Japan: The Last Few Days...

The Shinkansen took us all the way down to Hiroshima, and the train arrived on time down to the last second. Everything is so punctual in Japan and although there are hoards of people everywhere, things runs smoothly like clockwork. It is pretty fascinating to watch!

We liked Hiroshima instantly. Unlike most other Japanese cities, Hiroshima doesn't have a metro system and everyone gets about by tram. The air is clean with a nice ocean breeze and the roads are wide and fringed with many trees. Everything seemed calm, even at rush hour. It was hard to imagine this was the place where 60 years before an atomic bomb had exploded flattening everything within a radius of 6,000 feet.

We stayed at a wonderful place in Hiroshima called the World Friendship Centre, which was run by two friendly Americans decidated to world peace. Our room was quiet (yay!), we were served a western breakfast (big YAY!), and the hosts gave us maps of Hiroshima... in English -YAAAAY!!! On arrival they told us to head out quickly to see the last night of the peace festival taking place at the Peace Memorial Park. We were too late for the procession, but we were greeted with the spectacular sight of thousands of lanterns decorated by children, and glowing paper cranes that have become a symbol on international peace since a little girl, Sadako, tried to fold 1,000 of them in the hope they would cure her of Leukemia, the 'atom bomb' disease. We also walked to see the floodlit A-Bomb Dome which is the half destroyed ruin of the city's Industrial Promotion Hall, the only building directly beneath the blast to survive and a permanent reminder of what occurred 60 years ago.

The following day we went to see the Peace Memorial Museum. Inside the museum there are two main exhibition spaces: in the first there was an explanation of the events leading up to the bomb being dropped and then how the bomb affected the city; the second space detailed the human impact of the bomb. It is hard to explain the chilling feeling of looking at real life artifacts and remnants left behind by those who had passed away. There were displays of melted clothing and photographs of people who were burned so badly that their skin looked like charred coal. One exhibit showed a marble step, which was bleached white by the heat of the blast except for a dark shadow, where a person had been sitting. We left the museum truly hoping that this sort of devastation is never repeated ever again.

It was a lovely sunny afternoon so we took a trip to Miyajima Island which lies 20 minutes southwest of Hiroshima by ferry and is noted as one of Japan's most scenic spots. The good news for us was that our entire trip to the island was free with our Japan Rail passes! The island is famous for its huge floating torii, although when we went the tide was out and it was floating in mud! The island was also swarming with deer, that were in hot pursuit of anyone eating food. We found a great little spot on a harbour wall away from the deer and tourists and had a picnic whilst lying in the sun, bliss! Later we explored the town, and climbed a hill with spinning cylinders that you spin for good luck, and watched the sunset over the torii with locals collecting cockles on the mud flats beneath. That evening we ate ramen in a tiny little etsablishment, we could not understand the menu at all but pointing at what the other people in the restaurant were eating seemed to do the trick!

Our last stop in Japan (and of the whole trip!) was Tsuwano. It was a little out of the way and we kept our fingers crossed it would live up to our expectations. In the end it probably turned out to be our favourite place in Japan and the weather was fantastic!! We were staying in Hoshi Ryokan, the first place we had stayed in that was only a hop and a skip from the train station, a blessing given our heavy bags! The room was marvellous, it was enormous with mountain views, a little balcony and beautifully painted panels.

Even more gorgeous was the quiet little mountain town, with waterways lining the streets that contained 65,000 colourful carp! We climbed to the castle ruins on top of the mountain, through red torii gates and woods carpeted with wild orchids, to spectacular views over the valley. Not content with relaxing yet we borrowed bikes from the guesthouse and headed out to find the rice paddies we had seen from the mountain top. They were a lovely sight, all layered down the hillside with their still waters reflecting the evening sunlight. We got close up so we could see what rice ACTUALLY looks like, but didn't loiter too long as a local rice farmer was throwing us evils!

We cycled back just in time for dinner, which was of the impressive 15 different dishes variety. The baked fish and sizzling prawn pot were particular hits! After dinner we treated ourselves with a trip to the local onsen (hot springs); onsen water is believed to have healing powers derived from its mineral content. We spent a good hour relaxing in the various hot pools, the best of all being the outdoor rock pool with the silver moon shining down. A fantastic last day!

Japan: geisha, monks and good friends

We did Kyoto in 3 days, and about half that time was spent ferrying our luggage between hostels! It was Golden Week and so all the hostels were booked up weeks in advance; we had to move to a different place each night but felt lucky that we'd managed to find beds at all!

