A month on...

On Thursday last week, the FCO lifted its travel advice against all but necessary travel to Tokyo. This meant that our trip to Tokyo, Kyoto and Hiroshima was back on, except that I'm in the wrong country. I'll now be flying out on the same flights as my parents (using my frequent flier miles to bump myself up to premium economy - I'm really excited about this!) and all the original plans for the trip will be going ahead. We're all very excited that the-trip-that-was-not-meant-to-be will be going ahead (fingers crossed). It was really our trip of a lifetime, with hours and hours of planning behind it and its previous, failed attempt in December. I'm so excited!

In other news, however, I will not be returning to study at Waseda.

I made this decision, not least, because there are still large aftershocks and occasional tsunami warnings being issued. Do I want to live somewhere where my parents and boyfriend will be worried for my safety? This might sound a bit contradictory as we are returning to Tokyo for a few days during our holiday, but it is the decision I have made. Leeds University have been really understanding - it counts as special circumstances so I will just progress straight on to my final year in September with no extra work required.

I'm really sad that my year abroad has come to such a unexpected and abrupt ending. I've met wonderful, interesting people from all over the world. I really hope that when I leave Japan on the 30th April it's neither the last time I see Tokyo nor all the friends I have made there.

Back to Blighty

Less than a week before I last left home, I'm back in England.

To avoid the travel disruptions to the airport, me and Ina set off the afternoon before we were due to fly. We caught a limousine bus (not as posh as it sounds) from the Hyatt Regent Hotel (posher than it sounds). When we arrived the hotel chaps couldn't do enough for us. We sat beneath 3 of the biggest chandeliers I've ever seen (four cables per chandelier, metal bars spacing them apart, plus ropes tied to the walls to stop them swinging, we noted with relief) before getting the bus.

At the airport we borrowed sleeping bags from the info desk, found some padded benches near arrivals to lie on and tried to get some sleep. There were quite a few people around us with the same idea, camping in the airport, though not everyone had sleep in mind. Ina got very frustrated at a pair who talked at full volume 'till 5am despite being surrounded by people and families trying to sleep.

Anyway. 7am and chaos descended on the airport, hundreds of people queuing for either the ANA check in or for the tickets counter, I couldn't tell. We weren't involved in any big queues so that was fine. We checked in, went through security (a bit of a wait for Ina's re-entry permit) then flew home with no problems at all.

So now I'm home, on the day that the FCO finally advises Brits to think about leaving Tokyo. A few of my fellow exchange students have said on facebook they won't be returning - either their own decision or enforced by their home university. My own situation hangs in the balance - when I packed my suitcase, I did so with the knowledge I might never come back, so I packed everything irreplaceable or that I needed, but I left a lot behind not to mention there are friends I didn't have a chance to properly say good bye to.

So, I'm in a limbo at the minute. A week ago I thought I'd be sunning myself in Ishigaki, and now I've had to flee the country and I'm unsure whether I'll ever return. My parents still have their (rearranged from December) trip to Japan in about a month's time which is uncertain too. And the cherry on the cake is Dad's dropped me in it by contacting the local paper who have basically reprinted one of my blog entries and one of the worst photos taken of me. Thanks Dad.

Change of plan

News:

• On Wednesday I will be returning to the UK
• We are still having aftershocks over 6 magnitude
• I'm lucky I already have my re-entry permit - apparently queues at the immigration office were down the stairs, out the door and down the street i.e. several hundred people long.
• A one way ticket Tokyo-London = ~£1,200-£2,000
• A return ticket Tokyo-London, London-Tokyo = £800. Yes, really.
• The shops are either not getting deliveries or people really are panic buying. There is still plenty of fresh food to be bought but bottled water, cup noodles, onigiri, bread, milk and toilet paper are sold out in many shops.
• Blackouts are not affecting central Tokyo but train services have been reduced in expectation of the power cuts.
• September 2010 - April 2011 I will have been in the air for 84 hours and travelled ~42,000miles, not to mention the 2+ hours of travelling on either side of those long distance flights. Plus, I don't sleep on planes.
• Thank you to everyone who has been asking if I am okay or contacting James or my parents and asking after me. I feel very loved. I have been so lucky and my thoughts are with those who were not so.

Today I was meant to travel to Ishigaki, Okinawa (2,000km south west from Tokyo, near Taiwan) for a nice tropical holiday but instead me and Jessi have decided to (at least) postpone the trip until the Tuesday, by which time we should know more information. Neither of us was comfortable with travelling during the uncertainty, nor leaving behind the infrastructure and safety in Tokyo, plus the weather down there is crap. Its going to rain for the next week :(

So we've tried to ring the airline to rearrange the flights, as their website advises, but one phone number is 'invalid' and the other is so busy we can't get through. Worrying. I also emailed our accommodation in Ishigaki yesterday asking for advice if we should travel and if they had been affected, to no reply.

