7th July 2012: Nikkō {Japan, summer 2012}

Posted on 10 July 2012 by JBinnacle

Nikkō [日光市] is about 140 km north of Tokyo, a couple of hours train ride. While the town itself might not seem much, close to it there is lies the Shrines and Temples of Nikkō Unesco World Heritage Site, and here we headed off on Saturday.

The area holds a whooping 103 buildings or structures, though the natural setting around them is also considered heritage. The buildings belong to two Shinto shrines: Futarasan Jinja [二荒山神社] and Tōshō-gū [東照宮], and one Buddhist temple Rinnō-ji [輪王寺]. Nine of the structures are designated National Treasures of Japan while the remaining 94 are Important Cultural Properties. Unesco listed the site as World Heritage in 1999.

A rock reading World Heritage Shrines and Temples of Nikko in English and Japanese

As you might be able to tell, it was raining. Like magic. Like hell. Cats and dogs. And then some.

Highlights include the Three wise monkeys, “see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil”:

Wooden carvings of three monkeys: one is covering its ears, another is covering its mouth and the other is covering its eyes

The mausoleum of Tokugawa Ieyasu:

A torii in black and gold. It's raining

A small one-story pagoda, the mausoleum itself

A five-storey pagoda (gojūnōto) belonging to Tōshō-gū:

A five-story pagoda, in red, green and gold. It's still raining.

The inner buildings of Furata-san Jinja:

Dark wood buildings decorated in green and gold. It's still raining

The entrance to Tōshō-gū:

Shrine entrance. The entrance is completely golden. It's still raining

However, since I would not be me without finding (and falling in love with) something obscure and creepy, have a small shrine to the side of the road nobody was paying attention to:

A forlorne stone torii forgotten in the middle of the forest

Did I mention it was raining? Because it was. All the damn day XD

6th July 2012: 東京の雨（傘） {Japan, summer 2012}

Posted on 9 July 2012 by JBinnacle

On Friday I walked a lot but saw fewer things. I started with Yasukuni Jinja [靖国神社], which was preparing for a matsuri (festival), as you can see with all the lanterns. The lanterns had names in them and I have the chilling feeling that there’s one for each Japanese soldier who died in WWII – Yasukuni Shrine is dedicated to the fallen in that war.

A wall of yellow paper lamps being hung outdoors

A torii gate and a shrine behind it. The shrine is hanging the imperial banner. The building is made out of dark wood with golden decoration, and the roof is green-grey

The shrine visit was followed by a 30-minute stroll toward the Diet Building [国会, Kokkai] , which is something like the Parliament. Surprisingly enough, I got there without much trouble. I checked points with this because a) is cultural building b) is a barrier in X Clamp and c) is where the Shinigami in Yami no Matsuei are based. Risky picture in the middle of a crossing too! (pedestrian light was green, so not that impressive, to be honest.)

A severe looking building, closed off by fences and guarded by the police

As I was walking towards the Diet I found the National Theatre by chance. It was not in the plan, but i decided to check it out:

A shoebox-like building, in brown, with some reddish paper lanterns at the entrance

It started to rain and I was heading to Yoyogi Kōen [代々木公園], where I took a series of fun pictures through my (D****e’s) umbrella. It did not work as well as I hoped for though XD. Originally Yoyogi Park was conceived as a sacred forest around the Meiji Temple.

Trees through a transparent plastic umbrella

Thus, Meiji Jingu [明治神宮] was erected in the middle of the sacred forest of Yoyogi to honour the Meiji emperor and his wife. It is a very impressive complex, to be honest, and not even the bunch if tourists manage to break the spell of the place.

The entrance to Meiji Jingu, with a torii, and a small fountain to the left, and a lantern to the right

The main building of Meiji Jingu, in dark wood with a grey roof. A few people are approaching the building, all of them are carrying umbrellas

Finally I took a walk down Harajuku [原宿], where I, fortunately, did not buy anything. I swear, this country eats money way too fast…

A shopping street. The entrance is decorated with balloons strung together to look like a heart

Stay tuned for the tale if our trip to Nikko on Saturday and how we did not go to see the waterfall… the waterfall came to us. It was not the deluge… but almost. 大雨.

