Japan

In so many ways, Japan is a very different country to Australia, but there are moments when I feel that I could be at home. Like for example on Sunday when we drove an hour through the countryside to attend a baseball game organised by Paul"s friends. While not quite like Field of Dreams, we were surrounded by rural Japanese-style houses, and not far from rice paddies. Like karaoke, baseball is a national obsession in Japan. I'm not sure exactly when it was adopted, but it may have something to do with the American Occupation. Anyhow, they love it. When I went to the Sofmap electronics store the other day, it was American baseball that was playing on the televisions, in the same way that we'd see football or cricket back home.

But the obsession with the west extends beyond baseball. It is very cool here to use English words in advertising or place names, even when it doesn't make sense or might be grammatically incorrect. And English spelling isn't a high priority. Paul tells me that English is widely spoken in Tokyo, but as we are in the country, almost no-one speaks it here in Niigata. Still, English pops up everywhere. I went to the Joy Fit gym the other day. The stadium in Niigata is nicknamed the Big Swan. And there is a Gatorade-style drink called Pocari Sweat. Mmmm, I know that when I'm hot and dehydrated after exercise, I want to reach for a cool, refreshing drink called Sweat.

But back to the American thing, I can't help but think about World War II while I am here. I may be sensitive to this because I'm presently on my way to Hiroshima, or it might be because with so much English and American-culture I'm reminded of how Japan was America's first foray into the nation-building that is still going on today. Anyway, when I think about the war atrocities, I can't make a connect between what happened then, and the Japanese people I meet today. It almost seems like something is missing. The Japanese people I have met are statistically hardly representative of the nation, but they seem like such placid and polite people. I guess it's one of history's little ironies that things worked out how they did. And perhaps it has more to do with mass manipulation, as was the case in Germany. Actually, I learned something interesting the other day about WW2. Apparently, Niigata was the Allies' preferred primary target for the first atomic bomb. But it was overcast
in Niigata, so the Allies chose Hiroshima instead. Paul's friends tell me that it is often overcast in Niigata. The day I landed I was reminded of landing in Melbourne only a few days before. Meaning, it was beautiful, sunny and warm... until the plane descended below the cloud-line.

We only caught the tail end of Sunday's baseball game because we got lost along the way. In Japan, almost every street is unnamed. Only the main roads have names, in the Western sense. As you can imagine, this makes it impossible to find an address. In fact, if one Japanese person invites another to their house, they must first meet at a recognisable landmark, so the host can show his guest how to get there. You might be wondering how the postal system works? Well, Japanese cities are divided into districts (like what we would call a suburb), then within those districts are numbered subdivisions. Within the subdivision are numbered street blocks. Each building on that block is also numbered, but according to the order that the buildings were constructed on that block. So within the block, it is almost always the case that building numbers aren't sequential. All those numbers are combined into a location code, which is different to the postcode. So it's easier for mail to find
its destination than a human. The exception to all this is named apartment buildings, like where Paul lives. In his case his buiilding is well-known as the city's first high-rise apartment building.

After the baseball match everyone had lunch by in a park by the river. The wide, green, open space reminded me very much of home. There must have been 40 people at the lunch, most of whom are known to Paul and his friends, and some of whom I'd met the night before when we went clubbing. All the gaijin (foreigners) at the lunch are English teachers in Niigata, just like Paul. It seems to me that the local gaijin community is fairly tight-knit, with all the benefits and problems that come with spending so much time with a small group of people. Extending out from this are the Japanese people who make up partners and close friends. Most are fluent in English, and English is the language of communication. It makes for an interesting bunch to hang out with, made all the more interesting by observing how people outside this group react to so many gaijin together.

Late in the day, we played some frisbee for a while before someone suggested a soccer match. Gaijin vs Japanese. I have photos for those who don't believe I could/would participate. In fact, if it counts, I used to play soccer in grade two, 24 years ago. Us gaijin beat the Japanese team 2-1 in the first half, which was intended be the only match. But we all had such a good time it wasn't long before we continued the game. The Japanese team were as determined to win, as we intended to hold on to our lead. I giggled when one of the Japanese players opened the second half with a cry of Tora Tora Tora. It's all in good fun. We lost though. In fact we were trounced by a two point lead. It was a great afternoon.

