Japan IV - Toyko, a Transport of Delights...

A short post here and unfortunately, one without any pics as of all the hundreds (probably over a thousand images) taken on the trip, I neglected to take a few of the urban transport network in Tokyo.
If you recollect, I mentioned that when we arrived, the Narita express wasn't running that morning so we had to use JR slow line into the centre of Toyko and then change trains for Ikebukuro.

Imagine...a twelve hour flight, we're tired, sweaty, washed out and both feeling like a bit of chewed string.  It's hot and I could do some serious damage to a cold beer as well as being somewhat apprehensive (to put it mildly) about getting round Tokyo...remember it's a big place.

...but "no, so sorry, the Narita express is not running this morning"  Deep bows..."you need to take the JR line into Toyko and change trains, so sorry"  More bows.

We had by this time exchanged our vouchers for the JR Railpass, a wondrous little document that you simply waived to the staff at a station gate to gain access to a JR train which could take you anywhere in Japan.  In theory, I could have spent the whole three weeks travelling the complete length of the country on the Shinkenasan...and then do it all over again!

Like all the Japanese who wear a uniform, the JR staff were impeccably turned out (complete with white gloves) and were unfailingly helpful and polite.  We were directed to the appropriate platform ('track' to the Japanese) and it was during this little adventure that I made my first surprising and pleasant discovery.

As well as each JR line being colour coded, all signage was in Japanese (naturally enough) and English, so that once we'd arrived at Toyko central, it was a fairly simple and straightforward process to follow the light green signs for the JR Yamanote line, which is rather like the Circle line on the London underground...it just goes round in a big circle so that most of the major centres of interest in Tokyo can be reached using only this line.

Even better, all the JR trains had announcements on board in English, so there was no doubt where you were, or what the next stop was going to be.  As well as that useful feature, all the platform signs were in English as well, with the next station along the line indicated with a big, green arrow.

There are many, many JR lines running throughout Tokyo so that provided you know where you need to go, it's a simple task to pick the right colour line and hop on board.  As well as the overground JR lines, there's also an extensive subway system which is privately owned and operates in much the same way as the London Underground previously mentioned...

...except that it's a very unpleasant place to be during the rush hour periods.  We were advised that under no circumstances were we to go anywhere near in the 'busy' periods...I even saw one of the professional pushers on the Maranouchi Line, whose unenviable job is to cram as many heaving salarymen into the carriages as is humanly possible.

Getting around this vast metropolis was one of the things that had caused me considerable angst prior to the trip...I'd spent quite some time at home poring over maps wondering just how the hell we were going to navigate from point A to B, but as it turned out, it was one of the easiest parts of the entire holiday.

Much, much more could be written about Tokyo, but time and your patience won't, I'm afraid permit it...so the following installment will find Alyson and I leaving Tokyo for Nagano, in the Japanese Alps.

Japan III - Toyko

Monday 7th May saw us on a tour of some of the better known districts of Tokyo, starting of with the Koishikawa -Korakuen gardens just north of the central area of the city, first begun in 1629 as a private garden for one of the samurai shoguns.  The link will show many more pics of the garden but if you look at my first photo, notice how the group of trees on the mound looks in complete harmony...no accident.  The trees on the right side lean to the right and there's a sweep of foliage falling to the left.  Not a particularly good example but the pic in Japan I shows it to much better effect.  However, the little bridge...

...shown above is in perfect harmony.  If you can catch it just right, the reflection of the arch in the water forms a perfect circle...again, no accident.
                                                                                             

One of the things that Alyson wanted to do on the trip was to compile a 'Goshuin chou'  book of temple stamps.  She bought the book at the Sensoji temple in Asakusa and for the princely sum of 300 JPN...

...a member of staff (usually a monk) will produce a beautiful, hand brushed name of the temple, complete with it's own vermilion stamp.  When it's finished, the book will unfold in a concertina fashion to reveal a unique record of all the temples visited.

