Day Trip to Nara - Thursday 10 October

Leisurely start to our day this morning with breakfast in our room. Savoury pastries purchased yesterday evening and washed down with coffee milk. Then an amble to the station on to the JR Nara line to catch the 9:33am Limited Express. Arrived in Nara to blazing sunshine and took advantage of the shade on one side of the street as we walked up to Nara Deer Park.

Artificial autumn flower street decorations may be the only autumn colours we get to see!

By the time we reached the park it was full of other tourists including myriad groups of elementary school children.

Alison managed to catch a shot of two deer ensuring that the deer numbers in the park don't decline. Probably less confronting than two bison doing the same act in front of your car in Custer State Park! The elementary school students nearby thought the entertainment was great as you can imagine. That is the deer not Alison taking photos!

Deer keeping up their numbers!

Walked through to the Todaiji Hall

On the way down to Todaiji Hall

and stopped to watch a large school group sitting on the ground in paint smocks with their art kits painting in pre-sketched scenes of the Todaiji Hall. Got some hellos from one group.

Happy school children painting

Philip was able to point out the plastic sheets that the Japanese spread on the ground when they need to sit down. Jessica and Philip had seen them spread out along the route of the parade at Tokyo Disneyland. Mind you the ground at Disneyland was a lot cleaner than under the trees in the Deer Park with said deer leaving trails of pooh!

Outside Todaiji Hall

Into the hall and viewed the large buddha etc and made no attempt to try to get through the "eye of the needle" hole!

The big Buddha in Todaiji Hall

We wouldn't fit!!!

Todaiji Hall

We were interviewed by two different school groups who were conducting surveys on their field trip and practising their English. Back out of the park and unfortunately (or if you asked Alison fortunately) there were no street vendors set up selling takoyaki (octopus balls). Philip and Jessica had tried them last time and Philip had threatened Alison that she needed to keep the family tradition onside. One thing that Alison did get to try was the earthquake simulation in the visitor centre just outside the park. Philip had braved it in 2008.

Alison feels the earth move!

Alison and new BFF outside the tourist centre

Then a deviation through one of the arcades that links the main streets and the purchase of a Coca Cola ice-cream floater each from McDonalds. Walked on back down the main street to Nara station and struck up a conversation with two girls in school uniform who were speaking English. They turned out to be exchange students at school in Japan for 12 months. One was from Albany in New York State and was Chinese American and the other girl was from Belgium. The girl from the USA was surprised when to her response that she was from New York, Philip asked city or state. Most people just assume city.

Short wait on the platform for a train back to Nara. Fortunately in the shade with a bit of a breeze blowing.

Back in Kyoto we headed to Aeon Mall to buy "linner" or "dunch" and breakfast for the train to Kanazawa tomorrow morning. Also went searching home shops in the mall for soba husk pillows as we really like the ones at our hotel here. Couldn't quite find what we wanted so strolled back to the hotel with our groceries. Alison asked at the hotel desk if they actually sell their pillows and was given the information that the manufacturer was about 10 minutes away by taxi but that one of the shops that we had visited should in fact stock them. Ate our "linner/dunch" and headed back to the Mall but no luck but we did discover a little ma and pa clothing/drapery store just near our hotel and they had soba husk pillows for Y580 so we bought one to try. Hope that it will get through customs!

We have now done a load of washing in the hotel laundromat and waiting for it to dry. Much better value per load than the USA.

Day Trip to Takayama - Wednesday 9 October

Headed off to catch the 7.29am Shinkansen to Nagoya before a change of trains there to the Hida Wide View Limited Express for the journey up into the mountains.

The Hida Wide View Train at Takayama Station

We enjoyed our breakfast of assorted sushi on the way from Kyoto to Nagoya. We are becoming adept at bringing out our food and chopsticks and enjoying ourselves! We had purchased the sushi the night before at the supermarket in Aeon Mall and with a fridge in our hotel room it was fine for this morning's trip (including the prawn draped over rice :)).

Weather today was cloudy when we left Kyoto and we passed through showery weather as the train climbed up into the mountains with many twists, turns and tunnels along the edge of the Hida River.

