26/11/12 – 27/11/12 Kanazawa, the Land of Precipitation and Ninjas

 26/11/12

Unfortunately, our first full day in Kanazawa was marked by a deluge of freezing cold rain. It was pouring, and according to the internet, there was a 90% chance of rain all day. Not looking good for our sightseeing activities. We decided as such to just relax and take the day slowly, and hopefully wait for a break in the rain to go outside.

After sleeping in well into the late morning, we eventually decided to get up and try and deal with the inclement weather. Our first stop was just down the road from our Ryokan, the Omichi fish market. This was not nearly as confronting as the similar wet markets we saw in Hong Kong. Instead, it just had the fresh fish and crab on display, most of which appeared to have been pre-deadificated. Speaking of crab, there were loads of them, as the crab season had just started in Japan. They were the most vivid shades of red, almost like the autumn leaves that are flourishing all over Japan at this time of year. They were really pretty, but also really expensive. Some crabs were fetching up to 12,000JPY! I don’t know how good that crab would taste, but you’d definitely want to make several meals out of it for that price.

We then headed for the Higashi Chaya geisha district – an area famous for its arts, crafts and tea houses. We browsed through the picturesque streets, and found a few things here and there to buy. They specialised in gold leaf items, and silk weaves. Most of it was actually authentic, being made either locally, or at least in Japan. No geishas to be seen in this district though – probably due to the really heavy rainfall we were experiencing.

The rain was relentless, and the wind was getting quite angry as well, so we soon decided to head back to the ryokan, where we spent another hour or two just relaxing in the pleasant surrounds of the ryokan.

We then headed out for a dinner in the Omichi Market. Our first intention was to go to a particular restaurant, as recommended by Mai, our hostess. However, the menu was completely in Japanese – including the prices. There were no roman numbers anywhere. Normally, I’m game to try most things, but when I don’t even know how much I’m paying for them (especially when dinner at some Japanese restaurants can fetch upwards of 10,000JPY per person), I’m not entirely comfortable with doing that. As such, we decided to pass on this restaurant, and instead went to, yep, another soba and udon joint. As much as this is our “fall back” dish in Japan, the food was still really tasty, and it came with a few side dishes aside from just the noodles and tempura.

Afterwards, we headed back to the room, where we Skyped with our loved ones at home. While it was far from the busiest day we’ve had on the holiday so far, it was some much needed downtime on this holiday, and the surrounds couldn’t have been better.

27/11/12

Today was another rainy day so we had another really late start. When we did decide to go out and explore, we visited the Myoruji Temple, also known as the “ninja temple”. To get there, we could walk for about 30 minutes, or we could catch a bus. Given the threatening weather, we decided to take the latter option.

Catching a bus in Japan is quite confusing unless you’re paying attention. When you board, you board from the rear door of the bus. You collect a ticket from one of the dispenser machines, much like one does at the deli. It has a number printed on it that corresponds to what stop you got on at. At the front of the bus, there is a display showing the stop numbers, and the fare price, that updates the longer you stay on the bus. When you get off the bus, you drop your ticket and the fare onto this little conveyor belt thingy and then get off. It sounds strange, but it actually works quite well. Just gotta remember to take the ticket at the start, or else it all breaks down.

After getting off the bus, the weather started really showing its force. For a brief few seconds, there was what I like to call “angry snow”, also known as tiny hail pieces. We were counting it as snow though. Then, it quickly transitioned into really cold, windy rain. We walked quickly to the temple, huddling under our umbrellas as we went.

Inside the temple, we had to take part in a guided tour, as the temple itself was too old, fragile and dangerous to freely explore on one’s own. While the tour itself was in Japanese, it was still highly visual, and they gave us an English “read-along” booklet so we could still fully understand what was happening on the tour. It was a really fascinating experience. The temple held loads of ingenious trap doors and hidden chambers, including two way doors, see through stairs and enough tiny chambers for all manner of samurai to hide in. The tour guide demonstrated all of the various traps as we went. While they weren’t any sort of rube-goldberg type contraptions that were caused by stepping on a pressure plate, they were very practical traps that employed deception over sheer complexity, much like ninjas did. Funnily enough though, Myoruji Temple has nothing to do with Ninjas – it got the nickname because of the amount of traps inside the temple. It was primarily used as a warning post for Kanazawa castle, and also as a place for worship. This meant that it only really had the pre-allocated fifteen ninjas hiding within its walls, much like every other building in Japan.