While on the subject of stamps, I should mention that the Japanese love their stamps...if anything can be stamped, it'll get a bright red stamp and in fact it's commonplace to see racks of individual stamps carved onto the end of a piece of bamboo, roughly about the size of a finger...and some produced on more exotic materials were very expensive.  Think in terms of 40,000JPY!

On our walk round Tokyo that day, we came out of a side street and turned a corner and the vehicle above was the very last thing I expected to see.  In fact I did see another one in Nagano later on.

Towards the end of the day, our guide Tom pointed out a feature on the building in the pic shown above. As I mentioned earlier, many Tokyoites live cheek by jowl in small flats (or apartments) in high rise blocks where pets aren't allowed.  The Japanese though, in common with most folks, like their pussy cats but can't have them at home.

The solution is simple...if you can't have a cat at home, go someplace where they are allowed!  If you look closely at the pic, around three quarters of the way up are images of cats...it's a cat cafe, where you can go for your morning cappuccino and get swamped by your furry friends.

















The last pic on this post shows the crossing in Ginza outside the Mitsukoshi store, which is the Japanese equivalent to Harrods, with prices to match.  Fancy paying 12,000JPY for a small tray of white strawberries?...look no further!

However, it's not the store, but the crossing that I want to draw you attention to, because this is the interactive part of this post.  You're strongly advised to pull the blinds and curtains, lest the men in white coats come for you and drag you away kicking and screaming...

I mentioned that the Japanese are obedient and as can be seen from the pic, people are crossing with the vehicles waiting patently for a gap.  All major pedestrian crossings though, are light controlled and the Japanese (especially in Tokyo) simply will not cross the road if the light is at 'red'.  It doesn't matter if it's 3am in the morning and there's no traffic for a mile either side...if the light is at 'red' they'll wait till it turns green.

So, one saunters across the road whilst the lights are green accompanied by....

...Mario music!

Every city and almost every town has it's own version of a little jingle that's used to indicate that it's safe to cross, with different variations on the following themes:

'Beep, boop...beep, boop' ...

followed by a...... 'Tweeeeeooooooo, tweeeeeooooooo'  or sometimes it was a...

... 'beeb, boop, beep de-boop' again followed by  couple of 'tweeeeeoooooos, tweeeeeeoooooo's'

Some places go for a completely novel approach though, so that in Nagano, an electronic Mario version of this song was used and Okiyamha opted or this little dity.

Barking, completely barking mad, but fascinating at the same time, though this isn't the only place where Mario music can be heard.  To find out more, you'll need to stay tuned for the next exciting instalment!

Japan II - the Swordsmith

May 5th saw us off on the Shinkansen from Ueno station to Fukushima, where we were to meet Ota-san, our guide and interpreter for the day.  We were initially a little worried about visiting that area, due in no small measure to the earthquake and tsunami that occurred last year, though Ota-san mentioned when questioned about it that the media had completly over-played the issue.

We certainly saw no sign of any devastation and although the 'quake and the tsunami were bad, Ota-san just remarked that..."we're used to these things.  We clear up the mess and get on with life, it's no big deal''
Food for thought indeed...

In Japan 1, I mentioned that Tokyo was big.  The first couple of pics were taken from the windows of the train and show just how crowded the buildings are.  The astonishing thing is that the view from the train window didn't change much in 90 minutes...and that's travelling at 180mph!  There may have been a few rice paddies to be seen, but it's essentially 'built up' all the way from Tokyo to Fukushima.

Having arrived at our destination, we were met by Ota-san and transferred by taxi to Fujiyasu-san's forge, some distance outside the city, where there was in fact a little countywide to be seen.  I've always had a fascination for old Japan, which was probably initiated when I read 'Shogun' years ago and for me, nothing quite sums up the era of the Samurai than their swords.  There are plenty to be had in the souvenir shops and they do look the part...but in all cases, they're fake.  Not the 'real deal' or even anything halfway close.

