SHE'S BAAAAAACK

My blog from my last trip to Tokyo met a somewhat untimely end after I started doing intense, serious research (read: having too much fun). Now thanks to a wonderful exchange programme that Cambridge has with Nihon University, I am now back for a 3 month course of Japanese and for more curry doughnuts.

My story can only begin with the journey because things didn't exactly go smoothly. Firstly, I managed to tip 250ml of water into my handbag, saturating the contents, including my boarding pass. It was still legible but despite my protestations, the lady at the gate referred me to another desk in order to get it reprinted. I promptly approached this desk with the announcement of "Hello! I am water leakage girl!" Don't ever refer to "leakage" and yourself in the same sentence unless you want people to regard you with barely-concealed horror.

To top off this general leakage theme, I managed to get the seat on the plane with the fold-out tray that doesn't lie straight. The wonderful slant angles everything towards my lap. In an attempt to cut a slice of chicken breast, I near-catapulted a cup of apple juice over the elderly Japanese man next to me.

So....so far so good. After being greeted at Narita and then Shinjuku station, Antony and I lugged our stuff into the taxi and then into our raaaather nice accommodation (bedroom, kitchen, bathroom - and spacious by Tokyo standards!) to then be given a tour of the area where we're staying: Shimotakaido. Now, it's only 5 mins walk to that station but somehow we ended up..."admiring the view" along several other streets before we finally found our way back. By that point, I had been on the go for 26 hours. Whew.

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Today, my fellow students and I took a stroll round Asakusa and Ueno in the unusally high temperatures for this time of year (33degC+) but the not-so-unusual humidity. Highlight was possibly watching the wildlife in the the lake in Ueno Park. Turtles and carp and a duck all battled valiantly for bread. As a result, I can now introduce you to a world exclusive game: Duck, Fish, Turtle. Rules are the same as Rock, Paper, Scissors. Duck beats fish, fish beats turtle, turtle beats duck. Invent your own hand signs as necessary.

Asakusa

I managed to take a stroll down here late afternoon today. I passed the Asahi Flame (AKA "golden turd") then wandered over to Asakusa Park to see the Senso Temple (Senso-Ji) which enshrines a statue of Kannon, the Goddess of Mercy. Unfortunately it didn't look quite itself (it wasn't visible due to rennovations) but I also passed Asakusa Temple and several other shrines and statues which made up for the disappointment. The Buddha is ominpresent. I particulartly liked the twin Buddhas that sit side by side, the left representing wisdom and the right mercy.

The park itself has a fantastic atmosphere. It's not a place of greenery. It's full of the above-mentioned features and the tourist shops that have emerged as a result. Yet busy though it was, it was still peaceful and relaxed. You can sit on stones with flat, shiny tops like marble under the shade of trees. Then, you can stroll over to a stall selling sweet pastry delights with various fillings - mine was sweet potato, although pumpkin appeared to be the crowd favourite.

After fulfilling my tourist duties at the park, I took a leisurely stroll round the area. I have discovered that vending machines are like weeds - if there's the space on the pavement, they'll pop up and fill it. They seem almost organic. Also bikes are everywhere. And that's all over the pavement but I have not observed any near collisions. Thirdly, what strikes me about Tokyo with its ultramodern image is the amount of homeless people there seem to be. Maybe I'm just in the "wrong" area but I've seen perhaps thirty old men sitting about in the street. Maybe they're not homeless, although the beer can piles seem to suggest otherwise. Lastly, the noise emanating from trees is phenomenal. It's electric and violent - I was looking at the overhead wires but it has to be crickets. Move over cicadas of the Mediterranean. This is on a whole new scale.