Justine and Dylan’s Travel Blog

Not quite in the What The category, but thought I’d share them anyway. Safe to say the Japanese do things differently than some and one of the reasons this is a cool place to visit…

• This place is clean. And by clean I mean spotless. Trains, buses, public toilets, footpaths, you name it and you could probably eat off it. Especially the hordes of cleaning ladies in matching pink uniforms that attack the bullet trains at each end destination to ensure it’s spotless for the next trip are a sight to behold.
• These people are polite and very friendly (to tourists anyway ). Manifested in never-ending bowing, thanking (I’ve barely heard anyone say sayonara, ie goodbye, because they are always too busy still thanking you), offering (help or little gifts), it does make for an interesting experience and one that a lot of other nations could learn from.
• This place is small. Small cars, small trucks, small buses, small rooms, small chairs, small beds (my feet always seem to hang off the end) and doorways (I can’t remember ever having hit my head on things so many times in such a short time span), small slippers (come about halfway up my foot), small urinals (I quite regularly have to be careful not to pee on top of them… and no, I’m not using the kids’ urinals), small meals (fortunately sushi just keeps coming out as you order more), etc, etc. The idea of quality over quantity definitely rules here though, so not all bad.
• This place is full. This might be one of the causes for everything being small actually. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, you can never go to far without bumping into people (literally, when on public transport) or infrastructure of some kind. On the other hand, it’s incredible to see the use of space around here.
• This place is religious. Europe has a few churches but I have never come across a similar pervasion of temples, shrines, gates, etc as I have here. It makes for quite a varied landscape or cityscape along the way and in our brief stay here we’ve probably only just touched on how much day to day life must be influenced by religion. Good for the photo opportunities regardless of your views on this
• Plastic bags rule. This probably partially comes back to the clean thing they have going, but for instance go to your average bakery and they’ll put each item in a little plastic bag, after which all the items go in a paper bag which is then put in a large plastic bag to allow you to carry your two items more easily.

You get the picture. Some of it a little annoying, some of it quite refreshing, but all of it quite interesting and very different to anything we’ve come across so far and probably will on the rest of our trip. As a tourist, you just can’t go wrong here really.

The last few days we’ve been busy rounding out our stay here in Japan with stops in Takayama and Matsumoto in the Japanese Alps and of course Tokyo.

Takayama is home to a reconstructed rural town called Hida-no-sata with houses as they were (and in some places still are) a few hundred years ago in country-side Japan. Pretty cool and in typically Japanese style, the meticulous reconstruction (after moving them from who knows how far away) is amazing and must’ve taken a long time.

Matsumoto is known for Matsumoto-jo, one of the best, still original castles around Japan. Castle wasn’t bad, but after having seen Himeji-jo and Nijo-jo, probably not worth the effort.

Unfortunately, the other thing we came to Takayama and Matsumoto for, ie to get a bit of a feel of the Japanese Alps, was not helped by persistent cloud cover. The snow which was still everywhere was quite scenic though.

One thing these two days in the Alps did bring to the fore (again) is how little real wilderness (ie completely unaffected by Japanese infrastructure) there is in Japan. Having not ventured further north than Matsumoto this might be different in say the northern-most province of Tokkaido, but having seen a lot of places in the southern half, there is a distinct trend emerging. I read in the lonely planet guide the other day that they estimate that only three of Japan’s over 30,000 streams, rivers, etc have NOT been dammed. I would happily believe this. Everywhere we’ve been we’ve seen power lines, communications towers, roads, houses, dams, concrete reinforcements (to stop hills eroding), etc, etc and even on our more “remote” walks, we’ve been walking on very well-maintained paths, linking temples, shrines, etc.

Mind you though, none of this is different to the U.K. and probably most of Western Europe, but I’m far from convinced that I’ll ever come back to this country to purely go for a hike (ditto with the U.K.) which is interesting for a country that boasts so many walking opportunities. Fortunately this country is cool in so many other ways that it hasn’t really mattered and we’ve had a great time nonetheless.

Finally, the last few days in Tokyo. First of all a side trip to Nikko of course, followed by a walk on a beautiful day up Mitsu-toge-yama in the Fuji-san area (with awesome views of Fuji). Yesterday we spent looking around the Shinjuku, Harajuku and Shibuya suburbs which are just incredible districts filled with neon lights, shops and people. Interestingly enough, they made our hikes that I referred to above, do seem like they were out into the middle of nowhere. Everything’s relative I guess :)

As mentioned before, I won’t be able to post all my Japan photos till a later date, but I figured I’d put up a few here for now…

One of the nicest walks we’ve done so far was that around Atago-san. As with all of the walks we’ve done, temples were floating around, but this one actually lacked a lot of the touristy aspects which we’ve grown accustomed to. Sure, there were a few others (only Japanese of course) walking around, but the whole place was practically deserted.

