mikeraggett

Off to Okayama

Our first bullet train

Kyoto to Okayama

excited or what?

With our domestic laundry duties completed the night before, cases packed, we’re off to take our first shinkansen or bullet train to Okayama. We walk across to the station find the appropriate gate and are told we can actually get an earlier direct train rather than the 10:13 we’d planned that meant a change at Shin-Osaka. Some shinkansen are not valid for travel with JR passes so we were delighted to be told to get up there and get on. A swift purchase of a sushi box for breakfast and we’re on the platform. Slight surprise that the platform is not at ground level but up a level on stilts. Important to check with the sign boards which coaches (carriages) are for unreserved seats on a highly accurate poll of two trains it seems they are usually the front three or five so it’s good to be waiting in the right place when the train arrives. The coach numbers are clearly marked on the platform and orderly queues form behind them. A sleek, shiny beast slides into the platform but it’s not ours. It disgorges its passengers and loads new ones swiftly from orderly queues – the Japanese do queue in the most disciplined manner everywhere – while a guard signals repeatedly to each end of the train before waving it out. Ours is next and on we get.

First impression of how much space there is. We were worried about stowing our copious baggage but it fitted in easily. There are loos and recycling points every two carriages, a trolley service comes through with acceptable coffee and sandwiches and so on which we didn’t need to try having scoffed our sushi. After that initial delight the actual journey was a bit dull. Much of the track runs through noise-reducing barriers or tunnels so you can’t see much. But it is quite fast once it gets out of the station area. You feel that satisfying little push of the seat into your back as the acceleration kicks in. From Kyoto to Osaka is only 26 miles and we did it in 13 minutes so quick but not amazing. The rest of the trip to Okayama was similar because of three more stops but we have longer journeys ahead.

Arrival at the hotel in Okayama way ahead of check in time which as usual was three o’clock, we were utterly charmed by the hotel director who came to greet us, told us a room was ready which we could occupy straightaway with no extra charge. Mr Yamamoto speaks fluent and elegant English and had spent years travelling with groups of traders in Europe and Asia and has the style and urbanity of a well-travelled gentleman. I enlisted his help shortly after we had gone to our rooms to see if he could suggest somewhere special for dinner on Dee’s birthday next day. He went off to make enquiries and later came up with a solution and then booked both the table and a taxi to take us there.

We then walked off to see number two in our great gardens of Japan subquest. Okayama is delightful. It has really funky trams, loads of buses, broad main streets behind which lie lots of atmospheric smaller ones. It feels lively and very cultured. On the way we passed by, and were of course, diverted into a Saturday flea market in front of a shrine. Lovely pots too big to think about, dubious netsuke, old farm and cooking implements, clothes, books, prints and stall holders rushing to erect gazebos as the rain started. We did however stand on the bridge and watch cormorants in the river before going on into the Koruaken and were well rewarded.

The spaciousness, variety, beauty of the planting and the “borrowed landscape” of a nearby mountain worked superbly. The rain mostly held off too. It’ll also, like Kenrokuen in Kanazawa, have it’s own page when we are back in the UK and can sort the photographs. On then to Okayama Castle which is impressive and we hoped would have an exhibition of wood block prints, judging from the poster we spied. It did, but only three of them, poorly displayed and part of a bigger exhibit on travel in the Edo period which was interesting but not what we’d hoped for. However the nearly birthday girl did get to be carried in a palanquin!

From the castle we went, getting soaked now, in quest of Maruzen Books where we succeeded in purchasing our coveted road atlas of Japan. Incredibly in a modern shopping mall were stacks and stacks of second hands books being eagerly leafed through but good numbers of people. It was a bit like a vertical version of the stalls under Waterloo Bridge outside the National Theatre. We then wandered through a long shopping arcade with a Dutch Week so tulips and pancakes everywhere. We got lost and finally made it back to the hotel extremely bedraggled and determined to eat very close to the hotel.

It couldn’t really have been closer – diagonally across one street, in fact a pleasant, well-planted and landscaped canal-side walking area rather like the Gion Canal in Kyoto – and into Hachimonji a small but crowded Japanese restaurant where we were taken in hand by a gentleman of some years and guided through a “we’ll give you the best things to eat” menu. Sashimi to start was fine. Then small fish, increasing less strange vegetables, broad beans, rice of course and tempura and finally fresh strawberries, with local biscuits and a soft jelly-like blob of subtle and excellent taste. All washed down with a few beers and some sake. As he relaxed with increased shochi consumption, it was clear that he’d fallen hook, line and sinker for the charms of my wife. I was forbidden to speak any Japanese because my wife speaks it so beautifully. She’s taught the Japanese for beautiful so she could accept his compliments. The husband and wife chef and patronne spoke a little English and went along with the banter and joshing until he took a phone call from his wife asking where the hell he was – we heard Igirisu in his shamefaced reply so we knew we were being used as an excuse. The time to break up the party finally came but not before everybody in the room had joined in a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday to Dee. Does everybody meet characters like this on their travels or is it something about us?

In Japan

Kyoto diary

Three nights in the same

hotel, how will we cope with

such wardrobe choice?

Good morning Kyoto. A little later than intended after completing the three day blog, going to Yodobashi – an incredible nine floors of electronics, electrical, camera and computer gear with some stationery thrown in – to buy a bigger USB drive to store all the photographs we’ve been taking. Yes they are on the cloud but it’s always reassuring to have a physical backup for us oldies. Our late night activities were accompanied by a little whisky which may have accounted for a good night’s sleep.

There’s some admin to do today too. We need to exchange our JR pass vouchers for the real thing and reserve our week after next overnight train to Hakodate. Fortunately the hotel is right across from Kyoto Station so we don’t have far to go. JR passes were easy, the sleeper reservation not so easy as the train I had selected from Hyperdia online is no longer in service so we’ll have to go from Osaka to Tokyo and get an overnight from there to Hakodate. It’s booked and we’ll just rejig things a bit.

