Shop till you drop

Saturday 24th April
We started today by booking tomorrow's 'Narita Express' tickets to get to the hotel next to the airport. From there, we went to Akihabara. We had decided that if we were going to do some shopping, it would have to be somewhere less known than Shibuya and Shinjuku. I did some research on the Internet and found that there is a chain of discount stores called 'Don Quijote' (yes, that's how it's spelt). The stores are commonly know as 'Donki' and I found that there is one at Akihabara. Our main aim was to find a small bag which we could put our gifts and souvenirs into to bring home, as our baggage is now over the 5kg each limit for carry-on baggage. We were able find a decent bag at a Duty Free shop that we passed on the way to Donki. The shop also sold some very nice souvenirs, so we had a good time selecting some things for ourselves, family and friends. When we'd finished, we were given a free voucher for 1000 yen to spend, so we were able to go back for another round! We had fun browsing at Donki which is like our discount stores (Cheap as Chips, Neds, Cunninghams, etc.) but BIGGER (of course) and we picked up a couple of novelty items. We then got back onto the train and stopped off at Tokyo Station to look for a toy Shinkansen for my grandson Jake. I really didn't expect this to be a problem at the Tokyo Railway Station, but there seems to be a distinct lack of toy Shinkansens. Several places sold plastic Shinkansen tape measures, but I didn't think these would be of much interest to Jake (not for a few years anyway). I finally found one at a kiosk which sold mainly snacks, drinks and newspapers. Then it was back on the train again to the Shimbashi Station. From here we changed to the new Yurikamome Line which runs a train service to an island in Tokyo Port. The journey over was a sightseeing experience in itself, with many futuristic looking buildings and interesting things to gaze upon. The railway station was anther example of the Japanese art of making the most of available space. It sits above the road in a suspended box with escalators to take passengers to the terminal. The island is the location of The Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation. We spent some time browsing there, but our legs were quite worn out so we probably didn't make the most of it. Maybe one day they'll develop technology to enable middle-aged tourists to walk around sightseeing all day without wearing out. John did manage to make a couple of new friends, though.
We made our way back to Ikebukuro and after a rest, decided to try a different direction for dinner. Just around the corner from the hotel we struck it lucky once again (yes, it was good and yes, it was cheap).
We had a bit of a sort out of our new purchases and discovered that they fill more than our new bag! Hopefully we'll be able to squish everything in somewhere.



Tonight is our last night at Ikebukuro. We then have one night at Narita and it's up, up and away.

Shagged out in Shibuya

Friday 23rd April

We started out the day by catching a train to the Mitaka Station. From there we had a pleasant 15 minute walk to the Ghibli Museum. Mitaka is a very nice area with larger houses and gardens than those usually found in these parts. Studio Ghibli is the company which has produced many animated films which have gained popularity outside of Japan including Kiki's Delivery Service, Spirited Away and My Neighbour Totoro. Most of the studio's films have been produced by Hiyao Miyazaki, who is the Executive Director of the Museum. There were many young children at the Museum and they were having a ball climbing all over the 'cat bus'. The cat bus was a character from the film My Neighbour Totoro. The Museum had some very interesting exhibits showing the processes involved in making an animated film, as well as a huge robot (from 'Castle in the Sky') on the roof. We also saw a new short animated film. The laughter of the group of young school children in the cinema was priceless! The Museum visit was something I had been looking forward to and I wasn't disappointed.

