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Published: September 23rd 2008
Train Station in Tokyo
Eh, What train did she say to take??Well we arrived in Japan after a long flight (during which I downed three quarters of a bottle of wine and bawled me eyes out a the Extras Christmas special- I don’t even watch Extras ) I was really nervous about Japan incase it would be really difficult to get by in our day by day tasks and was kind of crapping it about getting the train, food and even finding the loo. After getting my photo taken and submitting fingerprints (if they wanted a photo they could have just asked instead of having to go through the charade of pretending they had to take it for “national security”) we grabbed the bags and from then on it was sink or swim. We had to try and figure out how to validate our rail passes and make our way to Kyoto from Tokyo. Went to the Tourist Information Centre at the airport and was ready with my actions and train sounds and the girl behind the desk spoke fluent English- SCORE. Obviously that was a one off next problem getting tickets booked to Kyoto- went down to the ticket office and ..eh… the girl there booked us reserved seats for the
2 trains that would take us all the way to Kyoto. I was kind of thinking of relaxing but I couldn’t - surely this was a fluke….I mean it couldn’t be this easy to get by in Japan could it? All the reading up that we had both done on Japan made it sound as if it was really difficult to get by here and we were expecting a bit of a ‘mare.
Once we got the train from the airport to Tokyo we had to get some food cause we had another 2 hour train journey ahead. This is where it would all go to pot…I had visions of wrestling with a live octopus with me right hand and holding soy sauce and me chopsticks in the left hand. All of the signs in the shops were in Japanese (with us being in Japan and all a tha’) but I had watched a programme on Japan on the flight on the way over and the presenter on that got a Bento Box in the train station so we decided to try and get one of those and hope we didn’t pick one with eel or some other slimy
Bento Box
Wha the F%^^% is Tha????? fish. Some of the boxes had little pictures on them so we picked one with what looked like chicken and hoped for the best. We had also been led to believe that prices were extortionate in Japan so I was expecting of these to be around E20 - the bento box was E4. Well I don’t have to tell you that I was feeling like the biggest Michael Palin ever and Gary was off acting like Bill Bryson all over the shop. Now to board the Shinkansen to Kyoto…it looked like a space age train when it came up the track and each door stopped on the corresponding number on the platform. Amazing- the train was spotless and went at a speed of around 200 miles per hour.
We said we’d have a stab at opening the box and seeing what was inside and yup you’ve guessed it- it was the job!! We scoffed it between us and were both delighted with life.
Got to our accommodation and we had to take off our shoes and wear special slippers for inside and outside and all that Jazz….the room was cool and had an en suite. Went to the
loo ( I know you think I am going into way too much detail here but bear with me) and something really strange happened … the bloody seat was heating up. Jaysus I was in a BMW 6 series for a minute!! (Carrie your little nephew would have loved it) on the side was 3 little buttons for washing your bum but to be honest the heated seat was enough for me.
I still hadn’t accepted that Japan was all of that and a bag of chips….I just knew that when we went to dinner the octopus wrestling match would resume and that we would be charged E100 for the pleasure. Off we went to a ramen house for dinner (heard of a greasy spoon?- well Gary described this as a greasy chopstick while in full Bryson mode) When you walk into a restaurant over here everyone in the place has to shout “Welcome” or some sort of Japanese greeting at you - well I thought we were in the shit when we opened the door and behind it was a rake of Japanese shouting at us. I nearly turned and ran but I didn’t for a number of
reasons:
(1) it was raining outside
(2) I was marvin’
(3)there was no sign of any ninja’s and
(4) I did do kickboxing for 2 months with Bily Womble so I’d be well able for them anyway.
We ordered 2 bowls of pork Ramen and it was delicious. AND the 2 dinners came to around E8. We were in love with Japan at this stage and hadn’t even seen a temple. Even the beer was cheaper than NZ or OZ - Gary was beside himself especially when he found out he could smoke in bars and the like.
I was just so impressed already- straight away once we got off of the plane we knew we were in another country with another language, alphabet, cuisine and even race of people with a whole new set of customs and culture. We had traveled in English speaking countries since we left Ireland and the cultures were really almost identical to ours so this really was a welcome change of tempo. We were just saying that the people here eat sushi, dress Japanese, and use their customs in daily life not like in Australia or new Zealand where the cultures of the
indigenous people are very much alive but you have to go to a museum to see them and hear about bush tucker and all of that- over here they live it and you don’t have to go to a museum to look out the differences in culture.
That was day one taken care of - up for brekkie the next morning which was an excellent buffet in the Zen café beside the hostel and it was E4 each for all you can eat excellent food and coffee. We really didn’t have much of a plan for Kyoto hatched. Gary asked a really nice English bloke for a hand and we had a plan….we went to see Nijo Temple that was built by a shogun. We couldn’t take photos of the inside but it was really really beautiful and the style was fabulous. I won’t bore you any more details but you can see the pics below.
