Organised fun

Japan is an extremely well-ordered country. The trains, the road works, the restaurants, the schools, the offices…everything runs in a timely and organised fashion. Nothing is done in half measures either: if you’re going to dig a hole in the ground you get 15 people to do it; if you’re going to make sure commuters get on the train in the morning, you put a member of staff at every door to push them on; the secondary school we can see from our flat currently has the following sports activities taking place concurrently – baseball game x 1, football games x 2, tennis games x 3, kendo sessions x 2, badminton games x 4, general fitness session x 1. And talking of order, the five o’clock bell is just about to be rung around the city to tell people it’s home time. I can hear this even from our hermetically sealed 32^nd floor apartment. 

The organisation doesn’t stop when you leave your place of study or work but extends into the domain of free time too.  We’ve been observers of and occasionally participants in some well and truly organised fun.

Takao-san

Last weekend we went for a walk up Mount Takao, which is a small peak in the range that starts to the west of Tokyo and includes Mount Fuji. We’d just gone for a walk on a bank holiday Monday because we felt like getting out of the city and doing some exercise. And so had everyone else. On arrival at Takaosanguchi Station we decided to have lunch, after which we chose the Inariyama Trail by which to make our ascent. This was described on the information board as following a ridge, being steep in parts, and affording some stunning views. All were true.

We were slightly concerned at the beginning that everyone else knew something we didn’t as we appeared to be the only people going up while everyone else was coming down. Passing that many people did give us a chance to practice our konnichiwa many times which was good fun. And our fears of ending up on a deserted mountain top were allayed when we reached the summit, which was heaving with people who had taken up their picnic lunches to eat with a view of Mount Fuji. Even at four in the afternoon with the sun thinking about setting and a haze loitering over the horizon, we could discern the outline of this impressive and much-revered peak. Never fear, we will definitely be climbing this while we’re here, and it will most certainly be the height of organised outdoor fun and general wonderfulness! 

We decided to take a different route down and found ourselves with hordes of other people striding back towards the station. I say striding, but in some places there were so many people that we were almost queuing to get round bends or through narrow bits. It didn’t really matter though, as everyone was in a friendly, outdoorsy kind of mood, and the surroundings really were so wonderful that it was a truly fantastic day.

Our route

Natural staircase created by tree roots

More steps?!

Marker showing we'd reached the top

Stunning views over Tokyo (a little hard to make out in this photo!)

Even the snakes are well-organised. The good ones are on the right;
the bad on the left

We couldn't really work out what this sign meant,
but the monkeys are amusing!

On the way down we visited this beautiful Buddhist temple, Takaosan
Yakuoin Yukij. The complex is huge and sits very quietly on the
side of the mountain

Grand Prix

Last Sunday, Simon was taken on a work jolly. And what a jolly it was. The Grand Prix, live at the Suzuka Circuit, transported by bullet train no less! I wasn’t invited and I’m still sore about this, but it is such a cool thing to have done that I have had the good grace to include it in my blog… It was a 5am start (I didn’t get up like a good WAG to see him off but grunted goodbye from the bed as he left) to get him onto a bullet train at 6am. You do not want to be late for a bullet train – if it says it leaves at 06:00 that’s when it leaves. Not at 06:01, not at 06:00:30, not even at 06:00:00.001, but at 06:00:00.000 on the dot. He made it, which was a good start. After a 90 minute journey, followed by another hour or so on a local train, followed by another journey, this time on a bus, he and his workmates arrived along with the other 154,895 attendees that the circuit accommodates. This was serious organisation in action – no hold ups, no problems, just straight to the seats to take in the action. It looks like it was totally amazing. Engine-revving, petrol-smelling, ear-shattering, sun-burning, beer-drinking, Jenson Button-cheering amazing. Obviously the Japanese supporters weren’t cheering for Button; in further adherence to the organised fun rule they frantically waved their flags every time their driver, Kamui Kobayashi, appeared, and stopped as soon as he had passed. All in perfect unison.

After the day’s races were over, all 155,000 attendees left the course with no jostling, no panic and no problems and Simon got home around 10pm. The organisation required successfully to manoeuvre that many people around in a timely and calm fashion is mind-boggling. It looks and sounds like it was one hell of a day!

Sunrise from the Shinkansen at 6am

Made it!

The stands start filling up...

Kamui Kobayashi's there, wave your flags!

Flags down, he's gone past

A lot of beer was had and a lot of sunburn was got!

Origami

While Simon’s been getting all manly at the formula one, I’ve been indulging in slightly more sedate free time activities like the ancient art of origami. (Perhaps I could make myself a Grand Prix ticket for the next race and sneak in with that…!) I found an amazing origami centre in Ochanomizu which, as luck would have it, is on the same metro line as our apartment. I’ve managed to limit myself to three visits so far, but have already been given a loyalty card! The first time I went the centre director, Kazuo Kobayashi, was giving a demonstration so I joined the other ladies crowding round him to see what he was making. At one point Kobayashi-san asked me where I was from so I said England, whereupon everyone looked apologetic and someone said they didn’t speak English very well. I didn’t consider this to be a problem but they seemed to be saddened by it. It was all OK in the end though – I heard the lady next to me chatting away in fluent German to the lady next to her. I said to them that I spoke German so then had the slightly surreal experience of watching an origami demonstration given in Japanese, being translated into German for me and a couple of others. Kobayashi-san did know the phrase ‘English rose’, with which he addressed me as he gave me a beautiful flower that he’d just made. I liked that.

I bought a book (which Kobayashi-san signed for me) telling me how to make various things for some of the festivals that take place throughout the year here. So far I’ve made a samurai helmet for Simon, a couple of photo frames, small obina and mebina dolls and some kusudama flowers. I’ve also decided to make senbazuru, which is 1,000 cranes that you string together to hang in your home. It represents health and loyalty, and is also supposed to grant the maker one wish. After a solid start my tsuru making has dwindled slightly, and I’m currently on around 100. Thus far my pièce de résistance is a dragon boat, complete with two-man crew and five passengers. Seriously, I think I may have found my spiritual home and can lose hours cutting, folding and sticking little bits of pretty paper. 

Kobayashi-san showing us how it's done

A rose for a rose! (a slightly blurry one...!)

Heaven on a dining room table

Little dragon boat sailing high on the 32nd floor

That’s just a small taste of the well-organised fun we have been having since we’ve been here. It’s an incredibly calm place, even during rush hour, weirdly. You just have to have faith in the organisation and know that whatever you’re doing, wherever you’re going, there will be several hundred other people with you, there will be a set of protocols that everyone follows so just watch what they’re doing, and you’ll have a lovely and well-ordered time when you get there!

Until the next time…