From Mitaka we caught the train to Shibuya Station as we planned to do some shopping. I did the tourist thing by posing for a photo next to the statue of Hachiko, the faithful dog who waited at the station every day for his master to come home. I'm a bit lost for words about Shibuya. If we were there to buy Louis Vitton or Gucci products, we would have done very well, but we were only after a few souvenirs. Still, the sight of just another ordinary day in Shibuya was worth the time spent. Shibuya has an enormous intersection criss-crossed with pedestrian crossings. The lights for all the pedestrians change at the same time, so when the 'green man' appears a HUGE wave of people surges from the footpaths and swarms across the intersection. Then the cars get their turn, and by the time the pedestrian lights change again another huge crowd has accumulated ready for the next swarm. I can't imagine how these people can live here without going absolutely mad. Anyway, after browsing in a few shop windows, we realised that this wasn't going to be the place for a few souvenirs. Although we were quite tired by this time, we decided that we should visit Roppongi, which involved a change to the subway system. Roppongi turned out to be more of the same - noise, people and shops. There were more karaoke bars than I could have imagined, but we were a bit early for the night-life to have started. After walking around Roppongi for a while I had really had all I could take for one day, and we still had to get back to Ikebukuro, which involved going by subway back to Shinjuku, then changing to a JR train to Ikebukuro. John did his civic duty again by waking a man up when we reached the Shinjuku Station. The man had been snoozing with his head back and had been snoring loudly, much to the amusement of his fellow travellers. John made the assumption (correctly, as it turned out) that this man might have wanted to get off at Shinjuku as this is the station where many lines meet and transfers are made. John gave him a shake and said 'Shinjuku' and the man woke up and bounded out of his seat. You didn't know that John could speak Japanese, did you! Maybe Shinjuku is Japanese for "Wake up and change trains". We finally made it back to Ikebukuro Station and found a nice place for dinner (it's getting a bit monotonous saying how good and how cheap it is). By the time we dragged ourselves back to the hotel, I was ready to collapse in a heap. Which I did.

Tired out in Tokyo

Too pooped for a bedtime blog today. Will have to be a breakfast blog tomorrow.
Goodnight! xx

Morioka by Batcycle

Thursday 22nd April

We had a really interesting morning in Morioka today, even though we didn't visit a special place mentioned in a brochure. It is called Koiwai Farm and is apparently the largest ranch in Japan. Our brochure says "enjoy some quality time with the sheep and cows". Very tempting, but our bicycles were calling. We checked out of the hotel but left our baggage for later collection and made our way to the bicycle hire shop. All we had to do was write our name and address in the book and the dear old guy running the shop let us ride off on two of his bicycles. I did a little bit of showing off by writing my name in Japanese! The arrangement was 'ride now, pay later'. I don't suppose we would have got far if we'd decided to do a runner with his bikes. John's bike had the Batman symbol on the wheel hub and the frame, so I felt like Robin tagging along after the Caped Crusader. We had a recommended route map to follow, which we varied a little by adding a few places that sounded interesting. We started with a ride down a little street of shops which was typical of one of the smaller Morioka streets. John filmed the street as he rode which was a bit hair-raising for me as I could see the car that came up behind him while he was riding down the middle of the road. We then strolled through the grounds of the former castle. The castle was burnt down in the conflicts of the 1800s, but the gardens remain as a park with walking tracks. We then went to the Rock-Splitting Cherry Tree. This tree is approximately 400 years old and is growing through the middle of a huge granite rock. Sadly for us, the cherry blossom front hasn't reached Morioka yet as we could see that the tree would be stunning when in full bloom. We then rode to the Morihisa Iron Studio. The Nambu Ironworks was established in the 1600s and the art of iron casting has been passed down through the generations. The studio sells exquisite iron teapots, cooking pots and knick knacks. They were really beautiful, with a variety of patterns including cherry blossoms, animals and swirly markings. I would love to have brought something home, but the price was way beyond budget, not to mention the weight!

Our next visit was to the Gromwell and Madder Dyecrafts. Although Gromwell and Madder sounds like a old British firm, they are actually plants which were traditionally used for dyeing cloth. The Dyecrafts shop displays and sells beautiful items made from fabrics dyed with purple (made from the gromwell plant) and red (from the madder plant). Before dyeing, the fabrics are lightly printed with a pattern and then tied into tiny little 'knobs' by a team of skilled workers. It takes about a year to tie one bolt of cloth which is then dipped into the red or purple dye. The resulting patterns are very beautiful. The traditional fabrics are now used for making contemporary items such as handbags, table runners, purses etc., and rolls of cloth can also be purchased. We have forgotten the price of the rolls of cloth, but it was thousands of dollars. We invested in a little book mark which was more suited to our budget.

