Japanuary 2023 - another belated trip report

[rbjhan]

Is the new pass same size as a ticket now? I haven't bought one for a very long time (I tend to travel at a slower pace and the pass almost always were not worth it)... the old ones were massive and harder to lose though!

 

[Seat0B]

Is the new pass same size as a ticket now? I haven't bought one for a very long time (I tend to travel at a slower pace and the pass almost always were not worth it)... the old ones were massive and harder to lose though!

Yes the new pass is the same size, and looks exactly like a standard JR ticket. It is hard to find when you need it, and very, very easy to lose, and also easy to forget to retrieve it after you feed it into the automatic gates to leave a station. After my recent poor experience with the electronic Eurail pass, I‘m not a fan of that style of pass either.

The old JR pass worked pretty well for us - on a stiff cardboard folder roughly the size of a passport, so quite hard to lose. And yes you did have to exit through the staffed lane near the area where the JR staff sit, but that never caused us any delay - actually it was usually faster to exit that way rather than waiting behind a whole train full of people to exit by running the ticket through the limited number of automatic gate machines. We also used to like the regional passes (eg JR East Niigata or JR East Tohoku, or JR North (Hokkaido)) that allowed x days travel in y days (non consecutive) rather the inflexible flat 7, 14 or 21 day standard JR passes, because we too like to stay a few days at each destination rather than rush through on a tight travel agenda. Overall, I’m not a fan of the new JR pass, and with the upcoming steep price increase will really have to resort to the fare calculators to decide if it is even worth it any more.

 

[moa999]

Interesting that they can't cancel a pass given its linked to an ID and would be difficult for someone else to use.

Think the new JR pass prices will result in pretty limited usage.. you basically have to travel every day and large distances (meaning a return trip) to make them worthwhile.

Some of the regional passes still look decent value.

 

[Seat0B]

Interesting that they can't cancel a pass given its linked to an ID and would be difficult for someone else to use.

Think the new JR pass prices will result in pretty limited usage.. you basically have to travel every day and large distances (meaning a return trip) to make them worthwhile.

Some of the regional passes still look decent value.

I really agree with all you say @moa999.

Unfortunately though most of the regional passes are now, for example, 7 consecutive days like the main JR Pass, not the old 5 days in any 7 or 10 days in any 14. Even these look relatively poor value if you want to stay 3 or 4 days per place. But I will just have to check it all out and make a rational decision on the passes when/if I get down to more detailed planning for Japanuary 2024.

 

[Seat0B]

Friday 10 February 2023 - Matsumoto Part 2

So, fortified with coffee and pastry, and in possession of a small fortune's worth of JR train tickets, we headed off to catch the Town Sneaker bus. This is a fantastic mini-bus service that runs a regular route through the main attractions of the city, hop on/hop off all you can ride for the day for ¥500. It dropped us just a short walk from the castle, which is one of the few 10 or 12 still original castles left in Japan. It still has its original stone work and wooden keep built in the late 1500s, which of course have been repaired and restored over time, but are still largely original.



The snow was still falling heavily with about 15 cm accumulated this morning, which made the castle and its precinct look absolutely spectacular. Truly beautiful and a real contrast to our blazing blue day visit in February 2015. Compare the pair! Boy we looked young in 2015!!




The castle was exactly how I remembered it - extremely cold and lots of very steep stairs. Of course we had out shoes off, so forearmed with knowledge from prior visit I had brought an additional pair of very thick woolen socks to put over my already thick socks for the day, but my feet were still numb from the cold. Those castle occupants were hardy people - no fires were allowed because of the risk of burning the castle down, so they must have endured many frigid days like this back in the day when it was a warlord's residence. Also refreshed my mind about the samurai track that ran around all sides of the castle on the outer part of each floor (still indoors). This was always kept clear so that samurai in full armour and carrying weapons could run, quickly, to whichever side or corner of the castle needed protection, whilst the occupants of the castle lived out their daily lives in the inner parts of each level. Some levels had woven curtains for the privacy of the occupants (mainly the women of the household), but most did not.

After our visit to the castle, we explored the precinct and noted the effectiveness of the yukitsuri (snow protection for tress made from ropes). Oh my it was cold.



