Last day

I caught the sun yesterday. Lazy day today, Osaka, the antidote to all the temples of the last few days. First to the port for a ride on the Giant Ferris Wheel, a view over the industrial and business side of Japan. I got there early so wondered around some ofthe port.

Then on to Hommachi, a shopping area. I found a Starbucks, how sad I am that I can get excited over sitting down with a coffee and a cookie!

Japan. I think, probably the easiest oriental country to travel in, though as it's the only one I've done I may be wrong. No scams, no rip-offs, everyone very friendly, polite and helpful, you just have to keep smiling and bowing. No Japanese is necessary really though my, now 10 phrases, always raised a smile of acknowledgement. Tomorrow the ferry to Shanghai, 48 hours then another cultural experience, no more blogging I think.

Kyoto

Day 1 - I started early, to beat the rush, but couldn't find the Tourist Information Centre when I reached Kyoto, the only one I could find opened at 10.00, so I decided to visit a shrine near the station. I saw a wall-map, found where I was going and wandered off. I must have walked at least 2 kms without finding anything, then I looked at the sun! My instructions said walk north but I realised I was walking south, I don't know what the wall-map had been about. When I got back to the station I found the Tourist Information Centre, which had been open at 08.30, unfortunately half the population of Japan had found it too.

I got a map, a bus guide and asked them to arrange a ticket for me for the Geisha Theatre. I got a ticket for 14.00 with a Tea Ceremony beforehand, so I had to be at the theatre by 13.20. All the tourists in Kyoto seemed to be waiting for the same bus, we were packed like sardines. In Kyoto you get on the bus in the middle and buy your ticket as you get off at the front. I resigned myself to the fact that I would have to get off with the masses, fortunately most people were heading to the same tourist sites so I managed to get off where I wanted and started the Higashiyama walk. It was well worth suffering the packed bus, the shrines are stunning and the cherry blossom is an added bonus.

Eventually I found I had lost the walk I was doing and I was back on the main road, but this was just as well as it helped me to find the theatre. It's funny how routes look so much simpler on the map than they are in reality.

My getting lost also helped me to see another massive temple, then on to the theatre. I was there early and had time to visit the gardens.

The Tea Ceremony was a bit contrived, but they were serving hundreds. I expected to be kneeling on the floor but it was stools, we had a cup of green tea and a little cake and got to keep the plate as a souvenir. My seat for the show was on the front row, not sure if the front row was entirely good, especially as some of the action was around the sides but the show was colourful and the screen changes were very pretty and clever. I expect I would have got more out of it if I had understood but now I've seen Geishas.
I tried to do the rest of the Higashiyama walk afterwards, I did most, it was through really lovely parkland, then headed for home. The buses were absolutely packed but finally I got in one and got a seat. I've forgotten to eat again, so to-night I'm going to an Indian Restaurant next to the hotel. Tomorrow Kyoto again.
Day 2: today I managed to get to Higashi Homganji, the temple I was trying to get to yesterday, but it seems to have been turned into a Conference Centre. There were a lot of security people as well so maybe someone important was arriving. On to the Imperial Park, with so many beautiful outdoor spaces in Kyoto this one was big but not impressive. On to the Temple trail. Kyoto has some beautiful buildings, beautiful outdoor places and beautiful gardens, the weather has been super too. It is getting hot now, I would love to be able to wear a T-shirt but my left arm is still a mess.
Me in the garden at Kinkuki-ji, I was not overly impressed with the temple but the gardens were superb.
The famous stone, Zen garden at Ryoan-ji. I was short on imagination but could have seen myself sitting here to meditate if it hadn't been surrounded by Japanese school childrenThe Bamboo grove, generally I found this too crowded to be impressive, though the photo does not give that impression.I got lost going to the station from here, I saw the sign but thought it applied to a private railway so I carried on walking, I walked for miles, then had to walk back :(

Hiroshima and Miyajima

Hiroshima - the peace garden was very peaceful, otherwise the town is very modern and bustling. I went into a department store, it was more like a series of joined up, very up-market, boutiques.

A tree near the castle that got blasted but survived.

The paper cranes in the children's park

The dome, left as a reminder.

Miyajima - a lovely little island, famous for its floating Torii (shrine gate).

If I had felt inclined I could have had a nice hike in the hills but I didn't feel inclined. Instead I patted the deer, had my photo taken with 2 Japanese ladies in traditional dress and tried a local cake speciality.

 

For lunch I tried Okonomiyaki, I'm becoming more adventurous and trying different restaurants, discovering that not everything is served with pickles, or even green tea.

It took me 5 days to realise that the Japanese drive on the left! Probably because I was so busy avoiding bicycles that I failed to notice the cars. Cyclists here are a total menace, they cycle on the footpath, ignore red lights and seem to be everywhere. Today I finally managed to collide with one, fortunately neither of us came to any harm. I saw some of the news this morning, I couldn't understand what was said but, for this, I didn't need to. It was an interview showing workers still searching for bodies after the tsunami, they were nearly in tears with the futility of it. When I was in England Japan had disappeared from the news but here they are still reeling.

