All along the watchtower

[You may be thinking that the title of this post relates to the Himeji Castle, but read on and be amazed!]
Friday 9th April
We looked out the window this morning to see that the road repairs had been completed, including the repainting of the white lines! We didn't hear a thing, but the work must have gone on until the early hours.

We started today by having breakfast in a little French Cafe (yes, I did say French!).

We then went to the Tourist Office to organise the rental of bicycles. I use the term loosely as there is no charge for the 'rental'. The system involves filling in a simple form and then taking a tag to a big underground bike parking station further up the road, and swapping the tags for bicycles. There's even a little escalator to help get the bikes up to street level.


We rode our bikes up to the castle and parked them near the castle grounds. Along the way, I did try to operate the throttle a few times until I got the hang of pedal power. There were thousands of tourists at the castle (how dare they?), including more Westerners than we've seen in Japan to date. The cherry blossoms around the castle were simply stunning. Apparently there are 8000 trees in the castle surrounds and today was their peak day. We discovered that our timing was very fortunate in more ways than one, as we were told that the castle is closing next week for 5 years for some major restoration work.

I turned around at one stage to see John was chatting up a couple of women in kimonos, so I went over to join them. We talked at length about the castle, our journey and the Australian system of Long Service Leave (which they found very hard to believe!). John then asked them if they were just visiting the castle today. One of them said “We're volunteers. We are actually Jehovah's Witnesses” and handed John two copies of The Watchtower. I know that Mum-in-law doesn't like this word, but we were GOBSMACKED!! I've tried to use my mental thesaurus, but can't think of a more appropriate word. Jehovahs in kimonos. Who would have thought!


Are these ladies:

a) Buddhist
b) Shinto
c) Jehovah's Witness


142 photographs later, we left the castle and followed the recommended bicycle route around the castle. We visited the nine traditional Japanese gardens along the way. The gardens were really beautiful and had gigantic goldfish in the ponds and streams. Would have made a good dinner!


We returned the bikes, did some washing and had a quick hamburger for dinner. There are only so many noodles that one can eat. The extra night in Himeji turned out to be quite a blessing, as we were able to relax and enjoy today at a leisurely pace. We're all recharged and ready for more!

Out came the sun

Thursday 8th April
It's a bit difficult to read in this photograph, but the slogan on this business says "New days begin here asleep". Perhaps the point was lost in translation??




Today's ride was much more pleasant than we'd anticipated and wasn't too long for a day's ride. The route to Himeji took us through many pretty valleys with tall mountain backdrops. The green mountains were dotted with patches of pink and white blossoming cherry trees.
We took a wrong turn along the way, but as the scenery was so beautiful, we didn't get too stressed about it. As Ted Simon, our motorcycling hero, has stated “the interruptions ARE the journey”. Among the variety of housing styles, this grey-roofed house is an example of a typical house of the more well-to-do folk that we saw along the way.
We had a few tea stops along the way and although the temperature was still a bit chilly in the morning for our liking, it was much more bearable than the 5 degree rainy day we endured yesterday. The vegetable garden photo was taken from the window of a little coffee shop.

The photograph of river, rice paddies, industry, cemetery, houses and mountains was a typical view on today's ride.

As the day wore on, the sun came out and whenever we stopped, we left our gloves to warm up in the sunshine, and the bike seats were cosy warm when we got back on the bikes. Hmm -global warming's OK! Speaking of which, did I mention that most of the Western-style toilets in Japan have heated seats? This will be high on the list of things I will miss when we get home.
We checked into the Washington Plaza Hotel in Himeji and had to hand over about $20 to park the scooters in a car park nearby. This is the first time that we've had to pay to park the scooters. We had a bit of a snooze and then went for a walk to find some dinner. Himeji is quite a large place, so there was no shortage of food to be found. We found a nice little restaurant and had okonomiyaki, which is like an omelette/pancake kind of thing with various bits of meat and vegetables cooked in the mixture. They were really nice and once again I ate too much. We are still puzzled about reports that we've heard that Japan is very expensive. We just stuffed ourselves full for about $30 for the two of us including drinks.
From our window we can see the trains, including the shinkansen (bullet trains) going by. I'll be having my first experience of riding on a shinkansen on Monday, and I'm really looking forward to it. As I write, there is a road crew right below our window making a huge racket. Fortunately, I have a good supply of ear plugs in my bag. The workmen all look quite spectacular, with flashing lights on their safety jackets. They look like a little group of Christmas trees moving around the road. I've just looked up and down the road in both directions, and the only place where roadworks are happening is right in front of our hotel! Will post a 'sleep report' tomorrow.