Rode around town on the Town Sneaker instead of the planned bike ride, but we really could not see much because it was continuing to bucket snow, and the windows were pretty fogged. Alighted back at JR station and walked a short distance to the row of Japanese fast food places. By now it was ridiculously late for lunch, or ridiculously early for lunch, but we were starving. From the array we selected a miso ramen shop, and were not disappointed by the hearty and delicious and above all warming bowls of miso pork ramen with onsen egg that quickly appeared before us. After this, we all decided to call it a day. Seat Friend and I enjoyed a long hot soak at the onsen, while Mr Seat 0A iced his foot. Then we drank hot chocolates in the guest lounge along with some of the provided biscuits and light snacks, played board games and turned in early.

Edit: typo

 

[Seat0B]

Saturday 11 Feb 2023 - Matsumoto to Kanazawa

Up today at 0700, breakfast at 0730 in order to check out and make it to the station for the 0900 Shinano 1 Limited Express to Nagano to connect to our 1028 Shinkansen (Hakutata 555) onwards to Kanazawa. By now I reckon you all know that I'm not really a morning person, and me with leukaemia exhaustion, whether diagnosed or not, was a terrible combination. I really struggled to get out the door.

Dragged our bags through the 40cm of snow remaining from yesterday's fall and made it with just enough time to buy an "omochikaeri" (takeaway) coffee/hot chocolate for teh trip, down to platform only to find that our train was delayed to 0914, then again to 0918 due to heavy snow on the tracks. I did very well understanding the announcements, but started to feel anxious about our Nagano connection. Our connection time was a comfortable 28 minutes to start with, but was now down to just 10 mins. Luckily, we know our way around the Nagano JR, but it was going to be a tight transfer.

The limited express was loverly - not crowded (in Green Car), plenty of space for bags and huge picture windows with spectacular snowy scenery to enjoy and our trip passed quickly.

We joined the transferring throng in Nagano, and made the connection easily, as the shinkansen was delayed 15 minutes - you guessed it, due to heavy snow on the tracks. These were the first train delays of more than 1 or 2 minutes that we have ever encountered in Japan, where the trains are usuallt punctual to the minute. Again, Green Car was pretty nice, and we had the seats with large luggage space, so that was good as the train was pretty full because today was a National holiday for Foundation Day. Not sure if we experienced holiday crowds or just weekend crowds, but it was pretty busy, including at JR Kanazawa, which was much bigger and busier than I had imagined.



First port of all was the tourist info where we bought all day city loop bus pass for ¥600. Then a very short walk to our hotel Daiwa Roynet Eki Nishiguchi which is a very nice looking business hotel where we paid $275 for 2 nights in a deluxe room. We have stayed with this chain before and found their properties very good, and not widely used by Western tourists, which we quite like. As is common in Japan, we could not check in until 1400, so left our bags and headed to the tourist bus.



Did the full loop and visited the Omicho market. More seafood than I have ever seen, and again, so many items that I just did not know what it was. Did enjoy a cup of delicious hot ginger lemonade for ¥400 and some fruit snacks of pineapple and strawberries on a stick for ¥200. I also bought a cute apron for ¥1200 - that is one thing that is easy to buy in Japan and I like the littel reminder when I wear it to cook at home. Somehow, I did not take any photos at the markets.

Caught the bus back to the station where we had omeraisu kare ( a portion of spiced rice, wrapped in a thin omelette casing and swimming in golden curry sauce) which was delicious, and a berry fruit icecream parfait cake which certainly had all of those ingredients in it. By now it was 1630, so back to hotel and check in. The Daiwa Roynet has always had an automated check out process, but must have also moved to automated check in during COVID. Not as bad as Hotel Grand Villa Fonteine in Haneda was, but such a palaver! It went like this

1. receptionist receives us and checks booking details
2. receptionist photocopies all passports
3. receptionist provides breakfast vouchers and explains security and access
4. receptionist gives key (just one) and advises cost - so far so normal, right???

but then...

1. go to machine and insert key
2. confirm details
3. pay by card or cash
4. receive additional key(s) for the number of guests from the machine
5. receive receipt
6. select your amenities for the stay eg tea bags, hair ties, soap, toothbrush, shower cap, bath salts etc

However, it worked first try for both the rooms, so all in all, not too bad.

I'm exhausted again, and have called it quits for the day. Mr Seat 0A and Seat Friend went out to look at the night lights and get some dinner.

