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Front side. This is a non-personalised card that is only good for cash value.

You can also get personalised ones that are "registered" to you, so if you lose it you can cancel the card and recoup the credit. I guess this is important, because you can have up to 20,000yen credit on it, I think.

It's about a 45-60min trip to Tokyo on the N'EX, so it's not exactly a short distance. It's effectively a short-distance shinkansen line, and you pay about 3000yen for the privilege normally. My brother doesn't have that kind of cash to blow, so he caught the normal train service, but still beat me to the hostel by about 30min. This would be due to my stumbling around, trying to figure out the rail system for the first time. It was too early to check in yet, so we left luggage at the hostel and went out again.

Visited Harajuku, with A taking us into La Foret, a fashion shopping centre. It's got some well-known gothic-lolita brands down on the bottom level like Atelier Pierrot, Black Peace Now, H. NAOTO and Angelic Pretty. Just down the road from La Foret is Innocent World, another store specialising in EGL. A's girlfriend asked for some specific items from there, which were duly found and acquired. It's a nice little place on the top floor of the building it's in, with a classy, old-fashioned aesthetic; lots of lacey clothing and polished wooden furtinure.

We got a bite to eat in a rather small kebab store, with an interesting idea of "kebab". More like a fajita or taco, but tasty nonetheless. Nice and cheap at ~400yen, too. The two guys running it didn't seem to speak too much English or Japanese, but they obviously managed well enough, and were very friendly. We don't know what the guy doing the cooking was up to, but he kept yelling stuff like "Omotesando! Oishisando!" to noone in particular.

To get around we opted to take the subway instead of the JR lines. There's plenty of capitalism in Japan, and this is evident in Tokyo's rail network, which actually has three main operators (though I only ever used two, JR and Tokyo Metro). The services often share station space, but the lines are completely independent, meaning fares are handled separately. While using the JR pass is dead easy, using the metro means you have to buy a ticket, and that means figuring out what ticket you need to buy, the cost of which is based on the distance you travel. At my brother's suggestion, I bought a Suica card.

Suica is a proximity-card payment-system that's primarily used for rail-related servies in the east. It's even easier and faster than using the JR pass, you just swipe it past the reader as you go through the gates and it deducts the appropriate amount from the card. When you're running low on credit, you just go to a machine and pump some more money into it. It's pretty mich identical to the Octopus card in Hong Kong. The really great thing about it is that it's also widely accepted by retailers in and around train station. Every vending machine in the station accepts it, which reduces transations to just a matter of seconds.

We headed out to Akiba, having exhausted the things to see in the hipper parts of town. I picked up a JP power cord for 400yen, first real purchase of the trip! This will allow me to do nifty things, like charge my camera battery and laptop. The arcades have Melty Blood React AC version 2B. Me? I'm waiting for React AC version 3 Zero-Alpha Plus. It's good fun, but not my forte.

Arcades are a funny sort of place, at least compared to the ones back home. While smoking on the street is generally now prohibited, there's a Sega or Taito-branded ashtray at every sit-down arcade cabinet. They're also well-stocked with drink and ice-cream vending machines, and change machines. A far cry from places like Timezone in Australia, they take their games seriously here. They're up to version 10 of Taiko no Tatsujin now, the wonderfully colourful and addictive drumming game. To prove they're still worth dropping your money on, they've got songs like GO MY WAY from IdolM@ster, along with plenty of other favourites.

My brother and A already have plans for the evening, so I split up with them and headed back to NRT to meet Ast. Armed with a fresh confidence and vague clue as to what I was doing, got a ticket for the N'EX and headed back out. The route out to NRT is so very bleak and sparse. It's hard to believe that this is Japan or infact anywhere near Tokyo, given everything you've heard about how Japan goes from one densely-populated area to the next.

Ast finally gets to the arrivals area and we organise some mobile phones. It's 210yen/day and 3.2yen/sec for calls, both in and out. A bit steep, but we don't plan to use them too much. We do expect to get split up, though, which is where they come in. With that out of the way, it's back on the N'EX and on to Tokyo.

Understandably eager to start seeing things straight away, we get off the train at Akiba and do a little window shopping. Most places are closed by this time, but a lot of shops stay open until about 2200 or so. There's certainly enough people out and about to make it worth their while.

We get back to the hostel with about 15min to spare before check-in closes for the night. It's already evident that Akiba will be a dangerous place in that respect. Curfew is at 2300, which leaves us enough time to get some dinner (McDonalds) and visit the nearby Book Off. Book Off is a huge chain of used-bookstores that has a good reputation for range and price. Contrary to the name, they do music and DVDs as well. They shave the edges off the books to make them look and feel new; it really works! This branch seems to be open until 2300 or 2400, which is very nice, and there were plenty of customers in there when we visited.

Paying our respects, we explore the building a little more. Up on the 8F is a wide open plaza, which is presumably where all the cosplay photos are taken. I'd always assumed that was on ground level while waiting in line, but that's not the case. The plaza is huge, and open to the wind, so it's quite cold. Down one level is a little restaurant which is closed. Having seen what we came for, it's time to head off.

Outside roof area used for cosplay and other activities.

The cylinders placed between the groups of benches in the panorama above are these. Believe it or not, this is actually a fire extinguisher of some sort. It presumably comes to life and moves around like a dalek.

Heading back towards Tokyo, we figure out how to get to Mitaka, where the Ghibli museum is. Mitaka is just outside Tokyo-proper, right on the border of the 23 Wards area. This area, and the strip to the north and south, is probably the main residential area of Tokyo (at least going by the residential break-and-enter crime statistics).

Mitaka is a really different sort of place. The streets are very quiet, and there's none of the hustle and bustle that permeates every part of central Tokyo. Traffic moves much slower, and there's a lot of bicycles on the road. Arriving at the Ghibli museum, we discover that they don't actually sell tickets at the door. Instead, you go across the road to Lawsons (a chain of convenience/general stores) and buy your ticket there. You buy a ticket for a particular "session", 1000, 1200, 1400 or 1600. It's presumably to keep the crowds at a manageable level.

There's some time to kill until the 12:00 session, so we walk around a bit and spot a bakery called Touhou Bakery. We *have* to get something here. They've got a good array of stuff inside, and is very much like Breadtop back home. The atmosphere is much nicer, however, and also has that nostalgic, rustic feel to it. There's a portable stereo in the corner playing the "anpan has something, melonpan is haitenai" song. Seems it's more traditional than we thought! I get my first genuine melonpan, and it's much more like bread than I suspected. Very tasty, though. The top isn't so much a coating as a painted-on dust of crispy sugar. Will remember this for next time I make some.

I was pretty hungry, so I got: some pizza, a cream-pan, a melon-pan, a round sandwich (a bit like a savoury croissant) and a curry-pan. Whatever people tell you about living expenses being high in Japan, it doesn't apply to food.

You can't take photos inside the museum, but there's a roof area which has one of the robots from Laputa, along with a big, black stone cube-thing. The cube is about 60cm along the edge, probably made of black granite, and engraved with a mysterious foreign script.

A view of some of the Ghibli museum from the rooftop. The bright yellow peeking out from behind the staircase is a little cafe.

The spiral staircase leading to the roof. It's a bit short, so you have to watch your head on the way up.

The streets of Mitaka have a very pleasant and distinctly European feel to them.

The designers of this house in Mitaka the right couldn't decide what to do about windows, so they just put them all over the place.

They look like cabbages to me, but these are apparently flowers, of which these are great specimens. We were to see a surprisingly large number of these later on as we travelled around. The sign on the wall says there's a hidden camera keeping watch.

Seeing as we're so far west, we head back via Nakano Broadway, a shopping arcade in Nakano which has quite a reputation. We're arriving pretty late in the day, but that doesn't make it any less good. Mandarake has a stranglehold on pretty much an entire level, with various branches of theirs catering to anime, manga, books, CD, DVDs, figures, cosplay; basically everything. Ast goes nuts and picks up maybe 11,000-15,000yen of stuff, I opt for a healthy stack of CDs.

I was trying to get the sign partway up the wall, which reads "Smile lane but it's too dark. The crazy reflections were a serendipitous bonus.

Just one of many little alleys where people park their bikes. You can't see the end of the alley in this photo, and that pretty much represents reality. Places like this seem to be all over Japan.

Things are starting to close up, and we've had a really good look at everything we're interested in. It's time to start heading back to the station on the rapidly-darkening streets. People on bikes here are pretty lethal, so you need to be constantly aware of your situation. Seeing as we have plenty of free time until curfew, we head to Shinjuku in search of the cinema showing Kara no Kyoukai. We saw the poster for it yesterday in Akiba, so how hard can it be?

