No annoyingly loud Chinese ladies this morning so 8am was nearly reached before we woke up. I am starting to feel a bit more human! It is amazing how tiring the heat is, even when we avoid it as much as possible by sun dodging.
Mila’s sun burn is much better today and her chesty cough has almost gone. Sadly, Danny’s chest tightness from yesterday has developed into a nasty, hollow sounding cough (the propensity for which he has inherited from his aunt and Granny!) and a requirement to carry his inhaler. Will keep you posted as to what transpires.
It is fortunate that the train station is so close to the MyStay hotel or we might not have had time to be frog marched there half an hour before the train was due to leave. It did however mean that we had plenty of time to choose our German Bread products to eat on the train. The fast walk with rucksacks rendered Danny speechless for a few minutes so planned to take the rest of the day gently.
Mila and I did some of her memory book on the train- until we felt sick and had to resort to boiled sweets. Then, with the rest of the family happily plugged in and ignoring the scenery, I went back to looking out of the window. I get travel sick so quickly that this is by far the most pleasant way of spending train journeys.
As we approached Kara Onsen, I could see an enormous golden statue on the hill. It is called Jibo Kannon which means “compassionate mother” and “Kannon” is the name of the god. It features a woman cradling a baby and is 73m high.
I also saw herons, cranes, kites, Japanese crows and the possible white tailed eagle again. The others miss so much….
I am going to suggest to Audley that they put a contents page and page numbers into the PDF of the itineraries that they produce. I don’t know how to do it, but I regularly use huge PDF files for work and they have clickability so you can navigate around the document without scrolling. The (heavy!) paper itinerary in the folder is easy to use, but the PDF is so big that it is tricky to find the page you want.
Once a process improvement specialist, always a process improvement specialist!
We walked to the office of the house agent and then got a taxi with the bags straight to the Machiya as it was already ready (thank God!).
We had a little rest in our lovely little house and put the first load of washing on and then did some route planning for our time in Kyoto. A whole new transport system to work out when we had just mastered Kanazawa!
We decided to do a short excursion to the Manga museum, followed by the food and Kimono market. We got distracted on the way to the Manga museum and bought Mila and myself a Yukata as souvenirs. We had aimed for a second hand kimono shop but ended up buying new ones anyway! It was lots of fun picking colours and trying to get the belts to contrast successfully. I have no idea if I will be able to put them on properly but we always have YouTube!
We stumbled on a restaurant selling epic dumplings and strawberry bubble tea. I didn’t take the title ‘soup dumpling’ seriously enough though and the soup ended up on the table after my tentative nibble! The rest of the family learnt from my mistake and shoved theirs in whole.
Bubble tea is lethal. It is like strawberry milk with small balls of jelly in. Sucked through a fat straw, it leaves you very prone to inhaling jelly balls. Too yummy to worry about the risk assessment but don’t buy it for toddlers!
The Manga museum was more of a Manga library, which is a little disappointing when 99% are in a language you cannot begin to read. It was reassuring how many people had paid the entrance to sit in a bean bag or on the floor and read a comic though. No photography was allowed, but Keith was super sneaky: shooting from the hip! There was a Manga artist doing portraits but the queue was completely full. We managed to find a few English/American comics, but we all found it hard to read from back to front. Is it top to bottom or bottom to top? Very frustrating. I need a proper book personally!
Our first underground and overground trip in Kyoto back to Geisha district went well, but was followed by a nightmare of impossible to find and fully booked restaurants. We ended up standing outside a 15 seat restaurant for an hour with our names on a lists and horrific heat still attacking us even in the dark.
Obviously once we got in, the food was amazing and well worth waiting for. We ate our body weight in delicious gyoza and took photos of the children drinking beer (the rules are 20 years today so we got some funny looks but it was non alcoholic!!)
Fate must have been involved in our stressful evening as we were lucky enough to see a Geisha in full dress on the way home.
A crazy breakfast was consumed, including chips, yoghurt, fried chicken with curry and cocoa pops. There are a lot of Asian tourists in this hotel (we are assuming they are Chinese, but we don’t really know) and I think that is reflected in the breakfast. The dining room host was very concerned about the door lintel. He must think Keith grew over night and has never been tall before. Oh well, he thinks he is helping.
We successfully bought day bus tickets from the front desk of the hotel and ventured outside.
Hot hot hot. 34 degrees and 58% humidity. Hot.
The nice lady on the front desk had also managed to book us onto a Japanese only tour (NO SMALL KIDS!) around a Ninja temple. The plan, concocted the night before, was to visit the market on the way but we were a bit late so we hopped on our first “left loop” bus from the station and set off to the other end of town.
We found the temple with no problems as everyone on our bus was heading the same way. There was barely any shade outside the temple and you were not allowed in until 10 minutes before your tour. We performed our ritual cleaning (although were disappointed that there was no incense for our souls!) and took our shoes off to enter the temple. We had been promised an English translation and I was slightly concerned when the Japanese recording started, but sure enough the lady appeared with two folders of information in English. They have obviously had ne’er do wells in the past as we had to sign them out and promise to return them!
After a Japanese interlude, a lovely lady asked us to stand up and started our tour. Once you had read the English, it was surprisingly easy to follow the context of what she was saying in Japanese: mostly “Mind your head”!
