Before I start on anything else, I regret to say that the son of an ex-student and a friend passed away on Sunday 10 August. Mitchell Harrower died in the morning after protracted loss of function caused by his Neumann-Pick Type C disease. He had been on morphine and oxygen for a time and finally lost his fight to live. His funeral will be on Thursday afternoon.
I hope all details of my travel for the next section have been successfully concluded. I have to drop out to Passport Travel to get my passport with its visas and all my other travel documents on Friday, start packing (and checking and checking) and finish all my other arrangements. I will email out all the details to those of you on my mailing list before I leave. I have already got my small change to arrive in countries with, a new suitcase (the zip on my current one expired as I left the airport and I hoped that I didn't have to open anything as I wouldn't be able to close it again (I didn't) and just have to finalise things by the weekend.
One highlight (I hope) will be visiting Santa's factory. From here I will post cards to children and expect they will be received with lots of enthusiasm (and around Christmas, if I can arrange it).
I was able to drive over to Perth and catch up with relatives and friends there. It was great to be driving DOUG again and wonderful to effortlessly chew up the 2600 km between Adelaide and Perth in short shrift. Perhaps the best aspect was seeing so much water in WA with many watercourses running at full capacity (but they need to for a much longer time to restore anything like normaliity). Back home I picked up ARTIE after warranty work was completed on the gearbox (very hard to select first gear occasionally) and now have to run in the gearbox linkage again. I also have to re-register DOUG 2 before I leave as his falls due while I am away.
I still have no idea of Internet access while I am away, but will write each evening and process photos, then see how things are. Some of the places I am going to have the reputation of being either slow to adapt to technological change or have restricted access, so it's most likely that some periods will be blank and then there will be a rush when I can publish.
I'll post again over the weekend and give a progress report.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Saturday, August 2, 2008
July/August
After some time at home and a short trip to Adelaide, I went over to Adelaide and then Perth.
I arrived in Adelaide on Friday 18th August and attended an installation for my youngest nephew on the Saturday night.
I left for Perth on the Monday morning and arrived late Tuesday afternoon. There were few kangaroos on the road so I drove most of the night.
In Perth I stayed with a friend in Carine, Elizabeth, and spent most of the time taking my aunt out, though I was able to catch up with friends from my parents' time and some of mine. We were able to catch up with all my aunt's friends, even one who had got "lost" by virtue of entering a home without any of her friends knowing (but her family knew, as they got her in there). The only problem was the weather was showery most of the time, but this was good as the dams have started to fill and the watercourses are beginning to run.
I left Perth on the following Wednesday morning, fully intending to stop all along the way and take photographs for the school at Villers-Bretonneaux but the rain followed me over. It did not cease until the WA-SA border. One good thing was very few kangaroos on the road, but I couldn't get any good photographs, so I continued to drive (stopped to try to sleep, but couldn't). As I arrived near the border early in the morning, the 'cheap' petrol stations were closed. I had to pay A$2.02 a litre at the Border Village.
I arrived back in Adelaide in the late afternoon, after 2679 kilometres and 26 hours of driving (at the speed limit, 110 most of the way) but a total elapsed time of 34 hours, with an indicated economy of 7.9 litres / 100 km (about 12 km/l or 33 mpg).
I arrived in Adelaide on Friday 18th August and attended an installation for my youngest nephew on the Saturday night.
I left for Perth on the Monday morning and arrived late Tuesday afternoon. There were few kangaroos on the road so I drove most of the night.
In Perth I stayed with a friend in Carine, Elizabeth, and spent most of the time taking my aunt out, though I was able to catch up with friends from my parents' time and some of mine. We were able to catch up with all my aunt's friends, even one who had got "lost" by virtue of entering a home without any of her friends knowing (but her family knew, as they got her in there). The only problem was the weather was showery most of the time, but this was good as the dams have started to fill and the watercourses are beginning to run.
I left Perth on the following Wednesday morning, fully intending to stop all along the way and take photographs for the school at Villers-Bretonneaux but the rain followed me over. It did not cease until the WA-SA border. One good thing was very few kangaroos on the road, but I couldn't get any good photographs, so I continued to drive (stopped to try to sleep, but couldn't). As I arrived near the border early in the morning, the 'cheap' petrol stations were closed. I had to pay A$2.02 a litre at the Border Village.
I arrived back in Adelaide in the late afternoon, after 2679 kilometres and 26 hours of driving (at the speed limit, 110 most of the way) but a total elapsed time of 34 hours, with an indicated economy of 7.9 litres / 100 km (about 12 km/l or 33 mpg).
Saturday, June 21, 2008
22 June
I know I am back home when I can get Teddy Bear biscuits at almost any shop, when I see Vegemite on the shelves in all the supermarkets (but what happened to the 910 g jar?) and when the papers have Australian news in them.
