Alice Sara Ott - why you shouldn't judge a book by its cover

'No one's perfect', now a phrase thrown out of my books.

After finally seeing Alice perform live at the Royal Festival Hall today after an almost 2 year wait, I believe I, in all 19 earnest years of my life, have seen perfection in the face. She absolutely STUNNED in a bright red floor length gown, a perfect bob haircut and perfect figure, with her mischievous personality on full display.

If you think this is gonna be another rant about some other amazing piano prodigy, then you're right, but this one's special, because it's Alice Sara Ott.

I discovered Alice randomly on an article I read way back, when I was a newfound fangirl of Chopin and someone had rated her as 'one of the best interpreters of Chopin alive'. What made her instantly stand out to me as was that at first glance, she seems like a naive, graceful young pianist with an extraordinary talent. Her photoshoots do no justice to her actual playing as they all portray her as this dainty creature shrouded in grace and as the Pianist magazine put it, 'an air of remarkable serenity'. Which is why I was incredibly shocked when I actually heard her playing. It also sparked my interest as to why she always plays the piano barefooted, and why as pretty much a newbie, she chose to replace Lang Lang at such short notice when she knew there would be handfuls of critics sitting in the concert hall waiting to judge her.

In real life, Alice has in fact got a sassy punch of attitude to her generally determined personality. In her interviews, it's quite obvious but it's even more obvious when she's delivering a piece of music on the piano. I think the Times critic gave a good summary:

"There's a beauty, and mischief too, in her playing, which rings out with a freedom, fluidity and lack of contrivance which is entirely refreshing."

Today at the concert, even though I had rubbish seats and could only see her back, I was still entirely taken away by her interpretations of Schumann and Schubert. In a classical sense, her playing is almost 'wild' and uncontrolled, as if she hadn't taken notice of rhythmic structures and was playing completely based on her gut instincts, but when you close your eyes Schumann was still there looking at you in the face. It's an elevating sense of freedom and liberation which is just so damn refreshing to hear in a formal concert hall. There was something very impetuous about her dynamics which I thought really worked with the pieces she picked today. Especially in Mussorgsky's Pictures at An Exhibition - I thought that piece could be written for her.

There was one thing she keeps reiterating in her interviews which gave me a deep impression. She said that music to her is a form of communication. When she was younger, she felt that no one could really understand her, and when she heard a piano concert for the first time, she felt if she mastered the art, she would be able to make people understand her better. I believe that this type of communication is what makes classical music still so well loved today. People sit down in concert halls nowadays not to only hear that famous piece of music that's been around for centuries, but to hear the musical personality of the musician that is playing the piece, and how it is communicated to them. Why does Ott's interpretation sound different to Horowitz's? Why was this phrase played at such dynamics/tempo in this rendition? People who pay to hear live music should all be (or at least I hope so) looking for answers to such questions.

I think what the musicians do to deliver a piece is just as important as how the composer wanted the piece to be delivered. It's the same for fashion. A designer wouldn't create a top so that a certain type of person could wear it. It would be more meaningful to see how people of all sorts would wear this top, how people can make this one top unique to them. With music it's often a heart wrenching decision to decide whether to play a piece how the composer wanted you to play it, or play how you feel like playing it. Being the young, stubborn pianist Alice is, she obviously chose the latter, and I give her full credit for it. Why should a person living in the 21st century play based on the instructions of a dead man? Alice has the right to perform the piece the way she likes. If something from the piece speaks out to her, she has all the right and ability to tell the audience 'listen to THIS bit'.

I often get livid about this, but honestly I think this sort of respect for musicians is just so entirely lacking in the current classical world. Music is all about technique and interpretation, but at the end of the day 'interpretation' just becomes another technique. We are all so worked up by technique that we lose sight of more important things in music. Beethoven didn't write a piece because he wanted all pianists who played it to be technically perfect. It's often more accurate to guess that inspiration for that piece came to Beethoven in the form of a memory, feeling or dream that was entirely spontaneous. With such foundations, I fail to understand why some people get so angry that a piece was delivered 'too emotionally' or 'glosses over important musical technicalities'. Take a look at this frustrating critic of Ott on The Guardian:

"No on expects a pianist in her early 20s, however prodigiously talented, to be the finished article. Yet Alice Sara Ott's recital was still a bit of a disappointment, not because of any weaknesses in the German-Japanese pianist's playing - her technique is as buoyantly brilliant as her recordings suggest - but because too often, even in a programme that had clearly been chosen to showcase the extrovert side of her pianism, it allowed her to skate over the surface of the music without hinting at what lay beneath."

