Tokyo Daytripper: Yoshimi Hyakuana WWII Cliff Tombs

Posted on June 12, 2010 by tokyofox

Having finally found the place I willingly gave up just 300 yen (about two pounds fifty) to enter Hyakuana which translates as 100 holes. A good name and that’s all it is as there are actually more than double that amount! This Saitama-based location is not in any guide books and I only found out about it while looking at “haikyo” (abandoned ruins) websites. For that reason and the fact that it wasn’t a weekend meant I was the only visitor there to start with (a few couples arrived sporadically later on). My first port of call was the tunnels which were made bigger during WWII to protect the Japanese from the Allied bombing raids. According to this fascinating military museums website they were enlarged in 1945 through the efforts of 3,500 Korean forced labourers.

     

Most students have asked me if I was scared to which I say no and thats not just me being all macho. Its just that I often went cycling along an old train track to some tunnels in my hometown when I was a teenager. Those tunnels were completely dark but the ones in Yoshimi were very well lit and were used as storage for weapons in WWII. Only 10% of the tunnels are actually open to visitors with portcullis’ blocking the end of each path.

After I exited the tunnels I explored the caves which are actually over 1300 years old with differing opinions on their history whether it be be aboriginal homes from the end of the 19th century or a WWII ammunition factory. Specially constructed staircases lead tourists to a fair few caves which as the photos show are tiny and inside there is nothing but a bit of graffiti (artefacts recovered in 1888 are on display in a small on-site museum) and barely enough room to stand up or lie down.

     

Before heading home I went into one of the souvenir shops which featured some very interesting photos on the wall. I didn’t know whether they were for sale or just on show so with that in mind I was not so sure about taking photos of the pictures. There was one showing the tombs appearance before they became a tourist attraction and a couple featuring local people and soldiers standing in front of the tombs which kind of reminded me of the (far more picturesque) Ksours which I visited at Ksar Ouled Soltane in Tunisia last August.

 

Click here to read ‘Gan Kutsu Cliff Face Hotel’

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Tokyo Daytripper: Gan Kutsu Cliff Face Hotel

Posted on June 7, 2010 by tokyofox

On Friday I took a train an hour away from where I live to Higashi Matsuyama as I wanted to see some WWII caves and tunnels which I found out about recently on a couple of excellent sites that can be seen here and here.

It was a lovely day and I didn’t really have a great idea of their whereabouts but sometimes you’ve just gotta go for it and hope that you get lucky. I knew they were a 30 minute walk away from the station and so I thought best to head in the direction of greenery and rocks in the distance.

After about 25 minutes walking down a main street I saw a sign for the Hyakuana cliff tombs which was what I wanted. After taking a right turn I came across the abandoned ruins of the Gan Kutsu cliff face hotel as featured on Michael John Grist’s website. I can certainly understand the excitement of infiltrating these closed-off areas but I had no intention of doing anything like that at this site which was carved out as a cave hotel by one man and his chisel between 1904 and 1925 when he sadly died before it was opened. According to the aforementioned website it did open after his death but eventually closed due to cave-ins and obviously fell in to the disrepair that can now be seen today through the iron bars which surround the place.

   

Just a stones throw away from that was a tiny temple which I had all to myself and featured a fair few buddha statues. This had steps so I thought I might as well climb them and see what was up there – beams of carvings and writings in kanji.

 
      

Beyond the temple was a mossy climb up a muddy waterfall/stream which was far steeper and more challenging than the picture maybe shows. I had no idea what was at the top but was looking for a bit of adventure. Not much really was the answer apart from a stone monument marking the location of the remains of Matsuyama Castle which was built in 1399 and destroyed 200 years later. Descending was a bit more tricky than going up but once I’d got down to ground level I ended up seeing quite a lot of the Yoshimi countryside as I took an hour return journey in the wrong direction which was exactly what this guy did on his journey and even though I read his account beforehand I still made the same mistake!

I did get to see a shrine though with steps going on forever which would be good for doing some Rocky-like training on them. Luckily time was on my side and just round the corner from the former hotel and temple which I originally visited was my destination that can be read in the next part; Yoshimi Hyakuana WWII Cliff Tombs.

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Lost In Translation?!!

Posted on June 2, 2010 by tokyofox

Here are two amusing shop signs which are located close to a couple of the schools that I work at each week.

 

I have no doubt that the owners were very unaware that what they thought was good English would be interpreted completely different by us Brits!

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A Sign of (Slight) Power!

