18 September 2007
17 September 2007
Itinerary
4-Sep - Narita - Tokyo (79km)
5-Sep - Tokyo
6-Sep - Tokyo-Sendai-Masushima-Sendai-Ichinoseki-Hiraizumi (494km)
7-Sep - Hiraizumi-Morioka-Hachinohe-Hakodate (451km)
8-Sep - Hakodate-Sapporo (318km)
9-Sep - Sapporo-Asahikawa/Sunkyo Onsen (136km)
10-Sep - Sunkyo Onsen/Kamikawa-Abashiri-Kawayu Onsen (269km)
11-Sep - Kawayu Onsen-Kushiro (89km)
12-Sep - Kushiro-Chitose-Hakodate-Aomori-Hirosaki (791km)
13-Sep - Hirosaki-Akita-Tsuruoka/Haguro (281km)
14-Sep - Haguro/Tsuruoka-Niigata (140km)
15-Sep - Niigata-Tokyo (330km)
16-Sep - Tokyo-Narita (79km)
Total: 3457 km in train, some by bus and some walking
Accounts
Japan is not a cheap country. This trip was organized 1 month in advance for the plain tickets and the rest was in place.
Prices per person in CHF:
Flight - 1375
Railpass - 520
All the rest - 1375
Total: 3270 CHF (about 1950 EUR)
Prices per person in CHF:
Flight - 1375
Railpass - 520
All the rest - 1375
Total: 3270 CHF (about 1950 EUR)
16 September 2007
Tokyo - Amsterdam - Geneva
The breakfast was in a to-be European coffee place, where Eva has a rice omolette.
At the airport there is no queues for security and immigration.
The flight to Amsterdam is always during the day and was quite easy.
i saw the animation movie Porco Rosso and an indian movie. Eva plays computer in the plane chair.
At the airport there is no queues for security and immigration.
The flight to Amsterdam is always during the day and was quite easy.
i saw the animation movie Porco Rosso and an indian movie. Eva plays computer in the plane chair.
15 September 2007
Niigata - Tokyo
We have european food for breakfast in a french style shop in the train station. After looking for a while for pharmacy where they speak english, we found out that they don't sell anything without prescription. After some fights, we manage to get a seringe at the pharmacy of the train station and then oxygenated water in a shop (need to write the H2O2 formula in my notebook to make myself understandable).
There we find a sushi train for lunch, where the tea is included and we can order the food we want, if not on the train. The only I manage to say in japanese is salmon.
While walking around we see a street dances show, under a terrible strong sun. I buy some sandals.
We take the shinkansen train to tokyo. At Ueno it was not easy to find the tourist office, again the maps were not very clear and no guard seem to understand the word 'tourist'. when we find we manage to get a cheap but also weak ryokan. At tokyo we should have thought the things are a bit more expensive.
We do a last shopping for some souvenirs and i buy a jumper and Eva a t-shirt.
In the evening we try to find a bar, we follow the indications they gave us in tourist office but the bar was closed... Finally we end up in a small bar where a japanese guy start talking to us, even if he was not capable to speak in english.
Before going to bed I go for a last common bath.
There we find a sushi train for lunch, where the tea is included and we can order the food we want, if not on the train. The only I manage to say in japanese is salmon.
While walking around we see a street dances show, under a terrible strong sun. I buy some sandals.
We take the shinkansen train to tokyo. At Ueno it was not easy to find the tourist office, again the maps were not very clear and no guard seem to understand the word 'tourist'. when we find we manage to get a cheap but also weak ryokan. At tokyo we should have thought the things are a bit more expensive.
We do a last shopping for some souvenirs and i buy a jumper and Eva a t-shirt.
In the evening we try to find a bar, we follow the indications they gave us in tourist office but the bar was closed... Finally we end up in a small bar where a japanese guy start talking to us, even if he was not capable to speak in english.
Before going to bed I go for a last common bath.
14 September 2007
Tsuruoka - Niigata
At 6am we hear the house clock but we do not get up before 6:50. typical Japanese breakfast and they offer us lunch (rice balls) for the hiking. 7500yen/person the stay.
After we gave them some gifts the men took us to the taxi driver to get to know us and then we start a magical path in the mountain at 2600 steps surrounded by temples, budas and waterfalls. At the top the taxi tooks us to hashi-gone gassan (8-point Gassan) where we start a 2h hike up to 1984m summit where a budhist ritual costs 500yen. We have lunch. A steep way down to Yodesen, another pilgrims mountain a bit lower. At the end another budhist ritual but this time we dont get in. We took 4h for the 5h trail and we have to wait now 2;30 for the bus to Tsuruoka. Beer, food and pictures made the time.