If a concert is CHOSEN to showcase something you expect, and in the end you see what you expect to see, what is the point of going at all? We don't live to hear the same pieces delivered in the same ways it had been done for hundreds of years, or even what we EXPECT should be delivered. We go to concerts with a blank mind and let the musician fill it up with THEIR ideas. Hence why we go and listen to THEIR playing in the first place.

He then continues to criticise her on how her rendition of Mozart's Duport Variations K573 "hardly seem like late Mozart at all", and how her Beethoven Sonata Op 2 No 3 "didn't give the slow movement the space it needed [...] there was something perfunctory about the way everything was presented, with no sense of music threatening to redefine the boundaries of classical sonata form as Beethoven did in these early works." It's as if he came to the concert expecting her to be Mozart or Beethoven or something. How did he know Ott deliberately didn't want to play as if she's redefining boundaries of sonata form? Why should she anyway? Maybe playing 'like' Mozart was not what she wanted to convey to her audience. I don't even think it's a rebellious move from her trying to be different. I just think her being honest to herself through music.

The fact that Alice has lived through these harsh criticism and is still flourishing in her own intrepid musical style makes me support her all the more. The fact that she is still touring increasingly more continents and is welcomed by an expanding fanbase gives me hope that maybe, just maybe, other people out there also see the importance of a musician's personality rather than technique and ability to mimic the composers. Through her interviews, I could tell she's a very brave girl, knows her direction in life and is very honest to herself. All these qualities I wish I could perfect on.

Music wise I'm nowhere near as talented as her, but I do think we think in similar ways in many aspects. For example we both think that music is played and listened to best in the dark with no 'visual distractions'. We both believe that practising comes down to self motivation, and not whether your family is rich enough to buy you a Steinway or whether or not your family members are musicians. Personally for me, music is a haven where I escape to from my crazy life, and she seems to think similarly. In her interview with The Telegraph she talked about the dangers of the modern culture - women at airports with their heads buried in their BlackBerries, 'who don't breathe, who don't take time to think'. I'm pretty thankful that I realised these dangers too, especially since my future is going to be 100% in the financial sector, so that in the future I will not be making the same mistakes.

She sees music as a universal thing with no boundaries and no segregation - I remember my music illiterate mother looking at my violin music and telling me 'it doesn't matter what language you speak. This sheet music is something musicians from across the globe will understand'. On this topic Alice says:

"If you hear music in a concert hall, you can forget time, you can forget your own language, your culture, and your own skin colour... it makes no difference which country I'm in." 

This cut from the Telegraph interview also stood out to me:

"Growing up in two cultures, she also found a refuge. 'In Germany people sometimes call me "ching-chang-chong", their expression for Chinese, which I have got used to now, but which used to freak me out. They think Asian people are all the same. And in Japan people are shocked that I speak Japanese. In music it doesn't matter what nationality you have. It is more important what you want to say and who you are. With music I was welcomed everywhere. We were talking in a language above all this hate and racism."

It's quite remarkable how she uses music to distance herself from racism. I live in London and am pursuing a career in the finance, so it's pretty much on a daily basis that I get racist remarks from everyone at every place imaginable (even today when I was at M&S the man who served me said 'happy new year!' followed by some incoherent blubbering which he presumed was Chinese). As a result I feel extremely privileged to know so many music lovers at my uni who I can talk about and play music with without having to touch on our cultural differences, and so happy that I have Alice as an idol who thinks in the same way as I do about music.

About her playing barefoot, she says it's because she wants to treat each piano as a person, and it helps her to feel closer to the instrument. Which I kinda understand even as a violinist, because for example I've never played the violin with gloves on.