This is a fairly typical meal that can be found in the little restaurants/noodle shops around the town. This is a set meal of 3 dishes for 850 yen (about $10.00)

Whose idea was this??

Wednesday 7/4/10
Before checking out of the hostel, we walked over to the chair lift which takes visitors up the side of the hill for a spectacular view of Amanohashidate.

As we were quite early, there were only a few people out and about, so we were able to have a relaxing visit which included the traditional activity of viewing Amanohashidate by bending over and looking through our legs at the sand bar, which then appears to float in the air. John also had a go at throwing little clay 'frisbees' through a metal ring (100 yen for 3 discs). His score was 0/3. Better luck next time??

We made our way back through the alley of street vendors selling some tentacled things and roasted chestnuts.

One guy had a rather amazing cannon contraption which he used for cooking the chesnuts! [Nick, don't read the next bit!] Back at the hostel, we were about to check out when I caught some movement on the floor out the corner of my eye and there was a huge centipede heading towards me. It was a good thing that we saw it as we were leaving, as last night was a 'futon on the floor' arrangement and I might have had a bit of trouble getting off to sleep if I'd spied the monster last night.

We kitted up and left in drizzly rain for our ride around the top of the Tango Peninsula. The roadside weather stations told us that it was between 5 and 8 degrees. We were so very very cold. At one stage we sat on the scooters by the side of the road huddled under our umbrellas. At home we don't get the motorbikes out of the shed unless it's at least 18 degrees. 5 degrees is unbearably cold on a motorbike and we had to be very cautious on the wet roads (yes, Mums, we are very cautious anyway!) When the cold had penetrated to our souls, we stopped at a supermarket and bought cans of hot tea and coffee from the vending maching to thaw out our fingers. How they manage to have cans of hot tea and coffee on the go all the time, I don't know, but we sure blessed them for it! Despite the discomfort of the ride, we were really impressed by the coastal views along the way. There were some sheltered beaches with calm water and sandy beaches, and others with huge rolling breakers. We stopped for a photo shoot at one point and were completely stunned when we saw some people surfing! They must have had some pretty heavy duty wetsuits!! Either that or they were completely insane. By the time we arrived in Toyo-oka, we were thoroughly chilled to the bone and went to the hotel with teeth chattering, only to find that we were in the wrong #%@* hotel! We shivered our way back on to the scooters and arrived at the right one which was around the corner. My Japanese classes paid off once again, as the name of the hotel was written only in Japanese, and I was able to read it! The angel behind the counter gave us some warm flannels to help us thaw out, and then we dumped everything and jumped into the bath. I think the bath was a bit hot for my body and I felt very tired and wobbly, so John walked to the convenience store to pick up something for dinner. He found some sort of pasta bolognese for himself (they heat them up in the store if required)and a sandwich for me. Much revived, we then spent all of the evening trying to book accommodation for the next few days. This proved to be easier said than done, and we were getting a bit beyond it, when we finally found places, two nights in Himeji and one in Kobe. We had hoped to spend one night between Toyo-oka and Himeji, but we were not able to stick to that plan as it seems that there isn't any accommodation on the way - at least none that can be easily found on the Internet. This means that our trip tomorrow will be very long and tiring, but we have no choice. The positive is that we can have a bit of a rest day in Himeji. Looking forward to long warm sleep.

