Following some problems with accessing early posting I am posting the whole journal in one go - here it is.
3/31/2003 8:25:43 AM
Initial posting.
Just five days to go before we fly out from Heathrow to Japan.
The preparation has been interesting. I booked the flights and the hotels (Japanese style) in Tokyo, Kyoto and Nikko over the Internet.
Japan is a place I have wanted to visit for years, every since I started playing Go at University in the late 60s.
When may daughter graduated and promptly departed to Japan on the JET scheme I had the perfect excuse to go.
4/2/2003 7:43:49 PM
Three days to go. Tidying up the final bits.
I have made my final updates to my research web sites - [ http://www.itsnewstome.co.uk] following a visit to the British Library Newspaper Library. Great news on this front. I discovered a photograph of one of the ancestors of a client. This is a rare incident for newspapers before the 1940's when photographs were rare and the best was a sketch. It is a wonderful experience after the usual hours of trawling through edition after edition.
I purchased a digital camera - a Minolta Dimage 7 with a few memory cards but very soon realised that even the IBM 1GB drive would not be sufficient for a three week holiday. So I bought a cheap laptop, a Compaq Presario, and a USB device to download the camera images. All this was quite easy. I then tried to buy a power adapter so I could use the laptop in Japan, and after a bit od research decided on the Targus Worldwide kit. After a bit of problem with delivery with the Post Office I got the kit. Finger Technology [ http://www.fingertech.co.uk/] were excellent, actually delivering a replacement personally.
But the problem didn't end there - The coverage on the list included in the kit showed Japan - Hurrah! but the list showing which device was for each country did not list Japan. A call to Targus and a longish wait resulted in the correct device - for anyone in the same position the correct device is PWR102.
I have now got my International Drivers licence. Like all good countries the Japanese drive on the right side, which is the left side. The only major problem is to a. understand the road signs and be happy to pay the toll fees. I have also obtained two visitor rail tickets. It works out quite well the cost of the ticket is paid for by a return trip from Tokyo to Kyoto.
I'm not a great linguist, I failed O-level French! But Japanese is far more like a computer program, something I have some acquaintance having mastered over 35 computer languages in my 30 odd years of programming. Japanese has no gender, no conjunction and very strong rules, with few irregularities. To be honest I don't know why we are lumbered with minority languages like French and German being taught in our schools whereas Japanese, Chinese, Gujarati are spoken by far more people, and by many communities within the UK.
I am going to try to keep a hand written journal and will try to post some English [Eigo] and Japanese {Nippongo] to the blog - just don't be too critical. Unfortunately for me the log will not allow Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji to be included.
4/4/2003 1:56:34 PM
We are constantly being told that the earth is shrinking - Canadian Marshall McLuhan coined the term Global Village. This was to be the great innovation in communication and understanding. This all may well be true, but it has also brought problems. Airlines have been hit hard because of terrorism and air traffic control strikes. Now they are faced with international illnesses. I heard recently that some people from Canada had cancelled their trip to England, because a plane from Tokyo had been quarantined in the US because four people were showing similar symptoms of SARS. The fact that the result was a clean bill of health didn't matter. My view it that I am still far more likely to be knocked over by a car than any of the ones reported in newspaper headlines.
At least the weather is looking good and should not delay take-off. We are departing at 1 o'clock on Saturday and will arrive at 9am on Sunday morning. I keep being told that lying Eastwards means I won't suffer from jet lag. The experts keep telling me this will happen when we return. My major concern at the moment is will I be able to use my laptop during the flight? As well as doing some work I have the 5 DVD Beatles' Anthology which should help me pass the time.
Whatever happens tonight will be early to bed.
4/4/2003 3:08:33 PM
Latest Update:
A quick check on the [ British Airways web site] answered my concern. Their answer was Use of a laptop is permitted during your flight, at times when the 'Fasten seat belt' sign is switched off i.e. not during the take-off and landing periods.
Good news - I can pass the 12 hours watching the Beatles Anthology on DVD.
Flee as a blurred.
4/6/2003 11:14:45 PM
Well we made it. The plane was nearly 2 hours late in taking off - had to wait for some late arrivals from a British Midland flight, then last our slot. Even so the late arrivals still didn't get their baggage loaded and were told at Tokyo some would be on a later flight, and some would arrive tomorrow! The seating was very good, glad we paid the little extra. Watched The Two Towers again which past some of the time. Couldn't really sleep that well, just the odd catnap. Typing this is fun. I'm in a cramped area, on a keyboard with Japanese hiragana and to make it reallyhardit is an Apple iBook. I keep pressing the Control Key instead of Shift and end up with weird characters which is the best it can do for the extended Japanese character set.
Anyway Tokyo was glorious when we arrived, bright sunshine and bracing. We caught the Rimujin to the Tokyo City Air Terminak T-CAT and then a taxi to the hotel. That was fun. I tried my best Japanese on the driver but he didn't understand the address. Nor did he know where it was when I gave him the written address. He ended up phoning the ryokan for directions. He then dropped us off at a street corner because the road was pedestrianised. Luckily the second person we asked knew the location of the ryokan and told us how to get there - my surprise was that I understood and found it.
The outside of the buildings are not wonderful, rather makeshift, but the insides make up for it. We opted for a Japanese style room which look wonderful until we got all our luggge inside then it was just cramped and messy. It is taking some getting used to everything being at ground level, hard on the back.