I am really enjoying driving DOUG again. After a short drive to make sure all was okay after his long rest, he's now gone to Donald, Mildura, Broken Hill and Adelaide. He still has to do another 2000 km before next Monday so he will be right for his 165 000 km service. Then we will be off to Perth, but I'm not sure whether it will be early or late July when we do that.
ARTIE is also back on the road. I have to do a lot of distance in him, because of not being home for five months and not being at work. The only problem with clocking up distance will be that he is really a two-hour car and I really like driving long distances without a stop (but the Renault Clio has given me a slight back problem from sitting in it so long at times), but I suppose I will have to get used to stopping every hour and a half or so.
I've unpacked all the parcels I sent home (to Fran's), but haven't found a CD of the tour of Alcatraz I sent. It may be because I didn't look carefully enough or that I have placed it carefully between other things. The plastic container I placed everything into is HEAVY so I will have to get help putting it in and out of DOUG.
I am now very busy concluding the arrangements for my next (and last) overseas trip. My passport and photos have gone in and the final prices and times for everything are filtering through. I will begin posting for that trip on August 17 (I leave on August 18), but because I'm on organised tours for most of it, I am unsure about the routine I will follow for preparing my material and how I will get on with Internet access.
I am really enjoying driving DOUG again. After a short drive to make sure all was okay after his long rest, he's now gone to Donald, Mildura, Broken Hill and Adelaide. He still has to do another 2000 km before next Monday so he will be right for his 165 000 km service. Then we will be off to Perth, but I'm not sure whether it will be early or late July when we do that.
ARTIE is also back on the road. I have to do a lot of distance in him, because of not being home for five months and not being at work. The only problem with clocking up distance will be that he is really a two-hour car and I really like driving long distances without a stop (but the Renault Clio has given me a slight back problem from sitting in it so long at times), but I suppose I will have to get used to stopping every hour and a half or so.
I've unpacked all the parcels I sent home (to Fran's), but haven't found a CD of the tour of Alcatraz I sent. It may be because I didn't look carefully enough or that I have placed it carefully between other things. The plastic container I placed everything into is HEAVY so I will have to get help putting it in and out of DOUG.
I am now very busy concluding the arrangements for my next (and last) overseas trip. My passport and photos have gone in and the final prices and times for everything are filtering through. I will begin posting for that trip on August 17 (I leave on August 18), but because I'm on organised tours for most of it, I am unsure about the routine I will follow for preparing my material and how I will get on with Internet access.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
11 June
After dozing during the night (I just couldn’t get comfortable – I should have looked for four seats empty together), breakfast came around at about 5:30 Melbourne time. All was finished with that and all was packed away when we descended into Sydney, arriving about 7:35. That was when the situation deteriorated.
After taxiing to our arrival gate, we were off fairly quickly. The luggage for those of us on connecting flights arrived quickly, but then we all formed into just two lines for immigration and customs. It took nearly half an hour to get to the immigration desk, but only a moment to go through. Then it was a few minutes to customs and quarantine, and a short wait to have everything x-rayed again. I passed through okay, and my statement about having Vegemite as a food with me must have amused them because there was a chuckle as I passed.
Then it was off to Qantas transfers. A long wait, with all of us looking at times on boarding passes and being worried because of being late. I and others needn’t have worried – because the flight I was booked on had been cancelled between leaving Tokyo and arriving in Sydney. A consultation with another clerk, a quick look on the computer and I was changed from the non-existent 8:40 flight to a 9:30 one. I fared better than the Lorne couple, as they were on a 10:30 flight, but with no boarding gate.
Then it was through security screening again, where despite doing the same as at every other airport, I set the alarm off. It let me through after I put all the tissues in my pocket through the x-ray.
Then it was waiting for the transfer bus. After ten minutes, it came and after another five, we left.
When we arrived at the departures, we were pointed in the general direction of where to go, but it was a case of the blind (me) leading the blind (all the others) – but we did make it into the terminal. I found my gate lounge, but then had to wait another forty minutes.
Once on the aircraft, we had to wait because a 747 beat us out, and then taxied right to the end of the strip in Botany Bay before we could take off. Then, instead of heading to Melbourne, we took the scenic route along the coast for about ten minutes before heading inland. Finally, at about 10:40 we landed.
Once off, I went to get my luggage – and found a flight from Perth had its luggage on the same carousel, despite one being empty next to us. Through a forest of people, I was able to find my luggage after a considerable wait. Then, out I went to catch the Gull Bus home, to find – it had left a few minutes before and I now had to wait until noon.
The bus left on time at 12:15, I arrived in Werribee and walked over to the taxi stand (gee, luggage seems to get heavier the closer to home I got) and caught a taxi home.
At 1:20, I was home.
Volume One of my world travels was over – volume two is still to come.
Resume reading in mid-August!
