The PLACES.....Japan - old and new combine.....


Castle at Matsumoto, 400 yrs old.


Lights of Shinjiku, Tokyo, 4 yrs old

The most frequent expression is that they collide but in Japan, for an outsider at least, it is much smoother than that. Use the word "combine". Probably no surprise for a culture that has so successfully integrated others developments into something we now associate with being Japanese.

Hakuba - see snow report. Not the best year with only 2.5m much less than the average 6m. The bad bit was not getting powder more than once per week and having more limited areas to ski. The good bit was seeing the sun, bc to have snow means no sun. The joy was being able to work with Japanese staff and learning about the culture thru them (mostly thanks to Christina's continual intrepreting for me). I did tend to look out the window alot during staff meals.

Himeji - castle graceful and majestic.


All built out of wood and contrast in white, surrounded by flowering sakura trees. Complete contrast to Matsumoto in black with moat.

Not the best day for photos, but imagine a clear blue sky surrounding the castle.

Realisation = seige machines never made their way to Japan as a few catapulted rocks or flaming pitch would have made short work of defenses. (see Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel for an exceptional description of the importance of geography, as well as food production and mammals on world politics today).

Miyajima - iconic Japan.

Stunning simplicity counterbalancing and complemeting nature is symbolic of all Japanese architecture. (Okay you've got to turn your head, can't work out how to rotate images just yet on the blog).

Kyoto - very cool once you get into it. Great just to wander on a bike visiting temples. Just one such temple could bring you here. The city is packed with them. Japanese gardens stunning. Priests would be real fit, some of the stairs are killers. Fushimimi Inari shrine opened my eyes that temples were using local wood and Japan covered by easy building wooden material.

Zen gardens rocked (ha).

Nara - first captial. Home to Todaji, largest wooden structure in the world. Also annoying deer. Burnt down once and rebuilt 2/3rds original size. Buddha has 430ton bronze and 130kg gold in it (and still ugly). Realisation = so much park land in Nara bc they had to cut down all the trees to make the shrine!!! Obvious once you think of it.

Nikko - well this was an Amazing Race type visit, shinkansen 400km to Tokyo, subway to hostel and dump gear. Subway back to terminal, grab another bullet train then a local train, about 200km to visit a shrine to emperor who thru lots of bloodshed, double dealings (apparently had wife and first son killed bc politically expedent to do so) he unified Japan. Really non-Japanese as it is full of colour and gaudy. then back to Tokyo 200km, before heading out to Roppongi (below).

Tokyo - bombed flat in WW2 it is different. It is all modern with 30million in the greater population area. Tend to live underground taking subway to everywhere you want to go and popping up like a mole.

It is all about experiencing Tokyo rather than seeing a site. Electronics stores, market places or Roppongi, what a crazy place. Club music is mighty fine. Full of strip clubs and pimps, both male and female trying to get you in. Strangely all the security in the club was African-American, so were many pimps but also a host of European pimps, together with blonde Russian(?) girls for hostesses.

At about 2.30am happy to go home after a 6am start to the day but the subway had closed so no getting back until 5am or cab it. I don:t want to spend $70 on a cab so jump into a 24hr internet cafe after checking out an 24hr shopping store which include adult business as well as watches including Rolex's. Unfortunately I could not get the massaging chair ;( Cost for the internet is only Y100 more than at the backpackers per hour at Y500/hr. You can also get DVD's, lounge areas, private rooms to watch big screen tv. There is even a LIBRARY of manga comic books. Very tasteful surroundings and great English. What a way to kill time waiting for a cab / train !!!!! the full Japanese night club experience completed!!!

For more photos go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattsplanet/

next posts will include thoughts about Hiroshima visit and PEOPLE of Japan. A preview of what I will be talking about...taking your dogs out to Himeji Castle......

Addicted to the white powder.

So you've never skied? Why do it? Why come to the mountains? A typical day at my office........



Whereas snow shoeing puts you in touch with the majesty of nature and is very cleansing, skiing well is definitely a WOW thing.(photos to come but on other camera so you get snowshoeing)


But what is it like skiing? Just joyful. If you've never done it the following is as close I can come to explaining what it is like. Picture this ........

Pause at the top, look down into the future. White blanket before you. Ski pivot point on the run edge means the full weight of the skis is directly on your feet - feel the nothingness now under your tips as they hang into space.

Pick the line. Future is down. Then a breath and tip ever so forward, the weight now sliding, gliding across your feet from toes to heels.

Delight in momentary nothingness and stomach loss.

Feel your body falling as acceleration kicks in... swish...thrust hits you without transition, sunwarmth instantaneously replaced by icy chill over your face. Initial thrust moves you so fast your eyes and brain can not process the information of where you have been as you go over the drop.

Pole plant...tap..turn legs, skis bite...crunch...rise up, fall down the mountain with your chest forward, legs working left, body from waist up facing down the valley.

Pole plant...bang...right turn, steeper now.....oh yeah.....snow lump, get it, go airborne, knees soft under you taking the hit, turning it your advantage, turn in the air left, chest falling down the mountain. Bang, bang, bang, turn, turn, turn, legs driving as you race downwards the speed making you always look further and further ahead in anticipation.

Enter one with the snow. Crazy fun, massive grin across your face. Ooohhhh yeah :) Destiny continues.........


POWDER DAYS.........

The delights of a great day on the slopes above can at least be described. Words struggle to communicate how much better it is to ski powder, to sit back on the tail of the skis and just glide down making fresh tracks across the blanket white, effortlessly making the soft S shape behind you. Doing so in complete, caressing all embracing silence.

Or gliding straight down in thigh high feather-like snow.

Or pressing down on a snow clump to lose some speed.

Or busting into a clump, smashing it to pieces to kill your speed.

Or bouncing left and right, going with the flow on the natural buoyancy and as you rise up changing the angle of your edges still covered in snow so that on re-entry you come down and move in the opposite direction.

How to do it?
To make all this possible all you need to do is pick up plates in a restaurant over breakfast and dinner most days, so you can get a staff pass, staff accommodation and meals. The money is $9/hr but cost of living is low at $6/day. Drinks are expensive at $5/6 a beer. Food is restaurant buffet intermixed with local Japanese food.

Life is real simple - what is the snow like? When can I ski it?

Did I say it is addictive? Gloriously so.