Tokyo (Oshiage) - May/June 2018

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Monday 28th June

Mariko had booked a hotel in Oshiage, adjacent to the SkyTree, which had the advantage of having a direct train from Haneda. It took us a bit of practice to work out the correct exits though. We checked in to our very snug room, admired the SkyTree-shaped water bottles, and then out to get our bearings. First up we made sure we knew where the Skytree bus terminal was - important for our plans for the next day. We walked along the canal, admiring the public art, then past the Asahi buildings ("oh, it's a flame"), to Asakusa. We called into the Tourist Information Centre which was a little sparse but we still picked up a few ideas for the week. A quick look at Nakamise Street but we veered across to the shopping mall. We called into the taiko shop and had a good look around, but we were a little too late in the day for the museum. Another item on the list for next time.

We continued on our walk to Akihabara; I was rather surprised that the streets seemed to have very light traffic throughout most of this week, apart from sections of our bus journey. Mariko found an Animate store, and we also had a good look through BicCamera.

We looked around for somewhere nice for dinner and found a great restaurant with a fantastic view back over Akihabara's neon signs (and the derelict Manseibashi station). I also worked out we were just a few blocks downriver from the music instrument district I'd explored in 2011. Afterwards we took the train back.

Tuesday

DisneySea day! We took the 8am bus from SkyTree to the park and got stuck in to a fun day out. We had a go on most of main rides, although the Tower of Terror and Journey to the Centre of the Earth rides were not operating. We had a queue of 45 minutes for the Indiana Jones ride, and maybe 20 minutes for Finding Nemo (even with a FastPass). All the rides were good fun, especially Toy Story; but weren't quite as high-adrenaline as other parks - I got to loop-the-loop on Raging Spirits while Mariko sat that one out, meaning I could take advantage of the Single Rider queue and skipped the 30 minute wait. Big Band Beat was a fantastic show; I noted that they changed the lyrics for "Cheek to Cheek" from "gambler's lucky streak" to "dancer's lucky streak"; I was particularly impressed by the drummer who was doing some fantastic solos while wearing a full Mickey Mouse costume. Weird that they still had an Easter Parade show though...

All of the cast and staff were amazing in maintaining joyful vibes, we weren't sure we'd have the stamina to be able to smile so much! As it was, our energy levels started to wane in the late afternoon so we headed back to Oshiage. Mariko introduced me to another new style of dining in the SkyTree complex: monjayaki, where ingredients and sauces are combined and cooked on a hotplate at the table; we then scoop morsels straight from the pan and eat them.

We managed to catch some of the French Open tennis on the TV in our room during this week; Naomi Osaka and Kei Nishikori were getting some prime-time coverage.

Wednesday

We took the train to Shinjuku, and walked along endless tunnels to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building to enjoy the free observation deck - it's become a ritual on my visits to Tokyo. And, as per usual, it was very grey and hazy. The Sumitomo Building next door seemed to be undergoing renovations, and I'm not sure whether their observation deck was operating.

We headed back to Shinjuku for a coffee, and then had a bit of a wander around the shops, particularly Tokyu Hands, then through all the connected department stores, down to Subnade (I didn't go for a foot massage this time), and other retail streets. It didn't take too long before we were both ready to escape the craziness, and jumped on the train to Mitaka, bought a picnic lunch, and walked down to Inokashira Park. It was refreshingly peaceful, with just a few walkers, joggers and tennis players, and one girl doing some quite demonstrative choreography in the middle of the sports field. We walked around part of the lake, getting some Miyazaki-style inspiration, and again managing to resist the allure of the swan boats.

It was time for the day's main attraction, a visit to the Ghibli Museum. It was very exciting to get an insight into these fantastical animation films, although it was often a challenge with the crowds. Photos were not permitted inside, but it was amazing to see one visitor getting around this by rapidly sketching one of the rooms in incredible detail. I'm not as much of a Ghibli fan as some, but it's definitely worth a visit, and we're keeping an eye out for news about the Ghibli theme park.

We proceeded to Shibuya, crossing at the scramble intersection, and catching a brief glimpse of the Hachiko statue while trying to avoid the rain. We had dinner at Genki Sushi which had a very nifty sushi train delivery system and apparently I ate some raw horse; and then Mariko took great pleasure in introducing me to the local Don Quijote department store.

We also ducked into a pharmacy, and Mariko was tempted to buy an umbrella for ¥200, but I suggested that if we needed one, we could borrow it from the hotel.

Thursday

It was looking like it might rain, so asked the hotel if we could borrow an umbrella. They said no, we'd have to buy one for ¥500... so we did... We ended up barely using it and it wouldn't fit into our luggage. We went for a coffee in SkyTree Town and I was fascinated by the brewing process which was siphon style, with the water heated in a bulb, boiling up through the coffee grounds, then filtered back down into the bulb.

We took the train to Yokohama station, and after a bit of a search (it's a big station!) we found the meeting point for our rendezvous with Mariko's father, and his sister. It was great to meet them! We went back on the train to Minaromirai station, then they took us up Japan's fastest elevator to see the views from Landmark Tower - although it was even greyer than the previous day - but this meant we received a free coffee in compensation. We were treated to a yummy Chinese lunch, and then had a lot of fun posing in improbable settings in the "Trick Art Cruise". We then proceeded to the Second Dock, Red Brick Warehouses, past the Visitor Information Centre and Elephant Nose Breakwater, to Osanbashi Pier - all familiar, and plenty of nostalgia from my previous visits.

We took a slight detour to the Sister City Plaza so I could show the others the plaque commemorating the Port of Melbourne, and I was perplexed and slightly disappointed that all the plaques had been replaced by new, very minimalist ones. I did a quick bit of searching through my photo archive which confirmed that we were in the right place, but I really felt a bit ripped off.

Mariko's dad was treating us to a dinner cruise, and we headed out along Osanbashi to enjoy the views, and a cuppa. We exchanged some gifts, with Mariko and I finally parting company with some very well-travelled jars of honey. I saw the Royal Wing ship which I'd recalled being alongside, hosting a wedding, when I was at the same pier in 2015. It dawned on us that that's where we'd be having our dinner - exciting! It was all very elegant and refined, taking us on a slow loop around Tokyo Bay. We ventured out to have a look around the ship and discovered a few dozen school kids were having the time of their lives on the next deck and up top; Mariko translated them for me: "ships are THE BEST!". It was a lovely evening. On the way back to the station, a Japanese guy jogged past us and I noticed he was wearing an "I ♥ Melbourne" T-shirt - but I was too slow to react. A few minutes later I saw him completing a subsequent circuit of his course, and we gave him a rousing cheer as he passed us.

Friday

It was a gorgeous spring morning. After going through the routine of reloading our travel cards, which had become a daily event, we again took advantage of the direct connections from Oshiage, taking the subway train that then heads on to Zushi. (First, sushi train, then Zushi train!) I was imagining a nice quiet day amongst the hills and temples, but we were joined by half the school population of Kanto.

Mariko's fitness tracker had been somewhat of a motivator during our trip, and our explorations were measured in numbers of steps and equivalent flights of stairs climbed. Incidentally, we noted that many railway stations had directions on which side of the stairs were for going up and down, but these were rarely consistent; I suggested it might be to do with which direction the turns would take us during an ascent or descent. On our final full day, Mariko had found a walk that started off from Kita-Kamakura station, so after grabbing some breakfast (and noting an upcoming ukulele show), we set off through the forests. We passed many school groups, and all the students were having a great time and happy to exchange greetings. We visited the Giant Buddha and had a look inside. Then on to Hasedera Temple - there were large crowds at both, and we were glad to be on foot as the traffic was very jammed up.

We took the local train from Hase to Enoshima station - although it seemed more of a tram at times; at one station, the last carriage hangs out over an intersection, and for a while the train line goes up the centre of a street. We walked over the bridge to Enoshima itself, running the gauntlet of the big crowds in the main street, and taking the forest trail up and back from the summit. We avoided the loop path because it looked like it was just the way to the escalator - must try it next time.

