We arrived in Tokyo on Friday afternoon and started of our Japanese sojourn with celebratory drinks at Dani and Figgy's “flat of awesomeness”. We hit Tokyo nightlife with dinner at a traditional Japanese Isakaya and then Dani and I entertained our men with karaoke performances of “Moskau” and “Gen Gen Genghis Khan” ... the less said the better I think :) (but the video's on flikr for any masochists out there).
After a weekend of gallivanting around Tokyo, meeting friends and generally spreading the news of OUR ENGAGMENT (we still have both have huge grins on our faces and I only just mange to control the urge to hug strangers in the street), we had an early start (shock horror!) on Monday and boarded Japan's famous bullet train Shinkansen bound for Kyoto.
Kyoto is home to 17 Unesco World heritage sites - observant readers will have noticed that we seem to be visiting only Unesco World heritage sites – so in the time-honoured tradition of our sabbatical we once again went templing. The temples we saw were once again very different from anything we saw in either India, Cambodia or China. The best way of describing them is to say that they are incredibly elegant and formal – low storied and made entirely of wood and rice paper, they sit in manicured gardens with rocks, ponds and small trees and shrubs inviting you to sit down and have a Zen moment ... which we did until all the seriousness became too much to bare and we felt the need to re-enact scenes of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, which was in fact filmed in a bamboo groove by one of the temples – please see exhibit A.
We are now back in Tokyo and have happily fallen back into our routine of eating delicious food, drinking local brews, staying up late chatting too friends and sleeping away most of our time. However, tomorrow we will be getting up super early and hitting Tsukiji Fish Market to see the tuna auction and breakfast on fresh sushi ... Dani and G, you both promised it!
As you can see, we continue to have a great time!
This must be my eighth trip to Japan but as on every other one, I am once again struck by the many contrasts of this place – it's a country of incredible refinement and elegance yet at the same time it is loud and brash. It's the place where you can see a traditionally clad geisha hurrying to an appointment in one of the many old tea houses that line the streets of Gion in Kyoto and twenty-something women dressed up as Little Boo Peep carrying a stuffed sheep in the streets of Harajuku in Tokyo - please see exhibit B.
It's the country of the most delicious sushi you can possibly imagine as well as the most horrendous junk food you can think of. Recycling is part of the national psyche here and heaven forbid if you throw burnable waste in the non-burnable waste bin, yet everything you buy is wrapped into five layers of plastic. It's ok to pass out stone cold in the streets of Rappongi after a heavy night of drinking with your colleagues but heaven help you if you blow your nose in public. It's just as famous for anime as it is for the traditional art of wood block printing ... I am sure you follow my drift.
As some of you know, Japan and I have never been the “bestest of friends” but on this visit, without the strain of work, I think we have come a little closer - it is hard not to like a country that is so wonderfully weird and pink!
Sayonara
Cxx
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