takayama

i went to takayama in gifu prefecture, which is north-east from Osaka during silver week.

silver week only occurs once every several years. it occurred this year due to an interesting law that japan has – that if a work day is sandwiched between 2 public holidays, that day will become a national holiday too. so last week, we had 3 consecutive public holidays that came after a weekend, so yay long 5 day break!

however, thanks to the long holiday, our 5hr highway bus ride took 8 hours instead. the jams along the expressways were disgusting! and it occurred both going there AND back. it was plain awful. that’s because highways all receive a 1000yen discount (which is almost half-price) off the tolls on public holidays – yet none of the several japanese people whom i’d told of my plans to go to takyama warned me about the jam. gahh.

we also found our accommodation was also rather lacking. the walls werent merely paper-thin – they were, in fact, only just paper. gahhhh.

takayama, however, is a rather pretty place, rather similar in the way that many traditional japanese places are rather pretty too.

you find these rickshaws all over japan, and they’re very common in tourist spots. however, i’ve never been solicited before, except for the one time when i was with a japanese person. i wonder why this is the case..

there was a rather charming shop:

with a cute sign board:

so was their “we are open” sign:

the inside was a bit random though, with startrek and china together:

there was also this amusing souvenir:

and i really wonder if there’s more implied by their tagline:

from where we stayed to the more central part of takayama (it’s a really small town actually), we would pass by this pretty street corner:

the red bridge that has both pedestrians and cars:

this scene looks like just like any other place in japan:

and here’s what a branch of the post office looks like in takayama. the words “支店”mean branch office, and i was extremely amused when i saw it:

there are a few rivers that cut through takayama, but this was the one which had the most interesting stuff i think. i kinda liked the view of this:

i dont know why, but i found the 3 deck chairs that stood facing the river, all arranged at exactly the same angle, rather fascinating:

and it must have been a good morning for me, because the crates, stacked up like that, seemed pretty too:

along the river was a stone plaque, and for the first time i actually understood all of what was written on it. it says, “beautiful hometown/in spring summer autumn winter”:

other pretty sights along the river:

takayama also has quite a few interesting statues:

the latter two statues are meant to be some guardians of some sort i think. not sure though :P

walking along the street, i saw a bird’s nest!

the river walk was a beautiful one, because some people had ventured right down to the banks:

there were duckies in the water too, and one boy was hopping from rock to rock, and was really good at it too! never once did he lose his balance or falter:

the sky was gorgeous that day as well:

wednesdays are rubbish

it’s only my 3rd wednesday having to go to my other school, and already i’m starting to really hate the mornings.

firstly, i have to get up earlier than usual cos this school is much further away.

then, i have to make my way to the osaka loop line, which is always PACKED in the mornings. it’s really gross, cos you have to squeeze with other people early in the morning, and never fails to make me start the morning stressed.

as if that isnt enough, i also have to change trains at one of the major stations, so the platforms are full of people too.

and at the station where i get off, there’s only one staircase leading to the exit, which means there’s a bottleneck and it takes forever to get from platform to ticket gates.

after that, i go to school, where i’m the only ALT there and no one talks to me. that’s still ok, except that i also often end up being a human tape recorder in class, which makes for a very inspiring day indeed.

urgh.

japan uses floppy disks!

a few days before i saw this in a store, my JTE handed us a floppy disk requesting that we help to edit a document she had saved on it.. havent touched a floppy myself in, what, 10 years?

and when we went down to the computer section in the main staff room, we discovered that all the dell desktops came with a floppy disk slot!

bunkasai (school culture festival)

those who watch high school anime will know that there’s this thing called culture festival in japanese high schools, which forms the highlight of their school life. basically, it’s like a carnival day where students put up performances and  have interclass singing/dancing/etc competitions. there will also be food stalls, and the first years and second years will have class displays, such as games, haunted house and so on.

students usually put in a lot of effort into their bunkasai, although there didnt seem to be as much atmosphere this year as there was last year.

check out the pictures here on my facebook profile.

fugu! (puffer fish)

so, yesterday W.Y. and his singaporean friends were in town, and we were looking for somewhere to eat. they havent yet tried izakaya food so i was intending to bring them to one of the many izakaya in namba, but somewhere along the way someone mentioned that the one thing they havent yet tried in japan but want to is fugu.

my first reaction was that i dont want to die eating fugu. frankly, i’d never intended to eat fugu while i’m in japan.. japan has lots of stuff and i’ve tried quite a few – like horse sashimi* – but there are things that i could do without – like whale milt (ie seminal fluid – gross), for example.

plus, for every person who tells you that fugu is perfectly safe to consume, there’ll be some article that informs you of the risks involved. people talk about feeling a tingling or numbing sensation as you eat the fish, which is a result of the remaining poison on the flesh.

