Beautiful Iwate gets hot!

August appears to have thrown its worst at us here in Iwate in terms of weather. Last week there were a couple of rather sticky nights where sleep was difficult to impossible. Although it’s still hot in the days all of a sudden the nights have cooled down which is obviously a mercy. Last week was a very busy week, first back at school.

Beautiful Iwate.

Then on the weekend we visited an onsen on Saturday and then on Sunday went to a concert by my school’s incredibly talented brass band!

I have never been to an onsen before. I was tempted to go to a public bath back in 2004 when I visited Hungary, and there have been many places where hot springs/baths/onsens have been very popular. In the ex-Soviet states hot baths or banyas are widespread and enjoyed by many. When I visited the remote settlement in Kyrgyzstan they had access to hot springs there, and there was bath in a shed fed by the hot springs, but I have to be honest, it never really interested me enough, especially in the cold!

But they say you should try everything once, right? What? Wrong? Nevertheless we hopped in the car and drove out somewhere between 20 to 30 kilometres from Ichinoseki. It’s name? Kurotaki Onsen.  The drive was windy, but beautiful. The greens out in the rice fields are very striking at this time of the year and I was taken by just how beautiful this area which has been my home now for 1.5 years. You only have to get 5 kilometres out of the city and it becomes apparent, especially if you head down the right road.

The onsen well, it’s a big bath. You enter the change rooms connected to the bath. The bath was quite big and around 43-44 degrees celcius or so it claimed. There was a piping hot sauna – only big enough for two, a cold bath and showers and stools around the rest of the walls. A section of the bath was devoted to a ‘pulse bath’, some sort of electric current you can sit in the middle of. And I tried it – it felt very strange!

I couldn’t stay in the bath for more than a few minutes, it was just too hot! I braved the sauna a couple of times – 30 seconds a pop. I’m not sure how hot it was in there, the thermometer said 90 degrees but that couldn’t be right, could it? I would think 60-70 degrees. Probably shouldn’t go in the sauna alone though, with no-one directly outside. I felt close to passing out and I might have woken up cooked!

After that was pretty much done. I used the shower as five or six men entered from nowhere. I had had the facilities to myself for the first thirty minutes. 

Ice Cream stop!

There was a relaxation room too and I took a little nap. We drove back as the sun set around the hills and rice fields which were truly amazing. There’s even a few flowers here and there. We stopped for some nice ice cream too, it has to be done!

Sunday saw us watch the brass band concert in Fujisawa. For a small town they have an excellent culture centre with quite a decent concert hall. Who’d a thunk it? The band really is excellent, they went to the school brass band finals in Morioka not that long ago. The weekend finished with me being one tired boy! But I’d had a good weekend. Pity I didn’t get to the beer festival going on in Ichinoseki!

More Tokyo stuffies!

After Ueno my day was not done, oh no! I made my way to nearby Asakusa by the train to see the famous temple, Senjo-ji. I was pushing time as I had a movie I wanted to see, 'World War Z'. Maybe I should say I wanted to see A movie and this was about the least crap-looking thing that was on anywhere in English.
Anyways.

Ooops. Going to Senjo-ji was a big mistake. Why? Well, simply, I'd been there before! So no really a BIG mistake, but I didn't realise until I got there that I'd visited it last August! It was a mistake because I was going to struggle to get to the movie early enough. Anyways, at least I could take a couple of nice photos.

I also passed this charming house less than 50 metres from the temple which looks old-style at the very least! In amongst the bigger, modern building I thought it was quite charming. Did I mention it is charming?

Then I rushed back to the train station, taking a line that I couldn't find anywhere on any map to Shinjuku station, where I found my cinema, 15 minutes in hand but no tickets left...
So I went to Harajuku, a little area north of Shibuya where apparently cos-players line up for photos, but I must have been too late for that as well :( although there was a little activity, and some sort of music festival going on too. Also passed a packed street which apparently has a lot of children's shops on it I found out later, Takeshita Street.

A school group from Hong Kong in Harajuku

I walked slowly down to Shibuya, and stopped at Tower Records. They have a lovely air conditioned cafe on the third (?) level where I had a beer and waited for my wife to finish a seminar. It had been a hot and sticky day, and I had spent a good portion of it on trains. But you know, at least I was getting around right?

Ueno and the Shitamachi Museum

So late Friday night we arrived in Yokohama. It was darned hot, much hotter than Ichinoseki. Saturday was a recovery day for me, I did very little but sweat in condition approaching forty degrees inside with no air conditioning. I sat near some fans and watched a great win by beloved bulldogs back in Australia.

Ueno.

Sunday however, I braved steamy Tokyo. It was much hotter than last year, most days pushing the 40 mark. I took the ol' JR line to Ueno. It took an hour from where I was but at least I didn't have to change. Taking the metro around Tokyo often involves 17 confusing changes to go anywhere so an hour with no changes is as relaxing as taking the metro/subway/whatever in Tokyo.