I sincerely wish Alice all the best in the future and I hope she shines bright in this industry, and at the end of this journey get all the happiness and freedom she deserves. I hope she never changes her impulsive, gut-instinctive way of playing because it's what makes her so perfect in her own way!

Some clips of Alice playing:

Liszt

Beethoven

Liszt with interview:

Massive post on ELECTRONIC MUSIC

I had been planning this post a long time ago, probably sometime around last year. I told myself I needed several hours, maybe even a day to complete this post, because I want to talk sooo much about it, but everyday I listen to more and more artists and I think if I don't pen this down now (2am on a Monday D:), I'll never be able to do it.

So I'm gonna do it now.

Music wise I grew up with a classical background so it's quite normal to find me indulging in long piano pieces for hours and hours. I've always quite disliked opera and classical works for the voice, and even though I studied singing classically, I much preferred music made on instruments than through vocal chords. My obsession with electronic music actually started from my love for Nujabes (since 2007 when I heard Luv Sic by chance on some online clothing store), and Minimalism which stemmed from probably around 2 years ago (I vaguely remember penning it down on this blog).

Around a year ago when it started to hit me wow-I-actually-really-like-this-sort-of-music, I was very very skeptical and hypercritical about the artists I listened to. Because I really disliked music that's produced via machines, ie stuff that is generated through the brains of a electronic device, rather than through a human brain. At the time I was concerned with the fact that some artists I listened to might not have been as talented as the classical world virtuosos I was so used to hearing, or even talented at all. But times have changed as people around me drummed into me that hey, if music is good to the ears then chances are the people who made it are good at what they're doing, so I've basically shed all my skepticisms and am currently fully embracing every microscopic detail of the art that is electronic music.

Not too sure about the accuracy of this, but I like to group music under the genre of Electronic Music as the name describes it: when parts or all of the music is created by electronic devices.

In the beginning, Nujabes paved the way which also led me to listen to related Japanese artists such as DJ Okawari [here] and [here], and you can tell that the classical influence totally appealed to me at the time when I was making these transitions in tastes. The beats are often quite 'tame', keeping to a usual 4/4 rhythmic structure and layering progressively throughout the track. It's the type of mix where you could sit down and pick out all the samples used to layer without much difficulty. Hence very tame.

I kinda left all classical influences behind when one day I fatefully discovered Green Butter (which I must have talked about in a previous post). Their music totally relaxed me to a much deeper level than what my usual piano pieces did.

Also worth mentioning are Bugseed and Weirddough, both artists of which I think belong in roughly the same category as Green Butter. I actually discovered Weirddough only 2 months ago.

Bugseed:



Weirddough:



There's this other Japanese beat maker I follow called Taku, on soundcloud he releases a lot of his experimental stuff quite regularly and names them Night1, Night2, etc.
Night8 [here] is definitely my favourite.

I find with music genres everything is like bubbles. As producers get tired of the big bubbles they burst into lots of little ones, and a sequence of such bubbles determines the mad number of genres we have today. Esp in the digital era with mashup platforms easily accessible to any music lover out in the open, is there really a way to define a music genre in this century? For us listeners, journeying through these bubbles are be a very fun but addictive thing. There was long period when electro influences took me to more melodic creations, such as the works of Tokimonsta and eAeon (both Korean).

eAeon outdid himself by releasing the instrumental versions of all tracks from the A side of this album on the B side, which definitely makes me love him more by miles. I think all artists should release Less Vocal versions of their works because it allows for us to listen to all the intricate details without having the voice distracting us.

Recently I've been going down this more outlandish route and entering some bubbles which I really should not have. I can see that at the end of the day I'm going to fall into the 80s Disco bubble, and even worse, Sci-fi electronica or Dubstep (noooooooo). But I can no longer deny that I have recently retrograded back to the 80s in many aspects of my life, and so I cannot avoid falling in love with all the cheese like Synth pop or classic disco. But I try to keep it as quirky as possible.

Yukihiro Takahashi:

From this I can either go down the even quirkier route (Miharu Koshi [here] for example), or futuristic sounds with vocaloid like qualities (Capsule [here] for example). But I choose not too because tunes like these will ultimately just do my head in.

