With Russia’s land mass
so large and a population of ~143M, we were now in Japan for 3 weeks with its
population of ~127M in a land mass ~2% of Russia’s! So let’s kick off with where we travelled in
Japan using their amazing railway system and occasional local bus, with the
main cities flagged on the map below.
There is so much of the
Japanese culture and way of doing things we found very fascinating, so will
intertwine some of those observations with the sightseeing in and around
various cities but very simply, Japan and its people were great.
Arriving into Narita
Airport on Siberian Airways, clearing Immigration was quick, efficient and
painless. We found the JR (Japan
Railways) office, filled out the forms needed, showed passports, handed them our
‘exchange pass’ and were handed JR Passes to use for the next 21 days. The passes were activated immediately by
buying reserved seats on NEX, the Narita Express train into Tokyo Station about
1 hour away.
Next challenge, find
the NEX station in Narita airport, which was when we became more aware of the
visual and auditory ‘assault’ that is Japan.
Unless in one of their very beautiful and peaceful gardens, you seem
continuously surrounded by some sort of sign for something, or lights, or
advertising, or people talking or little beepers sounding warnings of some sort,
even their credit machines ‘chat’ to you.
With a NEX train found,
it had to have right number because most trains have a number and even a
name. We had the right number, so now
found the right carriage because each carriage door stops at designated spots
on the platform.
We waited for disembarking
passengers to finish, piled in, stowed bags, found our seats and sat down at
our reserved seats. There were still a
few people on the train, some looking at us slightly oddly, but the train
departed, travelled for about 5 mins then stopped and ALL the remaining people
got off.
Time to be introduced
to a range of things that are very typically Japanese. We were happily sitting there… alone… when
out of nowhere a man appeared next to us, very politely showering us with a lot
of Japanese words. He was well dressed
in a nice uniform, white gloves on and kept talking to us with a form of
unmistaken insistence. Then one word of
English popped out, “cleaning!”
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| Cleaning stairs and handrails by hand |
Then it dawned on us,
we had jumped on the train in Terminal 1, it had moved to Terminal 2 and they
had to clean the train before it reversed in direction bound for Tokyo.
He insisted, “cleaning, cleaning”, so we
collected our bags and stepped back onto the platform, joining everyone else
waiting to get on.
That brief little interaction
is so typical of many things that are Japan.
First they are fastidiously clean, their buses, cars, taxis, hotels, windows,
the small hand wipes they give you before any meal, and the lack of rubbish or
graffiti anywhere, we even watched people dusting the metal support pylons and
staircases in railway stations.
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| In a queue waiting |
Throughout Japan there
were very few rubbish bins and we later learned, it is their custom to take
their rubbish home with them. They have
processes for everything and they follow them, including how and where you
queue for trains or buses.
They are very polite,
bowing to you if you make way for them on the street, on a bus… anywhere. Taxi drivers are immaculate in their suits,
hats and white gloves as are the bus and train drivers.
Many workers have uniforms to wear, which
they do with a visible sense of pride and always spotlessly clean.
When you buy something
in a shop, no matter how small, they chat to you and say thank you and a lot of
other similar words, especially ‘gozaimasu’, an expression we heard constantly.
And all of this plus many many more were so
consistent throughout all the parts of the country we visited.
So lets
get you warmed up a little with just a few of the places we visited and
experienced whilst in and around Tokyo and its 13.6M people. We stayed in Tokyo twice so there will be a
few more experiences later.
Some
of Tokyo’s most visited locations are…
Ueno
Park with its sculptures and shrines and Senso-ji Temple, which was packed with
people promenading, down the path to the temple between small shops. We visited
an old Tokyo area called Omoide Yokocho (memory lanes), enjoying dinner at one
of the many small food stalls famous for their chicken skewers.
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| Within Ueno Park |
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| Promenading on way to Senso-ji Temple |
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| Enjoying chicken skewers in Omoide Yokocho |
Before leaving on this
trip, we had worked through our checklist that includes expected temperatures
and rainfall. There is now a new item we
have added to the list… typhoons and hurricanes! It was typhoon season in this part of the
world as we popped our heads up out of the subway to be greeted with torrential
rain, the remains of typhoon Malakas directly overhead. When we left Japan, the remains of typhoon
Chaba, a super typhoon also passed overhead where we were staying, again
dumping a lot of rain.
