and space enough to announce that the upcoming October concert in the Madison Square Garden may be the start of a new X Japan tour, but I do not think any of us believed him.

All in all, I knew that he is a great pianist, musician and artist, and after the concert I am completely sure that he is a good person, too. It’s not an act, a persona that he created for the stage. Nobody is that good at feigning pain. He picked up a bunch of presents from the crowd on the first couple of rows himself, be it flowers, plushies, flags, and was thankful for all of them.

Setlist:
1. Miracle (during the video)
2. Forever Love (X Japan)
3. Golden Globe Theme
4. Rosa (Violet UK)
5. Anniversary
[Intermission]
6. Amethyst (Strings only)
7. Swan Lake Improvisation (Tchaikovsky)
8. Hero
9. I.V. (X Japan), fragment
10. Hymne à l’amour (Édith Piaf cover)
11. Without You (X Japan)
12. Kurenai (X Japan), fragment
13. Art of Life (X Japan)
14. Endless Rain (X Japan)

Yoshiki talking to his audience

Yoshiki and Katie Fitzgerald during Hero

After the concert, I went back to the hotel. I would have loved to stay a bit longer, but it was night already and the area did not feel… Nice. In the following morning, Monday the 27th, I just headed for the airport and came back home. It was a very complete weekend!

30th December 2013 – 1st January 2014: New Year’s in Toledo (Spain)

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30th December 2013: Arrival in Toledo

We took an early train to get to Madrid, and transferred to the high-speed line (AVE) to get to Toledo – the ride from Madrid was barely half an hour. Toledo is known as “the city of the three cultures” as during the Middle Ages, Christians, Muslims and Jews managed to live in peace there, and make it prosper. Today it is a tourist hub in the centre of Spain.

The first thing that we did was head off to the Alcázar (Muslim castle) – although it was originally built by Romans in the third century, its current look is owed to the restoration carried out in the 1540s. However, it had to be restored after the Spanish Civil War. The Siege of the Alcázar was one of the most symbolic victories on the Nationalist band. The Alcázar was under siege during the whole summer by Republicans trying to take it over, but in the end, Nationalist reinforcements arrived, chasing the Republicans away. Today, the Alcázar is an important cultural building (where the bullet holes can still be found) and hosts the Museum of the Army, Museo del Ejército.

From the vantage point of the Alcázar, we could see the Academia de Infantería (Toledo Infantry Academy), built in the 20th century in imitation of the Renaissance and Herrerian style.

We also saw the Castillo de San Servando, the Castle of San Servando, a fortified Knights Templar enclave. Fine, it started off as a regular monastery, but it was later given to the Knights Templar in order to protect the city.

Both buildings are on the other side of the Río Tajo, the Tagus river, the longest river in Spain.

After having lunch and checking into the hotel, we visited the cathedral Catedral Primada Santa María de Toledo (Primate Cathedral of Saint Mary of Toledo). The cathedral, built in Gothic Style, was erected mainly throughout the 13th century, even if it was only finished in the 15th century. It sports two asymmetric towers, well, one tower and a small Mozarabic chapel in place of the other one.

By the time we came out of the cathedral, night had fallen – truth is that we missed a little on the pretty windows due to it being darkish outside already. Nevertheless, this treated us to some nice night views. First of all, of course, the cathedral itself…

The Alcázar once again…

… and the Castle of San Servando.

We then walked through the Plaza de Zocodover, one of the city squares, where the old Muslim for cattle and horses was. The current layout was set in the 16th century after it burnt down in a fire.

We walked around the old town for a while until we found a place to have dinner, a Middle-East restaurant called La Casa de Damasco, one of the few times I’ve had real food from this area. I have to say I really enjoyed it.

31st December 2013: Churches and Birds

We started off the day at the Monasterio de San Juan de los Reyes (Monastery of Saint John of the Monarchs) is an Isabelline style Franciscan monastery. It was founded by the Catholic Monarchs to celebrate the birth of their son along with their victory in the Battle of Toro, in the late 15th century. It has a beautiful Gothic cloister.

Our next stop was one of those things that breaks my brain, a Christian Mosque, Mezquita del Cristo de la Luz. It was built in the year 999 as Bab-al-Mardum mosque, but it was turned into a Christian Church in 1085. I’m torn between rolling my eyes at Religions needing to assert dominance and being grateful the Mosque was preserved for us to visit.