After taxiing to our arrival gate, we were off fairly quickly. The luggage for those of us on connecting flights arrived quickly, but then we all formed into just two lines for immigration and customs. It took nearly half an hour to get to the immigration desk, but only a moment to go through. Then it was a few minutes to customs and quarantine, and a short wait to have everything x-rayed again. I passed through okay, and my statement about having Vegemite as a food with me must have amused them because there was a chuckle as I passed.
Then it was off to Qantas transfers. A long wait, with all of us looking at times on boarding passes and being worried because of being late. I and others needn’t have worried – because the flight I was booked on had been cancelled between leaving Tokyo and arriving in Sydney. A consultation with another clerk, a quick look on the computer and I was changed from the non-existent 8:40 flight to a 9:30 one. I fared better than the Lorne couple, as they were on a 10:30 flight, but with no boarding gate.
Then it was through security screening again, where despite doing the same as at every other airport, I set the alarm off. It let me through after I put all the tissues in my pocket through the x-ray.
Then it was waiting for the transfer bus. After ten minutes, it came and after another five, we left.
When we arrived at the departures, we were pointed in the general direction of where to go, but it was a case of the blind (me) leading the blind (all the others) – but we did make it into the terminal. I found my gate lounge, but then had to wait another forty minutes.
Once on the aircraft, we had to wait because a 747 beat us out, and then taxied right to the end of the strip in Botany Bay before we could take off. Then, instead of heading to Melbourne, we took the scenic route along the coast for about ten minutes before heading inland. Finally, at about 10:40 we landed.
Once off, I went to get my luggage – and found a flight from Perth had its luggage on the same carousel, despite one being empty next to us. Through a forest of people, I was able to find my luggage after a considerable wait. Then, out I went to catch the Gull Bus home, to find – it had left a few minutes before and I now had to wait until noon.
The bus left on time at 12:15, I arrived in Werribee and walked over to the taxi stand (gee, luggage seems to get heavier the closer to home I got) and caught a taxi home.
At 1:20, I was home.
Volume One of my world travels was over – volume two is still to come.
Resume reading in mid-August!
10 June
Ah, my last day in Japan.
I woke at what was now my usual time, about 6, and wondered about getting up, considering there was no breakfast supplied. I went over to the window and was met by a blast of heat through it, once I opened the blinds. I decided to wait a little longer, got up at 7, checked emails, etc. and then prepared and left the room about 8:30. I chose not to go out any earlier because I didn’t want to hit the commuter rush. I enquired, and was able to leave my luggage at the hotel as long as I picked it up before the end of the business day. I headed out with my jacket (as all my cash in different currencies, passports, other ID and all important documents live in there), but once on the street I thought I need an alternative for later this year, as the weather will generally be warm to hot. A photographer/angling vest may fulfil my need, but I will have to look for it when I am home, rather than away, especially as my luggage is getting heavier.
I decided, on a whim, to go back the observatory in the Tokyo Government buildings, to see from the other tower. In the subway I was there before the tower opened to public viewing and spent a moment in the Tourist Centre – and found I could go on a guided tour of the buildings. I asked what time they left and suddenly found myself on a personal tour with just the guide and me (I think she was practicing, as this was her first time). I got to see other floors in the building, the municipal chamber, artworks, the cafeteria and then the observatories again, but this time with commentary. I was left there, and met up with a couple from Sunbury before I left. I told them about the helpful tourist bureau and they headed off there and I headed off to a museum. The guide said it was a minute from the station, but I couldn’t see it. I did find somewhere to have a late breakfast/early lunch and as I left, I saw the museum immediately adjacent to the station – with its signs up in the air, not at street level.
I went in to find the museum was on the fifth floor of an office building, and was amazed to find it was the property of the family who owned the building, donated to public ownership and now declared cultural icons. As I looked over them, tea chests and associated paraphernalia, screens and hangings, I heard the others discussing them in hushed tones, with older people viewing them almost reverently.
When I left there, I thought it wasn’t long after noon, but it was well after 1. I went to look at the shopping area near the hotel where I was staying, but was disappointed with quantity and quality of the shops there, and this was compounded by the humid and warm conditions. I walked back to the hotel to pass by two interesting sights: one, in a little shop, where basketball stars were filming endorsements of a drink. There were two girls keeping the background clear, but they lost when a group of schoolgirls recognised the stars and rushed over with cameras. The second was a donut shop, where there was a line longer than the shop and tripled over, enforced by two security guards.
I went up in the hotel, with about an hour to go, so read the local world paper I had been given that morning. Then, at about 3:45, I collected my luggage and went down the twenty floors to the lobby. I was to meet the guide there at 4, and she arrived on time. After that, it became a Maxwell Smart farce for a short time. I was supposed to take a taxi to meet a bus to the airport; as it turned out I was taken about one hundred metres down the road by taxi to meet the Airport Limousine Bus which had just left the hotel about ten minutes before! The taxi driver was as bemused as I was, but that’s the way it was organised. My guide bought my ticket for me, and then my luggage and I were on the bus.