We know where the cinema should be, but the Tokyo atlas only has so much detail. With not much to go on, we start wandering the streets of Shinjuku looking for the right block in the chome. Everything we have indicates that the building we're after is actually part of a massive department store called Isetan. We eventually stumble upon the cinema, only to find that the 2115 session is sold out. orz. There's a 2230 session, but that's no good to us, unless we feel like sleeping on the streets for the night.

Absolutely buggered from the long day on our feet, we take a break outside the Shinjuku metro station and watch people passing by Bic Camera, a chain of noisy electronics stores.

The Bic Camera sign extends along the other half of the side of this block as well, and probably further. Hidden behind the pedestrians is a guy with a microphone advertising their specials for all to hear.

I'm sure they sell other things as well, but this store on the corner sells lots of glasses, from what we can see. There's a suspiciously large number of glasses stores in Japan.

Leaving the shrine, we spot an engraved stone out the front with the Hiiragi miko on it. Also a note saying special exclusive postcards are being sold at various stores in the vicinity. From the map, we manage to find one such place, a little general store being run by a friendly old guy, looked a bit like a fishmonger. According to him, we got the last two in the entire area. If so, that's awesome.

This noticeboard is just outside the grounds of the shrine, and mentions the postcards and where to find them.

In case you weren't sure, you're in Lucky Star territory.

Aforementioned postcards.

We discover we can get on the shinkansen for Sendai at Omiya instead of going all the way back to Tokyo, which is great, and easily saves us at least half an hour. We've headed north on the shinkansen, and it's definitely getting colder. At Sendai we transfer to a local line which will take us to Matsushima.

Matsushima is one of the Three Views of Japan (日本三景(Nihon sankei)), and is famous for its pine-clad islands that decorate the harbour. For us, it's the first stop on an attempt to see all three in the time we have. While 11 days seems like plenty, fitting it all in with everything else isn't as easy as it sounds.

Arrive in Matsushima. It's a small town again, and the train trip out was at least an hour on a local-line train. The station is similarly modest, but at least has the usual JR enhancements on the ticket gates. We take a bit of a walk around and then start heading up the main drag. It seems to be a common thing that small coastal towns run lengthwise up and down the water, so they're long and skinny.

Taken from a nearby beach (where swimming is prohibited), this is the bridge to the southernmost island.

Reach the second island. This is acually a string of three islands, two smaller ones, leading out to a larger one with a shrine, all connected by red bridges. The bridges are made from "sleepers" spaced with gaps between them, and two long planks spanning the length. What makes this cool is that each "plank" is actually one piece of timber, arched over the sleepers. You could easily lose a shoe down the gaps. The red posts at the end of each bridge are also decorated by numerous seals of some sort. The temple on the third bridge has a rope gong. It's much harder to get a big sound out of these things.

Bridges between the three islands. You can just see the top of the shrine on the furthest island, above what I think is a "No smoking" sign. Smoking is obviously a problem, because such signs are disappointingly common.

Various stickers on the bridge posts. We're not sure if these are name-stickers, or proper seals.

Arrive at the bridge to the third island. This one is by far the largest, and is connected by a tollable bridge. It costs us the princely sum of 200yen to get across. The bridge is massive, and there's a great view from the middle.

The ticket for the bridge is sold at a little shop/tourist centre on the land-side.

According to signage, the bridge is 252m long. No timber planks for this span, unfortunately; it's all concrete.

Distorted panorama from the middle of the bridge.

Most of the island is elevated, so it's a short walk up a fairly steep paved path to get to everything. The island is dotted with a number of small shrines. The feel is decidedly autumnal at the moment, with most of the shrine roofs covered in orange leaves. We also come across what is to be the first of a lot of interesting "downpipe" designs. It's a series of little cups, strung together and reaching down to the ground. Each cup is shaped like a flower, and it's very intricate for such a simple purpose.

A view down through the drainpipe cups.

Okay, I'll confess that this is really not a special building, it's just a public toilet.

A well-maintained shrine. It has two bell ropes, as well as a gong. Also notice one window pane deliberately removed, allowing you to see inside.

Peering down the rabbit hole.

This shrine has plenty of seals/stickers.

Plenty of noise-making options here.

There's some really nice carving work on the rafters on this one. Just at the top you can see beginning of the multi-layered construction method they use, which I suspect handles seismic activity better.

There's an observation platform at the top of the island, with some convenient signage to help you identify all the other islands in there area (there's a lot of them).

Islands, left side

Mm, more islands (looking further to the right, clockwise).

It's getting dark at this stage, so it's time to call it a day and head back to the hostel. Very pleasing for the first of the three views. I expect things were a little different when the Matsuo Bashou was here and wrote his famous "speechless" haiku, but it's still a lovely place. On the way back to the station we get "dinner" at a little fast-food trailer on the side of the road. It's run by a middle-aged couple, and everything is cooked fresh (as fresh as stuff like chips and hot-dogs are going to get). Once again, it's not expensive. We're a bit puzzled as to how it can be profitable when it's so empty (the sky has been overcast all day, and it's starting to rain lightly), but we suppose it's busy at other times. For those interested, Sendai is about 1.75hrs from Tokyo on the shinkansen, then it's about a 30min local train ride.

Arrive at Miasa, and the weather is pleasant, if cold. There's a light snow coming down and it's a soft layer of powder on the ground. You know the "walking on snow" foley effect used in eroge (amongst other things)? It's exactly that. We're the only people silly enough to get off the bus in this area. It's very quiet, and there's a certain clarity to the environment.

The road past PokaPoka Land. That's it, just two lanes, though we saw a lot of heavy trucks on the road. To the left of the road behind the guard wires is a stream a few metres down. It's fairly benign here, but it picks up in power further along.

It's a bit early to check in just yet, so we leave our bags with the front desk and head out towards Uminokuchi. A little way down the road is a small shrine, up some steep steps. This is our first encounter with some really deep snow. Just to get to the stairs we have to cross a few metres of snow, which is at least knee-deep at this point. This is great, because the last time I saw snow was when I was a kid. The novelty wears off a little once we realise that it'll quickly dampen any clothing, making it cold and heavy.

It's hard to tell if the houses in the area are occupied, but the snow piles up massively against them.

I fell into the snow at least twice in each direction while clambering up to this shrine. It might not look it, but the snow is comparatively light at this point.

We're in good spirits, and while the snow is a bit soft, it's certainly walkable. The real problem is that it's wet, so every step you take picks up another layer of snow, only falling off when it gets too heavy. There's not much out here and the footpaths disappeared some time ago, so we're walking along the shoulder of the main road. As we continue, the snow starts to get heavier and the powder on the shoulder of the road gives way to slush, which has the combined evils of slipperiness, wetness and dirtiness. Despite our best efforts, our thick jeans are taking on water.

We've seen a number of bus stops so far, but strangely they've all been on our side of the road, heading back towards Miasa. We're probably in over our heads when we pass a bus stop that's all but buried in a snow drift, and a little way back there was a sign directing drivers to fit snowchains to their wheels, and a little green box that apparently sprays antifreeze over the road. When we can, we jog on the tarmac, as it actually has a non-zero coefficient of friction and doesn't splash water everywhere. Trucks and cars still pass by regularly, but the drivers here are considerate enough to move to the other side of the road when they can, while we shuffle over to the guard rails. Some distance on there's tunnel cut into the mountain. This wasn't on our map, but we don't really have any alternatives.

This tunnel stretches out through the mountain for a kilometre or so. We follow the narrow walking path down the right-hand side, passing by an emergency breakdown phone every hundred metres, letting us gauge our progress. Communication is practically impossible for the first 200m, owing to the huge, noisy ventilation turbines installed in the roof. It's also less than reassuring that the reflective catseyes mounted on the kerb are rarely intact and upright.

We're headed towards an area known as Hakuba, it seems. After a couple of false starts, we manage to come across a house off the side of the road that's inhabited. Asking for directions, it seems we missed the earlier turnoff that headed west. Instead we've managed to come a fair way north, off our map. Asking him for the nearest JR station, he tells us that if we head on, maybe a 50min walk, we'll get to Hakuba-Gouryou, passing by two "signals" (traffic lights), then taking a left turn at a big sign. The snow-covered fields that we pass are breathtaking, untouched by people or vehicles. Scattered sparsely throughout the area are houses with snow piled up against them, easily a metre and a half deep.

