AS - Is this your bag for the cabin?
BT - Yes, both of them.
AS - Is one a laptop?
BT - No, that's just books.
AS - I'm sorry, you can only take one p4ece into the cabin. Unless it's a laptop. So, again - is it a laptop?
BT (bemused but happy) - Oh. Yes. Thank you.
Got to put this mobile in the post. Later...
Can't believe I'm off tomorrow. At least my case closes.
I've only been here a few hours and I want to come back already.
This is the funicular to the top of Mt. Souzan, which is followed by a 30 minute cable car ride over the mountain to the lake on the other side, via sulfer pits!
Made an important discovery yesterday - finally located some Japanese-English technical dictionaries. Not in the dictionary section, but in with guides on technical writing in English in the sciences section. Now I just have to get over the price...
I was going to try to do Hakone on the way to Tokyo, but I don't think I'll have time. Plus I don't think I slept too well last night and feel very fuzzy, so I think I'll go around my old haunts in Nagoya and have a more relaxed trip to Tokyo.
'Chou' is a prefix meaning 'very/extra/super'. Like when you follow that up by accidentally choosing a Korean restaurant on your Dad's last night in Japan when he specifically said he wanted tn eat Japanese. That's chou-baka.
Nagoya Sunroute Hotel wins the prize for most bijou room so far, but good view of the Nagoya skyline if you ignore the car parks.
We stay in Nagoya tonight and Dad flies from there tomorrow morning. I'll head for Tokyo and try to fit in Hakone, Nikko and shopping before it's time for me to go.
There was a traditional sliding door, but with an automatic door opening button. As we walked in, the lobby was filled with a group of young men on their way out, so we couldn't immediately get to the entrance. 'Someone tell them they've got customers.' 'Hey, you've got customers.' One of the staff came out to meet us and showed us the lockers for shoes, then we followed them around labyrinthine polished wood corridors to a tatami room which looked like you had to sit on the floor but actually has a hollow under the floor so you sit normally with your legs below what looks like floor level.
They had an English menu, we had four different types of skewers, deep fried chicken, omelette with dashi and chicken - very like battered fish, but with chicken. Dad had sake, and it all came to just over 20 pounds. The head waitress spoke English, and all the staff were very nice. Great place!
Off to Himeji Castle today.
We had an amazing lunch of Matsuzaka beef cooked over charcoal - so tender you could cut it with chopsticks. We also saw the 'wedded rocks' off the coast, with loads of frog statues, apparently the messengers of the god(s) of the rocks.
I think I found the last large locker in the whole station area - outside the station in a corridor linking the tube lines with an underground shopping center. There was no change machine, so I ended up buying a bottle of water and a can of warm cocoa to get enough 100 yen pieces.
Met up with Dawn and Simon at Yagoto, slightly late, in the vain hope of seeing some red leaves. Had a good lunch and a great chat, and got some beading books!
Retrieved my suitcase from the locker, and emailed the Iidas to say I would be abit late. After not getting on one train due to it being full of returning baseball fans, slow conneations and simply getting on the wrong train, I arrived a whole hour late.
More later, need to get back on the road!
The rest of the museum was excellent, with ancient pottery, calligraphy, textiles, paintings and some amazing Buddhist sculptures. There were no restaurants nearby, so I ended up walking back to the river and eating in one of those restaurants where you buy tickets for your food from a vending machine and give it to the staff.
Next was the potter Kawai Kanjirou's memorial museum, which is actually his house and kilns preserved as they were when he died. Small, but beautifully presented and almost certainly a better way of giving an insight into his life than your standard museum.
My friend in Gifu changed her plans twice so I had to queue again to get a new reserved seat to Nagoya and was late for dinner on my last day at the Mizutanis. When I got there, the place had been taken over by their grandchildren, Kouta and Ayako. Kouta had calmed down a bit since I'd last seen him, but Ayako was now the one tearing the house down under the guise of 'helping' with everything. Their mother Yoshiko and four month old sister Eriko were also there.
