Intrepid part 2 - Japan with Tal

Friday - Tokyo

Tal arrived first at Tokyo airport and was quite relieved when I arrived 2 hours later.  We kept pinching ourselves as we have wanted to come to Japan for such a long time and now we were really there!  First thing we realised was that our mobile phones don't work here!  The airport was very busy but we calmly worked out how to get to our first location, Ueno, by train.  The fare was quite expensive and I knew Japan would be a financial shocker after coming from SE Asia.

The train was brilliant - wide carriages, air conditioning, helpful bi-lingual signage and station information.  I resisted the photo opportunity at this stage.

Arrived in Ueno and took a taxi to our hotel.  We didn't realise that it was just round the corner from the station but the driver was happy to take our money anyway!  Comfortable hotel and first thing we were impressed by in our room was......... the toilet!  Yes these legendary necessities are controlled by buttons and they even have a waterfall effect when you sit down to mask any natural sounds!  The seats are heated too! The next thing we did was turn the tv on.  Couldn't find anything in English, but we did find porn!

Dumped our bags and braved the world by heading out to find food.  Unfortunately none of the restaurants had anything written in 'Ingrish' - but they do have plastic food so you can see what you are ordering!  We found a nice looking place and the only thing we thought safe to order was 'chicken katsu curry' (thanks to the Wagamama experiences in the UK!).  Noticed how quiet the streets were, despite plenty of vehicles and people.  I think its because I became accustomed to the noise of horns and people shouting in SE Asia but its certainly quieter here! Everywhere is very clean and no graffitti anywhere!

Saturday - Tokyo

Met up with my Japanese student Yuka.  She took us for a trip to Asakusa where she explained many things on sale in the shops, local customs and other things that were going on in the area.  We walked through the Kaminarimon Gate, with landmark lantern, to the Sensoji temple (oldest in Japan), did the fortune sticks again (better fortunes this time), bought all kinds of cakes and goodies and then had lunch.  Fortunately, Yuka was able to explain the menu to us and it was an interesting experience. The table was at a normal height but located in a sunken floor.  There were no chairs just mats, and we had to take our shoes off when we arrived in the restaurant and put them in individually marked lockers.

Changed to different hotel in the afternoon and met the Intrepid group at 6pm.  Interesting bunch (12 of us).  Ozzies, Kiwis, Yanks, Brits, Scots, German.  Our tour guide, Barbie, is half Japanese and half American.  Did all the boring admin and "who's who" before heading off to dinner.  The restaurant also had plastic food but this one had a vending machine where you put your money, press the appropriate order number, go to the counter to collect food and sit and eat.  Food prepared very quickly and very tasty.There are vending machines everywhere here - you can buy drinks, food, cancer sticks, tissues, other 'personal items' and thats just at the station!

Group then took train to Shinjuku area where we went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building - the tallest building in Tokyo.  Went up to the observatory on the 45th floor.

Next stop was quite weird! It was a sports bar that had very odd sports. The main attraction was billiard bowling - see pics!  The area itself, Kabukicho, seemed a bit seedy and there were many "cross dressers".  One obviously gay guy approached our group looking for other gay blokes but we sent him away - not his lucky night!

Sunday - Tokyo to Nikko

Early start to go and validate our JR Rail passes (only available to foreign tourists). Tal and I ventured off to Ginza which has some interesting places including the Kabuzika theatre (which, unfortunately, we didn`t have time to see a show).  Had lunch in an Italian cafe and managed to use our Japanese phrase book to make the waiter understand that we didn`t want shrimps in the pasta. Next stop was to the Sony building with 8 floors of gadgets and gizmos.  We amused ourselves looking at laptops and play stations. Fortunately, we couldn`t buy anything cos they didn`t stock any international versions.

Came back to the hotel on the metro (underground) and took lots of pix to send back to my mates at LU (ok, so I am saaaaaad!!)

