Month: April 2007

Following on from Nikko we took the train to Takayama. Takayama is a fairly touristy place, popular with Japanese as well as Western tourists due to its authentic old buildings. We also had our second stay in a ryokan, this time more upmarket. Takayama itself is very picturesque, albeit in only a small section, and also contains the Hida No Sato historic village with 30 or so reconstructions of traditional Japanese house types.

For the train journey to Takayama we bought some strange green biscuits in a 7-11 in Nikko, and then picked up a can of hot coffee at a train station along the way when we needed to change. Japan had vending machines all over serving either cold or hot drinks. Although initially a strange concept for us it’s an excellent idea that I wish could be adopted over here. Unfortunately, I don’t think they’d last long without being vandalised in Britain. Oh, and the biscuit turned out to be green tea with chocolate chunks (obvious from the name “American Soft” surely?), but not mouldy as it may look:

Waving cats are apparently very lucky. I’m always seeing them in Thai restaurants here but they’re all over the place in Japan. This one was stone and quite tasteful compared to many of the plastic ones we saw:

As I mentioned, the ryokan (called Nagase) was quite stylish, even if the furniture had no legs. This was our room:

The corner of the room in the ryokan. The raised area is a feature of ryokan rooms that you’re not meant to step on, even for taking photos (ahem):

We were served dinner in the room by the ryokan’s maids (two slightly dotty Japanese women of around 50 to 60 years old). We wore the dressing gowns provided (yakuta, as they’re known by snobs) to get into the spirit of things:

Dinner was excellent, though, and consisted of a dozen or so dishes including noodles, soups, fish, pickles, rice and all sorts of other weird and wonderful animals, vegetables and minerals:

This shot inside one of the houses in Takayama shows the tea pot hanging on a hook. Tea is quite important in Japan and so the hooks tended to be very overblown:

The old buildings were very interesting and it was easy to see modern architecture influences:

The modular space somehow never became repetitive, despite being so rigidly based on grids and the tatami mat dimensions:

Another impressive tea hook:

Inside another house:

Hida No Sato was a distinct attraction of Takayama and well worth a visit. Ann and Jo were getting ready to find it interesting in this shot:

One of the Hida No Sato houses:

The buildings may have been interesting, but obviously not as interesting as the pond:

Below are more shots from the set of traditional buildings:

Every tourist spot had very strict signs telling you which way to go, and Hida No Sato was no exception. It doesn’t quite say “All visitors will follow the route on pain of death” but it might as well:

The large, orange cow really stood out, and reminded me of Bethnal Green:

I’ve no idea what this is but I’m sure I saw it in a Star Trek episode once:

We also found an old phonebox although we couldn’t try it out as a statue was in it making a call:

Some of the buildings had very precise places where the best photo could be taken from and needed a particular stance, as Bob is demonstrating here. I’m not sure whether this mixture of Bob and tripod should be called a Bobpod or a Tribob:

I just hope these green things never come to life:

This was one of the largest waving cats we saw out on the street:

Unfortunately, we were too late to visit the Teddy Bear Eco Village:

An old street in Takayama:

Of all the weird things we were fed, this is possibly one of the weirdest. It was a pot of small, raw, dead fish. Note the eyes are clearly visible:

More vending machine fun, this time with beer. We tried Yebisu dark beer first, which tasted really quite malty:

And the light beer, which tasted of not much:

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Next: Japan Trip, Part 4 – Shirakawago

We started with Tokyo for three nights. The airport is actually about an hour and a half outside of Tokyo and not the most interesting of drives in. In fact, Tokyo didn’t appear that spectacular on the way in. I think it’s a city that takes a while to get used to in terms of where to find what and it’s an altogether different prospect than many other centralised capital cities. Think of about six London’s glued together and you’re somewhere close.

This is the crowd I was with. From the left to right: Ann Lakshmanan, Jo Lintonbon and Robert Blundell.

