My Japan Tour – November 2024 – Blog 4

Highlights of Japan

13 -14/11/24 – Days 7 & 8

Happy birthday to my son-in law, Jason back home in Australia!!!

Day 7 13/11/24

The day I had been expecting so much on this tour has finally arrived, and it is the full day optional tour to Hiroshima via the famous bullet train, well worth the 550,000yen price ($550AUD/ person) but in saying that I’m feeling so many emotions with the tragedy of Hiroshima to be so called ‘excited’. I hope my 32 or so photos show you the day I experienced. My Polarsteps app map shows the journey as a plane flight, but it was the bullet train & I can’t change it .. probably this operator’s error. The group partaking this optional journey was told well in advance the night prior to be in full timing mode, for the timeframes are really tight.

Of course, the best of plans fail with our booked 7am brekky in true bedlam with another bus tour cramming in & we had to fight to get anything or to get some respectable order in play. Most of us even gave up on getting to the coffee due to the timing & congestion. A complete shamble.

Secondly, our bus departure was set at 7.30am sharp & low & behold, the same married couple as previously described in my last blog were extremely late & with no apologies. They have been consistently late or lost nearly every day!! Trend, our diligent guide is now stressed, so in conjunction with our bus driver it was now absolute we must now go straight to the bullet train station on the other side of Osaka & not take the standard connecting train close by to our hotel to that station. Trend had made all the booking & payments the other day in advance as part of the requirements so there can’t be any changes.

With our new peak hour road trip, the traffic was horrendous and lots of alternate side streets were used to get around these bottlenecks. You could tell our bus driver was in a race. Japan’s trains are precisely on time so there will be no waiting for our arrival. Trend repeatedly warns us that there is no time to dawdle off the bus & we must almost run to the #3 platform to meet the bullet train. Trend is very direct with this instruction & now it is every ‘man for himself’ in making it to Platform #3 & seek out carriage 15. Trend provides our tickets just when the bus pulls into the kerb. We are off!!!!!

Somehow, we successfully crossed the road in the one group & most of the travellers scrambled up the 2 floors of escalators, whilst I shot up the stairs adjacent which made me one of the first onto the platform. Most train stations in the cities are well above the street line of shops below. Now I am behind Trend & she darts off along the platform bearing in mind ‘every man for himself’ plus the train has already stopped on the platform. By this the train signals were sounding (escalating beeps) for doors closing & finally Carriage 15 appeared & when I ‘jumped’ in after checking on the group I believe the doors brushed behind me. We are in!!! Can’t believe everyone got on in time but quite a few minutes later Nicole & Anne finally appeared. They had to enter the nearest carriage & walk through seeing they were so far behind us. Now we are all together. Whew!!! Insane timing.

The inside of the bullet train is so similar to that of an aircraft & I guess we are travelling in considerable speed. You can get a plane from Osaka to Hiroshima, but the airport is considerably east of the city and more road transport needed upon arrival. By plane is a much slower process & cheaper than the train but certainly not convenient. We are on the fastest bullet train @ 300klms/hr & it’s so smooth & fast!!!

We had 2 very quick stops, Yokohama & then Fukujima then all the way to Hiroshima. Alighting from the train I looked at the Platform #12 indicator board out of curiosity & it said Hakata which is the next major stop beyond Hiroshima. I was pleased I quickly understood this indicator board & wasn’t challenged like I was in Blog 1. With everyone abuzz from our most unusual & exciting train travel (no bullet trains in Australia) we quickly escorted ourselves down the escalators to our new awaiting bus & driver for the day. You have no idea how clean these buses are (inside & out). Immaculate. From my previous blogs we still haven’t found a dirty vehicle of any description in Japan. No kidding!!

Hiroshima is blessed with many river tributories and many bridges to cross making this a very attractive city with transport options like water cruising. Trend provides us with some handouts showing where we are headed to next. We first visited the Miyajimaguchi Ferry Terminal to take a toilet break & a 15mins cruise directly across to a nearby island (Itsukushima Is) to see World Cultural Heritage of Miyajima Island, also known as Itsukushima Is & Itsukushima Shrines plus the 16^th century replica of the O-Torii Gate set in the ocean waters.

This massive O-Torii Gate, the ninth since the Heian Period was built in 1875 of some 16.6m high & weighing close to 60 tons is exposed to the elements and even withstood the atomic blast being possibly just outside the 2 or so klms blast range. Pls note in the photo the size of the people at low tide nearing the gate to see its enormous size. The gate’s roof structure is 24.2m in length of Japanese Cypress. The post structures are formed to accommodate approx. 4tons of fist sized stones for its own weight bearing.

After taking the range of photos of this magnificent gate we strolled over to the shrine location, again dodging the free roaming deer & avoiding the deer shit of course for the ferry & bus entry.

We went through the ancient shrines, market stalls & stood around for ages eating what food we could buy until the required time set by Trend to return to the ferry terminal. This time lapse proved most wasteful when we got to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park & Museum. We were all glad to be back on the ferry & ultimately the bus where it kindly let us off at the bridge road entry near the Atomic Bomb Dome building eastern location & will meet us at the far western end of the Peace Park after. For those visiting Hiroshima you can get a ferry cruise from the Peace Park to Itsukushima Is & visa versa as the best way to travel to these major locations.

The Peace Park has on its eastern boundary a very large T shaped traffic bridge that replicated the original T shaped bridge. This Aioi Bridge was originally built in 1932 (the same year as our famous Sydney Harbour Bridge & my hometown heritage listed bascule truss Grafton Bridge). The original Aioi Bridge was pressurised by the atomic blast at 7tons per m2, 15 times more than normal. Under this sudden pressure the bridge thrashed like a leaf spring being snapped back & forth with the bridge platform up in the air. Fortunately, the bridge remained intact & was used for a further 35yrs until the age & damage took its toll. The current replica bridge was commissioned in October 1983 & still forms an integral part of the city’s transport system.

This unique T shaped bridge obviously provided an accurate landmark for the US B29 bombers of the morning of August 6^th, 1945, at 8.15am, as there were no other existing prominent landmarks. Hiroshima was bombed primarily due to its extensive gunpowder industry & not say, Tokyo (major populated city). Next to the bridge is the 1964 Red Bird Monument from the novelist Miekichi Suzuki (1882 -1936) who with his famous children’s books, etc was dedicated to recognising Hiroshima’s recovery & to seek for world peace again.

Adjacent to the monument you are left daunted by the only remaining building structure (Atomic Bomb Dome) left from the atomic blast & it requires constant engineering to keep it safe. It was built in 1915 & to be demolished like all the other structures but there was a public outcry due to its unique design & domed roof & that proved significant for Hiroshima’s future. The bomb blasted very close to this bridge & building some 600m above ground & some 160m S/East of the building where there was a circular catastrophic effect of more than 2.5klms away. Being almost below the bomb detonation a lot of the building structure survived but all occupants obviously didn’t.

