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Kudos to Circus Girl. I’m going to steal your blogging style for a moment ;)

Thursday:
Wake up late, sticky, hate tsuyu, oh my gods I need to change hostels, pack bags, pack more bags, what the hell kind of packing is that? Chidade, you’re a Rover, for shame! Empty everything, pack again, actually learn room mates’ names, then leave, heh, backpack, laptop bag, two bags worth of shopping, HEEAAAAVVVEEEEEEEE! holy crap my fingers are dead, should I get a taxi? urk, taxi expensive, how do I get them to go to Gojo? “Gojo House onegaishimasu“, “Wakkanai“, stuff it, I’ll walk, half way there, totally regretting that, fingers now blue, brainwave! bag in bag and now one less bag! still weighs the same /swt, are we there yet? who are you talking to? you! no, you! ok, definitely need food, but baaaaaaaaaggggsss! hey it’s Gojo! omg I made it, stumble in, collapse, “hey”, “hey”, “how are you?”, *gasp* “‘k. I’d like to check in, please!”, “check in isn’t until 3pm”, $%&##!@#^ need shower! “Ok, but I’m leaving my bags here until then”, huunnnngggrrryyyyyy, crap! I left my breakfast in the fridge at K’s House! waaaaaaah, ok, walking back now /sob, so much easier without bags, must be losing weight with all this walking, back at K’s, salmon sushi onigiri breakfast, eat on the steps, numnumnum, so what am I going to do until 3pm? At least the late check-in forces me to do something, CRAP! camera is in bags at Gojo, feck it, I’m NOT walking back there again, what can I do today that doesn’t require camera? Head to Kyoto station to get inspiration, watch fashion show, should I write about this for 3yen? Get bus map, needs camera, needs a camera, needs camera, maybe I’ll just go shopping? Really want somewhere with an air conditioner, OOOOH! International Manga Museum! Sold, buy bus ticket, …..no bus route nearby, MORE WALKING?! This place better have an awesome air conditioner >.< need ramune icypole to survive the trip. gari gari kun is teh awesome, is this it? is this it? are we there yet? It looks like a school, it IS a school! “Konnichiwa!”, that’s like the first time I’ve heard that on this holiday, 500 yen, Great Wall Of Manga, this collection must be James’ wet dream, there’s not actually that much here, any English manga? Just give me some English manga, a seat and a vending machine in air conditioned goodness, wait, a figure exhibition? 500 yen, hahaha Fist of the North Star, wow! Who’s she? KAWAII! bingbingbing 2.40pm blog time. Feet achy. Nearly time to check in but want to revive feet first. English manga!! Read last volume of Battle Royale, so that’s how it ended, time to go back, bus back the long way round, “ok now you can check in”, make bed, collapse, wake up 11pm, combini dinner, collapse again.

Friday:
Wake up, unpack everything AGAIN! repack properly, now only have three bags, taxi to Kyoto Station because I’m not going to be walking again and in the rain, book shinkansen, bakery breakfast, get on Hikari, I think I’ve been in this seat before, Kyo-kun gets a workout, pillows playlist, so many gaijin, too much rain to see Mt Fuji, pass through Shin-Yokohama, TADAIMA!! Arrive at Tokyo, TADAIMA!!! Change train, change train, wow, K’s House Tokyo is really close to the station, check in, SHOWER, I feel human again, laundry, run back to train station and go to AKIHABARA!! TADAAAAIIIMMMAAAA!!!!! Nearly everything is closed though /sob Hang on, what happened to Aso Bit City?! Stress! Oh wait, there it is. Any Ragnarok? Ragnarok, Ragnarok, Ragna- damn, only volume 1 and 3…c’mon Akiba, don’t let me down! None of the shops have Volume 2 /sob but oooh, I found Gorgeous Mysterious Katana-Wielding Woman from the Manga Museum….and for cheaper too! Glad I didn’t buy her in Kyoto *yoink* shops closed, must go collect laundry, hooray for wireless internet in K’s House! Make plans with M & T for tomorrow, watch Naruto and BLEACH on YouTube, eek! 2am! Collapse.

Saturday in Kamakura and with old friends: much fun an alcohol - next.
Sunday in Harajuku: tale of heartbreak and love - after that.
Monday in Akiba and Nakano: victory and defeat - after that again.

