Mass religion

What look like fake miraculous medal bracelets, seen at Clockhouse in C&A.

In other news, it's hot and sunny (more ghost thunderstorms that never appear) and although it was financially painful being where I am, we have a Dyson again. All hail.

In the gilded cage with the other animals

Right now, I'd be happy if I never saw the palace of Versailles again. I wanted to leave almost as soon as I got in, via a massive queue that ran the length of the courtyard by 9:10am. By the time we got in it was twice as long. Brawny Russian blondes who put their lethal-weapon elbow in your face as they shove in front of you, seeking the perfect shot. American schoolchildren deliberately setting off the motion detector alarms around works of art. (No response at all from the staff.) Chinese tour groups with audioguides glued to their ears who go to move through the space you occupy like you don't exist. I've checked it off, I'm done. I'd go back to the gardens, but that's it.
After all that, we headed to one of Dad's recommended restaurants - kind of. Same restaurant, La Criee, but in the rue Lagrange instead of by Montparnasse Station. (Let's just say I had no desire to go back there either after getting the train to/from Rennes.) Thankfully it's just as good as the Montparnasse branch, and I enjoyed wonderful prawns and sea bream and gratin dauphinois followed by a cafe gourmand. Mais oui.

A pharmacy too far?

A pharmacy vending machine at Charles de Gaulle airport - all over-the-counter stuff. CDG was inconvenient, but that's pretty good considering. Someone (Zurich airport, Air France, CDG) lost my luggage tag, then I left my padlock in the ladies after opening my case.
So far, Paris is full of stairs, intermittent rain, closed tourist spots and enormous queues. Basically, as inconvenient and balky as its infamous airport. But the food is good, and we just roll with it, and we enjoyed a river cruise with commentary and we're off to a friend's for dinner.

Infiltration

We've snuck into the oh-so-hip graffitti-covered Rote Fabrik by the lake. It's supposed to be an anarchist commune or something similar, but serves as a reasonably-priced (for here) cafe and ideal place to hang out when the weather is fine.
It was supposed to be raining heavily today, but has been warm and alternating overcast and sunny. I even planted my butterfly-attracting plants, lavender and shiso!

Pass and pass again!

Just got the results for my first two OU short courses, Empire of the Microbes and Molecules, Medicines and Drugs - both passed! ^_^

That's me 1/3 of the way to the Certificate in Contemporary Science (with the other 2/3 received and half being studied now) and a mere 1/18 of the way to my degree...

Instant gratification

The plus side to giving your friends omiyage while they're at work - as long as they work at the florist counter!

Last meal

On wifi in Centrair, and having a green tea latte, sweet potato muffin and yoghurt and granola with fig sauce before I have to fly away...

Exit centre stage

Just checked in at Nagoya's Centrair Airport, where the luggage belt says my case is 21.4kg. Hmm. Well, I'm not going to argue.

Going to return the phone now while I can still find a postbox. Talk to you again from the other side of the world!

Really?

Drinkable collagen, given to me by the lady at the pharmacy where I got a drink this morning. She thought my Japanese was so good she gave me two...

Wrong way

My companions on my way back to Nagoya - honey and lemon water, Uji green tea Oreo sticks, high potency good bacteria and diarrhea stopper. No idea how that last one works, but I hope it does.

Misery

Even I have to admit it, I'm still not well. Although I have no sense of direction, I remember odd details - including the location of loos in stations - for which I am profoundly grateful.

I'm giving up on seeing Kodo again tonight. I feel awful, it's too hot and humid, and trying to find a local concert hall in Osaka, a city I don't know, just sounds like a bad idea. Plus even if I made it there, I'm not sure I'd be okay for 2 hours and I still need to repack for the flight. Sulking and trying not to shed a tear in Kyoto Station.

On a mission

I've detoured to Fushimi Inari in Kyoto to aquire a certain item. Not sure what this fox is doing...

It's about 26 degrees again. High school boys are racing each other up the steps going up the hill. I feel like a steamed pudding. But onwards...

And again

Hello Kitty x One Piece cases in Tokyu Hands

Tokyu Hands strikes again

A special event celebrating Japan's much-loved traffic safety police dummy, I think.

Nom nom nom

Brunch

Bento from the platform at Shin-Osaka.

It's the final detour

On the Sakura shinkansen racing towards Shin-Osaka to change to the Hikari to Nagoya where I'll check in for the last night of the trip - up and out early tomorrow to Nagoya Chubu Airport and arriving back in Zurich tomorrow evening.

The conference was good and I met a lot of people and came away with a stack of business cards and a pharmaceutical translation handbook. My food poisoning or whatever was still around until last night but thankfully seems to have sorted itself out now. Still quite tired though.

I'll get to Nagoya around 12:30 and leave my bags at the hotel, then relax and wander around the shops before heading to Osaka to see Kodo again!

1000 cranes

Statue for Sadako, the girl who believed she would be cured of atom bomb-induced cancer if she folded 1000 paper cranes.

Have no fear, fishpig is here!

Banner on the pier where we boarded the boat for the cruise after the first day of the conference. We went past the famous torii at Miyajima, although it was partially covered by scaffolding after being hit by lightning.

Back on the railroad

Normally I'd be wailing and gnashing my teeth at the idea of spending four hours on a train in the middle of the day on my penultimate day of holiday in Japan (I'm not counting tomorrow and Sunday as that's the conference) but the buses from the station near the guesthouse are timed to meet the fast hydrofoils, not the slower ferries, so I'd probably end up waiting an hour or more at the ferry terminal - which makes it almost the same length of time as the train, and I get the train with my JR Rail Pass.

There are other side benefits - I get to spend four of the hottest hours of the day sitting down in air conditioning, and that suits me just fine as I seem to have food poisoning. Nothing major, but I don't feel very energetic.

I went back to Dogo Onsen last night and took the more expensive ticket that gets me into the Tama-no-Yu (water of the spirits) bath. It's smaller than Kami-no-Yu (water of the gods) but you get a yukata and towel, tea and senbei, and when I went in not long before closing I was the only person in there. It was bliss.

You also get a quick guided tour in Japanese (with an English leaflet) of the imperial bathing rooms. The imperial family now uses another ryokan nearby, which draws its water from the same spring, but Dogo Onsen have kept the rooms as they were at the time of the last imperial visit as an exhibition. The bath (empty) looks gorgeous, as do the rooms, but the highlight for me was the beautifully lacquered Japanese-style toilet - which has never been used, as the guide proudly pointed out.

I've written all my overseas postcards, I have some domestic ones left to write and then it'll be time to check out of the guesthouse and see if my case behaves any better going downhill to the tram station. I'll pick up reserved seats at Matsuyama Station, and then it'll just be a question of changing trains at Okayama before arriving in Hiroshima with plenty of time before the pre-conference reception.