A few of my friends have been panicking and leaving the country. As I said in my last blog, I heard that Austrian and/or German embassies had advised that their citizens leave the country. I now hear the German embassy advises that Tokyo is safe. The British Embassy advises that we shouldn't make unessential journeys to Tokyo or north of Tokyo, but no advice about travelling elsewhere. I have friends who are scrambling out of the country, either back to Europe or just to neighbouring countries like Taiwan or South Korea. This is another part of the reason I want to stay in Tokyo - if I should need to get out, Tokyo is surely the best place to be...? (Edit: Nicole has told me the Swiss embassy website now says for residents in Tokyo to consider if their prescence in Japan is necessary and, if not, to consider leaving the country.)

All in all, though, I'm doing fine. I'm unhurt, I have food, water, electricity, even internet and I feel lucky for that. And I am so so thankful for Tokyo's strict planning regulations, they have saved countless lives, my building and all of those I've seen in our neighbourhood are undamaged. 

What often goes unreported in the news are the aftershocks we are experiencing. The big earthquake was BIG, between 8 and 9 on the richter scale, which was felt as 5-6 in Tokyo (apparently). Since Friday there has been 228 aftershocks (in fact we're having one as I type, edit: turns out that was a 6.2 and nearer to Tokyo), many over 6 , by comparison the Christchurch earthquake was 6.3. Big stuff. (check out this map of aftershocks )

Anyway, I'll stop pretending like I understand tectonics, or geography, or nuclear science. I'll keep this blog up dated with what I'm up to or any news I get. Until this all either escalates or blows over, we just have the sit tight, get in provisions, and not panic. My new mantra: don't panic.

Earthquake aftermath

The quake was just under a day ago and the aftershocks seem to have died down just about. The last strong one I felt woke me up at about 4.30am and was followed by 2 earthquake alarms from my phone which meant I couldn't get back to sleep for worry.

Since the quake happened I've been watching a combination of BBC news, NHK news, twitter, the Japan meteorological website and the British consulate website as to what to do. As the details of the effects of the earthquake spread we're just shocked by the devastation. Not only for the people dead or missing, but now everyone is very concerned about the nuclear issue.

Rumours are abound and no one really seems to know anything - I'm meant to be flying to Ishigaki, Okinawa tomorrow but, not only does it seem insensitive to go on holiday during a national emergency, but I'm learning that, apparently, the Austrian embassy has advised Valentina to evacuate out of the country. I'm getting more and more alarmed by the situation and I don't know what to do. To make it worse it's the middle of Friday night so I can't contact family or friends (without scaring them to death, no one likes middle of the night phonecalls ) nor my university for advice. I guess all we can do is sit tight, watch the news, and stay calm.

Earthquake

Today there was a massive earthquake about 250 miles north of Tokyo, it was 8.8 at the epicenter and about 6 in Tokyo. I'm completely fine, just a bit shaken (if you'll excuse the pun). 

I hadn't really eaten today apart from breakfast so at about 3 I went to my local supermarket to grab some food. I was looking at the shelf and I felt a bit woozy and dizzy and I thought I was going to faint from not having eaten, then I realised it was the ground shaking, not me. None of the customers or staff really knew what to do, there were no desks to hide under or doorways to stand in, so we just stood there looking alarmed, one woman held a plastic shopping basket over her head. 

I wasn't sure if you're meant to stay inside or go outside - I don't think there's any real advice apart from try and get away from buildings into an open area which is impossible in Tokyo. In the supermarket stuff was falling off the shelves, all the signs were swaying and I nearly fell over at one point. It was a really odd sensation, like being on a boat but without the rhythm and quite unsettling.

It carried on for about 3-5 minutes, it felt like a long time. Then it was over, no one knew what to do - whether to carry on or to stop and go outside. I paid for my stuff and went back to the dorm. For the next hour there were several very strong aftershocks, and a constant wobbling. Me and some friends bumped into each other and no one really knew what to do so we stood around talking until the tremors stopped. Now, about an hour after it, there's the odd rumble.

There has apparently been a tsunami and there are some buildings in Tokyo on fire. I'm thankful to be in a modern building and safe...

Nagano Skiing

In the evening of the last day of Janurary we headed to Shinjuku station to take a night bus to Togari Onsen, Nagano. We were quite an international group, we had a Brit, a Swede, a French, an Austrian and a Czech.

It wasn't a very long journey but wasn't very comfortable and the 30 mins stops every 2 hours made the journey a lot longer. Nevertheless we arrived in the early hours of the morning in a very snowy village in the Japanese Alps.

There was so much snow. In the village there was about 2m piled up at the sides of the roads. I saw a small shrine where only the top of the stone torii arch was visible. Incredible.

