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Uncle WoullyUncle Woully
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Dutch semi-retired multi lingual adventure traveler. Ski, bike, hike, fly Read more Colorado, United States of America
  • TravelerJapan
    Day 62

    Last day of Japan

    Yesterday in Japan ⋅ 🌬 23 °C

    The feeling is definitely that this kind of travel is for me.

    What I will miss about Japan? The Onsen and the food, how neat and organized everything is and Japanese punctuality. Despite the reputation for being extremely urbanized, which isn't untrue, the country has a lot of nature to explore. The people are great especially when you can speak a little bit of English with them. But there's also an element of reservation of a certain closedness of their culture to us westerners which is ingrained over the centuries.

    I make it an easy day for the last day. I was hoping to jump on a city bus double-decker open aired on this almost 80° day, but those reservations needed to be made a few days ahead. So I went to the imperial garden had some lunch and I'll be off to the subway shortly to get to Haneda airport.

    A slight delay is not much of an issue but does prompt me to get my flight simplified. I'll fly right into Denver and have more time in SF. I'll be looking for some live music tomorrow.    Read more

  • TravelerJapan
    Day 61

    Sunny Tokyo

    May 10 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    I'm staying in Asakusa, the gate and temple are nearby. It's a bright sunny day and I get some cough drops for the bunk mate who coughed all night.

    Into the metro to visit Emperor Naruhito's East gardens. I walk through the downtown office area, it's fairly quiet for a weekday, but in Japan people now work more from home just like in the West.
    The gardens are closed today, so I check out the moat and take the metro again to Ueno where there are street markets and museums.

    The weather couldn't be better. For dinner I go to the restaurant on top of the sky tree this is my last night in Japan and I am making it a treat. Fantastic views of the sunset and nightlights of Tokyo. Next to me is a single man also in his 60s. He's from Germany, Markus and I speak for a long time over dinner. He lost his wife to cancer last year, it was sudden she was perfectly healthy. Yet another reminder not to hold back. He retired when taking care of his wife now he could go back but he doesn't see the point of it anymore so he's traveling. His life revolves around his two sons who are on two different continents, so he tries to get them home for Christmas in Germany. The conversation moves to my meditations and I explain that I wrote the shortest book on Amazon and he goes online and buys it. I told him I would come to Karlsruhe to sign it for him.    Read more

  • TravelerJapan
    Day 60

    Tokyo Day

    May 9 in Japan ⋅ 🌙 13 °C

    Relaxed start of the day with a cup of coffee and tying some knots in preparation for my river guide class. I booked a massage for 30 minutes later.

    At the Sky Tree tower I find out I can book dinner on top for tomorrow so I defer the visit today. Then I set off for the Bonsai museum, which is just as long a walk as a combination bus and subway ride. It's sunny so I walk the hour and a half. Part of it is by a nice canal and I get lost a bit as my phone battery died. I charged it again in a 7 11.

    I spent 2 hours looking at the Bonsai. The trees I saw were hundreds of years old. If you crouched under the stand you could visualize being in a forest looking up and from that perspective these little trees were just as impressive as the big ones on Yakushima. The master was working on trimming a three foot tall Bonsai with an 8 inch diameter trunk as apprentices watched and helped repot this ancient tree. How many masters have worked on this living organism?

    I set off to Shinyuku by metro but it is so dissonant with this theme it will have to have it's own entry.    Read more

  • TravelerJapan
    Day 59

    From Onsen to Tokyo

    May 8 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    After check out I get into to another Onsen, this one turns out the best one so far. While walking to the bus I can feel and taste all the minerals my skin absorbed.

    In the station I meet the engineer who was involved in the building of all the giant train stations that I traveled through. He is part European and I can't tell at what level he operated in the company, he is so unassuming. We rode together on the train as well.

    In Tokyo I brace for the big city, I'm in a relatively quiet part and I walk around, so many tourists. It's cold and windy. I get a nice bowl of noodles and vegetables.    Read more

  • TravelerJapan
    Day 58

    To Kusatsu Onsen

    May 7 in Japan ⋅ 🌧 17 °C

    Time for a break from the active days on the coast. I'm leaving Tohono for the Nagano Alps via Tokyo, it's an 8 hour trip. I'm booked in an actual hotel with an Onsen.

    I saw my third Serow as it was running down the railroad track in front of the honking train that was riding through a tunnel of forest along a swift rocky creek.

    I'm standing in the Omiyo train station and I'm hearing bird song up above coming from the metal rafters while I'm looking out at the concrete jungle through the windows of the station, but when I close my eyes I'm right back in the green jungle that I spent the last 8 days in.

    I fall asleep on the Shinkansen and over each by a few stops. Oops on a bullet train that's a long ways off. I back track and catch a later bus.