Instead I embraced a more 'stylish', contemporary sound, which is definitely and thankfully not so much classic disco, but has a mixture of both indie and electronic qualities. Synth pop is currently a massive obsession of mine with great bands like POP ETC and Two Door Cinema Club, and I don't think I've finished my business with this genre just yet.

Glen Check:

Glen Check is a band that just radiates bouts of insane talent. They are clearly very skilled instrumentalists and so the extra electronic stuff is just a divine plus. Haute Couture was an album made in the heavens.

An even more minimalistic version of Glen Check is probably Idiotape [here], which I can only listen to when my ears are asking for a wild ride. Their music is almost a bit too intense, with plethoras of samples and good beats all squeezed into 5min slots. They're still amazing though.

Here I'll let you in on a little secret. When I make remixes, I turn to microsound/glitch artists such as Alva Noto and Ryoji Ikeda for inspiration. Glitch is something that makes one slightly uncomfortable when listening to it in its bare glory, hence why one would say they're 'mindfcked', but I think with a bit of melodic fusion it really brings out a certain sample you want to highlight. For example if you are using a rap verse with some amazing rhymes, you might want to add in some glitch to make it stand out.

Alva Noto:

For some crazy glitch that will LITERALLY make your entire body vibrate,

Ryoji Ikeda (listen to this with headphones)

As I said, glitch will always leave you feeling slightly uncomfortable. Which is I guess why Alva Noto collabed with Ryuichi Sakamoto perhaps, so that the piano could try to free the mind a little.

As an often tired student who lives in an extraordinarily rainy city, I'm forever in need of dosages of upbeat, sanguine delights to brighten up my day, sometime loud and colourful enough so that I could totally immerse myself in the songs for a good half an hour. I'll end this post (now at 4am zzzzz) with these 3 tracks that I have been listening to on repeat this weekend:

The Chemical Brothers - The devil is in the details

I love this song so so so so soooooooo much. It's so cute and chirpy and overall just an amazing track.

Justice vs Simian - We are your friends

And finally, due to currently working on a cover of Cocorosie's Smokey Taboo, I have listened to vast amounts of trippy gypsy, Native American music for inspiration, and so obviously some exotic/electronic hybrid is always welcome.

Marianne Feder - Toi Mon Indien (remix version, sorry I have no idea who made the remix D:)

I hope that today I have successfully taken all your ears on a great adventure. Now you can take it from here!

Two Kinds of Happiness

Want not waste not.

These days I've been trying to live with discipline. Shifting out of lazy habits and greed for sumptuous things. I find that having material things you want doesn't make you happier in the long run. I own way too many things and as time goes by they can only pile up unloved in some corner of your room.

Taking pleasure out of a daily routine rather than feeling claustrophobic, I feel it's a good mindset to go about a busy uni life. I try to notice every little thing that makes me feel happy, eg a conversation that made me laugh, or that little peek of sunshine lighting up the London skyline on a grey day. Looking at life before my eyes through a pinhole makes me concentrate on what I need to do at present. It's a weird phenomenon but I sometimes feel exhilarated when I have to do a lot of work and a 9 hour library session awaits me. I want to wake up early and immerse myself in new knowledge and new activities. The humdrum of the cafe in the early mornings brings alive a latent source of energy that I never knew I had. I'm learning to understand that it's the outcome of studying that makes me happy, and not the pain of the process that makes me weary. Keeping busy will naturally free your mind. You grant yourself freedom, I don't think anyone can give it to you. Not yearning for freedom is the easiest way out.

Sticking to a routine religiously made me realise that the little things I do out of the blue is ever more fun and memorable. I like devoting to my routine but not being a slave to it. It's hard at times but at the end it's always worth it. Time is so precious and we only have one chance at everything, and even though sometimes I think I'm wasting my time doing a lot of things, I know that every single thing I do and learn in the past shapes my mind and actions of today and tomorrow. Everything is relative and at some point in the future, something will give and tie up these loose ends.