Being Sunday the local riverside park was packed. The cherry blossom is in great abundance and all the way along the narrow park were group of people enjoying picnics.
I pleased to discover I could plug my power supply into the Japanese socket and it worked. I took quite a few photogrphs and managed to review them on my laptop which was another success. It seems the planning was worked.
Collapsed into bed at 10pm. I wonder how well we will sleep in the Japanese stlye beds after so many years on a soft matress?
4/7/2003 11:23:07 PM
Woke up early - always the same in a different bed. Slept quite well, although a few aches.
Started the day at 7:30 with a Japanese breakfast which was very tasty and far healthier than the normal English breakfast. The weather was clear and brisk, but hinted of warmer things later. I had checked the map of Tokyo and had realised the places we wanted to see were in walking distance. So with hopes high we set out around 8:30 to Euno Park about a mile and a half away. We made it still not out of breath. The cherry blossom was in a riot. St out along the main avenue were blue mats most with a solitary person sitting on it, I assume the designated reservist ensuring the group would have a place to enjoy their party.
After Eno we decided to walk to the Korakuen Gardens which Rita had read were beautiful and a place to relax. By chance we came across the Uishime Tenin Temple, hidden away up a flight of steps. Many people, mainly men in business suits, were in the temple where a service was in progress.
We found the Park without too much problem, however it was almost completely dwaft but the Big Egg, the baseball stadium, and the Big Top, a new amusement park which will open on 1st May. Can you imagine one of the big rides and a big wheel set on top of a building in London. The ride actually goes outside the boundary of the building and at one point through a wall. It looked impressive, I will not be around to find out what is like to ride, unfortunately.
The Gardens were everything the guidebook said they were. We bourght as bento box and after wandering round for a while sat by the lake to eat. Many of the local workers had also had the same idea, and in some cases what looked like whole departments were enjoying the beautiful weather and scenery.
We had intended to visit the Imperial Palance next but discovered the gardens were closed on Mondays so I persuaded Rita a trip to Akihabara, the electronics distric, would be interesting. She was not convinced. I was pleased to discover my Minolta Diamge camera not not much cheap there than what I paid for mine in England.
Our next destination was Tokyo station. We needed to validate our train passes and also scout out a place to meet Liz, my daughter, on Wednesday. We found a great place - Starbucks. We got rather lost around the station and it took us 15 minutes to orietate ourselves. Then on to Ginza but when we got there we were far too tired to do anything. Luckily Ginza is on the same line as Asakusa so the return back to the ryokan was reasonably easy. We even got a seat. We got home around 5pm and had clocked up over 10 miles.
After a meal of sushi, rice, miso soup and green tea in a local restaurant, we fell into bed.
4/8/2003 10:23:33 PM
Today saw a complete change in the weather, from sunny and hot to showery and quite cold. Even so it didn't stop us and after breakfast we wrote out a few postacrds and then set off to resume our visit to Ginza. One interesting thing we noticed s that if there is a spare seat next to either of us on the train it is often left empty even when people are standing. Are they worried they may catch something?
We popped in the Wako departo to have a look around. Beautiful goods and far too expensive for our pockets. Another thing there are so many staff in the shops, even when there are no customers they are busy getting on with some chore or other. None of the standing around with arms folded like back home. I discovered a shop that specialised in Go and Shogi. They had some beautiful boards and I would loved to have bought one of the free standing ons, but the expense and extra cost in excess baggage put me off.
The weather seemed to be brightening so we decided to find our way to the Imperial Palace. Which proved to be very close. I wonder if the Imperial family ever pop outto buy the odd item in Ganza?
The main part of the palace is hidden away behind a moat, immense walls and screens of trees. The actual palace is visible but is quite modern having been rebuilt after the Second World War. The Eastern Garden is open to the public and proved to be immacualte. The weather held off and we spent an hour wandering around the gardens. We stopped off at a small building which was selling momentos, postcards and prints plus ice cream. Like elsewhere in Tokyo we were surprised about the cost of the items. Fifty pence for an ice cream which would easily have cost ?: at a statly home in England. ?:1.50 for eight good quality postcards. In a similar light the items in our minibar are roughly the same price as the local shop sells them for.
Anyway, I digress. The weather now was starting to get up and the wind was blowing quite hard and the dark clouds were closing in, time to depart. We made our way the the nearest station on the Ginza line and returned home where were took the opportunity to soak in the hot bath, after washing first. We felt refreshed enough to write more cards. I down loaded the pictures I had taken during the day. Nearly 8 mega so far.
The evening saw a deluge and we had to make a run for a local tempura restaurant to avoid drowning. The food was good and filling.
I would certainly recommend the ryokan Shigetsu, Asakusa, the stay has been very pleasant and the staff very helpful, and very polite about my attempts at Japanese.
We have booked our taxi for tomorrow morning at 7:30 to take us to Tokyo Eki where we meet Elizabeth and then travel down to Kyoto. We have not seen Liz since June. She finished University at Dundee, turned up at home and then jetted off to Japan, leaving us to drive up to Dundee and pick up four years of stuff.