We went up the Sea Candle, bouyed by the thick odour of the varnish being applied around the ground floor decking - amazing views over the Shonan region, I was really hoping to see Mt Fuji but there were just too many clouds in that direction. Back on the mainland I couldn't resist having a quick wade in Sagami Bay; not quite brave enough to join the few other swimmers.

We turned for home, and our next mode of transport was a bit unusual: a suspended monorail, taking us back to the main line. It's a great approach to the tricky terrain and existing development, but it gave quite a bouncy ride.

Back at Oshiage, I ducked out to grab a quick afternoon tea, and discovered that the small hill adjacent to our hotel was a multi-level bicycle parking area. We then walked the couple of kilometres to Kinshicho, had a nice dinner (quietly admiring the litre-plus beer that the adjacent table ordered!), and stocked up on all things that we didn't realise we needed from Daiso. It was raining quite a bit so we took the train back and got started on packing.

Saturday

We checked out, abandoning our purchased umbrella. We decided to have a nice relaxing day and so after having breakfast at the Solamachi food court, we caught the Yurikamome to Odaiba. We walked around the shore and through Shiokaze Park - there were quite a few people enjoying the non-swimming beach, playing volleyball, walking their ubiquitous minuscule dogs, and BBQing. We had a bit of lunch at a shopping centre, entertained by an aspiring J-pop star launching her new single in the adjacent space. We were puzzled by the number of people wearing Tshirts that said "My Hair Is Bad"; it turns out it is the name of a band that were performing that afternoon. We had a look at the Toyota Showcase, which was kind of interesting, then our final point of interest was the Miyazaki Big Clock.

We collected our bags and again were able to enjoy a direct train to Narita from Oshiage - it's a really good hub to consider if you're not worried about using a JR Pass. At the airport we farewelled our sturdy mobile WiFi gadget and posted it back - we'd consumed just over 10GB in 22 days, well within our 25GB plan. It'd been a really handy part of the trip, although it had meant that each evening we went through a bit of a routine of recharging all our devices and backup batteries, and I'd had to ration my use a couple of times to preserve power. I enjoyed a final Hokkaido soft serve just before boarding, and then we were on our way home. Arigatou Gozaimasu, Japan, hope to see you again soon!

Huge thanks to everyone who helped out with our trip, and massive thanks to Mariko for being a fantastic travel buddy and altogether awesome!


Next time:
Maybe go-karting, Tsukiji Market, a Sanrio store (though we did get to Smile Road in New Chitose airport), Shinkansen, Nikon museum

Noboribetsu - May 2018

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Saturday 26th May

We filled up with fuel and settled in for our last long drive. We decided to take the regular roads rather than the parallel expressway - the long coastal stretches were worth savouring. Mariko had picked a really interesting podcast to listen to as well. A note on traffic lights - they are often in unexpected locations and a couple of times I completely failed to spot them! Also they often have a red light showing, but with numerous green turn arrows - you need to do some boolean logic to figure them out.

We had a bit of fun with the regional name, Date ("what's the name of the local cinema? Movie Date?") as we turned off to Lake Toya. The main attractions are the lakeside and cruises, as well as Mt Usu, but we turned to the walking trails that toured around the year 2000 mudslides, past buildings that had been inundated with mud, or impacted with flying boulders, and past roadways that had warped and subsided. Nature had definitely made a huge impact at the time, and was continuing to gradually consume the ruins. After crossing out from the lake side of the hill, there was a small tourist village which appeared deserted, but turned out to just be exceedingly quiet - the soft serve machine at the cafe still was running, thankfully! We noted the bus schedule in case we ran out of energy again (very infrequent) and declined the roast potatoes. We didn't consider climbing the path from the car park - it looks like this would've given us some great views of the lake and back to the sea, as would the Mt Usu summit. Next time. We had some fantastic views regardless. We saw the ruined kindergarten and I really felt sorry for the kids that missed out on going there, especially since they'd had a cookie factory almost next door.

On the return loop we passed an elderly Japanese man mowing his lawn. He called out, "What country?" and I replied "Ostoraria!" resulting in a small cheer from both sides of the brief conversation. We finished our walk with a bathroom break in the Visitor Centre, and I was happy to see that we had covered 5 out of the 6 major national parks in Hokkaido - we'll have to get to Rishiri-Rebun-Sarobetsu National Park next time.

Mariko suggested that I drive, so she wouldn't have to follow instructions in Japanese when we arrived at our hotel. We started on the regular roads, but it was starting to get a little late for our recommended check-in time so we turned to the expressway. At first I attempted to drive the wrong way through the toll gate, but frantic waving from the attendant sorted me out. When we arrived, I dropped Mariko off at the reception area and was then directed to a carpark a couple of hundred metres further up through town. Not a big distance, and I was leisurely preparing to walk back collecting some items from the car, when a shuttle bus driver hurried me along to join some other drivers being transferred back. We checked in and I realised that my wallet had gone missing since our first arrival. I went back to the car, then up to the room, then to the front driveway. I was trying to remember the phrases from the particular episode of Learn Japanese Pod but made do with a bit of pantomime. The driveway attendants directed me to the front desk who had my wallet - humble thanks! It had fallen out of my handful of belongings as I got out of the shuttle minibus.

Much relieved, I joined Mariko for our in-room dinner, exquisitely presented and served by our young attendant who delivered the dishes with great flair, ceremony and explanations, kneeling and bowing each time as she entered and left the room. We weren't sure what many of the dishes were, but they were delicious, plentiful, and involved just the right amount of DIY to extract the edible parts, or to cook particular dishes. It was delightful - just a bit hard on my knees and hips to sit so low for the whole meal.

Dinner finished just in time for us to catch the hotel's taiko performance - a very high-energy and skillful show by the quintet. Then on to try the main feature of the hotel, the onsen. It's separate bathing, apart from the (clothed) swimming pool area. And the male changeroom attendants were female - mostly keeping a distance from all the naked men, but I did manage to commit a couple of faux pas that were picked up on: forgetting to take off my sandals when walking on the tatami, and using the wrong towel. I tried as many pools as I could, and even had one go on the waterslide into the bathers-zone swimming pool.

Sunday

We got stuck into the breakfast buffet - it was huge! Yum! We set out to try the walks around the town, through the Hell Valley sulphur vent area, across to the boiling Oyunuma Pond, trying the fun quiz questions on signposts en route, and the warm sulphur stream and footbath. We'd felt we'd covered all the immediate attractions of the town, and a check of the visitor centre showed that the remaining walks available would've taken hours, so we went for a drive. We passed the "Mysterious" Luke Kuttara which was wonderfully pristine - just a single visitor kiosk was evident, and it was closed; we were still yet to enjoy a tea-cup/swan boat ride - next time. Our drive was accompanied by the soundtrack of the Hawks' exciting game against the Eagles... until our WiFi unit rebelled and lost the signal. (It just needed its SIM card to be taken out and reinserted, but we didn't figure that out until the next evening.)

We drove on to have a stroll along Itanki Beach. It was a bit cool but there were a few others out enjoying the sun and the amazing coastal views, and even a couple of swimmers and surfers. There were some fantastic coastal hills that would make a terrific hike - another time. We drove on towards Muroran, a large industrial town, though we took the coastal road and got to enjoy some stunning scenery - much of it at 15km/h as the roads were so narrow and windy. We stopped at a lookout and took in the glorious view out to sea - I also did a quick dash up to the nearby summit where I could take in views back across Muroran Bay, the port and industrial areas, the suburbs and mountains behind. We drove on to the Cape Chikyu Lighthouse for a similar breathtaking panorama; at least this time there were some other tourists enjoying it as well.

The drive to Muroran wasn't part of our plan but it turned out great. Like the Notsuke Peninsula, I only had an interest in it from having seen its shape in Google Maps; in particular, I wondered why they needed a large suspension bridge when it looked like a short distance to drive around. I'm sure the economics of the port plays a big part. We got to drive across the bridge - in fact, due to roadworks, we were directed to drive up the wrong side as the seaward lanes were being attended to.

