Author: TravellinPenguin

This week’s travelling in Japan has been great fun. It has also been exhausting, rainy, sunny, funny and more than a couple of coincidences have happenedYesterday we were in Takayama, a beautiful little city that did not get damaged during WWII so there is still history there to be seen.

One of the highlights was going through the market that runs everyday beside the river.
I must share a funny story with you. Julie is a friend of mine in the photo club back in Hobart.
She and her partner are travelling on their own in Japan now.  At the last photo club ƒmeeting before we both left on our separate trips I laughingly said to her, “I will see you in Japan.” With millions and millions of people here in this country both of us knew that would never happen.

As I walked along the market strip I looked up and saw Julie and her partner walking towards me. What a laugh. We threw our arms in the air and gave each other a big hug. Our tour was only in the market area for 45 minutes and 20 minutes of that walking to and from the bus. What were the chances!?

Today we are on two trains going to Hiroshima. One is a regular train with a few stops and the second train will be a bullet train that moves amazingly fast. When it passes through a train station one can’t help but take a step back. However once on the train it doesn’t feel that fast at all.

I will put some photos up later when I get to the hotel. The only time I have to write any kind of narrative is on the train or bus. We have been going from the time we arise at 6:45 am until after dinner around 9:00 pm. We barely have time to put a couple of notes and pictures up on Facebook for friends and family to see.

As I said, we are travelling to Hiroshima. I don’t think I will take many photos except perhaps of the surrounding area. It somehow doesn’t feel right to me to photograph a place that is known for the many deaths of others. I remember how wrong it felt when we visited Auschwitz in Poland. People of all types taking photos of themselves standing in the gas chambers or the rooms where there were piles of hair or children’s toys or prosthetics stored. I think this is a very inappropriate place to take selfies. I also think this about Hiroshima. Whether one remembers the days the USA bombed Hiroshima; whether one feels it was right or wrong it still remains the place of much sadness reflecting on the deaths of many families. I cannot imagine my family and friends having experienced such horror. So you won’t see close up photos of anything except maybe the beauty of gardens.
Yesterday we went to a Washi paper making attraction and had the chance to make three postcards. We saw the process for making such wonderful paper and explored the gift shop that had wonderful things in it. As my experience tells me most book bloggers are all stationery freaks, loving fine pens, papers and cards, etc. I will share that experience in a separate post.

Enjoy the photos.

Three Days of Tokyo

As I write we are on the bus leaving Tokyo on the way to a shrine (can’t pronounce the name) that has a very large Buddha in it. It is south of Tokyo according to the guide, Sue.

For you Australians we are on a Bunnick’s tour out of Adelaide. No more than 20 people. We have all been having an excellent time and everyone is friends. The Penguin has been welcomed to the group with one member patting him on the head every time she sees him. Others ask if he had a good sleep and someone else told me I should confine him as we tour the fish market so he doesn’t act up.

So far he has learned to make Sushi, enjoyed several lunches, listened to and watched enormous Sumo wrestlers doing demonstrations and answering our questions. We have had so many laughs.

We saw a Sumo wrestler’s demonstration yesterday as we ate lunch in the upstairs of a restaurant. Those guys are big! After their demonstration they asked for volunteers. Three men volunteered. They had to wear the funny Sumo wrestler costume.  It was very funny. However the women needed representation and I climbed into the suit. The big wrestler had me imitate the Sumo moves. We then faced off. We went straight for each other.  The goal is to push them out of the circle. I pushed hard into his chest. He had so much fat and muscle and sweat it was like pushing into a hard, wet sponge. He backed up. I had him going. I then poked one finger into his chest and out of the circle he went. He admitted defeat.

There was another Sumo in the room too. The next thing I knew each one had taken my arm and lifted me right up into the air as though I was a feather. There is a photo but I do not have it yet as another traveller in our group took it.

There is hardly time to breathe before we are whisked away to another destination. The cherry trees are in blossom and once I get those photos sorted we will share them with you.

This is one of those experiences that you want to sleep because of exhaustion but don’t want to miss anything. We hit the ground running. The day before yesterday we walked 12,000 steps, ate three enormous meals of Japanese food and hit the bed so hard at night we have slept on an ice flow with no sleeping bag.

