Stupidity Hole

Japan Trip: From the Fourth day in Osaka to the First day in Kyoto

Posted on November 4, 2015 by Stupidity Hole

After waking up, I decided to go for another wander around the area to see what else I could see before it was time to go and head off to the city known as Kyoto where more of the journey, also known as trip, that I was engaging in at that particular point of my life, would be experienced first-hand as I would be in that location at that point in time due to my traveling there later in the day than the particular time it was when I got up to wander in the morning to see more of Osaka instead of staying in bed and not doing anything as, considering this was my first time in Japan as well as my first time overseas (I hadn’t been outside of New South Wales, The Australian Capital Territory, Victoria or Adelaide before {flying into South Australia doesn’t really count as when I went to Adelaide, I remained there as the trip was only for a weekend to attend two gigs [Both were for The Mark of Cain supported by various bands during the 2013 election weekend {The results of the election did put a slight dampener on the mood of the second gig but it seemed to lift pretty quickly}, something that gave an excuse to spend a weekend away from home], whereas I’ve seen a lot of NSW, ACT, and VIC}, so not only was it my first time heading overseas but also the farthest I’ve traveled from Sydney), I wanted to see as much as I could.

I was feeling much less sore which made going up and down stairs a significantly less difficult prospect.

Early on into my walk, I saw a pigeon walking along.

I followed it for a few minutes until it decided to fly away.

I thought it was odd for a pigeon to choose to walk away instead of fly, but I enjoyed the time I spent following it.

Shortly after leaving behind my apparent pigeon-stalking tendencies, I came across 生國魂神社 (Ikukunitama Shrine) and got to spend part of it being attractive towards mosquitoes.

I prayed there and looked around, admiring the layout and the feeling that it wasn’t in the city.

After leaving there, I walked further away from the hostel.

I heard that Richard Ramirez died that day from natural causes.
I heard it multiple times.
It wasn’t the first time I heard that Richard Ramirez had died of natural causes and it certainly wasn’t the last.

Perhaps Richard Ramirez dies from natural causes continuously, stuck in a cycle of revival and death.

Perhaps Richard Ramirez is forever dying from natural causes over and over again due to his crimes and to be stuck in this cycle is merely a minuscule penance he must endure until he can truly atone for being the Night Stalker, assuming his interest lies in atonement.

Perhaps we must all remember where we were when Richard Ramirez died of natural causes, for that is the only way to end this cycle and truly remove Richard Ramirez.

There will always be those who had been affected far more than others from his actions, as there will always be a varying impact that a single action can have on another life.

Truly we cannot always measure how we will change the course of a life, nor can we always be aware that we would be doing so during the moment of occurrence.

Surely Richard Ramirez was aware to an extent of how he was changing the lives of other people before he was caught and before he died of natural causes that were caused naturally.

Or were they?

I ended up coming across 四天王寺支院, which was part of Yuhigaokacho. I thought it was a tomb at the time as I remember seeing a sign for a tomb nearby.

I’m guessing the death for whomever the tomb belonged to was caused naturally by the meeting of shaped metals and proud neck.

Generally those types of meeting end up with complicated results.

The two shrines I had come across that morning both had very different environmental feels.

As mentioned before, 生國魂神社 felt as though it was not in the city.
四天王寺支院 felt removed from the city, but not away from it.

大江神社 (Ōe Shrine) was very close by.

Whilst it didn’t feature the largest structures I had seen at that point, it felt larger than it was, but not imposing.

It was relaxing to look upon. This may have had to do with the weather at the time (It was sunnier than it had been during the previous few days).

I’m guessing that the main part of the duality I feel I am recognising here is that whilst one was more of a rejection of the city, the other was more of an acceptance.

After a while, I had to make my way back. Whilst I had spent a fair bit of time walking, I hadn’t gone too far away from the hostel, so the trip back was shorter than I expected.

When I got back, I had a brief rest before readying my belongings and subsequently heading off with Tim and Gabe.

Before going on my walk in the morning, I looked for the best way to get to Kyoto.

It advised to go via Shin-Osaka Station.

We went via Osaka Station instead.

I don’t think it made much of a difference, but it did throw me off until we were on the train that connected us to Kyoto.

Whilst at Osaka, we stopped for a quick meal.

I had a tandoori chicken burger.

I have had tandoori chicken before, but not in a burger.

It was enjoyable for what it was.

As Tim was going to be using a different hostel, Gabe and I began to make plans for drinks and dinner with him and the guy who went to Kyoto a couple of days before us.

Shortly after eating, we caught a 新快速 (special rapid service) on the JR Kyoto line.

The trip into Kyoto was mostly quiet and spent looking out the windows, absorbing as much of the scenery as possible.

We reached Kyoto Station pretty quickly (about twenty-five minutes after departing from Osaka Station).

Gabe and I parted with Tim as our destinations were in different directions.
We traveled to 五条駅 (Gojō Station) as our next hostel, Guest House Ikoi-no-ie, was closer to that Station than others.

After a few minutes of leaving the station, Gabe wondered if we were heading in the right direction (as we had to head down what seemed to be a small lane).

It turned out we were.

Once we reached the guest house, we saw a sign saying that reception was a slight bit further on.

It turned out we were staying in another guest house that the staff ran.

This ended up being favourable to us as there was only a minute difference in the amount of time we would have to spend getting around and the bike garage for the guest houses was almost directly outside of the one we were staying in.

We dropped our stuff off in our room (the last private one for the trip).
Soon after, I headed off to reception to rent a bike.
Gabe decided to stay behind and rest.

I chose to rent an older bike they had as it was cheaper than a newer one.

The staff told me that there was a castle nearby.

Deciding it would be worth checking out, I headed off in the direction they pointed me in and soon after I missed the castle without realising.

This paid off as I found something that made me much happier than seeing the castle would have: 鴨川 (the Kamo River).

I followed it as far to the north, stopping briefly to take some photos and subsequently getting water in my boots and turning around when I thought I couldn’t go any farther (I’m pretty sure I couldn’t go farther as it seemed as though the path stopped, but I’m not certain).