Desire and reward
Long term and short term joy.
Don't you give in
You're beginning.

你是谁

每个人也许都曾在某个时刻乞求过什么，这个可怕的循环并不是个恶意的恶作剧，它恰恰是因为这些乞求而被制造出来的施舍游戏。人生的际遇充满了偶然性，每一条岔路都是一次性的选择而无回头的可能，自以为走上错路的你并不知道下个路口是否有真正重要的东西正在等待你。一叶障目是无法站在上帝视角的你我不能回避的命运，我们看见的永远只是一个复杂多面体投影在墙壁上的影子，无法进行阶跃的你我不会知道那些隐藏在历史角落的细节。刚爬上更高楼层的你在回头看路上的曲曲回回时，可能会发现正是过去的每一步，才铸就了现在的自己。

The Art of Acapella

Around November last year I auditioned for and joined my uni's Acapella group. We get together twice a week to sing a wide repertoire of songs (just not choral/classical). Most of the time we sing old classics like Bon Iver and Simon & Garfunkel. Yesterday our Acapella group took part in the London Acapella Festival from 10am-7pm, and intensively participated in workshops designed to better our vocal skills. There is no way anyway can give you a satisfactory set of tips to better your voice in hour long sessions when they have no idea what kind of voice you have, but they did provide us a good summary.

There was one workshop on music arrangement which I found particularly inspiring. The speaker was Christopher Diaz of the podcast Mouth Off, who gave us a very refreshing approach to music arranging. Rather than thinking of scores and notes etc, he advised us to arrange based on feelings. Depending on where we are, what we are feeling prior to writing, what we FEEL like getting out of the original track, we will all produce very different interpretations.

For anyone wanting to do arranging, a basic understanding of music theory is crucial. This automatically implies that the main difference of what makes a good arrangement and a rubbish one does not lie in how deep your knowledge of chordal progressions and triads are, but of how capable you are of delivering a feeling. I'm pretty sure I have written on this very blog in the past that music is an art form, and if it evokes your senses, then it is a successful piece of art. And there was Diaz on the stage, saying exactly what I believed in. He told us, who cares what methods you used to arrange the track. At the end of the day if your listeners like what you did, you did well and your method was a good one.

His particular method was listening to the song over and over, and jotting down the main lyrics/bass lines he wants to pick out from the original. From there he would think about the lifespan of the song, ie techniques the singer could use to bring out the places that need accentuating. When I heard this it really rang a bell because when I make remixes, this is exactly the way I go about doing it. I listen to the original track and pick out bits I want to expand on and bits I want to give a different feel to. In our acapella rehearsals we sing to each other and work out the best ways to deliver the songs together. Everything is trial and error, but at the end, it always works out.

In the talk he also emphasised the importance of singers singing together in acapella groups. Not just singing together but a real tacit understanding of each other, where we know when to start and stop singing just by looking at each other, when to control our vocal projection to compliment the others' voices. There's a lot of science behind singing in unison, for example on average a person's breath lasts around the same time, and so if we sing a note, naturally the dynamics will vary the same way for different people, and when we sing together we should sense when we are all going to finish that note, even without looking at each other.

I first knew about acapella through DBSK when I was around 14, I was just blown away by their acapella version of Whatever They Say:

I was so impressed by how they enunciated the words in exactly the same way, making sure their dictation emphasised the same words with the same level of impact. It's clear that their vocal bond does not only come from practising together, but years of living and understanding each other to know how to sing as a group, and not as a soloist. I watched interviews of them discussing each others' voices, and at the time I didn't think much but now I am even more impressed how much each member knows about the other members voices. From my experience singing with others it's not easy to give all rounded judgments on what you know about voices that are not yours.

Acapella singing is to me the most natural art form. Every person is born with a voice, and fron the moment we were born we used that voice. Possibilities are limitless and you could do so many wonderful things with it. People began singing together ever since civilisation began, and now we have perfected the craft so well it's created the world of Acapella. Some groups blow our minds with technique, eg pretending to be musical instruments as Cluster did in their version of Jingle Bells:

Nothing from what you just heard was made by an actual instrument. It is 100% entirely vocals.