There were many features of the ninja temple whose description elicited audible gasps from the captive audience: pitfalls, secret stairways, hidden doors, secret rooms for praying and watching. Inside there was no breath of air and we were all melting. Then the lovely, lovely lady took us into a secret room (without taking us across the secret bridge as it was too old) which had an air conditioner. Sudden heaven.
Our next stop- via the wonderful bus- was the Omi-cho market. We were greeted at the entrances with blocks of ice for visitors to wipe their hands on to try and cool down. We found enormous crabs and oysters and eventually two useful little towels to soak in water and use to reduce the childrens’ temperatures. Everyone else seems to have them and they definitely seem to improve the level of comfort.
Another trip on a local bus (which was accidental, but still took us to the station) allowed us to experience the wonder of the German Bread shop. We weren’t brave enough to try the curry doughnuts, but the fried chicken sandwich and the apple pastries were delicious.
After lunch, we went for a wander around a fancy department store and Mila and I found a number of extraordinarily expensive bags and pencil cases. Keith wasn’t keen, Danny wasn’t interested!
The next stop on the agenda was the Ishikawa Prefecture History Museum. Expert as we now are at Japanese public transport, it was no effort to get as close as possible on the bus, but it still required a short walk. This was fortuitous as we accidentally went into a temple on the way. Mila decided to pay for a stamp and we handed over the book she brought with her for sketching. This provoked some conversation between the artist and the assistant which culminated in Mila being given a present of a book with the right paper in it! The artist then did his thing and produced a beautiful calligraphy entry in her new book.
Outside the temple was a path, decorated all along with the prayers that people had hung on them. A beautiful, calm space in the middle of all the tourist hustle.
The museum we had been aiming for was deserted, with only a handful of other people in it. We were given free English recordings of the displays and learnt a bit more about Japanese history. We saw some carbonised rice that had been made on the eve of a battle, a reconstruction of a burial mound and a model of the park at Kanazawa Castle with light up sections controlled by buttons. We learnt that the lords subjugated their followers by keeping their wives and children as hostages and forcing them to parade back and forth from their lands; walking hundreds of people for 13 days and 12 nights and costing so much money that they couldn’t afford to rebel. Keith took some photos, despite there being signs everywhere saying “no photography”.
The highlight for Mila was the section where you were allowed to dress up. She challenged some gender stereotypes and the ladies responsible for dressing the children, by requesting the samurai armour and not the pretty kimono. Obviously I just joined in to keep her company…
We hopped on the bus again, this time to the Geisha district: Higashi Chaya. The museum that was supposed to explain the gold leaf making process was expensive and looked dull, so we went to a recommended shop instead and were forcibly subjected to a demo and explanation of gold leaf making and using. Then they served us cold roasted tea with gold leaf floating in it. A lady sprayed Mila with body spray with gold leaf in it and everyone bowed and smiled a lot. We didn’t buy anything… not even a lolly with gold leaf wrapped around one end. Why?
In another shop we saw some of these beautiful decorations. They are shockingly expensive so we took some pictures instead – again surrounded by signs saying “no photography”. I am sure Granny will be able to reproduce them!
We didn’t see any actual Geisha, just tourists dressed up for the day, but we did see a lady cycling along with a toddler in the basket, so that more than made up for it!
Our bus status was upgraded to “public transport grand master” again as we got back on the loop, via the station and back to the Samurai district and Chochinya for chicken wings and skewers.
It was totally impossible to find as it was only labelled in Japanese (Keith took a photo to help future travellers!). Our wonderful WiFi had stopped working and we were back to low tech paper maps. Food panic. Fortunately, before we starved to death, the WiFi started working again and we found it… hurrah! The nice man shook his head and made a cross with his forearms. Not open, come back at 5.30pm. Sigh.
It was definitely worth waiting for. Epic chicken wings and all the skewers were completely delicious and the potato salad was very tasty. I managed: “toriniku wa oishii desu” then kicked myself for not squeezing in a “totemo” as well. Yum.
The left and right tourist loop buses stop at 6pm, but we managed to get a proper local bus back to the station (we are now officially experts!) for sweet snacks and an emergency wee before a quick walk back to the hotel. It was much cooler once the sun had gone down.
Mila and I went to the public baths in the hotel. They were pretty basic and uninspiring but it was weirdly nice to soak and relax in hot water after such a hot and sticky day.
Finally a bit of a relax and a bit of a blog and another sleep.
A very weird and loud cuckoo clock outside in the garden woke us up at 6.30am. Neither child stirred. I was very jealous!
The paper walls in this ryokan meant that I had heard someone going to the toilet in the night, but other than that it really wasn’t too noisy. We opted for an 8am breakfast and it soon became clear that everyone else went for 7.30am. This meant that we got half an hour of peace after they had all gone downstairs and so subsequently forgot to wake up Mila. Poor child was dragged out of her bed and to the table in less than 5 minutes! Even she conceded that breakfast was excellent. It was a shame that the home-made yoghurt was clearly off and the children mourned the two little blueberries drowning in what would soon be cheese.
I stayed out of the way with he children while Keith packed the rucksacks again. This time we had to rearrange to make Mila’s as light as possible. Her t-shirt must have shifted yesterday after I put her sun cream on as she has burnt the side of her neck and it is very sore. She was very brave and managed to carry her pack all day with that special smile/grimace to make sure you are reminded of exactly how brave she is being.