On a small elevated stretch of road is a rest house of some description. Hoping for anything at all, some shelter or warmth, we approach it but are met by dim windows and a closed door. There are two cars parked around the side, but they both wear a thick blanket of fallen snow, and any tracks they might have left are well covered.

Our scruffy map, as provided by the helpful resident. If I were Macgyver, I'd spray it with glycerol and take infra-red photos of it. But I'm not.

Ast's camera was suffering from severe fogging at this point, having already been dropped a couple of times. The sign on the left is of a cartoonish, old-fashioned farmer with a big bushy beard. The cafe itself had a classic nostalgic feel to it, with a couple of rows of neatly aligned tables and polished wood decor.

As we go on, things get a bit more built up and there's at least a footpath now. The snow is really getting heavy, and from all the snow we've trekked through our shoes are pretty much soaked through. Our hands are numb, and our thick gloves are wet from melted snow. At last we pass by a small shop with vending machines out the front. In Japan, this means you've reached civilization! Going inside, it seems to be a general store servicing the local area. The lady there is rather surprised to see us, which isn't unexpected. It's clearly not a day for people to be out, and tourists no less. Asking for whatever hot food they've got, we get some instant noodles. Simple, but so very welcome after being outside for the last couple of hours. The store has a small open area with a stove heater and television. There's a range of sweets and chocolate on offer which we avail ourselves of. Stepping outside, we pick up some cans of hot coffee before setting off. This time, it's Boss brand. Boss is Suntory's range of canned coffees, and right now they've got Tommy Lee Jones as their poster boy. Basically, Tommy Lee Jones will kick your ass, so go with The Boss.

I didn't know at the time just how much snow I'd managed to collect on my head and coat. This photo was pretty much asking for it, and we took it just before going into the shop. I guess Tommy Lee Jones is doing the Lost in Translation "thing" now. Seriously, he's absolutely everywhere in Japan, his stern expression watching you wherever you go. The slogan goes, "SUNTORY BOSS is the boss of them all since 1992", and you surely can't argue with that.

We found this guy next to a signboard map near the store. We don't know why, but he wasn't too pleased to see us, judging by all the barking being done.

The signboard. If I could offer any advice about these sort of maps, it's that you shouldn't trust them too much. Geographically they're accurate, they just tend to ignore smaller features that they deem to be less important, like say, turnoffs or traffic lights. Given that roads are unnamed, this can make the practice of thinking "take the third street on the right" particularly haphazard.

It's still some way to Kamishiro station, but invigorated with instant noodles and too-sweet coffee, it feels almost trivial compared to everything before. At the station, we're pleased to see there's a heated waiting area, as well as a number of other travellers, presumably bound for some skiing area nearby. There's some time before the train arrives at 1400, so we make use of the stove heater to dry our things a little. The snow has eased to a light fall now, which is most welcome.

Like the people who have to restock vending machines, I can't say I envy this guy's job.

There's a couple of level crossings near the station, which also feature in the anime. We're not sure exactly where they're meant to lead, as there's a thick blanket of snow over everything, at least thigh-deep. They look like they head to the water's edge, which doesn't seem useful. A little further down the road we pass a Y-Shop, which was adapted into Herikawa-shouten for the series. We'd drop in, but we're trying to make the most of the time. We're hoping to do a rather quick lap of the lake so we can catch an early train back to Hakuba proper, where we'll get the bus back to Miasa (far saner).

Level crossing, specimen no. 146KK, just south of Uminokuchi station. In all seriousness, this appears to be the exact level crossing featured in the opening theme for Onegai Twins. I'm not an expert on level crossings, but the number on the sign matches, and other crossings had different numbers. Sounds good to me!

The 'Y' stands for Yamazaki. I dunno who it is, but they're a pretty big chain around the country, like 7-11, am-pm, Lawson and FamilyMart.

This was a pretty common site along the main road. I guess it's just too hard to bother with cars in the snow.

There's a tunnel further south along the road, but we're a bit disinclined to take it. Continuing to the right, we stick to the lake-side as best we can. There's a number of inns along the way, but they're all very much closed at this time of year. The turnoff follows the lake, towards the part of town we're interested in, and everything is completely whited-out by the snow from here onwards. It can really only be described as surreal, and it's probably one of the quitest places I can think of. The air is dead still, there are no cars on the road, and there's no wildlife to speak of.

The tunnel probably doesn't even have a footpath, and we have no idea where we'd end up.

The main road is plowed. This area, not so much.

The south-eastern part of Lake Kizakiko is packed with little inns and restaurants, but it's completely deserted. A thick blanket of snow covers every exposed flat surface, and it's easy to feel completely alone and isolated out here. It's fair to say that it'd be a pretty good setting for a zombie movie, especially once night falls.

One of the many places of accomodation, closed at this time of year. I can't imagine how much all that snow on the roof weighs.

The southern tip of the lake has a couple of boat-hire places, for fishing and whatnot. This place does recreational boats, and you can get duck-boats, as well as canoes and a couple of other things. Their rates are pretty reasonable, too. The hire shop had a pair of vending machines outside, but they were both switched off; things were looking pretty dire.

This playground features in the opening theme of Onegai Twins, and is located perfectly on the lakefront, just as shown.

We get a bit sidetracked at a shrine on our way to the pier when we find a shrine. Like everything else, it's deserted, but the beauty of the place is just breathtaking. Right now I can't think of a more idyllic and tranquil place than this.

Main shrine buildings. Like all the places we've seen so far, the doors may be closed but there's a hole where you can look in (either that, or it's some sort of door handle), as seen in the photo. The room inside is wide and shallow, with maybe a dozen canvas seats in a single row, facing towards a brightly coloured bundle of paper cranes, and a small altar space.

A small structure set away from the main buildings. Strangely, we didn't see any donation boxes anywhere on the grounds. Maybe they're really not expecting visitors.

Main torii at the entrance to the shrine (it's up a short, steep driveway). It would have been nice to lie down and just look up at the snow falling, but it was a bit too cold for that. The rope stretched across the gate looks to be made from a really rough fibre, maybe straw.

Icicles forming on the rope tassels; I was fantastically pleased with how this shot came out. You can see some colouration in the ice where the pigment has been drawn out. On the ground below there are vivid orange patches in the snow where the droplets fell before they could freeze.

Our final stop in Uminokuchi is a wooden pier on the western side of the lake. As well as featuring in the opening theme for Onegai Teacher, Morino-senpai stands out here with a set of high-power mounted binoculars to spy on people. Next to the pier is a camping ground, which could reasonably be the same one featured on Onegai Twins. This is kind of the highlight for us, as it's the perfect place to take some silly photos.

With the decking being covered in snow, there was a very real risk we could fall into the water while walking out on the pier. Not that it'd kill us, but it would have really sucked.

Reference image

An imposter!

It was time to head back after this. We were way past catching the early train, and we were at serious risk of missing the original one at this rate. The trains were only running maybe once an hour, so while it wouldn't be an unpleasant place to hang around, it'd make us quite late, and PokaPoka Land was expecting us to check-in at a particular time. Doing the best to jog our numb bodies back to civilisation, we settle for Inao station, which is not far south of Uminokuchi.

We're a bit worried at this point, as the timetabled train doesn't seem to be showing up. And how does it work, anyway? There's only a single set of tracks here, and the timetable shows services in both directions. We look around frantically for some other set of tracks where a train might appear, but there are none. We're about to give up and head to Uminokuchi (they must have a way outta here) when the train appears. We're absolutely stunned - the train is late.

It's dark by the time we get to Hakuba. Once again purchasing bus tickets from a nearby store, we've got some time to kill before the bus comes so we get something to eat at McDonalds. I've not mentioned yet, but this was coming to be something of a bad habit for us. The fact is, every McDonalds seems to be "24 hours OPEN", the food always seems to be fast and fresh, and they've got an interestingly different menu. They're not going to win any healthy-diet awards, but you can get teriyaki burgers, prawn burgers, burgers with eggs, and other things. The standout for me was the McPork burger. At just 100yen, it's like a cheaper cheeseburger (I suspect it's on the limited-time promotional menu). They've also got a wider range of drinks, and you can get stuff like cafe au lait, iced coffee, ginger ale, a few kinds of tea, something with lemon and various juices. I'm probably just easily amused, but I think it's great. They have separate rubbish bins for combustable/non-combustable rubbish, as well as a bin to discard leftovers. From the time when I used to work at McDonalds, I think this is a good idea, but the fact is that it just wouldn't work anywhere else. People suck. Even getting people to take stuff to the bin is a big ask in itself.

