Typhoon Dujuan and how I lost Cheryl
September 19 in Canada
☁️ 18 °C
Okay it sounds quite bad but I can explain. Around 6 pm last night we got a message that our flights to Japan had been cancelled and they would rebook us on other flights. As a iron tier level of frequent flying status with Westjet I knew this would be bad news. I have no seniority for rebooking flights or anything with an airline. I quickly got on the phone to Westjet and talked to a very helpful agent from El Salvador. One complicating factor was that Cheryl and I were booked on different bookings as she is coming back after 3 weeks and I am staying on for the International Association of Pathologists conference in Fukuoka. The agent told me that he was able to rebook us both on September 19 our planned departure day on a coshare Japan Airline flight from Vancouver to Tokyo. That was perfect until we got the confirmatory emails from Westjet and he had mistakenly booked us out on separate days. Me on Saturday and Cheryl on the same flight on Sunday. I called back to Westjet but was on hold for eternity and when I did get a hold of a different agent everything was totally booked out. There were no other options. I made another two calls to Westjet and Cheryl when she dropped me off at the airport even came into the airport and talked to a counter agent but unfortunately there were no other options. So that is the story of how I have lost my wife. Cheryl is supposed to fly out tomorrow but there is a Typhoon barreling towards Tokyo which is why our Calgary flight was cancelled which doesn't make much sense as all these other flights are flying. Hopefully we will reunite.
Some observations from my trip so far. The Haida art in Vancouver airport is better than the Haida Art I saw in Haida Gwaii. Japan airlines keeps their cabins very warm. 25 degrees Celsius. It is very warm on the plane. The meals on the plane have been wonderful. They even have real cutlery. The boarding of the flight was very civilized. No one was rushing the gate other than myself. I haven't slept. The flight left at 2 pm and arrives at midnight Vancouver time. There were some empty seats on the flight which was unfortunate as Cheryl couldn't get a ticket. Maybe they were no shows. When the plane departed from the gate all of the booking agents and ground crew came on to the tarmac and waved us good bye. It was very cute.
I am a little nervous about getting to my air BnB. I have to take a train and then walk. I haven't gotten any instructions from the Air BnB on entry although I know the address.
Well everything worked out with the air BnB. I bought a meal from 7:11 and brought it back for reheating at the Air BnB. I walked around a little last night but with the typhoon it is really pelting it down. I stayed awake until 8:30 and was lulled to sleep by antihistamines and the rainfall. I checked my phone at 3:30 to see that Cheryl had successfully left Edmonton. I fell back asleep and when I awoke at 6 I learned that Cheryl's Vancouver to Tokyo flight had been cancelled and that she was standing in a very long JAL line trying to get rebooked on to Narita. Eventually after standing in line for a very long time she has been rebooked on an Air Canada flight leaving on September 22 meaning she will miss 3 of the 4 nights in Tokyo which is unfortunate but I was worried that she would be delayed even longer and I was having to consider how we would alter our trip. She will stay in a hotel in Richmond for 2 nights.
It rained like I have never experienced today in Tokyo. At times sheets of rain. The Japanese don't seem terribly put off by the rain. They all have umbrellas but no raincoats. They seem to take it in good stride. Today with the rain I decided it would be a good art gallery museum day. It is a national day for the aged so all the museums were open despite it being a Monday. The main congregation of museums is in Ueno park. I hit the Tokyo Ntl museum, the western art museum and finally the Japanese museum of art. They were all very good. It seems odd coming to Japan for western art but there have obviously been donations from wealthy Japanese of their art collections. The Japanese art gallery had on loan a collection of art and antiquities on loan from the British museum. It was actually better than their permanent collection. Not many photos of Tokyo today. It was raining so hard I was worried about getting my phone wet.
It is still absolutely pouring with rain as I tap this blog out before supper. I am not looking forward to going back outside.Read more
Shinjuki City
September 22 in Japan
☀️ 29 °C
It finally stopped raining yesterday and it was a beautiful sunny day. My plan for the day was to head over on the subway to Shinjuku city. It served two purposes. We will be leaving from Shinjuku station when we take the train to Matsumoto on Thursday. I wanted to get our tickets that I had bought online printed off which could only be done at the station and I wanted to case the place out so I knew what platform I was going to etc. and to ensure that we didn't get lost. I am really glad that I planned this stop as it took easily an hour to get this all shorted out. It would have been very stressful doing this all on Thursday without missing our train.
After that I headed over to the Tokyo Municipal museum which is a very tall skyscraper allowing free access to their observation platform on the 44 floor. There was a bit of a line up but it moved quickly and in less than half an hour I was admiring the city from very high up. Better than a bird's eye view. The most notable sight was a honeycomb building. After that I proceeded to walk to the Shinjuku National Garden. I love walking around Japanese gardens and it offered some respite from the busy urban area. Very large garden with a fine Japanese garden but not the best that I have been to. The world has done a very good job perfecting the Japanese garden. After wandering around the garden and a picnic lunch I had bought from 7 11 I wandered around the skyscraper city of Shinjuku taking in some of the high end shopping areas that had all of the luxury chains such Louis Vuitton. It wasn't as peaceful as the garden.
When I grew up in the 70s, cheaply made English dubbed Godzilla movies were the rage. I think watching these movies has affected my impression of Japan. Some thing were correct such as the wonderful uniforms worn by all of their government workers and the bowing. The Japanese love bowing. I think we should adopt this practice in Canada. The women all talk in high pitched voices just like in the movies. I did get a chuckle when I came across a Godzilla overlooking a skyscraper. The Japanese are still fostering the Godzilla craze. The other interesting thing was a large billboard of a three D cat which was pretty neat. It was fun walking around taking in the sights and the Japanese vibe.
My good colleague Brinda had suggested looking into getting new glasses when I was in Japan. They are supposedly much cheaper than Canada. The chain known for a fast turn around time is known as JSIN. I am staying across the street from a mall with a JSiN store so I headed over to the mall around 2:30 on my return from Shinjuku with my prescription. I had done a little research ahead of time and learned that with stronger prescriptions and astigmatisms that I have the cost and turn around time increases. It was a public holiday in Japan and the mall was packed with shoppers as was the glass shop. When I finally got the attention of a sales clerk after a very long wait, I was told that no one spoke English in the store. Trying to go through the process of buying progressive glasses with a bad prescription wasn't going to work. I wasn't part of their business model. I wasn't even sure that I liked any of their glasses. I cut my losses and left without a new pair of glasses. Maybe if the store had been dead quiet it would have worked.
Today I was up early so headed off the Asusuka to check out a series of temples and shrines known as Sensoji, Japan's oldest Buddhist temple from 600 AD however it looked more modern. It draws 30 million tourists and pilgrims a year so getting their early without many tourists made it much more of an enjoyable experience. I was finished at the temple by eight so I walked along the Sumida river down to the Edo Tokyo museum. As it didn't open until 9:30, I chilled out in a coffee shop before heading over to the museum. It was very busy mainly with Japanese people rather than tourists. It is a history museum of Tokyo and it had both life sized buildings and scale models which were kind of neat. I find going to a museum in Japan can be a frustrating experience. Because they are all so polite, they just stand in line and patiently wait if someone ahead of them is taking more time with a painting or object. This results in long lineups because they will never pass anyone. I just went to the second floor and started looking at the exhibits there literally by myself as all the Japanese were backed up on the 1st floor. Crazy. These museums just contain so much information that one could have spent the whole day at the museum and still not read anything. I lasted for an hour.
I went souvenir shopping after the museum. I wandered back towards the Sensoji and back to the tourist area checking out some antique stores but they were closed. Today is a holiday in Japan so it isn't really clear what is opened and what is closed. I kept walking as there was a shop that sold Japanese woodprints which I really love. The shop sold woodprints of famous woodprints. The owner and other artists would make woodprints of more famous historic woodprints as they weren't under any copyright protection and reprint them. The owner was in fact a Canadian who had moved to Japan in 1986 and had carved the wood that they use for printing many of the prints. They were all so beautiful but I only had space for a small one that would fit into my carry on luggage.
