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Yet another person opens Pandora's box

So I finally got to see Avatar on my fourth attempt this Saturday. The 3D version of the film has been sold out quite steadily for weeks now (I only just managed to get one of the last 5 seats for that showing when I went). It’s a bit less impressive than it sounds when you realise that there are very few cinemas in Chiba prefecture, even less showing Avatar more than once a day (if at all), and only one easily accessible one, to my knowledge, showing it in 3D.

I appreciate that this film has already been talked about to death, but as I live in a little bubble, blissfully unconnected with events in the Western world, I’m going to talk about it anyway.

So first off; I liked it. Avatar is a thoroughly entertaining movie. It didn’t feel like 3 hours and at no point did I become bored or restless and I really enjoyed it. However, the things that puzzles me is what exactly did I like about it?  

The plot? As has been discussed many times, the plot has been heavily criticised for being unoriginal. Of this, there is no denying. While I don’t think I’ve ever seen Dances With Wolves or Pocohontas so cannot comment, the thing that struck me was how close it resembled Ferngully, an early 90s animated film my sister used to own on VHS.
I’m not saying that Ferngully is an amazingly original film (although I enjoyed it as a kid) but the parallels not only in plot, but in the actual imagery used is astounding.
<SPOILER ALERT>

  • Both feature a white American male who accidentally meets a female ‘native’ forest dweller.
  • He is transformed to look like them, and is inducted into the ways of the forest people, reluctantly (at first) by the lead female.
  • During this time, he meets the mystic head of the forest people, as well as the alpha male forest dweller (who he eventually has to win over).
  • He is shown how all of the creatures/plants in the forest are connected and that the forest dwellers have a deep spiritual connection with it, as well as having to adapt to the over sized forest and respect the dangers it presents (in the form of giant lizards/monsters).
  • He has to tame a wild flying creature which he then later rides into battle.
  • There is a romantic scene involving running through a bioluminescent forest/pool.
  • The forest dwellers find out that the white man was actually planning to destroy them when a big bulldozer tries to destroy the sacred tree/tree they live in.
  • The hero has to lead the forest people against his own people in his transformed (and more vulnerable) body in order to redeem himself.
  • They are eventually saved by the mystical power of the forest.

The script?I don’t think the dialogue was anything to write home about. I don’t think I laughed at a single joke or was that interested by what people were saying. To prove this, I could pretty much guess what all the Na’vi were saying even though I couldn’t read the subtitles (as they were in Japanese only and full of jargon).

The characters? I actually got a bit angry at some of the characters in the film. It seemed to me like some of the characters had no reason for existing other than to fill a cliche, as though the film didn’t have enough. Case in point, was Parker, the ‘boss’ of the company. He is the ‘I represent evil (imperialistic?) corporations and don’t care about the environment or peoples lives, only money’ character. But other than announcing that he represents the above cliche, and a bit of exposition at the beginning, I can’t see any reason for him to have been in the film at all.
But all of our favourite cliched characters make an appearance, I can’t even be bothered to list them all.

The graphics/3D? I actually stopped noticing the 3D-ness after a while, and the rest of the computer graphics didn’t really amaze me to be honest. I think it’s because 90% of the movie uses CG and because it looks so real in places, you become accustomed to it and so don’t really notice them. Maybe that’s the idea, but great computer graphics isn’t a reason to go see a movie.

Conclusion. So what was it that made the film enjoyable then?
I would say pacing plays a big part. The story is clearly split into 3 chapters: introduction to Pandora, becoming accepted as one of the natives, and the final conflict. Each part has it’s own ways of holding our interest so doesn’t get dull.
An interesting aspect is that the main character is forced to jump between the world of the Na’vi and the human world, throughout the film, which also keeps things moving and stops the film from stagnating. Just when we are getting bored of frolicks in idealised magical CG landscapes, we are cut back to the grey drab world of humans and tensions between characters.

