Day 13- Niigata

It was a very early start for us this morning, as we needed to womble round the apartment and get rid of all the mess we’d made before checking out. Several very full plastic carrier bags later, we headed down to the station, pausing only to make ourselves look even more like crazy tourists by filming the musical crossing signals.

After a rather uneventful Shinkansen journey, we arrived in Tokyo station. Having decided earlier in the day that we would spend a few hours in Akihabara before leaving for Niigata, we started to hunt for a locker that would be big enough to keep Sarah’s suitcase in with the handle still stuck. Unfortunately, when we actually found some lockers that may have done the trick, they were all already taken- in fact, it seemed that every locker, regardless of size or shape, was already in use. Realising just how much fun it would be to drag all of our bags on the packed train lines in the middle of the day, we decided to give up, grab some bento and just try and find the next train to Nagaoka.

On the way to the bento shop, Sarah insisted that she had to buy something from Tokyo Banana, if only to get one of the bags that they were giving out. We stopped for a moment while she tried to work out what they were actually selling, and bought a box of banana-shaped cakes with some sort of mushy banana filling.

We went and stood on the platform to wait for the train, thinking that we could stake our place in the queue and hopefully get good seats when it arrived. This is when Sarah got distracted yet again. While we were waiting for our train to arrive, a Pokémon Shinkansen pulled up at the next platform, and Sarah quickly set out on a mission to get as many photos of the Pokémon covered train as she possibly could, leaving Helen sitting in the queue looking after all the bags. Eventually, the Pokémon train left, with our own train arriving shortly after.

We took our seats on the train in the downstairs section of the two-layer compartment, and started to tuck into our bento. Helen had decided to be safe with tonkatsu bento, which we had tried on our last train journey, but was still surprised with some tempura on the side. Sarah was slightly more brave, or foolish depending on you point of view, and had some kind of mystery fish/chicken.

We arrived in Nagaoka, and successfully managed to find the right connecting train which would take us to Nagatori. We met Jonathan, Yuko and Elly on the platform, and were very happy to discover how much cooler it was here compared to Kyoto! We went back to Yuko’s parents’ house, unpacked a little and then went back out with Sarah’s family to get some groceries and try and find somewhere that would fix her suitcase (which, it turns out, was a bit too much to hope for). Whilst at the supermarket, we discovered some of the sweets we’d tried earlier in the week, and decided to replenish our stock, as well as getting some Pokémon shaped jelly sweets and some koala biscuits on Elly’s recommendation.

We came back to the house and had our evening meal, before going outside to play with some very impressive Japanese sparklers.

Unfortunately our internet connection here is a bit sketchy since they have dial-up, so don’t expect posts for the next couple of days. We should get one more out when we get back to Tokyo.

Day 12 - Nara

Today started with the delicious waffle sandwiches we discovered yesterday. After that nutritious start we headed to the station for the train to Nara. For some reason we decided to get on the local train, rather than the rapid, which meant our journey was about half an hour longer than it needed to be.

We ended up arriving at about midday, so found a convenience store and made ourselves a little picnic. We carried this for about a mile, stopping in souvenir shops along the way to enjoy the air-conditioning, before arriving in Nara-Koen. This is a park filled with some of the most impressive temples and shrines in Kansai but, more importantly, is home to about 1200 very friendly deer. In the past these deer were considered sacred, and allowed to roam freely around the parks and shrines in the area. Now they are one of the greatest symbols of the area and enjoy the status of a national treasure. We found a shady bench and settled down to eat our lunch and watch a doe and her fawn do the same.

We continued our walk for about half a mile more, heading towards Todai-ji, home to the largest wooden building in the world: Diabatsu-den hall. On the approach we ran in to more deer, these much more tame than the others, and walked through the massive Nandai-mon gate, which is guarded by two fierce looking statues. Walking a little further we came to the entrance of the Diabatsu-den hall, and the first and only deer-proof fence we saw in the park.

Not only is the hall itself on a massive scale, so is its contents. It houses the Diabatsu, or great Buddha: a 16m (50 feet) tall bronze statue that is one of the largest in the world. The hall was also filled with other statues and carvings, and several signs pleading visitors not to 'deface the sacred artifacts'. The other main attraction in the hall was a hole in one of the wooden pillars. This hole is the same size as one of the nostrils on the Diabatsu, and legend says that those who can fit through it are ensured enlightenment. In practice this means that there must be an awful lot of enlightened children in the world, at least 5 from what we saw today, along with one very determined woman who had her friends drag her through.

