Pirates in Hakone

Asia ~ Japan ~ Hakone, Yunesan, Kawaguchiko, Kamikochi, Matsumoto

Nope, I haven’t been taking mind altering drugs – there really are pirates in Japan…

I left the pleasant tiny island of Hachijo Jima last week, and flew into the crazy city of Tokyo. At the airport, I discovered that although the monorail-train-train-bus route to my next destination would be cheaper, there was a direct bus that was a little more expensive. The bus meant I didn’t have to go into the heart of Tokyo – whoopee!

For 3 days I became one of the millions of tourists that travel to Hakone every year. Due to the season (first weekend of summer school hols), getting accommodation proved to be difficult, so I ended up at a different hostel/hotel each night. Hakone has an interesting “free pass” that allows you to catch the local transport for three days. Local transport in Hakone means bus, [toy] train, cable car, ropeway and pirate ship! The whole route is a little touristy, but fun none-the-less. One of the must stops is a sulfur volcano. At the top of the mountain (which you reach by ropeway), you can have a “black egg” – an egg that has been boiled over the sulfur spots. Although a little off putting to look at, they were quite delicious (and are said to improve your life span…)

Eating Black Eggs

My final day in Hakone was spent at at a very traditional… Water theme park. Silly me, first weekend of the summer school holidays (and a long weekend to boot), but hey, if you’re there, you’re there. Yunesan is a water theme park literally minutes from where I was staying (with a free shuttle!), so it made sense to go. Lines were crazy to get in, but once in there was plenty to do. The park has a great system, where you’re given an electronic wristband, which serves as your locker key, and your virtual ‘purse’ – you can use it all day to pay for drinks from vending machines, food from restaurants, even for photos from your favourite amusements. Highlights of the day included the red wine bath, the green tea bath, the coffee bath and the fish bath. “The what?!”, I hear you say… One of the attractions of Yunesan was the foot pool, where you put your feet into a pool of small ‘sucker fish’, the fish nibble on your feet, supposedly eating all the dead skin and making your feet healthier. Felt kinda funny, a little harder than ‘tickle-ish’, but not painful by any means (not that you’d think that, based on the amount of screaming from the Japanese girls). Sorry, no photos of the fish bath – I have one that was ‘professionally taken’, but will have to wait till I have access to a scanner to see it!

Red Wine Bath

Next stop was Kawaguchiko, the base of Mount Fuji. I ummed and ahhed for several months whether or not I would climb Mount Fuji on this trip, and decided… no – I would not climb Japan’s famous mountain. Being in Kawaguchiko, surrounded by professional climbers and hobbyists alike has made my decision waver a little, but the state of my feet (they’ve blistered up really bad from the new shoes, am having trouble walking from the kitchen to my bedroom, let alone up a mountain) has pretty much made it impossible to contemplate the climb. It is on the list however, I will do it one day! I have been listening keenly to everyone’s opinions though, so I know what to do next time… The temperature at the top is about 20 degrees below the low here – so today was a low of 20 degrees here, meaning it was a chilly 0 degrees up on the mountain – in the middle of summer. So preparation is a must! Other than sitting around the hostel listening to climbers stories, in Kawaguchiko I went out in search of pictures of Mount Fuji, and didn’t do too bad…

Mt Fuji

Another day, another place. On Thursday I spent the day on trains and buses, to get to my intended destination, Kamikochi. Coined “the entrance to the Japanese Alps”, Kamikochi is an absolutely gorgeous area, surrounded by snow covered mountains, a true mountain climbers destination. Alas, as many of you know, I am not a mountain climber. I am, however, a lover of onsens. And Kamikochi has one of the best onsens I’ve ever been to, bokuden no yu. Just before the bus reaches Kamikochi, there is a fork in the road, with a small corner store. Inside that corner store, if you ask nicely, (and pay the right amount!), the owner will give you a key. Take that key over the bridge and to the little door that sits beside the flowing river. Inside, you’ll find onsen heaven – a small private onsen built into a cave overlooking the river. Amazing.

Bokuden no yu

How many stories start with “I walked into a pub”, and finish with “and then we were standing on the tables, singing in German…”?! Well, this one does! My last couple of days in the area have been spent in Matsumoto, a small city a fair distance away from Tokyo. It is much hotter here compared to the mountainous areas that I’ve recently been. With that in mind, yesterday, needing a respite from the heat, I headed into one of the many bars in town, and old Irish style bar. After my pint, I sat at the bar talking to the staff, who told me that Oktoberfest was on, just by the castle! So out I stumbled, to find a full tent city, complete with German flags and kegs. Grabbed a spot at a table – ended up sitting next an English guy who’s been here for 4 odd years (a good amount of that time has been spent at Oktoberfest, I dare say!) and his two Japanese friends. The night was spent singing along, downing our beers and chomping on bagels and edamame (Japanese beans).

Matsumoto Oktoberfest!

