Japan Travels pt.2
Continuing from my last post.
Days 2 and 3 of our travels were spent at the insane alternate reality which is Disney Sea and Disneyland. It's really quite incredible when you step back and observe the design and intention of everything. I've only read a little bit about the "secret world" of behind-the-scenes Disney life, things like underground tunnels, character training, and how they organise each day at the parks. I had been to both Tokyo Disneys before but not since maybe 2012? So many people, but Chris' dad Jamie knew all the tricks about fast passes and making the most of the park, so we followed his guidance and were able to see pretty much everything that we wanted to. My favourite parts were Ariel's grotto and the Gondolas at Disney Sea, and going on Splash Mountain with Chris and Jamie the next day at Disneyland. I can see how people end up spending days at the parks, but holy shit the money that must be spent at these places...
After lunch at Disneyland, we collected our bags that we'd left earlier in lockers nearby, and made our way back to Tokyo station to hop on the Shinkansen to Kyoto. I had pre-booked reserved seats on the right hand side of the carriage so that we could all hopefully see Mt Fuji, if the weather goddesses were feeling generous. Generous they were, because we had beautiful, clear afternoon views of the mountain with a little whisper of cloud around its base. I didn't remember to take a photo until it was nearly out of sight, I was enjoying just watching it too much. Chris had been mostly looking forward to buying 駅弁, shinkansen/station-specific bento boxes for you to take onboard and eat enroute. They are always a great addition.
I love travelling on the shinkansen, staring out the window and seeing all the little snippets of different lives along the train line. People playing baseball next to a river, someone tending to their small pocket of farmland outside their house, the schools and the cemeteries, all these different lives flashing by in less than a second. I do enjoy how quickly the landscape changes from dense city to more countryside as you travel south out of Tokyo. We pulled in to Kyoto just after dark, and I think most of us had nodded off at some point along the way.
Kyoto was, as expected, packed with tourists and generally crawling with people. Chris and I had been hoping to get away for a hike (I always feel weird calling it a hike because it sounds so American, but I also can't call it a bushwalk because we weren't in Australia. I decided to look up synonyms for the word 'hike' and I really like the words 'jaunt', 'traipse', or even better, 'perigrination' or 'perambulation'. So in the spirit of trying something new, I shall hereforth refer to this as a perambulation. It's fun to say, anyway).
Where was I. Yes, the intention of a perambulation through some less crowded forested areas north of Kyoto. Unfortunately this didn't happen, but we've bookmarked a few places for next time. Instead, some highlights from Kyoto included:
Looking out over rooftops from our bedroom window and trying to imagine life in Edo Period Kyoto, and hanging our laundry to dry on the bar outside our window in typical Japanese fashion (hiding the undergarments, of course).
Wandering from our accommodation in Gion down through Maruyama Park and The Path of Nene to Kiyomizu-dera, finding some delicious dango on the way, as well as peeking into a cemetery (I love cemeteries and there will certainly be more posts about them in general in future writings).
- Stopping in at Kōdai-ji on the way back, and learning how it was built in the early 1600s under the instruction of Nene, the widow of prominent Samurai Toyotomi Hideyoshi, to mourn his death. I told Chris to not get any ideas (sorry Chris). There was also a nice little patch of bamboo forest here.
- We did a day trip down to Nara, stopping by Fushimi-Inari Taisha on the way, which I love despite the throngs of people dressed up in yukata to pose in the tunnels of torii gates. This was certainly the busiest I'd ever seen it (like every other place this trip), but I still enjoy getting up past the first section and soaking in the quieter atmosphere among the collections of shrines up in the hills a little bit more. Nara was as I remembered, complete with screaming schoolgirls being chased down by fearless シカ in hot pursuit of 鹿せんべい snacks. Poor little things (the deer, not the kids). After a wander through the historically significant Tōdai-ji and it's giant Buddha, housed in one of the largest wooden buildings in the world, we finished the day with 焼き肉 back in Kyoto. There are few things better than ending a long day with some cold beers over an open-flame table-top BBQ with an all-you-can-eat/all-you-can-drink option in full swing.
