We're waiting for our shinkansen to go to Beppu (change at Kokura). It's raining in Hiroshima today, a good day to leave. Hopefully the weather will be fine in Beppu and the sakura (cherry blossoms) will be in bloom. We saw a few opening up in Miyajima yesterday. We are happy to be free from the creepy hotel, that place really creeped us out! Besides being next door to the place where thousands perished from the bomb, the place itself had an eerie feeling about it. Sometimes we heard footsteps but didn't see anyone. One time I did see a girl, Charee thought she must be obake (ghost) but if so she was wearing the current fashion (short shorts over stockings).
The main costs for us have been transportation. Food in general has been comparable to Aus, or cheaper (with the current exchange rate). We get most of our drinks from vending machines or combeni (convenience stores, like 7-11). The cost of a bottle is only about Y150 (AU$1.60). Even with the JR Pass, the cost of local transportation like subway adds up alot. The subway in Osaka just going a few stops was Y230 each. The tram here in Hiroshima is a reasonable Y150 flat rate tho.
Speaking of which, we got on the wrong tram last night and headed towards the port. Luckily a kindly salaryman helped us get to where we needed to go. It was the last tram, so it would have sucked bigtime to be stuck at the port and have to walk back! It would have taken 2 hrs I reckon.
Anyway better go catch that shinkansen! More from Beppu...
We left Kyoto to go by rapid express train to Osaka (about 40 mins). It was cold and raining, unfortunately. We did have a good run of good weather while in Kyoto though. In retrospect, we should have just stayed in Kyoto and done day trips to Osaka and Himeji, as there's really not alot to do in Osaka proper. Our ryokan, Kameya Ryokan, was situated right near the Osaka Aquarium which was pretty handy, as that's one of the few highlights in Osaka city, but we had to catch a JR train (the Osaka loop train, which was free for us with JR passes) and then a subway to the Osakako stop. We got to the ryokan pretty early, around 11am, and the room wasn't ready but we were able to drop off our bags and head off in the rain to the Aquarium (which is situated in an entertainment area, with big ferris wheel (which we didn't go on) an Imax theatre and a restaurant and shop complex). The ryokan itself was pretty nice, we had a big room with a TV you didn't have to pay for, and the shared bathroom was just across the hall from us. We decided to go to see an Imax first and then the Aquarium. We saw Dinosaurs Alive 3D, which wasn't bad, then went to the Aquarium itself (which I thought was a bit over-prices at Y2000 each, tho Charee got a discount as it was Ladies' Day, which I think is every Wednesday -- those crazy japanese!). The weather was miserable, rainy and cold, and after our afternoon entertainment we checked in then decided on 2 hrs karaoke before swimming around town looking for a place to eat. We finally settled on a local izakaya, which was actually very nice indeed! We relaxed in the evening by taking a japanese-style bath (where you have to wash before getting into the piping-hot water), and some late-night TV ("The Cable Guy" in japanese) before retiring.
Thursday, March 20:
We headed off to Himeji to see Himeji castle, a good day trip to do from Osaka (or Kyoto). It was about an hour on local express train. It was rainy in the morning but stopped by the time we got to Himeji, tho continued to threaten us with dark clouds overhead for the rest of the day. The castle is a bit of a hike from the train station (and of course we managed to get a little lost) but we managed to get there, with only an udon stop along the way. The Himeji Castle is quite a nice castle to visit, and if you're going to visit one in your travels, let this one be it. The grounds and interior of the castle walls, and castle itself, are all worth checking out, and there are very nice views of Himeji city from the top of the castle. We took a ton of pictures here. There were also several neko (cats) around the grounds, at one point a clan of eight greeted us. They didn't take too well to my stale beef jerky tho for some reason (one of them threw up). :-/ We spent most of the day at the castle and stopped for some omerice near the station (restaurant called pomu no ki) on the way out. We took the shinkansen back to Osaka (why not? it's free for us with JR Passes), which only took 30mins. Another hot japanese bath smoothed out any aches we'd accumulated in the day.