 

[Seat0B]

Sunday 12 Feb 2023 - Kanazawa

A nice sleep in and late breakfast at 0830. An unusual mix of traditional Japanese menu items (rice, pickles, miso soup, noodles) and western items (sausage, scrambled egg, green salad and pizza). Once again, there was only one other table of Westerners in the breakfast room. When in Rome (or Kanazawa)...I decided to do what the locals do and had a bit of each thing on offer.
Headed via the Loop Bus to the Higashi Chaya (East Tea Shop) district which has many well preserved buildings of the Edo era, very typical of the style of the times. Being Sunday, it was pretty crowded, but we made our way quite easily and decided to avoid the worst of the crowds by hiking up a steep hill at the back of the chaya called Utatsuyama to the Hosenji Buddhist temple perched high on the hillside above the crowded streets below. it was very peaceful up there and quite lovely.



Then back down into the fray for some souvenir shopping where I bought some cute Japanese fabric drawstring bags and a fabric covered glasses case. Mr Seat 0A's foot causing him grief, so he bugged out of the visit to Kenrokuen - a wonderful Japanese Garden, reputed to be one of the most beautiful in Japan, and instead headed to the Gold Leaf Museum. Gold Leaf is one of the regional products here and features in the food sold to tourists. So Seat Friend and I headed off to the gardens on our own via a very crowded loop bus.

We treated ourselves to lunch of a couple of yakitori followed by a matcha vanilla twist ice cream, and just enjoyed the glorious warm weather sitting in the sun before we tackled the gardens. The gardens were magnificent, even in winter and we enjoyed the stroll through the incredibly old and gnarly cyprus trees, the deliberately shaped trees, the moss garden and the lake area with reflecting ponds and fish, babbling brooks and waterfalls etc. We also enjoyed seeing all the trees wearing their yukitsuri and finally the cherry blossom forest where the first tentative plum blossoms were appearing in both pink and white blooms. And of course all the people dressed up in the their Sunday best for a stroll. We spent a good couple of hours appreciating the beauty of these gardens.







Bus back to the station where we each enjoyed a hot beverage of our choice while waiting for Mr Seat 0A to rejoin us. Today it was Seat Friend's turn to head back to the hotel early, so Mr Seat 0A and I headed by bus to the Nishi Chaya (western tea house) district to visit the new Ninja Weapons Museum there. This was a most interesting museum. We started with a bit of fun, throwing shuriken (Ninja stars) at a target pinned to tatami mats. Both of us were actually pretty good at this, getting several stars to stick, just not in the bullseye, much to the surprise of the staff. Then upstairs to the exhibits, which were great. We were given and English printed guide that laid out the items and gave a brief explanation of how they were used by ninja, who were clever and ingenious. Ninja tried to operate by stealth rather than aggression. We saw climbing equipment, concealed weaponry, chains and swinging equipment, swords and daggers, as well as several government authenticated swords from the Masamune era (700 years agon) and the Tokugawa/Edo era (400 years old), and authenticated armour, which is very light at around 15kg compared to European armour. The manager was keen to answer our questions in quite good English, and was a bit surprised at our knowledge of and interest in the Tokugawa period (thanks to a Netflix doco series we had watched called Age of Samurai: Battle for Japan - highly recommended if you like this sort of thing). he took several of the unathenticated but obviously old items out of the cases and let us handle them. My favourites were the candle holders with a gyro gimbal so that the candle was always upright no matter what the ninja was doing, and thus never went out, and the massive circular shoes, a bit like snow shoes, that allowed easy movement in swamps and even the possibility of walking on water. A small but specialised and very interesting museum.



Home on the loop bus, intending on dinner, but instead a power shop at the mall attached to JR Kanazawa. Then walked to a highly rated ramen shop only to find it was full and the wait estimated at 90 minutes. So back to the station where we all enjoyed some gyoza. Then some night photos and back to the hotel.

 

[Seat0B]

Monday 13 Feb 2023 Kanazawa - Kyoto

I woke up exhausted, and the day was only downhill from there. Looking back at this, I now realise that I had a big day the day before, and probably my body was getting even with me as the leukaemia started to take hold. Anyway, here is the day for what it was worth...