While Keith had been packing, I had read about a certificate you can get for walking from Magome to Tsumago from the local tourist information. I checked with the host and got a stamped slip from her to take to get the certificate. You pay 150 yen (Just over £1) for a certificate produced on wood and it goes towards the upkeep of the path. The Japanese gentleman who organised it for us was very serious and wanted to do his job very well.
Keith went off to get our first Japanese Geocache while I took the kids to the bus stop. Some other foolish tourists were waiting on the right side of the road in full sun. We sat in the shelter on the wrong side. The bus driver still let us on. Shade is key in this heat.
Catching the bus to Nagiso allowed us to level up in our skill at public transport attribute. So proud.
We had to wait almost a hour to catch the train to Nagano in a waiting room with no air con, only to nearly miss it because someone decided to go and get a pocket monster. Grrr.
Due to the anxious attention of the lovely station lady we did make it (there was a little running involved) and spun our seats around once more to enjoy a peaceful trip to Nagano.
We had another wait at Nagano station for our first bullet train to Kanazawa. There was no time to get bored though as this waiting room had air conditioning AND karaoke on a massive TV. Mila almost combusted when she found actual sandwiches in the food shop! Real food as she put it. Poor abused children. Keith and I stayed slightly more adventurous with unidentified meat products, spicy crispy corn and a pork bento box.
[Note: in case you haven’t noticed… I am obsessed with food. Either I am currently eating or I am planning what I am going to eat next.]
Out patient wait was rewarded with our first close up of the Shinkansen! Keith turned into a proper train spotter and Danny was all ready to start rolling his eyes when he realised that there were men walking around under the platform! I presume for loading or maintenance.
We stood at the right number on the platform and sure enough, our bullet train pulled into exactly the right place. There is hardly any gap (maybe 1″) between the train and the platform and the doors slide sideways into the wall. The whole train looks like a grounded aeroplane as it is so aerodynamic and the pointy nose looks enormous when you see the super smart driver in his white gloves and cap perched at the top.
Needless to say it was quick. It was a bit disappointing that there was no screen telling you your current speed and altitude and what percentage of your journey you had completed. Maybe a suggestion they could take on board?
A lot of the journey seemed to be through tunnels, but then you would emerge (without the ear popping effect we are so used to at home) to the most vivid colous: bright green rice paddies and deep blue skies, even some seascapes with thousands of white horses.
At the end of our journey, we arrived in Kanazawa. The fabulous thing about the detailed itineraries that we are working from is that we know how long each journey is before we set out- including the walk to the hotel. It was crazy hot: 36 degrees and 80% humidity. Yuk. The 5 minute walk was entirely uneventful but left us dripping again.
The hotel is big and impersonal but all the staff seem friendly and speak enough English to be helpful.
We had a little rest and then followed Tim’s suggestion of taking a walk to Kanazawa Castle Park. This resulted in very unhappy children. I think it was hotter than it had been in Tokyo, or at least it felt that way due to the humidity. Once in the park, there was shade under the trees and we plotted a route through this beautiful park.
I tried to record the sound in the trees: cicadas, little chirpy birds and massive beaked scary Japanese crows. Mila was having a moment and had walked on ahead. Keith and Danny kept walking so they didn’t lose her and I found myself alone in the woods with a pair of enormous black and white butterflies. Then I realised that the crows had gathered round me….
I am not kidding when I say there were three in the tree above me, one about 6 feet from the path with his head on one side looking at me like I was food and two on an adjacent branch. Generally I like birds. I decided I would look like prey if I ran (and a big jessy) so I walked briskly to catch up with the rest of my family and cooled down gradually over the next 10 minutes or so.
The clever gardeners had decided to set up some rotating sprinklers on one of the lawns and the children ran straight for them. Danny thought to take his hat off. Mila had a cool head for a while after as hers got soaked. Keith and I were not too serious to join in and felt much better for the next 20 minutes or so until we dried out again.
The park was deserted by this point and announcements were being made about the closing times. Officious gentlemen in fawn uniforms beckoned to us urgently and then smiled and bowed in relief once we were on the correct side of his movable wooden barrier. Keith couldn’t understand how a 2 foot high wooden fence across each entrance would keen anyone out overnight, but then the highly respectful Japanese don’t strike us as being that keen on invading or destroying their local community…..take note Igirisu Jin (English person).
We made our way to the recommended restaurant for the evening: Oink, Oink. They specialise in pork (obviously!) and we chose from the menu somewhat randomly: Keith had a pork steak that was so delicious he forgot to take a photo until he had eaten half of it! I chose a salad just because I could, which was delicious, and the children both had spaghetti and tomato sauce! Red mouths and happy smiles all round once they had carbed up.
It was a strangely very quiet walk back to the hotel, but that might have had something to do with the huge fireworks display north of the station. We couldn’t find out anything about it and as it didn’t start until we were back in the hotel and into our hotel-supplied, beige pyjamas, we didn’t go out to investigate. I discovered that I could see the reflection of some of them in a shiny building from the end of the corridor in the hotel.
Speaking of the weird brown pyjamas, imagine my delight when Keith put his on and we realised that they were the same size for me and him. How the children laughed and how strange that the cameras all seemed to disappear at the same time?!?
I am getting old. My back does not like change and complains about new beds. I regularly have to roll out of hotel beds onto my hands and knees to go through my stretches and warm up my back. Sleeping on the floor was no worse or better than normal, but the process of rolling out was less dangerous! What made getting up this morning more entertaining (in retrospect) was the fact that my right leg had gone completely to sleep so when I tried to put weight on it, it collapsed. I was only trying to close the curtain as the sun had risen but Keith woke up at my crashing and flailing about.
