Carmen

 

So on Tuesday we went to see the Royal Opera House filmcast of Carmen. (Above a photo of the part of the curtain call. Not the best photo ever) I wouldn't say I massively enjoyed it. To begin with it was very long. Three and a half hours. That did include an interval and a 15 minute pre-show talk; the interval was very welcome but I could, as always,  have done without the pre show chat. We have two recordings of Carmen and having checked neither of them come near three hours so I suspect there was a bit of previously excised dialogue put back in for this production. 

The production was OK although I hated what they did with Micaela, making her  dumpy clumsy and shortsighted; I can see where they were coming from but that doesn't mean I have to like it. As for the singing, the Carmen (one Ginger Costa Jones was brilliant ) and everyone else sort of paled beside her. The Escamillo was underpowered, the Don Jose was an OK singer but couldn't act  and there was no chemistry between him and Carmen. The Micaela was good but she always hesitated just before her high notes which was a bit off putting although she did always hit them. The secondary roles were taken by members of the ROH's Jette Parker program for young singers and I don't think any of them were ready for it, nor were they particularly well directed. 

When I thought about it afterwards it occurred to me that I've never seen a production of Carmen that I thought was good. There were two iffy ones by the opera company that shall not be named here, there was the filmcast of the weird  Barry Kosky one at the ROH where Carmen appeared in a gorilla suit and which we left half way through because the OH could not bear it any longer. And there was a very promising one at Opera North decades ago which was let down by the mezzo having - how can I put this? - substance issues, which meant throughout Acts 1 and 2 she leant against any convenient piece of scenery, or prop, or failing either of those, one of her colleagues, and in Acts 3 and 4 she had been replaced with a member of the stage management team walking through the part on stage while a random audience member - albeit a trained singer - sang the part from the side of the stage. That was an interesting evening. It would have been a  good one overall if not for that  .... ! 

Thank goodness for recordings, although they aren't the same as seeing things live. 

Next Stop - Osaka

 Actually the ship berthed in Kobe since Osaka is inland, although it wasn't always. Historically it was  important as a trade hub with connections to the Silk Road, and today it's an important financial centre as well as being Japan's third biggest city. There are plenty of options as far as things to see are concerned and we opted for the Sumiyoshi Taisha shrine, followed, with all the inevitability of night following day, a river cruise. 

Pictures

A panel commemorating the links to the Silk Road. 

Part of the shrine

The grounds

Shinto, Japan's indigenous religion, is nature based; here's a cute little representation of the fox god 

A view of the banks from the boat on our river cruise. At this point we still hadn't quite managed to align what we thought Japan would be like with how it is. It's modern and industrialised and the fact that we weren't prepared for it to be like that is totally on us. We did get there though. 

I see from my notes that the OH lost his hat at some point during this day; I can't remember any of the details of that presumably because he found it again quite quickly! 

Embarkation Day and First Port of Call

 

The transfer to the ship was smooth ( the Japanese seem very efficient at this sort of stuff) and we got called onto the ship soon after arriving at the Cruise Port. We found our stateroom without difficulty and after a small problem getting it open ( hint; never try opening an electronic door with a drinks package card!) we were in. It was lovely, and about three times the size of our Tokyo hotel room. 

There was a bit of getting used to things; reading the daily Schedule, watching the safety video, deciding where to eat at lunchtime and doing the safety muster by the lifeboats. Then we had some free time to orient ourselves in the ship before dinner and what cruise lines rather coyly refer to as 'Sail Away'. 

Being well brought up and knowing very little about Japan we watched the 'Introduction videos' to each port of call on our 'stateroom entertainment system' and also attended the talks about the ports that were given each day before we landed (berthed, I suppose really) in them. 

Our first stop was at a small place called Omaezaki. Omaezaki has very little of interest bar a fish market and a marine environment park.  I personally feel that fish markets are a bit niche and we couldn't avoid them altogether because everywhere we went seemed to have a famous one and we were often either taken to one willy nilly,  or offered the opportunity to visit them which we generally declined. They ( fish markets that is ) usually discouraged the taking of photographs so I can't inflict pictures of odd things that surely no-one sane would ever put anywhere near their mouths on any readers out there, and actually I think this is probably a Good Thing overall. Here however is a rather jolly little god figure from the one in Omaezaki.

The marine park was a short stroll away from the fish market and as it was a lovely day we spent quite some time enjoying the fresh air and watching the surfers and swimmers and  also catching a further glimpse of Mount Fuji in the distance. It also offered the opportunity to take a picture of our ship. 

It wasn't the most exciting day we have ever spent but it was a welcome change of pace from Tokyo and it eased us nicely into the cruising experience. 

