Journey to Japan

A very special journey to Japan for some very special boys. Two Indigenous youth who have been boarding with us for several years from their remote community of Kowanyama.  These guys have been working hard at school and also saving up for a long time to go to Japan – a country they have been learning about at school and whose language they were learning.  Thanks to the generosity of ‘Aunty Deb’ (our sister/sister-in-law) with her club accommodation points and our Freq flyer points, this became a reality!  First ever passport, first ever overseas travel, first monkeys, first snow – lots of firsts. They grew so much as they gained confidence and learned how to navigate with Google Maps, use tickets and trains, speak different languages, mingle with and understand other cultures, eat different foods, pack for travel, exchange money, budget, etc.

Tokyo

First stop was in Tokyo – Aunty Deb wanted to take the boys for a day out so they learned to navigate the streets and transport of Tokyo – having a go at skylines, monorails, trains and buses.  They loved spotting the fancy cars and of course have never seen a place as big as Tokyo. They went to the science and innovation museum and saw robots and technology including robots that will be aged care assistants in the future. At Nissan crossing they saw some cool Nissans, a busy Tokyo intersection to blow their minds and had a coffee and hot chocolate with their photos designed into the foam! I think their highlight was dropping into the BMW showroom where the friendly salesman decided to let them all jump in all the ridiculously expensive cars and have photos taken in them, pretend to drive them etc.  Imagine a couple of murri kids being encouraged to do that in Australia! So friendly and so cool giving the boys an amazing experience.

Whilst the boys were with Deb, Ron and I made the most of having a car and went for a drive into the countryside of Chiba prefecture. To our suprise it didn’t take much driving out of Tokyo to be in beautiful farmland and countryside with quaint rural villages and rice paddies.  We drove to the ocean but had a bit of trouble getting down to the beach as there had clearly been a lot of erosion damage and we recalled that there had been a bad typhoon not long ago that had probably caused this.  For lunch we found a random stop in the backstreets of a village that was a little cafe that had been set up in someone’s front sunroom.  THey couldn’t speak any English but we managed the menu and ordering thanks to Google Translate. The owner was amazed and we taught him how to download the Google translate app on to his phone and he was so excited.

Izu peninsula

On the way to Izu we stopped at Odawara castle which was a reconstruction of one torn down in 1872 and on the site of castles and fortifications that have been built there over 1000 years. We then stopped for lunch at a local café hidden behind a wharf that had amazing and cheap delicious traditional seafood Japanese set lunch.

Arrived in IzuKogen. This was our first stay in an onsen hotel and one of the ones that Aunty Deb had organised for us for free using her club points. That is one where the bathing is a public onsen where water is pumped in from local hotsprings. There are a lot of customs and culture associated with this. At first Deb and I were particularly petrified- neither of us being keen to be seen naked and especially not keen to see each other naked! We were dreading this. Strangers seeing us naked was less frightening than people we knew so we promised to bathe without peeking at each other!  The procedure is that one undresses in the change room and then proceeds to the bathing room – you are only allowed to take a small towel for washing – it would cover most bits for a small Asian woman but didn’t cover much for me! Then you sit on a small stool near a hand shower where you wash yourself with the towel.  You can use the hand shower or fill your bowl with water from the hot spring bath which you’re sitting next to. you must wash thoroughly and most places we were at provided lots of washes, shampoos and treatments so there was no excuse to not be totally clean and beautified! You then go to the hot tub and sit in that but you must place the small towel on your head so it doesn’t go near the water ( having been previously used to wash your ‘bits’ this seemed like a reasonable rule!)    Once we got over our fears (and admittedly worked out timing so that we mostly had the onsen to ourselves) we found the onsen experience very relaxing… and I don’t think I’ve ever been so clean in my life! We also slept Japanese style sleeping on futon mats on top of bamboo tatami mats.

