Hope you enjoy the images. More galleries will be added in due course and the site design is in flux at this time. I am figuring out the right layout to keep the clutter down, keep the navigation consistent with the blog here and the page loads fast. Let me know if it works and more appreciation will be due if you let me know if something does not work

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Arrived at Hachinohe on time and the motel we found is literally connected to the station. We were here at 10:30 and the check in does not start till 3 pm. What a bummer. But we being the good sport we are, decided to creatively while the time away. What do you do in japan wan you are stinking and got a couple of hours? Hit a Onsen. Heh…

It is unusual for me to be in a public bath let alone among dozens of buck naked men of all ages parading around and jumping in hot and cold pool. It was a, um relaxing experience. I probably had the longest bath ever and i didn’t realize a bath can be pretty relaxing. It was always a mundane chore that I would avoid if I could but I can now totally understand people obsessed with long baths heh… After a while one tends to forget all the naked people. Would have been a different affair if it was a mixed-sex bath I think

The good people at the motel let us check in early and also gave us pointers on what to do. The last time I was in this region, I took a scenic train ride around rice fields and the coast. It is not in the cards this time but I took a train to a coastal town called Tanesashi. This is a quaint little town with a brilliant coast line. The beach was very clean and I should say unique. It has a combination of sandy beach, really soft grass land and a rocky outcrop. Seems to be a pretty favorite hangout for family picnics. Luckily there was very little crowd and the weather was excellent. The train ride was very peaceful and the gentle wind and rocking waves were the perfect accompaniment. I cooed have spent many more hours but 2 was good enough to de-stress. We topped it with an excellent meal of rice and noodles prepared by local chef who accommodated the strange vegetarian request.

August is a time for parades and celebration in Aomori, and When I head into town, the revelry was starting. Large floats paraded the streets and seems like the entire town turned up to join in the fun. Japan is strange, it is a place where you find punks and traditionalists side by side and today was no different. Tons of girls in kimono’s and many more in mini skirts graced the streets and there are few better ways to spend an evening sipping coffee and watching people flock by… I guess a perfect day to top up the rather rough few days.

Tomorrow is a 4 hr train ride back to the airport, but now I am just about knocking off with some mindless entertainment on TV. Believe me, 100 Dalmatians is a lot more fun in Japanese

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Hachinohe – Omiya preferably starting mid morning

Stay in Omiya for at least 20 mins

Omiya – Tokyo

Tokyo – Narita reaching narita before 2 pm.

If you know about train schedules in japan, you will know that making complex reservations is a tedious task and when posed with such constraints, things get really hairy. The feller did not bat an eyelid and started his complex punching of the numbers and consulting his big schedule bible… The best he could do after a long while was to give me a 12 min stop over at Omiya. That was not ideal for me to use the lockers and we decided to ditch the plan and carry our bags anyway… So off went the complex schedule and he took it with a smile.

Got to push my luck further, I asked him to help me find a hotel in Hachinohe. JR is a train reservation office and they have no business entertaining anything else. But the feller jumped out of his seat and after 5 minutes got me number for hotels near the station. Wow. I requested him to check for room availability and he did that too. Amazing. And all this with me not speaking a bit of Japanese and he speaking very very little English. They are really setting the standards on service excellence. Respect.

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1. One night in Omiya

Well that about sums up day 2.5 in japan. After a marathon day and night of rebelling at Fuji Rock and suffering at Omiya, at least, I am on a reserved seat to the farthest Shinkansen can take me, Hachinohe. The idea is to get a bit of shut eye on the train and if possible, seek out the peace and quiet I was so looking forward to.

We planned to get to the north end of the island yesterday, but a combination of Jenny, Natsuke and Jaime cullum delayed the proceedings a bit and later we learnt that the trains don’t run in the night and we were stuck stopping at an intermediate point, Sendai, at midnight. I brilliantly suggested that we should get off at the transfer point, Omiya, at a more godly hour of 2200. Well the idea was good but no cigar at the end. Every hotel in sight was booked to the full… We enlisted the help of helpful waiters and waitresses to call every hotel in the directory and the result was the same. More edamame consumed and more disappointment from the hotels.

