Tag: Travel Japan

Takayama Day 1

On By rrainefioreIn TravelLeave a comment

I had to take a bus to get from Hirayu Onsen to Takayama.  I couldn’t get the ticket ahead of time so I checked out of my hotel after breakfast.  I was a little worried that there wouldn’t be room on the bus, but that worry was completely unfounded.  Most people at the bus station were passing through going to Kamikochi.  As usual, I worried for no reason.  I wondered what was so great about Kamikochi and should I be going there.  Nah, not with all those people.  Anyway, Takayama was a city with a population of about 85,000 people instead of a town of 50 so getting there early would just mean more time to explore.  I have no idea what the population of Hirayu Onsen is, but the whole region is less than 3,000.

I got to my hotel hours before I could check in, but I could store my luggage there.  I asked if there was a place I could get a massage.  The lady at the front desk printed a map for me, apologizing that it was kind of far.  It was a 15 minute walk in a non-tourist area, not really that far.  I always enjoy seeing non-tourist areas too so this was a nice walk.  On my way, I found a coffee shop as there was no coffee with breakfast.  The first coffee shop I went to was full and they had no room for me.  What wonderful thing were they serving that made them so packed?  Less than a block away I found another coffee shop with room for me. 

I was able to make an appointment for a massage at 1:00.  This meant I had over two hours to kill.  I looked at maps and found a couple shrines and a park nearby.  It looked like Takayama Sky Park had good views and it was about a half hour walk.  It was named sky walk so I expected I was in for a climb.  The last ten minutes of the walk, my expectations were fully met and I started to doubt my choice to walk to a park in the sky.  At the top was a nice little park and the views were great.  The breeze and sitting in the shade helped cool off from the climb up.

I watched an older man and his much older father arrive at the park and go stand at the overlook.  The father was all hunched over, but you could tell he was so happy to be at the park.  They walked slowly around the entire park.  I felt I was watching something sacred. 

The rest of the day was dedicated to looking at shrines, massage, a cat cafe, and wandering through shops in the old town.  There were a lot of tourists here, but I didn’t hear much English spoken. 

Since Takayama is in an area known for it’s beef (Hida Beef), I set out on a mission (again) to find a steak.  The first place my hotel recommended was closed.  The second  one required a reservation.  I found a yakiniku place where you could try a variety of different cuts of beef, grilling them yourself.  It was delicious and actually cheaper than the two places I couldn’t go to.

I got hotel pajamas again, although much nicer than the last place.  My hotel also had a public bath which was not sulphur smelling water, so it was much more relaxing for me.

I learned a couple things today.  I learned about sake balls and charred wood. 

I kept seeing this ball that looked like it was made of dead plant material.  It would be hanging over the door of some business.  So, I asked Google about the Japanese dead plant material ball and I actually got an answer.  A sake brewery or merchant will hang a green ball made from cedar leaves over their door to announce the arrival of fresh sake.  As the ball changes from all green in the spring to all brown in the fall, it is like a clock telling you the age of the sake.

On the bus to Takayama, I saw a clip of people burning wood so I clicked on it.  In Japan, they char the surface of the wood before building with it.  The process treats the wood making it water repellent and resistant to insects, rot and fire.

Travel Day

On By rrainefioreIn TravelLeave a comment

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.

Another Night in Ueda

On By rrainefioreIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

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.