Kyoto station is stunning. A glass and steel facade with amazing angles, lines and reflections and an interior to challenge Grand Central for the classical railway station images of the future. And like the St Pancras redevelopment in London it’s making stations not just places from which to travel but places to be. It has a stage and stepped terrace for music gigs, more restaurants and shops than you can imagine and a green garden on the roof with some very clever eco planting that helps reduce heat transfer into the building – lots of summer days are over 35 degrees – 19 last year alone and it will probably rise. From the roof there was a great view of the Kyoto Tower and our acceptable but undistinguished hotel (the one with the white T up the front). And that’s where we headed next.

Having set out in jeans and jumpers we quickly found temperatures soaring to 25 and up. We didn’t pack shorts but fortunately did have some light walking trousers and sandals which were more appropriate attire for the day – thank goodness for the three day unpacking stay. We set off with Katie’s “dorky” maps to explore some small parts of this huge city. Mastering the simple two-line subway, we went first the Shinjo-dori the main shopping street to see if we could buy a Japan road atlas in English to help with our next stages of rentacar travel. We found a big bookshop with new Murakami book posters everywhere but no road atlas. Off the main street, which is the universal, global big city shopping area, are arcades crammed with little shops which are much more interesting. Then we came to another of Katie’s suggestions, Pontocho, which is a narrow street lined with bars and restaurants overlooking the Tama River. It was so warm that we just had to go into one to enjoy the air conditioning for a bit and of course a beer. We had a great view of a team who had dammed up part of the river to build a platform out over it which apparently many of them do for the summer season. We could imagine the delights of a glass of wine out on the terrace.

Refreshed we strode off to the Nanzen-ji Temple where we enjoyed the beautiful spring garden – the shimmering colours of acers in spring are almost a match for their autumn glory and of course so much fresher. Here we also obtained, as advised, our hon (pr. hone) a folding book on which temples stamp their insignia with a hanko (handwritten kanji combined with a special rubber stamp). They are beautiful and will give us a great souvenir of our trip.

We then set off on the ‘Philosopher’s Walk’ a canal-side stroll through eastern suburbs with stretches of complete calm and peace conducive to higher thought – I certainly needed that – and small craft shops selling locally produced goods. By the time we reached the end we were well away from train lines and subway but Dee had cleverly picked up a bus map and the next one to round a corner was the 100 bound for Kyoto Station. It was very crowded at shop and shrine closing time and we stood for most of the journey which was a shame as it passed several landmarks of which we could only see the bottom half.

The philosopher? … in pursuit of gesiha on the walk? … this is what Dee wanted by the end of it.

As we got back to the station, we decided to see if the Kyoto Tower had an observation gallery. It does, we went up. Dusk falling visibility hazy after the heat of the day but a fun visit nonetheless.

Shinkansen passing on the approach to Kyoto The Tower reflected in Kyoto Station

After a freshen up and a couple of much needed beers following a hot day on our feet we decided to head out to find dinner locally. I don’t know if you have the same problem but we are very indecisive when confronted with a street with five restaurants all of which look interesting. We walk up, we walk back, we look at menu pictures outside and then we decide we really are hungry and are going to have to plump for one of them. We did and it turned out to be a hibachi grill place. We were shown, shoes off of course, to a private screened booth with a footwell under our table and were served fresh vegetables and akta mackerel which we cook ourselves over a brazier with three red hot charcoal logs. Great fun and very tasty and we had chosen some excellent sashimi as a starter. We enquired of our server how she spoke such good English and it turned out that Mikita was coming to Brighton in June to study English and had been practising ahead of the trip. We have been struck by amazing meetings with people with existing and possible connections throughout the trip – there really are only six degrees of separation.

We left the restaurant and walked back towards the hotel and spied a rather lively and bright yellow-coloured bar (apologies to our Hornet friends that it is yellow AND green) – standing only and it had a great name. So given the deprivation of yellow as we are missing so much Watford football, we thought a sake night cap was in order. It proved a great people-watching place as late nighters popped in for a quick one on the way home and two ladies of a certain age stood consuming beer to our left until closing time – when we too were asked to drink up and depart – extremely politely. Busy, busy, Kyoto.

Masoho restaurant entrance The last orders bar

Friday dawned fresh, bright and breezy and it was back to jeans and sweaters big time. How can the temperature change by 15 degrees overnight? Well it did and we took the subway south to visit Higashi Inari Shrine. Sadly we missread the map and finish up at a station which is s forty-five minute walk from the shrine rather than the railway station that’s right in front of it. So a taxi was hailed and delivered us to the Fox Shrine which apart from amazing main buildings has a walkway of shrine gates or torii which stretch up to the main shrine on the mountain and involve 10 000 vermillion gates – awesome. We only walked the first three thousand as other sites called but a stroll to the top and back would make a great half day outing given more time. We were approached by a uniformed guard and were worried that we’d been photographing in the wrong place but he was a retired firefighter who had spent time in Sheffield and Liverpool on job exchanges and welcomed the opportunity to speak English. We next took a short train ride to Tofukuji Temple where the buildings are stupendous but the main attraction was a beautiful zen garden on all four sides of the main hall. A wonderful oasis of peace and contemplative strolling in the midst of busy, busy Kyoto. On our way back to the station we called into a small temple Doju-in where the attendant most beautifully calligraphed and then stamped our hon.

We then used our JR Passes for the second time on a train to Kiyazumi which is an amazing complex with superb views over the whole spread of Kyoto and then walked through quaint streets with fabulous little shops dotted about until we reached the Yasaka Pagoda and turned in to the Maruyama Park a popular open space with ponds and shady pathways – and a few ups and downs as we’re in the mountain foothills. After an increasingly chilly walk around the park as the wind got up we descended to the Chion-in Temple just in time to find it close. This is fortunately a short downhill walk from Gion the ancient geisha district which we wanted to explore. It’s lovely, weird and wonderful. We saw women buying kimonos and accessories, having their hair done and one of my favourite shops was a koto, shimasen and shakuhachi shop.