Hida River valley from the train

Some of the rapids in the river

Arrived in Takayama at around 11am and were met by more persistent showers so Alison's first purchase in the town was a folding umbrella.

Bonsais along the street

Alison making good use of her new Chinese umbrella!

We then spent the next couple of hours winding our way through the narrow streets of the old town

Home parking at a premium - no wonder they have so many narrow models.

Philip in the old part of town

Even the lanterns have umbrellas!!!

and also along the main street which was not unlike that of a Queensland country town.

Alison loved this Japanese take on a kewpie doll. 

Philip playing up in the main street! 

Alison playing up in the main street!

Takayama is famous for a Spring and Autumn festival and unknown to us until we arrived and discovered at 6pm today there is a procession of their prized floats. These floats are housed in special buildings in the old part of town and we were fortunate to see the doors open on some of the "float houses".

Float House with doors closed

With the weather continuing to throw intermittent showers at us, we decided to purchase some lunch from the street vendors who were set up and then try for an earlier train back to Nagoya and Kyoto. We bought okonomiyaki from one vendor and a dish of fried noodles, cabbage and thinly sliced beef topped with a fried egg. Started eating whilst sitting on the raised kerb on a bridge over the town river but the rain came and we managed to find a rickety Bunnings style garden seat under a shop awning where we could sit and enjoy the remainder of our lunch. We have noticed that there are few places to actually sit in the public areas that we have visited so far.

Enjoying lunch

Back to the Takayama Station at 1.20pm and we scored reserved seats on the 1.30pm departure for Nagoya.

Two happy travellers who got the earlier train!

The Hida was a little late into Nagoya but we easily managed to get to the platform in time for our Shinkansen to Kyoto. There was a large Japanese school group boarding the carriage and one of their teachers was an English speaking European and Alison made a comment about being a teacher and good luck to them. When we were coming into Kyoto the teacher spoke to us and asked Alison which part of the States we came from! She informed him that we were Australian and he volunteered that he was also. Where did we live - on the Gold Coast. Where did he grow up, Southport and worked as a teenager at our local Woolworth's Supermarket at Runaway Bay. Asked if Alison happened to know a primary teacher named Troy Maher. Well in fact Alison had taught Troy in Year 5 at Musgrave Hill. The Australian teacher to whom we were talking happened to be best friends with Troy's brother. What a small world and all because we changed plans and took an earlier train back from Takayama.

Have revisited Aeon Mall after dropping our gear back in the hotel room and purchased a range of snacks

to carry on our day trips and also some crumbed chicken breast with teriyaki sauce and custard puffs for dessert with our drip coffee. Also stocked up on some large bottles of our favourite soft drink - Pepsi Nex - yes that's right there is no "t". There is a small bakery outside the supermarket and all their items are Y100 so we carefully chose four savoury items for tomorrow's breakfast. The cashier was very nice to tell us in broken English and sign language that we could in fact have five items for the price of four - bargain!

Miyajima and Hiroshima in a Day

Okay we have a confession to make. After two full days in Japan, we are beginning to see ourselves a little bit like the young boy in the current Expedia ads on television. Notebook and pen in hand - Golden Pavilion (tick), Silver Pavilion (tick), Kiyomizudera (tick), Red Tori gate at Miyajima (tick), A-Bomb Dome and Peace Museum Hiroshima (tick).....

Tomorrow may be less about the what to see and more about the journey as we head into the mountains for a visit to Takayama. You may have noted that this moved in our itinerary from next Saturday as there were no seats to be booked on the train that day with Japan on the move for the long weekend.

Early start this morning with the 7.20am Shinkansen Hikari to Hiroshima

View from Shinkansen

and then a quick transfer to a local train to head on to Miyajimaguchi. Off the train and down to the wharf and pretty well straight on to a JR ferry across to Miyajima island, 

JR Miyajima Ferry Terminal

 all due to the great forward planning of our excellent guide, who came at great cost! (PP) The tide was heading to a high tide so the red tori gate was surrounded by water and also kayakers paddling through it!