however, we looked down one side street and saw an outlet belonging to this fugu chain, and decided to just go take a look:

we stood outside for the longest time, looking at the menu and trying to decide if we should eat fugu or not. and the more i stood there and the more they kept talking about “just try(ing) it once”, the more appealing the idea seemed till we finally went in.

took ages still to make a decision, until one of the staff informed us that due to their anniversary celebration, they’re offering a fugu special – an entire fish for 7980yen, rather than the usual 20000yen. they’ll also throw in other stuff for the fugu steamboat, like vegetables, salad, fried fugu AND a free picture for each of us.

of course, we’d initially thought that the 7980yen on the menu was the cost for 1 person, but upon learning that it was for the entire group, our decision was very quickly made.

so here’s the fish that they were going to serve us:

 

it was very much alive when they brought it out for us to pose and take a picture with, and to be honest it was quite amazing to see it up close. i’d always thought that puffer fish referred to those small fish that had spikes, but i suppose they’re 2 different species of puffer fish? i did feel a wee bit guilty that the fish was going to be my dinner, but quickly got over that.

dont have many pictures of the rest of our dinner, but the restaurant had a very cute table mat, seen here with the salmon salad.

our fish then appeared in this form:

some pieces were removed to make fugu karaage – fried fugu. the rest above were for the hotpot, and to be honest i dont think it wasnt that great at all. fugu is somewhat rubbery, and the meat doesnt really have much taste. plus, the thing about japanese hotpot – at least for some of them – is that the stock isnt as tasty as those you get back home. so the fish didnt gain much more flavour during the cooking process, and neither was the dipping sauce quite to our tastes – it was some slighly tangy, soysaucy concoction.

the fried fugu was the best part, while the most odd one was probably some part of the fish that was a bit like cartilage, but not quite so. it was to be dipped into ponzu sauce, and was chewy too. we didnt experience any numbing sensation either, so i’d have to say that our fugu experience was rather uneventful. but better that way, i suppose?

*: horse sashimi is eaten with a raw egg mixed in, and is actually a little sweet and quite nice. i wouldnt be able to finish an entire serving on my own, but one friend likes it very much, so i steal a bit from him every time he orders it. heh.

differences (and similarities?)

i was out today with W.Y. who’s in nagano and his 2 singaporean friends who’re here on holiday, and for the first time in a long while i was out with a bunch of people for dinner on a weekend and there was no alcohol involved at any point in time.

i do like my alcohol, but i dont drink when no one else is drinking. and of course, since i enjoy it quite a bit, if someone’s having a drink i’ll have one too. but it just occurred to me that drinking has become so standard that the reflex is to sit down, order a drink, and then order food.

perhaps japan, and hanging out with caucasians, has trained me well.

after dinner – which i will blog about another time – we sat down and chatted over coffee and cake, and one of the guys said something which made me realise that hey, this is what i used to do all the time back home. we used to socialise over food and drink, rather than socialise over alcohol. it just didnt register quite so clearly that singaporeans hang out over coffee and stuff, cos i’ve gotten so used to chatting with people over alcohol after a year here.

and it’s nice too. there’s something different about hanging out when you’re sober.. you get none of the cheeriness that comes as an influence of alcohol which affects your attitude and behaviour, and conversations arent quite as loud. in a way it’s more calm, relaxed.

it might also be because it’s singaporeans whom i was hanging out with. somehow things are different. not quite as stressful, and the conversation just flows, and there was never a point when i was bored or feeling like there’s a cultural reference that i’m not quite getting or having the sense that i’m not quite ‘in’ the conversation.

and writing that, it occurred to me that i never really had as much trouble talking to guys back home as i do here. it’s not quite ‘trouble’ per se, but it seems like here, unless you’re a lot like them or have the same interests – mainly games, computers, movies (perhaps tv shows too) and women – there isnt much you can do to get into a conversation among guys. whereas i never felt this way back home.. men seemed to just talk crap about random stuff which i could contribute to and enjoy, and oh. it makes me feel like i’m missing out on the comfort and familiarity with which conversations occurred. no stress whatsoever, nor boredom.

people are always saying that singaporeans dont know how to have fun and all that, but thinking about it, i’m not sure i’m having more fun per se now either. it’s definitely a different kind of fun; senses are heightened in some ways due to the alcohol (and dulled in other ways too, of course), and there’s this enhanced sense of gaiety that perhaps leads one to think that they’re having more fun. but there’s something simple, direct and real about the interactions that i had today, and probably the interactions that i used to have when i was still in singapore too. and that’s extremely enjoyable too. it feels meaningful – probably because among singaporeans, we sit down and we talk about stuff, while among caucasians you socialise, flitting from person to person and mingling with most of the  people present.

i dunno.. i cant imagine living in singapore forever from the time at which my JET contract ends, but living somewhere else would mean more of those interactions that are interesting but sometimes somehow not quite fulfilling in some ways.. which makes things difficult!

i really am looking forward to going home in december… will probably view things with new eyes and have lots to reflect upon!

