Monday, September 13, 2004

   Japan!!
Tokyo Rocks!! I had so much fun! OK, first I should say I'm sorry for not posting straight away.. I went away with my Dad pretty much as soon as I got back..

Anyways, the flight was pretty dull. And uncomfortable (why do they put seat tilt on when if you lean back you'll crush the guy behind you?). But it was well worth it! There was so much to see when I was there. I think I could stay in the Shibuya or Roppongi districts for a month and not see everything, nevermind the rest of Tokyo.

So.. I saw a festival parade and a Shinto shrine the first day I was there.. it was so strange seeing people wearing traditional clothes, playing traditional music and the little wooden shrine in the middle of a city. Great fun though!

I also visited Tokyo tower (of course - afterall, it's in the first Tenchi movie! ^_^;), and the Roppongi hills (a really high building with a restaurant at the top). While I was there I saw a Hello Kitty exhibition! Yep, that's right - to celebrate Hello Kitty's 30th birthday, a load of professional artists had come up with some amazing things - paintings, sculpture, photography, short films etc. all about Hello Kitty. It was fantastic! I'm a fan, so I got lots o' kewl souvenirs ^_^

I also saw an exhibition and a trailer for a new film by the same director of Akira. It's called 'Steamboy' and it looks great. It's based in a sort of fictional Victorian England. The computer graphics and animation techniques they're using to show buildings etc. are so good I got kinda homesick.. I can't wait for the English sub version!

I went into the country as well, to a little town (some distance from Tokyo) called Okazaki. It's where the Shogun clan originated.. (his family y'know), and there was a museum (with swords from the time!), statues and, of course, a castle. Japanese castles are so different to English castles.. beautiful in an entirely different way, considering they were built for the same purpose. I think that was one of the highlights of my trip ^_^ (reminded me of Inuyasha and Rurouni Kenshin).

What else? Oh, I should probably say that I love Japanese food. I went in loads of restaurants, and everywhere the food is prepared so skillfully, and with real passion. You can see why there are manga about cooking, when there is so much thought and effort put into even the simplest meals. Looks great too, and it's healthy, and really relatively cheap! I generally paid between 500 and 700 Yen, so about £5 or.. however many dollars ($7?).

And finally, the people! They really are as nice and friendly as everyone says! And as clean - I barely saw any graffiti or litter the entire time I was there. Not even on the subways (shiny!). You could eat off the streets, if the cars and bikes would stop for a minute.. So many business workers don't finish 'till nearly midnight, and the roads are packed (but still flowing) basically 24 hrs a day. The people are predominantly thin and fit too - probably the food, and all that energy spent on Karaoke ^_^. There were loads of really nice-looking guys, with fantastic hair and skin ^///^. Sorry, I just have a 'thing' for them!

That's about it then (mainly 'cos this is already a long post). I'll try and put up a couple of pics.. some are from around Mount Fuji, but you can't tell 'cos it was cloudy -_-;;

Ja ne!




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