KYOTO
After 4 nights in Tokyo we picked up our 7 day Japan rail passes and got the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto. Compared to the Shinkansen, the British railway looks a bit primitive. At Tokyo station there was a team of 32 cleaners (2 per carriage) waiting to clean the arriving train. We waited on the platform for 5 minutes while they blitzed each carriage. They also spin each set of seats round 180 degrees so everyone faces the direction of travel. Once you're seated you have a ridiculous amount of legroom and seats that tilt back, it's a pretty good way to travel and definitely beats a short haul flight.
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| Shinkansen |
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| Train food |
Our accommodation in Kyoto was basic to say the least. We had to get the bus for about 30 mins which proved difficult with our large bags as Japanese buses don't have any luggage areas so we were in everyone's way whilst they were getting on and off. The room itself was in a block of student flats and was a traditional tatami room with straw mat floor and futon style mattresses for beds. It was also freezing cold with only a little gas heater to warm it up but was cheap which made up for it.
Kyoto is seen as more traditionally Japanese than Tokyo, mainly because it avoided allied bombing in WW2 (due to it being a potential A-bomb target) so a lot of the older buildings survived. We visited the temple of the golden pavilion which was a short walk from where we were staying, although the temple survived the war it didn't survive being burned down by one it's monks shortly afterwards, so the one we saw was a reconstruction but still impressive (the book based on the story by Yukimo Mishima is worth a read). Afterwards we walked into town through some traditional areas, there were lots more temples we could have visited but neither me nor Rose are big temple lovers so we gave them a miss (I know - philistines). In the evening we had some good ramen and then went to a sake bar owned by an Israeli guy called Yoram and tried six different sakes of different styles and ages. It was interesting to learn about the processes involved and how the different flavours develop.
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| The Golden Temple |
The next day we used our rail pass to visit Kobe and tried some genuine Kobe beef cooked on a teppan grill by a chef right in front of us. It was probably the most touristy meal we've had all trip and wasn't that cheap but the beef was amazing and it was definitely worth it. Kobe itself was a nice little sea side town with an old American settlement on the hillside with traditional American style houses which the Japanese tourists seemed to like. On the way back we stopped briefly in Osaka and got some some good pictures of the night skyline from the top of the station complex.
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| Kobe beef |
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| Kobe bay |
| Osaka skyline |
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| Osaka skyline |
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| LED steps at Kyoto station |
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| New year lights at Kyoto station |
On our last day in Kyoto we went to see the outside of the Imperial Palace (they don't accept many visitors) and wandered round the park. We then visited a sake brewery which was interesting, but the free sake sample bottles we got were a bit rough so we ended up chucking them. We also went to one of the enclosed markets and spent time soaking up the sights, sounds and smells of all the different foods on offer. We enjoyed Kyoto but both agreed we preferred Tokyo as it felt like there was more going on. I think Kyoto would be more pleasant in the spring/summer when you could enjoy the parks and outside areas more without being too cold.
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| Kyoto Tower |
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| Kyoto market |
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| Imperial palace gates |
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| Imperial palace walls |
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| View of Kyoto from the top of our apartment block |
HIROSHIMA
We got the Shinkansen from Kyoto to Hiroshima which took about an hour with one change. The seats on the second train were even bigger and more more comfortable than previous, I think it might have been an old first class carriage that they were now using in standard. Our accommodation in Hiroshima was in a Ryokan, a traditional Japanese inn. We arrived early and couldn't find anyone at all in the place so we had to go get a coffee and come back a couple of hours later. I think we were the only people staying in the inn the first night. Again it was traditional tatami room, although this one had a few more comforts like a tv, kettle, fridge etc. We also had a small balcony if we'd wanted to brave the cold.