Up, ate breakfast, packed and used the automatic check out machine that worked first go! Walked up to the station, and still feeling very poor, so bugged out of all helping (think buying coffee, buying ekiben, checking platforms etc) and just minded the luggage while MrSeat 0A and Seat Friend did it all. Boarded the Thunderbird Limited Express to Kyoto as the new shinkansen line was still under construction and not yet in service. Seats were comfy and the car was not crowded and before too long I was having a little snooze - that lasted the whole way to Kyoto (2hrs 15 mins).



Kyoto station was busy as always and we unintentionally took a slightly scenic route to the Hotel Mercure Kyoto Station where we had a spectacular member deal and got superior rooms for around $100/$105 per night. These had a magnificent view of the ring of hills surrounding the city, and also of the JR station with arriving and departing shinkansen.

Still feeling like death warmed up, so crawled into bed about 1430 and so Mr Seat 0A and Seat Friend ate their eki bento boxes that we didn;t eat on the train, headed off to visit a huge temple near the hotel and then did laundry at a coin laundry around the corner. Checked on me, still sleeping, so they went out for an exploratory neighbourhood walk. Came back and woke me up at 1800. I had a cuppa and went back to bed for the night, and slept through until morning. They left me to my own devices and headed down to the bar for welcome drinks, which turned out to also include some very nice snacks, relaxed a bit there, ordered some bar snacks for dinner and came back later on. No idea when. what a write off of a day.

 

[Seat0B]

Tuesday 14 Feb 2023 - Kyoto

Woke late, but felt better than I did yesterday. Had missed breakfast at the hotel, which was oddly expensive and probably wouldn't have had it anyway, but was starving because, between all the sleeping yesterday, I only ate breakfast and a couple of train snacks. So off into the huge underground Porta Mall in search of sustenance. But as it was only 0930, nothing much was opened. So we went into a big Starbucks hoping for a coffee and cinnamon scroll. It was overflowing with students and travellers and there were no seats to be had, even after waiting more than 10 mins. No one was moving on. So we moved to the second Starbucks in the mall and got a seat and coffee and scroll. Thus fortified, it was over to the bus transport centre right out the front of the JR station and we bought the all day bus pass for ¥700, which we then used to catch the 206 bus to Gion. There was a very long line of people in front of us waiting and I felt wilted already. As we waited, snow started to gently fall, and it was beautiful and sparked me up a bit. Eventually we got a bus, standing sardine style with everyone else until we arrived at the stop for Kiyomizudera.

As we alighted the bus, I looked for the path we had taken on a previous visit to Kyoto in 2010, that avoided a lot of the crowds, and there it was, on the right hand side past the main street - a quiet narrow little lane labelled "alternative route to Kiyomizudera". This path wound its way through a massive Buddhist cemetery that I recalled from that earlier visit. Stunningly beautiful, peaceful and serene, and with a magnificent outlook right over the city. This path winds around until you come into the side/back pathway entrance to the Kiyomizudera, which again provides a stunning view. The weather continued to cycle between light snow, heavy snow, overcast and partly sunny, which genuinely added to the experience and beauty of the scenery.



As it was Valentine's Day, the temple itself was thronged with young couples in traditional attire seeking blessings for their relationship, which really added to the festive vibe of the place. The crowds were very good humoured, and it was a lovely experience despite the crowding. I really love this temple; it's my 4th time here.




As we had come in the back way, we left via the front entrance, sort of going against the flow of the crowds. We then grazed our way right down the main temple street back towards the bus stop. We ate black sesame and honey soft serve ice cream, mandarine mochi, pork and tofu steamed buns (buta niku man), gyoza and a lot of other snacks that were delicious but I don't actually know what they were! Finished off with a sakura flavoured milk drink - tasted like the pink milk popular in the Middle East and Indonesia that is made with rosewater and red food colouring. Took our time walking around the Gion area, soaking up all the atmosphere, people watching and visiting other temples until it was quite dark.






Finally caught the bus back to Porta where we had Italian for dinner - I had spaghetti bolognaise with eggplant and Seat Friend and Mr Seat 0A both chose chilli tomato spaghetti with prawns. It was surprisingly good - cooked perfectly al dente. I was knackered, but it was such a great day.

 

[Seat0B]

Wednesday 15 Feb 2023 - Kyoto

Today we bought another bus pass and caught bus #28 to Arashiyama to see the bamboo grove. It was quite a long ride, about 45 minutes, so excellent value on our bus pas! The bus dropped us right in the heart of things. It had again been snowing moderately all morning, so we hoped that the miserable weather would deter some of the usual crowds - not so! Kyoto is clearly suffering the fate of other popular world cities like Venice and Barcelona in terms of over-tourism.

