On Saturday, September 2, I flew to Tokyo for a self-guided trip (with 2 friends) around Japan. Then I spent 4 nights in Seoul before flying home.
I awoke 10 minutes before the alarm was due to go off – at 3.40. Had to be at the airport to drop off my bag at 5.45 for a 6.45 flight. There were so many people in the airport at that hour of the morning I was stunned. They were all, like me, flying to Auckland to fly to Fiji or Rarotonga or New Caledonia. And of course, Japan. The flight boarded and we sat on the tarmac waiting, and waiting and eventually left about 35 minutes after we were supposed. By the time I walked from the domestic terminal to the overseas terminal in Auckland, went through customs etc (with only carry-on – one day I would like to know why it is that i always get singled out for special attention in airports. Wait. I know! It’s my magnetic personality), I didn’t even have time to get coffee before it was time to board. A quick hello to Barbara and Bill who were in a different area of the plane, and that was it. We sat and waited again and once again took off about 30 minutes later than we were supposed to.
The food on the AirNZ flight was excellent. Salmon for breakfast about 11 – by that stage I would have eaten a raw leg – anyone’s – to be honest – and a great chicken casserole for lunch about 5.30. In the seat next to me was a young man who is playing in a golf tournament somewhere north of Tokyo.
We were collected by Tanaki who was sorting out our JR pass (Japanese Rail) and getting us on the right train into Tokyo. Narita airport is a LONG way from Tokyo. We arrived at 5.30 and got to the Shinagawa Prince Hotel about 10.30. Just queuing up to get the JR pass took an hour and a half. The train trip took about an hour.
September 2
I was awake about 5.30 this morning having had 7 hours’ uninterrupted sleep – unheard of for me. I had arranged to meet Barbara and Bill for breakfast about 7, but I was hungry – also not normal for me in the morning – and went down to Floor 1 (my room is Floor 22), to find a queue waiting to get into the breakfast room that curled in and around the lobby. I joined the queue and sent a message to B&B that if they got a move on they could join me in the line. But by the time they arrived, I was already inside. The breakfast was buffet style with an enormous selection of food. It took me a while to find the eggs.
Yuriko – a petite, delightful guide, was waiting for us at 9, and took us on an excursion in and around Tokyo by train. She said that BMW is the way all Japanese get around BIKE / METRO / WALKING. I like that. Fewer that 50% of Japanese own a car so it’s not surprising really.
She was a wonderfully informative guide and led us into the city to Tokyo Tower and gave us all sorts of interesting tit-bits about history. But it was about 34 degrees with very high humidity and this lovely delicate rose (me in case you didn’t realise who the “rose” is) doesn’t cope well with that sort of heat. I was, to be fair, a little better when I figured out that taking sips of water frequently was a better plan.
One of the places we visited was for Bill – the Nissan Crossing which housed an old Datsun Bluebird, and a couple of very latest and very pricey cars (one we converted from Yen into NZ$ and it was about $200,000. But there was a Photo Booth.The 3 of us couldn’t all fit in it, so B&B went first and then Yuriko insisted she and I have ours taken too. She also insisted on the fingers!
We lunched in a wonderful restaurant (with air con on full blast) on an array of delicious yakatori. We were the only Europeans in the place.
And then we were off again (about 6 different trains in all today) out further from the central part of the city to see another temple and shrine (might have been interested if it was cool) both Buddhist and Shinto this time, but it’s Sunday and there were 1000s of people.
One of the things I’ve noted already about the behaviour of Japanese people crossing on pedestrian crossings, but walking in general, is that they have a distinct inability to keep to the left. Yuriko commented on our first crossing with her that Japanese people won’t break the rules and always keep left. I can quite categorically declare that today they most certainly did not. Add to that people with umbrellas to protect their faces from the sun (which then preclude them from taking any notice of other pedestrians), as well as people with pushchairs and suitcases, I am quite surprised my ankles survived intact. Even my sense of humour did.
It was about 3.15 when I suggested that I just needed to get out of the heat and cool down. Yuriko (regretfully I could tell because she had lots of other things she wanted to show us) led us back by train to near our hotel. That was when we suggested we could find our way back so if she wanted to take off to her train, we would be fine. So that’s where I am, listening to the clickety clack of the trains 22 stories below. At any one time I have seen up to 6 separate trains below me.
We dined tonight in an Italian restaurant quite close to our hotel. I was craving alcohol (really, Madeleine? And what does that make you?) Barbara had pasta, Bill had lasagna and I had a salad – which had no dressing at all. So it was really boring – even after I added some condiments from the table like oil, salt and balsamic vinegar.
We then sat in the Lobby to plan what we’re doing tomorrow. We have a really detailed itinerary, but we need to sit down and figure it out and “walk” our way through each day to make sure we know where we’re going, how we’re going there, and what tickets we need to use. That sorted, we all decided an early night was just what we wanted. That heat really knocks it out of you!
This map shows our schedule. We have really detailed notes from now on BECAUSE we’re on our own! We’ll be back in this hotel on September 22.
QI (quite interesting facts):
QI 1: Before the 2020 Olympic Games, the government in Japan told all taxi drivers that their taxis had to be a uniform shape and size so that more than one suitcase could fit in the boot. So all the taxis are black and square in shape and are manufactured by Toyota.
QI 2: There are thousands of high rise buildings in Japan. The tallest in Tokyo is 323 storeys. We saw it yesterday, In this shaky land – shakes as much as New Zealand does – the buildings are designed to withstand Size 7 following on from an earthquake of that magnitude in 1987. Fukushima wasn’t destroyed by the earthquake in 2011, but by the tsunami following it.
September 4
Yesterday we were – according to our itinerary – supposed to send our luggage onto where we’re staying tonight, and then spend the day seeing more of Tokyo. But as we’re spending three days in Tokyo at the end of the tour, Barbara cleverly suggested we start on the trip to Hakone. One Shinkansen and 2 trains later, we arrived in this quaint old looking town in the hills (in the rain) with the only incident being where Barbara temporarily couldn’t find her JR pass and therefore couldn’t leave the station. That’s when the card gets charged for the trip just taken. Card located, we were able to exit and wander through the town where we lunched in a local restaurant – not so traditional as it had tables and chairs – and then, because although it wasn’t as hot as Tokyo, it was even more humid, we got a taxi to Hakone Yumoto Onsen which is where we stayed the night.
This is a health spa – communal baths, and “wellness” – whatever that means. What it actually means is no shoes – which were confiscated on arrival, so I’ve been walking around in bare feet for the last day. That’s odd for me. I used to always walk around in bare feet at home until I smashed my little toe by not giving the bench a wide enough berth. It also means lots and lots of people wandering around in kimonos. But most importantly of all, it means a bedroom almost devoid of furniture. (We did find out later that there are western style rooms here too, but Samurai Tours which is the tour we’re doing, have decided on the full Japanese experience for us. Hopefully this is the only time.)
We weren’t supposed to get here till after 6 last night, but because we’re not following the program totally, we arrived 3 hours earlier – about the time we were supposed to leave Tokyo. We found the only person at reception with a smattering of English, and then spent half an hour waiting for her to find the reservation that had been made by Samurai for us. I think the problem was that they were still expecting 4 of us, not 3. Eventually it was all sorted and we went in search of our rooms.
The room has a television, a low table with even lower seats – a cushion on the floor with a little back somehow. There is no other usable furniture in the room which means there’s no bed. There is no bathroom. There’s a toilet, with scuffs at the door to wear whilst you’re using the loo (why? I don’t pee on the floor when I’m on the loo), and a basin with no plug.