Then I went as far south as I thought I could.

It was quite happy to be cycling along that river.

Cycling around 河口湖 (Lake Kawaguchi) was great but I felt this was much better.
It probably has to do with having a lot more time to cycle than I did at the lake.

I was so happy that what little pain I still had from climbing Mount Fuji become a non-issue.

Once I thought I couldn’t go south anymore, I turned around and made my way back.

Getting back to the guest house was really easy as it was closer to 鴨川 than I thought.

Once I hit the city area, I was only a few minutes away.

I put the bike back in the garage and dropped the keys off at reception before heading to my room and telling Gabe about the cycle.

He recommended I have a bath (as there was a bath in our guest house), so I did.

I was already feeling pretty relaxed, but the bath took it further.

I hadn’t had a bath in years and I kind of missed having the option to have them when I wanted (I don’t have a bath tub at home), so I spent a fair bit of time in the water.

Once I came out and was back in the room, I set up a group for Gabe, Tim, the guy and I to communicate about meeting up.

I waited a while before I decided to head out for food and drink.
Gabe wanted to stay behind and rest, so I headed out and navigated my way into what I thought was the food area.

I walked around for a while, looking for something until I eventually settled on a place that did curry.

It was a good curry I had, although I feel it could have been hotter.

Anyway, after eating I went to an Irish pub.

Before eating, I spent part of my time looking for food looking for a pub that looked popular, but I wasn’t able to find anything.

I was interested in the idea of going to an Irish pub, but it wasn’t my first option as I’ve been to a few.

Anyway, I ended up at one after eating as I couldn’t find anything that looked popular and it was close by.

When I went in and took a seat, they offered me a menu.

I chose an aged whiskey. They asked if I wanted it dry, to which I said yes.

It came to me in a champagne glass and with a glass of water next to it.

I didn’t understand as to why they gave me the glass of water until I started drinking the whiskey.

I’m not too familiar with whiskey.
I enjoyed the taste of what I was drinking.
It didn’t feel rough but it was very strong.

I slowly alternated between drinking both so I wouldn’t end up being drunk.

After leaving, I made my way back to the guest house.

I liked how Kyoto felt so much more relaxed than Osaka and Tokyo.

It still had a certain business to it, but it was much more laid-back to me.

When I returned to the guest house, I spoke to a German guy.
I can’t remember most of the conversation, but I do remember him telling me about how he worked with some Australians and noticed they liked saying “fair enough” a lot.
I responded with “fair enough”.

I went to sleep shortly after.

Posted in Life | Tagged bike, cycle, Japan, Kyoto, Osaka, pigeon, river, shrine, Sydney, Train | 2 Comments

Pictures from the Third day in Osaka

Posted on November 4, 2015 by Stupidity Hole

Here are some pictures from the Third day in Osaka.

A few more than last time.

I hope you enjoy.

Posted in Photography | Tagged bike, crab, doge, Japan, judo, kendo, Osaka, pictures, possession, record, road, shiba inu | 2 Comments

Japan Trip: The Third day in Osaka

Posted on November 3, 2015 by Stupidity Hole

When I woke in the morning I decided to go wandering around the area.
Whilst I was still sore, I was in much less pain than the previous day.

There was a typhoon during the night. I’m not sure as to how much Osaka was detrimentally affected by it as it was mostly in Tokyo, but I do know it led to rain whilst I was asleep.

It was still raining intermittently when I left the hostel.

Shortly after leaving I came across a shrine I decided to check out.
I imagine that during dry weather, the shrine would have felt calming.
It being wet made it feel calmer and more peaceful.

I stood in front of the shrine for a short amount of time and watched people approach it and pray.

I hadn’t prayed at any shrines before this and felt I was being culturally disrespectful by not doing so.

Once I saw a few people and saw that there was no one approaching, I gave it a go, then continued my wandering.

I saw a large sign advertising a temple.
As I liked the look of the temple, I took a picture of the sign to ask one of the people running the hostel about it.

Eventually I came across a café. I hadn’t had breakfast yet so I decided to go in.
I had a boiled egg with french toast (I think) and an iced tea.

Both were quite good and the hospitality provided was excellent.

I kept walking around for a while, following a canal (it may have been a river but I’m not too sure) for a few minutes.

During the walk (and before I had breakfast) I had three Boss coffees.

As I had been walking for a couple of hours, this lead to circumstances I had no excuse in not giving serious consideration before I had the coffees.

I decided to stop following the canal and started walking in a direction I hoped would lead me to a station that could get me back to 谷町九丁目駅 easily as my desire to wander more was steadily overtaken by my desire to find a bathroom.

I was also hoping to find a public bathroom along the way, but if not, if I reached a station, I could at least use the bathroom there before heading back to the hostel.

It was an incredibly intense fifteen to twenty-five minutes of my life.

There was a good chance of me not making to a bathroom as I could feel the pressure building in my bladder faster than I had hoped, with every step becoming more and more panic-inducing.

The struggle was real.

I somehow managed to persevere and made it to a station.

I asked the station agent there if they had a toilet.

He didn’t understand me (I doubt I was speaking clearly at the time), so I imitated undoing my pants, urinating, then washing my hands.

He then pointed me to the toilet which was behind the ticket gates.

As soon as I was on the other side I went straight to the bathroom.

That piss was fucking majestic.

I found my being encapsulated in a powerful euphoria as a deadly mission had reached a victorious and bloodless conclusion.

I ascended into another plane of existence as cascading waterfalls fell around me whilst the fish did their dance in the streams and the cro-AHH AHH AHH AHH AHH *flap flap flap* AHH AHH AHH AHH AHH!

Once I was done urinating I headed straight to the platform. Being two stops away from Tanimachi – kyuchome, I was able to get back pretty quickly.

I can’t remember if it was the previous day or at this point, but I discovered there was a lift after the stairs used to pass the train track.

I wished I had realised sooner.

When I got back to the hostel, I found out from Gabe that Ben had already checked out.

On my pillow he had left his penguin.

It was a small but nice token of our friendship.

