Slow boat to China

If you enjoy romantic tales of adventure on the high seas, this is not the blog for you. If however you enjoying laughing at people who have vomit in their hair, read on.

Our time in Japan has been incredible. For the last eight years I have listened (mostly) to Matt continuously talk about Japan and yet it was still amazing, unexpected and far beyond any ideas I had about the country. We have been fortunate enough to visit nine wonderful countries on our trip, but I think that Japan has been the most unique and enjoyable of them all, Matt’s ramblings were certainly justified, I cannot wait until we return.

But for now China is calling. So on Friday we said our sad ‘See You Laters’ to Japan and boarded the Su Zhou Hao ferry. A two-day cruise from Osaka to Shanghai. I use the term cruise loosely, The ferry’s main job is a container vessel but the top three levels are for passengers. We had no problems with immigration and were shown straight to our room. We were sailing second class, which means a room designed for 4 people with two bunks and a small sitting area. We were lucky that we were sharing with one other guy, he was quiet and tidy so this worked out nicely! We did not spend much time in the room however as there was a nice reading area upstairs were we got chatting to some of the other passengers. It was strange to talk to people who were just on the beginning of their trips but nice to be able to exchange stories and tips.

On board the boat I was able to read (the hunger games trilogy, I really wouldn’t bother) and relax watching the world go by. On board was a Japanese restaurant and we had our last Japanese meal. However, it would not be it’s only appearance on this trip!

At 11 pm the announcement played out wishing everybody a good nights sleep, so off to bed we went. The gentle rocking of the waves meant that I had one of the best nights sleep for a while.

At 7 am I was awoken by the announcement ding dong, welcoming us into the new day and declaring that breakfast is now being served. Great I thought, just brush my teeth and have a wash then breakfast. I made it to the bathroom, laughing to myself at how drunk I felt, funny, I did not join in with the sake and karaoke last night, kind of wishing I did now however I can see why the rum is always gone on a pirate ship.

The whole world was rocking side to side, it felt like being in the walking dead with zombie like creatures, tinged green hobbling along with vomit down their shirts. Bing bong apparently we are encountering some rough tides today. You don’t say! So for the remainder of the day I lay horizontal in my bunk trying unsuccessfully to keep last nights dinner down. I kept telling myself only another 24 hours and we will be on solid ground, although after NZ and Japan, this is no comfort as solid ground has a tendency to shake in this part of the world.

I must say though Matt was the perfect companion on the trip, he was absolutely fine, he reported back that there was only him and a handful of children up and about, the kids were playing Mario cart and running up and down playing hide and seek. Even the normally cheerful staff were feeling the effects. Matt was able to carry on as normal enjoying his cruise and looking after me. Thank you Matt.

Hiroshima Mon Amour

Thanks to China's Great Firewall, we were unable to post our blogs from the last few weeks so...lets do a little time warp.

Friday 27th March

One week ago (really, It feels like one month ago) we were back on the Shinkansen and 4 hours later we arrived in Hiroshima. We arrived quite late in the day which meant we were both hungry, luckily for us the local dish in Hiroshima is Okonomiyaki, the giant, thick, savoury pancakes we first tried in Nara. They are fast becoming one of our favourite dishes. We had heard rumours, that we suspected might be urban legend, of a 5-storey building housing 26 okonomiyaki restaurants. But it actually exists, so we enjoyed an evening of pancakes and conversation with the locals. 

It would be nice to say that savoury pancakes were the reason Hiroshima was so well known, but of course we live in an imperfect world and Hiroshima sadly has the label of the first city in history to be destroyed by a nuclear weapon and now more than 60 years later, the citizens are still dealing with the aftereffects of the A-bomb. I lose track of how many cities we have visited on this trip that have left me dejected as to what our own race has done and continues to do to each other, yet like Nagasaki and Phenom Phen Hiroshima is a tranquil town, just getting on and trying to be better, proving that there is still hope and good in the world.  

In the Peace Memorial Park the A-Bomb dome is a startling reminder of the atrocity that happened here on August 6^th 1945. We made our way over to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial museum, which was no less saddening or shocking after the Nagasaki museum, if anything it made it worse knowing that this was allowed to happen twice. 

