Last day before departure and part #1 of return

Unfortunately as is always case good things must come to an end. I have been having great time in Japan on my third trip. As it is despite heat it's been best trip so far. Nice that every time I come here it's always even more interesting than before! But that's because I always find new things to look forward on here. And people wonder why I keep coming to Japan...Well because there's still tons of things I want to see and do here, I have friends here and I can speak language if not to native level then at least enough to get by even on fairly complex subjects. I would like to visit other countries too but Japan still has plenty more to show to me!

Anyway for last day I had 3 things I were looking for: Meeting with Japanese I had met before, Yoyogi park which is park I love most in Tokyo and which I had only so far briefly visited on first day(but ridiculously heavy bag in 36 degrees is not suitable for park exploration). And just few days ago I had read of Bon dance in Roppongi. I had toyed around with trying to get another Hello project ticket if I can find cheap one but this one was even better. Something I had not yet seen!

Trip to meeting was as uneventful as to be expected. Quite easy trip without unexpected issues. I even was way too early so spent some time exploring nearby areas. Didn't find much as I didn't want to wander far but did see another temple.

 Even inside Tokyo there is quite a variety. From skyscrapers of Shinjuku to...this. Bit narrow but apart from that not THAT weird looking. Was quite cosy walking here actually.

 Think the last picture explains enough of the temple.

 After this we went to local outdoor market festival that's twice a month. Lots of pretty hand made stuff available. Bit too pricey most for my budget since it's quite low by now but did get one interesting article.

After this she guided me to handpuppet show. This was pretty darn funny.

Former prime ministers of Japan.

 Another shot of prime ministers. Front row, second from left is the current one.

White haired one on left is puppet in image of guy who did performance. Puppet next to him is of the guy making the dolls.

 First show was pandomine performance involving lots of slapping each other. Second one one doll represented very drunk person, other who was first giving drinks and then trying to help. Funniest moment was when drunk one fell down, other was all "are you allright" and then suddenly BAM slammed drunken persons head. Drunken woke up and slammed right back.

Third show was unsurprisingly about two fishers. Pretty good handling of dolls to catch the fish to small ropes.

Fourth was supposedly over 100 year old pianist playing. First had physically hard time getting to piano, then played master piece, then was revealed it was recording. Lol.

Fifth I think was enka(form of Japanese singing) performance.

Sixth was couple very old guys doing swimming performance.

Seventh involved lots of hammer swinging. Including at each other :D

Eight one was funny one where supposed karate master wasn't going to break tiles. Other kept trying to get him hit, he kept doing anything BUT hitting. Eventually he did break the tiles. Tiles btw were cookies which were then handed out to viewers(good ones too!).

Ninth was simple where doll did one go at kendama. And did get it in one go. That's actually pretty neat trick. Kendama isn't easiest thing even normally. Albeit rope was shorter than usual but still getting it in perfectly was pretty good.

Tenth involved first one doll carrying another doll in his head and then weight lifters iron bar. Then the bar was spun around. That IS pretty neat trick to get those stand in balance(especially for the spin) on the head of the doll. Took actually some effort so I don't think there was magnet there to help it. At least didn't see any indication there was magnet.

Last one was song performance involving lots of "scooping snow" and trying to lift snow filled barrels up etc.

After this we had to depart our ways but I stayed at the place as there was this service where you can get the artist draw your image using handdoll. For about 7-8 euros and 10 minutes neither price was that high so obviously I got one :D

 Nice picture. I'm actually recognizable. Though little brother disagrees. Too red mouth :D

After this headed to Harajuku and Yoyogi park. This is the park I love most in Tokyo. Alas so far had only visited it briefly so with free time to kill on last day I could enjoy Japan freely on this trip what better place to go?

 There was this rather well known group of Elvis-styled dancers doing performance. Saw them when I came here first time and seems they are fairly long standing feature in Yoyogi park!

Was fun seeing little 3-4 year kids jam along. Adults tends to be boring and just watch and take pictures. Kids meanwhile are joining in the fun :D Kids have clearly the right idea.

 Now I love Yoyogi park. Fell in love with it when I first came here, loved it on autumn. But I do have to admit I prefer spring and fall Yoyogi park over sumer Yoyogi park. In spring the sakura give nice colour to the greenery. Or fall the fall colours are stunning. In summer it's more uniform green and it's HOT. So very very hot. Puts a stopper for the enjoyment. Still was nice and got bit better when I got to under shades of trees and it started to wind a bit but still. Give me spring or fall over summer thank you very much!

 I still like this small lake.

This being Sunday with reasonable weather(not rain but cloudy. Though cloudiness kept at least temperature own) park was filled with people. Japanese having generally busy work days they in return tend to come out and enjoy on sundays. Especially for dads this is rare time to spend time with family.

 Not sure was this dancing or sport event going on. Lots of synchronized movement at least but didn't look dancing either. Might be group yoga like thingie.