Now time to head off, I’m going North, to Hokkaido, where the weather should be a little cooler (was 33 degrees at 10am this morning!). Take care xoxo

Seeing the forest from the trees

Europe ~ Germany ~ Cologne, Bonn & Freiburg

Germany is a really green country. I don’t know if that surprises you, but it sure surprised me. Of all the images I had concocted of Germany, green forests and luscious fields wasn’t one of them. We were happy with our flight over here from France – on Thai Airways when you finish a flight, they pin an orchid (their symbol) onto your shirt. German Wings gives you a bottle of neon orange Schwarzkopf hair dye. Woohoo!

We’ve been enjoying ourselves the German way, spending a lot of our time and precious money hanging around beer gardens. So many varieties of beer to sample – only so much time to do it in! My friend Andy took us out for a night on the town, German style. When he told us he was taking us to a ‘rock club’, I never expected that the German word for rock translates roughly into the Australian word for heavy metal!!! Inside we found guys with long hair head-banging along to Rammstein and the like. A completely different experience – very different from Brass Monkey back home!!! Typically, we ended up stranded before the night was out, but eventually caught the 4.30am train home…

Tash and I decided to take a weekend off – from world travel – to Black Forrest travel. We headed out towards the Black Forrest via the train system, leaving our big packs at the hostel in Cologne, along with our common sense and our Lonely Planet. After missing trains and getting off at the wrong stops, we ended up in a little town on the edge of the Black Forrest 8 hours later. We spent 2 and a half hours wandering around the tiny town of Baden-Baden, attempting to find a hostel. Eventually I gave up and wandered into a fancy hostel and asked if they knew of a hostel in the area. The guy behind the desk wrinkled his nose in disgust at my traveling cloths and informed me that there were no hostels, and furthermore (if we even had the money) every hotel in town was booked. There was some kind of festival for the rich and well-to-do folks on. Ahh, that would explain all the Mercedes and BMWs whizzing past us. We gave up and headed to a bigger town and fell into the last two beds available late at night. We spent the next day exploring Freiburg, a town in the middle of the Black Forrest. Didn’t find any trees, but did have some lovely Black Forrest Ice-cream. Still traveling first and foremost for food!

Tash and I, on our train trip

Cologne has been heaps of fun to explore, it has a HUGE Dom (cathedral) that overlooks you right as you come out of the station. It really looks like some-one has painted over the landscape and just plonked the Dom right there. Impossible to get a good photo – you just can’t fit the damn thing in one picture. We’ve also gone and explored the chocolate factory (YUM!!!) and the eau de Cologne store. Bonn (where Andy lives) is an interesting town too. It boasts that it is the birthplace of Beethoven, and has every single thought-of Beethoven attraction dotted about the town. Now we’re busy planning our next travels – watch out, people of Amsterdam!
xo me

Being followed by Crazies

Europe ~ Republic of Ireland ~ Dublin, Drogheda & United Kingdom ~ North Ireland ~ Belfast & Bushmills

What a fantastic country!!! Arrived in Dublin early in the morning, not really sure what to expect. Booked into my hostel, then set off on one of the open top, hop-on hop-off tours. Highlights of the day included Dublina (a cute little museum aimed at kids, certainly made it easier for me to understand!!), Christ Church and, of course, the Guinness Storehouse. YUM. The storehouse itself was a little disappointing – very manufactured, plastic-y, but the reward was the free pint of Guinness sitting waiting for you at the Gravity bar – right on the very top of the building. However, the amount of beer that was being thrown away would make grown men cry. Tourists were coming in, getting their free beer, having a sip and then leaving it basically UNTOUCHED. These beers were being poured down the sink. I almost had a bit of a sob myself!

Enjoying a pint of Guinness at the Gravity Bar

After two days in Dublin I caught a [early] bus to Drogheda, to visit the famous Bru na Boinne. Bru na Boinne is an area that has three large pre-pyramid burial tombs (Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth), plus many many smaller ones. They think that the tombs were created between 3500 and 2700 BC. Knowth was particularity interesting because of all the carvings on the stones – the guides were able to speculate what they were about, but no-one really knows. Newgrange is the more famous of the three tombs – we were able to go right inside the tomb, where the guide showed us a re-enactment of what happens on winter solace. The cave-like tomb is in complete darkness for the whole year, except for the 5 days surrounding the shortest day of the year. During these 5 days, at 8.58am, light enters a small ‘window-box’ above the entrance and lights up the tomb. I think the most spectacular of all this is the man-power that it would have taken to create these tombs – huge rocks were moved over large distances to get them into place, amazing to think about when you see the size and number of these rocks.

Next stop was Belfast. I intended to spend two days there, but was so disinhearted after one night that I left straight away. Nothing seemed to be going right and I wasn’t having a good time, so I though ‘Bugger it’, and moved on. Glad I did, because the next place I went, Bushmills, was one of the best hostels I’ve ever stayed at… I had my own room, real beads (not bunks), ensuite… and, best of all, a BATHTUB. The luxury of it all… Spent the day seeing the coast, went to Giants Causeway. Giants Causeway is a section of naturally formed 4- and 6-sided rocks that look just like a pathway leading out to the sea. Legend has it that the giant, Finn MacCool, built it to visit his lady love in Scotland. Also stopped at Carrick-a-rede, a rope bridge strung 30 metres above the pounding ocean over to a tiny island. Whilst it was fun crossing the bridge, it was even better watching people pay 2 euro and then LINE UP just to cross a rope bridge. Guess I did it too, so who’s to judge?! After a day on the north coast, I moved back down to Belfast, where I enjoyed myself a lot more. Took a day tour of the city and found out all the nifty little facts. Like the Titanic was built in the shipyards there. Of course we went through the areas where the Troubles were most prevalent, down past the murals and all the churches and police stations with wire cages over them. Scary but intriguing too.

