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Published: November 7th 2008
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Comeback of the Kimono
8th Century clothing, we have seen quite a few ladies wearing Traditional Clothing Konnichiwa from Japan!
Docked into a new world or that's how it feels being in Japan so far. We almost don't want to go into too much detail we think everyone should come and experience this country for themselves and part of the excitement is experiencing everything that's different. However, for those who will not be visiting in the near future here is some more info (skip to next paragraph if planning a future trip!). Everywhere is spotlessly clean and we mean clean, they have the shiniest fire engines, lorries and white vans ever to be seen; people are courteous and polite even when getting on/off the metro, everyone waits until the last person has stepped off before getting on and queues merge in an orderly manner when boarding; any techno geeks would love it here, where whole department stores are dedicated to electrical goods, not any old department store but 7 storey's devoted to electrical gadgets; the fully automated multi stacking car parks including rotating turntable to save on any unnecessary reversing on departure and not forgetting Kirstin's first experience of a heated toilet seat and flushing sounds to cover up any embarrassing noises, which can be a little
Still Smiling
This time in a giant red pumpkin, well I never! off-putting!
Arrived into Osaka where we felt at home straight away, as soon as we got the guidebook out someone would appear giving us help and pointing us in the right direction; we were taken under the wing of a Tokyo businessman on one of our metro trips, he made sure he took us to the door of where we were going and then handed us his business card telling us to call him if we needed anything in Tokyo. The friendliness of the people in Osaka has been overwhelming, the Osakan's have a reputation for their friendliness, it was a great place to start out in Japan.
Culinary delights
Once again the language is a bit of a barrier, not as bad as China, but still not easy, we have tried the typical English method of communicating, by s-p-e-a-k-i-n-g v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y and opening your mouth wide as if talking to a Hump-Back Whale and hoping to get a response like, "Oh, now I understand you". Until then we are sticking to the guidebook pointing with a bit of “Give us a clue” thrown in. Luckily, some restaurants have plastic food models in the window, so we only
need to point at them but we still add “I w-o-u-l-d l-i-k-e t-h-i-s o-n-e p-l-e-a-s-e" as if it makes our choice any clearer! Who would of thought Rob the Chef would be choosing a restaurant by the best plastic food displays!
We were both in agreement that Thai food is up there on the list of favorite world food, that was before Japan. There is not a street you go down where the waft of some delicious smelling food is the constant cause of salivation. There is so much more to Japanese food than Sushi, there are lots of local delicacies including Tayoyaki - octopus in balls of batter, Okonomiyaki - savory pancakes (for anyone in London wanting to sample this delight, there is a great restaurant that serves it in Museum St - it comes highly recommended), a lunchtime fave snack is rice with omelette type egg on top with breaded pork. Can't wait to try the rest of the culinary delights that Japan has in store for us.
Sightseeing
Our main sights so far have been some amazing castles including Himeji-jo where some of The Last Samurai was filmed; the films only saving grace
- so says our in-house film critic Robert Norman.
Visits to several temples, one which will be particularly ingrained for years to come is the Ishite-Ji Temple. Like a Bubble Buddha nightmare, it was as if the guy who was in charge of design turned up late for the free Temple icon hand-out and was left with two hundred sexual Buddhist symbols, ten thousand mini Buddha's dressed in woolly hats and bibs, one looming statue for hillside use and a long string of flashing fairy lights, mix them all together, put them underground (not the looming one) and you have a esoteric rave with incense! WEIRD!
Given that many Japanese buildings require shoes to be removed upon entering we suggest wearing socks with no holes you never know when you might have to take your shoes off and carry them in a plastic bag; and always carry a foot spray, they do not provide deodorizers for travelers that only have 3 pairs of socks and have been wearing the same shoes everyday for 2 months!
Some of the MOST stunning gardens we have ever seen, partly due to being here in Autumn, the Japanese Maple trees are
The best food in town
Found some great places to eat down this street starting to turn red and gold, it really is beautiful. Our disclaimer for the excessive amount of tree and leaf shots is that it's Autumn.
The rail travel theme has continued in Japan where trains leave absolutely on the dot, one second late to the station and you'll be seeing the back of it. From Osaka we went on to Kobe then took the ferry to Shikoku island, staying in Takamatsu, Matsayama and Kumamoto. Being the conscientious traveler's we are we went for the cheapest rail ticket from Takamatsu to Matsayama, thinking it would be an inter-city train but instead boarded a two carriage metro train with no toilet that took five hours. In true Japanese style it ran on time, leaving us to count down the seconds until arrival and the welcome sight of a toilet!
From Takamatsu we took the ferry to the tiny island of Nao-Shima; what was once an island with a declining fishing economy has had its fortunes turned around by the arrival of modern art, there are three galleries; we visited one, the building was worth the visit alone and some great installations and as ever with modern art some old cr*p
thrown in for good measure! The island is a beautiful backdrop with some lovely beaches.
From Kumamoto we took a day trip to Aso, a city that sits in a huge caldera, (a massive flat area surrounded by mountains that is the result of a volcano collapsing), it looks like a huge cauldron and we mean huge, it has a circumference of 126km's. The main reason for our visit was Mount Aso; one of the largest active volcano's in the world; approaching the volcano rim the first thing you get is a pungent smell of sulphur, within two minutes of arriving we were evacuated coughing and spluttering due to the high levels of sulphur fumes. Once the wind changed direction we were able to head back; who would have thought that watching toxic sulphorous gases could be such an amazing sight, luckily we were mesmerised and continued gawping long enough to see the bubbling green sulphur lake below. Truly one of natures great wonders! We ended with a 17km hike back to town, one minute passing through moonscapes the next lush Autumnal vegetation and loved every minute.
That's why we're turning Japanese, we think we're turning Japanese, we
really think so!!!
until next time SAYONARA
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Hello Kiro...
I'm as captivated with your travel journals as I am with Mummy Jean's antics in the min-min!! Kirst - have you explained the delights of a FS to Rob yet??!! (See if you can work that one out!!!)