Of course I am back in Japan yet again - Oct and Nov 2018 - Page 1

Behold the montage!

I made a map to explain where I am going. Enjoy my map.

Here is the usual photo from my balcony. None of the buildings in my immediate vicinity fell down since my last trip. Lots more are being built. I think my suburb is now the densest in Australia, and I am the densest person in it.

A special treat. The crap that I take on a holiday. Note I take lots of underpants. There are also 2 backpacks and a man bag. Also a bag full of age defying elixirs and stuff that helps me to see even though I am almost completely blind. Finally my trusty old coat, I bought a new one but could not deny my 15 year old coat another journey, even though its not warm and not waterproof and my new one is.

Here I am on the bus. The woman behind me was photo bombing. Little does she know that my new camera has a sensor about as big as my head, so everything is always out of focus including my huge head, and she is reduced to a mere smudge.

I am very healthy. Feasting on rabbit food and water in the Singapore Airlines lounge, desperately trying to remember how to use my convoluted home made web site that features one giant text file with cryptic codes for everything, and breaks entirely if I forget to add a double pipe in the right place.

Here is my plane, on the ground in Melbourne shot through tinted dirty glass. A Boeing 777, my second favorite plane to fly in economy on due to 9 abreast seating. The only issue with these is they are very loud, much much louder than my favorite plane for economy travel the 8 abreast Airbus A330. Also the wifi did not work on-board, despite the screen in my seat advertising that it was working. I punched my screen repeatedly to try and make it work but of course thats not where it works from, I needed to punch somewhere in the roof lining.

Here is a plastic and glass tropical garden in Singapore airport. They need to dust it more often.

I walked the wrong way and decided to take a sky-train back around. A stood at the front of the first carriage and pretended to be the driver, including yelling 'NEXT STOP, TERMINAL 3'. No one paid me any attention though.

This is the butterfly garden, but where are the butterflies?
I have taken this exact photo multiple times, normally with butterflies.
Actually I took this almost identical photo again to compare my new camera to my slightly older still new camera. I have too many cameras.

They put out plenty of cut up pineapples for the elusive butterflies, but still I could not find a single one, and I looked everywhere. The pineapple was quite delicious.

Narita airport has a viewing gallery! And its full of people with very fancy huge cameras. It is outside the customs area so I guess if you like to take photos of planes you can just come here whenever you feel like it. Unfortunately the selected location is not great for viewing anything except the other people doing the viewing.

Proof that I was at Narita Terminal 1 viewing gallery. I must silence all doubters.

In case you cant wait to even leave the airport to buy plastic trinkets, dont worry, theres thousands to choose from as evidenced in this out of focus photograph. I selected a teddy bear sitting on a toilet and an anatomically accurate ghost.

Before boarding my train I decided to wander around the streets for a while, see if I could hide in the luggage compartment of a bus or just generally cause the airport police to become concerned. I am very good at making Japanese department of gardens and zebra crossing police nervous.

Here is Ueno. Cloudy today. I messed with the white balance of this photo slightly as I am still learning about my new camera. This is one of my favourite areas of Tokyo, its a great collection of food, dodgy African guys selling fake sneakers, electronics shops, traditional shops selling wax stamp seals required if you want to send a fax, pawn stores, porn stores and the occasional store that does not appear to be selling anything at all, those are too exclusive for me to dare enter.

On my walk to Nakano (not Nagano, thats a long walk), I passed this excellent sign that features a random fish to help you accept that your only method of escape during an earthquake will be closed down. This photo is a huge crop, I dont need a zoom.

I managed to find a random temple along the way. This is not hard to do in Japan. I have no idea what kind this is or what it is called. It has lots of fancy cars parked on the gravel to prevent westerners from taking photos that make Japan look like a temple filled blissful paradise instead of a Porsche Panamera parking lot. The orange witches hat makes this a truly fantastic photo.

Here is Lord Rayden from Mortal Kombat. I cut the top off his bo staff with my poor framing.

Behind the temple is a cemetery. I dont know if it is ok to take photos of them or not, so I did. Nice light. This is my second best cemetery in Asia photo, I took a better one a the fishing village in Tainan, Taiwan. Actually I thought about that a bit more, I also took a good one in Hong Kong. So this is the worst cemetery photo I ever took.

They also have these cool series of Buddhas or whatever wearing their red jockey caps. Entire mountains have been vandalised with these things.

If I had of got off at the correct station I would never have got a free sumo lesson. I looked a bit weird being the only fully grown man participating with these kids, but the instructors didnt seem to mind. Or did they? They were yelling, possibly at me, I couldnt tell.
What I do know is that I absolutely DESTROYED the 8 year old girl that challenged me.

They all bowed down before me.

Here is the main street running through Nakano. So colorful. The sun was coming out from behind the clouds.

Nearby was a market selling dolphin chunks on skewers. Quite salty, I think they must have soaked the flesh in sea water.