When Jessica and Philip visited Miyajima, Philip had part of the map that he was reading eaten by one of the local "wild" deer as he sat minding his own business. On this trip Alison was keen to see the deer and was looking around for them when she realised that one was lying asleep in a garden camouflaged by the dirt just near where she was standing! 

We also saw some more deer down on the ledge that runs along the water side of the sea wall and Alison was concerned about how they might not get back to dry land as all the sea gates in the wall were closed. Maybe this is a way to thin the deer population!

We enjoyed a local deep fried cake delicacy in the same establishment that Jessica and Philip had visited in 2008. One custard cream flavoured and the other cheese. Both were "derricious"!

Derricious fried treats!

Conger eel buns - now we didn't try that delicacy!

This restaurant must be good of serves very fresh deer!

Back across the water and on to the local train and into Hiroshima station. Caught a street car straight away and headed to the A-Dome and Peace Park. Students from Jessica's school had made us a collection of paper cranes to hang at the Sadako memorial which we dutifully did. 

 

Then it was in to the Peace Museum and the moving journey through the story of what happened before, during and after that tragic day on August 6, 1945.

Walking to Peace Museum with group of school kids.

View from eternal flame to A Dome

Photo in museum of after effects of the bomb

A-Dome

Alison offered a very interesting observation on her reaction. We have visited Dachau Concentration Camp and the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington and Alison said that she had been more emotionally moved by these two visits than Hiroshima. We discussed the matter and agreed that compared to the bombing of Hiroshima the other two places portrayed more in the way of direct inhumanity being inflicted in a personal sense by individual humans against other individuals. This in no way takes away from the horror that the people of Hiroshima and later Nagasaki experienced.

After our time in the Peace Park, we headed back to arrange for a Shinkansen ride "home" to Kyoto. We were unable to get reserved seats on the next Shinkansen (Sakura) so lined up at the beginning of the queue at the entry point for one of the non-reserved cars and managed to score two seats together on the three seat side of the car. The Sakura terminates at Shin-Osaka so there was a nine minute window for us to find the correct platform for our next reserved ride on the Shinkansen Kodama. Just did it - no JR staff in sight when you really need them!

As we were back in Kyoto reasonably early, we decided to investigate a shopping mall near our hotel that Neil and Kay Sivyer (our trusted Japanese tour informants) had told us about and that we spied as our train came into the station. (Aeon Shopping Mall) We discovered a great supermarket on the ground floor and were able to purchase ready prepared food including warm beef croquettes (thank heavens for friendly Japanese shoppers with a smattering of English to interpret labels and a bold wife!), sushi for breakfast on the train tomorrow morning (a break from the delicious savoury pastries that we ate on the train this morning) and a large bottle of Pepsi Next for a treat in our room after a hard day. With a Y5 plastic shopping bag thrown in the bill came to Y1255. We are really trying to travel on the cheap to save our Japanese currency. What is better, Philip discovered after the transaction that they accept AMEX or Visa Cards for purchase so we will know that for next time. We have also noticed that the Japanese have taken up another western celebration - Halloween. At the supermarket today you could even buy Orange and Grape Fanta in little pumpkin shaped bottles!

We then came outside and, being adventurous, took a different route back to the Hotel. This was a nice change from the hustle of the main streets and gave us a chance to look a different aspect of Kyoto. In fact there is a back street which leads from Aeon Mall to our hotel.

Full Day in Kyoto

After a good night's sleep we both woke ready to start ticking off the "to see" list today. Sky was overcast but sun shining. When we left the hotel we certainly knew that the sun was shining. Temperature was up and so was the humidity - we were both bathed in perspiration. Neither of us had packed shorts so it was a case of grin and bear it. We purchased our Kyoto Day Bus passes first up and then ate breakfast of Aldi Dippity and Cheese biscuits outside the Kyoto Station.

Inside the main hall of Kyoto Station

Stairway to heaven - Philip get going!

