Exploring Hakone (by every means of transport available)

I woke up stupidly early this morning so I could head to Hakone for the day, essentially with the aim of taking a bath. Hakone sits at the top of the Izu peninsula and is surrounded by active volcanoes, which provide fantastic hot springs that you can bathe in - it is these onsen that make Hakone a famous tourist destination.

I started my journey by taking the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Odawara and then buying a Hakone freepass. This two-day pass set me back £27 and was well worth it. I then hopped on the 'normal' train to Hakone's Yumoto station, where I switched onto the Tozan train. This ancient old electric train winds its way up through the jungle and into the mountains, taking forever to do so but allowing for some pretty views. I got off at Chokokunomori and went to the Hakone Open Air Museum. The name is a bit misleading as this is actually a huge art gallery with expansive sculpture gardens and the largest collection of Picasso works outside of Spain. It is easliy one of the best art galleries I have ever been to.

The whole site is landscaped beautifully so that you keep stumbling across new areas by accident. I could have spent all day just walking around, wishing that I was under the age of 13 so that I could play on the kids areas, which were so awesome!



I really like the way that they used the surrounding scenery to enhance the impact of a lot of the outdoor sculptures:



Here are a few of my other favourites:



It hasn't come out too well in the photo, but the giant head in the pond was actually crying...

After spending far too long looking at art, I hopped back on the Tozan train to Gora to get some lunch. My boss had recommended a tonkatsu restaurant and now I know why - the hirekatsu was delicious!


I then took the funicular train up the side of Mt Komagatake to the stop at Sounzan, where I got on the cable car. This goes over 'death valley' (a very friendly place...) where the mountain (it's actually a volcano) lets off steam through loads of vents and also deposits lots of sulphur.


The overpowering smell of egg is not the nicest thing, especially when I don't even like eggs. A local delicacy are eggs that have been cooked over the sulphurous vents - this makes the eggs cook from the inside out and they're eaten when the whites are still a bit runny. I just took people's word for it when they told me that they tasted good...

From up the cable car, on a clear day, you can get fantastic panoramic views of Mt Fuji. This is what it should look like:


And this is what I could see:


I swear that they just photoshop Mt Fuji into all these photos and that it doesn't actually exist - I have been living next to it for 6 weeks now and still haven't managed to see it!!

At the end of the cable car at Togendai is the massive Lake Ashi that sits in part of an ancient crater at an altitude of over 700m. It's pretty cool and the scenery is beautiful. I decided to get to the other side of the lake (and back to Hakone) by taking the Hakone Sightseeing Cruise, as this sounded like a good idea. It turned out to be a fantastic idea; check out the boats!



To be honest, there weren't that many 'sights' to be seen (although the audio tape came up with a few dubious ones...) but the faux pirate galleon more than made up for it. It was definitely one of the 'only in Japan' moments that I experience regularly!

I then caught the Tozan bus to Tenzan onsen. This complex of buildings and outdoor hotsprings was just fantastic. All the buildings are traditional Japanese ones, inside and out, and there were lots of different types of onsen to choose from. There were huge reading/relaxation rooms to chill out in before and after you bathe, as well as a bar and a few restaurants. The onsen themselves were amazing - they are all set into the hillside and surrounded by lovely plants and trees. There was one that went into a wee cave and another that was all cloudy because the water was full of some combination of minerals. After considerable showering and soaking, I can honestly say that I have never felt so relaxed. I only wish that we had onsen at home! Although then we would have to have volcanoes too; so maybe I'll take back that wish...

It's matsuri time!

I spent Thursday and Frday with the structures desk again, this time looking at the products in more detail. I spent a lot of time working out how to make different pay-out structures using combinations of simple put and call options and then establishing the range of delta and gamma for different moves in the spot price. This was really interesting or me to practice doing and it made it a lot easier to understand the whole process of hedging individual trades by analysing these so-called 'Greeks'.

Unfortunately, I found out on Friday morning that I failed my JSDA exam. I felt pretty crap about this for a while (I've got over it now) as I had worked quite hard for it, was doing well in the past papers and thought that I'd answered enough correctly on the day to pass it. Oh well... It's all still good experience and will be making an appearance on my CV.

