Holiday in Nikko 日光の休み

Yesterday, I got back from Nikko after a very enjoyable 3 day break. The countryside around Nikko is so beautiful, and there's lots of wildlife too, I saw many birds and butterflies, snakes, squirrels and monkeys. I'm looking forward to my next trip there!

The first day I spent looking around the temple area of Nikko, and had a delicious yuba (tofu skin) and soba (buckwheat noodle) soup lunch. The 2nd day I spent walking in the countryside, had a few short conversations with Japanese walkers, and one couple very kindly gave me some grilled chicken to have with my lunch! Although the temperature reached 32-33C that day, it didn't feel too bad in the shade of the forests. And I bought a bottle of frozen green tea from the convenience store which lasted cold all day in my shoulder coolbag, as well as keeping my salad and rice ball chilled!

Photos and commentary in English are in the two links to the right (Nikko and Tobu World Square).

昨日日光から帰った、3日間の楽しかった休みです。日光の自然がすごく美しい。次の泊まりを楽しみしている。写真と注釈が右のリンクに有る。日光と東武ワールドスクウェアの写真がある。

Wander around Nippori 日暮里の散歩

Went for a long-intended bit of a wander around Nippori today. It's a nice old area of Tokyo with lots of old houses and temples, along with a Swiss chalet serving lunchtime sandwiches... Which is where I took the picture of the butterfly! More photos to the right link.

今日、日暮里に散歩に行った。この町は古い東京です。沢山の古い家とお寺が有って、スイスシャレーまでもがある。。。スイスシャレーにサンドを買える。その場所喋喋の写真を撮った。もう少し写真が右のリンクにある。

A couple of musings

Firstly, after my long mountain walk yesterday, and hundreds and hundreds of steps, I can no longer walk without pain! Particularly going down stairs. And I won't be sleeping in my loft tonight, it was hard enough getting down the ladder this morning, and I've seized up even more now!

Then, just now I went to the supermarket to get a few things. It's been a pretty good day today weather-wise, but when I left the supermarket the heavens had already opened. Well, it is the rainy season, after all! And, given I didn't have far to go, it was actually rather a nice reminder that I live in a sub-tropical country! And speaking of the rain, I was reminded of something that I noticed when first coming here on holiday... People cycle with umbrellas here - not something I've seen anywhere else. One of my students asked me the other week what British cyclists did when it rained, if we didn't carry umbrellas... We just get wet of course!

Ikea Meatballs

After visiting Koishikawa Korakuen, I went to Ikea for delicious meatballs for lunch. As you can see they are exactly the same as Ikea meatballs everywhere. But I bet you don't get ice cold green tea to drink with yours in England!

I also bought these poppy giant wall stickers for my flat, which I'm rather pleased with...

Koishikawa Korakuen 小石川後楽園

Today I went to Koishikawa Korakuen, which is a garden near Iidabashi in Tokyo. Beautiful! More photos to the link at the right.

鋸山 Nokogiri Mountain

Well, a long time ago when I first started this blog and went to Ushiku Daibutsu, I cam across Mountaincat's post on Nokogiryama. Ever since then, I've been meaning to go to Nokogiri, and finally did so today!

Wanted to get there before the coachloads, so got up at 5am and got a train around 5:45 which, after a few changes, got me to Hamakanaya Station just before 8:30. The ropeway is just a 10 minute walk away from the station.

It was well worth the early start, and despite the rainy season having started here last week, the weather luckily stayed dry! Even though it felt very early, I really appreciated the beuatiful scenery as I got about 1 hour or so from Nokogiri. I saw ducks paddling in the corner of a rice field, and even two llamas in a field surprisingly!

The tourist leaflet that I got says that the great Buddha statue was well known all over Japan. It does say 'was well known'... Certainly very few people I've spoken knew about it before the documentary on NHK the other week... It was a really beautiful area, and very green, really nice!

More photos to the right link.

ILOHAS twistable pet bottle

Coca Cola has recently launched a new brand of water ILOHAS in a lightweight PET bottle. The idea is that once you've finished drinking the bottle can be twisted into a much much smaller size (about 40% less than other PET bottles apparently). This makes it more environmentally friendly - see short video clip:



However, there's a problem... I used to buy my water bottles and then refill and reuse them a few times. These lightweight bottles can't really be refilled, because they squash too easily. Until the novelty wears off, these are so much fun to twist that I'm going to get through way more than an extra 40%...!

Tokyo Metro etiquette posters

The range so far of etiquette posters on Tokyo Metro... Click on each poster to see a close-up.

Packed like sardines 鮨詰め

昨日新単語を習った。英語で「The train was packed like a tin of sardines」と言う。日本語で「電車は鮨詰めだった」と言う。

I learnt a new word yesterday 鮨詰め (すしづめ）。 It's what people say in Japanese to describe people packed like sardines! It means that people are packed together like the rice grains in sushi!

Junk mail

毎日ジャンクメールが来る。問題ない。。。マンションの下にジャンクメールの箱が有る。さらに時々良いジャンクメールが来る。例えば時々ティシューとかバスソルトが来る。いいですね！

Every day people get junk mail in Japan. Still, no problem - my apartment block has a junk mail box underneath the mailboxes. And sometimes I get good junk mail. For example sometimes I get packets of tissues or bath salts. Nice, eh?!