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Published: September 30th 2008
Iya Valley
Quick view of the valley from my car.WOOOOOOOOOkaaayyy... where oh where to begin. First off a warning, this post is huge as the day was probably the most remarkable day I've ever had here in Japan. Most of the pics of Iya itself is in the next post which I'll make tomorrow, it's getting far too late here.
I guess last night would be a good start, well, the night before I left here since people probably won't read this for a few days, not exactly a lot of Internet cafe's here in the middle of nowhere. I had no luck sleeping last night... think I finally did about 2:30am. Kept playing over what I would do in the morning, the drive, the possible issues i could run into, everything. Which really messed me up for the actual day. I slept in (a bit) and got to the car rental agency about 30 minutes late. I think subconsciously I was hoping something would prevent me from driving. NO LUCK! The car was there, they were quite helpful, and after a 10 second walk through of the GPS sent me off. I did what I learned to do, program in the phone number of the destination (street addresses
Osaka
The Umeda Building on the train ride over, interesting architecture are laughably bad here) and was off!
Driving on the wrong side was challenging. The first time i had to do a left turn without someone in front of me involved a lot of concentration to make sure I ended up on the right (left!) side. I kept turning on my windshield wipers instead of the signal lights, but other then that, wasn't too bad actually. drivers here are ok.. except for mopeds, those guys are psycho. Everyone speeds too. Like 20km over the speed limit means everyone passes you. Quickly.
Thats when things began to fall apart, rapidly. Upon reaching the express way, the GPS told me to take the "ETC" toll booth (toll booths are everywhere here). That was a mistake.. ETC means cars that have a special device to let them go right through... which of course I didn't have. Thankfully Japanese people are quite nice and the attendant helped me out, I'm sure swearing at me under his breath, but that's fair I figure.
I also learned an important lesson. Never trust your GPS blindly. I realized something MIGHT be wrong when I went over a bridge. A BIG bridge, over a LOT
Himeji-jo
The castle at Himeji, a VERY impressive castle. of water. Like, say, now leaving Shikoku Island welcome back to Honshu Island kinda big. oh and Kobe, which I KNOW is on the Honshu Island, was apparently 40km away. That's precisely in the OPPOSITE direction I should have been going. I still don't know why but that phone number for the Hotel I'm at apparently matches somewhere on Honshu. Yay Japan.
Did I mention the road system yet? In that once your going one way it's VERY hard to turn around? Basically I went through about 4 toll booths more then I had to had I been going the right way, and, get this, spent over $60 in tolls. total distance traveled? About 150km. OUCH. I figured out to program in another location I knew was sorta close to the hotel, and verified this time it was actually pointing in the right direction, and was off again.
Now at this point I was pretty much stressed to the max. I also realized that if the tolls continued like this, I'd be running out of cash very rapidly, especially since this place i'm at is about $500 alone, plus gas... so I figured I'd head back to where
Shinkansen Train
Another pic of a Shinkansen Train. I spent the previous night, it's directly on the way I needed to go anyways. So about 3 hours later, around noon, I was back at step 0.
Parked the car in a parkade (SCARY tiny) grabbed some food took out some cash and set off. This time it went a lot better, at least initially. Expressways are like Interstates in the states, except a lot smaller. One direction either way, and you can't pass cept for passing zones, Oh sure there are signs saying not to pass everywhere, but I think the brick like blocks and the 3 foot tall bendy pylons sitting between the two directions was a pretty strong encouragement to not sway off the road at all.
About 20km from my destination things got very interesting. Route 32 which I was then on is on the side of the mountain, with breathtaking views which I got a glance at but was too freaked to actually take my eyes off the road for even a second. Basically my train of thought was "don't die don't die don't die OOO PRETTY don't die don't die don't die" Winding doesn't begin to describe it, not aware of
Marine Liner Double Decker
The Double Decker first class train i was on.. not too shabby! any roads like it even in the Rockies. Just beautiful, but it gets a lot better further up apparently, which I hope to find tomorrow.
Anyways after getting directions from a travel agency I finally made it here to Hikyonoyu Hotel. What can I say about the place other then "IM NOT WORTHY". There's a reason this place is over $200 a night. And Hotel is a misnomer, this ain't not standard hotel.
See there's two kinds of Ryokans. There's the one's I stay at, they're like staying at your Japanese aunt and uncles spot who are stuck in the early 20th century. Then there's one's like here, which are more catering to REALLY RICH PEOPLE. I'm in the third building, to get to my room I have to go up to the 6th floor, then take a walkway over to my building, then go from that main floor to my 6th floor. Through hall ways with classic lamps and fancy stones lining the edges of the floors. To get to the Onsen baths I have to take 3 elevators. The room is... wow. Behind me are stones laid out, when I got here there was no bed,
Twin Peaks
These small mountains were perfectly shaped cones, kinda odd. at all... they made it for me while I was having supper, and will probably put it away tomorrow while I have breakfast. In Japan staff are to be neither seen nor heard. There's three areas to the room, the entry way which also has the bathroom and toilet room, the main room with tatami mats, and a sitting room. most Ryokans you have a small area to put your slippers and a small tatamai room. This was down right palatial.
Speaking of dinner remember that fancy Japanese dinner I had a few nights back? Ya that was pretty basic. This was the real deal. There was sushi - with the unused part of the fish from it laid out like art, plum wine, sashimi green tea, tempura, and more stuff I don't even know what it was. In total about 15 dishes including two hot plates. I've never eaten cooked fish that was... well.. the entire fish.. before. I can honestly say I've experienced the most amazing Japanese dinner I will probably ever have for the rest of my life. Well not including tomorrow nights dinner here. If a Geisha walked in and started playing some musical instrument
ENGRISH
"Your seat should only be as wide as your bottom" "Cigarette smoke is wider than a human body" "It's painful in running to the closing doors. Also in the eyes of those looking at you." it would not have seemed out of place. Breakfast is also included, not too sure how that's going to go over.
These extreme high end Ryokans aren't all comfort though. There's NO internet here, whatsoever. There's also no laundry service of ANY kind, which is a problem since I'm long out of clean clothes. And of course THIS time I didn't bring a travel laundry kit. I made do with the sink and what i had on hand, should last until I return to civilization in a couple of days.
I finished up the evening soaking in an outdoor onsen (hot bath). Again it was beyond anything I've experienced before, huge hot pools indoors and a wonderful outdoor onsen. Now that was relaxing. They also have these high pressure showers afterwards that have about a dozen tiny jets that spray at you from every conceivable angle. Intriguing.
I'm REALLY glad I didn't go here last time though.. I don't think I would have gone through with all of this. It's taken me far, FAR, out of any semblance of a comfort zone I'm in. I'll be glad once this bits over, but also sad since I probably
Ready for Bed
My room at Iya Valley wont' experience anything like this again. Ever.
Totally random thought but I've also noticed at least a dozen people in Japan so far with eye patches... not like pirate ones, but medical ones. Now I might see one or two people a month in Canada with them, but one or two a day? Seems like an awful lot. Just rather odd I thought.
Ok that's it for that day.
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