There are however 2 floors containing communal bathing. One floor is for women and one is for men. It’s quite acceptable for people to wander around in their kimonos which means they have nothing else on I guess. Not my scene.
So I’ve spent all my time in the lobby (where I am now) because there is normal furniture there. There is also a large television playing exactly the same program on rotation. It’s in Japanese of course so I’m not sure what the story is, but it seems to rotate about every 20 minutes. Weird!
From my vantage point in the lobby I could see all sorts of people arriving to stay. Around 6pm, about 40 Americans – it looked like they were part of a tour group – arrived. They were loud and large and within 20 mins I was treated to the pleasure of seeing many of them in their kimonos. Barbara said she tried hers on but it didn’t meet. The Americans seem to have found XXXL ones to which we hadn’t been privy. This didn’t really matter because we had no intention of using the communal baths.
We had chosen a dining time of 7pm, but it was with some trepidation that we approached the dining room at the appointed hour. Were we going to have to try to eat seated on the floor – dinner is a buffet so that would be most unpleasant. The queue to get in was reminiscent of the dinner queue on the Princess Cruise we did in Alaska – but there were no Americans in the queue.
The selection of food was extensive and interesting. It was buffet style so it was possible to graze. The tempura was my pick – prawns and green chillies. But the best thing was the coffee! Well for me anyway. I don’t enjoy a buffet. It just encourages me to stuff my face. Oh, and did I mention we were seated at a standard table and chairs?
On arrival back in my room, the bed had been made. I had a plan and started to rip it apart before I remembered to take a “before”photo. My room was equipped with bedding for 3 people. My plan? To remake my bed using ALL the bedding. Getting onto the bed was easy – basically flopping down being sure not to miss. Getting off however was a totally different matter. The first time I resembled a beached whale – not that I could see, thank goodness. But then I figured out that if I rolled over onto my knees it was easy to then stand up. Sorted.
I slept really well and awake a whole hour later this morning – 5.45. I lept (yeah right) out of bed to get my glasses so I could write and then told myself not to be silly. So I washed dressed and went down to the empty lobby for a chair to sit on and write.
September 5
Last night and tonight we are in Takayama – up in the hills in another Onsen. We spent all day yesterday on trains, boats and buses, leaving Hakone at 9am and arriving here at 7pm. We took the long way because we followed the trip notes.
The “highlight” was the pirate ship – ohh ar me hearties – with nary an actual pirate to be seen.
It took about half an hour to sail across Lake Aisha (?). There were a few boats to be seen also, but the best was this:
How about a bus that’s a boat?
The last part of the trip was on a local train which moved at normal train speed – so it took about 2 hours 45 minutes to arrive here in Takayama. (Tomorrow we have to go all the way back in order to go forward. We diverted here at Nagoya and in order to get to Kyoto we need to get back to Nagoya.)
My room here has furniture. Yay!!
AND a shower. That bed is wider than it is long. If I lie on it sideways there’s still enough room for someone to lie lengthways and for my feet to not even reach them. Any volunteers?
It’s rained all day today. Every place we’ve stayed so far (all three of them) have umbrellas to borrow. So we borrowed umbrellas and visited the Hida Village. The photos below are various buildings in the area showing “old Japan”.
Today, Barbara found the photo she had of Jane so that Jane could “come “ with us. And there she is!
On a walk, looking for dinner, we happened across this old street:
It was really lovely. We were going to have dinner there too, but all the restaurants were closing as we arrived. So we found somewhere to eat and wandered back to the hotel in the dark. There are no street lights. But there was plenty of light from the buildings and their gardens.
September 8 Kyoto
Barbara had a troublesome asthma situation before we left. She has the inhalers which were working for a while, but over the last couple of days their efficacy has reduced to the point where they aren’t much use at all.
Our train trip from Takayama had us arriving in Kyoto about 1.30, so the decision was made to elicit the assistance of the lovely people in reception at the hotel where we’re staying for the next 2 nights to get some medical care. In about half an hour B&B were on their way in a taxi to get sorted out. One of the 2 young women who were assisting spoke a little English, but with the help of Google translate we found out that it would cost a lot (?), that she couldn’t have a receipt till tomorrow at noon, but most importantly of all, she could pay with Visa.
I stayed behind ostensibly to mind the bags which I didn’t need to do as the hotel staff already had them sorted. But my attendance seemed a bit like overkill.
Breakfast at 6.30 was a LONG time ago.
I wonder what this hotel has in store for us. My sandals are already stored in a locker. It does of course make sense to take off one’s outdoor shoes when walking inside. I’ve thought that especially after having new carpet laid in my living room and realising it was much lighter than I had thought. But it’s not the norm in NZ.
On exiting from or returning to my room on the 6th floor, the music that’s playing is doing my head in. “My Favourite Things” – Japanese style, but it’s always the same bars whenever I leave or return to my room. (My “magnetic personality” again?)
Last night we went walking in search of dinner, and ended up in a few different places – rather like a progressive dinner. The first restaurant was a hole in the wall with room for 12 people max. The man was the chef, the waiter and probably the owner. It was styled as a French Bistro. The food was excellent and the wine tolerable. Must have been as I had 2 glasses. As none of us had chosen dishes with rice to fill the gaps, we moved on in search of more. A few blocks away, we spied a table outside sheltered from the rain, and ordered more wine, yakatori and dumplings.
I’m pretty sure the wine was low alcohol because I didn’t feel any effect at all from 3 glasses. We stopped for ice-cream on the way back to the hotel and arrived back feeling replete.
Barbara is much better today with more and different drugs after her excursion. She’s not coughing so much which is a lot more pleasant for her.
All the people we’ve encountered over the last 6 days have been amazing. They are so friendly, helpful and keen to be of service. All the people I’ve talked with seem to have a smattering of English which puts me to shame. It always embarrasses me when I travel, that English is a requirement in most countries, but we don’t pay other cultures the same courtesy.
We chose a lovely little restaurant tonight and decided on a set menu – a lot easier than trying to figure out what to choose. It’s much more fun trying to work out what we’re actually eating. Sadly, bad Madeleine only remembered to take photos of courses 2 & 3. They were all quite small, but absolutely delicious.
The first course was a small piece of salmon with a prawn and some salad. It looked so beautiful that I’m sad I forgot to take a photo. The soup on the left below came next. It was pure white, but the surprise was that it was cold. We decided it was cauliflower and cheese, with the merest hint of chilli. Then came steak with rice, followed by a trio of desserts once again beautifully presented. There was a chocolate mousse, something slightly spongy and tasting of matcha, and a small scoop of delicious icecream. The dinner was perfect as was the service.
Tomorrow night, we’re in a Buddhist temple: vegetarian, shared bath and toilet, and almost definitely on the floor. Hopefully, we’re not on the ground.
September 10
I’m now in Takamatsu in a “western style” room which means I have an ordinary bed and a bathroom with shower all to myself. Bliss. The first thing I did when I arrived was to use the shower and put on a complete set of clean clothes. The joys of travelling!
Last night, in Jokiin Temple, was an “interesting” experience. We were asked many times to participate in the prayers at the temple (no thank you). The bedroom, as expected, consisted of a room with paper walls (this is after all Japan, Madeleine – had to happen sometime), right beside the room for Barbara and Bill and “our” dining room. At least, that’s what we thought.