Friday, March 21:
We left Osaka and headed for Hiroshima by shinkansen (oh, how we love the shinkansen!). It took about 90mins. Hiroshima has a nice feel to it for a biggish city, and it was a bright clear day and quite warm when we arrived (late morning). However we soon discovered that our accomodation (Minshuku Ikedaya) was on the other side of the city from the JR station. We started walking. And walking and walking, getting more hot and bothered as time went on (we had our backpacks on). Soon we noticed that Hiroshima has trams, so we quickly jumped on one which made the trip towards our minshuku (like a japanese-style hotel, by the looks of it) much more expedient. The minshuku was located very near the Memorial Peace Park, which commemorates the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in WW2. So that was quite convenient, as besides the oishiiokonomiyaki, a famous delicacy of Hiroshima, the Memorial Peace Park is the other main highlight of Hiroshima (tho as I now recall, I believe there is a very nice japanase garden somewhere in the city). We finally found our minshuku, and after some confusion with the reception (we'd made a plan adjustment a few days earlier, at first we were only to spend 1 night in Hiroshima but we decided to spend 2 nights, and called ahead to extend our reservation), we got the key to the room. Well, even for Y11,600 for 2 people for 2 nights (which is very reasonable), the place is pretty scary. It's quite rundown, our room is very small compared with other places. Our room was on the 4th floor (with no elevator!) with the shower room on the 1st floor. Luckily every floor has a toilet tho! We certainly got our exercise. There was hardly anyone else in the whole place (unsurprisingly). Still, I suppose you get what you pay for, next time we'll make sure we go to only ryokans! But, we're backpackers so we take the good with the bad, and as long as there's a roof (or table) over your head at the end of the day, that's all that matters ultimately. Besides, these sorts of things make for good stories. ;) I decided to wash all my unders in the sink with shower gel, but then struggled to find a place to hang them in the room. I found a long piece of wood in the cupboard (which may have been a piece of it at one stage) and managed to prop it up over the cupbaord doors to hang my washing on. It worked pretty well. Suspiciously, there was also a long piece of rope in the cupboard -- maybe this was the emergency escape route. Anyway, after checking in (and grimacing) we headed over to the Peace Park and also went to the museum there, which was just as horrific the second time for me. There are some pretty gruesome pictures of the A-bomb victims and survivors, so be warned if you're going. The park is a definite must-see in Hiroshima though. Afterwards, we went looking for some okonomiyaki. We finally found a family-run okonomiyaki restaurant secreted on the 4th floor in an arcade. It was very oishii! Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki includes noodles, lettuce egg. I got extra mochi (sticky rice cake) on mine and Charee got ika (squid) and ebi (prawn). Afterwards we headed back in the dark to our creepy hotel. We opted not to have a japanese-style bath, being unsure just how often the thing is cleaned!
Saturday, March 22:
Today we took a local train to Miyajima, an island south west of Hiroshima (25 mins express train, 10 mins ferry -- all JR so free if you have JR Pass). Miyajima is famous for a huge red tori gate in the sea (you've probably seen pics of it). There is also a big red temple to accompany it, as well as lot of other smaller temples and shrines. We were greeted by a host of wandering deer upon arrival, Miyajima has lots of them. They like to try to eat anything you have (including your clothes!). We saw a couple of mischievous ones ransacking someone's stroller while they were in a shop. We took the ropeway up the mountain (one of them) which gave us a good view of the islands. We wanted to go to the Mt Misen Observatory and then hike back down the mountain. Well, even after getting off the ropeway we had to hike up about another 45mins to the top. There were nice views (and pink-faced monkeys), but we discovered that the easy course down the mountain was closed and we had to take a longer route. We'd been told this would take an hour, however 3 hours later we finally reached the bottom. Our feet were ready for replacement by this time. It was quite arduous as the course comprised hundreds and hundreds of stone steps that wound up and down the mountains to the bottom. We met a couple of old japanese ladies who accompanied us on most of the trip. They were very genki tho, they had already hiked *up* the mountain!! It was a nice adventure tho (we love hiking), even tho our feet didn't agree by the end of it. The views from the trail were very nice, and there were cute little shrines along the way. By the time we got to the bottom we were starving, we hadn't had lunch and it was about 5pm. We stopped at the first place we saw, I got japanese curry and rice and Charee got katsu-don (pork cutlet and rice). The water had gone out and the big tori gate was reachable by foot so we went to take a look. We hung around until the sun set over the mountains then finally took the ferry and train back to Hiroshima. Now we are in an internet cafe and then we'll go have the famous okonomiyaki in the train station mall before heading back to our creepy hotel. We're very much looking forward to heading to Beppu in Kyushu tomorrow tho, and relaxing in the onsen (hot springs)! Our trip is in its final week, but we still have some travelling to do. After Beppu, there is still our temple stay in Koya-san to look forward to. Stay tuned for that!
