Leo and Sonya on Tour
Japan is completely different to China but definitely as beautiful and fascinating. Our first stop was a large city called Fukuoka in the South and is considered an international city; so it was a nice easy introduction to what was going to be the biggest culture shock we had ever experienced.
The first thing that strikes you when you get to Japan is how important fashion is. It's almost as though the younger generation have decided that what features on a catwalk is definitely what one should wear when popping to the local food shop for a pint of milk! Most blokes sport really bad mullets that are all dyed in light brownish colours, which to be honest, don't suit them. Having said that, they do carry off their very different and sometimes very eccentric style, very well. I know for a fact i would look completely ridiculous if i decided to try and wear some of the things the girls wander about in. Fashion is definitely at the top of any young Japanese' agenda when they step out of their house, even when sight-seeing in the countryside! When it comes to clothes and shoes "practicality" doesn't actually apply in Japan. As an example, we happened to be doing a little hiking on this beautiful island called Miyajima just off Hiroshima, where all the tiny lanes were really muddy and full of soggy leaves. There we were with our sensible walking shoes, scruffy jeans and t-shirts and a pretty shabby looking day rucksack, pretty much struggling up these lanes. Out of nowhere we would come across groups of young Japanese making their way back down. To our amusement and total bewilderment, most of the girls were sporting mini skirts, knee high stiletto healed boots and fur lined jackets and the absolute essential accessory, a Louis Vuitton handbag. Somehow, these guys made us feel really scruffy and unsuitably dressed for such an occasion!
They have gadgets for absolutely everything and they are all incredibly cutesy. Coming back to gadgets and cutesy stuff, they have created little charms for their mobile phones and whether you are a strapping young lad or a dainty little girl, you have to sport one or a hundred of these things hanging from your phone. And they have to be cute. 18 year old guys will sport hello kitty, mickey mouse or bagpuss phone charms. Over here, it is compulsory to have cutesy things, whether you are a guy or a girl. Wherever you look, people have bag charms hanging from their rucksacks, school bags or laptops. Even businessmen walk by with these little things hanging off their respectable looking briefcases.
Another thing that gets us giggling is all the Disney like cutesy tunes that they play on platforms in normal train stations and in the underground stations. This just gets beyond funny when someone comes on the overhead speaker to announce a train in that cutesy voice. You also get little cutesy tunes played on trains to alert passengers to the fact that the train is about to leave. We are now so used to it, we miss it if they don't play one. At pedestrian crossings in any large city, the green man is not accompanied by a normal beeping sound, oh no, over here things must be as cute as everything else. They have little cutesy tunes, noises that sound like little cartoon birds chirping and other squeaky noises, it's hilarious. We have been naughty enough to stand by one of the crossings to record a couple of these noises just to remind us of how cutesy it all is. And again, we promise that these will be available to listen to very shortly.
Right, onto some of the places we visited...
Fukuoka
Fukuoka was our first stop. We covered most of it on foot which meant that by the end of the day we were exhausted. Our first stop was the remains of a very old feudal castle which had some stunning views over this large city. On our way down an old man overheard us talking in English and started a conversation and he explained that he had been to England 30 years ago and had liked it very much. When he found out that we lived in London, his eyes lit up and he explained that he had spent a year training in a bank in London and had loved it. He asked whether he could join us on our walk back through the city's famous park. He was so lovely and told us lots about the city and showed us round this huge park that had a proper running and cycling track for people who wanted to exercise. The running track was actually made of this spongy material to protect your joints! All around the park there was a huge lake with little pedalos in the shape of swans and ducks, very cute! That evening we went to a little restaurant tucked away in a side street that specialised in these noodle set meals. You get a little starter of pickled vegetables, a bowl of noodle soup, a small bowl of steamed rice and a couple of pieces of sashimi, yummy. On our second day we spent the morning walking around the port area before we took our first train journey to the famous Onsen region.
Onsen are spring water baths that are dotted around the country and the Japanese love them. Normally these are communal baths. Some Minshuku, traditional Japanese B&B's and Ryokan, traditional Japanese inns have their own outdoor Onsen which are stunning and so peaceful. Somehow on our first train journey through Japan we ended up getting a limited express service on some special tourist train which turned out to be really really nice and it actually slowed down on route to allow passengers to take some piccies of lots of waterfalls along the route. We got to this little village called Yufuin in the mountains, this was our first taste of a traditional tiny Japanese village.
Before we get onto Yufuin and our experiences there, we thought we would mention another thing that strikes you when you get to Japan, and that is how beautiful and dinky everything is . Everywhere you look there are beautiful lush green hills, forests and fields. Dotted along all these hills are beautiful tiny traditional Japanese villages. Everything in these villages and in this country is incredibly dinky. The fields are so small, you could run a 150 metre race across one and they all appear to be exactly the same size and length and are so neatly fenced off from each other. The roads are tiny, the cars are even tinier and to be honest, the houses are so small that you occasionally have a feeling you are walking around Lego Land. We took a few piccies to show you what we mean, these will be available shortly.
Right, where were we...
