Big In Japan

My two favourite people. A view of a little cove from Sakurajima vocano.

 Another early start got us to Kagoshima around 12.30am and we left our bags at the hotel and went straight off to see the still active & smoldering volcano on Sakurajima island, 4km offshore. After a 15min ferry ride we hopped on a tourist tour bus round the island. It wasn’t bad, would have been much better in summer when the volcano wasn’t covered in mist. Our first viewpoint stop you couldn’t see more than 30m in any direction, we did stop at a lava field a bit later which was more interesting.

Sakurajimi volcano in the mist. How it should have looked!!! Another view of the volcano crater. Let's call it enigmatic...

Two hours later we were back at the ferry terminal slightly under whelmed, but thems the breaks I suppose. Then it was back to the hotel via a drugstore to find Curtis some food (there aren’t many of these about in Japan I can tell you!) What do they feed their babies on? We did toy with the idea of stopping an extra night Kagoshima, but due to the foggy weather conditions it seemed pointless, so we carried on to Aso very early the following morning.

Some of Curtis's nappies can be a bit challenging. A thing of beauty, and great speed of course.

Another town, another Shinkansen, I could get quite used to this sort of travel….very helpful staff, spotless trains, faultlessly on time, comfortable, warm and train indicators in English. Shame we have to return to London soon, where non of the above apply. We got the 7.30am train and arrived in the sleepy little town of Aso around 9.45am, plenty of time to get the bus up to the volcano to see the crater. Or, that was the plan, the very helpful Information centre at the station showed us the feed from the live cam on the various viewpoints and they were all shrouded in mist again. so we opted not to stay the night, as the forecast for the next day was similar and it’s all about the volcano & Onsen round these parts, so we cut our loses and decided to move on again. Well, it saved us a couple of bus trips and a few quid. Shame tho, denied two volcanoes in two days. We had a couple of hours to kill before our ongoing train to Beppu so we had some brunch and did some re- planning.

Curtis and that coffee.  Our cute little local train to Beppu. 'Damn it, if you're not gonna make my lunch, I'll do it myself!"

After our early afternoon arrival in Beppu with nowhere booked to stay, we wandered off to find a backpackers place recommended in the book as everywhere else appeared to be full. It turned out to be a very nice place, with it’s own ‘Onsen’ (hot spring bath) the guys on reception were very helpful and our Japanese style room very comfortable. We headed out for the last part of the afternoon and casually wandered round Beppu seafront and went to the mall to stock up on food for Curtis. After that it was back to the hotel to check out the onsen and have an early night. Their onsen was nice enough, very hot, but a bit like a small 70s swimming pool changing room, the shower before and after was freezing tho, bit of a shock to the system! Woke you up tho.

View of the countryside from the train to Beppu. The TV tower in Beppu.

Up early again the next day to check out the Jigokui’s (hells) in the nearby area of Kannawa. These are basically natural hot springs bursting out all over the area due to the volcanic activity beneath the surface. Once again they were great to see, but very touristy, in fact you entered one thru a big gift shop. Oh well. The Jigoku’s themselves (well the two we saw, and apparently the best ones) were nice enough, the first was the best with a pond of stunning Cobalt Blue water steaming away, the second was more about the mud, with gloopy grey ponds bubbling away. It took us a lot less time than we thought to stroll round the ‘hells’ as they aren’t very big, so we got the bus back to Beppu and got an earlier train to our next stop, Fukuyama.

The Jigoku's at Kannawa near Beppu. Basically, glorified steam baths that smells of eggs.... and you have to pay to get in.

Fukuyama is basically just a convenient hop off point to visit the quaint sea port of Tononoura which we both wanted to see. Fukuyama itself is no great shakes, a bit liker many medium size Japanese cities, but with none of the accompanying temples and tourist spots. We did pop out to see the castle round the corner from the hotel, but it have all been rebuilt after being pounded during the war, but was fairly impressive all the same.

At the Jigoku's (for once the smell isn't Curtis). Sculpture in Fukuyama. The Fukuyama-jo castle.

Another early night and another early start the next morning for our trip to Tononoura, 14km south of the city. This is a charming little fishing port in a beautiful setting, and the inspiration for Hato Miyazaki’s ‘Ponyo’ anima fans. When we were there it was misty and overcast, but it was still very lovely place, I bet it looks amazing in the summer, all hills, twisting lanes, little temples and old houses. We wandered round for a couple of hours, having arrived before the tourists, we had the place to ourselves and all seemed very ghostly, I think we only saw 3 or 4 people the first hour we were there, but then it was 9am on a Sunday morning!

Early morning at Tomonoura harbour and the view of the town from the hillside.