4/9/2003 12:20:44 PM
Another day and another good one. Bright sunlight and no clouds. The taxi arrived on time and we met up with Elizabeth in Starbucks. Getting the tickets was fun. For a country which is so modern they can still be in the past. It took three goes to find a ticket counter that would accept credit cards. Our train was to leave from platform 18 at 9:46. And it did. The carriage, non-smoking reserved seats, was spacious and more like an aircraft than a train. The trip to Kyoto on the express took 2 hours and 24 minutes. Half way through the journey Mount Fuji rose up. What a site. I, like many other westerners, leaped up to take photographs of the view. Glad I have a digital camera as of the 40 odd pictures I took I immediately deleted half of them as failures. Trouble was bits of the railway, like poles, buildings and walls kept getting in the way. The camera could pay for itself in no time on development costs alone.
We arrived at Kyoto right on time. According the the instructions the ryokan, Station Ryokan Seiki is only a two minute walk from the station. With all the luggage we had I was so glad that the information was correct. We didn't do much today. Liz was tired after her all night bus trip from Yokote and wanted a hot bath and a few hours sleep to recover. The ryokan is clean and friendly, and they speak good English. We met German, Dutch and French guests. We did walk around the local area, including a department store for a nose. We also found a good, but very noisy, restaurant to have our evening meal in.
4/10/2003 1:54:08 PM
Another bright and sunny day. We forgot to order our breakfast with the hotel so we had some toast and toasted sandwiches in the train station. On a whim we all agreed to hire bikes. The charge was £5 per bike per day so we didn't have much to loose. The hardest thing about riding the bike was ridinbg it on the pavement. This is where all cyclist ride. Having spent days in Tokyo jumping out of the way of cyclists, we were the ones ringing our bells to clear a path. We set off to find the Kiyomizu Temple (Temple of clear water). The first part of the journey was not bad until we reached the Gojozaka junction and was presented with a long steep incline. It was time to get off the bikes and walk. Not fun in the warm weather. We made it to the top and found nowhere to park our bikes so we carried on to the temple, which was heavily populated with tourist which included parties of Japanese following flags, school children on trips and foreigners. We met a very nice couple from Vancover who wanted to know where we had got the bikes so we gave them one of our maps. At the top we were told parking our bikes was not allowed. We cheated a bit Elizabeth bought a print at a shop a little way down from the temple and we managed to persued the owner to let us park in the entrance way.
The Kiyomizu temple itself is awesome and I managed to get some good pictures. As luck would have it I also got a photograph of a monk with his begging bowl - I did give a donation as payment for the photo, and a couple of girls made up as geisha were also being having photos taken so I took a couple. I went back to the bikes while Rita and Liz did some shopping for presents. I passed the time playing with my belated birthday present from Liz, an electronic Japanese-English and Kanji dictionary by Canon. Sometimes our kids can be very rewarding. There are plenty of kanji out there I don't know and this device helps we with most of them.
The next challenge was to avoid the Sannenzaka (three year slope), a long section of steps, which took us into interesting parts of the district, but failed to avoid the Ninenzaka (Two year slope). Undetered we struggled down with the bikes. Our hard work was well rewarded at the Ryozen Kannon. A statue some 25 meters tall and beautifully carved. This was a very peaceful place, a place to contemplate and certainly a place that washed away some of the stress from the earlier journey. We moved on past the Kodaiji to Maruyama Park, a popular place for cherry blossom viewing and very crowed. I think we all had felt the same after the Ryozen Kannon and decided to cut short the rest of the recommended trail and return the bikes.
After a meal, Tempura, in the station we caught a bus to Kinkakuji temple (number 205). This is where Elizabeth's experience is priceless. Japanese buses fall into two categories - those which you enter and take a ticket and those which you pay on the way out. To us it was a bit worrying to get on a bus without a ticket and no indication as to where you got on. But Liz was right. At our stop we paid our 220 yen each and got off. Kinkaku ji - the Golden Temple. We arrived quite late when the sun was starting to set and this enhanced the golden hue of the temple. A great place for photographs. The bus back was less of an adventure but enjoyable.
I must find a hat for tomorrow. My hair is short and the top of my head is starting to tingle. Can you get sunburn on the head? I don't want to find out.
I've just checked that we have breakfast ordered for tomorrow so I can go to bed happy.
4/11/2003 7:17:38 AM
Friday. The forcast is scattered showers. It is on the cool side.
Some of Liz's friends had recently been to Kyoto and had suggested a visit to the Fushimi ji at Inari. the temple is dedicated to the fox and is famous for the avenues of tori. We found the right train and thanks to our rail passes got there free. It is only two stops from Kyoto. The shrine is only a one minute walk from the station. This is to lull you into a false sense of ease and the real test is yet to come.
We got there quite early so there were few people around and those that we saw were shop employees setting up for the visitors. It is very difficult to miss the involvement of the fox, all around are statues, in pairs, one with a scroll in its mouth and the other with a ball. Two large statues stand at the entrance and this one has what looks like a fur tail in its mouth. Around the back I discovered a small building where a number of females in traditional dress were tuning their instruments, a Koto and a couple of Shamisen ready for a performance. A number of people were arriving and being shown to their places. It appeared to be an all ticket affair.