Next I came to something I had read in news month or two ago. Didn't know this craze was still going on.

Zombies! Zombies have invaded my favourite park!

Haha that makeup does look creepy :D Not sure what's so fun parading around like that but each to their own ;) Wonder how long it takes to apply that makeup though?

After this I still had some time so I figured quick trip to Meiji shrine next door could be fun. If for nothing else it would be cool walk likely being middle of forest and maybe I could get stamp to my book from there(didn't get as it turns out. Bit surprised they don't sell those. Too popular? Don't have time to give those? Though preprinted ones wouldn't take as much time as hand drawn).

 That gate is always so big looking!

 By now I was feeling quite hungry(breakfast was quite long time ago by now) so I opted to visit kaiten sushi restaurant in the Omodesando street I had found on last trip. Bit pricey but good and hey last meal. Let's make it good one.

 Couple plats I ate.

Ate quite a few plates as it turns and drank a beer. Good meal. Priciest in this trip though.

 Next and last stop for the day was Roppongi hills. I had few days ago noticed news about 3 day Bon dance event there. Final day happened to be sunday and public performance on evening when I had free time. That felt just like a thing for the last night!

Not really quite sure what spider statue greeted me when I exited the station.

Finding performance place took a bit time but that's why I came early! Turns out I had exited station on 2nd foor. I needed to go to B1, or was it B2(so 4 floors down) instead. There I found stream of Japanese heading for same direction and following the always reliable "follow the locals" trick found what obviously was going to be stage for the event.

 Crowded!

 Some sort of...mythical creatures I suppose?

 That kids clothing sure reminds the ones on Awadori. Rest of clothing didn't though.

Bonodori is basically Japanese festival(?) related to belief that on this time of year deceased family members come back to world. The dances are basically way of saying "hey we are all in good shape. No need to worry about us!" to your ancestors.

The Daimonji I saw in Kyoto meanwhile is part of ritual at the end of the Obon to light guiding lights for them to find their way back to heaven safely.

Unfortunately I ran out of battery on my phone after 2 groups had performed. And third one involved a veritable army of little kids in their yukatas dancing! Was so cute! Sure they didn't dance technically as good as adults next to them but heart warming to watch them give their best. And hands off for actually having courage to perform under that big crowd!

After they had finished I decided I needed to go back. Still needed to pack for next days departure. Also went for book off to try to find some books related to the Chichibu pilgrimage next year but no luck. Need to find those somewhere else it seems.

Last night I ate lots of my favourite stuff and drank quite a bit of beer. Actually I didn't even finish the last one. Was so late that combination of tiredness and beer meant I fell asleep.

But on the morning didn't at least have a hangover. Didn't drink THAT much at least. Actually I had spotted "all you can drink for 1500 yen(so about 10-11 euros)" bar. I considered briefly going there for some serious drinking(got to try that once in your life right?) but with carrying heavy bags next day didn't want to invite serious hangover!

Flight to Nagoya(from which I would fly to Helsinki on next day) wouldn't be leaving before around 6pm so I had tons of time to kill. So I definitely didn't rush from hotel and left around 10:40(checkout was 11:00 latest). I had considered going somewhere before heading to airport but with 2 bags clocking in probably close to 20kg each plus backbag of 5kg+ likely wasn't exactly feeling like carrying them around. And not sure coin lockers would fit them. Nor felt like paying that either. The wait on Nagoya is long enough I want to save spare money for there.

Japan gave me 2 nice presents when I left. First was cloudy bit windy day. I was sweating carrying those bags enough(really funny climb stairs with those! One step at a time...) and other was that I was able to actually locate exit from Shinjuku station and stat! I usually always get lost. Was helped that I remember roughly where certain lines gates are on the outside so seeing familiar line and "ground gate" I realized that's the way to go. And sure enough I was closeby the bus I would be using. YES! With these bags excess walking in Shinjuku wouldn't be optimal. That station is HUGE.

Alas next bus was full so had to wait extra 20 minutes but with those bags didn't have time to head anywhere(pace is really slow) so just settled waiting there. At least bags could be at ground and I could read a book.

Arriving to Narita I was then puzzled when ticket machine didn't find my flight. Asked for help and stupid me. I'm going to Nagoya. Domestic flight. 2 floors below. Whoops! First time on Narita when I'm trying to take domestic flight. Unexpectedly those are not usually what I need to use!

Elevators down, boarding pass received, bags checked in(YES! No more carrying them) and find the security check gate(on 2nd floor so 1 floor up!). Staff there verified do I REALLY want to go through yet since it's good 4 hours to flight but really. Before, after, all the same for me. Same waiting in the end. Especially since I don't want to buy anything before security check either. Last buyings I will be doing at the Nagoya, not here.