The tourist information desk at the station helped us book a room in a Minshuku up in the hills and the owner, a mad little old lady came to pick us up in her mini car. On arrival she took us on a quick tour of the famous Onsen that belonged to the B&B and explained that these two baths were actually mixed baths and that you could only use them if you went completely naked. These were obviously open to all guests staying there. The baths were surrounded by walls but no roof and the doors were the traditional Japanese sliding doors. Dotted around the bath area were gorgeous little lanterns that were lit up at night. On the side of the baths were some bamboo buckets, some very very tiny stools made out of wood and a tap. The landlady explained to us that after placing our towel and dressing gown in the baskets provided by the entrance to the baths, you had to perch on these minute stools, fill a bucket of water from the tap and wash yourself. Once rinsed, you could then step into the piping hot but very inviting looking bath made of thick black slate stone. After this quick introduction to using onsen, We were then shown to the main building where we were asked to take our shoes off and they were placed in little boxes by the door. The lady then handed us some indoor shoes. The largest sized shoes barely fitted a quarter of Leo's feet and he struggled to walk around the place, it was hilarious! Our room was lovely, the sliding doors were made of bamboo and rice paper and the floors were covered with the Japanese tatami Mats. The only piece of furniture in the room was a tiny table in the centre of the room with a tea set. The table was very low and it was obvious that no chairs were required. After a cup of tea, we decided it was time to brave the baths. When we got there We were so relieved to find them empty. Half way through my cleaning i thought i heard the door slide open and i was terrified that i would have to rinse myself off and then walk over to the bath in full view of some complete stranger. Leo was actually much better at getting over this than i was. I guess that's because boys don't seem to worry about standing around naked in changing rooms after going to the gym,whereas girls tend to hurry through the dressing process. Thankfully we were able to enjoy our first Onsen experience on our own. The water was piping hot but so relaxing, could have stayed there all day!
After a relaxing bath we got ready for dinner. I am so glad Leo went wondering off and discovered that the other guests were seated at their table dressed in their kimono style dressing gown provided by the inn. We quickly changed into these and went to taste our first real Japanese food. The meal consisted of a small bowl of steamed rice, a chicken dish, a bowl of Miso soup, egg in a pot that looked like creme caramel and some green tea. It was a great evening meal and when we got back to our room quite sleepy but we decided it would be nice to have a walk down to the village to get some pudding and then have another very hot bath before going to bed. We discovered to our surprise that this tiny village was pretty much dead at night, all restaurants and bars were closed and the only people out and about were a handful of teenage kids on their bikes by the station. We found a 7 eleven open, bought our snacks and headed back to our inn. When we got back to the room we found that the table had been moved into a corner and some futon mattresses and duvets had been laid out for us. Having a really hot bath before going to bed was so relaxing and it was lovely to be able to stare up up at the sky. The following morning we were introduced to Japanese breakfasts which consist of cold fried egg, green salad, some bean curd which is definitely an acquired taste as it is so bitter and strange tasting, some grilled fish, cold and a bowl of rice. Not the kind of thing our stomachs were used to first thing in the morning but we did eat everything except the bean curd which was too strange for our taste buds. After leaving the lovely inn and our mad little landlady, we spent the day walking around this beautiful little village before getting on a train and heading towards the famous live volcano called Aso. We got to the small village early evening and managed to catch the tourist office just before it closed and secured ourselves a room in another traditional Japanese inn which was surrounded by fields and local farms. This experience was slightly different as we were kept awake most of the night by the very noisy guy sleeping next door who was on his mobile phone pretty much all night and the walls were made of paper. Our day started quite early as we needed to catch a bus from the main train station up to the foot of the volcano. On the bus we met an English girl called Rachel who was in Japan teaching English for a year. She was really lovely and reminded us loads of Si Crewe's wife Hannah. We ended up spending the day with her and finding out lots of things about Japanese culture. It was another scorching day and we went for a good four hour walk up to the crater. We were hoping to walk to a much higher point than the main live crater but a quarter of the way through we realised that there was no way we would make it back to the station at Aso to catch our train to Kumamoto, a city where there was a famous feudal castle. So we decided to walk back to the main bus stop which took quite a while and was such a beautiful walk. Kate, there were lots of ponies parked at the foot of the volcano waiting to take people on a walk around the lake.
Kumamoto
Kumamoto was actually a nice little stop off and the castle was really worth the visit. It was our first introduction to a series of very stunning and well preserved castles which dated back to around the 1400's. Kumamoto castle actually had some lovely grounds to walk around and the museum inside the castle was also really interesting as they had so many artifacts, pieces of furniture and other things on display dating back to the 15th and 16th centuries.The most beautiful peace was an old palanquin that was used to carry ladies of the nobility class.
Randomly, We bumped into Rachel in the grounds on our way to one of the reconstructed turrets so we spent the rest of the afternoon wondering around the city with her. Rachel unfortunately had to leave that evening as she was due back at work but we decided to spend the night in the city. In the evening, whilst looking for some food, We found a great little shop selling some mad t-shirts for peanuts and got talking to the two girls working there. We asked them for some recommendations for the evening and having worked out that we were keen on Japanese food, they suggested we try the local speciality, raw horse meat. Yummy, they said. Erm - Sushi? we said.. We are pretty adventurous when it comes to food, but raw horse meat was definitely not something we could really stomach, so we politely explained that because they were pets in England we couldn't really bring ourselves to try some. They laughed and bowed us out of the shop with some vague directions for where to find some fish.
Before we get onto the bar experience, there is one custom that we have got really into and we must mention. The bowing!In fact, we got so into it that it sometimes took us up to 10 minutes to leave a restaurant or bar. The reason it can take this long to leave somewhere is that they must have the last bow. They can't stop until you do. Our first extreme bowing session coming up in a bar in Kumamoto...
So back to our guided tour...
On our way back to our hotel we discovered a tiny little whisky, tapas and jazz bar overlooking the castle which was all lit up and looked stunning. When we first arrived it was empty, so the two people behind the bar struck up a conversation with us as they were so keen to practise their English. There are quite a few Japanese who randomly do this - the ones who need to use English for their business are always keen to practise and have no qualms about accosting you for a bit of a chat.. which was not a problem for us, having quite a lot of time to spare. They were so lovely and were amazed that we were travelling for so long. Apparently that never happens over here. They told us lots about the region, the city and student life and they said how much they wanted to visit London one day. We got so carried away with Sake, whisky and wine that by the end of the evening we had handed out our address to the girl and told her to look us up any time she was in town. This led to the most incredible bowing exercise we had ever experienced. She could literally touch her toes! She followed us outside onto the street and every time we turned around to wave she was still there giving us one last bow.
