I left Takamatsu earlier this afternoon and I am now writing from the Shinkansen (“Bullet train”) from Okayama to Kyoto. But let’s start from the beginning. As I mentioned in my last post, I left Malaysia on the evening of August 31. Or hey, let’s start from the real beginning of my Asian travels! That would be early spring of 1975, when my parents first put me on an airplane to bring me here. I was in Japan three times as a child and once as a teenager. We usually did a bit of traveling but spent most of the time at grandma’s place down in Kitakyushushi on the southernmost major island of Japan. Last time I returned to Japan was in August 1997, when I stayed for seven months and spent most of the time working in Tokyo. When I left the country that time, I really felt like it was my second home country and I thought I would be back within a few years. And now eleven years have passed! Needless to say, returning to Japan has involved loads of nostalgia and brought back a lot of memories. Embarking the plane in KL in the late evening of August 31, realizing that almost all the passengers were Japanese, and that people around me were trying to talk the language to me, I sort of realized that I was actually on my way. And after arrival it got really emotional, experiencing all the familiar but almost forgotten little details that make up daily life in a country. The design of the airport vehicles, small elements of architecture, smells, colors of plants, trees and the earth itself, the mumbling sound of people speaking on the train in to Tokyo, the massive amount of people in busy Tokyo crossings, etc. On the first evening I went to do some sightseeing but kind of gravitated towards the areas where I lived and worked last time I was here. The crappy old house where I used to live in Azabu Juuban was replaced with something new and shiny. The pub at the corner had a new name looked completely different. The building of Salsa Sudada in Roppingi, where I worked Friday and Saturday nights for a couple of months was under total renovation. But the coin laundry where I used to wash my clothes looked exactly the way it did when I left it and so did the neighborhood playground where my parents took me as a child.
After two nights at a hostel in Asakusa, I left Tokyo for Kitakyushu-shi, the hometown of my Japanese relatives. So far I have met my grandmother, my uncle Shojiro, a couple of other relatives, and Seigo - a childhood friend of my dad who has always been very friendly and helpful to me and my brother when we have visited Kitakyushu. Seeing that city again was great! Even if it is long ago, I have actually lived and worked in Tokyo as an adult. Kitakyushu on the other hand, is to me more associated with early childhood memories. The city is about as big as my hometown Stockholm, but it really is a provincial little town in Japan, not metropolitan at all. Extremely narrow streets winding the hillsides, small old fashioned houses. Virtually no one speaks English, and the signs on the stations are all in Japanese. Traditional homes with sliding doors, tatami floors and all the other little details that come with it.
I stayed at Khao San Tokyo, a hostel in Asakusa that seems to have borrowed a little from the Japanese capsule hotels. My "room" is where the light is on, to the left in the picture. The accommodation actually sucked, but I am used to that and I have seen much worse. And the price was manageable, 2 500 Yen. Plus a lot of laid back and nice people to meet in the reception/living room down stairs.
Asakusa is known for budget accommodation, traditional crafts shops and the big temple, Senso-ji. You are supposed to reach the temple thru a long shopping lane where all sorts of traditional and modern souvenirs are sold. But if you are not into shopping, it is nicer to approach it thru one of the back streets instead.
Senso-ji pagoda. Main entrance to the right in the picture.
I dropped by the 45th floor lobby bar of the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Roppongi. The view towards Shinjuku was nice, the coffee tasted good and the service was excellent. But the bill for a double espresso was almost the same as a night at my hostel...
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