The museum was informative and at the same time fairly objective, reminding us that Japan too was an aggressor in the Second World War. What is impressive about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, is how they have become places of hope rather than despair. The city continues to advocate the abolition of all nuclear weapons. When you are here, seeing the effects of nuclear weapons I whole-heartedly believe that the 2020 vision campaign will become a reality, I cant understand why it is not already and like Japan I have faith that the right decisions will be made. 

After the despair of the museum we decided to go and find the good in the world so on our last day in Hiroshima we caught the ferry over to the island of Itsukushima to visit the Itsukushima Shrine. The shrine is often referred to as the floating shrine due to its location off the bay of the island so at high tide it appears to be floating on the water. The island itself is beautiful with the standard prancing deers and small shrines dotted here and there. We spent the day walking through the forest and browsing in the shops (also standard the Hello Kitty shop) and admiring the world's largest spatula! 

Soaked in Tokyo

Tokyo let us down on the weather front yesterday, it rained all day so we still didn't get to any parks. We did however meet some amazing locals who helped us find our hotel.

We got off the train with very detailed directions to the hotel in hand, our still rather large bags, in the pouring rain. We were doing well and knew that we were within a block of our hotel when we made a wrong turn, just as the rain got a little heavier. We were stood at a road intersection doing that lost tourist thing of peering at a map then a road sign, then turning the map round and staring some more.

A young couple came over to us and asked where we were going, we told them the name of our hotel and they looked a bit puzzled, they whipped out an iPhone got up a map and started to lead us off in what I guessed was the wrong direction. I think the woman thought it was the wrong direction as well as she kept trying to show the phone to the guy but he dashed off and started speaking to an older lady who happened to be walking past. After 5 minutes of chatting and checking of the iPhone the older lady started to lead all of us along a side road back to an intersection that we had past 20 minutes earlier, at which point I realised where we had gone wrong and realised where the hotel was. I couldn't explain this in Japanese so we waved goodbye to the old lady and carried on following the young couple. 5 minutes later we found the back door to the hotel which had a handy map showing us the way to the front entrance, after a chorus of Arigato's we parted from our guides and were soon in the dry.

We spent the rest of the day running in and out of shops and coffee shops around Ueno, Shibuya and Harajuku.

In half an hour we are back on the Shinkansen to Hiroshima.

Trains, Trains and Fuji San

We have so many things that we want to do in Japan that it is hard to choose what to do next, we have also slightly moved our date for coming home which gives us less time. We wanted to go and see the monkeys lazing about in the hot springs but just couldn't find any accommodation for the dates we were after so decided our next stop would be Fuji San. Here I made a slight calculation error on how long it would take us to get north from Nagasaki. We had 11 hours of train rides and 5 train connections to make, and make them we did.

It is very early

I could go into super detail about the trains but I think anymore train talk and I will lose a lot of readers so I will leave it at it was a long way and we never waited more than 20 minutes in between trains, I am amazed by that.

Fuji San (Mount Fuji) has a reputation for being a bit shy which is why we decided to say in the area for a couple of nights to give us more than one change to catch a glimpse. As it turns out we were really lucky, on the train from Osaka to Tokyo we got a perfect blue sky and a totally uninterrupted view of this beautiful peak. Fuji is so symmetrical that it looks like it has been sculpted by an artist, the snow white peak against a blue sky is one of my favourite views from the trip. We had this view off and on for over 2 hours as we traveled from the east, south of Fuji to Tokyo on the west and then from Tokyo to our hotel north of the mountain. Unfortunately my camera was too deeply packed away to get a good shot but my camera phone was on had to help out.

Fuji from the train

After all of that excitement we went straight to bed after tea ready for an early start.

The next day we went up to Kawaguchi-ko to get a closer look at Fuji, the day started out very clear and we got some great views but by the time we were off the train Fuji decided that we had had too much luck and turned the sky grey. We could still see the mountain but it became impossible to get a good photo.

Fuji is hiding there in the middle

Aimee hiding from the wind and Fuji hiding from us

Fuji in a grey mood

We had a really fun time walking around the lake and eating oranges.