Anyway, once we were up it seemed only fair that we go back to the Onsen. At midnight, they swap sides so the men’s becomes the ladies’ and vice-versa. The boys weren’t bothered, so Mila and I went over to the dark side and got naked again. It is so relaxing to go through the process of cleaning and soaking and cleaning that we nearly missed breakfast.
Another meal of 7 courses stretched in front of us and this time we got to try horse, duck, a butterflied sweet fish and a minced chicken tofu parcel thing. The kids were keen on this as they got to cook it all for themselves on hot charcoal. EU regulations would never allow it. Then there was a ham salad, fruit in yoghurt, miso soup, Japanese omelette and various terrifying pickles. It is an exhausting process when nothing is familiar and Danny is particular is getting a bit anxious about the pressure to try stuff at meal times. Still most of it was lovely and we left with full bellies.
Keith did some clever packing so that we could leave the kids’ rucksacks in a locker for the day as our 8km hike was on the agenda.
We got the ryokan’s shuttle back to the bus stop in Tsumago and then caught another public bus to Magome which was the start of our hike. I would like to state at this point that we had almost infinite faith in the timeliness of the Japanese travel network. But this bus was no less than 3 minutes late. Needless to say I was panicking that we were at the wrong bus stop, in the wrong town or otherwise incorrect but it all turned out fine. Phew.
Magome was a total tourist trap and we were easily suckered into buying souvenirs. Danny’s favourite shop was a village food shop. He found an apple Danish and was beyond giddy to have recognised something edible! We found bananas as well and I encouraged Mila to get a yoghurt drink. We took it all to the bench outside and prepared for second breakfast (with reference to hobbits) before we began. Mila gave me a full on pre-teen evil when she tried her yoghurt. Imagine a peach flavoured jelly that you have spent some time sucking backwards and forwards through your teeth. Squeeze this into a foil bag and refrigerate. Oops. Not yoghurt. Once we got over the frogspawn-like consistency it was really nice but it was not yoghurt.
We had been encouraged by a sign telling us that it was only 24 degrees Celsius today and that we would have a pleasantly cool walk. This turned out to either be a lie or the temperature at that point in the day.
The first section was in full sun: bloody steep and bloody hot. Much moaning ensued… and that was just from me! It took us through a section of Magome and past a woodworking shop that smelled deliciously of local cyprus wood. Danny was fascinated by the shrink wrap process the owner was using to prepare the goods for sale but Mila found a wee dragon that we just had to have. The quality of the woodwork and the closeness of the grain was very impressive and it is a good job we were just setting out and couldn’t manage to carry the larger pieces.
The views from the top more than made up for the struggle and when we got to the cool of the forest, a lovely, older Japanese gentleman reassured us that we were nearly at the top, 450m higher than out start point in Magome. Sign language and smiling is all you need!
The children got adept at ringing the bells but I was a bit disappointed not to have seen a dog sized bear!
I turned around just as we emerged from the forest to view the panorama behind us and saw either a Harris hawk or white tailed eagle performing aerial acrobatics and soaring on thermals. I always think of my Dad at such moments and wanted to exclaim its genus loudly to passing tourists. In reality I have no idea what it was. It was big, had white patches on its wings and looked like it was master of the skies it soared in. I have checked Google images and made a good guess. That’s enough for me.
Just over half way was a free tea room – a cool dark wooden building where a Japanese man in traditional dress kept ashes hot enough to boil water for making green tea and served boiled sweets and water to the children. He even allowed Keith to take his photo. We left a donation and returned to the trail.
From here onwards the trail snaked back and forth down the hillside though the forest. It emerged occasionally into the fierce sun to cross the road and then dived back into the gloom. We all prefer the gloom to the glare when it is this hot. We were expecting rain and wind today as the edge of a big typhoon brushed this area. It was almost disappointing not to have the variety but I am glad we did not have to abandon our plan.
Keith and the children managed to get some epic photos of bamboo and rice fields while we were walking and I got to keep pointing out butterflies, dragonflies and enormous bees. For the first time today we saw an animal other than a cafe cat or a handbag dog. This is supposed to the region for Shin shu beef: fed on apples and cider and subjected to regular massages, except we haven’t seen a single cow. Where have they put them?
We saw a lot of farmed fish in tanks fed by the water pouring off the mountains that floods the paddy fields. We saw a single solitary goat and a handful of ducks. There were a few people fishing in the river for the invisible fish (they have another name I can’t remember but they are so good at hiding under rocks they may as well be invisible and are very hard to catch).
No chickens. No pigs. And no sign of these much famed cows. No wonder they eat bee larvae. But I am jumping ahead to supper.
When civilization reappeared at the side of the trail, we knew we had reached Tsumago and needed to dig out the instructions to find our ryokan for tonight. It is fair to say we were all stinky-hot and Keith and I could have wrung out our t-shirts under our rucksacks.
We completed our successful navigation (Google Maps is our friend!), checked in and agreed times for dinner and breakfast. This ryokan feels less pretentious than the last one. The lady who showed us around didn’t walk backwards for a start! There are fish in the pools front and back and beautiful traditional gardens.
