Day tripping to Nikko

Had some friends visiting from Melbourne this week so I had people to talk to and hang out with for a couple of days, whoo hoo! It was a bit of a family reunion for my friend's partner, he lives in Melbourne now but is originally from Spain. His brother and wife had come across from Zaragoza and were super organised with their itinerary, so I tagged along on the family day trip to Nikko, 120km north of Tokyo.

Depending which train option you go for, (the faster the train, the more expensive your ticket), it takes between an hour and a half to two and a half hours to reach Nikko train station. We caught the shinkansen (bullet train) from Ueno to Utsonomiya and then onto the local train the rest of the way to Nikko. From the train station you can walk 20 mins up to the shrine area or catch the bus up and save your legs.

The Nikko national park area is extensive, 1,400 sq km. The main attractions within this area are the many Shinto and Buddhist shrines from the Edo period, scattered between the giant cedar trees. We spent most of our time wandering around the biggest shrine complex, Toshu-Gu shrine, a memorial to the first Tokugawa shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu. It supposedly took 15,000 artists two years to complete the shrine. You can see why!

There are several building to explore just within this one shrine area, the photo below is of the steps leading up to the shogun's mausoleum area at the top of the hill behind the main bling bling area.

Getting a bit tired after taking our shoes on and off  a gazillion times and trying to stay one step ahead of the large Mexican tour group behind us, we decided to check out one more area before lunch. At this point I had lost track of where we were but it was another stunning shrine area. I particularly liked the miniature replica of the portable shrines that get toured around the town during cherry blossom festivals.

On our way to lunch we passed the Shin-kyo Bridge. Pretty ugly huh? No idea why anyone would want to check out this area at all.

And thanks to Lonely Planet for directing us towards this beauty - 900 yen ($9) for this plate of awesomeness.

Yes, I ate that all myself. Yes it was as tasty as it looks. Photo below if you want to find it for yourself one day. Place is called Hippari Dako. People like to leave notes of thanks all over the walls.

The art of giving food

On a recent trip to one of the department stores in Ginza, we got a chance to look around at the incredible food halls. These food areas are typically at the basement of the department stores and are filled with amazing culinary delights.

Food is a very popular choice for Omiyage, which are the obligatory souvenirs that Japanese people buy for friends and family when they go away on a trip. Often these souvenirs will be beautiful, individually wrapped biscuits, savoury rice crackers or other local delicacies.

 It is also traditional to take along a gift when you are invited to visit someones home. I might start inviting locals over just so I can score some of the following delicious treats:

Or maybe I should start importing mangoes, this one was going for a sweet AU $105!

Note: The Japanese are only willing to pay such a high price for a 'perfect' piece of fruit. This mango would be free of any imperfections and I'm sure it would be extremely tasty. I have also heard rumours of $25 apples and $70 for 12 strawberries.

Traditionally there is also two gift giving seasons - Chugen (winter season) and Seibo (summer). More food, alcohol or other goodies to be handed round to your family and associates. Just don't buy anyone white flowers, they are for funerals only!

Pacing the box (warning - contains some self pity & whinging)

Yesterday marked 3 weeks since my arrival in Tokyo. I had no particular plans for the day, other than meeting up with Chris and his co-workers for beers later in the evening (which turned into a disaster after I went to the wrong bar, who knew their were multiple bars called Craft Beer Market?!) So I decided to stay home  all day and get stuck into some Japanese lessons. Big mistake.

Not leaving 'the box' for a whole day, as I have affectionately named our apartment, (short for shoe box, of course, what were you thinking??) was a bad idea. So far, my usual routine is to get up and have breakfast with Chris before he goes to work then do a couple hours of Japanese or writing or online stalking. I usually have lunch at home and then go out for the afternoon. I like to walk around and try and find a different garden or shrine area to explore or some weird shops to check out. Come home at about 5 or 6pm and then watch some TV or cook dinner or head out to meet up with Chris & his mates.

The box floor plan, its actually a decent sized apartment by Tokyo standards.

But, yesterday, as my mind wandered away from the undecipherable Japanese lesson in front of me, I started to ponder what the hell I was going to do with all my spare hours. It suddenly hit me that I wasn't  on holidays, this wasn't going to be a short term adventure, I am here till at least December, possibly longer, this is going to be my life for at least another 8 months.What was I going to do with myself? Eventually, I was going to run out of touristy stuff to do and there is only so much of my blogging that the world can take. I started to have a minor freak out. Ok, maybe a semi major one.

I can't get a working visa unless we get married, de-facto relationships are not recognised by the Japanese government. (Neither are same sex marriages in case you were wondering). If we did decide to get married for the sake of a visa, it would mean going home to Australia and hitting up the registry office. After avoiding marriage for the past 10 years, I am not really inspired to go through all the rigmarole just so I can work part time. Nor am I willing to cop all the flak from people who have been listening to my anti-wedding rants for so long. Even on a dependant spouse visa I can only work limited hours and only if I apply for permission and organise a work permit through an employer. Grrr.

After a few hours of pacing around the box, eating a bag of Haribo gummy bears and singing mournful ballads to myself, I realised I was sinking into a ball of self pity. Everything was suddenly all too hard;  the language barrier seemed insurmountable, the imported Tim Tams were rubbish, I was tired of having no-one to talk to all day, I had no friends, no money of my own. (Yes, all first world problems...whinge, whinge) Not having a job had really hit me harder than I expected. It was not the work itself I was missing, who would actually miss work?! But I was missing the social contact and the cash flow. And having a sense of purpose to my day/week/life.

Rubbish tim tams imported from Indonesia:

While I am definitely getting plenty of social contact on the ski trips and through Chris and his work mates' activities in the evenings, I really need to get out there and try and navigate my way towards some social connections during the long daytime hours. After belting out one last round of 'All by myself' I looked up volunteering options in Tokyo. Surely, if I wasn't allowed to do paid work, I could find some volunteer work to occupy my time?

