A strange place to do homework!

Saturday 17th April
Today's train journey was on an ordinary train, but it still felt reasonably fast to me - just not as fast as that 'plane about to take off' feeling that the shinkansen produces. The scenery changed quite a bit during the day as we are now entering the part of Japan that has a cold harsh climate and spring has not quite managed to make it here yet. At Hachinohe there were some hedges which were brown, but on closer inspection we could see some tiny weeny little leaf buds which were trying to decide whether to brave the outside world yet. Today's journey involved a change of trains at Hakodate (Hack o dartay) but before that we travelled through the tunnel under the sea. I distracted myself from my niggling fears of being under all that water in the land of earthquakes by doing my Japanese homework which my teacher has been emailing to me as we travel. It's a bit hard to write Japanese characters while clacketty-clacking along the rails, but I did my best. During most of the trip today, there were huge snow-covered mountains on our left(except when we were in the tunnel, of course!) and once we reached the island of Hokkaido, the sea was on the right, so there was always something to look at. I felt that I needed a nap, but, just like a toddler, I feel that if I close my eyes, I'll miss something. We were quite intrigued when going through some of the towns to see some very brightly coloured houses. Most of what we saw, both the buildings and the landscape, was brown, white or grey, but every now and then there was a house of bright pink, yellow or green! They were quite stunning. The house styles are quite different up here as they have been built for a cold and snowy climate. Many of the houses have rows of small protusions on their roofs, which we assume are to stop snow from sliding off in large, dangerous chunks. The further north we travelled, the more snow we saw, sometimes right next to the railway tracks. John said that the scenery reminded him of travelling on the Trans-Siberian Railway.
We arrived at Sapporo around 3.00, so after gathering up some travel brochures and checking into the hotel, we were able to go exploring. On the way to the hotel we saw was a person hanging from a rope cleaning the windows of a large building. When we came back after checking in, the person had just come down from the rope, and we were amazed to discover that it was a woman in her sixties. I hope I won't have a job cleaning windows hanging from a rope in a freezing cold city when I'm sixty!! We saw the huge main boulevard where the annual Snow Festival is held each February. The festival includes stunning snow statues and ice sculptures and attracts about 2 million people to the city. We also saw the lovely old clock tower which is an American designed building from the 1870s when the city was developed with the assistance of the American government.
We then took our chilly selves underground and found out where all the people were! There is a huge underground shopping mall, which is a haven for the fashion queens. Not much there for us, but at least it was warm! We were rather surprised to see a familiar shoe shop. Not what we'd expected in the north of Japan. We surfaced for a while and then found a 100 yen store which was in another shopping mall. We satisfied our need to shop by buying a bag full of 100 yen goodies. They actually cost 105 yen each after tax, but that's a minor detail. The best part of our underground activities was going to a noodle shop where we had another one of those lovely (and cheap) noodle dishes that we've come to enjoy. John passed a few tentacle-looking thingies over to my bowl. We seem to have come to an unspoken arrangement that he navigates through towns, and I eat all the tentacles. If I didn't have my navigator, I'd still be trying to get out of Osaka!
Back at the hotel we checked out the travel guides as we'll be spending a whole day in Sapporo on our way back down through Hokkaido in a couple of days. Tomorrow we head further north (that's a little closer to the North Pole!).

Same old railway station

Friday 16th April



This morning we experienced Tokyo Railway Station during peak hour. Not for the timid! Getting across the flow of people is like driving down a city street. You have to merge into the 'traffic' just like changing lanes. We were quite intrigued by the smoking room which was full of people on show.







