Japan January 2010
 

Jan 1:  ATL to MSP in F. Breakfast served even though flight only 2 hours: raisin bran, light yogurt, fruit (cantaloupe, pineapple, orange, kiwi), bagel.

Lounge at MSP a bit downmarket, but lots of windows. 

MSP to NRT, upper deck of 747 in 77A. Bigger than some Tokyo hotel rooms. Weird seam in seat, not very comfortable for normal sitting.

Service Northwest (from carts), food Delta (crabcakes with spaghetti squash and leeks, very good), choice of cheese and fruit or ice cream for dessert---really nothing special. Seats hellish, but took Ambien for last seven hours and slept well (and missed second food service.

Jan 2:  Cash at Citibank at NRT, jR pass exchange easy and got tickets for N'Ex and onto Nagoya at same time. Tight connection, no time to buy food, but otherwise easy

Oops, meant to preface with apologies for long overdue report as well as stream of conciousness approach---these were notes that I took en route with my trusty iPhone.

Looking forward to more!

Jan 2, cont: Train to Nagoya easy. Walk to Hotel Kanko---very posh public spaces, nattily dressed staff  although room decor a bit rundown (but clean). Already dark, so short walk in neighborhood, dinner from Coco mart (takana/mustard greens onigiri, coconut jelly for dessert, beer). "My Fair Lady" on TV.

Jan 3:  Pastries & OJ fron last night's Coco run + hot tea in room. Check out and leave bag to visit Nagoya castle. Busy with Japanese tourists.  

Walk back to hotel, retrieve bag, walk to train station. Busy travel day, so longish wait at Maibara for train to Kanazawa. Enclosed shelters on platform, so not too bad for waiting. Noise pervasive.
Jan 3, cont: Walk back to hotel, retrieve bag, walk to train station. Busy travel day, so longish wait at Maibara for train to Kanazawa. Enclosed shelters on platform, so not too bad for waiting. Noise pervasive.

Train to Kanazawa: old school. Excellent chirashi sushi purchased at Nagoya statiion: crab, ikura, tiny scallops, clams, fried fish, broiled salmon, etc. And beer. 

Lots of tunnels, lots of snow. Mist-shrouded pine-covered hills with tidy houses between them and tracks. Infrastructure a mess as usual. Check into Dormy Inn near train station

Dinner with Goodwill Guide (nice young woman who speaks Italian as well as English, so she gets tp practice both) at restaurant in station, including jibuni (simmered duck with turnip, gluten, mushroom). This not part of my official guided visit, so I'm not obligated tp pay for her dinner but do anyway.

Onsen at hotel very nice. New property, pretty posh for budget accomodation.

Onsen at hotel very nice. 

Apologies for cutting and pasting weirdness--iPhone and Fodor's not a perfect marriage.

Jan 4: meet guide at 10:00, buy bus tickets (day ticket for Kanazawa, ticket to Shirakawa-go and then on to Takayama). Visit geisha district (Ochaya Shima) and have wagashi with matcha, gold leaf shop and demo, katsu lunch (my request), Kenrokuen garden, samurai house & garden (really lovely garden), temple (big New Year's crowd), mont-blanc dessert at station cafe at end of day.

Normally we'd have eaten lunch at the market, but this was Monday and market largely closed. Some museums also closed.

Skip dinner (sake and dried persimmon instead), do onsen, sleep well.

Jan 5:  onsen in AM, then breakfast at hotel (bargain at 840¥ instead of 1100¥, don't know why) which had excellent selection and quality. End up chatting with a French woman who is similarly impressed with the selection, unusually wide-ranging tastes considering that she's French and isn't at all familiar with the food; her traveling companion isn't as enthusiastic, but we're all bemused at the presence of ratatouille. A little shopping at the station: posh department store and very nice food hall in station.  Bus at 12:35 to Shirakawa-go, more and more snow. Lots of tunnels. Long tunnels, interrupted by vistas of progressively deeper snow. Finally near whiteout, fairyland of trees. Avalanche breaks everywhere.   

A pause in the narrative here to point out that Nagoya wasn't a place that I particularly wanted to visit, it just happened to be about as far as I could get from Narita on a shinkansen. I'd originally planned on taking a sleeper to Kanazawa, but I was traveling on a JR pass and so would have had to wait until arrival at NRT to book a berth, and since I was traveling over the New Year's holiday didn't want to take the risk.

Had I been going to Kyoto I could have made it all the way there, but my destination was Kanazawa. I could have continued on Maibara, but there's nothing whatsoever to see in Maibara.

