Midworld Nomad

I recently undertook a project to focus more on using Social networks as a means to so the travel blogging side of things. As a result i’m backing up my main site articles, in full, here on tumblr.

I’ll post this disclaimer at the start of all of them:

The Christmas fallout. I experience this every year and never seem to prepare properly. It may be a first world problem but it’s a prevalent one for me. I have too many games to play.

I admit my inspiration for this came from a Penny Arcade posttoday of the same typing but I was thinking this very thought yesterday when i saw Dark Souls on sale for £3.74.

Over December and the Christmas period i’ve found myself in a situation where I have too many games to play and no self control on focusing on one at a time. My dilemma comes from my purchase of a shiny new 3DS XL. Thanks to this and the Nintendo EShop I find myself needing to complete 2 Zelda games, breed my vs team on Pokemon X, play Mario 3D Land & the Sega classic Altered Beast. With A Link Between Worlds(now done to 100%, my Shadow link is a sight to behold with his 999 Bounty) & Ocarina of Time 3D (Already on the Spirit temple in only 5 days) representing the biggest hit to my time.

I then have to couple this with the Xbox bounty over Christmas including GTA V, Deadpool, Lego Marvel & Assassins Creed IV. I’ve ended up playing all of these at once meaning i’m just stuck midway through all of them and annoyed. Honestly I shouldn’t have added Dark Souls to that list… but it was just, so, cheap!

It’s a problem, but a problem i’m glad to be dealing with. I just need to find the time to watch all of the oscar nominated movies now as well. February will represent a big hit to my free time.

I recently undertook a project to focus more on using Social networks as a means to so the travel blogging side of things. As a result i’m backing up my main site articles, in full, here on tumblr.

I’ll post this disclaimer at the start of all of them:

I’m a late blossomer to the travel writing scene, it started for me a couple of years following the trip to Japan i’ve outlined quite thoroughly here already. That trip changed my outlook on things and has instilled a strong desire to travel and also, to write about the experience.I launched a few travel blog attempts from this, the most recent attempt was this wonderful little WordPress.

This has now been retired following an eye opening day at the travel bloggers conference‘Traverse’. Back in January I received an email from my friend Lee (who has alsodeveloped this bug) suggesting that we might want to check it out. I quickly accepted and the tickets and hostel were booked soon after and before we knew it we were off toBrighton for a couple of days.

This weekend was an engaging experience for me. Heading off for my first travel blogging conference and I honestly had no real idea exactly what to expect. Indeed at the meet and greet session on the Friday night myself and Lee felt ever so slightly out of our depth.

Luckily the infusion of drinks soon helped this situation and we got talking to a lot of people, ranging all the way from travel company reps from Expedia to the professional travel bloggers such as Julie Falconer (A Lady in London) & Jodi Ettenberg (Legal Nomads) to name but a few. Needless to say the benefits of attending this were beginning to show themselves. After a few ciders and the enticing open bar we headed back to rest up for the next day.

The next morning we headed to the conference centre where Traverse was being held and checked in, were given our itineries, chose the courses we wanted to see and off we went.

I ended up choosing to attend Going Freelance, Travel Writing, Video Editing & Social Media. Those links behind link directly to the notes I took, they are still just drafts but you can pick up on recommended sites, patterns and ideas from them. Once I write them up properly i’ll update these links accordingly. I didn’t get notes on the Video course as it didn’t feel like the sort of talk you could annotate.

Having spent the day doing this and taking in an incredible amount of very helpful information I quickly came to realise something regarding my old blog.

I was doing this all wrong

It was around lunchtime the idea happened and as a result the new Midworld Nomad site you just visited was born from this. As time goes on it will continue to evolve but I hope you like the change so far.

The finale of the event was an hour-long, debate hosted by Kevin May with Carol Driver,Jodi Ettenberg, Ruth Haffenden and Will Peach on the panel. Where questions were taken, opinions deffered and I once again picked up a lot of useful tips. Most still need to be implemented but i’m on track for this in the future.

