Teaching and Travelling Abroad

Today was the beginning of a long weekend which the university I'm working at has around Hallowe'en each year. Since I was going to have both the Friday and the Monday off, I decided to take advantage of the situation by going to Nikko for two nights, arriving back on Sunday evening, and then having Monday (the 31st) free to see what Hallowe'en goings-on there were in Tokyo.

Nikko is a small mountainous city in Tochigi prefecture, north of greater Tokyo. It's famous for having beautiful autumn foliage and for its UNESCO-listed collection of shrines and temples, so I was very keen to explore!

The journey there was not all plain sailing, as I missed my connection and had to wait quite a while for the next train. To be fair, it was at a station in Tokyo which I hadn't been to before (Kitasenju) which had a confusing layout and the turnaround time was tight to begin with (at least, it seemed confusing when I was rushing around under time pressure and I couldn't immediately work out where I was supposed to go). At least I hadn't bought a ticket for that leg of the journey yet, so I didn't lose any money. I just arrived about an hour later than I'd planned! Anyway, once I'd caught the next train things became much more enjoyable. It was a very clear, sunny day and once we had left the outskirts of Tokyo and got into the countryside I enjoyed the scenery - rice fields mainly, a couple of rivers, and forested hills and mountains in the distance which got closer and closer the nearer we came to Nikko.

Nikko is very spread out, consisting of the main part of town and a smaller, almost-separate part which is close to the UNESCO site and which I guess must have originally been a separate village. Each part has its own train station, so if the shrines and temples or surrounding natural sites are what you're interested in, make sure to get off the train at Tobu-nikko Station rather than the main one. On arrival at Tobu-nikko I walked to the UNESCO site, but rather than just walk down the long main road which would have taken me straight there, I decided to go down some side streets and then follow the Daiya River until I reached the bridge opposite to the entrance to the site. That's what I did, though I did divert for a few minutes at one point to have a look at Inarimachi Bosai Park. It had some unusual stone terracing - at the time I couldn't work out what its purpose could be, if it wasn't simply decorative, but as I'm writing this I just thought that maybe it was seating for outdoor performances.

Eventually I came to one of the most famous bridges in Japan - the striking, bright vermilion-lacquered Shinkyō Bridge. It dates from the 17th century, though its origins are considered ancient, and serves as the gateway to the UNESCO site. The setting of the bridge is also famously beautiful. However, you could only walk across it if you paid a fee; I chose not to do that and settled instead for a photo of it from the non-tolled bridge nearby.

After that I got to the UNESCO plaque and Nikko National Park entrance sign. The temples and shrines are set within the forest of this national park.

It didn't take me long to reach the first temple, Rinno-ji, though on the way there I passed the back wall of a resting place for the portable shrines of three deities of Toshogu Shrine, who are moved here every May 18th in the Thousand Warrior Procession.

As I came up to the grounds of Rinno-ji Temple I found a statue of Shōdō Shōnin, the Buddhist monk who established the site in 766. Near it was a purification fountain with a magnificent metal dragon curled across its basin, and I noticed some incredible trees nearby too. The stunning autumn foliage I'd heard about was already living up to expectations, even though I think it's still to early in the autumn for the leaves to have reached their peak.

Before I went into the main building I wandered around the terrace in front of the steps, with its massive metal incense stand in use in the middle.

At the top of the steps, but to one side of the building, there was the temple bell tower.

Inside the main building I stopped on my way to the main hall (nicknamed the Hall of the Three Buddhas) to admire a display of costumes worn by dancers at an annual event called Ennen-no-mai (dances to pray for long life) every May 17th. The hall itself was absolutely magnificent. As the name indicates, it has three golden Buddhas, or rather three manifestations of Buddha (Senju Kannon, the goddess of mercy; Amida Nyorai, the Buddha of infinite light and life; and Bato Kannon, the horse-headed Buddha of power. Each one is associated with one of the three mountains of Nikko - Mt Nantai, Mt Nyoho and Mt Taro respectively.) No photos were allowed inside the hall, but I did manage to get a side-on one through the doorway while standing at the end of the corridor where the costume display was. It didn't come out very well though.

After that I wandered round the grounds behind the main hall. I came across some monuments, the little Komyoin Inari shrine, more beautiful autumn trees and the modern (though built in traditional style) Daigomado, a hall purpose-built for the Goma Fire Ritual.