In my head I start to make a summary on the trip.
At Niigata we sleep in a business hotel in a single-and-half room.
Eva has ear pain but we don't find an open pharmacy.
After we gave them some gifts the men took us to the taxi driver to get to know us and then we start a magical path in the mountain at 2600 steps surrounded by temples, budas and waterfalls. At the top the taxi tooks us to hashi-gone gassan (8-point Gassan) where we start a 2h hike up to 1984m summit where a budhist ritual costs 500yen. We have lunch. A steep way down to Yodesen, another pilgrims mountain a bit lower. At the end another budhist ritual but this time we dont get in. We took 4h for the 5h trail and we have to wait now 2;30 for the bus to Tsuruoka. Beer, food and pictures made the time.
In my head I start to make a summary on the trip.
At Niigata we sleep in a business hotel in a single-and-half room.
Eva has ear pain but we don't find an open pharmacy.
13 September 2007
Hirosaki - Tsuruoka / Haguro
During the morning we visited a bit of the town, pagodas and temples, guided there by a microbiology teacher who helped us on the bus. Japanese, when talking good english, like to help. He got a Geneva postcard. :-)
Arrived to the main temple, Chosho-ji, it was on works, return walking through the avenue full of temples, like mansions in an European city.
After 4 hours of train we arrived to Tsuruoka where, at the tourism office they did not seem very keen on helping us to find accomodation in Haguro. On the question if we speak a little japanese we told yes and she start making questions in japanese. Then said that in the mashunko (temple lodging) they were not speaking english. Lonely Planet was talking about 35 of them... When we insisted she told they were closed, high season ended. It did non convince us. Outside we decided to phone the tourist office at Haguro, where they said they would try to find something and to recall in 30 minutes. We took the bus to Haguro and arrived 45 minutes after the 30 minutes indicated, in the 'center' where there was nothing. Haguro was a town along a road, several kilometers long. The bus driver did not understand what/where was the tourist office. And it was not there where we were. There was no phone booth, no map. We start walking on the street where all temple lodging was.
On the way we saw a man getting out from one of them and asked about the tourist office. not speaking english he called another man from the home. This just said that it was already closed, 17:00-closed. We explained that we were looking for accommodation. He went to talk with his wife. Back to us he told his house was also a temple lodging but they were already closed in September. However they could take us. A smile came to our faces. Then he said that they were not prepared and had no food. On my question "is there a restaurant?" he replied that in case we did not mind to eat the same as them, we could have the meals there. Great.
First half hour was spent in middle of laughings and green tea due the lack of english and explained our next day, where he offered to reserve a taxi for us.
The plan was to go at 8am to meet the taxi driver and then walk up the Haguro-san. At the top the taxi would be there and take us to the 8-gone of Gas-san. We would start walk around 10am to the top of Mt. Gassan and go down on the side of Yuduno-san. There should be a unique bus at 16:30 back to Tsuruoka.
Then he proposed to go to the onsen. 15 minutes drive, pass by the tourist office location, really far away. This onsen was great. Two hot pools, a cold one and sauna... with TV! The funny story was that after the shower I could not recognize the man anymore, I remembered he had glasses and some bad teeth. In a place where everyone is naked this elements are not visible. After 20 minutes soaking around he made a sign and we talked a bit outside while drying. He had been already in Switzerland (typical Geneva, Zurich, Jungfrau and Zermatt) and liked a lot.
Japanese style dinner in a wide room, small tables on the tatami. The sleeping room, upstairs was a big area where they had laid down the futons on the tatami. Was not easy to imagine the lodge with maybe 8 people sharing the same room.
It's 20:30 and we don't know what to do...
Sleep at 21:30 wasn't easy and the sleep had bizarre dreams.
Arrived to the main temple, Chosho-ji, it was on works, return walking through the avenue full of temples, like mansions in an European city.
After 4 hours of train we arrived to Tsuruoka where, at the tourism office they did not seem very keen on helping us to find accomodation in Haguro. On the question if we speak a little japanese we told yes and she start making questions in japanese. Then said that in the mashunko (temple lodging) they were not speaking english. Lonely Planet was talking about 35 of them... When we insisted she told they were closed, high season ended. It did non convince us. Outside we decided to phone the tourist office at Haguro, where they said they would try to find something and to recall in 30 minutes. We took the bus to Haguro and arrived 45 minutes after the 30 minutes indicated, in the 'center' where there was nothing. Haguro was a town along a road, several kilometers long. The bus driver did not understand what/where was the tourist office. And it was not there where we were. There was no phone booth, no map. We start walking on the street where all temple lodging was.