We then crossed the smaller river bridge to the Children’s Peace Monument which the community petitioned the government to construct a memorial to the children lost, still suffering & for future generations all from the starting wishes of a young dying 12yr old girl victim, Sadako Sasaki who was 2yrs old at the time of the blast & later died of Leukemia. This monument evolved through some 3,200 schools in Japan and other countries who contributed for its commissioning on 5^th May 1958.

Most of our group singularly & respectably bowed silently at the monument & rang the bell hanging down from within. On top of the monument there is a young girl holding a steel art form of a bird Crane of Peace & from each side of the structure is a young boy & a young girl statue.

Turning around we walked past the eternal flame at one end of the Pond of Peace where it symbolically held by ‘hands of concrete’. At the other end of the pond an arch monument stands where dignitaries from around the world come & place wreaths here.

We then walked down the long path to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum & Trend tried hard to get us into the packed museum. Once in, you were almost trapped by the sheer volume of people & most were not continually moving forward as they should. Far too many people & by the time I squeezed through I had missed about 50% of the museum & almost the last person to meet the group ready for the bus. After another 15mins of frustratingly waiting the same lady of the couple was late again & Trend had to go back in to find her. No apologies again forthcoming. The museum had so many tragic photos, fils and synchronised AI video of how the blast took place over the city & the blast circumference detailed. There was just too much to see & very little time and ‘seeing’ through the walls of people. I felt like I was being relieved in not seeing all the horrors on show as it is always difficult when you see what humans do to other humans, particularly in war. When I visited the Killing Fields in Cambodia it took me some 3 days before I could see the world better again.

Based upon the debacle of meeting the bullet train this morning, Trend allowed more time to arrive at the station where we had some 15mins to spare before the bullet train came in which allowed myself a quick video of its arrival.

For some reason it seemed an even quicker return back to Osaka, but I think the darkness of night helped & we reached our hotel at 7.45pm. The only food outlet area was back into Dontobori precinct, another 15min walk & quite a few of the travellers couldn’t be bothered, so I headed off alone … again. I found a nice little restaurant filled with young people, great music & was given an English menu.

I picked the Pork Stew viewed by the picture & bamb!!! It came out in a very hot cast iron bowl filled with enough food for 3men. Yikes!!! It had a lot of chilli in it & the extra-large beer stubbie clearly wasn’t enough to douse the invisible flame of the chilli!! I was starting to cry with the chilli .. & sweating .. Lol!! I translated (text) to the young waiter why I couldn’t finish it & expressed I didn’t want to offend, as it is unJapanese to withdraw early from your meal. He took it well, smiled, almost laughed really & bowed graciously, as did I.

Walking back to the hotel my stomach was gaining more inner warmth, so I found a Lawson convenience store & bought a ‘cornetto’ ice cream & that did the trick. Can’t remember when I last had a cornetto ice cream.

Tomorrow we all get a sleep-in, but checkout is 10am & the hotel will store our bags till the 2pm bus departure to Osaka airport (1hr 10mins bus) for our flight to Busan Sth Korea.

14/11/24 Day 8

I awoke the next morning fully refreshed & with all my washing dry & plenty of time to properly pack my backpacks for flying and a casual trip in the elevator for brekky & a 10am check out. Our bags were stored for our 2pm bus departure to Osaka airport making sure our bags didn’t mix with the other bus tour.

Trend (our amazing guide) directed me to a local park some 30mins walk away so I headed off there but didn’t see a great deal there or along the way, but on the park is The Museum of Fine Arts & this was now temporarily closed. I was hoping to see that for my daughter, Kate who is an artist & would love what I would find inside. Such a shame.

Upon my return to the hotel, I found my favourite older fun couple Ted & Maria sitting in the brekky area having a few beers so I joined them for 2 soothing beers ($5.50ea) of good value until everyone starting rolling in after 1pm in readiness for the 2pm pickup. Ted & Maria are a fantastic couple from Manly in Sydney & they certainly made my trip wonderful. I do truly miss them now.

Trend was of course early (Japanese professionalism) & sorting out our bags & the hotel & most of us had our tour survey paper & tip monies with envelopes provided ready to hand to Trend when she was free.

We are all on the bus prior to 2pm, Yay!!! … but wait!!!! DS (70 yr old painful passenger from my previous blogs) hasn’t showed & no-one had seen him or knew where he would have gone too. 20mins has gone & now Trend is reviewing hotel’s ctv footage & that showed DS at his bags at 8.20am that morning & nothing else.

Trend is severely stressed & passengers have become angry as DS has had previous bad form of this & put Trend in a previous disastrous position with her manager & the local police a couple of days prior. With no alternative the bus had to leave for the airport on a 1hr 15mins journey. At the airport, still no word from DS or him taking Trend’s repeated calls. We are now starting to worry, not anger as much & DS not within the airport as first thought.

Trend says a hurried good-bye to us all but graciously allows me a photo with her for now she will head off to another airport terminal in case DS arrived there by mistake. Deb, a fellow passenger will now be the sole contact with Trend to avoid more stress to Trend. Due to this extended time lapse Trend had to reluctantly inform her manager & the decision made to formally report a missing person to police. This is a very bad thing for a guide to report this in Japan. Heavily frowned upon if you read my 1^st Japan blog & Day 4 blog.

Trend was booked to go home to Tokyo after us, relax for just one day & start another tour. She absolutely loves her job & in showing tourists her wonderful Japan but now that is all lost, plus her pending tour income. Time is now getting away & we even board our plane 20mins late & still no further news.

Our flight is more like a domestic flight of 90mins & once through customs & immigration we are met by our new Korean guide, Jade who does a quick roll call. Deb, being quite stressed notifies Jade of DS’s disappearance & not making the flight. Jade shows some confusion & states DS is at our hotel & waiting for us from arriving that morning. WOW!!! .. the tour people became instantly furious & vocal, but I was even angrier than that!!! Typical self-centred, obnoxious DS!!! He had taken a taxi to the airport, took a different flight, then another taxi. Massive unnecessary expenditure, so selfish & never told anyone what he was doing. Absolute contempt for anyone else.

We then found out Jade had not notified Trend or Trip a Deal either with her 30yrs experience, so it was left for Deb to notify Trend who was so relieved but still in trouble with her manager. Some of us travellers, including Deb will make our own independent report of DS’s antics on this trip to Trip a Deal directly in support of Trend for all his antics was never a failure of Trend. Post blog: I submitted my 3-page report of DS to Trip a Deal upon the 2^nd day of my return to Australia as promised to the group & was well received. I later texted Trend to check on her & even at Christmas she sent me a Happy Christmas & some of her Tokyo Disneyland photos of her time away confirming she is doing fine & still smiling.

