SteamSHIFT

With the wedding fast approaching, we needed to get over to Kushiro (where Mayu’s parents live) on the north island of Japan, Hokkaido. Mum and Howard had left first thing on the day before, taking the train in order to see more the Japanese countryside. For me, with the limited time I was in Japan, and being the city dweller I am, I preferred to spend more time in Tokyo. That combined the mammoth flight over, did not make me much inclined to spend 12 hours on 4 different trains (albeit split over 2 days, and in the luxury of the Shinkansen - bullet trains). By all accounts theirs was a really interesting journey, through enormous amounts of snow, that really did show what Japan is like outside of the cities.

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Sadly, although we visited the famous Harajuku district on a Sunday, usually the day of choice for the Harajuku girls (and boys) to show off their fashion, we either didn’t go to the right spot exactly or perhaps, being New Year’s Day, they were not out in force.

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On the agenda today was a visit to the Imperial Palace - the residence of Japan’s Emperor Akihito, on this his official birthday, and, as far as I understand, one of only two days per year that he greets his nation in person.

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I hit the sack early on New Year’s eve so I didn’t get the opportunity to see what seeing in the New Year looks like in Tokyo. According to some Australians we met on the tube, Rippongi is the place to be; jet lag and a long journey to get there put pay to any possibility of that.

I didn’t sleep particularly well - the bed was just too hard for me; this may be a good thing though - getting me used to it ready to sleep on a futon in the Ryokan we are staying in in Akan in a few days.

At about 10am, New Years Day, I attempted to meet up with Owen and Sarah. I say attempted because, due to the size of most of the main stations, there are so many exits to choose from and it’s therefore really easy to miss each other. Anyhow, eventually we did find each other - partly to do with me doing laps of the station and partly due to them having finally actually turned up! First stop then, Akihabara - Electric Town.

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We landed at Narita airport Tokyo on the 31st January 2005, in the morning, after a long but not bearable flight. I had been well fed, been offered drinks almost continuously and had managed to do a little work as well as taking in 3 movies; short reviews : Dukes of Hazzard - Enjoyable Rubbish; Boy and Elephant story in Japanese (can’t remember title) - very good, quite sad; Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - great but suffered badly from the screen size (and being edited for small screen).

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