Rich and Cat's Travels: Japan part 2

We had one more stop before Tokyo which was 2 nights in Takayama. This was a 4 hour train journey but you can’t beat this form of travelling which is far more civilised than planes. We recorded the speed of the bullet train at 170mph! Takayama was a more rural area but still with a Japanese town feel to it. Takayama was small enough to walk which is exactly what we did. We stayed in an Inn which was nice and enjoyed failing to find an open restaurant past 8pm. The ones that were open were and fully booked on a random weekday night. We settled for some good Mexican food we stumbled upon which had room for about 12-15 people and was packed with 1 guy running the whole show. The next day we walked to find a local market we had read about and as always google maps combined with trip advisor helped us get no where near but allowed us to stumble across a large supermarket which came in handy as we wanted to cook ourselves as we were still wanting more from our Kobe beef previously. Takayama had what they called Hilda beef which is still Wagyu beef and of very high quality although it is no Kobe. This beef is normally served thinly sliced rather than as a steak. We got to the market with the help of locals and were lucky that we caught the end of it for the day as we were sure it would be closed by the time we got there. We found a really nice Miso cooking sauce for our dinner and also snacked on the free tasters as well as buying some award winning crème Brulee, marshmallows and some freshly cooked deep fried chicken which they did really well.

The town was comparably in Japan very quiet and we even had a quick game of tenpin bowling with only 1 other person playing. He brought his own shoes and ball which makes him a serious player whilst also being very lame. On our hunt for a butchers we ventured up to the folk village near our place which had been highly spoke of on Trip Advisor which as we later learnt in Tokyo is not always trustworthy. Unfortunately we didn’t realise until we got there that this wasn’t an old school village but yet a tourist area where you had to pay to get in and view some old folk style buildings. This being our most favourite past time we decided that we wouldn’t be able to contain our excitement so we headed home. The next day we went back to the market to see it in full bloom along with the Cherry Blossoms which wouldn’t be able to see in Tokyo once we got there. We ate a lot of local food way too early in the morning then made our way to the train station for Tokyo!

Tokyo like any major city we have been to has a lot of the same features. It’s large, busy and when you’re in some of the large shopping malls you could be anywhere in the world. However Tokyo has retained a lot of its Japanese characteristics. It has vending machines everywhere, it has arcades everywhere but most of all the people are still friendly beyond belief. It may be because we had just been to China but what a difference. For example on out last night walking in the rain, which it did most of the time when we needed to walk anywhere, we were feeling daft as we failed to check the weather before choosing t-shirts and flip flops to wear. At the point of looking like drowned rats we were offered an umbrella by a complete stranger. We politely declined as we were close to our accommodation but the kind of helpful attitude we came across was a real delight. The city can also boast its safety as well. We walked through the city down small and badly lit alleys at 2am (which is another story) to find the streets empty and calm which unlocked bikes all over. The streets couldn’t feel safer and there was little fear of crime. You could drop your wallet and guarantee a stranger would miss his stop on a train to ensure you got it back. The comedian we watched in Osaka joked about Japan being the worse place to be a terrorist as locals rush to return your ticking bag back to you whilst you flee and during our time here we fully got to understood just how true this was. This all said the Japanese are very keen on their rules, even the ones that make no sense. They were avid followers of the obey the red man and the traffic light game. This is quite entertaining at 2am when the roads are empty and there are still people waiting for the green man with no vehicles within a 1 mile radius. It is funny when we look both ways and cross against a red man. The locals look at you as to say ‘I didn’t know you could do that’ and then they timidly follow in our rebellion like children knowing their doing something naughty.

We arrived at accommodation which was only temp for the night as we were stuck for finding any accommodation during the busy period. This was the only night we would get a private room before we moved on to our more budget friendly 8 bed dorm which would give us sleepless nights as immature tourist fail to understand that other people share the space that they sleep in. The usual noisy 1am in the morning type so I won’t rant J. Our first accommodation though allowed us for a very small fee have our own private onsen. This is a spa like big bath which is a must do in Japan but something you usually do in public however with a no clothes policy we were never too keen on having this experience with the general public. On top of that they won’t allow you to have tattoos on show so it wasn’t top of our list especially as we had done so many spas in NZ. The bath was very hot but lovely and relaxing although we did have to have a ‘panic’ read of the guide book before we went in so that we would know all the rules (as there are many).

The following day we were up at 5am to head out to see Mount Fuji which meant several hours on the train to get to the village closest to the mountain. You have to go early in the morning as it gets covered with cloud most days meaning after about 9am you cannot see most of it. We did get there nice and early and saw the mountain but the top of the cone was in the clouds but it was great to see it. We went for a walk around the nearby lake and enjoyed the views, while dodging millions of runners as a marathon was on in the area. After this we decided to head back and go to our new accommodation and head out to Akrabarba which is the large electronics area in Japan where they have arcades, shops and entertainment and it looks great lit up at night as there are so many LED signs around. The only thing we found it was missing was great bars so after struggling to find one, and ending up going to a local brewery place and drinking overpriced local ales (mine was not nice) we headed into the arcades and shops which were huge. We were disappointed with the arcades but they seemed to be set up for the true geeky gamers rather than people like us who like the coin push machines and the music/guitar hero based games.