The room we got at PokaPoka Land is some sort of east-west fusion style, but the most striking thing is the size. On your left as you walk in is a raised platform done in Japanese style. There's seats around a small table and tea-making facilities laid out, along with some sweets that one usually has with tea. This area is a full eight mats in size (about 3.6m by 3.6m), and then some for the cupboard and ornamental areas - there are people who live in apartments smaller than this! The rest of the room is western style like a regular hotel room, and is probably twice the size of the Japanese area. There's a table you can sit at, a desk, cupboard, TV, and two single beds.

We've got some time before dinner, so we unpack our things and check out the room a bit more. They've got internet here, and it's a far cry from the coin-operated terminals at the hostel. There's a jack in the wall, and you just plug in. That's it! This is how the internet should really be. The beds here are really soft; a welcome change from the thin mattresses and funny pillows that they put foam beans in. After todays trek, we're really looking forward to it.

Entranceway and bathroom. There's like, ten pairs of slippers there. Just who do they think is staying here?

A well-equipped tea set on the table, with both loose tea and teabags for those that prefer them. If what I've read is true, the correct temperature for green tea is about 80 degrees, which sometimes means pouring the water between one or two bowls first. I think the water heater here just keeps it at that temperature anyway, which makes sense to me. For what it's worth the tea was very nice, and the sweets (a sort of biscuit wafer thing) a fine accompaniment.

The western part of the room is somewhat less exciting. We managed to find an amusing movie on TV, amongst the usual bunch of whacky advertisements, called "Baburu e go!! Taimu mashin wa doramu-shiki". It's about a woman who's tasked with going back in time to save Japan from the economic crisis of the 90's. Good stuff, though we didn't stay awake for the ending.

The dining room is shared with about half a dozen other tables, most with families. For us it's just two people at a rather large table. Dinner is a rather elaborate affair and unfortunately for Ast, there's plenty of seafood. We're seated in front of a dizzying array of dishes and implements, and ingredients rather than anything ready to eat. Mixing things together in a haphazard way, I put together a meal while Ast pokes around for anything that doesn't appear to be seafood. There's quite a racket coming from the adjoining room, and it sounds like they're doing karaoke. It's pleasant rather than irritating and adds a certain liveliness to our own room.

What we're really here for is the onsen. PokaPoka Land has designated male/female bath areas and indoor tubs, as usual, but joined to each side is an outdoor open-air bath. The baths close at midnight or so, but I'm the only person here, so I guess they're used to sleeping at more normal hours. With the place to myself, I sit outside staring up into a light fall of snow, letting all the tiredness of the day just slip away. I can't describe it as anything except purely magical.

I'm not sure if I've been misinformed, but I've got this idea that one drinks coffee or fruit-milk after a bath. There's a vending machine, to be sure, but they have nothing like that. There's beer, but it's really not what I'm after. The only place we ever saw fruit milk was in the hostel's vending machines, and at a train station, where the stall sold fruit-milk and nothing else.

We left a phone with my brother before we left for Nagano so we could get in touch with him, and it turned out to be a good thing. It took no less than four phone calls around the station before finally meeting him and A on Harajuku bridge. I may have just fried his brain - I didn't really bother telling him I was going to be dressed up. We ended up walking around Harajuku for a bit but not really doing much at all. There was a huge massing of girls at an intersection near the train station, who we discovered were all lining up to get into a store that was having a 50%-off sale. They could be waiting there for hours. Serious business.

Down a quiet little street we found a Super Dollfie store. Dollfies are ball-jointed dolls made by Volks, and they command quite a high price due to their quality and customisability. As usual you can't take photos inside, but it's a really nice shop. This is "Tenshi no Sumika Harajuku", and they've got pretty much everything you could ever want or need for your Dollfie.

With nothing better to do, Ast and I eventually split off and headed towards Akiba so we could see Chuuou Doori. With the roads closed off, the shoppers were out in force - it was absolutely packed. We needed to get back to the hostel to collect our stuff so there wasn't much time for window shopping, but there was enough to nail down the location of Cosmate. No mean feat when you don't have a map of the area.

This is down the very end of Chuuou Doori, so there's not many people here. I bet the look and feel of everything has changed dramatically in the last 20 years or so.

We really expected to see more cosplayers in the area, but it was probably because we were getting lost in little back alleys all the time. You can't take photos with the people handing out leaflets, but these girls were most obliging. I vaguely recall hearing a comment about how tall I was, a situation not helped by the 5cm heels I was wearing. Heh. While at least it wasn't snowing in Tokyo, it was still very cold, and my fingers were going numb from being exposed to the wind. Wind is no good for hair, too.

After repacking our bags we head off towards Kyoto, a nice long shinkansen ride with plenty of time to sleep. We're going to be in the Kyoto area for the next few days, and my brother suggested staying around Lake Biwa. Lake Biwa is the largest freshwater lake in Japan, and wikipedia says it's bigger than Awaju island. The JR lines run pretty much the entire way around, which is how we'll be travelling from Kyoto. The place my brother stayed was the Prince Hotel in Otsu. It's a little bit out of our price range, so we pick the one at Makino, on the western edge of the lake. The train from Kyoto takes about an hour, which feels interminably long at this hour and noone else in our carriage.

Prince Hotel should be a short walk from the station, which is dead quiet now. There's not even an attendant at the gate, and we feel a little uneasy about just sauntering through. It's now lightly snowing outside, but unlike any of the snow we've encountered before, this snow is dry. It feels like dust in your hands and doesn't stick to your clothes. For the first time, I understand what's meant by being able to see the shapes of snowflakes.

The town is very well-laid out and from what we can see by the streetlighting, has an odd mix of western and Japanese architecture. The streets are in a definite grid like a western "big city" and there are real footpaths and nature strips for a change. This interesting juxtaposition continues when we arrive at the hotel, which clearly aims to make a foreigner feel right at home, but gets rather Japanese when it comes to the rooms (very small, Japanese fittings, etc.). The room is 14,000yen for the night, which a far cry from the experience at Miasa, but it's comfortable and does the job.

The pier here just isn't as cool as the one at Uminokuchi. I don't know if people swim in the lake during summer, but it could be a bit rough. There's no sand on the beach at all, just stones and gravel of various sizes. As you get closer to the water, the stones get even bigger.

The dark mass in the middle is one of a small number of islands in the middle of the lake. The sun was just rising, having only appeared shortly before the picture was taken.

We tried skimming some stones, but these are either too round or too small.

Breakfast is a buffet-style affair and we make the best of the hearty western food on offer. They've got thick toast, sausages, eggs and coffee, as well as fairly normal Japanese fare. More of the cross-cultural mixing going on, and we haven't decided if it's deliberate or just indecisiveness. We hurry a bit as we want to get to the train station, but it turns out that we really needn't have bothered, and should have stayed to eat more. The next train doesn't arrive for nearly an hour, so we're forced to wait it out. We go for a short walk around the town but there just isn't anything to see and nothing is open yet.

I noticed this interesting light pattern over the lake while eating breakfast. Some people call these "God Rays", but for me I'm reminded of the photo on wikipedia of the LGM-118A Peacekeeper missile.

Kyoto is famous for its temples, and it's got a lot of them. In some parts of the city, there's practically one on every corner. As you come out of the station, one of the first things you'll see is Kyoto Tower, it's big and right in your face. It's a bit like Centrepoint Tower in Sydney, but more retro-looking (it was built in 1964). Nearby that is Honganji temple. Honganji is actually made up of a west and east side, but we only visited the east side. The grounds are quite large and there's a very grand building open for visiting and worshipping.

I remember chasing pideons as a kid, it was great fun. The reason there's so many here is because you're allowed to feed them. There's even a guy standing near the main gate selling birdseed. You can't see it from here, but next to the big building is an even bigger adjoining one. There's huge scaffolds up around it, making it look like a warehouse, so I guess they're doing renovations or repairs.

We didn't have any particular goals in mind, save for "see some temples and shrines", so we were just walking around for a bit. We found Sanjuusan-gen-dou almost by accident, and it's a big tourist destination. Sanjuusan-gen-dou is a Buddhist temple that's famous for its 1,000 statues of Kannon. Kannon is the Buddhist goddess of mercy, and along with the 1,000 statues, they've also got a huge "main" one. Kannon is said to have a thousand arms, but this one has 40 - each of her arms saves 25 worlds. Kind of a cop-out if you ask me, but it's spectacular nonetheless.