After work on Friday, me and the guys on the structures desk headed over to Azubu Juban to check out the 10-bang matsuri (no idea why it's called that, but 'ju' is 10 in Japanese, so it sounds kind of like Juban, and matsuri is just a word for a festival). It was really cool - loads of stalls selling different food and drink and also a few with the usual funfair games. The food was great, especially the stuff on sticks:



In the main sqaure, there was a stage set up with a samba band and lots of dancers from the local samba school. The music was good and the costumes were brilliant:


All in all, I thouroughly enjoyed my first matsuri. I only wish that I lived in Tokyo so I could go to more - each district throws its own every summer.

Vending machines

These electronic dispensers are absoutely everywhere you go (I go past 7 soft drink vending machines in the 100 yards I walk along my street until I get to my apartment!) and are super convenient. I have seen some really weird and wonderful vending machines recently, so I thought I'd make a list of some of my favourites.

At number 7, we have the vending machines that surround an unsuspecting tree in Yokohama:


Sticking with the theme of nature is this floral drinks machine in Kyoto, at number 6:


I wonder how long this beer vending machine would remain in one piece in the UK? Machines that dispense alcoholic beverages come in fifth place:


In fourth position is this beast that dispensed hot pot noodles at a temple in Kyoto:


Third place is awarded to the every-so-handy umbrella vending machines that can be found in most train stations:


The final two places were hotly contested, but, slipping behind in second is this one in Akihabara:


I'm pretty sure (but not enirely certain) that the cans contain some sort of Japanese stew; by inspection of the picture on the front:


First place had to be awarded to the oh-so-strange 'canned bread' vending machine, also spotted in Akihabara:



For all those times that you're really desperate for some flavoured bread that's been sealed and cooked in a can. Honestly, what will they think of next?

Studying in the summer holidays?

Not cool! I have not got a huge amount to report on as I was stuck inside revising all weekend and on Monday AND on Tuesday. This was not what I signed up for! I did try to get outside and study in the nice weather - I went to Yoyogi-koen (the big park in Harajuku) to sit in the sun and work but gave up after about two hours as the insect world kept invading my personal space. There were so many ants that kept crawling over my books and myself (I thankfully didn't get bitten), and this guy got far too close for my liking:


I had the JSDA Sales Representative Class 2 exam this morning. It could have been worse but, unfortunately, the questions that I found the trickiest also happened to be the questions that were worth the most marks. Bummer. Major bummer. Hopefully I've answered just enough correctly to pass (I need 70%...) - I find out my result on Friday, so fingers crossed! I wasn't nervous before as I didn't care enough about a qualification that was going to lapse in 90 days time, but now that I've gone to the effort of actually sitting the thing, I would quite like to pass and be able to put it on my CV. We shall see... To celebrate the end of having to study obscure corporate law, I went and got myself a manicure. I am now the proud owner of some glittery, lilac nails.


Anyway, being stuck inside for four days did have its perks: take out food :) Here is a sample of some of the things I have eaten recently.

A lemon green tea frappuccino and raspberry macaroon from Starbucks (much better than the Starbucks at home).


A delicious selection of gyoza and sui mai.


Pancakes sandwiched together with custard.


Strange fried batter-balls with chunks of octopus in the middle. This sounds unusual but street vendors sell them all over the place and there is a bar/take out joint down the round from me (where I got these ones from) that only sells beer and different flavours of octopus balls.



And a tasty chocolate and orange mousse from the posh hotel patisserie that's down the road.


I did have an absolute FAIL moment one morning when I went to the coffee shop on the corner to buy a mocha and ended up with this instead:


It's a matcha latte - powdered green tea with sweetened boiled milk. It smelled and tasted exactly as disgusting as it sounds. This lurid green concoction was not a good way to start the day and I ended up pouring it down the sink :(

On one of my many coffee runs, I saw this lot being taken on a trip from (presumably) the local nursery. What a clever way to ferry toddlers around a city!



(For those of you with too much time on your hands, I have eventually uploaded all my photos onto my flickr account.)

Saltire blog part 5

I've just posted the most recent weekly round up on my SaltireFoundation blog.

I don't have much time to blog today as I really need to knuckle-down and get some work done for this exam. I just wish it would stop being so nice and sunny outside!

And now for something completely different

I know that this isn't meant to be a cat or a food blog (and is almost turning into one...) but a friend just sent me this and I still can't stop laughing. This cat is even funnier than Maru.

More Comiket

I decided to take a break from studying this afternoon and headed back to Comiket to see some more cosplay and actually walk around the inside arena too. In what turned out to be an inspired idea, I took the Yurikamome monorail there but this time, stood at the frint of the leading train section. The monorail is completely electric and has no driver, just a massive window at the front, so it felt like I was driving it! (Admittedly, I was standing with lots of small children who actually pretend to drive the train and I got a few odd looks for being the only person over the age of ten standing so close to the front...) I was treated to even better views of the Tokyo Bay area and Odaiba from the front of the train compared to when I took it before and could only look out the side windows. (If you look closely, you can see Gundam poking out the top of the trees.)



