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Japan

March - May 2024
And off the beaten track first time exploration of a completely new to me culture. Read more
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  • TravelerJapan
    Day 62

    May 11 - San Francisco

    May 11 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    But wait - there's more. Courtesy of the dateline I get to live May 11 twice!

    SF: I know this city really well having lived in California for 9 years and first visited in 1981. Coming in from Japan the difference in culture is quite obvious. But it becomes really obvious in the evening when I walk by a Cafe where there is a live three-person band from Columbia that is just ripping it up, I haven't seen anything like that in Japan in the whole two months. Sure the Japanese have excellent musicians but they're very exacting yet restrained which fits with their culture. If you're looking for live music in Tokyo you will pretty much only find jazz. Now I'm sitting on a terrace outside in San Francisco. Those do not exist in Tokyo, even less with a live band right there halfway in the street. Yes there is a pile of trash on the corner and you won't see that in Japan. I'm on my second Irish coffee and it feels great to be back in the USA, it's just so much more alive. San Francisco is not even 1/10 the size of Tokyo but it has 100 times the life!

    Just as it couldn't get any better then it does! Thanks John Hartford for letting me use your lyrics. I walked into this bar ...

    A drum set stood in the corner, the bass player is getting ready and I talk to him a bit. Conversations! Finally! I'm already happy but there is more music to be had and the Bart doesn't go to the airport until 1:06am, I've got time. Well it just turns out that this was the best evening in a bar in all my life! The guitar player was powerful, clean, super showman and the rhythm section was pounding. The crowd communicated back to this charismatic star. The energy flowed back and forth, as he was having fun coaxing on the ladies and they responded. I danced with the kids and we all had a riot of a time.    Read more

  • TravelerJapan
    1
    Day 62

    May 11 - Tokyo

    May 11 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 and a certain kind of closedness of their culture to us westerners which has been ingrained over the centuries. It wasn't until admiral Perry presented his fleet in front of their coasts in the late 1800s that the pressure mounted for them to open up. The feudal system, the samurai ways and what we consider disregard of life has engendered the need for an extremely regulated and rigid culture.

    I make it easy for the last day. I was hoping to jump on a city double-decker open air bus 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.

    The slight flight 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, wait no that's still today courtesy of the dateline!

    The flight out of Tokyo is like a joyride, the pilot manages to take a left turn, dips the wing down just right to get me the best view of the tower and the downtown that I just viewed from the restaurant yesterday. It's a fantastic flight, you couldn't have asked for better. It's so good to be alive in this time.    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

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