I also asked one of the one of the staff about the temple I saw being advertised.

When I showed them the picture, they advised me the writing on the advertisement was Chinese.
They also told me that it looked a bit like the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto, known as 金閣寺 (Kinkaku-ji).
As Gabe and I were going to Kyoto the following day, I decided it would be good to check out.

I still wanted to find record stores, so I headed to Namba Station and traveled north from there.

I found out there was a record store called “Root Down Records” near there, so it was my first destination.

I spent a little while wandering around, heading in the general direction of where it was.

Eventually I got to where it was, but I couldn’t find it.

I checked a few streets around, but couldn’t see it anywhere.

Once I was able to get an internet connection, I tried to locate it and found another record store called Newtone Records.

It was pretty close, so I made my way.

When I reached it, I couldn’t see it again.

I thought I may have been on the wrong street, but everything indicated that I was in the right location.

I asked someone as to where it was, but they didn’t know.

After a few seconds of them walking away, they came back and pointed it out.

It was almost right in front of me, up a few flights of stairs.

I went up, pushing past the soreness of my legs.

Then I found out it wasn’t open for a few hours.

I saw that Root Down was on a higher floor, so I went there, only to find out that it was also closed.

Whilst I had noticed it previously, it was at this point I became fully aware that there were many buildings with many different shops accessible by using the stairs.

Anyway, I went back to wandering.

It wasn’t long until I ran into King Kong Records.

Their range was absolutely massive.

I spent a bit of time looking around and seeing what they had.

When I hit the avant-garde section, I scoured it as closely as I could for Japanese drone and experimental music.

There was a fair bit of Japanese music there, but I had no idea what was and wasn’t what I looking for.

I went to the counter and asked if they had any Japanese drone music.

They weren’t sure what I meant, so I gave Merzbow as an example (as they stocked Merzbow, although I couldn’t see any (with that being said, I wasn’t interested in Merzbow at all)).

They then took me to the Japanese punk / hardcore section.

I ended up buying a Melt-Banana album (Cactuses Come in Flocks) and also a free experimental music sampler.

After leaving and walking around a bit more (and briefly stopping at a massive store with a whole lot of anime, manga, and OSTs), I ended up at Time Bomb Records.

They also had a good range but not what I was after.

Oh well.

On the way back to the station, I stopped off at an arcade and ended up getting what was, and still is, my favourite capsule vending machine item.

I’ll go into the details of it another time.

For now, I’ll say it’s sufficiently absurd and ridiculous enough for me to like it a lot.

Once I got back to the hostel, I saw that Gabe was there, so I told him about my trek and found out he’d been in the hostel all day.

He said he needed a day of rest.

I thought he was missing out a bit, but I let it be.

I decided I wanted to go check out Osaka Castle and asked Gabe if he wanted to come.

He still wanted to rest.

I caught the train to 谷町四丁目駅 (Tanimachi Yonchōme).

When I got off, I saw a guy looking at a map. When he was done, he saw me and smiled.
I smiled back and walked past.

I reached the grounds of Osaka Castle pretty quickly.

A few minutes after getting there, I saw the guy (Tim) who was looking at the map.

We started talking and decided to view the castle together.

The castle area was massive.

It felt very much like an area that was very far away from Osaka.

We spent some time walking around the grounds and talking about various issues before we went into the castle itself, which had been turned into a museum about the castle.

Around this time, my camera started having some frustrating problems with staying on.

It had mostly recovered from Mount Fuji, but due to the rain in the morning, it became worse.

At times it became quite worrying as I was worried it wouldn’t turn on again.

Luckily it worked again, but at times it will still have trouble staying on.

On a side note, my belt didn’t handle the rain on Mount Fuji well either.
It still holds pants up,, but by this point in the trip it lost it’s ability to do that well.

It was saddening for me as the belt had been doing well since when I got it in 2009.

Anyway, the view from the top was pretty amazing. It gave the best city view I saw during the trip.
A good portion of Osaka could be seen with great ease.
Whilst there were a good number of people there and the area was small, it was easy to get around which allowed more time taking in the view.

After we went back down, we spent a few minutes watching Kendo and Judo lessons at Osaka Shudokan, before heading back to the hostel.

We had worked out that we were staying in the same room at Tani-9 Backpackers and decided to head to Dinner with Gabe.

When we got back, I asked Gabe if he wanted to join us.
He did, so after resting for about thirty minutes, we headed off to お好み焼　もみじ (Okonomiyaki Momiji), which was almost directly across from us.

We had Sake and two okonomiyaki.

I never had an okonomiyaki before.
As my first time trying it, I felt it went well.

For one of them, we chose to have a possession as one of our toppings.
It was on the menu, and as we thought it was a funny translation, we decided it would be worth trying, so we could say we had a possession.

When we asked for it as a topping, the person who served us said what it was.

Unfortunately we didn’t catch what he said.

I can certainly say that I don’t know what it was, but it didn’t detract from the food.

Once we were done, we headed back to the hostel.

As we were all going to Kyoto in the morning, we decided to head there together, so we went to sleep pretty shortly after getting back to the hostel.

Posted in Life | Tagged capsule, castle, food, Japan, Kyoto, Music, Osaka, possession, record, Toilet, wander | Leave a comment

Pictures From Shin-Yokohama Station to the Second day in Osaka

Posted on November 2, 2015 by Stupidity Hole

It was fairly easy to choose photos to use for this post as most of the photos I took over this period weren’t that good.

I’m saving most of the photos from Osaka Aquarium for another post, partly because I took a lot there but mostly because I didn’t set the focus correctly at the time (due to not realising the viewfinder focus was not set correctly either).

I’ve included the poor shot of the whale shark as I like it.

It could have been better though.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy.

Posted in Photography | Tagged aquarium, buildings, ferris wheel, fish, Mario, shark, station, Train, trees, water, whale | 4 Comments

Japan Trip: From Shin-Yokohama Station to the Second day in Osaka

Posted on November 1, 2015 by Stupidity Hole

As the fastest route to us was via Shin-Yokohama Station, we still managed to save a fair bit of time as we didn’t have to go through Tokyo.