We now started the climb. Over a long time benefactors have put up the gates, tori, over 1,000 of them. The climb sometimes gentle and often severe, is amde even harder by the irregularity of the steps.The tori have two uprights painted in vivid orange and two cross-beams, one of orange and the top one black, with the very distinctive shape. As you walk through the avenue with the gates set close together something strange happens, the view goes out into infinity. It begins to look like the multiple reflections you see in two facing mirrors when you stand in the middle of them.
We all made it up to the first level, but Liz suffers from Asthma and the prospect of the next section, having been warned by her friends was too much, so Rita and I ventured forth together. And the climb was steeper. At last we came to a intersection which displayed a map showing the rest of the path. Still along way to go. We had no idea how far we had already walked but we were struggling. About 100 metres further on we saw the next challenge. The path had moved into a new gear and was steeper than the average flight of stairs. We decided that it would take too long to climb them and we should return to Liz. Well that was our reason for turning around.
Along the route are shops and restuarants, and I assume that stock and supplies must be brought in to them. I pity thse who deliver the goods and have to carry them up, or down the winding paths. As we got back to the bottom of the paths it began to rain so we headed for the station and Kyoto. The afternoon was spent shopping. It is very difficult to find shoes that will fit my daughter. She takes a shoe size of 25.5 and most shops only stock upto 23.5! She managed to buy two pairs she like at UNI CLO, and I got a hat to stop my head getting burnt.
4/12/2003 12:40:55 PM
Today we say goodbye to Kyoto. It is raining. We say goodbye to the owner of the ryokan.
Luckily the walk to the station is not too long. The ticket office accepts credit cards, they even have a big red sign telling us. Rita and I have train passes (14 days) so we don't pay for the tickets, but Elizabeth must pay. The pass is only available to visitors who stay less than 3 months and she has already been here a year. The chap on the counter was very helpful, and luckily for us spoke good English, and understood our poor Japanese. We got tickets right through to Utsunomiya, via Tokyo, after which we transfered to the local line for Nikko (which means sunbeam). The trip from Kyoto to Tokyo was as smooth and comfortable as the previous journey.
We got to the platform for the Tokyo to Utsunomiya part of the journey and was confronted by a very unusual site - a double-decker train. The top half was the Green Car, First Class, and the lower deck, with the windows level with the platform, was standard class. As far as I am concerned anywhere on a Japanese train is First Class. We had to wait a few minutes while the army of cleaners valeted the carriages. We made our way down the stairs to the lower cabin and stowed away our cases. Being lower has its disadvantages, the scenery is more concrete and less landscape. There are advantages, as we pulled into stations a pair of beautiful legs would pass by at eye level.
A quick change at Utsunomiya onto the local line and we were pulling into Nikko station just before 2pm, after setting out from Kyoto at 9:15.
It was pouring. So we took a cab. As always there seems to be a problem with the location of the place. From what I have read street names are rarely used and the house numbering can be in the order of building so houses next to each other can be non-consecutive. After a while the driver appeared to have worked out where the hotel was and drove off. After turning into what appeared to be back alleys he dropped us off at the Turtle Inn. We paid the driver and went in only to be told we were in the annex (Hotori-an) about 300 metres further on. Getting our priorities in order we asked if we could leave our bags and find somewhere to eat. We were given directions to a local place and got there just as they were closing. Luckily for us they took pity on us and let us in. A hot bowl of ramin and rice was a great way to get the chill of the rain out of our bones.
A stroll, in the rain, back to the Turtle Inn and then, with luggage, onto the Annex saw us very wet. We all crashed out in our rooms for an hour or so. It will depend on you priorities which you prefer: the Turtle Inn has the Internet link (where I am typing this) and the Annex has a great Panorama Bath. After sorting out a few things I spent 20 minutes sitting in the hot bath looking out onto the river gorge below. Well worth the long walk in the rain.
What will tomorow bring? Will I be called on to use some new phrases I have learned - It is still raining, I am drenched, Can I borrow an umberella?
It would be a pity because we have to leave on Monday and from the brief glimpse Nikko has some beautiful scenery.
I got another enquiry from my Newspaper research website today. At least I am covering my set up costs.
4/13/2003 12:52:51 PM
Sunday morning at 5am and the weather look promising. Some cloud but with blue bits.
The Western breakfast was unusual, a bowl of fruit, toast and a hard boiled egg. The fruit was very good. Since arriving in Japan we had had very little fruit, we didn't see any on sale in Tokyo and Kyoto. Our first destination was the Rinnoji Temple and Tosyogu Shrine. The whole complex covered a large area. By the time we had finished we were shirined out. One of the imporatant sights in Nikko is the Shinkyo Bridge that spans the Daiya River. Trouble was we couldn't find it, until we saw a sign saying that due to wear and tear the bridge was being reconstructed and hidden from view. After a meal in Gustos, a Western style fast food chain, we returned to the ryokan. Liz decided she would like some time to herself so we left her and caught the bus to Chuzenji Spa. It was quite a journey costing nearly 1,000 yen each. Part of the trip was up a series of hairpin bends getting higher all the time. The lake is obviously a tourist attraction during the summer but in April it is cold, there was still piles of snow everywhere. We visited the Kegon Falls nearby, but decided the temple was a bit too much. The journey home was a little like the ending of The Italian Job as the coach wove its way down another series of hairpin bends. The day was finished off with a spell in the hot tub.
Tomorrow we move on to Yokote.
