Peter's Japan blog

Changed bit of my schedule today. I will not be going to Koyasan today, but I will do that tomorrow, that also means that I will not be doing an overnight sleep in a Buddhist temple. I decided to fit in a resting day (and it's Sunday anyway and the 7th full day) as I need it.
I did do something today, as I went to see some more stuff in Kyoto itself (there is a lot to see in Kyoto just like Tokyo but more old stuff). Came by the smaller Honganji temple (of the 2 Honganji temples) and by accident also came by the Nishiki Market (which I wanted to visit anyway). It's a long street with a roof with all shops lined up on each side.
So I went on to visit Nijo castle, an old castle built for the shogun but never used by him (I think). It's quite intact and has a nice garden. Near the end of my visit, I started to panic a little as my camera suddenly didn't start up anymore. As I had not noticed the battery being very low, which is usually indicated by the “change battery pack” message when turning it on again, which it didn't, I was quite a bit worried. My Canon EOS is like 8 months old. So I hurried back to the hotel hoping it was the battery that was dead, and indeed, it was just the battery (phew). This reminds me that I have to buy a spare battery in Akihabara later.
I took the rest of the day off and only in the evening when it got dark, I went to have some fun with my camera and took some pictures at night around Kyoto Station.

Finally slept through the whole night, and woke up from my alarm clock. Was quickly up and going and took a train a little earlier again than my schedule and arrived at Takayama at 11h, after a journey of about 3 hours. First with the Shinkansen to Nagoya and then with a diesel train Hina to Takayama. I must say that the journey itself was very pleasant too as the second half of the train ride is through a deep valley with a nice river flowing at the bottom, and the train goes through several short tunnels and bridges over the river. The valley is surrounded by some beautiful mountains with lots of trees.

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Today was to Kanazawa, a train ride of little over 2 hours. As I woke up too early again, took a train earlier to Kanazawa. So I arrived there by 11h. The station has got this beautiful (to me) modern version of a Japanese gate which also reminds a very little bit of a Torii as well. You have to see it to know what I mean as it's not easy to describe.

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Here's my list of all the things I bought on my Japan trip this year. The diary posts will come online slowly over the next days, but I'm posting this one now.

Ayumi Hamasaki:
Arena Tour 2009 Black T-Shirt (not for me)
Arena Tour 2009 White T-Shirt
Arena Tour 2009 Light fan
Arena Tour 2009 Phone strap
Arena Tour 2009 Phone strap (not for me)
Arena Tour 2009 Muffler
Arena Tour 2009 Sports towel
Arena Tour 2009 Shopping bag
Premium Countdown Live 2008-2009 DVD
SURREAL Single (from Book-off)
Boys&Girls (from Book-off)
A Ballads (from Book-off)

Perfume:
Disco!Disco!Disco! concert T-Shirt
Disco!Disco!Disco! concert clear file & sticker set
Disco!Disco!Disco! concert Shopping bag
BUDOUKaaaaaaaaaaN!!!!! concert DVD
Perfume ~Complete Best~ album

Other CDs:
K-ON! ED Single - Don't say "lazy"
Mizuki Nana - Trickster (single)
capsule - More!More!More! (album)

Magazines:
Comptiq Heroines Vol. 1
Comptiq Heroines Vol. 2
Comptiq Heroines Vol. 4
Comptiq Heroines Vol. 6
Comptiq Heroines Vol. 7
Pick-up Voice vol. 18
Macross Frontier Official Fan Book
Megami Magazine Vol 109 (06/2009)
Cawaii magazine May 2009
Japan Railfan Magazine (06/2009)
Dengeki Daioh (06/2009)

Manga:
Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu Vol. 6
Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu Vol. 7
Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu Vol. 8
Suzumiya Haruhi-chan no Yuuutsu Vol. 1
Suzumiya Haruhi-chan no Yuuutsu Vol. 2
K-ON! Vol. 1

Other:
Totoro plushie
Cafe with Cat mug
Lucky Star 1/64 Itasha Miniature Car
Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu Beach Side Collection figure (Asahina Mikuru/blue)

There may be some more smaller stuff and some for other people that I haven't mentioned though.

It's a little early post, cause I haven't posted the previous days yet of my Japan trip, but I couldn't wait with this, so here's my review of the latest Perfume concert at Yoyogi National Gymnasium. I don't remember the complete playlist though. The concert was held on May 9th and 10th, and me and Matt went to the final concert on the 10th. We arrived at the venue at around 15h30 and the doors opened at 16h and the concert started at 17h. I was first gonna get some merchandising, so I got in line there. But just before I got to get my stuff, they shouted that the face towel was sold out, so I was just a little too late. But I still bought the t-shirt, clear file with stickers and the shopping bag. After that we went to get some drinks from the vending machine before we started to queue to enter the arena.
I had paid 19k yen for a B3-block arena seat (seat 79 and 80), so I expected it to be good seats, and they were! B3-block was on the right next to the round thing of the stage in the middle. We had the farthest seats from the round thing, but that were just about 10 seats, so we were still at like 10 meters at most from the the round thing. While waiting for everybody to come in, the new CM for Pino with the new song Night Flight was played a few times on the side screens. Right above the round thing there was hanging a huge ball (a metal frame, so you can see through it), with lots of disco balls of various sizes hanging in it. The whole frame was turning and spots were pointed at it. We could not see how the stage itself at the back was looking like as there were bright lights above it shining into the crowd.
There was a VIP section on the same side as our block, but it was on the first floor on the side. It's where the side stage was at Ayumi's Premium Countdown Live. Didn't see much people that I recognized though (I know quite a few faces from Japanese television, but didn't see anybody in particular). BUT... like 5 minutes before the concert started, Yasutaka Nakata and Toshiko entered the VIP-section to sit down, and the whole crowd spontaneously started to applaud for them! Yasutaka had his signature sun glasses on of course ;p. We could see them quite good.