We went to buy some biscuits to feed the deer but, having seen more than a few people being mobbed by the tame deer, we decided to head back to our lunch spot to find some calmer individuals. We probably had an easier time than we would have otherwise, but Sarah still ended up with a fawn chewing her pocket in search of more treats. When all the biscuits were gone we sat down for a snack ourselves, and watched as a pair of women tried to run away from a group of about 20 deer who were following them around.

Next we headed to the Nara National museum for a less crowded look at some of the treasures of the area. The museum is filled with different Buddhist artwork, some of which dates from the 8th or 9th century. There was also another exhibit of bronze Chinese pots, which was a little less interesting, but contained the very imaginatively named 'Big Cauldron'. We couldn't quite figure out when this exhibit had opened; the leaflet we were handed called it 'recent' but also promised it would open in 2002.

After getting distracted by the deer yet again, we walked back to the station and caught our train back to Kyoto. A subway journey and a short walk took us to our final sight in Kyoto: the Kyoto International Manga Museum. For the most part this is a massive collection of japanese manga, but also has some exhibits and displays on the development of manga in Japan, animation techniques and the spread of manga and anime in America and Europe. We left just before closing time so that we could grab some food and do the last of our washing before leaving Kyoto tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow we are back to Tokyo for a few hours before heading off to Niigata.

Day 11 - Tenjin Matsuri

Today, we've been in Osaka at Tenjin Matsuri soaking up the culture and the atmosphere, as well as sampling a number of weird and wonderful foods. Our food tasting adventures, however, began early this morning, when we decided to try the Pokemon drinks that we bought yesterday. Sarah's "Sports and Water" was actually pretty darn good, and tasted like slightly fruity chilled water. Helen wasn't quite so lucky. She had a can of some unknown substance which looked, smelled and tasted most unpleasant. Needless to say, the whole can was promptly poured down the sink, while a rather smug Sarah looked on, happily drinking her Pokemon drink.

Our second food adventure happened as a result of the decision to get our breakfast at the local supermarket on the way to the station. We opted for sweet baked goods, including what appeared to be a waffle sandwich, which was so good we've been back and bought more for breakfast tomorrow.

We got on the super-rapid train to Osaka, before getting the loop train round to Osaka-Jo, a pretty impressive castle which was destroyed during the war before being reconstructed in the 1970s. We wandered around the grounds for a while, and accidentally stumbled upon "cow art" (as it described itself). It seemed to be a group of model cows that had been painted for no apparent reason in a load of different patterns (including a tiger cow!). Think, the Berlin bears, but weirder, and with cows.

Next we headed off into the main part of Osaka where the festival would be happening. We managed to find a lot of people hanging around who looked like they were part of the upcoming parade, but decided that they didn't look about to get going any time soon, and went to grab some sandwiches and cold drinks which we took into a nearby park and ate. From our picnic spot, we could see a mass of festival performers lining up and getting ready for the parade.

After Helen managed to pull Sarah away from chasing the pigeons around the park, we headed off in the direction of the river, where we knew the parade would be heading later on, and claimed a spot on the side of the road from which to watch the procession. Still quite a long time until the parade started, we managed to get hold of our first taste of festival food from the stalls opposite. We got some dough balls, which were chewy and delicious, and Sarah gave in and bought a bag of Pokemon candy floss. Helen requested that we tried what appeared to be eggy pancakes, but quickly stopped eating them after Sarah noticed that they had tentacles in them. Using our helpful phrasebook, we decoded found that the stall's sign said 'ika', or squid. Helen looked on in what can only be described as slight horror as Sarah polished off the rest of the pancake.