Overall, Avatar is a huge compilation of overused cliches (plots, characters, design, moral themes) that on paper should make an awful movie. But through great pacing and using advanced computer graphics to put a different (if not unique) slant on a familiar story, it succeeds in being an entertaining and enjoyable movie worthy of the title of blockbuster. It just seems ironic that a film that has been promoted as being a huge 3D event, is as two dimensional as they come.

(I had meant to only use Avatar as springboard to talk about 3D technology – but I seem to have waffled on a bit as usual, so that’ll have to wait for another time)

PS. I do love XYZ Cinemas for their ‘pre-movie rules’ video, which happily reminds me in English that “No Shooting” is allowed in the cinema.

March 7th, 2010 | Tags: , , , , , | Category: Films | Leave a comment

Hanabi & Hamabe

One thing I like about Japan is that, while they take work very seriously, they also take relaxing just as seriously. Summer seems to mean two things to the Japanese: Hanabi (fireworks) and hamabe (beaches).

Throughout August there are literally thousands of fireworks displays and festivals going on all over Japan. It’s a chance for everybody to don their yukattas (a kind of summer kimono), check out the festival booths full of takoyaki (fried octopus balls) and yakisoba (fried noodles) and relax while watching the fireworks.

We went to the fireworks at Futtsu (the neighbouring town) and weren’t dissappointed. The fireworks were non-stop for an hour with a sort of mini-finale every 10 minutes (preceded by the announcement of the sponsor of course). It was good to see everyone in high spirits and the fireworks were definitely impressive.

The next day it was time to hit the beach. We went down to Iwai which is quite close to my school and reputed to have an amazing beach. It definitely was an amazing beach, but more amazing was the sheer amount of people there.

It was packed with all kinds of people. Not just sunbathers and kids, but fishing boats, kayakers, surfers, jet skis, banana boats, swim teams, life saving clubs, barbeques, and picnicers. We were on the northen most tip and least crowded part of the beach so weren’t really affected by all that, but it was strange to see hundreds of school kids march past in uniform swimsuits/swimcaps as part of some swimming club.

The reputation of Iwai’s beach must have been greater than I thought as there were people who’d travelled all the way from Tokyo and even Osaka just to visit the beach. Either way is was a good day and I’ll definitely have to try and visit again before summers over. (I just need for it to stop raining for a bit)

July 28th, 2009 | Tags: , , , , | Category: Events, Japan Life | Leave a comment

From the heights of Japan!

Well, I did it! I climbed to the top of Mt. Fuji (the heighest mountain in Japan) andI have to say that it was probably one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done.

While Mt. Fuji isn’t a particularly hard mountain to climb, as far as mountains in general go, I wouldn’t say it’s an easy task.
There were four of us climbing together; Kathryn, Bethany, and Cong. I had managed to stress them all out in the previous week by constantly talking about what to bring, sending links to weather forecasts, and discussing how long we should take for each stage (in order to see sunrise), but after we started climbing we soon realised that this wasn’t something to be under-prepared for.

I left Kimitsu on Saturday at 10:30am and we got to the fifth station of Mt. Fuji at 4:40pm. The fifth station is the starting point for most climbers at Fuji and is about 2000m above sea level. Here we had some food, bought some souveneir climbing sticks and adjusted to the altitude before setting off.

There are 4 main routes up Mt. Fuji. The most popular is the Kawaguchiko/Yoshida trail. I read somewhere that there are 30,000 people who climb Fuji each year, but as the climbing season is so short (July-September), it works out at about 3000 per day (with nearly everyone climbing at the same time in order to view the sunrise). Everyone I had spoken to, and everything I had read, implied that the sheer volume of people and all the tour groups climbing Fuji on this route, made things more difficult as the trail is not always wide enough to overtake people and you end up stuck going at someone elses pace.