Hiroshima is famous for one reason, and on the following morning we visited the peace memorial museum. It's probably a cliche but until I'd visited this museum I don't think I'd really comprehended just how devastating the attack on Hiroshima had been. Some of the exhibits of human hair, nails and charred clothing and burned children's toys were upsetting and difficult to look at. I thought the museum dealt with the whole thing in a very objective way and they were exhibits detailing not only the attacks on Japan by the allies but also the atrocities committed by Japan on its enemies and it's own people during WW2 and previous conflicts with its neighbours. There was no attempt to attribute blame to either side. The part that really brought home the power of nuclear weapons was the room with a full scale replica of the bomb measuring 3m in length and a circular scale model of the affected area of Hiroshima and it's surroundings measuring about 5m in diameter which pretty much showed complete annihilation of everything. The museum guide told us that if the bomb was brought down to the scale of the model it would measure only 3mm in length. The nuclear weapons currently held by countries including the UK are several thousand times more powerful than the one dropped in Hiroshima.
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| Peace memorial |
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| Peace museum |
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| Atomic dome |
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| Atomic dome |
As a city we found Hiroshima to be a friendly, lively place. We had one of the best meals on our trip there at an udon noodle restaurant near where we stayed and went to really nice little beer bar called Raku which had some really good Japanese beers, including the first cask ale I'd seen on our trip. Also Hiroshima is one of the few places in Japan that has kept its tram lines and they are very proud of this fact. It has trams from all different cities in Japan and around the world running on its lines, including some original pre war ones that survived the bombing.
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| Curried udon noodles with tempura |
FUKUOKA
Rose tells me that Fukuoka is described as the Liverpool of Japan, I'm not sure what that means and if it's a good thing or not. We really only came here as this is where we get our ferry over to South Korea. It's a typical city with lots of shopping centres (like Liverpool?), nothing really makes it stand out apart from what seems to be an extremey high number of strip clubs and massage parlours (like Liverpool?), but that might just be the area we are staying in. We went for a walk up to Ohori park where there's an art museum and a big lake which was nice. We also went to a newly opened beer bar called Good Beer Faucet where we had some more good Japanese Beers including a smoked stout and more traditional German rauch beer, both of which were excellent.
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| Fukuoka |
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| Fukuoka at night |
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| Good beer faucet in Fukuoka |
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| Selection of Japanese beers |
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| Ramen |
Other things we've noticed in Japan:
- Men with illuminated red sticks - In Japan, men with illuminated batons are everywhere. They love to wave them at you. They are usually found near road works, scaffolding, car park entrances, pedestrian crossings, and sometimes just seemingly at random on the pavement. They let you know that it's safe to walk past them by beckoning you towards them with their bright light. Based on my observations I'd suggest that at least 20% of the working population in Japan are employed in this role.
- Melody - The Japanese love a good melody. Pedestrian crossings, instead of just beeping to let you know when to cross, play a nice little tune. Some crossings are more elaborate than others. Buses play tunes every time they stop, the train plays a tune every time it approaches a station, nearly every shop you walk past is blasting out some kind of midi based tune to advertise its wares and entice you in.
- Soft jazz - if it's not midi file based short melodies it's soft jazz, it's everywhere. Nearly every restaurant and cafe we've been to has had some sax playing in the background. My personal highlight was some quite challenging jazz flute in a doughnut cafe in Hiroshima.
- Obeying the laws - going back to pedestrian crossings, everyone obeys the lights. No one crosses on the red man, even if the road is dead quiet and there aren't any cars for miles. Everyone stands and waits patiently for the green man - which can be a bit frustrating. Also at stations, even during rush hour, everyone queues patiently for the train in the designated queuing lanes marked on the platform so there isn't as much of a scrum to get on.
- Toilets - Japan has the most high tech toilets I've ever seen. Even the public loos have heated seats and most have various water sprays with adjustable pressures, temperatures and angles. Some even have buttons to raise and lower the seats. The best feature I found was a button that makes an artificial flushing sound to disguise any noises you might be making.
We are now travelling to Busan in South Korea on the ferry from Fukuoka. The picture below is the view from our seat out of the window.
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