I left the grounds from a side exit and looped down part of the magnificent avenue the grounds join onto before re-entering and going into the Rinno-ji Treasure House.

The Treasure House was quite small, but had some exquisite items on display. I couldn't get any pictures of them though because no photos were allowed inside. After leaving there I went to its Edo-period traditional garden and spent a very happy half an hour wandering around. It centred around a beautiful pond with lots of fish, carp I think.

The pond was modelled on Lake Biwa near Kyoto, which has lots of catfish. Catfish are said to predict earthquakes and have the power to ward off disaster, but it was thought too difficult to transport live catfish from Lake Biwa to Nikko, so instead 'catfish stones' were created and people are encouraged to pray by them for protection. The one I came across had some coins left as an offering.

As I walked around the garden I was staggered by its beauty.

I even admired the structure of the bamboo fence, as it looked so different to any fence I'd seen before.

After finishing there I made my way out of Rinno-ji and the rest of the WHS, back into town to find my hostel and check in and relax before going out again for dinner later. I re-admired the terrace and its huge metal incense burner on the way.

This time I walked along the long main road rather than take the side streets. I passed the Former City Hall near the start, and further on I stopped at a convenience store for a snack to keep me going - a couple of warm 'pizza buns' did the trick.

The hostel seems pretty good. After weeks of uncomfortable nights sleeping on one and then two thin futon mattresses on the ground, I was overjoyed at the prospect of a bedframe I could sit up against in bed and a thick mattress to lie on. I relaxed there for two or three hours before going out round the corner for dinner. I had some very nice chicken and butter corn ramen with a side of gyoza. The menu didn't say what sort of gyoza it was but on arrival it seemed to be pork with spring onion.

Continued from the previous post, which ended with me having lunch from a FamilyMart convenience store just outside of Ueno Park.

From there I looped round the outside edge of the park until I got to the National Museum of Western Art, which is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of 'The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier, an Outstanding Contribution to the Modern Movement', shared between several countries. After admiring copies of Rodin's The Thinker and Burghers of Calais and Bourdelle's Hercules the Archer in the open front courtyard, I headed inside.

The permanent collection was smaller than I'd expected so I was finished sooner than I had thought I would, but well worth a look round - not just due to the art, but also the museum architecture, though my photos don't do justice to the latter.

The majority of the collection consisted of French artists, with a focus on the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists.

However, there were also pre-18th century works by artists such as Veronese, Rubens, Brueghel and many others...

Next to one of them - Mater Dolorosa, by Carlo Dolchi (1655) - was a display of samples of the colourants (as they put it) used in it, plus ones of reference colourants. For example, they had samples of lapiz lazuli and the natural ultramarine blue made from it, which was incredibly expensive and high quality at the time and is what was used in the painting, and samples of lower-grade equivalents, azurite and impure natural ultramarine.

There were also a few non-French 19th and early 20th century paintings (including Roses by Van Gogh and The Loving Cup by Dante Gabriel Rossetti) and mid-20th century paintings by Picasso, Soutin, Dubuffet and more.

Collections of historic rings and framed medieval manuscript leaves rounded things off.

Since I had finished sooner than I'd expected, I realised on leaving that I had time for another museum in the park, plus a look at the lake. I took a slightly different route through the park this time, passing a statue of a famous samurai, Saigo Takamori, on the way.

The lake - officially known as Shinobazu-no-ike, or Shinobazu Pond - is huge, and I was astonished to see it completely covered in a carpet of lotus plants! I had thought the lotus pond at the big shrine in Kamakura was impressive, but this was even more so, as it really was massive - a sea of green leaves sticking out of the water, stretching into the distance. Apparently you can go on boat trips in this lake, but I'm not sure how - there didn't seem to be any room at all for even a narrow boat to fit on the water between all the lotus stalks.

Next to that end of the lake was the other museum I had my eye on; the main branch of the Shitamachi Museum. It was small but fascinating, demonstrating to the visitor what everyday life was like for the working-class residents of a tenement area in Tokyo in the Taisho era (1912-1926) and the Taito City area between the later 1860s and the 1960s. The latter included information about the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, which was particularly devastating and destructive in this area of the city because of all the close-together wooden buildings and the fact that when the earthquake struck, it happened to be the exact moment when all the families were preparing their lunch over open flames; more people died from the fires the earthquake created than from the shaking itself.