Tomorrow I have a date with the Emperor. Hopefully I’ll actually post about everything eventually.

1am, time to collapse.

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Some background:

Yakitate!! Japan is a Japanese manga and anime which is basically all about baking bread. The title means “Freshly Baked!! Japan” which is also a pun, because “pan” is the Japanese word for bread. Sounds like an odd subject for a series but it is honestly one of my favourites.

It’s about a boy named Kazuma Azuma who wants to create a bread that is uniquely Japanese, much like there is German bread (doitsu-pan), French Bread (furansu-pan) and Italian bread (itaria-pan) - hence the name Ja-pan.

The series is above all funny but it may be better appreciated by those who have watched plenty of anime before, and know the conventions and clichés. A lot of the jokes are parodies of other anime/manga or their genres.

Still, it could be interesting for non-otaku too. The manga actually had recipes of the breads featured in the series, as well as general baking tips. The manga-ka Takashi Hashiguchi hired a bread artisan consultant while writing the series. That consultant’s name is Kouichi Uchimura. He created a lot of the bread that appeared in the series and is apparently really trying to create a uniquely Japanese bread (I personally thought that they had plenty, but anyway). Uchimura has a bakery here in Kyoto called Pan no Mimi (which translates into ‘bread ends’, or ‘bread crusts’) and that’s where I went today!

To get to Pan no Mimi, you need to get on the JR San-In or Sagano Line (Platforms 32 and 33 at JR Kyoto Station at time of writing) and get off two stations later at Nijo Station. Yes, that’s Nijo, like Nijo-jo, or Nijo Castle. The castle is a block away from the station. When you get out of the station (take the east exit, there should be signs pointing to Nijo Castle) and you get to the main road, take a left and walk for a while. You’ll pass two major intersections and about four traffic lights in total. Pan no Mimi will be on this street you’re walking down, on your left. There are only signs in Japanese.

The first thing I thought when I found the place was “Yay! I found it!” because it really was a hike from Nijo Station and I thought I may have missed it. The second thing I thought was “….it’s so tiny”. And it really is. There is barely room for two customers to move around. There is a small display with some Yakitate!! Japan manga and posters explaining how Uchimura was involved, plus a few manga scans and what seems to be a thank you card from the Yakitate!! team to Uchimura.

But that was all that showed that this was anything more than a tiny, local bakery servicing the residents in the less-touristy part of Kyoto. In keeping with its name, Pan no Mimi was in fact selling bags of bread ends and bread crusts on one table….for what I’m not sure. It just looked like duck and koi food to me.

In every Japanese bakery you walk into, you’ll find a pile of trays and tongs at the door so you can serve yourself. Go around the display and place what you want to buy on your tray, then take everything to the counter where it will be bagged by the assistant and totalled.

I decided to go for two very Yakitate!! breads: melon bread (meron-pan) and a French baguette (furansu-pan). Coupled with a bottle of lemon ice tea, the whole thing was less than $6.

If I remember correctly, in the anime, the melon bread that Kazuma made was rather ugly and sickly looking, but then it tasted fantastic. It was the same with Pan no Mimi’s melon bread. It didn’t look anything like the carefully sculptured and identical looking breads that you get from the local combini - but, oh man, when you tasted it……yumyumyum. There was only a hint of melon flavour - it was mainly just a sugar hit, complete with slightly caramelised bits on the edges.

The baguette was slightly sticky and chewy on the inside while being very crusty on the outside - again, just like they said it was in Yakitate!! - and it was also damn tasty. In fact, it was so good that I had eaten most of it before I remembered to take a photo, heh.

I didn’t have extreme and comic reactions to the breads’ taste like the characters in the series, but I did like it enough to decide to go back tomorrow - despite the hike to get there.

Pan no Mimi is quite unique among Japanese bakeries. There’s great bakeries here, no doubt. The Andersen under Kyoto Station makes an excellent Polish-style rye, even if they call it “brot” (ie: German bread). But they still seem very…Japanese and like Yakitate!! says, the Japanese aren’t known for bread. Uchimura must’ve trained in Europe or somewhere, because his bread is the most continental of the breads I’ve tasted in Japan, while still being unique and still Japanese. He sells those 3cm-thick-6-slice-loafs too. Those loaves are generally the worst kind of bread you can find anywhere. I think Uchimura’s may be good though. They’re slightly burnt around the edges, I noticed, heh. I wonder if they’re made with wasabi like in the anime?

