Shizuoka

From July 23 to August 11, I was passing time in a city called Shizuoka. At first glance there doesn't seem to be much to the city. Compared to place like Tokyo or Kyoto, it doesn't have much in terms of major tourist appeal. However, when I was making my flight reservations at Nippon Travel (travel agency), I was fortunate enough to begin a conversation with a native Shizuokaite (proper term? probably not) who informed me of all the city and the surrounding area had to offer. She even went as far as to create a portfolio for me including maps and personal comments about each place. That coupled with me knowing people in Shizuoka, compelled me to stay there longer than originally planned. Here are some photos.

I am unbelivably thankful to my friend Mayumi who, for the duration of my stay in Shizuoka, put up with my garbage, took me around everywhere, and let me stay at her place free of charge (as far as I know). Just to let everyone know, she's got first dibs on my spare kidney if she ever needs it! (first photo: fun with long shutters and nightime highways. photo taken by Mayumi)














Eyhhhhhhhhh! (fonz style) Sketchy photo I know, but I feel that it adequately represents my state of mind during my stay in Shizuoka.


















Shrine in Shizuoka (i'll find the name of it later). At first, I thought we only had to climb these stairs in order to see the shine. At the top however, we were informed by an old man (who kicked our asses and got to it way faster) that it would take another15-20minutes of hiking.














The women here can do everything in heels! Example: Mayumi and a 20 minute mountain climb.
-Standard 'Tarantino foot fetish' shot.














The shrine














Shizuoka from the top of the mountain














Nihon-daira hanabi taikai. We could actually see the fireworks shooting from the ground 400m away. super rad. It even made the one in Hiroshima look lame.














Kunozan Toshogu















kool kids at Nihon Daira. mayumi and myself














Inconspicuous tourists














Fireworks next to the ocean














Miho-no-matsubara. 650year old tree














Shizu at Dusk














Shizuoka is famous for its tea. Fields and fields of it are seen everywhere in and around the city. Example: here. Taken from the SL (and oldschool train)














le train et moi














suspension bridge at the end of the line














leaf in the river underneath the bridge














stylin' in Yui (a neighborhood in Shizuoka known for its old houses). I found those beautes as I was walking around downtown. They were 10$ so I just couldn't say no. Plus Mayumi said they'd make me look like an asshole (or at least something along those lines) so that sealed the deal.


















Well ventilated outhouse on the side of the road.















We climbed up some iffy metal staircase on the side of the hill (bugs spiderwebs crazy attacking birds and all!) and ended up on this road and with this view.














One of the old houses in Yui


















Cool looking house in Yui














Rented a car and went tripping. This here is about a couple hours out from the train station. Gorgeous place. Mayumi, what was the name again??


















falls and one of the many fish swimming upstream














Sweet hair at the falls


















Bamboo














Hey look what's that? Hey, I think its the OCEAN!














Our badass ride.


















X-treme outside the moving car shot














cool bridge














respect your hunchbacked elders!

Aug. 15: Yasukuni Jinja

Going to make a Shizuoka post soon, but it will take some time since I did spend about 3 weeks there and as such have many things to write about and many pictures to post

But for now I'm going to post my Yasukuni Shrine pictures which I took today. I must say, it was quite the powerful experience. Times like these i really wish I knew more Japanese. The things I did pick up were only good enough to make me want to know more.

Its pretty difficult to explain the significance of today due to my time restrictions, but please if you don't know about the controversy surrounding the shrine, or the prime-minister of Japan visiting it, please read about it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasukuni_shrine .














Media helicopters swarming overhead at 7:45am (there had to be at least 3 or 4 others outside of this shot)














Side entrance of the shrine where Junichiro and his black toyota posse left from



















Gentle looking security














Koizumi leaving















Yasukuni Shrine


















People who I believe either are or related to war veterans














Yakuza looking type (notice the guy holding the umbrella for him). There were alot of these kinds of people around. I'm not totally sure if they were yakuza though...I didn't think to ask.


















A conservative type perhaps??






































Old man walking back and forth in the crosswalk in front of the shrine entrance screaming slogans at the top of his lungs which I unfortunately couldn't understand. For or against the visit? I'm not sure.


















Rock n' roll.


















anyone know who this is? everyone around me was taking her picture, and I later saw her on tv, but i don't actually know her or her significance. (*update* this here is the grand daughter of Tojo Hideki the Prime Minister of Japan as well as a general during the Second World War. Props to Mina and her family for helping me out with this!)














protesting the official visit


















shield wielding riot police. the front guy was staring me down for the longest time. I was quite the intimidated.

Kyoto

Went to Kyoto (6th 7th of august) to meet with my friend Yukiko and to become the ultimate tourist. Because of all the shines temples, beautiful architechture and goods it is really hard not to. From all the cities I've been to in Japan, Kyoto definitely had the largest foreigner count. From what I saw, I would put it in the same category as summertime Banff.

Kyoto is without question the most interesting city (in terms of old mixing with new) that I've ever been to. You can be walking along what appears to be your standard consumerist street complete with shops restaurants and malls and then all of a sudden, for no apparent reason, come accross a giant shrine or some other traditional Japanese building/monument. I definitely spent to little time in that city, and will need to go back again sometime and explore further. While I was there I checked out the Heian Jingu shrine and the Ryuanji temple with Yukiko. I stayed at her family's place and (once again) was very warmly welcomed. So many people here in Japan that I'm endebted to...gosh! what the flip?