While this sort of thing is amazing, I still think real talent of a group lies in the unison of their voices. When you hear a collective voice that rise and fall together as one, whose singers speak and breathe together down to the last syllabic detail, you can tell straight away whether the singers understand each other well. Whilst it's important to pick singers whose voices SOUND well together, it is ever more crucial to make sure the singers BLEND well together. Successful groups will know how to fit in with each others voices instinctively, and the sound they create is just sensational.

Listen to the way they begin and end the notes so precisely in unison. It feels like one person is singing the song.

After the long day we all chatted for ages and talked about new ways to rehearse. In some ways I'm glad we are becoming so comfortable with each other. I think it's the only way we can understand each other's singing voices: by understanding each other first.

i Collection AW12

I'm back after a longgggg hiatus to bring you this post.

Recently I've started a new blog, which I use as a microblog/longer version of twitter where I jot down my thoughts and store all my polaroid pics so I won't have to keep them on my phone.

Originally the plan was that I would write into it for a while, and once I think it is reasonably sustained then I'll tell you guys about it. But since the start of this year my life has been so packed full of uni work and internship hunting mania, naturally most of my posts on the new blog are way too personal and diary like, which right now I want to just keep to myself as a side project. I've decided that I still like posting long posts (which frankly probably no one reads) on this blog so that my readers get a better insight into the things I'm into and don't have to feel weirded out by my massive hormonal mood swings.

I do realise I need to finish off my Japan photo diaries (which after 2 years if still no where near complete!), which I will definitely once I sort my life out with this term's work. But today, I'll treat you guys with this amazing Japanese brand I discovered a week ago.

IKUMI is a Japanese model (runway+gyaru mag), photographer, artist, illustrator, traveller, blogger and more recently a fashion designer.  Who also happens to have the hottest boyfriend in the world of modelling AND happens to look like a blonde mythical goddess.

I was so impressed by the simplicity of her concept behind her AW12 collection that now I'm beginning to follow her activities a lot.

Imagine waking up on Sunday and you feel lazy. You take a shower, towel dry your hair and sit in your PJs, fresh faced and tired. A group of friends call you out for a free lunch in a posh cafe and you're dying to go, but can't be asked to do your hair or choose an outfit because it's Sunday and you'd rather be at home drinking hot chocolate.

So in that case, why do we HAVE to do our hair, wear makeup, or even choose an outfit?

Ikumi designed a whole wardrobe of pajama/casual/homewear fusion garments with an exceptional selection of materials. I'm no expert in fashion, but I see the loose silhouettes and it makes me want to BELIEVE in comfort and the fact that we can be stylist and be in utmost comfort. She designs them in a way that still makes her outfits edgy and wearable on the streets, but the people who turn back to look at you will be admiring the excellence of your attire rather than laughing at you because you look like you're still in your PJs.

She opted for flat shoes and fur boots, long cardigans in various pastel toothpaste colours, the craziest pants which look too comfy to even be pants, and cotton blazers with hoods. Not to mention the little details she adds in like her monster drawings printed as a motif onto the lining fabric.

Have a look at the AW12 collection:

I ADORE how the models were styled, with their towel dried hair bronze eye shadows and neutral lips. It's like a model-off-duty look which I'm completely enthralled with at the moment.

Even the catwalk is made of white carpet. The models must have LOVED walking on that and strutting their stuff without the thought of falling over, which portrays more confidence in themselves and I think the positive vibe reflects onto the garments. Overall it was a very well crafted show. The music is sensational as well.

If anyone knows the ending track with the twinkling bit, please let me know via comment!

Edit: FOUND!

If I could pick one thing, it would be this jacket with the monster illustration lining

SS12

AW12

SS13

Do want, but no iphone :(

I can think of so many outfits with this dress

cutest thing

IKUMI in 'i'

Yukata mens style

Loving this floor length white cardigan

Amazing coordi

Ikumi, I have my eyes on you!

JAPAN, Summer 2011 [part 4/8] - Hakone 箱根

Hey guys, I'm back with Part 4/8 of my travels in Japan last year!

