Nutty Fanboy Productions

Hm, what to say – I was kind of occupied the recent days, and simply way too tired after the days to actually blog something.
One thing right away, this will be text-only, as I have yet to look through the images taken here.

Osakas first impression stands – the city is different from Tokyo and Hakone. The dialect is decidedly different (and took some getting used to in terms of listening), but manageable; The train lines are somewhat confusing though. While Japan Railways at least usually has bilingual signs and railway plans,  the privately owned buses and subways rarely do – and usually it’s only the important stations that are somewhat crudely marked with taped post-its and the likes.

Subway use is a bit more expensive in Osaka than in Tokyo, but I can live with that – surprisingly little worth seeing in this city, after all. Basically, it’s just Osaka castle – a rebuilt castle from the 1600s with a museum inside -, the Osaka Aquarium (well worth the 2000 Yen entrance fee! Whale sharks! Moon fish! Manta rays! Dolphins! Otters!)  and Namba (which is basically a titanic, gigantic, monolithic shopping mile / cross)

Today we had planned to visit Kyoto, but we slept in for some reason; So we opted for the Aquarium. And then the sky opened up and poured down the pacific ocean upon us, after we had left the aquarium. It was the first actual rain we have had here so far, though it was a welcome change from the constant humidity plaguing the area in recent days.

It seems strange that Tuesday I will already be on my way back to Austria.

Just a quickie as we have just arrived in Osaka, and we need to find our way around the city here now – a city so different from Tokyo in it’s feeling, you’d hardly believe they belong to the same country.

Anyway, here a shot I took yesterday near Motohakone, above Lake Aishino – looking towards the famed mount Fuji, covered in clouds and haze. Photo was taken at about 1000m above sea level

Fuji-san in the distance

One of our first ‘actual’ visits here, a visit with an entrance fee that is, was the Tokyo Museum of Science and Technology in Ueno Park. While the whole area was essentially a big cluster of a number of museums, two thirds of our travel group (consisting of three people ) have a strong interest in the natural sciences. And we wanted to see how the Japanese would show this.

The entrance was the first somewhat different area.. while there’s only so many variants to an entrance, the ticket sale was decidedly different. The desk there was purely an information desk; Tickets were on sale at machines to the left and right of the desk.

The building itself was divided into two parts – the front, and smaller one, showed technology, fauna and flora of japanese origins, as well as the development of mankind in this region of the planet (btw – the Japanese ‘human exhibition’ objects are seriously deep in the uncanny valley. But judge for yourselves with help of the photos below). Especially impressive was a 360°-Cinema (a sphere with a bridge inside, and the movie was projected all around us. That had an even more impressive 3D-effect than a 3D-movie at the cinema!)

The back part was divided in several floors;
From the bottom up: Physics, Chemistry & Astronomy (the origins); Geology and Mineralogy; Extinct species (dinosaurs ); Current Flora and Fauna; Human Technology. On the roof was a herb garden – pretty nice to look at, and arranged in a very Zen kind of way..
My impression was that the entire museum was arranged in a very clever way. Working from the bottom to the top you go from the basics to the specifics, from the earliest times to recent days, and you end up in a quiet herb garden with a nice view over Ueno.

