Category: travel

… those “Bullet Trains” must be dangerous

On By Rick McIn product endorsements, travelLeave a comment

… During the Shinkansen‘s 45-year, nearly 7 billion-passenger history, there have been no passenger fatalities due to derailments or collisions, despite frequent earthquakes and typhoons. Injuries and a single fatality have been caused by doors closing on passengers or their belongings …

I’m riding Japan on the extremely comfortable trains, more spacious and comfortable than the European equivalent, I’d say.

I have a Japan Rail Pass, available only to foreigners. JR owns about 70% of the track in the country.

My Pass is good for almost every train, but not the 300 km/h (186 mph) Nozomi. The trip between Tokyo and Osaka, a distance of 515 kilometres, takes 2 hours 26 minutes on Nozomi. My slow poke Bullet train took over 3hrs!

These trains are the envy of UK commuters, and government, says The Guardian.

Obama keeps talking up the concept for the USA, but I doubt it’s going to happen any time soon.

===== Update*

I met a woman on a train today who told me of what happened during the earthquake. The bullet train we were on was shut down for about 2 months. She had a friend on the same line at the time … the train stopped in a tunnel. Passengers had to overnight and then walk out to a peach farm where they were eventually rescued by bus.

looking for Blade Runner in Japan

On By Rick McIn books, movies, travel1 Comment

Many walk the Japanese Metropolis at night looking for neon urban dystopia — technology overwhelming civilization. … I do, at least.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Twenty years ago I was quite culture shocked in this nation. But this time it seems clean, organized and friendly.

Welcoming.

Finally I got a taste of film noir. First night in Osaka, against advice at my hostel, I ran blindly along a riverbank.

Jets thundered overhead. Trains rumbled past every few minutes. It was dark. Pitch dark. Dogs raced by (well behaved, since they are Japanese). … A guitarist played “Hey Joe, Where You Gonna Go?“, alone. …

At the same time, on my iPod, I was listening to Blade Runner inspired Altered Carbon:

… hybrid of William Gibson’s Neuromancer and Norman Spinrad’s Deus X …

I was anticipating a Spinner spotlight.

… But it didn’t happen.

We’ll have to wait on the new Blade Runner movie, I guess, either a sequel or a prequel, with filming to begin no earlier than 2013. Without Harrison Ford.
____

Though it gets rave reviews, I agree with this guy. Altered Carbon’s nothing but “neckbeard wish-fulfillment”. Overrated.

Altered Carbon may well be a Hollywood film soon, too.

arrived Osaka

On By Rick McIn Cirque du Soleil, travel2 Comments

Just got set-up at the Shin-Osaka Youth Hostel.

Big. Bright. Modern. On the 9th & 10th floor of a highrise.

Standards are high at all official Hosteling International branches. But they have “rules” — midnight curfew, for example.

KOOZA tomorrow. Assisting with a Cirque audition the day after.

turning Japanese

On By Rick McIn Cirque du Soleil, gymnastics, hiking, travel1 Comment

The World Gymnastics Championships have ended. After 14 intense, emotional days … what next?

I’m staying on in Tokyo, hanging out with Marceline Goldstein from Montreal. I’ll be assisting her with a Cirque du Soleil audition. And then a second audition in Osaka.

From there … I have a 21-day all-you-can travel rail pass. It will be like the old Eurorail travels of my distant past. I’ll be hiking everywhere the train will take me, happy to be part of the revitalization of the Japanese tourist industry.

Following that, I’m fairly decided to go over to Hong Kong for a week or so. Hiking — and taking in a big domestic Chinese gymnastics competition. Coach Jun Chen has invited me.

And back to chilly North America Nov. 22nd.

jogging with the Emperor

On By Rick McIn photos, travel1 Comment

I’m staying at a hostel in Jimbocho, … the used book and outdoor gear district.

Nearby is the Tokyo Imperial Palace. His Imperial Majesty has yet to invite me in.

… the main residence of the Emperor of Japan. It is a large park-like area located in the Chiyoda area of Tokyo close to Tokyo Station and contains several buildings including the main palace (Kyūden (宮殿?), the private residences of the imperial family, an archive, museum and administrative offices.

It is built on the site of the old Edo castle. The total area including the gardens is 7.41 square kilometres (2.86 sq mi). During the height of the 1980s Japanese property bubble, the palace grounds were valued by some as more than the value of all the real estate in the state of California….