A few other hikes which we’ve attempted didn’t get very far as there was snow on the path (or falling!) or construction going on (March is obviously too early for hiking season), but this one was just do-able. There was still snow at the top (at 924m), but it was a sunny day, it wasn’t too deep and as always it really made the place (including the temple at the top, Atago-ji, look even more scenic). After the climb  (starting in Kitoyaki), the second part involved following a beautiful gorge with crystal clear water and moss covered rocks to the next village over (Takao), which had a few interesting (moss-covered) little temples to finish things off with. Very cool and highly recommended if ever in Kyoto.

On the photo side of things. Have tried to post some photos, but as always seem to be having technical issues. Hardware: no problem. Internet: faster than it will probably ever be in Australia. Unfortunately, FTP access: denied. In other words, bulk uploads of all the Japan photos will have to wait till a later date. Perhaps Tokyo

Have spent the last week or so exploring Kyoto and surrounds. All great stuff and worthy of the “not to be missed” description often given to it (if you’re into guide books).

One observation though: it is very easy to overdose on temples. They are everywhere. Which kind of makes sense when you find out over 2000 of them are in just this city. Apart from the big touristy ones, there are little ones, ones with gardens, ones with other types of gardens, ones with shrines, ones tucked in between shops (think Chadstone style shopping centre, but with a handy temple tucked in between JB Hifi and MYER), ones inside of other seemingly unrelated tourist attractions, ones on hills away from it all, and ones just about everywhere in between. And then there’s the shrines, torii gates, etc. Kiyomizu-dera, Todaiji, Choin-in, Heian-Jingu, Ginkakuji, Kinkakuji, Nanzen-ji, Atago-ji and Fushimi Inari are a couple we seem to have stumbled across while walking around.  And trust me, we have stood literally outside the gates of more than that and decided not to go in because there just wasn’t enough time.

To mix it up a bit (we came prepared), we were also able to throw in a few castles (Himeji-jo, Nijo-jo), a few walks (Daimonjo-yama, Atago-san), gardens (Todaiji, Kokoen), a day trip to Nara and of course some shopping.

Topped off by sampling some of the local cuisine (sushi still rules in my mind, even having now also tried okonomiyaki, ramen, udon noodle varieties, syabu-syabu), it’s been an amazing few days. Do seem to be developing a craving for steak, potatoes, normal cereal and brown bread though.

Off to Takayama, Matsumoto and Tokyo tomorrow for more fun and games. Should be… uhm, different… to say the least (as always).

Before I forget and they become completely out of date…

• stands everywhere along the Inca Trail selling beer (called chicha, locally brewed along the track). Just what you need at the start of a casual walk up several thousand steps up a 4200m hill…
• a religious ceremony in Copacabana in Bolivia involving the local clergy blessing people’s… cars. Not just cars of course… cars decorated with flowers and covered in champagne with the hood open (so the engine could be blessed too)… who needs road-side assistance really
• dried Llama foetuses for sale at what is known as the Witches Market in La Paz. Not sure what they’re used for. Not something I figured I needed to at some point in time…
• soccer pitch at 5040m above sea level at a pass we drove over in the Altiplano in Bolivia. I was almost out of breath just sitting on the bus, would be interesting to see how long the people last that get together for their weekly runs on that soccer pitch…
• a rocket launch style count down from 10 to 0 as the Perito Moreno glacier (in Argentina) came into view… from our bus. It was a big glacier, but we weren’t exactly heading for outer space.
• wearing our goosedown winter jackets in mid-summer in Ushuaia. Apparently they were having a good spell of weather when we were there.
• celebrating New Years Eve in daylight (admittedly fading somewhat, but still) in southern Argentina. Could definitely make out the fireworks, but had the event been one hour earlier, there would’ve been some disappointed customers…
• British phone booths (you know, the red ones that everyone takes photos of in London) in… Buenos Aires. Apparently the Brits occupied the place for a bit at some stage (not sure when that was with the whole Spanish occupation, but anyway) and built some infrastructure as the Brits tended to do during their colonising days.

Anyway, not that many for two and a half months around South America. I guess they just don’t have as much originality as the Japanese when it comes to these things…

Yup, doesn’t take long, but I figured I’d mention a few “interesting” things we’ve seen so far (which reminds me, I should probably do the same for South America too… only issue it was such a “normal” place compare to Japan!):