After the day had wound down we all headed off to dump our bags and freshen up before we headed to the after Party, once again an open bar was provided and much drinking and dancing (along with some amazing renditions of Bon Jovi ) occured. There were also some prizes given out in the forms of various short trips and cruises.

Then once this ended we headed back to an amazing apartment in Brighton where a house party continued until the early hours and I have a great memory of me & Lee returning from a beer run to be hailed as heroes. Good times!

The next morning it continued still as a large collection of hungover bloggers all congregated for a provided breakfast in an effort to placate our now rebellious stomachs before a photo walk of Brighton began. Following this everyone went their separate ways and the conference came to a close. It was a great experience and the value for money was absolutely incredible.

Traverse have now announced next year’s conference to be held in Newcastle and I am most certainly planning on attending. It will do wonders if you harbor any sort of ambition like this and would recommend it to everyone.

I recently undertook a project to focus more on using Social networks as a means to so the travel blogging side of things. As a result i’m backing up my main site articles, in full, here on tumblr.

I’ll post this disclaimer at the start of all of them:

I’ve got to be honest here, once i checked in and had a look around i wasn’t that impressed. It felt like just another city like london and unfortunately it proved to be. Although seeing the human rights museum was an eye opener on how much people with Hansens disease were persecuted against. I seriously recommend checking it out, but remember to get the audio tour as there are no english signs. Other notable place i saw here was the Shitteno-Ji Temple, Osaka castle and the Floating Garden Observatory.

Now while i was in Osaka i got some extremely irritating news that put me in the mood to drink and this was where Osaka saved itself! In one bar i found, all drinks were 500 yen and they didn’t measure shots. That meant i was getting about 5 whiskeys for around £4… I got tipsy that night, however the second night was exceptional. I found a bar called Murphys on the 6th floor of a building and it was incredible. I was drinking Whiskey and beer chasers, got chatting to the people who were in there. Started chatting to the manager who gave me loads of advice on how to move here permanently if i wanted to and he even gave me a free Jagerbomb. It was epic! They also had Irish music being played by a group in the corner and it was just a great atmosphere. I’d like to revisit on a weekend one day, see it in full swing.

Now i don’t remember getting home this night but i have since had a few flashbacks and clues as to what happened. As far as i can tell i walked to the station, got my first train ok but missed my connection. I then drew out what i thought was 3000 yen and got a cab back that cost 1000 Yen so i gave the driver a note, got out and possibly died at my hostel.

Upon waking up confused as to why i wasn’t in Romford i got up, emptied my pockets and found a receipt saying i withdrew 30,000 Yen… meaning i paid 10,000 for my cab… that was a shitter, but i’ve justified it by the fact that the cab driver possibly saved my life that night so he earned it.

I finished Osaka with a trip to the Pokemon Centre, the biggest in the world! I spent a fortune, the staff were amazing and they gave me some freebies because i was so excited!! I couldn’t wait to visit the Tokyo one when I got back there!

I recently undertook a project to focus more on using Social networks as a means to so the travel blogging side of things. As a result i’m backing up my main site articles, in full, here on tumblr.

I’ll post this disclaimer at the start of all of them:

I accidentally got an all stopper and it took about an hour to get there. I then found the directions and began the walk to Nara park

Once i made it to the park i was astounded by what i saw. In London all we get are pigeons flying about and crapping on us, in Japan, as far as the eye can see, wild deer! They were beautiful and completely at ease being surrounded by people, although there were still signs up telling you not to piss them off and don’t be surprised if the bite or ram you as they are wild. Brilliant!

So after stroking a few deer i noticed the Ichino-Torii gate from a distance but elected to return to it after my hike through the park so i turned left and started with the Kofuku-Ji Temple and its Five Story Pagoda. Following this i started to make my way to the main reason of my trip here. The Todai-Ji Temple is the biggest building in the world made only from wood and my god it was impressive.