We are currently on our way on the expressway to another interesting night in a Japanese hotel. We will sleep on the floor for two nights, (I assume on futon type beds) and dress in kimonos when we meet for dinner. We have been ordered to relax near the hot springs.

I doubt the penguin will enjoy the hot springs but you just never know.

Absolutely no time for reading. Last night we went to the night district of Tokyo to see the lights and it was pretty amazing.

I will leave you with a few photos.

Monday, around lunchtime we fly out of Hobart for Tokyo, Japan. Mr. Penguin and I have always travelled to various countries on our own. Busses, Trains, Planes and booking.com have taken us through many countries. For Japan, because of the language neither of us speaks (though there will be lots of English there) and the masses of people, we decided to relax with an organised tour from a company in Adelaide, South Australia. We chose it because it has small groups. There is not supposed to be over 20 people on this 17 day journey (a “taster journey” as we think of it). We’ll see what area we enjoy and then perhaps go back in the future on our own. I love the fact they organise for us but my experience has shown me on every tour whether it be for days or minutes there is always one person. That one person who is in your face, talks all the time, gets lost and doesn’t get back to the bus on time. The general pain in the backside. I am looking forward to seeing who that person is. I know, a bit negative but it is a little game I play. The others will all be wonderful I am sure.

The cats have been taken to a cattery for the time we are away and the dogs will stay home with a house sitter who loves them. She works so we need the pet door open for them to come and go into the back yard. As our cats are not allowed to roam, living mainly in their home and outdoor cat enclosure they get boarded out. We tell them they are going to camp and leave it at that. They, of course are completely, unimpressed.

We will be in rural areas half of the time and in the cities half of the time. Three nights in each place pretty much. We fly into Tokyo and visit other cities. I thought if I am not too exhausted at night from the early breakfasts and the long hours of walking I will have the Penguin contribute to this post a bit. So hang on tight, here we go.

In preparation, I must admit there is little except clothes in the suitcase. My own ‘capsule’ wardrobe where everything goes with everything is rolled and bagged.  I do not read everything about a country before I visit it. I tend to get on the plane or in the hotel for the first night and then cram. Much like I did in university when something was due the next day. Quite often, I skid through life by the seat of my pants.

I picked this book up about two years ago when I saw it in a book shop in Sydney. I bought it because I love drawing and sketching. I would love nothing more than to be an excellent drawer and sketcher. I have decided I will take a small book and some pencils and sketch a few things as I go. I have had two lessons on You Tube and feel I am ready to hit the world. Haha, the circles will not be round, the cubes will look like they are about to collapse and the squares and rectangles will not have equal sides, I am sure. But I am going to do it. It will be fun. The pictures will make me laugh and no one needs to see them but I might share some of them to make you laugh. Go ahead, laugh all you want. I have always believed one should get out of their comfort zone and try whatever they love whether they succeed or not. Besides I know each and every one of you has something you can’t do so I stick out my tongue and say, “Nah, nah, nah? nah, nah.”

Tokyo on Foot by Florent Chavouet. Florent is a young French man who is in Japan for almost a year with his partner who is doing an internship. From June to December, 2006 (I believe it is) he gets a bicycle and a lawn chair and explores the neighbourhoods (his term, not mine) of Tokyo. He is very detailed in his sketching and there are lots of colours. I really love looking through this book. From temples to the cockroaches that infest his apartment.

He takes each neighbourhood, one at a time and begins each chapter with their local ‘boba’ (police station or service.) He has various poses for the policeman who introduces the chapter and they can be quite humorous.

From the back flap of the book:  Florent Chavouet is a young graphic artist and author living in Paris. When he returned from Japan, he realised that all the observing and sketching he had done had helped him develop his own visual style, so his stay there led not only to his discovery of a certain Tokyo but to his evolution as an artist. This is his first book. He is at work on his next one.

If you are interested in Japan, travels by bloggers, hilarious drawing by someone who does not know what they are doing or just following a little stuffed penguin who I now refer to as Penguino, then stay tuned for the next 17 days.

If you are completely bored and want nothing to do with any of us that’s okay too. I’ll be home again on the 19th.

For those spammers who sometimes read this blog and leave stupid messages the house will be inhabited by a determined house sitter and two rottweiller/doberman cross dogs who used to work for the police force. Go ahead, I dare you.

Wish the three of us luck and good weather and lots of scrummy Japanese food.