There was also information about life in the area during WWII, especially during the bombing of Tokyo in March 1945.

Other interesting sections on the 2nd floor included a display of children's toys and games, an original wooden attendant's booth from a local public bathhouse, and a reproduced living room of the mid-1950s to 1960s, complete with TV, dresser, radio, electric rice cooker and tiny cooking area.

Downstairs, on the first floor (what we in the UK would call the ground floor) there was a replica of a tiny tenement house shared by two families; a coppersmith's and a mother and daughter who owned a tiny 'children's shop' containing sweets, kites, toys, games and round or rectangular trading cards. In front of the house was a shared bin, well and stack of firewood and round the back was a shrine to the god Inari. The house was encircled by alleys containing a drainage channel, laundry poles and potted plants - the plants weren't just for decorative purposes, apparently, but also to make home remedies.

There was also a separate replica of the store of a manufacturer and wholesaler of sandal straps and Japanese wooden clogs. Although the houses are replicas, all the exhibits within them are original to the Taisho era.

It was 4 p.m. when I left the museum and went home via a train from Ueno Station and a change at Shinjuku.

Today I went on a lovely long walk round parts of Yanaka and Ueno, areas which make up part of Taito City, one of the more central parts of Tokyo. I was in Ueno when I went to the Tokyo National Museum on my first Saturday in Japan, but I didn't have time then to see much at all apart from the museum, so a return visit was always on the cards.

I started off at Sendagi Station and a lovely little park nearby called Sudo Park. It had a tiny red shrine, a hill, some wonderful mature trees, bridges and a big pond with some fish in it.

Then round the corner from there was Yanaka Ginza, a traditional mid-20th century shopping street with 1950s cafés and shops selling such things as fresh produce and antiques. As I walked along I could see that I'd got there too early in the morning for any of the shops to be open yet - some were closed and shuttered up still, whilst others had their owners in the process of putting their wares out on display. It was only around 09:30 and I don't think they open until 10 - something I'd forgotten.

From Yanaka Ginza I ascended a famous set of steps and continued down the road to the back entrance to the historic Yanaka Cemetery, stopping for a brief look at the grounds of a Buddhist temple on the way. I didn't stop at the latter for long, though, because it contained its own cemetery and whilst interesting, I was going to be looking round a much bigger cemetery very soon anyway.

Japanese Buddhist and Shinto cemeteries are very different to UK ones. Memorial stones are nearly all cuboid, set on one end on a base, though there are occasional variations, such as something more like a mini stone pagoda on a column. There are also quite often flat wooden sticks/ planks sticking upwards, with engraved or painted writing (probably names and prayers) and dates. The pictures below are all from Yanaka Cemetery.

Within Yanaka Cemetery quite a few well-known local characters are buried, including the last Shogun, Yoshinobu Tokugawa; I saw his tomb set within its own little compound, which wasn't open but had railings which visitors could look through. When I got there, an old man was standing by the gate, praying and intoning.

Within the grounds of the cemetery I visited Gokokusan Tenno-ji Temple, a Buddhist temple thought to have been established between 1394 and 1427, thus making it one of the oldest temples in Tokyo. The temple grounds were small but pretty, and contained a copper seated Buddha dating from 1690, sitting atop a base which has contained a charnel house since 1938.

After a nice wander round the cemetery, I exited via the main entrance and headed south towards Ueno Park, taking in some sights on the way. One of these was a giant Himalayan cedar tree, another was the area surrounding it. Filled with temples and shrines, it was very picturesque, though the temples and shrines I saw from the outside seemed to be closed to tourists.

Another sight was an annexe of Shitamachi Museum - the Old Yoshida sake store, originally build in 1910 in the Edo Period, then relocated to its current position in 1987. It sold not only sake but also salt and sugar. A really lovely old wooden building.

There was an interesting one-room exhibition/ display of the store inside, free entry.

On arrival at Ueno Park I used a public loo and noticed that the walls inside of the cubical were painted with an impressive mural of giraffes in the African savannah. While washing my hands I saw a sign declaring the place to be the the Ueno Toilet Museum! All the cubicles had a different mural of a scene from nature on the walls. It turns out that these were painted by students of the Tokyo University of the Arts next door to the park, the aim being to change people's traditional perspective of excretion as something dirty and negative to being a much more positive thing, bearing in mind the important role it plays in nature as part of the food chain. It said that the zookeepers of Ueno Zoo (which is within the same park) inspect what the animals produce every day as it indicates their general health condition.

