Tag: Japan

Hirayu Onsen

On By rrainefioreIn TravelLeave a comment

When I was looking at Takayama as a possible place to visit, I looked up things to do.  One of the recommendations was to go to the Okahida area where there were a lot of hot springs resorts.  Why not stay a couple nights at a hot springs resort on the way to Takayama instead of doing a day tour from Takayama?  A little more research and I booked a room for two nights in Hirayu Onsen. 

Hirayu Onsen is a small village full of tourist accommodations, an unfriendly visitors center, a decent sized bus station, a couple restaurants and a lot of hot water.  I use the word hotel in this blog, but they are ryokans (guest houses).  There is water running under every street. Sometimes it’s in an open concrete ditch beside the street or in a ditch under the street with grates or pavers over it, and sometimes both.  You can hear it running everywhere, rushing, falling, trickling.  The town has three free foot baths sitting in different parks.  They are shallow pools with hot water to dip your feet in.  I’m sure every hotel has it’s own onsen bath. Most businesses seemed to have a small water feature out front too.

The hotel I wanted to stay at only had family sized rooms available for over $300 a night.  So I booked one in a less fancy hotel that was a little over $100 a night including breakfast and dinner.  My room was huge and overlooked a duck/koi pond.  It definitely wasn’t the high end hotel, but it would be good enough.  The hotel next to mine seemed to span quite an area including buildings on both sides of the street.  Every time I would go to or leave my hotel, there would be people from that hotel just milling around the street in their robes.

The day I arrived, I walked around town.  I went to the visitors center.  The guy at the desk never looked up once even when I stood right in front of him.  I picked up some maps and pamphlets and headed back out.  I found the town nature walk.  After about 15 minutes I decided I could check that of my list of things to do. I went to a gift shop and found the first foot bath.

The cost of my hotel room included dinner and breakfast. All the tables were the traditional tables where you sit on a mat on the floor. There were two dining rooms. In mine there were three single tables and a table for six. Most of the food was already laid out. A guy came over and lit a burner under the plate with beef and a burner under a dish with a white milky substance. He also brought me two different soups. The rest of the food was already on the table. The milky substance was tofu and it thickened as it cooked and then you put it in this delicious sauce. I tried everything except the river fish. Most of it was delicious. Most of it, I wasn’t sure what it was. One guy at the six person table came in, ate and left. Another came in, grabbed something he wanted to eat and left the room with it. The others came in and ate so fast they were done in under two minutes. The other single table guys came in after me and left before me. How did they eat so fast?

After dinner I went to the public bath at my hotel. In my room was a robe and towel for each day. There was also a pajama type top. I put on my robe and slippers to go down to the bath. When I was coming back I saw people in their robes with the pajama type top on top of the robe. Was that what I was supposed to do? I can’t decide if I like public baths or not. I’m thinking I’m not a huge fan.

Did you know that ducks wake up at 4:30am and start quacking loudly? I know that now. Breakfast was a similar experience to dinner in that the food was all laid out and most of it was mysterious. There was a goo on a leaf and a lady lit the burner below that plate. When the goo started to bubble because it was so hot, I took it and the burnt leaf off the plate. No, I was not supposed to do that. The lady shook her head and indicated that it was to remain on the burner. The leaf burnt to a crisp and the goo was stuck completely to it. I don’t get it. I think one of the first things I’m going to do when I get home is get an American breakfast. Although, I’m not completely against miso soup with breakfast.

On the map I got at the tourism place, there was a thing listed that had something to do with turtles. When I googled it I got one hit that Japanese make some product from soft shelled turtles (suppon). I got another hit that showed pink flowering trees. The translation was turtle nursery. So my first adventure for the day was to find out if this was a place where they raised turtles, sold products made from turtles or had a tree nursery somehow named after the soft shelled turtle. I was hoping for trees. It was trees! A grove of white and pink flowering trees. This is what I imagine it looked like all over Japan during cherry blossom season (which I just missed). I’m not sure why these were in full bloom, but they were a sight to see. The shades of pink ranged from white to baby pale pink to a slightly darker shade of pink. And when the breeze picked up, tiny petals fluttered on the breeze. They slowly drifted down to the ground, so graceful and soft. It was like some fairy tale movie. The building next to the trees had a tiny store in the front of a huge building. Inside were products I couldn’t identify. I didn’t stay long to look. Suppon is supposed to be very healthy and is used in stew for cancer patients as well as a supplement in Chinese medicine. I didn’t see any actual turtles.

