Just finished uploading some pictures from a recent bicycling trip in Zushi, south of Yokohama. The area is located near the sea and makes for a pleasant ride, with not too many cars. In other news Tokyo just entered rainy season from today so probably won't have a chance to go anywhere for the next month or so...meh.
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trips
In 2008 I finally got myself a Japanese driver's license (in Japan you can use an international driver's license only for the first year of your stay). Getting the license itself was a fairly easy process although it did require a couple of trips to the Danish Embassy in Daikanyama to get my Danish license translated, before handing everything in at the Driving License Testing and Issuing Center in Shinagawa. Apparently the rules are different depending on where you originally got your driver's license but carrying a Danish license meant I did not have to take additional lessons and/or tests, even though they drive on the opposite side of the road over here.
My newly acquired driving rights were soon put to use on a trip to Choshi, a pleasant seaside area in Chiba known for its ocean views and good seafood.
...Well actually it is not that well-known at all but that's what I imagine the travel brochure would say if they had one.
On the way there we somehow managed to run into "Tour De Chiba", an amateur bicycle race. Thankfully no riders were hurt as I did my best to commander our little rented "rice-cooker" safely past them, after not having been behind the wheel for more than a year.
As usual, pics are on flickr.
Yup. Well in to 2009 and am still "catching up". Hopefully the brand new iPhoto 09 software I bought the other day will help me sort out all my pictures and catch up to "now".
Karuizawa Bicycling
September in Japan is usually quite warm but also marks the end of summer and thus last chance for doing something like...say, a bicycling trip in Karuizawa?
Karuizawa, a mountainous region located north of Tokyo in Gunma prefecture, is known as being a great area for bicycling, thanks to its beautiful open countryside setting, hilly landscape, and lack of cars!
Going up and down the many mountains was certainly a lot of fun (the latter more so than the former...) and my newly acquired iPhone came in surprisingly handy as we relied on its GPS capabilities for navigation! (wow, two Apple plugs in one post...I should enroll in some kind of affiliate program). Here is a rough map of the trip:
[googlemaps https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=116784441307494107165.000456a9aadd0a40dcfe7&ll=36.42326,138.550601&spn=0.161437,0.169516&t=k&output=embed&s=AARTsJr-4HGcNeR8b2U0Fwc7TMdgSRsZzQ&w=425&h=350]
The rest of the pictures can be found here!
Since everyone in Japan has their week (at best) of summer vacation at more or less the exact same time, the prices of plane tickets skyrocket during this period, and so one can either choose to pay exorbitant amounts of money for a trip overseas or just lay low and chill out for a while in Japan. This year my vacation was spent doing the latter in Kofu, Yamanashi.
The days in Kofu basically consisted of eating, drinking, playing darts, driving/bicycling around the Japanese countryside, and sleeping. Can't think of a much better way to spend way to spend a much need vacation! The action-packed pictures to document all this excitement can as usual be found on flickr. Oh, also snuck a couple of Tamagawa barbecue pics in there, taken in "my backyard" on the first day of summer vacation.
The first test of my newly acquired knowledge in the-art-of-not-drowning was to come only a week after having received lessons in Izu. Armed with only a photocopied "temporary license", the course was set for Okinawa - a large group of tropical islands found several hundreds of kilometers south of mainland Japan. Specifically we were headed for "Miyakojima", which is basically a tiny island inhabited exclusively by people passionate about diving and the sea in general. Even the taxi driver who drove us from the airport said he had moved there just to be able to go scuba diving every day!
Having started my diving career in the muddy waters off the coast of Izu, the Okinawan diving experience turned out to be a completely different one. The warm, tropical water was filled with fish and coral gardens, and had an incredibly transparency that almost gave me vertigo upon descending into the ocean for the first time, as you could clearly see all the way to the bottom, 20 meters below.
Some of the dives took us through labyrinthine cave systems which boasted spectacular "laser light" shows, as sunlight penetrated through the cracks in the ceiling and refracted on surrounding rock walls.
One of the tunnels surprisingly led us to an inland lake that I imagine must be more or less concealed if you approach it from land. Not that anyone would be around to actually try that, since apparently the island was being used by Japan Airlines pilots to practice take off and landing, a fact that was made evident when a large passenger jet passed right over our heads as we were getting ready to return to the boat.