Afterwards, we then had a look through the local stores and once again bought a few ceramic cups and other knick knacks. We have a real problem with buying knick knacks…

On our way back to the hotel, walking along the main road of Kanazawa. While we were walking, we turned to our right, and saw the most amazing temple. I read later that it was Oyama Jinja shrine. “Really pretty” fails to describe it. Moreover, its accompanying garden was amazing to look through. Every angle offered a perfect photo opportunity. The garden was laid out in such a way that no matter where you walked through it, you would end up walking on a circuit over the various ponds and bridges. It was clearly very well planned. There were also loads of koi carp in the pond, most of which followed you around, waiting for food. We ended up giving them some calorie mate, a type of shortbread biscuit thing, much to their fishy delight.

At dinner time, our hostess Mai recommended we went to a restaurant called “Itaru”. It was well worth following her advice. It was very much our kind of restaurant – really tasty food in a relaxed setting. We sat at the bar when eating our food, which was a fun experience. We were right next to the area where they prepared all of the food, so we had a front row seat to the action. My view however, was blocked by a menu card, but Emma assured me that it was very interesting to watch. While the food itself was quite expensive, being about 4,500JPY each (or about $50AUD), it was delicious. It was also the first time that we’d spent a significant amount of money on dinner so far on the trip, so it was about time that we had a treat. The sashimi was easily the freshest I’ve ever tasted, and the service by the owner, Itaru (of which the restaurant is named after) was fantastic. He spoke pretty good English, although after I complimented him on it, he showed me that he was actually using his smartphone to translate! Regardless of this, he was a great host, and he was a master at preparing sashimi. One dish was quite strange though. It was very thin greens, pickled in thick vinegar. It looked like the hair you pull out of the drain after a shower. It didn’t taste much better, either. I did manage to eat it all, but it was definitely one of the stranger things I’ve ever ate. Emma ranked it in her “top 10 most unpleasant foods ever”. Despite this, it was really a good meal overall. Probably my favourite meal of Japan so far, I’d say.

Kanazawa is COLD! Even though we are there in late Autumn, the temperature was getting down to about 3 degrees at night. While this isn’t the coldest temperatures I’ve experienced on this trip (Seoul got down to about -3 at night), it was the combination of the cold and the wet that really chilled you. It’d be great to see this place covered in snow, but I think that the sheer cold would actually kill me.

Finally, a note on the bathing system in Japan. This Ryokan we stayed at had a public bath system. Basically, you sit on a stool in a tiled room with a small hand held shower head. You then wash yourself all over, and then go for a sit in the hot bath. After the third night, I was quite comfortable with the procedure, but thankfully I hadn’t had to share the bath with anybody yet. Not sure how I’d feel about being naked in front of the other guests, especially when you’d have to see them at breakfast the next day. I guess it is something that is just more widely accepted in Japanese culture. I find it quite odd when they are such an outwardly-reserved culture in most aspects, but I’m definitely no expert on their culture, so I shouldn’t really comment.

Tomorrow:

Kanazawa! Pretty Gardens! Kyoto!

24/11/12 – 25/11/12 – The Magic and Mystery of Rural Japan, and MOAR TRAINS!

24/11/12

After a restful night’s sleep in our amazing futon beds, Emma and I awoke about 10 minutes before it was time for us to have breakfast. At exactly 8am, we were escorted down to the dining room to have breakfast. Awaiting us each was a square plate with nine smaller square bowls on it, each containing a different breakfast dish. In addition, there was a nice hearty miso soup and rice waiting for us as well. Needless to say, breakfast was amazing. I managed to eat everything on my plate this time, which was a nice feeling. I also noticed that while we were dressed in our Yukatas (our traditional house robes), we were the only ones who appeared to have anything on underneath them. Once again this made us feel a bit out of place, but we did our best to enjoy it anyway. Besides, it wasn’t really our fault – the Yukatas were designed for short people, which we are not.

After breakfast, we headed back to our room, where our futons had been magically packed away. We sat up and watched the end of “My Neighbours the Yamadas”, which we started watching the previous night. Afterwards, we got up, got our things together, and went to check out of the Ryokan.