Before I finish this day’s blog, I wish to somehow portray how magnificent Japan was for most of us on the tour. We were blessed with I’d say perfect weather over the 7 days with no rain & as much sun Autumn could provide. We received the best guide in Trend & certainly, the bus driver, Takanashi-son .. (spelling?) with their attention to detail, full professionalism & overall skill in dealing with so many personalities and safe driving.

Japan is a country that prides itself on the above personal traits without question as I’ve mentioned in previous blogs. Their culture is wonderful & most pleasing where we are warmly embraced. Criminal actions, like theft is extremely rare and the consequences of monumental shame, etc would be very harsh for the offender plus their family. As I walked the streets of Tokyo, Osaka, etc hundreds of bicycles are stored along the footpaths & not one was locked. Going to a phone shop & the phones on display are not cabled locked like in Australia. Some of our passengers left their phones on tables & park benches & were still there when we searched for them. Travellers were quickly advised if they left money in machines or forgot their change. So honest. The townships & cities are so clean, and every vehicle we saw was spotless to a fault and there are so many other examples that reflect the examples of the world’s crown jewel of Japan. I hope you can understand the magnificance of Japan just through my few blogs?

I was far too angry to sleep that night, even though I was in the best hotel so far (Asti Hotel, next to Busan Railway Station). Today I walked 11,329 steps or 8.51klms. Tomorrow is set for 9.30am bus departure & to run into DS … Literally!!! .. Stay tuned for my next blog for this welcoming occasion (sarcasm).

Stay happy, healthy & safe for my next blog & thank you immensely for reading & hope you like the photos. I trust the stories and photos will get better.

My Japan Tour – November 2024 – Blog 3

Highlights of Japan & Sth Korea – 16day Tour 2024

Days 5 & 6 11 & 12th November 2024

Happiest of birthdays to my eldest son, Scott this 11^th November & Remembrance Day for our WW1 veterans. “At the going down of the sun .. we will remember them” .. “Lest we forget”.

Lots of photos in this blog. Getting accustomed to brekky and sorting out everything, it is almost automatic with the only issue to mind is what clothes to wear to suit the perceived weather. The bus departed at 8.30am & on time. Go figure! We are heading South to Kyoto, some 184klms & 4hrs incl 1 toilet stop. We passed a lot of typical small villages surrounded by mountain ranges which is like a never-ending story travelling down the centre of Honshu Island including the very impressive infrastructure and the road network. Every now & then some landmarks or infrastructure stands out like in this photo. My working life included a lot of civil & engineering projects, so I am seeing far more than most of the passengers on the bus & when I point out a couple of things there seems to be elements of misunderstanding or a vacuum of real thought of what was involved. Anyway, I’m bloody impressed!!

You can see how vital these road tunnels are for getting to the other side of these mountain ranges & for villages to be connected. My last blog advised it would take about a week for someone to transverse between each village in past times. This bus journey had the least amount of places worthy of a photo being in a different region with more landscape of farming areas & extensive hot houses .

Today is an optional tour day in the afternoon but I won’t be partaking in it as per my Blog 1. Our first morning stop on the way is Kinkaku-ji Temple on the NW boundary of Kyoto encompassing some 132,000 square metres or 13.2hectares. This site would have to be one of the most recognisable landmarks in Japan & a must do visit. Entrance fee is just 500yen ($5AUD) & included in our tour. It’s a bit of a challenge to get an uninterrupted shot with the volume of people at the vantage spots so you must use a lot of patience … many travellers have none. This landmark is an absolute gem for your eyes

This is a Zen temple of Shokoku-ji School of Rinzai Buddhist Denomination. It was originally the home of the Saionji family. In 1397 Yoshimitsu, 3rd Shogun of Ashikaga Shogunate took it over & built the Kitayama Palace centring around the Golden Stupa, Kinkaku. This stupa has burnt down a few times (previous wars) with the latest fire being 1950 by a zealot monk but rebuilt & opened from 1955. It became the centrepiece of politics & culture for welcoming Emperors of Japan & trade with China (Ming period).

After Yoshimitsu passed away it became a temple & a very special religious place. It was ultimately registered as a World Cultural Herutafe site in 1994. It was a beautiful day to see this amazing place but a bit more sunshine would have seen the Kinkaku more glowing of gold. Notice the gold phoenix on its roof crest.

There are 3 floor levels in the Kinkaku & they are off limits to the public & all built of differing architecture. On the Ground floor (Japan always call this level, 1st floor) The Yoshimitsu statue. 2nd floor has the statue of Shitenno with its 4 protective warriors. The 3rd floor Chinese Zenshu butsudan style of cremation vault as per the below left photo.

The top centre Japanese sign was translated using my Google Translate app with a screenshot when entering the Tori gate. This vertical sign informs us of the 5 Precautions or Precepts (Title). First line #1 Do not deliberately kill anyone or anything #2 Do not take what is not given to you. #3 Do not engage in immoral desires. #4 Do not utter false words. #5 Do not become intoxicated with alcohol and neglect your daily activities. I pretty well align with the first 4 out of five with #5 not truly aligning myself with to be honest. How many do you align with? My life has always been centred around the Ten Commandments & that has kept me in good stead.

The gardens in Autumn are a mixture of colours & even with snow white cover in Winter the area is amazing when looking at the range of wall photos available. Unfortunately, our tour time does not allow for us to walk the loop pathway that extends up above the flat area of the Kinkaku. What a shame, for it would be worth the viewing even if one crawled up there.

Sadly, the commercial side is now partaking these sacred grounds up near the Observatory Platform with street stalls & vending machines along the pathways, but I hope it contributes to keeping the landmark’s operational & entry costs to a minimum.

Boarding the bus we quickly arrive at another great hotel, La’gent Hotel Kyoto – Nijo with another superb room but as usual we can only store our bags there till the 3pm check-in time however we managed a 2pm entry while the other half of the bus was on the optional tour. DS (another sole traveller from Blog 1 & 2) & I bought a beer or 2 at the 7/11 shop opposite & wandered around a few streets till we found a planter box to sit on. There are virtually no bench seats along the streets in Japan. Seems people are always moving, never sitting. The hotel would not allow us to drink in their waiting area & foyer. Japan has rules that must be followed.

We walked a few streets & found a quiet laneway & just as we sat down & took a few tastes of beer we heard police sirens & DS started panicking thinking a resident has seen some strange men sitting on a pathway drinking in the open. LOL!! The sirens were getting louder and even I started thinking that may be the case. We had better hide the drinking a bit more. Haha!