So we arrived early in the morning, left our bags in lockers in the hotel and went to get sorted out for our first day's skiing. First job: rent clothing, skis and boots. What made the price of the holiday so amazing was that the price of rental was included. We soon found out why. The skis had Indiana Jones hunting them down to be put in a museum. They weren't even carving skis.

When we stopped laughing we asked about upgrades to some technology that had been developed in the last 20 years and we were directed to another rental shop down the road. The shop looked like some bloke's garage, but we went in and asked. We then laughed even harder when the 'upgrade' boots were rear-entry and, whilst the skis were carving skis, they had certainly never been waxed or sharpened.

 I almost felt a bit sorry for the bloke in the shop because we were in stitches at the rental equipment. We insisted upon a discount, which he gave without protest. David was first to be given skis and the guy just handed them over. When David said his weight, the guy just looked blank. Apparently changing the safety-release mechanism for each customers weight isn't the normal thing here. It took him a while to adjust the skis as the mechanism had stiffened up from having been forgotten about for however many decades old these skis were. Where on earth had we come?!

So we set off with our rental stuff to hit the slopes.

And it turned out the infrastructure was in the same state as the rental skis. Here is a two-man lift without the luxury of a safety bar (never mind the heated seats, plastic bubbles and foot rests to which I was accustomed in Austria).

The resort had clearly not had any investment in quite some years. At times it felt quite faded and it was sad that it had seen better days. Once we had gotten over the time warp that we had entered and began skiing the smiles spread across our faces. The snow was utterly perfect.

And the views were stunning.

We were really lucky with the weather, it was often clear skied and sunny. At the top of the resort views across the valley were stunning. In the above photo you can see the resort of Nozawa Onsen where I was supposed to have skied with my parents (and how cool does that piste which goes straight over the top of the several ridges look?).

After a hard day's skiing we returned to the hotel for a dip in the (public) onsen and then our dinner (après-ski wasn't an option; it doesn't seem to exist here).

The hotel's website seemed to focus mainly upon how they make their own soba noodles and serve them in the restaurant. There was even a large glass window to look in upon the chef making the noodles every afternoon. And they were pretty tasty.

The rest of the food was like a paired down version of what me and James were served in Hakone: lots of little dishes and one larger pot which is cooked at the table along with miso soup and rice.

It was good, tasty, wholesome food but we couldn't help but yearn for a germknodel.

We had four days skiing altogether and it was a great time with lots of rather memorable moments. We seemed to spend a lot of our lift-time moaning about everyone else on the slopes with us - they were dangerously idiotic. If you don't care about skiing then don't read on because it's a rant about skiing etiquette.

For the first three days our group (except Valentina) were almost the only skiers on the mountain. The ratio of snowboarders to skiers was easily 90:10. Now, snowboarders aren't generally renown for their awareness of other users of the slope. But in Togari it was on another level. They didn't spend much time actually snowboarding (because they were hopeless at it) so they spent long amounts of time just sitting and chilling out in the most dangerous places they could find.

We were in utter disbelief at the stupidity they showed, the complete lack of common sense. Their favourite place to sit was after a steep, sharp, almost blind corner in the middle of the track. The fact that we didn't see (or be involved in) any serious accidents was a miracle.

So after you dodged these large groups of snowboarders chilling on their bums, you then had to dodge the ones who had decided to give snowboarding a go. The slopes were really quite busy in places, but they would set off (without fail) without looking up the slope. And you couldn't get to close to a snowboarder who had any momentum because they would most likely just fall over in front of you (falling over was a preference to actually turning) or attempt a trick and not land it.

I'm pissed off just thinking about it!

The other affect the amount of snowboarders there were was upon the snow. There weren't many tracks in Togari and most of them were pisted. There were a few off piste tracks but they were no fun. I attempted one on the first day and it was so difficult, the snow was so soft and deep that when you fell over your poles didn't help you stand up. And, the amount of bad snowboarders (who preferred to slip down a track rather than turn) meant there wasn't a single mogul in the resort, so there wasn't much variety to the skiing.

Now that's off my chest back to some pretty photos.

Deep blue sky (this isn't photoshopped).

And a lovely example of 80s architecture:

This was actually my favourite restaurant on the mountain, they had cake :)

On the final evening, as we had checked out, we went to a public onsen in the town. It's so nice to have a hot bath after a day's skiing but onsen are hot. At least 40 degrees. But in the public one they had an outside one which was perfect, if you got too hot you could sit with just your legs in it and balance out the cold air with the hot water. Yum. (if you don't mind being naked in front of your female friends and strangers, that is).

And then we caught our night bus home. Don't get me started on the palaver of seating arrangements on the coach (the coach was only half full but they had issues with people spreading out), but we got home in one piece!

Next stop England!