19.09.23 — Travel

Nara

After a busy day visiting Hiroshima, I was once up again and out of the door of my Osaka hotel in order to make good and proper use of the last day I had on my rail card. I wouldn’t be alone on my travels, though, as Inés and her friend Joob were also coming along for the excursion!

I immediately proceeded to get lost in Namba train station, but once I’d got some phone signal I eventually found the two of them waiting on the right platform. We then hopped on to the train bound for Nara, a city famous amongst other things for being overrun by wild and yet (mostly) friendly deer.

I’d thought that my day trip to Hiroshima had been a warm one, but boy was it hot when we stepped off the train in Nara. We thus hopped on a nice cool bus up to Nara Park, a big open space which was chock-full of deer. We didn’t have much time to stop and gawk, though, as we were quite hungry, and so headed off to a restaurant that Inés had marked on her map.

That place turned out to be closed for a wedding, and so after wandering over a bridge and then yet another disappointment as another restaurant was also closed, we eventually stumbled upon a little café which offered some curry dishes for lunch. Now as sweaty as we were hungry, we took off our shoes and headed inside.

The place was as beautiful as the food was.

The interior consisted of beautiful wooden rooms with low tables and cushions for us to sit on the floor, something which was doing my back in quite a bit until Inés showed me the proper posture for this kind of seating arrangement. The food was presented as beautifully as the decor, and we soon discovered that it tasted as good as it looked. What a great little find!

From the restaurant, we wandered back over the bridge, stopping to take in the beautiful scenery now that we weren’t just thinking about food. This led us back into the park, where we grabbed some ice cream to cool off and watched the deer pottering around.

This lady was stood in the middle of the road without a care in the world.

From there we headed on to Tōdai-ji, a temple which Inés said was a must-do whilst we were in Nara. Inside the impressive gates we were joined by plenty of tourists and plenty more deer, all milling around as they made there was up to the impressive main temple building.

These guys were just everywhere you looked.

Inside the temple we were confronted by a huge bronze statue of Buddha, around which we proceeded to make our journey, learning about the history of the various iterations of the temple and the traditions associated with it as we went. They sure were plucky to keep reconstructing this place after fires and earthquakes, with the scale models showing each iteration of the design was an interesting peek back through Japanese architectural history.

Once we’d taken a few photos of ourselves (we look a bit worse for wear thanks to the heat so I’ll save face here), we left the temple in search of a place to sit down and have a drink. Taking refuge in the cool air of a coffee shop, we watched the tourists feeding the deer in the plaza below and decided that that’s what we were going to do just as soon as the air conditioning had cooled us all off a bit.

We picked up some rice crackers as we left the coffee shop and then headed out on to the lawn where a large concentration of the deer had gathered. After observing what people had done, I knew the gestures I should make in a routine that went as follows:

Bow to the deer as a sign of respect
The deer would then bow back to you
Feed the deer one of the rice crackers
Show the deer your empty palms to indicate there was no food left

This last step didn’t work all too well for me, however. I must have had some crumbs left in my bag or on my person, as I soon found myself being chased around by a couple of very insistent characters! It was all good fun, though, and they eventually joined the rest of the pack in sitting down on the grass for a rest after a long day of being fed by the tourists. It was there city, really, and they were just allowing us to visit.

As the afternoon wore on we left the park back for the built-up area of Nara in order to grab some tea in the form of some barbecued eel which was very delicious. Along the way, we were kept entertained by watching the deer do seemingly human activities such as waiting at zebra crossings, following each other in a line, and their cute bows to passers by in the hope of some of those sweet, sweet rice crackers.

Whilst our train zipped through the countryside and back to the centre of Osaka, I was left reflecting on what an amazing place I’d just visited. Despite the heat – a theme punctuating my time in Japan – Nara was like stepping into an alternate reality where humans and nature were of equal standing. It was amazing, with the only downside being the amount of poo that we’d to scrape off our shoes as we left. Nobody ever seems to mention that!

To end my post, here’s me and Inés scooping poop off our shoes.

17.09.23 — Travel

Hiroshima

After just a day and a half in Osaka, I was up and out of my hotel early in order to make the most of the remaining two days I had on my Japan Rail Pass, the ticket I was using to travel around the country on its famed bullet trains. Although I was in the train station by 10:30am however, I somehow managed to miss my first train and thus arrived in Hiroshima at around 2pm: the hottest time of day.

