It`s been a month now since we walked shivering off the plane at Kansai airport and by golly gosh it`s warmed up something wicked since then! We`re beginning to experience the hot balmy Japan summer and have been told that this is nothing compared with what`s to come! Good thing we`re jumping ship in a few weeks! We`ve been doing a bit since the last blog update, not as many tourist excursions as I would like as there is the small issue of a job that requires our presence five days out of the week! So here`s what we`ve been up to in no particular order...
Big City Lights
The other weekend we decided to have a Saturday night in Osaka. As the last train back to Kobe leaves at midnight it was predetermined that this was going to be a long night. Details of the night are sketchy, but to the best of my knowledge...
We began the evening in the main wing of the mansion, indulging in some of the finest beer the local supermarket had to offer for ￥100 a can. After some hilarious anecdotes, accolades and admonitions we adjourned to the local train station for the hour-long ride into Osaka. The good thing here is there are no laws against drinking in public so we indulged in some more of Japan`s equivalent to Double Brown on the train whist discussing the various merits of the carriage`s female clientele.
This is Osaka in the day time!
After the train we got the subway to an area called Shinsabashi, reportedly the roughest area of Osaka. It was horrible, there was this bridge that had this graffiti on it, there was a can that someone had thrown on the ground right next to a rubbish bin! and we saw a cat that I`m sure was not registered with the correct governing authority. It was rough alright, but we made it through OK. We met up with our mate Phil in a Philippino ``resturant`` on one of the backstreets. The restaurant was actually a small Philippino food shop where at night they cleared out the middle area and put down some seats and tables. It was crowded and the food was alright but it had a great atmosphere due to the super friendly owners and their kids. It reminded me of SE Asia, ahh the good times! We hung round at the restaurant drinking with the staff til about midnightish, they were so stoked they brought out these wrapped presents for us to take home!
This is also Osaka in the daytime!
And this is okonomiyaki!
We then walked/taxied into the main area of Osaka where all the bars are. We found one bar that had all you can drink for ￥3,500. This is where you lucky reader get to participate in our blog. It`s a bit like those stories you have when you are a kid where you get to choose your own ending.
1AM Downtown Osaka
Insert your own story here:
9AM Umeda Station
Anzac Day Touch Rugby
So, after New Zealand`s woeful attempt at winning a cricket game at the business end of the world cup, the expat NZ community here figured the only way to make ourselves feel better was to beat Australia at something. So the Sunday following ANZAC day was the NZ vs AUS touch rugby test match. The NZ team were in fine form with matching uniforms and even a training session under our belts. The Australian team were somewhat less prepared having to recruit some last minute ring-ins from Fiji and Japan. It was an epic 20 minutes, played in the gap between the two AFL games scheduled on the pitch, NZ coming away with a satisfying 5-3 victory. Great Success!
Other Japan Randomness, Observations and Stuff
Japanese Public Access TV... is the worst TV in the world! At any one time the 12 available channels will be showing one of the following program types:
1. Baseball - #1 contender for the world`s most boring sport to watch.
2. News - Usually about a Yakuza assassination of a local mayor or the birth of a panda at the zoo (no seriously!)
3. How to talk Engrish - I already can, change the channel.
4. How to play golf, badly - Now I`m no Tiger Woods, but the guys playing golf on these shows are awful! I mean if you are going to put someone on the tele at least make sure they can swing a club first!
5. What the ***** is going on here!? - More often than not you will turn on the TV, stare blankly in disbelief for a minute then turn it back off. They have these shows that jump from one scenario to another without warning or logical reason, there`s a lot of talking and bowing and usually some food but we have no idea what, who, why, when or how! They dont even have any of those cool game shows that Japan is famous for :(
The Bow, the famous Japanese bow. Everyone bows at you here and it`s awesome, you feel like some kind of royalty! The other day we were out jogging and a blind old man got out of our way and bowed to us! If you are feeling a bit down you can walk up to any Japanese person and crack out a bow, you are bound to get one back, instant satisfaction! As it is customary to have the last laugh, it seems it is also to have the last bow. You will see old people saying goodbye to each other in a frantic fit of bowing, Im talking upwards of 20 each. You always see one old dude walking away with a big grin on his face, ``Take that buddy, last bow! Who`s the most honourable now?!``
Pedestrian Power, Im sure this extends from the politeness of the culture, but here the pedestrian is king. You can step out onto the street at any point of the day or night and the traffic will stop for you. You couldnt die in traffic if you tried! (touch wood). All drivers are so courteous and the traffic lights are set so there is at least a 5 second gap between the red light on one direction and the green on the other!