Japan contd

I started trying to write this last night but it kept turning into Japanese. I`m now in a hotel with free computer access. I obviously just wasn't in the right hotels before.

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.

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!

Japan

Thursday, 7th continued----
I, inadvertently, disconnected the internet last night so lost half my blog! It's hard enough to find a computer without doing that.
Thursday morning I started my journey to Osaka, I sat on the station platform for a while (I couldn't find a station cafe that I could sit in and have breakfast, the Japanese seem to eat on the run). Everything is so well organised. The trains park neatly with the carriage entrances neatly placed next to the gap in the railing and the carriage number. Everyone gets off the train with their rubbish, recycling rubbish bins are everywhere, the cleaners rush on and clean, whilst passengers queue politely by their carriage door!

The journey was uneventful, I saw Mt. Fuji again, I had my first sighting from the air but it was not very clear as there is a lot of air pollution, today I got a better sighting and took several photos but I missed the best shot, never mind I saw it and no clouds on top. I confess the above picture is a postcard, I didn't get this close! The one below is mine though I did get a better view.
When I arrived in Osaka I decided to go straight to the hotel to get rid of my bag, I thought it wouldn't take long! Theoretically it wouldn't have but the subway station I arrived at had a kind of underground shopping mall and I didn't know which exit I had come out of, so I walked the wrong way first, then the hotel has it's entrance on a different road to both the address and the map, so it all took ages, when I arrived I was exhausted. I thought it was jet-lag but I think it was food and drink lag, I must discipline myself to stop. After I dropped off my bag I went straight for food, I was gagging for a beer. The first 'restaurant' I found had plastic models of the food outside, so I went in. It was incredible, cheaper than Nando's and quite weird, you had to start by selecting the number of your order on, what looked like, a vending machine you pay the machine and give the tickets it produces to a waitress. I got my beer but I needn't have bothered because iced tea was served with the meal, I'm sure it was a 2 litre jug, so I drank loads. The meal came on a tray, 6 dishes - the main course (mine was pork in ginger), rice, soup, gherkin and 2 sausages with raw veg. I started by wondering why there was no knife and fork, then I remembered, so I looked for the chopsticks, eventually I found them in a drawer under the condiments and Soy sauce. The rice was stodgy and tasteless for my taste, I discovered why when I tried to flavour some with the sauce! (The correct way to do this is to add the sauce to the rice but I added the rice to the sauce!) I defy anyone to eat rice, that's disintegrated in sauce, with chopsticks!

After food I went for a walk around. I found a series of side streets that, together, make a kind of market.

The produce was incredible, really fresh and good quality. All neatly packed for meals.

When I returned to the hotel I asked about launderettes and internet cafes. This hotel has a laundry room and they have rented me a laptop for 2 nights, hence I can blog . I have been having real trouble finding a computer, apparently most people travel with their laptops so when hotels say they provide free internet they only mean 'internet' not a computer to access it!

Friday,8th
I put the alarm on to get up early this morning as I wanted to go to Yoshino to see the Cherry Blossom. I had downloaded a list of trains that I needed, this was vital to start with as, once I left the subway, there was virtually no information in English. My list said to take a train from Oje to Takada then another from Takada to Yoshinoguchi. I got the train I wanted at Oje by the skin of my teeth and religiously got off at Takada, I only had a couple of minutes to get the next train and there was a train on another platform, so off I went only to discover that the train I wanted was the one I had just got off! I had to wait an hour and 20 minutes for the next train so I wandered about the little town, then returned to the station so I could sit down and eat some breakfast.

Eventually I got to Yoshino, it is very pretty, shrines, up in the hills with lots of cherry blossom. Cherry blossom is the national flower of Japan and they turn out in droves to picnic under the trees. Today was maybe not a good day, the morning was fine but it rained in the afternoon. I went out today, for a trip to the hills, with neither a waterproof nor an umbrella!

Mats under the trees for picnics.

I had planned to visit Nara as well but with the difficult trains, the rain and the fact that the batteries in my camera had gone flat without me noticing, I decided to return to Osaka. I got back to Yoshinaguchi without a problem and was helped to find the right platform for the train back to Takada. The timetable looked like the trains for Takada also went to Oje and, after my experience of the morning, I decided to stay on the train. We waited for ages in Takada but eventually we left, very late according to the timetable that I had seen. Surprise, surprise, we end up in Nara! I was obviously meant to go and I'm glad I did but I had to buy an umbrella and I couldn't take any photos!

I hear there was an earthquake somewhere last night, I didn't feel a thing.

On the way!

Monday 4th April and off.

I picked up my passport and China visa, I had understood that the visa would be dated from the date I said that I would be entering China, it isn't, it's dated from Friday when I requested the Visa. This is not a problem for me but I am sure I have read somewhere that you should request the visa at least a month before travelling, this is obviously not a good idea if you have a long trip planned.