I’m sure many images of an old and bomb-torn city come to mind when I mention Hiroshima, but upon leaving the train I noted that it looked very similar to the other Japanese cities that I’d visited so far on my trip. I guess that it’s precisely because of the devastation caused by the bombing of the city that it’s now a modern and sprawling metropolis: everything had to be rebuilt from scratch.

Hiroshima had, until this point, just been the name of a tragedy for me. It was time to put a face to the city.

Although intrigued by the other parts of the city, the high temperatures and the limited time I had during my day trip meant that I was focussed on going to see what makes it unique: the Memorial Park. To get there, I quickly discarded the idea of walking through the humid heat and hopped on a bus to take me over the river and to this historical location.

Stepping off the bus, I began walking through the park, located near the epicentre of the blast and where much of the old city centre used to lie. Finding a little structure along the way, I headed inside only to find that it contained an archaeological dig site which had unearthed the scolded floor of a destroyed home. This impacted me much more than the various monuments and informative plaques that dotted the park, amplified even more as I was stood there completely alone. It was my first time being directly confronted with the realities of what happened in Hiroshima in 1945, and made me pause to reflect on the horrors of war.

The next impactful sight was of the infamous Peace Memorial. This consists of the bombed out yet miraculously still standing ruins of an old exhibition hall, a structure which was the only one left standing after the nuclear bomb detonated above the city. It was an eerie sight to behold, but definitely the best way of visualising the destructive power that these kind of weapons carry. Just imagining the landscape with only this shell of a building standing felt rather odd, especially as the modern city now completely encloses the Memorial Park with its towering skyscrapers and busy streets.

The Peace Memorial was haunting and suitably impactful.

I then visited the last few monuments in the Memorial Garden, which included ringing the Peace Bell. I then started wandering over to the next place I wanted to visit, stopping off at a Family Mart in order to recover in their air conditioning and get myself a drink and an ice cream to cool off a little.

This route eventually took me over more water and into the Ninomaru of Hiroshima Castle. This fortification looks as old as time, but is actually a faithful recreation as the original was destroyed during the bombing. Wandering through the gate of this structure and onto an artificial island, I then explored the beautiful gardens. Heading northwards, I eventually wound up arriving at the castle itself, another reconstruction of the original.

As I headed out, I noticed what looked like the remains of a bunker just outside of the Hiroshima Gokoku Shrine. I approached the old concrete walls for a closer look, whereupon I was approached by an old man who began speaking to me in Japanese. Noticing the look of confusion on my face, he repeated the word “bunker” and then gestured for me to follow him. I was then surprised as he squeezed through a little opening and casually wandered into the bunker itself, beckoning for me to follow suit, something I felt obliged to do and so off I went.

Inside, the space had been pretty thoroughly taken back by nature, but there were still openings that the man began to gesture to and explain to me in Japanese. Although I didn’t understand a thing, I was very appreciative of his interest in showing me the bunker: I definitely wouldn’t have ventured inside if he hadn’t come along. After a short while, we headed back out into the light of day, and I recited my best and most polite Japanese phrases in order to thank him with a bow.

From there, I left the Hiroshima Castle complex and made a quick stop at the Great Torii, famous for surviving the blast of the atomic bomb. I then headed eastward and to the pretty Shukkeien Garden, a very tranquil place which was the perfect way to end a busy day on my feet.

The gardens were peppered with a variety of lovely spots, including a pretty stone bridge, pools full of koi fish, all kinds of plants and trees, and even a little wooden structure jetting out over the water. Taking off my shoes as indicated, I sat down in the shade of this little building, resting my body and mind for a while as the afternoon turned into the evening.

There was no better spot to relax in after a busy day out in Hiroshima.

Now weary after a long day out, I hauled myself off the floor, out of the gardens, and onto a bus back to Hiroshima train station. There, I grabbed a bite to eat and awaited the next bullet train back to Osaka, where Inés had one little treat left in store before the day came to an end: it was karaoke time!

After a quick shower in my hotel to freshen up, I headed to the south of Osaka and to a karaoke place where she and her friends had booked a room for the evening. I was tired, but I just love karaoke, and there was no way I was going to leave karaoke’s birthplace, Japan, without a good sing-song!

