...and because we can probably do with a different look at the country now...
So, a hypocrite of a friend who I hasten to add didn't finish up THEIR travel blog nagged me to post the end of my last trip, so here it is, only 5 weeks late. Finishing it up last night from my notes was cathartic, I suppose...
Japan: Day 12
I awoke, luckily, not at all seedy from the previous night’s tipple, and got up and set about packing myself up to move on from Kanazawa. Late in the piece, at about 8am, the parents were knocking at the door and asking if I was going to join them for breakfast. Needing to finish my tidy up, and deal with checking out and stuff, I declined, and said I’d meet them at the train - they know how to read their tickets and find train carriages now, so that would all work out OK. Just like last time…
So there was a little bit of weirdness in the check-in process, because I suppose they’re not used to having two same-named Anglo people turning up on the same day. Although we both booked separately, them through a travel organisation, and I through an online booking “club”, it turns out they both use the same underlying engine to process the bookings. So it may be that the both bookings came to them as a batch lot, and so the treated us as one entity.
Anyway, when we checked din, I went first, and they treated me as the person in charge of all the bookings. They asked if I wanted to upgrade the double room to a superior double, my parents declined, so they ended up in a fairly small and dinky room, while I had a “twin” room (read: single room, Aussies) with 2 beds, and was comparatively palatial.
Anyway, I went to check out, and the guy behind the counter had no idea why I would be doing so, and I had to explain it all to him. Also, oddly, for the first time in all of our time at the hotel, there were no English speakers about. You can’t make the staff talk Japanese ordinarily, and the one time I have to explain the room setup, and could use my own language, it’s not available yo me.
It’s OK, with pen and paper, and a little bit of Japanese writing, and pointing at stuff I‘d written, I made him understand that my room was being checked out of today, and the other room (which belonged to my parents) was not going to be checked out of today. He seemed to work it out, and I asked him if it was all OK now, and he said it was, so hopefully my parents are now settled into their room, and not out on the street in Kanazawa.
Again, anyway, I grabbed some breakfast items from the “German” bakery by the station, and went and got a hot cocoa, and wandered to the station gate and looked at the display to work out where to head for the train. As I was looking I was rudely interjected at form behind, and it was just dad, so I moved us out of the way of other commuters, and waited til one final train cleared our platform, then headed up to wait for our train.
I really couldn’t believe how hot it was on the train. During the course of my breakfast, I had slowly de-layered such that I sat with a thin T-shirt. This was in stark contrast at times to what was in place outside the window of the train, since we passed through some of the last deep snow I’ll see. The tunnels were a welcome relief to the sun pouring in through the windows. I think I’d well and truly become used to the cold wintry conditions.
Eventually, and with much relief on my part, we arrived at Kyoto, where we got out and I lockered my luggage, and some of the extra bits of heaviness from my day pack, which included my heavy jacket. I was taking a risk, because I knew it’d be a fair bit cooler in Nara than it was on the train,. But I thought I’d be ready for it. This was an adventure, after all. So we jumped on the train to Nara. I had never been on this line before and the trip was on a local train so it was much slower through all the scenery.
The vast majority of the trip was Kyoto, Osaka, and Nara suburbia, but there were some pretty hills, and bamboo groves and the like, and some interesting small farming land, which I hadn’t seen much of this trip, because most of it was buried under snow. I don’t know if it’s through movies or not, but the groves of Bamboo, the way they cling to the sides of hills is a strong image of Japan for me. In terms of memory, the Nakasendo hiking trail I’d walked with Christine a couple of years ago brings home amazing memory images which come straight out of an old Samurai film - while these Nara groves were not nearly as picturesque, they served to keep me comfortably in place as my trip turned more towards the big cities.
We got to Nara, had some lunch, and walked up to the ancient temples. There was no snow, no leaves (nor blossoms per my last trip to Nara) on the trees, and so apart from the really big old wooden structures themselves, not much new and exciting. My parents had never seen Nara before, but I think they’ve had enough of old temples. That was, of course, until we got to Todaiji.
It is a huge old temple, complete with enormous wooden gate. Place was crawling with schoolkids, though, so it was very noisy (for Japan, that is, still not a patch on a walk down your typical shopping district at home, but after a fortnight in Japan, noisy nonetheless) . We looked around stuff, but didn’t go inside anywhere. In truth, I hadn’t thought the timing through very well, and the additional hour of travel each way between Kyoto and Nara meant we were on time constraints.