I thought that I was being clever by going to Comiket in the afternoon this time, to avoid the crowds. I hadn't factored in the fact that it was Saturday today and also everybody else would have had my 'good idea' after heading along yesterday morning. It was even busier today! I didn't think that it would be possible, but I swear there were ten times as many people! Especially in the cosplay area outside - I could hardly contain myself and took far too many photos. The costumes this afternoon were even more impressive and lots more people had turned up in themed pairs or groups. I only spent an hour wandering around, but could have easily spent a whole day there watching everyone. Here are a few photos but, seeing as I loved them all, I'll upload everything onto my flickr account (eventually...).





(This Mario was definitely one of my favourites!)


Inside was just as crazy as outside (but thankfully air conditioned). Here, they employ people to dress up to help sell comics and merchandise:


But just about everything was already sold out by this afternoon anyway. There seemed to be quite a few interviews with writers/film directors going on that people were crowding around, and apparently you're not meant to take photos of them. Here is what happened when I tried:



I headed back home to do some more past paper questions, got bored, so went out for some okonomiyaki.


I've been told that this is Japan's version of a pizza, but it's more like a cross between a crepe and an omlette with lots of stuff inside and sauce on top. Yum yum! Anyway, I have been trying to work but I seem to have the attention span of a hamster and have ended up blogging instead.

Must. Study. For. Exam...

Comics and corporate finance law

Today has been quite surreal. I woke up and did some 'studying' (I tried, honest...) and then headed off to join the otaku at Comiket in Odaiba with some friends. This event is the world's largest hand-made comic book fair (according to wikipedia) and I have never seen so many people in one place at the same time - it was absolutely heaving!


We kind of didn't anticipate how popular the whole thing was going to be, and there's really only two ways to get to Odaiba, both of which were so busy that it took us about an hour to get to the Tokyo Big Sight (where it's held) and then about 10 minutes to get in. This left me with only about 15 minutes to actually look around before I had to head back to Shimbashi for my final JSDA lesson :( Which just means that I have an excuse to go back again tomorrow :) I spent all the time today checking out the cosplay area outside. Cosplay is when people dress up as their favourite anime characters, and some of the costumes were really impressive.





You could tell which costumes were condsidered to be the best, as they drew the largest crowd of cosplay-paparazzi:


It was a shame to have to go back to class but today's lesson was really useful. We finished up the section on Japanese corporate law, other finance laws and then moved on to calculations associated with bonds and financial statements. There is so much to learn!! Thankfully we did a lot of going over what we've already learnt. I've now just got to memorise it all over the next four days and also work out how to decipher the garbled exam questions.

Another one?!

Tokyo got another wee tremor just before 8.00am this morning. It made the floor rumble underneath where I was sitting and my rice cooker (which is balancing on top of my fridge) was wobbling about, but it thankfully only lasted about a minute or so. I think three earthquakes in one week is enough, thank you very much, Earth.

Lessons today were just as intense as yesterday and included some maths this time, too. The maths is dead simple but remembering the hundreds (okay, maybe about 40...) equations is going to be an absolute nightmare. I'm going to have to go and study in a minute and will be revising and practicing past paper questions all weekend. At least it will all be over by Wednesday afternoon. I'm already planning on going for a celebratory manicure - you can get a decent one for only £8! Actually, I bought some pretty crazy fake nails when I was shopping in Venus Fort yesterday, and I fully intend to get my nails done Shibuya-girl-style before coming home.

I've eventually got around to setting up a flickr account so that everyone at home can see my photos and won't be subjected to a ridiculously long slide-show when I get back. I've taken far too many and only managed to upload about half so far. Check them out here. I'm continually adding more every day and put them up in the same groups I uploaded from my cameras, i.e. the order is a bit messed up at times. A nice way to look at them is by area on my map. Enjoy!

I heart Odaiba

Just like mameshiba does! More on my new favourite area of Tokyo in a minute.