Title translation: Tokyo no Ame(gasa), it’s a pun on Tokyo’s rain and Tokyo’s umbrella. The Japnese word for rain is “ame”, and the word for umbrella is “amegasa”

5th July 2012: Gods of Old {Japan, summer 2012}

Posted on 6 July 2012 by JBinnacle

Yesterday morning started with a much dreaded headache so I decided to try and take it easy, get some morning rest and fill the blog up. Later on I headed off to Asakusa – after a small adventure charging the Suica train card – and had a typical me moment getting lost around the building I had to walk around. Yep, turned the wrong way around said building.

Asakusa [浅草] hosts Sensō-ji [金龍山浅草寺], a Buddhist temple dedicated to the bodhisattva Kannon and it is particularly famous for its giant lanterns (chōchin, [提灯]). Some drama actor I have a tiiiiiny bit of a soft spot has been… well… filming around here a couple of times. And I did not try to reproduce any camera angles *coughs*. Behold the main entrance, the main building and a close-up of the chōchin.

The entrance to a Buddhist temple. There is a huge (taller than a person) red paper lamp hanging with the kanji 雷門 on it, two demon statues stand on its sides

Another entrance gate, with another huge red lantern. The building is decorated with red, white and green

A close-up of the lantern, with 小舟町 written on it

I bought a Temple charm from one of the maiko, a mini lantern and a daruma. The sellers were very nice once they had no more option but to acknowledge my present and we got by in Japanese with calculator showing of totals. In one of the stands I was given an origami crane, which was really cute. I had been recommended a tayaki (sweet) stand but unluckily that they they had cleaning day and they were not serving.

“Close” (in Tokyo terms) to Asakusa is the Tokyo Skytree [東京スカイツリー], which has taken over television broadcasting functions from Tokyo Tower and it is about twice as high. Since I was “in the area” I decided to drop by, although I did not feel like climbing it. Although it has been recently opened, going up is super expensive and… is not Tokyo Tower XD Excuse the funny picture format.

Tokyo Skytree - a tower seemingly made out of grey scaffolding

Getting there I crossed in front of the Asahi Beer Group Building Complex, so have a picture too:

The Asahi building, with horns like a bull

And a system of floodgates, just because I’m biased:

A canal with a flooding gate system

I got something to eat from a Family Mart under the Skytree, and that included dorayaki, because I was starting to feel brave about interactions!

A pancake-like sweet, about the half the size of my hand

Then, I headed to Shibuya [渋谷] because I was getting tired and there was a nice, long, metro ride in the Ginza line. Guess what was the first thing I looked for? The Shibuya 109 building. Unfortunately, if there is an aquarium up there, it is restricted area. Sales day, too. Was crazy, so root me with the Angels for this one XD (X Clamp reference, for those who are hanya’ing right now).

Shibuya 109 building. It is a regular mall with a round tower full of advertisements

Since I had the time I stalked the infamous Shibuya Crossing, which serves about 3,000 people per green pedestrian crossing:

Shibuya crossing, empty of people and cars

Shibuya crossing as people flock into it

Then I did what one does in Shibuya… roam around and spend money OTZ. Though I was banned from Mandarake yet, there were many interesting stores, among them the equivalent to a FNAC / Virgin Media or similar with a HUGE Fukuyama Masaharu DVD promo poster; for the good of my wallet I forbade myself to walk into it. The funny anecdote of the day came when I was listening to KAT-TUN’s Peak and suddenly I heard Kame speaking. I was surprised because I do not have Peak live on my mp3. Then I realised that it had been Shibuya’s giant screen with their new car CM. D****e helped me find a few bargains in Book Off after we met.

A shopping street in Shibuya. One of the billboards on the right reads Book Off

And speaking of meeting, I kind-of was thrown into a nomikai [飲み会] with her volunteering partners that she met in Tohoku. A nomikai is a… typical Japanese drinking party with real Japanese people and at first I was a bit 0_0 about the whole thing. After all my Japanese is… more basic than basic. Surprisingly it turned out very enjoyable with me… making up Japanese as I went along and D****e helping me out most of the time. My random vocab was very surprising at some point for one of the girls because… yeah, I can’t ask for my food to be heated but I know how to say “typical Japanese paper screen”. The downside was coming home past midnight. The upside, was lots of fun.