The next day were sort of hungover so we spent the morning drifting around after breakfast and once we could actually handle buying tickets we got a train to a place called Kurashiki where we had read there was a lovely part of the old town built over some canals. We were definitely not disappointed, it was really stunning and the weather made the place even more magical. We ended up staying in a part called Ivy Square which funnily enough had quite a few buildings that looked very European. There was an old cotton mill there that had closed down in the early 1900's and had then been converted into a museum. All the houses around the canal were beautifully preserved and there were swans swimming up the canals and wondering along the banks. We found a great little shop that had some benches outside and some really large barrels filled with ice, and in them were loads of bottles of local beer which really did appeal to Leo. They were also selling some home-made prawn cracker type things but all kinds of flavours and the lady who owned the place came out and gave us a little tray of them to try. It was so nice to sit there after a long day's walking and just watch the world go by. In the early evening we decided to go for a wonder in search of a very old shrine but once the light had gone, the mossies were out on force so we had to give up. One thing we had discovered was that so many Japanese tend to eat in their inns or hotels whenever visiting a smallish tourist spot, so when we ventured out for dinner it was quite deserted but lovely to walk through these little lanes full of beautiful shops and tea houses. We found a little place that was open and unfortunately they spoke no English and there were no menus in English either, but they were making some sort of Spanish omelet looking dish with loads of seafood which looked really nice, so we pointed as politely as possible to the table behind us and ordered one of them. Each table had a hot plate, the chef would bring over some of the ingredients partially cooked and it was then up to the customer to cook it fully to their taste. It was really delicious.
The following morning we found a little caf' that served up some great pancakes. We headed over to the station and boarded our first bullet train. Nothing quite prepared us for how amazing train journeys are in Japan, whether you are travelling on their super fast bullet trains or their normal trains. As the bullet train pulled into the station we were pretty amazed out how cool these things looked. So before we head off to Hiroshima, some observations on the public transport system in this country.
Public transport has turned our world upside down, i think we are going to find it incredibly hard not to grumble about how slow, late or uncomfortable trains are back at home, so please forgive us. The trains over here are absolutely incredible, we are not just talking about the bullet trains but even the so-called slow trains. We say so-called because the normal trains in Japan actually go faster than the fastest of our trains back at home. What took some getting used to was the fact that they all ran on time, there were no delays outside stations, the seats were enormous, would recline and depending on the direction in which the train was moving, the seats could swivel round at a touch of a button! The bullet trains, or Shinkansen have their own platforms at train stations and all the reserved seats were in carriages that were always located right by the top of the staircases or escalators at the station. We also noticed that on the floor of every platform there were colour coded numbers indicating the location of the carriage of each Shinkansen train. There were also markings on the floor telling you exactly where the doors of each carriage would be and people just queued one behind the other to board any train. Whether a commuter train in Tokyo or a Shinkansen bound for Hiroshima. As for the food cart that comes round, sandwiches don't feature on the menu. Instead you get offered huge boxes of freshly made sushi, sashimi and even the occasional tempura. The train journey experience doesn't stop at the reliability of the actual trains, or the amazing food that is available on board, or even the super clean toilets. Anyone who works on trains bows as they enter or leave a compartment. As the trains pull up to your platform, ladies dressed in these mad uniforms wait by the doors to the train and bow as passengers board or leave the train. At first we weren't quite sure how to handle it all as it seemed so strange. But over time you get used to it and learn to just not notice. Now, the speed at which these Shinkansen go can be a very scary experience the first time you sit by the window and see how fast the countryside is flying past you. Inside the carriage you actually don't hear a thing, but occasionally you will feel the carriage rise as it takes a pretty sharp corner. Leo was hooked!
One way of keeping the costs down on the accommodation front is by booking your room through any tourist office found at any station in Japan. They can get some incredible last minute deals, whether a local inn or one of the newer business hotels.The one in Hiroshima was no exception. They managed to get us a room at a tiny little place a walk away from the main centre. And this one had a coin launderette, these we discovered are quite popular in most Japanese business hotels and are very cheap!. Seeing as it was raining very heavily when we arrived at the hotel and it was quite late, we decided to give the Italian restaurant a go. The fact that it was heaving with local customers queueing for tables was definitely a further encouragement. It was a great little place, very cosy and we got talking to the chef half way through our meal as he came over to deliver our main courses. The food was actually one of the best Italian meals we had had outside of Italy and we were in Japan which was completely mad. The chef spoke fab English and was so friendly. We found out that in his spare time he was a Kendo master and a keen rugby player. As we were leaving, he gave us some tips on what local dishes to try whilst staying in the city. Apparently there were some famous noodle style pancakes with various filling which were supposed to be really good.
Hiroshima
To our relief, the sun was shining again on our first morning so we headed over to the famous dome sight, the only thing that actually remained standing after the bomb was dropped on the city. It was incredible to see the remains of this bank and its dome still standing. Over the years the city has worked to preserve it as a reminder of how terrible and destructive wars are. Having spent a few minutes just looking at this reminder We walked up to the children's memorial which was pretty heartbreaking. It was a bronze statue of two children with their hands raised above their heads, and doves were flying away. Attached to the statue are thousands of different coloured paper doves. These have been added by children and visitors from all over Japan and the world. So many children had died that day as they were part of the war-effort, working in factories etc.
We then spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the memorial museum which was probably the most depressing and heart wrenching experience we had ever had. The part of the exhibition that really brought everything home was a huge black and white photo of what the city looked like before the bomb was dropped and one a few years after. Absolutely nothing was left standing in that huge city, nothing. It was so depressing and really made you feel quite sick and angry. They also had a huge model of what the city looked like before and afterwards. Along a huge corridor was a wall of letters from mayors of Hiroshima dating back to the 1950's to present day, addressed to world leaders asking them to give up their nuclear weapons so that the world could secure peace. Having walked through this corridor, you walked into a series of rooms where they had exhibits of personal belongings of many of the victims of all ages. There were audio recounts of each of the people's stories, what they had been doing that day and who had found their remains. The ones that were just so hard to cope with, were the school children's uniforms, school bags and one little three year old boy's favourite tricycle. Apparently his parents were so distraught at their loss and couldn't stand the thought of him buried far away from them that they buried him and his tricycle in the back yard. He remained there for 40 years, after which his family finally decided to lay him to rest in the city's cemetery. The exhaustion of walking around this place and listening to personal accounts of survivors, seeing the devastation and the lasting health effects on the survivors and the generations that followed them, was so distressing that for the remainder of the day we just walked around the streets in silence. Just thinking.
