Kaihin Makuhari

It has been a beautiful day here in Chiba. Lovely blue skies with a fresh autumnal wind blowing. I ambled to a cheap restaurant for lunch and was impressed once again at the great value for money my lunch represented. Perhaps I should have taken a picture......

Despite my contentment, feelings of unease regarding Kaihin Makuhari are always close to the surface. I have come to 2 recent conclusions why I dislike the place so much:

1. The place is so contrived, I feel like a character in SimCity. Nothing has been left to chance with the result being an almost perfect reproduction of a town planner's brain fart. No charm, no excitement, no beauty. Although I have never been much a fan of the Japanese built environment, at least some of the older areas of Tokyo display some form of character or variery. Kaihin Makuhari reminds me of a long road in the Australian outback........constant monotony.2. Permanence. Simply put, there is none. One excuse for the parcity of visible history is the fact that many parts of Japan were levelled by American bombers during the closing stages of WWII. This is an excuse that doesn't sit well with me. In most parts of Japan, I have rarely seen buildings in excess of 30 years old. Another excuse is the number of destructive earthquakes in Japan, the world's most tectonically active country. However, if some wooden buildings in Kyoto or Nara can survive hundreds of years, their is no excuse not to have other architectural relics or treasures. There is good reason why Kaihin Makuhari does not possess old buildings - the area is on land mostly reclaimed from the sea. However, I do not believe any of the houses or office buildings will be here in 50 years time. Japan is a land of disposable buildings which are intentionally built with limited life-spans.

The lack of permanence or continuity doesn't sit well with me (or I suspect other people, even perhaps the Japanese). In Britain or other countries, I find it reassuring to know that not all things in life change at breakneck speed or immediately disappear. It is good to have a connection with the past and to know that the buildings you use and see today were once used by scores of previous generations. By the same degree, it is comforting to know that when we are all gone, many of the places we know today will survive unchanged.

That's one of the problems with Japan - the past is lost and the future will show no trace of your existence. Generations go their way with history confined to the life-spans of living people. The country is all the poorer for it.

Skye News

The Isle of Skye has been in the news a lot recently for both good and bad reasons. Last week the new Royal Navy attack submarine HMS Astute grounded on shingle near the Skye bridge. This is the second grounding of a nuclear submarine off Skye in 7 years. Although many would not agree, I always enjoyed seeing the submarines off the island when I was a boy. I remember great excitement seeing these sinister shapes anchored off the Black Rock in the Sound of Raasay. The waters off Skye are frequently used by Navy submarines for testing and torpedo practice and Loch Portree is actually termed a Z-berth which is deemed suitable for use in the event of a reactor problem. Z-berths are generally placed in areas with great water depth, just like the waters off Portree and in the Sound of Raasay. HMS Astute now appears to be heading back to Faslane to lick her wounds and bring the Captain closer to his court martial. And on a lighter note, I see that Skye has been voted one of Europe's the best island holiday destinations in a survey performed by Conde Nast. That's not really a great surprise to be honest. There are few nicer places than Skye when the sun is shining......unfortunately that is not a common occurence.

And that's about that. Tokyo is now much darker in the evenings as the winter draws in and temperatures are now around 15C. I will soon have to change to my winter futon and plug in my kotatsu table to keep me warm in my pied a terre in Makuhari. Until the next time.........

A Pleasant Lunch

Clara and I had a very pleasant lunch together on Saturday at the frequently visited Popolamama Italian restaurant in Kumegawa. Nice food in a comfortable setting, at a very reasonable price.

I like spending quality time with Clara and take great pleasure in seeing her grow up. Can't wait to see what she will be like when she is 20. Time passes at breakneck pace so I should not have long to wait until that day.

We both ordered our favourite lunch. I went with the tomato and garlic spaghetti whilst Clara chose her favourite called tarako spaghetti. As can be seen from the link, Clara's lunch option is mixed with cod roe. It must be a pretty healthy dish to eat and Clara loves it. I'm a bit squeemish when it comes to fish and Clara always takes great effort in trying to convince me try her spaghetti. I always say that perhaps I will try it next time.

Clara reads and collects a Japanese manga series called Doraemon. There are about 45 in the series and there are only a few which she is now missing. Yesterday I was lucky to find number 23. As Clara is such a book worm, she immediately started reading and managed to finish it in no time. I will now try and find the remaining few books to complete her collection.

Another week beckons. I will try and live quietly as I am sure the end of this year will be busy with birthdays, Christmas and a couple of other events.....I will keep you posted. The blog has been a bit quiet recently so I will try and be a bit more prolific in November and December.

Kinugawa Onsen

We all paid a brief visit to Kinugawa Onsen and stayed overnight at the Mikazuki Hotel. The principal reason for our visit was to take an onsen and let the waters do their magic.

The hotel was nice, although the room was slightly disappointing. It generally felt a bit Butlinesque as it was clearly designed to cater for the masses. And masses there were....oh the humanity! Humpf....not exactly the laid back break I had imagined, but nice nonetheless.

In no particular order, the highlights of our brief trip were:

• The hotel's chocolate fountain to which Clara made several visits due to her sweet tooth.
• The onsen - nice and not too busy.
• The walk over a suspension bridge to a pinnacle overlooking the area.
• The boat trip which we took down the river.

Ok, Actually, when I come to think of it, the boat trip was definately the highlight of the visit. The peace and tranquility of our 30 minutes glide down the Kinugawa River was soothing to a soul at odds with the Tokyo urban nightmare. Even just a small taste of the countryside was enough and an added bonus was that the town planning mess and decay called Kinugawa Town was hidden from view by the high valley sides. The gentle breeze and blue skies contributed to a feeling of contentment. I may have to change career and gain employment as a boatman on the Kinugawa River - it was that nice.

On the way back to Tokyo, I snoozed in the car trying to catch up on sleep which I had lost over the previous week. I was feeling really tired as I had only slept about 12 hours over a 4 day period - I won't go into details.... Around lunchtime on our drive back to Tokyo, Yuki's brother suggested we stop off at a restaurant which only sells gyoza - Japanese dumpling. Very satisfying, although a cold beer would also have been appreciated to help wash the food down.

A good weekend, if not a great one. However, it is always nice to experience something different. Until the next time.