Yasaka pagoda Maruyama Park Old and new Kyoto meet in Gion

Some difficulties next after boarding a train at the first station we came to, Kawaramachi, where we showed our passes only to be told at the exit ticket barrier that it was a private railway and we’d need to pay. Kyoto – maybe Japan trains = confused.com. However we got back safely and did a load of laundry in the coin-op in the hotel, conveniently on our floor. Then repacking ready for the road tomorrow and what felt like a wimpy dinner in the restaurant beneath the hotel which was actually rather good – beef and potato stew for me and fried beef and rice for Dee occasioning slight food envy. She had made the right choice.

In Japan

Shiragawa-go, Kanazawa and beyond

Can we get away

with making a post for three days

and catch up with sleep?

So the Pension Green Lake turned out to be a little gem. In a farmhouse inn the countryside with the kindest, friendliest hostess who after all had driven out to pick us up when lost last night. Our room was great, the bathing capsule perhaps a little small but great power in the shower which is all that matters when you’re up for breakfast at 7.30. Again a delicious home-cooked scrambled eggs with crispy bacon, half a grapefruit, fresh salad and brioches with real strawberry jam. Fabulous! And Megumi, as is the wont of hosts and hostesses stood and watched us eat – we may feel it’s intrusive, they are ensuring ichi-ban service. We set off for Takayama for the spring festival or matsuri and for once had an uneventful drive except that we had to stop five minutes into the trip to photograph a family of monkeys running across the road. Amazing!

Our route took us to a conveniently placed car park close to where it was all going to happen. The attendant insisted on giving us a city map and marking our route to the centre of events. We walked along the riverside. And what a lovely walk along the riverside where being up in the mountains the cherry blossom is in good fettle – so we haven’t missed it altogether.

The main parade was due to start at 12:30 so we an hour or so to explore Takayama’s famous morning market. There are stalls with vegetables from the countryside, crafts from the town and a great candle stall where a young lady was individually calligraphing candles. Several more take home gifts, some excellent rice crackers and sesame snacks were also purchased as well as a kebab and a beer. What a kebab! You may have heard of Kobe beef as being the best and most expensive but where we are now in Hida thinks it outdoes it. Superb, delicious, phenomenal – we had to order a second and learn the words oishi katte, absolutely delicious to express our thanks.

The festival itself was fantastic – a procession throughout the old part of town by townspeople in robes representing different lodges with drummers, flute bands and then 12 magnificent red and gilded floats with fabulous paintings, wood carvings and also carrying flute and drum bands. We’ll put a couple of pictures up but once we’ve sorted through the several hundred photographs and dozen video clips (probably not till we’re back in the UK given the schedule) we’ll post a separate page about the Takayama Festival. We concluded the day with bowls of soba noodles topped with a large slice of uncooked Hida beef which slowly cooked in the warmth of the broth. Oishi katte again to our second encounter with the area famous beef.

The drive back to the pension was a bit of a problem as Mike decided that Route 73 was heading south and must get us back more quickly. Raggett off piste is not a good thing. One of the problems in mountains is that roads tend to go down valleys between them and then back up again. So an extra 50 km and ¥650 in tolls finally saw us back at the ranch. Slapped wrist but no major trauma as it was a glorious ride. Megumi welcomed us back and introduced us to her niece Yuki-e who had returned from New Zealand where she’d been studying in Christchurch at the time of the earthquake and soon was hearing all about Japan’s problems too. Her English is great and over breakfast next morning we looked at our photos and videos of the matsuri, which Megumi had never been to as she’s usually booked solid at festival time. We had a brilliant chat about this and that and plan to keep in touch via our blog and her webpage. We would recommend her pension totally to anyone who wanted to explore the area in spring, summer or autumn when the colours will be fantastic. Lots of walking, brilliant scenery, monkeys and the promise of bears. Great place and to think I was worried.

Yuki-e, Mike, Dee, and Megumi outside Pension Green Lake (courtesy husband Shigeru Yanase) and its fabulously peaceful setting

No monkey business this morning as we drove back up Route 156 to the Shiragawa-go UNESCO National Heritage Site. This is a series of traditional thatched houses with extremely steep pents against the snow. It’s a fascinating place in which heritage site exhibits exist alongside homes of ordinary working people. Again we took loads of photographs and a few video clips and will post more fully on our return. A wonderful insight into Japanese life 300 years ago and how for some it has changed little. Visiting did make me wonder about the value of World Heritage designation – yes we can all go and admire the heroic efforts of people in times past but how does it affect the few real people still trying to live their normal lives? No answers, just musing.

We then drove on seamlessly to Kanazawa and checked into our hotel before walking to the Kenrokuen Garden one of the big three of Japanese strolling gardens. It out performed all my expectations – such variety, so many things of beauty, some many places to contemplate – sheer delight! Again the 300 photos will need some editing before we post a page devoted to Kenrokuen but if you can’t wait try here. Somewhat tired we walked back to the hotel, gathered our thoughts and went out for dinner. We had some of the best sashimi ever and no we didn’t eat the head however “goodo head” with great pickled vegetables some of which we recognized.

Oh and on the way back to the hotel we just happened to shoot this sign – it’s warm – at last! 25 degrees at six o’clock. Love it!

Wednesday morning in Kanazawa started with a trip through the Ohmicho Market just across from the hotel. We discovered by pointing and asking “what’s that” many of the things we’d eaten – lotus root, bamboo shoots – well they’re good for pandas – shiso a wonderful aromatic leaf and several more. It’s a great colourful display of crabs (local speciality), fish, veg and fruit. Magic.

We then went to the museum of gold leaf. Now most of you probably don’t know that 99% of Japan’s gold leaf is produced in Kanazawa. The process of makinh 1kg gold ingots into 1 micron thick sheets of gold foil is brilliant and they had a video that showed it clearly. A few purchases ensued of course at the nearby Golf Leaf Shop – well why wouldn’t you? A quick walk through the old geisha district – still a bit red lighty at night we’re told but this was 10 am. Our next visit was to the contemporary art museum where we were intrigued, amused and provoked by an exhibition called Borderline. Several great exhibits including a scary Anish Kapoor but the most fun was Leandro Ehrlich’s Hockney-like pool. It looks like a normal swimming pool but is a brilliant trompe l’oeil with only 10 cm of water and a glass platform beneath which visitors can parade. James, we think you’ll love this as we did – imaginative, thought-provoking and fun.