I walked by the local ski resort. It looked to be about two runs in size. It was on the way to a waterfall. The waterfall was pretty, but the hike up to it was not in the shade so I was very hot when I got there. There was no cooling off in the waterfall as it was not accessible for close up inspection and the river below it was unfriendly. Another sightseeing stop in the general area was Big Tree, Onezuko. I found where I think the path went to get to Onezuko and it was straight up a narrow side sloping trail that could have used stairs. I did not want to come back down that. I was still hot from the waterfall walk so up didn’t look fabulous either. There would be no big tree for me.

Dinner was in a different area of the hotel tonight. I had a room to myself with a tall table and regular sized chair. It was a different assortment of mysteries. It was a different type of tofu still cooked over a flame. The beef tonight was cooked on the same leaf as I had for breakfast. I hope you are not supposed to eat the leaf. There was no way that was happening. All I could think of was “You’ve heard of Elf on a Shelf, now there’s Beef on a Leaf.” There was a different river fish tonight. It was the same “no way” from me, though.

After dinner I went to the public bath at the hotel I had wanted to stay at, but couldn’t justify the price. There were seven or eight outdoor pools and they were so clean. It felt like you were out in the forest instead out under the awning of the roof. I enjoyed this onsen much more than the one at my hotel. I was real glad I paid $8 to enjoy a new onsen.  Public baths were back on the thumbs up list.

Travel Day

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I got to the Ueda train station early, mostly because I didn’t know what else to do and partly because I hoped to see a shinkansen zip through the station without stopping.  When I was in Ueda in 2019, this happened. I’m not sure if I wrote about it then, but it was such a terrifying and wonderful experience.

After a couple shinkensen came and went, I heard an announcement.  It didn’t come with the same chime before it that seemed to announce a train arrival.  And it was never repeated in English.  Then I heard the gates to the platform click.  They were already closed, but this sounded like a “just to be sure” locking of the gates.  Then the roar came.  I stood up to get a better view, but couldn’t get my feet to move closer.  I felt the air change ahead of the train and it felt like the wind tried to carry me with it as the train sped by.  My heart stopped.  I’m sure because after the shinkansen went through, my heart hurt.  I had trouble catching my breath.  Of course, there was no way to do a video of it.  It all happened too fast and I was immobilized from instinctual fear..  I wonder how fast it was going.  I’m sure it slows down a little to go through a station?  They need a digital display that reports the speed.  It did happen a second time.  This time I got a video which of course is nowhere near as dynamic as the real thing.  I didn’t go up to the gate for fear the train might take my phone. 

I was on the first train for one stop.  It took 15 minutes to travel what would have taken one hour by car.  You do the math.

I had 45 minutes to get to my second train.  When planning the trip, I left time in between just to be safe.  Two trains were listed on the electronic board for platform 6.  Mine was the second listed.  A train sat at the platform so I assumed it was the first listed on the board.  That train left and the next train came earlier than I expected mine to come.  I stared at it.  There was no station name or train name on it in English.  I stared at it and decided to not get on it.  A third train came in.  A European couple was standing near me and he asked if this train was the one that went to Matsumoto.  I replied “I hope”.  Most of the cars were empty.  This was great since the seats looked smaller than my suitcase.  As car 4 rolled up, it was completely full.  Crap, my ticket is for car 4.  The sign on the side of the car said car 4 Shinano 8.  I felt pretty sure this was the right train.  I stood aside to let people out.  They kept coming out.  I’d peek around the corner, more people.  More people.  I looked to the other end of the car.  It also had a solid line of people coming out.  It was like the clown car I remembered from when I was a kid.  More people came out than could possibly have fit in the car.  Now I was concerned.  Would the train leave before I could get on it?  When I finally got on, Car 4 was empty except for me, the couple going to Matsumoto and 4 other people.  Whew – my suitcase could have a seat of its own. 