We passed this sign today. Don't ask!

Two to Tango

Tuesday April 6th

We awoke early in our gorgeous seaside Inn and were not sure whether breakfast was included in the deal. I had a big think about the right way to construct a sentence to ask about it, but when we arrived downstairs, we were immediately directed towards a table with two places set for breakfast, full of plates of all kinds and two braziers for roasting a small semi-dried fish each, plus a small gas stove boiling up miso and fish soup, so that dealt with that problem. We will never know what it was that we had for breakfast today. The things that we could identify were rice, miso soup, salad and fish, but there were a number of other things that will forever remain a mystery. I think that they were once living, but whether they used to be flora or fauna we're not sure. There was a pickled something that made John pull a 'cat's bum' face, so I didn't have the other one of those, but we were very adventurous and ate the rest of the food. It was all very nice and quite yummy! The view from the breakfast table is one we'll never forget, with expansive views over the bay, and no more than 3 metres from the sand. Whether we continue to have seaweed for breakfast when we get home remains to be seen.















Before checking out we decided to go for a stroll along the beach and as I had learned 'going for a stroll' in Japanese, I was able to tell the staff what we were doing so they didn't think we were running off without paying. We stuck our fingers in the The Sea of Japan and I put a little stone in my pocket so I could bring a bit of it home with me. We saw a number of people coming in on their boats and it turned out that they were harvesting seaweed. John helped one of the guys who was unloading crates of seaweed from his boat. John took one of the crates off his hands and hoisted it onto the truck for him. That's not something he's ever done before! We took a few photos of the bay, the boats and the people and went back to the Inn to reluctantly check out. We were presented with a set of chopsticks each as a gift (hmm, I think they were intended as a gift!) and then the ladies at the door bowed us on our way. We passed more washing lines of seaweed and, come to think of it, I didn't notice any clothes hanging on lines. They probably use their clothes driers for that. They did have a giant washing machine for washing fishing nets which we stopped and watched for a while.
The weather was perfect for riding, and we didn't need our neck-warmers on today. Whenever we could, we took the coastal roads to our destination of Amanohashidate (pronounced a bit like “Arma no harshy dartay”), which means Bridge to Heaven. It is situated at the beginning of the Tango Peninsula. I expect the Tango has different meanings in Japanese and English but I am deprived of Google tonight so I can't investigate.
The journey was a mixture of coastal roads and highway travel. The coastal roads were wonderfully scenic, with beautiful bays with pretty little islands floating in them, and some lovely sandy beaches. No daydreaming allowed on this road - the consequences would have been quite unpleasant! When we arrived in Amanohashidate, we went to the 'bridge' which consists of an actual bridge and then a 4 kilometre sand bar which is covered with 8000 pine trees and has a path along its length. It is used as a walking and cycling path to cut across the bay, and fortunately for us, it is also OK to ride scooters of 125cc or less along it (ours are only 100cc). The bridge at the beginning of the sand bar is a revolving bridge. It is mounted on a single pole in the middle of the channel, and rotates to allow vessels through. The guy who was directing the human traffic waiting to cross bore a close resemblance to the Dalai Lama but he was wearing the wrong coloured clothes.
We located the Youth Hostel which is tonight's accommodation and then rode back into the centre of town. We visited a large shopping centre as we had a few things to buy and we had dinner in the food court. We had a kind of Japanese/Chinese fusion meal of sweet and sour chicken with rice and miso soup and some red bean ball thingies. On the way out of the shopping centre, we met an American couple who were eating interesting looking ice creams. We decided to give the ice cream a try, so John had a purple one and I had a green one! Despite the strange (to us) colours, they were very nice. We checked into the hostel and did a few mundane things like watching TV, doing the washing and sorting out tomorrow's route and then it was time to hit the futon.