Back at the hotel we soothed our muscles in the onsen, before another delicious dinner in our room. I did have to resort to a double-layer futon; it was just a bit too firm on a single.

Monday

I had a final dip in the onsen before we steeled ourselves for another assault on the breakfast buffet, but finally it was time to say goodbye to the ridiculously undersized slippers. We took the advice from the sign in our room which recommended which check-out times would be smoothest, and drove the hour or so (via the expressway) back to the airport car rental depot. Our Impreza wasn't too fancy but had been great over around 2300km, we'd come to a begrudging sort of working arrangement with the GPS unit, and it had been good to keep some of our bulkier items in it rather than squeezed into our suitcases.

We were shuttled back to the terminal, and put our bags in the vaporizing machine again. The connections had all gone very smoothly and we had quite a bit of time before our flight, so we had a wander through the Smile Road retail section (Mariko managed to restrain herself from going crazy in the Hello Kitty outlet), I had a go at the crane machine and was so close to winning a Godzilla; another couple had just won a bag of snacks and shared them with us. We took in a couple of landings from the observation deck, and then had a moment of panic when we found that the security queue was quite lengthy, but it was just a short delay. Boarded, and with deep bows from the ground crew, we were away. Thanks Hokkaido for a fantastic trip, we'll miss you, your fantastic nature, food and Seicomarts!

Hakodate - May 2018

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Thursday 24th May

We headed inland, and as we neared Kutchan, the Fuji-esque Mount Yotei started to appear. We stopped at the edge of Niseko and had some genuine Hokkaido cheese tarts while enjoying fantastic views of the mountain. We decided to swing past the Yotei Nature Park, which was pristine and deserted apart from a couple of workers tweaking some of the playground areas... it looked like camping season was about to start.

We headed south and picked up the expressway for the long scenic drive to Hakodate. The traffic was typically travelling at around 115km/h - a very comfortable speed despite the posted limits of 70 or 80; however at one point we were the only car on the visible stretch until a police car zoomed up behind with flashing lights. I pulled over and they pulled in 30 or 40m behind. Mariko had been dozing and was still stirring when the police instructed me to do something through their megaphone, all in Japanese of course, and she didn't catch what they said. They might have noticed our hire car sticker on the back and figured we weren't worth the hassle - they just said, "Start. Go, GO!"... and I gave them a friendly wave and eased back onto the road. I think I might've even stuck to the speed limit for a few minutes, but being constantly overtaken by coaches travelling much faster meant that I soon resumed a more typical speed. I was a bit worried that there would still be ramifications, but I haven't heard anything yet! The expressway was mostly single-lane with an overtaking lane every 15 or 20km; there were several pieces of earthmoving equipment being transported with enough of a gap that when the convoy of faster vehicles overtook one, they very quickly got caught up behind the next.

We had a very warm welcome from our accommodation hosts, before heading out past the Winning Hotel to see the oldest concrete power pole in Japan. We couldn't resist the appeal of the Lucky Pierrot hamburger restaurant, staffed by predominantly quite senior ladies, who seemed a little incongruous in their fast food restaurants, and resignedly nonplussed by having to perform the bell-ringing ceremony when someone ordered their giant burger.

We finished the night with a trip up the ropeway; we were a bit too weary to attempt a climb this time. The view amazing, and worth the hype. A very memorable visit! On our return to our accommodation, our hosts presented us with personalised chopsticks - a delightful touch.

Friday

A rainy start to the day - we headed to the seafood market which had a fantastic atmosphere. Many of the stalls were staffed by high school kids, perhaps a work experience thing. We walked the few kilometres to the Goryokaku fort, enjoyed the view from the tower, then had a wander through the grounds. We decided to get tickets for the Hakodate Magistrate's Office, which (we eventually found out) is a modern recreation - it didn't seem to attract much interest from the other tourists, but it was great! I particularly enjoyed the video showing how it was reconstructed (even though it was in Japanese), and the staff there seemed to take quite a bit of delight in showing us the points of interest.

We had a quick look and some lunch at the local Muji before taking the tram back past our accommodation to the port area. It was fantastic that all of the various transport operators accepted our Suica and Pasmo travel cards during our trip. We had a gentle stroll further on where there were some very ramshackle homes and boat repairers. We had a look at the Ainu Museum, which was quite good - we had a fantastic performance of an Ainu mouth harp by the lady behind the counter, but we declined to buy one (it sounded great! ... but I have too many instruments...), then wandered back up to the Red Brick Warehouses to browse the shops, before looping around the grand historic buildings of Motomachi Park. We finished a long enjoyable day of walking with a loop around Midori no Shima.

For dinner we headed back towards the fish market, finding a sushi restaurant, but for me at least, it didn't quite live up to the usual standard, despite the pride that the owners expressed.

Altogether, a lovely short stay in Hakodate!

Sapporo - May 2018

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Tuesday 22nd May

Kado irete kudasai...

We drove out of the mountains and onto the expressway at Asahikawa. For some reason, Mariko picked the Burt Bacharach collection from my phone's playlist to accompany our drive - it suited the drive very well. An hour-and-a-bit on the freeway cost something like $30 and halved the travel time to Sapporo. Does the penultimate expressway exit lead to Sapporo? No-pporo! Our hotel room had been upgraded and was very spacious, the bathroom by itself seemed as big as some of the other hotel bedrooms we'd had.

We walked into town to check out Odori Park, which was hosting the Lilac Festival - it felt though that the flowers were an afterthought, with most people flocking to the food and drink stalls. We looped around to the Government Office (museum) where we got some extra insights into Japan's view of the Kunashir Island situation. Our touristy route took us to the iconic clock tower building, and then TV Tower observation deck, very amused that the young lift attendant shyly recited her spiel into a handheld microphone, facing the corner... even though we were the only two passengers and barely a metre away. There were big crowds around the city enjoying the summery weather - at least, they were obeying the city edict (as per ubiquitous signage) to smile, regardless. Mariko found the Ramen Yokocho (Ramen Alley) which I would've walked straight past - a great way to round out the day.

Wednesday

We walked up to the Sapporo Fish Market, which was nice to see but not a patch on Kushiro's. We were on the lookout for a coffee shop, and stumbled on a fantastic cafe tucked under a set of stairs in a side entrance to a station. The barista performed some amazing alchemy and the coffee was fantastic!

We took the train to Shiroi Koibito Park - a Willy-Wonka-esque complex of a factory (currently free to tour), garden and mini theme park, featuring lots of very daggy animatronics. A lot of it was very silly but it was a lot of fun! And the cafe was very elegant.

Next we took the train and the tram to the base of the Mt Moiwa ropeway - however our plan was to walk up to the top. The obvious path led up to a stupa and then curled back down - a quick bit of Googling showed that the path up actually started around a kilometre away, next to Jodoshukanon Temple. It wasn't warm, maybe around 20deg (perhaps mid-teens at the summit?), but there was a heavy haze and I found the climb, through lush forest, a decent challenge. The view from the top was fantastic! I definitely enjoyed a bit of a break. We debated whether to return the same way or to continue across the the mountain and in the end, our sense of adventure won through. We bumped into a group of very exuberant Nepali guys who asked to interview me for the video they were making. The descent was fine, but brought us out quite a way from where we'd set off, and our energy levels were getting pretty low. We spotted a suburban bus and took a punt that it was heading towards the centre of town, from where we were able to the train back close enough to our hotel to freshen up and to prepare our dirty clothes for the coin laundry we'd just discovered.

For dinner, Mariko took us to another new experience - Garaku Soup Curry. We had to wait in the queue for a few minutes, which built the anticipation to the very yummy dinner.

I don't think we had quite adjusted to being back in a big city, since we spent much of our time in Sapporo getting back out into the parks! Next time it would be great to check out the Botanic Gardens of the University as we ran out of time (note the limited opening hours).