Come 5.30pm DS (getting increasingly frustrated in finding a good food place) & I finally found a place to eat & low & behold my favourite bus couple, Ted & Maria had a booth & so did Fay & Dean. It was such a relief to have a conversation with others besides DS’s constant verbal most of the time on the bus & being by my side like a clinging twin. Really enjoyed having dinner respectfully in a restaurant & with great people, unlike eating consumables from our pit stops in my room alone. Today I did 6,623 steps or 4.97klms so it’s helping my fitness & my daily eating of processed foods I usually don’t consume like sweets & pastries.

Time for an early bed for a 6am brekky & another timely checkout & bus adventure. Seeing I stuffed up on Day 3 departure I am quite diligent now in handing in my room key into reception. Don’t wish to be another passenger failure. Once is enough; however, my failure was only a 5mins delay after much banter from fellow travellers.

Day 6 12/11

Out the front of the La’gent Hotel Kyoto – Nijo we are pressed to load & board the bus, for the bus driver can be fined taking up the outer lane of a busy road. With that in mind, we speed packed within the required 20mins allowance much to my amazement. We then headed further into Kyoto due to the time mix up from yesterday to visit the Fushimi Inari Shrine not far from the Golden temple of Kinkaku-ji of yesterday.

This Shrine has a thousand plus vermilion painted Torii gates which straddle a network of trails in this vast park. I would have loved to do the full loop trail but again, frustratingly not enough time (2hrs). Apart from the vermillion gates we could not help but see the volume of schoolchildren at this temple on school outings. The youngest were by far the cutest & followed a strict 2lane walking & holding hands, boys to girls. So different than what you see now in Australia. Even the older students were impeccably dressed in high quality school clothing and displaying good manners & respect.

This temple has a religious activity and first, you must wash your hands in a bamboo stream trough for cleansing, then line up in turn & do a respectful bow & lift one of the 2 round stones. The scripture says if the stone is too heavy the person has a lot of burden & if you lift easy then you are unburdened & happy in life. I was thankful the stone was quite light for me. Some of our passengers couldn’t lift them & said they were heavy, so that confirms a few things for me. Now our hands are cleansed we can then enter the Shrine from the left (leave by the right). One MUST NEVER enter via the middle as this is for religious elders, etc but unfortunately, a lot of tourists have never been advised of this type of respect. Trend, our guide, is very conscious of many religious procedures & etiquettes & she explains it very well & we all feel better knowing we are doing the respectful etiquette.

With a quick walk through the ‘tunnels’ of the Torii gates (left photo above), basically doing a U turn at the end Y junction back to the exit gate for the bus after we are recommended to buy food in these street stalls with a bit of free time. I had a noodle dish of sorts & it filled the stomach gap.

We left the Kyoto region & drove for about 1hr southwards to Nara Park where there are about a thousand roaming deer (Japan refers to deers as Messengers of Gods) all looking for anyone with food .. they can smell it & will follow you until they get their reward. Most of the deer have even learnt to bow for food from the volume of Japanese & tourists that bow to them out of respect. You can buy the crackers feed for 200yen ($2AUD).

Within Nara Park is the Todaiji Temple, one of Japan’s most famous & historically significant temples built in various stages since 752AD. The photo above is the Shrine Entry Gate & even that is huge!!! I asked Trend & others how such an enormous structure could be built back then, plus do more extensions & enhancements to it, but no answer was forthcoming. I can’t get my head around how this building could be constructed back in those ages. This building still reigns as the largest timber building structure in the world, thereby giving you some idea of the size including the size of the people in the photos.

When walking up to this huge structure you encounter a very large Chinese bronze octagonal lantern (one of two ever built, but only one here at this temple & can be seen in centre of top right photo in front of the temple). On very special religious events this lantern is lit and would be done a few times in a year especially in their religious lantern festival.

This structure is amazing with a 25m high ceiling & yet to get the giant 15m high Buddha transported through the back elevation at a later date is still doing my head in. The entrance is guarded as usual by fierce warriors & again, never walk through the middle.

The 15m high Buddha (left above photo) takes centre stage but the photo doesn’t show the clear larger scale to the smaller idol on the right, accompanied by other large religious beings & they appear to be some 8-9m high under this 25m ceiling. To see the structural engineering of this building it is best to look at the corners of the ceiling and see how there are no mechanical fixings in the beams & columns. A truly amazing structure.

The temple entrance has enormous lockable doors that can be closed & about 4m high x 1.8m wide each with huge hinges that are surprisingly from ancient times. Everything here is massive in scale but again, I feel like I’m the only one seeing this side of the landmark. Most people are viewing the Buddha.

Behind the large Buddha there are scaled models of some stages of construction to the temple of 300 & 800 yrs ago. Also at the rear is a large cedar tree structural column with a small square hole chamber cut through it near the floor & children are encouraged to crawl through it as a test of courage & belief & a sign for a good future & education. It was fun to watch & see their happiness & thankful I could get a couple of photos in between their teacher taking the prime spot for photos & to see the children so happy when they completed this test.

It was a 15mins walk back to the bus & had a great chat with Trend after I bought her a sweet snack to which she was extremely thankful & surprised by my offering. She enjoyed the company and to talk about other things other than tourist stuff. Off on the bus again eventually, when everyone arrived (very late as usual for the main offenders) for an hour’s drive to Osaka & our Hotel Crystal where we stored our bags till the 4pm check-in. Our hotel location wasn’t too bad considering it is heavily recommended for tourists & tours to do the walk through to Dotonbori & Shinzabashi where there must be over a thousand of shops, stalls, etc you can imagine. Of course, every tourist in Osaka must be here. So many people.

Our bus group had the option to wander around as free time to shop & eat or follow Trend as she had kindly donated her free time to take anyone or all to visit the Osaka Castle for the sunset & night viewing in the opposite direction well past our hotel, but I chose to eat & shop & return on my own to the hotel, knowing I cannot get lost & also more free time from DS who appeared to be walking straight back to the hotel (more on this in my next blog). Quickly, everyone scattered so I found myself absolutely on my own but with about 5.000 people around me, if that makes sense. I had a great Tapanyaki dinner for $22AUD (my first opportunity in Japan to date) & lucky there was a table for 2 ready. Some places you must book or arrive extra early due to the volume of people here. In the above photos can you pick me out in the crowd. Hint … I’m on the big screen from a wall way above the street. I’m the old guy in the blue jacket.

I wandered around for ages, bought a few small gifts for my 3 grandchildren that would fit in my backpack. In my 2^nd store of purchasing, I was helped by a young lady with a strange accent unbeknown to me. She was my first Ukrainian I had met & when I asked about her family (Russia/ Ukraine War), she became quite reserved & troubled, so I quickly offered my prayers, and she began to smile again. She was a most beautiful caring person & so helpful.

