9 days in and last night was the best sleep of the trip so far. All this running about is finally taking its toll on me, oh well, least I got a good nights rest. Not too sure about how my roomie is going, wonder if my snoring has kept him up or not? It definitely paid off to get the larger room, especially coming from the smaller cubicle-esque 'hotel rooms' we stayed in Kyoto and Osaka. They're not wrong about being of a 'westernised' influence. We did our washing last night, which should hopefully suffice for the remainder of the trip. Especially seeing we plan to buy some extra items in Tokyo. The only thing that would have made the sleep better would have been if it WEREN'T AN INTERRUPTED SLEEP! As previously mentioned our washing hadn't dried after two shots in the drier. Seeing that, we split our wet load into two batches and fired them each up for 2 hours. So at 2 am our alarm clock goes off. Theoretically we could have woken up early and retrieved our laundry in the morning, but we didn't trust people and didn't want to inconvenience any late night patrons that may have wanted to use the facilities. Oh I hate foreign alarm clocks. Not foreign as in international, but foreign as in not being used to the alarm tone. Stark. Abrupt. Loud. We trudged downstairs. %#*&$!! The drier was still going! Set on the option "cd" which stood for cold dry. Why! So there we sat, at 2 am, half asleep, waiting for the perpetual droning of the drier to cease. 10 minutes later, highly irate it finished. Back up stairs we went and back into the deep slumber that was the best sleep of the trip...
7:00 am: Rise and shine! Oh I needed so much more sleep, I'm not a morning person. If you want grumpy, not interested in conversation, uninterested then well, that's me. Yet surprisingly I was feeling rejuvenated and we had fresh clothes! Minimal shrinkage (the clothes) and we were on our way to soak in some of the sights of Takayama. Packed our bags and left the hotel for Miyagawa Markets. Our plan was to be back at Takayama station to catch the 9:42 train to Nagoya.
Miyagawa was a short walk from where our hotel was located, the streets were very quiet at that hour. Takayama has a very ancient secluded feel to it, if you can put aside the tourists it's a nice enchanting little town. Morning markets weren't anything special, plenty of fresh food and little trinkets. We bought a couple of souvenirs and sampled some snacks. Beef on a stick, oh mouth watering succulent goodness and some traditional rice crackers.
We left the markets and strolled around the traditional houses, at 8:30 we start to head back to the hotel, at this point in time the TIC is open, we duck in to find something to do from now until 9:30 when we should check out of the hotel. Lady recommends the Hida Folk Village. Heck why not! Realising we were short on time we decide to not bother with the bus and catch a cab out there. Darn 10 minute cab ride, that means we should leave this place at no later than 9:15 to get a cab.
It was definitely worth it. AMAZING! Old Sydney Town but, Japan! We had gotten there so early that the place was practically empty. Winding forest trails, small houses, props, huge lake, waterfalls, water mills. Unfortunately our photos don't quite reflect the breathlessness of the whole place. Admittedly we were only halfway through it and it was already 9:05. We rushed around the rest of the village and emerged 10 minutes later at 9:15. Shit no cabs. We we're going to miss the train, although we we rent terribly fussed because it was definitely worth it.
"If it's a 10 minute ride, it's probably no more than 3 kms." We (or possibly I argued) Psssht We ran half marathons we 'were' (were being the operative word) doing at least 6 minute kilometres. We can run back. So we ran! We stripped off our shirts off and began running through the streets of Takayama at 9 in the morning. Undoubtedly we got curious looks from passing cars and pedestrians, but we didn't care, we needed to catch the train (else wait another 2 hours) , check out at 10. During this moment of madness I thought to myself "this is like the amazing race"... I managed to lead us astray and take a wrong turn (what's new?) delaying us by another 10 minutes. My bad. We got back to the hotel at 9:35. Stepped into the foyer half naked all sweaty. patrons looking at us. Grabbed our luggage and checked out of the hotel. Ran across the road. Thank goodness we were across the road from the station. and jumped on the train waiting at the platform. Nagoya! Here we come...
5:05. Currently on a Shinkansen from Nagyoa to our next destination Odewera. A lot has happened since my last update. We reached Nagoya at around lunch time. Apparently it's the 3rd largest city in Japan, the main station was packed! As we ventured closer toward Tokyo the population seemed to increase. Nagoya station, like most stations had a Shopping complex built into it, huge departmental stores with all the prestige international brands. LV, Gucci, Prada, Armani, the list goes on. In a train station! Was tempted to do some shopping (not at the fore mentioned shops) but I resisted the urge and left it for our final destination.
We had again picked the wrong time to have lunch, each restaurant was crowded, lines extending around corners again we settled for Vie De France and feasted on bread. We dumped out luggage into the locker at Nagoya, actually we had a problem trying to find two full sized lockers and we eventually stuffed the backpack into a medium sized locker. TIC again were very helpful, they gave us English maps and some recommendations for the Sumo tournament.