On the way we saw a man getting out from one of them and asked about the tourist office. not speaking english he called another man from the home. This just said that it was already closed, 17:00-closed. We explained that we were looking for accommodation. He went to talk with his wife. Back to us he told his house was also a temple lodging but they were already closed in September. However they could take us. A smile came to our faces. Then he said that they were not prepared and had no food. On my question "is there a restaurant?" he replied that in case we did not mind to eat the same as them, we could have the meals there. Great.
First half hour was spent in middle of laughings and green tea due the lack of english and explained our next day, where he offered to reserve a taxi for us.
The plan was to go at 8am to meet the taxi driver and then walk up the Haguro-san. At the top the taxi would be there and take us to the 8-gone of Gas-san. We would start walk around 10am to the top of Mt. Gassan and go down on the side of Yuduno-san. There should be a unique bus at 16:30 back to Tsuruoka.
Then he proposed to go to the onsen. 15 minutes drive, pass by the tourist office location, really far away. This onsen was great. Two hot pools, a cold one and sauna... with TV! The funny story was that after the shower I could not recognize the man anymore, I remembered he had glasses and some bad teeth. In a place where everyone is naked this elements are not visible. After 20 minutes soaking around he made a sign and we talked a bit outside while drying. He had been already in Switzerland (typical Geneva, Zurich, Jungfrau and Zermatt) and liked a lot.
Japanese style dinner in a wide room, small tables on the tatami. The sleeping room, upstairs was a big area where they had laid down the futons on the tatami. Was not easy to imagine the lodge with maybe 8 people sharing the same room.
It's 20:30 and we don't know what to do...
Sleep at 21:30 wasn't easy and the sleep had bizarre dreams.
12 September 2007
Kushiro - Hirozaki
Departure at 7:20am for eight hours and four different trains, 4-minute connections each time. Everything worked.
Arrived to Hirozaki we had to stay in another small hotel because the 'ryokans' didn't accepted foreigners. The hotel and personnel was nice, japanese-style room with breakfast.
On the way home we passed in a big shop and I found a replacement for my finished travel notebook. This now is from monokuro boo, some japanese cartoons.
After dinner we went together to the hotel's onsen.
Arrived to Hirozaki we had to stay in another small hotel because the 'ryokans' didn't accepted foreigners. The hotel and personnel was nice, japanese-style room with breakfast.
On the way home we passed in a big shop and I found a replacement for my finished travel notebook. This now is from monokuro boo, some japanese cartoons.
After dinner we went together to the hotel's onsen.
05 September 2007
Tokyo
The sun rises early, at 5:30 it was already shining. Decided to go to the fish market we took the metro and saw the pink labels on the floor indicating Women wagon, as the japanese men have a quite bad habit of abusing when in tight places. the metro was full. Extra full. Fish market was nothing special, a market with lots of people preparing and selling fish, water on the floor, small kind-of bumper cars going around. Next we wanted to try the fish, so we found a small restaurant and went for a morning sushi and sashimi with misu soup and greeen tea, as always. The big difference of the raw fish in Japan over the sushi is that it is fresh and still tastes a lot. Plus, there were fish I would not guess the name. But ok, we survived.
It start raining a lot when we went out but fortunately we had took a mini umbrella from the hotel which allowed us to survive for 5 minutes before getting wet.
The parks of the imperial palace were our next destination. The palace was closed, we were sweating like I don't know what. Thirty degrees plus 90% humidity and a jetlag. Eva could not keep the eyes open for the picture. Then we moved to the Yoyogi park, where I washed the hands before enter a temple and we also saw the biggest shrine of japan.
Next to the park, at the exit of the metro we started to notice that, in japan, they have smoking areas outside. they ask to people not to smoke while walking and provide small areas with ash trays where people agglomerate to smoke!
We then walked in the trend streets of Shinjuku area, where the fashion is the top Japanese one.
At four o'clock in front of a small dog statue we met Yushi, a girl we contacted before and that wanted to help us with our organisation. She brought several travel catalogs (in japanese) and told us small spots in Japan that we could visit. We took note of some of them. Then she walked us in the shops of Shibuya area and finally took us to a bar with a tea ceremony. It was nice to see how to make a special green tea and to try japanese sweets. After it we talk and walk with yushi until her place, visit a japanese residential area in tokyo, where you almost see no shops and everyone uses the car to go anywhere. it was an area with small houses and we even passed by a temple, just like a church in our european standards. Finally we left her and went for dinner in a pre-payment restaurant: at the entrance a machine with few pictures where you put money and press buttons. We try to get an extra rice by pressing a 200yen button. Once inside when trying to get we more or less understood that we had asked for extra noodles. It was nice anyway this restaurant where we could see how they do the noodles.