I easily found my way back to the hotel for check-in & to my Room 1312 & what a room!! Ultra-modern & new with even its own laundry & clothes drying fan room built into the ensuite. King bed, refrigerator, gas stove & room electronics everywhere. I’m very comfortable for this 2-night stay. I’ll get the 200yen laundry detergent tomorrow from reception for my well-needed laundry of clothes.

Today took 15,801 steps or 11.83klms & with my room being so comfortable I will no doubt recover quickly. Early to bed for 7am brekky & a big optional day touring Hiroshima via the much-awaited bullet train (55,000yen or $550AUD) for the full day tour. Bullet train is expensive to use & will form the bulk of the money involved.

Stay happy, healthy & safe for my next blog & thank you immensely for reading & hope you like the photos. I trust the stories and photos will get better.

My Japan Tour – November 2024 – Blog 2

Highlights of Japan & Sth Korea – 16day Tour 2024 Days 3 & 4

From my last blog of doing some 13.72klms of walking the day prior I truly slept well and was up @ 5.30am for brekky & bus departure for 8am on our first out of city tour to Mt Fuji. DS (a tagged passenger) from my last blog showed up for breakfast if nothing had happened from the night before … never crossed his mind that I was concerned for his safety of not knowing if he had returned to our hotel. I certainly wasn’t pleased with his lack of understanding on being part of a team tour and to add to that a couple of passengers had delayed our departure by 20mins. So frustrating when people show how selfish they are & still never an apology forthcoming.

Suffice to say, I was back in my bus seat with DS again sitting next to me & with his constant negative talking was a strain on myself & other passengers, but I knew I had to keep DS in some form of control as I felt I was the best person that could handle him. My hardest duty was to stop DS from talking when Trend (our guide) was talking to us via a microphone. So disrespectful.

Traffic congestion was insane & took about 1hr just to get to Tokyo city outskirts & it continued all the way to Mt Fuji much to the frustration of DS. Unfortunately, the tour timing didn’t help with us travelling on a Saturday morning when a lot of local citizens travel to Mt Fuji for a common getaway. Mt Fuji is only about 150klms from our hotel but felt a lot longer. The highway was 2 lanes all the way but full & we travelled through about 20+ tunnels & some were obscenely long. I could not help admiring the road network infrastructure (bridges & tunnels) which are beyond belief. Just amazing! We were advised many of these tunnels were constructed using the old mining methods and mass manual labour & when technology chimed in there were proper mining equipment utilised, such as vehicular jackhammer machines, box rail carts, conveyor belt extraction, etc and much later massive drilling machines.

I hope you can appreciate my ‘skill’ .. LOL!! … in taking some photos via the bus travelling above 100klms/ hr. There were no other opportunities given. Once you consider the extreme mountainous ranges you can understand how important these road tunnels are in linking the various villages along the way. In older times, it would take over a week for villagers to connect with another village scaling over these mountains. They had to be self-supporting for centuries & at times be their own ‘government’. The villages would also, be very cold in winter, nestled amongst these giant ranges.

Getting closer to Mt Fuji the road became narrower & steeper with constant winding of tight corners and occasionally another bus would come into view & we all breathed in, with bus mirrors just missing each other & with little reduced speed. Our bus driver, Takanashi-son .. (spelling?) was clearly showing his driving skills and it wasn’t long before I realised, he was the best bus driver I have ever experienced and knew we were going to be safe on this tour.

Finally arrived at Mt Fuji 2300m elevation @ 12.20pm, some 4hrs of bus travel & one 15mins relief stop (remember, just 150klms travelled). Temp 4°C but felt like 2°C without the brisk wind factor. We can’t complain by having a great ‘sunny’ day greeting us. The car & bus parking was at the highest elevation of the road system at the main 5^th Station, but for trekkers you can venture up to 7^th Station & with strict approval & conditions go to the top. Sadly, today & at certain previous times Mt Fuji didn’t have its usual snow-covered top which didn’t help with the aesthetics and photos. Based upon the upcoming weather, we may have missed the snow by just a few days.

There is a short walk from the bus up to the central 5^th Station complex where your first photos can be taken of Mt Fuji, then viewing the location shrine and the rear viewing platform overlooking the village of Kofu (left) & Lake Kawaguchiko to the right. Once everyone had done the full viewing of Mt Fuji, we were back onto the bus heading for Kofu & Lake Kawaguchiko (2^nd largest of the Fuji Five Lakes) to undertake a 20mins lake cruise in a traditional boat to see another angle of Mt Fuji. Cruising on the lake was quite brisk to say the least but it was well worth it & the price included in our tour. DS decided to be the only one to stay on the bus for he said it wasn’t worth his time of 20mins. Looking out from the boat & at the wharf we all really appreciated the strength of the glowing colours of Autumn through the trees & foliage these past 2 days. You can’t but help noticing this beautiful scenery.

Top left photo – Brilliant Autumn Foliage. Top Right – Lake Kawaguchiko with road highway bridge in background. Middle right – Traditional Japanese Boat. Bottom photo – Mt Fuji from centre of lake using the cloud as artificial snow effect.

Back on the bus for about 3hrs (130klms) to Saku on the way to the Nagano region (centre of the Japan, Honshu Island). We arrived quite late again at Saku, but the brand-new Hotel Route-Inn was superb with my top floor room, 603 amazing. In the coming days we will be heading to Hiroshima, so those undertaking this optional tour must pay their 550,000yen ($550AUD) per person today so Trend can book & pay for all the bullet train travel & tickets involved. Luckily, or good management, I had thought of potential forthcoming issues & had the required cash on me as my debit card wouldn’t work on Trend’s device. Whew!

Today, was a lot easier on my feet with only 2.71klms of walking. Tomorrow, we head NW to Nagano.

Day 4 10/11

Just an overnight stay, so it was easy packing and in readiness for an early brekky at 6.30am for 8am bus departure. When I awoke, I looked out from my 6^th floor window to see a large, ploughed field and looking like a nice day unfolding. By the time I left my room some 10mins later and found my brekky table the outside area was full of fog. I was advised it was 0°C @ 6am then heavy frost eventuated. No doubt the weather changes rapidly leading into winter. The breakfast buffets have all been well serviced to date and with a mixture of Japanese & western food, so it was bonus to sample a few different things & making up for the limited dinner options, if any, once our bus arrived late at night. Obviously, I didn’t like some of the Japanese food offerings and some I didn’t even know their names so I confided in myself that I at least tried a good range but be more wary next breakfast.

Again, the usual suspects were late getting to the bus .. but with no pushback from others was surprising, seeing how frustrating this is becoming. I guess, with 30 travellers we all can’t be friends so I will surmise there will be pushback forthcoming surely. One later comer (Indian couple from Melbourne) frequently arrives late, takes off his coat, folds it neatly & places it on his above rack, then inspects his backpack before placing it next to his coat & this delays the driver from departing. When we have a stop, he is the first up, slowly puts on his coat & checks his carry bag thereby delaying most of the bus from alighting. He & his wife will evidently feature in my future blogs.

