We’re relaying the bedrock

My initial plan for my second day in the Kansai region was to head down to the temples complexes at Ise (Shinto’s holiest site, containing the sacred mirror of Amaterasu) and/or Kōya-san (Shingon Buddhism’s holiest site, reckoned to be the spot where Miroku Buddha will return to Earth to collect the faithful), but after much train timetable browsing I realised that both would entail around eight hours of travel for two hours of sightseeing. Not wishing to spend any more of my limited time in Japan on a train than necessary, I instead went out to the far more easily-accessible city of Nara (奈良; a former Japanese capital that predates even Kyōto).

Upon arrival, I joined the throngs making their way over to the temple complex of Tōdaiji (東大寺) and did my best to avoid both the worst of the crush and the hungry deer. Like Miyajima, Nara is infested with Sika deer (Cervus nippon) who hang around waiting for people to feed them (one reportedly ate a traveller’s JR Pass). This led to many comic scenes as children of various nationalities got frightened by them, ran away, got chased, got rescued by parents and then tried to eat the deer biscuits themselves.

The main hall of the temple is gigantic, and so I walked around to the picturesque mountain just behind it to get a better photograph. However, the it turned out to be closed for redevelopment (how do you close a whole mountain for redevelopment?) and the only things there were a few hopeful-looking deer. On my return to Kyōto, I took a very roundabout route back to the hostel and hiked the mountain just behind Kiyomizudera – I had been hoping for a panoramic view of the city at sunset, but was met only with dense stands of cedar.

 

Fox news

Although I’ve been to Kyōto (京都) twice before, I wasn’t about to pass such a rich concentration of Japanese culture by and so decided to take a couple of days to see some of the things I hadn’t had time to in previous visits (it also made a convenient stopping point between Hiroshima and Mt. Fuji). I based myself in the north-west of the city (determined more by where had vacancies during the busy New Year period than by where was best-placed for the sights I wanted to see), and so had a lot of walking (and hence exploring) to do. I struck out early in the morning, and immediately stumbled quite by chance up on a small shrine dedicated to good departures and safe journeys. I made an offering to keep me safe on my way back to Amy in Canada, and continued on my whirlwind sightseeing tour.

I breezed through several of Kyōto’s lesser-visited temples and shrines in relatively short order, all of them frantically setting up stalls, decorations and signs for tomorrow night’s New Year (c)rush. These preparations aside, they were mostly quiet and serene (I surmised that all the tourists were out at the bigger name attractions such as the Gold and Silver Pavillions), and I was able to explore the plethora of torii, altars and incense virtually unobstructed. The peace even extended down to the river, and I saw my first wild kingfisher (probably Alcedo atthis) – though it was much too wary for me to photograph.

The last place on my list for the day was the Fushimi Inari Taisha (伏見稲荷大社), head shrine of Inari (the Shinto god of fertility, rice and foxes to name but a few areas of influence). What makes this shrine unique is the sheer number of donated torii and the (over)abundance of kitsune (fox) statues – great photographic opportunities abound, and are seized by every visitor with a camera. I wandered around until dark, and scuttled off just before dark lest my gloves not provide enough protection (among other magical abilities, kitsune can possess people by entering the body under the fingernails, but it’s usually young women that are chosen as victims).

 

A bit dodgy

For only the second time ever, Japan Railways let me down and brought me to Hiroshima around 30 minutes late (a 2-minute change turned out to be just not feasible, putting tomorrow’s 1-minute change in doubt). With all accommodation unexpectedly booked up for the next few days, I hit the nearest manga/internet café, settled into a plush reclining chair with the usual array of free drinks and quickly discovered that: i) there was a dirty lino floor rather than a comfy mat; ii) the lights were not going to be dimmed overnight; and iii) people browsing the internet make a lot of noise. I therefore slept quite fitfully, but sufficiently to explore the city for the third time.

Unfortunately, it being a Monday, most of the non-atomic-bombing-related attractions were closed and I spent most of my time in the vicinity of the Peace Park. It turns out that there’s an abandoned baseball stadium just over the road from the A-Bomb Dome, which would also have been interesting had there not been far too many people around to make an entry feasible. The Peace Park, as expected, was largely unchanged save perhaps for a few more paper crane wreaths, but the Peace Memorial Museum had acquired a few new items from the time of the bombing. There were also a couple of temporary exhibits – themed artwork from survivors (highly disturbing) and the winners of an international children’s painting/poster competition (surprisingly Obama-heavy).

