Holiday in Japan (Day 1)

I dragged myself out of bed at 4.30, did my last minute preparations, and left Cambridge House with James to catch the 5.24 from Tempaizan to Hakata. James was slightly anxious about being recognised by one of the station workers, who might query the validity of our JR passes – the visitor-only all-you-can-travel railway pass we had both obtained on the sly – but there was nobody manning the station when we arrived.

From Hakata, we caught our first ever bullet train, or Shinkansen (新幹線 – literally “new trunk line”), to Okayama. It was sleek, comfortable, and fast, like riding first-class in an aeroplane. We had oodles of legroom, fold down tables, cup holders, deeply reclining seats, but enough space between rows so as not to disturb the person behind. We even had little coat hangars on the walls and overhead storage space. The outside world zipped past at unbelievable speeds, though the journey was smooth, without the normal noise of the tracks passing beneath the wheels. We raced through cities, including a giant industrial complex that reminded us both of Midgar from “Final Fantasy VII.”

Things started to go wrong in Okayama, however. The train times that I had so meticulously planned seemed to be in error. The online site that I used had not updated its times to the newly introduced timetable. So frustrating! In addition, upon trying to book seats on the sleeper train in a couple of days, two different people told us that we could not ride it using our JR passes. The man from the travel agency had said that we could, but he might just be someone who agrees with everything that you suggest, rather than checking it for a fact. We are not happy with him!

We wondered around the city, going into a new convenience store for us: a “sunKus.” It seems like all the rest of them! We made it to Matsue in the end and sat by the edge of Shinjiko (宍道湖 – Lake Shinji), the seventh largest lake in Japan. Across the shore, a girls’ choir began singing some warm-up exercises and a volume far louder than we thought possible. The lake had no beach and sand, but instead rocks, on which we sat and listened.

We strolled towards Matsue Castle (松江城 – matsuejyou), also known as the Black Castle due to its colour. An impressive building on hill overlooking the town, we went inside for a mysteriously discounted rate for foreigners. The inside was not as impressive, containing a collection of helmets and armour, though the tiny old and modern models of the town were interesting to see. From the top floor, we had a good view of the not-so-pretty city. We spoke to Maki-san from inside the castle: she has phoned the JR man and he has given us an alternative, not-at-all-helpful route that will get us to Akita for 11pm, too late for most hotel check-ins.

We ate our packed lunches on the grass outside whilst watching some children playing baseball with their mother and hordes of giant birds swooping down to eat food a woman was throwing for them. James has brought a “snack bag” containing a variety of goodies for our journey: a selection of crackers, cookies, and chocolate.

We walked partway down a forest stroll before a shrine that appeared to be dedicated to dogs, judging from the hundreds of little statues scattered around, sidetracked us. We visited a samurai house, where we got another mystery-discount from a hysterical cashier trying to speak English. The house was beautiful and peaceful with a lovely garden containing vivid plum blossoms.

We took a boat ride along the many moats left around the city. Matsue is obviously the place for foreigners to visit since we received another unadvertised, discount rate. It was just the two of us, coincidentally, allowing the guide to talk slightly more freely to us. He spoke Japanese, though we were able to understand some of what he said. It was nice just be able to have an overview of the city, as well as to have the experience of passing under a multitude of bridges. There were sixteen on our tour, four of which were low. Low such that he had to lower the roof of the boat for them, meaning we had to crouch down inside the boat. Each seemed progressively lower: by the last, our faces were almost touching the table between us.

We took a lovely stroll back to the station through a plum blossom garden. Once there, a station man told us that the train we wanted to catch the next day was not a JR line, so we could not use our passes. Despairing, we went on to Tottori, where we decided that we would stay the night in Kinosaki-onsen instead, but changed our minds when the travel agent in the station could only find a hotel for £75/night. Instead, they directed to a Toyoku-In, a £20/night business hotel, which we thought was much more reasonable.

We went out wondering for dinner and eventually came across a little yakitori place, where we had about twelve tasty sticks between us.