A kirin - or qilin - is a mythical beast, orginally from China, who brings luck and prosperity wherever it goes. Somewhere along its colourful path through history, it managed to get itself confused with the giraffe, in case anyone was wondering about the modern meaning of the Japanese word. Interestingly, Kirin brewery like to play for both teams; their Kirin Lemon brand of lemonade features a lemon with a giraffe’s head as its character. The qilin shows up on the product I myself am most acquainted with - the various beers that Kirin are probably most famous for.

What then is this secret of which I speak?

Next time you’re out and you see Kirin’s qilin logo, have a closer look. For the beast bears three tattoos upon its back, spelling out its name: there’s a キ(ki), a リ(ri)　and a ン(n). Now, the only one that’s easy to find is the first one - it’s nestled just behind the qilin’s ear. The other two? Well, I did a rough approximation and I’m not even sure I got them right. Hard to tell on a low pixel shot like this -

You’ll just have to check yourself - before you sink the third one.

My father-in-law’s company keeps a hotel, just for employees, in Fukui prefecture. This isn’t unusual in Japan, and there are probably other hotels dotted around the country where the workers can go and get some down time at a discount. This hotel is very old - we were among the last guests to stay there, as it was decided that the past New Year’s holiday will be the hotel’s last.

All very sad stuff. But what does it have to do with the 52 Fujis?

Simply put, I went on a short break to Fukui, visited 2 of the 52 and got 2008 off to a cracking start.

There were, however, some interesting developments.

We arrived late on the 31st of January - too late for me to walk the forty minutes into Tsuruga city, hop on a train and go exploring the wilds of Fukui in the dark in what were fast becoming sub-zero temperatures. It was decided it was best to leave it until the morning. After dinner, my wife’s family essentially took over and organized everything for me. It was fantastic - like having a combined office staff and cheer leading squad who get most upset when my hand doesn’t hold a beer. It was decided that come the next morning - New Year’s Day - everyone else would visit Eihei temple at the end of the Echizen Tetsudo Katsuyama Eiheiji line, four or five stops after Higashi-Fujishima. Proposals were drawn up whereby I would be left at the station and then meet up with them later at Eiheiji. Grand.

Overnight, it snowed, casting doubt on the rail worthiness of the trains & also the the wisdom of spending time outside a station in rural Japan in the grip of winter. Everyone was quite sure that this wasn’t something I would want to be doing, although I wasn’t actually asked - an unforeseen drawback of having an eight person strong support team. So it came to pass that I arrived and left the first of this year’s 52 Fujis in a car, kind of disrupting the spirit of the 52 a little. This isn’t something I’m particularly upset about - the fact of the matter is, Higashi-Fujishima is another in a long line of Fujis which adhere to the noble tradition of being in the arse-end of nowhere.

Mind you, it had nothing on Fujii, the next day’s Fuji. Fujii is on the Obama line, and wasn’t as Baroque as the name implies. Quite the opposite in fact - the Obama line has one train every two hours; and at some point, the line splits into two. The fortunate souls who live at either end of these later lines have the privilege of getting a train every four hours; car ownership is probably quite high round their way.

I was kind of taken with Fujii station and the cheerful rainbow daubed on the outside of the shelter on the platform. I liked the lane that led up to it, sloping off into ditches and rice fields on either side. I liked that the only other cars were those dinky little trucks that are favoured by farmers. (You can get a feel for it by checking out this panoramic shot from outside the station.) This was truly the most inaccessible Fuji to date, and if you let it, the romanticism of it all could just get too much : I had a daydream about buying a house here living under the watchful eye of those hills, curving lazily into the sky. Winter would be a non-stop carnival of snowball fights, sledding, and eating stew by a roaring fire, with a whiskey to follow.

Then I remembered what happens in The Shining, got back into the car, and settled back down into the long road trip back to civilization.

Fujis remaining : 24
More pics at Flickr: Higashi-Fujishima and Fujii.

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

The International Herald & Tribune reports on a new suit available from Konaka in Japan, from February next year.

By utilising a special fabric that remembers its shape, the boffins at Konaka have managed to make my dream Christmas present - all you have to do, according to a PDF posted on their website, is reverse the jacket and trousers, put them in the shower for a few minutes, then turn them the other way around, repeat the process, then wait for them to dry.

Awesome.

It’s just the kind of thing I’m looking for, what with all the interviews I’ve been going to lately and dry cleaning being as expensive and time consuming as it is.

(picture from nicolette wells’ flickr stream, used under the creative commons license)

Anyone else see this and think of Evangelion?

Because we ain’t.

Well, not where we were before.

You see that thing with the big pink rabbit that crashed like a fat guy having a heart attack might crash, if he was standing on the edge of a balcony above a sea of bottles?

Yeah, well we were kind of all in the middle of that. NO?! Where have you been? Go here, then come back and we’ll talk.

Except for that mystery guy, Jo. He was way out of that. On the sidelines, cheering. For us. Obviously.

So we’re all skint and would appreciate you sending us some cash.

Or you could just wait until we get our lives straightened out a bit more and then we might start regular posting again… Not to mention tidying this flipping place up, there’s broken links all OVER THE SHOP… *tsk tsk*

Hopefully in the New Year, if not sooner.

Nice talking to you again, we should beer. If you’re ever in Yokohama.

Crushmonkey’s in Nagoya, you should beer if you’re ever there.

Rae’s in Canadia, you should beer and poutine, if you’re ever there.

And Jo’s lurking. You should beer. If you ever find him…

The last two of the Kyushu 52 weren’t so easy to get to. Timewise, there wasn’t that much in it - maybe an hour or so to get there, but there seemed to be a million different permutations of how to do it. We settled on a shinkansen to Kokura, followed by a local to Nogata, where we changed to the Hesei Chikuho line, a one carriage diesel engined fiend chugging with no sense of urgency at all to the world of nothingness.

Or rather, Fujitana.

Another of the 52 Fujis where I feel like I’ve walked in to someone else’s house and they might come home any second, to find me there, all apologetic but still in trouble. Fujitana added to the mix by having the most overgrown train station yet. It also stepped up things a little more by having the rustiest train station to date.

I didn’t stay long and caught the next train back. Which set a theme for the next Fuji by involving a rather over elaborate trek to get to the return platform, which, in the case of Fujitana, was situated down the road, through a tunnel, and left a bit.

Fujinoki started off with a bit more promise - the maps showed it was close to the sea, although I was pretty sure those were industrial docks with no vagabond gaijin access permitted. In the end it didn’t matter; we got a brief walkabout in before the heavens finally got back to rainy season, though we’d had the foresight to make it back to the station. The only problem being you have to walk to the end of the platform, make your way across a little level crossing, and then walk the same distance back on the other side. So we got soaked.

Never mind. We’re now halfway through -

Fujis remaining : 26
More pics at Flickr: Fujitana and Fujinoki.

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