The children voted to stay in the air conditioning while we went back to this morning’s starting point to retrieve their rucksacks. I would like to point out at this point that I was entirely vindicated in advocating the use of the lockers. The children moaned less and our stuff was untouched by the Japanese crime wave my husband seems to believe may swamp us at any moment.
By this time it was 3pm and second breakfast felt a long time ago. The lovely host at the ryokan suggested a local delicacy from a cafe directly opposite as a light snack to get us through to 6pm and dinner: oyaki. These are light bread rolls stuffed with various fillings. The children were practically delirious at the idea of a bread product and Keith and I were very pleased with the price at about £1.30 each. We tried spicy vegetable, vegetable and mushroom, pumpkin and apple. They were all delicious but I burnt my fingers trying to tear them all into quarters. Fortunately we had invested in a melon soda so I could cool the throbbing on the side of the glass!
We were not as fragrant as we would have liked by this point so we made a move to the shared showers and bath to scrub off the heady mix of sweat, sun cream and bug spray. The bath was super hot so there was not much soaking or relaxing this afternoon but clean was a huge improvement.
Going outside again did not get many votes so we rested and repacked and tried not to fall asleep for an hour or so.
By 5pm the sun had gone in – replaced by thick cloud so we thought it would be safe to go for a wander up and down the streets of this town from the Edo period. Hearteningly, this town has been preserved because the locals felt it should be and not because of a government initiative. It is a beautiful place where power cables are hidden behind the buildings and the mountains loom in green relief in every direction. It is so peaceful here, I will be sad to leave (the apple oyaki) tomorrow.
By the time we returned to the hotel, it was time to slip into our yukata and go down to dinner. You will be relieved that tonight’s offering was not nearly as scary as yesterday’s. Keith ate all of it and Danny managed a proper meal for the first time in days. Hurrah!
The only challenging items were bee larvae (and as Mila said- but we are not supposed to eat baby bees Mummy!) and the sashimi which they were kind enough to cook for the children and allow Danny to gobble it up. I did try the larvae but wasn’t a fan. I still struggle with the texture of raw fish when the pieces are too thick but this fresh water salmon was excellent and I managed more than yesterday. By the end of the holiday…..
The owner of this ryokan came around to explain the menu was all locally sourced and strictly warn us which order everything should be consumed. There was also a menu on the table which was very helpful.
Generally the food was delicious and seemed to be trying far less hard than last night. Roll on breakfast!
Standing on the balcony of the ryokan this evening, all I can hear is birds tweeting and the odd cicada. No shouting, no fire engines or police, no music. I can’t see any other dwelling- only trees. All I can smell is the steam rising from the onsen. Contrast is what this adventure is all about.
Our day started with the usual buffet (which I still did justice to after a ropey night) and a dash to the train station. For the first time we saw evidence of drunk Japanese who hadn’t made it home. Apparently this is a real problem but the first time we had experienced it. We also saw a fight outside our hotel and had to hustle our staring children away from it. Somehow it made the area seem much seedier than it had the night before when all the music was blaring and the neon lights were flashing.
I do not recommend tying to catch a 9am train from Shinjuku station as your first overland journey. It was terrifying. I have never seen so many people in one place so intent on their own business. I read that the population of Canada passes through this station every day. Now I believe it! We had to ask for help twice and an aggressive uniformed man armed with a stamp activated our Japan Rail passes. By the time we made it onto the train (which wasn’t a bullet train to the disappointment of the children) we were all hot and tired. And it was 9am. We were all instantly reanimated by the family in front of us who pressed a button on a pair of seats and SPUN THEM ROUND! You can choose which way your seats face so you can look at each other or not as you prefer. Japan is great!
Our plan was to hop off the train at Matsumoto to visit the castle recommended by Will. Everything was made a little harder by the day sacks we were all carrying. Neither Keith nor Danny have any padding on their shoulders and their straps rub on their collarbones. Needless to say my padding served me well!
We managed to look up, catch, pay for and get off the public bus in the right place and made it to the castle. We were very proud!
A lot of the places we have visited have volunteer guides- Japanese people who look to be of retirement age and who do a rota of free English tours of their local tourist sites. We decided that the castle would be a good place to get one and we were right. We had a lovely lady whose name meant “peaceful standing in a field” and her trainee whose first name meant “always beautiful”. After we had communicated how much we liked the shade, the tour was excellent and highly recommended. It was clear that they really enjoyed their day of volunteering and talked about spreading world harmony by helping tourists to understand their culture.
So, what did we learn? The castle at Matsumoto is the only one in Japan where you can see water (It has 3 moats) the Japanese alps and the castle all at once. It has 3 moats because it was built on a plain – not a mountain- and was therefore vulnerable to attack. It never was attacked, but they built a special place for the Lord to commit suicide just in case! Nothing like thinking ahead.
It was really hot again today and we were grateful to get inside. The castle is one of the oldest remaining in Japan at 400 years old, so it was built approximately when Shakespeare was writing plays. It has 6 floors (one secret!) With 60 degree angle staircases and was sooo much cooler than outside. We saw muskets, swords and Samurii armour. Mila had her photo taken with a ninja. Danny didn’t like the look of him so wouldn’t play that game!
To the south of the castle, the Lord had built a moon gazing room. He built it when the Shogun was planning to come and stay but typically he never turned up! Our guide told us that they regularly saw three moons: the real one, the image in the moat and the third one was caused by drunkenness.
The lovely guides spent over an hour showing us around, talking about construction and the protection from fire: “the greatest enemy of a Japanese castle”, but they looked a bit nonplussed when Mila asked them why they didn’t just build it from stone!