We were trying to figure out a bus to get and a really strange thing happened- a little old Japanese man who must have been about 100 years old came up and asked us if we were ok and if we needed
any help in broken English and helped us out as much as he could….it was the first time that had happened and it didn’t stop there. When we got off the bus at the other end we were just looking at a map and an American girl came up and helped us to find the Heian Shrine….again amazingly beautiful with gorgeous gardens.
We were starting to get a bit puckish so headed for downtown Kyoto and Gion. Well we were in our element..it was soo beautiful. We decided to take a chance and get some unknown food form a street vendor (Japan is spotless and loads of Japanese were eating there). It was something called Takoyaki. Looked it up in the lonely planet and couldn’t see any translation but we decided to go for it anyway cause it looked really nice and was only E4. It was the job. I took down the name to look up when we got back to the hostel.
After a bit of food we went walking around and found the most beautiful street and we even saw a geisha which apparently is rare enough. Could this GET any better???
Headed back
for the hostel absolutely flogged out and I had to have a bit of a snooze after all of the excitement. Out and about a half hour later and we went to a gorgeous traditional Japanese restaurant - Gary got a set meal for like E8 and you can see what he got. It was delicious and again of the usual shouting hello goodbye and all of that.
On the way back to our hostel there was a little shack with lanterns outside that said it served sake and beer. Gary was dying to go in so we ventured into the unknown- I was expecting a really bright room with a loads of local Japanese men drinking sake and for it to be a really weird experience but when we opened the door there was a really dark room with a counter an older Japanese lady behind the counter. There were 6 seats around the bar with another 2 people having a drink and chatting to the landlady. We ordered 2 beers and it was feckin deadly. It was really dimly lit and even had an old dusty Karaoke machine with posters of random Japanese stars on the walls.
Gardens In the Hei An Shrine
Recognise this from Lost In Translation?? There was even a stove with pots and pans and she gave us little sweets and rice cakes to have with the beer.
What a day……….
Up and at em the nest day and we went to the Ryoan Ji gardens. I don’t know if you have ever heard of them but I had watched a programme on TV about it and it didn’t disappoint. At the end of the day its just 15 rocks laid out in a certain way in a barren landscape(you can only see 14 from any angle) but I absolutely loved it. I couldn’t believe that we were there after seeing it on TV and it really was the way I expected it to be.
Then we went to a big golden pagoda with loads more shrines and it was pretty amazing too but the place was jammers so we were kind of starting to get a bit weary of it all. One of the little shrines have two bowl and everyone was trying to throw coins into it and Gar throne a coin in and it went into one bowl bounced of something in that and landed in the other
The Chobofuku Vendor
The scene of the Crime bowl so he is CONVINCED he is the special one now!! I told him of course he is lucky -he’s with me isn’t he??
We stayed in more of a traditional ryokan that night and got a room for 3 people instead of 4 and slept on the tatami mat floor. Had free Wi Fi so I looked up Takoyaki- what we had bought from the stall the day before- Octopus balls!! I knew there would be an Octopus somewhere!! For dinner we went to an Okonomiyaki where the chef was like an artist. Basically you can order anything that you like and he cooks all the dishes in front to of you on a big hotplate. We ended up in the restaurant all night with the guys that worked there and a local and they started buying us beer as a “present”. Left the bar kind of squiffy and again amazed at the friendliness of the Japanese.
We booked into a free tour of the Imperial Palace the next day which was cool and then went to a shrine that Gary just happened to read about in the lonely planet as a by the way. It was
amazing - we couldn’t take any pics but there were around 10000 gold statues surrounding a giant Budda- unbelievable. We got 2 little trinkets that you pick at random on the way out and mine represented a long life with good fortune and Gary’s one?….fertility….
We took a day trip to Nara the next day and saw the longest wooden building in Japan, the largest Gold Buddha(unbelievable) and the largest bell. We were all templed out by this stage so because we knew we would be leaving Kyoto the next day we headed back in to see Bamboo groves just outside Kyoto which were pretty cool. Back at the Ryokan we went to the little common area for some free sake and chatted so a whole bunch of other travelers until we could take it no more and headed back to our little friends in the Okonomiyaki to say goodbye.
Decided to head for Mt Fuji the next day but all didn’t go according to plan and once we got off the train realized we would have to catch a bus for 3 hours( it was 2.30 by this stage) and we wouldn’t even be guaranteed a view
The Geisha..My fave Photo
Even the Japanese are surprised to see her..deadly of the mountain as it was quite cloudy. Our rail passes ran out the next day so we just had to make the decision to head for Tokyo a day early with no accommodation booked.
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Carrie Power
Can we call you Octopussy now?!?
Wow...your pictures are stunning! I saw the first pic and thought of Blade Runner...and then I read the caption! I can't believe how much yer doing!It sounds like yer having an absolute ball! I sooo want to go to Japan now after reading all your cool stories! I look forward to the next installment!