Next up we have a local performance of the Japanese epic, Our great nation shall rise again and wipe all other nations off the face of the earth. I got sidetracked here, but as I was typing this the imperial army went past my hotel with a cavalcade of 10 armored cars flying huge rising sun flags with much MUCH louder loud speakers than I have ever heard before.

This is the actual Nakano Broadway, it is much like the other covered shopping streets of Japan. I have no doubt I will photograph more of them before this trip is over.

Further proof I was at Nakano, not Nagano.

I remember this store from the last time I was here. An entire store dedicated to secondhand headphones, including in ear monitors. An amazingly unhygienic concept, but one I approve of. They let you try them! They even supply moist disinfectant tissues which are completely ineffective but everyone gets to pretend they are safe from the dreaded ear rot.

The second hand watch shop goes on and on forever. If you like watches, come here.

I am not going to Kyoto on this trip, and I dont need to. Torii gates smack bang in Nakano. Very low, I hit my head on each one. What is inside this height limited archway you may ask? Secondhand manga girl action figures showing their panties. Just like in Kyoto.

The creepiest photo of the day is the doll spare parts shop. Much like the other stores it goes on and on forever.

I tried for some artistic blurring. Not bad.

Nakano is 4 levels of 100 shops per level of stuff like this. Most of it secondhand. Theres secondhand electronics and camera shops too. If you want to buy something interesting, go here.

On the return journey I decided to get off at the station before Ueno, my hotel is in between the stations. This provided me with another nice view.

I like colors. So I found some colorful flowers to take a photo of and see what my colors look like. Quite colorful I think. Do you also like colors?

My tiny hotel. Its an APA. I stayed here before. It is fine. Also very cheap. I like short sentences.

And now photo of the day! The view if I lean out of the emergency exit from my 12th floor hotel room is very excellent. Very very excellent. I can keep an eye on the new imperial army from here.

Here is Ippudo. Famous in most of Australia for Ramen. It started in Fukuoka. The other day I went to one in China some place. Now it is in Tokyo. You can now get ramen in Tokyo!

Some neon. I am quite happy with the low noise quality of my night photos.

Here is Gokyudansan, famous for his purple legs. Gokyu is the first gay cross species hybrid in anime. He is part man and part eggplant, and his lover is also part eggplant. They go on epic journeys to taste the fear of their enemies which apparently involves spinning around a lot until you turn into a gelatinous blob.

Some more neon. There were lots of people handing out pamphlets for the local nurse cafe, where you pay $150 to have your temperature taken. Price also includes a piece of cake.

Under the train track thingy.

Here is the local Yodobashi. I have eaten dinner in the camera shop before. It has 2 levels of dinner places. I decided I should really get back to the hoteland go to sleep, so I went with the camera store food court to save endless wandering not deciding on what is not the best option to not have to eat.

Now that the location decision was made, I still had to decide on which mini restaurant I would eat at, that turned out to be easy, SOUP CURRY! I selected the vegetarian option that is potato and okra, and the hottest 100/100 scale on the chilli.

I thought I would get to bed early but then I saw a public screening of Men in Black! Will Smith and that other dude whos name I forget in one of the 17 greatest buddy cop alien hunting movies ever made. Hearing it dubbed in Japanese really added a new dimension to the narrative.

Here is Takao station. It is very easy to get to and only about an hour from Ueno on the Chuo Rapid line which skips many stations. I have riddend this line many times, it gives you a great appreciation of how huge Tokyo is.

It is not yet peak color, that will come, but the trees still look amazing, like a computer game from the 1990's.

The hike up to the top cable car station of Takao is more of a road, with shops, this is by all reports the number one hiking destination in Japan due to its proximity to Tokyo, it is the easiest place to go to see Fuji.

Obviously there will be temples. My photo is poorly framed.

I was happy to have a bigger backpack for its water carrying abilities. Today I did not need it. This is the top cable car station, there are vending machines everywhere. My day had really only just begun at this point, it was a good thing I left my hotel at 6:30 in the morning.

I believe I will be hiking all the way around to those peaks. I was excited! VERY EXCITED! So excited I slipped over in a very strange spot for no good reason at all, I dont even know what I tripped on, but it made my entire right leg brown with mud.

There are many views to be had of greater Tokyo as you will see. I believe many people take the cable car up at night to look at the lights. Lazy people. Actually you could easily walk up to here at night, its more of a road than a path to this point.

Extremely bright sun today. Challenging photo conditions. Still I didnt use any gradient filters to process these shots to make the sky blue. Highlight recovery is great in full frame whatever nonsense camera.

From the cable car to this temple / shrine complex is still very busy, full of brave people walking the few hundred metres in their hiking gear.

Each of these signs represents a person who committed sepukku because he didnt get enough instagram likes.

Now we will have a few temple photos, prepare yourself for ancient traditions.

This double headed golden dragon is blessing everyones bear scaring bells. You pay a few hundred yen to leave your bell here for a few minutes before you head off over the mountains. It is very dangerous to hike without an unblessed bear bell.

Every temple needs a shopping mall.

I dont think I was supposed to be in this area, but I found a cave you cant stand up in with various candles and stuff at the end.