Sorry for the late follow up from the Kamakura post. In fact I got myself a PR internship for one week and it's literally just in time for fashion week. Don't be jealous haha, most of the stuff I do is in the office (with the occasional on site visits, but it depends on the designers we are PR-ing for), sending and printing invites, mountains of paperwork, sourcing from sponsors blah blah. I'm worked to DEATH everyday, but it's okay because it's LFW and my seniors wake up even earlier than me on a daily basis... Still I kinda wish I was a photographer/journalist or something so I get to mingle/see all the street fashion!

Anyways, I'm off to work now but enjoy this post!

Hakone was probably the place that I have the most memories from. It's been more than a year, but I remember everything I did in exact chronological order as if it only happened yesterday. The things I saw and experienced, everything seems so vivid in my memory. On the way here I remember sitting in the bus listening to Kiyoshi Hikawa's 'Hakone Hachiro No Hanjiro', the perfect Enka song to accompany the tiny bus bobbling up and down the mountain roads. I thought to myself, I can't believe I'm actually listening to this song... IN Hakone!

This may look like a den of some sort.. 
but it's actually the entrance to my ryokan! I have no idea why I don't have any pictures of the house itself.. but it's a pretty and well maintained family home with 2 onsens

Road outside ryokan

Lawson, aka life saver peeping in there

After dropping all my bags off and being introduced to the house, I paid my respects to the owners and set off to explore the local area.

Now that I think back, I must have been pretty brave when I was there.. In the countryside the smaller roads aren't marked so it's unclear whether people are allowed to walk on them. Sometimes it was pretty dangerous because I would be walking but a car would come swiveling past around a bend.

Also I don't know why I chose that darker, more dangerous looking pathway :S

Ventured in there for quite a long way, and started to turn back when I felt like I was in the heart of Aokigahara or something..

That evening after a heartfelt meal at a home run restaurant closeby, I came back sweaty, sticky and dying for a long shower and soak in the onsen. At that time I've never been in a traditional onsen before, so without researching first I boldy stepped in and dived my naked leg into the water. I'm surprised that it didn't cook itself because the water was literally boiling. Hitting the 70 deg mark for sure! It was painful process having to slowly ease my way into the boiling water without slipping in like dumplings, but after my whole body was in there, trust me it felt like absolute. HEAVEN.

The beauty of the onsen is that you'll never have the danger of sitting in there for too long and coming out with wrinkled skin. When you've had a decent soak, the hot air basically chokes your and burns your skin, especially around the tummy area, so you'll just have to get out. But my skins was so gorrrrgeous afterwards I didn't even had to rub lotion on myself OR wear makeup the next day.

I remember the ryokan so well I've drawn a little picture of it, since I don't know why I have no pictures again. But then I guess I couldn't possibly have taken a picture of everything I did.

This was the downstairs/dorm/lounge place. I slept in Rm 1. There were more rooms upstairs.

I slept early because the next day was results day and I would rather not think at all than to worry about whether I would get into my first choice uni..

The next day I woke up extremely early because my adventure was ahead. The previous night I had saved many maps of the region onto my iPad (thank goodness for the free wifi) but I had no idea what I was going to do. All I could see outside was countryside and I had no idea what I was doing, but somehow I felt extremely brave and daring to try things out. I haven't told anyone this, but I originally planned on visiting Aokigahara Jukai (Japan's Suicide Forest, known for it's extreme serenity) and Lake Shoki where there would be a spectacular view of Mt Fuji which was especially beautiful at sunset. Thank whatever common sense I had left in me that I didn't execute that plan. If I had taken a bus to Aokigahara, it would be dusk when I arrive and there would be no bus to take me back on the day. I would just get lost in the forest if I dared step in and ironically die inside presumably.

I was luckily saved by the owners of the ryokan, who suggested I take a safer, more touristy route that most foreigners who came to Hakone would embark on. It turned out pretty awesome in fact. But at that time, I had absolutely no idea how the hell I was going to get there, let alone cross a mountain and a lake, by myself.