There is a toilet block and one shower – shared by all who stay here. To be fair, I never encountered anyone else on trips to the toilet, but I did discover a set much closer to our rooms which I proceeded to use – a different loo on each trip I hasten to add. (This was because I was annoyed that we were never introduced to the set of toilets really close to our room.) Everywhere in the Temple surrounds were notices to be beware of Corona – occasionally Covid 19 was mentioned too.
I do wish I could have taken a photo of the three of us sitting on the floor trying to look comfortable, and not succeeding whilst eating our dinner. However, I can offer an insight into the meal:
We were each provided with a selection as per the photo above. Each one of those containers had food in it (except one for rice from the large red bowl at the top of the photo) and one for green tea (the pot at the top of the photo – no thank you for me). The food was all vegetarian and delicious.
As we were eating together in one room, the beds were being made – in the next room – all of them:
Bill, bless, was the most alarmed of us. The electricity for their sleep machines was in the next room. Bill said he was off to ask about rearranging the beds. I quickly stopped him, telling him it’s better to seek forgiveness than request permission. Two beds were then moved next door only to find that the plugs for the sleep machines would not both fit into the socket. Barbara volunteered to not use hers.
It was a LLLOOONNNGGGG night. It gets dark in Japan about 6.15 now. Barbara went to bed about 7.30. Bill and I sat in very uncomfortable chairs until about 9 and then gave up.
It’s not at all comfortable sleeping on the floor. I have sort of mastered the “art” of getting up off the floor. It’s not pretty, but it works. Don’t ask because I might show you. Needless to say, we were up and ready to go by about 6. Once again, we were asked to participate in prayers, and also if we wanted breakfast which was available from 7.30. We had a bus to catch at 8am, so once again, I declined on our behalf. None of us had had much sleep and our collective senses of humour were in dire straits.
The bus took us to the cable car down the mountain to a train, then another train, then a Shinkansen to Osaka. Then another train to Himeji.
The Himeji Castle is HUGE – it covers an area of 233 hectares or 576 acres. We quickly realised that there was no way we were going to see more than a fraction of it and decided not to try in 31 degree heat.
Then it was back to the station and on another train leaving Honshu (Japan’s main island) and moving to Shikoku. The “bridge” is spectacular. I had to research to find a decent photo of it as it’s so huge.
Look who we found at dinner tonight:
We were on our second bottle of sake. Maybe that’s why Jane turned up.
Tonight is our second and final night in Takamatsu. Our hotel is right beside Hyogomachi which is a huge covered shopping area. We’ve walked a lot of it, eaten at a few places and even done some shopping. There are 1,000s of shops.
It rained heavily this morning, and while Bill was on laundry duties, Barbara and I went for a walk. It was too steamy for us. The covered areas seem to exacerbate the humidity. So we returned to the coolness of the hotel and practised our Bridge. This evening when we ventured out in search of coffee, it was really pleasant.
Whilst wandering through the shopping complex, we ventured into a huge shop that had everything on sale over 3 floors. I had noticed a number of young men running up the stairs previously. When we arrived at the second floor, there they all were – assembled around a large collection of condoms. I tittered!! Quite politely of course. This is, after all, Japan.
This single shop had everything from food to television sets to booze to a large “adult” section. I couldn’t resist. Photos only I assure you.
I’ve forgotten to mention until now about the rice fields. Every nook and cranny that can have fields of green has rice growing in it. As we scoot by on the train, we pass a small selection of houses with fields of rice in amongst the houses. Even in larger settlements, there are fields of rice. I had expected fields of rice, but not those that pop up everywhere. I expected it to be more structured I guess.
September 12
We arrived in Matsuyama just before midday today – too early to check into our hotel (western style rooms), so after lunch, we headed for the Matsuyama Castle which was built in 1603 (which is the year that Elizabeth 1 died – in case you’re interested).
This entire city which now has a population of 500,000 people, was burned to the ground in July 1945 by the Americans. Up on the hill, which occupies the centre of the city, is a castle made of wood as all the castles in Japan are (earthquakes you know!). Except for one small outlying building, it did not burn.
This afternoon, in 31 degree heat, Barbara decided we should check it out. There’s a chair-lift and a cable car to get to the “top” or so we were informed. (Liars!) I made it about a third of the way past the chair-lift. Bill, apparently, made it a bit further, but Barbara made it all the way to the top. I retreated back to where I knew there was some cool air.
For dinner tonight, we decided to have a different Japanese experience. This is where ostensibly we were sitting on the floor (well actually on cushions on the floor), but our legs were in a well under the table. Bill found it a bit tricky both getting in and out, but Barbara and I managed gracefully (of course!)
NO ONE in this restaurant had any English at all, but in true Japanese style, they went out of their way to try to assist us in ordering food. There was a burner at the table, but we couldn’t figure out how to ask for the food to go into it, sadly. With the help of Google Translate (both us and them), we managed to order 3 dishes, sake for Barbara and me and “bear” for Bill. When Bill spoke into Google Translate the second time, the man who was waiting on our table knew when he meant.
We decided on a progressive dinner which meant that we couldn’t face trying to get any more dishes when we had no idea what we were ordering. We ended up with salads in a food hall. Just what I wanted.
I had discovered that there is a freezer with ice-creams for the taking on the 13th floor of this hotel when I went looking for cold water this afternoon. Guess where we went for dessert?
Although Jane isn’t with us physically, she’s still in lots of photos:
We’ve been in Japan now for 10 days. The people are just wonderful. They are keen to help and will go out of their way to do so. They are invariably kind and thoughtful.
None of us would say we enjoyed the first days – maybe even the first week. The culture shock was huge and the need to constantly move on without really doing justice to the location we were in was disconcerting.
There’s a huge contradiction here. All of the accomodation we’ve stayed in is determined to save the environment by not having throwaway items like toothbrushes, combs etc in the rooms available for use. They are available to collect if you want them. The contradiction is that EVERYTHING is wrapped in plastic and often in multiple layers. What we now know as “single-use” plastic bags abound. The sandwich I purchased the other day to consume in the place of purchase was wrapped in three layers of plastic. In addition, I’ve not seen a single rubbish bin in a public area. They are certainly not to be found in any of the railway stations we’ve been in.
September 14
Yesterday’s plan had us in a taxi to the other side of the city to catch an orange bus clearly marked with a ferry boat on it which we were to take to Hiroshima. The first part of the plan went well and we had plenty of time to walk around the shops before the due time.
Eventually, at the appropriate time, a bus stopped which had “ferry terminal” on the side of it, but was neither orange, nor decorated with a ferry. In addition, our notes made no comment re the purchase of ferry tickets. We had a booking number, but nothing else. Eventually, we had tickets purchased at 8,700 yen (about $100 NZ) IN CASH each for 2 ferries: one to Hiroshima and another to Miyajima.
As we sailed past dozens of islands, it occurred to me to check on the number of islands that make up Japan (a country that is roughly the same geographical size as NZ). There are 14,125 islands. Approximately 430 are inhabited. New Zealand has an estimated 600 islands, just in case you were wondering, of which only around a dozen are inhabited.
The Hotel Miya-Rikyu where we are staying was only about an 8 minute walk from the ferry terminal on the island of Miyajima. As we were arriving, the day tourists were leaving. About 10am this morning, the day-trippers returned. Our rooms have spectacular views across the sea to the mainland – Honshu in this instance.