It was the first building i’d visited that charged for entrance but it was worth it. Once you get next to it you really appreciate just what a feat it was to have built. Inside you’re confronted with a giant statue of Great Buddha Vairocana and then as you walk around you see equally impressive statues of various guardians and other people whom were considered enlightened.

As i left this building i took a few more pictures and then headed towards the Nigatsu-Do & Sangatsu-Do temples and the Kasuga Grand Shrine. It was at this moment i realised that i’d finally had enough of seeing temples. There’s so bloody many of them!

I finished by visiting the Ichino-Torii gate properly and then made my way back towards the station. It’s worth noting that at one point i got quite unnerved by the deer, it was very quiet and i was on my own. At that point a deer noticed me and refused to look away, then a gang of his mates came over and started staring, i nodded but they just kept watching me and tracked me all the way down the path. It was like The Birds… but with Deer… Amazing!!!

Having arrived back in Kyoto (Fast train this time, Win!) i headed to the pub i found yesterday to write up the day. I noticed they actually stocked Bulmers and my god it tasted good after so long on just beer! Smackdown was also on the TV so that was just grand. I took my time and bumped into a few people from the hostel so we went and got food from this rice bowl place before heading back for our final night of free Sake.

Next morning i packed up and checked out but decided to have one last crack at finding Geisha, was given a tip to head towards the Kiyomizu temple so off i went! After the 45 minute walk i checked out the temple (another bloody one!) and had a wander of the grounds, burial sites and various surrounding streets but after almost 2 hours had to once again surrender. Shit.

So then it was time for Osaka, i returned to collect my bags, said goodbye to those still there and made my way to the Station to make the journey to Osaka.

I recently undertook a project to focus more on using Social networks as a means to so the travel blogging side of things. As a result i’m backing up my main site articles, in full, here on tumblr.

I’ll post this disclaimer at the start of all of them:

So next I got my things together and set off to make the walk to Fushimi Inari in the south of Kyoto, it took about an hour and in truth was pretty uneventful, it turns out that much like London, all the good stuff is mostly north of the river!

Anyway, i arrived, got my camera out to take a picture of the entrance gate. the battery was dead. fuck.

It was at this moment I broke my rule about using the tube system as i’d be damned if i was walking all of that again! So after a quick tube ride, a battery charger and some lunch I made my way back (on the tube again) and continued where i left off, just about 2 hours later than planned.

So i take the first picture and out of nowhere it starts absolutely pissing it down, go figure.

Undeterred i continued on until i saw the first big run of gates, it looks amazing and i recommend you visit this if you ever come out here. Now i missed a sign as i went in and decided i was going to climb to the top as there couldn’t be many of them right?

After 2 hours of an uphill climb it came to light that there were over 1300 of the bloody things, all over the place, all uphill, and it was raining. In truth i’m not sure if i actually managed to whole course but i can guarantee i gave it a damn good go.

So now i walked to a different station and rode the tube back into town before walking back to Kyoto station and decided to seek out an irish pub i’d heard about on the west side of the station. After some searching (it’s a very big station) i managed to find it and crossed my fingers that a repeat of the tottenham game would be screening… they were showing bloody baseball… i went in anyway and ordered a well earned pint and sat down for a bit in the dry. Also beer is very expensive out here, watch out for that one.

While sitting here i saw 2 things that entertained me. The first was a bottle of Galliano (Spaced fans take note) and the second was a japanese man in full on, traditional robes chain smoking and downing guiness. It was amazing! Suddenly as I finished my pint Nickleback came on in the pub, so I quickly left.

Got back to the Hostel to find everyone in the communal area, so sat down to join them and soon the conversation was in full flow. From here the best evening i’ve had in Japan occurred. I can’t fully remember everything that happened but it all started with 3 bottles of Sake and led to the following events:

Mario training, iPad games, a Beer run, arranging to visit a flea market, shithead, an attempt at Poker and more drinking.

It was fun, i woke up feeling rubbish. Top stuff.