We left Tokyo to travel by Shinkansen (bullet train) to our next destination - Nikko.  Arriving about 8pm we were shocked at how the town appeared to be asleep.  Nothing was open, lights were off - the town seemed closed!  Our guest house, Riokan, was a family run place (as most are) and very traditional.  The beds were on the floor (futons) and the flooring was tatami matting. There was an indoor onsen (hot bath)overlooking the river which has its own ritual.  You have to sit on a low stool to shower, then get into the hot bath. This one was mixed and not private and being English, I was too shy to participate!  The group sat in the lounge area chatting and drinking beer till bedtime.

Monday -Nikko

Early start.  Breakfast was excellent - lots of fresh fruit and different breads. Walked into town to the Toshugo shrine.  The shrine complex had a beautiful and peaceful Japanese garden for us to admire.  After the temple visit, we took a bus to the Kegon falls - a magnificant waterfall next to lake Chuzenji.  Unfortunately, the weather was rather misty so we didn't get the full effect, but it was still lovely all the same.  Came back to town via the "Dragon Painting Shop" - the artist was amazing and with one sweep of his brush, managed to paint the body of the dragon with several colours. We were shattered by this time and came back to the Riokan to get showered, chuck some washing in the machines and head off for an early dinner at an amazing Yakitori (grilled chicken) restaurant.  The first thing Tal and I noticed when we arrived at the restaurant was a handwritten sign in hebrew explaining that one of the items on the menu was "cadorai off" (chicken balls) which brought a smile to our faces :-)  Left the restaurant when they closed at 8pm!!!!  Evening spent drinking, talking and playing cards.

Tuesday - Nikko to Hakone

After another early start and a quick walk to the local abyss with its stone monks in red hats and capes lining the route.  We spent a short while at the waterfall there.  Then we were on our way again - more trains (yipeee).  They really are cool.  The bullet trains come in all sizes, some double decker, and colours (different go faster stripes).  Our Riokan in Hakone was also good.  This one had indoor as well as outdoor onsen (hot spring baths).

Another early evening meal and then back to the ryokan for drinking and games (charades).  Tal had her onsen bath with the guide, Barbie. We all have Yukatas to wear, which are kimonos to wear around the house.  Barbie trauamtised us by telling us that you can only cross them one way else its bad luck.  We all practised and went to bed happy.

Wednesday - Hakone

I woke up especially early to have my onsen in private!  Unfortunately, the weather had changed and there was mist and drizzle in the air.  I chose the outside onsen which, by being very hot, was actually a very pleasant experience in the rain! At breakfast, the hotel staff told Barbie that she was wearing her Yukata crossed the wrong way!  We thought that very funny after the fuss she made the previous evening!

After breakfast the group set off for its morning sightseeing, despite the heavy rain.  We have 3 day freedom passes which allows us to use buses, trains, boats etc.  Took the bus to Gora station and from there we took the funicular train up Mount Sounzan.  At the top, we changed to a cable car which went further up the mountain.  Unfortunately the weather was sooooo bad - misty and raining, that we couldn't see anything out of the windows and Barbie had to describe what we would have seen if the weather had been clear!  It was a bit surreal, to say the least.

The top of this mountain is very sulphurous and the highlight of the area is to eat black eggs.  These are regular chicken eggs boiled in the natural sulphur pools till they turn black.  Different looking but taste the same as regular eggs.

Took the cable car down the other side of the mountain to the edge of Lake Ashi.  After a quick lunch we boarded the 'pirate ship' for a short cruise around the lake.

The afternoon was free for us to do whatever we wanted so Tal went off with one of the other girls to a themed onsen park called Yunessun.  It had pools in different designs eg a giant coffee cup, a green tea filled pool, a giant wine bottle pouring hot water into a pool, water slides and other weird stuff. http://www.yunessun.com/english/yunessun.html

I went back to the guest house via the 'romancecar' which is an unusual mountain railway in that it uses switchbacks to climb, eg rather than going round tight bends, the train stops at special points to allow the driver to change ends and continue up the mountain.  There were 3 such switchbacks.  The view would have been amazing if the rain and mist had cleared! The steepest slope was 80/1000. I wont bore you with any more train stuff for now, but feel free to email me for further technical information :-)

Evening spent learning to do origami (Japanese paper folding) with the daughters of the guest house. My efforts to make a green swan are not photoworthy so I will spare you any hysterics at my efforts!