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| Some friendly Tokyo locals |
First time in Tokyo and
we had a hotel to locate and each subway is like a labyrinth with multiple
exits fanning off everywhere. It pays to
know beforehand what exit to use, which we didn’t and had popped up who knows
where.
So we asked a young man by pointing to a name on a slightly sodden map. He didn’t speak much English but ran off back into his office and came back with a person who spoke a little.
So we asked a young man by pointing to a name on a slightly sodden map. He didn’t speak much English but ran off back into his office and came back with a person who spoke a little.
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| Within Ueno Park |
They both looked at the map, muttering between them before the new person said, “he will take you” which the young man did, seemingly happy to get soaked in the process, despite his umbrella.
This is when we also
learned the Japanese are a very helpful, friendly people, something impressively
repeated often during our time in Japan.
Additionally… on multiple occasions, we had people walk up to us and
start a conversation by usually asking, “where we were from?” or simply wishing
us a happy trip.
It was time for dinner,
so we ventured outside despite the pelting rain but didn’t get far before
finding a small ramen noodle place, the young lady at the entrance keen to
welcome us in, so we tried to walk in but alas, we had to order first.
She showed us a vending
machine outside with pictures of the meals on it. We had to select a meal, insert some money,
collect the dispensed coupon and hand it to her before entering! Our bench overlooked the cooks so were able
to watch what they did which was truly fascinating, including the chatter constantly
going on between them.
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| Not pretty I know BUT tasty |
Within minutes we had 2
bowls each, one with a soup/meat/vegetable mix in it and the other the
noodles. We watched how the locals
sitting around us ea,t so copied them and were soon sucking and slurping away
at our meals, bowls held close to our mouths quite literally.
We really like Japanese
food and for the next 3 weeks we enjoyed the experience of every meal and eating
things we were familiar with, but also trying many new combinations, styles and
ways they prepare and present their food, some we didn’t even know what they
were… a true delight!
Whilst in the constantly
bustling Tokyo we took the subways everywhere, mind you we had a few ‘false
starts’ after buying tickets and then trying to go through the wrong entry or
exit gates. It takes a little while to
understand the implications of multiple train operators with their own vending
machines and gates.
We also learnt to buy
tickets near the entry gates we wanted to use because a few times we had to go
back and get refunds. Sounds complicated,
but you get used to it and once we learnt to match colours we were fine.
Our first Shinkansen from
Tokyo to Kyoto set us up well for subsequent trips and what a treat they
are! Again you find the carriage and
door location on the platform and only minutes before departure, this long
sleek ‘thing’ glides into the station, the obligatory announcements and sing
along chimes notifying its arrival.
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| Shinkansen (bullet train) arriving |
As intriguing are the
hand gestures by all the railway staff involved with each train, both in it and
on the platform. They all signal with
their glove covered hands in an almost ritualised manner, pointing to the
direction of travel, the platform, their watch, the screens advising of
departure, back to the platform, the direction of travel.
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| Train staff get ready to leave on time |
These trains really
move along and they are so smooth. The
JR rail network is massive, so we were able to easily reach each main city we
visited and always on time!
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| Top speed bottom left corner... impressive! |
Kyoto, formerly the
capital of Japan, is rich with things to see and do, both within the city and
slightly outside its boundaries. We had a very busy 4 full days, despite
continuing rain in and around Kyoto and know we could spend many more days visiting
historical locations and downright beautiful places. Using Kyoto as a base and our JR Pass, we
also visited Himeji and Nara.
Highlights included
seeing one of the largest timber buildings in the world in the form of Nishi
Honganji Temple, including many locals dressed in rental kimonos…
Kinkakau, the Golden
Temple…
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| The VERY beautiful Golden Temple |
Fushimi Inari
and its 10,000 bright red Tori gates…
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| Tori gates and more tori gates |
Gion and Ponto Cho
Alley with its old houses and many restaurants
Nijō Castle, the shogun
palace with its deliberately squeaky floors to warn of approaching people.
