Osaka to Shanghai

Islands and bridges as we leave Japan.

On a Chinese ship.

48 hours of ferry. I travelled in a Japanese type dormitory, on tatami mats on the floor. My companions were all Chinese so that restricted conversation! There was a machine providing a constant flow of free jasmine tea, that was nice. The meals were mostly Chinese though the first breakfast was European. It was very funny watching the Chinese and Japanese attacking croissants with chopsticks, I'm not sure why they did as the second morning we had dough balls and they had no hesitation in picking them up in their fingers.

There was only one other westerner on board, an English chap, in a wheel chair, who is going to travel back to England by land. I would love to know how he got on, he was a bit reticent but I got the impression that he was ex-military. On the whole the ferry was a good way of acclimatising to China though the sea got rough so it isn't an experience I would really like to repeat in a hurry. There were 2 elderly Japanese gentleman who kept talking to me, I think some of the time they thought that they were speaking English but I could never understand them.

sunrise over Shanghai

Sunday 17th April. I was awake early, rather earlier than I thought. There had been some announcements the previous evening, the ladies in my room stopped talking long enough to listen to the Chinese then talked all the way through the English. I suspect we were being told that we would change from Japanese to Chinese time during the night!
We were already on the outskirts of Shanghai when I got up. The river was incredibly busy, Loads of traffic going both ways. We arrived at 9a.m. but had to wait an hour for administration, and this was a Chinese boat. Eventually we were bussed to a terminal for customs and immigration. There was only one bus so it was slow going. Immigration took photos again, I wish people wouldn't take photos of me at the end of a long journey!

I walked from the ferry to my hotel. Very hazardous! People hang their washing on the pavement so you have to walk on the road, loads of duvets out airing! I thought Tokyo was bad for bikes but Shanghai is worse, it was not just bikes that ignored red lights but motorised bikes and motorised three wheeled bikes as well. I say motorised but actually they are electric and silent. Crossing the road was really dangerous, even cars ignore zebra crossings and little green men. Eventually I found the right street for my hotel but had great difficulty finding the hotel itself. The road was a street market, most side streets seemed to be. The fruit and veg market was at the end of the road and the whole area seemed very poor. Eventually I found my hotel by house number as there was nothing written in english or pingyin. Once I got inside there was a big reception area but the whole hotel was very run down, it looked as if it might have been impressive once. My room was big and I found an english language programme on the television, a chinese produced english programme!

My ship, taken from the Bund.

I had time to go out in the afternoon and went down to the Bund, an area I thought I wouldn't have time to see.

How many men does it take to dig a flower bed?


I had lunch in an old 'Art Deco' restaurant then did a 'sightseeing bus tour'. I also went to the station and got my onward ticket for Beijing, I was pleased with myself for managing that as there was no English speaking window but I had written down everything I wanted, train number, date and name of the destination in Chinese. The hotel I was staying in didn't have internet so whilst I was out I went into another hotel and asked if they had computers I could use, the answer was yes, and they didn't charge me. It was strange, the computer was in what looked like a bar but they didn't serve drinks, not even orange juice.

Amongst all the street sellers are people selling fruit, pineapples, cut into spiral shapes, and water melon slices. I tried to buy a slice of water melon but he wanted 20 yuan (£2), it was such a ridiculous price I couldn't even haggle and none of the fruit sellers have any prices displayed, though the fruit shops do, so I ended up with 2 apples, not so exciting. My lunch in the restaurant only cost 34 yuan (£3.40)

Originally I only meant to stay 2 nights in Shanghai but then I decided that maybe I was being unkind to the city so I decided to stay a 3rd. With hindsight I think the 3rd was unnecessary. I was woken in the morning, at 5.30, by, what sounded like, someone hoovering the corridor with a very loud hoover that kept banging into walls and doors.