With this in mind I decided we should take the Subashiri route.
Pros:
- More gradual incline
- Less people (3rd most popular route)
- More wooded (offering nicer scenery and protection from wind/sun)
- Easier to come down
Cons:
- Longer
- Less lodges/stations, so less places to stop and get food/rest (Subashiri (our route) = 7 lodges/stations. Kawaguchiko (popular route) = around 12 lodges/stations)
- No first aid or support or anything like that if something happens

I’m glad we chose this route. For most of the route we hardly saw anyone and less lodges/stations meant that we weren’t tempted to stop as much. However when things started getting difficult later on we would have welcomed a few extra places offering shelter and protection (more later).

As I mentioned we stayed at the fifth station until about 6pm to adjust to the altitude. One thing to avoid when climbing is altitude sickness. The pressure at these altitudes (2000m fifth station, 3775m summit) is a lot less, so breathing takes more energy and you get less oxygen with each breath. If you climb too fast then you will experience headaches, nausea, and dizzyness and there’s not much you can do about it. 

The difference the altitude made was quite noticable. When we stopped we felt fine, but when walking we got out of breath very quickly and climbing became difficult. I felt that it got easier when we were nearer the top though, maybe as we weren’t gaining height as fast, or maybe because our bodies had gotten used to it.

The temperature in Kimitsu on Saturday was around 30 degrees. The temperature at the fifth station was about 12/15 degrees and at the top about -1 degrees. While we were walking it was fine but when we stopped you really felt the cold.

The fifth to sixth station took us about two hours, climbing 400m (2400m). It was quite pleasant with all the trees and greenery but the affects of the altitude mentioned above caught us by surprise. The view of the surrounding towns and lakes below was gorgeous though. There was a little rain, but we were so hot from walking that it didn’t matter.

We left the 6th station at about 7:30pm. The sun was now setting and we were now walking by torchlight. All the trees and bushes were quickly replaced with bare rock. One of the difficult things about climbing Mt. Fuji, is that you are not climbing on solid rock but up steep slopes of volcanic gravel and sand. It means that you take 2 steps then slide back one, as you can’t get a decent grip. Then it really started to rain. Without the protection of the trees from the wind, the rain came at us almost horizontally and stung as it whipped across your face. As none of us could really afford to go out and buy proper rain wear we were all clad in crappy Daiso (£1 store) waterproofs which weren’t brilliant. By this point everyone had realised that this wasn’t going to be easy. We got to the old 6th station (2700m) at about 8:00pm.

My opinion of the stations before we went was that they were small mountain lodges where you could sleep, rest, or buy food (all for extortionate prices). I don’t know what the popular/touristy route was like, but on ours the lodges were tiny shacks. At the very least I expected them to offer some shelter from the wind and rain, but I was completely wrong.

By now we were very wet and noticing the cold a lot more when we stopped, but putting on more layers was quite difficult without any way to escape the wind and rain. Also, Kathryn was starting to find things extremely difficult. Whether it was due to altitude sickness or not I don’t know. We were all starting to feel the strain on our legs though. As there was literally nothing at this station we pushed on with the hope that we would pay the extortionate price to simply sit inside the next station for 30mins out of the weather.

At 9:30pm we arrived at the 7th station (3090m). We were all absolutely knackered. The last hour and a half of climbing up sandy slopes, in the pouring rain, and wind that was so strong you had to stop in case it blew you over was extremely difficult.

It was around here that Kathryn was feeling really sick and that she couldn’t go on. However there really wasn’t much we could do. She could either pay to spend the night there and we would pick her up on the way back tomorrow or we could crack on. Either way we decided that we needed 30mins out of the wind and rain to put on more clothes, rest, and get something to eat. Although when we asked at the station they said that they were too busy (although there was barely anyone in there – maybe 3 or 4 people). No matter whether we paid or not, we couldn’t come inside (not even for a minute), we couldn’t buy food or drink. They wouldn’t even stamp our climbing sticks. (I thought Kathryn was going to punch him). We were about half way and decided to press on.