Close to the Mosque stands one of the gates of the old walls, the Puerta del Sol, the Sun Gate, of the city walls.

Our next stop the Iglesia Jesuita de San Ildefonso, a church dedicated to Saint Ildefonsus, the patron saint of the city. Construction started in the early 17th century and ended in the mid 18th century, in the Baroque style.

From the upper towers of the church, there was a great view of Toledo.

We decided to walk down towards the river, Río Tajo, where we met a flock of geese (which I’m happy to report had not lost their heads to any kind of stupid animal-hurting tradition).

As we continued, we walked past a sculpture to Miguel de Cervantes, Estatua de Miguel de Cervantes, the author of the acclaimed “Don Quijote” book. The statue is placed beyond the Arco de la Sangre , the Blood Archway, that leads into the Zocodover Square.

As darkness rose, we had dinner in a Chinese restaurant. While we did, the lights turned on, and the city got ready to welcome the New Year with fireworks.

1st January 2014: Views of Toledo

We slept in, and after an early lunch (Chinese, again, as we were feeling decadent), we booked a ride in the “tourist train” that took us to see some of the most amazing views of the Medieval Town from the vantage points on the other side of the Río Tajo.

On the way back we saw the Puente de Alcántara, a Roman arch bridge built upon the foundation of the city after the Celtic settlement was taken over.

The ride ended up on the other side of the city than the one we had been favouring, so we just walked round the walls that fortify the city, the Murallas de Toledo, which are of Muslim origin over Roman foundations. King Alfonso VI is credited with finishing off the walls, and he named one of the gates after him: Puerta de Alfonso VI.

Another of the gates is the Puerta de Bisagra, the last of the monuments we visited before we headed back home the following morning.

One of the creepiest moments in this trip was realising that our key could open a room which was not ours – we got off on the wrong floor and we went down the corridor to the room door, and opened it. It was not our room. We were very quite put off by this, and it turns out that we had a master key. Finding this was a little freaky, and we tried to complain to the hotel. Furthermore, they wanted to charge us for keeping our luggage for a few hours.

Oh, and I caught a cold during our 31st at night escapade. Because of course I did.

27th & 28th July 2013: Segovia (Spain)

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27th July 2013: Echoes of a Roman Past

We took the train early on Saturday and arrived in Segovia in mid-morning. Segovia is a Spanish city of the Inner Plateau, located in the autonomous community of Castilla León. It has gained fame because of its many monuments and landmarks, the main being the Roma aqueduct in almost perfect condition, the cathedral and the castle (which may have served to inspire certain mouse-company for the Cinderella Castle). The city centre has been a world Heritage site from 1985 and the aqueduct received the title of International Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1999.

We checked into the hotel, which was dead in the centre of the Main Square and then we visited the Catedral de la Virgen María, the cathedral. The building was constructed between 1525 and 1577 in a late Gothic style that had already phased out in the rest of Europe. We saw the cloister, the chapels and the apse.

Then we moved onto the Iglesia de San Martín, St Martin’s church, built in the 12th century in the Romanesque style, with a Romanesque-Mudejar tower bell.

We then took a walk around the city centre, and we came across the Palacio de Cascales, a 15th century palace that belonged to the Alpuente Count.

We passed by the Casa de los Picos, the “House of Peaks”, also built in the 15th century.

We somehow ended having these nice views of the rooftops of the city, too.

And passed by a very interesting house.

We finally got to the main event, the Aqueducto, the aqueduct. An aqueduct is a “water bridge”, a construction designed to carry water from one side of a valley or a ravine to the other. The Aqueducto was built by the Romans in the late first or early second century. It once transported water from the Frio River into the city, and it ran for a whooping 15 kilometres. It is one of the best preserved aqueducts in the world, as it was reconstructed several times through history, and it was working to get water to the city up to the 19th century.

We passed by the Casa de Ejercicios del Seminario one of the buildings of the Seminary.

We reached the Main Square, the Plaza Mayor again.

And saw the Romanesque Iglesia de San Andrés, St Andrew’s church, with a particularly nice bell tower.