Our rooms are Japanese styled rooms – with amenities. I have a large room WITH a sitting area and 2 chairs. There’s a toilet complete with standard Japanese accoutrements – heated seat and buttons to do almost anything you want – to your nether regions. I checked out the sliding doors in the walls of my room and discovered a large number of futons. So on returning to my room after dinner, I was prepared to reconstruct my bed.
Dinner is included for both nights of our stay. It’s kaiseki style dining which means lots of small plates with some cooking at the table. There were 11 different dishes served last night – and for us, the bonus was that we were seated at a table with chairs. Yah!
This morning Barbara and I were out early – before the hordes arrive – to check out the reason all the hordes arrive.
Miyajima’s symbol “Otorii” is a designated National Treasure. It’s a Shinto Shrine on a site where there have been shrines since the 800s. The current torii was built in 1875. Its height is about 16m and it’s built out of camphor wood which has been placed on the sea floor. At high tide, you can see the large torii floating in the sea, and at low tide, you can walk to the feet of the large torii. We returned later in the day to view people (with their shoes on) walking around it.
September 16
We arrived in Nagasaki yesterday after a walk, a ferry, a train, a Shinkansen, 2 more trains and a taxi ride. It sure takes a large number of modes of transport to get us around this country. I have no idea when we crossed from Honshu to Kyushu, but we did somewhere along the way. Because once again, we’d decided to take trains different from our bookings, we ended up at our hotel slightly earlier than anticipated. We collected our suitcases once again (passengers are not allowed to have suitcases on the Shinkansen as there is nowhere to put them – having said that, it’s a rule that appears to be broken all the time by the locals) dumped them in our rooms and went in search of a cold drink and something to eat.
But I’ve interrupted the time-line.
We left Miyajima bound for Hiroshima. The plan was to find a coin locker in the railway station, dump our heavy carry-on bags and check out the Hiroshima Peace Park. We searched the station high and low of an empty locker – there were none to be found. So I volunteered to be the bag lady whilst Barbara and Bill went and checked out the Peace Park.
Finding somewhere cool to sit and mind 5 items of baggage (1 of which was mine) wasn’t as easy as it sounded. But eventually (after looking expectantly at some people who were occupying a couple of seats in Starbucks having finished their coffees) I was able to nab at seat with enough room to manage all the bags.
The absolutely wonderful thing about being in Japan (there are lots actually, but this one is special) is that I could leave all those bags by the table and queue up to get an iced coffee knowing that (a) no one would take any of the bags and (b) no one would steal the seat which they were protecting. The location wasn’t as cool as I had hoped, because it was pretty open, but I made the coffee last, put my air plugs in to listen to music and block out the noise, and read my book.
B&B arrived back a couple of hours later, grabbed some food, and we all headed for the Shinkansen which we knew would be very cool.
They were then able to tell me about the Peace Park. Because Bill hadn’t known a lot about it, he was quite taken aback by it all.
So today’s adventure to the Nagasaki Peace Park was a different adventure. The Hiroshima one is (apparently) a lot more in your face, and manicured.
Nagasaki was (and still is a port city) into which Portuguese ships sailed in 1571. This was the only port open to trading with the Dutch and Chinese from 1641 to 1859. Gradually the port changed into a shipbuilding area. There was a large Christian community in Nagasaki brought into the “fold” by Catholic Jesuit priests at a time when Japan persecuted other religious groups severely. There’s a movie called “Silence” with Adam Garfield in it that I watched a few years ago portraying this persecution. Images from this movie still haunt me.
At 11:02 a.m. on August 9, 1945, an atomic bomb exploded 500 meters above the spot in the photo below. The black stone monolith on the left of the photo marks the hypocenter. The fierce blast wind, thousand degrees and deadly radiation generated by the explosion reduced the city center to ruins. The brick column was what remained of the Catholic Cathedral a 100 metres or so away. It was reconstructed in this site.
The estimated population of Nagasaki at the time was 240,000.
Dead 73,884
Injured 74,909
People left homeless 120,820.
All houses in a radius of 4km were destroyed. Overall, more than a third of all houses in the city were destroyed.
This statue was erected by the citizens of Nagasaki in August, 1955. The elevated right hand points to the threat of nuclear weapons, while the outstretched left hand symbolizes tranquility and world peace. The folded right leg symbolizes quiet meditation, while the left leg is poised for action in assisting humanity.
Wandering through the museum and reading the notes with the photos was quite harrowing. Many are very confronting. It wasn’t until I arrived at this section (photo below) that I worked out why I was more than a little disconcerted by it all.
If you look closely at the photo which is the start of a long time-line for the 1930s and 1940s, it’s only in Japanese. There is no English text. There is no mention (at least that I understood) of why the world ended up in the situation it did in 1945 where the USA felt there was no choice but to bring the war to an end. The Germans had surrendered, but although the Japanese had made mention of talks, it was to the Soviet Union.
So the majority of people who walked through that museum would leave with an overwhelming feeling of dread at what had happened to the Japanese with no thought about how and why the world had ended up in that situation.
Not far from where we’re staying is a Dutch trading post and housing area that dates back to the late 1800s. The buildings about 8km from the blast survived unscathed.
Tomorrow we’re flying to Hokkaido for the next few days. This will be our 5th Japanese island visited (out of 14,000+). Our carry-on luggage is allowed to have all the bottles and creams and liquids we want, but the suitcases that are also going – albeit separately from us – are not.
Things I miss
I’ve been away from home now for 16 days. Things I’m missing:
- Jane who was supposed to be on this adventure with us, but her hip had other ideas. I miss her friendship and banter and although she personally won’t get into mischief, she knows that I need very little encouragement to do so. And of course, once I embark on mischief she will become a willing (sometimes) participant. She had spent months whilst we were planning this trip telling us we needed to prepare our karaoke songs as she was going to insist that we had a go. I guess the inhabitants of all the cities we’ve been in should be grateful that didn’t come to pass.
- Salt. There are always scrambled eggs for breakfast. I suspect from the consistency of them that they are the boiled eggs from the previous days’ breakfast mashed up. But no salt is added at any time in the process. They are tolerable when there’s bacon available to provide some salt, but that doesn’t often happen. We had 2 nights in Nagasaki. There were salt sachets on the buffet table both mornings. Yah! (I’ve got some in my bag for future use.)
- BC.
- Vogel’s bread. The bread here is not bread as I know it. It’s more akin to brioche so light, fluffy, slightly sweet and no substance.
- Bananas. I’ve not seen one anywhere yet. Pineapple, grapes, pears and apples (these often the size of beach balls). But yes we have no bananas.
- I would normally say my bed. But I’ve been sleeping really well no matter where I lay my head, be it on a futon on the floor or a really firm mattress in a western style room. My brain is being cooperative and not wandering off at a tangent that keeps me awake for hours at home wondering about all sorts of things like why trees are green and what it would be like on Alpha Centauri.
- Mince on toast with or without a poached egg.
September 17
From Nagasaki in the south to Sapporo in the north (Hokkaido – our 5th island)
It’s torrential rain with thunderstorms today – directly overhead with the lightning and thunder happening simultaneously.
We were ready to leave by 7. We ordered a taxi to take us to the railway station to get the bus to the airport. We got into the taxi relatively dry. Getting out of the taxi at the railway station meant we were soaked right through to the skin, instantly. It’s as if the tap was turned on over the whole city and the rain just fell straight down.
In the station, we found out that the airport bus was outside the station some distance away. We set off – in the torrential rain again.