Thursday

We drove an hour-and-a-bit (on the regular roads) to the seaside town of Otaru, and then had a frustrating search for a car park, compounded by not being quite sure of the procedure for paying for it. We rewarded ourselves with some yummy LeTao cheesecake, and then took a stroll down the main tourist street. We were keen to see the music box museum, which turned out to be very crowded with tourists and much more of a retailer than an actual museum - sort of interesting but not quite as good as we'd hoped. In fact most of the tourist street seemed to be either music box shops or LeTao shops, and all full of tourists - perhaps a cruise was in town. We turned towards the canal, but this area seemed a bit tacky as well. What was turning out to be a slightly disappointing visit was saved by a delicious lunch, and a short stroll along the former railway line. Next time it'd be good to check out the railway museum slightly further along, and it seems there are other attractions through the city.

We retrieved our car (satisfied that we'd worked out the parking payment) and headed west out of town. This section of the drive had views of tantalising hills and coastal areas (and we passed near the Yuichi Space Apple) - definitely worth further inspection on a future visit.

Sounkyo - May 2018

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Monday 21st May

After being intrigued by the moss phlox playing card the night before, we tweaked our original plan (Lake Mashu, Mt Io and Lake Kussharo) to stop by Shibazakura Park, part of the the nearby Nonky Land cheese shop empire (we skipped the cheese shop despite the allure of the Camembert soft serve),  in the Okhotsk region. The sight was incredible - so much vibrant pink! We were there close to peak blooming period and it was just amazing to walk around all the Okhotsk moss phlox. Plus, we finally found where all the Hokkaido tourists had gone - they'd all decided to come to see the flowers. Towards the end of our visit we were befriended by Mitsue, a Japanese lady from Kushiro and it was good to compare travel plans. We grabbed some lunch and decided that since we had a long drive, we'd head directly on to Sounkyo. We'll keep Lake Mashu and Mt Io for next time!

From the map there didn't seem to be much along the highway but we found quite a few large towns and continuous urban areas. We stopped at Bihoro and pick up some antihistamine tablets - my allergy has eased slightly but I was keen for it to clear up. Mariko was great at finding shops that were the parallels of familiar types of stores back home - eg Tsuruha Drug = Chemist Warehouse. The Daisetsuzan mountains appeared in the distance, and our road started to climb.

The idea to stay at Sounkyo started as just a way to break a long drive, but I'd read that it had a nice waterfall and it could act as a backup mountain visit, in case the conditions hadn't been suitable when we were back in Furano. Mariko and her mum had done a fantastic job in booking our accommodation, as there wasn't a way to make our reservation in English. When we drove into the village, the GPS didn't give us the precise address, and Mariko asked me to keep an eye out for a sign that matched the fairly complicated kanji characters. We'd expected a modest hostel, but the accommodation turned out to be a moderately luxurious ryokan - and at a bargain rate!

We had a short walk around town but our preferred nature trail were closed due to bear sightings, so we set off on foot to see the Ryusei and Ginga waterfalls, a couple of kilometres back up the highway. It was a very scenic trail along the valley with precipitous cliffs along each side, with the path opening up to a car park full of tour coaches and a sizeable crowd of tourists admiring the impressive falls. We escaped the crowds by climbing the trail on the facing hillside. The coaches were all about to depart anyway, leaving the village nice and quiet.

Back at the hotel we enjoyed a delicious shabu shabu dinner (which I'd been keen to try during our trip) and the hotel onsen.

Tuesday

After another dip in the onsen and a buffet breakfast, we checked out of the the hotel and rugged up for a trip up the ropeway. The views were amazing, and it was bright, sunny and warm! We were quickly down to T-shirts, and I even tried going topless for a few minutes, and it was still quite comfortable. There were a handful of climbers (fully kitted out!) and workers attending to the chairlift, but otherwise we had the place to ourselves. We hiked up the length of the chairlift and tried to find the nature trail at the end but it was hidden beneath a metre of snow. It was almost tempting to push for the summit, but the gradient was increasing, so we declared it a job well done and semi-skiied in our hiking boots back to the ropeway.

Our stay in Sounkyo was very brief but we were blessed with brilliant weather, enjoyed staying in a great hotel and we had a fantastic time.

Shiretoko Peninsula - May 2018

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Saturday 19th May

We had a nice straight drive through farmland to Shibetsu, with the Shiretoko mountains looming ever larger. I'd been intrigued by the shape of the Notsuke Peninsula and we decided to visit (although the Shibetsu Salmon Museum sounded kind of appealing).

The peninsula is a low marshy area formed by drifting sand bars and despite being a bit cold and desolate, it was a fascinating place to walk around. There were great views of the Shiretoko mountains as well as Russian-occupied Kunashir Island. There were a handful of men in boats doing some sort of fishing or scavenging, and an opportunistic fox. We really enjoyed the visit and recommend having a look, if the weather isn't too bleak!

We proceeded on to Rausu, the main town on the south east coast of the Shiretoko Peninsula. We started at the very well-appointed main visitor centre where the staff were delighted to have some visitors - like most tourist facilities, it was very quiet! Before returning back down the couple of kilometres to town for lunch with views of Kunashir Island. There was an information booth that had a useful tourist map of the town and we decided to climb to the lookout. This involved quite steep roads and we had definitely warmed up during the climb, but worth it for the fantastic views. I had a quick look in the visitor centre underneath the lookout, which looked very well set up, but the only other person there was a somewhat disinterested attendant. The path continued on, extending past what was shown on the tourist map or Google Maps, until we found an information board showing all the paths. The track was a little treacherous with deep mud in places, and lots of deer prints. Mariko saw something moving on the facing hill - possibly a bear! - no... most likely a deer.

We drove a couple of kilometres further up the coast to the Whale Viewing Hill and lighthouse - nice views, but no whales. We headed inland - there are some more more walking tracks amongst the hills but we left these for another time - and there were lots of warnings about possible bear encounters. We stopped to take some photos at the Shiretoko Pass Lookout, but after a few minutes we were ushered (along with a few other carloads) onwards by the road authority, as the pass was closing for the night. Lucky we decided to go when we did! We hadn't had any warning about the pass being closed, and we would have had to make a 100km detour if we'd missed curfew.

We settled in to our accommodation at the Iruka (Dolphin) Hotel, a really nice hostel-like place, which claims on its website to have an 'OK View' - definitely a massive understatement. We walked back into town for a bite (so quiet - despite being a Saturday night), before returning to settle in to watch the royal wedding. but we couldn't find it on TV! Mariko discovered that YouTube was showing it, so we watched it on her phone, while I enjoyed a banana desert pizza from the hotel restaurant. It'd been a big day and we were looking forward to a good rest, but in the middle of the night I became very itchy and couldn't get back to sleep - perhaps I'm allergic to something I'd eaten - maybe lunch? Or bedbugs? Either way, I was feeling quite tender the next morning - hard to stop scratching, and lots of welts and rashes over my body.

Sunday

We were excited for one of the main attractions of our trip - a tour of the Shiretoko 5 Lakes. I was feeling slightly worse-for-wear due to the allergy, but keen to soldier on! We arrived at the Field House and meet our guide, Yuuji. We were in a small group with Japanese and Israeli couples. After a bear encounter briefing (presumably we all passed the fitness assessment!), Yuuji took us on the nature tour. It was great to see some wildlife (though no bears), and have the various aspects of the forest explained to us. The spectacular mountain backdrop definitely dominated the views though! The weather was drizzly in parts, but this just added to the atmosphere. The tour was a highlight of our trip but I was quite relieved to reach the end of it as there were no toilets along the route and despite being well prepared for that situation, my metabolism was doing its best to rid my body of any nasties.

It would've been nice to see the hot waterfall but the road was closed. We headed back into Utoro to find that there was a food festival on, with a local band providing some great music. Then, on to the sightseeing cruise, on the Aurora - we were worried that it might be very cold and blustery with rough seas, but it turned out fine, and we were able to enjoy the views of the coastline from the top deck - dramatic cliffs, waterfalls, and we even saw a bear!