We left Todaiji headed for a little garden I’d stumbled on during my last visit. I thought they’d really like it and to get to it we pass some impressive houses with that Japanese-style yard and garden. So, eventually get to the garden, and it’s closed! Dejectedly, we head back down to the station anyway (though perhaps I’m projecting a little there), a little bit early, and luck onto a train which is just ready to leave, and it s rapid service, so it skips two-thirds of the stations.
Back in Kyoto, we settled in for a coffee; only I had a frappe, because it had been warm for me all day (just a t-shirt and a rugby top all day), while the folks had cocoa. Thereafter it was back to the station, where we said our goodbyes, they were back to Kanazawa for their final night in Japan, and I was off to Osaka, where they would be going tomorrow evening to fly out.
In Osaka, I checked in, and made use of some research I’d done fro some friends recently who were hanging out to try this Mos Burger thing I’d been raving about. They stayed in the same hotel I was now staying in, and with the help of past experience and Google Maps I’d remotely (from Australia) found them a nearby Mos Burger, so I walked there for my dinner, came back to my hotel for a chance to catch up on the rest and relaxation that the past few hectic days have had lacking in my nights.
Japan: Day 13
I awoke at my normal time, and fiddled about catching up on my usual, but recently missed out on stuff, and then went down to breakfast. My last breakfast in Japan was to present no Breakfast Weirdness, alas, but it was the last decent breakfast miso soup I’d have in a long time, so I savoured it. I had planned on making the most of a late checkout, so I went back to my room to catch up on more blogging, then it was off out to the station for my shinkansen to Tokyo.
Navigating Shin Osaka is now pretty easy for me, but only with the benefit of several trips worth of reconnaissance, and I still think for a station of its size and simplicity, there’s something oddly confusing about it. I was early and waited on the platform where a couple of Aussies (given away by their Qantas bag tags before their accents, even though they were Asian themselves, declined my offer of directional help on the platform despite being obviously in need of help. I hope they found what they were after.
In the Shinkansen, I rode along skirting the south of those lovely snow-caped mountains I have spent half of this break in or near. I bid them farewell at about Nagoya, and from there it was all about getting to Tokyo. It really was a farewell of sorts, because of my fondness of those very Japan Alps, and their snowy coverings, the trip switched form one of looking forward, to one of finishing up.
Tokyo station was a madhouse. Every single lockers larger than the smallest one, which would barely fit my daypack let alone my luggage (and there were many hundreds of lockers) was taken. I searched the internal parts of the station twice, which was hard with the people milling about all over the place, and oh so many of them. Even outside the gates, where lockers are much rarer, they were full. Eventually, well over half an hour of searching paid off, and I could lock away my luggage and get around Tokyo, only now I had so little time and I hadn’t yet eaten lunch. The strategy of forgoing the Bento for the train in the hopes of having a grander lunch in Tokyo was looking like a poor one.
In a poor mood, I found some lunch and then went to Akihabara for a look around the electronics Mecca that it is. I found myself in a music shop, listening to the sample CDs of Japanese artists at the listening posts and very nearly bought some, but managed not to. By then there was too little remaining time to get out to one of the other suburbs across town for some souvenir shopping, so I headed back to Tokyo station and grabbed a quiet coffee before picking up my luggage and trying to find my airport train platform.
I have to say I would hate to be uninitiated and looking for stuff in Tokyo station, it’s a mess of a place - sure, doesn’t have all the weird little exits of Ikebukuro, but there’s constant construction work in the place, and there’s even a little lack of order to the platforms. And very few proper electronic displays like at other stations. There’s a lot for shinkansens, but perhaps the station designers need to remember that there are other services too, that people need information about.
Take mine - the train was on platform 4, but not THE platform 4. For a start, I only found information for it at the front of one of the entrances to the station, and once inside, had to find my platform 4 (not the Yamanote line one for which there was abundant signage inside the station, but a special underground platform 4). It was bizarre, and most un-Japanese, but I got there eventually, only to be more confused when the train came in and flew right past my carriage spot. Then, after it had done so, an announcement came in Japanese telling us that a second train would be arriving to attach to the first. Then the same announcement was made later in English.
Clearly, my afternoon in Tokyo was not meant to be a smooth one - perhaps the frustration and stress was mere contrast-minimising buffer for leaving the comfort of the organised and polite Japan for the selfish detritus of life back at home? Thanks, Fate, that was big of you. Eventually I was on the train anyway, and off to the airport to check in.
I had planned, as always, to leave myself plenty of time for airport check-in, and doing so Business class meant I skipped all of the queues, and had time to wander around and look at the overpriced souvenir shops. But the day had taken its toll, and I could find nothing of note among the trinkets, so I ended up just expanding my Japanese Kit Kat variety collection, and grabbing some Meiji Black (chocolate) to take home. All that remained was to clear emigration, and kill time in the lounge before the flight home. So ended another trip to Japan.