I headed back to my Air BnB. It wasn't far but I was flagging so took a bus. After a rest I headed out to a bakery about 15 minutes from us to stock up on some food for breakfast and for lunch on the train when we head out to Matsamuto tomorrow. I asked the shopkeeper what her favourite sweet item in the shop was and she picked out this one packaged dessert. In Japan one shouldn't walk around eating so I ate it in the store. It was a bun with a slab of butter and smooth slightly sweetened red bean paste pushed into it. Of all the desserts in the shop, this was her favourite. Crazy. I walked back to our Air BnB in the rain stopping at a supermarket to buy some Sushi for supper.
I just received an update from Cheryl and she has finally landed in Tokyo which is great news. Nothing like a typhoon to interrupt one's holiday.Read more
Matsumoto
September 25 in Japan
☀️ 27 °C
We said Sayonara to Tokyo on Thursday as we were headed off to Matsamuto in the Japanese Alps.
Cheryl has reunited with me after finally making it to Japan from Vancouver. She befriended another woman who she had met while in the line waiting to get her seats rearranged. Mackie was a Japanese woman who had been living in Winnipeg for 20 years and was heading back to Japan for a family reunion. They shared a hotel room in Richmond for 2 nights before their flight left and also spent a day in Vancouver visiting Stanley park. Cheryl enjoyed the company.
When I told some of my co-musicians in my Baroque group in Edmonton that I was visiting Japan, Maria who is a music teacher suggested that I visit Dr. Shinichi Suzuki's house. I don't think Maria had any idea where the house was located and even where we were planning to go. To humor her I told her that I would look into it not thinking it would amount to much. When I did look into the location of his memorial house I realized that it was located less than 1 km from where we were staying in Matsamuto. Who is Dr. Shinichi Suzuki you may ask? He was a visionary musician educator who developed the Suzuki School of Music with the concept that children could learn music at a very early age. Dr Suzuki moved to Matsumoto in 1946 and lived in the house from 1952 to 1994. Our 3 children had all Suzuki music so we were all ingratiated to Suzuki music and what an important worldwide role Dr. Suzuki had played in music education. After arriving and checking into our accommodation we headed off to the museum. We were quite excited but when we arrived it looked pretty closed. We squeezed through a partially closed barrier to at least get a closer look at the house and tried the door and it was open. The museum was officially closed but there was an administrator working and he was generous enough to give us a tour. We saw Dr Suzuki's music room, study and sitting room. In the Japanese tradition, he had a kneeling desk. The guide also showed us the 8 track tape where Dr. Suzuki would listen to tapes of students recorded from all over Japan and probably at first around the world when they completed each level of music. He would listen to 40 of these tapes a day a write a precis of their performance. We also saw his ashtray collection as he smoked 3 packs of cigarettes per day. The music room was filled with accolades and honorary degrees from around the world. It was very touching and I so glad that Maria made the suggestion.
Today we were up early as we are still jet-lagged and thought it would be good to take on Matsamuto's most notable tourist attraction early before it became too crowded. The Matsamuto castle is a large wooden castle dating back to 150 that was located in a large moated and walled keep. It was the last place of retreat if your enemies attacked you. Think Shogun and Samurai warriors. Normally I don't go into castles as they are better from the outside than the inside but when will I ever be in Japan again. It was neat to walk into the castle and see the beautifully built wooden structure that was over 400 years old.These castles were susceptible to fire and there are only 4 others still in existence in Japan. I imagined what it would have been like as a Samurai under siege in the castle. Because we were at the castle right at the opening and there were no crowds we whisked through the castle in 30 minutes whereas with crowds it typically takes 2 hours to get through the castle as there are many treacherous stairs and things can get very congested. We wandered through town looking into shops and admiring the very ornate manhole covers. We came across a beautiful building with a large pendulum clock on the outside and realized that we had arrived at the clock museum. Mr Chikazo Honda, a wealthy engineer had donated his watch collection to the Matsamuto Museum and they had finally built a dedicated museum for the collecting.All of the watches and clocks were functional and it was so neat listening to them chime on the quarter hour. My favourite clocks were the swing clock and rolling ball clock.
We continued our meandering walk through town stopping at a bakery and coffee shop. After a break at our Air BnB we finished our activities for the day at the Matsumoto art gallery where we were dazzled by the brilliant Polka Dart art of Yayoi Kusama, a native of Matsumoto. The art gallery would have been difficult to have been missed as the front of the building was covered in polka dots and there were large ceramic flowers guarding the front door of the museum. The other interesting collection of art we saw was of these two painters who had lived in Matsamuto and had painted the Japanese Alps. It reminded me of home.
The other mention of famous sons of Matsumoto is Tomoyuki "Yūkō" Tanaka who created and produced the Godzilla movies from 1954 to 1994. This was born witness by a very large Godzilla model in the train station. Given my childhood proclivity for Godzilla movies, I thought it was important to bear witness to this fact.Read more
Hirayu Onsen, the gurgling city
September 26 in Japan
🌧 18 °C
We have now spent two days in the gurgling village of Hirayu Onsen in the Japanese Alps. When I planned the trip I wanted to spend some time away from the large metropolitan masses of Japan and experience rural Japan so this is why I chose the Japanese Alps. Hirayu Onsen is also very close to Kamikochi Ntl Park. Initially I had tried to book accommodation in the Ntl park but it was pretty booked up and very expensive so we settled on Hirayu.
The Japanese have an excellent transportation system so we took a bus up here from Matsumoto. We arrived early afternoon and as we couldn't check into our accommodation until 3 pm we stored our luggage at the bus station and wandered around the small village.
It is a tourist village with many hotels, a very large modern bus terminal, a smattering of restaurants and two public onsens. An onsen is the Japanese word for a hot spring. Hirayu is sitting in the mountainous area of Japan known for it's geothermal activity which combined with all the rain they receive here makes it one of the most onsened areas in Japan. In addition to the public onsens, all of the hotels have onsens. A good onsen is known for having a high flow through rate of water for cleanliness. I checked online and it said that low flow onsens are predisposed to Legionnaires disease from an aerosolized bacteria. I certainly didn't want that. Once the water passes through the onsens it is carried out into the gutter system around town before being carried away to the river. There is a constant stream of hot water gurgling through the village associated with steam rising from the gutters. At night and in the morning, the steam has a really neat visual effect rising from the gutters. Many of the hotels and restaurants have troughs collecting hot water at the front of their establishments which some use for boiling eggs or tomatoes. All of this water flowing through town has a very auditory effect as the village is constantly gurgling. The other unique thing about Hirayu is that if one looks past the modern hotels up into the mountains, it has the appearance of an ancient Japanese scroll painting as there appear to be low lying clouds hugging the mountains.
After wandering around town and taking in the Buddhist temple, a small outdoor museum, the various culinary delights being boiled in the hot water, we headed out for an early traditional Japanese supper of pizza. Our sleep wake cycles are still a little off so we have been going to bed at 830 and awaking at 5 am. Kind of crazy. We returned to our hotel and had a private onsen at the hotel which really knocked us out leading to even an earlier bedtime.
Of course it goes without saying that we were up very bright and early the next morning, maybe 4:30. This was our only non rainy day here in Hirayu so after stocking up with some food we took a bus into Kamikochi Ntl park and did about a 12 km hike along the valley floor with spectacular views of the mountains. It was very busy but not as busy as the Ntl parks in Croatia. Maybe like Lake Louise in the summer. It was fun looking at the Japanese hikers. We were even passed by a woman wearing dress shoes which was a little humbling.
We chatted with a female ranger who tried to give us a leaflet about bear safety. We told her we were from Canada and were familiar with bears. She told us that she had just returned from a year and a half in Banff where she had worked in hotels and the hospital. What a small world. The Japanese are obsessed with bear encounters. There are bears in the area but there are so many people on the trails that no self respecting bear would be found anywhere near them. All of the Japanese hikers are wearing these small high pitched bear bells. It sounds like a sleigh ride. They even have stationary bells along the route which everyone rings as they walk by and there are a lot of people walking by. The bears are probably habitualized to the bell sound otherwise they would go crazy. The one animal that we did want to see was a Japanese monkey who lives in the forests around here but we didn't have any monkey sightings.
