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...