 Make no mistake though, what I saw that day at Fujiyasu-san's forge was unquestionably the genuine article...100%

Fujiyasu-san (in the white shirt, seated) has been making swords for the last 40 years and each blade attempts to emulate those produced by the masters hundreds of years ago.  Nothing was ever written down, so the process is a bit 'by guess and by God' although as Fujiyasu-san is a follower of the old religion, it's probably something else!

We arrived to the sound of the hammer ringing on an anvil...a sword was in the process of being forged.  The billet of steel was being hammered to shape by Fujiyasu-san's 'disciple', (or assistant) Yuya Nakanishi-san who'd been working for him  for the last seven years...

...without pay and with two days off a year.   Staggering as this seems, as a maker in the old tradition, this is always how it was done, though it remains to be seen if he'll be replaced when it's time to set up his own forge.

After brief introductions, I was summarily put to work wielding the hammer... and bloody heavy it was too!  Fujiyasu-san has a smaller hammer which he uses to tap the anvil three times.

Tap, tap, tap and then BANG...the big sledge drops.

Tap, tap, tap...BANG!

Tap, tap, tap...BANG!

... and this goes on until it's time for the billet to be returned to the heat.  Fujiyasu-san works in the dark, operating his hand powered bellows, so that the temperature of the billet is determined purely by eye and by the noise and flame generated within the furnace.  After I had a couple of sessions it was time for...





















...both of use to wield the hammers.

Tap, tap, tap...BANG, BANG!

Tap, tap, tap...BANG, BANG!















Making a sword is a very complicated process and one that I don't fully understand, but a meander through the first page on this site illustrates the procedure far better than my feeble attempts.   Fugiyasu-san though,  makes his own 'tamahagane', the raw steel made from 'santesu' (black sand) and red pine charcoal which is eventually used to forge the blades (and I have a small sample in a plastic bag)

It takes around two weeks to forge a blade and after the blade (above) has been roughly shaped...















...it's time for the initial polishing on waterstones.  Nakanishi-san is shown in the pic working on a straight blade.

From our conversations with Ota-san, it seems unlikely that Nakanishi-san will be replaced...after all, would you work for seven years for no pay and two days off each year?  In which case  Fujiyasu-san has the option to use a foot operated spring forge hammer (shown above) but it seems unlikely that he will as it's counter to the old tradition of sword making.  The sad though inevitable conclusion that can be drawn is that Fujiyasu-san will stop making swords...either that or he needs to offer his disciple a commensurate wage and conditions of service, though that is beyond the remit of this Blog.















The last stage in this complicated process is to obtain the 'hamon' or decorative pattern on the blade.  This is achieved by applying a fine slurry of charcoal and ore to the blade, after which it's fired in the forge for the last time.  I'm shown in the pic using a bamboo spatula to coat a small tanto, or dagger and believe me, the process is a lot harder than it appears!

Once the blade has been roughly shaped, it's sent of to another craftsman (the polisher) so that when it's returned...















...it's a thing of true, but deadly beauty.  I had to be extremely careful not to touch the blade, not only because it's mind numbingly sharp, but any finger marks would eventually turn to rust...hence the cotton pad in my left hand.

Over lunch,  Fujiyasu-san mentioned that a completed sword takes two months to make as after the polisher, it's sent onto another craftsman who makes and fits all the other accouterments such as the scabbard and handle fittings.  Once complete, the sword is worth...

...3,000,000 JPY or roughly £30,000  and if you're a serious collector, probably worth every penny.

That's not quite the final story though because after lunch, Fujiyasu-san went outside and brought in a peculiar banana shaped bundle and he asked me to hold one end.  He then tugged on the other end and produced a blade that was around two metres long!















Suitably gob-smacked, he asked me (having previously discussed filthy money) what I thought it was worth?

With much 'umming' and 'aahring' and sucking of the teeth, I hazard a guess....10,000,000JPY perhaps?

'Ah, so, not too bad, good guess'  said Fujiyasu-san... 'now double it'















The day ended with me giving a gift of Scotch whiskey in a small box which I'd made in the 'shop much earlier.  Needless to say, it was suitable appreciated.

