Wandering Scotsman

I feel I can leave Japan quite happily anytime from now.  Not that I feel I’ve seen enough of it, but I’m just over the moon that I saw the snow monkeys I really wanted to see here.  Small things maybe I know, but they really are as human like they say.  The pictures will speak for themselves.  You could easily see them get annoyed, jealous, help pick thingsout of each others hair, argue and more.

I guess I was very lucky to see lots of juvenile monkeys there too.  I never got to bathe with them like I thought you could, but then I never went to the onsen next to it either (which I’m kicking myself for now a bit, but it was still fantastic).  Highly recommended.

I was going to head back to Tokyo tomorrow and dump my rucksack but I’m heading up to the Soba museum, and maybe doing a big hike, but realistically I won’t have time to come back down the same day.  I’m not sure where I’ll head tomorrow night but I’ve pretty much decided after another day or so in Nagano I’m going to head back to Tokyo and leave half my stuff in left luggage and take the hit of £50 or so for ten days, and ease the pain of lugging it around.  I’m then going to head over to Kyoto.  If I’m back too late tomorrow I’m going to get my first overnight room in the internet cafe I’m in just now – 6 hours for around £8 UKP if you come in late and leave early, then I’ll jump on the shinkansent to Tokyo, then onto Kyoto.  Oh the joys of a Japan Rail Pass.  You could feasibly come up to Nagano just to buy some souvenirs for the day if you wanted to.

Anyway, I’m waffling, check these pictures out, and far more in my snow monkey gallery.  All together now….. Aawwwwwwwwwww  (I did)

If you are sitting in the office you can check them on the monkey park webcam if you get the right time.

Last night I decided I was going to head from Tokyo as long as I got accommodation booked which I did, so off it was at the last minute to get the shinkansen to Nagano.

Like every other transport I’ve done so far (I stress so far!) it was pretty plain sailing.  I never required a ticket for this train (as marked on the JR timetable) but I went along a few minutes before the train just to check as it was the first time I used my pass.  Due to the location of my accommodation I never even had to pay for a metro today, and I decided to catch it from Ueno station rather than trudging through the main Tokyo station.

As soon as I was on my way from the hostel it felt great to be leaving the city.  As exciting as Tokyo is, it can be a bit of a pain in the arse even finding a building sometimes (e.g. main Tourist Information office tucked away on the 10th floor)

The train signs can be a bit daunting at first though……..

….but if you wait around a minute or so they’ll get a bit easier :

Just incase you are reading this and about to head to Japan, the train name is also shown for Shinkansen lines (and maybe others) as well as the destination, so take a note of both of them although if you know the time of departure that should be enough to.  And yes, you could set your watch by them.  Some trains have reserved and unreserved carriages, but you even know where to stand for your carriage in Tokyo – yes that’s the number on the right above!

About forty minutes into the journey I saw snow on the distant peaks and passed my first ski slope, although there was no snow there of course.  A great feeling to be out and about.  I popped my overweight rucksack into the coin lockers in Nagano then headed to the superb helpful information office in the station. I decided to get a later train to Yudanaka and headed to the Zenkoji shrine in town.

 They apparently have the first Buddhist image to arrive in Japan (in 552!) here.  You can also get the closest you’ll ever get to the image by paying 500 Yen, and walk through a pitch black wooden tunnel  for 20 metres or so, groping the wall on the right until you feel something metal -the ‘key to paradise’.

I never go the spiritual awakening as mentioned in the leaflet, however (no disrespect  intended) feel a bit entertained by walking through a pitch black tunnel groping along the wall and not being able to laugh about it to anyone, or at least not in an understandable way, as I was definitely the only gaijin (foreigner) around.

Off it was to Yudanaka, luckily realising I had a train change on the way.  I got there knowing I would pretty much be the only visitor in town.  It’s midweek.  It’s off season.  I’m the only person staying in the ryokan.   Luckily the extremely helpful English speaking owner gave me plenty pointers to go with the information and bus / train timetables from the tourist office.  I guess I better milk this English help while I can!

Off for my dinner it was, unfortunately missing the hand made soba (noodle) restaurant as he had obviously finished his lot for the day.  These noodles are a speciality of the area, and I may try my hand at making them if I spend a while around the area.  It was amazing seeing them hand cut them in a Nagano restaurant window today.  Again I was the only person in the restaurant.