After this we decided to take a break and have the typical pork meat lunch. Then we moved on towards the Alcázar. An alcázar is a type of castle or fortress built during the Muslim rule in Spain and Portugal. The Alcázar of Segovia has been through several redesigns and renovations, but it is a pretty impressive building. The current form was reached during the reign of King Alfonso VIII, so it dates from the 13th century, but it was retweaked by several kings and queens after that. It was the royal residency until the Spanish court moved to Madrid in 1561.

On the way we could see some views and the Iglesia de la Vera Cruz, the True Cross Church.

The Alcázar is quite an impressive building, in Herrerian style, with impressive towers. Part of it is a history museum the other part is a military museum.

It also offers nice views of the cathedral from the other side.

We walked back to the city centre and along the aqueduct again.

This trip was in July, and scorching hot back home, so we had not considered much of a temperature change. Unfortunately, Segovia in the late afternoon became more than chilly and we had to walk into a random shop to buy a thin jacket, then headed off to the Plaza Mayor.

Funnily, when we were having dinner there, someone warned us that the shop assistant had left the alarm tag on my jacket! That was amusing. We called it a day heading off to the hotel, and being duly impressed by the illumination put in place for the cathedral.

28th July 2013: Churches while the city sleeps

On Sunday morning, most everything was closed, so we took a strolling tor if the Medieval area, and saw a bunch of churches from the tenth and eleventh centuries:

Iglesia de la Trinidad (Trinity Church).

Convento de las Carmelitas Descalzas (Barefoot Carmelite Monastery).

Iglesia de San Nicolas (St. Nicholas’ Church)

Iglesia de San Quirce (St. Quirce’s Church)

Iglesia de San Esteban (St. Stephen’s Church)

We also had yet a different view of the Cathedral.

And we could see the Alcázar in all its glory.

Then we returned to the city centre, where we caught a glimpse of the Iglesia de los Santos Justo y Pastor (St. Just and St. Pastor’s Church).

We had lunch and said one last good-bye to the Aqueduct before we headed back to the train station.

30th June 2013: Odaiba (revisited) {Japan, summer 2013}

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Once again heading to Odaiba [お台場] we lined for a couple of hours to get access to VAMPARK same-day tickets. I was honestly expecting something a bit more impressive than a 20-minute movie, crane games, and pictures, but the company made it fun. There was cute Chupacabra merch to be bought, too.

Chupacabra was designed by Hyde and looks like this. It is just too cute:

After that there was okonomiyaki and we headed off to Madame Tussauds Tokyo. Let me be honest here, the main goal of the event was finding Yoshiki in there, and of course there were pics. Quite a few (≧▽≦)

Then we went for a stroll on the beach to see the original reason why the island was built in the first place. Odaiba is an artificial island that was built to protect Tokyo from Admiral Perry’s ships as a daiba [台場], a battery of cannons. There were several fortifications around Tokyo bay, the Tokyo-wan yosai [東京湾要塞]. The battery we saw in Odaiba is the third one that built – although there was little left.

On our way back, as the sun set, we had some amazing views of Rainbow Bridge [レインボーブリッジ].

28th June 2013: Odaiba {Japan, summer 2013}

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Odaiba [お台場] is big and quite empty actually, which can give off a bit of an eerie feeling after bee-hive-like Tokyo. It however has beach (as in duh, it is an island, albeit an artificial one) and some awesome sights, found after Google Maps trolled me sending me on a scenic route ¬.¬

Rainbow bridge over Tokyo bay. It is white, not rainbowy at all

After the Marine Science Museum seemed to be 90% closed, I headed off to the Miraikan [日本科学未来館] (National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation), which was unfortunately a bit disappointing. Works well for the regular peer (and awesome for kids) but when you are a bit knowledgeable in science, it comes… short. Lots of English, though, so that was at least good.

A massive amount of screens bundled together in a sphere. They show the earth with clouds and atmospheric currents moving around it

This is what I liked the most about the exhibition, a little corner on abyssal ocean info, including a bit of a hydrothermal vent and some colourless abyssal crabs:

An irregular rock that happens to be a bit of hydrothermal vent

A white crab in the dark

I headed to the Diver City Mall for VAMPS 2013 Live concert which was to be held in the the Zepp Diver City later in the evening. I queued for about an hour to buy some goods, and when that was done, I walked around. The shopping centre has an 1:1 Gundam reproduction near its main entrance, which I did not know about:

Zepp Diver City logo

Gundam robot, almost as tall as the two-story building behind it. It's mostly white, with red, blue, and yellow chest

The concert was really fun, as VAMPS concerts tend to be. There were rocky-fast songs and some ballads, even some nostalgic ones from the time Hyde was working solo. I enjoyed second half best, but all in all it was a good, fun concert, even if a painful one, as my right hip did not approve of the day’s effort. After the concert we went off the long way home, which involved several train changes drenched in sweat. Ew XD.