A little more than an hour later I was in Matsumoto.  First order of business: lunch.  Second: coffee.  Third: bus station.  I searched for a restaurant and found the cutest coffeehouse that also had sandwiches.  Score!  Goals 1 and 2 together.  The coffee shop looked like something I would expect to see in Europe.  The china was ornate and gilded.  Grand desserts in foggy metal cups came out.  Was it dry ice or just super cold?  Large coffees and small coffee came out.  Small open face sandwiches came out.  The proportion of dessert to sandwich was way off.  I had a ham and cheese sandwich and thought of ordering the dessert, but didn’t.  I had ordered a cinnamon coffee.  It was cinnamon and orange.  I hadn’t expected the orange, but it was a lovely combination.

The bus station was across the street from the train station and two blocks from the coffee shop.  I had my ticket on my phone so I went past the ticket office and straight to the bus platforms.  There were 10 platforms.  There was a timetable on the wall.  None of the timetables showed my bus. I didn’t feel like playing the game of “pick any number between 1 and 10”.  So I went to the ticket office and asked.  Platform 7. 

Whoa, this was a bus ride to remember.  The road was so narrow with tons of twists and turns as it climbed into the mountains.  The road was not wide enough for two buses (in my opinion), but we passed many other buses and large vehicles anyway.  At some blind curves our bus would just stop and wait for other vehicles to pass before making the turn.  At a couple places he stopped even though he couldn’t see around the curve in the road.  When the big vehicles had passed he continued.  I wondered if he had some sort of large vehicle radar that told him when he could go.  Through every tunnel I could have touched the wall if I could stick my arm out the window.  The bus was just as close to every guardrail and every other vehicle as well – just an arms length away.  The guardrail looked completely insufficient for how steep the drop offs were.  Yes, I had my seatbelt on for the whole trip. 

Most of the way the road followed a river.  At the bottom it was wide and dark green.  It got wilder, spicier, and full of whitewater as we kept going up.  Many places the river was dammed creating blue mountain lakes.  There were also more tunnels than I could count.  After each tunnel was a breathtaking view of the river, a lake or waterfalls.  The mountainsides were covered in every shade of green that exists.  The forest was dense with no hint that anything other than forest, water and us existed.  It was a stunning , beautiful, terrifying drive and I had the best/worst seat in the bus – front row where I could see out the front of the bus and left side window where I could peer down every drop off into a river or lake.  There were still pockets of snow up high and I was very glad I wasn’t doing this drive in winter.

Sorry for bus window glare in some of my pictures, but it was the best I could do.

Adventures in Laundry

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Today was laundry day.  I went to a laundromat instead of doing laundry at the hotel.  It was too early to check into the hotel so I thought I’d take my chances at a laundromat.

All the machines looked super large and the pictures above the machines showed the number of blankets each machine would take.  So maybe people only use this for large items they can’t do at home.  Still, I was there and I probably looked silly toting my suitcase around anyway.  Might as well do laundry there. 

I put my translation app on camera mode and tried to figure out how it all worked.  All the machines were combo washer dryers.  This is technology I am skeptical about, but here we go.

Step 1 – put laundry in machine, close door and remember machine number. Check.  I shut the machine door and the central control (my name for it) started talking to me in Japanese.

Step 2 – go to central control machine, select “English”, put in machine number – machine will flash green so you can be sure you have the right machine.  Green flash – check.

Step 3 – select “wash and dry”, put money in and receive change. 

Crap, machine took coins or 1,000 yen bills.  My laundry would be 1,300 yen and I had 900 in coins or a 2,000 bill.  Another lady was in the laundromat.  I show her the 2,000 bill and pointed at the machine.  It took a minute but she understood.  She ran out to her car and came back with two 1,000 bills to make change.  I was grateful.  Step 3 – check.

After successfully paying, my machine started to spin.  I’m pretty sureOh shit – I forgot the laundry detergent.  The door was locked tighter than a safe at the bank.  I peered in and there were suds.  Did this automatically provide soap too?  I hope so.  I suppose clothes washed in just water are still cleaner than clothes not washed at all?  And I suppose I could wash them again at the hotel if this was a $9 experience just for my blog.

Later I did the math.  I feel this was very expensive coin laundry.  Maybe I should have used the laundry at the hotel.  Too late, the laundry is no longer mine until central control releases it.

