Nagano and Zenko-ji

So I visited Zenko-ji today in Nagano.

As the Rough Guide says "Its believed to house the first image of Buddha to come to Japan." The morning service starts at 5:30 and apparently its amazing and worth attending as drums pound and 100s of pilgrims join in the prayers. However I missed my alarm and awoke at 8:00, fortunately I did get to see a prayer and have some video footage, which I may put up on the site later.

The temples are pretty impressive and it seems though Pepsi have got in on the action (see pic). The highlight of the temple visit is the search for the key to paradise, where you go through a pitch black corridor groping your way through searching for the key to paradise. I did well not to grope anyone and found the key. The key once found means that you`ll have eternal salvation.

A little further down from the temple is the Daikanjin which houses the high priest and also once the emperor stayed there. There are some gardens in the Daikanjin inner court and they are supposed to be beautiful but the snow got in the way when I went.

The area is beautiful with classic Japanese wooden buildings - the first site that I have had of the classic traditional Japan.

Music been listening to.

Well having all this time on my hands has allowed me to listen to quite a bit of music. So I thought cos I am waiting for some MP3s to upload to my mp3 player - I`d bore you with them.

So currently since I have been travelling I have bought:-
Madvillain - a funky hip-hop album produced by Madlib who has an amazing ability to find some great funk/jazz basslines. If you like hip-hop then you`ll love this, classic Stones Throw.

Gorillaz - Demon Days - superb album, a real varied listen with electronic through to rock tracks, missing Del tha Funky Homosapien though.

Public Enemy`s - Greatest Hits. If you love PE then you`ll love this, this has been my first PE buy and its really great but then I have heard the tracks quite a few times and thus it didnt last too long on my player.

Teriyaki Boyz - Beef or Chicken. These guys are from Japan and the brains behind the Boyz is a guy called DJ Nigo who looks after Bathing Ape - one of the hottest Japanese clothing labels. Has guest apperances from Ad Rock (Beastie Boys), Daft Punk, Cut Chemist and DJ Shadow amongst others. Good hip-hop album - quite funny as they drop in English phrases in places though again wish I could understand Japanese.

The Herbiliser - Take London - real classic album a mix of hip-hop with funk/jazz instrumentals. Well worth a listen and after a couple of plays you`ll be hooked. Close your eyes and Gadget Funk are my fav tracks.

The Herbiliser - Something Wicked this way Comes - probably my fav Herbiliser album and played it to death and still love it, especially the track Good Girl Gone Bad with Wildflower. Funkier than Take London and just a little bit more upbeat.

Portishead - unknown album (the one with the full orchestra supporting - Grom`ll know.)
Great chilled out trip-hop from Portishead, one of fav tracks called Leave Me Alone with Natalie Imbrulia. The great thing about the album is all the orchestra instruments give the tracks a bit of classical edge.. but with layed back hip-hop beats .. genius!

.... ah my mp3 player has finished loading the tracks....

Across the Sea of Japan

The ferry journey wasnt too bad, it was a bargain at just under 6000 yen. Got to Tomakomai and then took the bus to the ferry port. Had a bit of a wait in Tomakomai but fortunately the tourist office offered to hold my bags so I could take a wonder about.

I didnt know what to expect from the ferry, thought there`d be a bar etc and get to meet a few people, but once on the ferry it was pretty bare. There was a restaurant, shop, games room and the bar was closed for the whole journey..

I found my sleeping quarters, basically a rectangled shaped pillow, hard floor and a wool rug. There was another guy in the quarters and that was it we had the whole room to ourselves. The other guy, Keigi turned out to be sound though and was a snowboarder sponsored by Santa Cruz and also a fashion model, nice fella - had loads of snowboard movies on his laptop and I introduced him into the world of UK hip-hop and funk.

The journey was fine, pretty calm (unlike a journey to Dublin - remember that Mr B and Mr M?) and managed to sleep most of the night.

Arrived into Niigata and Keigi offered to drive me to the rail station, got there and with 5 minutes to spare before the Shinkansen (or bullet train) was to leave. Quickly got the tickets and nodded when the guy told me where I was to change. Ran to the train with board bag and rucksack... and jumped on.

