Welcome to Maid Spin, the personal website of iklone. I write about about otaku culture as well as history, philosophy and mythology.
My interests range from anime & programming to mediaevalism & navigation. Hopefully something on this site will interest you.
I'm a devotee of the late '90s / early '00s era of anime, as well as a steadfast lover of maids. My favourite anime is Mahoromatic. I also love the works of Tomino and old Gainax.
To contact me see my contact page.
^The magnificent Fukuyama-jou.
With my itinerary being what it is, the first half of the trip was naturally going to include a lot of travel, which I don't mind since travelling by train is fun, especially with the access interest of the complex and often confusing Japanese rail system. Starting out from Nagasaki Station, the Kamome Line took us through Saga Prefecture to Fukuoka city. The line is half converted into high-speed, which meant we actually had to swap trains halfway through. This wasn't any problem though since it was waiting for us on the opposite platform as we arrived at the swapover point at Takeo-Onsen, a feat which would seem like magic on the British rail network.
From Fukuoka I took the Sanyo Shinkansen through the Shimonoseki Strait Tunnel which connects the islands of Kyushu and Honshu. I left Kyushu feeling disappointed I had hardly explored her at all, but this trip is about quick stops and I'm sure I'll be back one day. From their the train sped through the Chuugoku peninsula at 200mph, quickly reaching my destination of Fukuyama in Hitoshima Prefecture.
My intention was then to change onto the local line to go straight to Onomichi, my destination for the night, but as we pulled in to Fukuyama City her giant white castle just opposite the station persuaded me otherwise. It was free to look around the grounds, and it was all very impressive. As seems to be common with Japanese castles, which are all built from wood on tall stone foundations, the keep itself is not original and was reconstructed in just 1966. Building with stone was and is very rare here, mostly due to its weakness to earthquakes, with all traditional Japanese architectural styles being wood-based.
In the grounds was an exceptionally lovely teahouse set in a manicured garden, and inside was a temporary exhibition of "hina dolls" for the upcoming Hinamatsuri Festival. Hina dolls are ornamental bisque dolls with delicate clothing, at out in a ordered pattern representing the household of a daimyo (feudal lord) with his queen, head maids, personal guards, advisors, and various objects & furniture. They were amazingly well crafted.
After this sidequest I did in fact alight my train for Onomichi, which run every 30mins or so anyway. Onomichi is a small coastal town I picked out for no particular reason other than it split the journey to Osaka in two, but it turned out to be a good choice. It sits on the Seto Inland Sea which separates the mainland of Honshu from the island of Shikoku. The sea is littered with a thousand little islands between which span bridges and tunnels: in fact you can cycle from Onomichi to Shikoku in a day, something I wish I'd known earlier. I arrived in the afternoon, and spent an hour looking around the waterfront (which indeed feels more like a river because the nearest island is so close). It was here I discovered the cycling opportunity, got excited about it, and then got disappointed when I was told I couldn't rent a bike for tomorrow. Oh well; it would have made my timings difficult anyway.
My hotel was situated at the top of a hill, the height of which I underestimated. The higher I climbed the better the view got, and at the summit was an observation platform with a stunning view across the Seto Sea. There was yet another ropeway up to this spot, and there were loads of people taking photographs in the fastidious Japanese fashion as the sun set over the western horizon. My hotel was just under this platform and was quite a highclass place, although I had booked it last minute for what was obviously a much reduced price. It had a common room with free tea and a bay window looking down on the town. As well as being touristy, the town also had a sizeable string of industrial wharfs stretching along coast towards a suspension bridge. This inclusion of modern industrial within a "beauty spot" isn't something you tend to find in Britain where we like to hide it away. I had a quiet evening and turned in.
^The view across Onomichi & the Seto Inland Sea from my hotel..
I woke up early the next morning and took a bath before breakfast, which was a traditional Japanese affair: lots of little compartments in a bento box containing many unknowns, some very tasty and some terrifying. I was given a little introduction to the menu, but it didn't help much in my comprehension so I just had to appreciate them all based solely on taste. After breakfast I left the hotel and descended the hill down the opposite side. Here were several temple compounds housing Buddhist monks who are apparently famous for their poetic and literary output. I've always found the Shinto beliefs far more appealing than the Buddhist in Japan, with the exotic smells and chants of the Zen Monks feeling unnerving to me in a way the outward simplicity and straight-forwardness of Shinto shrines do not. Luckily there were also several shrines around, one which was dedicated to cats (including many felines, both of stone and flesh), and another used to house the holy relic of Tenjin's yukata sleeve, which is known for its ability to inspire poetry in those who revere it. Although it is still too early for their full bloom, plenty of sakura blossom had started to bud, and the sight along with the still visible view across the sea was beautiful that morning; and I had it almost entirely to myself.
I spent longer than anticipated amongst the shrines and winding paths at the foot of the hill, so once I reached central Onomichi again it was nearing midday. I decided to try Onomichi's famous ramen. It was good, although my ramen-expertise is clearly not very deep since I couldn't for the life of me work out how this was any different to the default version, but the cook (and his advertising) assured me it was one-of-a-kind, and I wasn't in a position to argue.
The next train brought me back up to the Shinkansen line, which then zipped me across the remainder of Hiroshima and Okayama Prefectures, dropping me off somewhere altogether familiar. We'd come to Shin-Kobe Station during my first trip, and it was the first time I had crossed paths with anywhere I'd been (unless you count Haneda Terminal). But my visit was brief, as I was only connecting there onto the local line which would bring me over into Osaka proper. But first I wanted to visit a town called "Nishinomiya" which sits in the urban sprawl between the centres of Osaka and Kobe. A decidedly unassuming town, Nishinomiya was on my list because it's the setting of the Haruhi Suzumiya series close to my heart. I'd made a little map beforehand of the various spots I wanted to visit such as the train station, Endless 8 cafe, park and school. Again I explored here for longer than expected, finding it fun to look around such an untouristy town. In the show Kyon often complains about the hill he has to climb each day to school, and now I can say for sure he was not exaggerating: that hill is insanely tiring, no wonder he always walked his bike up it. It was nearly dark by the time I got back onto the train, and I only had an hour or so before my rendezvous with E-san & co.
My hotel for that night was of a style often romanticised for its oriental oddness, the capsule hotel. In reality they are far more mundane than you imagine: really its just a big bunkbed with surround curtains for a little more privacy. And with the amazingly low price its a style I think would be welcome in Western cities like London where space is short and hotels are extortionate. Anyway I quickly dropped off my stuff before wading out into the increasingly thick throngs of Friday-night revellers of Umeda, Osaka. We were to meet somewhere outside of Umeda Station, which I'm sure usually I'd have no trouble finding but this time I of course made a pig's ear of it and was a good 15mins late after getting lost in the underground maze of Umeda Station and shopping centre.
The evening ended up being great. We got a table at an Okonomiyaki place and bought a selection of flavours, along with side-dishes and drinks. E-san was there, along with some others from various corners of Kansai. It was good chatting with them and enjoying my second-favourite food from Osaka. I ended the day stumbling back into my capsule somewhere around midnight, trying my hardest (with an unknown level of success) to make no noise as I did so. And that was the end of the "first portion" of my trip, where from now on I would be solo-travelling further into the depths of inner-Japan than ever before...
