We have not made many return journeys to countries,
unless they are geographically large, so it must have been something special to
draw us back to Japan within 6 months.
Every year in Japan there is a special and world
famous period… their cherry blossom season... so we went back!
After a wonderful experience last time in Japan, it
wasn’t hard to do it again, this time travelling with two very good friends
Peter and Julie, also keen to enjoy Japan’s ‘Spring Festival’ and experienced both
the scenery and excitement the locations have when their blossoms are blooming.
For those who may have read our last post on Japan,
hopefully there was ample description about the friendly and polite people, the
food and their amazing railway systems, then of course those all ‘singing’
toilets, so will not inflict this on you again.l
Our itinerary focussed on trying to be in the right
place at the right time in Japan to witness the burst of new cherry bluossoms,
so during 3 weeks, we first travelled south from Tokyo to Hiroshima where it
was warmer before venturing to the cooler north of Japan, where we hoped the
blossoms would be blooming later.
The map below shows where this trip took us, again
using Japan’s wonderful and extensive railway network.
So this post focuses briefly on some of the scenic
and historical destinations we visited and any interesting situations
experienced.
Tokyo
Two stopovers in Tokyo meant we absorb more of what
this city offers and returned to a few places visited last time, like Ueno
Park, which was now festooned with masses of cherry blossoms lining the avenues,
now straining with big crowds.
It was here we first saw large gatherings of locals
enjoying picnics under individual cherry trees, a cultural norm in Japan and an
acceptable opportunity to drink lots of alcohol.
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| The locals enjoy picnics under the blossoms |
What everyone is outside enjoying
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| Plenty of street stalls selling very tasty food |
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| Rob, Julie & Peter ready to 'tackle' the world's busiest station... Shinjuku |
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| Tourists & locals waiting to be served at the Tokyo Fish Markets |
… a true juxtaposition with the colourful dress
style of young people enjoying ‘Cos Play’ in Takeshita Street in Harajuku.
Coz Play - dressed up and having fun!
One day after much walking and resting near a
fountain, in typical Japanese style, an older and immaculately dressed small man
sitting next to me struck up a conversation by asking where we were from. His English was quite good as I chatted with
him.
He told me one of his hobbies was to make music
with leaves and with that he started playing a few tunes, other tourists nearby
joining in with applause as he finished each one. He was still working and politely asked my
age and then informed me he was born in 1943.
We also had a go at having a picnic like the
locals under cherry blossoms in the very beautiful national gardens of Shinjuku
Gyoen. We bought our bento boxes of food
and with chopsticks ready, found a tree under which to sit.
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| Picnicking like the locals |
Kyoto
We had learnt during our last trip to Japan, trying
to get a good view of Mount Fuji, that iconic perfect volcano shaped mountain,
is never guaranteed. So imagine our excitement when with clear skies whilst
speeding to Kyoto and gazing out of a shinkansen bullet train window, the
majestic and still snow topped Mount Fuji stood staring back at us… stunning!
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| At long last... Mount Fuji! |
Our friends Peter & Julie like doing
adventurous things and had suggested a small tour around part of Kyoto on
pushbikes, so we found ourselves riding on small but very functional bikes in
the capable hands of our guide Joshua, originally from San Francisco, but now
living in Japan with his naturalised Australian, formerly Vietnamese wife.
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| Pushbike route in Kyoto |
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| Visiting one of the temples during our pushbike tour |
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| A small sample of scenery during pedal power tour in Kyoto |
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| Enjoyed it just as much seeing the Golden Temple a 2nd time |
The bamboo forest lived up to the images we had
seen of it in many tourism publications…
…and a surprise nearby destination was Arashiyama,
a quaint delightful town with its Kimono Forest on display around the train
station.
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| The town of Arashiyama at night |
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| The Kimono Forest in Arashiyama |
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| Ginkakuji or Silver Temple although never silver |
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| Stock photos via Google showing the statues carved out of cypress... a national treasure of Japan stored in Sanjūsangen-dō Temple, Kyoto |
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| Walking in the rain through thousands of vermillion coloured tori gates of Senbon Tori |
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| Both the food and scenery throughout Kyoto were fabulous |
Osaka
It was only a day trip from Kyoto to Osaka to see
Osaka Castle, standing proud as Japanese castles do on a hill, cherry blossoms
lacing the river and moat protecting it, and then for something different, we
soared upwards within the very modern Umeda Sky Building.
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| Locals enjoying their picnics admiring the castle across the moat |
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| Sky Building |
Hiroshima
With cherry blossom season comes higher
accommodation prices, so we had opted to stay in the town of Onoura, a 30 min
train trip south of Hiroshima, having booked into the Hotel Miyajima Princess.
Sounds innocent enough doesn’t it, but this was an
ageing adult only hotel, used
frequently by young couples paying an hourly rate to do… well leave the rest to
you. We were staying here for 3 nights
so did wonder what some of the young couples thought as us oldies wandered by. The rooms were large by Japanese standards
and had a few optional extras if we were so inclined.
Our stay in what we came to call the ‘luuuuuve
hotel’ was certainly different!
After checking into the ‘luuuuuve hotel’and with
rain rain still falling, we took the local train to the end of the line at Iwakuni,
found a local bus, always a fun experience, to eventually see and walk the Kintaikyo
Bridge, a timber serpent like structure built in 1673, cherry blossoms either
side of the river, fantastic paths and parks on the opposite bank waiting to be
admired.
We had come to Hiroshima like so many other
tourists, to see 'the dome'.
This is where the worlds first A Bomb was detonated and the iconic wrecked dome building at ground zero showing where it all happened.