Got up late as we were leaving Tokyo for Kyoto. After packing up most of our loot (and leaving a few odd things to pick up on the way back) we headed out. We had to meet Tsudoi at Ikebukuro station to give him Hitomi's wallet, as she'd left it at home. I also had to sign their marriage form. We then proceeded to the JR info desk to get our JR Passes (lots of paperwork here, expect 15 mins wait). Then we got shinkansen tickets to Kyoto and caught a local Yamanote line train (using our Passes, yay) to Tokyo station, where we had to board the shinkansen.
The trip was uneventful. We took a Hikari superexpress train to Kyoto, 2:45 hrs travel. Charee was excited to finally see Fuji-san on the way. Upon arriving at Kyoto JR station we proceeded to find our ryokan (japanese inn). Well of course that turned into a debacle, as we got lost. With the help of a local girl we finally got their (by a very round-about route). The place we're staying is called Yuhara Ryokan. Our room is very nice, about 3 times bigger than where we stayed at Tsudoi's, with a smaller room with a table and sink attached. The bathroom is shared, but that's okay. We've been having a japanese style bath every night which has been nice. After offloading our gear we headed back to the mall at the station for some omerice (rice wrapped in omelette), the best place in Japan imho for omerice! Finally found it and it was oishii as I remembered! (Mikan is wicked expensive tho, must be out of season now, alas!).
Monday, March 17:
We decided to go and explore a host of temples in north east Kyoto. We took a local train to Keage station, and began walking in the direction of Nanzen-ji temple, visiting a few other temples, shrines and gardens on the way. I'd forgotten how expensive entry to these temples is! Usually between Y200-600, with the average around Y400-500 a pop, which doesn't seem like much, but really adds up when you're visiting 10 or more at a time! We took the path from Nanzen-ji to Eikan-do temple, Kumano Nyakuoji shrine, Reikanji, Yojiya, Honen-in and finally the Silver Pavilion (Ginkakuji), which unfortunately was under renovation and covered in scaffolding (but the swines still made us pay the full Y600 entrance fee!). There were other places visited along the way, can't remember the names (who can keep track!) and I'm sure we won't be able to recognize one temple from another in the dozens of pics we took! It is however a very nice walk and the weather was warm (hot even!).
We wanted to go visit Nijo castle and the International Manga Museum (near Nijo) so we started walking another trail in that direction (south south westerly). Man we walked for hours again, up and down hills, through foreign streets, we had no idea where we were going. One place we stopped at was a pretty nice temples with 4 rather scruffy-looking temple cats (Scruffypants, Marilyn, Howly the Roofcat, and Blackie el Stupido), which seemed to enjoy my stale beef jerky (except Blackie). We finally figured out where the heck we were and decided to try taking a bus instead of hiking. Naturally we got off the wrong stop and still had to walk a million miles more to Nijo. By the time we got there (late in the day), the blasted thing was closed! The Manga Museum closed at 7:30pm so we headed there, only to find that it had closed too! Doh! All that walking for nothing. We must have walked about 20 km's. We decided to sod it and take the bus to Gion for dinner (by now it was dark), which we actually managed to do without incident. Gion, however, was swarming with people, and while the temple there was nice all lit up with lanterns etc, we couldn't find a decent (read as "cheap") place to eat. Charee settled on some tako yaki (octopus balls, no not those balls ;)) and me with a classic japanese cuisine of "sausage on a stick". At this point we gave up and decided to just go back to the ryokan and the small restaurant next door. So we got on the bus and off we went... in the wrong direction! Apparently subconsciously we wanted to see more of the night life. Alot of the city buses run in a loop tho, so we just stayed on until we'd gone all the way around (instead of paying another Y220 each on another bus) to where we wanted to get off (which was, btw, only 2 stops away from where we were before!). We got off the bus at the wrong stop again (go figure), and had to walk another 30mins to the ryokan in th dark and cold. We did eventually find it this time. We went to the restaurant next door: Charee got yaki soba, I got okonomiyaki. The portions were huge and we couldn't finish them. We retired, had a bath and silently cried ourselves to sleep for our aching feet.
