Tokyo

People used to seem pretty shocked when I told them that I'd been in Japan over two years and had never spent any time in Tokyo.

Now I have.

It was big and shiny just as you'd expect.

I liked this train too, designed to take advantage of the sea view, and the grassy embankments blocking said view. Cheers to Brandon for the cheesy pose.

Oh yeah, and apparently I can live a happy life now I've been fortunate enough to see the very top of Mt. Fuji on a clear day with no haze or clouds. I pity all you sorry souls who'll never witness it, and never know true happiness as a result.

There is Mushroom

There is indeed.

Snow

So, ah, you're not driving this winter then?

I really like this picture

New Year, aka 'blowing up the 101 building'

The tallest building in the world, apparently, and we were at it's foot for the dawn of 2006. Every tenth floor detonated an array of fireworks in successive cascades, making for an impressive show.

More weird things about Taipei: It's a huge, densely populated city, but in all our walking we didn't see a single bar, nor was anyone else drinking amongst the new year crowd. No one was selling alcohol amongst the new year street vendors, but we picked up a couple bottles of red wine from the 101 basement supermarket.

After the fireworks and the eventual mass crowd dispersal there were still many stages playing music, TV cameras rolling, etc. I danced, of course, but when I noticed that only half a dozen other people in the crowd of thousands were dancing too, it felt a little weird. At one point some mother's baby got on stage and moved around a little and *everyone* turned to watch, and cheered, so it was all 'look at the dancing baby!' Ick. When the TV cameras turned on me, and some other guys tried to get me into the middle of a huge breakdancing circle in which no-one was breakdancing I had to split.

Later the owner of our hostel bought everyone dirty great pizzas, which was unexpectedly generous.

Taipei Regulations

There seemed to be a remarkable number of such rules and regulations around Taipei, and the ones in the airport I especially wanted to take photos of - including things along the lines of: 'Anyone with a fever, cold, diarrhoea et al must report their condition to the authorities on entering Taiwan'; 'To prevent the spread of avian flu, passengers must not bring poultry on public transport'; 'Passengers arriving from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand et al must take special precautionary health measures for the first ten days of their stay'; 'To prevent the spread of Dengue Fever, the use of long-sleeved garments is recommended'.

I can just imagine turning myself in upon arrival with a case of diarrhoea and being locked in a shiny white cubicle for the duration of my holiday...

A Very Japanese Christmas

Hope everyone recovered OK from New Year!

Here's some pictures from the aforementioned rained-out Christmas festivities. Held every night of December, the 'Hakodate Christmas Fantasy' features a giant-headed amusingly voiced Santa, his cohorts and sleigh, and a Christmas tree imported from Hakodate's sister city in Canada. This year the top broke off, but it got better (those with long memories may recall that last year's tree had to be replaced from Hokkaido due to a bug infestation).

The usual weird techno music featured, with the same Pet Shop Boys track being the centrepiece ('Go West'?) and the dancers did an admirable job despite the sleet drizzling down.