We tend to ski off piste at Togakushi, some of the runs encircle a bowl that is really good to get into.
This is looking down into the bowl.
This is looking back up towards the main slope.
Sunday, March 04, 2007
Togakushi
Went Skiing up at Togakushi in February. I almost had a mid air collision with a metal post that supported a chair lift. Very lucky I didnt hit it. Heres some of the photos.
We tend to ski off piste at Togakushi, some of the runs encircle a bowl that is really good to get into.
This is looking down into the bowl.
This is looking back up towards the main slope.
We tend to ski off piste at Togakushi, some of the runs encircle a bowl that is really good to get into.
This is looking down into the bowl.
This is looking back up towards the main slope.
English Club
These are the happy members of English Club. I managed to convince them to dump the peace sign in favour of a rock sign!!!
The girl to my right is called Kaori. She's the head of English club. When I first got here I didnt know what to do, so I asked them to do a wordsearch (It was English work!!!) as boring as it sounds. The next day I asked her what she wanted to do. She turned to me and said " I want to... (Check Dictionary - show me answer) Take Over." Cheeky Lady!
The girl to my right is called Kaori. She's the head of English club. When I first got here I didnt know what to do, so I asked them to do a wordsearch (It was English work!!!) as boring as it sounds. The next day I asked her what she wanted to do. She turned to me and said " I want to... (Check Dictionary - show me answer) Take Over." Cheeky Lady!
Besho Onsen
In February I headed up to Besho Onsen, a nearby town which has many Onsens (Hot water baths). The town is known in Nagano for its temples as well. Apparently they're pretty old. Its a good place for a day trip, though what takes 10 minutes in a car, costs 7 quid on the train???
Saturday, March 03, 2007
Hakuba
I spent the next 6 days after Tokyo in Hakuba the main ski area in Nagano. Heres a few photos from going skiing. Ive definately got a lot better since Ive been out here.
For the first 3 days there was no snow, and one of the ski areas was a bit of a nightmare. We went the main ski area that was the center of the Nagano 98 Olympics. It was really icy and it was beginner central. At one point you ski from the top of the mountain and as you get lower it becomes more steeper, and then for some reason the designers had decided to create a choke point about 10 meters across. Straight after that there is a mogul area - small bumps created by skiers turns. There was a dozen crashes down there and it wasn't good to be around.
So after that we decided that it was worth to go to Nagano city and check out Zenkoji temple. The main Buddhist shrine in the prefecture. Its a pretty impressive shrine. There were a dozen people celebrating the New Year. I saw people taking smoke burning from the incense and try to move the smoke onto their head. It was some kind of blessing. I saw people touching the head of a statue of the big Buddha and rub it on there head. Another kind of blessing.
Nagano is a wicked city, they have a club called the Jigger Club. Need I say more???
That night there was a snow storm strong enough that we had to dig the car out. We only had a few hours before the ski hills were shut down and we had to head back. We had to dig the car out again.
For the first 3 days there was no snow, and one of the ski areas was a bit of a nightmare. We went the main ski area that was the center of the Nagano 98 Olympics. It was really icy and it was beginner central. At one point you ski from the top of the mountain and as you get lower it becomes more steeper, and then for some reason the designers had decided to create a choke point about 10 meters across. Straight after that there is a mogul area - small bumps created by skiers turns. There was a dozen crashes down there and it wasn't good to be around.
So after that we decided that it was worth to go to Nagano city and check out Zenkoji temple. The main Buddhist shrine in the prefecture. Its a pretty impressive shrine. There were a dozen people celebrating the New Year. I saw people taking smoke burning from the incense and try to move the smoke onto their head. It was some kind of blessing. I saw people touching the head of a statue of the big Buddha and rub it on there head. Another kind of blessing.
Nagano is a wicked city, they have a club called the Jigger Club. Need I say more???
That night there was a snow storm strong enough that we had to dig the car out. We only had a few hours before the ski hills were shut down and we had to head back. We had to dig the car out again.
New Years Eve
We spent the most of the day in Harajuku, a funky small area of Tokyo. When you ask the Japanese people about it they say its a "young area." Its pretty cool. Whilst I was there I saw a crowd of people taking photos of a man with a horses mask/head on. Its a bit weird. Its a home to several subcultures.
There are the Lolitas
And the costume-play (COSPLAY) Japanese. They look a little like Tranvestites.