Today was the first day of my JSDA exam course. The guy who takes the course is really good - he's a good laugh and can explain things really well, but moves at an incredibly fast speed. He may even talk faster than I do. I have met my match... Surprisingly, some of the laws we're learning about are quite interesting, and I was shocked that a few have been recently implemented specifically to prevent the Yakuza from laundering money. I hadn't realised how prevalent the Yakuza still were in Japan, but securities firms have to be very careful when it comes to loss compensation as this was, up until quite recently, helping fund the Japanese mafia.

Learning the facts is going to turn out to be (relatively) the easiest bit. Deciphering the exam questions is considerably more tricky - the translation into English is, at best, extremely confusing. I realised things weren't going to go well when I read this statement on the front of the past papers:

"This examination is conducted in the Japanese only. The English translations of the questions are prepared solely for your information. Therefore, the Japanese version shall prevail if there is any discrepancy. You are not allowed to ask any questions or make complaints about expressions in the English."

Well that's me told... The course is pretty intense and there is so much to learn for the exam next Wednesday. I'm going to have to spend my whole weekend and all day Monday and Tuesday revising. Woop woop.

After today's lesson, I hopped onto the driverless monorail that goes to Odaiba, a man-made island in Tokyo Bay. This area of Tokyo is absolutely mental! The buildings are all so quirky on the outside and everything else is really kitsch. The weirdest looking structure has to be the Fuji TV building, with its floating sphere.


And, of course, there's a miniature version of the Statue of Liberty.


For some reason there is a giant model of Gundam (I think he looks like a transformer...) that moves and lights up.


Odaiba is also home to four of the biggest shopping malls I have ever seen. One even includes an amusement park, it's that big. Venus Fort is decked out on the inside to look like 'Italy':


And two floors of Decks have been turned into Hong Kong:


There's a Toyota showroom that's so big, it has its own indoor test track:


This double-act were hanging about outside one of the malls (the monkey looks genuinely unimpressed...):


And these two pretty much made my day:

Saltire blog part 4

My round up of week four is now up on the Saltire site. Check it out here.

EARTHQUAKE!

I was woken up at 5:07am today as my room was being shaken about by a magnitude 4.3 earthquake (it was 6.6 nearer the source). It took me a few seconds to work out what on earth was happening, why my bed was shaking, and why everything that I could see through my window was moving and then I pretty much sat bolt upright and thought, "what do I do now?!" Thankfully the tremors only lasted a couple of minutes, but that was long enough for me to transition from being fast asleep to being more than wide awake and very alarmed! The weirdest bit was that even when the ground had stopped shaking, my building was still swaying from side to side. My apartment is on the 8th floor... :S

I now know to be extremely careful what I wish for!

I remembered to take my coat to work today as the weather reports were saying that typhoon Etau was going to hit Tokyo today (apparently the heavy rain yesterday was just a normal tropical storm...). It rained a little for about an hour in the morning and then was sunny all afternoon. I'm pretty sure the typhoon missed Japan and headed straight to the Pacific Ocean instead. Quite glad really, I think having and earthquake AND a typhoon on the same day would be a bit much really.

Work today was good - one of the guys spent an hour explaining how they use combinations of options and interest rate swaps to make more complicated structures. It doesn't sound it, but it is actually really interesting. Hopefully I'll get to come back to this desk for a few more days to learn some more. At the end of the day I got the 'exercise book' for my course, which starts tomorrow. It basically looks like I'm going to be studying for an exam on Japanese financial law. This sales rep 2 malarky could be a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.

Mother Nature

Everybody at work todat was talking about yesterday's earthquake; I felt really left out... On one hand, I'm absolutely gutted to have missed it as there probably won't be another earthquake while I'm living here. On the other hand, I think I would have crapped myself had I been on my own when it happened - it made buildings shake and people's stuff moved around. A lot of the objects in my room were not where I left them - my fax machine was hanging off the edge of the desk. Apparently it's usually quite difficult to stay standing up in a magnitude 4.0 earthquake, which is what it was. Scary stuff!

When I got up this morning, it was raining so heavily that it was almost still dark. Thankfully, the rain had eased off a bit by the time I needed to leave for work, so I assumed that the rain was about to finish for the day and left with no jacket or coat and only a wee umbrella. This turned out to be a massive error on my part - Tokyo was hit by typhoon Etau today. Oops. I have never seen such heavy rain before!

My schedule for this week is a bit messed up because on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, I'm going to a different office for my JSDA Sales Rep exam course. I was meant to be spending the whole week with the structures desk (FX and interest rate structures for Japanese clients) but will only get two days with them this week and maybe a couple somewhere else. This is a bit of a shame as they are all really nice guys and the structures they design and price are actually pretty interesting.