Central Control

I heard a 5 second song and then the door of my machine clicked.  My laundry was dry and smelled clean!

Another Night in Ueda

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I decided to stay one night in Ueda since I wasn’t sure how I was going to get from the retreat center to Ueda or what time.  I didn’t want to have to rush to meet my train or miss it because my timing was off.  It would take me two trains and a bus to get from Ueda to Hirayu Onsen.  I was able to come back to Ueda with my teacher and friend by taxi.  I also got to have lunch with them before they departed to Tokyo and I departed to laundry

After doing laundry, I was only slightly early to check in to my hotel.  I was able to check in early.  I booked a massage for 6:40pm so I had over three hours to kill.  Sara and Michael had headed off to get ice cream when I left them so I still had ice cream running around in my brain.  I mapped ice cream and picked a location nearby.  It was a restaurant that served a lot of things.  Ice cream was not one of them.  They had shaved ice.  Close enough.  I got a mulberry milk ice.  The menu advertised it was high in antioxidants. I’ll take my toxic sugar with a side of antioxidants please. They cancel each other out, right?  It was stupid sized and delicious.

Then what?  I went to the art museum because the internet told me they had a great shop with things from local artists.  Lots of things, but nothing I wanted.  Since I was shopping now, where else coukd I go?  I went to two other gift shops.  They were full of boxed snacks.  When Japanese travel they buy these as gifts, either as a memento of where they traveled to or as a gift to others from their home town.  I think it’s a great gift idea, but I don’t have room in my suitcase for boxed mystery food.  One box had a picture of a green grape, another of an apple.  I was pretty sure both of them probably were sweet and might resemble the flavor of that fruit.  The rest of the boxes and bags were a complete mystery.  The rest of the things in the shops were sake, samurai themed toys, other toys, trinkets, t-shirts and hats.  There was a huge samurai theme since the Ueda Castle nearby dates back to this times of samurais.

After my massage, I went in search of steak.  I had seen several on my wander around town.  I went to two steak places that had people eating in them, but they told me they were closed.  It was a little before 8:00pm.  Even restaurants in Granby are open past 8:00.  I went to a Korean BBQ place.  Every item I would want was for a minimum of two people.  I gave up the hope of steak.  My next goal was to find a place that would serve me any food. 

I went to the street near the train station where I ate the last time I was in Ueda.  Two more restaurants were full of people, but closed.  I still have emergencheese in my suitcase, but I’m pretty sure I should throw that away, not eat it.  I think I’ll go to bed without dinner before eating emergencheese.  The last restaurant on the street welcomed me in and even fished an English menu out of the back somewhere.  No steak.  So, I chose a cabbage and pork omelet.  I never would have put those three things together on my own, but it was good once I scraped the dried fish flakes off the top.

End of Class

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The class was great.  I feel so honored that I was able to attend.

The students have all gone home.  Only three of us and some staff remain.  I sit on my porch by myself drinking in the sounds of the forest, not a human sound to be heard.  Birds are chirping – at least 4 or 5 different calls from different directions.  One, I can tell he is flying by as he sings.  All the birds have high pitched sweet songs so I imagine them as small birds.

The breeze randomly changes from light to storm-like back to almost still.  The leaves sound like thousands of small pieces of paper rustling in the breeze.  There is the constant twack as leaves or twigs fall and hit other leaves and branches on their way down to the forest floor.  Then a large wind kicks up and all the branches stand at attention instead of drooping down.  The soft rustle turns to a louder roar becoming one solid sound like a distant train instead of a thousand smaller sounds. 

The whole pattern repeats.  Then the chirps of insects start to join the chorus as the sun starts its slow retreat.  Even though the sun is not gone yet, the temperature drops to needing long sleeves.  But I’m too enchanted to go get a different shirt.  The smells of dinner cooking start to show up with the bigger breezes.  I half expect to see elves or forest fairies.

Tomorrow I go back to the bustle of cities, trains, hotels and laundry.  Today I imagine this is what life was before cities, trains, hotels and laundry.

Tea House

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The first day of class was the day they would take their final exam.  This meant I had the day to myself unless I wanted to take the exam.  I’ve already taken the exam twice, once for my class and once with the class behind mine.  I chose a day to myself instead of taking a test.