We had hoped to drive down to Kyoto along the coast but it didn’t quite go right. Instead of the bright blue of yesterday we had grey humid mist. However we arrived here and saw the sea. It is Cape Kasa, the westernmost point in Kaga Prefecture. We also met a local gardener who was determined to offer Dee some vegetables to take home to cook. Dee’s now excellent Japanese enabled her to persuade her that sadly we were in hotels and going to Kyoto with no cooking facilities and had no friends to whom we could give them.

The Hokuriko Expressway, a super road, sped us to Kyoto where, being worried about delivering late the excellent Hiro from Times Rentacar talked us in, sent us to a local filling station and then helped us to the hotel. We then managed to find a restaurant serving okonomiyaki as recommended by Katie in her Kyoto advice. Stupendous! Katie, Arrigato, goseimasu.

In Japan

The day that nearly wasn’t and only just became

The day starts just fine

then goes very slowly awry

but can it be saved?

Awake early to a bright sunny day and breakfast at six – a little early for us but at least it would give us time to go up the hill and check for directions for the day on the internet with cemetery-side W iFi restored. But first breakfast itself another fantastic confection from our hosts. Sweet scrambled egg! Delicious and totally unexpected as you chopstick the first morsel in. A mingling of part caramelized sugar or honey mixed with the egginess of lightly scrambled eggs was amazing. It was accompanied by a really crisp salad and a variety of dishes with assorted pickles. Then we were brought steaming hot miso soup with tofu and spring onions. And there were pickles, vegetables and of course green tea. We checked out a little later, thanked the innkeeper and his wife for what had been a superb experience – something close to Japanese traditional home life with the work in the day.

Dee looking up at our minshuku The wonderful wooden houses of Tsumago

Up the hill we struggled to fine phone numbers – remember we can only feed SatNav Lady phone numbers – for the three towns we wanted to visit – Magome, just down the valley on the Nakasendo Trail, Ogaki where they make wooden boxes and sake and other measures that are unique, Mino famous for its papermaking and then head off for the not-too-sure-about-this-one Pension Green Lake. Assiduous readers will recall it was the only room we could book after we’d decided to go to the Takayama festival. We could only find a few phone numbers so we did Navitime and Google maps search, wrote down route numbers and set off bright and early to enjoy scenery, mingled with stops at craft shops and general touristy wanderings.

We descend the Kiso Valley looking lovely but before long a sign beckoned us to Route 19 which our researches told us we needed so we turned onto it. Mistake! We had missed Magome as it was further down the valley road and would mean turning back so we carried on crossing that off the list and looking forward to more time at the others. But oh dear, oh dear Route 19 rapidly became like a suburban American highway (Boston readers think Saugus on Rte 1) with more car sales outlets than you’d believe, McDonalds, Lawson Station, Seven 11, Valor Supermarkets every ten kilometres. It was dreary and – being Sunday shopping morning – slow. Without a sensible map we couldn’t work out how to avoid this hell and make our way across country – if indeed such a way existed. Inexorably we were sucked into Nagone which I’m sure is a lovely place, albeit one of Japan’s industrial centres, of which we had plenty of evidence. All we saw was factories, the underside of various expressways crisscrossing the northern suburbs and more roadside malls, outlets and among other eateries the ubiquitous Co Co Curry House – no we haven’t been tempted yet. Eventually we decided to abandon it all and just head for Gujo and the Pension Green Lake.

As we were making better progress we saw a sign to Mino so thought we’d try to salvage something. Glad we did so as it’s another largely well preserved town of old wooden houses filled with craft shops and galleries. We also caught the end of Mino’s matsuri the spring celebrations we intend to see in Takayama tomorrow.

Matsuri float in Mino Making off with the lanterns

We enjoyed the afternoon very much and met a young lady in a large handmade paper shop who had fluent English and had lived in America and Belgium before returning to Japan. The car was lightly burdened with the spoils of some gentle shopping and we headed off to the final destination secure this time that the phone number was in the SatNav.

How wrong can you be? Midway along the Tokai-Horikuru Expressway she declared we had reached our destination. Ummm. I suggested that it was a building we could see from the motorway and that there weren’t many phone numbers around so anywhere here will do. Fortunately we were able to leave shortly at an exit which mentioned Hirugano Kogen Ski Resort. We knew from Booking.com directions that Pension Green Lake was ten minutes from Hirugano Kogen Ski Resort and Bokka No Sato. So we asked in our halting manner the toll gate operator if he knew how we could get there. He was brilliant and produced a map which had both places on but in Japanese but with circling with his pen and drawing our route we set off with renewed confidence. We got to a turning off Route 156 that had both places named but in fading light misunderstood the sign’s guidance and drove around for a further hour before phoning the Pension to say we were lost. Unfortunately the owner’s phone English was not good – she’s pretty good face to face – and my Japanese execrable. We manged to agree to meet at Bokka No Sato from whence she would conduct us home. Finally we met and followed her back to a farm house surrounded by fields and forest that remind us of nothing so much as a visit to our friends Natalie and Peter in Maine, complete with snow. Our hostess was charming and desolated about our woes.

The place is very pleasant and our take away dinner of sushi, crisps, nuts and beer grabbed from a J’s convenience store where we got our final correct directions was a fitting end to a day of disaster. Oh and Dee’s emails are not getting through and the iPad won’t charge.

Uncategorized

From the lakes to the mountains

As we leave the lakes

behind and head off inland

what may lie ahead?

We slept late today only just beating a chambermaid’s knock at the door – check out is ten and it’s now nine-fifteen. Sorry but we needed it. We’re a little late leaving but there’s no discussion of extra charges and it’s all smiles and bows as we depart. Our plan was to circumnavigate one of the bigger lakes, Lake Motosuko, and find the spot from which Fuji is depicted on the ¥1000 note. It’s a clear, warm, sunny day and being a Saturday tourists are out in full cry. The lake is lovely and we find several spots, including the Treasury’s, from which to admire the clearest waters of the lake and the cloud free beauty of the mountain. Being quite high clouds are always a problem when you are looking for that special image.

