Even though I am a little behind on the blog, I absolutely love doing it. My blog is now reaching many people across the world that I have never met. I have recently had a number of people email me, some to compliment me on my art and others to ask questions about teaching in Japan. It’s a pleasure to help people to hopefully achieve their dreams as I live mine. Today, I even received an email from a former teacher of my school (she taught here about 10 years ago) who coincidently just stumbled across my blog, it was a lovely thought of her to drop me an email.

It’s made me realise how much I regret not writing a blog/art for my travels in South America and even just less adventurous times like university and college. Although my most recent piece of art is not relevant to Japan, I still wanted to share it with you all. It’s for a good friend I met whilst in Peru, he commissioned a small piece of art for his home in Hawaii. Of course I chose to paint the most iconic image of Peru, Machu Pichu. John, I know you religiously read my blog so I hope you liked this one-off piece for you. You never know one day it may be worth a penny of two (a girl can dream) so keep hold of it.

Machu Pichu - A painting for John a friend in Hawaii

Back to Japan, and this blog is about the weirdest thing I have done in Japan yet. When I thought about coming to Japan I was aware that I would not be tucking into a delicious Sunday roast smothered in gravy for a long while, but more like fish, more fish, rice and some more rice! What I didn’t expect was one of Japans greatest dining specialities: themed restaurants.

In England, when you hear of themed restaurants, you will probably think the likes of hardrock café and TGI Fridays, but Japan has this and more. Look past the sushi and this is Japans second greatest dining speciality. From medical prisons to maid cafes, opera houses to Disney restaurants, Tokyo is exploding with quirky, bizarre, laughable dining experiences.

You can be served by ninjas or dine in an Alice and Wonderland themed restaurant. But Ali opted for Alcatraz ER, a medical prison themed restaurant. This is the granddad of all themed restaurants, the original, the trend setter. I honestly couldn’t tell whether it was meant to be a prison, a hospital, a medieval dungeon who knows! But it added to the eccentric appeal, and accentuated the fact that Japan is crazy!!!

Upon arrival, you have to state your blood type to enter. Once we confirmed our booking with a rather skankily dressed nurse she grabbed Mary, put her in some sort of machine which categorised her as unquestionably crazy, handcuffed her and led us to our cell! We were already in fits of laughter. We were given our medication (nuts and rice crackers in a polystyrene cup), a menu to browse and instructed to bang on the cell bars with a metal bar for service.  

Our cell for the evening!

The aesthetics are actually rather good, the cells are dark and dingy, blood is smeared up the walls, jars of embalmed body parts line the shelves and you even walk over a rather convincing disembowelled body under the floor. Not even the toilets were able escape a make-over.

Heads were often thrown into your cell or a container for a cocktail. 

You can order a range of dishes from penis sausage to titty rice, dead chicken in a cage to blue curry, all of which arrive in metal surgeon dishes used during operations. The drinks are also inaptly named; our choices included pussy juice (which comes with a vibrator), sperm, beer which arrived in a urine test bottle and a peach cocktail in a baby bottle.

Once you become as comfortable as you can be whilst sat in a small cramped cell it got interesting. Suddenly, with no warning, the lights went out, a loud siren started wailing, and the strobe lighting began. Then queue the escaped psychopathic prison convicts, dressed in a variety of costumes including clowns, shrieking and screaming whilst running around looking for a victim and throwing plastics heads at you.

The most bizzare moment though happens at the end, the nurses and psychopaths all walk around with massive fake sundaes with Christmas lights and sparklers all over them, whilst a Disney sound track blares loudly. There is no explanation, this is Japan and this is a themed dining experience…

The break out! The majority of the "show" was in the
dark so sorry for the poor photo quality! 

The cells! 

The food is not five star but it’s another thing ticked of the “things to do in Japan” list! 

I have lots of experiences to blog, I am trying to catch up... promise! My life is just super exciting and jam packed right now!

Thanks for reading! 

Marion

2^nd August was our final day in and around Kyoto, so what better way to explore the city than by bike. Usually bike hire in Kyoto costs roughly 1000 Yen (£6.50) a day to hire, but our hostel was offering a day’s hire for a mere 500 Yen! Bargain! Its such a good way to get around!

Our first stop was Fushimi Inari Shrine, which has ancient origins predating to the capitals move to Kyoto in 794. Fushimi Inari is a National Heritage site and the most important of several thousand Shinto shrines dedicated to Inari, the Shinto god of rice. Inari shrines are instantly recognizable by a pair of foxes which keep guard at the entrance. Capable of changing shape and vanishing in an instant, foxes are sacred in Japanese mythology and are said to be messengers for the goddess.