This is the far side of the main hall housing Kannon. It's our luck that it's snowing, as I'm pretty sure we didn't get earlier while walking around the city. Today is Coming Of Age day, and Sanjuusan-gen-dou has some sort of archery contest every year. The signage wasn't entirely clear whether they still hold it, but they mention a 24-hour archery contest in which participants fire arrows continuously for that time. The record is for a young man who fired something like eight or nine thousand arrows and managed a hit ratio of 62%, a mindblowing concept. This is at a target the length of the hall away, some 120 metres.

I think this is just a gateway to somewhere, but the striking thing for me is the colour. The bright orange isn't unique to this temple either, it seems to be quite common. It's a mystery how they get such a vivid colour that doesn't fade or deteriorate (I assume they could do this before the advent of modern paint technology).

Kiyomizu is another famous temple in Kyoto, and probably the one with the best view. From the main stage you can see most of Kyoto city. You can easily spot Kyoto Tower in the distance, and it was surprising just how far we'd walked to get here. Being Coming Of Age day, we saw a number of girls dressed up in kimonos and walking around, and the place was absolutely packed.

The ticket. You can see a fair amount of stuff from the outer areas without buying a ticket, but the cool stuff like the main stage is only inside. Another interesting attraction in the inner area sees us take a steep set of stairs leading underground into an unlit area. After the first corner it's absolutely dark, and you make your way through by holding a carved wooden handrail. In the middle there is a small room with a single dim light over a round stone bearing a Sanskrit engraving of the word for "womb", if memory serves me correctly. The journey inside is meant to evoke such feelings, and it'd be really nice to do when the place isn't busy, very meditative.

These are those staffs that Buddhist monks carry in old films, and you'll see them appear in anime every now and then (I think of Yuugen Kaisha). The small one in front is easy enough to lift (though it's solid metal), while the big one in the background seems to weigh a tonne and even a team effort can't budge it.

The main stage at Kiyomizu has a great view. The smokiness you can see in the middle is a large tray of incense being burnt. We're unsure of the significance, but a lot of people were approaching it and getting a really good smell of it before moving along. Maybe it's good luck.

These three streams of water are supposed to confer health, longevity and successful studies. I believe the water comes from the waterfall after which Kiyomizu is named.

One of the more confusing things about getting to Amanohashidate is the train. The local maps don't seem to list it, or they list something quite unhelpful. From our previous conversations with the staff at Genmyoan, we're assured that there's a service that goes directly there from Kyoto station. After some asking around, we're able to determine that the train does indeed go from Kyoto station, but the markings are less than straightforward. While we're not paying for any of our tickets thanks to the JR pass, I manage to sneak a look at someone else's ticket while we're queuing up to get onboard. It looks like the normal adult fare is 2200yen, which we're happily not paying, until a conductor comes around and explains that the line to Amanohashidate is private past a certain point. Thus, we fork out 1,380yen each and everyone's happy.

We've got no idea what this is about. This was on a small alley leading off to godknowswhat, and there was certainly no JR infrastructure in sight. Doesn't it look stylish, though?

This huge can of Pocari Sweat cost me just 100yen from a vending machine near Kyoto Station. I wouldn't normally mention it, but this represents fantastic value (if you like Pocari Sweat).

Our train, carrying us towards luxury and the second sight of Japan.

Dinner is abslutely overwhelming, and it's almost all seafood. We expected things might let up after the first couple of servings presented by our attendant, but they just kept on coming. As far as courses go, I count six. 1 - Small pieces of things, prawn, seafood-tofu stuff, tofu. 2 - Rice and more small dishes. 3 - Crab, cooked at the table on a charcoal grill. 4 - Seafood soup. 5 - Tempura. 6 - Dessert, strawberries and green tea and azuki mousse. Ast isn't able to eat all that much so he goes to take advantage of the bath between courses. I'm left to explain that he'll be back later, so we should at least leave some food for him.

First course. I honestly thought this could be most of dinner, but I couldn't have been more wrong. I couldn't recognise everything that was appearing in front of me, but it was fantastic food all the same.

The bath here is really nice, though not as awesome as PokaPoka Land (it's just a spa here). There should be a nice view of Amanohashidate from the outdoor pool, and there's noone around at all. It's initially very cold stepping outside, but after spending a good 20 minutes in the bath I was able to stand on the veranda and just dry off in the cool night air, overlooking the town lights below. Have to get up early tomorrow; they'll wake us up at 0720, for a 0730 breakfast. The train for Kyoto leaves at 0901.

The time comes for us to check-out and we're shown to the front door where a number of attentive staff are waiting to take our bags and offer shoehorns ("no, I'm fine, really"). The bill comes to a total of 54,673yen, and they're even happy to split it for us.

The room is 25,000yen per person, and the shouchuu we had with dinner is 900yen. The ever-present 5% consumption tax strikes again, and it seems alcohol is also subject to some other fees. To make it particularly galling, the consumption tax is applied inclusively to the 15% something-or-other tax. For what it's worth, I reckon PokaPoka Land was probably a better place when you factor in the great value, but Genmyoan would really shine if you take advantage of what's on offer.

The view from our room. The town seems pretty small to us, but it's hard to tell exactly how big it is. An amusing exchange occurred when we were checking out and the master asked us how we found Genmyoan. "Very nice, thank you", was the obvious reply, but he looked a bit puzzled. It took a few seconds before it dawned upon me that he was asking how we found Genmyoan. Ah, it was a recommendation from a review we found online...

The staff are lined up out front to bid us goodbye and we're driven back down the steep and winding path to the station. We're back on our way to Kyoto, headed for Osaka, but not before a little more business in Kyoto is dealt with.

Now with a vague clue about what we're doing, we head for their other building, pictured on their homepage. They're on 3F of the "High Vision" building in the somewhat more built-up part of town. We unfortunately can't go inside, but we get a look at the lobby area before heading off again. There's some posters for their recent works, but that's about it. It's hard staying out of the way of all the people going in and out, but it's lunch time after all.

Spotted near the High Vision building, this car isn't really all that special, but I thought the sharp angle on the rear body was kind of interesting (a feature of the 2nd-gen model), plus it's called the Megane.

Kyo-Ani's studio is up the stairs on the right. The lights around the landings make me think of an old-time movie theatre.

As close as you're allowed to the studios (ie. just outside the front door). You know you're in the right place, but it's kind of a pity there's nothing more to really see.

We've picked up tickets for a shinkansen (kyoto -> okayama -> hiroshima), but with the way things are going, we won't be able to make it to Hiroshima by a useful time anyway. Instead we opt to do our Osaka sightseeing this afternoon and put off Hiroshima for a bit.

No idea what this building is, but I noticed it just as our train arrived for Shin-Osaka. Whatever it is, it looks cool.

Shin-Osaka station is barely 15min away from Kyoto, which is almost disappointing; I was just getting comfy on the shinkansen. We get a bite to eat at mcd and Ast picks up an Osaka atlas. It's a bit big, but comprehensive. It seems there's a public-access wifi system in the area called Maiko-can, but you need to be signed up for it.

Wikipedia suggests that this isn't the headquarters we're looking for. Bummer.

Things are better signposted in Osaka, though not without their annoyances. With a little work, we find the Aquaplus offices in the CTA building. The lobby is disappointly drab and undecorated. Someone should drop in and brighten up the place a bit, stick a few posters in the window. There's a sign in the lobby directing you not to come up, lest they call the police. Serious stuff.

Yep, that's the one, the grey building on the right. All of Japan seems to be plagued by grey architecture, which is disappointing. Inset is the nameplate in the lobby. It's the right place, but you'd hardly know it. I bet everyone wears neckties here.

It seems that some of the addresses we've got are out-of-date. We arrive at the Higashitenma Park Bldg. 2 (also the registrant address for meidokon.net) but all the nameplates indicate there's nothing of interest here. We do, however, pass a nice-looking cafe called Lolli-PoP, it's got that warm nostalgic feel.

Doesn't it look warm and inviting? We would have stopped for afternoon tea, but it was starting to get dark and we had to keep moving.

Mmm, "Worship 24HOURS OPEN".

We're wandering around trying to find the local version of Akiba. We haven't got it yet, but we do find the Nipponbashi bridge (it's significant). A little further on we seem to have stumbled into the seedier part of town and arcades. There's plenty of ads for massage places and company. As well as this there's some not-bad-looking restaurants in the little alleys we're walking down. It still feels like a nice, cosy area, not dangerous at all. There's no heavy neon here, just nice warm lighting, thin streets and people all taking it easy. Also spotted is a signboard for Touhou cinemas nearby. We suspect it's a different kanji, but it's worth the chuckle all the same. This is, however, not a patch(ouli) on the truck-mounted signboard we saw driving around a little earlier advertising a boy band called Touhoushinki.