After we arrived at Shin-Yokohama Station, we headed for the 新幹線 (shinkansen) ticket booth and got our tickets.

The wait for the 新幹線 was pretty short, thankfully.

We hopped on and had a fair bit of space as not many people boarded, so Gabe took some seats for himself and I had some space as well, so we were able to spread out a bit.

It took a few minutes to adjust to the faster speed, but once I did, I felt fine.

It was the first time I’ve ever gone that fast. It was pretty amazing.

Obviously it felt faster, but looking out the window didn’t make it seem faster.

I was able to feel the train I was on move when another passed in the opposite direction.

Overall, it was pretty wonderful.

Despite it taking a while, getting from Kawaguchiko Station to Osaka didn’t feel as though it took long.

I was pretty tired and eventually started to feel sore (going down Mount Fuji took its toll on my legs), so I’m assuming it was a combination of being worn out plus the experience of getting on a 新幹線 that made me not think too much about how long it was.

Anyway, we reached Shin-Osaka station and headed straight to the next train as we wanted to get to our next hostel (Tani-9 backpackers at 谷町九丁目駅 (Tanimachi Kyūchōme (Tanimachi-9-chome)).

The station was not fun for me. At this point my legs were very sore.

To get to the exit we had to use, it involved going down a flight of stairs, then up another flight of stairs (to get past the train track), then up another flight of stairs.

Once we checked in, there were more stairs to deal with and then the sweet, sweet release of bed comfort.

It was our first non-private room of the trip so I was a bit nervous as I’d not been in a shared room before.
Thankfully, my concerns ended up being invalid.

Shortly after arriving, I talked to one of the people staying at the hostel.
He was interested in climbing Mount Fuji, but as he was heading out, I told him I’d tell him about it in the morning.

He asked if I wanted to head out for drinks, as he and a bunch of others from the hostel were going out for the evening.

I declined as I was going to be having dinner with Gabe and one of his friends (who was also in Japan)

From Ōtsuki Station to where we were, I had been trying to get a message to the woman and man to let them know that there was no bus connecting to a 新幹線 .

However, I was unable to as I wasn’t able to get a stable internet connection.

Somewhere between arriving at Osaka and the hostel, I was finally able to get the message through, but they would have already worked it out by that point.

I let them know that I was going to go to Osaka Aquarium on the following day and as they were as well, I hoped we’d meet there at the same time.

After resting for a short while, we met up with Gabe’s friend and headed off for food.

There was a lot of walking that evening.
Somewhere around two hours was spent looking for somewhere to eat.
This was due to heading in the wrong direction at one point and Gabe being indecisive about what to eat.
With that being said, It’s also possible that Gabe wasn’t being indecisive and we were thinking places weren’t as far away from us as they actually were.
I can’t quite remember.
Anyway, all the walking was taking it out of me, but I kept on going as I wanted to eat something.

After about twenty-five minutes, we found a place and went in.
No one wanted to get food from there, but we did get sake.

So we left and went back to walking around, eventually ending up in a large district full of places to eat.
Luckily food came shortly after.

We went into a place that served donkey-free bier.

I’m not sure what that is and I didn’t find out (as I don’t like beer).

I had a burger patty with a curry and it was pretty decent.

I also had a parfait. It may have been the first one I’ve ever had in my life.

It was filled with various chocolate-based items and had a rich, but not overpowering, taste to it.

It was the highlight of the meal for me.

We were there for a little while, talking about stuff that I can’t quite remember.

Eventually Gabe and I headed back to the hostel, where sleep was reached quite quickly.
This probably has to do with not only being tired from Mount Fuji, but also the amount of time spent walking around Osaka looking for food.

Getting back pretty late was also certainly a contributing factor.

The following morning I woke up feeling much more pained than the previous day.

I planned to go wandering in the morning, but this did not come to be.

Instead I sat downstairs with some of the other people staying at the hostel, talking about what we were doing, what to bring to Mount Fuji, things that aren’t great about Sydney and other places, refugees, travel, work, and our plans for the day.

The guy who went out with others staying in the hostel spent a short part of the morning looking for his wallet.

Luckily it was not lost.

Gabe and I were meeting up with his friend in the morning and going card shopping, as both Gabe and his friend enjoy Magic: The Gathering.

I used to take a fair bit of interest in it, so I didn’t mind going along.

After that, Gabe and I were going to go to Osaka Aquarium together.

One of the other people staying in the hostel (Ben) was also going, so we decided to meet up that afternoon and head together.

The guy had to check out and said his goodbyes.
He was heading to Kyoto for a few days but wanted to spend a few more hours checking out Osaka.

Eventually Gabe and I headed off to meet up with his friend.

This ended up taking us much longer than expected.

We were to meet at Namba Station and go from there.

Gabe and I exited from the wrong area and ended up spending somewhere close to forty-five minutes trying to find where we were meant to go.

We ran into the guy again who told us about some places to check out in Osaka (gaming-related), before we parted ways.

Once we met up with Gabe’s friend, we headed for a gaming store nearby.

I liked a fair bit of what they had in stock (the range was massive), but I did not buy anything.

We then went to get food.

I had another burger patty with curry as I wanted to have another.
Again, it was pretty decent.

Gabe’s friend and I discussed cameras for a while (he also enjoys photography).

After we finished eating and began to make our way to a card store, I played around with a long lens he had for a few minutes.

Card shopping was interesting.

I liked how easy it was to get booster packs of various editions of various card games, as well as how easy it was to buy single cards as well.

Beyond that, I didn’t feel as though it was something special, although this is due to my own tastes.

Eventually I headed off as I wanted to see if I could find a record store and do some wandering.
Gabe wanted to spend some more time with his friend as well as look for a place to buy thongs (his shoes weren’t big enough for his feet), so he messaged Ben (as he was able to contact Ben much easier than I was able to) to let him know I was on my way.

I came across a record pretty quickly, but they didn’t have what I wanted.
I was looking for Japanese drone, experimental and dark ambient and was hoping to pick some up whilst I was in Japan.