After our very long walk round the city in a blur, we eventually found our appetites again and found a restaurant that evening that specialised in the famous noodle pancakes our lovely chef had recommended. The dish consisted of several layers of noodles, vegetables, egg and a few prawns and melted cheese all tightly packed together and served with a thick soy sauce. Very hearty and we thought it would be a perfect hangover cure! We spent our second day visiting the city before catching a ferry over to a famous island called Miyajima, a mere 10 minute journey. The island was absolutely stunning and it's definitely no surprise that the red Buddhist temple is one of three famous "views" in Japan. When we landed we were greeted by hundreds of very sweet and mini deer that just roamed around the streets, hoping that the tourists would feed them some deer biscuits. Everywhere you looked were beautiful little coves with stunning little beaches, forests and hills and the little village by the waterfront was equally beautiful. At the end of the main peer was a huge sprawling red Buddhist temple built of wood and on stilts over the water. At the far end of it and out to sea was a huge red gate entrance. On our arrival the tide was out so you could actually walk all the way out to the gate and stand underneath it. It was enormous. We started walking through the temple and came across a traditional wedding ceremony being performed by the monks there, a Japanese girl dressed in a kimono marrying a westerner. It was a really beautiful sight and huddled around the temple were all the guests. The groom did look incredibly nervous as he obviously had no idea what to do but he was dressed in a traditional kimono. The bride was so mini and dainty and looked stunning in her traditional dress. After our walk through the temple, we had lunch in a small restaurant serving the local delicacy, grilled oysters. I could have eaten dozens! We then walked up through this beautiful park and caught the cable car up to the top one of the hills where there were some temples perched on the hills. It was a long walk up and quite tricky as all the paths were quite muddy and slippery. No idea how the young Japanese girls dressed in mini skirts, knee height stiletto heels managed to walk up and down without falling! When we got to the top of the main viewing point we met a guy called Niall who was English and had lived in San Francisco for the last 6 years and was out on business in Hiroshima and had decided to make the most of his weekend. The views were absolute stunning, over the island and nearby Hiroshima. It was pretty incredible to see how built-up the city had become after the devastation we had seen the day before. We decided not to take the cable car back down but walk so that by the time we got back to the waterfront the tide would have come in and we would be able to see the temple surrounded by water. The walk was quite long, over two hours but definitely worth it and we got to talk to Niall. We got back to the temple at sunset and got some incredible photos of the temple surrounded by the water. We decided then to spend the night on the island so with the help of the tourist office by the ferry terminus, we got a room booked at a local inn. That evening We took a ferry back onto mainland for dinner as all the local restaurants were closed for the evening and we didn't fancy a meal at the inn. We found a little restaurant on some side street and the little old lady who ran it was adorable. As soon as we tried to use our very poor and limited Japanese she would burst out laughing and tug affectionately at our shoulders. She would then bring over little dishes and say they were a gift. When we got back to the island we strolled over to the temple to see it all lit up and bumped into lots of Japanese dressed in their cotton kimono pj's and flip flops strolling around, it was great.
Just another couple of observations before heading off to our next stop-
Seeing as were in Japan, it was understandable and expected that everything would be in Japanese and to be honest trying to muddle your way through was always a good giggle, particularly at meal times when we had no idea what was on the menu more often than not people would speak no English or very little. We did however get very confused when we first arrived and would find all kinds of leaflets at tourist centres with headings in English such as "Osaka tourist map" or "Hiroshima hotel listings" or "Sapporo restaurants" only to find that everything on the inside was in Japanese. It was definitely very puzzling, we couldn't work out why they would print the heading in English and everything else in Japanese, why not everything in Japanese?! Maybe they had decided long ago that it would be hilarious to confuse tourists or Gai-jin as we are all known over in Japan.
After the beautiful and very peaceful island of Miyajima, we decided it was time to move further up the line towards Osaka but stopping off to do a 16km cycle around the Kibi plain which had been highly recommended by Lonely Planet. It was worth it too - cycling through lots of large open plains, along and over canals lined with fields and their farmers in pointy straw sun hats giving you a quick Konichiwa as you went passed. There were a few temples and a very old wooden pagoda along the way. Got lost when we arrived at the town where we had to drop off the bikes, and had to improve my Japanese a bit to ask where the station was by saying 'Dozo, Denshu?', 'Please, train?'. Unfortunately in Japan (and probably most places) as soon as you say one word in the language, it's assumed you are fluent and you get a flurry of words at top speed, all completely unintelligible and normally this goes on for quite some time even though you have said "Gomenasai, wakarimasen"- "sorry i do not understand". The thing to do then, it to patiently repeat Wakarimasen, Wakarimasen
until they stop talking and point in a direction. You then point in the
direction and say 'Denshu, Hai?' - 'Train, Yes?' until then concede defeat to trying to teach you the Japanese language and say 'Denshu, Hai.' So we found the train in the end.
The other thing about communicating in Japan, is that the gestures can be a little alien to Westerners. When they are indicating themselves, they press on their noses which made us giggle a bit at first. Numbers are indicated by putting a number of fingers on the palm of their hand. sounds a little obvious but when you are seeing it for the first time, you don't recognise what they are doing so get very confused.