The trails were now getting steeper and we were having to stop every few minutes to regain our breath so progress was slow. The good news was it had stopped raining. The bad news was it was getting windier. However to make up for it there were some amazing views as the clouds cleared and revealed an astonishingly breathtaking night time panorama. As we looked at the twinkling lights of the lakes and cities below us we saw a tiny flashing light that at first we thought was a lighthouse or something, before realising that it was a fireworks display far far below us at a nearby town. We went slowly and reached the eighth station (3350m) around 11:00pm.

So far we were ahead of my schedule by about 30mins. However at this point we had decided that our aim was to get to the summit no matter how long it took. If we got there for sunrise then that was a bonus, rather than our aim, as it was at the start. The eighth station for me marked a kind of mini victory as in my mind I considered this the last main stop before the summit (although I was completely wrong).

This station was a bit bigger and while not offering us anywhere to sit inside, at least had a bit of protection from the wind, and served a much needed hot coffee.
Again I don’t know about the popular route, but we now realised that on our route the lodges aren’t really open 24hrs as I had thought. They are open during the day, receive people who sleep there in the early evening, then close for the night. Sometimes offering drinks and the toilet to other visitors but nothing else which is why we couldn’t stop (or even step) inside any of them.

At this point Kathryn seemed to be a lot better. I don’t know whether she actually felt better or was just now resolved to get to the top, but the 8th station seemed to mark our second wind I feel. The summit seemed closer and we knew the next few stations would be closer together. The rain had let up, we were getting used to the air, and seemed to have gotten into a kind of rhythm or pace for climbing.

At the next station (the old 8th station – 3400m) our trail (Subashiri) and the popular trail (Kawaguchiko/Yoshida) merged. This was the biggest of the stations I had seen and not only allowed people inside, but also sold real food and drinks. The only downside was that it was packed full of climbers.

It gave us a taste of what the popular route must have been like as hundreds of people were pushing past each other, massive tour groups sat/stood in everyones way, and tour guides shouted stuff while waving massive lighted batons. I had originally planned for this to be our longest stop where we would buy a proper meal before heading to the summit, but I was starting to feel nauseus due to the altitude so couldn’t eat anything. I was also worried that the queues of people meant that if we wanted to see sunrise then we should crack on.

From here on out things changed. We were now climbing with hundreds of other people, at a snails pace. It seemed easier than before, but only because we were stopping and queuing every two seconds. We could now see to the summit and it still seemed so far away, especially at the pace we were going. We could also see the trail of lights of the people ahead of us, all the way to the top.

 It wasn’t so bad going at a slow pace, but having to stop still behind tour groups was a nightmare. Meanwhile the tour guides shouting was just irritating and the hiss of the  people with oxygen cannisters also got on my nerves (although I did have to take a shot of my inhaler at this point as the altitude/cold was causing my athsma to flare up).

It took us until 1:30pm to get to the next station (3500m). We were now behind my schedule and although I thought we still had plenty of time to make it to the top I was concerned about the pace of the queues of people. It was like being in line for Disneyland or Alton Towers.

At this station we met a few people and were astonished to see some elementary school age kids climbing with their parents (although they really didn’t look happy – I kind of pitied them and wondered what kind of parent takes their kids to a place like this at that age). The wind was quite unbearable now and it was really cold. We kept climbing thinking we had one more station before the summit.

It turned out that there is no 9th station (at least we couldn’t see it), just a marker there, so this ended up being our final trek to the summit. This next part was really tricky. There was no trail and we were just climbing up rocks and boulders.

The real problem was the number of people. Japanese people can be quite rude in general in busy situations compared to the UK (they don’t say “excuse me” or “sorry” they just push past, cut you off, and stand in your way – train stations, supermarkets, and driving tend to highlight this the most). Here was no exception. You’re in line queueing behind 100s of people (it’s too dangerous for it to be more than single file); you’re balanced precariously on some slippery rocks; you’re trying not to be blown over by the wind; you’ve found your next foothold and are just waiting for the person in front to move; when someone comes from behind and pushes past nearly knocking you over. All of this in the fog and dark at 2 in the morning. It was scary, frustrating, tiring, and painful (my legs felt like they were made of lead).  Me and Bethany lost Kathryn and Cong at this point (although we could here them below us somewhere).

