Japan: See ya Tokyo

Back to Tokyo then for the last 30 hours of time in Japan.  This time, the city was warm and occasionally sunny so we joined the throngs and went Sakura hunting again.

First stop, Meguro, a trendy river-side area normally frequented by art students and boutique clothes shop types.  As it was the main Sakura weekend the river banks were populated with pop-up bars and food stalls we drank fizz and wandered up and own enjoying the pink haze, and the festival atmosphere the changing of the seasons creates.  There were even Sakura Police who politely got the crowds to put their drinks/cameras/skewers down long enough to let the odd vehicle through without incident.

The next day we had a look at the Imperial Palace grounds (amuses us to think that an Emperor still lives there) and then headed back to Ueno Park where it was significantly different to our first visit.  Although it was cloudy, and had rained over-night, the huge groups of people who’d pre-planned their picnics were going ahead no matter what. Tarps were spread under every tree and hundreds of people turned up with food and drink to spend the day celebrating the blossom.   Out on the lake the swan-boats were being pedalled with gusto (pink ones particularly popular) and Asahi were doing very good business. 

And with sad faces it as then time to pack up and go.  Absolutely loved Japan.  The national psyche seems to be set as positive; manners are very important and exercised at all times yet their sense of fun is overwhelming.  There are small signs on the subway pointing out that walking and using your phone is dangerous – so people don’t.  Rubbish bins are almost non-existent because people take their litter home with them.  Strangers bow to each other to say thank you, or sorry (rarely needed in our experience) in a way that creates respect and humility at the same time.  After two weeks of covering a fair amount of ground we felt relaxed and serene in a way we haven’t for a long time.

Place your bets on how long it’ll take Beijing to beat that serenity out of us…..

Japan; Hida-Takayama

Not as cold as we were dreading, Takayama was mostly drizzle the 2 days we were there.  The train journey to the city (town sized) was stunning with plenty of gorges, rivers lined with cherry blossom trees and the nearer we go to our destination a lot of tunnels to get through the snow topped mountains.

We’d made the trip north to a) see the mountainous side of Japan and b) get to a Sake brewing region.  Both were interesting but probably won’t be a regular feature in our lives.

On the first morning we took a bus to Shirakawa-Go – a Unesco site now due to it having the last remaining Gassho houses in the region.  They’re tall, pointy and thatched to survive the amount of snow fall the area gets.  

Very pretty but as we found out when we went inside one, also quite likely to kill you with smoke fumes.  The central fire pit heats the whole house (often 4 stories) but the air quality gets questionable the higher up the building you go.  Interesting to see how people used to live though and we were treated to as many cups of matcha tea as we wanted by the owners. (that’s 0 cups by the way.  No amount of trying matcha is going to get us the acquired taste needed not to grimace).

Shirakawa-Go is very proud of its unique blend of Sake – unlike most others, its Sake is milky coloured with big lumps of god-only-knows in it. It’s distinctive taste is akin to old sour fruit and when our host ladelled it out into sake bowls we made the expected noises of admiration and braced ourselves.  As generous as the tea-makers with offers of multiple refills, we used the ‘but it’s not yet mid-day’ excuse and stopped at one. 

As we were waiting to get the bus back, the village suddenly filled up with bus-loads from Indonesia who’d never seen snow before.  While we huddled out of the cold, they took their shoes off and jumped around on it, ineptly snow-balling each other and posing for pictures.  On reflection the amount this charmed us could’ve been down to the questionable sake contents as when we got on the bus we promptly fell asleep. Not even a 2^nd trip through Japan longest tunnel (12km if you’re interested) could keep us awake. 

Power nap done, we went in search of a couple of Takayama sake breweries.  There are 7 in total ranging from the very serious and frightening expensive through to the ‘fill your boots’ ones.  Needless to say we went for the latter where we worked out way through 15 different sakes and drew the conclusion that we didn’t really like sake.  We had however devised a scoring system which meant we came away with 2 bottles of our least disliked ones which will no doubt become the ‘end of the night’ options for messy nights.  Being Japanese though, the bottles are incredibly artful irrespective of the contents. 

Japan; Osaka

Osaka is Tokyo's rival city and while a lot smaller, feels like a functioning city. While people are still very polite and rule abiding it's more relaxed than anywhere else we've been. It's famous for comedy, eating & drinking. So much so that the chairs are being changed on the subway platforms to sit in a line along the wall so that drunk people don't suddenly wake from their pissed stupor and walk onto the tracks! We tried to find out how regular an occurrence this is but couldn't get a definite answer. Suspect it hasn't happened much but it seemed typically Japanese to negate the risk through design rather than openly policing people. 

We had a nose around Shin-Sekai area, Osaka's original theme park consisting these days of 3 lanes full of big fibre glass models of stuff (noodles, beef  skewers, babies, crabs, angry chefs...) With a massive faux Eiffel tower in the background. No rides anymore but plenty of old-school shooting ranges and grabby-claw machines.  

Then across to Dotombori - a riverside neon drag of bars, shops & restaurants. Very Blade Runner. 

We enjoyed Osaka a lot, and having laughed, eaten & drank as instructed by the city guidelines. It felt easier to navigate than Tokyo and more livable than Kyoto. Everything is so well designed – even the train stations are works of art with water clocks (not only showing the time through sequences of water falling but also forming patterns of cherry blossom between the minutes), peace gardens, rain-water collection systems, roof gardens with hippos and basket-ball courts and robot-loo’s throughout.  

Next stop, the Alps for a change of pace.