We left a few minutes later. It takes up to an hour and a half to get to Narita airport from Tokyo, and I thought I could relax. However, despite signs saying not to use mobile phones, the Japanese version of “Claude the too loud commuter” was in the seat behind me and used hers incessantly for the entire trip. It was a relief when she left the bus at a different terminal from me.
I repacked my luggage (pins in suitcase) and checked in. The suitcase came at 20.3 kilograms and the backpack at 7.8 kilogram – just within limits. I said goodbye to my suitcase and got my boarding pass for the flight from Tokyo and for the transfer from Sydney to Melbourne. Security screening and immigration were completed in a few moments and I was off to the boarding lounge.
Here I was surprised to find refreshments at the same price as Tokyo streets (and, later, half the price of those in Sydney Airport). I got something to drink and then chatted to an Hawaiian girl returning from a surfing friend’s wedding in Bali. She caught her flight and then I met up with a couple from Lorne, retuning home after a long holiday. We compared notes and chatted until we boarded the aircraft. It was only just over half full, so after we left the ground (after over ten minutes taxiing) I moved to a pair of empty seats.
Despite all the prior preparation, there was no diabetic meal for me, but the standard meal was the first which I could almost completely eat. After that, I sat back, put the iPod on and dozed.
I woke at what was now my usual time, about 6, and wondered about getting up, considering there was no breakfast supplied. I went over to the window and was met by a blast of heat through it, once I opened the blinds. I decided to wait a little longer, got up at 7, checked emails, etc. and then prepared and left the room about 8:30. I chose not to go out any earlier because I didn’t want to hit the commuter rush. I enquired, and was able to leave my luggage at the hotel as long as I picked it up before the end of the business day. I headed out with my jacket (as all my cash in different currencies, passports, other ID and all important documents live in there), but once on the street I thought I need an alternative for later this year, as the weather will generally be warm to hot. A photographer/angling vest may fulfil my need, but I will have to look for it when I am home, rather than away, especially as my luggage is getting heavier.
I decided, on a whim, to go back the observatory in the Tokyo Government buildings, to see from the other tower. In the subway I was there before the tower opened to public viewing and spent a moment in the Tourist Centre – and found I could go on a guided tour of the buildings. I asked what time they left and suddenly found myself on a personal tour with just the guide and me (I think she was practicing, as this was her first time). I got to see other floors in the building, the municipal chamber, artworks, the cafeteria and then the observatories again, but this time with commentary. I was left there, and met up with a couple from Sunbury before I left. I told them about the helpful tourist bureau and they headed off there and I headed off to a museum. The guide said it was a minute from the station, but I couldn’t see it. I did find somewhere to have a late breakfast/early lunch and as I left, I saw the museum immediately adjacent to the station – with its signs up in the air, not at street level.
I went in to find the museum was on the fifth floor of an office building, and was amazed to find it was the property of the family who owned the building, donated to public ownership and now declared cultural icons. As I looked over them, tea chests and associated paraphernalia, screens and hangings, I heard the others discussing them in hushed tones, with older people viewing them almost reverently.
When I left there, I thought it wasn’t long after noon, but it was well after 1. I went to look at the shopping area near the hotel where I was staying, but was disappointed with quantity and quality of the shops there, and this was compounded by the humid and warm conditions. I walked back to the hotel to pass by two interesting sights: one, in a little shop, where basketball stars were filming endorsements of a drink. There were two girls keeping the background clear, but they lost when a group of schoolgirls recognised the stars and rushed over with cameras. The second was a donut shop, where there was a line longer than the shop and tripled over, enforced by two security guards.
I went up in the hotel, with about an hour to go, so read the local world paper I had been given that morning. Then, at about 3:45, I collected my luggage and went down the twenty floors to the lobby. I was to meet the guide there at 4, and she arrived on time. After that, it became a Maxwell Smart farce for a short time. I was supposed to take a taxi to meet a bus to the airport; as it turned out I was taken about one hundred metres down the road by taxi to meet the Airport Limousine Bus which had just left the hotel about ten minutes before! The taxi driver was as bemused as I was, but that’s the way it was organised. My guide bought my ticket for me, and then my luggage and I were on the bus.
We left a few minutes later. It takes up to an hour and a half to get to Narita airport from Tokyo, and I thought I could relax. However, despite signs saying not to use mobile phones, the Japanese version of “Claude the too loud commuter” was in the seat behind me and used hers incessantly for the entire trip. It was a relief when she left the bus at a different terminal from me.
I repacked my luggage (pins in suitcase) and checked in. The suitcase came at 20.3 kilograms and the backpack at 7.8 kilogram – just within limits. I said goodbye to my suitcase and got my boarding pass for the flight from Tokyo and for the transfer from Sydney to Melbourne. Security screening and immigration were completed in a few moments and I was off to the boarding lounge.