The (Not So ) Enchanted Forest

 

The Enchanted Forest is an autumn attraction in Pitlochry, Perthshire. It's a sound and light show based in the Faskally Woods, and is very popular. When we lived in Orkney we would often pass signs to it on the road when we were travelling to and fro in the autumn. It looked intriguing  and we meant to go last year but somehow we never managed to get around to booking the tickets. I suspect we were busy with other things! 

We told ourselves we would go this year and I thought we might have missed out on tickets again because there weren't many days left of the event when we got back from Japan but to my surprise I had no trouble getting tickets for Monday ( possibly a sign of things to come) so off we went.

It's a bit of a hassle because you have to go to Pitlochry and get on a coach that takes you to the woods and they are quite fussy about you turning up for your designated time slot and not before. They also issue dire warnings about the limited parking in Pitlochry, although to be fair they have quite detailed directions to local car parks on their website. When you're talking about a 90 minute drive and not knowing what the traffic is going to be like and whether you'll be able to find a parking space in your first choice car par park it's a bit stressful knowing you have to hit a 15 minute time slot at the other end. 

We made it though. Found a parking space no trouble and managed to get Google to get us to the coach point. It wasn't a long walk but part of it it was dark which isn't nice in a place you don't know. But we go there and then  coach duly delivered us to the entry point. 

Let's cut to the chase. We didn't enjoy it. There is a mandatory  route but it wasn't signed so you were dependent on their marshals to notice your arrival at junctions and send you in the right direction. The ground was very uneven - d'uh, it's a wood, so a given, but the paths were grossly under-illuminated which made walking tricky. I used my phone torch  a lot!  The illuminations were very repetitive and the music was very loud. There were some set pieces and the ones we caught bits of looked quite good but unless you happened to be passing when one started you didn't know where they were or when. 

Some photos of a couple  the nicer bits. 

We were so underwhelmed we treated ourselves to a plate of poffertjes, and a hot chocolate each, they were very nice but the poffertjes weren't warm enough,they really should be eaten straight out of the pan

Like the tickets they were eye wateringly expensive.

Not our most successful trip out; over hyped, over priced and underwhelming. There again, not everything new you try will be wonderful. But we were disappointed because we had done something similar in Stockholm a few years ago ( blogged about here ) and it had been a magical thing. And we were expecting more of the same. 

I had a survey yesterday asking for my opinion of the experience. I quite enjoyed filling that out - more so than the event itself. 'Nuff said! 

An Exhausting Day in Tokyo

 Our second day in Tokyo was a free one. According to what we had read our hotel was 'very near' the old Royal palace and gardens so we decided to go there to begin with. Now, 'very near' is a relative term and I can see that what is 'very near' for some might be 'not as near as all that' for others, and in the event it was about a 40 minute walk. I personally don't class that as 'very near' , and it felt a lot further given that it was a very hot sunny day. Also, as we couldn't read the street signs Google maps was doing some heavy lifting and I'm not always convinced that it's a strong as it needs to be.

We got there in the end. Sadly, after all the effort it turned out that the gardens were closed. The palace is never open but the gardens usually are so it was just our bad luck that our visit coincided with a public holiday that meant they were shut.  I got a distant view of the palace 

and here's a picture of some of the grounds outside the wall

all very nice but it would have been nicer to see it all close up! Incidentally the palace picture encapsulates one of the biggest problems we had with Tokyo - it's full of people. And I don't mean crowded, I mean full. You could not take  a picture anywhere without swarms of people being in it - this wasn't specific to Tokyo , we encountered it elsewhere too. What can I say? It's a small country with a lot of people in it; plus of course a fair number of tourists. (The garden picture has been highly edited to take out the people!)

In the afternoon we went to the district of Shinjuku. Shinjuku is one of the main shopping and entertainment districts of Tokyo; it also houses the busiest railway station in the world. That's not my hyperbole by the way, it's a fact. We went to Shinjuku because it had a huge anime store (son no 2 is a big fan) and a huge stationery and arts supplies shop. The anime shop was difficult to find which was odd considering it supposedly had 7 floors ( it didn't, but it did have 3, and it took an awful lot of wandering around to find the right sort of present for the offspring ) and by the time we had finished I was suffering from some very painful twinges in my back and we were both exhausted. So we went and had something to eat before setting off to find the stationery shop. This one has eight floors which would have been exciting to explore had the whole place not been rammed with people, many in groups cluttering up aisles. And there were too many aisles and too much stuff; it was jut overwhelming. I did manage to concentrate long enough to get a couple of small items but it was a let down as I had been looking forward to visiting the shop and having a long leisurely browse, but then I couldn't cope with the crowds and the mountains of stock - much of which I have to say looked lovely. We decided to cut our losses and I consoled myself with the thought that this was the flagship store of a chain and we'd probably find others as we made out way around Japan, but we never did. 