We then entered the next hotel’s phone number into the SatNav and set off along Route 30 which began with a series of tunnels and then into successive hairpin bends through a pass. It made our route as displayed on the screen look like a coiled snake. Through a stunning landscape which had conifers mingled with fresh burst leaves of acers in the brightest of greens with candyfloss puffs of cherry blossoms punctuating the view – just gorgeous. We felt very happy to be driving Route 30. It headed towards Nagano with surrounding mountains still well capped with snow and a couple of huge downhill ski runs cascading down the mountains. We then hit the plain, joined the Chuo Expressway again and as usual anywhere in the world the drive was efficient but less fun. With a speed limit of 80 kph on the signs I was glad to see the majority of drivers were as partially sighted as me – Dee didn’t think my excuse “I was going with the flow just keeping up with everybody else” would work in a court of law but luckily I wasn’t called upon to produce it.

Off the expressway towards our destination we thought we should fill up the tank as filling stations might not be too numerous in the mountains. I had the phrase ready but when I asked the attendant “Regyuar mandan kudasai” he replied, “Selfo. Press Igris.” The machine burst into life showing grade choices, cash or full tank options and a flashing slot for my credit card. Full tank, all set and they had loos available – much needed after two hours in the car. Easy!

Next stage not quite so good. We drive down the Kiso Valley ogling wood craft factories and shops, lacquer ware outlets as we pass but thinking we should find the hotel(?) first and then explore. SatNav lady informed us we had reached our destination as we stopped outside the cemetery at Tsumago one of the famous post towns on the Nakasendo Trail. Well the words Tsumago did occur somewhere in the address but I wasn’t at all sure we were actually staying in this town. There was a shuttered, derelict looking building to our right, two rather lovely cherry blossom trees just coming out nicely but no sign of anywhere we could sleep.

We accost a likely looking school boy who gets out his iPhone , switches from Kanji to roman input and gets me to enter the name. The result is unclear but my lightbulb flashes and I go to get the tablet and our router to see if Google maps could help. By this time another tourist group has gathered and suggest we go to the Tourist Information Office who should be able to assist. The whole group guide us down the hill to the office where a lady with enough English summons the innkeeper to come and fetch us. He indicates where we should drive and he will meet us at the bus stop which was marked on the town tourist map. The Shimosagaya Hotel that I’d booked on Agoda was described as Japanese style – but even the town map calls it an inn. It’s actually a minshuku a family run B&B. We shed our shoes and climb a steep ladder-like staircase that would have taxed Toddy in his heyday but with Dee’s knee and our multiple luggage it’s a struggle.

The room we’re shown to however is a delight. It’s a six mat tatami room with a table, cushions, hot water and tea and some delicious plums provided as a welcome. Oh and the loo has aheated seat an the “toto wash system” built in – use your imagination. Later while we were dining, the table was moved to one side and futons and duvets were put out for us to sleep. We go out to explore this extremely well restored town of Tsumago on the old route from Kyoto to Tokyo. It has loads of wooden houses from the converted into fairly touristy shops with local crafts – some of the wooden objects were glorious. We’d been told dinner was served at six so we had to hurry back to make ourselves presentable to join other guests.

As for dinner! Well just look at these before and after pictures. We had virtually no idea what we were eating but apart from a couple of pickled root vegetables we polished it off. There was one other couple dining alongside us and a few conversational gambits were exchanged including amazement at our itinerary and some notes about what we were eating.

P1010744

And what were we eating? Our trays included a fish complete with head, skin and bones – although we were encouraged “heado goodo” we were given dispensation to leave the head – some fabulous salmon sashimi, tightly curled fern tops, wasabi leaf with sesame, local vegetables in tempura, a superbly tasty clear miso soup and that future source of protein for all of us – grasshoppers. Yes we have both eaten grasshoppers with enjoyment and delight so we’ll be the survivors when the food runs out.

We’ve now retired to plan tomorrow and blog but even with our own router there’s no signal deep down in the valley in the middle of town so we’ll have to go up to the cemetery in the morning to try to post and work out our route with Google maps or Navitime.

And so to bed.

In Japan

12.04.2013 Murakami Day!

Will we get our wish

to buy the Murakami

and find Mount Fuji?

The alarm rings at 6 a m. We rise to a beautifully sunny Tokyo and get ourselves ready for the queue to buy the new Murakami novel about which no information has been released but speculation has been rife. As I said to Dee on the way, we can be sure that it will involve a forty-something angsty male reminiscing about his youth and failing to make relationships work. Beyond that there will be a context of some kind – maybe political or topical. We’ll see.

We arrive at Books Kinokunia, Shinjuku at seven and declare ourselves first in the queue. Gradually the store staff start to arrange tables outside the shop and finally piles of the coveted tome arrive. At 07:55 Dee makes the first transaction of the day and we have our copy of Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage. No our Japanese didn’t suddenly get better – there’s a convenient English translation on the endpapers. Now there is quite a line of people waiting to pay and clearly they are in for a brisk trade so we set off to check out, rent a car and drive to Mount Fuji.

[Because of a couple of wi-fi less days we actually know that the launch caused a much bigger stir in central Tokyo as reported in The Guardian – thanks James and for providing the provenance for our etchings in your comment.]

A swift breakfast coffee on the way – more research really as lots of scenes in the novels are set in coffee shops – and we say goodbye to the e-Hotel and take a cab to Mazda Rent a Car. Except the driver doesn’t recognize the address so it’s back into the hotel leaving the trusty baggage wrangler waiting in the street. Just as I arrive from the hotel with a more precise location I discover that the driver rather than just going to get another fare has been consulting his SatNav and also knows where to go. We conclude the car pick up OK at the office and move to find it in a nearby parking lot. It’s fine and swallows our copious baggage comfortably – good research pays off! The only problem is with the English SatNav we’d ordered – it speaks English but we can only enter destinations with telephone numbers or by using a character conversion chart for katakana – ummm. So we set off to find the Chuo Expressway (more research) and head south towards the Fuji Five Lakes area. It’s a pleasant easy drive and apart from a few bottlenecks where expressways merge we’re off and away. The first sighting of Mount Fuji from the expressway is stunning – its top half still covered in snow and rising as a perfect cone from the surrounding plain. You can understand why it’s one of the most photographed places on earth. The SatNav even gets us right to the hotel in Fujiyoshida although we can’t quite believe it.