I went to Ueno to see a few museums two years ago, there's also a zoo in the area. It's a good place for tourists with lots to do and see. This time I visited the Shitamachi museum. It's a great little museum which shows how Tokyo was around 100 years ago (principally) before the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923 which devastated Tokyo.
There are a few examples inside of dwellings back in that era. Everything was made of wood back then so fire ripped through the city destroying so much of it in 1923. Most houses were heated by a fire so it was always going to be the biggest danger resulting from an earthquake.
House were smaller back then with more people living inside. There was even less protecting the dwellers from the winter too. Tatami mats were still the rage. Later, Tokyo would start to grow upwards which I imagine actually created more space. Back at the turn of the century though, it was much flatter. Safer with the earthquakes I guess.
Upstairs are some examples of life in the 1950s and 1960s. I enjoy this style of museum - not a fan of museums full of rocks as you know! There was a home interior and a bar with various types of interesting board games. Very interesting.

Typical room cica 1900 in Tokyo - Shitamachi Museum

View over lake.

Outside the museum is a large lake, covered in lilies. It's divided into sections. To the north is the zoo, to the east is an open lake with those swan-boats you peddle, in the centre is a temple. To the west is the main Ueno park, with a statue to Saigo Takamori near the southern entrance. He was a samuari who according to 'the guide book' originally supported the Meiji Restoration but changed his mind and disemboweled himself in protest when his opposition failed. Oh well, each to their own.

A worthwhile area of Tokyo to visit for the tourist is Ueno. But I should say, I heartily recommend choosing a different season to visit!

The Statue.

Approaching 8000 and expressway madness

Thankyou all so much! I am almost at 8000 page views! I'm sure there are millions of blogs with more, especially over the time frame that this blog has been going - since late 2005, but still, it's an achievement of sorts. After the next couple of posts, I might do a retrospective perhaps!

Last Friday we hopped into the car at around 3.30pm and started the driving down to stay with my wife's family in Yokohama. It's around 500km, so no Sunday arvo dawdle, we hoped to be there not too late. And it went mostly to plan, despite the inordinate amount of trucks on the road. We took the expressways for around 70% of the journey - otherwise we'd probably need two days. Students are often amazed in my classes when I try to give an idea of distances in Australia. I was telling students about a drive to Uluru from Sydney - well I've never done it, but that it would take a cgood 3-4 days minimum. That journey is nearly 3000km by road via South Australia as chosen by google maps.

See, Google Maps knows all! 30 hours driving but good luck doing that in two days. You'd have to be mad. At least the roads move at a good click back home. Non-expressway travel can be tedious, as it was on the journey, at times. To save money we did some stretches on expressways and some not. Turns out that it would have been cheaper to stay mostly on the expressway - I guess you get a charge every time you enter the expressway, because on our way home today we used it all in one long stretch, further than on Friday, and it turned out cheaper.

The expressways get crazy once you hit Tokyo. It had a futuristic feel with so many bridges and roads spinning around in circles, all lifted mightily above the ground. Sometimes there are like four levels of roads held up by pylons it's like the States in that respect. There are plenty of trucks,  just like at home, and just like at home tail-gating is a keen sport here. The limit is supposedly, I believe, 100, and generally cameras and police let you get away with 120 ish. Still there's always the odd car going at 150 km/ph and with the trucks trying to pass each other it get's pretty stressful. Then around Tokyo area the signs get very difficult to read. Thank you to the internet and wikipedia for the following pic:

Good luck figuring that one out! We made it to Yokohama at about 11.15pm I think. So nearly eight hours of driving. On the way home we did it in six and a half but boy is my brain frazzled from the concentration.

SO what did I do in Tokyo? Next time folks! Next time!

PS. don't forget this page - link to my travel book!

Mount Murone

Surrounding mountains near Mt Murone.

Howdy all,
As things hot up here in Japan in terms of the weather and in terms of politics in Australia with an election around the corner, tomorrow sees me take to the roads again as I drive to Yokohama. It's going to be quite a drive! It's been a long time since I've headed out for such a long drive so I need to take a big deep breath and get ready!

The Observatory.

A few days ago I took a drive up a local mountain - not very high, a few metres less than 900 metres, Mount Murone. It was a beautiful little spot - I was there in some pretty nasty weather but still I could take in a bit of beauty amongst the clouds and rain - which thankfully tapered off a bit when I reached the top.

There is an observatory there too, which unfortunately I didn't have time to visit whilst I was there (save that for another day and another blog), but I was able to take some photos to share. Mount Murone is about 40 km from Ichinoseki, between here and the coast. For locals it's a pretty famous place. For outsiders, it's very much a hidden secret. One worth visiting! It was even a couple of degrees cooler there!

The weather is certainly getting up there now, we are into our third day of 32 or more here in a row, I saw in Tokyo it was 37 yesterday - crikey! That's what I am heading into and Tokyo is even more humid than it is here. Take care everyone! See you soon on the blogsphere!

Website up!

Hey folks, how goes the day?
It's a warm and sunny day here in Ichinoseki. Tonight there will be a festival and fireworks in town. Lanterns and flags are out in force, and the nuff-nuffs are out in force on the road! Ahhhh no I shouldn't complain! Sorry sorry sorry!

I have just put up a webpage for my Dhaka to Dakar book. It had been pointed out to me that the Amazon author page is confusing and it's hard to work things out there, so this website, I hope, presents it in a logical way.
Each of the three books have their own pages, with links to the individual chapters as well in order. Please check it out and leave a comment!

Dhaka to Dakar webpage