The police started roping off the road in front of us in preparation for the procession coming through, so we got up and staked claim to our places at the very front of the crowd. We had a near-perfect view as hundreds of costumed men paraded past waving banners, carrying lanterns and hauling massive mikoshi (portable shrines) while others played drums and bells. They then set down the shrines and joined up with others on the river bank, performing dances and probably having a bit of a rest before the rest of the festivities

After the parade had passed, we walked down to the side of the river where we were able to see all the members of the procession, now on boats going up and down the river. We took another wander through a little market-stall village next to the river, where we saw lots of different stalls, including a game which seemed to involve trying to scoop as many goldfish out of a trough as you could before your net dissolved. We also saw loads of stalls selling octopus balls, (which we decided to steer clear of), some wiggly fish on sticks, tentacles, unidentified fried sticks, lots and lots of noodles, and some sort of edible plate device with a fried egg on top.

Helen tried some grilled mystery meat on a stick, in order to help her forget her squid related woes. We're not entirely sure what kind of meat it was, but it definitely wasn't fish, and that was all she needed to know. We also tried some chocolate-covered fruit on a stick (sticks seemed to be somewhat of a theme to the festival food). Sarah had a banana and Helen had a piece of pineapple, and both were covered in sprinkles and other random junk, including love hearts type things, squishy biscuits and a rogue cornflake.

As darkness fell, the boats were lit up and the fireworks started. We headed home soon after to make sure that we wouldn't miss the last train home, stopping at the supermarket on the way to stock up on the aforementioned waffle sandwiches.

Tomorrow, we're off to Nara to explore and feed some deer!

Day 10 - Nommins

We decided to have a bit of a lie-in today, after early starts the past few days. At 11 we walked down to the station and got on a train to Osaka, on a most important mission. After getting a bit confused and standing spinning a map around for 10 minutes, a woman came and helped us find our way. After a short, and surprisingly well signposted, walk we arrived at our destination: the POKEMON CENTRE!!

Yes, this was Sarah's idea.

Helen's estimate of an hour's time looking round was a little on the low side and, despite the shop being relatively small, it was almost 2 hours before Sarah appeared with bags of poke-goodness. By this stage we were both quite hungry, but decided that we would go to Starbucks for a drink before making up our minds about what to have for lunch. Turns out this was also a mistake because neither of us knew where we were going and ended up in a department store, with yet another unhelpful map, having no idea what to do. Deciding to be brave, we chose a Japanese restaurant and tried some new and exotic foods.

Ok, so we got an English menu, but it was still a bit of an adventure with food like miso soup and 'cream croquettes' to try. All in all it was a very good meal, and we did eventually find the Starbucks so sat and had vanilla frappuccinos for dessert.

Next we got the train to Kobe. We wandered through the streets of Kobe, looking through a covered market and some of the city's many bakeries. We somehow ended up in chinatown, which was very cool with statues and a shop selling a selection of different sized pandas, but was unfortunately in completely the opposite direction from where we had been trying to go. Having managed to walk to the next train station, we got on the train back to where we started and got the subway instead.

Our real plan for Kobe was to eat the world famous Kobe beef that is produced in the area. We had a recommendation for a very good restaurant, but it was quite upmarket so we thought we should try to dress up a bit. This amounted us wearing trousers instead of shorts, but when we got to the restaurant the staff didn't seem to mind.

We ordered our steaks (about £50 each) and very soon our clothing worries were forgotten. After a very tasty smoked salmon starter, and some slightly bizzare soup, the chef started to cook the beautifully marbled beef in front of us. Sliced into bite-size pieces, we picked up our first taste of the beef with chopsticks and started to eat. It really was as good as we had been told, possibly even better. In fact, we may currently be trying to work out how we can live here permanently so that we can eat it more often.

Having tried to finish as much of the delicious food as possible, we were pretty stuffed, and so walked very slowly back to the station to catch our shinkansen home. The journey was pretty uneventful, apart for running into every single person who had been eating in the beef restaurant, and walking past two men carrying a very tall tree onto the Kyoto subway.

Tomorrow we return to Osaka for the Tenjin Matsuri, one of the biggest festivals in Japan.

Day 9 - Temples

We had an early start this morning, as we had been advised by the guidebook to get to the places we wanted to visit early and avoid the swarms of tourists. Unfortunately this meant that we were incredibly sleepy when we tried to figure out the Kyoto subway and bus services- not a good move. After accidentally getting the wrong ticket (which, in our defence, was understandable, as all the instructions were in Japanese, and what Englsh there was was labelled wrong) we bought ourselves a day pass and got the subway then the bus to the North-West of Kyoto. We then accidentally found a temple, which turned out to be Ninna-Ji, as a result of being majorly confused by the bus and getting off a stop after the one that we meant to. This was no bad thing, though, because the temple we found was practically empty but very tranquil and beautiful.

