The bullet trains, or Shinkansen, are one of the things that everyone associates with Japan. Anyone who travels there will inevitably ride one many times during their stay, which is why it may seem rather strange that the first and only time I went on one was in July last year, a couple of weeks before I was due to leave Japan.
I have a good reason though - they are very expensive to ride. A return trip (of about 2 hours each way) to Osaka costs something like $400! Now, all of the tourists coming to Japan are eligible for a Japan Rail pass that for a set fee (around $700 last time I heard) gives unlimited use of any of Japan's trains for 2 weeks, but I, being on a student visa, was not eligible.
Still, by July I had some money spare and so I thought I should take the chance to ride on these iconic trains! I had loved Kyoto when I visited earlier in the year, so off I went again. Luckily for me my one-night trip coincided with both the famous Gion Festival in Kyoto and a friend's birthday in nearby Osaka, so even though it was a short trip, it was jam-packed with things to do.
The following photos are from Tokyo Station, somewhere in the mountains, Kyoto, and the nearby historic town of Uji.

Exploring. It's something I love to do, no matter where I am. In Tokyo, I'd often go for a walk after dinner to explore a random side street or other, with my feet often leading me to some very interesting destinations.
When I stayed for two weeks on a small farm in the hills of the southern island Kyushu, how could I resist the opportunity to go for a walk with my camera one sunny Spring afternoon?

Today I handed up my last assignment for the semester and thus the year. What that means is that I can now relax and get around to doing some of the things I've been meaning to do for a while, such as giving this blog a much-needed update.
I don't know how many people still check this or check their emails, but I thought that there was one last adventure that people might like to hear about. Actually, if you're Facebook addicts you probably already know about this, but I don't think you've heard the whole story. Well, here goes!

It all began about a month before I was due to leave Japan. We had quickly worked out that, on the day we left, we would be returned our deposit money that we had laid down on our dormitory room almost a year earlier. This was no insignificant amount of money - it amounted to about half of a month's rent. What on earth were we to do with this money? My friend suggested I take it to the airport and get myself a new wallet at Burberry, which I kind of liked the idea of but thought that it would be a little excessive to spend all that money on such a small thing. I was going to resign myself to just keeping the money for when I got back to Australia when I had a flash of inspiration - there was still one goal of mine that I hadn't yet fulfilled...

In case you haven't picked it, this was my thought:

"What if I used the money to hire a Nissan GT-R?"

A Nissan GT-R press shot. For those of you that don't know, this is the successor to the wildly famous Skyline series and is famed for eating supercars like Ferraris and Porsche 911 Turbos for breakfast. It is known as 'Godzilla' for a very good reason.

The more I thought about it, the more I was convinced. It *had* been one of my goals before I came to Japan, one that I had publicly acknowledged. It was a goal firmly seated in the impossible category but as they always say it is these goals that are often the most surprising when they are realised.
So, what were the things holding me back? First was the cost. How much would it cost to hire a car like that? Secondly, would they let me, a 20 year old foreigner, hire one?
A quick use of google came up with some answers (this is what I learned Japanese for!). Nissan operates their own rent-a-car business in Japan, and surprise surprise, they were offering the GT-R for rent. What's more, the rental fee for a day was exactly the amount of money that I would be getting back as my dorm deposit. Syncronicity much?
When I looked closer, however, my fears were confirmed - they would only let someone that's 35 years or older hire one. You'd expect me to get a little down at this point - for if Nissan weren't letting young people hire one, what were the chances that someone else would? I did not let these discouraging thoughts dissuade me and hopped straight back into google, this time coming up with a private company. They were renting out GT-Rs, albeit for a slightly higher price, and nowhere did I see mention of a minimum age. Just in case, however, I sent them a quick email on the matter. To my delight, there were only two requirements: that you had held your licence for a minimum of a year (which to be honest is a lot of trust on their part but I guess money speaks louder than common sense), and that you had an international driving permit. I satisfied both criteria, luckily. It was only on a whim that I picked up the permit before I left for Japan...

Once the date had been settled, there was only one thing left to worry about - actually driving the thing. I had never driven in another country before! Thankfully I with my wonderful foresight had been taking part in pro-level driver training for just this very purpose!
Before I knew it the fateful day had arrived. I had decided to invite several friends along, two of who didn't turn up because they were sick / hung over. In the end it was just an American friend of mine who loved cars and my Japanese mate from the car club who owned an older-model Skyline. As the car was my doing, however, I went alone to pick it up. Let me tell you, it sure was daunting sitting in a showroom filled (literally) with a 911 Turbo, a SL63 AMG and a Rolls-Royce Phantom, all in white. Somehow my documents were accepted and before I knew it the man had handed me the keys and was ushering me out onto the busy road. What on earth was he thinking?

The hire car showroom.

The car was in auto mode to start with. Set like this, gear changes were smooth and unnoticeable and I could almost convince myself that this was just an ordinary car. I quickly figured out how to put the car in manual mode (what would be the point if I hired it just to leave it in auto?) but didn't really get a chance to stretch its legs for quite a while. In fact, I was caught in a traffic jam! Still, it gave me time to fiddle around with the many knobs and buttons in the car, as well as the touchscreen navigation/entertainment system.
Eventually, though, I made it to the dorm where I picked up my friends. I had pulled a sneaky one and not told my Japanese friend what car I was hiring - needless to say, he was surprised.

Outside the dorm.

Our destination for the day was to be a beach - any beach. We decided in the end on Atami, a seaside town that was quite famous for its hot springs but also featuring a lovely little bay. It would take a couple of hours to get there, along the highways and across some hills, which sounded just perfect.