I paid my dues, grabbed myself a strange milky water drink, and headed into room number 19, where Inés introduced me to all of her friends and old housemates. We then sang along to some absolute European classics and listened along as everyone else sang a variety of songs from around the world in a variety of languages. There were songs in Japanese, Chinese, Korean, German, English, and even Spanish. It would have been rude if me and Inés hadn’t treated everyone to a rendition of Aserejé and then the Macarena!

With my energy now fully spent and the threat of the metro closing on us, Inés and I then said our goodbyes and headed back to our respective accommodation. It had been a wild day of somber moments and then absolute hilarity, so it was definitely time to get some rest before the next day would see us head off on yet another little excursion outside of Osaka. More on that coming soon in my next post!

12.09.23 — Travel

Osaka

The train from Arima took me and Inés into Osaka, the city that she’d been living in for a good while and where I would spend the last five days of my fortnight in Japan. After switching to the city’s metro system, I waved goodbye to Inés as I hopped off at the stop just outside my hotel.

The room I was allocated was handily on the first floor of rooms just above the reception area, but upon entering it I saw that the window was diffused for what I guess were privacy reasons. This made me feel claustrophobic, so I asked if there was a room on an upper floor with a window I could see out of. There was, and so up to the 13th and top floor I was sent!

Once I’d unpacked, napped, and showered, it was back out to meet Inés once again to look for something to eat and for a little nighttime tour of the city. Inés wanted to take me to a specific restaurant, but for the life of us we couldn’t find it. Our wanderings around looking for it did lead us to discover some gorgeous little side streets and even a tiny shrine in the middle of a square, but our stomachs were rumbling and so finding a place to eat was top priority.

We eventually discovered that we couldn’t find it because it was closed for the summer and was thus missing the bold lighting and menu panels that would normally be found plastered across its facade. Ever prepared, Inés took me to a place she’d identified as an option B, but this second place had quite a queue and it was already pretty late.

In the end we settled for some ramen, which was good but not half as tasty as the otherworldly dish I’d had in Kyoto. It did what it needed to do, though, and had the two of us fed and watered and back on the streets to continue our explorations of the streets of Osaka by night.

The bustling main street of Namba reminded me a little of Tokyo.

Most of our evening was then spent down by the river, a gorgeous area full of lanterns, bars, stalls, shops, and the general buzz of people out for the night. Surprised by how many people were around on a Tuesday night, we eventually found a table and sat down to have a drink of grape pop and a little boogie to the music that the stall owner was playing.

The next morning I grabbed some breakfast at the hotel and then was able to step on to the exact train and carriage of the metro that Inés was already travelling on thanks to the crazily detailed signage and organisation of the Japanese railway systems. We were heading to a different part of the city in order to catch a glimpse of the Tenjin Matsuri, a festival that takes place every July and sees the streets filled with processions which eventually turn into a huge parade of boats which wind their way down the river in the evening.

Most of this photo looks like it’s from 30 years ago.

Once we’d found the area that the parade was going to pass through, we looked for a bar to sit in for a while as we were already tired and thirsty from the oppressive heat of the day. We weren’t very convinced as we wandered in to an old little bar which stunk of cigarette smoke, but we weren’t keen on walking around any longer either so we plonked ourselves down on two of the spinning wooden stools and ordered a drink.

The lady at the bar turned out to be an absolute darling, plying us with freshly made juice mixes and offering us some sandwiches, which we didn’t turn down as we were already getting hungry. She asked us where we were from and then said Inés was very pretty, eventually presenting her with a traditional dress as a gift! It was a lovely gesture and there were smiles all round until the sound of beating drums came in from outside.

It turns out that we’d inadvertently wandered into a bar which sat on the parade route itself, so everyone in the place (the owner included) pottered out onto the street to join the people on the pavement watching the festivities unfold. There was an amazing variety of floats going by, with all sorts of symbolism and groups covering all age ranges.

I was beginning to wonder how they’d manage in the heat.

At one point, a group of young boys came past dancing with lion’s heads, a scene which was quite fun until one of them took it off and threw himself down on the curb. He was clearly suffering with the heat, so throngs of people suddenly showed up out of nowhere with fans, water, sprays… the works. Some medics finally moved him into the bar where we were at, where me and Inés took it in turns helping fan him whilst they unwrapped the seemingly endless winds of sash that he had wrapped around him. It was no wonder he was struggling!