4/14/2003 10:27:36 AM
A quick look out of the window shows it is overcast. After paying bill we ordered a taxi to take us to the station. Rita and Liz were dropped off at the only bank in Nikko that could exchange Sterling Travellers Cheques. One bit of advice if you are coming to Japan then don't bother with Sterling Travellers Cheques there are not too many places that can accept them. Either take Yen or US Dollar or Yen Travellers Cheques. At Utsunomiya we had a bit of trouble getting our tickets. It took four clerks to sort it out. The short trip to Sendai was with unreserved seats. Our tickets showed the reserved part and the time the train would leave Sendai. Our concern was whether we would arrive at Sendai to catch the connection. We could only relay on the efficiency of the Japanese. We arrived with 15 minutes to spare which allowed us to buy bentoo boxes. Being quite late our choice was limit and the one I selected wasn't available but after checking one was available at a kiosk on another platform so the junior was despatched to get it. A few minutes later she returned, slightly out of breath having had to run up and down the subway steps, with the box. As the journey progressed the mountains became closer and we saw and more standing snow. In some places it was still quite thick. At Omagari we made the final change from the Sinkansen line to the local line for the final part of the trip to our destination of Yokote.
We are now sitting in my daughter's flat having sorted out what needs washing. The flat is very nice with three main rooms, kitchen, living room and bedroom. The living room is divided from the bedroom by a set of sliding doors. The bedroom has plenty of cupboard space. There is also two smaller rooms off the kitchen, the toilet and the bath/utility room. The toilet has the smallest bath I have seen, not more than a deep shower tray! The toilet seat is heated which essential in the Akita winter. Another nice feature is the heather fixed under the low dining table so you can sit and keep your feet warm.
The next couple of days will be recuperation.
I have managed to connect my laptop to Liz's broadband so I update my log far easier. We have nearly got through our reserves of cash and travellers cheques, and my daughter has not been able to connect her computer to her broadband service, a problem with the LAN card, so we have come to an agreement. Liz will buy the laptop and give us cash. I will burn a CD before I leave with all the pictures I have taken and rely on my two 256MB and IBM 1GB cards for the remainder of the holiday.
4/16/2003 1:44:46 AM
First day in Yokote. The kanji mean sideways hand; I can only suppose it has something to do with harvesting the rice which the area is well known for. We took a walk around the town and visited the Municipal Hall. One of the major festivals that take place in the area is Kamakura, the Snow Festival. Snow houses at least feet high and six or more feet in diameter are built and the insides are hollowed out. People sit inside them and eat and drink and generally enjoy themselves. Inside the Municipal Hall is one of these building preserved in a temperature controlled room which you enter via a pair of air (or should that be temperature) locks. We had lunch at the Italian Tomato.
Later in the afternoon we visited a Hyakuenya. This place is stocked out with items all costing one hundred yen, around 50p. Some of the stuff was pretty good and included everything you would need to stock a kitchen, plenty of electronic items, small cameras and music CDs. I managed to pick up a Hanko, the name stamps the Japanese use instead of a signature, which had the kanji for Turtle and Origin on it.
We finally ended up eating at a Korean restaurant where you cook your own food in a grill set into the middle of the table.
Tomorrow we start our tourist bit again with a trip to Kakunodate.
4/16/2003 1:07:46 PM
Another glorious sunny day in Yokote. We left Liz "lolling" and took a leisurely stroll down to the JR rail station where we caught the local train to Oomagari where we changed to the Shinkansen line for Kakunodate. Kakunodate is famous for the Samurai houses that still exist. Many are open to the public. The town is also famous for the craft of kabazaiku, objects of polished cherry bark. There were certainly some beautiful, and rather expensive examples of the craft on sale. We finally decided on a modest but eye-catching tea caddy at around £26. We strolled along the river where they were busy putting up stalls in preparation for the forthcoming cherry blossom. We walked along the path hedged by cherry trees just starting to show the buds. The scene should be spectacular when the blossoms finally appear.
After lunch we caught the train to Tazowako, the next stop on the line. This is a holiday town, summer at the lake and winter skiing. Lake Tazawa is the deepest in Japan. The lake has a famous statue, we never did see it and it was too far round the lake to walk. It cost us quite a bit to get to the lake form the station and the lake was shut. The whole place was dead. We enjoyed the afternoon sun and just sat and read our books. A couple of cups of coffee, not even full cups, cost us £4. This is a place to avoid out of season. We finally found out where the buses stopped and luckily one was due quite soon. We escaped.
Liz teaches at her Eikaiwa, English conversation, class on Wednesdays so she would be out, so on the way home we stopped off and bought something to eat; tuna, noodles and vegetables. One of the things we brought over from England was a supply of chocolate - Cream Eggs, Flakes, Fruit and Nut bars, Toblerone and the like - for Elizabeth. While we were travelling we rationed it out but when we got to her flat we gave her what was left. She told us, when so got back from her Eikaiwa class, she had found the temptation too great and to avoid a chocolate binge she had posted the remaining chocolate to herself. Let's hope it doesn't get lost in the post.
The forecast shows tomorrow will be another hot day.