We drove back to our accommodation and then walked back to town to watch the sunset from Oronko Rock. We had a nervous moment when we waited for ages at the pedestrian crossing for it to turn green, only to realise we were heading in the wrong direction. As no traffic had come for a few minutes we instinctively changed tack to our desired path, which was against the red light - and just at that moment, a police car flashed on its red and blue lights and pulled out almost next to us. Thankfully it turned off towards the hills. We hadn't found any good dining options in town so we went for the Iruka pizzas, and this turned out great. I tried ordering in Japanese but Mariko had to rescue me (yet again!) as my choice wasn't available, and our waitress was European and fluent in English anyway. Over dinner used the Hokkaido tourism playing cards and made an exciting discovery which resulted in a change of plans for the next day.

Monday

I was still very itchy so up and about a bit early. I'd hoped to walk around the headland adjacent to the hotel, but the tide was in, so I just walked through the cutting to see the next beach along the coast. I then filled up the car with fuel, enjoying the full driveway service which included a petite senior Japanese lady standing on a step stool to wash the windscreens.

Packed and on the road, we stopped at the Oshinkoshin Waterfall for our final point of interest of the Shiretoko Peninsula. All up, a terrific place to visit! And apart from having virtually zero nightlife, it'd be good to spend a bit longer here to explore some of the mountain tracks, as long as the bears were friendly.

Kushiro - May 2018

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Thursday 17th May

It was quite rainy as we set off - good for driving. We took the slightly slower but shorter and toll-free back roads, stopping for breakfast and fuel at Shimizu, making the most of the hot options in the vending machines and enjoying the park next to the town hall. We'd managed to work out how to set up the car's GPS destination by phone number, but we were still cross referencing with Google Maps, which relied on the occasionally spotty internet... and all ending up with different results (sorry Mariko! Shimizu was a slight backtrack - Google Maps bypassed it by using some local road shortcuts - in fact this section of the drive involved quite a bit of zig-zagging). The road took us through hilly areas, through lots of small towns - often with their own local ski slopes, and farming areas with a backdrop of some quite impressive mountains. I noticed that many curves had a 'radius' indicator sign, 200 is a gentle curve, where a 30 is a tight turn. We even passed an emu and ostrich farm. Once we passed through Ashoro, the towns dropped away and the road was direct and very quiet apart from a steady flow of army vehicles that were probably heading to a base that we'd passed... unless there were some developments on the Korean peninsula that we'd missed!

Arriving at Lake Akan, we bought tickets for the next cruise, and while waiting we walked through town, past the large resort hotels and eco museum, and back along the shore. We climbed the steps to the shrine next to the eco museum, admiring the diligence with which some local workers were sanding the handrails. Their workmanship became a running joke at the expense of the many subsequent attractions whose handrails weren't quite so smooth. We boarded our cruise boat at the city jetty (after enjoying the 'relaxing toilet' in the pharmacy) and enjoyed a chilly trip around the lake with our fellow travellers, most of retirement age - a large proportion seemed to be sleeping on the way back. The commentary was in Japanese and neither of us really followed it, but it was nice to hear the big ballad version of the Marimo song, a tribute to the large cute spherical moss balls endemic to the lake. The cruise included a short stop at the Marimo exhibition centre - we felt it was slightly underwhelming but still an enjoyable trip.

We then had a walk around the lake shore, taking in the hot spring and bubbling mud pits and admiring the smoothly sanded handrails. Back in the car, we headed for Kushiro - past a very lengthy approach of homemaker centres and car dealerships. Our hotel was pretty classy and had nice Art Deco touches. We settled in and then headed across the river to explore the restaurant district. Mariko found us a really fun and yummy sushi restaurant with the staff shouting out call-and-response chants to people arriving, ordering etc. We were intrigued by the bananas they gave as we left, each inscribed with a cheery message. We could hear some taiko somewhere a couple of blocks away but we didn't worry about trying to track down the source.

Friday

Mariko felt an earthquake around 3am (magnitude 5.8, maybe 80km away) but I slept through. The morning was a lot brighter than the day before but it was still quite cold outside - a big contrast to our very toasty hotel room. We walked down towards the coast and walked a lap around Harutori Lake, which wasn't quite as picturesque as its name ("spring bird") suggested, and parts were quite industrial, but the museum buildings looked pretty impressive. We looped back around to the city centre and station area and enjoyed a delicious seafood lunch at Washo Market. All very nice but there were constant public service announcements being played over the city's PA systems, which gave it a very post-apocalyptic feel. There had also been a lullaby playing as pedestrian crossing music.

We picked up our car and with newfound confidence, set the GPS for the Kushiro City Crane Natural Park. It led us to a large and very full car park surrounded by low buildings; I felt something was slightly amiss as I'd remembered passing the Crane centre on the other side of the highway the day before, nonetheless we approached what was possibly the main entrance - but on peering inside there were a bunch of what looked like patients in wheelchairs - the complex seemed to be a rehabilitation centre. On cross-checking with Google we decided to drive to the adjoining acreage which was, indeed, the Crane park. It was great to see the cranes up close in their enclosures; these were birds that were recovering from injuries. We didn't manage to spot the baby cranes though. Note that it turned out that the centre we'd passed the day before was the International Crane Centre, a few kilometres further away - not sure if this would've been much of a different experience.

We then headed to the Marsh Observatory, again trusting the GPS, and again to our frustration - it directed us to a location that was basically over the back fence from where we were aiming - however it was about 10km driving to get there. We took the hilltop walk through the forest from the observatory, mostly over a fairly rickety boardwalk, and saw the fantastic vista of the huge marsh area spread out below. We then drove on a couple of kilometres further to the Onnenai Visitor Centre, and this proved to be a highlight - there are kilometres of boardwalks out into the marshes, and it was a really fantastic landscape; sort of desolate, but teeming with vitality. We were even able to spot a couple of wild cranes walking along, 100m or so from the track. There were a handful of other tourists around but the carparks were virtually empty and we pretty much had the place to ourselves. Mariko dared me to put a Godzilla on the 'wildlife spotted' whiteboard map... and I took her up on it :-)

We had certainly given Mariko's fitness tracker a good workout! We headed back into town... this time our GPS sent us very obviously a km or so from our hotel, and it occurred to me that when I'd pressed the 'set destination' button, I'd probably set our destination to be the location of the button on the screen - I'm pretty sure this wasn't the cause of our problems earlier in the day, though! - I suspect the directory was out of kilter. After enjoying a complementary red wine from the hotel common room, and checking out the touristy shopping centre that was a prominent feature of the view from our room, we looked at the dining options. We decided to give "Porkers" a miss, instead having Italian for dinner. Then, back to our sauna-like hotel room; we fired up a device that looked like a humidifier, and pressed a few buttons until it started cooling the air a little.

Next time: it'd be interesting to see the Ainu Kotan at Lake Akan. But otherwise, a half-day at Akan worked pretty well - there are quite a few big resort hotels but I suspect these are mostly for the ski season. We really enjoyed our time in Kushiro; it would've been great to have some more definitive websites for the places we were interested in.

Furano - May 2018

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Monday 14th May

Another 5:30am wakeup, taking the train and the monorail through the bayside areas, beating the morning rush, to Haneda, arriving in plenty of time for a coffee before our AirDo flight to New Chitose, the main airport in Hokkaido. Our check-in attendant was super friendly and helpful, and printed out our outgoing and return tickets - in fact at every step of the way, AirDo issued yet another docket with our flight and seat numbers on it. The AirDo/ANA automatic baggage drop systems were interesting - you place your bag what looks like an oversized bread box, scan your ticket, attach the tag - and the lid closes and your bag is vapourised. In a very Japanese gesture, the AirDo ground crew seeing us off waved enthusiastically at our plane as it began to taxi, before deep-bowing a farewell.