Here's the Dalai Lama's long-lost brother!

Oh we do like to be beside the seaside

Monday 5th April
Before I add today's story, I must relate a conversation from yesterday. One of the young Japanese women at the hostel was trying out her English and asked if we'd had a good fright! (she meant on the prane).

Today has been another beauty! We started off with a visit to Hikone Castle, which involved a climb up many steps, followed by a couple of very steep climbs up the staircases inside the castle – but the view was worth the effort and the castle was truly beautiful. Along the way, we came across this avenue of cherry trees and tripods. Although we're not coming across huge numbers of Western tourists, we have certainly seen many Japanese people out and about appreciating their country's treasures.



We should have guessed that we were in for a long climb to the castle when we saw the box of walking sticks that were provided at the start of the steps.



















Before leaving the castle, I had my first taste of octopus balls. Perhaps I should clarify that statement! I had 'takoyaki', which is a doughy ball about the size of a walnut cooked with a small piece of octopus inside. It came in a container with 8 balls with some sweet soy sauce and it was really yummy. I couldn't convince John to try it (it's the tentacle thing), so he had a 'sando-ichi' from the convenience store. (That's what the Japanese call a sandwich). We got away from Hikone later than expected as we had trouble finding a 'gasorin stando' (yes, that's a petrol station). We finally found one, worked out how to use the prepaid system with the help of an obliging Japanese man and then headed up the lake towards Obama.











The scenery was wonderful, and very varied along the way. We passed through a number of towns and some small villages nestled at the bottom of the mountains. Before we came to this area, we hadn't realised how very tall the mountains are, but it became obvious when we saw snow on the top of them! There were many rice paddies and vegetable gardens, mostly being tended by old folk. The traffic in this area was much easier to deal with and there were plenty of areas for us to pull over for rests along the way. We had to go through a number of tunnels and this time I got spooked because I remembered that we are in the land of the earthquake and we were driving with enormous mountains above our heads! We reached Obama in need of tea and a pee – and what better place to satisfy both needs than McDonald's! We got chatting with May, one of the staff who spoke very good English (it turned out that she was a Filipino). Her husband runs a chopsticks factory and shop a few minutes away from where we were, so she asked us to wait 10 minutes for her shift to finish and she took us out there. We were presented with 2 black chopsticks each and shown how to use a grinding machine to make patterns on them. This proved to be easier said than done, but we now have our own hand-made souvenirs as well as a few souvenirs and gifts that we bought from the shop. We'll have to post the chopsticks home as I don't think airport security would be happy for us to take sharp pointed implements on the plane. We then shared some Japanese seaweed tea (poor John!) and some nibbles with May and the young woman who worked in the shop. They were both really delightful people and were very interested to hear about our travels and our mode of transport. There aren't too many tourists in this part of the country as most visitors stick to Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto, so we were a bit of a novelty.
We then set off for Ano, a small fishing village, where we had booked a night in a traditional-style Japanese Inn. What a fantastic decision that turned out to be! The room had tatami mats on the floor and a low table with a Japanese teapot and cups and the most amazing sea view from the large window. We checked in, after a bit of a problem with language, but I just got enough to understand which yakata (dressing gown) was for me and which was for John, to establish the correct floor numbers for the men's and the ladies' bathrooms and to confirm that we weren't having dinner at the Inn. We got our gear up into the room and then went back into Obama for dinner. On the way we did a quick ride through the village and saw a man pegging seaweed on the line (another 'first' experience!). In Obama we parked near the railway station as we've found that there are always restaurants and cafes near the stations, but tonight we had a bit of trouble finding something suitable. One likely looking place didn't have prices and we're a bit wary of that, but eventually we decided to brave a little bar that had about 7 or 8 people sitting around inside, including one woman, so I knew I wouldn't be intruding in male territory. The other guests thought the whole thing was hilarious and we heard the word 'gaijin' among their conversation. It was all very good natured and we were happy that we'd found an 'ordinary' place where the locals go for a beer and a chat. The cook was a real character, and spoke just like in the movies, with lots of gutteral tones, yelling and laughter. He quickly whipped up 4 plates of skewers of beef, pork, fish and chicken and assorted green things in between, which with a large drink each came out to around $14.00! The other guests were very friendly and dragged up any english words they could remember – quite a memorable night. Speaking of beer, I decided to have a beer with my meal and then John reminded me that there is a zero blood alcohol limit for driving in Japan. Fortunately, I made it back to the Inn without falling off or otherwise attracting the attention of any police ossifers. When we returned to our room, our futon bedding had mysteriously removed itself from the cupboard and set itself up on the floor. We took turns to go up to our respective public baths. John shared his with a Japanese guy and their conversation was limited to 'Hallo' and a nod – but I had the gigantic ladies bath all to myself! I'm SO loving these baths which seem to induce a state of unconsciousness in the weary traveller.
Oyasumi nasai (good night!)