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I feel I should take a moment to talk about the staff at the McDonalds near Kyoto Station on Karasuma-dori and how they go above and beyond in service.

Firstly, they speak English. Not a big deal for me because I’ve ordered Maccas in Japanese dozens of times, but the kids could probably get better jobs with their English skills and yet they’re here at McDonalds serving hungry tourists at minimum wage.

Secondly, they insisted on carrying my tray to the table. Not a common activity in a McDonalds, unless there’s some part of the order that isn’t ready. But this didn’t apply here. The guy still insisted that he carry my tray for me and then asked to make sure I had everything I wanted, including an ashtray.

After it was all done, they then insisted on taking the tray away again instead of letting me empty it in the bin. This might have been because they weren’t sure that the baka gaijin would know about emptying the ice into a separate bin (which I did) but the other signs of service seem to say that they were just trying to be ultra helpful.

And lastly, after I left and was making my way back to the hostel, I was halfway down the street when I heard running footsteps behind me and one of the staff, out of breath, said “Excuse me, you left this” and handed me my JR Pass which must have fallen out of my bag.

O_o

Thank gods she ran after me! If she hadn’t returned it then I would have had another disaster on my hands. Close call!

So the staff at Karasuma-dori McDonalds get a Chidade Tick Of Approval™ for service above and beyond the call of minimum wage.

…yes, this is a ridiculous post, but hey, that JR pass was $600! It was a huge relief!

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Every holiday has to have something go wrong. Mine went wrong within a few hours of arriving.

The Plan:
The plan was to land in KIX at around 8.30pm, get through customs and get my JR Pass and luggage within an hour of landing, get to Osaka within another hour (it takes about 50 minutes by train to get from KIX to Osaka station) then get a spot on the 12.35am Sunrise Izumo sleeper train which (for free, thanks to the JR pass) will get me to Tokyo by 8am the following morning. I would be sleeping on what they call the ‘Nobi Nobi carpet floor’ which could be carpet or a tatami mat. After arriving in Tokyo, I’d get the various shinkansen and express trains to Sapporo, Hokkaido where I’d spend the next few days before returning to Tokyo.

It was a good plan >.< I’d save two nights worth of accomodation money getting in and out of Hokkaido plus I’d get to see Daisetsuzan National Park, Asahikawa Zoo, Otaru and of course Sapporo.

What Actually Happened:
It started off well. Jetstar was really late getting out of Sydney but planes always seem to travel faster than what the itineraries say so we arrived at KIX only 15 minutes late. Immigration and Customs was as insanely fast as it was the first time I landed in Tokyo neary two years ago now, so rather than taking the predicted hour, I was at the JR office within 35 minutes of getting off the plane when I had a brainwave - I would book my spot on the Sunrise Izumo at the KIX JR office instead of waiting til I got to Osaka, in case it would be sold out by the time I arrived!

Okay, I know that anyone could have thought of that, but give me a break. I’d just spent 10 hours on a plane with three screaming babies. Which, coincidentally, is Reason #42 for Why I Will Never Have Children.

At the JR office though, I was told that the sleeper train had sold out. Bleh. Well, that was sorta expected, so my back-up plan was to find a manga kissa to crash in overnight, then catch the shinkansen all the way to Sapporo the next day, which actually takes less time than taking the sleeper train.

Slight panic attack at this point because I’m not familiar with Osaka at all and didn’t know any manga kissa that I could reliably spend the night at. I also didn’t know how to explain that I wanted a manga kissa with a night pack option in Japanese. I also discovered that I had forgotten to set up my phone for international roaming and it was currently useless.

Kyoto isn’t that far away from Osaka, and that’s a city I know fairly well. I’ve stayed at a manga kissa there twice before, so all I had to do is make my way to Kyoto and desperately try to remember the name of the place on the way. Began with ‘m’, didn’t it? Why do I get the feeling it was the name of a cartoon character? Mickey? Nah.

The trip from KIX to Kyoto took about 90 minutes.