• Vending machines at some restaurants: think a candy vending machine near the entrance of an otherwise normal restaurant, but instead of a bunch of chocolate bars, it has pictures of meals and you after you’ve paid and pressed a button, a ticket comes out which a waitress then takes once you’ve sat down. Not that hard in hindsight, but try working that one out in Japanese.
• Bowing of train conductors to the entire carriage when entering and exiting the carriage. I thought the Canadians were polite…
• You pay for bus rides at the end of the trip. Reason is that your fare is worked out down to the last yen based on the number of bus stops you’ve gone past (each additional stop incurring a higher cost). Fortunately a big board at the front of the bus will tell you the fare so far for ANY of the stops you could have started at so far. Our 2 hour trip to Sandan-kyo included 57 of these, but it still dilligently displayed all 57 separate possible fares! And once you know the exact amount, you have to pay the driver in cash as you leave, which is another story…
• Cosmetics being sold under a Manneke Pis name and logo. For those unfamiliar with this Belgian (that’s right) national symbol: Manneke Pis is a statue of a little boy pissing in a fountain. Great image that conjures up when trying to sell cosmetics. I’m guessing I’m not the target audience envisioned by that marketing strategy.
• Walking around in general (bewilderment) it becomes very easy to notice English signs in amongst a sea of Japanese characters. Especially for instance at a train station where this seemingly random room had been labelled the “Excellent Room”. Didn’t have time to check what was going on in there. Or this rather posh looking hotel in Hiroshima which had called itself the “Grand Intelligent Hotel”. Maybe something was lost in translation. Maybe the name was compensating for the marketing people behind it.
• I have now, in two days here in a hotel far from the most touristy areas of Japan, seen more NBA basketball on TV than I did in Canada or New York in two weeks. We only have 7 channels, all with the usual weird shows, etc, but one feels the need to show an hour of NBA every night! Giddy up! But I won’t mention the commentary…

I’m sure more will follow over the next few weeks…

Japan is turning out to be quite an interesting place. Which is pretty much as expected. In as far as the unexpected can be expected. You get the point.

So, interesting: not just the things we’ve seen, but particularly daily logistical activities. A good example: imagine going to the supermarket where you pretty much have no idea what’s on the inside of the packets of stuff you’re buying (pretty much all writing is in Japanese characters). Unless the packaging is transparent of course, but most of the time all you have is shape, weight and perhaps some funky drawings on the outside (ah, takes me back to trying to guess what my Xmas presents were before being allowed to unwrap them). Another example, ordering at restaurants: an instant give-away of a cheap and often nasty eatery in western countries, the good old pictures of meals on offer out the front of the restaurant, have suddenly become our saviours and a not to be underestimated factor in deciding where to dine for the evening. Some marketing strategies will never be the same.

However, the confusion that is caused by the total lack of understanding of any kanji on signs, menus, timetables, labels, television, etc are sometimes surprisingly offset somewhat by the complete efficiency with which some things are run (like trains, trams, buses, hotels, supermarkets, etc) and the easy availability of anything you could need (supermarkets, department stores, restaurants, etc). (As an aside: kanji is one of three sets of characters the Japanese use. Fortunately Justine has been able to translate the hirigana and katakana ones from her highschool days… mind you this is only of limited help: being able to translate a Japanese character set into a western one only gets you halfway as it still doesn’t help much with translating the Japanese in western characters into English!) After puzzling together how to pay for buses or trams and how to work out where your next train is leaving from, public transport has become a breeze (some aspects of it are pretty impressive actually) . Supermarkets aren’t so daunting any more once you work out where everything is and that the check-out persons don’t actually expect you to reply to the torrent of gibberish (uhm, I mean Japanese) they bombard you with. All as expected really

Anyway, interesting places we’ve seen so far. Day 2 saw us training 1150km in 8 hrs to the other side of the country to the island of Kyushu (gotta love the shinkansen, or super express, trains) and we’ve been steadily working our way back towards Tokyo ever since:

• started in Fukuoka (aka Hakata) with sidetrips to Kumamoto castle and Hiko-san for a walk (cut short somewhat, very short actually, by the two inches of snow it piled on us during the 20 min bus drive from the station to the starting point of the walk… I guess winter is not officially over yet everywhere
• then off to Hiroshima, with sidetrips to Miyajima (floating torii) and Sandan-kyo (very scenic gorge, but also cut a little short, this time due to long travel times, some snow and construction… we did pretty much have the place to ourselves though, strangely enough!)
• currently in Takamatsu (on island of Shikoku), with a sidetrip today to the Iya valley (unfortunately the bits you can visit by train and bus, such as Oboke gorge and the Iya vine bridge are HIGHLY overrated… the bits you can get to by car are probably less touristy and overhyped, but we can only guess) and to Kompira-san (in Kotohira), an amazing temple complex situated on a hill. Think lots of temple buildings surrounded by forest, linked by stairs. Lots of stairs. All good practice for Nepal next month is what I was thinking (and that we should’ve drunk less beer and kept up our walking since leaving Patagonia…)

The next legs should see us going to Kyoto, Takayama, Matsumoto and Tokyo, so although probably a bit more touristy than what we’ve seen so far, we’ve still got plenty of Japan to see…