My teacher gave me the lowdown on where I could hike in the area.  Most of it was walking on a small one-lane road, not actual hiking, but all the routes sounded wonderful.  One option was going to a nearby tea house.  That sounded perfect – a little walking in the mountains, some tea and then a walk back.  I headed out for my walk a little before the tea house opened so I could get there after it opened, have time for tea and get back to the retreat center for lunch.

The one lane road took me past an azalea farm.  Most of the plants had flowered, but there were plenty still in bloom.  Then it went through a little village of about 6-10 houses.  The village was quiet.  I didn’t see anyone out and about.  Every turn of the road offered me a different view of the mountains.  I missed the cherry blossoms, but now all the tree foliage was full and every shade of green was present at the same time.  The leaves were fluttering in the breeze.  There is a delicate quality to the leaves that felt so different from Colorado.  It’s hard to put my finger on it.  Aspen leaves flutter and feel small and delicate.  These leaves almost had another dimension to them, a different level of delicate.  They seemed more intricate in detail.  Obviously, there was more variety of trees and leaves.  They also felt artistically placed.  Each branch had a graceful flow and direction as if a team of artists had chosen the exact angle the branch would arc at, the perfect number of leaves and the orchestrated placement of those leaves on the branch.  It looked like art informed nature, but I could see perfectly why Japanese art is so beautiful – it mimics the perfection of nature.

The road gradually climbed, twisted and turned until another village came into view.  There, a few buildings into town was the tea house with an open sign.

I was the only guest there.  They seated me and gave me a menu.  I ordered a strawberry ice cream thing and a homemade ginger ale.  As I waited, I flipped through my emails.  My friend emailed me to tell me she had called them to let them know I was coming.  How sweet.

The ginger ale was what we would call ginger beer and it was the best I have ever tasted.   I couldn’t be happier with my choice.  The ice cream was good too – strawberry sorbet, vanilla ice cream, fresh strawberries, mint and a thick cream.  The cream made the dessert, it was slightly sweet and made your lips feel smooth and creamy.

Next I went in search of Nogura No Meoto Dosojin as it was supposed to be across the street.  It was a shrine of a man and woman that is supposed to bring good fortune for married couples, fertility, and maybe other good things I can’t remember.  I wasn’t quite sure what I was looking for so I walked right by it.  At some point, I gave up, turned around and went back the way I came.  Then I saw the rock carved with a man and woman on it.  I was expecting something bigger.  Hopefully, I got some luck or a blessing.

The walk back was the same way I had come and it was just as beautiful.  Even though there were no cherry blossoms (maybe one tree), there were many other flowers along the way if you looked.  I always love the smell of pine when hiking in Colorado.  No pine smell here.  No earth smell.  The air felt lighter and crisper.  Every few moments I would pick up a sweet smell, almost like candy.  Was it the flowers?  Was it the trees?  It would go away as fast as it had appeared.  A few minutes down the road, it would appear again.

Ueda

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I got up early this morning.  I’ve been getting up early every morning.  I’m not a morning person so it is weird to be awake before 6:00 each day.  Today it was extra nice.  It would give me time to explore Ueda before I left after lunch.  Plus, I had no need to hang out in my smoking room.

I walked to the Ueda castle.  It was originally built in 1583.  Now it is part of a park and museum.  It was so peaceful walking around the park.  There were other people, but it seemed private compared to Tokyo.  I took pictures and wandered. I heard drums off in the distance so I walked towards those.  I imagined they were the big ceremonial drums.  They stopped long before I could find them. 

I also walked to the Historic Street.  It looked like Japan from the 1500’s.  I enjoyed the walk through the alley neighborhood to get to the historic street as much as I enjoyed the historic street.  I love getting a glimpse of where people live.  I always try to imagine what life might be like I lived there, rode my bike to that shop and ate at that restaurant.  A bakery was open on the historic street, but none of the shops.  It was still fun to walk down the street trying to imagine what life was like back then.

For lunch I met up with my spiritual teacher and one of my past classmates.  She was not only one of his past students, but is now his translator and workshop organizer when he teaches in Japan.  The main reason I am here is to attend one of these classes.  I have met this class many times both in Japan, in Colorado and on zooms. So I was excited and honored to see them again and spend a week paying witness to their growth and their journey in person.