We however spotted a 24 hr McDonald and after much deliberation decided to bunk there… I got a courtesy 100 jpy yogurt and as it turns out it is a literal bum hangout and the yogurt is the key for admission. Ah well, we spent hour after hour staring at each other, recalling silly seinfeld comedies and trying to see how some feller gets to sleep in the not so comfy chairs. The maintenance guy was a hoot as he made sure he woke up anyone sleeping and asked them not to spoil the business facade… People get up, take a courtesy sip of the yogurt and promptly dozed off. I was not particularly sleepy and just stayed up. The rub came at 0300 when the guy said that the place is closed. What a 24 hr joint closes? Doh…

Post mcD, we headed out for a walk into the town looking for the elusive Internet pub… It was, like I mentioned, 3 in the morning and the groggy walking around the dead streets led us no where… Well the station opened at 30 past 3 and we tired to look around across the station. The station was burning hot inside and we had to run out to the relative cool outside… We found another 24 hr mcD and that was shut down till 5. Not surprising anymore… But this side was lively with more human presence though they were primarily street walkers and pimps. Well an overall poor impression of omiya, I don’t want to diss the town but not a place I will choose to come in a pinch.

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I should say, I have never been much into contemporary music, let alone rock music and that to Japanese rock. I choose to live under the cool confines of established musicians doing their thing and follow up on the music I can appreciate… So when I look at the schedule and I cannot recognize more than 2 names, I am not disappointed. The positive is that with lack of preference, the choice becomes very easy, listen to whoever is near by, if they get too annoying, move on to the next concert…

I have mentioned earlier that the weather was more than inclement, kind of added to the atmosphere I must add, but it is difficult to figure out what to wear when one minute it is 30C and 100% humid and the next, it is raining cats and dogs. One minute, it is hot sun and the next is cool and windy. I guess I resorted to a ample choice of shorts and a buttoned shirt with a rain jacket and a bandana. It was a good choice in the end as I managed to be comfortable within reason with this combo.

Much of the music was really below par, at least in my book. They seem to go for over the top noise and extremely loud base drums to keep the energy in the crowd up, but after one hour, the music starts to look dated and in the next, it gets downright annoying. So in effect, the concert jumping turned out to be a concert escaping plan and I actually, had to spend an hour in a nice brook away from the concerts just to give my ears a break. May be the rock concerts are not really my cup of tea…

However, in between escaping concerts and walking around in pissing rain, I managed to find out a few acts that I really like.

Mutemath: this was a proper American rock group but with pretty talented members, seems to me that every one played all the instruments. The big letdown was the sound engineering, they seem to have preferred the recently married drummer and he whacked the he’ll out of his instrument and my ears are still ringing… I would try their studio albums to see if they recorded it any better. If they did, it is well worth band to follow. I did pick up their album and I should say they sound good, lote of Synth but one band I might look for new albums.

Jaga jazzist: I missed them completely, but in between walking around venues, I caught the last 10 minutes and they are a really cool band led by the drummer, the music reminds me of pat metheny group and that is a good thing.

Corinne Bailey Rae: she is a name I have heard but never followed as she got popular with the girl-singer-songwriter fad a few years ago. I got nothing against them but it was too much of a formula for me to stay interested and the corny lyrics always kept me at bay.  She had a couple of radio friendly tunes but 10 minutes into her act, I could not take it any longer… Too slow and overly soppy for me. Jaga jazzist is the kind of sophistication I look forward in music.