We booked seats on all the trains for our trip to Hokkaido and back, then caught the shinkansen for the first leg of the journey. We passed through the cherry blossom front which still has some way to travel north through Japan, and then started to notice snow-covered mountains on our left. It seems that skiing in these mountains continues into May. We arrived in Hachinohe (sounds a bit like 'Hatchy No Hey') around lunch time. We left our bags at the hotel so we could go exploring unencumbered. The lovely staff at the Tourist Information Office suggested we visit Kabushima, which is an island a few stops away on the local train. The name of the railway station is Same (pronounced like 'Sarm-e' with a short e like egg). The island is a breeding place for Black-Tailed Gulls and now is their time to visit, so we were treated to the sight of thousands of gulls doing what gulls do (mostly making a lot of noise). We went for an interesting stroll around the fishing port, took some 'jigsaw puzzle' pictures and saw the preparations for a festival which is being held tomorrow. Just our luck, we'll be miles away by then! We also visited the shrine which is on top of a hill by the sea. The flags were flapping wildly and we were grateful for our new scarves and gloves. While we were there, we noticed a young woman clopping past us in high heeled shoes a number of times. It seems that circling the shrine three times is the thing to do, but I don't think that doing it in high heeled shoes is part of the deal. Not only were we two circuits short, we did it in the wrong direction!


On the way back we passed a couple of old guys having a chat out the front of a shop. It seems that one of them was a bamboo cutter, and as we don't come across them every day, we took a photo of him to add to the collection.
We shared the train back to Hachinohe Station with a gaggle of teenagers on their way home from school which made for a lively journey.
Before returning to the hotel we went for a browse around the souvenir shop. Rather than the usual plastic trinkets, this shop showcased local products and crafts. There were beautiful wooden bowls and carvings, woven and embroidered items and gorgeously presented sweets. We were quite taken with the vacuum-packed squid and other wriggly sea creatures, but decided not to buy any on this occasion.
Back at the hotel, we took a much-needed nap then went down to the dining area for the free curry which was on offer tonight! A quick stroll to the nearby convenience store for an ice cream completed the meal nicely and then it was an easy evening of TV, phone calls and generally taking it easy.

Shivering in Shinjuku

Thursday 15th April

Today was chilly with light rain for most of the day. We started the day with a visit to the Nijubashi Bridge at the Imperial Palace, which is what we intended to do yesterday before our feet said 'no!' There weren't too many tourists around this morning. Who'd be silly enough to go sightseeing on a cold and rainy day? We managed to take a few photos using the "1,2,3, drop the umbrella out of the shot, click" method.

After the bridge, we made our way to Yoyogi, the site of the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games. The accommodation for the athletes later became a Youth Hostel. When John visited Tokyo in 1976, he stayed at the Hostel, so today's visit was a walk down memory lane. I'm not going to mention the memories on a public blog, but it sounds like he had a good time!

Our next stop was Shinjuku. Wow, what an experience!! Wall to wall people, cars, buildings, noise and activity. We came across yet another wedding couple and they were happy to have their photo taken. The bride must have been frozen, but she was still smiling. Ain't love grand! We also saw a few interesting signs around the place, including one above a shop which said "If only I could fly through the cosmos like a moon pilot". We had no idea what they were selling (illicit drugs, maybe?). One of the best things we did in Shinjuku was to buy a scarf and pair of gloves each. We'll be needing some extra warmth when we visit Hokkaido, as my penfriend Toshi tells me it's even colder than usual in Hokkaido at the moment. We were delighted to find, just a street back from the modern, noisy hustle and bustle, a quaint little old-fashioned narrow alley with tiny little food shops. We met a man who spoke no English, but he was obviously trying to tell us something. I picked up "tabetai" (want to eat) and "unagi" (eel) and there was one other word, "kimo" which I had to look up in my Japanese/English dictionary. Yep, you guessed it - it means liver! We managed to give him the slip and found another little food shop which had a delicious-looking pot of something bubbling away at the entrance. The staff gave us a menu in English which was both good and bad. Good because we could choose what we wanted to eat, but bad because we discovered that the pot of delicious-looking stuff was listed on the menu as "stewed guts". Hmm, I don't think so! We had a few skewers of chicken and vegetables and some rice and left the stewed guts for other customers.