Our first stop will be at Takayama (Taka=tall, Yama=Mountain) some 3.5hrs away of the most winding of roads & amazing infrastructure, sheer cliff faces netted, pinned & steel cables used for kilometres. The hwy follows the rapids of the Ryuo River mostly & then the Shio River that shows off their various hydro schemes, for there is plenty of water streaming down. Some boulders in these streams are massive, so lots of water pushed them there. The extra-long road tunnels (2 lanes wide one way) where some start at 800m in length up to 4.7klms long through mountains so high & coated fiercely with pine, cypress & cedar trees somehow growing vertical off the steep slopes. At times you can see a few areas where ‘tree avalanche’ damage has occurred, much like in New Zealand, Sth Island.

Again, lots of small villages located in isolated valleys where all available useable land is fully utilised. The road travels this time of the year (Nov, Autumn) is awesome of colour, ultra clear water & some dam water with glacial type colour bringing so much pleasure to one’s eyes. I would dread travelling here in winter with snow chains, etc on the terrain encountered today.

To get to Takayama we traversed about 30+ road tunnels & arrived at 11.40am where Trend took us down the normal ‘main street’ (I detest walking close by Trend’s Trip a Deal blue flag like the thousands of pampered tourists on bus tours, so I hang back whenever possible, same for my new friend Ed from Melbourne). You can see the flag waving in the rear of one of the photos. Trend showed us the narrow alley ‘streets’ of the Ebisutaigumi Preservation Area then we had our own free time wandering until 1.45pm through this ancient part of the township where we were advised the tourists outnumber the citizens here. Above two shops you can see two large saki balls suspended from the roof. The largest one confirms the oldest Saki brewery. The rickshaws were there for the obvious tourists and due to the crowding in the alleyways I could not help but wonder in amazement on how they avoided the people & still not allow a wheel to enter dangerously into the water gutters on each side of the alley.

Seeing a honey ice cream outlet next to the Saki brewery, I was easily conned to see what this delight would be like. I chose a Bee Pollen & Manuka Honey Ice Cream tub … & an absolute woo hoo!!!! Another bus traveller saw my delight & she was easily persuaded too. After nearing bus departure time I met some young workers at their new coffee nook store in the main street for a well-earned coffee .. they had limited English, but we ‘communicated’ well, and they waved to me a few times as I walked by. They were so friendly & respectful & I made sure I returned the same. Back on the bus, but again we are missing someone. Yes, it was DS. The bus parking was just a street away from our tour walk so how did he get lost? Well over 20mins had passed & then Trend received 2 phone calls. One from her Tokyo manager & the other one from the local police. DS had entered the police station he found where it rained into utter confusion. They looked at his passport, searched his backpack, for he was being erratic, etc which police would not appreciate. Typical DS.

In Japan, it must be life or death to involve the police & heavily ‘punished’ for the tour guide losing a passenger. DS was lost & he expected the police to simply drive him to the bus stop which they eventually did when the TAD manager confirmed who he was. Again, the matter became much worse when DS exiting the police car yelling to Trend “it’s her fault”! What a piece of work!!! The police then went further on Trend. When DS sat next to me, I gave it to him of his poor form. He said it to Trend as a joke & didn’t accept any fault or later even apologised. Other passengers agreed with me, but DS remained his usual self-serving self. Trend was very hurt but repeatedly stated she was happy DS was safe. Two years ago, one of her passengers died from a heart attack at Mt Fuji & it took her a long time before she continued as a guide.

Back on the bus for more dreaded DS hours & about another 30+ tunnels, with one being an amazing 11klms long we finally arrived at Shirakawa, near Gifu, another UNESCO site. After Trend’s bus intro we were allowed free walking of the site & if enough time to see the village from the observatory hill. The first task was to walk across the heavily constructed suspension bridge linking the only way to the historical site.

The first thing I noticed was the very thick rice stems thatched for the roof coverings of dwellings and secondly, the warning signs for snow falling from the roofs in Winter. Yikes!! After seeing the miniature water wheel still working, I visited the museum house of the original Wada family, who lived in the largest Gassho-Zukuri style house in Shirakawa-go. Paid my 400yen entry fee & mandatorily took off my shoes to wander through this very unusual house & see how it operated with a central internal hearth bowl kitchen & open floor immediately above for heating & drying of clothes & obviously sleeping warmth. The roof & walls are all tied with thick rope bonds & lined with small diameter bamboo reeds after scaling the incredibly steep timber stairs (limited floor wastage).

Top Left photo – Wada Family workers & storage building. Top right – Wada House (rear of photo) & worker’s building on right. Middle right – Centre kitchen stove & hearth. Bottom right – Various carry wreaths. Bottom Left – Top floor showing house roof & wall structure & floor.

Along the walls are carry wreathes to enable the wearer to carry heavier weights for long journeys and to take the stress off their backs. The main income for the Wada family back then was silkworms to make silk & surprisingly, gunpowder. Now that is a unique diversity of business.

Not sure of timing but headed for the steep walkway up to the observatory platform to look over the village. Other passengers coming down said I’ll be too late for the bus; well, I certainly proved them wrong much to their amazement & in beating some of the other passengers as well. Below right photo shows Wada House on the left foreground with the trees around it. The suspension bridge is out of view on far right background.

View of historical village from Observatory Hill

Back on the bus on time (go figure), we stopped after an hour to refuel the bus & then our guide, Trend confirmed our scheduled hotel couldn’t accommodate us tonight as we were running a little late and another bus tour was now arriving there. Within a very short while we were provided another hotel but not in Gifu as arranged. The hotel was another Hotel Route-Inn @ Nishihongodori & that again was superb.

Later, I checked with Trend & asked if she had sent her daily report to her manager where she confirmed she had already done so. After explaining to Trend how the bus passengers saw the DS/ Police incident I insisted she use my name as a reference & submit another report to her manager using my summary of words before her head hits the pillow. She finally promised she would & was so grateful, and she again confirmed that to me the next morning the manager received her 2^nd report & was more relieved on the expected outcome. Trend was totally innocent of the DS/ Police debacle.

A very long day & walking 7.51klms & lucky (again, good management) we all bought some light food for dinner at the pit stop as restaurants were already closed in small villages. Brekky set for 6.30am & 8.30am bus departure.

Stay happy, healthy & safe for my next blog & thank you immensely for reading & hope you like the photos. I trust the stories and photos will get better.