Official Public Retraction. In the last blog I had a crack at Bono from U2 for wearing his sunnies inside. It has been brought to my attention that this is not an attempt to be cool, but because he has an eye problem. A fine example of `Know before you judge` if I`ve ever seen one!
Bono, I`m really sorry man. It was wrong of me to take the mick, especially considering the wonderful work you do for humanitarian rights and the stability of impoverished countries. Not to mention the music you write that has touched the lives of millions of people world-wide. I sincerely hope we can still be friends and put this incident behind us.
Yours Truly, Kevin Charles Nicholson (yes, my middle name is Charles!)
さいおなら!
Himeji Castle and Maiko
As we thought it was about time we did some touristy sightseeing stuff, we opted for a day trip a few weekends back. Our destination of choice was Himeji in Hyogo Prefecture, about an hour’s train ride from Kobe. The town itself is a very nice place, with tree lined streets and a peaceful atmosphere. It was quite nice to see so much greenery after the concrete jungle of Kobe.
The main attraction that brings tourists from around Japan and other parts of the world is the Himeji Castle. It is Japan’s most famous castle and a very impressive sight indeed. Not surprisingly, the architecture is unlike any of the castles we've seen up to this point. It is a showcase of traditional Japanese architecture, having been started in 1346 and modified several times until 1618, when it attained the majority of its current form. One of the major differences from the SE Asian and Indian castles (other than the obvious visual differences) is the extensive use of wood throughout the building. It has a complex wooden frame and almost everything inside is made of wood. The view from the top is stunning and allows you to see the surrounding moat and the township below.
The other main attraction in Himeji is the gardens that lie next to the castle. Unfortunately, we managed to time our arrival at the gates to coincide perfectly with the closing of them. So instead we completed our touristy day out with a bit of touristy shopping. I found a cool t-shirt with the rising sun and some Japanese characters and Kev got the equivalent in bandana form. Can't get much more touristy than that! At the counter, he asked what his meant. Turns out it says “kamikaze”, so he decided against wearing it on the train ride back home!
On the way back we stopped off at Maiko for some night time photography. Maiko is known for being the home of the world’s longest suspension bridge. You may have seen it on the Discovery Channel at some stage. Measuring up at 3.9km long (with a main span of 1.2km), it really is an impressive sight, especially at night since it's all lit up. So we found a few different spots to grab some shots of the bridge and then called it a night.
Since we didn't manage to see the gardens and we hadn't yet seen the bridge in daylight, we decided to check them out again a couple of days ago. Turns out I couldn't get it together for this trip either. Ended up heading out the door with both of my camera batteries, however, neither one of them had much left in the tank. So I spent the day popping batteries in and out of my camera in an attempt to get just one more picture each time. Also slipped my mind to take my other gear out there which really would've come in handy for such incredible gardens. So now I'm actually contemplating one last trip out there if I have time. Third time lucky hopefully! Anyway, we did at least manage to see the gardens, which are split into nine separately designed gardens, each with a slightly different theme/style. They're all very tranquil and well worth seeing even if you're not really into gardens. This time round we also went to the observation deck on the Maiko Bridge, which gives you a great view out over the water. And Kev bought an awesome bouncy ball for Y200 that had a little dolphin in it. Bargain.
Rugby in Japan
Most of you probably know that the Classic All Blacks played two games against Japan a couple of weeks back, one in Tokyo and one in Osaka. The team was made up of some of the old big names and even featured the Mehrts-Marshall combo back in action. Unfortunately, we couldn't get to the game because we had to work, although they did come to our rugby club for a dinner the night before the Osaka match and I caught the end of that.
Now, there was another important game on around the same time but you would be forgiven for not hearing much about it, with all the media attention the Classic ABs received. That game was, of course, KRAC 1st XV vs Osaka Fujitsu Uni 1st XV. I was lucky enough to get a full game for the KRAC and Kev joined our cheering squad on the sidelines. The back line consisted of a quick Jap dude, a few skillful Kiwis and a couple of massive Fijians. All in all a pretty effective and very fast back line. Two minutes into the game the Fijians had already dotted down twice. I thought we were going to absolutely smash them. Unfortunately that leads me to the descriptions of our forwards. While they certainly are a talented and hardworking bunch of lads, fitness is, ah... not one of their strong points (unlike their ability to sink piss after the game). The average age of our pack was probably almost twice that of the uni team we were playing so it was always going to be a tough ask for them! Still, we were looking good at half time... then it started to show. A few quick tries and we were down, the end score being 48-40 to them. It was a great day out on the sand covered concrete pitch in the end though, and was followed by drinks with the other team. Which was then followed by a night kicked off with an all-you-can-eat-and-drink rooftop (10th floor) restaurant. But that's a whole other story...