A small story I want to relate, as it is one of the kind that you will remember long after you have returned home:
We were standing at the space flight portion of the exhibition, examining the accomplishments of JAXA in the past thirty years, as well as trying to read the Japanese texts explaining the exhibits. An elderly man overheard us trying to read the  signs, and we started chatting a bit (as well as it was possible with our limited Japanese – I kept out of most as I’m not fit enough for that kind of interaction yet )
He apologized for not speaking english, and explained that in his days he would’ve been beaten if he tried to learn English (’Spy! Spy!’ he would explain descriptively).
We asked him whether he meant the time before the War or not, and he comfirmed that he did mean the 1920’s and 1930’s. It was only then we realized how old this man really was – he looked 60 at the mostand would’ve been a post-war child in this case.
After a while he asked us why we were so interested in the Space Flight section and if we were American. We replied along the lines of ‘no, we’re from Germany and Austria’. At this point his eyes lit up He seemed to genuinely enjoy where we were coming from, and explained this to us by our ‘common Ground’ – naturally referring to the war (though not in a way that was resentful towards the victors of the war).
Shortly after we said our goodbyes and parted ways. A little bit later in the exhibition we examined a restaurated Japanese fighter plane from WW2 (a ‘Zero’) he approached us again. He gave my friend an old looking postcard and told us it was a gift, a postcard that remembered the death of the Tenno (the Japanese emperor).
It was not until we got back to the hotel and did some fact-checking that we realized how special this gift was – the last Tenno died in 1989. The one before that – hold your hats – in 1926. That card was 83 years old. Wow. What a gift to receive from a complete stranger…

Next up: Tokyo Tower & Harbor, Lost in Shibuya, The Imperial Palace, Odaiba, The Japanese Parliament and Shinjuku, Asakusa

We're waaaay deep in the uncanny valley Oo

Two Owl statues in the center of the Earth - in Front of the Museum

one of JAXAs test rockets on display on the outside of the museum

even Japanese Windows crashes from time to time.. (that's one of the many interactive tour guide machines)

.

Arriving at Tokyo station via the Narita express, we were surprised at the relative calm in the station itself – then we remembered that it was tuesday around lunchtime, and most people would be at work.
Switching to the Yamanote line (the ring line of Tokyo) we arrived at Ueno barely five minutes later. The check-in process was quick and painless, and soon afterwards we started exploring our surroundings, scouting for shops and convenience stores to supply ourselves. We found a number in form of a 7-11, a 99-Yen-shop (105 Yen after tax ) and a number of small restaurants and food shops along Asakusa dori.

After getting Soba noodles we continued exploration in the surroundings of the hotel (amongst the things visited was a small market and a shrine (strangely named ’shrine of mysterious sounds’) we got some more foodstuff from the 99-Yen-shop, and returned to the hotel – after all, at this point, we’d been traveling for nearly 30 hours without any real refreshments we probably smelled like feet wrapped in old garbs drenched in stink bomb solution (well, I certainly hope it wasn’t *that* bad)

One thing surprised me about Tokyo – at least Ueno. Bicycles everywhere, and while they certainly drive more responsibly than their chinese counterparts in Beijing (reportedly- haven’t witnessed that madness yet ), the constant dodging we have to do proves a worthy exercise

Next on: Tokyo Museum of Science and technology, Tokyo Tower & Harbor, Lost in Shibuya, The Imperial Palace, Odaiba, The Japanese Parliament and Shinjuku.

The pond at the shrine of mysterious sounds

Side street Ueno,running parallel to Asakusa dori, near our hotel. Power lines everywhere!

Tokyo at night - more in a later post

Wow. Crazy first 48 hours!

The flight from Frankfurt to Tokyo went smoothly. More smoothly actually, than any other flight of mine in recent memory.. even though we were in the economy class (with corresponding limited space), the ten hours 45 minutes whizzed by with films, sleep, food and good looking stewardesses

Much of the flight was wrapped in darkness, naturally; As we approached the Russian coast, arching towards Japan, however we saw one of the most brilliant sunrises. Below a blinding white of clouds, all the way to Japan.. as we descended through the white layer I nervously watched the altitude counter drop towards zero.. but even the landing was more pleasant than in a smaller plane. 8/10 points for this 747! I’m looking forward to the 777 on the way home..

Immigration went smoothly, as did the travel to our hotel near Ueno station (though it was a bit exhausting considering the high temperature and incredible humidity, the latter caused by a tropical storm that had just passed Tokyo the day before).

Skyline of Tokyo/Ueno as seen from Ueno Park

Next on: The exploration of Ueno, Tokyo Museum of Science and technology, Tokyo Tower & Harbor, Lost in Shibuya