I didn't feel yesterdays earthquake at all though I may have been conscious of it. I'm not sure what time the quake was, but if it was during the morning, I was on a train that kept having hiccups for a few minutes. whether this was a power surge or a tremor I don't know. No-one seemed bothered and I certainly never felt the earth move, sad really, I'd like to feel a small tremor, but I'll pass on the earthquake.
A grey cloudy day, but not actually raining. I think it must rain a lot here and people must often be caught out as there was no shortage of umbrellas on sale and later I noticed that the shops had special racks, in the doorways, for placing umbrellas. In Takayama I am doing the full Japanese. Staying in a Ryokan, a Japanese Inn, sleeping on mats and eating Japanese. 
The Ryokan is really ancient with lots of antiques, though like most Japanese things there is a strange juxtaposition of ancient and modern. It's the first time I've been treated to a heated loo seat and a toilet that flushes automatically when you stand up! At the entrance you have to take off your shoes and put on slippers, then I was taken to my room, where I had to take off the slippers before walking on the tatami mats, then I was given a cup of Green Tea, for which I had to kneel at the table. Fortunately hot Green tea is marginally better than the cold stuff.
My room had large windows overlooking a river, this was a surprise as, when I booked, I was told I would have a small indoor room with a small window, it shows trade is not flourishing at the moment though I am seeing more westerners. I had time for a wander before dinner, including a visit to a museum about Nikko.
Nikko is a town north of Tokyo that I had wanted to visit but cancelled, for obvious reasons. It would definitely be worth a visit, the temples and shrines there look spectacular.
Then I returned for my dinner, this consisted of 11 individual small dishes plus the sauces to go with them, about half consisting of pickled vegetables. Unfortunately I don't like pickles, I don't like any kind of vinegar so the meal was somewhat wasted on me. It was washed down with green tea! After dinner I tried the hotel computer, unfortunately these Japanese keyboards have double or even treble the amount of letters to contend with and a very small space bar so every time I forget and go for the end of the space bar I hit the key that changes to a Japanese script. I can't find the one that changes it back! The hotel owner didn't know either, he said it was his son's domain. I may find out here. So, with no blog I went for my first experience of a Japanese bath. There's no way I'm going to experience the full blown Onsen as this is a public experience. I had this one to myself, first a shower to get clean then a soak in the biggest, fullest, hottest bath tub I've ever been in, and so to bed.
Sunday 10th April
Breakfast was very similar to dinner, the 'piece de resistance' as it were, was a large leaf with some brown stuff on it, which was cooking over a table barbecue. The brown stuff was curry, to eat with the rice. There was a bit of omelette, some sea food with potatoes and beans, several plates of pickled vegetables and something in a packet, which I assumes to be some kind of hand towel until I opened it, and discovered 5 thin green sheets which I now believe to be dry sea weed.
I spent the morning wondering around Takayama again, it's a lovely old Japanese town.
I saw several of the table top Barbecues for sale, I'd love to be able to buy one.
For lunch I went to a Japanese Restaurant that had the menu in English, with pictures, and had Ramen, a bowl of noodles in broth with pork and half an egg on top. It seemed like a good idea until I was faced with eating noodles with chopsticks! Any suggestions Ling? I understand it's OK to slurp noodles in Japan, so I slurped. Then I went for an ice-cream, the flavours were all written in Japanese, so I chose the green one, thinking it would be pistachio, but, guess what, it was green tea. As regards coping with Japanese - I have mastered 7 phrases: yes; no; hello; goodbye; good morning; excuse me; please and thank you. The most useful I think, is Arrigato (Thank you) used in conjunction with a bow, or several bows. I'm very glad I speak English as the big stations and some sites and museums have directions in English. Ticket machines in subways have an english button, and all stations have the name written in roman letters. Some trains and subways have spoken directions in English as well, it's just country stations that don't. The main problem is not knowing what's in all the strange packets of food. I have breakfast included at this hotel as well but I've opted for the Western option!
Saturday
Off to Takayama.