After panicking for ages and finally stepping on to what turned out to be the right bus (with deepest thanks to the bus driver who helped me out), I found myself on a cable car going up a steep slope. There were lots of families with little kids so I figured I was safe. On the way I chatted to a woman who thought I was nuts doing this by myself. Her face when I told her was pretty funny.

When I got to the top, I was told that I was about to take 2 ropeway journeys across a mountain. I was super excited but my heart sank miles when I saw the fog outside that blocked all chance of any decent glimpse of Mt Fuji.

I still don't know what this was, but I'm super scared of heights so I was practically frozen like a vegetable at this stage, especially since the cubicle was see through on all sides. It may not seem like it, but we were very very VERY high up. Not a sign of movement down there. 

This bit was supposedly where Mt Fuji would be visible. Not a sign of it on the day though, not even an outline.

First stop was Owakudani, an active volcanic alley with sulphur vents littered across the mountainside. It's well known for hard boiled eggs that are cooked in the hot springs, and because of the sulphur the shell comes out black. Legend has it that every egg you eat will increase your life by 7 years. I didn't believe that but I still had 5. Yes. FIVE eggs in one sitting. But I was still hungry after that so I also ordered a massive red bean dessert on site.

After another ropeway, we reached Togendai to board a pirate ship across Lake Ashi.

Can you see those round platforms? Well one of them was okay for people to stand on to see the view. I bullied my way up there, taking away the opportunity of many other little kids. I felt so bad but I had to stay for the sake of photos.

The neighbouring ship. I reckoned it was a great view.

Along the way there were many of these Tori gates lining the border of the lake. 

The journey was far too short and I still couldn't see Mt Fuji... but I managed to at this stage successful cross a mountain and a lake, something I thought I wouldn't be able to do this morning! I still had time to do a bit more exploring before the last few buses back. And to catch the homemade curry waiting for me at the ryokan!

I must have been crazy that day but I decided to walk a quarter of the length of the entire lake to see one of those red Tori gates up close. I thought there had to be a shrine there. Along the way I passed this charming walk with straight as skyscrapers trees (can't remember which type..) Apparently it used to one of the main roads that linked the town centres, back in the day when horse carriages were still used.

Also went on the scariest bridge probably ever

Halfway I had to pause for a breather.. more so because I saw a 7/11 selling dango and Okonomiyaki bread. I bought my own body weight in food for less than a fiver and sat on the steps admiring the beautiful, though still so damned foggy, view of the shrine in the distance.

Adorable buildings

Yaaay

I had athlete legs by the time I got up there..

These were HUGE fish, all dying for food. They were practically swimming on top of each other, ON TOP of the water surface haha

Success!!!

That Tori gate was where I had my food

I had to walk allll the way back again to get the bus back to the ryokan. At this point I couldn't feel my feet anymore. Also I got off at the wrong stop and waited at this tiny valleyside bus stop, and panicked like hell when I found out I was 1 minute or so away from when the last bus would come. 

That night was AMAZING. I had that homemade curry, and in the food house I saw a Swedish couple who spoke English, so we chatted for ages. We loved the food and were practically licking our plates. I also fondly remember having the best sake ever.

That night we also had a goto player coming over to play and sing for us. We all sat around her like little kids in a nursery and it just felt like we were one big family, like the Von Trapps or something (haha). Afterwards she asked someone to come up and learn 'Sakura', which of course I volunteered. I knew the song before so it was pretty easy for me.

One of the workers there was a lovely girl called Maki (she always wore a little apron it was so cuute) and we played piano together for ages, both of us failing miserably until a tanned boy called Ryuji came downstairs and owned us all. Then the 3 of us plus Ryuji's friend chatted until the owner had to usher us back into our rooms. Me obviously taking twice as long to speak as they would since my Japanese is not brilliant. But it was so funnnnn we all planned to tell each other if we were coming back to that ryokan in the future. I wonder whether Maki still works there...

Also I got into my first choice uni! Maki said she wanted to come back to London with me (;A;)

Leaving the next day was so depressing. I had an urge to stay there forever because I felt so at home and welcomed, which is not always the case being in a foreign country. But I tried to stay positive because next up I was up for a massive culture shock...

Osaka!

Stay tuned! x