Still, I was happy to have found a record store.

After killing a bit too much time, I made my way back to Nankai-Namba Station as quickly as I could.

I got back to the hostel late, but Ben was late as well and only arrived a few minutes before me.

After a brief respite, we headed off to Osaka Aquarium.
During the trip we had a conversation about life that, whilst making jokes, was fairly serious.
At one point I mentioned how I think it’s conviction that people hold that sees them realise their dreams and goals.

For we can have all the dreams and desires in the world and the determination and desires that go with them, but if we don’t have a firmly held conviction within ourselves, what chances are there of everything else being any more than discarded ashes of fading hopes?

Anyway…

Osaka Aquarium was amazing for me.

Seeing so many different species of fish and various other creatures made me feel quite excited.

The otters were pretty cute.
Seeing them run around and swim energetically put a smile on my face.

Although, with that being said, everything made me smile there.

The whale sharks were as majestic as they were large.

Their tank also had many other fish in it that were fun to see.

The ocean sunfish was an interesting creature to see.

I knew they weren’t as good at maneuvering as other fish were, but I wasn’t expecting the one I saw to live up to the reputation it had.

Seeing the Japanese spider crabs and their spindly appendages was exciting.

Seeing them do what looked like a dance when food was put in their tank was also exciting.

I enjoyed the aquarium a lot.
I was still in pain when Ben and I were there, but I was so happy seeing all the creatures that it didn’t bother me much.

However, when I think back on it, I can see areas where it needed severe improvement.

Some of the tanks needed to be expanded in some way as they weren’t big enough for some of the creatures (the dolphins, seals, whale sharks, and sunfish come to mind).

Some of the tanks needed to be better maintained as well, as they were far dirtier than they should have been.

Obviously there is only so much that can be done, but I still feel there isn’t as much being done as there possibly could be.

I do hope that it does improve.

We checked out some of the merchandise available for purchase and got some small figures from the capsule vending machines there.

I ended up with a whale shark and Japanese spider crab (I wanted the crab, so I was satisfied with that), whilst Ben ended up with a penguin, which was listed as a mystery figurine.

When we left the Aquarium, it had begun to rain, so we moved as quickly as we could to get back to the hostel.

My boots were still a bit damp from Mount Fuji, so the last thing I wanted was for them to take on more water.

Luckily the rain eased up quickly and the trip back was fairly uneventful.

I can’t remember if this was closer to the start of our trip to the aquarium or on the way back, but we discussed vegetarianism and veganism, as well as what we wanted to do with our lives.
I know I had told Ben that I wanted to be a marine scientist.
He told me he was going to go and pick fruit once he returned to Australia (he was from Melbourne), as well as travel a bit more.

Once we got back, we went to the rooftop and checked out the view.

It was a decent view of the street our hostel was on as we didn’t have any obstructions in front of us.

That night in the hostel, we encountered a Japanese guy who had us write our dreams on a whiteboard and took a photo of us.

He said that when he was on holidays from studying, he traveled around Japan on a motor scooter and had people write their dreams down and take pictures of them whilst he was traveling.

We thought it was pretty cool.

Gabe had headed out to dinner with his friend, so he wasn’t around.Subsequently, I went to bed fairly early.

I said goodnight to Ben and hoped he would be awake in the morning as this was his last night at Tani-9 Backpackers.

Posted in Life | Tagged aquarium, crab, fish, Japan, magic, Osaka, shark, Tokyo, Train, view, walk, whale | Leave a comment

Pictures From the Eighth Station to Ōtsuki Station

Posted on October 28, 2015 by Stupidity Hole

I’ve left out a good number photos from the descent here as I’m saving most of the photos of Mount Fuji for another time.

For now, here is a bunch of photos relating to the last post.

There aren’t as many as last time as I didn’t take too many photos once my lens fogged up.

I included two photos during it being foggy as I liked how it turned out.

Also, the second photo would probably be the best shot I took of Mount Fuji, but as it was taken from the fifth station, I think it only partially counts.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy.

Posted in Photography | Tagged Camera, clouds, fence, foggy, Fuji, Japan, lens, mountain, station | Leave a comment

Japan Trip: From the Eighth Station to Ōtsuki Station

Posted on October 28, 2015 by Stupidity Hole

Eventually I reached the eighth station and entered the hut Gabe and I had booked with.
I went in, explained that my brother didn’t make it, advised that I was able to pay for both of us, but they only charged me for my bed.

Apparently the booking included food as well, so I was happy about that.
I had to put all my wet clothes into a plastic bag. Al the people staying there weren’t allowed to hang them up to dry. There probably were space concerns, but there was more than enough space that night.

During the stay there, I had to go to the bathroom a number of times.

The closest bathroom was outside down a stairway and past a narrow path.

There was another path, but I did not know this until after I left the hut to continue the climb.

The rain was much heavier than it had been previously at this point.

I had worn jeans for the climb (not necessarily a good idea), and continually putting them on and off was pointless after a while as my legs were getting wet anyway due to how heavy the rain was.

I also had a jacket for wearing underneath my raincoat. As my raincoat was in a plastic bag, my jacket ended up getting quite wet, so I stopped wearing that when I had to go outside as well.

As I had to keep using the bathroom, most of my trips were made in my boxers with an umbrella for protection.

It was cold but I didn’t care at this point.

The beds in the hut were all against each other (sleeping bags with a mat underneath and a blanket on top.
I had to keep getting in and out of the sleeping bag every time I went to the bathroom.
Luckily, as Gabe did not come up, his blanket was free, so I used both his and mine and slept on the sleeping bags (when I did sleep) as it was much quieter and easier (and warmer).

There were times where I went to the bathroom with other people and we chatted about things I can’t quite remember.

At one point there was a woman who I chatted with for a little while, waiting for the rain to die down before making the return trip from the bathroom to the hut (we were sharing the umbrella).

I had passed her before making it to the hut and made a joke about seeing one of us rolling down the mountain if we didn’t see each other at the hut (we stayed at the same place).