I felt a bit bemused. When you have spent time in stone castles in the UK with metre thick walls and draw bridges and enormous metal cannons you can’t feel safe in a wooden house where they have hand guns and rocks to drop on people. In fact I am not sure they should be allowed to call it a castle. Don’t get me wrong, it was fascinating and the guides were fab… It was just more of a pagoda than a castle!
Anyway, we managed to get back to the station (with a lot of moaning: heavy bags and sore feet and 34 degrees) and onto the next leg of our journey (also not a bullet train… sigh).
The views from both trains today have added to the intense feeling of contrast. It took an hour to get out of Tokyo and then almost immediately we were in the mountains. I don’t know how anyone moved between villages before the roads and railways were carved into the rocks. The mountains are not that high, but so steep you could go up and down all day and make no progress along.
It was exciting to see the paddy fields and some stands of bamboo. Really made it feel like we were in Japan, until Mila looked up from her phone and said ” it is just like Madeira isn’t it Mummy?”.
Our transfer to the ryokan was super smooth and required no thought at all. Our check-in was speedy and a Kaiseki supper was served 20 minutes later in a private dining room. 2 hours and more than 7 courses later we had all managed to find something we could eat. I am proud to be able to say that I tried horse intestine, a fish created by breeding trout and salmon together, and cooked and ate my own apple fed Wagu beef. I think even Keith is ready to crack on his pronouncement that no Mcdonalds shall be tasted on this trip. We are all desperate for ‘normal’ food and I am pretty sure the kids are losing weight!
After supper we tried the Onsen. No pictures I am afraid as you go in nude and taking a camera might have caused a scene. But imagine a hot tub with added oil outside in the dark with other random naked people and you have got it. Mila and I were lucky enough to have the ladies’ one to ourselves and it was very relaxing; Keith and Danny met a Australian man with his young son in their Onsen. Individual bubbly tubs and larger calm ones outside, then a small cold pool and a large calm pool inside. They must add oil to the water as our skin felt so smooth afterwards.
There was nothing to do but fall into bed, well onto the floor, after that and listen to the silence. One thing we are not having a problem with is getting the kids to sleep!
So, the plan for today was to visit three museums:
1) Emerging technology (robots and the best t-shirt selection ever!)
2) Sumida Hokasai (wood cut art)
3) Edo Tokyo Museum (Tokyo history)
The first issue was that we woke up at 9.15am. Breakfast ends at 10am so it was a bit of a scramble to get up and by the time we had decimated the buffet it made for a late start to our busy day. We tried the egg chef today. I can report that he makes a mean cheese omelette and the pork dumplings went very well with it!
The first museum was off the known map and across the Rainbow bridge on the Monorail again. Today we realised that without a day pass, the individual trip on the Monorail is really expensive. It is driverless though so you can sit right at the front… worth every penny! This time Mila didn’t give in to the cute Japanese toddler that cried because there wasn’t space at the front and held her place.
Asimo was well worth the trip. I didn’t know he could hop! They did a full demonstration of what he can do, including walking sideways and singing a song whilst signing in Japanese. I assume he got that right but obviously we couldn’t check! The explanation was all bilingual in English – which is weird as most of the tourists we have seen are Chinese. Everything assumes that all foreigners can speak and read English.
We were disappointed not to be able to do a robot tour- small sit-on robots powered by gyroscopes to travel in the direction your body leans. They are hands free and only take up the same floor space as a person standing. It seemed a little pointless to pay for the Japanese tour and the English one required a 4 hour wait. Now we will have to come back!
The rest of the exhibits were interesting and more intellectually challenging than our science museums. More questions than answers and much more advanced (although comprehensible) science. You didn’t feel that it was just for kids and stopped just short of GCSE. I really liked the display that showed synthetic photosynthesis and we had to stop and look at the polymer they have developed that conducts electricity- turning all primary school teachers that tell students that plastic is an insulator into liars!!
A slightly weird lunch of hot dogs was consumed (Mila had curry sauce on hers?!) and then we moved on: back down the Monorail, onto the underground and round to Sumida. I had made a fuss about seeing the wave so the rest of the family humoured me and we went to the Sumida Hokasai museum. The permanent exhibition is very small but very interactive. The children were free anyway, but the current special exhibition featured an artist who specialises in taking wood cut prints from Hokasai and putting cats in them. Odd even for Japan but very entertaining and we all found that it made us look at the originals more closely. Both kids enjoyed trying the single line drawing, the kimono design and other drawing techniques. Even Keith said it had been interesting… that makes two art galleries that he has quite liked!
Outside the museum was a children’s park with actual children in it. We released ours to go and play on the bike powered roundabout while Keith took photos and I collapsed on a bench. By this time it was gone 5pm and our feet were starting to complain. We have done 48km of walking in the last 4 days and boy can we feel it!
We bought yet more water and succumbed to the begging for crisps for the train back. In all honestly we need all the salt we can get.
A little rest in the hotel was followed by another expedition into Tokyo’s red light district. We couldn’t bring ourselves to spend the money on the Robot show in spite of all of the flashing lights and shouting waitresses so we just went back for nice safe ramen instead! I have warned the family that we are doing karaoke at some point so they need to prepare themselves!