Japan: Day 12
I awoke, luckily, not at all seedy from the previous night’s tipple, and got up and set about packing myself up to move on from Kanazawa. Late in the piece, at about 8am, the parents were knocking at the door and asking if I was going to join them for breakfast. Needing to finish my tidy up, and deal with checking out and stuff, I declined, and said I’d meet them at the train - they know how to read their tickets and find train carriages now, so that would all work out OK. Just like last time…
So there was a little bit of weirdness in the check-in process, because I suppose they’re not used to having two same-named Anglo people turning up on the same day. Although we both booked separately, them through a travel organisation, and I through an online booking “club”, it turns out they both use the same underlying engine to process the bookings. So it may be that the both bookings came to them as a batch lot, and so the treated us as one entity.
Anyway, when we checked din, I went first, and they treated me as the person in charge of all the bookings. They asked if I wanted to upgrade the double room to a superior double, my parents declined, so they ended up in a fairly small and dinky room, while I had a “twin” room (read: single room, Aussies) with 2 beds, and was comparatively palatial.
Anyway, I went to check out, and the guy behind the counter had no idea why I would be doing so, and I had to explain it all to him. Also, oddly, for the first time in all of our time at the hotel, there were no English speakers about. You can’t make the staff talk Japanese ordinarily, and the one time I have to explain the room setup, and could use my own language, it’s not available yo me.
It’s OK, with pen and paper, and a little bit of Japanese writing, and pointing at stuff I‘d written, I made him understand that my room was being checked out of today, and the other room (which belonged to my parents) was not going to be checked out of today. He seemed to work it out, and I asked him if it was all OK now, and he said it was, so hopefully my parents are now settled into their room, and not out on the street in Kanazawa.
Again, anyway, I grabbed some breakfast items from the “German” bakery by the station, and went and got a hot cocoa, and wandered to the station gate and looked at the display to work out where to head for the train. As I was looking I was rudely interjected at form behind, and it was just dad, so I moved us out of the way of other commuters, and waited til one final train cleared our platform, then headed up to wait for our train.
I really couldn’t believe how hot it was on the train. During the course of my breakfast, I had slowly de-layered such that I sat with a thin T-shirt. This was in stark contrast at times to what was in place outside the window of the train, since we passed through some of the last deep snow I’ll see. The tunnels were a welcome relief to the sun pouring in through the windows. I think I’d well and truly become used to the cold wintry conditions.
Eventually, and with much relief on my part, we arrived at Kyoto, where we got out and I lockered my luggage, and some of the extra bits of heaviness from my day pack, which included my heavy jacket. I was taking a risk, because I knew it’d be a fair bit cooler in Nara than it was on the train,. But I thought I’d be ready for it. This was an adventure, after all. So we jumped on the train to Nara. I had never been on this line before and the trip was on a local train so it was much slower through all the scenery.
The vast majority of the trip was Kyoto, Osaka, and Nara suburbia, but there were some pretty hills, and bamboo groves and the like, and some interesting small farming land, which I hadn’t seen much of this trip, because most of it was buried under snow. I don’t know if it’s through movies or not, but the groves of Bamboo, the way they cling to the sides of hills is a strong image of Japan for me. In terms of memory, the Nakasendo hiking trail I’d walked with Christine a couple of years ago brings home amazing memory images which come straight out of an old Samurai film - while these Nara groves were not nearly as picturesque, they served to keep me comfortably in place as my trip turned more towards the big cities.
We got to Nara, had some lunch, and walked up to the ancient temples. There was no snow, no leaves (nor blossoms per my last trip to Nara) on the trees, and so apart from the really big old wooden structures themselves, not much new and exciting. My parents had never seen Nara before, but I think they’ve had enough of old temples. That was, of course, until we got to Todaiji.
It is a huge old temple, complete with enormous wooden gate. Place was crawling with schoolkids, though, so it was very noisy (for Japan, that is, still not a patch on a walk down your typical shopping district at home, but after a fortnight in Japan, noisy nonetheless) . We looked around stuff, but didn’t go inside anywhere. In truth, I hadn’t thought the timing through very well, and the additional hour of travel each way between Kyoto and Nara meant we were on time constraints.
We left Todaiji headed for a little garden I’d stumbled on during my last visit. I thought they’d really like it and to get to it we pass some impressive houses with that Japanese-style yard and garden. So, eventually get to the garden, and it’s closed! Dejectedly, we head back down to the station anyway (though perhaps I’m projecting a little there), a little bit early, and luck onto a train which is just ready to leave, and it s rapid service, so it skips two-thirds of the stations.