A local fishing vessel, like the industrial revolution never happened. One of the many small, cute shops in Tomonoura

Around midday we headed back to Fukuyama to pick our bag up and catch the train to our next stop, Matsue on the Northern coast of Japan. The train journey across country on the local train was really nice, we had to go thru the central hills and small one horse towns and they were covered with snow, very picturesque. We arrived at Matsue around late afternoon and walked to our hotel, checked in, Curtis fell out of bed (again) and went out for some food.

Now THAT'S a snow drift! From the train to Matsue. . French style former museum in Matsue.

Another early start the next day, Curtis up at 6am ish so we were at breakfast for 7am. This was the first hotel for a while that had breakfast included in the price, so I was looking forward to a good nosh up, unfortunately it was a Japanese style breakfast, and I’m not one for fish, pork in breadcrumbs, rice and broth first thing in the morning. Thwarted! So, we wandered down to the towns main attraction Matsue-jo, which was pretty interesting, but again a very cold day.

Samurai helmets and armour inside Matsue-jo castle and a view of the castle itself. Pretty impressive.

From there we walked around the outside of the castle moat, popped in a couple of the old Samurai residences close by that have been converted into museums including Buke-yashida. We spent a couple of hours strolling, but it was pretty nippy, so we headed back to hotel via a Pizza/pasta place we'd spotted earlier and had lunch. Veggie pasta! Proper food, at last, and very nice it was too, a fine very well priced lunch set, so goods we vowed to come back for dinner later, which we did. In the meantime we went back to the hotel to warm up and book our hotels in our final destinations Nikko and of course, Tokyo.

Carp? You're nothing but a glorified goldfish... Old Samurai residence, Matsue. Curtis loves a laminated menu.

Next morning we had a very early start, alarm set for 6.10am, but our other alarm decided he would wake up just after 5am! Nice. So rather then try to get him back to sleep we got ourselves sorted, checked out and in for breakfast at 6.45. To our surprise there was snow falling and all over the ground, no wonder in was so cold yesterday, it had been snowing during the night. We opted for a taxi to the station to catch the first of four trains in what was to be our longest travel day so far. The first leg from Matuse to Okayame was beautiful, those small towns, hills and valleys covered with a thick layer of perfect white snow, with more still falling as we trundled along, and us sat comfortably in our heated train carriage.

More countryside on the long, long journey to Nikko. A local train in one of the small stations. Yes, it WAS cold!

We arrived at Nikko safely around 6pm, but due to a mixup on their emails, the Ryokan we were staying in weren't there to pick us up so we had to get a cab (it was way to cold to walk, and it had been a very long day). They were very apologetic when we arrived and as soon as we were camped out in our bed (complete with electrci blankets!) all was forgotten.

The beautiful countryside around Nikko and Curtis & the missus outside the Nikko Park Lodge.

Next morning we started out on our walking tour of the sights of Nikko, firstly dropping by (and straight out again) the Woodcarving Centre before heading on towards the main attractions, the temples & shrines around Rinno-ji & Tosho-gu. It really was a lovely walk down, snow everywhere, a very pretty little town set on a hillside.

The stunning temples at Tosho-gu covered in giltwork and intricate design, and ......snow.

The temples themselves were once again very nice, but the main temple of Tosho-gu was absolutely stunning, beautifully painted in Reds and golds and with lot's of intricate gilt decorations and carvings. However, I gotta say, the no shoes rule in temples has worn very thin now. We both understand it's to be respectful to the temple, but jeez, you try walking round on wood floors in sub-zero temperatures for more than a few seconds. It's painful! So, we skipped a couple of shrines due to the frozen feet scenario and headed off for some well earned (and piping hot) lunch.

More views of the temple complexes around Nikko. Gotta be worth a bob or two surely?

After filling up on noodle soup we headed on to see the stone Buddhas on the walk thru the Ganman-ga-fuchi abyss (sounds cool don't it) a pathway along the beautiful valley riverbank. Basically there are around 50 decaying statues of Jizo the Buddhist saint of travelers. Problem was the river path was so covered in trodden snow, which had unfortunately turn to thick ice, that we could push the buggy over it, and couldn't rick carrying Curtis in the sling in case we fell. So Susan went halfway and turned back and I went on carefully tho se the rest of the statues. Feeling very cold and tried we trudged back to our room, a quick dip in the onsen close by, a nice hot veggie curry and ultimately.... a nice warm bed.

The stone Buddhas along the Ganman-ga-fuchi abyss. A deserted shop near the river in Nikko.

Next morning we awoke to find the snow falling heavily and the Ryoken surrounded by deep snow. We were so glad the hotel did drop offs to the local station, but did wonder how he was going to drive in this weather. I guess the snow tyres helped a bit, anyway we were at the station in good time for the first of our trains on our journey to our final destination.... Tokyo!

Curtis, our own little Kilroy. Mmm, can you see the similarities? Cute statue in Niiko, with what looks like a baseball bat!