Jan 5, cont: Arrive Shirawakago, look for coin locker, ask at info office. Instead they hold my bag at office until the minshuku owner will come to get me between 3:00 and 5:00. In the interim I visit the world heritage museum. Lots of Japanese day trippers but some areas still feel pretty isolated---easy to imagine slipping into a stream or being buried in a mini avalanche or just being covered up by the heavy, heavy snowfall. 

Shimizu minshuku overnight. Wife speaks some English but pretty reserved. Older couple from Tokyo arrives and then later two Australian girls, both Asian. Julie Chinese background but speaks Japanese well and enthusiastically. Monica originally from East Timor. Conversation consequently much easier.  Dinner: nabe (cooked at individual brazers) with Hida beef, cold barbecued fish (eat it head and all), tempura, otsukemeno, soup, gomaae, tofu and boiled turnip...

Another pause to explain that I'd not planned on taking my big suitcase (which is a 19" rolling bag, so not very big in any case) with me to the minshuku, and had instead packed just what I'd need for my overnight there. The staff at the bus station spoke essentially no English, however, so my attempt to find the coin lockers (it's the same term in Japanese, just insert some extra vowels) were unsuccessful. Turns out the were located inside the teeny tiny waiting room. Oh well.

Normally you could walk from the bus station to the minshuku, but the blizzard made this pretty much impossible if you didn't already know the way.

The food at Shimizu was excellent, served around the traditional hearth (irori). Wear loose-fitting clothes so as to avoid cutting off circulation to your feet while sitting on the floor.

Jan 5, cont: We'd have liked to visit the town onsen (which is reportedly nice) but owner clearly not enthusiastic about taking us, so never mind. Walking not even remotely possible in the dark and snow. So instead we used the bathroom in the house. Old school: dressing room with sink for brushing teeth, etc. and separate room where you shower and wash your hair and so forth (seated) before climbing into the one person tub for a soak. I was the third most senior guest, and the most senior (husband of retired couple) skipped the bath, so that meant I was second after his wife, but it just didn't look all that inviting so I just did the shower and called it a day.

We stayed up pretty late yacking, finally headed for bed once we'd all bathed.  

Futon very comfortable, very warm (even after heater cut off automatically), but jet lag interrupted sleep. 

Jan 6: Breakfast scrambled eggs and sausage, hoda miso (on brazier), kabocha, natto, miso with tofu and enoki, otsukemeno (with tiny red "ume"), rapini with bonito flakes, osechi, tangerine...

Owner basically kicks us out at 9:30, husband drives us to bus stop. Bus to Takayama more tunnels, more snow. It's colder today. 

Jan 6, cont: Snowing in Takayama, very gray, so decide to take 12:43 Hida wide-view to Nagoya, connecting Shinkansen onto Osaka. Bento of Hida beef on train, beer. 

Great views from train: narrow mountain ravines, river running alongside. Less snow, more sun. I'm in thefirst car, so can see out the front as well.

My original plan had been to have lunch in Takayama and wander around for the afternoon before heading on to Osaka, but the weather was really icky and so I just skipped it and took an earlier train.

Love all the detail, Therese!

Thanks, rizzuto. It's a bit random, a mix of travel minutiae and impressions that I happened to record at the time. I'm planning my third trip (in as many years) for November and realized I'd never posted the Japan portion of January's visit. I'm at he recovering from surgery right now, so it's also a great alternative to watching TV.

Another aside re travel minutiae...

If you do happen to visit Snow Country in January or February, do heed the warnings about snow. I came prepared, with knee-high waterproof boots (paddock boots, actually, so also warm and very good for walking distances, so oli wore them in Kanazawa as well). I also had long underwear, ski socks (worn over conventional trouser socks, great for the tatami at the minshuku), and chemical toe warmers. Even my not very loquacious hostess at the minshuku was impressed. Long down coat, gloves with liners, two scarves, ear muffs, and umbrella completed my ensemble.

Just checked out your web site, thursdaysd. Very entertaining, though I've now got a serious envy headache: I get 20 days of vacation a year, period. If I don't use it I lose it, and I will never, ever get any more unless I change employers. <sigh>

I do get some interesting travel through work, though, so that's a good thing.

Jan 6, cont: Transfer at Nagoya to Shinkansen to Shin-Osaka, then subway to Shinsaibashi. Dormy Inn not nearly so luxe as Kanazawa version but room large and well-equipped: great TV, tea kettle, fridge, desk, Ethernet, etc. Full-size bed, narrow alcove for closet, cozy jammies. Full bath in hideous shades of blue (blue walls and ceiling, blue tub, blue tile), fancy toilet.

Bed rock-like, as usual (futons generally more comfortable). Bay window equipped with door to close it off. Quiet though building rocks from adjacent highway traffic. At first I mistake this motion for a possible earthquake.