Our long neglected Separated at Birth section makes a comeback tonight:
Saigo Takamori is the real last Samurai. Ray Winstone is in the last Indiana Jones film ever (hopefully).

May 12th marked the thirtieth year of my existence on this tripped out ball of dirt and water, so I figured there would be no better day to clock up the thirtieth Fuji. I like my birthdays low key, and as it turns out, Fujimicho is about as low key as they come. Like a dozen other Fujis done and to be done, Fujimicho is a part of somewhere bigger, somewhere more important; Ofuna, which is itself part of somewhere bigger, somewhere more important, Kamakura. Nested like a bunch of Russian dolls, you’d be expecting some kind of pay off by the time you’d made it to the centre, something to make it all worthwhile.

Fujimicho station was hardly it - a small, narrow platform that extends to tightly wound stairs, all dressed down in the dullest & most functional grey. Not much to get excited about really, except - the narrowness of the platform and the tightness of the stairs reflect the kind of station Fujimicho is. It’s the first stop after Ofuna terminal on the Shonan monorail, named after the coastline that stretches out at the furthest end of the line.

The first monorail of its kind in Japan, the Shonan monorail opened for business nearly 40 years ago. If you’re into your monorails at all, you might be interested to hear that it’s a SAFEGE monorail: I forget what that stands for, but I know it means that the whole train hangs suspended, swings into the curves and generally feels very much like a commuter coaster. Despite the curves & sways and narrow corridors carved through hillsides, the monorail had an unblemished safety record until recently, when a driver in his first week had a bit of a bump. No-one was hurt and the damage was minimal, but it highlighted how tight the schedules were - the track is a single rail for a lot of the way - with the result that makeshift schedules have been taped over the previous ones, so there’s more room to manouevre, literally & figuratively.

It takes three minutes to get to Fujimicho, so I figured I’d get off there and walk back to Ofuna station, take in the sights. If there were any. There weren’t really, although I did find myself in yet another aquatically themed underpass - just like way back in time at Fujine.

Ofuna’s the last of the great commuter towns that serves Tokyo, a fact I found out the hard way after getting on a commuter express in Shinbashi at 10:30 one drunken Friday night. It’s a commuter express, I told myself, expresses always stop in Yokohama. I managed to convince myself that the train announcement was wrong right up until the train thundered through Yokohama station. Ofuna’s always been better known to me for the large alabaster head of Kannon looming out of a hillside beside the train tracks, a beatific smile on her big white lips. You know you’re getting close to Tokyo when you see it. I’d wondered for the longest time what the deal was with the statue - I’d imagined a body among the trees, something to support the head of a goddess of peace. Some kind of a robed white figure, rounded off with big white feet in big white sandals, poking out of a well-trimmed border of hydrangeas or something. Turns out she’s just a disembodied head and shoulders kind of a girl, watching over the station below, where a myriad trainlines converge and the crowds never quite disperse, even on a weeknight.

Still, the town wasn’t so busy that I wasn’t able to get me a table at the Korean Barbecue restaurant.

Score.

Fujis remaining : 22
More pics at Flickr: Fujimicho.

Don’t know what the 52 Fujis is about? Check this out.

This video is stupendously good fun - all the tunes you hear at all the stations on the Yamanote line in Tokyo in a groovy retro gamer stylee.

Ninja Train, originally uploaded by [douglas japonicus].

In case anyone still had any doubts about whether pirates or ninjas were better, the little town of Iga Ueno in Mie prefecture puts forward its argument - the Ninja Festa 2008. JapaniCan describes it thus -

Wearing loaned ninja clothes, you can have an experience of learning ninja skills at ninja schools.

And you even get free travel on the Iga Tetsudo (see picture) if you’re dressed up like a ninja. Sweet.

Beat that pirates.

The Ninja Festa 2008 started on April 1st and runs until May 6th. Break out dem shurikens.

You can also see a rather mad video by going to the Iga City website here.

(WARNING: contains mind melting images of dogs dressed as ninja.)

… but this commercial really appeals to me. Well, except for the giant furry pink bear. The less said about that, the better.

I’ve been filling in for someone on a Friday recently. It’s a bit of a pain in the arse to be honest – takes me an hour to get there, owing to the vagaries of Yokohama’s rail network. (Most of the train lines run west to east. Hardly any run south to north.) The day after I finish up here, I figure out quite by accident, that I could have taken the bus instead.

Such is life.

The place I’ve been working is Nagatsuta – a weird no-man’s land of apartment buildings and little else, save for a train station that lets the JR Yokohama line hook up with the Den-en-toshi line. I detest the Yokohama line, and I’m not sure why. There’s just something about stepping on to the carriages, lit by a weird bulb that seems to make everything glow yellow – a fact which doesn’t improve the look of the offensively green seat covers – that makes me feel instantaneously depressed. The heat is always a few notches to the uncomfortable side of ‘flame grill’ as well, something which never rubs me up the right way.

The Den-en-toshi line, on the other hand, is all right by me. The name translates into ‘The Garden City’ which just makes me remember my mum talking about where she grew up in ‘Derry. Can’t really go wrong with that. Some of the trains on the line are old, but they’re workhorses – the Yokohama line seems to have delusions of grandeur, a fashion victim who survived the 80’s, threads intact, dignity in tatters. The older Den-en-toshi trains look like they’d scrub up fine for a party. The newer ones have flashy whizz bang monitors, running commercials and route information side by side.

Shame it only takes 5 minutes from Nagatsuta to Fujigaoka.

Fujigaoka is Fujinomori all over again. The clouds have gathered and are throwing some raindrops into the wind, getting a feel for it, seeing how they’re going to play things later on. It’s not bad enough for an umbrella yet, although unlike Fujinomori, I actually have one with me this time.

Outside the station, I have a look at the map. Then I have a look about. There’s not much of note around the station. Some shops and a supermarket named ‘Mother’s Garden’. I head to the left of here, figuring I can take a short cut to the park I saw on the map, and walk past a bar that I could have sworn called me a taig, only, when I stop and peer at the sign from a better angle, it looks like Taigi. I give it the benefit of the doubt and head on.

The rain hasn’t broken yet, and there are plenty of cherry blossoms to coo and ah over. There’s also a sign advising people not to practice Dance Dance Revolution in the water :

But the star draw has to be the cat, perched atop a tiny row of railings in the pond, who is on the prowl for some fish; his bravery disappears almost as fast as he does when he sees me.

There’s not much doing in the park, and the rain is holding off. I’m supposed to be meeting the wife for dinner, and that’s not for another hour. I figure I could just double back and head to the next station down the line, Aobadai.

I’m a good portion of the way there when I see the squirrels. They who control Fujinomori were sending me a signal. They know where I am. They may also know what I am doing. It’s lucky I don’t have any interest in golf.

That wouldn’t be the only sign that spoke volumes that day. Oh no.

Opposite Aobadai station is a Wendy’s hamburger joint. The building it’s part of is quite big, and on the top floor is a beauty salon. The sign for this establishment merely said “Beauty Brains FANNY”.

Must do some pretty in-depth aesthetic treatments.

Fujis remaining : 23
More pics at Flickr: Fujigaoka.

Don’t know what the 52 Fujis is about? Check this out.