We then wound our way back through the streets, including a ride along the edge of the river. We passed a park with trees that were covered in pretty blossoms and discovered that they were 'ume' (if you've been following the blog all along, you may remember that this is that dreaded plum that John ate). The trees were actually ornamental plums and were very beautiful. They bloom earlier than the cherries, providing a bit of colour while the city awaits the arrival of the cherry front.

We returned the bicycles to their rightful owner and paid about $12.oo for the two bikes.

We walked to the railway station and had a nice lunch in the bakery and then filled in the remaining time by browsing in the shops. I found a nice handbag which I had to have. Although it was made in China, it will still be 'the bag I bought in Japan'. We were intrigued by the display for a band which has a new release. The band's name is 'Bump of Chicken'. Must be another of those 'lost in translation' things! We then collected our bags from the hotel and made our way on to the shinkansen bound for Tokyo.

The journey back brought an unexpected sight. After leaving Morioka, we dozed for a while. I woke up when we stopped at Sendai (about a third of the way to Tokyo) and saw that the ground was covered in fresh snow! This should not be happening!! The forecast for today predicted rain, but no mention of snow, so I think it took everyone by surprise. Still, it was a beautiful sight, especially the 'Christmas tree' look on the pine trees. The area of snow overlapped the cherry front, so we were seeing snow-covered cherry trees. Very strange indeed! The cherries would probably not have bloomed if someone had told them they were going to be snowed upon.

After reaching Tokyo Station, we changed on to the JR train bound for Ikebukero, where we will be based for the next three nights. Once we were settled in to the hotel, we went out on our nightly search for dinner and found another surprise. We noticed that there were rather a lot of places offering massages and places that said 'Japanese only' and only then did we realise that I'd managed to book a hotel right next to the red-light district! Most surprising for me was the group of GORGEOUS young men who appeared to be for hire, all accumulated around one particular intersection. I wanted to bring one home, but John wouldn't let me. As we gawked at them, one of them got a message on his mobile phone and off he went to do his duty. Anyway, we did find a nice noodle shop for dinner and had a meal of soup with various toppings to add in, and a bowl of noodles, followed by a 'creme caramel' type of dessert - all for a total cost of about $22.00 for the two of us.

That finished off another busy day. Tomorrow we're off to Studio Ghibli.

If it's Wednesday, this must be Morioka

Wednesday 21st April














This photo is of me enjoying the cutest little can of Sapporo Beer last night (Cheers, Matt!!)






We're starting to get a bit confused about what day it is at the moment, but as the only cure for that is getting back to the Monday to Friday routine, we'll put up with it for now.
As we were on the train for most of the day, we only have a few photos taken from the train window (not the ideal way to get a good photo). They do give a bit of an idea of the scenery that we passed, so here they are.


We arrived early at the Sapporo Railway Station as planned and after a false start, managed to line up in the right place for the unreserved carriage. It turned out that the carriage had very few people in it, but that wasn't a gamble we wanted to take, as this leg of the journey took 3 1/2 hours and we didn't fancy doing it standing up.
We had to change trains in four minutes at Hakodate, which would have been quite OK except, for the first time in all of our train journeys, the carriage numbers were not marked on the outside of the carriages. A massive swarm of passengers was disgorged from one train and headed across the platform for the other one which was waiting - and then we all started walking rapidly in all directions trying to work out which carriage to get in. We had a seat booked in carriage 6 which could have been one end or the other. Eventually we had to ask and managed to find our seat. The first half of our carriage was occupied by some young high school children on an excursion so it was quite lively until they reached their station.
We were rather puzzled when going through the undersea tunnel between Hokkaido and Honshu. For some reason which remains a mystery, the train stopped at the Tappi Undersea Railway Station, 230 metres below sea level. As far as we could see, nobody got on and nobody got off and it all felt a bit odd. I was very pleased when we started moving again, as a tunnel under the sea is not one of my favourite holiday destinations.
When we surfaced on the Honshu side of the tunnel, we immediately began to notice the change in terrain. Whereas Hokkaido was still mostly snow-covered, or at least slushy from the melting snow, Honshu had drier rice paddies and people were out and about doing the preparations for the coming season. There was still snow in the mountains, and the occasional clump of unmelted snow by the side of the tracks, but generally spring has sprung in Honshu. On tomorrow's trip back to Tokyo, we will pass back through the cherry blossom front. We think that we might have seen one tree in bloom today, but we're expecting a feast of blossom tomorrow.
Morioka is cold, but not the 'to the marrow' kind of cold that we experienced in Hokkaido. The forecast for Tokyo is for 12, 13 and 14 degrees for the next three days, and then gradually becoming warmer over the next few days. Yes, once we've left! That'd be right!
We had dinner in an Italian pasta place tonight and found that it was more expensive and less satisfying than the Japanese meals we've been enjoying. We therefore just had to follow it with an ice cream and a sultana bun. There were some interesting flavours of ice cream to choose from including pumpkin, green tea, black bean, red bean and broccoli. We settled for a strawberry and a blueberry.
Back at the hotel, we switched on the TV and found a program which was discussing bowel problems in Japanese women, including little cartoon graphics of what goes on in there. A good excuse for an early night, I think! Tomorrow we plan to explore Morioka by bicycle.

