Sure, we all know that that's what guys with small cameras say, but after my little incident in Roppongi, I've been cut down to size. I'm now forced to use every megapixel of my 3.2 in the old mobile phone, but I'm pretty damn handy with it now ;) .
So where were we? When I regrouped myself in Tokyo, I headed to the Korakuen gardens near the city - simply unbelievable! Picture the ultimate Japanese garden and you're getting close. All the typical stuff - big ponds with fat dopey fish with whiskers, cherry blossom trees (albeit cherry blossomless), winding stone tracks and big ferns, arches and little monuments and temples. Actually there were some Ume trees in blossom, and these are very similar to the cherry variety, but they are plum blossom, and these ones were pink and white, so I got a bit of a kick out of that. Init.
Also checked out Akihabara - the electronics centre of the East. I went inside a building with over 10 floors of electronics and it was quite intimidating, although on close inspection a lot of the stuff wasn't any more advanced than what's available here. From what I can tell, the Japanese like to pump out new products onto their market as soon as new technology is discovered, but this doesn't necessarily mean that they pioneered it. The technology in their mobile phones, NFC, is like an improved version of bluetooth, and they have utilised it to make credit card purchases with a simple swipe over a reader. For instance, rather than buying train tickets, they wave their mobiles over the turnstile at a station and it gets charged to their credit provider. Apparently NFC was discovered by Phillips, a dutch company, and quickly taken up and released by Sony over here. Same goes with other technologies such as VHS, DVD and Blu-ray. The Japanese are so precise with their manufacturing processes that they are able to make such products cheap and very reliable, and hence enjoy enormous global success.
I also had a look at Ueno park, a nice park for a stroll and ponder as you enjoy the various temply stuff dotted around. Nearby is Tanaka cemetery - a relatively touristless, obscure sight in the vein of a garden cemetery. There were a few Mr. Miyagis wandering around, but no teens dressed in skeleton outfits getting their bollocks kicked, which was disappointing. Also had a quick look at Asakusa, home of a massive temple, and a huge lane filled with shops making and selling Japanese sweets. Also saw a Sumo walk past.. so that's..
I came to Hiroshima by night bus on Monday night. Was lucky enough to be seated beside a little shiny-cheeked chubster fluffing all night in his sleep - no shame either, great! Checked into my hotel yesterday morning, slept most of the day, but then went out for dinner - a nice traditional Okonomiyaki, which was really cool. It was yellow noodles fried on the stove in front of you, with egg, bacon, shredded lettuce and bbq sauce, and a pint of beer to wash it down. Nice.
Today I checked out the Atomic Bomb Museum, and suffice to say, it was pretty hard to deal with. I'll post some pictures on facebook when I get home, but it had a good message (peace etc.) and plenty of history lessens, photos, and things left from the aftermath. A tissue was mandatory.
Tomorrow I'm off to Miyajima Island, and this weekend I'll head back to Osaka and spend a bit of time in Nara also.
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Nice posting Rusty-san. That mobile phone technology sounds wicked. You been humming the Pokemon theme the whole time? I would be.
ReplyDeleteyeah it's pretty cool. actually saw a pikachu doll in akihabara, which did all the pikachu sounds when you pull its arms. there was a massive, massive Hulk too, and it was pretty bloody realistic and scary.
ReplyDeleteyou should have seen the nvidia display they had - used a graphics card not on the market yet, and the game they were playing was uber-cool, cutting edge stuff.