He eventually came to, just as the ambulance crew showed up to take him away. We soon followed, heading off to continue following the crowds as they made their way down to the river and to the parade of boats. We’d to navigate through the throngs of people that were on the streets, passing through street food stalls and the gathered masses until reaching the water’s edge.

We watched a few of the boats go past with their accompanying music and even dancers, but the heat eventually got to us and we headed off to find somewhere a little less crazy to stand. This took us over a very busy bridge, where we were scolded for stopping to take photos. This led us to a metro station and as such to the toilets that we were so desperately seeking, after which we headed back to the riverside as night fell to catch the fireworks which mark the end of the festival.

What followed was a visual spectacle, with a higher density of boats passing by accompanied by music and dancing. This was all framed by an amazing firework display which lit up the sky and created an electric atmosphere which it seemed like the whole city had come out to experience.

Our feet then grew tired from the day’s rambling and so we headed back to the city centre on the metro. There, we plonked ourselves in a bar and had a couple of drinks and a good chat to end a crazy first day in Osaka. It wouldn’t be my last day here by any stretch of the imagination, but as I headed to bed that night I had an excursion in mind for the next day to explore even more of Japan’s amazing cities.

Where was I to go? That’ll have to wait until the next post…

01.09.23 — Travel

Arima

I pick up the tales from my Japan trip on my second bullet train, this time out of Kyoto. After a relatively short journey, I hopped off in Kobe, the city famed for its supposedly delicious beef. I’ve not been eating red meat for a while, so I didn’t go searching for a burger, though. Besides, I had other plans, involving taking a couple of local trains up the mountains and to Arima.

The Kobe metro left me with one last train to catch, or so I thought. As this pretty old train trundled up the mountains, Google Maps informed me that I should switch trains to what looked like the train I was already on. I was surprised, as Google Maps had up until this point been unbelievably accurate in Japan: telling me which entrances to use, how much everything would cost, and even the carriage number to get on in order to get off at a convenient spot on the destination platform.

It turns out I should have paid it heed, as the train I was on forked off in a completely different direction just after leaving the station. It reminded me of the exact same thing I did in New York last year on my way back to the airport.

I’d wondered why everyone had suddenly got off the train.

Even after I had ignored it, Google Maps swooped in to save me, and I rerouted myself back to the line I should have been on and on to Arima Onsen. The clue for my plans for the next 24 hours was in the name, as onsen is the name for thermal baths in Japan. It was time for an evening and morning of relaxation up in the mountains of Japan!

From now on, though, I wouldn’t be alone on my explorations. Inés, my formed colleague who is currently living in Japan, would be coming along for the experience. Inés is the reason I really made the whole trip in the first place: I’d been wanting to visit Japan for a while, so when she announced that she would be moving there for the year, I jumped on the chance to visit her there!

We’d arranged to meet at the hotel, so I opened Google Maps once again and it informed me that my destination was a mere seven minutes away on foot. What it didn’t mention is that this entire journey was up a deceptively steep gradient, a task made even more unbearable by the stifling heat and my heavy suitcase.

Google Maps was getting its own back for my earlier lack of faith.

I arrived at the entrance to the hotel just to discover that the driveway up to the doors was yet another series of uphill sections. I genuinely tried seeing if someone would stop to give me a lift up, but no cars came by for a while and so I had to decide whether to roast in the sun, find some shade and cry for a while, or power through and drag my case up the hill.

Naturally I went with the latter, but I didn’t have to undertake the entire climb in the end. One of the doormen saw me struggling and came hurdling towards me with a baggage cart, insisting that he’d push the thing for the rest of the journey. Thanking him profusely, I dragged myself inside and into the glorious air conditioning of the lobby.

In one of the bathrooms, I did my best to freshen up with some wet wipes, before sitting down in the rather grand and ostentatious room as I waited for Inés. When she arrived, we had a great laugh about how sweaty we both were after the horrendous climb, as well as how bizarre it was that the two of us were now first seeing each other again after half a year not only in Japan, but up in the mountains in the middle of nowhere.

Whilst we waited for our room to be ready, we sat and enjoyed some sandwiches in the lobby café, looking out to the lawns and the pool area as you can see above. Eventually we were able to check in, whereupon a lady took us up to our snazzy room and used Google Translate to explain the huge list of offerings that the hotel provided. Me and Inés’ priority was cooling off, though, so we grabbed our swimming attire and headed straight for the pool.