On our first day we hired bicycles – a great way to get out and see more of the city, although we ended up cycling a heck of a long way as the sights were fairly spread out. First stop was the Ninzen-ji temple where we had a sushi picnic on the temple steps… technically not allowed but we couldn’t find anywhere better! The temple complex was really picturesque, with lots of spring green trees set against dark wood temples. We walked to a little waterfall up in the hills where monks apparently shower in the winter, brr! Next we hopped on the bikes to see Ginkaka-ju temple where we each paid 500yen to walk in an extremely touristy garden with raked cones of zen sand. It was pretty but not worth the price. We popped our heads in to see Honen-in temple on the way back (just as good and with lots of cool croaking frogs as a bonus!), and then made haste for the Gion district where Rach was dying to catch sight of the elusive geisha (traditional Japanese entertainers), of which there are only 1,000 left in Japan. It was a fantastic little old part of Kyoto with cobbled streets and hidden teahouses. We loitered around keeping our eyes peeled for geisha, who try so hard not to be seen in public. We caught a brief sight of one walking briskly into a teahouse, although she was pretty far away and too quick for us to get a photo. So we settled down for a bit of a longer wait in the hope of seeing some up close, and eventually luck came our way as a group of FOUR of them popped out of nowhere and trotted down an alley opposite us. We were in hot pursuit and ended up sprinting after them paparazzi style – a couple of other photographers followed suit. It was quite a laugh and we got to see them up close; they had white faces, red lips, perfectly lacquered hair with flowers, beautiful kimonos and sandals with white socks. Happy, we cycled on to Ponto Cho as it was getting dark to see the old cobbled streets adorned with lit lanterns; it made for a great evening stroll.

The following day we jumped on a train to see the Fushimi Inari Taisha shrine, Japan’s oldest Inari shrine. It was quite a gem, with a 4km tunnel made of thousands of red torii gates snaking their way up into the mountains. Afterwards we visited the Nikishi food market with lots of interesting stalls selling weird foods, vegetables and sushi. We stopped to eat yummy shrimp and leek fried dumplings on a stick, and had sweet sticky rice balls for desert. Headed back to our hostel (K’s Hostel) to relax, and seeing as it was a western hostel we had proper tea (heaven!) and a real bed! Rach was rather taken with the little nemo (clownfish) in the fishtank there!

That evening we met up with our friend Maru, whom we had met in Ainokura a few days ago and had offered to show us around Kyoto. We were pretty excited about heading out with someone that spoke Japanese! First Maru took us to a street stall where he said we must try the local delicacy, Takoyaki, which looked like little dumplings on sticks. They translated as ‘octopus balls’ (Rach already had one in her mouth at this moment…cue some frightened eyes), but they actually tasted surprisingly good as long as you didn’t look inside them! Then we headed to a great little restaurant down a back alley where Maru seemed to order everything on the menu (luckily he didn’t order the ‘raw chicken’ which sounded a bit suspect!), and we got to drink lots of different types of sake and sho-chu. To our surprise Konopi turned up too to meet us; he had travelled 2 hours on the train to get there! We were rather bowled over by Maru’s generosity when he insisted on paying for everything. Afterwards we went to a darts bar, where we ordered more drinks and had great fun playing electronic darts. To everyone’s amazement (including her own) Rach turned out to be a little darts genius, and must have hit the bull every second go! Konopi then insisted on paying for all the drinks, and Maru gave us a bottle of sake he had especially brewed for us. In return for their extreme generosity we encouraged them to visit the UK so we could repay the favour. We got home at 3am - a great evening.

Unsurprisingly we were not in tip top sightseeing mode the following day, and to make matters worse both fell ill with colds…. a bit inevitable seeing as every third person in Japan seemed to be sniffing and sneezing. We rather unwisely decided to head out for some sightseeing anyway and to make the most of our JR pass, so took a train to Nara. It was absolutely heaving with Japanese tourists and we regretted our decision instantly! We tried to eat lunch in a little noodle bar, but not really knowing what we had ordered we were served cold noodles in soy sauce (no no no!), which were even harder to eat with all the slurping and snorting going on around us. We abandoned and picked our way through the throngs of tourists to see the temples and resident deer. We had been warned about the ‘evil bambi’ in Nara, but they seemed pretty docile and sat patiently whilst child after child sat down next to them to pose for a picture. The temples were pretty, but we were a bit ‘templed out’. There were however two massive wooden statues that were impressive and menacing. More interesting was the little fair that was taking place, and we watched all manner of strange little fairground games being played by the locals and older ladies wandering around in their pretty kimonos and umbrellas. Gaz was pleased when he managed to pick up a ornamental Samurai sword from one of the shops in Nara, the lady selling it assuring us we would be able to get it home on the plane!