Aha! Media Cafe Popeye! Knew I would get it eventually. I think, at this time of night and in this semi-emergency, I can splash out on a taxi to get there from Kyoto Station.

Not much point remembering the name though. Taxi driver had no idea what I was on about. Pulled out the Lonely Planet and found the name of the nearest intersection and told him to go there. He asked me what I was after exactly. A Starbucks?

“No, it’s a manga kissa”
“Manga kissa?! Really?”
“Yes, it’s called Media Cafe Popeye”
Pause. I count under my breath.
“What do you want to do in a manga kissa, exactly?”
Seven seconds, heh. I could hear his mind ticking over, wondering why a gaijin woman would want a manga kissa.
“Nemu”
He laughed at me.

It’s not that unusual anymore for women to go into manga kissa. They’re changing these days. It’s no longer just the domain of otaku males hunched over computers or fapping away to provided porn.

Media Cafe Popeye is a good example. It’s decked out like a trendy nightclub. It also has sunbeds for clients to use. Sunbeds?! Who else uses sunbeds besides kogals and their male equivalant? They have a few different styles of cubicle too, including “flat” (with an padded mat as floor to sleep on - my choice), massage chairs, and “Twin”, which is a barely-double sofa designed to let you cuddle up to your date while reading, gaming or watching DVDs. And thanks to their relative cheapness (￥1750 for a five hour night pack) they’re a great and increasingy trendy way to crash after a big night out. There were several trendy young things at Popeye last night when I stayed there. One of the sunbeds was occupied too.

Anyway, got dropped off around midnight. Decided that I definitely needed food. Damn you, Jetstar. I paid $25! I expect to be stuffed with peanuts for that kind of money! Hooray then, for the 24-hour udon joint down the road from Popeye! Oh man, it was good to have kitsune udon again. In my head I was singing the word “Tadaima!” repeatedly while slurping that goodness down.

Had a shower at Popeye, felt almost human again. Checked emails and the train schedule. I had to catch the 8am Hikari shinkansen to Tokyo and change for Sapporo. Perfect, since I’ll finish my five hour pack at 6.30am. Then I’ll get some breakfast and go to the station.

Stuck in the earplugs, set my phone to vibrate at 6am and collapsed in a heap at 2am.

Got woken up by vibrations which I soon realised were not mine but my neighbour’s. Checked my alarm anyway.

WTF? It’s 9.30am?! No, it’s not! It can’t be!

YOU BLOODY STUPID PHONE WHY DIDN’T YOU GO OFF!!

Unfortunately, it’s done this before >.< At home I also set up the TV as an alarm in case the phone fails. Bloody stupid phone T_T

Checked the train schedule again. Okay, I can catch the 3pm to Tokyo, then to Aomori and then take the Hanamasu sleeper train to Sapporo. Still free, so all I’ve done is basically reversed the night I sleep in paid accomodation. More expensive than the accomodation I planned for though. Because I woke up so late I was charged extra for going over the 5 hours booked. Still! I’m going to Hokkaido and I can relax in Kyoto til 3pm.

Went to Kyoto Station around 10.30am to book my tickets. Was told that the free seats on the Aomori to Sapporo sleeper train were full. What the hell? Okay, an Osaka to Tokyo sleeper with only two hours notice could be expected to be booked out, but from one regional centre to another on a Sunday night with 12 hours notice?!

Note to tourists wishing to take the sleeper train: Book a few days in advance. Sigh.

So…what the hell do I do now? I could stay in Kyoto one more night and do the 8am departure thing…but that would be a waste of the limited time I had planned for Hokkaido. Hokkaido really deserves plenty of time to explore and I only had 4 days there as it was.

Hence my holiday disaster. Hokkaido is being cancelled. I’m staying in Kyoto til Wednesday when I head to Tokyo one day earlier than planned. I’d have to waste two full days on a train getting in and out of Hokkaido, to basically spend two nights there. Daisetsuzan would definitely be unfeasible in that situation and that was the part I was most looking forward to. No. Too much stress for too little reward. Hokkaido is now cancelled.

This is combined with my other conscious decision to scrap the Kyushu leg of my journey. To be honest, there aren’t a lot of things that I really want to see in Kyushu. I was just kind of going through the motions. Besides, Kyushu seems to have limited JR coverage and very few youth hostels, or at least English-friendly youth hostels. There were a few planned nights in manga kissas or capsule hotels for Kyushu.

