The Classic Overnight Bus Journey

I have been on many overnight bus journeys in my travels, and last night was another. I have crossed the Baluchistan Desert from Pakistan to Iran overnight, which is perhaps my most memorable for good and bad reasons. Bad - Hot beyond belief and very little sleep, the Good, nay AMAZING - waking up at 5am as the sun rose to stop in the middle of the desert for a break. Stunning. Those photos are sadly lost :(

One bad thing that is constant with me on overnight bus trips is the lack of sleep. I swear I can sleep better on day journeys!
Yesterday I spent my time with a fellow English Teacher and good friend to my wife and I whilst we lived in Ichinoseki, Maxime. I checked out of the Toyoko Inn in Ichinoseki by 10am and got my car, which had been 'parked' in one of these amazing car parks that stack cars via a mechanical lift in a tall but not so wide building. Sorry that the picture looks a bit translucent!

I spent the day eating too well and at the Ichinoseki SuperSports Park, where you can play tennis, or on the play equipment and there's a track and field ground as well as a baseball stadium. After a delicious and meaty dinner, Maxime took my wife and I to the East Exit of the train station where the buses leave from.

After posing for a picture, I got talking to a nice guy who was with a group - possibly a couple of families it seemed, taking the bus to Tokyo Disneyland. They were actually heading down on the night bus, Disneyland opens at 8am, they would spend the day there and then catch the overnight bus back to Ichinoseki without spending a night in Tokyo! I joked that they'd sleep through all the rides. I probably would!

So we slowly got onto the bus and moved on out. Ichinoseki, suddenly, was in the past. The first few hours (the bus left at 9.15pm) were a bit torturous. The lights stayed on, not a problem for some people though who fell asleep instantly! I will always admire the ability of Japanese people to fall asleep at the drop of a hat pretty much anywhere, any time. The heater also was up just too much, and before I knew it I was just in a T-shirt! (don't panic, and trousers!)

We made our first toilet stop. The bus would stop, on average, every couple of hours for a toilet break at the expressway stops which had toilets, restaurants, vending machines and enough spots for a lot of vehicles. I saw a lot of trucks stopped with curtains drawn as the driver got some sleep. As is the custom in Japan, the drivers would keep running the engines which I thought was a bit strange... and wasteful...

The bus stops also have these stamps which are really popular in Japan. The ink kind which tell you where you've been, so I took one and then another to discover they are all the same! The night wore on, and after Sendai the lights went out and the heater was turned down a couple of notches, and for the journey I probably managed 3 hours sleep which I guess is better than nothing at all!

Trucks asleep at the toilet stop.

We pulled into Tokyo just after 6AM. It's been windy all day, and nice and warm. In fact, a week ago Ichinoseki had snow and sub-zero temperatures as I had my going-away dinner, but for since Monday has been sunny and over 16 degrees, which for Inchinoseki is unseasonably warm for March! LOL. Here in Yokohama, well, it was about 18 today and would have been pleasant but for the wind. Didn't matter so much I slept a good portion of the day and am still in a daze as I write!

And... Tokyo at last!

It was a long train ride of an hour to Shin-Sugita, near my wife's parents' house where we will be staying in Yokohama. My bag must have been 30kgs and boy was it tough to drag around! But, we had made it safely and in one piece, and it seems the Iwate story is over now! Stay tuned for more from the blogsphere.



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One Last Onsen

Yesterday I finally had the chance to visit the most renowned onsen in Ichinoseki, the Kanpo Onsen. A beautiful setting, a little way out of town on top of a hill, the onsen is fed by reputedly 14 different hot springs. It is regarded as the best onsen in the immediate area and one of the best in all of Iwate. As you can see from the photos, the location is simply stunning.

High on the hill - Kanpo Onsen near Ichinoseki

Left - men; right - women.

I found the water to be a bit hot again. Of the three onsens I have visited in Japan, I preferred the water in the onsen at Hachimantai. Nevertheless, it was an interesting and eventful experience at the Kanpo onsen. Unfortunately it was really busy, so I couldn’t sneak a photo inside. As I said, it’s a very popular onsen and there is a hotel attached. People come to stay a couple of nights there as a getaway. There are shops and restaurants and it was certainly the biggest onsen I have visited.