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| Gate of Nijō Castle |
The all white 400 year
old Himeji Castle is one of the remaining feudal castles, designed to look like
a white heron, and then we strolled through the beautiful gardens next to it.
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| Himeji Castle |
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| Garden next to Himeji Castle |
Nara Park is famous for
its deer’s walking throughout it and always keen to get whatever food they can
from you.
Within the park is the world’s
largest timber building at 48m high, Todaiji Temple with its huge 15m high budha, cast in 749 AD.
Near the park were 2 beautiful gardens we
slowly strolled through, each rock, tree, shrub, pathway, pond or bridge
deliberately placed to create the desired affect.
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| Huge budha in Todaiji Temple |
Sightseeing in Japan
does include, like many places, many temples as well as shrines, either Shinto
or Buddhist, but they are far more informal than ones in the west.
You learn when you are close to them when you
see a red tori gate or a grey one, the latter indicating you’re entering the
area of the Shinto shrine.
From Kyoto we moved on
to Kanazawa, a city spared of bombing during World War II and location of one
of the 3 best gardens in Japan, Kenrokuen Gardens. This city is also famous for gold leaf production,
which was on display in the old area of Higashi Chaya.
It was very interesting to go through Nomura Samurai House located in
the samurai area of Kanazawa, to see how these famous warriors used to live so
simply along with a few of the famous and very old katanas or swords.
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| Very old katana blades |
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| Samurai armour |
By now we had
stayed in a few hotels and had been using but also looking at the very
technical toilets with ‘control panels’ on one side. The time had come!
Before sitting down, you can push a button to
warm up the toilet seat and then there is another setting for when you do sit,
water starts flowing very gently like a waterfall. Not sure why, maybe to get you in the mood.
Then there
are the other buttons… spray and bidet, plus a control for how intense you want
whatever was going to happen. For some
reason… I pushed spray then waited.
Nothing happened for a little while, save the sounds of something
happening below and then warm water started squirting, hitting not what is was
meant to hit, but it felt nice anyway… if you know what I mean!
They are very
clever these Japanese!
Takayama was a day
visit destination for us using a small local train and this heritage town is located
in the mountains.
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| Welcome to Takayama |
It was a much quieter
than the very bustling tourist destinations like Kyoto, so it was a lovely
change to walk amongst all the old merchant timber buildings, the city renowned
for its carpentry skills.
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| Old timber homes of merchants, Takayama |
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| The Olympic flame of Nagano |
Next stop was Nagano,
home to the Winter Olympics of 1998 and we were here to really see one main
attraction.
To view them meant taking a
local bus to Jigokudani
and then walking nearly 2kms along dirt paths in a very beautiful forest until
we reached the entrance of the National Park.
We were here
to hopefully see the famous snow monkeys, who bath is hot pools during the
winter, otherwise known as macaques.
Well there
wasn’t any snow but there were a lot of monkeys, including baby ones.
There was
one natural hot pool (onsen) and nearby, a fast running river amongst large
rocks down into a valley.
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| Aaaah... its so warm |
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| What are you looking at! |
There were
stacks of photos taken of monkeys sitting next to the pool, drinking from it
and some very young monkeys enjoying a swim in its warm water.
It was also fabulous to watch older monkeys,
once the commitment had been made, cross the surging river by jumping rapidly
from rock to rock.
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| Taking the jump |
Another day
trip was to Matsumoto to see the castle of the same name. This castle is one of the oldest in Japan
still in its original condition, standing resplendent overlooking a large lake
and the obligatory red bridge on one side.
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| Matsumoto Castle |
As we climbed up and through the castle, you could see how it had been
designed to defend itself using various weapons, let alone the massive timber beams
that have kept it standing for so long.
Morioka is a small town located in the north of Honshu, Japan’s
main island, and also the location of our first experience of a ryokan, a type of traditional Japanese inn that originated in the Edo period
(1603–1868), when such inns served travelers along Japan's highways. They
typically feature tatami-matted rooms, communal baths, and other public areas
where visitors may talk with the owner.
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| These tested the knees |
The ryokan we stayed in was a family
affair, with the mother running it and Nikki and her husband running the
intimate little bar/restaurant area, including cooking all the food.
Breakfast was very traditional Japanese with
each day different in terms of what was provided.