We have to count ourselves very lucky that we had two days with such great views as today it is drizzling and we can't see the next hill over let alone a glimpse of Fuji from the train. We are spending the night in Tokyo so we can try and get to the cat jazz bar that we have been aiming for then tomorrow we are off to Hiroshima.

It seems very real now that we have fixed our date home we will be back in sunny Brum before the post cards get home, lets see what else we can cram in before then. 

Nagasaki

As our JR pass that speeds us around Japan is quickly running out we decided to make our last stop on Kyushu island Nagasaki, a name I'm sure that everyone will know for all of the wrong reasons.

A goat in the city having a nap!

Nagasaki is chock full of history during Japan's period of isolation Nagasaki was one of the only areas in contact with the outside world, Nagasaki was one of the first areas of Japan to get Christian missionaries. Parts of Nagasaki are very pretty, there are hundreds of small temples, shrines and churches and dozens of small bridges that cross the numerous rivers and lots of interesting architecture. There are admittedly parts of Nagasaki that are not so easy on the eye (like the chemically factory thing behind the station) but just down the coast there are also some beautiful fishing villages.

The spectacles bridge, so named for its reflection

Nagasaki is tucked into the hills so there are lots of great views

Topiary like this appears frequently in peoples front gardens

We are still holding our for the blossom, things are starting to look good

So there is a lot more to Nagasaki than the Atomic Bomb but it is a huge part of its history so we spent our first day paying our respects at the Atomic bomb museum and Nagasaki Peace park. Having been to the museum at Hiroshima before I knew what to expect from the tales of devastation and suffering but watching and reading people tell their stories and seeing exhibits of what was left behind was still just as moving. There is a strong theme of promoting peace and nuclear disarmament at the museum and it is very hard to see how you could leave the museum and not sign the petition (we both did as the exhibits only reenforced our existing views but we still have the weapons so someone must disagree). We sat in the peace park and reflected while listening to the splashing of the fountain.

There are a number of sculptures in the peace park each with the idea of promoting peace

These origami cranes are so beautiful they make a brilliant counter to the sadness of the museum

After the peace park we spent the afternoon in Mister Donut eating sugary treats to renew our faith in mankind, how can a species that invented a strawberry flavoured Donut with strawberry cream in the middle be bad.

Nara

Nearly up-to-date now, after modern Osaka we decided to get a bit more history in Nara. Nara was the Japanese Capital for 74 years from 710 and a large portion of the city is covered by a Unesco World Heritage site. It is also a rather pretty city that is easy to walk around with lots of nice food. Win, win, win. Oh and it is only 45 minutes from Osaka.

It is hard to miss the history in Nara, it is everywhere

There are so many parks and open spaces that we spent the afternoon just walking around, enjoying the landscaping.

It is easy to find the tourist information offices, most of them have sculptures outside.

Although it was very over cast we had a nice sun set

The blossom is still trying to come out but it is just not time yet

The other thing that is hard to miss about Nara are the Deer, thousands of them.

Aimee should have been watching this one closer

The guy in the picture below is laughing so hard because I am laughing really hard, just before this picture Aimee was getting bitten on the bum by a very persistent Deer that wanted the Deer cookies that she had just bought. And no I didn't help her because I was laughing too hard.

We made him smile anyway

We were really lucky to arrive in Nara when we did because we were able to go and experience the Omizutori ceremony. The ceremony seems to last for several days but the part we witnessed involved carry burning bundles around the balcony of one of the temples. It is very hard to explain and was equally hard to photograph but it was spectacular and the crowd had the sort of energy you normally get at live music, there was a lot of noise as people reacted to the falling embers, which are supposed to keep away evil.

Waiting

The ball of fire is on the end of a long pole waved by a monk.

We were rather hungry after all the walking so we decided to try a Kansai speciality Okonomiyaki. This is basically a massive pancake/omelette with cabbage in it and other stuff on top (the other stuff is up to you that is what the name means). This batter is then cooked on a Japanese hot plate at your table, it was delicious and incredibly filling.

Okonomiyaki - Whatever you like, fried

The perfect accompaniment was a nice hot bottle of Sake which left Aimee a little.. shall we say drowsy on the walk home!