After an enjoyable afternoon of poking around in Shinjuku, we made our way back to the hotel, sharing our train carriage with a lady in a kimono, who was busy with her mobile phone like most of the other young women on the train. On the walk back to the hotel we stopped off at a lovely little bakery for some snacks. Yum, no eel livers here! We spent the rest of the evening checking out train timetables and hotels for the rest of the trip, so now all accomodation is booked until we head for home. We're looking forward to our Hokkaido trip, and will catch up on the rest of the Tokyo highlights when we get back to Tokyo next week.

Flashing past Fuji

Wednesday 14th April

Our intention this morning was to visit the Science Museum in Hamamatsu. Unfortunately, when we arrived it was closed. There was a sign up at the door, but I couldn't read any of it except something about 'day'. My guess is that it said they are closed on Wednesdays. Plan B was to visit the Museum of Musical Instruments but guess what! It was closed! I think it's just me. When I visited Paris in my teens, we got to The Louvre and it was closed! They must see me coming. Anyway, we decided that we were meant to head for Tokyo so we went to the station just in time to catch the shinkansen. We knew that the train would pass Mt Fuji on the way to Tokyo so we hoped for a seat on the left side of the train, but they were all taken. The train made a stop at a station before we passed Mt Fuji and several passengers got off, so John made a dash for their vacated seats and we were then in prime viewing position. I was watching the mountains as we passed and wondering 'is that Mt Fuji?' every time one was a little taller than its mates, and then all of a sudden, Mt Fuji came into view. What an amazing sight! It's huge compared to the surrounding mountains - much bigger than I had realized. Its top was covered in snow and it had a collar of clouds, just like in the travel brochures. It really was a stunning sight and we were very fortunate because yesterday was very overcast and misty, while today was quite clear. We took photos as fast as the shutter would allow and a couple of them were not too bad.

Do you like my drink? I don't know what they feed the cows here, but the drink is really nice. It's a light fizzy lemon drink.

We arrived in Tokyo Station and scouted around for a JR railway map and a subway map, left our packs in a coin locker and found our way out of the station (easier said than done!).

We were amused by this sign. Perhaps it means 'no gingerbread men allowed in the lockers', but we're not sure. It could also have meant 'don't get in the locker' or 'don't keep your children in a locker'.

The first thing we noticed was the number of smart young 'corporate' types, both men and women, in black suits (skirt suits for the women). Almost every one of the women was using her mobile phone, either for talking or looking at something on the screen. In other places we had seen girls riding their bicycles while talking or texting on the mobile phones. They seem to have developed an extra sense that stops them from crashing into light poles or pedestrians.

We walked down to the Imperial Palace, ogling the forest of buildings along the way. On an earlier visit, John had found the buildings to be dull, colourless and boring, but there are now many innovative and creatively designed buildings in the city. We went for a stroll around the Palace's East Gardens until our feet decided that they'd had enough.

We plodded back to the station, collected our packs and checked into the hotel. On the way back we saw a couple of interesting things. The first was a single-seater van (great idea for Japan) and the other was an orange metal chappie directing the traffic.

We are aware that we have to make the most of our time, but time to 'flop' is a necessity sometimes. We were thinking of going to Shinjuku for dinner, which would have involved a subway ride, with a change of trains, across the city. We came to the conclusion that we didn't have the energy, so we went to an Indian restaurant just around the corner from the hotel. It sounded really odd to hear an Indian man calling the standard Japanese 'Irrashaimase!' greeting to customers who walked into the shop. He spoke fluent Japanese, and spoke reasonable English to us, so he had at least three languages - and made a great curry! John had the dilemma, once the curry made his nose run, of whether to do as the Japanese do (sniff) or to blow his nose and appear rude. He managed to deal with it with discretion. Probably not a good idea to eat curry in Japan unless you're OK with sniffing!