Here I was surprised to find refreshments at the same price as Tokyo streets (and, later, half the price of those in Sydney Airport). I got something to drink and then chatted to an Hawaiian girl returning from a surfing friend’s wedding in Bali. She caught her flight and then I met up with a couple from Lorne, retuning home after a long holiday. We compared notes and chatted until we boarded the aircraft. It was only just over half full, so after we left the ground (after over ten minutes taxiing) I moved to a pair of empty seats.
Despite all the prior preparation, there was no diabetic meal for me, but the standard meal was the first which I could almost completely eat. After that, I sat back, put the iPod on and dozed.
Monday, June 9, 2008
9 June
Today, my last day in Kyoto, was as normal except that I had noticed how hard the bed was, and that I could feel the springs through the mattress cover. I felt rather like the princess with the pea in the bed. I was up, made sure I had everything together, prepared and went down for breakfast. I overheard someone else commenting how hard the bed was. I remembered the porcelain pillow in the museum yesterday and thought that what I had was soft compared to that.
After breakfast I packed everything up (it fits, but I am not sure about the weight), checked email and such, then went down to notify the tour operators that I wouldn’t be on their shuttle bus to the local airport here. Memo to self: DO NOT notify operators of change in future, as they are overly concerned about how foreigners will go if they are by themselves; having been in most Western European countries by myself and survived, having taken the Tokyo subway twice by myself and having walked Kyoto three times by myself, I think I can make it across the street, on a bullet train to Tokyo when I already have the ticket and then a few subway stops to a hotel by myself. After having to leave all my details and promising to check in in Tokyo, I was finally allowed to leave. I’m hiding out in my room until I leave the hotel in case they come looking for me, worried about my welfare.
I left about 9:30 and headed over the six hundred metres to the platform. While waiting, I noticed: one train was about an hour and twenty minutes late; my train was five minutes late; there are Shinkansen which stop at every station, Shinkansen expresses which stop at about ten stations and Shinkansen super expresses which stop at three stations. That’s what I was on and got from Kyoto to Tokyo in two hours and twenty minutes.
The station attendant on the platform didn’t believe I could read the ticket correctly so had to make sure that I was waiting for the correct train and for the correct carriage (you wait in a queue in a marked line which is where the door will open; as soon as those getting off have left, you get straight on).
The trip was considerably quicker than my trip to Kyoto, but the speed of the train was about the same, so you see a few blurred bits in photos, as well as unintentional content. However, it was comfortable even though I had the suitcase upright in front of me (I didn’t get the room or the opportunity to put it in the luggage rack until near Tokyo).
Once in Tokyo, I headed for the subway. The station there is the Tokyo Line, and their machines are not as friendly as the ticket machines on the other lines. However, after a bit of playing around, I got my all-day ticket and headed off on one line to change to another to end up at Shinjuku Station on the Oedo Line (E27). I felt good in that while going through the turnstiles I had to help a local get through correctly (you can enter a station where there is a green arrow on the turnstile, and exit a station where there is a red arrow on the turnstile, but you can’t enter a turnstile with a “no entry” sign on it). Once out of the correct exit I did my usual trick of looking around and not seeing how to get to the hotel, which was directly across the road via a pedestrian crossing. Then it was up to the lobby (on the twentieth floor), checking in (and getting my fax message about meeting a guide tomorrow afternoon to go to Narita Airport) and setting up the computer.
Then, armed with another map, I headed off to the Government Building 1, with observatories. It was one subway station away (it may have been quicker to walk, as some subway entrances are up to a kilometre away from the actual platform). Once there, I found the actual Tokyo Tourist office, which was well equipped with English guides and maps of the whole Tokyo area. After getting a few (though too late to be of much use to me at the moment), I went up to the Observatory on the forty-fifth floor and it was magnificent. I would rate it far better than the Tokyo tower, but that may be because here I could do my thing, rather than listen to another. The views are great (although I’m still not sure there really is a Mt Fuji, as for the fourth time I looked and it still wasn’t there), there are panoramic guides of what is visible (if the day is clear) and there is plenty of room.
On the way down, an elderly Japanese gentleman admired my beard, asked where I came from and was generally quite talkative on the very short trip down.
Then I caught a lift down into the subway and here a lady enquired if I knew how to get where I was going. I said the only problem was I hadn’t decided where I was going. Her train came in and I decided I would go to the Ginza to see it in better (?) weather, so I held up the brochure on it to her and she thought it was a good idea.
I got out at the Ginza and had a look around, at two theatres and then the actual shopping strip. I succumbed to temptation and went in the Sony Building. It was only extreme willpower that stopped me coming out with a movie camera with better still picture performance than my current camera. Then I saw a beautiful Asahi Pentax digital SLR and I had to repeat to myself: “You can’t afford it until you’ve paid for the other trip” and back slowly away until the showroom was out of sight. I thought at this stage that I had better get something to eat and then go back to the hotel before I did give in (by the way, both cameras were about the same price, but I’d rather have the still Pentax if I had to make a choice – but the Sony movie camera was beautiful and the quality amazing). As I went into the station I heard an American girl say about visiting Australia, so I spoke to her and her companion for a few minutes, trying to sell the idea of visiting.