A surprising find in Sapporo

Tuesday 20th April
We started the day with a visit to the railway station to book seats for tomorrow's trip to Morioka, the first part of our journey back to Tokyo. It turned out that all reserved seats for the first leg of the journey were all booked, so we'll have to make sure we get to the station early to get to the head of the queue for non-reserved seats.
We then went by subway to the Sake Museum which turned out to be a bit of a let-down. It was really a bottle shop with a few items on display and a video showing. Despite being something that would obviously be of interest to visitors, it was very foreign-visitor-unfriendly. The brochure, signs and staff were all Japanese with no English, so we didn't understand anything we saw. We don't expect a non-English-speaking country to pander to our lack of language skills, but a bit of assistance at tourist locations would be surely be helpful on both sides. Some of the places we visited earlier in the trip had brochures in several languages, but we've found a general lack in Hokkaido.
We thought about going to the Beer Museum, but decided that if we want to see beer made, we can see this at home. We walked to the Sapporo Factory, which was previously a beer factory and has now been converted into a huge shopping centre. Some of the old buildings still remain, but the converted part is just amazing. It includes a beautiful atrium with a garden, water feature and cafes. We browsed around the shops (probably more to remain warm than any other reason) and I bought myself a Japanese children's book which is above my current reading level so I've got something to aspire to, and we then had lunch at one of the cafes in the atrium. We just happened to walk in as one of the staff brought a tray of savoury pastries straight from the oven. It didn't take long for the first two sales! There were lots of young mums with their toddlers running this way and that and we enjoyed sitting back watching them dashing around. Japanese toddlers are SO cute! (John probably thought the same about their Mums too!)
Our next stop was the Sapporo TV Tower which looks like a little stubby version of the Eiffel Tower. We went up in the elevator to the Observation Deck. I found the journey up quite scarey as the elevator has glass walls, but once we got up to the deck, it was worth the fright on the way up. The view went forever and included a view straight down Odori Park, the big boulevard where the Snow Festival is held.





Speaking of Festivals, one thing we missed during our visit to Hokkaido was the Swan Festival which is held near Wakkanai. Apparently it features raffles, bingo and a speed-eating competition. Sounds like a real blast!!
After our successful descent from the TV Tower, we went back to the hotel to recover from all the walking we had done. A few cups of tea later, we ventured out again, firstly to visit the railway station again to book seats for the following day (having learnt from this morning's visit that we need to get in early) and then we went for dinner in a large shopping mall nearby. The mall is divided into 'streets' with names like 'Joyful Walk', 'Fashion Walk' and 'Food Walk'. A nice young lady working in a shop in Fashion Walk kindly posed for a photo. She looked so cute in her boater hat which are all the rage here at the moment. But Food Walk was the one for us! We found another excellent restaurant and had a great meal for a great price. I had fried rice this time and found it very tricky to eat with chopsticks as the rice doesn't stick together as the boiled or steamed Japanese rice does. Not being one to eat slowly, I had to eventually resort to my soup spoon. On the way back to the hotel, we came across a shop selling items from different countries including Betty Crocker cake mixes, German deli items, corn flakes, Spanish olives, Campbell's soup and ... Vegemite!!