We followed our nice dinner with a soft-serve ice cream from the convenience store. Fortunately, we didn't find any eel livers in any of our food tonight. Maybe we should have eaten the eel livers last night to give us the strength to explore Tokyo tomorrow!

We had WHAT for dinner??

Tuesday April 13th

Today was all go! We made an early start and legged it to the station to catch the train and then the ferry to Miyajima. Miyajima is the island which is famous for its red torii gate often seen on Japan travel posters. We took a quick stroll along the esplanade and took some photos of the torii gate and the deer that are roaming freely around the island. It appears that they occasionally pop in for a spot of shopping in the local stores. We noticed that they were all eating something off the ground and on closer inspection discovered that they were eating the fallen cherry blossoms. What a cute little clean-up crew!

In keeping with our recent habit of being in the right place at the right time, we witnessed a wedding party going by, with the bridal couple being transported in a rickshaw pulled by a man who looked like someone from Japan's past. The local people clapped as they went past and shouted 'omedetou gozaimasu' which means congratulations.

Then it was back to the ferry and the station to catch the shinkansen to Hamamatsu.

On the way back to Hiroshima Station, we came across a young man who was deeply asleep. When we pulled into Hiroshima Station, John tried his best to wake him up, but we think he might have had a little too much sake the night before, so he wasn't ready for rejoining the world. We had to leave him to continue his snooze, so he may still be riding the rails while his boss and family wonder where he's gone.

We had a rough plan to meet Toshi, my other Japanese penfriend at the Hamamatsu Railway station and I'd told him I'd email him from the shinkansen. We had been told that Internet access is available on the trains and at the stations. Much to my frustation, we couldn't get access, either on the shinkansen or at the station, so I felt really bad that Toshi would not know whether we were coming or not, and which train we would be on. Fortunately I'd given him two possibilities, so there he was waiting for us when we stepped off the train. He took us to his local shrine, which was very beautiful. He bought us each a little good luck charm from the shrine. Then we did it again - right place, right time. A couple of local builders had arranged to have a blessing at the shrine and they arrived while we were there, so we were treated to an authentic Shinto ceremony performed by the priest, accompanied by drums and Japanese flute. We then went for a walk around the town around the new city plazas. In the background of the 'pots of tulips' photo is a 45 storey building called the Akura Hotel which has an observation deck at the top. Toshi took us up there and we had an amazing view of the city. We saw our hotel, which looked like a little shed compared to the surrounding buildings.

We then went for an early dinner. John had decided before leaving home that he wasn't keen on eating unagi (eel) which is the specialty dish of Hamamatsu. We'd been told by several people that it's very nice, so he put on a brave face when we decided to go to a restaurant that serves unagi. Toshi recommended a meal for us, so we all had unagi with rice, soup and some crunchy vegetables. The soup was clear and quite tasty, but had a strange object sitting in the bottom of the bowl. Toshi said 'that is quite bitter'. When John asked him what it was, he pulled out his iPhone and used the translator. When he showed us the translation it said "liver of the eel". Sorry, Japan, we've loved most things we've eaten, but we really couldn't face that one! The eel itself (minus liver) was very nice and we enoyed the meal very much.

Toshi then took us back to our hotel and we parted company. As with Hiroko, it has been very nice to meet someone that I've been writing to for some time. We really enjoyed his company and I'll enjoy our exchanges of emails even more now I know him a little better.

We relaxed in the hotel for the remainder of the evening so we'll be ready to take on Tokyo tomorrow.