I looked at Barbara, both of us with water dripping off our heads and getting into places where rain water shouldn’t be and said TAXI. Bill said expensive. I shrugged my shoulders and so did Barbara. We did not care.
Even getting to the taxi added to the overall wetness (had I been wearing a t-shirt I would have been an excellent candidate for a competition – which of course I would have won being the young svelte thing that I am). But I’m wearing a dress which stuck to all the wrong places. It was my wet hair dripping down my back that kept my level of discomfort high for the next part of the adventure.
The airport is a LONG way from the city about a 45 min drive. It was 12,900 yen, about $145. That’s less than $50 each. Worth it!!
QI: Japan GDP 5 trillion USD; NZ GDP 250 billion USD
The flight was a double one – first leg to Tokyo and second to Sapporo. We took off in pouring rain with very low visibility, but soon we were above the clouds. Both flights had Jane on them – well there was a seat where she was supposed to be. So she was.
Being above the clouds was important because before we got to our destination, I saw a dark cone shaped object in the sky. The reason our trip had taken us initially to Hakone was because that was the only time on this trip we might have been able to see Mt Fuji. It was hiding then. So I was delighted to spy it today. Somehow it would be wrong to visit Japan and not spy it. Rather like visiting New Plymouth and not seeing Mt Taranaki.
We are staying in the same hotel chain as the one we stayed in in Tokyo (and will again from Friday). We had adjacent rooms – the one B&B were shown into stunk of cigarette smoke. There are no smoking signs everywhere, but that’s certainly what it smelt of. They were shifted to another room.
I had a look at the website for this place – I’ve been really disappointed that all the hotels we’ve stayed in have not had bars. I found out that this one does on the 28th floor. So I went to investigate to see if we could actually get a drink there – yes we could – and dragged B&B to the Bar. The view was stunning. The place with this view was totally empty when we arrived and still so when we left.
Barbara and I had a Singapore Sling each and Bill had a Mojito, and I ordered a cheese selection. The drinks were great. The cheese selection consisted of 3 pieces of 3 varieties of cheese: blue, Brie/Camembert (I can never decide which is which as I don’t eat it) and a cheddar of some sort. There were also 6 half pieces of very finely sliced bread stick. The total bill was about $105 (NZ). I guess that’s why the place was empty.
The restaurants on the same floor as the bar did not appear to be open. The Chinese restaurant on a lower floor was not interested in having us. We could see lots of empty tables from the door, but they were “full” we were told. Then we checked out the final option which was the Dinner Buffet but at 5,500 yen ($65), we decided to give that a miss too.
Instead, we went for a walk, found a cheap and cheerful place where we ordered from a tablet and the food appeared at the table in under 5 minutes. We each had a steak curry with rice. It was delicious – around $25 total.
As soon as I mentioned to Nick (my son) that we are in Sapporo, he said “BEER”! B&B said the same thing, so tomorrow morning, after we check out, we will leave our bags here and go and investigate.
Music
There’s background music playing everywhere we go. It’s always American jazz. EVERYWHERE. Shopping malls, railway stations, airports, elevators, restaurants, everywhere. It could be orchestral, vocal, xylophone-esque or synthesiser. But it’s always American jazz. It still surprises me that it’s always American jazz.
Toilets
In public toilets, there are often a couple of squat toilets, but there are always European ones too. But European toilets are not bog standard loos as we know them. (Pun intended). They are electrified. So there’s warm seats, a bidet, a rectum cleaner (that’s the translation of the Japanese words) and, of course, a flusher. Sometimes the button to flush is hidden behind a large silver knob, so you have to look for it.
But the really odd thing is that all the toilets in hotel rooms and public loos for females have a pre-flush as soon as you sit down. This is so you aren’t, as a woman, embarrassed about the noises emanating from your nether regions. In a couple of public ones, there‘s been a recording either of rushing water (as in a river) or bird song. It’s really odd the first couple of times, but another one of those things you soon get used to and don’t even register, eventually.
The toilet paper leaves a lot to be desired as it’s all single ply. At least 3 metres are required to ensure security in the wipe!
September 18 Noboribetsu Onsen
We weren’t due at the train station for our train from Sapporo to Noboribetsu Onsen till 2, but after a walk around, we decided we would get an earlier train. The only place we wanted to visit was the Sapporo Beer Museum and it’s closed on a Monday. As it turned out, it was the perfect train as it had us arriving at our accomodation for tonight in time to check in.
Noboribetsu is a geothermal town – there are hot pools and geysers and there’s the pervasive odour of sulphur. It’s Hokkaido’s most famous resort with onsen (hot pools) everywhere. There are many hotels offering accommodation that all have their own hot pools too. It’s a small town with a population of around 50,000. Even though Hokkaido shares a similar latitude to Canterbury, we are fortunate that our winters are mild by comparison.
On our notes for tonight (which have been lacking on many occasions – Barbara and I have already determined that we are going to provide a joint document of feed-back because one singeing is probably all that’s required), the three of us were to spend the night in a triple western style room. I had googled this hotel and had indeed discovered that they have triple rooms which didn’t look too bad.
Barbara and I were standing at the check-in counter which can often be an interesting time as we try to make ourselves understood to our Japanese hosts, and the young woman (Trainee label on her kimono) could not find us recorded anywhere. We had tried all permutations of our names, the name of the tour company and the fact that we were expecting a triple room, when suddenly I could see the penny drop, she went away and collected a piece of paper which had all our names on it and TWO ROOMS.
Bill was pleased – we had been teasing him senseless about putting him in the middle and giving him a hard time about our expectations – NO not that sort. People! Keep it clean. All I wanted to ensure was that all sleep machines were working and no snoring would ensue (unless it came from me).
This hotel has a BAR! And they had a happy hour. So, as it would be churlish to turn down such an invitation, we had to partake of a drink or 3. Gin and soda (and we never did figure out what the colour came from) – delicious, and beer for Bill.
While we were on our second round, Barbara received an email from the Samurai guy to say that Bill’s suitcase would not arrive tomorrow night at Hakadote where we’re staying as there was a laptop in it. That meant it had to go by train, and wouldn’t arrive till we get to Sendai on the 20th. The notes re our suitcase forwarding from Nagasaki (as they were also being sent by plane) was very specific about not including any liquids or creams or gels or aerosols (we were very sure to not leave any of those in them), but no mention was made of laptops or the like. So Barbara instantly replied to the received email along those lines. I wonder how long it will take for a reply. Samurai Tours have been VERY slow to reply to anything, and VERY slow to sort anything out.
I have an air-tag in my suitcase (called Prunella, the rose) which shows that my suitcase is currently only 69 kms away so it’s already on Hokkaido and will hopefully turn up at the hotel in Hakadote tomorrow afternoon. This time we’ve been without the bulk of our luggage for 2 nights. Previously it’s only been 1 night. I need clean clothes.
I realised today, sadly for the first time, that South Korea doesn’t have the same power plugs as Japan, (no idea why I either (a) assumed they did or – more likely (b) forgot about checking totally), but does have the same power plugs as Europe. Guess who’s going to South Korea and omitted to put a European power adapter in her suitcase? Hopefully, I will be able to find one at the airport before I fly to Seoul next week, otherwise it will be a long 4 days without any devices. I’m getting the jitters just thinking about it.
September 21 now in Sendai
The hotel in Noboribetsu was the nicest of them all – and only the next 2 nights in Sendai to visit and judge. This place in Hakodate is old, in desperate need of renovation and dirty if my room is anything to go by. We spent the day waiting for and then sitting on the train, although we did get the chance to have a look at some of the geothermal area for which the place is famous BEFORE a massive thunder storm lit up the skies and dumped a deluge of rain.