Painting of one of the foxes near the entrance of Fushimi Inari Shrine 

The central complex alone is beautiful and certainly worth exploring, at the very back of the shrines main ground is the entrance to the torii gate covered hiking trail. The trail begins with two dense parallel rows of gates call Senbon Torii (“thousands of torii gates”), it is this image that always features in many Japanese guide books. Looking down through the torii gates and these iconic aisles of torii gates appear endless. There are tens of thousands of vibrant, vermillion arches which form a path that winds through a forest and up the mystic and sacred Mount Inari.  

The Romon Gate stands at the entrance of the main complex

The Inari deity (god) is well known as the god of agriculture and business. As such, Fushimi Inari Shrine is frequented by businesses and businessmen and women praying for success. The torii gates are donations by individuals and companies in hope that it will bring them good fortune, costs start from roughly 400 000 Yen (£2500) for a small sized gate and increases to over one million Yen (£6400) for a large gate. You will find each torii bears the name of its donor on the left and the date sponsored on the right. Some torii are ancient and in need of repair, whilst others are more recent indicating that this religion is still very much alive today.

Senbon Torii - the entrance to the hiking trail

Torii Gates

One of the many sub-shrines on the trail

You can’t say you have properly visited Fushimi Inari Shrine until you have made the 2 hour trek up and around Mount Inari. As you venture further along the trail, not only do the torii become less dense, but so do the people, making the journey quiet and peaceful. On the way up there are numerous sub-shrines, each are graced by the presence of a fox and many ornamental sized torii (bought by those with a few less pennies than the high flying businessmen), a few tea houses are also dotted about. Visitors are free to walk as much as they wish before turning back; many will stop at the Yotsutsuji intersection (about a 40 minute walk) which offers beautiful views of Kyoto city.   

The trail is often frequented by dog walkers, joggers and pilgrims all year round and it was lovely to be greeted with a hearty konnichiwa as they pass.

We did the full hike, the shrine and the tens of thousands of torii are impressive, beautiful and serene. We really enjoyed spending the morning here although it appeared that Tom and James had both taken sweating to another level. It was extremely humid and hot all day!

A very busy Nishiki Market

Mini octopus with eggs inside

Next we cycled along the river and headed towards central Kyoto to see what the city centre had to offer. 

I wanted to visit the Nishiki Market, as it was a must see in my guide book. It is a narrow long shopping street lined with hundreds of shops and restaurants. Known as “Kyoto’s Kitchen” this lively food market sells all the weird and wonderful culinary delights that Kyoto is famous for. 

We tasted many delicious and not so delicious samples, we call it food roulette. I particularly enjoyed the dry chilli shrimp. I've heard that many of the stores have been running in the same family for many many generations. It was great to see a thriving market which is  very much a central part of many locals lives. 

Finally, after a pit stop for some delicious but expensive frozen yoghurt, we cycled to Gion, Kyoto’s most famous geisha district. It is filled with restaurants, shops and ochaya (tea houses) where geiko (Kyoto dialect for geisha) and maiko (geiko apprentices) entertain. Many of the streets maintain their traditional wooden frontage, the most popular is Hanami-koji Street which accommodates many restaurants and the most exclusive and expensive ochaya (teahouses).

I was very lucky to catch a glimpse of a geiko on her way to prepare for an engagement at an ochaya that evening. As to respect her I tried to keep my distance so that she could carry on her day-to-day life, however many tourist act like ruthless paparazzi resulting in an increase in complaints in recent years.

A Geiko on her way to prepare for an engagement at an ochaya that evening

Overlooking the river

After a long and sweaty day, Tom, Ali and Mary wearily cycled home. Giant and I explored the area a little more. We had a little wonder around nearby Yasaka Shrine and Kenninji Temple, took a brief stop along the river to take in the beautiful views, and made several stops in shops to sample Yatsuhashi. Yatsuhashi is a small sweet famous in Kyoto. It is soft thin squares of cinnamon scented mocha (sticky rice) dough, folded into triangles and filled with a sweet paste such as azuki bean, apricot jam etc. Scrumptious!

Finally, Giant and I headed to the hostel to de-sweat and scrub up for our final night together. We headed back to Gion for Shabu-Shabu and a wonder round the city at night. It was lovely and romantic, until we went to purchase some pudding in a small convenience shop and some tramp in the queue weed all over the floor. Delightful!  

Shabu-Shabu in a small restaurant in the Gion district 

On that note, this bought our trip to a close; shattered we fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow. Saturday was spend slowly making our way back to Numazu on the local train (it took over 8 hours due to a problem on the track) and our final super at Hamazushi (a chain sushi restaurant).

I loved planning the trip and those of you who know me will know that it was of course run with military precision. Everyone very kindly bought me a lovely yukata (traditional summer garment worn at festivals) to show their appreciation.  It was perfect for Ito summer festival for two reasons, firstly I could wear my very own yukata and blend into the crowds, secondly, it was a great blanket for when I missed the last train home and had to spend the night on a public bench and in McDonalds.

This post brings our main summer trip to an end, and I really hope you have enjoyed my blog posts. My next post will be about our evening in a themed restaurant in Tokyo!!!

Marion