Tuesday, March 18:
Today we decided to go to Kiyomizudera temple (the famous one on the hill). This time we got a daily bus pass each (Y500) which we should have gotten yesterday. Took the 206 bus from Kyoto station to Gojozaka, then hiked up the hill. It was very hot today! The temple is nice and worth visiting, only Y300. After spending an hour or two there we decided to take the bus to Nijo to see the castle and Manga Museum. Nijo-ji is not a very impressive castle tho, even tho the grounds are huge. There are better castles in Osaka and Himeji as I recall (which we'll be seeing in a couple of days). And at Y600 each, it's quite unimpressive. The Manga Museum was better tho. We stopped for some udon along the way. The udon place was cool, you could make your own udon dish with a variety of add-ons, and the base udon bowl is only Y290 for a regular serving (which is quite big). Anyway, we spent awhile at the Manga Museum, which has thousands of manga books (mostly in japanese, but some in other languages too). We saw an old-fashioned manga story teller dude. He was pretty funny even tho he spoke rapid nihongo I barely understood. The manga itself comprised of a series of pictures on boards he'd show one at a time while telling the story. We were pretty tired after that and spent the rest of the afternoon, what was left of it, reading manga books. Charee was quite happy to find some old faves in Thai. We had been planning to go to Arashiyama (north east Kyoto) but decided not to as we were too tired. We headed back to Kyoto station for something to eat and an early night instead. Probably still recovering from yesterday's adventures.
We met Moko-san for lunch in Azabu Juban. It was good to see her again after so long. We had korean bbq for lunch. She told us that she married her gf Shelly in Canada last year (on 7/7/07 7pm! 7 must be a very lucky number!). Shelly is (also) a South African-born Aussie, if you recall, dear readers. After lunch we walked to the school Shelly works at in Roppongi Hills. The weather was very nice (quite hot). Shelly teaches pre-school and we got to see her and her class of budding young students and the fabulous replica of Brasil City they made out of paper, cardboard and icecream sticks. It was quite impressive, right down to the jesus on top of the hill (tho a rather overweight one) -- very cute!
Afterwards we took the Ginza line subway to Ueno to go to the Ueno Zoo, as we were to meet my old mate Hechima (ex-AVA) after his work. Ueno Zoo is quite nice tho, we saw the panda (well the back of it anyway), but the most impressive were the gorillas, with which Charee had a certain affinity: one of them came to her *twice* as she watched thru the glass (but the crafty bugger ran away before I could get any snaps). The zoo closed at 5pm and we were only to meet Hechima at 8pm so we had a few hours to kill in Ueno. This was achieved by me eating something that didn't agree with me and consequently allowing us to find and explore several different types of bathrooms around Ueno. Eventually we did meet Hechima at Ueno station tho, he looks pretty much the same tho a bit older (about 3 years) and alot smarter in his suit, as he's now a "salaryman" rather than the scruffy punk I used to know him as. Once again we went to korean bbq (yakiniku) where we consumed vast quantities of meat. It was very good tho, and we regaled each other of past adventures and frivolity, the favourite of course being the somewhat hilarious "buraddo pitto / warrior rabbit" story (remind me to tell it next time).
Wednesday, March 12:
We decided to go to Kamakura to see the Daibutsu (Great Buddha), about an hour southish of Tokyo. Charee wanted to do a special hiking trail to see the Daibutsu which was from Kita-Kamakura station, taking 90mins to hike 3 kms and see a couple of other temples and shrines on the way. We got to Kita-Kamakura kinda late, 1pm-ish, but somehow managed to avoid paying the train ticket (saving us about Y2000). We visited a couple of temples around the station then hit the trail. Well, 3 kms on a flat path would be 90mins perhaps, but nowhere in the guidebook did it mention hiking up and down mountains! Boy was that a workout on the old knees! It was a good 3 hrs later we got near the end, meeting another hiker heading the opposite direction, who kindly told us we were a mere 10 mins from Daibutsu (which we were quite excited about!). However (yes, here comes the expected "however", dear readers), we proceeded to take the wrong fork in the road, which not only headed *back uphill* (up about a thousand steps) but also on quite a lengthy route (adding about another hour) around where we were supposed to go, with everyone telling us it was only 15 minutes further. Well, several 15-min-further's did finally get us there, at about 4:45pm, which was lucky as Daibutsu closed at 5:30! We took alot of pictures there, and rested our now-aching feet (later discovered several new blisters).