After that unexpected experience, I walked round parts of the park which I hadn't managed to see before when here for the National Museum. There were several street performers variously juggling, playing card games, making things from balloons or singing, plus a human statue.

I came across a baseball field with a team holding a practice game - very interesting for me to see, and a novelty, as I'd never seen baseball face-to-face before.

From there I went on to an unexcavated burial mound, thought to be around 1500 years old according to clay images and earthenware found there. It was bare of grass and flat on top, with some stone benches for people to sit on.

I was getting pretty hungry for lunch by then, so I carried on out of the park, to be confronted by a street scene which for some reason struck me as being quintessential modern Tokyo; a huge pachinko and slot parlour on one side, colour, a busy crossing, high-rise buildings with shop, café and restaurant signs running upwards (to indicate what business is on each floor).

I came across a FamilyMart (a popular convenience store chain) and beat a path to their collection of chilled onigiri - rice balls with various fillings in the middle or on top - and fridge containing ready-to-go desserts. I noticed a type of onigiri I hadn't seen before called 'lachs ham', so I tried that, along with a small pot of creme caramel.

To be continued...

Day trip to Kamakura, one of the former feudal capitals of Japan. It's 20-odd miles southwest of Tokyo, next to the sea. I'd heard there were several historic shrines and temples to see, plus a beach where I hoped to swim!

I took three trains to get there; the third one was a unexpectedly historic-looking electric train with some wooden fittings in the interior.

Part of the journey went right next to the sea for a while and the sun came in and out, as it did for much of the day. It was nice to get out of the big city and get more of a sense of openness and nature; although the university campus I work at is very leafy, with magnificent mature trees, and the air is often filled with the sound of cicadas and birdsong, there isn't the same feeling as there is in the countryside.

After admiring an unusual clock tower in front of the train station, I got even more of a sense of nature as I made my way to and from the first three shrines in or near Kamakura; especially the second one, as it lay partly within a forest. I also walked through lots of backstreets, some of which backed onto the side of a lushly-vegetated hill.

There was a really lovely scent of vegetation. Two aspects of nature I could have done without, though - one was a large spider with bright yellow patches on it, which was hanging in its web from a tree (too high up for my head to get caught in it, thank goodness), and the other was the biggest wasp-like insect I've ever seen in the wild - in fact it was most likely a hornet - crawling on the ground next to the second shrine. Luckily it didn't seem to have any friends with it...

The first temple I went to is called Kotoku-in and is famous for its giant, bronze, outdoor statue of Buddha in a seated position in its courtyard. Before I got to it I passed through an entrance gate containing a red and blue painted wooden statue of a guardian god on each side of the passageway.

The Great Buddha was constructed in 1252 and although the base had to be repaired after the Great Earthquake of 1923, the body itself escaped damage. In 1960-61, however, the neck was strengthened and the body enabled to move freely if another big earthquake were to occur, thus helping it to survive.

I'd heard that people can pay an extra 20 yen to go inside the Buddha and see how it was constructed, but unfortunately there was a notice up saying that they're not allowing that currently due to the pandemic.

There was a beautifully decorated metal incense-burner in front of the Buddha, with incense burning in it, along with a big wooden box with long slots in the top. I saw several people praying by bowing, throwing coins in the box, clapping twice, then putting their hands together and bowing again.

I came across the slightly surreal sight of two giant rope sandals hanging up on display. 1.8 metres in length, 0.9 metres in width and weighing 45 kg, apparently they are titled 'Great Buddha's medicinal sandals', and were produced and donated to the temple by the Matsuzaka Children's Association, continuing their tradition (dating from 1956) of producing and donating a new version of these sandals roughly every three years. The reason was the children's wish for the Great Buddha to travel throughout Japan and bring happiness to all people.

Some more general pictures of the shrine, as well as one of some carved stones outside one of the entrances/exits:

Next I went to three Shinto shrines. The first was Sasuke-inari-jinja, dedicated to the god Inari, who is represented as a fox. As a result, there are hundreds of fox totems there, mostly tiny white ceramic ones but also some stone statues. The shrine lies on a forested hill, so to get there I had to ascend lots of steps through a succession of red shrine gates (torii) with vertical flags.

