You may have noticed a distinct lack of postage on this blog recently. This is because the missus and myself were back in the UK, seeing my family. There’ll be more Japan-related posts soon(ish). In the meantime, here are some photos from our little sojourn.
Sheep. Unsurprisingly, you see lots of sheep in the Yorkshire Dales. These ones were hanging about near Leyburn.
A dry-stone wall. You see lots of these in the Dales, as well.
Wensleydale. Famous for its cheese, it’s also one of the few dales named after a village, rather than the river that runs through it.
Did you get your fill of hanami/cherry blossom photos for this year? Think you’ve got some pretty decent shots, do you? Do You? DO YOU? Well, in that case you’re in luck.
The good people over at Japan-related blog Wide Island View are running their annual (I think. Could be seasonal. Who knows?) photo contest. Three lucky scrotes will get to pick from a selection of items from White Rabbit Press – Japan’s finest purveyor of kanjified goods for the linguistically challenged.
The contest ends on 15th May, so get yer skates on and start fooling about with those contrast/colour/minger sliders in Photoshop!
This coming Sunday is shunbun no hi, or Vernal Equinox Day. Traditionally, on this day Japanese people would visit their ancestral graves and hold family reunions. These days, however, they are more likely to visit Starbucks and hold rat-like Chihuahuas.
Shunbun no hi also marks the beginning of spring. It won’t be long before coats are consigned to the wardrobe and t-shirts once again become acceptable outdoor attire. Fantastic.
For all you avid cherry-blossom watchers out there, sakura trees in Tokyo are expected to flower from the 24th March, and should be in full bloom on around the 1st April. Probably the best place for hanami (lit. “flower watching”) in Tokyo is Shinjuku Gyoen, which is pictured above in its late summer guise. It’s a tranquil green oasis in an otherwise concrete-filled desert. Yoyogi and Ueno parks are also good bets, but whatever you do, don’t bother with Inokashira Park in Kichijoji – it’s absolutely rubbish, you’d hate it.
Well, I was convinced that the snow we had earlier this month would be the first – and last – for Tokyo this year, but I woke up this morning to find yet another covering of the white stuff:
Last night’s snow was more robust than I had expected. The roof of almost every house between my home and office was covered with it this morning. The road-bound stuff didn’t fare so well, though:
Word of warning: leather-soled shoes + snow = certain death.
No more snow is forecast for the rest of the week. Chances are we won’t be seeing any more in Tokyo for the rest of the year, which is a shame. I was looking forward to seeing ‘proper’ snow, especially considering England has been having its whitest winter since 1980.
The first snow of the season has arrived here in Tokyo. Unfortunately it’s not cold enough for it to lay, which means an unpleasant trudge through slush to the train station tomorrow.
Continuing with our birthday tradition of spending a night in a fancy Tokyo hotel (see last year’s post on The Peninsula), this weekend my better half and myself stayed at the Mandarin Oriental in Nihonbashi.
Rooms are very spacious. Starting from 50m2:
The bed is a decent size:
As is the TV (a 42 incher). You can watch both Wowow and Star Channel movies in full HD, which is ace:
If it’s your birthday the hotel provides a free bowl of strawberries, which is nice. You can see the bathroom through the vertical blinds in the background. The bathroom mirror is on rails so you can move it out of the way when you want to see Tokyo from the bath:
The bathroom itself has a solid granite sink:
All the knobs and handles are polished to within an inch of their lives:
The bath is a solid granite affair. Easily big enough for two:
I filled our bath with hydrochloric acid. It cleans the pores, deep down (to the bone):
The toilet is, as you would expect, a high-tech Toto super-loo:
Features abound:
The shower has a selection of free stuff by Aromatherapy Associates. My wife assures me that their stuff is the business:
Back in the bedroom, we have a yoga mat and brolly in the cupboard:
More views of the room. Wifey can be seen sat on the sofa, exasperated by my photo-taking antics:
Rooms come fully-loaded with booze:
Snacks:
More booze:
And, erm, stationery:
Oh and you also get a pair of yukata’s and fan for poncing about the room in, feeling all imbued with the spirit of the samurai and all that guff:
We thought “Bollocks to it!” and ordered a room-service breakfast:
Green tea pancakes with maple syrup. Very nice:
And an omelette with assorted fried bits and bobs:
Finally, the view. Our room was on the 30th floor, which is the lowest. Bizarrely, the front desk is on the 38th floor, which means to get outside you have to take one lift from the 30th to the 38th floor, then get in another lift that takes you to the ground floor. Our room was facing east, towards Asakusa. There were a few cranes in the way as they’re building something next door:
Construction of Tokyo Sky Tree is well and truly in progress. The finished article will be 634 metres tall, falling some way behind the awesome Burj Khalifa:
The sumo joint:
Looking left:
Looking right:
The same view at night reveals a fancy ferris wheel:
And some very bright crane lights:
Oh and one more thing before we wrap this little photo tour up. The customer toilets on the 38th floor have a “pee on the plebs” feature which I had to take a video of (I don’t normally take videos in toilets, you understand, but this one was special):
All in all, the Mandarin Oriental Tokyo is a top-class hotel with a fantastic view, and I highly recommend it.