We left Ueda and headed up to the retreat center where the class will be.  The class consists of 2 men and 10 women.  A few minutes after I was shown to my room the guys came to say hi and take me to see where the girls were staying.  Most everyone was there.  I was welcomed with hugs and huge smiles.  Those that spoke minimal English told me they were glad I came.  The others told me in Japanese.  Even through the language barrier, I knew they were grateful I came all this way to be with them.  My heart was full and my happy tears were many.

I Like Long Walks in the Park with my Suitcase….

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Today was a travel day.  In Japan you can have your luggage shipped from one hotel to the next.  I asked my hotel about this.  They looked up the address of where I was going and said they could not do same day shipping.  It would get there the next day.  My smaller bag was not big enough for a change of clothes, all my chargers, my toiletries, etc.  I decided to travel with my suitcase. 

In the morning I walked around the area of my hotel so I could explore without my  suitcase as long as possible.  I found a shrine near the hotel and a park which were both peaceful and beautiful. 

An area near the hotel was a well guarded secret.  Every entrance had guards in front of it.  After walking by dozens of entrances all blocked off and guarded, I started to guess it was an area of government buildings.  Eventually, I learned it was the National Diet Building.  It is the center of political activity in Japan.  It is where their House of Representatives and House of Councilors meet.

I also noticed many small buses and vans just parked on the streets nearby.  They were all the same colors, white with a bright aqua blue.  They all looked like they came out of the 1950’s.  The windows in the back were covered with a heavy steel aqua colored mesh.  Was this to keep prisoners in or to keep politicians safe from attacks from the outside?  Upon doing some on-line searching, I found out they are police busses.  They can be used for transporting prisoners or transporting police to an event where many police are needed.  They can be used as mobile command centers as well. 

So I still don’t know why there were so many in this area, but I was pretty sure something important was going on.

I had to check out at 10:00 and my shinkensen train (fast train) wasn’t until a little after 1:00.  In theory, it would take a half hour to get to the station the shinkensen left from.  What should I do for 2.5 hours?  There was a big park next to the station.  What could be more fun than taking your suitcase for a romantic stroll through the park on a lovely Saturday morning?

It took a few tries to figure out the best way to navigate the escalators with the suitcase.  Too far in one direction and it might fall off the step when the step appears.  Too far in the other direction and you’ll get squished by it when the step appears.  Then when the ride comes to an end, you better be ready to give a good shove or it gets stuck on the transition and the person behind you runs into you.  There were plenty of escalators to practice my technique on the way to the park.

There was also one giant staircase leaving the station just to make sure I got a good arm workout for the day.  Then all the different sidewalk paver textures, street crosswalks and the park trail rounded out the workout as I use various muscles to push, pull, drag, lift, and skitter my suitcase along.  I hoped the wheels would survive Japan.  I need an adult sized version of the suitcase some kids have that they can sit or ride on.  Why aren’t there more ride-on suitcases?  So, of course, I got on line and looked up ride-on suitcases.  There are quite a few options.  One was a scooter suitcase.  That’s what I need.

I felt silly taking my suitcase through the park, but I wasn’t the only one.  I saw quite a few other people enjoying the day with their luggage.  I sat on a bench by the lake and watched people in pink and white paddle boats paddle slowly by.  You could hear children’s laughter echoing from all parts of the park.  The sound of footsteps all around as some people wandered and some were out for their mid-morning jog.  And the sounds of conversations filled the air as well.

I couldn’t fathom taking my suitcase out to lunch so I reached to the bottom of my purse and pulled out the emergencheese – individually packaged cheese I had shoved in there in case of a food emergency.  What if the plane only had fish?  I’d have emergencheese.  What if my hotel restaurant wasn’t open and I couldn’t find another place to eat?  Emergencheese.  What if you were in a park and didn’t want to look for a restaurant and then shove your suitcase into that restaurant?  You guessed it – Emergencheese.  It did the trick but was completely unexciting.

I gave myself plenty of time to find my train.  My train name was the Asama, but of course none of the signs said Asama.  I followed the signs to the shinkansen assuming all the fast trains were in the same location.  There was a big sign above the gate to the shinkansen that had a lot of the train names, departure times and platform numbers on it.  There were no trains past 12:30 shown yet, but I felt I was headed in the right direction.  I went in the ticket office and asked what platform mine would leave from – platform 19. 