The next day we went to see Nara's main claim to fame Tōdai-ji the worlds largest wooden building and the Nara Daibutsu (large Buddha image).

This building just feels massive

This Buddha image is big, the expression of peace on the face is very beautiful.

Neither disappointed; the building was just monumental, because it is in a large open space it is difficult to take in the scale at first but it finally hits you when you come back out again and you realise it is all wood! The Nara Daibutsu is big but it is the pose and the style of the carving that are most striking, the expression on the face is so peaceful that we found ourselves just stood there looking at it for ages.

We came out feeling very zen and spent the rest of the day walking around the parks taking pictures of Deer.

Kyoto

It is slightly hard to concentrate on writing a blog post when rumbling along at over 250 mph on a bullet train but I will try to stop looking out of the window and get a bit more up to date.

We are on the train from Osaka to Fukuoke having spent the last week in the Kansai area of central Japan, Kansai is kind of like the Midlands, it is in the middle and it is where all the good stuff is, the capital might be just down the road but the Midlands is where the action is. Kansai includes the areas around Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe and other historic areas such as Nara. We will catch up with these areas in another post but first we spent a few more days in Kyoto.

On March 1st we spent the day at Fushimi-Inari Taisha it is one of my favourite places on the planet not just in Japan, I came here in 2004 and have wanted to come back ever since. The temple complex is set across a hill with pathways lined with red tori, there are small shines dotted across the hill as well as a lot of stone foxes. The complex is dedicated to the Gods of rice and harvest and is now an important site for business people. There are always people at the shines pondering something to do with a business venture and this really adds to the atmosphere, but mostly it is very beautiful.

After the amazing weather we had it was time for a bit of cold and damp but we made the most of it and spent the day in the Gion area of Kyoto checking out the traditional style narrow streets, shops and temples. We also bumped into a few more Geisha.

The weather was nice again on our last day in Kyoto so we had a long walk to one of the oldest Shinto shrines in Japan, the gardens were beautiful and there was a wedding going on so there were a lot of smiling faces around.

Kyoto is a pretty special place (so much so that the Allies decided not to bomb it during WW2) it is a culture city like Paris or London, you can walk around it, the people are very friendly the food is good and there are so many gardens and parks that you can easily forget you are in a city. We couldn't stay forever so we packed up and got on a train to Osaka.

Arashiyama

Our second day in Kyoto and I have already fallen in love with the city. It doesn’t feel like a typical city, it has a very subtle and gentle feel to it. Kyoto is very much a city that has retained its history, which is very different from a lot of places we have visited and it exudes culture and tradition. My favourite thing to do here is to simply walk along the streets, experiencing the sights, smells, and sounds. There are many narrow hidden streets full of quirky little shops and eateries. The blossom is starting to arrive, there are small streams everywhere, there are many many beautiful geishas. It also helps that the sun has appeared again.

Check out the cool sock gloves!

Tunuki- Japanese school children have a very rude song about him! 

We decided to visit Arashiyama, a town at the base of Kyoto’s western mountains.  Catching the bus there was a breeze, not like the confusing tube maps of Tokyo. In Arashiyama we wandered around the many shops and parks. The highlight of the day was the amazing bamboo grove. The narrow walkway through the bamboo forest appeared out of nowhere and was like entering wonderland, as the bamboo  swayed in the wind it made the most incredible sound, it is hard to believe that it is just grass.

Big bamboo or really small lady?

Matt ❤ bamboo 

 

Kyoto is famous for its delicious food and it has not disappointed. Every meal we have had has been sublime. Matt’s Japanese has come in handy on several occasions, most notably when he decided that out of all the restaurants available to us we should go to the Tonkatsu (pork) restaurant! The waiter and other diners were highly amused as the crazy white people proceeded to order dishes, in dubious Japanese, without the pork, in a famous pork restaurant. However, the food arrived and it was delicious, filling, and best of all minus the pork- well done Matt. An added bonus was that we only had to pay for one meal as no pork means it wasn’t a real meal! Hurrah, maybe this was Matt's plan all along?  

View from the top of the mountain.

Japanese poem on a rock. As you do. 

Vending machines are EVERYWHERE!