The reason why I mention this is that after being woken up in the morning (around 2:30 A.M.), to see the sunrise, I continued my climb with her and her husband.

They had head lights and I didn’t.

I probably could have continued the climb in the dark (I’m usually pretty good at navigating in the dark). It would have been fairly dangerous and I would have had to have gone quite slow, but I do think I could have done it.

However, I do have to admit that it was much safer for me to travel with them. I also was enjoying talking to them, so I figured the rest of the climb would have been even more enjoyable than it already was.

Before we left, the woman asked one of the hut staff if it was safe to climb. They said that it was as it was only raining (the rain and wind had died down a bit during the night).

Well, it wasn’t raining much.

It sure as windy though.

As we made our way up, the wind was hitting pretty hard.

This slowed our journey down a fair bit more than we wanted it to.
When we reached the eight-point-fifth station, there were two people outside the hut there.
One of them asked us what we were doing.
We said that we were heading up to the summit for the sunrise.
They told us we could have gotten another hour of sleep before ascending.
We told them our hut woke us up to see the sunrise.
They then told us that we could keep going up, but there was the possibility of the winds reaching one-hundred-and-twenty kilometres further up.

We didn’t quite catch this, so the other person repeated it.
We were then told that the first aid hut at the summit had been closed as well as all the other staffed buildings, so whilst we could do it, we would essentially be going up alone.

The woman explained how she was told it was safe.

We decided to wait a little bit. At this point I got to see droplets so light they moved upwards.

It was fascinating.

The two people went back inside. One of them came back out and offered us chocolate bars before going back in.

We went into the bathroom near there and rested for a while as it was significantly warmer than being outside.

I was mostly wet and still quite cold in there, but it was a significant improvement to being outside.

We discussed what we would do after we were done resting due to safety becoming a more prominent issue than it had been previously.
We could continue, but if we didn’t, we were still able to see the sunrise from where we were.

We also discussed the hut we stayed in as there had been little satisfaction with the behaviour of the staff.

Apparently they had tried to rip off one person with a booking, as well as did other things I can’t remember that wouldn’t be considered accommodating or kind.

Ultimately it’s their hut to run and they can run it however they want, but if there are people being taken advantage of due to the location or any other reason (assuming they did), I don’t feel comfortable with them.

Anyway, eventually people started waking up in the hut.
We decided to head in there as it was warmer.
We were allowed to be in there so long as we bought something, so we bought hot chocolates.

The man decided he was going to continue going up to the summit, whilst the woman and I decided we weren’t.

We sat around and talked for a while. I kept buying hot chocolates to keep me warm and keep me awake as I was a bit tired.

I found out they were from Sydney and lived near me.

Eventually some guy (from Sweden (I think)) started talking to us.

I gave him my opinion on Sydney and referred to it as a tourist trap.
I told him that the best things about Sydney were those around it.

I think that this was as he was thinking of coming to Sydney.

My opinion of the place is certainly not high and there were things that I recommended that can be done in the city, but I was mostly talking about how there’s better things to be seen outside of Sydney rather than in Sydney.

He told us about how you can drive across his country in a day as it was small.
He also told us about what it was like.

He decided to go to the summit, so we said our farewells.

Soon after, the sun began to rise. The woman and I stepped outside.

There was a lot of blue.
Then there was not blue.

It was still as great view though.

We appeared to be between two layers of clouds that formed their own landscape all the way to the horizon.

I found out from the woman that the hut sold socks. I bought some and asked for plastic bags so wrap my feet in once I changed my socks.

Now, I didn’t think of this before climbing and I wish I did as it would have been quite beneficial.

Anyway, I changed my socks, let my feet dry for about a minute and put the new socks on. My feet were still damp, but it was a significant improvement.

Eventually the man came back. He told us it was cloudy up at the summit and it wasn’t too bad.

We then began our trip back down.

Now, the trip up was quite bearable. At times I did tire out, but I didn’t find it to be overwhelmingly challenging.

The trip down to the sixth station was not fun.

It was a zigzagging path that was used by construction vehicles to get up.

The ground was mostly loose and parts were steeper than expected.

The man suggested jogging for parts of it as it was easier on the knees.

There were times when I would go too fast so I would have to stick my walking stick (I bought one at the fifth station) into the ground to help stop me from moving.

Still, the weather was mostly good for the trip down.

I was probably much happier about this than I should have been, mostly because my clothes dried pretty quickly, but also because it made the trip down a bit more bearable.

However, due to cloud coverage, we couldn’t see the sixth station for a long time.
It lead to the theory that we were actually in hell being brought up, as the pathway down didn’t seem as though it was interested in ending.

There were some incredibly amazing cloud formations and shapes around us and at one point we were able to see the sun, despite it still being behind clouds.

Although it was brief, there was a serious discussion about the word “moist”. The man theorised that the reason as to why it was so good to say was due to it being like saying “fuck”.

It was a something I’ve not heard raised before and I found it to be agreeable.

At one point during out descent, we saw a guy who appeared to be drunkenly stumbling at a fast rate towards the trail turn at which we were.

He was next to the path though. Not on it.

I yelled out to ask if he was alright and he seemed to indicate he was, so we continued on.

Eventually we saw him again. He was heading directly down to each second turn on the path.
He’d take a brief break once he reached the path, then go down again.
I told the woman and man that he was getting down pretty quickly.
The man said he wasn’t that far ahead.
At that point, he wasn’t. He was only a couple of turns ahead of us.
However, within a few minutes the distance between us increased significantly.

What he was doing looked incredibly dangerous, but he seemed to know what he was doing.

We figured that he must have been a geologist and that he was trying to get back down quickly so he could run across the ocean to advise that nothing had been found on Mt. Fuji, or that it wasn’t going to erupt yet… I can’t remember what reason we made up.

Eventually we could see the sixth station again. I did a quick dance.

It was smooth sailing from that point.

We had been chatting a bit about what we each do, made some silly jokes and were getting along, which was nice.

Once we were at the initial diverging path (where the Yoshida trail starts), we worked out how long it would take us.
The man and I made a bet as to how long it would take to get from there to the fifth station. If I lost, I was going to buy him a beer.