I got to the gate, put my ticket in.  The machine sucked my ticket in and spit it out farther ahead, but the gate didn’t open.  A train employee nearby instructed me about what I did wrong in Japanese.  I scooted backwards until I was out the gate and got in line to see her since I had no idea what she said or what to do.  Each shinkensen ticket comes with a local ticket as well.  I needed to put both in at the same time.  It would have taken me a half hour of trying other wrong ways before I would have thought of trying that…..

I put both in.  They both got sucked up and spit out.  The gate opened and I was free to go find Platform 19.

I got to Ueda and found my hotel with no problem.  Again, the hotel had an automated machine with a guy standing behind it helping me push all the correct buttons.  He took my key out of the machine and proudly exclaimed “one smoking room”.  No, I didn’t book a smoking room.  I asked if there were any non-smoking rooms I could switch too. He told me they were fully booked.  I looked at my email booking confirmation.  Oh, right there – smoking.  I can’t believe I did that.  I can’t argue with it now.  I checked online for quite a while.  I used Agoda, Google Maps, Hotels.com and Airbnb.  Not only was this hotel fully booked, every hotel in the entire town was fully booked. 

I opened the window in my room and sprayed the room/fabric spray they gave me.  The spray did nothing.  I did some laundry, shoved my clean clothes in my suitcase and vowed to not open it again until I had to.  I doubt the room would have ruined my clothes since no one was actively smoking in my room, but better safe than sorry.

I found a delightful place for dinner that had a caprese salad.  It was really good.  The woman that made the salad was excited to tell me she made the mozzarella that day and showed me pictures of the process.  I find most people I have come into contact with want to welcome me and have an interaction with me even if small.  People are quite friendly here, especially outside the big city. 

I decided to keep my window open all night.   There didn’t seem to be too many bugs to make this a problem.  When the train went by, it sounded like a jet plane was landing in my room.  Either I was too tired to care or the trains stopped running at night, because they didn’t keep me awake.

Rain Day

On By rrainefioreIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Rain was predicted for today.  In fact it was raining when I went down from my room to breakfast.  I debated if I should bring the umbrella and rain jacket or just the rain jacket.  The umbrella is just another thing to carry and the rain was light.  I chose just the rain jacket.  I should have taken both.

Today, I had scheduled a tour through the streets of Tokyo on go-karts.  I was quite excited.  I hoped the rain didn’t ruin the activity.  I headed over to the kart shop.  There were four others signed up to go with me.

It was no longer raining, but the cart guy said it was expected to start back up in the middle of the 2 hour tour.  I could get a refund or if I decided to go, they would lend me a rain coat, rain pants, gloves, goggles AND a rain poncho.  Under all that, how would I even know if it was raining.  I should have taken the refund. 

The group of 4 came in after me and didn’t know you needed to have an international driver’s license to go on the tour.  So they couldn’t go.  It was just me.  I expected it would be me and a guide in karts zipping around.  That didn’t sound as fun as a big group, but it sounded fun enough so I suited up in all the anti rain stuff and watched the safety video. 

There would be a lead car and a follow car so I just had to follow the lead car and not run any red lights.  After a hands-on tutorial of the kart, I was ready to go.  Wait, there was no guide in a kart going with me.  This suddenly went down on the fun scale to fun adjacent.  

It started off ok.  I was a little slow at first.  I didn’t want to gun it and run into the lead car.  I would start up slow and then speed up just in time to have to break at a stop light.  Apparently I was driving around with my hazards on because the guy in the follow car ran up to me at a stop light and asked if I was ok and then turned them off.  Ooops. 

The turn signal was trying to get the better of me.  I couldn’t see the toggle switch under the wheel.  I missed it quite a few times and I bet I was driving around with it on when I wasn’t turning from time to time.  I don’t even know why I cared.  The follow car had a clear view of the lead car over my head and knew when we were turning.

It rained a little harder.  The break and gas pedals were slippery.  My goggles were streaked with rain.  The rain jacket hood slowly slipped farther back exposing more of my face and allowing water to drip into the jacket.  I couldn’t tell if I was mildly wet or completely soaked.

