28 October 2017
Drowning in a sea of tissues
Sunpu castle and the view from the hills over Shizuoka
Right now I am on the train to Kyoto, a roughly 2 hour trip from Shizuoka on the slow train, and I wished I was on the fast train or walking.
You see, its been a couple of days since I was last coated in mucus, and despite the lack of a patient travelling with a snot pump today, I am quite literally surrounded by piles of tissues.
First of all when I boarded, the guy next to me had piled up all his used tissues on my seat. There is no other seat, I have to sit here, and even the parts between the carriages where you can stand ar full.
This guy looks like a zombie, a ghostly white Japanese person, quite fitting for upcoming Halloween which has been running here for days already.
Then I noticed everyone else around me has their big packs of tissues and face masks, and little plastic bags full of used tissues they are proudly collecting. Some people are coughing up all kinds of lung treats in cacophonous harmony.
My horror train is later than normal today, its Saturday and most seats to Kyoto were sold out, so I am lucky I bought this ticket the day I arrived in Tokyo.
My later train meant I had plenty of time to do a bonus activity in Shizuoka which was well worth it, I got to go to the old soon to be new castle grounds, called Sunpu, pay $2 to see the garden, then go up the road to the big shrine and hike up the hill and enjoy the view. Bonus hike, what could be better?
Working backwards from sitting on the train to waking up, before going to the castle grounds, I checked out of my hotel and left my bags there, remember this is the place that was worried I would host an elaborate party in my room for one person.
The woman asked when I would collect my bags, and I told her one thirty at the latest. She told me after midnight I would have to ring the bell. Again they assumed 1:30am even though it was currently 7:30am.
Then I went to the local Tullys cafe, same place I went yesterday for breakfast, and was confronted by an aggressive coffee making servant boy, very strange -
You came here yesterday also!
me: yes
How come you come here twice? You like it or something?
me: because you are near my hotel and are open
Oh, you are american tourist, how come you come to Japan? Trump sends you?
me: I am Australian
American tourist not welcome!
me: I am not american, can I get a coffee please?
Then someone else helped me.
And now, right on cue, as I type this on the train, the guy in front of me turned 180 degrees in his seat, looked right back at me through the gap between his seat and his window, lifted his surgical snot mask and simultaneously sneeze/coughed right at me.
This is a set up, I am sure of it.
Sunpu castle is destroyed, for now (see below) but an original guard house with entry fee remains.
I paid $2 to go into this garden, they had giant fish in the pond. It was ok, not sure why it has an entry fee.
The modern buildings in the background make this shot all the better.
Slow shutter hand held for waterfall effect. It was really dark in this corner of the garden.
Some of the trees were nice, but its a very grey day, light rain at times, would have looked much nicer in the sun.
I waded up this stream trying to catch fish with my hands.
It looks to me as though they are about to construct a new version of the Sunpu castle, out of steel and concrete, with built in wifi.
At first I thought this was going to be the main shrine, signalling the start of the old route to the top of Fuji. I was wrong, this is just an outhouse.
Here we have the actual shrine, Sengen shrine, site of many simultaneous weddings today I think. I tried to make it look mysterious with classic chrome.
A bit more shrine.
And one more for good measure, there was a very steep staircase leading up the hill to the left, THIS is the start of the path all the way to Fuji.
I hiked along some of it the other day when I went over Ryuso.
There are some good views to be had of Shizuoka along this ridge that has city on both sides, but the main part of the city remains illusive, I could never get a good photo of the buildings at the centre of town, trees were always in the way today, construction was always in the way yesterday.
The downtown area of Shizuoka is a closely guarded secret.
This one is the outskirts of Shizuoka, looking towards Shimizu where I went the other night. Its much bigger than I originally realised.
The hills at the back on the right, not the smaller one in the foreground, is where I was yesterday.
And this is the shrine at the end of the quiet shopping street I took shots of last night, now you get to see it in the day time also!
And actually, that street had a lot more open today on my journey back to town, lots of fruit shops, bakeries etc. All things that close at 5pm.
Thats all from Shizuoka, it started off slow but got better as time went on, maybe one day I will return to yell at the bus company some more.