We stopped at a cafe at the end of our hike and treated ourselves to some tea and cheesecake before hiking back to the Kamikochi bus terminal and a drive back to Hirayu. Despite the level walking, we were both very tired on our return to Hirayu. I afforded myself the luxury of a brief afternoon nap. We chose a more traditional restaurant for supper and I had a curry udon bowl and Cheryl had a hot tempura shrimp udon bowl.
Our last two accommodations have had traditional Japanese futon beds and bamboo flooring. It's like sleeping on a deflated thermorest. It looks good in the photos but not as comfortable as a Western bed.
We however do love the Japanese toilets. They are electronic and have heated seats, self flushing features and bidets. The Japanese must be the cleanest people on the planet.Read more
Waterlogged in Hiruya Onsen
September 28 in Japan
🌧 21 °C
We were so lucky to have had a rain free day in Kamikochi Ntl park on Sunday. It started pouring rain Sunday night and continued pouring rain all day Monday and it was still raining Tuesday when we left for Takayama. On the advice of Gemini we decided to take the bus to a nearby village which supposedly had an outdoor museum, an open air market and a public onsen. It was only 15 minutes away. When we arrived the rain had eased up a little and we got off the bus and walked through town. The place was deserted. There was no one around and many of the hotels seemed closed. We walked through the town and back and found the open market which was closed as was much of the open air museum. There was a pretty shrine and graveyard behind the museum that we checked out but otherwise the town seemed closed until next summer. I checked when the next bus was coming and fortunately we didn't have to wait too long.
I had noticed another tourist attraction that was on our way back to Hiruya . The Okuhida Bear Ranch. I presumed it was a zoo with bears so we got off at the bus stop by the ranch. We walked up an access road and entered the park. The park was a bit of a surprise. It looked like what zoos looked like in the 60s. Large concrete areas void of any trees filled with Asiatic bears. All of the bears looked healthy but still having to live in a concrete bunker seemed a little grim. They looked a little smaller than North American black bears and have a white crest on their chest. One could buy food to feed them. It was like hard dog food. They would stand on their hind feed and beg for the food. We met a Swiss family and they also thought the place looked a little stark and they also felt sorry for the beard. We left a little saddened and took the bus back to Hiruya.
The last adventure I had planned for the day was a hike to a nearby waterfall. It was a 30 minute hike from town but when we got off the bus it was raining so hard we changed our minds and headed to Cafe Mustach for a warm drink and a piece of chestnut cake. The very last adventure I had for the day was a visit to this historic public outdoor onsen associated with a collection of old houses- a mini outdoor museum. It had a traditional men's and women's divided onsen. There were only 2 local Japanese men onsening when I went and Cheryl said there was no one on her side. It was very pleasant sitting in the hot water and the rain. Of course I can only handle 10 minutes in a hot tub or onsen so I didn't soak for as long as the locals. We went out for an early supper before an early bedtime lulled to sleep by the poring rain.
The next morning when we woke up, it was still pouring rain. What with the rain and all the onsening, I felt I was getting pretty waterlogged. I had one more Onsen at our hotel before we caught the 8:30 bus to Takayama, an hour bus ride away. It afforded us one more opportunity to take in the beautiful Misty mountains and then a farming area with rice fields and drying rice.
It was still raining lightly when we got to Takayama. The Air BnB owner said we could leave our luggage inside the door of the apartment building and he would move the luggage into our unit when it had been cleaned. We were to Tokoyama by 930 which seemed a little early to drop off our luggage so we chilled at a nearby Starbucks for a while before dropping off our luggage. Given the persistence of the rain, I thought our best bet was an outdoor museum a short bus ride away. The museum consisted of 200 to 300 year old houses, workshops and some shrines many of which had been moved to Takayama when they had built hydroelectric dams in the 80s. It was very well laid out and the signage was in English and Japanese so it was very good. The roofs of all of the houses were thatched and the beams and supports were all made from beautiful wood. They also had some small fields for rice cultivation. Takayama and the outdoor museum had the most number of Caucasian tourists that we have seen so far on the trip. I had noticed on Google maps on the way to the open air museum, a branch of the Takayama art gallery only a 5 minute bus ride away. It was only 2 and we weren't allowed into our Air BnB until 3 so we decided it was worth a visit. After getting off the bus stop and walking towards the art gallery, something seems a little off. I thought we had taken a wrong turn as the building looked more like a hotel. Cheryl insisted that we were heading in the right direction. We both ended up being correct as the museum consisted of an art nouveau and art deco glass collection which was located in a very high end hotel. A local collector of this glass collection had donated to Takayama and they had decided to house it in this high end hotel. The glass collection was exquisite with beautiful glass works many from France. We were the only ones visiting and when we were finished we got the hotel shuttle bus back into town.Read more
Higashiyama Walking Course
September 30 in Japan
☀️ 15 °C
We had one full day in Takayama. Takayama is the most touristy of any location we have been to in Japan. Lots of Europeans, some Americans and surprisingly a fair number of South Americans. I only have so much patience for touristy stores so after a brief walk through a very touristy open air market and a walk through the old town we headed off to do the Higashiyam walk. Starting at a beautiful public library we walked to the northern part of town were there were multiple beautiful shrines and gardens and cemeteries. Many of the cemeteries were located in these beautiful cedar forests. There was lots of walking up and down steps to various shrines. Multiple signs warned us of the dangers of bears. There were some very impressive gardens and landscaping associated with the shrines. We finished the hike with a walk through Shiroyama park. Shiroyama park is a large park located on a very hilly area just south of the shrine walk. It had been the location of Takayama castle. We wandered off the main trail onto minor trails into the centre of the park and found the ruins of the Takayama castle and some nice views of the surrounding miuntains. More bear warnings and many large bear bells along the route. They also had several bathrooms all with radios playing tuned into a jazz radio station. We presumed this music was to keep the bears out of the bathrooms. Who would have that that bears don't like Jazz music. There were also multiple signs to advise people not to mistake the Japanese Serow for a bear. A Japanese Serow is an goat/antelope with a lot of fur that people often mistake for bears throwing people into an unnecessary panic. Kind of crazy. I guess the serow are habitualized and will readily approach people looking for free food. If people mistake them for bears this could become a rather absurd situation.We didn't see any bears or Serow. All the jazz music and bell ringing must have kept them all away. I have included a photo of a Serow from the internet for people to see how one could easily mistak a serow for a bear if one was outdoor naive.
We did see a very beautiful exotic looking butterfly known as a Silver washed fritillary. My friend David who I met in elementary school is an entomologist. Whenever I see a butterfly on my travels I photograph it and send it to him. I have thought on many occasions when taking these photos that the butterflies would be easier to catch then photograph. Cheryl has just become used to me following these butterflies off the trail into undergrowth. My hope is that I will be able to find a butterfly that stumps David but he got back very quickly with the answer and reported that it was a very common subarctic butterfly found in Europe and Asia.
We finished our walk at 12:30 and bought a convenience store lunch which we enjoyed by the river. We had been going strong since 7:30 am. It was also quite warm and sunny at 28 degreesI just didn't have the energy for any further sightseeing so we headed back to the Air BnB and chilled out. For supper I made a chicken, potato, carrot and onion curry. I had noticed that they had Golden Curry packs at the grocery store so I thought we would take a break from eating out. Eating out here is affordable however the Japanese curry that I had in Hiruya Onsen seemed to be lacking on the meat. I think I enjoyed mine much better.
At 6 pm everyday the Japanese municipalities throughout Japan test their emergency response system by playing music. In Takayama they play Dvorak 3 movement of his 9th symphony "Going home". The emergency response speaker was just outside are apartment building. It was actually quite pleasant.
Tomorrow we are travelling to Kanawaza on the west side of Japan. We will take the train to Toyoma and then transfer to another train that will take us on to Kanawaza.Read more
Travel days and bullet trains.