Hurtling to Hiroshima

Monday 12th April
We awoke to the sight of a grey rainy day this morning, but as we had a bullet train to catch, we had to get a wriggle on to return the scooters to Mr Tanaka. We chatted over breakfast with a gorgeous young German guy and a rather eccentric Danish man. These are the people who make staying in hostels such a good idea. After breakfast, we kitted up for our ride in the rain. There are more man-hole covers in Osaka than I've ever seen and we are always very conscious that wet man-hole covers and painted white lines are a real hazard for motorcyclists, so I hated every minute of the ride to the scooter hire place. When we arrived, Mr Tanaka wasn't there so we had to try to communicate with his colleague who has very little English. We exchanged a few words in each other's language and I was pleased to hear him use the word 'deposit' because we had 60 000 yen to collect (about $700.00). Mr Tanaka, who speaks a little more English, then turned up and we were soon on our way with deposit safely in our hands. We walked to the Umeda station and caught a train to the Shin-Osaka station, which is on the bullet train line. We're really getting the hang of this public transport business! We booked a seat in the non-smoking carriage and were soon whizzing along the rails to Hiroshima. A display came up at one point to say that we were travelling at 285kph. Somewhat speedier than the speed to which we had become accustomed (usually about 40 to 50 kph on the scooters). By scooter, it took us 2.5 hours from Kobe to Osaka and it took us only 10 minutes to get back by shinkansen. It was quite amazing to see the world go flashing past at such a speed, but it was a very relaxing and comfortable ride. The best bit was that it felt like a free trip because we'd bought our Japan Rail passes a few months ago. We can swan through the ticket gates and flash our passes and we're on our way.
We figured out how to catch the tram to the Peace Park and spent a few hours visiting the A-bomb Dome and the Museum. I can't put into words how I felt about seeing the effects of the bomb on the city and its people. It was really disturbing but I'm glad I have now seen this significant place. I bought a copy of "Sandako and the thousand cranes" in Japanese to practice my reading skills. Sandako was the young girl who contracted leukaemia after the bomb, and began folding paper cranes. She believed the old story that folding 1000 paper cranes makes wishes come true. There seem to be two versions of her story. I was under the impression that she died before she reached 1000 cranes, but a display in the museum says that she did make it to 1000 and continued to make them until she died. Some of the cranes are on display, and they are really tiny. She had to use a needle to fold some of them as they are so small. The tears that I'd been struggling with won out at this point.
After the museum we went to the Peace Bell and rang it once for each member of the family. At the nearby children's monument there was a group of Japanese school children singing a beautiful song in Japanese. I had no idea what they were singing, but I had another teary moment. Near the children's monument there is a display of paper cranes which school children from all over the world send to Hiroshima.
We returned to the station and found our hotel which was nearby. We didn't have far to go for dinner tonight. Another scrumptious noodle dinner was found just around the corner. I braved the curry udon noodles tonight, which could have been good or bad, but I'm happy to report they were "oishii" (delicious).

Last Day on Two Wheels

Sunday 11th April

We had a sleep in this morning which was certainly needed as our scooter adventure draws to a close. We finally dawdled out of the hotel at about 11.00am and started the 35 km ride back to Osaka. Negotiating the spaghetti junctions onto the required road was a bit hair raising, but the Japanese people are very considerate drivers, so we managed to get there without too much drama. The Japanese people are actually very considerate, fullstop! We have found them to be very polite, friendly and willing to help and that has made the trip so enjoyable. I could so easily live here, but would probably miss our secluded quiet little valley before too long. The car traffic is really quite OK, because most of the people travel by the excellent train and subway system or by bicycle or scooter.

There is no actual break between Kobe and Osaka. John described it as "like riding down Grenfell Street for 35 kilometres" [non-Adelaideans, substitute the name of a busy shopping/business street in your capital city]. We passed through more traffic lights than we could have imagined. We were actually quite happy with that, as it meant that we could easily keep together and we had breathing space to confirm where we were up to as we went along.

Although it was something of a 'no-news' day today, we did see a couple of sights along the way that are probably worth a mention. The first was a group of people crossing at a pedestrian crossing. One was a monk dressed in a black robe with white trousers, split-toe socks and Japanese sandals, closely followed by a young woman in a glittering silver mini skirt, with lacey black stockings, stiletto boots and a black Michael Jackson hat. The contrast would have made a good photo, but staying safe on the scooters was our first priority. We also saw a woman on a bicycle with one child in a seat on the handlebars and another child on the seat on the back. This arrangement still left room for shopping in the basket at the front. Very efficient and planet-friendly! The third sight was a Western woman standing outside Lawson's convenience store eating an egg salad with chopsticks. Oh yeah, that was me!

