toyko part two

Back to Toyko. I had planned on going to Nagasaki but I had to alter my plans and time constraints interferred. This time around I had hoped I would enjoy Toyko a little more now that I had got used to the bustle. I mean, I reckon my first time in Toyko wasn't so good as I had just arrived from sleepy Mongolia straight into a frantic sprawl.

I returned to the Ryokan and true to form, it took ages to find it. While I was away, there had been heavy snow fall but fortunately most of it had melted. Just some sinister black ice lurking about ready to gobble me up in the darkness. I checked out an Irish boozer but it was pretty dull. After a little conversation with Mr Sake, I had an early night. There were still two things I wanted to see in Toyko the next day. The war shrine and Godzilla.

The Yasukuni-Jinja is a very controversial site. The Koreans and Chinese are beside themselves with rage due to the annual piligrimage of the Japanese PM to the war shrine. Understandable really. It contains 14 executed war criminals as part of a memorial to Japan's 2.4 million war dead. By way of comparison, it is unthinkable that the German Chancellor would drop by the Fuehrer Bunker to pay her respects.

Close by is a museum with some interesting revisionism of WWII and its causes. Regrettably, Japan is showing clear signs of lurching back to the right. The mayor of Toyko is very much right wing. Senior politicians make remarks that can be interpreted as quite offensive by their neighbours. The PM recently said that allowing foreigners into the country to work would lead to an escalation of crime. Foreigners enjoy few rights. Even marrying a Japanese person does not confer citizenship. This insularity will be their undoing.

After these worrying observations, I went off to find Godzilla to solicit his views on Japanese politics. Took some time to find him. I fully expected to find a huge, massive Godzilla stomping about. Breathing fire, battering lumps out of some huge mutant lizard or something. But no, instead I found a pip squeak two foot high statue. I was very disappointed. There was no combat, no roaring, no fire breathing, no smashed buildings or even dodgy film direction.

And that was my time in Japan. An amazing place that definitely deserves to be visited again, and for a longer period. Its political class may share a similar short-sightedness to the policians of the West but the people are endearing and charming. It is simply a pleasure to be at the receiving end of their politeness and warmth.

osaka

Another mad, mad bustling Japanese city. More of an economic powerhouse than a cultural drawcard. Like Toyko, it's a place where senses are bombarded from all directions and it was yet another place I found myself easily lost amid the swirling mass of humans.

My main pursuits, apart from seeking out and wolfing down kobe beef, were climbing to the top of large buildings and peering out over the smoggy city. The Umeda Sky building is 40 floors high with the last seven floors climbed by a see-through escalator. Jittery and not for those who suffer from vertigo. Then off to a carousel wheel that was perched on top of the 7th floor of another building. Kind of puts the London eye in perspective.

My one cultural plan was to find Osaka castle which almost proved beyond me. Despite having a map, I struggled. But I was determined to find it even if it meant I would spend the remainder of my life walking the streets of Osaka cursing to myself and sighing with obvious frustration. It wasn't really worth the fuss. Just another castle after so many castles.

I took a train to get back to the city centre and while sitting on it, I passed the time by looking at the advertising and signage. I notice a sign that said 'ladies only' along with some Japanese. It was pasted to the inside of the carriage. It was a puzzle at first but eventually solved when I noticed that I had strayed onto a carriage solely reserved for women. I was the only bloke among a multitude of office workers, school girls and grannies. That explained the fearful glances cast at me. I was begining to feel like a pervert. But I wasn't wearing a Mac! I had heard that there are problems with blokes groping women in rush hour but I wasn't aware that this had led to outright segregation.

It was late so figured it would be a good time to see the Ebisubashi bridge area so I could pretend to be Harrison Ford hunting down dangerous replicants. The area does indeed resemble the set of Blade Runner. Narrow sidestreets packed with noisy street stalls, people bumping against one another, drenched in dazzling neon lights. All that was missing was the rain, the replicants and a big gun for me to 'retire' them. Oh, the numerous pachinko parlours were a bit of out place too!

It was time for a new form of accommodation. The Capsule Hotel. Cheap and amusing. A series of little rabbit warrens packed on top of one another. A sauna came with the deal. These are mainly 'men only' places and it is quite a sight to see all these middle aged businessmen sauntering around in Yukata's. I was quite happy to join them once I deposited my stuff in the locker and put on my yellow identification bracelet.