Whilst in the Izu area we went for a short hike along the Jogasaki coast– a coastline made of lava flows with beautiful cypress pines and deep blue sea.  We went to a cherry blossom park where we did the Japanese thing and did Hamami – a picnic under the cherry blossoms. We drove through beautiful countryside, saw forests, giant cedars and raging clear rivers. We passed by traditional Japanese villages and farms, rice paddies and temples. We looked at woodcraft and bamboo forest and suspension bridges.  The day we went to Izu panorama park was perfect weather and we had a clear view across the countryside and most importantly across to the iconic Mt Fuji.  We caught a cablecar up a mountain and then did the tracks around the top with different forests, shrines and views galore. Finished off with an icecream as we sat and enjoyed the mountain view.  Another day we went to Kawazu Seven waterfalls – walk up to a series of seven beautiful waterfalls along a crystal clear blue river amongst the beautiful forest.

Joren Falls was another beautiful river and falls and was in an area famous for it’s Amagi Wasabi. Wasabi ( Japanese horseradish) grows in the water in beds alongside the rivers. It is thought that the incredible clear and clean water here grows the best Wasabi. It was also a spot where you could hire Japanese bamboo fishing gear and catch rainbow trout and a Japanese fish called Amagu.  The boys caught plenty of both and for $6 AUD the fish were gutted for us and we could use a bbq on our table to cook them all up and we had enough to fill us all up for lunch! Delicious!

Shuzenji was another stop in the area where they say it’s like a little Kyoto but with less tourists. A picturesque town with traditional houses and a raging river running through it with hot springs popping out of it. (the discovery of the springs in the time of the Samurai led to the founding of the town). It was surrounded by beautiful bamboo and cypress forests that we were able to walk through in the surrounding hills.  Some yummy Japanese lunch and sweets including interesting things like a black sesame drink ( tastes better than it sounds!) finished off by a footbath in the hot springs on the side of the river.

Nagano Area

This was a beautiful hilly forested area and having a car made getting here easy.  The drives through the countryside were beautiful.  Snow topped mountains, rice paddies and traditional style Japanese villages with gardens and tiled rooves. Clear running rivers and cypress and beech forests and cherry blossom trees just starting to go into bloom.

Our accommodation was a very old and traditional Japanese style Ryokan. Rooms were Japanese style sleeping on mats and bathing was in an iron rich hot spring onsen. You were provided with a yukata (traditional robe) for putting on after having your onsen. The boys got right into this! Every day hot green tea and biscuits were provided in the room to have overlooking the beautiful turquoise coloured river and forests.  The breakfast here was amazing – a traditional Japanese breakfast served with great care and kindness.

We explored the Kakizore Ravine and Atera valley which has the clearest bluest river water I’ve ever seen. It is to do with the type of hard base rock that doesn’t dissolve so it is very pure water. We found a little restaurant down the road that had beautiful food made from fresh produce and was very cheap and the people friendly. Once we worked out the menu with Google Translate we went for it!  We went there both nights.

In this area we went to several ‘post towns’. These are villages that were along the Nakasendo highway which was the main highway in the Edo period between Kyoto and Edo (now Tokyo). They have been maintained as heritage sites so retain their original buildings and it’s like stepping back in time. Some of the houses have bene preserved as museums and you can see what they were like hundreds of years ago.  The gardens were beautiful as well and we all enjoyed the lovely shaped trees with topiary pines everywhere and also cherry blossoms, camelias, magnolias and the occasional azalea flowering a little early. At one town we walked to a shrine at the end of the town and found that there was a pile of snow that had been pushed together and hadn’t melted like the rest of snow in town. The boys were super excited having never seen snow in their lives before and an impromptu snowball fight ensued.

Nasu area

On the way to the Nasu area we stopped at the famous Ashikaga flower park. The flowers were magnificent but we were a tad early for the Wisteria flowering and seeing the hundreds of years old wisterias with metres of branches one could imagine they’d be a sight to behold when they were dripping with purple racemes of fragrant flowers.