Eventually I gave up and got up and joined the inumerable cyclists and the Tai Chi aficionados who were already up and out. I found a Costa Coffee house on the Bund and sat down for a breakfast. I do like my morning coffee. My plan for the day had been to go to HSBC (my bank in England) and transfer some money to my account in Spain. I had found the bank the previous day so this was not a problem until I realised that I could only do this during bank opening hours in England, so I had to wait until the afternoon. Instead I went first to People's Park, all praise to the Communists they have put in a beautiful area of parkland for people to enjoy. Then I went to buy a ticket for an Acrobat show.
After this it was a walk around the French Concession and a visit to the Arts and Crafts Museum, which turned out not to be a museum at all but a workshop and shop but in a beautiful old house.
I used the subway for the first time and discovered that there was information in English and that the system was similar to Japan.

Tuesday, another early wake up but I did manage to stay in bed a bit longer, however I was still out by 8a.m. I walked down to the Old city, via a park where old men had taken their birds for some fresh air and a sing in. I videod the birds simply because the singing was so nice. (video below) The Old city isn't really old, like most 'old' places in China it has been rebuilt in the 90's to encourage tourism. I paid to go into the temple and I'm glad I did. There were many faithful there but the monks had to put on a show. At first I thought I was intruding on a religious ceremony, then I realised that they weren't taking it very seriuosly either, it wasn't so much a religious experience as a communist promoted tourist show, but they played lovely music. I videod a bit but not very well as I was afraid of upsetting people. (video below)
I went to look for 2 mosques that were marked on the map, one I couldn't find, the second had a woman's bit where women were at work washing food trays, I had the feeling that they were running some kind of soup kitchen, it seemed that this was a working mosque, living Islam, and not commercialised by communism. On the way to the mosques I passed a hotel that would look alright in Las Vegas. I bought lunch from a stall and returned to the hotel for a rest as I had walked miles and my feet were exhausted. There was not really anything else I wanted to see in Shanghai, just the acrobatic show in the evening. If I had planned better I would have done a day trip to Suzhou.
On the way to the Acrobatic show I was 'attacked' by a shoe-shiner wanting to clean my shoes and telling me how beautiful I am, I think he needs specs. I had planned to economise and not go for a coffee but in the end I succombed, there was no other way to kill time waiting for the show, which was in the Portman-Ritz complex, so I availed myself of the hotel facilities!

Wednesday, on the move again.
I put my alarm on for 05.30, quite confident that I wouldn't need it as I'd be woken up again by the noisy machine, I was - at 04.15. I tried to go back to sleep but it started up again so I got up at 05.15. Off to the station for my first experience of Chinese railways, like the metro luggage is screened before entering the station. You can't enter the station proper without a train ticket.
I was travelling 'D' class, which is one of the beter trains, but I managed to end up in the middle of a family with 2 children, the children kept wanting to get past me and grandma spent most of the journey shouting to her family on the other side of the compartment. The train got up to a speed of 220 kilometres an hour. I had understood that there would be a dining car on D trains, there were, in fact, a few seats in the cafe/bar area but as the train was overflowing these had been taken, so I didn't manage to get a meal. Later I discovered that there were meals served in one's seat, you had to get a meal ticket from the 'trolley girl' but as I hadn't understood the Chinese I missed out. There was also boiling water on tap and people kept making themselves tea and lots had a kind of big 'pot-noodle' thing. I decided I needed to buy myself a container for tea as I drank one 1/2 litres of cold tea and ate a box of 'pringles' on an 11 hour journey.

Shanghai

I have mixed feelings about Shanghai, as my hotel was in a part of the city not generally seen by tourists, I saw the poor 'underbelly' of the city. In Japan I felt, all the time, that if you scratched at the glitzy, technological surface you would find culture and tradition but in Shanghai you find only poverty. Life is lived in the streets, on my first day, when I was walking to the hotel, a woman was washing her daughters hair, out on the pavement. Everything seems to happen outside, not sure if this is Chinese custom or Asian custom. I was shocked by the enormous division between rich and poor. I was not sorry to leave Shanghai.
My first impressions of Beijing were good. I managed to use the subway with a bit of help. There were long queues for tickets. almost the entire train, for some reason the machine didn't like my money but they were all very patient and helpful. My hotel was in a Hutong, a very chinese locality, although it was a working class/tourist area there was no glitz and no overwhelming poverty as in Shanghai.

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!