Tomorrow is our first trip overland and out of Tokyo so our next job was to pack the suitcases and the rucksacks, getting the delicate balance right between weight and spare underwear! Large suitcases are not welcomed on trains so they have to be sent ahead. The next time we see ours will be Monday in Kanazawa so we need to make sure we have what we need for the weekend. Only a smidgen stressful and when you are travelling with a gadget freak: the rucksacks are bound to be heavy.
When we felt mostly organised we had pudding: cake from the bottom floor of a fancy department store. Think Selfridges and then take food very seriously and add a zero to the price of everything. The peach bun was my favourite, with pink coloured dough layered on top. We would have used icing but Japanese people don’t seem to have as much of a sweet tooth as we do. Faces stuffed and air conditioning on max it was bed time again.
A reduced pace was decided upon today. Yesterday was exhausting and included a late night.
We decided to take Chika’s advice and head to the famous Tokyo pedestrian crossing to take some photos. We managed to find somewhere a little higher to get a good angle but the humidity was incredibly uncomfortable so we didn’t stay long.
Our next stop was the one that Keith was REALLY looking forward to… full on Tokyo weirdness as the Cat Cafe! You get to spend a ridiculous amount of money to be warned about the rules, lie about your children’s ages and be ignored entirely by the cats. I thought spending time with animals was supposed to be therapeutic but I left feeling thoroughly rejected. You could choose to pay another 500 yen to buy a cat lollipop that means they sidle up to you and lick it but still don’t tolerate touching! One Japanese lady sat down, bought a lolly and then sat looking at her phone for a full 10 minutes- which would have cost her 200 yen as they charge by the time you spend. We decided against the snake or owl cafe after that experience!
Next on the itinerary was a trip to the Ginza district. Think Oxford Street but massive and sprawling. We paid a rather dismissable visit to a statue of Godzilla and then moved onto the main event… a stationary shop called Itoya. No less than 12 floors (one of which was labelled farming but we didn’t get high enough to satisfy my curiousity) with one entirely devoted to special paper. Keith took a photo which will need to become my new background. The children couldn’t stop finding the next thing that was just too “kawaii” and we succumbed to some butterflies to decorate Mila’s journal in Japanese style. I could have happily spent another couple of hours in there but time was pressing.
We are getting quite efficient at working out how to get across Tokyo now but the journey to our river boat dinner cruise was a bit more challenging. Google maps came into its own at the other end and even with high rise buildings everywhere Keith managed to find the departure point.
It was shoes off again to get on the boat and a shared table of 6 with a Japanese couple who did their very best to help translate and guide us through the eating etiquette. The variety of dishes was astonishing and a little challenging. None of us managed to eat the water snail and Keith was the only one who bossed the sushi. One word… texture. I did much better with the unidentified vegetables (apart from the okra) and the kids managed not to starve. The unlimited drinks began to show after about half an hour and the Japanese diners lost much of their inhibited nature.
I had a very entertaining conversation with three ladies who now work as English tutors in Tokyo but originally came from the Philippines. They did apologise for being a “leedle drunk” a few times and took lots of photos of the “beautiful red hair”. Interestingly they told me that they take private clients- secondary school children- and teach them phonics. They just want the kids to be able to speak English, not necessarily read or write it.
The trip itself went up to the Rainbow bridge and moored us in front of the television centre with its weird sculpture. I particularly liked the ice cream boat that came up while we were moored to try and flog tiny pots of Haagen Das to the unsuspecting tourists! On the way back, when we were munching on tempura (eel, white fish, octopus, and shrimp), an older Japanese man chanted a song at us while making amazing shapes with a bamboo mat. It was clearly very traditional and a lot of the Japanese diners were able to join in but we didn’t have a clue what was going on! There is a lot of freedom in not understanding. We just clapped along. Danny (yes you are reading that correctly!) put his hand straight up to get one of the percussion instruments, which they then gave to him as a souvenir and Mila went up to the front to be taught how to use the bamboo mat. She managed to make a very convincing bridge!
The hosts and other guests were incredibly friendly and welcoming and as ours were the only children on board they got preferential treatment. Our only minor issue was that the waitress didn’t clear dishes that weren’t empty, so the snails looked at us longingly for the whole evening and we didn’t know how to ask her to take them away!
The boat got back to the dock at 9.30pm so it was late when we got back to the hotel but another great day so it was definitely worth it.
P.S. if it is really hot and you have been outside for most of the day and you are a little dehydrated, just a little beer can be too much beer.
Much happier children at the start of day two after 12 hours of unconsciousness! I didn’t manage quite that much, but could still feel the improvement.
Breakfast was an experience. I could tell that Danny had the fear after our excitement at lunch yesterday so relief was written all over his face when he found the bacon! Miso soup and extensive salad and dressings were also available. In the spirit of trying new things, Danny went for seaweed seasoned potatoes, I tried a pickled plum (don’t…) and Keith had fried chicken.
By 9am we were sun creamed and ready to meet our guide for the day. Chika San proved infinitely patient with our touristy delight in butterflies, cicadas that sound like car alarms and enormous Koi carp. She taught us how to use the underground, sorted our bullet train tickets for the rest of the trip and introduced us to Japanese beauracracy. The lovely people at Audley who sent us all our information had bought Amelia a full price Pasmo (equivalent of Oyster) card and she wanted to change it to save us 50% on each fare. The second office we tried in the underground station found us some paperwork to complete. The poor young man did NOT like the fact that there were not enough boxes for an international phone number, nor could he work out which part of Mila’s name was her surname. We filled in another form to make him feel better and then managed to leave with our mission complete.