To get a little vulnerable here, I struggled a little bit with guilt while in Kyoto. Kyoto suffers from over-tourism, as does many other regions of Japan, and I was ultra-hyper-aware that we were a group of six wide-eyed white people traipsing through the streets, adding to the numbers. I found myself wanting to be invisible. Instead, I just tried my best to speak as much Japanese as possible and be as unintrusive as possible. I know I'm likely overthinking it, and I know the reality is that tourism is a good thing - especially out of the major centres - and it's just the loud and badly behaved few that make it a bit shitty for everyone else trying to do the right thing. Chris' family were all super great at using the Japanese they knew (Chris' mum Judy especially was learning and using a stack of new words), throwing in bows and smiles, staying single-file and wearing backpacks on the front in busy spaces like trains and such (Jamie ended up being Chief Luggage and Bag Auditor by the end which was great). Excellent work all around, and no international incidents from any of us.
Oh and I just remembered, one of the mornings we had REALLY nice coffee at a little bike hire cafe called '100bikeskyoto with coffee', which had been recommended by one of Judy's friends and was such a good little hidden gem, with the owner apparently having had barista training in Australia.
Moving on though, because this blog is becoming insane (I told myself this would be a quick short entry). We left Kyoto on the morning of the 18th October and hopped back on the train to Atami, a sweet little seaside town that marks the beginning of the Izu Peninsula. We only spent a little over 24 hours in Atami but it has certainly left its mark on me. I can't remember why I chose Atami, but I remember reading about it having been a super popular destination in the 80s for conference trips and honeymoons, and popular now for its seafood and fireworks displays. Atami and the entire Izu Peninsula is overall well known especially for its onsens, which we unfortunately did not partake in this time, but has been added to the "next time" list, which is perpetually long.
The afternoon that we arrived, we dumped our bags at the hotel and walked the long way down to the seaside, stopping often to take photos and take in the views. It was a warm afternoon and we ended up finding some gelato to enjoy while we sat on the steps to the beach. There was an ultimate frisbee tournament on the beach which we watched from a distance, and as the sun continued to set, we took our shoes off to stand in the ocean and let out a big exhale. It was nice to have some space and slower pace after a week across Tokyo and Kyoto.
Dinner that night was Italian in a little hidden upstairs restaurant that Caitlin found, and we discovered quickly that the waiter was also the chef - in fact, he was the only person running the whole show. It was incredible to watch and the food was all delicious. At the end while paying, I asked if he had done his training in Italy to which he replied that he had trained over there for a year. We chatted for a little bit and he gave the biggest smile I'd ever seen on a human when Judy bowed and said ごちそうさまでした (gochisōsamadeshita). That was really nice.
On the 19th, we had most of the day to explore Atami before our 3pm train to Shimoda. We all split up to do our own exploring and Chris and I enjoyed finding a few little onsen fountains, doing souvenir shopping, and trying out some delicious treats like Matcha Crepes and Atami Pudding. I really enjoyed having a few slow hours to wander around town at our leisure.
We got to our platform pretty early for our train but it meant we got to see a few cool trains like the Kurofune Train, which is painted like the Black Ships of Commodore Perry who led the American warships into Shimoda in 1853-4, effectively reopening Japan to the rest of the world after some 250 years of Japanese self-isolation. I find it a really fascinating part of Japanese history, hence why I was keen to go and explore Shimoda itself. The self-isolation period is actually related to those involved in the Kōdai-ji back in Kyoto, but I think I'll get into that next time.
There was also a very friendly train driver coming off shift who offered to take our photo with the Atami Station mascot 'Atayumaru'. Cute as.
Anyway! Next entry will be even more photos as I recount our travels down the Izu Peninsula and spend my birthday in Shimoda. While writing this, I just got notification that my camera film has been developed and the scans have been delivered to my inbox. So I'll have to put them up later, too.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading!
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