Once on the train, I found a station where I knew I could get some food, had that, and then caught the train back to the hotel. Here I ended up in conversation with an Irish lady from the Canaries and her son, who lives and works in Tokyo. We both agreed that guide books give the wrong impression of countries, from cost of living, to ease of getting around, to safety. We got out at the same station, but I was going to visit the local shopping street to see it lit up in neon. However, after a kilometre tramp to the correct exit, it was now pouring rain, so I headed under the road, back to the hotel, had a quick shower, processed and uploaded the photos and then wrote this blog, uploaded it, checked the email and then went to bed.
After breakfast I packed everything up (it fits, but I am not sure about the weight), checked email and such, then went down to notify the tour operators that I wouldn’t be on their shuttle bus to the local airport here. Memo to self: DO NOT notify operators of change in future, as they are overly concerned about how foreigners will go if they are by themselves; having been in most Western European countries by myself and survived, having taken the Tokyo subway twice by myself and having walked Kyoto three times by myself, I think I can make it across the street, on a bullet train to Tokyo when I already have the ticket and then a few subway stops to a hotel by myself. After having to leave all my details and promising to check in in Tokyo, I was finally allowed to leave. I’m hiding out in my room until I leave the hotel in case they come looking for me, worried about my welfare.
I left about 9:30 and headed over the six hundred metres to the platform. While waiting, I noticed: one train was about an hour and twenty minutes late; my train was five minutes late; there are Shinkansen which stop at every station, Shinkansen expresses which stop at about ten stations and Shinkansen super expresses which stop at three stations. That’s what I was on and got from Kyoto to Tokyo in two hours and twenty minutes.
The station attendant on the platform didn’t believe I could read the ticket correctly so had to make sure that I was waiting for the correct train and for the correct carriage (you wait in a queue in a marked line which is where the door will open; as soon as those getting off have left, you get straight on).
The trip was considerably quicker than my trip to Kyoto, but the speed of the train was about the same, so you see a few blurred bits in photos, as well as unintentional content. However, it was comfortable even though I had the suitcase upright in front of me (I didn’t get the room or the opportunity to put it in the luggage rack until near Tokyo).
Once in Tokyo, I headed for the subway. The station there is the Tokyo Line, and their machines are not as friendly as the ticket machines on the other lines. However, after a bit of playing around, I got my all-day ticket and headed off on one line to change to another to end up at Shinjuku Station on the Oedo Line (E27). I felt good in that while going through the turnstiles I had to help a local get through correctly (you can enter a station where there is a green arrow on the turnstile, and exit a station where there is a red arrow on the turnstile, but you can’t enter a turnstile with a “no entry” sign on it). Once out of the correct exit I did my usual trick of looking around and not seeing how to get to the hotel, which was directly across the road via a pedestrian crossing. Then it was up to the lobby (on the twentieth floor), checking in (and getting my fax message about meeting a guide tomorrow afternoon to go to Narita Airport) and setting up the computer.
Then, armed with another map, I headed off to the Government Building 1, with observatories. It was one subway station away (it may have been quicker to walk, as some subway entrances are up to a kilometre away from the actual platform). Once there, I found the actual Tokyo Tourist office, which was well equipped with English guides and maps of the whole Tokyo area. After getting a few (though too late to be of much use to me at the moment), I went up to the Observatory on the forty-fifth floor and it was magnificent. I would rate it far better than the Tokyo tower, but that may be because here I could do my thing, rather than listen to another. The views are great (although I’m still not sure there really is a Mt Fuji, as for the fourth time I looked and it still wasn’t there), there are panoramic guides of what is visible (if the day is clear) and there is plenty of room.
On the way down, an elderly Japanese gentleman admired my beard, asked where I came from and was generally quite talkative on the very short trip down.
Then I caught a lift down into the subway and here a lady enquired if I knew how to get where I was going. I said the only problem was I hadn’t decided where I was going. Her train came in and I decided I would go to the Ginza to see it in better (?) weather, so I held up the brochure on it to her and she thought it was a good idea.
I got out at the Ginza and had a look around, at two theatres and then the actual shopping strip. I succumbed to temptation and went in the Sony Building. It was only extreme willpower that stopped me coming out with a movie camera with better still picture performance than my current camera. Then I saw a beautiful Asahi Pentax digital SLR and I had to repeat to myself: “You can’t afford it until you’ve paid for the other trip” and back slowly away until the showroom was out of sight. I thought at this stage that I had better get something to eat and then go back to the hotel before I did give in (by the way, both cameras were about the same price, but I’d rather have the still Pentax if I had to make a choice – but the Sony movie camera was beautiful and the quality amazing). As I went into the station I heard an American girl say about visiting Australia, so I spoke to her and her companion for a few minutes, trying to sell the idea of visiting.