supersize me

i’m watching this show now, and oh my. america is so scary.

a french woman was interviewed in the movie, and she said that mcdonald’s small in america is the large in france. and they showed the sizes of the packets of fries in the US, and it’s insane. HUGE!

the amount of mcdonalds that some americans eat, as well as the enormous quantities of soft drinks that they consume is extremely freaky as well. i dont understand how anyone can eat or drink anywhere near those amounts.

i still have about 1/4 of the show to go, but it’s amazing. if you havent already watched this show you certainly should!

shiok

i was complimented on my hair again today! we were at this okinawan restaurant – i really really love okinawan food – and the shop assistant came up to us and exclaimed, “wow your hair is really very nice! what do you do to get it so nice?”

:D

no one ever compliments me on my hair in singapore! maybe it’s cos so many pple here have dyed hair and curl their hair too, so straight, dark brown hair is rare..

stuff like these still do happen

i was at an enkai the other day, and it turns out that my ex-school used to have a student who was the youngest of 11 children. and there were so many children that the 13 year old girl’s eldest sister was already in her early 40s!

that’s really crazy, to have a 30year age gap between the oldest and youngest child!

fushimi inari taisha

is somewhere i’ve been meaning to visit for the longest time, and i finally went there last weekend! if you’ve watched memoirs of a geisha, it’s the place with all the red tori gates that zhang ziyi (yuck) ran through in the movie. it’s a gorgeous place, and i’ll definitely recommend it to anyone who’s in kyoto.

the main shrine itself is rather normal, and you can see me on the right. haha.

the guardian spirit here seems to be the fox – there were many of them flanking shrines and main entrances.

looking out through the main entrance:

the sky was beautiful that day..

the many many tori gates began from here:

 

it might be a bit disappointing to see that some of the gates arent as brightly painted as the others, but still the sheer number of them there was somewhat awe-inspiring. it’s in a fairly quiet part of town too, so it was peaceful there. i like kyoto a lot when it’s not crowded and full of tourists.

 

if you’re wondering what these gates are for, they’re actually sponsored by companies and perhaps individuals.

 

so one side of the gate has the name of the contributor, and the other side has the date and year. i’m not sure why companies do this, but this occurs in many other shrines too. they dont always contribute tori gates though – there’s one famous shrine in nara where they contribute to erecting stone lanterns.

so the duller gates are those that have been there for a longer time. and i guess they’re there for a certain span of time only, cos there’s this:

empty spaces where tori gates once stood!

the first section wasnt the most impressive. things got really nice when we came to this junction:

there were some children running down through the gates, and they were so cute. it was really nice too, seeing them grow in size

looking back when we emerged:

we came out from that into some sub-shrines. this i think was the next biggest and spacious area. there were many cute fox-shaped wooden tablets on which people are to write their wishes and prayers:

this one was particularly impressive:

there were also some smaller shrines where many small tori gates were stacked. i think these gates are offerings to the deceased.. i suspect they’re ‘private’ shrines cos there were many more of these further on, and we saw quite a few families making offerings:

and you know, there were so so SO many tori gates at this place:

see the two ovals at the lower right corner, that was where we were, and we had the entire mountain left to climb and make a round trip back down!

saw some japanese ladies taking cutesy pics, and we thought to give it a try:

it was amazing, looking down at the rows of tightly placed gates:

the further up we got, the more peaceful it became.. i really liked it

there was also a motorcycle, though we’re not sure how it got there cos we’d passed steps along the way:

 

most of the companies leave their name in kanji form, and it looks pretty when made large and painted on the gates. however, we spotted a gate that spoilt everything with its big, bold katana font:

 

 

after this restful place, was section after section of gates, with a rest-stop marking the end of a section and the beginning of another one. by then, i’d thought that we’ve reached the end, but no…. there was more to go! the final ascent, in fact.

was so tired that i had to take a rest. the rest stop sold really old-school drinks:

at 200yen each, they werent cheap at all. the view of kyoto was beautiful though:

after this rest began the steep ascent. there were two ways up the mountain, and somehow i just veered off to the right, so rightwards we went:

so steep!! and drinks cost more the further up we were:

that’s a full 100yen more than elsewhere! but it’s understandable, cos i cant imagine how anyone transports all those drinks up the steep, stepped slope.

i was too tired to take any pictures when i reached the summit, but on the way down we realised that we were really lucky, because the way down was windy AND steeper too:

now, imagine if we were climbing UP this way.. it would have been awful. while climbing down i felt that there should have been a sign at the rest stop warning people that going left would mean a very steep and long climb.

i thought this was very cute:

and there was a taoist shrine too, the first i’ve seen in japan so far:

so yeah…fushimi inari taisha is a really nice place and a must see. just dont take the JR back if you can, as it’s very expensive! in general, you should never take JR unless you have no choice.. the keihan was way way cheaper!