As a footnote to this long and complicated entry, it seems that in the not too distant future, Fujiyasu-san is likely to become a Japanese 'National Treasure'.  If that is the case, everything he makes, or has made will instantly double in value.

Got a calculator handy?...you do the maths!

Japan I - Toyko, the home of Mario

Three weeks in Japan is going to take a lot of documenting, so this is going to be the first of quite a series of entries on the Blog.   If you've nothing better to do with your time and want to gain an insight into some of the quirkier idiosyncrasies that make Japan fascinating...then stay tuned!

A twelve hour flight from Heathrow to Narita, Toyko, which to be fair to Branson Air, was very good, still left us washed out and bleary eyed by the time we'd cleared all the formalities.  We then had to sort out our Japan Rail (JR) passes (of which more later), book reserved seat tickets on the Shinkansen for the 5th May (of which a lot more later) and finally find our way to the Narita Express, a direct JR non-stop line into the centre of Toyko and beyond and then to our first hotel at Ikebukuro.

Except it wasn't running.

 Much deep bowing and apologies from the young lady at the desk, but no, there'd been an accident and it wasn't running...so sorry.

So there we are, completly bewildered in a totality alien (or it seemed at the time) environment, with no apparent means to get the 100 miles or so from the airport to the hotel.

Great, just bloody wonderful! Bugger!

A little sign language though and some help from another member of staff found us on the JR slow train into Toyko central, where we had to change trains (eeeek!!!) to find our way to Ikebukuro, where the Toyoko Inn hotel (shown above) could be found about about 10 minutes from the station.

Toyko is big.  If you thought London or any any of the other major cities in the United Kingdom were big, they pale when compared to Toyko.

It's big, period.  In fact the vast majority of the Japanese are crammed into the coastal plain between the mountains and the sea and at the last count, Toyko central's nearly 12.5 million people (with a density of 5655 k/m) comprises almost 20% of the countries population.

Greater Toyoko is a complete and continuous conurbation almost from Narita to way beyond Yokohama, which is nearly 50 miles away.  Forget all frothy notions of rolling green English fields, with lambs skipping around and daffodils under oak trees.  In this part of Japan, any flat land will have a building on it and if it's not a building, it'll be a rice field. More to the point, it's so densely packed that the next building or house will be squashed in tight (a matter of feet) against it's neighbour.

Sounds like a bit of a nightmare, but there you'd be completely wrong.  The Japanese, being the people they are have managed to make Toyko and indeed the whole of Japan an enthralling and exhilarating place to visit but there are three crucial words you need to take into account...

Order, harmony and obedience...and those three words go a very long way to explaining the national psyche, but not all, as we shall see.

Just to illustrate.  There are no old cars and no dirty cars.  Traffic sticks rigorously to the speed limits and throughout the tour, I never saw any car overtake another!  There is no litter anywhere (and I don't exaggerate)  There is no graffiti...none.  There are no fat people (and apologies if the scales grown when you get on them)  In fact the best way to encapsulate the atmosphere in a nutshell is to imagine a scene from a Jim Carrey film, 'The Truman Show'...the whole country is like Switzerland on steroids!

Toyko is vast (but you know that already), however it's not quite as mind numbingly vast when you consider that for all practical purposes, it's a series of smaller 'towns' linked together by the sprawl of the conurbation which is in turn linked by the rather excellent (of which more later) rail network, thus we have places like Ginza, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ikebukuro, Ueno and Asakusa which are all part of Toyko but  which have separate identities in themselves.

Amongst the sea of skyscrapers are several ancient gardens which provide an oasis of tranquility.

 

The pic above was taken from the 42nd floor of an office block and shows the Hama-rikyu Gardens, one of the oldest in Japan and adjacent to the world famous Tsukiji fish market.

Remember order and harmony?  All the many gardens we visited throughout the tour were stunning and laid out in a meticulous, calming way...