A final note from Tokyo is the amazing number of beverage machines, everywhere.
It start raining a lot when we went out but fortunately we had took a mini umbrella from the hotel which allowed us to survive for 5 minutes before getting wet.
The parks of the imperial palace were our next destination. The palace was closed, we were sweating like I don't know what. Thirty degrees plus 90% humidity and a jetlag. Eva could not keep the eyes open for the picture. Then we moved to the Yoyogi park, where I washed the hands before enter a temple and we also saw the biggest shrine of japan.
Next to the park, at the exit of the metro we started to notice that, in japan, they have smoking areas outside. they ask to people not to smoke while walking and provide small areas with ash trays where people agglomerate to smoke!
We then walked in the trend streets of Shinjuku area, where the fashion is the top Japanese one.
At four o'clock in front of a small dog statue we met Yushi, a girl we contacted before and that wanted to help us with our organisation. She brought several travel catalogs (in japanese) and told us small spots in Japan that we could visit. We took note of some of them. Then she walked us in the shops of Shibuya area and finally took us to a bar with a tea ceremony. It was nice to see how to make a special green tea and to try japanese sweets. After it we talk and walk with yushi until her place, visit a japanese residential area in tokyo, where you almost see no shops and everyone uses the car to go anywhere. it was an area with small houses and we even passed by a temple, just like a church in our european standards. Finally we left her and went for dinner in a pre-payment restaurant: at the entrance a machine with few pictures where you put money and press buttons. We try to get an extra rice by pressing a 200yen button. Once inside when trying to get we more or less understood that we had asked for extra noodles. It was nice anyway this restaurant where we could see how they do the noodles.
A final note from Tokyo is the amazing number of beverage machines, everywhere.
04 September 2007
Tokyo
First impression of Tokyo were a few signs in portuguese at the airport and then at the ATM... Just after chinese english and korean, portuguese seemed 'the language'.
We got the Japan Rail pass in a long waiting process, like everything would be even for the most simple tasks. Then was the search for the hotel/ryokan booked. Train to Ueno and a walk instead of 2 metro stations. We just sweat as hell in the hot humid weather. Pass by a very long avenue where every second door was a motorcycle shop.
The hotel was quite hidden in a small street but the map with pictures (as streets dont have names) was easy to follow. The room was small, japanese style. We were happy.
Out for a walk, we had dinner in a simple restaurant with pictures, easy task. Everything seemed much easier than I imagined. After we managed to find a street full of small bars, each emptier than the next. One was raggae. Go, not go, we entered. Japan rules explained, we pay for the table plus drinks. The owner was nice, made me taste different stuff and talk a bit on his possible english. Then took pictures of Eva with his mobile. We pick an english prospect of another raggae bar with life concert and decided to go. Search, ask people and find.
This bar had more people and nice ambiance. I good raggae concert was going on when we had to leave a metro in tokyo ends at midnight.
We got the Japan Rail pass in a long waiting process, like everything would be even for the most simple tasks. Then was the search for the hotel/ryokan booked. Train to Ueno and a walk instead of 2 metro stations. We just sweat as hell in the hot humid weather. Pass by a very long avenue where every second door was a motorcycle shop.
The hotel was quite hidden in a small street but the map with pictures (as streets dont have names) was easy to follow. The room was small, japanese style. We were happy.
Out for a walk, we had dinner in a simple restaurant with pictures, easy task. Everything seemed much easier than I imagined. After we managed to find a street full of small bars, each emptier than the next. One was raggae. Go, not go, we entered. Japan rules explained, we pay for the table plus drinks. The owner was nice, made me taste different stuff and talk a bit on his possible english. Then took pictures of Eva with his mobile. We pick an english prospect of another raggae bar with life concert and decided to go. Search, ask people and find.
This bar had more people and nice ambiance. I good raggae concert was going on when we had to leave a metro in tokyo ends at midnight.
03 September 2007
Zürich-Frankfurt-Tokyo
After a party at Eva's parents place to celebrate de sum of 200 years of the family members, we flu to Frankfurt with Lufthansa. There at the gate to the next flight already many information written in japanese. But the people embarking were mostly russian. Strange combination.
The flight was japan airlines, in a 2-decker jumbo whatever. During the flight we choose already to have japanese meals and i got a bottle of sake to drink.
The flight was japan airlines, in a 2-decker jumbo whatever. During the flight we choose already to have japanese meals and i got a bottle of sake to drink.
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