My Japan Tour – November 2024 – Blog 1

Highlights of Japan & Sth Korea – 16day Tour 2024

Days 1 & 2

Seeing this is my first international trip since COVID I settled for a warmup travel experience & Japan jumped out at me, hence I found a few good deals and finally settled on the below trip. Immediately booking this trip on 1^st August 2024 I arranged my best travel insurance for my age group to be Cover-More this time. Surprisingly or more shockingly it is highly recommended to include a policy that has Covid coverage. With the deal below one of the available dates was 7^th November 2024 and my research stated this was a good time of the year to visit Japan & also seeing that I am not a cold loving weather person the timing matched, apart from my family have a lot of birthdays in November, so I requested all birthdays are postponed till my return. My request was hastily refused. LOL!!! Regrettably I also missed my granddaughter’s Year 12 formal too but photos sent to me on the trip really gave me such pleasure & pride.

Trip A Deal – Group Tour – Highlights of Japan & Sth Korea – 16day tour, $6,463.00AUD with my optional day tours. The hardest thing was to succumb to the sole traveller fee of $1,200 & Brisbane airport fee $200 included.

7days Japan, 7days Sth Korea, 2 days flying times: EXCLUSIONS
• Visa fees and requirements .. not required for Aus travellers on tourist trip under 90days.
• Domestic transfers and flights not stated in the deal offer
• Meals/beverages not stated in the deal offer
• Recommended gratuities/tipping … $10AUD/ person/ day
• Personal expenses
• Travel insurance

Within this tour itinerary I have choices of optional tours & activities, so I chose only 2, with the first one on Day 7 at Osaka, Japan with a bullet train trip to Hiroshima for 55,000 JPY ($550AUD) per person (payable on tour in local currency) & is recommended for a ferry cruise to a nearby island as it enables viewing of several sights not able to be done from the mainland. The 2^nd one was a Busan City Tour in Sth Korea with costs included in package price.

After much anticipation and a fair bit of anxiety (Post COVID unknown??) November arrived and my tour effectively started from my hometown of Yamba in Northern New South Wales & travelling to my daughter’s place in Canungra (3hrs drive away), at the bottom of the tourist village & landscape of Mt Tamborine located, Gold Coast, Sthrn Queensland which is frustratingly set at a different daylight-saving time of 1hour behind which really sucks when you are travelling interstate. After spending 2 days with my family, my son-in-law Jason drove me direct to the Brisbane Domestic Airport for a 7.45am flight to Sydney, QF511 where I’ll transfer to Sydney International Airport for my 12noon (Daylight Saving Time again) Tokyo flight of 10hrs with a Qantas A333 jet on QF59. Arriving at 6am I was able to have brekky at The Aviary where the service was brilliant & avo smash/ coffee was superb before my first flight.

Once I adjusted my large backpack (duffle bag configured) for check-in luggage a very helpful Qantas staff member applied my bag tag & placed it straight onto the conveyor however, he rushed off & there was no-one around to confirm if my backpack will be placed on my Tokyo plane or do I pick it up on a carousel when I arrive in Sydney. Upon landing in Sydney, I was instructed to go direct to Gate 15 to meet a free shuttle bus to the International Terminal across the taxiways I was heavily involved in 2 of their constructions back in 1986-87. From the bus the taxiways looked in good shape. With fingers crossed I hoped my backpack arrives in Tokyo with me. Gulp!!

Going through the numerous bag & bio screenings of 2 flights in Australia we board the large plane, with me walking out onto the tarmac for the rear entry. A lady was struggling with her large carry-on and looking after her 7 or so year old son down the stairs I insisted (she didn’t want to trouble me) I carried the bag all the way down & up the steps into the plane to her amazement and heartfelt thanks. I had no trouble at all in doing it & knew I had made a positive difference to somebody (one of my life’s mantras).

My Tokyo QF59 flight is an Airbus A330 seating up to 300+ passengers and we were completely full for this trip seeing Japan is an absolute travel favourite for us Australians, especially this 2024 year. Our flight flies directly over Brisbane (again!!), Cairns, Port Moresby & Guam with lots of Pacific water underneath. As you can see from the flight info photos there are some interesting stats to review. After some mind numbing 10hrs, we finally land at Tokyo Haneda Airport at 8pm their time (Japan is 2 hrs behind Sydney Daylight Saving Time). The airport is so large, it seemed about 1klm of walking before we came to bag collection (my bag arrived!!.. yay!!), Agriculture Declaration & then Customs/ Immigration.

With all the current arrivals & scramble, I was struggling to find my QR entrance code on my phone I did some weeks prior, hence I had to do the declarations all over again, 2 copies of their cards. Lucky, I had my own pen. I presented my fingerprints & passports twice. While all this scramble was happening, I could not miss a man about 70 getting highly agitated & putting on a fuss & I was waiting for police interaction or similar for his ‘erratic’ behaviour. A woman assisted him by filling in his forms to calm him down.

Escaping the airside scramble I was warmly greeted by our Trip a Deal guide, Trend. A happy young lady of about 34yrs old (photo below). She did a role call of our 2 tour groups & then I noticed the 70yr old was in my group. Yikes!!! We boarded the bus & arrived at our nearby hotel of 2 nights, Hotel Mystays Hanenda @ 9.45pm with my room 227 awaiting. Trend reminded us that hotel rooms & most rooms in Japan are quite compact so hopefully we will be comfortable. The photo shows the bed & air con size, so you can judge the compact size (photo below). The ensuite was very good & my first use of a bidet. LOL! The hotel also presented a pair of Japanese pyjamas & a set of slippers to undertake the Japanese room ritual. They insisted I take the slippers with me for the other hotels I stay at. Alarm set to ensure we board the bus at 9.30am tomorrow & have ablutions and brekky before then. 2 night stay.

Some pertinent things about Japan are: Japan is an island country in East Asia, located in the Pacific Ocean where the Japanese archipelago consists of nearly 7,000 islands, of which the four main ones (Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu) represent more than 95% of its territory. Japan is divided in 9 regions from north to south: Hokkaido, Tohoku, Kanto, Chubu, Kansai (also called Kinki), Chugoku, Shikoku, Kyushu and Okinawa. On the administrative level, the country is managed through 47 prefectures.

126 million Japanese people live on a territory stretching over 3,000 kilometres long and 378 000 km². Mountains cover 71% of the land and the coastline extends up to 30,000 kilometres long. The Greater Tokyo Area, which includes the capital and the neighbouring prefectures, is the largest metropolis in the world with over 37 million inhabitants in what is called the ‘Capital Region’. The other largest cities by population in Japan are, from the biggest: Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Kobe, Kyoto and Fukuoka. Japan is the 11th most inhabited country in the world. However, the country has been in demographic decline for many years due to a very low birth rate of 0.7. Currently, 100Yen is around $1AUD.