Got on the train and then realised I had no idea which stations the bloke had told me to change at plus the train tickets were all in Japanese. So I am looking for clues in my Rough Guide nothing, I havent found a seat yet and cant find anywhere to put my board bag or rucksack. After the first stop quite a few people leave so i get a seat and pick up a brochure... its all in Japanese. I start looking for train line maps and as we reach each station I panic and check to make sure its not my stop. Finally I see some Kanji that is on the ticket and work out that I need to change at Takegashi, its 20mins away so relax....

Reached Nagano in 2hrs which is pretty impressive the bullet train is so smooth and quick, very impressed.

Nagano has some pretty impressive temples including the Zenji-jo which I am about to visit after I finish this. Hopefully I will find the key to paradise, which I will tell you all about later on.

Bye Bye Annupuri

Well my stay in Annupuri has been great and is now at an end. Annupuri is a great place to visit, get away from it all and just board or if you have to ski ;) .
However a week there of just that gets a bit much and I am glad to get away and do more than board, read, eat and sleep.

Now I decided to try and attempt to reduce my contribution to global warming by taking the ferry to Niigata from Tomakomai, an 19hr journey from Niigata I shall get the train to Nagano and then onto Hakuba and Happo-1.

We are just leaving Annupuri and of course its dumping the snow again, this place never goes without a day of snow!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow

For some reason when ever I think of the lyrics "Let it Snow, Let it Snow" - I think of John Mcclaine in Die Hard. Anyway I guess the only link is the lyrics and the fact that I`m in Japan. Obviously I have been travelling on my own for too long....

So I arrived in Sapporo and stayed in the Sapporo International Youth Hostel which is out on the Tozai line, pretty nice hostel though has a curfew of 00:00 which is a bit strange, oh and you cant use the showers after 09:00. But pretty nice. Meet a lad from Melbourne, Australia who randomly was learning to Snowboard, we went up to the local snowfield which was pretty impressive and quite a bit bigger than XScape in Castleford (www.xscape.co.uk).

The first thing you realise about Sapporo is that it snows a lot and all the time. I dragged my board b**ody miles through the snow it almost killed me.. but hey ho thats that price you pay for going boarding round the world.

Due to the previously mentioned shower timing I left the hostel unshowered and made it on to the Niseko Ski Express .. bound for Niseko station, it takes 2hrs and costs about 4000 Yen. The train cars are luxury and really nice, though play some pretty awful Japanese music.. but you cant have everything. As we made it to Niseko the amount of snow just grew and grew.. buildings submerged under the stuff... unbelievable!

Got to Niseko station as promised in 2hrs and got the bus from Niseko station to Annupuri for 100 yen. Funny thing, when on the bus we went to pick up some school kids and one of them had an Ipswich Town Football Club hat on, made me laugh (he thought I was a bit weird as I laughed at him - so didnt try and get a photo).

Arrived at Annupuri bus stop and got picked up by Yoichi the owner of Annupuri Youth Hostel. Now this Youth Hostel is like no other hostel I have stayed in, make sure you get dinner and breakfast as the food is incredible! On the first night met Will from Hong Kong who was over Snowboarding and later Heiner from Germany..

The terrain here is incredible, the snow amazing and perfect for anybody wanting to learn without hurting themselves. The resort is fast becoming filled with Aussies as its being pushed as the aussie snow resort.

Anyway one piece of advice, make sure you stock up on money and phone cards if needing to call home as I didnt and had to get back to Sapporo on a day trip to get it all sorted. You can get money from the Niseko town Post Office but its a bit of a trek from Annupuri.. Gotta scoot as bus leaves in an hour and havent really seen much of Sapporo yet!!

Irfanview - Quick Image Editor

Well finally I have found a small image editing program which will nicely fit on my USB dongle. Its pretty good and is perfect to quickly crop, rotate and resize images. Seeing that its freeware, I thought I`d do my bit and give the website a plug on the site.

http://www.irfanview.com/

Irigish

So the Japanese love to use random English words in there adverts, apparently (I overheard a conversation - ok I was being noisy) this is called Irigish.

Here are some examples... now I am sure if I was to do something in Japanese I`d make some mistakes too..

The diving school maybe named after an incident that my friend had when diving once...


and this well.. i`ve never understood women...

Hogwarts is actually in Japan

This ones really for the guys at LINK (especially one Mr D Martin).

Anyway so you thought Harry Potter was British.. well think again...

