Japan Part 2: Final Destination ..and to summarise

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OK guys. You’ve made it this far. This is it. The last blog. Ten full days of my adventure remain…Just read a little more then you are done….Ready?…

(28/11/09) So after a nice time in lovely Kyoto I was back on the super duper fast train heading to Matsumoto (pronounced “Mat-zoo-motto“). The journey here took me through some mountains with quite a stunning scenery. There was some confusion over the train times so I had to wait around a bit and didn’t end up getting to Matsumoto until late afternoon, just in time to view they very impressive castle, but just late enough not to make the last entry. Despite it was sunny my first thought was “Ooh it’s a bit nippy”, but we were now in the Japanese Alps so this must be expected. There had been some confusion over my accommodation also (lots of confusing times today?) and my intended place was overbooked so I was put in a business hotel with my own room etc, so no bad thing. Much of the day was gone commuting here and other than a stroll around the (quite deserted) town, I just chilled. Seemed like a nice enough place though. In fact that evening I watched the Bill Murray film Lost in Translation, and it got me excited by my forthcoming visit to Tokyo, where the film is set (way better second time round, although not a lot actually happens).

(29/11/09) I was out by about 9am today (it is a Sunday) and jumped on a train past where I had been the previous day. This was followed by a public bus, and then I arrived at my destination. I had heard about a really good walk in the in hills between two old traditional towns via an old cobbled path that has been preserved. So I started in Magome (Mar-go-may) and it really was tourist central. As I walked through the herds of camera armed Japs I ascended to some great look outs. The morning started pretty sunning but by now it was a bit moody. I had expected that all these tourist would be doing the same 5mile hike as me to Tsumago (Sum-mar-go) but as soon as the tourist souvenir shops disappeared, so did the tourist. Soon I was on my own, and in the middle of no where. Felt like I was in the Into The Wild film (that don’t end good). I had a lame map and kept on following signs in Japanese, which might had said anything. Other than a few people coming the other direction, I hardly saw anyone else. I walked past a few farms, waterfalls and a few villages. In one of these villages a local old man saw me as I was having a rest (the first half is quite uphill) and gave me some tea, fruit and some biscuits in his old work shop which had a fire on the go (as in a fireplace rather than the place was ablaze). Lovely man. I continued my walk and ended up in Tsumago as planned. This place was again full of tourists, but a very nice oldie-woldy kind of feel. I had to wait ages for a bus to the train station, where I then waited some more for the train back to Matsumoto. I did the hike in about 2 hours, but the whole event took 8 hours of my day due to infrequent transport connections - finally the Japanese Rail system is not perfect. The walk was good, but I think I spent too much time getting there and back. Back in Matsumoto I got picked up by the people of my intended accommodation. They were lovely. Family run business and they were chatting to me for ages and seemed amazed at how I remembered all the names of where I have been in Japan. It was a traditional family run ryokan (inn), similar to the one I stayed in on my first night in Japan. For dinner I went to a recommended ramen (thick noodles in broth) restaurant and the door was literally less than 5ft high. In these ryokans you get a little table and a mattress on the floor and its really cool. You also get given a kimono…so there I was sitting at the table on my laptop wearing my kimono minding my own business, then I went to get up but somehow still had one foot on the kimono so I rolled over!!! Lucky the mattress was already on the floor….this would almost be acceptable behaviour for a non-kimono wearer but I did the exact same thing again a few hours after….d’oh!

(30/11/09) Another day of trains awaited me. I said goodbye to my lovely hosts and its was almost like leaving a relative you know you won’t see for a while - they took a picture of me, gave me some fruit for the journey and waved me off until we turned the corner…wow. My first train was less than an hour to Nagano. I had intended to visit the snow monkeys that live not too far from here, but again would had been a combination of trains and buses to see the cheeky chaps, so I knocked the snow monkeys on the head…metaphorically speaking of course… Instead I strolled around Nagano which was like most of the other medium sized cities I have visited. Not a lot to see other than another pesky shrine/temple thingy. I continued my journey to Nikko with a combination of Bullet trains and one that was the equivalent to the District line in London. When I stepped off the train in the late afternoon in Nikko I thought I had travelled in time and space - it was like Victorian England! The train station was really old school but I liked it. I got picked up by my hostel owners and they were almost carbon copies of the Matsumoto couple. They were so helpful and gracious and its overwhelming how nice people in this country are to me. Again it was another lovely traditional ryokan where I relaxed in the evening and drinking the non-stop tea (that actually tasted like cigarettes) that was being given to me.