Posted on May 28, 2010 by tokyofox

Where I work in Shibuya has a short walkway area leading to the lift which takes people up to the school on the fourth floor. This area is undercover and protected from the wind and rain. With the majority of Japanese males seemingly smokers it was quite an ordeal to get to the lift through all the smoke created by the salarymen standing around there. As an anti-smoker I hated this and it certainly wasn’t good for the students, particularly the young kids, who had to walk through the thick blanket of smoke.

 

However, that all changed with a little bit of help from yours truly. Sometime last year I put up a small, but bright yellow, no-smoking sign on the wall to see what happened. Perhaps surprisingly it was still in tact a few days later when I returned to the school and its still there now many months later. Its only stuck to the wall by a small bit of blu-tac and would undoubtedly have been taken down by someone in most other countries but amazingly that hasn’t happened in Shibuya where it has actually been obeyed by the smokers. Obviously, it would be false to say that I played a major part in this (the building manager leaving the sign up and moving the smoking ash-try bin thing outside was a far major role) but a part I did play and its nice to know that I got the ball rolling…….maybe!

Posted in English Teaching, Japan Life | 2 Comments

Please Do It Again – The Tokyo Metro Poster Campaign

Posted on May 23, 2010 by tokyofox

Back in October 2008 I reported on the ‘Do it at home’ poster campaign by Tokyo Metro basically telling people to mind their manners on the trains. This included things like not applying make-up in public, noise-pollution from earphones, using mobile phones, drinking beer, taking up too much room and so on. All fairly petty little things but ultimately ones that can easily annoy us. Since April this year the slogan has changed to ‘Please do it again’ which I guess is kind of reverse psychology!

  
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The 30th Anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back

Posted on May 21, 2010 by tokyofox

Today marks the 30th anniversary of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back which for many, many years was my favourite film of the saga. That changed last year though to Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope following my visit to some of the filming locations used in that movie. The battle scenes of Hoth in Empire were filmed in Finse in Norway and even though I have the guidebook I can’t really see myself going to the trouble to just see a bit of ice but never say never I guess!

Anyway, I recently made (thanks to a link on the official Star Wars website) a rather rushed one minute Empire parody video featuring me as both Luke Sywalker and Han Solo with m’lady as Princess Leia which can be seen here. Check it out! It’s funny even if I do say so myself!

I remember being stunned to discover that Vader was Luke’s father which is a classic movie moment and one that is difficult for the younger generation of Star Wars fans to discover the way I did. Empire is great for the following reasons:

* The “I am your father” revelation

* John Williams’ foreboding “Imperial March” music

* The introduction of Yoda, Lando Calrissian and Boba Fett

* Han Solo uses a lighsaber for the only time

* The gigantic AT-AT’s (All terrain armoured transports)

* Han Solo gets heroically frozen in carbonite

* Darth Vader slices off Luke Skywalkers hand

* We see Vader briefly appear out of his helmet in a meditation chamber

* Lando trying to use his charm on Princess Leah

* erm , that incestuous kiss between Luke and Leia!

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Tokyo Daytripper: Shinrin Koen Park

Posted on May 16, 2010 by tokyofox

My girlfriend and I used the recent Golden Week holiday to finally spend a couple of days together which is a rarity in such a workaholic country. On May 1st we went to Shinrin Koen which is a huge park about an hour away from our apartments by train followed by a short bus ride from there. Entrance was only 400 yen (about £2.50) but we were unable to rent a cheap bicycle there as they had all been rented out earlier that morning. Gotta say that this didn’t bother me too much as I have done a fair bit of riding recenly as regular readers (are there such people out there?!) may have noticed.

It was such a glorious day of sunshine so it was quite nice to walk around the vast park and its many features including the likes of a wading pool, an adventure course, streams, lakes, bridges, restaurants, a dog run, cycle tracks, lookout points, flowering tree, swamp land, hedge, herb and conifer gardens as well as sculpture and memorial squares. All in all we spent a relaxing four hours strolling leisurely around the fine lanscape and all that it has to offer which even includes a kind of squat-style toilet for dogs and a shop selling cakes for them too. Ridiculous really!

On leaving the park just before closing time we were shocked to discover that the last bus back to the station had already gone so the only option was the far more expensive taxi but luckily we found a man, wife and child to share one with.

                
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TF Film Review: Green Zone (2010)

Posted on May 16, 2010 by tokyofox

It seems that its impossible to talk about Green Zone without mentioning the Bourne franchise (which I absolutely loved) so now that I have got that reference out of the way we can move on.

This movie came out a couple of months ago in Britain but as usual the Japan release was delayed which I went to see at a nearby cinema on its opening day last Friday. The film is directed by Paul Greengrass (with his trademark use of hand-held cameras) and he teams up with Matt Damon yet again to provide a typically breakneck action film which is tense and exciting.