Nasu was even more mountainous and we were staying in another onsen hotel up a hill amongst the forest.  This was another treat thanks to Aunty Deb’s club points and they’d upgraded us so we had a very lovely fancy room with our own massage chair and a choice of beds and a mini-onsen and kitchenette. The nearby creek steamed with the hotsprings when the temperature dropped. There were still little pockets of snow around the place which thrilled the boys. We had a couple of days here and weather was looking good. So we figured we’d do a hike the next day after a day at a theme park. The boys had opted out of Disneyland when realising they’d spend all their time lining up so Aunty Deb being the awesome aunty she is, volunteered to go on all the rides with the boys ( I’m sure that wasn’t her top pick activity for a trip to Japan!) while we watched and were glad that we weren’t the ones being thrown around. Nasu Highland park was a very cool, retro feel, Japanese style theme park with none of the lines that the bigger parks have. Everyone had a ball.  Sadly the next day the weather forecast changed and it came in windy and raining and very cloudy so there was no point going on the mountain top hike we had planned to a steaming volcano. What a bummer!  I woke up with a twinge in my leg that had me a bit worried so it was probably a good thing for me anyway.  So looking for rainy day activities we went for a drive to a few different places. First was the site of the Killing stone – a place of legend that also sits amongst sulfurous fumaroles with the whole area stinking of sulfur gas. The remains of thatched covers from the days of Samurai were still seen where grass covers would collect the sulfur from the gas pouring out and be collected for sale and trade.  We checked out a great suspension bridge with lovely views – I even faced my fears and walked across it. Deb and the boys headed back along a trail and we met them with the car – on the way they’d seen a tree that had been quite recently clawed by a bear!  Ron and I saw the telltale hills of Japanese moles but not the creatures themselves.   The Nasu Animal Park was a pleasant surprise – never too sure about zoos in other countries. Some of the exhibits were very interactive and the animals were free-roaming. You could pat capybaras, toucans flew over your head and marmoset monkeys and sloths reached out to you in an open setting with no bars or cages. The boys enjoyed the all you can eat Japanese BBQ that went with it where you cooked the food at your table. We also saw a giant cedar that was 100’s of years old and was surrounded by a forest filled with these really pretty yellow/white flowers. The nature here is very beautiful.

On the way back to Tokyo we drove through more beautiful scenery and stopped at the Nikko shrine in Nikko national park.  It was a very impressive temple complex clearly hundreds of years old with massive trees intertwined amongst it. It was set in a beautiful forest setting and was a lovely stopover. It looks like beautiful forest around here and if I came again I’d love to do some hiking around here.

On the way back we drove through some areas where cherry blossoms were starting to blossom more. We drove past another flower park and saw a hill with more cherry blossoms flowering but decided to push on as Aunty Deb had to get to Tokyo to catch a plane that night.

Our plan was to go through Tokyo’s Ueno park before dropping her at a nearer train station that went directly to the airport.  Ueno park is a famous old park for beautiful cherry blossom viewing. What we didn’t realise was that it was a Sunday and the last day of the Cherry Blossom festival in the park and nearly all of Tokyo must have been there. Getting a park seemed to be impossible. We finally found a paid parking lot with a space and pulled in. We tried working out the ticket machine but it kept saying our space was not valid. Eventually it was decided that Deb would part ways with us here – we’d continue and she could walk through the park and get her ticket to the airport.  We’d kind of been hoping to spend some time in the park with her and then walk with her to the station to make sure she got on – somehow it didn’t feel right just ‘leaving her there’ even though she’s totally capable of travelling alone.  I got a bit teary at the thought and then she got all teary and we were all sooking!  So we said our goodbyes and it was the end of a lovely time with ‘Aunty Deb’ in Japan.  Turned out later that we could have parked there – we later learned that unlike in Australia – you don’t get your ticket until the end of your parking time when you’re leaving – that’s why it wouldn’t register as we’d only just arrived!

Headed to our hotel,sad at the realisation that this was the end of our Onsens and back to ordinary showers.  We still had a couple of days to enjoy Japanese toilets though. Whilst not very environmentally friendly they are a delight!  Even the most lowly of toilets seems to have a vast panel of choices such as a front bidet, a back bidet, warm air, heated seat, music or flushing sounds to drown out yours(!) and sometimes automated flushing. And of course everything is clean. Noone wears shoes in the buildings and you even have different shoes to wear in the toilet so the floors are always immaculately clean.