We heaved our huge bags down the steep stairs, and were soon greeted by not only the elderly man who ran the Ryokan, but by his wife and the cleaning lady as well. Clearly they enjoyed us staying here, which was a nice feeling indeed. They then proceeded to give us their own gifts in thanks for us staying there. We were given a lovely box of apple-based delicacies from the local apple orchards, a wooden teapot coaster carved into the shape of a monkey, and a cloth with all of the Kanji for the bath houses that dotted the town. Under each bath house name, there was the red stamp mark of each of the baths. They were the actual stamps too, not printed on or anything. I think you’re meant to do it yourself when you go and bathe in all of the different onsen, but given that we weren’t too keen on that idea, clearly he wanted to give us a memento of that aspect of the town anyway.

We then had a stroll around the town to kill some time before we had to head to the train station. We stopped in all of the local stores, and bought some souvenirs where we could. One particular store, which wasn’t very flashy from the outside, had some very nice looking ceramics, which were not too pricey to boot. It was run by a lovely old lady who was very gracious in the way she presented herself. She was very kind.

We then bought another apple each from the local market and began the long walk down to the train station. There was no snow to be seen this time, but the views of the surrounding mountains were still just as breathtaking. The spectacular autumn leaves on the hill were beautiful to look at – they covered the hills in veins of gold and red, contrasting stunningly with the evergreen pine trees. Really amazing stuff.

I stopped in at the local Lawson’s, before we boarded our train to Nagano. I grabbed us some tasty bento boxes for some lunch for the long journey ahead of us. What followed was an epic 5 hour journey across the countryside of Japan, travelling firstly back to Nagano, and then north through the Japan Alps to Naoetsu, where we then headed west along the northern Japan coast to Uozu. Finally, we caught another local train south and into the mountains where we reached our final destination of Unazuki, another small town at the foot of the mountains.

I won’t go through and laboriously describe each detail of our various train journeys. What I will say though, is that if/when you come to Japan, do yourselves a favour and take a nice slow train ride across the rural areas. Yes, the Shinkansens are awesome in their speed and smoothness, but everything rockets by at such sheer velocity that you don’t have time to take it in. By comparison, our train ride from Nagano to Naoetsu was some of my favourite hours of travelling so far. The rickety old electric train slowly trundled along the tracks, in no apparent hurry to get anywhere. Out the window was stunning views of autumn leaf-covered mountains, acres and acres of farmland, and then sudden tunnels through rocky mountainsides. At one stage, we even came out of a tunnel into a small valley, where for the briefest of intervals, tiny delicate flakes of snow fell from the sky. I looked around in awe at its beauty, and Emma happily snapped away pictures of both the snow, and the expression of joy on my face.

It was not to last though, as a few seconds later, we were through another tunnel, and the beautiful snow was to be seen no more. The mysterious valley disappeared into the mists, and we were soon heading for more farmland and small towns. No wonder Japan is a place of such folklore and legend – the land is so beautiful and mysterious that even today in Japan’s highly modernised state, you can almost see Totoro poking his big fluffy body out from behind a tree as your train slowly rolls through the countryside.

One last thing, the ocean of Japan is quite different to the oceans around Australia. The waves are very small but spiky, and the whole ocean looks perpetually angry and frightening. We only caught glimpses of it by this stage, as we were hurtling along on a much faster train, bound for Uozu.

By the time our last train rolled into Unazuki, we were positively exhausted. Thankfully our hotel was literally a two minute walk from the train station, so we stumbled there and after a fairly confusing check in process, we were finally in our hotel, safe and sound. We decided to head out for some dinner at a local restaurant, where the waiters only spoke a few words of English. Actually, the town only had tiny smatterings of English, too. We were really off the beaten track, or rather, we were off the beaten track for western tourists. I found this both highly exciting and rather terrifying at the same time.

We had some delicious tempura udon and soba for dinner, which was a very nice finish to a rather tiring day.

25/11/12- MOAR TRAINS.

Our day started with a delicious buffet breakfast. While our hotel itself wasn’t really anything special, the breakfast which we had was pretty awesome. Lots of different options, both western and Japanese. Seeing as we were in Japan, we stuck with the Japanese options, which were very tasty.

When we returned to the room after breakfast, I opened the curtains for the first time, to see a stunning view of the mountains surrounding the town we were staying in. We were literally about two hundred metres from the edge of the gorge, with huge tree-covered mountains on either side of this small town. This was all quite a pleasant surprise to us, as we came in under the cover of darkness the previous night, and as such had no idea of our surrounds.