At 3am we made it to the top (3776m)! I don’t know what we were expecting but the top was a nightmare.  The winds at the top were gale force and the cloud was so thick not only could you not see a thing, but everyone/everything was absolutely soaked from the moisture being blown at you.

Any spot offering shelter from the wind already had people huddled in it. Kathryn needed to be sick and went to join the massive lines queuing for the toilet. Me and Bethany tried to wait but it was so cold sitting there with no protection from the elements we had to move. We tried to get some food, but whether it was due to the altitude, exhaustion, or lack of sleep I was also feeling nauseus and couldn’t eat. (This was probably a bad idea as I had only had raisins and a couple of snickers bars since we started and needed to keep my energy up).

It was so foggy we couldn’t see more than a few metres in front of us let alone sunrise. So when it got light (about 4:45am) we decided to head back down before the weather got any worse. I also think in our minds the summit was the goal, so the thought of having to go all the way back down again was just depressing, and we now all firmly wanted this experience to be over.

Once at the top of Fuji there is a nice 3km walk around the crater. You can reach the actual highest point of the summit, and even visit a post office to send postcards with a postmark saying top of Mt. Fuji. As we had all written postcards we tried to find it, but as we couldn’t see through the fog ended up asking directions. We were told that the gale force winds and the fog meant it was too dangerous to walk around the summit and that the post office was far at the other side. So we gave up on that idea and headed back down.

The walk back down was endless. Going up, you had stations to stop at and a sense of how far you had come. Going down was just one long straight path with no stops. I say a path, it really wasn’t. It was one long sand slope. The biggest difficulty here was standing up, as you sunk deep into the sand with each step. I think me and Bethany fell over at least once.

 I found this bit the most difficult. It wasn’t that tiring but the tops of my legs were really starting to hurt at this point and I felt drained as I hadn’t eaten anything. As It was a long straight path you could also see how far you had left to go and the distance never seemed to shorten. The weather was great though (once we were out of the clouds) and the views were brilliant.

We got back to the 5th station at 9:30am and felt like the living dead. Our bodies were aching, we were sleepy, sweaty, and exhausted. Every time I stopped it felt like my joints had rusted over the next time I moved. The next problem we encountered was the bus going back down from the 5th station was delayed so we ended up catching the 9:30 bus at 11:45 causing us to miss our train. There was also this crazy old man with a massive radio pack shouting at people for various reasons such as sitting down, not queueing correctly, and reading the bus time table, which wasn’t fun to listen to for 2 hours.

Eventually I got home feeling like every movement was a pain at about 6pm on Sunday.

All in all I’m so glad I did it. It was rewarding, an amazing experience (in good and bad ways), offered fantastic views, and is a personal achievement I’m proud of. (I’m especially proud for not having done the popular route and having done it in such shit conditions as well). I’m also really proud of Kathryn who, although feeling crap halfway, pushed on and didn’t give up.

If you are thinking of doing Fuji then I really recommend you check the weather and unless it says sunshine and clear skies, postpone the trip if possible, . I can’t say what it would be like to actually see the sunrise from the top (as we couldn’t see anything) but I don’t think it’s worth it. Going early in the morning and coming back the same would be so much more pleasant and I think just as rewarding.

[Also I'm proud of all of you who managed to read this gianormous blog entry all the way to the end - sorry]

July 20th, 2009 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Category: Mt. Fuji | One comment

Bunkasai, Birthday and Boat Trip

Yesterday was my birthday, so thanks to everyone who sent their wishes, cards, and presents. To commemorate, on Friday,  my friends dressed me up like a clown (pink wig, novelty hat, and spangly giant bowtie) and we went out for some proper Indian curry and drinks at our local bar. The night ended up with a bang (quite literally) when everyone left the bar to avoid suffocating on the smoke from the firecrackers me and the barman set off rather irresponsibly.

