I'm getting slack... a little catch-up - Tue 5 Jun

Hi folks!

I've been slack recently with the blog, sorry! Perhaps a quick rundown, so I feel like I've caught up a bit, and can keep up with newer news? No pictures, yukko, but I'll amend and extend a bit later on, will mention when/if I do!

• Finished up at the bee farm with a fascinating final day, observing the bee sting therapy on a 24 year old male cancer patient. Boss pulled out a sting at a time from a living bee with tweezers, then applied it to the patient's skin as he writhed.
• Spent five nights in Osaka with Byron, a neuroscience researcher from Altanta, Georgia, in town for a conference. Bummed in a fancy room with him at ANA Hotel, Osaka, the best service I've ever had a hotel by a mile. Over the week, infected Byron with karaoke; checked out the view from the Umeda Sky Building at sunset; showed Byron the glittering Dootombori strip in Osaka; went to see ten or so relocated farmhouses demonstrating various historical architectural styles; had a really frustrating day of tourism in Kyoto with a myriad of mishaps, but managed to see a geisha dance performance and go on a geisha spotting tour.
• Returned to my dodgy business hotel in Osaka for one night, enjoyed watching a stream of Japanese guys pick videos from the semi-hidden bookcase of adult videos while I blogged and emailed.
• Had a highly successful day of sightseeing in Kyoto, despite pouring rain all day. Saw the things I'd wanted to and missed a couple of days back - Sumiya, a 400 year old entertainment/tea house; a cool "spy-house"-like Edo period home with secret staircases and hiding places galore; and the palace at Nijo castle.
• Had a last night of karaoke in Osaka with Take and stayed at Kinki Hotel. Yep.
• Narrowly avoided having nowhere to sleep on a Saturday night in Tokyo when my arranged host said I couldn't stay because "the house is a mess", before relenting. :O
• Spent Sunday arvo to Friday arvo at an organic farm with a family where the parents make pottery. Dad is Japanese, mum is Austrian, serious world travellers. Made a sake jug and sake cups, but they won't be baked for 3 months and I'm unlikely ever to get them. Did lots of weeding, and weed trimming with a somewhat scary hand-held rotary blade mower. Was kicked out of the house each day after dinner by tradtion, to my own detached room, in the name of mutual privacy, but it was a bit lonely and I got the keens up to be back with my lovely people in Melbourne. Re-read "Memoirs of a Geisha", looking forward to seeing the movie and spotting places I saw in Kyoto and being a know-all but keeping it to myself.
• Took up an invitation from a guest from my first WWOOF host, Shalom Hutte, Iwasa-san, to stay with her and her husband outside of Tokyo. Spent three lovely nights with them. They are fun, open-hearted folks. Calculated and recalculated my baggage maths after finding out that my Deloitte-legacy Gold Frequent Flyer status will get me an extra 10 kilos. Shopped more. There are kitchy little presents coming! Went to Harajuku, met up with 5 of my co-volunteer staff from Shalom Hutte in Nagano, and checked out what Gwen Stefano kept on about in her last album, GOOD photo ops. Left my luggage with the Iwasas and headed out with a backpack of clothes to meet with Hiroshi Kawara from BGS for dinner, before a little night out in Shinjuku and finally having my stay in a capsule hotel. I was stationed next to THE snorer, eventually gave up on being well behaved and just relocated myself to another capsule in the hope that it wouldn't result in me being woken by the staff and told off, and got away with it.
• Bussed out to Mt Fuji area. Fuji was invisible on arrival behind a not-infrequent modesty belt of clouds, and turns out to have very few buses toward the climbing areas and still fa-reezing temperatures, so not looking particularly climbable for an Oxfam flunky like me. Gave up on that nice plan. Plan B, am staying tonight at an 80s-ish resort with outdoor baths with a view over one of the massive lakes at Fujisan's feet, and Fujisan making occasional dim guest appearances through the mist. If my sleep debt doesn't interfere, hoping to wake to see if the mountain is feeling flashier after sunrise at 4:30 tomorrow. Depending on weather (cloud-muffler) conditions, will either go to a viewing platform by cable car or check out Edo-period inns and a shrine at a nearby area. Then intend to bus up for a hike around one of the 5th Stations (midway along the 10 station mountaineering climb). Apparently, the clouds are below the 5th Stations.

Plans to come:

• scrape in my last of Tokyo. Wishlist includes art, views, cutting edge architecture, megaclubs, live music, walking neon streets, clothes shopping and the last of my gift shopping, a flea market, toy stores, electric city, a cultural show if it's on (bunraku puppety or noo dance drama). I've got bugger-all chance of doing all that between Wednesday night and Sunday night, see how we go.
• Sunday night, off to my last WWOOF host at Yamanashi prefecture, a cafe and little farm. The real selling point for me is experiencing a small village.