...with many of the full sized trees being trained to conform to a particular style (the one shown above was  outside the Imperial Palace) with Alyson...

...in a couple of shots, with the Palace in the background.















To take just one further example, the pic above shows the world famous Shibuya crossing, taken as I was going across it.  Doesn't look much from the ground, but when it's seen from the railway station...














...you can see the tide of humanity crossing, and remember, this wasn't the rush hour.  Then it becomes something very different!

As our first taste of Japan, I found Tokyo and it's inhabitants fascinating and so much more could be written, but I haven't quite finished with it yet as the next exciting instalment will reveal but for that, you'll just have to be patient.

And what's all the stuff about Mario?...again, patience is a virtue.

To be continued.

Scantily Clad Dancing Girls...

Just when you were nodding off...that's caught your attention!  As avid perusers of this on-line dirge, if you've been really smart and paying attention, will have noticed that I mentioned that yesterday's post would be the last for a while.

Apologies.......I lied.

The fact is that there was a rather unusual event happening in town that I wanted to go and see. As the appalling, wet weather of the last few days finally turned into a glorious Spring afternoon, I decided to hop on the Blokebike and see what was going on at the cathedral (which also happens, by the way, to be my most favourite building)

So there was a choir (Military Wives)...

A smartly turned out military band....















....and those scantily clad dancing girls, who performed their own delightful version of pole dancing, but this time of course, the traditional, ye olde English Maypole Dance.















These little ones were no more than five or six and they proceeded to...















...weave the most intricate cat's cradle with their tapes...

....so that eventually almost the complete pole was interwoven with yellow, green and white ribbons.

However, all of this was a bit of a sideshow, delightful as it was, because the real star of the afternoon was...




























...HM The Queen, who paid a visit to Salisbury as part of her Diamond Jubilee celebrations.  Although the pics are a slightly our of focus, the main point is that I was there on the day and saw HM, which won't happen again in my lifetime, or  indeed hers.

God Save The Queen.

Spiny Stuff...and the Orient!

Exactly a month ago, SWIMBO and I visited one of our offspring in Ixworth and had a very pleasant and slightly inebriated weekend, during the course of which and over one of several steins of Greene King Abbot, I suggested to Megan's landlady that she might like to have 'a little something' from the workshop.

After a trip to Yandles last weekend, I found a suitable lump of decent English Walnut in the wood shed and spent some time last week on my new lathe spinning this up into a small bowl (about 190mm dia)

If the post comes at the same time as ours,  I suspect that Mary will be opening the box round about now...

This will be the last entry of the Blokeblog for several weeks as Thursday morning at 0700 will see us departing on our merry way for very distant shores...

... Japan!

Ahh, Bond...'For Your Eyes Only'

Having just finished off one project a few days ago, which has been stamped TS, I've just this minute finished off another one, which is again... Most Secret and as is the nature of these things, can only be revealed in thirty years (or should it be fifty?) when the mandarins at the Home Office tell me that national security won't be compromised....which means that you, dear peruser of this blog, won't see any pics for at least a couple of months!

Suffice to say though, that it's not too shabby and I hope the recipient (as in the first little item) will appreciate it.

In order to find the material for this little trinket, SWIMBO and I paid a visit to Yandles where I spent a pleasant half-hour (spending any longer was fraught with danger, as there was a baleful glow developing...) browsing in the wood shed.  Most of what was there in board form (and I was after some more elm) was plentiful, but of dubious quality. Last year at one of the shows, I came away with a pristine board that was about 75mm thick...no shakes, knots, splits or even worm, but this time even picking over the boards there wasn't much that was worth having, until...

...I turned over one or two boards in a bin and came across a couple of shortish lengths of air dried, quarter sawn English Oak, each around 30mm thick.  One of the boards was very old where one end was gnarled and split, but both cleaned up beautifully and have now been salted away in the timber store at home.

Much of what is in the wood shed at Yandles can tend to be a bit poor and sub-standard, but just occasionally, you can find a gem...