Heian Jingu shrine


















Garden of Heian jingu shrine














same


















"














Ryuanji temple














The most beautiful mall I have ever seen.
-At Kyoto train station.


















fun with mirrors flashes and timers














mall


















sunset through mall window

Treated way to well in Nagoya

what the flip!??! You go to sleep with the computer on and your blog entry in the works and then you wake up in the morning, the computer is in hibernation mode and your writing has dissappeared? what's the deal with that?

anyway, here's what I thought would be a breif sum up (it is brief in terms of recounting of events, but still long in writing) of my two day trip to Nagoya which took place on the 29th and 30th of July.

arrived at the train station at around one and met with my friend Mariko and her dad, Mr. Ishida. From the station we hopped in their car and drove two hors north of Nagoya to a traditional style village called shirakawa-go.

the trip was a very welcome surprise for me for two major reasons. First, it gave me a chance to chat with a friend who I hadn't seen in over a year and second it gave me a chance to have half-assed bilingual conversations with Mr. Ishida who is probably as enthusiatic about learning english as I am with Japanese. Since our ability to express ideas and opinions in eachother's languages is sketchy at best we relied alot on Mariko to act as our interpreting/translating middle person. That too was quite fun to see.

On the trip, I also unintentionally recieved a lesson on how Japan's toll gate system works. Apparently, there is a pre-paid card which one inserts inside his or her car which sends a signal to keep the gate open. Unfortunately, Mr. Ishida forgot to do this. This resulted in the gates dropping a few metres in front of us and us blowing right through them like one would do if they were trying blast through a police blockade. I felt like such a bad ass in that modest Toyota sedan. The toll booth people seemed pretty apathetic about the whole incident and looked as if they wouldn't have really cared if we had kept on driving. We didn't though, so once everything was sorted out, we continued on our way.

Shirakawa-go was a beautiful place definitely check it out if your ever in Gifu prefecture. Along with the houses and yards village being like nothing i've ever seen before , the surrounding landscape was absolutely stunning. In terms of natural beauty, the area between Nagoya and the village is defintely one of my most favorite.

The entire time spend with Mariko and her dad, I was treated excessively well. From the pricey gas (about 1.49$/L) required for the trip my admission, my lunch etc: all of it was paid for. Way too nice. And then as we were driving back to the city, Mariko started searching for an adequate accommodation for me to stay in (They live an hour from Nagoya, so it was decided that it would be best if I stayed in a hotel near the train station). Flipping though her traveler's guide book of Nagoya, she started talking with her dad. At first I thought they were simply discussing places which would be good around the station, but then they started talking really fast in Japanese to a point where it became basically a different language to me, and before I knew it a room was booked and paid for in my name. Despite my pleas to pay for it, Mr. Ishida would hear nothing of it. All he said was that he already paid too many taxes and that "[he] wanted to spend money! [he] NEEDED to spend money" (said while jokingly pounding the steering wheel). While I didn't really understand the logic to the argument (still don't), I finally gave in and was extremely grateful instead. I owe them quite alot. If you're reading this Mariko, for the hundreth time, thanks so much.

Once I parted ways with the Ishidas at the hotel, I went back to the station to meet with my friend Shin. Had some food and drinks and talked for a while. It was alot of fun despite being brief. Unfortunately, I caught him the day after an evening of significant drinking with company so needless to say he was pretty hungover and ready for bed. After I saw him off at the train station, I fell back on my typical routine in Japan and wandered aimlessly. Ended up going to the 52nd floor of the Marriot, having a terribly over priced yet delicious scotch being terribly under-dressed (everone's expensive suits shirts dresses and pants to my jeans and ratty shirt and ball hat) and then calling it a night (hahah no not at the marriot, but still a really nice place).

The next day, I met with Mariko again, went to Nagoya castle, strolled around the city together, then hopped on the shinkansen and went back to Shizuoka where I left all my stuff.














Shirakawa-go right before my battery dies. (you can see half of one of the trad houses on the right hand side)


















Mariko and myself at Nagoya castle


















scale. (mariko at the bottom left)














Top of Nagoya castle (top of middle building is where I had my scotch)

much needed clarification. GenkiJACS= radical

hi all. Still in Shizuoka. Still really enjoying things. Having problems uploading photos at the moment, so I'll try to find another computer as soon as possible. But for now, formalities:

As most of you already know, the purpose of this blog is to keep friends and family informed about my experieces during my two months in Japan and to avoid the insincerity of mass emails. However, in an email which I have just finished reading, it has been brought to my attention that I am in fact using the internet and there exists the potential for those outside my target audience to read my entries. While the idea that people who do no know me would be influenced by (let alone read) my shoddy writing completely boggles my mind, I guess it is possible in theory. Therefore, certain things should be clarified.

In my post about my first day in Fukuoka I talked about being stranded and on my own with no known contacts in the city. While all of that really happened and I don't think I was excessively malicious in the things I said, I forgot to follow up and fully explain the mix up. As it turns out (surprise surprise) my own negligence was to blame for my homelessness. In an email sent to over a month in advance by GenkiJACS, information including the names of my host parents, their contact numbers as well as detailed directions to their house from the airport were attached. However, due to the sketchy nature of my university webmail account and (more importantly) my poor reading abilities, I failed to open that attachment. GenkiJACS was in no way at fault.

I have nothing but good things to say about the teachers, staff and the organization of the school during my stay. When I get the chance I would really like to go back and take more classes. Everyone associated with Genki are major reasons why I'm so fond of Fukuoka. I learned alot, met a bunch of really good people and had fun in the process. My apologies if I left an impression contrary to that. mon mal.

For anyone studying Japanese I would definitely recommend checking them out->
http://www.genkijacs.com/