We relaxed for the rest of the evening. As I write, John is flicking through TV channels. He doesn't understand what anyone is saying, but there doesn't seem to be anything that he'd usually choose to watch anyway. Tomorrow we take on the crowd battling for non-reserved seats on the train. I hope we win!

Bus trip to Cape Soya

Monday 19th April
Bless the Japanese hot spring baths! If you suffer from sleep problems, I have found the answer. Those baths knock me out for hours. As before, I had the whole bath, which is like a small swimming pool, all to myself. What luxury! Before I got in, I did have a naked conversation with a Japanese lady who was just leaving and she managed to communicate that the bath was great. She was so right and I slept like a log.
Well, as you can probably tell, we made it back from Cape Soya and we can now boast that we have stood at the most northerly point in Japan. We went to the bus station and I asked in my best Japanese for two return tickets to Cape Soya, and much to my delight, the man at the desk gave us two return tickets to Cape Soya. Wow- I'm getting braver by the minute! He told me in Japanese that the bus leaves from Gate 2, so that's where we went and hey presto the Cape Soya bus arrived and off we went. The bus followed the coast from Wakkanai to the Cape giving us a great view of the calm ocean along the way. The day was fine and slightly sunny so the 45 minute bus trip was very enjoyable. At Cape Soya we stepped back out into the chilly air (3 degrees at 9.00am) and did the necessary photo shoots to prove we'd really been there. We visited the souvenir shop, as you do in these places, and hopped back on the next bus back to Wakkanai.
When we got back we had a few hours to kill before catching the train back to Sapporo, so we went for a stroll around the town and observed the locals going about their daily lives. There were many snow mounds around the town where the ploughed snow had been banked up, and also large piles of snow between the houses which are very close together. It will probably take weeks for all of this snow to melt. Eventually, and only because I was looking for a loo, we found a coffee shop which turned out to be a bit more than that. It had a very nice lunch menu but, as expected in Wakkanai, no English-speaking staff. There was a photo of something yummy looking on the menu which John fancied, so I was able to ask what it was. I needed the phrase book for the answer, which turned out to be 'sea urchin'. John turned that one down in favour of a burger patty with salad. I don't know what his problem was - sea urchins don't have tentacles! I order the noodle and rice ball lunch, which involved some sign language, pointing and a bit of amateur Japanese. The girl at the counter was asking me what I wanted inside the rice ball and she was suggesting 'ume' (sounds a bit like oomay). I had no idea what that was, but the older lady at the counter suggested I have salmon, so that's what I ordered. When we got back to our table, I looked up 'ume' in my dictionary and found out that it was that pickled plum thing that made John pull an awful face a few days ago. Phew - lucky escape! We had a relaxing time over lunch, watching the boats in the harbour and generally taking it easy until it was time to wander over to the railway station. As we were leaving the cafe, John tried to tell the staff that we were from Australia and they had no idea what he was saying, so I pronounced it Japanese-style and they suddenly understood. John's kangaroo impersonation helped to reinforce the idea. The 'ume' girl also mentioned koalas, so I gave her a koala bookmark from the stock I keep in my bag for just such occasions. She was delighted and we didn't need to speak the same language to have a very friendly exchange.
I had planned to use the journey back to Sapporo to have a good snooze, but, even though we'd seen the snowscape the day before, we were still fascinated by it, so no snooze for me (John is another story). We had to stop again for deer on the tracks - several times on this journey. I'm not sure, with all the space they have to roam, why they want to be on the railway tracks, but they were busy getting in the way today. At least they redeemed themselves by posing for a photo. Much of the land is open agricultural land, but how they grow things in these parts I don't know. They'd have to really get cracking once the snow melts to raise a crop before the next snows arrive.
Back at the same old Sapporo hotel, we caught up with the washing, checked train times for Wednesday and generally blobbed around. Tomorrow we're taking on the beer factory and/or sake museum. Kampai!!