We then checked out of the hotel, and got ready for our day of sightseeing. Today we were taking a long journey on the Kurobe Gorge train – a very narrow gauge railway that winds its way through a forested gorge in the middle of the Japan Alps. It promised to be a day full of stunning views and natural wonders. We walked to the train station, and managed to book our tickets for our journey to the end station of the line, Keyakidaira, and back again.

 We had about 30 minutes to kill before our train departed, so we went for a walk out on one of the many bridges that crossed the gorge nearby. The view was stunning, with the cool mountain stream running a hundred or so metres below us, and either side of the gorge covered in beautiful trees.

After Emma had a minor freakout on one of the suspension bridges (due to it swaying in the wind), we then decided to head back to the train station. We waited in line for a few minutes, and then we were allowed to board the train. Thankfully, there was no rush for seats, as there were plenty of good spots to go around. We took a spot on the right side of the train, and readied the camera for what promised to be a very scenic journey.

It didn’t disappoint. Countless beautiful shots presented themselves to us as the train slowly made its way through the mountains. There was a grand total of 41 tunnels and 21 bridges that we crossed over throughout the 80 minute journey. Really dazzling stuff. Unfortunately, we had come after most of the trees had dropped their autumn leaves for the season, so it wasn’t as impressive as some of the promotional photos make it out to be. However, there was an upside to the lack of foliage – there were clear views down to the crystal clear waters of the gorge below and the snow-capped peaks above us – both of which would have been obscured if the autumn leaves were still there. Many, many photos were taken.

After the long journey up the mountainside, we were at roughly 600 metres above sea level. While not incredibly high up, you did soon quickly feel the cold of the mountain air. The station itself had nothing particularly interesting around it, aside from the stunning views surrounding it. What we were here for was to see a few of the sights and go on a few of the walks from the train station out into the wilderness, after which we would catch the train back down the gorge later in the day. We had to book our return tickets as soon as we arrived, so we booked ourselves on a train leaving about three hours after we arrived. This left us ample time to do any of the activities we wanted to.

Shortly after booking our return tickets, we noticed the guide map to Keyakidaira station. Moreover, we noticed the big, red crosses through pretty much everything that there was to see and do. Due to it being the end of the season, the icy cold and apparent construction work, there wasn’t actually anything which you could see or do except walk over a solitary footbridge. Footbridge it was! We walked over that bridge with such amazing amazement that it fully occupied us for the three hours we had to kill at this station. Not really.

The footbridge was pretty cool, it offered loads of awesome views of the gorge. But, we tackled that in all of ten minutes, and had the next two and a bit hours with nothing really to do. We managed to walk down a set of steep stairs right down to the river, where we had a nice but freezing cold view of the river. Because of the sheer cold, we soon headed back up the stairs to the suddenly inviting warmth of the otherwise boring train station. We found a restaurant upstairs in the train station, which we had some fairly mediocre Japanese food from. That occupied us for a good hour, and the remaining hour was spent huddled around a communal heater within the departures area.

It was soon time for us to catch the train back down to Unazuki. This time, I didn’t bother taking any photos. It was just as scenic and amazing as our ascent, but the afternoon light had given way to a thick layer of cloud, so there weren’t really any amazing photo opportunities. That, and I was too tired from our constant travel each day between destinations around Japan. The cold was also getting to me, so I slept most of the way back down. I did however see a few monkeys in between dozes, which was a nice surprise to see.

Upon arriving at Unazuki, we didn’t spend any more time in the town. We quickly headed back to our hotel, got our bags and made a bee line for the train station. We were soon on another rural train that rocked and rolled its way back to Uozu. We did see some really awesome farmland and rural towns on the way though, as our last time on this train was at night time, so we couldn’t really appreciate the views from the windows.

I really liked how every little space was used for farmland where it could – even the small strips of land between the train stations and the road were full of tilled soil, growing everything from spring onions to cabbages. I’m not sure if they were communal gardens or not, but it was good to see these towns being resourceful with the space made available to them.

We were soon in Uozu, where we transferred to a quicker train that would take us to our next destination, Kanazawa. Due to the language barrier between myself and the station attendant, we ended up with unreserved seating again, which meant standing for the first twenty minutes or so of the journey.

About an hour later, and a long walk to our Ryokan, and we were finally at Kanazawa. I was relieved that there were no more “one nighters” on this trip – everywhere else I had booked we were at for a few nights, meaning we could actually settle in and get a feel for the town.