And then theres my favourite. The Ganguro girls. I see this most of the time at school. It can a bit of a weird look. And the girls can be a bit up themselves. The Japanese see them as social outcasts.
Harajuku itself isn't like the rest of Tokyo. Its a nice area to hang out.
That night we went to a wicked club called Ageha. It took a while to get there, and was expensive to get in, but was a great place to go. The club had four main rooms. the best was the reggae area that was outside. You weren't allowed to take photos, but I cheekily took a few inside.
There are the Lolitas
And the costume-play (COSPLAY) Japanese. They look a little like Tranvestites.
And then theres my favourite. The Ganguro girls. I see this most of the time at school. It can a bit of a weird look. And the girls can be a bit up themselves. The Japanese see them as social outcasts.
Harajuku itself isn't like the rest of Tokyo. Its a nice area to hang out.
That night we went to a wicked club called Ageha. It took a while to get there, and was expensive to get in, but was a great place to go. The club had four main rooms. the best was the reggae area that was outside. You weren't allowed to take photos, but I cheekily took a few inside.
Monday, January 29, 2007
Day Two
After getting the refund from the previous hostel we headed to a new one I'd found on the web. It cost a fraction of what we already paid for the previous one, for 3 nights it cost 4000 yen, roughly 16 quid, compared to the 16000 yen for the previous hostel. But as you can see from the photos, there was a slight problem with the amount of space. The "hostel" was more like the sleeping cabing on the Krakow to Prague night train. Tatami mats with no real bed, and the people staying there had missing teeth. I had already decided to leave by the time we'd looked around, but I wanted to see the city first.
We decided to head for the imperial castle, which was unfortunatly closed, this being the busiest time of year for tourists, the Japanese had been wise enough to close most tourist attractions. So we headed for the only attraction left, the war memorial, Yasakuni Shrine.
The most amazing thing about the shrine, is probably that it is just like every other shrine here in Japan with one exception. In 1978 the Japanese priests enshrined some top war criminals in the temple. What this means is when you are "enshrined" to the Japanese, you've become a god. And thats whats pissed off just about everyone in East Asia. But apart from all that, there really aint that much there.
This is the Torii (Main Gate) into Yaskuni. It was pretty big.
According to Eastern Tradition, the more carp you have with different colours, the wealthier you are. Below is Yasakuni Shrine.
After that we headed down to Shinjuku, probably one of my favourite areas. We ended up in a bookshop that one of my mates was pretty insistent about going to see. He wanted to buy a book called Eragon, don't ask me why. Me and my other mate Stu got fed up so went off trying to find a hostel for the three of us. We told him we'd meet him at Shinjuku station at 4. He never showed up. This was a massive disaster. We waited for 30 mins then tried again to book a hotel. We ended up getting back to hostel at about 7, and he still hadnt turned up. But as you can see from the photos., the place didnt look that decent in the evening.
This is the brand new Krispy Kreme thats just opened in Shinjuku. There was a queue to get into a queue and it took 2 hours to get a donut. I found it hilarious that these people would actually wait for a donut. In Japan anything that is a chain is considered to be superior to a normal shop.
This is the hostel at night. It was a massive dump. The hotel we ended up was a lot better.
We decided to head for the imperial castle, which was unfortunatly closed, this being the busiest time of year for tourists, the Japanese had been wise enough to close most tourist attractions. So we headed for the only attraction left, the war memorial, Yasakuni Shrine.
The most amazing thing about the shrine, is probably that it is just like every other shrine here in Japan with one exception. In 1978 the Japanese priests enshrined some top war criminals in the temple. What this means is when you are "enshrined" to the Japanese, you've become a god. And thats whats pissed off just about everyone in East Asia. But apart from all that, there really aint that much there.
This is the Torii (Main Gate) into Yaskuni. It was pretty big.
According to Eastern Tradition, the more carp you have with different colours, the wealthier you are. Below is Yasakuni Shrine.
After that we headed down to Shinjuku, probably one of my favourite areas. We ended up in a bookshop that one of my mates was pretty insistent about going to see. He wanted to buy a book called Eragon, don't ask me why. Me and my other mate Stu got fed up so went off trying to find a hostel for the three of us. We told him we'd meet him at Shinjuku station at 4. He never showed up. This was a massive disaster. We waited for 30 mins then tried again to book a hotel. We ended up getting back to hostel at about 7, and he still hadnt turned up. But as you can see from the photos., the place didnt look that decent in the evening.