With a little time to spare before presenting myself at a Wikitravel-recommended capsule hotel (in a part of the city ominously described by the tourist-office-approved map as “a bit of a dodgy area”), I hiked over to the hills on the northern edge of town where a large stupa had been erected as a memorial from the people of India and Mongolia. It reportedly contains some of the Buddha’s ashes, along with artefacts from the victims of the bombing.

 

One does not simply ski into Mordor

As I was walking from the smoking crater of Mt. Naka (中岳) towards the less-active Mt. Eboshi (烏帽子岳) (a possible inspiration for Lady Eboshi in Princess Mononoke), I happened across an abandoned ski field. While ski slopes clearly don’t rate as highly as hotels or amusement parks, the place was still interesting and (given the rate of decay) had clearly been abandoned for some time.

The chair lift, severe rust aside, was more or less intact, though the chairs had all been piled inside the main building (presumably when the place was closed down,to prevent them falling off). All the rental equipment – skis, boots, sledges, clothing and so on – was still stacked neatly on the shelves, and the offices seemed to be completely intact (even down to tea-making equipment). It looked as though the place had been abandoned almost overnight, with no effort made to salvage anything useful or even retain the business records. I didn’t have enough time to check the place out properly, but it was a superb addition to an already fascinating day.

 

Aso

For the second time (thought thankfully not consecutively), I spent a significant fraction of Christmas Day sitting on a train. My decision to use the Seishun 18 ticket (designed for travellers rich in time but not in money) meant that Japan’s high-speed rail system was denied to me, and I therefore had to go from place to place on the long-distance equivalent of the subway. However, what is lost in speed is more than made up for by gains in experience of small-town Japan and opportunities to practice travel phrases (e.g. “Excuse me, but does this train go to Aso?”).

My current place of writing is a large volcanic caldera right in the middle of Kyūshū – Aso-Kujū National Park. I arrived in the afternoon to intermittent rain and low cloud, and found a warm welcome at what I can confidently say is the best hostel I have ever stayed at in all my years of travelling. Should you ever come down to Aso (and by all accounts you should), I recommend you stay at Base Backpackers – it’s all pine floors, an open fire, squeaky-clean surfaces and an extensive library (including The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings – clearly volcano-inspired – and one of my favourite mangas, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind) when the weather forces people indoors. In fact, it’s so good I’m going to create accounts on hostel booking websites just so I can leave it a glowing review.

Although the rain which greeted me in Aso had stopped sometime overnight, a thick layer of low cloud still hung over the peaks and I began to worry that the higher areas would be completely obscured by impenetrable fog. As I began my walk, however, sections of blue sky gradually appeared through breaks in the cloud and by the time I reached the base of the mountain I was forced to stop and dig my sunglasses out of my pack. The ascent to the lower cable car station was a relatively uncomplicated, if tiring, affair – though steep in sections, there is an asphalt path the whole way and it would be very difficult to get lost. The path wound its way around the folded slopes of Mt. Naka (中岳), cutting through fields of golden grasses and patches of volcanic soil, and deposited me around two hours after I left the hostel just underneath the smoking crater.

I immediately set off on the steep path to the viewing area, keeping a eye on the plumes of smoke lest the wind should change and fumigate me with whatever the volcano was belching out that day. As soon as I set foot in the upper car park, officials in gas masks cleared everyone out due to worsening conditions and I had to return to the lower station to see if the poisonous gas levels would drop. Things were declared safe after about half an hour, and this time I paid for the cable car ride to the summit in case I spent half an hour walking up there only to be turned back again (though I was fortunate that the crater was open at all – presumably if the wind is blowing towards the approach road nobody can get up at all).

Only one section had been reopened as I stepped out of the gondola, and I walked up to get a look across the crater rim, the far side mostly obscured by the white clouds billowing up. The main viewing area was reopened shortly afterwards, and there was a small stampede as everybody who had been waiting around rushed up to get a good spot. This resulted in a mass coughing fit as they ran straight into the volcanic fumes, leaving the people who’d waltzed up at a more sedentary pace smirking in acclimatised satisfaction. While the wind was blowing away from us, we could see all the way down to an ill-looking pool of lurid green water, tendrils of white smoke constantly streaming from the surface. Yellow sulphur deposits lined the edges, and the constant smell of old eggs announced the presence of hydrogen sulphide (H₂S) in the smoke, along with some steam (H₂O), sulphuric acid (H₂SO₄) and sulphur oxides (SO_x).