Two options caught my eye - 'Hands on Tokyo' and 'Second Harvest Japan'. They seemed to be the best bet for a non-Japanese speaker. The appeal of Hands on Tokyo is that their head office is based 5 minutes from our apartment and you can sign up for one off events, no locked in commitment required. Downside is that all the activities on weekdays seem to have already filled their volunteer quota for the next 2 months. Guess there are plenty of ladies of leisure in this area!

Had to laugh at some of their sign up requirements too.In order to volunteer at a group birthday party at an orphanage you have to be over the age of 15 and have participated in a Balloon Art Seminar. Hmmm... not even sure what balloon art is...Volunteering at one of the high schools requires you to be able to play basketball, that counts me out too!

This is what pops up when you google balloon art, yep definitely beyond my skill level!

So that left me with Second Harvest Japan, who are a food bank providing hot meals to the homeless on weekends and food supplies to welfare agencies, shelters and orphanages. I volunteered on a food van back when I was a uni student, so at least I have some experience with this type of work. I have just sent them off an  enquiry email, fingers crossed they can find something for a non-Japanese speaking lady of leisure to do! Otherwise, its back to the power ballads and the gummy bears.....

Second Harvest Japan - https://2hj.org/english/about/

Hokkaido Sampler

Last night we returned from another Tokyo Snow Club ski weekend. We stayed at the Grand Park Otaru Hotel, northwest of Sapporo. It was quite a treat staying in a 4 star hotel with twin share rooms and buffet breakfast.  This was the view from our room. No onsen but having pillows and real beds made up for it!

On Friday night we flew from Tokyo to Sapporo and then caught the train out to Otaru. After partaking in a few beverages with the ski group and observing the co-ordination of the return of a lost bag from the airport and a helmet from the train station we hit the sack. (The Japanese are fantastic at returning lost items, both the airport and the train station lost and found people organised to have the guy's lost stuff couriered to the hotel within 24 hours. We know people who have lost wallets at bus stops and had them express posted back by members of the public at their own cost.)

Next day we caught the bus with the group up to Kiroro ski resort for some fresh pow pow.

We had a fantastic day cruising around the mountain and enjoying the fresh snow despite the gondolas to the top half of the mountain being closed due to high winds. I hung out with some of the more intermediate level people while Chris was off hitting the tree runs and getting told off by ski patrol.

For dinner, it was out with the group to Otaru Beer, a German style brewery. Out came the steins, pretzels and schnitzels.

Next stop - karaoke! About AU$20 a head for 2 hours of karaoke and all you can drink. Best value fun around but after quite a few gin and tonics and a room full of boys singing at full volume, 2 hours is definitely long enough.

I have also learnt, the key to karaoke is to get your songs loaded on early and not to pick rap songs. Its hard to keep up with the speed of the lyrics if you don't know all the words. And boys hog microphones, altought I managed to hold onto my tambourine with an iron grip. They were trying to wrestle that from me as well. Best song of the night goes to one of the guys who has been in Japan for 10 years and had learnt all the words to one of the popular karaoke songs.  Couldn't tell you what the song was now but it was bloody funny at the time.

Feeling pretty sore the next day we decided to head into the town of Otaru instead of back up the mountain. We checked out some of the cool touristy stores and ate some amazing seafood.

Everybody needs a samurai umbrella, right?

 How about some replica samurai armour?

 And don't forget your socks for your ninja tabi boots. 

 How about some dried squid?

 

 Or some delicious seafood yakitori?

 We sampled some oysters and scallops off the roadside grill. Amazing.

 And some sashimi, not entirely sure what it all was, but bloody amazing.

  

These are the Otaru mascots. No idea what they are supposed to be??

They seem a bit fishy to me!

Cherry Blossom Fever

A week after arrving in Tokyo, I noticed some cherry blossoms were starting to unfurl. So I grabbed my camera and headed to the Imperial Palace East Garden. I had read in the guidebooks that this was a good spot to view the cherry blossoms. I was stuffed by the time I had walked 40 mins to get there so I took the lazy otpion and just skirted around the base of the gardens and avoided any uphill paths. I took a few pohtos of the tiny blossoms that had started sprining open and then headed back home.

I showed Chris my efforts and he just laughed. Not only were these blossoms barely blooming but they were plum blossoms, not cherry blossoms! D'oh! He also suggested that instead of walking the 9km round trip to the gardens I should take a look out the window.

Little did I realise, we are staying in one of the most popular cherry blossom viewing areas in central Tokyo.
These are some of the amazing blossoms outside my window.

 And this is the restaurant downstairs which is booked out solid during the cherry blossom season.

Every day I walk around this area and people are absolutely mad for the cherry blossoms. There are people constantly taking photos of themselves under the trees. Office workers, tradesmen, grannies, mums with prams, the whole of Japan is in love with the stuff.

 People take picnics to the parks and sit under the trees with their friends and families, they call these blossom viewing parties Hanami and the cherry blossoms themselves are called Sakura.

 They also have sakura flavoured drinks, ice-cream, biscuits and all kinds of stuff. The stores are all decorated with sakura and there are free concerts in the parks and our local train station had a harpist and a guy playing some Japanese instruments.

Another great place we checked out was the canal area near Naka-meguro. It was absolutely stunning and there were great food stalls and drinks along the way.

I also headed back to the palace gardens and actually made it up the hill to the more extensive blossom area. This is where I found the sakura and the ume (plum blossoms) in full bloom.

You can also take tours to some of the best Sakura viewing spots around the country. Just don't forget to take your dogs out for a walk in their pram and their best outfits. Its what all the cool kids do.