4/17/2003 12:47:55 PM
We spent the morning looking for hotels. We could not find a hotel in a place we wanted to do so we ended up deciding to return directly to Tokyo. Even then finding available rooms was a little difficult. There were plenty at ¥40,000 and upwards per night, from about £200. I finally found one in Ikebukuro for ¥9,000 and booked it over the Internet. That done we had lunch and then strolled down to the railway station to book the Shinkansen for Tokyo. I must admit the rail pass has certainly been a very good investment. It paid for itself with just the Tokyo to Kyoto and Utsunomiya to Omagari trips. The rest of our journeys have been totally free. The card allows us to use the Shinkasen and local railway system without further payment.
In the afternoon we visited the Akita Furusatomura, "Hometown Village", where according to their blurb an amusement park constructed for the handing down and preservation of the traditional culture in Akita Prefecture. As well as the usual shops there is a whole section where you can see the traditional craft being practiced and even have ago. We didn't.
Liz has her Japanese class tonight so we had to get back quite early.
4/18/2003 3:45:28 PM
After a quick review we decided to visit Akita and then go on the Oga, spit of land on the east coast sticking out into the Japan Sea. Liz decided she had had enough of us and would stay at home. When we got to Akita it was sunny so we agreed to forgo Akita and go straight to Oga. This required us to catch a local train on the Oga Line. The 11 stops took us about one hour. We hadn't really planned what to do when we got there but some helpful people in the information bureau gave us an area guide, in Japanese, and pointed the coastal bus stop.
There are two main types of us in Japan. The one we boarded has a door at the front where you exit and a door in the middle where you get on. As you get on you take a numbered ticket which indicates the stop you boarded at. As the bus progresses a board at the front of the bus is updated to show how much the fare will be from your stop number. When you get off you put the correct amount and ticket into a collection box. There is even a machine that will give you change.
We disembarked at Monzen, a small, quite fishing village. We were one of to couples who travelled that far. In the car park is a 15 foot statue of a very aggressive demon which commemorates the annual Namahage festival on New Years Eve, where men dressed in horned demon masks and bulky straw coats go from house to house scaring children into being good. From what I can make out it is a weird combination of Christmas and Halloween. We walked up the hillside to a secluded temple, which turned out to have a youth hostel attached. When we looked at the next stage which would take us to more shrines we decided it was too hot for such a steep climb, especially as the sign indicated there was 700 metres to go. So we walked back down and onto the beach where were ceremonially dipped our hands in the Sea of Japan. Not long after the bus arrived and just the two of us made the return journey to Oga. It was as we arrived at the bus terminus I realised I only had a ¥10,000 note on me. The driver couldn't change it so I had to rush into the shop in the station and buy a couple of onigiri, I will tell you about them later, and then rush back to pay the fare.
Everything was fine on the return leg until we got to Omagari where we discovered the net train to Yokote was not for over an hour. By a stroke of chance, Rita going to the loo, I discovered a sign which said RentaCar. We had been intending to rent a car at sometime but up until that moment we could not find where we could rent one. We had great fun completing the transaction. The two chaps in the office (it also acted as the car park payment booth) had a small amount of English and I had my small amount of Japanese. The biggest problem was getting the correct piece of information into the computer form. The form was very particular about what data it would accept. But after half an hour we were shown to our car, a white 1500cc Honda Civic. The one thing I had not considered and was therefore a little surprised was it was automatic. I had not driven an automatic car for over 30 years and this had been my Dad's Ford Zephyr. Once I had managed to tuck my left leg well away from the foot controls I was fine, although I kept wanting to manually change the gears. With all the other tings to get use to I was glad the Japanese drive on the correct side of the road. I find it interesting that it is on islands, such as Great Britain, Eire, Japan, New Zealand and Malta, that people drive on the left. With the car available Liz took us further out to a Chinese restaurant that she and her friends regularly visit. The food was very good. I had to be very good and totally abstain from alcohol as even the slightest amount is not a good idea when driving in Japan. Tomorrow we will have the freedom of the roads. Wish me luck.
4/19/2003 3:23:31 PM
Today was wet. No not wet, absolutely soaking, stair-rods. Liz suggested we drive south to the borders of Akita prefecture to see the Fuji of the North, Mount Chokai. The map we were using for navigation was the Akita Prefecture Tourist Map which showed the places of interest but lacked the road information to get to them. But this did not daunt us. We set forth west along route for what seemed an eternity and then turning south on the 108. For such a high profile place of interest we found few signs telling us how to get there. We also passed through areas where the use of English place names were omitted. This made navigation more interesting and more difficult. The rain was still falling.
We finally discovered a roadside map of the Chokai Plateau which showed us where the mountain was to be found. We drove around for quite a while following the signs but saw no sign of our destination. At one point we had to turn back because the road ahead was closed due to snow. The mist was rising from the streams and trees and was meeting the clouds as they descended. Our renal meant we had to return the car before 6pm so after an hour we gave up and concluded the mounting had been taken away for refurbishment. The countryside around the mountain was quite spectacular and I could have taken dozens of photographs if it had not been raining so hard. A bit of driving around and guesswork saw us on route 13 and on our way back to Yokote. We stopped off at a sushi restaurant for a snack. It was one of those places with the various choices going round on a track. You just plucked the item you wanted as it passed by. The colour of the plates showed how much the item would cost. At the end of the meal the plates were checked and the bill calculated.