Give me seat, give me access to toilet, maybe even power socket and wifi and I'm settled. Luckily this place has them all :)

Only 3 hours or so left as I write this. Time go open a book.

Exploring Fukushima prefecture

After night of fun talking with friends we slept as we would have very early start around 5am. Long car drive toward north of Japan beckoned! 

 Day started up as gloomy and cloudy. Not optimal weather but at least it wasn't raining.

 But as we drove north it cleared up. Nice!

 We even stopped on route to scretch legs and look at rice crops close up. I have seen them in planting stage but not like this near done.

 First order of business was this old fashioned village being preserved. Reminded me a bit of Shiragago that I visited on my first trip to Japan.

 It was hot hot day. Japan summer is indeed quite hot. Though really it's the humidity that's the killer most of the time. Sometimes feel like I'm breathing water!

 The roofs aren't QUITE as steep as the Shiragawago.

 I was crazy enough to climb these stairs on my own. Friends had more sense in this heath and stayed down :D

 But at least got good view. Though this was also dangerous. I was about to head down when this man there called out to me asking from which country I was from. Hearing Finland he then started discussion about relative taxes of Finland, Sweden, Norway and Japan. (interesting subject) along with some other things. Since that's not subject I'm that familiar or interested in chatting that deeply I asked in return what was he doing. Turns out he was painting picture of this village(pretty) and had copies of his previous works. He had one of Tsuruga castle which happens to be where we would be going and which was pretty sweet so I ended up buying that too. Dammit. Didn't look like place where I might end up buying something!

We stopped for lunch. Some tempura we shared.

And this was my cold soba. With onion. And you eat the soba WITH onion. Yet another way to eat in Japan. Usually you use the chopsticks to eat soba but not this time. You use the onion. Chopsticks tricky but onion is even harder to eat with!

 Pretty sky, old buildings and mountains in back. Combines my favourite things in Japanese land scapes(that tower on right should be out though...)

Wonder what kind of fruit this was?

 Stunning lake on the way to the next target.

 Tsuruga castle's moat was all greenery. This is actually fairly common in Japan. Last time I went to Ueno I was wondering where did lake go? Turns out it had plants all over it thick enough to hide all the water...Pity.

 Tsuruga castle is nice looking though reconstruction. Former one got ravaged by last civil war here in the 1800-century when some Samurai's rebelled against the new government(this is where Last Samurai movie is VERY loosely based on. Incidentally it was the mountain scenes of that film that first attracted me to Japan)

These stairs were used by soldiers defending castle to run quickly to the walls. Must have been tough to run those fast in all the armour. Not exactly smooth, even flat steps...

 Most of the inside of castle(which was basically museum describing this castle's history and especially the civil war) was no-photograph zone but at least from up you had splendid view(and the history of that civil war was interesting. Need to read more of that later).

 On the way down there was area where you could pose with old gun and sword. Gun was the more interesting though this should have been next to shooting hole(string kept from moving it far). One is like few meter away so why not have it there! Would be more authentic to aim from that rather than at the floor!

 Less interesting picture since you can't pull sword out and string reduces poses quite a bit.

 There was also smallish garden where you could eat rice cake and drink matcha(the tea served in tea ceremonies).

 Second time drinking matcha. Quite good. More "solid" than regular tea.

Nearby was Sake(Japanese rice wine) brewing. This area is known for good water resulting in good rice and with that also good sake.

Funny thing. I hadn't been mentioned of THIS trip so I was thinking we were heading car but didn't recognize path. I was thinking "gee. My friend's pretty good navigator finding short cuts like it's nothing". Well seems we weren't taking short cut to car after all :D

He did navigate well though.

 

 On first time in Japan I wasn't quite sure what those kind of clothing at the front of door meant. So I skipped quite a few restaurants probably either not recognizing it as restaurant or thinking it's closed.

We got thorough explanation of sake brewing process. I had some trouble keeping up due to more specializes vocabularity, 100% authentic speed and there was so much explanation I had trouble remembering what had been said few minutes ago!

Then we went to museum related to sake brewing.

 Old tubes where to brew sake.

Overall it had been fun day but eventually we had to head back to their home. Would still be quite a long drive back.

On the route this nice scene came up though camera doesn't make full justice. Sky had been leaden coloured and quite dull. Suddenly huge beam of light seemed to come from hole in the clouds turning everything quite pretty.

Was over pretty quickly though but for a moment sky was very pretty.

 For dinner we dropped by restaurant that seems to be serving quite large rice partions. What I had(normal) seems to be more like large partion in other restaurant. For main dish chicken meat. Salad was particularly tasty here.

Some nightviews from friends apartments top floor. Pretty!

Had been fun 16 hours together but eventually I had to head back to hotel. Only one more day was left. I had another meeting arranged and had plans to visit Yoyogi park again(and more than in the first day) and then on Roppongi there would be Bon dances. And then final packing. Holiday was fast gearing toward the end.