We were here about a year ago, and came back to look at less urban places and to get a bit off the foreigner tourist track. Friend Jane came along to help me with the early evening drinks, and I met her and Kay in Sapporo after flying there from very eastern Siberia. It was quite a cultural change to go from being one of the boys in Siberia to travelling with two sensible women. I think I mostly coped, but I will admit to one slip. We went into a coffee shop for the ladies very necessary 10 a.m. coffee. When I made it clear I did not want any, the guy in charge indicated if that was the case I could not stay, and without any thought I told him he could stick it up his bum. My wife was not happy with me and Jane mentioned that her husband had done similar things occasionally, to try and make me feel better.
The Mercure Hotel in Sapporo wasn’t very busy when we arrived and Kay looked towards the bar area and wondered out loud about the availability of coffee. Which was overheard by a not too old man who could have been local if you were a fair distance away. He said he would make it for her and he had an accent that sounded familiar. It turned out he was the manager and his home town was Rotorua, where his first job was moving bags in a hotel. After coffee, the most important thing was where to watch the ABs play big brother and our new friend, Dean made a few calls then lead us to a nearby bar, where we entertained the locals by being noisy. A good start.
It is interesting revisiting a country because you pick up on things not noticed previously. Last time I don’t recall any imported workers and this time I noticed more than a couple. Mostly Indians in the wonderful convenience shops, or people with English skills from places like the Philippines who don’t look too strange. Officially the unemployment rate is 2.5% and that is with a declining and rapidly ageing population so industries like aged care are desperate to bring in workers. Politically, and very politely, locals are not keen about such racial pollution but reality means the restrictions are being quietly altered. A bit. The unemployment rate is achieved partly by a lot of make-work stuff where old guys get to do things like unnecessary traffic direction at the exits from car parking sites. While lurking outside a shop, as others were inside, I watched two guys shepherd out one car in a 16 minute period. They had batons with lights on the end and waved them a lot but none of it was necessary. When the driver nosed out into the street the two conductors stood in the middle of the road and bowed very deeply twice.
Another thing I found was that I had an appreciation of sake that wasn’t there last time. Or maybe I learnt that asking for a dry style served cold suited me. Whatever the reason I enjoyed drinking it and appreciated the subtle differences. We stayed in several rather fancy places in isolated areas where in-house eating was the only choice, and two of them were fine dining of a very high standard. One had to forget about the cost and concentrate on the delightful experience of top quality food and service in lovely surroundings. Several glasses of sake helped me do that.
Our main travel was by train and we had the full gamut from a double decker high speed monster to an old local one-carriage job reminiscent of an NZR railcar. When on that aged machine I went to the service area down the back for a bit of a stretch and came across a chap from Adelaide. He was taking a photo of each obscure station we went through plus muttering comments into his phone – like “we are now 2 minutes behind schedule”. Being a polite person I listened intently as he told me it was his third visit to the railways of Hokkaido and he had ridden nearly all of them, and then I was given a lecture on all the branch lines that had been closed and the reasons why. At that stage I escaped back to my seat. We did most of the bookings in Sapporo, and it is possible that being in the far north the young lady did not appreciate there are two stations named Takamatsu. Both are in the more southern parts of the main island, Honshu. One is a city where you can catch a ferry to the island Noashima, and the other is apparently a very small place away to the north west. On the day we set out for the first mentioned Takamatsu there were going to be three train sections, and the first one made sense. On the next train when I actually pulled out a map to see where the second stop was it took a while to find it, and it was not a good look as it was exactly 180 degrees away from where we should have been heading. After a sort of discussion with an attendant we hopped off at the next stop and caused great amusement at the station when our predicament was made clear. But because of the wonders of the Japanese rail system we arrived at the correct place only two hours later than planned. The only other travel stuff-up was my recommendation to Jane and Kay as to which end of a major stopping street in Tokyo they would find our hotel.
Our itinerary had us doing a loop around Hokkaido with a couple of nights at a lake in Akan Mashu national park. The hotel was huge but with nice views and full of locals on a day or two away from real life. These sorts of places have onsen which are hot pools where males and females have separate pools and one does not wear any gear, apart from a small towel, folded, on your head. I know that because I read about it. Despite good intentions I could not bring myself to be the only overweight and hairy, scarred and amputated, white guy in a big pool with a crowd of Japanese. The women didn’t partake either. We noticed that the locals didn’t bring much luggage to this place and the reason was quickly made clear – you are provided with a set of pyjamas and a warm jacket which you can wear at all times and everywhere. Without embarrassment apparently.