I lost, but not by much.

We got back, met up with the friends of the Man and the Woman (who went up the mountain with them but decided to come back down after sleeping at the hut at the eighth station) and got food.
I was feeling a bit worn out and hungry, so I ate a lot of food. I can’t remember what all of it was, but it was good.

We then went to wait for our bus. We had a fair bit of time, so I went looking for a bathroom.

I ran into the son and mother who I thought needed help (the daughter wasn’t there at the time) and asked if they were okay. They were, thankfully.

Around this time I was trying to get an internet connection on my phone.

I took my phone, 3ds and camera with me as I still wasn’t feeling entirely safe with leaving them behind (Gabe and I left excess baggage at the station so we wouldn’t have to take it up with us, but there were some things I preferred to take up).

The 3ds came out fine but from this point onwards, my camera started suffering a few problems.

At first the lens was foggy.
The issue resolved itself within a few hours, but then there were power issues after a couple of days (they still persist).

My phone had a few minor issues (trying to do anything at the fifth station was the worst of it as my phone was refusing to operate properly), but it went back to working fine after a few days.

Soon after, the bus came.
Soon after that, we were back at Kawaguchiko Station.

I found Gabe and we got our stuff out of our lockers.
He asked what happened at the hut regarding booking. I explained.
I told him the money he gave me (‎¥10,000) still came in handy (buying food at the fifth station).

We heard from the friends of the woman and man that there was a bus at Ōtsuki Station that connected to a 新幹線 (Shinkansen (bullet train)) that would go to Osaka, which is where we were all heading.

As there was a train going to Ōtsuki Station shortly, Gabe and I had to go quickly. I said I’d let them know if it was indeed the case and wait for them there.

Sadly, it wasn’t.

The only way we could get to Osaka via JR Pass was to head back to Tokyo first, so we did.

Posted in Life | Tagged blue, fog, Fuji, Japan, mountain, Osaka, station, sunrise, Sydney, Tokyo, Train | Leave a comment

Pictures from Fujikawaguchiko to Climbing Mount Fuji

Posted on October 27, 2015 by Stupidity Hole

Including some from just before reaching Fujikawaguchiko as well.

I hope you enjoy.

Posted in Photography | Tagged apple, boat, fog, Fuji, Japan, lake, mountain, spider, squirrel, statue, tree, water, wharf | Leave a comment

Japan Trip: From Fujikawaguchiko to Climbing Mount Fuji

Posted on October 26, 2015 by Stupidity Hole

Our first train to Fujikawaguchiko was our second express train of the trip.

Leaving the city and seeing a bit more of the country was quite nice, despite seeing it on the train and not on foot.

They had rice cream on the menu. Sadly, I did not have any.

We had to change trains at Ōtsuki Station to continue our journey.
Whilst we hopped on an express, it was not as fast as the previous train.
Still, considering where we were heading, it was nice to see things at a slower pace.

At around 2:45 P.M., we arrived at Fujikawaguchiko.

I was hoping to arrive a bit earlier.

Part of this was, whilst having some trouble on the first day with getting around on the trains, Gabe and I were learning how to get around on them fairly quickly.

However, we were still having some slight troubles by that point, which slowed us down a bit more than expected.

Anyway, we checked in at the Kawaguchiko Station Inn and rested for about an hour.

I then headed out to rent a bike and go cycling.

The initial plan was to cycle to 青木ヶ原 (Aokigahara (Sea of Trees)) and check it out.

However, once I rented my bike, I had about forty-five minutes to cycle around before the shop closed, so I headed down to 河口湖 (Lake Kawaguchi) instead.

It was my first cycle in Japan, and I enjoyed it immensely.

I reached the lake very shortly after leaving the shop (as it was close) and found myself in awe and full of wonder when I looked out over it.

The lake was quite large and appeared to be very still.
There were mountains surrounding the area covered by trees.
It felt quite serene to look upon.

It was quite overcast but this ended up adding to what I saw and helped cement the atmosphere as a relaxed one.

Overall, it was quite beautiful.

After spending some time looking out, I cycled around the lakeside, enjoying the feeling of the air as I was cycling along, until I ended up in Yagisaki Park.

Cycling through the park, I reached a lookout point and saw Rokkakudo temple.

It was a small temple on an island that appeared as though it could only be reached by boat.

I spent a few minutes looking at it, wondering if it was possible to walk out to it during any time of the day.

The atmosphere was still relaxing

Eventually I had to turn around and head back as I didn’t have much time to get back to the rental shop, so I began cycling back, stopping only to take some pictures of 河口湖大橋 (Kawaguchiko Ohashi Bridge), although I think I may have stopped elsewhere to take some more.

When I got back to the hostel, I told Gabe about what I saw and convinced him to come down and check it out.

I was happy with this as some time between my walking around Tokyo Imperial Palace and leaving Tokyo, he told me he should check things out with me as I kept on coming across cool things after we’d go our separate ways.
Hearing that made me feel happy.

Anyway, we left shortly after I got back.
It was approaching night-time pretty fast by that point but getting down to the lake by foot was easy enough.

Gabe sat near the water once we reached the lake to take it all in.
I joined him for a few minutes, then looked for other places to eat.
I thought there would be somewhere to eat there and I was right.
Unfortunately all except one place seemed to be closed and it didn’t seem like it was good food.

After about twenty minutes, we headed back and ate near our hostel.
I can’t remember the name of what we had, but it was quite good.

After eating, we headed to the 7-Eleven near where we were staying and bought alcohol.
I bought what I think was sake. It was in a blue bottle.
Gabe got what could have also been sake in a white bottle.

We headed back to our room and drank.
I was thrown off almost immediately by how alcoholic mine tasted.
Gabe had a taste and wondered what I bought.
When I looked at the alcohol content on the bottle, I saw it was 70% and resigned myself to my fate.
Gabe offered to take it off my hands, but I chose to finish it off

Near where we were staying was a pedestrian crossing to the train station.
Every time the lights changed for pedestrians to cross, they would play a short tune.