Anyway, the crowds were orderly and didn't really detract from the visit - just made it hard to get photos without lots of randoms in the background. The forest was really beautiful in the alternating snow and sunshine, and the wind treated us to a natural symphony of leaves rustling and bamboo stems knocking on each other. Lovely, natural white noise and very soothing.


After walking further up through the nearly shrine area, we made our way back to the main street for a spot of souvenir shopping in the fabulous local arts and crafts shops, and some street food for lunch. I had a sakura/matcha twist soft serve which proved to be an excellent mix of the sweet sakura with the bitter matcha - quite divine really. Then we had some warm drinks - spiced cider for Mr Seat 0A and Seat Friend and I had a hot honey, lemon and ginger tea that was delicious. This was followed by several paper cones of chicken karaage for ¥500 for 5 pieces. There was a medium sized line, but the people in it were all Japanese, which is always a good recommendation. It was cooked fresh to order by a little old man, each piece painstakingly done and thoroughly inspected before being handed over, sizzling hot and crunchy to the customer, so it took a while to move to the head of the line. But it was totally worth the wait as this was the best chicken karaage I have had anywhere in Japan to date over all my trips. No photos, too busy stuffing my face

Given the time we spent walking today, the inclement and cold weather, the crowds, the state of Mr Seat 0A's foot and my state of health, we decided to skip the monkey park walk that we had intended and instead caught the bus back to the hotel, arriving back at about 1430. This was just in time for max value from our free "afternoon drink ticket" (1430-1700) that was part of the very generous welcome/member package given to me as an Accor Gold member (a drink ticket per person, per day of stay), on top of the standard welcome drink voucher (one drink per person per stay). This turned out to be an excellent decision as the "drink ticket" was great. Free drinks choosing from soft drinks, sparkling water, red wine, white wine, sparkling wine or beer - as many drinks as you wanted. Plus good snacks - rice crakers, potato chips, mixed nuts, dehyrated veggie chips and pastries - as many as you wanted. We passed a very happy couple of hours eating, drinking, chatting and writing up diaries, emails home etc, and planning our time in Tokyo as our trip starts to wind up. On the strength of this very positive experience, we decided to stay and have the woodfired pizza offered by the hotel restaurant for dinner (and take advantage of Accor Plus dining discount). Sorry they said, restaurant now closed until 1730, come back then. So we poured one last drink, adjourned to the lobby, played a round of cards, and returned at 1730 when we had an excellent early dinner of delicious woodfired pizzas that we shared - one with chicken and feta, one with prosciutto and olives and one with baked vegetables, all accompanied by a delicious Japanese wakame salad with sesame dression - interesting fusion and all very tasty. I voted for an early night (by now surprising no one even though I am widely known as a night owl by our family and friends), and so did Seat Friend as we are off to Tokyo tomorrow and there is packing to be done. Mr Seat 0A headed out to take some night photos.

I'm sorry that my ill health on day of arrival cost Seat Friend our planned visit to the Fushimi Inari Temple. We had been there before, but she had not. They chose not to go that day as Mr Seat 0A's foot was still bothering him, and they couldn't be bothered trying to work out how to get there while I was busy racking up a few ZZZZ. Oh well, maybe next time.

 

[RooFlyer]

Kyoto is clearly suffering the fate of other popular world cities like Venice and Barcelona in terms of over-tourism.

Interestingly, a friend of mine with Japanese heritage, who is who is heading off there shortly made a comment to me today about over-tourism in Japan. I wasn’t aware of it but he assured me that yes especially around Osaka and Kyoto it’s really becoming a problem.

 

[Seat0B]

Interestingly, a friend of mine with Japanese heritage, who is who is heading off there shortly made a comment to me today about over-tourism in Japan. I wasn’t aware of it but he assured me that yes especially around Osaka and Kyoto it’s really becoming a problem.

I’ve been to Kyoto several times between 2010 and this last trip in 2024 and the increase crowds to the point of over-tourism was stark over this period. I don’t think I will go back there again despite how beautiful and culturally significant it is. The transport system struggled, the sites themselves were over crowded and with so many tourists of all nationalities it just felt inauthentic to me. And I love Kyoto.