Osaka
We were particularly excited about getting to this city as Osaka had featured a lot in the cheesy but very interesting James Clavell novel, Shogun as well as the bond film You Only Live TWice. "Shayonara, mish moneypenny". We actually would be in fits of laughter when one of us would remember our favourite line from "You only live twice", "konbanwa" said in the best Sean Connery accent. Having found a base that was pretty central we decided to go for a wander and find somewhere to have some lunch. The main areas to find some good food in Japanese cities are the big shopping arcades. There you can find anything from sushi bars to Korean bbq restaurants, Shabu Shabu restaurants (meat and vegetables that are boiled in a large pot at your table and then you serve these into a delicious noodle soup). Osaka was definitely a laid-back city and there was quite a bit going on. We did find a great little place that sold some noodles and after lunch we headed over to the famous castle.
Speaking of food- Another thing worth mentioning is the way restaurants work, and boy, do they work. It's just excellent. You are greeted with the obligatory high pitched chorus from all of the waitresses of 'Irashimassssseeeeee' - 'Welcommmmeeeeeee' as you walk in, you are sat down (which is nice), immediately place you order (if you know what you want - we had to stare at the menus for a while).
The food comes really quickly and is always either
1. freshly cooked
2. cooked in front of you
3. uncooked
4. ready to cook yourself on your own little cooker...
It's all about extreme freshness! As you order things your bill, which is left on your table for reference, is continually updated, then at the end of the meal as you determine - literally as you swallow the last mouthful, you can stand up, walk over to the cashier, pay and leave. The amount on the bill is exactly the sum of the prices shown on the menu (service is included), so you know in advance how much a meal is going to cost - obviously a boon on a travellers budget, but also nice anyway.
If this doesn't sound particularly amazing to you, then you haven't eaten in enough restaurants in Europe, where you may have to wait 15 minutes to get the attention of the surly waiter or waitress, who eventually fetches your bill, brings it over and walks away no matter how quickly you whip your plastic onto the plate. You then have to get their attention
again to take the card away again, pass to the cashier, process it, then bring it back again. They either then walk away as you sign it leaving you confused over what to do now (do you take the top or bottom copy??), or they watch you hawkishly to check the amount of service you are adding on is acceptable to them.. All rubbish.
In Japan, everyone who works in the service industry is proud to serve and takes extreme pride in the quality of the service. They can't lose face if someone complains about the service or the quality of the food or product that has been bought. If you complain back at home - you usually get a grumpy 'sorrrrrry', or even get complained back at.
Ok, back to castles- This place was in a huge park filled with old people dressed in what looked like bowling gear - whites and grey trousers, with hats etc. They weren't bowling though and we never figured out what they were doing. There was a big baseball arena in there too - the Japaneses number one sport which they seem to have gladly inherited from the US occupation after WW2.
From the outside it was absolutely stunning but the grounds were packed with school children which should have given us a hint as to what it would be like inside. As we walked through the narrow corridors of the castle museum we discovered that all the displays were in Japanese and that there was no way of taking much of it in as the crowds were so large. But the views from the top overlooking the city were pretty impressive as the castle actually sits at the top of a hill in the centre of town. For dinner we went to a Yakitori bar - Yaki means meat (and teppan means hotplate, so you all now know what teppanyaki is, although I believe it's a western invention, like Chicken Tikka Massala). You sit around this bar and point at interesting looking skewers of meat and fish and the head teppan guy, grills them for you in front of you and serves with some sauce. Mmmmm. Ate far too much and drank way too much sake and beer.
The next day, we went on to the aquarium, which according to Osaka is the largest aquarium in the world, on the promise of seeing a whale shark which is just a huge shark which doesn't bite, but swims around with a load of smaller friends eating plankton all day.
Nice work if you can get it. The aquarium was actually quite stunning - huge walk-through tanks of different temperatures for fish and animals from different climates. Dolphins, Empire penguins, Giant crabs, incredibly playful seals... you name it. As you walk through under hundreds of tons of water, you realise how vulnerable you are and what an feat of engineering the place is.
It was then on to the historical highlight of the Japan leg of the journey:
Kyoto
We arrived late and got a great deal in a business hotel in the central area - just for a change! the only catch with these amazing deals secured by the tourist offices is that the deals tend to only apply for one night- we asked the guy on the desk when we arrived whether there was availability for the next two nights, he asked our room number, checked what rate we were paying, did a double take, then quickly said 'no, sorry we are full'. We asked them again in the morning, and I guess we got someone a little more junior who didn't ask our room first to check our room rate, and immediately said, yes - your room is free for the next 2 nights too! Excellent, we'll take it. Then they mentioned it to the manager and he went red in the face and said something sharply to them in Japanese, but, to refuse us the room at the same rate after saying
we could have it would have been an extreme loss of face so they said nothing. It felt a bit naughty afterwards - a bit like we had cheated them, but hey ho. We spent the money we saved in their hotel bar anyway so no one lost face.
The next day, we got up and walked to the first of the 4000 odd temples and shrines they have in Kyoto. Kyoto is vast and, according to the guides, you need at least 7 days to get round just the basics. There are a number of different areas to the city so we had to be choosy every day.
As you enter any temple in Japan. you must take of your shoes and put them in the thoughtfully provided plastic bags, and usually don these slippers which were about 3 sizes too small for me and made it quite difficult to walk. I had to take them off for most of it. You then wash your hands and face at the water trough, which is like a mini temple with ladles. You pick up the ladle with your right hand, pour water on your left, then swap hands and do the same, then you take a bit of water in your mouth and spit it on the floor (not back in the trough!).
The thing was enormous - really very huge considering it's completely wooden - you have no idea that people have built things like this out of so much wood, and with such delicacy and attention to detail. Huge wooden pillars, meters in diameter extend up to the ceilings where ornate carvings decorate virtually every thing. Everywhere is floored with perfectly clean and aligned tatami mats (woven bamboo mats like you use on the beach, but much stronger and nicer looking). This temple was in the process of being restored, but, being the Japanese, it was all very organised and the refurbishment plan still allowed visitors to see as much as humanly possible whilst the workers were doing their thing, and also what it was they were doing. They had built whole wooden models of the temple, showing the restoration being done and what it would look like afterwards - to be completed in 2009 and having run from 5 years ago. Just to show you how big the place is.