With this i went downstairs to book a couple of extra nights, i’d discovered i should be able to do Nara in a day and i really liked it here so figured why not. Kyoto was easily my favourite place in Japan and i’m dying to return.

Soon after I got my stuff together and myself and a girl called Katie who was staying at the hostel made our way to a Flea Market in the Toji temple, i’ve just discovered this only happens once a month so suddenly i feel even better that i managed to visit it. While there i ate Squid balls (you could see bits of tentacle), took some photos of the temple and bought a nice art print of Mt Fuji. We then got completely lost leaving the market but managed to get back to Kyoto station where i boarded the train to Nara for the day!

I recently undertook a project to focus more on using Social networks as a means to so the travel blogging side of things. As a result i’m backing up my main site articles, in full, here on tumblr.

I’ll post this disclaimer at the start of all of them:

So on arrival in Kyoto I hunted down and checked into the Tour Club hostel in Kyoto, they give out free Saki at 8pm every night.. I can not recommend this place enough!

This is also the place where I had the privilege of meeting the best people I met whilst on this holiday. I’m looking at you Katie Farguer, Lenka Svobodova, Mirek Cholewinski Greg Gontarez & Grace Dela Rosa Gontarz (Plus all the others I never got to add on Facebook). Seriously. Kyoto… Awesome.

It’s worth noting at this point that far from the scenes of disaster that were filling up the TV screens I found that people were getting on with it and there was no major disruption from any of it. Plus everyone is so bleeding polite and you feel you have to try harder for them as well. Also, the streets are incredibly clean.

After I checked in I quickly headed out to explore the nearby area by my hostel and soon found the Nishi- Honganji Temple which I was allowed to explore a bit and see some of the more exceptional buildings that i’ve seen on this trip. This was closely followed by the Koshoji Temple Police situated next door to the previous temple.

I then crossed town to the Higashi-hunganji temple which was an extremely large site. Whilst walking around this temple I noticed that a 750th anniversary celebration was being set up and vowed to investigate what this was.

I have now discovered that it’s the 750th anniversary of the temple itself being built. Very cool, i’ll try and pop down when the celebrations are in full swing.

I then popped to the second house restaurant for dinner and then brought a pack of beer before retiring to the hostel for sake tasting, the champions league draw (COYS!) and various chats with travellers before crashing for the night.

Next morning having not slept a lot owing to the wanker with the snoring problem, I packed up and began the walk to Ponotocho Alley whereby I hoped to spy a Geisha or 2 and hopefully get a photo. However after to walks of the area I spotted none, not to be disheartened I decided to go check a few temples and then try again later in the day. As I turned the corner at the north end of the alley I discovered a river with an attempt at a beach built into the bank (ie they’d put down sand) and then spotted something very cool. There was a map of Japan laid out on the floor and the island itself was made out of hundreds of pictures of Japanese citizens. Around the island people from all over had been signing it and sending messages to those affected. I quickly picked up a pen and signed it before I started talking to the guy who was doing it all who gave me his business card and explained he was doing it purely as a project to put online so people could see that others were thinking of Japan. Very cool.

I also met a female student who was being deported from the country as a result of the earthquake. She’s been here a year and her school have told her that if she stays, she’ll fail the year. Not so cool. But they both seem upbeat about everything so I said my goodbyes and headed off towards the temples.

 I soon arrived at a rather large temple site that seemed to incorporate the San-Mon Shrine, the Shoren-In Temple, the Yu-Zen gardens and the Heian Jingu Temple as well. I quickly got the camera out and walked into the area.

 It was absolutely stunning, being the weekend a lot of people had turned out to pay their respects and pray for the victims of the Earthquake. It was a very somber, sobering affair an it was hard to to get involved in it all. I even attended a prayer ceremony in the Shoren-In temple which was quite an experience, although I apologise to those sitting near me as i’m sure my feet stank!

Finding this site was a bit of an eye opener though, being in a place of remembrance and respect during the current crisis and seeing everyone paying respect and really made it hit home.

