Week 1: Tokyo to Takayama

Our first journal-type blog entry from our worldwide whirlwind.

I don't actually intend to do this year of travel as a whirlwind – our idea is to go reasonably slow and enjoy where we are before rushing off to the next – but I'm a little embarrassed to realize how much we packed into our first week. Granted, there is a lot to see in Japan, and we can't afford to spend three months seeing it, given that Japan is one of the most expensive countries on earth and an extended stay would bust our budget and send us limping home early and broke. So we have three weeks, and the benefit of a country where extensive and efficient transportation links can get us around to see a fair bit of it. So in week one we touched down in Tokyo, Nagano, Yudanaka, Matsumoto, the Japan Alps, and Takayama – spending at least one night in all but Nagano. Here are a few snippets on each.

Tokyo
We left Vancouver, BC on a Sunday, feeling like finally embarking on the whole “around-the-world” thing was somewhat surreal as we said goodbye to Tom at the airport. Crossing the international date line, we arrived in Tokyo on Monday (compared with Seattle/Vancouver, its 8 hours earlier tomorrow in Tokyo). Tokyo was a pleasant surprise. Despite being an enormous and very modern city, we settled into a small and very friendly hostel in a converted urban ryokan (traditional inn) in the historic and pleasantly small-scale neighborhood of Asakusa.
We ventured into other parts of the city, and took in the contrasts between old and new Japan, but always had our narrow, quiet street surrounded by numerous temples to retreat to.










We spent three nights recovering from jet lag and getting our bearings before moving on.

Nagano

Nagano was a brief, 2 hour stop between trains enroute from Tokyo to Yudanaka – home of the Snow Monkey Park. We walked to the very impressive temple and lunched on soba noodles before catching our ongoing train.


Yudanaka
What a treat! We booked an overnight stay in a ryokan: traditional inn, with on-site onsen (inside hot spring bath), optional Japanese dinner/breakfast (we went for the breakfast - tamago, grilled salmon, miso, rice and lots of local mountain veggies), beautiful rooms with shoji screens, kimonos and slippers, and a futuristic toilet (have you ever seen a modern Japanese toilet? I STILL dont know what all the buttons do!) ;-).

After settling in, the ryokan owners chauffered us directly to the door of a mountainside rotemburo (outdoor hot spring) just past sunset, where Colin and I each had a (gender segregated) pool nearly to ourselves to soak in while the moon rose and the lights of the valley twinkled on. Lovely.
The next morning, after our breakfast, we were once again whisked off, this time to a trailhead leading to the Snow Monkey pools: a forested valley where hot spring pools have been specially created for the local troop of 200 Japanese macaques. They were a little "late" in arriving that morning, so we waited on a deck overlooking a spouting geyser and lodge built within view of the pools (with its own human soaking tub on the cliff).
Once the monkeys had arrived, we walked down to the pools, where they ran and played and soaked themselves without the slightest regard for the people in their midst -- well, all except the very little one that grabbed Colin's wrist and tried to dig in his pockets for snacks!










After a while and many, many photographs, Colin settled down to try his hand at sketching them, putting his recent manga drawing class skills to work.

It was a stunning experience - definitely one of the wildlife highlights of my life (and Ive had a few)!




Matsumoto
We had a pleasant though quick overnight in Matsumoto on our way to the Japan Alps. After hosting "couchsurfers" all summer (www.couchsurfing.org), an American English teacher in Matsumoto was our first host for our own surfing adventures.
Before meeting him, we wandered around the old Matsumoto castle, one of just five original wooden castles left in Japan (most have been recast\restored in concrete for preservation).
We then found an intriguing little cafe with a sidewalk counter that we talked our host into letting us take him to in return for interpreting the menu for us. We had an assortment of skewers - mostly pork - that included gristle, cheek, heart, loin, and a few other things we never did get quite clear on. ;-) Back at his place - a futon, a loft, and a lot of musical instruments! - he and Colin had a little jam session before we conked out and he went out to a grown-up jam session with a group of expats at a nearby bar. The next morning we were off again, heading to the Alps.

Kamikochi & the Japan Alps
Our bus from Matsumoto wound us up into the Japan Alps, which looked for all the world to me like the North Cascades Pass and Methow Valley -- except the Japan Alps have the added bonus of being full of natural hot springs! Nice addition. And the park has a few "amenities" lacking (for better or worse) in U.S. national parks: nearly every 45-60 minutes along the extensive trails through the forest, there are mountain "huts" - offering lodging, food, and/or a shrine to pray at.
Our hike took us to a lovely sacred lake and outdoor cafe serving fresh-caught river trout. We also succeeded in putting our tent (carted around to every city and town we'd hit) to good use.
We camped overnight on the banks of the Kama-gama River, and had just barely enough gear with us to avoid freezing our touchas' off overnight, despite the intensely sunny and hot days.

On our way out of the mountains the next day, we hopped off the bus at a tiny mountain hut which served as the entryway to a cave onsen (hot spring), where I soaked and Colin found a new use for the wooden buckets that are provided for pouring water over yourself while soaking... cant blame him - the acoustics are great in there for drumming!
We thought we were out of luck when we tried to leave and every bus that passed was full, leaving us sitting with all of our bags at the side of the road. Then a wonderful old man who didnt speak a word of English stopped and rearranged his entire truck for us, so we could pile in with all our bags. He drove us all the way to our next town....

