Fuji San, Golden Kanazawa, and my last day..

These three probably deserve a separate post each. Alas! I don't have time on my hands... I know they shall be saved as drafts and posted much much later than today! But they shall be here for your reading pleasure none the less!

Sunrise from Mt. Fuji:

15th August 2007 (India's 60th Independence Day)

May the pics say it all (for text, please refer to Mr. David Crennen's An Attempt at Mt. Fuji):

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Golden Kanazawa

On the night of the 16th, I took a night bus from Shinjuku to Kanazawa. It took the whole night to get there, and i reached the capital of Ishikawa prefecture at 6ish in the morning the next day. My friend came and picked me up, and we headed to his house to have some breakfast and freshen up. After an amazing cup of coffee, we headed out to komatsu city, to the Natadera temple. It was there that my already half-broken camera gave up on me and I was to later discover that none of the pictures I took came. Which is such a shame, since it was a beautiful place, and I can't share it with you, or keep it in my records for posterity! The temple would be awesome in autumn and winter. I could only imagine for now what it would be like, but even that mental picture seemed to take my breath away.

Anyhow, after coming back from Natadera, we headed over to the Geisha District. Since the sun was setting, and they were putting out paper lamps on the cobbled roads, it was a gorgeous site. women in kimonos graced the place and even though there were many hushed tourists crowding the streets, it was an extremely memorable evening!

The next day (17th August), we went to a shrine called Oyama Shrine. It had a stained glass window at its gate, and the beautiful little pond next to the shrine had a white stork/crane (I don't know which it was exactly) and a small semicircular bridge. I picked a fortune there, which turned out to be 大吉 or daikichi which is the best good luck. Of course if it was bad luck, then I'd have to tie it and leave it there. But since it was good, I got to keep it. Nikhil read what it said and told me; it was overall good (naturally!) but the last line said "But don't be proud"!! I had picked a luck at Asakusa before starting with my M.A. degree and this time it was for the rest of my M. Phil. I hope its true! I really need all the luck I can get.

I digress too much! すみません !

After Oyama Shrine, we went to the Kanazawa Castle. and saw the famed Ishikawa-mon. Nikhil is the CIR from India in Kanazawa, and he was therefore an excellent guide for me. There we saw many of the famous red dragonflies. After the castle, we walked over to the famed Kenroku-en. It was lovely, despite the throngs of tourists. (Damn you, camera!!) I got reminded of Kyoto, and felt that however much beautiful Okinawa was, yet we were missing this side of Japan there. When we stepped into a traditional tea house, into the cool clean tatami room -it was a very hot day - I became melancholic. and this melancholy stayed with me for a long time. I felt sad that I was leaving. I felt that I may never again see this. I may never again experience this. I felt my loss deeply at that moment. This trip to Kanazawa was the last trip I made in Japan until who knows when the next time would be when I come back here.

I tried melon カキゴリ to sooth melancholy - didn't help. Even souvenir shopping didn't help. Nor did a Starbucks frappuchino. Nor did word games. Nothing. I was tired and hot and nostalgic for the present! We walked at the samurai district where boundaries of the houses had mud walls! After that, we went home and I fell asleep. Woke up afresh, went more souvenir shopping (bought gold facewash for my sister!), had dinner, then left by night bus again. All in all, Kanazawa was beautiful. and I highly recomend a trip to Ishikawa-ken!

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My Last Day in Japan:

On my last day in Tokyo (22nd of August), I ate lunch with cute cute Asako, who asked me to come to her place. She borrowed a book of vegetarian recipes from the library and cooked me a delicious tofu cutlet-type dish! And her mom went and got us a sweet dish called yokan, which is made from azuki beans and kanten.

I went to the au shop in Kichijoiji to disconnect my keitai after returning from Asako's. I was worried that I wont have enough cash on hand to pay it off, so I asked first how much it would cost total, and the people wanted me to fill forms first. and, of course, I didn't have enough money to cover my bills. So, I had to go home, get my dads card, go back to Sun Road, get money and then disconnect the phone. Accompanied with ten thousand useless formalities, and the guy making me fill out a brand new form because of some mistake he made, the whole procedure took about 2 hours! It was still better than when I was getting my phone. That time, they had made me decide a plan first, when i finally did so, the made me select a handset. But the ones I liked weren't available, so they got out these other ones. (Mind you, they first showed me the sample ones for those that they didn't have!!!) When I selected a phone, they said the plan we chose wont apply on this handset, so I had to look at other plans all over again!! I think we spent an entire afternoon there at the time!

Anyhow, after that was done, I headed off to Nishi-kasai, where I had diner with family friends and I stayed the night there itself with all my luggage, packed and ready to go from there itself. It was easier to go from there than Kichijoji since the family friend could drop me till the bus stop, so I decided that this was the best option. I had a good nights rest and in the morning I was off.

That was my stay in Tokyo! and the last of my JET career. (i.e., unless I become an alumni!!)