    Tonight is my Japan splurge, a hotel with an Onsen. I soak and sleep at will until the morning.    Read more

  • TravelerJapan
    Day 57

    Kesennuma

    May 6 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    Leisurely ride on hostel bike through the port and fish market. Cruise on a tourist boat with seagulls flying all around catching snacks thrown by the tourists.

    Ebike rental enables ride around Oshima island. The Michinoku trail goes around it and I pick a few miles to hike and viewpoints.

    A black swallow tailed butterfly eats the nectar from the Azaleas, so occupied I can get fairly close and observe.

    I'm packed for tomorrow's train ride and go out for sushi. It's a chain but I really enjoyed it. Order a plate, it comes on the conveyor belt, order another, by the end I had quite a stack of plates and a full belly. Delicious.    Read more

  • TravelerJapan
    Day 56

    Ryoishi reboot Goishi coast

    May 5 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    I chose to go to Ryoishi. It looks like the trail hugs the coastline, but it turns out to be a forestry road and absolutely no views of the ocean. I thought about Goishi coast - the initial plan - and that today is the last sunny day. Google says there is a bus at 9:19 it is 8:32 and Google says it's over an hour away. I didn't hesitate and started running, recovered my big backpack and while I never thought I would really make it I actually beat the time by 7 minutes. I'm super sweaty.

    On the bus I said to a talkative young Japanese woman who just visited her parents for Golden week, now she's in her way back to work, coffee roasting in Tokyo.

    The instant decision to go to Goishi Coast pays off. On this fantastic 80° sunny day I walk along a beach and reach a single track that overlooks rocky crags and I manage to break through some more thickets, this one was tough, but it is absolutely worth it. Mesmerizing wave action in thunder cove. The Pacific swells hit the coast in such a way that they produce a deep loud thunder on impact.

    It's 2 p.m. and I reach the Onsen. I was wondering if there was a bus but there isn't one. The old son has a restaurant but I am too stinky, so I decide to go in the Olsen and risk relaxing too much in the hot bath because I know I still have a 2-hour walk back to the bus terminal. I have a fabulous meal of meat, rice, seaweed and other vegetables on the terrace overlooking a rocky bay.

    Long day, I'm pooped and I'm on the bus, 56 minutes to the new hostel.    Read more

  • TravelerJapan
    Day 55

    Funakoshi

    May 4 in Japan ⋅ 🌙 14 °C

    I get a late start had breakfast in the hostel. By eleven I disembarked the train and started walking towards the coast. Ran into a Japanese family and we briefly spoke after I had taken a family picture for them.

    Taking a side track to the beach I find another marvelous rocky spot, sun drenched, peaceful, not a soul. It's golden week but the tourists aren't here, neither are the 8 billion other people on this planet. I get a little drowsy and could go down for a nap but instead i decide to hike again to see more of this coast, there is a viewpoint to possibly reach, it doesn't look too far despite the late start. I have to jump start my energy again and start climbing back to the track. Back down to the beach again and then up. It kept going up... all the way to 305 meters, which is the highest place I have been on this coast. Feels good to have a nice sweat. Back down I have lunch, but it might be time to take the short cut back to town and the train. I get saved by the bus that drops me off at the hospital no less, hey I'm not that bad off - just a bit tired.

    While waiting on the bus back I climb the dyke to be in the sun and be a good Dutchman by putting my finger in it.

    In the hostel I meet Ben from Ireland who lives in Japan and a Japanese student who lived in Fort Collins when he was 8. Nice conversations and some intel on Tokyo.    Read more

  • TravelerJapan
    Day 54

    Tanesashi coast

    May 3 in Japan ⋅ 🌙 13 °C

    I catch the 5:00 a.m. train and make it all the way up to Ikoku station by 8:30. It's sunny, it's warm but the wind is blowing very hard. I walk onto the beach and enjoy stepping in the sand. Walking along the trail in the thickets under the trees there is no wind but my intuition tells me there is something on the right and I bust through some of the vegetation to find a big flat rock that offers a wonderful panoramic view of the coast. I sat there for almost an hour just lost in the beauty.

    The path follows along the big natural lawn and a long beach. The wind mostly went overhead as it was coming from inland. At the end of the beach I take my shoes off, walk in the sand and put my feet in the Pacific Ocean. It's a wonderful spot. But I have not been able to find much for food except for extremely busy tourist cafes. So I decide to walk into Hachinohe. Unfortunately it's a city and I'm fully exposed to the wind which is gale force. I'm still grateful for the beauty of this morning.

    I catch the 2:45 back for the 3 hour return trip Get off midway and find home made fresh tofu, is melt in your mouth smooth. The hostel is quiet tonight.    Read more

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