After a short while alternately freezing and choking, I turned back to see what other areas I could explore. One of the other viewing areas was still (and perhaps permanently) fenced off, but I was able to go along a boardwalk across a wasted area of volcanic sand (not unlike the Desolation of Smaug, to continue the Tolkien theme) before dropping back down to the lower area. I followed the bus-choked road between some of the other peaks, past an old ski slope (more on that later) and eventually to Kusasenri (草千里), one of the best-loved places in Japan if the tourist literature is to be believed. A small, almost symmetrical, cone stands in the midst of lakes and lush grasses (in summer, at least), overshadowed by the craggy might of Mt. Eboshi (烏帽子岳) and Mt. Naka a little farther off.

With the sun now a mere hand’s breadth above the horizon (the sheer walls of the caldera, around 10 km away), I couldn’t afford the time to check out the nearby crater lakes of Mt. Kijima, but did climb about halfway up to see Mt. Naka lit by the warmer late afternoon light. From this vantage point, I managed to find a shortcut back to the footpath along the old ski slope (now colonised by cattle), and walked down at an incredible rate to get back o the hostel just after dark.

 

Winter to autumn

After a few days of major stress and running around, Amy and I had completed the process of posting, selling, recycling or leaving behind all of our possessions. We had an all-too-brief few days together, and then reluctantly separated for what will be more than two months. While Amy is allowed to leave her job early and still receive her holiday pay, I am not and therefore have to return to Korea in February on pain of losing two month’s salary. I decided to use this holiday efficiently and return to the UK to see my family (which I would otherwise have to do after leaving Korea, making my arrival in Canada even later), taking a side trip to Japan in the process.

Hakata Port felt curiously familiar as I stepped off the jetfoil onto blessedly solid ground, but almost immediately asserted its authority as I was subjected to the most thorough customs search I’ve ever had (the officials went through everything – flipped through my books, squeezed my toothpaste, searched every pocket in every item of clothing, questioned me at length about my medical kit ["Are you a doctor?"], went through my passport [Why were you in South Africa? What about Mozambique?"] and got rice cracker crumbs all over the inside of my bag – but failed to find my laptop.). I finally got to a nice little hostel that wasn’t here the last time I was, about three hours after my ferry docked.

Fukuoka isn’t considered a very large city, but I certainly felt the distances as I spent a day walking around the major temples, shrines and parks (all separated by several miles). One thing I wasn’t expecting was the temperature – from -10 °C in Seoul, I was going to +20 °C – within a few minutes I had removed my jacket and was seriously considering shorts. The clement weather meant that I was experiencing a pleasant late autumn again, complete with fiery trees and the occasional insect.

 

ARK Asan shelter December 2009

For my final trip to the Asan shelter with Animal Rescue Korea, I made it a point to spend lots of time with my favourite animals and also dropped off a prototype insulated water container. One problem with keeping the animals outside over Korea’s severe winters is that the water in their containers freezes solid and has to be replaced (rather than just topped up) every day. One of the other volunteers thought that we could perhaps get solar-heated containers to reduce the amount of time staff have to spend breaking ice, but due to the low solar flux in the animal pens (most are under tree cover) I felt that they would not be practical. On the other hand, if we constructed a large vacuum-tube array in the lower field then we could probably heat all the water containers and the sleeping areas as well…

Lacking the time and money to build a large system, I jammed a plastic box inside a slightly larger polystyrene box, and then knocked together a wooden frame to protect it. This would prevent warm water from freezing so quickly (ideally not at all), potentially speeding up the daily water deliveries. I also added a lid so that heat loss could be reduced at night, but didn’t paint it black (to maximise solar heat gain) in case the dogs decided to chew it. You may have noticed that I basically constructed a cool-box, and if this trial is successful then ARK will probably buy a few cheap ones for winter watering.

We also had a couple of new arrivals – an Akita and a German Shepherd, both from the US military base at Yongsan. Having come from a good home, they were both extremely shy and depressed from being stuck in cages but we managed to get the German Shepherd out for a walk. As we were wrapping things up, the other volunteers surprised me with an ice cream cake for the time and effort I’d put in to ARK over the past year – no more than anyone else, but it was a wonderful gesture.

 

How to propose marriage through the medium of board games

As regular readers will have no doubt worked out, Amy and I have been an item for quite some time. We met almost three years ago, and have shared plenty of ups, downs, new experiences and geographical separations during our time in Korea. This phase of our lives is now coming to an end (next week!), and we’re going to be moving to Canada to start the next one together.

I had this in mind when I decided to propose at the weekend – we’ve talked about marriage and our future together quite a lot, so it didn’t take Amy completely by surprise, but I hope it was at least original and pleasantly unexpected. There are a lot of time-honoured (also known as clichéd) ways to ask someone to spend the rest of their life with you, but I really wanted to do something both relationship-appropriate and novel. I hit upon the idea of using a board game, partly inspired by a discussion on the Board Game Geek website, partly for the opportunity to be creative and partly because the Settlers of Catan Card Game is one of our favourite games to play together.