Thursday - Hakone to Takyama

Woke up to more rain then spent most of the day travelling by train to Takyama.  Our Ryokan here is mentioned in the Lonely Planet guide book as being one of the best in the area.  Our room was laid out in the tradional way with tatami mats etc.  This particular ryokan is run by a mad woman and her son. The mad woman is obsessed with slippers.  When we arrive in the main entrance, we have to take our shoes off BUT they have to be pointing towards the exit not the entrance.  Then we step up onto the wooden raised flooring to put on the house slippers (one size fits all and only one shade of red so it doesn't matter which pair you wear as they are all the same).  These slippers can then be worn as far as the bedroom door but then they have to be removed to walk on the tatami matting.  There are also the usual toilet slippers which have to be worn.

Our dinner and breakfast were included and both were amazing banquets.  The dining room (private for our group) was laid out with individual tables and floor cushions.  We wore our yukatas. Just when we thought we had finished eating all the little dishes of food, more food came and then desert! We had sushi and local beef, miso soup, rice and a whole host of other local and traditional delicacies.

After dinner we ventured (as a group) to a local bar.  Here we had all kinds of strange fruit flavoured local alcoholic beverages.  I left after one drink but Tal was still enjoying herself...... a little toooo much cos about 11.30pm she stumbled back into our room and then promptly spent most of the night throwing up.

Friday - Takyama

Tal missed breakfast!  I went down for the banquet dressed in my yukata.  Amazingly most of the group survived but Tal wasn't the only one feeling rough!

The rain was still extremely heavy but we ventured out to the morning market then onto a village of recreated houses from the old days.  It was interesting but we were soaked to the skin so walking in and out of the houses and taking our shoes off/putting them on became rather tedious.

Came back to the hostel via an amazing burger restaurant.  Well, after all the tradional Japanese food we had been eating, we needed a good old greasy western dish.

Later, the females among us were invited (by the riokan mad woman) to be dressed up in a more traditional yukata with the rib hugging, waist cinching corset hidden beneath the waist ribbon\bow. We ate dinner (another amazing banque) dressed like this but decided to change back to western clothes for an evening of ten-pin bowling. Boy did it feel good to let our stomachs loose again.

Saturday - Takyama to Hiroshima

Last morning spent wandering round the town (rain stopped/sun shone) via a Saki brewery!  We (not Tal) had a tasting session but I didn't really like the stuff (its fermented rice wine).

Several　shinkansen later and we arrived in Hiroshima.

Evening meal was a local dish called Okonomiyaki which was like a layered pancake with base of batter, later of cabbage, then egg, cheese, soya sauce paste and various other　ingredients (which I can't remember due to the 2 pints of beer I needed to wash it down with!) cooked in front of us on a hotplate.  Sounds revolting, but actually quite nice!  Group then went on to a Karaoke bar but I didn't think my singing　was worth anybody else having to pay to listen to!

Interesting note:  our hotel is opposite 2 'love hotels'.  These are hotels which rent rooms by the hour for couples.  Each room is themed and quite expensive.  Discretion is key here and they even give a wooden plank to cover each car's number plate!  Everything is automated so no other human contact or embarrasment.  Couples arrive, pick an available room from an illuminated board, put their money in the vending machine and a key is issued. The rest is up to them for an hour or more! There are many of these love hotels all over Japan.　

Sunday - Hiroshima

After a lovely long chat with Tom on the phone, Tal and I set off for our day of sightseeing alone.  We went to the Peace Museum which was very graphic in its details of injuries. The photo is looking towards the 'A-dome' which is one of the few buildings to be left standing, albeit in a destroyed state.