As you’d expect, there are a number of rather tall buildings in Tokyo:

The dry dock in Yokohama:

We found what appeared to be a modern interpretation of Tower Bridge in Yokohama. The large ferris wheel can be seen in the background:

There was also this rather impressive hotel overlooking Yokohama harbour:

The ferris wheel in Yokohama is also quite impressive, although unfortunately I was with a bunch of cowards so couldn’t go on it:

Japanese signs were frequently incomprehensible and the diagrams don’t really help. As far as I can tell, this sign means that anyone with hands or feet isn’t allowed past:

Being with a group of architects, I was forced to visit Yokohama ferry terminal. Fly all the way to Japan, and the first thing we do is go and look at a ferry terminal… There weren’t even any ferries there to see, although there was a lot of wooden decking:

See: wooden decking:

The bus park and taxi rank from the terminal roof was a nice composition, I’ll give it that:

And there were things to look at from the top of the ferry terminal, like boats and a large bridge:

A view looking down at the entrance to the terminal restaurant (which was excitingly closed):

The signs were there to keep me entertained at least. “There’s no getting over the fence” I rather liked. I know I’ll never quite get over it:

The view back to Yokohama from the terminal roof. The rather large hotel from an earlier photo can be seen to the left:

More pictures of wooden decking from the ferry terminal. Apparently the building was designed as a regular shape but someone sat on the model the day before submission and they didn’t have time to rebuild it, but it still won. (That’s my theory anyway.)

I also found somewhere interesting to put my feet:

Inside the ferry terminal was just as “interesting”:

It had quite a crazy roof inside, though. This was also based on a model that had been squashed:

Away from the terminal and into a temple park, this wall of sake flasks was impressive:

The temple itself was quite a typical shape that we were to see a lot of over the next couple of weeks:

The gateway was rather impressive:

As was the gate to the temple area (which was made of wood):

Later that evening we also saw a London Routemaster bus. It seemed to be advertising something, but it’s always good to have something familiar when you go abroad (even if they’re getting rid of them from London):

From there, it was back to more architecture. No more the dizzy heights of a ferry terminal for us; we were now looking at a Prada shop designed by European architects:

The logo of the Prada building:

The Prada shop’s cladding was made from bubble wrap making this the second building of the day we’d seen that was a literal enlargement of a model:

This view inside shows some of the whacky shapeness of it:

Tokyo itself wasn’t as hectic as I’d imagined, but it was very well lit up as this streetscape shows:

Another feature shop, called “Tod’s” (which I haven’t heard of):

The Louis Vuitton shop:

The Christian Dior building was probably the most pleasant of the bunch:

A shot of just some of the huge amount of neon advertising there is all over Japan. This piece of Tokyo doesn’t really convey how overwhelming it all is:

Carp were a feature of nearly every pond and this is a shot from our tenth floor room in the Takanawa Prince Hotel in Tokyo:

We started the second day in Tokyo with a visit to Ueno Park. As it was the start of cherry blossom season the crowds were fairly big even for a weekday but there were some impressive shots of blossom:

As well as the cherry trees there were also a few temples in Ueno:

A guide we had later told us that lions are often placed to guard shrines, but don’t guard the temple. So: remember that if you want to steal a temple, as long as you leave a shrine alone then you’ll be fine:

This rather bizarre hotel building was also visible from the park. It looks like some kind of 70’s experiment but is actually remarkably new, and hopefully built to withstand earthquakes:

Flyovers and walkways were ever-present in Tokyo but were somehow done in a more assertive way by the Japanese than we have in England. Flyovers did what they needed to do, walkways went where they needed, and as long as the two didn’t bump into each other all was fine:

The streetscapes of Tokyo were still quite impressive in daytime with the amount of advertising they carried:

There were also a few very strange buildings. This one seems to be for a crockery manufacturer (or something) and has cups for balconies:

Towards the northwest of Tokyo we found a bustling market (selling mostly tack, it has to be said). In case you’re wondering, the people with masks on aren’t bandits but, as far as we can tell, were wearing face masks so they didn’t spread germs. As with so many things there, it’s an eminently sensible development that I can’t see ever being adopted in Europe.

At the end of the market was a temple complex with a tall pagoda:

This temple was next to it:

On the way down towards the river and along it we saw more glorious modern architecture. This time, the Asahi headquarters by Philip Starck, complete with golden turd on the roof. (Apparently that’s how it’s also known to the locals, although it’s supposed to be Asahi’s flame logo.)

The Asahi turd does, however, make a rather attractive hat, as Ann is here demonstrating:

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Next: Japan Trip, Part 2 – Nikko

Having just come back from Japan I can say it’s a most amazing and very strange country. A lot of things seem very familiar from any Western city, but everything is just slightly different. It’s interesting just how similar some things are but how different others are. It’s a lot more subtle than, for instance, we have pound shops and they have 99 yen shops (which is about 45p). There are the tunes that are played every time a train comes into a station that would drive most Londoners completely mad, the cutesy pictures, and the train conductors who bow on their way in and out of every carriage. Generally, it’s just like England but weird.

Anyway, the interesting things are the pictures so I’m going to put those in separate posts for each part of the trip.

Japan Trip, Part 1 – Tokyo