On arrival we were shuttled to our waiting rental car, a modest Impreza, and we set course for Furano. The GPS was in Japanese so to start with we stuck with Google Maps and although it took us through some questionable back streets (possibly saving a couple of metres... but it would've been better to stick to proper roads) we started making good progress. As various correspondents had noted, the speed limits throughout Hokkaido were ridiculously low and pretty much ignored by everyone. The roads were generally elevated above the surrounding fields and there were frequent overhead edge markers for when there's deep snow. There were also giant louvres alongside many of Hokkaido's roads - these are wind/snowbreaks, and are often folded down to the ground when not in use.

We passed through some fairly built-up farming areas, had a break at a small waterfall, and made it into town for a late lunch. It was very, very quiet! It seems that like much of Hokkaido, everything is set up for the winter ski season and the summer flower/festival season, and we were there in between times - there were very few signs of any activity before mid-morning, and even after that it was still very sparsely populated.

Our accommodation wasn't going to be ready for another couple of hours so we drove on to the Blue Pond, which wasn't particularly blue. We drove on (via my errant directions and a couple of roadside deer) to see the Shirahige waterfall and have a walk around - there were some impressive patches of snow still.

We checked into our apartment-style accomodation which was very comfortable, but with a few gotchas and involved quite a lengthy briefing from the manager. We had a quick drive around the neighbourhood, which was the ski field part of Furano, and Asahigaoka Park, then ramen for dinner. Everything was so quiet - it was almost a ghost town feeling!

Tuesday

We hit the laundromat, and while we were waiting, we managed to find the marker for the centre of Hokkaido. We drove on for snacks and lunch in Biei, before continuing on to Mt Asahidake, the highest mountain in Hokkaido. Rugged up, we took the ropeway and tackled the strolling course. It was a bit blustery and the snow was perhaps a metre deep, with a reasonably solid crust, but it was pretty slow and steady going. We thought about going for the summit but it was just a bit too sloshy underfoot, and exposed overhead, to be confident about getting there and back in time. It wasn't too cold but enough snow had got into our boots to start to get a bit uncomfortable.

Once we turned around we found that it was much easier on the way down, particularly once we found a toboggan a little off the side of the trail. Hopefully it hadn't been stashed by another climber that was hoping to retrieve it later that day! We had an awesome time taking turns sliding down towards the ropeway station, and enjoying the magnificent, albeit hazy, views. We handed the toboggan in to the ropeway staff, once we were done goofing around!

On the drive back I missed the most direct turn off back to Furano, and we skirted the edge of Asahikawa, looping around the airport; this detour meant that we were passing the miniscule Kita Biei station just at the time the very cute single-carriage train was passing. I had cheekily placed a 1 yen coin on the track and had it thoroughly squashed by the train.

We headed back to the laundry to dry out our clothes that had got wet, making good use of the shoe drying machine. We saw that there was a Japanese curry restaurant nearby - it looked quite suspicious from the outside (once we found it! It rather resembles a vacant lot), but it was fantastic - a great tiki-bar style atmosphere.

Wednesday

We went for a wander around Asahigaoka Park, managing to stay a step ahead of the tour coaches, then out and back along the banks of the Sorachi River. On our return, I saw that the manager, Shinojima-san, was wearing a taiko T-shirt, and (thanks to Mariko's translating) I told him that I played taiko in Melbourne. He said that he was the local kids' teacher, and invited us along to practice that night!

We then went for a drive around Biei. With it being too early for most of the flower fields, the main landmarks seemed to be trees that had been made famous by appearing in TV commercials. There were a few other low-key attractions - lookouts, a tourist farm that seemed a little run-down, and the Shikisai no Oka flower farm, which looked like it would be stunning in late summer - but for us there was just one small patch of tulips in bloom. Adding to the low-key fell was a thick haze the obscured the mountain views.

We met Shinojima-san and another new student, Remi, at the accommodation, and headed to the Iyasaka Taiko practice hall in Nunobe. It was fantastic to join the class of pre-teens and teens, plus a couple of adults, and run through some of their drills, including a brush-up on the correct bowing technique, before enjoying their performance pieces. Mariko had her first taiko lesson and did a fantastic job, and seemed to quite enjoy it! They didn't have any okedo-style drums, but they had a quite flamboyant style with lots of big choreography, and the odaiko drummers were always playing in combination with the miya daikos. They asked me to perform something so I played a quick round of Yatai Bayashi. We left as they were getting into the fine details of a very fancy 10/8 piece. Big thanks to the group for letting us join in! In particular to Shinojima, and Remi and Mariko for translating.

We picked up some light dinner from the supermarket. Afterwards I tackled the BlueTooth functions of the car, repeatedly cycling through all the menus (mostly in Japanese) and was delighted to get it working - after about 15 minutes - with both our phones, meaning the rest of the trip was set to a soundtrack of Spotify, some of my classic albums (Burt Bacharach went down surprisingly well) and cool podcasts.

Next time

It'd be great to try for the summit of Mt Asahidake (and maybe even the other Mt Asahidakes that are around Furano) - as long as it's sensible given the conditions - it'd be good to start the climb before noon. It'd be great to go back to Furano in snow season and also in flower season and perhaps see the Belly Button festival!

Tokyo (Ueno) - May 2018

Japan 2018

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Friday 11th May

Ikimashou! Mariko and I had our 5:30am alarm set, and were already packed (much of our luggage consisted of jars of honey as gifts... but I'd neglected my sunnies! Hopefully Japan would be cloudy enough) and ready to go. We arrived at Tullamarine in plenty of time for our 9:10 departure on QF79. I managed to get slightly queasy after over-indulging on Mariko's surplus pudding. We landed at Narita right on sunset. I'd planned to be a perfect low-maintenance travel buddy but managed to drop my passport wallet (but not the passport) in the queue at immigration - thanks to the attendant who discovered it and ran along the line looking for the owner!, and I tried a bunch of ATMs but none would accept my Travel Money Card. Mariko charged up my Suica for me, so I was able to make it onto the train. We had aimed at the Keisei Skyliner but ended up on the regular Keisei line Ueno train (a little slower, a lot cheaper) and despite the long day, it was super exciting to be back in Japan.

I'd practiced finding our way from the station to our hotel using Google Maps, and even though we went out the wrong station exit, and I managed to direct us to the wrong side street where there was another Hotel MyStays back-to-back with the one we'd booked, it was easy to sort it all out. Our pocket Wifi gadget was waiting for us - it was the first time I'd travelled with one and it proved to be super handy. I'd already signed into the hotel Wifi to get the Hawks' result, while Mariko was checking us in.

Definitely time to stretch the legs so we headed back to Ueno Station area and had a nice easy Ramen supper, then back via a pleasant late-night stroll of the neighbourhood.

Saturday

We took the metro down towards the Tokyo area and headed towards the Imperial Palace via an ATM that took my card, and then breakfast at Tokyo station. The palace has just launched tours in English, and it was a really cool way to get our holiday properly underway. There wasn't as much history as I expected, in fact the main palace building looked like a 1960s function hall, but the tour guide was full of enthusiasm and it was a nice serene setting compared to the adjacent high-rise district.

After lunch at the 'Kitchen Street' part of Tokyo Station (during which Mariko explained about putting our bags in the baskets under our seats, and how I should pay for things by putting money in the little tray) we went back to the Ueno Park area. There were lots of promotions for the panda exhibit at the zoo. We'd thought of checking out the museums but there was plenty happening outdoors - market areas, buskers, shrines, and the lakes. We wandered through the Ameyoko market and we saw a local matsuri (shrine festival/procession) taking place, and then another close to our hotel.

In the evening we took the train to Kawasaki (committing the sin of being a couple of minutes late, after getting a bit perplexed by the sheer number of lines at Ueno station) to meet some of Mariko's mum's side of the family; they shouted us to a wonderful dinner and it was great to meet everyone! We only had the briefest glimpse of the main street of Kawasaki, but it was quite spectacular with plenty of giant neon signs.