Travel in Tokyo is not as scary as it first appears. All the lines are coloured and have a letter and each stop is numbered. The only slight complication is that each station has different exits which are given a letter and number. Thank God for Chika.
Chika took us to the original site of the Imperial Palace. We learned that it had been almost completely destroyed in WW2 by air raids and only one watch tower is still standing. The gardens were beautiful but very, very hot. Our lovely rep from Audley had emailed us to advise rehydration drinks and after some initial resistance (flavour related) from the children we all felt better for the aptly named Pocari Sweat!
The next stop on was a boat tour via an unmanned monorail (all fine but it felt like the beginning of a superhero film… there is always a derailed monorail in those!). We went all native and bought Bento boxes to eat as we cruised up the river. Danny was significantly braver with less jetlag and even tried the weird, sweet bean paste thing that I thought was chestnuts.
We were all wilting from the heat in the middle of the day so lovely Chika decided against another park and took us to see the Sensoji temple. She showed us how to purify our bodies (water) and minds (incense) before going in. We paid for the children’s fortunes to be read (another wonderfully interaction free transaction based on number) and then went to get our stamp. Apparently Buddism has a lot in common with Pokemon as Buddists collect stamps from each temple they go to. Our guide had a beautiful memento book with a stamp and calligraphy for each one. Sadly they only bother with the hand written effect if you have the book to put it in, so we had to buy a printed one instead for Mila’s memory book. Tomorrow we will start taking it with us! All Japanese tourist locations seem to have stamps to collect and Mila is very into it. More of that to follow I am sure.
Chika showed us the Shinto shrine near the temple and taught us how to tell the difference between the two- rope vs incense basically- so we didn’t embarrass ourselves or offend anyone. Then she took us to a traditional tea house where the menu is in picture form and in the window as you go in. We tried cold green tea (meh), two desserts where you pour syrup over crushed ice (strawberry: yes, matcha and sweet red bean paste: no) and a third; fruit salad and ice cream with more red bean paste (tastes like chestnuts so I liked it) and a green cream soda! Another culinary adventure but as we were all sitting down in air conditioning we were prepared to try anything!
Chika then took us back to the underground, pointed us in the right direction and waved us off. A lovely lady and a fantastic guide.
Our evening excursion (we are not done yet!) was to go to the 35th floor of the Tokyo Skytree building (2nd tallest building in the world but the first if you count the television antenna!). We had time before our scheduled ascension so we gave in to the pester power and took the children to the aquarium. It was exactly what you would expect- Japanese ascetism in every tank. I thought they had gone too far with genetic experimentation but it turned out it was just a large eel underneath a sting ray!
More queuing led us up another 35 floors to some more amazing views. It was very hazy today so visibility wasn’t great, certainly no chance of seeing Mount Fuji today although foothills were in view yesterday. Danny wasn’t keen on the glass elevator up to the 45th floor or the glass panels in the floor on the way back down but he lived to tell the tale.
By the time we had come back down in the super fast elevator (90 seconds to travel 30 floors), been to the Pokemon centre and grabbed some food it was dark so hotel and bed seemed a good idea. Our journey was made more entertaining by the tiny girl swinging between her parents’ hands whose shoes squeaked with every step. Children are few and far between in Tokyo: the low birth rate here was just a dry fact before we came but you soon realise that babies and pregnancies are uncommon.
Navigating ourselves back across Tokyo in the dark went off without a hitch, roll on tomorrow!
We were all a bit confused about when Sunday stopped and Monday started… I think it was somewhere over Russia anyway!
We arrived in security to be greeted by a sign (of which I didn’t dare take a photo…) telling us that no camels or products from camels could be taken into Japan. This did not help our sleep deprived delirium but we managed to sober up enough to convince them to let us in the country!
A lovely Audley agent met us on the other side and went full blown Keith on us checking we had all the listed tickets. Fortunately we are big fans of thorough.
The taxi ride into Tokyo was a revelation… it is enormous. 30 miles from the centre and it was already completely built up. The kids managed to sleep a bit which made the rest of the day much less painful…. for them!
Our hotel is lovely. The most important factor being the highly effective air conditioning. It has been 39 degrees all day. Enough said. We managed to navigate ourselves to the recommended road for “street food” and find the scariest restaurant known to man.
Immediately it became apparent why we had gone to such lengths to learn a bit of Japanese. We scarpered in great haste… only to realise that I had left my hat behind and had to slink back to get it. We survived the meat kebabs we were eventually brave enough to buy but at least two of them remain unidentified.
Our afternoon consisted of a very hot walk, a queue and then an amazing view of Tokyo from the Tokyo Government Building’s South Observation Tower.
Our main aim was to try and stay awake until something approaching bed time. We had a little rest in the cool of the hotel before braving the humidity of Shinjuku and finding Ichiran- a ramen restaurant that would be beloved of anyone with ASD- you order your food and pay at a machine that is reminiscent of the one found in car parks. Then you state your preferences by circling options on a piece of paper.
No human interaction is necessary. Even better, you sit in individual booths facing a closed curtain to eat your selection. The perfect choice for all jet lagged parents!
Our day ended at 6.30pm when Mila, Keith and I all fell asleep while doing something else… Danny is obviously better equipped to deal with less sleep and managed to brush his teeth and get into bed before he succumbed.
