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Already i’ve failed to keep up to date on my postings, not even a month in to our big trip and i’m already late! I have an excuse though, i’ve been without my laptop for the past half week or so because Brett and I headed off to do the Tanzawa traverse near Mt Fuji. It was a 2 day hike which involved altogether to many ups and downs for my liking. The trail builders seemed to do their best (bless their hearts) to get us to the top of every mountain they possibly could, not even bypassing the totally bypassable nameless bumps to save our legs for the ones worth summiting. So my blogging has suffered as much as my calves (and knees and quads).
We then spent the last few days in the Fuji 5 lakes area, staying at our favourite guesthouse in Fuji Yoshida and one night at the Kawaguchiko youth hostel. Described in the Lonely Planet as “somewhat regimented” it still sounded doable, but then we didn’t expect to be blasted awake at 6:45am with very loud classical music. Once they’d established that everyone (all 5 or so guests) were awake and out of bed they turned it off, but for a while there it was deafening. Odd. Thankfully we were still on hiking time so had had plenty of sleep. At the mountain hut the night before I asked what time breakfast was and must have looked somewhat stunned when the man told me 5am. He gently added that it was “from” 5am. We were up anyway.
Apart from that our time in Tokyo has been rather mundane, picking up visas (Brett, China), getting new passports (me, Australian, Mrs Voegele reporting for duty), catching up with people and stopping in at our favourite eateries. To Die For Chocolate Cake from the place in Nippori near where I used to live, endless skewers at Piss Alley and some nostalgic drinks in the Golden Gai. It’ll certainly be hard to say goodbye to Tokyo and Japan when we get on the ferry for South Korea.
Tonight I presented at the 61st Pecha Kucha night in Tokyo, a great night of creative presenters from all sorts of different fields. In the slideshow/gallery are the 20 photos I presented as well as a few from the past week. I haven’t taken many though so it’s slim pickings for weekly photos. Hopefully more when we get to Korea.
Tags: Fuji Yoshida, hiking, Japan, Kawaguchiko, Mt. Fuji, Pecha Kucha, Tanzawa, Tokyo
Posted by: Rhona in Japan
In spring Japan goes mad for blossoms, in Autumn it’s all about the turning of the leaves. There’s an appreciation for the seasons here that i haven’t really seen anywhere else. There is always seasonal decorations, seasonal food and ever things which can be made all year around (like peach flavoured kit kats or molasses ice-creams) are only available in the “correct” season. I’ll admit it’s a bit annoying when green tea kit kats (which I love) go out of season because it’s no longer winter and i know the only place i can get them until next winter is Kyoto, but on the other hand it’s actually kind of nice to be reminded of the seasons even though i’m living in the midst of the world’s largest metropolis. The greater Tokyo area (which includes Japan’s 2nd largest city – Yokohama) has a population of over 35 million people. That’s close to twice that of Australia!
One of the places close to Tokyo which is well known for the changing of the leaves is Nikko so a few weekends ago we headed up there to do a short walk in the mountains. Traffic was horrific and we nearly missed the last train but it was beautiful up there. Which, of course, was why there were so many people. Here are some photos of the delicate maple leaves changing colour.
Tags: autumn, Japan, nature, Travel
Another entry from my life in Tokyo before i leave on my mad adventure. The other week i headed down to Tsukiji fish market on one of the first trains (4:30am wakeup i believe it was) to experience the hectic market for what may be the last time. I never did get around to buying the leopard print gumboots I planned on buying when i moved here and knew that visiting the fish market would be a semi regular occurrence. Another thing I never did was buy a fresh wasabi root and grate my own wasabi to eat with sushi. Strange thing when you’ve lived in a place so long but not done the things you wanted to do in the first week there.
Fish wait for a buyer at the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo. The largest fish market in the world by a ridiculously wide margin, Tsukiji sells around 450 different types of seafood at any one time, with about 2,200 different types being sold over the course of a year. Approximately 4,000 tonnes of seafood gets sold every day and around 12 million people will eat something sold at Tsukiji every day. They’re mind boggling numbers.
These fish are at one of the 1,500 small wholesale stalls which sell to small retailers and restaurant owners. The whole area is a hive of activity in the early morning, when the people who will eat for lunch the fish sold here are still fast asleep.
Tags: fish, fish market, Japan, Tokyo, Travel, Tsukiji
