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
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
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
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
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
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
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
TravelerRob - it’s complicated to go to the bathroom , but on the positive side you could have a snack when in kitchen 😊