And guys, romantic dorama weird plots happen in real life. There was a married couple there to prove it.

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

Posted on 5 July 2012 by JBinnacle

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

3rd July 2012: A recipe for jetlag {Japan, summer 2012}

Posted on 4 July 2012 by JBinnacle

Good morning all! It’s before 9 am (note to self: update time settings) and the only reason I’m chirpy is the fact that I am terribly jetlagged XD

It all started in Madrid where a very unfriendly Air France assistant ‘helped’ me get my boarding passes and check my luggage in (11 kg out of the 23 allowed. Want to bet I’ll have trouble when I go back? XD). Anyway, I went through security, beeped, got felt up and found my gate.

After locating gate I found myself some gummy bears (had my first blue gummy bear ever) and D****e some pure Spanish ham, and sat to wait for the plane to Paris, where I was to take my connection.

Boarding passes from MAD to NRT via CDG, and passport

Uneventful ride which was almost on time.

The sun is shining on the plane window

Paris de Gaulle was a nightmare to get around though. Terminal 2 is divided in letters and the one I was looking for was on the other side of the building and BADLY indicated. Then the guy checking boarding passes did not want to let me through because my boarding pass had been issued in Madrid and was slightly different… yes, idiot, it says TOKYO there. I finally made it through to my gate with time for a bathroom break, a Kit-kat and a bottle of water.

A very long airport lounge with a burgundy carpet

We boarded on time, and I think it’s mean you pass through business class before going into tourist, because that way you see what you are missing XD Acquired goal in life: fly to Japan on first class XDD. I did not really sleep through the 11 hours of flight, but was not too awake either so it did not feel too long.

The screen at the seat showing the plane over the sea of Japan, from above

I made the same route as J in Bloody Monday season 2, so there was either no bomb, or Falcon did his magic again XD as we landed safely – and early!

The screen at the seat showing the plane over the sea of Japan, from behind of sorts

After landing immigration and customs were easier than I thought. Then I changed money and got my Suica + N’EX (Narita Express Train) combo. Finding the money exchange was dead easy, and for the trains I just followed the train signs and asked a nice information lady where to find it, with a print out of the internet page XD She pointed, I followed XDD

With a whole six minutes to spare for the 18.48 train, I sank on my N’EX seat Shinjuku bound.

A 1000 yen note, a train ticket and Tokyo transportation card

I was surprised that it was already dark – I’ve gotten used to sunset about 10 pm by now, but soon the neon took over. It is also hot as hell, and humid. As a Spanish, I tend not to trust Germans too much when they say it’s hot but damn she was right XD

Then this happened:

Screen on the train showing that the next station is Tokyo, in different languages

And the only way to describe the feeling is キヤアアアアアアアアア!!! XDD. I safely met D****e in Shinjuku and we came to her apartment after getting some food. My first dinner in the country was yakitori, gyoza and dorayaki. Biased? Me? Ya think? Well, then you are right xD

Tiredness and jet lag fought for a while, though I slept most of the night (which means my usual 5pm – 1am XD) and now I am getting ready to brave the Tokyo public transport system all on my own. Wish me luck!!

2nd July 2012: ここ日本で！ {Japan, summer 2012}

Posted on 3 July 2012 by JBinnacle

=DDDDDD
Paris was a nightmare – freaking French -.-
But made it to Narita and then Tokyo
*happy*

Summer 2012: Japan

Posted on 30 June 2012 by JBinnacle

日本にいきます

My chances of that particle being wrong are high, after all I heard the structure from Yamapi of all people and we know that he is not the sharpest tool in the shed.

Anyway, tomorrow. Yes, tomorrow, あした, and it is technically tomorrow because it’s almost 1am,　I’m heading off for Japan. Proof:

CDG > NRT 2nd July 2012″ width=”550″ height=”480″ class=”aligncenter size-full wp-image-4305″ />

To be completely honest, this is a hello world post, but with a nicer touch.

Spanish version: Me voy a Japón!!

Tickets!

MOON SAGA -義経秘伝-, 16 July 2012

Moon Saga tickets

Theatre play featuring GACKT and script-written by CLAMP. Remember, guys: It’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye. Then it is a CLAMP manga.

VAMPS Live 2012, 17 July 2012

VAMPS tickets