Tokyo and out

In the last 7 days, I`ve hit 9 towns, had about 500 pounds worth of shinkansen, been up mountainous mysterious esoteric mountains, bathed in volcanic hot sand, seen the Ninja-dera and digested a rail timetable. I`m now glad to be in one place for the next 6 days. Tokyo is big. There`s not a lot in it, either - or there might be, but you need to be Japanese to get there. Its a bit depressing, talking to some english teachers who are fluent in japanese - people refuse to talk to them. I think its the other side of the politeness- anyone who cannot manage a three hour tea ceremony is ostracised. Los Angeles on the 15th!

Next saturday is going to be the longest day of my life - about 48 hours long. My flight leaves Tokyo at 19.00 and arrives at 14.00 - on the same day! The original plan was to cross the date line on my birthday just to really confuse people, but alas, the flights didn`t work out.

Wow, I actually hit all the places on my earlier plan. I think its the cold - you want to rush around, to warm up! Kanazawa was a nice, little town with a great garden/park and ninja temple (the current owners deny that it was ever used for secretive ninja training, but the sneakiness of the traps in it and the tourist board say otherwise.) Koya-san is the headquarters of the esoteric buddhists, very tranquil and holy, and halfway up a mountain in a ceder grove. I stayed at one of the temples - ancient paper screen walls, calligraphy on the walls, a zen garden outside my window, practically open to the elements, and a 10 course vegetarian meal served in my room. Japanese food is a bit bizarre; shall I just say, they have sour puddings. Not sweet, not salty (like the Thais), but tongue churningly sour.

There are a few cheap places in Japan - there seem to be a mysterious unpublished lot of "economy hotels". Not "love hotels" - room rates by the hour (aparantely, entirely legit as most of them are used by people looking to get away from families...). There`s Sun-plaza in Osaka which was 1700 yen a night (9 pounds!), New Koyo in tokyo at 15 pounds a night. I haven`t bothered with the youth hostels, they all seem to be 20 pounds a night for a dorm bed. Sushi is great, and cheaper than sandwichs. Even so, I`ve spent 40 pounds a day, which is less than most other travellers here but a lot of money.