The next day we took an enormous trip up to the mountain top monastery village of Koya-San. Three trains, a cable car and a bus trip later we arrived to find a busy town packed with tourists and temples – not quite the misty mountain clad isolation we had envisaged! Things got better soon though – we were staying the night in a temple – it was like a little oasis and some monks showed us to our Japanese room that looked out over a rock garden and trickling bamboo pond. In the afternoon we walked to Okunoin, a magnificent, mysterious cemetery of towering cedar trees and mossy tombstones. It was very atmospheric and at the top was a lantern temple clouded in incense smoke, and a line of people throwing water on black Jizo statues. We headed back for a Japanese bath at the temple, not for the shy though as we each had to share the bath with 10 starkers men or women! The monks then brought us an amazing vegetarian dinner to our room – the miso soup, silky tofu and tempura were pretty amazing! We headed out briefly after dinner to see the graveyard lanterns in the mist and dark trees and got totally spooked out!

We were up super early to participate in ‘monk things’ the following day. First we went to the prayer service in the temple, with lit lanterns, chanting monks, and banging drums. We didn’t understand what was being said but it was nice to be a part of it, even if it was uncomfy kneeling on the floor! We then went to a fire ceremony where the head monk threw wood, salts and oil on a fire to beating drums – pretty exciting! Afterward we were served strange Japanese breakfast in our room (we have begun dreaming of western breakfasts now…), then went walking in the rain with umbrellas to explore some of the temples.

Japan: Blossom and Bullet Trains

We flew overnight to Japan arriving at 6am, and luckily the plane was not very busy so we each had a row of seats on which to sleep. With the time difference we were absolutely shattered upon landing, but it was a relief to arrive to cool temperatures (7 degrees C) after the oppressive heat of Cambodia. We took a train to our hostel, which was a traditional Japanese ‘ryokan’. It had dark wood panelling, straw mats on floor, a little zen garden and we had an extremely small room. The ‘beds’ were tatami mats – a big duvet on the floor with a tiny pillow filled with something that resembled frozen peas… not very comfy! We also had to wear special indoor slippers around the place and had cool bath robes to walk around in. Although tired we revived ourselves with some green tea and set off to see a bit of Tokyo.

Sightseeing in Tokyo turned out to be quite a mission – never before had we been in a country where English was not spoken, or more importantly, written. Tokyo underground station was a massive underground network of spaghetti train lines and Japanese writing – within a few minutes we were completely lost. Roads had no names and maps were all incomprehensible. Despite spending most of the day being a bit confused, we did manage to get to the 45th floor of the Tokyo Government Metropolitan Offices for some amazing (and free!) views over the city. We then found Shinjuku-Gyoen park where we had a picnic and hit it lucky with the end of the cherry blossom season. The park was a welcome escape from the city in our sleepy state, with perfectly manicured trees, lawns, winding paths, and best of all cherry blossom trees with their petals falling like snow. Rach went off to take photos and later found Gaz having a nap under a tree covered in petals!

Our second day in Tokyo and we had a bad nights sleep thanks to our room being next to the hostel shower, some screaming kids next door, and walls that were as thin as paper…. because they were paper! We started off the day getting thoroughly lost AGAIN trying to find a restaurant recommended by the Lonely Planet, and in the end gave up and unashamedly ate Big Mac’s in McDonalds! We headed to the Sony Building to marvel at all the tecchy displays – the big HD screens were amazing! We took a stroll through the Ginza district which was swarming with business men in black suits and trendy young things in knee high socks, high heels and mini dogs for accessories. Tired out we headed back for our first Japanese bath, something we came to love over the coming weeks. It involves first washing yourself with soap and a little shower whilst sitting on a stool, throwing bowls of warm water over yourself and lastly soaking in a little hot tub – brilliant! We moved rooms that night in hope of a better nights sleep, but were not in luck as we were kept awake by two girls talking loudly outside and taking showers at 1am...