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Arrived in Kyoto station at 11h and thus was at my hotel (Station Hotel Seiki) by 11h10 as it is very close to Kyoto station. When I arrived there, I was surprised to find that my room was already ready and I could check in immediately. I had read some mixed reviews of the rooms of this hotel, but mine was okay. The walls were indeed quite shabby and worn off, but the floor and bathroom were clean and there were no smells at all (as I had read about smells in the bad reviews). It was good enough for me, but sadly no free wireless internet and the internet in the lobby was not free & quite limited.

So I dropped my luggage in my room and went off to visit some stuff in Kyoto. First up was the Nanzenji shrine. I was surprised to find a Roman-type of aquaduct there (or even in Japan for that matter). After this shrine I started my way along the Path of Philosophy which starts very nearby Nanzenji. It's a quiet walk along a little river, which has cherry trees besides it. But since the cherry blossom season had just ended, they looked just like normal trees. Along the path are a few small temples and shrines though. At the end of the Path of Philosophy, there is also the Ginkakuji, the Silver Pavillion (but it's not actually covered in silver, as opposed to the Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavillion, which IS actually covered in gold). But since they were renovating it and entry wasn't free, I didn't go in as I don't really like taking pictures of old buildings that are surrounded with scaffolding. I think I read it's supposed to be done next year, so I'll go see it next year.
By this time, my feet were killing me again and I went back to the hotel. Since I had done everything that was on my schedule for today, it was okay to end here.
Found some nice pastry shop at Kyoto station called Sizuya, it's very good for breakfast.

Little bit of a bad day today. As my feet hurt and scrapped Nagano from todays list and just went to Kawagoe. But that didn't really work out either as I somehow took a wrong turn and missed the main attractions. Did see a few smaller temples though. But my feet were killing me so went back to the station, had lunch and return to Tokyo. Went back to my hotel and took an afternoon nap, before heading back to Akihabara for some shopping. Did some shops I didn't go to yet on Monday. Still haven't done the whole tour again yet, but I'll do that with Matt on my last full day (May 12th).
My sleeping pattern seems to be stabilizing though, apart from the afternoon nap; but now I'm getting tired at the right time in the evening to go to sleep and wake up less and less tired in the morning. I really need 2-3 days every time to adjust. Would probably have been better if I hadn't planned Hakone on my second day as it's quite a big tour to do, but Hakone was quite worth it.

Had a very irregular sleep last night and was awake at 4h. So went out early and had something to eat at 7h. Some gyuudon at sukiya (Takanamentai mayo to be exact, it's gyuudon with some mayonaise on it). Thus I arrived an hour earlier at Shinjuku to get on the Odakyu line to Hakone. It was a rather local train so it took about 2 hours to get to Hakone-Yumoto, where there was a transfer to the Hakone Tozan line. This is quite an amazing train experience. This is slow train but goes all the way up the mountain, changing directions 2 times. So first we're going forward, then backwards and then forward again. Many small tunnels, very short turns and a few bridges with a wonderful view. After 40 minutes we arrive at Gora station where there is a transfer to a Hakone Tozan Cable car, this is a funicular type train. It is a track along a steep hill and is towed by a cable between the rails. It has two cables for two trains, one for going up and one for going down on the same track. In the middle of the track there is a section where the 2 trains can cross. (See the wikipedia entry link for an example, or from my pictures coming later on). I must it was a very smooth ride. After arriving at Sounzan, you have to get onto your next means of transportation being the Hakone Ropeway to get over the mountain to Lake Ashi.
The ropeway has quite stunning views of the area as you go quite high. In the middle there is a transfer at the top of the mountain at Owakudani. Owakudani has an interesting side trip there, where there is an area of geothermal activity with sulfur fumes and hot springs. There is a local tradition of boiling eggs in the hot springs. As a result the eggs look black on the outside. Didn't eat any though, as I'm not really a boiled-egg-eater. There at the gift shop I saw that you really have a Hello Kitty version of just about everything. It was Hello Kitty dressed as a black boiled egg, can you imagine? ;p (don't remember if I took a pic, need to check). Then it was back down by the second ropeway to the lake. There we got on one of the fancy boats that moves you across the lake. These ships are very nice and well done mockups of the old Dutch trade ships from the 17th century (see photos for a better description). As it was a little cloudy, I didn't get to see mount Fuji from closeby...
Got off at the other side of the lake where the next part is on foot on some of the old Tokaido roads. At the end I took a sidetrip on foot to the torii that stands at the waterfront (and the adjacent shrine). Walked back and took the last means of transportation, the bus, back to Hakone-Yumoto. From there took the train back to Tokyo. Hakone is surely a recommended trip and can be done in a day (as opposed to what other guides say). Just don't wander like 2 hours at each stop. Just hope that the weather was a little bit better than mine was. For me it was a little bit too clouded and a little chilly. Well, this was a heavy first day in Japan. I recommend not doing this on your first full day when you're still recuperating from the long flight.

You may have noticed the large lack of posts since the first day. The first three days I was staying in Tokyo, and from the fourth day I was in Kyoto for 7 days. And as the posts for day 2 & 3 were not ready yet by the time I left Tokyo, and I did not have a decent internet connection in my hotel in Kyoto, I was quite unable to give you any update on my trip. But now I'm back in Tokyo and my connection is perfect now and you should see new posts coming in slowly. I have been keeping writing my posts while I was in Kyoto though, so there might be 1-3 posts per update. Don't know yet if I'll be able to post pictures (maybe a few on facebook).