There is also, in my opinion, a quite preachy polical message regarding the weapons of mass destruction which Damon‘s character Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller is searching for in Iraq in order to justify the US invasion. When his search comes up empty handed each time he begins to have his suspicions about some of his own side.

Beforehand I had fairly low expectations for Green Zone as war films don’t always do it for me and I thought that I would be hoping to see Bourne taking aim at real life in Iraq. Of course, the lead character in this film is not exactly too different in appearance as after all they do have the same face and the same voicebox! Overall, though I really liked this film and was able to separate it from the aforementioned franchise which certainly helps one enjoy it.

Green Zone

Tokyo Fox Rating 9/10 

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Leicester Pay The Penalty

Posted on May 14, 2010 by tokyofox

The end of season play-offs have a reputation for providing some of the most exciting drama in the football season and this year was no exception. Sadly, for us Leicester fans we came out on the wrong side of such thrilling drama as did our rivals Nottingham F****t the night before but obviously I don’t care about them!

No-one really gave Leicester any hope at Cardiff having lost the 1st leg at home by a goal to nil and when we went a goal down on Wednesday night it looked like it was curtains as they had dominated the opening period of play.

However, football has a habit of throwing up surprises and this game was no exception as we grabbed an equaliser within minutes and then incredibly levelled the aggregate score. I got up at 3.45am to see the game on a streaming site but was having computer problems as the first half progressed yet despite this I somehow managed to catch all three goals amid the images freezing and then speeding up in almost comical Benny Hill style! Throughout all this the commentary continued but at half time I reset the computer and just as I got the game up and running again we went 3-1 up. I didn’t see (but did hear) the Cardiff penalty which tied the aggregate scores or very little else of that half either.

Thankfully I managed to pick up perfect coverage of the fairly dull extra time (heightened by listening to the BBC man doing what was highlight, if not just goal, commentary which meant he didn’t speak that often or sound too excited until the climax of the contest) and maybe I am to blame for our loss.

To my absolute disgust the computer froze just as the penalties got underway so I missed the first five successful kicks. Cardiff levelled with their third kick and who knows what Kermorgant was thinking when he chose such a critical moment to try a little dink which was inevitably saved. The next Cardfiff player showed us how it should be done and then Waghorn had his penalty saved and that brought the curtain down on our season in dramatic fashion.

A heartbreaking end to a fantastic season where we probably punched above our weight in our first season back in the Championship on the back of winning League One 12 months ago. I was gutted but so proud of the team and very glad that I made the effort to catch the game at such an ungodly hour.

Posted in Leicester City, Sport | 2 Comments

Sayonara Yoyogi School

Posted on May 12, 2010 by tokyofox

The end of March brought about the end to my short time (6 months) in Yoyogi school although bizarrely I was there the following week to cover myself! When I started in October I took on some of the most badly behaved kids I’ve ever experienced but as time went on I’d like to think that I made my mark and added a bit of discipline and routine to lessons.

My hands were also tied in this school as the office on the floor below would complain about any noise made by running or jumping which is understandable on their part but frustrating for me as running games in particular are a major part of my lessons. However, it did teach me that lessons can still be conducted in a more civilised sitting down way which most teachers probably employ but I generally don’t until later ages. This class were very weak with phonics and word recognition which I focused on a lot as well as well as doing a lot of drilling and chanting which they were good at for the most part.

As time went on a few dropped out which was a shame as I felt they were making progress albeit much slower than most other students of their age. They seemed to like me or at least liked the fact that I wore a Star Wars tie, started the lesson with the Star Wars theme and played the Imperial March during certain activities or games. For their last lesson I rewarded those in attendance by dedicating a very small part of the lesson to making a Clone Wars door hanger.

On top of a few leaving that lower elementary class a couple of boys also left from a Junior High school class which was my favourite consisting of three boys who were a great laugh to teach and also talented enough to handle the textbook and the target language that it threw up. However, they were at that age when a lot of kids often leave our schools due to having to go to cram school which is a ridiculous Japanese idea where kids not only do a long day at school but they also do sports or club activities afterwards and then go to this school to study more!

 

I did enjoy the challenge of teaching the aforementioned elementary kids class as well as a kindergarten class of three year olds who I have featured on this site before in the entry ‘Doing It By The Book’. Ultimately, I was proud of what I achieved with both these groups and hope that they continue to develop with their new teacher.

I only did a few adult classes there and they were no problem at all and I have stayed in touch with some of them. No doubt there will be a couple of more changes this year as the company continue to chop and change things to deal with the recession.

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