In addition to all the underwater action, some of the most memorable moments from Okinawa actually took place on the surface, eating freshly prepared noodles for lunch on the open sea or having a relaxing float in the warm water while waiting for the other divers to return.
All in all I must say it was a great experience and seeing the pictures from the trip again makes me sure that this won't be my last diving trip, nor my last time to visit Okinawa!
As if dolphining out in Mikurajima wasn't enough, the following summer holiday saw me take part in another two diving escapades, the first taking place on the Izu Peninsula. Here, about 100 kilometers south-west of Tokyo, I was to receive scuba lessons as part of an PADI Open Water Diver Course in order to obtain a diving license.
Although it may be hard to tell from the pictures, this was in the middle of the Japanese summer season, and thus ridiculously hot which meant that probably the hardest part of the training was dragging yourself from the preparation area, accross the street down to the beach and eventually into the ocean wearing several kilos of diving equipment.
In the water we went through various drills, such as what to do if you lose your respirator, how to clear you mask of water and so on. As you can see in the underwater shots, the water around Tokyo is not the cleanest in the world. In fact, as our instructor pointed out, it bore a remarkble resemblance to miso soup...but thankfully I would get a chance to see how beautiful it can be underwater only a week later in Okinawa.
The whole course took all of two days and at the end I was the proud owner of a PADI diving license!
During May, in what was going to be the first in a series of underwater adventures this year, I was somehow persuaded to participate in dolphin snorkeling. The action took place on Mikurajima, a small island that is technically in Tokyo but in reality is several hours away by boat and as you can see bears no resemblance whatsoever to the metropolis it shares its address with.
Before going out to meet the dolphins, our instructor had arranged for a brief training session, which turned out to be more like a kind of private lesson as it became apparent that I was the only one in our party without any kind of diving experience. Snorkeling I realized was kind of a rough way to start ones diving career and I pretty much spent this first hour in the water using my snorkel as a drinking straw connected to an all-you-can-drink sea water buffet.
However, when we later actually got to see the dolphins, they would come so close to us that not much diving was really necessary, and merely sticking your head in the water would bring you face to face with the long-nosed creatures.
As always, I've put up a photo set on Flickr with the rest of the pictures.
I spent the first couple of days of March trying to kill my self snowboarding in Tomamu, Hokkaido. At the time of writing, even while planning another trip this December, I have no clue as to how the intricacies of getting safely down a mountain strapped to a thin, hourglass-shaped board work. Suffice to say I was even more clueless half a year ago and it ended up being three painful but fun days.
Tomamu is a popular snow resort, particularly recognizable for its strangely out-of-place tower-shaped hotels, aptly named "The Towers". The area also boasts an entire village made from ice (including an ice-bar, ice-hotel room and ice-church!) and a giant pool/onsen complex for recovering from a hard day on the pistes.
Oh, not exactly Hokkaido-related but I took this picture on the way there and I thought it was neat. A tender moment between a police officer and a random bald dude:
The rest of the pictures can be seen on flickr as usual!
Summer vacation. Yey!
Went on a spontaneous trip to (the base of) Mount Fuji this Sunday. Spent the day bicycling around Yamanakako Lake and playing Uno. "Wow! How exciting!" I hear you say, so go ahead and take a look at the small photoset of pictures I took on the trip
I am back in Tokyo and it's been sunny and hot until today where it suddenly started to rain. A good oppurtunity to get those last "culture shocks" out of the way! Culture shock #5: Copenhagen
This is most likely stating the obvious but it is striking how different a city Copenhagen is from Tokyo. Although Tokyo is probably one of the most exciting cities in the world to live in, Copenhagen does have a unique charm of its own not least due a large number of well-preserved old buildings like the ones seen scattered across town in the shot above.
Culture shock #6: Nature
Kanagawa had the slumbering volcano Fuji, mountain ranges and vast areas of rice fields and farms, Denenchofu (where I'm living now) has the Tamagawa river and long stretches of bicycle paths through parks and camping areas, yet there is something basically appealing about the simplicity of the greens and blues seen on display on a late summer day in Daneland.