I basically was flying slowly (felt fast to me, but probably was annoyingly slow to everyone else) in a bubble between the lead and follow cars so I felt safe-ish.  But I was sitting on the ground by myself completely exposed to the elements in a vehicle that is squirrely.  Water was everywhere.  It rained harder and harder and became more difficult to see or push the pedals.  I had dropped solidly into the category of pure un-fun – no fun anywhere to be found.

I raised my hand at the next light which was the signal to abort. Someone from the lead car ran out and asked if I wanted to abort.  Yes, very much so.  The lead car found a safe place to pull over and I was shuttled into the lead car.  I have no idea what became of the kart.  We drove around a bit.  Then we stopped for a photo at Tokyo Station, then went back.

I have a coupon for another time.  I still think it would be a lot of fun not by myself.  

I asked if there was anything they recommended I could do that was fun and not in the rain.  My plan was to go to a park after, but  that was solidly in the non-fun category now.  My feet and pants were dry, but my top was not.  Both TeamLabs and the Harry Potter Tour were recommended.  Everyone kept asking if I was cold – not in the slightest.  I had my rain jacket, but they gave me a poncho to add to the mix. 

I looked up TeamLabs – no tickets available.  I looked up the HP tour.  There were tickets, but it seemed far away.  To HP or not to HP?  I didn’t have the energy to come up with another idea.  I ordered a cab to the HP tour which cost the same as the HP tickets. 

They gave me a plastic bag to put my wet poncho in.  That was nice.  The tour covered a lot about how the movies were made.  It also had a bunch of sets that looked like the movie sets so you could walk through them.  Most of the instructions by staff were in Japanese, but it wasn’t hard to get the gist.  There were places where you could act out scenes or get your picture taken.  I tried them all, but, wow, I’m horrible.  Not that anyone around me was great, but each time I watched the video I just made, I cringed.  It wasn’t even funny bad acting.

The best part of the whole thing was that about 90% of the people, including the adults went into the gift shop ahead of the tour and bought a cape, scarf and wand.  The place was completely covered in giddy, excited people running around pretending they were wizards.  They were posing for pictures, waving their wands to do spells, and having the best time ever.

Halfway through the tour was a cafe and a bar where you could get butter beer.  I was quite ready to try butter beer.  I love everything butter.  I got the butter beer and popcorn combo.  The butter beer smelled like butterscotch, but didn’t quite taste like it.  It just tasted sweet.  It was fun to sit at the pub and have a butter beer.  It also came in a souvenir cup.  My poor husband is going to get a bunch of souvenir cups when I get home and not a single cat hat.

After taking way too many pictures it was time to figure out how to get back to the hotel.  The trains would take over an hour and would involve walking in the pouring rain.  I was in a zone Go Taxis were not allowed because there was a formal taxi stand nearby.  Go is like Uber.  There was no taxi stand anywhere in sight.  There was nothing.  I thought if I headed out to the street, I might get out of the no Go zone.  I got out of the zone, but no Go’s were available in the area.  I was  completely soaked now anyway despite the gift poncho.  I ask maps to find the train station.  I hoped my phone continued to work even though it was also soaked.  Wandering through train stations and riding trains for an hour and my clothes were dry again. Yay for quick drying clothes. 

This was going to be a good night to eat at the hotel.  No, it was closed for a private party just like every other night.  Back out into the rain.  I went back to the place I went the first night for more meat on a stick.

Call and Response

On By rrainefioreIn TravelLeave a comment

There are a lot of small restaurants in Tokyo.  These are often found in alleys.  They usually hold 10 to 20 customers.  You sit at a counter facing the kitchen which I like as well.  It’s fun to watch the cooks.  

When you enter the restaurant, the cook, waitress and any other staff call out to you.  It’s like they are giving a cheer that you have arrived at their establishment.  I have no idea what they are saying, but I imagine it is “Yay!  You are here! Welcome!”. When you order, the waitress calls out and the cook answers.  In my head they said “She would like a steak”.  “Great choice, foreign lady”.  When you leave everyone cheerfully yells out in unison.  Again, I made up the words “Have a great day!”. 

I think I will.