Once on the train, I found a station where I knew I could get some food, had that, and then caught the train back to the hotel. Here I ended up in conversation with an Irish lady from the Canaries and her son, who lives and works in Tokyo. We both agreed that guide books give the wrong impression of countries, from cost of living, to ease of getting around, to safety. We got out at the same station, but I was going to visit the local shopping street to see it lit up in neon. However, after a kilometre tramp to the correct exit, it was now pouring rain, so I headed under the road, back to the hotel, had a quick shower, processed and uploaded the photos and then wrote this blog, uploaded it, checked the email and then went to bed.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
8 June
Today in Japan I faced my greatest danger while away – but more about that later.
I was awake at 6 with the alarm and up not long after, prepared and down before 7 and into the restaurant for breakfast before 7. This time I had NOT forgotten my Vegemite, so I was able to have vegemite on toast plus some other foods for breakfast – no cornflakes so I had to have rice crispies, but that was only a change, not a hardship.
I saw no-one I knew at breakfast, which after the last week seems incredible. However, it is the transient nature of being on holiday for a short time in one place. I finished, went up, checked emails and other Internet material, then set out for a walk. On the way out of the hotel I met the couple from Fern Tree Gully and said hello, but they were off on a tour again today.
I walked to the other side of the station and saw Astro Boy looking over Kyoto and ready to save it from disaster, went to take a photo and … found I had left my camera in the hotel! Great, my mind and memory are going on me now.
I walked back, got the camera and retraced my path, captured Astro Boy (as a picture, not in person) and headed off to the Museum. The day was warming up and it’s a fair hike, so I was grateful for the (many) pavement vending machines. Not that I will imbibe Thorpedo, but a coke doesn’t go astray. They are a standard price, ¥120 for a 330 ml can and ¥150 for a 500 ml bottle. Not all machines have both, but there are plenty around. It’s also where you find the rubbish and recycling bins (memo to self: remember in Hawaii they are called rubbish cans, not trash bins (whoops, I meant trash cans) like the rest of the U.S.).
I got to the museum, paid my entrance fee to one person, had my ticket stamped by another and was then shown through the gate by another. And the first artwork I saw was … The Thinker, by Rodin, which took me back to early television days and “The Many Loves Of Dobie Gillis”. With those memories of poor Zelda floating in my head, I went into the museum.
No photo taking, so no pictures. One of the displays covered fighting implements from Neolithic to the Edo period, with stone arrowheads up to daggers from the 1860s. Others covered Buddhist artwork as paintings and carvings, kimonos, yogis and dogis (I’m not kidding and that’s not Yogi Bear), containers and trays and written and drawn commentaries. It was very interesting, and I would have loved to have had a small guide in English showing parallel works in other Asian cultures and in western cultures. The only thing is that in common with all museums, they do not have sufficient display space.
After over an hour there I headed off to the zoo. At the end of a long walk I found a canal museum in the way, so went into that. I asked for the English version of the information, and, as I was looking at it, one of the staff brought out a DVD in English and put it on for me. It was a good explanation of the history and construction of the canal, but no footage of the canal being used as a transport link for goods and people (though it was used as such until not that long ago, when road and rail stopped its use for that). Its primary and continuing purpose is to provide water to Kyoto for human consumption and its secondary purpose is to provide hydroelectric power. The museum centres on the human side of the construction and use, rather than the utilitarian side (which I was more interested in). It was good to see how forward-thinking some people were, even back in the 1880s, paralleling Melbourne in some ways.
I then left to see the zoo – but alas, that was not meant to be, as I and many others arrived at the front gate to find it closed. I couldn’t see if the reason was in Japanese on the gate, I don’t think so as even the locals peered in at the ticket gate after reading all the signs there. I decided to walk back to the hotel, but this time on the west bank (it has a more continuous path).
And here I faced the greatest dangers of all while away.
The first was Japanese cyclists NOT using their bell when passing pedestrians, especially those with a camera up to their eye, meant that stepping backwards or forwards to frame a shot better was extremely hazardous.
The second was hundreds out on a “love and peace” march with umbrellas and not taking care where they were holding them (at eye height of short western men), so despite love and peace being everywhere, I had to duck and weave to avoid permanent damage.
The birds were out fishing again, the sitters were out in force (including some young girls with a small kitten – eyes not open yet), the promenaders were there and so were the dog walkers, and the pig walker. Yes, you read correctly, one woman was out walking her pig!
After I left the riverbank (it is well labelled, with points along showing distances and where each bridge leads to, and how far), I came across some wonderful examples to show how life is similar everywhere. I found an Asian restaurant (imagine that, in an Asian city!) and I found a garage with cheap junk in the back forcing the expensive car to rest nose out in the weather (unlike other places, the whole car can’t go outside!).