26th June 2013: Yokohama Cup Noodles Museum {Japan, summer 2013}

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It was raining, raining, raining. We decided to do a museum day, but not just any museum. We went to Yokohama [横浜], to a very special one. The Yokohama Cup Noodles Museum (Andō Momofuku Hatsumei Kinenkan [安藤百福発明記念館]), might not look much from the outside, but it is quite very awesome in more ways than one.

For starters, this is their mascot, on top of the regular instant ramen cup.

For just a bit extra though, you can go around to design your very own ramen cup in the “Cup Noodle Factory”. It was endlessly fun:

Oh, yeah, and you get to see some ramen afterwards, along with some motivational stuff:

As it was still raining like hell when we were done, we went back to Tokyo [東京] for some karaoke, and a stroll down Harajuku [原宿], where pretty stuff was bought. And eventually it stopped raining, too!!

25th June 2013: The Not-so-lucky Cat Day {Japan, summer 2013}

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I set off to find Gotoku-ji [豪徳寺], the Temple of the Lucky Cat, in Setagaya [世田谷]. It was easily found from the station following the train racks. Unfortunately two unlucky things happened: it started raining like crazy and the temple was closed down. And it is not like I did not find the right entrance, I did. It was still closed down.

As it kept raining cats and dogs (oh, so much pun) I decided to find myself something under cover to do, so I headed off to the Edo-Tokyo Hakubutsukan [江戸東京博物館], the Edo-Tokyo Museum, in Ryōgoku [両国]. According to their webpage (here),

The Edo-Tokyo Museum was founded on March 28,1993, as the place where visitors come to learn more about Tokyo’s history and culture , and which also serves as a projection onto the city and the living of the future. In the Permanent Exhibition area, there can be found original and replicated exhibits, as well as large-scale models, faithful representations of their originals, which have been reproduced after painstaking investigations and research.

Here’s a ship:

Inner area of the reproduction of an Edo house. Damn I love tatami mats:

Kabuki theatre, scale 1:1:

When I came out it was not raining anymore, so I headed out to Yokoami-chō Kōen [横網町公園], where the pagoda of this building got my attention – I latter discovered that it is Tokyo-to Ireido [東京都慰霊堂], the Tokyo Metropolitan Memorial Hall, a shrine to honour those who died in the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake. Unfortunataly, I ran out of battery in my camera in the park.

The day ended with a trip to Akihabara [秋葉原] to a particular cafe, which unfortunately had been closed down. We made up for it in the nearest Book Off though, and went to Shimokitazawa [下北沢] for Avocado Burger.

21st June 2013: Ueno and Ebisu {Japan, summer 2013}

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As last year, 2013 visiting started on Ueno Kōen [上野公園], as it is an easy-enough place to reach and has a few museums that offer indoors entertainment. It was raining cats and dogs, which should have made me cranky. Nevertheless I was paroling around with this stupid grin on my face as the general tourists bitched about weather XD

You might remember Hanazono Inari Jinja [花園稲荷神社] from last year:

Unfortunately the Sakurazukamori was nowhere to be found again – although I have to admit that the atmosphere changes quite a bit in the rain. Thus, I headed into the Kokuritsu Kagaku Hakubutsukan [国立科学博物館], Tokyo’s National Museum of Nature and Science, after being thoroughly confused by the Japanese arrow system once again.

The museum has two buildings, and an impressive collection of preserved animals, along with a very cool evolutionary tree, a collection of dinosaur fossils, an exhibition on human evolution and some repeated casts that they hope really hard nobody notices.

The animal life exhibition gave me a glimpse of how biased I can actually be, as I rather felt like “monkey, cat, human… FISHY =D”. Most of my pictures are sea-life related XD

Like ever other Science Museum there was Foucault pendulum hidden in a corner:

And the last exhibition was about methods of science, units, and had an amazing periodic table with samples. Whomever designed the exhibition deserves a lot of kudos.