Tohoshinki are pimping their 16th single, Purple Line, and their 3rd Album, T. No, I've never heard of them either.

They get the same blockbuster movies that we do.

One of the many long malls in Nipponbashi. This one was mostly eateries, but there are plenty around with just pachinko parlours and massage places.

We've finally found "Akiba" and once again, it was monumentally frustrating to find something that should be so simple ("it's in Nipponbashi", "oh, okay, how hard could that be?"). We were skeptical when we heard the comparisons, but it's easy to see why. They've got the same big stores like Animate, Gamers, Toranoana, Sofmap, etc. In fact, the local Melonbooks is far bigger than the one in Akiba. Of course there are maid cafes here too, and we spotted a large Volks showroom to boot.

VisualArts キターーー！

They're very helpful here, even telling us what can be found on each floor. Of note is the sound studio on 4F and the voice recording studios on 6F.

2F is for development but there wasn't much to see, just some messy desks near the glass doors and people hanging around.

3F seems to be the first significant floor in the building, and it's where the time-punch clock and shoe racks are. From the foyer we can see the working area through the double glass doors, and it's quite evident that people are still around. We really don't want to push our luck too far, so we resolve to stick to the foyer.

Shinji Orito's timecard is clearly visible. It's also the only name we recognise. Going by the stamps on the card, he's gone home for the day.

5F is apparently for management, and we couldn't see anything down the hallway at all, except for a lovely print of Yuiko Kurugaya (Little Busters!) hanging on the wall. This is surely a legendary item.

We contemplated just how hard it would be to pull off the "perfect crime" to obtain this beauty. Such a thing could never be sold, at least not easily (though why you'd want to is beyond us). With that in mind, the ideal situation is to replace it with a flawless replica. You couldn't do it on two consecutive nights; you'd never get in to put back the forgery. No, the best way to do it would be to get in after most people have left for the day, take it somewhere to get it copied and framed, then come back and put it on the wall. We're sure it'd be quite an operation.

Retouched and corrected.

We've decided before leaving that we need a clearer shot of the timepunch cards on 3F. It's a bit risky and there's always a chance we'll run into someone who'll ask questions, but we go ahead anyway. Taking the lift to 3F, Ast holds the door open while I line up a shot. The lighting is dim and I'll need to use the flash. This is a problem because it'll be visible inside. Making sure there's noone coming, I brace myself on the far wall and take a shot. Hoping for the best we duck back into the lift and head down.

It came out just fine. Judging by the cards, they've got about 37 people on staff, which is definitely quite respectable. On the way out, just as we were leaving by the front door, we ran into a slightly scruffy-looking gent who was heading into the attached carpark with his bike. Frozen with fear we barely managed to politely return his greeting and bow before making for the safety of the streets.

We're postponing our plans for Hiroshima for a bit longer, and instead heading to Awajishima. There's absolutely no point trying to get to Hiroshima at this hour, but we can probably make it to Fukura tonight. A short hop on the subway sees us back at Shin-Osaka, where we should be able to make a good connection.

Awajishima, or Awaji island, sits between the mainland of Japan (Honshuu) and Shikoku not far from Osaka. For us the significance is that it features in the visual novel Narcissu, released by Stage Nana and translated into English by insani. Narcissu is a moving and emotional story, and this is another pilgrimage for us. What's going to make it interesting for us is that we have no guide for getting there. In Narcissu they travel by car, and the writer, Tomo Kataoka, has also suggested going by car when asked.

From Shin-Osaka it's two stops on the shinkansen line to Nishi-Akashi, then a short trip on a local train to Maiko station in Kobe. It's here that we can catch a bus across the Akashi-Kaikyou bridge and onto Awajishima. This is one of the few places not well-served by trains (JR or otherwise), and we don't yet know exactly how we'll get to where we're going.

Having made it to Maiko, we're greeted by the sight of the bridge. The scale of this thing is monumental, and it's the longest suspension bridge in the world. The distance it spans between the mainland and Awajishima is just under four whole kilometres. This will be our last trip for the night, and we're very pleased that we'll get to Fukura before we need to find a place to bed down.

I love the way the light appears to lance out in this photo like a gas flame. If you use your imagination, you can pretend that a black-ops helicopter is about to land in the lower-right foreground area, which explains the extreme lighting. Yeah. -_- Oh, and there's the bridge in the background, right? Y'know, it lights up with different running colour patterns, like christmas lights, depending on the time of day. The patterns also change throughout the year.

The underside of the Akashi-Kaikyou bridge, as viewed from the exit of Maiko station. The bus terminal is seven stories up, and the actual platform above it in the open air. The underside of the bridge at each end is lit by high-pressure mercury vapour lamps, which lends a lovely green glow to the concrete and surroundings.

This map shows all the paths over Awajishima, but we need only one. From Maiko in the northeast we'll cross the bridge to Awaji, then follow the thick green-white road down past Sumoto interchange in the southeast, then west to Fukura.

The bus arrives in Fukura after roughly 45 minutes, and by that time we're the only ones left on the bus. The interchange at which we disembark is near a tourist centre and right on the water in a small harbour. There's nothing else we can see that's open except for a Lawsons, so we ask for some directions. There's a "business hotel" nearby, quite possibly the only thing still open. It's a short walk from the interchange, and it's evident when we arrive that we probably dragged the owner out of bed to accomodate us.

It costs us the princely sum of 3500yen each to stay the night, which I ask Ast to cover me for. At this stage I've burnt through most of my cash and I haven't two 1000yen notes to rub together. It's a 6-mat room that smells like dog-food (probably cigarettes in reality), but it's well-equipped (TV, heater, air conditioner, toaster oven) and we're thankful for a warm bed (it's really cold).

Kuroiwa sits on the side of a hill, and it's very steep. The sun starts to come out about the time we arrive, and it's a really lovely place. The sun feels nice and warm, there's a light breeze, and the fresh ocean air smells great. If you had to pick a place for the last thing you see before closing your eyes on this ugly and beautiful world, this really wouldn't be a bad choice.

You'd be forgiven for thinking that it's something you drive through, but it's not, there's just a small carpark at the bottom. The Narcissu flowers grow all the way up the side of the hill, and the good bit is off to the left where the walking trail goes.

The Narcissus flower is known as 水仙(Suisen) in Japanese.

But they're commonly known as Daffodils in much of the world.

The Narcissus is a monocotyledon, as evidenced by the "multiple-of-three" configuration of its petals and sepals.

The petal/sepal section is white, and is called the Perianth.

The yellow section in the middle housing the reproductive organs is referred to as the Corona.

This is an interesting specimen where the corona had split and more petals had grown through. This is probably a slight variant or hybrid of the flowers that cover the rest of the hillside.

As we understand it, there's another area full of Narcissi called Tachikawa. On the way, we might also find the beach that's referred to in Narcissu. We'd probably get there if we continued down the road we came on, but it looks like it'd be about a 20km distance on foot. We almost consider it, but it's just not feasible. Instead we'll have to return to Fukura and see what we can do from there.

The more botanically-minded can probably make some sense of the signboard describing the various features of the Narcissus flower.

There's a small restaurant and store at the bottom of the hill. They have flyers but nothing to help us find what we're after.

The walking path zig-zags up the hill. Despite the appearance, the slope is quite gentle, and there were a fair number of people there at the same time.

The walking path makes an interesting shape when viewed from above. I suspect it's some sort of callsign or message to aliens.

I'm not sure what's been cut down, but given the greenness of everything else, I can't imagine why you'd find something deciduous here.

These happy flowers stand at the top of the mountain, facing the sun out over the ocean.

According to the guys at the Fukura bus interchange there's a bus for Sumoto interchange very shortly, but the connecting bus to Tachikawa doesn't go until 17:40, and then there'd be the issue of getting back. The sun would also be setting by the time the bus left Sumoto. Defeated, we buy a ticket for the bus back to Maiko. We might reach Itsukushima shrine around the time the sun is setting. With any luck we can catch the torii, but it's really dicey at best. In any case, we'll probably find accomodation in Hiroshima for the night, unless we see the torii, then get a series of shinkansen all the way back to Tokyo.

One of the towers of Akashi-Kaikyou bridge.