Snow further to go!

Sunday 18th April

Well here we are at the top of Japan, very close to Russia, writing a blog and drinking Calpis!

We had a speedy start today to catch the 7.48 train to Wakkanai. The scenery was amazing and certainly not what I had expected. I remember saying to my workmates before we left that "it's a bit cooler in Hokkaido". I'd like to revise that statement. It's REALLY cold in Hokkaido! The landscape was much more open and snow was all around us, even at ground level. At one stage the train driver braked quite heavily and tooted his horn (it sounded a bit like Thomas the Tank Engine) and I saw a small flock of deer go scampering off up the hillside. We also saw a sign that indicated that some sheep had strayed far from home, too.

We struggled to stay awake on the train as we'd started early and the motion of the train is very hypnotic, but we were fascinated to watch the world go by and didn't want to miss any of it. The regular visits by the food and drinks trolley girl was enough to keep us awake. The trolley service girls are so lovely. As they leave each carriage, they turn around to face the passengers and bow before moving off to the next carriage. Just imagine an Aussie doing that!

We arrived in Wakkanai around lunch time. The train station was a very 'one-horse town' type of station. They had a tourist information office, but nobody staffing it and no brochures in English. Unlike other parts of Japan we have visited, there are very few signs in English and we quickly got the impression that we wouldn't find too many English-speaking people here. Time to put those lessons into practice! I've been very lazy about speaking Japanese as we can so easily make ourselves understood in English. We took what we could from the Tourism Office and headed out into the cold to find the hotel. Luckily, there aren't too many buildings around these parts, so the hotel stood out like dogs ears. Although we were very early, the staff let us check in so we could go exploring without our packs. We walked down to the waterfront to gaze north towards Santa's abode. Behind the town is a big hill covered in snow. As the wind was blowing from that direction, the air was super-chilled. We had a look at the Roman-style structure which was built in 1936 to protect the town from the big waves which sometimes managed to go over the top of the existing sea wall. There were a couple of official-looking ships in the harbour. We were a bit puzzled about their purpose until a friendly guy who could speak a little English came out and had a chat with us. It turned out that the were coast guard ships. The crew were just warming up to go on a training run and invited us to join them. We politely declined their generous offer. Before we parted company, the English speaking guy informed us that the temperature was about 3 degrees, but I don't think that took the wind-chill factor into account. We also passed the town's public baths, but our hotel has a hot spring bath on the 10th floor, so we'll be visiting that shortly. We dropped into the bus terminal to see if we could find information about the bus to Cape Soya which is actually the topmost point of Japan. Tourists are keen to visit Cape Soya, but the staff at the bus terminal spoke no English and the signs were all in Japanese. I hesitantly asked in Japanese "How long does it take to get from Wakkanai to Cape Soya?" and the receptionist produced a timetable. She circled the appropriate departure and arrival times, and then I managed "How much does it cost?". She wrote down the answer on the timetable and our mission was accomplished. Only tomorrow will we find out whether we actually understood each other. We might find ourselves at Cape Soya with no way of getting back till July!

On the way back to the hotel, we came across another first. There is a small Japanese-style restaurant just opposite the hotel, which would have been our first choice, except for the sign on the door which said "We speak only Japanese so please do not enter our restaurant if you do not understand Japanese". We were quite stunned by this, as we have encountered only friendly, helpful and considerate people all over Japan and they are always willing, no matter how limited the language skills are on each side, to try their best to provide good service. After a brief thawing out in the hotel, we happily took our money to another restaurant (where the staff also didn't speak English but were very pleasant and welcoming) and we managed quite well with my little bit of Japanese. The menu was only in Japanese, but I was able to point to a likely-looking dish and ask "What is this?" and we understood the answer well enough to know that it wasn't anything unpleasant. Now I know I can do it if I try. As I write, I am stuffed full of ramen noodles and about to go and scare all the other ladies in the public hot spring bath.

If you don't hear from us again, You'll find us in Cape Soya looking for transport back to Wakkanai.