WE strolled to the Imperial palace gardens which were also huge, just lots of open boulevards in a park. As the palace is being used, you have to apply for permission to enter using your passport which we didn't have so didn't see much of that. Park was quite nice though - but lots of trudging down kilometre long raked-gravel paths, so we didn't last long as it was pretty hot out there.
We then walked over to Nijo-jo. Anything with '-Jo' on the end is a castle. Nice and simple. This castle was the only one of its kind in Japan and was beautifully preserved. It was the castle built by the first Tokugawa Shogun and as a safeguard against treachery, he fitted the entire castle with "nightingale" floors (floors that sing and squeak, making it impossible for intruders to walk about quietly) and they still work! The castle was surrounded by a moat and some beautiful traditional Japanese gardens.
The next day we went to the eastern area of Kyoto, which promises the best of the classic wooden temples surrounded by multi coloured forests, and we were not to be disappointed. The first was called Kiyomizu-dera which has a gigantic wooden-stilted temple, perched on a hill and had incredible views over the city. Whilst walking around this temple, we ran into some 7 year old school children who had been asked to approach foreigners to try and practise their English. We had a feeling they didn't understand the questions they had written down on their piece of paper and had been told that pronunciation was the most important thing. Having taken the time to talk to them, they gave us a little bookmark which they had made at school, which was quite sweet. Chris, we asked them to join us in a picture, all doing the "Nude" sign. WE also naughtily tried to discreetly take piccies of groups of Japanese all doing their "nude" signs. We were blown away at the first one, and this was on a 1 day walk which took in about 20 odd temples and shrines. Along this walk were some classic old-Japan streets, about a meter wide, with traditional inns (Ryokans), beautiful tea houses, traditional houses and lovely little shops lining them. We took a lot of photos of all the colours of the trees and forests as the leaves were beginning to change colour from greens to very bright yellows, reds and dark browns. There were also lots of apprentice Geishas being shown around some of these areas in the traditional rickshaws and that was such a lovely sight as their kimonos were so beautiful and set in the oldest part of town really did make you feel like you had stepped back in time.
Spent a bit of time sitting in on a Buddhist ceremony just listening to the chanting and taking in the whole atmosphere. Very relaxing after a tough day of temple hopping. We were warned you can get a bit templed-out in Japan and anywhere really. The trick is to just do something else (oh really?), like go and sit in a coffee shop or walk around the shopping areas, but to not feel guilty about it. You have come all that way to look at temples, but what's the point if you are not really taking it all in. I think it's best to be a little selective and don't plan more than a few hours at a time - you get more out of it that way...
The most spectacular temples on that walk were Chion-In, a UNESCO world heritage site, it was where the first teacher of the Jodo school of buddhism had started his teachings and the huge site is still used as the headquarters. The actual entrance to the complex is the largest temple entrance in the country and kind of prepares you for how big the site is.
From Kyoto we took a day trip to an area in a region called Sagano. There is a little town called Arashiyama where you can take a stroll through the beautiful old part of the village up to a bamboo forest. This was excellent and highly recommended. The forest was beautiful - just like in all the Chinese fighting movies we had seen before we left with sword fights in the trees. They had a lot of pottery shops where some old dude created hand painted tea sets and the like. We bought one, so you will all be invited to Japanese tea ceremonies when we get somewhere to live..
On the way there we met a drunk New Yorker on the train. It was Sunday morning and he was, bizarrely, off
to conduct a wedding ceremony although he is not a priest of any kind. He was a part time English teacher who gets a bit of cash on the side doing the Christian part of a Gai-Jin/Japanese wedding, and says getting pissed is the only way to make it any fun. He smelt so much of booze that I think he was just carrying on from the night before. He said that this all probably didn't make him a good Christian. No kidding Sherlock. He was a pretty nice bloke though and he told us that he had lived in Japan for 12 years, his original intention was to come and work for a year or two. But he married a local girl and ended up staying. He was actually very funny and for once, he was getting all the stares on the train and it was as though we were invisible.
Having spent five days taking in Kyoto we decided to move on as our Japan rail pass was going to expire quite quickly and we needed to get as far north as possible before it did as train tickets are quite pricey. So on our way to Tokyo we caught a train to a little place called Nara that had been highly recommended by Lonely Planet.
Nara is a place a short train ride from Kyoto which is well known by tourist and locals alike to be a place of astounding natural and historical beauty (if you can have such a thing). Surrounded by large parks just filled to the brim with temples and the like, it certainly fits the bill, and deer roam the streets making squeaking noises at them which means "please go and buy some of the biscuits those guys are selling and feed them to me as I am not fat enough". They are really rather well fed deer. The star attraction of Nara is also the largest wooden structure in the world - a temple called Todai-Ji which is just breathtaking when you stand outside and let it dwarf you. But that's not all - inside is the biggest wooden Buddha in the world too. I suppose this makes sense. It is truly enormous - his earlobes (which, for mystical Buddhist reasons, the larger they are, the more lucky the Buddha is), were about the size of a person.
The Japanese used a lot of wood in the construction of their temples and, in a country where there are a lot of earthquakes and the fires which follow, it explains why a lot of temples have a historical plaque listing all the times the temple has been rebuilt, and what's different about it this time! To see the exquisite detail they manage to carve out of the huge lumps of timber they use, you begin to understand why they rebuild them, and why out of wood each time.