The museum was quite distressing but we had to eat so went off to the mall for lunch.  Tal and I then split up and I went for a ride on the streetcar (tram) down to the port. Did some shopping and found the '100 yen' shop (like the pound shop) and enjoyed 4 floors of 'bargains'.  Had coffee in an amazing chocolate place where we sampled hot crossants filled with banana and chocolate yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Tal joined the rest of the group in the evening for a western style (pizza and pasta) dinner in a bar type place but I had an early night (being old catches up with me every now and then!).  There was an amazing storm and she came back around midnight soaked to the skin!.

Monday - Hiroshima

Morning trip on a ferry across to Miyajima Island.  Weather roasting hot and when we arrived we were chased by the local tame(ish) deer who are indiginous to the island (dunno how they got there... did they catch the ferry or swim...??????)  One of them grabbed my map and I managed to grab it back but it was of no use to me with a chunk missing!  After visiting the floating shrine, we had lunch and then free time to do our own thing.  We tried to get to the beach but the bus just never came so 3 of us went back to the mainland, caught a train to a beach advertised on our map.  The train arrived at the location which was like the middle of nowhere.  We followed the signs to the beach and 20 mins later in the intense heat and horrible humidity, we arrived to closed gates with a sign in Japanese which we assumed to be the reason for the closure!

The group were planning an 'eat as much meat as you can' korean bbq but Tal and I decided it wasn't worth us going so we went off to a western style restaurant for chicken and chips!

Tuesday - Hiroshima to kyoto

A talk by a Hiroshima survivor had been arranged for us at 9.30am but he never turned up.  Our leader called him and he said he wasn't feeling well so we went off to another part of the museum - the rememberance hall, which had witness testemonies - all very sad.

Caught the shinkansen to Himeji which has the famous white castle that has been featured in 'The last samurai' and 'You only live twice'.  We climbed up to the top of the castle (6 floors) and were thoroughly exhausted but the views were magnificant.

Next shinkansen took us to kyoto where we arrived completely shattered but after a quick shower, managed to eat in one of the local restaurants with tatami mats on the floor for seating (us westerners just cant sit like that for too long so we all had dead legs within a short while!) Food was ok but not very filling.

Wednesday - kyoto

Our leader bought us bus passes and we trecked off on a shrine tour.  Visited the golden pavilion of kinkakuji temple, the Ryonaji temple with its renowned rock garden and then finally the kiyomizudera temple which has too many steps but great views!  There was also a love garden at the top which was more like a fairground attraction of stalls offering lucky charms or good wishes in love for several hunded yen.  I did the free offerings of rubbing the bronze statue and then walking, blindfolded, in a straight line between two rocks.  Tom, you will be pleased to know that I am following a straight path of true love albeit with a slight vere to the left!

Walked back through the cobbled lanes and every now and then sat down to catch our breath and take refuge from the sweltering heat.  We giggled (discretely) at the local women who wear high heals wherever they go including climbing steep hills, cobbled streets, hundreds of steps at temples etc.

By the evening, the rain had arrived so we sat in the ryokan lounge playing cards (Tal is a mean poker player!)

Thursday - kyoto

Everyone went off to do their own thing on the last full day of the trip.  Tal went off with her little gang to Movie land where they dressed up as ninjas and samurais.  She dressed up as a Japanese princess complete with make up and wig.

I went with a few others to a traditional tea ceremony (even tho I dont usually drink tea!).  Dad, you wouldn't like the tea here - it takes an hour to make one small bowlful!  Seriously tho, the ceremony was interesting and we were given traditional snacks between bowls of the green stuff.  We also had green chocolate which was just strange chocolate dusted in green tea.