After exploring our hidden treasure for a while, we moved on to the temple that we had actually been aiming for in the first place, Ryoan-Ji. There, we saw a big lake with ducks and herons and even more fishies, as well as a calm rock garden with 15 rocks in it (although you can only ever see 14 at a time, apparently).

Next, we went to Kinkaku-Ji, also known as The Golden Pavillion, which is one of the most famous places to visit in Kyoto. By this time, it was starting to get very very hot, and so we decided to take a break on a bench in the shade and eat some ice-creams, whilst listening to some Americans who were getting more and more infuriated by a map that they seemed unable to fold back up the way it was.

We came back to the apartment for a couple of hours around midday, in an attempt to regain the lost sleep from the morning and avoid the heat of the day. We also realised that we should change some more of our traveller's cheques, so decided to go to the bank, before continuing on the rest of our adventure, which we thought would only take a minute. We were wrong. We were in the bank for about an hour just waiting to be served according to some sort of strange cheese-counter style system. We did manage to use this time to see some sumo wrestling on the bank's TV though, which kinda made up for the ridiculous wait.

In the afternoon, we went back out on the subway to the Nishiki Market, where we saw lots of weird and wonderful things, including a bonito-making machine, some tiny pieces of sushi which appeared to have been handmade from silk and some giant tentacles!

We wandered out of the market as it closed down for the day and headed on up the street. On the way to our next stop, we managed to get massively distracted by a sweet shop selling all kinds of amazing sweets. Obviously we had to get a load to try, so we ended up leaving with a box of Pocky chocolate sticks, some tiny doughnuts, panda biscuits, seaweed jelly and a load of sweets just because they had pictures of Pokemon on them.

After this, we found our second accidental temple of the day- Yasaka-Jinja. This temple was also very interesting, and we saw someone playing traditional Japanese music. We started slowly heading back in the direction of the station, keeping our eyes peeled for Geishas as we went, although we didn't actually manage to see any.

We braved another department store (ever on the lookout for anything that could possibly be pickled fruit), and bought some rather delicious looking cakes, which are waiting in our fridge to be eaten after we've finished writing this!

Finally, we came back to Kyoto station and went to a Japanese cafe for dinner, where Helen had a rather suspicious-looking curry with an inexplicable egg on top and Sarah had "Japanese flavour" spaghetti, which was essentially spaghetti with mushrooms and fishy bonito. Despite the rather scary sounding descriptions, they were both very tasty, and a good way to end the day.

Tomorrow, we're off to the Pokemon Centre and for some Kobe beef.

Day 8 - Arashiyama

We decided to start today by exploring the area around our apartment, as there are views of nearby temples from our one tiny window. First, we headed to the station to pick up some maps and leaflets from the tourist information centre. The only problem was that it is closed for 2 days a month, and we happened to pick one of these to visit. Still, we managed to find a couple of maps and headed to the station's Sky Garden for some awesome views over the city.

Next, we wandered off to find Higashi Honganji, a temple complex just down the road from where we're staying. We managed to find a dragon water fountain, and an entire tour group wearing hard hats. We were a bit confused until we realised that the large shed-like thing in the middle of the complex was actually a shell enclosing the biggest of the temple buildings. We decided that activities requiring protective equipment should probably be avoided, so took off our shoes and headed into another one of the temples to have a look around.

We went back to the apartment to hide from the midday heat, picking up some sushi for Sarah on the way. Helen's attempts to decode the kanji on the box seemed to fail after identifying the shrimp roll, but Sarah valiantly continued, despite eating what may or may not have been pickled squid.

After a couple of hours we went back to the station and got on a train for Arashiyama, an area to the north-west of Kyoto. We walked to Tenryu-ji, a temple that is classed as a world heritage site, and wandered through its beautiful gardens that stretched from the river up into the bamboo groves of the hills surrounding the area. We were probably there for over an hour just watching giant carp swim through the ponds and dragonflies zooming between trees.