Seeing Yudanaka like this, it’s hard to imagine it as the centrepoint for the 1998 Winter Olympics.  The snowboard park is just along the road (despite the winter trail map saying it is still full of skiing only areas!), and the downhill ski route about 30 minutes away.

I was out of the city into more of the ‘real’ Japan, however it may get more ‘real’ as I go on depending what route I take.

As if to cement my decision to get to the countryside I was treated by one of the reddest sunset skies I’ve ever seen, although the pictures don’t show it justice.  I look out to a mountain view (through the electricity cables of course).  I headed back and donned my ‘yukata’ (light kimono) laid out for me in my private room (private hostel tonight!) and headed down to soak in the onsen in my birthday suit.

Anyway, I should stop writing such large blog entries – I should be reading guidebooks and leaflets and planning my route a bit.

Almost everything in Japan deserves a photograph of some kind as it’s just so different. Sometimes it’s not that different to other parts of Asia, then some of the traditions, food or language come into play.  Whether all this is a good thing for travelling solo or not I’m still trying to get my mind round!?!?!  Here’s a round up of some of the food so far….  I’ve still to find the Tamagochi restuarants….I mean Yakatori bars…but if you know what a Tamagochi is I wouldn’t be too surprised to see them eating them somewhere!

You can’t really get dehydrated too easily around the parts of Japan I’ve been to yet.  There appears to be vending machines for drinks all over the place. Unfortunately the coffee that comes out of most of them are cold, but here’s a sample of the drinks on order.  Beer is available too.

Just incase you aren’t sure what part of the animal you are ordering, sometimes you can get a useful guide :

At some of the food stalls at the Sanja Matsuri festival it was quite difficult to work out what was being sold.  Some were a bit more obvious though :

Anyone for octopus (above) or freshly barbequed fish?

For cheapo food, especially if you are away to board a train, there is always the bento box.  I had my first one today on the train from Nagano to Yudanaka, and it was surprisingly tasty.  A snip at 500 Yen (roughly £2.50 UKP).

I had my second sit down meal on my own today.  Yesterday I was able just to point at a picture on the menu at a place close to the hostel, but today I had to be a more creative.  Despite having the English name for them next to it I’m still getting up to speed (yes, it had the name in English, but not what it was). 

Local menu next to the Lonely Planet’s food pages.

I’ve had my fair share of Japanese tea tonight in my ryokan, but they always have cheesy wee phrases in English on everything here.  It almost puts you off as you almost start laughing.  This was on the side of the insulated flask :

Of course you can get a few of the snacks you get elsewhere in the world (although I’ve noticed a distinct lack of chocolate in the grocery shops).  Here’s a kitkat I just had to try tonight.  I recognised the taste, but I can’t think what it was, but I know I’ll be going back to the normal chocolate version next.

I’m sure I’ve got a lot more learning to come my way over the next few weeks.

Here’s some more snaps from the festival parade I went along to at the weekend.

Nightime in Asakusa.  This is a very historical part of Tokyo so if you keep your head down you can almost feel like you are out of the city for a couple of minutes.

Getting the munchies.  

They start them early with technology here and look how they end up!

After initial disappointment with places looking full I managed to get the Youth Hostel owner to speak to a place just outside Nagano which luckily had a room for me.  Nagano held the 1998 winter olympics but I’m off a bit further outside the city in the hope of finding snow monkeys to share my onsen with at Yudanaka.  I’ve booked into a traditional ryokan called Uotoshoi Ryokan in Yudanaka.  At £18.50 UKP a night it’s not that bad for Japan 🙂

Have a look at the Jogokudani Yaen-koen Wild Monkey Park – there’s also a webcam!

When I was in the aiport in NZ I made contact with a couchsurfer in Tokyo and loosely arranged to hook up with her and her fellow English teachers on my first afternoon.

 This weekend was also the Sanja Matsuri in Asakusa.  I went for a wonder around the area waiting for the international mob of English teachers – Canadian (my couchsurfing contact), English, American, Welsh – all fresh off the plane by two weeks.  Just before they arrived I was interviewed on the street corner for a Japanese TV show asking what I thought about Japanese food.  Needless to say I couldn’t comment much as I had just arrived, and hadn’t really plucked up the bottle to order much yet. 