It took a little getting used to
sleeping on the beds with their bean bag style pillows, taking our shoes off at
the front entrance, wearing slippers to protect the tatami floors but changing
slippers whenever using the public toilet area.
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| Exploring Morioka at night |
Nikki, who spoke a little English, tried
hard to teach us a little more Japanese and was delightfully friendly and also
introduced us to the local saké and the right way of drinking it along with a very nice sake plum wine.
Each night we tried to eat out by
exploring each city and finding something new.
In Morioka this was slightly more challenging because unlike most other
city’s we had visited, there were no English menus, in fact we were the only
other westerners we saw whilst there.
The Japanese like to advertise and
this includes their meals. Each
restaurant typically has at least colour photos on display of each item on the
menu, but many go a little further and have plastic life like replicas of each
meal on display out front.
So in Morioka
when ordering food, I would take the waiter outside and simply point to items
on display in the window.
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| Plastic replica food |
Our primary reason for being in
Morioka was to visit Mt Hachimantai summit using local buses to view the autumn
leaves on display. We were a little too
early in the season for a colourful extravaganza but the bus trips were
certainly different.
We boarded the bus to go up the mountain in town, a few others
joining us and off we went. After 30
minutes into the journey, we stopped at a hotel and about 30 others boarded,
all sporting hiking poles and backpacks.
A lady came down the aisle handing out a small brochure written
in Japanese, picked up a microphone and started a running commentary for the
rest of the trip. We were inadvertently
on a scenic tour, its just we had no idea what was being pointed out. The scenery atop the mountain was quite
pleasant however.
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| View from summit of Mt Hachimantai |
Typhoon Chaba also made its presence felt during our final night
in Morioka in with its level 1 strength rain depression passing directly overhead,
thankfully having lost power after being the most powerful super typhoon ever
recorded, with wind gusts of over 300 kph and having unfortunately killed some
people in South Korea.
Whilst based in Tokyo for the last few days of our visit through
Japan, we took a bullet train to Hakone to try and catch a glimpse of the
famous Mt Fuji. Hakone is well set up
for tourists, including locals ones, with a circuit you can take involving 2
small local trains climbing into the mountains, a funicular and cable car
taking you across the mountains, a replica old sailing ship across a lake, then
a local bus back to the main railway station.
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| Cable car to left over remains of very recent eruption |
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| Now this is a boat! |
We did get an extremely brief glimpse of the top of Mt Fuji
amongst the clouds but the cable car ride over the top of the still slightly
active volcanic eruption and smell of sulphur was certainly an unexpected
highlight.
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| Our only view of Mt Fuji |
Our final experiences in Japan happened in around where we were
staying in Shinjuku, not far from the world famous Shinjuku Station with its 20
railway lines passing through it, 36 platforms over multiple levels and 200
exits for people to use to get in and out of.
It handles over 2 million passengers through it every day and we made
the mistake on one occasion to arrive into it during the busy period.
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| One exit of the 200 in Shinjuku Station |
We visited the Eiffel Tower looking Tokyo Tower one night, then
the district of Shibuya to experience crossing one of the busiest and craziest
intersections in the world and admiring the ancient sword making skills and
intricate artwork on the historical exhibits in the Japan Sword Museum.
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| Tokyo Tower |
Our final Japanese experience was visiting Meiji Jingu Shrine,
which included walking through the large forest surrounding the shrine, all
100,000 trees having been planted during the shrines construction. The
shrine was completed and dedicated to the Emperor Meiji and the Empress Shoken
in 1920, eight years after the passing of the emperor and six years after the
passing of the empress. It is one of the
most popular shrines and revered sites in Japan.
On arriving at this magnificent shrine,
we were treated to witnessing a procession of people undertaking a wedding
ceremony, the bride and groom dressed very traditionally, the fathers then
mothers leading the procession behind them.
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| Wedding procession at Meiji Jingu Shrine |
As we flew out of Japan after having enjoyed it so much and with
much more we could experience, we knew we would be returning again, something
we don’t say very often but Japan is quite the destination.
Japan is a very photographic place so if you want to see just a few too many extra final photos of it... then
just click the links below.
CLICK HERE for more photos of Japan & Simple Things
Enjoy and go well!