It was with a sigh of relief and great anticipation that we finally reached the highway. Here was finally a chance to let the car stretch its legs! And let me tell you, stretch it could. With a quick glance to make sure that there were no cameras or policemen nearby, I put my foot down as I was merging into the traffic. HOLY COW that thing was fast! With a roar of fury from the engine in front of us and exhaust behind us we were thrust back into our seats by the sheer force of the acceleration. In no time at all the revs had hit the limiter and the car quickly and brutally changed up into second gear, seemingly without any loss in acceleration. By the time I looked down at the speedo, we were doing 130km/h and I decided that was probably a good point to back off. Now, the speed limit on Japanese highways was nominally 80, but my friend had informed me that the cameras don't catch you unless you go something around 140 or 150 (which is an excellent system in my opinion). He also kindly informed me that they often have speed cameras set up in tunnels, after I had already wound down my windows and sampled the sound from the four large exhausts. Thankfully there was no camera in that tunnel...

Anyway, here are some photos of our drive and time at the beach:

Who needs to respect parking conventions when you have a GT-R?

The beach at Atami.

I think the question we need to ask ourselves here is 'Why not?'.

A beautiful old castle overlooked the bay.

The seaside roads we drove along were simply stunning.

My friend swears to me that this Subaru was driven by an extremely attractive young woman.

Unfortunately, the promised hill-roads were at best a let down and at worst downright dangerous. The former was the case on a stretch of roads that was beautifully smooth, wide and cambered where we were STUCK behind a van that was doing the exact speed limit.
The terrifying part came when I decided to let one of my friends drive. It was his first time a) driving in Japan, b) driving right-hand-drive and c) driving on the left side of the road, but none of these had any bearing on what was to happen. I had pulled off a lovely coastal road onto a side-street to let him drive for a little. It was a narrow road and we couldn't do a u-turn right there, so I suggested he drive up the road a little. As we drove, the road rapidly became narrower and narrower and rock walls sprung up on both sides. My friend was starting to get a little nervous, but when our worst fears were realised and a car appeared in front of us he began to freak out. The road was too narrow for them to get by easily so we decided to back it up a little - only for a taxi to appear behind us. Yikes! We were on a tiny street, hemmed in on both sides by rock walls and at the front and back by cars. My friend did the sensible thing and just stayed still, letting the other cars (obviously locals) squeeze past and miraculously we made it through without a scratch. Unfortunately I only took one photo at the time...

...and then a car was spied coming in the other direction.

All in all, it was an amazing experience and definitely the best possible use I could have made with my deposit money. What was even more amazing was that my parents didn't kill me when I told them about it ;)

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As I write this, I am back in Adelaide and have been for over a week. It's hard to believe that my exchange year in Japan passed so quickly - it seems like only yesterday when I was excitedly receiving my certificate of acceptance from Waseda in the mail.
At the same time, though, the time I spent in Japan is quite a long period and one that divides the old, pre-Japan me and the me that is writing this blog post now. In my time in Japan, I made a whole new network of friends, both Japanese and international. I grew familiar with the area around my dorm and the university to an extent that I began to think of it as 'home' - something that I felt when returning to Tokyo from time spent in other parts of Japan or in Korea. I also gained increasing confidence in my Japanese abilities, remarking to one (Japanese) friend how our conversations started in English in September last year and were one hundred percent Japanese by the time we said our goodbyes.
All of these things contributed to Japan becoming a large part of me and my life, whether that is immediately obvoious now or not. I know that the things I have learned and the people I have met during my time abroad will continue to have lasting influences on my life - for the better, I hope.

I am sorry that there are no photos to accompany this post but I promise that there will be some photos to look at in the near future. At the moment I have rough plans for two more posts - one regarding the things that I miss and don't miss from Japan, and one regarding a certain adventure I undertook a couple of days before I left Tokyo...

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Somehow, it's July already. Time sure has flown - it really does seem like yesterday when I arrived here in Tokyo, eyes open in wonder at the big city sights and brain in confusion with the millions of things I had to adjust to.

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Every Monday evening, right before we start our club activities (but after the compulsory gathering), we undertake something known as 「ラジオ体操」or, in English, Radio Gymnastics.

This tradition, which I have no idea when it originated but strongly suspect it was sometime in the post-war 50s, begins with removing the tiny, battery-powered mono cassette (!) player from the storage room. This task is, of course, relegated to a first year student. After the device has been removed and placed in a suitable position, we spread out in a large circe in the garage or, if as in the above photo we are outside, in rows according to year-level. The play button is pushed, and the gymnastics begin.

What follows is something that conjures up in my mind a mix of Play School, 1984 and 50s socialism (which, believe you me, Japan was). The piano starts playing and a man with a kind and all-too-happy voice begins counting sets of eight while briefly explaining the exercises. Of course, right away I am reminded of the piano man in Play School, who I remember being excited at seeing whenever they rarely showed him ("So that's where the music came from!"). This Play School connection is futher enhanced by the fact that some of the things we do strongly resemble a piano-accompanied activity that I often partook in whilst watching the show - 'Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes', anyone?

Needless to say, I was struggling to contain a grin the first time I partook in this activity. The Korean student to my right, however, was not so successful, and burst out with laughter. None of this fazed the Japanese students though. They have apparently been doing this exact same exercise since they were little children in primary school and as such all knew the moves by heart. Not one of them batted an eyelid when they found out that we had to continue those same activities as university students!

The longer I stay in Japan, the more I realise just how fundamentally different our cultures are. It goes all the way down to our ways of thinking - distilled down to a very basic level, it's individualism vs. what's best for the group. But I won't go into such a discussion in this post, as it only has one photo, and I'll probably kill people with boredom.

(PS: The above photo was taken at the recent trip out to the University's practice grounds in Niigata Prefecture. I snuck in this photo while no-one was looking - it turned out pretty well, I think!)



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