(Pictures : Sanja Matsuri festival)

The group then spent the afternoon milling around the area and generally having a laugh at the festival, joining in as much as we could, and had a few beers along the way.  We also looked at lots of things wondering what they were about, with noone around to ask. (Picture : Liz wandering how long it would take us to match the Japanese on the chopstick with the trays displayed)  To be honest, despite being around the festival for several hours I still don’t really know what it’s about apart from loads of different groups carrying around temple shrines on their shoulders, chanting some Japanese mantra, and men walking around in no ‘pants’.  Despite this description coming from a Canadian (so it  was trousers), many of them really did look like they were wearing no pants, as the pictures will show.

It didn’t take long for Liz to buy myself and another guy some Octopus balls (no, not their actual balls, but octopus in a batter with some sauces) – see the pictures below.  All kinds of food was on display.  We pretty much munched throughout the afternoon – my only snack for breakfast was a ‘chocco  banana’ which looked pretty fallic when there were loads of them lined up.

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Needless to say the beers kept flowing and as we ate and drank outside we quickly became the tourist attractions with Japanese coming over to take our pictures all the time.  An older couple then came and joined us, fleeced us for some beers, but sat down and had a real laugh with us, as other Japanese popped over for a photo and joined in small conversations.  It was an absolute blast.  Before we knew it  we were being offered kimonos to try on and more as our celebrity status slowly escalated.

My new found friends :

The rest of the group went back home to freshen up around 8pm, with a very Tokyo type arrangement made : “We’ll meet you in Roppongi at 1am”

We met, we drank, we karaoked, we conquered.  You see once you are out at that time you have to make it until at least 5am to get the train, and my curfew was long gone in the hostel anyway.  We did have the slight excuse it was one of the crowd’s birthdays, but it wasn’t like the excuse was required.

I must admit I was really grateful for them letting me tag along to the celebrations – a fantastic crowd having a great laugh that just let me join in their socialising for 18 hours without even knowing me.  One of the group even managed to get our karaoke extended when they tried to kick us out at 5am as we hadn’t had a chance to get our two hours unlimited drinks.  As the sunlight hit us I popped in for a nightcap around 7am.  The heavy beats took us into into what seemed a very obvious hostess bar as a large Nigerian guy thanked us a lot for coming in as he thought he had spoken to me in the street earlier….  The rest of the group were still outside on the pavement allowing daylight to sink in, along with the hangovers.

I parted with a farewell thanks, knowing I only had a couple of hours to get back to the hostel, freshened up, and out again as it’s pretty normal to have to leave the hostel during the day in Japan.

Amazingly I type this relatively late having been on the go all day, activating my rail pass, and floundering around as I forgot to take out my guidebook.  I was about to write I survived mingling through the electronics shops in Akihabara but I just remembered I bought a new camera lens.  A nice 50mm f1.8 fixed lens – great to get that bluury portraits (erm, that I ahem always take – of course it was an essential purchase)…but it is the cheapest one you can buy.  I did manage to walk away without a new MP3 player though – it seems they are too much of a fashion accessory over here with hardly any of them getting more than 8 Gigs capacity to keep the size down!

I was hoping to leave Tokyo tomorrow but I haven’t planned a thing, so will see how it goes.  I could do with leaving the city as I spent a fortune last night and it’s just full of electronic temptations.  To be honest I’ve got a bit lazy so I’m not so sure how I feel about heading to the sticks and having to struggle with the language, but I’m sure it’ll all end up good in the end.  I’m also hoping I can just jump on a train as I can’t really be bothered with all this reservation malarky!  I don’t even know if there is much happening in terms of public transport in the Mount Fuji area as it’s well off season for climbing it.

Watch this space.

At least I think that’s what it means.  After years of wanting to get here I’ve finally made it to Japan.

The day of the flight was a bit of an ordeal, not helped by myself staying up most of the night before in Auckland airport on wifi.  I felt obliged to accept the stewardesses offer of extra wine to kick myself to sleep during the Sydney to Tokyo leg.  The flight was more than half empty so there was plenty of space to stretch out.  After a bit of a delay in leaving due to the rain I never got into the hostel until after 11pm.  Luckily the flight delay was due to horrendous rain in Sydney, and not me.  My name called out on the tannoy in the airport to get my bootie to the gate, despite it only just turning to the time they said the flight would board.

Tokyo isn’t as hard to get around on the trains as people make out.  It has its odd confusing moments, but it’s far easier than trying to navigate around the streets and find Tourist Information Offices tucked on 10th floors of buildings (I mean, come on….)

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