In a real Dolphin Hotel moment (Wild Sheep Chase, Dance, dance, dance) we park tentatively rather than under the hotel itself and walk to the door which clearly says Hotel Fuyokaku. There’s no evidence in English as to where reception is but it’s clearly not on the first or ground floor (there’s much about Japan that displays an American influence). So we take the elevator for which someone must have pressed the call button so we are whisked to the fifth floor where chambermaids sit having a break surrounded by piles of sheets and yukatas. We manage to make it clear we want to check in and are sent back to the third floor where a young man emerges from a back office to check us in to room 512. We explain we parked along the access road and will fetch the car to unload. However we’ve been blocked in by a large white Nissan van. So it’s back to reception where our man has vanished and has to be summoned by bell again. He comes out with us to assess the situation, fortunately recognizes the vehicle and goes to fetch the owner. So finally we check in, unpack a bit and prepare to go in quest of Fuji. Now it’s highly visible but doesn’t have a regular phone number to punch into the SatNav so we discover what we hope is the phone number for a useful Tourist Information Centre and supplementing this with the, now map wrangler, doing her very best with inadequate resources, we set off. After a block or two we realize we are heading for a different information centre altogether and not really where we want to go. So with a few twists and turns and some stern admonishments from SatNav Lady we eventually head off up a road that leads to the fifth stage of the ascent – as far as you can go by car. We get out and join the coach parties of Chinese, French and hope that the cloud ringing the summit will clear. Actually it’s not a good photo opportunity anyway – too close and the lakes around its base are too hazy. So we descend and decide to use the tourist map to look for better views from Lakes Kawaguchiko and Saiko.

On the northern shore of Lake Kawaguchiko is a promenade lined with cherry trees which being colder down here is just coming into its prime so we get shots of both cherry blossom and Mount Fuji. The drive round the lake is beautiful and we find a number of other locations where we think we’ll get good views of the mountain.

As the evening draws in the wind gets up, we grab a few final shots, make our way back to the hotel and go out for a beer and something to eat. We arrive at a very friendly noodle bar and order just two beers but as we sit and see how many other locals come to eat there the decision to move on which resulted from our toss of the ¥100 coin – numbers or flowers as there’s no head – we give in, order delicious bowls of ramen and then retire to the hotel.

A day of achievement – we have our Murakami book, we managed to get the car and drive to Mount Fuji and we’ve seen the mountain from most angles possible.

In Japan

A day of culture in Tokyo

With wood block prints to

start our day we wonder what

else will come our way?

After the exhaustion of the last two days we decided on a quietly cultured vacation day. But before we start in on that let’s just share some of the Joys of Japan.

Jazz is alive and well and is the music of choice in most shops, restaurants, coffee shops and bars. It’s usually easy grooving West Coast style jazz and it’s so much less intrusive than relentless pop.
Manners in the main are what we miss in the UK. They are not all perfect – nobody offered us oldies a seat on the metro but in general people are friendly, helpful and polite.
Heated loo seats – Dee was so delighted with her first experience of the high tech loo off the hotel lobby, she insisted I go check it out. This one was brilliant and we’ve now found many others are accompanied by control panels fit for the SS Enterprise that will pre-sterilize the seat, add pleasant odours and wash various parts of your lower body on request – but the best is sitting down on a warm seat.

We have some framed reproductions of Hokusai’s 36 views of Mount Fuji in our hall at home and are both fans of these delicate, funny and sometimes outrageous wood block prints known as ukiyo-e which were produced as popular art from the mid seventeenth to the early twentieth century. There’s a museum devoted to them in Harajuku which we visited where there was a fascinating exhibition of prints depicting women’s fashions, hair and make-up styles. Who knew the green lower lip was so desirable! There was also a great display which showed the process of making Hokusai’s The Wave an image I guess most people are familiar with. As we left there was a spattering of rain and our eyes were drawn to a line of brightly-hued umbrellas.These were office workers queuing at Harajuku’s trendiest popcorn store to buy popcorn for their lunch! We passed on the opportunity – few things are worth waiting that long for. So we then walked over to the Meiji Park through a little drizzle to the Meiji Shrine in which the immortal souls of Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken are preserved in Shinto honour. They were largely responsible for making Japan a modern nation in touch with the rest of the world. It’s such a place of pilgrimage that it was rebuilt from funds raised by public subscription after the war which destroyed it. The Japan Sake Manufacturers also donate these huge barrels of sake each year as a mark of respect. It’s a place of quiet, serious contemplation in the busy city and is clearly valued by many as a place to spend time in, not just somewhere to tick off on the “Let’s do Tokyo Tour”

We had been pretty pleased with ourselves for mastering the Metro to get to the museum but our next trip after a quick lunch involved working out the best route right across the city. We had to find the right entrance to the line we needed and then change midway. The subway is easy to use and a great way of getting quickly around the huge metropolis that is Tokyo. We ended up in Asakusa where I thought I might have bought my etchings but as it transpired no likely shops were spied and the search goes on. However Asakusa has an amazing shopping thoroughfare leading to the Kannon Temple, as it was called in 1981 when I visited but now known as the Senso-ji. Buddhist rather than Shinto the visitors are more expressive with cleansing and incense wafting rituals to be performed before approaching the temple. We captured a few of them…

… and Dee captured Mike still seeking Murakami.