We found our way back to the car rental place without too much difficulty, thanks to very good street signs. We were so pleased to have made it back we had forgotten to replace the used petrol and had to pop out again and fill up.
In the evening we went out to a Thai restaurant, the Pokara, and met up with a number of the other JET ALTs, Sarah, Aaron, Holly, Sarah Lee, Nick, Libby, Libby's sister Alison, who was visiting from Sidney, Liz, Rita and Me. The restaurant was welcoming, the food good and the company even better. It was like sitting at home in a warm kitchen with some good friends. A good memory.
4/20/2003 12:31:34 PM
Today is our last full day in Yokote and it is throwing it down. It hasn't stopped all day. The rain has also meant it has got colder. We have finished off the ironing and done most of the packing. The worrying thing is that we don't appear to have as much as we arrived with. I hope it is because I packed better. Liz went out with Libby and Alison for lunch to Mosbaga (Mos Burger in real money), while Rita and I enjoyed grilled Tuna steaks, udon and salad. Liz came back with some cakes so we had those for desert. She also picked up an English to Japanese mains converter so I can came keep mine to charge my camera batteries. I have burned all the photos I have taken onto a CD. There were 460 pictures, 575MB, written to the CD. I created a second for safety. I will now be relying on two 256MB memory cards and a 1GB IBM Microdrive for the remainder of the holiday.
I mentioned a while back about how much I like onigiri. Onigiri is basically a ball of compressed rice. The ones sold in shops and in railways stations are made from a equilateral triangular shaped block of rice about three inches on each side and one inch thick. It normally has a savoury filling and the whole thing is encased in a sheet of seaweed (nori). The fillings can be small portions of fish, chicken or pickles. The packaging is quite special. If the seaweed was left in contact with the rice for any length of time the seaweed would go soggy. So the seaweed is separated from the rice by a cover of cellophane which also acts as the outer protective cover. There is a proper method of opening the packet which results in the seaweed sheet in place. It feels like you are doing a magic trick, or whipping the tablecloth off the table leaving all the cups and plates still in place. They make a very tasty and filling snack which can b eaten anywhere. My favourite has been the pickled plum, both for taste and colour. I discovered the local supermarket was selling the onigiri development kit. Nori sheets already packed in the cellophane packet. I bought two packs of 12. Now I can make the great snack when I get home to England.
I haven?t used my camcorder much this trip. The only time was in Ueno Park, Tokyo when I took about 7 minutes of film. I did dig it out again to do a ?trip? around Liz?s apartment, flat, nest, tip.
While typing this I am watching a demonstration game of Go, a game played widely on Japan. I first came across the game at University and in the mid-70s and later I joined a club in Wanstead. I enjoyed Go because I could play it quite well, whereas I was totally rubbish at chess or checkers. I got up to 5 Ku, a long way from First Dan. You can find more information on ow to play the game on the Japanese Go Association?s web site. Let me know if you fancy a game I am always looking for someone to play against.
Tomorrow we will be back in Tokyo. If all goes well we will catch the 10am local train from Yokote to Omagari and the 10:39 Komachi 12 to Tokyo, arriving at 2:08pm. The really important thing is that we will sleep on Western style beds at the New Star Hotel in Ikebukuro. Heaven.
4/24/2003 2:32:58 AM
Sorry to have been away so long. I have only just discovered an Internet cafe, hidden away on the 7th floor of a corner building. Anyway to make up for lost time I've booked an hour on the machine and sent Rita to Starbucks with an Agitha Christie novel.
We got down to Tokyo in one piece, in fact it was very relaxing. While trying to get from Tokyo station to Ikebukuro we discovered the JR Yamanote which runs in a circle on the western outskirts of Tokyo and then through Tokyo and Ueno Stations. The best bit is it is free with our JR passes. The taxi driver outside Ikebukuro station had a little trouble finding the Hotel, New Star, but we got there about 3:30 and checked in. It was then I discovered the info on the web about them having Internet access was not true.
We had a nap in the western style beds, what bliss, and as the night settled in we went out for a walk. Whata place Ikebukuro is. According to the guide it has been designate the second centre of Tokyo. Bright lights and quite a bustle all around the place. We walked into one road, a pedestrian precinct, with an interesting banner at the entrance in katakana - RoMaNChi Dori - Romance Street. It lived up to its name. There were hostess bars, strip joints, ladies of the night and young lads in very sharp suits trying to drag people into their estalishment. We finally ended up in the Tobu department store where we wandered around looking at the wares. They have 8 floors of restaurants, with 6 or seven restaurants per floor, on top of the 10 floors and two basements of store. It was quite a site from the top floor.
The forecast for the next few days showed sunny, rain and more rain, brightening up on the day we leave, so we decided to make the most of the sun. We caught the Yamanote line to Ueno and then to Asakusa were we caught the river cruise boat which took us to Hinode pier. The trip was excellent and there were only about 40 people on the boat so I could walk around and take pictures. From the pier we walked to the Hama Rikyu Gardens which has a salt water lake. Much of the land and buildings had to be rebuilt after the WW2 bombing of the area. The gardens were beautifully layed. Our next destination was the Tokyo Tower which we arrived at after passing through the grounds of the Zojoji temple, quite a large building. The tower reminded me of the one Blackpool. Not because of the shape but because of all the other attractions. They had an aquarium, waxworks and 3D picture gallery. There are 2 viewing platforms, one at 150 metres and the highest at 250 metres. As the lift started to ascend Rita's eyes suddenly got wide and it was obvious she was having second thorghts about going up. Unfortunately it was too late to turn back. Part of the lift trip meant we could look out through the girders to the city below, which did effect her, but as we got to the viewing platform this was hidden. The platform is quite wide so she felt more comfortable. I left her and wandered around taking pictures. After a while she joined me feeling a little better. She decided that the trip to the next stage would be too much, so I went on alone. The lift journey was even more open and Rita was certainly right in not going. I took a few more pictures and then got into the queue to go down. The wait was quite long and I managed to get into the sixth lift load!