Barbara’s and my suitcase were at the Hakodate hotel (once we asked for them which we’ve never had to do before), but Bill’s as per the email Barbara received yesterday has been sent to our next stop in Sendai. She also received a reply from Samurai Tours that was unsympathetic. How were we to know that a laptop could not travel with luggage that was only not allowed to have liquids etc? Their reply was they didn’t think it necessary to point out that the batteries of laptop would not be allowed.
Well that was entertaining.
Barbara and I went downstairs to send our suitcases on to Tokyo. (Bill’s will go tomorrow when we catch up with it.) On the lift back up I pushed 6 and assumed without checking that the lift had stopped at 6. Neither B nor I could get into our rooms. Bill should have been in Barbara’s so that was very odd. Assuming we’d been locked out of our rooms as our key cards didn’t work, I asked one of the cleaners to let us in. She did. To both rooms. Immediately I noticed the messy room – mine is tidy with the bed cover pulled across the torture device that is the mattress and the bags on the floor didn’t resemble mine.
I retreated to the door.
No wonder the key didn’t work. The room number was 526 NOT 626. Aha! I met Barbara exiting from her wrong room and pointed out the door number.
Another of the traveller’s wonderful experiences.
This morning after breakfast at which I had an omelet made especially for me and then tried one tiny mouthful and rejected because not only did it have no salt, but it had a strange taste. As the “chef” was making it from pre-mixed “eggs”, it had a pink tinge to it which I wasn’t able to decipher from the single taste I had of it. A piece of toast, a cup of coffee and some fruit and I was done.
Because we weren’t due at the railway station till just after midday, we decided to check out one of the sights of Hakodate. It’s got a cable car going to the top of Mt Hakodate and we decided to go for a ride, Because we weren’t sure where it was, we decided to get a taxi there. We paid 1,800 yen each and walked into the cable car. As soon as we did that, I heard an Australian accent from a VERY LOUD and VERY “knowledgeable” Australian so I called out “Aussie, Aussie!” This wasn’t just ignored, but greeted with a withering look – not even in my direction. He spoke loudly about Melbourne, so Barbara said “oh and people from Melbourne know everything”. He and, we assume, his wife had a personal Japanese guide, and he regaled her with information about all sorts of things in such a loud voice that everyone got the “benefit” of his superior knowledge. When we were taking photos later on, Bill deliberately allowed him into one just because he could.
After the ride up and back and the obligatory walk through the gift shop where Barbara bought a couple of “poo” pens”, we descended in the cable car (once again with the rude Australian) and walked back to the hotel along the waterfront. The warehouses in the waterfront area have all been converted into huge shopping areas – their exterior walls are all red brick and they are very attractive.
Back at the hotel, we collected our backpacks and made our way to the train station for the local train to the station where the Shinkansen departs, and just on three hours later, we had left Hokkaido behind, and were once again back on the island of Honshu. The thing I noticed immediately on the train today was that the green fields of rice are now turning yellow and, in some areas, were even being harvested.
Tonight and tomorrow night, we’re staying in Sendai in the Metropolitan Hotel which is actually at the railway station in the midst of a million shops (and that’s probably not even an exaggeration). We have adjacent rooms on the 11th floor overlooking a large “meeting” area for want of a better description. Tonight after dinner (drinks in one place, then more drinks and food in another) we went for a wander in a large establishment that Barbara, on first walking in the door, called “Noel Leeming”. She wasn’t totally wrong – except in the sheer size. Floor after floor after floor of electrical goods . . . . We looked but didn’t buy.
Today we were supposed to be on a 1 hour cruise in Matsushima Bay about 30 minutes train ride north of Sendai. However the rain and cloud cover have made us decide not to. It’s raining heavily at the bay (and here in Sendai) and is forecast to do so all day. This is sad as it certainly looks spectacular.
September 22
Today is the day we returned to Tokyo.
Today our trip notes had us on a Shinkansen to a small town, to get onto a local train to go and spend 5 hours looking at shrines and temples, to get back on the local train to get to the perfectly good station we had abandoned before finally heading to Tokyo and arriving at our hotel at 5.30 this evening. I’ll bet you can guess what we did. We were at the hotel at 1.30 – too early even to check in. We’ve had enough shrines and temples to last us for the rest of our lives, and decided a few more didn’t need a visit from us. Besides which, it was raining.
At Tokyo Station before finding the train to take us to Shinagawa Station which is where our hotel is located, Barbara wanted to see the original station – and we found it.
It’s a magnificent 19th century edifice – it’s a lot wider than this photo shows.
In the distance, we spied a Hop-On / Hop-Off bus, but by the time we caught up with it, it had departed and wasn’t due back for an hour.
(Just back in my room after dinner. In one of the many places we’ve been, I found some coffee sachets, so I’ve made myself a cup of coffee too.)
1500 hours eventually arrived, and we were able to check in and collect all our luggage. That’s the last time I’ll be parted from Prunella – I know she’s pleased about that.
I’m on the 11th floor with a view of the car park, and B&B are on the 35th floor. When Barbara called me to talk about dinner, I suggested we try the food court. We went into it when we were here 3 weeks ago, but it was too daunting. We couldn’t figure out anything. This time, it was easy. It’s amazing how much we’ve learnt in 3 weeks. Barbara and I chose okonomiyaki (Japanese omelet made with cabbage, veges and egg – I make it at home when I have a surplus of cabbage) and it was delicious. The daunting part about it is that you have to order it on a machine which although, it offers an English menu, lies. The English menu isn’t really one at all. But this time we recognised words and hit buttons, got our alarm to let us know when it was ready and found a table. Barbara had tried to get alcohol, but given up because there were too many silly boys trying to play with the machine. I wandered back later and would have successfully ordered 3 beers on my own, except I thought I had put in a $10,000 yen note, but had only put in a $1,000 yen note and hadn’t known the machine was telling me that I hadn’t paid enough.
After dinner, we went for a walk – not outside as it’s pissing down – but still in the confines of this hotel. We wandered through a 7/11 – Barbara bought some chopped up fruit and I purchased nothing. Bill was gone for ages. On our way back to the elevator area, he suggested I should join them in their room for a drink. Having been rejected by both Barbara and me when he offered us ice cream, he had found and purchased a bottle of Syrah – from South Australia – Wolf Blass no less. We (well I actually) decided it would have a cork and although I was on the lift with them to Level 35, departed to go to Level 1, to get to my room where there was a pocket knife with a corkscrew. Long story short (and it is) the bottle did not need a corkscrew. Barbara and I both had a glass, and we’ve got more for later.
I found the laundry and have already done my washing. I told Bill where it is, how much it costs and how to get there, but he, bless, will do theirs tomorrow morning. Barbara and I are off to explore on our own!
My job is to find the street with all the little bars on it for us to visit tomorrow night. On Sunday, we will check out the sites via Hop-on / Hop-off buses, and in the evening, we’re having dinner with Barbara’s nephew who lives here in Tokyo.
It’s been raining since about 5 – very heavily, and looks like more of the same tomorrow. But Barbara and I know where to borrow umbrellas, so we will set off after breakfast.
September 23
Barbara and I headed to Nappori Fabric Town this morning.