A few things I learnt in Japan through Trend was that the culture demands the population to do their very best, be professional at all times, be totally honest & trustworthy and make your prescence the best it can be. If you are an employee, it is expected you would attend your workplace 30mins prior & if a meeting is planned then the same applies & be ready to commence right on time. With Trend, it was quite obvious she excels in all those attributes. She works very long hours, is very meticulous in ensuring our tour goes well and that everyone remains safe. Same goes for our amazing bus driver, Takanashi-son .. (Spelling?) who would be the best bus driver I have ever experienced. As my blogs will further explain, Japan & their people are amazing and great to be accepted so warmly & knowing how good they really are. Now, please retain this information as my blogs progress through the tour.

Day 2

Everything went to plan for 9.30am departure except I had to sit next to the 70yr old, DS for our first journey. Lucky me! DS was a full-on talker, so through our conversation I could see we were annoying some of the other passengers and also whilst Trend was educating us of what we will be doing today & what is expected of us on this tour, seeing she will be our guide for the entire tour. I had to bring DS up to speed when we stepped off the bus, as he wasn’t listening of course. Problem #1.

Our first stop was 40mins away, the Tsukiji Outer Market where it is very busy through mainly 4 small street/ lanes, lots of tourists and Japanese cuisine, focusing on mainly fish. DS couldn’t handle this scramble for long, so he went back to the bus. This stop wouldn’t be on my must do list either as we boarded again some 40mins later.

Our next stop was closer to the ‘CBD’ of Tokyo at the Meiji Shrine, dedicated to the Imperial Family in 1926, a Shinto religious site and amazing 17-hectare garden landscape. At each entry you are greeted by huge White Cedar Tree Shrine gates. With the bus entry conditions you have to walk around to the other side entry to see the main Shrine gate which is by far bigger in statue.

All Shinto Japanese show great respect at these gates where they stop, bow correctly & then enter. At other locations at certain buildings and shrines they bow again & do a solitary loud clap after prayer/ wish. Japanese come here for special events, like parents when their children reach the ages of 5, 7 & 9 in traditional Kimono costumes to seek fortune, good future, education, health & all family life important issues in seeking blessings. These youngsters are just so cute in the way they dress and react to the volumes of photos, etc. The odd ages are especially important in Japanese heritage culture.

This shrine caters for especially approved privileged marriages, in traditional costumes and it is such a big deal for just 2hours of organising and ceremony. These marriage events cost the families $10K AUD & after they leave the shrine location to do their own reception ceremonies elsewhere. These marriage ceremonies are so precisely performed and set almost to the minute.

It came to 11.30am & I was becoming quite cold (8°C & breezy) & some fingers turning white, so I went back to Trend patiently waiting at the Cedar Tree gate. I reconfirmed I was not doing the afternoon’s optional tour & wanted directions to the Shibuya town centre, some kilometres away. I told Trend DS wasn’t doing the tour either & that was who she was waiting for. The other passengers doing the optional tour were already on the bus. Problem #2.

I went back & looked around for DS but no luck … depends how you look at this .. LOL!!! I walked to the other side of the garden site to find the extra-large Cedar Tree gate & a welcoming café & ablutions block before heading to the Shibuya Sky area. Walking, looking at Google Maps (frowned upon in Japan when walking at the same time, so I always stopped) and dodging the increasing volume of population takes a great skill at times. Finally, I found myself at the Shibuya Sky area to witness the daytime scramble. I stopped by the pedestrian lights to watch several volumes of crossing, along with the unusually fast go-karts & classic rods (adrenalin joy rides) scooting past. The go-karts too fast for my camera action (operator error). Lol!

The Shibuya Scramble is a major road junction involving several road interactions and when traffic stops the pedestrians have a full-on walking scramble to get their respective sides of the intersection. It is sort of like, New York’s Time Sq, except it is not as visually electric with only a few neo signs, lighting, etc … but it is daytime. I noticed across the street the railway network is mainly elevated above ground except for the necessary tunnels. Japan is highly recognised for their train network.

Checking my day hours left I was starting to calculate my return to my hotel. The Shibuya station line was mainly a East/ West line & my hotel is on the South line which has a station some 6klms away. Thinking that is a decent achievable walk I started off, seeing a lot of Tokyo’s inner suburbs, making out I’m not a tourist. In considering Tokyo on having only Day 2 it is impossible to see all of this most populated city in the world of some 14million in 2023 census, so I envisage returning another time or year to fully soak in more cities & regions of Japan.

After a bit of Google Maps flaws & some 90mins later I arrived at Kitashinagawa Station where I was helped to buy a train ticket for Platform 1 for Anamori-inari Station by the platform officer, as the electronic machine was totally in Japanese. He was so helpful & told me to hurry for the train coming in. I showed my ticket to train conductor who guided me to sit down in the train. Arghh!!!! It was going in the wrong direction & now told me to get off at the next station, Shirakawa (a major station). I was now on Platform 3 & needing 1, so eventually worked that out. Whew!

After about 30mins I finally worked out the electronic train indicator board as it showed the next 2 trains coming in & their stations but it showed Japanese for some 15 seconds & English in 7 seconds. The 1^st train with my Anamori-inari station (#14) light on came in & was far too crowded to get on so I had to wait another 4trains before my train came in. I was determined to get on, no matter what!! Time was really against me now. Yes, I had a bit of room, my daypack was in my hands, knowing it was silly to have it on my back in these conditions. I grabbed the above hand restraint strap with 2 young small Japanese ladies up against me, then wham!!! We get the full-on Japanese train crush with platform officers forcing us even closer like in a rugby scrum. Yikes! .. talk about a crush! .. & I mean crush!!! I apologised to the ladies now looking at my chest, but they obviously don’t speak English or are used to this crush format. I did feel sorry for them, being so short.

Shirakawa Train Station Indicator Board (English)

After a few stops I finally arrived at my station & the stress of escaping was unbelievable & was so thrilled of achieving that unsurmountable goal. Now it is dark but only another 4mins to the Hotel & I was so relieved to have completed my journey. Whew!! Before retiring, I checked with reception on DS but they weren’t sure if he had arrived. I knocked on his door 3 separate times till late at night but no answer. Getting worried now. I was thankful reception had some Grilled Chicken Diavola style for dinner (2,090 yen) I could take to my room.

In my room my phone confirmed I had walked 13.72klms for the day. Buggared! 7am brekky for tomorrow morning & an 8am bus departure. Found out at brekky DS had caught a taxi from the Meiji Shrine within the first 30mins & cost him 8,700yen $87Aud. Ouch!! He never told anyone what he was doing & this was the first of many issues we had with DS. Problem #3. He is the old man with the white cap, far left of the photo in the Shrine surround. DS will form more of my blogs .. you can’t believe what he ended up doing. Stay tuned!!!

Stay happy, healthy & safe for my next blog & thank you immensely for reading & hope you like the photos. I trust the stories and photos will get better. Stay in The Present!!!

BH Life Travels

Travelling as a mature male, noticing life & leaving miniature footprints on Earth

japan