What a last week is has been!
My brother came over to visit me.
|
Hello you lot,
I let him get sorted out as I walked back to the office to get Bikey-san. When I got back we went on the internet and found a Ryoken near Mt Fuji. I phoned them and booked one night at Taiseikan near Hakone for Saturday night. It cost 52 000Y (GBP260) a for the two of us but you do get two meals, Evening one is Kaiseki style, and breakfast served in guest's room by maids wearing "kimono", so I think it is worth it for the experience. It is my last weekend here in Japan. Then we went to Shinagawa Station to buy the train tickets to the Hakone. Simon was very excited when we learnt that you could get the Shinkansen or Bullet Train to Odawara, directly from Shinagawa Station so we bought tickets to there and we will then go on a bus or local train to Miyanoshita Hakone.
Tuesday; I went to work and Simon went to the Imperial Palace. He couldn't get over the fact that the Koban or Policemen kept bowing to him! Reza had to cycle down to the immigration department in Shinagawa and said that he saw my brother walking down the 15. That night I showed Simon the local "Damaru Peacock" Supermarket that has links with Waitrose (you see things like Waitrose own brand tea). It was just good fun trying to guess what the things on the shelves were. I got some more of the molasses covered log things. Simon said that he liked them as well but did agree with me that they did look like something a dog would leave on the pavement.
The meal was very good and because Matt and Ako were there, he didn't have much trouble getting Veggie food. He had some Sashimi Maguro, raw Tuna (probably the best kind of fish to have if you what to try Sashimi or Sushi) Simon was very happy with this and described Sashimi as "Hardcore Sushi" because it doesn't have any accompanying rice. All in all, including three drinks, the bill was only 2500Y or GBP12.50, so it was quite cheep as well.
Ako showed us what train to get on to get back home and we were able to do it with no problems at all. I did have to go to the toilet when we were waiting for one connexion and when I got back, about 5 mins later, he said that we had missed two trains. I reassured him that there would be another one along in a minute or so, and there was. The platforms were still crowded even at 23:00 but we were able to get a seat on the train all the way to Shinagawa. Thursday; Had to walk to work because I had left Bikey-san at the office last night. It is getting very Tropical now, even at 9:00 in the morning the sun is very strong and I try to hop from shade to shade to keep out of the sunlight. And its not even the end of April yet. It not quite like the UK. Friday; After work we went out with Matt to show Simon Roppongi. First we stopped at the Hartland in Roppongi Hills, the giant tower block development in the middle of Roppongi. There is a Dancing fountain outside there that looks like the end of "Close encounters of the third kind." With its light show and surround sound. And this is just a fountain!
On the way home I took a picture of Simon by a very strange looking entrance indeed! We walked back to the office and I collected Bikey-san and then we walked back to my place as the last subway train had gone. It took about 1/2 an hour and was pretty uneventful except for when I cycling so slowly so that Simon could keep up with me and wobbled and scraped my arm on a wall. I didn't do too much damage but it did hurt!
We got a mountain bus from the rail station to Miyanoshita where the Taiseikan Ryokon was because it meant that we didn't have to change. The bus driver was very friendly and told us when it was our stop. We got there around 11 and check in wasn't until 3 so we had a walk around the town, not much there except for a few gift shops and some other hotels. Had lunch at a "Sweet restaurant" that only really did sweet food like tofu ice cream and sweet beans. The food looked very good but Simon said that some of the tastes were a bit funny.
When we got back to the town, the heavens opened and we got very wet. Simon when into a couple of shops to get some souvenirs and in one wood caring shop he was ages because the woman took so long to rap the gifts up. I asked him had she gone out the back to carve them?
The desent down the hill to the Ryokan was great fun even if it did mist up and you couldn't see out very well. The place its self was lovely we had to make our way over two bridges to get to the main check in place. We had to take off our shoes and these were taken away. (well, I thought, you could very well do a runner if you could pay with out your shoes. Now could you?) The room was very traditional and we were given traditional Japanese cloths to ware while during our stay. The socks were the best bit as they had a big toe bit! A maid in a kimono came in a gave us tea. Then we were left alone to change into our garments.