Kyushu is worth visiting, but it’s best when you have a rental car and a budget for hotels, not hostels.

To some extent, the same could be said about Hokkaido, but having to cancel that is so much more disappointing than Kyushu.

So, six weeks in Japan and I won’t be leaving the island of Honshu. In a way it’s good, because, despite the fact that I won’t have free nights in sleeper trains, I’m actually better off financially (Kyushu’s and Hokkaido’s hostels were generally ￥1500 more expensive than Kyoto and Tokyo hostels). This also means that I will no longer be pressed for time in Hiroshima, Mt Fuji/Hakone and Kyoto. I’ve been here three times before but there’s still plenty I want to see and do. The time I had scheduled here though coincided with Gion Matsuri (Gion festival) so those three days would be spent on the festival rather than sightseeing.

I can now make extra side trips with Kyoto as my base. Amanohashidate, Nara, Osaka and a few rural spots on the Sea of Japan. I’m staying in Ks House, which I’ve stayed at twice before and it’s the most awesome youth hostel ever. ￥2500 a night with a 10% discount on extended stays and it’s clean, modern, comfortable and close to the station. Wandering around Kyoto this afternoon and heading back to Ks House made me feel happier again. I’ve missed Kyoto. It’ll be great to spend about 2 weeks here.

Still cut about Hokkaido though.

Stupid phone.

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If you really want to learn about what life is like as an English conversation teacher in Japan, then don’t read this piece of tripe. I update rarely and I don’t write about work often, except maybe to curse its existence.

Read this instead: Of Rice and Zen.

It’s how I would write if I were witty and poetic and British. This guy is my new yongfook.

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Kyoto III ended up being salvaged for two reasons:

1) L’s glee was contagious
2) We skipped the night bus and caught the shinkansen home.

Still broke though.

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Kyoto III is not going according to plan.

My photos and videos have been turning out shit, yesterday it rained all day, we had a crap night’s sleep at the overpriced manga cafe, I left my camera charger at home, tonight we have a 10 hour overnight bus trip back to Yokohama, I have to work overtime tomorrow, we paid 5000 yen more than we were expecting for dinner last night, and right now, I’m sitting in the entrance of Maika, a costume shop for people to dress up as geisha and have their picture taken.

It took ages to find the place, there were no signs in romaji. They don’t speak English (last time I take a recommendation from Lonely Planet) and the price is higher than what I was told on the phone.

L is getting dressed up for her birthday present. The cost of it has broken my budget. L deserves to be spoilt but she might be disappointed since she can’t wander around Gion-proper in costume without me paying another 200,000 yen. Which I simply don’t have.

I’m also not allowed in to watch the dressing-up process, or take photos. So I’m just sitting in the entrance of the place, listening to my nearly dead iPod, waiting “one hour later” for L to be finished.

I didn’t really want to come back to Kyoto this weekend. I couldn’t afford it and it’s not the best season. But it was L’s birthday, so what to do.

….we could have wandered around Harajuku with her new GothLoli outfit instead. Would’ve cost me less.

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The Sunday market at To-ji near Kyoto station. Mum would’ve had a field day here. This temple also has the tallest pagoda in Japan.

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My current home. At least they have free drinks.

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Am currently in a manga kissa in Kyoto. Again, the worst night’s sleep I’ve had, ‘cept for that time I had to sleep in Penn Station NYC overnight next to an unattended bag, six months after 9/11.

Tis L’s birthday this weekend, hence we decided to make her into a maiko (apprentice geisha). Hence, Kyoto. Hence, going to Gion straight off the shinkansen and wandering around about 11pm-12am. Which, despite what the Lonely Planet may say, is the best time to see a geiko or maiko.

There are 200 geiko and maiko in Japan, of which 80 live in Kyoto.

We saw 10% of Kyoto’s population last night. Ten freaking percent. I’m not sure whether to be amazed or dismayed. There’s so few of them. It was extremely freaking cool to see four congregated together in a doorway, having a gossip before heading home. Four in one shot. Absolutely fucking sugoi.

L got a photo next to one too, so she was bouncy for the rest of the night.

Anyway, might try to enable some of the mobile blogging whilst here. Stay tuned.

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