The onsen area had six separate pools. Five were inside, and one was outside in a kind of fenced off area, high above the surrounding countryside. I did feel someone might be able to see the naked men if they walked in the wrong spot, but I guess they would be a long way away so it wouldn’t matter. The outdoor pool was a rock pool, and was the best of the six as you could breath in the (very) fresh air whilst submerged in the hot spring water.

Inside, the air was stuffy and humid and made breathing more difficult. There were some bubbles in one pool, and in another a sort of machine that sent out electric waves, at a guess. The temperature across the pools felt over 40 – maybe 42 degrees. They didn’t advertise the temperature that I saw unlike the others I had been to. The men all ran around holding little towels over their bits, trying to prevent someone inadvertently seeing them! All the other places people have been less modest! It was kinda funny actually.

There was a young boy of 10 or less as well, and he ran from pool to pool jumping in and out and generally negating some of the relaxing properties of the spring water. Then his father (or maybe grandfather) caught up to him and whacked him across the head!

Done in a short time, I showered and changed and went to the loo. I was in there 30 seconds or less, when I came out there was a man collapsed lying on a cane bench with a bunch of naked men trying to bring him round. Well, I have to say every time I’ve used an.  onsen I have felt dizzy at some point. He came round and was chatting to the staff thankfully, but nevertheless an ambulance came and he was treated inside. I imagine it happens reasonably regularly, as one gets a bit dehydrated in their and many of the patrons are older than 70.

I think that may be my last onsen. They don’t seem to agree with me very well, and I woke this morning with a bad migraine – not the first time that’s happened. Actually, I make it three from three. This was the worst though, the others weren’t so bad. Still, for many people in Japan they are an essential part of life!

For more writings on Japan, my ebook –

Short Journeys: Japan.

Getting Set for Departure

I have just under a week left in my home of two years now in Ichinoseki. We have been packing and preparing to shift down to Yokohama where we will live for six weeks before flying to Melbourne. We've been frequenting the second hand stores to sell off a few things - I just said goodbye to my guitar yesterday which was a sad occasion.

And last night we had a bit of a farewell dinner and karaoke night with some of the friends we have made since 2012. Firstly we went to a restaurant which was right next to the Ichinoseki station. Right under our noses for two years, this was the first time we tried the place. We ordered a range of dishes and shared around mostly, and the food was good as was the price - 2000 yen a head, just on or under $20US per person and there was approximately a drink each in there as well.





We then headed to the local favourite karaoke place - 'Crayon' is the name, and for around $8US an hour per person it is all you can drink and all  you can eat nibblies as well. How can you go wrong. So all in all, a great night with friends.

A special thanks to Nate, Maxime, Miho, James, Dean, Hazel, Rosanna, Michael, Kevin and L.A. for coming out in the cold (and boy it was chilly) last night!

False Spring

Although the hills look quite beautiful today, I must admit to being rather sick of winter. Today was supposed to be the first day of spring!
Oh well, Ichinoseki can be quite beautiful even with snow!

Where the Wild Things Are.

Well, today was an interesting day! Not too far from Ichinoseki - perhaps 30km or so, is... wait for it... you won't see this one coming....

A SAFARI PARK!

I kid you not. Somehow for 2 years I have resisted going. Perhaps it was the cost, or the fact that I didn't know where it was, or perhaps it was the fact that I thought - ' A Safari Park in cold Iwate? Now that is ridiculous!'

But
today I had an offer from a friend here to go with his family to the Safari Park, and as some sort of initiative the Safari Park was allowing free admission to everyone living in Ichinoseki. So off we went!

What can one expect from a 'Safari Park' in Northern Honshu, Japan? Well, we piled into a bus cunningly disguised as a giant tiger. Bit gates opened to let us in, shut behind us too. We were in a large enclosure with a tiger. Just the one. There was another in a separate area. A little further on there were some cheetahs. I think. Or leopards. Am I a moron for not being able to tell the difference? Neither can change their spots, I know that much!

The area right now, indeed in Ichinoseki too, is just recovering, very slowly, from winter. So everything is brown, it looks a little like Victoria at the end of a long, dry summer. It's the lack of sunlight combined with having a bit of snow of course making it seem that way. But today you could almost be forgiven for thinking spring was thinking of arriving. Temperature was pushing ten degrees and it was sunny.

There's nothing that amazing about the Safari Park. The normal cost is 3000 yen entry. There are quite a few animals in there including giraffes, zebra and lions. The zebras and giraffes along with lamas and deer and similar creatures come right up to the bus and the kids can feed them biscuits sold for a rather expensive 1000 yen. But the kids LOVED it, especially the giraffe - I never realised just how big a giraffe head was until it came up to the open window of the bus.

