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  • Ceri Chaplin
  • Ceri Chaplin

Japan

Heading further East than I've ever been! En savoir plus
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  • Ceri ChaplinJapanVoyageur
    Takayama bridge1Sake tasting

    Takayama - day 2

    10 avril 2024, Japon ⋅ ☀️ 4 °C

    After breakfast we caught a local bus to the Hida folk village, about 10 minutes away from Takayama. The village is very much in the style of St Fagans or Beamish with a range of buildings that have been transported from where they were originally built.

    The buildings are all typical of the region but differ subtly in construction and look depending on where they were originally. For example, buildings with a much stronger roof because of the amount of snow that it would need to bear in the winter.

    The weather was much better today and with the sun out we spent a pleasant couple of hours wandering around before getting the bus back in to town.

    After a quick refreshment stop we next walked through the town and spent some time walking along the Higashiyama trail along the hillside where there is a row of about 13 temples and shrines. This brought us to Shiroyama park, a wooded area in higher ground where the old Takayama castle used to be. We stopped here and had a snack and a beer in the sun.

    Back in to town for a look around the craft shops. Takayama is famous for is craft including woodworkers. At 4pm we had a tour of a local sake brewery and learnt how sake is made, along with trying a few samples of different sake.

    After the tour we headed to the craft beer bar that we had been to the previous day before deciding that an early dinner might be easier given the problems that we had the last night in finding a place.

    We found a local steak place and had a delicious set meal including appetisers, bread, soup and Hida steak (the local speciality beef).

    After this we walked back to the hotel for an evening of cards in the rooftop lounge.    En savoir plus

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  • Ceri ChaplinJapanVoyageur
    Dinner with karaoke1111Ryokan beds

    Jigokudani snow monkey park and Yudanaka

    11 avril 2024, Japon ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    We had an early start and were on the train just after 7.30. We had two slow local trains taking us down to Toyama where we caught the Shinkansen through to Nagano. From here we took one final train up the valley to Yudanaka. The final train had the driver sitting above the carriage so you got great views from the front of the train.

    We arrived on time at 12.30 and walked the short distance to our hotel. The accommodation here is in the style of a Ryokan where you have to remove your shoes when in the building and the room is covered in tatami mats on the floor and traditional screens instead of doors once inside the room.

    We were able to check in and once we had sorted ourselves out we were offered a lift up to the entrance to the snow monkey park. From here it was a 30 minute easy walk to the area where the monkeys are. A particular troop of Japanese macaques have been bathing here since the 60's. The story about why they started to visit seems to have a couple of explanations but, evidently, they come down from the hills in the morning, lounge around in the hot springs or around the water all day, then return to the hills to sleep. They seemed completely unperturbed by the presence of the visitors.

    After spending around 45 minutes watching them we walked back down to the entrance where we had some food, a bowl of ramen. Next we walked back down the hill to the Ryokan and I took a trip to the hotels onsen. This is a room with a large pool in it filled with hot springs water. Men and women have to use different rooms and the expectation is that you enter naked. Fortunately, when I went, I had the place to myself! I didn't stay long though as the water was very very hot and constantly being topped up with fresh hot water.

    After cooling down we walked into town and eventually found a place for tea. The town looked largely shut up but the place we found when we opened the door was empty. The owner was friendly and despite her lack of English and our lack of Japanese we were able to order food.

    After we had eaten, the owner insisted on switching on the karaoke machine and wouldn't allow us not to take part. For the second time today I was glad that we were the only ones there. We both had a few attempts with the machine scoring you on each song for a range of things (which we couldn't understand but since included pouch, tone and timing).

    After a while we made our excuses and walked back to the hotel.    En savoir plus

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  • Ceri ChaplinJapanVoyageur

    Back to Tokyo

    13 avril 2024, Japon ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C

    We had a leisurely start with breakfast after a reasonable night's sleep (considering we were essentially sleeping on the floor!).

    Our train was scheduled at just before 10 so we left the hotel and walked the short distance downhill to the station. The train ride back to Nagano was just under an hour and when we got there we made our way to the bullet train platform to catch the train back to Tokyo. As usual, we arrived on time and as it was 12.30 we looked for somewhere to have food after leaving our luggage at a storage place.

    We looked for and found a sushi bar in the station complex and enjoyed ordering and trying out various dishes.

    From here we went back to Ueno park to see the cherry blossom which hasn't really started when we were in Tokyo before. In the just over two weeks that we had been away, the trees had fully blossomed and were already starting to turn green. Despite this, the park was still busy with people walking under the trees to see.

    From here we took the metro a couple of stops to see a massive electrical shop, Japanese style! It was like Currys on steroids with 8 floors crammed packed with just about every electronic gadget that you could think of... And dozens of signs having front the ceiling. We didn't try to see every floor though.

    It was, by now, mid afternoon and so we made our way back to Tokyo station, retrieved our luggage and then headed to our hotel for the night next door to the airport.

    We spent the rest of the day playing cards and sorting dinner photos before a final Japanese meal at a place situated in the terminal building.... More gyoza's and a disappointing Okonomiyaki. 🇯🇵    En savoir plus

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  • Ceri ChaplinJapanVoyageur

    Final reflections

    15 avril 2024, Angleterre ⋅ 🌬 11 °C

    So, our trip to Kapan is over and we're safely back home in Painswick following a very long journey via London and Manchester.

    During our trip we made good use of the bullet train (Shinkansen) with a top recorded speed of 186mph. We walked A LOT and covered 225 miles in the 18 days that we were in Japan itself!

    The country is fascinating, with ultra-polite people and good transport infrastructure. There are elements of technology that are cutting edge, which you might expect of Japan and the wifi in most places was extremely fast when uploading photos at the end of a day. However, alongside that technology there are also significant areas which don't seem to be so advanced. Many places still only accept cash and there is formality and bureaucracy that we don't get at home. Japan also felt a very safe place to be and was also relatively easy to navigate around.

    We saw lots of temples and shrines and despite some areas being pretty heavily bombed in the war, not just Hiroshima, there were plenty of examples of old preserved buildings to see.

    All in all we had a fantastic trip - I am sure there is plenty more to see should we decide to revisit!    En savoir plus

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    Fin du voyage
    13 avril 2024