It has stood sentry at this historical site, twisted rusting metal a stark reminder of a terrible but war stopping event.
Not far away... cherry blossom annually beckoning a brighter future.
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| Kintaikyo Bridge in Iwakuni |
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| View whilst crossing the Kintaikyo Bridge |
We had come to Hiroshima like so many other
tourists, to see 'the dome'.This is where the worlds first A Bomb was detonated and the iconic wrecked dome building at ground zero showing where it all happened.
It has stood sentry at this historical site, twisted rusting metal a stark reminder of a terrible but war stopping event.
Not far away... cherry blossom annually beckoning a brighter future.
It was in both the Peace Memorial Park and Memorial
Hall & Museum where we learnt more about the impact this weapon had on the
city and its people, an estimated 140,000 resulting deaths.
Hiroshima is also famous for its Okonomiyaki or savoury crepe... very tasty!
Yes it helped end a war, but when you see photos of the physical sandpaper affect on people 8-9 kms from ground zero, shadows of bodies vapourised on stone walls and glass shards impregnating bricks and stone… well we simply hope it never happens again.
Only 2 train stops from Onoura is the JR ferry
terminals for a brief trip across to Miyajima Island, famous for it’s massive
‘floating’ vermillion tori gate set into the sea, denoting that the whole
island is sacred. It was yet again a
very popular destination with the Itsukushima Shrine and 5 storey pagoda. We really enjoyed a full day on the island,
at long last now we were bathed mostly in sun.
Yes it helped end a war, but when you see photos of the physical sandpaper affect on people 8-9 kms from ground zero, shadows of bodies vapourised on stone walls and glass shards impregnating bricks and stone… well we simply hope it never happens again.
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| Blasted remains of a kids bike |
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| The 'floating' tori gate of Miyajima Island above and Itsukushima Shrine & pagoda below |
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| ... and the street food was great on the island |
Aomori
We set a new fastest bullet train record of 322 kph
on the way to Aomori, located at the top of Honshu, the main island of Japan
where we were hoping for more cherry blossoms, but alas probably about 1 week
too early.
Didn’t expect to discover and learn about a quite
sophisticated community uncovered in an archaeological site near a town called
Hirosaka living ~5,500 to 4,000 years ago known as the Jamon period.
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| Max speed reached... 322 kph |
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| Aomori Harbour |
Style of structures the Jamon communities lived in nearly 5,500 years ago
Walked through some of the surrounding gardens of
the Hirosaki Castle built around 1611, with huge preparations underway for
their cherry blossom festival starting in 6 days.
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| Bridge leading to Hirosaki Castle |
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| These are real and very large floats used during the Nebuta Festival |
Hakodate
Hakodate is a city on the northern island of
Hokkaido, so we did a day trip to it from Aomori on yet another shinkansen,
this one travelling through the Seikan tunnel, the world's longest tunnel with
an undersea segment, 100 metres below the bottom of the Tsugara Strait. The tunnel is 53.85 kms long and 23.3 kms of
it is under the sea.
Hokadate was Japan’s first trading city with the
west and as a result and is home to a variety of western churches and architectural
styles quite familiar to us. During our
time in the city we visited a fort, took the ‘ropeway’ to the top of Mt Hakodate,
walked part of the old town and tried local seafood before returning to Aomori.
Nikko
Nikko sits in the mountains about 200 kms north
east of Tokyo and is undoubtedly popular due to its almost western and
definitely tourist orientated demeanour.
It is also the location of what is regarded as Japan’s most lavish
shrine, Toshogu, also the mausoleum of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate.
Part of its
decorations included intricate carvings of the 3 monkeys…
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| Nikko is home to the most lavish shrines we have ever seen - click on the link at end of post to seem more photos |
…and nearby in the
same complex is another stunning shrine called Taiyuinbyo.
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| The sacred Shinkyo Bridge leads to the shrines and temples. |
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| The sacred Shinkyo Bridge, Nikko |
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| Majestic Kegon Waterfall, Nikko National Park |
Sawara
This was a small town and not in our original
plans, we simply heard about it and went exploring. What a surprisingly delightful place, lovely
to walk through and once known as ‘little Edo’ due in part to the favourable
attention it received from the Emperor.
It is located a short 30 min train ride from Narita and being spring,
the locals were well into planting rice, their water filled fields all very
close to their homes.
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| Preparing their rice 'paddocks' |
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| Old town canal area of Sawara |
Whilst exploring the outskirts of the town, we
found small very private cemeteries and shrines, well away from the crowds that
were both poignant and serene.
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| A small serene shrine |
Narita
Our last stop in Japan was in the town of Narita,
an easy trip to the airport for our departure back home. Our expectations of Narita were low and how
wrong we were! It was a vibrant place
and busy, especially on the weekend, our last days in Japan.
We found ourselves walking down a street alive with
people, shops and food products of all sorts on offer to the passing parade,
smoke wafting into the air from small street side barbeques.
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| Freshly prepared fish straight to the table... |
Then we wandered into and through Naritayama Park,
with very large sprawling and beautifully crafted, gardens, 3 lakes filled with
large colourful carp and multiple large Buddhist temples, one of which was
erected in in 940 BC.
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| Some of the views within Naritayama Park, Narita |
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| The final sign we saw in Japan and typical of their sense of humour |
As usual there are links below to more photographs
of our time in Japan during 2017, we hope you will enjoy them:
1. CLICK HERE for more photos of Japan's Cherry Blossom Time
2. CLICK HERE for more photos of Japan's 'little things'
1. CLICK HERE for more photos of Japan's Cherry Blossom Time
2. CLICK HERE for more photos of Japan's 'little things'
