Sorry for the lack of posts recently - I was away for a conference in Yokohama for most of last week, and since then I've been working hard on the next issue of JETfuel. Everything will be back to normal next week, but in the meantime I thought I'd post a few pictures of what I've been up to recently.
The first few pictures are from the weekend I spent with Flick in Tokyo, which, when I think about it, could very well be the last chance I get to go to Tokyo before I leave Japan. Wow, that's a scary thought: makes the end seem that much nearer. Anyway, we made the most of it, starting with a trip to the Budokan to see Franz Ferdinand supported by the Magic Numbers (more on that in a later post, but let's just say it was fantastisch), then on Saturday we took to the slowest train in the world to Nikko, a little village housing an impressive collection of temples some two hours north of the metropolis. Finally, after some serious shopping in Shibuya on Sunday, we headed to everyone's favourite Tokyo haunt - Harajuku - and proceeded to get hideously pissed on expensive wine.
I wasn't particularly looking forward to going to Yokohama after that, but I must say I was pleasantly surprised. The image I had of the city in my mind was of an overgrown fishing port masquerading as a glorified suburb of Tokyo, but in fact it was a thoroughly pleasant, ultra-modern city in its own right. I'd even go so far as to say the general quality of the buildings surpasses that of Tokyo, and the laid back, open streets give the place a much more relaxed pace than its bigger cousin.
The highlight was probably a trip on the utterly ginormous ferris wheel that dominates the waterfront - the wind really started picking up just after we got on, resulting in 15 minutes of howling, pant-wetting fear as we made the slow circle back to terra firma. Never again.
1 comment:
Never done Nikko, but if you go back another place you might like to visit is Kamakura. That was a little nearer than Nikko (hence it was the place we went to last time I was over in Japan for work, when we had limited time) and as well as the temples and giant buddha there was also a very good hiking trail across the hills. If you get a chance, I recommend it.
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