With only two more days in Niigata, I spent all of Monday riding Paul's bike around town to see what else I had missed. I later worked out that I rode the bike in excess of 25 kilometres, from Paul's place to the beach, in-land to the Big Swan (which incidentally hosted some 2002 World Cup soccer finals), and finally back home again. After gym on Saturday, soccer on Sunday, and bike-riding all Monday, I was exhausted by the time I got home. I should mention one place I visited. It is called Nihonkai (Sea of Japan) Tower. I've come to learn that Japan is home to the "world's best standard" crap amusements (explaining to me once and for all why Japanese tourists go to the tackiest amusement places in Australia). Nihonkai Tower proudly proclaimed that it was the only observation deck built on a water reservoir, in all of Japan. Wow. The view was crap. But the best thing was that it is a revolving observation deck... with an area marked "smoking corner".

We finally got to have yakiniku on Monday night, which is a Korean barbeque-style dinner appropriated by the Japanese. We sat on tatami mats, at a table with a built-in barbeque. The staff brought trays of meat and vegetables which we cooked ourselves. Delicious. The yakiniku restaurant we attended is todihorai, meaning it's all-you-can-eat. It can also be had with an all-you-can-drink nomihorai deal. This cost us ¥2800. I can't think of anywhere in Australia that will give you that sort of a deal, reinforcing my belief that Japan simply isn't as expensive (anymore) as suggested by guidebooks and tourists from the 80s and early 90s. Of course, I might think otherwise once I get to Tokyo.

Yesterday, I visited Sadogashima (Sado Island). This is Japan's second largest non-main island, and is easily the highlight of my trip so far. I learned about this remote part of Japan from my pre-trip planning. Located off the coast from Niigata, this is the island that the world-famous kodo drummers hail from. The island's isolation from the mainland is fundamental to its history. Sado is kind of like Japan's Tasmania. At one time, it was used as a prison, with the prisoners working as slaves in the island's gold mine. A deposed emperor was even exiled here.
And Michael Palin visited on one of his treks, so I figured that was as good a recommendation as any.

I caught a 6am jeto-foiru (hydrofoil) from Niigata to Ryotsu, which is a port in the centre of the island. I had read that Sado was remote and lacked amenities for tourists, so I was expecting to see dirt roads leading from the jetty. You can imagine my disappointment when we landed and saw that Ryotsu was built-up, grey, and ugly, like so much of the rest of Japan. I hired a car, and headed north. Once out of the town of Ryotsu I found myself travelling along a stunning coastal road. Sado reminds me very much of Tasmania. Both islands share a harshness to their scenery, with narrow roads winding around sheer cliffs. On one side is the brilliant green of pine forests (with the occasional outbreak of bamboo), while on the other side is the sea, as blue as can be. This is the Japan that I have come to see. The speed limit was a ridiculously low 40, but thankfully most drivers almost double that. It was only about 35 kilometres to Futatsu-Game, the one place that I had to see, a
nd the car rental guy said that would take an hour. Despite my speeding it still took an hour because I had to stop every kilometre or two to take a photo. It was that beautiful. I also stopped at a post-office to buy some postcards. The clerk rummaged around in several draw before coming up with two plain-white cards with conveniently marked sections on one side indicating where to put the address. The reverse side was blank. No photo. Nothing!

Futatsu-Game is Japanese for two turtles. And that's the best way to describe the two huge shell-shaped rocks that rise out of the sea only 100 metres from the shore. They're connected to the mainland by a little isthmus but the sheerness of their slopes made the turtles very much off-limits. Just past Futatsu-Game was another place that was even more beautiful. I've forgotten its name, so will post it later. But here there was one "rock", rising out of the ocean at least 200 metres high. There was a walking track all the way to the top. The torii gate at the start of the track leads me to think there might be a Shinto shrine at the very top. The lower slopes were covered in fields of bright yellow daffodils. Check out my photos to see how spectacular this looked.

My journey continued down the western side of the island. With the exception of some quaint little towns and some spectacular tunnels, nothing was quite as spectacular as what I'd already seen. Regarding those tunnels, Japan spends 10% of its GDP on infrastructure works. A lot of that money is spent on projects that won't recoup their cost, like tunnels in remote country islands, and the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge (the world's longest suspension bridge) linking an island the size of Singapore with the main island of Honshu. I'd love to visit Akashi Kaikyo, but it's kinda out of the way so will have to give it a miss.