We're still here!

Hi all
I know a few of you are watching our journey and may be wondering why we've gone quiet. We've just spent a couple of nights in accommodation with no Internet access, and we've spent tonight's computer time trying to find accommodation for the next few nights which proved to be difficult. We're now about to collapse into a temporary coma until tomorrow. We're still having a wonderful time, and will update the blog with photos as soon as we can. Love to all, Kate & John

The flowers that bloom in the spring

This morning I found a potential new pen friend. A young Japanese girl was staying at the hostel with her mother and sister, and she was keen to practice her English. We had a bit of a chat and I gave her my address in case she wanted to practice by writing to me (this works both ways, of course!). We also met a couple of young German women who were telling us that they always attract attention as one of them is very tall and the other speaks Japanese very well. They are a bit of an oddity to the Japanese people.

After checking out we walked up to the Chion-in Temple. We continue to be awestruck by the sheer size of these temples and the workmanship that has gone into their creation. We stoppped for a while to observe the Buddhist ceremony that was taking place.

We then made our way to the nearby Kodaiji Temple. This group of geisha girls gave John another photo opportunity.

And then there were the geisha dogs!

This little bub was staying safely within Mum's reach at a market stall

These girls were lined up for a photo, so we made the most of the opportunity!

Our next visit was to the Kyoto Handicraft Centre which has seven floors of displays, demonstrations and sales of Japanese craft works. A very polite salesman tried to sell john a beautifully crafted sword, but we thought that this might be a bit of a hindrance on a scooter. We did buy a couple of postcards and a pair of split-toe socks for me. As you do.

We then tried to find a special scenic bridge which John was keen to photograph. This involved scootering right across the city. This proved to be a VERY bad plan on a Sunday when the cherry trees were at their best. Everybody in Japan was in Kyoto today, so the traffic was horrendous. We eventually got through the city, found a place to park the scooters (illegally) and walked up to the bridge - only to discover that it was the wrong one! As we still had to travel to Hikone, we had to abandon the bridge idea. On the road again, we took the road route which follows along the side of Lake Biwa. The temperature dropped considerably as the breeze was brisk across the lake, but it was a nice ride once we left the heavy traffic behind. We saw fishing boats, mountains in the distance, kites and picnicking families as well as one rather unexpected sight. A young man, who probably lived in a crowded building, was sitting by the side of a bridge bashing away at his full drum kit. We hadn't seen that one in our travel guides. We stopped off for a sandwich for lunch and eventually arrived, like a pair of large ice blocks, at the Comfort Hotel in Hikone. We couldn't get into the bath fast enough! Once we'd thawed, we went for a stroll down the restaurant street near the railway station and found a nice little restaurant where nobody spoke a word of English. We did the old 'point at the menu' trick and had a lovely meal. I delighted the staff by saying 'Gochiso sama deshita' which is a kind of 'thanks for the delicious meal' phrase which Japanese people use to thank the person who cooked the meal. It was very nice to see the restaurant lady's face light up. I guess that means I said the right thing!