Sunday

We took the Ginza line and then walked through the fashionable Omotesando area, though it was a bit early for most of the shops to be open. We had a bit of a wander around Yoyogi Park and then met up with Yuki (that I knew from Wadaiko Rindo in Melbourne, she'd moved back to Tokyo a year ago), Michael and Yuzen, at the Bondi Cafe next door. It was terrific to catch up with them!

We next headed to Hamamatsucho to join the sumo tour, that the great folks at Japan Explorer had helped organise. There was quite a crowd - there were probably 10 or so group leaders, each with maybe 15 or so in their group. Our group was quite international, including a couple of British guys heading to Australia the next day, and a couple of ladies from Melbourne. We were given train tickets and taken as a group to Ryogoku station (I'm not sure why we didn't just meet there to begin with, perhaps there wasn't anywhere suitable for groups to meet). We had a quick tour of the museum, including seeing pictures of the grand champions over the decades - it was a little surprising to see a number of them prior to mid-20th century being quite lithe and athletic-looking. Our guide gave her own personal run-down of her favourite wrestlers that we would be seeing that afternoon, and would often come to explain details of what was happening, between bouts.

It was the opening day of the tournament and great to see the ceremonial aspects - unveiling of the pictures of the new champions, and a parade of the wrestlers, before the main bouts began. The bouts rarely lasted more than a few seconds, but there was quite an amount of showbiz around each one - ever-lengthening parades of sponsors flags, stretching and stomping, and numerous false starts. The atmosphere in the venue surprised me a little - I was expecting it to be serious and maybe a little austere, but it was actually very casual, with lots of schoolkids and family groups having a fun day out. The food and souvenirs were pretty good value too. The final winner performed a celebratory rope twirl, which seemed a bit strange.

On the way out it was raining quite a bit, and we got a little bit soaked heading back to the station. Once it had eased a bit and we'd dried off, we headed back near Ueno Station and found an Italian Seafood restaurant that we could get to without getting rained on too much. Very tasty!

It was nice to make an internet phone call to mum, who was on a river cruise in Europe, to wish her a Happy Mother's Day.

Tokyo, Nikko, Yokohama - August/September 2015

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Sunday 30th August

From Tokyo, Nikko, Yokohama - 2015

On the home straight of the trip, I didn't have any major plans - the next few days were a contingency for any logistical delays encountered during our ambitious visit to Hachijo-jima and Aogashima. However there were still a few interesting activities around Tokyo I'd been keen to check out. I started with a generous breakfast at a nearby cafe (still trying to bump up my weight back towards normal levels), and grabbed some extra snacks at a convenience store, incurring the wrath of the lady behind the counter by queuing in the wrong spot.

I took the train to Ueno, and then walked through some of the back street shopping areas towards Akihabara, grabbing some lunch on the way. It was a bit frustrating that many of the dining establishments offered free WiFi - but you had to be able to send an email to register to use it! I continued on and arrived at Akiba Fukurou, a cozy Owl Cafe. I hadn't booked but I was lucky that I arrived just before one of the session times and the queue wasn't too big and I was able to join in. The "Cafe" part of the name is a little aspirational; you are given a bottled water and that's it for refreshments, but I don't think anyone's there for a cappuccino! We were taken through owl etiquette ("keep hold of the cord on the owl's leg, otherwise- big owl, little owl, 'yummy'!") and then spent the rest of the session meeting our charming new buddies. I was introduced to a medium-sized owl called Negi ("Spring Onion" - a nice link to our Sado accommodation at Shukunegi), who posed for some pictures with me. The owls seemed pretty cool with the situation, and overall it was a lot of fun and social, albeit in a very quiet and calm atmosphere.

I grabbed a more substantial afternoon tea, perhaps starting to overload my system, and took the Chou line across town to Yoyogi for a quick look around the park. The last time I had visited I'd been amazed by all the activity, but today was a bit dreary so I wasn't expecting to see much happening... but I managed to run into a huge eisteddfod (I think?) called Super Yosakoi. There were lots of big groups of performers in very ornate and highly characatured costumes- miniature top hats pinned at severe angles, that sort of thing- but also fans, masks, kimonos, giant flags and so forth. There were two stages running performances, each of which was set to pumping J-Pop, and in the few minutes on stage, the many dozens in each teams would show off some highly dynamic choreography, costume changes and heaps of colour and movement, with grace and precision, despite the light rain. It was quite mesmerising! At first I thought they were all school groups, and some of the teams had lots of members that were in their mid-teens, but there also seemed to be a lot in their twenties and thirties as well. After watching several performances I did a quick lap around Yoyogi Park, and as expected it was very quiet; and then with Super Yosakoi finishing up, headed back to Yoyogi Station, partly to enjoy the surroundings, but mainly because I missed the entrance to Harajuku Station... I think I did that last time too!

I caught the train to Koenji, a few stations away, where a bunch of the tour buddies were meeting to watch the Awa Odori festival. There was a big crowd crammed in the narrow streets, and very helpful festival staff, but with only occasional trickles of WiFi available I gave up any hope of meeting up with the others. but it was fantastic to see the many groups of dancers and musicians. The tight spaces probably added to the intensity of the performances.

I then took the train back to Shibuya - there seemed to be some sort of performance happening in the main square (pentagon?) next to the station- it obviously was the day for it! Crossing back through the station I immediately took the wrong road, heading nearly south rather than east... all seemed fine to start with but after a few major blocks, things were not matching up with the screenshot of the map on my phone and I figured out my mistake. I took a punt on taking a shortcut through the backstreets which was quite educational - I really hadn't expected to see a fairly suburban enclave so close to major CBD-like areas. It was very quiet, and the streets were very twisted; I started to lose track of which way I was facing. I gave up trying to get anywhere meaningful on foot and found a concierge/security guard of an official-looking establishment; possibly an embassy, who was quite helpful despite having no common language. We figured it would be best for me to grab a taxi, and one appeared on cue. A few minutes later I arrived at Red Shoes (a trendy basement bar), and hoped I would still be in time to see a bit of Tomoki Sato's show. Tomoki had stayed at my place when performing at the 2014 Melbourne Ukulele Festival and I was looking forward to seeing him perform on home turf. I could see him in the crowd but the ticket guy said that he'd thought he'd just finished and I was a bit reluctant to pay nearly $50 to see a show if it was already over - on top of the taxi fare it'd make it a pretty expensive chat! After weighing up the options for a minute, I saw that Tomoki was about to start again so I paid up and squeezed through to the front to catch the final set. It was great to have a chat afterwards and meet his manager as well, and most importantly, to return his socks that he'd dropped in my car when I drove him to the airport after the Dandenong Ranges Ukulele Festival in May. It had been a bit of an ordeal to get there but very happy that the adventure had had a good outcome! On the train back there was a big crowd of people that, judging by their T-shirts, had just been to see the J-Soul Brothers. Incidentally it had been interesting to see that shirts with writing on them were quite the fashion throughout the areas I'd visited; the vast bulk were in English (usually with sensible phrases, but not always) with most of the remainder in French. There were often also big neighborhood information signs with a headline/title in English but all details in Japanese.

Monday

From Tokyo, Nikko, Yokohama - 2015

I'd had some provisional plans that had fallen through so I took the opportunity to squeeze a bit more value out of my JR Pass and take a day trip. I headed to Ueno Station and picked up a few brochures and set off for Nikko, a mountain town featuring lots of historic shrines and temples. I took the shinkansen to Utsunomiya, and found that I had an hour to wait for the connecting train; it looked like the late morning timeslot was very much off-peak in their timetable - oh well, early lunch at the shopping mall next door and a very quick look around the city. The Nikko train was kitted out with historical decor and it had a bit of a holiday feel to it. At Nikko station I joined the queue for information about what do in the few brief hours left, and the very helpful JR attendant efficiently guided us all to our best options in various languages with a big cheery smile on her face.