In the evening we went off for our last meal.  It was an amazing restaurant where you cook your own food (shabu shabu/sukyaki style) - mostly beef and vegetables.  It was also drink as much as you can in 2 hours so we all got our money's worth.  After dinner we went to a karaoke bar - I had no choice but to tag along this time and was quite relieved to find Abba on the 'menu'.  By the time we had finished at 1.30am, all the transport in the city had stopped and some people went back to the hotel by taxi but I was in a small group who opted to walk.  BIG MISTAKE!!!  We got really lost and it took over an hour, in an inebriated state, to find our way back.  Two of the group decided to get a taxi but I soldiered on with 2 7ft lads who always managed to stay one block ahead of me all the way back!  Nevertheless, we arrived back at the hostel safe and sound but nobody was tired at this point so some people stayed up talking.

Friday - Kyoto to Tokyo

Said goodbye to the group and Tal and I left with Barbie the leader for the 11am shinksanden bound for Tokyo.  Unbeknown to us there had been an early morning typhoon and most of the trains were cancelled. We managed to get on the 12.30 train and then changed in Tokyo for the Narita express train which took us directly to the airport.  No we weren't heading home, just staying at an airport hotel for last 2 nights. Cunning plan was to use our last remaining free train travel days whilst still being close enough to the airport not to have to leave too early on Sunday morning.

Saturday - Tokyo

Hopped on the free airport shuttle bus directly from the hotel, took the Narita express train from the airport directly into Tokyo and had a crazy day in different parts of the city.  We explored a toilet showroom (EVERYONE becomes obsessed with toilets whilst in Japan) by the leading toilet manufacturer TOTO.  They have toilets whose lids open automoatically when they sense movement nearby (quite spooky as the lids opened when we walked past!) The choice of bidet controls on each loo is also amazing and some include blow drying as an option.  There is even a space saving toilet that combines a basin as part of the cystern.

Next stop was to the Oriental bazaar which has Japanese traditonal goods at very reasonable prices.  Tal blew the last of her Yen here and then proceeded to plead poverty for the rest of the day.

Tokyo Hands department store was next - 7 floors (each with 3 sub floors) of everything you could possibly imagine plus things you never thought had been invented. Tal found electronic money boxes in the hope some poor kid had deposited his life savings there (remember she was skint at this point) and managed to get her finger chewed in the mechanism (that'll teach her!!)  The thing that amused/confused me the most was an upside down clear plastic brolly.  We spent ages trying to work out why it was like that and how it could be used.  Tal decided that it was to catch rain in its bowl like structure rather than deflect the rain.  Suddenly we spotted the sign hanging over these brollies and discovered that it was infact an umbrella for dog owners walking their pooches to keep the animal dry.

She started moaning and whinging about her mossie bites (true to say she had more than I ever had in Thailand!) so we went to Starbucks for coffee but they were so busy we had to go somewhere else.  Found a great free internet cafe 7 floors up overlooking  Hatchiko square which is the busiest pedestrianised intersection with crossings going in all directions. (photos to be added asap)

Sunday - Tokyo airport

Yes, we spent most of the day at the airport.  Tal's flight left at noon but we got there early to check her in and have breakfast.  My flight didn't leave till　the evening. After she left I found a 'sightseeing bus' outside the airport.  Driver didn't speak English and I didn't speak Japanese so I handed over some money and he gave me a ticket and off we went.  It was a quaint old style of bus and our first destination was a shopping mall in the nearby town of Narita.  I had to kill 6 hours, so spent a big chunk of it there just wandering round.  Hopped back on the 'sightseeing bus' and it went straight back to the airport!  I was conned - surely there are shrines or temples or something other than a shopping mall and an airport in this town???

Luckily I found a free internet cafe inside the airport which was good cos I still had 3 hours to kill and no cash left!

Conclusions on Japan.  Very expensive!  Quiet, clean, efficient. People in service industry very friendly but people in general quite aggressive.  Little old ladies pushing and shoving etc  Food strange - only place I know that does not consider ham and bacon to be meat!  Fish with everything (even dried for snacks) and soup with fish base.  Far too hot to really appreciate the temples.  Overall a good experience though.