(01/12/09) First day of Christmas advent, but I have no chocolate calender?..Not happy… It was a beautiful sunny morning and I had little time to explore Nikko (which is a north of Tokyo) as ahead of me I had about five hours of commuting to Mount Fuji (I mean the mountain is called Fuji, rather than I was off to mount a person called Fuji…just so I am clear..!). Nikko has plenty of things to see and a few days spent here could be really good as there is a national park and lakes to explore. Sadly all I could do was walk around some woods which had more of those shrine thingys. It was nice, and a different setting to previous ones I have seen. There was also a sea of 3ft high Japanese ladies, all were tiny..perhaps it was Tokyo’s Dwarf Club annual outing? I then strolled through the town, which is in a valley between some mountains and is obviously a nice place. In retrospect (which is a great thing to have), I have spent much of the last four days commuting on trains rather than seeing things. Today was the last of my (very worthwhile) 14 day Japan Rail pass so I was getting my monies worth by seeing as many places, rather than taking my time and exploring a few in more detail. Oh well.

(02/12/09) I was up fairly early and I decided to hire a bicycle from my hostel. The weather was just perfect. Barely a cloud in the blue blue sky. I was staying in a town called Kawaguchiko which has a massive lake of the same name, from which you can see the mighty Mount Fuji. Quite a sight…..Although at 3776metres high it is waaaay smaller than the likes of Everest, it is still pretty spectacular…Where Everest et al (bit of latin there, impressed?) is standing next to other tall mountains, Mt Fuji shoots out and towers over everything in a perfect snow topped cone. I was of course hoping to climb it but it was out of season by many months. I took a cable car up to a nearby smaller mountain to take in more views. Then I cycled a total of 30km around Kawaguchiko and Saiko lakes and had a really enjoyable day. Stunning area. Would love to come back here for a few days to climb and relax…In the evening I got a 2 hour bus ride to central Tokyo where I somehow managed to navigate my way round the subway map that looks like multicoloured spaghetti stuck to the wall… I checked into my final hostel and chatted to a few of the guests…Its not like Tokyo has the Statue of Liberty or the Eiffel Tower as sights to see, but I think it’s going to be a great place to people watch (not in a pervy way).

(03/12/09) So after being convinced by an Aussie guy called James the previous night, I was off to some festival some hours out of Tokyo. The weather was crap. Proper pissing it down. There were six of in total and first we headed to central Tokyo to the Shinjuku area and had a nose about the shops. Whilst walking past a window in a shop we were overjoyed by the camera, big screen and our faces all together. What made it better was somehow the big screen computerised putting a funky hat on you and would follow you about. Simple things please simple people. After some cheap but good food we were on a few trains until we got to a town called Chichibu. I think the gist of it was 2 mountains fell in love or something and blah blah then they have a festival… We ponced about the food stalls and got chatted to quite a few of the locals who were all lovely folk, and they even ended up buying us some hot sake… The festival parade then proceeded in front of us but I was pretty lame. To be honest the whole festival was really hampered by the dismal rain but we still all had much fun in the process.

(04/12/09) Some of you original blog readers might recall that in northern Thailand and Laos I kept in bumping into a Japanese guy called Yoichi?…Well maybe I didn’t put that in, but regardless, he was from Tokyo and had a day off so Aussie James and I met up with him. Funny guy. A popular place to visit in Tokyo is the Tsukiji fish market where people get there at 5:30am to witness the fast paced auction at full swing. Well, I am not as stupid as them, so I got up at a sensible time at met Yoichi there later in the morning. Japan is a huge fish (and whale) eater so this was a big and busy place. We visited a popular sashimi (raw fish, which is different to sushi which is raw fish on rice) place and had some amazing food. Octopus, fish roe to name a few. Its mad how easier it is to be a sashimi chef - just chuck a fish on a plate. Done. We strolled from here to the district of Ginza, which is described as Tokyo’s version of New York’s Fifth Avenue. I’ve never been there but it had plenty of fancy designer shops so I imagine 5th Ave is similar? We popped into the Sony building for a play on some of the forthcoming gadgets. We then strolled round an area around called Odaiba which is newish and has a big entertainment place where we played some weird game and then chilled on the artificial beach. It even had a small Statue of Liberty (what was I saying a few paragraphs ago?) The weather was very sunny today. In the evening our group of about 6 had doubled and other than two Australians, everyone was from a different country. So inspired by Bill Murray meeting a fitty in the film Lost in Translation, we headed to the New York Bar on the 52nd floor of the Park Hyatt Hotel. Bearing in mind it costs a few quid to go up an observation tower, I thought the cost of the drinks were pretty reasonable. The view was amazing and you can see the bright lights for miles, and also the Tokyo Tower (which is a replica, but 9metres taller than the Eiffel Tower). Afterwards, the United Nations Dozen as we now were, headed to the notorious party area of Roppongi which was pretty crazy. We partied hard until getting the most expensive taxi in history back to our hostel. Wicked night. I like Tokyo so far.

