Nozawa Onsen - Fighting Bears & Eating Horses

The penultimate destination of our Japanymoon was Nozawa Onsen.  This skiing village an hour from Nagano boasts 21 lifts, over 1000m of vertical, longest runs over 10km and lift tickets for less than half the price of Australia (ski hire a bit more expensive).

Our plan was to fit in a couple of days skiing before heading back to Tokyo and home, but the weather had other ideas.  We woke to pouring rain (being late April it wasn't cold enough for snow) and had to spend our day chilling out indoors.  At lunch time, we braved the rain and walked down to a local restaurant that made a pizza as good as any in Italy and had a bottle of lovely Chilean shiraz (and people protest against globalisation?!).

Late in the afternoon, the rain cleared off enough for us to go for a walk.  We walked up to the base of the ski lifts to check out what we had been missing and then back along a nice path through the forest/cemetery towards the village.  On the way down, we saw a bit of movement behind a boulder a bit downhill of us.  We walked around the boulder to see what was there...

Holy Sh#t! It's a bear!

We walked around the corner to see a bear not too dissimilar to the happy character above smiling at us from about 5m away.  Summoning up all of our Australian courage we bravely ran back up the hill as fast as we could!  Later research revealed that what we saw was a Japanese black bear. It's brown colour suggests that it was still a juvenile, but it was still big enough to send us running!

After all the excitement of the day we needed a good meal - and the ryokan we were staying at (Ryokan Kiriya - lovely family run place, would recommend to anyone!) put it on in spades.  A huge spread of local delicacies including (amongst several other dishes) river fish, egg cooked in the the hot springs and horse sashimi! After quite a bit of hesitation from Em, she tucked into the pony to find that not only was it edible, but it was really tender, and the nicest cut of meat we have had in a long time!

Dinner.

Hiroshima

Back across the water we went for a day in Hiroshima.  Without a huge amount of time to spend we headed to the second main event in Hiroshima, the Hiroshima Peace Park (the main event being the baseball: Hiroshima Carp taking on the Tokyo Giants at Mazda Stadium).

The museum provides a very detailed, and in some places graphic, account of the atomic bomb dropped on the 6th of August 1945.  Photos from the time show the devastation over a massive area, with nearly everything within a 2km radius of the bomb destroyed.

After visiting the museum, we walked across the park to the A-Bomb dome (formerly Hiroshima Prefecture Industrial Promotion Hall), which was one of the few buildings to remain standing following the bombing.  This building has been preserved in the state that it was in following the bombing and is now World Heritage listed.

A-bomb dome.

Before the bombing (c/o wikipedia).

Miyajima

Miyajima is a small island off the coast from Hiroshima and is home to the famous floating Torii gate.



Floating Torii Gate.

We arrived late afternoon on a Saturday so the hordes of tourists were heading home for the day which meant we could wander around the main attractions with a few less people around. The other big ticket item to see on Miyajima is the Itsukushima Shrine, which dates back to the 6th century, with the current builidings dating to the 16th century.




Itsukushima Shrine illuminated at night.

Fun Fact: In addition to the temples and shrines Miyajima is also the birthplace of the rice spoon! 




2.5 tonne rice spoon.


The island is also another spot where deer roam freely around, stalking unsuspecting tourists and nibbling on any paper they can find.

Bambi and his mates.



Oboke

The one thing nobody tells you about is the urban sprawl in Japan, in some places it thins out a bit, but generally it is just town, after town, after town.  To get away we jumped off Honshu (Japan's main island) onto Shikoku. After a short stay in Takamatsu - as blogged previously - we hired a car and drove off into the mountains and headed for Oboke.



Red arrow points to Oboke.

As it was Adam's responsibility to organise the Honeymoon, I really should not have been surprised when white water rafting was added to the list of activities. I was pretty aprehensive about getting in a rubber dinghy and propelling down a raging river - the thought crossed my mind that he was trying to "off" me on our honeymoon...a tactic to get at my millions...

Luckily he picked an awesome location in the mountains where there are really steep mountains covered in Japanese Maple and cherry blossoms, so it made for a really nice break from the urbanisation that is Japan.




Oboke Gorge.


The really nice people at 'Happy Raft' including an Aussie bloke named Mezza and a Japanese guy named Taka (who learned English in Darwin and Broome from the locals whilst sleeping on a goon bag) made the whole white water rafting experience totally awesome.




Aussie Mezza, Japanese Taka, Adam and I.


In the afternoon we headed over to the Iya Valley, which is a really beautiful part of the world, to check out the vine bridge.  Apparently it was first built by Heike warriors fleeing the civil wars of the 12th century - now re-constructed every three years and reinforced with cable - it swings 10 metres above the Iya river.  Adam practically ran across it - whilst I carefully picked my way over. The main problem is that the planks where you put your feet are only two inches wide and are about 20 cm apart so you have to look down if you have small feet like me to make sure your foot doesn't fall through the gap.




Adam on the vine bridge.

There was no way I was going back over that bridge - so when I took this photo from the concrete road bridge - Adam was attempting a re-cross, only to get roused on by the attendant over loud speaker - neither of us speak Japanese but the message was loud and clear. 

Takamatsu

We left the mainland of Honshu to the island of Shikoku, and went to the port city of Takamatsu.  Our room had great views of the ferries coming in and out as well as of Takamatsu castle.

Part of the view from our hotel room.

The 16th century Takamatsu castle was just across the road from the hotel.  Like a lot of the historical sites we have seen, it was mostly destroyed by bombing in WWII.  But a couple of the buildings still remained and there was some reconstruction work underway.

Us in front of a turret at the castle which was constructed in 1676.

The next morning we once more hopped on bicycles and headed to Ritsurin-koen.  This garden was originally built in the mid-1600s and would rate as the best garden we have seen in Japan (better than the one in Kanazawa which was meant to be one of Japan's top 3 gardens).  One of the features of the garden were the massive, colourful carp in the ponds. Each of which would feed a family of 20 for a week!

Bridge at Ritsurin-koen

Nagoya

After a scenic three hour train ride we made it to Nagoya.  Our main plan for Nagoya was to go and see the Toyota factory, but unfortunately due to the earthquake they have shut down tours and some operations until May.  Luckily we got the next best thing, the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology, which was bigger and more awesome than the lonely planet would have you believe.

The whole museum is a hands-on experience which takes you through the Toyoda family business history, which started in textiles with the invention of an automatic loom and then moved into cars in the 1920’s.  There is a massive shed which houses about 50 looms and cotton spinning machines, from a late 1800’s version right up to the present day mega-loom which weaves tapestries.  As it was late afternoon and pretty quiet we got a mini-private tour where staff kicked over the old looms and explained how the processing worked. The noise made by the old looms was deafening and there was only six going, we can’t image what working in a shed of 100 looms would do for your hearing.

Type G Automatic Loom - steam powered back in the day.

The best bit was that unlike an equivalent in Australia nothing was behind a big glass wall and there may have been a few safety moments recorded which made it way more interesting. The museum then moved into the Toyota automotive pavilion which was again, massive, and showed a history of the steel development and then into the production. AND then... there was a robot playing the trumpet, what more could you want??




Robot playing trumpet...



The next day, after we recovered from the awesome-ness of the Toyota museum, we jumped on the Subway to go and see the Nagoya Castle.  The main castle building was destroyed by bombing in WWII, which is an absolute shame.  As it was of such high cultural significance it was pretty quickly reconstructed in the 1950’s, but unfortunately not to its former glory.  The exterior was beautiful but the interior was made into a museum, which whilst interesting, wasn’t nearly as nice as the photos of the old interior.  There are only two watch towers remaining of the original 1600’s construction.

Nagoya Castle.

They are currently in the middle of reconstructing one of the other castle buildings next door in a giant shed, with the amount of timber going into it, and the size of the shed, it will be pretty impressive when it’s done.

Tour de Takayama

After gaining some confidence riding around Kyoto, Em thought it would be a good idea to ride around Takayama.  So we hired a single geared bike and headed for the biggest hill we could find.

Em breaking away from the peloton.

We explored the old district of Takayama before riding around the temple district of Higashimaya (based on the Kyoto temple district of the same name) and then back again.
After a long day in the saddle, we relaxed in the private, open air onsen on the top floor of our hotel.

mmmmmm.... onsen....

Kanazawa

We arrived to a wet and windy Kanazawa.  But it was Buddha's (and Em's) birthday, so we had to celebrate - Teppanyaki style!

Sashimi entree to teppanyaki - 19th floor of the Kanazawa Crowne Plaza (really nice wine - French, 2005 Sauvignon Blanc)

I thought I ordered rare (Adam singes eyebrows).

Saturday morning was just as miserable, so we set out into the rain.  Luckily the loop bus took us everywhere we needed to go. First we checked out the geisha district of Higashi Chaya-gai including a 200 year old geisha house and a random outburst of Schubert from a string quartet in a teahouse window.  We were also caught up in someone very famous walking past... We still haven't worked out who she was, but there were TV cameras and people running from everywhere to watch her, and her entourage, walk past.

Can you identify this woman???

Next we visited the Kanazawa castle, which had been recently rebuilt.  Like all really important Japanese buildings, it was constructed of wood - and has subsequently burnt down on several occassions.  But the rebuilt castle was quite impressive - particularly for those engineers fond of timber construction.

Kanazawa Castle.

In the evening (with much clearer weather), we went back out to the geisha district for some night time sightseeing.  We were lucky enough to happen upon a traditional Japanese dance performance.

Nice hat.

Kyoto by bike

Kyoto has a million places to see and things to do and the most efficient way to see them all is by bike. All the locals were getting around on bikes and it looked pretty bike-friendly so we thought we would give it a crack.

Although we only had the bikes for the afternoon we were able to see heaps more than we would have been able to otherwise.  In the main temple district of Higashiyama there is a blossom lined creek called the "Path of Philosophy".  It was really beautiful with little temples and tea rooms dotted along the path, it was well worth the ride.



Path of Philosophy

The main river which flows through Kyoto, Kamo-gawa, has a great wide path which runs along its banks.  There were heaps of people sitting on the edge enjoying the end of the day under the cherry blossoms and walking/running/riding home from work.



Adam on the riverside bike path.

 Riding a bike around Kyoto was an awesome experience and we would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to see a lot in a short amount of time.  It is also part of the Japanese experience as most people own and seem to use their bikes as a major form of transport. 

Poison... Poison... Tasty Fish!!!

Channeling the spirit of The Simpsons, we took our chances with the deadly, but very tasty fugu (poisonous puffer fish).  Judging by the five course feast that followed, it seems there is more tasty fish and less poison than The Simpsons would have you believe.  After fugu sashimi, fugu noodles, fugu shabu shabu, kentucky fried fugu and fugu miso custard we were both very relieved to wake up the next morning alive.


Fugu Sashimi.



Em nervously posing next to a potentially fatal dinner.

Nara - 6 April 2011

Nara is first permanent capital of Japan and is a 40 minute train ride from Kyoto. It has eight world heritage sites and is a really nice town to visit.

Our first stop was the Kofuku-ji Temple where there are heaps of deer just roaming around the streets, parks and temples.  According to the map there was supposed to be a deer enclosure - but someone must have left the gate open. It was hilarious watching tourists who were trying to feed the deer, they got mobbed. 



Kofuku-ji Hall

The highlight of Nara's temples was the Todai-ji Temple and its Great Buddha Hall, called Daibutsusen.

Engineering fun facts:
1. The temple building is the largest wooden structure in the world at 48.74 metres high x 57.01 metres wide x 50.48 metres deep.
2. The current structure is a mere 2/3 of the size of the original.
3.  The 14.98 metre high Buddha contains 437 tonnes of bronze and 130kg of gold.



Todai-ji Temple



Lanterns outside of the Daibutsuden Hall.



Kyoto - Gardens, Temples and Castles

Kyoto is absolutely jam-packed with gardens, temples and castles.  There is just not enough time to see them all - so we went with the highlights package.

Fortunately from Gion (the area where we were staying) there are heaps within relatively easy access.  The subway makes getting to some easier, but a lot had to be seen on foot.

Over the past week we reckon we have, on average, walked about 6kms per day.  Fortunately we had a hot onsen at the end of every day to soothe the sore feet after a long day of walking.



Yasaka Shrine - shrine, gardens and food on a stick

Yasaka Shrine was really different to the other shrines across asia as once you get past the gate and the main shrine there is a huge park with cherry blossoms and vendors selling just about anything on a stick - Adam was pretty pleased about this and refused to eat anything that wasn't on a stick for days afterwards. See the photos tab for food on a stick photos.



Nijo Castle  - circa 1603 world heritage area




Shoran-in Temple - Buddhist temple with lovely garden and good views of Kyoto.




Tenryu-gi Temple - Zen - Heavenly Dragon, 14th century zen garden. Another world heritage listed temple.



Selfie in front of the Jojakkoji Temple.



Famous Arashiyama Bamboo Groves.



Kyoto

We made it to Kyoto via the Shinkansen, the scenery was a bit of a blur but it was an efficient, clean and comfortable trip - with heaps of leg room which was a major unexpected plus.

Kyoto is such a contrast to the modern hustle and bustle of Tokyo - the cherry blossoms are absolutely amazing against the beautiful old streets.

Given the season there are more Japanese tourists than westerners - all of the temples, castles and streets are packed with tourists.  We saw a maiko (Geisha apprentice) yesterday morning just going about her business, until she was hassled by tourists. 

The Ryokan (traditional Japanese accommodation) where we are staying is really cool.  There was a moment there where I (Emma) was about to divorce Adam when I realised we had no shower in our room - until we went to the onsen (traditional baths) then everything made sense.



Our room by day...




Our room by night...


The breakfast which is included is an absolute feast - fish (which you cook yourself on a mini grill), rice, tofu soup, miso, random cream thing which looks and tastes like clagg glue, plus a heap of other bits and peices.

Breakfast = yummy

Shibuya

For all that is trendy we headed to Shibuya...

Due to the conservation of power the famous screens at Shibuya crossing were all off which made for a interesting sight  - which most people will never see.  All the same Shibuya crossing was all that is promised in the guidebooks - a throng of people crossing in every direction.  But as is the Japanese way it was thoroughly organised chaos.



Shibuya crossing - not a great pic but you can see the mass of people and the lack of power to the giant screens.

 As most restaurants can be found in ally ways either down or up stairs we picked the restaurant with the awesome looking flag with no english as a good spot for dinner...and luckily it paid off.

Sashimi fit for a king. Amazing presentation and all yummy. And the wasabi packed an absolute punch.

After wandering around Shibuya for a while - past the love hotels...

We made it home after picking up dessert at a 'Family Mart'...yum...

Yes, you read correctly.  That is indeed an 'ice burger'.

Obaida - 31 March 2011


Today we ventured out to Obaida and Tokyo Bay.  Built on reclaimed land it is a strange island.  Home to SEGA world, Fuji TV (home of IRON CHEF), a giant ferris wheel, a cat cafe  where anything cat related can be found and shopping (no Japanese suburb is complete without lots of shopping centres).

The highlight of Odaiba would have to be the enormous ferris wheel - for 900 Yen - about ten bucks you get about 15 minutes on a 115m wheel which gives 360 degree views of the Tokyo bay, Ginza and all of Tokyo. It was a pretty hazy day and it had awesome views - we were pretty grateful that there wasn't an earthquake while we were up there though, that would have been bloody frightening.

Afterward we wandered down the main shopping stip of Ginza - which is pretty much a one-stop-shop for every luxury item we a) couldn't afford and b) probably wouldn't buy even if we could afford it.

Obaida Ferris Wheel



Shutter Bugs

Shutter bug spotting.

TOKYO: Days 1-3

Five pearls of wisdom - after three days in Tokyo:

1. Meals are ordered from a vending machine - look bewildered and confused and someone will take pity on you and show you how to order.
2. Earthquakes are not good for escalators - 35% of escalators are out of business.
3. Decent wine can be sourced from Seven11 or equivalent - as can just about every other item required for survival.
4. Trains are quick, reliable - sometimes packed and always on time. Train provides a cheap alternative to a hotel for a power nap.
5. Shutter bugs are alive and well in Tokyo - best shutter bug watching can be found in all major parks next to any blossom available.