I had booked a night (?night - I have to get up at 03.30) in a cheap hotel near Heathrow. I suppose you get what you pay for. It's the first time I have been disappointed with booking.com. When I got to the hotel I thought it was shut; the curtains were all drawn, all hung badly and I had to ring and knock 3 times, then I was asked to come back later as he was fumigating! I've heard that even the Parador in Santiago has had bed-bugs so I supposed I should be grateful to be the first one in after the fumigation!! I thought of covering myself in anti-bug liquid. There was no kettle in the room either which was a disappointment but the young lad who was running it brought me a couple of cups of coffee. I put my alarm on for 03.30, tucked in to a supper of sandwiches and a mug of wine and watched 'Waking the Dead' before cuddling down to sleep.

Wednesday! It was difficult to know which day was Wednesday as we lost 7 hours somewhere. So, Tuesday morning I got up at 03.30 and went for the 04.09 bus to Terminal 4. Whilst I was standing at the bus-stop the top of my left arm started to itch! Needless to say I hadn't coated myself in anti-bug liquid! The itching got worse over the day (and night). They don't really look like bites but by Wednesday evening I had 40 bites/lumps up my left leg, 8 or 9 at the top of each arm, some around my neck and a few up my right leg!! They are just very itchy red lumps. I don't know what the chap was fumigating against but I don't think it worked, what's more I woke up during the night and smelt chemicals, I was really worried that I was going to spend the night breathing noxious fumes and be unwell for the flight, but I was OK. I had breakfast at the airport and then another one on the flight to Milan. It was the first time in years that I have been fed on a plane! I didn't have much spare time in Milan but I had to travel from Linate airport to Malpensa, when I checked on the shuttle bus I discovered that there was a long wait so I decided to make my own way, and to visit the Duomo en route. It is really beautiful, I was glad I made the effort. Unfortunately there was so little time that I didn't have time to stop for a drink, I got to the airport just under 2 hours before the flight, checked in then went for food, by this time it was after 1pm and I had nothing to eat or drink since about 07.30. I really must be more systematic in my approach to eating and drinking. Anyway, I found a very nice little bar, I thought, restaurant actually and had lunch. (The italians really manage to do somethings very well.) Later I had what they called 'lunch' on the plane, because of turbulence we didn't have this till after 4pm so I managed both, this was just as well as we didn't get another meal till breakfast! I put my watch forward the 7 hours straight way so I could persuade myself it was bedtime. Actually Alitalia was very good about drinks and snacks, there was a trolley left at the back all night and anyone could help themselves, they also came around with water or coke a couple of times. The flight went north after Milan, across Rumania, Poland, Russia, Siberia, Mongolia, China and South Korea, in fact I did Trans-siberia in the air. It was dark and mostly cloudy but I did see a light now and again over Siberia and the stars were phenomenal. We stopped in Osaka so that the crew could change, Alitalia doesn't want it's crews overnighting in Tokyo!

We sat on the plane, on the apron, in the heat for over an hour whilst the crew changed, the plane re-fuelled and we had a health check! (A ?doctor walked around the plane and flashed a gadget at us, I suppose it was a long distance thermometer, why don't hospitals have those??) He decided we were all OK. I refrained from scratching for a while as I was afraid he would not let me in!

My first view of Mt Fuji, taken from the air.

We then flew on to Tokyo, no-one offered us anything else to drink and by the time we got through customs and immigration it was well after 12. I had a coffee at the airport but I was anxiuos to get to my hotel, I had to take a train and a subway so it was a real test of my intiative.




The girl at the hotel was SO enthusiastic when she saw me, I felt quite guilty that I had cancelled one night. She insisted on taking our photos, I must point out that I had been travelling for a long time!

I saw no signs of power cuts or transport problems, Tokyo seems to be fuctioning normally. I was given a bottle of water, instead of drinking tap water, which was a bit naughty of me to take as I had bought a bottle in Milan so as not to use up Tokyo's important reserves. the Cherry blossom has started to flower so there is a joyous feeling. I have also seen a few people in Kimonos, I don't know whether this is normal.
I went to the temple of Senso-ji, my first Japanese temple, but certainly not my last.


I also went to Nakamise Dori, as Lonely Planet recommends a visit and says that it is the place to buy kimonos.I intended to buy a kimono but was too tired and not ready to spend money straight away so I didn't. So there we are Day 1 or Day 1 and a half. I've had a shower, put all my dirty clothes in a plastic bag to be washed a.s.a.p (it had better be soon as I don't have many clothes with me!).


I was intrigued by the power cables in the streets, I assume it is because of the risk of earth-quakes that they hang around above ground!

Thursday 7th April 2011

I slept fairly well despite jet-lag and itching but I was up at 6 so I decided to start early. It is not recommended, for tourists, to use the subway during the rush hour (from 07.30 to 09.30) and I certainly didn't want to do it with my back pack. I found the subways easier than I expected though somehow I managed to miscalculate the cost of my ticket. The ticket Officer was very helpful, everyone is very helpful. (I feel a bit of a novelty, I was the only Western tourist I saw in Tokyo, I have seen a couple, ? from Oz, here in Osaka.) I got my Japan Rail Pass this morning so the next few days will be busy. I'm sorry I didn't see more of Tokyo but I feel that the few hours I had were well spent.