Japan was incredible! It was all I wanted it to be and more. The trip wasn't without its ups and downs, of course, but I had a blast. There is so much I want to say, that I'm going to spread it out over three posts to make it a bit more readable. (Not to mention, writable.)
I took nearly a thousand photos on this trip. The best which are up at the usual place, or in the sidebar of the blog.
A basic outline of our journey runs like this, and the map above give you an idea of our zig zagging across the country. We started out in Nagoya on the 22nd of Feb after flying 30 hours via Munich and Frankfurt. We after a couple of days rehearsal we had our first performance of Romeo and Juliet in Nagoya. After a day off, we then traveled by bus to Hamamatsu, performed Romeo and Juliet and returned to Nagoya. After another rest day, we traveled by bus to Otsu, performed a matinée Romeo and Juliet and then traveled by bullet train to Tokyo. March 1 was our first day off in Tokyo and I was able to hang out with Julia. The next day we rehearsed and performed Giselle, which Julia was able to see. The next day we were supposed to have class, but it was going to be in this really small studio and I knew not many people would do it. So I went AWL for the day and went to Disneyland to see Julia perform. It's fortunate that I did go then because as it worked out, it was the only day were I would have been able to see her. We performed another Romeo and Juliet at the same theater the next day. On the 4th we traveled by bullet train to Osaka. The 5th was a Giselle performance in **** and the next day we returned to Tokyo on the bullet train. (I LOVED those bullet trains by the way.) Our last few days in Tokyo we performed Romeo and Juliet and Giselle at a different theater and I was able squeeze in a trip to DisneySea. We left Tokyo on the 15th and after 30 hours of traveling via Munich arrived back in Tbilisi early on the 16th.
My creativity is dying at the moment, so without any transition what so ever, here are some of my impressions of Japan. The culture of Japan is incredibly hard working and disciplined. Everywhere you went everything was neatly organised, immaculately clean, and highly maintained. Straight off the plane, we were driving to Nagoya, our first city, and you could see it in the efficiently linked fields and houses, the smooth highways and pristine cars. Zura's comment of the the day was, ants must live here instead of people.
On arriving in Nagoya, we were all gob smacked at how well ordered and clean this city is. It has a population of 2.2 million, with a density of 6,745 people per sq. km. It's one of those mega cities that you read about in science fiction books. Yet it is the most efficient and cleanest city I have ever visited. They have a grid-like freeway system that bypasses the city by going over it. The streets are free from litter and smoking is illegal on the street. The train system is a wonder in its own right. The trains have polished windows, floors clean enough to eat off, absolutely no graffiti, and they even have heated seats! On day we went to the Nagoya Castle and even though it's in the middle of the city, its quiet, peaceful. It's all due to smart traffic routing and tree planting.
The food in Japan was an experience in its own right. They have a huge of variety of tastes and ingredients to make up a very broad pallet. Chicken heart, snake and raw tuna are just some of the unusual ingredients seen. The only thing that really lacked was red meat which was hard to find and expensive. All Japanese food is petite. We went to a couple of restaurants and would end up eating four or five little dishes to make up a meal. Mostly, I lived off pot noodles and ready meals from the convenience stores. I know that it sounds rough but it was actually pretty good. You could get this tasty intricate Japanese meal for about 500 yen (6USD). I got quite attached to the pot noodles which were cheap, easy and would often include bits of dried meat and vegetables.
The shopping through out Japan is insane. Anything and everything you could ever imagine or want is here and usually under one roof. For example, there were about five major shopping complexes within a block of Nagoya train station and each one had at least five massive floors full of products. They were all interlinked by lifts, subways and over passes (all lined with shops) so it was very easy to get lost in this colossal maze of retail. Akiabara, Shibuya and Tokyo were all the same only bigger.
With all this shopping everyone went a bit crazy. It's understandable because even though things were not that cheap in Japan they were either more expensive in Georgia or simply unavailable. Laptops, cameras, ipods, clothes, fashion and (strangely) umbrellas were all big buy items. I think there were at least ten on the flight coming home. Apparently they are very popular as gifts in Georgia.
My own purchases included a souvenir key ring, head band that says "Special Attack" in Japanese, a couple of t-shirts and an ipod screen protector.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get the much hoped for iphone. They were available, but were so horrifically expensive that it wasn't even worth considering. So instead I got myself this bad boy.
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| From Blogger Pictures |
A Nikon D5000. I've been needing to upgrade my camera from the faithful little compact for some time now and this was just what I wanted. It cost me about 750USD which is about average compared to ebay. But while it is no bargain, I have been very satisfied with my purchase. Plus, you will be able to share the results of my new toy by having much better pictures being posted. Hope you enjoy.
Right, I've been written myself to a stand still. So I'll rap this up by saying that the next post should be up in a couple of days and will detail some of the more interesting happenings on tour.
Speak again soon,
Rodney Cuthbertson
DreamChaser
1 comment:
Wow, sounds crazy! And thanks for splitting up your report! ;) Nice camera
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