The two of us spent a good couple of hours around the pool, having a lovely catch up in the water before moving over to the jacuzzi as the sun set and the air began to cool a little. Just before leaving, we asked the lifeguard if the two of us were too big to go on the waterslide, but she indicated that we could. We ended our time down there with a splash!

We then headed back to the room to get changed before our evening meal, which we’d scouted out a location for in the form of one of the hotel’s fancy little restaurants. Glad rags on, we went exploring the hotel a little more, discovering a lovely lounge area, amazing views over the valley, and a multitude of other little details that dotted the traditional wood-clad interior. We felt like emperor and empress!

As you can see, the hotel and location were just stunning.

Inés said the lobby was representative of Japanese luxury tastes.

We arrived at the restaurant to discover that it was only very small and fully booked, so we made a reservation for an hour later and set about finding something to do to kill the time. Inés suggested we look for their games room, which we found to be full of arcade games, music, and flashing neon lights. As if my yen were Monopoly money, I set about trying out all the games and the two of us had a great laugh. I discovered that my destiny does not lie in playing the drums, however…

Back at the restaurant, we were seated and then treated to an absolutely delicious meal. With the component ingredients being served on small plates, I was shown how to mix meat, stock, vegetables, and egg to create a rich pot of noodles. Inés had something similar, and we shared a bit of everything before paying up and heading back to the hotel room.

This wasn’t the end of our night though – far from it! As the thermal baths on the rooftop of the hotel were open until midnight, Inés had smartly suggested that we head up there to make the very most of our one and only evening in this swanky hotel. To do this, we donned a traditional kind of robe and headed up to the onsen.

We’d no idea how to tie the sashes but I think we pulled it off.

On the way, Inés ran me through how I should navigate the baths, which are split by sex due to the fact that you have to use them whilst stark naked. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about this, but regardless I headed in, disrobed, and moved into the washing area. There, I’d to sit on a little wooden stool and give myself a thorough clean. There was all kinds of soaps, a shower head, and my favourite contraption of all in the form of a wooden bucket. This filled rapidly via a huge tap and I used it to drain all the suds off me with generous splashes of hot water before advancing further.

Feeling very clean, relaxed, and surprisingly not self-conscious at all, I lowered myself into the first of the steaming hot pools and took in the nighttime views over the mountains. I spent the next couple of hours changing between the different baths, the sauna, and a cold plunge pool. When not immersed in the water, I leaned over the balcony and took in the views of the valley, allowing myself to be buffeted by the cool night air.

Now feeling extremely zen and even more tired, I popped my robe back on and headed back down to the room. Inés arrived shortly after, and we finally headed off to sleep at around 1am. What a fabulous day it had been, with the highlight being the tranquil bodily experience of the onsen.

Our alarms went off early as we wanted to once again squeeze every last once out of the morning before we’d to check out. First up was breakfast, which was a huge buffet affair that we had to wait to go in due to the sheer size of the place. This was nothing like your typical European breakfast buffet though; it had all sorts of novel stuff on offer. From fresh omelette balls to noodles and soups, there was a true smorgasbord of delights to try.

Inés and I did just this, managing two rounds of the buffet before giving up and plodding back to the hotel room to be sure to vacate the room on time. In a moment of cheekiness, we then left our bags with the doormen and headed downstairs to spend a couple of hours in the outdoor onsen even after we’d checked out.

This second onsen was equally as delightful as that of the night before, albeit with a different vibe as it was daytime and the pools lay between between tall trees and jagged rocks. I watched a bird taking its own bath in a little water feature within the neighbouring forest and I was at peace with the world for a while.

I think the onsen were one of my favourite aspects about being in Japan.

As the time we’d agreed upon came around, I hauled myself out of the water, got dressed, and met back up with Inés. The two of us sat in a lovely little lounge for a while longer, discussing our thoughts on all kinds of things before we got up and headed back to reception to see if there was any way of heading back down to the train station without having to head down the horrific hill that had tried to kill us just 24 hours previously.

It turns out that there was a shuttle bus from the hotel to Arima and back every twenty minutes, something we wished we had known the day before as we hopped on board. We eventually made it on to our train and onward to my next destination, somewhere Inés knew rather well and would help me to explore as I entered the second week of my Japanese adventure…

Monthly Archives: September 2023