Firstly, a stop at the station to figure out what train/trains we needed to find to get there. We’re at SGW (bottom centre) and wanted to get to NPR (top right). Piece of cake really.
Outside the station on arrival, we took the wrong exit and walked to the wrong street (a shopping street but not the one we wanted).
Alice (Barbara) asking for directions (lots of times) to Wonderland. And hey presto! Alice IN Wonderland. Check out the sign above Barbara’s head.
The last photo is of the galette we shared for lunch. A buckwheat flour crepe – delicious.
Mission accomplished (and fabric purchased too).
September 24
Being back in Tokyo has made me realise how much I’ve learnt in the last 3 weeks since I was last here. Getting around now is so much easier than it was then. The other thing about three weeks later is that it’s a lot cooler – well not actually that much in terms of temperature but the humidity is so slight as to be of no real problem. It’s really pleasant.
The Hop-on Hop-off buses we spied yesterday became our mission for the day, There are 3 different coloured buses going in different directions, but in some cases, covering a little of the same territory. I think the cost was about the equivalent of $40. Up on the top deck, it was very pleasant. It was only when I stood up to alight from the bus that I realised that it was highly likely that the buses had been out in the rain. The moisture wasn’t visible on the seats, but we were all wet where we had been sitting. The second bus was no different.
Our plan had been to get off the bus in the early afternoon at the Skytree so we would have time to check it out. We were to meet Ben, Barbara’s nephew, at the bottom to go and have dinner with him.
The Skytree is 634 metres high, and was opened in 2012 at which time it was the tallest television tower in the world. It’s still the tallest tower in Tokyo. BUT it was FULL of people – it is Sunday, I guess. There was a long queue snaking around to get to the machine where we were able to purchase our tickets. There are 2 levels to visit and we decided that we should do both. Timing eventually became an issue because of the length of the queues.
It was 3.45 when we purchased our tickets – about $40 each, and our allotted time in the elevator was 5.30. We were due to meet Ben, Barbara’s nephew, at 6.45.
There were I’d say about 500 people in each queue. About 40 people in the elevator on each ride – going 330 km an hour up. Ears popped. Got out of elevator and into next queue. Same number of people again.
The sun was setting rapidly and we were running out of time to meet Ben so I suggested abandonment and finding the queue to go back down which we did while Barbara zipped off to take photos. It was only when we were in the elevator queue that I asked Barbara where we were meeting her nephew. That was when she realised the meeting place – Tokyo’s version of Times Square – was a 35 min train ride away.
Much communication later, and a lot of walking, and asking for directions, we eventually found the correct station, and finally arrived at Shibuya (Tokyo’s Times Square) and arrived a the restaurant about 8pm.
The meat – Wagu beef – was cooked at the table. We were wearing bibs so we didn’t get splattered.
Beer, followed by lots of sake and we were ready for our next adventure. Karaoke!
We had so much fun. Ben rented the Karaoke room and the drinks were part of it.
We were back at the hotel by about 11.15. Best evening in Japan thanks to Ben!
September 26
Yesterday, Barbara decided she HAD to go back to Nippori just in case the fabric shops that weren’t open on Saturday were. She and Bill were in luck. They arrived back at the hotel in the late afternoon and we went out for dinner for our last evening together. Barbara had found a selection of restaurants in the Shinagawa Terminal that we’d missed on earlier visits. Dim sums, skewers, steak, stout and sake were consumed.
This morning we met for breakfast, and B&B departed for the next part of their adventure (motorbike museums and fabric shops).
I arrived at airport for my flight to my next destination – Seoul in South Korea – just on midday.
Wandered through the terminal and found Asiana Air – not expecting anything other than rejection at my request to Check-in for a flight that was 7 hours later. Imagine my surprise and delight to hand over my suitcase (I remembered on the train that my nail scissors which I’ve managed to retain despite the many flights they’ve been on were still in the spongebag in my carry-on backpack, extracted them and put them in my suitcase) and get my boarding pass. Yah!!
I took note of the location of the customs area for later and went to have a look at the shops in case there was something I couldn’t possibly live without. There wasn’t.
I lunched at Starbucks which has become a predictable haunt. It was always clean, cool, with excellent wifi. The food is reasonable and the coffee acceptable. Their BLTs are quite edible. So that’s what I did. The only fault is that their chairs and very hard and uncomfortable for someone with no rear-end padding. After about an hour there, I’d had enough and so went back to Customs and through to the flight lounge to wait.
I was supposed to board Air Asiana OZ105 at 1855. There had been a long line of people queuing up for some time who were three times sent away. Eventually, the announcement was made that the flight was delayed because of the late arrival of our aircraft. What I found interesting was that although the flight was 25 mnutes late leaving our time of touchdown was 20 minutes early.
I needed to find an ATM before I left the airport so I have some cash. But I never did find one.
As I was walking across to get the escalator to the ground floor, a man came up to me and asked me in unaccented English if I was looking for a taxi. When I replied I was, he took my suitcase and lead me down 3 escalators to Basement Level 3. There were, so far, no alarm bells. It was only when he lead me to a car that was quite expensive looking that there was anything of an alarm. The alarm went to Defcon Level 2 when there was no indication that this was a taxi. It slid to Level 3 when it became apparent that ‘taxi’ was the only word in English he knew. It slid all the way to Level 5 when he had no idea about the Sheraton Hotel. I grabbed my suitcase and hauled ass so fast I damned near tripped over. All I could think of as I retreated was why hadn’t I listened to the ting in my head in the first place. One elevator ride had me outside the terminal heading to a long line of brightly lit taxis!
At midnight, with my Wise card 85,000 KWR (about $105 NZ) lighter, I was checked in at the Sheraton and on my way to the 18th floor. I was so wired by that stage I would have needed a number of Black Cherry bourbons to quieten my brain.
Today is another day and my first day in Seoul. My room includes breakfast which I hadn’t expected. The dining room was full of Europeans. All the staff here seem to speak reasonable English.
The WiFi is variable – from ok to useless. And my phone is sulking. For the duration of my stay in Japan, I had global roaming turned off. It never occurred to me to turn it on when I was at the Narita airport. Had I done so, I’m sure it would have picked up the change in location. Now it stubbornly refuses to connect. This is, of course, only a problem when I leave the hotel’s Wi-Fi.
The photo on the right above shows 2 churches. The one with the red roof is the Catholic one. The large one further back is the Presbyterian one. There are SO many things I could say, but I’ll refrain and let the photo speak for itself.
I noticed on the long drive from the airport last night a few things that have now been reinforced.
So going for a walk this morning turned out to be a mission, but also a steep learning curve.
- Motorway and street signs are only in Korean. Occasionally there’s an English name too, but not reliably. So walking around this morning with a map that had English names on it wasn’t very helpful – not that a map with Korean names on it would have been any more helpful.
- There are trains and subways – well entrances that I’ve noticed – but they will remain uninvestigated by me – there is no English I could see to indicate destinations. I might never return.
- English is not a common language in South Korea (and I’ll bet even less so in North Korea). So asking for help is not possible. No one even tries.
- There are 9.4 million people in Seoul. Tokyo has 37 million.
- There are 25 million cars in Seoul. Tokyo has 3 million. It was the huge numbers of cars I noticed last night and again today.
- There’s a lot fewer neon signs – or else I’m in the wrong part of the city.