The following day decided to head out sightseeing to all the big sites. First we went to the Government building which lets you go up to the observatory to get great views of the city and even Mount Fuji on a perfectly clear day (which is very rare and not possible on the day we went up). After that we headed to Harujinku which is the fashion area which is a great area and where you see all types of people and all types of fashion. We walked around for quite a while and did some shopping before deciding we were hungry so we headed to shinjinku where we found a set of cobbled streets which is locally known as ‘Piss Alley’, there are a couple of suggestions as to why it got this name but it is believed that it is because people used to piss in the street on nights out when they had too much to drink, but the government is trying (and failing) to rebrand it as ’memory lane’. Here was the proper street food area of Tokyo where you find a ‘restaurant’ which is often just a kitchen with a counter and order food which is served fast and cheap. Most places specialise in one thing and that’s all that is on the menu. We had a quick walk around and soon found a place with a queue so we joined it and waited to be able to sit at the counter and as it was a counter place you have to sit as soon as a space comes up, you can’t wait until there are two spaces next to each other or you may be waiting a long time. I made Rich go first so he could get the lay of the land as the place didn’t speak great English but our pointing skills came into use and they were really helpful. The place served ramen which is noodles in a soup but they also added a whole egg and some tempura to the ramen and it was lovely. Once we had eaten we paid the bill, a whole £4, and headed off to see a live show called robot restaurant (we had read on trip advisor that the food wasn’t great, and you didn’t need to eat there, but that the show was good so we thought we would give it a go and robots are always cool to see aren’t they). Well how do I describe what we saw…… firstly it was over the top, bright and loud, but we expected that as we are in Japan after all? For starters the bar where we had a drink before the show was a gold room, with mirrors and crystals everywhere and was so garish that it hurt your eyes. But what we didn’t expect was the complete lack of robots, in fact there really wasn’t any robots (I mean we are in Japan – where are my robots) instead there were a couple of remote control platforms which performers (mostly women in small outfits) jumped about and sang. There were several different stories, if you can call them that, told and none of them were any good. Even Kung Fu panda made an appearance, but don’t worry he wasn’t a robot but just someone dressed up. There were people dressed up in, in very bad costumes, as robots but that was about all. Afterwards we walked out, feeling like that was a couple of hours we would never get back, unsure what we had really watched and feeling that we had learnt a valuable lesson – don’t trust trip advisor!

After that we headed to Shubya where there is a very famous crossing as it is very busy and we wanted to be there at rush hour, but we hadn’t quite been prepared for rush hour in the pouring rain (especially as I was in flip flops). We did cross the crossing twice and it was very hectic, especially with all the umbrellas around. After this we decided to head to the fish restaurant we had booked but it was a longer than expected walk and we finally go there about 35 mins later looking like drowned rats. After eating in a very quiet (at one point we were the only guest but there were 2 waiters and 2 chefs in the open kitchen) but lovely restaurant we headed home for hot showers and an early night.

The next morning we were up at 2am to head to the fish market and watch the famous tuna auctions, which start at 5.30. All the guide books say you need to be there by about 4.30 in order to get one of the 120 spaces to watch the action but as there is no public transport at that time you either need to find a cab or walk and as it was just over 6kms from our hostel we decided to walk (mad aren’t we!). So we walked all the way there, got lost a couple of times thanks to google maps and arrived at 4.12 only to be told that it was full, and had been from around 3.30. Unsure quite what to do at this time in the morning and not wanting to walk the 6kms back we tried, and failed, to find some breakfast (all we could find was savoury Japanese food and coffee when I wanted tea and pancakes). So we walked around the market until the subway started at 5 and headed home for some sleep. After a nap we decided to head out to see the ‘Golden turd’ which is a golden statue on top of the Ashai building. After this we headed over to a new area to have a look around and walked into another ramen place which was obviously a place liked by locals as it was full. It was really interesting though as there was a window so that you could see the chef making the noodles and they were some of the best noodles we have had so far on this trip. After this we did some more shopping and headed back to the hostel to drop everything off before heading out to ‘piss alley’ again for dinner. This time we had teppanyaki, which is basically meat grilled on a BBQ type grill. We also tried some Sake and decided it was not for us.

The following day we were up at 6am for a big day out – we headed to Disney Sea – which is the only one in the world. I was very excited, and turned into a big kid, while Rich remained the slightly mature adult. We got there early 45 mins before the park opened and waiting in line to get in. Once we were in we ran to get fast pass tickets for Toy story which was supposed to be a great ride and always has long queues, even with running over to the ride our ticket wasn’t valid until after 12pm and the line was already 50 minutes long (although that was the shortest it got all day) so we headed over to journey to the centre earth and had a go on that as the wait was only 15 minutes and then headed over to Indiana Jones which again had a short-ish queue. We then did some of the smaller rides before heading back to Toy story which we found out was a 3-D shooting game where you sit in a car with a gun and shoot different things on screens as you go around and you get points. After some tense competition I won round one, just but then Rich over took me by only 1 thousand points in round two but I came back in round three and Rich wasn’t happy and somehow managed to overtake in again in round four. Then came the deciding round in which I stormed ahead and won by over 10 thousand points, however my score was less than half of the highest score for the day. Following the ride we had lunch and walked around the park a bit more going on some other rides, including Turtle talk (which was obviously funny in Japanese but we didn’t understand any of it) then we headed to tower of terror where you go up in a lift and then get dropped, bounce back up and drop again. Given my fear of lifts and heights I am not sure how Rich managed to get me to go on this (not once but twice) but we did it and I survived. After that we headed home as it had been a very long day and we had walked miles. Once home we packed as we were leaving Japan the next day and headed out to dinner. As it was out last night I wanted Sushi and Rich wanted Katsu so we decided to compromise and have a sushi plate to share followed by Katsu to share and off we headed to find two restaurants. However it was raining, although it didn’t start till we left our place, and I was in a T-shirt and both of us were wearing flip flops, not a good choice as the footpath can get slippy when wet and my flip flops have no grip. However we managed to find the sushi restaurant and then the katsu restaurant before heading home looking like drowned rats (again) to have a hot shower before heading to bed as it was another early morning for us to catch the flight to Thailand.