21 May 2014

A Japanese Alpine village

From Fukuoka, we were back on the Shinkanzen to Takayama. Takayama is a little town right up the mountains in Central Japan. Actually it is situated in a valley with the Japanese Alps all around it. It took us a little more than 5 hours from Southern Japan to Central Japan - a journey of more than 800 km. we had to change trains in Osaka because the only train that goes to Takayama is the limited express. 

On the way we saw really beautiful scenery - crystal clear rivers , gorges that take your breath away, fields of spring wildflowers. Parts of this scenery reminded me so much of New Zealand - except that sometimes we would see cherry blossoms or the Zakura tree.  We passed a number of small towns too that looked quite picturesque. 

          
            



In Takayama we stayed at a lovely hotel called .... Which was within walking distance of the railway station. The weather was cool and breezy - perfect spring weather!  Our room too was fantastic - it faced a small stream running behind the hotel and we could see glimpses of the mountains in the distance. That evening we took an exploratory walk around the town and saw a lot of interesting things. First of all, Takayama is actually an old Meiji emperor town. Some of the shops in the town goes back to the 17th century and the roads are cobbled still. However there is also a modern part of town with a few high rises ( about 10 stories) . We passed an old shrine that looked as if it has stood there since the 17th century! Then we crossed the river - this is really a fantastic place. The river is so clear you can see the stones in it and there are Japanese carp or koi ! Imagine that. In Malaysia the koi is an expensive fish and is only reared in man made ponds but here they swim freely. 


The river we passed by. 
That night I had a steam bath and slept like a log! 

12 May 2014

Fukuoka



After Osaka we went to Fukuoka, on the island of Kyushu. We were supposed to go by Shinkanzen but the tickets had been sold out - no tickets for seating places but we could take the non- reserved cars so we decided to take that anyway. However the earliest train would be at 1.50pm and we had already checked out of our hotel so we had to take whichever train that was traveling south that was earliest, and it happened to be the Hakata Express. Express is actually a misnomer. Once on the train we realised this was like a mail train - it would stop at every station, big or small, passenger or no. So it took us all of 4 hours and 30 minutes to reach Hakata whereas the normal Shinkanzen would have taken us only 3 hours. Anyway it was a good experience and we could see much more of the countryside.

Japan is really very developed and even though Kyushu, when we studied Geography in school, was an island off Honshu, in reality it was almost part of the main island of Honshu. We could not even see where Honshu ended and Kyushu began - it was all one smooth track, with lots of bridges and tunnels linking one island to another.

Hakata, or its old name Fukuoka was quite a large city. There are many canals linking  different parts of the city and gardens. The hotel where we stayed was the New Otani, about 10 minutes away from the station. After checking in and refreshing ourselves we decided to take a look at the shopping centre which we saw was very near the hotel - just a stop away by subway. 

The shopping centre was actually part of the subway - everything was underground and you could practically walk from one end of the town to another without getting out. And it was all shops along the way, shops, restaurants, cafés and even a small garden! 








6 May 2014

Going to Japan

Tomorrow Repin and I will be going to Japan with our daughter Marisa. The trip was planned by Shasha (her nickname) since last year - she was the one who planned the itinerary and got the hotels etc, of course with the help of Miss Tan our travel agent.

I'm all packed and ready to go but with a bit of sadness because I'll be leaving my cats again. Mulan especially because she has just started to come back to sleep by my side. Ginger of course  sleeps with me or on the bed, whether I'm there or not. But since I went to India in March, Mulan has been avoiding keeping me company. I think she is pouting - in Malay we say merajuk. 

Yukie looking pensive
Yukie and her brother Tommy too are not so friendly anymore as before I left them. I have been going out of the country every month this year - India, my umrah and now Japan. At least June is a quiet month for me - no overseas trips except maybe to see my grand daughters whom I miss very much.

This trip to Japan will be different - we were in Japan in 2010 and 2005 but only in Tokyo. This time we plan to take the Shinkansen and go south to Fukuoka, then up to Osaka, Kyoto and Takayama and finally to Tokyo for the last two days. Takayama is a city but it has a number of traditional Japaneses villages which I am looking forward to see- most of them go back to the Meiji period which was in the 16 -19th century. In Kyoto we plan to visit them any beautiful gardens and other sights just outside Kyoto. It looks quite packed, this itenary  but since we are doing it on our own we can of course rest as often as we like!