Tomorrow night we will be staying in a traditional Japanese Inn on the coast, near to the town of Obama, which is the Japanese word for 'The President of the United States of America'. (Not really)

Saturday's adventure

We started today with a search for a 7-11 convenience store to withdraw some cash. It didn't seem to be where we expected it to be, so we went into a Lawson's convenience store to ask. To my great delight, the shopkeeper understood my question which I asked in Japanese – but unfortunately, he didn't know the answer (or possibly he did, but wasn't going to tell me). We decided to head for Kyoto and find one when we got there and just as we got going on the main road, there was the 7-11! All cashed up, we headed (or attempted to head) for Kyoto.
The next part of the journey was quite something! We managed to take a wrong turn on the road to Kyoto and found ourselves heading back to Otsu. That would generally have been an 'oh well' experience, but it turned out to be very scarey for John as he was wearing his dark sunglasses and our wrong road took us through a long tunnel. I thought it was great, but John told me afterwards that he couldn't see a thing as we passed through the tunnel, except the lights of the car in front of him. He was quite spooked by the experience.
Anyway, after another lap of Otsu, we got on our way again and this time made it to Kyoto. We started with the Imperial Palace. After we parked the scooters we went in to the cafe/restaurant and had a bowl of rice with vegetables and a cup of tea. It turned out that to visit the Palace, a pre-arranged ticket is necessary (obtained by applying to the Imperial Household!), so we were not able to go in, but we enjoyed walking around the park admiring the park and the Palace surroundings, as well as doing some more people-watching, which has been an interesting every-day activity.





One of the gateways to the Imperial Palace, with a very thick thatched roof.














We then took the subway to Nijo Castle which is a 407 year old World Heritage Site. Before touring the castle, we visited the adjacent Japanese garden which provided some good photo opportunities.





After leaving the garden, we passed by a restaurant just as a wedding party was leaving. The bride looked absolutely stunning in a bright red 'meringue' style wedding dress, and several guests were dressed in black kimonos with gold trimming. Unfortunately, we were unable to get a photo of the bride as she bypassed the place we were standing, but it was another one of those 'wow' moments that we'll remember. We then made our way to the Nijo Castle.



The castle complex consists of the Ninomaru Palace, which features wall paintings in each of the 33 rooms and has over 800 tatami mats covering the floors, as well as the Honmaru Palace which is surrounded by a moat. The entire complex is then surrounded by another large moat.









We toured the Ninomaru Palace and were amazed by the beautiful ceiling paintings, wood carvings above the sliding doors and the detailed metal fixtures. The corridors of the Palace are 'Nightingale Floors' which are designed to produce a musical squeak when trodden on, to prevent any unwanted intruders from sneaking in. After touring the Palace, we went into another building where a woman and two girls were playing traditional Japanese stringed instruments. They looked gorgeous in their colourful kimonos.




During the day we saw a number of young women dressed in beautiful kimonos. They look absolutely stunning and very graciously allowed us to photograph them.








We were quite tired by the end of the Palace visit, so made our way to the Youth Hostel, which was the only accommodation we had been able to find in Kyoto on a Saturday night during cherry blossom time. We attempted to find something for dinner, but we were tired, hungry and very cold, so we ended up in McDonald's. I'm so ashamed, but no longer hungry and cold. When we left Macca's we saw a group of 3 or 4 Harley-style motorcycles which had been festooned with blue pencil-thin fluorescent tubular lights, curved to follow the lines of the bikes' body-work (the kind of lighting that we usually see on advertising signs). Yet another 'wow' moment!



As I write, John has gone to share a bath with the other male residents of the hostel. I haven't heard anyone screaming or laughing yet, but the Japanese are known for their politeness.


Stop press: I just went and visited the communal baths, too. Sharing a bath with people you've never met bofore is an interesting experience, but, hey, when in Japan...!