A “Wedding” card does exist in the Catan series, but in the original game and in an expansion set that we don’t have. I therefore resolved to get a unique card made, and fired off a speculative e-mail to the good folks at Mayfair Games (who distribute Catan in North America). Unfortunately, they don’t do individual orders (though they liked the idea) and I was left with the simple yet time-consuming task of scanning an existing card, altering the text and finding some appropriate artwork. You can see the results on the left.

I made a bit of a slip-up with the card printing – it ended up on glossy photo paper (the cards are matt), and the colours did not match very well (too dark and saturated, a common problem when taking RGB images and printing in CMYK). However, it looked pretty good and I took the opportunity to sneak it into one of the draw piles when Amy went to make a cup of tea (at my request). In the Catan Card Game, players renew their hands of cards from five draw piles in front of them, and begin the game by searching one pile. I didn’t know when Amy would get to the pile with the special card in it, and took it as a good sign when she picked it first (though I had shortened the odds a little by winning the initial roll and picking a different one). She read it and re-read it, presumably not quite sure what to make of it, and I interrupted by taking her hands and telling her why I wanted us to get married.

As you may have guessed, she accepted and I produced a small box from under the sofa. It contained a rather tasteful and environmentally friendly engagement ring from GreenKarat, who specialise in lower-impact jewellery. If anybody is interested, it’s made of post-consumer recycled gold and lab created alexandrite (which changes colour depending on the lighting conditions), using ecologically sound refining and bench practices. The box is made of recycled paper embedded with wildflower seeds, and packed with natural moss and biodegradable cornstarch.

With our engagement official, we contacted friends and family to break the news and didn’t even get the game started (which would probably have ended with Amy winning anyway). Our wedding plans – which have been simmering away in the background for several months now – can now be talked about in less hypothetical terms, so look out for your invites in the next few months (it’s in June).

 

ARK Asan shelter November 2009

Over a month had passed since I last went down to the Asan shelter with Animal Rescue Korea, and so I made it a point to go and see how the animals were doing while Amy was off in Shanghai. The weather has been bitterly cold recently, and we spent some time breaking the ice on the water containers and adding bedding (there are plans to introduce solar water heaters to prevent icing, but given the shelter’s forest setting I’m not sure if they’ll work very well). All the dogs got some exercise, thanks mostly to an enormous turn-out, but the high passage of animals through the same areas also meant a higher incidence of fights (there were no injuries though). Two of the dogs I took out managed to outwit me, viz. Goliath (the large German Shepherd) did a zig-zag in front of me so that I tripped over her on her way back (as soon as I started to lose my balance, she ran and attacked another dog) and Kiska (an Alaskan Malamute) who managed to pull out of her collar (her pen-mate, a black Labrador, recently escaped by burrowing under the fence).

All things considered, the place was looking a lot better than it did the last time I was there – a lot of small construction projects are getting done, and the food has improved a lot. There were a few new kittens and puppies, surprisingly late in the season, and all are hoping that they get adopted before full winter comes around.

 

Inspired by Jaffa

Almost before we knew it, full autumn and Amy’s birthday were upon us, and with them a flurry of delicious food. One of our favourite snacks from the UK is the humble Jaffa cake, and so (inspired by the entertaining Pimp That Snack) I attempted to create a larger and more cakelike version using a basic sponge cake, orange reduction and dark chocolate icing. As things turned out, I had far too much cake mix and we ended up with a towering three-layer affair that was nonetheless delicious.

On Amy’s birthday itself, I scoured the local shops for Japanese ingredients (very little doing, other than wasabi), and had a go at making vegetable sushi. Despite the decades of training required before Japanese chefs are allowed to do anything other than count rice grains, I managed to produce a few decent rolls including an inside-out one. There was a small crisis when I arrived to Amy’s apartment to discover that we had disassembled our sushi rolling mat while trying to make a dice tower, but I made do with Amy’s paintbrush roll wrapped in cling film.

Just as we were about stuffed with rice and seaweed, a whole host of Amy’s friends descended on the apartment and we began the serious task of making chocolate-dipped biscotti. This took several hours, during which we finished off the excellent wines we got from Pieroth in anticipation of their December sale.

The following weekend, with the ginkgo trees dropping their leaves like rain, I went on one of my regular wanders around the hills of Yongin. Once again, some local ring-necked pheasants (Phasianus colchicus karpowi) almost gave me a heart attack with their habit of hiding in the undergrowth until one approaches within 2″, at which point they fly up with a great clatter of wings and escape. We made cinnamon rolls upon my return.