A few days later...

Phew - well alright, its been a few days but I'm ready to update the blog once again. I went to the Tokyo International Anime Fair on the 20th/21st, held at Tokyo Big Sight - it was very, very busy. There were exihibits from all the main anime studios/production houses - as well as some universities and colleges. The first day wasn't as busy as the second - more events happened the second day. There were models dressed up as characters posing for photos and handing out fliers/swag. The event its self wasn't that great, but there were plenty of cool people and things to look at.

On Sunday the 22rd Bryan, Michael and myself went up to Nikko - a small shrine village, full of history. Bryan and Michael are both from California, really nice guys. It was overcast and rain was coming and going - but nothing more than a gentle shower. The clouds looked cool over the mountains, and fog was present most of the time, making for a few good photos. We got into Nikko and wandered around for a while, looking for a post office to get some cash. We walked the length of the town, then half way back before we found one - we then went to eat at Skylark. After eating we went back up to the "Shinkyo" bridge, It was a very scenic view from the side. We had no real path while walking up the mountian, but we encountered several temples and shrines. Most attractions were closed due to the weekend, but it was still a very nice trip. On the way back Bryan bought a bottle of sake and we drank it on the train. Thats one thing about Japan I've learned - it is perfectly socially acceptable to drink in public... no one will stop you or even give notice to you. So long as you behave (which we did, it wasn't really strong stuff), you're not even viewed as a nussiance.

Today (Monday the 23rd), Bryan, Michael and myself went up to Mitaka to visit the Ghibli animation museum. We had to get tickets so we went to the Lawson near the train station, but they were sold out. We went anyway, thinking we could get them there. We wandered around for like an hour in Inogashira park, looking for the museum. We found it and asked the attendant if we could buy tickets, but he said that we had to get them before we arrived in the country - or a the lawson. Dejected we stood around for a while, then started back to the train. We had got about 100 feet away when the attendant chased me down and said that we could get tickets! He took my name, and wrote a voucher for us then directed us back to the nearest lawson to pick them up - said it was a "very special" case - and to keep it discreet. We were pretty happy about it, so we went to get our tickets and went on in. The Ghibli museum is very very well designed, every detail is attended to. The exhibits were intricate and interesting (unfortunentaly we were prohibited from taking pictures, but we got a few in the areas we were allowed to). After the museum we headed down to Tokyo station where Bryan split off from Michael and myself to go to Sendai - we continued to Kamakura.

In Kamakura we saw the Daibutsu or "Great buddha". We walked from the train station about 2 km, and made it to the shrine area. The buddha was huge, 11.3 meters tall, cast of bronze - weighing 12 tons. After taking photos we went down to a temple garden and walked up a mountain to a viewing point. Kamakura is an ocean town, so the view was very nice. It was getting late and we were hungry so we started walking back towards the station. We stopped at a yakitori stand and got some grilled chicken, it was tasty. We messed up the train to tokyo so we had to transfer a few times to get back to our respective hostels, but we both got back in good time.

Anyway, we plan to go to Nagoya tomorrow, see Nagoya castle and stay in a capsule inn. Hopefully it'll be a good time.

Pictures of Nikko, Ghibli and Kamakura