Later I headed to Ebisu [恵比寿] where D****e and I were meeting with some of her Japanese friends for drink and food. All in good fun. It was raining when I checked out Ebisu Garden Place [恵比寿ガーデンプレイスタワー], so I could sympathise with MatsuJun’s mysery XD”

7th May 2013: The inner works of the Geomineral Museum in Madrid (Spain)

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Due to work reasons I ended up in the Museo Geominero, the Geomineral Museum, in Madrid. The Museo Geominero is a rather anachronical place – it displays a great mineral and fossil-replica collection in an early 20th-century building. The inner area is used for research and hides all the high tech. However, they work with really old and cool geological elements.

This was the firs time in my life I ever held a meteorite – just imagine, this thing floated around space, and I got to hold it. It was heavier than I would have ever imagined. You can see the zig-zags on the surface, those are magnetic markings because the main component of this space rock is iron.

There was a session going on about identifying fossils, and this is what I came up with:

Out of the bunch, I also got to play with the ammonite…

… counted the corals…

… and I petted the trilobite…

As you can see, I snuck quite a few pictures. It did not work so well during the museum walkthrough, so I guess I will just have to come back for the main exhibit some other time (≧▽≦).

17th July 2012: The Sword and the Vampire {Japan, summer 2012}

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After a failed shopping trip to Shibuya [渋谷] and Ikebukuro [池袋] looking for an adaptor for D****e’s WiMax who fell victim of the Sakaki clumsiness, on the 17th I visited the Japan Sword Museum / Tōken hakubutsukan [刀剣博物館], where they’ve got the tightest security ever. Pictures were not allowed and there was a security guy checking on you and a bunch of cameras following your every move. Impossible to sneak them ^^”

Notice with the name of the The Japanese Sword Museum

Afterwards I took a rest in preparation of what was to come in the evening. Since I was feeling kind of down I decided to head off to Shibuya’s Book Off for a self-spoiling or twenty before going to pick up D****e at her workplace with a change of clothes.

We took the Yurikamome Line to Odaiba [お台場] and the Zepp Tokyo where we were attending VAMPS live concert “Beast at the Beach”. It was a very cool thing to go over the Rainbow Bridge [レインボーブリッジ], another of CLAMP Tokyo landmarks.

Rainbow bridge, which is white, extending over Tokyo Bay

The inside of Rainbow Bridge from the front of the train that crosses it

VAMPS’ vocalist, Hyde, is one of my favourite Japanese singers, and I went to see him with his “main” band in London back in April. Thus, this was the second time for me seeing Hyde in half a year, which is fun because not long ago I thought I’d never manage to see him XD

Although VAMPS is Hyde’s second(ary) band, but that does not mean he is any less energetic or enthusiastic about it. The music is fast and catchy, and Hyde had a blast during the lives. That man was born to be on stage, I swear. However – he is too short! Really, people, give him a higher spotlight! We want to see him!

We really patted his ego last night, and there were some very funny moments when he messed up his emcee. He climbed up onto the second floor for a few minutes and slammed his guitar there, having one hell of a blast. I was surprised that K.A.Z., the other main, barely got any attention at all, which is strange considering that he is good at what he does and rather easy on the eyes. The light effects were awesome, starting by the clock projected on the curtains waiting to signal the kick off at 6:66 pm (19h 06mins) to which there was countdown, of course. Sound quality was much better than any of the European concerts I’ve attended. Hyde had a blast, I did too and all was good with the world. Oh, and we toasted to Frank’s happy birthday with… water XD Expensive water though!!

Entrance to the venue from above. Lots of people are waiting, a lot of them with pink shirts

It was all in all a very fun concert, with powerful songs balanced with well-placed ballads that made the mix work really well. The only downside was my aching feet, and a big-headed girl in front of me XD.

Vamps Tshirt and concert booklet showing their logo, an open mouth with pointy upper fangs

A bottle with a lanyard to hang it around your neck

Afterwards there was purikura and very sore feet and a couple of cramps, but it was so. Damn. Worth. It. And I didn’t feel nearly as sore as after the LARUKU con in London.

Now, where the hell is Hyde’s lamb, people?

9th July 2012: Osaka, day 1 {Japan, summer 2012}

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Monday 9th had me doing something I never thought I would do – riding a Tokyo train during rush hour, and survived too!