In addition to the main shrine building, there were several smaller shrines scattered about, including a wooden arch in front of a small cave containing a pool of water, overgrown piles of stones in the forest, and wooden stands and another shrine gate up a steep set of steps behind the main building. Fox-figures were everywhere! There was a shop selling charms and fortunes, so I bought a fortune for 200 yen (about £1.25).

The next shrine I went to, Zeniarai Benzaiten Ugafuku, was very atmospheric. To get to the entrance I had to walk through a short cave-like tunnel before arriving in a clearing. I was struck by the amount and variety of tiny ferns growing in patches by the entrance and in the rocky tunnel.

At this shrine there's a natural spring in a cave where people wash money to bring them luck; it's believed that any money you wash and then spend, you'll eventually get back threefold. I decided to join in, because why not... I had a good look at what other people were doing first, so I'd know what the procedure was. It turned out that you bought the use of a smallish wicker bowl, together with a bundle of incense sticks and a small white candle. You lit and left the candle at a candle stand, then you lit the incense bundle from that (or from the big 'master' candle already lit) and stuck the now-smoking incense in a large cauldron-like holder with sand in it. I lit my candle for Dad.

The next step in the procedure is to ascend the steps to the shrine, which you can't enter; you pray in front of it. I missed that step out, however, as I went on to the cave a few metres away in order to see how the money-washing procedure happened. You put whatever money you want into the wicker bowl, then take one of the provided metal ladles, crouch and ladle water from the spring over the bowl, giving the latter a shake or two as you do so. Then you find your own way of drying the money! I saw other people using cloths which they seemed to have brought with them; I used tissues. The notes were still a little damp, but soon dried out.

On my way to the third Shinto shrine I passed the Kamakura Museum of History and Culture. I had wanted to visit, but there was a notice in English saying that it was temporarily closed due to changing of exhibitions. Oh well... I found an ice cream parlour open instead and had a baked sweet potato flavour ice cream - a flavour I was very keen to try, as I had a feeling it would work very well. I was right, as it did - it was delicious! Sweet potato seems quite a common flavour or ingredient in desserts, bakery items, etc., in Japan, unlike in the U.K. I'm definitely a fan!

I also passed a Christian church for the first time in Japan. i was curious to see how the interior was similar or different to ones I've seen in other countries, but it appeared to be closed.

The shrine I was heading to was Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu, the biggest shrine in Kamakura. Hachiman is the Shinto god of warfare. The grounds were extensive and beautiful; I was particularly impressed by a lake containing loads of lotus plants sticking upwards, creating a sea of green.

The shrine structures were impressive, too.

In one of them I caught part of a wedding ceremony! Everyone was wearing traditional dress, including three musicians who were playing traditional instruments. The ceremony involved lots of bowing and the presenting or showing of different ceremonial items.

The last temple I went to was the tiny Buddhist Enno-ji Temple, though the main god represented there was actually one which came via China and India, reflecting the influence Hinduism and Taoism had on Buddhism as the latter developed. This was the terrifying figure of Enma Diao, one of the Ten Judges of Hell.

There were some other historically and culturally significant statues around the walls. One of them was a wooden statue of Zen Master Zhijue, the monk who founded Ennoji temple in 1250:

Others you can see below.

I had originally planned to go round the corner from there to one last temple which has a famous Zen garden, but I didn't have time for it in the end as I needed to make my way to the beach before the afternoon drew on any further. The beach was nice, though the buildings along the seafront looked like modern developments, not historic.

When I arrived there appeared to be a windsurfing race going on in the distance, which was interesting to see. Closer to shore several people were surfing.

After picking up a couple of interesting shells I got into the water - it was quite warm and I enjoyed my swim a lot. The first time I had touched the North Pacific Ocean... I thought at the time that if I carried on swimming in a straight line long enough I would probably not hit anything until North America, but after looking at the map later, I realised that the bay I was swimming in points to the south, so I'd actually hit Indonesia or Papua New Guinea, if I didn't hit one of the further-out Japanese islands first. I was the only person swimming rather than surfing.

On my walk back to the station afterwards, I passed some really good supermarkets and fresh produce stores with a great range of things - they looked better than my local supermarket in Tokyo. I wished I had time to stop properly and do some shopping there. They're on my list of places to visit when I come back to Kamakura sometime, along with the museum I mentioned before, another museum I didn't have time for (attached to the Hachiman shrine) and other historic temples I didn't have time to visit this time!