The lions paid the bus almost no attention. They sat stoic and proud in their pride. The change from winter to spring made some of the animals look dirty - there was a bit of mud around. After the safari ride in the bus - around 45 minutes - was done, there were elephant rides to be had.
I imagine winter must be hell for the poor creatures not used to this climate. The summer is probably pretty nice although it would be nicer for them to have their freedom. To be honest though, I was pleasantly surprised at the conditions - they were better than I expected, and there certainly was a wider range of animals to see than I expected as well.

If you are in Ichinoseki, you'll probably need a car to see the Safari Park  - and a decent map. It's not very Japanese but for local families it's a decent day out. It was a nice day out for me too!

For my ebook on Japan, go here - Short Journeys: Japan

Anniversary Dinner, in the middle of Nowhere,equals Happy Surprise!!

So, for those who don't know me, on Friday my wife and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary. We headed out in the car to a small restaurant run by a friend of my wife, not quite sure what to expect. But I have to say we were more than happily surprised by the quality of the food and the experience.

Welcome sign - Ansuro-ji 

My wife's friend has opened a little pension with restaurant attached not far from Genbi Gorge, a beautiful spot less than ten kilometres from Ichinoseki. We took a dark and windy road out of town with a pale-printed black and white google map and with a fair bit of luck I managed to turn at the right place and somehow end up in the right place at the right time.

In Japan, everything is small. The bars are small, you can find bars in Ichinoseki that have a capacity of like less than ten people, restaurants sometimes just have three or four tables. Or in this case, two! The owners are farmers as well and seem to try their hand at everything. The kerosene heater burned brightly and we were warm enough. Just! We were in a little hut behind the house where the room for the pension is. Or maybe they have two rooms, but that's about it.

The first course was salad wrapped like sushi in rice paper. Then we had duck soup. After that were were served a sort of curried chicken and duck salad. The duck had been caught by the owner and was very nice, as was the chicken. The soup was pretty good too and my wife loved the salad-sushi things, although I admit to not being the world's biggest fan of salad! :)

Succulent Duck Salad.

It didn't stop there, the next course was pork, in a delicious sauce including parmesan cheese. It tasted great but was a little fatty - in Japan I've found that's the norm though. When my wife's mother serves pork it includes all the gristle. Cuts of meat in the supermarket are often cheaper per kilo when they are lean!

Finally it finished with a creamy (that is very Japanese) carrot and sponge cake. It was a veritable feast. But what's better than a delicious and filling meal? A delicious and filling meal which is cheap! And this was just 2000 yen ($20) each! And I have to say, it could have easily been 5000 yen. I had a meal at a French restaurant in Yokohama which was 6,500 yen, half the amount and not nearly as nice. This one kicked goals from all angles. I was left thinking how on Earth could they make money on it?

Typical cake in Japan - Sponge with Cream. Strawberries - optional.

We were not only their only customers that night, or all week, but all YEAR! Well, they had been closed until March 11th. Winter obviously is no good for business, with the remoteness of the location. Anyways, I don't normally do restaurant reviews, but if you have a car and are in Ichinoseki, it's a great little place to go. In town you can't get anything near that sort of value. 3,500 yen will often get you all you can eat and drink, but the quality isn't there - it's just a whole heap of fried stuff.

The name of the restaurant is Ansuro-ji. It is not far from Genbi Gorge. Here is their website, it seems only fair to give them a plug:

Ansuro-ji Restaurant and Pension.

They managed, incredibly last minute, to make the cut for my latest ebook:

Short Journeys: Japan

The Final Wrap - School's Out!

Well... that's that! In a blink of an eye, somehow I am finished with teaching schools in Japan. Today, at my second school, a special needs school, I went to graduation. It was an interesting day, some happy faces, some nervous ones.

It is interesting to me that comparing the two, very very different schools, yet two very similar graduation ceremonies. Luckily, there are far less students at today's school, so the process of handing everyone a diploma took less time. Some of the students present with more severe intellectual disabilities struggled to stay still for the seventy-minute ceremony, but then again so did plenty of others! The heaters were more effective at least!
After the diplomas were done, it was time for the principal to give a speech, followed by a VIP who spoke loudly and from a non-speaker of Japanese, it seemed a little angrily. Oh well, passion is always good right?