Neville Doy

Some of you may know that my middle name is Neville. Actually I got quite a bit of stick at school about it and at one time hated the fact that I didn`t have a "normal" middle name, however now I am proud that of it and where it comes from and so I am going to tell you.

Back in World War II my great uncle was the navigator on a Firefly, similar to the Spitfire but for boats. On 24th July 1945 he was attacking a Japanese gunship and got shot down and killed. This sortie was actually one of the last missions of World War 2, if he had made that dive he would have survived as the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima a few days later.

Anyway Neville Doy was buried in the Commonwealth War Cemetary in Hodagaya, near Yokohama and I never thought that I would get the opportunity to meet the original Neville. But I did and am very glad that I got there and also very proud of my name.

The trip was a nightmare but thats for another post.

"RIP Sub-Lieutenant N.G Doy, it was great to finally meet the original Neville"

Hi Ho, I`m off to Toyko

Well after a mammoth walk to the hostel (my snowboard stuff gets heavier every trip) I finally made to the hostel (Sakura Hotel) - good thing as my arm was about to drop off.

Booked in and dropped off my stuff and went in search of Japan`s staple diet - sushi...
With the helpful instructions from the girl in the hostel i found a spot... man its so surreal going into one of these places, maybe I`ll try and get a recording of the reception you get but its like chickens squarking as they welcome you into their restaurant. The sushi place had a conveyor belt like most here and I was welcomed to sit down. The chef even gave me some fish to try, mackeral i think! All in all its was pretty damn good and cost a fiver for about 8 dishes worth.

After 30 something hours without sleep I KO`d until mid Friday.

Friday and my first day in Japan, met Richard a Kiwi in the hostel who was gonna be in town for one day so had a chat and as neither of us had any plans we checked out Tokyo. To be honest I was glad learnt a few words from him and also how the restaurants work. You buy your food from a vending machine and then give the waitress the receipt ... it:d have probably taken me a while to work that one out!

Later on I`ll do a crash course on Japanese, but for now I cant be arsed! (sorry!)

Went to Akihabara which is basically a geek`s paradise loads of electronics and gadgets - pretty impressive - including the new Sony MP3 player with organic display (what ever that means!) Loads of cool cameras including some really nice Sony credit card cameras with 7megapixels.... anyway enough of the geek talk.

Next was Shibuya which is were all the cool kids hang out ... I have never seen so many fashion victims in my life, they put the Leeds massive to shame! Some pretty impressive shops here including Tower Records, which has everything you can think of apart from the 2 records that i was looking for... something about my categorisation and the Japanese, sure Terayaki Boyz are hip-hop... ah well.

Right ... enough talking and I`ll post some pictures instead.

Senoria Canada

Well I'm currently stood at a free Internet terminal in Hong Kong airport, its 1am HK time and I'm pretty knackered. Anyway enough moaning I'll sleep on the plane to Toyko!

Canada has been a brillant place to start my travels and after Pete dropped me off at the airport I started to reflect on whats gone on so far and its only been a month! The proper travelling starts now and sure there'll be a few stories of me getting lost on the streets of Toyko.. ah well its all part of the adventure.

Just like to say thanks to all those how made my stay what it was and imparticular - Pete and Christie for their couch in Vancouver... its been the most comfortable couch ever....

Right then my typing is getting ropey so think i better get some sleep.
Osaki ni (good night)

Blackcomb/Whistler

Well to be honest, I didn't think I'd make it up to Whistler. It was never in my plans and well I didn't think I'd have time. But thanks to Pete and Cathay Pacific
(long story - but the morale is - never leave it till last minute to re-arrange your flights!), I had a few more days in Vancouver and so we manage to squeeze it in.

Pete fairplay decided we should go up on Sunday, even though he was going to a wedding reception the night before, oh and the worst part was that I was driving and we had to get up at 6am.

Pete got back from his bash, acting and sounding a little eliberated at 2am .. went to bed and the alarm went off at 6.... ouch!

We arrived at Whistler after a 2hr drive, amazingly I got us there safe and sound and I only ran "1" red light after a bit of a mishap with working out the road signs, North American roads have too many signs!

Then realised in true Simon fashion that I had not left my snow socks as I had thought but instead my googles (bugg*r), $130 down and 30mins later we were on the slopes.. and I was so stoaked.