On that subject , the earthquake procedures are quite interesting. All hotels have a special card showing you what to do with pictures when there is an earthquake. Lots of people running along with their arms over their heads... and no using lifts in case you were thinking this would be a good idea! All guest are also reminded that instructions will be given out over loudspeakers in the event of an earthquake. Every room is also equipped with a couple of torches should there be a fire or earthquake. The wooden temples all have lots of buckets of water just sitting around too! The big temple in Nara literally had a small field of buckets which we stumbled into by accident.
We then took a long stroll up into the hills where there are countless temples and rows of hundreds of stone lanterns which made nice photos. On the way back to the train station we had some time for some emailing and went into a Internet cafe, which is another feature of Japan worth a mention. This place offered private booths with enormous reclining leather chairs, top of the range computer, headphones, free drinks and nuts, DVDs to watch, CDs, you name it. All this costs about 2 quid for an hour! We thought this must just be our lucky day and we'd stumbled across a promotional deal or something, but no: this is just another example of value for money and the pride in good service you get in Japan. Travellers avoid it as it's more expensive that mainstream travellers destinations like Vietnam, but it is affordable, and you really do get your money's worth in terms of clean, well maintain facilities
with excellent service.
Tokyo
Tokyo is vast and has more than one centre.
We arrived late at about 10pm and frantically called a few places to get a room - the most risky thing we had done. You have to just keep reminding yourself that there are zillions of hotels in cities and not to worry. You always find something. The something we found was quite funny though - a true Japanese businessman hotel nearer the station. The dimensions of this room are roughly the same as a small garden shed. Enough for a lawnmower and a couple of rakes. After trying to find a TV channel which didn't have porn on it (that's what travelling business men seem to do in Japan!), We settled down to a bad night's sleep trying not knock each other out of bed. Tired and grumpy, we ran for the familiar cover of Starbucks (Mr or Mrs Starbuck is now a very, very rich person, they are everywhere!) for some comfort food. We then did our usual after a night in a small bed and called the nearest 'western hotel', where at least you are reasonably sure you can fit into the bathroom if you are 6ft 1in.
The hotel was in Shinjuku which is a train ride away from the main Tokyo rail station, and contains many shops, malls and hotels with lots of neon and people, people, people. The first day we took care of a few items of shopping. one of which was to get a decent camera. We had slowly come to realise that we were taking photos of our trip of a lifetime with a really crummy lump of plastic we bought a few years back for taking 'snaps'. Having had some time to review some of our grainy, dark, blurry efforts of amazing Chinese historical sites, we decided that that, being in Tokyo, (and fortunately being next to the biggest camera shop in Japan !), it was time to upgrade. So after a bit of bartering and much bowing, we got a much better one (a Panasonic digital (almost) SLR which takes an outrageous 8Mega pixel image for those who like numbers). I hope you can see the quality of pictures change on the yahoo photos website).
We took a stroll towards Shibuya, another area with lots of posh shops (chanel etc). From there we walked into a large park called yoyogi koen
where it all suddenly became a bit familiar. I had been here a few years back with Toby Stephens when we met up for a Saturday in between working at WestLB. The park is large and very tranquil with wide gravel paths surrounded by trees which close overhead to shield you from the sun. It has a impressive shrine in the middle called Meiji-Jingu (Jingu = shrine) with gigantic red wooden torii (torii = gates) quite like the famous 'floating' ones at Miyajima.
The next day it rained and rained, so we didn't do much except stroll around shops and eat. We had the best sushi experience of Japan in a small place near the hotel. You sit at the counter, order some very nice cold draught beer, and watch the chef slice the massive slabs of very fresh tuna, salmon, squid, snapper etc and arrange it on wooden boards which he passed to you to devour.
And it was very reasonable too - I've had the same sort of thing in a posh hotel restaurant when I was here before and it was 100 quid a head, this was more like 15..). In case anyone is in the area - it's behind Yodobashi camera shop (the huge one I mentioned), on a corner, but looks just like every other restaurant in Japan: a covered entrance with some unreadable writing and no clue whatsoever as to what's being eaten inside, whether you cook it yourself, is it raw etc. Some places do have the old plastic representations of what food can be bought, but they are all the same and we got a bit fed up with those - everything tastes the same. The best thing to do is just walk into a place and discover either be pleasantly surprised to find you know what it is, or discover a whole new method of cooking. If you look blankly at the implements they pass you, they usually give you a quick demo of what to do, otherwise a smile and quick 'dozo?' (please?) will do the trick.
That's all we did in Tokyo itself - we had been to quite a few cities and it's very similar to Osaka. In desperate need of some peace, quiet and something of cultural value, we packed our trek towels, laced our shoes and hopped a train to Disneyland Tokyo. This would be our second visit to a Disney establishment in the space of a month, but we just couldn't resist. Hong Kong was a bit on the small side as it was so new, so it left you thirsting for the Florida place. The Tokyo park was much more like it: Indiana Jones rides, loop-the-loop roller coaster, log flume rides etc. They have two parks - the main Disneyland which was similar to all the the other ones, but with some newer rides, and the DisneySea resort. This was fantastic: completely different to the US parks. It consisted of a highly realistic mock up of parts of Europe - Florence, Venice, Paris, London, and some quality rides (Raging Spirits and Journey to the Centre of the Earth getting multiple visits from the Cooks).
Nikko
We then took a train to a place called Nikko which is another 'must see' place in Japan. There are a ton of temples, shrines, ornamental gardens, but this time in the most beautiful alpine mountain setting. WE could tell we'd gained a bit of altitude when we arrived as the air was a lot cooler and the packs seemed a little heavier. We trudged up a very nondescript high st before we reached the tourist office and booked a room in a hotel which promised 'tudor' decor. Hmmmm. On reaching the temple area of town where the hotel was, you start to get a picture of what the place is really going to be like and why it's the most popular day trip from Tokyo. The end of the drab high street drops off into a stunning gorge with an ancient wooden bridge spanning it. The water is fast flowing and rocky - straight from the mountain and looks ice cold. When we reached the hotel we were surprised at just how tudor the place was - it was like a mini theme park of log fires and wood panelling. We dumped our stuff and walked up to the temples. These were quite literally the best we had seen. If you pick up a travel brochure on Japan you should find at least one of the temples of Nikko in the pages somewhere otherwise you should choose another brochure. The temples are just huge and surrounded by the most colourful forests and gardens - bright reds, yellows, greens, and stone statues scattered around with mini waterfalls in the background. The season we were there in did help in this respect, but any time of year would have been good. The temple complexes were built for an emperor over many years (decades I believe), and at great expense to honour them. WE did the full tour and bought a ticket for a traditional ornamental garden. Lots of small ponds full of lucky carp (AKA fat carp), tiny bonsai trees and mini bushes perfectly trimmed.