Speaking of environmentally friendly though I do have to mention that one negative we observed was the horrendous amount of packaging for everything that was almost unavoidable!  It was like every day we’d find ourselves producing more plastic wrapping and waste than what we normally would in a month. That was terrible and we did wonder what they do with all their waste!?

There were other things in Japan that I appreciated that I would not normally go near at home. Vending machines are absolutely everywhere in Japan.  Mostly they are for drinks but they can have all kinds of things in them. And it can be really convenient. I really liked that they had a really good assortment of coffee drinks including really nice black filter coffee in bottles that you could get out of the machines for around $1-$1.60 AUD.   Seven elevens was another tip we’d been given.  Unlike our seven-elevens that are mostly junk food, you can go into a seven eleven there and get a range of freshly made meals, salads and sushi.  Warm meals can be heated up for you at the counter and prices were good.  We also found that supermarkets could sometimes be even better and even though it was a supermarket they’d often have a vast array of prepared foods and meals including cheap sashimi and sushi packs, gyoza and other meals.  Having said that – if I went again – I think I’d give some of the more local restaurants more of a go as by the end we realised that some of them were comparable in price to seven-eleven meals and probably would have been even nicer – but live and learn. We did have some lovely seven -eleven and supermarket feasts in our room.

Our last two days in Tokyo the plan was to do a few things more for the boys and also have a chance to do a little bit of shopping for things to take home.

We’d booked into a Samurai and Ninja experience at the Samurai museum. It was very interesting and we learnt a lot of facts about Samurai and Ninja. We got to dress up in Samurai costumes and muck around and take some photos. Then we had a tour of the museum and then changed into our ninja clothes. We learnt about the ninja and then were shown how to throw ninja stars and blow darts. Our team won the blowdart competition and Migs got the perfect bullseye earning him the title of “real Ninja” from the instructor.   He then taught us a samurai sword practice routine which was fun.  The boys were laughing at me getting a bit too ‘into it’ – perhaps my Cossack blood coming to the fore!? 😉

We walked around our area as down the road from us was the famous Senso-Ji temple. It was very beautiful with the cherry blossoms coming out and there were locals who had hired traditional costumes to do photo shoots in the picturesque grounds. We ate some snacks and enjoyed the dwindling sunlight – was definitely a good time to go as crowds were down and the next day it was crazy and swarming with people.

I knew the boys were particularly keen on the ‘Tokyo drift’ and ‘Fast and Furious’ type cars so I’d found out that there was a car meet in a portside car park only accessible by car that was famous for car-watching. Daikoku car park – so we drove there and the boys were super excited when all the cool cars started rolling in. Ron and I enjoyed it too as it was a real wide range of cars including some old classics.

We ate more delicious food (ate way too much on this trip!).  The last day we did some shopping for gifts to take back, the boys went in to the Red Tower amusement arcade in Tokyo Tower which is an amazing place with lots of VR and AR activities.  Ron and I chilled and checked out the 100 year old Maple park across the way.  Then it was off to the airport to catch our flight back home.

This trip was a great experience for the boys and a much needed break. However I was ever conscious of the fact that the focus of our charity – the humanitarian needs in Ukraine – were ever increasing as Russian bombardment increased. It was disturbing to note that the hotel we were staying in at the end in Tokyo was full of Russians. One or two burly men who looked like Russian mafia types out of the movies and gaggles of very young girls with puffed up lips.  There were definitely people meeting there who didn’t know each other, as on three occasions I was approached by a young girl to say hello or as if she was supposed to be meeting me who would then scurry off startled when I answered in English without an accent. Not sure how to feel about the fact that I must look like a Russian madam? I looked it up and apparently Russia does do a lot of human trafficking through Japan.

It was good to know though as we travelled Japan that it is one of the countries making great commitments to Ukraine and very supportive of them. I guess they know what it’s like to have Russia as a neighbour.   Please don’t forget about the great needs in Ukraine right now and please check out my other stories and blogs on Ukraine and consider donating – no matter how small, every bit helps. Donate HERE