We again attracted the attention and advice of an elderly gent entirely self-taught and fluent in English – from self-help books and listening to the BBC World Service – note to the new regime at Broadcasting House! He was sorry the cherry blossom had been so early this year but thought we might catch some near Mount Fuji tomorrow and told us about the different varieties with their varying shades from almost white to deepest pink. We then strolled around some artisan jewellers, ceramicists – no stand yet Mike but we’re looking – and fabulous fan and fabric stores before getting the subway to the heart of Tokyo shopping – Ginza. Mitsukoshi department store had a marvellous roof garden on the ninth floor overlooking the street where we enjoyed a green plum and, separately, black sesame icecream. We’ve all seen the pictures of Ginza crossing but it is really incredible to see the sheer number of people late into the evening who descend onto and beneath this world-famous street. Again in the interests of finding Murakami’s Japan we had to visit the subterranean bars that lead from Ginza to Shinbashi where so many people and some of his characters seem to finish off their working day. Ours ended with a visit to – oh come off it! – a tapas bar just off the Ginza with Basque pintxos and Rioja. Then the subway back to the hotel to write. Oh and we ordered and printed out our baseball ticket for next moth in the local convenience store on the way- what a service!

An early night is needed as we have a six a m alarm set to be the first to buy the new Murakami tomorrow.

In Japan

The chase is on! … continued

Will our first day in

Japan be a lot of fun

or will we just sleep?

Riding the Narita Express is a very pleasant experience – comfortable, a trolley drinks service and train attendants who bow as they enter or leave every compartment (or coach as the announcements have it) whether there are passengers within or not. It’s strange to our eyes and minds and gives us an insight into the fact that for all it’s modernity Japan still retains some hard-wired traditions. There are news and weather updates on the flat screens at the front of each coach with very useful journey information as well as lots of ads of course. But Express is a bit of a generous appellation in my book. We left Narita at 10:48 and got to Shinjuku at 12:08 so an hour and twenty minutes for 50 miles seems less than arrow let alone bullet speed.

Just before we left we watched a documentary made by a friend’s company called “Shinjuku – the world’s busiest train station”. It was fascinating and just about prepared us for the warren of bemused foreigners (us included) and thousands of purposefully striding locals on their lunch breaks that met us. Finding an exit that would would lead to a taxi rank all the while struggling with our four suitcases remember, involved two lift rides, an escalator and a false exit before we found it at last. Again one had been somewhat forewarned but to get into a spotless very boxy vehicle – maintenance is obviously brilliant as all the cabs we’ve seen look very old models – and find lacy antimacassars and seat backs and the driver in white gloves. Oh I’ve got some suggestions for the black cab fraternity and their minicab competitors! The stern lady at Narita Express tickets had suggested we should expect to pay between ¥1000 and ¥2000 depending on traffic conditions. Well they must have been superb since the fare was ¥710 and tips are not expected in Japan.

We couldn’t check into our hotel until three o ‘clock so we deposited our bags in what wouldn’t have disgraced the lost luggage at Baker Street – clearly hundreds of people arrive on early flights and can’t check in till later. So we set off in quest of first some lunch and then Murakami’s new book.

We walked around the immediate area looking at plasticized menu pictures of strange combinations and eventually settled on a 24-hour self-service place where we could choose our own food – and the two large, very much needed beers you see. It proved all rather Murakami as the staff were constantly screaming – pleasantries and encouragement I hope – at each other and then I looked out of the window and saw this.

It transpired that they were “The Shinjuku Robots” parading the streets on a float to publicize a forthcoming Shinjuku event. However in the middle of a day with no sleep it was food for thought. I’m sorry I hadn’t time to rush out and get a front on view but the traffic lights don’t wait that long.

But lunch was long enough to get us into the room, have a shower and then set off in search of news of Muarakami’s new book. Now the room – I recall a congratulatory post that we’d booked our first room for only £65 a night. Well it’s fine – the hotel is very well located, the lift works and for once we are not in the room furthest from it. However it might be a good place for Nakata (a character in Kafka on the Shore) to talk to or even interrogate cats but he certainly couldn’t swing one. However it’s fine for two nights, provides an extensive range of toiletries and towels and a yukata and slippers for each of us.

Refreshed we set off and walk towards where I think Kinokunia Bookstore should be. Passing a small shrine, a baseball batting cage like a gold driving range and several young ladies who start to offer me cards until they see Dee and hastily recover their doorway stations, we find Kinokunia, confirm publication at 08:00 on 12 April and suggest there will be a queue of about 80 waiting to get the latest Haruki fix. We’ll be there, sporting a unique 1Q84 tee shirt gained at the London launch of that book.

Making our way back to the hotel we encounter a delightful elderly gentlemen who asks us where we come from, is amazed at the length and breadth of our trip and offers helpful suggestions for good things to see in the area. We were at one of these, the Hanazomon Shrine, an oasis of peace in the midst of hectic, trendy Shinjuku. Through the line of torii in the right hand picture if you look carefully you can see at the end the gold fascia lettering of Emporio Armani – a real god meets mammon moment. It surprised me thirty years ago to see people come from their offices wash themselves ritually and go and stand before the shrine, say a few words of prayer and clap their hands to ensure their prayers were heard. I find it amazing today.

Sated with spiritualism we then moved off into the heart of Shinjuku’s “entertainment district”. Never has so much neon been burned in attracting people to spend their money. It’s truly amazing. We walked the streets, wondering at the large amounts of hanging about on street corners by both young men and women – some were certainly trying to get us to dine at their establishment but probably not all of them. However, resisting their blandishments we chose a bar of our own liking, had a couple of beers as many of Murakami’s characters do in this part of town and then went off for dinner. But not before exchanging meishi and becoming lifelong friends.

Then back to the hotel via an interesting punch in the number to select your dish, pay in advance diner which was actually rather good and then to bed for one of us and to blog writing for the other, the results of which you know. It’s midnight again and we have to be up early to be in the queue at Kinokunia, so sayonara and Thursday’s news will have to wait until tomorrow.

Uncategorized

The chase is on!

So, from Gate Five Two

can the great white bird fly us

to our wonderland?