October 1 in Japan
☀️ 27 °C
We have 2 travel days. When I planned the trip I realized that going from Takayama to Kyoto was either going to take a several hour train trip or we could divide the trip into 2 parts and travel on our first day to Kanazawa overnight and continue onto Kyoto the next day. The trips on both days went very smoothly. I was a little worried as we had to transfer from one train to another but everything was well signed in the stations and I had chosen schedules that allowed us at least 20 to 30 minutes between connections. The only other confusion with the trip was the number of tickets that one received for the trip. There was a basic fare ticket, two reservation tickets and one ticket for riding the bullet train. One had to enter different combinations of these tickets into the various turnstiles that one encounters. Earlier in the trip I had entered the wrong tickets and they had become stuck in one of the turnstiles which caused some duress. Thank goodness for google Gemini. Gemini was able to explain all of the transfer steps and which tickets should be used at which transfer site and on entering the stations. Priceless help.
We rode on some bullet trains which were very fast and those segments with the bullet trains just flew by. Having travelled on fast trains in Europe, it wasn't a totally unique experience but still very fun. The interesting phenomenon I noticed on the trains was how quickly people get on and off. These trains run on time and people are all typically lined up to get off the train before it is stopped.
We didn't arrive in Kanazawa until around 2 pm. Our Air BnB was chosen because it was a whole house very close to the train . We decided we only had time for one thing in Kanazawa so we settled on the Kenrokuen garden rated Japanese 3rd most beautiful garden. We wandered around taking in the beauty of the garden. Many of the tree branches had grown very long and were propped up by only faintly visible poles. That's the secret of how the Japanese are able to get that appearance to their trees in their gardens. After one circuit of the garden we started to fade. We left the garden for a drink and snack hoping to be revived but afterwards just decided to head back to our Air BnB. We hadn't made any decision regarding supper but that decision was made for us when we returned to the accommodation. Just down the street from us was this Ramone noodle restaurant that opened at 5:30. By 5 there was a line up already starting. We got in the line at 5:15 and had to wait to get into the restaurant but had a great Ramon bowl for supper. Always a good sign when the locals are lining up for a restaurant.
The next day we headed back to the station and headed on to Kyoto. While at the Kanazawa train station we noticed a digital water clock that sprayed little jets of water to show the date and to show greetings. It was very neat. Our trip to Kyoto was pretty uneventful. Our train was a little delayed from a suicide on the track earlier in the day. I can just imagine how a body would look if it was hit by a trip. Well I am a pathologist so I do think about these things.
We managed our train transfers and tickets well and arrived at 1 pm and we're met at our Air BnB by our host YoYo. We are staying in a traditional 100 year old Japanese house.The kitchen isn't really in the house but to the side of the house kind of as a transition from outside to inside. There are bedrooms upstairs requiring navigating some very steep steps. All the furniture in the house requires one to sit on the floor. To access the bath, shower and toilet one has to go outside into the garden. It is very unique. It is not a simple trip if one has to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. One has to navigate down the steep stairs, down again into the kitchen, through the kitchen and then into the back yard. It goes without saying that I left a few lights on overnight to navigate this perilous journey to the bathroom. The other nice thing about our accommodation is that it is in a non-touristy part of town which is pretty unique as Kyoto seems pretty touristy. It was nice to walk around after supper and take in the true experience of living in JapanRead more
Tour de Kyoto
October 4 in Japan
☁️ 21 °C
Of course with a name like Tour de Kyoto our adventure on Saturday was to rent some bikes and bike around Kyoto. When I did my research for the trip I learned that Kyoto is a very bike able and as soon as we arrived I realized that was a truth as there are bicyclists everywhere. We rented our bikes from 100 Bikes and coffee shop. The 3 workers that we dealt with all had excellent English. Probably the best we had experienced in Japan. One had lived in Australia and the other had lived in Detroit when he was young with his parents who held jobs in the automobile sector.
Our initial plan had been to bike to Eastern Kyoto and visit some of the shrines and temples there. The bike rental employees all recommended against this option as they reported that there was so much traffic associated with the tourism it wouldn't be safe or enjoyable. They recommend biking to West Kyoto to the Arashiyama area and visit the shrines there before heading north and visiting some of the more Northern shrines. It seems like every street in Kyoto other than the major streets are bike zones so we meandered through the back alleys before joining up with Katsura river and heading north into Arashiyama and a flood or should I say a tsunami of tourists. I had researched where to go in advance. There is a large Bamboo forest in Arashiyama which I had been trying to avoid as it has a reputation as being very busy with tourists but it was the only route to a highly recommended garden known as the Okochisanso garden. We got off our bikes and pushed them through the bamboo forest which was really neat however it was packed with people at 10 am in the morning. All the Europeans and North Americans were walking on the right and all the Japanese were walking on the left which didn't help with the pedestrian flow. We made it to the garden and it was nice to get off the path and away from the throngs of tourists. It was a pretty Japanese garden but again not the prettiest I had been in. There were other temples and gardens in the area but it was too over crowded for our liking. Gemini suggested heading up north so we biked up to Kinkakuji temple in the north again meandering along backstreets and one major road. This temple was busy but not crazy with tourists. The notable feature was a golden temple on a picturesque pond. Very pretty and photogenic. After we had finished at this temple we decided that we had had enough of the temple/tourist scene so decided to return the bikes after a short sidetrack to a store known as Montbell, the Japanese equivalent of Mountain Equipment Company, an outdoor store. Cheryl had lost her hat a couple days ago and needed a replacement. A very nice outdoor store and I was able to suppress my fetish for outdoor jackets. They had some beautiful ones there. We finally returned the bikes to 100 Bikes having biked approximately 27 km and completed a loop of northern Kyoto. We were exhausted. The only other interesting experience on our travels was stopping at a grocery store where the staff's uniforms looked like something out of the video game Super Mario.
Today we were faced with a difficult decision. We could do the Eastern temples but then have to face even more tourists than Saturday didn't seem very appealing. It was also recommended that to avoid the crowds that one should arrive by 6 am and even then one of the YouTube videos I watched taken at 6 am seemed pretty busy. We consulted our Air BnB host and she recommended the Tofukuji temple in southern Kyoto which was known for it's garden and beautiful temple but was off the traditional tourist route. After a fairly long bus ride and a slight navigation misadventure on my part when Google maps took us to the Tofukuji guest house instead of the temple. The temple was perfect. It had several large beautiful buildings including a large Zen gate. It had two beautiful gardens. The one associated with the Abbott's house was the traditional Zen garden with carefully raked and contoured stone. Finally there was a covered bridge which spanned a small river filled with maple trees. Oh so very beautiful.
Having had such a great experience we decided that we didn't have to do any more temples. It was about 11 and it was raining. Kyoto supposedly has a beautiful botanical garden which only locals visit. With that and the rain, we thought that this would be the perfect place to visit. We however needed a break so on our trip back up north, this time on the subway we got off at a station known for having lots of dining options and found a noodle restaurant and had one of our most enjoyable and cheapest meals so far on the trip. After this break we continued on to the botanical garden and fortunately the rain had not abated. There was hardly anyone there. We walked around in the rain admiring all of the gardens and flowers. We even came across the Kyoto Bonsai Club's annual display and had a personally guided tour from one of the volunteers. It was great. There was also a very large indoor conservatory of plants covering the tropics, desert, subalpine etc. Probably the best conservatory that I have ever been to. The gardens and conservatory are probably in the top 10 maybe even the top 5 that I have been to and no one was there.Read more
Hiroshima
October 7 in Japan
☀️ 25 °C
We travelled from Kyoto to Hiroshima on Monday on the highest/fastest tier of the Shinkansen bullet train known as the Nozomi. This train seemed a lot faster than the other Shinkansen trains that we have travelled on this trip. I would presume that at times we got going as quickly as 300km per hour. The trip took 1.5 hours. Driving it would have taken 9.5 hours. It was moving so quickly that I felt a little vertiginous on our arrival.
We all know the history of Hiroshima and the dropping of the nuclear bomb on August 6, 1945 and the terrible destruction that it wrought on the people of Hiroshima. I think coming here in person really gives one the feeling of the extent of the devastation. Haroshima over the last 85 years has been rebuilt into a modern North American like city however they have left the main island beneath the epicentre of the blast as a very large memorial park with several monuments and a museum.
We hadn't booked our tickets for the Peace museum on our arrival day as we weren't quite sure what we would be up for on the first day. That was quite fortuitous as when we wandered over to the park the museum was extremely busy with tourists. It must be one of the top visited museums in Japan. We checked into getting timed tickets for the next day and decided our best bet would be at 7:30 am the next morning. We wandered around the park checking out the various monuments. The park was quite peaceful. I get the sense that many of the tourists don't stray very far from the museum. We walked along the Ota river which was very pleasant. Incredible to believe the extent of the destruction. I am sure there must be conspiracy theories on line that the bommb was never dropped and that this was a massive hoax. The Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall also known as the Atomic bomb dome was located 160 metres from the epicentre and parts of it survived to provide the iconic image associated with Hiroshima. We walked around the building. I guess it survived as it was a concrete reinforced building. It felt like looking at Big Ben, the Colosseum or the Eiffel tower. Everyone has seen a view of this building.
Thursday we were up bright and early and the first ones in line for the 7:30 opening. Surprisingly we didn't show up until 7:25. It was a very touching museum telling the stories of people who had experienced the atomic bomb, the majority of whom died. There were personal possessions of the people. The stories were grim. Within a 1000 metres of the epicenter, everyone pretty well immediately died with some survivors who were in concrete buildings. Between 1 and 2 km out people were horrifically burned. If miraculously you weren't burned you probably died of acute radiation poisoning within a few days. Beyond 2 km there were some survivors but still many people developed acute radiation illness, were burned either in the blast or subsequent fire storms. It was all rather grim. 140000 people died in Hiroshima in 1945. Many of the dead were school children who had been working in the area demolishing buildings for fire breaks for conventional bombing. Despite knowing about the atomic bomb it was very insightful to actually come to Hiroshima and take it all in.
After all this we needed a break so headed off to the Art Museum know for it's very large collection of impressionistic art. Impressionistic art always puts me in a good mood. The gallery was wonderful and had an unbelievably large collection. There must have been very wealthy business people who have left their art to the gallery. It's kind of crazy coming all the way to Hiroshima to view French art. Our only odd experience in finding the art gallery was that we came across a very very long line up of people 4-5 abreast that seemed to go on forever. They were fans of the Japanes rock band Mrs. Green Apple. It didn't make sense why they were lining up at 10 am in the morning. I finally came across a non Japanese European fan and asked her what was up. They were all in line for merchandise. The concert was that night. Crazy. The line must have been easily 2-3 hours in length.
After a 7 11 lunch, we felt that we had enough energy for one more adventure. We headed over to the Shukkein garden which was a traditional Japanese garden. It was a very large garden surrounding a large pond that contained a lot of very large Koi. Lots of great photos. We even saw a Japanese couple getting their engagement photos.
Out of curiosity I had turned my Strava on my phone. I haven't really been keeping track of steps or distance walked but we were up to 12 km and it didn't really seem like a long walk day. We decided to head back and chill at our accommodation before a 6 pm supper of okonomiyaki. okonomiyaki is a pancake cabbage and bacony thing fried up on a grill in front of you as you watch the chef from your grill side seat. There were ten grill seats in total all full. The couple sitting beside us were Swiss and on a year and a half around the world trip. They had spent 3 months in Vancouver renting a caravan for several weeks and house sitting for people with pets. It was fun listening to their travel experiences. There were some Japanese business men beside us really putting back the beers but we didn't chat with them. We walked around after supper taking in the entertainment part of town that we were staying in. In areas it was almost bordering on a Red light district . Curiously there were intermixed high end stores such as Rolex. So odd. Our Air BnN was basic but comfortable and quiet despite it's location.Read more
Hell and American Cruiseship Tourists
October 7 in Japan
☀️ 23 °C
I have been to hell and it is filled with American Cruise ship Tourists. Okay that sounds rather harsh but let me explain. We travelled down to the most southerly major island of Japan and decided to visit a small city known as Beppu. I planned the trip awhile ago so I can't remember my motivation for choosing Beppu. It was another geothermal area which intrigued me. Unfortunately it was going to be difficult to top our geothermal experience in Hiruya Onsen. We took a highspeed train down from Hiroshima and transferred to a slower train to continue our trip into Beppu which is on the coast. Coming into Beppu I noticed that there were two large cruise ships in the harbour. After my Croatian trip I have developed a dread of cruise ships. Cruise ships discharge thousands of tourists into a city and thousands of tourists can transfer even the most idyllic scene into a tourist frenzy.
We arrived at our Air BnB in good time and they allowed us an early check in. The principal tourist attraction in Beppo are known as the Hells. They are a collection of geothermal lakes and mud baths that Beppu seems to have developed its whole tourism industry around. The Hells are located about a 30 minute bus ride out of town. When our bus showed up, it was immediately apparent that the whole area was teeming with cruise ship passengers. We bought the pass to see all 7 and wandered with the rest of the tourists into visit the various geothermal lakes. The lakes were pretty but for safety reasons they had to be well separated from the tourists and everything around the small lakes had been paved. These geothermal lakes had been trained. There were caricatures of the devil. There were also attempts to landscape in a traditional style around the lakes but it was all so touristy, tacky and busy. One of the geothermal areas had crocodiles which do well in warm water. Someone had brought them to Japan in the 1920s. Obviously the geothermal water had to be mixed with cold water otherwise the crocodiles would have roasted. In their concrete enclosures I felt as sorry for the crocodiles as I had for the bears early in the trip. The last Hell we went to was probably the prettiest and least busy. It didn't appear to have been on the cruise boat itinerary.
For our second day in Beppu, we needed an adventure away from the cruise ship tourists. Gemini reported that there was a large Shinto shrine in a place called Usa a short train ride from Beppu. Usa Jingu is Japan's second largest Shinto shrine. Shinto (“the way of the gods”) is Japan’s indigenous, nature-centered spirituality that dates back to prehistoric times. Shinto is a different religion than Budism. It is a prehistoric religion that worships Kami divine spirits found in nature. This lends these shrines to being located in places of natural wonder and beauty. Gemini was a little screwed up with our train and bus schedule to get to the shrine but the very kind staff at the Beppu station helped us out and we just had to wait for the bus. The shrine was very peaceful and beautiful and there were no cruise boat tourists. We were able to perform the ritual of hand and mouth purifying before walking into the very large complex.There were multiple shrines and at the largest shrine we made offerings to the deities followed by a ritual of 2 bows 4 claps and a bow. I felt very Japanese. We also got a big thrill out of feeding the goldfish and one turtle at two of the many ponds at the shrine.
We returned via a bus ride and train to Beppu. Even in Japan where the public transportation system is excellent, rural travel is not easy. In hindsight a day car rental may have been a good idea.
A couple blocks from where we are staying there is a cross walk that plays two different musical themes to alert blind people when to cross. The north south crossing route I recognized as the Scottish lilt Catcher in the Rye. We could faintly hear it from our Air BnB. So quirky.Read more
Fukuoka and the IAP.
October 10 in Japan
⛅ 28 °C
We made our way up from Beppu to Fukuoka on Friday. Initially a slow train and then a fast train. Cheryl unfortunately only had one day in Fukuoka as she was heading home to Edmonton on Saturday. Peach airline required a paper boarding pass so we found a Kinkos and printed it off. We are staying in Air Bnb so we don't have the luxury of a concerige service to look after us. Cheryl was flying out at 9 in the morning to Tokyo and would walk in the morning to the subway station and take it to the airport. I have started checking out important transfers like this the day before so in the morning things are much less stressful. I learnt the importance of being prepared like this from reading Chris Hatfield's book, An astronaut's guide to earth. It has certainly reduced the stress on a travel day. After we had checked Cheryl's route we visited the Modern museum of modern art. Modern art isn't really my thing but it was right by the train station. We walked back to our Air BnB and Cheryl chilled out while I went to register for the conference. For supper we headed off to a Ramon noodle food court in Canal City. The one thing I can't get over here in Japan is how strong their consumer is. There are shopping and clothing stores everywhere. People talk about Americans as being very consumer oriented but Japanese consumers seem even stronger. Surprising given the reports of Japan's stagnating economy. It doesn't look overly stagnating to me.
Cheryl got off early the next morning and I started attending courses at the International Association of Pathologists. Pathologists from all over the world have travelled to Fukuoka for the conference. I met pathologists from all over the world. I attended 7 hours on Sunday, 8 hours on Saturday and 4 hours as well as the final banquet on Monday night. Three days was the perfect amount of time at the conference. My favorite talks were on adrenal pathology. The conference was only attended by several Japanese and Korean pathologists who were all members of the Japanese and Korean endocrine society. They were very accommodating with the questions that I asked and even asked me to pose in their photo. Japanese and Korean people are so king. Any longer and one's brain turns to mush. I learnt some new things that will help me in my practice. I remember one of my colleagues in Regina saying that if you are learning too many new things that can sometimes be a bad sign. I was able to slip away one afternoon to visit some shrines in downtown Fukuoka. My favorite was the Tochoji shrine dedicated to the Japanese monk who in 1241 after visiting China introduced the noodle to Japan. Before 1241 there were no noodle bowls in Japan. My last afternoon in Fukuoka, I headed off to the botanical garden and zoo. A combined ticket. The garden was pleasant but not as good as the Kyoto Botanical garden. I wandered around the zoo. Lots of young families with children. The zoo looked pretty modern and habitable for the animals. I finally came across some Japanese monkeys. Earlier on the trip when we were in Kamikochi Ntl park we met a park ranger who gave a post card with a picture of Japanese monkeys so if we came across them in the park we would recognize them as monkeys. I guess she thought we would mistake them for another animal such as a bear. Anyhow I have held onto the car until now and I was able to correctly ident them as Japanese monkeys. I heard a lion roar which was a first. I met a sun bear who was in a very nice enclosure. He spoke very good English. I told the bear about the bear ranch that we had visited earlier in the trip. He thought it could be fun to have some friends, lots of friends. I told him about the begging for treats. He also thought that would be fun. No one is allowed to feed him at the zoo. I guess life is all relative.
I went to the closing banquet at a very swank Fukuoka hotel. I sat with a quiet Norwegian pathologist and his wife and a very gregarious Dutch couple, she was a pathologist and he was an ENT doctor.They had a little orchestra play for us before the meal. The conductor's English was poor however I talked to one of the musicians afterwards and they were pretty well all pathologists who typically come together every year for the annual meeting of Japanese pathologists.
Today I am off to Osaka on the train.Read more
Osaka
October 13 in Japan
☀️ 27 °C
Tuesday I said goodbye to Fukuoka and took the Shinkansen bullet train to Osaka about 660 km away or a 8 to 9 hour car ride. The Shinkansen just flew and we covered the distance in 2.5 hours. Incredible. From previous Shinkansen trips I have learned that I can't read on the train as I just get motion sickness. Instead I listened to a podcast. Just the same, I felt a little discombobulated when I arrived In Osaka.
Monday had been a National holiday in Japan, sport day so all of the museums had been open on Monday but we're closed on Tuesday. I left my luggage in the foyer of the apartment I was staying in and headed out to walk around Tennoji park. I would never leave my luggage in a foyer of an apartment here in Canada but in Japan one can get away with it. The Air BnB also had recommended it so it felt that it would be safe. I had a decaf coffee at Tully's and read my book. Wandering around the park, I realized that there was an art gallery, a Japanese garden, and a zoo. I am starting to get a little art galleries, japanese garden and zooed out but they were all so close to my accommodation I made a mental note of them in case I needed to fill in some time on Wednesday.
Wednesday I had a full day to spend in Osaka. My son Andrew suggested that I check out the Shimano Bicycle Museum in Saiko which was a lovely 30 minute Tram ride from where I was staying. Shimano is a manufacturer of bicycle parts. They had a lovely museum of historic bikes starting with the early push bikes, progressing to a front pedal bike, penny farthing like bikes with large front wheels, bikes with chains from a front pedal to the front wheel to now what we know today as a bike with a chain to the back wheel. They also showed the progression of rear gear shifters from the early lifting mechanism to later push mechanisms. They had all sorts of bikes which had been adopted to special functions such as bicycles to move milk in Holland. It was all a little niche but as a bicycle enthusiast, I really enjoyed it. After the bicycle museum I wandered over to city hall in Saika and went up to their 21 floor observatory deck and checked out the vastness of Osaka. The last thing to check out in Saika was the cutlery museum. Saika has been a manufacturing hub and in addition to making bicycles they are also recognized as an area that produces wonderful Japanese knives. The museum was actually a front for a co-op knife store selling knives from the area. The museum was rather small but had a good video explaining the steps required to make a knife. The knives were beautiful and they had knives for every thinkable situation. Different knives for cutting and filleting different types of fish. Chopping knives.Part of me wanted to buy a knife but we are already over stocked with knives. I had to buy a complete collection of Victorec knives for my cooking school last summer and we already had a collection of various Victorex knives so our knife drawer is overflowing.
It was about noon so I took the trolley car back to my Air BnB for a break. Given my close proximity to Tennoji I wandered over to check out the art gallery and the garden. The art gallery had the most impressive collection of stone Budhist heads from the 4 to 7 centuries. I just kept wondering where all the Buddha bodies were. It was like some weird crime scene. They also had a lot of ornate metal work from the 4 to 7 century. It is a wonder that metal work was so advanced that long ago.
After the art gallery, I wandered through the meticulously maintained and beautiful Japanese garden. I can only imagine what my neglected garden will look like when I get back to Edmonton.
It was only about 3 in the afternoon. I was aware of another Shimano museum in the Shimano office building where one could actually buy merchandise. It turned into a bit of a fool's journey. It was principally a coffee shop decorated with both Shimano bike paraphernalia and interestingly fishing equipment. Shimano makes fishing equipment. There was hardly any merchandise and they wanted an astounding 75 Cdn dollars for a Shimano fishing ball cap. That was even more expensive than the Ferrari hats in Bologna Italy.
The Shimano coffee shop was located next to the Osaka station. It was huge. I had problems finding my subway line back to Tennoji station. So far I have had no problems navigating as the stations are pretty well posted but there was no sign for my subway line. My phone was also running out of battery power which also wasn't good as without a phone one is really sunk. Some young Japanese woman noticed me studying the direction boards and asked me if I needed directions. I showed them my phone map and they told me it was just around the corner no more than 25 metres away. The Japanese people have just been wonderful. I made it back to my accommodation before my phone battery ran out.
Tomorrow I am off to hike the Kii peninsula.Read more
Kumano Kudo
October 15 in Japan
☀️ 22 °C
I am now on the spiritual enlightenment part of my journey. That is the Kumano Kudo pilgrimage route on the Kii peninsula. I had booked the trip through Kumano Tourism which is a local cooperative which coordinated the luggage transfers, booked the hotel accommodation which also included breakfast and suppers with a provided Bento box for lunch. All I had to do was show up and walk. I took the 9:20 train from Osaka arriving in Tannebe at 11:20. Someone was waiting at the tourist office immediately adjacent to the train station with my name on a white board who I handed my luggage off to. I went into the tourism office and there I was helped to buy a ticket for the which would take me to Takijiri where I would start my walk. There were 2 bus loads of European/North American tourist approximately 35 people on the two buses but I get the feeling that people are doing all sorts of various combinations of hiking days and rest days. There seemed to be a larger group doing it over 8 days.