When we finally got to Nagoya Gymnasium we were initially quoted ¥10300 and we agreed until we realised that was 100 bucks per person for an event we were destined to stay no longer than 2 hours for. On second thoughts, maybe not. All the other tickets were sold out. We had managed to coincide our Nagoya sumo experience with the first day of the National Tournament. We came all this way.... what to do... suck it up? We asked around and eventually found a private booth selling tickets for a split box for ¥47,000.
We were escorted into the Gymnasium, it was still early so the under cards were fighting, the main event was scheduled to start at around 6 pm. We weren't planning on staying that long. One word. Cramped. The 'box' was approximately a 1.5 x 1.5 m square with four 50 cm mats one for each person. We had a delightful old couple next to us. Not delightfully old but old and delightful.The husband (I'm assuming) must have been the biggest die hard sumo fan while the wife (not as interested) sat behind him. They must have been spending a nice Sunday arvo noon out. We tried to communicate with them, they spoke Japanese we spoke English. Plenty of smiling and nervous laughing, our phrase book was of no use. Left the Gym grabbed a Bento Box (nothing special) from Nagoya station and now were off to find Hakone!
7:50 pm: Things haven't panned out so well. As I write this were currently on a train heading towards Shinjuku (Toyko!). We purchased tickets (not covered by JR pass) at Odawera station to Kowakidani. Again we missed our stop, we should really stop having so much faith in believing that one train will take us to our final destination. So we headed, involuntarily back to Odawera station. This is where things got a little hairy. It was getting late already, so we had no choice of querying a TIC so we had taken a photo of the Rakuten map for B&B Pansion. We were trying to figure out how close it was from Kowakidani Station. Lighten from the train back at Odawera. Uh oh! The camera was still on the train, which was now bound for Tokyo. Ran up to the ticketing booth to try to explain to them our situation, we were then directed to the 'Lost and Found' area. Dialogue that followed went something like this:
"Hi, I've lost my camera. I left it on the train just then"
"Camera, lost"
"Camera *does hand gesture* lost on train *does more hand gestures*"
"My Camera. On train. Me. No Camera"
"Camera, on train to Shinjuku"
There were more hand gestures and frantic hand waving. Oh it sucks not being able to speak the language. Our predicament could have been solved within seconds. Thankfully the situation was explained, he took the camera details, the train carriage and handled the situation very professionally. What a nice/helpful guy. Trains run on time and the staff are friendly, what a magical city. If this were Sydney we could have kissed that camera goodbye! We were told to come back at 7:34. Bingo! The camera was retrieved at a station and we were ordered to that station. The guy then wrote don't the station name 'Shimatsuba' turns out there is no station by that name but we got off at the stop that most closely resembled it. Our B&B check-in time of 8:00 has been missed.
The train ride to Kowakidani was a see-sawing affair. Train rocked backwards and forwards up the mountain. It was painful as we didn't know what was going on. Finally got to the station and it was pitch black. No shop fronts. No lights. No cabs. The station was situated in the middle of a hill. We had two options, go up the hill or go down it. If we wanted winging coming to Japan, this was it. The map on the camera we would soon find out would prove of no value. Using the logic that, if we go up the hill and it's the wrong direction the journey back won't be so bad going downhill. Up the hill we pushed. We we're lost. I ran up ahead to a well lit area to see if it was the hotel. No dice, a cemetery, strange. Lugging my blasted suitcase up a hill in the middle of the night with cars screaming around the bend was something of a character building exercise, yes, that's it, character building. We asked probably up to 5 people where the B&B Pansion was. 40 minutes later and after a terrible amount of backtracking we had arrived. Walked through parking lots, gone up stairs, walked through dark narrow pathways it was like finding a treasure. We had arrived! This place is the worst. It's a glorified hostel. Noisy, basic beds, beanbag pillows and a shared bathroom.We were definitely off to a bad start with Hakone.
We had arrived, we were down on energy and enthusiasm but definitely glad to have found this place. What a LONG day. I feel bashed and can't wait to sleep. We unpacked and began to wonder why we had taken two nights accommodation in this hole. The up side of the B&B was that it had a private bath house. Tonight would be my first public bath experience.
The main onsen etiquette are as follows:
- You must be naked
- You must not use any un-turnovered pails
- You must enter the water without making any disturbances to the water
The place reminded me of the Street Fighter Stage where you fight E Honda in Japan. The change area was wooden with bamboo crates to put your personal belongings. Inside the actual bath house was primarily made of white ceramic tiles, in the centre was a large shallow pool of steaming hot water. The high ceiling collected steam as precipitation soaked down the walls. There was a small water feature that muffled the deadly silence which would have driven me crazy. Awkwardness at first to strip down naked, but hey the place was filled with unabashed elderly men that had gotten into their baby suits with no hesitation. What was endured was one of the most thorough washes I've ever had in my life. I sat on the wooden stool and threw water over my shoulders and I scrubbed myself clean down to the bones. 20 minutes in the public baths and I was beyond relaxed and ready for sleep. I emerged from the water pruney and took another quick rinse. Be gone dirt!
11:41 pm: Watching the Federer verses Nadal 2007 Wimbledon final. Most probably not going to be able to stay up and watch the whole match. I feel so clean.
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