Yesterday, Wednesday, was supossed to be rain but after a slight downpour it was just overcast. We first went to Shinjuku but found noting of interest and then went on to Shibuya and wandered the area. From the Tokyo Tower Shibuya sticks out of the low rise buildings like an island. We discovered a 7 floor hyakuenya (100 yen shop). They, like the first shop had the hanko stamps at 100 yen. The Tobu store were selling the exact same thing at 1000 yen, ten times the price! We also discovered the sleazier part of the town where you could book hotel rooms - resting or all night. Our next destination was Tokyo station so we could book our seats on the Narita Express on Friday. While travelling round to the station (so far we had used the Yamanote line so had not paid anything) Rita found a piece about the book district where shops had painints and printes for sale so after buying our tickets we set off to Jinbocho. At our first stop we found two very nice prints that were not too expensive.
While sitting in our hotel room I discovered a major problem - the time of our departure was not, as I had thought, 13:35, but 10:55am. I had been looking at the departure time for our outward trip! So before coming along to the Internet Cafe we had to stop off of change our train tickets. We also discovered we could travel from Ikebukuro thus reducing the number of interchanges.
Well I think this is the last posting before we get home, unless there is access and time at the airport. Tonight we will get early to bed. The train leaves from Ikebukuro at 6:35am and we must be on it!
4/26/2003 5:08:39 AM
Home, the end of this journey. First I'll bring you up to date with what we did after my visit to the Internet café. We discovered, hidden away in the railway building complex, the Traditional Crafts of Japan Centre which quite naturally features traditional crafts from throughout Japan. On the first floor a large number of tables were laid out each showing items and the region where they were made. There were displays of pottery and porcelain, lacquer work, cherry bark, from Kakunodate, weaving, examples of knives and swords, paper and pieces of carpentry and marquetrie. Each item was not just an exhibit but was available for purchase. The range of prices was amazing. Chopsticks from £5 up to a beautifully decorated pair in cherry at £50, lengths of woven cloth from £500. The next floor was given over to traditional dolls and figures. Roof tile makers produced the first figures. They made models of the figures, cast them into moulds and fired them along with the tiles. The figures were then painted. Many of the exhibits were of traditional subjects and quite a few were aimed at the upcoming Kodomo-no-hi, or Boy's Day, on the 5th of May. There were two items that we really liked. One was of a craftsman making a Noh mask about 10 inches high. The whole thing look so natural from the way the man sat in a relaxed position to the flow of his clothes. We both saw it across the room and made a beeline to it. If it had been a little cheaper than the £4,000 price tag we may have bought it. The second item was a pair of old peasants each about two inches high. Rita thought they looked like us after a day of sightseeing. The price tag was a more reasonable £27 each but one had already been bought. I think that if we had bought then we could not have taken them until the end of the exhibition, by which time we would have been back in England.
On the subject of Boy's Day the local department stores had vast displays of dolls and samurai armour known as Gogatsu ningyo which are put on display in house during the festival. Some of these were rather expensive costing up to £10,000. We were already beginning to see the display of Koinibori, streamers in the appearance of carp, which are traditionally flown during the festival.
We discovered another hyakuenya close to the hotel. I am still amazed what they manage to sell for 50 pence. We bought a pair of neon bright things used to put hair in bunches which we will use to help identify our suitcases.
Back at the hotel we did our packing before venturing out again for our last proper meal in Japan. We went back to the Tempura restaurant we had visited a couple of days earlier and tried another of their set meals. While eating the meal I was idly scanning the various sighs in the restaurant to see if I could understand them and realised one had some deserts listed one called Isukure-mu tenpura, Tenpura Ice-cream? For those who don't know tempura is a way of cooking food by coating them in batter and them dropping them into very hot oil for a short period of time. I was so intrigued I ordered it. And was presented with a scoop of ice cream in a hot battered coating. The batter was sweeter than normal. The experience was wonderful, a type of high-speed Baked Alaska.
We went to bed early and arose at 5am the next morning (9pm the previous day London time) to a damp overcast day. The journey to the airport was smooth and uneventful, which is the way I wanted it and by 8:45 we were sitting in the airport lounge. Narita airport does not have the range of duty free shops that are found in Heathrow or Gatwick, and it is certainly very much quieter. The plane took off on time and arrived on time. We live at the other end of the Piccadilly line so we didn't have to change trains. By 5pm, 20 hours since we had set out, we were sitting in our living room drinking a cup of coffee. Twenty-four hours after getting up, after doing a little shopping, unpacking and a snack, we were back in bed.
Tomorrow I will post one last blog giving some of our impressions and thoughts of Japan.
Steve