 Then on to the bus for Kiyomizudera and the long walk up to the temple along a street lined with shops selling souvenirs and Japanese sweets and ice creams. Lots and lots of Japanese tourists including large groups of high school students. In the end we decided not to pay the extra entry to go into the actual temple and to high-tale it away to somewhere hopefully less crowded. Before we did however we were pleased to pick up the scent of osmanthus flowers that we had first come to love in China. We could not see any familiar white flowers and then Alison looked closely at a nearby shrub/tree and there were myriads of small orange flowers.

Orange osmanthus flowers - heavenly perfume

Young couple in traditional dress at Kiyomizudera

View from Kiyomizudera back to Kyoto Tower

Street scape heading down from entry to Kiyomizudera

What sweet things would you like to buy?

Reboarded the 100 bus and continued on to Gingakuji (Silver Pavilion). Not as crowded here and we enjoyed the walk around the zen sand gardens

Serenity in the Ginkakuji Gardens

Looking down on the raked sand gardens

and then through the moss covered slopes of the forested hill which looks down on the main buildings. Finished with a rest on some benches near the tea house and toilets and thought that this would be an opportune time to have second breakfast of a small Cadbury muesli bar each. Oops - the keeper of the toilets saw us and we were told with very definite hand gestures - no eating. We had missed the sign at the entrance gate!

Slow and crowded bus trip then back to Kyoto station where we purchased a couple of pastries for lunch and took them back to the hotel to eat and drop off the backpack and Philip's camera which we had been carrying all morning.

Decided that we would tick off another of the "to sees" so headed back to the bus area at the station. On the way we were passing one of the JR booking offices so decided to call in and organise some reserved seats for our full day sightseeing trips on Shinkansens and other trains. Lucky we did as we discovered that there were no seats available for our planned trip to Takayama next Saturday so that was immediately moved to Wednesday and in addition we only managed to score two seats one behind the other for our Shinkansen transfer to Tokyo next Sunday. We were assisted with all of this by a most pleasant and helpful young JR booking officer.

Clutching our myriad of reserved seat tickets in separate little folders we then headed off to catch a 205 bus to Kinkakuji (The Golden Pavilion). Slow and crowded trip once again and many visitors in the park. So much so that there was a guard directing everyone on entry to the spot to take pictures of the pavilion across the lake. When Jessica and Philip were there in January 2008, they were almost the only people there and could take their time composing their photos. Alison had a real ah-ha moment when she saw the beauty of the building and its reflection so that made the visit very worthwhile.

Bus back and then the interminable walk through the maze of underground shops and eateries around Kyoto station. Bento box style meal from a little supermarket to share for dinner with a coke and some savoury pastries from a bakery for breakfast on the train to Hiroshima in the morning.

Now tucking in for the night with the air conditioning on max and Alison has enjoyed a Facetime session with Jessica and the dogs and Jessica has been given a tour of our hotel room! The marvels of the internet.

Coolangatta to Kansai to Kyoto

Safely delivered to the airport this morning by Jessica and through security with our food supplies intact but Alison was randomly selected for the full body scan! Plane loaded smoothly and off on time without a full load so Philip moved across the aisle and we had the luxury of two seats each. Touched down a little early at Kansai but any bonus time that we had earned was soon devoured by slow processing at immigration and then at the JR office to obtain our JR Rail Passes. Rushed to the platform and managed to catch the 7.16pm Haruka Express to Kyoto.

Worked our way out of Kyoto station to the east exit and a short walk to the Daiwa Roynet Hotel where we are staying. Very pleasant staff on the reception and we were quickly loaded up with supplies of bath salts, drip coffee and other sundries before making our way to our non-smoking room. Quite new and lovely and clean and thank god for the air conditioning as it is quite humid here tonight. You can more than swing a cat in the bathroom which is good for a Japanese hotel from past experience here in Kyoto.

Walked back to the station and into a little super-market where the ready made meals were being marked down. We have enjoyed sesame chicken with gluggy rice and a salad and coke on the side.

Will finish this post here as I now have to work out how I can charge my computer as the Japanese adapter we have will only take a twin plug - no earth pin hole!!! The electric toothbrush, phone and iPad will be fine.