The Gaijin Pony Blog

Just a daft pony that made a dumb decision to go to Japan for a year....

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Just a little snapshot from my island of Britain. A solitary afternoon hike / fell-run over the Dark peak moors.

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Free fixie bicycle - Saitama / Tokyo

I have recently recieved a message from the police that my stolen bicycle has been found! ^.^ If you want to pick it up then it’s yours! Contact me for details.

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Train ride in Tokyo - to be updated

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Toshōgu - to be updated

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Fast food - to be updated

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Some more food - to be updated

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Beer! - to be updated

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Traditional Tochigi food - to be updated

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Some Japanese sweets - to be updated

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Picture Dump!

I doubt I'll get around to writing soon but have had the following picture posts drafted for a long time. Later I might add a few additional descriptions. Enjoy....

[gaijinpony]

Soba - おそば / お蕎麦

Soba is "soba" (some folk seem to prefer calling it "buckwheat") and usually used to refer to noodles prepared from the flour of this grain. It is a popular, usually inexpensive, ingredient in many Japanese dishes. I prefer the basic noodles served cold with tsuyu, wasabi and spring onions called mori-soba (盛り蕎麦) or with a dash of nori zaru-soba (笊蕎麦).

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温泉宿 - Onsen / hot-spring hotel

The hot water from the volcanic springs is used for bathing. Across Japan, onsen resourts are abundant. Me and a friend stopped a night in a ryokan 旅館 where we had access to private hot springs. The sulphurous smell lingered in my fur for a week afterwards.

[gaijinpony]

Natural Onsen source (Hot springs) - 温泉

Japan, being a volcanically active country, has an abundance of natural host springs known as Onsen. Here the water "bubbles" to the surface saturated with minerals. These pictures of an alien-like place are at the source of the Nikko Yumoto hot springs. The water, in places was too hot to touch.

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Note about future posts ("to be updated")

At this time I have automatically scheduled posts to publish every day. I did this because I foresaw that I would have no connection to the Internet for some time due to moving. Unfortunately it seems though I won't be able to get internet for a much longer time than I predicted and am running out of those scheduled posts.... You will soon find drafts being posted which I'll 'repair' when I can. There is nothing I can do to stop this unfortunately. In case you're wondering: I have less than 500mb left on my phone which I'm saving for text stuff, pornography (joking) and emergencies.

[gaijinpony]

Nikko Yumoto - 日光湯元

Nikko Yumoto is a small onsen town set deep into the mountains of Nikko. It is very quiet most of the time, aside from the occasional school trip. Most of the buildings are run down but me and a friend stopped a night in a very nice small onsen in the village. It snowed too! ^.^

[gaijinpony]

Lake Yunoko - 湯の湖

The small lake Yunoko, meaning hot water lake is so named because of the hot springs nearby which flow into it. The water isn't actually warm but smells slightly sulphurous.

[gaijinpony]

Ryuzu-no-taki - 竜頭の滝

The Ryuzu waterfall (meaning dragon waterfall), which sources it's water from the Senjogahara marshlands, is a pair of twisting streams which lead towards lake Chuzenji.