A few more speeches, the school song (which includes clapping by the way) and we were done. Oh no, a few photos quickly. Lots of congratulations. I had a meeting with the English teachers after that and just like that, I walked away from the teachers' room for the last time.

Last week in my final classes there the students, a fellow teacher and I had a go at making some Australian 'food'. Meat pies - well you can find them out of Australia. Apart from a shortage of pastry they came up all right. See photos for references.









As for the lamingtons, well, they weren't quite as successful. I never realised how tricky they were to make. A lamington, for the non-Australian, is a very light sponge cake covered in chocolate sauce and finally dipped in coconut. The process of dipping the lamingtons was extremely... ummmm... let's say messy. I cleaned up afterwards and believe me there was a bit to clean up! And we ran short of coconut too. Plus there wasn't a lot of sponge cake so they were half-sized lamingtons. And I realised that we should have cut the crust off the sponge as well. But, once inside the mouth, little of this mattered!

So are the perils when you cook stuff you don't actually cook at home with an international audience. Certainly though, these types of lessons have always been a lot of fun. And now, well, who knows what the future will bring but for the foreseeable future, I won't be doing this sort of thing for a while.
Two years of teaching, oh and I received dozens of presents from the school too, lots of thank yous and the staff at both schools as I left stopped to applaud me which was really just awkward. Staff at special needs' schools world wide deserve applause for their patience, care and dedication. The school I was fortunate to work at once a week for two years is no exception.
And out into the wilderness. Suddenly, I am unemployed. End of the month sees my wife and I return to Yokohama for six weeks before heading back to Australia. I CAN work, but only being available for a short period is going to make it hard to employ me. We will see.

WATCH THIS SPACE - Short Journeys: Japan is coming either tomorrow or Saturday. I've spent a lot of time this week editing the first edition and it's almost ready. I have a cover too. This one will be released on Kindle, Payhip and Lulu at the same time. So many choices. It's the longest of all Short Journeys easily and has a special chapter on Iwate, the prefecture I've called my home these two years, and has more photos than ever as well. It will be a perfect introduction to Japan for someone considering a journey here.
Thanks as always for your support.

Three years on - Great Tohoku Earthquake

It's now been three years since that fateful day in 2011 when the Great Tohoku Earthquake struck. I remember the day well. I was in Vietnam, in a town called Dalat. I had just arrived, and went out for dinner with a nice chap I met at my guesthouse. We were talking through dinner and I mentioned that my next destination was Japan. Well, after a couple of weeks in Laos. My new found friend looked at me in shock and said he didn't think I'd be going there after what had happened today. What had happened? Massive earthquake and tsunami! Oh...


I spent the evening and wee hours of the next morning watching TV sucking in what was going on in Japan. The footage of the waves hitting parts of Sendai and picking everything up in their paths. I was strongly urged by most travellers I met in the next three weeks in South East Asia not to go to Japan. I was told I was mad - who knew how dangerous the Fukushima situation was?

But in the end I did go. And if I hadn't well, I wouldn't have returned and spent two years here teaching English. AND I wouldn't have met my wife. So it's funny the way things turn out. But I can never EVER fully understand what it was like to be here on that day, to live through the following weeks and months after the impact of the earthquake and tsunami. All my students though went through that. I often wondered how they were affected. My main school is 25 kilometres from Kesenumma, on the coast. It was devastated by the tsunami. My school took some students, I am sure, who lost their school because of it.

And things are not all tickety-boo three years later. There are still people living in temporary housing, clean up efforts continue and we really do not know the extent of the dangers posed by Fukushima, about half-way between here and Tokyo. In fact, the government in December enacted a law basically preventing people from reporting on Fukushima, and before that the people of Japan received precious little information about it.

I have been on Facebook today and I had planned to blog about places in Tohoku encouraging people to visit. I will save that for later in the week though, the mood on facebook from others in the region seems to be one of sombre reflection and a little anger that still not enough has been done. This link to photos of the devastation was shared on Facebook, I'm sharing it with you. Take care.

Tohoku three years after the 3/11 earthquake and tsunami

One last class – what would you teach?