Our Ryokan is fantastic – the lady who acts as the hostess, Mai, speaks amazing English, and the room is absolutely fantastic. It’s huge, with authentic tatami mats and really comfortable futon beds. It was a nice feeling knowing that we had a few days to fully appreciate this room and hotel.

We then headed out to grab some dinner – we were tired, so we were just going to get some local takeaway food. On our way out, Mai informed us that for tonight only, the Kenroku-en gardens were being lit up to showcase the autumn colours. Seeing as Kenroku-en was one of the places that is a must-see in Kanazawa, we couldn’t pass up this opportunity to see it by twilight.

We headed in the direction of the park, but due to our tired-ness, we soon became disoriented. I decided to try out my meagre Japanese skills, and asked a lady for directions to the park. It turns out that she was really helpful, and decided to take us to the park to show us the way. She spoke really good English, and so we chatted away, alternating between English and Japanese where I could. I found out that her name was Yumi, and that she lived only a street over from our hotel. She was very kind, and gave us excellent directions to the park after we insisted that she shouldn’t take any more time out of her night to show us the way.

We thanked her, and soon walked the rest of the way to the park. This little side trip was well worth the effort – the views of this park were stunning. It looked so mysterious lit up by the various spotlights, and they served to really accentuate certain features of the garden and its inherent beauty therein.

After strolling around the lantern-lined path, we headed back to the local takeaway place where we grabbed some strange takeout food. It was fairly tasty, but I didn’t really know what I was eating. We then headed back to the room. There, we Skyped with our families back in Australia, before having a nice, well-earned sleep. No more trains for a while! Hooray!

22/11/12 – 23/11/12 – Travel is good for the Seoul. Japan is even better.

22/11/12

Today was our last day in South Korea, or, rather, it was our last morning before we had to rush off to the airport to take our flight to Tokyo. We had one goal for the morning – something which we try and achieve in every country we visit – go to a supermarket, to see what the average person buys and eats. Yunna had recommended one close to our hotel – only two stops away on the subway. While that may seem like a long distance, in a city like Seoul, where everything is so spread out that to get anywhere often takes a 30 minute journey on the subway, this was a very quick trip.

So we headed for Jamsil station. Our goal was to find the Lotte Mart store. Like most small Asian countries, the Koreans like to build vast underground malls, so finding the Lotte Mart was a simple walk out the exit of the subway, without needing to go above ground into the harsh morning cold. Or so we thought. While we didn’t have to surface to find the Lotte Mart, what we did find was an entire Lotte-themed world. For those of you who don’t know, “Lotte” is one of those massive Japanese/South Korean conglomerate companies with fingers in so many pies that they’ve actually inadvertedly created new pies and therefore had to make new fingers to stick in them. Think of Lotte as an Asian version of “Nestle”, or “GE”, or “Samsung” oh wait, scratch that last one.

Anyways, it turns out that not only had we found the “Lotte Mart”, this place was called “Lotte World”. It was this creepy conglomerate everything land, including an entire ripoff Disneyland theme park. They even copied the castle from the “Magic Kingdom” logo. It was thoroughly unsettling.

What Emma and I had failed to take into account was the difference in opening hours between Australia and Asia in general. As Harrry pointed out to us when we were in Hong Kong, the retail sector opens late and closes late – this is a double advantage. Firstly, it means that the city’s infrastructure doesn’t grind to a halt every morning as all of the corporate workers and retail workers try and catch the same bus/train/car, and it also means that they stay open later so that aforementioned corporate workers can actually shop inside these stores on their way home. Why in the hell can’t we operate like this??

The unfortunate side effect of this though was that we were at “Lotte Mart” a good 90 minutes before its scheduled opening time of 10am. By 10am we needed to be well on our way to the airport, so we decided to once again cut our losses and just head back to the hotel.

Before doing so, I grabbed some breakfast at the “Lotte-ria”. It was a McDonalds clone that really didn’t try to differentiate itself from McDonalds, except for their food practices which seemed to be about 10 years older than McDonalds’ current methods. I had a “Lotz Burger”, purely because it had an Asian cowboy on the promotional poster, which I thought was funny. The meal was rather disgusting, and I don’t know what made this burger worth promoting. It was pretty much a cheeseburger with mayonnaise instead of tomato sauce. Yep, cos that’s what cowboys eat.