Takayama
We started our visit to Takayama on the last day of our first week. We had arranged to stay in the Kenko-ji Temple (a branch of the same Temple we had visited in Nagano), and were greeted by "Tommy," the Buddist monk.
The Temple was run much like a hostel - simple rooms, shared kitchen and bath, and travelers from all over the world, but with a spectacular main temple room and alter and beautiful gardens out back, which were serendipitously directly outside of our room. We extended our stay from one night to three, but more on our explorations of the town and our day trips with the next weekly installment...

Haiku on the Japan Alps

Colin wrote four haiku on his experience hiking along the Azusa-gawa River to a sacred pond and eating river trout at a mountain hut in the Japan Alps.













Silver Trout
Silver, sparkling rainbow scales
Swimming, swimming through water
Swimming through crystal

The Pond
A little ocean
In a temple's forest glade
With clear, fresh water

The Fish
A crunchy fresh fish
It's salty flavor engulfs
All who consume it



The Shrine
Wooden, intricate
Praying, bowing, clapping men
The God's mantlepiece

Air Fares and Travel Costs

"How did you DO that?!"

This is the surprised refrain I hear every time I answer the question: "How much did your tickets cost?" The answer is $3500 - for TWO of us. It is possible to fly around the world for under $2000, if you are willing to piece things together and only fly when other transportation is too burdensome or dangerous (i.e., we are flying from India to Africa rather than sailing on a cargo ship, but only because the route goes through Somali waters, and I'd rather read about my pirate encounters in books, thanks).

Our tickets are bundled into three types: regular search-engine scouted commercial tickets from North America to Japan (bought first, about 8 months before starting our trip); consolidator tickets, bought several months ahead with the aid of a travel agent who specializes in multi-destination discount air travel; and frequent flier tickets, our intended means of getting back home at the end of our trip, once we've racked up the points to earn the trip.

While we got a great deal on our own from Vancouver, B.C. to Tokyo using www.kayak.com and other travel search engines, working with a consolidator was the key to keeping our overall costs low. International consolidators search worldwide for best fares, including on airlines that do not sell tickets in the United States. It's not the best way to go for everyone, but is worth looking into if you have a minimum of four international destinations (a requirement of most consolidators). While some prepackaged around-the-world tickets may be less expensive than our collection of tickets (but not by much), they only make sense if you find just the right package for your needs (a rarity), or you don't care too much where you go and are willing to let the ticket determine your destinations for you.

Working with a consolidator allows you to customize your own route, skip from one port of arrival to a different point of departure via overland or boat travel, and avoid any time restrictions often included in prepackaged tickets. There is a terrific description of various types of round-the-world tickets, as well as a helpful discussion of how the international airline industry works, in the round-the-world guide book The Practical Nomad. I owe author Edward Hasbrouke a huge debt of gratitude for helping us figure out the best way to ticket our trip. In fact, Hasbrouke once worked for the consolidator we used (AirTreks, www.airtreks.com, 1-877-AIRTREKS), whose agents I now regard as magicians.

So what are we getting for our money?

1. Vancouver, B.C. To Tokyo, Japan – via Japan AirLines, found through travel search-engines (about $800 for the 2 of us – Colin's child ticket a bit under $400, my adult ticket a bit above).

We then travel by ferry from Japan to South Korea and China, and by train overland in each country and throughout SE Asia (with the exception that we may purchase a local ticket to fly from Cambodia to Thailand because of poor transportation links and occasional border disputes, but thanks to inter-Asia budget airlines that have cropped up in recent years, we expect that be less than $100 each).

2. Bangkok, Thailand to Bangalore, India; Mumbai, India to Nairobi, Kenya; Nairobi to Cairo, Egypt; and Egypt to Athens, Greece - consolidator specialists at www.Airtreks.com put this package together for us – about $1700 for the 2 of us – again Colin's ticket comes in at a bit under half, the rest is mine).

Part of the key to this price is that Nairobi is a free stopover between Mumbai and Cairo, despite the fact that our “layover” is 3-1/2 weeks. ;-) While in India and once in Europe, we'll go overland by train.

3. Europe (probably Paris, but we're flexible) home to the U.S. on frequent flier tickets, using mileage we've been been saving up and earned along the way - $0.

Of course, there are overland and ferry travel expenses to add in to the mix, but these are typically much lower than air travel costs, and are an integral part of the journey if you want to see anything other than the major cities. Train and ferry transportation is also a great way to meet people and experience the country, as anyone who has ever traveled the U.S. on Amtrak can confirm. We are especially looking forward to the international ferries between Japan, Korea and China, as few foreign tourists appear to use them, and to the trains in India, which I am so looking forward to! Throw in a handful of buses, and the various forms of urban and rural transportation (rickshaw, bicycle, camel, etc.) and we should be hitting just about every form of transport available by the time we get back home!

Speaking of which, we are on the 2^nd leg of our journey (Vancouver, BC to Tokyo, Japan) and have already traveled by train (1^st leg via Amtrak, Seattle to Vancouver), sky train and water taxi within Vancouver, and now airplane en route to Tokyo from Canada. More on what we find in Japan later....