Unfortunately, we couldn't spend all afternoon there, because we still had one thing left to do. Crossing the river, we walked to the entrance of the Arashiyama Monkey Park. Now, I say entrance, because it seems that the park decided to trick people into thinking that the park was close by, by putting the entrance booth at the bottom of the hill. So we happily payed our entrance fees and headed up a path, before looking at the leaflet we had just been handed. Let's just say the words '150m climb' and 'mountain path' were present. It took almost half an hour to reach the viewing area at the very top of the hill, but it was definitely worth it because the first thing we say was 4 monkeys take a running, screaming dive into a pond.

That's the thing about this park: it's not a zoo, the animals aren't in cages and the people aren't in charge. Essentially, the people running it put out food, toys and cool water holes and sprays that attract wild monkeys from the hills to the area around this hut. People walk up, go into an air-conditioned room, and see the monkeys as they play around free outside. Not only were the monkeys great fun to watch, but the view across Kyoto was amazing and after a cold drink and some shaved ice the climb didn't seem so terrible either.

Exhausted, we headed home, buying a fan along the way to keep us cool. We had been holding off, thinking we would look a bit silly, but after a week here it's clear that fans are the norm, so when Sarah found one with bunnies on, there was no question that it would be coming back with us.

Tomorrow we visit some of the more famous spots in Kyoto, such as the Golden Pavillion of Kinkaku-ji and the zen garden of Ryoan-ji.

Day 7 - Kyoto

Today started with a trip to the Tsukiji fish market. This is meant to be filled with some of the most colourful and exotic fish in Japan, and the place to try some of the freshest sushi in the world. At least, that's what we had heard. Our personal experience, however, was a little less exciting: we arrived to find nothing more than a couple of squashed fish on the floor, a few stray cats, and a load of men driving forklift trucks. From what we can gather, there is a lull between the early morning tuna auctions and the rest of the day at the market, and we managed to get there right when there was nothing going on. Unfortunately, we were pushed for time, as we needed to head back to the apartment to check out at 10, so we couldn't wait around for things to pick up, so we've decided to give it another go on our last day in Tokyo at an earlier, and hopefully more interesting, time.

After a breakfast of microwave scrambled eggs to use up the last of our shopping, we checked out of the apartment quickly and headed out to Tokyo Station, with Sarah's now broken bag in tow, to catch the Shinkansen which would take us to Kyoto. We needed some nommins for the journey, so we picked up some bento at the station, which is kind of like a Japanese packed lunch. Helen got tonkatsu bento (pork, to keep her safe from the fishies), and Sarah, of course, chose the kiddie Pokemon bento, which came with stickers and a bag =D

After a sleepy train journey, we arrived in Kyoto. Our original plan saw us going on a casual wander around some of the interesting sites surrounding the station before checking into the apartment at 5. Unfortunately, we forgot to factor in just how hot it would be after we got off the air-conditioned train dragging our heavy bags along with us. We decided that the resourceful traveler would seek shelter from the midday sun whilst quenching their thirst and hunger, so we did just that, and hid in McDonalds until check-in time.

We started out with some Oreo McFluffys and a large Coke Zero and Orange juice, which helped cool us down. Nearly 2 hours later, we went back to the counter to grab some Japan-exclusive Teriyaki Chicken Burgers and more drinks, so that we wouldn't feel quite so bad about sitting there for so long. This clearly wasn't the issue that we though it was though, as the couple sitting next to us had finished their small drinks before we arrived, were STILL THERE when we left, and in fact cracked open their own little picnic half way through.

We left McDonalds and went to the apartment, expecting a similar setup to the one we had in Tokyo. We were in for a surprise, as space isn't quite such the issue in Kyoto as it is in Tokyo, our apartment here is about 3 times bigger that the other one, has 4 separate little rooms, a washing machine and is only just down the street from the station. We also discovered the joys of Japanese children's television, when we saw a song which was trying to teach children English in some ridiculously mental way.

The video below has no sound, unfortunately, and some very shaky camera work because Helen was laughing so hard, but the link has a short clip of the music that goes with it.




Click the link and then press the musical note to hear an extract from this highly educational tune.

Tomorrow we're off to Arashiama to see some temples and meet some monkey friends