The wind was pretty strong though the conditions were pretty excellent with good visibility and the snow whilst a bit crunchy. (signifies that the snow is a bit hard and icy.) We got chatting to a couple of the locals on the lift and as Pete had already suggested we headed over to 7th Heaven. The snow was much fluffier here and had amazing terrain. If you do go, check out the terrain which runs under the lift (7th Heaven Express) lots of powder and jumps - so much fun. Oh and one thing watch out for the trees past the Last Resort run as there is a cliff at the end of the tree run (we nearly fell off it!), keep to the left and you'll be fine!

Whistler is great, well thats the point we never made it Whistler just did Blackcomb, but Whistler is supposed to be equally great! Just make sure the snow is good and the temperature is not too high!

I'll leave you with a pic of Pete on his way down.... and me with my new googles!

Bye Bye Edmonton

So I've flown back to Vancouver and am staying with Pete & Christie. Leaving behind me Edmonton and its been great fun, I would just like to say thanks to everyone for making my stay so much fun.
Thanks to Jaime, Jerry, Patricia, Baba & Gitou, Candice, Brenda, Floyd, Georgina, Britney, Shaun, Jason, Jamey and Sabrina and the rest of the Edmonton posse.

Raging Bull!

So Edmonton is a great place and all, its a bit like the Texas of Canada. So I found out that they have a mechanical bull at this cowboy bar called Cook County.
The bar was a good laugh, friendly and some of the cowboys would show Patrick Swazie a thing or two. They really throwed their cowgirls around, hats off to them.

So a friend of Jaimes, Jason came over and said right then its time and I was dragged round to the front of the club before I knew it I had signed my life away, donned my cowboy hat and was sat on the mechanical bull.

See below.... I am sure I lasted for about 10-15 seconds, but then again it may have been 4... its much harder than it looks....

New Years

New Years in another country is a bit different. For one you don't have all your friends around you and of course your in unfamilar surroundings apart from that new years eve is the same, people have parties and get drunk...

I was invited to Jamey and Sabrinas (the ones who had the wedding) NYE bash, armed with a couple of bottles of champagne (well sparkingly wine) and a bottle of Bombay (in true brit style), Candice, Jaime and myself went to the house.

Once we arrived I was introduced to Jegnog, Jagermeister and Eggnog (not as bad as you may think!)..

I won't bore you with all the details, but it was a top night plenty of laughs and finally got the chance to play Cranium (absolutely brillant!) and also a drinking card game called Trap - brillant fun and the main thing is you have to chat to keep people trapped, check out the link for more details!

Anyway things got messy and I subjected everyone to my music and won some fans which was all good...

Anyway Happy New Year to you all... I hope its a good one!

The Oilers

As mentioned before, Ice Hockey is the sport of Canada. Pretty much everyone here support the sport and after you've watched a game, its obvious why!

The game is quick and exciting with plenty of goals and a few fights in there too (see photo).

So the game was between Edmonton Oilers vs Nashville Predictors.

After a bit of a late start (we missed the 1st period) we got off the tram and headed to the stadium. Whilst I remember the tram journey was a bit bizzarre as there are some slightly strange people who use it... this older gentleman (about 75) was chatting to himself about World War 2 or something, except he was having a conversation as if he were two people. One of his personalities was liberal and left wing and the other right wing, it was quite entertaining as he told each of his different sides to *uck off with its conservative or hippy ways. Anyway back to the hockey...

So the stadium holds about 20K people and its a pretty impressive site, we sat down to the second period after getting some compulsory 50/50 tickets (to win $23K). The atmosphere was amazing, different to a football game because everyone is so compacted together, every so often an organ would start and everyone would start clapping to the beat ...

Once we had sat down the game started to get going (I still believe the players were waiting for us to arrive). Before you knew it the 2nd period was over and it was 2-2...

It takes a bit of time to get into the game and see how everyone acts but when a goal is scored the noise is amazing and streamers are shot out from the ceiling over the crowd... by the end of the 3rd period the score was 4-3 with a few fights and some nail biting moments and I was starting to get into the game - another goal occured making it 5-3 and by that point I thought hockey was the best sport ever.... then the whistle went - the whole thing went so fast and it was a shame that the sport doesn't have 4 quarters!!

Anyway if you get the chance go and see a game!