Today I went into Shinjuku to meet up with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law (who live in Tokyo). I hadn't seen them in ages so it was really lovely to spend some time with them again.

We met at Shinjuku Station. This station is massive, and extremely busy - in fact it's the busiest train station in the world, apparently, with over 3 million travellers passing through it every day. I can well believe it! In addition to various different train lines, it has a huge range of shopping and eating options. For lunch we went to a restaurant serving a speciality of Osaka called okonomiyaki - ultra-thick savoury pancakes of batter mixed with various ingredients, cooked on a hotplate in the middle of the table. There are lots of different sorts; we chose and shared three - a pork one, one with cod roe sauce (which doesn't sound that great, but it was basically taramasalata which I love, and worked very well in the pancake) and one with chunks of either octopus or squid. Each one had other ingredients, too, such as chopped onion, cheese, noodles or extra raw eggs with unbroken yolks, to be poured over the pancake within the cooking process.

The waiter brought over our drinks, the pancake ingredients and small accompanying salads at the same time, and got the first two pancakes going for us straight away, mixing the ingredients and starting the cooking process on the hotplate. The salads were small but a perfect accompaniment; lettuce, grated Japanese radish (non-peppery, which was nice) and a cold, sweet and tangy carrot sauce.

As soon as the pancake mixture had been arranged on the hotplate, what looked like a saucepan lid was placed over it, to trap any condensation as part of the cooking process, I assume, and/ or prevent any liquid from spreading out too far. Then the waiter left us to it. We had egg timers to tell us when each pancake needed turning over. Before serving them from the hotplate, we drizzled over mayonnaise and another type of sauce and then sprinkled on flakes of fish (bonito, I think) and smaller ones of dried seaweed. All three of the pancakes were delicious!

I also had something for pudding which was called almond tofu although the texture wasn't like any tofu I'd had before - it was a lot like panna cotta. The taste was very much like it too - milky and sweet and delicious. It had red berry sauce on top.

We went to a tower next, stopping at a takeaway bubble tea café on the way on Sunsuk's suggestion. Mine was actually iced coffee, though, rather than tea. I'd seen bubble tea places around in London before - it's a trend which came from Taiwan originally - but had never tried it. It was nice, a novelty and I'm glad I tried it, but I think I'll stick to normal iced coffee in the future.

The tower we went to had a free observation deck on the 45th floor, with amazing views over Tokyo. Gobsmacking! I already knew that Tokyo is one of the biggest cities in the world, but it was still breathtaking to see it spreading into the distance in every direction. We could see Tokyo Bay far away, and a mountain range in the distance too. Graham pointed out where we'd have been able to see Mount Fuji if it hadn't been so cloudy.

To go up the tower and down again we we were ushered into and out of the lift by a uniformed usher wearing white gloves, and before going up we had to provide our temperature by holding our wrist against a machine. The usher bowed deeply as the lift doors started to close before our journey down.

We headed back to Shinjuku Station after that, as we had to make a move for home. I saw this interestingly-shaped building on the way and we also passed through a tunnel with what appeared to be photos of Tokyo from the local tourism board on the walls.

Before going through the ticket barriers there was enough time for a quick stop at Japan's version of IKEA, which is a bit cheaper than the actual IKEA (of which there are at least two branches in Tokyo). I didn't get anything then, but will bear it in mind for the future. Upstairs from there is apparently the biggest and best English language bookshop in Tokyo, if not all of Japan, so I'll definitely be going there too!

I had to be home by 6pm in order to be in during the delivery period for my Japanese bank card and National Health Insurance card, which the company had kindly arranged redelivery of on my behalf. They both arrived OK, thank goodness.

In other news, I've discovered some more delicious items from 7-11 to add to the ones I mentioned in my previous post, namely melonpan (a large sweet bread-based bun with a sugar crust on a serrated top which looks a little pineapple-like) and 'strawberry & condensed milk' (chunks of condensed milk-based jelly in condensed milk-based sauce, with strawberry sauce on top). I've unsurprisingly become a big fan of the coffee milk, and discovered that vending machines here can give you hot or cold versions of canned coffee, depending on if you get one from the rows with a red stripe by the price label (hot) or the one with blue (cold).