We picked up our JR Rail passes the following day and headed onwards to Nikko. Rush hour in Tokyo on the underground was a bit of a squeeze with all our bags; we realised posting all the souvenirs home that we had bought in Asia would have been a good idea in hindsight! We then got to travel on the Shinkhansen (bullet train) – travelling at 200mph was quite something! Even more exciting was standing on the platform when one went past at full pelt – it made a massive ‘whooomph’ and we nearly got sucked in!

Nikko turned out to be in a fantastic mountainous setting and it was a lovely sunny spring day. We had lunch at the wonderful Hippari Dako, a great little place tucked away run by a mother and daughter, with walls covered with notes from travellers and the ramen noodles were delicious. Rather full and pleased we set off to explore all the temples – there was a red bridge, perfectly manicured gardens with carp ponds, torii bridges, ornate temples and best of all was the gorgeous cherry blossom that fell all around us soundlessly. We took endless photos, everything was so lush and full of life after Cambodia, then headed back for another Japanese bath in our superb hostel in the mountains.

The next day was a long and frustrating travel day... ah well, they can't all be perfect. We discovered four things 1) you cannot get money out of an ATM in Japan… 9 ATMs and a lot of fretting later we discovered you need to get money out of a post office, 2) all the trains get booked up during the Golden Week holiday… we had to wait 3 hours for a train, 3) do not turn your back on a train… we missed our train because we turned around for a few seconds to buy a drink, and 4) umbrellas that cost a fiver do not last long! We arrived in rainy Inuyama much later than expected but were determined to make something of the day, so an insane 30 minutes ensued as we legged it around everything before it closed for the day. It was worth it though as we got to see great views from Japan’s oldest castle. The Japanese baths that night were a godsend, although the paper walls were not – Gaz got up in the night to tell off a loud group of Japanese men drunk on sake.

After our brief visit to Inuyama we headed onto Takayama. The train ride there was really scenic, crossing rivers and gorges and winding up through the mountains. On arriving we walked alongside the riverside market, where gnarled old farmers were selling vegetables and we had a fantastic time cramming all the free samples into our mouths – we didn’t know what we were eating so some of it was delicious, other samples were pretty horrendous! We think Gaz inadvertently ate dried baby seahorses at one point! We walked through the town centre which was lined with traditional dark wood buildings, door hangings, bonsai trees and sake breweries. On the way we stopped to eat sticks of hida beef, the local delicacy. In the afternoon we borrowed tiny fold away bikes from the hostel, they looked ridiculous and Gaz fell off promptly trying to do a wheelie (!), but it was a brilliant way to see more of the town. By late afternoon we had cycled to some temples up the hill which looked amazing in the soft lighting, and best of all we had them all to ourselves. We took some comedy photos in the gardens of us messing around!....

The following day we set off to find the remote village of Ainokura in the mountains, famous for its 'Gassho-style' houses. It was a bit of a trek to get to but it was worth it. We arrived to find thatched farmhouses nestled in the mountains with trickling mountain streams and rice fields – wow! We were staying 2 nights in one of the UN World Heritage status thatched houses called Goyomon. The sweet lady welcomed us in and we sat around the fire drinking Japanese tea. We spent the afternoon exploring the village and walked up the mountain for great panoramic views. In the evening the owner cooked up a fantastic meal for us and the other guests, with grilled fish on the fire and then 14 different dishes to try such as mountain vegetables in tempura batter. Our eyes nearly popped out when we saw the others eat the fish whole, including the head, yikes! We made two great friends, Maru and Konopi, who were sake brewers, could speak a little English and taught us how to write our names in Japanese. Everyone drank sake round the fire late into the evening.

The following day we were served another of these meals for breakfast. Very impressive but fish soup and cold stir fried vegetables at that time in the morning were no substitute for cereal and toast. Cue lots of face pulling from Rach who ate mainly rice! We decided to hike into the mountains, but with no map and no English spoken by the locals we had to make it up along the way. Needless to say we got rather lost, hiked into another valley and after about 12 miles finally made it back to the village. It was however a lovely day, with warm sunshine, not a person in sight and we managed to walk as high as the snow line. It was nice pottering around the village in the still of the evening watching farmers tend their fields and the sunset on the snowcapped mountains as a backdrop.

We made our great descent back out of the mountains the following day, and on the way stopped in the World Heritage status village of Shirakawa-go, which was very much like Ainokura but on a much larger and more touristy scale. It was still very beautiful, with rice paddies, little waterwheels, carp in ponds and tulips blooming everywhere. A kind lady let us dump our bags in her farmhouse for a few hours while we explored on foot, which was VERY welcome for our sore backs!