I had been looking out my window and decided that it was time for a walk down there. So armed with a map and a card from the hotel so if the worst happened I could ask for directions – or just get a taxi (the card has the hotel name and address in Korean) I ventured forth – in the rain. I brought my rain jacket with me, but I’ve never used it as in Japan it was so humid that it was better to accept being wet. Although I put it on to start with, it’s so humid that it didn’t last long. I really thought I had it sorted out from the 18th floor as to what I was going to go and have a look at.
People who’ve known me for years will find it highly amusing and ironical that the only place I did find was the Catholic Cathedral.
The Cathedral Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception informally known as Myeongdong Cathedral was opened in 1898 and is the largest Catholic Church in South Korea. 11% of the population is Catholic.
From up on the 18th floor it was so easy, and had the sun been out, I would have figured it out. But at ground level it was tricky. None of the buildings had English names I could relate to the maps. I thought I’d done what I’d planned and walked around a couple of blocks – right handed ones. Surely that would lead me back to where I started. It did – I just needed to walk a bit further. But I hadn’t realised that – and in my defence, none of the lines around the blocks were straight.
I am pleased to say that my global roaming finally kicked in late this afternoon and most things are now working properly so going for a walk tomorrow will be easier as I will then be able to get directions back to the hotel with the exception of Find My – location services (I’ve discovered) are not available in South Korea. I guess intellectually I can understand why, but personally that’s a real nuisance as it means I can’t reliably assume I am where my phone suggests.
Before I start recording all the goings on of yesterday (my DMZ day), I need to remind myself that it’s a public holiday today. It’s Thanksgiving which started yesterday and continues till Sunday. So the street below me should be alive with people and cars at 9.15am. The streets are empty. But, more importantly from my perspective, none of the shops are open. This doesn’t bode well for my eating later in the day.
DMZ Day
I was up and out of the hotel at 5.55 to make sure I was at the appointed pickup at the appointed time. I was half an hour early but had no confidence I was at the right spot. 6.45 arrived for 7am pickup. No one there. 7am arrived. No one there except people on their way to work or out for their morning walk. The women all smiled at this strange blue-haired European woman leaning on a lamp post (which I would have had one been available). At 7.15 I hailed a taxi to take me back to my hotel. At least I was going to get breakfast.
While I was having breakfast, I got a phone call from the tour asking me if I’d received a WhatsApp message re changed timing they had sent at 6.50 which was AFTER the supposed meeting time. I hadn’t. She sent the message as an iMessage which I received. I had a different pick-up time at a totally different location. So I’d had 2 wasted taxi rides costing around KRW 20,000 (about $25).
Nancy, an absolutely lovely Korean woman, bounced up with name tags – labelled Team Nancy – for everyone and got us onto a large red bus – Americans, British, Germans, a Belgian, some Koreans, Spanish, South Americans, and me – for an English speaking tour.
She spent the first part of the hour long bus ride there telling us about how the war got started. She initially asked if anyone knew anything about it. I declined to comment. It’s much better, I’ve discovered over the years, to appear ignorant. I got into a heated discussion in Finland because I knew more than the guide about Finnish involvement in World War 2, and I’m not doing that again.
She did point out, however, that thanks to Travis King – the American soldier in civilian clothing who whilst on a tour much like ours, decided to run across the JSA (Joint Security Area) which has all the bright blue buildings (as below) into the North Korean area. As a result, the JSA is now closed to all tourists.
I made a comment to the people around me that it would have been better for the American gene pool if the North Koreans had kept him. As I wasn’t sitting with Americans, it was well received.
The first point of call was Paju-si – but before we even got there, the bus stopped, 2 soldiers got onto the bus – one South Korean soldier and one American soldier to check our passports against the list of people who were supposedly on the bus. I have not been able to find out how many US soldiers are in and around the DMZ, but there are approximately 26,000 US troops in South Korea.
Paju – today being a national holiday – will be heaving with people. This is the place that old Koreans come to send wishes and be as close to their families in the north as it’s possible to be. The Freedom Bridge is here (where 12,000 POWs were allowed to cross to the South when the cease-fire was finalised). There’s an equivalent bridge called the Bridge of No Return where people headed north at the same time. But as it’s in the JSA area, I didn’t get to see it.
In the grounds around this area, is a large amusement park. So the kids are entertained while granny goes and “talks” to her family. She would also put a ribbon on the fence so when the wind blows her love will got with it north.
This statue below with the empty chair is to commemorate all the girls, not just from Korea, but from many Asian countries, who were stolen by the Japanese and send to be sex slaves for the Japanese troops. Every Wednesday, at 10am, the 8 remaining Korean “girls” meet at the Japanese embassy in Seoul to demand an apology from the Japanese government. No apology has been forthcoming.
There’s a gondola going across a section of the DMZ (which is about 250 kms long and 4 kms wide). The land over which the gondola sails has not been cleared of mines. The land around the tower at the other side has been.
On the other side of the border is the North Korean village of Kijong, known by the US and the South Koreans as “Propaganda Village.” Built in 1953, this ghost town was constructed to lure South Korean forces over to the North.
However, the buildings at Kijong are all concrete shells with painted on windows that were never inhabited. Maintenance workers sweep the streets for a town whose population is zero and for buildings that don’t even have backs on them. Ultimately, the only thing this town can successfully boast is a record for the fourth tallest flagpole on Earth at 164 metres.
There are about 15 to 20 tunnels under the DMZ which have been dug out by the North Koreans in preparation for an invasion. We visited the 3rd tunnel. It was found on October 17, 1978. An underwater gush during an expedition revealed its form. Located only 52km from Seoul it is considered more threatening than the first and second tunnel. It ranges 2m in diameter, 2m in height, 1,635m in length and averages 73m beneath the surface. There are 3 exits at the southern end and 30,000 armed soldiers can go though this tunnel per hour.
We were offered the chance to go down this tunnel. Many people did so and arrived back looking very very hot and sweaty. Even thinking about going into that tunnel gave me the claustrophobic sweats. I did not venture. There were many 6ft+ people in our group. They must have been damned near crippled.
There are about 500 people living in the DMZ. They are officially South Korean. They are farmers who produce high quality rice which they sell to the government at a really good price. Once a year, in November, they have a festival where people can visit and purchase their products directly.
There are about 20,000 “defectors” living in South Korea. These are people who have made their way from North Korea to South Korea usually via China. The government gives them assistance to start with and provides them with housing, but most cannot hold onto a standard job. In North Korea to be considered as “employed”, you only have to work 1 hour day. So they are considered “lazy” by South Koreans. Mostly now, they end up running North Korean restaurants.
I have spent much of today writing. The Wifi is variable in strength and I’m often a couple of lines ahead of what appears on the screen. This of course means that if I’ve made a “typo” I have to wait for all the words to appear before I can return and fix them. It’s quite slow and frustrating. It has meant, however, that while I’m waiting for the words to appear on the screen, I can look out from my vantage point on the 18th floor at the cars below. Black, white or silver. That’s it.
I’ve gone fora couple of walks in opposite directions today to confirm my belief that there were no shops open. I was right. But fortunately for me, the Starbucks on the ground floor of this hotel was open. It’s really only a coffee and food dispenser of variable quality and variety – there is nowhere to sit. But I was able to purchase a sandwich for lunch and one for dinner so I’m set for food. And the lady who cleaned my room today, left me with a large number of coffee sachets.
My flight tomorrow night is about 10.30. I asked for a late checkout. I suggested 4pm, but only managed 1pm. Still a couple of hours less at the airport has to be good.
The last word (well image to be fair) goes to Jane. It would have been lots more fun WITH you!
Film & Food 