By now I realised if I wanted to make it to my furthest hiking option end point that I was spending too much time messing about in the temple theme park, so I hip and shouldered these people out of the way and got going.

Why there was no one at this shrine I do not know? It is much more colorful than the others but theres no one here.

HYPERVENTILATE! HERE SHE IS! This is where I was told the weather is painfully amazing.

Have a bit more fuji. It has more snow than I was expecting. More than last year at this time. Perhaps it will melt again, its going to be over 20 degrees all week.

There are many peaks to go over, most of them have a little cafe / eating area like this. However about half of them are run down or abandoned. After Mount Takao I went up and over a few other peaks, named Kagenobuyama, Doshoyama and finally Mount Jinba where I started my descent. It would make more sense if I named them from photos taken at that point but I cant remember which was what.

I was trying to find new ways to photograph Fuji, this one features a tree trunk.

There are other far off peaks to look at other than Fuji.

A scene of utter devastation. Japan is second only to the destruction of the Amazon in their shocking deforestation.

Actually I think all those trees on the left are plantation rather than old growth, but I am no expert.

This area was shown on a sign as plum blossom area, there have been many news reports of plum blossoms appearing now, at the wrong time of the year because of numerous typhoons keeping the weather warm. No blossoms here though.

A bit more view of Tokyo.

This wasnt even one of the main peaks I dont think? But from here you can descend to a bus stop, so it was the end point for many hikers, not me though!

The path then became the most common type in Japan, hard dirt with trunks sticking out to trip you over surrounded by cedars.

Fuji framed by trees with a huge highway in the bottom of the valley. There is a very long tunnel under where I am standing.

That is the other side of the highway, heading back to Tokyo.

THE STANCE IS BACK. It never really went away. It is definitely shorts and tshirt weather today.

I look hot and wind swept. Although it wasnt actually windy today. Apparently the weather was perfect?

More of greater Tokyo. How many damn pictures did I take? My fingers are getting tired and I need to head out for dinner.

Another of my favorite styles of hiking trail, low bamboo. I like it more when its just low bamboo on its own but any bamboo is better than no bamboo. Thats a fact. Actually I dont even think it is bamboo. I clearly just like saying bamboo.

Here is a bit of color. I expected more. I guess the typhoons might be delaying autumn. Not to worry, I am here for a few weeks.

I see these photos everywhere on the internet, so I took one myself. I used my tilty screen thing so I didnt have to tilt my neck. Convenient.

Its a dinosaur with a penis for a head! This is the top of mount Jinba, my final peak for the day. I have no idea what Cockasauras is for.

One last view shot. The path I am on just continues all the way to fuji. I was out of time today.

I knew when what time the bus departed, 25 minutes past the hour. Not that it was a big problem because they depart every hour, but I decided to run as much as I could on the way down to get the next bus, I made it! This is a fairly typical tiny mountain valley town in Japan.

And here she is, waiting for me, a bus that was at the right stop at the right time. The last stop! It took about 45 minutes for it to get back to Takao station. It filled up with school children who wisely stayed the hell away from me.

I didnt see the main shrine but I saw this one in the backstreets. It had a sign explaining its purpose. It is a shrine for business people to come and wish for successful business and wealth. While I was taking the photo a couple of salary men did come and do a small bow hoping they get that big promotion down at the office or whatever.

No need to go to Miyajima to see Torii gate floating in the water, here you can see one rising above concrete. That reminds me, I have not been doing any of my amazing haikus yet. You are in for a real treat when I remember.

Here is the famous 1/50th scale model golden shrine. Japanse children do not build models of ships or racing cars, they build model shrines. Some assembly required. Lots of glue. Japan glue is inferior glue.

I bought an entire collection of pots to assist me in my one true love, baking things in pots. Luckily they sold me a case to carry my pots in so I can wheel them all around Japan before carrying them home on the plane.

This old lady lost all her money on bitcoin so now she has to grill mystery meat on sticks in the middle of the night and sell them to passing strangers. Actually this was a heavy crop, and despite that it still looks good to me, no noise etc. Sharp as a tack, whatever a tack is, all I know is photo websites describe things as being 'tack sharp'.

OMG A HEDGEHOG CAFE! Its probably cruel, I dont know, I dont speak hedgehog to ask them.

It looks like they take them out of the glass tank things. They dont seem to be too prickly to pick up or try and run away. Maybe they drug them. I bet they are delicious. This one is a heavy crop through glass. I will stop talking about crops soon. I dont need a zoom.

Here is an Asakusa street. The weather this evening was DELIGHTFUL, caps to emphasize the ridiculous description of the weather. Despite it being so nice outside, Tokyo seemed very quiet.

Here is my dinner. Its a kind of ramen. I think I should have gone to Ippudo Asakusa (they had one). This ramen was beef in a beef broth. The menu had a lot of English and talked about how healthy it is compared to normal ramen.

Last photo tonight is a rather non remarkable photo at first glance. Except these plants are for sale. By day this is a nursery. They just leave their plants out like this after they go home overnight. No one will steal them....or will they?