I'll say it later but I'll also say it now; we loved Japan. I wish I thought we had the time left to do a return visit, but even if we did we wouldn't go back to Tokyo. I'm glad I've seen it but I know I can no loner cope with the sort of crowds it generates - if I ever could. But anyway, that concluded our Tokyo adventures because  the next day was Embarkation Day! 

Day 1 - Fuji - and More

So when we booked the holiday it was a bit of a bundle. The main bit was the cruise, but it also included 3 nights/2 days in Tokyo at the beginning, and one of those days there was an included excursion to Mount Fuji and Lake Hakone. We'd wanted to have a free day in Tokyo first then do the excursion the day after, thereby giving us a bit of time to recover from the travelling, but that would have meant doing the excursion on a Sunday, and they don't run them on a Sunday. The result of all this was that the OH spent the second half of our journey to Japan muttering darkly about how it would be sensible to cancel the Fuji trip as we wouldn't be able to get up in time for it ( it was am early start!) and even if we did we would be too tired to enjoy it. Being a thrifty soul and conscious that we had actually already paid for this trip, I was loth to do that and said we should see how things went. And how they went was that we were awake in plenty of time to have breakfast and get to the meeting point and we didn't fall asleep in the coach either. 

( Spoiler - it was a great day and we both agreed we were really glad we hadn't cancelled it )

We know a few people who have been to Japan in the past few years. They have all gone to see Mount Fuji and not one of them had actually glimpsed the summit, as it was wreathed in cloud. We were very lucky; we had blue skies, sunshine and a great view of the mountain. 

They take you a fair way up, to what they call  the fifth station and there was a small shrine, a huge gift shop and an ice cream kiosk. The OH is always up for an ice cream and he tried the white peach flavour. It was delicious. Generally speaking the Japanese make great ice cream we discovered. 

You are enticed into the gift shop by being given a voucher to redeem for a set of free 'lucky bells'; the counter for this is strategically placed at the back of the shop so you have to go through it twice. That said it was one of the very few places we found in Japan that actually sold postcards of views/sites. Had I known this would be the case I would have bought more there, but, blithely ignorant, I restricted myself to three and then spent days afterwards fretting that I would never find any more. Don't get me wrong; there were beautiful postcards but they were of the art variety rather than the sort where you write  'we woz here' on the back and slap on a stamp. 

After Fuji we went to a restaurant for  a typical Japanese lunch. I did rather better with this than anyone could have anticipated, and made quite a good job of eating with chopsticks, not something I've attempted before. 

See that fish shaped thing? Not fish. Some sort of baked custard. 

After lunch we had a drumming performance by a group of local youngsters with Downs Syndrome. The tour company supports various local groups that provide activities and social events for people with disabilities. This group certainly enjoyed their drumming, and we did too. 

Then it was on to Lake Hakone for a short boat cruise. A beautiful trip ....

...passing some Shinto shrines on the way 

And finally we caught a cable car up to the top of one of the mountains for a panoramic view of the area. My dislike of heights notwithstanding I enjoyed the cable car trip  and the view was worth it, although the photograph doesn't do it justice. 

And then it was a case of 'everybody back on the coach' for the return to Tokyo. We weren't very hungry so just popped into one of Japan's famous convenience stores, (I think it was Family Mart, but don't quote me)  located just across the road from the hotel and bought some sandwiches and a packet of these

Yup, raspberry flavoured KitKats. We planned to go back the next day to try the strawberry version but somehow that never happened. 

Getting There

Absolute nightmare. There is no getting away from the fact that Japan is a long way from Scotland. And that means a long time in the air. In our case it also meant a long connection time in Dubai.  So we had to check in in Glasgow four hours before our first flight to Dubai, that took eight hours and was full of the most restless passengers I have ever encountered on an international flight, up and down like yo-yos and congregating in the aisles, then we had six hours in Dubai before the plane to Tokyo and that was another nine hours. And then we had to tackle Japanese Immigration which took - well I was going to say forever, but obviously that would be a lie! it did take hours though. Our transfer driver was getting more and more agitated, sending us messages saying he was waiting for us and we were sending messages back saying we were wafting for bags, going through immigration, we were through immigration and where was he now? By the time we got to our hotel it was almost two in the morning local time and we'd ben up for about 30 hours. We were definitely ready for bed. It was just as well we were so tired,  or we might have been even more dismayed by the size of our room. (It was very small). But as it was, all we cared about was finding somewhere to put the cases so we didn't fall over them on the way to the bathroom and crawling into bed for some much needed sleep.