As presented in glorious technicolour by the Sapporo brewing museum...
Saturday 20 September 2008
The legend of the "beer fairy"
As presented in glorious technicolour by the Sapporo brewing museum...
... and stream bathing
The section in the foreground was baking. Oddly Tom`s ice cream seems to have vanished from the photograph?!
Monday 8 September 2008
Going Japanese
Well, we`ve made it to Japan... There`s a nice symmetry to starting our overlanding on an island off Europe and finishing on another off Asia.
We sailed from the end of the Bund in Singapore, watching the skyscrapers disappear as we slid past miles of shipyards to the sea. Apart from the sick bags that appeared a few hours in, the ship was an early introduction to Japan: endless vending machines selling weird energy drinks, spotless bathrooms and a neat little capsule-like cabin with our own tiny seating area and picture window. On the second evening we stood on deck in the rain watching the flashing lights along the coast as we slipped between two of the main islands and the next morning we were in Osaka.
Our first real stop was Kyoto and we found it rather hard to leave. It`s a gorgeous city surrounded by green hills, with streets full of old wooden houses, glimpses of geishas and a myriad of shrines and temples. The basic layout of most of the religious sites is similar, but many of the key ones seem to pick one thing and excel at it. We`ve seen the largest tori (gateway) in Japan and a shrine with so many that they form red tunnels snaking for miles through the hills, the largest indoor buddha, excessive sproutings of stone lanterns and another temple with 1001 1000-armed goddesses of mercy (although they only actually have 42 arms as each can save 25 worlds).
From Kyoto we went south for a few days to some ancient pilgrimage trails through hills dotted with hot springs. In one you dig your own hole out of the pebbles in the river bank, sit there contemplating the hills (or eating an ice cream) until nicely boiled, then wade into the cut-glass green of the river and let yourself get washed away by the current. We also tried the bath in our guesthouse where you sit next door to a large black fish and cooked eggs in another pool while waiting for the bus.
There are plenty of smaller surprises too: freshwater crabs wandering country roads and overfriendly deer that steal and eat your map, lucky dip blessings in the temples and mind-blowing sushi just off the boat, builders wearing cloven-hoof boots and loud speakers announcing midday to fields of rice, toilets that make waterfall noises when you sit down and the fluffy toilet seat covers for sale in ultra-minamalist Muji. Everything is incredibly compact and everyone obeys the rules except cyclists who monopolise the pavement and leave their bikes in huge fleets in front of each of the signs banning bicycle parking.
We sailed from the end of the Bund in Singapore, watching the skyscrapers disappear as we slid past miles of shipyards to the sea. Apart from the sick bags that appeared a few hours in, the ship was an early introduction to Japan: endless vending machines selling weird energy drinks, spotless bathrooms and a neat little capsule-like cabin with our own tiny seating area and picture window. On the second evening we stood on deck in the rain watching the flashing lights along the coast as we slipped between two of the main islands and the next morning we were in Osaka.
Our first real stop was Kyoto and we found it rather hard to leave. It`s a gorgeous city surrounded by green hills, with streets full of old wooden houses, glimpses of geishas and a myriad of shrines and temples. The basic layout of most of the religious sites is similar, but many of the key ones seem to pick one thing and excel at it. We`ve seen the largest tori (gateway) in Japan and a shrine with so many that they form red tunnels snaking for miles through the hills, the largest indoor buddha, excessive sproutings of stone lanterns and another temple with 1001 1000-armed goddesses of mercy (although they only actually have 42 arms as each can save 25 worlds).
From Kyoto we went south for a few days to some ancient pilgrimage trails through hills dotted with hot springs. In one you dig your own hole out of the pebbles in the river bank, sit there contemplating the hills (or eating an ice cream) until nicely boiled, then wade into the cut-glass green of the river and let yourself get washed away by the current. We also tried the bath in our guesthouse where you sit next door to a large black fish and cooked eggs in another pool while waiting for the bus.
There are plenty of smaller surprises too: freshwater crabs wandering country roads and overfriendly deer that steal and eat your map, lucky dip blessings in the temples and mind-blowing sushi just off the boat, builders wearing cloven-hoof boots and loud speakers announcing midday to fields of rice, toilets that make waterfall noises when you sit down and the fluffy toilet seat covers for sale in ultra-minamalist Muji. Everything is incredibly compact and everyone obeys the rules except cyclists who monopolise the pavement and leave their bikes in huge fleets in front of each of the signs banning bicycle parking.
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