So, this week sees me in the home stretch of teaching in Japan. I’ve been teaching here for two years now and I’ve done lessons on all sorts of topics from favourite foods (and favourite this and that!) to ‘virtual water’, do google that if you’re interested. Once you start reading, you won’t be. So for my last lot of lessons I wanted to do something special to me and interesting to the students. Well I try to make every lesson interesting for the students. I have done a range of lessons on different travel-related topics which often involve an English grammar point, but this week I was given the topic of ‘your favourite character’ to make a lesson for the first years.

So yes, my friends will know where I went for that topic! I finally got to do a lesson about Doctor Who! Well, it’s not my first, I have used Doctor Who here and there in a couple of lessons, but never as the central theme of a lesson. And so I spent the weekend creating a short video about Doctor Who (none of my students have heard of Doctor Who except through me of course) introducing the character of the Doctor and choosing some choice bits. I wanted to explain why he is my favourite character – so I talked about his ability to change his face, about facing danger, being brave, funny and caring for his friends.

I kept the message simple – a must for all lesson plans here, not always the easiest though with some of the topics I get thrown (see ‘virtual water’). I included some scenes from Doctor Who featuring the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and ninth Doctors (unfortunately Adobe couldn’t handle the files from the tenth and eleventh because I had some moments in mind) and it was interesting to watch their reactions. Not a lot of dialogue of course. They laughed at Patrick Troughton posing for the camera as soldiers stormed past him, and went ‘awwwww’ in amazement as Tom Baker turned into Peter Davison. The Orgons they found particularly funny in ‘Day of the Daleks’ and then the video asked them – ‘who is YOUR favourite character?’ (well, it said favorite as we are using Ameriglish here).

Mickey Mouse has proved popular, I was expect a lot of Doraemon, according to the net the most popular character in Japan. Not one from the first class! Actually, in contrast to many of the typical ‘favourite’ exercises I’ve given my first graders, I had a surprisingly wide variety of answers. And no, none of the students can borrow my ‘Terror of the Zygons’ DVD. But I do hope one or two look ‘Doctor Who’ up on the net after that.

The white board awaits the students!

Imagine it’s your last class, what topic would you like to bring to your students that is important to you and who you are?

My final worksheet

Andrew is a travel blogger and the writer of the ebook series ‘Short Journeys’. Check out his travel writings at:

World Journeys

Snow good!

Hey folks. Just thought I'd give a quick blog with some photos. This is the most snow I have seen in Ichinoseki since I arrived. Last night we must have had more than two feet, it was quite something. I basically needed a shovel to get out of my car park, although I managed somehow anyways!
Coming soon - The final of my Top Ten Destinations, probably Tuesday or Wednesday. Until then, keep warm!

Chusonji in Winter

Good evening all. Unless where you are it's morning or afternoon or just in time for brunch. Just thought I'd quickly blog a few photos for you all taken on Saturday at the local World Heritage Site, Chusonji. I was there at about 4 in the afternoon when the light was a bit dull it must be said. I visited (and blogged about) this place back in the first month of moving to Ichinoseki. In winter there were less people there and all but one temple was closed. Still, it made for a decent walk - the weather THUS FAR has been much milder than last year and as you can see, not a lot of snow about. Which may have added to the photos, but c'est la vie.

Today is a special day in Japan, 'Setsubun', where people apparently throw beans at trolls and the winter runs away and hides. Yes, it's regarded as the first day of spring, laugh out loud, roll on the floor etc etc. I remember from last year when it was sub-zero and snow was everywhere thinking that was a bit early, but today it actually hit around 11 degrees and was warm! Yes, I know Australians, 11 is FREEZING, but after two winters here, well, it ain't anymore. 

Life is rolling along, I will have some information soon about revisiting some of my first ebooks on a new platform for those who are not so Kindle-inclined. Don't forget to follow me on twitter to -
 @WorldJourneys75 where I will mention any free Kindle deals and stuff.
Until next time!

Melbourne versus Ichinoseki

Today in  Melbourne it hit 42 degrees I believe. Ahhh my hometown. Even 42 I could do right now. Why? Because here in Ichinoseki it:s around minus 8. Yep. That:s a whole 50 degree difference! If you don:t believe me I have a bunch of photos for you today.

Last week whilst having my car serviced I went for a walk around the hills here and found my way up to a lovely little temple. Next to a graveyard and a path into the forest. It wasn't too cold up there, that day, not like this week. I got some nice photos I wanted to share. Coming this weekend - the next in my countdown of my favourite destinations! Watch this space.

PS. Now mirrored on http://worldjourneysdiscover.wordpress.com/