There is nothing like this place and should be on any itinerary.
Utsonomiya
On the way to Nikko we realised we didn't have any cash and it's worth mentioning this as Japan is not good at all for cash machine
s - your cards just wont work even if you see Visa, Mastercard and other credit card signs posted on the machines. They have their own system,. It is slightly better than it used to be though as the major post offices are now linked up to the cirrus/switch network. You just have to make sure you go in the day. Anyway, this lack of cash led to us spending a night in a random stop on the Shinkansen line called Utsonomiya. We didn't have any readies at all and didn't want to turn up at Nikko at 10pm to find they don't take credit cards at any hotels (another distinct possibility - cash is king in Japan). This place was like Croydon in the 80s. We rolled into the first hotel with a visa sign - another dodgy
business hotel. The room was tiny, but the evening was saved by having dinner in the hotel bar where a couple of students were earning a bit of extra grant by singing some tunes. 'Roving you is easy 'cos you're beatifu'r, unfortunately had us in stitches. I was a little ashamed of myself. Unfortunately, as explained carefully in Lonely planet, the letter 'l' is just not on the syllabus in Japan and get's substituted with 'R, but nothing quite prepares you for the real thing. They didn't sing Love me tender though so it wasn't completely disastrous. Mind you - the Japanese and especially the Chinese must have been in stitches as my attempts to pronounce some of their syllables. Chinese is just the hardest language to read and pronounce: The word for mother, 'ma' is spelt the same as horse, but with an accent. 'Pleased to meet you, and this must be your horse', just wouldn't be good for international relations.
Sendai
After a really great day wondering around Nikko, we caught one of the last trains we would take in Japan and headed to the city of Sendai. We arrived in the city quite late in the afternoon and had to spend the first 10 to 15 minutes calling various hotels listed in our guide as the tourist office was shut. Throughout our travels in Japan we have been surprised again and again at how easy it is to get some incredible deals on hotels, especially when you arrive the same day that you want accommodation for the night. Sendai was no exception and we managed to find a hotel near the station. When we got there we asked whether they had any cheaper rooms than the one offered over the phone and they explained to us that the only ones that were cheaper were those reserved for online bookers. They did go out of their way to show us their computers that were available to guests and actually booked us a room last minute. As the internet site used was Japanese they could only spell Leo's name Mr Reo Cook. As soon as the booking was made they showed us to this machine by the lifts where you insert the room key in order to pay for the room in advance. Anything to make life easier for people travelling on business who don't have time to queue for normal check-in and check-out. This particular hotel room was one of the larger ones we stayed in and you could actually lie in the bathtub which was amazing as most bath tubs looked like they had been made for little children. The hotel had one of these coin launderettes on one of the floors and we spent the first part of our stay sorting out much needed laundry.
WE went to a very plain looking Sushi train place and ate a lot of O-Toro, which is the fatty tuna sushi. It is a cut from the belly of the fish and melts in your mouth as soon as it touches your tongue. It's about twice as expensive as normal tuna and comes in a variety of different cuts/costs - Bin Toro in the next most expensive, O toro the most and I am sure I saw some more. Mmmmmm. The next day we had to make a run for Sapporo as our flight was in a couple of days. WE were a little dismayed to find that the train ride was going to take virtually all day - 11:45 to 21:30
, using 3 different trains! We had basically reached the end of the Shinkansen line and you quickly learn why they built it. The older trains can be quite slow and clattering. They are old diesel affairs and follow seemingly random direction through the north part of Honshu (the main Island) up to a huge tunnel under the sea to Hokkaido. WE got a lot of reading done basically.
Sapporo
Sapporo is a very nice city - we really liked it. It had a European feel to it and huge open boulevards like the champs-Elysee with little traffic (human and otherwise) compared to the cities on the main island. We arrived fairly late and had prebooked a hotel. The air was cold (must have been about 5 degrees), and we we did not have much in the way of warm clothing so we ran to the hotel which turned out to be a bit of a dive, with unnecessarily surly reception staff to greet us. The next day was quite warm and completely clear, so we went off to catch a tram to the cable car to the surrounding mountain peaks which promised to be one of the most spectacular view in all of Hokkido. I strongly believed it would have been as well, if the bloody thing had been open. we managed to climb about a fifth of the way up the mountain via a conveniently placed graveyard, which turned out to be quite spectacular as autumn had advanced a little further during out train trip up north. The trees we're apricot yellow and cherry red. Check out the photos. The rest of the day we wandered around town and checked out the town clock tower which had been built by an American company back in the 1920s. It was just like the one out of Back to the Future - to give you an idea! Sapporo is the closest we have ever been to Russia and you notice it. Plaques are made out in Japanese, English and Russian and I spoke to a Japanese computer chap who's name was Vladimir! We had a crab sushi lunch which, to be honest, was a little taxing on the old 'what is actually nice to eat' part of our western brains. A little too real for my liking. The evening was another experimental affair where we learnt yet-another new cooking method involving various hotplates, boiling water, raw vegetables and some extremely fatty beef. They really do like their beef to be absolutely laced with fat but they only serve you a tiny amount so no chance of dropping dead of a heart attack. The poor cows must do though.
Right, hopefully the next bit on Vietnam won't take us as long!