There was nothing much to do there except have a hot spring bath and watch Japanese TV. Matt said that it was the kind of place you took your girlfriend to because you had to make your own entertainment! Sunday; Got up quite early and had a look at the Public bath. Didn't fancy it that much so went back to the room and had a private one there. The water is supper hot and comes straight out of the ground, its heated by the volcanic activity. I found that it was a little too hot for my liking and had to shower myself with cold water to cool myself down. It has stopped raining and was a glorious morning. Looking out of the window you could see the river running by and the Outdoor Public Bath, with steam coming off it. About 7:45 a man came and put our futons away for us and the maid came in and set up breakfast. There was fish, rice and miso soup even a small pudding! All the food was very good but some of the tastes were not my cup of tea but you don't know these things until you try them, do you? We checked out and had to wait at the bottom of the cable car for it to turn up. We watched the river and the sun pour through the fresh new leaves on the trees and thought what I nice place this was.
When we got to the very top of the hill we have to change Ropeway systems to go down the other side. This was an older system and the gondolas were a lot smaller. As you descended to the lake you had a wonderful view of Fuji-san. So Simon could tick off another thing on his list. I thought it was a great sight and understand why the Japanese hold Fuji-san in such esteem, especially when it is active!
Once we were in Motohakone we got on the mountain bus and headed back to Odawara. The roads were very twisty but it was good fun until we got to Miyanoshita and passed the Ryokan that we stayed at, the traffic got very bad then and most of the time we were stationary. I nodded off a couple of times. It also made us late when we went to get the train back to Shinagawa. At the Odawara station we wanted to take the normal train to Shinagawa to save some money, as it had been a very expensive couple of days. With a little help from the station staff we got the right tickets and the right train and 90 mins later we were back in my flat in Takanawa. It was 17:30 and because my Sayonara party (See My Sayonara Party page) was at 19:00 we had to just drop our stuff off, put on a clean shirt and go back to Shinagawa st. to go to Shubuya. We had to meet up at the famous statue of the dog that always came to the station to find his master well after the master had died. The story was very similar to the Scottish "Lassey" tail.
Cheers me dears. Paul Fincher.
[Week 1] [Week 2] [Week 3] [Week 4] [Week 5] [Week 6] [Week 7] [Week 8] [Week 9] [Week10] [Afterwards] |
Monday; Got a phone call from Simon at work around 10 saying that he had arrived at Narita. I told him to phone me again when he was at Tokyo JR and about 2 hours later he phoned so I went to collect him from Takaracho Subway station. I was amazed because as I was walking up the stairs to the entrance he was walking down towards me and the first words he said were,
"I decided to come out of the rain " I showed him how to use the ticket machine, push all the lit buttons until it gives you a ticket, and took him back to the office. Toshiko made use Green tea and we sat in the meeting room and drank it. Because it was a quiet day Toshiko said why didn't I have the rest of the day off. So I took Simon back to my flat in Takanawa. It was the first time I had gone south on the Asakusa line and we ended up going on the wrong spur line and going to Shinagawa instead.
Had
our dinner in a Japanese noodle bar near the station. We were about the only
non-Japanese people in there so it must be good. We had to wait for a table, but
it wasn't too long. Then when we got the menus they had English subtitles. The
food was very nice but it did show up one problem if you are a Veggie in Japan.
Simon ordered some fried Vegetables, thinking that it would be pretty Vegetarian
but it had loads of bacon mixed in with it. I just had to help him out and eat
all the bacon for him. 
He cooked dinner and it was quite good considering. Well, a lot better then my first attempt when I ended up with rice soup!
Wednesday; After work we were going to go out with Matt to Ryogoku so that Simon could see a Sumo wrestler. I thought I have given Simon pretty good instructions on how to get to the Office but, guess what? There are two exits at Akabanebashi and he took the wrong one. Still, he bumped into Reza who put him right and he finally got here OK. One of the big problems that he had was that he couldn't see the Ashahi beer sign at the exit. When I took him back and showed him the 20foot high sign on top of the building directly in front of the exit he said that he was looking for a small sign like you might see on the side of an English bus stop and not something up in the air.
Ako showed Simon how to spell his name in Japanese, it looks like
"Si-a-mon " and she said that he should be called Salmon because that is what it sounds like to the Japanese ear. He is lucky because his name ends in an
"N" My name ending in an "L" causes problems. For two main reasons; They don't have a letter equivalent to l and they cant pronounce it, even if they did!
Afterwards we went down the road where all the Sumo wrestlers live and actually saw one. He was wearing just normal cloths so just looked like a fat Japanese person. Reza took some pictures of us with a statue of a Sumo and I took a good one of Simon
"eating" an infamous Fugu or poisonous puffer fish. 