Back in Kyoto, we settled in for a coffee; only I had a frappe, because it had been warm for me all day (just a t-shirt and a rugby top all day), while the folks had cocoa. Thereafter it was back to the station, where we said our goodbyes, they were back to Kanazawa for their final night in Japan, and I was off to Osaka, where they would be going tomorrow evening to fly out.
In Osaka, I checked in, and made use of some research I’d done fro some friends recently who were hanging out to try this Mos Burger thing I’d been raving about. They stayed in the same hotel I was now staying in, and with the help of past experience and Google Maps I’d remotely (from Australia) found them a nearby Mos Burger, so I walked there for my dinner, came back to my hotel for a chance to catch up on the rest and relaxation that the past few hectic days have had lacking in my nights.
Japan: Day 13
I awoke at my normal time, and fiddled about catching up on my usual, but recently missed out on stuff, and then went down to breakfast. My last breakfast in Japan was to present no Breakfast Weirdness, alas, but it was the last decent breakfast miso soup I’d have in a long time, so I savoured it. I had planned on making the most of a late checkout, so I went back to my room to catch up on more blogging, then it was off out to the station for my shinkansen to Tokyo.
Navigating Shin Osaka is now pretty easy for me, but only with the benefit of several trips worth of reconnaissance, and I still think for a station of its size and simplicity, there’s something oddly confusing about it. I was early and waited on the platform where a couple of Aussies (given away by their Qantas bag tags before their accents, even though they were Asian themselves, declined my offer of directional help on the platform despite being obviously in need of help. I hope they found what they were after.
In the Shinkansen, I rode along skirting the south of those lovely snow-caped mountains I have spent half of this break in or near. I bid them farewell at about Nagoya, and from there it was all about getting to Tokyo. It really was a farewell of sorts, because of my fondness of those very Japan Alps, and their snowy coverings, the trip switched form one of looking forward, to one of finishing up.
Tokyo station was a madhouse. Every single lockers larger than the smallest one, which would barely fit my daypack let alone my luggage (and there were many hundreds of lockers) was taken. I searched the internal parts of the station twice, which was hard with the people milling about all over the place, and oh so many of them. Even outside the gates, where lockers are much rarer, they were full. Eventually, well over half an hour of searching paid off, and I could lock away my luggage and get around Tokyo, only now I had so little time and I hadn’t yet eaten lunch. The strategy of forgoing the Bento for the train in the hopes of having a grander lunch in Tokyo was looking like a poor one.
In a poor mood, I found some lunch and then went to Akihabara for a look around the electronics Mecca that it is. I found myself in a music shop, listening to the sample CDs of Japanese artists at the listening posts and very nearly bought some, but managed not to. By then there was too little remaining time to get out to one of the other suburbs across town for some souvenir shopping, so I headed back to Tokyo station and grabbed a quiet coffee before picking up my luggage and trying to find my airport train platform.
I have to say I would hate to be uninitiated and looking for stuff in Tokyo station, it’s a mess of a place - sure, doesn’t have all the weird little exits of Ikebukuro, but there’s constant construction work in the place, and there’s even a little lack of order to the platforms. And very few proper electronic displays like at other stations. There’s a lot for shinkansens, but perhaps the station designers need to remember that there are other services too, that people need information about.
Take mine - the train was on platform 4, but not THE platform 4. For a start, I only found information for it at the front of one of the entrances to the station, and once inside, had to find my platform 4 (not the Yamanote line one for which there was abundant signage inside the station, but a special underground platform 4). It was bizarre, and most un-Japanese, but I got there eventually, only to be more confused when the train came in and flew right past my carriage spot. Then, after it had done so, an announcement came in Japanese telling us that a second train would be arriving to attach to the first. Then the same announcement was made later in English.
Clearly, my afternoon in Tokyo was not meant to be a smooth one - perhaps the frustration and stress was mere contrast-minimising buffer for leaving the comfort of the organised and polite Japan for the selfish detritus of life back at home? Thanks, Fate, that was big of you. Eventually I was on the train anyway, and off to the airport to check in.
I had planned, as always, to leave myself plenty of time for airport check-in, and doing so Business class meant I skipped all of the queues, and had time to wander around and look at the overpriced souvenir shops. But the day had taken its toll, and I could find nothing of note among the trinkets, so I ended up just expanding my Japanese Kit Kat variety collection, and grabbing some Meiji Black (chocolate) to take home. All that remained was to clear emigration, and kill time in the lounge before the flight home. So ended another trip to Japan.