Today is our last night in Japan - we leave at 6am tomorrow, for the mammoth journey home (longer than the way here, although I'm not sure how or why...). Can't wait to get home, although I will also miss this place a lot -I'm only starting to find the places where I want to be, as always, in the last couple of days..Had one of the most beautiful runs in my life yesterday morning, over the hill and up a river through the proper forest that seems to be everywhere here, although it was a bit sweaty, and also walked along the river from arashiyama, which would have been a lovely paddle if I'd been a bbit more organised - I think you can rent canoes further up the valley. Ross and i made dinner last night, as kosho's mum was away in tokyo for the night -it was a bit of a challenge finding stuff in the supermarket, to fit our needs, but we got by and had a nice chickeny thing before watching the second mtrix on the big projector - sugoi!(great). today I stayed in bed for quite a while, then did a bit of drawing before we wandered down through Toriimoto to an amazing zen garden which was built by some filmstar in the 30s - it was really peaceful, and I could have spent days there, just looking at the trees and wee buildings. I've decided that I'm totally over doors and wall and windows - sliding screens and little vereandahs are definitely the way to go guys..Lets start a revolution and knock down our (non-load bearing) walls and trust each other not to steal things, but feeling free to come in to borrow honey and flour.
maybe not, but i like the air when it's not raining, and even more so when it is raining but still hot.
well, I'll see you soon hopefully - it'll be good, and we can eat things with chopsticks and use lots of little bowls instead of silly big plates.
big love x
we went up a high building and then had dinner in a horrible american bar/restaurant, which confused Kosho's sense of identity even further - DO NOT LISTEN TO LONELY PLANET. ever. Then we got lost near the red light district in the middle of the return of the typhoon...interesting - a nice man rescued us and led us through the lightning to a train station...big bows for him... After deciding not to continue our planned night of frivolity and club going, we went to bed...
then went back to kand for dinner in a sake shop, where we experienced as close to reality as it gets in tokyo. It looked lovely from the outisde but in reality it was an amzingly grotty, greasy, dirty pub. So we started with a glass of sake (strong stuff) then had some 'food' which was all microwaved for us in front of our eyes...even the freezer was acorss the room in the bar area, next to the tv showing the japanese version of the price is right...weird, again. we then set off in search of a manga cafe, and aftfer an hour or so of fruiless walking, found one just up the road from the hotel. Even weirder than the pub - not acfe at all, but a big space full of private booths hih you rent for an hourly rate, each with a recliner a tv and a computer in them. you can read manga from their library or watch dvds, but most people use them as a cheap alternative to a hotel if they miss the last train home. that's about all their good for I think...
after another good night's sleep, we were up bright and early to see some architecture and the science museum down at the port, as well as the toyota museum, which ross loved....Then we headed back into town, and enjoyed a bit of time stiing, and each had a look round this huge bookshop. unfortunately, ross chose to do this about 25 mins before our train, on his own, while me and kosho waited outside, and he got a bit carried away and lost track of time. I had also forgotten that all of my stuff was in a locker in the staion, so wasn't that worried about time. Luckily, I realised this with 15 mins to go, and left kosho to wait for ross, and set off into the station. As soon as i went through the door, I remembered that I didn't have a clue where my locker was....and of course, I'd gone in from a different entrance than we had left from, confusing the matter even more. Luckily, i remembered how to ask where something was in japanese, and started waving my key frantically at various station staff, who were very helpful. However, tokyo station is huge,and I had to get right acorss it. I was running now, very fast, as I had realised that i didn't have any idea where ross and kosho were, having said to kosho 'I'll wait for you at the locker', very confidently... Without a phone, lost in tokyo station, in rush hour...not great, but finally I found the locker, chucked all my stuff in my bag and was just about to run off to the platform, unsure of whther ross and kosho had been to the locker already and were on the train, when I saw two very red young men sprinting towards me! we joined forces, and finally managed to locate the platform, and dived on with about a minute to spare...I'm not too sure how all the business men felt about having three very sweaty, red people pumped up on adrenaline sitting across from them, but it was a very good feeling to be there....