It's taken me a while to get this website going again after I moved. I don't know the
exact date that I pulled the plug (literally, in this case) on the previous set up,
but it was around the time that I moved. That was end of summer 2021, and I haven't
done much with the website since then, and it hasn't been available to the public.
During that time, I've been doing touristy stuff in Japan and that means taking pictures.
I've been talking to another artist about getting work done for Cities of Death, so
I figured that I should have a place to put the art when I receive it, and I also have
all of these pictures of places that I visited, so I should post them. Given the
time gap between when they were taken and now, I'm just going off a human memory of
what I was doing, so just check the date of the blog and the recalled date of the
experience and judge for yourself if I remembered it correctly.
Around the time that I arrived here, there was a "Welcome" tour that they run every
Wednesday. I now live really close to the route that they take, so I feel like I
should see them from time to time, but either I'm not out at the right times,
or they stopped doing it, or I'm not out of the house enough (CoViD, so likely), cause
I never see them. Or maybe I have and I didn't recognize them? I've seen other people
I know around, but never that tour. Anyway, I went on that tour and the second half
of it is a "To whatever you want" section, where you get turned loose in the tourist-y
area of town to do sight-seeing. It's pretty frickin' tourist-y, not something that
want to do more than once, but there is a familiarity in it, and a weird kind of
friendly aggression. Like, you know when you get harassed by people handing out flyers
and there is a weird social permission that allows you to brush the person off, or
ignore them, or whatever? Coming here, not speaking the language, not knowing the
customs, except that you are supposed to be "polite" all the time, the familiar
aggression of the hawkers in that part of town was ironically relaxing. I felt like I
had permission to be my normal self for a while, that while that was still alien here,
it was okay because of the area that I'm in.
So I get set loose in the tourist-y neighborhood (and it's a neighborhood, people live
there, Japan doesn't zoning laws the way that I'm familiar with them) with a couple of
recommendation for things to do. I pick the bridge and a museum: the bridge is kinda
"The Thing" here, so you gotta do that, and the museum looks cool. Here's the bridge:
Ship of Theseus conversations aside, it's a really old bridge, and I think it's cool
looking. I didn't at first, but it's grown on me. I'm not really a fan of bridges when
it comes to architectural stuff, but it's not bad looking. It's $3 to cross on foot,
which is a perfectly reasonable price UNLESS you just got here and it's not that you
don't have any money, it's that you don't have any money in the local currency. I paid
the toll and it wasn't a problem, but yeah, maybe don't be lazy and wait til the last
moment to run that particular errand. Maybe run it earlier so that you are more
comfortable with it? Here's another look at a bridge:
On the other side of the bridge is a park, and it has some interesting stuff, like
a fountain, and trees, and paths, and benches. The bridge goes over water, as you might
imaging, and that water touches the dirt, as you might imagine, so there is a river bank
as you might imagine, so that's incorporated into the park also. Near the park is the
tourist-y stuff, like an ice cream stand, and restaurants, and maybe a gift shop? I
don't know, I live here, but I don't get over to that side of town much. Anyway, it also
has a museum, so I went to that, but I think that's a different blog post. But this is
Japan, and they don't zone things like I expect, so I see a bunch of stuff that I feel is
really out of place, but the people who put it there probably don't. Here's a picture of
a building that I thought was cool that is on that side of the river:
Now, to me, that's way more interesting than the bridge. I don't know that it's a
house, it could be a temple or a school, or something else, I don't know. Whatever it is,
it seems really out of place, and with the water around it, and the trees framing it, I
thought it would be a cool picture. Speaking of, there is another random house that I
thought looked cool also:
Then I went to the museum, but I think that's a different blog post. Also a different blog
post is the castle on the top of the mountain. I haven't actually gone in the castle yet,
but I've been up to the top of the mountain twice. Here is a picture of the city from the
top of the mountain:
So that's pretty much the "Welcome" tour. If you are reading this and thinking of taking
it, do it. I don't remember it costing anything, so there's that. I'd say bring a friend,
'cause reasons, but not having friends is no reason not to go. The only other picture that
I have for you is the other side of the bridge, so I'll leave you with that. Enjoy!
At the time of this post, SarisonZero lives and works in Japan. Today he bought a domain and purchased a web hosting subscription for the first time.