The decision to forfeit our look around a supermarket did have an advantage – we were able to have a nice slow walk through the park near our hotel for the last time. The autumn leaves were in full bloom in the park, which had made for some very pleasant walks over the last few days, and today was no exception. I was going to miss this park, not to mention Seoul in general.

After checking out of our hotel, we caught a train to Samesong, and then were soon on the bus to the airport. It’s a long bus ride from Seoul to Incheon, but it was one full of interesting scenery and huge South Korean engineering marvels, such as massive wind turbines, huge urban developments, and bridges that defied physics in their size and complexity.

At the airport, we did our usual thing – check in was quick and efficient – we were the only people in the queue at that time. We then headed for the satellite terminal, where Emma made a bee-line for the makeup section, and I quickly ran around the terminal, snapping pictures of all of the different aircraft I couldn’t see at home. It was all very interesting, with a handful of domestic and international carriers (such as Aeroflot, the Russian carrier) that I had never seen (or heard of) before. Unfortunately, it was soon time for boarding, so I had to cut my plane spotting short.

Japan Airlines flight JL954 ICN – NRT

Boeing 767-300 JA651J

Captain Watanabe

Scheduled Pushback: 1340

Actual Pushback: 1350

Scheduled Arrival: 1600

Actual Arrival: 1604

Today we were on one of JAL’s retrofitted Boeing 767-300’s. For those of you who aren’t plane geeks (so everyone reading this blog), this means that they have been recently refurbished with JAL’s newest hard product. The cabin was nice and spacious, and each seat had a whopping great big seatback touchscreen entertainment unit thingy to play around with, meaning that this was going to be an enjoyable flight. One thing I was really looking forward to about this flight was the fact that they were screening an exclusive Studio Ghibli short on board, only viewable on a JAL flight, and at the Studio Ghibli Museum in Tokyo. Unfortunately, as we were taxiing out to the runway, I read in the in-flight magazine that this promotion ended in October. Damn. Oh well, I’d have to watch it when I went to the Ghibli Museum at the end of this trip.

The plane soon roared into the atmosphere, with Emma and I grinning ear to ear as we went. We were finally on our way to Japan again – a place that we had been missing oh so dearly from the second we left in April, 2011.

What followed was to be a very comfortable and enjoyable flight with JAL. Firstly, the meal I got was easily the best economy class meal I’ve ever eaten. We got a neat little bento-box, filled with about six or eight different Japanese dishes, all of which, while cold, were very tasty. Emma’s gluten-free meal consisted of fruit and soy-yoghurt, which was incredibly sad looking. As they handed out the rest of the meals to other passengers, I asked if Emma could have a regular meal as well and she’d risk the gluten content. The flight attendant happily obliged.

As another note, the flight attendants were considerate enough that when Emma’s gluten free meal was brought out in advance of everybody else’s, they also brought out my meal as well, so that we could dine together. Very considerate.

I then sat back and half watched some anime show, and half watched the views out the window as we cruised towards Tokyo Narita airport. The show was made up of two twenty-minute episodes, and I stopped it after one of them as I didn’t really follow what was happening in them, and also because we were now cruising over the Japan Alps, which were captivating to look at from above. I snapped as many pictures as I could of the snow-capped mountains.

As we approached Narita, we were put in a holding pattern, but by the time we descended, we had touched down only four minutes later than our scheduled arrival time. As we taxied to our gate, the flight attendant spoke over the P/A, apologising for this unsightly delay due to congestion of the airport. Apologising profusely for a four minute delay? Yup, we were officially in Japan.

Immigration and customs were fairly quick, but not nearly as quick as our previous visit, but this was more to do with the fact that Narita Airport arrivals hall wasn’t a ghost town like it was last time, due to the disaster.

We were soon speeding towards Tokyo onboard the Keisei Skyliner, and about 30 minutes later, we were at Nippori station. Having already done this previously a year ago, this procedure was quite easy. It helped that we weren’t jetlagged out of our minds as well, but we quickly found our way to the correct train, and one highly-squeezed rush hour train trip later, we were safely checked in at the familiar Hotel Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku.

Sticking with our accidental tradition so far on this holiday, we had our first dinner from a convenience store. Lawson’s was our choice for tonight. However, unlike Hong Kong and to a lesser extent Seoul, this meal was actually quite tasty. Even Japan’s shitty convenience store food tastes amazing!