My first destination was Shinagawa station to catch the Hikari Shinkansen bound to Osaka [大阪]. With a speed of almost 300 km/h, the Hikari Shinkansen covered the 454 km between Tokyo and Osaka in abuout three hours, with some stops in between, Nagoya being one of them.

A train station platform with the train arriving in the background. The train locomotive is white and looks like a duck bill

Upon arriving I headed towards the city’s Castle, Osaka-jō [大阪城]. There are no words to describe Osaka-jō, and no picture would make it justice. Have some that try anyway:

Osaka Castle. It stands on a rock base, and it has four floors. The roofs are green/grey and the main walls are white with golden decoration

Osaka castle from the side, showing the accessible lift for wheelchair users

View from the top of Osaka Castle. In the foreground there's the roof decoration, a gold fish-monster. In the background, Osaka highrises. In between the park and the moat

Next to the castle is the Hōkoku Jinja [豊國神社], which I visited too.

A severe grey torii in front of a white and green shrine building

Then I walked back to the castle to undo all the way towards the station – as some monuments close at 3pm I wanted to make sure to go in the tower museum. Now I had the chance to take pictures and explore. By chance I noticed some stairs by the edge of the park surrounding the tower so I climbed up to discover a mini temple to one side of the castle. The small statues symbolize dead or stillborn babies, and I find them incredibly creepy.

Inside a shrine grounds - a little fountain, a stone torii, and a number of small human-like statues wearing red bibs

I explored the area and went back to the main path to find the station and head off to Namba, where my hotel was. Now, Osaka has two main entertainment districts: Namba and Shin Sekai. Namba [難波], where I went, has the Glico man (which somehow I missed, mistaking it for this little shop) and the giant blowfish and crabs.

Giant snow crab adverstisement for a restaurant

Giant dragon advertisement for a ramen restaurant

A billboard of a man reaching the end line of an athletic course, raising his arms in victory. His shirt reads グルコ

In Namba I bought myself some takoyaki – octopus dumplins – for dinner from one of the street stands. This was one of my first interactions completely in Japanese, and I felt stupidly proud of it. And of course, the takoyaki were delicous, albeit scorching hot.

A box of six round dumplins covered with brown sauce

8th July 2012: How high can you fly? {Japan, summer 2012}

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After a very sophisticated brunch in a pizzeria in Roppongi [六本木], on Sunday the 8th we headed off to the calligraphy museum, which did not allow pictures, so there is none. Sorry, I’m civilised XD

After that we headed towards Ikebukuro [池袋] to see the Sunshine 60 and spend money in a Book Off.

A very high skyscraper

Later on we headed off to Shinjuku, particularly to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building (TMGB), Tōkyō Tochō [東京都庁] in Shinjuku [新宿]:

Two twin skyscraper towers joined by a middle building from about two thirds down. There are thousands of windows

The TMGB has a free observatory on floor 45 (202 meters high), actually two, but only one was open . We aimed to see sunset but… it was cloudy. Still some impressive sights though, particularly of the skyscrapers around it.

Tokyo cityscape. There are thousands of buildings.

Tokyo cityscape. On the foreground there is a triple tower

Sunset and thousands of tiny buildings to the horizon

Close up of the Shinjuku highrises, a group of ten pr skyscrapers

Tokyo cityscape

4th July 2012: Multitasking Day {Japan, summer 2012}

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4th of July is the USA’s Independence Day, and Gackt’s brithday and Akanishi Jin’s birthday and Massu’s birthday, so I renamed it multitasking day.

The day started with getting on the public transport and into the Yamanote Line towards Ueno Kōen [上野公園], Ueno Park, obviously in the Ueno [上野] area. In case anyone has missed this, I am a big CLAMP fan, and the Tokyo Babylon / X arch has a very important plot device in Ueno Park – it is the place where the Sakurazukamori can be found.

The Sakurazukamori is a cursed sakura (cherry) tree which grows on the human blood the Sakurazuka mystic assassin clan feeds them, the blood of their victims. Unfortunately, I was unable to locate the Sakurazukamori, but I was creepily amused to notice how many crows there were in the area. However with that many people around, I think Seishirou would have trouble hiding his kills in there XD I was wandering around for about an hour and a half.