I woke up late so it was all a bit of a rush. I started on a Shinkansen (bullet train) from Shin-Osaka to Nagoya then what's called a Wide View train up to Takayama. It's wide view because the journey goes up into the beginnings of the Japanese Alps so the windows are much bigger than normal.
A grey cloudy day, but not actually raining. I think it must rain a lot here and people must often be caught out as there was no shortage of umbrellas on sale and later I noticed that the shops had special racks, in the doorways, for placing umbrellas. In Takayama I am doing the full Japanese. Staying in a Ryokan, a Japanese Inn, sleeping on mats and eating Japanese. The Ryokan is really ancient with lots of antiques, though like most Japanese things there is a strange juxtaposition of ancient and modern. It's the first time I've been treated to a heated loo seat and a toilet that flushes automatically when you stand up! At the entrance you have to take off your shoes and put on slippers, then I was taken to my room, where I had to take off the slippers before walking on the tatami mats, then I was given a cup of Green Tea, for which I had to kneel at the table. Fortunately hot Green tea is marginally better than the cold stuff.
My room had large windows overlooking a river, this was a surprise as, when I booked, I was told I would have a small indoor room with a small window, it shows trade is not flourishing at the moment though I am seeing more westerners. I had time for a wander before dinner, including a visit to a museum about Nikko.
Nikko is a town north of Tokyo that I had wanted to visit but cancelled, for obvious reasons. It would definitely be worth a visit, the temples and shrines there look spectacular.
Then I returned for my dinner, this consisted of 11 individual small dishes plus the sauces to go with them, about half consisting of pickled vegetables. Unfortunately I don't like pickles, I don't like any kind of vinegar so the meal was somewhat wasted on me. It was washed down with green tea! After dinner I tried the hotel computer, unfortunately these Japanese keyboards have double or even treble the amount of letters to contend with and a very small space bar so every time I forget and go for the end of the space bar I hit the key that changes to a Japanese script. I can't find the one that changes it back! The hotel owner didn't know either, he said it was his son's domain. I may find out here. So, with no blog I went for my first experience of a Japanese bath. There's no way I'm going to experience the full blown Onsen as this is a public experience. I had this one to myself, first a shower to get clean then a soak in the biggest, fullest, hottest bath tub I've ever been in, and so to bed.Sunday 10th April
Breakfast was very similar to dinner, the 'piece de resistance' as it were, was a large leaf with some brown stuff on it, which was cooking over a table barbecue. The brown stuff was curry, to eat with the rice. There was a bit of omelette, some sea food with potatoes and beans, several plates of pickled vegetables and something in a packet, which I assumes to be some kind of hand towel until I opened it, and discovered 5 thin green sheets which I now believe to be dry sea weed.
I spent the morning wondering around Takayama again, it's a lovely old Japanese town.
I saw several of the table top Barbecues for sale, I'd love to be able to buy one.
For lunch I went to a Japanese Restaurant that had the menu in English, with pictures, and had Ramen, a bowl of noodles in broth with pork and half an egg on top. It seemed like a good idea until I was faced with eating noodles with chopsticks! Any suggestions Ling? I understand it's OK to slurp noodles in Japan, so I slurped. Then I went for an ice-cream, the flavours were all written in Japanese, so I chose the green one, thinking it would be pistachio, but, guess what, it was green tea. As regards coping with Japanese - I have mastered 7 phrases: yes; no; hello; goodbye; good morning; excuse me; please and thank you. The most useful I think, is Arrigato (Thank you) used in conjunction with a bow, or several bows. I'm very glad I speak English as the big stations and some sites and museums have directions in English. Ticket machines in subways have an english button, and all stations have the name written in roman letters. Some trains and subways have spoken directions in English as well, it's just country stations that don't. The main problem is not knowing what's in all the strange packets of food. I have breakfast included at this hotel as well but I've opted for the Western option!
Hi, Sue , maybe it's a good idea to ask someone to show you how to use chopsticks. If you want to experience "local", especially in China. Eating rice and noodles with chopsticks is a basic skill. Slurping won't be good in China but I guess it's better than starving! :-)
ReplyDeleteI'm impressed with how well you're managing in Japan. Keep it up!