I wanted to track down a copy of a videogame so that I could play it on my travels throughout Japan. I was after “Ouendan 2”, a very crazy rhythm-based Japanese game for the Nintendo DS. I knew the perfect place to find it, so I set out to explore Akihabara – Tokyo’s infamous electronics district. Emma decided to sit this one out, instead deciding to stay home and watch crazy Japanese TV.

Unlike last time, I didn’t go into any buildings selling creepy anime statues or pillow girlfriends – I mainly stuck to the lower floors of video games and the like. Unfortunately, I had come at the wrong time of night, as most stores were either closed or in the process of closing. I did find one store that was open and that had an extensive range of Nintendo DS titles, but they didn’t have it in stock. Oh well, I’ll try again in Osaka, or when I’m back in Tokyo later.

After I left the store, I managed to get completely disoriented, and ended up walking through some of the seedier crossroads of Akihabara. I saw several young Japanese women standing at an intersection, clad in the typical “School Girl” uniform. I’m not sure if they were prostitutes dressed as schoolgirls, Escorts dressed as schoolgirls, or actual schoolgirls dressed as, well, schoolgirls. Either way, they were handing out pamphlets of some description, and I saw some of them go home with someone after giving him a pamphlet, so I didn’t really want to stick around and find out what they were doing. In my confused wanderings through the back streets of Akihabara, I did manage to see the coolest thing ever – a guy taking his pet duck out for a walk. On a leash. It was amazing. Quite possibly the most amazing thing ever. I even asked him if I could take a photo of it, which he was fine with. Awesomest. Duck. Ever.

After finally getting directions from a store security guard, I made my way back to the Akihabara station, and caught the train back to Shinjuku. There, I bought some ice cream for Emma and I, and headed back to the hotel, for an exhausted sleep.

23/11/12

There was no rest for the wicked though – my next day started bright and early once again. We had an absolute heap of travel to do today, so we checked out of the hotel early and headed straight for the station. Our destination today was Shibu Onsen, the small town up in the mountains where the snow monkeys bathed in the hot springs. We went there last time on our trip through Japan, and we were so spellbound by it that we just had to visit it again.

This meant a whole heap of travel. Firstly, it was a train to one of the outer stations of the Tokyo Ward area. There, we transferred to a Shinkansen, which took us to Nagano. Unfortunately, the previous day, I was unable to secure us reserved seating, which meant we had to just hope for a seat in the unreserved section. It was not to be. We ended up standing up for about half of the 80 minute journey. It’s a strange sensation standing upright, watching the world hurtle past you at 300+ kilometres per hour, just inches away from your window. Shinkansens were still damn fun though, even when you’re forced to stand.

After the first stop, we managed to grab a seat, and watched as the landscape outside changed from urban plots, to farmland, to alpine towns and more. Sadly, no snow to be seen this time, but the experience was fascinating nonetheless.

In Nagano, we then had to quickly transfer to our next train, which would take us the rest of the way. The great thing about travelling to places you’ve already been is that you have this instinct as to where to go. It took us only about 5 seconds to get our bearings as to where we were in Nagano, and then we were easily able to find the next train station.

Another hour on the train later (and a bento box from a convenience store for lunch), and we were finally at Yudanaka. We then caught one of the local buses, and we were back at the same Ryokan we stayed at last time.

They greeted us, and the little old man who ran the place showed us to our rooms. There, his wife, took us through the various procedures and customs of our room, all of which in Japanese, and then left us to our own devices. It was a struggle to ascertain exactly what she was saying, but we got the general idea, and we managed to communicate fairly alright between each other. We then dressed in our Yukatas, and hung out in our traditional Japanese-styled room for an hour or so, sipping on green tea.

We then got ready for the long trek to the Snow Monkey park, but before we left, we prepared a small gift for the Ryokan owners. I had read in the past that it is customary for guests to give the household owner a gift upon staying with them. And, while we weren’t really staying in their house, as we were paying for the room, we did still want to show our appreciation for us being able to stay there – it is fairly rare for Ryokans like this to open their doors to foreign travellers.

We presented them with a gift of Tim Tams and Vegemite – a small token of our appreciation, and things that are undeniably Australian. We also showed him a photo that he took of us on our previous visit to this Ryokan. It was difficult to get my point across through the tangled thicket that is the language barrier, but I was sort of able to communicate that we had stayed here in the past and that we were thankful to be able to again. He was very chuffed with his gift, and they seemed very grateful for it. It was quite an awkward exchange, but with smiles all around, it was definitely a fun experience.