The juvenile humour kicks in.

We were wondering earlier what the deer eat, and we now have our answer. While attempting to pat the deer, some of the more inquisitive ones stole a pamphlet from Ast's pocket. Unable to retrieve it, we were forced to leave them to it, and indeed they all showed much interest in this foodstuff. Mystery: solved.

We only later spotted the sign asking that we not feed the deer with pamphlets or other things. It wasn't our fault, they started it!

With nothing more to see, we're back on our way to the mainland. Thankfully the JR ferry runs frequently, as our schedule is getting quite tight again. We've got room to move, but we also want to get back to Tokyo sooner rather than later.

Taking the train towards Hiroshima from the Itsukushima shrine, it seems that it's going-home time for a lot of students. I don't know how many schools there are in the area, but I spot one girl in a particularly eyecatching uniform. It's mostly a navy blue, but the blazer she's wearing has a prominent double row of white stitching on the trim; very modern and chic. I tried to snap a photo, but the carriage was just too crowded to pull it off.

This shot, taken from the south-eastern side, showed me just how photogenic the structure really is. The exterior is lit by mercury vapour lamps, while the eerie, warm inner glow is from sodium bulbs, the latter of which are rarely as rich when seen with the naked eye. The area lighting also lights up the sky, lifting it to a cool-black colour and exposing the clouds.

From the south side you can see just how spartan the ruins are. Given that Little Boy was detonated several hundred metres away, this is nothing short of amazing in its own right.

I couldn't get enough of the colours provided by the lighting on the dome. I decided on a 5sec exposure while resting the camera on my bag. It blows out the highlights on the lights and still suffered some blur, but it really brings out the orange glow inside. It also has the odd effect of making the buildings in the background look like they're on fire. Hrmm.

The atomic bomb dome is part of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, and was preserved in it's exact state as it was after the bombing. I have to say it's a pretty amazing sight.

Ths structure is the Children's Peace Monument, in memory of the children who died as a result of the bombing. You can't see it here, but the top of the structure bears the statue of a girl with the shape of a paper crane above her. The colourful booths near the base seem to contain paper cranes, which are in continual supply from people who send them from around the world, to be placed by the statue. Inside the dome you can make out the figure or a somewhat more permanent crane.

The Peace Clock Tower chimes its message to the world every day at 08:15.

The guy on the left is particularly enthusiastic and has his mobile phone out as well as his compact handheld. What's so special about this thing..? I think this constitutes symmetric docking.

There's some interest in this train for some reason, as there's a number of people standing around on the platform with cameras. One guy has a tripod and videocamera, but most have compact handhelds, a few with mobile phones. Given the time of night, they're surely train otaku. The excitement is palpable as they (station staff and engineers) prepare to dock the front and rear sections of the train, but the reason unclear. Not one to miss such an obvious (if poorly-defined) event, I stand by and exercise my shutter finger, attempting to fit in. There's a small but unexpectedly loud crash as the two halves come together, and one almost feels a collective sigh of release from the crowd after the impact. -_-;;

All aboard the Sunrise Seto! This is a limited express service, and will be stopping at.. Yokohama, followed by.. Tokyo.

The inside of this train is *plush*. While we're travelling in something akin to a dormitory of bunk beds, it's clear that the private cabins are very smooth, and there are showers and whatnot on board. According to some stickers, it won a Good Design award last year, though so has nicovideo, which makes that at least a little dubious. It's an eight hour trip to Tokyo, which seems like a long time, but you have to remember that we're covering a hell of a lot of distance. It's no shinkansen, but it's certainly doesn't hang around.

The corridors are so thin that just passing someone is an awkward maneuver.

While they've provided a pair of sheets for you to use, the bunks are very hard, being pretty much just a layer of carpet. Seeing as there's no pillow, you're stuck with using the sheets, unless you're well-prepared for how this service works. Needless to say, we're not. We're cold and hungry, and this thing is too skinny for them to be able to run a snacks trolley. We did pick up a number of snacks and drinks before getting on, but it'd be lying if we tried to call that foresight. We bed down and do the best we can to get some sleep through the night.

Mmm, this is "home" for the next eight hours. You could certainly do worse, and there's lots of room to stretch out.

There's a fierce wind blowing, and all we've got to do is walk around and look at buildings. Cool buildings, mind you, but you can only do so much of it. Our last stop in Yokohama is the Exhibition and conference centre, a bit like the one at Darling Harbour in Sydney.

This building with the interesting shell shape is attached to the Pacifico exhibition centre. Off to the left is the Intercontinental Hotel.

Like Darling Harbour in Sydney, the distinction between the convention centre and exhibition centre is a bit rough. It's the same deal here; I think this is the convention centre.

Or was it the other way around..? Whatever the case, this building has modern styling with its wavy pattern. The architect would probably say that this part of the building is meant to look like an eyelid (that's the best "artsy" thing I can come up with, the dark shading around it makes it ever so realistic).

I love the colours and shapes inside the Queen's Square shopping centre. Why can't we have interesting things like this!? There's a clear view of about six floors here across this massive open area. Off to the left is a huge glass front letting plenty of natural light in. Westfield would have found a way to mess this up by adding more floorspace and making it horrible. That is indeed a giant, suspended Snoopy beneath the escalators.

We're trying to head towards Chinatown, which should be easy, because Ast tells me Yokohama has one of the largest Chinatowns in the world. We don't expect there'll be much to see, but it should be worth a visit. We don't have an Atlas for Yokohama so we're essentially lost again. In the end we just get on the nearest local subway to try and make it back to a JR station.

While waiting on the platform I spotted this guy in a black coat with long brown hair and round sunglasses, and all I could think of was Wild Dog from the Time Crisis series of arcade games.

I managed to get a photo of his back, and a bit of his glasses. You'll just have to believe me when I say he looked totally badass. I would have gotten a shot on the train, but it was just too crowded with peak-hour traffic.

We eventually get to Chinatown, but pretty much everything is closed. Well, it's not huge loss. Like most other Chinatowns, there's a mindboggling number of restaurants, and the usual set of souvenir/trinket shops.

One of the many ornate gateways leading into Chinatown.

Yokohama cityscape.

Out the front is a miniature shrine with a small donations box and a figure of everyone's favourite miko. Dropping in a virtuous amount of change, I make a wish to find good stuff inside.

At the entrance I find a sweatshirt top with "I love 東方(TouHou) Project" embroidered on the front in red in a cursive typeface. I'm sorely tempted and it'd make a good gift, but at 5000yen it's more than I can spend on the spot without at least trying to justify it a little more. They've also got what are now being termed "ZUN hats", the cute puffy ones that sit atop one's pate, as worn by Remilia, Flandre, Yuyuko, Yukari, etc... These are of a rougher, less-colourful weave than I had expected though, so they're not as as cute as I could have hoped.

I don't think Galaxy Angel will ever die out. It's like Evangelion, it becomes part of the landscape, and it's eternal.

Silver Rain is some sort of "play by web" game. I guess you're meant to use your mobile phone. The important thing is that the illustlation is by someone from TYPE-MOON.

Fortune Arterial is getting a LOT of media attention right now. Their advertising budget must be enormous, as there's posters and promotions all over Akiba.

Akiba station probably has the highest density of otaku-related signage in all of Japan. In the station itself is a poster encouraging potential blood donors to come forth. Their mascot characters are a pair of chibi maids. What else would you use, apart from loli-vampire girls?

I admit, I've hunted down this doujin based on this poster alone.

Eager to stay productive, we decide to hit up Tokyo University before heading back to the hostel. We don't have the atlas on hand, so we're playing this one by ear. We have a good idea of where it should be, and even a rough address (all of the 7th chome) - how hard can it be? Right..?

The ticket is full of this crazy moon language, but it lets me see a pretty movie.

Kara no Kyoukai, subtitled the Garden of sinners, started as a light novel written by Kinoko Nasu but later really took off when recognised as a Type-Moon work. That was a while ago now. This multi-part movie adaptation is very new, however, and is being made by ufotable. The movie we're here to see is about an hour long. Although there's no direct crossover of characters, Kara no Kyoukai is set in the same universe as Tsukihime. There are some familiar names, and we've seen the "lines of death" special ability before.

