This may work...
If you are reading this, then it does. :)
I'm at the local library in Chichibu, using the internet here - but it has some kind of url filter that is preventing me updating my blog properly. The trip here was fun, and plenty mind bending. Tokyo is a mad place - in steel and concrete it mirrors the tropical jungle that covers anything not continually in use. Pictures when I get a chance. The funniest thing i saw on the way in was a giant bookstore, whose sign instructed the world to "Book Off!"
Crazy monorails, vege patches in the middle of hyper-dense urban spaces, an interesting collision of old and new, ultra-modern and decay. city and forest. (theres a totoro in there for sure!). 　Captain Stag outdoor-wear, signage *everywhere* but none of it readable to me. The railway graf and tagging is almost exclusively in english though - bit strange.
And outside tokyo... **MOUNTAINS** real ones. pointy, steep and covered in impenetrable forest. Australia is an altogether slower, older place, where you have to take time to find the life of the land. Japan, on the other hand, will happily eat you alive the minute you stand still. Verdant and voracious. Movies like Princess Mononoke, and others make a more direct sense, even after just a day or two.
As for me, im temporarily housed in a caravan near Kakizakai's house, waiting for an
apartment to become free, hopefully on sunday. Kakizakai and his family are great - very welcoming. I had dinner with them last night.
My Japanese is already being pushed. I successfully had a short conversation with a guy on the train, to find out whether i needed to change trains or not. Sumimasen... Chichibu ni ikimasu. Norikae wa arimasu ka? :) Which seemed to do the trick. The helpful local then interrogated his mobile phone, which appeared to be connected to the net, and told me in japanese that it was good to stay on this train, and it would take about an hour to get to Chichibu from where we were.
I did, however, confuse one my new neighbours - an elderly japanese woman who was curious about the appearance of life in the caravan on the block next to her house. She did manage to communicate that she thought the weather was hot, and ask whether i was staying in the caravan alone. she thought it was all very humourous. :)
More tomorrow perhaps. This afternoon's mission is to secure a phonecard of some sort.
w00t!
I'm at the local library in Chichibu, using the internet here - but it has some kind of url filter that is preventing me updating my blog properly. The trip here was fun, and plenty mind bending. Tokyo is a mad place - in steel and concrete it mirrors the tropical jungle that covers anything not continually in use. Pictures when I get a chance. The funniest thing i saw on the way in was a giant bookstore, whose sign instructed the world to "Book Off!"
Crazy monorails, vege patches in the middle of hyper-dense urban spaces, an interesting collision of old and new, ultra-modern and decay. city and forest. (theres a totoro in there for sure!). 　Captain Stag outdoor-wear, signage *everywhere* but none of it readable to me. The railway graf and tagging is almost exclusively in english though - bit strange.
And outside tokyo... **MOUNTAINS** real ones. pointy, steep and covered in impenetrable forest. Australia is an altogether slower, older place, where you have to take time to find the life of the land. Japan, on the other hand, will happily eat you alive the minute you stand still. Verdant and voracious. Movies like Princess Mononoke, and others make a more direct sense, even after just a day or two.
As for me, im temporarily housed in a caravan near Kakizakai's house, waiting for an
apartment to become free, hopefully on sunday. Kakizakai and his family are great - very welcoming. I had dinner with them last night.
My Japanese is already being pushed. I successfully had a short conversation with a guy on the train, to find out whether i needed to change trains or not. Sumimasen... Chichibu ni ikimasu. Norikae wa arimasu ka? :) Which seemed to do the trick. The helpful local then interrogated his mobile phone, which appeared to be connected to the net, and told me in japanese that it was good to stay on this train, and it would take about an hour to get to Chichibu from where we were.
I did, however, confuse one my new neighbours - an elderly japanese woman who was curious about the appearance of life in the caravan on the block next to her house. She did manage to communicate that she thought the weather was hot, and ask whether i was staying in the caravan alone. she thought it was all very humourous. :)
More tomorrow perhaps. This afternoon's mission is to secure a phonecard of some sort.
w00t!
posted by ben at 12:22 pm
3 Comments:
Yes, it worked #1 Son !!
I can even read it so it must have worked Take care
sounds like so much fun :)
love the idea of camping in Japan...it never really occurred to me before.
keep us updated!
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