A path in the middle of a park. Bright green trees close over it

Thus started my torii obsesion, looking at the entrance of Hanazono Inari Jinja [花園稲荷神社]. Torii [鳥居] are symbolic gates that separate holy grounds in Shinto – they are made out of stone or wood, in this case they tend to be painted bright orange or vermillion. They usually have two columns and two horizontal boards on top, the upper one is a bit curved upwards, and there is a plaque showing the name of the shrine. They sometimes have some writing on the back of the columns.

The entrance of a shrine, with a row of torii heading down some stairs

There are a lot of Museums in Ueno Park, and I chose the Tōkyō Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan [東京国立博物館], Tokyo National Museum, for a visit when the heat became too much. Yesterday it was supposed to thunderstorm, so I decided to go walk the park first and go to the Museum if / when it rained. In the end I went into the Museum when it did not rain XD. It was a tadbit too hot to wander around…

The Tokyo National Museum of Art is focused on Japanese culture and art (there’s a Western Museum of Art not that far away, also in Ueno) and the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art in the next corner.

The entrance of the National Museum of Art, a light grey building with a brick roof

I am not going to bluff and tell you how I appreciated the sliding doors art of the china art. I did, but let me be honest. The katana collections are the ones that made me flail:

A katana

After I was done with the Museum I needed to hunt down some food. I had two options, stay in Ueno and give a try to the Metropolitan or go somewhere else. In the end I decided to head off to the station, get food there and get into the Yamanote line [山手線] again until Hamamatsuchō [浜松町] where I sat on a park to eat my onigiri and get some rest. After that, I visited the San’en-zan Zōjō-ji [三縁山増上寺] Chief Temple of Jodo-Buddhist, which kind of was in my way.

A vermillion Buddhist temple which you need to access going up the stairs. A few people come and go

A wooden Buddhist temple building

Very, very pretty. But the actual reason I was in the area was the metallic structure you can guess to the right in the first picture. This is the area where Tokyo Tower [東京タワー]. Insert a huge fangirl squeal here. Aloud. just after coming out the station, when the tower was barely visible against the sky. Of course, however, I could not stay away XD.

As I mentioned before, there was supposed to be bad weather, so originally I did not have plans to climb it up yesterday but… I did anyway because there was good weather. I had decided to only go up to the main observatory (150 m high), but in the end I found myself asking for the special observatory combo ticket, which lets you go to the special observatory 250 m high (total height of tower is 333 m).

A view of Tokyo Tower from the ground. It is not a good picture, a bit burnt, but it shows the whole tower from afar

Tokyo Tower - a picture from the base upwards

Lots of CLAMP manga have important stuff happening in Tokyo Tower: in Tokyo Babylon, Subaru banishes a restless spirit, in X Kamui and Fuuma fight there as it is one of the Tokyo kekkai, in Clamp Gakuen Noboru wants to celebrate his birthday party there and in Magic Knight Rayearth, the three main characters meet there. Though let me tell you, I don’t know how three classrooms fit in here so they see each other when Emmeraude calls upon them:

A view of the observatory of Tokyo Tower

Yes, I took pictures inside the observatory, I took pictures from the view too, of course. Note Tokyo Bay and Rainbow Bridge, another of the kekkai.

Tokyo buildings from above, with a huge park in the foreground

Tokyo highrises

Tokyo Bay inlet and buildings around it

I even looked down

A glass floor shows the view of the streets below and Tokyo Tower structure underneath.

The day ended with a quick visit to Ebisu [ヱビス] Place (where MatsuJun gets stood up in Hana Yori Dango), a quick once-over Shibuya, katsukare for dinner and then falling kinda dead.

A square. A covered gallery is int he background

I made friends with a Shiba Inu who wanted petting and totally pwned jet lag. I also was misled into trying a horribly ocha (tea) drink that Tackey promoted on TV, which was… horrid. Lesson learnt. We don’t trust Tackey on drinks…

A bottle of tea soda

Flashback to 11th & 12th April 2012: London for L’Arc~en~Ciel

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  • London Greenwich
  • Greenwich Old Royal Naval College
  • Greenwich National Maritime Museum
  • Cutty Sark
  • River Thames
  • O2 Arena
  • L’Arc~en~Ciel concert
  • Greenwich Meridian

Note: This is a flashback post, which means it is just a collage regarding a trip I took before I started the blog in 2012. Tags may be incomplete or slightly off.