John butler trio: to me these guys were really the best act in the festival… An Aussie trio pretty much playing blue grass / country but with more sophistication and lot more harmony. This is band I will definitely be following up and buying albums… The guitarist / lead singer was brilliant and the drums and bass complemented well… It lacked the oomph of a jazz trio with the missing improv sections but they made it up with tons of energy and good vocals.

Jamie Cullum: what can I say, this guy is one of the fellers trying to revive big band jazz with his slick good looks and smooth vocals. He has been very radio friendly and without doubt a hit with girls all over. Anyway, he is a big name and I had nothing better to follow. So off I went. It was impressive he did a couple of covers of Beyonce and rihanna and hit them through the roof. Brilliant. And he brought a lot of energy to the staid piano playing and it was a good concert to watch. I know this guys songs and don’t buy his albums simply because it is not my kind of music but his live shows are a hoot and well worth watching.

So what next? I have had enough of rocking and rolling… As I type is, I have sold my last days ticket to a black market seller for a paltry sum and am on my way to Sendai for some peace and quiet. Rock festivals are a hoot but I don’t really think they are my cup of tea…

My buddies noted that the festival is boring because it is not rowdy enough, but I like it this way, fuji rock is great with its organization. People were generally reserved but I guess it is a Japanese thing… Most people seemed to hang around in cliques and that is common. I guess the place is too chaotic to meet someone to have a decent conversation with. Or may be I am not ‘in the scene’ and too much of an outsider to be accepted in the scene. I am alright either way, it was like a 2 day long party and I am hung over, looking for a quiet place to give my ears some respite…

I would take reserved over rowdy any day. The people I will remember are Ari, Taeko, Natsuke, Jenny and a couple of elderly gentlemen grooving in the sun and rain…

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2. 96 hrs in japan

Started as a very early day at 3 am and am now resting at 2 am the day after without much rest. It has been a marathon of checkins and outs from Sg to Narita, express ride to Tokyo, a train To echigoyuzawa followed by a bus to the naeba ski resort… The evening was very rainy and the place is muddy and wet with continuous drizzle. It was a stroke of luck we managed to get the tickets. As it turns out, we had to be here before 8pm to collect the tickets but as we should have it, we reached the venue at 11pm. The schedules were tight and that’s the best we could do. However, a kind soul keep the counter open unofficially and gave us the needed passes. Yay.

Now came the scramble to find a tent site, the place looks like a biosphere project with tents laid out every inch around and we had to climb high up to find a spot. We did manage to figure out some space but only on a slope and I am slipping and sliding as I write this, well better than nothing I’d say we had to take the long hike down for food and water in slush and mud. But it turns out alright as there is a pizza stand selling decent pizzas at pretty outrageous prices. Ah well, at least they made veggie for us. So seems like pizza diet for the next 4 days.

Met a few kids who we shared the pizza and ice cream with and followed it with some Japanese lessons, heh. But Pleasant encounters don’t ease the tiredness. So am off to sleep now among more tent builders and yak yakers next door. I hope to get a little shut eye if possible… Let’s see, may be tomorrow will be a refreshing day.

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This sounds pretty normal but what adds surprise is the presence of stubby and dense forests jumping out from the flat lands. These forests are small but dense. Really, really dense. I am not sure if enough sunlight reaches the ground. It is also surprising that the houses are built close to the forest or they are in the middle of the farm.

Seems to me that it can let the imagination run pretty wild on what might be lining in these woods. No wonder miyazaki’s (yes, the totoro guy) cartoon have a very strong influence from these backgrounds.

In fact, a close depiction of rural japan can be found in “my neighbor totoro” or in “spirited away”. The small rivers and narrow streets included. And they still exist in japan and I suppose totoro does exist too.

Update 1: I have to apologise for numerous typos before the update. The post was written on my ipod and the “smart keyboard” amended some of the words and I overlooked them

Update 2: Check out the beautiful art of Totoro at the totoro forest project. I am definitely going to buy the book when it is out. I would love to own an original art (Check out the gallery) but it may not be possible.

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