We then put on our boots, and went for a stroll through the town. We bought an apple each from a local store, before heading up the mountain road towards the snow monkey park. The apples we bought were massive. Easily two to three times the size of apples in Australia. It took me a good 30 minutes to eat mine, as we walked along the forest road.

Unfortunately, there was no snow on our hike this time. I was praying for snow, but I knew given the time of year we were visiting at, it was very unlikely to see snow. What we did get though was just as nice – the most cool, refreshing alpine air I’ve ever breathed. Every inhalation was like sniffing a car air freshener. Every exhalation had a little puff of condensation to remind you that you were breathing in cool, crisp mountain air. I like to think that this is what parents mean when they say “go outside and get some fresh air”, because believe you me, that was by far the freshest air I’ve ever breathed.

After a long trek through the winding road, the smell of the fresh air was soon replaced by the unmistakable smell of sulphur. We were getting close to the hot springs, and to the monkeys. As we got closer to the park, we noticed that there were a lot more people here than there were last time we came. Once again, this was probably due to the disaster of the previous time we visited. It was good to see this many people here this time, but it also made us feel good about coming the previous time, as we were supporting them when they really did need the patronage.

As observed on our last trip, the monkeys were super cute. I decided to give Emma full creative control over the camera, and she went hog wild. She took countless photos of the monkeys scratching, bathing, eating, climbing, and just being generally monkey-like. There was a small pathway down to an area which was at water-level with the famous hot spring they sit in, which allowed for some really spectacular photographs. Pictures will come soon, I promise!

We also saw a guy almost get mauled by the monkeys because he put his face far too close to them. He was literally a finger length away from one of them. He then made the mistake of using his camera with its super blinding multi-flash photography, which caused the monkeys to scream angrily at him. Make no mistake – while cute and fluffy these animals are, they are still very much wild animals. Emma managed to get quite up close and personal with a little baby monkey, which had decided to perch placidly under a railing. It didn’t seem to mind Emma taking about a thousand photos of it – probably because she had the common sense to turn the flash off.

One note though on one of the less enjoyable parts of this experience – the smell. It smelled bad. Really bad. There was a stench of monkey urine in the air, which mixed in with the sulphur, and then in addition to that, the monkeys that bathed in the hot spring were very relaxed with their bowel movements, so while these monkeys sat in the steamy water, placidly playing away, you would see a great big turd float by – they were literally bathing in their own boiled shit.

The shortened northern autumn days were working against us though, and it was starting to get dark. We had to hurriedly walk back along the long trail to our town, and we managed to get back to the hotel just after dark. Being a hot spring (or onsen) town, means that there is almost always an abundance of steam and running water to be seen and heard. This steamy atmosphere mixed with the dimly-lit street lamps incredibly well, to give the town this beautiful but mysterious look.

It was soon dinner time, where, much like our last visit here, we were treated to another amazing feast of food. We each had about twelve different dishes on our plates, ranging from the delicious to the downright bizarre. Thankfully though, my palette had improved since our last visit, and I was able to finish almost every dish on my table. The only real shock of the meal came from the egg custard dish. This is quite a subtly flavoured dish, which does exactly what it says on the packet – it’s about halfway between the flavour of eggs and the texture of custard. What I wasn’t expecting was the super sour maraschino cherry at the bottom of it. Upon eating this, it caused me to screw up my face in disgust. It was like my tastebuds had been ambushed and then napalm-bombed by some horrible, vinegary cherry flavour. Very unpleasant.

After eating dinner, we returned to our rooms, where our futons had been set up for bed. We decided to head out into the town for one last walk around before bed. During our stroll, we found a hot spring foot bath. Emma and I were still not keen on the whole “get naked in front of everyone” concept of the bath houses, so we decided to stick to the happy medium that was a good soak in a foot bath. It was nice and hot, some sections more than others. As the water had literally come up from the depths of the earth, it obviously had no temperature control. I made the mistake of putting one of my feet in the very back section of the bath, the one closest to the spring. I scalded my foot pretty bad, and I now have one lobster-pink coloured foot.

And so, I limped back to the room, where we fell into our highly inviting futon beds, for another restful night’s sleep.

Up next: Lots and lots of train trips! Mountain gorges! Japanese seaside!