Oh, lastly...

Just to let you know Catherine and Mum, I got your emails (Yahoo put them in junk mail for some stupid reason), thank you both, my time has just expired but I read them, thanks again, will write proper emails some time soon... I don: tknow when I:ll get a phone, hopefully soon after arriving in Kawasaki...

Still in Kyoto, post 2

Hmmm... lots of random little impressions...

I have never gotten lost so many times in one day, as when I went to Osaka. I don't have a particularly great sense of direction but give me a map and I can successfully navigate my way around many cities, from Sydney, Rome, Paris, Kyoto, Tokyo... Osaka was something else... One reason I do so much walking here is because I'm continually re-tracing my steps. I swear, in Osaka station you could walk 'around the block' and end up nowhere near where you started. You'll see a sign saying 'JR line' and follow it, only to soon see a sign for 'JR line' pointing in the opposite direction. I spent 45 minutes there looking for the information centre... -_-

There are also so many steps. I'll soon have thighs of steel.

I don't know if I'm losing weight because although exercising a lot, I am eating a lot of rubbish - chocolate croissants, icecreams, etc. The reason for this is that I really do not like the local food. I can't describe it, but it's disgusting. Virtually everything comes with, like, bean curd, or a raw egg on the top. I'm about as big a fan of raw egg as the next Aussie, which is to say, not at all. The other day I had noodles and the waitress indicated that I should break my raw egg into a bowl of sesame sauce and then pour it all over my noodles. I actually did it, too. It wasn't actually as bad as it sounds; the problem is you have to be pretty hungry to eat it... I was sitting there thinking 'I am eating cold gelatinous noodles coated with raw egg...'

The other thing is that even if you find something you like, it is usually topped with something you don't like. For example, I like okonomiyaki (vegetable pancakes), but then they come with, say, a raw egg and tofu on it, or raw egg and ham, or something that looks like pink creamed corn...

And as for Japanese sweets, some of them look nice on the outside, but inwardly they are vile and usually contain red bean paste.

The main thing that strikes me about Japan is that they really have created their own unique world here. I mean, there's nowhere else like it. It's like a different planet, just for Japanese people.

It is probably the most civilised country in the world. Trains run on time. Everywhere is clean. Service is extremely good. The moment you sit down in a restaurant, you're brought a handtowel and glass of water, even if you're just having a coffee. They have plastic bags outside department stores that you can put wet umbrellas into. The water is clean. Machines work.

So many machines have sensors. For example you will walk up to a ticket machine and it will speak to you. Or you start to walk through a ticket gate - which is open by default - and if your ticket is invalid, it will slam shut right in front of you so you slam into it - a bit disconcerting!

It gets dark here from about 5pm, it's totally dark by 5:30.

If you are in a hurry to get anywhere, you're in for intense frustration. There is little meaningful information in English anywhere. And I did exactly what I did last time I went to Tokyo and tried to go to see Mt Fuji - took a local train instead of a rapid one, not knowing whether I was 'allowed' to use the rapid one on my ticket - therefore stretching a 90min journey into 2 1/2 hrs...

Like I mentioned, it can be frustrating because I don't understand anyone and I feel stupid most of the time. I feel dumb when I don't even know when to say 'thank you', dumb when I walk around in circles at every major train station, dumb when I don't know what to do with my things in the ryokan, dumb when I don't know how to pay the bill in a restaurant (I figured it out by now...), dumb when everyone else suddenly gets off a bus and I don't know why, etc etc. Anyway, I am learning but I guess I will have to repeat this process in Kawasaki.

For the first time last night there was someone speaking English on TV. Matt Damon was on some Japanese cooking show. Yay Matt!! I can understand you!!

Anyway, should stop here. I hope you're all well. I am okay... I feel kind of down in the mornings, but when I'm out and about I usually feel okay... sometimes I think 'I want to go home' but I'm between homes now anyway so there is no such place... hmmm... anyway, I don't know what I'm doing today, maybe I'll have a coffee and go to Nara. But I am a bit temple-d out!

Tomorrow I'm going to Nikko, after that to training....

Cheers to you all, hope you're all well :)

Still in Kyoto, post 1...

Hi everyone, how:s it going :)
Sorry if I don:t reply to individual comments and posts just yet, I still don't have long on the Internet each time, but I appreciate them and one day will reply properly hopefully :)
I'm glad I can find my way around a computer because I am really depending on my knowledge of keyboard shortcuts using the Internet here :)
Sooo... what's been happening (note that I'm trying to use apostrophes properly now, I guess I'll have to get used to apostrophes being shift-7 on a keyboard...)...
So far my itinerary has been like this:Day 1 - around Kyoto - near my ryokan, Fushimi Inari shrine, Kyoto Station area, ArashiyamaDay 2 - to OsakaDay 3 - to Himeji (Adelaide's sister city in Japan! It has a famous castle, very pretty)Day 4 - around Kyoto (Kinkakuji, Ginkakuji (by accident - darn bus transfers), Heian Jingu, Gion)Day 5 - around Kyoto again (Kiyomizu, Gion and Pontocho, Kamogawa Shrine (only went there for the long bus ride, let me rest my poor aching feet))

My favourite places so far have been Arashiyama (a pretty mountainous place in the west of Kyoto), Dotombori (a lively shopping area in Osaka), Himeji Castle, Kinkakuji (a gold-foil-covered temple), Kiyomizu (a shrine - there's a related shrine nearby where all the young girls go 'cos it's known as a matchmaking shrine :)) and Gion, the famous hanamachi (geisha district).

Before I left home Mum asked if I wanted to bring an umbrella, strongly implying it would be a good idea to do so. I didn't take it - probably a good thing as my luggage weight was very borderline. Now I've bought one and I remembered why I never like umbrellas - Murphy's Law. If you bring it, it doesn't rain, and if you leave it behind, it does. After it bucketed with rain all night and all morning - you needed an umbrella to walk even 5m down the street - I bought an umbrella, only to come outside from the shop and find the rain had stopped, and had stopped for the rest of the day. That night and the next morning it poured again, so I brought my umbrella the next day, only to find that as the train to Himeji continued, the skies cleared up. I mean, that's great, of course, but I never seem to have my umbrella at the right time...

Anyway enough rambling pointlessly about umbrellas... that's a roundabout way of saying it rained for half of two days; the rest of the time has been ii tenki (good weather). I left my ryokan in a tanktop and the proprietress asked if I wouldn't be cold! In Australia, people wring out every last ounce of enjoyment from warm weather. If the weather allows, people will wear as little as possible. Here, people dress seasonally - it's autumn, so wear long tops...

This place is a shopper's paradise; nobody could call me an enthusiastic shopper but even I am having to restrain myself, since I still have to lug my suitcase through a couple more cities. At first I thought everything was expensive but I've found lots of cheaper stuff now, even shoes for $15, $20, $25, which you never find in Australia apart from at Spendless Shoes, which doesn't count (even though I buy most of my shoes there :)).
Anyway this computer is shocking, it keeps freezing, so I'll post this and then try to get another one...

In Kyoto, post 3

I can:t post photos just yet as I don:t have my laptop and stupidly forgot to bring the cable that connects my camera to a USB port (I thought I would bring my laptop so I wouldn:t need it, then changed my mind at the last minute, that thing weighed 5kg all on its own).

Everything becomes a bit of a challenge when you don:t understand anything. You have to mentally prepare yourself for every transaction, work out what you will say. As I said though, I have used a lot of Japanese. If I couldn:t speak a little it would be very hard.

And not understanding anything leaves you a bit helpless at times. You might hesitate somewhere, not knowing if the sign says :public welcome, please enter: or :trespassers will be shot:. Or you:ll sit on a train for half an hour (as I did), expecting it to leave at any moment but not knowing when it will. (What is the point in translating the message :Welcome to our train from the airport, the toilets are at the back of the carriage, there are phones available:, but not translating the message :the train will leave at --- and arrive at ---?) Or you:ll stand in a lift and not be able to figure out how to open or close the doors!

Oh! I used one of those high-tech toilets for the first time! Haha! First of all, the seat is warmed. You can turn on a fake flushing sound - and change the volume! - to disguise certain other noises you might make... You can turn on a :powerful deoderant: (?), a bidet or a spray. This was powerful and slightly alarming until I realised you had to hit :stop: to turn it off!

Anyway, not much else to say at the moment... I really must do a quick surf before my hour:s up and see if I can find sightseeing info... I didn:t bring a guidebook and there:s virtually no English info at the tourist bureau... I don:t know what places are must-see places...

Anyway, hope you are all well, I will post again when I can...　Cheers to you all, I'm thinking of you, but not too much or I'll feel sad :)

In Kyoto, post 2

As I mentioned, I felt wretched coming over on the plane. I was appalled at what I:d done and at the thought of it being a WHOLE YEAR... and realised how much I love all my friends... and now I was sentenced to a year by myself... but when I finally left the plane into the Osaka airport it was with a smile on my face, looking forward to getting started. Since then I have mostly felt just fine with the occasional slightly down feeling. I think the main thing is to think of each day at a time, not think :aaagggh a whole year: but :cool, today I:m in Japan, what can I do today?:

I love my ryokan. (A ryokan is a traditional japanese inn. With a futon on the floor, a chair with no legs, sliding doors, and you get green tea and sweets brought to you every time you come in at the end of the day :)) It just has a nice vibe. The only thing I can:t handle is the breakfasts!

I can eat a big breakfast, OR an early breakfast, OR a Japanese breakfast. But I can:t eat all three. For example, yesterday:s breakfast consisted of the following:
a big piece of blackened fish, a nearly raw egg, a big wobbly slab of tofu with soy sauce, a bowl of miso soup, ham and lettuce, fruit pieces, fermented soybeans (natto), pickles, some unidentifiable orange jellied stuff, a bowl of sticky rice, some green unidentifiable stuff, and green tea.

This is enough food for four people and I had no hope. I could eat the miso soup, which I like, and maybe the fruit, and that on its own would satisfy me at 7:30am. Sadly I:ve devised a cunning strategy of eating some and hiding some in a plastic bag to throw out later. Luckily my breakfast is brought to me in my room so I can eat (and disguise my failure to eat enough for politeness). My major motivation to come on the Internet today - otherwise I might have waited another day or two - was to email the ryokan website to cancel my breakfasts in Nikko, the next town I:m visiting!

To compensate I have been eating things like bread and cheese scrolls, toasties, etc. There are many great bakeries and patisseries. I haven:t seen a lot of food like pasta or curries or anything, but a few.

I:m in Kyoto for a week. I spent yesterday sightseeing. I walked a lot. I went around near my ryokan. It:s just as you:d imagine Kyoto. Full of little houses with Japanese-style rooves and sliding doors, and vending machines, and it:s quieter than I thought, much quieter than Tokyo. I saw the Fushimi Inari shrine, which has hundreds of torii (red gates). I walked quite a lot around the city centre and the Kyoto train station building. I went to Arashiyama, which is a pretty place with mountains, a river, and loads more shrines and temples. You can:t seem to walk for fifteen minutes anywhere without stumbling over a shrine or temple. Since I don:t understand anything I:m seeing...

It poured with rain overnight but seems to have tentatively cleared up at the moment.

It:s funny, in Japan even looking at shops is interesting. There are so many food items where I can:t even determine a base ingredient. Is it vegetable, mineral? You go into a book store and there are about fifty people all standing reading magazines, :cos people commonly read in book stores, it:s acceptable...

Okay, I:ll post this then add a little more.

In Kyoto

Hi everyone! Hope you:re all well! I:m fine, I just ate as good a pain au chocolat as you:d ever find in Paris :)

Well　I have a lot to say (this is my diary as well as my way to keep in touch) and this japanese keyboard is very hard to figure out... forgive me if my punctuation is shocking... and apostrophes are in different places so I will use : instead!... and it keeps trying to convert my text into Japanese characters!

So, I'm here in Kyoto... flights were okay, apart from feeling wretched on them... It was a long day on Wed, started at 7am and arrived at my ryokan at around midnight. The weather:s actually very mild - it was 21 degrees when I arrived at 8:30pm... Got thru immigration without being asked anything, not even :how are you:

I have actually been using　Japanese a LOT, mostly because I have no choice. I hate to think what I must sound like to everyone. I learned a little Japanese over the last few months (and thank goodness I did, but I never practised speaking it much and so I have a lot of words I haven:t properly mastered. Examples:

saying 'I came from Australia in the meal' instead of 'in the morning'! (When trying to remember morning I tried asa gohan which means breakfast - asa is morning, gohan is meal, but I said the wrong one...)

saying 'hairdryer ga imasu ka?' (means 'is there a hairdryer' except you are supposed to use imasu for animate objects - people, animals etc - and arimasu for inanimate objects - places, items. So she probably had a mental image of a sentient hairdryer...)

trying to say that I had done a lot of walking but I think I said that there were a lot of people walking...

Anyway, I:m pretty dreadful but grateful for what I do know, because it:s coming in very useful. And it:s good I have this time travelling before I have to work, cos I can focus on practising japanese, looking up phrases and looking up kana (Japanese characters; I:m still learning the main ones).

Better post this and then post another, I don:t want to lose my text, it:s taking me much longer than normal to type as all the punctuation keys are in the wrong place... also for some reason all of Blogger is in Japanese and I don:t know how to change it.

First post

This is the blog where I'll post some accounts of my trip and how I'm going in Japan! Nothing to say yet, since I haven't left... I figure this is the best way to let people know how I'm going, since there are so many people to email and I'd probably just say the same thing over and over again...

If you haven't seen a blog before, you can make comments to any post using the link at the bottom of the post. :)