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Things about Japan.

Shinkansens are great, and so fast. All trains are always on time, but the seats are not always comfortable. Every time the conductor comes through, and he does after nearly every stop, he bows at the front of the carriage, and again at the end, regardless of whether he is bowing to the backs of all the heads, or whether anyone cares. Similarly, the lady who wheels the refreshment trolley through, bows at each end of the carriage. No wonder you see so many tiny little old ladies permanently bent at the middle.
Destination information on the trains is written in English as well as Japanese, so you don't get lost. The station names are also bilingual, and announcements are usually made as well. Most suburban buses also have bilingual signs, and street signs are also in English. It would be worthwhile to have the address of your hotel written in Japanese to show taxi drivers, because they have difficulty with maps written in English. Menus are only sometimes in English. You may need to check out the plastic models in the window, or just take pot luck.
Most people do not understand spoken English. Although they all learn English to pass their high school exams, their methodology is acknowledged to be abysmal, so it is useless.
It's a noisy place. Pedestrian crossings make loud noises, (in Fukuoka they sing songs) and there are beeps and pings going on all over. Beware of bikes on the footpaths. When you enter a shop, someone, or the entire staff, will call out a welcome to you, "irrashimasssseee". When you leave, they will call out a farewell. This can be very noisy in a busy shop. At the supermarket, there may be spruikers at the various counters, encouraging you to buy their broccoli or octopus or something else. If you are supplied with breakfast, it may include soup, cold scrambled egg, cold fish, salad, tofu, rice. Different, but it does fill you up.
Take some slip-on shoes. Every time you enter a traditional hotel etc, you will need to take your shoes off, and put on their slippers. If your room has tatami mats, you will have to then take off the slippers, and just wear socks on the mats. In this case, you will also have a Japanese bed - matresses and doonas on the floor. I raided cupboards for extra doonas to go underneath, to give me a bit more padding. I also found it easier to just crawl around the room, rather than standing up and getting down all the time. There will not be a chair, you spend all of your time on the floor.
You probably know that bathing in hot spring pools (onsen) is done naked in segregated baths. We found them extremely hot, so were disappointed that we didn't have a lovely, lazy, relaxing time.



Friday 20 Feb

Although I had an empty seat beside me so could spread myself out, I still didn't sleep much. David did sleep more that he usually does on a plane.
We landed at Coolangatta at about 7:00am, collected our bags and went through customs. We had some breakfast, exchanged money, and sat around until 11:00 for our next flight. It was the baby special - we had them everywhere - but still managed a brief doze.
We reached Melbourne around 14:45 and waited again, until 17:00 for our bus. That arrived at Ballarat at 18:45, and I waited at the station with our bags while David walked up to Tim's to get our car. Bec had prepared enough dinner for us, which was very well received. A call at the supermarket on the way home meant that we arrived at about 21:00, ready for a good sleep in our own bed!

Kyoto to Kanzai

After breakfast we packed up our bags for the last time, and left them in the luggage room. We bought day tickets for the buses again, and headed off to the Steam Locomotive Museum - as you do when all 'templed out'.


It is located at a beaut 20-bay roundhouse, with turntable, and there are about 15 locomotives. They also have a display inside a relocated station building, but most of the info is in Japanese.

The train came in soon after we arrived,

and discharged its load of kindergarten kids, and we hopped on. It was a very short train ride, but having paid our money we did it anyway.

Then we looked at the locomotives in the roundhouse


while the kids had lunch - each on their own mat, having taken off their shoes.

We caught a bus back to the city station, and had a small lunch, then caught a bus (have to make the most of our tickets) to the Imperial Palace, and walked through the gardens.
Then it was time to retrieve our luggage, and catch our last train to Kanzai airport.
We have checked in, and discovered that they have free WIFI. Now it is 19:00 we will go and find some dinner. Boarding is at 20:45.

This is just about the end, but I will add a bit more when we get home, and include some of our general impressions of the trip.

Kyoto

At 6:50am I was awake and felt, and David was wakened by, an earthquake (mag 4.8 centred near Fukui on the west coast).
Today we were met at 8;30 am by Satako-san, volunteer guide from the Kyoto Jellybeans Goodwill Club. and off we went.
First stop was the Nijo-jo castle, originally built in 1603.

I had been there last time, but didn't remember until David reminded me about the 'nightingale floor' I had described. The floor was made to squeak when walked on, to warn of anyone's approach. You can't take photos inside. I did recognise the wall of the inner castle.