Afterwards we headed to Shibuya (Charee wanted to see the famous intersection there) and walked around until we found an izakaya for dinner. It was okay, tho izakaya is better if you have a nihonjin to order things for you, as they always know what to get! Of course, I got my edamame, so I was happy.
Thursday, March 13:
After the previous day's exhausting activities, we decided to take it a bit easier and go to the Science Museum in Odaiba (where I'm sure I'd gone before on a school trip when I was going to japanese school in Tokyo). It took us awhile to find it, apparently it has been upgraded or something since I was last there (tho, admittedly, dear readers, I don't remember it all that well, it's possible I had a hangover the day I went prior). The weather was quite nice tho (mid-teens and sunny), so finding it wasn't too much of a chore. The museum itself was so-so, the "rides" left a lot to be desired tho. The japanese curry didn't seem to agree with Charee tho I enjoyed it (I quite like japanese curry!).
Afterwards we headed back to Saitama to have (more!) yakiniku with Tsudoi, Hitomi (who'd arrived late the previous night from Okinawa), Tsudoi's dad (Abe-san) and (apparently) Tsudoi's mother also. It was quite fun, tho I needed Charee's translator abilities with all that nihongo flying round, phew! Taihen (hard work)! After dinner we all headed to karaoke. Oh boy, I was amongst singer extraordinaires (both Tsudoi and Abe-san are accomplished singers, Charee loves karaoke, Tsudoi's mother has a great voice), there wasn't much hope for me really, but I considered it practice for Poison Neko. The applause helped.
Friday, March 14:
We were going to head to Fuji-san, but the weather was quite bad (rainy and cold). We also got a very late start (around noon). [As an aside, I've been so tired here! I fall asleep on the trains and seem to be in a constant state of trying to stay awake!] For some reason I got it in my head to go to Hakone instead. It is quite far from Tokyo. Actually It was farther than Hakone, past Hakone onto Odawara and then up the mountain to Gora to see the bubbling mud baths. Well, all I can say now is wasn't that a stupid idea! Not only was time not on our side but neither was the weather nor the cost of the trains to get there! We had to take 3 trains, starting from Shinjuku (which is 2 trains from Saitama!), including a cable car ride to the top of the mountain (which was actually pretty cool). But arriving at the top, it was blowing a gale, raining (horizontally!) and freeeeezing cold! We were only there for 15 mins before succumbing to the elements, admitting defeat and heading back down again, pondering the damage: we were now soaked, it was freezing cold, pouring with rain, it took us 4 hrs to get there and all up about Y12,000 (ouch!). Not the best use of time nor funds, alas. We did have a nice dinner at Gyoza Centre in Odawara tho. Fuji-san would have been cheaper and could not have been worse weather-wise. We didn't even see the bubbling mud baths, tho we did get to smell the sulphur on the top. Yayyy... not.
Saturday, March 15:
We left early with Tsudoi and Hitomi to the Cafe Cotton Club in Tadanobaba for their formal wedding party. I was honoured to be chosen to be one of their witnesses when signing their wossname (a job I also had at Chris's wedding). The (first) party was pretty good and somewhat moving, they had a "video album" of their relationship, with Tsudoi and Hitomi performing a Quruli song as backing music. Mas (from Rasputin) also performed a couple of songs, including a pretty impressive acoustic rendition of Green Day's "Time of Your Life". It was good to catch up with some old familiar faces too. Besides Mas, there was also Yoshi (Rasputin), Kenji (Chakkamen), Byron, Jun, Hideyoshi (ex-Ahouzlife bass) plus a host of new faces. There was much drinking and celebrating (tho the wedding cake didn't quite agree with me). At around 3:30 we headed to an english pub called Hub for the casual party. Again, much drinking and chatterings. It was good tho. We refrained from continuing the festivities afterwards with people (Tsudoi and Hitomi then had a family-only dinner to go to), instead we opted for 2 hrs of karaoke by ourselves around the corner. It was a bit more bearable, as we were a bit tanked and I got to sing some Metallica which seemed to cheer me up somewhat. Masterrr masterrrr... We decided for some cheap ramen for dinner and then headed back to Saitama.