I understand the barest threads of much of the dialogue, but the pictures really tell you the rest. Although Nasu has a certain reputation for flowery dialogue, Ast assures me this is quite satisfactory. The production budget on the movie is very high, and it really shows, they've put a lot into it. The soundtrack is also very nice, and I'd like to pick it up when it comes out. This is the second instalment of the story, and there's to be several in total. Ast and I have no idea what the story is about, but it's evident that the female protagonist, Shiki, has a split personality, one demure and one murderous. Her friend Mikiya is... going to stop her killing people? Maybe. Being based in the more familiar Tsukihime universe, there's blood to be spilt, and lots of it. In fact they must have spent a lot of money on the blood...

The building featured in Read Or Die. The details in the anime follow reality almost flawlessly, right down to the details on the legs of the book-tables on footpath outside.

Ast tells me he got "recommendations" from 2ch for the Haga Bookstore on one of the upper floors. With this in mind we take the lift up instead of down to check it out. What we find comes as no surprise, but the quantity was astounding. The entire floor is completely packed like a library with adult books, magazines and videos.

Stores like this are absolutely normal in Jinbouchou. We believe the ceiling-books are providing critical structural support to the building.

Who needs external walls when you can have bookshelves?

More rare and valuable books, we're sure.

There's nothing else to really do so we head towards Akiba. Rather than catch the train we opt to walk. It'll take a while but it's a nice change from the usual. At my insistence we stop at a Starbucks along the way. We're not after real coffee, of course, but I want something close enough. All the canned coffee you seem to get in Japan is either very sweet or straight black. My tastes are apparently "crazy and foreign" - I just want a big milky coffee without sugar. One thing that hasn't changed is the price, it costs me about 450yen.

Streetfront signage. The cafe is up on the 6F. No idea what the lower floors are, but there's a gashapon store on street level. We're here in time for lunch. Also evident is some sort of Hayate no Gotoku promostion they're running.

There's a few of different styles of maid cafes but the Cure Maid Cafe is fairly straightforward. It's a regular cafe, and you're served by elegant maids. This almost-mundanity seems to surprise some people. "That's it?". Other cafes are the kind where you have more one-to-one interaction with the maids and they'll chat, play games and sometimes feed you, but this isn't one of them.

This sign is fairly high up, so you wouldn't normally notice it. The advantage is that it's visible from the end of the alley, which is a boon when you have to wander around to find it. Their opening hours run rather late, which is very convenient.

There's a bit of a queue when we arrive, and we have to wait on the fire-stairs, but this doesn't last too long. The decor is very nice, more of that old-fashioned feel that we like. Wooden floorboards, nice furniture, tasteful decoration. The maids aren't one bit out of place. We're greeted with the extremity of formality, and we're relying on Ast and T to be our ears now. I ordered a katsu curry and darjeeling tea. Everyone else isn't too hungry so they get cakes and stuff. Remember how I said they've got a Hayate no Gotoku thing running at the moment? Ast orders a slice of the Hinagiku cake, and gets a special coaster with it. I'm pretty sure there's a piece of art here signed by the manga-ka. In all it's a very nice place, though they're serving cream with the tea as well...

I've made about 7000yen of headway against my remaining supply of cash, which is a good effort. We meet up with Ast and James again and decide to head to Shinjuku for dinner. As a savvy semi-native, James knows where to get cheap dinner, so we're headed to an all-you-can-eat okonomiyaki and sukiyaki place. I've never had okonomiyaki before, and all my knowledge on the subject comes from Ranma, which is probably not the most accurate reference. I just know it somewhat resembles a pancake, except that it's savoury.

It takes us maybe 20 minutes to get to the okonomiyaki place from Shinjuku station. It's not far, but the mass of people slows everything to a crawl. It's Saturday night, and the streets are absolutely packed. The vibe I get is like new year's eve in Sydney, but there's no special occasion here, it's just like that. The restaurant is down some narrow stairs off the street, and it's close to full. It's rowdy and noisy, but for about 1800yen we can spend the next hour or so eating as much as we want.

Like sukiyaki, okonomiyaki is a cook-it-yourself sort of affair. The tables have big gas hotplates built in, and you cook stuff however you want to. The okonomiyaki comes in a bowl. You just mix up the ingredients and throw it on the hotplate. Not only is the food filling, it's great fun. So much so that it's easy to do what we did and order more than we could eat. We did our best but everyone was absolutely stuffed and we still had a few uneaten okonomiyaki between us by the time we finished.

The condiments you get for okonomiyaki are the same as for takoyaki. The brown stuff is a light barbeque sauce, and the bottle contains mayonnaise. There's also bonito flakes if that's your kind of thing. Here, Ast is writing what's probably an inappropriate message with mayonnaise. The best I could manage was a love-heart.

There are more arcades around Shinjuku, but I've got something else in mind. Cosmate has a store in Shinjuku which I'm eager to check out, so I split up from the others and start walking. It should in theory be not too far from the station, but the streetmaps near major intersections suggest otherwise. I've got an exact address so I start walking. And walking. And walking. Some 45 minutes later I'm now in Shinjuku 1-chome. I can even see block 18, but building 6 just isn't right. Something is very wrong. While I can't read anything on the map, my gut instinct tells me the shop should have been back near the station, and when I'm worrying about my instincts I find they're usually right.

It's Sunday again, which means that interesting people will be out and about in Harajuku. I was considering dressing up again, but the logistical difficulties it poses are too much, and I'm just not in the right frame of mind for it. That won't stop me from having fun looking at other people though. Between here and there is the Meiji-jingu (Meiji shrine), which we'll visit on the way.

Meiji-jingu was built in honour of the Emperor Meiji and his wife, the Empress Shouken. Meiji helped bring about massive reforms of the political and educational system and brough Japan onto the world stage. Attached to the shrine is a museum that houses personal effects of the Emperor and Empress.

Ast tells me the sign on this sheltered carpark literally reads as "vehicle purification place", or words to that effect.

We're getting close. This chap is wearing a traditional outfit, and those appear to be miko behind the counter. No miko walking around yet, though.

There's a lot of Ema here, so many that they've had to stack them, unlike at Washinomiya where they hang freely. This is also a very big sanctified tree.

While wandering around inside the shrine, we see a procession of people emerge from one of the attached buildings into the central area. At first we can only see people in suits and a photographer, but the occasion is obvious - it's a wedding! Sure enough we soon see some shrine officials, and later, some miko! Two of them, in fact. There's quite a crowd gathering as the procession makes its way through the courtyard, and all the spectators move aside to let them through. Ast points out that we've seen what we came to see, so we should keep moving.

The gatehouse to the southern entrance to the courtyard. You can see that the endgrain of all the timber is painted white. We're not sure of the reason for this, but it's definitely not the first place we've seen it.

The northern gatehouse opens to another courtyard/stage. There's a large donations box in the centre, but I noticed these large drums off to each side. The arcade game kinda pales in comparison.

Noone seems to be smiling here, but I guess it must be a pretty overwhelming experience. This was one of the few days that wasn't overcast, so the umbrella is a must.

Miko! The outer garment has a nice printed pattern on it, and if you look closely you can see they also have some sort of hair accessory (as well as using lots of hairpins).

On our way out we decide to visit the museum. As is usual you can't take photos inside, but there's some neat stuff in there. One artist has painted a series of portraits of every emperor to date, certainly no mean feat. It's interesting watching how the fashions change for beards and hairstyling over time.

We saw this just outside the entrance to the museum; your guess is as good as mine.

There's really nothing left for us to do except get our luggage from the hostel and get to the airport. Our flight's not for another few hours, but the trip to Narita takes a while, and we don't want to rush.

You can get all sorts of great stuff from the food trolley on the way out to Narita. You could be forgiven for thinking this is some sort of special N'EX-branded bottle, but it's not. I have no idea what NEX is meant to be.

We return our rented phones once we get to the airport and pay off the bill. It ended up being pretty cheap, all things considered. Ast made way more calls than I did, so his bill is about 5,000yen, while mine is around 3,000yen. You could certainly do worse.

We sit in a cafe for the next half an hour and attempt to go through the last of our cash while getting dinner. We do our best, but you can only spend so much on tasty drinks and bread. Before catching the shuttle over to the gate we see a duty-free store with "Akihabara" emblazoned on their sign. We're extremely skeptical, but we'll humour them. As expected, they've got trinkets and toys and whatnot, but the closest thing we can see is some gashapon machines. No moe anywhere at all! We get on the shuttle and head over to the gate.

The shuttle really reminds me of the Yurikamome line in Odaiba. It's an automated service that ferries passengers from the main terminal to the outlying airline gates. It takes barely a minute, but it has the merit of looking really cool from the outside. Ast has a different plane to catch so it's time to part ways and farewell this country that's been home for the last 11 days, it's been a great trip.