On Saturday, we headed in to Tokyo to see my other birthday present; a life sized Gundam robot. (I wanted an Eva but what can you do?). After spending the day enjoying the weather and walking around Odaiba, I ended up joining Bethany and the HAPA society for a drunken boat trip round Tokyo bay. Unfortunately due to a mix up with people capacity half of the HAPA society people I met while waiting to board didn’t actually make it onto the boat and one of my friends was ill so went home, but it was still a great time.
The party boat was great. It was actually the same kind of boat that we took to Niijima island except for it had free drinks and only took 2 hours to tour Tokyo Bay (down to Hanada airport and back). The scenery was stunning and it was such a nice night. It was also nice to see so many people really letting their hair down and having a good time. Lots of people were wearing yukattas which are a form of traditional Japanese summer kimono, usually only worn at summer festivals. It was also nice to see Japanese people of all ages dancing the YMCA with such pleasure while wearing them. 

The other thing I wanted to mention are the brilliant High School Bunkasai (Culture Festival). In June I visited both Kimitsu and Ichihara Chuo High School’s bunkasai and was really impressed by the amount of effort the kids put in. Basically the bunkasai is an event where the school is opened to the public and all the classes and clubs put on their own events. These range from competitions,themed cafes, magic shows, haunted houses and science demonstrations. My favourites have to be the domino toppling, golf course, and rollercoaster which were built by the students in the classrooms. (didn’t try the rollercoaster as the school desk, plywood, and shopping trolley construction, although fun, didn’t seem particularly safe). Anyway, the amount of energy and enthusiasm that all the students put in makes it a real pleasure to visit.

This time next weekend I should just be arriving home after climbing Mt. Fuji (unless I fall off it) and I’m quite exited/nervous about it, so wish me luck.

July 12th, 2009 | Tags: , , , , , , , | Category: Events, Tokyo | Leave a comment

Don’t blame it on the sunshine, blame it on the kanji.

Well I definitely can’t blame my lack of updates on being out enjoying the sunshine as we are still in the middle of  rainy season over here. At first I scoffed at the mild but sustained drizzle comparing it to average English weather, but recently it’s taken a turn for the unpredictable. One day it will be sunny (hot and humid – around 32 degrees) and the next it will be torrential rain (still hot and humid – around 26 degrees), which doesn’t make it the best for making plans.

The only really touristy thing I’ve done this month is visit Nikko, which I may or may not post about. Nikko is a very beautiful place with some impressive temples, but I think the really interesting stuff is actual just outside Nikko, which I didn’t get to see (also you kind of get fed up of seeing temples). So I plan on going back there sometime and staying longer than a few hours, at which point it may get a blog entry all to itself.

I think the main reason I have been posting much is that I have decided to enter the JLPTs (Japanese Language Proficiency Test). These are worldwide tests held once a year (twice for the higher levels) and test your knowledge of Japanese via kanji, grammar, reading, and listening exercises. They range from level 4 (easiest) to level 1 (hardest) getting almost exponentially harder. A good example of this is that there are about 100 kanji you need to know for level 4, and about 2000 kanji you need to know for level 1. I have decided to try for level 3, which is a bit beyond me at the moment, so it’s going to require a lot of effort to learn everything before December and most time I’m at my computer is spent trying to learn kanji.

I have been using a combination of the book “Remembering the Kanji” by James Heisig, and the website “Reviewing the Kanji” (http://kanji.koohii.com/) and would definitely recommend them. The idea behind it is that if your objective is to learn all 2000/3000 general use kanji then you can start putting them in an order that helps you learn them (rather than learning the easiest/most useful first). They also emphasise learning the meaning of all the kanji first, then learning the pronunciation, rather than trying to learn them together.
I’ve learnt about 400 in the last 3 months through this method (although only 100 of them are on the upcoming test) and if you want to try it out then you can download a sample chapter off the internets (containing about 250 kanji).

July 2nd, 2009 | Tags: , , , , | Category: Japan Life | Leave a comment
 
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