We're heading to Kyoto tomorrow. While it's been good staying in Tokyo with Tsudoi, we're ready to start our real backpacking adventure down south; we're a bit burnt out on Tokyo already: all the people, and it's so expensive here, we've already spent a substantial amount in transportation alone (it costs us Y2000 just to go from Saitama to Ikebukuro round trip). More from Kansai...
Howdy, we're safe and sound in Saitama at the moment. Today is day 3 on our trip. A quick summary of events:
We arrived okay after an uneventful flight on Saturday night around 6:30pm local time, and got to Ikebukuro to meet Tsudoi exactly on time at 9:30pm. It is pretty dang cold here tho. Tsudoi was pretty muich the same as I remembered him. We then proceeded to an izakaya to farewell one of Tsudoi's workmates (and drink beer and shouchu). We were pretty dang tired after the trip tho.
The next day we got up early and went to work with Tsudoi (in Ikebukuro, an hour from his place in Saitama). He works in the biggest music instrument and gear store I've ever seen, and as you can imagine, I was like a kid in a candy store! So many guitars and things! Good lord! Anyway, Charee and I then proceeded onto Harajuku to see some weird people, there weren't many tho, must be seasonal. We spent quite alot of time walking around tho, in the park and Takeshita Dori (trendy street). We did see the 50s guys strutting their funky stuff tho. We got quite hot traipsing about, with the sun out it wasn' too bad actually. We also saw the big shrine near Yoyogi Kouen, and were fortunate to catch a traditional Japanese wedding party (the bride all done up in kimono and groom looking like the last samurai on his day off). Later in the arvo we decided to head off to Shinjuku as we were meeting Joseph and Mickey (from Surge) and Ranran and Iku-chan (from RBV) for a long-time-no-see get-together at an izakaya. It was good to see them again, and Charee got on famously with them with her sugoi japanese skills, they kept calling her kawaii (cute). We ate and drank quite alot there, one has to marvel at just how great the japanese food is here, and izakaya in general (where you can try a ton of different dishes in one sitting, and pretty cheaply too!). At around 9:30pm we headed, ironically, back to Harajuku to Cafe Na for a private party with Ranran and Iku-chan, for one of their friends leaving for South America. We were pretty knackered by then tho, and didn't stay long, plus we were worried about missing the last train, which is not so good (okay if you're alone, but not good when you're with someone else = hard to find a place to stay!).
Today (Monday) we went to Studio Ghibli Museum! Finally! The weather was crap tho, cold and wet (10C) but the museum was pretty good. Afterwards we had ramen at a local ramen shop in Mitaka (down the road from the museu). Charee saw a famous Thai actor there (we got pics), she was quite excited about that, but too shy to go talk to him. We then headed to Asakusa to see Senso-ji Temple (the big famous red one in Tokyo). I'd been there the first trip with Luis. We spent a bit of time getting lost on trains and roads too. Alot of walking again, just can't escape it I guess. We had monja-yaki at a local place in Asakusa, very niiiice.
Anyway, enough rambling. Charee's crashed already, Tsudoi is doodling on his guitar and I've got a near-full can of Asahi to get thru before bed. Kampai!
We're all packed and ready to go! We had to clean the house as my sister is going to be house-sitting and taking care of TnT.
I was joking with Tsudoi that I'd dye my hair yellow for his wedding party, so I decided to dye it blond instead (!!), and guess what, it came out yellow! So his wish came true. :P (Well they say blonds have more fun, but I'm not sure it's possible for me to have any more fun in Japan, shy of having an ambulance on constant standby!).
Remember Moko-san, dear readers? She was the Doogmeister's friend whose apartment in Azabu Juban (in Tokyo) I stayed at a few times. Anyway, I received an email from her today (in the nick of time!) so we will go have lunch with her in AJ next week. It's been several years since I last saw her. It's good to catch up with old friends in exotic places (have to get to Belgium to see Luis next!).
Sunday, March 23, 2008