 After this I ended up walking through the old burial sites near to the shrine before spotting a gate that I assumed would lead to more of the same.

I was wrong.

What followed was me ending up on an absolutely massive hike up the hillside valleys of Kyoto, I remember just after starting it I kept thinking that I should head back but also figured one more marker couldn’t hurt.. eventually I simply needed to know what was at the top!

I was well rewarded though, the view from the highest point on the hike was breathtaking and I genuinely hope the pictures will do it justice. I also recorded a quick video of it just in case, however I have no idea where I saved that so a picture will have to do for now. Apologies.

After taking the view in for about 10 minutes I started my descent, I figured i’d head down a different path just to mix things up a bit. When I reached the bottom I found an unnamed temple and as I looked over the horizon I spotted something I hoped i’d find. The Heian Gate. I’d found a place to aim for and was determined. So I headed down from the temple, turned a corner… and found myself in somebody’s back garden… I quickly exited walked down a few streets and managed to find a main road but of course I was still completely lost so I did what I always do in these situations. Guessed a direction and went.

I found the gate.

It was breathtaking, now I had an idea as to where I was I found a local map and decided the best course of action was to head in the direction of the river and then work out if I needed to go north or south based on that. After walking for about 20 minutes I eventually found it and managed to spot the bridge i’d crossed previously to the south so I walked towards that and then attempted Ponotocho Alley again which, much to my disappointment, was still seriously lacking in Geisha, I realised now i’d have to give up for the day. The hike had taken a long time and it was starting to get dark so I went and got some food and headed back to the Hostel to rest up a bit with a power nap as all this daily activity is killing me.

2 hours later I popped downstairs for the evenings drinking and was told by Katie that I should head to the Arioshima district to continue my Geisha search. I then realised what the time was and quickly got the scorecentre up for Spurs v West Ham which led to the inevitable conversation about football between most of the room. Mission accomplished!

Next I hoping to make it to the Fushimi Inari (The Red Gate Trail) and then find a pub showing a replay of the aforementioned game, needed to have a quiet one after that bloody hike!

I recently undertook a project to focus more on using Social networks as a means to so the travel blogging side of things. As a result i’m backing up my main site articles, in full, here on tumblr.

I’ll post this disclaimer at the start of all of them:

You’ll have to make do with an incredibly short Japan repost here, I will be rewriting all of this but i’m feeling a need to ensure more content is available, even if it is old and only averagely written!

I’m only covering Mt Fuji here as Kyoto deserves it’s own sections. I figured I should post a little bit more on this,

Anyway as I stepped off the bus at Lake Kawaguchi-ko I quickly had 2 thoughts, the first was that It was as far removed as i could have expected, peaceful, quiet. The second? I had no idea where the place I was planning on staying was. I had no booking, no internet and no idea. Plus I soon realised that thanks to the earthquakes I had arrived during a rolling blackout.

So after much panic I, rather luckily, worked out where my hostel was thanks to some incredibly rough attempt at translation using my guide book, booked in, found my room and before the dust had even settled I headed off, camera in hand, down to Lake Kawaguchi-ko.

The lake was massive, the walk around it was 16 km and I must confess, I did not walk it all. I wandered around it until it started to get dark, got a lot of good pictures and learned a lot by reading up on the history of the place thanks to conveniently placed information boards before finally going back towards the hostel.

I then walked closer to Mt Fuji for some pictures but didn’t get far. Ideally you need to get a bus to the foot holes of the mountain and be there in July or August to climb the damn thing! One day I will return to venture up it but not for a while, my priority is to get back their next spring at the latest.

I didn’t last much longer after this as I was still enveloped in the last remaining vestiges of jet lag and after having a good dinner I swiftly passed out.