Alarm clock goes off. 7:00 am. Time to finish packing, put on washing machine and dishwasher and prepare to leave. London: grey,wet chilly. Look at the weather forecast for Tokyo: 21 C and sunny. Oh where would we rather be? Pick up newspaper from the door mat. I thought I’d have the last delivery today as there would be time to read it on the way to the airport. What a mistake that was. Totally full of The Iron Lady Who Was Not for Turning; page after page of the stuff, guff and ill-remembered hagiography. Thankfully she didn’t make the sports pages although I quite expected a piece on her captaincy of Grantham Girls’ Netball team to feature. OK so some of you reading this will hold a differnt view but hey let’s get on and right the ills that face us now. At least we won’t be around for the funeral and all the attendant outpourings. Dee’s window for a break proves to be excellent timing after all.

So that and what follows should have been posted at Heathrow before we left but both WiFi networks available at Terminal 5 were barred by my system as posing severe threats. So by the time this sign came up I was a doubly-distressed would-be traveller. This was not however until after a little last minute shopping in Boots and elsewhere which seems to accompany any trip however well planned.

The flight itself was long but uneventful and entirely sleep-free on account of leaving London at 13:30 and not being tired until shortly before we arrived in Japan some eleven hours later. Ah well we’ll just have to keep up and get going. One of the excellent flight crew who looked after us in our cleverly selected emergency-exit-extra-legroom seat was amazed at the scope of our voyage into the relatively unexplored – at least by westerners – hinterland as well as the beaten track. She also confirmed sadly that not only had hanami come early this year because of the unusually warm spring (hands over ears Brits) but that last weekend there had been extremely strong winds which had blown much of what remained away. Ah well.

Until I phoned the airline to check that we could consolidate our two 20 kg allowances into one suitcase (we can’t) we had planned to travel with a cabin sized bag each and one large case between us to make travel around the country much of it by train, in-and-out of hotels etc easier to manage. Having checked two in off a trolley and taken one hand luggage piece each was fine but the fun began after passing through fairly efficient immigration and customs at Narita Airport. We had decided to travel into the centre with the Narita Express so Dee waited with the bags while I went to buy the tickets. It’s a good deal if you buy a ticket and a SUICA prepayment card together as you get a substantial discount and ¥2000 credit on the plastic top up card that can be used on almost all Tokyo transport and in a number of shops as an alternative to cash. I emerge with our tickets timed for the 10:18 and with seats 3A and B in Coach 9 reserved. All most splendid. Almost! Dee wanted to photograph one of the amazing vending machines that are found in locations all over the city and I suspect the country.

This diversion was entirely worthy as they are amazing machines BUT it did mean that what with faffing about with four suitcases through a barrier and trying to get down an escalator, we missed the 10:18. A very friendly attendant said Dee should stay with the bags while I went to change the tickets. Isn’t it funny how a smiling, utterly polite ten-minutes-before Noriko can strike real fear into you with the words, “You must catch the 10:48. I can change this only once!” Boy did I scuttle back only to have former friendly platform assistant forget who I was and make me go back through the barrier before allowing me to rejoin my baggage wrangler wife.

When we did finally get onto the platform it was great to have confirmed what we’d been told that all rail signs are in English and Japanese and the loading of trains by coach and seat number is highly efficient and what helps the trains to run on time. I had hoped to post a picture of a very stylish Narita Express train but after carefully focusing the camera on where a good shot would be the bugger crept up – or rather whooshed up on me from the opposite direction and I had to abandon it and get the bags on board. The other thing to say not just down in the station and on the train itself but elsewhere is how clean everywhere is. As we expressed in towards Tokyo it became clear that we’d arrived on Washday Wednesday. House after house, apartment block upon apartment block had lines of laundry hanging out in the increasingly sunny day.

There’s lots more and we haven’t even reached Tokyo yet but as it’s nearly midnight here and I’ve been without sleep for about 35 hours you’ll have to wait for tomorrow for the next instalment.

However the Murakami quest has started in earnest with some highly professional research visits to Shinjuku bars and some details about the launch of the new novel on Friday.

Getting ready

All set and a plea for information

Just two days to go

yen here, vouchers printed, now

can we get some help?

We’re are now in the very excited build up to actually going on this trip at last. It became even more exciting this week when Japanese currency arrived. I’d shopped around at banks, the post office and travel agents to find not very good rates. In a week when the Japanese government poured trillions of yen into the economy to kickstart inflation and recovery, the yen fell against the pound and the dollar. However exchange rates are slow to respond – a bit like prices at the filling station – quick to go up when oil prices rise, slow to come down when they fall. Rather warily I ordered them online – well there was a bank holiday weekend in the way but they turned up fine as planned. I had looked at several sites and found the best rate and excellent service from TravelFX.com who kept me informed of progress throughout the process. Here they are: ¥1000 somewhere between £6 and £7; ¥5000 about £34 and ¥10000 about £65 – well today anyway!

There were two other important pieces of preparation. Being a little unhappy to rely entirely on showing electronic booking forms to hotels and car hire desks we decided to print out all our booking confirmations and vouchers. Our good friend Toddy posted earlier that we would need a “sturdy binder” for all of them. He was right as you can see and thank goodness we’re not on Easyjet or Ryanair with cabin luggage weight restrictions.

The other sprang from some great advice from the superb practice nurse at our local NHS surgery. Dee is suffering from a bout of sinusitis at present and was a bit concerned about its effect on the ear and head pain she usually suffers during take off and landing. “Get ear planes,” we were told. So we did. They are little clear rubbery earplugs with a grometty spiral at the outer end which helps to balance pressure and prevent pain. Sounds great, we’ll find out in a day or so if they work.

And now I wonder if anyone out there can help me? When I was in Japan in 1981, I bought a series of four etchings which we’re extremely fond of and would like to find out a bit more about. I photographed them and took them in to the ever-helpful Alisa at the Japan National Travel Office in London to see if the titles or the artist’s name would provide any clues and maybe point us at the locations they depicted. The titles proved descriptive but non-specific in terms of finding out in which part of Japan they might be. Up in the Hills, Green Fields, Poplars and Red Bird are accurate but unhelpful. She was also unable to provide a secure reading of the artist’s signature so I’m posting the etchings and a close up of the signature below and if anyone recognises places or the artist we’d really love it if you could post a comment to let us know.

The etchings: