Im now back on Honshu in the city of Hiroshima with only three days left in japan after a brief foray last week into Hokkaido. With mixed feelings im kind of looking forward to leaving as a few things are starting to annoy. Despite being so advanced in some respects things such as the ticket offices in railway stations belong in yesteryear. The timetable bafflingly is not on computer but instead invloves the service personel taking an age to look through a book larger than the yellow pages. Any journey involving more than one or two changes takes forever. Also with little money left in the budget for this month finding accomodation is also a pain. Two nights ago i had to travel two hours from nagano to find somewhere i could afford and when in nagano i had to sleep in an internet cafe which was certainly a new experience. But despite this the last few days have had the best sights so far.
Yesterday i visited one of the best museums/memorials i have ever seen. The a-bomb memorial park and peace museum were unbelievably moving and it was a shame that i did not have more time having arrived that afternoon from Hakuba. The last few days have been hectic and with no respite today i took a day trip to Miyajima an island jut off the coast that is home to the `famous` floating tori as well as it turns out an amazing scenic walk amongst shrines, temples, pagodas and masses of tame deer. The island was amazing and was definately the best place i have visited in japan so far although the temperature has really started to get beyond bearable.
After i wrote last time i headed a few hours north of Hakodate to the capital of Hokkaido, Sapporo for a day and then onto Daisetzusan national park. Sapporo is a pretty boring place to be honest which was a shame as the hostel Inos place was the best ive stayed in so far on the entire trip. The Sapporo beer museum was the only real saving grace and a happy hour was spent trying the various samples. There are very few people who make it up to Hokkaido and those that do all seem to be english people all teaching in japan, which seems to be becoming ever more popular as the demand exceeds the supply. As Sapporo was only worth a day i headed to Daisetsuzan national park in the hope of getting some decent hiking done as well as possibly seeing some bears. Everybody's image of japan is of densely packed buildings with everybody living on top of each other, but as soon as you leave Tokyo and the endless cities that merge with it the country becomes some of the wildest landscapes ever.
I stayed at Sounkyo which is a small hot spring resort town which provided a great base in which to carry out some hikes around the various local peaks and hopefully to the volcanically active mt. Asahi. First day i headed to some waterfalls that appear on all the photos of the area, and to be honest they were much more underwhelming in real life. But the second day i headed up on the rope way and from the top an hour or so climb to the top of mt. Kurodake. From here i was hoping to do a big loop on the mountainous plateau and across to an active caldera. As soon as i reached the top of Kurodake the weather started to go pear shaped and i made it to a glacier before strong winds and driving rain meant i had to turn around. I saw a tiny bit of the crater with the sulphur river but managed to miss the bear that everyone else saw, big time gutted. Hokkaido in the end turned into a bit of a wash out which was a shame as it was the last opportunity for hiking for a while. Despite this the relative cool made a great change to the 35 degree 80% humidity down south.
Trying to make the most of my remaining week i took the fourteen hour train to Nagano of Olympic fame. I got in at near midnight and had nowhere to stay so crashed in an internet cafe. The good thing about japan is that they have a variety of unusual cheaper ways to sleep than would be elsewhere mainly due to the fact the trains stop so early. Most parks have a spot for those with `difficulty commuting` as the trains stop so early. Nagano has few sights so i took the scenic local train to the nearby mountain city of Matsumoto which has the oldest and probably the best castle in japan. The castle and the city as a whole were great having an atmosphere unlike anything else i have seen in japan. Being a hot sunday afternoon the entire city was out in carnival atmosphere with food stalls lining the streets and people playing on the towns river beach. From Matsumoto having not found anywhere affordable i took another scenic train up into the mountains to Hakuba. The hostel here is part of the K hostel chain which provides an amazing service and if you ever visit japan this is highly recommeded although also very popular. Hakuba being off all the main routes meant another early morning in order to get to Hiroshima but it was well worth it for an afternoon in the peace park.
The last three days as you can imagine are packed starting with tomorrow with a trip to Himeji castle on the way back to Kyoto. From Kyoto i can day trip the ancient capital Nara and go the baseball before my last day in Osaka then on to Hong Kong and China on saturday.
Tuesday 27 July 2010
Sunday 18 July 2010
Culture Shock
As of today i have been in japan for 12 days and everyone has been truly amazing and impressive。Everything about japan is both new and high technology as well as preserving the culture and traditions。Normally technology spells the end of any culture but somehow it exists here in harmony.
My last day in vladivostok summed up everything i like about travelling. I met Ben a fellow english traveller who i looked around vladivostok with before going to the funniest football match of my life before missing the last bus walking forty minutes back in the dark and poring rain before being invited to a random russian 25th birthday by some people on the street. We were essentially guests of honour and were plied with vodka and food for several hours. The only trouble is these nights always occur when i have to get up early for a very important bus or train. This time after retiring at 3am i struggled manfully to pack my things and get to the bus which left at 9am and then make my flight to japan. Utter madness, when your travelling thecommon sense with regards to nights out merging with early mornings is forgotten.
I arrived in narita that night, managed to negotiate the mass of signs and information and get on the correct train to tokyo. It really isnt that bad but i had got into a comfort zone in russia being able to read signs etc and it was certainly a jolt. July is japans rainy season and this has pretty much shaped my time here. Go out in the baking hot sunshine try and get undercover for the crazy hours of rain that are about to arrive. I had three days in Tokyo seeing the sights most of which were traditional gardens, islands of of peace set among the craziness and sky scrapers all around. I also had one 4am start to get to Tsujiki the largest market in the world to see the tuna auction. As instructed i arrived at 5am to be told that i was late and it had finnished. Instead i had very fresh early morning sushi. I know sushi is pretty popular but this has completely passed me by. I had tried it once before and not enjoyed it and this was no better. Sitting in a very intimate restaurant surrounded by people saying this is the best thing they have ever eaten while i am sat there trying not to throw up. Oh well a good thing the rest of japanese quisine is immense.
In tokyo i had inishaly planned to spend four days but i managed to tick off two areas of tokyo a day as well as go to shinjuku at night. Honestly you dont know what a crowd is until you have been here, and it seems everybody is going the opposite way to you. I had heard that there was a major festival on in kyoto in three days so i rearranged my plans and somehow got the last bed in the city. With three days to kill i decided to try to climb mount fuji which is japans highest mountain and only 2 hours away. The climbing season is only for two months and in this time hundreds of thousands of people climb. The first two days the weather was so bad i couldnt even see the mountain but on the third it was my final chance so i got ready and started climbing. Most go from the 5th station about halfway but i decided to go traditional and start from the segen shrine right at the bottom. Being pretty good at walking by now i made good progress and managed to pick up two americans on the way. By the time i got to the top at 3776m (nearly three times Ben Nevis) 10 hours later i was glad i had. The weather was so bad that you couldnt see the person standing next to you and with the high winds and rain it was pretty dicy not ideal on your own. The final section was like slow motion, fuji is high enough for altitude sickness and by the end it was take ten steps and take a break just to slow your heart rate to an acceptable level. By this time it was also dark so we spent the night in a mountain hut at the 8th station (3200m) before stupidly running down in 1 hour (supposed to be 4 hours) to the 5th station. At that point i just wanted to get off the mountain as i had a splitting headache from the altitude and just wanted to be in the warm. The run down screwed my legs for days.
After Fuji i headed to Kyoto which is the culture capital of Japan. There is a shrine or temple or zen garden everywhere you look. I had two days of wandering through these before going to the Gion Matsuri festival. Kyoto was packed and so were all the places to see which kind of ruined it a bit. Having to jostle through crowds to take a photo isnt great. The festival though was great, the night before the whole city was on the streets in traditional kimonos as they decorated giant wooden floats and sold amazing street food. The day of the festival the streets were lined with decorations and for three hours the huge procession of floats were pulled through the streets. Any festival in japan would be great and Gion Matsuri is one of the biggest.
That night as i hadnt got a bed i had planned to take the night train to Hokkaido. Unfortunately this meant a 7 hour layover between trains and my plans to sleep in the station ended at 2am when they kicked me out. So i had three hours wandering the streets with all my stuff in some dodgy area by the station before i could get in and go back to sleep. Fortunately Japan is pretty much the safest place on earth, but i wouldn't have liked to have tried that in many places i have been. But happily 7 hours later after passing through the longest under sea train tunnel i was in Hokkaido and last night i was treated to the Keirin cycling and an unexpected spectacular view of the city and a huge fireworks display from my guesthouse halfway up the mountain overlooking Hakodate.
Sorry this has been a long one but its the first time i have had internet that isnt an absurd price. One thing with Japan is you have to watch the pennies as the pounds just disappear.
My last day in vladivostok summed up everything i like about travelling. I met Ben a fellow english traveller who i looked around vladivostok with before going to the funniest football match of my life before missing the last bus walking forty minutes back in the dark and poring rain before being invited to a random russian 25th birthday by some people on the street. We were essentially guests of honour and were plied with vodka and food for several hours. The only trouble is these nights always occur when i have to get up early for a very important bus or train. This time after retiring at 3am i struggled manfully to pack my things and get to the bus which left at 9am and then make my flight to japan. Utter madness, when your travelling thecommon sense with regards to nights out merging with early mornings is forgotten.
I arrived in narita that night, managed to negotiate the mass of signs and information and get on the correct train to tokyo. It really isnt that bad but i had got into a comfort zone in russia being able to read signs etc and it was certainly a jolt. July is japans rainy season and this has pretty much shaped my time here. Go out in the baking hot sunshine try and get undercover for the crazy hours of rain that are about to arrive. I had three days in Tokyo seeing the sights most of which were traditional gardens, islands of of peace set among the craziness and sky scrapers all around. I also had one 4am start to get to Tsujiki the largest market in the world to see the tuna auction. As instructed i arrived at 5am to be told that i was late and it had finnished. Instead i had very fresh early morning sushi. I know sushi is pretty popular but this has completely passed me by. I had tried it once before and not enjoyed it and this was no better. Sitting in a very intimate restaurant surrounded by people saying this is the best thing they have ever eaten while i am sat there trying not to throw up. Oh well a good thing the rest of japanese quisine is immense.
In tokyo i had inishaly planned to spend four days but i managed to tick off two areas of tokyo a day as well as go to shinjuku at night. Honestly you dont know what a crowd is until you have been here, and it seems everybody is going the opposite way to you. I had heard that there was a major festival on in kyoto in three days so i rearranged my plans and somehow got the last bed in the city. With three days to kill i decided to try to climb mount fuji which is japans highest mountain and only 2 hours away. The climbing season is only for two months and in this time hundreds of thousands of people climb. The first two days the weather was so bad i couldnt even see the mountain but on the third it was my final chance so i got ready and started climbing. Most go from the 5th station about halfway but i decided to go traditional and start from the segen shrine right at the bottom. Being pretty good at walking by now i made good progress and managed to pick up two americans on the way. By the time i got to the top at 3776m (nearly three times Ben Nevis) 10 hours later i was glad i had. The weather was so bad that you couldnt see the person standing next to you and with the high winds and rain it was pretty dicy not ideal on your own. The final section was like slow motion, fuji is high enough for altitude sickness and by the end it was take ten steps and take a break just to slow your heart rate to an acceptable level. By this time it was also dark so we spent the night in a mountain hut at the 8th station (3200m) before stupidly running down in 1 hour (supposed to be 4 hours) to the 5th station. At that point i just wanted to get off the mountain as i had a splitting headache from the altitude and just wanted to be in the warm. The run down screwed my legs for days.
After Fuji i headed to Kyoto which is the culture capital of Japan. There is a shrine or temple or zen garden everywhere you look. I had two days of wandering through these before going to the Gion Matsuri festival. Kyoto was packed and so were all the places to see which kind of ruined it a bit. Having to jostle through crowds to take a photo isnt great. The festival though was great, the night before the whole city was on the streets in traditional kimonos as they decorated giant wooden floats and sold amazing street food. The day of the festival the streets were lined with decorations and for three hours the huge procession of floats were pulled through the streets. Any festival in japan would be great and Gion Matsuri is one of the biggest.
That night as i hadnt got a bed i had planned to take the night train to Hokkaido. Unfortunately this meant a 7 hour layover between trains and my plans to sleep in the station ended at 2am when they kicked me out. So i had three hours wandering the streets with all my stuff in some dodgy area by the station before i could get in and go back to sleep. Fortunately Japan is pretty much the safest place on earth, but i wouldn't have liked to have tried that in many places i have been. But happily 7 hours later after passing through the longest under sea train tunnel i was in Hokkaido and last night i was treated to the Keirin cycling and an unexpected spectacular view of the city and a huge fireworks display from my guesthouse halfway up the mountain overlooking Hakodate.
Sorry this has been a long one but its the first time i have had internet that isnt an absurd price. One thing with Japan is you have to watch the pennies as the pounds just disappear.
Saturday 3 July 2010
Time travelling
Since i last wrote quite a while ago i have spent an equal amount of time on a train as well as off it. The problem with having only a 28 day visa and crossing the country by train is that a week is already taken off your trip, see five places and thats it time to go. Until you visit russia you just dont realise how huge it is, 8 timezones in all. I am now in Vladivostok the furtherst east i will be in the entire trip, further east than Australia. I thought this morning what would happen if FC Vladivostok ever qualified for europe some Liverpool fans trying to work out how a place 12 hour flight away was in the UEFA cup.
Most of the cities in Siberia are worth no more than a day unless you can visit the surrounding area. Yekaterinburg proved that way although i had two days there as i messed up my tickets, i thought i had booked 6am but i was looking at the date rather than the time. I managed to get out to see the Europe asia border marker which is in the ural mountains just outside of the town as well as the church of blood where the romanovs (anastasia story) met their grisly end. This was essentially everything and as there was no one else at the hostel a day relaxing by the river and the park was a good option. The mix up in tickets also meant i was able to watch england slovenia which was predictably tense and drab affair. I left fairly confident we could improve as we had won the group and had ghana in the next round.
The train station turned into a massive stress as the taxi was late and I arrived about 10 minutes before the train was due to leave and could not find it. As i was due to spend the next three days on it i could not really afford to be left behind. After frantically searching every platform it turned out it was late (nothing had been even remotely late to this point) but there was no one to explain this and after an hour or so with much relief i borded the train.
As with anything about travelling its the people and not the places that make the trip and the trans-siberian is no different. My carriage was full of people who did not speak english and did not want to try and make do with sign language etc that had tipified my time in eastern europe to this point. It proved to be three days of severe boredom as i proceeded to max out my ipod and books while staring out of the window at scenery that never changed. Since moscow the route of the train has showed countryside that to me looks like the wild west era of the USA. A group of small wooden cabbins amidst the forest and grass, with people eaking a living off small plots of land. Apart from the inevitable satelite dishes life has not changed much in hundreds of years. Outside of the cities and towns which are all 10+ hours apart its like serfdom of old.
The next stop was irkutsk next to lake Baikal. I had been looking forward to this for ages as i have hardly been able to hike or explore any countryside. I had an afternoon in irkutsk which despite the guidebook calling it the paris of siberia was plenty. I met tom (english) and patrick (dane/german) at the hostel and together we went out on a night out i shall remember for a long time. As there was little else to do we had a few beers in a bar where i expected to see england play ghana until patrick broke the news that england were playing germany the next day. A few beers led us to a packed club where everyone was in swim wear. Despite being heavily overdressed we headed in and soon realised why as it turned into a massive foam party with some very friendly locals. Im not sure what time it finished or we left but the three of us im pretty sure just made the bus at 7.45 the next morning heading to Olkhon island.
Olkhon was an amazing place, we reached the island itself after 4 hours of driving before having another 3 hours to get to the village where we were staying. Desperately in need of some sleep i managed part of the journey but after the ferry it disintegrated into essentially driving accross the peak district with no road. Everyone drives the old soviet trucks that will go anywhere and do anything and even a 4x4 i doubt would have made it. Kuzhir the village had only got electricity 5 years ago and was stuck in a time warp with wooden houses and cows wandering around the streets. Luckily that evening we found a tv and twenty people (90% german) crowded around the 5 inch screen to watch the game. Completely gutted.
I had a few days on the island and managed despite the drizzling weather a mountain bike ride accross the central hills to the deserted east of the island, as well as a tour. I even managed a swim althought the 7 degree water was hardly inviting. The guest house we stayed in was properly rustic with outdoor toilets and showers but three meals a day of home cooked amazing food. Your realise that Baikal is huge not only in surface area as well as the depth over a mile in some places. Standing on the cliffs you could see forever. I took so many photos which i shall sort through before uploading although i didnt see a seal.
I was gutted to leave so early but my train was the next morning. It was 72 hours but his time with some nice russians Serghei his wife and his mother, who were heading back to the air force base in vladivostok after visiting home. Most russians i have met on the train are in the armed forces and these guys showed true hospitality stuffing endless quantities of home made schnapps, beer, smoked fish, sausage and cheese down me. Its no suprise you dont see many old guys and those over 30 have a mouth full of gold teeth as the diet is horrendous. The time passed really quickly getting off at a few stations to catch some fresh air and sample the delights being sold on the platforms.
There is not a great deal to do in vladivostok apart from get ready for my flight on wednesday to japan. Really looking forward to it although i think a massive culture shock is due.
Most of the cities in Siberia are worth no more than a day unless you can visit the surrounding area. Yekaterinburg proved that way although i had two days there as i messed up my tickets, i thought i had booked 6am but i was looking at the date rather than the time. I managed to get out to see the Europe asia border marker which is in the ural mountains just outside of the town as well as the church of blood where the romanovs (anastasia story) met their grisly end. This was essentially everything and as there was no one else at the hostel a day relaxing by the river and the park was a good option. The mix up in tickets also meant i was able to watch england slovenia which was predictably tense and drab affair. I left fairly confident we could improve as we had won the group and had ghana in the next round.
The train station turned into a massive stress as the taxi was late and I arrived about 10 minutes before the train was due to leave and could not find it. As i was due to spend the next three days on it i could not really afford to be left behind. After frantically searching every platform it turned out it was late (nothing had been even remotely late to this point) but there was no one to explain this and after an hour or so with much relief i borded the train.
As with anything about travelling its the people and not the places that make the trip and the trans-siberian is no different. My carriage was full of people who did not speak english and did not want to try and make do with sign language etc that had tipified my time in eastern europe to this point. It proved to be three days of severe boredom as i proceeded to max out my ipod and books while staring out of the window at scenery that never changed. Since moscow the route of the train has showed countryside that to me looks like the wild west era of the USA. A group of small wooden cabbins amidst the forest and grass, with people eaking a living off small plots of land. Apart from the inevitable satelite dishes life has not changed much in hundreds of years. Outside of the cities and towns which are all 10+ hours apart its like serfdom of old.
The next stop was irkutsk next to lake Baikal. I had been looking forward to this for ages as i have hardly been able to hike or explore any countryside. I had an afternoon in irkutsk which despite the guidebook calling it the paris of siberia was plenty. I met tom (english) and patrick (dane/german) at the hostel and together we went out on a night out i shall remember for a long time. As there was little else to do we had a few beers in a bar where i expected to see england play ghana until patrick broke the news that england were playing germany the next day. A few beers led us to a packed club where everyone was in swim wear. Despite being heavily overdressed we headed in and soon realised why as it turned into a massive foam party with some very friendly locals. Im not sure what time it finished or we left but the three of us im pretty sure just made the bus at 7.45 the next morning heading to Olkhon island.
Olkhon was an amazing place, we reached the island itself after 4 hours of driving before having another 3 hours to get to the village where we were staying. Desperately in need of some sleep i managed part of the journey but after the ferry it disintegrated into essentially driving accross the peak district with no road. Everyone drives the old soviet trucks that will go anywhere and do anything and even a 4x4 i doubt would have made it. Kuzhir the village had only got electricity 5 years ago and was stuck in a time warp with wooden houses and cows wandering around the streets. Luckily that evening we found a tv and twenty people (90% german) crowded around the 5 inch screen to watch the game. Completely gutted.
I had a few days on the island and managed despite the drizzling weather a mountain bike ride accross the central hills to the deserted east of the island, as well as a tour. I even managed a swim althought the 7 degree water was hardly inviting. The guest house we stayed in was properly rustic with outdoor toilets and showers but three meals a day of home cooked amazing food. Your realise that Baikal is huge not only in surface area as well as the depth over a mile in some places. Standing on the cliffs you could see forever. I took so many photos which i shall sort through before uploading although i didnt see a seal.
I was gutted to leave so early but my train was the next morning. It was 72 hours but his time with some nice russians Serghei his wife and his mother, who were heading back to the air force base in vladivostok after visiting home. Most russians i have met on the train are in the armed forces and these guys showed true hospitality stuffing endless quantities of home made schnapps, beer, smoked fish, sausage and cheese down me. Its no suprise you dont see many old guys and those over 30 have a mouth full of gold teeth as the diet is horrendous. The time passed really quickly getting off at a few stations to catch some fresh air and sample the delights being sold on the platforms.
There is not a great deal to do in vladivostok apart from get ready for my flight on wednesday to japan. Really looking forward to it although i think a massive culture shock is due.
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