After Hokkaido went through the second longest tunnel in the world, the 53 km Seikan tunnel, and stopped in north Honshu to visit another national park, and stay in another onsen resort. This one was in steep forested country and we walked 15 km along a white water river to Lake Towado. It was a beautiful walk and we were very proud of doing it in about half the suggested time. But then, Japanese do seem to enjoy studying the minutiae of nature. Our room even provide a loup for looking very closely at natural things. Not all activities were in the outdoors and we did day trips to various places that were of interest. At Otaru the recommended highlight was a music box museum. I have never seen so much concentrated cute rubbish in my life and there were two big floors of it and I suppose the sheer quantity gave it some credibility. All of these places have the street full of shops for visitors to spend money on and Jane was walking past one such shop and reached out to touch a toy cat as she passed by. I happened to be looking her way, back a bit, and watched her simultaneously shriek and leap backwards when this toy launched into a twisting leap at the same time letting out a loud cackling laugh. We saw these things in other places and Jane’s reaction was not uncommon.
From there we headed south down the west coast and managed to avoid Typhoon Gebi and the earthquake in Hokkaido. We had our third onsen stay on Sago Ga Shima island and this was a very classy place, as were the pyjamas. We employed an English-speaking driver to show us around and similar to the more northern areas this island is suffering from depopulation, to the extent that abandoned homes and closed commercial premises are common. From there we did our most complicated day’s travel when we went: car, bus, ferry, walk, train, train, train, taxi ending up in a small traditional village where we had to sleep and eat on the floor in a small traditional inn. Kay doesn’t like beds with no legs and was happy to set off the next morning on walking a section of the Nakasendo Way. This is an ancient road that apparently goes between Kyoto and Tokyo and keen tourists can do it in nine days. One was nice. About halfway through, and nearly at the top of the saddle we were walking over, we were enthusiastically greeted by the free tea and lollies man who took us into an old shelter building, turned on the airconditioning (it was hot) by fanning us with a fan in each hand, and provided the free goodies. His English was pretty good and his smile never stopped and we left with renewed vigour.
Going further south we made it to the big Takamatsu and went on another ferry to Naoshima island. Where we stayed in a modernistic art museum with a few very acceptable hotel rooms. Being there meant we could wander around the place after closing time and see if the drinks with dinner had changed one’s artistic appreciation. I think it does. This island (and another nearby one) has received the attention of a rich person and an interesting architect, and there are several galleries and big art works scattered over the island. The most interesting part is in a little town where five old traditional buildings were each given to an artist to do what they would with. The results are stunning and if you are going to Japan you should go there. Jane was the artistic director of our group and I think she thought it was pretty good. The food at the hotel dining room certainly added to the appreciation. Food everywhere was pretty good and we didn’t bother chasing down recommended places because it is hard to get a bad meal. If people can speak English they are happy to have a chat and be helpful, although the couple that we were sitting beside one evening inadvertently closed down our communication when they revealed they were Jehovah Witnesses.
Then we shot through to Tokyo for some understanding of very big city existence and shopping. I didn’t buy anything apart from a bunch of dark chocolate to use up the credit on our suico cards, which are really for subway travel, but can be used in convenience shops. The two largest chains of these are 7-Eleven and Lawsons. The former has the best ATMs for foreign money cards and the later was loved by the recently departed Antony Bourdain. They do yummy sandwiches, have reasonable cheap wine, and everything in between and are everywhere. In Tokyo we stayed in the Mitsui Garden Hotel Premier which of course charged moonbeams for breakfast. But right out the front door was Lawsons with fresh fruit salads and yogurt on the shelves, plus pastries and a place to sit. Guess where we went.
A couple of days before our departure Jane abandoned us for the pleasures of Kyoto and Kay consoled herself with a major assault on Tokyu Hands (google it). That evening was our last, and we went for a meal with a couple we had met briefly in a restaurant last year. We had swapped emails and they were keen to take us somewhere suitably Japanese. They met us at the hotel and we walked to a restaurant in the main road of Ginza. I had broken out a new shirt to try and look respectable, which was a good thing because this was not a shorts and jandals evening. At the door to the restaurant we met their lovely daughter, wearing a kimono and looking delightful, and lead up to a private room. A six course meal followed and the husband quietly put away a fair amount of sake. His questions became quite difficult to follow and the daughter had to interpret I think he said about six times ” Mr Johns, I have one last question”. It was an enjoyable and informative evening with very nice food, and although we offered we weren’t allowed to pay anything. The husband is 70, travelling 1.5 hours each way to work and wouldn’t dream of asking for three weeks off so they could travel to NZ. I think that apart from various national holidays salaried employees get one week of annual leave. At least that is my interpretation of a couple of discussions about the subject.
The next day was one of the national holidays and we had the morning free before leaving, so we joined millions of others and did more shopping. It was a relief to have to go to the airport.