(05/12/09) Most people from our hostel nursed a hangover and I was in little mood to do anything exciting as the weather was dismal today. I did venture out to see the Senso-ji temple which I hoped would be the last I would ever see. I also had a butchers around the Ueno area which had lots of American style clothing outlets. In the evening everyone had recovered enough. Yoichi, me and some others got some food at a DIY kind of place. We then started some pretty cool drinking games with the folks from last night. As the Japanese invented karaoke I couldn’t come all this way without sampling their greatest export could I?.. It was slightly different to what I expected as although you hire a room out like in most places, everyone sits on the floor on cushions. I whacked out a few numbers and we had a fun couple of hours. James (who knows a bit of Japanese) even sung a local Jap pop song? The night was young so under the advice of my Japanese aid Yoichi we headed to a really bizarre club. In a nutshell, it was in a massive former school sports hall with 4 floors and even a swimming pool. We were only the only westerners there and it was packed to the rafters. Very impressive. This time it took TWO taxies to get back as the plonker dropped us off miles from our hostel. Oh well.

(06/12/09) So today is Sunday and James, German Maddie and I headed to Shibuya which has a famous crossing where every 3 minutes all havoc breaks out. The weather was nice (how on/off is the weather in Japan?) and we headed to a really nice park. It would help if you’ve seen the Gwen Steffani music video for Rich Girl but basically in it she has these crazy looking Japanese girls in it known as Harujuku girls. Every Sunday (its Sunday today remember) these teenagers dress up in weird gothic/cartoon like styles and just hang round a beautiful park. Also in the park were these rockabilly dancers who had all the leathers and slick hair and were just dancing around for fun. I liked this place a lot. Later in the evening I went out for some grub in a tempura restaurant before having a relatively early night.

(07/12/09) Well, its time to say: This is my last day of my travels. Blimey. That came round fast didn’t it? In the morning I met for breakfast with Yoichi who had been a great guide these last few days. Afterwards, James and I walked round the Imperial Palace, and when I say “round” I do mean “round” as the place is shut on Mondays. We then went back to walk round the Shinjuku area where we were the other day. We went to the Metropolitan Tower as it had a free observation deck around the 40th floor. The weather was perfect so as you can imagine, the view was really good and you can actually see mountains way back. Up the top a lady showed us some origami. I decided I wanted to revisit the Harujuku area where I was yesterday and hoped to do some shopping but these Japanese chaps are way cooler than me so I decided I couldn’t pull off any of these fashions. I headed back to the hostel via the electronics district, but I wasn’t looking to buy anything. For my final meal of my travels I went to a sushi train restaurant where you really don’t want to know what I ate. We then had a couple of beers in the smallest bar in the world.

(08/12/09) So, that’s that…time to check out and head back to UK. My flight was fine. It took me over the northern part of Russia and I liked the views. Within 20 minutes of landing, I was out of the airport greeted by my good friend Gareth who actually saw me off 10 and a half months ago. I decided to surprise my folks with my arrival. I gave the impression I would be back just a few days before Christmas, so they had the shock of their life as my brothers took them out for a meal and yours truly was casually sitting at the table and gave a bit of a wave. I have had some epic moments this year, and this was one of the. Was pretty emotional for all round but so good to see my lovely family….and have a nice roast dinner!! Somehow I managed to stay awake until late despite the jetlag (Japan was 9hrs ahead) setting in.

So that’s Japan, and my time travelling over. To start with Japan, it’s a great country. In my top few for sure. So much to see. The people are without any doubt the most friendly, polite and grateful of any I have met this year. Every city is so cool and the in between parts are beautiful. If I can think of a negative point it would be that there’s no bloody bins anywhere!! And its cheaper than the likes of Australia so you should not be put off from going…GO NOW!

Hard to summarise the whole year really. A lot has happened. I’ve been so many places. After an up and down 2008 this was exactly the ticket I needed. Without question the best year of my life. I have been lucky to meet so many brilliant people, some of which I may never see again, but plenty that I know I will for sure. I don’t plan to reread these 20 blogs until the depression of being back settles in (on the plane then!). Travelling is brilliant and I recommend it to anyone of any age. It’s easy. Get on a plane and go, the rest you can work out on your way. Some of you may feel that I’ve been on a long holiday but you couldn’t be further from the truth. I’ve spent a small percentage of my time on beaches but a lot of it has been getting up at silly o’clock and hiking around cities or mountains or similar. Living out of a backpack and sleeping in a different bed each night made me think I was a tortoise at times. But I can live with that. Although there’s some places I wouldn’t visit again, I have no regrets at all. I don’t like to think my travelling days are behind me forever as the thought of South America does sound quite exciting, but that may have to wait until a win on the lottery.

Thank you for reading.

The End.

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Photos

Tokyo Subway map
No idea whats going on..

Oragami
I made that!

Comments

[anonymous]

was it really 20 blogs?! wow, enjoyed them all , with accompanying stories and pix, and im sure a few stories 'too rude for tv' to hear about aswell!