The Kumano is a 1500 year old pilgrimage route. The Kii peninsula has for the Japanes represented a borderland between the living and the afterlife lending itself to a pilgrimage route. The Shinto religion, a prehistoric religion proceeding Buddhism felt that the region was the home to natural deities known as Kami. The peak pilgrimage era was 794 to 1185 and the pilgrims were mainly aristocratics. There are three principal shrines along the route and smaller subsidiary shrines where people would camp, worship and do purifying rituals
There was a small museum at the start of the hike which I had a cursory look at but wanted to get hiking before the large group so I headed out quickly. The first day was fairly easy as we only had to hike to Takahara a 3.9 km hike from the beginning of the trail. It was steep with an elevation gain of 400 metres. The great thing about these hiking trails is that people get pretty spread out so I didn't come across many people. I probably hiked for less than 2 hours before getting to the Takahara rest station where I bought a plum soda, chatted with some Vancou overites and waited for my 4 pm ride to the guest house where I was staying. My main wildlife sightings were 2 snakes, one black and one green. Supposedly some of the snakes here are venomous. WaThe guest house was a 20 minute drive back down the valley past our starting point. We picked up two Australians Scott and Janine just after leaving the guest area. They had hiked 29 km from Tannebe which was quite impressive. They are doing a longer route over 8 days with one rest day. We were next door to each other and shared a common area and they were quite fun to chat with. We all ate a wonderful traditional Japanese supper provided by our guesthouse owners. It was probably the best meal that I have had in Japan.
Today was a longer day clocking in at 13 km and 600 metres of elevation. It started off a little steeply but at about half way leveled off and became a ridge hike dipping dow into a river valley. There are lots of little shrines along the route. The vegetation consists of Japanese ceders which looked like they were planted after forestry in the 50s. There are supposedly some residual old growth forests but I haven't seen any of them. The predicted time for this segment is 6 to 8 hours but I was going to log in before 1 at my accommodation so I slowed down a little. I arrived early but kept hiking for another 800 metres to check out some more soji or subsidiary shrines before returning to my accommodation and waiting for check in at 3 pm. Just after 3 pm my friends Scott and Jeanine showed up so I get to enjoy their company for another night.
Tomorrow will be the longestRead more
On the Kumano Kodo
October 17 in Japan
⛅ 12 °C
Saturday I had a big day on the Kumano Kudo. I hiked from Hisohara oji from guest house 22.1 km with 850 metre elevation and 1350 metres of descent to Kumano Hongu Taisha. I would have preferred doing a longer hike on Friday but this becomes the problem when you are staying in accommodation and the accommodation has been booked through a travel company. I had met a hiker on the trail who had booked her own accommodations and was able to stay 3 km farther down the trail making it less of a hike. I guess that I didn't have to do such a long walk as there were various options of taking buses and only hiking half way. Scott and Janine my Australian friends from Adelaide were going to do it and encouraged me to go for it. Aki the guest owner thought it was doable. We all were up early for a 6:30 breakfast and the two Aussies and I left at 6:50. It was very similar to the previous day but probably more elevation and twice the distance. One walks through forests of cedars planted in a grid fashion which are about 60 years old. There was one minor shrine or oji where the locals had fought against logging immediately around the shrine and there were these beautifully large 800 year old cedars. The first 11 km were probably the most difficult as that was where all the elevation gain was. Walking along the trail one would stop and admire the oji of varying size and complexity. Some I would leave a coin and make a prayer. There were shrines to various gods of travel, to people who had died on the trail and even to a Geisha who had been murdered by bandits. It got busy after the first 7 km as I think it was where one of the first bus drop offs were. After a little while people got spread out so it wasn't too busy. The first part was trail and towards the end it was more secondary paved road. No traffic. . It was pretty but I am getting a little shrines out so I didn't feel compelled to hang around too long. I made it into Kumano Hongu Taisha in 7 hours with a lunch break. Kumano Hongu Taisha shrine was quite busy with car tourists. I walked around a little and said some prayers.It was pretty but I am getting a little shrined out so I didn't feel compelled to hang around too long. I could have taken things a little slower today but I wanted to get to town by 3 as I had to take a public bus to Yunomine Onsen a 15 minutes bus ride away and the next bus I was told wasn't until 5 pm. When I arrived I realized with the help of Google maps that there were various buses going to Yunomine Onsen but some stopped immediately in front of the accommodation and some stopped 5 minutes away so I actually hopped on an earlier bus at 2:20. I met a group of 4 Canadians on the bus who I had met earlier on the trip and they were staying at the same hotel so I will head out for supper with them tonight. A pretty full day. I went and had an Onsen before supper and cleaned myself up.Read more
Kumano Kudo
October 18 in Japan
☀️ 21 °C
Sunday fared to be an easier day than Saturday. I stayed in Yunomine Onsen a 20 minute bus ride from the Kumano Hongu Heritage centre. The first bus out was at 8 am and I sensed that there would be to many people staying in Yunomine to accommodate everyone on the bus. I was staying across the street from the bus stop and by 7:30 people were starting to line up for the bus so I got outside and was about 8th in line. By the time the bus came there must have been 45 people waiting for the bus which when it arrived was already half full. Only 15 of us got on and I later heard that some of the people had to wait for 2 buses. Not a great way to start one's day for those who had to wait. I decided to try to pace myself a little better today. Walk slower, more breaks and a slightly longer lunch. The Kogumotori section of the hike, day 4 from Kumano Hongu Taisha was easier than day 3. 13 km, 670 metre gain and 690 metre loss. It was a pleasant hike through ceder forests. Along the trail there were poem stones. Poems that had been written through the ages about the pilgrimage. I translated one which read about a local spring: Crystalline Clear
Inundating the trail
Mountain Spring Water
It captured the moment.
I was passed by 2 trail runners Kerri and Jason who I met at the end of the day and were from Portland Oregon. I walked after lunch with Robert a retired social worker from Vernon, chatted with couples from Reading Pennsylvania and St Louis and a young man from Adelaide Australia. It made the day go very quickly. There were a couple of rest areas with benches along the way. I finished 2 pm. There was a coffee shop in Koguchi where I treated myself to a decaf tea and doughnut.
Again I was staying off trail at a hotel known as Takeda Green Onsen. In fact, approximately 15 of us pretty well the entire cafe were staying at Takada Green. The instructions were to call the accommodation from a local pay so that they could send a shuttle and Jason the trail runner was good enough to take the initiative and call the resort. They picked us up and drove us 30 minutes to the middle of nowhere in a very rural forested area to an Onsen Hotel. It was very pretty but also felt a little like a murder mystery as it was so remote.
Monday was the 5th and last day of our hike. It reputedly was the most difficult which was a little worrying after day 3 however the majority of the people had only walked 17 km that day. From Koguchi to Kumano Naichi Taisha was only 14 km but had an elevation gain of 1260 metres and a loss of 930. In the first 5 km there was a gain of 900 metres. Fairview Mtn beside Lake Louise has a 1000 metre elevation gain and I struggled doing that 5 years ago so I was a little worried.