Giant's Causeway

The people of Ireland are incredibly friendly. Almost all will chat to you over a pint, I’ve met a heap of people traveling on my own, locals and fellow travelers alike. Unfortunately, I also seem to be attracting the crazies too. On my trip to Newgrange, I noticed a guy carrying a little stick [wand?] with a feather poking out the end, waving it all over the carved rocks and bowing and whispering to them. This same guy turned into the hostel I was staying at. Turned out he was staying in my room. When we were all sitting around drinking later that night, he kept doing things like waving his feet over the glasses and mumbling to himself… My first night in Belfast, I was sitting in my room chatting to some of the other girls, when a guy walked in and proclaimed we were reading his mind. Turns out he was chatting to one of the girls earlier, he was completely nuts. And then in Bushmills, whilst waiting for the bus, an old guy came and sat next to me and chatted to me in what I think was Gaelic for about half an hour. My bus pulled up, and he said in perfect English, “There’s your bus”. Ahhh! With all this in mind, when I was on the bus on my way out to see Giant’s Ring (Belfast), and an older lady came and sat next me, I was more than a little wary. When she said to me that “I wouldn’t go there, dear, its not a nice place for young ladies to go by themselves, funny people go there”, I decided to take her advice. Had enough of crazies for the moment…

Cheers to all [said as I raise my pint of Guinness]
xoxo Bobs

Following the Beatles in Liverpool

Europe ~ United Kingdom ~ Scotland ~ Edinburgh & England ~ Liverpool

We’ve been on holidays these past few days – decided it was time to take some time off (… being a tourist in Edinburgh…) to be a tourist in Liverpool, home of the Beatles. Elysha is a huge fan, so off we jetted. Liverpool is an interesting town, used to be one of the bigger ports for England. Nowadays the port doesn’t get as much business, and you can tell. The town has a lot of deserted and run down buildings. On the other hand, Liverpool boasts a University with 70,000 students – pubs everywhere! Stayed in a fantastic hostel, after walking in, Tash pointed out the smell. ‘What smell’, I asked, immediently worried. Turns out she was happy about the lack of smell… Elysha was a bit disappointed over the lack of Beatles memorabilia (we brought all our souvenirs at the airport, better and cheaper!), but Tash and I thought it was tacky and great fun! Went on the Magical Mystery Tour – a tour bus that stops at all the houses where each of the Beatles were born, everyone troops out of the bus and takes photos of the houses and then troops back onto the bus. The poor people that now live in these houses – I feel sorry for the people who will eventually buy our house back in Toomuc Valley. Imagine all those people that will stop to look at the house because the famous Bobbi once lived there… hehe

Magical Mystery Tour Bus

Apart from that, we’ve just been doing the same old same old. Elysha and I ventured out the other night to find some-where new to eat, ended up at a quaint little Italian restaurant, very cute, although the waiter left us a little perplexed. An Italian accent is hard enough to decipher on its own – try throwing a bit of Scottish into the equation as well, absolutely impossible! After dinner I tried a fried mars bar – didn’t need any vodka that night – I was well and truly high after the layers of sugar and fat. Not bad though 🙂

Totally used to life at the hostel now. Spend most evenings with the crowd in at reception, listening to music and talking general rubbish. The other night, one of the girls commented that when we all get home, we are going to wake up in the middle of the night and want to have a conversation about nothing – and have no-one to talk to. At the hostel, there is ALWAYS some-one awake, always some-one to talk to. Have mildly been discussing setting up a phone-club, so once we’re home we always have some-one to call in the middle of the night, to talk about nothing at all. Dealing with everyday things can be tough, I constantly dream about being back home, in my own kitchen, when finding a bowl for cereal is not an ordeal. Was eating brekky the other day, when one of my friends came in, and sat down. Placed his pint glass of tea on the table (no mugs left), and proceeded to take a handful of cornflakes from the box, followed by a swig of milk from the carton. “No bowls” he grumbled as he grabbed the paper…

Elysha & I at the hostel

I’m nearly on the move again – I booked flights over to Ireland for the week after next, so excited. I’ll be flying over there, traveling for two weeks, then back to pick up the girls, then onto Paris. Woohoo!! Am madly planning out an itinerary for Ireland, will be flying into Dublin and out of Shannon. Must try and get to a good Irish pub and grab a pint of Guiness, yum yum. Wonder if there is a brewery tour for the Guiness brewery, or even the Kilkenny one? Must find out. If you know of anything I must do whilst in Ireland, let me know!

xo Bobs