The next Morning I packed up my things and headed back to Tokyo, this was also a challenge as I had no idea how to buy a ticket back, luckily an English speaker at my hostel helped me out here. I got on the bus and began the journey back, I spoke to a very busy environmental biologist on the bus back, wonder why he was busy? After we arrived my plan was to jump straight on board the Shinkansen Bullet Train, this proved to be much easier to sort out a ticket for and I can’t lie, I genuinely haven’t been that excited about a train since I was 5. It advertised it would take 2 hours 18 minutes to travel the 350 miles to Kyoto. It took exactly 2 hours and 18 minutes! Eat that National Rail!

I arrived in Kyoto with a hostel I had been recommended by my friend Shaun and I headed straight there, for the record it was the Tour Club hostel in Kyoto, they give out free Saki at 8pm every night.. The next post will cover the part of the holiday I enjoyed the most. Kyoto was truly amazing!

I recently undertook a project to focus more on using Social networks as a means to so the travel blogging side of things. As a result i'm backing up my main site articles, in full, here on tumblr.

I'll post this disclaimer at the start of all of them:

I relaunched my Travel blog after attending an incredibly informative conference organised by Traverse Events. I learnt so much that I very quickly refused to give out the old blog address as I simply wasn’t very impressed by what it represented. I felt that if I were to make an impact and garner any sort of attention it needed a more professional feel to both the site design and my approach to the articles.

With this in mind we will  now visit Japan once again but told in a different direction. Partly as i’m in dire need of content, secondly to change how i’ve written about this. However given the time that has passed it’s harder to revisit in my head. At least i’m planning on returning next year! Beforehand my write up of this was nothing but a step by step, here’s what I did. Interesting at the time but only if you knew me and harboured an interest in the far east. What I endeavour to do now is try and make it relevant in a broader sense starting with Tokyo and the Five Lake District.

When I set off on this trip I had one rule for myself and that was to book as little as I could, the one exception was my hotel on landing, I knew it would be important to have somewhere to apart to the time shift and just get my bearings a little bit.

After a few talks I ended up staying at the Shinagawa Prince Hotel in Shinagawa, luckily when I arrived at Narita airport there was a coach that would drop me off directly at the hotel. These coach offerings are incredible, I made use of them several times on the trip simply because they were so good and easy to use despite my complete lack of Japanese. The hotel itself was gorgeous, and as I was on the 15th floor I could feel the aftershocks from the recent Tsunami rather well.

The next day I took my ‘no organisation’ rule further and just left with my bag and camera and no idea of what and where I’d end up seeing. I honestly recommend applying this attitude to any holiday you ever plan, it leaves you open to so much and I doubt I would have found anywhere near as much if i’d planned some sort of Itinerary. Being flexible will allow you to experience much more and never forget that. In this instance I was planning on visiting The Emperor’s Gardens, however I soon realised that I was on one of Tokyo’s historical walking routes. My plans went out the window and I started walking and before I knew it… I was lost.

It’s worth noting here that maps and addresses, they mean bugger all and less than that. It took deductions based on a train station I managed to find, ascertained I was too far East, hunted down some free wifi and Google Mapped my way back to familiar ground.

Sometime later I discovered my first temple. The Gate of Zojo-Ji a very large and quite overwhelming gate leading to the Temple of Zojo-Ji. It was closed to the public but i’m planning on popping back when I get return to Tokyo. I also saw Shiba Park, The Tokyo Tower and the Yusho-In Reibyo Nitemman Gate. My lack of planning really did pay off. There was no way I would have even thought about seeing this if i’d planned anything, once again flexibility is your friend. The one problem from my lack of planning however now reared its ugly head. Always bring good walking footware. My trainers coupled with a dodgy floor led on me injuring my ankle, those who have met me know I make a habit of getting injuries, I should have been ready, lesson learned! I now got in touch with a friend of mine who was also in the area and we opted to head out to Ebisu with intentions of visiting the local Beer Museum, however unfortunately this was shut due to an earlier Earthquake (Again, Tsunami related).

Undeterred we then opted to relocate to the Sapporo Beer Station which luckily was still open. However lingering Jet lag and my ankle forced me to retire early. I’ll pick up with this with my abbling journey to Mt Fuji and the Five Lakes district.

Midworld Nomad