A bus took us back in the morning to Koguchi and we were off by 8:10. Those who had stayed on the trail were off by 715. I tried to start very slowly letting the faster walkers by. They were calling for rain but it held off however it was spookingly misty and very humid. Normally I don't sweat but that was not the case. The steps seemed to go up endlessly. I caught up to a group of guided hikers and walked with them. The women were fitter than the men. I made it to the top of the Echizen Toge pass, the highest point in the trail by 10:30 and was just soaking from the humidity and perspiration. The trail leveled out somewhat but there were still ups and downs. I was by myself for much of the time and it was rather mystical walking through the ceders in the mist.I passed a sign dedicated to the Sai-no-Kawara Jizo a spirit believed to live in the area that helped children and travellers pass into the after life and protect them from evel Oni demons also known to live in the area. I passed small shrines and left small offerings of coins. If I was ever to meet a demon or spirit it would have been on that part of the trail. Parts of the trail and path had beautiful hues of green from the moss and vegetation and yes they were slippery. Just before the Funami jaya teahouse remains and my descent to the finish, I was all alone and found myself walking through the myst in an area known as Moja no Dei, the Abode of the dead where people would meet the troubled spirits of their ancestors. By now it had become very foggy and felt very eerie and I half thought for several minutes that I would have a paranormal experience. The feeling had passed by the time I had made it to the teahouse where there were other hikers taking a break. I descended into Kumano Nachi Taisha and the completion of the Kumano Kodo. I posed with a beautiful Pogoda to mark my completion. It was 2 pm. I lacked the enthusiasm to wander the shrine complex. The day was much more about the journey rather than the destination. I still had to walk a km to the bus stop which I felt compelled to get to so I wouldn't have to stand for the 50 minute bus ride to Katsuura. On the bus I was reunited with Robert from Vernon and 2 friends from the Bay area. They were impressed with the difficulty of the Kumano Kodo and thought that if you could do the Kumano one would have no trouble with Camino. I think that I had underestimated the difficulty of the hike and had done little training unlike for other multiple day hikes I had done. When I arrived at Katsuura I had to walk another 1.5 km around the harbour to the Hotel Urashima only to learn later that there was a shuttle boat that could have taken me across the harbour. Kumano Travel who I booked the tour through had been very sparse on details for much of the trip and there had been no directions to take the shuttle boat in their directions. The hotel was massive consisting of 3 large buildings built into the rock and connected by tunnels. After 5 days of hiking, I desperately needed to do laundry which thankfully they had. They had a beautiful Onsen built in a cave. I got in trouble from an elderly Japanese woman who worked in the men's change room for forgetting to remove my slippers. It seemed quite odd having a female change room attendant. The Onsen felt great as I was stiffening up from the walk. I went for a beautiful buffet supper where I met Kerri and Jason. I was pretty exhausted so I went to sleep on my futon at 8:30 and curiously dreamt of my parents.Read more
Nagoya and Tokyo
October 21 in Japan
🌬 29 °C
On Tuesday I escaped the James Bond evil villain hotel in Kikuura on the 8 am shuttle boat. It was a beautiful hotel however it reminded me so much of the lair of a James Bond villain. I had told this to Kerri and Jason at supper the previous night and they had had exactly the same conversation in the afternoon. My departure was much easier than my previous day's misadventure of having to walk around the harbour and then through the tunnels. What would James Bond have done.
I had decided to break up my trip back to Tokyo with a stop in Nagoya. From Kikuura it was a 4 hour slow train trip to Nagoya and I thought going onto Tokyo would just be too long. For some reason I hadn't been able to secure a reserved seat when I booked online. Kikuura was the origin of the train so I had no problems getting a seat. After a few stops the seats all filled up and in my car 10 people ended up standing for the trip. My seat mate was a retired American from Oregon. He had started out as a baker but had shifted into the world of food manufacturing and worked his last job with Cliff Bars before the company got bought out by a multinational corporation. As part of the employee ownership program he had got a generous buyout and then sold his house in Berkeley and moved to outside of Portland. I wonder if he made more out of his house sale but I was too polite to ask.
When I got to Nagoya, I got my hotel to recommend a barber. One of the staff was also kind enough to walk me to the friend barber shop. I told him with Google translate what I wanted and for 15 dollars I received an excellent haircut. After my haircut it was still only 1:30 pm. I had looked into what to do and realized that Toyota had got its start here in Nagoya as a textile manufacturer before going into automobiles. Toyota's car manufacturing is still located in Nagoya but they don't allow tours. Toyota does have its own museum where they chronicle the history of their textile and automobile manufacturing. The textile part of their museum had a complete inventory of working looms from the beginning to the present day. It was really neat watching them work. I took a guided tour of the car museum which chronicled Toyota's initiatives to start manufacturing cars in the twenties with the successful launch of the first passenger car and industrial truck in 1936. The guide was a little spotty on the companies history from 1939 to 1945 and didn't give a reason for why automobile manufacturing was suspended until 1954. For a while Toyota made sewing machines. She picked the history up in the 50s. There were dioramas displaying the early manufacturing process and then they had actual functioning displays demonstrating stamping equipment, the paint room and robot use. It was very interesting. I will include a video of the welding robots.
Wednesday I took a very fast bullet train to Tokyo. 2 hours but I felt a little carsick afterwards. I left my luggage at the Prince Ebisu hotel and headed out for another adventure. Prince Asaka's art deco castle build in 1936 in the Art Deco style was located close to where I was staying so I thought it would warrant a visit. It had been converted to an art gallery hosting travelling art exhibits. I walked over and when I arrived there were a lot of very well dressed women of all ages in line. Kind of like the line up for the boy band it Hiroshima. There was a poster advertising the exhibit at the entrance mainly in Japanese but also the words print and designer. I love Japanese prints so I thought that will be great and was happy to pay my money. The building from the outside was a classical beautiful Art Deco mansion. I was very excited to get inside only to realize once inside that the exhibit was all about a Finnish designer of print dresses who was extremely popular in Japan. It was a dress exhibit which I don't have much interest in. There was an interesting video documenting how the fabric was printed in Finland on an industrial scale. Many of the workers had terrible skin so I wonder if there was some reaction to the dyes. The palace with it's art deco design was pretty impressive so it wasn't a totally wasted visit. The garden outside of the palace was also beautiful so I wandered around a little before heading back to the hotel.
That night I was curious to check out who Prince Adaka was. He was a minor royal in the Japanese royal family. He was a pretty bad guy as he ordered the murder of all civilians in Nanjing then the capital of China in 1936. 100,000 civilians were killed and innumerable women were raped. It was so terrible that the Japanese Imperial Army recalled him to Japan for the duration of the war. The Americans after WW2 didn't execute him because as a member of the Royal family he has clemency. They did take away his aristocratic status and his beautiful house. Curious that none of this was mentioned at the museum.
Thursday was my last full day in Toyo. I am getting a little museumed out so I thought that I would head off to the Tokyo botanical gardens which is quite far west in Tokyo. Tokyo is quite farther north of where I have been for much of the last two weeks and fall really feels to be in the air. I walked around much of the garden and they really seemed to be winding down for the season. It wasn't until I got to the rose garden that I was impressed to observe a sea of roses of beautiful colors. All of the other gardens that I have visited in Japan have trimmed their roses back for the year so this was a real surprise. I have always had a soft spot for roses as my father in London had a rose garden which was nurtured and cherished. I even saw some more blue roses which are very unique. After the rose garden I checked out the greenhouses and was impressed by the orchid and Begonia collectionsRead more
Arigatō gozaimasu
October 23 in Japan
☁️ 18 °C
Arigatō gozaimasu is Japanese for thankyou very much. Shop owners when one leaves a store break into a chorus of arigato gozaimasu when one leaves a shop. I am just sitting in the airport waiting for my Westjet flight to Calgary. I slept in a little this morning and took things a little more slowly. After 5 weeks of going hard, I just wanted to take it a little easier today. The Ebisu Garden Palace a large office building is located close to where I am staying and I wandered over and checked out the Tokyo Photographic Museum which didn't amount to much. I took the express elevator to the 38th floor for one last panoramic view of Tokyo. I wandered back to my hotel finding a French Chateau of all things before I collected my stuff and headed off to the airport. Goggle maps weren't cooperating as they wanted to take me on the more expense and slightly faster sky train and I was happy just taking an express train. I navigated myself back to Oshiage station where I had started the trip and where I knew I could catch the express train to the airport.
I wanted to just reiterate what a great time that I had in Japan. There were lots of things to do, the Japanese people were friendly helpful and very patient. I felt very safe. The cities were wonderfully clean. It was a great holiday and I want to come back.I will miss the musical Japanese language, the musical garbage trucks, the wonderful uniforms that workers and children wear, the Scottish lilt played at the crosswalks. Walking the Kumano kodo was very unique. It was all great. Always a good sign at the end of a holiday if you want to go back. I can't believe that I hadn't previously visited Japan. Anyhow I will finish this blog with a very large thank you or Arigatō gozaimasu to Japan and its people.Read more
Traveler😳
TravelerStill trying to work this out. Which is worse? Typhoons? Or WestJet?
TravelerThat’s a travel nightmare. For the amount you travel you need a priority travel card.
TravelerWow !😱 your trip hasn’t started well , but hopefully it will be smooth sailing from now on !