It was quite drizzly as I headed up the hill. The township seemed a bit like Warburton, nestled in a small valley with lots of souvenir and craft shops. I bought a ticket to cross the Shinkyo Bridge, which was quite nice but the grey weather left me feeling a bit underwhelmed. It probably wasn't helped by being quite worn out and creaky after a crazy few days. I crossed the river to the shrine precinct and started to get my bearings. I only had time for a good look at the Toshogu Shrine which had a number of intricately decorated temples and other buildings - a lot of which were dedicated to selling some incredibly tacky souvenirs. It was generally very nice but I didn't have much of an appreciation of the subtleties. A highlight was a demonstration of a 'sweet spot' in the Crying Dragon temple where the sound of a clap resonated for quite a few seconds; when the monk repeated the demonstrated a metre or two either side, the sound faded almost instantly.

I zigzagged through the neighborhood, past the museum and some other temples. There was a team of teenagers enthusiastically practicing Aikido in a large open hall. Heading back into town I was a little surprised to see some monkeys crossing the street via the overhead powerlines.

On my final Shinkansen journey of this trip, I ticked off another milestone - finishing the final episode of NHK World's Easy Japanese language app - it had been a great companion and highly useful during my trip. Joutatsu no kotsu! Back at the hotel I was just settling in to the quiet solitude of attending to a few emails when a perplexing call came through from reception asking me (a little accusingly) of whether I knew of where all the noise was coming from! I couldn't hear a thing...

Tuesday

From Tokyo, Nikko, Yokohama - 2015

After returning from Hachijo, many of the tour group had continued with other travels, meeting friends and so forth. Those of us in Tokyo had some ideas for activities but with reliable internet limited just to the hotel, I found it quite difficult to keep up with plans- I typically found out about gatherings a few hours after they'd occurred... next time perhaps I'll look at getting a local data SIM or perhaps WiFi might become more universal. I'd also tried to message a few of my Japanese contacts but they weren't available. However I was delighted to receive a message from Yuki, a ukulele friend that I'd met briefly at a couple of festivals; she'd returned home to Yokohama and was keen to meet up! I took the train through Tokyo peak hour and it was very crowded at times although not quite at the stage of people being crammed in. I alighted at Sakuragicho and had enough time for some quick souvenir shopping.

Yuki arrived and we set off into the rainy morning. It was fantastic to catch up and to revisit some of the places I'd passed three weeks earlier and explore further - coffee at the Red Brick Warehouse, lunch at Chinatown, and then to get our fortunes told at the Masobyu Chinese temple; apparently I need to be patient. We crossed through the Motomachi shopping area and figured out how to go upstairs from the subway station to get to the America Yama park that extended over the rooftop. We enjoyed the view from Harbour View Hill Park, and with Yuki becoming very popular with mosquitoes, we headed back to an exquisite cafe in Motomachi for a cake and coffee. It'd been a fantastic day - thanks Yuki! It had been great to get her perspectives on Japanese and English languages - she liked how in English, you get the sentiment early in the sentence (eg "I don't want another biscuit") where Japanese leaves you hanging until the end.

I headed back to Ikebukuro for the last time. Our accommodation from a couple of weeks prior was around the corner from Penguin Bar, which given my volunteer interests in Melbourne, I was keen to try. I had previously tried to dine or drink there without a reservation but had been not been allowed in - the Maitre d' had said that it was booked out even if it had looked like there was plenty of room. Regardless I thought I'd give it a final try; I had mentioned it to Yuki and she had booked for me. I was under strict instructions to arrive at 6pm sharp, and after the train journey of around 70 minutes and a dash to exit C6 (hundreds of metres through underground tunnels from the station) I made it with about 30 seconds to spare. There were three African penguins in the room and they were behind a big pane of glass with a pool just big enough to do a tumble turn in; so it wasn't nearly as interactive as the Fukurou, but all up it was kind of cool despite the passive-aggression of the wait staff. The food was actually quite nice - all slightly pricey but it was an interesting experience. There were only a handful of other diners, so it was about two-thirds empty.

I had a quick look around the shops to try to find some souvenirs & presents for all the birthdays I'd missed but couldn't really find much suitable amongst the huge range of shops in the area (but confirmed that I'd been one of the very last customers at a donut stall before they closed down... they were quite yummy!). I returned to the hotel in Minami-Senju to pick up my bags - it was quite close to the city (and very comfortable, a great price and friendly staff) but just far away to be a real pain to get there and back - a change of train, 5 minutes travel and 15 minutes' walk each way with a banged-up suitcase. At Minami-Senju station I faced a dilemma - I was following instructions to get to the airport via Tokyo station, requiring a little bit of backtracking, yet there was a train heading direct to Narita from the opposite platform... I decided to play it safe and stick to the original plan; but found that I had an interminable wait at Tokyo station, and it didn't have any trains to the airport anyway; at that time of evening they all stopped at Narita city nearby. (It looks like the other train would've taken around 75 minutes, but it took me probably around 2 hours.) There may have been fiddly public transport options to the hotel but by then I was getting pretty tired so I jumped in a taxi, figuring that the hotel was pretty close - it turns out it's only about 7km away but the fare was still around $35!

I checked in and calmness returned. Some of my tourmates had arrived earlier in the evening but they'd all headed to bed by the time I did a quick reconnaissance of the bars.

Wednesday

From Tokyo, Nikko, Yokohama - 2015

I'd scored a good deal booking the airport and made great use of the included buffet breakfast, as a last-ditched effort to get some weight back on. I was delighted to see a small souvenir shop at the hotel which sorted out my shopping needs and then jumped on the hotel bus for the short transfer - the hotel is only barely beyond the airport perimeter.

The new Terminal 3 has barely opened and there wasn't any signage about how to get there from where the bus dropped us off at Terminal 2, but a helpful airline employee pointed me in the right direction. Not wanting to bother with another bus, I set off on foot for the few hundred metres, somehow losing my booking printout in the process (though it was not required). I checked in - finally crossing paths with a couple of the others from our group; even though many of us had stayed in the same hotel the previous night we hadn't managed to meet up at breakfast or anything- I think I was less pessimistic about the time required to get to the airport so had slept in a tad longer. However, I didn't proceed through customs straight away as I was hoping to meet up with Nancy and Nic, my uke buddies and almost-neighbours from home, who were just flying in on the plane that I was to be returning on. I made a final call home for a birthday greeting - and then my phone started reporting all sorts of weird SIM errors - thankfully it had lasted to this point! Nancy and Nic dutifully appeared and it was great to swap a few quick travel stories and to exchange my remaining Yen for $AU. Then straight through the spartan terminal and various processing stages, to meet the rest of the group (Jenny P and Piers had new tattoos to show off) and find the plane had already opened for boarding. The pilot warned us that we had a long taxi ahead and this proved to be the case - it was around 20 or 25 minutes before we joined the queue of a dozen or so planes to take off. After that we enjoyed a very comfortable flight - it was only about 20% full so plenty of room to spread out, enjoy the views and do a bit of mingling with the other tourmates on board... though it wasn't quite the 'party flight' - we were all pretty worn out!

And then - home; it was great to have a fantastic welcome! Over the next few days I saw a bit more of Japan on the news as severe storms and flooding had hit some areas around Tokyo, in particular, Nikko; also I was also still getting updates from friends that were still over there.

Trip summary

Thanks to everyone involved with the trip, and shared the journey with me, either in person, behind-the-scenes or electronically... it was always nice to see Taiko Tour, Shome Shome, Earth Celebration or Aogashima Taiko shirts in a crowd. It was an amazing experience and will be hard to beat! Each day brought lots of new adventures and reminded me that there's so much interesting stuff happening when you just get out to explore - it was great to have a little bit of a digital detox as well, and find that the world continues quite nicely by itself without needing to follow the daily news media.

I'm keen to start thinking up my next big adventure but it'll be very hard to top this one! Meantime, for all my old and new friends from Singapore and Japan - you're very welcome in Melbourne, let me know when you're coming!