This is the brand new Krispy Kreme thats just opened in Shinjuku. There was a queue to get into a queue and it took 2 hours to get a donut. I found it hilarious that these people would actually wait for a donut. In Japan anything that is a chain is considered to be superior to a normal shop.
This is the hostel at night. It was a massive dump. The hotel we ended up was a lot better.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Japanese Adverts.
Thought I'd put some of the pictures I took of bizarre Japanese adverts. Who know's what there on about.
Tokyo Day One - Akhibara and Shibuya
I ended up getting up at 7.30 and my room was a lot colder than normal. I looked out the window and it was pretty much dumping about 10 tonnes of snow. What would normally be a 20 minute walk to the station turned into a 45 minute slog through the snow. But it did'nt matter coz I was going to Tokyo! The Shink (Bullet Train) gets you to Tokyo in 1.30. You kinda scoop around the mountains, then get into the massive plain which is where Tokyo sits. City stretches across the horizon. 32 Million people live in Tokyo and the vast plain that surrounds the city. Its really like the Japanese really didnt care about building an immense city. There are no green fields, football pitches, parks or woodlands. Its pretty amazing.
We ended up at this really good hostel on the 18th floor of a building in Illdabashi, central Tokyo. The view was pretty spectacular when we got there, and at sunset.
This is looking west towards Shinjuku, one of the main entertainment centers of tokyo. We headed straight for Akhibara - electric town - to check out what was going cheap. I expected flying cars, holograms etc, but all thats there is about a ton of Ipods and little else. Its about 10,000 shops selling the same things, at the same prices. But they are pretty cheap compared to elsewhere.
Oh yeah, small problem with the hostel. On the website it said there was a 11pm curfew. Which of course would be a major problem. So I called the hostel to be told it was fine and that we'd be allowed to enter through the fire escape. But when we actually got there, the w******* on the front desk told us that this conversation did not occur and that I'd made it up, 11pm was the curfew. So we thought about it when went out to Shibuya during the evening.
Its at this point that I want to let you know a little about the amazingly simplistic Tokyo subway system. Check it out
So yeah it took a while to figure out. But Shibuya was probably one of the coolest places I've been. All the guide books and Japanese say it is a "young" area. But hey it was cool. There crossroads are supposed to be famous, it was in Lost in Translation, but Ive never seen it.
In Shibuya there was a building where you could watch a Japanese gameshow, but once you've seen one you've seen them all we decided to skip it and head to a pub. Ending up back at the Hostel for that all important 11pm curfew we ended up having a few beers. Funnily enough this amazing hostel actually had a lights out policy. We managed to get a full morning in the morning and onwards to the next hostel.
We ended up at this really good hostel on the 18th floor of a building in Illdabashi, central Tokyo. The view was pretty spectacular when we got there, and at sunset.
This is looking west towards Shinjuku, one of the main entertainment centers of tokyo. We headed straight for Akhibara - electric town - to check out what was going cheap. I expected flying cars, holograms etc, but all thats there is about a ton of Ipods and little else. Its about 10,000 shops selling the same things, at the same prices. But they are pretty cheap compared to elsewhere.
Oh yeah, small problem with the hostel. On the website it said there was a 11pm curfew. Which of course would be a major problem. So I called the hostel to be told it was fine and that we'd be allowed to enter through the fire escape. But when we actually got there, the w******* on the front desk told us that this conversation did not occur and that I'd made it up, 11pm was the curfew. So we thought about it when went out to Shibuya during the evening.
Its at this point that I want to let you know a little about the amazingly simplistic Tokyo subway system. Check it out
So yeah it took a while to figure out. But Shibuya was probably one of the coolest places I've been. All the guide books and Japanese say it is a "young" area. But hey it was cool. There crossroads are supposed to be famous, it was in Lost in Translation, but Ive never seen it.
In Shibuya there was a building where you could watch a Japanese gameshow, but once you've seen one you've seen them all we decided to skip it and head to a pub. Ending up back at the Hostel for that all important 11pm curfew we ended up having a few beers. Funnily enough this amazing hostel actually had a lights out policy. We managed to get a full morning in the morning and onwards to the next hostel.
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