Emergency Brakes and "Hiking" Up a Mountain

Been a while since I've been anywhere or done anything of interest, but today I changed that.

First of all, though, let's have an earthquake update.

There's been another three that I've felt since I last wrote a post. One was when I was in Tokyo, and had was only small but it had a fair bit of vertical movement which was new to me, and is a good deal more scary. The second was in my local Starbucks, and again was only small. However, two of the baristas ran over to make sure I was OK (which I was, but it was really sweet of them). The last one was yesterday whilst I was on the train to Tokyo. The emergency brakes go on, train stops, everything switches off, ground moves, super fast announcement in Japanese, everything turns on, train starts again, train staff apologise profusely for the inconvenience as if tectonics is somehow their fault.

Speaking of emergency brakes, the train I was on today also slammed them on as we were pulling away from Shinjuku. As a result, the salaryman next to me fell over his briefcase and headbutted me in the stomach.

So, here's a quick summary of the various train lines I've used since I arrived.

• JR Yamanote Line - Busy. You'll never get to sit down.
• Odakyu Line - Cheap, and goes frustratingly near my station but doesn't stop there.
• Daiyuzan Line - The comfiest seats in the world. Full of old people.
• JR Shonan-Shinjuku Line - Emergency brakes for everything.
• Keiyo Line - Might strong air conditioning. A sweater is recommended.

Anyway, moving on to today's adventure...

Takaosan 高尾山 - 699.15m

Not the easiest place to get to from Odawara as it takes a long time, but perfectly doable. My route was:

• Kamonomiya to Shinjuku (Shonan-Shinjuku Line) 1,480円
• Shinjuku to Takaosanguchi (Keio Line) 130円

From Takaosanguchi Station, it's a 5 minute walk up the road to the cable-car and chair-lift platforms. If you buy the round-trip ticket (I recommend it), you can use either method to start your journey, or you can walk. I chose the chair-lift, both up and down.

Now, the guidebook calls the routes around the mountain "a casual hike". I was describe it more as "a relaxing stroll up a large hill with a very nice paved path to follow and lots of signposts". I mean, I saw people walking past me in flipflops and high-heels.

Anyway, as you follow the route you come to Takoasan Yakuou-in Yuki-ji Temple, which is very nice. It is thought to have been built in 744 (Nara Period), and is dedicated to the medicine Buddha - Yakushi Nyorai. However, the temple has experienced a fair number of fires and typhoons, so it has been rebuilt and restored many times. The temple was pretty busy (lots of school groups out today), but once you're on the path it's not too bad.

Here are some photos from the route up to the temple and some of the temple buildings.

As with any of my days off, it was cloudy and pretty damp. As a result, the glorious views across the region and of Mt. Fuji were distinctly non-existent. See?

Right. To summarise...

• Definitely not hiking. I went up in a dress and trainers with no issues. The guys in flipflops also had no issues.
• Get the round-trip ticket. It saves you money.
• Tokens etc. at the temple are much more expensive than normal, but they do have tengu on them. 
• Go on a sunny day. The view is somewhat lacking, otherwise.
• Try the dango. It's delicious.

All in all, not a bad day out. Good change of scene, and a good bit of gentle exercise.

Red hair and bar Japanese

On Wednesday (2015.08.05) I went to Harajuku to get my hair dyed again. Blonde was fun, but I wan't entirely convinced it was "me", so to speak. So, at the request of my friend, Hito, I got up early and went to koti by bröocH. The salon is really close to Harajuku station, although I did walk past it once without realising. I'd highly recommend going!

Anyway, Hamamoto did my hair (though a few others helped), and we managed to communicate in a range of broken English and Japanese. He was very kind and very patient. I let him decide what colour to do, and he decided on red after a quick flick through my instagram. The whole thing was pretty quick, really, and I have no complaints whatsoever. It cost me 7000円, which is much cheaper than it would have been in my regular salons in England.

Afterwards, we took a few photos which Hamamoto posted on instagram later that day.

I highly recommend going if you get the chance. The staff are super friendly and the salon is neat and clean. I'll definitely be going back before I leave to get my hair cut. It's too long for long hair, and it's still really thick even though I have an undercut...

Instagram:

Hito

Hamamoto

koti by bröocH

Moving on. 

On Wednesday evening I headed to George's Caffe (yes, the double f really bothers me). It was my first time there and I think it is now my favourite bar, even if they don't open until midnight. I met some really lovely people and got much more drunk than I had originally planned, but it was a good night. 

So, bar Japanese. This is basically where you go to a bar with your textbooks etc. and try out your Japanese on a friendly and slightly tipsy bunch of Japanese people. You'd be surprised how much you can learn and how happy they are to help. It normally descends into "how do you write this kanji?" and an accompanying mess of scribbles, with a lot of repeating what people say. I now have a book set aside for bar Japanese, the inside of which looks like this...

Not the neatest thing in the world, huh.

Fire Flowers & Shabu-shabu

On Saturday evening (2015.08.01), there was a fireworks show along the Sakawa River  酒匂川 in Kamonomiya. It gets dark here pretty early, but it stays hot and humid. Anyway, I met up with a co-worker (Keef in Japan) and some ex-students of the school and headed to the river. We were lucky that we got a pretty good spot and, being tall, I was able to see over the top of everyone there. Unfortunately, all the food stalls were on the other side of the river...

So, fireworks. 

In Japanese, they are called "hanabi" 花火 which roughly translates to "fire-flower". First things first... fireworks are much more impressive here than the ones I'm used to in England. The show lasted for ages, and the arrangements were really impressive. My favourite was the one that made a vase of sunflowers.

Nearing the end, a string of fireworks was set off along the bridge to create a waterfall that changed from red, to green, to yellow, to white. It was really rather beautiful.

I'm really pleased that I got to see the fireworks. I wasn't able to go to the festival the previous weekend, so I'd have been gutted if I'd missed this as well.

Now onto shabu-shabu. I met up with Keith and his girlfriend after he'd finished work on Sunday and got a taxi to the restaurant. We went to a family restaurant as it's cheaper, and we got to blow a small girl's mind - she was super curious about us and really cute, so we didn't mind.

I'd never had shabu-shabu before, but it's really good so I'll definitely do it again. Basically, you choose the stocks you want, order the meat and then get a load of salad etc. that you want as well. Heat up the stock at your table and cook what you want for however long you want, then dunk it in a sauce of your choice.

It was a really nice and relaxed night out, and I got to see a bit of Kamonomiya that I hadn't been to before. All round good meal. Would recommend.