 

[cosi]

Interestingly, a friend of mine with Japanese heritage, who is who is heading off there shortly made a comment to me today about over-tourism in Japan. I wasn’t aware of it but he assured me that yes especially around Osaka and Kyoto it’s really becoming a problem.

Agree.

Pre covid, many mainland Chinese would visit Osaka on cheap deals for a weekend of shopping and eating.

Plus many of the locals do not like these visitors.

 

[rbjhan]

Interestingly, a friend of mine with Japanese heritage, who is who is heading off there shortly made a comment to me today about over-tourism in Japan. I wasn’t aware of it but he assured me that yes especially around Osaka and Kyoto it’s really becoming a problem.

TBH it's been bad for quite some years now.
2014 was my first time, already crowded but bearable.
Nov 2017 I was very pissed and decided not to return, at least not during peak season.
Well, I went again in Nov 22 & Apr 23 - peak Momiji and Sakura season! Yeah I went a bit crazy thanks to covid. But now I remember why I didn't want to go....
Kyoto is not on the list for the next two trips!

 

[rbjhan]

Yes the new pass is the same size, and looks exactly like a standard JR ticket. It is hard to find when you need it, and very, very easy to lose, and also easy to forget to retrieve it after you feed it into the automatic gates to leave a station. After my recent poor experience with the electronic Eurail pass, I‘m not a fan of that style of pass either.

The old JR pass worked pretty well for us - on a stiff cardboard folder roughly the size of a passport, so quite hard to lose. And yes you did have to exit through the staffed lane near the area where the JR staff sit, but that never caused us any delay - actually it was usually faster to exit that way rather than waiting behind a whole train full of people to exit by running the ticket through the limited number of automatic gate machines. We also used to like the regional passes (eg JR East Niigata or JR East Tohoku, or JR North (Hokkaido)) that allowed x days travel in y days (non consecutive) rather the inflexible flat 7, 14 or 21 day standard JR passes, because we too like to stay a few days at each destination rather than rush through on a tight travel agenda. Overall, I’m not a fan of the new JR pass, and with the upcoming steep price increase will really have to resort to the fare calculators to decide if it is even worth it any more.

Thought the whole idea was that they want to discourage tourists taking long rides? Tokaido shinkasen is very very busy....
Like I said, doesn't bother me much as I don't buy passes generally. But it is a massive hike!

 

[Seat0B]

Thursday 16 Feb 2023 Kyoto-Tokyo

Up and out the door by 1000 for an 1108 date with Hikari 504, our wonderful shinkansen to Tokyo. We are hoping for a clear day to get a good view of Fujisan. So far, it's cloudy with light snow flurries...

Despatched Seat Friend to do a coffee run while I did the eki ben run, and Mr Seat 0A rested his still swollen and painful foot. All tasks completed and waiting on the station as our sleek beast greased into the station at 1102, allowing a leisurely 6 minutes to board, arrange our luggage and settle in for the long trip to Tokyo. I do love a good trip on the shinkansen.

Miraculously about 45 minutes out of Kyoto, the sun broke through the clouds and by the time we went past Fujisan, we had an amazing view.



This train ran exactly to schedule. Most of our others so far this trip had various delays (mainly weather related, but not only), which is inherently un-Japanese .

Got off at Shinagawa and made s smooth transfer to JR Yamanote line for 2 stops to Tamachi which is the closest to our hotel, The Celestine, where we stayed on our last visit to Tokyo in 2020. Not sure which station I took this photo at, but it is indicative!



Hotel The Celestine is a really lovely hotel in a quiet area and we paid about $220/night for the room for a 5 night stay. Checked in, and decided not to do much of anything for the rest of the afternoon as, you guessed it, I felt knackered again. We took a late afternoon area re-familiarisation stroll noting the locations of nearby konbini and snack food stores. Amongst these was a fugu restaurant, and the usual "interesting" menu of yakitori including gizzard, liver, tongue, heart and innards




Then we visited the guest lounge on 14F with free drinks (beer wine and soft drinks, coffee) and snacks (nuts, crisps, pastries) were on offer from 1700-1900 as part of our room rate. Played a bunch of board games and had a really pleasant social evening. Didn't bother with dinner after grazing on the train all the way here, and then the snacks.

Checked the Black Cat web site and confirmed that our bags were at Haneda, so one thing we won't have to worry about on departure.