On the way back to the hotel I had some late lunch, then went to my room to rest my feet. I estimate I walked between twelve and fifteen kilometres, but wasn’t game to catch a bus back (didn’t know how to pay the fare) and didn’t want to take a taxi (with doilies all over the seats).
Back in the hotel I processed the photos, caught up on email and then wrote and posted this blog.
If I do anything exciting after, I’ll add it to the blog later.
I was awake at 6 with the alarm and up not long after, prepared and down before 7 and into the restaurant for breakfast before 7. This time I had NOT forgotten my Vegemite, so I was able to have vegemite on toast plus some other foods for breakfast – no cornflakes so I had to have rice crispies, but that was only a change, not a hardship.
I saw no-one I knew at breakfast, which after the last week seems incredible. However, it is the transient nature of being on holiday for a short time in one place. I finished, went up, checked emails and other Internet material, then set out for a walk. On the way out of the hotel I met the couple from Fern Tree Gully and said hello, but they were off on a tour again today.
I walked to the other side of the station and saw Astro Boy looking over Kyoto and ready to save it from disaster, went to take a photo and … found I had left my camera in the hotel! Great, my mind and memory are going on me now.
I walked back, got the camera and retraced my path, captured Astro Boy (as a picture, not in person) and headed off to the Museum. The day was warming up and it’s a fair hike, so I was grateful for the (many) pavement vending machines. Not that I will imbibe Thorpedo, but a coke doesn’t go astray. They are a standard price, ¥120 for a 330 ml can and ¥150 for a 500 ml bottle. Not all machines have both, but there are plenty around. It’s also where you find the rubbish and recycling bins (memo to self: remember in Hawaii they are called rubbish cans, not trash bins (whoops, I meant trash cans) like the rest of the U.S.).
I got to the museum, paid my entrance fee to one person, had my ticket stamped by another and was then shown through the gate by another. And the first artwork I saw was … The Thinker, by Rodin, which took me back to early television days and “The Many Loves Of Dobie Gillis”. With those memories of poor Zelda floating in my head, I went into the museum.
No photo taking, so no pictures. One of the displays covered fighting implements from Neolithic to the Edo period, with stone arrowheads up to daggers from the 1860s. Others covered Buddhist artwork as paintings and carvings, kimonos, yogis and dogis (I’m not kidding and that’s not Yogi Bear), containers and trays and written and drawn commentaries. It was very interesting, and I would have loved to have had a small guide in English showing parallel works in other Asian cultures and in western cultures. The only thing is that in common with all museums, they do not have sufficient display space.
After over an hour there I headed off to the zoo. At the end of a long walk I found a canal museum in the way, so went into that. I asked for the English version of the information, and, as I was looking at it, one of the staff brought out a DVD in English and put it on for me. It was a good explanation of the history and construction of the canal, but no footage of the canal being used as a transport link for goods and people (though it was used as such until not that long ago, when road and rail stopped its use for that). Its primary and continuing purpose is to provide water to Kyoto for human consumption and its secondary purpose is to provide hydroelectric power. The museum centres on the human side of the construction and use, rather than the utilitarian side (which I was more interested in). It was good to see how forward-thinking some people were, even back in the 1880s, paralleling Melbourne in some ways.
I then left to see the zoo – but alas, that was not meant to be, as I and many others arrived at the front gate to find it closed. I couldn’t see if the reason was in Japanese on the gate, I don’t think so as even the locals peered in at the ticket gate after reading all the signs there. I decided to walk back to the hotel, but this time on the west bank (it has a more continuous path).
And here I faced the greatest dangers of all while away.
The first was Japanese cyclists NOT using their bell when passing pedestrians, especially those with a camera up to their eye, meant that stepping backwards or forwards to frame a shot better was extremely hazardous.
The second was hundreds out on a “love and peace” march with umbrellas and not taking care where they were holding them (at eye height of short western men), so despite love and peace being everywhere, I had to duck and weave to avoid permanent damage.
The birds were out fishing again, the sitters were out in force (including some young girls with a small kitten – eyes not open yet), the promenaders were there and so were the dog walkers, and the pig walker. Yes, you read correctly, one woman was out walking her pig!
After I left the riverbank (it is well labelled, with points along showing distances and where each bridge leads to, and how far), I came across some wonderful examples to show how life is similar everywhere. I found an Asian restaurant (imagine that, in an Asian city!) and I found a garage with cheap junk in the back forcing the expensive car to rest nose out in the weather (unlike other places, the whole car can’t go outside!).
On the way back to the hotel I had some late lunch, then went to my room to rest my feet. I estimate I walked between twelve and fifteen kilometres, but wasn’t game to catch a bus back (didn’t know how to pay the fare) and didn’t want to take a taxi (with doilies all over the seats).
Back in the hotel I processed the photos, caught up on email and then wrote and posted this blog.
If I do anything exciting after, I’ll add it to the blog later.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