This has a bar code which enables the purchase of food, beer, a shower, some jocks, etc. The capsule is 2m long and 1m square with a little TV. I had to climb up to the ceiling of the room to get into my capsule. Nonetheless it was surprisingly comfortable. The next morning I switched on the TV and flicked channels. I happened across the hard core porn channel ! It was 8am!! Would you like some porn with your tea, sir?

I left in such haste, morally confused, that I accidentally stuffed the yakuta in my bag!

hiroshima

Bullet trains are great. You really feel their power if you stand in the aisle when it builds up speed or slows down. For something that travels so fast, it's very smooth and unlike many European trains, they are very roomy. I enjoyed seeing the train conducters come into the carriage and greet all the passengers collectively and then respectfully bow. What service! Service is Japan is of the highest order though. If you dare to put your ideas of Japanese servitude to one side, you will find the experience very uplifting. You cannot help responding in kind by sincerely smiling back.

I felt guilty arriving in Hiroshima. I'm white and my race blew the hell out of the place. Thankfully I'm not American so I could at least console myself that the Irish never tuned their killing skills to such a level. We haven't got the dough in the first instance. I was initially fearful of being thought of as an American though(more than usual). Funny isn't it that the nation most obsessed with prohibiting others from having WMD's should be the only nation to have used them.

I made an error when I dropped my yens into the wrong device on the tram. The driver must have been watching the strange potato picker as he rushed to my aid. He had me sit close by and once knowing where I needed to alight, dropped me off at the right place.

On the way, there was one bilingual announcement which advised that the next stop was the location of the Peace Memorial Park. The voice was that of an American bloke! Why couldn't they use the voice of that sweet Japanese girl who announces the stops on the Toyko urban train network. Everytime she says the word 'for' I was overcome, beside myself in rapture and excited in particular kind of way! Another thing they need to sort out in Hiroshima is the choice of words they use for one of the Hiroshima toursit website address. It is 'gethiroshima.com'. It reminds me of my time at school when we would say 'get so-and-so and give him a good kicking'. Not entirely appropriate for somewhere with such a sad past.

Naturally, my choosen digs was another ryokan. The lady of the house was forever giggling for no particular reason. A very happy woman. Despite me telling her I was from Ireland three hundred times, she never got it and continued to insist I was from Scotland. Could be worse I suppose. It was a nice place although I was a little paranoid as to whether the Inn had a curfew. My laughing host singularly failed to answer my questions on this point.

That night, my objective was to see the A-Bomb dome as with floodlights, the building looks particularly poignant. It was one of the few structures to remain after the bomb dropped as it is concrete and the bomb denotated directly above. 600 metres above to be precise. So the force was downward rather than sideward. Everyone inside was vapourised. The temperature of the fireball was 20,000 celius and on the ground 4,000 celius.

It's hard to imagine the devastation and the horror of that day. 140,000 dead. Burning flesh, unspeakable terror. Everything the eye could see at that time was crushed and burnt. Horrible. The Yanks maintain they did it as the prospect of invading Japan would have been too costly in Americans lives and the Japanese were sure to fight to the death. No, no, no. It was simply to gain the strategic upperhand against there soon-to-be enemy; the USSR. A demonstration of intent. Moreover, the Russians were steadily advancing through China and would have had no hestiation in invading Japan. For this piece of real politic, people die. There is no escaping it, it was a war crime.

There are many memorials around Hiroshima and many stories. It is gut wrenching stuff. What is inspiring though is how a city so utterly destroyed has risen again and with confidence. It is a well organised, clean city. They are rightly proud of the achievement and continue to make strides in improving their city. One such initiative is the beautification programme. Like most places in Japan, there are no rubbish bins but you'll struggle to find so much as a sweet wrapper on the street. But in Hiroshima, they go one step further. The elimination of cigarette butts. From a crude measure by looking at the map, some 4 km square of the central district is a cigarette restriction area. What this means if you want to have a smoke (like I do) then you must inhale beside a public ashtray. Failure to do so results in a hefty fine.

I suppose they have a greater appreciation of their city then most given all that has happened. Hiroshima is an inspiration to human tenacity and the ability of humans to rise again against the odds.

nara

A short hop from Kyoto. Nara was Japan's first permanent capital. Previously, Shinto belief held that when an emperor died, the capital should be moved due to the taint of death. Nara's status as capital didn't last long though, only 75 years. But in that time they managed to create some fantastic pieces of art and architecture. It has 8 world heritage sites.