I’ve been running in the surrounding gardens, the most popular jogging area in the downtown. There’s a 5-km (3-mile) loop. But more typically I run — take some photos — walk — then run again.

Every once-in-a-while, a uniformed guard will flag me down, insisting that running is not allowed on that particular section of the hallowed grounds.

The population of greater Tokyo is over 32 million, the world’s most populous metropolitan area by far.

Yet I find it green and calm. There’s never much traffic. You can always find empty parking spots.

Elegant simplicity in the midst of Metropolis is quite magical, at times.

more photos

Avoid the subway at rush-hour, though. 🙂

related – CNN – Running rings around the Imperial Palace

low crime in Japan

On By Rick McIn travel1 Comment

Japan feels very safe. There are many “police boxes” on neighbourhood street corners. Very few people own guns. Ladies can walk the streets of Tokyo alone at night.

… I found a briefcase sitting on the street. Looked like the owner had driven away without it.


His name — Osamu Sumi.

Rather than try to explain to the cops why I had this “missing property”, I took it to our hosts at the World Gymnastics Championships. They called the much relieved owner.

Check this two story bicycle storage area at a Tokyo apartment building. Very few of these bike are locked.

Japan offering FREE FLIGHTS to tourists

On By Rick McIn travelLeave a comment

… Japan will offer 10,000 foreigners free airfares to visit the country next year, in an attempt to boost the tourism industry which has been hit by the ongoing nuclear disaster, a report said Monday.

The Japan Tourism Agency plans to ask would-be travellers to submit online applications for the free flights …

Calgary Herald

manga, anime, women in Japan

On By Rick McIn ethics, photos, travel1 Comment

Tourists are sometimes disturbed by how women are depicted.

Yet since equal rights legislation went into effect after WW II, it may be that the role of women in society is paralleling what’s happened in other “western” nations:

… the fixed image of the Japanese woman has been that of the office lady, who becomes a housewife and a kyoiku mama after marriage. But a new generation of educated women is emerging, that is seeking a career as a working woman. …

wikipedia – Working women in Japan

The large eyes were actually originally inspired by American characters such as Betty Boop, Mickey Mouse, and Disney’s Bambi.

Manga (comics) are still popular in Japan. On every train car I’ll see a few people reading them.

Anime (animated cartoons) are very popular too.

Discomforting are Japanese manga and anime porn, often violent. But that’s a small subset of the industry. In 2011 strong warrior princess stereotypes are (arguably) good role models for girls. If you feel Buffy and Xena are good role models.

Better than this, I’d say:

Cosplay (コスプレ), short for “costume play“, is a type of performance art in which participants don costumes and accessories to represent a specific character or idea. Characters are often drawn from popular fiction in Japan …

In Tokyo there are a subset of those called Harajuku girls:

… teenagers gather with like-minded friends in places like Tokyo’s Harajuku district to engage in cosplay.

Harajuko girls

Since 1998 Tokyo’s Akihabara district has contained a large number of cosplay cafés, catering to devoted anime and cosplay fans. The waitresses at such cafés dress as game or anime characters; maid costumes are particularly popular. …

American actress Kirsten Dunst in Cosplay

… So, it may just be all dress-up fun.

One thing is certain, Japanese women spend an incredible amount of time and money getting dressed.

I feel their pain, a fashion victim myself, agonizing over what to wear each morning.

fleeing the Japanese Alps

On By Rick McIn hiking, travel1 Comment

Likely the most popular overnight hiking destination in Japan is Kamikōchi.

People go to walk high ridges and scramble Mount Yari (槍ヶ岳 Yari-ga-take), … one of the 100 Famous Japanese Mountains. … 3,180 m (10,433 ft).

For two days we had perfect weather. (Trip report and photos coming soon.) I put up my tent on a ridge a couple of hundred metres beneath the “spear” (槍 yari).

The first night was fantastic, one of the best spots I’ve ever camped. Both sunset and sunrise.

… but the second night a storm blew in at 10pm. I listened to an audio book all night, frantic to pack up my soaked belongings at first light. I descended directly to the Tokyo bus.

As a result I missed the infamous “Daikiretto” (die-key-ret-toe – all I see is ‘DIE’).

It will be too late in the season for me this Autumn, but one day I’d love to do the 65km Tate-Yama to Kamikochi traverse of the “Northern Alps”.