Normally I don't get on well with kids or babies (Kouta threw a slipper at my head the last time I was there) but by the end of the evening Kouta and Ayako were calling me おねえちゃん (big sister) and climbing all over me, and the amazingly good-natured Eriko and I had got into a cycle of looking at each other, seeing the other was smiling and starting to laugh - then Eriko would hide her face in the mattress and look up, and it would start again. I laughed so much I got a stitch.
Now on the shinkansen to Nagoya, where I'll change to the Chuou line for Nakatsugawa to meet up with some of the teachers I worked with when I first came here in 1998. Tomorrow it's back to Nagoya to stay with the Iidas and Dad arrives on Monday!
In other news, David now has a new case.
I decided to skip the Ohara Museum as it's European art and set off from the hotel at 8am to wander the streets. The historical area was smaller than I thought, so I ended up visiting a few shrines as well, and bought a daruma academic success charm at one.
Around the side of the old textile factory was the smallest shrine with gates I had ever seen - two rows of them at right angles. As I passed under one, I noticed the wood was rotten to the core. I threw a coin into the box and prayed for a safe journey. That's when I noticed it. The second thing I noticed was the cloud of wasps. The first was to wasps what Godzilla is to an iguana. I backed away from the shrine.
After going around the canal area, I went to the Folkcraft Museum, and now in Okayama!
Never mind. I'm here to plan for tomorrow and sleep.
There was no room at the inn for my case - all the large lockers were full. After I had hauled my case back up the stairs, the attendant who had been telling everyone the lockers were full started shouting in my direction. I couldn't make out what he was saying, something-customer (何かお客様). It was only when I heard the elderly lady next to me gasp and say 「外人と言った！」("He said 'gaijin'!") that I realised he was talking to me. He had found a medium locker - I didn't care what he called me! It's actually the first time I've heard anyone object to the word 'gaijin', which strictly means 'outsider' and as such is apparently very rude. A controversy best kept with learners of Japanese!
The locker was too small, so I ended up hauling the case around all day. Nice blister on middle finger to show for it, plus making a nuisance of myself in all the shops.
After coffee and cake and buying a bentou, I ran for my train. Jet lag is making me disastrously sleepy from about 6, so really had to concentrate especially when changing trains - ended up going around in circles in Osaka. Arrived in Hiroshima at 10:30 and headed for the streetcar. The first two didn't go to my stop, but the conductor told me to wait for the Number 0. I checked the the timetable as his tram left - there was no 0. But it arrived anyway, old, creaking and juddering. The Lonely Planet thankfully had a list of stops so I could tell where I was between counting my pieces of luggage. Damn jet lag.
Have arrived at the Toho beads park - later!
While queing for my Rail Pass, I picked up a tourist leaflet which said Nov 3 - also culture day - was the 東京時代祭, a historical festival. I grabbed my canera and headed out, photos to follow.
I felt fine until I got on the train back to Hanae's, when I literally started nodding off. Unfortunately, I had a cup of coffee balancing on my lap. Which soon made it onto the floor. I grabbed some tissues out of my bag (I only carry them in Japan as despite being a developed nation their toilets often lack paper) and desperately tried to mop it up as the train swayed. I was scrabbling for another tissue when a small cloth landed next to the spill - a man in his fifties sitting across the carriage had thrown it to me. I had barely thanked him when another tissue appeared, this time from the lady beside me. The spill was gone, leaving me with coffee-soaked tissues and the cloth. The man across the carriage reached over to hand me an empty tissue packet to hold them with, and a moment later the lady beside me gave me an empty plastic bag. I could only thank them again.
I felt guilty about the cloth but when I asked, the man just waved his hand gently in my direction - I could have it. I managed to stay awake for the rest of the journey (who knew mortification worked against jet lag?) and thanked them again when I got off. The lady was in her own world and didn't notice me, and the man just gave a slight nod in response.
I told Hanae about it at dinner and she gave a huge smile - ここ下町だからね - this is an older part of town (北千住) with older people, and as far as she's concerned, kinder ones.
Off to Nagoya in a few hours, meeting Dawn and Nozaki先生，then on to Hiroshima tonight for my anorak trip to the Toho beads visitor center tomorrow.
This phone is going to give me RSI - no predictive text entry in English and actually quite chunky. Think I'll get up soon and quietly do some packing.