Culture shock #7: Koldskaal
This frozen desert is indeed the nectar of the Norse Gods.
Culture shock #8: Hygge
Taken from wikipedia --> "The Danes always emphasize the danish word 'hygge'. Not an entirely unique concept but one Danes consider their own and are very proud of. This term means spending quality time with family and friends, in a relaxed atmosphere." Oh yes, we do love our "hygge", and I was glad to have time for some of that too inspite of only being in Denmark for a week!
For more pictures go ahead and look at my Denmark/Sweden photoalbum (the new pictures have been tacked on to the ones I took last year).
Culture shock #3: The sky
There are probably a billion geological and meteorological reasons for this, but the skies over here simply look different from the ones in Japan. It's hard to explain exactly in what way they are different but I think it is still quite an apparent characteristic.
Culture shock #4: TV
I've never really been a big fan of Japanese TV that for the most part makes me feel like I'm being sonically and visually beaten up, so it is quite a change to be able to watch television programs that chug along at a leisurely pace and don't chop everything to pieces with commercials.
I've been in Denmark for about a day now so maybe it's about time I listed some of the culture "shocks" of coming back. Culture shock #1: Food
Bread! Good, tasty bread that doesn't go stale in less than a day! It seems like such a simple thing but after eating so much "soft" food in Japan it is a delight to chomp into a crisp slice of rye bed with a delicious selection of toppings.
Culture shock #2: Housing
Living in a tiny box in Tokyo I am quite jealous to see the kind of apartments/houses my friends and family live in.
Yep, I'm at Narita airport for the umpteenth time. I almost feel like I've been here on more occasions than I 've been to Kastrup airport in Denmark! Inspite of the airport being less crowded than usual, the lines are unbelievably long and I suspect the cause is increased security. I can't wait to be x-rayed and getting a body-cavity search, woohoo! A guy is passing out some kind of explanation about carry-on baggage but for some reason didn't give me one. It probably says "look out for suspicious-looking Danes" or something. Anyway (such a great word for getting out of a pointless ramble) hopefully I will get to wherever this line ends before my flight leaves, exciting stuff!
In order to gather information for a research project I am participating in with a professor from Tokai, I will have a chance to visit Denmark for a week next month! Hope to have time to see everyone who wants to see me (all 3 of you)! Here is the lowdown: 2006/10/08 13:10-17:15 Narita - Heathrow 2006/10/08 18:55-21:50 Heathrow - Copenhagen
2006/10/15 10:50-11:55 Copenhagen - Heathrow 2006/10/15 13:50-09:10 Heathrow- Narita
Well, I'm at a hotel in Ayutthaya north of Bangkok where the conference is being held and cursing the fact that I didn't bring my SD-card reader so I could upload some pictures from here. The hotel is literally located in the middle of nowhere, and although I tried taking a walk around the area yesterday I soon stumbled into a very dirty and suspicious-looking area, got scared and quickly escaped back to the safety of the hotel. My presentation is later today and tomorrow I am leaving early in the morning to meet a couple of friends from Thailand and after that go on my secret mission to Koh Samet!
Just as the sticky rainy season in Japan ends, I'm on my way to Thailand where I apparently can look forward to thunderstorms and 35+ degree temperatures! This time I will visit Bangkok, Ayuthaya and Koh Samet although it won't be all fun and games since I'm going there to make a presentation at a conference. Will be back Sunday, bye!
Backtracking through the stuff that was never posted I came across these pictures taken during a trip to Kyoto last year. I was invited to Export-Japan's end-of-the year party in Osaka and used that as an oppurtunity to spend New Year's Eve in the nearby "cultural capital" of Japan.
At long last! Only about 8 months late, but finally I have managed to upload and add comments to the over 100 pictures I took in Australia. Just follow this link. Btw, some of the pictures are rather large, so you may need to scroll down to view the comments. Enjoy!
The pictures I took in Denmark and Sweden are now up. Once again you can access them from the the toolbar on the left or use this link. Next up are the pictures from Australia, which is probably the biggest batch of them all so, have patience while I sort through the huge amount of files from my short trip "down under".