So I found myself in another Ryokan for my time here. A bit less impressive than the previous ones but it had a balconey which peered over a traditional Japanese garden. I went off exploring and it was easy as it's a relatively small town. All the significant things can be seen in a day. The shrines, etc are pretty much the same in style and character as Kyoto. One shrine, the Daibutsu-den Hall, is the largest wooden structure in the world. Just massive. It was completely rebuilt after a fire and now only represents two-thirds of its original size. Deers roam freely and in numbers, amoung the thousand odd stone lanterns. It was funny to see tourists getting freaked out by them. One particularly stupid one bought biscuits from a stall and happily munched away on them. The Japanese who noticed it were wetting themselves; the biscuits are for feeding the deers! They're imprinted with pictures of deers for heaven sake! Maybe the buffoon was motivated by their cheap cost.

With the sight seeing quickly done, it gave me loads of time to wolf down inordinate amounts of kobe beef. Can't get enough of the stuff. I'd love to visit one of the farms where the raise the cattle. I wonder whether the cows are p*ssed out of their head all day long. Then massages. What a life.

I didn't find any Irish bars in Nara but wandered into a kind of pub solely as they had a Guinness menu board outside. It was a kind of student boozer. I ended up playing chess with some bloke called 'Obi". I could feel the force was strong in him as he beat the sh*t out of me at each game. Later I was talking to the barman who was a young guy dressed in the style of an east coast rapper. To keep the conversation going I asked him whether he liked hip-hop and he said he hated it. His favourite artist is Norah Jones. What!

Nara is a low key place but quite pleasant.

kyoto

I arrived in Kyoto and experienced the usual frustration of trying to find the right exit from the train station. It is a maze of tunnels, escalators, passages and concourses. All I wanted was to get to the south exit. One would think that would be pretty straightforward but not here. But after slogging my bag around for 45 mins, I got to the right exit. The station is a magnificent building though. Modern, marble, massive.

It was snowing but not sticking when I ventured off to find accommodation. I walked to two hostels. Fully booked. I was starting to wonder whether I would have to sleep outside. Then logic prevailed and I started to call places by telephone. I found another Ryokan, right alongside a lovely canal. It was much better situated then the other two hostels so I was quite happy. Add to that a stereotypical elderly Japanese lady who ran the Inn. She was no less than 80 years of age. She could barely walk, had no English but was very endearing all the same. Our shunted conversation was just an endless series of her saying 'hai, hai, hai' to everything I said. I never knew it was possible to insert the word 'Yes' so many times into a ten minute chat. I felt guilty too when she had to climb the stairs to take me to my room. God, she took ages!

I had a gut feeling while walking around that I would like Kyoto. It is the cultural capital of Japan afterall, with no less than 17 sites designated as World Heritage Sites. My intention was to stay no more than 2 days but I ended up staying 4 days. I choose a compass point each day and walked off exploring. Using a crude measure, I reckon I covered some 15 km per day (complete with packed lunch).

It is a very beautiful place. The temples and shrines are amazing in their artistic qualities and workmanship. It is much easier too to get around with some street signs in roman characters or romanji as it's called. Moreover the road systems are based on a grid system and even I can figure that out. I was also getting braver with going into restaurants where there are no English menu's. I either pointed at picture menu's, dragged the waiter outside and pointed at the window display, or siad 'setto' meaning 'set meal' and hoped they wouldn't bring some disgusting fishheads. Having said that, I usually sought out my favourite dish of all time. Kobe beef. It's really expensive but tastes like heaven. These cows are really lucky cows. They are reared on beer and their farmer gives them daily massages! This mothering ensures the texture of the meat is simply divine. I hate to think how much money I spent on Kobe beef but it was worth every yen.

Naturally I toured the Irish pubs in the evening. One night four Japanese played excellent Irish session music. It was just like being at home. I got talking to some old Yank who was telling me how he had lived in Japan for 36 years. He got mightily uptight when I asked him what brought him to Japan. The army? At that he dashed out of the pub. There was almost a vapour trail! Very strange. I reckon he went AWOL during the Vietnam war.

On my final night I couldn"t find my final target Irish pub. Whether it still existed I don't know but I called off my quest and decided to head back to the Inn. I walked along the river, a quite part of town and was kind of day dreaming when a taxi pulled up ahead of me, opposite a little restaurant. Two Geisha's (got out of the taxi and my jaw dropped at the sight. Amazing, just like porcelain dolls, immaculate, graceful, delicate. Given that there are only 100 or so genuine Geisha's left in Japan (80 of which are siad to work in Kyoto) I felt very priviledged to have got a glimpse of them. And this came about because I couldn't find a pub!