I returned from Sado around 5:30, eager to attend to a problem that had been brewing for a few days. This is my first post in several days, and the longest to date, and that's because Paul's computer has been out of action. It all started when I tried to procure some software from a less-than-reputable web site, not realising that Paul's computer is open to the internet. No firewall. No anti-viral software. It was about a half hour later that we started to notice strange messages. I'm actually travelling with my bag of disc-tricks so ordinarily it would be easy to remove. But the problem was made a whole lot worse by Paul having a Japanese version of Windows XP, meaning that every on-screen message (including Start) appears in Japanese in Kanji, Hiragana, or Katakana script. And it's a particularly nasty bug that the PC got, hijacking the browser to redirect every web request to a particular page, and blocking access to any site that provides tools or guides to assi
st with removing viruses and spyware. I spent two nights working on it before deciding the problem was bigger than I could handle. Anti-viral software eventually removed the viral components, but no other tool, or any amount of fiddling was able to fix the browser hijack. My last resort suggestion to Paul was for him to take it to a PC shop and have them rebuild the C: drive using the Japanese Windows XP, with me picking up the tab. I didn't sleep well last night, probably because I was thinking about the problem overnight, and I hate to be beaten by a machine. It turns out it is something I have seen before, and was fairly easy to remove once I remembered how. Phew!! I was able to leave Niigata with a working computer for Paul, and a clear conscience for me!

I'm writing the tail end of this post from the shinkansen (bullet train). When planning my trip, the shinkasen was one of the things I was most excited about as I have always wanted to travel on a very fast train. The French TGV was clocked at more than 500km/hr, but the shinkansen remains the world's fastest scheduled train service. I purchased a Japan Rail Pass from Australia which gives me 14 days unlimited travel on the shinkansen throughout Japan, and also many local trains. It cost me ¥45,100, which is a massive cost saving to individual trips. Just one return journey between Niigata and Tokyo alone would cost AUD $250. I have already travelled three times that same distance, and I haven't even gotten to my destination yet!

My journey started on the Joetsu Shinkasen, travelling form Niigata to Tokyo. Niigata is the end of the line, so it was easy to get a window seat, and some of the journey was through a beautiful mountainous region. Part of the reason why the shinkansen is so expensive is that purpose-built rail lines had to be constructed throughout Japan, most of which is above-ground. There are also many, many tunnels to mitigate the need to change grade or reduce speed. I certainly haven't felt I'm travelling at a 270km/hr. (It takes 5 kilometres for the train to stop from maximum speed). The ride is incredibly smooth and gentle, making QR's local trains all the worse!

Arriving in Tokyo was fantastic. It is such a huge metropolis that the view looked "big city built-up" almost an hour before we got to Tokyo Station. And what a station. It doesn't look spectacular, but it was busier than any I have ever seen before. I actually took a moment to stand by a wall and watch.

At Tokyo I boarded the Tokkaido Shinkansen, which is the original shinkansen line, opening around 1964. It took me a while to find the right carriage because there are first-class and second-class reserved seating carriages interspersed with the non-reserved carriages. I finally found a non-reserved carriage, and a spare seat, and settled in before realising it was a smoking carriage. At first I thought it would be okay, but after a few minutes I couldn't breathe. I eventually found a non-smoking, non-reserved carriage, which unfortunately also seemed to be non-air-conditioned. It's not so bad now, as the carriage has almost emptied, but the first few hours were suffocating. Otherwise the shinkansen has been very comfortable. All seat are reclinable with a tray table on the sat in front There is no restaurant car, but a trolley dolly appears frequently, pushing her food and drink cart.

We have passed through Nagoya, Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe, but I will stay with the train until it reaches the end of the line at Okayama. There I will change trains and catch a third shinkansen to Hiroshima. I left Niigata at 2pm, and will arrive around 9:30pm. The train system runs like clockwork here, with JR's motto something to the effect of set your watch by their schedule. And the connections are flawless. In 7.5 hours of travel, only 30 minutes will be lost to waiting for connections. If I happened to miss any of these trains there would be another in 30 or 60 minutes, right across Japan. It makes me wonder how many trains are in operation. And mind you, these aren't small trains. Each carriage is about 30+ metres long, and there are at least 16 carriages. Even at around the half-kilometre mark in length, when one passes you at a station, it does so in about three seconds. If you are looking the wrong way you won't see it, but you'll certainly feel the air pres
sure change, even from within another shinkansen! Everything about the shinkansen is simply amazing.