After a few wrong turns, we finally found our way back to the Hotel Raizan, where we stayed when we first arrived in Osaka. When we booked the room on the Internet last night, there were only single rooms available, but thanks to a 'no-show' we were able to have a double room after all.

The guy at the front desk recognised us from a couple of weeks ago and when we told him that we had just completed an 850km trip on scooters he said "My Jesus Christ!!" He took our photo to put on his wall of fame, so if you're ever passing through Osaka, drop into the Hotel Raizan South to have a look.

After checking in we went by subway to Umeda to revisit the Yodobashi Camera Store. I'm intrigued by the fact that the people on the trains can be apparently fast asleep, but as soon as they reach their station, they suddenly return to the land of the living and get off as if they'd been awake all the time. At the store, we bought a memory stick to back up our photos and I bought 2 watches for 500 yen each (about $6.00). One of them has Japanese numbers on it, so it will be a good souvenir of our trip. We were intrigued by a large group of people huddled in a corridor outside the Yodobashi store. It seems that it's a wireless Internet hot spot, so people line up along the wall with their portable devices to do some 'net surfing. These little chaps were totally engrossed in whatever they were looking at!

On the way back to the hotel we stopped off at the nice little noodle shop that we went to on our earlier visit and followed up a lovely meal with a decadent caramel ice cream!

John cleaned up the scooters in readiness for their return tomorrow, so we're now ready for the next stage of the journey.

Ferry Ride with Mr Good Smoking

Saturday 10 April 2010

We got going early today so we could fit in a trip to Awaji-shima before heading for Kobe. John has fond memories of Awaji-shima as he spent his 22nd birthday there (back in the old days), staying at a little inn right on the coast.
We took the scooters over on the ferry and rode along the coast until we found the right place. It is now a private residence, but we were able to get a few photographs without getting sprung by the householders. It was a very pleasant way to spend the morning, especially as the weather has been making an excellent effort to make up for its bad behaviour on Wednesday. Mr Good Smoking is an ashtray on the ferry.

When we got back to the mainland, we set off to Kobe where we had arranged to meet Tomoko, one of my email penfriends, at the Sannomiya Station. We arrived early, so we used the spare time to visit the Japan Rail ticket office to swap our Japan Rail Exchange Orders, which we had bought in Australia before we left, for JR passes. These passes will enable us to use any Japan Rail transport (except for one particular type of shinkansen) for the rest of our trip. Although rather expensive, the passes really are good value for money for overseas visitors who will do one or two long train trips, as we intend to do. Tomoko spotted us easily, as we do tend to stand out in the crowd somewhat! We went to a little cafe and had tea and a good chat. She speaks very good English as she lived in the US for a year when she was a student. It was so nice to meet her and it will make our emails more meaningful now I know who I am writing to. I hope that she will be able to come to visit us one day in Australia.

After leaving Tomoko, we rode the trusty steeds over the bridge to Port Island. There's not much to recommend about Port Island. It's a man-made island and therefore doesn't have the lovely old streets which we like to stroll down in search of noodle shops, so we did the pre-packaged 7-11 convenience store option. John had a chicken salad and custard pudding and I had sushi, salad and a small cake. After adding a carton of strawberry milk to share, the grand total came to 1193 yen (about AUS$14.00). The hotel looks from the front like something you would expect to see Angelina and Brad swanning through, but the inside is a bit tacky with threadbare carpets. We are on the 12th floor, and there are no screens on the windows and no barriers on the balcony. Not the place to bring a young child!
After a few phone calls via Skype and a bit of planning for tomorrow's ride to Osaka, we called it a night.