We went to a number of bars before ending up in one that was virtually empty, but the bouncers wouldn't let us leave until we bought a drink, so we stayed for one drink and saw one girl who had a white cotton lacy band around the top of her jeans that maid it look like her jeans had fallen down and you could see her knickers. Very strange fashion. After we had left that place we finally went to a place that had some atmosphere. Matt said that most of the women here were Chinese, err.. Working Girls. I got pulled up to dance and had some fun but around 11 Matt said that he had to catch the last train home so we called it a night. Simon and I had to get up early the next morning anyway.
Saturday; We went down to Shinagawa Station to catch the Shinkansen to Odawara. 
We walked up the mountain and it took about 1 1/2 to get to the top, 808m above sea level. We stopped at a Shinto Shrine and gave it some money as an offering and clapped our hands to get the attention of the local sprits but they obviously didn't think much of our 50Y offering as it rained on us soon after that then turned to hail! When we got to the top it did stop raining and we even got some sunshine, for about ten minutes. We could see all the way down the valley back to Odawara and even out to sea but we could see Fuji-san! I think Simon was a bit disappointed about not seeing Mt Fuji and we decided to walk up to another ridge to see if we could see it from there. We couldn't so headed back. We met a Japanese family on the way and the Granny was very chatty. Though she only spoke Japanese! I understood the bit when she said that the Blossom was later here, being high up in the mountains, and how pretty it was. But that was about it she might have said about it raining but I couldn't be sure.
I was very glad when we got to the Ryokan. We had to wait at the cable car stop by the road for it to make its way up the hill to collect us. We watched a TV program about food and Onsen (Hot Spring Baths) while we waited. Every time the bloke in the program ate something he made strange noises and said how lovely it was.
The evening meal was very good and except for a Chicken drumstick Simon ate everything as it was mostly fish. A true Veggie would have gone very hungry indeed as even the vegetables had fish seasoning on them or came in a soup that contained fish of some sort.
We had a lot of travelling to do today. I calculated that it would be around 4 by the time we got back. First we went on the mountain railway, Hakone Tozan line, up to the town of Gora where the cable car started. The Hakone Tozan line was a real contrast to the supper modern Shinkansen that we travelled on yesterday. Everything was quite old and it looked like the mountain vegetation always threatening to reclaim it. But like all of Japans Railways, the train was on time! It was a fun journey though the mountain forests of bamboo but habitation was never very far away. You could almost see houses or shops on every bit of flat ground. Not that there was a lot of that around. When we got to the end of the line at Gora we walked around the town but there wasn't a lot there and after about ten minutes we decided to get on the cable car.
It went up the hill at about a 40degree angle. There were about six stops in all and they had to be arranged in quite a cunning way because as one car went up the hill another came down and when one stopped the other did as well so the distance from the bottom to the first stop had to be the same as the distance from the top to its first stop! Like the Ryokan cable car there was a passing place half way up. All the stops were at resorts and by the looks of it all had road access to them as well. I think this cable car was just for fun. 
At the top we got on a Ropeway, like a ski lift and the first bit was really new and exciting. As soon as you leave the station the gondola goes straight up into the air. It was like a fair ground ride but with much better views. I could see it being used in a James Bond film, especially when we went over the sulphur mines and you had the steam coming out of the ground.
Once we had got down to Togendai the little
tourist town on the banks of lake Ashinoko we went for a walk along the shore as it was only about 11:30 and we wanted to kill some time. The views of the lake were very nice and I think that a good day out would be to walk from the Ropeway to Motohakone, the town on the other side of it. We got back to Togendai and had lunch. Well, an ice cream and a cup of
coffee that was purposed to be Iced Green Tea but I don't think the lady who served us understood.
Then we went on a Pirate ship to sail down
Lake Ashinoko to Motohakone. The ship was a reproduction of the British ship that came to Ode back in 1886 when Japan was forced to start trading with the rest of the world. It was about halfway down the lake that we had our second view of Fuji-san. There was a running commentary of what you could see as we sailed past them. And in English as well!
The meal was very nice (well it would be because Ako had booked it) and it was just a pity that not everyone could come. Those that did, had a good time though. We had an early night as Simon had to get up early to fly back to England. We both slept like logs because we were plain worn out!