Lovely view from our room.

 

[Flyfrequently]

Enjoying your journey @Seat0B , great idea to write a diary.
Curious to find out how Seat0A eventually fared with his foot - but I can wait!
Hope you are feeling a bit better

 

[Seat0B]

Thanks @Flyfrequently I am definitely feeling a bit better each passing week. Still surprisingly tired, surprisingly easily. More will be revealed about the foot injury as we progress. Hope yours is all healed now. I had great empathy for you!

 

[Seat0B]

Friday 17 February 2023 - Enoshima day trip

Delicious and eclectic Japanese and Western buffet for breakfast this morning at the hotel, then off to Enoshima to use the last day on our JR pass. I'm feeling tired and wish we could have done this trip another day, but...I've been here before so I know it's a magical place, and I also know it will be totally packed out tomorrow with the very warm weather and the weekend - and our pass will be expired, so today it is. left mr Seat 0A behnind to rest his foot, so girls' day out!

Took JR to Fujisawa and then the Enoden to Enoshima. This is the opposite direction from last time when we approached from Kamakura, and I like the ride from the Kamakura direction better - more scenic and also more of the close shaves of tracks running between buildings coming from that direction . The Enoden is a little local electric train, not much more than a tram really, that connects to Enoshima bridge so you can walk over to the island, which hosts a big temple and a big shrine, natural beauty and plenty of restaurants with views. It's a fair walk - about 2 km, but along the harbour foreshore and quite pretty. We caught a view of Fujisan on the bridge over to the island despite the heavy haze.

First port of call on the island - an ice cream - vanilla/matcha for me and chocolate/strawberry for Seat Friend! Then we tackled the long walk to the top - its a good steep walk. There are pay escalators for those who can't be bothered, but it was a beautiful day and it was lovely to walk in the sunshine. Checked out the temple and the shrine on the way up and ocean view from the top - spectacular. Checked out the soaring sea eagles (kites) and admired their eerie calling and skilled ridge soaring - spectacular.



Took the pathway to the Dragon Love Bell, foklore tale of a wicked 5 headed dragon that fell in love with a beautiful goddess. She would not marry him until he mended his eveil ways. Once he did, they married and loved each other for eternity. People today bring prayer slips and padlocks to seek the same sort of love.



Next we walked right down to the sea, and visited the Iwaya Caves, used for Buddhist ceremonies since the year 552. I found this disappointingly cheesy and a bit Disneyland in its presentation. Makes me appreciate the sympathetic work done at ancient sites in Australian National Parks. Climber backup the many, many, many sets of stairs - my phone health app suggested it was equivalent to 37 floors, which feels about right. I was huffing and puffing well before we reached the top. Stopped along the way at a very traditional rest house and enjoyed a cold oolong tea, looking our over the oceean, which was a pleasant way to break the climb.

Back to the top for a late lunch/early dinner of butaniku man (steamed port buns) and a coffee when we noticed that the sun was getting ready to set.


As we ate, the sky couloured in spectacular shades of red and orange, before the sun set in a fiery ball over the ocean.



And then, by magic, the haze parted again to reveal Fujisan. This is the photo straight from my iPhone - no filters used, that was the actual colours.



Next we walked around the hanami illuminations and enjoyed the relaxed and happy vibe of the place - just gorgeous with a sea of fairy lights as far as the eye could see.



Ansd the evening illuminations of restaurants and omiyage (souvenir) shops were also lovely. More grazing snacks for dinner as we left



Hobbled back to enoden station by 1830 after a BIG day (24,000 steps), and retraced our tracks via JR back to Shinagawa and then to Tamachi and arrived at the hotel by 2000. What a great day. Mr Seat 0A took things easy and then indulged in a spot of technology shopping at Yodobashi and Bic Camera!



Edit: remove stray photo

 

[Flyfrequently]

Thanks @Flyfrequently I am definitely feeling a bit better each passing week. Still surprisingly tired, surprisingly easily. More will be revealed about the foot injury as we progress. Hope yours is all healed now. I had great empathy for you!

Thanks @Seat0B so far with moonboot off :
day 1 = 1km
day 2 = 2.5 km
day 3 = GP!
Told to slow down as tendons have been "lazy" for the past 8 weeks - mmm so have I!
Guess I have to be the tortoise not the hare!