This was nice around the time we arrived but it became annoying pretty quickly.

Anyway, whilst we were drinking, I decided it would be a good idea to get a video recording of the crossing doing its thing so I could show how annoying it was.

The recording ended up being deleted as it had me, in a fairly tipsy state, semi-ranting about how annoying they were, speaking to Gabe about climbing Mount Fuji.
I think the inspiring line “They’re almost as annoying as the fucking crows” came up.

Sadly, this historical document is now lost in the annals of history and will never be recoverable.

Anyway, eventually sleep happened.

In the morning, I told Gabe I was going to wander around a bit before we checked out so I could try and get a good shot of Mount Fuji before cloud coverage set in.

I asked if he wanted to come but he wanted to rest which I thought was fair enough.

I was still considering going to 青木ヶ原 but as I didn’t have enough time, I wandered about through the suburban area around me.

I ended up walking along a nature track that lead to a hospital.

I ended up walking… somewhere after that. I don’t know where it was. It was still towns/suburban areas.
One featured a pumpkin patch with huge pumpkins.

There was also a forest-like area that was pleasant enough. At this point I begun to sing Eskimo Joe songs (I don’t know why).

Eventually I didn’t know where I was going, so I asked someone for directions (there were two people standing at a road leading to a golf tournament (I think it was a golf tournament)) and then walked in the direction they pointed me in, saw some things I found interesting, took a picture of Mount Fuji (partially covered by clouds), and made it back to the hostel somewhere around checkout time.

Gabe and I headed to the train station to get breakfast and some snacks for our ascent, then caught the bus up to the fifth station of Mount Fuji.
Well, before that, we bought tickets and were first overcharged, then we underpaid (or something similar to that).
It was sorted pretty quickly, but it was slightly annoying.

Whilst starting at the base would have been fun, as neither Gabe nor I are seasoned mountaineers, it was better we started at the fifth station.

When we arrived, one of the first things I noticed was that the sky was white.

To be fair, I did notice it whilst on the bus, but it was much more obvious once getting off, probably due to being in a much more open area than in a vehicle.

Rain was intermittent and mostly light at this point.

After resting for a few minutes, we wandered around for a bit, seeing what was around us before we began our ascent.

There were signs we saw around this time about stopping bullet climbing.
As we didn’t know what it meant, we thought it was funny.

We saw some horses at the fifth station.
Apparently there’s horse riding to one of the other stations on the mountain.

That’s all there really is to say about the horses.

Nothing else.

Well, I guess it would be fun to gallop up the mountain, or just magic horse jump from the base to the summit, but that would be silly at the same time.

So we began walking when after about a minute visibility reduced to about ten metres ahead due to a thick fog passing around us.

It lifted soon after and gave us a few minutes of being able to see most of our surroundings before it returned again.

This cycle continued with varying times. I liked how it would change the feel of where we were whenever there was fog.

After about an hour (maybe a bit longer), we reached the sixth station and had a quick rest. It was raining a bit more often at this point and also a bit heavier but was still quite bearable.

The view, whilst mostly cloudy, was fantastic.

The clouds made the area feel like it was in its own world, separated from everything else.
We weren’t able to see the base, but we could see fair bit of the way up.

Shortly after we resumed walking, Gabe decided to turn back.
He didn’t feel he was going to be able to do it.
I told him that it was good that he made it as far as he did.
He offered to give me money for his half of a hut reservation (we booked one at the eighth station). I accepted as I didn’t know what was going to happen with only one person showing up.

I told Gabe to be careful and then we parted ways.

In a way I felt better about Gabe not being there as it meant I could go a little faster. At the same time, I wished he was still there as I really wanted to do the climb with him as I didn’t feel the sunrise at the summit (what we were aiming to see) was going to be as good without him.

I decided that I had to reach the summit for him as well as myself.

Keeping this in my mind, as well as telling myself that I had to respect nature, nature owes nothing to me, and that I was only there as nature allowed me to be there helped me continue my ascent.

I ended up walking past two guys. One was making the climb in shorts and a shirt and was against a wall. He said something along the lines of “someone put a bullet in my head”.
When I heard this, I responded by saying “I would, but I don’t have a gun”.
There was a bit of laughing and my telling him that he could just jump off the side as despite being a bit sore after, he’d at least get down quickly.

Probably not the most humorous thing I could have said, but he seemed to enjoy it, so I guess it was kind of okay.

I realised at one point that I was probably going a bit too fast as I began to feel a bit nauseous.
I was also slightly confused as to my sense of up and down at this moment.

Whilst I had taken a couple of brief breaks during the climb, it was at this point that I chose to rest for a few minutes more than what I had previously to allow myself to level out a bit.

I decided to eat a plum onigiri (I had bought two at Kawaguchiko Station before catching the bus). I ate it a bit too fast which lead to me feeling a bit worse for a little while.

I felt okay again after a while, despite not really slowing down much.

Somewhere around this time I was stuck behind three people who I thought were annoying as they wouldn’t stop talking.
At one point they mentioned something about braving the elements.
As I was irrationally annoyed by them, I then said “This isn’t braving the elements. Walking through the Australian bush whilst there’s a bush fire is braving the elements”.

Now, I have never done this and I don’t think I’ve known anyone who ever has.

I could have said something better as it was incredibly stupid to say, but I didn’t.

After a few hours into the climb, the rain became a fair bit heavier, and winds were getting stronger.

It certainly wasn’t ideal, but I didn’t feel it was much of a deterrent for as it wasn’t as bad as it sounds.

There was one point where I saw a mother, son and daughter doing the climb.
The daughter was concerned about her mother doing the climb, so I offered my assistance. They said they were doing okay, so I continued.

Eventually I stopped at one of the huts and waited for them to arrive just to make sure they were doing okay. They said they were and were going to be using the hut were next to (it might have actually been the next one; I can’t quite remember).
Before I left, I gave them the other onigiri I had, then continued my journey.

During the climb I would see people standing in the rain and smoking.

It stuck out to me as a bit odd.

I don’t know why.