We walked around the gardens, then got on another bus.
This took us to the Golden Temple, Kinkaku-ji, which had its latest rebuild only in 1950.

More peaceful gardens and crowds of high-school students.

At the bus-stop outside we met 'the bumblebee and the geisha'. Sounds like a good title for something.

The next bus took us to the Nishijin Textile Centre, where we had lunch in their cafe, then watched a 15min parade of kimonos, and went for a walk through the extensive shop.


I had previously been to Kiyomizu-Dera, a world heritage temple up on a hill overlooking the city.



It is built on huge wooden pillars, and has special spring water to drink. The road leading up to the gate is a real tourist trap.

On the way back to the city we made a brief stop at the Yasaka-Jinka shrine, but by now my feet had worn out, so we went back to the hostel.

It was almost 16:30, and we had been on the move for eight hours.
Some coffee and a rest, and we are ready to find some dinner.

We walked for a long way, looking for a cheap restaurant that had a menu in English, and ended up coming back to one we had seen last night. After icecreams, I had an early shower, but had to wait for the hair dryer, because some guy was using it to dry his undies.

Fukuoka to Kyoto

We got up early, and had a taxi take us all to Hakata station. There was plenty of time, so we had coffee first. Then we said goodbye to Steve and Kaori, and off we went.
First we took a Shinkansen to ShinYamaguchi, then changed to a two carriage diesel which chugged along to Yanago. There was some snow as we moved through Kyushu,

but on Honshu we went through the mountains, and had snow falling all the way to the coast at Hamada.



Even along the coast, there were snow showers, and drifts in sheltered corners. The scenery was similar to the north-west coast, rocky outcrops, tiny harbours and gardens squashed between the sea and the road.


At Yanago we picked up a second two-car diesel, which took us to Tottori, where we bought bowls of ramen soup from a kiosk on the station, then had to try to carry them onto the train. This was a third diesel, but this one had a great big front window.
Then we went through the mountains again, past the town of Ohara (thinking of Ros and Tony),

and suddenly there was no snow, and not long after we arrived in Himeji. I didn't know which route the train took, so it was a surprise to see the coast again.
From Himeji to Kyoto is wall to wall civilization - tiny houses squashed in between blocks of apartments and huge high rises. Not our sort of environment.

We got to Kyoto at about 18:00, took a cab to the hostel, then went for a walk to find somewhere for tea. We chatted online to Steve and Tim, and now it's nearly bed-time.

Fukuoka

After breakfast, we went to Steve and Kaori's. She has to go to work today, and left at about 10:30. We just sat around talking until about 12:00, when we decided that we'd better get moving.
We caught a bus through the city and round to the tower again. I had discovered that because it's my birthday tomorrow, I can go up the tower for free, and have birthday cake. Both David and Steve got discounts for being foreign tourists, so our admissions cost Y1280 instead of Y2400. Fukuoka tower is built right near the beach, which makes it different from others we have visited.



After seeing the view, we had lunch in their cafe and ate cake,

then got a cab (not much dearer than three bus fares, and quicker and warmer on a cold day) to the big city park again.
The other day we missed Steve's favourite part of the old castle ruins, so we walked around there for a bit,


then went into town. David wanted to look for funny t-shirts in the shops, but there weren't many to be seen.

We caught a bus home, and have been sitting around catching up with computers, and other bits and pieces, and Steve has been practising his Kanji. Kaori will be home in about an hour for late dinner. Then we will have to go home and pack up.

On the phone, Jon said that we were not nice, expecting Kaori to cook dinner, when she was the only one who had been to work today. But she wanted to make us pancakes, and they were very good. I might try when we get home.

Fukuoka - Kumamoto, Aso

Steve and Kaori hired a car today, and we went for a drive in the country. We left Fukuoka about 9:30, and went first to Kumamoto, where there is a big castle.


The upper section is not original, but has been rebuilt to the original design. We climbed up inside with hundreds of others,




then went off to Restaurant Joyfull for some hamburger lunch.
Then we went to Mt Aso, which is an active volcano complex within a huge caldera, the biggest in the world.

It has exploded several times in the last 30yrs, killing tourists. It was just smoking today, but that was very impressive for the foreign tourists.



We drove the 2hrs back to Fukuoka (at least Kaori drove - all day because Steve doesn't), returned the car, and had tea in another of Steve's favourite fast food restaurants.